A compensation cost analysis of service-aggregate transaction for DTNs clients

Clients from Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) might encounter overtime exceptions when they aggregate autonomic commercial web service references to form an all-or-nothing transaction. Such exceptions may cause extra overhead—“compensation cost” when aborting transactions. Regarding the delay-related characteristics of DTNs, this paper models the expected compensation cost (ECC) for the schedulings of commit-requests, presents a calculability analysis for quantitative ECC prediction, and explores the limitation of ECC’s probabilistic prediction accordingly. The analysis is based on the timed-2PC plus compensation (t2PC+) protocol and the multi-step price tag pattern, which is verified conditionally by simulation tests through randomly-chosen severely-fluctuant samplings of compensation cost and delays. The ultimate target of this work is to demonstrate the high complexity, and in particular, the uncertainty of ECC predictions due to the randomicity of DTNs’ delays.     

Commentary on Krishnaswamy et al. - Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate

Remote sensing is a powerful tool for characterizing, estimating or modelling species diversity. Differences in environmental properties of different habitats should lead to differences of spectral responses, which can be detected by satellite imagery. Hence, spectral distance may be related to species diversity. Based on previous studies, Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] used spectral distance to estimate species diversity. Since a noisy scatterplot of species versus spectral diversity is expected, the commonly used Ordinary Least Square regression may fail to detect trends which occur across other quantiles than the mean.Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] proposed a quantile-quantile plot method as an alternative to conventional regression based approaches which are inappropriate for dependent pair-wise dissimilarity or similarity data. By this commentary I demonstrate the utility of a quantile regression technique to complement the Krishnaswamy et al. [Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Ganeshaiah, K. N., & Kiran, M. C. (2009). Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: Utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment.] graphical approach in terms of a predictive model.     

Satellite-based estimates of groundwater storage variations in large drainage basins with extensive floodplains

This study presents monthly estimates of groundwater anomalies in a large river basin dominated by extensive floodplains, the Negro River Basin, based on the synergistic analysis using multisatellite observations and hydrological models. For the period 2003-2004, changes in water stored in the aquifer is isolated from the total water storage measured by GRACE by removing contributions of both the surface reservoir, derived from satellite imagery and radar altimetry, and the root zone reservoir simulated by WGHM and LaD hydrological models. The groundwater anomalies show a realistic spatial pattern compared with the hydrogeological map of the basin, and similar temporal variations to local in situ groundwater observations and altimetry-derived level height measurements. Results highlight the potential of combining multiple satellite techniques with hydrological modeling to estimate the evolution of groundwater storage.     

Towards inverse modeling of turbidity currents: The inverse lock-exchange problem

A new approach is introduced for turbidite modeling, leveraging the potential of computational fluid dynamics methods to simulate the flow processes that led to turbidite formation. The practical use of numerical flow simulation for the purpose of turbidite modeling so far is hindered by the need to specify parameters and initial flow conditions that are a priori unknown. The present study proposes a method to determine optimal simulation parameters via an automated optimization process. An iterative procedure matches deposit predictions from successive flow simulations against available localized reference data, as in practice may be obtained from well logs, and aims at convergence towards the best-fit scenario. The final result is a prediction of the entire deposit thickness and local grain size distribution. The optimization strategy is based on a derivative-free, surrogate-based technique. Direct numerical simulations are performed to compute the flow dynamics. A proof of concept is successfully conducted for the simple test case of a two-dimensional lock-exchange turbidity current. The optimization approach is demonstrated to accurately retrieve the initial conditions used in a reference calculation.     

A new package for simulating periodic boundary conditions in MODFLOW and SEAWAT

Modeling of coastal groundwater systems is a challenging problem due to their highly dynamic boundary conditions and the coupling between the equations for groundwater flow and solute transport. A growing number of publications on aquifers subject to tides have demonstrated various modeling approaches, ranging from analytical solutions to comprehensive numerical models. The United States Geological Survey code SEAWAT has been a popular choice in studies of this type. Although SEAWAT allows the incorporation of time-variant boundary conditions, the implementation of tidal boundaries is not straightforward, especially when a seepage face develops during falling tide. Here, a new package is presented, called the periodic boundary condition (PBC) package, that can be incorporated into MODFLOW and SEAWAT to overcome the difficulties encountered with tidal boundaries. It dynamically updates the boundary conditions for head and concentration during the simulation depending on a user-defined tidal signal and allows for the development of a seepage face. The package has been verified by comparing it to four different published models of tidally influenced groundwater systems of varying complexity. Excellent agreement was obtained in all cases. The new package is an important extension to the existing capabilities of MODFLOW and SEAWAT with respect to simulating periodic boundary conditions.     

Model reduction of multi-scale chemical Langevin equations

This paper addresses the model reduction problem for a class of stiff chemical Langevin equations that arise as models of biomolecular networks with fast and slow reactions and can be described as continuous Markov processes. Initially, a coordinate transformation is sought that allows the decoupling of fast and slow variables in the model equations. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for such a linear transformation to exist, along with an explicit change of variables which achieves the desired decoupling. For the systems for which this step is applicable, the method of adiabatic elimination is applied to determine a representation of the slow dynamics. Theoretical concepts and results are illustrated with simple examples.     

Comparison of multiple linear regression and artificial neural network in developing the objective functions of the orthopaedic screws

Optimizing the orthopaedic screws can greatly improve their biomechanical performances. However, a methodical design optimization approach requires a long time to search the best design. Thus, the surrogate objective functions of the orthopaedic screws should be accurately developed. To our knowledge, there is no study to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the surrogate methods in developing the objective functions of the orthopaedic screws. Three-dimensional finite element models for both the tibial locking screws and the spinal pedicle screws were constructed and analyzed. Then, the learning data were prepared according to the arrangement of the Taguchi orthogonal array, and the verification data were selected with use of a randomized selection. Finally, the surrogate objective functions were developed by using either the multiple linear regression or the artificial neural network. The applicability and accuracy of those surrogate methods were evaluated and discussed. The multiple linear regression method could successfully construct the objective function of the tibial locking screws, but it failed to develop the objective function of the spinal pedicle screws. The artificial neural network method showed a greater capacity of prediction in developing the objective functions for the tibial locking screws and the spinal pedicle screws than the multiple linear regression method. The artificial neural network method may be a useful option for developing the objective functions of the orthopaedic screws with a greater structural complexity. The surrogate objective functions of the orthopaedic screws could effectively decrease the time and effort required for the design optimization process.     

Face tracking with automatic model construction

This paper describes an active model with a robust texture model built on-line. The model uses one camera and it is able to operate without active illumination. The texture model is defined by a series of clusters, which are built in a video sequence using previously encountered samples. This model is used to search for the corresponding element in the following frames. An on-line clustering method, named leaderP is described and evaluated on an application of face tracking. A 20-point shape model is used. This model is built offline, and a robust fitting function is used to restrict the position of the points. Our proposal is to serve as one of the stages in a driver monitoring system. To test it, a new set of sequences of drivers recorded outdoors and in a realistic simulator has been compiled. Experimental results for typical outdoor driving scenarios, with frequent head movement, turns and occlusions are presented. Our approach is tested and compared with the Simultaneous Modeling and Tracking (SMAT) [1], and the recently presented Stacked Trimmed Active Shape Model (STASM) [2], and shows better results than SMAT and similar fitting error levels to STASM, with much faster execution times and improved robustness.