An Equivalent CTL Formulation for Condition Sequences

A condition system is a form of Petri net that interacts with other condition systems and the environment via state-based signals called conditions. The condition language framework has been used in previous papers to characterize the input/output behavior of such interacting systems, as well as to specify desired control behavior among other things. In this paper, we show that condition sequences (the specification) and condition systems (the model of the system) have an equivalent structure in the computation tree logic (CTL) framework. The primary goals of this work are to be able to utilize existing tools for program verification for our systems, and to make our work more accessible to the temporal logic community.     

Living with Database Conflicts: A Temporal Branching Technique

Heterogeneous as well as distributed databases make data conflicts inevitable. Both tolerate the entry of conflicting values in data objects, e.g., the value “female” may be entered by one user whereas another may put “male” in the same data object. Such inconsistencies in databases are common and are resolved routinely by built in structured mechanisms. Unresolved conflicts are typically quarantined till they can be resolved. But, there are situations for which there are no structured mechanisms to resolve conflicts while having to maintain application flow. Moreover, there are situations, i.e., medical or financial environments, in which conflicts must be stored so that their effects be analyzed for decision making. The current research proposes a model and a technique for living with database conflicts. The technique, named Temporal Branching, integrates and extends temporal oriented databases, temporal versioning, and log-file approaches and offers a solution and flexible structure readily accessible to retrieval and audits by standard DBMS software. A case study in health care delivery system is given to illustrate the problem and proposed solution. recommend Ahmed Elmagarmid     

The Krakovskii-LaSalle Invariance Principle for a Class of Unilateral Dynamical Systems

This paper is devoted to the study of the extension of the invariance lemma to a class of hybrid dynamical systems, namely evolution variational inequalities. Applications can be found in models of electrical circuits with ideal diodes or oligopolistic market equilibrium.Acknowledgements. This work was partially supported by the European project SICONOS IST2001-37172.     

Inequality path constraints in optimal control: a finite iteration -convergent scheme based on pointwise discretization

This paper presents a new result in the analysis and implementation of path constraints in optimal control problems (OCPs). The scheme uses the well-known concept of discretizing path constraints on a finite number of points, yielding a set of interior-time point constraints replacing the original path constraints. The approach replaces the original OCP by a sequence of OCPs which is shown to converge in a finite number of steps to the solution of the original path constrained problem with -accuracy. Numerical results, verifying the theoretical analysis, are presented. The method is shown to be effective and promising for future applications, particularly in control vector parameterization implementations.     

Shape-From-Silhouette Across Time Part I: Theory and Algorithms

Shape-From-Silhouette (SFS) is a shape reconstruction method which constructs a 3D shape estimate of an object using silhouette images of the object. The output of a SFS algorithm is known as the Visual Hull (VH). Traditionally SFS is either performed on static objects, or separately at each time instant in the case of videos of moving objects. In this paper we develop a theory of performing SFS across time: estimating the shape of a dynamic object (with unknown motion) by combining all of the silhouette images of the object over time. We first introduce a one dimensional element called a Bounding Edge to represent the Visual Hull. We then show that aligning two Visual Hulls using just their silhouettes is in general ambiguous and derive the geometric constraints (in terms of Bounding Edges) that govern the alignment. To break the alignment ambiguity, we combine stereo information with silhouette information and derive a Temporal SFS algorithm which consists of two steps: (1) estimate the motion of the objects over time (Visual Hull Alignment) and (2) combine the silhouette information using the estimated motion (Visual Hull Refinement). The algorithm is first developed for rigid objects and then extended to articulated objects. In the Part II of this paper we apply our temporal SFS algorithm to two human-related applications: (1) the acquisition of detailed human kinematic models and (2) marker-less motion tracking.     

A novel method for spatio-temporal pattern analysis of brain fMRI data

1 Introduction Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive brain imaging technique which has been utilized in brain function researches since the early 1990s[1]. However, it is often difficult to do analysis in fMRI data because of the low signal to noise ratio (SNR) (about 2%—4% with 1.5T magnetic field strength) and the delay within the true neural activity and the stimuli-induced signal dynamic responses. The prevalent methods applied to fMRI data could be divided i…     

Primal-Dual Monotone Kernel Regression

This paper considers the estimation of monotone nonlinear regression functions based on Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Least Squares SVMs (LS-SVMs) and other kernel machines. It illustrates how to employ the primal-dual optimization framework characterizing LS-SVMs in order to derive a globally optimal one-stage estimator for monotone regression. As a practical application, this letter considers the smooth estimation of the cumulative distribution functions (cdf), which leads to a kernel regressor that incorporates a Kolmogorov–Smirnoff discrepancy measure, a Tikhonov based regularization scheme and a monotonicity constraint.     

High-Order Consistency in Valued Constraint Satisfaction

k-consistency operations in constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) render constraints more explicit by solving size-k subproblems and projecting the information thus obtained down to low-order constraints. We generalise this notion of k-consistency to valued constraint satisfaction problems (VCSPs) and show that it can be established in polynomial time when penalties lie in a discrete valuation structure.A generic definition of consistency is given which can be tailored to particular applications. As an example, a version of high-order consistency (face consistency) is presented which can be established in low-order polynomial time given certain restrictions on the valuation structure and the form of the constraint graph.     

A Rigorous Global Filtering Algorithm for Quadratic Constraints*

This article introduces a new filtering algorithm for handling systems of quadratic equations and inequations. Such constraints are widely used to model distance relations in numerous application areas ranging from robotics to chemistry. Classical filtering algorithms are based upon local consistencies and thus, are often unable to achieve a significant pruning of the domains of the variables occurring in quadratic constraint systems. The drawback of these approaches comes from the fact that the constraints are handled independently. We introduce here a global filtering algorithm that works on a tight linear relaxation of the quadratic constraints. The Simplex algorithm is then used to narrow the domains. Since most implementations of the Simplex work with floating point numbers and thus, are unsafe, we provide a procedure to generate safe linearizations. We also exploit a procedure provided by Neumaier and Shcherbina to get a safe objective value when calling the Simplex algorithm. With these two procedures, we prevent the Simplex algorithm from removing any solution while filtering linear constraint systems. Experimental results on classical benchmarks show that this new algorithm yields a much more effective pruning of the domains than local consistency filtering algorithms.*This article is an extended version of [23].     

The effect of recent and remote frames of reference on temporal judgments of schizophrenic patients.

"46 schizophrenic patients were compared with 80 control Ss with respect to their estimation of one clock second's duration under long and short anchor conditions, where anchor represented the extreme duration in a series. In addition, the interaction of recent and more remote anchors was studied." The findings suggested that the schizophrenic is likely to overestimate the duration of a clock second and that they responded only to the pulling effect of immediate anchors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)