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When performing quality inspection of recycled paper one phenomenon of concern is the appearance of macroscopic undulations on the paper sheet surface that may emerge shortly or some time after its production. In this paper we explore the detection and measurement of this defect by means of computer vision and statistical pattern recognition techniques that may allow early detection at the production site. We propose features computed from Gabor Filter Banks (GFB) and Discrete Wavelet Transforms (DWT) for the characterization of paper sheet surface bumpiness in recycled paper images. The lack of a precise definition of the defect and the great variability of the sheet deformation shapes and scales, both within each image and between images, introduce additional difficulties to the problem. We obtain, with both proposed modeling approaches (GFB and DWT), classification accuracies are comparable to the agreement between human observers. The best performance is obtained using DWT features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review two well-known citation methods to find relatedness between scientific papers: co-citation and bibliographic coupling. We propose a practical method to estimate the co-citation relatedness using the Google search engine. We call this method Web co-citation. We conducted experiments on a collection of scientific papers to compare the performances of different methods. The experimental results show that our approach, despite its simplicity, is efficient in discovering the relatedness between scientific papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The softened rolling contact of two paper machine rolls is considered. A regenerative excitation source can exists in the system due to the finite relaxation time of the roll cover polymer materials. The modeling of the rolls is described by multibody substructuring methodology and the polymer cover layer between the rolls in contact is modeled by contact spring reaction forces calculated according to the stiffness of the layer. The regenerative excitation is introduced to the system as a time delay term and it is calculated from the penetration history of the cover layer. The solution of the system equations is obtained by numerical time integration by utilizing the method of steps time delay equation solution procedure. Some numerical results are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a study of the correlation between the humidity, density and matrix suction of non-plastic soil taken from a region located near the city of Rio de Janeiro. The study was conducted through laboratory tests, using minilysimeters and equipment that indirectly measured the humidity through soil suction: in effect, an automated tensiometer, an equivalence tensiometer (EQ2), a TDR and a specially adapted system, which measures the suction in situ, using filter paper. The electronic instruments were connected to a data logger and placed in three mini-lysimeters. Cycles of wetting and drying of the confined material were simulated. The soil was characterised. This characterisation enabled the determination of physical indexes, density, plasticity, grain size, porosity, and the characteristic curve of water retention, using the Richards pressure pan (cooker) test. The results obtained by the instruments, humidity and matrix suction, were compared with the characteristic curve. Overall, the equipment was satisfactory. The low presence of clay in this soil, around 7%, and its associated high porosity, were factors in limiting water retention. The equilibrium time of the soil humidity and the filter paper, obtained at intervals of fifteen days, presented better results than the weekly intervals (seven days). The equivalence tensiometer EQ2 compared to the filter paper presented quite efficient results for high suction values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by human's remarkable capability to perform a wide variety of physical and mental tasks without any measurements and computations and dissatisfied with classical logic as a tool for modeling human reasoning in an imprecise environment, Lotfi A. Zadeh developed the theory and foundation of fuzzy logic with his 1965 paper "Fuzzy Sets" [1] and extended his work with his 2005 paper "Toward a Generalized Theory of Uncertainty (GTU)—An Outline" [2]. Fuzzy logic has at least two main sources over the past century. The first of these sources was initiated by Peirce in the form what he called a logic of vagueness in 1900s, and the second source is Lotfi's A. Zadeh work, fuzzy sets and fuzzy Logic in the 1960s and 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows an agent based approach to solve the Tragedy of the Commons. This game is one of the well-known problems that involve sharing limited common resources. In this paper, to control the usage of common resources, we employ Levy Based Control Strategy and extend it with Autonomous Role Selection. In this approach, what levy plan of meta-agents should be used is very important to avoid the tragedy situation. Accordingly, we apply Genetic Algorithm (GA) to each agent to obtain evolutionally suitable levy plan. As a result, we show effectiveness of this approach and it depends on a fitness function of GA. Therefore, we examine the various fitness functions considered for a social balance and the importance of agents' role by simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a comprehensive and updated survey on applications of Kohonen's self-organizing map (SOM) to time series prediction (TSP). The main goal of the paper is to show that, despite being originally designed as an unsupervised learning algorithm, the SOM is flexible enough to give rise to a number of efficient supervised neural architectures devoted to TSP tasks. For each SOM-based architecture to be presented, we report its algorithm implementation in detail. Similarities and differences of such SOM-based TSP models with respect to standard linear and nonlinear TSP techniques are also highlighted. We conclude the paper with indications of possible directions for further research on this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuzzy classification is one of the most important applications of fuzzy logic. Its goal is to find a set of fuzzy rules which describe classification problems. Most of the existing fuzzy rule induction methods (e.g., the fuzzy decision trees induction method) focus on searching rules consisting of t-norms (i.e., AND) only, but not t-conorms (OR) explicitly. This may lead to the omission of generating important rules which involve t-conorms explicitly. This paper proposes a type of tree termed pattern trees which make use of different aggregations including both t-norms and t-conorms. Like decision trees, pattern trees are an effective machine learning tool for classification applications. This paper discusses the difference between decision trees and pattern trees, and also shows that the subsethood based method (SBM) and the weighted subsethood based method (WSBM) are two specific cases of pattern trees, with each having a fixed pattern tree structure. A novel pattern tree induction method is proposed. The comparison to other classification methods including SBM, WSBM and fuzzy decision tree induction over datasets obtained from UCI dataset repository shows that pattern trees can obtain higher accuracy rates in classifications. In addition, pattern trees are capable of generating classifiers with good generality, while decision trees can easily fall into the trap of over-fitting. According to two different configurations, simple pattern trees and pattern trees have been distinguished. The former not only produce high prediction accuracy, but also preserve compact tree structures, while the latter can produce even better accuracy, but as a compromise produce more complex tree structures. Subject to the particular demands (comprehensibility or performance), simple pattern trees and pattern trees provide an effective methodology for real world applications. Weighted pattern trees have been proposed in which certain weights are assigned to different trees, to reflect the nature that different trees may have different confidences. The experiments on British Telecom (BT) customer satisfaction dataset show that weighted pattern trees can slightly outperform pattern trees, and both are slightly better than fuzzy decision trees in terms of prediction accuracy. In addition, the experiments show that both weighted and unweighted pattern trees are robust to over-fitting. Finally, a limitation of pattern trees as revealed via BT dataset analysis is discussed and the research direction is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a mathematical model of a hint as a body of imprecise and uncertain information. Hints are used to judge hypotheses: the degree to which a hint supports a hypothesis and the degree to which a hypothesis appears as plausible in the light of a hint are defined. This leads in turn to support- and plausibility functions. Those functions are characterized as set functions which are normalized and monotone or alternating of order ∞. This relates the present work to G. Shafer's mathematical theory of evidence. However, whereas Shafer starts out with an axiomatic definition of belief functions, the notion of a hint is considered here as the basic element of the theory. It is shown that a hint contains more information than is conveyed by its support function alone. Also hints allow for a straightforward and logical derivation of Dempster's rule for combining independent and dependent bodies of information. This paper presents the mathematical theory of evidence for general, infinite frames of discernment from the point of view of a theory of hints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we suggest that Evolutionary Algorithms could be utilized in order to let the COMMONS GAME, one of the most popular environmental games, become much more exciting. In order to attain this objective, we utilize Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms to generate various skilled players. Further, we suggest that Evolutionary Programming could be utilized to find out an appropriate point of each card at the COMMONS GAME. Several game playings utilizing the new rule of the COMMONS GAME confirm the effectiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Retaining functionality of a mobile robot in the presence of faults is of particular interest in autonomous robotics. From our experiences in robotics we know that hardware is one of the weak points in mobile robots. In this paper we present the foundations of a system that automatically monitors the driving device of a mobile robot. In case of a detected fault, e.g., a broken motor, the system automatically re-configures the robot in order to allow to reach a certain position. The described system is based on a generalized model of the motion hardware. The path-planner has only to change its behavior in case of a serious damage. The high-level control system remains the same. In the paper we present the model and the foundations of the diagnosis and re-configuration system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. With epistemological insight and artificial intelligence techniques, our aim is to reconstruct Claude Bernard's empirical investigations with a computational model. We suppose that Claude Bernard had in mind what we call "kernel models" that contain the basic physiological concepts upon which Claude Bernard builds his general physiological theory. The "kernel models" provide a simplified view of physiology, where the internal environment - the so-called "milieu int´erieur" -, mainly the blood, plays an essential role. According to this perspective, we assume that the "kernel models" allow Claude Bernard to make some hypotheses and to draw out their logical consequences. More precisely, the role of the "kernel models" is twofold: on the one hand, they help to generate and manage working hypotheses, for instance to enumerate the probable effects of a toxic substance, on the other hand, they derive, by simulation, the most plausible consequences of each of those hypotheses. We shall show how those "kernel models" can be specified using both description logics and multi-agent systems. Then, the paper will explain how it is possible to build, on these "kernel models", a virtual experiment laboratory, which lets us construct and conduct virtual experiments that play a role similar to the role of thought experiments. More generally, the paper constitutes an attempt to correlate Claude Bernard's experiments, achieved to corroborate or refute some of his working hypotheses, to virtual experiments emulated on "kernel models". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to supply web contents for PC to various multi platform device as PDA or portable device. The conventional studies could not consider these devices, so it created mobile contents beforehand, and then transmitted to the limited mobile device. In this point, the critical problem is to generate mobile contents which are suitable for all kinds of mobile device from PC Web content. This paper propose a service system for transmitting wire web content to various portable device by using MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework. It does not create mobile contents for each device. It just uses DIDL of MEPG-21 as intermediate language to express the structure, resource and description of mobile contents. In DIDL, the multimedia resource is transcoded in off-line previously. The description part is converted in real time as soon as service is requested by end-user. Mobile contents integrate adapted resource with appropriate description and then are transmitted. In addition, this paper proposes the Multi-level caching for reusing mobile contents and describes the result in experiment system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the new challenges and the roles of metada and metainformation in the area of text/data mining in the area of statistics. In the first part, the paper is presenting some basic characteristics of the contemporary statistical information systems from the point of view of the needs for utilization of metadata and data/text mining. As it is well known, modern statistical systems are characterized by an enormous amounts of various statistical data what requires also specific methods and technologies for their processing. In the second part the mutual relations between metadata and metainformation are analysed and some conclusions and recommendations for the further research and development in that problem areas are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at investigating suction induced by static compaction in clay specimens. To this end, kaolin powders prepared at target water contents were statically compacted in a shear box apparatus. Trento (TNT) high-suction tensiometers (0-1800 kPa) were in stalled through the loading pad to monitor suction changes during the loading-unloading paths. Specimens were compacted at water contents ranging from 0.22 to 0.30 and at vertical stresses of 300,600, and 1200 kPa. This made it possible to explore abroad spectrum of compaction conditions. Experimental results are presented and discussed in the paper. The most striking aspect of the results is that suction of unloaded specimens increased as degree of saturation increased. This can be explained by the dependency of the main wetting curve upon void ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter is based on, and expanded from, Chapters 11, 12 and 14 of [4] which is about using fuzzy probabilities and fuzzy sets in web site planning. So the queuing network considered in this chapter is within a web site. For other papers/chapters in books, on this topic of fuzzy queuing theory, we refer the reader to ([2],[3],[6],[7],[10]) and the references in these papers/books. In the next section we discuss the crisp queuing optimization problem and then we fuzzify the optimization problem in the third section. In the fourth section we present our fuzzy Monte Carlo method and how we will generate sequences of random fuzzy vectors. Our fuzzy Monte Carlo solution to the fuzzy queuing optimization problem is the fifth section and the last section has a summary and our conclusions. All the fuzzy numbers used in this chapter, except fuzzy profit starting in Section 16.3, will be non-negative. We will program our fuzzy Monte Carlo method in MATLAB [8]. This chapter is also based on [1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Document Analysis and Recognition (DAR) aims at the automatic extraction of information presented on paper and initially addressed to human comprehension. The desired output of DAR systems is usually in a suitable symbolic representation that can subsequently be processed by computers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of a team of weak learners to learn a dataset has been shown better than the use of one single strong learner. In fact, the idea is so successful that boosting, an algorithm combining several weak learners for supervised learning, has been considered to be one of the best off-the-shelf classifiers. However, some problems still remain, including determining the optimal number of weak learners and the overfitting of data. In an earlier work, we developed the RPHP algorithm which solves both these problems by using a combination of genetic algorithm, weak learner and pattern distributor. In this paper, we revise the global search component by replacing it with a cluster-based combinatorial optimization. Patterns are clustered according to the output space of the problem, i.e., natural clusters are formed based on patterns belonging to each class. A combinatorial optimization problem is therefore formed, which is solved using evolutionary algorithms. The evolutionary algorithms identify the "easy" and the "difficult" clusters in the system. The removal of the easy patterns then gives way to the focused learning of the more complicated patterns. The problem therefore becomes recursively simpler. Overfitting is overcome by using a set of validation patterns along with a pattern distributor. An algorithm is also proposed to use the pattern distributor to determine the optimal number of recursions and hence the optimal number of weak learners for the problem. Empirical studies show generally good performance when compared to other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A group selection of one alternative from a set of feasible ones should be based on the preferences of individuals in the group. Decision making procedures are usually based on pair comparisons, in the sense that processes are linked to some degree of credibility of preference. The main advantage of pairwise comparison is that of focusing exclusively on two alternatives at a time and on how they are related. However, it generates more information that needed and therefore inconsistent information may be generated. This paper addresses both preference representation and consistency of preferences issues in group decision making. Different preference representation formats individuals can use to model or present their preferences on a set of alternatives in a group decision making situation are reviewed. The results regarding the relationships between these preference representation formats mean that the fuzzy preference relation "is preferred to" representing the strength of preference of one alternative over another in the scale [0,1] can be used as the base element to integrate these different preference representation formats in group decision making situations. Due to the complexity of most decision making problems, individuals' preferences may not satisfy formal properties that fuzzy preference relations are required to verify. Consistency is one of them, and it is associated with the transitivity property. Many properties have been suggested to model transitivity of fuzzy preference relations. As aforementioned, this paper provides an overview of the main results published in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Gene expression data from microarray has very high dimensionality, resulting in extremely large sample covariance matrices. In this paper, we investigate the applicability of the block principal components analysis and a variable selection method based on principal components loadings for dimension reduction prior to performing discriminant analysis on the data. In such cases, because of high correlations among variables, the Mahalanobis distances between clusters becomes very large due to ill-conditioning. It is shown in this paper that the Mahalanobis distance is unreliable when the condition number of the covariance matrix exceeds 480,000 or the natural log of the determinant of the covariance matrix is less than −26.3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A body of evidence in the sense of Shafer can be viewed as an extension of a probability measure, but as a generalized set as well. In this paper we adopt the second point of view and study the algebraic structure of bodies of evidence on a set, based on extended set union, intersection and complementation. Several notions of inclusion are exhibited and compared to each other. Inclusion is used to compare a body of evidence to the product of its projections. Lastly, approximations of a body of evidence under the form of fuzzy sets are derived, in order to squeeze plausibility values between two grades of possibility. Through all the paper, it is pointed out that a body of evidence can account for conjunctive as well as a disjunctive information, i.e. the focal elements can be viewed either as sets of actual values or as restrictions on the (unique) value of a variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic graphical models, such as Bayesian networks, allow representing conditional independence information of random variables. These relations are graphically represented by the presence and absence of arcs and edges between vertices. Probabilistic graphical models are nonunique representations of the independence information of a joint probability distribution. However, the concept of Markov equivalence of probabilistic graphical models is able to offer unique representations, called essential graphs. In this survey paper the theory underlying these concepts is reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-organization techniques based on promoters and inhibitors has been intensively studied in biological systems. Promoters enable an on-demand amplification of reactions to a particular cause. This allows to react quickly with appropriate countermeasures. On the other hand, inhibitors are capable of regulating this uncontrolled amplification by suppressing the reaction. In this paper, we demonstrate the applicability of these mechanisms in a network security scenario consisting of network monitoring elements, attack detection, and firewall devices. Previous work identified most existing detection approaches as not suitable for high-speed networks. This problem can be alleviated by separating the methodologies for network monitoring and for subsequent data analysis. In this paper, we present an adaptation algorithm that allows to manage the individual configuration parameters in order to optimize the overall system. We show the advantages of self-regulating techniques based on promoters and inhibitors that lead to maximized security and that gracefully degradate in case of overload situations. We created a simulation model to verify the algorithms. The results of the conducted simulations encourage further studies in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human decision making procedures in problems related with analysis of time series data bases (TSDB) often use perceptions like "several days", "high price", "quickly increasing" etc. Computing with Words and Perceptions can be used to formalize perception based expert knowledge and inference mechanisms defined on numerical domains of TSDB. For extraction from TSDB perception based information relevant to decision making problems it is necessary to develop methods of perception based time series data mining (PTSDM). The paper considers different approaches used in analysis of time series databases for description of perception based patterns and discusses some methods of PTSDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a new type of computation called ‘‘Morphic Computing''. Morphic Computing is based on Field Theory and more specifically Morphic Fields. We claim that Morphic Computing is a natural extension of Holographic Computation, Quantum Computation, Soft Computing, and DNA Computing. All natural computations bonded by the Turing Machine can be formalised and extended by our new type of computation model - Morphic Computing. In this paper, we introduce the basis for this new computing paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on two essential topics of the fuzzy area. The first is the reduction of fuzzy rule bases. The classical inference methods of fuzzy systems deal with dense rule bases where the universe of discourse is fully covered. By applying sparse or hierarchical rule bases the computational complexity can be decreased. The second subject of the paper is the introduction of some fuzzy rule base identification techniques. In some cases the fuzzy rule base might be given by a human expert, but usually there are only numerical patterns available and an automatic method has to be applied to determine the fuzzy rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution deals with developments in the history of philosophy, logic, and mathematics during the time before and up to the beginning of fuzzy logic. Even though the term "fuzzy" was introduced by Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1964/65, it should be noted that older concepts of "vagueness" and "haziness" had previously been discussed in philosophy, logic, mathematics, applied sciences, and medicine. This paper delineates some specific paths through the history of the use of these "loose concepts". Vagueness was avidly discussed in the fields of logic and philosophy during the first decades of the 20$th$ century - particularly in Vienna, at Cambridge and in Warsaw and Lvov. An interesting sequel to these developments can be seen in the work of the Polish physician and medical philosopher Ludwik Fleck. Haziness and fuzziness were concepts of interest in mathematics and engineering during the second half of the 1900s. The logico-philosophical history presented here covers the work of Bertrand Russell, Max Black, and others. The mathematical-technical history deals with the theories founded by Karl Menger and Lotfi Zadeh. Menger's concepts of probabilistic metrics, hazy sets (ensembles flous) and micro geometry as well as Zadeh's theory of fuzzy sets paved the way for the establishment of soft computing methods using vague concepts that connote the nonexistence of sharp boundaries. The intention of this chapter is to show that these developments (historical and philosophical) were preparatory work for the introduction of soft computing as an artificial intelligence approach in 20th century technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper suggests design methods for reconfigurable hierarchical finite state machines (RHFSM), which possess two following important features: (1) they enable the control algorithms to be divided in modules providing direct support for "divide and conquer" strategy; (2) they allow for static and dynamic reconfiguration. Run-time reconfiguration permits virtual control systems to be constructed, including systems that are more complex than capabilities of available hardware. It is shown that RHFSM can be synthesised from specification in form of hierarchical graph-schemes with the aid of the considered in the paper VHDL templates. The results of experiments show correctness of the proposed methods and their applicability for the design of engineering systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method which uses a genetic algorithm to evolve the control system of a computer simulated mobile inverted pendulum. During the evolutionary process the best and average fitness, the chromosome and pendulum motion is recorded and analysed. The chromosome is a two dimensional lookup table that relates the current pendulum's angle and angular velocity to the motor direction and torque settings required to maintain balance of the pendulum. The lookup table is modified by a genetic algorithm using tournament selection, two-point crossover and a mutation rate of 2%. After two hundred generations the evolved chromosome is capable of balancing the pendulum for more than 200 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. In this paper we present a method to construct fuzzy-valued t-norms and t-conorms, i.e. operations which map pairs of lattice elements to fuzzy sets, and are commutative, associative and monotone. The fuzzy-valued t-norm and t-conorm are synthesized from their á-cuts which are obtained from families of multi-valued t-norms and t-conorms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Recent discoveries in neuroscience imply that the basic computational elements are the dendrites that make up more than 50% of a cortical neuron's membrane. Neuroscientists now believe that the basic computation units are dendrites, capable of computing simple logic functions. This paper discusses two types of neural networks that take advantage of these new discoveries. The focus of this paper is on some learning algorithms in the two neural networks. Learning is in terms of lattice computations that take place in the dendritic structure as well as in the cell body of the neurons used in this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. This paper addresses the different models and their functions in cognitive science. First, this paper discusses the various uses and meanings of various models in science and two kinds of functions of each model such as idealizations and representations of the real world. In cognitive science, cognitive architectures were used as cognitive models. Second, this paper discusses Neil Stillings' global cognitive architecture as well as an example. In addition, this paper focuses on several forms of cognitive models including the von Neumann model, symbol system model and production system model. Further, it was argued that the connectionist model was a better approach to understanding the mechanisms of human cognition through the use of simulated networks of simple, neuron-like processing units. Finally, four models in neuroscience were addressed, being: different models of sensory processing, Marshall-Newcombe's symbolic model of reading, model of memory system, and Mishkin-Appenzeller's model of visual memory functions. These models are approaches to physical implementation, not a computational approach to cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. In recent philosophical studies on technological artefacts, an idea of dual nature of artefacts has been emphasized. Although this idea of dual nature is not a novel one, recent studies have extensively developed ontological aspects of technological artefacts. According to various authors there are two constitutive elements of technological artefacts that can be described in terms of physical properties of objects and intentional action. In this paper, ontology of artefacts is connected to issues discussed by C.S. Peirce under topics of abductive reasoning and philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. In this paper we critically analyze the use of multiagent systems for performing simulations of biological processes. From the one hand, the possibility of associating different elements of a biological process to independent computing entities, called agents, makes multiagent systems a powerful and flexible tool for simulation. From the other hand, the weak validation of the results obtained makes multiagent-based simulations hard to trust. We discuss these issues by referring to a specific example, the simulation of a signal transduction pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the Trustworthiness Measure is to (a) to determine the quality of the Trusted Agents and (b) once the trusting agent has determined and recorded the trustworthiness of the trusted agent or the quality of the trusted agent, the trusting agent can use this determined and recorded quality of the trusted agent when some other agent queries it about the quality of the trusted agent. As can be clearly seen, if the trusting agent has not determined the trustworthiness of the quality of the trusted agent and subsequently recorded it, then it will not be in a position to communicate recommendations about the trusted agent. Unfortunately, in the existing literature there is no methodology for quantifying and expressing the trustworthiness of the trusted agent. In this paper we propose a methodology by that the trusting agent needs to following in order to determine the trustworthiness of the trusted agent. This methodology helps trusted business transactions, virtual collaboration and keeps the service-oriented environment trustworthy as well as helping to provide a transparent and harmonious nature to the distributed, heterogeneous, anonymous, pseudo-anonymous, and non-anonymous e-service networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns itself with the analysis of event data with text mining tools. The methodological approaches to event data analysis are presented, and an analysis is performed using SPAD Software and SAS Text Miner. Finally, some conclusions are drawn concerning the use of text mining tools for event data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is presented the overall process and the basic conclusions of a comparison study, which was applied in the framework of NEMIS project regarding text mining tools. The basic stages of the overall comparison process are described, together with the specified evaluation criteria. Finally, the main conclusions of the particular study constitute the last chapter of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many strategies of Text Retrieval are based on Latent Semantic Indexing and its variations, by considering different weighting systems for words and documents. Correspondence Analysis and L.S.I. share the basic algebraic tool, i.e. the Singular Value Decomposition and its generalisation, related to the use of a different way for measuring the importance of each element, both in determining and representing similarities between documents and words. Aim of the paper is to propose a peculiar factorial approach for better visualizing the relations between textual data and documents, compared with classical Correspondence Analysis. Here we consider a term frequency/document frequency index scheme, mainly developed for Text Retrieval, in a textual data analysis context. An application on Italian Le Monde Diplomatique corpus (about 2000 articles published from 1998 to 2003 in the Italian edition of LMD) will show the effectiveness of the proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object-oriented (OO) methods become more and more important in order to meet scientific computing challenges, such as the treatment of coupled non-linear multi-field problems with extremely high resolutions. This two-part paper introduces an object-oriented concept for numerical modelling multi-process systems in porous media (Part 1). The C++ implementation of the OO design for process objects (PCS) as a class is described and illustrated with several applications. Due to the importance of the encapsulation of processes as individual PCS objects we denote our concept as an process-oriented approach. The presented examples (Part 2) are dealing with thermal (T), hydraulic (H), mechanical (M) and componental processes (C) in bentonite materials, which are used as buffer material for the isolation of hazardous waste in geologic barriers. In particular, we are interested in coupling phenomena such as thermally induced desaturation, non-isothermal consolidation, swelling/shrinking phenomena as well as in a better understanding of the coupled, non-linear THM system. Part 1 of this paper is about design and implementation of processes in an object-oriented way. Here we give numerical examples to show the variety of problems which can be treated based on the process-oriented approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to present the first results of a study performed to provide insights into the relationship between the hydromechanical stress path experienced by a compacted soil and the modification of its pore space geometry. A new oedometer employing the axis translation technique was used to characterize the hydromechanical behaviour of the tested material. The fabric of the tested samples was determined using the mercury intrusion porosimetry technique under 4 stress levels and two different suctions. From this information, the macro and micropore volume variations were then determined. The results showed that mechanical loading produced a progressive reduction of the macropore volume and a significant increase of the micropore volume beyond a stress of 250 kPa. The obtained results tend to demonstrate that suction strengthens soil fabric, as the initial “double structure” of the tested material was not destroyed in the case of the unsaturated sample by the loading up to 1 000 kPa, whereas, the saturated sample exhibited a more homogenous fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with energy based r-adaptivity in finite hyperelastostatics. The focus lies on the development of a numerical solution strategy. Although the concept of improving the accuracy of a finite element solution by minimizing the discrete potential energy with respect to the material node point positions is well-known, the numerical implementation of the underlying minimization problem is difficult. In this paper, energy based r-adaptivity is defined as a minimization problem with inequality constraints. The constraints are introduced to restrict the maximum distortion of the finite element mesh. As a solution strategy for the constrained problem, we use a classical barrier method. Beside the theoretical aspects and the implementation, a numerical experiment is presented. We illustrate the performance of the proposed r-adaptivity in the case of a cracked specimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, almost uncontrolled technological progress allows so called high-throughput data collection for sophisticated and complex experimental biological systems analysis. Especially it concerns the whole cellular genome. Therefore it becomes more and more vital to suggest and elaborate gene network models, which can be used for more complete interpretation of large and complex data sets. The presented paper concerns modeling of yeast cell cycle. With the reference to the previously published papers concerning the same subject, our paper presents a significant improvement in calculation procedure leading to construction of an efficient algorithm for modeling of the mentioned cell cycle. Presented model concerns 12 selected genes and incorporates all possible types of interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uniqueness of a fingerprint allows to build systems that can recognize personal fingerprint feature automatically. In practice, fingerprint recognition and classification based on two techniques: the reference point location and the Gabor filtering or the fingerprint ridge characteristics (called minutiae). In this paper a new method of the reference point alignment has been presented. A new approach of reference point localization is based on so-called identification filters, which have been composed on the basis of analysis of biometric characteristic of human fingerprint. In this paper construction of such filters has been precisely explained. Proposed method with other methods was compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper is related to biometrics image compression (finger print and iris images) and refers to the earlier works related to the use of the interferometry images in non touch measurement techniques. The finger prints fringes have similar periodic nature similar to interfered waves, thus we applied a special kind of base functions to perform compression of exemplary images. The second stage of the paper deals with the iris decomposition i.e. a hybrid of Canny Edge detector stage and a Circular Hough Transform to establish iris boundaries and data encryption-compression by Gabor wavelets functions. To ensure correctness of the investigations - comparison to real criminals fingerprint database - searching and recognition case - has been tested. Eventually the comparison of iris templates on exemplary human eye datasets has been presented too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents especially elaborated laboratory setup and computer software for visualizing the tongue surface movement and the changes of its shape using an ultrasonograph (USG). In the paper the acoustic properties of the tongue, the way of examination and the measurement set-up was described, as well. The elaborated setup allows us to computer-visualize and follow in real time the changes of the tongue shape in the process of vowel articulation, thus providing a visual feedback with the speaker. It can be one of the ways of treating speech defects and phoniatric rehabilitation in people with hearing disorders and pronunciation defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the problem of diagnostic parameters quality control in the adaptive ECG interpretation system. The quality estimation is used for seamless adaptation of processing being a part of the optimization feedback. Therefore, quality control procedures - unlike in conventional systems - are embedded in the software. The proposed methodology is based on two principal concepts: diagnostic results priority depending on the patient status and the data convergence used as description of the adaptive system response to a transient in patient status. The paper includes an example of testing a surveillance network prototype with use of proposed parameters, demonstrating their high usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper a new method of handwritten word recognition is described. In this method different probabilistic character language models (PCLMs) are used in order to improve the word recognition accuracy. These models consist of conditional probability distributions of characters given that preceding, succeeding or surrounding characters are known. The application of character succession and precedence in word recognition was explored in many earlier works. The novelty of the method proposed here consists in utilizing also the conditional probabilities based on character appearing of both sides of the letter being recognized and in combining such classifier with other ones based on character precedence and succession. This new classifier that uses two sided character neighborhood is realized as an iterative procedure which starts with character support factors evaluated independently for each character in the word by a soft character classifier. Then in each step of this iterative procedure the support factors are calculated as Bayes-like formula using needed probabilities. Next, the support factors obtained at the character level are used to calculate the support factors for complete words. Finally, the soft word recognition results obtained for classifiers based on three different PCLMs are combined. Experiments described in the paper show the superiority of the combined method over all its simpler components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we present the method of the generalisation of a language sample for grammatical inference of quasi context-sensitive GDPLL(k) grammars. GDPLL(k) grammars and parsers have been developed as an efficient tool for syntactic pattern recognition: the grammars are characterised by very good discriminative properties and the parser for the grammars is of the linear computational complexity. Nevertheless, one of the main problems of practical application of GDPLL(k) grammars in syntactic pattern recognition systems consists in difficulties in defining the grammar from the sample of a pattern language. The method which we describe in the paper is an important element of the solution of this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In syntactic pattern recognition a pattern is represented by abstract data, for instance a graph. The problem of recognition is to determine if a pattern, represented by the describing graph, belongs to a language L(G), generated by a graph grammar G. The so-called IE graphs can be used for a pattern description. They are generated by so-called ETPL(k) graph grammars. The purpose of this paper is to present an idea of a new approach to syntactic recognition of fuzzy patterns represented by fuzzy IE graphs, followed the example of random IE graphs. This methodology can be used for analysis of wider class of patterns and scenes than the one described by the classical syntactic methods. In this paper, apart from the presentation of the fuzzy-aided approach, it is also shown that the probabilistic-syntactic approach is a special case of the presented one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]