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The changing geopolitical landscape in the world has been and will continue to be the driving framework within which requirements for new and adaptable capabilities in Information Fusion (IF) technology are defined. For major nation-states of the world, this changing landscape will, it is argued, generate new challenges that significantly broaden both the range and adaptive nature of the capability that future IF systems must have. Another dramatically changing landscape is that of information networking, and the integration and exploitation of such networking in military and defense operations have led to transformations in military thinking and culture, even to the consideration of radically new socio-organizational dynamics for Command and Control (C2). Further, the need to develop deeper insights into agile and creative adversarial behaviors imparts what is called here the need for a "multi-perspective" Information Fusion process that will require new ways to think about exploiting both traditional and novel Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) sources. Further, there is the impact of informational dimensionality via the need, similarly motivated, to fuse and exploit the "PMESII" (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, Information) spectrum of information. Lastly, there is the desire on the part of the military to focus on "Effects-based" operations; here too there is an impact of new requirements onto the Data Fusion process. These extensive changes in both the application context and the technological foundations for IF have far-reaching implications for the both the architectural design of IF processes as well as the foundational algorithms employed in IF systems. Significant challenges exist toward achieving robustness and scalability of IF capabilities, the role of and support to human involvement on the IF process, and the ability of IF systems to estimate not only states in the physical domain but also in the informational and cognitive domains. This paper and presentation will survey this extensive new and changing landscape as regards the impacts on IF requirements, with some thoughts on new strategies for IF process design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of estimating an object's initial distance and velocity components via noised bearings from a moving observer belongs to a class of linear models with stochastic regression matrix, at that, estimates has uncontrollable bias. Bayes combination of least squares and orthogonal regression aimed at the above bias reduction is considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report considers the theory of space-extensive targets search, being developed by the authors of the report. An approach, defined in the report, makes it possible to develop methods for assessing the efficiency of space-extensive targets search in the presence of noise and it is the logical development of the theory for conditions of search in the real environment. The report is based wholly on the original studies of the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia is a major maritime energy player, producing more than 9.5 million barrels per day of oil and exporting approximately 3 million barrels/day of crude by sea. Additionally, Russia aims to become a significant liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter. Russian energy production is becoming more maritime in character, with projects on Sakhalin Island, Shtockman, and other areas. Finally, Russia is not simply a supplier of seaborne oil and gas. It has significant oil transportation interests, and after the 2006 merger of Sovcomflot and Novoship, now boasts the world's fourth largest tanker fleet[1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important aspect of maritime safety involves the visualisation of the situation close to any particular ship, so that appropriate action may be taken. While many features may be seen directly from the bridge, bad lighting and weather may obscure them, and much of the necessary information is only available on charts or in pilot books. It seems clear that an integration of all these within a single simple view would improve maritime safety. We have developed a visualization system, based on a laptop PC, that gives a 3D-games type navigational view. We believe that the resulting 3D model provides new facilities for ship navigation, and may be introduced very economically for many types of shipping. The combination of basic GIS concepts with 3D modelling, user interaction and real-time data could contribute significantly to future maritime safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advanced geographic information technologies despite their rapid development not always can provide for a solution of wide scope of problems like development of rather complex systems incorporating a large number of components and dealing with a great variety of information sources. The above mentioned problems can be solved by using in intelligent GIS (IGIS) a proposed universal data model and a method consisting in reduction of all information flows to a common universal data model along with arranging for informational exchange via reducing all flows thereto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual computer simulation unlike statistic simulation concentrates on visual presentation of process or phenomenon being simulated. The main result of such a simulation is rather ‘a picture, possibly changing in time', than a number, and a human observer is a consumer of this result. Such a simulation permits to clearly imagine the real process and concentrate one's entire mental faculties on solving various problems relevant to the simulated process. The visual computer simulation is mostly developed in aircraft simulators, however, the problem solved by their means — pilotage training and aircraft control - is extremely narrow, at that, the simulation is only limited by realistic idea of what can be seen by a pilot from the cockpit and on the monitoring devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel approach of simulation of hydrophysical fields (HPF), using immunocomputing (IC). The essence of the approach is the recognition of the value of scalar field in any point at any time by using a formal immune network (FIN) which is trained by the known values in some points of the field at some instants. Numerical experiments include simulations of sea surface temperature (SST) by utilizing average data obtained from the space monitoring of the Caspian Sea. The obtained results suggest that the IC simulator is promising for on-line modeling and visualization of real-world HPF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topology is playing a central role in GIS and data integration. However, the standardisation of topological data models, especially for data represented at different levels of detail, has not yet far progressed. The multi-representation of geo-objects poses new challenges, resulting in the development of Multi-Representation Databases. MRDB manage objects with changing scale and level of detail. As spatial models change their content over time, the users require various representations of geo-objects. A general model based on oriented hierarchical d-Generalized Maps is introduced to represent topology in a MRDB. The model can be used as a data integration platform for 2D, 3D, and 4D topology. The realisation of the approach results in a topological toolbox comprising elementary and complex tools for single and multiple representations. An application example is presented, which uses 2D cartographic datasets from Hannover University. Finally, an outlook to ongoing research is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach focused on incorporating semantic content into Spatial Databases is proposed. Our methodology is based on a conceptualization of a geospatial domain restricted to retrieve the meaning of topological relations between geographic objects by means of concepts. Indeed, in spatial databases only a small set of topological relations is explicitly represented and they are identified when the geospatial data are displayed or analyzed. While, a semantically enriched set of such relations may be required, sometimes this can be identified at the time when the geospatial data are manipulated by the user. Thus, we define six relations, which are obtained considering the behavior of diverse thematics such as Hydrology, Land Use, Transportation Networks, and Settlements. Geospatial objects are analyzed to identify the topological relationships. We consider two analysis levels: intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic level consists of the analysis between geographic objects that belong to the same thematic. The extrinsic level is composed of relations between pairs of geographic objects that belong to different thematics. Therefore, descriptions are automatically generated in form of tuples {Oi, R Oj}, where Oi and Oj represent a pair of geospatial objects, and R represents the concept (relation). Each tuple represents the meaning of a topological relation. For example, a highway (O1) crosses (R) a roadway (O2). We consider that this method adds a partial semantic content to the geographic databases, because the concepts represent the meaning of topological relations. The conceptual representation has some advantages with respect to the traditional approaches: the conceptualization does not depend on the data scale, geo-reference system, dimension, etc. In addition, we propose a native format that has been designed to appropriately represent and analyze the topological relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information integration and semantic heterogeneity are not trivial tasks. An integrated view must be able to describe various heterogeneous data sources and its interrelation to obtain shared conceptualizations. In this paper, we propose an approach to make a conceptualization of the real world based on conceptual schemas, which are used to generate a semantic description of the geospatial domain. This description attempts to provide the guidelines to formalize the geographic domain in form of geospatial ontologies according to specific contexts. We propose conceptual schemas in order to abstract specific and essential parts of the geospatial domain and to represent schematically which geospatial entities should be collected and how they must be organized. Moreover, we perceive that geographic data modeling requires models more specific and capable of capturing the semantics of geospatial data, offering higher abstraction mechanisms and implementation independence. Therefore, we approach conceptual schemas to describe the contents of the real world abstraction to specify the behavior of the geospatial entities, in which the context plays an important role to guarantee shared and explicit conceptualizations. Our research is mainly oriented to propose an approach related to conceptual issues concerning what would be required to establish ontologies of the geospatial domain. In addition, the work is led to formalize appropriate methods basing on conceptual schemas to represent ontologies of the geospatial domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 3.5 million people have cardiologic problems and the number increases by 100 thousand every year in Turkey. Annually, approximately 400 thousand myocardial infarctions (MI) occur and fifty percent of deaths occur due to myocardial infarctions. These deaths occur due to lack of coordination and unconsciousness. It is well known that eighty percent of these incidents can be prevented if they can reach the hospital or health care providers on time. This study is part of a proposal project submitted to TUBITAK (The Scientific And Technical Council of Turkey) and BAP-ITU (Science and Research Projects - Technical University of Istanbul) in order to develop an emergency management model on Myocardial Infarction and, analyze concentration of MIs with respect to location, proximity to health care providers, public transportation routes, and arrange new locations for ambulances. This project will also help the determination of locations of new hospitals or ambulances and/or restoration centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a wide variety of data sources for geographic information systems which acquisition technology is currently improved. Presently earth remote sensing and land laser scanning techniques are the most perspective ones. They are rapidly developed and offer strong resources for acquisition and analysis of spatial information with shortened outgoing in comparison with traditional techniques. Using of high power laser diodes in such systems open new opportunities in improvement of the whole system efficiency. This becomes possible due to the great improvement of output characteristics of diode lasers which will be described in the present work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software and information tools for cartographic support of transport dispatching service on the basis of electronic regional maps and geographic information systems (GIS) are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatio-temporal data mining is the extraction of unknown and implicit knowledge, structures, spatio-temporal relationships, or patterns not explicitly stored in spatio-temporal databases. As one of data mining techniques, forecasting is widely used to predict the unknown future based upon the patterns hidden in the current and past data. In order to achieve spatiotemporal forecasting, some mature analysis tools, e.g., time series or spatial statistics, are extended to spatial or temporal aspect, respectively. Among other methods, neural network is widely used for spatial forecasting. Normally a static forward neural network is employed to discover the hidden and deeply entangled spatial relationships. However, such approach is insufficient in forecasting dynamic process developing over space (such as forest fire). Elman is a kind of dynamic recurrent neural network (RNN) which allows the network to detect and generate time-varying patterns as well as spatial-varying patterns. Therefore, we use the Elman network for spatio-temporal forecasting. Experimental results collected from real case of forest fire area prediction confirm the viability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic messages authentication issue is of significant importance for geographical information systems. A number of public key cryptosystems base on RSA modulus (n) has been proposed and none of them provides a possibility to use its public key to perform the RSA encryption. Present paper introduces a new cryptoscheme whose public key can be also used to perform the RSA encryption and signing procedures, its own procedures are different though. The signature (S) verification formula in new scheme is α = S {auM} mod n, where M is the signed document and pair (n, α) is a public key. Requirements imposed on parameters n and α are discussed. Public encryption, signature generation, and key agreement protocol based on new cryptoscheme are considered. Using the (n, α) public key a new signature formation mechanism was proposed and it was used to design the digital signature scheme (DSS) described by the following verification equation: g − k = (αkgM mod n) mod δ, where (g, k) is signature and δ is a prime number. Finally the new signature formation mechanism to design a set of new short signature DSS based on difficulty of finding discrete logarithm are used. Also it is shown the Schnorr's DSS is incorporated as a particular case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In large information systems different data transform algorithms including the bit permutation operations requiring an execution of great number of cycles are used. To increase significantly the software performance of such algorithm a controlled bit permutation instruction (BPI) is desirable. Here a question of justification of embedding a new command, controlled BPI, into the standard set of instructions of general-purpose processor for increasing the efficiency of different types algorithms implemented in software is studied. In a variety of applications two different types of bit permutation operations are required: arbitrary fixed permutations and variable permutations. The last are used in a new fast cipher designs based on data-dependent permutations. Accounting for an expediency of embedding the controlled permutation command into the set of elementary processor operations the cryptographic applications form only one of the motivation elements. Another strong motivation is BPI's use for solving variety of non-cryptographic problems. The multipurpose architecture of the BPI operation oriented to the efficient execution of both the cryptographic functions based on data-driven permutations and the algorithms including arbitrary bit permutations is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is universally recognized, that one of the most effective approaches to security management consists in the use of policy-based security systems. This approach assumes that all actions of the system under defense are performed according to a policy incorporating a multitude of if-else rules describing the system behavior. It is hard for a system administrator while constructing a security policy to detect and resolve without an appropriate software tool all possible inconsistencies even inside one category of security rules (authentication, authorization, filtering, channel protection, operational, etc.), not to mention inter-category inconsistencies. The paper describes a general approach to the security policy verification and presents a software tool "Security Checker" that can serve as a security policy debugger for various policy categories. Security Checker can also be used as Security policy verification tool for complex distributed Geographical Information Systems (GIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is somewhat problematic to evaluate the performance of security systems in the Internet due to complexity of these systems and the Internet itself. Therefore, modeling and simulation are becoming more and more important in optimizing the behavior of security systems, including security components intended for protecting various distributed geographic information systems (GIS). This paper presents an approach and software simulation environment for comprehensive investigation of the Security Operation Center (SOCBox) system which is in essence an intrusion detection "metasystem". SOCBox collects data from a wide range of sources (intrusion detection systems (IDS), firewalls, routers, workstations, etc.) and therefore has a global view on the network. The simulation environment has been developed formerly for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and defense simulation. This tool is characterized by agentoriented approach, the packet-based imitation of network security processes and the open library of different attacks and defense mechanisms. We consider the SOCBox structure, the simulation environment architecture, the SOCBox models in the simulation environment and peculiarities of SOCBox simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"CENTROPE" is the new common name for the cross-border-region in Central Europe consisting of parts of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria and including the cities of Vienna, Bratislava, Trnava, Brno, Győr and Sopron. The CENTROPE region, strategically located in the heart of the "New Europe", is one of the continent's most dynamically developing regions. Harmonised cross-border geo-information is essential to support political and economic decision-making. "Centrope Map" represents a crossborder Spatial Data Infrastructure for the region. It provides a framework for a common map representation of cross-border spatial data via OGCcompliant Web Map Services (WMS) originating from different organizations and institutions throughout the region. Centrope Map as a Cross-Border Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is seen as a precondition for a successful and common development of the CENTROPE-region as a whole and all it's parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current operations, military as well as disaster relief operations, are executed by coalition forces which have to exchange information effectively. This exchange must be supported by a smart architecture of the underlying network and its systems and by a specific language format used to formulate military communications, i.e., orders, requests and especially reports. Such a language format has to support automatic processing of the communication as well as automatic information fusion. Otherwise, the forces' headquarters would only accumulate huge piles of data without any chance to analyze them in time, i.e., quickly enough to exploit those fleeting opportunities permitted by the enemy or by circumstance. The language format, we propose is Battle Management Language (BML). A Battle Management Language is an unambiguous language to be used for communications among C2-systems — systems to support the military process of command and control —, their users, simulation systems and robotic forces. BML expressions can be processed automatically by parsers as defined in the field of computational linguistics. The output of the parsers are so-called "feature-value matrices" in which the information is represented in a XML-like structure. This paper will point out and illustrate by example how the feature-value representation of BML reports can be exploited for automated information fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes an approach to information fusion based on the context management aimed at supporting decision making for humanitarian logistics operations. Application of GIS as one of the major information sources is discussed in detail. The paper describes an application of knowledge logistics as an intelligent information fusion service for creation efficient routing plans (as one of the major logistics tasks in virtual supply network management) under given constraints and preferences. The implementation is based on the concept of open services in a distributed environment of a networked organization. This application is illustrated via a case study of delivering hospital supplies to the disaster site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes an analysis of conventional pattern recognition methods and their use for images' analysis in GIS applications. The methods like cluster analysis, neural networks, and immunocomputing are studied in detail. Classic methods of raster segmentation, including lines detection, levels' difference, connecting of contours, threshold processing, and other are considered as applied to snapshots' analysis. Special attention is paid to immunicomputing method implementation. The above method efficiency as well as its application's domain is demonstrated with specific examples. Methods of isomorphism and metaclasses are developed to automatically recognize complex objects. The methods' efficiency as well as advantages and disadvantages are manifested based on a real snapshot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combined research in the fields of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and maritime systems has finally reached the point where paths should overlap and continue in better unison. This paper introduces methodological and experimental results of several marine-related GIS projects whose objectives are to develop spatial data models and computing architectures that favour the development of monitoring and decision-aid systems. The computing architectures developed integrate agent-based reasoning and distributed systems for the real-time monitoring, manipulation and simulation of maritime transportation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scopes the issues of Situation Management in dynamic systems, defines the basic concepts of Situation Management, and identifies several key enabling technologies. Particular focus of the paper is given to situation modeling. The paper reviews major aspects of situation modeling and discusses associated technologies, including Situation Calculus, Situation Semantics, Situation Control, Situation Awareness and others. In more detail we discuss an approach to situation management based on multi-agent systems, event correlation and case-based reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional relationships between diet and tooth morphology form an integral part of paleontological research. The detailed description of occlusal relief and wear patterns of molars provides information about food ingestion and mastication. In early hominids overall molar morphology is fairly similar. Size measurements, such as buccolingual or mesiodistal diameter and 2-D cusp area of hominid molars show considerable overlap. The pioneering works of Butler, Mills, Hiiemae, Kay, Maier and others have shown that the wear pattern on the occlusal surface seems to reflect mastication behavior as an indication of diet. However, most of the interpretations are based on two-dimensional analyses. Occlusal relief measured in 3-D highlights functionally important features useful for quantifying the complex wear patterns on hominid teeth. However, until recently they could not be measured because techniques and methods were lacking. Nevertheless the results of 2-D analyses so far demonstrate that the occlusal surface of teeth records a significant part of the life history of an individual. The 3-D analysis of wear patterns on hominid teeth may provide additional information regarding the relationships between diet, chewing behavior and early hominid evolution. In this case study we employ a new 3-D approach to compare details on the occlusal surface of worn molars of Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus in order to examine possible differences in tooth wear patterns. High resolution optical topometry enables us to measure parameters on 3-D computer models of teeth. Here, we compare various occlusal morphologies of worn lower second molars and attempt to interpret function, taking dental and masticatory principles into account. Our results indicate that diverse modes of occlusal wear in Australopithecus and Paranthropus are evident. A closer look at the occlusal relief and wear facet pattern shows that an assortment of mechanisms for crushing, shearing and grinding on a single tooth are common, since orientation and inclination of wear facets vary. The fact that A. afarensis molars show diverse functional areas with little variation among individuals suggests it had a dental toolkit to cope with a wide range of food qualities and may indicate a species-specific dietary spectrum. A. africanus and P. robustus molars, with their pronounced and relatively rapid flattening of crown relief and diverse individual wear patterns, point towards hard-object feeding and greater intraspecific variation in diet. P. robustus, however, with somewhat higher occlusal relief, can be interpreted as an omnivorous generalist with hard objects as fall-back foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vertebrate fauna of the Chiwondo Beds in Northern Malawi is heavily biased towards the preservation of large terrestrial mammals, the majority being ungulates. The faunal diversity resembles an African shortgrass plains assemblage. The taxonomic diversity is nevertheless low, emphasizing an incomplete fossil record. Based on modern bovid representation in African game parks, statistical tests show that the Chiwondo bovid assemblage consists of a mixture of species found in the Somali-Masai and the Zambezian ecozones. The composition of the terrestrial fauna is similar to Swartkrans 1 and the Upper Ndolanya Beds. The fossil assemblages can be assigned to three biostratigraphic time intervals that date from older than 4.0 Ma to less than 1.5 Ma. The occurrence of Paranthropus boisei at a lake margin site in the Chiwondo Beds corresponds to robust australopithecine-bearing localities near Lake Turkana, Kenya. A case study showed that the investigated death assemblage on a delta plain in the Malema region was subject to heavy modification after deposition. This has affected the size distribution, the frequencies of skeletal elements, and thus the taxonomic composition. High-density skeletal elements such as molars and partial mandibles dominate the assemblage. The Homo rudolfensis locality at Uraha has a different faunal composition, the preservation in a paleosol points to a different taphonomic history and the Uraha area encompasses a longer time span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]