Search

Socio-cyber-physical systems (SCPSs) have emerged as networked heterogeneous systems that incorporate social components (e.g., business processes and social networks) along with physical (e.g., Internet-of-Things devices) and software components. Model-driven techniques for building SCPSs need actor and goal models to capture social concerns, whereas system issues are often addressed with the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Comprehensive traceability between these types of models is essential to support consistency and completeness checks, change management, and impact analysis. However, traceability management between these complementary views is not well supported across SysML tools, particularly when models evolve because SysML does not provide sophisticated out-of-the-box goal modeling capabilities. In our previous work, we proposed a model-based framework, called CGS4Adaptation, that supports basic traceability by importing goal and SysML models into a leading third-party requirement-management system, namely IBM Rational DOORS. In this paper, we present the framework's traceability management method and its use for automated consistency and completeness checks. Traceability management also includes implicit link detection, thereby, improving the quality of traceability links while better aligning designs with requirements. The method is evaluated using an adaptive SCPS case study involving an IoT-based smart home. The results suggest that the tool-supported method is effective and useful in supporting the traceability management process involving complex goal and SysML models in one environment while saving development time and effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish a theorem called the PCL theorem, which states that it is impossible to design a transactional memory algorithm that ensures (1) parallelism, i.e., transactions do not need to synchronize unless they access the same application objects, (2) very little consistency, i.e., a consistency condition, called weak adaptive consistency, introduced here and that is weaker than snapshot isolation, processor consistency, and any other consistency condition stronger than them (such as opacity, serializability, causal serializability, etc.), and (3) very little liveness, i.e., which transactions eventually commit if they run solo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of imaging technology has allowed people to move beyond the black-and-white era and into the age of color. However, preserved black-and-white historical footage remains a precious memory for people. We propose a coloring method for historical videos that combines historical image coloring methods with temporal consistency methods, thus achieving color editing for historical videos. The temporal consistency technique uses deep video priors to model the video structure and effectively ensure smoothness between frames after video color editing, even with a small amount of training data. Meanwhile, we have collected a historical video dataset named MHMD-Video, which facilitates further research on colorization of historical videos for researchers. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method through objective and subjective evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snapshot isolation (SI) is a widely used consistency model for transaction processing, implemented by most major databases and some of transactional memory systems. Unfortunately, its classical definition is given in a low-level operational way, by an idealised concurrency-control algorithm, and this complicates reasoning about the behaviour of applications running under SI. We give an alternative specification to SI that characterises it in terms of transactional dependency graphs of Adya et al., generalising serialisation graphs. Unlike previous work, our characterisation does not require adding additional information to dependency graphs about start and commit points of transactions. We then exploit our specification to obtain two kinds of static analyses. The first one checks when a set of transactions running under SI can be chopped into smaller pieces without introducing new behaviours, to improve performance. The other analysis checks whether a set of transactions running under a weakening of SI behaves the same as when running under SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Task-based runtime systems are seen as a way to deal with increasing heterogeneity and performance variability in modern high performance computing systems. The Open Community Runtime is an example of such runtime system, with the benefit of having an open specification that defines its interface and behavior. This allows others to study the design and create alternative implementations of the runtime system. However, it turns out that the consistency model that defines how the OCR programs are synchronized when executed in parallel is not sufficiently defined. In the following text, we complete the consistency model by filling in the missing pieces and extending the memory model given in the specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Models are extensively used in many areas of software engineering to represent the behaviour of software systems at different levels of abstraction. Because of the involvement of different stakeholders in constructing these models and their independent evolution, inconsistencies might occur between the models. It is thus crucial to detect these inconsistencies at early phases of the software development process, and especially as soon as refined models deviate from their abstract counterparts. In this article, we introduce a containment checking approach to verify whether a certain low-level behaviour model, typically created by refining and enhancing a high-level model, still is consistent with the specification provided in its high-level counterpart. We interpret the containment checking problem as a model checking problem, which has not received special treatment in the literature so far. Because the containment checking is based on model checking, it requires both formal consistency constraints and specifications of these models. Unfortunately, creating formal consistency constraints and specifications is currently done manually, and therefore, labour-intensive and error prone. To alleviate this issue, we define and develop a fully automated transformation of behaviour models into formal specifications and properties. The generated formal specifications and properties can directly be used by existing model checkers for detecting any discrepancy between the input models and yield corresponding counterexamples. Moreover, our approach can provide the developers more informative and comprehensive feedback regarding the inconsistency issues, and therefore, help them to efficiently identify and resolve the problems. The evaluation of various scenarios from industrial case studies demonstrates that the proposed approach efficiently translates the behaviour models into formal specifications and properties. Highlights • Containment checking of software behaviour models at different abstraction levels. • Automated transformation of models into LTL formulas and formal SMV descriptions. • Counterexample interpretation for resolving the inconsistencies between models. • Applicability and feasibility of the approach for realistically sized models. • Performance evaluation in a typical developer's working environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In unstructured mobile peer-to-peer systems (MP2P), the frequent link breakages lead frequent topology mismatching problems and data transmission failures due to high mobility of nodes. The overhead of data transmission and synchronization cannot be neglected. In order to keep the data consistent, flooding is a fundamental and straightforward data synchronization mechanism since a mobile node does not know which else has the same shared data item. However, data flooding causes the broadcast storm problem. In this paper, we propose a mobility-aware data update approach (MADU) to improve the data dissemination and to reduce the overhead of maintaining the consistency of shared data items in an MP2P network. We use safe-time which is derived from the neighbor's location and speed to determine the time for a node to do the checking and updating between the neighbor nodes and itself. We also consider the network connectivity of a mobile node and access frequency of a data item as the factors to trigger the update process. By combining the mobility information of nodes, network connectivity, and access frequency of data items, we set a reasonable data update mechanism, which can significantly decrease the number of retransmissions and redundant messages so as to reduce the overhead of maintaining the data consistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time consistency is one of the most important properties of solutions in cooperative differential games. This paper uses the core as a cooperative solution of the game. We design a strong time-consistent subset of the core. The design method of this subset is based on a special class of imputation distribution procedures (IDPs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suppose that we are given a time series where consecutive samples are believed to come from a probabilistic source, that the source changes from time to time and that the total number of sources is fixed. Our objective is to estimate the distributions of the sources. A standard approach to this problem is to model the data as a hidden Markov model (HMM). However, since the data often lacks the Markov or the stationarity properties of an HMM, one can ask whether this approach is still suitable or perhaps another approach is required. In this paper, we show that a maximum likelihood HMM estimator can be used to approximate the source distributions in a much larger class of models than HMMs. Specifically, we propose a natural and fairly general non-stationary model of the data, where the only restriction is that the sources do not change too often. Our main result shows that for this model, a maximum-likelihood HMM estimator produces the correct second moment of the data, and the results can be extended to higher moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O Chance corrected agreement coefficients such as the Cohen and Fleiss Kappas are commonly used for the measurement of consistency in the decisions made by clinical observers or raters. However, the way that they estimate the probability of agreement (Pe) or cost of disagreement (De) 'by chance' has been strongly questioned, and alternatives have been proposed, such as the Aickin Alpha coefficient and the Gwet AC1 and AC2 coefficients. A well known paradox illustrates deficiencies of the Kappa coefficients which may be remedied by scaling Pe or De according to the uniformity of the scoring. The AC1 and AC2 coefficients result from the application of this scaling to the Brennan-Prediger coefficient which may be considered a simplified form of Kappa. This paper examines some commonly used multi-rater agreement coefficients including AC1 and AC2. It then proposes an alternative subject-by-subject scaling approach that may be applied to weighted and unweighted multi-rater Cohen and Fleiss Kappas and also Intra-Class Correlation (ICC) coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In software development, models are often used to represent multiple views of the same system. Such models need to be properly related to each other in order to provide a consistent description of the developed system. Models may contain contradictory system specifications, for instance, when they evolve independently. Therefore, it is very crucial to ensure that models conform to each other. In this context, we focus on consistency checking of behavior models. Several techniques and approaches have been proposed in the existing literature to support behavioral model consistency checking. This article presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that was carried out to obtain an overview of the various consistency concepts, problems, and solutions proposed regarding behavior models. In our study, the identification and selection of the primary studies was based on a well-planned search strategy. The search process identified a total of 1770 studies, out of which 96 have been thoroughly analyzed according to our predefined SLR protocol. The SLR aims to highlight the state-of-the-art of software behavior model consistency checking and identify potential gaps for future research. Based on research topics in selected studies, we have identified seven main categories: targeted software models, types of consistency checking, consistency checking techniques, inconsistency handling, type of study and evaluation, automation support, and practical impact. The findings of the systematic review also reveal suggestions for future research, such as improving the quality of study design and conducting evaluations, and application of research outcomes in industrial settings. For this purpose, appropriate strategy for inconsistency handling, better tool support for consistency checking and/or development tool integration should be considered in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing arc consistency on two relational structures is one of the most popular heuristics for the constraint satisfaction problem. We aim at determining the time complexity of arc consistency testing. The input structures G and H can be supposed to be connected colored graphs, as the general problem reduces to this particular case. We first observe the upper bound O ( e ( G ) v ( H ) + v ( G ) e ( H ) ) , which implies the bound O ( e ( G ) e ( H ) ) in terms of the number of edges and the bound O ( ( v ( G ) + v ( H ) ) 3 ) in terms of the number of vertices. We then show that both bounds are tight as long as an arc consistency algorithm is based on constraint propagation (as all current algorithms are). Our lower bounds are based on examples of slow constraint propagation. We measure the speed of constraint propagation observed on a pair G , H by the size of a combinatorial proof that Spoiler wins the existential 2-pebble game on G , H . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quiescent consistency is a notion of correctness for a concurrent object that gives meaning the object's behaviour in its quiescent states. This paper shows that the membership problem for quiescent consistency is NP-complete and that the correctness problem is decidable, but coNEXPTIME-complete. We consider restricted versions of quiescent consistency by assuming an upper limit on the number of events between two quiescent points. Here, we show that the membership problem is in PTIME, whereas correctness is PSPACE-complete. We also consider quiescent sequential consistency, which strengthens quiescent consistency with an additional sequential consistency condition. We show that the unrestricted versions of membership and correctness are NP-complete and undecidable, respectively. When placing a limit on the number of events between two quiescent points, membership is in PTIME, while correctness is PSPACE-complete. Given an upper limit on the number of processes for every run of the implementation, the membership problem is in PTIME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study proposes a new approach that utilized pre-built issues libraries in healthcare supply chain. Supply chain related issues are collected and deduced from the literature to build issues libraries. This is followed by application of group decision-making for their prioritization and defining solution requirements from doctors’ perspectives. A new approach of shared decision-making is proposed by utilizing literature for developing pre-built issues libraries as an input to shared decision-making. Quick identification and resolution mean that an organisation is continually learning and moving towards excellence. It can be used as a checklist for comparison within and across organisations. Usage of open source applications such as Google Sheets and WhatsApp was utilized for geographically dispersed experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interoperability remains the key problem in multi-discipline collaboration based on building information modeling (BIM). Although various methods have been proposed to solve the technical issues of interoperability, such as data sharing and data consistency; organizational issues, including data ownership and data privacy, remain unresolved to date. These organizational issues prevent different stakeholders from sharing their data due to concerns regarding losing control of the data. This study proposes a multi-server information-sharing approach on a private cloud after analyzing the requirements for cross-party collaboration to address the aforementioned issues and prepare for massive data handling in the near future. This approach adopts a global controller to track the location, ownership and privacy of the data, which are stored in different servers that are controlled by different parties. Furthermore, data consistency conventions, parallel sub-model extraction, and sub-model integration with model verification are investigated in depth to support information sharing in a distributed environment and to maintain data consistency. Thus, with this approach, the ownership and privacy of the data can be controlled by its owner while still enabling certain required data to be shared with other parties. Application of the multi-server approach for information interoperability and cross-party collaboration is illustrated using a real construction project of an airport terminal. Validation shows that the proposed approach is feasible for maintaining the ownership and privacy of the data while supporting cross-party data sharing and collaboration at the same time, thus avoiding possible legal problems regarding data copyrights or other legal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In existing local and global consistency (LGC) framework, the cost functions related to classifying functions adopt the sum of each row of weight matrix as an important factor. Some of these classifying functions are successfully applied to saliency detection. From the point of saliency detection, this factor is inversely proportional to the colour contrast between image regions and their surroundings. However, an image region that holds a big colour contrast against it surroundings does not denote it must be a salient region. Therefore a suitable variant of LGC is introduced by removing this factor in cost function, and a suitable classifying function (SCF) is decided. Then a saliency detection method that utilises the SCF, content-based initial label assignment scheme, and appearance-based label assignment scheme is presented. Via updating the content-based initial labels and appearance-based labels by the SCF, a coarse saliency map and several intermediate saliency maps are obtained. Furthermore, to enhance the detection accuracy, a novel optimisation function is presented to fuse the intermediate saliency maps that have a high detection performance for final saliency generation. Numerous experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves competitive performance against some recent state-of-the-art algorithms for saliency detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematizes the empirical results on efficiency concepts applied to higher education institutions, data envelopment analysis (DEA) adjusted to heterogeneous samples, inputs and outputs chosen for these institutions and factors tended to make universities efficient. Special attention is paid to the consistency of results yielded by different models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel visual object tracking method based on consistency-constrained nonnegative coding (CNC) is proposed in this paper. For the purpose of computational efficiency, superpixels are first extracted from each observed video frame. And then CNC is performed based on those obtained superpixels, where the locality on manifold is preserved by enforcing the temporal and spatial smoothness. The coding result is achieved via an iterative update scheme, which is proved to converge. The proposed method enhances the coding stability and makes the tracker more robust for object tracking. The tracking performance has been evaluated based on ten challenging benchmark sequences involving drastic motion, partial or severe occlusions, large variation in pose, and illumination variation. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our method in comparison with ten state-of-art trackers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Given a gene family, the relations between genes (orthology/paralogy), are represented by a relation graph, where edges connect pairs of orthologous genes and "missing" edges represent paralogs. While a gene tree directly induces a relation graph, the converse is not always true. Indeed, a relation graph is not necessarily "satisfiable", i.e. does not necessarily correspond to a gene tree. And even if that holds, it may not be "consistent", i.e. the tree may not represent a true history in agreement with a species tree. Previous studies have addressed the problem of correcting a relation graph for satisfiability and consistency. Here we consider the weighted version of the problem, where a degree of confidence is assigned to each orthology or paralogy relation. We also consider a maximization variant of the unweighted version of the problem. Results: We provide complexity and algorithmic results for the approximation of the considered problems. We show that minimizing the correction of a weighted graph does not admit a constant factor approximation algorithm assuming the unique game conjecture, and we give an n-approximation algorithm, n being the number of vertices in the graph. We also provide polynomial time approximation schemes for the maximization variant for unweighted graphs. Conclusions: We provided complexity and algorithmic results for variants of the problem of correcting a relation graph for satisfiability and consistency. For the maximization variants we were able to design polynomial time approximation schemes, while for the weighted minimization variants we were able to provide the first inapproximability results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) can be enhanced significantly by introducing the inter-satellite links (ISL) of a navigation constellation. In particular, the improvement of the position, velocity, and time accuracy, and the realization of autonomous functions require the ISL distance measurement data as the original input. For building a high-performance ISL, the ranging consistency between navigation satellites becomes a crucial problem to be addressed. Considering the frequency aging drift and the relativistic effect of the navigation satellite, the frequency and phase adjustment (FPA) instructions for the 10.23 MHz must be injected from the ground station to ensure the time synchronization of the navigation constellation. Moreover, the uncertainty of the initial phase each time the onboard clock equipment boots also results in a pseudo-range offset. In this Ref., we focus on the influence of the frequency and phase characteristics of the onboard clock equipment on the ranging consistency of the ISL and propose a phase compensation sensor design method for the phase offset. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method not only realized a phase compensation for the pseudo-range jitter, but, when the 1 PPS (1 pulse per second) falls in the 10.23 MHz skip area, also overcomes the problem of compensating the ambiguous phase by directly tracking the 10.23 MHz to ensure consistency in the ranging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a finite volume scheme to approximate the one dimensional breakage equations. An interesting feature is that it is simple in mathematical formulation and predicts particle number density and its moments with improved accuracy. Efficiency of the new scheme is compared with the existing finite volume scheme proposed by Bourgade and Filbet (2008) over some test problems. It is seen that the new scheme preserves the volume conservative property of the previous scheme and additionally gives an improved estimation of the particle number density and its zero-order moment. Furthermore, the new scheme is computationally more efficient than the existing one. A detailed mathematical analysis including convergence and consistency of the new scheme is also performed. This analysis proves that the new scheme follows a second order convergence rate irrespective of the nature of the meshes. Several example problems are solved numerically to validate the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing need to construct long-term climate-quality data records to understand, monitor, and predict climate variability and change, it is vital to continue systematic satellite measurements along with the development of new technology for more quantitative and accurate observations. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership mission provides continuity in monitoring the Earth's surface and its atmosphere in a similar fashion as the heritage MODIS instruments onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Terra and Aqua satellites. In this paper, we aim at quantifying the consistency of Aqua MODIS and Suomi-NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Land Surface Reflectance (LSR) and NDVI products as related to their inherent spatial sampling characteristics. To avoid interferences from sources of measurement and/or processing errors other than spatial sampling, including calibration, atmospheric correction, and the effects of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function, the MODIS and VIIRS LSR products were simulated using the Landsat-8's Operational Land Imager (OLI) LSR products. The simulations were performed using the instruments' point spread functions on a daily basis for various OLI scenes over a 16-day orbit cycle. It was found that the daily mean differences due to discrepancies in spatial sampling remain below 0.0015 (1%) in absolute surface reflectance at subgranule scale (i.e., OLI scene size). We also found that the MODIS–VIIRS product intercomparisons appear to be minimally impacted when differences in the corresponding view zenith angles (VZAs) are within the range of -\!\!15^\circ to -35^\circ (\textrmVZAV-\textrmVZAM), where VIIRS and MODIS footprints resemble in size. In general, depending on the spatial heterogeneity of the OLI scene contents, per-grid-cell differences can reach up to 20%. Further spatial analysis of the simulated NDVI and LSR products revealed that, depending on the user accuracy requirements for product intercomparisons, spatial aggregations may be used. It was found that if per-grid-cell differences on the order of 10% (in LSR or NDVI) are tolerated, the product intercomparisons are expected to be immune from differences in spatial sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Modern replicated data stores aim to provide high availability, by immediately responding to client requests, often by implementing objects that expose concurrency. Such objects, for example, multi-valued registers (MVRs), do not have sequential specifications. This paper explores a recent model for replicated data stores that can be used to precisely specify causal consistency for such objects, and liveness properties like eventual consistency, without revealing details of the underlying implementation. The model is used to prove the following results: 1) An eventually consistent data store implementing MVRs cannot satisfy a consistency model strictly stronger than observable causal consistency ( \mathcal OCC ). \mathcal OCC is a model somewhat stronger than causal consistency, which captures executions in which client observations can use causality to infer concurrency of operations. This result holds under certain assumptions about the data store. 2) Under the same assumptions, an eventually consistent and causally consistent replicated data store must send messages of size linear in the size of the system: If s objects, each \Omega (\mathrm{lg} k) -bit in size, are supported by n$ replicas, then there is an execution in which an \Omega (\min \lbrace n,s\rbrace \mathrm{lg} k) -bit message is sent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Orthologs inference is the starting point of most comparative genomics studies and a plethora of methods have been designed in the last decade to address this challenging task. In this paper we focus on the problems of deciding consistency with a species tree (known or not) of a partial set of orthology/paralogy relationships C on a collection of n genes. Results: We give the first polynomial algorithm-more precisely a O(n3) time algorithm-to decide whether C is consistent, even when the species tree is unknown. We also investigate a biologically meaningful optimization version of these problems, in which we wish to minimize the number of duplication events; unfortunately, we show that all these optimization problems are NP-hard and are unlikely to have good polynomial time approximation algorithms. Conclusions: Our polynomial algorithm for checking consistency has been implemented in Python and is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chunking consists in grouping items of a sequence into small clusters, named chunks, with the assumed goal of lessening working memory load. Despite extensive research, the current methods used to detect chunks, and to identify different chunking strategies, remain discordant and difficult to implement. Here, we propose a simple and reliable method to identify chunks in a sequence and to determine their stability across blocks. This algorithm is based on a ranking method and its major novelty is that it provides concomitantly both the features of individual chunk in a given sequence, and an overall index that quantifies the chunking pattern consistency across sequences. The analysis of simulated data confirmed the validity of our method in different conditions of noise, chunk lengths and chunk numbers; moreover, we found that this algorithm was particularly efficient in the noise range observed in real data, provided that at least 4 sequence repetitions were included in each experimental block. Furthermore, we applied this algorithm to actual reaction time series gathered from 3 published experiments and were able to confirm the findings obtained in the original reports. In conclusion, this novel algorithm is easy to implement, is robust to outliers and provides concurrent and reliable estimation of chunk position and chunking dynamics, making it useful to study both sequence-specific and general chunking effects. The algorithm is available at: https://github.com/artipago/Non-parametric-algorithm-to-isolate-chunks-in-responsesequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mean Shift (MS) tracking using histogram features alone may cause inaccuracy in target localization. The problem becomes worst due to presence of mingled background features in target model representation. To improve MS target localization problem, this paper propose a spatiospectral technique. The true background features are identified in target model representation using spectral and spatial weighting and then a transformation is applied to minimize their effect in target model representation for localization improvement. The target localization is further improved by adjusting the MS estimated target position through edge based centroid re positioning. The paper also propose method of target model update for background weighted histogram based algorithms followed by weighted transformation through online feature consistency data. The proposed method is designed for single object tracking in complex scenarios and tested for comparative results with existing state of the art techniques. Experimental results on numerous challenging video sequences verify the significance of proposed technique in terms of robustness to complex background, occlusions, appearance changes, and similar color object avoidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work is devoted to application of global optimization in data fitting problem under interval uncertainty. Parameters of the linear function that best fits intervally defined data are taken as the maximum point for a special ('recognizing') functional which is shown to characterize consistency between the data and parameters. The new data fitting technique is therefore called 'maximum consistency method'. We investigate properties of the recognizing functional and present interpretation of the parameter estimates produced by the maximum consistency method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an agent-based fuzzy constraint-directed negotiation (AFCN) mechanism to solve distributed job shop scheduling problems (JSSPs). The scheduling problem is modelled as a set of fuzzy constraint satisfaction problems (FCSPs), interlinked by inter-agent constraints. Each FCSP represents the perspective of the participants and is governed by autonomous agents. The novelty of the proposed AFCN is to bring the concept of a fuzzy membership function to represent the imprecise preferences of task start time for job and resource agents. This added information sharing is crucial for the effectiveness of distributed coordination. It not only can speed up the convergence, but also enforce a global consistency through iterative exchange of offers and counter-offers. The AFCN mechanism can also flexibly adopt different negotiation strategies, such as competitive, win–win, and collaborative strategies, for different production environments. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model can provide not only high-quality and cost-effective job shop scheduling (i.e., comparable to that of centralized methods) but also superior performance in terms of the makespan and average flow time compared with other negotiation models for agent-based manufacturing scheduling. As a result, the proposed AFCN mechanism is flexible and useful for distributed manufacturing scheduling with unforeseen disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five pitfalls or potential mistakes in memory consistency modelling are identified. Each pitfall can have dramatic impact on our ability to write correct and efficient programs, to determine the algorithmic capabilities or limitations of particular architectures, and to compare various systems. These potential problems are highlighted by illustrating each pitfall with examples from known consistency model definitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five pitfalls or potential mistakes in memory consistency modelling are identified. Each pitfall can have dramatic impact on our ability to write correct and efficient programs, to determine the algorithmic capabilities or limitations of particular architectures, and to compare various systems. These potential problems are highlighted by illustrating each pitfall with examples from known consistency model definitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We improve the state-of-the-art method for checking the consistency of large qualitative spatial networks that appear in the Web of Data by exploiting the scale-free-like structure observed in their constraint graphs. We propose an implementation scheme that triangulates the constraint graphs of the input networks and uses a hash table based adjacency list to efficiently represent and reason with them. We generate random scale-free-like qualitative spatial networks using the Barabási-Albert (BA) model with a preferential attachment mechanism. We test our approach on the already existing random datasets that have been extensively used in the literature for evaluating the performance of qualitative spatial reasoners, our own generated random scale-free-like spatial networks, and real spatial datasets that have been made available as Linked Data. The analysis and experimental evaluation of our method presents significant improvements over the state-of-the-art approach, and establishes our implementation as the only possible solution to date to reason with large scale-free-like qualitative spatial networks efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For development of science and technology, a lot of physical infrastructures are constructed, to be used in many fields. Recently the concept of Big Data, mass information and rich contents has emerged. In the case of particular infrastructure which is used for these data, there are many obstacles to approach them by user because their scale or leveraging is very complex and huge. However, many smart devices have been developed and spread. As a result, it is important to consider about the use of smart devices. In this paper smart, knowledge sharing system which is related the CyberLab is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the proof theory of multiplicative additive system virtual (MAV). MAV combines two established proof calculi: multiplicative additive linear logic (MALL) and basic system virtual (BV). Due to the presence of the self-dual non-commutative operator from BV, the calculus MAV is defined in the calculus of structures -- a generalisation of the sequent calculus where inference rules can be applied in any context. A generalised cut elimination result is proven for MAV, thereby establishing the consistency of linear implication defined in the calculus. The cut elimination proof involves a termination measure based on multisets of multisets of natural numbers to handle subtle interactions between operators of BV and MAV. Proof search in MAV is proven to be a PSPACE-complete decision problem. The study of this calculus is motivated by observations about applications in computer science to the verification of protocols and to querying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys some results on the role of formal polynomials as a representation method for logical derivation in classical and non-classical logics, emphasizing many-valued logics, paraconsistent logics and non-deterministic logics, as well as their potentialities for alternative algebraic representation and for automation. The resulting mechanizable proof method exposed here is of interest for automatic proof theory, as the proof methods are comparable to analytic tableaux in generality and intuitiveness, and seems also to indicate a new avenue for investigating questions on complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to present a consistency model for interval multiplicative preference relation (IMPR). To measure the consistency level for IMPR, a referenced consistent IMPR of a given IMPR is defined, which has the minimum logarithmic distance from the given IMPR. Based on the referenced consistent IMPR, the consistency level of an IMPR can be measured and an IMPR with unacceptable consistency can be adjusted by a proposed algorithm such that the revised IMPR is of acceptable consistency. A consistency model for group decision making (GDM) problems with IMPRs is proposed to obtain the collective IMPR with highest consistency level. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed approaches in decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two important aspects for design of distributed database systems are operation allocation and data allocation. Operation allocation refers to query execution plan indicating which operations (subqueries) should be allocated to which sites in a computer network, so that query processing costs are minimized. Data allocation is to allocate relations to sites so that the performance of distributed database are improved. In this research, we developed a solution technique for operation allocation and data allocation problem, using three objective functions: total time minimization or response time minimization, and the combination of total time and response time minimization. We formulated these allocation problems and provided analytical cost models for each objective function. Since the problem is NP-hard, we proposed a heuristic solution based on genetic algorithm (GA). Comparison of results with the exhaustive enumeration indicated that GA produced optimal solutions in all cases in much less time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of estimating the location of a change point $$\theta _0$$ in a regression model. Most change point models studied so far were based on regression functions with a jump. However, we focus on regression functions, which are continuous at $$\theta _0$$ . The degree of smoothness $$q_0$$ has to be estimated as well. We investigate the consistency with increasing sample size $$n$$ of the least squares estimates $$(\hat{\theta }_n,\hat{q}_n)$$ of $$(\theta _0, q_0)$$ . It turns out that the rates of convergence of $$\hat{\theta }_n$$ depend on $$q_0$$ : for $$q_0$$ greater than $$1/2$$ we have a rate of $$\sqrt{n}$$ and the asymptotic normality property; for $$q_0$$ less than $$1/2$$ the rate is $$\displaystyle n^{1/(2q_0+1)}$$ and the change point estimator converges to a maximizer of a Gaussian process; for $$q_0$$ equal to $$1/2$$ the rate is $$\sqrt{n \cdot \mathrm{ln}(n)}$$ . Interestingly, in the last case the limiting distribution is also normal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate simulations codes, such as the Community Earth System Model (CESM), are especially complex and continually evolving. Their on-going state of development requires frequent software verification in the form of quality assurance to both preserve the quality 5 of the code and instill model confidence. To formalize and simplify this previously subjective and computationally-expensive aspect of the verification process, we have developed a new tool for evaluating climate consistency. Because an ensemble of simulations allows us to gauge the natural variability of the model's climate, our new tool uses an ensemble approach for consistency testing. In particular, an ensemble of CESM climate runs is created, from which we obtain a statistical distribution that can be used to determine whether a new climate run is statistically distinguishable from the original ensemble. The CESM Ensemble Consistency Test, referred to as CESMECT, is objective in nature and accessible to CESM developers and users. The tool has proven its utility in detecting errors in software and hardware environments and providing rapid feedback to model developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory management techniques are available in modern OS which permits the execution of a program while it is partially available in memory thus providing an illusion of very large memory to the user and freeing the user from the concern of large program size. The basic assumption used in the traditional page replacement methods were invalidated,which resulting in a revival of research area. In this paper mainly focused on the improvement of the processor performance. In order to achieve this, the number of miss conditions are tried to reduce, by using the page replacement method in the correct way. In modern operating systems mainly make use of the Least recently used (LRU) page replacement method, in which only the time parameter is make used. Here we want to use both the time stamp and the frequency parameter for handling the page replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]