Accelerated hardware video object segmentation: From foreground detection to connected components labelling

This is the preprint version of the Article - Copyright @ 2010 ElsevierThis paper demonstrates the use of a single-chip FPGA for the segmentation of moving objects in a video sequence. The system maintains highly accurate background models, and integrates the detection of foreground pixels with the labelling of objects using a connected components algorithm. The background models are based on 24-bit RGB values and 8-bit gray scale intensity values. A multimodal background differencing algorithm is presented, using a single FPGA chip and four blocks of RAM. The real-time connected component labelling algorithm, also designed for FPGA implementation, run-length encodes the output of the background subtraction, and performs connected component analysis on this representation. The run-length encoding, together with other parts of the algorithm, is performed in parallel; sequential operations are minimized as the number of run-lengths are typically less than the number of pixels. The two algorithms are pipelined together for maximum efficiency

Using philosophy to improve the coherence and interoperability of applications ontologies: A field report on the collaboration of IFOMIS and L&C

The collaboration of Language and Computing nv (L&C) and the Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS) is guided by the hypothesis that quality constraints on ontologies for software ap-plication purposes closely parallel the constraints salient to the design of sound philosophical theories. The extent of this parallel has been poorly appreciated in the informatics community, and it turns out that importing the benefits of phi-losophical insight and methodology into application domains yields a variety of improvements. L&C’s LinKBase® is one of the world’s largest medical domain ontologies. Its current primary use pertains to natural language processing ap-plications, but it also supports intelligent navigation through a range of struc-tured medical and bioinformatics information resources, such as SNOMED-CT, Swiss-Prot, and the Gene Ontology (GO). In this report we discuss how and why philosophical methods improve both the internal coherence of LinKBase®, and its capacity to serve as a translation hub, improving the interoperability of the ontologies through which it navigates

Integration of Biological Sources: Exploring the Case of Protein Homology

Data integration is a key issue in the domain of bioin- formatics, which deals with huge amounts of heteroge- neous biological data that grows and changes rapidly. This paper serves as an introduction in the field of bioinformatics and the biological concepts it deals with, and an exploration of the integration problems a bioinformatics scientist faces. We examine ProGMap, an integrated protein homology system used by bioin- formatics scientists at Wageningen University, and several use cases related to protein homology. A key issue we identify is the huge manual effort required to unify source databases into a single resource. Un- certain databases are able to contain several possi- ble worlds, and it has been proposed that they can be used to significantly reduce initial integration efforts. We propose several directions for future work where uncertain databases can be applied to bioinformatics, with the goal of furthering the cause of bioinformatics integration

Requirements modelling and formal analysis using graph operations

The increasing complexity of enterprise systems requires a more advanced analysis of the representation of services expected than is currently possible. Consequently, the specification stage, which could be facilitated by formal verification, becomes very important to the system life-cycle. This paper presents a formal modelling approach, which may be used in order to better represent the reality of the system and to verify the awaited or existing system’s properties, taking into account the environmental characteristics. For that, we firstly propose a formalization process based upon properties specification, and secondly we use Conceptual Graphs operations to develop reasoning mechanisms of verifying requirements statements. The graphic visualization of these reasoning enables us to correctly capture the system specifications by making it easier to determine if desired properties hold. It is applied to the field of Enterprise modelling

Personalized medicine support system : resolving conflict in allocation to risk groups and predicting patient molecular response to targeted therapy

Treatment management in cancer patients is largely based on the use of a standardized set of predictive and prognostic factors. The former are used to evaluate specific clinical interventions, and they can be useful for selecting treatments because they directly predict the response to a treatment. The latter are used to evaluate a patient’s overall outcomes, and can be used to identify the risks or recurrence of a disease. Current intelligent systems can be a solution for transferring advancements in molecular biology into practice, especially for predicting the molecular response to molecular targeted therapy and the prognosis of risk groups in cancer medicine. This framework primarily focuses on the importance of integrating domain knowledge in predictive and prognostic models for personalized treatment. Our personalized medicine support system provides the needed support in complex decisions and can be incorporated into a treatment guide for selecting molecular targeted therapies.Haneen Banjar, David Adelson, Fred Brown, and Tamara Leclerc

Knowledge formalization and reuse in BIM-based mechanical, electrical and plumbing design coordination in new construction projects using data mining techniques

textIn the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, inadequate collaboration between project stakeholders and disciplines often leads to conflicts and interoperability issues. Research has been conducted in knowledge formalization to bridge the knowledge gaps and information silos. Formalizing construction knowledge is challenging to formalize because most construction knowledge implicitly resides in the minds of construction experts, which is difficult to represent in a formal and explicit manner. The proposed study is built upon previous research findings, and attempts to formalize tacit knowledge in Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) design coordination by capturing necessary information with a model-based information capture system and reasoning about the captured data with data mining techniques. The vision of this research is that the formalized knowledge can be used to provide guidance for early design review incorporating construction considerations, facilitate structured learning from past experience, as well as train novice engineers. In summary, this research has three main contributions. First, this research presents a formalized knowledge representation schema to capture process knowledge in design coordination, which was successfully implemented in a model-based knowledge capture system developed by the author. Second, a model-based knowledge capture system was developed to store clash information in the form of categorized features and link such categorized information directly to the relevant model elements, which can also facilitate organization and management of clashes and supports searching and grouping functions. A prototype system was developed as a plugin to a widely used BIM-based design coordination application and was demonstrated with project data gathered from three new construction projects in the United States. Third, this research applied data mining techniques for knowledge discovery and reuse in MEP design coordination. Classification models were developed to provide predicted solutions for identified clashes based on historical data. The classification algorithms that produced the best results were selected, which reached precision rates of over 70%. The effectiveness of the classification models was tested in a novice experiment.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin