111,027 research outputs found
Analysis reuse exploiting taxonomical information and belief assignment in industrial problem solving
To take into account the experience feedback on solving complex problems in business is deemed as a way to improve the quality of products and processes. Only a few academic works, however, are concerned with the representation and the instrumentation of experience feedback systems. We propose, in this paper, a model of experiences and mechanisms to use these experiences. More specifically, we wish to encourage the reuse of already performed expert analysis to propose a priori analysis in the solving of a new problem. The proposal is based on a representation in the context of the experience of using a conceptual marker and an explicit representation of the analysis incorporating expert opinions and the fusion of these opinions. The experience feedback models and inference mechanisms are integrated in a commercial support tool for problem solving methodologies. The results obtained to this point have already led to the definition of the role of ‘‘Rex Manager’’ with principles of sustainable management for continuous improvement of industrial processes in companies
Pseudospectra in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics
We propose giving the mathematical concept of the pseudospectrum a central
role in quantum mechanics with non-Hermitian operators. We relate
pseudospectral properties to quasi-Hermiticity, similarity to self-adjoint
operators, and basis properties of eigenfunctions. The abstract results are
illustrated by unexpected wild properties of operators familiar from
PT-symmetric quantum mechanics.Comment: version accepted for publication in J. Math. Phys.: criterion
excluding basis property (Proposition 6) added, unbounded time-evolution
discussed, new reference
The effect of job similarity on forgetting in multi-task production
For many decades, research has been done on the effect of learning and forgetting for manual assembly operations. Due to the evolution towards mass customization, cycle time prediction becomes more and more complex. The frequent change of tasks for an operator results in a rapid alternation between learning and forgetting periods, since the production of one model is causing a forgetting phase for another model. a new mathematical model for learning and forgetting is proposed to predict the future cycle time of an operator depending on the product mix of his actual assembly schedule. A main factor for this model is the job similarity between the task that is being learned and is being forgotten. In our experimental study the impact of job similarity onto the forgetting effect is measured. Two groups of operators were submitted to an equal time schedule, with other tasks to perform. At first, both groups were asked to perform the same main task. In the subsequent phase, they were submitted to different assembly tasks, each with another job similarity towards the main task, before again executing that main task. After a period of inactivity, the main task was assembled again by every subject. Results confirm that a higher job similarity results in a lower forgetting effect for the main task
A flexible architecture for privacy-aware trust management
In service-oriented systems a constellation of services cooperate, sharing potentially sensitive information and responsibilities. Cooperation is only possible if the different participants trust each other. As trust may depend on many different factors, in a flexible framework for Trust Management (TM) trust must be computed by combining different types of information. In this paper we describe the TAS3 TM framework which integrates independent TM systems into a single trust decision point. The TM framework supports intricate combinations whilst still remaining easily extensible. It also provides a unified trust evaluation interface to the (authorization framework of the) services. We demonstrate the flexibility of the approach by integrating three distinct TM paradigms: reputation-based TM, credential-based TM, and Key Performance Indicator TM. Finally, we discuss privacy concerns in TM systems and the directions to be taken for the definition of a privacy-friendly TM architecture.\u
VMEXT: A Visualization Tool for Mathematical Expression Trees
Mathematical expressions can be represented as a tree consisting of terminal
symbols, such as identifiers or numbers (leaf nodes), and functions or
operators (non-leaf nodes). Expression trees are an important mechanism for
storing and processing mathematical expressions as well as the most frequently
used visualization of the structure of mathematical expressions. Typically,
researchers and practitioners manually visualize expression trees using
general-purpose tools. This approach is laborious, redundant, and error-prone.
Manual visualizations represent a user's notion of what the markup of an
expression should be, but not necessarily what the actual markup is. This paper
presents VMEXT - a free and open source tool to directly visualize expression
trees from parallel MathML. VMEXT simultaneously visualizes the presentation
elements and the semantic structure of mathematical expressions to enable users
to quickly spot deficiencies in the Content MathML markup that does not affect
the presentation of the expression. Identifying such discrepancies previously
required reading the verbose and complex MathML markup. VMEXT also allows one
to visualize similar and identical elements of two expressions. Visualizing
expression similarity can support support developers in designing retrieval
approaches and enable improved interaction concepts for users of mathematical
information retrieval systems. We demonstrate VMEXT's visualizations in two
web-based applications. The first application presents the visualizations
alone. The second application shows a possible integration of the
visualizations in systems for mathematical knowledge management and
mathematical information retrieval. The application converts LaTeX input to
parallel MathML, computes basic similarity measures for mathematical
expressions, and visualizes the results using VMEXT.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Intelligent Computer Mathematics - 10th
International Conference CICM 2017, Edinburgh, UK, July 17-21, 2017,
Proceeding
Segmentation of ultrasound images of thyroid nodule for assisting fine needle aspiration cytology
The incidence of thyroid nodule is very high and generally increases with the
age. Thyroid nodule may presage the emergence of thyroid cancer. The thyroid
nodule can be completely cured if detected early. Fine needle aspiration
cytology is a recognized early diagnosis method of thyroid nodule. There are
still some limitations in the fine needle aspiration cytology, and the
ultrasound diagnosis of thyroid nodule has become the first choice for
auxiliary examination of thyroid nodular disease. If we could combine medical
imaging technology and fine needle aspiration cytology, the diagnostic rate of
thyroid nodule would be improved significantly. The properties of ultrasound
will degrade the image quality, which makes it difficult to recognize the edges
for physicians. Image segmentation technique based on graph theory has become a
research hotspot at present. Normalized cut (Ncut) is a representative one,
which is suitable for segmentation of feature parts of medical image. However,
how to solve the normalized cut has become a problem, which needs large memory
capacity and heavy calculation of weight matrix. It always generates over
segmentation or less segmentation which leads to inaccurate in the
segmentation. The speckle noise in B ultrasound image of thyroid tumor makes
the quality of the image deteriorate. In the light of this characteristic, we
combine the anisotropic diffusion model with the normalized cut in this paper.
After the enhancement of anisotropic diffusion model, it removes the noise in
the B ultrasound image while preserves the important edges and local details.
This reduces the amount of computation in constructing the weight matrix of the
improved normalized cut and improves the accuracy of the final segmentation
results. The feasibility of the method is proved by the experimental results.Comment: 15pages,13figure
Criteria for Continuous-Variable Quantum Teleportation
We derive an experimentally testable criterion for the teleportation of
quantum states of continuous variables. This criterion is especially relevant
to the recent experiment of Furusawa et al. [Science 282, 706-709 (1998)] where
an input-output fidelity of was achieved for optical coherent
states. Our derivation demonstrates that fidelities greater than 1/2 could not
have been achieved through the use of a classical channel alone; quantum
entanglement was a crucial ingredient in the experiment.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in Journal of Modern Optic
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