Drawing large weighted graphs using clustered force-directed algorithm

© 2014 IEEE. Clustered graph drawing is widely considered as a good method to overcome the scalability problem when visualizing large (or huge) graphs. Force-directed algorithm is a popular approach for laying graphs yet small to medium size datasets due to its slow convergence time. This paper proposes a new method which combines clustering and a force-directed algorithm, to reduce the computational complexity and time. It works by dividing a Long Convergence: LC into two Short Convergences: SC1, SC2, where SC1+SC2 < LC. We also apply our work on weighted graphs. Our experiments show that the new method improves the aesthetics in graph visualization by providing clearer views for connectivity and edge weights

A hybrid system for skin lesion detection: Based on gabor wavelet and support vector machine

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London. Severe melanoma is potentially life-threatening. A novel methodology for automatic feature extraction from histo-pathological images and subsequent classification is presented. The proposed automated system uses a number of features extracted from images of skin lesions through image processing techniques which consisted of a spatially winner and adaptive median filter then applied Gabor filter bank to improve diagnostic accuracy. Histogram equalization to enhance the contrast of the images prior to segmentation is used. Then, a wavelet approach is used to extract the features; more specifically Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT). This article introduces a novel melanoma detection strategy using a hybrid particle swarm - based support vector machine (SVM–WLG–PSO) technique. The extracted features are reduced by using a particle swarm optimization (PSO), this was used to optimize the SVM parameters as a feature selection and finally, the obtained statistics are fed to a support vector machine (SVM) binary classifier to diagnose skin biopsies from patients as either malignant melanoma or benign nevi. The obtained classification accuracies show better performance in comparison to similar approaches for feature extraction. The proposed system is able to achieve one of the best results with classification accuracy of 87.13%, sensitivity of 94.1% and specificity of 80.22%

Modern displays: Why we see different colors, and what it means?

International audienceOne of the basic tenets of conventional applied colorimetry is that the whole population of color normal observers can be represented by a single "standard" observer with reasonable accuracy. The 1964 CIE standard colorimetric observer has indeed served us well in all industrial color imaging applications, until recently. With the proliferation of modern wide-gamut displays with narrow-band primaries, color scientists and engineers face a new challenge. Various recent studies, including those by the current authors, have shown that the color perception on such displays varies significantly among color normal observers. Conventional colorimetry has no means to predict this variation. In this paper, we explore this problem by summarizing the results from an ongoing study, and explain the practical significance of this issue in the context of display applications

Supporting reinterpretation in computer-aided conceptual design

This paper presents research that aims to inform the development of computational tools that better support design exploration and idea transformation - key objectives in conceptual design. Analyses of experimental data from two fields - product design and architecture - suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules defined within a shape grammar. Such rules can provide a basis for the generation of alternative design concepts and they have informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system that supports dynamic reinterpretation of shapes in design activity. The notion of 'sub-shapes' is introduced and the significance of these to perception, recognition and the development of emergent structures is discussed. The paper concludes with some speculation on how such a system might find application in a range of design fields

Development of an Ontology-Based Visual Approach for Property Data Analytics

oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/4Real estate is a complex market that consists of many layers of social, financial, and economic data, including but not limited to price, rental, location, mortgage, demographic and housing supply data. The sheer number of real estate properties around the world means that property transactions produce an extraordinary amount of data that is increasing exponentially. Most of the data are presented through thousands of rows on a spreadsheet or described in long paragraphs that are difficult to understand. The emergent data visualization techniques are intended to allow data to be processed and analytics to be displayed visually to enable an understanding of complex information and the identification of new patterns from the data. However, not all visualization techniques can achieve such a thing. Most techniques are able to display only visual low-dimensional data. This paper introduces an ontology visualisation methodology to explore the ontologies of property data behaviour for multidimensional data. The visualisation combines real estate data statistical analysis with several high dimensional data visualisation techniques, including parallel coordinates and stacked area charts. By using six residential suburbs in Sydney as a demonstration, we find that the developed data visualisation methodology can be applied effectively and efficiently to analyse complex real estate market behaviour patterns

Developing a virtual physics world

In this article, the successful implementation of a development cycle for a physics teaching package based on game-like virtual reality software is reported. The cycle involved several iterations of evaluating students' use of the package followed by instructional and software development. The evaluation used a variety of techniques, including ethnographic observation, surveys, student focus groups and conventional assessment. The teaching package included a laboratory manual, instructional support materials and the Real Time Relativity software that simulates a world obeying special relativistic physics. Although the iterative development cycle was time consuming and costly, it gave rise to substantial improvements in the software user interface and in the students' learning experience

The 3rd International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives Digital Libraries and Archives in Africa: Changing Lives and Building Communities

The corpus of Moroccan manuscripts is estimated at more than 80,000 titles and 200,000 volumes held at a number of public and private libraries—mostly religious institutions and zawāyā. These collections are invaluable both as repositories of human knowledge and memory and for their aesthetic value in terms of calligraphy, illumination, iconography and craftsmanship. Several medieval authors position Morocco as an important center in the Muslim West (al-Gharb al-Islami) for manuscript production, illumination, binding and exchange. However, except for a few scattered publications, a history of North African Arabic calligraphy (al-khatt al-maghribi) remains to be written. By providing the tools for making these collections readily accessible to the scholarly community in the Maghrib and beyond, ICT will make possible the study of North African scripts within the broader context of Arabic calligraphy and the Islamic arts of the book in general. The two main manuscript collections in Morocco are hosted at the National Library of Morocco (Bibliothèque nationale du royaume du Maroc, or BNRM, formerly General Library and Archive) in Rabat (12,140 titles), and the Qarawiyyin Library in Fez (5,600 titles, 3,157 of which in several volumes). Theses collections originated mostly from waqf (pious endowments) and state appropriation of private collections (e.g., 1,311 and 3,371 titles from the al-Glawi and al-Kattani collections respectively). They are written almost entirely in Arabic and in various scripts; Amazigh (Berber) manuscripts in Arabic script and Hebrew manuscripts constitute less than one percent of the total collections

3D model as a dynamic compilation of knowledge: interim results on the city of Alet

[EN] The late Iron Age capital of the Coriosolites, City of Alet, scattered today in a neighbourhood of Saint-Malo( France), has become since 2015 the subject of experimentations in digital archaeology. These have led us to define as objective a relevant three-dimensional (3D)reconstruction integrating different buildings, but also a precise topography, aspart of the coastal geomorphology, environmental vegetation and naval activities. First pillar of this reconstruction, 3D laser and magnetic surveys were conducted in order to get some digitised work supports, but also to raise some scientific issues. As part of the main Roman cities of Brittany, the historical study of the City began at least at the end of the 19thcentury and archaeological excavations began in the 1970s. So knowledge present in a wide spectrum of archaeological and historical references was then compiled. 3D reconstruction of the City, editable to adapt to new contributions and scientific discoveries, allows a dynamic synthesis of archaeological knowledge accumulated along the years. Because it was done within an archaeology laboratory, it was directly monitored and controlled iteratively by researchers in the field (site, area and period). This work currently allows archaeologists to face limits and constraints regarding this scientific process and better understand the organizational aspects of the City.The CCC’ project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. It is led by the MAT (Maritime Archaeology Trust, Southampton, UK) and involves the Prehistory Department of the Universtiy of Cantabria (Santander, Spain), and the CReAAH (Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire, Rennes, France). We also want to thank the company ABEM France for the loan of the Stream EM multichannel GPR used in Alet.Bernard, Y.; Barreau, J.; Bizien-Jaglin, C.; Quesnel, L.; Langouët, L.; Daire, M. (2017). 3D model as a dynamic compilation of knowledge: interim results on the city of Alet. Virtual Archaeology Review. 8(16):51-60. doi:10.4995/var.2017.5862.SWORD516081

AN EFFICIENT SEGMENTATION ALGORITHM FOR ENTITY INTERACTION

The inventorying of biological diversity and studies in biocomplexity require the management of large electronic datasets of organisms. While species inventory has adopted structured electronic databases for some time, the computer modelling of the functional interactions between biological entities at all levels of life is still in the stage of development. One of the challenges for this type of modelling is the biotic interactions that occur between large datasets of entities represented as computer algorithms. In real-time simulation that models the biotic interactions of large population datasets, the use of computational processing time could be extensive. One way of increasing the efficiency of such simulation is to partition the landscape so that entities need only traverse its local space for entities that falls within the interaction proximity. This article presents an efficient segmentation algorithm for biotic interactions for research related to the modelling and simulation of biological systems