Dynamic resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem with weighted earliness/tardiness costs

In this study, a conceptual framework is given for the dynamic multi-project scheduling problem with weighted earliness/tardiness costs (DRCMPSPWET) and a mathematical programming formulation of the problem is provided. In DRCMPSPWET, a project arrives on top of an existing project portfolio and a due date has to be quoted for the new project while minimizing the costs of schedule changes. The objective function consists of the weighted earliness tardiness costs of the activities of the existing projects in the current baseline schedule plus a term that increases linearly with the anticipated completion time of the new project. An iterated local search based approach is developed for large instances of this problem. In order to analyze the performance and behavior of the proposed method, a new multi-project data set is created by controlling the total number of activities, the due date tightness, the due date range, the number of resource types, and the completion time factor in an instance. A series of computational experiments are carried out to test the performance of the local search approach. Exact solutions are provided for the small instances. The results indicate that the local search heuristic performs well in terms of both solution quality and solution time

Content Recognition and Context Modeling for Document Analysis and Retrieval

The nature and scope of available documents are changing significantly in many areas of document analysis and retrieval as complex, heterogeneous collections become accessible to virtually everyone via the web. The increasing level of diversity presents a great challenge for document image content categorization, indexing, and retrieval. Meanwhile, the processing of documents with unconstrained layouts and complex formatting often requires effective leveraging of broad contextual knowledge. In this dissertation, we first present a novel approach for document image content categorization, using a lexicon of shape features. Each lexical word corresponds to a scale and rotation invariant local shape feature that is generic enough to be detected repeatably and is segmentation free. A concise, structurally indexed shape lexicon is learned by clustering and partitioning feature types through graph cuts. Our idea finds successful application in several challenging tasks, including content recognition of diverse web images and language identification on documents composed of mixed machine printed text and handwriting. Second, we address two fundamental problems in signature-based document image retrieval. Facing continually increasing volumes of documents, detecting and recognizing unique, evidentiary visual entities (\eg, signatures and logos) provides a practical and reliable supplement to the OCR recognition of printed text. We propose a novel multi-scale framework to detect and segment signatures jointly from document images, based on the structural saliency under a signature production model. We formulate the problem of signature retrieval in the unconstrained setting of geometry-invariant deformable shape matching and demonstrate state-of-the-art performance in signature matching and verification. Third, we present a model-based approach for extracting relevant named entities from unstructured documents. In a wide range of applications that require structured information from diverse, unstructured document images, processing OCR text does not give satisfactory results due to the absence of linguistic context. Our approach enables learning of inference rules collectively based on contextual information from both page layout and text features. Finally, we demonstrate the importance of mining general web user behavior data for improving document ranking and other web search experience. The context of web user activities reveals their preferences and intents, and we emphasize the analysis of individual user sessions for creating aggregate models. We introduce a novel algorithm for estimating web page and web site importance, and discuss its theoretical foundation based on an intentional surfer model. We demonstrate that our approach significantly improves large-scale document retrieval performance

A Dynamic Approach to Rhythm in Language: Toward a Temporal Phonology

It is proposed that the theory of dynamical systems offers appropriate tools to model many phonological aspects of both speech production and perception. A dynamic account of speech rhythm is shown to be useful for description of both Japanese mora timing and English timing in a phrase repetition task. This orientation contrasts fundamentally with the more familiar symbolic approach to phonology, in which time is modeled only with sequentially arrayed symbols. It is proposed that an adaptive oscillator offers a useful model for perceptual entrainment (or `locking in') to the temporal patterns of speech production. This helps to explain why speech is often perceived to be more regular than experimental measurements seem to justify. Because dynamic models deal with real time, they also help us understand how languages can differ in their temporal detail---contributing to foreign accents, for example. The fact that languages differ greatly in their temporal detail suggests that these effects are not mere motor universals, but that dynamical models are intrinsic components of the phonological characterization of language.Comment: 31 pages; compressed, uuencoded Postscrip

A Systematic Survey of ML Datasets for Prime CV Research Areas-Media and Metadata

The ever-growing capabilities of computers have enabled pursuing Computer Vision through Machine Learning (i.e., MLCV). ML tools require large amounts of information to learn from (ML datasets). These are costly to produce but have received reduced attention regarding standardization. This prevents the cooperative production and exploitation of these resources, impedes countless synergies, and hinders ML research. No global view exists of the MLCV dataset tissue. Acquiring it is fundamental to enable standardization. We provide an extensive survey of the evolution and current state of MLCV datasets (1994 to 2019) for a set of specific CV areas as well as a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results. Data were gathered from online scientific databases (e.g., Google Scholar, CiteSeerX). We reveal the heterogeneous plethora that comprises the MLCV dataset tissue; their continuous growth in volume and complexity; the specificities of the evolution of their media and metadata components regarding a range of aspects; and that MLCV progress requires the construction of a global standardized (structuring, manipulating, and sharing) MLCV "library". Accordingly, we formulate a novel interpretation of this dataset collective as a global tissue of synthetic cognitive visual memories and define the immediately necessary steps to advance its standardization and integration

Resource-constrained project scheduling.

Abstract: Resource-constrained project scheduling involves the scheduling of project activities subject to precedence and resource constraints in order to meet the objective(s) in the best possible way. The area covers a wide variety of problem types. The objective of this paper is to provide a survey of what we believe are important recent in the area . Our main focus will be on the recent progress made in and the encouraging computational experience gained with the use of optimal solution procedures for the basic resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) and important extensions. The RCPSP involves the scheduling of a project its duration subject to zero-lag finish-start precedence constraints of the PERT/CPM type and constant availability constraints on the required set of renewable resources. We discuss recent striking advances in dealing with this problem using a new depth-first branch-and-bound procedure, elaborating on the effective and efficient branching scheme, bounding calculations and dominance rules, and discuss the potential of using truncated branch-and-bound. We derive a set of conclusions from the research on optimal solution procedures for the basis RCPSP and subsequently illustrate how effective and efficient branching rules and several of the strong dominance and bounding arguments can be extended to a rich and realistic variety of related problems. The preemptive resource-constrained project scheduling problem (PRCPSP) relaxes the nonpreemption condition of the RCPSP, thus allowing activities to be interrupted at integer points in time and resumed later without additional penalty cost. The generalized resource-constrained project scheduling (GRCPSP) extends the RCPSP to the case of precedence diagramming type of precedence constraints (minimal finish-start, start-start, start-finish, finish-finish precedence relations), activity ready times, deadlines and variable resource availability's. The resource-constrained project scheduling problem with generalized precedence relations (RCPSP-GPR) allows for start-start, finish-start and finish-finish constraints with minimal and maximal time lags. The MAX-NPV problem aims at scheduling project activities in order to maximize the net present value of the project in the absence of resource constraints. The resource-constrained project scheduling problem with discounted cash flows (RCPSP-DC) aims at the same non-regular objective in the presence of resource constraints. The resource availability cost problem (RACP) aims at determining the cheapest resource availability amounts for which a feasible solution exists that does not violate the project deadline. In the discrete time/cost trade-off problem (DTCTP) the duration of an activity is a discrete, non-increasing function of the amount of a single nonrenewable resource committed to it. In the discrete time/resource trade-off problem (DTRTP) the duration of an activity is a discrete, non-increasing function of the amount of a single renewable resource. Each activity must then be scheduled in one of its possible execution modes. In addition to time/resource trade-offs, the multi-mode project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) allows for resource/resource trade-offs and constraints on renewable, nonrenewable and doubly-constrained resources. We report on recent computational results and end with overall conclusions and suggestions for future research.Scheduling; Optimal;

The linguistic and cognitive mechanisms underlying language tests in healthy adults : a principal component analysis

Pour un processus d’évaluation linguistique plus précis et rapide, il est important d’identifier les mécanismes cognitifs qui soutiennent des tâches langagières couramment utilisées. Une façon de mieux comprendre ses mécanismes est d’explorer la variance partagée entre les tâches linguistiques en utilisant l’analyse factorielle exploratoire. Peu d’études ont employé cette méthode pour étudier ces mécanismes dans le fonctionnement normal du langage. Par conséquent, notre objectif principal est d’explorer comment un ensemble de tâches linguistiques se regroupent afin d’étudier les mécanismes cognitifs sous-jacents de ses tâches. Nous avons évalué 201 participants en bonne santé âgés entre 18 et 75 ans (moyenne=45,29, écart-type= 15,06) et avec une scolarité entre 5 et 23 ans (moyenne=11,10, écart-type=4,68), parmi ceux-ci, 62,87% étaient des femmes. Nous avons employé deux batteries linguistiques : le Protocole d’examen linguistique de l’aphasie Montréal-Toulouse et Protocole Montréal d’Évaluation de la Communication – version abrégé. Utilisant l’analyse en composantes principales avec une rotation Direct-oblimin, nous avons découvert quatre composantes du langage : la sémantique picturale (tâches de compréhension orale, dénomination orale et dénomination écrite), l'exécutif linguistique (tâches d’évocation lexicale - critères sémantique, orthographique et libre), le transcodage et la sémantique (tâches de lecture, dictée et de jugement sémantique) et la pragmatique (tâches d'interprétation d'actes de parole indirecte et d'interprétation de métaphores). Ces quatre composantes expliquent 59,64 % de la variance totale. Deuxièmement, nous avons vérifié l'association entre ces composantes et deux mesures des fonctions exécutives dans un sous-ensemble de 33 participants. La performance de la flexibilité cognitive a été évaluée en soustrayant le - temps A au temps B du Trail Making Test et celle de la mémoire de travail en prenant le total des réponses correctes au test du n-back. La composante exécutive linguistique était associée à une meilleure flexibilité cognitive (r=-0,355) et la composante transcodage et sémantique à une meilleure performance de mémoire de travail (r=.0,397). Nos résultats confirment l’hétérogénéité des processus sous-jacent aux tâches langagières et leur relation intrinsèque avec d'autres composantes cognitives, tels que les fonctions exécutives.To a more accurate and time-efficient language assessment process, it is important to identify the cognitive mechanisms that sustain commonly used language tasks. One way to do so is to explore the shared variance across language tasks using the technique of principal components analysis. Few studies applied this technique to investigate these mechanisms in normal language functioning. Therefore, our main goal is to explore how a set of language tasks are going to group to investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms of commonly used tasks. We assessed 201 healthy participants aged between 18 and 75 years old (mean = 45.29, SD = 15.06) and with a formal education between 5 and 23 years (mean = 11.10, SD =4.68), of these 62.87% were female. We used two language batteries: the Montreal-Toulouse language assessment battery and the Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery – brief version. Using a Principal Component Analysis with a Direct-oblimin rotation, we discovered four language components: pictorial semantics (auditory comprehension, naming and writing naming tasks), language-executive (unconstrained, semantic, and phonological verbal fluency tasks), transcoding and semantics (reading, dictation, and semantic judgment tasks), and pragmatics (indirect speech acts interpretation and metaphors interpretation tasks). These four components explained 59.64% of the total variance. Secondarily, we sought to verify the association between these components with two executive measures in a subset of 33 participants. Cognitive flexibility was assessed by the time B-time A score of the Trail Making Test and working memory by the total of correct answers on the n-back test. The language-executive component was associated with a better cognitive flexibility score (r=-.355) and the transcoding and semantics one with a better working memory performance (r=.397). Our findings confirm the heterogeneity process underlying language tasks and their intrinsic relationship to other cognitive components, such as executive functions