One of the patterns that the design of parallel file systems has to solve stems from the difficulty of handling the metadata-intensive I/O generated by parallel applications accessing a single large directory. We demonstrate a middleware design called SFS to support existing parallel file systems for distributed and scalable directory service. SFS distributes directory entries over data servers instead of metadata servers to offer increased scalability and performance. Firstly, SFS exploits an adaptive directory partitioning based on extendible hashing to support concurrent and unsynchronized partition splitting. Secondly, SFS describes an optimization based on recursive split-ordering that emphasizes speeding up the splitting process. Thirdly, SFS applies a write-optimized index structure to convert slow, small, random metadata updates into fast, large, sequential writes. Finally, SFS gracefully tolerates stale mapping at the clients while maintaining the correctness and consistency of the system. Our performance results on a cluster of 32-servers show our implementation can deliver more than 250,000 file creations per second on average.

Time synchronization is of paramount importance in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to the inherent distributed characteristics of WSNs. Border surveillance WSNs, especially, require a highly secure and accurate time synchronization scheme to detect and track intruders. In this paper, we propose a Secure and Efficient Time synchronization scheme for Border surveillance WSNs (SETB) which meets the requirements of border surveillance WSNs while minimizing the resource usage. To accomplish this goal, we first define the performance and security requirements for time synchronization in border surveillance WSNs in detail. Then, we build our time synchronization scheme optimized for these requirements. By utilizing both heterogeneous WSNs and one-way key chains, SETB satisfies the requirements with much less overhead than existing schemes. Additionally, we introduce on-demand time synchronization, which implies that time synchronization is conducted only when an intruder enters the WSN, in order to reduce energy consumption. Finally, we propose a method of deploying time-source nodes to keep the synchronization error within the requirement. Our analysis shows that SETB not only satisfies the performance and security requirements, but also is highly efficient in terms of communication and computation overhead, thus minimizing energy consumption.

This paper describes a fast and effective algorithm for refining the parameter estimates of multicomponent third-order polynomial phase signals (PPSs). The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is accompanied by lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold, and computational complexity. A two-step procedure is used to estimate the parameters of multicomponent third-order PPSs. In the first step, an initial estimate for the phase parameters can be obtained by using fast Fourier transformation (FFT), k-means algorithm and three time positions. In the second step, these initial estimates are refined by a simple moving average filter and singular value decomposition (SVD). The SNR threshold of the proposed algorithm is lower than those of the non-linear least square (NLS) method and the estimation refinement method even though it uses a simple moving average filter. In addition, the proposed method is characterized by significantly lower complexity than computationally intensive NLS methods. Simulations confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents new Binary Converters (or current-mode compressors) by the usage of carbon nanotube field effect transistors. The new designs are made of three parts: 1) the input currents which are converted to voltage; 2) threshold detectors; and 3) the output current flow paths. In addition, an 8×8-bit multiplier is considered as a bench mark to estimate their efficiency degrees. The first approach is based on high-order Binary Converters, and the second one is only composed of 4BCs and Half Adders.

The sense of presence, that is, the sense of the website being psychologically transported to the consumer, has been identified as an important factor for bringing back the feeling of sociability and physicality that is lost in online shopping. Previous research has investigated how visual content in the design can influence the sense of presence in a website, but the focus has been limited to the domestic electronic commerce context. In this paper, we conduct an experimental study in a cross-border electronic commerce context to evaluate the effect of country-related pictures on the perception of country presence, visual appeal and trust in a foreign online store. Two experimental conditions were considered: country-related pictures and generic pictures, each one evaluated for Thai and Singaporean websites. It was hypothesized that country-related content in pictures included in the design of the foreign online store would result in a higher level of country presence, and that this would in turn result in higher visual appeal and trust in the website. We conducted a survey among Japanese online consumers, with a total of 1991 participants obtained. The subjects were randomly assigned into four groups corresponding to the combination of country-of-origin of the website and picture condition. We used structural equation modeling in order to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that for both the Thai and Singaporean websites, country-related pictures resulted in higher country presence, and visual appeal was positively influenced by this increase in country presence. However, country presence did not have a direct effect on trust; this effect was completely mediated by visual appeal. We discuss these results and their implications for cross-border electronic commerce.

There is a strong push towards the ultra-realistic presentation of multimedia contents made possible by the latest advances in computational and signal processing technologies. Three-dimensional sound presentation is necessary to convey a natural and rich multimedia experience. Promising ways to achieve this include the sound field reproduction technique known as high-order Ambisonics (HOA). While these advanced methods are now within the capabilities of consumer-level processing systems, their adoption is hindered by the lack of contents. Production and coding of the audio components in multimedia focus on traditional formats such as stereophonic sound. Mainstream audio codecs and media such as CDs or DVDs do not support advanced, rich contents such as HOA encodings. To ameliorate this problem and speed up the adoption of spatial sound technologies, this paper proposes a novel way to downmix HOA contents into a stereo signal. The resulting data can be distributed using conventional methods such as audio CDs or as the audio component of an internet video stream. The results can be listened to using legacy stereo reproduction systems. However, they include spatial information encoded as the inter-channel level and phase differences. The proposed method consists of a downmixing filterbank which independently modulate inter-channel differences at each frequency bin. The proposal is evaluated using simple test signals and found to outperform conventional methods such as matrix-encoded surround and the Ambisonics UHJ format in terms of spatial resolution. The proposal can be coupled with a previously presented method to recover HOA signals from stereo recordings. The resulting system allows for the preservation of full-surround spatial information in ultra-realistic contents when they are transferred using a stereo stream. Simulation results show that a compatible decoder can accurately recover up to five HOA channels from a stereo signal (2nd order HOA data in the horizontal plane).

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology is a useful means of achieving the higher data rates needed in the latest wireless devices. However, weighting calculations for MIMO transmission become complicated when there are a large number of antennas. Thus, developing a simpler way to transmit and receive multiple streams is an idea worth considering. With this in mind, we propose a spatial division method using orthogonal directivities formed by using higher order modes of rectangular microstrip antennas. Each of them is formed by one antenna element so that channels are orthogonalized only by antennas. We verify antenna radiation characteristics by using higher order mode microstrip antennas and confirm that orthogonal directivities are obtained with them. Measurement of two stream transmission reveals that the method achieves almost the same channel capacity as that of an eigenmode-beamforming method because of the high multiplexing gain it achieves.

Application prefetchers improve application launch performance on HDDs through either I/O reordering or I/O interleaving, but there has been no proposal to combine the two techniques. We present a new algorithm to combine both approaches, and demonstrate that it reduces cold start launch time by 50%.

In this paper, synchronization for uncertain fractional order chaotic systems is investigated. By using the fractional order extension of the Lyapunov stability criterion, a linear feedback controller and an adaptive controller are designed for synchronizing uncertain fractional order chaotic systems without and with unknown external disturbance, respectively. Quadratic Lyapunov functions are used in the stability analysis of fractional-order systems, and fractional order adaptation law is constructed to update design parameter. The proposed methods can guarantee that the synchronization error converges to zero asymptotically. Finally, illustrative examples are given to confirm the theoretical results.

Association rule mining is a powerful data mining tool, and it can be used to discover unknown patterns from large volumes of data. However, people often have to face the risk of disclosing sensitive information when data is shared with different organizations. The association rule mining techniques may be improperly used to find sensitive patterns which the owner is unwilling to disclose. One of the great challenges in association rule mining is how to protect the confidentiality of sensitive patterns when data is released. Association rule hiding refers to sanitize a database so that certain sensitive association rules cannot be mined out in the released database. In this study, we proposed a new method which hides sensitive rules by removing some items in a database to reduce the support or confidence levels of sensitive rules below specified thresholds. Based on the information of positive border rules and negative border rules contained in transactions, the proposed method chooses suitable candidates for modification aimed at reducing the side effects and the data distortion degree. Comparative experiments on real datasets and synthetic datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can hide sensitive rules with much fewer side effects and database modifications.

Order-Preserving Encryption (OPE) is an encryption system that preserves the numerical (or alphabetical) order of plaintexts. Since many operations of communications and databases are based on order relations of data (plaintexts), OPE is regarded as a core technique for various applications. However, the intrinsic property of OPE makes constructing an efficient and secure OPE system hard to achieve. In particular, OPE can guarantee only limited security compared to general encryption systems. Only a few results on OPE systems were presented, and no theoretical research based on provable security has been presented until recently. Lately, some approaches have been suggested. However, every known result is unsatisfactory for formalizing the provable security of OPE systems. In this paper, we propose a new OPE system that employs only a simple pseudorandom number function, and therefore has an advantage for practical usage.

Pseudo-Boolean (PB) problems are Integer Linear Problem restricted to 0-1 variables. This paper discusses on acceleration techniques of PB-solvers that employ SAT-solving of combined CNFs each of which is produced from each PB-constraint via a binary decision diagram (BDD). Specifically, we show (i) an efficient construction of a reduced ordered BDD (ROBDD) from a constraint in band form l ≤ ≤ h, (ii) a CNF coding that produces two clauses for some nodes in an ROBDD obtained by (i), and (iii) an incremental SAT-solving of the binary/alternative search for minimizing values of a given goal function. We implemented the proposed constructions and report on experimental results.

In cognitive radio (CR), superposition cooperative spectrum sensing (SPCSS) is able to offer a much improved sensing reliability compared to individual sensing. Because of the differences in sensing channel condition, the reporting order for each cognitive radio user (CU) will highly affect the sensing performance of the network. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to assign the best reporting order to each CU in order to maximize sensing performance under SPCSS. The numerical results show that the proposed scheme can obtain the same performance as the optimal scheme.

A term tree pattern is a rooted ordered tree pattern which consists of ordered tree structures with edge labels and structured variables with labels. All variables with the same label in a term tree pattern can be simultaneously replaced with ordered trees isomorphic to the same rooted ordered tree. Then, a term tree pattern is suitable for representing structural features common to tree structured data such as XML documents on the web, the secondary structures of RNA in biology and parse trees describing grammatical structures of natural languages. Let $ott$ be the set of all term tree patterns which have one or more variables with the same label. Let $lott$ be the set of all term tree patterns t such that all variables in t have distinct labels. We remark that $lottsubsetneq ott$ holds. In this paper, we consider a problem, called Matching problem for term tree patterns, of deciding whether or not a given rooted ordered tree T is obtained from a given term tree pattern t by replacing variables in t with rooted ordered trees. We show that Matching problem for term tree patterns in $ott$ is NP-complete, by giving a reduction from the string pattern matching problem, which is NP-complete. Next, by giving operations on an interval, which is a set containing all integers between two given integers representing vertex identifiers, we propose an efficient algorithm for solving Matching problem for term tree patterns in $lottsubsetneq ott$. Then, we show that, when an ordered tree having N vertices and a term tree pattern $t in lott$ having n vertices are given, the proposed matching algorithm correctly solves this problem in O(nN) time.

We propose a reality-based model of a two-echelon repair system with “priority resupply” and present a method for analyzing the availability of the system operated in each base. The two echelon repair system considered in our model consists of one repair station, called depot, and several bases. In each base, n items which constitute a k-out-of-n: G system, called k/n system, are operated. Each item has two failure modes, failures repaired at a base (level 1) and failures repaired at the depot (level 2). When a level 2 failure occurs in a base, either a normal order or an emergency order of a spare item is issued depending on the number of operating items in the base. The spare item in the depot is sent preferentially to the base where the emergency order is placed. We propose two models, both including priority resupply. Firstly, we propose an approximation method for analyzing the basic model where a k/n system is operated in a base. Using a simulation method, we verify the accuracy of our approximation method. Secondly, we expand the basic model to a dual k/n system where the items of the system are interchangeable between two k/n systems in the case of an emergency, which is called “cannibalization”. Then, we show a numerical example and discuss the optimal timing for placing an emergency order.

Multi-hop cooperative communication has been investigated in order to overcome disadvantages such as fading, obstruction and low power. In addition, with the goal of increasing access capacity, the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is being advanced as a solution. In this paper, we propose the approach of relay ordering in a Decode-and-Forward OFDM scheme. Combining techniques such as maximal ratio combining and selection combining are employed at receivers and approximate outage capacity probabilities are derived for evaluating system performance over frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels. Final, the expressions are validated by Monte-Carlo simulations, and are used to compare with the same scheme based relay selection.

Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs for short) are popular dynamic data structures for Boolean functions. In some modern applications, we have to handle such huge graphs that the usual explicit representations by adjacency lists or adjacency matrices are infeasible. To deal with such huge graphs, OBDD-based graph representations and algorithms have been investigated. Although the size of OBDD representations may be large in general, it is known to be small for some special classes of graphs. In this paper, we show upper bounds and lower bounds of the size of OBDDs representing some intersection graphs such as bipartite permutation graphs, biconvex graphs, convex graphs, (2-directional) orthogonal ray graphs, and permutation graphs.

We analyze the error performance of coding for ordered random variables with side information at the decoder, where encoder input as well as side information are deliberately extracted from the output of correlated sources. A tight upper bound on error probability is derived for linear encoding, and minimum distance decoding for a binary source and Gaussian distributed side information. Some features caused by the signal extraction are discussed.

In retinal blood vessel extraction through background removal, the vessels in a fundus image which appear in a higher illumination variance area are often missing after the background is removed. This is because the intensity values of the vessel and the background are nearly the same. Thus, the estimated background should be robust to changes of the illumination intensity. This paper proposes retinal blood vessel extraction using background estimation. The estimated background is calculated by using a weight surface fitting method with a high degree polynomial. Bright pixels are defined as unwanted data and are set as zero in a weight matrix. To fit a retinal surface with a higher degree polynomial, fundus images are reduced in size by different scaling parameters in order to reduce the processing time and complexity in calculation. The estimated background is then removed from the original image. The candidate vessel pixels are extracted from the image by using the local threshold values. To identify the true vessel region, the candidate vessel pixels are dilated from the candidate. After that, the active contour without edge method is applied. The experimental results show that the efficiency of the proposed method is higher than the conventional low-pass filter and the conventional surface fitting method. Moreover, rescaling an image down using the scaling parameter at 0.25 before background estimation provides as good a result as a non-rescaled image does. The correlation value between the non-rescaled image and the rescaled image is 0.99. The results of the proposed method in the sensitivity, the specificity, the accuracy, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and the processing time per image are 0.7994, 0.9717, 0.9543, 0.9676 and 1.8320 seconds for the DRIVE database respectively.

This letter investigates the consensus problem for an undirected network of high-order integrators with an arbitrarily large communication delay. A consensus protocol with the low gain parameter that can eliminate an effect of time delay on the consensus problem is proposed newly. Moreover, it is proved that under some sufficient conditions, it can solve the consensus problem in the presence of an arbitrarily large communication delay. A simulation example is presented to verify the validness of the proposed design.