18230248
Impact of Sparse Pixel Vectorization Algorithm Parameters on Line Segmentation Performance
We present the impact of parameters in the Sparse Pixel Vectorization algorithm on the performance of the algorithm, which is evaluated using a pixel level performance evaluation protocol. Both theoretical and experimental analyses are presented, which show that the experimental results are well in accordance with the theoretical analyses. Both prove the robustness of the algorithm. Meanwhile the parameter values for the best performance of the algorithm are also found.
16502768
Improving query I/O performance by permuting and refining block request sequences
The I/O performance of query processing can be improved using two complementary approaches: improve the buffer and the file system management policies of the DB buffer manager and the OS file system manager (e.g. page replacement), or improve the sequence of requests that are submitted to a file system manager and that lead to actual I/O's (block request sequences). This paper takes the latter approach. Exploiting common file system practices as found in Linux, we propose four techniques for permuting and refining block request sequences: Block-Level I/O Grouping, File-Level I/O Grouping, I/O Ordering, and Block Recycling. To manifest these techniques, we create two new plan operations, MMS and SHJ, each of which adopts some of the block request refinement techniques above. We implement the new plan operations on top of Postgres running on Linux, and show experimental results that demonstrate up to a factor of 4 performance benefit from the use of these techniques.
14477369
Markov random field modeled range image segmentation
In this paper, range image segmentation is studied in the framework of the maximum a posteriori estimation and Markov random field modeling. A novel range image segmentation model is proposed. The model serves as an evaluator for a small number of segmentation candidates obtained through a fast edge detection algorithm. A local method is employed to search for the optimal segmentation from the candidates. Experimental results show that such combination of heuristics and model-based evaluation leads to a fast and accurate segmentation.
11647652
Analysis of complex bursting in cortical pyramidal neuron models
Abstract Burst firing is a prominent feature of cortical pyramidal cells and is thought to have significant functional roles in reliable signaling and synaptic plasticity. Modeling studies have successfully elucidated possible biophysical mechanisms underlying complex bursting in pyramidal cells. Based on these results (Pinsky, Rinzel, J. Comput. Neurosci. 1 (1994) 39–60), we have built a simplified two-compartment burst model. Using the fast- and slow-variable analysis method, we show that complex bursting is an instance of square-wave bursting, where the dendritic slow potassium conductance is the single slow variable. The coupling parameters between the two compartments change the topological class of bursting thereby altering the firing patterns of the neuron. These results explain the diverse set of firing patterns seen with different dendritic morphologies (Mainen, Sejnowski, Nature 382 (1996) 363–366).
579452
Multi-model similarity propagation and its application for web image retrieval
In this paper, we propose an iterative similarity propagation approach to explore the inter-relationships between Web images and their textual annotations for image retrieval. By considering Web images as one type of objects, their surrounding texts as another type, and constructing the links structure between them via webpage analysis, we can iteratively reinforce the similarities between images. The basic idea is that if two objects of the same type are both related to one object of another type, these two objects are similar; likewise, if two objects of the same type are related to two different, but similar objects of another type, then to some extent, these two objects are also similar. The goal of our method is to fully exploit the mutual reinforcement between images and their textual annotations. Our experiments based on 10,628 images crawled from the Web show that our proposed approach can significantly improve Web image retrieval performance.
653436
Integrated coverage and connectivity configuration for energy conservation in sensor networks
An effective approach for energy conservation in wireless sensor networks is scheduling sleep intervals for extraneous nodes while the remaining nodes stay active to provide continuous service. For the sensor network to operate successfully, the active nodes must maintain both sensing coverage and network connectivity. Furthermore, the network must be able to configure itself to any feasible degree of coverage and connectivity in order to support different applications and environments with diverse requirements. This article presents the design and analysis of novel protocols that can dynamically configure a network to achieve guaranteed degrees of coverage and connectivity. This work differs from existing connectivity or coverage maintenance protocols in several key ways. (1) We present a Coverage Configuration Protocol (CCP) that can provide different degrees of coverage requested by applications. This flexibility allows the network to self-configure for a wide range of applications and (possibly dynamic) environments. (2) We provide a geometric analysis of the relationship between coverage and connectivity. This analysis yields key insights for treating coverage and connectivity within a unified framework; in sharp contrast to several existing approaches that address the two problems in isolation. (3) We integrate CCP with SPAN to provide both coverage and connectivity guarantees. (4) We propose a probabilistic coverage model and extend CCP to provide probabilistic coverage guarantees. We demonstrate the capability of our protocols to provide guaranteed coverage and connectivity configurations through both geometric analysis and extensive simulations.
14488825
Image annotation using search and mining technologies
In this paper, we present a novel solution to the image annotation problem which annotates images using search and data mining technologies. An accurate keyword is required to initialize this process, and then leveraging a large-scale image database, it 1) searches for semantically and visually similar images, 2) and mines annotations from them. A notable advantage of this approach is that it enables unlimited vocabulary, while it is not possible for all existing approaches. Experimental results on real web images show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.