Writing parallel programs is not a simple task. Especially, writing parallel programs for a heterogeneous computing environment is even more difficult. Programs written in different programming languages are required to run on different platforms with different operating systems. In this paper, a parallel processing model is presented to allow programmers to write the programs for parallelism in a heterogeneous computing environment. The programs can be written in a sequential programming language that the programmers are familiar with and feel comfortable to write. The model facilitates implicit parallelism and the implementation of the parallelism will be automatically realized in the model. The details of parallelism are hidden from the programmers, thus the programmers can focus on the details of business logics. The programmers are also able to run the programs for simulation.


Abstract. Rapid mass movements (RMM) pose a substantial risk to people and infrastructure. Reliable and cost-efficient measures have to be taken to reduce this risk. One of these measures includes establishing and advancing the state of practice in the application of early warning systems (EWSs). EWSs have been developed during the past decades and are rapidly increasing. In this paper, we focus on the technical part of EWSs, i.e., the prediction and timely recognition of imminent hazards, as well as on monitoring slopes at risk and released mass movements. Recent innovations in assessing spatial precipitation, monitoring and precursors of the triggering and deformation of RMM offer new opportunities for next-generation EWSs. However, technical advancement can only be transferred into more reliable, operational EWSs with an adequate well-instructed dedicated staff. To this end, an intense dialog between scientists, engineers and those in charge of warning, as well as further experience with new comprehensive prototype systems jointly operated by scientists and practitioners, will be essential.


This is a report of a collaborative research project, 'Improving smallholder farming systems in Imperata areas of Southeast Asia: a bioeconomic modelling approach' sponsored by the Center for international Forestry Research and the Australian Centre for International Research. The nature of the Imperata problem and the methodology is outlined. Imperata is essentially restricted to upland areas, since it does not coexist with lowland rice farming. There is a section on bioeconomic analysis of traditional smallholder 'shifting cultivation' farming systems where the fallow is Imperata and another contains a series of case study descriptions of successful tree growing by smallholders on Imperata grasslands. The core modelling work of the project is reported. Various tree-based interventions are modelled with and without an animal component. Some of these modelled farming systems are already in place in farmers' fields. In these cases, possible management or policy interventions analysed with the models can point the way to productive and economic improvements. In other cases, the farming systems modelled are 'experimental' in nature. Imperata grows on uplands of various slopes, but some special attention is given to Imperata on steeply sloping land where soil erosion is a particular problem. Finally, two key issues in relation to tree growing on Imperata grassland, fire control and carbon sequestration, are addressed. These are viewed both from the viewpoints of the individual smallholder and of the broader society. This is an overview and compilation of studies, many of which were previously reported in a series of project papers published by Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University between 1995 and 1998.


This paper develops a generative statistical model for representing, modeling, and comparing the morphological evolution of biological cells undergoing motility. It uses the elastic shape analysis to separate cell kinematics (overall location, rotation, speed, etc.) from its morphology and represents morphological changes using transported square-root vector fields (TSRVFs). This TSRVF representation, followed by a PCA-based dimension reduction, provides a convenient mathematical representation of a shape sequence in the form of a Euclidean time series. Fitting a vector auto-regressive (VAR) model to this TSRVF-PCA time series leads to statistical modeling of the overall shape dynamics. We use the parameters of the fitted VAR model to characterize morphological evolution. We validate VAR models through model comparisons, synthesis, and sequence classifications. For classification, we use the VAR parameters in conjunction with different classifiers: SVM, Random Forest, and CNN, and obtain high classification rates. Extensive experiments presented here demonstrate the success of the proposed pipeline. These results are the first of the kind in classifying cell migration videos using shape dynamics.


Procedural criminal law is heavily constitutionalized, whereas substantive criminal law has largely escaped constitutional scrutiny. In this article, Professor Markus Dubber lays out a framework for the development of a general constitutional law of crime and punishment, with a particular emphasis on the general and special part of substantive criminal law. Constitutional criminal law, Dubber argues, rests on the concept of respect for the autonomy and dignity of persons that is reflected in such constitutional guarantees as the right to due process and the proscription against cruel and unusual punishments.


Chitosan and lightweight expanded clay aggregates were investigated as alternatives to traditional metal coagulants and anthracite in pilot scale coagulation-filtration experiments for the removal of natural organic matter (NOM) from drinking water. The raw water tested covered a range of colour and organic carbon of 15–50 mg Pt/L and 2–5 mg NPOC, respectively. Aluminium sulphate, poly aluminium chlorides with different calcium content, iron chloride sulphate, and chitosan coagulants were tested. The dual media filter bed was built with 0.6 m of 0.8–1.6 mm lightweight expanded clay aggregates (Filtralite) above 0.35 m of 0.4–0.8 mm sand. A conventional anthracite-sand filter with the same layer depths and grain sizes was used as a reference. In general, the maximum permissible concentration level of 0.1-mg Me/L controlled the minimum coagulant dose requirements when metal-based coagulants were used (Norwegian water quality standard). Typical NOM removal efficiencies obtained with metal coagulantswere in the range of 75–90% and 40–70% with respect to colour and organic carbon, respectively. Chitosan was able to remove colour quite effectively, but this coagulant was less effective with respect to organic carbon removal. Lightweight expanded clay aggregate was a good alternative to anthracite, with lower rates of head loss build-up, and increased filter run length and filter storage capacity. Only small differences in effluent water quality were detected with the two filters.


The phenological response of vegetation to ongoing climate change may have great implications for hydrological regimes in the eastern United States. However, there have been few studies that analyze its resultant effect on catchment discharge dynamics, separating from dominant climatic controls. In this study, we examined the net effect of phenological variations on the long‐term and interannual gross primary production (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes in a temperate deciduous forest, as well as on the catchment discharge behavior in a mixed deciduous‐conifer forest catchment. First, we calibrated the spring and autumn leaf phenology models for the Harvard Forest in the northeastern United States, where the onsets of greenup and senescence have been significantly advanced and delayed, 10.3 and 6.0 days respectively, over the past two decades (1992–2011). We then integrated the phenology models into a mechanistic watershed ecohydrological model (RHESSys), which improved the interannual and long‐term simulations of both the plot‐scale daily GPP and ET fluxes and the catchment discharge dynamics. We found that the phenological changes amplified the long‐term increases in GPP and ET driven by the climatic controls. In particular, the earlier greenup onsets resulted in increases in annual ET significantly, while the delayed senescence onsets had less influence. Consequently, the earlier greenup onsets reduced stream discharge not only during the growing season but also during the following dormant season due to soil water depletion. This study highlights the importance of understanding vegetation response to ongoing climate change in order to predict the future hydrological nonstationarity in this region.


The phenomenal growth of Information Technology requires us to elicit, store and maintain huge volumes of data. Analyzing this data for various purposes is becoming increasingly important. Data mining consists of applying data analysis and discovery algorithms that under acceptable computational efficiency limitations, produce a particular enumeration of patterns over the data. We present two techniques based on using Logic programming tools for data mining. Data mining analyzes data by extracting patterns which describe its structure and discovers co-relations in the form of rules. We distinguish analysis methods as visual and non-visual and present one application of each. We explain that our focus on the field of Logic Programming makes some of the very complex tasks related to Web based data mining and dynamic content generation, simple and easy to implement in a uniform framework.


The hormone and vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid (RA) is best known for its actions promoting cell differentiation, arrest of the cell division cycle, or apoptosis, and it has even been proposed as an anticancer agent. These effects are mediated by the nuclear hormone receptor known as the retinoic acid receptor (RAR). But, in some tissues, RA can promote cell survival and even enhance formation of tumors, for example, in the skin. Shug et al. propose that these nearly opposite effects of RA can be explained by its association with and activation of another nuclear receptor called PPARβ (or, alternatively, PPARδ). Their experiments monitoring transcription in cultured cells confirmed that RA could act through both RAR and PPARβ. Furthermore, the choice of which receptor RA activates appeared to be dictated by a set of proteins that work with the receptors, carrying ligands from the cytosol to the nucleus where they pass them off to nuclear receptors. The proteins CRABP-II (cellular retinoic acid-binding protein II) and FABP5 (fatty acid-binding protein 5, also sometimes called K-FABP, eFABP, or mal1) work selectively with RAR or PPARβ, respectively. The authors showed that altering the ratio of these binding proteins in a cell (with RNAi or overexpression in transfected cells) determined which receptor was primarily engaged by RA and, thus, what the ultimate biological effect would be. When amounts of CRABP-II were high, RA acted primarily through RAR in cultured keratinocytes and promoted apoptosis. But if FABP5 was more abundant, RA acted through PPARβ and favored cell survival. Thus, the authors propose that in most cells, high affinity interactions of RA with CRABP-II and RAR [with Kds (dissociation constants) of about 0.1nM] predominate, but in certain cell types, PPARβ and FABP5 (which bind RA with Kds of 10 to 50 nM) are sufficiently abundant to take over and produce the "nontraditional" proliferative effects of the hormone. T. T. Schug, D. C. Berry, N. S. Shaw, S. N. Travis, N. Noy, Opposing effects of retinoic acid on cell growth result from alternate activation of two different nuclear receptors. Cell 129, 723-733 (2007). [Online Journal]


This paper presents an approach to implementation of dialogue management modules for dialogue systems. The implementation method is divided into two distinct, but correlated, steps; Conceptual design and Framework customisation. Conceptual design and framework customisation are two mutually dependent sides of the same phenomena, where the former is an on-paper activity that results in a design document and the latter results in the actual program code. The method is iterative and conforms with software development methods, such as, extreme programming, scenario-based design and reusable object-oriented software development. In the paper, this is further elaborated and how it relates to dialogue systems development.


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The measured performance of pipes implemented by a pipe server process on top of the V message passing transport protocol is compared with the calculated performance of pipes implemented by an operating system kernel and supported by a dedicated protocol. The author describes the implementation of pipes in the V system and presents measurements of their performance. He then calculates the performance of pipes when implemented in the kernel and supported by a dedicated protocol. The performance loss as a result of using the pipe server is shown to be about 8% for network pipes and about 25% for local pipes. Given these figures and given the fact that messages and not pipes are the principal means of interprocess communication in V, it is concluded that it is quite practical to implement pipes by a process using message passing, thereby avoiding the need for additional kernel and protocol complexity.


In recent years, there has been significant progress in developing Interactive Storytelling systems, in particular in terms of the underlying AI techniques. There has been an emerging consensus on the AI approach, in particular the use of planning systems. However, these have concentrated on the generation of a sequence of narrative actions, staged through the behaviour of virtual actors. In order to achieve the long-term objective of implementing interactive media that would reproduce the aesthetic qualities of traditional films, most interactive storytelling systems are still missing the ability to generate dialogues between characters. We describe an extension of our Interactive Storytelling approach which integrates dialogue generation within narrative situations. Our unit of generation is the dialogue act (pair of utterances) and one main objective is to reproduce realistic dialogue phenomena based on implicit forms of expression. The emphasis is also on adopting a unified approach relating narrative representations to the linguistic form of the generated utterances. From a representation of active narrative goals and the emotional affinity between characters, our system is able to derive a set of parameters governing various aspects of the linguistic form to be generated. We illustrate this approach on several implemented examples.