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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Digital Computation As Information Processing, Nir Fresco Jan 2011

Digital Computation As Information Processing, Nir Fresco

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

It is common in cognitive science to equate computation (in particular digital computation) with information processing. Yet, it is hard to find a comprehensive explicit account of concrete digital computation in information processing terms. An Information Processing account seems like a natural candidate to explain digital computation. After all, digital computers traffic in data. But when 'information' comes under scrutiny, this account becomes a less obvious candidate. 'Information' may be interpreted semantically or nonsemantically, and its interpretation has direct implications for Information Processing as an objective account of digital computation. This paper deals with the implications of these interpretations for …


Learning-Based Prostate Localization For Image Guided Radiation Therapy, Luping Zhou, Shu Liao, Wei Li, Dinggang Shen Jan 2011

Learning-Based Prostate Localization For Image Guided Radiation Therapy, Luping Zhou, Shu Liao, Wei Li, Dinggang Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Accurate prostate localization is the key to the success of radiotherapy. It remains a difficult problem for CT images due to the low image contrast, the prostate motion, and the uncertain presence of rectum gas. In this paper, a learning based framework is proposed to improve the accuracy of prostate detection in CT. It adaptively determines distinctive feature types at distinctive image regions, thus filtering out features that are salient in image appearance, but irrelevant to prostate localization. Furthermore, an image similarity function is learned to make the image appearance distance consistent with the underlying prostate alignment. The efficacy of …


A Comparison Study Of Ellipsoid Fitting For Pose Normalization Of Hippocampal Shapes, Luping Zhou, Oliver Salvado Jan 2011

A Comparison Study Of Ellipsoid Fitting For Pose Normalization Of Hippocampal Shapes, Luping Zhou, Oliver Salvado

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Pose normalization is an important step to establish shape correspondence for group comparison of anatomical structures. The most basic and widely used way is ellipsoid fitting, which provides three principal axes for shape alignment, and is often solved by least square fitting. In this paper, it is recognized that the deformation caused by neuro-degenerative diseases is usually locally irregular, behaving like the outliers to the majority of the anatomical surfaces. Therefore we hypothesize that the distance function in L1-norm may perform better than that in L2-norm for hippocampal surface fitting, and thus conduct a study to compare the influence of …


Hierarchical Anatomical Brain Networks For Mci Prediction: Revisiting Volumetric Measures, Luping Zhou, Yaping Wang, Yang Li, Pew-Thian Yap, Dinggang Shen, Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (Adni) Jan 2011

Hierarchical Anatomical Brain Networks For Mci Prediction: Revisiting Volumetric Measures, Luping Zhou, Yaping Wang, Yang Li, Pew-Thian Yap, Dinggang Shen, Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (Adni)

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Owning to its clinical accessibility, T1-weighted MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) has been extensively studied in the past decades for prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The volumes of gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are the most commonly used measurements, resulting in many successful applications. It has been widely observed that disease-induced structural changes may not occur at isolated spots, but in several inter-related regions. Therefore, for better characterization of brain pathology, we propose in this paper a means to extract inter-regional correlation based features from local volumetric measurements. Specifically, our approach …


Hierarchical Anatomical Brain Networks For Mci Prediction By Partial Least Square Analysis, Luping Zhou, Yaping Wang, Yang Li, Pew-Thian Yap, Dinggang Shen Jan 2011

Hierarchical Anatomical Brain Networks For Mci Prediction By Partial Least Square Analysis, Luping Zhou, Yaping Wang, Yang Li, Pew-Thian Yap, Dinggang Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Owning to its clinical accessibility, T1-weighted MRI has been extensively studied for the prediction of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The tissue volumes of GM, WM and CSF are the most commonly used measures for MCI and AD prediction. We note that disease-induced structural changes may not happen at isolated spots, but in several inter-related regions. Therefore, in this paper we propose to directly extract the inter-region connectivity based features for MCI prediction. This involves constructing a brain network for each subject, with each node representing an ROI and each edge representing regional interactions. This network is …


Methods For Generating Complex Networks With Selected Structural Properties For Simulations: A Review And Tutorial For Neuroscientists, Brenton Prettejohn, Matthew Berryman, Mark Mcdonnell Jan 2011

Methods For Generating Complex Networks With Selected Structural Properties For Simulations: A Review And Tutorial For Neuroscientists, Brenton Prettejohn, Matthew Berryman, Mark Mcdonnell

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Many simulations of networks in computational neuroscience assume completely homogenous random networks of the Erdös–Rényi type, or regular networks, despite it being recognized for some time that anatomical brain networks are more complex in their connectivity and can, for example, exhibit the “scale-free” and “small-world” properties. We review the most well known algorithms for constructing networks with given non-homogeneous statistical properties and provide simple pseudo-code for reproducing such networks in software simulations. We also review some useful mathematical results and approximations associated with the statistics that describe these network models, including degree distribution, average path length, and clustering coefficient. We …


Solidification And The Δ/Γ Phase Transformation Of Steels In Relation To Casting Defects, Suk Chun Moon, Rian Dippenaar, Sang-Hyeon Lee Jan 2011

Solidification And The Δ/Γ Phase Transformation Of Steels In Relation To Casting Defects, Suk Chun Moon, Rian Dippenaar, Sang-Hyeon Lee

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Many advanced steels fall within the peritectic composition range, which are notoriously difficult to cast due to cracking and breakout problems in the continuous casting process especially at high casting speeds. In this study an attempt was made to obtain practical understanding of the solidification and the δγ phase transformation of various commercial steels using high-temperature laser-scanning confocal microscopy. Under rapid cooling conditions the transformation morphology showed a massive-type of transition rather than a classical diffusion-controlled transformation.


Self-Shape Optimisation Of Cold-Formed Steel Closed Profiles Using Genetic Algorithms, Benoit Gilbert, Lip H. Teh, Hong Guan Jan 2011

Self-Shape Optimisation Of Cold-Formed Steel Closed Profiles Using Genetic Algorithms, Benoit Gilbert, Lip H. Teh, Hong Guan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

For economical benefits, optimisation of mass-produced structural steel products is widely researched. The objective is to minimise the quantity of material used without sacrificing the strength and practicality of the structural members. Current research focuses on optimising the dimensions of conventional cross-sectional shapes but rarely considers discovering new optimum shapes. This report introduces the concepts of a new optimisation method which enables the crosssection to self-shape to an optimum by using the evolution and adaptation benefits of Genetic Algorithm. The feasibility and accuracy of the method are verified by implementing it to find optimum thin-walled profiles against simple parameters for …


An Early Asearc - Taught Subject: Has It Been A Success?, Carole Birrell, Ken Russell Jan 2011

An Early Asearc - Taught Subject: Has It Been A Success?, Carole Birrell, Ken Russell

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A 300-level subject covering Sample Surveys and Experimental Design has now been taught jointly to the Universities of Wollongong and Newcastle for two years, first using video-conferencing and then the Access Grid. In both years the subject was delivered by the same two lectures. We provide an initial review of the subject. We discuss its organisation, the use of technology, changes in our teaching and administrative styles needed to cope with this mode of delivery, feedback from students and our reaction to all of these. An overview of the subject results is given.


Australia Should Delay A Carbon Tax Until The Rest Of The World Acts, Henry Ergas Jan 2011

Australia Should Delay A Carbon Tax Until The Rest Of The World Acts, Henry Ergas

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The big question about the carbon tax is not whether it's a good or a bad idea in theory. The major issue is whether it makes sense for Australia to implement it at a time of great uncertainty, both in terms of economic outlook and the extent and nature of international action. To my mind a carbon tax is not desirable. Australia's prosperity is based on a resource endowment that is carbon intensive, both in terms of our mineral and our agricultural sector. Moreover, much of that carbon intensity is not amenable to technological quick-fixes. For instance, there is little …


Cracking Bin Laden's Computer Code: Unlikely, Jennifer Seberry Jan 2011

Cracking Bin Laden's Computer Code: Unlikely, Jennifer Seberry

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

It has been reported that Osama bin Laden's hard drives have been seized, hard drives that could conceivably contain information regarding the membership, funding and future plans of al-Qaeda. Information of this type would help anti-terrorism agencies enormously. The hard drives were recovered from bin Laden's compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and are said to be encrypted with a encryption method known as AES-256. AES-256 is the current world standard for data encryption and is used by the likes of Wikileaks and the US Government to encrypt sensitive information.


Octave Spanning Supercontinuum In An As2s3 Taper Using Ultralow Pump Pulse Energy, Darren D. Hudson, Stephen A. Dekker, Eric C. Magi, Alexander C. Judge, Stuart D. Jackson, Enbang Li, J S. Sanghera, L B. Shaw, I D. Aggarwal, Benjamin J. Eggleton Jan 2011

Octave Spanning Supercontinuum In An As2s3 Taper Using Ultralow Pump Pulse Energy, Darren D. Hudson, Stephen A. Dekker, Eric C. Magi, Alexander C. Judge, Stuart D. Jackson, Enbang Li, J S. Sanghera, L B. Shaw, I D. Aggarwal, Benjamin J. Eggleton

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

An octave spanning spectrum is generated in an As2S3 taper via 77 pJ pulses from an ultrafast fiber laser. Using a previously developed tapering method, we construct a 1.3 μm taper that has a zero-dispersion wavelength around 1.4 μm . The low two-photon absorption of sulfide-based chalcogenide fiber allows for higher input powers than previous efforts in selenium-based chalcogenide tapered fibers. This higher power handling capability combined with input pulse chirp compensation allows an octave spanning spectrum to be generated directly from the taper using the unamplified laser output.


Bauschinger Effect In Microalloyed Steels: Part Ii. Influence Of Work Softening On Strength Development During Uoe Line-Pipe Forming, Andrii Kostryzhev, Martin Strangwood, Claire L. Davis Jan 2011

Bauschinger Effect In Microalloyed Steels: Part Ii. Influence Of Work Softening On Strength Development During Uoe Line-Pipe Forming, Andrii Kostryzhev, Martin Strangwood, Claire L. Davis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The Bauschinger effect (a reduced yield stress at the start of reverse deformation following forward prestrain) is an important factor of strength development for cold metal forming technology. In steels, the magnitude of the Bauschinger effect depends on composition, through the presence of microalloy precipitates, and prior processing, through the size and distribution of the microalloy precipitates and the presence of retained work hardening. In this article, the parameters of the Bauschinger effect and work hardening (coefficient and exponent) in forward and reverse deformations were quantitatively related to the particle number density and dislocation density for two high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) …


Authenticated Key Exchange Under Bad Randomness, Guomin Yang, Shanshan Duan, Duncan Wong, Chik How Tan, Huaxiong Wang Jan 2011

Authenticated Key Exchange Under Bad Randomness, Guomin Yang, Shanshan Duan, Duncan Wong, Chik How Tan, Huaxiong Wang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

We initiate the formal study on authenticated key exchange (AKE) under bad randomness. This could happen when (1) an adversary compromises the randomness source and hence directly controls the randomness of each AKE session; and (2) the randomness repeats in different AKE sessions due to reset attacks.We construct two formal security models, Reset-1 and Reset-2, to capture these two bad randomness situations respectively, and investigate the security of some widely used AKE protocols in these models by showing that they become insecure when the adversary is able to manipulate the randomness. On the positive side, we propose simple but generic …


Concrete Digital Computation: What Does It Take For A Physical System To Compute?, Nir Fresco Jan 2011

Concrete Digital Computation: What Does It Take For A Physical System To Compute?, Nir Fresco

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper deals with the question: what are the key requirements for a physical system to perform digital computation? Time and again cognitive scientists are quick to employ the notion of computation simpliciter when asserting basically that cognitive activities are computational. They employ this notion as if there was or is a consensus on just what it takes for a physical system to perform computation, and in particular digital computation. Some cognitive scientists in referring to digital computation simply adhere to Turing's notion of computability. Classical computability theory studies what functions on the natural numbers are computable and what mathematical …


The Work Pattern Of Care Workers In Residential Aged Care Facilities In Australia: A Time And Motion Study, Siyu Qian, Ping Yu, Zhenyu Zhang Jan 2011

The Work Pattern Of Care Workers In Residential Aged Care Facilities In Australia: A Time And Motion Study, Siyu Qian, Ping Yu, Zhenyu Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Abstract of paper presented at the 2011 Health Informatics Conference, Brisbane Australia.


An Adaptive Design Approach For Geothermal Plant With Changing Resource Characteristics, M Imroz Sohel, Mathieu Sellier, Susan Krumdieck Jan 2011

An Adaptive Design Approach For Geothermal Plant With Changing Resource Characteristics, M Imroz Sohel, Mathieu Sellier, Susan Krumdieck

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Geothermal power plants are designed for optimal utilization of geothermal resource. However, geothermal fields typically undergo significant changes in resource characteristics such as pressure, temperature and steam quality over their life span. With appropriate reservoir modelling it is possible to predict the future resource characteristics of a geothermal field to a reasonable degree of accuracy. We propose a new adaptive design approach that would allow geothermal power plants to take into account the change of resource characteristics that occur over a 30-40 years time horizon based on the results of reservoir modelling. Currently, it is difficult and expensive to modify …


Knowledge Sharing Through Virtual Layers In Regional Sustainable Development Networks, Rosemary A. Van Der Meer, Luba Torlina, Jamie Mustard Jan 2011

Knowledge Sharing Through Virtual Layers In Regional Sustainable Development Networks, Rosemary A. Van Der Meer, Luba Torlina, Jamie Mustard

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Our research examines how the organisational structure facilitates knowledge sharing within the group. This case study examines a Victorian regional sustainable group using interviews and social network analysis to identify the group's organisational structure and its effect on knowledge sharing between the members. Our findings indicate that while the mixed membership, lack of hierarchy and layered structure are complex, these elements work together to provide members with a rich body of knowledge. The diversity and differences in membership are complimentary and combined can provide a more in-depth understanding of the regional sustainable development issues.


Enterprise Soa Implementation Readiness: A Case Study In Malaysia, Mahshitah Abdul Manan, Peter Hyland Jan 2011

Enterprise Soa Implementation Readiness: A Case Study In Malaysia, Mahshitah Abdul Manan, Peter Hyland

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Many vendors have acclaimed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a better way to design and build enterprise-wide software. While these claims may be true in the private sector, there is scant evidence in the literature for the same success in the public sector. The adoption of SOA as the dominant development paradigm within an organisation often requires significant organisational changes, which are difficult to achieve in the public sector, with its strict hierarchies and departmental independence. Indeed, many government departments are not ready to adopt this new paradigm. However, the literature does not provide a suitable SOA readiness framework for …


Reliability Analysis Of Strain-Softening Slopes, Robin N. Chowdhury, Gautam Bhattacharya Jan 2011

Reliability Analysis Of Strain-Softening Slopes, Robin N. Chowdhury, Gautam Bhattacharya

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Slope reliability must be considered in the context of a variety of factors which control or influence stability or the balance between disturbing and resisting forces. The problems of slope stability are varied, ranging from fi rst-time failures to reactivated landslides and from minor, localized slope movements to catastrophic events. Reliability analysis within a probabilistic framework offers a very powerful tool for taking into consideration the variability of key geotechnical parameters as well as other uncertainties. In this paper, the progressive decrease in shear strength along potential slip surfaces is considered in terms of a residual factor treated as one …


C*-Algebras Associated To C*-Correspondences And Applications To Mirror Quantum Spheres, David I. Robertson, Wojciech Szymanski Jan 2011

C*-Algebras Associated To C*-Correspondences And Applications To Mirror Quantum Spheres, David I. Robertson, Wojciech Szymanski

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The structure of the C*-algebras corresponding to even-dimensional mirror quantum spheres is investigated. It is shown that they are isomorphic to both Cuntz-Pimsner algebras of certain C*-correspondences and C*-algebras of certain labelled graphs. In order to achieve this, categories of labelled graphs and C*-correspondences are studied. A functor from labelled graphs to C*-correspondences is constructed, such that the corresponding associated C*-algebras are isomorphic. Furthermore, it is shown that C*-correspondences for the mirror quantum spheres arise via a general construction of restricted direct sum.


Value Co-Creation With Customers Through Design Toolkits: The Importance Of Preference Fit And Psychological Ownership, Tingru Cui, Hua Ye, Hock Hai Teo Jan 2011

Value Co-Creation With Customers Through Design Toolkits: The Importance Of Preference Fit And Psychological Ownership, Tingru Cui, Hua Ye, Hock Hai Teo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The information technologies increasingly enable companies to set up websites for customers to design and purchase their own individualized products. Although customer co-design offer benefits for both suppliers and customers, how to manage the co-design process, especially the central interface features of design toolkit have emerged as a contentious issue among researchers and practitioners. This paper focuses on the effects of both utilitarian and psychological customer-design product value (i.e., perceived preference fit and psychological ownership) on customers' purchase decision. Based on the self-determination theory, we propose that the effectiveness of the value increment mechanisms is influenced by three leading toolkit …


Strategies Of Crisis Management From Contingent Perspective, Wenjie Ping, Tingru Cui, Shan-Ling Pan Jan 2011

Strategies Of Crisis Management From Contingent Perspective, Wenjie Ping, Tingru Cui, Shan-Ling Pan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The existing literature in crisis management mostly addresses specific measures taken in dealing with a single disaster. However, with chaotic nature of disasters and the uncertainty that surrounds them, the understanding of how to achieve effectiveness in crisis management remains limited. This article investigates that how government apply various capabilities in the crisis management process contingent upon different nature of disasters. By demonstrating the crisis management process from a contingent perspective, the capabilities that government should emphasis on can vary differently according to the nature of disasters. This study develops a framework for crisis management to serve as a guide …


Fuzzy Universal Hashing And Approximate Authentication, Rei Safavi-Naini, Joseph Tonien Jan 2011

Fuzzy Universal Hashing And Approximate Authentication, Rei Safavi-Naini, Joseph Tonien

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

No abstract provided.


Influence Of Angular Orientation Of The Embedded Highly Birefringent Fiber On Pmd Changes Under Axial Stress, Daniel Budaszewski, Piotr Lesiak, Robert Plaga, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Gerald Farrell, Anna Boczkowska, Andrzej Domanski, Tomasz Wolinski Jan 2011

Influence Of Angular Orientation Of The Embedded Highly Birefringent Fiber On Pmd Changes Under Axial Stress, Daniel Budaszewski, Piotr Lesiak, Robert Plaga, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Gerald Farrell, Anna Boczkowska, Andrzej Domanski, Tomasz Wolinski

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

In the paper we present results of the research on polarization mode dispersion changes inside the polarimetric optical fiber sensors based on highly birefringent optical fibers embedded into composite materials with different angular orientations of the optical axes. Based on measurements made for different types of highly birefringent optical fiber sensors we have shown that strain sensitivities after lamination process are different in comparison to the data obtained before lamination. Our results indicate that polarization mode dispersion in side-hole highly birefringent fibers under axial stress strongly depends on fiber orientation in the composite material suggesting that orientation of the polarization …


A Kernel Fuzzy C-Means Clustering-Based Fuzzy Support Vector Machine Algorithm For Classification Problems With Outliers Or Noises, Xiaowei Yang, Guangquan Zhang, Jie Lu, Jun Ma Jan 2011

A Kernel Fuzzy C-Means Clustering-Based Fuzzy Support Vector Machine Algorithm For Classification Problems With Outliers Or Noises, Xiaowei Yang, Guangquan Zhang, Jie Lu, Jun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The support vector machine (SVM) has provided higher performance than traditional learning machines and has been widely applied in real-world classification problems and nonlinear function estimation problems. Unfortunately, the training process of the SVM is sensitive to the outliers or noises in the training set. In this paper, a common misunderstanding of Gaussian-function-based kernel fuzzy clustering is corrected, and a kernel fuzzy c-means clustering-based fuzzy SVM algorithm (KFCM-FSVM) is developed to deal with the classification problems with outliers or noises. In the KFCM-FSVM algorithm, we first use the FCM clustering to cluster each of two classes from the training set …