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To realize high energy-efficient, high spectrum-efficient, and high-throughput data transmission, a multi-carrier differential chaos shift keying communication system with hybrid index modulation, referred to as HIM-MC-DCSK system, is proposed in this paper. In the HIM-MC-DCSK system, we intelligently integrate the carrier-number-index technique and carrier-index technique into the MC-DCSK modulation in order to significantly boost the transmission efficiency in wireless communication systems. Especially, we use a pair of orthogonal signals to represent the active and inactive subcarriers in the HIM-MC-DCSK system so as to exploit all the subcarriers to transmit information bits. In addition, the theoretical bit-error-rate (BER) expressions of the HIM-MC-DCSK system are derived over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Also, the data rate, spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and complexity of the proposed system are carefully analyzed. Monte-Carlo simulations not only verify the accuracy of the theoretical analysis but also illustrate the superiority of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pliable index coding (PICOD) has recently been regarded as a promising solution that exploits the coding advantage to improve communication efficiency of content-type systems (e.g., recommendation system), where clients are pliable and are interested in receiving any new message that they do not have. PICOD aims to find an effective coding strategy that satisfies the demands of all clients with the minimum number of transmissions. However, most of the previous works mainly provided theoretical understanding on PICOD in special instances based on greedy algorithms. In contrast, in this paper, we present a flexible sparse and low-rank matrix modeling approach to minimize the number of transmissions for the general PICOD problems. This is achieved by establishing generalized pliable alignment conditions to guarantee the requirements of all clients. As the resulting non-convex problem is highly intractable, we further develop an alternating pursuit framework to detect the rank of the matrix to be recovered by using the rank-increasing strategy. To address the feasibility-detection issues in the existing methods, we propose an alternating projection algorithm, which admits closed-form expressions and avoids excessive sparsity inducing. Moreover, we establish the global convergence of the alternating projection algorithm with random initial points. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed alternating pursuit algorithm significantly reduces the number of transmissions compared to the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kernel functions support a broad range of applications that require tasks like density estimation, classification, regression or outlier detection. For these tasks, a common online operation is to compute the weighted aggregation of kernel function values with respect to a set of points. However, scalable aggregation methods are still unknown for typical kernel functions (e.g., Gaussian kernel, polynomial kernel, sigmoid kernel and additive kernels) and weighting schemes. In this paper, we propose a novel and effective bounding technique, by leveraging index structures, to speed up the computation of kernel aggregation. In addition, we extend our technique to additive kernel functions, including $\chi ^2$ χ 2 , intersection, JS and Hellinger kernels, which are widely used in different communities, e.g., computer vision, medical science, Geoscience etc. To handle the additive kernel functions, we further develop the novel and effective bound functions to efficiently evaluate the kernel aggregation. Experimental studies on many real datasets reveal that our proposed solution KARL achieves at least one order of magnitude speedup over the state-of-the-art for different types of kernel functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Langberg-Médard multiple unicast conjecture claims that for a strongly reachable $k$ -pair network, there exists a feasible multi-flow with rate $(1,1, {\dots },1)$. In this paper, we confirm the conjecture for $k=3$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the established notion of storage codes, we consider sets of infinite sequences over a finite alphabet such that every $k$ -tuple of consecutive entries is uniquely recoverable from its $l$ -neighborhood in the sequence. We address the problem of finding the maximum growth rate of the set, which we term capacity, as well as constructions of explicit families that approach the optimal rate. The techniques that we employ rely on the connection of this problem with constrained systems. In the second part of the paper we consider a modification of the problem wherein the entries in the sequence are viewed as random variables over a finite alphabet that follow some joint distribution, and the recovery condition requires that the Shannon entropy of the $k$ -tuple conditioned on its $l$ -neighborhood be bounded above by some $\epsilon >0$. We study properties of measures on infinite sequences that maximize the metric entropy under the recoverability condition. Drawing on tools from ergodic theory, we prove some properties of entropy-maximizing measures. We also suggest a procedure of constructing an $\epsilon $ -recoverable measure from a corresponding deterministic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strength concept is an important tool for voltage stability evaluation of emerging hierarchical-infeed LCC-UHVDC (HIDC) systems. However, the complex inter-inverter interactions in such systems have caused significant difficulties for the strength assessment. This makes the accuracy of earlier strength assessment indices limited due to empirical analysis rather than rigorous theoretical reasoning. Thus in this paper, the hierarchical-infeed voltage interaction factor (HVIF) index is firstly utilized to quantitatively depict the complex inter-inverter interactions in HIDC systems. The use of the HVIF enables these interactions to be effectively incorporated into the subsequent strength assessment by proposing the hierarchical-infeed interactive effective short-circuit ratio (HIESCR) strength index. The critical HIESCR (CHIESCR) defined to delineate the voltage stability limit also evaluates to consistently 1.0 such that the distance between the HIESCR and CHIESCR is naturally an accurate stability margin. Since the HIESCR is developed based on the rigorous theoretical reasoning, it is more accurate than earlier indices for voltage stability evaluation. Moreover, the parametric dependence analysis of the HIESCR versus various system parameters and rated operation variables is conducted. This offers a comprehensive perspective for better understanding of the strength variation characteristics. Finally, case study in the modified IEEE 118-bus system validates the HIESCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of excitation (LOE) is one of the most important issues of synchronous alternators, which may be a source of genuine harms and could lead to power system instability. The principle issue to recognize LOE and stable power swing (SPS) is the time delay, which is a primary segment of the recognition time in all ongoing promise strategies. This paper introduces an effective scheme based on the first derivative of equivalent power factor angle (EPFA) of 3-phase voltage and current quantities in the direct-quadrature axis, to detect the LOE. The new algorithm, based on EPFA, is developed to reduce the required time of LOE recognition scheme. Comprehensive simulation studies are accomplished using MATLAB/Simulink as a robust simulation tool for various generator conditions such as full load and sudden load changes in addition to 3-phase faults with different location and duration times. The relay setting is determined and the algorithm performance is evaluated depending on various scenarios in power system. The simulated study results confirm that the proposed method can discriminate SPS from LOE conditions under different modes of operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a planning model that utilizes mobile energy storage systems (MESSs) for increasing the connectivity of renewable energy sources (RESs) and fast charging stations (FCSs) in distribution systems (DSs). The proposed planning model aims at enabling high penetration levels of green technologies while minimizing the total DS cost that includes investment, operating, and emission costs. The proposed model determines the optimal MESS sizes and transportation schedules as well as the optimal sizes and locations of wind-based distributed generators (DGs), photovoltaic (PV) DGs, and FCSs. The model takes into account techno-economic and environmental factors in addition to the power variations of RESs, FCSs, and load demands. The proposed planning model is applied on two benchmark test systems (i.e., 33-bus and 69-bus DSs). To evaluate the efficacy of the proposed model, the results obtained from the model are compared to those obtained from a traditional planning technique. The comparison of the results demonstrates that the proposed model with MESSs successfully achieves a significant cost saving and increases the penetration levels of RESs and FCSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent distribution of shadows on the surface of the shaded PV array enhances the array’s harvested capacity. Therefore, in this paper, an Image processing inspired Chaos Map reconfiguration is proposed to mitigate the effect of shading. The proposed reconfiguration is aimed at achieving uniform row current when compared with the other conventional configurations with physical relocation of panels without changing the electrical connections. The efficacy of the proposed method is tested on Short Wide, Short Narrow, Long Wide and Long Narrow shading conditions on the basis of both software and hardware results. The proposed method enhanced output metrics under partially shaded conditions and gives most effective dispersion of shading over entire PV array. This proposed method is also compared with other existing static reconfiguration techniques for the above said shading conditions and the results show tremendous increment in output power under both hardware and software platforms. The results replicate that the proposed configuration can be generalized for any size of an SPV Array and output parameters can be enhanced by physical relocation under any sort of shading conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two types of linear estimators are considered for three related estimation set-ups involving set-theoretic uncertainty pertaining to $ \mathcal {H}_{2}$ and $ \mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ balls of frequency-responses. The problems at stake correspond to robust $ \mathcal {H}_{2}$ and $ \mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ estimation in the face of non-parametric “channel-model’ uncertainty and to a nominal $ \mathcal {H}_{\infty }$ estimation problem. The estimators considered here are defined by minimizing the worst-case estimation error magnitude over the “uncertainty set” or by minimizing an average cost under the constraint that the worst-case error of any admissible estimator does not exceed a prescribed value. The main point is to explore the derivation of estimators which may be viewed as less conservative alternatives to minimax estimators, or in other words, that allow for trade-offs between worst-case performance and better performance over “large” subsets of the uncertainty set. The “average costs” over $ \mathcal {H}_{2}-$ signal balls are obtained as limits of averages over sets of finite impulse responses, as their length grows unbounded. The estimator design problems for the two types of estimators and the three set-ups addressed here are recast as semi-definite programming problems (SDPs, for short). These SDPs are solved in the case of simple examples to illustrate the potential of the “average cost/worst-case constraint” estimators to mitigate the inherent conservatism of the minimax estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing penetration of large-scale renewable energy generation at transmission level, hybrid AC/DC transmission expansion is becoming more relevant by the day, especially if the considered renewable generation is far away from existing AC grid infrastructure. This paper presents a multi-period hybrid AC/DC network expansion planning model that incorporates node voltages, reactive power and network losses. Since the operation of a high voltage DC link is influenced considerably by the converter stations, converter transformer, filter, and phase reactor are modeled in each converter station. Since the AC power flow equations render a non-convex problem whose solution algorithms do not always guarantee convergence or optimality, a second-order conic relaxation is utilized. The resulting model is a mixed-integer convex problem with a convergence guarantee that embodies a better approximation of system operation than its DC linear counterpart. Three case studies are considered to illustrate the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new formulation for the preventive security-constrained unit commitment problem modeling N-k line outages and transmission losses. The pre- and post-contingency transmission constraints, representing N-k line outages, are explicitly included by using generalized generation distribution factors. To account for security, a contingency selection procedure based on line outage distribution factors finds a list of worst-case contingencies. Transmission losses are incorporated using piecewise linear expressions. The proposed model is formulated as an instance of mixed-integer linear programming. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated with the IEEE 57-bus system and the 1,354-bus portion of the European transmission system. As empirically evidenced, the explicit consideration of N-k line outages and transmission losses leads to different decisions in the generation scheduling and dispatch, ensuring secure power system operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power flow analysis is a key tool for planning, operation and control of power systems. With future hybrid Supergrids in mind, a wide variety of power flow algorithms for multi-terminal VSC AC/DC systems have been proposed. However, the nonlinear nature of these formulations represents a challenge for its use in real power systems. Whereas in the study of AC networks linear approximations are frequently utilized to speed up multi-scenario steady-state analysis, an equivalent tool has not been proposed for hybrid AC/DC grids. This paper fills that gap by formulating a linear MW-only power flow algorithm with losses for multi-terminal VSC AC/DC systems. The proposed algorithm provides a consistent estimation of converters' losses and allows modelling of all branches within the converter stations. Moreover, two novel schemes for the inclusion of DC network losses are proposed and a circuit-equivalent model of the linear power flow problem in multi-terminal VSC AC/DC systems is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New resource mix, e.g., renewable resources, are imposing operational complexities to modern power systems by intensifying uncertainty and variability in the system net load. This issue has motivated independent system operators (ISOs), e.g., California ISO (CAISO), to add flexible ramping products (FRPs) to their day-ahead (DA) market models. Such structural changes in the DA market formulation require further analyses and detailed design to ensure adequate operational flexibility, market efficiency, and reliability. This paper conducts a comprehensive study to: (a) augment existing DA market models with enhanced FRP design to schedule ramp capabilities that are more adaptive with respect to the real-time (RT) 15-min net load variability and uncertainty, and (b) design corresponding market payment policies that accurately reflect the value of the added flexibility through enhanced FRP design. The proposed FRP design can be implemented in present-day system operations with minimal disruption to existing DA market models. Performance of the proposed DA market model, which includes the enhanced FRP design, is compared against the DA market model with existing FRP design through a validation methodology based on RT unit commitment model. This validation methodology mimics fifteen-minute markets of CAISO. The proposed method is tested on an IEEE 118-bus test system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ride-sourcing services are now reshaping the way people travel by effectively connecting drivers and passengers through mobile internets. Online matching between idle drivers and waiting passengers is one of the most key components in a ride-sourcing system. The average pickup distance or time is an important measurement of system efficiency since it affects both passengers’ waiting time and drivers’ utilization rate. It is naturally expected that a more effective bipartite matching (with smaller average pickup time) can be implemented if the platform accumulates more idle drivers and waiting passengers in the matching pool. A specific passenger request can also benefit from a delayed matching since he/she may be matched with closer idle drivers after waiting for a few seconds. Motivated by the potential benefits of delayed matching, this paper establishes a two-stage framework which incorporates a combinatorial optimization and multi-agent deep reinforcement learning methods. The multi-agent reinforcement learning methods are used to dynamically determine the delayed time for each passenger request (or the time at which each request enters the matching pool), while the combinatorial optimization conducts an optimal bipartite matching between idle drivers and waiting passengers in the matching pool. Four tailored reinforcement learning methods, delayed multi-agent deep Q learning (Delayed-M-DQN), delayed multi-agent actor-critic (Delayed-M-A2C), delayed multi-agent Proximal Policy Optimization (Delayed-M-PPO), and delayed multi-agent actor-critic with experience replay (Delayed-M-ACER), are developed. Through extensive empirical experiments with a well-designed simulator, we show that the proposed framework is able to remarkably improve system performances, by well balancing the trade-off among pick-up time, matching time, successful matching rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of dirty data, data cleaning turns into a crux of data analysis. The accuracy limitation of the existing integrity constraints-based cleaning approaches results from insufficient rules. In this paper, we present a novel hybrid data cleaning framework on top of Markov logic networks (MLNs), termed as ${\sf MLNClean}$ MLNClean , which is capable of learning instantiated rules to supplement the insufficient integrity constraints. ${\sf MLNClean}$ MLNClean consists of two steps, i.e., pre-processing and two-stage data cleaning. In the pre-processing step, ${\sf MLNClean}$ MLNClean first infers a set of probable instantiated rules according to MLNs and then builds a two-layer MLN index structure to generate multiple data versions and facilitate the cleaning process. In the two-stage data cleaning step, ${\sf MLNClean}$ MLNClean first presents a concept of reliability score to clean errors within each data version separately, and afterward eliminates the conflict values among different data version using a novel concept of fusion score. Considerable experimental results on both real and synthetic scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of ${\sf MLNClean}$ MLNClean in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholar name disambiguation remains a hard and unsolved problem, which brings various troubles for bibliography data analytics. Most existing methods handle name disambiguation separately that tackles one name at a time, and neglect the fact that disambiguation of one name affects the others. Further, it is typically common that only limited information is available for bibliography data, e.g., only basic paper and citation information is available in DBLP. In this study, we propose a collective approach to name disambiguation, which takes the connection of different ambiguous names into consideration. We reformulate bibliography data as a heterogeneous multipartite network, which initially treats each author reference as a unique author entity, and disambiguation results of one name propagate to the others of the network. To further deal with the sparsity problem caused by limited available information, we also introduce word-word and venue-venue similarities, and we finally measure author similarities by assembling similarities from four perspectives. Using real-life data, we experimentally demonstrate that our approach is both effective and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Density Peak Clustering (DPC), a popular density-based clustering approach, has received considerable attention from the research community primarily due to its simplicity and fewer-parameter requirement. However, the resultant clusters obtained using DPC are influenced by the sensitive parameter $d_c$ d c , which depends on data distribution and requirements of different users. Besides, the original DPC algorithm requires visiting a large number of objects, making it slow. To this end, this paper investigates index-based solutions for DPC. Specifically, we propose two list-based index methods viz. (i) a simple List Index, and (ii) an advanced Cumulative Histogram Index. Efficient query algorithms are proposed for these indices which significantly avoids irrelevant comparisons at the cost of space. For memory-constrained systems, we further introduce an approximate solution to the above indices which allows substantial reduction in the space cost, provided that slight inaccuracies are admissible. Furthermore, owing to considerably lower memory requirements of existing tree-based index structures, we also present effective pruning techniques and efficient query algorithms to support DPC using the popular Quadtree Index and R-tree Index. Finally, we practically evaluate all the above indices and present the findings and results, obtained from a set of extensive experiments on six synthetic and real datasets. The experimental insights obtained can help to guide in selecting a befitting index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1994, Jim Massey proposed the guessing entropy as a measure of the difficulty that an attacker has to guess a secret used in a cryptographic system, and established a well-known inequality between entropy and guessing entropy. Over 15 years before, in an unpublished work, he also established a well-known inequality for the entropy of an integer-valued random variable of given variance. In this paper, we establish a link between the two works by Massey in the more general framework of the relationship between discrete (absolute) entropy and continuous (differential) entropy. Two approaches are given in which the discrete entropy (or Rényi entropy) of an integer-valued variable can be upper bounded using the differential (Rényi) entropy of some suitably chosen continuous random variable. As an application, lower bounds on guessing entropy and guessing moments are derived in terms of entropy or Rényi entropy (without side information) and conditional entropy or Arimoto conditional entropy (when side information is available). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $ \mathbb K$ be an algebraically closed field. In this paper, we consider the class of smooth plane curves of degree $n+1>3$ over $ \mathbb K$ , containing three points, $P_{1},P_{2}$ , and $P_{3}$ , such that $nP_{1}+P_{2}$ , $nP_{2}+P_{3}$ , and $nP_{3}+P_{1}$ are divisors cut out by three distinct lines. For such curves, we determine the dimension of certain special divisors supported on $\{P_{1},P_{2},P_{3}\}$ , as well as an explicit description of all pure gaps at each nonempty subset of the distinguished points $P_{1},P_{2}$ , and $P_{3}$. When $ \mathbb K=\overline { \mathbb F}_{q}$ , this class of curves, which includes the Hermitian curve, is used to construct algebraic geometry codes having minimum distance better than the Goppa bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the increasing demand for large-scale MapReduce distributed computing, coded distributed computing (CDC) has become a promising technology to reduce the significant bottleneck of MapReduce computation. Despite its importance, most of the works on CDC have assumed homogeneous environments, where the nodes have the same storage, computing, and communication capacities. However, since many practical scenarios involve heterogeneous environments, heterogeneous CDC design is highly demanded to reduce communication load. Under consideration of full heterogeneity among workers, this paper addresses the joint design of function assignment and coded shuffling to reduce communication load effectively. We first devise a new embedded index coding (EIC) solution for the device-to-device (D2D) environment and prove its optimality. By extending our novel approach, we propose the optimal shuffling design for the MapReduce framework. Then, we figure out the optimal function assignment with the optimal shuffling design. On account of the prohibitive complexity, we propose an efficient greedy search algorithm and analyze how much performance the proposed scheme can guarantee. Numerical simulations show that our proposed algorithm provides the near-optimal communication load with a considerable complexity reduction, while we observe that the function assignment design is vital for heterogeneous CDC by comparing with the well-designed file allocation design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision-based detection of fingertips is useful for freehand Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)—especially in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality—to have a seamless experience. The estimation of fingertips position in an RGB image involves overcoming various challenges like occlusion, appearance ambiguities, etc. The general approach relies on a two-stage pipeline involving hand location and detection of fingertips for a single hand. This paper presents an effective single-stage Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for the detection of fingertips of both hands. We use a set of reference points, referred to as pose particles, and train a CNN model end-to-end to find the N-nearest particles in the proximity of each fingertip. Moreover, the same CNN model is used to compute the position vector’s components with reference to these N-nearest neighbors. Finally, a fingertip position is estimated by computing the centroid of all the points given by these position vectors. With the proposed approach, it is possible to estimate the fingertips position for single or double hands. Moreover, there is no requirement for prior hand localization. We demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methodology by performing experiments on three different datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of cloud computing, more and more data owners are motivated to outsource their documents to the cloud and share them with the authorized data users securely and flexibly. To protect data privacy, the documents are generally encrypted before being outsourced to the cloud and hence their searchability decreases. Though many privacy-preserving document search schemes have been proposed, they cannot reach a proper balance among functionality, flexibility, security and efficiency. In this paper, a new encrypted document retrieval system is designed and a proxy server is integrated into the system to alleviate data owner's workload and improve the whole system's security level. In this process, we consider a more practical and stronger threat model in which the cloud server can collude with a small number of data users. To support multiple document search patterns, we construct two AVL trees for the filenames and authors, and a Hierarchical Retrieval Features tree (HRF tree) for the document vectors. A depth-first search algorithm is designed for the HRF tree and the Enhanced Asymmetric Scalar-Product-Preserving Encryption (Enhanced ASPE) algorithm is utilized to encrypt the HRF tree. All the three index trees are linked with each other to efficiently support the search requests with multiple parameters. Theoretical analysis and simulation results illustrate the security and efficiency of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is written in recognition of W. Bledsoe, who with Browning, introduced the N-tuple subspace classifier in 1959. This 1959 article was the first article to introduce subspace classifiers and the sum rule to combine the outputs of the classifiers. A mathematical notation is given to easily express in a precise and unambiguous way everything going on in the N-tuple subspace classifier. Extensions of the N-tuple method are discussed using a generalized product expression and we relate the generalization to graphical models. We discuss the sum rule, the product rule, and the plurality voting rule for combining the scores of the subspace classifiers. We selected a representative sample of papers that the 1959 N-tuple subspace classifier inspired. Some of the papers introduced specialized improvements. Many of the papers showed the value of the N-tuple subspace classifier in all kinds of applications and compared the results of one or more varieties of the N-tuple subspace classifier with other state-of-the-art classifiers. Their experiments showed that the N-tuple subspace classifier was competitive with the state-of-the-art classifiers and often had a higher accuracy. Finally, we highlight some papers that describe experiments of the N-tuple subspace classifier executing in a quantum computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name. The primary entry includes the co-authors' names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author's name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reduced level of system inertia due to renewable integration increases the need for cost-effective provision of ancillary services, such as Frequency Response (FR). In this paper a closed-form solution to the differential equation describing frequency dynamics is proposed, which allows to obtain frequency-security algebraic constraints to be implemented in optimization routines. This is done while considering any finite number of FR services with distinguished characteristics, such as different delivery times and activation delays. The problem defined by these frequency-security constraints can be formulated as a Mixed-Integer Second-Order Cone Program (MISOCP), which can be efficiently handled by off-the-shelf conic optimization solvers. This paper also takes into account the uncertainty in inertia contribution from the demand side by formulating the frequency-security conditions as chance constraints, for which an exact convex reformulation is provided. Finally, case studies highlighting the effectiveness of this frequency-secured formulation are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a function $f$ from $\mathbb {F}_{2}^{n}$ to $\mathbb {F}_{2}^{n}$ , the planarity of $f$ is usually measured by its differential uniformity and differential spectrum. In this paper, we propose the concept of vanishing flats, which supplies a combinatorial viewpoint on the planarity. First, the number of vanishing flats of $f$ can be regarded as a measure of the distance between $f$ and the set of almost perfect nonlinear functions. In some cases, the number of vanishing flats serves as an “intermediate” concept between differential uniformity and differential spectrum, which contains more information than differential uniformity, however less than the differential spectrum. Secondly, the set of vanishing flats forms a combinatorial configuration called partial quadruple system, since it conveys a detailed structural information about $f$. We initiate this study by considering the number of vanishing flats and the partial quadruple systems associated with monomials and Dembowski-Ostrom polynomials. In addition, we present an application of vanishing flats to the partition of a vector space into disjoint equidimensional affine spaces. We conclude the paper with several further questions and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly investigates the problem of extended dissipative filter design for switched discrete-time systems where the variation of switching signals among subsystems is governed by the persistent dwell-time strategy. Considering that in practical applications, the congestion of the communication channels between systems and filters may cause data loss, therefore the packet dropouts are taken into account to make the issue under consideration more general. Meanwhile, it is generally known that the mode information of the system may sometimes not be accessed, so we consider the design of a unified filter including mode-dependent and mode-independent filters simultaneously. A white sequence that obeys the Bernoulli distribution is used to express the random switching of the filters. The main purpose of this paper is to find a suitable filter design method which ensures that the resulting error system is exponentially mean-square stable and extended dissipative. Sufficient conditions are established to make sure the solvability of the addressed problem. By using appropriate decoupling method, some conditions that could be readily solved are obtained. In order to explain the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method, two illustrated examples are given in the final part of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the dissipativity of singular time-delay systems. The objective is to derive a less conservative criterion with less computational demand. Throughout this paper, the augmented Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) and the free-matrix-based integral inequality are used to realize less conservativeness. On the basis of these techniques, a less conservative criterion is first given. Then, by decomposing singular time-delay systems into differential equations and algebraic ones, state vectors of the systems are divided into two parts. To reduce redundant decision variables, each part of the state vectors is considered independently to construct a special augmented LKF with less decision variables. As a result, an improved criterion is deduced, and thus less conservativeness and less computational demand are achieved at the same time. Moreover, the presented state decomposition method provides a new research idea for singular time-delay systems not yet reported in the literatures. Finally, the above statements are demonstrated by a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of efficient solutions for deadlock problem in large-scale automated manufacturing systems (AMSs) is an issue of increasing interest in the scientific community, largely because of the nonapplicability of most existing approaches as AMS grows in size. Furthermore, much of these approaches is focused on systems with either assembly operations or flexible routes, implying that generalizing these existing results to more complex systems is difficult. As a result, we initiate on the deadlock problem of AMSs embedding assembly operations in flexible routes. By modeling AMSs as Petri nets, an innovative distributed approach is developed in this paper, which can be realized in an online, look-ahead, and dynamic way without requiring external and extra information. Beyond the value of the presented results, this paper is also intended to develop more general results which will be adaptable to a broader class of AMSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing penetrations of renewable energy in the electricity sector and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the transportation sector have increased the interests in introducing new methods to deal with uncertainties in power system studies. In this paper, a new distributionally robust optimization (DRO) via scenario wise ambiguity set is proposed to develop a collaborative bidding strategy for intermittent resources such as hydroelectric generation, wind farms, solar farms and electric vehicle aggregator in the day-ahead energy market. The proposed scenario wise ambiguity set is based on Wasserstein distance and is capable of considering both distributional information and statistical distance metric information in the ambiguity set. In this context, the robust counterpart of proposed DRO applying scenario based affine recourse approximation is developed in this paper. The proposed methodology is applied on a 3-bus test system as well as IEEE 118-bus test system to corroborate the effectiveness of the novel DRO model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community structures are critical towards understanding not only the network topology but also how the network functions. However, how to evaluate the quality of detected community structures is still challenging and remains unsolved. The most widely used metric, normalized mutual information (NMI), was proven to have finite size effect, and its improved form relative normalized mutual information (rNMI) has reverse finite size effect. Corrected normalized mutual information (cNMI) was thus proposed and has neither finite size effect nor reverse finite size effect. However, in this paper, we show that cNMI violates the so-called proportionality assumption. In addition, NMI-type metrics have the problem of ignoring importance of small communities. Finally, they cannot be used to evaluate a single community of interest. In this paper, we map the computed community labels to the ground-truth ones through integer linear programming, and then use kappa index and F-score to evaluate the detected community structures. Experimental results demonstrate the advantages of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the distributed event-triggered (ET) ${H} _{\boldsymbol \infty }$ filtering problem for discrete-time T–S fuzzy systems over sensor networks. In order to mitigate the effect of channel noise on the filtering error systems, dynamic saturation levels are considered in this paper. Different from the existing linear distributed ET filters design results, new piecewise fuzzy distributed filters are established to address the challenges caused by the distributed ET mechanisms. By constructing piecewise differentiable Lyapunov functionals, sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are obtained to guarantee the exponential stability and desired performance of the filtering error system. Finally, two examples are employed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative relationship between the activity/property and the structure of compound is critical in chemical applications. To learn this quantitative relationship, hundreds of molecular descriptors have been designed to describe the structure, mainly based on the properties of vertices and edges of molecular graph. However, many descriptors degenerate to the same values for different compounds with the same molecular graph, resulting in model failure. In this paper, we design a multidimensional signal for each vertex of the molecular graph to derive new descriptors with higher discriminability. We treat the new and traditional descriptors as the signals on the descriptor graph learned from the descriptor data, and enhance descriptor dissimilarity using the Laplacian filter derived from the descriptor graph. Combining these with model learning techniques, we propose a graph signal processing based approach to obtain reliable new models for learning the quantitative relationship and predicting the properties of compounds. We also provide insights from chemistry for the boiling point model. Several experiments are presented to demonstrate the validity, effectiveness and advantages of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of mobile edge computing (MEC) into an ultra-dense network (UDN) can provide ubiquitous task offloading services to computation-demanding users leveraging densely deployed micro base stations. The conventional multi-user task offloading strategies are performed centrally, where a central node makes global task offloading decisions on server selection and resource allocation. In practice, the deployment becomes prohibitively complex with the increasing number of users as it involves high communication overhead and complex global optimization operations. In this paper, we develop a novel decentralized task offloading strategy in UDN, enabling users to independently make local task offloading decisions. We formulate the associated optimization problem to minimize the long-term average task delay among all users. On this basis, we develop a novel calibrated contextual bandit learning (CCBL) algorithm, where users can learn the computational delay functions of micro base stations and predict the task offloading decisions of other users in a decentralized manner. The convergence of the proposed CCBL algorithm is verified via the approachability theory. Moreover, we transfer the target of calibrated learning from all micro base stations to a single user and propose a user-oriented CCBL algorithm to further decrease the computational complexity and increase the convergence rate. Simulation results illustrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the existing decentralized algorithms and approaches the centralized one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents density evolution (DE) techniques based on reciprocal channel approximation (RCA) for general bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) systems. The original RCA-based DE (RCA-DE) technique is implemented under the assumption of binary-input additive white Gaussian noise channels (BI-AWGNCs). In BICM systems, however, $M$ -ary modulation schemes are generally used, and they can be regarded as to be a parallel transmission of $\log _{2} M$ bits. Thus, $\log _{2} M$ separate bit-level channels, which are not Gaussian equivalent, need to be considered. In order to extend the conventional RCA-DE technique to BICM systems, we first establish a model of protograph BICM ensembles. Two methods are developed based on the bit error rate (BER) and the BICM capacity in order to find a corresponding BI-AWGNC that models each of the bit-level channels. Using these methods, we implement the protograph RCA-DE technique for BICM systems and show that it achieves an accurate estimation. As a practical application of the proposed RCA-DE method, we design bit interleavers in order to achieve better BICM performance in the 3GPP New Radio (NR) LDPC coding system. Numerical results show that performance gain of up to 0.3 dB is consistently achieved over a wide range of parameter values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal graph traversal is an approach for analyzing how information spreads throughout a network over time. A system has been recently proposed as an initial effort for efficient analyses against higher time complexity and infinitely evolving data unlike static graph. However, with the system, the response time for traversals from multiple sources is proportional to the number of sources; thus, application domains of the system can be limited. To resolve this problem, the state-of-the-art vertex-centric paradigm can be considered; however, we have found that the paradigm is not fitted into this computation. The paper proposes a novel time-centric computation approach for efficient all-pairs temporal graph traversals. One benefit of this approach is that users only need to focus on designing a repetitive task for graph elements that are valid at each sliding time, which simplifies the program logic and alleviates the burden of writing codes. Another benefit is that the approach is expected to enhance the performance by facilitating the reuse of intermediate results of multiple sources. The proposed approach is evaluated with a prototyped system, the recipes for existing algorithms, and the experiments with open temporal datasets. In addition, we also discuss how to handle ever-evolving real-world temporal networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph query autocompletion (gQAC) generates a small list of ranked query suggestions during the graph query formulation process in a visual environment. The current state-of-the-art of gQAC provides suggestions that are formed by adding subgraph increments to arbitrary places of an existing (partial) user query. However, according to the research results on human-computer interaction (HCI), humans can only interact with a small number of recent software artifacts in hand. Hence, many of such suggestions could be irrelevant. In this paper, we present the GFocus framework that exploits a novel notion of user focus of graph query formulation (or simply focus). Intuitively, the focus is the subgraph that a user is working on. We formulate locality principles inspired by the HCI research to automatically identify and maintain the focus. We propose novel monotone submodular ranking functions for generating popular and comprehensive query suggestions only at the focus. In particular, the query suggestions of GFocus have high result counts (when they are used as queries) and maximally cover the possible suggestions at the focus. We propose efficient algorithms and an index for ranking the suggestions. Our results show that GFocus saves 12-32 percent more mouse clicks and is 35× more efficient than the state-of-the-art competitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User identification across multiple datasets has a wide range of applications and there has been an increasing set of research works on this topic during recent years. However, most of existing works focus on user identification with a single input data type, e.g., (I) identifying a user across multiple social networks with online data and (II) detecting a single user from heterogeneous trajectory datasets with offline data. Different from previous works, in this paper, we propose a framework on user identification between online and offline datasets. We build connections between these two types of data by a mapping from IP addresses to physical locations. To solve this problem, we propose a novel framework consisting of three steps. First, we use a clustering method based on locations of IP addresses to map IP addresses into specific physical location distributions. Second, we propose a novel pairwise index to reduce space cost and running time for computing the co-occurrence. Lastly, we apply a learning-to-rank method to merge the effect of multiple features we get in the first two steps. Based on our framework, we design experiments to demonstrate the efficiency (in time and space) of our framework, together with the precision and recall of our approach compared to other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile-edge computing (MEC) has been recognized as a promising solution to provide efficient communication and computation capabilities for mobile users (MUs). However, the problem relating to parallel offloading and load balancing with multiple cooperative MEC servers and massive delay-sensitive execution workloads remains to be investigated. In this paper, we study a joint parallel offloading and load balancing policy for such an MEC system. We formulate a long-term system average-cost (i.e., weighted sum of energy consumption and execution delays) stochastic programming problem under MU battery level stability and delay constraints. Our aims include optimizing the data sizes for uplink offloading transmissions for optimized communication and computation resource allocation among multi-users, and maximizing the computation capability utilization of cooperative MEC servers by load balancing. To solve this problem, we first design a Lyapunov-based centralized cost management algorithm (LYP-CCMA) to obtain the optimal system average-cost under the battery level stability constraints. Further, we propose two algorithms based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to implement distributed resources allocation. Simulation results verify our analysis and demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed schemes over several baseline schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a scheduling problem in decentralized coded caching considering sequential and random request arrivals. The asynchrony between the requests begets the question of when to launch network-coded multicast to serve the requests when both the energy efficiency and the delay penalty are of concern (one can be traded for the other). To attain an optimal energy-delay tradeoff, we formulate this scheduling problem as an optimal stopping problem. In particular, for either the hard deadline or the linear penalty functions, we derive the structure of an optimal stopping rule and propose an iterative method to approximate the optimal rule. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the derived optimal stopping rules under various conditions, comparing them with several baseline scheduling strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel consensus-based labeled multi-Bernoulli (LMB) filter to tackle multi-target tracking (MTT) in a communication resource-sensitive distributed sensor network (DSN). Although consensus-based approaches provide effective tools for distributed fusion and MTT, the requirement of iterative communication makes it impractical in resource limited situations. To deal with this issue, two event-triggered strategies are proposed and incorporated into the consensus-based LMB. Focusing on the information discrepancy between the local multi-target probability density function (PDF) and the time prediction of the latest broadcast one, the integral-triggering strategy (ITS) is introduced. Furthermore, by proving that the information discrepancy (Kullback-Leibler divergence) between two LMB densities with the same label space can be decomposed into the sum of the information discrepancy of each LMB component pair (LMB components with the same label), the separated-triggering strategy (STS) is proposed. The performance of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated in a distributed multi-target tracking scenario via numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a scalable, multi-sensor measurement adaptive track initiation technique for labeled random finite set filters. A naive construction of the multi-sensor measurement adaptive birth set distribution leads to an exponential number of newborn components in the number of sensors. A truncation criterion is established for a labeled multi-Bernoulli random finite set birth density. The proposed truncation criterion is shown to have a bounded L1 error in the generalized labeled multi-Bernoulli posterior density. This criterion is used to construct a Gibbs sampler that produces a truncated measurement-generated labeled multi-Bernoulli birth distribution with quadratic complexity in the number of sensors. A closed-form solution of the conditional sampling distribution assuming linear Gaussian likelihoods is provided, alongside an approximate solution using Monte Carlo importance sampling. Multiple simulation results are provided to verify the efficacy of the truncation criterion, as well as the reduction in complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video deblurring, which aims at restoring the sharp video from blurry video, is drawing increasing attention in the field of computer vision. In this paper, a method called Multi-Attention Convolutional Neural Network (MACNN) consisting of the temporal-spatial attention module, the frame channel attention module, and the feature extraction-reconstruction module is proposed. First, we use the temporal-spatial attention module and the frame channel attention module to capture features with temporal and spatial information existing across neighboring frames. Then, these captured features are fused and reconstructed to restore the sharp frame. Last but not least, we train MACNN together with a content loss and a perceptual loss in an end-to-end manner to recover realistic video details. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation results on standard benchmarks demonstrate the proposed MACNN is superior to the state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and visual effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of aggregated demand-side flexibility via demand response (DR) has become a promising pathway for the integration of renewable energy resources in power systems. Nowadays, there are several management strategies for DR such as the price-based transactive control strategies. However, many of such existing price-based control strategies neglect the physics and operational constraints of the underlying distribution networks when computing the price, raising concerns regarding their theoretical and practical values. This paper studies this issue and investigates optimal DR (ODR) by incorporating the distribution locational marginal price (DLMP). In particular, we discuss DR in connection with DLMPs and propose a multi-period bilevel optimization problem to find the ODR strategy. The objective is to minimize the peak load, load fluctuation, and payments of load aggregators. In addition, a robust bilevel ODR model is formulated to provide a robust ODR strategy while minimizing operating costs under the worst-case realization of uncertainties; this mitigates the impact of forecasting errors on renewable energy resources. Then, we propose an efficient solution approach by employing the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions and strong duality. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the mutual impacts of the interaction between DR and DLMP and the benefits of the robust ODR strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new model for the optimal partitioning of active distribution networks into a number of islanded microgrids. The objective of the developed model is to maximize the minimum value of maximum loadability amongst formed islands to create resilient islanded microgrids against unexpected local disturbances and power mismatches. The model takes key aspects such as the operation of islanded microgrids using droop control, system tie-lines, and line capacity limit into consideration. An ear decomposition-based method is proposed in order to preserve the radiality of formed islands. Besides the formulated exact optimization model, which is a nonconvex formulation, two convex mixed-integer models are introduced to achieve a trade-off between solution accuracy and computational time. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed models in forming droop-controlled islanded microgrids with optimum loadability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) model is used for power system day-ahead scheduling. However, current SCUC model uses a static network to deliver power and meet demand optimally. A dynamic network can provide a lower optimal cost and alleviate network congestion. However, due to the computational complexity and the lack of effective algorithms, network reconfiguration has not been included in the SCUC model yet. This paper presents a novel approach to handle the computational complexity in security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) with corrective network reconfiguration (CNR) while considering the scalability through accelerated-decomposition approach with fast screening non-critical sub-problems of SCUC-CNR. The proposed approach provides substantial computational benefits and is also applicable to SCUC. Simulation results on the IEEE 24-bus system show that the proposed methods are substantially faster without the loss in solution quality while the scalability benefits are demonstrated using larger cases: the IEEE 73-bus system, IEEE 118-bus system and Polish system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bregman distances (also known as Bregman divergences) are widely used in machine learning, speech recognition and signal processing, and kNN searches with Bregman distances have become increasingly important with the rapid advances of multimedia applications. Data in multimedia applications such as images and videos are commonly transformed into space of hundreds of dimensions. Such high-dimensional space has posed significant challenges for existing kNN search algorithms with Bregman distances, which could only handle data of medium dimensionality (typically less than 100). This paper addresses the urgent problem of high-dimensional kNN search with Bregman distances. We propose a novel partition-filter-refinement framework. Specifically, we propose an optimized dimensionality partitioning scheme to solve several non-trivial issues. First, an effective bound from each partitioned subspace to obtain exact kNN results is derived. Second, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the optimized number of partitions and devise an effective strategy for partitioning. Third, we design an efficient integrated index structure for all the subspaces together to accelerate the search processing. Moreover, we extend our exact solution to an approximate version by a trade-off between the accuracy and efficiency. Experimental results on four real-world datasets and two synthetic datasets show the clear advantage of our method in comparison to state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new family of codes, called clustering-correcting codes, is presented in this paper. This family of codes is motivated by the special structure of the data that is stored in DNA-based storage systems. The data stored in these systems has the form of unordered sequences, also called strands, and every strand is synthesized thousands to millions of times, where some of these copies are read back during sequencing. Due to the unordered structure of the strands, an important task in the decoding process is to place them in their correct order. This is usually accomplished by allocating part of the strand for an index. However, in the presence of errors in the index field, important information on the order of the strands may be lost. Clustering-correcting codes ensure that if the distance between the index fields of two strands is small, their data fields have large distance. It is shown how this property enables to place the strands together in their correct clusters even in the presence of errors. We present lower and upper bounds on the size of clustering-correcting codes and an explicit construction of these codes which uses only a single symbol of redundancy. The results are first presented for the Hamming metric and are then extended for the edit distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the state estimation problem for singularly perturbed switched complex dynamic networks (CDNs) is addressed, in which the persistent dwell-time (DT) switching mechanism is employed to depict the switchings among parameters of each node. In the aforementioned switching mechanism, the concept of stage consisting of the persistent portion and the DT portion is introduced. Based on the singular perturbation theory, a two-time-scaling variables containing fast and slow states are taken into account on the CDNs simultaneously, which make the constructed networks more realistic. Furthermore, the main aim is to design a mode-dependent estimator to track the state information that cannot be directly obtained and further ensures the global uniform exponential stability of the investigated systems with a generalized dissipativity property. Some sufficient criteria on the existence of the desired mode-dependent state estimator are established by utilizing a modified matrix decoupling method. Finally, the availability of the estimator design procedures is verified by a simulation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]