• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.243-260
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• 2007

This article explores how Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations, an interdisciplinary novel through the new concepts of biocriticism and bioliterature is connected with literature/art and science/technology. Powers uses Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug" and Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Goldberg Variations" for decoding DNA in order to analogize a genomic metaphor. He imagines literature as "the book of life" genome, written by DNA code due to the complexity and multiplicity of the genome. His novel, as 'genomic narrative,' shows the articulation of the genomic reading, and expression in the life language through the discourses of the information technology and the rhetorical tropes in biology. New biological ideas are continually required to articulate these processes. In the present tendency of the Human Genome Project, such advanced devices as biocybernetics offer the potential to open up new possibilities to researching the complexity of the genome. This can only happen if the following two ideas are followed: One is to comply with advanced technologies for processing the rapidly increasing data of the genome sequence; The other is to admit the necessary paradigm shift in biology. As shown above, the complexity and multiplicity of the genomic reality is not so simple. We must go beyond determinism, even if representation of a biological reality reveals the possibility of expressing its constituent elements by the advanced biotechnology. Consequently, in the unstoppable advances of the art of decoding the genome, The Gold Bug Variations interrelates to the interdisciplinary approaches through the rhetorical tropes that unfold the complex discursive world of the genome. Powers shows that the complex mechanisms of the genome in the microworld of every cell as the plot of "the book of life" can be designed and written using DNA language. At the same time, his genomic reading and writing demonstrate the historical processes of the shifting center of new genomic development and polysemous interpretation.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.137-149
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• 2020

Several multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithms have achieved overwhelming results in recent years. They have demonstrated their potential in solving complex problems in the field of real-time strategy online games, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. However these algorithms face many challenges when dealing with massive problem spaces in sparse reward environments. Based on the centralized training and decentralized execution (CTDE) architecture, the MARL algorithms discussed in the literature aim to solve the current challenges by formulating novel concepts of inter-agent modeling, credit assignment, multiagent communication, and the exploration-exploitation dilemma. The fundamental objective of this paper is to deliver a comprehensive survey of existing MARL algorithms based on the problem statements rather than on the technologies. We also discuss several experimental frameworks to provide insight into the use of these algorithms and to motivate some promising directions for future research.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.722-730
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• 2008

This paper proposes two novel algorithms enabling mobile robots to cooperate with each other in a reliability-based system and a time-critical system. In the reliability-based cooperative system, the concepts of a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) and an object entropy are adopted in order to coordinate a specific task. A logical robot group is created based on the exchange of request and reply messages in a robot communication group whose organization depends on transmission range. In the time-critical cooperative system, relational entropy is used to define the relationship between mobile robots. A group leader is selected based on optimizing power consumption. The proposed algorithm has been verified based on the computer-based simulation and soccer robot experiment. The performance metrics are defined. The metrics include the number of messages needed to make a logical robot group and to obtain the relationship of robots and the power consumption to select a group leader. They are verified by simulation and experiment.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1233-1250
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• 2016

Cracks in plate-like structures are some of the main reasons for destruction of the entire structure. In this study, a novel two-stage methodology is proposed for damage detection of flexural plates using an optimized artificial neural network. In the first stage, location of damages in plates is investigated using curvature-moment and curvature-moment derivative concepts. After detecting the damaged areas, the equations for damage severity detection are solved via Bat Algorithm (BA). In the second stage, in order to efficiently reduce the computational cost of model updating during the optimization process of damage severity detection, multiple damage location assurance criterion index based on the frequency change vector of structures are evaluated using properly trained cascade feed-forward neural network (CFNN) as a surrogate model. In order to achieve the most generalized neural network as a surrogate model, its structure is optimized using binary version of BA. To validate this proposed solution method, two examples are presented. The results indicate that after determining the damage location based on curvature-moment derivative concept, the proposed solution method for damage severity detection leads to significant reduction of computational time compared with direct finite element method. Furthermore, integrating BA with the efficient approximation mechanism of finite element model, maintains the acceptable accuracy of damage severity detection.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.62-72
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• 2007

Since the ABEEK has been launched in 2000, many educational programs have been accredited by the ABEEK so far, and lots of programs nationwide are under preparation for the accreditation. However, most of institutes are suffering from the new accreditation system that requires some novel concepts of engineering education, so called, outcomes-based and demand-driven education processes. In this paper, the effective managerial schemes obtained from several years experiences of an accredited program are summarized. Especially, specific contents of the 7 accreditation criteria those need to be periodically documented are recommended and the effective processes for each item are described in detail.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1596-1604
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• 2013

Coordinating operation between large-scale wind power and thermal units in multiple time scale is an important problem to keep power balance, especially for the power grids mainly made up of large coal-fired units. The paper proposes a novel operation mode of multi-scale unit commitment (abbr. UC) that includes mid-term UC and day-ahead UC, which can take full advantage of insufficient flexibility and improve wind power accommodation. First, we introduce the concepts of multi-scale UC and then illustrate the benefits of introducing mid-term UC to the wind-coal intensive grid. The paper then formulates the mid-term UC model, proposes operation performance indices and validates the optimal operation mode by simulation cases. Compared with day-ahead UC only, the multi-scale UC mode could reduce the total generation cost and improve the wind power net benefit by decreasing the coal-fired units' on/off operation. The simulation results also show that the maximum total generation benefit should be pursued rather than the wind power utilization rate in wind-coal intensive system.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Artificial insemination technique has been contributed immensely for production of livestock worldwide as a critical assisted reproductive technique to preserve and propagate excellent genes in domestic animal industry. In the past decade, methods for semen preservation have been improved mostly in liquid preservation method for boar semen and freezing method for bull semen. Among many factors affecting semen quality during preservation, reactive oxygen species, produced by aerobic respiration in sperm for survival and motility, are unfavorable to sperm physiology. In mammalian cell as well as in the sperm, antioxidant system plays a role in degradation of reactive oxygen species. Magnetized water forms smaller stabilizing water clusters, resulting in high absorption and permeability of the cell for water, implicating its application for semen preservation. Therefore, this review focuses on preservation methods of boar and bull semen with respect to improvement of extender and reduction of reactive oxygen species by using magnetized water and supplementation of antioxidants.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.109-136
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• 2008

In this survey paper, we discuss biomedical ontologies and major text mining techniques applied to biomedicine and healthcare. Biomedical ontologies such as UMLS are currently being adopted in text mining approaches because they provide domain knowledge for text mining approaches. In addition, biomedical ontologies enable us to resolve many linguistic problems when text mining approaches handle biomedical literature. As the first example of text mining, document clustering is surveyed. Because a document set is normally multiple topic, text mining approaches use document clustering as a preprocessing step to group similar documents. Additionally, document clustering is able to inform the biomedical literature searches required for the practice of evidence-based medicine. We introduce Swanson's UnDiscovered Public Knowledge (UDPK) model to generate biomedical hypotheses from biomedical literature such as MEDLINE by discovering novel connections among logically-related biomedical concepts. Another important area of text mining is document classification. Document classification is a valuable tool for biomedical tasks that involve large amounts of text. We survey well-known classification techniques in biomedicine. As the last example of text mining in biomedicine and healthcare, we survey information extraction. Information extraction is the process of scanning text for information relevant to some interest, including extracting entities, relations, and events. We also address techniques and issues of evaluating text mining applications in biomedicine and healthcare.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.537-542
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• 2015

SNOMED CT, which is a standard clinical terminology, imposes an ambiguity problem of terminology selections caused by its huge expressive power and structural complexity. It is very difficult to distinguish similar terms and to select an appropriate term among them within short consultation hours. This paper analyzes the ambiguity problem and proposes a novel scheme for comparative search of similar terms. The proposed scheme provides a differential view of similar terms by defining a "is-not-a" relationship based on the hierarchical structure of the concepts. The result of this work improves the utilization of SNOMED CT such that medical officers can efficiently select an appropriate term among similar terms which represents patient's status adequately.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.547-558
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• 2007

This paper proposes a simpler solution to the stabilization problem of a special class of nonlinear underactuated mechanical systems which includes widely studied benchmark systems like Inertia Wheel Pendulum, TORA and Acrobot. Complex internal dynamics and lack of exact feedback linearizibility of these systems makes design of control law a challenging task. Stabilization of these systems has been achieved using Energy Shaping and damping injection and Backstepping technique. Former results in hybrid or switching architectures that make stability analysis complicated whereas use of backstepping some times requires closed form explicit solutions of highly nonlinear equations resulting from partial feedback linearization. It also exhibits the phenomenon of explosions of terms resulting in a highly complicated control law. Exploiting recently introduced Dynamic Surface Control technique and using control Lyapunov function method, a novel nonlinear controller design is presented as a solution to these problems. The stability of the closed loop system is analyzed by exploiting its two-time scale nature and applying concepts from Singular Perturbation Theory. The design procedure is shown to be simpler and more intuitive than existing designs. Design has been applied to important benchmark systems belonging to the class demonstrating controller design simplicity. Advantages over conventional Energy Shaping and Backstepping controllers are analyzed theoretically and performance is verified using numerical simulations.