Prediction of seasonal infectious disease spread is traditionally dealt with as a function of time. Typical methods are time series analysis such as ARIMA (autoregressive, integrated, and moving average) or ANN (artificial neural networks). However, if we regard the time series data as the matrix form, e.g., consisting of yearly magnitude in row and weekly trend in column, we may expect to use a different method (matrix approach) to predict the disease spread when seasonality is dominant. The MD (matrix decomposition) method is the one method which is used in recommendation systems. The other is the IRT (item response theory) used in ability evaluation systems. In this paper, we apply these two methods to predict the disease spread in the case of infectious gastroenteritis caused by norovirus in Japan, and compare the results obtained by using two conventional methods in forecasting, ARIMA and ANN. We have found that the matrix approach is simple and useful in prediction for the seasonal infectious disease spread.

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A connected-(r,s)-out-of-(m,n): F system is a kind of the connected-X-out-of-(m,n): F system defined by Boehme et al. [2]. A connected-(r,s)-out-of-(m,n): F system consists of m×n components arranged in (m,n)-matrix. This system fails if and only if there exists a grid of size r×s in which all components are failed. When m=r, this system can be regarded as a consecutive-s-out-of-n: F system, and then the optimal arrangement of this system satisfies theorem which stated by Malon [9] in the case of s=2. In this study, we proposed a new algorithm for obtaining optimal arrangement of the connected-(r,2)-out-of-(m,n): F system based on the above mentioned idea. We performed numerical experiments in order to compare the proposed algorithm with the algorithm of enumeration method, and calculated the order of the computation time of these two algorithms. The numerical experiments showed that the proposed algorithm was more efficiently than the algorithm of enumeration method.

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In this paper we discuss the system failure probability of a k-out-of-n system considering common-cause failures. The conventional implicit technique is first introduced. Then the failure probabilities are formulated when the independence between common-cause failure events is assumed. We also provide algorithms to enumerate all the cut sets and the minimal cut sets, and to calculate the system failure probability. These methods are extendable to the case of systems with non-identical components. We verify the effectiveness of our method by comparison with the exact solution obtained by numerical calculation.

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We discuss software reliability assessment considering multiple changes of software fault-detection phenomenon. The testing-time when the characteristic of the software failure-occurrence or fault-detection phenomenon changes notably in the testing-phase of a software development process is called change-point. It is known that the occurrence of the change-point influences the accuracy for the software reliability assessment based on a software reliability growth models, which are mainly divided into software failure-occurrence time and fault counting models. This paper discusses software reliability growth modeling frameworks considering with the effect of the multiple change-point occurrence on the software reliability growth process in software failure-occurrence time and fault counting modeling. And we show numerical illustrations for the software reliability analyses based on our models by using actual data.

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In this paper we consider two non-parametric estimation methods for software reliability assessment without specifying the fault-detection time distribution, where the underlying stochastic process to describe software fault-counts in the system testing is given by a non-homogeneous Poisson process. The resulting data-driven methodologies can give the useful probabilistic information on the software reliability assessment under the incomplete knowledge on fault-detection time distribution. Throughout examples with real software fault data, it is shown that the proposed methods provide more accurate estimation results than the common parametric approach.

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This paper considers how to evaluate the resiliency for virtualized system with software rejuvenation. The software rejuvenation is a proactive technique to prevent the failure caused by aging phenomenon such as resource exhaustion. In particular, according to Gohsh et al. (2010), we compute a quantitative criterion to evaluate resiliency of system by using continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC). In addition, in order to convert general state-based models to CTMCs, we employ PH (phase-type) expansion technique. In numerical examples, we investigate the resiliency of virtualized system with software rejuvenation under two different rejuvenation policies.

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A new modeling approach for the non-homogeneous Poisson processes (NHPPs) based software reliability modeling is proposed to describe the stochastic behavior of software fault-detection processes, of which the failure rate is not monotonic. The fundamental idea is to apply the Marshall-Olkin distribution to the software fault-detection time distribution. The applicability of Marshall-Olkin distribution in software reliability modeling is studied. The data fitting abilities of the proposed NHPP-based software reliability model is compared with the existing typical ones through real software project data analysis.

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The main purpose of this paper is to propose overtime replacement policies for the system which has a finite life cycle. The newly proposed overtime technique, where the system is replaced preventively at the first completion of some working cycle over a planned time T, is employed into modelings to avoid operational interruptions for successive jobs. We consider two overtime replacement model with finite operating interval which S is given as (i) constant interval, and (ii) random interval. The expected replacement costs per unit of time are obtained and their optimal solutions are discussed analytically. Further, numerical examples are given when the failure time has a Weibull distribution and working cycles are exponentially distributed.

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A one-shot system is a system that can be used only once during its life, and whose failures are detected only through inspections. In this paper, we discuss an inspection policy problem of one-shot system composed of multi-unit in series. Failed units are minimally repaired when failures are detected and all units in the system are replaced when the nth failure is detected after the last replacement. We derive the expected cost rate approximately. Our goal is to determine the optimal inspection policy that minimizes the expected cost rate.

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In this paper, we study on an availability analysis for a multibase system with lateral resupply of spare items between bases. We construct a basic model that a spare item of a base is transported for operation to another base without spare upon occurrence of failure, and simultaneously, the base that supplies the spare item receives the failed item of the other base for repair. We propose an approximation method to obtain the availability of the system and show the accuracy of the solution through numerical experiments. Also, two modified models are constructed to show the efficiency of the basic model. The two models modify the assumption on the lateral resupply of spare items between bases in the basic model. We numerically illustrate that the basic model can increase the availability of the system compared with the two modified models through Monte Carlo simulation.

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In this letter we develop a software reliability modeling framework by introducing the Burr XII distributions to software fault-detection time. An extension to deal with software metrics data characterizing the product size, program complexity or testing expenditure is also proposed. Finally, we investigate the goodness-of-fit performance and compare our new models with the existing ones through real data analyses.

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In this study, we investigate whether copula modeling contributes to the improvement of reliability evaluation in a cascading failure-occurrence environment. In particular, as a basic problem, we focus on a 2-unit parallel system whose units may fail dependently each other. As a result, the reliability assessment of the system by using the maximal copula provides more accurate evaluation than the traditional Weibull analysis, if the degree of dependency between two units are high. We show this result by using several simulation studies.

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Real-time high-quality reverberation simulation plays an important role in many modern applications, such as computer games and virtual reality. Traditional physically and perceptually-based reverberation simulation techniques, however, suffer from the high computational cost and lack of the specific characteristics of the enclosure. In this paper, a hybrid reverberation simulation approach is proposed in which early reflections are reproduced by convolving with the impulse response modeled by the image-source method and late reverberation is reproduced by the feedback delay network. A parametric predictor of energy decay relief is presented for the modeled early reflections and then exploited to compute the parameters of the feedback delay network. This ensures the smooth transition in the time-frequency domain from early to late reflections. Numerical simulation and listening tests validate the effectiveness of this proposed hybrid reverberation simulation approach.

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In this paper, synchronization for uncertain fractional order chaotic systems is investigated. By using the fractional order extension of the Lyapunov stability criterion, a linear feedback controller and an adaptive controller are designed for synchronizing uncertain fractional order chaotic systems without and with unknown external disturbance, respectively. Quadratic Lyapunov functions are used in the stability analysis of fractional-order systems, and fractional order adaptation law is constructed to update design parameter. The proposed methods can guarantee that the synchronization error converges to zero asymptotically. Finally, illustrative examples are given to confirm the theoretical results.

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We consider the exploration problem with a single agent in an undirected graph. The problem requires the agent starting from an arbitrary node to explore all the nodes and edges in the graph and return to the starting node. Our goal is to minimize both the number of agent moves and the memory size of the agent, which dominate the amount of communication during the exploration. We focus on the local memory called the whiteboard of each node. There are several exploration algorithms which are very fast (i.e. the exploration is completed within a small number of agent moves such as 2m and m+3n) and do not use whiteboards. These algorithms, however, require large agent memory because the agent must keep the entire information in its memory to explore a graph. We achieve the above goal by reducing the agent memory size of such algorithms with using whiteboards. Specifically, we present two algorithms with no agent memory based on the traditional depth-first traversal and two algorithms with O(n) and O(nlog n) space of agent memory respectively based on the fastest algorithms in the literature by Panaite and Pelc [J. Alg., Vol.33 No.2, 1999].

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In social websites, users acquire information from adjacent neighbors as well as distant users by seeking along hyperlinks, and therefore, information diffusions, also seen as processes of “user infection”, show both cascading and jumping routes in social networks. Currently, existing analysis suffers from the difficulty in distinguishing between the impacts of information seeking behaviors, i.e. random walks, and other factors leading to user infections. To this end, we present a mechanism to recognize and measure influences of random walks on information diffusions. Firstly, we propose the concept of information propagation structure (IPS), which is also a directed acyclic graph, to represent frequent information diffusion routes in social networks. In IPS, we represent “jumping routes” as virtual arcs and regard them as the traces of random walks. Secondly, we design a frequent IPS mining algorithm (FIPS). By considering descendant node infections as a consequence of ancestor node infections in IPS, we can use a Bayesian network to model each IPS, and learn parameters based on the records of information diffusions passing through the IPS. Finally, we present a quantitative description method of random walks influence, the method is based on Bayesian probabilistic inferring in IPS, which is used to determine the ancestors, whose infection causes the infection of target users. We also employ betweenness centralities of arcs to evaluate contributions of random walks to certain infections. Experiments are carried out with real datasets and simulations. The results show random walks are influential in early and steady phases of information diffusions. They help diffusions pass through some topology limitations in social networks.

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Code-based public-key encryption schemes (PKE) are the candidates for post-quantum cryptography, since they are believed to resist the attacks using quantum algorithms. The most famous such schemes are the McEliece encryption and the Niederreiter encryption. In this paper, we present the zero-knowledge (ZK) proof systems for proving statements about data encrypted using these schemes. Specifically, we present a proof of plaintext knowledge for both PKE's, and also a verifiable McEliece PKE. The main ingredients of our constructions are the ZK identification schemes by Stern from Crypto'93 and by Jain, Krenn, Pietrzak, and Tentes from Asiacrypt'12.

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An Authenticated Encryption scheme is used to guarantee both privacy and authenticity of digital data. At FSE 2014, an authenticated encryption scheme called CLOC was proposed. CLOC is designed to handle short input data efficiently without needing heavy precomputation nor large memory. This is achieved by making various cases of different treatments in the encryption process depending on the input data. Five tweak functions are used to handle the conditional branches, and they are designed to satisfy 55 differential probability constraints, which are used in the security proof of CLOC. In this paper, we show that all these 55 constraints are necessary. This shows the design optimality of the tweak functions in CLOC in that the constraints cannot be relaxed, and hence the specification of the tweak functions cannot be simplified.

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This paper proposes a construction method of binary Z-periodic complementary sequence set (Z-PCSs) based on binary aperiodic complementary sequence pair (Golay pair) and interleaved technique. The constructed set is optimal or almost optimal with respect to the theoretical bound in different conditons. The set can be used in multi-carrier code division multiple access communication systems. The designed sequence has periodic complementary characteristics, which lead to a strong ability to resist multi-path interference and multiple access interference.

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A novel high common-mode (CM) suppression wideband balanced passband filter (BPF) is proposed using the stub centrally loaded slotline resonators (SCLSR) which have two resonant frequencies (odd- and even-modes) in the desired passband. The odd-mode resonant frequency of the slotline SCLSR can be flexibly controlled by the stub, whereas the even-mode one is fixed. Meanwhile, a transmission zero near the odd-mode resonant frequency can be generated due to the main path signal counteraction. First, the wideband single-ended BPF and corresponding balanced BPF are designed based on the slotline SCLSR with the parallel coupled microstrip line input/output (I/O). Ultra wideband high CM suppression that can be achieved for the slotline resonator structure has no resonant mode under CM excitation. Furthermore, by folding the parallel coupled microstrip line I/O, the source-load coupling is effectively decoupled to improve the CM suppression within the passband. The high suppression wideband balanced BPF is fabricated and measured, respectively. Good agreement between simulation and measurement results is obtained.

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Most of the current voice conversion methods are conducted based on parallel speech, which is not easily obtained in practice. In this letter, a novel iterative speaker model alignment (ISMA) method is proposed to address this problem. First, the source and target speaker models are each trained from the background model by adopting maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm. Then, a novel ISMA method is presented for alignment and transformation of spectral features. Finally, the proposed ISMA approach is further combined with a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to improve the conversion performance. A series of objective and subjective experiments are carried out on CMU ARCTIC dataset, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art approach.

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This letter deals with direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimate problem based on gravitational search algorithm (GSA) with multiple signal classification (MUSIC) criterion for code-division multiple access (CDMA) signals. It has been shown that the estimate accuracy of the searching-based MUSIC estimator strictly depends on the number of search grids used during the search process, which is time consuming and the required number of search grids is not clear to determine. In conjunction with the GSA-based optimization, the high resolution DOA estimation can be obtained; meanwhile the searching grid size is no need to know previously. In this letter, we firstly present a GSA-based DOA estimator with MUSIC criterion under high interferer-to-noise ratio circumstances. Second, for the purpose to increase the estimation accuracy, we also propose an improved GSA with adaptive multiple accelerations, which depend on Newton-Raphson method. Several computer simulations are provided for illustration and comparison.

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In this letter, we propose Dynamic Linear Bellman Combination that allows us to composite optimal policies of Kullback-Leibler control for similar tasks with different terminal and non-terminal costs. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

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Given a graph G, a set of spanning trees of G are completely independent if for any vertices x and y, the paths connecting them on these trees have neither vertex nor edge in common, except x and y. In this paper, we prove that for graphs of order n, with n ≥ 6, if the minimum degree is at least n-2, then there are at least ⌊n/3⌋ completely independent spanning trees.

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In this letter, we present a meet-in-the-middle attack on the 5-round reduced Kuznyechik cipher which has been recently chosen to be standardized by the Russian federation. Our attack is based on the differential enumeration approach. However, the application of the exact approach is not successful on Kuznyechik due to its optimal round diffusion properties. Accordingly, we adopt an equivalent representation for the last round where we can efficiently filter ciphertext pairs and launch the attack in the chosen ciphertext setting. We also utilize partial sequence matching which further reduces the memory and time complexities. For the 5-round reduced cipher, the 256-bit master key is recovered with an online time complexity of 2^140.3, a memory complexity of 2^153.3, and a data complexity of 2¹¹³.

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For an odd prime p and a positive integer r, new classes of binary sequences with period p^r+1 are proposed from Euler quotients in this letter, which include several known classes of binary sequences derived from Fermat quotients and Euler quotients as special cases. The advantage of the new constructions is that they allow one to choose their support sets freely. Furthermore, with some constrains on the support set, the new sequences are proved to possess large linear complexities under the assumption of 2^p-1 ≢ 1 mod p².

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By investigating the properties that the offsets should satisfy, this letter presents a brief proof of general QAM Golay complementary sequences (GCSs) in Cases I-III constructions. Our aim is to provide a brief, clear, and intelligible derivation so that it is easy for the reader to understand the known Cases I-III constructions of general QAM GCSs.

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Let v=p₁^m₁p₂^m₂…p_t^m_t be the canonical prime factorization of v. In this paper, we give a construction of optimal ((s+1)×v,s+1,1) two-dimensional optical orthogonal codes with both at most one-pulse per wavelength and at most one-pulse per time slot, where s | gcd(p₁-1,p₂-1,...,p_t-1). The method is much simpler than that in [1]. Optimal (m×v,k,1) two-dimensional optical orthogonal codes are also constructed based on the Steiner system S[2,k,m].

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