A new and systematic approach to machine vision-based robot manipulation of deformable (non-rigid) linear objects is introduced. This approach reduces the computational needs by using a simple state-oriented model of the objects. These states describe the relation of the object with respect to an obstacle and are derived from the object image and its features. Therefore, the object is segmented from a standard video frame using a fast segmentation algorithm. Several object features are presented which allow the state recognition of the object while being manipulated by the robot.

Recently, many online social networks, such as MySpace, Orkut, and Friendster, have faced inactivity decay of their members, which contributed to the collapse of these networks. The reasons, mechanics, and prevention mechanisms of such inactivity decay are not fully understood. In this work, we analyze decayed and alive subwebsites from the Stack Exchange platform. The analysis mainly focuses on the inactivity cascades that occur among the members of these communities. We provide measures to understand the decay process and statistical analysis to extract the patterns that accompany the inactivity decay. Additionally, we predict cascade size and cascade virality using machine learning. The results of this work include a statistically significant difference of the decay patterns between the decayed and the alive subwebsites. These patterns are mainly cascade size, cascade virality, cascade duration, and cascade similarity. Additionally, the contributed prediction framework showed satisfactorily prediction results compared to a baseline predictor. Supported by empirical evidence, the main findings of this work are (1) there are significantly different decay patterns in the alive and the decayed subwebsites of the Stack Exchange; (2) the cascade’s node degrees contribute more to the decay process than the cascade’s virality, which indicates that the expert members of the Stack Exchange subwebsites were mainly responsible for the activity or inactivity of the Stack Exchange subwebsites; (3) the Statistics subwebsite is going through decay dynamics that may lead to it becoming fully-decayed; (4) the decay process is not governed by only one network measure, it is better described using multiple measures; (5) decayed subwebsites were originally less resilient to inactivity decay, unlike the alive subwebsites; and (6) network’s structure in the early stages of its evolution dictates the activity/inactivity characteristics of the network.

We present two techniques for reasoning from cases to solve classification tasks: Induction and case-based reasoning. We contrast the two technologies (that are often confused) and show how they complement each other. Based on this, we describe how they are integrated in one single platform for reasoning from cases: The Inreca system.

The goal of PANDA is to provide an environment forparallel and distributed programming in C++. The systemconsists of a small operating system kernel, and a runtimepackage located in user space. In this paper, the conceptsof PANDA are outlined with focus on the systemarchitecture.

Die Bestanderhaltung historischer Bauwerke bedarf gründlicher Voruntersuchung, Qualitätskontrolle und Bauwerksüberwachung, um die Eingriffe in die Denkmalsubstanz zu minimieren und Folgeschäden zu vermeiden. Zerstörungsfreie Prüfmethoden und numerische Modellierungsverfahren bieten heute bewährte und neue Möglichkeiten, gesicherte Kenntnisse über die Bauwerke und die altersbedingten Veränderungen ihrer Baumaterialien zu erzielen und gleichzeitig die Eingriffe für Materialentnahmen und Bauwerksöffnungen zu minimieren. Anhand von Fallbeispielen werden aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse präsentiert. Georadarmessungen werden mit theoretischen Modellierungen kombiniert, um gemessene Anomalien in Materialparametern zu begründen. Moderne Anforderungen wie die energetische Sanierung historischer Gebäude werfen neue Problemfelder auf, für die anhand von Modellierungen des Wärme- und Feuchtetransports Antworten gefunden werden. Die Weiterentwicklung von Ultraschallmesstechnik und Signalauswertung ermöglicht neue Anwendungen bei der Untersuchung verwitterter Sandsteinoberflächen mittels Rayleighwellen.