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We present a new class of asymptotically good, linear error-correcting codes based upon expander graphs. These codes have linear time sequential decoding algorithms, logarithmic time parallel decoding algorithms with a linear number of processors, and are simple to understand. We present both randomized and explicit constructions for some of these codes. Experimental results demonstrate the extremely good performance of the randomly chosen codes. 1. Introduction We present a new class of error correcting codes derived from expander graphs. These codes have the advantage that they can be decoded very efficiently. That makes them particularly suitable for devices which must decode cheaply, such as compact disk players and remote satellite receivers. We hope that the connection we draw between expander graphs and error correcting codes will stimulate research in both fields. 1.1. Error correcting codes An error correcting code is a mapping from messages to codewords such that the mappi...

Representing and reasoning about incomplete and indefinite qualitative temporal information is an essential part of many artificial intelligence tasks. An interval-based framework and a point-based framework have been proposed for representing such temporal information. In this paper, we address two fundamental reasoning tasks that arise in applications of these frameworks: Given possibly indefinite and incomplete knowledge of the relationships between some intervals or points, (i) find a scenario that is consistent with the information provided, and (ii) find the feasible relations between all pairs of intervals or points. For the point-based framework and a restricted version of the intervalbased framework, we give computationally efficient procedures for finding a consistent scenario and for finding the feasible relations. Our algorithms are marked improvements over the previously known algorithms. In particular, we develop an O(n 2 ) time algorithm for finding one co...

We present a new class of asymptotically good, linear error-correcting codes. These codes can be both encoded and decoded in linear time. They can also be encoded by logarithmic-depth circuits of linear size and decoded by logarithmic depth circuits of size 0 (n log n). We present both randomized and explicit constructions of these codes.

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Access anomalies are a common class of bugs in shared-memory parallel programs. An access anomaly occurs when two concurrent execution threads both write (or one thread reads and the other writes) the same shared memory location. Approaches to the detection of access anomalies include static analysis, post-mortem trace analysis, and onthe -fly monitoring. A general on-the-fly algorithm for access anomaly detection is presented, which can be applied to programs with both nested fork-join and synchronization operations. The advantage of on-the-fly detection over post-mortem analysis is that the amount of storage used can be greatly reduced by data compression techniques and by discarding information as soon as it becomes obsolete. In the algorithm presented, the amount of storage required at any time depends only on the number V of shared variables being monitored and the number N of threads, not on the number of synchronizations. Data compression is achieved by the use of two techniques...

In this paper we suggest new scaling algorithms for the assignment and minimum mean cycle problems. Our assignment algorithm is based on applying scaling to a hybrid version of the recent auction algorithm of Bertsekas and the successive shortest path algorithm. The algorithm proceeds by relaxing the optimality conditions, and the amount of relaxation is successively reduced to zero. On a network with 2n nodes, m arcs, and integer arc costs bounded by C, the algorithm runs in O(,/-n m log(nC)) time and uses very simple data structures. This time bound is comparable to the time taken by Gabow and Tarjan's scaling algorithm, and is better than all other time bounds under the similarity assumption, i.e., C = O(n k) for some k. We next consider the minimum mean cycle problem. The mean cost of a cycle is defined as the cost of the cycle divided by the number of arcs it contains. The minimum mean cycle problem is to identify a cycle whose mean cost is minimum. We show that by using ideas of the assignment algorithm in an approximate binary search procedure, the minimum mean cycle problem can also be solved in O(~/n m log nC) time. Under the similarity assumption, this is the best available time bound to solve the minimum mean cycle problem.

We present an algorithm to approximate a set of unorganized points with a simple curve without self-intersections. The moving least-squares method has a good ability to reduce a point cloud to a thin curve-like shape which is a near-best approximation of the point set. In this paper, an improved moving least-squares technique is suggested using Euclidean minimum spanning tree, region expansion and refining iteration. After thinning a given point cloud using the improved moving least-squares technique we can easily reconstruct a smooth curve. As an application, a pipe surface reconstruction algorithm is presented.

Techniques for reasoning about extensional properties of functional programs are well understood, but methods for analysing the underlying intensional or operational properties have been much neglected. This paper begins with the development of a simple but useful calculus for time analysis of non-strict functional programs with lazy lists. One limitation of this basic calculus is that the ordinary equational reasoning on functional programs is not valid. In order to buy back some of these equational properties we develop a non-standard operational equivalence relation called cost equivalence, by considering the number of computation steps as an `observable' component of the evaluation process. We define this relation by analogy with Park's definition of bisimulation in CCS. This formulation allows us to show that cost equivalence is a contextual congruence (and thus is substitutive with respect to the basic calculus) and provides useful proof techniques for establishing cost-equivalen...

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