International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Tests for missile defense systems are very complex, and present challenging issues for the extraction of target lethality data. Future tests will involve the use of multiple interceptors and targets with some of these assets following over-the-horizon (OTH) trajectories. The use of wireless local area network (WLAN) technologies for the acquisition of test data offers a novel approach to manage data bandwidths and link margins over-the-air (OTA) as functions of time and asset. Notional test scenarios are examined for the suitability of WLAN technologies to missile defense intercept testing.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Systems & Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC) compared compression and decompression algorithms and developed optimal forms of lossless and lossy compression for hyperspectral data. We examined the relationship between compression-induced distortion and additive noise, determined the effect of errors on the compressed data, and showed that the data could separate targets from clutter after more than 50:1 compression.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1985 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Military aerospace test ranges are increasingly being called upon to conduct missions utilizing large numbers of participating units, or targets. Precision, position and trajectory data must be recorded on all participants. In addition, weapon/target engagements must be scored and real-time range safety considerations must be accommodated. This requires precision metric data be available in real-time on all participating targets. One solution to these problems, is utilization of multiple target tracking radars which incorporate electronic beam steering to quickly move from one target to another in sequence. This paper briefly recounts the history of range instrumentation radars, points out some of the advantages of using multi-target radars, and highlights the specifications and design of a multiple target instrumentation radar now being acquired by the U.S. Army for use at White Sands Missile Range and the Kwajalein Missile Range.

This thesis deals with the problem of online visual tracking of multiple humans in an enclosed environment. The focus is to develop techniques to deal with the challenges of varying number of targets, inter-target occlusions and interactions when every target gives rise to multiple measurements (pixels) in every video frame. This thesis contains three different contributions to the research in multi-target tracking. Firstly, a multiple target tracking algorithm is proposed which focuses on mitigating the inter-target occlusion problem during complex interactions. This is achieved with the help of a particle filter, multiple video cues and a new interaction model. A Markov chain Monte Carlo particle filter (MCMC-PF) is used along with a new interaction model which helps in modeling interactions of multiple targets. This helps to overcome tracking failures due to occlusions. A new weighted Markov chain Monte Carlo (WMCMC) sampling technique is also proposed which assists in achieving a reduced tracking error. Although effective, to accommodate multiple measurements (pixels) produced by every target, this technique aggregates measurements into features which results in information loss. In the second contribution, a novel variational Bayesian clustering-based multi-target tracking framework is proposed which can associate multiple measurements to every target without aggregating them into features. It copes with complex inter-target occlusions by maintaining the identity of targets during their close physical interactions and handles efficiently a time-varying number of targets. The proposed multi-target tracking framework consists of background subtraction, clustering, data association and particle filtering. A variational Bayesian clustering technique groups the extracted foreground measurements while an improved feature based joint probabilistic data association filter (JPDAF) is developed to associate clusters of measurements to every target. The data association information is used within the particle filter to track multiple targets. The clustering results are further utilised to estimate the number of targets. The proposed technique improves the tracking accuracy. However, the proposed features based JPDAF technique results in an exponential growth of computational complexity of the overall framework with increase in number of targets. In the final work, a novel data association technique for multi-target tracking is proposed which more efficiently assigns multiple measurements to every target, with a reduced computational complexity. A belief propagation (BP) based cluster to target association method is proposed which exploits the inter-cluster dependency information. Both location and features of clusters are used to re-identify the targets when they emerge from occlusions. The proposed techniques are evaluated on benchmark data sets and their performance is compared with state-of-the-art techniques by using, quantitative and global performance measures.

A consistent use of the target language during English lessons is beneficial for pupils’ linguistic development, but also challenging for both teachers and pupils. The main purpose for pupils to learn English is to be able to use it in communication, which requires that they develop the ability to comprehend input, produce output and use language strategies. Several researchers claim that a consistent use of the target language is necessary in order to develop these abilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the target language use during English lessons in Swedish grades 4-6, and what pupils’ opinions regarding target language use are. The methods used to collect data consisted of a pupil questionnaire with 42 respondents and an observation of two teachers’ English lessons during a week’s time. The results from the observations show that the teachers use plenty of target language during lessons, but the first language as well to explain things that pupils might experience difficult to understand otherwise. The results from the questionnaire mainly show that the pupils seem to enjoy English and like to both speak and hear the target language during lessons. The main input comes from listening to a CD with dialogues and exercises in the textbook and the workbook, and from the teacher speaking. The results also show that a majority of the pupils use the target language in their spare time. A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the TL should be used to a large extent in order to support pupils’ linguistic development. However, teachers may sometimes need to use L1 in order to facilitate understanding of the things that many pupils find difficult, for example grammar. Suggestions for further research in this area include similar studies conducted on a larger scale. / <p>Engelska</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Computing and Information Sciences / Scott A. DeLoach / Xinming (Simon) Ou / The Moving Target Defense (MTD) concept has been proposed as an approach to rebalance the security landscape by increasing uncertainty and apparent complexity for attackers, reducing their window of opportunity, and raising the costs of their reconnaissance and attack efforts. Intuitively, the idea of applying MTD techniques to a whole IT system should provide enhanced security; however, little research has been done to show that it is feasible or beneficial to the system’s security. This dissertation presents an MTD platform at the whole IT system level in which any component of the IT system can be automatically and reliably replaced with a fresh new one. A component is simply a virtual machine (VM) instance or a cluster of instances. There are a number of security benefits when leveraging such an MTD platform. Replacing a VM instance with a new one with the most up-to-date operating system and applications eliminates security problems caused by unpatched vulnerabilities and all the privileges the attacker has obtained on the old instance. Configuration parameters for the new instance, such as IP address, port numbers for services, and credentials, can be changed from the old ones, invalidating the knowledge the attackers already obtained and forcing them to redo the work to re-compromise the new instance. In spite of these obvious security benefits, building a system that supports live replacement with minimal to no disruption to the IT system’s normal operations is difficult. Modern enterprise IT systems have complex dependencies among services so that changing even a single instance will almost certainly disrupt the dependent services. Therefore, the replacement of instances must be carefully orchestrated with updating the settings of the dependent instances. This orchestration of changes is notoriously error-prone if done manually, however, limited tool support is available to automate this process. We designed and built a framework (ANCOR) that captures the requirements and needs of a whole IT system (in particular, dependencies among various services) and compiles them into a working IT system. ANCOR is at the core of the proposed MTD platform (ANCOR-MTD) and enables automated live instance replacements. In order to evaluate the platform’s practicality, this dissertation presents a series of experiments on multiple IT systems that show negligible (statistically non-significant) performance impacts. To evaluate the platform’s efficacy, this research analyzes costs versus security benefits by quantifying the outcome (sizes of potential attack windows) in terms of the number of adaptations, and demonstrates that an IT system deployed and managed using the proposed MTD platform will increase attack difficulty.

Semiconductor scaling has been largely driven by advancements in lithographic technologies. However, the lack of a viable next generation lithography solution since the 180nm node has driven the industry to printing sub-wavelength features. This has led to rising manufacturing costs and diminishing chip yield. In traditional methodologies, manufacturing and design are relatively insulated, with a layout being the only means of communicating design intent to the foundry. In this dissertation, we describe several techniques which utilize electrical information to improve properties of manufactured structures. We aim to show that a bi-directional flow of information between design and manufacturing is key to increasing chip yield. In particular, we target the mask data preparation flow of lithography. We develop an electrically-driven optical proximity correction (ED-OPC) tool that performs electrical matching as opposed to geometric matching in order to achieve lower post-lithography delay error. We then demonstrate how to harness ED-OPC to compensate electrical variability arising from non-lithographic sources as well. We then describe a technique to manufacture circuits with less timing violations across the process window by using design-aware shape tolerances generated from timing information. Finally, we observe that local wiring has low impact on design properties and use this information to modify target wire shapes themselves in order to improve their manufacturability in the presence of process variations. / text

When hostile missile raids are launched, protecting allied assets requires that many targets be tracked simultaneously. In these raids, it is possible that the number of missiles could outnumber the sensors available to measure them. In these situations, communication between sensors can be utilized along with dynamic task planning to increase the amount of knowledge available concerning these missiles. Since any allied decisions must depend on the knowledge available from the sensors, it follows that improving the overall knowledge will improve the ability of allies to protect their assets through improved decision making. The goal of the this research effort is to create a Sensor Resource Management (SRM) algorithm to optimize the information available during these missile raids, as well as strengthening the simulation framework required to evaluate the performance of the SRM. The SRM must be capable of near-real-time run time so that it could potentially be deployed in a real-world system. The SRM must be capable of providing time-varying assignments to sensors, allowing more than one target to be observed by a single sensor. The SRM must predict measurements based on sensor models to assess the potential information gain by each assignment. Using these predictions, an optimal allocation of all sensors must be constructed. The initial simulation, upon which this work was built, was capable of simulating a set number of missiles launched simultaneously, providing appropriate charts to display the accuracy of knowledge on each target as well as their predicted impact locations. Communication delays are implemented within the simulation, and sensor models are refined. In refining the sensor models, they are given geometric limitations such as range and viewing angles. Additionally, simulated measurements incorporate geometric considerations to provide more realistic values. The SRM is also improved to account for the details added to the simulation. These improvements include creating assignment schedules and allowing a time-varying numbers of targets. The resulting simulation and SRM are presented, and potential future work is discussed. / text

In recent years, the impressive progress performed in imaging, computational and technological fields have made possible the emergence of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and adaptive radiation therapy (ART). The accuracy in radiation dose delivery reached by IMRT offers the possibility to increase locoregional dose-intensity, potentially overcoming the poor tumor control achieved by standard approaches. However, before implementing such a technique in clinical routine, a particular attention has to be paid at the target volumes definition and delineation procedures to avoid inadequate dosage to TVs/OARs. In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the GTV is typically defined on CT acquired prior to treatment. However, providing functional information about the tumor, FDG-PET might advantageously complete the classical CT-Scan to better define the TVs. Similarly, re-imaging the tumor with optimal imaging modality might account for the constantly changing anatomy and tumor shape occurring during the course of fractionated radiotherapy. Integrating this information into the treatment planning might ultimately lead to a much tighter dose distribution. From a methodological point of view, the delineation of TVs on anatomical or functional images is not a trivial task. Firstly, the poor soft tissue contrast provided by CT comes out of large interobserver variability in GTV delineation. In this regard, we showed that the use of consistent delineation guidelines significantly improved consistency between observers, either with CT and with MRI. Secondly, the intrinsic characteristics of PET images, including the blur effect and the high level of noise, make the detection of the tumor edges arduous. In this context, we developed specific image restoration tools, i.e. edge-preserving filters for denoising, and deconvolution algorithms for deblurring. This procedure restores the image quality, allowing the use of gradient-based segmentation techniques. This method was validated on phantom and patient images, and proved to be more accurate and reliable than threshold-based methods. Using these segmentation methods, we proved that GTVs significantly shrunk during radiotherapy in patients with HNSCC, whatever the imaging modality used (MRI, CT, FDG-PET). No clinically significant difference was found between CT and MRI, while FDG-PET provided significantly smaller volumes than those based on anatomical imaging. Refining the target volume delineation by means of functional and sequential imaging ultimately led to more optimal dose distribution to TVs with subsequent soft tissue sparing. In conclusion, we demonstrated that a multi-modality-based adaptive planning is feasible in HN tumors and potentially opens new avenues for dose escalation strategies. As a high level of accuracy is required by such approach, the delineation of TVs however requires a special care.

Previous research has shown that simultaneous auditory identification of the target in a visual search task can lead to more efficient (i. e. ?flatter?) search functions (Spivey et al. , 2001). Experiment 1 replicates the paradigm of Spivey et al. , providing subjects with auditory identification of the search target either before (<em>Consecutive</em> condition) or simultaneously with (<em>Concurrent</em> condition) the onset of the search task. RT x Set Size slopes in the <em>Concurrent</em> condition are approximately 1/2 as steep as those in the <em>Consecutive</em> condition. Experiment 2 employs a distractor ratio manipulation to test the notion that subjects are using the simultaneous auditory target identification to ?parse? the search set by colour, thus reducing the search set by 1/2. The results of Experiment 2 do not support the notion that subjects are parsing the search set by colour. Experiment 3 addresses the same question as Experiment 2, but obtains the desired distractor ratios by holding the amount of relevantly-coloured items constant while letting overall set size vary. Unlike Experiment 2, Experiment 3 supports the interpretation that subjects are using the auditory target identification to parse the search set.