We introduce a novel and efficient simulation technique for generating physics-based skinning animations of skeleton-driven characters with full support for collision handling. Although physics-based approaches may use a volumetric (e.g. tetrahedral) flesh model, operations such as rendering, collision processing and user manipulation directly involve only the surface of this mesh. Motivated by...

One of the obstacles in a branch-and-cut IP-solving scheme is closing the gap between a known feasible solution and the solution(s) to LP relaxations of the problem. There are, however, a number of real-world problems, where, once an optimal solution is found, its optimality can easily be proved using neither branch-and-bound nor branch-and-cut methods. All one needs to do is find an integral s...

Linear programming problems with alternate solutions are challenging due to the choice of multiple strategiesresulting in the same optimal value of the objective function. However, searching for these solutions is atedious task, especially when using mixed integer linear programming (MILP), as previously applied tometabolic models. Therefore, judgment on plurality of optimal m...

This study demarcates cost-inefficiency in Chinese banks into X-inefficiency and rent-seeking-inefficiency. A protected banking market not only encourages weak management and X-inefficiency but also public ownership and state directed lending encourages moral hazard and bureaucratic rent seeking. This paper uses bootstrap non-parametric techniques to estimate measures of X-inefficiency and rent...

The synthesis and organization of functional nanostructures using self-assembly processes embodies a critical challenge for nanoand meso-science, as twoand three-dimensional (2D and 3D) spontaneous arrangement of nanoscale structural units or building blocks can produce ordered ensembles that exhibit collective functionality at reduced cost with greater efficiency [1,2]. Generating arrays of na...

Internet and information technologies have changed the way people interact and make business all over the world. Unfortunately, this is not completely true in the sense that the fast progress fostered by more dynamic economies has in fact been contributing to widening the so-called digital divide between rich and poor. This is a particularly true for small and medium enterprises in remote commu...

The impact of global slowdown and busted Internet ventures may have led to a rationalized view of the role IT play in businesses. But that has not stopped global 2000 businesses from investing for collaborating with partners and customers. IT has drastically reduced cost of collaboration in the last 20 years. One consequent change in the business environment is the delineation in emphasis on po...

In cloud-computing systems, network-bandwidth guarantees have been shown to improve predictability of application performance and cost [1, 28]. Most previous work on cloud-bandwidth guarantees has assumed that cloud tenants know what bandwidth guarantees they want [1, 17]. However, as we show in this work, application bandwidth demands can be complex and time-varying, and many tenants might lac...

Many roads in the United States have approached the end of their design and/or service lives. In a recent report published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 42% of highways in the United States are congested and cost the economy about $100 billion in wasted time and extra fuel consumption. Due to the poor condition of the national highway network, it has been given a grade “D” ...

Interest in, and use of, remote laboratories has been rapidly growing. These laboratories provide remote access, via the internet, to real laboratory equipment. Under appropriate circumstances they can support or even replace traditional (proximal) laboratories, provide improved access at reduced cost, and encourage inter-institutional sharing of expensive resources. Most attention to date has ...