Four ICS research posters have been accepted for presentation at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) after a rigorous review by the committee members of NAST's different technical forums. The 30th ASM will be held at the Manila Hotel on 9-10 July 2008. The research posters are:

1. Training-Less Optical Recognition of Printed Characters Using Equation Fitting by R.M. Matugas and J.P. PABICO. Forum: Chemical, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences Division.
2. Visualizing Relationships in Hypertext Documents Using Quasi-Hierarchical Graphs in 3D Hyperbolic Space by T.J.K.P. Monserrat and J.P. PABICO. Forum: Engineering Sciences and Technology Division.

R.M. Matugas and J.P. PABICO. 2008. Transactions of the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines 30(1):163-164.

Abstract

We present a novel computational method for optical recognition of printed characters based on our observation that a character image can be divided into several partitions, where each represents a simple mathematical equation. In this paper, we derived a set of mathematical equations to respectively fit parts of an alphanumeric character. Using these equations in tandem with digital image processing, we can identify characters without going through tedious supervised machine training sequences where large samples of learning patterns is required.

J.P. PABICO, E.R.E. Mojica and J.R.L. Micor. 2008. Transactions of the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines 30(1):117.

Abstract

The human genome consists of a sequence of gene base pairs that generate proteins called exons. Exons are bounded by subsequences, called introns, that are spliced out prior to translation. In RNA splicing, the current procedure followed by researchers to recognize the gene boundaries is the GU-AG heuristic which has the following motif: exon/GU-intron-AG/exon. However, this motif occurs so frequently that a typical intron will contain several GUs and AGs within it, resulting in many false boundaries being recognized.

T.J.K.P. Monserrat and J.P. PABICO. 2008. Transactions of the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines 30(1):187.

Abstract

The formation of abstract interactive visual metaphors has been used in recent years to detect and discover relationships among dynamic data in large information spaces. Representing a web site’s logical structure via these abstract metaphors can help web designers, engineers, administrators, content authors, and users in managing and maintaining the vast information the web site represents. This paper describes a space-efficient visualization model that automatically crawls through a website and renders a visualization of its entire sitemap.

J.P. PABICO and C.C.P. Arevalo. 2008. Transactions of the National Academy of Science and Technology of the Philippines 30(1):220.

Abstract

The prevalent use of the street lingo “Friendster” to refer to a friend is evidence that the Internet has become a pervasive entity that influences Filipinos. Because the Internet has become an ubiquitous medium for faceless and remote social interaction via services called social networking, data such as gender, geographic location, age and a person's list of friends have become readily available, making it possible to analyze on a community-scale the demography and the friendship characteristics of a population, without resorting to the traditional procedure of surveying a population sample. We developed a computer program that extracted the demographic and friendship data of 7,172 Friendster™ members whose listed hometown is Los Baños, Laguna.

J.P. PABICO. In Proceedings (CD-ROM) of the Joint 19th Philippine Agricultural Engineering Week, 58th Philippine Society of Agricultural Engineers Annual National Convention, and 6th International Agricultural Engineering Conference and Exhibition, College, Laguna, Philippines, 21-25 April 2008.

Abstract

The Ceres-Rice model requires as inputs crop- and cultivar-specific data that provide coefficients for considering the effects of the gene-environment interactions of a rice cultivar. Crop modelers use two techniques to calculate these coefficients: By trial-and-error, which is tedious to implement and error-prone, even when performed by expert modelers; Or by the use of the Genetic Coefficient Calculator (GENCALC), which uses a deterministic stepwise procedure to automatically adjust the coefficients with values within the plant's realistic physiological ranges, but often results with non-optimal coefficients. This paper presents a procedure that uses selective breeding as a metaphor and guarantees near-optimal coefficients.

J.P. PABICO and E.R.E. Mojica. 28th Annual Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE) Meeting and Symposium (28th APAMS), Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA, 22-24 May 2008.

Abstract

We present a computational metaphor that uses the dynamics of molecules in chemical systems to solve a set P = {p₁, p₂, ..., p_n} of n unrelated problems simultaneously. The metaphor uses an abstract reactor tank that applies one of (n + 1) catalytic reaction rules to colliding artificial molecular species whose respective structures decode into solutions to the problems being solved.