We study second-degree price discrimination in markets where the product traded by the monopolist is access to other agents. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the welfareand the profit-maximizing mechanisms to employ a single network or a menu of non-exclusive networks. We characterize the optimal matching schedules under a wide range of preferences, derive implications for pric...

Based on artistic techniques for the creation of stained glass, we introduce a method to automatically create images in stained glass stylization of images. Our algorithm first applies segmentation, and performs region simplification to merge and simplify the segments. The system then queries a database of glass swatch images and computes an optimal matching subset based on color and texture me...

In this paper we study some properties of 3D objects such as compactness, the work done in object transformations and the number of voxels to be moved in order to normalize a similarity measure of an appropriate set of 3D objects. Voxel representation and scale normalization allow us to find the total distance of a set of voxels from one object to another. For these purposes, the comparison of ...

For application domains like 11 vs. 11 robot soccer league, crowd surveillance and air traffic control, vision systems need to be able to identify and maintain information in real time about multiple objects as they move through an environment using video images. In this paper, we reduce the multi-object tracking problem to a bipartite graph matching and present efficient techniques that comput...

A distinctive feature of a clustered observational study is its multilevel or nested data structure arising from the assignment of treatment, in a non-random manner, to groups or clusters of units or individuals. Examples are ubiquitous in the health and social sciences including patients in hospitals, employees in firms, and students in schools. What is the optimal matching strategy in a clust...

Background: In the context of the recent Greek economic crisis and its detrimental impact on healthcare system as well as the complete absence of a mechanism to map and plan human resources, a need for rethinking healthcare workforce management at a national level was emerged. Objectives: The aim of the study was to identify factors that influence the current and future demand for and supply of...

We describe an elasting matching procedure between plane curves based on computing a minimal deformation cost between the curves. The design of the deformation cost is based on a geodesic distance deened on an innnite dimensional group acting on the curves. The geodesic paths also provide an optimal deformation process, which allows to interpolate between any plane curves.

Twitter and other social media provide the functionality of manually grouping users into lists. The goal is to enable selective viewing of content and easier information acquisition. However, creating lists manually requires significant time and effort. To mitigate this effort, a number of recent methods attempt to create lists automatically using content and/or network structure, but results a...