OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
S+Net: extending functional coordination with extra-functional semantics
Venue: arXiv cs.PL 2013
Year: 2013

This technical report introduces S+Net, a compositional coordination language for streaming networks with extra-functional semantics. Compositionality simplifies the specification of complex parallel and distributed applications; extra-functional semantics allow the application designer to reason about and control resource usage, performance and fault handling. The key feature of S+Net is that functional and extra-functional semantics are defined orthogonally from each other. S+Net can be seen as a simultaneous simplification and extension of the existing coordination language S-Net, that gives control of extra-functional behavior to the S-Net programmer. S+Net can also be seen as a transitional research step between S-Net and AstraKahn, another coordination language currently being designed at the University of Hertfordshire. In contrast with AstraKahn which constitutes a re-design from the ground up, S+Net preserves the basic operational semantics of S-Net and thus provides an incremental introduction of extra-functional control in an existing language.
I/O-Efficient Planar Range Skyline and Attrition Priority Queues
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2013
Year: 2013

In the planar range skyline reporting problem, we store a set P of n 2D points in a structure such that, given a query rectangle Q = [a_1, a_2] x [b_1, b_2], the maxima (a.k.a. skyline) of P \cap Q can be reported efficiently. The query is 3-sided if an edge of Q is grounded, giving rise to two variants: top-open (b_2 = \infty) and left-open (a_1 = -\infty) queries. All our results are in external memory under the O(n/B) space budget, for both the static and dynamic settings: * For static P, we give structures that answer top-open queries in O(log_B n + k/B), O(loglog_B U + k/B), and O(1 + k/B) I/Os when the universe is R^2, a U x U grid, and a rank space grid [O(n)]^2, respectively (where k is the number of reported points). The query complexity is optimal in all cases. * We show that the left-open case is harder, such that any linear-size structure must incur Ω((n/B)^e + k/B) I/Os for a query. We show that this case is as difficult as the general 4-sided queries, for which we give a static structure with the optimal query cost O((n/B)^e + k/B). * We give a dynamic structure that supports top-open queries in O(log_2B^e (n/B) + k/B^1-e) I/Os, and updates in O(log_2B^e (n/B)) I/Os, for any e satisfying 0 \le e \le 1. This leads to a dynamic structure for 4-sided queries with optimal query cost O((n/B)^e + k/B), and amortized update cost O(log (n/B)). As a contribution of independent interest, we propose an I/O-efficient version of the fundamental structure priority queue with attrition (PQA). Our PQA supports FindMin, DeleteMin, and InsertAndAttrite all in O(1) worst case I/Os, and O(1/B) amortized I/Os per operation. We also add the new CatenateAndAttrite operation that catenates two PQAs in O(1) worst case and O(1/B) amortized I/Os. This operation is a non-trivial extension to the classic PQA of Sundar, even in internal memory.
On Some Recent Insights in Integral Biomathics
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2013
Year: 2013

This paper summarizes the results in Integral Biomathics obtained to this moment and provides an outlook for future research in the field.
Finding Academic Experts on a MultiSensor Approach using Shannon's Entropy
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2013
Year: 2013

Expert finding is an information retrieval task concerned with the search for the most knowledgeable people, in some topic, with basis on documents describing peoples activities. The task involves taking a user query as input and returning a list of people sorted by their level of expertise regarding the user query. This paper introduces a novel approach for combining multiple estimators of expertise based on a multisensor data fusion framework together with the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence and Shannon's entropy. More specifically, we defined three sensors which detect heterogeneous information derived from the textual contents, from the graph structure of the citation patterns for the community of experts, and from profile information about the academic experts. Given the evidences collected, each sensor may define different candidates as experts and consequently do not agree in a final ranking decision. To deal with these conflicts, we applied the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence combined with Shannon's Entropy formula to fuse this information and come up with a more accurate and reliable final ranking list. Experiments made over two datasets of academic publications from the Computer Science domain attest for the adequacy of the proposed approach over the traditional state of the art approaches. We also made experiments against representative supervised state of the art algorithms. Results revealed that the proposed method achieved a similar performance when compared to these supervised techniques, confirming the capabilities of the proposed framework.
Robust Support Vector Machines for Speaker Verification Task
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2013
Year: 2013

An important step in speaker verification is extracting features that best characterize the speaker voice. This paper investigates a front-end processing that aims at improving the performance of speaker verification based on the SVMs classifier, in text independent mode. This approach combines features based on conventional Mel-cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) and Line Spectral Frequencies (LSFs) to constitute robust multivariate feature vectors. To reduce the high dimensionality required for training these feature vectors, we use a dimension reduction method called principal component analysis (PCA). In order to evaluate the robustness of these systems, different noisy environments have been used. The obtained results using TIMIT database showed that, using the paradigm that combines these spectral cues leads to a significant improvement in verification accuracy, especially with PCA reduction for low signal-to-noise ratio noisy environment.
On the Parameterized Complexity of the Maximum Edge Coloring Problem
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2013
Year: 2013

We investigate the parameterized complexity of the following edge coloring problem motivated by the problem of channel assignment in wireless networks. For an integer q>1 and a graph G, the goal is to find a coloring of the edges of G with the maximum number of colors such that every vertex of the graph sees at most q colors. This problem is NP-hard for q>1, and has been well-studied from the point of view of approximation. Our main focus is the case when q=2, which is already theoretically intricate and practically relevant. We show fixed-parameter tractable algorithms for both the standard and the dual parameter, and for the latter problem, the result is based on a linear vertex kernel.
Improving production process performance thanks to neuronal analysis
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2013
Year: 2013

Product quality level is become a key factor for companies' competitiveness. A lot of time and money are required to ensure and guaranty it. Besides, motivated by the need of traceability, collecting production data is now commonplace in most companies. Our paper aims to show that we can ensure the required quality thanks to an "on-line quality approch" and proposes a neural network based process to determine the optimal setting for production machines. We will illustrate this with the Acta-Mobilier case, which is a high quality lacquerer company.
Multi-user Scheduling Schemes for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2013
Year: 2013

In this paper, we study the downlink multi-user scheduling problem for a time-slotted system with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. In particular, in each time slot, a single user is scheduled to receive information, while the remaining users opportunistically harvest the ambient radio frequency (RF) energy. We devise novel scheduling schemes in which the tradeoff between the users' ergodic capacities and their average amount of harvested energy can be controlled. To this end, we modify two fair scheduling schemes used in information-only transfer systems. First, proportionally fair maximum normalized signal-to-noise ratio (N-SNR) scheduling is modified by scheduling the user having the jth ascendingly ordered (rather than the maximum) N-SNR. We refer to this scheme as order-based N-SNR scheduling. Second, conventional equal-throughput (ET) fair scheduling is modified by scheduling the user having the minimum moving average throughput among the set of users whose N-SNR orders fall into a certain set of allowed orders Sa (rather than the set of all users). We refer to this scheme as order-based ET scheduling. The feasibility conditions required for the users to achieve ET with this scheme are also derived. We show that the smaller the selection order j for the order-based N-SNR scheme, and the lower the orders in Sa for the order-based ET scheme, the higher the average amount of energy harvested by the users at the expense of a reduction in their ergodic capacities. We analyze the performance of the considered scheduling schemes for independent and non-identically distributed (i.n.d.) Ricean fading channels, and provide closed-form results for the special case of i.n.d. Rayleigh fading.
An Efficient Branching Algorithm for Interval Completion
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2013
Year: 2013

We study the \emph{interval completion} problem, which asks for the insertion of a set of at most $k$ edges to make a graph of $n$ vertices into an interval graph. We focus on chordal graphs with no small obstructions, where every remaining obstruction is known to have a shallow property. From such a shallow obstruction we single out a subset 6 or 7 vertices, called the frame, and 5 missed edges in the subgraph induced by the frame. We show that if none of these edges is inserted, then the frame cannot be altered at all, and the whole obstruction is also fixed, by and large, in the sense that their related positions in an interval representation of the objective interval graph have a specific pattern. We propose a simple bounded search process, which effectively transforms a given graph to a graph with the structural property that all obstructions are shallow and have fixed frames. Then we fill in polynomial time all obstructions that have been previously left in indecision. These efforts together deliver a simple parameterized algorithm of time $6^k\cdot n^{O(1)}$ for the problem, significantly improving the only known parameterized algorithm of time $k^{2k}\cdot n^{O(1)}$.
The MMT API: A Generic MKM System
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2013
Year: 2013

The MMT language has been developed as a scalable representation and interchange language for formal mathematical knowledge. It permits natural representations of the syntax and semantics of virtually all declarative languages while making MMT-based MKM services easy to implement. It is foundationally unconstrained and can be instantiated with specific formal languages. The MMT API implements the MMT language along with multiple backends for persistent storage and frontends for machine and user access. Moreover, it implements a wide variety of MMT-based knowledge management services. The API and all services are generic and can be applied to any language represented in MMT. A plugin interface permits injecting syntactic and semantic idiosyncrasies of individual formal languages.
Semilinearity and Context-Freeness of Languages Accepted by Valence Automata
Venue: arXiv cs.FL 2013
Year: 2013

Valence automata are a generalization of various models of automata with storage. Here, each edge carries, in addition to an input word, an element of a monoid. A computation is considered valid if multiplying the monoid elements on the visited edges yields the identity element. By choosing suitable monoids, a variety of automata models can be obtained as special valence automata. This work is concerned with the accepting power of valence automata. Specifically, we ask for which monoids valence automata can accept only context-free languages or only languages with semilinear Parikh image, respectively. First, we present a characterization of those graph products (of monoids) for which valence automata accept only context-free languages. Second, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a graph product of copies of the bicyclic monoid and the integers to yield only languages with semilinear Parikh image when used as a storage mechanism in valence automata. Third, we show that all languages accepted by valence automata over torsion groups have a semilinear Parikh image.
Valuating Surface Surveillance Technology for Collaborative Multiple-Spot Control of Airport Departure Operations
Venue: arXiv cs.OH 2013
Year: 2013

Airport departure operations are a source of airline delays and passenger frustration. Excessive surface traffic is a cause of increased controller and pilot workload. It is also a source of increased emissions and delays, and does not yield improved runway throughput. Leveraging the extensive past research on airport departure management, this paper explores the environmental and safety benefits that improved surveillance technologies can bring in the context of gate- or spot-release strategies. The paper shows that improved surveillance technologies can yield 4% to 6% reduction of aircraft on taxiway, and therefore emissions, in addition to the savings currently observed by implementing threshold starategies under evaluation at Boston Logan Airport and other busy airports during congested periods. These calculated benefits contrast sharply with our previous work, which relied on simplified airport ramp areas with a single departure spot, and where fewer environmental and economic benefits of advanced surface surveillance systems could be established. Our work is illustrated by its application to New-York LaGuardia and Seattle Tacoma airports.
Syntactic Complexity of Circular Semi-Flower Automata
Venue: arXiv cs.FL 2013
Year: 2013

We investigate the syntactic complexity of certain types of finitely generated submonoids of a free monoid. In fact, we consider those submonoids which are accepted by circular semi-flower automata (CSFA). Here, we show that the syntactic complexity of CSFA with at most one `branch point going in' (bpi) is linear. Further, we prove that the syntactic complexity of $n$-state CSFA with two bpis over a binary alphabet is $2n(n+1)$.
The Open Connectome Project Data Cluster: Scalable Analysis and Vision for High-Throughput Neuroscience
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2013
Year: 2013

We describe a scalable database cluster for the spatial analysis and annotation of high-throughput brain imaging data, initially for 3-d electron microscopy image stacks, but for time-series and multi-channel data as well. The system was designed primarily for workloads that build connectomes---neural connectivity maps of the brain---using the parallel execution of computer vision algorithms on high-performance compute clusters. These services and open-science data sets are publicly available at http://openconnecto.me. The system design inherits much from NoSQL scale-out and data-intensive computing architectures. We distribute data to cluster nodes by partitioning a spatial index. We direct I/O to different systems---reads to parallel disk arrays and writes to solid-state storage---to avoid I/O interference and maximize throughput. All programming interfaces are RESTful Web services, which are simple and stateless, improving scalability and usability. We include a performance evaluation of the production system, highlighting the effectiveness of spatial data organization.
Under-determined linear systems and $\ell_q$-optimization thresholds
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2013
Year: 2013

Recent studies of under-determined linear systems of equations with sparse solutions showed a great practical and theoretical efficiency of a particular technique called $\ell_1$-optimization. Seminal works \cite{CRT,DOnoho06CS} rigorously confirmed it for the first time. Namely, \cite{CRT,DOnoho06CS} showed, in a statistical context, that $\ell_1$ technique can recover sparse solutions of under-determined systems even when the sparsity is linearly proportional to the dimension of the system. A followup \cite{DonohoPol} then precisely characterized such a linearity through a geometric approach and a series of work\cite{StojnicCSetam09,StojnicUpper10,StojnicEquiv10} reaffirmed statements of \cite{DonohoPol} through a purely probabilistic approach. A theoretically interesting alternative to $\ell_1$ is a more general version called $\ell_q$ (with an essentially arbitrary $q$). While $\ell_1$ is typically considered as a first available convex relaxation of sparsity norm $\ell_0$, $\ell_q,0\leq q\leq 1$, albeit non-convex, should technically be a tighter relaxation of $\ell_0$. Even though developing polynomial (or close to be polynomial) algorithms for non-convex problems is still in its initial phases one may wonder what would be the limits of an $\ell_q,0\leq q\leq 1$, relaxation even if at some point one can develop algorithms that could handle its non-convexity. A collection of answers to this and a few realted questions is precisely what we present in this paper.
Two-View Matching with View Synthesis Revisited
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2013
Year: 2013

Wide-baseline matching focussing on problems with extreme viewpoint change is considered. We introduce the use of view synthesis with affine-covariant detectors to solve such problems and show that matching with the Hessian-Affine or MSER detectors outperforms the state-of-the-art ASIFT. To minimise the loss of speed caused by view synthesis, we propose the Matching On Demand with view Synthesis algorithm (MODS) that uses progressively more synthesized images and more (time-consuming) detectors until reliable estimation of geometry is possible. We show experimentally that the MODS algorithm solves problems beyond the state-of-the-art and yet is comparable in speed to standard wide-baseline matchers on simpler problems. Minor contributions include an improved method for tentative correspondence selection, applicable both with and without view synthesis and a view synthesis setup greatly improving MSER robustness to blur and scale change that increase its running time by 10% only.
Vickrey Auctions for Irregular Distributions
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2013
Year: 2013

The classic result of Bulow and Klemperer \cite{BK96} says that in a single-item auction recruiting one more bidder and running the Vickrey auction achieves a higher revenue than the optimal auction's revenue on the original set of bidders, when values are drawn i.i.d. from a regular distribution. We give a version of Bulow and Klemperer's result in settings where bidders' values are drawn from non-i.i.d. irregular distributions. We do this by modeling irregular distributions as some convex combination of regular distributions. The regular distributions that constitute the irregular distribution correspond to different population groups in the bidder population. Drawing a bidder from this collection of population groups is equivalent to drawing from some convex combination of these regular distributions. We show that recruiting one extra bidder from each underlying population group and running the Vickrey auction gives at least half of the optimal auction's revenue on the original set of bidders.
Deciding Nonnegativity of Polynomials by MAPLE
Venue: arXiv cs.SC 2013
Year: 2013

There have been some effective tools for solving (constant/parametric) semi-algebraic systems in Maple's library RegularChains since Maple 13. By using the functions of the library, e.g., RealRootClassfication, one can prove and discover polynomial inequalities. This paper is more or less a user guide on using RealRootClassfication to prove the nonnegativity of polynomials. We show by examples how to use this powerful tool to prove a polynomial is nonnegative under some polynomial inequality and/or equation constraints. Some tricks for using the tool are also provided.
A Novel Block-DCT and PCA Based Image Perceptual Hashing Algorithm
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2013
Year: 2013

Image perceptual hashing finds applications in content indexing, large-scale image database management, certification and authentication and digital watermarking. We propose a Block-DCT and PCA based image perceptual hash in this article and explore the algorithm in the application of tamper detection. The main idea of the algorithm is to integrate color histogram and DCT coefficients of image blocks as perceptual feature, then to compress perceptual features as inter-feature with PCA, and to threshold to create a robust hash. The robustness and discrimination properties of the proposed algorithm are evaluated in detail. Our algorithms first construct a secondary image, derived from input image by pseudo-randomly extracting features that approximately capture semi-global geometric characteristics. From the secondary image (which does not perceptually resemble the input), we further extract the final features which can be used as a hash value (and can be further suitably quantized). In this paper, we use spectral matrix invariants as embodied by Singular Value Decomposition. Surprisingly, formation of the secondary image turns out be quite important since it not only introduces further robustness, but also enhances the security properties. Indeed, our experiments reveal that our hashing algorithms extract most of the geometric information from the images and hence are robust to severe perturbations (e.g. up to %50 cropping by area with 20 degree rotations) on images while avoiding misclassification. Experimental results show that the proposed image perceptual hash algorithm can effectively address the tamper detection problem with advantageous robustness and discrimination.
Dialogue System: A Brief Review
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2013
Year: 2013

A Dialogue System is a system which interacts with human in natural language. At present many universities are developing the dialogue system in their regional language. This paper will discuss about dialogue system, its components, challenges and its evaluation. This paper helps the researchers for getting info regarding dialogues system.
Computation in anonymous networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2013
Year: 2013

We identify and investigate a computational model arising in molecular computing, social computing and sensor network. The model is made of of multiple agents who are computationally limited and posses no global information. The agents may represent nodes in a social network, sensors, or molecules in a molecular computer. Assuming that each agent is in one of $k$ states, we say that {\em the system computes} $f:[k]^{n} \to [k]$ if all agents eventually converge to the correct value of $f$. We present number of general results characterizing the computational power of the mode. We further present protocols for computing the plurality function with $O(\log k)$ memory and for approximately counting the number of nodes of a given color with $O(\log \log n)$ memory, where $n$ is the number of agents in the networks. These results are tight.
Pair versus Solo Programming -- An Experience Report from a Course on Design of Experiments in Software Engineering
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2013
Year: 2013

This paper presents an experience report about an experiment that evaluates duration and effort of pair and solo programming. The experiment was performed as part of a course on Design of Experiments (DOE) in Software Engineering (SE) at Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY). A total of 21 junior student subjects enrolled in the bachelor's degree program in SE participated in the experiment. During the experiment, subjects (7 pairs and 7 solos) wrote two small programs in two sessions. Results show a significant difference (at alpha=0.1) in favor of pair programming regarding duration (28% decrease), and a significant difference (at alpha=0.1) in favor of solo programming with respect to effort (30% decrease). With only a difference of 1%, our results regarding duration and effort are practically the same as those reported by Nosek in 1998.