OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
A Unified Mechanism Design Framework for Networked Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2010
Year: 2010

Mechanisms such as auctions and pricing schemes are utilized to design strategic (noncooperative) games for networked systems. Although the participating players are selfish, these mechanisms ensure that the game outcome is optimal with respect to a global criterion (e.g. maximizing a social welfare function), preference-compatible, and strategy-proof, i.e. players have no reason to deceive the designer. The mechanism designer achieves these objectives by introducing specific rules and incentives to the players; in this case by adding resource prices to their utilities. In auction-based mechanisms, the mechanism designer explicitly allocates the resources based on bids of the participants in addition to setting prices. Alternatively, pricing mechanisms enforce global objectives only by charging the players for the resources they have utilized. In either setting, the player preferences represented by utility functions may be coupled or decoupled, i.e. they depend on other player's actions or only on player's own actions, respectively. The unified framework and its information structures are illustrated through multiple example resource allocation problems from wireless and wired networks.
An Applied Study on Educational Use of Facebook as a Web 2.0 Tool: The Sample Lesson of Computer Networks and Communication
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2010
Year: 2010

The main aim of the research was to examine educational use of Facebook. The Computer Networks and Communication lesson was taken as the sample and the attitudes of the students included in the study group towards Facebook were measured in a semi-experimental setup. The students on Facebook platform were examined for about three months and they continued their education interactively in that virtual environment. After the-three-month-education period, observations for the students were reported and the attitudes of the students towards Facebook were measured by three different measurement tools. As a result, the attitudes of the students towards educational use of Facebook and their views were heterogeneous. When the average values of the group were examined, it was reported that the attitudes towards educational use of Facebook was above a moderate level. Therefore, it might be suggested that social networks in virtual environments provide continuity in life long learning.
On Complexity of Isoperimetric Problems on Trees
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2010
Year: 2010

This paper is aimed to investigate some computational aspects of different isoperimetric problems on weighted trees. In this regard, we consider different connectivity parameters called {\it minimum normalized cuts}/{\it isoperimteric numbers} defined through taking minimum of the maximum or the mean of the normalized outgoing flows from a set of subdomains of vertices, where these subdomains constitute a {\it partition}/{\it subpartition}. Following the main result of [A. Daneshgar, {\it et. al.}, {\it On the isoperimetric spectrum of graphs and its approximations}, JCTB, (2010)], it is known that the isoperimetric number and the minimum normalized cut both can be described as $\{0,1\}$-optimization programs, where the latter one does {\it not} admit a relaxation to the reals. We show that the decision problem for the case of taking $k$-partitions and the maximum (called the max normalized cut problem {\rm NCP}$^M$) as well as the other two decision problems for the mean version (referred to as {\rm IPP}$^m$ and {\rm NCP}$^m$) are $NP$-complete problems. On the other hand, we show that the decision problem for the case of taking $k$-subpartitions and the maximum (called the max isoperimetric problem {\rm IPP}$^M$) can be solved in {\it linear time} for any weighted tree and any $k \geq 2$. Based on this fact, we provide polynomial time $O(k)$-approximation algorithms for all different versions of $k$th isoperimetric numbers considered. Moreover, when the number of partitions/subpartitions, $k$, is a fixed constant, as an extension of a result of B. Mohar (1989) for the case $k=2$ (usually referred to as the Cheeger constant), we prove that max and mean isoperimetric numbers of weighted trees as well as their max normalized cut can be computed in polynomial time. We also prove some hardness results for the case of simple unweighted graphs and trees.
Effective Pedestrian Detection Using Center-symmetric Local Binary/Trinary Patterns
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2010
Year: 2010

Accurately detecting pedestrians in images plays a critically important role in many computer vision applications. Extraction of effective features is the key to this task. Promising features should be discriminative, robust to various variations and easy to compute. In this work, we present novel features, termed dense center-symmetric local binary patterns (CS-LBP) and pyramid center-symmetric local binary/ternary patterns (CS-LBP/LTP), for pedestrian detection. The standard LBP proposed by Ojala et al. \cite{c4} mainly captures the texture information. The proposed CS-LBP feature, in contrast, captures the gradient information and some texture information. Moreover, the proposed dense CS-LBP and the pyramid CS-LBP/LTP are easy to implement and computationally efficient, which is desirable for real-time applications. Experiments on the INRIA pedestrian dataset show that the dense CS-LBP feature with linear supporct vector machines (SVMs) is comparable with the histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) feature with linear SVMs, and the pyramid CS-LBP/LTP features outperform both HOG features with linear SVMs and the start-of-the-art pyramid HOG (PHOG) feature with the histogram intersection kernel SVMs. We also demonstrate that the combination of our pyramid CS-LBP feature and the PHOG feature could significantly improve the detection performance-producing state-of-the-art accuracy on the INRIA pedestrian dataset.
Mining Target-Oriented Sequential Patterns with Time-Intervals
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2010
Year: 2010

A target-oriented sequential pattern is a sequential pattern with a concerned itemset in the end of pattern. A time-interval sequential pattern is a sequential pattern with time-intervals between every pair of successive itemsets. In this paper we present an algorithm to discover target-oriented sequential pattern with time-intervals. To this end, the original sequences are reversed so that the last itemsets can be arranged in front of the sequences. The contrasts between reversed sequences and the concerned itemset are then used to exclude the irrelevant sequences. Clustering analysis is used with typical sequential pattern mining algorithm to extract the sequential patterns with time-intervals between successive itemsets. Finally, the discovered time-interval sequential patterns are reversed again to the original order for searching the target patterns.
A Fast Switching Filter for Impulsive Noise Removal from Color Images
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2010
Year: 2010

In this paper, we present a fast switching filter for impulsive noise removal from color images. The filter exploits the HSL color space, and is based on the peer group concept, which allows for the fast detection of noise in a neighborhood without resorting to pairwise distance computations between each pixel. Experiments on large set of diverse images demonstrate that the proposed approach is not only extremely fast, but also gives excellent results in comparison to various state-of-the-art filters.
ETP-Mine: An Efficient Method for Mining Transitional Patterns
Venue: arXiv cs.DB 2010
Year: 2010

A Transaction database contains a set of transactions along with items and their associated timestamps. Transitional patterns are the patterns which specify the dynamic behavior of frequent patterns in a transaction database. To discover transitional patterns and their significant milestones, first we have to extract all frequent patterns and their supports using any frequent pattern generation algorithm. These frequent patterns are used in the generation of transitional patterns. The existing algorithm (TP-Mine) generates frequent patterns, some of which cannot be used in generation of transitional patterns. In this paper, we propose a modification to the existing algorithm, which prunes the candidate items to be used in the generation of frequent patterns. This method drastically reduces the number of frequent patterns which are used in discovering transitional patterns. Extensive simulation test is done to evaluate the proposed method.
Constructions définitoires des tables du Lexique-Grammaire
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2010
Year: 2010

Lexicon-Grammar tables are a very rich syntactic lexicon for the French language. This linguistic database is nevertheless not directly suitable for use by computer programs, as it is incomplete and lacks consistency. Tables are defined on the basis of features which are not explicitly recorded in the lexicon. These features are only described in literature. Our aim is to define for each tables these essential properties to make them usable in various Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications, such as parsing.
Design & Deploy Web 2.0 enable services over Next Generation Network Platform
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2010
Year: 2010

The Next Generation Networks (NGN) aims to integrate for IP-based telecom infrastructures and provide most advance & high speed emerging value added services. NGN capable to provide higher innovative services, these services will able to integrate communication and Web service into a single platform. IP Multimedia Subsystem, a NGN leading technology, enables a variety of NGN-compliant communications services to interoperate while being accessed through different kinds of access networks, preferably broadband. IMS-NGN services essential by both consumer and corporate users are by now used to access services, even communications services through the web and web-based communities and social networks, It is key for success of IMS-based services to be provided with efficient web access, so users can benefit from those new services by using web-based applications and user interfaces, not only NGN-IMS User Equipments and SIP protocol. Many Service are under planning which provided only under convergence of IMS & Web 2.0. Convergence between Web 2.0 and NGN-IMS creates and serves new invented innovative, entertainment and information appealing as well as user centric services and applications. These services merge features from WWW and Communication worlds. On the one hand, interactivity, ubiquity, social orientation, user participation and content generation, etc. are relevant characteristics coming from Web 2.0 services. Parallel IMS enables services including multimedia telephony, media sharing (video-audio), instant messaging with presence and context, online directory, etc. all of them applicable to mobile, fixed or convergent telecom networks. With this paper, this paper brings out the benefits of adopting web 2.0 technologies for telecom services. As the services are today mainly driven by the user's needs, and proposed the concept of unique customizable service interface.
On Scheduling and Redundancy for P2P Backup
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2010
Year: 2010

An online backup system should be quick and reliable in both saving and restoring users' data. To do so in a peer-to-peer implementation, data transfer scheduling and the amount of redundancy must be chosen wisely. We formalize the problem of exchanging multiple pieces of data with intermittently available peers, and we show that random scheduling completes transfers nearly optimally in terms of duration as long as the system is sufficiently large. Moreover, we propose an adaptive redundancy scheme that improves performance and decreases resource usage while keeping the risks of data loss low. Extensive simulations show that our techniques are effective in a realistic trace-driven scenario with heterogeneous bandwidth.
A Block Based Scheme for Enhancing Low Luminated Images
Venue: arXiv cs.MM 2010
Year: 2010

In this paper the background detection in images in poor lighting can be done by the use of morphological filters. Lately contrast image enhancement technique is used to detect the background in image which uses Weber's Law. The proposed technique is more effective one in which the background detection in image can be done in color images. The given image obtained in this method is very effective one. More enhancement can be obtained while comparing the results. In this technique compressed domain enhancement has been used for better result.
On the number of simple arrangements of five double pseudolines
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2010
Year: 2010

We describe an incremental algorithm to enumerate the isomorphism classes of double pseudoline arrangements. The correction of our algorithm is based on the connectedness under mutations of the spaces of one-extensions of double pseudoline arrangements, proved in this paper. Counting results derived from an implementation of our algorithm are also reported.
Probabilistic Models over Ordered Partitions with Application in Learning to Rank
Venue: arXiv cs.IR 2010
Year: 2010

This paper addresses the general problem of modelling and learning rank data with ties. We propose a probabilistic generative model, that models the process as permutations over partitions. This results in super-exponential combinatorial state space with unknown numbers of partitions and unknown ordering among them. We approach the problem from the discrete choice theory, where subsets are chosen in a stagewise manner, reducing the state space per each stage significantly. Further, we show that with suitable parameterisation, we can still learn the models in linear time. We evaluate the proposed models on the problem of learning to rank with the data from the recently held Yahoo! challenge, and demonstrate that the models are competitive against well-known rivals.
On the Performance Evaluation and Analysis of the Hybridised Bittorrent Protocol with Partial Mobility Characteristics
Venue: arXiv cs.PF 2010
Year: 2010

Engaging mobility with file sharing is considered very promising in today's run Anywhere, Anytime, Anything (3As) environments. The Bittorrent file sharing protocol can be rarely combined with the mobility scenario framework since resources are not available due to the dynamically changing topology network. As a result, mobility in P2P-oriented file sharing platforms, degrades the end-to-end efficiency and the system's performance. This work proposes a new hybridized model, which takes into account the mobility characteristics of the combined Bittorrent protocol in a centralized manner enabling partial mobility characteristics, where the clients of the network use a distinct technique to differentiate between mobile and static nodes. Many parameters were taken into consideration like the round trip delays, the diffusion process, and the seeding techniques, targeting the maximization of the average throughput in the clustered swarms containing mobile peers. Partial mobility characteristics are set in a peer-tracker and peer-peer communication enhancement schema with partial mobility, allowing an optimistic approach to attain high availability and throughput response as simulation results show.
Privacy-Preserving Data-Oblivious Geometric Algorithms for Geographic Data
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2010
Year: 2010

We give efficient data-oblivious algorithms for several fundamental geometric problems that are relevant to geographic information systems, including planar convex hulls and all-nearest neighbors. Our methods are "data-oblivious" in that they don't perform any data-dependent operations, with the exception of operations performed inside low-level blackbox circuits having a constant number of inputs and outputs. Thus, an adversary who observes the control flow of one of our algorithms, but who cannot see the inputs and outputs to the blackbox circuits, cannot learn anything about the input or output. This behavior makes our methods applicable to secure multiparty computation (SMC) protocols for geographic data used in location-based services. In SMC protocols, multiple parties wish to perform a computation on their combined data without revealing individual data to the other parties. For instance, our methods can be used to solve a problem posed by Du and Atallah, where Alice has a set, A, of m private points in the plane, Bob has another set, B, of n private points in the plane, and Alice and Bob want to jointly compute the convex hull of A u B without disclosing any more information than what can be derived from the answer. In particular, neither Alice nor Bob want to reveal any of their respective points that are in the interior of the convex hull of A u B.
Evolutionary Computational Method of Facial Expression Analysis for Content-based Video Retrieval using 2-Dimensional Cellular Automata
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2010
Year: 2010

In this paper, Deterministic Cellular Automata (DCA) based video shot classification and retrieval is proposed. The deterministic 2D Cellular automata model captures the human facial expressions, both spontaneous and posed. The determinism stems from the fact that the facial muscle actions are standardized by the encodings of Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and Action Units (AUs). Based on these encodings, we generate the set of evolutionary update rules of the DCA for each facial expression. We consider a Person-Independent Facial Expression Space (PIFES) to analyze the facial expressions based on Partitioned 2D-Cellular Automata which capture the dynamics of facial expressions and classify the shots based on it. Target video shot is retrieved by comparing the similar expression is obtained for the query frame's face with respect to the key faces expressions in the database video. Consecutive key face expressions in the database that are highly similar to the query frame's face, then the key faces are used to generate the set of retrieved video shots from the database. A concrete example of its application which realizes an affective interaction between the computer and the user is proposed. In the affective interaction, the computer can recognize the facial expression of any given video shot. This interaction endows the computer with certain ability to adapt to the user's feedback.
MiBoard: iSTART Metacognitive Training through Gaming
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2010
Year: 2010

MiBoard (Multiplayer Interactive Board Game) is an online, turn-based board game, which is a supplement of the iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) application. MiBoard is developed to test the hypothesis that integrating game characteristics (point rewards, game-like interaction, and peer feedback) into the iSTART trainer will significantly improve its effectiveness on students' learning. It was shown by M. Rowe that a physical board game did in fact enhance students' performance. MiBoard is a computer-based version of Rowe's board game that eliminates constraints on locality while retaining the crucial practice components that were the game's objective. MiBoard gives incentives for participation and provides a more enjoyable and social practice environment compared to the online individual practice component of the original trainer
MiBoard: A Digital Game from a Physical World
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2010
Year: 2010

Increasing user engagement is constant challenge for Intelligent Tutoring Systems researchers. A current trend in the ITS field is to increase engagement of proven learning systems by integrating them within games, or adding in game like components. Incorporating proven learning methods within a game based environment is expected to add to the overall experience without detracting from the original goals, however, the current study demonstrates two important issues with regard to ITS design. First, effective designs from the physical world do not always translate into the digital world. Second, games do not necessarily improve engagement, and in some cases, they may have the opposite effect. The current study discusses the development and a brief assessment of MiBoard a multiplayer collaborative online board game designed to closely emulate a previously developed physical board game, iSTART: The Board Game.
Some New Equiprojective Polyhedra
Venue: arXiv cs.CG 2010
Year: 2010

A convex polyhedron $P$ is $k$-equiprojective if all of its orthogonal projections, i.e., shadows, except those parallel to the faces of $P$ are $k$-gon for some fixed value of $k$. Since 1968, it is an open problem to construct all equiprojective polyhedra. Recently, Hasan and Lubiw [CGTA 40(2):148-155, 2008] have given a characterization of equiprojective polyhedra. Based on their characterization, in this paper we discover some new equiprojective polyhedra by cutting and gluing existing polyhedra.
Network evolution and QOS provisioning for integrated femtocell/macrocell networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2010
Year: 2010

Integrated femtocell/macrocell networks, comprising a conventional cellular network overlaid with femtocells, offer an economically appealing way to improve coverage, quality of service, and access network capacity. The key element to successful femtocells/macrocell integration lies in its self-organizing capability. Provisioning of quality of service is the main technical challenge of the femtocell/macrocell integrated networks, while the main administrative challenge is the choice of the proper evolutionary path from the existing macrocellular networks to the integrated network. In this article, we introduce three integrated network architectures which, while increasing the access capacity, they also reduce the deployment and operational costs. Then, we discuss a number of technical issues, which are key to making such integration a reality, and we offer possible approaches to their solution. These issues include efficient frequency and interference management, quality of service provisioning of the xDSL-based backhaul networks, and intelligent handover control.
A Model of Cooperative Threads
Venue: arXiv cs.PL 2010
Year: 2010

We develop a model of concurrent imperative programming with threads. We focus on a small imperative language with cooperative threads which execute without interruption until they terminate or explicitly yield control. We define and study a trace-based denotational semantics for this language; this semantics is fully abstract but mathematically elementary. We also give an equational theory for the computational effects that underlie the language, including thread spawning. We then analyze threads in terms of the free algebra monad for this theory.
Minimization Strategies for Maximally Parallel Multiset Rewriting Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.FL 2010
Year: 2010

Maximally parallel multiset rewriting systems (MPMRS) give a convenient way to express relations between unstructured objects. The functioning of various computational devices may be expressed in terms of MPMRS (e.g., register machines and many variants of P systems). In particular, this means that MPMRS are computationally complete; however, a direct translation leads to quite a big number of rules. Like for other classes of computationally complete devices, there is a challenge to find a universal system having the smallest number of rules. In this article we present different rule minimization strategies for MPMRS based on encodings and structural transformations. We apply these strategies to the translation of a small universal register machine (Korec, 1996) and we show that there exists a universal MPMRS with 23 rules. Since MPMRS are identical to a restricted variant of P systems with antiport rules, the results we obtained improve previously known results on the number of rules for those systems.