OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
The Athena Startup Kit
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2003
Year: 2003

The Athena Startup Kit (ASK), is an interactive front-end to the Atlas software framework (ATHENA). Written in python, a very effective "glue" language, it is build on top of the, in principle unrelated, code repository, build, configuration, debug, binding, and analysis tools. ASK automates many error-prone tasks that are otherwise left to the end-user, thereby pre-empting a whole category of potential problems. Through the existing tools, which ASK will setup for the user if and as needed, it locates available resources, maintains job coherency, manages the run-time environment, allows for interactivity and debugging, and provides standalone execution scripts. An end-user who wants to run her own analysis algorithms within the standard environment can let ASK generate the appropriate skeleton package, the needed dependencies and run-time, as well as a default job options script. For new and casual users, ASK comes with a graphical user interface; for advanced users, ASK has a scriptable command line interface. Both are built on top of the same set of libraries. ASK does not need to be, and isn't, experiment neutral. Thus it has built-in workarounds for known gotcha's, that would otherwise be a major time-sink for each and every new user. ASK minimizes the overhead for those physicists in Atlas who just want to write and run their analysis code.
BaBar Web job submission with Globus authentication and AFS access
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2003
Year: 2003

We present two versions of a grid job submission system produced for the BaBar experiment. Both use globus job submission to process data spread across various sites, producing output which can be combined for analysis. The problems encountered with authorisation and authentication, data location, job submission, and the input and output sandboxes are described, as are the solutions. The total system is still some way short of the aims of enterprises such as the EDG, but represent a significant step along the way.
Worldwide Fast File Replication on Grid Datafarm
Venue: arXiv cs.PF 2003
Year: 2003

The Grid Datafarm architecture is designed for global petascale data-intensive computing. It provides a global parallel filesystem with online petascale storage, scalable I/O bandwidth, and scalable parallel processing, and it can exploit local I/O in a grid of clusters with tens of thousands of nodes. One of features is that it manages file replicas in filesystem metadata for fault tolerance and load balancing. This paper discusses and evaluates several techniques to support long-distance fast file replication. The Grid Datafarm manages a ranked group of files as a Gfarm file, each file, called a Gfarm file fragment, being stored on a filesystem node, or replicated on several filesystem nodes. Each Gfarm file fragment is replicated independently and in parallel using rate-controlled HighSpeed TCP with network striping. On a US-Japan testbed with 10,000 km distance, we achieve 419 Mbps using 2 nodes on each side, and 741 Mbps using 4 nodes out of 893 Mbps with two transpacific networks.
Adapting SAM for CDF
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2003
Year: 2003

The CDF and D0 experiments probe the high-energy frontier and as they do so have accumulated hundreds of Terabytes of data on the way to petabytes of data over the next two years. The experiments have made a commitment to use the developing Grid based on the SAM system to handle these data. The D0 SAM has been extended for use in CDF as common patterns of design emerged to meet the similar requirements of these experiments. The process by which the merger was achieved is explained with particular emphasis on lessons learned concerning the database design patterns plus realization of the use cases.
Symbolic Parametric Analysis of Embedded Systems with BDD-like Data-Structures
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2003
Year: 2003

We use dense variable-ordering to define HRD (Hybrid-Restriction Diagram), a new BDD-like data-structure for the representation and manipulation of state-spaces of linear hybrid automata. We present and discuss various manipulation algorithms for HRD, including the basic set-oriented operations, weakest precondition calculation, and normalization. We implemented the ideas and experimented to see their performance. Finally, we have also developed a pruning technique for state-space exploration based on parameter valuation space characterization. The technique showed good promise in our experiment.
D0 Data Handling Operational Experience
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2003
Year: 2003

We report on the production experience of the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, using the SAM data handling system with a variety of computing hardware configurations, batch systems, and mass storage strategies. We have stored more than 300 TB of data in the Fermilab Enstore mass storage system. We deliver data through this system at an average rate of more than 2 TB/day to analysis programs, with a substantial multiplication factor in the consumed data through intelligent cache management. We handle more than 1.7 Million files in this system and provide data delivery to user jobs at Fermilab on four types of systems: a reconstruction farm, a large SMP system, a Linux batch cluster, and a Linux desktop cluster. In addition, we import simulation data generated at 6 sites worldwide, and deliver data to jobs at many more sites. We describe the scope of the data handling deployment worldwide, the operational experience with this system, and the feedback of that experience.
D0 Regional Analysis Center Concepts
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2003
Year: 2003

The D0 experiment is facing many exciting challenges providing a computing environment for its worldwide collaboration. Transparent access to data for processing and analysis has been enabled through deployment of its SAM system to collaborating sites and additional functionality will be provided soon with SAMGrid components. In order to maximize access to global storage, computational and intellectual resources, and to enable the system to scale to the large demands soon to be realized, several strategic sites have been identified as Regional Analysis Centers (RAC's). These sites play an expanded role within the system. The philosophy and function of these centers is discussed and details of their composition and operation are outlined. The plan for future additional centers is also addressed.
Observation-based Cooperation Enforcement in Ad Hoc Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2003
Year: 2003

Ad hoc networks rely on the cooperation of the nodes participating in the network to forward packets for each other. A node may decide not to cooperate to save its resources while still using the network to relay its traffic. If too many nodes exhibit this behavior, network performance degrades and cooperating nodes may find themselves unfairly loaded. Most previous efforts to counter this behavior have relied on further cooperation between nodes to exchange reputation information about other nodes. If a node observes another node not participating correctly, it reports this observation to other nodes who then take action to avoid being affected and potentially punish the bad node by refusing to forward its traffic. Unfortunately, such second-hand reputation information is subject to false accusations and requires maintaining trust relationships with other nodes. The objective of OCEAN is to avoid this trust-management machinery and see how far we can get simply by using direct first-hand observations of other nodes' behavior. We find that, in many scenarios, OCEAN can do as well as, or even better than, schemes requiring second-hand reputation exchanges. This encouraging result could possibly help obviate solutions requiring trust-management for some contexts.
'Computing' as Information Compression by Multiple Alignment, Unification and Search
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2003
Year: 2003

This paper argues that the operations of a 'Universal Turing Machine' (UTM) and equivalent mechanisms such as the 'Post Canonical System' (PCS) - which are widely accepted as definitions of the concept of `computing' - may be interpreted as *information compression by multiple alignment, unification and search* (ICMAUS). The motivation for this interpretation is that it suggests ways in which the UTM/PCS model may be augmented in a proposed new computing system designed to exploit the ICMAUS principles as fully as possible. The provision of a relatively sophisticated search mechanism in the proposed 'SP' system appears to open the door to the integration and simplification of a range of functions including unsupervised inductive learning, best-match pattern recognition and information retrieval, probabilistic reasoning, planning and problem solving, and others. Detailed consideration of how the ICMAUS principles may be applied to these functions is outside the scope of this article but relevant sources are cited in this article.
Architecture of monitoring elements for the network element modeling in a Grid infrastructure
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2003
Year: 2003

Several tools exist that collect host-to-host connectivity measurements. To improve the usability of such measurements, they should be mapped into a framework consisting of complex subsystems, and the infrastructure that connects them. We introduce one such framework, and analyze the architectural implications on the network structure. In our framework, a complex subsystem consists of several computing facilities and the infrastructure that connects them: we call it a -monitoring domain-. The task of measuring the connectivity between -monitoring domains- is considered distinct from the activity of -storage- and -computing- elements. Therefore we introduce a new element in our topology: we call it -theodolite- element, since its function is similar to that of a transponder. Using these basic concepts, we analyze the architectural implications on the network structure: in a nutshell, if we want that -theodolites- serve as a reference, than the contribution to the relevant network metrics due to the -monitoring domain- infrastructure must be negligible with respect to contributions of the inter-domain infrastructure. In addition all -theodolites- of a -monitoring domain- must give an image of the inter-domain infrastructure that is consistent with that experienced by network applications. We conclude giving a running SQL example of how information about -monitoring domains- and -theodolites- could be organized, and we outline the application of such framework in the GLUE schema activity for the network element
Parsing and Generation with Tabulation and Compilation
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2003
Year: 2003

The standard tabulation techniques for logic programming presuppose fixed order of computation. Some data-driven control should be introduced in order to deal with diverse contexts. The present paper describes a data-driven method of constraint transformation with a sort of compilation which subsumes accessibility check and last-call optimization, which characterize standard natural-language parsing techniques, semantic-head-driven generation, etc.
Automatic Classification using Self-Organising Neural Networks in Astrophysical Experiments
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2003
Year: 2003

Self-Organising Maps (SOMs) are effective tools in classification problems, and in recent years the even more powerful Dynamic Growing Neural Networks, a variant of SOMs, have been developed. Automatic Classification (also called clustering) is an important and difficult problem in many Astrophysical experiments, for instance, Gamma Ray Burst classification, or gamma-hadron separation. After a brief introduction to classification problem, we discuss Self-Organising Maps in section 2. Section 3 discusses with various models of growing neural networks and finally in section 4 we discuss the research perspectives in growing neural networks for efficient classification in astrophysical problems.
Bridging the gap between modal temporal logics and constraint-based QSR as an ALC(D) spatio-temporalisation with weakly cyclic TBoxes
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2003
Year: 2003

The aim of this work is to provide a family of qualitative theories for spatial change in general, and for motion of spatial scenes in particular. To achieve this, we consider a spatio-temporalisation MTALC(D_x), of the well-known ALC(D) family of Description Logics (DLs) with a concrete domainan. In particular, the concrete domain D_x is generated by a qualitative spatial Relation Algebra (RA) x. We show the important result that satisfiability of an MTALC(D_x) concept with respect to a weakly cyclic TBox is decidable in nondeterministic exponential time, by reducing it to the emptiness problem of a weak alternating automaton augmented with spatial constraints, which we show to remain decidable, although the accepting condition of a run involves, additionally to the standard case, consistency of a CSP (Constraint Satisfaction Problem) potentially infinite. The result provides an effective tableaux-like satisfiability procedure which is discussed.
The Linguistic DS: Linguisitic Description in MPEG-7
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2003
Year: 2003

MPEG-7 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 7) is an XML-based international standard on semantic description of multimedia content. This document discusses the Linguistic DS and related tools. The linguistic DS is a tool, based on the GDA tag set (http://i-content.org/GDA/tagset.html), for semantic annotation of linguistic data in or associated with multimedia content. The current document text reflects `Study of FPDAM - MPEG-7 MDS Extensions' issued in March 2003, and not most part of MPEG-7 MDS, for which the readers are referred to the first version of MPEG-7 MDS document available from ISO (http://www.iso.org). Without that reference, however, this document should be mostly intelligible to those who are familiar with XML and linguistic theories. Comments are welcome and will be considered in the standardization process.
Flexible Camera Calibration Using a New Analytical Radial Undistortion Formula with Application to Mobile Robot Localization
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2003
Year: 2003

Most algorithms in 3D computer vision rely on the pinhole camera model because of its simplicity, whereas virtually all imaging devices introduce certain amount of nonlinear distortion, where the radial distortion is the most severe part. Common approach to radial distortion is by the means of polynomial approximation, which introduces distortion-specific parameters into the camera model and requires estimation of these distortion parameters. The task of estimating radial distortion is to find a radial distortion model that allows easy undistortion as well as satisfactory accuracy. This paper presents a new radial distortion model with an easy analytical undistortion formula, which also belongs to the polynomial approximation category. Experimental results are presented to show that with this radial distortion model, satisfactory accuracy is achieved. An application of the new radial distortion model is non-iterative yellow line alignment with a calibrated camera on ODIS, a robot built in our CSOIS.
An Analytical Piecewise Radial Distortion Model for Precision Camera Calibration
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2003
Year: 2003

The common approach to radial distortion is by the means of polynomial approximation, which introduces distortion-specific parameters into the camera model and requires estimation of these distortion parameters. The task of estimating radial distortion is to find a radial distortion model that allows easy undistortion as well as satisfactory accuracy. This paper presents a new piecewise radial distortion model with easy analytical undistortion formula. The motivation for seeking a piecewise radial distortion model is that, when a camera is resulted in a low quality during manufacturing, the nonlinear radial distortion can be complex. Using low order polynomials to approximate the radial distortion might not be precise enough. On the other hand, higher order polynomials suffer from the inverse problem. With the new piecewise radial distortion function, more flexibility is obtained and the radial undistortion can be performed analytically. Experimental results are presented to show that with this new piecewise radial distortion model, better performance is achieved than that using the single function. Furthermore, a comparable performance with the conventional polynomial model using 2 coefficients can also be accomplished.
Efficient Instrumentation for Performance Profiling
Venue: arXiv cs.PF 2003
Year: 2003

Performance profiling consists of tracing a software system during execution and then analyzing the obtained traces. However, traces themselves affect the performance of the system distorting its execution. Therefore, there is a need to minimize the effect of the tracing on the underlying system's performance. To achieve this, the trace set needs to be optimized according to the performance profiling problem being solved. Our position is that such minimization can be achieved only by adding the software trace design and implementation to the overall software development process. In such a process, the performance analyst supplies the knowledge of performance measurement requirements, while the software developer supplies the knowledge of the software. Both of these are needed for an optimal trace placement.
A Family of Simplified Geometric Distortion Models for Camera Calibration
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2003
Year: 2003

The commonly used radial distortion model for camera calibration is in fact an assumption or a restriction. In practice, camera distortion could happen in a general geometrical manner that is not limited to the radial sense. This paper proposes a simplified geometrical distortion modeling method by using two different radial distortion functions in the two image axes. A family of simplified geometric distortion models is proposed, which are either simple polynomials or the rational functions of polynomials. Analytical geometric undistortion is possible using two of the distortion functions discussed in this paper and their performance can be improved by applying a piecewise fitting idea. Our experimental results show that the geometrical distortion models always perform better than their radial distortion counterparts. Furthermore, the proposed geometric modeling method is more appropriate for cameras whose distortion is not perfectly radially symmetric around the center of distortion.
On the probabilistic approach to the random satisfiability problem
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2003
Year: 2003

In this note I will review some of the recent results that have been obtained in the probabilistic approach to the random satisfiability problem. At the present moment the results are only heuristic. In the case of the random 3-satisfiability problem a phase transition from the satisfiable to the unsatisfiable phase is found at $α=4.267$. There are other values of $α$ that separates different regimes and they will be described in details. In this context the properties of the survey decimation algorithm will also be discussed.
A Robust and Computational Characterisation of Peer-to-Peer Database Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2003
Year: 2003

In this paper we give a robust logical and computational characterisation of peer-to-peer database systems. We first define a pre- cise model-theoretic semantics of a peer-to-peer system, which allows for local inconsistency handling. We then characterise the general computa- tional properties for the problem of answering queries to such a peer-to- peer system. Finally, we devise tight complexity bounds and distributed procedures for the problem of answering queries in few relevant special cases.
On the complexity of curve fitting algorithms
Venue: arXiv cs.CC 2003
Year: 2003

We study a popular algorithm for fitting polynomial curves to scattered data based on the least squares with gradient weights. We show that sometimes this algorithm admits a substantial reduction of complexity, and, furthermore, find precise conditions under which this is possible. It turns out that this is, indeed, possible when one fits circles but not ellipses or hyperbolas.
Fingerprint based bio-starter and bio-access
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2003
Year: 2003

In the paper will be presented a safety and security system based on fingerprint technology. The results suggest a new scenario where the new cars can use a fingerprint sensor integrated in car handle to allow access and in the dashboard as starter button.
IS (Iris Security)
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2003
Year: 2003

In the paper will be presented a safety system based on iridology. The results suggest a new scenario where the security problem in supervised and unsupervised areas can be treat with the present system and the iris image recognition.
Open source software and peer review
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2003
Year: 2003

We compare the open source model of software development to peer review in academia.
Media Affordances of a Mobile Push-To-Talk Communication Service
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2003
Year: 2003

This paper presents an exploratory study of college-age students using two-way, push-to-talk cellular radios. We describe the observed and reported use of cellular radio by the participants, the activities and purposes for which they adopted it, and their responses. We then examine these empirical results using mediated communication theory. Cellular radios have a unique combination of affordances relative to other media used by this age group, including instant messaging (IM) and mobile phones; the results of our analysis do suggest explanations for some observed phenomena but also highlight the counter-intuitive nature of other phenomena. For example, although the radios have many important dissimilarities with IM from the viewpoint of mediated communication theory, the observed use patterns resembled those of IM to a surprising degree.
ROC Curves Within the Framework of Neural Network Assembly Memory Model: Some Analytic Results
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2003
Year: 2003

On the basis of convolutional (Hamming) version of recent Neural Network Assembly Memory Model (NNAMM) for intact two-layer autoassociative Hopfield network optimal receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) have been derived analytically. A method of taking into account explicitly a priori probabilities of alternative hypotheses on the structure of information initiating memory trace retrieval and modified ROCs (mROCs, a posteriori probabilities of correct recall vs. false alarm probability) are introduced. The comparison of empirical and calculated ROCs (or mROCs) demonstrates that they coincide quantitatively and in this way intensities of cues used in appropriate experiments may be estimated. It has been found that basic ROC properties which are one of experimental findings underpinning dual-process models of recognition memory can be explained within our one-factor NNAMM.
Homomorphic public-key cryptosystems over groups and rings
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2003
Year: 2003

We propose a new homomorphic public-key cryptosystem over arbitrary nonidentity finite group based on the difficulty of the membership problem for groups of integer matrices. Besides, a homomorphic cryptosystem is designed for the first time over finite commutative rings.