OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Debunking some myths about biometric authentication
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2012
Year: 2012

Biometric authentication systems are presented as the best way to reach high security levels in controlling access to IT systems or sensitive infrastructures. But several issues are often not taken properly into account. In order for the implementation of those systems to be successful, the hidden risks and the related liabilities have to be carefully analyzed before biometrics can be used on a large scale for sensitive applications.
Introduction of a Triple Prime Symmetric Key Block Cipher
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2012
Year: 2012

This paper proposes to put forward an innovative algorithm for symmetric key block cipher named as "Triple Prime Symmetric Key Block Cipher with Variable Key-Spaces (TPSKBCVK)" that employs triple prime integers as private key-spaces of varying lengths to encrypt data files. Principles of modular arithmetic have been elegantly used in the proposed idea of the cipher. Depending on observations of the results of implementation of the proposed cipher on a set of real data files of several types, all results are registered and analyzed. The strength of the underlying design of the cipher and the liberty of using a long key-space expectedly makes it reasonably non-susceptible against possible cryptanalytic intrusions. As a future scope of the work, it is intended to formulate and employ an improved scheme that will use a carrier media (image or multimedia data file) for a secure transmission of the private keys.
Securing business operations in an SOA
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2012
Year: 2012

Service-oriented infrastructures pose new challenges in a number of areas, notably with regard to security and dependability. BT has developed a combination of innovative security solutions and governance frameworks that can address these challenges. They include advances in identity federation; distributed usage and access management; context-aware secure messaging, routing and transformation; and (security) policy governance for service-oriented architectures. This paper discusses these developments and the steps being taken to validate their functionality and performance.
A common interface for multi-rule-engine distributed systems
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2012
Year: 2012

The rule technological landscape is becoming ever more complex, with an extended number of specifications and products. It is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to integrate rule-driven components and manage interoperability in multi-rule engine environments. The described work presents the possibility to provide a common interface for rule-driven components in a distributed system. The authors' approach leverages on a set of discovery protocol, rule interchange and user interface to alleviate the environment's complexity.
Orthogonal Designs and a Cubic Binary Function
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2012
Year: 2012

Orthogonal designs are fundamental mathematical notions used in the construction of space time block codes for wireless transmissions. Designs have two important parameters, the rate and the decoding delay; the main problem of the theory is to construct designs maximizing the rate and minimizing the decoding delay. All known constructions of CODs are inductive or algorithmic. In this paper, we present an explicit construction of optimal CODs. We do not apply recurrent procedures and do calculate the matrix elements directly. Our formula is based on a cubic function in two binary n-vectors. In our previous work (Comm. Math. Phys., 2010, and J. Pure and Appl. Algebra, 2011), we used this function to define a series of non-associative algebras generalizing the classical algebra of octonions and to obtain sum of squares identities of Hurwitz-Radon type.
Georeferenced lives
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2012
Year: 2012

To give a georeference means to give a reference as existing in the physical space of Earth. This procedure is widely used for the location of archaeological, historical and other sites when geographic information systems (GIS) are used. Here we are proposing to georeference the lives of famous people (in the paper, Newton and Schiaparelli) for teaching purposes, to increase the appeal of some scientific disciplines.
Application of Multi-layer Graphs In the Design of MPLS Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2012
Year: 2012

It is suggested to use multi-layer graphs as a mathematical model in the design of MPLS networks. The application of this model makes it possible to design multi-service telecommunication systems simultaneously at several levels and to reduce the problem to the search of the minimum weight graph.
Algorithms for Wireless Capacity
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2012
Year: 2012

In this paper we address two basic questions in wireless communication: First, how long does it take to schedule an arbitrary set of communication requests? Second, given a set of communication requests, how many of them can be scheduled concurrently? Our results are derived in an interference model with geometric path loss and consist of efficient algorithms that find a constant approximation for the second problem and a logarithmic approximation for the first problem. In addition, we analyze some important properties of the interference model and show that it is robust to various factors that can influence the signal attenuation. More specifically, we prove that as long as such influences on the signal attenuation are constant, they affect the capacity only by a constant factor.
Preservation of Strong Normalisation modulo permutations for the structural lambda-calculus
Venue: arXiv cs.LO 2012
Year: 2012

Inspired by a recent graphical formalism for lambda-calculus based on linear logic technology, we introduce an untyped structural lambda-calculus, called lambda j, which combines actions at a distance with exponential rules decomposing the substitution by means of weakening, contraction and derelicition. First, we prove some fundamental properties of lambda j such as confluence and preservation of beta-strong normalisation. Second, we add a strong bisimulation to lambda j by means of an equational theory which captures in particular Regnier's sigma-equivalence. We then complete this bisimulation with two more equations for (de)composition of substitutions and we prove that the resulting calculus still preserves beta-strong normalization. Finally, we discuss some consequences of our results.
A Method of Moments for Mixture Models and Hidden Markov Models
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2012
Year: 2012

Mixture models are a fundamental tool in applied statistics and machine learning for treating data taken from multiple subpopulations. The current practice for estimating the parameters of such models relies on local search heuristics (e.g., the EM algorithm) which are prone to failure, and existing consistent methods are unfavorable due to their high computational and sample complexity which typically scale exponentially with the number of mixture components. This work develops an efficient method of moments approach to parameter estimation for a broad class of high-dimensional mixture models with many components, including multi-view mixtures of Gaussians (such as mixtures of axis-aligned Gaussians) and hidden Markov models. The new method leads to rigorous unsupervised learning results for mixture models that were not achieved by previous works; and, because of its simplicity, it offers a viable alternative to EM for practical deployment.
Lyapunov exponent evaluation of a digital watermarking scheme proven to be secure
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2012
Year: 2012

In our previous researches, a new digital watermarking scheme based on chaotic iterations has been introduced. This scheme was both stego-secure and topologically secure. The stego-security is to face an attacker in the "watermark only attack" category, whereas the topological security concerns other categories of attacks. Its Lyapunov exponent is evaluated here, to quantify the chaos generated by this scheme. Keywords : Lyapunov exponent; Information hiding; Security; Chaotic iterations; Digital Watermarking.
On Global Types and Multi-Party Session
Venue: arXiv cs.PL 2012
Year: 2012

Global types are formal specifications that describe communication protocols in terms of their global interactions. We present a new, streamlined language of global types equipped with a trace-based semantics and whose features and restrictions are semantically justified. The multi-party sessions obtained projecting our global types enjoy a liveness property in addition to the traditional progress and are shown to be sound and complete with respect to the set of traces of the originating global type. Our notion of completeness is less demanding than the classical ones, allowing a multi-party session to leave out redundant traces from an underspecified global type. In addition to the technical content, we discuss some limitations of our language of global types and provide an extensive comparison with related specification languages adopted in different communities.
An MLP based Approach for Recognition of Handwritten `Bangla' Numerals
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2012
Year: 2012

The work presented here involves the design of a Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) based pattern classifier for recognition of handwritten Bangla digits using a 76 element feature vector. Bangla is the second most popular script and language in the Indian subcontinent and the fifth most popular language in the world. The feature set developed for representing handwritten Bangla numerals here includes 24 shadow features, 16 centroid features and 36 longest-run features. On experimentation with a database of 6000 samples, the technique yields an average recognition rate of 96.67% evaluated after three-fold cross validation of results. It is useful for applications related to OCR of handwritten Bangla Digit and can also be extended to include OCR of handwritten characters of Bangla alphabet.
Handwritten Bangla Alphabet Recognition using an MLP Based Classifier
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2012
Year: 2012

The work presented here involves the design of a Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) based classifier for recognition of handwritten Bangla alphabet using a 76 element feature set Bangla is the second most popular script and language in the Indian subcontinent and the fifth most popular language in the world. The feature set developed for representing handwritten characters of Bangla alphabet includes 24 shadow features, 16 centroid features and 36 longest-run features. Recognition performances of the MLP designed to work with this feature set are experimentally observed as 86.46% and 75.05% on the samples of the training and the test sets respectively. The work has useful application in the development of a complete OCR system for handwritten Bangla text.
An Efficient Algorithm to Calculate BICM Capacity
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2012
Year: 2012

Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) is a practical approach for reliable communication over the AWGN channel in the bandwidth limited regime. For a signal point constellation with 2^m points, BICM labels the signal points with bit strings of length m and then treats these m bits separately both at the transmitter and the receiver. BICM capacity is defined as the maximum of a certain achievable rate. Maximization has to be done over the probability mass functions (pmf) of the bits. This is a non-convex optimization problem. So far, the optimal bit pmfs were determined via exhaustive search, which is of exponential complexity in m. In this work, an algorithm called bit-alternating convex concave method (Bacm) is developed. This algorithm calculates BICM capacity with a complexity that scales approximately as m^3. The algorithm iteratively applies convex optimization techniques. Bacm is used to calculate BICM capacity of 4,8,16,32, and 64-PAM in AWGN. For PAM constellations with more than 8 points, the presented values are the first results known in the literature.
The cloud paradigm: Are you tuned for the lyrics?
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2012
Year: 2012

Major players, business angels and opinion-makers are broadcasting beguiled lyrics on the most recent IT hype: your software should ascend to the clouds. There are many clouds and the stake is high. Distractedly, many of us became assiduous users of the cloud, but perhaps due to the legacy systems and legacy knowledge, IT professionals, mainly those many that work in business information systems for the long tail, are not as much plunged into producing cloud-based systems for their clients. This keynote will delve into several aspects of this cloud paradigm, from more generic concerns regarding security and value for money, to more specific worries that reach software engineers in general. Do we need a different software development process? Are development techniques and tools mature enough? What about the role of open-source in the cloud? How do we assess the quality in cloud-based development? Please stay tuned for more!
Bibliometric Perspectives on Medical Innovation using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of PubMed
Venue: arXiv cs.DL 2012
Year: 2012

Multiple perspectives on the nonlinear processes of medical innovations can be distinguished and combined using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the Medline database. Focusing on three main branches-"diseases," "drugs and chemicals," and "techniques and equipment"-we use base maps and overlay techniques to investigate the translations and interactions and thus to gain a bibliometric perspective on the dynamics of medical innovations. To this end, we first analyze the Medline database, the MeSH index tree, and the various options for a static mapping from different perspectives and at different levels of aggregation. Following a specific innovation (RNA interference) over time, the notion of a trajectory which leaves a signature in the database is elaborated. Can the detailed index terms describing the dynamics of research be used to predict the diffusion dynamics of research results? Possibilities are specified for further integration between the Medline database, on the one hand, and the Science Citation Index and Scopus (containing citation information), on the other.
On the asymptotic and practical complexity of solving bivariate systems over the reals
Venue: arXiv cs.SC 2012
Year: 2012

This paper is concerned with exact real solving of well-constrained, bivariate polynomial systems. The main problem is to isolate all common real roots in rational rectangles, and to determine their intersection multiplicities. We present three algorithms and analyze their asymptotic bit complexity, obtaining a bound of $\sOB(N^{14})$ for the purely projection-based method, and $\sOB(N^{12})$ for two subresultant-based methods: this notation ignores polylogarithmic factors, where $N$ bounds the degree and the bitsize of the polynomials. The previous record bound was $\sOB(N^{14})$. Our main tool is signed subresultant sequences. We exploit recent advances on the complexity of univariate root isolation, and extend them to sign evaluation of bivariate polynomials over two algebraic numbers, and real root counting for polynomials over an extension field. Our algorithms apply to the problem of simultaneous inequalities; they also compute the topology of real plane algebraic curves in $\sOB(N^{12})$, whereas the previous bound was $\sOB(N^{14})$. All algorithms have been implemented in MAPLE, in conjunction with numeric filtering. We compare them against FGB/RS, system solvers from SYNAPS, and MAPLE libraries INSULATE and TOP, which compute curve topology. Our software is among the most robust, and its runtimes are comparable, or within a small constant factor, with respect to the C/C++ libraries. Key words: real solving, polynomial systems, complexity, MAPLE software
Opportunistic Routing with Congestion Diversity in Wireless Ad-hoc Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2012
Year: 2012

We consider the problem of routing packets across a multi-hop network consisting of multiple sources of traffic and wireless links while ensuring bounded expected delay. Each packet transmission can be overheard by a random subset of receiver nodes among which the next relay is selected opportunistically. The main challenge in the design of minimum-delay routing policies is balancing the trade-off between routing the packets along the shortest paths to the destination and distributing traffic according to the maximum backpressure. Combining important aspects of shortest path and backpressure routing, this paper provides a systematic development of a distributed opportunistic routing policy with congestion diversity ({D-ORCD}). {D-ORCD} uses a measure of draining time to opportunistically identify and route packets along the paths with an expected low overall congestion. {D-ORCD} is proved to ensure a bounded expected delay for all networks and under any admissible traffic. Furthermore, this paper proposes a practical implementation which empirically optimizes critical algorithm parameters and their effects on delay as well as protocol overhead. Realistic Qualnet simulations for 802.11-based networks demonstrate a significant improvement in the average delay over comparative solutions in the literature. %Finally, various practical modifications to {D-ORCD} are proposed and their performance are evaluated.
A Self-Organization Framework for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks as Small Worlds
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2012
Year: 2012

Motivated by the benefits of small world networks, we propose a self-organization framework for wireless ad hoc networks. We investigate the use of directional beamforming for creating long-range short cuts between nodes. Using simulation results for randomized beamforming as a guideline, we identify crucial design issues for algorithm design. Our results show that, while significant path length reduction is achievable, this is accompanied by the problem of asymmetric paths between nodes. Subsequently, we propose a distributed algorithm for small world creation that achieves path length reduction while maintaining connectivity. We define a new centrality measure that estimates the structural importance of nodes based on traffic flow in the network, which is used to identify the optimum nodes for beamforming. We show, using simulations, that this leads to significant reduction in path length while maintaining connectivity.
Performance Analysis of HR Portal Domain Components Extraction
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2012
Year: 2012

Extraction of components pertaining to a particular domain not only reduces the cost but also helps in delivering a quality product. However, the advantages of the Component Level Interaction's (CLI's) are not clearly presented. In the first part of the paper the design of HR Portal application is described. Later the results are simulated using the Netbeans Profiler tool which exposes and highlights the performance characteristics of component based system pertaining to HR domain.
Series misdemeanors
Venue: arXiv cs.SC 2012
Year: 2012

Puiseux series are power series in which the exponents can be fractional and/or negative rational numbers. Several computer algebra systems have one or more built-in or loadable functions for computing truncated Puiseux series -- perhaps generalized to allow coefficients containing functions of the series variable that are dominated by any power of that variable, such as logarithms and nested logarithms of the series variable. Some computer-algebra systems also offer functions that can compute more-general truncated recursive hierarchical series. However, for all of these kinds of truncated series there are important implementation details that haven't been addressed before in the published literature and in current implementations. For implementers this article contains ideas for designing more convenient, correct, and efficient implementations or improving existing ones. For users, this article is a warning about some of these limitations. Many of the ideas in this article have been implemented in the computer-algebra within the TI-Nspire calculator, Windows and Macintosh products.
Communication over Individual Channels -- a general framework
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2012
Year: 2012

We consider the problem of communicating over a channel for which no mathematical model is specified, and the achievable rates are determined as a function of the channel input and output sequences known a-posteriori, without assuming any a-priori relation between them. In a previous paper we have shown that the empirical mutual information between the input and output sequences is achievable without specifying the channel model, by using feedback and common randomness, and a similar result for real-valued input and output alphabets. In this paper, we present a unifying framework which includes the two previous results as particular cases. We characterize the region of rate functions which are achievable, and show that asymptotically the rate function is equivalent to a conditional distribution of the channel input given the output. We present a scheme that achieves these rates with asymptotically vanishing overheads.
A Note on a Conjecture for Balanced Elementary Symmetric Boolean Functions
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2012
Year: 2012

In 2008, Cusick {\it et al.} conjectured that certain elementary symmetric Boolean functions of the form $σ_{2^{t+1}l-1, 2^t}$ are the only nonlinear balanced ones, where $t$, $l$ are any positive integers, and $σ_{n,d}=\bigoplus_{1\le i_1<...<i_d\le n}x_{i_1}x_{i_2}...x_{i_d}$ for positive integers $n$, $1\le d\le n$. In this note, by analyzing the weight of $σ_{n, 2^t}$ and $σ_{n, d}$, we prove that ${\rm wt}(σ_{n, d})<2^{n-1}$ holds in most cases, and so does the conjecture. According to the remainder of modulo 4, we also consider the weight of $σ_{n, d}$ from two aspects: $n\equiv 3({\rm mod\}4)$ and $n\not\equiv 3({\rm mod\}4)$. Thus, we can simplify the conjecture. In particular, our results cover the most known results. In order to fully solve the conjecture, we also consider the weight of $σ_{n, 2^t+2^s}$ and give some experiment results on it.
Crowdsourcing for Usability Testing
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2012
Year: 2012

While usability evaluation is critical to designing usable websites, traditional usability testing can be both expensive and time consuming. The advent of crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and CrowdFlower offer an intriguing new avenue for performing remote usability testing with potentially many users, quick turn-around, and significant cost savings. To investigate the potential of such crowdsourced usability testing, we conducted two similar (though not completely parallel) usability studies which evaluated a graduate school's website: one via a traditional usability lab setting, and the other using crowdsourcing. While we find crowdsourcing exhibits some notable limitations in comparison to the traditional lab environment, its applicability and value for usability testing is clearly evidenced. We discuss both methodological differences for crowdsourced usability testing, as well as empirical contrasts to results from more traditional, face-to-face usability testing.