ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Contour extrapolation using probabilistic cue combination
Authors: Manish Singh, Jacqueline M. Fulvio
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop (2006)

A common approach to the problem of contour interpolation is based on the calculus of variations. The optimal interpolating contour is taken to be one that minimizes a given smoothness functional. Two important such functionals are total curvature (or bending energy) and variation in curvature. We analyzed contours extrapolated by human observers given arcs of Euler spirals that disappeared behind an occluding surface. Irrespective of whether the Euler spirals had increasing or decreasing curvature as they approached the occluding edge, visually-extrapolated contours were found to be characterized by decaying curvature. This curvature decay is modeled in terms of a Bayesian interaction between probabilistically-expressed constraints to minimize curvature and minimize variation in curvature. The analysis suggests that using fixed smoothness functionals is not appropriate for modeling human vision. Rather, the relative weights assigned to different probabilistic shape constraints may vary as a function of distance from the point(s) of occlusion. Implications are discussed for computational models of shape completion.
An ECG Parallel Scheduling Algorithm for the Distributed Systems
Authors: Maoyuan Zhang, Ruixuan Li, Zhengding Lu, Chunyan Zou
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (2006)

The problem is that the parallel scheduling strategies are minimally supported in distributed environments. The well-known Coffman-Graham algorithm is highly effective but applied only for the sample case when all tasks have the same execution time and not applied for the distributed systems. In this paper, an expanding task graph and an expanding Coffman-Graham algorithm, which orients to the distributed systems and can be applied for the case when the tasks have the different execution time, are proposed. Like the well-known Coffman-Graham algorithm, the ECG algorithm is proved to be an efficient scheduling algorithm for the distributed systems, through presenting and deducting one theorem and two corollaries..
On Weight Design of Maximum Weighted Likelihood and an Extended EM Algorithm
Authors: Zhenyue Zhang Yiu-ming Cheung
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (2006)

The recent Maximum Weighted Likelihood (MWL) [18], [19] has provided a general learning paradigm for density-mixture model selection and learning, in which weight design, however, is a key issue. This paper will therefore explore such a design, and through which a heuristic extended Expectation-Maximization (X-EM) algorithm is presented accordingly. Unlike the EM algorithm [1], the X-EM algorithm is able to perform model selection by fading the redundant components out from a density mixture, meanwhile estimating the model parameters appropriately. The numerical simulations demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithm.
Anonymity and software agents: an interdisciplinary challenge
Authors: Frances Brazier, Anja Oskamp, Corien Prins, Maurice Schellekens, Niek Wijngaards
Venue: Artificial Intelligence and Law (2004)

Software agents that play a role in E-commerce and E-government applications involving the Internet often contain information about the identity of their human user such as credit cards and bank accounts. This paper discusses whether this is necessary: whether human users and software agents are allowed to be anonymous under the relevant legal regimes and whether an adequate interaction and balance between law and anonymity can be realised from both the perspective of Computer Systems and the perspective of Law.
iDEN Phone System Test: An Automation Approach
Authors: Muhammad Aiman Mazlan, Ong Kein Wei, Cindy Phang Sim Sim
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th Asian Test Symposium (2006)

Global Software Group Malaysia (GSG) is the first MSC status company out of 676 MSC-status companies in Malaysia to achieve the SEI-CMM Level 5 in October 2001. SEI-CMM Level 5 is the highest level of process maturity in software engineering. iDEN- Subscriber Group - Test, iSGT is a subset team under GSG Malaysia and actually it is an extension of the iDEN- Subsriber Group System Test in Plantation, Florida. iSGT is a software testing team who involved in Motorola iDEN- phone software system test.
Improved breast cancer prognosis through the combination of clinical and genetic markers
Authors: Yijun Sun, Steve Goodison, Jian Li, Li Liu, William Farmerie
Venue: Bioinformatics (2007)

Motivation: Accurate prognosis of breast cancer can spare a significant number of breast cancer patients from receiving unnecessary adjuvant systemic treatment and its related expensive medical costs. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential value of gene expression signatures in assessing the risk of post-surgical disease recurrence. However, these studies all attempt to develop genetic marker-based prognostic systems to replace the existing clinical criteria, while ignoring the rich information contained in established clinical markers. Given the complexity of breast cancer prognosis, a more practical strategy would be to utilize both clinical and genetic marker information that may be complementary. Methods: A computational study is performed on publicly available microarray data, which has spawned a 70-gene prognostic signature. The recently proposed I-RELIEF algorithm is used to identify a hybrid signature through the combination of both genetic and clinical markers. A rigorous experimental protocol is used to estimate the prognostic performance of the hybrid signature and other prognostic approaches. Survival data analyses is performed to compare different prognostic approaches. Results: The hybrid signature performs significantly better than other methods, including the 70-gene signature, clinical makers alone and the St. Gallen consensus criterion. At the 90% sensitivity level, the hybrid signature achieves 67% specificity, as compared to 47% for the 70-gene signature and 48% for the clinical makers. The odds ratio of the hybrid signature for developing distant metastases within five years between the patients with a good prognosis signature and the patients with a bad prognosis is 21.0 (95% CI:6.5--68.3), far higher than either genetic or clinical markers alone. Availability: The breast cancer dataset is available at www.nature.com and Matlab codes are available upon request. Contact: sun@dsp.ufl.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Combining query and visual search for knowledge mapping
Authors: Samuel Driessen, Jan Jacobs, Willem-Olaf Huijsen
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on Information Visualization (2006)

Searching through information can be done in two ways: by querying and browsing. In the literature these approaches are treated separately. However every search usually consists of a combination of browsing and querying. Therefore this paper is about combining querying and browsing in one search interface. Our hypothesis is that both strategies can be combined and users will be better supported in their search for information. A model is presented how to combine these approaches and this model is evaluated by applying it in the knowledge-mapping domain. We will show that combining both strategies in one model is possible. Based on our evaluation of the application of this model we conclude that the users understand this combination and find it to be helpful. However several technical issues need to be addressed in our future research to confirm the usefulness of this combination.
Hypergraph-Partitioning-Based Remapping Models for Image-Space-Parallel Direct Volume Rendering of Unstructured Grids
Authors: Berkant Barla Cambazoglu Cevdet Aykanat
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2007)

In this work, image-space-parallel direct volume rendering (DVR) of unstructured grids is investigated for distributed-memory architectures. A hypergraph-partitioning-based model is proposed for the adaptive screen partitioning problem in this context. The proposed model aims to balance the rendering loads of processors while trying to minimize the amount of data replication. In the parallel DVR framework we adopted, each data primitive is statically owned by its home processor, which is responsible from replicating its primitives on other processors. Two appropriate remapping models are proposed by enhancing the above model for use within this framework. These two remapping models aim to minimize the total volume of communication in data replication while balancing the rendering loads of processors. Based on the proposed models, a parallel DVR algorithm is developed. The experiments conducted on a PC cluster show that the proposed remapping models achieve better speedup values compared to the remapping models previously suggested for image-space-parallel DVR.
Gendered selves and identities of information technology professionals in global software organizations in India
Authors: Marisa D'Mello
Venue: Information Technology for Development (2006)

Global software organization (GSOs) are a recent form of work settings where Information Technology (IT) professionals engage in information and communication technology (ICT) mediated software development work for businesses across the globe. Issues of self, identity, and gender are linked to particularities of GSOs as a work setting. Using an interpretative, ethnographic approach, empirical data from a case study in India was analyzed to understand how gender was expressed in GSOs and linked to the concepts of self and identity of IT workers. Data suggests that GSOs are a global work setting where local issues of gender reflect social arrangements in Indian society. These arrangements have implications for GSOs as a work setting, for software development work, as well as for the selves and identities of IT workers.
An efficient dynamic programming algorithm for a special case of the capacitated lot-sizing problem
Authors: Wilco van den Heuvel, Albert P. M. Wagelmans
Venue: Computers and Operations Research (2006)

In this paper we consider the capacitated lot-sizing problem (CLSP) with linear costs. It is known that this problem is NP-hard, but there exist special cases that can be solved in polynomial time. We derive a new O(T2) algorithm for the CLSP with non-increasing setup costs, general holding costs, non-increasing production costs and non-decreasing capacities over time, where T is the length of the model horizon. We show that in every iteration we do not consider more candidate solutions than the O(T2) algorithm proposed by [Chung and Lin, 1988. Management Science 34, 420-6]. We also develop a variant of our algorithm that is more efficient in the case of relatively large capacities. Numerical tests show the superior performance of our algorithms compared to the algorithm of [Chung and Lin, 1988. Management Science 34, 420-6].
Modeling Service Interactions Using Kahn Process Network
Authors: Weishi Zhang, Xiuguo Zhang
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (2006)

This paper proposed a Kahn Process Network(KPN) based service interaction model which can dynamically establish links between computational service nodes. Three advantages of KPN make it adequate to model service interactions: (1) parallelism and communication mechanism in KPNs, which enable distributed service interaction on internet; (2) KPNs are compositional, which corresponds to the possibility to build bigger behaviors from small ones; (3) KPN can be executed, which ensures a executable service interaction environment for actual application. Under the three advantages above, we propose four kinds of service interaction rules and corresponding interaction events which enrich KPN operations and extend KPN semantics. We design a service description language called SDL to describe both static properties and dynamic interactions of services. The implementation architecture of service interaction model is present. Finally we introduce an application case to show how to describe service interactions using SDL.
Unsteady MHD couette flow and heat transfer of dusty fluid with variable physical properties
Authors: Hazem A. Attia
Venue: Applied Mathematics and Computation (2006)

This paper studies the unsteady Couette flow and heat transfer of a dusty conducting fluid between two parallel plates with variable viscosity and electric conductivity. The fluid is driven by a constant pressure gradient and an external uniform magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the plates. The governing non-linear partial differential equations are solved numerically using finite differences. The effect of the variation in the viscosity and electric conductivity of the fluid and the uniform magnetic field on the velocity and temperature fields for both the fluid and dust particles is discussed.
Who knows whom in a virtual learning network?: applying social network analysis to communities of learners at the computer clubhouse
Authors: Elisabeth Sylvan
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences (2006)

Social network analysis can be used to describe influence, group dynamics and collaboration in learning networks. The current analysis focuses on a distributed community of learners' email communication and represents the first step in understanding the community's social dynamics. It focuses upon the online intranet presence of the Computer Clubhouse, a network of after-school computer learning centers. The paper presents network analysis and graphs that highlight characteristics of the relationships between the youth, such as strength of their ties, gender, and location of emailing dyads. Implications for future network analysis of learning communities are discussed.
XScribe: a stateless, cross-layer approach to P2P multicast in multi-hop ad hoc networks
Authors: Andrea Passarella, Franca Delmastro, Marco Conti
Venue: Proceedings of the 1st international workshop on Decentralized resource sharing in mobile computing and networking (2006)

Using p2p systems on multi-hop ad hoc networks is an amazingly interesting challenge. While the features of p2p systems designed for Internet are particularly suitable for ad hoc networking environments, the very assumptions behind their design are usually at odds with the ad hoc network distinctive features. It is thus challenging to port p2p features to ad hoc networks in an efficient way. In this work we focus on p2p multicasting, and design a Scribe cross-layer replacement, suitable for ad hoc networks (XScribe). We discuss the main XScribe features, and evaluate its performance on a real multi-hop ad hoc network. Results show that XScribe drastically improves the Scribe performance in terms of packet loss and delay. At the same time, they also indicate XScribe limitations, and suggest directions to further improve its design.
Designing the "Next Generation" of Medical Information Systems
Authors: Rajesh C. Dash, Chris Hubbard, Stanley J. Robboy, Alan D. Proia
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Information Technology (2006)

A new breed of medical information systems is required to more effectively address unresolved and newly emerging needs in the healthcare environment. This paper attempts to define those needs and describe the design and implementation of a solution. In order to rapidly develop a prototype solution that is both sustainable with minimal resources and adaptable to future (perhaps unforeseen) needs, certain design principles are proposed. A prototype application was developed using a high level ("abstract) object oriented approach that permits ongoing modification and adaptation at minimal cost. Standards for user interaction, data modeling, and data coding and retrieval were utilized to create a robust web-based application. Production uses as an autopsy information system, biospecimen management system, and clinical trial management system have ensued.
U-director: a decision-theoretic narrative planning architecture for storytelling environments
Authors: Bradford W. Mott, James C. Lester
Venue: Proceedings of the fifth international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems (2006)

Recent years have seen significant growth in work on interactive storytelling environments. A key challenge posed by these environments is narrative planning, in which a director agent orchestrates all of the events in a storyworld to create an optimal experience for a user, who is herself an active participant in the unfolding story. To create effective stories, the director agent must cope with the task's inherent uncertainty, including uncertainty about the user's intentions and the absence of a complete theory of narrative. Director agents must be efficient so they can operate in real time. In this paper, we present U-Director, a decision-theoretic narrative planning architecture that dynamically models narrative objectives (e.g., plot progress, narrative flow), storyworld state (e.g., plot focus), and user state (e.g., goals, beliefs) with a dynamic decision network that continually selects storyworld actions to maximize narrative utility on an ongoing basis. The U-DIRECTOR architecture has been implemented in a narrative planner for Crystal Island, an interactive storyworld in which users play the role of a medical detective solving a science mystery. Preliminary evaluations suggest that the U-DIRECTOR architecture satisfies the real-time constraints of interactive environments and creates engaging narrative experiences.
Interactive Web based Grid Geometry Construction
Authors: Lin Hsin Hsin
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on Information Visualization (2006)

Conventionally, a grid generator requires either explicit or without explicit description about the boundary vertices, boundary lines and boundary faces to define the geometry, whereby a CAD system or an anisotropic grid generation with intersection-based geometry interface can be deployed to generate grids. Whatever the case, this compute intensive process, quite often, has a non-interactive, non-Web-based interface and without instant visualization. While grid generator can be used to generate grid geometry art, any 2D image editing program can also be deployed, nevertheless, the result is a static display of a pixel- or vector-based image. This paper describes an interactive Web-based visualization as a fundamental medium for visualization, one that changes the way grid geometry art are being visualized, developed, generated and delivered. The author first provides relevant background of grid geometry art, discusses several existing methodologies and their inadequacy currently used within the Web environments. She offers a new paradigm -- a Web-based interactive development tool that integrates an interface for exploration, structuring and dissemination of visualization results for grid geometry art. Such is an instant conceptualization and artistic interpretation of an image as an arrangement of an uniform m x n grid of colored cells: quadrilaterals formed within a set of finite orthogonal grids. The parameter-driven algorithm with minimal user setup for "automatic" idea generation provides the tools for constructing De Stijl, Abstraction Geometry -- Concentric Squares geometrical objects from numerical arrays not only makes and manipulates, it distributes geometric shapes over planes, as well as performs color and rectangular shape transformations. The author briefly discusses the tool, demonstrates and renders specific examples of the art thus created as she illustrates the advantages of using a single tool to embrace the structuring and delivery of a garden variety of grid geometry art.
Simulation of an airport passenger security system
Authors: David R. Pendergraft, Craig V. Robertson, Shelly Shrader
Venue: Proceedings of the 36th conference on Winter simulation (2004)

As part of the new security environment at the nation's airports, discrete event simulation modeling was applied shortly after 9-11 to understand the operational dynamics of passenger security screening in conjunction with the redesign of the passenger checkpoint. In a rapid six week effort, a discrete event simulation model was built to represent the passenger and luggage screening system at Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI). BWI was the first airport to undergo enhancement, and the project was reported in "BWI's Subtle But Serious Security," Washington Post, March 4, 2002. After the value of simulation was demonstrated at BWI, the simulation methodology was applied to develop resource requirements at all Category X and I airports in the United States.
Microprocessor assembly language draft standard
Authors: Richard A. Marino
Venue: ACM SIGSMALL Newsletter (1981)

Among the first languages used in programming computers were assembly languages, in which each instruction is translated directly into machine code. Since that time, the level and sophistication of computer languages has grown to such an extent that high-level computer languages are essentially machine-independent and some are nearly compatible with the spoken language. Even though high-level languages continue to become more and more sophisticated and are the subject of most computer language discussion, there still is and always be a need for assembly languages.
Adopting XP practices for teaching object oriented programming
Authors: Karen Keefe, Judithe Sheard, Martin Dick
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th Austalian conference on Computing education - Volume 52 (2006)

This paper reports on an Action Research project that investigated the effect of introducing a number of Extreme Programming (XP) practices as teaching techniques to introductory programming students. The focus of the study was on using the XP practices to assist students in an introductory programming subject develop object oriented programming skills, problem solving skills and teach them to become more self-sufficient in their learning. The research is concerned with applying several of the XP practices as a means of value-adding to current pedagogical approaches. The results from this first exploratory cycle have been mixed, but there have been enough positive results to feed forward into the next action research cycle.
Chick sexing and novice programmers: explicit instruction of problem solving strategies
Authors: Michael de Raadt, Richard Watson, Mark Toleman
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th Austalian conference on Computing education - Volume 52 (2006)

This study examines the problem solving strategies used by expert programmers. Past studies of the cognitive processes of expert programmers suggest the existence of plans that describe the problem solving strategies held by these programmers. To date such strategies, which are relevant to novice programmers, have not been explicitly incorporated into the curricula of introductory programming courses. In revisiting these earlier studies and confirming the existence of the strategies held by experts, this study argues for inclusion of explicit strategy instruction.