ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
'Touching the void'...: narrowing the crevasse between the tactile diagrams that tutors request and those that work in reality
Authors: Anne Dickinson
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (2007)

The author's previous role within the Further Education sector, at North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, was to teach Information Technology (IT) to diverse groups of students who had varied abilities. This role was drawn upon in the author's current role when asked to tutor a student who had enrolled for a Degree in Business and IT at Coventry University. The author was asked to tutor the student for the IT workshops of a year-long module. This included translating the instructional handouts from mouse-based to keyboard-based, being aware of potential problems with specialist software and the quirks of the online learning system (WebCT) and finding ways of working around them all. There were also occasions where it was necessary to create tactile diagrams [1] for the student. One of the diagrams produced was for critical path analysis. It was created to allow interactivity and to reflect a piece of specialist software that was used for helping students learn the topic. The materials used included using Euro cents, Wikki sticks [3] and string!. A technician had been assigned to produce tactile diagrams for other modules. The technician realised that there were problems with some of the requests for tactile diagrams that were being received from some tutors. From discussions, it was clear that tutors were unaware of the issues involved with creating and using tactile diagrams. A void existed between their understanding from a visual context and how a tactile diagram worked. For many instances, creating a tactile diagram would not be appropriate as the complexity would be multiplied. A set of simple guidelines were produced that the technician could use as an aid to explaining issues to the tutors - 'touching the void' [5]. The tactile diagrams produced were using heated "swell paper" [2]. This meant that the diagram could be printed from an image on a computer. The resulting printout would be raised where lines were. However, it was discovered that this method gave some disappointing results. As there were no standards for tactile diagrams but some conventions and guidelines [4], a strategy was produced, from the experiences gained, to give optimum results when translating a diagram from the computer to the "swell paper". This poster displays examples of tactile diagrams, guidelines given to tutors for requesting tactile diagrams and strategies for creating printable tactile diagrams.
Modeling adjectives in computational relational lexica
Authors: Palmira Marrafa, Sara Mendes
Venue: Proceedings of the COLING/ACL on Main conference poster sessions (2006)

In this paper we propose a small set of lexical conceptual relations which allow to encode adjectives in computational relational lexica in a principled and integrated way. Our main motivation comes from the fact that adjectives and certain classes of verbs, related in a way or another with adjectives, do not have a satisfactory representation in this kind of lexica. This is due to a great extent to the heterogeneity of their semantic and syntactic properties. We sustain that such properties are mostly derived from the relations holding between adjectives and other POS. Accordingly, our proposal is mainly concerned with the specification of appropriate cross-POS relations to encode adjectives in lexica of the type considered here.
Role Assignment for Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Maulin Patel, S. Venkatesan, Doug Weiner
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops - Volume 02 (2007)

One of the key design goals in the design of wireless sen- sor networks is the efficient utilization of scarce resources such as bandwidth and energy supply. Data aggregation is a powerful technique to reduce the volume of traffic car- ried by the network. Data aggregation reduces congesting, saves bandwidth, saves energy and improves the lifetime of the network. In this paper we study the integrated routing and role assignment problem for efficient data aggregation in the wireless sensor networks. The objective is to iden- tify an optimal subset of sensor nodes which should play the role of data aggregators so as to maximize the lifetime of the sensor network. Integrated routing and role assign- ment problem has been formulated as a Mixed Integer Lin- ear Program(MILP). Simulations are performed on a sam- ple grid topology to identify the optimal subset of sensor nodes which should operate as aggregators. Results show that input parameters such as transmitter type (adaptive or non-adaptive) and transmission range have significant im- pact on the outcome of experiments.
Analysis of Hybrid Power Systems
Authors: Vivek Venkoba Rao, Chellamuthu Chinnagounder
Venue: Proceedings of the First Asia International Conference on Modelling & Simulation (2007)

The paper contains the modelling of system comprising, the diesel generator, wind energy source, Photovoltaic cell, solar power cells in source side domestic load, Industrial load in load side. The diesel generator is considered as a controlled energy source, and the wind is an uncontrolled energy source and the domestic load as an uncontrolled energy sink. All the components are modelled in MATLAB/SIMULINK and their response for the load changes are studied.
A platform for unobtrusive measurements on PlanetLab
Authors: Rob Sherwood, Neil Spring
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on USENIX Workshop on Real, Large Distributed Systems - Volume 3 (2006)

TCP Sidecar is a network measurement platform for injecting probes transparently into externally generated TCP streams. By coupling measurement probes with nonmeasurement traffic, we are able to obtain measurements behind NATs and firewalls without alerting intrusion detection systems. In this paper, we discuss Sidecar's design and our deployment experience on PlanetLab. We present preliminary results from Sidecar-based tools for RTT estimation ("sideping") and receiver-side bottleneck location ("artrat").
Hardware/software co-design for DSP applications via the HMS framework
Authors: M. Sheliga
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1996. on Conference Proceedings., 1996 IEEE International Conference - Volume 02 (1996)

The design of computer systems that incorporate both standardized off-the-shelf processors, or software, as well as specialized hardware is referred to as hardware/software (hw/sw) co-design. This paper studies the problem and presents a system, the Hardware/MultiSoftware Co-design (HMS) system, for obtaining the best hw/sw configuration for DSP applications. New algorithms for performing partitioning, scheduling, loop pipelining (retiming), hardware needability analysis, etc., are presented. The final configuration satisfies both area and time constraints while using as many standardized processors as possible along with a minimum amount of extra hardware.
MEMS tunable capacitors with fragmented electrodes and rotational electro-thermal drive
Authors: A. Mehdaoui, M. B. Pisani, D. Tsamados, F. Casset, P. Ancey, A. M. Ionescu
Venue: Microsystem Technologies (2007)

This paper reports on the design, simulation and fabrication of tunable MEMS capacitors with fragmented metal (AlSi 4%) electrodes. We examine a rotational electro-thermal actuation. An analytic model of the rotational effect thermal actuator was established in order to show the periodicity of the capacitance when the angle increases. Evaluation of the impact of fringing fields on the capacitance has been carried out using finite element analysis (FEA). The MEMS capacitors were fabricated using metal surface micromachining with polyimide sacrificial layer. The maximum rotation, corresponding to a maximum angle of 7&#x00b0;, was obtained near 1.2&#x00a0;V and 299&#x00a0;mA. The proposed capacitor has a practical tuning range of 30%. FEA has shown that this figure can be improved with design optimization. The MEMS architecture based on rotational effect and fragmented electrodes does not suffer from the pull in effect and offers a practical solution for future above-IC capacitors.
Radix-4 FFT implementation using SIMD multimedia instructions
Authors: K. Nadehara
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 04 (1999)

A fast radix-4 complex FFT implementation using 4-parallel SIMD instructions is presented. Four radix-4 butterflies are calculated in parallel at all stages by loading consecutive 4 elements into a register. At the last stage, every 4 elements is packed into a register and calculated in parallel. This regular data flow enables higher parallelism and an overhead reduction in data format conversion. The implementation result on the V830R processor, which has a 4-parallel SIMD-type multimedia instruction set, achieves practical performance quite competitive with high-end parallel DSPs. Multiply-accumulate instructions with symmetrical rounding introduced to the V830R processor are effective to maintain FFT accuracy.
Investigating the effects of stable personality traits on computer self-efficacy with repeated training
Authors: John M. Pearson
Venue:  (2006)

The importance of understanding what motivates individuals toward acceptance of technology, and what compels them to use it is becoming more essential due to the fact that organizations rely heavily on information technology. There is no lack of research in the area of information technology, but studies examining the effects of certain individual traits and training on computer self-efficacy, and the resulting increase in usage behavior are limited. Unless there is a clearer understanding of what motivates individuals to use technology, there is a likelihood that the technology will be under-used. There is indication throughout research that the Big-Five personality traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Openness to Experience) may have an effect on an individual's level of computer self-efficacy. Those who have a higher level of computer self-efficacy may be more accepting of technology and may be more likely to use all its available features. This study examined the relationship between these personality traits and levels of computer self-efficacy. There were pre-tests to determine the beginning level of computer self-efficacy and likelihood to use. This was followed by two segments of training, with a time lapse of a week between, to see whether the training raises the level of computer self-efficacy. During each training segment, half the participants received training using behavior modeling, and the other half had behavior modeling with a retention enhancement activity. Partial least squares was used to test the models. We found that Openness to Experience was related to computer self-efficacy, and that computer self-efficacy did not increase following training sessions. These findings and the fact that intention to use decreased following the second training were important in understanding more about training and in learning about those factors that influence utilization of available technologies. We must understand how to effectively train workers on different levels of software complexity.
Denoising of human speech using combined acoustic and EM sensor signal processing
Authors: L. C. Ng
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2000. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 01 (2000)

Low power EM radar-like sensors have made it possible to measure properties of the human speech production system in real-time, without acoustic interference. This greatly enhances the quality and quantify of information for many speech related applications (see Holzrichter, Burnett, Ng, and Lea, J. Acoustic. Soc. Am. 103 (1) 622 (1998)). By using combined glottal-EM-sensor-and acoustic-signals, segments of voiced, unvoiced, and no-speech can be reliably defined. Real-time de-noising filters can be constructed to remove noise from the user's corresponding speech signal.
A Novel Approach to Building Secure Systems
Authors: Dragan Vidakovic, Dejan Simic
Venue: Proceedings of the The Second International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (2007)

In this paper, we present the modern approaches to building secure systems which are based on overcoming the problems resulting from asynchronization between system modeling and development on the one hand and modeling and development of the system security on the other hand. We also present the bases and solutions on which the idea of symbiosis is founded: a useful, close, permanent unity that combines languages for modeling systems with languages for modeling security. In this paper, we also present the design of one Web ecommerce application written by means of SecureUML-template and extended by being connected with protection against attacks (such as Web site defacement) and by the use of digital signature.
Compiler optimization of C++ virtual function calls
Authors: Sara Porat, David Bernstein, Yaroslav Fedorov, Joseph Rodrigue, Eran Yahav
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd conference on USENIX Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies (COOTS) - Volume 2 (1996)

We describe two generic optimization techniques to improve run-time performance of C++ virtual function calls: type specification and type prediction. Both involve program analysis that results in a set of call sites to be optimized, and code transformations that replace the original dispatching mechanism in these sites by more efficient call expressions. We implement two special cases. The first is a type-specification optimization, called unique name, that requires static global view of the whole program in order to substitute indirect virtual function call sites by direct calls. The other is a type-prediction kind of optimization, referred to as single type prediction, that uses type-profiling information to replace virtual function calls by conditional expressions which involve direct function calls. These optimizations were implemented in IBM's compiler, the C Set ++ for AIX/6000, and evaluated on a set of C++ standard benchmarks. We received encouraging run-time results with improvements in order of 20% that demonstrate the vitality of these techniques.
Hot-swapping between a mark&sweep and a mark&compact garbage collector in a generational environment
Authors: Tony Printezis
Venue: Proceedings of the 2001 Symposium on JavaTM Virtual Machine Research and Technology Symposium - Volume 1 (2001)

This paper describes a novel method for dynamically switching between a Mark&Compact (M&C) and a Mark&Sweep (M&S) garbage collector in the generational memory system of a high performance Java virtual machine. A M&C collector reclaims space by sliding all live objects towards the beginning of the heap. A M&S collector de-allocates garbage objects in-place. In this paper, both algorithms are assumed to operate over the old generation of a generational memory system and on their own provide different trade-offs to the application that uses them: faster old collections but with slower young collections and the possibility of fragmentation (M&S) or slower old collections but with faster young collections and the guarantee to eliminate fragmentation (M&C). We propose Hot-Swapping, a technique for dynamically switching between these two algorithms, to attempt to achieve the "best of both worlds". Its introduction to the memory system of the virtual machine imposed minimal changes to the existing implementations of M&C and M&S and virtually no extra performance overhead. Experimental results, presented in the paper, show that this hybrid scheme can either outperform both algorithms, or is very close to the faster of the two (whether this is M&S or M&C), while never being the slowest.
A fuzzy logic approach to experience-based reasoning: Research Articles
Authors: Zhaohao Sun, Gavin Finnie
Venue: International Journal of Intelligent Systems (2007)

Experience-based reasoning (EBR) is a reasoning paradigm that has been used in almost every human activity such as business, military missions, and teaching activities since early human history. However, EBR has not been seriously studied from either a logical or mathematical viewpoint, although case-based reasoning (CBR) researchers have paid attention to EBR to some extent. This article will attempt to fill this gap by providing a unified fuzzy logic-based treatment of EBR. More specifically, this article first reviews the logical approach to EBR, in which eight different rules of inference for EBR are discussed. Then the article proposes fuzzy logic-based models to these eight different rules of inference that constitute the fundamentals for all EBR paradigms from a fuzzy logic viewpoint, and therefore will form a theoretical foundation for EBR. The proposed approach will facilitate research and development of EBR, fuzzy systems, intelligent systems, knowledge management, and experience management. &copy; 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 867&ndash;889, 2007.
Revisiting novice programmer errors
Authors: Gavriel Yarmish, Danny Kopec
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (2007)

Although programmer errors have been investigated, only a limited range of error types typically made by novices have been scrutinized. In this paper we present an expanded classification of the types of errors considered in previous research. In particular, problems which require the use of more difficult program constructs such as nested loops, arrays, recursion and functions have been somewhat neglected. We hope this paper will encourage other researchers to further analyze the types of errors advanced novices will make and the types of misunderstandings which underlie such errors.
A software-defined ultra-wideband transceiver testbed for communications, ranging, and imaging
Authors: Jeffrey H. Reed
Venue:  (2006)

Impulse Ultra Wideband (UWB) communications is an emerging technology that promises a number of benefits over traditional narrowband or broadband signals: extremely high data rates, extremely robust operation in dense multipath environments, low probability of intercept/detection, and the ability to operate concurrently with existing users. Unfortunately, most currently available UWB systems are based on dedicated hardware, preventing researchers from investigating algorithms or architectures that take advantage of some of the unique properties of UWB signals. This dissertation outlines the development of a general purpose software radio transceiver testbed for UWB signals. The testbed is an enabling technology that provides a development platform for investigating ultra wideband communication algorithms (e.g., acquisition, synchronization, modulation, multiple access), ranging or radar (e.g., precision position location, intrusion detection, heart and respiration rate monitoring), and could potentially be used in the area of ultra wideband based medical imaging or vital signs monitoring. As research into impulse ultra wideband expands, the need is greater now than ever for a platform that will allow researchers to collect real-world performance data to corroborate theoretical and simulation results. Additionally, this dissertation outlines the development of the Time-Interleaved Analog to Digital Converter array which served as the core of the testbed, along with a comprehensive theoretical and simulation-based analysis on the effects of Analog to Digital Converter mismatches in a Time-Interleaved Sampling array when the input signal is an ultra wideband Gaussian Monocycle. Included in the discussion is a thorough overview of the implementation of both a scaled-down prototype as well as the final version of the testbed. This dissertation concludes by evaluating the of the transceiver testbed in terms of the narrowband dynamic range, the accuracy with which it can sample and reconstruct a UWB pulse, and the bit error rate performance of the overall system.**This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: WinZip.
Comparison of second and third order statistics based adaptive filters for texture characterization
Authors: M. Sayadi
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 06 (1999)

In the framework of parametric texture modeling, a question arises: are adaptive approaches based on higher order statistics (HOS) more appropriate to characterize texture models than those based on second order statistics (SOS)? In order to give some responses to this question, we have compared two fast adaptive filters for texture characterization: the 2-D FLRLS filter (2-D fast lattice recursive least square) based on SOS only and the 2-D OLRIV filter (2-D overdetermined lattice recursive instrumental variable) based on third order statistics. Extensive experiments to study the characterization performance of each filter are presented and interpreted. They show that the 2-D FLRLS filter provides a very good performance for texture characterization, even with important noise. Furthermore, the third order based algorithm presents higher variance than the second order one. We believe that for 2-D adaptive modeling, there is no advantage to using a HOS based adaptive algorithm for characterizing textures.
Multidimensional systolic arrays for multidimensional DFTs
Authors: Hyesook Lim
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1996. on Conference Proceedings., 1996 IEEE International Conference - Volume 06 (1996)

One of the most challenging problems for VLSI implementation of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is to efficiently implement multidimensional discrete Fourier transforms with systolic architectures. This paper presents a multidimensional systolic array for performing the multidimensional DFT. Extensions of the multidimensional systolic array are widely searched for the prime-factor computation or the 2/sup n/-point decomposed computation of one-dimensional (1-D) DFT. The essence of the proposed multidimensional systolic array is to combine different types of semi-systolic arrays into one array so that the resulting array becomes truly systolic. This systolic array does not require any preloading of input data and it produces output data at boundary PEs. No networks for intermediate spectrum transposition between constituent 1-dimensional transforms are required; therefore the entire processing is fully pipelined.
Video Stabilization Using Scale-Invariant Features
Authors: Rong Hu, Rongjie Shi, I-fan Shen, Wenbin Chen
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference Information Visualization (2007)

Video Stabilization is one of those important video processing techniques to remove the unwanted camera vibration in a video sequence. In this paper, we present a practical method to remove the annoying shaky motion and reconstruct a stabilized video sequence with good visual quality. Here, the scale invariant(SIFT) features, proved to be invariant to image scale and rotation, is applied to estimate the camera motion. The unwanted vibrations are separated from the intentional camera motion with the combination of Gaussian kernel filtering and parabolic fitting. It is demonstrated that our method effectively removes the high frequency "noise' motion, but also minimize the missing area as much as possible. To reconstruct the undefined areas, resulting from motion compensation, we adopt the mosaicing method with Dynamic Programming . The proposed method has been confirmed to be effective over a widely variety of videos.