ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
An adaptive Markov random field based error concealment method for video communication in an error prone environment
Authors: S. Shirani
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 06 (1999)

Loss of coded data during its transmission can affect a decoded video sequence to a large extent, making concealment of errors caused by data loss a serious issue. Previous work in spatial error concealment exploiting MRF models used a single pixel wide region around the erroneous area to achieve a reconstruction based on an optimality measure. This practically restricts the amount of available information that is used in a concealment procedure to a small region around the missing area. Incorporating more pixels usually means a higher order model and this is expensive as the complexity grows exponentially with the order of the MRF model. Using previously proposed approaches, the damaged area is reconstructed fairly well in very low frequency portions of the image. However, the reconstruction process yields blurry results with a significant loss of details in high frequency, or edge portions of the image. In our proposed approach, a MRF is used as the image a priori model. More available information is incorporated in the reconstruction procedure not by increasing the order of the model but instead by adaptively adjusting the model parameters. Adaptation is done based on the image characteristics determined in a large region around the damaged area. Thus, the reconstruction procedure can make use of information embedded in not only immediate neighborhood pixels but also in a wider neighborhood without a dramatic increase in computational complexity. The proposed method outperforms the previous methods in the reconstruction of missing edges.
Interactive soft-touch dynamic deformations: Research Articles
Authors: Hui Chen, Hanqiu Sun, Xiaogang Jin
Venue: Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds (2007)

It is crucial for the users to touch, grasp and manipulate the interested objects through our sense of touch in many interactive applications, such as on-line computer games, interactive cartoon design, and virtual prototyping. In this paper, we propose an interactive haptic deformation approach which incorporates the dynamic simulation of mass&ndash;spring systems and flexible control of free-form deformation in the touch-enabled soft-object deformation. Through distributing mass, spring and damping coefficients of the object to the bounded Bezier volume lattice, the deformation of the object related to the haptic avatar follows the physical laws and has high working rate. Both homogenous and inhomogenous materials are simulated. The anchor nodes of haptic input are specified to create amazing special effects during the interactive haptic deformation. Interactive haptic deformations of three-type tropic fishes, Angel, Demekin, and GuppyBlueGrass, have been experimented to simulate vivid fish swimming processes in the virtual ocean scene. Our proposed approach provides touch-enabled input and efficient performance in the flexible deforming controls, letting the objects move in a dynamic, cartoon-style deforming manner. Copyright &copy; 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Comparison of the Software Assurance Common Body of Knowledge to Common Curricular Standards
Authors: Dan Shoemaker, Antonio Drommi, Jeffrey A. Ingalsbe, Nancy R. Mead
Venue: Proceedings of the 20th Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (2007)

This paper summarizes the relationship between the specifications of the Software Assurance Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) and the curricula of software engineering, computer science, and information systems. It identifies where various CBK elements fit within each curriculum and it provides recommendations for additional study based on those findings.
Hydrodynamics Prediction of High Speed Sea Lift (HSSL) Ships
Authors: Joseph Gorski, Ronald Miller, Pablo Carrica, Mani Kandasamy, Tao Xing, Fred Stern
Venue: Proceedings of the HPCMP Users Group Conference (2006)

High Speed Sea Lift (HSSL) is an important area of interest for the US Navy. Computational tools are needed to predict the hydrodynamics of these multihull configurations for their proper design and analysis in many areas including resistance and powering, motions and habitability, loads in service and maneuverability. To address these issues requires a hierarchy of computational and experimental capabilities. Described here are efforts underway to use Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) solvers to answer some of these needs. Specifically, computations are demonstrated with CFDSHIP-Iowa to predict relevant HSSL catamaran and trimaran configurations under a variety of operating conditions in both calm water and with waves. Many of these predictions, particularly those representing behavior in various sea states, are very computationally intensive and thus require high performance computing resources. The predictions demonstrated here are paving the way for a computational capability to aid in the design for a new generation of naval ships.
Computational models of feedforward and feedback pathways in the visual cortex
Authors: Virginia R. Sa, Clark C. Guest
Venue:  (2006)

The research described in this dissertation is dedicated to the goal of creating computational models of pieces of a part of the brain called the visual cortex. The inspiration for these models comes from analysis of the weaknesses of the most advanced current visual cortical models. The intention is for the models described here to be included in future large-scale models of the visual cortex and to be used in computer vision systems. The model of simple cell development described here, called a Homeostatic Self-Organizing Map, is a new type of biologically-informed self-organizing map (SOM). In this model; the use of homeostatic weight scaling within an SOM model, instead of the usual weight normalization, is explored. Organized high-quality maps do indeed form, just as in the standard SOM case. It is also shown that the new type of SOM has advantages in terms of adaptability in the face of neuron proliferation and die-off and changing input magnitude. A model of complex cell development is proposed that is based on temporal trace learning rules suggested by F&ouml;ldi&aacute;k (1991). The model goes a step further by combining this type of learning with lateral interactions. The results show the formation of complex cells, complete with phase invariance and orientation tuning, that form an organized map. A model of feedback between cortical visual areas is also proposed. To test the model on a concrete experimental finding, its role in a phenomenon seen in primary visual cortex called surround suppression is examined. The computational model that incorporates this idea contains about 1500 model neurons connected together with biological detail gleaned from the neuroanatomy literature. The result is support for a theory on the functional roles of feedback between cortical areas: excitatory feedback is useful for filling-in missing detail in lower levels, suppressing inconsistent details, and attention.
Multimedia Content Adaptation Modelled as a Constraints Matching Problem with Optimisation
Authors: Fernando Lopez, Jose Maria Martinez
Venue: Proceedings of the Eight International Workshop on Image Analysis for Multimedia Interactive Services (2007)

Within a multimedia adaptation engine working with different adaptation tools and parameters, an important function is the selection of the most appropriate parameters to execute these adaptation tools. MPEG-21 compliant multimedia adaptation engines make use of MPEG-21 description tools to drive the decisions targeting to adapt multimedia content to the usage environment (terminal capabilities, network conditions, user preferences, etc). In this paper, a simple but effective method to model the decision phase of the adaptation engine is presented. This method is based on constraints matching with a final optimisation phase. The proposed system works over MPEG-21 compliant usage environment descriptions, also making use of MPEG-7 content descriptions when available.
The use of students' first language in second-language learning in a computer-based environment
Authors: Glenn Ayres
Venue:  (2007)

This study examined a contemporary issue in second language (L2) learning: the use of a student's first language (L1) as part of the L2 instructional design. Specifically, this research studied if the inclusion of students' L1 in an ESL (English as a second language) class led to better results in comparison to the same ESL class that did not include the students' L1. Using the communicative model of second language acquisition as a primary conceptual framework, this study looked at the validity of one of the principles generally associated with that model: a student's L1 should never be incorporated into that student's second language study. The setting for this study is Prince Sultan University, which is a men's college in Saudi Arabia whose students' L1 is Arabic but who learn English as part of their required coursework. The research for this study was conducted by having a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG) of participants utilize a self-access tutorial to learn a set of vocabulary words. The control group's tutorial used only English while the experimental group's tutorial used English with Arabic translations. A repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was used to compare scores generated by tests from the tutorials. After comparing test scores, no significant differences in learning were observed between the EG and the CG, despite the fact that the EG had use of L1 translations. However, it is worthwhile to note the effect of the tutorials on the participants' test scores. Specifically, post hoc analyses including a trend analysis and paired t tests were carried out. These analyses revealed that there was a statistically significant increase in scores following use of the tutorial. Furthermore, the analyses showed that after the tutorial ceased, a significant decrease in scores was observed. In general, this study contributes an additional body of findings to those who are interested in the issue of whether or not to use students' L1 in an L2 classroom. Specifically, the results of this study showed that the use of the L1 in an L2 classroom did not lead to worse results than use of the L2 only. Consequently, these results could provide the impetus for social change in two important ways. First, some educators who have not approved of the use of the L1 in the classroom may be prompted to review their beliefs about this and possibly incorporate the L1. Secondly, if use of the L1 in the L2 classroom leads to improved student affect, then this is likely to stem the possibility of students quitting an L2 class and may lead some students to take additional L2 classes beyond what is required by their educational institutions.
Relative Performance of Scheduling Algorithms in Grid Environments
Authors: Yang Zhang, Charles Koelbel, Ken Kennedy
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (2007)

Effective scheduling is critical for the performance of an application launched onto the Grid environment. Finding effective scheduling algorithms for this problem is a challenging research area. Many scheduling algorithms have been proposed, studied and compared on heterogeneous parallel computers but there are few studies comparing the performance of scheduling algorithms in Grid environments. The Grid is unique because of the drastic cost differences between inter-cluster and the intra-cluster data transfers. In this paper, we compare several scheduling algorithms that represent two classes of schedulers used for Grid computing. We analyze the results to explain how different resource environments and workflow application structures affect the performance of these algorithms. Based on our experiments, we introduce a new measurement called effective aggregated computing power (EACP) that could drastically improve the performance of some schedulers.
The linux terminal server project: thin clients and linux
Authors: Jim McQuillan
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th annual Linux Showcase & Conference - Volume 4 (2000)

Linux makes a great platform for deploying diskless workstations that boot from a network server. The LTSP is an open source project to create the administration tools that will make setting up a diskless workstation easier. This document provides a description of how a diskless workstation works, describes how to obtain the ltsp distribution and how to install the LTSP.
Fast ad-hoc inverse halftoning using adaptive filtering
Authors: O. C. Au
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 06 (1999)

We propose a novel fast inverse halftoning technique using an adaptive spatial varying filtering. The proposed algorithm is significantly simpler than most existing algorithm while achieving a PSNR close to that of the set theoretic POCS.
Minitrack: E-Government Organization and Management
Authors: Sharon Dawes, Christine Leitner, Thomas Horan
Venue: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2007)

The development and effectiveness of e-Government is strongly influenced by the degree to which government leaders and organizations adopt management and organizational strategies that emphasize change management, new organizational forms, different professional and organizational relationships while they take advantage of the power of information technology to transform government operations and public services.
On compact routing for the internet
Authors: Dmitri Krioukov, k c claffy, Kevin Fall, Arthur Brady
Venue: ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review (2007)

The Internet's routing system is facing stresses due to its poor fundamental scaling properties. Compact routing is a research field that studies fundamental limits of routing scalability and designs algorithms that try to meet these limits. In particular, compact routing research shows that shortest-path routing, forming a core of traditional routing algorithms, cannot guarantee routing table (RT) sizes that on all network topologies grow slower than linearly as functions of the network size. However, there are plenty of compact routing schemes that relax the shortest-path requirement and allow for improved, sublinear RT size scaling that is mathematically provable for all static network topologies. In particular, there exist compact routing schemes designed for grids, trees, and Internet-like topologies that offer RT sizes that scale logarithmically with the network size. In this paper, we demonstrate that in view of recent results in compact routing research, such logarithmic scaling on Internet-like topologies is fundamentally impossible in the presence of topology dynamics or topology-independent (flat) addressing. We use analytic arguments to show that the number of routing control messages per topology change cannot scale better than linearly on Internet-like topologies. We also employ simulations to confirm that logarithmic RT size scaling gets broken by topology-independent addressing, a cornerstone of popular locator-identifier split proposals aiming at improving routing scaling in the presence of network topology dynamics or host mobility. These pessimistic findings lead us to the conclusion that a fundamental re-examination of assumptions behind routing models and abstractions is needed in order to find a routing architecture that would be able to scale "indefinitely.
On using a 2-domain partitioned OBDD data structure in verification
Authors: T. Feng, L.-C. Wang, K.-T. Cheng, A. C. -C. Lin
Venue: Proceedings of the High-Level Design Validation and Test Workshop, 2004. Ninth IEEE International (2004)

In this paper, we propose a symbolic simulation method where Boolean functions can be efficiently manipulated through a 2-domain partitioned OBDD data structure. The functional partition is applied based on the key decision points in a circuit. We demonstrate that key decision points in an RTL model can be extracted automatically to facilitate verification at the gate level. The experiments show that the decision points can help to significantly reduce the OBDD size in both RTL and gate level circuit, solving problems that could not be solved with monolithic OBDD data structure. The performance of 2-domain partitioned OBDD approach is shown through the verification of several benchmark circuits.
Optimizing scrip systems: efficiency, crashes, hoarders, and altruists
Authors: Ian A. Kash, Eric J. Friedman, Joseph Y. Halpern
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Electronic commerce (2007)

We discuss the design of efficient scrip systems and develop tools for empirically analyzing them. For those interested in the empirical study of scrip systems, we demonstrate how characteristics of agents in a system can be inferred from the equilibrium distribution of money. From the perspective of a system designer, we examine the effect of the money supply on social welfare and show that social welfare is maximizedby increasing the money supply up to the point that the system experiences a "monetary crash," where money is sufficiently devalued that no agent is willing to perform a service. We alsoexamine the implications of the presence of altruists and hoarders on the performance of the system. While a small number of altruists may improve social welfare, too many can also cause the system to experience a monetary crash, which may be bad for social welfare. Hoarders generally decrease social welfare but, surprisingly, they also promote system stability by helping prevent monetary crashes. In addition, we provide new technical tools for analyzing and computing equilibria by showing that our model exhibits strategic complementarities, which implies that there exist equilibria in pure strategies that can be computed efficiently.
Pareto efficient multi-objective test case selection
Authors: Shin Yoo, Mark Harman
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 international symposium on Software testing and analysis (2007)

Previous work has treated test case selection as a single objective optimisation problem. This paper introduces the concept of Pareto efficiency to test case selection. The Pareto efficient approach takes multiple objectives such as code coverage, past fault-detection history and execution cost, and constructs a group of non-dominating, equivalently optimal test case subsets. The paper describes the potential bene?ts of Pareto efficient multi-objective test case selection, illustrating with empirical studies of two and three objective formulations.
Automatic enhancement of speech intelligibility
Authors: V. Colotte
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2000. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 02 (2000)

This paper presents a speech signal transformation which slows down speech signals selectively and enhances some important acoustic cues. This transformation can be used not only for hearing aids but also for second language acquisition by facilitating oral comprehension. Selective slowing down relies on the use of the TD-PSOLA synthesis method. An automatic pitch marking algorithm was designed to apply this method automatically. The strategy used to control slowing down exploits a spectral variation function which locates rapid spectral changes. The enhancement simply consists of amplifying stop bursts and unvoiced fricatives. These acoustic cues are detected automatically through the examination of energy criteria. This approach was evaluated in the context of second language acquisition, more precisely by evaluating improvements in oral comprehension. Transformations triggered properly, i.e. the signal regions modified are those which were expected to be modified. Experiments show that the oral comprehension is improved.
Multiple illuminated paper textures for drawing strokes
Authors: K. Murakami, R. Tsuruno, E. Genda
Venue: Proceedings of the Computer Graphics International 2005 (2005)

This paper presents an algorithm for generating realistic drawing strokes that can take on the appearance of pastels, charcoals, or crayons. The similarity between pigments deposited on a paper surface by a pastel stroke and on the texture of an illuminated paper surface was studied. Twelve paper textures were prepared and were illuminated from various directions in increments of 30 degrees for a stroke drawn in an arbitrary direction. After these textures were processed as if they could be used as a height field, pigments deposited on paper were calculated using the height field and pen pressure. The height field is determined by linear interpolation of multiple paper textures for drawing strokes in any direction. By using the paper texture instead of simulating the deposition of pigments, a realistic stroke with arbitrary parameters can be rendered in real time.
Mach-US: UNIX on generic OS object servers
Authors: J. Mark Stevenson, Daniel P. Julin
Venue: Proceedings of the USENIX 1995 Technical Conference Proceedings on USENIX 1995 Technical Conference Proceedings (1995)

This paper examines the Mach-US operating system, its unique architecture, and the lessons demonstrated through its implementation. Mach-US is an object-oriented multi-server OS which runs on the Mach3.0 kernel. Mach-US has a set of separate servers supplying orthogonal OS services and a library which is loaded into each user process. This library uses the services to generate the semantics of the Mach2.5/4.3BSD application programmers interface (API). This architecture makes Mach-US a flexible research platform and a powerful tool for developing and examining various OS service options. We will briefly describe Mach-US, the motivations for its design choices, and its demonstrated strengths and weaknesses. We will then discuss the insights that we've acquired in the areas of multi-server architecture, OS remote method invocation, Object Oriented technology for OS implementation, API independent OS services, UNIX API re-implementation, and smart user-space API emulation libraries.
Novel Architectures for High-Speed and Low-Power 3-2, 4-2 and 5-2 Compressors
Authors: Sreehari Veeramachaneni, Kirthi M. Krishna, Lingamneni Avinash, Sreekanth Reddy Puppala, M. B. Srinivas
Venue: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on VLSI Design held jointly with 6th International Conference: Embedded Systems (2007)

The 3-2, 4-2 and 5-2 compressors are the basic components in many applications, in particular partial product summation in multipliers. In this paper novel architectures and designs of high speed, low power 3- 2, 4-2 and 5-2 compressors capable of operating at ultra-low voltages are presented. The power consumption, delay and area of these new compressor architectures are compared with existing and recently proposed compressor architectures and are shown to perform better. The proposed architecture lays emphasis on the use of multiplexers in arithmetic circuits that result in high speed and efficient design. Also in all existing implementations of XOR gate and multiplexers, both output and its complement are available but current designs of compressors do not use these outputs efficiently. In the proposed architecture these outputs are efficiently utilized to improve the performance of compressors. The combination of low power, low transistor count and lesser delay makes the new compressors a viable option for efficient design.