ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
CallAssist: helping call center agents in preference elicitation
Authors: Ullas Nambiar, Himanshu Gupta, Mukesh Mohania
Venue: Proceedings of the 33rd international conference on Very large data bases (2007)

The increasing complexity of products and services being offered by businesses has made providing customers with easy access to technical assistance an important business function. Therefore, most businesses operate call centers to respond to product related queries from consumers. An emerging model is to let a third-party to run the contact center for a business. Preference elicitation - the process of asking queries to determine preferences is a key function performed by call-center agents. In this paper, our focus is on helping call-center agents to efficiently elicit customer's preference.
Probability versus possibility and their application to actuator sensor networks
Authors: Aly I. El-Osery
Venue: Soft Computing - A Fusion of Foundations, Methodologies and Applications (2007)

Communication range has a direct impact on the network capacity, and consequently, is a limiting parameter of actuator sensor network scalability. Hence, transmission power control is a critical component of actuator sensor network scalability. In this paper we present and analyze two different approaches, namely, probabilistic and possibilistic approaches. Through simulation the two methods will be examined, and their effect on network scalability will be analyzed. Both approaches have shown a significant improvement in the system throughput. Both approaches are complimented with a variable-step low-level controller to minimize interference.
Status Report on the P896 Backplane Bus
Authors: Andrew Allison
Venue: IEEE Micro (1981)

This report on the activities of the P896 (Advanced Microcomputer System Backplane Bus) Subcommittee of the Computer Society's Microprocessor Standards Committee describes the origins of the subcommittee and the status of the proposed specification as of its December 11, 1980 meeting. It must be emphasized that, while representing the fruits of many months of effort on the part of a joint US/European working group, the specification is incomplete and subject to significant change. This draft provides a preview of the general form of the functional specification and is intended to elicit technical response and to solicit participation in the work of the subcommittee. It is based on the working document for the P896 workshop held at the National Bureau of Standards facility in Boulder, Colorado on January 19-21, 1981. A summary of the results of that meeting is planned for the next issue of IEEE Micro.
Verifying Noninterference in a Cyber-Physical System The Advanced Electric Power Grid
Authors: Yan Sun, Bruce McMillin, Xiaoqing (Frank) Liu, David Cape
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Quality Software (2007)

The advanced electric power grid is a complex real-time system having both Cyber and Physical components. While each component may function correctly, independently, their composition may yield incorrectness due to interference. One specific type of interference is in the frequency domain, essentially, violations of the Nyquist rate. The challenge is to encode these signal processing problem characteristics into a form that can be model checked. To verify the correctness of the cyber-physical composition using model-checking techniques requires that a model be constructed that can represent frequency interference. In this paper, RT-PROMELA was used to construct the model, which was checked in RT-SPIN. In order to reduce the state explosion problem, the model was decomposed into multiple sub-models, each with a smaller state space that can be checked individually, and then the proofs checked for noninterference. Cooperation among multiple clock variables due to their lack of notion of urgency and their asynchronous interactions, are also addressed. Type of Submission: Research Paper Keywords: Interference, Model Checking, Decomposition, Real-time System, Frequency Domain Relevant Topics: Formal methods: program analysis, model checking, model construction, formal process models, noninterference. Evaluation of software products and components: static and dynamic analysis, validation and verification.
An alliance based peering scheme for peer-to-peer live media streaming
Authors: Darshan Purandare, Ratan Guha
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 workshop on Peer-to-peer streaming and IP-TV (2007)

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) streaming has emerged as a scalable method for media distribution in recent years. While recent measurement studies have shown the effectiveness of P2P network in media streaming, there have been questions raised about the Quality of Service (QoS), reliability of streaming services and sub optimal uplink utilization in particular. We present a new model for P2P media streaming where nodes cluster into groups, called alliances, for a symbiotic association in order to share the media content. We show that alliance formation is an effective way to organize the peers in loosely coupled groups. The node topology formed using alliances generates a Small World Network, which exhibit efficient overlay structures in terms of path lengths between the nodes and robustness to network perturbations like churn. We present a comparative performance evaluation of our model with CoolStreaming/DONet on QoS metrics.
Classification of single and multiple disturbances in electric signals
Authors: Moisés Vidal Ribeiro, José Luiz Rezende Pereira
Venue: EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing (2007)

This paper discusses and presents a different perspective for classifying single and multiple disturbances in electric signals, such as voltage and current ones. Basically, the principle of divide to conquer is applied to decompose the electric signals into what we call primitive signals or components from which primitive patterns can be independently recognized. A technique based on such concept is introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of such idea. This technique decomposes the electric signals into three main primitive components. In each primitive component, few high-order-statistics-(HOS-) based features are extracted. Then, Bayes' theory-based techniques are applied to verify the ocurrence or not of single or multiple disturbances in the electric signals. The performance analysis carried out on a large number of data indicates that the proposed technique outperforms the performance attained by the technique introduced by He and Starzyk. Additionally, the numerical results verify that the proposed technique is capable of offering interesting results when it is applied to classify several sets of disturbances if one cycle of the main frequency is considered, at least.
Extracting the discussion structure in comments on news-articles
Authors: Anne Schuth, Maarten Marx, Maarten de Rijke
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th annual ACM international workshop on Web information and data management (2007)

Several on-line daily newspapers offer readers the opportunity to directly comment on articles. In the Netherlands this feature is used quite often and the quality (grammatically and content-wise) is surprisingly high. We develop techniques to collect, store, enrichand analyze these comments. After giving a high-level overview of the Dutch 'commentosphere' we zoom in on extracting the discussion structure found in flat comment threads; people not only comment on the news article, they also heavily comment on other comments, resembling discussion fora. We show how techniques from information retrieval, natural language processing and machine learning can be used to extract the 'reacts-on' relation between comments with high precision and recall.
Object Migration and Authentication
Authors: V. D. Gligor
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1979)

When typed objects migrate in virtual memory, onto off-ine storage, or among the nodes of a network, the type managers must relinguish control over the object representation and state. In this paper we present a mechanism which allows a type manager to authenticate and reinstantiate migrated objects. This mechanism also solves some problems stemming from the hierarchical structure of the system itself. The mechanism is based on a combination of cryptographic techniques using (nondistributable) centralized, secret keys, and data redundancy which characterizes the object representation and state.
Modern Coding Practices and Programmer Performance
Authors: S. B. Sheppard
Venue: Computer (1979)

The late 70' s find structured programming increasingly popular this and other techniques are programming's future. But what does experimental evaluation say about their actual effects on programmer performance?
On linear codes with large weights simultaneously for the Rosenbloom--Tsfasman and Hamming metrics
Authors: M. M. Skriganov
Venue: Journal of Complexity (2007)

We show that maximum distance separable (MDS) codes, or more generally nearly MDS codes, for the Rosenbloom-Tsfasman metric can meet the Gilbert-Varshamov bound for their Hamming weights. The proof is based on a careful analysis of orbits of a linear group preserving the Rosenbloom-Tsfasman metric.
Remotely accessible sandboxed environment with application to a laboratory course in networking
Authors: William D. Armitage, Alessio Gaspar, Matthew Rideout
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology education (2007)

Authentic learning in an undergraduate networking course is best achieved when students have privileged access to their workstations and the ability to set up networks of arbitrary size and complexity. With such privileges come great risks for hosting networks. While the initial response to these challenges was to digitally isolate dedicated laboratories, today virtual machines are considered the best practice in setting up such labs. The authors' NSF-sponsored project, "SOFTICE", showed almost 3 years ago that open source virtualization solutions could solve classroom management headaches provoked by early solutions and also that they provide new pedagogical opportunities. Our project illustrates the milestones that adoption of virtualization by IT educational institutions followed, going one step further to sketch out what might be just around the corner. Instead of relying on deploying virtualization suites on each workstation, letting a set of pre-defined virtual machines run constantly on assigned hardware, or managing the transfer of large virtual HD images over networks, we opted from the start for a centralized hosting of VMs on a load-balancing cluster which abstracts the hardware constraints. As enrollment grows, more nodes can be added. As usage of some nodes increase, incoming remote connections are spread on idle hardware automatically. This paper discusses the achievements of the SOFTICE project in undergraduate networking labs and compares our approach to alternative solutions which recently emerged in the CS and IT education communities. More specifically, we discuss the clustering-virtualization technologies synergy and showcase some of the pedagogical benefits by detailing existing laboratories.
Knowledge management challenges in new business development: Case study observations
Authors: Hans Berends, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Robert Kirschbaum
Venue: Journal of Engineering and Technology Management (2007)

This paper's focus is on the knowledge management challenges that come along with technology-based new business development (NBD). NBD thrives upon the exploration of knowledge, under radical uncertainty. Furthermore, existing knowledge may both enable and constrain the radical innovation process. These characteristics make the dominant approach of knowledge management - focusing on codifying, collecting and distributing knowledge - unsuited for NBD. We suggest that knowledge management can enhance NBD by focusing on experimenting, monitoring and integrating knowledge. This is illustrated by case study observations of radical innovation processes.
On the Laplacian Eigenvalues of Gn,p
Authors: Amin Coja-Oghlan
Venue: Combinatorics, Probability and Computing (2007)

We investigate the Laplacian eigenvalues of sparse random graphs Gnp. We show that in the case that the expected degree d = (n-1)p is bounded, the spectral gap of the normalized Laplacian ℒ(Gn,p) is o(1). Nonetheless, w.h.p. G = Gnp has a large subgraph core(G) such that the spectral gap of ℒ(core(G)) is as large as 1-O (d1/2). We derive similar results regarding the spectrum of the combinatorial Laplacian L(Gnp). The present paper complements the work of Chung, Lu and Vu [8] on the Laplacian spectra of random graphs with given expected degree sequences. Applied to Gnp, their results imply that in the dense case d &ge; ln2n the spectral gap of ℒ(Gn,p)is 1-O (d1/2) w.h.p.
Moving toward seamless mobility: state of the art and emerging aspects in standardization bodies
Authors: Marc Emmelmann, Sven Wiethoelter, Andreas Koepsel, Cornelia Kappler, Adam Wolisz
Venue: Wireless Personal Communications: An International Journal (2007)

The challenge to provide seamless mobility in the near future emerges as a key topic in various standardization bodies. This includes first of all the support of seamless handover between homogeneous networks. Distinct technologies--such as IEEE 802.11WLANs (Wi-Fi) and IEEE 802.16 MANs WiMAX--have recently augmented such support to existing standards to enable seamless homogeneous handover. Cellular networks, in contrast, already included this inherently from the start. Currently considerable effort goes into coupling of different radio access technologies. Therefore, the second key topic in standardization is seamless heterogeneous handovers. IEEE, IETF, as well as 3GPP consider different approaches toward architectures and protocols enabling seamless mobility management. In this work, we discuss recent and on-going standardization activities within IEEE, IETF, and 3GPP toward seamless homogeneous as well as heterogeneous mobility support.
Path Planning for Mobile Robot Based on Improved Simulated Annealing Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Meijuan Gao, Jingwen Tian
Venue: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Natural Computation - Volume 03 (2007)

A mobile robot path planning method based on improved simulated annealing algorithm and artificial neural network is proposed. First the simulated annealing algorithm with the best reserve mechanism is introduced and it is combined with Powell algorithm to form improved simulated annealing mixed optimize algorithm which not only add the good solution protective measures but also improve the convergence rate of simulated annealing algorithm. Then we take the obstacle collision penalty function which expressed using neural network and the path length as the energy function of improved simulated annealing mixed optimize algorithm, thereby the solution which obtained by the improved simulated annealing mixed optimize algorithm can not only satisfy the path shortest but also effective avoid the collision with obstacle. The simulation result shows that the proposed method is feasible and valid.
Software Development
Authors: H. D. Mills
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1976)

Software development has emerged as a critical bottleneck in the human use of automatic data processing. Beginning with ad hoc heuristic methods of design and implementation of software systems, problems of software maintenance and changes have become unexpectedly large. It is contended that improvement is possible only with more rigor in software design and development methodology. Rigorous software design should survive its implementation and be the basis for further evolution. Software development should be done incrementally, in stages with continuous user participation and replanning, and with design-to-cost programming within each stage.
A Novel Framework for Test Domain Reduction using Extended Finite State Machine
Authors: Nutchakorn Ngamsaowaros, Peraphon Sophatsathit
Venue: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering Advances (2007)

Test case generation is an expensive, tedious, and errorprone process in software testing. In this paper, test case generation is accomplished using an Extended Finite State Machine (EFSM). The proper domain representative along the specified path is selected based on fundamental calculus approximation. The pre/post-conditions of class behavior is derived from a continuous or piece-wise continuous function whose values are chosen from partitioned subdomains. Subsequent test data for the designated class can be generated from the selected test frames. In so doing, the domain is partitioned wherein reduced test cases are generated, yet insuring complete test coverage of the designated test plan. The proposed modeling technique will be conducive toward a new realm of test domain analysis. Its validity can also be procedurally proved by straightforward mathematical principles.
On lexicographical ordering in multivariate mathematical morphology
Authors: E. Aptoula, S. Lefèvre
Venue: Pattern Recognition Letters (2008)

Since mathematical morphology is based on complete lattice theory, a vector ordering method becomes indispensable for its extension to multivariate images. Among the several approaches developed with this purpose, lexicographical orderings are by far the most frequent, as they possess certain desirable theoretical properties. However, their main drawback consists of the excessive priority attributed to the first vector dimension. In this paper, the existing solutions to solving this problem are recalled and two new approaches are presented. First, a generalisation of @a-modulus lexicographical ordering is introduced, making it possible to accommodate any quantisation function. Additionally, an input specific method is suggested, based on the use of a marker image. Comparative application results on colour noise reduction and texture classification are also provided.
Low-Complexity Architectures of a Decoder for IEEE 802.16e LDPC Codes
Authors: Giuseppe Gentile, Massimo Rovini, Luca Fanucci
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design Architectures, Methods and Tools (2007)

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have recently been included as error-correcting codes in IEEE 802.16e, for wireless metropolitan area networks. This paper proposes a flexible, low-complexity LDPC decoder fully compliant with all 114 codes defined by the standard. The decoder runs the layered decoding algorithm to increase the convergence speed, and relies on a semi-parallel implementation with serial processing units working in pipeline to reduce the latency. Particularly, two different architectures are considered, and their RTL/memory complexity tradeoffs are analyzed. The resulting design yields a throughput ranging from 93 to 497 Mbps by means of 15 iterations at the clock frequency of 400 MHz. Synthesis on 65 nm CMOS technology, shows a chip area less than 0.59mm2, despite the high flexibility, which compares favourably with similar implementations.
Towards a SOA infrastructure for statistically analysing public health data
Authors: Pierpaolo Vittorini, Stefano Necozione, Ferdinando di Orio
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM first workshop on CyberInfrastructure: information management in eScience (2007)

To respond to the need for interoperable information systems in public health, several proposals based on XML-related technologies are currently available. For instance, the CDA [8] is an architecture developed by the HL7 organization for representing and managing clinical documents, while the PHIN [12] is a CDC infrastructure whose aim is to automatically exchange XML data between public health partners through ebXML compliant SOAP web services [16, 11]. Despite the large efforts spent in developing standards and infrastructures -- though not conclusive -- useful to achieve more effective interoperability among public health information systems, to the best of our knowledge, there are no researches produced so far to statistically analyse biomedical data represented as XML documents. Among the languages which can query XML documents, XPath can perform only basic statistics (e.g. mean, minimum, maximum [13]), while it is known that high-level tests are mandatory for every common analysis. Thus, the sole current possibility is to convert the data stored into such documents into a tabular format, and to use a standard statistical package to perform the analysis. To overcome this limitation, the paper proposes a complete SOA infrastructure, with major concern with the following components: (i) the XFNSE web-service which contains a list of operations implementing the statistical analyses reported in [6]; (ii) a prototype of a service consumer -- called JXFNSE -- which uses the operations exposed by XFNSE to statistically analyse a dataset; (iii) an eXist [14] module which extends XPath by adding a list of functions "tracing" the XFNSE operations. Finally, by computing several performances, the authors discuss the drawbacks of using services while analysing large datasets, and show a possible improvement in terms of a caching mechanism.
Analysis of Secondary Storage Fragmentation
Authors: C. H. C. Leung
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (1983)

Fragmentation of storage is a common phenomenon in both main storage and secondary storage. Fragmentation in secondary storage not only jeopardizes the allocation of space but also, since secondary storage access time-unlike that in main storage-is typically nonuniform, a decrease in efficiency arising from additional head movement may also result. A fragmented storage exhibits a checkerboard like pattern with free and occupied space alternating one another. Such alternating storage configuration is analyzed using alternating renewal processes. Two main types of storage processing are distinguished: contiguous storage allocation and noncontiguous storage allocation. The latter allows a request to be scattered over different locations while the former requires it to be allocated in a single continuous area. It is found that the reduction in operating efficiency due to fragmentation is quite substantial for both types of processing. The deterioration is especially marked in the former and is strongly affected by 1) the request size and 2) the storage utilization. Expressions for the generating functions of the performance penalties are derived. The results of the model are compared with published measurements and satisfactory agreement is obtained.
Programming with Invariants
Authors: R. Paige
Venue: IEEE Software (1986)

The use of a restricted class of invariants as part of a language supports both the accurate synthesis of high-level programs and their translation into efficient implementations.
Multiscale Power-Law Properties and Criticality of Chinese Stock Market
Authors: Honglin Yang, Shou Chen, Yan Yang
Venue: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Natural Computation - Volume 02 (2007)

Motivated by the goal of discovering more accurate characteristics of Chinese stock market, this paper investigates the power-law properties and criticality of the Shanghai Securities Exchange Compound Index (SSEECI) with two benchmarks of 5-min and 1-day database. We find that the center profile of returns distribution is well described by Levy regime and, more important, that the approximately symmetric tails of distribution are characterized by another power-law regime with an exponent well out of Levy range 0\le \alpha \le 2 and also beyond the exponent \alpha \approx 3 of fully developed markets. Moreover, we also show that returns appear to exhibit the criticality. When timescale \Delta t \ge 4days, the distribution exhibits the slow convergence to normal Gaussian behavior. The phenomena support that the critical timescale \Delta t \approx 4days of fully developed markets is universal for Chinese stock market.