ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
A QoS Scheduler for Real-Time Embedded Systems
Authors: David Matschulat, Cesar A. M. Marcon, Fabiano Hessel
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th international symposium on Quality Electronic Design (2008)

The increasing demand for real-time embedded applications makes evident the need for end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning. In order to achieve the end-to-end QoS, we propose the implementation of the control and management of QoS mechanisms in the operating system scheduler. A new scheduling algorithm, named ER-EDF, is proposed and compared to previous scheduler solutions. This approach was validated through a set of benchmarks and we conclude that ER-EDF adds performance and simplified hard real-time support to real-time embedded applications.
Intelligent Quality Performance Assessment for E-Banking Security using Fuzzy Logic
Authors: Maher Ragheb Aburrous, Alamgir Hossain, Fadi Thabatah, Keshav Dahal
Venue: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (2008)

Security has been widely recognized as one of the main obstacles to the adoption of Internet banking and it is considered an important aspect in the debate over challenges facing internet banking. The performance evaluation of e-banking websites requires a model that enables us to analyze the various imperative factors and criteria related to the quality and performance of e-banking websites. E-banking site evaluation is a complex and dynamic problem involving many factors, and because of the subjective considerations and the ambiguities involved in the assessment, Fuzzy Logic (FL) model can be an effective tool in assessing and evaluating of e-banking security performance and quality. In this paper, we propose an intelligent performance assessment model for evaluating e-banking security websites. The proposed model is based on FL operators and produces four measures of security risk attack dimensions: direct internal attack, communication tampering attack, code programming attack and denial of service attack with a hierarchical ring layer structure. Our experimental results show that direct internal attack risk has a large impact on e-banking security performance. The results also confirm that the risk of direct internal attack for e-banking dynamic websites is doubled that of all other attacks.
A novel linearly tunable butterfly-shape MEMS capacitor
Authors: M. Shavezipur, A. Khajepour, S. M. Hashemi
Venue: Microelectronics Journal (2008)

A new MEMS tunable capacitor with linear capacitance-voltage (C-V) response is introduced. The design is developed based on a parallel-plate configuration and uses the structural lumped flexibility and geometry optimization to obtain a linear response. The moving electrode is divided into two segments connected to one another by a torsional spring. There are extra beams located between the two plates, which constrain the displacement of the moving plate. The resulting nonlinear structural rigidity provides the design with higher tunability than the parallel-plate ones. Furthermore, because the plate's displacement is controlled, the shape of C-V curve changes in such a way that high linearity is achieved. The proposed design can be fabricated by a three-structural-layer process such as PolyMUMPs. The results of analytical solution and experimental measurements verify that the new capacitor can produce tunability of over 100% with high linearity. The introduced design methodology can further be extended to flexible plates and beams to obtain smooth C-V curves.
Multiagent Place-Based Virtual Communities for Pervasive Computing
Authors: Tuan Nguyen, Seng Loke, Torab Torabi, Hongen Lu
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Sixth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (2008)

This paper proposes a multiagent based virtual community as a new means to support pervasive computing services. We give a conceptual definition of the concept of Place-Based Virtual (PBV) Community. A PBV-community can be used in an environment of context-aware applications and is where agents can help users’ interactions with services within the PBV-community. We have proposed a model for a PBV-Community and implemented a prototype called “student digital assistant” based on the agent-oriented approach. We have developed a multiagent architecture and protocols to realize the PBV-community. Agents in this architecture can cooperate and collaborate to provide different services to end users based on the user’s context.
Efficient Loopback Test for Aperture Jitter in Embedded Mixed-Signal Circuits
Authors: Byoungho Kim, Nash Khouzam, Jacob A. Abraham
Venue: Proceedings of the 26th IEEE VLSI Test Symposium (2008)

Accurate measurement of sub-picosecond aperture jitter when testing state-of-the-art high-speed, high-resolution data converters is a difficult problem, since there is no systematic method of precisely separating aperture jitter from input and clock jitter components as well as additive noise. In addition, it is more difficult to implement Built-in Self-test (BIST) schemes for accurately measuring aperture jitter based on a low cost approach, since jitter-induced noise present in the Device Under Test (DUT) degrades the performance of the Design for Test (DfT) circuitry as well as the DUT. These problems result in low test accuracy and serious yield loss. This paper presents a novel methodology for accurate prediction of aperture jitter using a cost-effective loopback methodology. Aperture jitter is precisely separated from input and clock jitter as well as additive noise present in the DUT, by using an efficient loopback scheme along with spectral characteristic equations. Hardware measurement results show that this approach can be effectively used to predict the aperture jitter of a DUT, with a significant reduction in the prediction error compared with previous approaches.
Directly optimizing evaluation measures in learning to rank
Authors: Jun Xu, Tie-Yan Liu, Min Lu, Hang Li, Wei-Ying Ma
Venue: Proceedings of the 31st annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (2008)

One of the central issues in learning to rank for information retrieval is to develop algorithms that construct ranking models by directly optimizing evaluation measures used in information retrieval such as Mean Average Precision (MAP) and Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG). Several such algorithms including SVMmap and AdaRank have been proposed and their effectiveness has been verified. However, the relationships between the algorithms are not clear, and furthermore no comparisons have been conducted between them. In this paper, we conduct a study on the approach of directly optimizing evaluation measures in learning to rank for Information Retrieval (IR). We focus on the methods that minimize loss functions upper bounding the basic loss function defined on the IR measures. We first provide a general framework for the study and analyze the existing algorithms of SVMmap and AdaRank within the framework. The framework is based on upper bound analysis and two types of upper bounds are discussed. Moreover, we show that we can derive new algorithms on the basis of this analysis and create one example algorithm called PermuRank. We have also conducted comparisons between SVMmap, AdaRank, PermuRank, and conventional methods of Ranking SVM and RankBoost, using benchmark datasets. Experimental results show that the methods based on direct optimization of evaluation measures can always outperform conventional methods of Ranking SVM and RankBoost. However, no significant difference exists among the performances of the direct optimization methods themselves.
Quality management in GPRS networks with fuzzy case-based reasoning
Authors: Pietari Pulkkinen, Mikko Laurikkala, Aino Ropponen, Hannu Koivisto
Venue: Knowledge-Based Systems (2008)

Mobile networks pose challenges to quality management because of the limited capacity of the air interface and the mobility of the users. GPRS is the prevailing system for mobile connectivity at the moment. This paper approaches quality management in GPRS networks with a two-phase system, where a detector block first culls quality disturbances and a fuzzy case-based reasoning engine then proposes a solution to the problem. The main advantage of the concept is model maintenance: the experienced network operator can take part in the decision-making and his or her knowledge thus accumulates in the case base. We also present simulated examples of GPRS network data classified with the detector and inserted into the case base.
Thread fusion
Authors: José González, Qiong Cai, Pedro Chaparro, Grigorios Magklis, Ryan Rakvic, Antonio González
Venue: Proceeding of the 13th international symposium on Low power electronics and design (2008)

This work proposes Thread Fusion as an effective way of reducing power consumption when a Simultaneous Multi-Threaded (SMT) core is executing two threads from a homogeneous parallel application. Two dynamic instances of the same static instruction, each from a different thread are merged (fused) into a single instruction, consuming half of the resources of front-end pipeline stages. When the fused instruction is executed, it is cloned and it proceeds at full bandwidth. Our simulation results show average energy reduction of 10% with less than 1% impact on performance.
Using checkpointing to recover from poor multi-site parallel job scheduling decisions
Authors: William M. Jones
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th international workshop on Middleware for grid computing: held at the ACM/IFIP/USENIX 8th International Middleware Conference (2007)

Recent research in multi-site parallel job scheduling leverages user-provided estimates of job communication characteristics to effectively partition the job across multiple clusters. Previous research addressed the impact of inaccuracies in these estimates on overall system performance and found that multi-site scheduling techniques benefit from these estimates, even in the presence of considerable inaccuracy. While these results are encouraging, there are many instances where these errors result in poor scheduling decisions that cause network over-subscription. This situation can lead to significantly degraded application runtime performance and turnaround time. In this paper, we explore the use of job checkpointing to selectively stop offending jobs in order to alleviate network congestion and subsequently restart them when (and where) sufficient network resources are available. We then characterize the conditions and the extent to which checkpointing improves overall performance. We demonstrate that checkpointing is beneficial even when the overhead of doing so is costly.
The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine
Authors: Charles Petzold
Venue:  (2008)

Programming Legend Charles Petzold unlocks the secrets of the extraordinary and prescient 1936 paper by Alan M. Turing Mathematician Alan Turing invented an imaginary computer known as the Turing Machine; in an age before computers, he explored the concept of what it meant to be computable, creating the field of computability theory in the process, a foundation of present-day computer programming. The book expands Turings original 36-page paper with additional background chapters and extensive annotations; the author elaborates on and clarifies many of Turings statements, making the original difficult-to-read document accessible to present day programmers, computer science majors, math geeks, and others. Interwoven into the narrative are the highlights of Turings own life: his years at Cambridge and Princeton, his secret work in cryptanalysis during World War II, his involvement in seminal computer projects, his speculations about artificial intelligence, his arrest and prosecution for the crime of "gross indecency," and his early death by apparent suicide at the age of 41.
User engagement in e-government systems implementation: A comparative case study of two Singaporean e-government initiatives
Authors: Calvin M. L. Chan, Shan L. Pan
Venue: The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (2008)

Noting that user engagement is a key issue in e-government systems implementation and that the actual form and strategies of user engagement, especially within the context of e-government, is poorly defined, this paper intends to contribute to the research and practice of e-government systems implementation by conducting a comparative case study of two e-government systems implementation within a single government agency in Singapore. The comparative analysis of these two e-government systems implementation was accomplished through using stakeholder theory as a sense-making theoretical lens. This generated four findings pertaining to the form and strategies of user engagement in e-government systems implementation.
Middleware Services for Multimodal Interactions in Smart Environments
Authors: Antonio Coronato, Giuseppe De Pietro
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Sixth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (2008)

Smart and intelligent environments can proficiently benefit from a new generation of multimodal dialog systems, which enable users to interact in natural ways like voice, gesture, facial motions, and so on. However, in order to make this possible, it is necessary to integrate such systems and services, possibly in a transparent way.In the present paper, we propose i) an architectural model for multimodal smart environments; ii) an agent-based middleware infrastructure that provides basic components for the integration of multimodal interaction systems; and, iii) a tool for rapid-prototyping, which automatically customizes some middleware components to implement multimodal interaction mechanisms for the environment's application services.
Relative competitive analysis of cache replacement policies
Authors: Jan Reineke, Daniel Grund
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGPLAN-SIGBED conference on Languages, compilers, and tools for embedded systems (2008)

Caches are commonly employed to hide the latency gap between memory and the CPU by exploiting locality in memory accesses. On today's architectures a cache miss may cost several hundred CPU cycles. In order to fulfill stringent performance requirements, caches are now also used in hard real-time systems. In such systems, upper and sometimes also lower bounds on the execution times of a task have to be computed. To obtain tight bounds, timing analyses must take into account the cache architecture. However, developing cache analyses -- analyses that determine whether a memory access is a hit or a miss -- is a difficult problem for some cache architectures. In this paper, we present a tool to automatically compute relative competitive ratios for a large class of replacement policies, including LRU, FIFO, and PLRU. Relative competitive ratios bound the performance of one policy relative to the performance of another policy. These performance relations allow us to use cache-performance predictions for one policy to compute predictions for another, including policies that could previously not be dealt with.
Induced ∞-norm FIR filter for recovering MPSK-type modulus signals
Authors: PooGyeon Park, Sung Wook Yun
Venue: Signal Processing (2008)

This paper proposes a method of perfectly recovering MPSK-type (multiple phase-shift keying) modulus input signals against component-wise norm-bounded disturbances via an induced ~-norm finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The induced ~-norm criterion maintains the distance between the input signals and the estimated signals within a given bound for perfectly recovering the input signals, and the FIR structure makes the system robust against temporary uncertainties or disturbances. The induced ~-norm FIR filter is designed through solving linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) iteratively. Examples of the application to equalizers show that the induced ~-norm FIR filter guarantees the perfect recovery of the MPSK-type modulus input signals.
Kirchhoff's Pen: a pen-based circuit analysis tutor
Authors: Ruwanee de Silva, David Tyler Bischel, WeeSan Lee, Eric J. Peterson, Robert C. Calfee, Thomas F. Stahovich
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th Eurographics workshop on Sketch-based interfaces and modeling (2007)

Kirchhoff's Pen is a pen-based tutoring system that teaches students to apply Kirchhoff's voltage law (KVL) and current law (KCL). To use the system, the student sketches a circuit schematic and annotates it to indicate component labels, mesh currents, and nodal voltages. The student then selects either mesh (KVL) or nodal (KCL) analysis, and writes the appropriate equations. The system interprets the equations, compares them to the correct equations (which are automatically derived from the circuit), and provides tutorial feedback about errors. Unlike traditional tutoring systems that work from input provided with a keyboard and mouse, our system works from ambiguous, hand-drawn input. The goal of our work is to create computational techniques to enable natural, pen-based tutoring systems that scaffold students in solving problems in the same way they would ordinarily solve them with paper and pencil. Kirchhoff's Pen is an important first step toward this goal.
A Framework for IT as a Utility
Authors: Ryan Coombes, Jawed Siddiqi
Venue: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (2008)

The IT Utility Model has created a new market for the delivery of IT, one that is not yet standardised or regulated let alone commoditised or traded. This paper takes a cross sectional look at the key players and their specific pricing policies aligned to the delivery of IT as a utility. The research seeks to explain the different pricing policies that are deployed in the market place today and the influences that affect these policies. This paper outlines the foundations in the development of an IT Utility Framework based on the underlying principles and environment in which a traditional utility functions are applied to the delivery of IT as a utility. The framework provides the underlying mechanisms in which IT services could be priced and traded on Global Exchange Market. The initial framework has been evaluated through contact with key stakeholders in the field; this forms the basis for further research that could advance the framework for delivering IT as a utility.
On reoptimizing multi-class classifiers
Authors: Chris Bourke, Kun Deng, Stephen D. Scott, Robert E. Schapire, N. V. Vinodchandran
Venue: Machine Learning (2008)

Significant changes in the instance distribution or associated cost function of a learning problem require one to reoptimize a previously-learned classifier to work under new conditions. We study the problem of reoptimizing a multi-class classifier based on its ROC hypersurface and a matrix describing the costs of each type of prediction error. For a binary classifier, it is straightforward to find an optimal operating point based on its ROC curve and the relative cost of true positive to false positive error. However, the corresponding multi-class problem (finding an optimal operating point based on a ROC hypersurface and cost matrix) is more challenging and until now, it was unknown whether an efficient algorithm existed that found an optimal solution. We answer this question by first proving that the decision version of this problem is $\mathsf{NP}$ -complete. As a complementary positive result, we give an algorithm that finds an optimal solution in polynomial time if the number of classes n is a constant. We also present several heuristics for this problem, including linear, nonlinear, and quadratic programming formulations, genetic algorithms, and a customized algorithm. Empirical results suggest that under both uniform and non-uniform cost models, simple greedy methods outperform more sophisticated methods.
Phase-based gesture motion parametrization and transitions for conversational agents with MPML3D
Authors: Klaus Brügmann, Hannes Dohrn, Helmut Prendinger, Marc Stamminger, Mitsuru Ishizuka
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on INtelligent TEchnologies for interactive enterTAINment (2008)

We present a method to produce smooth transitions between arbitrary pieces of character animation, which is based on the application of dynamic transition curves. Unlike other approaches, we achieve anytime interruptibility for body expressions, that is, gestures can be changed anytime during execution while maintaining naturalness of motion transition. To obtain highly natural skeletal movement, our approach is integrated with motion parametrization, as proposed in the "Verbs and Adverbs" technique [18], and further methods of fuzzy motion blending. We will demonstrate how the latest version of the Multimodal Presentation Markup Language (MPML3D) integrates parameterized agent behavior, and can support the incorporation of personality and emotional attentiveness in a straightforward way.
Geometry-Based Image Retrieval in Binary Image Databases
Authors: Naif Alajlan, Mohamed S. Kamel, George H. Freeman
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (2008)

In this paper, a geometry-based image retrieval system is developed for multi-object images. We model both shape and topology of image objects using a structured representation called curvature tree (CT). The hierarchy of the CT reflects the inclusion relationships between the image objects. To facilitate shape-based matching, triangle-area representation (TAR) of each object is stored at the corresponding node in the CT. The similarity between two multi-object images is measured based on the maximum similarity subtree isomorphism (MSSI) between their CTs. For this purpose, we adopt a recursive algorithm to solve the MSSI problem and a very effective dynamic programming algorithm to measure the similarity between the attributed nodes. Our matching scheme agrees with many recent findings in psychology about the human perception of multi-object images. Experiments on a database of 13500 real and synthesized medical images and the MPEG-7 CE-1 database of 1400 shape images have shown the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Experiences of implementing a value-based approach to software process and product assessment
Authors: Pasi Ojala
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd WSEAS International Conference on Computer Engineering and Applications (2008)

This study tries to advance and define the concepts, principles and practical methods of a value-based approach, involving definition of the essential concepts of value, cost and worth in software development. These definitions originate from the Value Engineering (VE) method, originally applied and developed for the needs of the production industry. Therefore, for the purposes of this study these concepts are firstly justified and secondly defined. In order to study and evaluate the value-based approach, a method called value assessment is developed and used when assessing processes and products. The results of industrial case show that even though there is still much to do in making the economic-driven view complete in software engineering, the value-based approach outlines a way towards a more comprehensive understanding of it. For industrial users value assessment seems to give a practical help for handling cost and profitability related challenges.