ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Teachers as E-designers: A Novel Approach to Professional Development in Elementary Science and Technology
Authors: Gillian Mulholland, Lachlan Forsyth, Lynette Schaverien
Venue: Proceeding of the 2005 conference on Towards Sustainable and Scalable Educational Innovations Informed by the Learning Sciences: Sharing Good Practices of Research, Experimentation and Innovation (2005)

Providing effective, systemic, sustainable professional development for teachers of elementary Science and Technology is a key concern for large, geographically dispersed, centralised education systems. In this paper, we report on DESCANT-SciTech, an Australian Research Council project, being undertaken in collaboration with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET). This project tests an innovative, e-learning strategy for seeding just such a future-oriented, scalable professional development system. The project's strategy, informed by a generative theory of learning, casts teachers as designers of their own e-learning environment for professional development. We describe and analyse outcomes of the project's initial phase, as the first cohort of teachers conceived this environment in community, supported by their consultant, DET officers and University researchers. We conclude speculatively, as two new cohorts of teachers to enter this environment.
Comparing auction house, gallery, and private fine art presale presentations on the internet
Authors: John Daab
Venue:  (2008)

Fine art sales in 2007 reached $40 billion. There are 4,200 auction houses in the world along with thousands of galleries and private sellers. As record sales increase in value, art experts and scholars are reporting that art fraud has reached the point whereby at least one out of two works being sold is inauthentic or forged. From a business approach, the purchase of a commodity with a probability that the commodity is worthless half the time represents a financially unsound business practice capable of producing significant losses to both a company and individuals. The researcher investigated the proportional level of authenticity between the three main sellers of art. The investigator evaluated the extent of the authenticity as a totality and differentially. The purpose of the study was to examine authenticity as it is first presented as a description of the work to be sold on the Internet. The results of the findings were that a difference exists between the sellers in the proportional level of authentication descriptors provided and that the total level of proportional authentication descriptors provided by all the sellers was minimal. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
An efficient approach for distributed dynamic channel allocation with queues for real-time and non-real-time traffic in cellular networks
Authors: P. Venkata Krishna, Sudip Misra, Mohammad S. Obaidat, V. Saritha
Venue: Journal of Systems and Software (2009)

We are witnessing these days a rapid growth of mobile users. Therefore, frequency spectrum must be efficiently utilized, as available frequency spectrum is limited. This paper proposes a channel allocation scheme with efficient bandwidth reservation, which initially reserves some channels for handoff calls, and later reserves the channels dynamically, based on the user mobility. The direction of user mobility may not be straight always, but the user may also go left, right or backwards. Thus, QoS can be improved, if the channel reservation is made based upon the user mobility and the location of the user. We devise here a new algorithm that deals with multiple traffic systems by modifying the existing DDCA algorithm [Krishna, P.V., Iyengar, N.Ch.S.N., 2008. Optimal channel allocation algorithm with efficient channel reservation for cellular networks. International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems 1 (1), 33-51]. This algorithm reserves more channels for hot cells, less number of channels for cold cells and an average number of channels for the medium cells. Furthermore, we maintain queues for all types of calls. We model the system by a three-dimensional Markov Chain and compute the QoS parameters in terms of the blocking probability of originating calls and the dropping probability of handoff calls. The results indicate that the proposed channel allocation scheme exhibits better performance by considering the above mentioned user mobility, type of cells, and maintaining of the queues for various traffic sources. In addition, it can be observed that our approach reduces the dropping probability by using reservation factor.
Abstract Voronoi diagrams revisited
Authors: Rolf Klein, Elmar Langetepe, Zahra Nilforoushan
Venue: Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications (2009)

Abstract Voronoi diagrams [R. Klein, Concrete and Abstract Voronoi Diagrams, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 400, Springer-Verlag, 1987] were designed as a unifying concept that should include as many concrete types of diagrams as possible. To ensure that abstract Voronoi diagrams, built from given sets of bisecting curves, are finite graphs, it was required that any two bisecting curves intersect only finitely often; this axiom was a cornerstone of the theory. In [A.G. Corbalan, M. Mazon, T. Recio, Geometry of bisectors for strictly convex distance functions, International Journal of Computational Geometry and Applications 6 (1) (1996) 45-58], Corbalan et al. gave an example of a smooth convex distance function whose bisectors have infinitely many intersections, so that it was not covered by the existing AVD theory. In this paper we give a new axiomatic foundation of abstract Voronoi diagrams that works without the finite intersection property.
Towards Representing and Querying Arguments on the Semantic Web
Authors: Iyad Rahwan, P. V. Sakeer
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Computational Models of Argument: Proceedings of COMMA 2006 (2006)

This paper demonstrates the potential of the Semantic Web as a platform for representing, navigating and processing arguments on a global scale. We use the RDF Schema (RDFS) ontology language to specify the ontology of the recently proposed Argument Interchange Format (AIF) and an extension thereof to Toulmin's argument scheme. We build a prototype Web-based system for demonstrating basic querying for argument structures expressed in the Resource Description Framework (RDF). An RDF repository is created using the Sesame open source RDF server, and can be accessed via a user interface that implements various user-defined queries.
The progress and challenges of threshold voltage control of high-k/metal-gated devices for advanced technologies (Invited Paper)
Authors: Hsing-Huang Tseng, Paul Kirsch, C. S. Park, Gennadi Bersuker, Prashant Majhi, Muhammad Hussain, Raj Jammy
Venue: Microelectronic Engineering (2009)

This paper discusses recent progress in and challenges of threshold voltage control for advanced high-k/metal-gated (HKMG) devices. It presents the impact on threshold voltage (V"t) control of incorporating La and Al into HKMG devices. A dipole moment model explaining V"t tuning of HfSiON/metal-gated MOSFETs is proposed. In addition, a dual channel scheme that allows La"2O"3 capping in NMOS and a SiGe channel in PMOS to achieve acceptable V"t for HKMG CMOS devices will be discussed. Also shown is the impact of the robustness of the SiO"2/Si interface on the HKMG MOSFET V"t-equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) roll-off. Finally, techniques to improve the interface quality of a HKMG stack will be discussed.
Speed ambiguity in hurricane wind retrieval from SAR imagery
Authors: Hui Shen, Yijun He, W. Perrie
Venue: International Journal of Remote Sensing (2009)

Under strong ocean surface wind conditions, the normalized radar cross section of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is dampened at certain incident angles, compared with the signals under moderate winds. This causes a wind speed ambiguity problem in wind speed retrievals from SAR, because two solutions may exist for each backscattered signal. This study shows that the problem is ubiquitous in the images acquired by operational space-borne SAR sensors. Moreover, the problem is more severe for the near range and range travelling winds. To remove this ambiguity, a method was developed based on characteristics of the hurricane wind structure. A SAR image of Hurricane Rita (2005) was analysed to demonstrate the wind speed ambiguity problem and the method to improve the wind speed retrievals. Our conclusions suggest that a speed ambiguity removal algorithm must be used for wind retrievals from SAR in intense storms and hurricanes.
The Politeness Effect: Pedagogical Agents and Learning Gains
Authors: Ning Wang, W. Lewis Johnson, Richard E. Mayer, Paola Rizzo, Erin Shaw, Heather Collins
Venue: Proceeding of the 2005 conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education: Supporting Learning through Intelligent and Socially Informed Technology (2005)

Pedagogical agent research seeks to exploit Reeves and Nass's Media Equation, which holds that users respond to interactive media as if they were social actors. Investigations have tended to focus on the media used to realize the pedagogical agent, e.g., the use of animated talking heads and voices, and the results have been mixed. This paper focuses instead on the manner in which a pedagogical agent communicates with learners, on the extent to which it exhibits social intelligence. A model of socially intelligent tutorial dialog was developed based on politeness theory, and implemented in an agent interface. A series of Wizard-of-Oz studies were conducted in which subjects either received polite tutorial feedback that promotes learner face and mitigates face threat, or received direct feedback that disregarded learner face. The polite version yielded better learning outcomes, and the effect was amplified in learners who expressed a preference for indirect feedback. These results confirm the hypothesis that learners tend to respond to pedagogical agents as social actors, and suggest that research should perhaps focus less on the media in which agents are realized, and place more emphasis on the agents' social intelligence.
Haptic interface for perceiving remote object using a laser range finder
Authors: Hiroaki Yano, Yuichi Miyamoto, Hiroo Iwata
Venue: Proceedings of the World Haptics 2009 - Third Joint EuroHaptics conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (2009)

This paper describes development of a haptic interface using a laser range finder. The system consists of a laser range finder, a 1 degree-of-freedom haptic apparatus and a computer. The haptic apparatus can generate a reaction force based on a distance to a remote object that is measured by the laser range finder. A user can feel the shape of a remote object by holding this interface and pointing the object. Three haptic rendering algorithms were developed. Through some experiments, the effectiveness of this system was confirmed.
DISCO: a graphical methodology for the design of Sigma-Delta modulators
Authors: Alexander Buhmann, Matthias Keller, Michael Maurer, Maurits Ortmanns, Yiannos Manoli
Venue: Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing (2009)

A MATLABTM toolbox for the design and simulation of continuous time (CT) and discrete time Sigma-Delta modulators is presented. The design of Sigma-Delta modulators is performed by placing the poles and zeros of the loop filter and estimating the resulting noise transfer function and signal transfer function. For this, the toolbox offers a graphical user interface for direct user interaction. Several additional functions, e.g. excess loop delay compensation, are made available to the designer. Further, the designed loop filter can be synthesized in CIFF and CIFB topology or CRFF and CRFB in the case of a bandpass modulator. Additionally, the toolbox offers the design of a closed loop Sigma-Delta sensor readout having the sensor as part of the loop filter. Furthermore, several typical non-idealities of CT Sigma-Delta modulators such as real opamp behavior, excess loop delay, and jitter, are simulated with a tremendously speed up via the application of the lifting approach.
A system for analysis and prediction of electricity-load streams
Authors: Pedro Pereira Rodrigues, João Gama
Venue: Intelligent Data Analysis (2009)

Sensors distributed all around electrical-power distribution networks produce streams of data at high-speed. From a data mining perspective, this sensor network problem is characterized by a large number of variables (sensors), producing a continuous flow of data, in a dynamic non-stationary environment. Companies make decisions to buy or sell energy based on load profiles and forecast. In this work we analyze the most relevant data mining problems and issues: continuously learning clusters and predictive models, model adaptation in large domains, and change detection and adaptation. The goal is to continuously maintain a clustering model, defining profiles, and a predictive model able to incorporate new information at the speed data arrives, detecting changes and adapting the decision models to the most recent information. We present experimental results in a large real-world scenario, illustrating the advantages of the continuous learning and its competitiveness against Wavelets based prediction. We also propose a light electrical load visualization system which enhances the ability to inspect forecast results in mobile devices.
A Microbenchmark Suite for Mixed-Mode OpenMP/MPI
Authors: J. Mark Bull, James P. Enright, Nadia Ameer
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on OpenMP: Evolving OpenMP in an Age of Extreme Parallelism (2009)

With the current prevalence of multi-core processors in HPC architectures, mixed-mode programming, using both MPI and OpenMP in the same application, is becoming increasingly important. However, no low-level synthetic benchmarks exist to test the performance of this programming model. We have designed and implemented a set of microbenchmarks for mixed-mode programming, including both point-to-point and collective communication patterns. These microbenchmarks have been run on a number of current HPC architectures: the results show some interesting performance differences between the architectures and highlight some possible inefficiencies in the implementation of MPI on multi-core systems.
Time and Logic: A.N. Prior's Formal Analysis of Temporal Concepts
Authors: Peter Øhrstrøm
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Formal Concept Analysis (2009)

This paper deals with A.N. Prior's analysis of the concepts of dynamic and static time, i.e., McTaggart's so-called A- and B-concepts. The relations and mutual dependencies between these temporal concepts are investigated, and Prior's response to McTaggart's views is discussed. Furthermore, Prior's notion of branching time is analysed. It is argued that Prior can be criticized for identifying `plain future' with `necessary future'. Finally, Prior's four grades of tense-logical involvement are introduced and discussed. It is argued that the third grade is the most attractive from a philosophical point of view.
Application of the cos-Fourier expansion to data transformation between different latitude-longitude grids
Authors: J. Y. Guo, C. K. Shum
Venue: Computers Geosciences (2009)

In geodesy and geophysics, data of global coverage are often given on a latitude-longitude grid of constant intervals in latitude and longitude, that we call the gridded data (GD), or as a spherical harmonic expansion (SHE). Generally, as the total number of SHE coefficients is only about half of that of the GD, the GD and the SHE do not have one-to-one correspondence, i.e. the GD can be recovered from the SHE computed using the GD. However, in the case when the GD can be exactly represented using a SHE, like the geoid computed from a geopotential model given in terms of a SHE, the GD and the SHE do have one-to-one correspondence. But this is just a special case. Hence, the SHE does not always preserve the complete resolution of the GD. In fact, the GD may have higher resolution than the SHE at higher latitudes. In this paper, we suggest to use the tensor-product of the cosine series over colatitude and the Fourier series over longitude, referred to as the cos-Fourier expansion (CFE), to represent the GD. The CFE always has a one-to-one correspondence with the GD, and preserves the resolution of the GD. The CFE is then applied for transforming GD between different grids. The results of a particular application for generating the ocean function (OF) over a 2.5^@?x2.5^@? grid from that originally given over a 5^'x5^' grid are presented to show the feasibility of the method. Furthermore, a comparison between the CFE and SHE is made using digital land and sea-floor elevation data that demonstrates the above-mentioned characteristics of the CFE and SHE.
Guaranteed results in games with forbidden situations
Authors: V. V. Tokarev
Venue: Automation and Remote Control (2009)

The best guaranteed results in games where "others'" control actions influence not only the utility function but also the admissibility set of each participant are analyzed and compared. The research is conducted without a formal reduction to classical games on direct products of rigid admissibility sets by means of penalized extension of the utility function. By the example of the generalized Cournot duopoly, it is shown that, for a chosen participant, his right to be the first to use common scarce resources might be more important than awareness of previous choices of his competitors. This means the possibility of violating the fundamental inequality of the classical game theory which states that the max-min of the utility function does not exceed its min-max, established for games on direct products of sets of admissible control actions.
A framework for semantic annotation of geospatial data for agriculture
Authors: C. G. N. Macario, C. B. Medeiros
Venue: International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies (2009)

The Web is a huge repository of geospatial information. Efficient retrieval of this information is a key factor in planning and decision-making in many domains, including agriculture. However, standards for data annotation and exchange enable only syntactic interoperability, while semantic heterogeneity presents challenges. This work describes a framework that tackles interoperability problems via semantic annotations, which are based on multiple ontologies. The framework is being developed within a project to support agricultural planning in Brazil. The paper discusses design and implementation issues using a real case study, provides an overview of annotation mechanisms and identifies requirements for annotating agricultural data.
Encyclopedia of Networked and Virtual Organizations
Authors: Goran D. Putnik, Maria Manuela Cunha
Venue:  (2007)

The virtual enterprise as a new organizational paradigm has three fundamental features: dynamics of network reconfiguration, virtuality, and external entities as environments for enabling or supporting the virtual enterprise integration as well as reconfiguration dynamics. The field of knowledge on this topic is highly fragmented due to the inexistence of a transfer of knowledge between regions, developers, and researchers. The Encyclopedia of Networked & Virtual Organizations documents the most relevant contributions to the introduction of networked, dynamic, agile, and virtual organizational models; definitions; taxonomies; opportunities; and reference models and architectures. These volumes pool the existing works, approaches, solutions, and needs of the virtual enterprise research community to create a repository of the main developments regarding the virtual organization, compiling definitions, characteristics, comparisons, advantages, practices, enabling technologies, and best practices.
MySIM: a spontaneous service integration middleware for pervasive environments
Authors: Noha Ibrahim, Frédéric Le Mouël, Stéphane Frénot
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 international conference on Pervasive services (2009)

A computing infrastructure where "everything is a service" offers many new system and application possibilities. Among the main challenges, however, is the issue of service integration for the application development in such heterogeneous environments. Service integration has been considered by major middleware as a user centric approach as it responds to user requests and needs. In this article, we propose a novel way to integrate services considering only their availability, the functionalities they propose and their non functional QoS properties rather than the users direct requests. We define MySIM, a spontaneous service integration middleware. MySIM integrates services spontaneously on an event based mechanism and transparently for users and applications, extending by that the environment with functionalities. We developed a prototype as a proof of concept and evaluated its efficiency over a real use case.
Foundations of non-commutative probability theory
Authors: Daniel Lehmann
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge (2009)

Kolmogorov's setting for probability theory is given an original generalization to account for probabilities arising from Quantum Mechanics. The sample space has a central role in this presentation and random variables, i.e., observables, are defined in a natural way. The mystery presented by the algebraic equations satisfied by (non-commuting) observables that cannot be observed in the same states is elucidated.
The modeling and simulation of the servo-hydraulic linear motor
Authors: Claudiu Ratiu, Camelia Ioana Ucenic
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Mathematical and computational methods in science and engineering (2008)

The tendencies obvious today in robot construction relate to flexible automation and mechatronics, i.e. increasing their intelligence level to compensate for nonlinearities and to adapt to distortions. The applied research programme developed by the authors was directed towards optimizing the static and dynamic performance of the linear hydraulic motors with the purpose of investigating nonlinear phenomena occurring while in operation and towards producing a package of numerical simulation software that provide useful information to their design to make them operate at the level of performance that is today required.