ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Human movement analysis: ballistic dynamics, and edge continuity for pose estimation
Authors: Larry S. Davis
Venue:  (2007)

We present two contributions to human movement analysis: (a) a ballistic dynamical model for recognizing movements, and (b) a model for coupling edge continuity with contour matching. We describe a Bayesian approach for visual analysis of ballistic hand movements, namely reaches and strikes. These movements are most commonly used for interacting with objects and the environment. One of the key challenges to recognizing them is the variability of the target-location of the hand - people can reach above their heads, for something on the floor, etc. Our approach recognizes them independent of the movement's target-location and direction by modelling the ballistic dynamics. A video sequence is automatically segmented into ballistic subsequences without tracking the hands. The segments are then classified into strike and reach movements based on low-level motion features. Each ballistic segment is further analyzed to compute qualitative labels for the movement's target-location and direction. Tests are presented with a set of reach and strike movement sequences. We present an approach for whole-body pose contour matching. Contour matching in natural images in the absence of foreground-background segmentation is difficult. Usually an asymmetric approach is adopted, where a contour is said to match well if it aligns with a subset of the image's gradients. This leads to problems as the contour can match with a portion of an object's outline and ignore the remainder. We present a model for using edge-continuity to address this issue. Pairs of edge elements in the image are linked with affinities if they are likely to belong to the same object. A contour that matches with a set of image gradients is constrained to also match with other gradients having high affinities with the chosen ones. A Markov Random Field framework is employed to couple edge continuity and contour matching into a joint optimization process. The approach is illustrated with applications to pose estimation and human detection.
A Survey on Use of "New Perspective English Learning System" among University Students--Case Study on Jiangxi Normal University
Authors: Jing Zhang, Min Li
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Technologies for E-Learning and Digital Entertainment (2008)

As an e-learning system, New Perspective English Learning System is widely used in universities and colleges in China. However, little research has been carried on directed towards its effectiveness and correctness. This paper makes a case study on Jiangxi Normal University and adopts survey research as the predominant methodology and interview as secondary method. Via data collection and analysis, it examines respectively system effectiveness from respondents' satisfaction comments on five dimensions including students situation, learning resources, support from teachers, e-learning Support Platform and learning support service. Then it suggests an urgent need to solve the existing problems and improve the function of the whole NPELS Learning Hall platform in many ways. Finally some discussion and corresponding suggestions are proposed.
Factors Influencing Modality Choice in Multimodal Applications
Authors: Anja B. Naumann, Ina Wechsung, Sebastian Möller
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th IEEE tutorial and research workshop on Perception and Interactive Technologies for Speech-Based Systems: Perception in Multimodal Dialogue Systems (2008)

This paper describes initial results from an evaluation study on the use of different modalities. The application, a web-based media recommender and management system called MediaScout, was installed on two multimodal devices, and on one unimodal device as a control condition. The study aims to investigate whether users make use of multimodality if it is offered and under which circumstances they do so. Moreover, it was studied whether users' stated modality preferences match their actual use of the modalities. The results show that users do not make use of all modalities for all tasks. Modality usage is determined by the task to be performed, as well as the efficiency of the modality for achieving the task goal. Both modality usage and the range of offered modalities seem to influence subjective user ratings.
Delay-Aware Mobile Transactions
Authors: Brahim Ayari, Abdelmajid Khelil, Neeraj Suri
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th IFIP WG 10.2 international workshop on Software Technologies for Embedded and Ubiquitous Systems (2008)

In the expanding e-society, mobile embedded systems are increasingly used to support transactions such as for banking, stock or database applications. Such systems entail a range of heterogeneous entities - both the embedded devices and the networks connecting them. While these systems are exposed to frequent and varied perturbations, the support of atomic distributed transactions is still a fundamental requirement to achieve consistent decisions. Guaranteeing atomicity and high performance in traditional fixed wired networks is based on the assumption that faults like node and link failures occur rarely. This assumption is not supported in current and future mobile embedded systems where the heterogeneity and mobility often result in link and node failures as a dominant operational scenario. In order to continue guaranteeing strict atomicity while providing for high efficiency (low resource blocking time and message overhead) and acceptable commit rate, transactional fault-tolerance techniques need to be revisited perhaps at the cost of transaction execution time. In this paper, a comprehensive classification of perturbations and their impact on the design of mobile transactions is provided. In particular we argue for the delay-awareness of mobile transactions to allow for the fault-tolerance mechanisms to ensure resilience to the various and frequent perturbations.
Transdisciplinarity and Generalistic Sciences and Humanities
Authors: Rudolf Wille
Venue: Proceedings of the 16th international conference on Conceptual Structures: Knowledge Visualization and Reasoning (2008)

The term "transdisciplinarity" applies to forms of research which are used by disciplines with the effect that their ways of thinking are rationally understandable, available, and can be activated beyond their boundaries for being able especially to contribute to solutions of problems which cannot be mastered purely disciplinary. This paper elaborates the thesis that the disciplines can fulfill best the request for transdisciplinarity if they develop, maintain, and activate their part of generalistic sciences and humanities in the largest possible breath. For the transdisciplinary border crossing in the sense of generalistic sciences and humanities, it has been proven efficient to search for general interpretations of disciplinary concepts, propositions, and theories which can be made understandable (possibly in standard language). Examples are given by applications of Formal Concept Analysis.Contents1. Multi-, Inter-, and Transdisciplinarity2. Generalistic Sciences and Humanities, and "Good" Disciplinarity3. Transdisciplinarity by Generalistic Sciences and Humanities
Improving Text Summarization Using Noun Retrieval Techniques
Authors: Christos Bouras, Vassilis Tsogkas
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Part II (2008)

Text Summarization and categorization have always been two of the most demanding information retrieval tasks. Deploying a generalized, multi-functional mechanism that produces good results for both of the aforementioned tasks seems to be a panacea for most of the text-based, information retrieval needs. In this paper, we present the keyword extraction techniques, exploring the effects that part of speech tagging has on the summarization procedure of an existing system.
Qualitative Reasoning about Convex Relations
Authors: Dominik Lücke, Till Mossakowski, Diedrich Wolter
Venue: Proceedings of the international conference on Spatial Cognition VI: Learning, Reasoning, and Talking about Space (2008)

Various calculi have been designed for qualitative constraint-based representation and reasoning. Especially for orientation calculi, it happens that the well-known method of algebraic closure cannot decide consistency of constraint networks, even when considering networks over base relations (= scenarios) only. We show that this is the case for all relative orientation calculi capable of distinguishing between "left of" and "right of". Indeed, for these calculi, it is not clear whether efficient (i.e. polynomial) algorithms deciding scenario-consistency exist.As a partial solution of this problem, we present a technique to decide global consistency in qualitative calculi. It is applicable to all calculi that employ convex base relations over the real-valued space ¿ n and it can be performed in polynomial time when dealing with convex relations only. Since global consistency implies consistency, this can be an efficient aid for identifying consistent scenarios. This complements the method of algebraic closure which can identify a subset of inconsistent scenarios.
Job Sequencing with Exponential Functions of Processing Times
Authors: Adam Janiak, Mikhail Y. Kovalyov
Venue: Informatica (2006)

We study single machine scheduling problems, where processing times of the jobs are exponential functions of their start times. For increasing functions, we prove strong NP-hardness of the makespan minimization problem with arbitrary job release times. For decreasing functions, maximum lateness minimization problem is proved to be strongly NP-hard and total weighted completion time minimization problem is proved to be ordinary NP-hard. Heuristic algorithms are presented and computationally tested for these problems.
Fair Reputation Evaluating Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Network
Authors: Zhu Lei, Daehun Nyang, Kyunghee Lee, Hyotaek Lim
Venue: Computational Intelligence and Security: International Conference, CIS 2006, Guangzhou, China, November 3-6, 2006, Revised Selected Papers (2007)

Ad hoc network is a society of nodes who work in cooperative manner in accordance with self regulatory protocol. So reputation and trust should be built up and selfishness be dealt with a proper regulatory protocol. Selfish nodes are those which do not behave as the protocol specifies, with a wish to conserve power. This paper proposes an environmental compensation algorithm to the General Reputation Model. The algorithm provides a scheme as a mean to mitigate the detrimental effect of selfish nodes. And it deals for the first time with the security -the environment's influence on nodes' behavior. It also shows how to establish trusts in different areas with different environmental characteristics.
A Modified Ant Colony Algorithm Used for Multi-robot Odor Source Localization
Authors: Yuhua Zou, Dehan Luo
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Intelligent Computing: Advanced Intelligent Computing Theories and Applications - with Aspects of Artificial Intelligence (2008)

A multi-robot cooperation strategy based on a modified ant colony algorithm (ACA) is proposed. It enables the multi-robot system to search for the odor sources, which exist in the indoor environment, by imitating the forage behavior of the ant society. The modification of ACA includes new definitions of pheromone and heuristic function. And two extra search modes, local traversal search and global random search are added to improve the search performance of the robot system. A verification procedure is introduced into the iteration process to localize multiple odor sources. Simulation results have showed that the modified algorithm can effectively enable the robots to approach and determine the odor sources quickly and accurately.
Web-Based Support Systems with Rough Set Analysis
Authors: Jingtao Yao, Joseph P. Herbert
Venue: Proceedings of the international conference on Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems Paradigms (2007)

Rough sets have been applied to many areas where multi-attribute data is needed to be analyzed to acquire knowledge for decision making. Web-based Support Systems (WSS) are a new research area that aims to support human activities and extend human physical limitations of information processing with Web technologies. The applications of rough set analysis for WSS is looked at in this article. In particular, our focus will be on Web-Based Medical Support Systems (WMSS). A WMSS is a support system that integrates medicine practices (diagnosis and surveillance) with computer science and Web technologies. We will explore some of the challenges of using rough sets in a WMSS and detail some of the applications of rough sets in analyzing medical data.
An intelligent approach for the prediction of surface roughness in ball-end machining of polypropylene
Authors: Vimal G. Dhokia, Sanjeev Kumar, Parag Vichare, Stephen T. Newman
Venue: Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (2008)

Manufacturing paradigms over the last 150 years have changed from craft production, to mass production and now to mass customisation. One further extension of mass customisation is personalised manufacture, which is the concept of providing bespoke products to the individual consumer. As a result this has brought about the need for a greater degree of sophistication in manufacturing practises and the technologies employed. This bespoke form of manufacture of consumer goods is now being pursued on CNC machining centres as opposed to the alternative of highly expensive rapid prototyping methods. The problem with this form of manufacture is that the products are generally free formed objects which require sophisticated setups and machining. Ball-end machining is a method used to create cusp-type geometry, which is employed on CNC machines to create sculptured surfaces. The objective of this research is to provide a predictive model using a design of experiments strategy to obtain optimised machining parameters for a specific surface roughness in ball-end machining of polypropylene. This paper reports on new manufacturing knowledge to machine polypropylene using ball-end tooling in order to generate personalised sculptured surface products.
The hub number of a graph
Authors: Tracy Grauman, Stephen G. Hartke, Adam Jobson, Bill Kinnersley, Douglas B. West, Lesley Wiglesworth, Pratik Worah, Hehui Wu
Venue: Information Processing Letters (2008)

A hub set in a graph G is a set U@?V(G) such that any two vertices outside U are connected by a path whose internal vertices lie in U. We prove that h(G)=h"c(G)>=4 are obtained by substituting graphs into three consecutive vertices of a cycle; this yields a polynomial-time algorithm to check whether h"c(G)=@c"c(G).
Ego-Motion Estimation and Collision Detection for Omnidirectional Robots
Authors: Martin Lauer
Venue: RoboCup 2006: Robot Soccer World Cup X (2006)

We propose an algorithm to estimate the ego-motion of an omnidirectional robot based on a sequence of position estimates. Thereto, we derive a motion model for omnidirectional robots and an estimation procedure to fit the model to observed positions. Additionally, we show how we can benefit from the velocity estimates deriving an algorithm that recognizes situations in which a robot is blocked by an obstacle.
Studying Viable Free Markets in Peer-to-Peer File Exchange Applications without Altruistic Agents
Authors: David Cabanillas, Steven Willmott
Venue: Agents and Peer-to-Peer Computing: 5th International Workshop, AP2PC 2006, Hakodate, Japan, May 9, 2006, Revised and Invited Papers (2006)

File sharing networks are among the most popular applications of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology to date [1] and have been widely studied in terms of performance, behavior, topology and other properties. A persistent theme throughout this research has been the evidence that many P2P file sharing systems rely on the presence of altruistic users, who provide files, network capacity or some other goods without obvious personal gain and are potentially damaged by the presence of too many free-riders (users who consume resources but do not provide to others in return). In this paper we will explore the use of simple market mechanisms for P2P file sharing which function without the need of altruistic users and consider the conditions under which such markets may be viable.
12-Bits 50 MHz Pipelined Low-Voltage ADC Design
Authors: Jinduo Sun, Xixin Cao, Jian Cao, Yadong Wu, Yue Liu, Xing Zhang
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Congress on Image and Signal Processing, Vol. 4 - Volume 04 (2008)

In this paper, a 12-bit 50MHz Pipelined Low-Voltage ADC is presented, which consists of 8-stage-pipelined low resolution ADCs and a 4-bit flash ADC. Several critical technologies are used to guarantee the resolution and high sampling and converting rate such as 1.5bits per stage conversion, digital correction logic, gain-boosted telescopic OTA and so on. Finally the whole system is taped out in SMIC with its 0.13 um process successful, the test result testified all the specifications are well satisfied.
One-dimensional partitioning for heterogeneous systems: Theory and practice
Authors: Ali Pınar, E. Kartal Tabak, Cevdet Aykanat
Venue: Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (2008)

We study the problem of one-dimensional partitioning of nonuniform workload arrays, with optimal load balancing for heterogeneous systems. We look at two cases: chain-on-chain partitioning, where the order of the processors is specified, and chain partitioning, where processor permutation is allowed. We present polynomial time algorithms to solve the chain-on-chain partitioning problem optimally, while we prove that the chain partitioning problem is NP-complete. Our empirical studies show that our proposed exact algorithms produce substantially better results than heuristics, while solution times remain comparable.
On the Formal Semantics of IF-Like Logics
Authors: Santiago Figueira, Daniel Gorín, Rafael Grimson
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th international workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Computation (2008)

In classical logics, the meaning of a formula is invariant with respect to the renaming of bound variables. This property, normally taken for granted, has been shown not to hold in the case of Information Friendly (IF) logics. In this work we propose an alternative formalization under which invariance with respect the renaming of bound variables is restored. We show that, when one restricts to formulas where each variable is bound only once, our semantics coincide with those previously used in the literature. We also prove basic metatheoretical results of the resulting logic, such as compositionality and truth preserving operations on valuations. We work on Hodges' slash logic (from which results can be easily transferred to other IF-like logics) and we also consider his flattening operator, for which we give a game-theoretical semantics.
Interfaces and Metainterfaces for Models and Metamodels
Authors: Anders Hessellund, Andrzej Wąsowski
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (2008)

Evolution and customization of component-based systems require an explicit understanding of component inter-dependencies. Implicit assumptions, poor documentation and hidden dependencies turn even simple changes into challenges. The problem is exacerbated in XML-intensive projects due to the use of soft references and the lack of information hiding. We address this with dependency tracking interface types for models and metamodels. We provide automatic compatibility checks and a heuristic inference procedure for our interfaces, which allows easy and incremental adoption of our technique even in mature projects. We have implemented a prototype and applied it to two large cases: an enterprise resource planning system and a healthcare information system.
A Blend of Markov-Chain and Drift Analysis
Authors: Jens Jägersküpper
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature: PPSN X (2008)

In their seminal article [Theo. Comp. Sci. 276(2002):51---82] Droste, Jansen, and Wegener present the first theoretical analysis of the expected runtime of a basic direct-search heuristic with a global search operator, namely the (1+1) Evolutionary Algorithm (EA), for the class of linear functions over the search space {0,1} n . In a rather long and involved proof they show that, for any linear function, the expected runtime of the EA is O(nlogn), i.e., that there are two constants c and n¿ such that, for n ¿ n¿, the expected number of iterations until a global optimum is generated is bound above by c·nlogn. However, neither c nor n¿ are specified --- they would be pretty large. Here we reconsider this optimization scenario to demonstrate the potential of an analytical method that makes use not only of the drift (w.r.t. a potential function, here the number of bits set correctly), but also of the distribution of the evolving candidate solution over the search space {0,1} n : An invariance property of this distribution is proved, which is then used to derive a significantly better lower bound on the drift. Finally, this better estimate of the drift results in an upper bound on the expected number of iterations of 3.8 nlog2 n + 7.6log2 n for n ¿ 2.
Patent Protection and the Computing Arts
Authors: R. J. Frank
Venue: Computer (1979)

The Constitution affords patent protection to inventions within the "useful arts," but not to scientific or mathematicaldiscoveries. What, then, is a computer program's algorithm? 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
Adaptive power and performance management of computing systems
Authors: Salim Hariri
Venue:  (2008)

With the rapid growth of servers and applications spurred by the Internet economy, power consumption in today's data centers is reaching unsustainable limits. This has led to an imminent financial, technical and environmental crisis that is impacting the society at large. Hence, it has become critically important that power consumption be efficiently managed in these computing power-houses of today. In this work, we revisit the issue of adaptive power and performance management of data center server platforms. Traditional data center servers are statically configured and always over-provisioned to be able to handle peak load. We transform these statically configured data center servers to clairvoyant entities that can sense changes in the workload and dynamically scale in capacity to adapt to the requirements of the workload. The over-provisioned server capacity is transitioned to low-power states and they remain in those states for as long as the performance remains within given acceptable thresholds. The platform power expenditure is minimized subject to performance constraints. This is formulated as a performance-per-watt optimization problem and solved using analytical power and performance models. Coarse-grained optimizations at the platform-level are refined by local optimizations at the devices-level namely&mdash;the processor memory subsystems. Our adaptive interleaving technique for memory power management yielded about 48.8% (26.7 kJ) energy savings compared to traditional techniques measured at 4.5%. Our adaptive platform power and performance management technique demonstrated 56.25% energy savings for memory-intensive workload, 63.75% savings for processor-intensive workload and 47.5% savings for a mixed workload while maintaining platform performance within given acceptable thresholds.