ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
An Effective Motion Re-estimation in Frame-Skipping Video Transcoding
Authors: Vasant Patil, Rajeev Kumar
Venue: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing: Theory and Applications (2007)

A new motion vector (MV) composition method, which we call temporal bi-directional dominant vector selection (TBDVS), for frame-skipping transcoding of pre-coded video is presented. The TBDVS utilizes a existing relationship, in pre-coded video, between the pixels of a frame and its reference frame(s) via MVs and selects a dominant MV from a set of candidate MVs to minimize prediction errors. It is general enough to handle frame-skipping, including I frame, in an arbitrary manner from a generic I-B-P frame structure video. Experimental results using cascaded pixel-domain transcoder show performance gain over the existing methods in terms of both quality and bit rate. We also propose a refinement method that adaptively adjusts the search range to further improve the performance at marginal cost.
Solution of fink & straight conjecture on path-perfect complete bipartite graphs
Authors: Weiting Cao, Peter Hamburger
Venue: Journal of Graph Theory (2007)

We consider various edge disjoint partitions of complete bipartite graphs. One case is where we decompose the edge set into edge disjoint paths of increasing lengths. A graph G is path-perfect if there is a positive integer n such that the edge set E(G) of the graph G can be partitioned into paths of length 1,2,3,&hellip;,n. The main result of the paper is the proof of the conjecture of Fink and Straight [4]: A complete bipartite graph Ks,t on t&thinsp;+&thinsp;s vertices (t&thinsp;&le;&thinsp;s) is path-perfect if and only if there is a positive integer n such that the following two conditions are satisfied; $${\rm{({i})}}\; {{st}}={\rm{1}}+{\rm{2}}+{\rm{\ldots}}+ {{n}}=\left({{{{n}}+ {\rm{1}}}}\atop{{{\rm{2}}}}\right){\rm{,}} \quad {\rm{and}}\quad {\rm{(ii)}}\; {{n}}\le {\rm{2}}{{t}}.$$. Our proof gives a linear time algorithm to find an edge disjoint partition of a complete bipartite graph into paths of lengths 1,2,3,&hellip;,n. &copy; 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 55:91&ndash;111, 2007
Nonlinear smoothing filter using adaptive radial clustering
Authors: I. Y. -H. Gu
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2001. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 03 (2001)

A novel adaptive nonlinear filter is proposed aimed at smoothing homogenous regions while maintaining image structures. The filter can be utilized as a pre-processing tool in image segmentation and edge estimation for improving the results. Several special features are introduced to the filter, including using local adaptive radial clustering and pixel filtering to exclude the influence of outliers and to maintain image structures; using the steepest-ascent method to iteratively update pixels to the nearest clusters obtained by mean-shift; and introducing highly parallel processing by using random seed samples and their associated data blocks which enables fast processing and the global optimum solution of the nonlinear filter. Experiments were done on images of various complexities, and good results were obtained. Evaluations of the filter were also done in terms of edge preservation and image segmentation.
Compilation techniques for short-vector instructions
Authors: Saman P. Amarasinghe
Venue:  (2006)

Multimedia extensions are nearly ubiquitous in today's general-purpose processors. These extensions consist primarily of a set of short-vector instructions that apply the same opcode to a vector of operands. This design introduces a data-parallel component to processors that exploit instruction-level parallelism, and presents an opportunity for increased performance. In fact, ignoring a processor's vector opcodes can leave a significant portion of the available resources unused. In order for software developers to find short-vector instructions generally useful, the compiler must target these extensions with complete transparency and consistent performance. This thesis develops compiler techniques to target short-vector instructions automatically and efficiently. One important aspect of compilation is the effective management of memory alignment. As with scalar loads and stores, vector references are typically more efficient when accessing aligned regions. In many cases, the compiler can glean no alignment information and must emit conservative code sequences. In response, I introduce a range of compiler techniques for detecting and enforcing aligned references. In my benchmark suite, the most practical method ensures alignment for roughly 75% of dynamic memory references. This thesis also introduces selective vectorization, a technique for balancing computation across a processor's scalar and vector resources. Current approaches for targeting short-vector instructions directly adopt vectorizing technology first developed for supercomputers. Traditional vectorization, however, can lead to a performance degradation since it fails to account for a processor's scalar execution resources. I formulate selective vectorization in the context of software pipelining. My approach creates software pipelines with shorter initiation intervals, and therefore, higher performance. In contrast to conventional methods, selective vectorization operates on a low-level intermediate representation. This technique allows the algorithm to accurately measure the performance trade-offs of code selection alternatives. A key aspect of selective vectorization is its ability to manage communication of operands between vector and scalar instructions. Even when operand transfer is expensive, the technique is sufficiently sophisticated to achieve significant performance gains. I evaluate selective vectorization on a set of SPEC FP benchmarks. On a realistic VLIW processor model, the approach achieves whole-program speedups of up to 1.35&times; over existing approaches. For individual loops, it provides speedups of up to 1.75&times;. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Relevancy of time-frequency features for phonetic classification measured by mutual information
Authors: H. Yang
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 01 (1999)

In this paper we use mutual information to study the distribution in time and frequency of information relevant for phonetic classification. A large database of hand-labeled fluent speech is used to (a) compute the mutual information between phoneme labels and a point of logarithmic energy in the time-frequency plane and (b) compute the joint mutual information between phoneme labels and two points of logarithmic energy in the time-frequency plane.
A queue management algorithm for fair bandwidth allocation
Authors: Tetsuji Yamaguchi, Yutaka Takahashi
Venue: Computer Communications (2007)

In this paper, a stateless active queue management algorithm called ''PUNSI'' which aims to achieve fair bandwidth allocation in congested routers is proposed. This algorithm prevents unresponsive flows from dominating available bandwidth shared with responsive flows by penalizing packets from unresponsive flows with a higher probability than those from responsive flows. It is motivated by the observation that unresponsive flows tend to generate traffic of higher rates than responsive ones and that, when a packet is dropped due to buffer overflow, fellow packets from the same flow seem to be found in the buffer among those having joined recently. Simulation experiments show that the algorithm discards packets from unresponsive flows effectively and achieves pretty good fair share among flows with low implementation complexity.
Frequency-domain contrast functions for separation of convolutive mixtures
Authors: J.-C. Pesquet
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2001. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 05 (2001)

This paper addresses the problem of blind separation of convolutive mixtures via contrast maximization. New frequency-domain contrast functions are constructed based on second and higher-order spectra of the observations. They allow one to separate mixtures of sources which are spatially independent, and temporally possibly non i.i.d. linear or non-linear processes. The proposed criteria provide a framework for extending to the convolutive case contrasts that have been proposed in the context of instantaneous mixtures.
Computing good nash equilibria in graphical games
Authors: Edith Elkind, Leslie Ann Golberg, Paul W. Goldberg
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Electronic commerce (2007)

This paper addresses the problem of fair equilibrium selection in graphical games. Our approach is based on the data structure called the best response policy, which was proposed by Kearns et al. [13] as a way to represent all Nash equilibria of a graphical game. In [9], it was shown that the best response policy has polynomial size as long as the underlying graph is a path. In this paper, we show that if the underlying graph is abounded-degree tree and the best response policy has polynomial size then there is an efficient algorithm which constructs a Nash equilibrium that guarantees certain payoffs to all participants. Another attractive solution concept is a Nash equilibrium that maximizes the social welfare. We show that, while exactly computing the latter is infeasible (we prove that solving this problem may involve algebraic numbers of an arbitrarily high degree), there exists an FPTAS for finding such an equilibrium as long as the best response policy has polynomial size. These two algorithms can be combined to produce Nash equilibria that satisfy various fairness criteria.
Face Detecting Using Artificial Neural Network Approach
Authors: Shahrin Azuan Nazeer, Nazaruddin Omar, Khairol Faisal Jumari, Marzuki Khalid
Venue: Proceedings of the First Asia International Conference on Modelling & Simulation (2007)

A frontal face detection system using artificial neural network is presented. The system used integral image for image representation which allows fast computation of the features used. The system also applies the AdaBoost learning algorithm to select a small number of critical visual features from a very large set of potential features. Besides that, it also used cascade of classifiers algorithm which allows background regions of the image to be quickly discarded while spending more computation on promising face-like regions. Furthermore, a set of experiments in the domain of face detection is presented. The system yields a promising face detection performance.
The Utah High School Computing Institute
Authors: E. Cohen
Venue: Proceedings of the 26th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 01 (1996)

Professor Cohen created the High School Institute over seven years ago with the goal of bringing students from outlying and mostly rural areas of Utah in contact with computer technologies integral to the future of design and manufacturing. 40-50 students a year spend five intensive weeks during the summer on campus at the University of Utah completing projects in computer aided design, artificial intelligence, and scientific visualization. The students also attend a special seminar on ethics and technology. Participants return throughout the year for additional activities, including a workshop on morphing. This paper discusses the cultural and logistical challenges of teaching high school students from many areas of the state of Utah, shows examples of student work, and outlines the process of refining the summer and year long lectures and activities.
Design Considerations for a Negotiation Component in a Model E-commerce Agent System
Authors: Costin Badica, Gabriel-George Popa, Mihnea Scafes, Maria Ganzha, Maciej Gawinecki, Pawel Kobzdej, Marcin Paprzycki
Venue: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (2006)

In our recent work we have established that to develop an extensible agent-based e-commerce system it is necessary to logically separate the negotiation process from other parts of the system. This note deals with the design of the "negotiation box"--the component that actually runs the negotiation processes. Furthermore, interaction of the negotiation box with the rest of the system is addressed.
Genetic programming for prevention of cyberterrorism through dynamic and evolving intrusion detection
Authors: James V. Hansen, Paul Benjamin Lowry, Rayman D. Meservy, Daniel M. McDonald
Venue: Decision Support Systems (2007)

Because malicious intrusions into critical information infrastructures are essential to the success of cyberterrorists, effective intrusion detection is also essential for defending such infrastructures. Cyberterrorism thrives on the development of new technologies; and, in response, intrusion detection methods must be robust and adaptive, as well as efficient. We hypothesize that genetic programming algorithms can aid in this endeavor. To investigate this proposition, we conducted an experiment using a very large dataset from the 1999 Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) Cup data, supplied by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and MIT's Lincoln Laboratories. Using machine-coded linear genomes and a homologous crossover operator in genetic programming, promising results were achieved in detecting malicious intrusions. The resulting programs execute in real time, and high levels of accuracy were realized in identifying both positive and negative instances.
A network file system over HTTP: remote access and modification of files and files
Authors: Oleg Kiselyov
Venue: Proceedings of the annual conference on USENIX Annual Technical Conference (1999)

The goal of the present HTTPFS project is to enable access to remote files, directories, and other containers through an HTTP pipe. HTTPFS system permits retrieval, creation and modification of these resources as if they were regular files and directories on a local filesystem. The remote host can be any UNIX or Win9x/WinNT box that is capable of running a Perl CGI script and accessible either directly or via a web proxy or a gateway. HTTPFS runs entirely in user space. The current implementation fully supports reading as well as creating, writing, appending, and truncating of files on a remote HTTP host. HTTPFS provides an isolation level for concurrent file access stronger than the one mandated by POSIX file system semantics, closer to that of AFS. Both a programmatic interface with familiar open(), read(), write(), close(), etc. calls, and an interactive interface, via the popular Midnight Commander file browser, are provided.
Affective learning companions: strategies for empathetic agents with real-time multimodal affective sensing to foster meta-cognitive and meta-affective approaches to learning, motivation, and perseverance
Authors: Rosalind W. Picard
Venue:  (2006)

This thesis has developed an affective agent research platform that advances the architecture of relational agents and intelligent tutoring systems. The system realizes non-invasive multimodal real-time sensing of elements of user's affective state and couples this ability with an agent capable of supporting learners by engaging in real-time responsive expressivity. The agent mirrors several nonverbal behaviors believed to influence persuasion, liking, and social rapport, and responds to frustration with empathetic or task-support dialogue. Pilot studies involved 60 participants, ages 10-14 years-old, and led to an experiment involving 76 participants, ages 11-13 years-old, engaging in the Towers of Hanoi activity. The system (data collection, architecture, character interaction, and activity presentation) was iteratively tested and refined, and two "mirroring" conditions were developed: "sensor driven non-verbal interactions" and "pre-recorded non-verbal interactions". The development and training of the classifier algorithms showed the ability to predict frustration/help seeking behavior with 79% accuracy across a pilot group of 24 participants. Informed by the theory of optimal experience (Flow) and a parallel theory of a state of non-optimal experience (Stuck), developed in this thesis, the effects of "affective support" and "task support" interventions, through agent dialogue and non-verbal interactions, were evaluated relative to their appropriateness for the learner's affective state. Outcomes were assessed with respect to measures of agent emotional intelligence, social bond, and persuasion, and with respect to learner frustration, perseverance, metacognitive and meta-affective ability, beliefs of one's ability to increase one's own intelligence, and goal-mastery-orientation. A new simple measure of departure dialogue was shown to have a significant relationship with the more lengthy and explicit social bond Working Alliance Inventory survey instrument; its validity was further supported through its use in assessing the social bond relationship with other measures. Over-estimation of the duration of the activity was associated with increased frustration. Gender differences were obtained with girls showing stronger outcomes when presented with affect-support interventions and boys with task-support interventions. Coordinating the character's mirroring with intervention type and learners' frustration was shown to be important. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
An Adaptive FEC-based Packet Loss Recovery Scheme Using RZ Turbo Codes
Authors: Ali Al-Shaikhi, Jacek Ilow, Xin Liao
Venue: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference on Communication Networks and Services Research (2007)

Packet-level forward error correction (FEC) is a packet loss recovery technique which does not require retransmissions and allows packet delivery with bounded delay and controllable reliability. This makes packet-level FEC attractive in networks running real-time applications like video and audio streaming. Current packet level FEC schemes are either based on simple parity check codes or Reed-Solomon codes with erasure decoding, whereas this paper considers the application of more powerful turbo codes to recover from lost packets. In particular, we investigate the capability of a newly designed Return to Zero (RZ) turbo code to reduce the packet loss rate (PLR) between the source and the destination. In the proposed implementation of the RZ turbo code packet loss recovery scheme, when a packet is lost, a burst of erasures, i.e., lost bits, is introduced into the turbo code codeword, and these erasures are recovered using the soft-decision RZ turbo decoder. Because of the RZ interleaver, the RZ turbo decoder randomizes erasure positions and recovers them quite well. Our simulations indicate that the PLR performance of the proposed RZ turbo code packet loss recovery scheme benefits from adjusting the interleaver size to accommodate the changes in the raw link PLR.
A GPU based interactive modeling approach to designing fine level features
Authors: Xin Huang, Sheng Li, Guoping Wang
Venue: Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2007 (2007)

In this paper we propose a GPU based interactive geometric modeling approach to designing fine level features on subdivision surfaces. Displacement mapping is a technique for adding fine geometric detail to surfaces by using two-dimensional height map to produce photo-realistic surfaces. Due to space inefficiency and time consuming to render displacement map, this technique is generally limited in offline cinematic content creation packages. We propose a new approach to designing fine level features on subdivision surfaces via displacement mapping interactively on the latest GPU. Our method can reduce the bandwidth of the graphics channel by generating complex geometric detail on GPU, without feeding a large number of vertices to the AGP or PCI-E. Moreover, we introduce feature modification tools to flexibly control and adjust the created features. Designers can preview the features at the rendering stage, saving the time to generate the satisfying features on surfaces. The proposed approach is efficient and robust, and can be applied in many interactive graphics applications such as computer gaming, geometric modeling and computer animation.
Feature extraction for speech recognition based on orthogonal acoustic-feature planes and LDA
Authors: T. Nitta
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 01 (1999)

This paper describes an attempt to extract multiple topological structures, hidden in time-spectrum (TS) patterns, by using multiple mapping operators, and to incorporate the operators into the feature extractor of a speech recognition system. In the previous work, the author proposed a novel feature extraction method based on MAFP/KLT (MAFP: multiple acoustic-feature planes), in which 3/spl times/3 derivative filters were used for mapping operators, and showed that the method achieved significant improvement in preliminary experiments. In this paper, firstly, the mapping operators are directly extracted in the form of a 3/spl times/3 orthogonal basis from a speech database. Next, the operators are evaluated, together with 3/spl times/3 simplified operators modeled on the orthogonal basis. Finally, after comparing the experimental results, the author proposes an effective feature extraction method based on MAFP/LDA, in which a Sobel filter is used for mapping operators.
E-Satisfaction--A Comprehensive Framework
Authors: Akshay Anand
Venue: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services (2007)

As more and more e-retailers promise their customers that online experiences will be satisfying ones, understanding what creates a satisfying customer experience becomes crucial. Even though this understanding appears crucial, no studies have comprehensively examined the factors that make consumers satisfied with their e-retailing experiences. To partly fill this void, the author examines the role that consumer perceptions of online convenience, merchandising, service-ability, site design, and financial security play in esatisfaction assessment. And finds that convenience, site design, and security are the dominant factors in consumer assessments of e-satisfaction.