ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Analysis of a territorial approach to the delivery of nursing home care services based on historical data
Authors: N. Lahrichi, S. D. Lapierre, A. Hertz, A. Talib, L. Bouvier
Venue: Journal of Medical Systems (2006)

We analyze a territorial approach to deliver nursing homecare services to a territory public health. We present the case of the CSSS assigned to Côte-des-Neiges, Mètro center and Parc Extension, specifically the case of the Côte-des-Neiges site (CLSC CDN), where a territorial approach is used since 1980. We first give an historical comparison of patient visits delivered in 1998---1999 and in 2002---2003. We follow with an in-depth analysis of the home services delivered in 2002---2003 to determine whether or not the territorial approach can well support the changing needs of the population. We conclude that the territorial approach to deliver homecare nursing services does not sufficiently support fluctuations in population needs for services. Not only is it difficult to predict these fluctuations, but it is difficult to accurately quantify the true needs for services since the availability of nursing services tends to determine the services actually delivered. In sectors of the territory where resources are more scarce (based on previous population needs analyses) or demand for services is greater, the result is work overload for the nursing staff. In addition, this results in service delivery inequities across the entire territory. Therefore, a more dynamic assignment of clients to the nurses based on each nurse's work load and case load rather than based on the geographic location of clients is worth the extra administrative time in case assignment to ensure a more equitable case load attribution between nurses as well as less inequities between clients in terms of service delivery considering their needs.
Optimal subspace-based parameter estimation
Authors: R. J. Vaccaro, Y. Ding
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1993. ICASSP-93 Vol 4., 1993 IEEE International Conference on - Volume 04 (1993)

Many important parameter estimation problems in time series modeling and sensor array processing using state-space models can be reduced to finding a solution to the equation U/sub 1/ F approximately=U/sub 2/, where noises in both sides of the equation are highly correlated because of a nonlinear transformation (the SVD) of the data matrix. Least squares or even total least squares solutions are not optimal and the complicated covariance structure in U/sub 1/ and U/sub 2/ does not allow a weighted total least squares procedure to be carried out. The authors propose an optimal subspace estimation method (OSE) to solve this equation in an approximate maximum likelihood sense. Instead of solving the equation directly, OSE first gets a maximum likelihood estimate of the structured subspace represented by U/sub 1/ and U/sub 2/. Parameters are then extracted from the estimated subspace. An array processing example shows that the performance of OSE achieves the Cramer-Rao bound.
The Parametrization of All Stabilizing Smith Predictors for Certain Class of Non-Minimum Phase Time-Delay Plants
Authors: Kou Yamada, Hiroshi Takenaga
Venue: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Innovative Computing, Information and Control - Volume 1 (2006)

In this paper, we examine the parametrization of all stabilizing modified Smith predictors for certain class of nonminimum phase time-delay plants. The modified Smith predictor is well known as an effective time-delay compensator for a plant with large time-delay. Several papers on the modified Smith predictor have been published. In order to express the past studies of modified Smith predictor in an uniform manner, Yamada and Matsushima gave the parametrization of all stabilizing modified Smith predictors for minimum phase time-delay plants. However, the method by Yamada and Matsushima cannot apply for non-minimum phase time-delay plants. The purpose of this paper is to propose the parametrization of all stabilizing modified Smith predictors for certain class of non-minimum phase timedelay plants.
A New Hybrid GA-MDP Algorithm For The Frequency Assignment Problem
Authors: Lhassane Idoumghar, Rene Schott
Venue: Proceedings of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (2006)

We propose a novel algorithm called GA-MDP for solving the frequency assigment problem. GA-MDP inherits the spirit of genetic algorithms with an adaptation of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). More precisely Policy Iteration (PI) and Value Iteration (VI) are used as mutation operators. Experimental results show that for our application, GA-MDP that uses PI as a mutation operator improves the quality and time performances of the hybrid algorithms and hybrid MDP designed previously by the authors for solving the same problem.
Throughput Performance of Java Messaging Services Using WebsphereMQ
Authors: Robert Henjes, Michael Menth, Christian Zepfel
Venue: Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International ConferenceWorkshops on Distributed Computing Systems (2006)

The Java messaging service (JMS) is a middlewareoriented messaging technology working according to the publish/ subscribe principle. If subscribers install filter rules on the JMS server, JMS can be used as a message routing platform, but it is not clear whether its message throughput is sufficiently high to support large-scale systems. In this paper we investigate the capacity of the Websphere Message Queue JMS server. In contrast to other studies, we focus on the message throughput in the presence of filters and show that filtering reduces the performance significantly. We also present a model that describes the service time for a single message depending on the number of installed filters and validate it by measurements. This model helps to calculate the system throughput for specific application scenarios.
Semi-autonomous Learning of Objects
Authors: Hyundo Kim, Erik Murphy-Chutorian, Jochen Triesch
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop (2006)

This paper presents a robotic vision system that can be taught to recognize novel objects in a semi-autonomous manner that does not require manual labeling or segmentation of any individual training images. Instead, unfamiliar objects are simply shown to the system in varying poses and scales against cluttered background and the system automatically detects, tracks, segments, and builds representations for these objects. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by training the system to recognize one hundred household objects, which are presented to the system for about a minute each. Our method resembles the way that biological organisms learn to recognize objects and it paves the way for a wealth of applications in robotics and other fields.
Selecting Principal Components in a Two-Stage LDA Algorithm
Authors: Manli Zhu, Aleix M. Martinez
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Volume 1 (2006)

Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is a well-known and important tool in pattern recognition with potential applications in many areas of research. The most famous and used formulation of LDA is that given by the Fisher-Rao criterion, where the problem reduces to a simple simultaneous diagonalization of two symmetric, positive-definite matrices, A and B; i.e. B^-1 AV = VA. Here, A defines the metric to be maximized, while B defines the metric to be minimized. However, when B has near-zero eigenvalues, the Fisher-Rao criterion gets dominated by these. While this works well when such small variances describe vectors where most of the discriminant information is, the results will be incorrect when these small variances are caused by noise. Knowing which of these near-zero values are to be used and which need to be eliminated is a challenging yet fundamental task in LDA. This paper presents a criterion for the selection of those vectors of B that are best for classification. The proposed solution is based on a simple factorization of B^-1 A that permits the re-ordering of the eigenvectors of B without the need to effect the end result. This allows us to readily eliminate the noisy vectors while keeping the most discriminant ones. A theoretical basis for these results is presented along with extensive experimental results to validate the claims.
A Survey of Cache/Proxy for Transparent Data Replication
Authors: Yingwei Jin, Wenyu Qu, Keqiu Li
Venue: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Semantics, Knowledge, and Grid (2006)

Web caching is an important technology for reduc- ing Internet access latency, alleviating network traf- fic, and spreading server load. An important issue that affects the performance of web caching is caching architecture, in which several caches are usually fed- erated for making caches cooperate on a large scale and effectively increase the cache population. Trans- parent data replication is such a caching architec- ture, which has shown to be easy to manage and have good system scalability. In this paper, we present an survey of state-of-the-art techniques of cache/proxy placement for transparent data replication.
Communicating Complex Systems
Authors: Peter H. Welch, Frederick R. M. Barnes, Fiona A. C. Polack
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (2006)

This paper presents efficient mechanisms for the direct implementation of formal models of highly concurrent dynamic systems. The formalisms captured are CSP (for concurrency) and B (for state transformation). The technology is driving the development of occam-p, a multiprocessing language based on a careful combination of ideas from Hoare's CSP (giving compositional semantics, refinement and safety/liveness analysis) and Milner's ð-calculus (giving dynamic network construction and mobility). We have been experimenting with systems developing as layered networks of self-organising neighbourhood-aware communicating processes, with no need for advanced planning or centralised control. The work reported is part of our TUNA ('Theory Underpinning Nanotech Assemblers') project, a partnership with colleagues from the Universities of York, Surrey and Kent, which is investigating formal approaches to the capture of safe emergent behaviour in highly complex systems. A particular study modelling artificial blood platelets is described. A novel contribution reported here is a fast resolution of (CSP external) choice between multiway process synchronisations from which any participant may withdraw its offer at any time. The software technology scales to millions of processes per processor and distributes over common multiprocessor clusters.
Ekta+: opportunistic multiplexing in a wireless DHT
Authors: Himabindu Pucha, Saumitra M. Das, Y. Charlie Hu
Venue: Proceedings of the 1st international workshop on Decentralized resource sharing in mobile computing and networking (2006)

The bandwidth limitation, node mobility, and multi-access interference characteristics of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) pose unique challenges to deploying a DHT in MANETs. Previously, we proposed Ekta, a DHT protocol for MANETs that seamlessly integrates a DHT and a reactive routing protocol to effectively overcome the above challenges. In this paper, we propose an enhanced protocol to Ekta, called Ekta+, that improves the DHT routing performance of Ekta by exploiting the high degree of route reuse characteristic of DHTs - the very same characteristic that makes DHTs highly scalable. In essence, Ekta+ multiplexes (aggregates) many DHT messages (typically small packets) that share physical paths at clustering points which occur naturally in DHT routing. The multiplexing of multiple small packets into a single larger packet allows Ekta+ to reduce control overhead and interference which are critical to good performance in a MANET environment. We present the design of Ekta+ along with a preliminary performance evaluation using a detailed wireless network simulator.
The Effect of Avatar Realism on Users' Sense of Social Presence in Emotionally Engaged Mobile-Phone Communication
Authors: Sin-Hwa Kang
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems & Applications (2006)

In this research, I examine how the level of anthropomorphism of a small-screen visual avatar affects users' sense of social presence when they engage in emotional and synchronous communication using a mobile phone.
Elkar-CM: a Multilingual Collaborative Concept Map Editor
Authors: Cristobal Arellano, Urko Rueda, Ianire Niebla, Mikel Larranaga, Ana Arruarte, Jon A. Elorriaga
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (2006)

Along this paper Elkar-CM, a multilingual collaborative concept map editor is presented. The paper starts explaining the main characteristics of CM-ED, the kernel in which Elkar-CM is based on. Next, the paper describes the main characteristics and functionalities offered by Elkar-CM. Finally some conclusions are pointed out.
Building exposure: synergy of interaction and narration through the social channel
Authors: Bruno Herbelin, Michal Ponder, Daniel Thalmann
Venue: Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments (2005)

The ability to build and control exposure through a seamless synergy of interaction and narration is a strongly required feature of a new type of immersive-VR training and therapy system. This paper presents a practical approach for immersive-VR training and therapy applications based on interactive storytelling. It provides detailed description of a working implementation of the Interactive Narration Space (INS); this approach combines and satisfies both interaction and narration requirements through the use of high-level social interaction. By introducing the Social Channel, we aim at minimizing the contradictions between control over the story required by the trainer/therapist and interaction required by the trainee/patient. These concepts and their practical realization have been investigated in the context of emergency-situation training and psychotherapeutic exposure, and could validate the usability of mediated interaction with a virtual assistant.
Iterative Multiagent Probabilistic Inference
Authors: Xiangdong An, Nick Cercone
Venue: Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC/ACM international conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (2006)

Multiply sectioned Bayesian networks (MSBNs) support multiagent probabilistic inference in distributed large problem domains, where agents are organized in a tree structure (called hypertree). In earlier work, agents need to follow an order of the depth-first traversal of the hypertree to update their belief. Hence, agents need some synchronization with each other and belief updating can only be done in a limited parallel. Especially, belief updating will fail if any communication channels have problems. In this paper, we present an iterative method where multiple agents asynchronously perform belief updating in a complete parallel. Compared to the previous work, the iterative method is simple, self-adaptive and robust.
Examining the Compatibility of Student Pair Programmers
Authors: Laurie Williams, Lucas Layman, Jason Osborne, Neha Katira
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on AGILE 2006 (2006)

Pair programming has been shown to be beneficial for both students and teaching staff in university courses. A two-phased study of 1350 students was conducted at North Carolina State University from 2002-2005 to determine if teaching staff can proactively form compatible pairs based upon any of the following factors: personality type, learning style, skill level, programming self esteem, work ethic, or time management preference. We examined compatibility among freshmen, advanced undergraduate and graduate student pair programmers. We have found that overall 93% of students are compatible with their partners. Students notably preferred to pair with a partner that he or she perceived to be of similar or higher skill level to them, which can be predicted by grouping students with similar grade point average. Additionally, pairs comprised of a sensor and an intuitor learning style seem to be compatible, and pairs with differing work ethic are generally not compatible.
Design principles for the Knowledge-Practices Laboratory (KP-Lab) project
Authors: Hakkarainen Kai, Muukkonen Hanni, Markkanen Hannu
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Learning sciences (2006)

The poster introduces the design principles for the Knowledge-Practices Laboratory (KP-Lab) project. KP-Lab is based on technological, theoretical, pedagogical, and social innovations aimed at facilitating innovative practices of working with knowledge, "knowledge practices", in education and workplaces. In order to be truly productive, collaborative technologies cannot fully be specified beforehand but need to co-evolve with social practices and be further modifiable according to the users' emerging needs and practices.
Privacy-Invasive Software and Preventive Mechanisms
Authors: Martin Boldt, Bengt Carlsson
Venue: Proceedings of the International Conference on Systems and Networks Communication (2006)

Computers are increasingly more integrated into peoples' daily lives. In this development, user privacy is affected by the occurrence of privacy-invasive software (PIS), sometimes loosely labelled as spyware. The border between legitimate software and PIS is vague and context dependent, at best specified through End-User License Agreements (EULA). This lack of spyware definition result in that current countermeasures are bound to noticeable misclassification rates. In this work we present a classification of PIS from which we come to the conclusion that additional mechanisms that safeguard users' consent during software installation is needed, to effectively counteract PIS. We further present techniques that counteract PIS by increasing user awareness about software behaviour, which allow users to base their software installation consent on more informed decisions.
Web Services Policies
Authors: Anne Anderson
Venue: IEEE Security and Privacy (2006)

In addition to the basic Web services architecture, various specifications already exist for adding security, reliable messaging, and transaction mechanisms to Web services messages. All of these include numerous options to let them meet various application requirements. Specifying option choices for Web services in basic communication areas such as security, reliable messaging, privacy, and transactions is the immediate goal underlying efforts to define Web services policies.
Comment on "Characterization of subthreshold voltage fluctuations in neuronal membranes," by M. Rudolph and A. Destexhe
Authors: Benjamin Lindner, André Longtin
Venue: Neural Computation (2006)

In two recent articles, Rudolph and Destexhe (2003, 2005) studied a leaky integrator model (an RC-circuit) driven by correlated ("colored") gaussian conductance noise and Gaussian current noise. In the first article, they derived an expression for the stationary probability density of the membrane voltage; in the second, they modified this expression to cover a larger parameter regime. Here we show by standard analysis of solvable limit cases (white noise limit of additive and multiplicative noise sources; only slow multiplicative noise; only additive noise) and by numerical simulations that their first result does not hold for the general colored-noise case and uncover the errors made in the derivation of a Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density. Furthermore, we demonstrate analytically (including an exact integral expression for the time-dependent mean value of the voltage) and by comparison to simulation results that the extended expression for the probability density works much better but still does not exactly solve the full colored-noise problem. We also show that at stronger synaptic input, the stationary mean value of the linear voltage model may diverge and give an exact condition relating the system parameters for which this takes place.
Silver Bullet Speaks to Avi Rubin
Authors: Gary McGraw
Venue: IEEE Security and Privacy (2006)

Avi Rubin discusses his favorite projects, including the SpeedPass hack and electronic voting.
Multiclass Object Recognition with Sparse, Localized Features
Authors: Jim Mutch, David G. Lowe
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Volume 1 (2006)

We apply a biologically inspired model of visual object recognition to the multiclass object categorization problem. Our model modifies that of Serre, Wolf, and Poggio. As in that work, we first apply Gabor filters at all positions and scales; feature complexity and position/scale invariance are then built up by alternating template matching and max pooling operations. We refine the approach in several biologically plausible ways, using simple versions of sparsification and lateral inhibition. We demonstrate the value of retaining some position and scale information above the intermediate feature level. Using feature selection we arrive at a model that performs better with fewer features. Our final model is tested on the Caltech 101 object categories and the UIUC car localization task, in both cases achieving state-of-the-art performance. The results strengthen the case for using this class of model in computer vision.
Existence of solutions of the algebro-differential equations
Authors: I. V. Matrosov
Venue: Automation and Remote Control (2006)

Consideration was given to a finite-dimensional system of algebro-differential equations with discontinuities. Solution was determined in a general form, and the existence theorem was proved for the nondegenerate case.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantum Fingerprinting
Authors: Dmitry Gavinsky, Julia Kempe, Ronald de Wolf
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (2006)

We study the power of quantum fingerprints in the simultaneous message passing (SMP) setting of communication complexity. Yao recently showed how to simulate, with exponential overhead, classical shared-randomnessSMP protocols by means of quantum SMP protocols without shared randomness (Q^\\-protocols). Our first result is to extend Yao's simulation to the strongest possible model: every many-round quantum protocol with unlimited shared entanglement can be simulated, with exponential overhead, by Q^\\-protocols. We apply our technique to obtain an efficient Q^\\-protocol for a function which cannot be efficiently solved through more restricted simulations. Second, we tightly characterize the power of the quantum fingerprinting technique by making a connection to arrangements of homogeneous halfspaces with maximal margin. These arrangements have been well studied in computational learning theory, and we use some strong results obtained in this area to exhibit weaknesses of quantum fingerprinting. In particular, this implies that for almost all functions, quantum fingerprinting protocols are exponentially worse than classical deterministic SMP protocols.