ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Speech Under Stress: Analysis, Modeling and Recognition
Authors: John H. Hansen, Sanjay Patil
Venue: Speaker Classification I: Fundamentals, Features, and Methods (2007)

In this chapter, we consider a range of issues associated with analysis, modeling, and recognition of speech under stress. We start by defining stress, what could be perceived as stress, and how it affects the speech production system. In the discussion that follows, we explore how individuals differ in their perception of stress, and hence understand the cues associated with perceiving stress. Having considered the domains of stress, areas for speech analysis under stress, we shift to the development of algorithms to estimate, classify or distinguish different stress conditions. We will then conclude with revealing what might be in store for understanding stress, and the development of techniques to overcome the effects of stress for speech recognition and human-computer interactive systems.
Mobile Navigation System for the Elderly --- Preliminary Experiment and Evaluation
Authors: Takahiro Kawamura, Keisuke Umezu, Akihiko Ohsuga
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (2008)

The aging of society is emerging as a global problem. Participation of elderly people in social activities is highly desirable in several perspectives of the society. Thus, we propose a mobile service that supports elderly people wishing to go out and promotes their participation in social activities. This system collects information on the existence of nearby barriers and provides timely information to users via a mobile phone equipped with GPS. The nearby barriers include not only permanent barriers such as stairs, but also temporary ones such as crowds and parked bicycles. Further, we propose functionality that selects and informs barrier information suitable for each user. This paper illustrates the public experiment that we conducted in Tokyo, and confirms the accuracy of the information filtering.
Informatization of local democracy: A structuration perspective
Authors: Zahid Parvez
Venue: Information Polity (2006)

Academics and researchers face a challenge of making sense of the role e-democracy plays in the democratic process and with what implications. This requires a deeper understanding of the objectives and assumptions that underpin e-democracy innovations, as well as institutional and technology structures that condition their role in democratic engagement. This paper interprets case study data collected from three UK local authorities in light of Giddens Structuration theory to make sense of the role e-democracy plays in the democratic process. From the data, it elicits and identifies categories of social structures as perceived by different actors surrounding e-democracy. The insights gained suggest that social structures influence actors in prioritising, shaping and appropriating e-democracy and thus, in moderating its role in local democracy. Using these insights the paper offers some useful suggestions for enhancing democratic engagement through e-democracy projects.
Computing Equilibria in Large Games We Play
Authors: Constantinos Daskalakis
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th conference on Computability in Europe: Logic and Theory of Algorithms (2008)

Describing a game using the standard representation requires information exponential in the number of players. This description complexity is impractical for modeling large games with thousands or millions of players and may also be wasteful when the information required to populate the payoff matrices of the game is unknown, hard to determine, or enjoy high redundancy which would allow for a much more succinct representation. Indeed, to model large games, succinct representations, such as graphical games, have been suggested which save in description complexity by specifying the graph of player-interactions. However, computing Nash equilibria in such games has been shown to be an intractable problem by Daskalakis, Goldberg and Papadimitriou, and whether approximate equilibria can be computed remains an important open problem. We consider instead a different class of succinct games, called anonymous games, in which the payoff of each player is a symmetric function of the actions of the other players; that is, every player is oblivious of the identities of the other players. We argue that many large games of practical interest, such as congestion games, several auction settings, and social phenomena, are anonymous and provide a polynomial time approximation scheme for computing Nash equilibria in these games.
Fault-Tolerant Microprocessor-Based Systems
Authors: Barry Johnson
Venue: IEEE Micro (1984)

How do computers go wrong and what can we do about it? This tutorial outlines the causes of faults and the basic techniques for dealing with them.
Server-storage virtualization: integration and load balancing in data centers
Authors: Aameek Singh, Madhukar Korupolu, Dushmanta Mohapatra
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM/IEEE conference on Supercomputing (2008)

We describe the design of an agile data center with integrated server and storage virtualization technologies. Such data centers form a key building block for new cloud computing architectures. We also show how to leverage this integrated agility for non-disruptive load balancing in data centers across multiple resource layers - servers, switches, and storage. We propose a novel load balancing algorithm called VectorDot for handling the hierarchical and multi-dimensional resource constraints in such systems. The algorithm, inspired by the successful Toyoda method for multi-dimensional knapsacks, is the first of its kind. We evaluate our system on a range of synthetic and real data center testbeds comprising of VMware ESX servers, IBM SAN Volume Controller, Cisco and Brocade switches. Experiments under varied conditions demonstrate the end-to-end validity of our system and the ability of VectorDot to efficiently remove overloads on server, switch and storage nodes.
Multi-agent-Based Diagnostics of Automotive Electronic Systems
Authors: Dušan Pavlíček, Michal Pĕchouček, Vladimír Mařík, Ondřej Flek
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems: Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems for Manufacturing (2007)

The diagnostic system discussed in this paper provides an agent-based approach to advanced on-board diagnostics of operation and communication failures occurring in an electronic automotive system. To facilitate development and testing of agent-based automotive diagnostics, a software simulator of automotive electronics systems, also based on multi-agent technology, has been implemented, allowing the developers to simulate various automotive system failures. The paper presents both the proof-of-concept on-board diagnostics system and the simulation layer used for its development and testing. The following topics are covered: simulation of the hardware units, simulation of user-invoked hardware failures, distributed detection and diagnostics of the failures, and visualization. The proposed automotive diagnostics approach can be deployed on real automotive electronics hardware.
Simulation of a Convective Flow Forming a Pattern of the Human Brain
Authors: S. Komurasaki, K. Kuwahara
Venue: Journal of Visualization (2008)

To explain consistently determining the global shape of the brain, the vortex model of the brain was proposed by Nakada. He explained that structural organization of the brain is guided by the self-organization pattern based on the principal rule of free thermal convection. In the present study, a computer simulation of a simple thermal-driven convective-diffusive flow was performed to clarify the fundamental relation between this type of the flow and formation of the brain shape. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations containing the external force dependent on temperature, and an equation for temperature were solved with projection method. The multi-directional finite-difference method was employed to discretize the governing equations. Computational results were suitably visualized and found to be consistent with the arguments in the vortex theory that the thermal-driven convective-diffusive flow is an essential mechanism for determining the global shape of the human brain.
Model-Based Generation of Testbeds for Web Services
Authors: Antonia Bertolino, Guglielmo Angelis, Lars Frantzen, Andrea Polini
Venue: Proceedings of the 20th IFIP TC 6/WG 6.1 international conference on Testing of Software and Communicating Systems: 8th International Workshop (2008)

A Web Service is commonly not an independent software entity, but plays a role in some business process. Hence, it depends on the services provided by external Web Services, to provide its own service. While developing and testing a Web Service, such external services are not always available, or their usage comes along with unwanted side effects like, e.g., utilization fees or database modifications. We present a model-based approach to generate stubs for Web Services which respect both an extra-functional contract expressed via a Service Level Agreement (SLA), and a functional contract modeled via a state machine. These stubs allow a developer to set up a testbed over the target platform, in which the extra-functional and functional behavior of a Web Service under development can be tested before its publication.
A New Secure Binding Management Protocol for Mobile IPv6 Networks
Authors: Osama Elshakankiry, Andy Carpenter, Ning Zhang
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 The Fourth International Conference on Information Assurance and Security (2008)

This paper proposes a novel secure binding management protocol for mobile IPv6 networks for use in the implementation of routing optimization. The idea uses the public key of the home network of a mobile node to cryptographically generate the mobile node's home address and the associated private key to sign the mobile node's authentication requests. In addition, the proposed protocol performs reachability tests for both the home address and the care-of address. The proposed protocol offloads all expensive cryptographic operations from a mobile node to its home agent. The security of the protocol is informally analysed and an initially evaluation of its performance given.
The Hash Function Family LAKE
Authors: Jean-Philippe Aumasson, Willi Meier, Raphael C. Phan
Venue: Fast Software Encryption: 15th International Workshop, FSE 2008, Lausanne, Switzerland, February 10-13, 2008, Revised Selected Papers (2008)

This paper advocates a new hash function family based on the HAIFA framework, inheriting built-in randomized hashing and higher security guarantees than the Merkle-Damgård construction against generic attacks. The family has as its special design features: a nested feedforward mechanism and an internal wide-pipe construction within the compression function. As examples, we give two proposed instances that compute 256- and 512-bit digests, with a 8- and 10-round compression function respectively.
Managing Large Volumes of Distributed Scientific Data
Authors: Steven Johnston, Hans Fangohr, Simon J. Cox
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Computational Science, Part III (2008)

The ability to store large volumes of data is increasing faster than processing power. Some existing data management methods often result in data loss, inaccessibility or repetition of scientific simulations. We propose a framework which promotes collaboration and simplifies data management. We propose an implementation independent framework to promote collaboration and data management across a distributed environment. The framework features are demonstrated using a .NET Framework implementation called the Storage and Processing Framework.
A Quick Method for Determining Whether a Second-Degree Polynomial Has Solutions In a Given Box
Authors: D. A. Field
Venue: IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (1982)

This test saves time in performing geometric operations involving quadric surfaces, the basic building blocks of most solid modeling systems.
Agents and conflict: Adaptation and the dynamics of war
Authors: Michael G. Findley
Venue: Complexity (2008)

Civil wars pose one of the most challenging threats to peace in the post-WWII era. The successful resolution of ongoing civil wars is particularly difficult. Parties opposing peace successfully subverted negotiated agreements in contexts as diverse as Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia. Despite growing attention to civil wars in the empirical literature, little formal-theoretic work addresses the dynamics of civil wars. Empirical work demonstrates that the resolution of civil wars is both complex and uncertain: civil war combatants are heterogeneous in their traits, incompletely informed, and thus, boundedly rational, capable of learning from history and adapting their behavior&mdash;all hallmarks of a complex adaptive system. I employ an agent-based model, therefore, to capture these characteristics and address the conditions affecting the dynamics and evolution of civil wars. In particular, I focus on the evolutionary context of civil wars including learning and adaption and find that civil wars with adaptive combatants exhibit vastly different behavior than those without adaptive agents. &copy; 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2008
The Identification and Description of Frozen Prepositional Phrases through a Corpus-Oriented Study
Authors: Milena Garrão, Violeta Quental, Nuno Caminada, Eckhard Bick
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Computational Processing of the Portuguese Language (2008)

This research is a corpus-based analysis of Brazilian Portuguese prepositional phrases that have a frozen status. Based on a previous list, elaborated for parser PALAVRAS (Bick, 2000), we examine the PPs frozen syntactic behavior and propose three different PPs syntactic-semantic sets, which are true assets for lexicographic purpose and NLP lexical resource.
Multivariable model predictive control for a gas turbine power plant
Authors: Hadi Ghorbani, Ali Ghaffari, Mehdi Rahnama
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS International Conference on Automatic Control, Modelling & Simulation (2008)

In this brief, constrained multi variable model predictive control (MPC) strategy is investigated for a GE9001E gas turbine power plant. So the rotor speed and exhaust gas temperature are controlled manipulating the fuel command and compressor inlet guide vanes position. A nonlinear model is introduced using conventional mathematical models and ARX identification procedure as gas turbine plant model. Also a process control model is identified for future system outputs prediction. The investigated system is simulated under load demand disturbance. In comprehension with SpeedTronic control system, MPC controller can maintain the rotor speed more accurate using simultaneous exhaust gas temperature control.
Aspect Ratio Conversion Based on Saliency Model
Authors: Yandong Guo, Zhongliang Deng, Xiaodong Gu, Zhibo Chen, Quqing Chen, Charles Wang
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Congress on Image and Signal Processing, Vol. 4 - Volume 04 (2008)

The Aspect ratio is the fractional relation of the width of a video image compared to its height. The paper is focused on solving the problem that how to play various kinds of videos on the device screen with different aspect ratio from them. It is the first time to introduce saliency model, which can take human attention into account, into the aspect ratio conversion. Based on the saliency model, we proposed a novel cropping mode and a novel un-unique expanding mode, and then combine the two modes according to some principles from media aesthetics. Experiment results show that there is no distortion in the region of interest and no loss will be noticed in the output video sequences, which demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
Artificial Immune System for Short-Term Electric Load Forecasting
Authors: Grzegorz Dudek
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing (2006)

This paper proposes a novel model, based on the artificial immune system, to solve the problem of short-term load forecasting. An artificial immune system is trained to recognize antigens which encode sequences of load time series. The created immune memory is a representation of these sequences. In the forecast procedure a new incomplete antigen, containing only the first part of the sequence, is presented to the model. The second forecasted part of the sequence is reconstructed from activated antibodies. The model was verified using several real data examples of the short-term load forecast.
An Improved Multi-task Learning Approach with Applications in Medical Diagnosis
Authors: Jinbo Bi, Tao Xiong, Shipeng Yu, Murat Dundar, R. Bharat Rao
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases - Part I (2008)

We propose a family of multi-task learning algorithms for collaborative computer aided diagnosis which aims to diagnose multiple clinically-related abnormal structures from medical images. Our formulations eliminate features irrelevant to all tasks, and identify discriminative features for each of the tasks. A probabilistic model is derived to justify the proposed learning formulations. By equivalence proof, some existing regularization-based methods can also be interpreted by our probabilistic model as imposing a Wishart hyperprior. Convergence analysis highlights the conditions under which the formulations achieve convexity and global convergence. Two real-world medical problems: lung cancer prognosis and heart wall motion analysis, are used to validate the proposed algorithms.
A Reordering Model for Phrase-Based Machine Translation
Authors: Vinh Nguyen, Thai Phuong Nguyen, Akira Shimazu, Minh Nguyen
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Advances in Natural Language Processing (2008)

This paper presents a new method for reordering in phrase based statistical machine translation (PBSMT). Our method is based on previous chunk-level reordering methods for PBSMT. Our method is a global reordering. First, we parse the source language sentence to a chunk tree, according to the method developed by [1]. Second, we apply a series of transformation rules, which are learnt automatically from the parallel corpus to the chunk tree over chunk level. Finally, we solve phenomena for the overlapping of phrases and chunks, and integrate a global reordering model directly in a decoder as a graph of phrases. The experimental results with English-Vietnamese and English-French pairs show that our method outperforms the baseline PBSMT in both accuracy and speed.
Impact of Base Functional Component Types on Software Functional Size Based Effort Estimation
Authors: Luigi Buglione, Cigdem Gencel
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (2008)

Software effort estimation is still a significant challenge for software management. Although Functional Size Measurement (FSM) methods have been standardized and have become widely used by the software organizations, the relationship between functional size and development effort still needs further investigation. Most of the studies focus on the project cost drivers and consider total software functional size as the primary input to estimation models. In this study, we investigate whether using the functional sizes of different functionality types, represented by the Base Functional Component (BFC) types; instead of using the total single size figure have a significant impact on estimation reliability. For the empirical study, we used the projects data in the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) Release 10 dataset, which were sized by the COSMIC FSM method.
A comparison of scheduling algorithms for flexible flow shop problems with unrelated parallel machines, setup times, and dual criteria
Authors: Jitti Jungwattanakit, Manop Reodecha, Paveena Chaovalitwongse, Frank Werner
Venue: Computers and Operations Research (2009)

This paper considers a flexible flow shop scheduling problem, where at least one production stage is made up of unrelated parallel machines. Moreover, sequence- and machine-dependent setup times are given. The objective is to find a schedule that minimizes a convex sum of makespan and the number of tardy jobs in a static flexible flow shop environment. For this problem, a 0-1 mixed integer program is formulated. The problem is, however, a combinatorial optimization problem which is too difficult to be solved optimally for large problem sizes, and hence heuristics are used to obtain good solutions in a reasonable time. The proposed constructive heuristics for sequencing the jobs start with the generation of the representatives of the operating time for each operation. Then some dispatching rules and flow shop makespan heuristics are developed. To improve the solutions obtained by the constructive algorithms, fast polynomial heuristic improvement algorithms based on shift moves and pairwise interchanges of jobs are applied. In addition, metaheuristics are suggested, namely simulated annealing (SA), tabu search (TS) and genetic algorithms. The basic parameters of each metaheuristic are briefly discussed in this paper. The performance of the heuristics is compared relative to each other on a set of test problems with up to 50 jobs and 20 stages and with an optimal solution for small-size problems. We have found that among the constructive algorithms the insertion-based approach is superior to the others, whereas the proposed SA algorithms are better than TS and genetic algorithms among the iterative metaheuristic algorithms.
Specific S-Box Criteria in Algebraic Attacks on Block Ciphers with Several Known Plaintexts
Authors: Nicolas T. Courtois, Blandine Debraize
Venue: Research in Cryptology: Second Western European Workshop, WEWoRC 2007, Bochum, Germany, July 4-6, 2007, Revised Selected Papers (2008)

In this paper we study algebraic attacks on block ciphers that exploit several (i.e. more than 2) plaintext-ciphertext pairs. We show that this considerably lowers the maximum degree of polynomials that appear in the attack, which allows much faster attacks, some of which can actually be handled experimentally. We point out a theoretical reason why such attacks are more efficient, lying in certain types of multivariate equations that do exist for some S-boxes. Then we show that when the S-box is on 3 bits, such equations do always exist. For S-boxes on 4 bits, the existence of these equations is no longer systematic. We apply our attacks to a toy version of Serpent, a toy version of Rijndael, and a reduced round version of Present, a recently proposed lightweight block cipher. It turns out that some S-boxes are much stronger than others against our attack.
A File Transfer Service with Client/Server, P2P and Wide Area Storage Protocols
Authors: Gilles Fedak, Haiwu He, Franck Cappello
Venue: Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Data Management in Grid and Peer-to-Peer Systems (2008)

The last years have seen the emergence of new P2P file distribution protocols such as BitTorrent as well as new Wide Area Storage based on Web Service technology. In this paper, we propose a multi-protocol file transfer service which supports client/server and P2P protocols, as well as Wide Area Storage such as Amazon S3. We describe the mechanisms used to ensure file transfer monitoring and reliability. We explain how to plug-in new or existing protocols and we give evidence of the versatility of the framework by implementing the HTTP, FTP and BitTorrent protocols and access to the Amazon S3 and IBP Wide Area Storage. Finally, we report on basic performance evaluation of our framework, both in a Grid context and on the Internet.