ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Interactive program demonstration as a form of student program assessment
Authors: Fritz Ruehr, Genevieve Orr
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2002)

We describe and advocate an approach to student program grading based on interactive program demonstration. Although one-on-one interaction is a hallmark of good teaching in many disciplines, the pressure of class loads and the availability of sophisticated automatic tools have steered some instructors away from close interaction with students in computer science. We feel that our approach has significant advantages over either more traditional ones (submission of work on paper for "off-line" grading) or newer ones based on automated tools. In particular, we feel that interactive demonstration offers a rich and compelling experience for instructors and students alike. We do not believe our approach is especially novel, but wish to recommend it to those who may never have considered it, and to promote it within a continuing dialogue about assessment techniques.Interactive demonstration has some disadvantages, of course, not the least of which is the difficulty of implementing it in settings with larger class sizes. Even in larger schools, however, the approach may be suitable for selected assignments, and most other drawbacks can be tempered by appropriate modifications to the basic framework.We begin with some general discussion of the goals and pitfalls of assessing student programs and mention some possible alternative approaches. We then describe the interactive demonstration style of grading as we have developed it. Next we consider the advantages and disadvantages of our approach and discuss ways to ameliorate the latter. Finally, we use our stated criteria to compare our approach with others and draw some summary conclusions.
On some aspects of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for conservation laws
Authors: Vít Dolejší, Miloslav Feistauer, Christoph Schwab
Venue: Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (2003)

The paper is concerned with the numerical solution of nonlinear conservation laws and nonlinear convection-diffusion problems. We discuss two versions of this method: (a) Finite volume discontinuous Galerkin (FVDG) method, which is a generalization of the combined finite volume-finite element (FV-FE) method. Its advantage is the use of only one mesh (in contrast to the combined FV-FE schemes). However, it is of the first order only. (b) Further, the pure DGFE method of higher order is considered. In this case, a new limiting is developed to avoid spurious oscillations in the vicinity of shocks.
Review of "Bell labs: Life in the Crown Jewel" by Narain Gehani, Silicon Press
Venue: Ubiquity (2003)

Competition in the telecommunications industry has come at a tremendous cost
Isosurfaces on optimal regular samples
Authors: Hamish Carr, Thomas Theußl, Torsten Möller
Venue: Proceedings of the symposium on Data visualisation 2003 (2003)

Volumetric samples on Cartesian lattices are less efficient than samples on body-centred cubic (BCC) lattices. We show how to construct isosurfaces on BCC lattices using several different algorithms. Since the mesh that arises from BCC lattices involves a large number of cells, we show two alternate methods of reducing the number of cells by clumping tetrahedra into either octahedra or hexahedra. We also propose a theoretical model for estimating triangle counts for various algorithms, and present experimental results to show that isosurfaces generated using one of our algorithms can be competitive with isosurfaces generated using Marching Cubes on similar Cartesian grids.
Constrained Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations for Surfaces
Authors: Qiang Du, Max D. Gunzburger, Lili Ju
Venue: SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (2002)

Centroidal Voronoi tessellations are useful for subdividing a region in Euclidean space into Voronoi regions whose generators are also the centers of mass, with respect to a prescribed density function, of the regions. Their extensions to general spaces and sets are also available; for example, tessellations of surfaces in a Euclidean space may be considered. In this paper, a precise definition of such constrained centroidal Voronoi tessellations (CCVTs) is given and a number of their properties are derived, including their characterization as minimizers of an "energy." Deterministic and probabilistic algorithms for the construction of CCVTs are presented and some analytical results for one of the algorithms are given. Computational examples are provided which serve to illustrate the high quality of CCVT point sets. Finally, CCVT point sets are applied to polynomial interpolation and numerical integration on the sphere.
Using the correlation exponent to decide whether an economic series is chaotic
Authors: T. Lui, C. W. J. Granger, W. P. Heller
Venue: Essays in econometrics: Spectral analysis, seasonality, nonlinearity, methodology, and forecasting (2001)

We consider two ways of distinguishing deterministic time-series from stochastic white noise; the Grassberger-Procaccia correlation exponent test and the Brock, Dechert, Scheinkman (or BDS) test. Using simulated data to test the power of these tests, the correlation exponent test can distinguish white noise from chaos. It cannot distinguish white noise from chaos mixed with a small amount of white noise. With i.i.d. as the null, the BDS correctly rejects the null when the data are deterministic chaos. Although the BDS test may also reject the null even when the data are stochastic, it may be useful in distinguishing between linear and nonlinear stochastic processes.
Faculty development initiative: acquisition and support of course management software
Authors: Ray Brown, Walt Eis
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2003)

This paper provides details on an initiative that includes acquisition of course management software (CMS) and a central server for use by faculty and students at eight colleges in central Kansas. The paper places the activities within the context of both national trends and a statewide faculty development initiative supported by the Kansas Independent College Association (KICA), a statewide organization whose members include 18 private institutions of higher education in Kansas. The paper provides information on implementation, usage statistics, and concludes by comparing what occurred against common recommendations for similar projects.
The toilet entertainment system
Authors: Pär Stenberg, Johan Thoresson
Venue: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (2003)

A toilet is not only a place where people answer calls of nature. It is also a place for contemplation and reflection - and a place where people read information. But bringing things to read into a public toilet is not always socially accepted and it might be embarrassing to be discovered. We have chosen to address this problem by printing information such as news directly onto the disposable toilet paper.The project described here is an attempt to question the nat-uralness of having ubiquitous computers, cause reflections concerning what kind of problems ubiquitous computing really are solving and to indicate that there might be places where computation is not desirable.
State space reduction based on live variables analysis
Authors: Jean-Claude Fernandez, Marius Bozga, Lucian Ghirvu
Venue: Science of Computer Programming (2003)

The intrinsic complexity of most protocol specifications in particular, and of asynchronous systems in general, lead us to study combinations of static analysis with classical model-checking techniques as a way to enhance the performances of automated validation tools. In this context, we found that a non-trivial equivalence over the model states can be derived from the information on live variables. This equivalence exploits the unused dead values stored both in process variables and in communication queues and allows to reduce the model with a rather Important factor. Furthermore, this reduction comes almost for free and is always possible to directly generate the quotient model without generating the initial one.
Facilitating community information seeking using the internet: findings from three public library-community network systems
Authors: Karen E. Pettigrew, Joan C. Durrance, Kenton T. Unruh
Venue: Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (2002)

We report findings from a recent study of how public libraries are using on-line community networks to facilitate the public's information seeking and use in everyday situations. These networks have been lauded for their potential to strengthen physical communities through increasing information flow about local services and events, and through facilitating civic interaction. However, little is known about how the public uses such digital services and what barriers they encounter. This article presents findings from a 2-year study that comprised a national survey with public library staff, followed by extensive case studies in three states. At each site, data were collected using on-line surveys, field observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with Internet users, human service providers, and library staff. The on-line surveys and the follow-up interviews with respondents were based on sense-making theory. In our article we discuss: (1) how the public is using networked community information systems and the Internet for daily problem solving, (2) the types of barriers users encounter, and (3) the benefits for individuals and physical communities from public library-community networking initiatives and the emergence of "information communities."
Starfish: Fault-Tolerant Dynamic MPI Programs on Clusters of Workstations
Authors: Adnan Agbaria, Roy Friedman
Venue: Cluster Computing (2003)

This paper reports on the architecture and design of Starfish, an environment for executing dynamic (and static) MPI-2 programs on a cluster of workstations. Starfish is unique in being efficient, fault-tolerant, highly available, and dynamic as a system internally, and in supporting fault-tolerance and dynamicity for its application programs as well. Starfish achieves these goals by combining group communication technology with checkpoint/restart, and uses a novel architecture that is both flexible and portable and keeps group communication outside the critical data path, for maximum performance.
Analyzing Infeasible Mixed-Integer and Integer Linear Programs
Authors: Olivier Guieu, John W. Chinneck
Venue: INFORMS Journal on Computing (1999)

Algorithms and computer-based tools for analyzing infeasible linear and nonlinear programs have been developed in recent years, but few such tools exist for infeasible mixed-integer or integer linear programs. One approach that has proven especially useful for infeasible linear programs is the isolation of an Irreducible Infeasible Set of constraints (IIS), a subset of the constraints defining the overall linear program that is itself infeasible, but for which any proper subset is feasible. Isolating an IIS from the larger model speeds the diagnosis and repair of the model by focussing the analytic effort. This paper describes and tests algorithms for finding small infeasible sets in infeasible mixed-integer and integer linear programs; where possible these small sets are IISs.
Optimization of a fully integrated low power CMOS GPS receiver
Authors: Peter Vancorenland, Philippe Coppejans, Wouter De Cock, Paul Leroux, Michiel Steyaert
Venue: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE/ACM international conference on Computer-aided design (2002)

This paper describes an optimization technique able to optimize a complete wireless receiver architecture in a reasonable amount of time. The optimizer alternates between spice level optimizations of simple building blocks and a full architecture optimization of the whole based on accurate models of the building blocks. The models of the building blocks are interpolated over the data points acquired in the Spice level simulations. The optimizer technique has been applied to the optimization of an architecture for a GPS receiver. The optimal design has been implemented in a standard 0.25&mu;m CMOS process.
Are there benefits in seeing double?: a study of collaborative information visualization
Authors: Gloria Mark, Keri Carpenter, Alfred Kobsa
Venue: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (2003)

We conducted an empirical study to better understand colla-borative information visualization. We found that a system that offered fewer options for visualizations yielded more correct responses faster. Groups were more accurate but slower in solving problems than individuals. We identified different stages in visual discovery and found that collaboration benefits are from validating results and not from planning and system use. Tools to help translate and confirm the visualization would be of great benefit.
Combining both a fuzzy inductive learning and a fuzzy repertory grid method
Authors: J. L. Castro, J. J. Castro-Schez, J. M. Zurita
Venue: Technologies for constructing intelligent systems: Tasks (2002)

In this paper we describe a new approach to the problem of management of the inconsistency in expert systems which can be used for acquiring knowledge. The method proposed is used for planning interviews with the domain expert. The validation method searches for inconsistent areas in the knowledge base and asks the expert questions with the aim of resolving the conflict present in these areas. The questions asked will depend on the area in which the inconsistency arises.
Genetic algorithm solution for a risk-based partner selection problem in a virtual enterprise
Authors: W. H. Ip, Min Huang, K. L. Yung, Dingwei Wang
Venue: Computers and Operations Research (2003)

Dynamic alliance and virtual enterprise (VE) are essential components of global manufacturing. Minimizing risk in partner selection and ensuring the due date of a project are the key problems to overcome in VE, in order to ensure success. In this paper, a risk-based partner selection problem is described and modeled. Based on the concept of inefficient candidate, the solution space of the problem is reduced effectively. By using the characteristics of the problem considered and the knowledge of project scheduling, a rule-based genetic algorithm (R-GA) with embedded project scheduling is developed to solve the problem. The performance of this algorithm is demonstrated by a problem encountered in the construction of a stadium station and the experimental problems of different sizes. The results of this trial demonstrate the real life capability of the algorithm.
Performance Evaluation in Stochastic Environments Using Mean-Variance Data Envelopment Analysis
Authors: Thierry Post
Venue: Operations Research (2001)

Traditional Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) neglects uncertainty for the input-output variables by treating the observations as if they were the true input-output variables to select reference units for efficiency estimation and performance benchmarking. In stochastic environments, the traditional framework may include stochastically dominated reference units and exclude stochastically undominated ones. To incorporate uncertainty for the input-output variables in DEA, we propose a mean-variance framework derived from the theory of stochastic dominance. From that framework an extension to the traditional model is derived that prevents the selection of stochastically dominated reference units. In addition, within the mean-variance approach, variance restrictions can be specified that reduce the uncertainty for the performance of the evaluated unit relative to its reference unit.
How to find trouble in communication
Authors: A. Batliner, K. Fischer, R. Huber, J. Spilker, E. Nöth
Venue: Speech Communication (2003)

Automatic dialogue systems used, for instance, in call centers, should be able to determine in a critical phase of the dialogue-indicated by the customers vocal expression of anger/irritation-when it is better to pass over to a human operator. At a first glance, this does not seem to be a complicated task: It is reported in the literature that emotions can be told apart quite reliably on the basis of prosodic features. However, these results are achieved most of the time in a laboratory setting, with experienced speakers (actors), and with elicited, controlled speech. We compare classification results obtained with the same feature set for elicited speech and for a Wizard-of-Oz scenario, where users believe that they are really communicating with an automatic dialogue system. It turns out that the closer we get to a realistic scenario, the less reliable is prosody as an indicator of the speakers' emotional state. As a consequence, we propose to change the target such that we cease looking for traces of particular emotions in the users' speech, but instead look for indicators of TROUBLE IN COMMUNICATION. For this reason, we propose the module Monitoring of User State [especially of] Emotion (MOUSE) in which a prosodic classifier is combined with other knowledge sources, such as conversationally peculiar linguistic behavior, for example, the use of repetitions. For this module, preliminary experimental results are reported showing a more adequate modelling of TROUBLE IN COMMUNICATION.
Web-dialogue management for insurance products: IP.com
Authors: Süleyman Taner, Henk Koppelaar
Venue: Web-enabled systems integration: practices and challenges (2003)

The IP.COM concept enables an end-user to compose automatically an insurance product after conducting a dialogue with a knowledge-based system. This reduces the dependencies of insurance companies on both the IT and the actuarial expert. The system is able to adjust the dialogue interactively according to the specific needs of the users and asks for the relevant data needed for the desired product.
On Tightening the Relaxations of Miller-Tucker-Zemlin Formulations for Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problems
Authors: Hanif D. Sherali, Patrick J. Driscoll
Venue: Operations Research (2002)

This paper is concerned with applying theReformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT) to derive tighter relaxations for theAsymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP) formulation that is based on theMiller-Tucker-Zemlin (MTZ) subtour elimination constraints. The MTZ constraints yield a compact representation for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), and their use is particularly attractive in various routing and scheduling contexts that have an embedded ATSP structure. However, it is well recognized that these constraints yield weak relaxations, and with this motivation, Desrochers and Laporte (1991) have lifted the MTZ constraints into facets of the underlying ATSP polytope. We show that a novel application of the RLT process from a nonstandard MTZ representation of the ATSP reveals a new formulation of this problem that is compact, and yet theoretically as well as computationally dominates the lifted-MTZ formulation of Desrochers and Laporte. This approach is also extended to derive tight formulations for thePrecedence Constrained Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (PCATSP), based on the MTZ subtour elimination constraints. Additional classes of valid inequalities are also developed for both these versions of the ATSP, and further ideas for developing tighter representations are suggested for future investigations.
A prelab-lab-postlab digital electronics course as a prerequisite for the CS computer architecture course
Authors: Mohamad H. Ahmadian, Singli Garcia-Otero
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2002)

This paper introduces a course that may serve as a prerequisite for the CS Computer Architecture course. The paper describes an introductory laboratory course in digital electronics that is currently taught in an engineering-based department. The paper also presents and discusses a procedure that may be incorporated in computer science programs, electronics programs, or any program that offers courses with laboratory instructions.Upon successful completion of this course students are able to clearly conceptualize basic digital systems. The practical hands-on experience of this course increases students' interest and provides a solid foundation for student employment after graduation.
A hybrid MAC protocol for a metro WDM network using multiple free spectral ranges of an arrayed-waveguide grating
Authors: Martin Maier, Martin Reisslein, Adam Wolisz
Venue: Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking (2003)

In this paper, we report on a novel quality-of-service supporting reservation-based medium access control (MAC) protocol for a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective switchless wavelength division multiplexing network. The network is completely passive and is based on an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG). Each node at the network periphery is equipped with one single fast tunable transceiver for data and one low-cost broadband light source which is spectrally sliced for broadcasting control information. Direct sequence spread spectrum techniques are used to enable simultaneous transmission of data and control. All wavelengths are used for data transmission and signaling is done in-band. Each node has global knowledge and schedules variable-size data packets on a deterministic first-come-first-served and first-fit basis guaranteeing fairness and completely avoiding channel and receiver collisions. The proposed protocol provides both packet and circuit switching and supports multicasting. The network efficiency is significantly increased by spatially reusing wavelengths and exploiting multiple free spectral ranges (FSRs) of the AWG. The analysis accounts for propagation delay and protocol processing time. Results show that using three FSRs instead of one significantly decreases the mean delay and improves the mean throughput by up to 88%, resulting in a normalized mean throughput of approximately 78%. The analytical results are verified by simulation.
An implementation of narrowing strategies
Authors: Sergio Antoy, Bart Massey, Michael Hanus, Frank Steiner
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Principles and practice of declarative programming (2001)

This paper describes an implementation of narrowing, an essential component of implementations of modern functional logic languages. These implementations rely on narrowing, in particular on some optimal narrowing strategies, to execute functional logic programs. We translate functional logic programs into imperative (Java) programs without an intermediate abstract machine. A central idea of our approach is the explicit representation and processing of narrowing computations as data objects. This enables the implementation of operationally complete strategies (i.e., without backtracking) or techniques for search control (e.g., encapsulated search). Thanks to the use of an intermediate and portable represen tation of programs, our implementation is general enough to be used as a common back end for a wide variety of functional logic languages.
Generating well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay meshes
Authors: Xiang-Yang Li
Venue: Theoretical Computer Science (2003)

A d-dimensional simplicial mesh is a Delaunay triangulation if the circumsphere of each of its simplices does not contain any vertices inside. A mesh is well shaped if the maximum aspect ratio of all its simplices is bounded from above by a constant. It is a long-term open problem to generate well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay meshes for a given polyhedral domain. In this paper, we present a refinement-based method that generates well-shaped d-dimensional Delaunay meshes for any PLC domain with no small input angles. Furthermore, we show that the generated well-shaped mesh has O(n) d-simplices, where n is the smallest number of d-simplices of any almost-good meshes for the same domain. Here a mesh is almost-good if each of its simplices has a bounded circumradius to the shortest edge length ratio.