ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
On the complexity of schedule control problems for knockout tournaments
Authors: Thuc Vu, Alon Altman, Yoav Shoham
Venue: Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 1 (2009)

Knockout tournaments constitute a common format of sporting events, and also model a specific type of election scheme (namely, sequential pairwise elimination election). In such tournaments the designer controls the shape of the tournament (a binary tree) and the seeding of the players (their assignment to the tree leaves). In this paper we investigate the computational complexity of tournament schedule control, i.e., designing a tournament that maximizes the winning probability a target player. We start with a generic probabilistic model consisting of a matrix of pairwise winning probabilities, and then investigate the problem under two types of constraint: constraints on the probability matrix, and constraints on the allowable tournament structure. While the complexity of the general problem is as yet unknown, these various constraints -- all naturally occurring in practice -- serve to push to the problem to one side or the other: easy (polynomial) or hard (NP-complete).
Academic Software Development Tools and Techniques
Authors: Roel Wuyts, Holger M. Kienle, Kim Mens, Mark Brand, Adrian Kuhn
Venue: Object-Oriented Technology. ECOOP 2008 Workshop Reader: ECOOP 2008 Workshops Paphos, Cyprus, July 7-11, 2008 Final Reports (2008)

The objective of the 1st International Workshop on Advanced Software Development Tools and Techniques (WASDeTT-1) was to provide interested researchers with a forum to share their tool building experiences and to explore how tools can be built more effectively and efficiently. The theme for this workshop did focus on tools that target object-oriented languages and that are implemented with object-oriented languages.This workshop report provides a brief overview of the presented tools and of the discussions that took place. The presented tools, 15 in total, covered a broad range of functionalities, among them: refactoring, modeling, behavioral specification, static and dynamic program checking, user interface composition, and program understanding. The discussion during the workshop centered around the following topics: language independent tools, tool building in an industrial context, tool building methodology, tool implementation language, and building tools with external code.
Graph-based data analysis: tree-structured covariance estimation, prediction by regularized kernel estimation and aggregate database query processing for probabilistic inference
Authors: Grace Wahba, Raghu Ramakrishnan
Venue:  (2008)

This dissertation presents a collection of computational techniques for the analysis of data where relationships between objects can be expressed through a graph. Data of this type can be found in many and diverse settings, including genomic and epidemiological applications, web search, social networking and decision making. Although taking relationships into account makes analysis of this type of data more challenging, the graph structure of these relationships can be used to make this analysis viable. In this dissertation, we implement a number of techniques for analyzing this type of data using well-known and tested computational tools. Furthermore, we explore these techniques over a wide array of biological and decision making applications. In Part I, we present a method for estimating tree-structured covariance matrices directly from observed continuous data. Tree-structured covariance matrices encode probabilistic relationships between objects that can be described by rooted trees. In this case, we directly estimate graph structure from observed data under a specific probabilistic model. Part II presents a methodology for graph-based prediction where a predictive model is estimated over data where relationships between objects are encoded by a known graph. We make extensive use of Regularized Kernel Estimation (Lu et al., 2005), a framework for estimating a positive semidefinite kernel from noisy, incomplete and inconsistent distance data. In this case, the graph structure of the data is used to define a distance from which a kernel matrix is estimated. Finally, in Part III, we present techniques for efficiently evaluating aggregate queries of a particular type over views defining a large number of database records. The main assumption is that this view is the result of a stylized join over a number of much smaller tables, and is described by a graph. We make use of this graph structure to reduce the cost of single query evaluation and to cache intermediate results in a query workload setting. This framework was designed in part to address scalable probabilistic inference in relational databases.
Virtual DL poster sessions in second life
Authors: Spencer J. Lee, Edward A. Fox, Gary Marchionini, Javier Velacso, Gonçalo Antunes, José Borbinha
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries (2009)

In Second Life (SL), a popular general-purpose 3D virtual world, we are supporting the Digital Library community in a variety of ways, including through virtual poster sessions. This brings together the interests of those involved in JCDL 2009, IEEE-TCDL, and NSF-supported work in SL aimed to assist education, training, and dissemination in the digital preservation area.
Asymptotic optimal SINR performance bound for space-time beamformers
Authors: Marc Oudin, Jean Pierre Delmas
Venue: Signal Processing (2009)

In many detection applications, the main performance criterion is the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). After linear filtering, the optimal SINR corresponds to the maximum value of a Rayleigh quotient, which can be interpreted as the largest generalized eigenvalue of two covariance matrices. Using an extension of Szego's theorem for the generalized eigenvalues of Hermitian block Toeplitz matrices, an expression of the theoretical asymptotic optimal SINR w.r.t. the number of taps is derived for arbitrary arrays with a limited but arbitrary number of sensors and arbitrary spectra. This bound is interpreted as an optimal zero-bandwidth spatial SINR in some sense. Finally, the speed of convergence of the optimal wideband SINR for a limited number of taps is analyzed for several interference scenarios.
Practical horizon plane and communication duration for low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite ground stations
Authors: Shkelzen Cakaj
Venue: WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on COMMUNICATIONS (2009)

Communication via satellite begins when the satellite is positioned in the desired orbital position. Ground stations can communicate with LEO (Low Earth Orbiting) satellites only when the satellite is in their visibility region. The visibility region is in fact the horizon plane. Because of natural barriers or too high buildings in urban areas, practical horizon plane differs from the ideal one. The duration of the visibility and so the communication duration varies for each satellite pass at the ground station, specifically for LEO satellites which do move too fast over the Earth. This paper discusses the satellites motion detection, the difference in between ideal and practical horizon and further the variations of the communication duration between the ground station and LEO satellites. Main objective is determination of practical horizon plane and critical maximal elevation angle related to communication duration. For this paper, data recorded at the Vienna satellite ground station within the Canadian space observation project "MOST" (Micro variability and Oscillations of Stars) are applied. Vienna ground station system was set up at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Vienna in cooperation with the Institute of Communications and Radio-Frequency Engineering of the University of Technology in Vienna.
Secondary school students' collaboration during dyadic debates face-to-face and through computer chat
Authors: Miika J. Marttunen, Leena I. Laurinen
Venue: Computers in Human Behavior (2009)

Communicative competence needed in today's constructive learning environments both in virtual and physical classrooms requires most of all critical and argumentative thinking skills as well as abilities to use reciprocal and collaborative language. This study clarifies the quality of secondary school students' collaboration in dyadic face-to-face and computer chat debates during argumentative discussions. The speech acts produced in 24 debates were first classified into either on-task or off-task categories. The on-task speech acts were then further classified into six collaborative and two non-collaborative categories. The students commonly presented questions and made requests for clarification or reactions as well as responded to issues put forward by their interlocutor. However, they seldom engaged in collaborative completion or recapitulated their arguments. The study suggests that while students appear to have the basic cognitive and social prerequisites for collaborative learning situations, in future they should be encouraged to collaboratively complete each others' thoughts and recapitulate their own arguments.
Dynamic restriction of choices: a preliminary logical report
Authors: Soumya Paul, R. Ramanujam, Sunil Simon
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Theoretical Aspects of Rationality and Knowledge (2009)

We study games in which the choices available to players are not fixed, and may change during the course of play. Specifically, we consider a model in which players may switch strategies, and a global (social) decision may remove some choices, based on the strategies being adopted by players. We propose a logical formalism in which such choices are specified, and a model of bounded memory strategies in which the eventual implications of such choices can be computed, and present preliminary results.
Dynamic Electronic Institutions for Humanitarian Aid Simulation
Authors: Eduard Muntaner-Perich, Josep Lluis de la Rosa, Claudia Isabel Carrillo Flórez, Sonia Lizzeth Delfín Ávila, Araceli Moreno Ruiz
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Artificial Intelligence Research and Development (2006)

In this paper we introduce how to use Dynamic Electronic Institutions for Operations Other Than War simulation. OOTW involves different types of humanitarian aid operations, where a large number of different agents have to collaborate in fast-changing environments. In our opinion Dynamic Electronic Institutions arise from the convergence of two research areas: electronic institutions and coalition formation. We believe that this research topic is well suited to OOTW requirements: decentralised control, knowledge management, short-term associations, flexible negotiations, etc. In this paper we comment on different approaches for OOTW simulation, we present a brief summary of our previous work on dynamic institutions, we explain our ideas on how to use dynamic institutions for OOTW simulation, and we show our first experiments and results in this direction.
Quasi-continuous histograms
Authors: Olivier Strauss
Venue: Fuzzy Sets and Systems (2009)

Histograms are very useful for summarizing statistical information associated with a set of observed data. They are one of the most frequently used density estimators due to their ease of implementation and interpretation. However, histograms suffer from a high sensitivity to the choice of both reference interval and bin width. This paper addresses this difficulty by means of a fuzzy partition. We propose a new density estimator based on transferring the counts associated with each cell of the fuzzy partition to any subset of the reference interval. We introduce three different methods of achieving this transfer. The properties of each method are illustrated with a classic real observation set. The density estimator obtained relates to the Parzen-Rosenblatt kernel density estimation technique. In this paper, we only consider the monovariate case with precise and imprecise observations.
The RUM-tree: supporting frequent updates in R-trees using memos
Authors: Yasin N. Silva, Xiaopeng Xiong, Walid G. Aref
Venue: The VLDB Journal &mdash; The International Journal on Very Large Data Bases (2009)

The problem of frequently updating multi-dimensional indexes arises in many location-dependent applications. While the R-tree and its variants are the dominant choices for indexing multi-dimensional objects, the R-tree exhibits inferior performance in the presence of frequent updates. In this paper, we present an R-tree variant, termed the RUM-tree (which stands for R-tree with update memo) that reduces the cost of object updates. The RUM-tree processes updates in a memo-based approach that avoids disk accesses for purging old entries during an update process. Therefore, the cost of an update operation in the RUM-tree is reduced to the cost of only an insert operation. The removal of old object entries is carried out by a garbage cleaner inside the RUM-tree. In this paper, we present the details of the RUM-tree and study its properties. We also address the issues of crash recovery and concurrency control for the RUM-tree. Theoretical analysis and comprehensive experimental evaluation demonstrate that the RUM-tree outperforms other R-tree variants by up to one order of magnitude in scenarios with frequent updates.
Database Principles and Design
Authors: Colin Ritchie
Venue:  (2007)

Database Principles and Design provides students and practitioners with a thorough grounding in theoretical principles before then providing them with the tools required to implement practical systems. To aid learning, the text contains extensive worked examples and sample working programs, and provides helpful assistance with obtaining software necessary to utilise the sample material provided. The new edition has been fully updated and will combine theory and practice as well as integrating design principles with implementation. It also contains plenty of real world, fully worked examples and case studies. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
Adaptive control of the active power of an electric arc furnace
Authors: Manuela Panoiu, Caius Panoiu, Ioan Sora, Anca Iordan
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS/IASME international conference on Dynamical systems and control (2008)

The electric arc furnaces are a very large power load, determining the negative effects on the power quality (harmonics currents, unbalanced load, and reactive power). For a maximum efficiency of the power consumption it is necessary to use an automat system of electrodes position control, in order to obtain a high value of power factor and a maximum efficiency. In this paper is present an adaptive method for process control for an Electric Arc Furnace. The method was validate using simulation.
Mode Aware Stream Query Processing
Authors: Mingrui Wei, Elke Rundensteiner
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management (2009)

Many scientific applications including environmental monitoring, outpatient health care research, and wild life tracking require real-time stream processing. While state-of-the-art techniques for processing window-constrained stream queries tend to employ the delta result strategy (to react to each and every change of the stream sensor measurements), some scientific applications only require to produce results periodically - making the complete result strategy a better choice. In this work, we analyze the trade-offs between the delta and the complete result query evaluation strategies. We then design a solution for hopping window query processing based on the above analysis. In particular, we propose query operators equipped with the ability to accept either delta or complete results as input and to produce either as output. Unlike prior works, these flexible operators can then be integrated within one mode aware query plan - taking advantage of both processing methodologies. Third, we design a mode assignment algorithm to optimally assign the input and output modes for each operator in the mode aware query plan. Lastly, mode assignment is integrated with a cost-based plan optimizer. The proposed techniques have been implemented within the WPI stream query engine, called CAPE. Our experimental results demonstrate that our solution routinely outperforms the state-of-the-art single-mode solutions for various arrival rate and query plan shapes.
Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online
Authors: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, Mehdi Khosrow-Pour
Venue: Premier Reference Source (2007)

Through the last decade, Internet technologies such as electronic commerce have experienced exponential growth, and emerging issues surrounding this phenomenon have necessitated the amassment of research on the cognitive impact of electronic commerce technologies around the world. Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online delivers a global perspective on the influence of electronic commerce on organizational behavior, development, and management in organizations, discussing issues such as information security; strategic management of electronic commerce; organizational learning; business process management; mediated enterprises; and electronic marketplaces. With the new insights it delivers on this rapidly evolving technological and commercial domain, this incisive reference will prove an essential addition to library collections worldwide.
Web-Based Education and Pedagogical Technologies: Solutions for Learning Applications
Authors: Liliane Esnault, Liliane Esnault
Venue:  (2007)

The rapid development and expansion of Web-based technologies has vast potential implications for the processes of teaching and learning world-wide. Technological advancements of Web-based applications strike at the base of the education spectrum; however, the scope of experimentation and discussion on this topic has continuously been narrow. Web-Based Education and Pedagogical Technologies: Solutions for Learning Applications provides cutting-edge research on such topics as network learning, e-learning, managing Web-based learning and teaching technologies, and building Web-based learning communities. This innovative book provides researchers, practitioners, and decision makers in the field of education with essential, up-to-date research in designing more effective learning systems and scenarios using Web-based technologies.
An empirical investigation into factors relating to the use of course management software by post-secondary faculty
Authors: Alicen Flosi, Kakoli Bandyopadhyay
Venue: International Journal of Business Information Systems (2009)

This research studies faculty use of Course Management Software (CMS) in post-secondary institutions. CMS allows faculty members to demonstrate skills, share knowledge and communicate with students at various times and through various means. There are a variety of methods to make CMS available for students; however, at some point, involvement by the faculty is required. This research centres on faculty constructs such as performance and effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, privacy and security concerns and implementation time. The moderating variables were gender, anxiety, years of teaching, experience and faculty rank. After surveying the faculty, logistic regression was applied to investigate the relationship between the utilisation of a CMS system by the post-secondary faculty and the six independent variables. Different sets of factors from performance and effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and years of teaching were found to be significantly related to the utilisation of the CMS system by post-secondary faculty.
A comparison of flexible schemas for software as a service
Authors: Stefan Aulbach, Dean Jacobs, Alfons Kemper, Michael Seibold
Venue: Proceedings of the 35th SIGMOD international conference on Management of data (2009)

A multi-tenant database system for Software as a Service (SaaS) should offer schemas that are flexible in that they can be extended different versions of the application and dynamically modified while the system is on-line. This paper presents an experimental comparison of five techniques for implementing flexible schemas for SaaS. In three of these techniques, the database "owns" the schema in that its structure is explicitly defined in DDL. Included here is the commonly-used mapping where each tenant is given their own private tables, which we take as the baseline, and a mapping that employs Sparse Columns in Microsoft SQL Server. These techniques perform well, however they offer only limited support for schema evolution in the presence of existing data. Moreover they do not scale beyond a certain level. In the other two techniques, the application "owns" the schema in that it is mapped into generic structures in the database. Included here are XML in DB2 and Pivot Tables in HBase. These techniques give the application complete control over schema evolution, however they can produce a significant decrease in performance. We conclude that the ideal database for SaaS has not yet been developed and offer some suggestions as to how it should be designed.
Harnessing parallelism in multicore clusters with the all-pairs and wavefront abstractions
Authors: Li Yi, Christopher Moretti, Scott Emrich, Kenneth Judd, Douglas Thain
Venue: Proceedings of the 18th ACM international symposium on High performance distributed computing (2009)

Both distributed systems and multicore computers are difficult programming environments. Although the expert programmer may be able to tune distributed and multicore computers to achieve high performance, the non-expert may struggle to achieve a program that even functions correctly. We argue that high level abstractions are an effective way of making parallel computing accessible to the non-expert. An abstraction is a regularly structured framework into which a user may plug in simple sequential programs to create very large parallel programs. By virtue of a regular structure and declarative specification, abstractions may be materialized on distributed, multicore, and distributed multicore systems with robust performance across a wide range of problem sizes. In previous work, we presented the All-Pairs abstraction for computing on distributed systems of single CPUs. In this paper, we extend All-Pairs to multicore systems, and introduce Wavefront, which represents a number of problems in economics and bioinformatics. We demonstrate good scaling of both abstractions up to 32-cores on one machine and hundreds of cores in a distributed system.
Ant colony optimization meta-heuristic in project scheduling
Authors: Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS international conference on Artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and data bases (2009)

The problem of scheduling tasks when limited resources are available is a computationally difficult problem which can't be solved by standard algorithms in polynomial time. This paper presents a way of solving this problem using an Ant Colony Optimization approach and thoughts on how it could be improved to bring better solutions in shorter time.