ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
High Availability and Scalability Support for Web Applications
Authors: Louis Rilling, Swaminathan Sivasubramanian, Guillaume Pierre
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium on Applications and the Internet (2007)

A database query caching technique, GlobeCBC, can be used to improve the scalability of Web applications. This paper addresses the availability issues in GlobeCBC. Even though high availability is achieved by adding more resources, proper algorithms must be designed to ensure that the clients receive consistent responses amidst failures of the edge and origin servers. We present lightweight algorithms to detect and correct server failures while providing read-your-writes consistency. They exploit the fact that the query workload of Web applications is based on a fixed set of read and write templates. We show that these algorithms incur very low overhead using several microbenchmarks and a complete Web application benchmark.
What is a diagram?
Authors: Kamaran Fathulla, Andrew Basden
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference Information Visualization (2007)

This paper responds to renewed interest in the centuries old question of what is a diagram. Existing status of our understanding of diagrams is seen as unsatisfactory and confusing. This paper responds to this by proposing a framework for understanding diagrams based on Symbolic and Spatial Mapping. The framework deals with some complex problems any useful definition of diagrams has to deal with. These problems are the variety of diagrams, meaningful dynamics of diagramming, handling change in diagrams in a well formed way, and all of this in the context of semantically mixed diagrams. A brief description of the framework is given discussing how it addresses the problems.
A low-interaction C programming course on the WWW
Authors: S. J. Louis
Venue: Proceedings of the 28th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 01 (1998)

This paper describes the authors experience with the design and delivery of CS226-C Programming, over the Internet. The course was offered at the University of Nevada-Reno, USA, in the Fall 1996 and Spring 1997 semesters as a lecture section and simultaneously as a lecture-optional, low-interaction, Internet section. Preliminary results indicate that strongly motivated, independent students performed very well on the Internet section.
Java, Linux, and open source integration
Authors: Tony Dean
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd annual conference on Atlanta Linux Showcase - Volume 3 (1999)

Integrating Java with Open Source on Linux offers another technique to build highly portable applications. Java already offers a Write Once Run Anywhere model to developers but there are limitations. If it lacks some feature you need or contains something you don't like, you may have to give up the portability that made Java unique. By using Open Source with the Java Native Interface there is an opportunity to enjoy the portability of Java with the flexibility of Open Source. This approach to portability also puts control of future Java feature extensions into the hands of developers. The Open Source community can influence the direction that Java features will take in the future. Features that are popular with developers will get used and corporate players will take notice.
A scalable approach for estimation of resource availability using bitfields
Authors: Jeffrey Starr, Scott Moses, Le Gruenwald
Venue: Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering (2004)

Determining the time when a resource will be available to perform a task is a fundamental sub-problem in a variety of scheduling applications. This paper describes a model of resource capacity and an efficient representation that together facilitate rapid estimation of the time when a resource is available. A special-purpose data structure called a bitfield is used to represent capacity in discrete time. Although the bitfield representation is simple, it closely matches facilities provided by the hardware, so that searches for available capacity can be executed very efficiently. Results demonstrate the scalability of the approach relative to other approaches that do not store data contiguously in memory and as a result require significantly more memory accesses to compute availability.
2007 Special Issue: Decoupled echo state networks with lateral inhibition
Authors: Yanbo Xue, Le Yang, Simon Haykin
Venue: Neural Networks (2007)

Building on some prior work, in this paper we describe a novel structure termed the decoupled echo state network (DESN) involving the use of lateral inhibition. Two low-complexity implementation schemes, namely, the DESN with reservoir prediction (DESN + RP) and DESN with maximum available information (DESN + MaxInfo), are developed: (1) In the multiple superimposed oscillator (MSO) problem, DESN + MaxInfo exhibits three important attributes: lower generalization mean-square error (MSE), better robustness with respect to the random generation of reservoir weight matrix and feedback connections, and robustness to variations in the sparseness of reservoir weight matrix, compared to DESN + RP. (2) For a noiseless nonlinear prediction task, DESN + RP outperforms the DESN + MaxInfo and single reservoir-based ESN approach in terms of lower prediction MSE and better robustness to a change in the number of inputs and sparsity of the reservoir weight matrix. Finally, in a real-life prediction task using noisy sea clutter data, both schemes exhibit higher prediction accuracy and successful design ratio than a conventional ESN with a single reservoir.
Developing an appropriate writing exercise for a statics class
Authors: W. Nixon
Venue: Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference, 2001. on 31st Annual - Volume 01 (2001)

A review of the College of Engineering core curriculum indicated a need to improve the communication skills of undergraduates. As a "pilot" students were given a writing exercise in a sophomore Statics class. The initial form of the writing exercise was a short paper (three to five pages) in which students wrote about a structure they had observed. This exercise was used for three semesters (until Spring 2000) when students indicated in the course evaluation feedback that the exercise lacked value. Accordingly, a new exercise was introduced in Fall 2000. A longer paper (5 to 8 pages) was required (worth 15% of the final grade) that again focused on a structure, but this time one of historical significance. Students were given feedback by writing consultants after both a first and second draft, including a one-on-one meeting. The new exercise substantially improved the quality of the papers, but some concerns still exist.
Synthesis and coding of continuous speech with the nonlinear oscillator model
Authors: G. Kubin
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1996. on Conference Proceedings., 1996 IEEE International Conference - Volume 01 (1996)

The nonlinear oscillator model for speech signals has been previously applied to time-scale modification of speech. We report on the application of the model to speech synthesis and waveform coding. For speech synthesis, a new radial basis function representation of the oscillator feedback nonlinearity is introduced. The local approximation properties of this representation have been investigated and it is shown how it can be adapted to continuous speech on a frame-by-frame basis. For speech coding, synchronization of the nonlinear oscillator model to the original waveform is demonstrated and applied in the design of a new backward-adaptive speech coding system.
Sonictecture: esthetic spatial conditioning through sound, computation and interaction
Authors: Joanne Jakovich, Dagmar Reinhardt
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity cognition (2007)

The field of architecture is radically being transformed by the esthetic potential of embedded sensor technologies and interaction. This demo presents an approach to spatial design that implements techniques of interactive (immersive, spatial) art, to produce architectural 'spaces' that are expressed through the medium of interaction. 'Trivet Fields' is one example from a series of soundspace works that introduce interactive art computing to architectural practice, providing a new platform for cross-disciplinary explorations in esthetics of space.
Computing a minimum-dilation spanning tree is NP-hard
Authors: Otfried Cheong, Herman Haverkort, Mira Lee
Venue: Proceedings of the thirteenth Australasian symposium on Theory of computing - Volume 65 (2007)

Given a set S of n points in the plane, a minimum-dilation spanning tree of S is a tree with vertex set S of smallest possible dilation. We show that given a set S of n points and a dilation &delta; > 1, it is NP-hard to determine whether a spanning tree of S with dilation at most &delta; exists.
Machine learning techniques for code generation and optimization
Authors: David Padua
Venue:  (2006)

The growing complexity of modern processors has made the generation of highly efficient code increasingly difficult. Manual code generation is very time consuming, but it is often the only choice since the code generated by today's compiler technology often has much lower performance than the best hand-tuned codes. A promising code generation strategy, implemented by systems like ATLAS, FFTW, and SPIRAL, uses empirical search to find the parameter values of the implementation, such as the tile size and instruction schedules, that deliver near-optimal performance for a particular machine. However, this approach has only proven successful on scientific codes whose performance does not depend on the input data. In this thesis we study machine learning techniques that extend empirical search to the generation of algorithms whose performance depends on both the input characteristics and the architecture of the target machine. More specially, we target our study on sorting and recursive matrix-matrix multiplication, which are two fundamental algorithm problems. We observe that various sorting algorithms perform differently depending on input characteristics. We first study if it is possible to predict and select the best sorting algorithm for a specific input. We develop a machine-learning based technique to find the mapping from architectural features and input characteristics to the selection of best algorithm. The mapping is used at runtime to make selection of sorting algorithms. Experiments show that our approach always predict the best sorting algorithm and the runtime overhead due to the selection is below 51%. Built the first study that selects a "pure" sorting algorithm at the outset of the computation as a function of the input characteristics, we develop algorithms and a classifier system to build hierarchically-organized hybrid sorting algorithms capable of adapting to the input data. Our results show that such algorithms generated using the approach presented in this thesis are quite effective at taking into account the complex interactions between architectural and input data characteristics and that the resulting code performs significantly better than conventional sorting implementations and the code generated by our earlier study. In particular, the routines generated using our approach perform better than all the commercial libraries that we tried including IBM ESSL, INTEL MKL and the C++ STL. We follow a similar approach and use a classifier learning system to generate high performance libraries for matrix-matrix multiplication. Our library generator produces matrix multiplication routines that use recursive layouts and several levels of tiling. Our approach is to use a classifier learning system to search in the space of the different ways to partition the input matrices the one that performs the best. As a result, our system will determine the number of levels of tiling and tile size for each level depending on the target platform and the dimensions of the input matrices.
Rethinking the evaluation of writing in engineering courses
Authors: J. Swarts
Venue: Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference, 2001. on 31st Annual - Volume 01 (2001)

The objective of this paper is to bring about a reevaluation of writing assessment practices in engineering classes. The authors begin by drawing rhetoric (the knowledge base of effective technical communication) and engineering together, explaining how engineering work is rhetorical. From this theoretical vantage point, the authors argue for a change in engineering writing assessment practices. Specifically, they argue for an approach that favors formative assessment (focused on writing comments that lead to both better writing and better engineering) over summative assessment (which sees writing ability as separate from engineering design). The authors continue by revealing a scoring guide for the formative assessment of engineering reports, and detailing the process by which such a scoring guide may be created. Each criterion in the scoring guide is explained in terms of the rhetorical and engineering principles that it simultaneously addresses.
Markovian Random Fields and Comparison Between Different Convex Criterion
Authors: Jose Ismael De la Rosa, Jesus Villa, Maria A. Araiza
Venue: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Computers (2007)

The present work illustrates some recent alternative methods to deal with digital image reconstruction. This collection of methods are inspired on the use of a class of Markov chains best known as Markov Random Fields (MRF). All of these new methodologies are also based on the prior knowledge of some information which will permit more efficiently modeling the image acquisition process. The methods based on the MRF's are proposed and analyzed in a Bayesian framework and their principal objective is to eliminate those effects caused by the excessive smoothness on the reconstruction process of images which are rich in contours or edges. In order to respond to the edge preservation, the use of certain convexity criteria are proposed which will lead to obtain adequate weighting of cost functions (halfquadratic) in cases where discontinuities are remarked and, even better, for cases where such discontinuities are very smooth. The final aim is to apply these methods to problems in optical instrumentation.
Development and Publication of Generic Middleware Components for the Next Generation Mobile Service Platform
Authors: Bharat Bhushan, Anthony Tarlano, Gerhard Fischer, Jos Hendriks
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium on Applications and the Internet Workshops (2007)

IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) promises new services and delivery mechanisms but it also requires that service providers equip middleware to deal with distribution and heterogeneity and develop and provide services in a consistent and methodical manner. This paper describes a methodological approach to life cycle management, publication and discovery of middleware components supporting IMS-based services. It addresses the need for a common understanding of the heterogeneous service execution platforms in form of artefacts such as interfaces specifications, UML models, and meta-models, representing the components and services. The interfaces are defined in metadata, and published using technology-neutral mechanisms. This enables the user to invoke component operations seamlessly.
Formal Verification of Abstract System and Protocol Specifications
Authors: Axel Schneider, Thomas Bluhm, Tobias Renner, Ulrich Heinkel, Joachim Knablein, Reynaldo Zavala
Venue: Proceedings of the 30th Annual IEEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop (2006)

Formal methods such as automated model checking are used commercially for digital circuit design verification. These techniques find errors early in the product cycle, which improves development time and cost. By contrast, the current practice in complex system design is to specify system functions and protocol details in natural language. Some errors are found early by manual inspections, but others are only revealed during implementation testing or by costly field failures. We describe our application of formal specification and model checking to real telecom product development, and enumerate the classes of specification errors that these formal techniques revealed at an early stage of the development cycle.
E-Learning 2.0 = e-Learning 1.0 + Web 2.0?
Authors: Martin Ebner
Venue: Proceedings of the The Second International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (2007)

"You" has been elected as person of the year by the Time Magazine, Web 2.0 is the most quoted article of Wikipedia in 2006 and e-Learning 2.0 is the buzzword of today. This article likes to point out what are the advantages and disadvantages of this hype. Is e-Learning 1.0 a thing of the past or still necessary for the learning future. The question whether Web 2.0 will change the education of tomorrow or not will be answered in a very critical way. The summary of this article pointed out that there is considerably more than using new applications and bring them together with the experiences of e-Learning 1.0. Due to the fact that the importance of e-Learning 2.0 is growing very fast it can be summarized that a lot of more research work must be done in future.
Sample compression, margins and generalization: extensions to the set covering machine
Authors: Mohak Shah
Venue:  (2006)

This thesis studies the generalization behavior of algorithms in Sample Compression Settings. It extends the study of the Sample Compression framework to derive data-dependent bounds that give tighter guarantees to the algorithms where data-independent bounds such as the VC bounds are not applicable. It also studies the interplay between sparsity and the separating margin, of the classifier and shows how new compression based data-dependent bounds can be obtained that can exploit these two quantities explicitly. These bounds not only provide tight generalization guarantees but by themselves present optimization problems for learning leading to novel learning algorithms. This thesis studies the algorithms based on learning conjunctions or disjunctions of data-dependent Boolean features. With the Set Covering Machine (SCM) as its basis, the thesis shows how novel learning algorithms can be designed in compression settings that can perform a non-trivial margin-sparsity trade-off to yield better classifiers. Moreover, the thesis also shows how feature-selection can be integrated with the learning process in these settings yielding algorithms that not only perform successful feature selection but also have provable theoretical guarantees. In particular, the thesis proposes two novel learning algorithms. The first algorithm is for the SCM with data-dependent half-spaces along with a tight compression bound that can successfully perform model selection. The second algorithm aims at learning conjunctions of features called data-dependent Rays to classify gene expression data from DNA microarrays. The thesis shows how a PAC-Bayes approach to learning Rays' conjunctions can perform a non-trivial margin-sparsity trade-off to achieve classifiers that not only have provable theoretical guarantees but also utilize a significantly small number of attributes unlike traditional feature selection algorithms. This thesis also proposes two new formulations for the classical SCM algorithm with data-dependent balls aimed at performing margin-sparsity trade-off by utilizing Occam's Razor and PAC-Bayes principles respectively. The thesis shows how such approaches yield more general classifiers with tight risk bounds that can potentially guide the model selection process.
POSIX file store in Z/Eves: an experiment in the verified software repository
Authors: Leo Freitas, Zheng Fu, Jim Woodcock
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th IEEE International Conference on Engineering Complex Computer Systems (2007)

We present results from the second pilot project in the international Verification Grand Challenge: a formally verified specification of a POSIX-compliant file store using the Z/Eves theorem prover. The project's overall objective is to build a verified file store for space-flight missions. Our specification of the file store is based on Morgan & Sufrin's specification of the UNIX filing system; the proof and its mechanisation in Z/Eves are novel. We show how our work contributes towards building a verified software repository: a set of general theories and experiments reusable across different domains.
Modeling Workflows with Recursive ECATNets
Authors: Awatef Hicheur, Kamel Barkaoui, Noura Boudiaf
Venue: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (2006)

A major limitation of current workflow management systems appears in (1) their lack of support for flexible workflows whose structures can be modified dynamically during the execution and (2) in their failure in dealing, efficiently, with the most advanced workflow patterns. In this paper, we propose a new model which we call recursive ECATNets (RECATNets) to model workflow processes with dynamic structure and, particularly, to handle the most complex workflow patterns, in a concise way. The RECATNets extend classical ECATNets (Extended Concurrent Algebraic Term Nets) with the recursion concept firstly introduced in the recursive Petri nets. We define the semantics of RECATNets in the conditional rewriting logic framework. Rewriting logic is a true concurrency and operational semantics which allows rapid prototyping using rewriting techniques and the system Maude in particular.
Parallelization and Automation of a Blind Deconvolution Algorithm
Authors: Charles L. Matson, Kathy Borelli
Venue: Proceedings of the HPCMP Users Group Conference (2006)

Often it is of interest to deblur imagery in order to obtain higher-resolution images. Deblurring requires knowledge of the blurring function information that is often not available separately from the blurred imagery. Blind deconvolution algorithms overcome this problem by jointly estimating both the high-resolution image and the blurring function from the blurred imagery. Because blind deconvolution algorithms are iterative in nature, they can take minutes to days to deblur an image depending how many frames of data are used for the deblurring. Here we present our progress in parallelizing a blind deconvolution algorithm to increase its execution speed. This progress includes sub-frame parallelization and a code structure that is not specialized to any specific computer hardware architecture. We also describe briefly our progress in automating algorithm parameter selection.
Co-Scheduling Variable Execution Time Requirement Real-Time Tasks and Non Real-Time Tasks
Authors: Abhishek Singh, Kevin Jeffay
Venue: Proceedings of the 19th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems (2007)

By scheduling the non real-time tasks earlier while still meeting deadlines for the real-time tasks, the overall system performance can be improved. In particular, we believe that the variability in the execution time requirements of real-time tasks can be effectively leveraged to reduce response times of non real-time tasks. We propose a novel processor sharing algorithm where the processor share of RT jobs increases with their progress based on the empirical probability distribution of execution times of real-time tasks, to adaptively schedule variable requirement real-time to maximize the minimum expected service rate to non real-time tasks at any instant.