ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Reliable and efficient programming abstractions for wireless sensor networks
Authors: Nupur Kothari, Ramakrishna Gummadi, Todd Millstein, Ramesh Govindan
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGPLAN conference on Programming language design and implementation (2007)

It is currently difficult to build practical and reliable programming systems out of distributed and resource-constrained sensor devices. The state of the art in today's sensornet programming is centered around a component-based language called nesC. nesC is a node-level language-a program is written for an individual node in the network-and nesC programs use the services of an operating system called TinyOS. We are pursuing an approach to programming sensor networks that significantly raises the level of abstraction over this practice. The critical change is one of perspective: rather than writing programs from the point of view of an individual node, programmers implement a central program that conceptually has access to the entire network. This approach pushes to the compiler the task of producing node-level programs that implement the desired behavio. We present the Pleiades programming language, its compiler, and its runtime. The Pleiades language extends the C language with constructs that allow programmers to name and access node-local state within the network and to specify simple forms of concurrent execution. The compiler and runtime system cooperate to implement Pleiades programs efficiently and reliably. First, the compiler employs a novel program analysis to translate Pleiades programs into message-efficient units of work implemented in nesC. The Pleiades runtime system orchestrates execution of these units, using TinyOS services, across a network of sensor nodes. Second, the compiler and runtime system employ novel locking, deadlock detection, and deadlock recovery algorithms that guarantee serializability in the face of concurrent execution. We illustrate the readability, reliability and efficiency benefits of the Pleiades language through detailed experiments, and demonstrate that the Pleiades implementation of a realistic application performs similar to a hand-coded nesC version that contains more than ten times as much code.
Cooperative and online learning in signal processing
Authors: A. Asif
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2001. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 05 (2001)

The paper describes how the Technical University of British Columbia (TechBC) is using online and cooperative learning to improve the quality of education offered to its students. To explain how Web technology is being used to enhance learning, we focus on a sophomore level course in signal processing. Students study presentations delivered on the Web, discuss problems using an asynchronous conferencing system, and meet on campus once per week for a cooperative laboratory session. Comparative research indicates that introducing cooperative learning in university courses results in higher student achievement and more positive attitudes toward the subject and teaching methodology. Delivery of materials and learning activities via the Web provides greater access and flexibility for students. The students used a course management system (CMS) to study the online portion of the course.
Shake it up baby: scheduling with package auctions
Authors: Kan Takeuchi, John Lin, Yan Chen, Thomas A. Finholt
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Electronic commerce (2007)

In many disciplines success depends onaccess to scarce resources, such as unique instruments. Researchon computer-supported cooperative work has contributed to the development of technologies, such as collaboratories, that broaden access to scarce scientific and engineering resources. While broader access is often applauded, little attention has been focused on the problem of equitable and efficient resource allocation in the face of increased demand created through collaboratory use. This paper, then, uses the framework of mechanism design to evaluate different resource allocation schemes (RAD, Vickery, and knapsack). Experimental results show that knapsack achieves a more equitable distribution of resources than RAD or Vickery, but that RAD and Vickery are both more efficient than knapsack. The findings highlight the need for systematic exploration of allocation mechanisms within collaboratories, where simple optimization (e.g., knapsack) is likely to produce a sub-optimal match of resources to needs. More generally, the findings illustrate the utility of experimental economic approaches in understanding issues that emerge in large-scale collaborations, such as entire scientific and engineering communities.
Reduced model and simulation of myelinated axon using eigenfunction expansion and singular perturbation
Authors: Bomje Woo, Jinhoon Choi
Venue: Computers in Biology and Medicine (2007)

In a myelinated axon, there exist many nodes of Ranvier where myelin sheaths are absent and action potentials are actively regenerated. Hence, a myelinated axon is a nonuniform cable where myelinated parts and unmyelinated nodes of Ranvier are described by different cable equations. For the modelling of a myelinated axon, the compartment model based on finite volume or finite difference discretization was dominantly used. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach where an eigenfunction expansion combined with singular perturbation is employed for myelinated parts, and demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve an order of magnitude accuracy improvement for low order models. Moreover, it is also shown that the proposed scheme converges faster to attain a given accuracy. Hence, for simulation of myelinated axons, the proposed scheme can be an attractive alternative to the compartment model, that leads to a low order model with much higher accuracy or that converges faster for a given accuracy.
Speaker verification: minimizing the channel effects using autoassociative neural network models
Authors: S. P. Kishore
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2000. on IEEE International Conference - Volume 02 (2000)

The characteristics of the telephone channel and handset have a significant effect on the performance of speaker verification systems. The channel/handset mismatch between the training and testing data degrades the performance of speaker verification systems. In this paper, we show that the autoassociative neural network (AANN) models can be used to minimize the effects of channel characteristics on the performance of a text-independent speaker verification system. This paper also compares two approaches to represent the background model for an AANN based speaker verification system.
Capability passing processes
Authors: Tom Chothia, Dominic Duggan
Venue: Science of Computer Programming (2007)

Capability passing processes model global applications in a way that decouples the global agreement aspects of protocols from the details of how the communications are actually made. It relies on a restricted API or programming language and on the exchange of digital certificates representing capabilities to ensure that participants are faithful to a protocol and that outsiders cannot interfere. At the specification level, protocols are reasoned about independently of the underlying communication, using a process calculus with an abstraction of logs to isolate the remote state required for such protocols. At the implementation level, protocol steps no longer perform global communication; instead capabilities are used to transmit evidence of remote state, which in turn are used to authorize local log changes (corresponding to protocol steps). In this way, an API for global agreement protocols is defined independently of the underlying communication system.
Adaptive space-frequency RAKE receivers for WCDMA
Authors: C. Brunner
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 04 (1999)

Adaptive space-frequency RAKE receivers use maximum ratio combining and multi-user interference suppression to obtain a considerable increase in performance in DS-CDMA systems such as WCDMA. To this end, the signal-plus-interference-and-noise and the interference-plus-noise space-time covariance matrices are estimated. The computational complexity is reduced significantly by transforming the covariance matrices into the space-frequency domain and by omitting noisy space-frequency bins. The optimum weight vector for symbol decisions is the "largest" generalized eigenvector of the resulting matrix pencil. By iteratively updating the optimum weight vector slot by slot, real-time applicability becomes feasible while the fast fading is still tracked. The performance and the computational complexity depend on the number of space-frequency bins, antenna elements, and iterations. Therefore, the performance can easily be scaled with respect to the available computational power.
Teaching environmental engineering to non-environmental engineers
Authors: J. Graulau-Santiago
Venue: Proceedings of the 30th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 01 (2000)

At Michigan State University a two-year comprehensive evaluation of student expectations was used to develop a "new" environmental engineering course design. Our efforts will be focused on formulating a course, which will deviate substantially from the traditional introductory, environmental engineering course. Although, it will incorporate some material typically taught in green engineering or pollution preventative courses, the objectives of this proposed course will be much broader. We seek to present the non-environmental engineering student with a basic understanding of how engineering projects impact the environment and how environmental regulations impact the types of projects on which they may work. We are also seeking to provide them with the necessary decision making tools that will allow them to produce environmentally-conscious engineering designs. A mass-balance approach and team building skills will be taught throughout the course.
Data transfer performance issues for a web services interface to synchrotron experiments
Authors: Donglai Zhang, Paul Coddington, Andrew Wendelborn
Venue: Proceedings of the 2007 workshop on Service-oriented computing performance: aspects, issues, and approaches (2007)

The Common Instrument Middleware Architecture (CIMA) defines a web services interface to scientific instruments. We have been experimenting with the use of CIMA web services for remote monitoring of synchrotron experiments and real-time data download, processing and storage. Here we discuss some performance issues with data transfer using CIMA web services, particularly for long-distance, high-latency transfers. We explore alternative approaches for improving the performance and robustness of data transfer with CIMA, and provide some experimental results.
Identifying, Assigning, and Quantifying Crosscutting Concerns
Authors: Marc Eaddy, Alfred Aho, Gail C. Murphy
Venue: Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops (2007)

Crosscutting concerns degrade software quality. Before we can modularize the crosscutting concerns in our programs to increase software quality, we must first be able to find them. Unfortunately, accurately locating the code related to a concern is difficult, and without proper metrics, determining how much the concern is crosscutting is impossible. We propose a systematic methodology for identifying which code is related to which concern, and a suite of metrics for quantifying the amount of crosscutting code. Our concern identification and assignment guidelines resolve some of the ambiguity issues encountered by other researchers. We applied this approach to systematically identify all the requirement concerns in a 13,531 line program. We found that 95% of the concerns were crosscutting indicating a significant potential for improving modularity and that our metrics were better able to determine which concerns would benefit the most from reengineering.
A wavelet based stereo image coding algorithm
Authors: Qin Jiang
Venue: Proceedings of the Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1999. on 1999 IEEE International Conference - Volume 06 (1999)

Stereo image pair coding is an important issue in stereo data compression. A wavelet based stereo image pair coding algorithm is proposed in this paper. The wavelet transform is used to decompose the image into an approximation image and three edge images. In the wavelet domain, a disparity estimation technique is developed to estimate the disparity field using both approximation image and edge images. To improve the accuracy of estimation of wavelet images produced by the disparity compensation technique, a novel wavelet based subspace projection technique (SPT) is developed. In the SPT, the block dependent subspaces are constructed using block varying basis vectors that are derived from the disparity compensated wavelet images. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is efficient to achieve stereo image compression.
An image processing algorithm for the reversed transformation of rotated microscope images
Authors: Boguslaw Obara
Venue: Computers Geosciences (2007)

This paper presents an image processing algorithm for reversed transformation of rock structure images taken with polarizing microscope stage rotations. The algorithm is applied for the analysis of microscope images of Tumlin sandstone. The most important property of the proposed method is that the operation is based on global image information to find the best fit angle and vector. The idea of the algorithm is based on finding the optimal rotation angle and optimal translation vector, thus ensuring the best correspondence between analysed images. The criteria for optimization are formulated on the basis of the shapes of edges located on images. The proposed algorithm can be used as an alternative solution in the case when a rotating polarizer stage is not available. Moreover, the proposed algorithm makes it possible to use matched images for the automatic identification of the rock structures such as grain boundaries, cracks and pores.
Hot-Spot Avoidance With Multi-Pathing Over InfiniBand: An MPI Perspective
Authors: A. Vishnu, M. Koop, A. Moody, A. R. Mamidala, S. Narravula, D. K. Panda
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid (2007)

Large scale InfiniBand clusters are becoming increasingly popular, as reflected by the TOP 500 Supercomputer rankings. At the same time, fat tree has become a popular interconnection topology for these clusters, since it allows multiple paths to be available in between a pair of nodes. However, even with fat tree, hot-spots may occur in the network depending upon the route configuration between end nodes and communication pattern(s) in the application. To make matters worse, the deterministic routing nature of InfiniBand limits the application from effective use of multiple paths transparently and avoid the hot-spots in the network. Simulation based studies for switches and adapters to implement congestion control have been proposed in the literature. However, these studies have focussed on providing congestion control for the communication path, and not on utilizing multiple paths in the network for hot-spot avoidance. In this paper, we design an MPI functionality, which provides hot-spot avoidance for different communications, without a priori knowledge of the pattern. We leverage LMC (LID Mask Count) mechanism of InfiniBand to create multiple paths in the network and present the design issues (scheduling policies, selecting number of paths, scalability aspects) of our design. We implement our design and evaluate it with Pallas collective communication and MPI applications. On an InfiniBand cluster with 48 processes, MPI All-to-all Personalized shows an improvement of 27%. Our evaluation with NAS Parallel Benchmarks on 64 processes shows significant improvement in execution time with this functionality.
Tool support for creativity using externalizations
Authors: Andrew Warr, Eamonn O'Neill
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI conference on Creativity cognition (2007)

Within the creativity community, researchers and practitioners have developed and studied various support tools and environments. It is important to learn from these tools and environments, identifying requirements for improving the future support of creativity in design. In this paper, we focus on support for generating and interacting with external representations to facilitate shared understanding and common ground amongst stakeholders. In considering external representations, we distinguish between artifacts provided by the tools and boundary objects created by the participants. We evaluate the use of a particular creativity support tool: the Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC). From this evaluation we identify requirements for future tools and environments to support creative design.
Toying with technology in elementary education
Authors: L. J. Genalo
Venue: Proceedings of the 28th Annual Frontiers in Education - Volume 03 (1998)

Sponsored by a Miller Faculty Fellowship at Iowa State University, a new course was developed and offered for the first time in the fall semester of 1997. The course is called "Toying with Technology" and is designed to explain the principles behind many of the technological innovations in wide use today. It does this via a collection of hands-on laboratory experiences based upon simple systems constructed out of LEGO and controlled by small computers. These laboratory experiences are designed to lead experimentation, through the use of technology in support of many everyday activities. The initial offering of this course was to elementary education majors. As the course proceeded, it became clear that material appropriate for such majors was also appropriate for the students they would ultimately be teaching. Consequently, emphasis was placed on material appropriate for elementary-level students and a particular approach to teaching such material. This paper describes the development and first offering of the course, highlights some of the lab exercises used, and describes future expansion plans for our technology literacy project.
Group Invariance: Culture, KM & IT Capability Perceptions
Authors: Ronald Freeze
Venue: Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2007)

Knowledge Management (KM) enablers provide the leverage to impact the knowledge creation process [1]. A Knowledge Sharing (KS) Culture, considered a KM enabler, is cited as a significant contributor to the improvement and success of KM initiatives. However, comparisons of how KM capabilities and KS Culture perform in similar contexts (same organization) but different goals (separate business units) are limited. Invariance testing is used as a method to assess the similarity between groups. Data collected from knowledge workers at two business units from a large microchip manufacturing company identifies KS cultural differences and yet provides evidence of similar functioning on the KM capability scales. The resulting analysis indicates that emphasizing and promoting KM capabilities and KS Culture equally and simultaneously between different business units will result in dissimilar changes to the levels of each dimension.
Event Stream Processing with Out-of-Order Data Arrival
Authors: Ming Li, Mo Liu, Luping Ding, Elke A. Rundensteiner, Murali Mani
Venue: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops (2007)

Complex event processing has become increasingly important in modern applications, ranging from supply chain management for RFID tracking to real-time intrusion detection. The goal is to extract patterns from such event streams in order to make informed decisions in real-time. However, networking latencies and even machine failure may cause events to arrive out-of-order at the event stream processing engine. In this work, we address the problem of processing event pattern queries specified over event streams that may contain out-of-order data. First, we analyze the problems state-of-the-art event stream processing technology would experience when faced with out-of-order data arrival. We then propose a new solution of physical implementation strategies for the core stream algebra operators such as sequence scan and pattern construction, including stack-based data structures and associated purge algorithms. Optimizations for sequence scan and construction as well as state purging to minimize CPU cost and memory consumption are also introduced. Lastly, we conduct an experimental study demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.
Principles for designing data-/compute-intensive distributed applications and middleware systems for heterogeneous environments
Authors: Jik-Soo Kim, Henrique Andrade, Alan Sussman
Venue: Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (2007)

The nature of distributed systems is constantly and steadily changing as the hardware and software landscape evolves. Porting applications and adapting existing middleware systems to ever changing computational platforms has become increasingly complex and expensive. Therefore, the design of applications, as well as the design of next generation middleware systems, must follow a set of guiding principles in order to insure long-term ''survivability'' without costly re-engineering. From our practical experience, the key determinants to success in this endeavor are adherence to the following principles: (1) Design for change; (2) Provide for storage subsystem I/O coordination; (3) Employ workload partitioning and load balancing techniques; (4) Employ caching; (5) Schedule the workload; and (6) Understand the workload. In order to support these principles, we have collected extensive experimental results comparing three middleware systems targeted at data- and compute-intensive applications implemented by our research group during the course of the last decade, on a single data- and compute-intensive application. The main contribution of this work is the analysis of a level playing field, where we discuss and quantify how adherence to these guiding principles impacts overall system throughput and response time.
Negotiation-based routing between neighboring ISPs
Authors: Ratul Mahajan, David Wetherall, Thomas Anderson
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd conference on Symposium on Networked Systems Design & Implementation - Volume 2 (2005)

We explore negotiation as the basis for cooperation between competing entities, for the specific case of routing between two neighboring ISPs. Interdomain routing is often driven by self-interest and based on a limited view of the internetwork, which hurts the stability and efficiency of routing. We present a negotiation framework in which adjacent ISPs share information using coarse preferences and jointly decide the paths for the traffic flows they exchange. Our framework enables pairs of ISPs to agree on routing paths based on their specific relationship, even if they have different optimization criteria. We use simulation with over sixty measured ISP topologies to evaluate our framework. We find that the quality of negotiated routing is close to that of globally optimal routing that uses complete, detailed information about both ISPs. We also find that ISPs have incentive to negotiate because both of them benefit compared to routing independently based on local information.