ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Tool support for checking railway interlocking designs
Authors: K. Winter, W. Johnston, P. Robinson, P. Strooper, L. van den Berg
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th Australian workshop on Safety critical systems and software - Volume 55 (2006)

The development of railway interlocking systems is currently very labour-intensive. Specialists develop the interlocking design for a particular area and manually check for completeness and consistency. The interlocking is implemented in either software or using electrical relays. The interlocking has to be tested against the safety requirements for signalling systems, i.e., the signalling principles.The whole process can be supported by various tools, ranging from editors to animators. In this paper we focus on exploiting model checking to automatically check the design with respect to safety. The main concerns of this technique are the problem size and the efficiency of available tools. We have investigated both of these problems: seeking to work with a minimal model of the interlocking design and to improve efficiency of the model-checking process by exploiting domain knowledge of our particular application.
DASCOSA: Database Support for Computational Science Applications
Authors: Kjetil Norvag
Venue: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications (2006)

Computational science is a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field that uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and solve complex problems. So far, Grid computing has gained some maturity with respect to the actual computation. However, the management of data in Grid networks is still a very immature area. In this paper, we present DASCOSA (Database Support for Computational Science Applications), which consists of a) a Grid database management system based on the peer-to-peer paradigm (PORDaS), and b) a semantic layer that provides seamless access to the heterogeneous sources in the data Grid. We present the architecture of PORDaS, and the design of the semantic layer that is under development.
Persistent information security: beyond the e-commerce threat model
Authors: Merv Matson, Mihaela Ulieru
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Electronic commerce: The new e-commerce: innovations for conquering current barriers, obstacles and limitations to conducting successful business on the internet (2006)

This paper introduces a new class of information security solution. The core technology, to authorize and track the use of digital files, was originally developed in eCommerce applications, there known as Digital Rights Management (DRM). In applications to non-commercial confidential records, such as health and safety documents, we call the solution "Persistent Information Security". We distinguish it from DRM because the threat models of the fields of application differ significantly. An implementation, RightsEnforcer, is described to clarify some concepts of operation. A simple model for a cost-benefit study of deploying a security technology is suggested and illustrated.
Kafka in the Academy: A Note on Ethics in IA Education
Authors: Richard R. Brooks, Christopher Vutsinas
Venue: IEEE Security and Privacy (2006)

The need for security education is clear and pressing. Yet, information assurance education presentsseveral interesting, and ambiguous, ethical questions. Students must learn how systems are breached, butthey might not always use the insights they gain for the common good.
How people read sociograms: a questionnaire study
Authors: Weidong Huang, Seok-Hee Hong, Peter Eades
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 Asia-Pacific Symposium on Information Visualisation - Volume 60 (2006)

Visualizing social network data into sociograms plays an important role in communicating information about network characteristics. Previous studies have shown that human perceptions of network features can be affected by the layout of a sociogram [McGrath et al. 1996, 1997]. An empirical user study has been conducted to investigate effectiveness of five different network visualization conventions and impact of edge crossings on sociogram perceptions, using both quantitative performance and preference measures and qualitative questionnaire study. This paper reports results and findings of the questionnaire study. We relate qualitative questionnaire results with quantitative findings and discuss their implications for sociogram design. We found that subjects had a strong preference of placing nodes on the top or in the center to highlight importance, and clustering nodes in the same group and separating groups to highlight groups. They had tendency to believe that nodes in the center or on the top are more important, and nodes in close proximity belong to the same group. Some preliminary recommendations for sociogram design and hypotheses about human reading behaviors are proposed.
Service Discovery in P2P Service-oriented Environments
Authors: Qianhui Althea Liang, Jen-Yao Chung, Hui Lei
Venue: Proceedings of the The 8th IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology and The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing, E-Commerce, and E-Services (2006)

The P2P service-oriented environment presents new opportunities and challenges for distributed computing and resource sharing. In this paper, we present a middleware infrastructure, called CCSD, for decentralized service discovery in a wide-area ad hoc P2P service-oriented environment. Two of the key ideas of a CCSD P2P network are: 1) The concept of context awareness is extended to the awareness of service capacities of P2P peers, by which peers are able to understand and compare each other's service capacities; and 2) A peer's capacity context description is replicated in several designated peers in addition to the peer itself. Using a hash table, the description of the most suitable capacity context for a service request can be located quickly and the service request is forwarded to and served at the peer associated with that capacity context. CCSD, designed to satisfy the dynamic and constrained nature of the ad hoc P2P environments, benefits service users in the environments by providing the most suitable service capacity transparently.
A Model of Saccade Initiation Based on the Competitive Integration of Exogenous and Endogenous Signals in the Superior Colliculus
Authors: Thomas P. Trappenberg, Michael C. Dorris, Douglas P. Munoz, Raymond M. Klein
Venue: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2001)

Significant advances in cognitive neuroscience can be achieved by combining techniques used to measure behavior and brain activity with neural modeling. Here we apply this approach to the initiation of rapid eye movements (saccades), which are used to redirect the visual axis to targets of interest. It is well known that the superior colliculus (SC) in the midbrain plays a major role in generating saccadic eye movements, and physiological studies have provided important knowledge of the activity pattern of neurons in this structure. Based on the observation that the SC receives localized sensory (exogenous) and voluntary (endogenous) inputs, our model assumes that this information is integrated by dynamic competition across local collicular interactions. The model accounts well for the effects upon saccadic reaction time (SRT) due to removal of fixation, the presence of distractors, execution of pro- versus antisaccades, and variation in target probability, and suggests a possible mechanism for the generation of express saccades. In each of these cases, the activity patterns of "neurons" within the model closely resemble actual cell behavior in the intermediate layer of the SC. The interaction structure we employ is instrumental for producing a physiologically faithful model and results in new insights and hypotheses regarding the neural mechanisms underlying saccade initiation.
Optimal Dimensioning of a Constant Bandwidth Server
Authors: Giorgio Buttazzo, Enrico Bini
Venue: Proceedings of the 27th IEEE International Real-Time Systems Symposium (2006)

The Constant Bandwidth Server (CBS) is an effective scheduling technique frequently used to handle overruns and implement resource reservation in real-time systems where tasks have variable execution requirements. The behavior of the server is tuned by two parameters: the server bandwidth, which defines the fraction of the processor allocated to the task, and the server period, which defines the time granularity of the allocation. The effect of the granularity on task executions has never been studied before, so it is typically assigned using ad-hoc considerations. This paper presents a statistical study to evaluate the effects of the server parameters on task response times, and proposes a technique to compute the best parameters that minimize the average response time of the served tasks.
Digital backpacking in the museum with a SmartCard
Authors: Eva Hornecker, Matthias Stifter
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGCHI New Zealand chapter's international conference on Computer-human interaction: design centered HCI (2006)

This paper reports on the evaluation of a digitally-augmented exhibition on the history of modern media and our experiences with the methodic approach employed. As a central element of this exhibition visitors can buy a smartcard that enables them to store collected or self-created data in a 'digital backpack', which can be accessed via internet as a personalized souvenir. We have evaluated the exhibition, visitors' perceptions and usage of the card using a multi-method strategy complementing quantitative data-analysis with qualitative, ethnographic methods. This paper focuses on visitors' use and the perceived utility of the smartcard, and our experiences with using automatically generated data from interaction logfiles for analyzing visitor behavior, and with the multi-method strategy.
Polygon dissections and some generalizations of cluster complexes
Authors: Eleni Tzanaki
Venue: Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A (2006)

Let W be a Weyl group corresponding to the root system An-1 or Bn. We define a simplicial complex ΔWm in terms of polygon dissections for such a group and any positive integer m. For m= 1, ΔWm is isomorphic to the cluster complex corresponding to W, defined in [S. Fomin, A.V. Zelevinsky, Y-systems and generalized associahedra, Ann. of Math. 158 (2003) 977-1018]. We enumerate the faces of ΔWm and show that the entries of its h-vector are given by the generalized Narayana numbers NWm(i), defined in [C.A. Athanasiadis, On a refinement of the generalized Catalan numbers for Weyl groups, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 357 (2005) 179-196]. We also prove that for any m ≥ 1 the complex ΔWm is shellable and hence Cohen-Macaulay.
Tankwar: AR games at GenCon Indy 2005
Authors: Trond Nilsen
Venue: Proceedings of the 2005 international conference on Augmented tele-existence (2005)

By introducing virtual content onto a regular tabletop, augmented reality (AR) offers a compelling display medium for enhancing tabletop games. Coupled with tangible user interfaces, it constitutes a truly novel environment for games. Our research investigates the possibilities and constraints for succesful game design, starting with principles drawn fom tabletop and conventional computer games, and moving towards designs unique to AR. Our first major game, AR Tankwar, was recently demonstrated at GenCon Indy 2005 to over 300 players and many more spectators. This paper presents a short overview of AR Tankwar along with results from questionnaires and player discussion at the convention.
A Unified Conceptual Foundation for Feature Modelling
Authors: Timo Asikainen, Tomi Mannisto, Timo Soininen
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th International on Software Product Line Conference (2006)

Feature modelling has become perhaps the most popular method for representing variabilities and commonalities in software product families. A large number of feature modelling methods and supporting tools have been reported. The conceptual foundation of feature models remains vague, a fact that severely undermines the usability of feature models. Therefore, we introduce Forfamel, a rigorous conceptual foundation for feature modelling. Forfamel synthesises existing feature modelling methods in the sense that it covers most concepts and constructs found in existing feature modelling methods. In addition, Forfamel includes a few additional constructs that may prove to be useful. We show the novel contribution of Forfamel by reflecting it against previous feature modelling methods and arguing for its underlying design decisions.
A Fault Tolerant and Multi-Paradigm Grid Architecture for Time Constrained Problems. Application to Option Pricing in Finance.
Authors: Sebastien Bezzine, Virginie Galtier, Stephane Vialle, Francoise Baude, Mireille Bossy, Viet Dung Doan, Ludovic Henrio
Venue: Proceedings of the Second IEEE International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing (2006)

This paper introduces a Grid software architecture offering fault tolerance, dynamic and aggressive load balancing and two complementary parallel programming paradigms. Experiments with financial applications on a real multi-site Grid assess this solution. This architecture has been designed to run industrial and financial applications, that are frequently time constrained and CPU consuming, feature both tightly and loosely coupled parallelism requiring generic programming paradigm, and adopt client-server business architecture.
Over-Approximating Boolean Programs with Unbounded Thread Creation
Authors: Byron Cook, Daniel Kroening, Natasha Sharygina
Venue: Proceedings of the Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design (2006)

This paper describes a symbolic algorithm for overapproximating reachability in Boolean programs with unbounded thread creation. The fix-point is detected by projecting the state of the threads to the globally visible parts, which are finite. Our algorithm models recursion by over-approximating the call stack that contains the return locations of recursive function calls, as reachability is undecidable in this case. The algorithm may obtain spurious counterexamples, which are removed iteratively by means of an abstraction refinement loop. Experiments show that the symbolic algorithm for unbounded thread creation scales to large abstract models.
Collaborative Interaction Analysis: The Teachers' Perspective
Authors: Eleni Voyiatzaki, Meletis Margaritis, Nikolaos Avouris
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (2006)

Collaborative Interaction Analysis involves quantitative and qualitative techniques of coding and interpreting recorded group activities, mostly used by researchers of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). These techniques are usually tedious and necessitate specialized knowledge, so they are not suitable for everyday class practice. A hypothesis investigated in this paper is that such methods in a simplified version, if supported by adequate tools may be useful in design, implementation and evaluation of collaborative activities by teachers. The Synergo Interaction Analysis Tool is proposed for such use and an example of collaborative problem solving activity analysis by teachers during a collaborative activity is discussed as evidence of the effectiveness of this proposal.
Electrophysiological Correlates of the Retrieval of Emotional and Non-emotional Context
Authors: Elizabeth J. Maratos, Michael D. Rugg
Venue: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2001)

In two experiments, words were presented in negatively or neutrally valenced sentences. At test, subjects made old/new recognition judgments to these words. In Experiment 2 only, for words judged old, subjects also indicated whether the words had been studied in a neutral or a negative context. In Experiment 1, left parietal old/new event-related brain potential (ERP) effects were larger and more sustained when elicited by words that had been studied in negative sentences, and a right frontal old/new effect was elicited by these words exclusively. In Experiment 2, the left parietal and right frontal effects elicited by old words correctly assigned to their study context were equivalent in size regardless of the nature of the context; a third ERP old/new effect, maximal over posterior scalp regions, was seen only for words from negative contexts. The findings indicate that incidental retrieval of emotional context gives rise to greater activation in neural systems supporting conscious recollection than does retrieval of nonemotional context. When contextual retrieval is intentional, recollection of emotional and non-emotional information are associated with equivalent engagement of these systems. The findings from Experiment 2 suggest that additional neural circuitry may be activated selectively by emotionally valenced episodic information.
A `Natural Logic' inference system using the Lambek calculus
Authors: Anna Zamansky, Nissim Francez, Yoad Winter
Venue: Journal of Logic, Language and Information (2006)

This paper develops an inference system for natural language within the `Natural Logic' paradigm as advocated by van Benthem (1997), Sánchez (1991) and others. The system that we propose is based on the Lambek calculus and works directly on the Curry-Howard counterparts for syntactic representations of natural language, with no intermediate translation to logical formulae. The Lambek-based system we propose extends the system by Fyodorov et~al. (2003), which is based on the Ajdukiewicz/Bar-Hillel (AB) calculus Bar Hillel, (1964). This enables the system to deal with new kinds of inferences, involving relative clauses, non-constituent coordination, and meaning postulates that involve complex expressions. Basing the system on the Lambek calculus leads to problems with non-normalized proof terms, which are treated by using normalization axioms.
Adaptive Parallel Graph Mining for CMP Architectures
Authors: Gregory Buehrer, Srinivasan Parthasarathy, Yen-Kuang Chen
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Data Mining (2006)

Mining graph data is an increasingly popular challenge, which has practical applications in many areas, including molecular substructure discovery, web link analysis, fraud detection, and social network analysis. The problem statement is to enumerate all subgraphs occurring in at least \sigmagraphs of a database, where \sigmais a user specified parameter. Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs) provide true parallel processing, and are expected to become the de facto standard for commodity computing. In this work, building on the state-of-the-art, we propose an efficient approach to parallelize such algorithms for CMPs. We show that an algorithm which adapts its behavior based on the runtime state of the system can improve system utilization and lower execution times. Most notably, we incorporate dynamic state management to allow memory consumption to vary based on availability. We evaluate our techniques on current day shared memory systems (SMPs) and expect similar performance for CMPs. We demonstrate excellent speedup, 27- fold on 32 processors for several real world datasets. Additionally, we show our dynamic techniques afford this scalability while consuming up to 35% less memory than static techniques.
An Experience With Design by Contract
Authors: Judy Tantivongsathaporn, Daniel Stearns
Venue: Proceedings of the XIII Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference (2006)

Design by Contract uses a formal contractual approach to specify and implement the elements of a software system. Design by Contract practice is not widely accepted in the software industry for a variety of reasons. Most notably, there is little research that demonstrates the efficacy of Design by Contract practices. A yearlong experiment compared Design by Contract practices with more traditional defensive programming practices. Sixteen software development teams independently designed and constructed an industrial-strength project for Brocade Corporation. The experiment gathered productivity data on each team and metrics on their software artifacts. Detailed analyses were performed on the data to compare and contrast the performance of the teams. This paper describes the project, data collection, analysis and results of the experiment.
Animals on the Web
Authors: Tamara L. Berg, David A. Forsyth
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition - Volume 2 (2006)

We demonstrate a method for identifying images containing categories of animals. The images we classify depict animals in a wide range of aspects, configurations and appearances. In addition, the images typically portray multiple species that differ in appearance (e.g. ukari's, vervet monkeys, spider monkeys, rhesus monkeys, etc.). Our method is accurate despite this variation and relies on four simple cues: text, color, shape and texture. Visual cues are evaluated by a voting method that compares local image phenomena with a number of visual exemplars for the category. The visual exemplars are obtained using a clustering method applied to text on web pages. The only supervision required involves identifying which clusters of exemplars refer to which sense of a term (for example, "monkey" can refer to an animal or a bandmember). Because our method is applied to web pages with free text, the word cue is extremely noisy. We show unequivocal evidence that visual information improves performance for our task. Our method allows us to produce large, accurate and challenging visual datasets mostly automatically.
Creating navigable multi-level video summaries
Authors: F. Shipman, A. Girgensohn, L. Wilcox
Venue: Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Multimedia and Expo - Volume 1 (2003)

We created an alternative approach to existing video summaries that gives viewers control over the summaries by selecting hyper-links to other video with additional information. We structure such summaries as "detail-on-demand" video, a subset of general hypervideo in which at most one link to another video sequence is available at any given time. Our editor for such video, Hyper-Hitchcock, provides a workspace in which an author can select and arrange video clips, generate composites from clips and from other composites, and place links between composites. To simplify dealing with a large number of clips, Hyper-Hitchcock generates iconic representations for composites that can be used to manipulate the composite as a whole. In addition to providing an authoring environment, Hyper-Hitchcock can automatically generate multi-level hypervideo summaries for immediate use or as the starting point for author modification.
Computer-Aided Evaluation of Protein Expression in Pathological Tissue Images
Authors: Elisa Ficarra, Enrico Macii, Giovanni De Micheli, Luca Benini
Venue: Proceedings of the 19th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (2006)

This work presents the first fully-automated computeraided analysis approach to the quantification of the expression of receptors for the non-small cell lung carcinoma. This immunohistochemical analysis is usually performed by pathologists via visual inspection of tissue samples images. Our techniques streamlines this error-prone and time-consuming process, thereby facilitating analysis and diagnosis. Experimental results on several real-life datasets demonstrate the high quantitative precision of our approach.