ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Fitness functions in evolutionary robotics: A survey and analysis
Authors: Andrew L. Nelson, Gregory J. Barlow, Lefteris Doitsidis
Venue: Robotics and Autonomous Systems (2009)

This paper surveys fitness functions used in the field of evolutionary robotics (ER). Evolutionary robotics is a field of research that applies artificial evolution to generate control systems for autonomous robots. During evolution, robots attempt to perform a given task in a given environment. The controllers in the better performing robots are selected, altered and propagated to perform the task again in an iterative process that mimics some aspects of natural evolution. A key component of this process-one might argue, the key component-is the measurement of fitness in the evolving controllers. ER is one of a host of machine learning methods that rely on interaction with, and feedback from, a complex dynamic environment to drive synthesis of controllers for autonomous agents. These methods have the potential to lead to the development of robots that can adapt to uncharacterized environments and which may be able to perform tasks that human designers do not completely understand. In order to achieve this, issues regarding fitness evaluation must be addressed. In this paper we survey current ER research and focus on work that involved real robots. The surveyed research is organized according to the degree of a priori knowledge used to formulate the various fitness functions employed during evolution. The underlying motivation for this is to identify methods that allow the development of the greatest degree of novel control, while requiring the minimum amount of a priori task knowledge from the designer.
A comparative analysis of server selection in content replication networks
Authors: Tao Wu, David Starobinski
Venue: IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (TON) (2008)

Server selection plays an essential role in content replication networks, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) and content delivery networks (CDNs). In this paper, we perform an analytical investigation of the strengths and weaknesses of existing server selection policies, based initially on an M/G/1 Processor Sharing (PS) queueing-theoretic model. We develop a theoretical benchmark to evaluate the performance of two general server selection policies, referred to as EQ_DELAY and EQ_LOAD, which characterize a wide range of existing server selection algorithms. We find that EQ_LOAD achieves an average delay always higher than or equal to that of EQ_DELAY. A key theoretical result of this paper is that in an N-server system, the worst case ratio between the average delay of EQ_DELAY or EQ_LOAD and the minimal average delay (obtained from the benchmark) is precisely N. We constructively show how this worst case scenario can arise in highly heterogeneous systems. This result, when interpreted in the context of selfish routing, means that the price of anarchy in unbounded delay networks depends on the topology, and can potentially be very large. Our analytical findings are extended in asymptotic regimes to the G/G/1 First-Come First-Serve and multi-class M/G/1-PS models and supported by simulations run for various arrival and service processes, scheduling disciplines, and workload exhibiting temporal locality. These results indicate that our analysis is applicable to realistic scenarios.
An SVM-Based Soccer Video Shot Classification Scheme Using Projection Histograms
Authors: Nan Nan, Guizhong Liu, Xueming Qian, Chen Wang
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia: Advances in Multimedia Information Processing (2008)

In this paper, we propose an SVM based shot classification scheme, which categorizes shots of soccer videos into 4 kinds, namely global shots, medium shots, close-up shots and audience shots. The proposed scheme consists in a new adaptive dominant color detection algorithm, as well as a novel feature, the projection histogram. Experiments show that our scheme performs competitively and our new feature is effective.
On the Implementation of Boundary Element Engineering Codes on the Cell Broadband Engine
Authors: Manoel T. Cunha, Jose C. Telles, Alvaro L. Coutinho
Venue: High Performance Computing for Computational Science - VECPAR 2008: 8th International Conference, Toulouse, France, June 24-27, 2008. Revised Selected Papers (2008)

Originally developed by the consortium Sony-Toshiba-IBM for the Playstation 3 game console, the Cell Broadband Engine processor has been increasingly used in a much wider range of applications like HDTV sets and multimedia devices. Conforming the new Cell Broadband Engine Architecture that extends the PowerPC architecture, this processor can deliver high computational power embedding nine cores in a single chip: one general purpose PowerPC core and eight vector cores optimized for compute-intensive tasks. The processor's performance is enhanced by single-instruction-multiple-data (SIMD) instructions that allow to execute up to four floating-point operations in one clock cycle. This multi-level parallel environment is highly suited to applications processing data streams: encryption/decryption, multimedia, image and signal processing, among others. This paper discusses the use of Cell BE to solve engineering problems and the practical aspects of the implementation of numerical method codes in this new architecture. To demonstrate the Cell BE programming techniques and the efficient porting of existing scalar algorithms to run on a multi-level parallel processor, the authors present the techniques applied to a well-known program for the solution of two dimensional elastostatic problems with the Boundary Element Method. The programming guidelines provided here may also be extended to other numerical methods. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Formal Modeling of Airport Security Regulations using the Focal Environment
Authors: David Delahaye, Jean-Frédéric Étienne
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Requirements Engineering and Law (2008)

We present the formalization of regulations intended to ensure airport security in the framework of civilaviation. In particular, we describe the formal models of two stan- dards, one at the international level and the other at the European level. These models are expressed using the Focal environment, which is an object-oriented specification and proof system. In addition, we show that these models are correct and complete thanks to the Zenon automated theorem prover, which is the dedicated reasoning support of Focal. Finally, we propose an automatic transformation of Focal specifications to UML class diagrams, in order to provide a graphical documentation of formal models for developers, and in the long-term, for certification authorities.
Using ink to expose students' thought processes in CS2/CS7
Authors: Roy P. Pargas, Samuel Bryfczynski
Venue: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (2009)

This paper presents and discusses a web-based software tool called GraphPad designed to facilitate interactivity in a CS2 or CS7 (data structures) course in which Tablet PCs or WACOM tablets are available. We describe how GraphPad enables an instructor to: establish a temporary network with the instructor's Tablet as server and the students' Tablets as clients, broadcast instructions and collect student Ink responses, evaluate student submissions and distribute evaluations with a single button-click, use student submissions as examples to guide lecture, and save student submissions in a database. The saved submissions may then be reviewed individually, tagged for errors, and analyzed statistically. An immediate goal is to use GraphPad to deliver CS2/CS7 course content more effectively. A long term goal is to use data collected by GraphPad to help understand the thought process of the CS2/CS7 student for the purpose of identifying students at risk early in order to provide intervention assistance.
comforTABLE: a robotic environment for aging in place
Authors: Keith Evan Green, Ian D. Wakjer, Johnell O. Brooks, Tarek Mohktar, Linnea Smolentzov
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE international conference on Human robot interaction (2009)

While high-technology has become pervasive in hospitals, domestic environments remain essentially low-tech and conventional, despite the care needs of an aging population wishing to age in place. In response, an interdisciplinary team - robotics engineer, architect, human factors psychologist and gerontologist - are designing, constructing, field testing, and evaluating comforTABLE, an intelligent environment for aging in place. comforTABLE is designed to increase the quality of life of both healthy individuals as well as persons with impaired mobility by intelligently supporting the physical organization of their immediate environment. While comforTABLE features intelligent behavior and robotic elements, comforTABLE aims to help people do things for themselves. This paper introduces the motivations for comforTABLE, presents its three intelligent, networked components and describes scenarios of how the system might operate in domestic situations.
Location-Aware Reminders with Personal Life Content on Place-Enhanced Blogs
Authors: Hideki Kaji, Masatoshi Arikawa
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems (2008)

One of the reasons users record their experience and knowledge as diaries, memos, photos, voice records and videos is to remember them for the future. However, the records are not effectively used in our real lives. The records are called personal life content in this paper. This paper proposes a location-aware personal life content reminder as a software tool to provide users with personal recorded content if they are located at the right places where the content was created or associated. The reminders are designed based on our developing place-enhanced Blogs which provide users with rich environment to tag personal life content with place descriptions. We discuss the architecture and the characteristics of both the location-aware reminders and the place-enhanced Blogs.
Pluribus: a reliable multiprocessor
Authors: S. M. Ornstein, W. R. Crowther, M. F. Kraley, R. D. Bressler, A. Michel, F. E. Heart
Venue: Proceedings of the May 19-22, 1975, national computer conference and exposition (1975)

As computer technology has evolved, system architects have continually sought new ways to exploit the decreasing costs of system components. One approach has been to pull together collections of units into multiprocessor systems. Usually the objectives have been to gain increased operating power through parallelism and/or to gain increased system reliability through redundancy.
Examining high-school students' preferences toward learning environments, personal beliefs and concept learning in web-based contexts
Authors: Fang-Ying Yang, Cheng-Chieh Chang
Venue: Computers Education (2009)

The purpose of the study is to explore three kinds of personal affective traits among high-school students and their effects on web-based concept learning. The affective traits include personal preferences about web-based learning environments, personal epistemological beliefs, and beliefs about web-based learning. One hundred 11th graders participated in the study. Three questionnaires were developed to assess these affective characteristics. An online test and the flow-map technique were employed to probe concept achievements that indicated the learning outcome. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, correlation and regression analyses were conducted to present trends and relations among variables. It was found that participants of the study who mostly had not developed sophisticated epistemological beliefs displayed only moderate preferences toward explorative and interactive web-based learning environments, and they seemed to be conservative about the effectiveness of the new type of learning. According to the flow-map technique, the serial form of concept achievements was the main product of concept learning in the explorative web-based environments defined in the study. Regression analyses indicated that while preferences toward inquiry-based instructional designs and outward interactions, and the simple form of personal epistemology predicted concept achievements, beliefs about effectiveness of web-based learning resulted in a negative impact on concept learning.
Computer Forensics For Dummies
Authors: Linda Volonino, Reynaldo Anzaldua
Venue:  (2008)

Uncover a digital trail of e-evidence by using the helpful, easy-to-understand information in Computer Forensics For Dummies! Professional and armchair investigators alike can learn the basics of computer forensics, from digging out electronic evidence to solving the case. You wont need a computer science degree to master e-discovery. Find and filter data in mobile devices, e-mail, and other Web-based technologies.Youll learn all about e-mail and Web-based forensics, mobile forensics, passwords and encryption, and other e-evidence found through VoIP, voicemail, legacy mainframes, and databases. Youll discover how to use the latest forensic software, tools, and equipment to find the answers that youre looking for in record time. When you understand how data is stored, encrypted, and recovered, youll be able to protect your personal privacy as well. By the time you finish reading this book, youll know how to:Prepare for and conduct computer forensics investigations Find and filter data Protect personal privacy Transfer evidence without contaminating it Anticipate legal loopholes and opponents methods Handle passwords and encrypted data Work with the courts and win the case Plus, Computer Forensics for Dummies includes lists of things that everyone interested in computer forensics should know, do, and build. Discover how to get qualified for a career in computer forensics, what to do to be a great investigator and expert witness, and how to build a forensics lab or toolkit.
Self Protecting Data for De-perimeterised Information Sharing
Authors: Pete Burnap, Jeremy Hilton
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 Third International Conference on Digital Society (2009)

The emergence of high-speed networks, Grid Computing, Service-Oriented Architectures, and an ever increasing ambient connection to mobile Internet has enabled an underpinning infrastructure for the development of dynamically formed, collaborative working groups known as Virtual Organizations (VOs). VOs provide strong motivation for investigation into the infrastructure, and in particular the security necessary to protect the information and resources shared within a VO, both while resident on local machines and when allowed to move beyond the secure boundary of a local organizational network perimeter and into the realm of the distributed VO. Traditional access control systems are perimeter-centric, meaning they apply the controls to both internal and external requests for access to information within or at the perimeter of their information system. This paper presents the initial results of the JISC funded SPIDER project, being led by Cardiff University. Through case based example, the research investigates the limitations to granularity and persistent control over information when using the perimeter-centric approach in a collaborative working environment.
Culinary art designer
Authors: Fumihiro Kato, Mina Shiina, Takashi Tokizaki, Hironori Mitake, Takafumi Aoki, Shoichi Hasegawa
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (2008)

Cooking, as an every day task, is one of time consuming but essential task in home. However, designing of cooking is not very easy. Cooks design their cooking based on their empirical knowledge and such knowledge is difficult to learn without long time experience and/or hard practice under senior cooks. That is why we propose "Culinary Art Designer"--- a system that supports one to dynamically design their own recipe visually.
Designing physical and social intergenerational family entertainment
Authors: Eng Tat Khoo, Tim Merritt, Adrian David Cheok
Venue: Interacting with Computers (2009)

Present computer games and digital entertainment do not usually facilitate intergenerational family interactions. According to recent survey results in Japan, there is a high percentage of older people who own and play electronic or computer games, but rarely do they play the games with their family members. It is a positive sign that more older people are participating in the digital games arena, but it would be even more beneficial if they could interact actively with the young family members through gaming activities. This could possibly strengthen family bonding and bridge the gap between older people and youth culture. This paper presents steps for designing an intergenerational family entertainment system which focuses on physical and social interactions using a mixed reality floor system. The main design goals include: facilitating interactions between users with varied levels of skill in utilizing technology, utilizing the familiar physical motions from other activities to make an intuitive physical interface, and encouraging social interactions among families and friends. Detailed implementation of these steps is presented in the design of our intergenerational entertainment system, Age Invaders. Four main prototype iterations for the system is presented. Our design process is based on User Centered Design and relies on constant involvement of users to understand the key issues and to help make effective design decisions. The results of the study help to focus the refinements of the existing platform from a usability standpoint and also aids in the development of new physical entertainment and interactive applications. This study provides insights into user issues including how users interact in a complex mixed reality experience, which is heavily based in physicality. The use of one portion of the user base which is most proficient with technology before involving the novice users was found to empower novice users to begin to use digital technology.
Architecture design, performance analysis and VLSI implementation of a reconfigurable shared buffer for high-speed switch-router
Authors: Ling Wu, Cheng Li
Venue: International Journal of Communication Systems (2009)

Modern switches and routers require massive storage space to buffer packets. This becomes more significant as link speed increases and switch size grows. From the memory technology perspective, while DRAM is a good choice to meet capacity requirement, the access time causes problems for high-speed applications. On the other hand, though SRAM is faster, it is more costly and does not have high storage density. The SRAM-DRAM hybrid architecture provides a good solution to meet both capacity and speed requirements. From the switch design and network traffic perspective, to minimize packet loss, the buffering space allocated for each switch port is normally based on the worst-case scenario, which is usually huge. However, under normal traffic load conditions, the buffer utilization for such configuration is very low. Therefore, we propose a reconfigurable buffer-sharing scheme that can dynamically adjust the buffering space for each port according to the traffic patterns and buffer saturation status. The target is to achieve high performance and improve buffer utilization, while not posing much constraint on the buffer speed. In this paper, we study the performance of the proposed buffer-sharing scheme by both a numerical model and extensive simulations under uniform and non-uniform traffic conditions. We also present the architecture design and VLSI implementation of the proposed reconfigurable shared buffer using the 0.18 &micro;m CMOS technology. Our results manifest that the proposed architecture can always achieve high performance and provide much flexibility for the high-speed packet switches to adapt to various traffic patterns. Furthermore, it can be easily integrated into the functionality of port controllers of modern switches and routers. Copyright &copy; 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Part of the preliminary work has been presented at the 2008 IEEE International Communications Conference (ICC'08) [1].
Similarity Learning for Nearest Neighbor Classification
Authors: Ali Mustafa Qamar, Eric Gaussier, Jean-Pierre Chevallet, Joo Hwee Lim
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (2008)

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for learning a general class of similarity measures for kNN classification. This class encompasses, among others, the standard cosine measure, as well as the Dice and Jaccard coefficients. The algorithm we propose is an extension of the voted perceptron algorithm and allows one to learn different types of similarity functions (either based on diagonal, symmetric or asymmetric similarity matrices). The results we obtained show that learning similarity measures yields significant improvements on several collections, for two prediction rules: the standard kNN rule, which was our primary goal, and a symmetric version of it.
An active product state tracking architecture in logistics sensor networks
Authors: Sang Hoon Woo, Ja Young Choi, Choonjong Kwak, Chang Ouk Kim
Venue: Computers in Industry (2009)

Sensor technologies are being introduced as a means to collect the accurate and online information of products in logistics networks. Products with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags can guarantee timely product location visibility. Also, additional sensors can measure location dependent attributes such as temperature and humidity. Representative product centric approaches such as EPC Network and the Dialog system make it possible to secure the item level product information automatically and fast. However, they leave room for more advanced services, especially for active product state tracking service that monitors the locations and attributes of products in a timely manner and triggers exception handling when the constraints associated with the product states are violated. Using state transition model, temporal data model, and publish/subscribe model, this paper proposes an active product state tracking system architecture which is able to track products even when they are enclosed in a box, a pallet, or a container. A simulation based experiment is provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed system.
Quantum-confinement versus strain effects in the Zn(Cd)S(Se) family of superlattices
Authors: Ihab M. Obaidat, Nacir Tit
Venue: Microelectronics Journal (2009)

We have investigated the quantum-confinement (QC) and strain effects on the band structures of the Zn(Cd)S(Se) family of binary-compound superlattices (SLs); particularly those with common anions and with common cations. All the studied cases of SLs are found to form type-I hetero-junctions, where one of the two constituents consists a well for both the holes and electrons. The calculation is based on the sp3s* tight-binding (TB) method with inclusion of spin-orbit coupling. We have simulated the quantum-confinement energy (EQ) versus the well width (Lw) and fit some available photoluminescence (PL) data. Our results show that the strain-induced energy shifts to be small compared with confinement energies. Nevertheless, such small Estr can make a difference and play important roles to yield type-I SLs in the case of vanishing band-offsets, such as all cases of common-anion or special cases of common-cation SLs. The results also show the QC to manifest itself in three different ways: In case of common-anion SLs, such as ZnS/CdS and ZnSe/CdSe, the QC controls mainly the electrons. Whereas in common-cation SLs, whose conduction-band offset is small (CBO≃0) such as ZnS/ZnSe, the QC controls only the holes. In the rest of common-cation SLs, whose valence-band offset (VBO) and CBO are comparable such as CdS/CdSe, the QC would involve both holes and electrons. Our theoretical results are shown to be in excellent agreements with the available PL data.