ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
A study to identify predictors of achievement in an introductory computer science course
Authors: Sandra Katz, John Aronis, David Allbritton, Christine Wilson, Mary Lou Soffa
Venue: Proceedings of the 2003 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Freedom in Philadelphia--leveraging differences and diversity in the IT workforce (2003)

In the study reported on here, 65 prospective computer or information science majors (47 male, 18 female) worked through a tutorial on the basics of Perl. All actions were recorded and time-stamped, allowing us to investigate the relationship between six factors that we believed would predict performance in an introductory computer science (CS) course (as measured by course grade) and how much students would learn from the tutorial (as measured by gain score from pre-test to post-test). These factors are: preparation (SAT score, number of previous CS courses taken, and pre-test score), time spent on the tutorial as a whole and on individual sections, amount and type of experimentation, programming accuracy and/or proficiency, approach to materials that involve mathematical formalisms, and approach to learning highly unfamiliar material (string manipulation procedures). Gender differences with respect to these factors were also investigated.Predictors of grade and gain score included SAT score, pre-test score (negatively correlated with gain), time (negatively correlated with gain and grade), and various measures of programming accuracy and/or proficiency---for example, the total number of program runs that contained errors (negatively correlated with grade and gain). Several measures of experimentation predicted gain score. Experimentation also predicted grade, but only as applied to the least familiar tutorial material. Although experimentation was practiced throughout the tutorial by both sexes, male and female students differed with respect to the types of tutorial topics and tasks they experimented with and the degree of experimentation---for example, male students were more likely to write programs not suggested by the tutorial. These findings suggest that a tutorial such as the one used in this study could serve as an instrument to identify students who are likely to succeed (or not) in an introductory CS course, and that instructional interventions to promote achievement should encourage experimentation, reflection on the results of experiments, care and accuracy.
Demand-driven logic simulation using a network of loosely coupled processors
Authors: Paul E. Dunne, Paul H. Leng, Gerald F. Nwana
Venue: Journal of Systems Architecture: the EUROMICRO Journal (2002)

Logic simulation is used extensively in the design of digital systems for the purpose of studying the behaviour of circuits under various conditions and for verifying the required performance of circuits. There is considerable interest in methods which reduce the simulation time during the design process. In this paper, we investigate how this can be achieved by simulating the action of logic circuits using a network of loosely coupled processors. Circuits modelled as directed graphs comprising clocked sequential components and (unclocked) arbitrary combinational logic gates can be partitioned into separate tasks each consisting of a sequential component with an associated network of combinational components. We present cost functions for evaluating a task subject to probabilistic assumptions about the functioning of the circuits. The circuit evaluation method used in the simulation process is significant. We apply lazy evaluation, a demand-driven evaluation strategy in which signals in the circuit are evaluated on a 'need to do' basis, resulting in a considerable saving in circuit simulation time. We achieve distributed logic simulation using a network of workstations and show from experimental results that by using such a configuration, we essentially obtain a single computation engine which can be used to obtain speedups in circuit simulation when compared with uniprocessor simulation systems. Interprocess communications between tasks on different workstations proceed via remote procedure calls while local communications between tasks take place via shared memory. The method of partitioning used in the circuit model ensures that communications between tasks take place only at defined times in the simulation sequence.
Advanced feature extraction for keyblock-based image retrieval
Authors: Lei Zhu, Aibing Rao, Aidong Zhang
Venue: Information Systems (2002)

Keyblock, which is a new framework we proposed for content-based image retrieval, is a generalization of the text-based information retrieval technology in the image domain. In this framework, keyblocks, which are analogous to keywords in text document retrieval, can be constructed by exploiting the vector quantization method which has been used for image compression. Then an image can be represented as a code matrix in which the elements are the indices of the keyblocks in a codebook. Based on this image representation, information retrieval and database analysis techniques developed in the text domain can be generalized to image retrieval. In this paper, we present new models named n-block models which are the generalization of the n-gram models in language modeling to extract comprehensive image features. The effort to capture context in a text document motivated the n-gram models. Similarly, the attempt to capture the content in an image motivates us to consider the correlations of keyblocks within an image. By comparing the performance of our approach with conventional techniques using color feature and wavelet texture feature, the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of these n-block models.
Averting Expected Challenges Through Anticipatory Impression Management: a Study of Hospital Billing
Authors: Kimberly D. Elsbach, Robert I. Sutton, Kristine E. Principe
Venue: Organization Science (1998)

Existing theory and research on organizational impression management focuses on how spokespersons use remedial tactics, following image-threatening events, to put their organization in the best possible light. By contrast, little theory or research has considered how organizations use impression management tactics to avert undesirable responses to upcoming events. This paper uses a qualitative and inductive study of billing procedures at three large hospitals to develop theory about how organization members use impression management tactics to fend off specific, expected challenges to organizational practices that are ambiguously negative. We found that hospitals use anticipatory impressio n management tactics to: (1) distract, diminish, or overwhelm patients' attention to hospital charges; and (2) to induce emotions that lead patients to simplify their information processing of those charges. Hospitals appear to use such anticipatory obfuscations both to fend off patients' initial challenges and to prevent their existing challenges from escalating. We discuss these findings in terms of their contributions to theories of symbolic management, social influence, and routine service encounters.
Quadrature sums and Lagrange interpolation for general exponential weights
Authors: D. G. Kubayi, D. S. Lubinsky
Venue: Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics (2003)

We obtain forward and converse quadrature sum estimates associated with zeros of orthogonal polynomials for general exponential weights. These are then applied to establish mean convergence of Lagrange interpolation at zeros of these orthogonal polynomials. The results generalize earlier ones for even weights on (-1,1) or R.
Optimal Sequential Decisions and the Content of the Fourth-And-Goal Conference
Authors: Juhwen Hwang, Medini R. Singh, W. J. Hurley
Venue: Interfaces (1998)

During fourth-and-goal conferences toward the end of very close football games, teams sometimes decide whether to kick a field goal or try for a touchdown. Such conferences should never involve this subject matter.
Safety and liveness properties for real traces and a direct translation from LTL to monoids
Authors: Volker Diekert, Paul Gastin
Venue: Formal and natural computing (2002)

For infinite words there are well-known characterizations of safety and liveness properties. We extend these results to real Mazurkiewicz traces. This is possible due to a result, which has been established recently: Every first-order definable real trace language is definable in linear temporal logic using future tense operators, only. We show that the canonical choice for a topological characterization of safety and liveness properties is given by the Scott topology. In this paper we use an algebraic approach where we work with aperiodic monoids. Therefore we also give a direct translation from temporal logic to aperiodic monoids which is of independent interest.
An introduction to processor-time-optimal systolic arrays
Authors: P. Cappello, Ö. Eğecioğlu, C. Scheiman
Venue: Highly parallel computaions: algorithms and applications (2001)

We consider computations suitable for systolic arrays, often called regular array computations or systems of uniform recurrence relations. In such computations, the tasks to be computed are viewed as the nodes of a directed acyclic graph (dag), where the data dependencies are represented as arcs. A processor-time-minimal schedule measures the minimum number of processors needed to extract the maximum parallelism from the dag. We present a technique for finding a lower bound on the number of processors needed to achieve a given schedule of an algorithm represented as a dag. The application of this technique is illustrated with a tensor product computation. We then consider the free schedule of algorithms for matrix product, Gaussian elimination, and transitive closure. For each problem, we provide a time-minimal processor schedule that meets the computed processor lower bounds, including the one for tensor product.
Recursion schemes from comonads
Authors: Tarmo Uustalu, Varmo Vene, Alberto Pardo
Venue: Nordic Journal of Computing (2001)

Within the setting of the categorical approach to total functional programming, we introduce a "many-in-one" recursion scheme that neatly unifies a variety of seemingly diverging strengthenings of the basic recursion scheme of iteration. The new scheme is doubly generic: in addition to being parametric in a functor capturing the signature of an inductive type, it is also parametric in a comonad and a distributive law (of the functor over the comonad) that together encode the recursive call pattern of a particular recursion scheme for this inductive type. Specializations of the scheme for particular comonads and distributive laws include (simple) iteration and mild generalizations of primitive recursion and course-of-value iteration.
The impact of technology advances on strategy formulation in mobile communications networks
Authors: Ioanna D. Constantiou, George C. Polyzos
Venue: Mobile commerce: technology, theory, and applications (2003)

Over the last couple of years, we have been witnessing the process of convergence between wireless and wired networks, under intense technological innovation and rapid market evolution. Mobile operators are trying to maintain a leading role in the market as it evolves towards integration with the Internet. However, the development of a multitude of new services will require the growth of a whole new market for network connectivity, applications and content. In order to understand the business opportunities arising and the ensuing competitive dynamics, this chapter explores the evolution of key players' business relationships and strategies along with a range of critical issues that will be faced by companies and regulators alike.
My favorite programming contest problems
Authors: Laszlo Szuecs
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2001)

The problems discussed in this paper are delightful brainteasers. Even though they were devised for programming contests, they can be used as interesting assignments in programming courses at various levels of expertise. The problems are: (1) What happens if the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock are interchanged? (2) Given the number on a ski lift chair moving up, and the number on the opposite chair moving down, calculate the remaining time of the ride. (3) Given the nationalities of a person's ancestors, calculate the percentage of each nationality represented in the person. (4) What is the minimum percentage of popular votes a candidate would need in order to win an election that is conducted through an electoral college?
Guided Local Search for Final Placement in VLSI Design
Authors: Oluf Faroe, David Pisinger, Martin Zachariasen
Venue: Journal of Heuristics (2003)

The design of a VLSI circuit consists of two main parts: First, the logical functionality of the circuit is described, and then the physical layout of the modules and connections is settled. In the latter process one wishes to place the modules such that the necessary wiring becomes as small as possible in order to minimize area usage and delays on signal paths. The placement problem is the subproblem of the layout problem which considers the geometric locations of the modules. A new heuristic is presented for the general cell placement problem where the objective is to minimize total bounding box netlength. The heuristic is based on the Guided Local Search (GLS) metaheuristic. GLS modifies the objective function in a constructive way to escape local minima. Previous attempts to use local search on final (or detailed) placement problems have often failed as the neighbourhood quickly becomes too excessive for large circuits. Nevertheless, by combining GLS with Fast Local Search it is possible to focus the search on appropriate sub-neighbourhoods, thus reducing the time complexity considerably. Comprehensive computational experiments with the developed algorithm are reported on a broad range of industrial circuits. The experiments demonstrate that the developed algorithm is able to improve the estimated routing length of large-sized layouts with as much as 20 percent when compared to existing algorithms.
Advances in the Continuous Dynamic Network Loading Problem
Authors: Y. W. Xu, J. H. Wu, M. Florian, P. Marcotte, D. L. Zhu
Venue: Transportation Science (1999)

The continuous dynamic network loading problem (CDNLP) consists in determining, on a congested network, time-dependent arc volumes, together with arc and path travel times, given the time-varying path flow departue rates over a finite time horizon. This problem constitutes an intrinsic part of the dynamic traffic assignment problem. In this paper, we present a formulation of the CDNLP where travel delays may be nonlinear functions of arc traffic volumes. We prove, under a boundedness condition, that there exists a unique solution to the problem and propose for its solution a finite-step algorithm. Some computational results are reported for a discretized version of the algorithm.
Pure Strategy Asymmetric Rendezvous on the Line with an Unknown Initial Distance
Authors: Steve Alpern, Anatole Beck
Venue: Operations Research (2000)

Suppose two blind agents with unit speed are placed a distanceH apart on an infinite line, and faced in random directions. Their initial distanceH is picked from a distributionF with finite mean Âµ. We present a pair of rendezvous strategies which do not depend on the distributionF and ensure a meeting in expected time less than 5:514Âµ. This improves the bound of 5:74Âµ given by Baston and Gal. Furthermore, the bound we give is best possible for strategies of our type.
Improving Car Body Production at PSA Peugeot Citroën
Authors: Alain Patchong, Thierry Lemoine, Gilles Kern
Venue: Interfaces (2003)

In 1998, following a change in top management, the new CEO of PSA Peugeot CitroÃ«n decided to adopt a triple-axis strategy of growth, innovation, and profitability and set an ambitious target for each. To meet these objectives, PSA decided to focus on the car-body shops, which were the bottlenecks of its plants. An R&D team conducted a project to support car-body production for PSA Peugeot CitroÃ«n. PSA manufactures over 75 percent of its cars on lines designed and continually improved with the team's new analytic operations research tools. These OR tools, which combine simulation and Markov-chain models of series-parallel systems, have improved throughput with minimal capital investment and no compromise in quality--contributing US $130 million to the bottom line in 2001 alone. The impact of this project went beyond the boundaries of PSA as its suppliers acquired the tools without being requested to do so.
"Kilauea": parallel global illumination renderer
Authors: Toshi Kato
Venue: Parallel Computing (2003)

'Kilauea' is a revolutionary parallel renderer developed at Square USA. The goal of the R&D effort was to create a renderer which can compute global illumination on extremely complex scenes by using affordable PC cluster. This paper reports Kilauea's parallel processing methodology, implementation issues, and parallel performance.
On the unimodality and combinatorics of Bessel numbers
Authors: Ji Young Choi, Jonathan D. H. Smith
Venue: Discrete Mathematics (2003)

The Bessel numbers are reparametrized coefficients of Bessel polynomials. The paper investigates the analogies between Stirling numbers and Bessel numbers. A generating function for the Bessel numbers is obtained, and a proof of their unimodality is given. Stirling numbers and Bessel numbers are applied to the enumeration of orbit decompositions of various powers of permutation representations.
Action and Possibility: Reconciling Dual Perspectives of Knowledge in Organizations
Authors: Andrew Hargadon, Angelo Fanelli
Venue: Organization Science (2002)

At times knowledge can be seen as the source of organizational innovation and change--at other times, however, it can be the very constraint on that change. This conflicted role offers insights into why the phenomenon of organizational knowledge has been interpreted by researchers in multiple and possibly conflicting ways. Some theories depict knowledge as an empirical phenomenon, residing in action and becoming "organizational" in the acquisition, diffusion, and replication of those actions throughout the organization. Others consider it a latent phenomenon, residing in the possibility for constructing novel organizational actions. This paper argues that while each of these qualities--empirical and latent--are intrinsic to knowledge in organizations, our understanding of organizational phenomena is essentially incomplete until the relationship between them is considered. Building on structuration theory, we propose a complementary perspective that views organizational knowledge as the product of an ongoing and recursive interaction between empirical and latent knowledge, between knowledge as action and knowledge as possibility. We ground this complementary model of knowledge in evidence from the field study of two firms whose innovation practices provide unique insights into how knowledge simultaneously enables and constrains behavior in organizations. We then discuss how a complementary perspective avoids the reification of knowledge by depicting it instead as an ongoing and social process and offers an alternative distinction between individual and collective knowledge.
Data mining: an experimental undergraduate course
Authors: Youmin Lu, Jennifer Bettine
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2003)

Data mining is the extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data. Advances in information technology and data collection methods have led to the availability of large data sets in commercial enterprises and in a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. We have an unprecedented opportunity to analyze this data and extract intelligent and useful information. Traditionally, machine learning is a part of the Artificial Intelligence course. Up to now, not many colleges are offering specialized courses in data mining. In this paper, we present our experience at teaching our first experimental course in data mining.
Designing visualizations of social activity: six claims
Authors: Thomas Erickson
Venue: CHI '03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (2003)

In this paper, we describe a set of claims that have evolved from our work in designing visual representations of groups in online environments. We argue that these claims can serve as a good starting point for design work, and can drive critical discussions amongst design stakeholders.
The Perceptual Organization of Texture Flow: A Contextual Inference Approach
Authors: Ohad Ben-Shahar, Steven W. Zucker
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (2003)

Locally parallel dense patterns¿sometimes called texture flows¿define a perceptually coherent structure of particular significance to perceptual organization. We argue that with applications ranging from image segmentation and edge classification to shading analysis and shape interpretation, texture flows deserve attention equal to edge segment grouping and curve completion. This paper develops the notion of texture flow from a geometrical point of view to argue that local measurements of such structures must incorporate two curvatures. We show how basic theoretical considerations lead to a unique model for the local behavior of the flow and to a notion of texture flow ¿good continuation.¿ This, in turn, translates to a specification of consistency constraints between nearby flow measurements which we use for the computation of globally (piecewise) coherent structure through the contextual framework of relaxation labeling. We demonstrate the results on synthetic and natural images.
Business and IT perspectives on AMORE: a methodology using object-orientation in re-engineering enterprises
Authors: Kiran Fernandes, Vinesh Raja, John Keast, Meurig Beynon, Pui Shan Chan, Mike Joy
Venue: Systems engineering for business process change: new directions (2002)

This paper is both an outline and a critique of AMORE, A Methodology Based on Object-Orientation for Re-engineering Enterprises that is being developed at the University of Warwick under the auspices of EPSRC grant GR/M02675. The methodology involves two principal phases, which deal with re-engineering from business and software viewpoints respectively. AMORE proposes models and guidelines that are intended to achieve a closer integration between these two viewpoints than is possible with alternative approaches. To this end, it exploits business domain modelling that takes account of the business factors (such as goals, location and organisational structure) that influence the design of processes. The prospects for AMORE are reviewed first with reference to current thinking on BPR and software development for business information systems by IT specialists such as Jacobson and Warboys, and subsequently with reference to business applications of a new computer-based modelling paradigm that are being developed in parallel with AMORE by Beynon and Russ in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick.