ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Agile 2006 Research Papers
Authors: Frank Maurer, Grigori Melnik
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on AGILE 2006 (2006)

In 2006, the Agile Conference series maintains its international leadership in research on agile software development methods, techniques, and tools. This year, 41 papers were submitted - nearly twice as many as in 2005. After an intensive review and discussion process, the research track program committee accepted 17% of the papers as long papers and an additional 10% percent of the submissions as short papers. Long papers report on finished research and underwent a scientifically rigorous review process. Short papers are reporting on work on progress and innovative ideas and were evaluated based on their novelty and their potential future impact. The competitive review process resulted in an excellent selection of reports on advanced agile methods research. The accepted papers are covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from investigations of earned value reporting in agile project management, over testbased specifications and refactoring to cognitive aspects and reflections on agile approaches.
Image segmentation based on merging of sub-optimal segmentations
Authors: Juan C. Pichel, David E. Singh, Francisco F. Rivera
Venue: Pattern Recognition Letters (2006)

In this paper a heuristic segmentation algorithm is presented based on the oversegmentation of an image. The method uses a set of different segmentations of the image produced previously by standard techniques. These segmentations are combined to create the oversegmented image. They can be performed using different techniques or even the same technique with different initial conditions. Based on this oversegmentation a new method of region merging is proposed. The merging process is guided using only information about the behavior of each pixel in the input segmentations. Therefore, the results are an adequate combination of the features of these segmentations, allowing to mask the negative particularities of individual segmentations. In this work, the quality of the proposal is analyzed with both artificial and real images using a evaluation function as case of study. The results show that our algorithm produces high quality global segmentations from a set of low quality segmentations with reduced execution times.
Learning to identify winning coalitions in the PAC model
Authors: Ariel D. Procaccia, Jeffrey S. Rosenschein
Venue: Proceedings of the fifth international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems (2006)

We consider PAC learning of simple cooperative games, in which the coalitions are partitioned into "winning" and "losing" coalitions. We analyze the complexity of learning a suitable concept class via its Vapnik-Chervonenkis (VC) dimension, and provide an algorithm that learns this class. Furthermore, we study constrained simple games; we demonstrate that the VC dimension can be dramatically reduced when one allows only a single minimum winning coalition (even more so when this coalition has cardinality 1), whereas other interesting constraints do not significantly lower the dimension.
Using an Agile Approach in a Large, Traditional Organization
Authors: Dot Tudor, George A. Walter
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on AGILE 2006 (2006)

Can Agile approaches be used successfully in large organizations, where traditional methods and high levels of governance are the norm? Although the iterative, agile approaches have been seen to work well in small, flexible organizations, or on smaller projects, they frequently fall foul of the larger organization's need for governance, investment appraisal and control. Formed in 1967, OCLC develops software for use by libraries and their users, museums, and academic institutions. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and fulltext information. OCLC aims to be the leading global library cooperative. More than 54,000 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials. This paper examines how TCC, a training and consultancy company from Cheshire, England has worked with OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center based in Dublin, Ohio to incorporate the Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) into a development culture that was deeply-rooted in "traditional" software development methods. Examples from multiple projects illustrate how the adoption of DSDM helped OCLC change its culture and achieve success in software development and deployment. OCLC's TLC dashboard was used to track the effectiveness of the development cycle, and to collect metrics from 2003 to the present. We discuss some of the challenges we faced and the six agile steps to success.
When BDI Meets Argumentation: The Conceptual Ideal
Authors: Cheah Wai Shiang, Narayanan Kulathuramaiyer, Lai Suk Fui
Venue: Proceedings of the IEEE/WIC/ACM international conference on Intelligent Agent Technology (2006)

Argument-based negotiation consists of a meaningful expression, able to provide better reasoning features and flexibility. Agents in this case, become aware of the information surrounding them in an attempt to analyze, influence and understand its counterparts or opponents. The agents behave intelligently to facilitate the argumentation process, which consists of argument interpretation, argument evaluation, argument generation and argument selection. The Belief, Desire, Intention (BDI) mode, on the other hand, is a widely adopted for modeling intelligence. Hence, we explore the relationship between these two models. We argue that a typical intelligent model involves two component, which are the reasoning and communication components. The integration between these components, however, is still unclear. This paper proposes the integration among the reasoning aspect (BDI in particular) and communication aspect (argumentation specifically) in an open multi-agent society. The capability of argument-based negotiation enables the BDI agent in intention reconsideration, to enhance its reasoning powers.
Modeling and Rendering of DPP-Based Light Fields
Authors: Miguel Escriva, Alejandro Domingo, Francisco Abad, Roberto Vivo, Emilio Camahort
Venue: Proceedings of the conference on Geometric Modeling and Imaging: New Trends (2006)

Autostereoscopic displays are a subject of recent research efforts in Computer Graphics. Such displays have to be fed graphics information in order to produce spatial images. This information is typically 4D radiance data called a light field. Traditionally light-field models were based on the two-plane parameterization. In this paper, however, we present a light-field representation that is based on the direction-and-point parameterization. This parameterization has certain uniformity properties that produce better rendering results. We describe the files and data structures needed to store the representation, and we introduce a rendering algorithm that takes advantage of the uniformity properties of the direction-and-point parameterization. Our algorithm runs in real time and renders light-field models that look like their geometric counterparts
Asynch-NET: Footstep for Always-On e-Services in the Rural Areas of Developing Countries: Case Study-Tanzania
Authors: Kenedy Greyson, Mussa Kissaka, Damian Haule, Vitalis Ndume
Venue: Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International Workshop on Technology for Education in Developing Countries (2006)

The Asynchronous Network (Asynch-NET) provided by Mobile Access Point (MAP) in the community of rural areas of developing countries has proved success in many regions of the developing countries. This asynchronous network is the footstep for e-services implementation in the communities with low-income and low population density. Basically, the cost of implementing a conventional "always-on" link in the rural areas of developing countries is very high that does not attract investors to put effort on. The paper presents a technique that is applied to the Asynch-NET framework so as to provide 'the always-on' e-services at the similar operating cost of Asynch-NET.
Localization with Power Control in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Wen-Hwa Liao, Yu-Chee Lee
Venue: Proceedings of the International Conference on Systems and Networks Communication (2006)

Localization is an important topic in wireless sensor networks because sensor nodes are randomly scattered over a region and they get connected into network on their own. Adjusting transmission power levels has an important impact on energy efficiency and network lifetime in wireless sensor networks. In this work, we proposed a localization scheme with power control in a wireless sensor network. Each node can transmit beacon packet in different power levels. Whenever a node receives beacon packets transferred in different power levels, it will adaptively select beacon packet to estimate distance to the landmark. When a sensor node has estimated the distances to three landmarks, it can compute its location by triangulation. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can improve the error rate of localization.
Face-selective Activation in a Congenital Prosopagnosic Subject
Authors: Uri Hasson, Galia Avidan, Leon Y. Deouell, Shlomo Bentin, Rafael Malach
Venue: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2003)

Congenital prosopagnosia is a severe impairment in face identification manifested from early childhood in the absence of any evident brain lesion. In this study, we used fMRI to compare the brain activity elicited by faces in a congenital prosopagnosic subject (YT) relative to a control group of 12 subjects in an attempt to shed more light on the nature of the brain mechanisms subserving face identification. The face-related activation pattern of YT in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex was similar to that observed in the control group on several parameters: anatomical location, activation profiles, and hemispheric laterality. In addition, using a modified vase-face illusion, we found that YT's brain activity in the face-related regions manifested global grouping processes. However, subtle differences in the degree of selectivity between objects and faces were observed in the lateral occipital cortex. These data suggest that face-related activation in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex, although necessary, might not be sufficient by itself for normal face identification.
Compressing Test Data for Deterministic BIST Using a Reconfigurable Scan Arhcitecture
Authors: Dong Xiang, Yang Zhao, Khrismendu Chakrabarty, Jiaguang Sun
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th Asian Test Symposium (2006)

We present a new scan-based BIST technique, which is based on weighted scan enable signals and a scan forest architecture. A new testability measure is proposed to guide test pattern generation and produce patterns with fewer specified bits. This approach can effectively reduce the amount test data that needs to be stored on-chip. The proposed BIST method relies on a pseude random phase and a deterministic phase. The scan forest architecture is configured as a single scan tree for deterministic test vector application in the second phase. It is found that an LFSR with size equal t o the maximum number of the specified bits in the deterministic patterns for the random-resistant faults is sufficient to encode deterministic vectors for the benchmark circuits. Experimental results for benchmark circuits demonstrate the effediveness of the proposed method.
Design and Evaluation of Diffserv Functionalities in the MPLS Edge Router Architecture
Authors: Wei-Chu Lai, Kuo-Ching Wu, Ting-Chao Hou
Venue: Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Advanced Architectures and Algorithms for Internet Delivery and Applications (2005)

Differentiated Service (DiffServ) in combination with Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a promising technology in converting the best-effort Internet into a QoS-capable network. This paper describes the design and implementation of key DiffServ components, including classifier, meter/shaper, queue manager, and scheduler, in an MPLS edge router architecture on a network-processor platform. We describe how the DiffServ functionalities were realized and also analyze the performance of the system under different traffic patterns. Various factors that cause performance degradation in the architecture are observed and analyzed. These include receiving processing architecture, transmitting processing architecture, micro-engine processing power, memory access latency, and complexity of each DiffServ component. Among them, we found that traffic classification demands more processing resource and hence is a major factor in limiting the system throughput.
Implicit Learning&ndash;Explicit Knowing: A Role for Sleep in Memory System Interaction
Authors: Stefan Fischer, Spyridon Drosopoulos, Jim Tsen, Jan Born
Venue: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (2006)

There is evidence that sleep supports the enhancement of implicit as well as explicit memories (i.e., two memory systems that during learning normally appear to act together). Here, employing a serial reaction time task (SRTT) paradigm, we examined the question whether sleep can provide explicit knowledge on an implicitly acquired skill. At learning, young healthy subjects (n = 20) were first trained on the SRTT. Then, implicit knowledge was assessed on two test blocks, in which grammatically incorrect target positions were occasionally interspersed by the difference in reaction times between grammatically correct and incorrect target positions. To assess explicit sequence knowledge, thereafter subjects performed on a generation task in which they were explicitly instructed to predict the sequential target positions. In half the subjects, learning took place before a 9-hour retention interval filled with nocturnal sleep (sleep group), in the other half, the retention interval covered a 9-hour period of daytime wakefulness (wake group). At subsequent retesting, both testing on the generation task and the SRTT test blocks was repeated. At learning before the retention interval, subjects displayed significant implicit sequence knowledge which was comparable for the sleep and wake groups. Moreover, both groups did not display any explicit sequence knowledge as indicated by a prediction performance not differing from chance on the generation task. However, at retesting, there was a distinct gain in explicit knowledge in the subjects who had slept in the retention interval, whereas generation task performance in the wake group remained at chance level. SRTT performance in the test blocks at retesting did not indicate any further gain in skill (i.e., unchanged reaction time differences between grammatically correct and incorrect target positions) independently of whether subjects had slept or remained awake after learning. Our results indicate a selective enhancement of explicit memory formation during sleep. Because before sleep subjects only had implicit knowledge on the sequence of target transitions, these data point to an interaction between implicit and explicit memory systems during sleep-dependent off-line learning.
Information processing and college choice: an examination of recruitment information on higher education web sites using the heuristic-systematic model
Authors: Arthur Raney
Venue:  (2006)

Recent studies have shown university Web sites are the primary source of information for students when choosing a college to attend. Since Web sites are fast becoming a key tool in the search for a university, then the information being presented on these Web sites should be analyzed as a persuasive message. This dissertation examines the presentation of information on higher education Web sites through the Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM) of information processing. The HSM proposes when information perceivers are presented with a message, they will either cognitively process the information by carefully analyzing the message arguments (systematic processing) or draw conclusions about the information based on personal "theories" triggered by an attribute of the message (heuristic processing). The presented research uses two experiments to test information processing and its effect on attitude formation on university Web sites. In experiment one, message elements on a university Web site were manipulated to determine the attitude effects of the inclusion, absence or combination of a student photograph, a quote from a student and statistics about the university. Participants (281) provided data to test five research questions and four hypotheses. In experiment two, the amount of student testimonials on the site and language type were manipulated. Participants (328) provided data to test one research question and five hypotheses. The Web sites in both experiments used texts and images from real university sites in an effort to increase the ecological validity. Findings from each study showed both the type and amount of message elements presented on college Web sites had an effect on the measures of attitude toward the university and intent to acquire more information about the university. Specifically, the belief that prospective students have a "higher education heuristic" is presented and discussed in terms of an integrated model of college choice and information processing. The dissertation closes with a listing of specific recommendation for higher education policy makers for presenting information on their institutions Web sites, along with study limitations and opportunities for future research.
Manifold Clustering of Shapes
Authors: Dragomir Yankov, Eamonn Keogh
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Data Mining (2006)

Shape clustering can significantly facilitate the automatic labeling of objects present in image collections. For example, it could outline the existing groups of pathological cells in a bank of cyto-images; the groups of species on photographs collected from certain aerials; or the groups of objects observed on surveillance scenes from an office building. Here we demonstrate that a nonlinear projection algorithm such as Isomap can attract together shapes of similar objects, suggesting the existence of isometry between the shape space and a low dimensional nonlinear embedding. Whenever there is a relatively small amount of noise in the data, the projection forms compact, convex clusters that can easily be learned by a subsequent partitioning scheme. We further propose a modification of the Isomap projection based on the concept of degree-bounded minimum spanning trees. The proposed approach is demonstrated to move apart bridged clusters and to alleviate the effect of noise in the data.
Computer Thanks Its Expert Reviewers
Authors: Bob Ward
Venue: Computer (2006)

Nearly 250 professionals contributed their time and expertise as Computer reviewers in 2006.
A Palmprint Classification Scheme using Heart Line Feature Extraction
Authors: Atul Negi, B. Panigrahi, M. V. N. K. Prasad, Madhabananda Das
Venue: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Information Technology (2006)

A new technique to classify palm prints is proposed in this paper. A rectangular region of interest (ROI) containing only the heart line is extracted from palm print images obtained from a peg-free scanner. The ROI extraction is robust using boundary tracing and rotations based on our study of palm geometry. Preprocessing operations such as intensity normalization and smoothing are applied. Sobel gradient thresholds are applied to extract the heart line from the ROI. The palm print images are classified based on the regions that the heart line traverses in the palm horizontally. Our scheme allows for a total number of 257 possible categories. Testing of the scheme on two databases shows that a classification accuracy of more than 98% is obtained. It is expected that this very efficient method shall be useful in the classification and matching of very large sized palm print databases.
Architecture of a System for Context-based Adaptation in M-Learning
Authors: Estefania Martin, Nuria Andueza, Rosa M. Carro
Venue: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (2006)

In this paper, the architecture of a system that supports context-based adaptation for m-learning is presented. This system manages data about users and activities so that the most suitable activities to be accomplished at each time are proposed to each user. This decision is not only based on the user's personal features, preferences or previous actions but also on information about the specific user's context, including spare time, location and available devices.
Secure evolvable hardware for public-key cryptosystems
Authors: Nadia Nedjah, Luiza de Macedo Mourelle
Venue: New Generation Computing (2005)

In this paper genetic programming is used as an alternative means to automatically generate secure and minimal hardware designs of public-key cryptosystems such as the RSA cryptosystem. We evolve optimal hardware circuits for modular exponentiation, which is a cornerstone operation in many public-key cryptographic system. The evolved circuits minimize both space(i.e. required gate number) and time (i.e. encryption and decryption time). The evolved designs are shielded against side-channel leakage and hence secure. The structure of the cryptographic circuit is random and so the private key cannot be deduced using known attacks. We compare our results against existing well-known designs, which were produced by human designers based on the binary method.
A modified high-order adaptive output feedback control algorithm for linear plants
Authors: A. M. Tsykunov
Venue: Automation and Remote Control (2006)

A modified output feedback control algorithm is proposed for a linear plant subjected to parametric uncertainty; its efficiency is validated and the results of numerical simulations are presented.
Designing Service Environments for Virtual Scene Applications
Authors: John Gammack
Venue: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Semantics, Knowledge, and Grid (2006)

Continuing internet ubiquity enables new kinds of applications previously restricted to powerful platforms unavailable to home consumers. These applications are characterized by extensive interactivity, by high quality multimedia presentation, and by real-time qualities. Typical emerging application areas include entertainment, and cybertourism. Achieving this requires integration between technologies and the end user's information needs and expectations. Virtual reality, cluster and grid-computing technologies provide a suitable basis for applications that operate in the timeframes consumers expect. The design of services and applications will require an understanding of the dynamic forms of intelligent user behaviour and interactivity involved. This paper draws from a case study to suggest theory relevant to design of an integrated environment, and is illustrated with cybertourism oriented applications.
A Study of Stimulative Queen Ant Strategy in Ant Colony Optimization Method
Authors: Ichiro Iimura, Toshiya Ito, Shigeru Nakayama
Venue: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing, Applications and Technologies (2006)

Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) methods, which imitate a mechanism of pheromone secretion when ants carry food to their nest, are one of efficient heuristic search methods for combinational optimization problems such as traveling salesman problems (TSPs) and so on. In this paper, we analyze the Queen Ant Strategy AS_queen that is one of ACO methods more in detail by applying it to six kinds of city configurations included in the TSPLIB. Furthermore, in order to improve searching ability of the AS_queen, we propose a new method named "Stimulative Queen Ant Strategy AS_queen". As experimental results, we have clarified that the AS_queen shows better performance than the conventional AS_queen in the viewpoint of both "discovery rate of optimal solution" and "average number of iterations".