ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Understanding government.direct
Authors: Christine Bellamy, John A. Taylor
Venue: Information Polity (1998)

This article is concerned with developing a theoretical approach to understanding agendas for information age government, such as that set out in the British Government&rsquo;s recent document, government.direct. It begins with showing why government.direct implies radical institutional change based on more flexible information flows less constrained by organizational boundaries. It then assesses the value of two prominent responses to the challenges offered by government.direct. It deals firstly with the problems posed by managerialist calls for reengineering the processes of government and then discusses the growing interest in &lsquo;governance&rsquo;, defined here as &lsquo;the management of self-governing networks&rsquo;. It argues that, to be truly helpful in understanding the demands of agendas such as government.direct, networking approaches to understanding governance must be refocused from a concern with policy level relationships between political actors onto issues involved in the merging of organizational and informational capabilities, capabilities which are, moreover, deeply embedded in existing institutional arrangements. The article concludes by suggesting a possible approach to analyzing the politics of information in government.
Word Sense Disambiguation of Farsi Homographs Using Thesaurus and Corpus
Authors: Raheleh Makki, Mohammad Mehdi Homayounpour
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Advances in Natural Language Processing (2008)

This paper describes disambiguation of Farsi homographs in unrestricted text using thesaurus and corpus. The proposed method is based on [1] with some differences. These differences consist of first using collocational information to avoid the collection of spurious contexts caused by polysemous words in thesaurus categories, and second contribution of all words in the test data context, even those not appeared in the collected contexts to the calculation of the conceptual classes' score. Using a Farsi corpus and a Farsi thesaurus, this method correctly disambiguated 91.46% of the instances of 15 Farsi homographs. This method was compared to three supervised corpus based methods including Naïve Bayes, Exemplar-based, and Decision List. Unlike supervised methods, this method needs no training data, and has a good performance on disambiguation of uncommon words. In addition, this method can be used for removing some kinds of morphological ambiguities.
Distributed Learning of Wardrop Equilibria
Authors: Dominique Barth, Olivier Bournez, Octave Boussaton, Johanne Cohen
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Unconventional Computing (2008)

We consider the problem of learning equilibria in a well known game theoretic traffic model due to Wardrop. We consider a distributed learning algorithm that we prove to converge to equilibria. The proof of convergence is based on a differential equation governing the global macroscopic evolution of the system, inferred from the local microscopic evolutions of agents. We prove that the differential equation converges with the help of Lyapunov techniques.
Momentum BP Neural Networks in Structural Damage Detection Based on Static Displacements and Natural Frequencies
Authors: Xudong Yuan, Chao Gao, Shaoxia Gao
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Neural Networks: Advances in Neural Networks, Part III (2007)

Modeling error, measured noises and incomplete measured data are main difficulties for many structural damage processes being utilized. In this study, using static displacements and frequencies constitutes the input parameter vectors for neural networks. A damage numerical verification study on a five-bay truss was carried out by using an improved momentum BP neural network. Identification results indicate that the neural networks have excellent capability to identify structural damage location and extent under the conditions of limited noises and incomplete measured data.
Hierarchical coordinate systems for understanding complexity and its evolution, with applications to genetic regulatory networks
Authors: Attila Egri-Nagy, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
Venue: Artificial Life (2008)

Beyond complexity measures, sometimes it is worthwhile in addition to investigate how complexity changes structurally, especially in artificial systems where we have complete knowledge about the evolutionary process. Hierarchical decomposition is a useful way of assessing structural complexity changes of organisms modeled as automata, and we show how recently developed computational tools can be used for this purpose, by computing holonomy decompositions and holonomy complexity. To gain insight into the evolution of complexity, we investigate the smoothness of the landscape structure of complexity under minimal transitions. As a proof of concept, we illustrate how the hierarchical complexity analysis reveals symmetries and irreversible structure in biological networks by applying the methods to the lac operon mechanism in the genetic regulatory network of Escherichia coli.
Layered multicast scheduling
Authors: Vincenzo Liberatore
Venue:  (2008)

Layered multicast addresses the problem of heterogeneous end-to-end network bandwidth and consequently is a scalable solution to data dissemination in heterogeneous networks such as the Internet. The performance of layered multicast hinges upon the transmission schedule. In this dissertation, we study the scheduling problem in the layered multicast context. Our objective is to generate a multicast schedule with or without the knowledge of the user subscription profiles such that the long run average latency for a client to retrieve a data item is minimized. This work generalizes the extensively studied multicast scheduling problem (layered and non-layered) by introducing simultaneously data popularity and the interaction among layers, and addresses both the L1 and the strictest L &infin; objective to find a schedule which is good for all individual layers. We present a simple 2-approximation randomized algorithm for the layered multicast scheduling problem. In the presence of user subscription profiles (the L1 objective), we provide a deterministic 2-approximation algorithm for the general multilayer cases. If the user subscription profiles are absent (the L&infin; objective), we present a combinatorial construction for the two-layer case which is 1.6875-approximation ignoring an additive constant. Further, we provide a polynomial-time approximation algorithm that uses a fundamentally different approach and can address the general layered multicast scheduling problem with an arbitrary number of layers. This algorithm is 1.334-approximation for the two-layer case and 1.862-approximation for the general multi-layer cases.
Learning Positional Features for Annotating Chess Games: A Case Study
Authors: Matej Guid, Martin Možina, Jana Krivec, Aleksander Sadikov, Ivan Bratko
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Computers and Games (2008)

By developing an intelligent computer system that will provide commentary of chess moves in a comprehensible, user-friendly, and instructive way, we are trying to use the power demonstrated by the current chess engines for tutoring chess and for annotating chess games. In this paper, we point out certain differences between the computer programs which are specialized for playing chess and our program which is aimed at providing quality commentary. Through a case study, we present an application of argument-based machine learning, which combines the techniques of machine learning and expert knowledge, to the construction of more complex positional features, in order to provide our annotating system with an ability to comment on various positional intricacies of positions in the game of chess.
On Attaining Higher Level of Certainty in Evaluation Processes
Authors: Sylvia Encheva, Sharil Tumin
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Part I (2008)

Reuse of electronic learning materials has been of interest since 1970s. Most of the work was focused on how to define, develop and make reusable learning objects accessible by different learning systems. However, very little has been done with respect to automated evaluation of quality and appropriativeness of such objects. To attain a higher level of certainty in the evaluation process we propose application of many-valued logic.
A flexible framework for verifying agent programs
Authors: Louise A. Dennis, Berndt Farwer, Rafael H. Bordini, Michael Fisher
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems - Volume 3 (2008)

There is an increasing number of agent-oriented programming languages that have working interpreters and platforms, with significant progress in the quality of such platforms over the last few years. With these platforms becoming more popular, and multi-agent systems being increasingly used for safety-critical applications, the need for verification techniques that apply to systems written in such languages is proportionally intensified. Building on our previous work on model checking for a particular agent-oriented programming language, we have developed a new approach whereby model checking techniques can be used directly on a variety of such languages. The approach also supports the verification of multi-agent systems where individual agents have been programmed in different agent languages.
Approximating the Maximum Independent Set and Minimum Vertex Coloring on Box Graphs
Authors: Xin Han, Kazuo Iwama, Rolf Klein, Andrzej Lingas
Venue: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Algorithmic Aspects in Information and Management (2007)

A box graph is the intersection graph of a finite set of orthogonal rectangles in the plane. The problem of whether or not the maximum independent set problem (MIS for short) for box graphs can be approximated within a substantially sub-logarithmic factor in polynomial time has been open for several years. We show that for box graphs on n vertices which have an independent set of size ¿(n/log O(1) n) the maximum independent set problem can be approximated within O(logn / loglogn) in polynomial time. Furthermore, we show that the chromatic number of a box graph on n vertices is within an O(logn) factor from the size of its maximum clique and provide an O(logn) approximation algorithm for minimum vertex coloring of such a box graph. More generally, we can show that the chromatic number of the intersection graph of n d-dimensional orthogonal rectangles is within an O(log d ¿ 1 n) factor from the size of its maximum clique and obtain an O(log d ¿ 1 n) approximation algorithm for minimum vertex coloring of such an intersection graph.
Swipe: a sawtooth waveform inspired pitch estimator for speech and music
Authors: John G. Harris
Venue:  (2007)

A Sawtooth Waveform Inspired Pitch Estimator (SWIPE) has been developed for processing speech and music. SWIPE is shown to outperform existing algorithms on several publicly available speech/musical-instruments databases and a disordered speech database. SWIPE estimates the pitch as the fundamental frequency of the sawtooth waveform whose spectrum best matches the spectrum of the input signal. A decaying cosine kernel provides an extension to older frequency-based, sieve-type estimation algorithms by providing smooth peaks with decaying amplitudes to correlate with the harmonics of the signal. An improvement on the algorithm is achieved by using only the first and prime harmonics, which significantly reduces subharmonic errors commonly found in other pitch estimation algorithms.
Improving the bit-parallel NFA of Baeza-Yates and Navarro for approximate string matching
Authors: Heikki Hyyrö
Venue: Information Processing Letters (2008)

We propose a new variant of the bit-parallel NFA of Baeza-Yates and Navarro (BPD) for approximate string matching [R. Baeza-Yates, G. Navarro, Faster approximate string matching, Algorithmica 23 (1999) 127-158]. BPD is one of the most practical approximate string matching algorithms under moderate pattern lengths and error levels [G. Myers, A fast bit-vector algorithm for approximate string matching based on dynamic programming, J. ACM 46 (3) 1989 395-415; G. Navarro, M. Raffinot, Flexible Pattern Matching in Strings-Practical On-line Search Algorithms for Texts and Biological Sequences, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002]. Given a length-m pattern and an error threshold k, the original BPD requires (m-k)(k+2) bits of space to represent an NFA with (m-k)(k+1) states. In this paper we remove redundancy from the original NFA representation. Our variant requires (m-k)(k+1) bits of space, which is optimal in the sense that exactly one bit per state is used. The space efficiency is achieved by using an alternative, but equally or even more efficient, simulation algorithm for the bit-parallel NFA. We also present experimental results to compare our modified NFA against the original BPD and its main competitors. Our new variant is more efficient than the original BPD, and it hence takes over/extends the role of the original BPD as one of the most practical approximate string matching algorithms under moderate values of k and m.
Hinge Rank Loss and the Area Under the ROC Curve
Authors: Harald Steck
Venue: Proceedings of the 18th European conference on Machine Learning (2007)

In ranking as well as in classification problems, the Area under the ROC Curve (AUC), or the equivalent Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney statistic, has recently attracted a lot of attention. We show that the AUC can be lower bounded based on the hinge-rank-loss, which simply is the rank-version of the standard (parametric) hinge loss. This bound is asymptotically tight. Our experiments indicate that optimizing the (standard) hinge loss typically is an accurate approximation to optimizing the hinge rank loss, especially when using affine transformations of the data, like e.g. in ellipsoidal machines. This explains for the first time why standard training of support vector machines approximately maximizes the AUC, which has indeed been observed in many experiments in the literature.
A Seed-Based Method for Predicting Common Secondary Structures in Unaligned RNA Sequences
Authors: Xiaoyong Fang, Zhigang Luo, Zhenghua Wang, Bo Yuan, Jinlong Shi
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Modeling Decisions for Artificial Intelligence (2007)

The prediction of RNA secondary structure can be facilitated by incorporating with comparative analysis of homologous sequences. However, most of existing comparative approaches are vulnerable to alignment errors. Here we use unaligned sequences to devise a seed-based method for predicting RNA secondary structures. The central idea of our method can be described by three major steps: 1) to detect all possible stems in each sequence using the so-called position matrix, which indicates the paired or unpaired information for each position in the sequence; 2) to select the seeds for RNA folding by finding and assessing the conserved stems across all sequences; 3) to predict RNA secondary structures on the basis of the seeds. We tested our method on data sets composed of RNA sequences with known secondary structures. Our method has average accuracy (measured as sensitivity) 69.93% for singe sequence tests, 72.97% for two-sequence tests, and 79.27% for three-sequence tests. The results show that our method can predict RNA secondary structure with a higher accuracy than Mfold.
Numerical simulations of a second-order fluid with normal stress coefficients depending on the shear rate
Authors: Fernando Carapau
Venue: Proceedings of the American Conference on Applied Mathematics (2008)

We analyze the unsteady flow of an incompressible generalized second-order fluid in a straight rigid tube, with circular cross-section of constant radius, where the normal stress coefficients depend on the shear rate by using a power law model. The full 3D unsteady model is simplified using a one-dimensional hierarchical approach based on the Cosserat theory related to fluid dynamics, which reduces the exact three-dimensional equations to a system depending only on time and on a single spatial variable. From this new system we obtain the relationship between mean pressure gradient and volume flow rate over a finite section of the tube. Attention is focused on some numerical simulation under constant mean pressure gradient and on the analysis of perturbed flows.
An Approach to Mathematical Search Through Query Formulation and Data Normalization
Authors: Robert Miner, Rajesh Munavalli
Venue: Proceedings of the 14th symposium on Towards Mechanized Mathematical Assistants: 6th International Conference (2007)

This article describes an approach to searching for mathematical notation. The approach aims at a search system that can be effectively and economically deployed, and that produces good results with a large portion of the mathematical content freely available on the World Wide Web today. The basic concept is to linearize mathematical notation as a sequence of text tokens, which are then indexed by a traditional text search engine. However, naive generalization of the "phrase query" of text search to mathematical expressions performs poorly. For adequate precision and recall in the mathematical context, more complex combinations of atomic queries are required. Our approach is to query for a weighted collection of significant subexpressions, where weights depend on expression complexity, nesting depth, expression length, and special boosting of well-known expressions.To make this approach perform well with the technical content that is readily obtainable on the World Wide Web, either directly or through conversion, it is necessary to extensively normalize mathematical expression data to eliminate accidently or irrelevant encoding differences. To do this, a multi-pass normalization process is applied. In successive stages, MathML and XML errors are corrected, character data is canonicalized, white space and other insignificant data is removed, and heuristics are applied to disambiguated expressions. Following these preliminary stages, the MathML tree structure is canonicalized via an augmented precedence parsing step. Finally, mathematical synonyms and some variable names are canonicalized.
MLTutor: An Application of Machine Learning Algorithms for an Adaptive Web-based Information System
Authors: A. Serengul Guven Smith, Ann Blandford
Venue: International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2003)

One problem that commonly faces hypertext users, particularly in educational situations, is the difficulty of identifying pages of information most relevant to their current goals or interests. In this paper, we discuss the technical feasibility and the utility of applying machine learning algorithms to generate personalised adaptation on the basis of a user's browsing history in hypertext, without additional input from the user. In order to investigate the viability of this approach, we developed a Web-based information system called MLTutor. The design of MLTutor aims to remove the need for pre-defined user profiles and replace them with a dynamic user profile-building scheme in order to provide individual adaptation. In MLTutor, this adaptation is achieved by a combination of conceptual clustering and inductive machine learning algorithms. An evaluation technique that probes the detailed effectiveness of the adaptation is presented. The use of dynamic user profiles has been shown to be technically feasible; however, while a superficial evaluation indicates that it is educationally effective, the more thorough evaluation performed here shows that the positive results may be attributed to other causes. This demonstrates the need for thorough evaluation of adaptive hypertext systems.
Variational Segmentation of Image Sequences Using Region-Based Active Contours and Deformable Shape Priors
Authors: Ketut Fundana, Niels C. Overgaard, Anders Heyden
Venue: International Journal of Computer Vision (2008)

In this paper we address the problem of segmentation in image sequences using region-based active contours and level set methods. We propose a novel method for variational segmentation of image sequences containing nonrigid, moving objects. The method is based on the classical Chan-Vese model augmented with a novel frame-to-frame interaction term, which allow us to update the segmentation result from one image frame to the next using the previous segmentation result as a shape prior. The interaction term is constructed to be pose-invariant and to allow moderate deformations in shape. It is expected to handle the appearance of occlusions which otherwise can make segmentation fail. The performance of the model is illustrated with experiments on synthetic and real image sequences.
Database encryption using enhanced affine block cipher algorithm
Authors: Noor Habibah Arshad, Saharbudin Naim Tahir Shah, Azlinah Mohamed, Abdul Manaf Mamat
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS International Conference on Mathematical Methods and Computational Techniques in Electrical Engineering (2008)

Databases are vulnerable to attack from internal and external threats. Sensitive data stored in database appeared as target to attackers. Adding the database encryption, valuable information in database becomes more secure since the encrypted data ensure the confidentiality of the data. A new affine block cipher named Enhanced Affine Block Cipher technique is proposed for database encryption. This algorithm improves the weakness of the original affine cipher. The new encoding schema and modification Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode of operation for block cipher is designed for the new algorithm. The result has shown that the algorithm is working properly, where the decryption process produced similar output as the original plaintext and it ran through specified configuration and evaluated thoroughly with respect to database approach and algorithm technique to prove the design.
JML4: Towards an Industrial Grade IVE for Java and Next Generation Research Platform for JML
Authors: Patrice Chalin, Perry R. James, George Karabotsos
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on Verified Software: Theories, Tools, Experiments (2008)

Tool support for the Java Modeling Language (JML) is a very pressing problem. A main issue with current tools is their architecture: the cost of keeping up with the evolution of Java is prohibitively high: e.g., Java 5 has yet to be fully supported. This paper presents JML4, our proposal for an Integrated Verification Environment (IVE) for JML that builds upon Eclipse's support for Java, enhancing it with Run time Assertion Checking (RAC), Extended Static Checking (ESC) and Full Static Program Verification (FSPV). Though it currently only supports a subset of JML, we believe that JML4 is the first IVE to support such a full range of verification techniques for a mainstream programming language.
Specifying Interaction Space Components in a FIPA-ACL Interaction Framework
Authors: Ernesto German, Leonid Sheremetov
Venue: Languages, Methodologies and Development Tools for Multi-Agent Systems: First International Workshop, LADS 2007, Durham, UK, September 4-6, 2007. Revised Selected Papers (2008)

Despite the acceptance of FIPA-ACL as a standard for agent communications, there exist a gap between its specification and infrastructures supporting interactions among agents. The hypothesis we study in this paper is that interaction space components must be specified and described in depth by taking into account an explicit six-layered FIPA-ACL communication model. Based on this model, generic components are developed for a FIPA-ACL interaction framework. An implementation of interaction components is described within the CAPNET agent platform in an integrated way with the agent interaction architecture. The use of interaction space components for engineering agent interactions is illustrated by example.