ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Channel Integration in Governmental Service Delivery: The Effects on Citizen Behavior and Perceptions
Authors: Willem Pieterson, Marije Teerling
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Electronic Government (2009)

Governmental agencies continuously work on the improvement of their service delivery through an array of channels. To improve service satisfaction and to reduce the cost of service delivery, channel integration gets more popular with governmental agencies. In a quasi experimental longitudinal field study, we assess how the integration of the telephone channels of three organizations affects citizens' satisfaction with government service delivery. The results show that respondents are more positive about the integration of channels after the integration took place. Further, channel integration has a positive effect on citizens' satisfaction, but does not seem to affect channel usage and channel perceptions.
An analysis of students' spontaneous computer-mediated help seeking: A step toward the design of ecologically valid supporting tools
Authors: Minna Puustinen, Olga Volckaert-Legrier, Danièle Coquin, Josie Bernicot
Venue: Computers Education (2009)

This study analyzes middle school students' spontaneous mathematics-related help-seeking behavior, in view of making ecologically valid recommendations for the design of supporting tools or ''help systems''. Our aim was to investigate the content of students' help-seeking messages - Are there different forms of help-seeking messages and do they evolve with age? We used the archives of a French forum that provides students with free individualized help in mathematics. The data consisted of 206 messages sent by French middle school students over a period of 42 months. The constituent categories of the messages were identified. The results showed that not all middle school students use the same help-seeking ''format''. Compared to sixth graders, ninth graders wrote messages containing more constituent categories, i.e., they provided the online expert with more kinds of information. A detailed analysis of the categories further showed that older students' messages more often contained explicit help requests and contextual information than did younger students' messages. Thus, the messages of the oldest students (age 15) were both cognitively more understandable and socially more acceptable than those of the youngest students (age 11). The interpretation of these findings and their implications for designing help systems are discussed.
Coupling Biot and Navier-Stokes equations for modelling fluid-poroelastic media interaction
Authors: Santiago Badia, Annalisa Quaini, Alfio Quarteroni
Venue: Journal of Computational Physics (2009)

The interaction between a fluid and a poroelastic structure is a complex problem that couples the Navier-Stokes equations with the Biot system. The finite element approximation of this problem is involved due to the fact that both subproblems are indefinite. In this work, we first design residual-based stabilization techniques for the Biot system, motivated by the variational multiscale approach. Then, we state the monolithic Navier-Stokes/Biot system with the appropriate transmission conditions at the interface. For the solution of the coupled system, we adopt both monolithic solvers and heterogeneous domain decomposition strategies. Different domain decomposition methods are considered and their convergence is analyzed for a simplified problem. We compare the efficiency of all the methods on a test problem that exhibits a large added-mass effect, as it happens in hemodynamics applications.
Assessment of VANET multi-hop routing over an experimental platform
Authors: Jose Santa, Manabu Tsukada, Thierry Ernst, Olivier Mehani, Antonio F. Gomez-Skarmeta
Venue: International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology (2009)

Experimental evaluation of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) is still a remaining issue for most researchers. Some works carry out performance tests to evaluate the communication channel according to physical and MAC conditions. Only a few works deal with multi-hop experimentation, but practically none use routing protocols. In this paper an integral VANET testbed is evaluated, using 802.11b and a multi-hop network managed by the Optimised Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol. Up to four vehicles are used to study the VANET performance over different traffic environments and different metrics are considered to analyse the results, including a deeper analysis to track the routes followed by packets end to end. Results differ from traditional one-hop and static-route tests, presenting a more realistic study.
Correlation-based spectrum sensing in cognitive radio
Authors: Wenfang Xia, Shu Wang, Wei Liu, Wenqing Cheng
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 ACM workshop on Cognitive radio networks (2009)

Spectrum sensing is an essential function for cognitive radio systems. Based on the observation that signal samples usually are correlated due to various reasons, such as oversampling, multipath propagation and correlation among raw signals, a correlation-based detection method is proposed to differentiate signals from noise in this paper. Sensing performance of the proposed method is analyzed theoretically when primary signals are fully correlated. Its complexity is compared with that of energy detection and threshold setting is discussed under an estimated false alarm probability. However, the algorithm is inferior to energy detection in sensing performance when signal samples are uncorrelated. To overcome this disadvantage, an adaptive detection model is developed. Simulations based on captured ATSC DTV signals and analog PAL TV signals are presented to verify the performance of the proposed method.
An Investigation on Wide-Area Networks Based on Randomized Algorithms
Authors: Xuejun Yang, Hong Wang
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 Asia-Pacific Conference on Information Processing - Volume 01 (2009)

Many scholars would agree that, had it not been for the evaluation of gigabit switches, the analysis of massive multiplayer online role-playing games might never have occurred. In fact, few experts would disagree with the intuitive unification of superblocks and the location-identity split, which embodies the confirmed principles of robotics. We construct new heterogeneous communication (BACK), which we use to verify that red-black trees and the location-identity split are rarely incompatible.
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Electroencephalography: A Multimodal Imaging Approach
Authors: Anna C. Merzagora, Meltem Izzetoglu, Robi Polikar, Valerie Weisser, Banu Onaral, Maria T. Schultheis
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Foundations of Augmented Cognition. Neuroergonomics and Operational Neuroscience: Held as Part of HCI International 2009 (2009)

Although neuroimaging has greatly expanded our knowledge about the brain-behavior relation, combining multiple neuroimaging modalities with complementing strengths can overcome some limitations encountered when using a single modality. Valuable candidates for a multimodal approach are functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG). fNIRS is an imaging technology that localizes hemodynamic changes within the cortex. However, hemodynamic activation is an intrinsically slow process. On the other hand, EEG has excellent time resolution by directly measuring the manifestation of the brain electrical activity at the scalp. Based on their complementary strengths, the integration of fNIRS and EEG may provide higher spatiotemporal resolution than either method alone. In this effort, we integrate fNIRS and EEG to evaluate the behavioral performance of six healthy adults in a working memory task. To this end, features extracted from fNIRS and EEG were used separately, as well as in combination, and their performances were compared against each other.
Accurate estimates without local data?
Authors: Tim Menzies, Steve Williams, Oussama Elrawas, Daniel Baker, Barry Boehm, Jairus Hihn, Karen Lum, Ray Madachy
Venue: Software Process: Improvement and Practice (2009)

Models of software projects input project details and output predictions via their internal tunings. The output predictions, therefore, are affected by variance in the project details P and variance in the internal tunings T. Local data is often used to constrain the internal tunings (reducing T). While constraining internal tunings with local data is always the preferred option, there exist some models for which constraining tuning is optional. We show empirically that, for the USC COCOMO family of models, the effects of P dominate the effects of T i.e. the output variance of these models can be controlled without using local data to constrain the tuning variance (in ten case studies, we show that the estimates generated by only constraining P are very similar to those produced by constraining T with historical data). We conclude that, if possible, models should be designed such that the effects of the project options dominate the effects of the tuning options. Such models can be used for the purposes of decision making without elaborate, tedious, and time-consuming data collection from the local domain. Copyright &copy; 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Last Word: Advice from Uncle Charles
Authors: Charles Day
Venue: IEEE Design Test (2009)

The idea that computers are tools perhaps points to more generally applicable advice. Solving problems is immensely satisfying.
Dynamic Adaptation of Web 2.0 Applications by Combining Extended Device Profiles
Authors: Carlos A. Velasco, Yehya Mohamad, Jaroslav Pullmann
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Part III: Applications and Services (2009)

This paper presents our approach to the dynamic adaptation of Web 2.0 applications. The work is based upon the assumption that the Web is evolving towards a cloud of customisable applications and data, where users will have the ultimate freedom to adapt their environments (named by T.V. Raman as 2 W ). Our research aims at the provision of adaptable environments for users with special needs via an extension of standard device profiles combined with the modelling of Web applications based upon ARIA. We describe hereby our initial prototype and suggest extensions to ubiquitous Web applications via delivery context information.
MAC Protocol for Opportunistic Cognitive Radio Networks with Soft Guarantees
Authors: Haythem Bany Salameh, Marwan Krunz, Ossama Younis
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (2009)

Cognitive radio (CR) is the key enabling technology for an efficient dynamic spectrum access. It aims at exploiting an underutilized licensed spectrum by enabling opportunistic communications for unlicensed users. In this work, we first develop a distributed cognitive radio MAC (COMAC) protocol that enables unlicensed users to dynamically utilize the spectrum while limiting the interference on primary (PR) users. The main novelty in COMAC lies in not assuming a predefined CR-to-PR power mask and not requiring active coordination with PR users. COMAC provides a statistical performance guarantee for PR users by limiting the fraction of the time during which the PR users' reception is negatively affected by CR transmissions. To provide such a guarantee, we develop probabilistic models for the PR-to-PR and the PR-to-CR interference under a Rayleigh fading channel model. From these models, we derive closed-form expressions for the mean and variance of interference. Empirical results show that the distribution of the interference is approximately lognormal. Based on the developed interference models, we derive a closed-form expression for the maximum allowable power for a CR transmission. We extend the min-hop routing to exploit the available channel information for improving the perceived throughput. Our simulation results indicate that COMAC satisfies its target soft guarantees under different traffic loads and arbitrary user deployment scenarios. Results also show that exploiting the available channel information for the routing decisions can improve the end-to-end throughput of the CR network (CRN).
Toward emergent technology for blended public displays
Authors: Angie Chandler, Joe Finney, Carl Lewis, Alan Dix
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Ubiquitous computing (2009)

Public displays are becoming increasingly commonplace, yet recent studies place the effectiveness and user acceptance of them into doubt. This paper motivates the need for a new class of display technology that can more effectively blend with its environment and introduces the concept of self-organizing emergent displays as a vehicle to achieving this. The paper goes on to briefly describe Firefly, a prototype emergent display system, and evaluate its scalability, effectiveness, and user acceptance through experimental analysis and a field trial.
Posterior probability profiles for the automated assessment of the recovery of stroke patients
Authors: Gert Van Dijck, Jo Van Vaerenbergh, Marc M. Van Hulle
Venue: Proceedings of the 22nd national conference on Artificial intelligence - Volume 1 (2007)

Assessing recovery from stroke has been so far a time consuming procedure in which highly trained clinicians are required. This paper proposes a mechatronic platform which measures low forces and torques exerted by subjects, Class posterior probabilities are used as a quantitative and statistically sound tool to assess motor recovery from these force and torque measurements. The performance of the patients is expressed in terms of the posterior probability to belong to the class of normal subjects. The mechatronic platform together with the class posterior probabilities enables to automate motor recovery assessment without the need for highly trained clinicians. It is shown that the class posterior probability profiles are highly correlated, r ≈ 0.8, with the well-established Fugl-Meyer scale assessment in motor recovery. These results have been obtained through careful feature subset selection procedures in order to prune the large feature set being generated. The overall approach is general and can be applied to many other health monitoring systems where different categories (diseased vs. healthy) can be identified.
A probabilistic model of referring expressions for complex objects
Authors: Kotaro Funakoshi, Philipp Spanger, Mikio Nakano, Takenobu Tokunaga
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th European Workshop on Natural Language Generation (2009)

This paper presents a probabilistic model both for generation and understanding of referring expressions. This model introduces the concept of parts of objects, modelling the necessity to deal with the characteristics of separate parts of an object in the referring process. This was ignored or implicit in previous literature. Integrating this concept into a probabilistic formulation, the model captures human characteristics of visual perception and some type of pragmatic implicature in referring expressions. Developing this kind of model is critical to deal with more complex domains in the future. As a first step in our research, we validate the model with the TUNA corpus to show that it includes conventional domain modeling as a subset.
An Application of the Combination of Principal Component Analysis and BP Neural Network to Credit Assessment in the Commercial Banks
Authors: Li Bo, Xu Congwei
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 International Forum on Information Technology and Applications - Volume 01 (2009)

The credit risk assessment is the most difficulty in the credit risk management in commercial banks, so the combination method of principal component analysis and BP neural network based on biology nerve cell was introduced in detail according to the idea of combination forecasting. The principle component analysis is used to handle on input variables in advance to solve the problem of the inefficiency in BP neural network owing to the excessive input variables. Then the combination method is applied to credit risk assessment in the commercial banks through training of the neural network tools and testing. Empirical results and analysis indicate that this kind of method has the satisfied assessment efficiency and theoretical accuracy and is applicable to Chinese commercial banks.
Methane Recovery and Energy Generation in Spent Wash Wastewater Treatment
Authors: Wei-hua Yang, Li Wei, Sheng-nan Zhao, Jiang Dong
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Environmental Science and Information Application Technology - Volume 01 (2009)

The wastewater from distillation process has high organic content, which has to be treated to bring down the levels of COD and BOD to prescribed standards of environmental authorities. In this study, the organic wastewater from distillery also known as spent wash is treated by closed anaerobic reactors to recover methane rich biogas and utilise the methane as fuel to generate steam and electricity. Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) type of anaerobic reactors is employed in the project activity.The Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission reductions due to recovery of methane and displacement of fossil fuel by generation of steam and electricity utilising the biogas generated are considered as emission reductions of the project activity. The analyses are conducted based on using the methodology of Clean Development Mechanis (CDM)for the projections of GHG emission reductions for the project’s baseline. It is found that the project will get methane recovery of 2,632 tones per year and reduce GHG emissions of about 275,646 tones of CO2e over the first 7-year crediting period, and the effluent is sufficient to meet the disposal standards required by the environmental authorities.
An Improved RBAC96 Model with Range Restricted
Authors: Yan Dong, Yang Zhengqiu, Liu Chen
Venue: Proceedings of the 2009 International Forum on Information Technology and Applications - Volume 03 (2009)

The Modern Information management systems are built on basis of the Internet, the online system nearly includes all business of an enterprise, and almost every employee has to complete some certain operations in the system. Therefore, the security plays an important role in the running of an online information management system. Access control is a significant component of the security measures. We can see easily if an online system is mature and reliable through its Access control module. RBAC96[1] is a relatively mature access control mechanism. This paper is based on RBAC96 model prototype, and makes it improved with range restricted mechanism, which could make the whole access control become more secure, the control become more accurate.
A New Generative Feature Set Based on Entropy Distance for Discriminative Classification
Authors: Alessandro Perina, Marco Cristani, Umberto Castellani, Vittorio Murino
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (2009)

Score functions induced by generative models extract fixed-dimensions feature vectors from different-length data observations by subsuming the process of data generation, projecting them in highly informative spaces called score spaces. In this way, standard discriminative classifiers such as support vector machines, or logistic regressors are proved to achieve higher performances than a solely generative or discriminative approach. In this paper, we present a novel score space that capture the generative process encoding it in an entropic feature vector. In this way, both uncertainty in the generative model learning step and "local" compliance of data observations with respect to the generative process can be represented. The proposed score space is presented for hidden Markov models and mixture of gaussian and is experimentally validated on standard benchmark datasets; moreover it can be applied to any generative model. Results show how it achieves compelling classification accuracies.
First Experiments on Text-to-Speech System Personification
Authors: Zdeněk Hanzlíček, Jindřich Matoušek, Daniel Tihelka
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Text, Speech and Dialogue (2009)

In the present paper, several experiments on text-to-speech system personification are described. The personification enables TTS system to produce new voices by employing voice conversion methods. The baseline speech synthetizer is a concatenative corpus-based TTS system which utilizes the unit selection method. The voice identity change is performed by the transformation of spectral envelope, spectral detail and pitch. Two different personification approaches are compared in this paper. The former is based on the transformation of the original speech corpus, the latter transforms the output of the synthesizer. Specific advantages and disadvantages of both approaches are discussed and their performance is compared in listening tests.
SNP-o-matic
Authors: Heinrich Magnus Manske, Dominic P. Kwiatkowski
Venue: Bioinformatics (2009)

Motivation: High throughput sequencing technologies generate large amounts of short reads. Mapping these to a reference sequence consumes large amounts of processing time and memory, and read mapping errors can lead to noisy or incorrect alignments. SNP-o-matic is a fast, memory-efficient and stringent read mapping tool offering a variety of analytical output functions, with an emphasis on genotyping. Availability: http://snpomatic.sourceforge.net Contact: mm6@sanger.ac.uk Supplementary information:Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Events and Sightings
Authors: Chigusa Kita
Venue: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2009)

The Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ) recently started the Information Processing Technology Heritage program to certify historical artifacts in order to promote the preservation of historical computers.
Space missions & sensor networking: challenging scenarios
Authors: Alessandro Donati
Venue: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery from Sensor Data (2009)

Sensor networking is a paradigm getting familiar in space missions and services. The talk will provide a panoramic view of examples of challenging missions related to earth environment and to space exploration, where sensor knowledge discovery techniques might become instrumental to fulfill mission objectives. European Space Agency (ESA) missions such as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and the series of possible Mars exploration missions will be presented and put in context with the topic of the workshop.
From Java to C# a workshop on the how, what, and why
Authors: Joe Hummel
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2009)

The .NET platform is incredibly rich, allowing you to build a variety of applications with a multitude of languages. Using a common development environment, students can program in languages such as C#, VB, C++, F#, and Python, creating software with a range of interfaces (console, GUI and web) and functionality (scientific, database, distributed, service-oriented, game and robotic). Microsoft's flagship development environment, Visual Studio 2008, is freely-available to students via Microsoft's DreamSpark program, along with Windows, SQL Server, and Expression Studio. These same tools are available for a nominal fee to institutional departments through Microsoft's MSDN Academic Alliance. If you prefer, you can work outside of Visual Studio with command-line compilers, editors, and 3rd-party IDEs, or step off the Windows platform entirely and work with .NET on Linux, OS X or BSD using Mono.