ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Scheduling time-bounded dynamic software adaptation
Authors: Serena Fritsch, Aline Senart, Douglas C. Schmidt, Siobhán Clarke
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 international workshop on Software engineering for adaptive and self-managing systems (2008)

Component-based software increasingly needs dynamic adaptation to support applications in domains such as automotive, avionics or robotic systems. Dynamic software adaptation involves both the integration of new, previously unanticipated features and the update of existing features without requiring system downtime. Software adaptations must often be time-bounded, e.g., due to mobility constraints. Inconsistent or inaccurate behaviour may result from an adaptation that does not complete within specified time constraints. Service providers must therefore take time constraints into account when scheduling adaptation actions. This paper describes an algorithm for time-bounded scheduling of adaptation actions and demonstrates the validity of its results.
Seeing things in the clouds: the effect of visual features on tag cloud selections
Authors: Scott Bateman, Carl Gutwin, Miguel Nacenta
Venue: Proceedings of the nineteenth ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (2008)

Tag clouds are a popular method for visualizing and linking socially-organized information on websites. Tag clouds represent variables of interest (such as popularity) in the visual appearance of the keywords themselves - using text properties such as font size, weight, or colour. Although tag clouds are becoming common, there is still little information about which visual features of tags draw the attention of viewers. As tag clouds attempt to represent a wider range of variables with a wider range of visual properties, it becomes difficult to predict what will appear visually important to a viewer. To investigate this issue, we carried out an exploratory study that asked users to select tags from clouds that manipulated nine visual properties. Our results show that font size and font weight have stronger effects than intensity, number of characters, or tag area; but when several visual properties are manipulated at once, there is no one property that stands out above the others. This study adds to the understanding of how visual properties of text capture the attention of users, indicates general guidelines for designers of tag clouds, and provides a study paradigm and starting points for future studies. In addition, our findings may be applied more generally to the visual presentation of textual hyperlinks as a way to provide more information to web navigators.
Extreme visualization: squeezing a billion records into a million pixels
Authors: Ben Shneiderman
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data (2008)

Database searches are usually performed with query languages and form fill in templates, with results displayed in tabular lists. However, excitement is building around dynamic queries sliders and other graphical selectors for query specification, with results displayed by information visualization techniques. These filtering techniques have proven to be effective for many tasks in which visual presentations enable discovery of relationships, clusters, outliers, gaps, and other patterns. Scaling visual presentations from millions to billions of records will require collaborative research efforts in information visualization and database management to enable rapid aggregation, meaningful coordinated windows, and effective summary graphics. This paper describes current and proposed solutions (atomic, aggregated, and density plots) that facilitate sense-making for interactive visual exploration of billion record data sets.
Distributed transmission line phase shifter using MEMS switches and inductors
Authors: Saeid Afrang, Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis
Venue: Microsystem Technologies (2008)

Distributed MEMS transmission line (DMTL) phase shifter has been developed using planar inductors. The design consists of a coplanar waveguide line capacitively and inductively loaded by the periodic set of electrostatic force actuated microelectromechanical system switches as capacitors and inductors. By applying a single bias voltage on the line, the characteristic impedance can be changed, which in turn changes the phase velocity of the line and creates a true time delay phase shift. The governing equations for the impedance and loss are derived. The ABCD matrix is defined for a unit and multi-cell DMTL phase shifter to extract scattering parameters equations. The device containing 15 cells calculated, simulated, and fabricated. Fabricated results show that the device can be considered as a new type of the DMTL phase shifter with small size, higher phase shift and acceptable scattering parameters.
A Trust-based Middleware for Providing Security to Ad-Hoc Peer-to-Peer Applications
Authors: Florina Almenarez, Andres Marin, Daniel Diaz, Alberto Cortes, Celeste Campo, Carlos Garcia-Rubio
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 Sixth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (2008)

Trust has emerged as an important facet of inter-domainrelationships. Trust management in fixed networks is not functional in ad hoc P2P networks, because these requirean autonomous, user-centric and non-static trust management. The trust model is the basis of any security infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a trust-based middleware for secure digital content sharing between pervasive devices. Such middleware allows to enhance security support of pervasive devices. Likewise, we propose a suitable and efficient secure file exchange protocol, WSFEP, for content sharing. Both middleware and file sharing application have been successfuly integrated and tested on PDAs.
An Open Source Platform for the Integration of Distributed Services
Authors: Félix Cuadrado, Juan C. Dueñas, José L. Ruiz, Jesús Bermejo, Miguel García
Venue: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications - Workshops (2008)

Service-orientation is not only a means for systems integration, but also an architecture paradigm for building systems. Flexibility, adaptability and interoperability are some of the benefits derived from the adoption of SOA. These principles are often applied to build distributed systems. But whether SOA is applied or not, building a distributed system is still complex, what increases the demand on high-quality middleware to achieve success. This paper presents a runtime service integration architecture that enables distributed service interactions regardless the capabilities of the devices involved, i.e. to deal with services distribution over a heterogeneous network. The solution presented is built upon the OSGi service platform which has been leveraged with OSS middleware components to provide remote communications (with connectors and adaptors), service discovery, service binding and service publication. The development of this architecture is carried out within the ITEA OSIRIS Consortium and is being applied to industrial case studies; including a tax administration applications, service provisioning to residential environments and a mobile CRM.
High manufacturing-defect tolerance optically programmable architecture
Authors: Minoru Watanabe, Fuminori Kobayashi
Venue: Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Electronics, Control & Signal Processing (2006)

Optically reconfigurable gate arrays, which consist simply of a holographic memory, a laser diode array, and a gate array VLSI, have a perfect parallel programmable capability. Even if a gate array VLSI includes defective areas, the perfect parallel programmable capability allows perfectly avoidance of those defective areas; instead, the remaining area on the gate array is used. Therefore, the architecture enables fabrication of large die VLSI chips and even wafer scale integrations using the latest processes with a high fraction of defects. Moreover, holographic memory is well-known to have high defect-tolerance because each bit of a reconfiguration context can be stored in the entire holographic memory and the damage of some component rarely affects its diffraction pattern or reconfiguration context. Therefore, the architecture has a high manufacturing-defect tolerance. In this paper, the high manufacturing-defect tolerance of optically programmable architectures is clarified using a single context prototype optically programmable architecture, which combines a liquid crystal spatial light modulator as a holographic memory, a He-Ne laser, and a perfectly parallel optically programmable gate-array VLSI.
Piezoelectric Single Crystals of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 and their Applications in Medical Ultrasonic Transducers
Authors: Dan Zhou, Jing Chen, Haosu Luo
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on BioMedical Engineering and Informatics - Volume 02 (2008)

The (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystals were investigated for various applications in medical ultrasonic transducers. PMN-PT monolithic transducer was fabricated with bandwidth at -3dB enhanced by 34% and sensitivity enhanced by 4 dB, compared with traditional PZT transducer. The PMN-PT phased array transducer fabricated is also excellent. 1-3 piezoelectric composites using PMN-PT exhibit high thickness mode coupling factor (kt=90.1%), and relatively low acoustic impedance (Z=19.49MRayls).The research work has been done indicates PMN-PT single crystal a promising application in medical ultrasonic transducers.
Social network probability mechanics
Authors: Ian A. Mcculloh, Joshua Lospinoso, Kathleen Carley
Venue: Proceedings of the 12th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Mathematics (2007)

A new model for a random graph is proposed that can be constructed from empirical data and has some desirable properties compared to scale-free graphs [1, 2, 3] for certain applications. The newly proposed random graph maintains the same "small-world" properties [3, 4, 5] of the scale-free graph, while allowing mathematical modeling of the relationships that make up the random graph. E-mail communication data was collected on a group of 24 mid-career Army officers in a one-year graduate program [6] to validate necessary assumptions for this new class of random graphs. Statistical distributions on graph level measures are then approximated using Monte Carlo simulation and used to detect change in a graph over time.
Enforcing behavioral constraints in evolving aspect-oriented programs
Authors: Raffi Khatchadourian, Johan Dovland, Neelam Soundarajan
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th workshop on Foundations of aspect-oriented languages (2008)

Reasoning, specification, and verification of Aspect-Oriented (AO) programs presents unique challenges especially as such programs evolve over time. Components, base-code and aspects alike, may be easily added, removed, interchanged, or presently unavailable at unpredictable frequencies. Consequently, modular reasoning of such programs is highly attractive as it enables tractable evolution, otherwise necessitating that the entire program be reexamined each time a component is changed. It is well known, however, that modular reasoning about AO programs is difficult. In this paper, we present our ongoing work in constructing a relyguarantee style reasoning system for the Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) paradigm, adopting a trace-based approach to deal with the plug-n-play nature inherent to these programs, thus easing AOP evolution.
Application of colour detection and snakes to track hand images
Authors: S. Robla, C. Torre, E. G. Sarabia, J. R. Llata
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Signal, Speech and Image Processing (2006)

This article presents a study about two popular segmentation and tracking techniques in computer vision, skin segmentation and snakes, and their application to a particular case. The study is centered in skin segmentation over a wooden background mostly. At first wood and skin characteristics were thought to be very similar, what would have been an inconvenient. However, this paper shows that it is possible to get a satisfactory colour segmentation applying a Bayes classifier in YCbCr images format. The use of automatically initialized open active contours let the tracking of the segmented hand and its localization in the image.
Sensor-based global planning for mobile robot navigation
Authors: S. Garrido, L. Moreno, D. Blanco, M. l. Munoz
Venue: Robotica (2007)

The proposed algorithm integrates in a single planner the global motion planning and local obstacle avoidance capabilities. It efficiently guides the robot in a dynamic environment. This eliminates some of the traditional problems of planned architectures (model-plan-act scheme) while obtaining many of the qualities of behavior-based architectures. The computational efficiency of the method allows the planner to operate at high-rate sensor frequencies. This avoids the need for using both a collision-avoidance algorithm and a global motion planner for navigation in a cluttered environment. The method combines map-based and sensor-based planning operations to provide a smooth and reliable motion plan. Operating on a simple grid-based world model, the method uses a fast marching technique to determine a motion plan on a Voronoi extended transform extracted from the environment model. In addition to this real-time response ability, the method produces smooth and safe robot trajectories.
Learning binary relations and total orders
Authors: S. A. Goldman, R. L. Rivest, R. E. Schapire
Venue: Proceedings of the 30th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (1989)

The problem of designing polynomial prediction algorithms for learning binary relations is studied for an online model in which the instances are drawn by the learner, by a helpful teacher, by an adversary, or according to a probability distribution on the instance space. The relation is represented as an n*m binary matrix, and results are presented when the matrix is restricted to have at most k distinct row types, and when it is constrained by requiring that the predicate form a total order.
Enumerating the k closest pairs optimally
Authors: H.-P. Lenhof, M. Smid
Venue: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (1992)

Let S be a set of n points in D-dimensional space, where D is a constant, and let k be an integer between 1 and (/sub 2//sup n/) An algorithm is given that computes the k closest pairs in the set S in O(nlogn+k) time, using O(n+k) space. The algorithm fits in the algebraic decision tree model and is, therefore, optimal.
Marketing Thought: Tools, Tactics and Strategies that Drive Results
Authors: Alex Littlewood
Venue:  (2007)

What is the next big idea to change the face of marketing? Marketing is all about meeting the needs and wants of the customer. While this statement remains a fundamental truth, the reality is that the focus and direction of marketing activities has always changed with the times, the socio-political climate, and the prevalent culture. The content of this book was developed on the premise that revolutionary innovations begin with an idea that addresses a challenge, or a set of challenges, that we face today. It focuses on high-level concepts that can be filtered down to accelerate and enhance the use of tools, tactics, and strategies that drive results. These pages show you how some of marketing's brightest stars seek to define the next big idea that will change the face of the industry. You will also gain insight into the role of dynamic marketing professionals who contribute to bringing these ideas to life.
The K-moment problem with densities
Authors: Jean B. Lasserre
Venue: Mathematical Programming: Series A and B (2008)

Given a compact basic semi-algebraic set $${\mathbf{K}} \subset {\mathbb{R}}^n$$, a rational fraction $$f:{\mathbb{R}}^n\to{\mathbb{R}}$$, and a sequence of scalars y&#x00a0;=&#x00a0;(y &#x03b1;), we investigate when $$y_\alpha =\int_{\mathbf{K}} x^\alpha f\,d\mu$$ holds for all $$\alpha\in{\mathbb{N}}^n$$, i.e., when y is the moment sequence of some measure fd&#x03bc;, supported on K. This yields a set of (convex) linear matrix inequalities (LMI). We also use semidefinite programming to develop a converging approximation scheme to evaluate the integral &#x222b; fd&#x03bc; when the moments of&#x00a0;&#x03bc; are known and f is a given rational fraction. Numerical expreriments are also provided. We finally provide (again LMI) conditions on the moments of two measures $$\nu,\mu$$ with support contained in K, to have $$d\nu=f d\mu$$ for some rational fraction f.
Collectives: a framework for self-adaptive P2P applications
Authors: Pablo Chacin, Leandro Navarro
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on Adaptive and reflective middleware: held at the ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Middleware Conference (2007)

The development of a self-adaptive P2P applications faces many challenges ranging from the proper modeling of the application's behavior to the definition of the distributed algorithms required to support its functionalities and finally to its implementation in a particular platform. Collectives is a framework that addresses this issues by providing the modeling concepts and the implementation architecture required to separate the diverse adaptation concerns at the proper level of abstraction.
Testing symmetric properties of distributions
Authors: Paul Valiant
Venue: Proceedings of the 40th annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing (2008)

We introduce the notion of a Canonical Tester for a class of properties on distributions, that is, a tester strong and general enough that "a distribution property in the class is testable if and only if the Canonical Tester tests it". We construct a Canonical Tester for the class of symmetric properties of one or two distributions, satisfying a certain weak continuity condition. Analyzing the performance of the Canonical Tester on specific properties resolves several open problems, establishing lower bounds that match known upper bounds: we show that distinguishing between entropy α/β- o(1) samples, and distinguishing whether a pair of distributions has statistical distance 1-o(1) samples. Our techniques also resolve a conjecture about a property that our Canonical Tester does not apply to: distinguishing identical distributions from those with statistical distance >β requires Ω(n2/3) samples.
Predicting the protein family of Methyl Parathion Hydrolase
Authors: Jian Tian, Xuexia Guo, Xiaoyu Chu, Ningfeng Wu, Jun Guo, Bin Yao
Venue: International Journal of Bioinformatics Research and Applications (2008)

Six motifs of Methyl Parathion Hydrolase (MPH) were discovered using a method based on the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Most MPH from TrEMBL (Release 48.6) could be recognised by these six motifs. When these six motifs were projected onto the 3D enzyme structure, we discovered that all of them closely surrounded the active centre and might play an important role in structure and function of the enzyme. By comparing the motifs of MPH with PH and analysing the phylogenetic tree, we found that these two enzymes, with substrates differing from only two methyl groups, belonged to two different protein families. The MPH belonged to the Lactamase family, and the PH belonged to the Phosphotriesterase (PTE) family.
FreeMAC: framework for multi-channel mac development on 802.11 hardware
Authors: Ashish Sharma, Elizabeth M. Belding
Venue: Proceedings of the ACM workshop on Programmable routers for extensible services of tomorrow (2008)

Exponential growth in the number of wireless devices that operate in the limited unlicensed frequency spectrum necessitates the next generation of radio devices to be reconfigurable and sensitive to changes in network conditions and spectrum availability. Most modern wireless devices offer increased software programmability and control over radio communication parameters. Since a large portion of the MAC protocol is implemented in software, with the firmware providing a set of functional primitives, it is possible to design and implement alternate MAC protocols in real testbeds equipped with commodity 802.11 devices. This paper describes FreeMAC, a reconfigurable MAC protocol development framework that enables the design and implementation of a general class of multi-channel MAC protocols on a typical Linux system. FreeMAC provides support for frequent channel switching and fine control over the timing of packet transmissions. We also propose a mechanism to reduce the latency in the scheduling of periodic operations of a software MAC protocol that have strict timing requirements. Results from our six node testbed indicate that using our approach, the scheduling latency of slot transitions in a TDMA-style MAC can be improved by up to an order of magnitude, with minimal overhead. FreeMAC also exports a number of radio configuration parameters as API functions to enable cross layer interactions among wireless networking protocols. As a proof of concept, we implement a simple multi-channel TDMA MAC on our testbed to demonstrate the utility of FreeMAC as a development framework.
Causal reasoning by evaluating the complexity of conditional densities with kernel methods
Authors: Xiaohai Sun, Dominik Janzing, Bernhard Schölkopf
Venue: Neurocomputing (2008)

We propose a method to quantify the complexity of conditional probability measures by a Hilbert space seminorm of the logarithm of its density. The concept of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs) is a flexible tool to define such a seminorm by choosing an appropriate kernel. We present several examples with artificial data sets where our kernel-based complexity measure is consistent with our intuitive understanding of complexity of densities. The intention behind the complexity measure is to provide a new approach to inferring causal directions. The idea is that the factorization of the joint probability measure P(effect,cause) into P(effect|cause)P(cause) leads typically to ''simpler'' and ''smoother'' terms than the factorization into P(cause|effect)P(effect). Since the conventional constraint-based approach of causal discovery is not able to determine the causal direction between only two variables, our inference principle can in particular be useful when combined with other existing methods. We provide several simple examples with real-world data where the true causal directions indeed lead to simpler (conditional) densities.
Practical Proactive Integrity Preservation: A Basis for Malware Defense
Authors: Weiqing Sun, R. Sekar, Gaurav Poothia, Tejas Karandikar
Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (2008)

Unlike today's reactive approaches, information flow based approaches can provide positive assurances about overall system integrity, and hence can defend against sophisticated malware. However, there hasn't been much success in applying information flow based techniques to desktop systems running modern COTS operating systems. This is, in part, due to the fact that a strict application of information flow policy can break existing applications and OS services. Another important factor is the difficulty of policy development, which requires us to specify integrity labels for hundreds of thousands of objects on the system. This paper develops a new approach for proactive integrity protection that overcomes these challenges by decoupling integrity labels from access policies. We then develop an analysis that can largely automate the generation of integrity labels and policies that preserve the usability of applications in most cases. Evaluation of our prototype implementation on a Linux desktop distribution shows that it does not break or inconvenience the use of most applications, while stopping a variety of sophisticated malware attacks.