ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Moderating Role of Online Self-Efficacy in Relation between Learning Strategy and Online Performance
Authors: Huamao Peng, Ying Wang, Ronghuai Huang
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Learning by Effective Utilization of Technologies: Facilitating Intercultural Understanding (2006)

Data derived from 72 students in online English course showed that online self-efficacy was a moderating factor in relation between learning strategy and online performance. In high online self-efficacy group, online performance was predicted by learning strategy positively, which explained 23% of the performance variance. In low online self-efficacy group, online performance was not predicted by learning strategies significantly.
Genaweave: a generic aspect weaver framework based on model-driven program transformation
Authors: Jeff Gray
Venue:  (2008)

Legacy software affects critical functions of our daily lives (e.g., general commercial transactions, scientific applications and military defense systems), and represents a significant investment by government, scientific and corporate institutions. As a consequence of the longevity of such systems, existing legacy software is subject to decay over a period of time, making it increasingly difficult to address changing stakeholder requirements. Modern research approaches for software engineering and programming language design, such as aspect-oriented software development (AOSD), have been investigated as effective techniques for improving modularization of software. However, a general trend in research for supporting aspects has focused primarily on Java as the target programming language, neglecting the multiple billions of lines of existing code written in other languages. Rather than bringing the legacy code to existing Java-based weavers, a viable alternative is to take Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) principles to the legacy languages and tool environments. Given the large number of programming languages currently in use, a solution that mitigates the effort needed to create each new aspect weaver is more desirable than an approach that manually recreates a weaver from scratch for each legacy language. The research presented in this dissertation utilizes Program Transformation Engines (PTEs) to construct aspect weavers for legacy languages. A core focus of the research is a generic platform that permits reusability of software artifacts among aspect weavers constructed for various General-Purpose Languages (GPLs). In addition, the research described in this dissertation aims to eliminate the accidental complexities that are typically associated with using PTEs. In order to fulfill these two objectives, the research utilizes a model-driven front-end that is layered on top of the program transformation based back-end. Specifically, the research makes a contribution by combining Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) with PTE to construct aspect weavers for GPLs through models and program transformations. The approach described in the dissertation uses models to capture the essence of various AOP language constructs at a higher-level of abstraction. These models are then mapped to concrete weavers for GPLs through a combination of higher-order model transformation and program transformation rules. A generic extension to the framework further supports reusability of artifacts among weavers during the construction process. In addition, the framework allows experimentation with new AOP constructs (e.g., loops) and helps to evolve commercial and scientific software (e.g., Blitz++, HPL) maintained in legacy languages like Object Pascal, C and FORTRAN. The research presented in this dissertation outlines several challenges that were identified in providing a generic platform to create aspect weavers and demonstrates how each of those challenges was mitigated during the course of this research.
Safety, uncertainty, and real-time problems in developing autonomous robots
Authors: Vitaliy Rybak
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS international conference on Signal processing, robotics and automation (2009)

Recent developments in robotics outside traditional industrial applications increasingly focus on operation of robots in an unstructured environment and human vs. robot interactions. Examples of new applications of robots in unstructured environments that are actively pursued today are personal and service robotics, space and underwater robotics, medical and rehabilitation robotics, construction robotics, and agriculture robotics. The new trends in robotics research have a general goal of getting robots closer to human social needs. In this case a key problem of robotics is the problem of safety of robot and its surrounding. For safe autonomous functioning in a dynamic unstructured environment, a robot should possess a capability of real-time data processing under information uncertainty. These three issues - safety, uncertainty, and real-time data processing are closely related: planning safe actions based on uncertain data usually requires more computation than planning without uncertainty because multiple possible outcomes of actions should be considered. The main sources of the uncertainty are inaccuracy of sensorial data measurement, time-delay of sensorial data acquisition and processing, and time-delayed feedback in a robot's control system. As increase of accuracy of measurements and speed of data processing has technical and economic restrictions, there is a necessity for search of practical decisions in the conditions of existing possibilities. We propose a method of real-time data processing under information uncertainty that deals collaborative processing of various data, visual and non-visual. Finally we present the examples of application of the proposed method for building of robot's environment model and for robot motion planning with obstacles avoiding.
Using Occlusion Calculi to Interpret Digital Images
Authors: David Randell, Mark Witkowski
Venue: Proceeding of the 2006 conference on ECAI 2006: 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence August 29 -- September 1, 2006, Riva del Garda, Italy (2006)

This paper reports on an investigation using occlusion calculi to interpret digital images. Using a minimal set of digital, region-relation detectors, and assuming a continuous interpretation of physical space, we show how existing calculi can be augmented and embedded in the Event Calculus to interpolate and recover a larger set of occlusion relations than are otherwise available at the basic detector level.
A micro electromagnetic low level vibration energy harvester based on MEMS technology
Authors: Peihong Wang, Katsuhiko Tanaka, Susumu Sugiyama, Xuhan Dai, Xiaolin Zhao, Jingquan Liu
Venue: Microsystem Technologies (2009)

This paper presents a micro electromagnetic energy harvester which can convert low level vibration energy to electrical power. It mainly consists of an electroplated copper planar spring, a permanent magnet and a copper planar coil with high aspect ratio. Mechanical simulation shows that the natural frequency of the magnet-spring system is 94.5&#x00a0;Hz. The resonant vibration amplitude of the magnet is 259.1&#x00a0;&#x03bc;m when the input vibration amplitude is 14&#x00a0;&#x03bc;m and the magnet-spring system is at resonance. Electromagnetic simulation shows that the linewidth and the turns of the coil influence the induced voltage greatly. The optimized electromagnetic vibration energy harvester can generate 0.7&#x00a0;&#x03bc;W of maximal output power with peak&#x2013;peak voltage of 42.6&#x00a0;mV in an input vibration frequency of 94.5&#x00a0;Hz and input acceleration of 4.94&#x00a0;m/s2 (this vibration is a kind of low level ambient vibration). A prototype (not optimized) has been fabricated using MEMS micromachining technology. The testing results show that the prototype can generate induced voltage (peak&#x2013;peak) of 18&#x00a0;mV and output power of 0.61&#x00a0;&#x03bc;W for 14.9&#x00a0;m/s2 external acceleration at its resonant frequency of 55&#x00a0;Hz (this vibration is not in a low ambient vibration level).
The huggable: a platform for research in robotic companions for pediatric care
Authors: Walter Dan Stiehl, Jun Ki Lee, Cynthia Breazeal, Marco Nalin, Angelica Morandi, Alberto Sanna
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (2009)

Robotic companions offer a unique combination of embodiment and computation which open many new interesting opportunities in the field of pediatric care. As these new technologies are developed, we must consider the central research questions of how such systems should be designed and what the appropriate applications for such systems are. In this paper we present the Huggable, a robotic companion in the form factor of a teddy bear and outline a series of studies we are planning to run using the Huggable in a pediatric care unit.
A Resourceful Partnership: Work in Progress on the UK Teacher Training Resource Bank (TTRB)
Authors: Michael Blamires, Simon Hughes
Venue: Proceeding of the 2005 conference on Towards Sustainable and Scalable Educational Innovations Informed by the Learning Sciences: Sharing Good Practices of Research, Experimentation and Innovation (2005)

In this paper, we describe work in progress on the UK Teacher Training Resource Bank. This is an online database of articles, artefacts, materials and resources which have been compiled from the history of teacher education. The inclusion criteria for the site are being evolved in an organic and resourceful partnership between Canterbury Christ Church University, The Institute of Education's e-librarian, RM/3T and The British Education Index. Each object added to the site is assigned a unique identifier and carefully controlled meta data.
Logical formalization of social commitments: application to agent communication languages
Authors: Benoit Gaudou, Andreas Herzig, Dominique Longin
Venue: Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 2 (2009)

Most agent Communication Languages are no longer defined in terms of the agents' mental attitudes, but in terms of social commitments. However, such social approaches have two drawbacks. First, the notion of commitment does not have a clear and unambiguous characterization. Second, commitments are completely unrelated to the agents' reasoning. We remedy this situation by combining a BDI logic with a logic of what is publicly grounded between agents.
Object segmentation in video via graph cut built on superpixels
Authors: Bogdan Kwolek
Venue: Fundamenta Informaticae (2009)

This paper proposes a real-time scheme for object segmentation in video. In the first stage a segmentation based on pairwise region comparison is utilized to oversegment image through extracting superpixels. Next, the algorithmapplies the graph cut built on such superpixels, instead of the image pixels. Owing to the optimization is performed on a simpler graph and in consequence the object segmentation runs in shorter time. Tracking of object features over time contributes toward improved segmenting the object from one image to another. The segmentation information supports following the entire object, instead of just a few features on it. The objects are segmented correctly as complete entities, despite the high variability of the object shape and cluttered background. Experimental results illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithm.
CrystalBall: predicting and preventing inconsistencies in deployed distributed systems
Authors: Maysam Yabandeh, Nikola Knezevic, Dejan Kostic, Viktor Kuncak
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th USENIX symposium on Networked systems design and implementation (2009)

We propose a new approach for developing and deploying distributed systems, in which nodes predict distributed consequences of their actions, and use this information to detect and avoid errors. Each node continuously runs a state exploration algorithm on a recent consistent snapshot of its neighborhood and predicts possible future violations of specified safety properties. We describe a new state exploration algorithm, consequence prediction, which explores causally related chains of events that lead to property violation. This paper describes the design and implementation of this approach, termed CrystalBall. We evaluate CrystalBall on RandTree, BulletPrime, Paxos, and Chord distributed system implementations. We identified new bugs in mature Mace implementations of three systems. Furthermore, we show that if the bug is not corrected during system development, CrystalBall is effective in steering the execution away from inconsistent states at runtime.
A Petri net-based model for the attacking soccer robots
Authors: Daniela Coman
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Automation & information (2009)

Soccer robot is a challenging platform for multi-agent research, involving topics such as real-time image processing and control, robot path planning, obstacle avoidance and machine learning. A soccer robot has to take an appropriate decision based on environment situation. With the role of a robot fixed as goalkeeper, the supervisor, according to the game situation, assigns the role of attacking or defending to the other robots and then the respective controllers control the robots. The controller for the attacking robot is designed using Petri nets. The Petri net model are implemented in Petri Net Toolbox under MATLAB environment. Finally, the feasibility of the Petri net model for the attacking robots is demonstrated by the experimental results.
Top-level decisions through public deliberation on the internet: evidence from the evolution of Java governance
Authors: Michael Kaschesky, Reinhard Riedl
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Social Networks: Making Connections between Citizens, Data and Government (2009)

This study found internet-enabled public deliberation having a direct impact on top-level decisions and it identified institutional mechanisms by which this occurs. Most government initiatives aimed at promoting online deliberation all short of expectations. The participatory governance model developed in this study presents design and process parameters along which more interactive and engaging online experiences can be modeled. The applicability of the propositions is demonstrated by systematically collecting online data and analyzing public deliberation during the evolution of Java governance. Self-selection of participants and opposing views, mutual adjustment, and high influence combined with incremental decision-making were shown to be critical for institutionalizing a broadly supported governance approach.
A Negotiation Styles Recommenders Approach Based on Computational Ecology
Authors: Josep Lluis de la Rosa, Gabriel Lopardo, Nicolás Hormazábal, Miquel Montaner
Venue: Proceeding of the 2008 conference on Artificial Intelligence Research and Development: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence (2008)

This paper introduces a model of negotiation dynamics from the point of view of computational ecology. It inspires an ecosystem monitor, as well as a negotiation style recommender that is novel in state-of-the-art of recommender systems. The ecosystem monitor provides hints to the negotiation style recommender to achieve a higher stability of any instance of open negotiation environments in a digital business ecosystem.
Talking back to VBgov.com
Authors: Janine Hernandez, Felicia R. Doswell, Thorna Humphries
Venue: Proceedings of the 47th Annual Southeast Regional Conference (2009)

Seniors are limited in the ways that they can communicate because of mobility, vision and memory problems. Mobility issues can make it challenging for seniors to attend a city council meeting or use a mouse to select items on a local government website. Vision problems make it difficult to read the font size on the pages of many websites. Using email means learning how to use a computer to send electronic mail which is a concept that can be confusing for some seniors who are not familiar with and are sometimes afraid of computers. The age, physical limitations, or technical sophistication level of citizens should not limit the exchange of ideas on various issues between local government and its constituents. Technology exists today that will allow citizens to phone-in a comment to a government website. VoiceXML is a programming language that can be used for an interactive voice system, which allows users, who have access to a phone, television and newspapers, to participate in local government by leaving voice comments for local policy makers. A menu driven VoiceXML interface prototype was designed for a Virginia local government site, VBgov.com that allows users to leave comments on current agenda items viewed on public television and listed online. This is a first step toward reaching an alternative method of communication between local government and the people it represents.
Primal sparse Max-margin Markov networks
Authors: Jun Zhu, Eric P. Xing, Bo Zhang
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining (2009)

Max-margin Markov networks (M3N) have shown great promise in structured prediction and relational learning. Due to the KKT conditions, the M3N enjoys dual sparsity. However, the existing M3N formulation does not enjoy primal sparsity, which is a desirable property for selecting significant features and reducing the risk of over-fitting. In this paper, we present an l1-norm regularized max-margin Markov network (l1-M3N), which enjoys dual and primal sparsity simultaneously. To learn an l1-M3N, we present three methods including projected sub-gradient, cutting-plane, and a novel EM-style algorithm, which is based on an equivalence between l1-M3N and an adaptive M3N. We perform extensive empirical studies on both synthetic and real data sets. Our experimental results show that: (1) l1-M3N can effectively select significant features; (2) l1-M3N can perform as well as the pseudo-primal sparse Laplace M3N in prediction accuracy, while consistently outperforms other competing methods that enjoy either primal or dual sparsity; and (3) the EM-algorithm is more robust than the other two in pre-diction accuracy and time efficiency.
Cache-conscious buffering for database operators with state
Authors: John Cieslewicz, William Mee, Kenneth A. Ross
Venue: Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Data Management on New Hardware (2009)

Database processes must be cache-efficient to effectively utilize modern hardware. In this paper, we analyze the importance of temporal locality and the resultant cache behavior in scheduling database operators for in-memory, block oriented query processing. We demonstrate how the overall performance of a workload of multiple database operators is strongly dependent on how they are interleaved with each other. Longer time slices combined with temporal locality within an operator amortize the effects of the initial compulsory cache misses needed to load the operator's state, such as a hash table, into the cache. Though running an operator to completion over all of its input results in the greatest amortization of cache misses, this is typically infeasible because of the large intermediate storage requirement to materialize all input tuples to an operator. We show experimentally that good cache performance can be obtained with smaller buffers whose size is determined at runtime. We demonstrate a low-overhead method of runtime cache miss sampling using hardware performance counters. Our evaluation considers two common database operators with state: aggregation and hash join. Sampling reveals operator temporal locality and cache miss behavior, and we use those characteristics to choose an appropriate input buffer/block size. The calculated buffer size balances cache miss amortization with buffer memory requirements.
System theoretic properties of a class of spatially invariant systems
Authors: Ruth Curtain, Orest V. Iftime, Hans Zwart
Venue: Automatica (Journal of IFAC) (2009)

In this paper we develop new readily testable criteria for system theoretic properties such as stability, controllability, observability, stabilizability and detectability for a class of spatially invariant systems. Our approach uses the well-established theory developed to solve infinite-dimensional systems. The theoretical results are illustrated by several examples.
Haptic stiffness identification by veterinarians and novices: A comparison
Authors: Neil Forrest, Sarah Baillie, Hong Z. Tan
Venue: Proceedings of the World Haptics 2009 - Third Joint EuroHaptics conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (2009)

Palpation is important in both veterinary and medical health professions. It is however difficult to learn, teach and assess. More must be understood about the skills involved in palpation. The present study compares the ability of practicing veterinarians and veterinary students to identify stiffness values. An absolute identification paradigm was used where a force-feedback device rendered virtual surfaces with 5 levels of stiffness within a “clinically relevant” range of 0.2 − 0.5 N/mm. The results from 12 veterinarians and 14 veterinary students show that the veterinarians performed significantly better than the students (p ≪ 0.001). The mean information transfer was 0.97 bits (almost 2 perfectly-identifiable stiffness levels) for the veterinarians and 0.58 bits (1 correctly-identified stiffness level) for the students. However, neither group was able to reliably identify more than 2 levels of stiffness, indicating that the success of veterinarians in clinical practice probably relies on additional properties such as size, shape and texture. Our findings suggest that stiffness perception in the context of veterinary medicine is a learned clinical skill. Quantifying expert ability will help inform teaching methods and set targets for students. Similar psychophysical methods can also be used to monitor student performance throughout the learning process. Future work will examine the contributions of other object properties as well as motor strategies to palpation performance.
On asymptotically optimal routing in large wireless networks and Geometrical Optics analogy
Authors: Roberto Catanuto, Stavros Toumpis, Giacomo Morabito
Venue: Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking (2009)

This work is based on the observation that, as the number of nodes in a wireless network approaches infinity, minimum cost routes become smooth curves that observe the same laws followed by rays of light in properly defined optical media. Accordingly, in this paper an analogy between optimal routing in large wireless networks and Geometrical Optics is first formally defined. The analogy is based on the concept of the cost function, which plays the role of the refractive index in the networking context. Then, the relevance of the principle of Fermat and the eikonal equation in routing problems is shown, and a methodology for calculating the cost function is proposed and applied in two cases of special interest, i.e., bandwidth limited and energy limited networks. The applicability of the Optics-Networking analogy is also discussed in the case of networks with large but finite numbers of nodes. Finally, novel, distributed route discovery protocols that make use of the analogy are outlined.