ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Queue Spillovers in Transportation Networks with a Route Choice
Authors: Jinfa Chen, David D. Yao, Shaohui Zheng, Robert F. Bordley, Carlos F. Daganzo
Venue: Transportation Science (1998)

This paper explores some of the traffic phenomena that arise when drivers have to navigate a network in which queues back up past diverge intersections. If a diverge provides two alternative routes to the same destination and the shorter route has a bottleneck that generates a queue, one would expect that queue to stabilize at an equilibrium level where the travel time on both routes is roughly equal. If the capacity of the alternative route is unlimited then this network can accommodate any demand level. However, if the bottleneck is so close to the upstream end of the link that the equilibrium queue cannot be contained in the link, then the trip time on the queued route cannot grow to match that on the alternate route. This means that the alternative route can never be attractive, even if the queue spills back past the diverge, and that drivers approaching the diverge will act as if the alternative route did not exist. As a result, a steady flow into the system greater than the capacity of the bottleneck will cause a queue to grow all the way back to the origin (blocking it). The final result is an "oversaturated static state" where the queue regulates the input flow into the system. Curiously, if the bottleneck capacity of this network is reduced below a critical level (or is eliminated altogether) then the alternative route becomes attractive again and the system cannot reach the saturation point. This phenomenon is explored in the paper, where it is also shown that: i) a network can become permanently oversaturated/undersaturated as a result of a temporary increase/decrease in link capacity, ii) even under the most favorable assumptions, and in contrast to the equivalent assignment problem with point queues, a network can be stable both in an oversaturated and an under-saturated state, and iii) temporary endogenous disturbances can permanently reverse the saturation state of a network. These findings suggest that in certain situations the time-dependent traffic assignment problem with physical queues is chaotic in nature and that (as in weather forecasting) it may be impossible to obtain input data with the required accuracy to make reliable predictions of cumulative output flows.
Size-based scheduling to improve web performance
Authors: Mor Harchol-Balter, Bianca Schroeder, Nikhil Bansal, Mukesh Agrawal
Venue: ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS) (2003)

Is it possible to reduce the expected response time of every request at a web server, simply by changing the order in which we schedule the requests? That is the question we ask in this paper.This paper proposes a method for improving the performance of web servers servicing static HTTP requests. The idea is to give preference to requests for small files or requests with short remaining file size, in accordance with the SRPT (Shortest Remaining Processing Time) scheduling policy.The implementation is at the kernel level and involves controlling the order in which socket buffers are drained into the network. Experiments are executed both in a LAN and a WAN environment. We use the Linux operating system and the Apache and Flash web servers.Results indicate that SRPT-based scheduling of connections yields significant reductions in delay at the web server. These result in a substantial reduction in mean response time and mean slowdown for both the LAN and WAN environments. Significantly, and counter to intuition, the requests for large files are only negligibly penalized or not at all penalized as a result of SRPT-based scheduling.
A new approach to evaluating business ethics: an artificial neural networks application
Authors: Mo Adam Mahmood, Gary L. Sullivan, Ray-Lin Tung
Venue: Advanced topics in end user computing (2002)

Stimulated by recent high-profile incidents, concerns about business ethics have increased over the last decade. In response, research has focused on developing theoretical and empirical frameworks to understand ethical decision making. So far, empirical studies have used traditional quantitative tools, such as regression or multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), in ethics research. More advanced tools are needed. In this exploratory research, a new approach to classifying, categorizing and analyzing ethical decision situations is presented. A comparative performance analysis of artificial neural networks, MDA and chance showed that artificial neural networks predict better in both training and testing phases. While some limitations of this approach were noted, in the field of business ethics, such networks are promising as an alternative to traditional analytic tools like MDA.
A graduate master's prerequisite program
Authors: Richard Wyatt, Elaine Milito, Richard Epstein, Robert Kline
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2002)

This paper describes a separate, one-year, graduate level program designed primarily for students with a non-computer science baccalaureate degree. The program serves as preparation for our Master's degree in computer science. Programs designed for such students are not unique in the computer science world. For example, Wright State University (in Ohio) had such a program specifically tailored to philosophy graduates, but discontinued it when the funding expired. Such programs are, generically, sometimes called bridging programs; ours is called the Master's Prerequisite Program. On the other hand, many other Universities, such as Villanova and SUNY Buffalo, will on occasion provisionally admit students without an undergraduate computer science degree into their regular Master's program, allowing them to take a course or two before granting full status, subject to performance.The continuing development of the prerequisite program at our university is, we hope, of general interest to those segments of the computer science community most closely associated with CCSC --- small, teaching oriented institutions --- and may prove helpful to anyone contemplating a similar program themselves. We describe the background to the development of the program, the program itself, some aspects of obtaining the needed approval from our University at large, the student demographics, and our assessment of the program's success.
Integrating information visualization and retrieval for WWW information discovery
Authors: Hayato Ohwada, Fumio Mizoguchi
Venue: Theoretical Computer Science (2003)

An important technology in knowledge discovery is to access the desired information from the large amount of data stored on the WWW. At present, such information can be accessed by a browser itself or by using a keyword search function. However, browsing is a time consuming task where a user must access individual pages one by one. Furthermore, in keyword searches, it is difficult for users to provide reasonable keywords in knowledge discovery processes. This paper outlines an approach for integrating information visualization and retrieval into WWW information discovery. In this approach, the link structure of a web site is displayed in a 3-D hyperbolic tree in which the height of a node (corresponding to a web page) within the tree indicates a user's "interest" for each page. Here, interest is calculated by a fitting function between a page and a user-supplied query (nested keywords). This measure can be used to filter uninteresting pages, reducing the size of the link structure. Furthermore, each web page is modeled as semi-structured data and can also be displayed as a hyperbolic tree in which the result of query evaluation is visible. Such functions are incorporated within our browser, allowing us to interactively discover desired pages from a large web site. We selected typical web sites to show the performance of the proposed method with improved accuracy and efficiency in WWW information discovery. Here, accuracy indicates how surely the user accesses his/her desired documents, and efficiency indicates how quickly the user reaches the documents.
Evolution of a circuit of spiking neurons for phototaxis in a Braitenberg vehicle
Authors: R. L. B. French, R. I. Damper
Venue: Proceedings of the seventh international conference on simulation of adaptive behavior on From animals to animats (2002)

Animal nervous systems have evolved to use spiking neurons but the 'artificial nervous systems' of animats typically are designed, not evolved, and use networks of formal, artificial neurons. We describe the evolution of circuits of spiking neurons for a robot, motivated by the desire to study links between neurophysiology and behaviour in artificial and (ultimately) natural animals. Spiking neurons have computational capabilities additional to those of artificial neurons based on activation functions. In particular, they should be better suited to processing temporal sequences. Thus, we describe early work aimed at evolution of neural circuitry which, when implanted in a Braitenberg type 2b vehicle, promotes phototaxis behaviour in the form of movement towards flashing lights of a particular frequency. The longer-term aim is to evolve natural taxis behaviours such as that observed in the cricket.
Ticket Servers for Network Traffic Prioritization
Authors: Cory C. Beard, Victor S. Frost
Venue: Journal of Network and Systems Management (2003)

For broadband packet networks to be widely useful to society, they must dynamically recognize some network flows, like those that deal with disaster response, military operations, or emergencies as having greater importance than others. This paper proposes an architecture of geographically distributed ticket servers that issue importance tickets that indicate the priority that a flow should be given in the current dynamic network context. Any type of user or flow can be given priority, depending on the user needs and the context. User agents contact ticket servers using an agent communication language&semi; then a ticket server intelligent agent determines how valuable of a ticket to issue. Use of ticket servers and agent communication enables quick adaptation to dynamic context changes and provides user feedback so that high priority communication activities can be conducted effectively.
A Takagi-Sugeno model with fuzzy inputs viewed from multidimensional interval analysis
Authors: Felipe Fernández, Julio Gutiérrez
Venue: Fuzzy Sets and Systems (2003)

Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems have been successfully applied to a wide range of problems and have demonstrated significant advantages in nonlinear control. This paper presents a fuzzified T-S interpolation-approximation system mainly based on the specification of a multidimensional crisp partition that defines the corresponding local regions (multidimensional intervals) where the corresponding rules apply, the related output functions and a reduced set of global fuzzy parameters. These fuzzy parameters capture the different uncertainties of a fuzzy system: imprecision of inputs, vagueness of antecedent linguistic labels and smoothness requirements of outputs. This approach makes easier the design of a zero-order product-sum T-S system with fuzzified inputs, fuzzified antecedent crisp partition, and outputs with an additional spatial output filter. Convolution operations applied on an equalized and normalized input domain are considered to specify the corresponding fuzzification of a crisp partition. The kernels of these convolutions are even B-spline functions of order n, constructed from a n-fold convolution of an even interval characteristic function. We use a correctness-preserving transformation to simplify the output computation: a global transformation of imprecision of inputs, vagueness of antecedent terms and smoothness requirements of outputs into a set of off-line convolution operations applied to the corresponding antecedent crisp partition. By this method a fuzzified zero-order T-S system defined on a multidimensional crisp partition is directly transformed into a multidimensional spline interpolator-approximator by means of fuzzy operations and an equalization-normalization of the corresponding input domain.
Multilayer transverse gradient coil design
Authors: J. Leggett, S. Crozier, S. Blackband, B. Beck, R. W. Bowtell
Venue: Concepts in Magnetic Resonance: an Educational Journal (2003)

In small, cylindrical gradient coils consisting of a single layer of wires, the limiting factor in achieving large magnetic field gradients is the rapid increase in coil resistance with efficiency. This behavior results from the decrease in the maximum usable wire diameter as the number of turns is increased. By adopting a multilayer design in which the coil wires are allowed to spread out into multiple layers wound at increasing radii, a more favorable scaling of resistance with efficiency is achieved, thus allowing the design of more powerful gradient coils with acceptable resistance values. By extending the theory used to design standard cylindrical gradient coils, mathematical expressions have been developed that allow the design of multilayer coils. These expressions have previously been applied to the design of a four-layer z-gradient coil. As a further development, the equations have now been modified to allow the design of multilayer transverse gradient coils. The variation in coil performance with the number of layers employed has been investigated for coils of a size suitable for use in NMR microscopy, and the effect of constructing the coil using wires or cuts in a continuous conducting surface has also been assessed. We find that at fixed resistance a small wire-wound two-layer coil offers an increase in efficiency of a factor of aboul 1.5 compared with a single-layer coil. In addition, a two-layer coil of 10-mm inner diameter has been designed and built. This coil had an efficiency of 0.41 Tm-1 A-1, a resistance of 0.96 ± 0.01 Ω, and an inductance of 22.3 ± 0.2 µH. The coil produces a gradient that deviates from linearity by less than 5% over a central cylindrical region of interest of height and length 6.2 mm.
Emerging electronic infrastructures: exploring democratic components
Authors: Åke Grönlund
Venue: Social Science Computer Review (2003)

The concepts of electronic government and electronic democracy have common roots in that electronic government must rest on, and support, democratic principles. This article discusses how the components of a democratic society are treated as they are built into the emerging electronic infrastructures, dealing with services and dialogues pertinent to the functioning of the public sector, and tries to find emerging patterns. This article opens a discussion on the nature of the emerging infrastructures by reviewing four implementations of local e-democracy and putting them into the context of global e-government development, in particular the European Union's development of"eEurope." It is found that the cases represent different models of democracy, models that are only partially explicit. The development is governed more by gradual implementation of information and communication technology than a general political agenda. This means local actors have great influence, and hence, e-democracy is not deterministic; it can come in many shapes.
Characteristic attributes in cancer microarrays
Authors: I. N. Sarkar, P. J. Planet, T. E. Bael, S. E. Stanley, M. Siddall, R. DeSalle, D. H. Figurski
Venue: Journal of Biomedical Informatics (2002)

Rapid advances in genome sequencing and gene expression microarray technologies are providing unprecedented opportunities to identify specific genes involved in complex biological processes, such as development, signal transduction, and disease. The vast amount of data generated by these technologies has presented new challenges in bioinformatics. To help organize and interpret microarray data, new and efficient computational methods are needed to: (1) distinguish accurately between different biological or clinical categories (e.g., malignant vs. benign), and (2) identify specific genes that play a role in determining those categories. Here we present a novel and simple method that exhaustively scans microarray data for unambiguous gene expression patterns. Such patterns of data can be used as the basis for classification into biological or clinical categories. The method, termed the Characteristic Attribute Organization System (CAOS), is derived from fundamental precepts in systematic biology. In CAOS we define two types of characteristic attributes ('pure' and 'private') that may exist in gene expression microarray data. We also consider additional attributes ('compound') that are composed of expression states of more than one gene that are not characteristic on their own. CAOS was tested on three well-known cancer DNA microarray data sets for its ability to classify new microarray samples. We found CAOS to be a highly accurate and robust class prediction technique. In addition, CAOS identified specific genes, not emphasized in other analyses, that may be crucial to the biology of certain types of cancer. The success of CAOS in this study has significant implications for basic research and the future development of reliable methods for clinical diagnostic tools.
MEAGER: Microsoft Excel automated grader
Authors: Thomas G. Hill
Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges (2003)

Although program grading has been an active area of research in computer science education, there is little evidence of research on automated grading systems for office applications. This paper introduces MEAGER. MEAGER is an automated grader for use by instructors in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Office application courses. MEAGER performs static analysis on Microsoft Excel workbooks. MEAGER compares a student workbook with the instructor's correct version of the workbook. MEAGER marks the student workbook and assigns a grade. MEAGER includes reports and a tool for plagiarism detection.
A Comprehensive Resource Management Framework for Next Generation Wireless Networks
Authors: Jian Ye, Jiongkuan Hou, Symeon Papavassiliou
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (2002)

In this paper, we propose an integrated resource management approach that can be implemented in next generation wireless networks that support multimedia services (data, voice, video, etc.). Specifically, we combine the use of position-assisted and mobility predictive advanced bandwidth reservation with a call admission control and bandwidth reconfiguration strategy to support flexible QoS management. We also introduce a mobile agent based framework that can be used to carry out the functions of geolocation and of the proposed resource management in wireless networks. A model is also developed to obtain the optimal location information update interval in order to minimize the total cost of the system operation. The comparison of the achievable performance results of our proposed scheme with the corresponding results of a conventional system that supports advanced bandwidth reservation only, as means of supporting the QoS requirements, demonstrate that our integrated scheme can alleviate the problem of overreservation, support seamless operation throughout the wireless network, and increase significantly the system capacity.
A best-practice based model for information technology learning strategy formulation
Authors: Lorne Olfman, Robert P. Bostrom, Maung K. Sein
Venue: Proceedings of the 2003 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Freedom in Philadelphia--leveraging differences and diversity in the IT workforce (2003)

In today's fast changing environment marked by innovation in information technology (IT) at great speed, organizations need to take a holistic view of IT training by formulating comprehensive learning strategies. In this paper, we propose an integrative learning strategy formulation model that we developed based on the findings of a study that used a multiple case study approach. We analyzed 16 organizations with leading edge training behaviors to identify best practices for learning strategies. The model we propose is composed of four dimensions, which we call Focus, Conceptualization, Integration and Positioning. We describe the model and mechanisms for moving an organization toward best practices in implementing and applying a learning strategy.
Computer-Aided Planned Maintenance System for Medical Equipments
Authors: Serdar Müldür
Venue: Journal of Medical Systems (2003)

In this study, a software package is introduced, which has been developed to monitor and administer preventive maintenance activities for healthcare devices and system components in a hospital to provide uninterruptible operation in a computer-aided fashion. This software with its object-oriented and graphic user interface (GUI) nature aims to standardize preventive maintenance activities while providing overall optimization of material used in preventive maintenance activities&semi; personnel administers the maintenance and time dedicated for the activities.
A Supply Network Model with Base-Stock Control and Service Requirements
Authors: Markus Ettl, Gerald E. Feigin, Grace Y. Lin, David D. Yao
Venue: Operations Research (2000)

We develop a supply network model that takes as input the bill of materials, the (nominal) lead times, the demand and cost data, and the required customer service levels. In return, the model generates the base-stock level at each store--the stocking location for a part or an end-product, so as to minimize the overall inventory capital throughout the network and to guarantee the customer service requirements. The key ingredient of the model is a detailed, albeit approximate, analysis of theactual lead times at each store and the associated demand over such lead times, along with a characterization of the operation at each store via an inventory-queue model. The gradients are derived in explicit forms, and a conjugate gradient routine is used to search for the optimal solution. Several numerical examples are presented to validate the model and to illustrate its various features.
Airbus Packing at Federal Express
Authors: Clive Thomas, Kevin Campbell, Gail Hines, Michael Racer
Venue: Interfaces (1998)

Success in the express-mail market hinges on paying attention to every parcel in the system. A key component is safe, efficient loading of aircraft. Federal Express, a perennial leader in the express business, has recently added the Airbus A300, a lighter aircraft, to its fleet. Because of the Airbus design, shear limits-shear being a measure of the downward forces exerted on the plane-are extremely sensitive to the loading, a problem not experienced in the heavier craft. We developed a heuristic for loading containers into positions on the aircraft to address loading preferences and maintain feasibility constraints.
Imprecise Navigation
Authors: Matt Duckham, Lars Kulik, Michael Worboys
Venue: Geoinformatica (2003)

Conventional models of navigation commonly assume a navigation agent&rsquo;s location can be precisely determined. This paper examines the more general case, where an agent&rsquo;s actual location cannot be precisely determined. This paper develops a formal model of navigation under imprecision using a graph. Two key strategies for dealing with imprecision are identified and defined: contingency and refinement. A contingency strategy aims to find an instruction sequence that maximizes an agent&rsquo;s chances of reaching its destination. A refinement strategy aims to use knowledge gained as an agent moves through the network to disambiguate location. Examples of both strategies are empirically tested using a simulation with computerized navigation agents moving through a road network at different levels of locational imprecision. The results of the simulation indicate that both the strategies, contingency and refinement, applied individually can produce significant improvements in navigation performance under imprecision, at least at relatively fine granularities. Using both strategies in concert produced significant improvements in performance across all granularities.