ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Fingerprint matching from minutiae texture maps
Authors: F. Benhammadi, M. N. Amirouche, H. Hentous, K. Bey Beghdad, M. Aissani
Venue: Pattern Recognition (2007)

The fingerprint matching using the original FingerCode generation has proved its effectiveness but it suffers from some limitations such as the reference point localization and the recourse to the relative fingerprint pre-alignment stage. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid fingerprint matching technique based on minutiae texture maps according to their orientations. Therefore, rather than exploiting the eight fixed directions of Gabor filters for all original fingerprint images filtering process, we construct absolute images starting from the minutiae localizations and orientations to generate our weighting oriented Minutiae Codes. The extracted features are invariant to translation and rotation, which allows us avoiding the fingerprint pair relative alignment stage. Results are presented demonstrating significant improvements in fingerprint matching accuracy through public fingerprint databases.
Volume fusion: a unified framework for multi-scale dynamic and heterogeneous scenes
Authors: Duoduo Liao, Shiaofen Fang
Venue: Proceedings of the 38th conference on Winter simulation (2006)

This work presents a novel unified solution --- a volume fusion framework for 3D modeling, interaction, and visualization applications with complex volumetric scenes composed of any type of conventional and unconventional object representations. The process of volume fusion includes scene expression and scene evaluation. A volume scene evaluation based on slice sweeping approach is employed to provide a general computational framework that extracts volumetric information of the scene expression and then fuse them by specified fusion functions. The key issues of volume fusion are scene tree design and fusion function design. Through the unified framework, different tree structures and fusion functions may result in different outputs (i.e., applications) after scene evaluation. Two case studies, volume modeling and volumetric collision detection, using volume fusion framework will be discussed in detail, and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness, flexibility and generality of our volume fusion algorithms for 3D interactive volume applications.
A framework for data warehouse refresh policies
Authors: Michael V. Mannino, Zhiping Walter
Venue: Decision Support Systems (2006)

In a field study to explore influences on data warehouse refresh policies, we interviewed data warehouse administrators from 13 organizations about data warehouse details and organizational background. The dominant refresh strategy reported was daily refresh during nonbusiness hours with some deviations due to operational decision making and data source availability. As a result of the study, we developed a framework consisting of short-term and long-term influences of refresh policies along with traditional information system success variables influenced by refresh policies. The framework suggests the need for research about process design, data timeliness valuation, and optimal refresh policy design.
Attaining cost efficiency in constructing sports facilities for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by use of operations simulation
Authors: Wah-Ho Chan, Ming Lu, Jian-Ping Zhang
Venue: Proceedings of the 38th conference on Winter simulation (2006)

To maximize the cost efficiency in constructing the sports facilities for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, we applied the state-of-the-art construction operations simulation modeling to plan the operations of installing the steel structure, find the proper installation sequence and formulate the assembling area use schedule. The SDESA platform resulting from in-house research was utilized as the simulation tool for evaluating how the construction time for the steel structure of the "bird's nest" (the main stadium) would change subject to different steel installation sequences combined with varied schedules for assembling area use. The simulation outputs and the process animation -obtained from SDESA- not only validated the SDESA model, but also convinced the site management of the effectiveness of SDESA modeling and aided the site engineers in designing the optimum construction method.
Structure quality in deep X-ray lithography applying commercial polyimide-based masks
Authors: Sven Achenbach, Martin Boerner, Seichin Kinuta, Walter Bacher, Juergen Mohr, Volker Saile, Yasunori Saotome
Venue: Microsystem Technologies (2006)

The structure quality of deep X-ray lithography components strongly depends on the quality of the applied X-ray mask. In this article we compare the results obtained with two different mask types. Sophisticated working masks generated by e-beam lithography, soft X-ray lithography and electroplating of gold absorbers on a titanium mask membrane have been fabricated at the Institute for Microstructure Technology, Research Center, Karlsruhe (FZK/IMT), Germany. Prototype masks generated by e-beam lithography, optical lithography and electroplating of gold absorbers on a polyimide mask membrane have been fabricated by Optnics Precision, Japan, with the aim to offer commercially available low cost masks. Both mask types were applied to pattern PMMA resist layers of 300&#x2013;750&#x00a0;&#x03bc;m thickness at the 2.5&#x00a0;GeV electron storage ring ANKA, Germany, using comparable process parameters. FZK/IMT masks provide microstructures with significantly better structure quality. The layout area, however, is currently limited to 12&#x00a0;cm2, and the Ti mask membrane tends to lead to a slight resist surface attack, such as rounding of the resist edges. Optnics masks provide microstructures with reduced structure quality due to sidewall striations (sidewall roughness up to 2&#x00a0;&#x03bc;m) and thermal distortions (of up to 3&#x2013;5&#x00a0;&#x03bc;m) which limit the potential scope of applications. They could nevertheless potentially be applied as low quality, low cost X-ray masks. High resolution and high accuracy applications, however, require more sophisticated but also more expensive masks, like the Ti-masks from FZK/IMT.
Project Management Step-By-Step
Authors: Larry Richman
Venue:  (2006)

Project management can seem like a daunting endeavor to the untrained and uninitiated. Here is a book that spells out the basics of implementing a project management model and encourages critical thinking about how project management can help a company accomplish its business objectives. Offering clear, concise explanations of different project phases, Project Management Step-by-Step also includes six case studies--positive and negative, real and fictional--that show clearly how project management works in the real world. The book is fully consistent with the newly updated Project Management Body of Knowledge, so its observations and recommendations are consistently applicable and thoroughly field-tested. Richman's clear, accessible text is augmented with discussion questions, exercises, diagrams, charts, and a comprehensive glossary. Special passwords to free online information for students, instructors, and project management professionals are alone worth the price of the book. Written in plain, jargon-free English, Project Management Step-by-Step is an incisive and complete guide--truly a perfect introduction to project management. The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
Image processing techniques for metallic object detection with millimetre-wave images
Authors: C. D. Haworth, Y. R. Petillot, E. Trucco
Venue: Pattern Recognition Letters (2006)

In this paper, we present a system for the automatic detection and tracking of metallic objects concealed on moving people in sequences of millimetre-wave images, which can penetrate clothing, plastics and fabrics. The subjects are required to enter one at a time and turn round slowly to ensure complete coverage for the scan. The system employs two distinct stages: detection and tracking. In this paper a single detector, for metallic objects, is presented which utilises a statistical model also developed in this paper. Target tracking is performed using a particle filter. Results are presented on real millimetre-wave image test sequences and indicate an excellent rate of success for threat identification. Encouraging results for target tracking are also reported.
Non-parametric kernel regression for multinomial data
Authors: Hidenori Okumura, Kanta Naito
Venue: Journal of Multivariate Analysis (2006)

This paper presents a kernel smoothing method for multinomial regression. A class of estimators of the regression functions is constructed by minimizing a localized power-divergence measure. These estimators include the bandwidth and a single parameter originating in the power-divergence measure as smoothing parameters. An asymptotic theory for the estimators is developed and the bias-adjusted estimators are obtained. A data-based algorithm for selecting the smoothing parameters is also proposed. Simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm works efficiently.
Word 2007: The Missing Manual
Authors: Chris Grover
Venue:  (2006)

Microsoft Word has grown considerably in power, sophistication and capability over the past decade, but one thing that hasn't changed since the early '90s is its user interface. The simple toolbar in version 2.0 has been packed with so many features since then that few users know where to find them all. Consequently, more and more people are looking for "insider" tips that will allow them to use these advanced and often hidden features. Microsoft has addressed this problem in Word 2007 by radically redesigning the user interface with a tabbed toolbar that makes every feature easy to locate and use. Unfortunately, Microsoft's documentation is as scant as ever, so even though you will be able to find advanced features, you might not know what to do with them. Word 2007: The Missing Manual, written specifically for this version of the software, explains basics like how to create documents, enter and edit text, format, print, and fax. You will will also learn how to create sophisticated page layouts, insert forms and tables, use graphics, and create book-length documents with outlines and Master Documents. Coverage also includes how to share documents with other people and programs, create web pages, automate documents with fields, and automate tasks with macros and the Visual Basic scripting language. This book shows you how to do it all.
Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction (5th Edition)
Authors: Dan Margulis
Venue:  (2006)

The commonsense, by-the-numbers approach of Professional Photoshop has shaped the workflows of a generation of Photoshop experts. This new edition, the first in nearly five years, is completely updated for the age of digital photography. It continues the book's tradition of introducing astoundingly effective, previously unknown methodsï¾ of image enhancement. The original photographs found in the book come from a variety of professional sources, and all correction exercises are on the included CD. Professional Photoshop has changed radically from edition to edition, and this time is no exception-with almost 90 percent new content and completely overhauled coverage of curves, channel blending, and sharpening.Professional Photoshop offers a full explanation of: How curves bring out detail in the most important areas of the imagenï¾ A comprehensive strategy for blending channels to create deeper, stronger images The strengths and weaknesses of CMYK, LAB, and RGB, and when to use each one The first detailed look at the Shadow/Highlight command-and even more sophis-ticated ways to enhance contrast in the lightest and darkest parts of the imagen Sharpening strategies, in three full chapters, including the innovative hiraloam method (High Radius, Low Amount). Plus, a fiendishly effective method of merging hiraloam and conventional unsharp masking The realities-and the politics-of preparing files for commercial offset printing and how to deal with colors that are out of the press's gamut What Camera Raw and similar acquisition modules can offer Typical problems of digital captures that were not found in the age of film- and how to correct for them
Segment-based human motion compression
Authors: Guodong Liu, Leonard McMillan
Venue: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics symposium on Computer animation (2006)

As more and more human motion data are becoming widely used to animate computer graphics figures in many applications, the growing need for compact storage and fast transmission makes it imperative to compress motion data. We propose a data-driven method for efficient compression of human motion sequences by exploiting both spatial and temporal coherences of the data. We first segment a motion sequence into subsequences such that the poses within a subsequence lie near a low dimensional linear space. We then compress each segment using principal component analysis. Our method achieves further compression by storing only the key frames' projections to the principal component space and interpolating the other frames in-between via spline functions. The experimental results show that our method can achieve significant compression rate with low reconstruction errors.
ASVAB Exam Cram (Exam Cram 2)
Authors: Karl W. Riebs, Kalinda Reeves
Venue:  (2004)

Students, if you are preparing for the ASVAB exam, get ready for it with the best-ASVAB Exam Cram. Verbal, math, science and technical skill sets are all covered in this succinct review guide. By giving you examples, test-taking advice and tips and a CD with a powerful test engine to practice with, ASVAB Exam Cram will help you perform at the top of your game on test day. Learn what your weaknesses and strengths are quickly as you receive explanations of both correct and incorrect answers on your practice exams. Deciding to enter the military is serious, as is the ASVAB exam, so study for it with the best.
An efficient algorithm for online square detection
Authors: H. F. Leung, Z. S. Peng, H. F. Ting
Venue: Theoretical Computer Science (2006)

A square is a string that can be divided into two identical substrings. The problem of square detection has found applications in areas such as bioinformatics and data compression. There are many offline algorithms for the problem. In this paper, we give the first online algorithm for deciding whether a string contains a square. Our algorithm runs in total O(h log2 h) time where h is the length of the longest prefix of the input string that does not contain a square.
A face recognition system based on automatically determined facial fiducial points
Authors: Stefano Arca, Paola Campadelli, Raffaella Lanzarotti
Venue: Pattern Recognition (2006)

In this paper, a completely automatic face recognition system is presented. The method works on color images: after having localized the face and the facial features, it determines 24 facial fiducial points, and characterizes them applying a bank of Gabor filters which extract the peculiar texture around them (jets). Recognition is realized measuring the similarity between the different jets. The system is inspired by the elastic bunch graph method, while it does no assumption on the scale, pose, and the background. Comparison with standard algorithms is presented and discussed.
Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
Authors: Lucas Carlson, Leonard Richardson
Venue:  (2006)

Do you want to push Ruby to its limits? The Ruby Cookbook is the most comprehensive problem-solving guide to today's hottest programming language. It gives you hundreds of solutions to real-world problems, with clear explanations and thousands of lines of code you can use in your own projects.From data structures and algorithms, to integration with cutting-edge technologies, the Ruby Cookbook has something for every programmer. Beginners and advanced Rubyists alike will learn how to program with:Strings and numbersArrays and hashesClasses, modules, and namespacesReflection and metaprogrammingXML and HTML processingRuby on Rails (including Ajax integration)DatabasesGraphicsInternet services like email, SSH, and BitTorrentWeb servicesMultitaskingGraphical and terminal interfacesIf you need to write a web application, this book shows you how to get started with Rails. If you're a system administrator who needs to rename thousands of files, you'll see how to use Ruby for this and other everyday tasks. You'll learn how to read and write Excel spreadsheets, classify text with Bayesian filters, and create PDF files. We've even included a few silly tricks that were too cool to leave out, like how to blink the lights on your keyboard.The Ruby Cookbook is the most useful book yet written about Ruby. When you need to solve a problem, don't reinvent the wheel: look it up in the Cookbook.
Introduction to Logic and Computer Design with CD, 1 edition
Authors: Alan B. Marcovitz
Venue:  (2007)

Introduction to Logic and Computer Design by Alan Marcovitz takes the successful formula realized in the author’s previous books and makes it even better. With the inclusion of several chapters on computer design, Marcovitz now offers everything a fundamentals-oriented logic design course might include. Further, this new book is supported by an ARIS site - McGraw-Hill's electronic homework management systems -- including 350 algorithmic problems and a host of new media supplements to make both the instructor’s and the student’s tasks easier. As with Marcovitz’s previous books, the clear presentation of concepts and well-paced writing style make Introduction to Logic and Computer Design the ideal companion to any first course in digital logic. Users rave about the book’s extensive set of examples — well integrated into the body of the text and included at the end of each chapter in sections of solved problems — that give students multiple opportunities to understand the topics being presented. Table of contentsIntroduction to Logic and Computer Design1 IntroductionPart I Logic Design2 Combinational Systems3 The Karnaugh Map4 Designing Combinational Systems5 Analysis of Sequential Systems6 The Design of Sequential Systems7 Solving Larger Sequential ProblemsPart II Computer Design8 Computer Organization9 Computer Design Fundamentals10 The Design of a Central Processing Unit11 Beyond the Central Processing Unit The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
Epidemics alert & response framework and technology based on spreading dynamics simulation
Authors: Chunhua Tian, Xun Zhang, Wei Ding, Rongzeng Cao
Venue: Proceedings of the 38th conference on Winter simulation (2006)

There have been many research works on epidemic spreading using mathematical or simulation methods. However, to make it practical as a decision support tool for the policy maker, it needs to be combined with business operation of epidemic control. Thus, an alert and response framework covering outbreak detection, policy analysis, and policy execution is proposed in this work. Key technologies for such a framework at the modeling, analysis, and data collection aspects are discussed. Sensitivity analysis is proposed for model verification and confidence analysis. Critical point identification is another important topic for control policy making by network topology analysis. The importance and feasibility of these technologies are illustrated by the experiment on Beijing SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) data in 2003.
Solving systems of linear equations with Boolean variables
Authors: A. E. Litvinenko
Venue: Cybernetics and Systems Analysis (2006)

The paper presents a method to solve systems of linear equations with Boolean variables, which implements an enumeration strategy. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of feasible plans are formalized. A formal procedure to analyze subsets of alternatives is described. The structure of an algorithm that possesses the property of completeness is presented. Special cases of systems of equations are examined.
Anywhere Computing with Laptops: Making Mobile Easier (One-Off)
Authors: Harold Davis
Venue:  (2005)

You bought your Centrino laptop computer because of its ease-of-use and portability. But are you using your laptop to its maximum potential? Anywhere Computing with Laptops: Making Mobile Easier will show you what to expect when buying and configuring your laptop and how to use built-in features such as digital cameras and Internet telephones. When you're on the road, there are hotspots that will allow you to connect to multiple national networks for access to data and the Internet. This book will show you how to find these hotspots, as well as how to install and configure a wireless network for your home or office. Use your laptop the way it was intended - from anywhere! The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player
Upgrading and Repairing PCs (17th Edition)
Authors: Scott Mueller
Venue:  (2006)

Be a part of the best-selling Upgrading and Repairing series with the latest edition of the flagship book, Upgrading and Repairing PCs.ï¾ Author Scott Mueller has taught thousands in his seminars and millions through his books, videos and articles. Since 1988, everyon from PC technicians and students to hobbyists, have turned to Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs books for help with computer problems. Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 17th Edition includes new and updated content covering the latest processors, motherboards, memory, and more, including a fully-loaded DVD with new video and reference material.Register this book at www.quepublishing.com after purchase for access to exclusive Upgrading and Repairing articles, sample chapters, and bonus video content!
Modeling and simulation of Canadian forces strategic lift strategies
Authors: Ahmed Ghanmi, R. H. A. David Shaw
Venue: Proceedings of the 38th conference on Winter simulation (2006)

In support of Canadian Forces (CF) transformation, a study was conducted to explore strategic lift movement strategies within the context of rapid deployability to counter asymmetric threats in failed or failing states around the globe. This study makes extensive use of two interconnected models. An aircraft loading optimization model using a combination of simulated annealing and genetic algorithm techniques with a novel convex hull based measure of effectiveness was developed to derive near-optimal loading plans across a fleet of transportation assets. The output from the loading model was then fed into a Monte Carlo simulation framework developed to allow for study of the effectiveness of a variety of strategic lift options. Analysis indicates that pre-positioning of equipment at various international locations and increased use of C-17 aircraft for airlift---where economically viable---could be potential strategies for improvement of the CF strategic lift.