ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Fast communication: Blind carrier frequency offset estimation in OFDM systems with I/Q imbalance
Authors: Tao Liu, Hanzhang Li
Venue: Signal Processing (2009)

In this paper, estimation of carrier frequency offset (CFO) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with I/Q imbalance is studied. By exploiting the mirror spectrum induced by I/Q imbalance, we proposed a novel algorithm for blind CFO estimation without training sequences. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing one, which is well accepted as a guideline of blind CFO estimation algorithms in OFDM systems.
Evaluating college students' evaluations of a professor's teaching effectiveness across time and instruction mode (online vs. face-to-face) using a multilevel growth modeling approach
Authors: Adam C. Carle
Venue: Computers Education (2009)

Aims: Do college students' ratings of a professor's teaching effectiveness suggest that a professor's teaching improves with time? Does anything predict which instructors receive the highest ratings or improve the fastest? And, importantly, do the correlates of change differ across face-to-face and online courses? Methods: I used data from 10,392 classes taught by 1120 instructors across three years and fit a taxonomy of multilevel growth models to examine whether students' ratings of teaching effectiveness (SETEs) changed across time, whether differences in average SETEs correlated with growth, and whether online vs. face-to-face, tenure, discipline, course level, sex, or minority status affected these estimates. Results: SETEs remained relatively stable across time and teachers, although analyses uncovered a statistically significant, negative correlation between initial status and growth. Instructors starting with lower SETEs improved the fastest. These findings held across online and face-to-face instruction modes. However, in face-to-face classes, minority instructors received significantly lower average SETEs. This difference did not occur in online classes. No other predictors showed statistically significant effects. Finally, considerable SETE variance remained unexplained even when including the full predictor set in the model. Discussion: These findings reveal that professors' SETEs can improve. Additionally, they indicate that patterns of change in teaching effectiveness do not differ generally across online and face-to-face instruction modes. However, the results showed that minority teachers in face-to-face but not online classes received lower evaluations than their majority counterparts. Additional research should seek to understand what leads to SETE differences across minority and majority groups in face-to-face classes but not online classes.
Enabling Ad Hoc Queries over Low-Level Scientific Data Sets
Authors: David Chiu, Gagan Agrawal
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management (2009)

Technological success has ushered in massive amounts of data for scientific analysis. To enable effective utilization of these data sets for all classes of users, supporting intuitive data access and manipulation interfaces is crucial. This paper describes an autonomous scientific workflow system that enables high-level, natural language based, queries over low-level data sets. Our technique involves a combination of natural language processing, metadata indexing, and a semantically-aware workflow composition engine which dynamically constructs workflows for answering queries based on service and data availability. A specific contribution of this work is a metadata registration scheme that allows for a unified index of heterogeneous metadata formats and service annotations. Our approach thus avoids a standardized format for storing all data sets or the implementation of a federated, mediator-based, querying framework. We have evaluated our system using a case study from the geospatial domain to show functional results. Our evaluation supports the potential benefits which our approach can offer to scientific workflow systems and other domain-specific, data intensive applications.
Integrating case-based and fuzzy reasoning to qualitatively predict risk in an environmental impact assessment review
Authors: Kevin Fong-Rey Liu, Chih-Wei Yu
Venue: Environmental Modelling Software (2009)

During the preparation of environmental impact statements (EIS) and environmental impact assessment reports (EIAR) for a development proposal, developers have three concerns. First is acquiring similar proposals for reference. Second is to forecast a possible review result for a compiled EIS or EIAR: approval, conditional approval, second-stage EIA, or disapproval. Risk management in accordance with the possible review result is the third issue. With the predicted possible review result, early preparation and revision of environmental management plans can ameliorate in advance highly risky nuisances; thereby the probability of passing review is relatively enhanced. In response to the first concern, Taiwan EPA provides developers an information system to access EISs and EIARs through the Internet. Except that, there is no related system to address these concerns in Taiwan. In this paper, the following suggestions of using artificial intelligence and management science are proposed to assist developers: case-based reasoning (CBR) for retrieval of similar cases, fuzzy reasoning (FR) for qualitative risk forecast, and importance-performance analysis (IPA) for risk management. Finally, a case study is used to demonstrate the use of the proposed system.
Using robust outlier detection to identify possible flood events
Authors: Azami Zaharim, Rafizah Rajali, Kamarulzaman Ibrahim
Venue: Proceedings of the 7th WSEAS international conference on System science and simulation in engineering (2008)

The least squares method has been widely used in time series forecasting and outlier detection. However, the method is not very efficient in identifying outliers because it suffers the masking effect. The aim of this study is to overcome the masking effect by implementing the robust least median squares method in outlier detection. To illustrate, we identified the possible outliers from sixty-one readings of the daily rainfall recorded at Kajang JPS telemetric station. The outliers are then categorized into innovational outlier and additive outlier. Results based on both techniques were compared and it is found that the least median squares method effectively unmasked the effect of outliers as compared to the least squares method.
KEMM: A Knowledge Engineering Methodology in the Medical Domain
Authors: Pinar Wennerberg, Sonja Zillner, Manuel Möller, Paul Buitelaar, Michael Sintek
Venue: Proceeding of the 2008 conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference (FOIS 2008) (2008)

Medical research and clinical practice deal with complex and heterogeneous data. This requires a systematic approach for semantic integration of information to support clinicians in their daily tasks. As the clinicians speak and think in a very different language than that of the computer scientists, existing knowledge engineering approaches based on classical expert interviews fall short. Moreover, as human health is a very sensitive subject, the reuse of standardized hence reliable ontologies as medical knowledge resources becomes a key requirement. In this paper, we first discuss the specific medical knowledge engineering requirements, we identified along a semantic medical image and text retrieval use case. Then we report on ongoing work towards establishing a corresponding methodology based on ontology reuse that is derived from the requirements. The methodology, which will be discussed in detail, relies on a novel technique for semi-automatically generating a set of potential user queries to support the knowledge elicitation process.
Ergonomic Advice through Case-Based Reasoning to Avoid Dangerous Positions Adopted Using the Computer
Authors: Fernando Orduòa Cabrera, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, Jesús Miguel García Gorrostieta, Samuel González López
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)

Nowadays a computer is used as a main tool for many tasks. Usually a session using a computer in a computer center takes from 50 up to 150 minutes, getting the user to be tired. With this research, the dangerous positions adopted by the students in a computer center are analyzed and recommendations of exercises are listed. The exercises avoid the pain feel caused by those hazard positions. The suggestions are notified to the user by the Ergonomic-CBR application developed. After 40 minutes of a session with the computer, the Ergonomic-CBR application sends a test to user. With the answers, a case is formulated and the CBR cycle is loaded. The similar case is retrieved and adapted using expert-coded rules. All adaptations are done according to the pain feel. The result of the experiments done in Universidad de la Sierra, reflect that the students suffer of repetitive tension related with using computers. The experimental groups presented a diminution in stress and a huge acceptance of relaxation exercises proposed by the Ergonomic-CBR system.
Advances in Banking Technology and Management: Impacts of ICT and CRM
Authors: Vadlamani Ravi, Vadlamani Ravi
Venue:  (2007)

Banking across the world has undergone extensive changes thanks to the profound influence of developments and trends in information communication technologies, business intelligence, and risk management strategies. While banking has become easier and more convenient for the consumer, the advances and intricacies of emerging technologies have made banking operations all the more cumbersome. Advances in Banking Technology and Management: Impacts of ICT and CRM examines the various myriads of technical and organizational elements that impact services management, business management, risk management, and customer relationship management, and offers research to aid the successful implementation of associated supportive technologies.
Q-Learning Based on Dynamical Structure Neural Network for Robot Navigation in Unknown Environment
Authors: Junfei Qiao, Ruiyuan Fan, Honggui Han, Xiaogang Ruan
Venue: Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Neural Networks: Advances in Neural Networks - Part III (2009)

An automation learning and navigation strategy based on dynamical structure neural network and reinforcement learning was proposed in this paper. The neural network can adjust its structure according to the complexity of the working environment. New nodes or even new hidden-layers can be inserted or deleted during the training process. In such a way, the mapping relations between environment states and responding action were established, and the dimension explosion problem was solved at the same time. Simulation and Pioneer3-DX mobile robot navigation experiments were done to test the proposed algorithm. Results show that the robot can learn the correct action and finish the navigation task without people's guidance, and the performance was better than artificial potential field method.
Use of Dataloggers in Science Learning in Singapore Schools
Authors: Whye Choo Seah, Daniel K. C. Tan, John G. Hedberg, Thiam Seng Koh
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)

This paper reports the findings from an online survey administered to 593 science teachers including heads of science departments in 2004. This survey is part of a study initiated in December 2003 to examine the implementation, efficacy and use of dataloggers in Singapore science curricula. Dataloggers were introduced to all Singapore schools during the First Masterplan for IT in Education (1997-2002) to support science learning and experimentation. The aim of the survey is to find out how secondary schools and junior colleges have been supporting and integrating the use of these dataloggers in the teaching and learning of science. The findings from this survey address : • profile of schools and teachers using dataloggers • ways in which dataloggers are used in the science curriculum • teachers' perceptions on whether pupils were able to interpret and analyse graphs • roles of teachers in preparing pupils and guiding them when using dataloggers in set experiments and inquiry based science experiments
An application of wavelet analysis to paleoproductivity records from the Southern Ocean
Authors: Asok K. Sen, Gabriel M. Filippelli, José-Abel Flores
Venue: Computers Geosciences (2009)

We have performed wavelet analysis of the paleoproductivity records from the southeastern Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. In particular, we have applied a continuous wavelet transform to the phosphorus-to-titanium (P/Ti) ratios obtained from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 1089 and 1094 over the past ~600kyr, and computed their wavelet power spectra in order to elucidate the spectral-temporal aspects of phosphorus deposition at these sites. Because data are unevenly sampled in time, they are first resampled using a uniform sampling interval prior to wavelet analysis. The wavelet power spectra of the P/Ti data are presented on a time-period plane from which the dominant periodicities of P export and their duration in time are discerned by visual inspection. Our results indicate that at the ODP Site 1089, the strongest P export occurs within a periodic band with the most dominant period of ~100kyr, which corresponds to the eccentricity period of Milankovitch cyclicity. On the other hand, at the ODP Site 1094, which is completely covered with ice during the glacial times, the strongest periodicity of P export is found to be around 82kyr. This periodicity is twice the period of the 41-kyr Milankovitch obliquity cycle, implying that obliquity forcing drives the productivity at this site in a period doubling scenario. Given the strong influence of ice cover at this site, another implication is that sea ice extent itself is strongly influenced by the obliquity signal, and productivity simply responds to the availability of ice-free conditions. We have also performed wavelet analysis of the carbonate production data at the ODP Site 1089, and found a dominant periodicity of ~100kyr. In addition, a few weaker decadal-scale periodicities are observed in both P/Ti and carbonate data which can be linked to Milankovitch cycles.
Exploiting hierarchical clustering for finding bounded diameter minimum spanning trees on euclidean instances
Authors: Martin Gruber, Günther R. Raidl
Venue: Proceedings of the 11th Annual conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation (2009)

The bounded diameter minimum spanning tree problem is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem arising, for example, in network design when quality of service is of concern. There exist various exact and metaheuristic approaches addressing this problem, whereas fast construction heuristics are primarily based on Prim's minimum spanning tree algorithm and fail to produce reasonable solutions in particular on large Euclidean instances. A method based on hierarchical clustering to guide the construction process of a diameter constrained tree is presented. Solutions obtained are further refined using a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure. Based on the idea of clustering we also designed a new neighborhood search for this problem. Especially on large Euclidean instances with a tight diameter bound the results are excellent. In this case the solution quality can also compete with that of a leading metaheuristic, whereas the computation only needs a fraction of the time.
Image Identification Based on the Pupil Size Analysis During Human-Computer Interaction
Authors: Janusz Sobecki
Venue: Proceeding of the 2008 conference on New Trends in Multimedia and Network Information Systems (2008)

A method for image identification based on the pupil size analysis during human-computer interaction will be presented. The data was gathered during the experiment on 3D interactive representation of fairly large picture collections which facilitates browsing through unstructured sets of icons or pictures. The data was gathered using ASL gaze-tracking device. A group of 18 users took part in the experiment. The obtained gaze tracking results have shown that recorded pupil size patterns may indicate the fact of the presented image identification.
A nonsmooth algorithm for solving the frictional quasistatic contact problems
Authors: Nicolae Pop
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Mathematical and computational methods in science and engineering (2008)

The aim of this paper is to give an algorithm for solving nondifferentiable equations using the generalized Jacobians with applications in contact problems. In contact problems, the functional which describes the contact conditions and the influence of the frictions is nondifferentiable. A nonsmooth model for solving by damped Newton method the nonsmooth equations, is presented, in which the variables are related to the candidate contact nodes, and which modeling the influence of the friction and the contact conditions. Some definitions, results and algorithms from nonsmooth analysis are presented which leads to some sufficient conditions such that the nonlinear and nondifferentiable system obtained in modeling the contact problems with friction, have one solution obtained by Newton's method using generalized gradient.
Mixed architectures for H.264/AVC digital video transrating
Authors: Stijn Notebaert, Jan Cock, Samie Beheydt, Jan Lameillieure, Rik Walle
Venue: Multimedia Tools and Applications (2009)

In this paper, we investigate transrating architectures for H.264/AVC video streams. Basic architectures are presented with their strengths and weaknesses. None of the existing architectures provide an appropriate solution for H.264/AVC transrating with an optimal balance between visual quality and complexity. In order to find such an appropriate solution, we propose the use of mixed transrating architectures. These architectures combine different transrating techniques which are applied depending on the picture/macroblock type. The intra-predicted pictures are decoded and re-encoded, while open-loop transrating or transrating with compensation is applied to motion-compensated pictures. Performance results show that the mixed architecture which applies spatial compensation to motion-compensated pictures gives rate-distortion results which approach the cascade of decoder and re-encoder with a complexity only slightly higher than the open-loop transrater. Adding temporal compensation for motion-compensated pictures further improves the visual quality, albeit to a lower extent, at the expense of increased complexity.
On the Prospects of Intelligent Collaborative E-learning Systems
Authors: Miikka Miettinen, Jaakko Kurhila, Henry Tirri
Venue: Proceeding of the 2005 conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education: Supporting Learning through Intelligent and Socially Informed Technology (2005)

Collaborative learning is question-driven and open-ended by nature. Many of the techniques developed for intelligent tutoring are applicable only in more structured settings, but fortunately there are other interesting opportunities to explore. In this paper we introduce a system called OurWeb, and use it as an exemplar framework for demonstrating some of these opportunities. We claim that effective participation in distributed and self-organizing collaboration requires sufficient awareness of the resources and dynamics of the community. The feasibility of implementing certain features of this kind is evaluated based on data from two university level courses.
Accuracy assessment of fraction of vegetation cover and leaf area index estimates from pragmatic methods in a cropland area
Authors: A. Verger, B. Martinez, F. Camacho-de Coca, F. J. Garcia-Haro
Venue: International Journal of Remote Sensing (2009)

The fraction of vegetation cover (FVC) and the leaf area index (LAI) are important parameters for many agronomic, ecological and meteorological applications. Several in-situ and remote sensing techniques for estimating FVC and LAI have been developed in recent years. In this paper, the uncertainty of in-situ FVC and LAI measurements was evaluated by comparing estimates from LAI-2000 and digital hemispherical photography (DHP). The accuracy achieved with a spectral mixture analysis algorithm and two vegetation indices-based methods was assessed using atmospherically corrected Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data over the Barrax cropland area where the European Space Agency (ESA) SENtinel-2 and FLuorescence EXperiment (SEN2FLEX) field campaign was carried out in July 2005. The results indicate that LAI-2000 and DHP performances are comparable, with uncertainties of 5% for FVC and 15% for effective LAI. The selected remote sensing methods are shown to be consistent, with a notable overall accuracy (root mean square error, RMSE) of 0.07 (10% in relative terms) for FVC and 0.8 (30%) for LAI. Similar bounds were found on upscaling in-situ measurements with empirical transfer functions (TFs). These results suggest that the pragmatic methods considered applied at high resolution with minimum calibration data could be useful for mapping FVC and LAI in the study area, reducing in-situ labour-intensive characterization necessities for validation studies.
Statistical screening for the analysis of adult and elderly people optometry visual behaviour
Authors: Mihaela Baritz, Luciana Cristea, Diana Cotoros, Liliana Rogozea
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th WSEAS international conference on Artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and data bases (2009)

This paper presents some considerations about a methodology used to investigate and to analyze the optometry visual behaviour of elderly people considering different environmental conditions and health state. For that we had established some promoting campaigns for screeni?g the visual function of elderly and adult people, and at the same time making investigations on the thermal behaviour of human bodies to correlate these results with vision impairments found on this investigated sample. In the first part of the paper we presented some considerations about the actual prevalence of vision impairments in different European countries. The experimental configuration, the structure of investigation methodology and the problems developed in screening process are presented in the second part of the paper. The results and the conclusions about the prevalence of vision impairments and the correlation between these and thermal behaviour are presented in the final part of the paper. It is very important to make such screenings because there are many implications in daily life or working abilities for different people, also it is necessary to evaluate the evolution of human visual function.
Tracking Human Motion with Multiple Cameras Using an Articulated Model
Authors: Davide Moschini, Andrea Fusiello
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Vision/Computer Graphics CollaborationTechniques (2009)

This paper presents a markerless motion capture pipeline based on volumetric reconstruction, skeletonization and articulated ICP with hard constraints. The skeletonization produces a set of 3D points roughly distributed around the limbs' medial axes. Then, the ICP-based algorithm fits an articulated skeletal model (stick figure) of the human body. The algorithm fits each stick to a limb in a hierarchical fashion, traversing the body's kinematic chain, while preserving the connection of the sticks at the joints. Experimental results with real data demonstrate the performances of the algorithm.