ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Risk Management: Moving Beyond Process
Authors: Art Gemmer
Venue: Computer (1997)

Risk management, as it pertains to organizational behavior, is relatively new and still somewhat elusive. Most organizations have only a fuzzy definition of this concept, often confusing it with problem solving or crisis intervention. When Rockwell analyzed risk management behavior, it found that successful risk management involves obtaining functional behavior, not just following a process or having diverse sources of information. Functional behavior is not the absence of dysfunctional behavior. Functional behavior must be coached. This article describes a plan to elicit the behavior "communicate risk more effectively," which Rockwell identified as a common thread among many functional behaviors. Rockwell now experiences fewer surprises and crises, even on the most risky programs. Focusing on behavior helps organizations manage risk as an asset. The author describes Rockwell's next step in its shift beyond process as the implementation of a strategy to manage risks before a program begins. This strategy is intended to reinforce the notion that risk management is an integral part of real work and bring Rockwell closer to the goal of fundamentally changing the way it executes risk management practices.
Software Letters
Venue: IEEE Software (1990)

No abstract available 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
The Metaview System for Many Specification Environments
Authors: Paul G. Sorenson, Jean-Paul Tremblay, Andrew J. McAllister
Venue: IEEE Software (1988)

The use of metasystems, which can automatically generate the major parts of a software-development environment, for computer-aided software (CASE) engineering is discussed. One such system, called Metaview, is considered. Environment definition and tool development using Metaview are examined.
Efficient Resource Allocation with Non-Concave Objective Functions
Authors: Arne Andersson, Fredrik Ygge
Venue: Computational Optimization and Applications (2001)

We consider resource allocation with separable objective functions defined over subranges of the integers. While it is well known that (the maximization version of) this problem can be solved efficiently if the objective functions are concave, the general problem of resource allocation with non-concave functions is difficult. In this article we show that for fairly well-shaped non-concave objective functions, the optimal solution can be computed efficiently. Our main enabling ingredient is an algorithm for aggregating two objective functions, where the cost depends on the complexity of the two involved functions. As a measure of complexity of a function, we use the number of subintervals that are convex or concave.
Compressed Bit Fail Maps for Memory Fail Pattern Classification
Authors: Jőrg Vollrath, Ulf Lederer, Thomas Hladschik
Venue: Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory and Applications (2001)

Process optimization in a manufacturing environment for dynamic random access devices (DRAMS) can be improved using fail bit maps in production. Since fail bit maps for 64 Mbit, 256 Mbit and 1 Gbit are quite huge, it is difficult to generate, store and analyze these maps in a manufacturing environment. This paper presents a new scheme for generating compressed bit fail maps during test or from full bit fail maps with minimum loss of fail pattern information. Construction of the special compression scheme for a typical memory array with typical fail patterns will be shown. The described method has been successfully implemented for a 64 Mbit DRAM in a manufacturing environment compressing the bit fail maps to 2 kBit, allowing classification of 13 fail types.
Ruled cubic surfaces in PG(4,q), Baer subplanes of PG(2,q2) and Hermitian curves
Authors: Rey Casse, Catherine T. Quinn
Venue: Discrete Mathematics (2002)

In PG(2,q2) let l∞ denote a fixed line, then the Baer subplanes which intersect l∞ in q + 1 points are called affine Baer subplanes. Call a Baer subplane of PG(2, q2) non-affine if it intersects l∞ in a unique point. It is shown by Vincenti (Boll. Un. Mat. Ital. Suppl: 2 (1980) 31) and Bose et al. (Utilitas Math. 17 (1980) 65) that non-affine Baer subplanes of PG(2, q2) are represented by certain ruled cubic surfaces in the André/Bruck and Bose representation of PG(2, q2) in PG(4, q) (Math. Z. 60(1954) 156; J. Algebra 1 (1964) 85; J. Algebra 4 (1966) 117). The André/Bruck and Bose representation of PG(2,q2) involves a regular spread in PG(3,q). For a fixed regular spread Y, it is known that not all ruled cubic surfaces in PG(4,q) correspond to non-affine Baer subplanes of PG(2,q2) in this manner. In this paper, we prove a characterisation of ruled cubic surfaces in PG(4,q) which represent non-affine Baer subplanes of the Desarguesian plane PG(2,q2). The characterisation relies on the ruled cubic surfaces satisfying a certain geometric condition. This result and the corollaries obtained are then applied to give a geometric proof of the result of Metsch (London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, Vol. 245, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, p. 77) regarding Hermitian unitals; a result which was originally proved in a coordinate setting.
Guest Editors' Introduction: Continuous Media on Demand
Authors: Jonathan C. L. Liu, David H. C. Du
Venue: Computer (2001)

Researchers face the challenge of designing and implementing computer systems capable of processing and distributing large continuous media files simultaneously to millions of users who are connected to the Internet.
Toward Systematic Design of Fault-Tolerant Systems
Authors: Algirdas Avizienis
Venue: Computer (1997)

The mid-century "space race" was a major impetus for the development of fault-tolerant computing. Over the succeeding 25 years researchers expanded the concept of fault tolerance and refined the techniques for achieving it. Nevertheless, the bottom-up approach, entailing an infrastructure of autonomously fault-tolerant subsystems integrated with global fault tolerance functions, is less common today than the top-down approach, which relies on off-the-shelf (OTS) subsystems and a global monitoring function. A design paradigm for the systematic treatment of fault tolerance involves four steps: specification, implementation, evaluation, and modification. The paradigm offers a way to minimize the probability of oversights, mistakes, and inconsistencies that may occur during the implementation of fault tolerance. In spite of the long-range merits of this bottom-up approach, time and cost constraints often lead developers to use OTS subsystems when designing systems that are expected to be highly dependable. Even the Pentium Pro, which appears to have the most complete set of fault tolerance functions among contemporary microprocessors, has major drawbacks. Moreover, systems built from OTS subsystems are difficult to retrofit for fault tolerance. Without hardware support for fault tolerance, the only solution is to build a software monitor subsystem that tries to check all subsystems for indications of failure. But the monitor itself is unprotected because it resides and executes on an OTS processor. Researchers would do well to consider the human immune system as a model for systems in which fault tolerance is an integral attribute of every hardware element.
Results of Applying the Personal Software Process
Authors: Pat Ferguson, Watts S. Humphrey, Soheil Khajenoori, Susan Macke, Annette Matvya
Venue: Computer (1997)

In most professions, competent work requires the disciplined use of established practices. Software professionals, however, are generally not taught planning, tracking, or quality measurement. And too often, they follow inefficient methods and procedures. The Personal Software Process is a methodology that helps software engineers plan and track their work. Because PSP was only experimentally introduced in 1994 and has been undergoing further development, relatively little data on its use and effectiveness has been available. This article reports the experience of three industrial software groups that have used PSP and have collected data to show its effectiveness: Advanced Information Services Inc., Motorola Paging Products Group, and Union Switch & Signal Inc. Application areas included commercial data processing, internal manufacturing support, communications product support, and real-time process control. All PSP projects in these organizations were delivered on or ahead of schedule and only one has had any customer-reported defects. The effective use of PSP depends on proper training, but with the training and continuing management interest, the authors conclude that PSP is an effective methodology for efficiently developing quality software.
Efficient C4.5
Authors: S. Ruggieri
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (2002)

We present an analytic evaluation of the runtime behavior of the C4.5 algorithm which highlights some efficiency improvements. Based on the analytic evaluation, we have implemented a more efficient version of the algorithm, called EC4.5. It improves on C4.5 by adopting the best among three strategies for computing the information gain of continuous attributes. All the strategies adopt a binary search of the threshold in the whole training set starting from the local threshold computed at a node. The first strategy computes the local threshold using the algorithm of C4.5, which, in particular, sorts cases by means of the quicksort method. The second strategy also uses the algorithm of C4.5, but adopts a counting sort method. The third strategy calculates the local threshold using a main-memory version of the RainForest algorithm, which does not need sorting. Our implementation computes the same decision trees as C4.5 with a performance gain of up to five times.
A zero-input interface for leveraging group experience in web browsing
Authors: Taly Sharon, Henry Lieberman, Ted Selker
Venue: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces (2003)

The experience of a trusted group of colleagues can help users improve the quality and focus of their browsing and searching activities. How could a system provide such help, when and where the users need it, without disrupting their normal work activities? This paper describes Context-Aware Proxy based System (CAPS), an agent that recommends pages and annotates links to reveal their relative popularity among the users colleagues, matched with their automatically computed interest profiles. A Web proxy tracks browsing habits, so CAPS requires no explicit input from the user. We review here CAPS design principles and implementation. We tested user satisfaction with the interface and the accuracy of the ranking algorithm. These experiments indicate that CAPS has high potential to support effective ranking for quality judgment - by users
An alternative energy finite element formulation based on incoherent orthogonal waves and its validation for marine structures
Authors: Weiguo Zhang, Aimin Wang, Nickolas Vlahopoulos
Venue: Finite Elements in Analysis and Design (2002)

An alternate formulation is presented for deriving the governing differential equations of the energy finite element analysis (EFEA). The formulations for interior acoustic spaces and for thin plates are presented. The new formulations are based on considering the acoustic or the flexural response as a summation of incoherent orthogonal waves. The validity of the EFEA is demonstrated by comparing vibration results from very dense conventional finite element models to EFEA results. Actual marine structures are analyzed. Comparison between statistical energy analysis and EFEA is also performed for a vessel that is comprised by both acoustic spaces and structural components. Good agreement is demonstrated between the two methods and the validity of the EFEA is established.
Rollback Recovery in Distributed Systems Using Loosely Synchronized Clocks
Authors: Z. Tong, R. Y. Kain, W. T. Tsai
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (1992)

A rollback recovery scheme for distributed systems is proposed. The state-save synchronization among processes is implemented by bounding clock drifts such that no state-save synchronization messages are required. Since the clocks are only loosely synchronized, the synchronization overhead can be negligible in many applications. An interprocess communication protocol which encodes state-save progress information within message frames is introduced to checkpoint consistent system states. A rollback recovery algorithm that will force a minimum number of nodes to roll back after failures is developed.
The Performance of Spin Lock Alternatives for Shared-Memory Multiprocessors
Authors: T. E. Anderson
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (1990)

The author examines the questions of whether there are efficient algorithms for software spin-waiting given hardware support for atomic instructions, or whether more complex kinds of hardware support are needed for performance. He considers the performance of a number of software spin-waiting algorithms. Arbitration for control of a lock is in many ways similar to arbitration for control of a network connecting a distributed system. He applies several of the static and dynamic arbitration methods originally developed for networks to spin locks. A novel method is proposed for explicitly queueing spinning processors in software by assigning each a unique number when it arrives at the lock. Control of the lock can then be passed to the next processor in line with minimal effecton other processors.
Gemini: An Optical Interconnection Network for Parallel Processing
Authors: Roger D. Chamberlain, Mark A. Franklin, Ch'ng Shi Baw
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2002)

The Gemini interconnect is a dual technology (optical and electrical) interconnection network designed for use in tightly-coupled multicomputer systems. It consists of a circuit-switched optical data path in parallel with a packet-switched electrical control/data path. The optical path is used for transmission of long data messages and the electrical path is used for switch control and transmission of short data messages. This paper describes the architecture of the interconnection network and related communications protocols. Fairness issues associated with network operation are addressed and a discrete-event simulation model of the entire system is described. Network performance characteristics derived from the simulation model are presented. The results show significant performance benefits when using virtual output queuing and quantify the tradeoffs between throughput and fairness in the system.
On Ergodic Transformations with Homogeneous Spectrum
Authors: O. N. Ageev
Venue: Journal of Dynamical and Control Systems (1999)

Rokhlin's problem on the existence of an ergodic transformation having a homogeneous spectrum of a finite multiplicity is solved. Katok's question about the spectral multiplicity function of Cartesian powers for a generic transformations is also answered.
Parallelization of Algorithms and Codes of the Computational System &ldquo;Potok-3&rdquo;
Authors: G. A. Tarnavsky, V. A. Vshivkov, A. G. Tarnavsky
Venue: Programming and Computing Software (2003)

The paper discusses creation of modern computational technologies and methods of parallel programming aimed at improving efficiency of solving fundamental scientific and applied problems. Primary attention is focused on theoretical issues and practical implementation of technological decomposition and parallelization of algorithms and codes of the computational system &ldquo;Potok-3,&rdquo; which is designed for the numerical modeling of aerodynamics and physical gas dynamics problems. General problems of portability of methods and algorithms, as well as program packages implementing them, designed for single-processor machines to multiprocessor computational systems are discussed.
Classifying 2-arc-transitive graphs of order a product of two primes
Authors: Dragan Marusic, Primoz Potocnik
Venue: Discrete Mathematics (2002)

A classification of all 2-arc-transitive graphs of order a product of two primes is given. Furthermore, it is shown that cycles and complete graphs are the only 2-arc-transitive Cayley graph of Abelian group of odd order.
Management-Aided Software Engineering
Authors: Sheila Brady, Tom DeMarco
Venue: IEEE Software (1994)

Two veteran software managers examine some of today's management best practices for signs of what might become generally accepted practice in the near future. They present these practices from a small sample of healthy organizations. In addition, they envision how software management might mature over the next few decades to produce a new generation of best practices.
Automatic Structuring of Knowledge Bases by Conceptual Clustering
Authors: Guy W. Mineau, Robert Godin
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (1995)

An important structuring mechanism for knowledge bases is building an inheritance hierarchy of classes based on the content of their knowledge objects. This hierarchy facilitates group-related processing tasks such as answering set queries, discriminating between objects, finding similarities among objects, etc. Building this hierarchy is a difficult task for the knowledge engineer. Conceptual clustering may be used to automate or assist the engineer in the creation of such a classification structure. This article introduces a new conceptual clustering method which addresses the problem of clustering large amounts of structured objects. The conditions under which the method is applicable are discussed.
Clustering and concept analysis for software evolution
Authors: John Davey, Elizabeth Burd
Venue: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Principles of Software Evolution (2001)

Software Clustering and Concept Analysis are two types of technique that can be used to determine the structure of a software system. This position paper proposes the use of such techniques to aid the study of software evolution. Basic Software Clustering and Concept Analysis techniques are described. By applying these techniques to different versions of a software system, it is possible that evolutionary trends over the lifetime of the system could be discovered. Work is proposed that will attempt to establish whether this is the case.
Data Categorization Using Decision Trellises
Authors: Paolo Frasconi, Marco Gori, Giovanni Soda
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (1999)

We introduce a probabilistic graphical model for supervised learning on databases with categorical attributes. The proposed belief network contains hidden variables that play a role similar to nodes in decision trees and each of their states either corresponds to a class label or to a single attribute test. As a major difference with respect to decision trees, the selection of the attribute to be tested is probabilistic. Thus, the model can be used to assess the probability that a tuple belongs to some class, given the predictive attributes. Unfolding the network along the hidden states dimension yields a trellis structure having a signal flow similar to second order connectionist networks. The network encodes context specific probabilistic independencies to reduce parametric complexity. We present a custom tailored inference algorithm and derive a learning procedure based on the expectation-maximization algorithm. We propose decision trellises as an alternative to decision trees in the context of tuple categorization in databases, which is an important step for building data mining systems. Preliminary experiments on standard machine learning databases are reported, comparing the classification accuracy of decision trellises and decision trees induced by C4.5. In particular, we show that the proposed model can offer significant advantages for sparse databases in which many predictive attributes are missing.
Solving Constraint Optimization Problems from CLP-Style Specifications Using Heuristic Search Techniques
Authors: P. Dasgupta, P. P. Chakrabarti, A. Dey, S. Ghose, W. Bibel
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (2002)

This paper presents a framework for efficiently solving logic formulations of combinatorial optimization problems using heuristic search techniques. In order to integrate cost, lower bound and upper bound specifications with conventional logic programming languages, we augment a CLP language with embedded constructs for specifying the cost function and with a few higher order predicates for specifying the lower and upper bound functions. We illustrate how this simple extension vastly enhances the ease with which optimization problems involving combinations of Min and Max can be specified in the extended language CLP* and show that CSLDNF resolution schemes are not efficient for solving optimization problems specified in this language. Therefore, we describe how any problem specified using CLP* can be converted into an implicit AND/OR graph, and present an algorithm GenSolve which can branch and bound using upper and lower bound estimates, thus exploiting the full pruning power of heuristic search techniques. A technical analysis of GenSolve is provided. We also provide experimental results comparing various control strategies for solving CLP* programs.
Computation of Surface Geometry and Segmentation Using Covariance Techniques
Authors: J. Berkmann, T. Caelli
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1994)

In this correspondence, the application of covariance techniques to surface representation of 3-D objects is discussed and such ways of computing surface geometry are compared with traditional methods using differential geometry. It is shown how the covariance method provides surface descriptors that are invariant to rigid motions without explicitly using surface parameterizations or derivatives. Analogous covariance operators for both the Gauss and Weingarten maps are defined and a range image segmentation technique is presented that labels pixels as jump or crease discontinuities or planar, parabolic or curved region types.
Shape From Shading by Using Neural Based Colour Reflectance Model
Authors: Siu-yeung Cho, Tommy W. S. Chow, K. T. Ng
Venue: Neural Processing Letters (2002)

In this Letter, a new methodology for Colour Shape From Shading problem is proposed. The problem of colour SFS refers to the well-known fact that most real objects usually contain mixtures of diffuse and specular colour reflections. In this paper, these limitations are addressed and a new colour neural based model is proposed. The proposed approach focuses on developing a generalized neural based colour reflectance model. Experimental results on synthetic coloured objects and a real coloured object were performed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed methodology.
Complete Sets of Complex Zernike Moment Invariants and the Role of the Pseudoinvariants
Authors: Åke Wallin, Olaf Kübler
Venue: IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (1995)

Moment invariants are important shape descriptors in computer vision. In this correspondence rules will be presented to form complete sets of rotational invariants of arbitrary order given complex Zernike moments. The relevance of the pseudoinvariants is shown by inverting the rotational invariants to reconstruct the normalized image pattern.
Developing Architectural Platforms: A Disciplined Approach
Authors: Andrew Mihal, Chidamber Kulkarni, Matthew Moskewicz, Mel Tsai, Niraj Shah, Scott Weber, Yujia Jin, Kurt Keutzer, Christian Sauer, Kees Vissers, Sharad Malik
Venue: IEEE Design Test (2002)

The Mescal project brings a formalized, disciplined methodology to the design of programmable platform-based systems, enabling the exploration of a wide array of architectures and a correct-by-construction path to implementation.