ppxscal/embedding_network huggingface dataset:
Studies about noise pollution in urban areas
Authors: Gabriela Demian, Mihai Demian, Luminita Grecu, Valentin Grecu
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Acoustics & music: theory & applications (2009)

The problem of the traffic noise pollution from the urban areas amplified in the last years. The evolution of the traffic volume values in Romania is continuously increasing. The present paper presents measurements of traffic noise on the street in south western Romania (Drobeta Turnu Severin). The study was performed between January-April 2007. The paper presents the ways to reduce emissions from urban traffic and noise pollution prevention.
Intelligent Processing of Medical Images in the Wavelet Domain
Authors: Lena Costaridou, Spyros Skiadopoulos, Philippos Sakellaropoulos, George Panayiotakis
Venue: Proceeding of the 2007 conference on Emerging Artificial Intelligence Applications in Computer Engineering: Real Word AI Systems with Applications in eHealth, HCI, Information Retrieval and Pervasive Technologies (2007)

Some of the major aspects of computer vision systems in medical imaging involving wavelet analysis are reviewed in this chapter. Initially, key concepts of wavelet decomposition theory are defined, focusing on the overcomplete discrete dyadic wavelet transform, suitable for image quality preserving analysis. Next, basic principles underlying methods such as (i) wavelet coefficient manipulations involved in image denoising and enhancement, and (ii) wavelet feature extraction involved in image segmentation and classification tasks are highlighted. Finally, application examples corresponding to the above mentioned methods are provided for various medical imaging modalities with emphasis on mammographic imaging.
Multimedia Cryptology
Authors: Tim McDevitt, Tom Leap
Venue: Cryptologia (2009)

Classical ciphers are typically applied to English text, but they can also be used to encrypt images and sound files to add an audio-visual component to cryptology courses that is appealing to both mathematical and general audiences. Using audio-visual plaintext has the added benefit of more clearly revealing the strengths and weaknesses of classical ciphers since images and sounds are much more error-tolerant than text. Finally, we introduce ECrypt, a free program that makes it easy for everyone to encrypt image and sound files.
Exploring user interface challenges in supporting activity-based knowledge work practices
Authors: Elizabeth D. Mynatt
Venue:  (2008)

The venerable desktop metaphor is beginning to show signs of strain in supporting modern knowledge work. Traditional desktop systems were not designed to support the sheer number of simultaneous windows, information resources, and collaborative contexts that have become commonplace in contemporary knowledge work. Even though the desktop has been slow to evolve, knowledge workers still consistently manage multiple tasks, collaborate effectively among colleagues or clients, and manipulate information most relevant to their current task by leveraging the spatial organization of their work area. The potential exists for desktop workspaces to better support these knowledge work practices by leveraging the unifying construct of activity. Semantically-meaningful activities, conceptualized as a collection of tools (applications, documents, and other resources) within a social and organizational context, offer an alternative orientation for the desktop experience that more closely corresponds to knowledge workers' objectives and goals. In this research, I unpack some of the foundational assumptions of desktop interface design and propose an activity-centered model for organizing the desktop interface based on empirical observations of real-world knowledge work practice, theoretical understandings of cognition and activity, and my own experiences in developing two prototype systems for extending the desktop to support knowledge work. I formalize this analysis in a series of key challenges for the research and development of activity-based systems. In response to these challenges, I present the design and implementation of a third research prototype, the Giornata system, that emphasizes activity as a primary organizing principle in GUI-based interaction, information organization, and collaboration. I conclude with two evaluations of the system. First, I present findings from a longitudinal deployment of the system among a small group of representative knowledge workers; this deployment constitutes one of the first studies of how activity-based systems are adopted and appropriated in a real-world context. Second, I provide an assessment of the technologies that enable and those that pose barriers to the development of activity-based computing systems.
Quantum deformations of algebras associated with integrable Hamiltonian systems
Authors: Stanisław P. Kasperczuk
Venue: Proceedings of the 15th american conference on Applied mathematics (2009)

The aim of this paper is to give a general setting, based on quantum deformations, for the explicit construction of certain classes of integrable Hamiltonian systems.
A secure credit-based cooperation stimulating mechanism for MANETs using hash chains
Authors: Hamed Janzadeh, Kaveh Fayazbakhsh, Mehdi Dehghan, Mehran S. Fallah
Venue: Future Generation Computer Systems (2009)

One of the most challenging problems in self-organized mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), which consist of autonomous and self-interested nodes, is to stimulate the nodes to cooperate in routing and packet forwarding. In this paper, we propose a novel credit-based cooperation mechanism that utilizes hash chains on messages to defend against cheating by the nodes. We show that it imposes a low workload on the nodes in comparison with the mechanisms that deploy digital signature schemes. Moreover, through a game-theoretic analysis, it is shown that any level of cooperation by a node will be attainable if the mechanism makes appropriate payments.
An EPQ model with price discounted promotional demand in an imprecise planning horizon via Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Sova Pal, Manas Kumar Maiti, Manoranjan Maiti
Venue: Computers and Industrial Engineering (2009)

An economic production quantity (EPQ) model for a newly launched product is developed in an imprecise planning horizon, i.e., lifetime of the product is fuzzy in nature. At the beginning of each cycle price discount is offered to boost the demand. Demand depends on time and price during the price discount period. After withdrawal of price discount, demand depends on price only. Here, learning effect on production and set-up cost is incorporated. Models are formulated for both the crisp and fuzzy inventory parameters. Fuzzy models are transferred to deterministic ones following possibility/necessity measure on fuzzy goal and necessity measure on imprecise constraints. Finally optimal decision is made using Genetic Algorithm (GA).
Improving air traffic management through agent suggestions
Authors: Adrian Agogino, Kagan Tumer
Venue: Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 2 (2009)

Providing intelligent automation to manage the continuously increasing flow of air traffic is critical to the safety and economic viability of air transportation systems. However, current automated solutions leave existing human controllers "out of the loop" rendering the potential solutions both technically dangerous (e.g., inability to react to suddenly developing conditions) and politically charged (e.g., role of air traffic controllers in a fully automated system). Instead, this paper proposes a distributed agent based solution where agents provide suggestions to human controllers. Results on traffic flow around New York show that the suggestion agents can improve system performance by up to 25% over that of human controllers alone, and that these results degrade gracefully when the number of human controllers that follow the agents' suggestions declines.
DataStager: scalable data staging services for petascale applications
Authors: Hasan Abbasi, Matthew Wolf, Greg Eisenhauer, Scott Klasky, Karsten Schwan, Fang Zheng
Venue: Proceedings of the 18th ACM international symposium on High performance distributed computing (2009)

Known challenges for petascale machines are that (1) the costs of I/O for high performance applications can be substantial, especially for output tasks like checkpointing, and (2) noise from I/O actions can inject undesirable delays into the runtimes of such codes on individual compute nodes. This paper introduces the flexible 'DataStager' framework for data staging and alternative services within that jointly address (1) and (2). Data staging services moving output data from compute nodes to staging or I/O nodes prior to storage are used to reduce I/O overheads on applications' total processing times, and explicit management of data staging offers reduced perturbation when extracting output data from a petascale machine's compute partition. Experimental evaluations of DataStager on the Cray XT machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory establish both the necessity of intelligent data staging and the high performance of our approach, using the GTC fusion modeling code and benchmarks running on 1000+ processors.
Towards multi-level modeling of self-assembling intelligent micro-systems
Authors: Grégory Mermoud, Juergen Brugger, Alcherio Martinoli
Venue: Proceedings of The 8th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems - Volume 1 (2009)

We investigate and model the dynamics of two-dimensional stochastic self-assembly of intelligent micro-systems with minimal requirements in terms of sensing, actuation, and control. A microscopic agent-based model accounts for spatiality and serves as a baseline for assessing the accuracy of models at higher abstraction level. Spatiality is relaxed in Monte Carlo simulations, which still capture the binding energy of each individual aggregate. Finally, we introduce a macroscopic model that only keeps track of the average number of aggregates in each energy state. This model is able to quantitatively and qualitatively predict the dynamics observed at lower, more detailed modeling levels. Since we investigate an idealized system, thus making very few assumptions about the exact nature of the final target system, our framework is potentially applicable to a large body of self-assembling agents ranging from functional micro-robots endowed with simple sensors and actuators to elementary microfabricated parts. In particular, we show how our suite of models at different abstraction levels can be used for optimizing both the design of the building blocks and the control of the stochastic process.
Model-driven development of model transformations
Authors: Dirk Janssens, Serge Demeyer
Venue:  (2008)

This thesis presents how evolving software models expressed in different formalisms can be kept consistent by means of an object-oriented integration of metamodeling, design by contract and graph transformation. It incrementally builds upon existing modeling languages to illustrate that the adoption of the new model-driven engineering paradigm does not force organizations to abandon their investments in more mature technologies. More specifically, this thesis shows how the new transformation languages introduced by the Model Driven Architecture standardization effort relate to fragments of the UML that have a well-known, object-oriented semantics. The proposed techniques have emerged from several case studies that involve a wide variety of transformation challenges. Therefore, the contributions are applicable for transformation modeling in general: at first, it is illustrated how model evolution can be supported; secondly, the technique is applied to transform conceptual models into more computer oriented ones; Finally, the technique is applied and extended in the context of model synchronization.
The architecture of modular walking robot MERO support of the heavy load transportation
Authors: Ion Ion, Luige Vladareanu, Ion Simionescu, Aurelian Vasile
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th WSEAS international conference on Mathematical and computational methods in science and engineering (2008)

A modular walking robot can traverses most natural terrain. Walking robots better protect the environment, as their contact to the ground is discrete, which considerably diminishes the area underwent to crushing; the robot's weight can be optimally distributed all over the supporting surface, by controlling the forces. Altering the distance to the ground, the robot can pass over young trees or other vegetation, growing in the passage area. The advantages of legged system for off-road have been gradually recognised. One of the most important advantages is mobility. The Modular walking robots represent a special category of robots, characterized by having the power source embarked on the platform. The weight of this source is an important part of the total charge that the walking robot must transport. That is the reason why the walking system must be designed so that the mechanical work necessary for displacement, or the highest power necessary for act it, should be minimal.
A cyberphilosophical issue in education: Unethical computer using behavior - The case of prospective teachers
Authors: Kadir Beycioglu
Venue: Computers Education (2009)

Increased use of technology for instructional purposes has caused some debates about ethical and/or moral use of computers. All teachers, as practitioners of ICT in learning settings, must feel responsible for educating students on ''what is right and what is wrong?'' of computer use. This study aimed to determine prospective teachers' unethical computer using behaviors at a faculty of education in Turkey. The results showed that the participating prospective teachers are sensitive to ethical computer use. However, the general mean of the surveys is above the average by a small degree that makes the participants' judgments of ethical use inconsiderable. It can be concluded that they undermine ethical computer use. Science teachers and computer education teachers' judgments were less ethical than those of classroom teachers and social sciences teachers. The results also revealed that female candidate teachers were more concerned about ethical issues and that prospective teachers who had up to five years of PC experience considered ethical computer use more than those with five years and beyond. After the survey analysis, the study was completed with qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with nine students.
Pro SQL Server 2008 Analytics: Delivering Sales and Marketing Dashboards, 1st edition
Authors: Brian Paulen, Jeff Finken
Venue:  (2009)

Pro SQL Server 2008 Analytics provides everything you need to know to develop sophisticated and visually appealing sales and marketing dashboards using SQL Server 2008 and to integrate those dashboards with SharePoint, PerformancePoint, and other key Microsoft technologies. The book begins by addressing the many misconceptions that surround the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and giving a brief overview of the business intelligence (BI) and reporting tools that can be combined on the Microsoft platform to help you generate the results that you need. The focus of the book is to help you implement a successful business intelligence project of your own. The text discusses many of the required project planning components, provides overviews and examples associated with Microsofts BI tools, and gives detailed examples of successful dashboard implementations. What youll learn The key functional and technical components of a successful report/dashboard implementation What Microsoft tools are provided both within and without SQL Server 2008 to help you achieve an integrated solution How to determine whether your performance indicators are correct for your business and how to roll them out to your organization in an effective way Who is this book for This book is for entrepreneurs, technologists, and developers who want to bring clearcut, reliable reporting into their organization. No prior experience of building analytics and reporting dashboards is required, but basic familiarity with SQL Server 2008 is assumed. About the Apress Pro Series The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder. You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hardwon solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.
Option pricing using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Girish K. Jha, Sameer Kumar, Hari Prasain, Parimala Thulasiraman, Ruppa K. Thulasiraman
Venue: Proceedings of the 2nd Canadian Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (2009)

Option pricing is one of the challenging areas of computational finance. In this paper an attempt is made to apply Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for pricing options. PSO is one of the novel global search algorithm based on swarm intelligence. It is shown that PSO could be effectively used for single variate option pricing problem. The results are compared with standard classical Black-Scholes model for simple European options. With the current understanding from these initial experiments we suggest various avenues for further exploration.
Ontological Domain Coding for Cultural Heritage Mediation
Authors: Rossana Damiano, Vincenzo Lombardo, Fabrizio Nunnari, Antonio Pizzo
Venue: Proceeding of the 2008 conference on Formal Ontologies Meet Industry (2008)

An ontology-based representation of information about a domain is flexible enough to support different strategies in presenting the information. In this paper, we present two applications for creating interactive presentations in a cultural heritage domain, that share the same database of informative units and the same representation of the domain, encoded in a light-weight ontology. An application for drama-based guided tours assembles the informative units in a location-aware fashion, by exploiting the structure of the ontology to enforce the notion of discourse focusing in the generated presentation. A browsing-based application for accessing the informative units supports semantic search, consulting the ontology to suggest modifications of the user's search to circumscribe or enlarge the result sets.
Exploring digital government initiatives to expand full information product pricing (FIPP) networks in NAFTA
Authors: Jing Zhang, Luis F. Luna-Reyes, David F. Andersen, Andy Whitmore, Réjean Roy
Venue: Proceedings of the 10th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Social Networks: Making Connections between Citizens, Data and Government (2009)

This poster describes research in progress made by the Research Group on Comparative and Transnational Digital government in North America. The main purpose of this project is to explore the impact of product labeling, information architectures and government-sponsored information policies on the expansion of the market share of organic, fair trade, and eco-friendly products in the NAFTA region. In these alternative markets, price is often complemented with information conveying the conditions under which a product is produced and distributed, which is transmitted through trusting networks or certifiable labels such as "Organic" or "Fair Trade." We call such networks Full Information Product Pricing (FIPP) Networks. The transparency of FIPP networks, enabled by the information technology and associated policy and standards, may have the potential to supplement a compliance-enforcement approach with a more market-based voluntary approach that relies on shifts in producer and consumer behavior to significantly expand the share of worker and environmentally friendly products traded. In this paper, we discuss our research focus, research plan, and results from preliminary studies.
Perceptually motivated automatic dance motion generation for music
Authors: Jae Woo Kim, Hesham Fouad, John L. Sibert, James K. Hahn
Venue: Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds (2009)

In this paper, we describe a novel method to automatically generate synchronized dance motion that is perceptually matched to a given musical piece. The proposed method extracts 30 musical features from musical data as well as 37 motion features from motion data. A matching process is then performed between the two feature spaces considering the correspondence of the relative changes in both feature spaces and the correlations between musical and motion features. Similarity matrices are introduced to match the amount of relative changes in both feature spaces and correlation coefficients are used to establish the correlations between musical features and motion features by measuring the strength of correlation between each pair of the musical and motion features. By doing this, the progressions of musical and dance motion patterns and perceptual changes between two consecutive musical and motion segments are matched. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we designed and carried out a user opinion study to assess the perceived quality of the proposed approach. The statistical analysis of the user study results showed that the proposed approach generated results that were significantly better than those produced using a random walk through the dance motion database. Copyright &copy; 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A novel method to automatically generate synchronized dance motion that is perceptually matched to a given musical piece is described. A matching process was performed between the musical and motion feature spaces considering the correspondence of the relative changes in both feature spaces and the correlations between musical and motion features. A user opinion study was designed and carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Finding Structural Similarity in Time Series Data Using Bag-of-Patterns Representation
Authors: Jessica Lin, Yuan Li
Venue: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management (2009)

For more than one decade, time series similarity search has been given a great deal of attention by data mining researchers. As a result, many time series representations and distance measures have been proposed. However, most existing work on time series similarity search focuses on finding shape-based similarity. While some of the existing approaches work well for short time series data, they typically fail to produce satisfactory results when the sequence is long. For long sequences, it is more appropriate to consider the similarity based on the higher-level structures. In this work, we present a histogram-based representation for time series data, similar to the "bag of words" approach that is widely accepted by the text mining and information retrieval communities. We show that our approach outperforms the existing methods in clustering, classification, and anomaly detection on several real datasets.