Computer Sciences Commons^™

Work Item Tagging: Communicating Concerns In Collaborative Software Development, Christoph Treude, Margaret-Anne Storey

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In collaborative software development projects, work items are used as a mechanism to coordinate tasks and track shared development work. In this paper, we explore how “tagging,” a lightweight social computing mechanism, is used to communicate matters of concern in the management of development tasks. We present the results from two empirical studies over 36 and 12 months, respectively, on how tagging has been adopted and what role it plays in the development processes of several professional development projects with more than 1,000 developers in total. Our research shows that the tagging mechanism was eagerly adopted by the teams, and …

Programming In A Socially Networked World: The Evolution Of The Social Programmer, Christoph Treude, Fernando Figueira Filho, Brendan Cleary, Margaret-Anne Storey

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social media has changed how software developers collaborate, how they coordinate their work, and where they find information. Social media sites, such as the Question and Answer (Q&A) portal Stack Overflow, fill archives with millions of entries that contribute to what we know about software development, covering a wide range of topics. For today’s software developers, reusable code snippets, introductory usage examples, and pertinent libraries are often just a web search away. In this position paper, we discuss the opportunities and challenges for software developers that rely on web content curated by the crowd, and we envision the future of …

Towards Fine-Grained Radio-Based Indoor Location, Jie Xiong, Kyle Jamieson

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Location systems are key to a rich experience for mobile users. When they roam outdoors, mobiles can usually count on a clear GPS signal for an accurate location, but indoors, GPS usually fades, and so up until recently, mobiles have had to rely mainly on rather coarse-grained signal strength readings for location. What has changed this status quo is the recent trend of dramatically increasing numbers of antennas at the indoor AP, mainly to bolster capacity and coverage with multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. In the near future, the number of antennas at the access point will increase several-fold, to meet …

Mitigating The True Cost Of Advertisement-Supported "Free" Mobile Applications, Azeem J. Khan, Vigneshwaran Subbaraju, Archan Misra, Srinivasan Seshan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The dominant, "ad-supported free application" model for consumer-oriented mobile computing is seemingly imperiled by the growing global adoption of metered data pricing plans by mobile operators. In this paper, we explore the opportunities for addressing this emerging conflict by enabling more intelligent ad delivery to such mobile devices. One especially promising path is leveraging the increasing availability of heterogeneous wireless access technologies (e.g., WiFi, femtocells) that offer less restrictive and more energy-efficient transport substrates for such data traffic. To understand the possibilities that exist, we first profile the advertisement traffic characteristics for some of the most popular advertisement-supported consumer applications, …

Arivu: Making Networked Mobile Games Green: A Scalable Power-Aware Middleware, Anand Bhojan, Ananda L. Akhihebbal L., Mun Choon Chan, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the improved processing power, graphic quality and high-speed wireless connection in recent generations of mobile phones, it looks more attractive than ever to introduce networked games on these devices. However, these games consume higher levels of energy. While device features and application resource requirements are rapidly growing, the battery technologies are not growing at the same pace. Therefore, the main concern is the limitation of the battery power of such portable devices to support potentially long-hour of game play. In this paper we present ARIVU, a scalable power aware middleware that dynamically controls the energy consumption of wireless interface …

Does Complexity Deter Customer-Focus?, Sendil K. Ethiraj, Narayanasamy Ramasubbu, M. S. Krishnan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Economic models suggest that firms use a simple cost-benefit calculation to evaluate customer requests for new product features, but an extensive organizational literature shows the decision to implement innovation is more nuanced. We address this theoretical tension by studying how firms respond to customer requests for incremental product innovations, and how these responses change when the requested innovation is complex. Using large sample empirical analyses combined with detailed qualitative data drawn from interviews, we find considerable variance in the relationship between customer demands, complexity, and investments in incremental innovations. The qualitative study revealed the importance of organization structures, competitive pressures, …

Extreme Learning Machine Terrain-Based Navigation For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ee May Kan, Meng Hiot Lim, Yew Soon Ong, Ah-Hwee Tan, Swee Ping Yeo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) rely on global positioning system (GPS) information to ascertain its position for navigation during mission execution. In the absence of GPS information, the capability of a UAV to carry out its intended mission is hindered. In this paper, we learn alternative means for UAVs to derive real-time positional reference information so as to ensure the continuity of the mission. We present extreme learning machine as a mechanism for learning the stored digital elevation information so as to aid UAVs to navigate through terrain without the need for GPS. The proposed algorithm accommodates the need of the …

Manipulation Of Online Reviews: An Analysis Of Ratings, Readability, And Sentiments, Nan Hu, Indranil Bose, Noi Sian Koh, Ling Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As consumers become increasingly reliant on online reviews to make purchase decisions, the sales of the product becomes dependent on the word of mouth (WOM) that it generates. As a result, there can be attempts by firms to manipulate online reviews of products to increase their sales. Despite the suspicion on the existence of such manipulation, the amount of such manipulation is unknown, and deciding which reviews to believe in is largely based on the reader's discretion and intuition. Therefore, the success of the manipulation of reviews by firms in generating sales of products is unknown. In this paper, we …

Malware Target Recognition Via Static Heuristics, Thomas E. Dube, Richard A. Raines, Gilbert L. Peterson, Kenneth W. Bauer, Michael R. Grimaila, Steven K. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Organizations increasingly rely on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their information and communications technologies to conduct effective business operations while maintaining their competitive edge. Exploitation of these networks via the introduction of undetected malware ultimately degrades their competitive edge, while taking advantage of limited network visibility and the high cost of analyzing massive numbers of programs. This article introduces the novel Malware Target Recognition (MaTR) system which combines the decision tree machine learning algorithm with static heuristic features for malware detection. By focusing on contextually important static heuristic features, this research demonstrates superior detection results. Experimental results on large …

Using An Ontology To Improve The Web Search Experience, Tian Tian

Dissertations

The search terms that a user passes to a search engine are often ambiguous, referring to homonyms. The results in these cases are a mixture of links to documents that contain different meanings of the search terms. Current search engines provide suggested query completions in a dropdown list. However, such lists are not well organized, mixing completions for different meanings. In addition, the suggested search phrases are not discriminating enough. Moreover, current search engines often return an unexpected number of results. Zero hits are naturally undesirable, while too many hits are likely to be overwhelming and of low precision.

This …

Design And Implementation Of A Cyberinfrastructure For Rna Motif Search, Prediction And Analysis, Dongrong Wen

Dissertations

RNA secondary and tertiary structure motifs play important roles in cells. However, very few web servers are available for RNA motif search and prediction. In this dissertation, a cyberinfrastructure, named RNAcyber, capable of performing RNA motif search and prediction, is proposed, designed and implemented.

The first component of RNAcyber is a web-based search engine, named RmotifDB. This web-based tool integrates an RNA secondary structure comparison algorithm with the secondary structure motifs stored in the Rfam database. With a user-friendly interface, RmotifDB provides the ability to search for ncRNA structure motifs in both structural and sequential ways. The second component of …

Approximate String Matching Methods For Duplicate Detection And Clustering Tasks, Oleksandr Rudniy

Dissertations

Approximate string matching methods are utilized by a vast number of duplicate detection and clustering applications in various knowledge domains. The application area is expected to grow due to the recent significant increase in the amount of digital data and knowledge sources. Despite the large number of existing string similarity metrics, there is a need for more precise approximate string matching methods to improve the efficiency of computer-driven data processing, thus decreasing labor-intensive human involvement.

This work introduces a family of novel string similarity methods, which outperform a number of effective well-known and widely used string similarity functions. The new …

An Examination Of Coordination Among Friends And Strangers From A Coordination Theory Perspective, Christopher D. Wamble

Theses

Within mobile social coordination, there is a field of study known as outeraction, the communicative processes used by people to manage future interactions. It is an important area of research because it identifies how informal interactions support complex collaboration between individuals and groups. Outeraction is primarily conducted through the interpersonal communication channels of texting, instant messaging (IM), face-to-face, and mobile phone or Skype conversations. Currently this area of research in mobile outeraction support systems is weak. It lacks a firm foundation in system building, has very few if any conceptual frameworks, and little empirical knowledge of user requirements and attitudes …

Development Of Database And Software Modules To Identify Case Relationships Using Unstructured Data, Alberto D. Lombardo

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

In this study, I intend to show how text based unstructured data, such as word processor documents and e-mails, can be systematically parsed for instances of data classes. Data classes can be any data type that can be fully described using the defined syntax of regular expressions. Examples of data classes can include SHA1, or MD5 hash values, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or any other data type whose format is well defined. Furthermore, possible correlations between datasets may be identified by grouping instances of equal or similar values within a data class. This approach of utilizing regular expressions to define …

Discovering Fine-Grained Sentiment In Suicide Notes, Wenbo Wang, Lu Chen, Ming Tan, Shaojun Wang, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper presents our solution for the i2b2 sentiment classification challenge. Our hybrid system consists of machine learning and rule-based classifiers. For the machine learning classifier, we investigate a variety of lexical, syntactic and knowledge-based features, and show how much these features contribute to the performance of the classifier through experiments. For the rule-based classifier, we propose an algorithm to automatically extract effective syntactic and lexical patterns from training examples. The experimental results show that the rule-based classifier outperforms the baseline machine learning classifier using unigram features. By combining the machine learning classifier and the rule-based classifier, the hybrid system …

Emotion Detection In Suicide Notes Using Maximum Entropy Classification, Richard H. Wicentowski, M. R. Sydes

Computer Science Faculty Works

An ensemble of supervised maximum entropy classifiers can accurately detect and identify sentiments expressed in suicide notes. Using lexical and syntactic features extracted from a training set of externally annotated suicide notes, we trained separate classifiers for each of fifteen pre-specified emotions. This formed part of the 2011 i2b2 NLP Shared Task, Track 2. The precision and recall of these classifiers related strongly with the number of occurrences of each emotion in the training data. Evaluating on previously unseen test data, our best system achieved an F 1 score of 0.534.

Modeling And Simulation Of Cpu Mechanisms For Providing Operating System Support For Mobile Multimedia Systems, Abbas Khlaf Abd Al Muhsen

Theses and Dissertations

In the ever-increasing digital world, mobile devices, such as smart-phones and tablet computers are on the trend to become the most used electronic devices. Multimedia applications running on these devices require appropriate operating system support. One limitation of the capabilities of these devices comes from their power source: they are all battery-powered, with a restricted battery energy budget. An important part of the total power is used by the CPU of these devices, so by controlling the power consumed by the CPU, the overall power used by the mobile device will be significantly reduced. This work proposes a systems engineering …

Run Your Research: On The Effectiveness Of Lightweight Mechanization, Casey Klein, John Clements, Christos Dimoulas, Carl Eastlund, Matthias Felleisen, Matthew Flatt, Jay A. Mccarthy, Jon Rafkind, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Robert Bruce Findler

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Formal models serve in many roles in the programming language community. In its primary role, a model communicates the idea of a language design; the architecture of a language tool; or the essence of a program analysis. No matter which role it plays, however, a faulty model doesn't serve its purpose.

One way to eliminate flaws from a model is to write it down in a mechanized formal language. It is then possible to state theorems about the model, to prove them, and to check the proofs. Over the past nine years, PLT has developed and explored a lightweight version …

Designing A Better Weather Display, Colin Ware, Matthew D. Plumlee

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The variables most commonly displayed on weather maps are atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and surface temperature. But they are usually shown separately, not together on a single map. As a design exercise, we set the goal of finding out if it is possible to show all three variables (two 2D scalar fields and a 2D vector field) simultaneously such that values can be accurately read using keys for all variables, a reasonable level of detail is shown, and important meteorological features stand out clearly. Our solution involves employing three perceptual "channels", a color channel, a texture channel, and …

A Semantic Problem Solving Environment For Integrative Parasite Research: Identification Of Intervention Targets For Trypanosoma Cruzi, Priti Parikh, Todd Minning, Vinh Nguyen, Sarasi Lalithsena, Amir H. Asiaee, Satya S. Sahoo, Prashant Doshi, Rick L. Tarleton, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Background: Research on the biology of parasites requires a sophisticated and integrated computational platform to query and analyze large volumes of data, representing both unpublished (internal) and public (external) data sources. Effective analysis of an integrated data resource using knowledge discovery tools would significantly aid biologists in conducting their research, for example, through identifying various intervention targets in parasites, and in deciding the future direction of ongoing as well as planned projects. A key challenge in achieving this objective is the heterogeneity between the internal lab data, usually stored as flat files, Excel spreadsheets or custom-built databases, and the external …

Responses To The 11/4/11 Ostp Data Rfi, David Lowe

Published Works

On November 3, 2011, OSTP released a Request for Information (RFI) soliciting public input on long-term preservation of, and public access to, the results of federally funded research, including digital data ,as required in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Published here are the responses from David Lowe, Preservation Librarian and Digital Programs Team Leader at the University of Connecticut Libraries.

Formal Modeling And Validation Of Stateflow Diagrams, Chunqing Chen, Jun Sun, Yang Liu, Jin Song Dong, Manchun Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stateflow is an industrial tool for modeling and simulating control systems in model-based development. In this paper, we present our latest work on automatic verification of Stateflow using model-checking techniques. We propose an approach to systematically translate Stateflow diagrams to a formal modeling language called CSP# by precisely following Stateflow’s execution semantics, which is described by examples. A translator is developed inside the Process Analysis Toolkit (PAT) model checker to automate this process with the support of various Stateflow advanced modeling features. Formal analysis can be conducted on the transformed CSP# with PAT’s simulation and model-checking power. Using our approach, …

Stereoscopic Display System With Flexible Rendering Of Disparity Map According To The Stereoscopic Fusing Capability Of The Observer, Elaine W. Jin, Michael E. Miller, Serguei Endrikhovski, Cathleen D. Cerosaletti

AFIT Patents

A method is provided for customizing scene content, according to a user or a cluster of users, for a given stereoscopic display, including obtaining customization information about the user; obtaining a scene disparity map for a pair of given stereo images and/or a three-dimensional (3D) computer graphic model; and determining an aim disparity range for the user. The method of the present invention also generates a customized disparity map and/or rendering conditions for a three-dimensional (3D) computer graphic model correlating with the user's fusing capability of the given stereoscopic display; and renders or re-renders the stereo images for subsequent display.

Computer Aided Geometric Design, Thomas W. Sederberg

Faculty Publications

This semester is the twenty-fourth time I have taught a course at Brigham Young University titled, "Computer Aided Geometric Design." When I first taught such a course in 1983, the field was young enough that no textbook covered everything that I wanted to teach, and so these notes evolved. The field now has matured to the point that several semesters worth of valuable material could be compiled. These notes, admittedly biased towards my own interests, reflect my personal preferences as to which of that material is most beneficial to students in an introductory course. I welcome anyone who has an …

Derivation Of A Novel Efficient Supervised Learning Algorithm From Cortical-Subcortical Loops, Ashok Chandrashekar, Richard Granger

Dartmouth Scholarship

Although brain circuits presumably carry out powerful perceptual algorithms, few instances of derived biological methods have been found to compete favorably against algorithms that have been engineered for specific applications. We forward a novel analysis of a subset of functions of cortical-subcortical loops, which constitute more than 80% of the human brain, thus likely underlying a broad range of cognitive functions. We describe a family of operations performed by the derived method, including a non-standard method for supervised classification, which may underlie some forms of cortically dependent associative learning. The novel supervised classifier is compared against widely used algorithms for …

Visualizing Graphs With Distinguishable Edges And Ordered Binary Trees In Small Area, Andrew Fabian

Theses and Dissertations

As graph layouts and visualizations have been at the forefront of graph drawing research for decades, it consequently led to aesthetic heuristics that not only generated better visualizations and aesthetically appealing graphs but also improved readability and understanding of the graphs. A variety of approaches examines aesthetics of nodes, edges, or graph layout, and related readability metrics. In this thesis, two solutions incorporating Gestalt principles to alleviate the effects of the edge crossing problem are presented. Alleviating this problem improves graph aesthetics and readability. Secondly, improving the known bounds on two aesthetic requirements (area and aspect ratio) for planar straight-line …

Two Visualization Tools For Analyzing Agent-Based Simulations In Political Science, R. Jordan Crouser, Daniel Kee, Dong Jeong, Remco Chang

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Agent-based modeling has become a key technique for modeling and simulating dynamic, complicated behaviors in the social and political sciences. Although many robust toolkits for developing and running these simulations exist, systems that support analysis of their results are few and tend to be overly general. So, social scientists have had difficulty interpreting the results of their increasingly complex simulations. To help bridge this gap between data generation and interpretation, researchers collaborated with political science analysts to design two tools for interactive data exploration and domain-specific data analysis. Testing by the analysts validated that these tools provided an efficient framework …

Deckard - A Tree-Based, Scalable, And Accurate Code Clone Detection Tool (Version 1.2.3), Lingxiao Jiang, Ghassan Misherghi, Zhendong Su, Stephane Glondu

SMU Research Data

Deckard is a tree-based, scalable, and accurate code clone detection tool. It is also capable of reporting clone-related bugs. For more information, pls refer to readme.txt. The latest version is available from Deckard repository on Github. https://github.com/skyhover/Deckard

Cognitive Approaches For The Semantic Web, Dedre Gentner, Frank Van Harmelen, Pascal Hitzler, Krzysztof Janowicz, Kai-Uwe Kuhnberger

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

A major focus in the design of Semantic Web ontology languages used to be on finding a suitable balance between the expressivity of the language and the tractability of reasoning services defined over this language. This focus mirrors the original vision of a Web composed of machine readable and understandable data. Similarly to the classical Web a few years ago, the attention is recently shifting towards a user-centric vision of the Semantic Web. Essentially, the information stored on the Web is from and for humans. This new focus is not only reflected in the fast growing Linked Data Web but …

Modeling Of Heat Transfer Attenuation By Ablative Gases During The Stardust Re-Entry, Alexandre Martin, Iain D. Boyd

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The great majority of modern space vehicles designed for planetary exploration use ablative materials to protect the payload against the high heating environment experienced during re-entry. In order to properly model and predict the aerothermal environment of the vehicle, it is imperative to account for the gases produced by ablation processes. In the case of charring ablators, where an inner resin is pyrolyzed at a relatively low temperature, the composition of the gas expelled into the boundary layer is complex and may lead to thermal chemical reactions that cannot be captured with simple flow chemistry models. In order to obtain …