29,205 research outputs found
IEAD: A Novel One-Line Interface to Query Astronomical Science Archives
In this article I present IEAD, a new interface for astronomical science
databases. It is based on a powerful, yet simple, syntax designed to completely
abstract the user from the structure of the underlying database. The
programming language chosen for its implementation, JavaScript, makes it
possible to interact directly with the user and to provide real-time
information on the parsing process, error messages, and the name resolution of
targets; additionally, the same parsing engine is used for context-sensitive
autocompletion. Ultimately, this product should significantly simplify the use
of astronomical archives, inspire more advanced uses of them, and allow the
user to focus on what scientific research to perform, instead of on how to
instruct the computer to do it.Comment: 13 pages, PASP in pres
A Survey on Deep Learning-based Architectures for Semantic Segmentation on 2D images
Semantic segmentation is the pixel-wise labelling of an image. Since the
problem is defined at the pixel level, determining image class labels only is
not acceptable, but localising them at the original image pixel resolution is
necessary. Boosted by the extraordinary ability of convolutional neural
networks (CNN) in creating semantic, high level and hierarchical image
features; excessive numbers of deep learning-based 2D semantic segmentation
approaches have been proposed within the last decade. In this survey, we mainly
focus on the recent scientific developments in semantic segmentation,
specifically on deep learning-based methods using 2D images. We started with an
analysis of the public image sets and leaderboards for 2D semantic
segmantation, with an overview of the techniques employed in performance
evaluation. In examining the evolution of the field, we chronologically
categorised the approaches into three main periods, namely pre-and early deep
learning era, the fully convolutional era, and the post-FCN era. We technically
analysed the solutions put forward in terms of solving the fundamental problems
of the field, such as fine-grained localisation and scale invariance. Before
drawing our conclusions, we present a table of methods from all mentioned eras,
with a brief summary of each approach that explains their contribution to the
field. We conclude the survey by discussing the current challenges of the field
and to what extent they have been solved.Comment: Updated with new studie
Lempel-Ziv Parsing in External Memory
For decades, computing the LZ factorization (or LZ77 parsing) of a string has
been a requisite and computationally intensive step in many diverse
applications, including text indexing and data compression. Many algorithms for
LZ77 parsing have been discovered over the years; however, despite the
increasing need to apply LZ77 to massive data sets, no algorithm to date scales
to inputs that exceed the size of internal memory. In this paper we describe
the first algorithm for computing the LZ77 parsing in external memory. Our
algorithm is fast in practice and will allow the next generation of text
indexes to be realised for massive strings and string collections.Comment: 10 page
Automatically assembling a full census of an academic field
The composition of the scientific workforce shapes the direction of
scientific research, directly through the selection of questions to
investigate, and indirectly through its influence on the training of future
scientists. In most fields, however, complete census information is difficult
to obtain, complicating efforts to study workforce dynamics and the effects of
policy. This is particularly true in computer science, which lacks a single,
all-encompassing directory or professional organization. A full census of
computer science would serve many purposes, not the least of which is a better
understanding of the trends and causes of unequal representation in computing.
Previous academic census efforts have relied on narrow or biased samples, or on
professional society membership rolls. A full census can be constructed
directly from online departmental faculty directories, but doing so by hand is
prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Here, we introduce a topical web
crawler for automating the collection of faculty information from web-based
department rosters, and demonstrate the resulting system on the 205
PhD-granting computer science departments in the U.S. and Canada. This method
constructs a complete census of the field within a few minutes, and achieves
over 99% precision and recall. We conclude by comparing the resulting 2017
census to a hand-curated 2011 census to quantify turnover and retention in
computer science, in general and for female faculty in particular,
demonstrating the types of analysis made possible by automated census
construction.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
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