A Large-scale Benchmark for Log Parsing

Log data is pivotal in activities like anomaly detection and failure diagnosis in the automated maintenance of software systems. Due to their unstructured format, log parsing is often required to transform them into a structured format for automated analysis. A variety of log parsers exist, making it vital to benchmark these tools to comprehend their features and performance. However, existing datasets for log parsing are limited in terms of scale and representativeness, posing challenges for studies that aim to evaluate or develop log parsers. This problem becomes more pronounced when these parsers are evaluated for production use. To address these issues, we introduce a new collection of large-scale annotated log datasets, named LogPub, which more accurately mirrors log data observed in real-world software systems. LogPub comprises 14 datasets, each averaging 3.6 million log lines. Utilizing LogPub, we re-evaluate 15 log parsers in a more rigorous and practical setting. We also propose a new evaluation metric to lessen the sensitivity of current metrics to imbalanced data distribution. Furthermore, we are the first to scrutinize the detailed performance of log parsers on logs that represent rare system events and offer comprehensive information for system troubleshooting. Parsing such logs accurately is vital yet challenging. We believe that our work could shed light on the design and evaluation of log parsers in more realistic settings, thereby facilitating their implementation in production systems

Testing microelectronic biofluidic systems

According to the 2005 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, the integration of emerging nondigital CMOS technologies will require radically different test methods, posing a major challenge for designers and test engineers. One such technology is microelectronic fluidic (MEF) arrays, which have rapidly gained importance in many biological, pharmaceutical, and industrial applications. The advantages of these systems, such as operation speed, use of very small amounts of liquid, on-board droplet detection, signal conditioning, and vast digital signal processing, make them very promising. However, testable design of these devices in a mass-production environment is still in its infancy, hampering their low-cost introduction to the market. This article describes analog and digital MEF design and testing method

Towards automated visual flexible endoscope navigation

Background:\ud The design of flexible endoscopes has not changed significantly in the past 50 years. A trend is observed towards a wider application of flexible endoscopes with an increasing role in complex intraluminal therapeutic procedures. The nonintuitive and nonergonomical steering mechanism now forms a barrier in the extension of flexible endoscope applications. Automating the navigation of endoscopes could be a solution for this problem. This paper summarizes the current state of the art in image-based navigation algorithms. The objectives are to find the most promising navigation system(s) to date and to indicate fields for further research.\ud Methods:\ud A systematic literature search was performed using three general search terms in two medical–technological literature databases. Papers were included according to the inclusion criteria. A total of 135 papers were analyzed. Ultimately, 26 were included.\ud Results:\ud Navigation often is based on visual information, which means steering the endoscope using the images that the endoscope produces. Two main techniques are described: lumen centralization and visual odometry. Although the research results are promising, no successful, commercially available automated flexible endoscopy system exists to date.\ud Conclusions:\ud Automated systems that employ conventional flexible endoscopes show the most promising prospects in terms of cost and applicability. To produce such a system, the research focus should lie on finding low-cost mechatronics and technologically robust steering algorithms. Additional functionality and increased efficiency can be obtained through software development. The first priority is to find real-time, robust steering algorithms. These algorithms need to handle bubbles, motion blur, and other image artifacts without disrupting the steering process

Modelling human teaching tactics and strategies for tutoring systems

One of the promises of ITSs and ILEs is that they will teach and assist learning in an intelligent manner. Historically this has tended to mean concentrating on the interface, on the representation of the domain and on the representation of the student’s knowledge. So systems have attempted to provide students with reifications both of what is to be learned and of the learning process, as well as optimally sequencing and adjusting activities, problems and feedback to best help them learn that domain. We now have embodied (and disembodied) teaching agents and computer-based peers, and the field demonstrates a much greater interest in metacognition and in collaborative activities and tools to support that collaboration. Nevertheless the issue of the teaching competence of ITSs and ILEs is still important, as well as the more specific question as to whether systems can and should mimic human teachers. Indeed increasing interest in embodied agents has thrown the spotlight back on how such agents should behave with respect to learners. In the mid 1980s Ohlsson and others offered critiques of ITSs and ILEs in terms of the limited range and adaptability of their teaching actions as compared to the wealth of tactics and strategies employed by human expert teachers. So are we in any better position in modelling teaching than we were in the 80s? Are these criticisms still as valid today as they were then? This paper reviews progress in understanding certain aspects of human expert teaching and in developing tutoring systems that implement those human teaching strategies and tactics. It concentrates particularly on how systems have dealt with student answers and how they have dealt with motivational issues, referring particularly to work carried out at Sussex: for example, on responding effectively to the student’s motivational state, on contingent and Vygotskian inspired teaching strategies and on the plausibility problem. This latter is concerned with whether tactics that are effectively applied by human teachers can be as effective when embodied in machine teachers

Now I can feel myself!

This paper addresses the visual discourse of psychopharmaceuticals, such as Prozac, in order to investigate the network of relationships of affects, advertising, design and the production of new identity practices. As psychopharmaceuticals enter the public sphere through television and print advertisements, as well as first person narratives increasingly promoted in the media, the cultural discourse surrounding their use and the identity of the users are also changing. Drawing from a Spinozist notion of affect, ‘the trace of one body upon another’, as well as from a semiotic analysis of advertisements, I intend to examine the identity practices and the type of embodiment emerging in, and envisioned by, the increasingly normalised object ‘psychopharmaceutical’. The centrality of affects in the constitution of subjectivity is increasingly relevant to contemporary critical theory (see the notion of ‘affective turn’, Clough). Addressing the network of affective investments we exchange with objects is crucial for an understanding of how embodied subjectivities mutate accordingly to the objects they interact with. Against the theoretical backdrop provided by what Nikolas Rose calls the ‘pharmaceutical biopolitics of the neurochemical self’, the analysis of packaging, colour, visual and textual language of their advertising suggests how new scripts of selfhood are inscribed in the relationship between users and psychopharmaceuticals. The ensuing dialogue among chemistry, affects and design creates narratives of the self as a myth-making operation in which psychopharmaceuticals perform as objects imbued with magic properties

Perspectives on Case-based Multimedia Web Projects in Science

This article discusses the merits of case-based learning in an interactive online environment. Researchers used both qualitative and quantitative research over a 2-year period to examine the learning that occurred in a high school context when students were engaged in a case-based multimedia project. Part of the Case It! project, students played both the role of laboratory technician performing and presenting research as well as professionals using the information in their practice. Students were required to use three types of simulation software developed exclusively for the Case It! project. Results were measured using both pre- and post-tests, artifacts students created such as Web posters, records of Internet conferences, and interviews from both the students and the teacher involved in this project. Researches found the online format of the lesson fostered a higher level of questioning and problem solving skills, as well as extended explanations and discussions of ethics in science. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Knowledge-based and integrated monitoring and diagnosis in autonomous power systems

A new technique of knowledge-based and integrated monitoring and diagnosis (KBIMD) to deal with abnormalities and incipient or potential failures in autonomous power systems is presented. The KBIMD conception is discussed as a new function of autonomous power system automation. Available diagnostic modelling, system structure, principles and strategies are suggested. In order to verify the feasibility of the KBIMD, a preliminary prototype expert system is designed to simulate the KBIMD function in a main electric network of the autonomous power system

Process Performance Analysis in Large-Scale Systems Integrating Different Sources of Information

Process auditing using historical data can identify causes for poor performance and reveal opportunities to improve process operation. To date, the data used has been limited to process measurements; however other sources hold complementary information about the process behavior. This paper proposes a new approach to root-cause diagnosis, which also takes advantage of the information in utility, mechanical and electrical data, alarms and diagrams. Its benefit is demonstrated in an industrial case study, by tackling an important challenge in root-cause analysis: large-scale systems. This paper also defines specifications for a semi-automated tool to implement the proposed approach. © 2012 IFAC

Embedded intelligence for electrical network operation and control

Integrating multiple types of intelligent, mulitagent data analysis within a smart grid can pave the way for flexible, extensible, and robust solutions to power network management