Aalto University

About: Aalto University is a education organization based out in Espoo, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Carbon nanotube. The organization has 9969 authors who have published 32648 publications receiving 829626 citations. The organization is also known as: TKK & Aalto-korkeakoulu.

Theory Solving Made Easy with Clingo 5

Abstract: Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a model, ground, and solve paradigm. The integration of application- or theory-specific reasoning into ASP systems thus impacts on many if not all elements of its workflow, viz. input language, grounding, intermediate language, solving, and output format. We address this challenge with the fifth generation of the ASP system clingo and its grounding and solving components by equipping them with well-defined generic interfaces facilitating the manifold integration efforts. On the grounder's side, we introduce a generic way of specifying language extensions and propose an intermediate format accommodating their ground representation. At the solver end, this is accompanied by high-level interfaces easing the integration of theory propagators dealing with these extensions.

Attitudes towards User Experience (UX) Measurement

Abstract: User experience (UX), as a recently established research area, is still haunted by the challenges of defining the scope of UX in general and operationalising experiential qualities in particular. To explore the basic question whether UX constructs are measurable, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 UX researchers from academia and one UX practitioner from the industry where a set of questions in relation to UX measurement were explored (Study 1). The interviewees expressed scepticism as well as ambivalence towards UX measures and shared anecdotes related to such measures in different contexts. Interestingly, the results suggested that design-oriented UX professionals tended to be sceptical about UX measurement. To examine whether such an attitude prevailed in the HCI community, we conducted a survey – UX Measurement Attitudes Survey (UXMAS) – with essentially the same set of 13 questions used in the interviews (Study 2). Specifically, participants were asked to rate a set of five statements to assess their attitude towards UX measurement, to identify (non)measurable experiential qualities with justifications, and to discuss the topic from the theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. The survey was implemented in a paper-based and an online format. Altogether, 367 responses were received; 170 of them were valid and analysed. The survey provided empirical evidence on this issue as a baseline for progress in UX measurement. Overall, the survey results indicated that the attitude towards UX measurement was more positive than that identified in the interviews, and there were nuanced views on details of UX measurement. Implications for enhancing the acceptance of UX measures and the interplay between UX evaluation and system development are drawn: UX modelling grounded in theories to link experiential qualities with outcomes; the development of UX measurement tools with good measurement properties, and education within the HCI community to disseminate validated models, and measurement tools as well as their successful applications. Mutual recognition of the value of objective measures and subjective accounts of user experience can enhance the maturity of this area.

Improved learning of Gaussian-Bernoulli restricted Boltzmann machines

Abstract: We propose a few remedies to improve training of Gaussian-Bernoulli restricted Boltzmann machines (GBRBM), which is known to be difficult. Firstly, we use a different parameterization of the energy function, which allows for more intuitive interpretation of the parameters and facilitates learning. Secondly, we propose parallel tempering learning for GBRBM. Lastly, we use an adaptive learning rate which is selected automatically in order to stabilize training. Our extensive experiments show that the proposed improvements indeed remove most of the difficulties encountered when training GBRBMs using conventional methods.

Is accounting a global or a local discipline? evidence from major research journals☆

Abstract: Accounting research is torn between two competing forces On the one hand, a quest for general results and internationalization of financial markets calls for a global approach and international co-operation On the other hand, domestic institutional settings call for research that deals with the relevant problems of the existing accounting systems In this paper we address the issue of how global or local the accounting research community currently is through an analysis of empirical studies published by six leading English language accounting research journals from the USA, Europe and Australia, during the period 1984–1993 Our findings indicate that accounting still is a rather local discipline by nature: both empirical evidence and authors are significantly clustered along country lines We find that 77% of papers fall in a category where the origin of the researcher, data and the journal, is the same Especially there is a close link between the origin of the researcher and that of the data The interpretation of the empirical findings lead us to a view of competing research elites A powerful and currently dominating US academic elite is centred around The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research and the Journal of Accounting and Economics; and an emerging, mostly European elite around Accounting, Organizations and Society The functioning of research elites produces competing quality criteria which are intertwined with methodological and cultural issues The emerging “policentric oligarchy” of research elites helps to remove institutional barriers to the knowledge production process and offers legitimate outlets for a wider range of approaches