Turku Centre for Computer Science

About: Turku Centre for Computer Science is a facility organization based out in Turku, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Decidability & Word (group theory). The organization has 382 authors who have published 1027 publications receiving 19560 citations.

Understanding E-Learning System Usage Outcomes in Hybrid Courses

Abstract: E-learning systems are widely used in higher education. However, much of the research on elearning systems focuses on the technology and is limited to the adoption and utilization e-learning systems. In order to develop the potential advantages of e-learning systems, research that addresses the outcomes of the adoption and use of e-learning system is needed. This paper proposes a research model for assessing the possible outcomes of e-learning systems adoption and use. It was tested by university students (n = 249) participating in hybrid courses using partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Its findings suggest that beliefs about perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and how an e-learning system is used cause students' perceived learning assistance. In turn, perceived learning assistance predicts students' perceived academic performance.

Do We Really Need All Those Rich Linguistic Features? A Neural Network-Based Approach to Implicit Sense Labeling

Abstract: We describe our contribution to the CoNLL 2016 Shared Task on shallow discourse parsing.1 Our system extends the two best parsers from previous year’s competition by integration of a novel implicit sense labeling component. It is grounded on a highly generic, language-independent feedforward neural network architecture incorporating weighted word embeddings for argument spans which obviates the need for (traditional) hand-crafted features. Despite its simplicity, our system overall outperforms all results from 2015 on 5 out of 6 evaluation sets for English and achieves an absolute improvement in F1-score of 3.2% on the PDTB test section for non-explicit sense classification.

An energy consumption model for an embedded java virtual machine

Abstract: In this paper we establish a general framework for estimating the energy consumption of an embedded Java virtual machine (JVM). We have designed a number of experiments to find the constant overhead of the Virtual Machine and establish an energy consumption cost for individual Java Opcodes. The results show that there is a basic constant overhead for every Java program, and that a subset of Java opcodes have an almost constant energy cost. We also show that memory access is a crucial energy consumption component.

Topology-Based mobility models for wireless networks

Abstract: The performance and reliability of wireless network protocols heavily depend on the network and its environment. In wireless networks node mobility can affect the overall performance up to a point where, e.g. route discovery and route establishment fail. As a consequence any formal technique for performance analysis of wireless network protocols should take node mobility into account. In this paper we propose a topology-based mobility model, that abstracts from physical behaviour, and models mobility as probabilistic changes in the topology. We demonstrate how this model can be instantiated to cover the main aspects of the random walk and the random waypoint mobility model. The model is not a stand-alone model, but intended to be used in combination with protocol models. We illustrate this by two application examples: first we show a brief analysis of the Ad-hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol, and second we combine the mobility model with the Lightweight Medium Access Control (LMAC).

Novel Agent-Based Management for Fault-Tolerance in Network-on-Chip

Abstract: We introduce a novel agent-based reconfiguring concept for futures network-on-chip (NoC) systems. The necessary properties to increase architecture level fault tolerance are introduced. The system control is modeled as multi-level agent hierarchy that is able to increase application fault-tolerance and performance with autonomous reactions of agents. The agent technology adds a system level intelligence level to the traditional NoC system design. The architecture and functions of this system are described on conceptual level. Communication and reconfiguring data flows are presented as study cases. Principles of reconfiguration of a NoC on faulty environment are demonstrated and simulated. Probability of reconfiguration success is measured with different latency requirements and amount of redundancy by Monte Carlo simulations. The effect of network topology in reconfiguration of a faulty mesh was also under research in the simulations.