Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyse et amélioration de la qualité de services WEB multimédia et leurs mises en oeuvre sur ordinateur et sur FPGA

Web services, which are the outcome of the technological advancements in IT networks and hand-held mobile devices for telecommunications, occupy an important role in our daily life. The increasing demand on multimedia Web services (MWS), in particular, augments the load on the Internet, on service providers and Web servers. This load is mainly due to the fact that the high-quality multimedia Web services necessitate high data transfer rates and considerable payload sizes. The quality of service (QoS, by definition as it is perceived by the user) is influenced by several factors, such as processing time, propagation delay, response time, image resolution and compression efficacy. The research work in this thesis is motivated by the persistent demand on new MWS, and the need to maintain and improve the QoS. Firstly, we focus on the QoS of MWS when they are implemented on desktop and laptop computers. We start with studying the compatibility aspects in order to obtain MWS functioning satisfactorily on different platforms. Secondly, we study the QoS for MWS implemented according to the SOAP protocol and the RESTful style. In particular, we study the compression rate, which is one of the pertinent factors influencing the QoS. Thirdly, after the study of MWS when implemented on computers, we proceed with the study of QoS of MWS when implemented on hardware, in particular on FPGAs. We achieved thus comprehensive study and implementations that show and compare the advantages of MWS on FPGAs. The contributions of this thesis can be resumed as follows: 1. We introduce methods of design and implementation of MWS on heterogeneous platforms, such as Windows, OS X and Solaris. One of our objectives is to propose an approach that facilitates the integration of new MWS while assuring the compatibility amongst involved platforms. This means that we identify the options that enable offering a set of rich and various MWS that can run on different platforms. 2. We determine a list of relevant parameters that influence the QoS of MWS. 3. We build an analysis environment that quantifies the impact of each parameter on the QoS of MWS implemented on both SOAP protocol and RESTful style. Both QoS for SOAP and REST are objectively compared. The analysis has been held on a large scale of different images, which produces a realistic point of view describing the behaviour of real MWS. 4. We develop an analysis procedure to determine the correlation between the aspect ratio of an image and its compression ratio. Our results confirm that the compression ratio can be improved and optimised when the aspect ratio of
Nursing Home–Acquired Pneumonia

Nursing home-acquired pneumonia (NHAP) was first described in 1978. Since then there has been much written regarding NHAP and its management despite the lack of well-designed studies in this patient population. The most characteristic features of patients with NHAP are the atypical presentation, which may lead to delay in diagnosis and therapy. The microbial etiology of pneumonia encompasses a wide spectrum that spans microbes recovered from patients with community-acquired pneumonia to organisms considered specific only to nosocomial settings. Decision to transfer a nursing home patient to an acute care facility depends on a host of factors, which include the level of staffing available at the nursing home, patients' advance directives, and complexity of treatment. The presence of risk factors for multidrug-resistant pathogens dictates approach to therapy. Prevention remains the cornerstone of reducing the incidence of disease. Despite the advance in medical services, mortality from NHAP remains high.
Assessment of a blended-learning methodology in engineering

The content of this presentation highlights the importance of an active learning methodology in engineering university degrees in Spain. We present some of the outcomes from an experimental study carried out during the academic years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 with engineering students (Technical Industrial Engineering: Mechanics, Civical Design Engineering: Civical Building, Technical Architecture and Technical Engineering on Computer Management) at the University of Salamanca. In this research, we select a subject which is common for the four degrees: Computer Science. This study has the aim of contributing to the improvement of education and teaching methods for a better performance of students in engineering.
bc -- prod: A Specialized Branch-and-Cut System for Lot-Sizing Problems

bc-prod is a prototype modelling and optimization system designed and able to tackle a wide variety of the discrete-time lot-sizing problems arising both in practice and in the literature. To use bc-prod, the user needs to formulate his/her problem as a mixed integer program using XPRESS-MP's mp-model, a standard mathematical programming modelling language, taking into account a reserved set of key words for specific lot-sizing objects, such as production variables, storage, and demand data, etc. The problem is then solved by the XPRESS-MP branch-and-bound system including lot-sizing specific preprocessing, cutting planes for different aspects of lot-sizing problems, plus general cutting planes, and a lot-sizing-specific primal heuristic. Results are presented for a wide variety of big bucket and small bucket models with set-up and start-up costs and times.
The effect of experience on system usability scale ratings

Longitudinal studies have to do with testing over time and thus take into consideration previous user experience with a product or product versions. However, it is difficult to conduct these types of studies. Therefore the literature is sparse on examples of the explicit effect of user experience on user satisfaction metrics in industry-standard survey instruments. During a development experience in 2009, we used a cross-sectional method to look at the effects of user profiles on ratings for commercial products that use one such instrument, the System Usability Scale or SUS. Recent research has reported finding that differences in user ratings could be based on the extent of a user's prior experience with the computer system, a Web site being visited or a desktop application like Microsoft's Office suite being used. Compared to off-the-shelf office products or personal Web applications, we were curious if we would find the same experience effect for domain specialists using geosciences products in the course of their daily professional job roles. In fact, from data collected with 262 end users across different geographic locations testing two related oilfield product releases, one Web-based and one desktop-based, we found results that were quite close to early assessment studies: Users having a more extensive experience with a product tended to provide higher, more favorable, SUS scores over users with either no or limited experience with a product---and by as much as 15-16%, regardless of the domain product type. This and other observations found during our product testing have led us to offer some practical how-to's to our internal product analysts responsible for managing product test cycles, administering instruments like the SUS to users, and reporting results to development teams.
Embodying English Language: Jacques Lecoq and the Neutral Mask

My study explores the process of settlement for Newcomer-to-Canada youth (NTCY) who are engaged in English-language learning (ELL) of mainstream education. I propose the inclusion of a modified physical theatre technique to ELL curricula to demonstrate how a body-based supplemental to learning can assist in improving students’ language acquisition and proficiency. This recognizes the embodied aspect of students’ settlement and integration as a necessary firststep in meaning making processes of traditional language-learning practices. Foundational to this thesis is an exploration of the Neutral Mask (NM), an actors training tool developed by French physical theatre pedagogue Jacques Lecoq. A student of Lecoq (19901992), I understand NM as a transformative learning experience; it shapes the autoethnographic narrative of this study. My research considers the relationship between the body and verbal speech in English-language learning, as mediated by the mask. An acting tool at the heart of Lecoq’s School, the mask values the non-verbal communication of the body and its relationship to verbal speech. My study explains how the mask, by its design, can reach diverse learning needs to offer newcomer students a sense of agency in their language learning process. I further demonstrate how through discussion of an experimental applied practice field study. One of the overarching questions of this research is whether the ELL experience enhances or hinders newcomer youth in their settlement integration. Through the critical lenses of phenomenology and embodiment, I suggest reshaping the language-learning classroom into a pedagogical space that better fosters newcomer youths’ bodies-of-cultural origin as they begin to distance from their heritage language. Preparing to make Canada their home, newcomer youth can be provided with a learning space for the exploration of the body before the language – for the learning.
IMAGE COMPRESSION BASED ON COMPRESSIVE SENSING USING WAVELET LIFTING SCHEME

Many algorithms have been developed to find sparse representation over redundant dictionaries or transform. This paper presents a novel method on compressive sensing (CS)-based image compression using sparse basis on CDF9/7 wavelet transform. The measurement matrix is applied to the three levels of wavelet transform coefficients of the input image for compressive sampling. We have used three different measurement matrix as Gaussian matrix, Bernoulli measurement matrix and random orthogonal matrix. The orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) and Basis Pursuit (BP) are applied to reconstruct each level of wavelet transform separately. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method given better quality of compressed image than existing methods in terms of proposed image quality evaluation indexes and other objective (PSNR/UIQI/SSIM) measurements.
The flipped classroom Assessing an innovative teaching model for effective and engaging library instruction

The flipped classroom is a teaching model that inverts the traditional lecture-plushomework formula. By moving the delivery of foundational principles to digital media, such as video lectures or tutorials, class time is freed up for engaging activities that allow students to apply these basics to practical scenarios in the presence of their instructor. The flipped classroom is attributed to high school teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, but many creative teachers have used variations of this method for years. 1 Librarians are also taking part in this trend, as evidenced by another C&RL News article from earlier this year, “Four quick flips: Activities for information literacy classroom. ” 2 Information literacy (IL) instruction can especially benefit from a model that makes the best use of class time by inviting students to dive right in and encounter the real-world complications of library research.
Configuration of product extension services in servitisation using an ontology-based approach

Product extension services (PESs) are becoming an important new source of profit for servitised manufacturers. Configuring correct and valid PESs out of available service components thus becomes a critical activity to respond to diverse customer needs. However, PES configuration is a rather difficult knowledge-intensive task. In this paper, an ontology-based approach to representing PES configuration knowledge and developing a PES configuration system is presented, with the aim of enabling effective and efficient configuration by sharing and reusing knowledge unambiguously. First, meta-ontologies which include service sub-ontology, product sub-ontology and customer sub-ontology are built for the generic PES configuration domain. Then, configuration knowledge in the specific domain is derived by re-using or inheriting the concepts and relations in these meta-ontologies. Structural knowledge in domain-specific ontologies is further represented in OWL, an ontology language, while rule knowledge is formalised in SWRL, a rule language based on OWL. Finally, actual configuration reasoning processes are performed with the support of a rule engine, namely JESS, by mapping OWL-based structural knowledge and SWRL-based rule knowledge to JESS facts and JESS rules, respectively. The proposed approach is demonstrated by an example of configurable PESs called a ‘building solution’.
Stance and voice in academic writing: the “noun + that” construction and disciplinary variation

Stance and voice are two crucial elements of social interactions in academic writing. However, their conceptual constructs are elusive and their linguistic realisation is not fully explored. A relatively overlooked feature is the “noun + that” structure, where a stance head noun takes a nominal complement clause (as advantage that in Flow cytometry offers the advantage that long term is available). This construction allows a writer to express authorial stance towards complement content and attribute a voice to that stance through pre-modification. This paper examines this construction in a corpus of 60 journal articles across six disciplines extracted from the BNC corpus. Developing an expressive classification of stance nouns and the possible voice categorisation, this study shows that the structure is not only widely used to project stance and voice, but that it displays considerable variation in the way that it is used to build knowledge across different disciplines.
Modeling directional brightness temperature over a maize canopy in row structure

A modeling study on the variations of directional brightness temperature (DBT) for row-structure crops was carried out with the help of the images captured by a large aperture thermal infrared camera over a maize canopy. The model assumes that the DBT is a function of component brightness temperatures and their directional fractions. The canopy has three brightness temperature components: sunlit soil, shaded soil and vegetation, each component has a unique temperature value. Component fractions in the scene of view depend on sun-view geometry and the distributions of gaps within and between plant rows. To describe canopy geometrical features, a system of porous hedgerows with rectangle cross-section has been used; the directional variations of gap fraction are described by Nilson function. The model demonstrates directional variations of DBT as a function of sun-viewing geometry and canopy geometrical structure as well as component brightness temperatures. In the simulation of DBT over a middle dense canopy near the noontime, the results reveal an evident row-direction-oriented hot stripe in the DBT polar map, where appeared the hot spot along the sun direction. The sensitivities of the model to the input parameters have been tested. Further validation analysis has also been conducted which demonstrates modeled DBT agreeing closely with field observations.
Analysis of Consumer Value Using Semantic Network: The Comparison of Hierarchical and Nonhierarchical Value Structures

This study compares the value structure of consumers derived from a nonhierarchical method that only requires grouping similar components and a hierarchical method that needs additional steps to classify components into the levels of abstraction, using semantic network analysis. The overall process of understanding consumers’ value structure consists of data collection, data structuring, and network analysis using UCINET 6.0. A case study was conducted to identify the value structure of teenage Internet use behavior. Based on the relative ranking of words with the smallest farness from others, the nonhierarchical method showed “beauty” as the key value of teenagers, while the hierarchical method revealed “warm relationship” as the critical value in their use of the Internet. This nonhierarchical method showed the ability to elicit more diverse values, depending on the characteristics of consumer groups when compared with conventional hierarchical method. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The evolution of transformative communication patterns in 1-to-1 computing classrooms

This research explores the evolution of communication patterns in 1-to-1 classrooms of teachers who vary in their years of experience teaching in these computer-rich classrooms. The context for this study was classroom observations and teacher interviews in 7 Milwaukee public schools during the spring of 2010 where teachers were implementing a 1-to-1 computer program in which every student was given a laptop. The researcher used an explanatory mixed-methods design in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The researcher compared data collected through classroom observations and teacher interviews from 5 teachers in the first year of the program and 6 teachers who had been in the program for 2 or more years. The overall findings suggested a shift from more traditional forms of instruction toward constructivist teaching styles when comparing the 2 groups. The researcher compared classroom organization, technology use, communication patterns, and student identity in the 2 groups of teachers. Teachers with more experience in the 1-to-1 program structured instruction to allow students to work in small groups more often. They also used technology as a tool more often to mediate communication. The research also revealed that when students have ubiquitous access to real-time formative assessments, new forms of student-centered communication patterns occurred. Another finding was that student identity often changes in 1-to-1 computing environments from a passive role to taking on more responsibility, acting as experts, and becoming more engaged in their own learning. Ongoing professional development was found to be an important factor in helping teachers evolve their teaching practices. These positive findings suggest that
Mathematik Didaktik (teaching-learning mathematics) : an overview of the development of a web-based European module

This paper outlines the development of the chapter (module) Mathematik Didaktik as a part of the electronic ‘text book’ Didaktik/Fachdidaktik developed by TNTEE Subnetwork E. The overall approach to the development of the module is based on a model of teaching-learning as an ‘integrative transformative science’ that pays due attention to the general aims of society as well as curricula, content and learning situations. As part of this perspective, teacher competence is broadly conceptualized in terms of "professional action structures" in contrast with the narrow emphasis on technical competence and on mechanistic conceptions of a ‘technology of teaching’ that currently prevail in some parts of Europe. The teaching-learning approach is based on problem-oriented, research-oriented and co-operative learning processes. Underpinning the development are particular ideas about the nature of mathematics itself. In particular the starting point for the development is around ‘big ideas’ in mathematics – in contrast to the fragmentation that is evident in the thinking of some policy makers at this time.
Use of Handheld Computers for Collecting Water Quality Data in Developing Countries

Abstract A novel system is described for recording and storing details of water samples collected from rural African households and the water sources that they use. The system makes use of handheld computers for data entry instead of paper-based records. Bar codes are used to track water samples from the field to the laboratory, where total coliforms and Escherichia coli counts are enumerated for each sample. Participating household members and their water sources are documented using instamatic photography, enabling more rapid identification on subsequent visits. The system significantly reduces the lag-time between data collection and analysis. The use of bar codes and direct data entry reduces transcription errors that occur with paper-based recording.
Flight Test Evaluation and System Identification of the Area-I Prototype-Technology-Evaluation Research Aircraft (PTERA)

The Prototype-Technology-Evaluation Research Aircraft, or PTERA, was designed with the intent of providing an extremely versatile, yet inexpensive flight testbed to, not only test advanced aerodynamic treatments, but to support and validate experiments in aeroefficiency, aeroelasticity, controls and dynamics, health management systems, structures, acoustics, etc. The large airframe, not only minimizes Reynolds number and scaling issues associated with sub-scale experimentation, but also provides a significant amount of payload capacity for sensors, flight data acquisition systems, and flight experiment support equipment. In June of 2013 an extensive flight test evaluation of the baseline PTERA configuration was carried out with the intent of characterizing the aerodynamic performance and stability of the aircraft. This paper details the flight test evaluation and presents the aerodynamic data collected during those flights.
Multi-way data analysis

Although for some research areas it is a new thing, multi-way data analysis is a multivariate analysis technique that has had a wide appliance in a lot of fields. In dependence of the problem at hand, different types of multi-way data and specific multi-way models already exist. In this report, we give a general panoramic of multi-way data analysis, and some particular aspects needed to be taken into account when modeling such type of data. We describe some of the most used multi-way models and algorithms, outlining advantages and limitations that have been treated in new versions and others that still not. We also dedicate a chapter to describe in a sort of way, the research areas where multi-way analysis is most common, of a widely range of applications this type of data has. It is conclude with an analysis of the open problems that we found in these techniques and some proposals we think can work to solve them. Keywor d: Chemometrics; Multi-way Analysis