Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brain-computer interface in multimedia communication

This article raises various issues in the design of an efficient BCI system in multimedia applications. The main focus is on one specific modality, namely an electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCI. In doing so, we provide an overview of the most recent progress achieved in this field, with an emphasis on signal processing aspects.
A Novel Approach to Compute Confusion Matrix for Classification of n-Class Attributes with Feature Selection

Confusion matrix is a useful tool to measure the performance of classifiers in their ability to classify multi-classed objects. Computation of classification accuracy for 2-classed attributes using confusion matrix is rather straightforward whereas it is quite cumbersome in case of multi-class attributes. In this work, we propose a novel approach to transform an n × n confusion matrix for n-class attributes to its equivalent 2 × 2 weighted average confusion matrix (WACM). The suitability of WACM has been shown for a classification problem using a web service data set. We have computed the accuracy of four classifiers, namely, Naive Bayes(NB), Genetic Programming(GP), Instance Based Lazy Learner(IB1), and Decision Tree(J48) with and without feature selection. Next, WACM has been employed on the confusion matrix obtained after feature selection which further improves the classification accuracy.
Mechanical system monitoring using hidden Markov models

A hidden Markov model (HMM)-based approach to mechanical system monitoring is presented. The resulting system is shown to be useful for machining applications with the associated problems of tool wear detection and prediction. The approach is based on continuous density, left-right HMMs that closely match the one-way, fresh-to-worn transition process of machining tools. The Baum-Welch iterative training procedure is modified to incorporate prior knowledge of the transitions between tool wear states. Results presented demonstrate that a multisensor HMM-based system is an effective approach for tool wear detection and prediction. <<ETX>>
EFMplus: the coding format of the multimedia compact disc

Reports on an alternative to eight-to-fourteen modulation (EFM), called EFMPlus, which has been adopted as coding format of the multimedia compact disc proposal. The rate of the new code is 8/16, which means that a 6-7 % higher information density can be obtained. EFMPlus is the spitting image of EFM (same minimum and maximum runlength, clock content etc). Computer simulations have shown that the low-frequency content of the new code is only slightly larger than its conventional EFM counterpart. >
A consistent manufacturing data model to support virtual enterprises

An integrated, exchangeable, sharable and distributed information environment is one of the crucial factors to ensure the competitive advantage of a virtual enterprise. A manufacturing model that describes an enterprise’s manufacturing capability information is an important part of such a distributed information infrastructure. This paper focuses on the definition of an object oriented manufacturing data model that can provide a consistent data structure for the construction of a manufacturing model for a virtual enterprise. The methodology that is employed to carry out the analysis and design of an object oriented manufacturing data model complies with the open distributed processing reference model. Unified modelling language (UML) class diagrams have been employed to represent the object oriented manufacturing data model with links to relevant ISO standards, which can be instantiated to generate a virtual, global manufacturing model. An experimental software system has been developed using ObjectStore OODBMS and Visual C++. An example manufacturing model for a simple virtual enterprise has been populated and can potentially be used to support product design and manufacturing decisions across a virtual enterprise.
Performance Modeling for Helper Thread on Shared Cache CMPs

In data intensive applications of Cloud Computing such as XML parsing, large graph traversing and so on, there are a lot of operations to access irregular data. These data need be timely prefetched into the shared cache in CMPs by helper thread. However, a bad prefetching strategy of helper thread will cause the multi-core shared cache pollution and degradation of performance. For analyzing the stand or fall of prefetching strategy of helper thread, this paper proposes a performance model for helper thread prefetching, then aiming at relevant to standard testing programs in Olden and CPU2006, the experimental results show that our model is effective for identifying the distribution of timely, late, bad, ugly of helper thread LLC requests. We could find the stand or fall of prefetching strategy of helper thread by observing the foremost factors in the distribution.
A novel subblock partition scheme for partial transmit sequence OFDM

In general, there has been a trade-off between performance of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction and computational complexity in partial transmit sequence (PTS) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In this paper, a novel subblock partition scheme (SPS) for PTS OFDM is proposed and analyzed. In this scheme, signals assigned randomly in partial subbands are duplicated and concatenated repetitively to generate each subblock. The proposed scheme, therefore, has a form of concatenation of pseudo-random and interleaved SPS. As results of simulations, the proposed scheme shows almost same PAPR reduction performance as compared to the conventional pseudo-random SPS which has been known to have the best performance. However, computational complexity can be reduced extensively. Hence, the proposed scheme may be considered to be more suitable than the conventional ones for application in high speed transmission systems such as digital terrestrial broadcasting.
Concept design for a low-frequency array

The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is the Digital Software Radio Telescope that has been under study by the NFRA and the NRL for the last two years. A scaleable configuration is presented for an aperture synthesis array operating in the frequency range from the ionospheric cut off at about 10 MHz to about 160 MHz where existing telescopes are confusion limited. Both the array and the antenna station have a fractal structure following an exponential scaling law, which by appropriate weighting can provide a field of view and a synthesized resolution pattern of almost constant angular size independent of frequency. The processing architecture is scaleable as well and allows optimum distribution of the total processing power over signal and data processing tasks, by trading processed bandwidth in beam-formers and correlators for advanced processing like interference rejection, multi-beaming, pulsar processing, decade-wide chirp processing. The phased array antenna station provides a set of beams, which extends about a steradian on the sky and can be configured such that all relevant science objects are covered simultaneously. The pipelined self-calibration processing provides a clean image every third of a day, improving the sensitivity by a factor eight after two month of repeated observing. Based on the fast expansion of high performance processing technology, it is only after 2003 that signal and data processing will no longer dominate the cost of LOFAR in producing a confusion limited sky survey at sub mJy level.
Modelling the urban climate using a local governmental geo‐database

In this study, local government digital spatial data are used to describe urban geometry and analyse spatial variations of the urban climate within the central areas of Göteborg, Sweden. A high‐resolution raster digital elevation model (1 m pixel resolution) consisting of building structures and ground heights is derived from a local government geo‐database, as well as land use patterns and artificial heat sources. Parameters such as the sky view factor (SVF) and daily averages of solar radiation are calculated. Results obtained from the model are compared with intra‐urban air temperature variations which are derived from mobile measurements, as well as surface temperature variations derived from thermal infrared images. Results show that high‐resolution digital elevation models in raster format are very useful sources of data for the investigation of intra‐urban temperature variations. Results also show that the areal mean of SVF correlates with intra‐urban air temperature variations to a higher degree than SVF that is taken from a point source location. The correlation between the modelled SVF and surface temperature is high during both spring and winter. Adding information about daily averages of global radiation for the spring measurement causes the correlation between SVF and surface temperature variations to increase. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society
Decision Forests: A Unified Framework for Classification, Regression, Density Estimation, Manifold Learning and Semi-Supervised Learning

This review presents a unified, efficient model of random decision forests which can be applied to a number of machine learning, computer vision, and medical image analysis tasks. Our model extends existing forest-based techniques as it unifies classification, regression, density estimation, manifold learning, semi-supervised learning, and active learning under the same decision forest framework. This gives us the opportunity to write and optimize the core implementation only once, with application to many diverse tasks. The proposed model may be used both in a discriminative or generative way and may be applied to discrete or continuous, labeled or unlabeled data. The main contributions of this review are: (1) Proposing a unified, probabilistic and efficient model for a variety of learning tasks; (2) Demonstrating margin-maximizing properties of classification forests; (3) Discussing probabilistic regression forests in comparison with other nonlinear regression algorithms; (4) Introducing density forests for estimating probability density functions; (5) Proposing an efficient algorithm for sampling from a density forest; (6) Introducing manifold forests for nonlinear dimensionality reduction; (7) Proposing new algorithms for transductive learning and active learning. Finally, we discuss how alternatives such as random ferns and extremely randomized trees stem from our more general forest model. This document is directed at both students who wish to learn the basics of decision forests, as well as researchers interested in the new contributions. It presents both fundamental and novel concepts in a structured way, with many illustrative examples and real-world applications. Thorough comparisons with state-of-the-art algorithms such as support vector machines, boosting and Gaussian processes are presented and relative advantages and disadvantages discussed. The many synthetic examples and existing commercial applications demonstrate the validity of the proposed model and its flexibility.
Capstone Project Team Formation: Mingling Increases Performance and Motivation

Teams. Teams. Teams. They’re everywhere. Be they an engineering design team, a supply chain management team, or a critical nursing team in a hospital, the ability to operate effectively in a team is critical to success. Professional schools have responded by implementing team activities throughout the academic process. This teaching brief focuses on team formation in a capstone class. Capstone projects allow students to experience what the real world will offer them by applying their skills and decision-making tools to solve genuine problems. Students typically work in teams to define the problem, develop a cost-effective solution, plan and test its implementation, and report findings and recommendations to sponsors. A variety of methods have been used for team formation. These include:
Tense/Aspect Shifting in Kala Lagaw Ya Oral Narratives

Kala Lagaw Ya is the language of the Western Torres Strait islands, with two main dialects centred around Saibai Island and Mabuiag Island. It exhibits complex tense/aspect marking involving both temporal remoteness distinctions (‘metrical tense’) and aspectual distinctions. This article investigates the discourse-semantics of tense/aspect marking in a small corpus of oral traditional narratives from the Mabuiag dialect. Unsurprisingly, the resources of the ‘metrical tense system’ are not fully exploited in the narrative texts, which exhibit a restricted range of ‘narrative’ past tense marking including the Remote Past Perfective, a Remote Past Imperfective and a Present (or Non-Future) tense. The focus of the article is on patterns of distribution and shift between the Remote Past Perfective and the Present tense. Both these tenses are used extensively with ‘Narration’ function: to mark sequences of events on the narrative timeline. In some stories the Remote Past Perfective functions as the default framing tense, with the Present tending to be used in the middle of the story, and in particular in subjectively evaluated narrative ‘highpoints’. However stories are also found which are told predominantly in the Present tense. Patterns of consistent clustering vs. rapid alternations of the two tenses are also discussed and compared with the episodic and expressive structure of the stories. The article illustrates the usefulness of considering discourse data in understanding the meanings and functions of forms within an inflectional paradigm of this kind, and contributes to the range of language types for which tense/aspect shifting has been investigated.
Fussy support vector machines for recongnition of airport unexploded ordnance

Considering the risk and fuzzy characteristics of airport unexploded Ordnances, the theory of fuzzy support vector machines (FSVMs) is applied to penetrate airport unexploded ordnances(UXO). The risk membership to each input points is confirmed on the base of processing input data, and then is leaded into the reasoning process of the decision function. At the end, the results of UXO detection show that the decision function has obvious improvement to the classification accuracy of important data.
Robust partial least squares regression: Part II, new algorithm and benchmark studies

This paper presents the second part of the work on robust partial least squares (RPLS) regression and develops a new RPLS algorithm based on the concept laid out in Part I. The paper also contrasts the new algorithm with existing work using two simulation examples. This comparison highlights (i) the impact of the flaws in existing RPLS work and (ii) the compromised sensitivity resulting from introducing simplifications to the determination of the Stahel–Donoho estimator (SDE). The paper finally presents an evaluation of the computational complexity of RPLS algorithms and examines the impact of the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) upon the sensitivity of detecting outliers. The third part of this work will examine practical aspects of RPLS applications based on the analysis of experimental data. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Knowledge‐sharing patterns of undergraduate students in Singapore

Purpose – The objective of this study is to investigate the knowledge‐sharing behavior of undergraduate students in Singapore and to cover areas such as the purpose of sharing knowledge, communication channels preferred for sharing, and factors that inhibit or motivate knowledge sharing among students.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was used for collecting data and 180 students from three public universities in Singapore participated in the study.Findings – It was found that, generally, students displayed a positive attitude towards knowledge sharing and were appreciative of its importance in peer learning. However, it was interesting to note that the respondents were less inclined to share knowledge for academic activities that were graded. The study also revealed that competition among students to outperform their fellow students and lack of depth in peer relationship were the two main factors that inhibited knowledge sharing.Practical implications – The paper argues that fresh approaches .
Measured path loss and multipath propagation characteristics in UHF and microwave frequency bands for urban mobile communications

This paper presents the frequency dependence of propagation loss and multipath propagation characteristics for urban mobile communications based on measurement results in Japanese urban areas. Path loss in reference frequencies from 457.2 MHz to 15.45 GHz increases according to the free space propagation power law in terms of frequency dependence for both macrocell and microcell environments. The standard deviation of each frequency band exhibits similar values. Wide-band propagation measurements show analogous characteristics among frequency bands from 3 to 15 GHz in urban multipath propagation. These measurement results show that the dominant difference among frequencies is found in only free space characteristics in terms of frequency dependence from the UHF to microwave frequency bands.
Key factors of marketing strategies of mobile service innovations

In order to increase profits, a growing number of telecommunication firms and related services industries are offering mobile service products that integrate marketing and trade functions for both firms and consumers. This study discusses key marketing factors in terms of both case studies and statistics to develop integrated quality and quantity evaluations for mobile service innovations. Technology acceptance model and innovation diffusion theory are both referenced in developing a conceptual framework to verify consumer attitudes and adoption behaviours toward mobile service innovations. Research results have verified that the specific factors of TAM and IDT positively affect consumer attitudes toward the adoption of mobile services, and that higher adoption attitudes effectively increase consumer usage intentions. Furthermore, self-efficacy levels of consumers play significant negative moderating roles on the specific marketing factors that influence adoption attitudes. Study findings provide development directions and promotion strategies for mobile service innovations in the mobile commerce market.
A case study of wikis and student‐designed games in physical education

This paper reports on the incorporation of wiki technology within physical education. Boys from two classes at a school in the United Kingdom were divided into small teams and given the task of creating a new game in a same genre as football, hockey, netball or rugby. Each team had a wiki on which were recorded all the plans and developments of this game as it was being devised and refined. The teacher, an outside games expert and the school’s librarian also had access to the wikis, which allowed for constant interaction between the participants outside class time. Interviews with the teacher, the librarian and the students revealed that the 24/7 classroom enabled by the ICT, together with an extended community of practice, resulted in a higher quality learning experience in physical education for the participants. Indeed, it was the belief of all concerned that the quality of the end game products would not have been possible without the ICT component.
An effective segmentation cue for moving object segmentation from a moving camera

To overcome the difficulty in segmenting moving objects from a video sequence taken by a freely moving camera, we propose a new segmentation cue based on a joint spatial-color representation for the foreground and background appearances. Given the segmentation result in the previous frame, two sample sets can be extracted for foreground and background, respectively. We transform the spatial locations of the samples in the two sets towards the current frame, then use these transformed samples to evaluate the foreground and background likelihood maps, and combine these maps to form a likelihood ratio map which is further exploited as a segmentation cue and integrated into a conditional random field energy function. The total conditional random field energy is minimized by the graph cut, leading to a binary mask of moving objects for each video frame. We validate the proposed segmentation cue using several video sequences taken by hand-held cameras in outdoor urban scenes and the results show the effiency of the segmentation cue.
Maximally permissive deadlock prevention via an invariant controlled method

Recently, researchers have proposed a novel and computationally efficient method to design optimal control places and an iteration approach that computes the reachability graph once to obtain a maximally permissive, if any, liveness-enforcing supervisor of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The approach solves the set of integer linear inequalities to compute control places. If, given a Petri net model, no solution exists, the optimal control place does not exist for the Petri net model. We discover that a solution always exists for systems of simple sequential processes with resources (S3PR), but not for the case of FMS modelled by generalised Petri nets (GPN). We propose a theory to prove that there are no good states that will be forbidden by the control policy for S3PR, in which live and dead states cannot have the same weighted sum of tokens in the complimentary set of a siphon. For a system of simple sequential processes with general resource requirements (S3PGR2) modelled by GPN, we find the reason why the integer linear programming (ILP) may not have solutions, which is consistent with the fact that optimal supervisor synthesis for GPN remains unknown. We show that live and dead states may have the same weighted sum of tokens in the complimentary set of a siphon in a GPN. These theoretical results are verified by case studies.
Providing Library Instruction to Distance Learning Students in the 21st Century

ABSTRACT This study examines the variety of instructional practices employed in distance learning librarianship from the end of the 20th Century through the early beginnings of the 21st Century. The authors provide a thorough review of the literature on distance learning library instruction, and the study highlights the instructional services provided at two academic institutions with distinctly different clienteles and missions-one a large American university and the other a large Caribbean university.
Student and Tutor Perspectives of On-Line Moderation

Purpose – The on‐line tutor or e‐moderator faces a diversity of new challenges, including instructional design, organisation, direct instruction and facilitating discourse. This study aims to contrast the views of students and tutors regarding what factors constitute effective e‐moderation in order to identify key attributes of an on‐line tutor.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology was adopted. The research utilised a semi‐structured interview technique to collect data contrasting and comparing the views of 35 students and 35 tutors on the constituents of effective e‐moderation.Findings – The paper finds that from a student perspective the quality of feedback, student support and module management were key attributes of an effective e‐moderator. In contrast tutors argued that motivating students, including the provision of constructive feedback and developing an engaging on‐line persona were critical to successful e‐moderation. Comparison revealed that students and tutors have a broadly .