Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DeepSTN+: Context-Aware Spatial-Temporal Neural Network for Crowd Flow Prediction in Metropolis

Crowd flow prediction is of great importance in a wide range of applications from urban planning, traffic control to public safety. It aims to predict the inflow (the traffic of crowds entering a region in a given time interval) and outflow (the traffic of crowds leaving a region for other places) of each region in the city with knowing the historical flow data. In this paper, we propose DeepSTN+, a deep learning-based convolutional model, to predict crowd flows in the metropolis. First, DeepSTN+ employs the ConvPlus structure to model the longrange spatial dependence among crowd flows in different regions. Further, PoI distributions and time factor are combined to express the effect of location attributes to introduce prior knowledge of the crowd movements. Finally, we propose an effective fusion mechanism to stabilize the training process, which further improves the performance. Extensive experimental results based on two real-life datasets demonstrate the superiority of our model, i.e., DeepSTN+ reduces the error of the crowd flow prediction by approximately 8%∼13% compared with the state-of-the-art baselines.
Performance enhancement of wireless communication systems through QoS optimisation

Providing quality of service (QoS) in a communication network is essential but challenging, especially when the complexities of wireless and mobile networks are added. The issues of how to achieve the intended performances, such as reliability and efficiency, at the minimal resource cost for wireless communications and networking have not been fully addressed. In this dissertation, we have investigated different data transmission schemes in different wireless communication systems such as wireless sensor network, device-to-device communications and vehicular networks. We have focused on cooperative communications through relaying and proposed a method to maximise the QoS performance by finding optimum transmission schemes. Furthermore, the performance trade-offs that we have identified show that both cooperative and non-cooperative transmission schemes could have advantages as well as disadvantages in offering QoS. In the analytical approach, we have derived the closed-form expressions of the outage probability, throughput and energy efficiency for different transmission schemes in wireless and mobile networks, in addition to applying other QoS metrics such as packet delivery ratio, packet loss rate and average end-to-end delay. We have shown that multi-hop relaying through cooperative communications can outperform non-cooperative transmission schemes in many cases. Furthermore, we have also analysed the optimum required transmission power for different transmission ranges to obtain the maximum energy efficiency or maximum achievable data rate with the minimum outage probability and bit error rate in cellular network. The proposed analytical and modelling approaches are used in wireless sensor networks, device-to-device communications and vehicular networks. The results generated have suggested an adaptive transmission strategy where the system can decide when and how each of transmission schemes should be adopted to achieve the best performance in varied conditions. In addition, the system can also choose proper transmitting power levels under the changing transmission distance to increase and maintain the network reliability and system efficiency accordingly. Consequently, these functions will lead to the optimized QoS in a given network.
Hash kernels and structured learning

Vast amounts of data being generated, how to process massive data remains a challenge for machine learning algorithms. We propose hash kernels to facilitate efficient kernels which can deal with massive multi-class problems. We show a principled way to compute the kernel matrix for data streams and sparse feature spaces. We further generalise it via sampling to graphs. Later we exploit the connection between hash kernels with compressed sensing, and apply hashing to face recognition which significantly speeds up over the state-of-the-art with competitive accuracy. And we give a recovery rate on the sparse representation and a bounded recognition rate. As hash kernels can deal with data with structures in the input such as graphs and face images, the second part of the thesis moves on to an even more challenging task — dealing with data with structures in the output. Recent advances in machine learning exploit the dependency among data output, hence dealing with complex, structured data becomes possible. We study the most popular structured learning algorithms and categorise them into two categories — probabilistic approaches and Max Margin approaches. We show the connections of different algorithms, reformulate them in the empirical risk minimisation framework, and compare their advantages and disadvantages, which help choose suitable algorithms according to the characteristics of the application. We have made practical and theoretical contributions in this thesis. We show some real-world applications using structured learning as follows: a) We propose a novel approach for automatic paragraph segmentation, namely training Semi-Markov models discriminatively using a Max-Margin method. This method allows us to model the sequential nature of the problem and to incorporate features of a whole paragraph, such as paragraph coherence which cannot be used in previous models. b) We jointly segment and recognise actions in video sequences with a discriminative semi-Markov model framework, which incorporates features that capture the characteristics on boundary frames, action
AI Rebel Agents

The ability to say "no" in a variety of ways and contexts is an essential part of being socio-cognitively human. Through a variety of examples, we show that, despite ominous portrayals in science fiction, AI agents with human-inspired noncompliance abilities have many potential benefits. Rebel agents are intelligent agents that can oppose goals or plans assigned to them, or the general attitudes or behavior of other agents. They can serve purposes such as ethics, safety, and task execution correctness, and provide or support diverse points of view. We present a framework to help categorize and design rebel agents, discuss their social and ethical implications, and assess their potential benefits and the risks they may pose. In recognition of the fact that, in human psychology, non-compliance has profound socio-cognitive implications, we also explore socio-cognitive dimensions of AI rebellion: social awareness and counternarrative intelligence. This latter term refers to an agent's ability to produce and use alternative narratives that support, express, or justify rebellion, either sincerely or deceptively. We encourage further conversation about AI rebellion within the AI community and beyond, given the inherent interdisciplinarity of the topic.
İlkokul 4. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Duygu ve Düşüncelere Saygı ile Hoşgörü Tutumları ve Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

Bu arastirmanin amaci, ilkokul dorduncu sinif ogrencilerinin duygu ve dusuncelere saygi ile hosgoru tutumlarini ve goruslerini incelemektir. Arastirmada, karma arastirma yontemlerinden biri olan yakinsayan paralel desen kullanilmistir. Nicel boyutta arastirmanin orneklemini, Elazig ilinde ogrenim gormekte olan, raslantisal ornekleme yontemi ile secilen 492 ilkokul dorduncu sinif ogrencisi olusturmaktadir. Arastirmanin nitel orneklemini uygun ornekleme yontemine gore secilmis 15 ilkokul dorduncu sinif ogrencisi olusturmaktadir. Arastirmada veri toplama araci olarak, kisisel bilgiler formu, yari yapilandirilmis gorusme formu ve “Duygu ve Dusuncelere Saygi ile Hosgoru Tutum Olcegi” kullanilmistir. Nicel verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistik ve cok degiskenli varyans analizi; nitel verilerin analizinde icerik analizi kullanilmistir. Ogrencilerin dusuncelere saygi alt boyutunda cinsiyet degiskeni acisindan anlamli bir farklilik bulunmazken, duygulara saygi ve hosgoru alt boyutlarinda kiz ogrencilerin lehine anlamli bir farklilik bulunmustur. Anne calisma durumuna gore ogrencilerin duygu ve dusuncelere saygi alt boyutlarinda anlamli farklilik bulunmazken, hosgoru alt boyutunda annesi calisan ogrencilerin lehine anlamli farklilik bulunmustur. Baba meslegi durumuna gore ogrencilerin dusuncelere saygi ve hosgoru alt boyutlarinda anlamli farklilik bulunmazken, duygulara saygi alt boyutunda anlamli farklilik cikmistir.
A High-Performance Dynamic Controller For an Active Power Decoupler With AC-Side Storage Element

The instantaneous power in a single-phase system pulsates at double the supply frequency. With the effective use of the storage element, the electrolytic capacitor placed at the dc bus can be replaced by film capacitors, thereby improving the converter lifespan. Active power decoupling (APD) using an extra set of switches aims to attain the same. Recently, a promising APD topology has been reported, offering a lesser number of switches, as well as lesser stress on the switches for a wide range of power factor. However, the control of that converter poses a challenge as it has more number of states than the independent control variables. This paper focuses on the control aspect of the topology. It is shown that controlling two out of three states guarantees the overall system performance at the steady state. Also, ripple power in the dc bus is controlled in a closed-loop fashion so as to handle model uncertainty and thereby improve the steady-state performance. Furthermore, the solution to suppress the harmonic power, reflected on to the dc bus, under polluted grid condition is provided. The simulation and experimental results are presented supporting the analysis and design of the controller structure.
Avaliação do método de inspeção semiótica

Avaliar a qualidade da interface de um sistema interativo e uma tarefa importante durante o processo de desenvolvimento de software. No entanto, como diferentes metodos de avaliacao tem sido propostos, torna-se cada vez mais necessario avalia-los a fim de identificar qual metodo e o mais apropriado para certas situacoes. Os metodos daEngenharia Semiotica podem ser considerados metodos recentes e ainda estao sendo avaliados. O Metodo de Inspecao Semiotica (MIS), que foi proposto em 2006 e e o nosso objeto de estudo, e um desses metodos. Embora o MIS tenha sido utilizado em diferentes dominios desde a sua formalizacao, um estudo das suas capacidades e limitacoes ainda nao foi realizado. Portanto, este trabalho teve como objetivo realizar uma avaliacao do metodo a fim de compreender suas capacidades e limitacoes. Esta avaliacao consistiu em aprecia-lo sob tres diferentes perspectivas: (1) obter informacoes sobre sua aplicabilidade; (2) identificar vantagens e desvantagens sob a perspectiva daqueles que usam o metodo (i.e., os avaliadores); e (3) identificar custos, diferencas e semelhancas em relacao a outro metodo, neste caso, o Metodo de Avaliacao de Comunicabilidade (um metodo de avaliacao da Engenharia Semiotica baseado no usuario). Como resultado, encontramos grandes vantagens do metodo, especialmente em relacao a sua aplicabilidade a uma grande variedade de tecnologias e dominios. Alguns custos do metodo tambem foram identificados. Entretanto, os custos associados ao MIS sao compensados pelos resultados obtidos com a aplicacao do metodo. Portanto, o MISpode ser considerado um metodo com uma boa relacao custo-beneficio. Os resultados apresentados neste estudo contribuem para a Teoria da Engenharia Semiotica, uma vez que geram dados a respeito de como um metodo baseado em teoria esta sendo utilizado e percebido pelos avaliadores. A pesquisa e relevante nao apenas para a EngenhariaSemiotica, mas tambem para a area de IHC como um todo, uma vez que ja foi identificada a necessidade de novos metodos de pesquisa, bem como as teorias em IHC e metodos baseados nas mesmas. Para a area de IHC as contribuicoes sao: (1) fornece uma visao geral das principais vantagens e desvantagens de um metodo baseado emteoria; e (2) as principais vantagens e desvantagens encontradas sao importantes para apoiar pesquisadores e profissionais na decisao sobre se devem utilizar o MIS ou quando faze-lo.
Implementação computacional e analise crítica de elementos finitos de placas

Esta dissertacao de mestrado descreve a implementacao computacional de diversos elementos finitos de placas baseados nas teorias de Kirchhoff, para placas finas, e Reissner-Mindlin, que e aplic´avel a placas de qualquer espessura. Apresenta-se uma breve discussao sobre as formulacoes para os modelos matematicos e discretos baseados nestas teorias, mostrando suas principais diferencas e particularidades, bem como a necessidade do uso de tecnicas especiais para a utilizacao da teoria de Reissner-Mindlin no estudo de placas finas. Entre os diversos elementos finitos para analise de placas baseados na teoria de Kirchhoff, foram implementados os elementos retangulares desenvolvidos por Melosh, Zienkiewicz e Cheung (MZC) e por Bogner, Fox e Schmit (BFS) e os triangularesdesenvolvidos por Cheung, King e Zienkiewicz (CKZ) e por Cowper, Kosko, Lindberg e Olson (Cowper); os elementos baseados na teoria de Reissner-Mindlin escolhidos para a analise de placas espessas foram os quadrilaterais de quatro nos (Q4), oito nos (Q8), nove nos (Q9), nove nos heterosis, desenvolvido por Hughes e Cohen (Q9H), e os triangulares de tres nos (T3), de seis nos (T6) e o de dez nos (T10); para utilizacao da teoria de Reissner-Mindlin na modelagem de placasfinas, adotam-se a Integracao Reduzida ou Seletiva com os elementos quadrilaterais citados anteriormente e a t´ecnica de Deformacao de Cisalhamento Imposta com os elementos Q4, Q8, Q9 e T6.A implementacao destes modelos foi feita no nucleo numerico do INSANE (INteractive Structural ANalysis Environment) que e um sistema desenvolvido segundo o paradigma de Programacao Orientada a Objetos (POO) utilizando a linguagem JAVA. Esta implementacao e detalhada atraves do uso de diagramas UML (Unified Modelling Language), onde sao apresentadas as diversas classes e interfaces utilizadas no nucleo numerico. Afim de conhecer melhor os elementos implementados, apresentam-se testes de malha e estudos de convergencia realizados, al´em de diversas simulacoes numericas.
New Algorithm to Design Real Time Optimal and Robust Ultrafiltration Rates in Chronic Kidney Disease to Prevent Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality

Hemodialysis (HD) is a necessary treatment for end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients in order to prevent cardiovascular morbidity and mortality that may be related to the hemodynamic effects of rapid ultrafiltration. Despite significant advances in HD technology, only half of ESKD patients treated with HD survive more than 3 years. Fluid management remains one of the most challenging aspects of HD care, with serious implications for morbidity and mortality. In this paper, we develop a novel algorithm to design real time optimal, robust ultrafiltration rates based on actual HD data to identifying the parameters of a fluid volume model of an individual patient during HD. Our design achieves, if exists, an optimal ultrafiltration profile for the identified nominal model under maximum ultrafiltration and hematocrit constraints and guarantees that these constraints are satisfied over a pre-defined set of parameter uncertainty. We demonstrate the robust performance of our algorithm through a combination of clinical data and simulations.
THOUGHT-PROVOKING ‘CONTAMINATION’: APPLIED LINGUISTICS, LITERACIES AND POSTHUMANISM

ABSTRACT This paper purports to present some characteristics of the posthuman perspective and relate them to contemporary understanding of applied linguistics and literacy studies with preliminary activities in this direction and interrogations for future studies. As interdisciplinary studies, posthumanism draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of assemblage (2005) and has been gaining relevance according to theorists such as Barad (2007), Bennet (2010), Braidotti (2018) and Pennycook (2018), among others. One of their concerns is the future of language research, teaching, learning and enacting in philosophical, transcultural and educational ways. Barad (2007) and Bennet (2010)) use the terms humans and nonhumans while Braidotti (2018) and Pennycook (2018) write humans and non-humans. At times, Bennet (2010) prefers human-nonhuman(s) to emphasize the idea of assemblage. They consider such agents in vibrant interconnected assembles within a broader range of semiotic, spatial and ethical complexities in the emergence of posthuman humanism as Braidotti (2018) argues. This calls for applied linguistics and literacy studies willing to recognize that they themselves are products of such entanglements for which a revision of ontologies influencing epistemologies and methodologies might be productive.
Causal mechanisms and process patterns in international relations: Thinking within and without the box

This article makes the case for process patterns as an alternative to causal mechanisms. Causal mechanisms are explanatory tools to unpack the “black boxes” separating the input and output of models. Unlike causal mechanisms, process patterns do not require such a black box. They refer to recurrent sequences of interaction observed across any number of empirical domains. Scholars can apply them across disciplines when similar processes occur in different domains. The article provides examples from International Relations where scholars have sometimes studied process patterns in all but name.
The Preaching of the Master: Thomas Aquinas’s University Sermons on Happiness

ABSTRACT The single task of the Parisian masters of the thirteenth century was to read Scripture, a task they performed by way of the famous legere, disputare, praedicare. Although intimately connected these three are rarely studied in relation to each other. Thomas Aquinas’s sermons on the beatitudes (Matthew 5. 1–10) can be compared to his commentary on Matthew and the Summa Theologiae. This opens up a new perspective on the sermons, addressing some of the questions they raise. The edition of Aquinas’s sermons by Louis Bataillon is instrumental in performing this task and will therefore be considered in greater detail. The present article seeks to contribute to Medieval Sermon Studies by way of a more theological approach and to present to theologians the importance of a greater appreciation for the sermons of the masters.
DANS: A Secure and Efficient Driver-Abnormal Notification Scheme With IoT Devices Over IoV

The vision of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is to make the dream of zero traffic accident come true. However, the problems of drivers’ poor fitness and distraction go from bad to worse on account of the increase of chronical patients and the prosperity of mobile phones. Most of the security-related literatures aimed to offer a better efficiency, protection, or scalability on safety-related message verification, but few security protocols were suitable for the transmission of the drivers’ abnormal reports because of low latency requirement. In this paper, we propose a secure notification scheme [driver-abnormal notification scheme (DANS)] based on edge-fog computing to offer real-time response. After passing two-factor authentication, vehicles serve as the edge nodes to download and to real-time compare the sensing parameter for reducing the long-distance communication latency. By means of hash-chain-based public key cryptosystem, DANS can omit the certificate overhead to keep short latency, and also holds the benefits of driver authentication, mutual authentication, integrity for abnormal reports, conditional privacy preservation, non-repudiation, fast verification, and good scalability. Performance evaluations and simulation demonstrate that DANS earns outstanding results in terms of verification delay and communication overhead. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to design a notification scheme to real-time detect the driver-abnormal issues over IoV.
Graph based approach for question answering - improving efficiency in natural language processing for small corpora

Este trabalho apresenta o processo de construcao de um Sistema de Perguntas e Respostas para o Portugues Brasileiro basedo em um corpus extraido de um livro tecnico sobre o dominio de Gado Leiteiro. Ao longo deste trabalho, identifica-se e analisa-se um problema comum em sistemas de pergunta e resposta, onde ocorre uma distância entre os termos da pergunta e os termos da resposta - essa distância e nomeada “lacuna entre pergunta e resposta”. Para elaborar um sistema de pergunta e resposta capaz de sobrepujar tal distância, um mecanismo de expansao de consultas foi desenvolvido atraves da confeccao e uso de uma rede de conhecimento de dominio, fornecendo um meio efetivo de prover respostas mesmo que nao compartilhem o mesmo lexico das perguntas.
Using Fuzzy PD Controllers for Soft Motions in a Car-like Robot

This paper deals with the control problem for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots moving on the plane, and in particular, the use of a Fuzzy controller technique for achieving a given motion task which consists of following a rectilinear trajectory until an obstacle occurs on the path. After a background part, in which the fundamental knowledge of Fuzzy control is considered, the problem of the avoidance of an obstacle is taken into consideration. When an obstacle occurs on the path, the drive assistant provides for its avoidance calculating the minimal distance from which the avoidance maneuver starts. Conditions on the parameters of a PD controller are calculated using a Fuzzy based approach. An observer is designed to obtain unmeasurable states to be used in the control loop. In the Appendix of this paper a formal demonstration of a Proposition is proven in which the convergence of the system state estimation of the observer is shown. Simulations considering a real transporter vehicle for a storage service are shown.
A Systematic RDF-based Approach for Structuring Government Open Data to Enhance Accessibility

Open government data publishing is considered complete when the data is machine-readable, which is achieved through the Linked Open Data Standards. Although most governments around the world are launching e-government systems for better service delivery, most developing countries are yet to implement the use of the semantic web in their knowledge sharing approaches and Kenyan isn’t an exception. This research presents an approach that employs Resource Description Framework to generate structured data from open government data. This paper details the systematic steps followed from data selection to the development of an ontology and user interfacing modes of access using a case study of the Kenyan government open data portal. The approach makes use of ontology to structure some domain of the government data in the open data portal for easy, access and retrieval. Software evaluation metrics (precision, recall, and f-measure) for retrieval systems was employed as the evaluation approach. A set of sample queries are designed together with their expected outputs, then the queries are run and the outcomes are compared. Results of the evaluation indicate that the
Enabling Docker for HPC

Docker is quickly becoming the de facto standard for containerization. Besides running on all the major Linux distributions, Docker is supported by each of the major cloud platform providers. The Docker ecosystem provides the capabilities necessary to build, manage, and execute containers on any platform. High‐Performance Computer (HPC) systems present their own unique set of challenges to the standard deployment of Docker with respect to scale image storage, user security, and access to host‐level resources. This paper presents a set of Docker API plugins and features to address the HPC concerns of scaling, security, resource access, and execution in an HPC Environment.