Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On computing multi-arm manipulation trajectories

This dissertation considers the manipulation task planning problem of automatically generating the trajectories for several cooperating robot arms to manipulate a movable object to a goal location among obstacles. The planner must reason that the robots may need to change their grasp of the object to complete the task, for example, by passing it from one arm to another. Furthermore, the computed velocities and accelerations of the arms must satisfy the limits of the actuators. Past work strongly suggests that solving this problem in a rigorous fashion is intractable. We address this problem in a practical two-phase approach. In step one, using a heuristic we compute a collision-free path for the robots and the movable object. For the case of multiple robot arms with many degrees of freedom, this step may fail to find the desired path even though it exists. Despite this limitation, experimental results of the implemented planner (for solving step one) show that it is efficient and reliable; for example, the planner is able to find complex manipulation motions for a system with seventy eight degrees of freedom. In step two, we then find the time-parameterization of the path such that the dynamic constraints on the robot are satisfied. In fact, we find the time-optimal solution for the given path. We show simulation results for various complex examples.
The Personalized System of Instruction: Review and Applications to Distance Education

The present paper (a) outlines the basic features of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI); (b) provides a brief history of PSI; and (c) describes the application of PSI to distance education. Some common misconceptions about PSI are also addressed. PSI is presented as a helpful universally applicable set of instructional practices that are well suited to distance teaching and learning. Key Terms: Personalized System of Instruction, distance learning, computer-based instruction, mastery-learning, self-pacing, higher-order objectives, scholarship of teaching, proctors, tutoring.
Aids for Problem Solving.

Abstract : Numerous attempts have been made to provide computerized problem solving aids. In most instances such aids are designed without any previous systematic study of the problem solvers who are to use such an aid or any subsequent validation that such aids are really useful. This paper presents the results of two prelimimary experiments. In one experiment, a structured aid was not found to be an effective aid to problem solving. However, there were indications of how such an aid might be improved. In a second experiment, an unstructured aid was found to facilitate performance on two creative design problems. The results of this experiment also suggest that creative ideas tend to occur in sequences and that subjects are relatively more likely to terminate suggestions with a creative suggestion than an uncreative one. (Author)
A STUDY OF WEBSITES' LAYOUT AND USER IMPRESSIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

In terms of finding skill related knowledge on informative websites, the users’ impression on first use significantly affects their experience with any given learning website. This article attempts to explore the factors affecting user impression and the major layout types of webpage used in web-based learning system. This study implemented surveys, comprised of three questionnaires, concerning popular websites, semantic adjectives for describing websites and user first impression. A total of 260 college students participated in the study. Factor analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to derive the main factors of user impression and major layout types of webpage. The results showed three major factors affecting user impression were, pleasure, arousal, and readability. Moreover, three webpage types of web-based learning systems were established, graphics type, informative type, and both graphics and information type; these types closely relate to two dimensions of favorability and content richness.
A Factor Analytical Method to Interactive Effects Dynamic Panel Models with or without Unit Root

In a recent study, Bai (Fixed-Effects Dynamic Panel Models, A Factor Analytical Method. Econometrica 81, 285-314, 2013a) proposes a new factor analytic (FA) method to the estimation of dynamic panel data models, which has the unique and very useful property that it is completely bias-free. However, while certainly appealing, it is restricted to fixed effects models without a unit root. In many situations of practical relevance this is a rather restrictive consideration. The purpose of the current study is therefore to extend the FA approach to cover models with multiple interactive effects and a possible unit root.
Splitting hairs over the definition of murder: Thomas Aquinas and the doctrine of double effect

A recent article in the March 2009 edition of Clinical Ethics stated that, ‘In the Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas discusses how murder may be justified in self defence’, provided that killing is not intended. This statement is open to challenge on historical and semantic grounds, with respect to the writings of the 13th Century Roman Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). A better appreciation of Aquinas' writings on this topic could inform the debate relating to medical end-of-life decisions. The normatively loaded word ‘murder’ is not applicable to Aquinas' conclusion on unintended homicide, nor is it applicable to unintended homicide in current law, which is by definition not murder.
Nursing Research

Nursing Research covers key issues, including health promotion, human responses to illness, acute care nursing research, symptom management, cost-effectiveness, vulnerable populations, health services, and community-based nursing studies. Each issue highlights the latest research techniques, quantitative and qualitative studies, and new state-of-the-art methodological strategies, including information not yet found in textbooks. Expert commentaries and briefs are also included. In addition to 6 issues per year, Nursing Research from time to time publishes supplemental content not found anywhere else.
A Functional Approach to Child Language: A Study of Determiners and Reference

1. The place of language in child development 2. Determiners and reference 3. Introduction to the data 4. Production experiments: deictic, exophoric and quantifier functions of determiners 5. Production experiments: anaphoric function 6. Production experiments: gender-indicating function of determiners 7. Comprehension experiments: deictic, exophoric and quantifier functions of determiners 8. Comprehension experiments: anaphoric function of determiners 9. Synthesis of the child's acquisition of the plurifunctionality of determiners 10. General implications for language acquisition and child development Bibliography Index.
Las branquispinas en la caracterización de las poblaciones de Sardina pilchardus (Walb)

Publicacion de la memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Buenaventura Andreu Morera para optar al grado de Doctor por la Universitat de Barcelona (UB), realizada bajo la direccion del Dr. Enrique Gadea Buisan de la Universitat de Barcelona (UB). -- 175 pages, 29 figures, 70 tables
Speed of Information-Processing and Intelligence:

Follow up what we will offer in this article about speed of information processing and intelligence . You know really that this book is coming as the best seller book today. So, when you are really a good reader or you're fans of the author, it does will be funny if you don't have this book. It means that you have to get this book. For you who are starting to learn about something new and feel curious about this book, it's easy then. Just get this book and feel how this book will give you more exciting lessons.
Multicast networks : capacity, algorithms, and implementation

Acknowledgments The most important acknowledge is to our God the Most Merciful, the Most Wise by whose mercy we were able to begin this work, His Mercy is such that we are given the ability to work in His cause through which we remember Him Swt and be grateful towards all He has given us. Allah states in the Quran " and say: My Lord! Increase me in knowledge " [Quran, 20:114]. May Allah accept our humble work as a effort to increase our knowledge. Ameen May Allah's peace and blessing be upon our Beloved Prophet Muham-mad who was a mercy unto us from Allah Swt. Prophet Muhammad Pbuh. mentioned in the Hadith that " Seeking Knowledge is mandatory for every believer " [Authenticated by: Ibn Majah]. This work is a trial to follow his footsteps. I would like to thank my advisors Prof. Sriram Vishwanath and Prof. Andreas Gerstlauer for their invaluable guidance and encouragement. I am greatly indebted to them in every achievement at UT. Their guidance and support have made this dissertation possible. I also thank my dissertation committee members, Prof. Vidur, Abhik and Tony for their helpful discussions. I also thank aerospace professor Prof. Chaput for his help and support and aerospace students Mar-lan, Mark, and Sean for their help in the execution of the experimental part of my graduate work. I also thank WNCG staff Julie, Jennifer and Melanie for their efficient and kind help in my graduate study. In this dissertation, we investigate the capacity and performance of wireless networks with an emphasis on multicast traffic. The defining characteristic of a multicast network is a network where a number of different destinations all require the information generated by a single source. The models that we explore differ in the nature of the nodes from all-mobile case where all nodes are mobile to hybrid case where some nodes are mobile and some are static. We investigate different performance measure for these wireless multicast networks: upper bounds, capacity scaling laws, and achievable rates. The understanding of these measures for such networks helps in the development of efficient algorithms for operating these networks. In addition, we study the practical realization of algorithms for real-time streaming of rich multimedia content in the context of mobile wireless networks for embedded and cyberphysical systems. Our initial work is in the vii context of unicast and multiple unicast systems over an …
Image database retrieval using neural networks

Richard Rickman Neural Networks and Pattern Recognition Group Dept. Electrical & Electronic Engineering Brunel University Uxbridge Middx. The broad objective of this work has been to achieve retrieval of images from large unconstrained databases using image content. The problem is typified by the need to locate a target image within a database where no numerical indexing terms exist. Here, retrieval is based on important features within in an image and uses sample images or user sketches to specify a query. A typical query might be framed as "Find all images similar to this one", for example. The aim of this work has been to show how neural networks can provide a practical, flexible and robust solution to this problem. A neural network is basically an adaptive information filter which can be used to extract the salient characteristics of a data set during a training phase. The transformation learnt by the network can map the images into compact indices which support very rapid fuzzy matching of images across the database. This learning process optimises the performance of the code with respect to the contents of the database. We assess the applicability of several neural network architectures and learning rules for a practical coding scheme and investigate how the system parameters affect the performance of the system. We introduce a novel learning law which has a number of advantages over existing paradigms. In-depth mathematical . analysis and extensive empirical tests are used to corroborate the arguments presented throughout. This thesis aims to show the nature of the image retrieval problem, how current research trends attempt to tackle it and how neural networks can offer us a real alternative to conventional approaches.
Clock-Feedthrough Compensation in MOS Sample-and-Hold Circuits

Clock-Feedthrough Compensation in MOS Sample-and-Hold Circuits Franz Xaver Fuchs All MOS sample-and-hold circuits suffer to a greater or lesser extent from clockfeedthrough (CLFf), also called charge-injection. During the transition from sample to hold mode, charge is transferred from an MOS transistor switch onto the hold capacitor, thus the name charge-injection. This error can lead to considerable voltage change across the capacitor, and predicting the extent of the induced error potentials is important to circuit designers. Previous studies have shown a considerable dependency of CLFf on signal voltage, circuit impedances, clock amplitude and clock fall-time. The focus of this work was on the signal dependency of the CLFf error and on the CLFf induced signal distortion in open-loop sample-and-hold circuits. CLFf was found to have a strongly non-linear, signal dependent, component, which may cause considerable distortion of the sampled signal. The parameters influencing this distortion were established. It was discovered that distortion could be reduced by more than 20dB through careful adjustment of the clock fall-rate. Several circuit solutions that can help reduce the level of distortion arising from CLFf are presented. These circuits can also reduce the absolute level of CLFf. Simulations showed their effectiveness, which was also proven in silicon. The CLFf reduction methods used in these circuits are easily transferable to other switched-capacitor circuits and are suitable for applications where space is at a premium (as, for example, in analogue neural networks). A new saturation mode contribution to CLFf was found. It is shown to g1ve nse to increased CLFf under high injection conditions.
On the Design of Socially-Aware Distributed Systems

Social media services and applications enable billions of users to share an unprecedented amount of social information, which is further augmented by location and collocation information from mobile phones, and can be aggregated to provide an accurate digital representation of the social world. This dissertation argues that extracted social knowledge from this wealth of information can be embedded in the design of novel distributed, socially-aware applications and services, consequently improving system response time, availability and resilience to attacks, and reducing system overhead. To support this thesis, two research avenues are explored. First, this dissertation presents Prometheus, a socially-aware peer-to-peer service that collects social information from multiple sources, maintains it in a decentralized fashion on user-contributed nodes, and exposes it to applications through an interface that implements non-trivial social inferences. The system's socially-aware design leads to multiple system improvements: 1) it increases service availability by allowing users to manage their social information via socially-trusted peers, 2) it improves social inference performance and reduces message overhead by exploiting naturally-formed social groups, and 3) it reduces the opportunity of attackers to influence application requests. These performance improvements are assessed via simulations and a prototype deployment on a local cluster and on a worldwide testbed (PlanetLab) under emulated application workloads. Second, this dissertation defines the projection graph, the result of decentralizing a social graph onto a peer-to-peer system such as Prometheus, and studies the system's network properties and how they can be used to design more efficient socially-aware distributed applications and services. In particular: 1) it analytically formulates the relation between centrality metrics such as degree centrality, node betweenness centrality, and edge betweenness centrality in the social graph and in the emerging projection graph, 2) it experimentally demonstrates on real networks that for small groups of users mapped on peers, there is high association of social and projection graph properties, 3) it shows how these properties of the (dynamic) projection graph can be accurately inferred from the properties of the (slower changing) social graph, and 4) it demonstrates with two search application scenarios the usability of the projection graph in designing social search applications and unstructured P2P overlays. These research results lead to the formulation of lessons applicable to the design of socially-aware applications and distributed systems for improved application performance such as social search, data dissemination, data placement and caching, as well as for reduced system communication overhead and increased system resilience to attacks.
Voice over IP Fundamentals

A systematic approach to understanding the basics of Voice over IP Understand the basics of PSTN services and IP signaling protocols, including SS7 Learn how VoIP can run the same applications as the existing telephony system, but in a more cost-efficient and scalable manner Delve into such VoIP topics as jitter, latency, packet loss, codecs, quality of service tools, and mean opinion scores Learn about the functional components involved in using Cisco gateways to deploy VoIP networksVoice over IP (VoIP), which integrates voice and data transmission, is quickly becoming an important factor in network communications. It promises lower operational costs, greater flexibility, and a variety of enhanced applications. Voice over IP Fundamentals provides a thorough introduction to this new technology to help experts in both the data and telephone industries plan for the new networks.You will learn how the telephony infrastructure was built and how it works today, the major concepts concerning voice and data networking, transmission of voice over data, and IP signaling protocols used to interwork with current telephony systems. The authors cover various benefits and applications of VoIP and how to ensure good voice quality in your network.This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.
Early Numeracy: Assessment for Teaching and Intervention

Children, Numeracy and Mathematics Recovery The Learning Framework in Number The LFIN and the Assessment Interview Schedule 1.1 The Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning (SEAL) Identifying the Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning Assessment Interview Schedule 1.2 Part C of the LFIN: Assessment Interview Schedules 2.1 and 2.2 Assessment Interview Schedules 3.1 and 3.2 Recording, Coding and Analyzing the Assessment Interview Schedules Linking the Assessment to Teaching Appendix 1: Assessment Interview Schedule 1.1 Appendix 2: Assessment Interview Schedule 1.2 Appendix 3: Assessment Interview Schedule 2.1 Appendix 4: Assessment Interview Schedule 2.2 Appendix 5: Assessment Interview Schedule 3.1 Appendix 6: Assessment Interview Schedule 3.2 Appendix 7: Learning Framework in Number Appendix 8: Instructional Framework for Early Number Appendix 9: Linking the Diagnostic Assessment Interviews to the Learning Framework in Number Appendix 10: Required Materials Appendix 11: The Mathematics Recovery Coding Schedule Glossary
TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT WRITING THROUGH GUIDED WH-QUESTIONS: A Pre-experimental Study At The Eight Grade Students of SMP Negeri 7 Pontianak In Academic Year 2013/2014

The purpose of conducting this research is to answer the research questions which are, “Is the use of guided WH-Questions technique effective in teaching descriptive text writing at the eighth grade students of SMPN 7 Pontianak in academic year of 2013/2014? ” and “How effective is the use of guided WH-Questions technique in teaching descriptive text writing at the eighth grade students of SMPN 7 Pontianak in academic year of 2013/2014? ” The form of this research is pre-experimental study. The tool of data colleting was written test, in which the students were asked to write a descriptive text by the help of guided WH-Questions. The sample of this research was 35 students from Class VIII C. The findings of this research showed that the use of guided WH-Questions technique in teaching descriptive text writing was effective.Based on the calculation that the researcher has gotten, it also showed that the score of Effect Size was high. So, it indicated that the effect of guided WH-Questions technique in teaching descriptive text writing was highly effective. From that effective result, the researcher suggests that guided WH-Questions technique can be used in teaching English especially in writing skill.
Some characteristics of mobile radio propagation at 836 MHz in the Philadelphia area

Mobile radio propagation tests were carried out at 836 MHz from a base station in downtown Philadelphia, Pa. , to a mobile which traveled on the city streets. It was found that the median signal power tends to fall off as R-3for distances greater than 1 to 2 mi from the base station antenna. The mean received-signal level was found to be approximately log-normally distributed with a standard deviation varying from 5 to 10 dB, where the higher values were observed close to the base station.
PENGARUH TINGKAT SUKU BUNGA (BIRATE) DAN KURS DOLAR AS TERHADAP INDEKS HARGA SAHAM GABUNGAN (IHSG) DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE ERROR CORECTION MODEL (ECM)

This research to determine whether, exchange rate, interest rate (BI Rate) have an influence on Indeks Harga Saham Gabungan (IHSG). The data used are secondary data from the period June 2008 to August 2010. The analytical tool used in this research is the error correction model (ECM). Previously conducted tests stasioneritas namely the root of the test unit and test the degree of integration and cointegration tests. Based on the test stasioneritas obtain stationary data on a Zero level at a significance level of 10% and other data on the first level and terkointegrasi diffirence on the zero level at 1% level of significance. The result of an error correction model analysis showed that in short term interest rate (BI Rate), Ezchange rate, significantly influences the IHSG fluctuates, while the long-term variable Exchange rate has a significant while variable interest rate is not significant.
Computer Supported Collaborative Physics Learning: Developing Understanding of Image Formation by Lenses

This article reports the use of a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) instruction designed to help students develop understanding of image formation by lenses. The study aims to investigate how students, working in dyads and mediated by multimedia CAL programs, construct shared knowledge and understanding. The subjects were a class of 36 grade 10 students working in dyads throughout the instruction. The instruction comprised three stages, pre-test, CSCL activity, and post-test, during which students’ within-dyad interactions were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Three months after the instruction, some students were interviewed individually. The pre-test showed that the majority of students held the “holistic conceptualizations” of image formation (rather than the physicists’ point-to-point mapping model) which they applied to give incorrect answer/explanations to the questions in the test. In general, the dyads showed overall improvement in understanding in the post-test and interviews although the improvements ranged widely. The rich qualitative data of peer interactions show that students experienced many instances of conflicts and co-construction that were conducive to the development of understanding. They also show that students’ development of understanding depend not only on their prior ideas but also on (a) how they interact with each other and the ideas they invoke, and (b) the mediation by the CAL programs and the teacher. The article ends with a discussion of implications for instructional practices.