Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cross Audio-Visual Recognition in the Wild Using Deep Learning

Audio-visual recognition (AVR) has been considered as a solution for speech recognition tasks when the audio is corrupted, as well as a visual recognition method used for speaker verification in multi-speaker scenarios. The approach of AVR systems is to leverage the extracted information from one modality to improve the recognition ability of the other modality by complementing the missing information. The essential problem is to find the correspondence between the audio and visual streams, which is the goal of this work. We propose the use of a coupled 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture that can map both modalities into a representation space to evaluate the correspondence of audio-visual streams using the learned multimodal features. The proposed architecture will incorporate both spatial and temporal information jointly to effectively find the correlation between temporal information for different modalities. By using a relatively small network architecture and much smaller dataset for training, our proposed method surpasses the performance of the existing similar methods for audio-visual matching which use CNNs for feature representation. We also demonstrate that an effective pair selection method can significantly increase the performance. The proposed method achieves relative improvements over 28% on the Equal Error Rate (EER) and over 7% on the Average Precision (AP) in comparison to the state-of-the-art method.
Building OMProDat: an open multilingual prosodic database

Current research on speech prosody generally makes use of large quantities of recorded data. In order to provide an open multi-lingual basis for the comparative study of speech prosody, the Laboratoire Parole et Langage has begun the creation of an open database OMProDat containing recordings of 40 five sentence passages, originally taken from the European SAM project, each read by 5 male and 5 female speakers of each language. The database will contain both primary data, the recordings, and secondary data in the form of different annotation files. Currently the database contains recordings and annotations for five languages: Korean, English, French and Chinese plus a smaller subset for several languages which will be used for the TRASP workshop. All the data will be freely available on the Speech and Language Data Repository.
A research-informed dialogic-teaching approach to early secondary school mathematics and science: the pedagogical design and field trial of the epiSTEMe intervention

Abstract The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary school physical science and mathematics. Using principles identified as effective in the research literature and drawing on a range of existing pedagogical resources, the project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a form intended to be suited to implementation at scale. The most distinctive feature of the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach is its inclusion of a component of dialogic teaching. Aimed at the first year of secondary education in English schools (covering ages 11–12), the epiSTEMe intervention consists of a short introductory module designed to prepare classes for this dialogic teaching component, and topic modules which employ the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach to cover two curricular topics in each of science and mathematics. A field trial was conducted over the 2010/2011 school year in 25 volunteer schools, randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Within the intervention group, observation of lessons indicated that the level of dialogic teaching was higher for one of the topic modules than others. Evaluation focused on the effectiveness of the topic modules, each trialled in more than 10 classes containing a total of over 300 pupils, and compared with a group of similar composition. Overall, at this first implementation, learning gains under the epiSTEMe intervention were no greater, although for individual topic modules the effects ranged from small negative to small positive. No difference was found between intervention and control groups either in the opinion of pupils about their classroom experience or in changes in their attitude towards subjects.
GENETIC POLYMORPHISMS AND THE RISK OF LUNG CANCER IN TUNNEL WORKERS IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

Individual susceptibility to chemically induced cancer may be partly explained by genetic differences in the activation and detoxification of procarcinogens. Numerous polymorphisms of metabolism genes have been identified and their role in individual susceptibility to cancer has been observed. Many studies have shown that variant CYP1A1 alleles combined with GSTM1 and GSTT1 nulls genotype are associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. In this study, we evaluated genetic polymorphisms in CYP1A1 (*2B and *4), GSTM1 and GSTT1 and risk of lung cancer in Rebouças tunnel workers (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Deletions of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes were detected in samples from control group. In an exposure group, single deletions of GSTM1 or GSTT1 genes were also detected. In our study, the same individual showed CYP1A1*2B polymorphism and deletions of GSTM1 and GSTT1 gens. These results demonstrate that this individual exposed to occupational pollution at Rebouças tunnel, may have intensified metabolizing pollutants such as PAH, and have difficulties in detoxification of metabolites of these pollutants, increasing the risk of lung cancer development.
Foundational Issues in Touch-Surface Stroke Gesture Design - An Integrative Review

The potential for using stroke gestures to enter, retrieve and select commands and text has been recently unleashed by the popularity of touchscreen devices. This monograph provides a state-of-the-art integrative review of a body of human–computer interaction research on stroke gestures. It begins with an analysis of the design dimensions of stroke gestures as an interaction medium. The analysis classifies gestures into analogue versus abstract gestures, gestures for commands versus for symbols, gestures with different orders of complexity, visual-spatial dependent and independent gestures, and finger versus stylus drawn gestures. Gesture interfaces such as the iOS interface, the Graffiti text entry method for Palm devices, marking menus, and the SHARK/ShapeWriter word-gesture keyboard, make different choices in this multi-dimensional design space. The main body of this work consists of reviewing and synthesizing some of the foundational studies in the literature on stroke gesture interaction, particularly those done by the authors in the last decade. The human performance factors covered include motor control complexity, visual and auditory feedback, and human memory capabilities in dealing with gestures. Based on these foundational studies this review presents a set of design principles for creating stroke gesture interfaces. These include making gestures analogous to physical effects or cultural conventions, keeping gestures simple and distinct, defining stroke gestures systematically, making them self-revealing, supporting appropriate levels of chunking, and facilitating progress from visually guided performance to recall-driven performance. The overall theme is on making learning gestures easier while designing for long-term efficiency. Important system implementation issues of stroke gesture interfaces such as gesture recognition algorithms and gesture design toolkits are also covered in this review. The monograph ends with a few call-to-action research topics.
An Effective Precision Enhancement Approach to Estimate Software Development Cost: Nature Inspired Way

In recent years, many researchers and practitioners have explored the possibility of estimating effort and cost using nature inspired algorithms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance of bacterial foraging optimization algorithm (BFOA) for optimizing the COCOMO model coefficients to estimate the software development time. The goal of this research is to minimize the fitness function value which is the measure of the deflection of estimated time from the real time taken in the software development. Results of the experimental study conducted shows that the proposed approach produces promising results in comparison to COCOMO model and other existing approaches listed in literature. Results show that COCOMO model and other existing approaches are less accurate in comparison to BFOA with MMRE as 0.16 and PRED(25) as 0.9. Thus BFOA can help software industry in predicting accurate and reliable values for planning and maintenance of software project.
REVIEW ON COMMON CRITERIA AS A SECURE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Standards, models, frameworks and guidelines have been developed for secure software development such as such as Common Criteria, SSE-CMM, Microsoft SDL, OpenSAMM. Current standards and models provide guidance for particular areas such as threat modelling, risk management, secure coding, security testing, verification, patch management, configuration management etc. But there is not a generally accepted model for a secure software development lifecycle. Common Criteria provides objective evaluation methodology to validate that a product satisfies a specified set of security requirements. In this paper Common Criteria secure software development approach is examined and compared with other well known standards and models.
Implicit Sequence Learning and Recursion Deficit in Children with Specific Language Impairment: A Neurocognitive Triad

Abstract Recursion is the process of having one’s own output as its next input to make infinite sequences. Similarly, recursion in language applies to merging subtle language elements such as combining morphemes to make longer words in agglutinating languages and embedding of subordinate clauses to main clauses such as embeddedness. The present study proposes that recursion could be happening in unification gradient space (i.e., in inferior frontal cortex). Inferior frontal cortex also hosts procedural memory operations such as implicit sequence learning. Therefore, the present study predicts recursion deficits (merging and embeddedness) in children with SLI who are reported to manifest implicit sequence learning deficits. 22 SLI (specific language impairment) and 22 language age matched TD (typically developing) children were selected for the study. They were administered a sequence learning task to measure implicit sequence learning and a story narration task to measure recursiveness. Results showed that children with SLI were significantly poorer compared to TD children on sequence learning as well as on recursion measures. The correlation between sequence learning and recursion was present in TD group and was absent in SLI children. Discussion states that recursion in TD children is a procedural skill and recursion process could have been taken over by intact declarative system in children with SLI. Key words: unification, merging, embeddedness, specific language impairment, declarative memory
Teacher Response to Instances of Student Thinking During Whole Class Discussion

Teacher Response to Instances of Student Thinking During Whole Class Discussion Rachel Marie Gunn Bernard Department of Mathematics Education, BYU Master of Arts While the use of student thinking to help build mathematical understandings in a classroom has been emphasized in best teaching practices, teachers still struggle with this practice and research still lacks a full understanding of how such learning can and should occur. To help understand this complex practice, I analyzed every instance of student thinking and every teacher response to that thinking during a high school geometry teacher’s whole class discussion and used these codes as evidence of alignment or misalignment with principles of effective use of student mathematical thinking. I explored the teacher’s practice both in small and large grains by considering each of her responses to student thinking, and then considered the larger practice through multiple teacher responses unified under a single topic or theme in the class discussion. From these codes, I moved to an even larger grain to consider how the teacher’s practice in general aligned with the principles. These combined coding schemes proved effective in providing a lens to both view and make sense of the complex practice of teachers responding to student thinking. I found that when responding to student thinking the teacher tended to not allow student thinking to be at the forefront of classroom discussion because of misinterpretation of the student thinking or only using the student thinking in a local sense to help advance the discussion as framed by the teacher’s thinking. The results showed that allowing student thinking to be at the forefront of classroom discussion is one way to position students as legitimate mathematical thinkers, though this position can be weakened if the teacher makes a move to correct inaccurate or incorrect student thinking. Furthermore, when teachers respond to student thinking students are only able to be involved in sense making if the teacher turns the ideas back to the students in such a way that positions them to make sense of the mathematics. Finally, in order to allow students to collaborate a teacher must turn the mathematics to the students with time and space for them to meaningfully discuss the mathematics. I conclude that the teacher’s practice that I analyzed is somewhat aligned with honoring student mathematical thinking and allowing student thinking to be at the forefront of class discussion. On the other hand, the teacher’s practice was strongly misaligned with collaboration and sense making. In this teacher’s class, then, students were rarely engaged in sense making or collaborating in their mathematical work.
Soil water stress co‐efficient for estimating actual evapotranspiration of maize in northeastern Brazil

Several of the methods used to estimate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) consider the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) to be affected by a soil water stress co‐efficient (Ks) such that ETa = Ks ETc. The aim of this study was to assess the ETa estimation in maize in Alagoas State (09 ° 38 ′ S and 36 ° 40 ′ W; 260 m msl) in northeastern Brazil using the method of the single crop co‐efficient from the FAO‐56 paper, combined with three different approaches to determine Ks. The Ks was expressed as either a linear (Ks,lin) or a logarithmic (Ks,log) function of the soil water depletion. Additionally, the method proposed in the FAO‐56 (Ks,FAO) was used when the impact was linear, but it was switched on after only one offset. Meteorological and soil water measurements were conducted in a maize crop from July to October 2005. The estimates of ETa were compared with the ETa determined from soil water balance. The ETa estimated with Ks,lin had the highest precision (r2 = 0.67) and accuracy (d = 0.89 and root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.67 mm d−1). However, the ETa determined from Ks,log (r2 = 0.41, d = 0.57 and RMSE = 1.69 mm d−1) or Ks,FAO (r2 = 0.46, d = 0.62 and RMSE = 1.73 mm d−1) was not estimated successfully. When the parameters of Ks,FAO were fitted to the local edaphoclimatic conditions, the precision (0.67) and accuracy (0.89 and 0.82 mm d−1) were similar to the estimates with Ks,lin but with a better performance for ETa > 3.0 mm d−1.
A flexible consensus scheme for multicriteria group decision making under linguistic assessments

The present paper proposes a flexible consensus scheme for group decision making, which allows one to obtain a consistent collective opinion, from information provided by each expert in terms of multigranular fuzzy estimates. It is based on a linguistic hierarchical model with multigranular sets of linguistic terms, and the choice of the most suitable set is a prerogative of each expert. From the human viewpoint, using such model is advantageous, since it permits each expert to utilize linguistic terms that reflect more adequately the level of uncertainty intrinsic to his evaluation. From the operational viewpoint, the advantage of using such model lies in the fact that it allows one to express the linguistic information in a unique domain, without losses of information, during the discussion process. The proposed consensus scheme supposes that the moderator can interfere in the discussion process in different ways. The intervention can be a request to any expert to update his opinion or can be the adjustment of the weight of each expert’s opinion. An optimal adjustment can be achieved through the execution of an optimization procedure that searches for the weights that maximize a corresponding soft consensus index. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the presented consensus scheme, a technique for multicriteria analysis, based on fuzzy preference relation modeling, is utilized for solving a hypothetical enterprise strategy planning problem, generated with the use of the Balanced Scorecard methodology.
Cognitive Load Theory: THEORY

Introduction Jan L. Plass, Roxana Moreno and Roland Brunken Part I. Theory: 1. Cognitive load theory: historical development and relation to other theories Roxana Moreno and Babette Park 2. Cognitive load theory: recent theoretical advances John Sweller 3. Schema acquisition and sources of cognitive load Slava Kalyuga 4. Individual differences and cognitive load theory Jan L. Plass and Slava Kalyuga Part II. Empirical Evidence: 5. Learning from worked-out examples and problem solving Alexander Renkl and Robert K. Atkinson 6. Instructional control of cognitive load in the design of complex learning environments Liesbeth Kester, Fred Paas and Jeroen J. G. van Merrienboer 7. Techniques that reduce extraneous cognitive load and manage intrinsic cognitive load during multimedia learning Richard E. Mayer and Roxana Moreno 8. Techniques that increase generative processing in multimedia learning: open questions for cognitive-load research Roxana Moreno and Richard E. Mayer Part III. Discussion: 9. Measuring cognitive load Roland Brunken, Tina Seufert and Fred Paas 10. From neo-behaviorism to neuroscience: perspectives on the origins and future contributions of cognitive load research Richard E. Clark and Vincent P. Clark 11. Cognitive load in learning with multiple representations Holger Horz and Wolfgang Schnotz 12. Current issues and open questions in cognitive load research Roland Brunken, Jan L. Plass and Roxana Moreno.
Evolution of self-organising behaviours with novelty search

Novelty search is a recent artificial evolution technique that challenges the traditional evolutionary approach. The main idea behind novelty search is to reward the novelty of solutions instead of progress towards a fixed goal, in order to avoid premature convergence and deception. Deception occurs in artificial evolution when the objective-function leads the population to local maxima, failing to reach the desired objective. In novelty search, there is no pressure to evolve better solutions, only pressure to evolve solutions different from the ones seen so far, thus avoiding the potential deceptiveness of an objective-function. In previous works, novelty search has been applied with success to single robot system. In this thesis, we use novelty search together with NEAT to evolve neuro-controllers for homogeneous swarms of robots. The aim of this approach is to facilitate the achievement of more ambitious objectives through artificial evolution, and in the end contribute towards the evolution of robotic swarms capable of taking on complex, real-world tasks. Our empirical study is conducted in simulation and uses two common swarm robotics tasks: aggregation, and sharing of an energy recharging station. Our results show that novelty search is capable of overcoming deception, and is notably effective in bootstrapping the evolution. In non-deceptive setups, novelty search achieved fitness scores similar to fitness-based evolution. Novelty search could evolve a broad diversity of solutions to the same problem, unveiling interesting forms of self-organization. Our study also encompasses variants of novelty search that combine novelty with objectives, in order to combine the exploratory character of novelty search with the exploitatory character of objective-based evolution. We propose Progressive Minimal Criteria Novelty Search (PMCNS), a novel method for combining novelty and objectives, where the exploration of the behaviour space is progressively restricted to zones of increasing fitness scores. We show that PMCNS can improve the fitness scores of the evolved solutions, without compromising the diversity of behaviours. Overall, our study shows that novelty search is a promising alternative for the evolution of controllers for robotic swarms.
翻譯The World is Flat 及實作分析

This thesis applies Skopostheorie Theory represented by Hans J. Vermeer to translate parts of the book 「The World is Flat」 written by Thomas Loren Friedman, published in 2005. The thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 Introduction illustrates the purpose of this study. Chapter 2 Literature Review introduces a brief Chinese and Western translation history and theories with special attention to the Skopostheorie by Hans J. Vermeer. Chapter 3 is the translated text. Chapter 4 discusses translation issues as encountered in this thesis. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. The translator acts as a bridge between the author in source language(SL)and the reader in TL. Skopostheorie focuses on the target language(TL)reader, suggesting that the translator should try to reflect the spirit and the beauty of the original author in TL readers' language with readability.
The Arabic Origins of Derivational Morphemes in English, German, and French: A Lexical Root Theory Approach

This paper investigates the genetic relationship between derivational affixes or morphemes like ensure, whiten, opinion, activity in Arabic and English mainly as well as German, French, and Latin. Applying the lexical root theory as a theoretical framework, it shows, unlike traditional claims in comparative historical linguistics that Arabic and English, for example, are members of different language families, how such morphemes are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. More precisely, a-, e-, n-, m-, t-, be-, and s-based affixes are found in all the above languages to be identical cognates with the same or similar forms and
The Syntax of Pronominal Subjects in L2 Spanish: Comparing Two L2 Populations with Different Exposure

The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, via a critical review of available studies on the adult L2 resetting of the Null-Subject Parameter (NSP) and in light of a typologically wide sampling of languages, we conclude that the NSP cluster is much narrower in scope than is reflected in the design and discussion of most L2 studies. Secondly, we present original research on the L2 resetting of the NSP by two groups of adult English intermediate learners of L2 Spanish: a study-abroad group and a class-room only group. We seek to quantify the extent to which study-abroad experience, that is, increased exposure to native input, is beneficial specifically as it relates to the acquisition of new functional features needed for parameter re-setting (cf. Isabelli 2004). Despite the observable and clandestine linguistic benefits to study-abroad, our data suggest that for the resetting of the NSP, at least, such exposure to native input is not particularly gainful.
Screening for factors affecting application performance in profiling measurements

This report provides an example application of screening techniques in experimental computer science, including validation and selection of metrics and measures, the screening experiment itself, and supporting statistical methods. Together with related references, it is intended to encourage other computer scientists to make more use of established statistical methods in performance evaluations. The described screening experiment sought to identify which of three factors (environment, frame pointers