Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transfer of technology and knowledge - The story of an enterprise system implementation

The uncertainties of information system development (ISD) provide many routes that end in poor project outcomes. These uncertainties produce opportunities for IS researchers who are continually exploring the complexities of information system development. In this paper, which is a work-inprogress, we are focusing on the implementation of enterprise systems in three universities in Malaysia. We adopt a socio-technical process model which provides us with a vehicle to describe an in-depth analysis of the phenomena under examination. By examining the notions of technology and knowledge transfer in ISD, this paper explores the intricate relationships and interactions between its human and non-human actors in the attempts to construct various network alliances. We end with some suggestions for research and practice.
Influence of Towing Force Magnitude on the Kinematics of Supramaximal Sprinting

Clark, DA, Sabick, MB, Pfeiffer, RP, Kuhlman, SM, Knigge, NA, and Shea, KG. Influence of towing force magnitude on the kinematics of supramaximal sprinting. J Strength Cond Res 23(4): 1162-1168, 2009-The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of towing force magnitude on the kinematics of supramaximal sprinting. Ten high school and college-age track and field athletes (6 men, 4 women) ran 60-m maximal sprints under 5 different conditions: Nontowed, Tow A (2.0% body weight [BW]), Tow B (2.8% BW), Tow C (3.8% BW), and Tow D (4.7% BW). Three-dimensional kinematics of a 4-segment model of the right side of the body were collected starting at the 35-m point of the trial using high-speed (250 Hz) optical cameras. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in stride length and horizontal velocity of the center of mass during Tow C and Tow D. For Tow D, a significant increase (p = 0.046) in the distance from the center of mass to the foot at touchdown was also observed. Contact time decreased significantly in all towing conditions (p < 0.01), whereas stride rate increased only slightly (<2.0%) under towed conditions. There were no significant changes in joint or segment angles at touchdown, with the exception of a significant decrease (p = 0.044) in the flexion/extension angle at the hip during the Tow D condition. We conclude that towing force magnitude does influence the kinematics of supramaximal running and that potentially negative training effects may arise from towing individuals with a force in excess of 3.8% BW. Therefore, we suggest that coaches and practitioners adjust towing force magnitude for each individual and avoid using towing forces in excess of 3.8% of the athlete's BW.
Logical, Metric, and Algorithmic Characterisations of Probabilistic Bisimulation

Many behavioural equivalences or preorders for probabilistic processes involve a lifting operation that turns a relation on states into a relation on distributions of states. We show that several existing proposals for lifting relations can be reconciled to be different presentations of essentially the same lifting operation. More interestingly, this lifting operation nicely corresponds to the Kantorovich metric, a fundamental concept used in mathematics to lift a metric on states to a metric on distributions of states, besides the fact the lifting operation is related to the maximum flow problem in optimisation theory. The lifting operation yields a neat notion of probabilistic bisimulation, for which we provide logical, metric, and algorithmic characterisations. Specifically, we extend the Hennessy-Milner logic and the modal mu-calculus with a new modality, resulting in an adequate and an expressive logic for probabilistic bisimilarity, respectively. The correspondence of the lifting operation and the Kantorovich metric leads to a natural characterisation of bisimulations as pseudometrics which are post-fixed points of a monotone function. We also present an “on the fly” algorithm to check if two states in a finitary system are related by probabilistic bisimilarity, exploiting the close relationship between the lifting operation and the maximum flow problem.
YAGP: Yet Another Graphical Password Strategy

Alphanumeric passwords are widely used in computer and network authentication to protect users' privacy. However, it is well known that long, text-based passwords are hard for people to remember, while shorter ones are susceptible to attack. Graphical password is a promising solution to this problem. Draw-A-Secret (DAS) is a typical implementation based on the user drawing on a grid canvas. Currently, too many constraints result in reduction in user experience and prevent its popularity. A novel graphical password strategy Yet Another Graphical Password (YAGP) inspired by DAS is proposed in this paper. The proposal has the advantages of free drawing positions, strong shoulder surfing resistance and large password space. Experiments illustrate the effectiveness of YAGP.
Landscape partitioning and environmental gradient analyses of soil organic carbon in a permafrost environment

This study investigates landscape allocation and environmental gradients in soil organic carbon (C) storage in northeastern European Russia. The lowlands of the investigated Usa River Basin range from taiga with isolated permafrost to tundra vegetation on continuous permafrost. We compile and analyze databases on soil properties, permafrost, vegetation, and modeled climate. Mean soil C storage is estimated at 38.3 kg C m−2, with similar amounts in taiga and tundra regions. Permafrost soils hold 42% of the total soil C in the area. Peatlands dominate soil C storage with 72% of the total pool and 98% of permafrost C. Multivariate gradient analyses show that local vegetation and permafrost are strong predictors of soil chemical properties, overshadowing the effect of climate variables. This study highlights the importance of peatlands, particularly bogs, in bulk soil C storage. Soil organic matter stored in permafrost has higher C:N ratios than unfrozen material. Permafrost bogs constitute the main vulnerable C pool in the region. Remobilization of this frozen C can occur through gradual but widespread deepening of the active layer with subsequent talik formation or through more rapid but localized thermokarst erosion.
A Survey on SEDA and Using SEDA to Optimize HDFS Read Operation

Handling high concurrency is a critical issue in almost all internet services. A web server is a perfect example where a large amount of concurrent users are served by managing limited resources. There has been number of different architectures proposed to optimize the resource usage and maximize the throughput in such applications. Thread-per-request model and event-driven model are two heavily used such architectures. In 2001, Welsh et al. [1] pointed out the performance issues in those two architectures under high concurrency and proposed Staged Event Driven Architecture (SEDA) to address the issues. SEDA uses a hybrid of thread pools and eventing concept to utilize the advantages of both techniques. Since the introduction, there have been number of applications of SEDA in highly concurrent systems. In this paper, first we present few most interesting applications of SEDA selected through a survey. Then we discuss SOR-HDFS [2] which is an application of SEDA to improve HDFS Write operation. There we try to highlight the shortcomings and restrictions as well in SOR-HDFS design. Finally we present a design to use SEDA for HDFS Read operation and discuss how it improves read performance. Keywords—SEDA, Concurrency, Throughput, SOR-HDFS, HDFS Write, HDFS Read.
Single shot measurements of electric field vector in various environments with pigtailed electro-optic probes

We here illustrate the ability of electro-optic sensors to perform electric field vectorial measurements. Thanks to their frequency response that remains flat over nine decades and to their measurement dynamics reaching 120 dB, these sensors are of key interest for many applications. Furthermore, due to their fully dielectric structure and to their millimetric size, almost no perturbation is induced on the electric field to be measured, even in the near field region. This paper is focused on high intensity pulsed electric field characterization in different environments such as water (bioelectromagnetism applications) or plasma (in-situ assessment of the electric-field associated to an electric discharge). The use of such technology for electrical equipments and energy lines monitoring is also investigated.
Spanning graph for maximizing the influence spread in social networks

In this paper, we consider the influence maximization problem in social networks. The aim is to find a subset of k - nodes called seeds, which maximizes the influence spread. We propose a new approach based on the Independent Cascade Model (ICM) which extracts an acyclic spanning graph from the social network. The extraction method used to build the acyclic spanning graph is based on the existing centrality measures to determine the firsts nodes. We implement two extraction algorithms: SCG-algorithm for a connected graph and SDG-algorithm for a digraph. Both proposed algorithms are effective and their complexity is O(nm). So we use the same centrality measures to determine the seeds in the extracted graph. To show the pertinence of our approach, the results showed that the seeds given by the acyclic spanning graph give better results than the seeds given by the initial graph. This seeds will be determined by using the same heuristic like degree heuristic, degree discount heuristic, degree diffusion heuristic. The performances of this approach are very perceptible through the simulation carried out by the R software and the igraph package.
Spatial and temporal patterns of marine prokaryotic diversity along the particulate matter continuum

Los microoganismos oceanicos conforman un extenso microbioma donde los individuos interactuan constantemente con la materia particulada. Sin embargo, la gran mayoria de los estudios de microorganismos no tienen en cuenta aquellos asociados a la materia particulada o, si los tienen en cuenta, no consideran los distintos tamanos que presentan las particulas. El objetivo principal de la presente tesis es la caracterizacion de la diversidad de procariotas a lo largo del continuo de tamanos de las particulas marinas presentes en el oceano, asi como tambien describir su variabilidad temporal y espacial a distintas escalas. Primero de todo, proponemos un fraccionamiento multiple de tamanos de particulas como metodo de muestreo que proporciona una mejor comprension de la diversidad procariotica que los metodos de muestreo comunes. Nuestro trabajo indica que cada fraccion de tamano presenta comunidades procarioticas distintas que ademas varian en el espacio, en el tiempo, y a distintas escalas. En general, existe un incremento de la riqueza de las comunidades bacterianas desde las particulas pequenas a las mas grandes, sugiriendo que las particulas mas grandes contribuyen nuevos nichos ecologicos. La excepcion a esta tendencia se observa en el batipelagico, donde la riqueza disminuye desde la fraccion pequena hacia las grandes. Por el contrario, las arqueas presentan en general mas riqueza en las fracciones mas pequenas. Comparando bacterias y arqueas, estas ultimas presentan menor diversidad y abundancias relativas, pero su relevancia incrementa desde la superficie del oceano hacia el batipelagico. Hemos clasificado los grupos taxonomicos bacterianos segun si tienen preferencia por fracciones pequenas, preferencia por fracciones grandes, o si no presentan una preferencia clara por fracciones pequenas o grandes. Esta clasificacion se presenta como una alternativa a la tradicional separacion simple entre bacterias de vida libre o asociadas a particulas. La mayoria de grupos taxonomicos mantienen en el espacio y en el tiempo la preferencia por determinados tamanos de particula. Sin embargo, algunos grupos taxonomicos cambian sus preferencias en perfiles verticales desde la superficie hacia el batipelagico y tambien a lo largo del tiempo. Hemos visto, ademas, que el batipelagico esta dominado por procariotas tambien existentes en aguas superficiales, y que existe una conectividad vertical entre las comunidades procarioticas a lo largo de toda la columna de agua mediada por las particulas que sedimentan. Dicha conectividad ocasiona que la biogeografia del batipelagico este estrechamente relacionada con la colonizacion de particulas en superficie. En definitiva, esta tesis refleja la complejidad de las comunidades procariotas presentes en el continuo de tamanos de particulas presentes en el oceano y muestra la necesidad de mantener esta perspectiva para describir asi de forma mas precisa y completa la diversidad de los procariotas marinos.
Preparation and Performance of Micro-Arc Oxidation Coatings for Corrosion Protection of LaFe11.6Si1.4 Alloy

The microstructure, corrosion resistance, and phase-transition process of micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coatings prepared on LaFe11.6Si1. 4 alloy surfaces in different electrolyte systems were systematically investigated. Research has demonstrated that various electrolyte systems do not alter the main components of the coatings. However, the synergistic action of Na2CO3 and Na2B4O7 more effectively modulated the ionization and chemical reactions of the MAO process and accelerated the formation of α-Al2O3. Moreover, the addition of Na2CO3 and Na2B4O7 improved the micromorphology of the coating, resulting in a uniform coating thickness and good bonding with the LaFe11.6Si1. 4 substrate. The dynamic potential polarization analysis was performed in a three-electrode system consisting of a LaFe11.6Si1. 4 working electrode, a saturated calomel reference electrode, and a platinum auxiliary electrode. The results showed that the self-corrosion potential of the LaFe11.6Si1. 4 alloy without surface treatment was −0.68 V, with a current density of 8.96 × 10−6 A/cm2. In contrast, the presence of a micro-arc electrolytic oxidation coating significantly improved the corrosion resistance of the LaFe11.6Si1. 4 substrate, where the minimum corrosion current density was 1.32 × 10−7 A/cm2 and the corrosion potential was −0.50 V. Similarly, after optimizing the MAO electrolyte with Na2CO3 and Na2B4O7, the corrosion resistance of the material further improved. Simultaneously, the effect of the coatings on the order of the phase transition, latent heat, and temperature is negligible. Therefore, micro-arc oxidation technology based on the in situ growth coating of the material surface effectively improves the working life and stability of La(Fe, Si)13 materials in the refrigeration cycle, which is an excellent alternative as a protection technology to promote the practical process of magnetic refrigeration technology.
A Hybrid Dynamic Systems Approach to Optimal Dynamic Role Assignment and Physics-Based Robot Trajectory Planning in RoboCup

Based on a nonlinear hybrid dynamic systems approach a new paradigm for goal-oriented dynamic cooperation of multiple robots is investigated within the RoboCup scenario. The time dependent hybrid state of the whole system consists of discrete (roles, actions) and continuous (position, orientation, velocity) state variables of all mobile robots and objects involved. The evolution in time of the system’s state is described by a hybrid state automaton. The presented approach enables a tight and formal coupling of discrete and continuous state dynamics, i.e., of dynamic role and action assignment and sequencing as well as of the physical motion behavior of a single robot. The problem of optimal hybrid state trajectories that minimize a merit function for optimal multi-robot cooperation subject to further constraints is transformed to a mixed-integer dynamic optimization problem which is solved numerically. The new approach enables the integration of physics-based trajectory planning and dynamic role assignment in architectures and design methodologies for multi-robot control. The approach presented in this paper can also be applied to any other scenario of mobile multi-robot cooperation where the physical motion properties are of high significance.
On Delay-Optimal Scheduling in Queueing Systems with Replications

In modern computer systems, jobs are divided into short tasks and executed in parallel. Empirical observations in practical systems suggest that the task service times are highly random and the job service time is bottlenecked by the slowest straggling task. One common solution for straggler mitigation is to replicate a task on multiple servers and wait for one replica of the task to finish early. The delay performance of replications depends heavily on the scheduling decisions of when to replicate, which servers to replicate on, and which job to serve first. So far, little is understood on how to optimize these scheduling decisions for minimizing the delay to complete the jobs. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study on delay-optimal scheduling of replications in both centralized and distributed multi-server systems. Low-complexity scheduling policies are designed and are proven to be delay-optimal or near delay-optimal in stochastic ordering among all causal and non-preemptive policies. These theoretical results are established for general system settings and delay metrics that allow for arbitrary arrival processes, arbitrary job sizes, arbitrary due times, and heterogeneous servers with data locality constraints. Novel sample-path tools are developed to prove these results.
Singing fin whales tracked acoustically offshore of Southern California

Author(s): Varga, Leah McLean | Advisor(s): Hildebrand, John A | Abstract: Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) produce a stereotyped low frequency call (15-30 Hz) that can be detected at great range and is considered song when produced in a repeated pattern. These calls, referred to as 20 Hz calls, were localized and animals were tracked using a kilometer-scale array of four passive acoustic recorders deployed at approximately 800m depth, northwest of San Clemente Island in the Southern California Bight. A total of 4969 calls were localized over four continuous weeks during late fall of 2007. The average estimated source level for the localized calls was 190.9 ± 7.4 dB peak-to-peak re 1µPa2 at 1m. The majority of the calls in these data were in the form of a doublet song pattern, with average inter-pulse intervals (IPI) 13s and 18s. The tracks were the first to be recorded for singing fin whales transiting alone using passive acoustic monitoring. Acoustic tracking of fin whales provides insight into the ecology and behavior of the species. Estimating call source levels help future predictions of how these whales are impacted by anthropogenic noise. Call source level, along with calling behavior, provide important parameters required for population density estimation. Furthermore, studying fin whale song patterns may aid in distinguishing different subpopulations.
Estimating the detection stability of a Si nanowire sensor using an additional charging electrode

This paper proposes a sensing stability estimation method that involves using an additional forcing electrode to simulate the surface charge coupling effect for bottom gate nanowire sensors. The alteration of the Si nanowire can be observed by using the charging electrode without any complex surface treatment and micro-channel setup. The nanowire sensor has a distinct charge-sensitive slope (Vth shift > 60 mV/10-16C) with a wire-width scaling of 35 nm. The proposed estimation technique simplifies the charge sensing operation.
Fast and Energy-Efficient CNN Inference on IoT Devices

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) exhibit remarkable performance in various machine learning tasks. As sensor-equipped internet of things (IoT) devices permeate into every aspect of modern life, it is increasingly important to run CNN inference, a computationally intensive application, on resource constrained devices. We present a technique for fast and energy-efficient CNN inference on mobile SoC platforms, which are projected to be a major player in the IoT space. We propose techniques for efficient parallelization of CNN inference targeting mobile GPUs, and explore the underlying tradeoffs. Experiments with running Squeezenet on three different mobile devices confirm the effectiveness of our approach. For further study, please refer to the project repository available on our GitHub page: this https URL
Reclaiming the mongrel: a practice based exploration of Irish and Indian musical sympathies

This research is an interdisciplinary investigation of the relationship between Irish Traditional and North Indian Classical music. It is an attempt to explore, in both a rigorous academic manner and through professional level musical composition and performance, sympathies and divergences in Indo-Irish hybrid music making. Grounded in ethnomusicological theory (Rice, 1994; Aubert, 2007), this research also utilises an arts practice approach, theorizing complex musical relationships through practice, analysis and the production of new hybrid musical works. This methodology draws upon the arts practice research concept of ‘critical meta-practice’ (Melrose, 2002) to employ musical skill sets to generate data and pursue research questions. This project also acts as a case study addressing the instability of the postmodern condition resulting from globalisation and interprets hybridization as one of its cultural consequences. This process has been provocatively characterized as cultural ‘mongrelisation’ (Stross, 1999). I understand mongrelisation within the frame of what cultural theorist Homi K. Bhabha has called the ‘Third Space’ (1994) which relates to the in-between state of individuals with multiple cultural identities. This ‘Third Space’ is an important area for the negotiation, construction and ‘enunciation’ (Bhabha, 1994) of cultural ideology. I wish to extend this concept in exploring the creative possibilities of Irish-Indian hybridization as a hybrid cultural product and apply theoretical applications of ‘Third Space’ and ‘mongrelisation’ to better theorize hybrid music in general.
Effect of pranlukast on bronchial inflammation in patients with asthma

Pranlukast (8‐[p‐(4‐phenylbutyloxy) benzol] amino‐2‐[tetrazol‐5‐yl]‐4‐oxo‐4H‐1‐benzopyran hemihydrate), a selective cysteinyl leukotriene receptor antagonist, has been reported to exhibit not only antileukotrine activity but also pharmacological activity including antieosinophilic effects.
Entrepreneurial Business Models in the German Software Industry: Companies, Venture Capital, and Stock Market Based Growth Strategies on the 'Neuer Markt'

Young, radically innovative, growth oriented, and publicly listed high-tech companies in Silicon Valley together with venture capital financiers gave birth to the concept of the ‘Entrepreneurial Business Model’ (EBM). This concept has become central to the debate about the innovative capacity of nations in information technology and its promotion became an important policy objective in Germany during the 1990s. This paper addresses the question of whether German software companies on the former ‘Neuer Markt’ of the Frankfurt stock exchange were able to successfully implement business models similar to that of the typical entrepreneurial company in the United States. The paper focuses on the performance of software companies and venture capital investments on the ‘Neuer Markt’. A number of findings emerge from this effort. First, successful German software companies implement traditional business models. The most successful German software companies specialize in IT- and software services. Such firms do not specialize in standardized software products which require little service and customization. Second, German venture capital for the most part was not able to establish successful entrepreneurial companies on the Silicon Valley model. Nor were they able to create a successful German variant of venture capital involvement in more traditional companies. Venture Capital ; Software ; Stock Markets ; Germany ; Entrepreneurial Business Models