Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Change Management for Minimal Impact on Dependability and Performance in Autonomic Service-Oriented Architectures

Dynamic change management in an autonomic, service-oriented infrastructure is likely to disrupt the critical services delivered by the infrastructure. Furthermore, change management must accommodate complex real-world systems, where dependability and performance objectives are managed across multiple distributed service components. This paper presents a change management framework that enables the assessment and minimization of service delivery disruptions. The framework builds on a few general principles. First, change management systems handle both external change requests, like software upgrades, and changes to mitigate internal events, like faults. Second, the impact on service delivery is assessed as the impact on the business values of the performance and dependability objectives across all services. The goal is to schedule change operations in order to maximize the business value across all service objectives over a long time horizon. These principles are achieved with a distributed design: change operation scheduling and business value optimization are performed by an orchestrator, while the impact assessment on specific objectives is distributed to objective-specific modules that employ domain-specific models for estimation and prediction.
Continuous Introduction of H5 High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Viruses in Hokkaido, Japan: Characterization of Viruses Isolated in Winter 2022–2023 and Early Winter 2023–2024

High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) has impacted poultry and wild birds globally. The number of H5 HPAI virus (HPAIV) infection cases in wild birds in Hokkaido (Northern Japan) was high in the last two seasons, contributing to virus spillover to resident birds and poultry. Therefore, H5 HPAIVs in birds and mammals in Hokkaido in winter 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 were monitored and viruses were phylogenetically, antigenically, and pathogenetically characterized. Thirty HPAIV isolates were subtyped and pathotyped by sequencing the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of viruses. Phylogenetic analysis of the HA gene revealed that all isolated HPAIVs were categorized into clade 2.3. 4.4b and divided into three groups (G2b, G2c, and G2d). Most isolates belonging to subgroup G2d clustered with isolates in winter 2021–2022 in Hokkaido. The other isolates were categorized into two subgroups, G2b and G2c, mainly composed of isolates in Honshu Island in winter 2021–2022 and 2022–2023, respectively. Two H5 HPAIVs isolated in Eastern Russia in spring and autumn 2022 were genetically close to most Hokkaido isolates (G2d), and a virus isolated in Hokkaido in November 2023 was also grouped in subgroup G2d. Further analysis of all eight gene segments identified six types of gene constellations. Cross-hemagglutination inhibition test indicated that the antigenicity of H5 HPAIVs isolated in the last several seasons was similar within them but slightly different from that in the 2010s. Three chicken breeds were intranasally challenged with four representative isolates to assess their pathogenicity. All chickens except one broiler chicken were dead until 5-day postchallenge with different pathogenicity of these viruses. The pathogenicity of one HPAIV strain was significantly lower in broiler chickens than in layer chickens. The mixture of multiple characteristics of HPAIVs in Hokkaido was confirmed by bird migration routes. Thus, many HPAIVs can be brought and scattered anywhere on Earth.
Recent improvements and performance analysis of ASR and MT in a speech-to-speech translation system

We report on recent ASR and MT work on our English/Iraqi Arabic speech-to-speech translation system. We present detailed results for both objective and subjective evaluations of translation quality, along with a detailed analysis and categorization of translation errors. We also present novel ideas for quantifying the relative importance of different subjective error categories, and for assigning the blame for an error to a particular phrase pair in the translation model.
The impact of parental death on schooling and subjective wellbeing: Evidence from Ethiopia using longitudinal data

This paper investigates whether the death of a parent during middle childhood affects child schooling and subjective well-being (SWB) in Ethiopia. The data comes from two rounds of the Young Lives survey, conducted in 2002 and 2006, of an initial sample of 1000 children across 20 sentinel sites in Ethiopia. The children were 7 to 8 years of age in 2002 and 11 to 12 years of age in 2006, with around 80 losing a parent between rounds. The research finds that the mother dying reduces school enrolment significantly by around 22 per cent. It also increases the chance that a child cannot write at all (even with difficulty) by around 15 per cent, and cannot read at all or can read only letters (rather than words or sentences) by around 27 per cent, compared to if the mother had not died. In contrast, the father dying does not seem to have a consistent impact on the measured outcomes. A child’s gender does not affect the results. These findings have significant policy implications for Ethiopia where parental death has become a very potent shock that children are likely to face in middle childhood.
Alginate-laccase beads in the decolourization of indigo carmine

The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of utilizing sodium alginate biopolymer as animmobilization carrier for laccase in the removal of indigo carmine (IC), an anionic dye. The main goal of this work was to optimize the decolourization process by selecting the appropriate immobilized enzyme dose per 1 mg of dye, as well as the process temperature. The effective immobilization of laccase using sodium alginate as a carrier was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. An analysis of the size and geometric parameters of the alginate beads was also carried out. Tests of IC decolourization using alginate-laccase beads were conducted. Applying the most effective dose of the enzyme (320 mg of enzyme/1 mg of IC) made it possible to remove 92.5% of the dye over 40 days. The optimal temperature for the IC decolourization process, using laccase immobilized on sodium alginate, was established at 30-40ºC. The obtained results indicate that laccase from Trametes versicolor immobilized on sodium alginate was capable of decolourizing the tested dye primarily based on mechanism of biocatalysis.
Tweaking the immune system: Gene therapy-assisted autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a treatment for autoimmune disease

Autoimmune diseases represent a major challenge for medical research. The aberrant self-recognition by the immune system leads to a range of pathologies for which cures have not been forthcoming. Treatments are commonly non-specific and often lead to unwanted side-effects. A number of strategies are currently being explored to tackle autoimmunity; aimed at eliminating existing pathogenic clones and the induction of immune tolerance through resetting or regulating the immune system. Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is one such strategy and is being trailed in a number of autoimmune diseases. However, a common feature of this strategy is disease relapse and may indicate incomplete tolerance mechanisms. It is well known that bone marrow derived cells have a major influence on immune tolerance. It is also well documented that ectopic expression of antigens within the immune system can promote robust tolerance. This review considers these observations in the context of promoting a strategy involving genetic manipulation of haematopoietic stem cells together with HSCT to induce immune tolerance and tackle autoimmunity.
Automated planning of charge processes for privately owned electric vehicles

Following the vision of decentrally generated and locally out-balanced renewable electric energy the research project econnect Germany investigates the end user acceptance of Vehicle2Grid and Grid2Vehicle applications. The algorithm used to compute the charging/discharging of individual batteries in electric vehicles (EV) will be an essential factor for end user acceptance. This is because it controls the achievable driving range and the cost savings for the individual user of an electric vehicle. Additionally, the algorithm has to allow for an effective control by the energy provider to compensate for the natural fluctuations of wind and solar energy in the region. As the final authority to decide about charging/discharging needs to be the battery management system of the EV, it is a natural choice to embed the algorithm in an electronic control unit of the car. This paper presents an algorithm designed to meet these requirements and demonstrates that it scales down to the low computing power of embedded automotive systems.
The Pricing of Structured Products – An Empirical Investigation of the German Market

This paper examines the issuer pricing of structured products during the exchange trade of November 2001. The daily closing quotes of roughly 170 reverse convertibles and 740 discount certificates are compared to values based on duplication strategies using call options traded on the Eurex (European Exchange). We investigate the average price differences dependent on product type, issuer, and underlying. A special focus lies on the possible influence of order flow, i. e. we analyze, using product life cycles and moneyness as proxies, whether the price quotes depend on the expected volume of purchases and sales. The study reveals significant differences in the pricing of structured products, which can mostly be interpreted as being in favor of the issuing institution. Version: 2003-06-26. JEL classification: G13, G24.
Local Methods for Measuring Tiled Display Alignment

We describe a new method for accurately measuring the relationship between pixel coordinates of neighboring projectors in a tiled projection display. The method can be used to calibrate the alignment and distortions in the tiled display and to touch up existing calibrations with local corrections. Additionally, by simultaneously measuring the characteristic spacing of textural features on the screen surface, we show how an absolute measure of the screen coordinates might be derived. The techniques have application to information encoding in images, in situ measurement of projector distortions without interrupting display of image content, and commodity tile-aware smart projectors. We discuss the limits to precision of these measurements.
A FILTER MODEL FOR CONCURRENT -CALCULUS MARIANGIOLA DEZANI-CIANCAGLINI AND UGO DE'LIGUORO DIPARTIMENTO DI INFORMATICA UNIVERSIT

Type free lazy -calculus is enriched with angelic parallelism and demonic nondeterminism. Call-by-name and call-by-value abstractions are considered and the operational semantics is stated in terms of a must convergence predicate. We introduce a type assignment system with intersection and union types and we prove that the induced logical semantics is fully abstract.
IaaS cloud benchmarking: approaches, challenges, and experience

Over the past five years, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds have grown into the branch of ICT that offers services related to on-demand lease of storage, computation, and network. One of the major impediments in the selection and even use of (commercial) IaaS clouds is the lack of benchmarking results, that is, the lack of trustworthy quantitative information that allows (potential) cloud users to compare and reason about IaaS clouds. In this talk we discuss empirical approaches to quantitative evaluation of IaaS clouds, toward cloud benchmarking. Both industry and academia have used empirical approaches for years, but with limited success for IaaS clouds and similar systems (e.g., grids) due to the complexity and size of challenges. We present initial results of our research into cloud workload characterization, including Big Data applications. We present the lessons we have learned in developing the SkyMark framework for cloud performance evaluation and the results of our SkyMark-based investigation of three research questions: What is the performance of production IaaS cloud services? How variable is the performance of widely used production cloud services? and What is the impact on performance of the provisioning and allocation policies that interact with IaaS clouds? In contrast to previous attempts, our research combines empirical and other approaches, for example modeling and simulation, for gaining more insight; is based on a combination of short-term and multi-year measurements, for ensuring the longevity of our results; and uses large, comprehensive studies of several real clouds, for reducing the threats to validity related to the experimental environment. This presentation can also provide useful insights for fields related to benchmarking, for example experimental evaluation conducted in other large-scale distributed systems. Last but not least, we present a road-map toward cloud benchmarking and the way we plan to progress on it with other members of the RG Cloud WG of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) http://research.spec. org/working-groups/rg-cloud-working-group.html). Note: talk based on the homonym article [1].
Through-Wall Tracking of Human Movers Using Joint Doppler and Array Processing

In this letter, a radar combining Doppler processing and spatial beamforming is presented for tracking humans through walls. Multiple targets are tracked by resolving the targets in the Doppler and bearing space. To overcome the high sidelobes associated with an array of limited size, the CLEAN and RELAX algorithms are implemented, and their performances are compared with standard beamforming. The radar is tested in indoor line-of-sight and through-wall scenarios for multiple loudspeakers and human subjects.
Microgap Evaluation of Novel Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Obturating System: A Scanning Electron Microscope Study.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of an endodontic obturation is to obtain a fluid tight hermetic seal of the entire root canal system. There has been an evolution of different materials and techniques to achieve this desired gap free fluid tight seal due to presence of anatomic complexity of the root canal system. AIM To compare the microgap occurring in root canals obturated with hydrophilic versus hydrophobic systems using scanning electron microscope. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty extracted human single-rooted premolars were decoronated, instrumented using NiTi rotary instruments. The samples (n=20) were divided into three groups and obturated with Group A - (control group) gutta-percha with AH Plus, Group B - C-point with Smartpaste Bio and Group C - gutta-percha with guttaflow 2. The samples were split longitudinally into two halves and microgap was observed under scanning electron microscope in the apical 3 mm of the root canal. RESULTS Group A (control) showed a mean difference of 8.54 as compared to 5.76 in group C. Group B showed the lowest mean difference of 0.83 suggesting that the hydrophilic system (C-point/Smartpaste Bio) produced least microgap as compared to the hydrophobic groups. CONCLUSION Novel hydrophilic obturating system (C-points/ Smart-paste Bio) showed better seal and least microgap as compared to gutta-percha/guttaflow 2 and gutta-percha/ AH plus which showed gap at the sealer dentin interface due to less penetration and bonding of these hydrophobic obturating system.
The development of a mobile humanoid robot with varying joint stiffness waist

A mobile humanoid robot named YIREN has been developed as a platform for the research on intelligent robotics. The robot consists of 23 degrees of freedom (DOF), including the mobile platform, waist, torso, arms, neck and head, and it has two peculiarities: a waist mechanism that could adjust the mechanical compliance suitably and a mobile platform which is an omni-directional mobile robot with orthogonal-wheel assemblies. The design was mainly focused on two essential requirements of safety and mobility. This study aimed at realizing passive compliance of the mobile humanoid robot by its waist, and developing its autonomous navigation ability by its mobile platform. This paper presented a waist mechanism that could vary the joint stiffness. The influence of this waist on the compliant characteristics and the stability of the whole body were studied. The mobile humanoid robot that employs this waist is appropriate for the human-robot cooperative tasks, because it can realize safety motion by performing the waist and varying the joint stiffness while is operating.
A dynamic user authentication scheme for wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we consider user authentication (UA) for wireless sensor networks. UA is a fundamental issue in designing dependable and secure systems. Imagine that a wireless sensor network is deployed in an intelligent building, a hospital, or even a university campus, to allow legitimate users to send queries and retrieve the respective result at any of the sensor nodes. Importantly, the system needs to provide a means of user authentication to verify if the user is valid. We propose a dynamic strong-password based solution to this access control problem and adapt it into a wireless sensor network environment. The proposed strong-password authentication approach imposes very light computational load and requires simple operations, such as one-way hash function and exclusive-OR operations. We present the design of the proposed scheme and discuss how to make use of the security features on MAC sublayer (medium access control) based on the IEEE 802.15. 4 specification. Analysis on security and communication costs is presented to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme
Virtual Laboratories in STEM Higher Education: A Scoping Review

Synthetic learning environments like virtual laboratories are increasingly used in pedagogical practice across the landscape of higher education, in both professional and non-professional study programs. Virtual laboratories are simulations of experiments or other hands-on activities that allow students to explore scientific concepts and principles in a virtual environment. These simulations can be used to supplement or replace traditional laboratory experiences on campus, providing students with a flexible and convenient way to learn and engage with the laboratory as a context for work. The conceptual and theoretical foundations of these simulations, however, are still poorly understood. This study provides a scoping review of the literature on how virtual laboratories are conceptualized in STEM higher education, and the ideas, principles and presuppositions that inform and sustain research on virtual laboratories in STEM. By searching through databases (n = 7) for peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between 2012 and 2023, focusing on the use of virtual laboratories in STEM higher education, a selection of articles (n = 23) was identified as relevant for the study aim and subjected to thematic analysis and narrative synthesis. The results add to our knowledge from previous systematic reviews of studies on virtual laboratories in STEM higher education, particularly by identifying common characteristics between various definitions of virtual laboratories. Moreover, the review identifies three theoretical traditions influencing work on virtual laboratories for STEM in higher education. While this highlights a field of research committed to evidence-informed pedagogy and instructional effectiveness, it also points to a lack of descriptive, qualitative research that systematically investigates everyday instructional practices with virtual laboratories in STEM-education in naturalistic contexts. Further studies on what happens in such settings would be valuable for informing future theorizing about virtual laboratories in STEM.
Adaptive control of robot manipulators using fuzzy logic systems under actuator constraints

The stable fuzzy adaptive controller for trajectory tracking is developed for robot manipulators without velocity measurements, taking into account the actuator constraints. The controller is based on structural knowledge of the dynamics of the robot and measurements of link positions only. The gravity torque which may include payload variation etc. represents system uncertainty, which is estimated by a fuzzy logic system (FLS). The adaptive controller represents an amalgamation of a filtering technique to eliminate velocity measurements and the theory of function approximation using FLS to estimate the gravity torque. The proposed controller ensures the local asymptotic stability and the convergence of the position error to zero. The proposed controller is robust not only to structured uncertainty such as payload parameter variation but also to unstructured one such as disturbances. The validity of the control scheme is shown by simulations of a two link robot manipulator.
Invariant visual patterns for video copy detection

Large scale video copy detection task requires compact feature insensitive to various copy changes. Based on local feature trajectory behavior we discover invariant visual patterns for generating robust feature. Bag of Trajectory (BoT) technical is adopted for fast pattern matching. Our algorithm with lower cost is more robust compared to the state-of-art schemes.
A 10 residue motif at the C‐terminus of the RNA pol II CTD is required for transcription, splicing and 3′ end processing

The RNA polymerase II C‐terminal heptad repeat domain (CTD) is essential for normal transcription and co‐transcriptional processing of mRNA precursors. The mammalian CTD comprises 52 heptads whose consensus, YSPTSPS, is conserved throughout eukaryotes, followed by a 10 amino acid C‐terminal sequence that is conserved only among vertebrates. Here we show that surprisingly, the heptad repeats are not sufficient to support efficient transcription, pre‐mRNA processing or full cell viability. In addition to the heptads, the 10 amino acid C‐terminal motif is essential for high level transcription, splicing and poly(A) site cleavage. Efficient mRNA synthesis from a transiently transfected reporter gene required the C‐terminal motif plus between 16 and 25 heptad repeats from either the N‐ or C‐terminal half of the CTD. Twenty‐seven consensus heptads plus the C‐terminal motif also supported efficient mRNA synthesis but not cell viability.
Classification ensemble for mammograms using Ant-Miner

This paper proposes a new classification method based on association rule mining. This association rule-based classifier is experimented on a real dataset; a database of medical images from MIAS database. The proposed system employs Ant-Miner metaheuristic algorithm for extracting knowledge in the form of decision rules using texture features extracted with the help of co-occurrence matrices. These rules are used to predict unseen mammogram. The experimental results show that the method performs with greater accuracy.
Recurrent Self-Organizing Maps for Recognition of Grasp Sequence of Movements

Research on controllers for robot hands with multiple fingers has emphasized the approach called programming by demonstration. In such an alternative, one aims to develop a robotic system capable of learning grasp tasks through demonstrations of a human operator. Hence, recognition of a particular grasp is often a stage of the learning procedure. We present a recurrent Self-organizing map (SOM) to identify a grasp before it is finished, i.e., during the movement of a robotic hand. In our experiments, the recognition system, simply based on fingers position, obtained 80% of correct recognition of 31 different grasps. The average value of correct categorization of grasp was 87%.