Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving effectiveness and well-being in knowledge work through cognitive ergonomics

Motivation -- To study if the use of information technology (IT) really does improve efficiency in different knowledge work professions in itself, and to identify possible unnecessary cognitive stress factors in systems and environments. Research approach -- The research consists of four parts: 1. A survey based on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (Broadbent et al. 1982), CFQ, and the Workplace Cognitive Failure Scale (Wallace and Chen, 2005), WCFS. The questionnaires will be slightly modified to fit knowledge work environments and tasks better. 2. An experiment studying the costs of inconsistent information in knowledge work. These costs are measured with a newly developed cognitive task that simulates working with both consistent and inconsistent systems. 3. An experiment studying environmental factors and their effect on work flow and efficiency. Such environmental factors include ambient office noise, interruptions in work flow, and system usability. Work is simulated using the same cognitive task as in part 2. 4. A review of cognitive stress factors inflicting cognitive errors, harming work flow, and decreasing efficiency. Also aspects of the true costs of such factors, and ways in which they could be avoided are discussed. Findings/Design -- First, common cognitive errors and failures in knowledge work environments are recognized. Novel methods for studying the effects of information consistency and various environmental factors are developed and applied. The findings of these studies are then applied to a broader context including the well-being of individuals, knowledge work flow and effectiveness, and the economic effects of cognitive failures and stressful environments. Research limitations/Implications -- Research is limited to Finnish knowledge work environments, hence the socio-economic aspects and work environment conditions are not universally generalisable. However, the cognitive aspects and limitations studied are likely to be cross-cultural. Originality/Value -- A correlation between cognitive failure at work and workplace accidents has been recognized. However, typical knowledge work environments are not prone to accidents, but should be particularly susceptible to cognitive errors. The frequency, effect and cost of such errors in these environments merits a more thorough study. Take away message -- Information systems are often introduced into work environments in order to improve efficiency. Such systems do not increase work efficiency just by being information systems, they must fit the work environment, tasks and most importantly the users in order to improve work flow and not frustrate or stress the employees.
Transmission characteristics of an FDM system using Mach-Zehnder filters

A plain representation of the amplitude transfer function using a Mach-Zehnder filter model is proposed by applying the analysis technique for a transmission type periodic branching microwave filter. A four-channel frequency division multiplexing system configuration using the Mach-Zehnder filter models is presented as an example of a multi-channel FDM system. The amplitude transfer functions for the channels of the presented system are exhibited by using the proposed representation. The calculated result of a signal to inter-channel interference ratio for the system together with a two-channel and an eight-channel FDM system are shown.
Positive Correlation between Enhanced Expression of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB with Insulin Resistance in Placentae of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Insulin resistance (IR) is a critical factor of the pathophysiology of Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Studies on key organs involved in IR, such as livers and adipose tissues, showed that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) can regulate insulin sensitivity. As a maternal-fetal interface with multi-functions, placentae could contribute to the development of IR for GDM. Thus, we investigated the expressions of TLR4/Myeloid Differentiation factor 88 (MyD88)/Nuclear Factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kB) in term placentae from 33 GDM women and 36 healthy pregnant women with normal glucose tolerance, evaluated local and systemic IR and furthermore identified the association between placental TLR4 and IR. TLR4 protein was expressed in various cells of term placenta, particularly in syncytiotrophoblast of villi. Compared with normal pregnancy, the expression of TLR4/MyD88/NF-kB pathway increased in the placenta of GDM (p<0.05), and these differences were more pronounced in the maternal section of the placenta and the syncytiotrophoblast of villi. In addition, more severe IR was observed in the placenta of GDM patients than the control group, evidenced with higher pIRS-1(ser312) (p<0.001) and lower IRS-1 (p<0.05) as well as pAkt proteins (p<0.01). The expression of TLR4 in placentae is positively correlated with local IR (pIRS-1: r = 0.76, p <0.001 and pAkt: r = -0.47, p <0.001) and maternal fasting (r = 0.42, p <0.01), one-hour (r = 0.52, p <0.01) and two-hour glucose (r = 0.54, p <0.01) at OGTT. We found an that enhanced expression of the TLR4-MyD88-NF-kB pathway occurs in GDM placentae, which positively correlates with heightened local IR in placentae and higher maternal hyperglycemia. The TLR4/MyD88/NF-kB pathway may play a potential role in the development of IR in placentae of GDM.
Incremental Workflow Mining with Optional Patterns and Its Application to Production Printing Process

For today's business organizations, workflow models play important roles in analyzing the productivity, evaluating the performances and costs, optimizing the business operations, and supporting evolving services and products. Workflow mining, the process of empirically extracting structured process descriptions from a set of real executions, thus has attracted a lot of attention recently. However, there are several challenges that have not been fully addressed in the previous research: i) How can we mine process models with optional tasks? ii) How can we efficiently use new available workflow log data to incrementally update pre-existing workflow models or to complete previous partial process models? iii) How can we compare two different workflow models of similar organizations? In this paper, we present our research efforts to address the above challenges. We present a workflow mining algorithm that is able to mine process models with optional tasks and propose an incremental workflow mining algorithm based on intermediate relationships such as ordering and independence. The intermediate relationships can also be used to facilitate the comparison of two process models. We successfully apply our algorithm to address the challenges in production printing workflow: how to update the process model according to the dynamic changes and how to compare the "designed" process and the "deployed and executed" one.
Linking Coral Reef Remote Sensing and Field Ecology: It’s a Matter of Scale

Remote sensing shows potential for assessing biodiversity of coral reefs. Important steps in achieving this objective are better understanding the spectral variability of various reef components and correlating these spectral characteristics with field-based ecological assessments. Here we analyze >9400 coral reef field spectra from southwestern Puerto Rico to evaluate how spectral variability and, more specifically, spectral similarity between species influences estimates of biodiversity. Traditional field methods for estimating reef biodiversity using photoquadrats are also included to add ecological context to the spectral analysis. Results show that while many species can be distinguished using in situ field spectra, the addition of the overlying water column significantly reduces the ability to differentiate species, and even groups of species. This indicates that the ability to evaluate biodiversity with remote sensing decreases with increasing water depth. Due to the inherent spectral similarity amongst many species, including taxonomically dissimilar species, remote sensing underestimates biodiversity and represents the lower limit of actual species diversity. The overall implication is that coral reef ecologists using remote sensing need to consider the spatial and spectral context of the imagery, and remote sensing scientists analyzing biodiversity need to define confidence limits as a function of both water depth and the scale of information derived, e.g., species, groups of species, or community level.
The Effect of Trait Anxiety on Recognition of Threatening Emotional Facial Expressions: A Study among High School Students.

Previous studies indicated that sensitivity to facial expressions of threat is related to anxiety in children, adolescents and adults. A small amount of anxiety often improves students' performance, but a high level of anxiety can interfere the learning process. The feeling of being threatened by particular stimuli would cause them to perceive many daily situations as threatening and this will result in more frequent experiences of fear of what may happen, especially for the high anxiety students. This research will explore the threat perception that the secondary school students might have in relation to negative facial expression and examine the sensitivity towards anger expressions as threatening stimuli. 49 students (25 low anxiety and 24 high anxiety) age between 16 to 18 years old have been recruited to answer a set of anxiety questionnaires and they were also required to identify the facial expression to explore the threat perception by looking at images posing facial expression in 2 and 3 dimensions. These images have been transformed into 5 levels of anger using FaceGen Modeller 3.5. Results demonstrated that the high anxiety students can identify threat stimuli from faces more accurately and faster than the low anxiety students. It is suggested that angry faces may be perceived as particularly threatening amongst students and play a significant role in their emotional well being. It is hoped that this research will increase our understanding of the relationship between anxiety and threat perception and this unique visual stimulus can generate a wealth of other research in Malaysia.
Security situational aware intelligent road traffic monitoring using UAVs

Roadway networks span large distances and can be difficult to monitor for managing road traffic. Most efforts to collect usage data from roadways either require a large fixed infrastructure or are labour intensive. Numerous number of road traffic monitoring techniques exists today. Technological advances in electronics and communication have recently enabled an alternative, such as use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). UAVs are very flexible and fast compared to the normal road traffic monitoring techniques. In addition, security situations can also impact the road traffic management. This paper presents a security situational aware intelligent traffic monitoring using UAV. Such security situational aware road traffic management can also support research and development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). In this paper, various real time traffic as well as security issues are analysed and mitigations are presented as re-routing of the traffic. The decision commands for re-routing or shortest traffic paths are given by the UAV and these informations are sent to the traffic management control centre. The model was validated using ARM microcontroller simulation using Keil μvision and Proteus tools.
Scenario-based Distributed Model Predictive Control for freeway networks

In this paper we develop a scenario-based Distributed Model Predictive Control (DMPC) approach for large-scale freeway networks. The uncertainties in a large-scale freeway network are categorized into global uncertainties for the overall network and local uncertainties for subnetworks. A reduced scenario tree is proposed, consisting of global scenarios and a reduced local scenario tree. For handling uncertainties in the scenario-based DMPC problem, a min-max setting is considered. A case study is implemented for investigating the scenario-based DMPC approach, and the results show that in the presence of uncertainties it is effective in improving the control performance with the queue length constraint being satisfied.
A comparative study on user loyalty of mobile-instant messaging services: Korea and Vietnam (Research in Progress)

Mobile-instant messaging (MIM) services have been evolved and changed dramatically over these recent years thanks to the explosion of smartphone use. Many service providers are joining in this lucrative market, for instance WhatsApp, Viber, Hangouts and Facebook Messenger (as the international platforms) and the other regional applications such as WeChat (for Chinese user), KakaoTalk (for Korean user, Line and Tango (for Japanese user). Korea is a mature and developed market for MIM services with the domination of KakaoTalk while Vietnam is still an infant and on-developing market with the market share game between service providers. The antagonism between the two markets gives an interesting motivation for the research. Thus, this paper aims to find out whether any difference in user behavior and user loyalty for MIM services between Korean nation and Vietnamese nation. To do it, the study theoretically bases on the information systems (IS) success model and expectation-confirmation model (ECM) with a slight adjustment to be appropriate with the research context. Data collection surveys on MIM users in Korea and Vietnam who are using KakaoTalk particularly. The results and implications might suggest some helpful lessons for Vietnamese MIM market from the mature Korean market.
Best-response distributed subchannel selection for minimizing interference in femtocell networks

We study the problem of channel selection of non-cooperative OFDMA femtocells in two-tiered macro-femto networks. Using a physical channel model, we consider a distributed channel allocation of femtocells and a total capacity objective, which is the total capacity of uplink macro users and femto users. We assume a time-slotted system, a time-invariant channel model (no fading), each user knows the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of all channels, and the channel selection happens only at the beginning of each time-slot. We study the performance of a best-response strategy where each user chooses to transmit in the highest-SINR channel. For simplicity, we focus on the homogeneous 3-link, 2-channel case and show that if all users update their actions every time-slot (i.e., all users make simultaneous moves), an oscillation can occur and result in the worst performance. To avoid the oscillation and achieve the highest total capacity, while still assuming no coordination among the users, we propose a stochastic best-response algorithm, where each user updates its channel selection with a selection probability p. We use a Markov chain to analyze the average capacity performance and use simulation results to confirm our analysis and also provide performance of other homogeneous cases with more number of homogeneous links and channels. It is shown that the highest total capacity can be achieved when the selection probability p is very small. This stochastic best response with small p in effect provides a sequential move mechanism which requires no coordination among the users and hence avoids the oscillation problem from the simultaneous moves.
Fast exponential time integration scheme for option pricing with jumps

A fast exponential time integration scheme is considered for pricing European and double barrier options in jump‐diffusion models. After spatial discretization, the option pricing problem is transformed into the product of a matrix exponential and a vector, while the matrix bears a Toeplitz structure. The shift‐and‐invert Arnoldi method is then employed for fast approximation to such operation. Owing to the Toeplitz structure, the computational cost can be reduced by the fast Fourier transform. Furthermore, the discretized form of option pricing problem satisfies a given condition such that the error bound of the shift‐and‐invert Arnoldi approximation is unrelated to the norm of the matrix. Numerical tests are carried out to compare the proposed method with other option pricing methods. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Leave Your Phone at the Door: Side Channels that Reveal Factory Floor Secrets

From pencils to commercial aircraft, every man-made object must be designed and manufactured. When it is cheaper or easier to steal a design or a manufacturing process specification than to invent one's own, the incentive for theft is present. As more and more manufacturing data comes online, incidents of such theft are increasing. In this paper, we present a side-channel attack on manufacturing equipment that reveals both the form of a product and its manufacturing process, i.e., exactly how it is made. In the attack, a human deliberately or accidentally places an attack-enabled phone close to the equipment or makes or receives a phone call on any phone nearby. The phone executing the attack records audio and, optionally, magnetometer data. We present a method of reconstructing the product's form and manufacturing process from the captured data, based on machine learning, signal processing, and human assistance. We demonstrate the attack on a 3D printer and a CNC mill, each with its own acoustic signature, and discuss the commonalities in the sensor data captured for these two different machines. We compare the quality of the data captured with a variety of smartphone models. Capturing data from the 3D printer, we reproduce the form and process information of objects previously unknown to the reconstructors. On average, our accuracy is within 1 mm in reconstructing the length of a line segment in a fabricated object's shape and within 1 degree in determining an angle in a fabricated object's shape. We conclude with recommendations for defending against these attacks.
Is There a future for ANN Hardware

In this paper we examine the practical usefulness of hardware for artificial neural networks (ANN). ANN algorithms are good solutions for some wide classes of problems but, when one needs a physical implementation, one has the choice among a high number of architectural solutions and design approaches. We present an overview of the situation, trying to point out the existing difficulties for potential users without a deep knowledge of ANN related algorithms, internal architectures, and data flow mechanisms. We begin by describing some existing designs and architectures and we discuss the difficulties and problems in using this kind of hardware. We argue that the main problems come from the absence of a clear design path as in traditional computer hardware, from the low compatibility among different solutions, and from low versatility of the existing systems. We conclude by expressing our views on the future perspectives of the domain.
Processing of multisensory spatial congruency can be dissociated from working memory and visuo‐spatial attention

Tactile stimuli at the same location as a visual target can increase activity in the contralateral occipital cortex compared with spatially incongruent bimodal stimulation. Does this cross‐modal congruency effect in the visual cortex depend on available cognitive resources? Visual attention and working memory can modulate responses to visual stimuli in the occipital cortex, with attenuation in conditions of high‐attentional or low‐memory load. Here, we asked if these two cognitive factors affect multisensory processing in the visual cortex. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we manipulated the load of working memory or visuo‐spatial attention. Concurrently with these primary tasks we presented same‐side (congruent) or opposite‐side (incongruent) visuo‐tactile stimuli. Both experiments revealed enhancement of brain activity for congruent vs incongruent bimodal stimulation in the contralateral occipital cortex. Critically, these cross‐modal effects occurred irrespective of the level of load. We conclude that processing of visuo‐tactile spatial congruency in the visual cortex does not depend on available visuo‐spatial and memory resources.
myPIM: a graphical information management system for web resources

In this paper we present myPIM -- a graphical information management system that provides user workflow requirements in research and teaching/learning context mainly by providing a user's bookmark archive, file archive and the possibility to exchange information with colleagues. The massive growth of online information continually increases in complexity and needs to be managed efficiently and resourcefully. We describe an important distinction between data, information and knowledge in this scope to gain awareness about these notions. Based on the analysis of searching, recovering and finding, it was concluded that flat tagging instead of hierarchical taxonomies should be used. Therefore, we developed a modular concept based on common Java and JavaScript frameworks that supports this kind of labeling. A very important feature of myPIM is its dual use approach. Primarily designed as a personal knowledge management tool, this usage gives off information, which can support colleagues in discovering relevant information. As a collaborative or community tool myPIM tries on the one hand to employ the so-called "wisdom of the crowds" phenomenon, but on the other hand has to deal with the fact that the used ontologies are not fixed but co-evolve with their communities of use -- an issue that was recently addressed in the new pragmatic web approach [27].
An automated p-nitrophenylphosphate serum alkaline phosphatase procedure for the AutoAnalyzer.

A new and simplified procedure for the automated determination of serum alkaline phosphatase uses the AutoAnalyzer. The substrate p-nitrophenylphosphate in 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol offers the prime advantage of providing directly its own chromogen, p-nitrophenol, following enzyme action. The procedure also permits use of small sample volumes, provides linear reaction rates, and has a simple manifold design. Correlations are presented between the manual procedure and the automated system.
Identification of errors-in-variables systems using data clustering

The fact that simultaneous estimation of process and noise parameters using second-order properties is not possible under fairly general conditions is a well-known result in literature in the context of dynamic errors-in-variables systems. In order to make systems identifiable, additional restrictions have to be imposed. One possibility is that data are separable into two distinct clusters, which can be independently identified and the estimated parameters compared. This paper outlines an approach to system identification using principal component analysis to cluster data and the generalized Koopmans-Levin method to derive parameter estimates.