Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unsupervised topic discovery applied to segmentation of news transcriptions

Audio transcriptions from Automatic Speech Recognition systems are a continuous stream of words that are difficult to read. Segmenting these transcriptions into thematically distinct stories and categorizing the stories by topics increases readability and comprehensibility. However, manually defined topic categories are rarely available, and the cost of annotating a large corpus with thousands of distinct topics is high. We describe a procedure for applying the Unsupervised Topic Discovery (UTD) algorithm to the Thematic Story Segmentation procedure for segmenting broadcast news episodes into stories and to assign these stories with automatic topic labels. We report our results of applying automatic topics for the task of story segmentation on a collection of news episodes in English and Arabic. Our results indicate that story segmentation performance with automatic topic annotations from UTD is at par with the performance with manual topic annotations.
GNSS Jammers: Effects and countermeasures

GNSS jammers are small portable devices able to broadcast disruptive interference and overpower the much weaker GNSS signals. In this paper, the effects of GNSS jammers on GPS and Galileo receivers are thoroughly analyzed and the use of an adaptive notch filter is suggested as an effective countermeasure to jamming. Signals generated by a commercial jammer are broadcast in a large anechoic chamber along with the GPS and Galileo signals generated by a hardware simulator. The analysis is conducted in terms of C/N0 degradation and different jammer power levels are considered. The use of mitigation techniques, such as notch filtering, significantly improves the performance of GNSS receivers even in the presence of strong and fast-varying jamming signals. The presence of a pilot tone in the Galileo E1 signal enables pure PLL tracking and makes the processing of Galileo signals more robust to jamming.
Off-Center Monopole And Dipole Sources In Fluid-Filled Boreholes

A variety of seismic testing techniques rely on the use of seismic sources, detectors, or both, placed at some depth below the ground surface; these are often installed within fluid-filled boreholes. The interpretation of the records obtained in the course of such explorations requires a thorough understanding of how waves propagate in the borehole and its immediate vicinity. Depending on the distance between the source and the receiver as well as their placement and orientation relative to the axis of the borehole, it is known that very complex wave patterns may arise. In this paper, analytical-numerical solutions are used to study the wave-field elicited by monopole or dipole sources within a fluid-filled cylindrical cavity drilled through an unbounded homogeneous elastic medium. This model is used to assess the effects of a source-receiver tool, placed in an offcentered and/or tilted position inside the fluid-filled borehole, on the propagation of both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric wave modes.
Generating vertical velocity and angular momentum during skating jumps

Albert and Miller (1997) performed an analysis of vertical velocity and angular momentum for single and double Axels. Their results indicate that both radial and tangential motion of the skater are critical to the generation of vertical velocity throughout the take-off of single and double Axels. In generating angular momentum during the take-off, the movement of the free leg was most critical. The authors surmised that the movement of the fee leg creates an eccentric horizontal ground reaction force with a moment consistent with the rotational direction of the jump. The purpose of this study was to expand upon the study of Albert and Miller (1997) and investigate the techniques used by athletes in generating vertical velocity and angular momentum in single, double, and triple Axels.
Does Lower Transaction Price Attract More Customers?: An Empirical Study on the Short and Long Term Impacts of Online Brokerage Services

We examine price and quality as variables to examine the determinants of online brokerage’s market share and empirically investigate the effects using panel data during an eight-year span. Panel data not only allows us to isolate the short-term from that of the long-term impacts of online services on firm performance, but also to avoid the problem of studying “disequilibrium” in a “land rush” period of e-commerce. Our study identifies the significant role of interest revenue in the brokerage business and the central contribution of service quality in increasing interest revenue. We show that the businesses’ adequate management of the two generic strategies – price leadership and quality differentiation – can maximize aggregate revenues from various sources. Our study helps various businesses understand the underlying businesses principles by unraveling the effects of the interaction between price and quality strategies and their contribution to the respective and aggregate revenues.
Model checking for programming languages using VeriSoft

Verification by state-space exploration, also often referred to as "model checking", is an effective method for analyzing the correctness of concurrent reactive systems (e.g., communication protocols). Unfortunately, existing model-checking techniques are restricted to the verification of properties of models, i.e., abstractions, of concurrent systems.In this paper, we discuss how model checking can be extended to deal directly with "actual" descriptions of concurrent systems, e.g., implementations of communication protocols written in programming languages such as C or C++. We then introduce a new search technique that is suitable for exploring the state spaces of such systems. This algorithm has been implemented in VeriSoft, a tool for systematically exploring the state spaces of systems composed of several concurrent processes executing arbitrary C code. As an example of application, we describe how VeriSoft successfully discovered an error in a 2500-line C program controlling robots operating in an unpredictable environment.
A New Approach to the Problem of Access Policy Violations: Increasing Perceptions of Accountability through the User Interface

Access-policy violations are a growing problem with substantial costs for organizations. Although training programs and sanctions have been suggested as a means of reducing these violations, evidence shows these persist. It is thus imperative to identify additional ways to reduce access-policy violations, especially for ubiquitous broad-access systems. We use accountability theory to develop four user-interface (UI) design artifacts that raise users’ accountability perceptions within systems and in turn decrease access-policy violations. To test our model, we uniquely applied the scenario-based factorial survey method to various graphical manipulations of a records system containing sensitive information at a large organization with over 300 end-users who use the system daily. We show that the UI design artifacts corresponding to four submanipulations of accountability can raise accountability and reduce access policy-violation intentions. Our findings have several theoretical, practice, and design-science implications for increasing accountability using UI design. Moreover, we are the first to extend the scenario-based factorial survey method to test design artifacts. This method provides the ability to use more design manipulations and to test with fewer users than is required in traditional experimentation and research on human-computer interaction. We also provide bootstrapping tests of mediation and moderation and demonstrate how to analyze fixed and random effects within the factorial survey method optimally.
The moisture response of soil heterotrophic respiration: interaction with soil properties

Abstract. Soil moisture is of primary importance for predicting the evolution of soil carbon stocks and fluxes, both because it strongly controls organic matter decomposition and because it is predicted to change at global scales in the following decades. However, the soil functions used to model the heterotrophic respiration response to moisture have limited empirical support and introduce an uncertainty of at least 4% in global soil carbon stock predictions by 2100. The necessity of improving the representation of this relationship in models has been highlighted in recent studies. Here we present a data-driven analysis of soil moisture-respiration relations based on 90 soils. With the use of linear models we show how the relationship between soil heterotrophic respiration and different measures of soil moisture is consistently affected by soil properties. The empirical models derived include main effects and moisture interaction effects of soil texture, organic carbon content and bulk density. When compared to other functions currently used in different soil biogeochemical models, we observe that our results can correct biases and reconcile differences within and between such functions. Ultimately, accurate predictions of the response of soil carbon to future climate scenarios will require the integration of soil-dependent moisture-respiration functions coupled with realistic representations of soil water dynamics.
Detection, traceback and filtering of denial of service attacks in networked embedded systems

This work presents a composite scheme for detection, traceback and filtering of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in networked embedded systems. A method based on algorithmic analysis of various node and network parameters is used to detect attacks while a packet marking method is used to mitigate the effects of the attack by filtering the incoming traffic that is part of this attack and trace back to the origin of the attack. The combination of the detection and mitigation methods provide an increased level of security in comparison to approaches based on a single method. Furthermore, the scheme is developed in a way to comply with the novel SHIELD secure architecture being developed, which aims at providing interoperability with other secure components as well as metrics to quantify their security properties.
Regional Variation of Climatic Influences on West Nile Virus Outbreaks in the United States

The national resurgence of human West Nile virus (WNV) disease in 2012 raised questions about the factors responsible for WNV outbreaks. Interannual climatic variations may influence WNV amplification and transmission to humans through multiple pathways, including mosquito breeding habitats, gonotrophic cycles, extrinsic incubation, avian communities, and human behavior. We examined the influences of temperature and precipitation anomalies on interannual variation in human WNV cases in three regions of the United States. There were consistent positive influences of winter temperatures, weaker and more variable positive effects of spring and summer temperatures, and highly variable precipitation effects that ranged from positive to negative. The overwintering period may be a particularly important climatic constraint on the dynamics of WNV in cold-temperate regions of North America. Geographic differences in the seasonal timing and relative importance of climatic drivers of WNV risk likely reflect underlying variability in key ecological and social characteristics.
Critical success factors influencing the transformation of the agricultural biotechnology industry in Taiwan

The study uses the fuzzy Delphi and FA nP (fuzzy analysis network process) methods to integrate the views of experts from enterprises and academia regarding the future direction of the agricultural biotechnology industry in Taiwan, in order to extract the critical success factors influencing its transformation. This study compares the differences in the "cross-domain" and "non-cross-domain" critical success factors, and expects that the research results could be a decision- making reference for both the industry and the government. The research results show that the cross-domain critical factor that influence the transformation of the agricultural biotechnology industry in Taiwan are sequentially: a stable source of raw materials, control of the trend of market demand, a new production equipment, the capability in supporting upstream and downstream industries, the integration of the human resources of the upstream, midstream, and downstream industries, and the capability in marketing and promotion. The non-cross-domain critical factors are sequentially: the capacity to es - tablish the system of product technology, the capacity to control intellectual property rights, a perfect educational system, the capacity to carry out risk management of the new product development, the competence in cultivating the capacity of technical and r&D personnel, and laws and regulations.
Expression of a Vacuole-Localized BURP-Domain Protein from Soybean (SALI3-2) Enhances Tolerance to Cadmium and Copper Stresses

The plant-specific BURP family proteins play diverse roles in plant development and stress responses, but the function mechanism of these proteins is still poorly understood. Proteins in this family are characterized by a highly conserved BURP domain with four conserved Cys-His repeats and two other Cys, indicating that these proteins potentially interacts with metal ions. In this paper, an immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) assay showed that the soybean BURP protein SALI3-2 could bind soft transition metal ions (Cd2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Zn2+ and Cu2+) but not hard metal ions (Ca2+ and Mg2+) in vitro. A subcellular localization analysis by confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the SALI3-2-GFP fusion protein was localized to the vacuoles. Physiological indexes assay showed that Sali3-2-transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings were more tolerant to Cu2+ or Cd2+ stresses than the wild type. An inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis illustrated that, compared to the wild type seedlings the Sali3-2-transgenic seedlings accumulated more cadmium or copper in the roots but less in the upper ground tissues when the seedlings were exposed to excessive CuCl2 or CdCl2 stress. Therefore, our findings suggest that the SALI3-2 protein may confer cadmium (Cd2+) and copper (Cu2+) tolerance to plants by helping plants to sequester Cd2+ or Cu2+ in the root and reduce the amount of heavy metals transported to the shoots.
An Automatic Steering and Tracking System for Autonomous Vehicles based on EPS

—The steering control system serves as the foundation of all autonomous vehicle activities, directly supporting trajectory planning and tracking. Prior research assumes ideal characteristics of the control system and leaves the burden of realizing such assumptions to physical implementation. However, expense of high-performance actuators and mechanical difﬁculty of hardware installation render this a dilemma between ﬁnancial infeasibility and loss of theoretical coherence. To overcome such predicament, we propose a tightly integrated predictive steering and tracking framework capable of achieving comparable performance while uses only factory-shipped equipment built in the vehicle with cheap sensors and controllers. Careful dynamical modeling of each component and extensive on-road experiments prove the practicality and efﬁcacy of our approach.
Ultrasonography in the evaluation of carpal tunnel syndrome: Diagnostic criteria and comparison with

Ultrasound criteria for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) may vary in different populations. To determine the ultrasonographic criteria for CTS in a Malaysian population and compare its usefulness with nerve conduction studies (NCS), we studied patients clinically diagnosed with CTS and normal controls by ultrasonography. All patients also underwent standard NCS. Median nerve Cross-Sectional Area (CSA) and Flattening Ratio (FR) at 3 different levels – proximal to tunnel inlet, at tunnel inlet and tunnel outlet were measured. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to calculate the optimal discriminatory threshold values for CTS. Of 54 CTS hands, NCS was positive in 85.2%. Median nerve CSA at all 3 levels, were signifi cantly greater in CTS hands.FR was signifi cantly greater at tunnel inlet. A CSA threshold of 0.1 cm 2 proximal to and at tunnel inlet had sensitivities of 70.4% and 63% and specifi cities of 85.2% and 88.5 % respectively. CSA at tunnel outlet had lower specifi city. If CSA of 2 levels (viz. proximal to or at tunnel inlet) were considered together, sensitivity and specifi city improved to 81.5% and 83.3%. Qualitative loss of fascicular discrimination of the nerve proximal to the inlet had sensitivity and specifi city of 77.8% and 96.3%. The most useful ultrasonographic parameter was median nerve CSA either proximal to or at tunnel inlet. However, the sensitivities were lower compared to NCS. Qualitative appearance of the median nerve is a useful adjunct to diagnosis. In conclusion, ultrasonography play an important complementary role to NCS in the diagnosis of CTS.
Physical Mistreatment in Persons with Alzheimer's Disease

Physical mistreatment has been estimated to affect 2 million older persons each year and dramatically affects health outcomes. While researchers have attempted to examine risk factors for specific forms of abuse, many have been able to focus on only victim or perpetrator characteristics, or a limited number of psychosocial variables at any one time. Additionally, data on risk factors for subgroups such as persons with Alzheimer's disease who may have heightened and/or unique risk profiles has also been limited. This paper examines risk for physical violence in caregiver/patient dyads who participated in the Aggression and Violence in Community-Based Alzheimer's Families Grant. Data were collected via in-person interview and mailed survey and included demographics as well as measures of violence, physical and emotional health, and health behaviors. Logistic regression analysis indicated that caregivers providing care to elders with high levels of functional impairment or dementia symptoms, or who had alcohol problems, were more likely to use violence as a conflict resolution strategy, as were caregivers who were providing care to elders who used violence against them. By contrast, caregivers with high self-esteem were less likely to use violence as a conflict resolution strategy. Significant interaction effects were also noted.
Active Learning with Sampling by Uncertainty and Density for Word Sense Disambiguation and Text Classification

This paper addresses two issues of active learning. Firstly, to solve a problem of uncertainty sampling that it often fails by selecting outliers, this paper presents a new selective sampling technique, sampling by uncertainty and density (SUD), in which a k-Nearest-Neighbor-based density measure is adopted to determine whether an unlabeled example is an outlier. Secondly, a technique of sampling by clustering (SBC) is applied to build a representative initial training data set for active learning. Finally, we implement a new algorithm of active learning with SUD and SBC techniques. The experimental results from three real-world data sets show that our method outperforms competing methods, particularly at the early stages of active learning.
Instructional technology strategy for the adult migrant English program

Educators have always used technology as part of the learning process and have reflected on the use of each new technology as it becomes available for use. As new technologies are computer mediated, and the pace of advances in hardware and software increases, there are major implications for the planning and delivery of the education of the future. This study presents a strategy clearly mapping out directions and priorities for the use of various technologies in the AMEP. It suggests that an overall strategy needs to address six main areas — research, standards, skills, training and information, and puts forward suggestions about the focus of strategies within each of these areas.
Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Network using Fuzzy based Trust Model

Wireless sensor network consist of large number of sensor nodes that are deployed in large number to monitor the environment. In last few years there is a great technological advancement in wireless sensor network. Due to low-cost, smallsize, nature of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), it allows them to sense the information in various hostile environments (e.g. military surveillance, battlefield). So, to fully achieve the capacity of WSNs, sensor nodes need to cooperate in the collection and must disseminate topology information. These sensor nodes specifically operate in a multihop routing. In muiltihop routing, sensor network have to face a variety of risks due to the harsh operating environments. In this paper a fuzzy based approach is introduced which will enhance the routing security and reliability in WSNs.
A New Strategy-Proof Greedy-Allocation Combinatorial Auction Protocol and Its Extension to Open Ascending Auction Protocol

This paper proposes a new combinatorial auction protocol called Average-Max-Minimal-Bundle (AM-MB) protocol. The characteristics of the AM-MB protocol are as follows: (i) it is strategyproof, i.e., truth-telling is a dominant strategy, (ii) the computational overhead is very low, since it allocates bundles greedily thereby avoiding an explicit combinatorial optimization problem, and (iii) it can obtain higher social surplus and revenue than can the Max-Minimal-Bundle (M-MB) protocol, which also satisfies (i) and (ii). Furthermore, this paper extends the AM-MB protocol to an open ascending-price protocol in which straightforward bidding is an ex-post Nash equilibrium.
Towards Requirements Change Decision Support

Our experiences with industrial software development projects have often revealed that requirements change even after their formal approvals. Although the requirements are never stable, proactive identification of potentially changeable or deferrable requirements, and estimation of their impacts early in a project can be useful in minimizing the risks and cost overruns. In practice, the decisions to change or defer certain requirements are based on experience, and are mostly driven by business needs and product release timelines. There are no techniques available which could foresee such changes early in the project. In this work, we perform exploratory analysis of the requirement artifacts from thirty three industrial software development projects and shared our observations on different requirement change attributes. Through empirical analysis, we evolve the relative weights of each of these attributes in terms of their impacts on the project schedule and effort. Based on the analysis, a model is developed to predict the impact due to requirement changes and it is validated. This model can be used to develop a requirement change decision support tool to assist decision makers.
On the design of an embedded biometric smart card reader

In this paper, a highly reliable embedded biometric smart card system with cryptography engine is proposed. We explain the system architecture of portable embedded biometric smart card reader to strengthen security for various consumer applications such as mobile cash card. Proposed biometric smart card system is embedded with 75 MHz 32-bit RISC, 6 channel smart card controller and advanced encryption system (AES) cryptography accelerator. It is devised to communicate with smart card with encrypted biometric data using international standard ISO-7816 and provides system peripherals such as LCD display controller and USB host interface. The proposed implementation shows a 70% performance improvement for decryption of protected biometric data compared to the software based smart card chipset and it is verified using 0.35 um CMOS process.