Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors contributing to the life satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Jos North LGA

The study examined the contribution of three factors to the life satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Jos North. The three factors include monthly income, job satisfaction and meaningful work. Ninety-two secondary school teachers working in public and private schools within Jos North participated in the study. A correlational research design was employed for the study. Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale (1985), Steger, Dik and Duffy's work as meaning inventory (2012) and Spector's Job Satisfaction Survey (1985) were used in collecting data for the study. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses. Job satisfaction and meaningful work positively correlated with life satisfaction whereas monthly income had no relationship with life satisfaction. The study therefore recommends an improvement in the working environment of teachers to increase job satisfaction that leads to life satisfaction. Keywords: Teachers, Life satisfaction, Job satisfaction, Income, Meaningful work
Building a refinement checker for Z

In previous work we have described how refinements can be checked using a temporal logic based model-checker, and how we have built a model-checker for Z by providing a translation of Z into the SAL input language. In this paper we draw these two strands of work together and discuss how we have implemented refinement checking in our Z2SAL toolset. The net effect of this work is that the SAL toolset can be used to check refinements between Z specifications supplied as input files written in the LaTeX mark-up. Two examples are used to illustrate the approach and compare it with a manual translation and refinement check.
A PTAS for Euclidean Maximum Scatter TSP

We study the problem of finding a tour of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ in which every edge is long. More precisely, we wish to find a tour that maximizes the length of the shortest edge in the tour. The problem is known as Maximum Scatter TSP, and it was introduced by Arkin et al. (SODA 1997), motivated by applications in manufacturing and medical imaging. Arkin et al. gave a $2$-approximation for the metric version of the problem and showed that this is the best possible ratio achievable in polynomial time (assuming $P \neq NP$). They raised the question of whether one can obtain a better approximation ratio in the planar Euclidean case. We answer this question in the affirmative in a more general setting, by giving a polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for Maximum Scatter TSP in an arbitrary fixed-dimensional Euclidean space.
A 67-mW 10.7-Gb/s 60-GHz OOK CMOS Transceiver for Short-Range Wireless Communications

A low-power and high data-rate fully integrated 60-GHz on-off keying (OOK) transceiver for short-range wireless communication is demonstrated. The transceiver consists of a switch, transmitter, and receiver and uses OOK modulation for a compact and low-power design. With a highly efficient Tx, high-speed modulator/demodulator, and wideband characteristic, the transceiver has low-power and high data-rate capability. Implemented in 90-nm CMOS technology, the transmitter and the receiver consume 31 and 36 mW at 10.7 Gb/s and occupy an active footprint of 0.15 and 0.29 mm2, respectively. The transceiver with an on-board Yagi-Uda antenna achieves 10.7-Gb/s wireless OOK data transmission over 10 cm at a bit-error rate of less than 10-12 for 27 -1 pseudorandom binary sequence. As a result, the proposed transceiver achieves energy efficiency of 6.26 pJ/bit.
Logit Models for Binary Data 3.1 Introduction to Logistic Regression 3.1.1 the Contraceptive Use Data

We now turn our attention to regression models for dichotomous data, including logistic regression and probit analysis. These models are appropriate when the response takes one of only two possible values representing success and failure, or more generally the presence or absence of an attribute of interest. We start by introducing an example that will be used to illustrate the analysis of binary data. We then discuss the stochastic structure of the data in terms of the Bernoulli and binomial distributions, and the systematic structure in terms of the logit transformation. The result is a generalized linear model with binomial response and link logit. Table 3.1, adapted from Little (1978), shows the distribution of 1607 currently married and fecund women interviewed in the Fiji Fertility Survey of 1975, classified by current age, level of education, desire for more children, and contraceptive use. In our analysis of these data we will view current use of contraception as the response or dependent variable of interest and age, education and desire for more children as predictors. Note that the response has two categories: use and non-use. In this example all predictors are treated as categorical
Parallelizing join computations of SPARQL queries for large semantic web databases

While a number of optimizing techniques have been developed to efficiently process increasing large Semantic Web databases, these optimization approaches have not fully leveraged the powerful computation capability of modern computers. Today's multi-core computers promise an enormous performance boost by providing a parallel computing platform. Although the parallel relational database systems have been well built, parallel query computing in Semantic Web databases have not extensively been studied. In this work, we develop the parallel algorithms for join computations of SPARQL queries. Our performance study shows that the parallel computation of SPARQL queries significantly speeds up querying large Semantic Web databases.
Using Covert Topological Information for Defense Against Malicious Attacks on DC State Estimation

Accurate state estimation is of paramount importance to maintain the power system operating in a secure and efficient state. The recently identified coordinated data injection attacks to meter measurements can bypass the current security system and introduce errors to the state estimates. The conventional wisdom to mitigate such attacks is by securing meter measurements to evade malicious injections. In this paper, we provide a novel alternative to defend against false data injection attacks using covert power network topological information. By keeping the exact reactance of a set of transmission lines from attackers, no false data injection attack can be launched to compromise any set of state variables. We first investigate from the attackers' perspective the necessary condition to perform an injection attack. Based on the arguments, we characterize the optimal protection problem, which protects the state variables with minimum cost, as a well-studied Steiner tree problem in a graph. In addition, we also propose a mixed defending strategy that jointly considers the use of covert topological information and secure meter measurements when either method alone is costly or unable to achieve the protection objective. A mixed-integer linear programming formulation is introduced to obtain the optimal mixed defending strategy. To tackle the NP-hardness of the problem, a tree-pruning-based heuristic is further presented to produce an approximate solution in polynomial time. The advantageous performance of the proposed defending mechanisms is verified in IEEE standard power system test cases.
Dynamo + Astro: An Integrated Approach for BPEL Monitoring

In the literature, there exist several approaches for monitoring the execution of BPEL processes. They concentrate on different properties, adopt different languages, work at different levels of abstraction, and assume different perspectives. Even if the field is rather new, we do not think that this diversity is a limitation of current solutions; rather it is intrinsic in the problem itself. We claim that, instead of working on the definition of the ultimate approach for BPEL monitoring, we should push a cooperative approach based on the integration of different solutions.In this paper, we present a first step in this direction, and describe a monitoring framework which is obtained by integrating two well-known approaches, namely Dynamo and Astro. This integration, which happens both for the language used for expressing the properties to be monitored, and for the architecture of the monitoring framework, allows to combine the advantages of the two approaches and to obtain a general, comprehensive solutions for BPEL monitoring.
A 'uses and gratifications' approach to understanding the role of wiki technology in enhancing teaching and learning outcomes

The use of the Wikis in both post-graduate and undergraduate teaching is rapidly increasing in popularity. Much of the research into the use of this technology has focused on the practical aspects of how the technology can be used and is yet to address why it is used, or in what way it enhances teaching and learning outcomes. A comparison of the key characteristics of the constructivist learning approach and Wikis suggests that Wikis could provide considerable support of this approach, however research into the motivations for using the technology is required so that good teaching practices may be applied to the use of Wikis when utilized in the higher education context. This study articulates a research design grounded in the Technology Mediated Learning (TML) paradigm that could be used to explore teachers and students’ motivations for using Wiki technology to enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Using the ‘Uses and Gratification’ approach, a popular technique used for understanding user motivation in technology adoption, a two-stage research design is set out. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for both information systems researchers and higher education.
FAME, A Polyglot Library for Metamodeling at Runtime

Tomorrow's eternal software system will co-evolve with their context: their metamodels must adapt at runtime to ever-changing external requirements. In this paper we present FAME, a polyglot library that keeps metamodels accessible and adaptable at runtime. Special care is taken to establish causal connection between fame-classes and host-classes. As some host-languages offer limited reflection features only, not all implementations feature the same degree of causal connection. We present and discuss three scenarios: 1) full causal connection, 2) no causal connection, and 3) emulated causal connection. Of which, both Scenario 1 and 3 are suitable to deploy fully metamodel-driven applications.
Recovery Management in Multiversion Objects

Atomic objects have suitable properties for realizing reliable distributed computing. Using semantic information of atomic objects can make reliable distributed computing highly concurrent. Traditional semantics based concurrency control and recovery algorithms use undo operations for recovering objects. However, it is sometimes di cult to de ne undo operations. We propose an alternative approach which uses branching multiversion objects instead of undo operations.
Functional Analysis of the Engineered Cardiac Tissue Grown on Recombinant Spidroin Fiber Meshes

In the present study, we examined the ability of the recombinant spidroin to serve as a substrate for the cardiac tissue engineering. For this purpose, isolated neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were seeded on the electrospun spidroin fiber matrices and cultured to form the confluent cardiac monolayers. Besides the adhesion assay and immunostaining analysis, we tested the ability of the cultured cardiomyocytes to form a functional cardiac syncytium by studying excitation propagation in the cultured tissue with the aid of optical mapping. It was demonstrated that recombinant spidroin fiber meshes are directly suitable for the adherence and growth of the cardiomyocytes without additional coating with the attachment factors, such as fibronectin.
BUSINESS MODEL TRANSFORMATION IN THE MOBILE INDUSTRY: CO- CREATING VALUE WITH CUSTOMERS

The purpose of this paper is to provide a formal conceptualization of emerging mobile ecosystems as value-creation networks and characterize the role played by external developers in the evolution of these networks. This paper contends that firms competing in markets subject to high rates of technological change and market uncertainty must incorporate external resources into their business models in order to enact dynamic capabilities. An empirical study focusing in the mobile industry confirms that external developers are paramount to absorb external knowledge and transform it into knowledge of explicit nature and therefore of high value for other participants in the network. In this sense this paper finds evidence on the influence that external developers, conceptualized as Lead Users (VonHippel 1986), exert on firms’ ability to compete in two-sided markets exhibiting strong network effects. This paper finds that there exist a strong relationship between the ability of the sponsoring firms to extract profits and the level of participation of external developers into their networks.
Bringing the television experience to other media in the home: an ethnographic study

In this paper we report on a study conducted in 2007 and 2008 looking at the media use habits of 27 families in the Greater London area. The project builds on previous ethnographic work studying media use within a similar group in 2006. The study investigated attitudes towards different types of media and the role Television (TV) currently plays and could play within the home environment. Following a participatory design methodology, we rapidly prototyped an experimental home media device and asked participants and use and respond to it. We explored the issues such as interactional simplicity and sharing media using a TV using the experimental device as a focal point for discussion and the generation of new ideas.
Ovarian expression of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), IGF binding proteins, and growth hormone (GH) receptor in heifers actively immunized against GH-releasing factors.

Active immunization against GRF at 6 months of age delays puberty in beef heifers. The objectives of the present study were to determine whether active immunization against GRF at an earlier age would affect normal onset of puberty and follicular growth and to determine whether these changes were related to alterations in ovarian insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) or IGF binding protein (IG-FBP) messenger RNA (mRNA) levels. Heifers were immunized against human serum albumin (HSAi; n = 15) or against GRF conjugated to HSA (GRFi; n = 18) at 3 months of age. A third group of heifers was not immunized (CON; n = 16). Immunization against GRF delayed puberty beyond 13 months of age in 75% of treated heifers. Unilateral ovariectomy at 191 days of age revealed that the delay in puberty was associated with a reduction in the number of large ( > or = 7 mm in diameter) follicles. Large follicles were present in only 22% of GRFi heifers compared to 77% of HSAi heifers. The number of small ( < or = 3 mm in diameter) and medium (4 to 6 mm in diameter) follicles was not affected by GRFi. The percentage of 1- to 3-mm follicles that were atretic was not different between HSAi (65%) and GRFi (62%) heifers. Unilateral ovariectomy had no effect on age at puberty. Immunization against GRF decreased (P < 0.01) concentrations of IGF-I in serum (23 +/- 2 ng/ml) compared to HSAi heifers (109 +/- 11 ng/ml). IGF-I levels in follicular fluid (FFL) of medium and small follicles were also decreased by GRFi from 82 +/- 3 ng/ml in HSAi heifers to 48 +/- 6 ng/ml (P < 0.01). Levels of IGFBP-3 (determined by ligand blot analysis) in serum and FFL of small follicles were decreased by GRFi (P < 0.01). In contrast, IGFBP-2 serum levels were increased from 422 +/- 32 ng/ml in HSAi heifers to 657 +/- 6 ng/ml in GRFi heifers (P < 0.05). Likewise, IGFBP-2 levels in FFL from small and medium follicles were increased from 785 +/- 44 ng/ml to 926 +/- 44 ng/ml (P < 0.05). Ligand blot analysis indicated that IGFBP levels were lower in FFL from large vs. small follicles. The band intensities of IGFBP-4 and -5 were drastically reduced ( > 80%) while the decreases in IGFBP-2 and -3 were less marked ( < 50%). The decreased levels of IGFBP-5 in FFL from large follicles was not associated with an increase in proteolytic fragments detectable by immunoblot analysis. While mRNA transcripts for IGF-I, GH receptor, and IGFBP-2, -3, -4, and -5 were readily detectable in ovarian tissue, GRFi had no effect on ovarian levels of mRNA for each of these proteins. This suggests that the decrease in follicular development associated with GRFi may be related to changes in circulating IGF-I and/or IGFBPs.
qSDS: A QoS-Aware I/O scheduling framework towards software defined storage

The inadequate resource allocation, lack of I/O performance prediction and insufficient isolation are affecting the storage performance in the multi-tenant cloud storage environment. In order to guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS), Softwaredefined Storage (SDS) is an effective approach in data centers. However, the lack of intelligence, robustness and selfadjustment are blocking the applications and promotions of SDS heavily. This paper focuses on the QoS-Aware I/O resource scheduling problem to build data centers with high availability, scalability and QoS. We will study workload characteristics, requirement analysis, the theory of QoS in SDS and I/O scheduling strategies. We obtain such goals by proposing a mathematics model of workload burstness, QoS semantic description with rule execution mechanisms and dynamic robust I/O scheduling algorithms for multi-type resources allocation. In the current progress, A QoS-Aware I/O Scheduling Framework towards SDS, qSDS has been proposed for the SSD/HDD hybrid storage. The preliminary evaluation in some benchmarks shows that qSDS can gain better performance compared with other strategies.
The most powerful form of activism is just the way you live : grassroots intentional communities and the sustainability of everyday practice

Changing household consumption patterns may be the fastest pathway for reducing the currently unsustainable levels of resource consumption in the developed world. Between 50% and 80% of global land, water and material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions can ultimately be traced to household consumption, contributing substantially to environmental degradation. Changing household consumption practices therefore presents an opportunity to significantly reduce this negative environmental impact. This thesis has explored ‘intentionally sustainable communities’, such as ecovillages and cohousing communities, as sites where significant changes to household consumption are occurring. These communities are niche sites of grassroots innovation; crucibles in which new arrangements of potentially innovative and sustainable household practices are formed that may (or may not) be usefully transferred to mainstream households. This research examines the extent to which these intentionally sustainable communities have reduced their environmental impacts. It then explores the environmentally beneficial household consumption practices that have been established and sustained, the role of the intentionally sustainable community in enabling members to change their practices, and the potential for these communities to have wider influence. A mixed method approach was adopted, first undertaking a systematic literature review of ecological and carbon footprint studies of intentional communities globally. Second, two Australian case study communities; a rural land sharing cooperative (Bundagen), and an urban cohousing community (Murundaka), explored the practices and elements of practice that residents perceived as significant for their everyday sustainability. Finally, the potential for Murundaka to influence household consumption practices on a wider scale was considered. The systematic review found strong but limited evidence that many intentional communities are achieving substantial reductions in environmental footprints. Empirical insights from the case studies revealed that a broad range of community-led interventions across many domains of practice were improving household sustainability in the communities. Key elements discussed include explicit and shared meanings from creating a community vision, the impacts of shared spaces, infrastructures and resources, and the role of community dynamics in circulating competences through effective social learning. The research highlights the key role played by non-mainstream practices such as the intentional, resident-driven creation of community and community-scale governance. These practices enable community members to act as both policy makers and practitioners, with greater scope and reflexivity to intervene in the systems of practice which shape their daily lives. Finally, pathways through which intentionally sustainable communities may be able to influence the practices of wider society were discussed, through
Low-cost interactive whiteboard using the Kinect

An interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. The board is typically mounted to a wall or floor stand. The majority of IWBs sold globally involve one of four forms of interaction between the user and the content projected on the whiteboard. These are an infrared scan technology, a resistive, touch-based board, an electromagnetic pen and associated software, and an ultrasonic pen. This paper's purpose is researching the infrared LED pen, and it starts at the foundational infrared scan technology. Taking the interactive whiteboard's advanced achievement using the Kinect as reference, this paper confirms its research routes and innovative points. This paper presents a lowcost interactive whiteboard by positioning the infrared LED pen with particular sign accurately by analyzing depth and IR data of Kinect. The system excluded the interference of Kinect's infrared light and implemented the right-mouse simulation by identifying the infrared LED pen's two brightness modes. It is combined with CUDA platform and OpenCV Library to speed-up image process and obtain high real-time performance. This lowcost interactive whiteboard using the Kinect can be used in a variety of settings, including classrooms at all levels of education, in corporate board rooms and work groups, in training rooms for professional sports coaching, in broadcasting studios and many others. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the potential application of good scientific and practical values.
DeMalFier: Detection of Malicious web pages using an effective classifier

The web has become an indispensable global platform that glues together daily communication, sharing, trading, collaboration and service delivery. Web users often store and manage critical information that attracts cybercriminals who misuse the web and the internet to exploit vulnerabilities for illegitimate benefits. Malicious web pages are transpiring threatening issue over the internet because of the notoriety and their capability to influence. Detecting and analyzing them is very costly because of their qualities and intricacies. The complexities of attacks are increasing day by day because the attackers are using blended approaches of various existing attacking techniques. In this paper, a model DeMalFier (Detection of Malicious Web Pages using an Effective ClassiFier) has been developed to apply supervised learning approaches to identify malicious web pages relevant to malware distribution, phishing, drive-by-download and injection by extracting the content of web pages, URL-based features and features based on host information. Experimental evaluation of DeMalFier model achieved 99.9% accuracy recommending the impact of our approach for real-life deployment.