Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vendor Related Risks in IT Development: A Chronology of an Outsourced Project Failure

Many organizations consider outsourcing their information technology (IT) development projects as an attractive risk-mitigating approach. In such an engagement, the vendor may agree to complete a project for a fixed cost and according to a defined time schedule. Nevertheless, while the vendor is liable for the traditional project risks, other forms of risk may arise, which are the vendor risks. This paper presents a recent case study of a project failure that demonstrates some of the major vendor risks and their contribution to system development failure. The risks discussed in the paper are: (a) Adversarial relationships and loss of trust between the vendor and the client; (b) Vendor management de-escalation of commitment; and (c) Di.fficulry in breaking the contractual engagement. The case shows that IT outsourcing, an organization might not eliminate the traditional IT project risks but rather exchange them for equally fatal vendor risks. Furthermore, the case raises doubts regarding the effectiveness of the contract-driven control approach to mitigate vendor risks. This paper suggest that perhaps, since placing all risks on the vendor is impractical, a partnership approach of sharing risks and rewards may be more effective in bringing the client and the vendor to successful project outcomes.
Selecting location-based services in mobile cloud computing

Mobile cloud computing (MCC) is the most promising cloud solution for the future mobile environment. It aims to integrate mobile devices with cloud computing, and provide to mobile users an online access to unlimited cloud resources. Furthermore, MCC has changed the concept of mobile devices from primitive gadget to full computers that accommodate work, personal and mobility needs. Thus, in this paper we introduce a middleware that provides an intelligent behavior for selecting and adapting cloud services according to the current user's context. Besides, we propose a context-aware algorithm aiming to exploit location and preference cost of mobile user to select the adequate cloud resource.
Indexing media storms on Flink

We propose a media storm indexing algorithm using Map-Reduce in our recently proposed CDVC framework. In this study, CDVC is built on Flink, an open-source platform for stream data processing. The question we answer is how to store massive image collections; for instance, with over one million images per second, as well as with varying incoming rate. In our experiments with two benchmark datasets of 80M and 1B image descriptors, we evaluate the proposed algorithm on different indexing workloads, that is, images that come with high volume and different velocity at the scale of 105-106 images per second. Using a limited set of computational nodes, we show that we achieve a significant speed up factor of nine, on average, compared to conventional indexing techniques, in all settings. Finally, we make our source code publicly available.
Digested Information as an Information Theoretic Motivation for Social Interaction

Within a universal agent-world interaction framework, based on Information Theory and Causal Bayesian Networks, we demonstrate how every agent that needs to acquire relevant information in regard to its strategy selection will automatically inject part of this information back into the environment. We introduce the concept of 'Digested Information' which both quantifies, and explains this phenomenon. Based on the properties of digested information, especially the high density of relevant information in other agents actions, we outline how this could motivate the development of low level social interaction mechanisms, such as the ability to detect other agents.
Energy cost of sport rock climbing in elite performers.

OBJECTIVES: To assess oxygen uptake (VO2), blood lactate concentration ([La(b)]), and heart rate (HR) response during indoor and outdoor sport climbing. METHODS: Seven climbers aged 25 (SE 1) years, with a personal best ascent without preview or fall (on sight) ranging from 6b to 7a were assessed using an indoor vertical treadmill with artificial rock hand/foot holds and a discontinuous protocol with climbing velocity incremented until voluntary fatigue. On a separate occasion the subjects performed a 23.4 m outdoor rock climb graded 5c and taking 7 min 36 s (SE 33 s) to complete. Cardiorespiratory parameters were measured using a telemetry system and [La(b)] collected at rest and after climbing. RESULTS: Indoor climbing elicited a peak oxygen uptake (VO2climb-peak) and peak HR (HRpeak) of 43.8 (SE 2.2) ml/kg/min and 190 (SE 4) bpm, respectively and increased blood lactate concentration [La(b)] from 1.4 (0.1) to 10.2 (0.6) mmol/l (p < 0.05). During outdoor climbing VO2 and HR increased to about 75% and 83% of VO2climb-peak and HRpeak, respectively. [La(b)] increased from 1.3 (0.1) at rest to 4.5 mmol/l (p < 0.05) at 2 min 32 s (8 s) after completion of the climb. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that for elite climbers outdoor sport rock climbs of five to 10 minutes' duration and moderate difficulty require a significant portion of the VO2climb-peak. The higher HR and VO2 for outdoor climbing and the increased [La(b)] could be the result of repeated isometric contractions, particularly from the arm and forearm muscles.
Micro strip fractal linear array for multiband applications

In this paper the design of the 8 element linear patch array using the power divider concept and its characteristics are studied. The linear array of 8 elements has shown a gain of 6.6 dB with beam width of 0.68 and multiband characteristics. The second iteration of the fractals concept is applied to the 8 elements linear array and the variations in the characteristics are observed. On the application of fractals, the linear array beam width is decreased from 0.68 to 0.54 with increase in gain from 6.6dB to 7.7dB. The simulated and the practical results are compared.
Price Regulation of Pharmaceuticals: A Policy Experiment

What does the demand for pharmaceuticals look like? How effectively does a price cut control pharmaceutical expenditure? To shed light on these questions, I estimate the demand for antihypertensive drugs in Korea (2003-2007) using NLM. The estimation results are following. 1) Physicians are not sensitive to price differences and the price elasticity of the original drugs is further reduced after the entry of generic drugs. 2) The market share of the molecule losing patent protection decreases after patent expiration. 3) The generic drug’s age has an negative effect on the market share of molecule whereas the original drug’s age has an positive effect. 4) Molecules in the same therapeutic subgroup are close substitutes, implying that nesting by the therapeutic subgroup matters. Using these estimation results, I assess South Korea’s pharmaceutical price and reimbursement reform, which was implemented in 2007 (called “Drug expenditure rationalizing plan”). I estimate 3.98% decrease of the drug expenditure due to the price cut policy.
Endurance exercise training affects fast white axial muscle in the cyprinid species Chalcalburnus chalcoides mento (Agassiz, 1832), Cyprinidae, Teleostei

This study undertakes an investigation on the effects of an endurance exercise training programme on axial muscle in the cyprinid species Chalcalburnus chalcoides mento (Agassiz, 1832), the Danube bleak. Previous studies on this species revealed biochemical evidence that it is white axial muscle which responds to an endurance training. To determine whether this could be verified also on a structural basis, red, intermediate and white axial muscle were investigated by means of histochemistry, electronmicroscopy and morphometry. Compared to other cyprinid species, the Danube bleak responds to an endurance exercise training regime with adaptive changes of fast white muscle rather than slow red muscle. Qualitative and quantitative analyses revealed that training induced significant increases in fibre diameters of intermediate and white muscle fibres and capillary supply in red and white muscle as well as volume density of myofibrils in red muscle fibres. Volume densities of mitochondria and lipid, and mATPaseand SDH-activity were unaffected. It is concluded that this adaptive strategy enables this fish with its typical burst-like mode of swimming (which was maintained for the whole period of the training) to meet the specific demands of an endurance exercise training.
Scene perception using pareidolia of faces and expressions of emotion

The aim of this study is to simulate the pareidolia capability of humans to produce an emotional response to a scene using analysis of facial expressions associated with abstract face-like patterns. We developed a system that uses a holistic face detector and a facial expression classifier. The υ and SVDD One-Class Support Vector Machines (SVM) were evaluated for creating a holistic face detector, which looks for faces that can vary from natural faces to minimal face-like patterns. A Pairwise Adaptive C and υ-SVM (pa-SVM) were evaluated for creating the facial expression classifier. In both scenarios, a dataset of human faces and facial expressions was used to produce a number of preprocessed images (grayscale, histogram equalised grayscale; and their respective Sobel and Canny edges) at a number of resolutions for analysis. A Gaussian and a degree two polynomial kernel were used with the SVM methods and the results were obtained using a 10 fold cross validation technique. A concern with the face detectors is verifying that they can look for minimal face-like patterns empirically. To address this concern, we created cartoon faces of the human face dataset and degraded these cartoon faces to produce an array of minimal face-like patterns. We then evaluated the face detectors and facial expression classifiers with the best model parameters on these cartoon faces. The outcome is a holistic system with the potential to describe a scene by producing an array of emotion scores corresponding to Ekman's seven Universal Facial Expressions of Emotion.
An Eecient Directory System for Document Retrieval Using Parallel Processing

This paper introduces an eecient le directory structure which provides for parallel retrieval of documents. The directory structure is based on the M-B-T directory structure. The M-B-T directory structure is compatible with current automatic retrieval and query processing techniques. Weights that are assigned to index terms can be included in the directory with the terms at no additional cost. In addition, it provides for indexing a secondary attribute within a primary attribute with no additional cost. Updates are achieved with a high degree of eeciency as well. It is shown that this structure achieves a better overall performance than inverted les, standard B-trees, and other directory structures. The parallel organization of M-B-T directory improves considerably the performance of the directory. Given a p-processor massively parallel computer, our organization allows a maximum of p retrievals to be performed concurrently and thus achieves an approximate speed up of p in the best case.
Protected Areas in Selected Arab Countries of the Levant Region (Syria, Lebanon & Jordan): An Evaluation of Management and Recommendations for Improvement

Global trends in biodiversity conservation have frequently been reported as being unsatisfactory, especially after the 2010 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) failed to be met (2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership 2010). Despite some notable conservation successes at various scales (Sodhi et al., 2011), anthropogenic impacts go largely unabated and increasingly endanger the planet’s biota and life support systems (Dirzo & Raven, 2003). One of the main approaches to halting biodiversity loss has been the establishment of protected areas (PAs), an undertaking which has seen a prolific growth in recent decades in terms of both number and spatial extent (Chape et al., 2005; Coad et al., 2008a). While the number of PAs under national or international programs and legislation has been rising on a global level (Butchart et al., 2010; Coad et al., 2008b), biodiversity loss continues even within some PAs (Bonham et al., 2008; Craigie et al., 2010; Gaston et al., 2008; Hockings & Phillips, 1999; Oates, 1999). Why is this?
1.757 and 1.267 - Approximation Algorithms for the Network and Rectilinear Steiner Tree Problems

The Steiner tree problem requires to nd a shortest tree connecting a given set of terminal points in a metric space. We suggest a better and fast heuristic for the Steiner problem in graphs and in rectilinear plane. This heuristic nds a Steiner tree at most 1.757 and 1.267 times longer than the optimal solution in graphs and rectilinear plane, respectively.
Adaptive filtering for respiration influence reduction on Heart Rate Variability

In this paper it is described an adaptive method for Heart Rate Variability (HRV) signal filtering, which uses a noise canceller structure formed by a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter together with the Least Mean Squares (LMS) adaptation algorithm in order to reduce respiration influence on HRV information. Respiration and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were obtained simultaneously using 240Hz sampling frequency during 5-minutes experiments. Respiration signal was acquired by mechanic methods whereas ECG signal was obtained using one lead electrocardiograph. After data acquisition, a tachogram was derived from ECG measurement in order to obtain the HRV signal; then Adaptive Noise Cancelling (ANC) filtering was applied, reducing artifacts due to respiration from HRV signal. This method was evaluated for spontaneous and controlled respiration frequency by comparing results from the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of HRV signal before and after filtering. At the results, it is observed that frequency components related to respiration are cancelled in the HRVs PSD, reaching an appropriate estimation of the control exerted by the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) in the cardiac activity.
The Rational Locator: Why Travel Times Have Remained Stable

This paper evaluates household travel surveys for the Washington metropolitan region conducted in 1968 and 1988, and shows that commuting times remain stable or decline over the twenty year period despite an increase in average travel distance, after controlling for trip purpose and mode of travel. The average automobile work-to-home time of 32.5 minutes in both 1968 and 1988 is, moreover, very consistent with a 1957 survey showing an average time of 33.5 minutes in metropolitan Washington. Average trip speeds increased by more than 20 percent, countering the effect of increased travel distance. This change was observed during a period of rapid suburban growth in the region. With the changing distributional composition of trip origins and destinations, overall travel times have remained relatively constant. The hypothesis that jobs and housing mutually co-locate to optimize travel times is lent further support by these data.
FK778 ameliorates post-transplant expression of fibrogenic growth factors and development of chronic rejection changes in rat kidney allografts.

BACKGROUND Acute rejection is the major risk factor for the development of subsequent chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN), which is the primary reason for late allograft loss in kidney transplantation. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) are the main mitogens mediating mesenchymal cell proliferation. Their early post-transplant induction may start cascades leading to the development of CAN. An immunosuppressive drug, FK778, inhibits de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis and several receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). Here we investigated its effects on acute and chronic rejection as well as post-transplant PDGF and TGF-beta expression in combination therapy with calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs). METHODS Kidney transplantations were performed from DA to WF rats. Syngenic DA-DA grafts were used as controls. Allografts were immunosuppressed with a combination of FK778 (10 mg/kg/day p.o.) and CsA (1.5 mg/kg/day s.c.) or tacrolimus (Tac) (1.5 mg/kg/day p.o.). Grafts were harvested 5 and 90 days after transplantation for histology and immunohistochemistry (PDGF-A, PDGF-B, PDGFR-alpha, PDGFR-beta, TGF-beta, TGF-betaR). The dose response of FK778 on acute rejection was studied with monotherapy of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg/day. Chronic changes were scored according to the Chronic Allograft Damage Index (CADI). RESULTS FK778 ameliorated the early post-transplant inflammatory response dose dependently. Additive effects were seen with FK778 and CNIs. Significantly lower CADI scores were seen in combination therapy of FK778 and CNIs compared with CNI monotherapies. FK778 also significantly reduced both early and late PDGF and TGF-beta expression when combined with CNIs. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that FK778 could prevent the development of CAN and be a promising therapy also in clinical kidney transplantation.
Semantic Classification of Dutch Noun-Noun Compounds: A Distributional Semantics Approach

This article describes the rst attempt to semantically analyse Dutch noun-noun compounds using the distributional hypothesis, which states that the semantics of a word is implicitly represented by the words in its context. The purpose is not only to classify compounds based on their semantics. We also investigate in what circumstances this classication works best. Using O S eaghdha (2008) as a source of inspiration, a list of 1,802 noun-noun compounds was collected and annotated. The annotators had an annotation scheme and guidelines available with six specic semantic categories (BE, HAVE, IN, ACTOR, INST, ABOUT) and ve categories for less specic categories or incorrect compounds. An inter-annotator agreement of 60.2% was found on a 500 compound subset. The task of automatically analysing compound semantics was framed as a classication task for which we can use supervised machine learning algorithms. The instance vectors were created by concatenating the vectors containing co-occurrence information on the compound constituents. In certain variants of the experiment, principal component analysis (PCA) was used as a means of reducing the dimensionality of the dataset. Support vector machines and instance-based learning were used for the machine learning experiments. A maximum F-score of 49.0% was reached on the normal bag-of-words (BOW) data using the SVM algorithm. The PCA data yielded a maximum F-score of 45.2%. These scores should be compared with a most frequent class baseline of 29.5%. The achieved results in both main variants signicantly outperform this baseline.
GECARO : A system for the GEometric CAlibration of RObots

Cet article presente un logiciel pour la simulation et la realisation de l'etalonnage de parametres geometriques des robots. Ce systeme qui est baptise GECARO, GEometric CAlibration of RObots, est compose d'un ensemble de methodes pour l'identification de parametres geometriques. GECARO est developpe sous MATLAB et s'execute sur PC, il peut traiter directement n'importe quel robot a chaine ouverte simple. Les parametres identifiables pour chaque methode sont determines par une methode numerique fondee sur la decomposition QR de la matrice d'observation. L'algorithme d'identification utilise une methode iterative du type moindres carres lineaire qui met a jour les parametres geometriques apres chaque iteration.
Targeting Sirtuin 1 to Improve Metabolism: All You Need Is NAD+?

Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is an evolutionarily conserved NAD+-dependent deacetylase that is at the pinnacle of metabolic control, all the way from yeast to humans. SIRT1 senses changes in intracellular NAD+ levels, which reflect energy level, and uses this information to adapt the cellular energy output such that it matches cellular energy requirements. The changes induced by SIRT1 activation are generally (but not exclusively) transcriptional in nature and are related to an increase in mitochondrial metabolism and antioxidant protection. These attractive features have validated SIRT1 as a therapeutic target in the management of metabolic disease and prompted an intensive search to identify pharmacological SIRT1 activators. In this review, we first give an overview of the SIRT1 biology with a particular focus on its role in metabolic control. We then analyze the pros and cons of the current strategies used to activate SIRT1 and explore the emerging evidence indicating that modulation of NAD+ levels could provide an effective way to achieve such goals.
Airway Segmentation Framework for Clinical Environments

A segmentation framework for the identification of human airway trees in high resolution computed tomography (CT) images is presented. This framework consists of a fully automated segmentation algorithm, supplemented by software editing tools that allow the user to correct the airway segmentation result if needed. The algorithm and tools presented in this paper have been successfully applied on more than 10,000 CT scans.
Mitigating Coercion, Maximizing Confidence in Postal Elections

Elections have traditionally depended on procedural safeguards and best practices to ensure integrity and instill trust. By making it difficult for individuals to manipulate ballots undetected, these policies electoral malfeasance. Even so, it is clearly preferable to move beyond this kind of best-effort security and instead provide strong guarantees of integrity and privacy. An emerging literature on voting systems has identified two distinct approaches towards this end: build trustworthiness into the voting system, or audit the election after-the-fact to verify its integrity. The first strategy is embodied by end-to-end verifiable voting systems, which use cryptography to prove to the voter that their ballot was cast and tallied as intended (Chaum, 2004; Chaum, Ryan, & Schneider, 2005; Ryan, 2005; Adida & Rivest, 2006; Rivest, 2006). However, these systems are predicated on strong assumptions and use complicated, difficult-to-understand cryptography to deliver their security guarantees. Instead of attempting to provide these strict assurances, the auditing approach aims to output statistical evidence that an election was conducted properly (Stark, 2008, 2009; Aslam, Popa, & Rivest, 2007; Rivest & Shen, 2012). Neither the literature on verifiable voting systems nor the one on post-election audits adequately addresses the problems specific to postal voting.1 Indeed, the nature of postal voting makes an audit difficult. Any audit begins with a complete paper trail; in a postal election, where ballots can (and are) lost in the mail, it many be impossible to maintain a complete chain-of-custody regarding the postal ballots (Stewart, 2010). An audit can check the tally of ballots that were received, but this does not address postal voters’ primary worry: that their ballots are being lost or tampered with in the mail.2 Since a key feature of end-to-end systems is that a voter may ascertain for themselves that their ballot was received unmodified, end-to-end verifiability should be a natural application to voteby-mail. Yet previous work on end-to-end voting largely neglects voting by mail. This is lack of attention arises partly due to the difficulty of handling coercion in the postal voting. Like any other remote voting protocol, postal voting allows much more pervasive coercion than is possible with in-person balloting. Researchers have designed many Internet-based end-to-end remote voting systems with coercion-mitigation techniques. In all of these systems, the voter is interacting with the system through their computer, which is capable of performing sophisticated