Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A fuzzy logic based set of measures for software project similarity: validation and possible improvements

The software project similarity attribute has not yet been the subject of in-depth study, even though it is often used when estimating software development effort by analogy. Among the inadequacies identified (M. Shepperd et al., 1996; 1997) in most of the proposed measures for the similarity attribute, the most critical is that they are used only when the software projects are described by numerical variables (interval, ratio or absolute scale). However, in practice, many factors which describe software projects, such as the experience of programmers and the complexity of modules, are measured in terms of an ordinal (or nominal) scale composed of qualifications such as 'low' and 'high'. To overcome this limitation, we propose a set of new measures based on fuzzy logic for similarity when the software projects are described by categorical data. The proposed measures are validated by means of an axiomatic validation approach. We also present the results of an empirical validation of our similarity measures, based on the COCOMO'81 database.
Design by Measure and Conquer: Exact algorithms for dominating set

The measure and conquer approach has proven to be a powerful tool to analyse exact algorithms for combinatorial problems, like Dominating Set and Independent Set. In this paper, we propose to use measure and conquer also as a tool in the design of algorithms. In an iterative process, we obtain a series of branch and reduce algorithms. A mathematical analysis of an algorithm in the series with measure and conquer results in a quasiconvex programming problem. The solution by computer to this problem not only gives a bound on the running time, but can also give a new reduction rule, thus giving a new, possibly faster algorithm. This makes design by measure and conquer a form of computer aided algorithm design. We apply the methodology to a set cover modelling of the Dominating Set problem and obtain the currently fastest known exact algorithm for Dominating Set: an algorithm that uses O(1.4969n) time and only polynomial space, while the previous fastest algorithm uses exponential space.
Priv-Ware Privacy aware processing of encrypted signals for treating sensitive information Protocols and architectures for application scenarios

This document focuses on the application of the primitives to provide feasible solutions for privacy protection in biometric and applications. An analysis of the particular classes of applications is proposed. For each class, a detailed description and an overall design of the scenario in which the encrypted signal processing modules have to be used is provided. By relying on the above description a set of developed solutions is described. The architectures for biometric applications, and the specification and design of the possible dedicated hardware supports for enhancing the performance of the privacy-aware treatment of encrypted biometric data are also treated.
Gender Differences in Symptoms, Health-Related Quality of Life, Sleep Quality, Mental Health, Cognitive Performance, Pain-Cognition, and Positive Health in Spanish Fibromyalgia Individuals: The Al-Ándalus Project

Objective. To test the gender differences in tenderness, impact of fibromyalgia, health-related quality of life, fatigue, sleep quality, mental health, cognitive performance, pain-cognition, and positive health in Spanish fibromyalgia patients and in age-matched nonfibromyalgia individuals from the same region. To test the optimal cut-off score of the different tender points for women and men. Methods. A total of 405 (384 women) fibromyalgia versus 247 (195 women) nonfibromyalgia control participants from southern Spain (Andalusia) took part in this cross-sectional study. The outcomes studied were assessed by means of several tests. Results. In the fibromyalgia group, men showed better working memory than women (all, P < 0.01), whereas sleep latency was lower in women compared to men (P = 0.013). In the nonfibromyalgia group, men showed higher pain threshold in all the tender points (all, P < 0.01), except in right and left lateral epicondyle. Furthermore, men showed better working memory than women (all, P < 0.01), whereas memory performance was better in women compared to men (all, P ≤ 0.01). Conclusion. The results of the present study do not support consistent evidence of gender differences in fibromyalgia-related symptoms. However, it seems that detriment of some symptoms (especially pain) in fibromyalgia men compared with their nonfibromyalgia counterparts is greater than those of fibromyalgia women compared with their nonfibromyalgia peers.
INFLUENCE OF AGROECOLOGICAL FACTORS ON ARTICHOKE YIELD AND QUALITY : REvIEW

Environmental conditions and climate change on a global scale affect the overall agriculture and food supply. Globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus (L.) Fiori) is widely distributed all over the world. Immature inflorescence, commonly called capitula or head, is used in human consumption. These vegetables are a good source of human health promoting components. Artichokes are widely used in human diet, characterized by low protein and fat, high content of minerals, vitamins, inulin, carbohydrates and polyphenolic compounds. Relationship between plant growth and development is tight and complicated. Many agroecological factors, such as temperature, irrigation and fertilization level, planting and harvesting date, influence processes of growing and development of globe artichoke. Biologically active compounds in plants are dependent on climate conditions, seasonal changes, cultivar properties and maturity. Pre-germination is required for better plant establishment in the field. Better plant growing and development can be ensured by regular irrigation which provides 85 – 100% from evaporation and applied fertilization before planting and during vegetation period according to soil properties. The biochemical quality of artichoke heads differs between cultivars, head fraction, and stage of head development. This indicates possibility to grow artichokes in Latvia.
A Survey on Energy-Efficient Train Operation for Urban Rail Transit

Due to rising energy prices and environmental concerns, the energy efficiency of urban rail transit has attracted much attention from both researchers and practitioners in recent years. Timetable optimization and energy-efficient driving, as two mainly used train operation methods in relation to the tractive energy saving, make major contributions in reducing the energy consumption that has been studied for a long time. Generally speaking, timetable optimization synchronizes the accelerating and braking actions of trains to maximize the utilization of regenerative energy, and energy-efficient driving optimizes the speed profile at each section to minimize the tractive energy consumption. In this paper, we present a fully comprehensive survey on energy-efficient train operation for urban rail transit. First, a general energy consumption distribution of urban rail trains is described. Second, the current literature on timetable optimization and energy-efficient driving is reviewed. Finally, according to the review work, it is concluded that the integrated optimization method jointly optimizing the timetable and speed profile has become a new tendency and ought to be paid more attention in future research.
Strengthening the levels of food companies ' market orientation-the road towards strengthening the innovation and competition of agribusiness in B & H

High level of trade deficit indicates low competitiveness in B&H agribusiness, which brings the question whether its low competitiveness is mirroring its low market orientation, i.e. capability to apply integrated business philosophy which ensures adequate competitive advantages and sustains development of companies. To answer that, a survey was conducted through a MKTOR scale for measuring market orientation, on fifty food companies in the period May – December 2013. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS, and it included reliability test, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, along with the tests of statistical significance and descriptive statistics. B&H food companies are only partly market-oriented, 3.430 (max 5.0), with Crombach’s Alpha of 0.943. Factor analysis revealed three market orientation factors: intelligence generation (0.393), intelligence dissemination (0.503) and responsiveness (0.522). Level of market orientation in small (3.511) and large (3.364) was statistically different, meaning that the smaller companies are less capable of understanding the market. Also, small and big companies have significantly different performances on the basis of all three market orientation factors. However, we may say that for both types of companies, intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination are a weak link, whereas responsiveness is better than total average. Results show that food companies in B&H have low ability of collecting key information about the market. Furthermore, omissions in internal organization and lack of knowledge about marketing are barrier to use efficiently the collected, often disorganized data on market necessities. Therefore existing, collected data are not utilized to enhance creative communication and building of added value that will make difference on market place and enable B&H food companies to develop sustainable competitive advantages.
Determinants of negative priming.

The negative priming task is widely used to investigate attentional inhibition. A critical review of the negative priming literature considers various parameters of the task (e.g., time course, relation to interference, level of occurence, and susceptibility to changes in task context). It takes into account life span data and the performance of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. On these bases, the review suggests that negative priming can be produced by 2 mechanisms: memorial and inhibitory. With respect to inhibition, the review suggests that (a) there are 2 systems, one responsible for identity and the other for location information; and (b) inhibition is a flexible, postselection process operating to prevent recently rejected information from quickly regaining access to effectors, thus helping to establish coherence among selected thought and action streams.
Development of a new resilience scale: The Connor‐Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC)

Resilience may be viewed as a measure of stress coping ability and, as such, could be an important target of treatment in anxiety, depression, and stress reactions. We describe a new rating scale to assess resilience. The Connor‐Davidson Resilience scale (CD‐RISC) comprises of 25 items, each rated on a 5‐point scale (0–4), with higher scores reflecting greater resilience. The scale was administered to subjects in the following groups: community sample, primary care outpatients, general psychiatric outpatients, clinical trial of generalized anxiety disorder, and two clinical trials of PTSD. The reliability, validity, and factor analytic structure of the scale were evaluated, and reference scores for study samples were calculated. Sensitivity to treatment effects was examined in subjects from the PTSD clinical trials. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties and factor analysis yielded five factors. A repeated measures ANOVA showed that an increase in CD‐RISC score was associated with greater improvement during treatment. Improvement in CD‐RISC score was noted in proportion to overall clinical global improvement, with greatest increase noted in subjects with the highest global improvement and deterioration in CD‐RISC score in those with minimal or no global improvement. The CD‐RISC has sound psychometric properties and distinguishes between those with greater and lesser resilience. The scale demonstrates that resilience is modifiable and can improve with treatment, with greater improvement corresponding to higher levels of global improvement. Depression and Anxiety 18:76–82, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
EFFECT OF MOLARITY AND SOLVENT ON THE OPTICAL PARAMETERS OF THE LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE POLYMER F 8 T 2 AND SURFACE MORPHOLOGY PROPERTIES OF THE F 8 T 2 FILM

In this study, we investigated the surface morphology of the liquid-crystalline polymer poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-co-bithiophene] (F8T2) film by high performance atomic force microscopy and the surface roughness parameters of the F8T2 film such as; roughness average (sa), root mean square roughness (sq), surface skewness (ssk) and surface kurtosis (sku) value were obtained. Also, we reported the morphology of the cross-section (wall) and height histogtams of the F8T2 film by AFM. The positive skewness and high kurtosis of the F8T2 film are desirable to achieve low friction applications. The ratios of the sq to the sa for the F8T2 film were found to be 1.271 and 1.292. Then, we investigated in detail the optical properties of the solutions of the F8T2 polymer for different molarities and solvents. The absorbance, molar extinction coefficient (ε) and mass extinction coefficient (α) values of the F8T2 polymer decrease with decreasing molarity. The average transmittance, absorption band edge, direct (Egd) and indirect (Egid) energy-gap values of refraction of the F8T2 polymer increase with decreasing molarity. The maximum absorption wavelength (λmax) of the solutions of the F8T2 for 1.200 and 0.800 μM was found to be 455 nm, while the λmax of the F8T2 polymer for DCM, THF and Chloroform solvents were found to be 447, 453 and 455 nm, respectively. The yellow light of the F8T2 polymer is emitted 586 nm. The maximum mass extinction coefficient (αmax) values at maximum molar extinction coefficient (εmax) (2.246x10 6 and 1.736x106 Lmol-1cm-1, respectively) of the solutions of the F8T2 polymer for 1.200 and 0.800 μM were found to be 59.105 and 45.684 Lg-1cm-1, respectively, while the αmax values at εmax (2.461x106, 2.371x106 and 2.246x106 Lmol-1cm-1, respectively) of the F8T2 polymer for DCM, THF and Chloroform solvents were found to be 64.763, 62.395 and 59.105 Lg-1cm-1, respectively. The Egd values (2.413 and 2.387 eV, respectively) of the F8T2 polymer for 0.800 μM and Chloroform solvent are the highest values, while the Egd values (2.220 and 2.279 eV) of the F8T2 polymer for 19.737 μM and THF solvent are the lowest values. The Egid values (2.345 and 2.305 eV, respectively) of the F8T2 polymer for 0.800 μM and Chloroform solvent are the highest values, while the Egid values (2.113 and 2.053 eV) of the F8T2 polymer for 19.737 μM and THF solvent are the lowest values. The obtained Egid values of the F8T2 polymer are more lower than that of the obtained Egd values of the F8T2 polymer. Thus, the optical band-gap of the solution of the F8T2 polymer was decreased with increasing molarity and using THF solvent among DCM, THF and Chloroform solvents.
The Hazard of Being an English Football League Manager: Empirical Estimates from the 2002/3 Season

This paper uses data drawn from the English Football League to model hazard rates for club managers in the 2002/3 season. Nearly one-third of managers involuntarily exited employment status with their club in that season. We model the hazard on the basis of a spell at risk, rather than the individual, using a standard logistic model. The role of neglected heterogeneity is also examined using random and fixed effects logistic models within the discrete-time setting. League position at the start of the spell at risk is found to be the most important determinant of a manager’s exit. A variety of individual specific human capital covariates were found to be unimportant in determining the hazard and no role for unobservable heterogeneity as captured by random effects was detected.
Third Grade Literacy Policies: Identification, Intervention, Retention.

Introduction S tudents not reading proficiently by the end of 3rd grade are four times more likely than proficient readers to drop out of high school. 1 This fact and other recent research on the importance of early literacy skills have culminated in an intense focus on improving 3rd-grade reading proficiency. The challenges of improving literacy are, in turn, causing more state leaders to confront the difficult question: Should students who do not have the requisite knowledge and reading skills to succeed in the next grade be retained? The growing number of state initiatives aimed at addressing 3rd-grade reading proficiency include three elements: 1) Early identification of reading difficulties 2) Interventions that occur as close to the point of need as possible 3) Retention. While states such as Florida and major cities such as New York City have enacted so-called " promotion gates " in the past decade, it is the less-contentious aspects of their policies — early assessments to identify reading difficulties and the provision of " whatever-it-takes " interventions for struggling students — that are the most effective drivers of achievement. That said, proponents of retention credit the threat of retention as the mechanism that helps to ensure that reading difficulties are identified and interventions do occur. Research asserting that birth to age 5 are critical years for brain development is also encouraging a growing number of state leaders to target literacy development in the earliest years as well as the early grades. We address here the strategy that is causing the most angst across the states: retention. We also stress the importance of and need for early identification and intervention strategies. To illustrate, we describe the experiences of both Florida and New York City. Finally, we outline strategies to help ensure that a far greater number of young readers leave the early grades at a proficient level of knowledge and skills. Research is mixed on the efficacy of grade retention, mirroring the mixed opinions of educators and parents. While some researchers have found that retained students " can significantly improve their grade-level skills during their repeated year, " others have found that less than half of retained students meet promotion standards after attending summer school and repeating a grade. Some research points to other negative effects, including a greater likelihood of bullying and victim behavior, or dropping out of high school. On the other hand, promoting students …
Regularized single-kernel conditional density estimation for face description

This paper describes a single-kernel conditional density estimation system that obtains descriptive parameters including gender, age, ethnicity, pose and expression from images of faces. The method is able to do fast estimation of 39 parameters from live video, achieving accuracies comparable with alternatives that yield only a few parameters. The single-kernel model can be interrogated to examine the properties of parameters and the training regime and thus guide design of more complicated estimators.
Localized Detection of Abandoned Luggage

Abandoned luggage represents a potential threat to public safety. Identifying objects as luggage, identifying the owners of such objects, and identifying whether owners have left luggage behind are the three main problems requiring solution. This paper proposes two techniques which are "foreground-mask sampling" to detect luggage with arbitrary appearance and "selective tracking" to locate and to track owners based solely on looking only at the neighborhood of the luggage. Experimental results demonstrate that once an owner abandons luggage and leaves the scene, the alarm fires within few seconds. The average processing speed of the approach is 17.37 frames per second, which is sufficient for real world applications.
DESIGN OF N-WAY POWER DIVIDER SIMILAR TO THE BAGLEY POLYGON DIVIDER WITH AN EVEN NUMBER OF OUTPUT PORTS

In this paper, a general design of an equal-split N-way power divider, similar to Bagley polygon power divider, but with an even number of output ports is proposed. A circular-shaped 4- way divider is designed and simulated using two difierent full-wave simulators. Very good matching at the input port is achieved, and good transmission parameters are obtained. After that, the same circular-shaped divider is redrawn in a rectangular form to save more circuit area, and to align the four output ports together. For veriflcation purposes, the 4-way rectangular-shaped Bagley power divider is simulated, fabricated and measured. Both simulation and measurement results prove the validity of the design.
Sputtering of Presolar Grains via Galactic Cosmic Rays in the Interstellar Medium

The sputtering rate of presolar silicon carbide grains due to galactic cosmic rays has been computed for their experimentally deduced lifetimes (∼1 Gyr) in the interstellar medium. An ion target simulator, SDTrimSP, was used to model the sputtering of interstellar grains with varying sizes and thicknesses of the ice mantle formed around the grain during their journey through the interstellar medium. Temperature, composition, and density for four different types of molecular cloud environments (quiescent, low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs), intermediate-mass YSOs, and high-mass YSO weak processing) considered indicate the sputtering rate on the mantle ice composition depends on water composition to a certain extent. The model simulations indicate galactic cosmic ray(s) with an energy range from 10 MeV to 1 GeV are just capable of sputtering/destructing ∼13%–15% of the grain itself. This value, stretched over 1 Gyr is not as significant as the other destruction processes and therefore can be classified as a minor destruction process. The effect of galactic cosmic rays on the ice mantle and core is also noted with particular emphasis on amorphization/recoils generated inside the SiC core and their distribution within the grain.
J an 2 01 8 Drop spreading and gelation of thermoresponsive polymers

R. de Ruiter, L. Royon, J.H. Snoeijer and P. Brunet 1 Physics of Fluids Group and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands 2 Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes UMR CNRS 7057, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France 3 Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands (Dated: June 21, 2018)
AN ELASTIC REGISTRATION METHOD FOR QUALITY CONTROL OF TEXTILE PRINTING

In this paper, a textile inspection system for quality control of the printing process is presented. The method is based on acquiring an initial, super− vised template image and registering each test image against the template through a novel elastic registration procedure. Then, the test and template images can be compared using a classical feature−based matching method. No restriction is placed on the complexity, number of colors or any other characteristic of the printed pattern.
Operational Transconductance Amplifier in 350nm CMOS technology

This paper presents transistor level design of operational transconductance amplifier in CMOS technology. Custom designed, circuit is to be built-in into the mixed-signal, switched capacitor circuit. Amplifier targets relatively high slewrate and moderate open loop gain with megahertz order gainbandwidth. Adopted architecture is discussed appreciating application in switched capacitor circuits. Circuit behavior is examined through set of simulations. Obtained results confirmed desired behavior. Target technology process is TSMC 350nm.