Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information Gathering about Decision Processes Using Geospatial Electronic Records

We address the problems of gathering, archiving and analyzing information about decision making processes using geospatial electronic records (e-records). Our ultimate goals are to gather all observable variables about decision making processes using input geospatial e-records so that (a) a decision making process can be documented in the future, (b) audits and authentications of records can be executed, and (c) accountability of decisions can be achieved. Our objectives are (1) to evaluate the tradeoffs between the amount of information about decision making processes, e-record authentication and audits, and the associated storage and computer performance cost, (2) to develop prototype software for gathering information about the use of computers in high assurance decision making and high confidence application scenarios, such as in military, medicine, or law-enforcement, and (3) to provide guidelines about the future uses of computers in government decision making. To meet the above objectives, one has to perform studies addressing several high performance computing problems related to information gathering, data storage, management, access and retrieval, and novel computer architectures. We report our preliminary results obtained for a class of decision processes using geospatial electronic records that are related to emergency response decision processes (e.g., foreign plant disease, hurricane Katrina scenarios), land use decisions (e.g., urban development in the third-world countries) or regulatory decision processes (e.g., nutrient levels allowed by EPA). For this purpose, we have prototyped an information gathering system using multiple geospatial analytical tools that support this class of decision processes. Our tradeoff analyses are performed at several levels of information granularity and the results are reported for three distinct decision process types, such as data intensive, computationally intensive, and high complexity decision processes. The preliminary experimental results indicate that unique signatures of decisions processes based on gathered information could be established for understanding of gathering, archiving and retrieval requirements to provide guidelines about the future uses of computers in government decision making. Technical Report: isda06-001 January 11, 2006
Relationship Among Writing Apprehension, Writing Self-Efficacy, and Iranian EFL Learners' Writing Performance

Abstract. The study aims to examine the relationship among writing apprehension, writing self-efficacy, and Iranian EFL learners’ performance on a writing task. The role of such individual variables in predicting students’ writing ability is also investigated. A total number of 40 Iranian EFL learners (20 males and 20 females) from the Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Isfahan, Iran were given Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI) adopted from Cheng (2004), Post-Secondary Writerly Self-Efficacy Scale (PSWSES) adopted from Schmidt and Alexander (2012), and two writing tasks. Results indicated that there was a significant strong reverse relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ writing apprehension and their writing self-efficacy. As for the relationship between writing apprehension and writing performance, the finding demonstrated a significant negative relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ writing apprehension and their writing performance. It was also found that Iranian EFL learners’ writing selfefficacy had a significant positive relationship with their writing performance. Finally, results indicated that each independent variable had a predictive power on writing performance but in an inverse direction.
Feature analysis of speech emotion data on arousal-valence dimension using adaptive neuro-fuzzy classifier

Speech is structured acoustic signals which form a message featuring the speaker's language, speaking style, and also underlying emotion. These features affect the information passed through speech. Automated speech emotion recognition is a field long studied, but it has not yet found a quite reliable approach. This paper explores two ways to improve automated recognition. First, new sets or combinations of speech emotion features can be selected. Second, recognition of the new feature sets can be separated into arousal and valence dimensions to identify the weaker dimension, which is not possible if trying to recognize emotions directly. The Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier (ANFC) is used as classifier and feature selector, and Self Organizing Map (SOM) is used to visualize the behavior of sample data based on the selected features.
Fast-convolution filter bank approach for non-contiguous spectrum use

Fast-convolution processing, consisting of an FFT, frequency-domain weights, and an IFFT, offers an effective and very flexible way for implementing multirate filters and filter banks. In recent years, fast-convolution filter banks (FC-FBs) have been considered for channelization filtering in software defined radios and recently also for implementing nearly perfect reconstruction transmultiplexers. FC-FB provides an alternative way of implementing filter bank multicarrier systems with good spectral containment and high flexibility in tuning the subchannel bandwidths and center frequencies. These features make FC-FBs a particularly interesting choice for multicarrier transmission in challenging radio scenarios like dynamic spectrum access, cognitive radio, and fragmented spectrum use. This paper develops an FC-FB based transmission scheme of the FBMC/OQAM type with the main parameters of the 5 MHz LTE system. The main application in mind is the development of broadband data communication service to the evolution of TETRA standards for the Professional Mobile Radio (PMR). In this development, a challenging coexistence scenario is commonly considered, since the idea is to use the spectral slots in the PMR band between the active narrowband TETRA channels for broadband communication.
Differences between stereo and motion behaviour on synthetic and real-world stereo sequences

Performance evaluation of stereo or motion analysis techniques is commonly done either on synthetic data where the ground truth can be calculated from ray-tracing principals, or on engineered data where ground truth is easy to estimate. Furthermore, these scenes are usually only shown in a very short sequence of images. This paper shows why synthetic scenes may not be the only testing criteria by giving evidence of conflicting results of disparity and optical flow estimation for real-world and synthetic testing. The data dealt with in this paper are images taken from a moving vehicle. Each real-world sequence contains 250 image pairs or more. Synthetic driver assistance scenes (with ground truth) are 100 or more image pairs. Particular emphasis is paid to the estimation and evaluation of scene flow on the synthetic stereo sequences. All image data used in this paper is made publicly available at http: //www.mi. auckland.ac. nz/EISATS.
Facilitating Opportunistic Communication by Tracking the Documents People Use

Many of our conversations are not planned. Instead, they arise opportunistically as we become aware of the common interests and goals of others. We believe communication tools can be built that leverage knowledge of a user’s goals and activities to make users aware of others relevant to them and their work, with the aim of facilitating this kind of opportunistic interaction. We describe a prototype system, I2I, that helps people establish communication while they are manipulating related documents by embedding awareness and communication facilities directly into everyday document manipulation applications. I2I automatically clusters the documents users are manipulating based on their content, grouping related documents into a single conceptual space. It then makes the common work contexts of users visible by displaying only those users who are manipulating related documents. I2I also allows users to initiate conversations asynchronously through a facility we call calling cards. In these ways, I2I provides users with opportunities to communicate within the context of the activities they are performing in their primary application, without requiring they manually orchestrate the communication themselves. Once users become aware of each other, they can use the system to communicate using a variety of interactive modalities.
Analysis on end-to-end node selection probability in Tor network

Tor is an open network that helps to defend against traffic analysis and thus achieves anonymity and resisting censorship online. Nowadays many researches have been carried out to attack Tor and to break the anonymity. To deanonymize the Tor, the attacker must be able to control both the guard node and exit node of a circuit. In this paper, we present an analysis on end-to-end node selection probability when an attacker adds different types of compromised nodes in the existing Tor network. For accurate Tor simulation, we used Shadow simulator for our experiment. By extensive performance evaluation, we conclude that when guard + exit flagged compromised nodes are added to Tor network, the selection probability of compromised nodes gets higher.
The SLAM algorithm of mobile robot with omnidirectional vision based on EKF

An improved simultaneous localization and mapping(SLAM) method based on extended Kalman filter(EKF) is presented to solve the SLAM problem of mobile robot with omnidirectional vision. The environment feature is extracted from the environment information around the mobile robot got by onmidirectional vision, then the landmark is located, finally, the position and attitude of the mobile robot and the map library are updated synchronously by using the EKF algorithm. Simulation results and real robot experiment results indicate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach.
Acute Flaccid Paralysis and Its Differential Diagnosis in in Kurdistan Province, Western Iran; an 11-Year Surveillance

Abstract Objective The surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) is a key strategy for monitoring the progress of poliomyelitis eradication and is a sensitive measure for detecting potential cases of poliomyelitis and poliovirus infection. This study was conducted to describe the characteristics of patients reported with AFP, and to evaluate the performance of the surveillance system in Kurdistan province, western Iran, using indicators recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Methods This observational study was conducted from January 2000 to December 2010 at the Kurdistan Center for Disease Control and the Department of Pediatrics. All children who fulfilled the WHO definition for AFP were included in our study. The stool samples of all the children were sent for poliovirus isolation. All the patients were evaluated for 60 days after the onset of symptoms to identify the signs of residual weakness. Findings One-hundred thirty nine children aged <15 years were reported to the Center for Diseases Control with AFP. In 138 (99%) stool samples no poliovirus was isolated. None of the patients was diagnosed as having acute poliomyelitis or polio-compatible paralysis. Guillain-Barré syndrome was the most frequent final diagnosis (79 cases) followed by Transverse Myelitis (7 cases) and Encephalitis (6 cases). By detecting 1.3 to 3.6 (mean 3.2) AFP cases per 100 000 population in Kurdistan during the study period, we achieved the WHO target for AFP surveillance. All performance indicators but one consistently met the WHO requirements and therefore demonstrated the effectiveness of the AFP surveillance program in Kurdistan. Conclusion The effective surveillance system in Kurdistan and its evaluation may serve as a model for the surveillance of other infectious diseases.
Design and Analysis of Distributed Embedded Systems using AADL - Application to the Precision Time Protocol

Prototyping distributed embedded system can be seen as a collection of many requirements covering many domains. System designers and developers need to describe both functional and nonfunctional requirements. Building distributed systems is a very tedious task since the application has to be verifiable and analyzable. Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) provides adequate syntax and semantics to express and support distributed embedded systems. This paper studies a general methodology for translating AADL thread component depending on the thread implementation into the BIP (Behavior Interaction Priority) language and for prototyping distributed applications using the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) for building and translating AADL systems into a distributed application using network communication protocol. This allows simulation of systems specified in AADL to fully assess system viability, to refine and to correct the behavior of the system using the BIP (Behavior Interaction Priority) toolset.
Statistical habitat maps for robot localisation in unstructured environments

We present an approach to mobile robot navigation in unstructured environments. Natural scenes can very often be considered as random fields where a large number of individual objects appear to be randomly scattered. This randomness can be described by statistical models. We consider that a natural scene can be interpreted as realisations of random closed sets, whose global characteristics are mapped. Contrary to the feature based approach, this environment representation does not require the existence of outstanding objects in the workspace, and is robust with respect to small dynamic changes. We address the problem of estimating the position of a mobile robot, assuming that a statistical model, serving as a map of the environment, is available to it a priori. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.
Delay and jitter analysis in LTE networks

The emergence of new multimedia applications and real-time services have necessitated networks with guaranteed quality of service (QoS). For mobile networks, LTE is expected to provide low-latency and capacity improvement for interactive and real-time applications which have critical delay and jitter requirements. Indeed, the problem of measuring the end-to-end network performance over LTE networks is more difficult and largely open. The topic of this paper is to highlight the behavior of end-to-end (e2e) delay and jitter under increasing load, in particular, we focus on the impact of the LTE Backhaul and Backbone networks on these metrics. Furthermore, we address some QoS requirements that should be taken into account for LTE-EPC planning and design. The main finding is that the QoS requirements depend heavily on the network configuration and geographical size, and we have concluded that a proper QoS treatment have to be done at each network element in order to guarantee a successful e2e QoS.
Physiological stress response, reflex impairment and delayed mortality of white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus exposed to simulated fisheries stressors

Simulated angling stress caused a physiological disturbance and reflex impairment in sub-adult/adult white sturgeon. Ventilation was the first reflex to become compromised, followed by orientation, mouth extension, tail grab and body flex. Reflex impairment indicated a compromised physiological state which correlated with the degree of the stressor (i.e. severity). Higher reflex impairment scores correlated with longer recovery times. Compromised physiological state was significantly higher in summer than winter treated fish. Two mortalities occurred >24 hours after the cessation of the stressor during the summer. Both individuals had all reflexes impaired upon release into the recovery tank, excess stress metabolites (i.e. lactate), and were ‘unrecovered’ following the 30 min. observation period post-release.
Isolated hapten-binding receptors of sensitized lymphocytes. III. Evidence for idiotypic restriction of T-cell receptors

The primary antibody response of C57BL/6 mice to the 4-hydroxy-3- nitrophenylacetyl (NP) hapten is restricted to antibody molecules expressing the NPb idiotype. This idiotype is a genetic marker for V genes in the heavy chain linkage group. In the secondary response, the frequency of NPb idiotype-positive molecules within the antibody population drops to very low values. Accordingly, isolated NP binding receptors from NP-sensitized B lymphocytes are largely devoid of this idiotype. In contrast, the NPb idiotype is expressed on the majority of the receptor fractions which we consider T-cell derived. This finding suggests that the antigen receptors of T lymphocytes may be restricted to the expression of major (germ-line encoded? ) heavy chain idiotypes.
A 3 D MOBILE MAPPING AND NAVIGATION SYSTEM : AUTOMATIC 3 D TOPOLOGICAL DATA EXTRACTION , NETWORK ANALYSES , SIMULATION AND INTERACTIVE HUMAN NAVIGATION

In this paper it is aimed to present a 3D mobile mapping and interactive human navigation system which consists of three components. The first component is used to extract the geometrical and 3D topological vector data automatically from architectural raster floor plan images. The second component is used for network analysis and simulations. It generates and presents the optimum path in a 3D modelled building, and provides 3D visualization and simulation. And the third and the last component is used to carry out the generation of the guiding expression and it also provides that information to the mobile devices such as PDA’s, laptops etc via internet. That complete system was generated and tested on a complex building model using GPRS and also WIFI internet connections based on the web technologies. This paper discusses the results gained from the application. * Corresponding author.
Temporal Speech Normalization Methods Comparison in Speech Recognition Using Neural Network

Speech signal is temporally and acoustically varies. Recognition of speech by static input Neural Network requires temporal normalization of the speech to be equal to the number of input nodes of the NN while maintaining the properties of the speech. This paper compares three methods for speech temporal normalization namely the linear, extended linear and zero padded normalizations on isolated speech using different sets of learning parameters on multi layer perceptron neural network with adaptive learning. Although, previous work shows that linear normalization able to give high accuracy up to 95% on similar problem, the result in this experiment shows the opposite. The experimental result shows that zero padded normalization outperformed the two linear normalization methods using all the parameter sets tested. The highest recognition rate using zero padded normalization is 99% while linear and extended linear normalizations give only 74% and 76% respectively. This paper end before conclusion by comparing data used from previous work using linear normalization which gave high accuracy and the data used in this experiment which perform poorer.
Social networks' role in online education

Since students of online education do not meet face to face in a classroom environment, students get engaged to the classes via third party content or learning management tools. It is evident that young people spend most of their time on Social Networking websites when they are connected to internet. These sites provide free of speech environment without any restrictions. Moreover, the research in this area points out that the students are being more social when they use one of these Social Networking websites. Based on this findings, one can say using Social Networking in online education may provide an active cyber classroom environment with positive learning outcomes. Therefore, this paper is focusing on the role of Social Networking websites affect on student betrothal in online education.
Directed self-assembly of end-functionalized nanofibers: from percolated networks to liquid crystal-like phases

We explore the directed self-assembly (DSA) process of end-functionalized nanofibers (NFs) by performing coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. We find that by tuning their interactions, NFs aggregate and self-organize into networks with specific topologies ranging from percolated networks to liquid crystal-like long-chain phases. The underlying mechanism is explained through an analytical model from a minimum energy perspective. In addition to offering microscopic understandings of the DSA process, the findings reported here can also guide robust target-specified design of nanofibrous materials into organized network structures.
A new haze image database with detailed air quality information and a novel no-reference image quality assessment method for haze images

In this paper, we propose a new standard haze image database with nearly all kinds of haze situations. Our database includes haze-free images as well as different levels and situations of haze images, such as snowy and extremely serious haze images. Our database also records the related weather and air quality information. Moreover, the database offers a mean opinion score (MOS) for each image as the subjective evaluation of the haze severity. Our database provides ample haze images with various objective and subjective descriptions, and has significantly potential scientific value. Since haze is a reason leading to the degradation of the image quality, obtaining the quality of haze images is also necessary and meaningful. In this paper, a novel no-reference image quality assessment (IQA) method for haze images is also proposed. Our method analyzes the model of haze images to evaluate the quality. The experimental results on the haze database show that our method is consistent with the subjective evaluation.
Hearing preservation and clinical outcome of 32 consecutive electric acoustic stimulation (EAS) surgeries

Abstract Conclusions: Our results indicated that electric acoustic stimulation (EAS) is beneficial for Japanese-speaking patients, including those with less residual hearing at lower frequencies. Comparable outcomes for the patients with less residual hearing indicated that current audiological criteria for EAS could be expanded. Successful hearing preservation results, together with the progressive nature of loss of residual hearing in these patients, mean that minimally invasive full insertion of medium/long electrodes in cochlear implantation (CI) surgery is a desirable solution. The minimally invasive concepts that have been obtained through EAS surgery are, in fact, crucial for all CI patients. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate hearing preservation results and speech discrimination outcomes of hearing preservation surgeries using medium/long electrodes. Methods: A total of 32 consecutive minimally invasive hearing preservation CIs (using a round window approach with deep insertion of a flexible electrode) were performed in 30 Japanese patients (two were bilateral cases), including patients with less residual hearing. Hearing preservation rates as well as speech discrimination/perception scores were investigated on a multicenter basis. Results: Postoperative evaluation after full insertion of the flexible electrodes (24 mm, 31.5 mm) showed that residual hearing was well preserved in all 32 ears. In all patients, speech discrimination and perception scores were improved postoperatively.
A phase 3b study of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin in Taiwanese patients with chronic genotype 2 hepatitis C virus infection

In Taiwan, patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are currently treated with pegylated interferon‐alpha plus ribavirin, but interferon‐based regimens can be poorly tolerated, especially by those with advanced liver disease and the elderly. Sofosbuvir, an oral nucleotide analogue inhibitor of HCV NS5B polymerase, is approved in Europe, the USA and Japan for treating chronic HCV infection. This phase 3b study examined the efficacy and safety of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin in Taiwanese patients with chronic genotype 2 HCV infection ± compensated cirrhosis.