Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probabilistic constructions of discrete copulas

For a multivariate vector $\mathbf X$ with discrete components, we construct, by means of explicit randomised transformations of $\mathbf X$, multivariate couplings of copula representers $\mathbf U$ associated to $\mathbf X$. As a result, we show that any copula can be constructed in this manner, giving a full probabilistic characterisation of the set of copula functions associated to $\mathbf X$. The dependence properties of these copula representers are contrasted with those of the original $\mathbf X$: the impact on independence and on the concordance order of this added randomisation structure is elucidated and quantified. Some explicit formulas are given in the bivariate and pattern recognition case. At last, an application of these constructions to the empirical copula shows they can easily be simulated when the distribution function is unknown.
An Optimised Linear Mechanical Model for Estimating Brain Shift Caused by Meningioma Tumours

Estimation of brain deformation plays an important role in computer-aided therapy and image-guided neurosurgery systems. Tumour growth can cause brain deformation and change stress distribution in the brain. Biomechanical models exist that use a finite element method to estimate brain shift caused by tumour growth. Such models can be categorised as linear and non-linear models, both of which assume finite deformation of the brain after tumour growth. Linear models are easy to implement and fast enough to for applications such as IGS where the time is a great of concern. However their accuracy highly dependent on the parameters of the models in this paper, we proposed an optimisation approach to improve a naive linear model to achieve more precise estimation of brain displacements caused by tumour growth. The optimisation process has improved the accuracy of the model by adapting the brain model parameters according to different tomour sizes.We used patient-based tetrahedron finite element mesh with proper material properties for brain tissue and appropriate boundary conditions in the tumour region. Anatomical landmarks were determined by an expert and were divided into two different sets for evaluation and optimisation. Tetrahedral finite element meshes were used and the model parameters were optimised by minimising the mean square distance between the predicted locations of the anatomical landmarks derived from Brain Atlas images and their actual locations on the tumour images. Our results demonstrate great improvement in the accuracy of an optimised linear mechanical model that achieved an accuracy rate of approximately 92%.
Fully homomorphic encryption must be fat or ugly?

In 1978, Rivest, Adleman and Dertouzos asked for algebraic systems for which useful privacy homomorphisms exist. To date, the only acknownledged result is noise based encryption combined with bootstrapping. Before that, there were several failed attempts. We prove that fully homomorphic schemes are impossible for several algebraic structures. Then we develop a characterisation of all fully homomorphic schemes and use it to analyse three examples. Finally, we propose a conjecture stating that secure FHE schemes must either have a significant ciphertext expansion or use unusual algebraic structures.
Matching immigrant and native workers: evidence from the recent downturn in Italy

This paper provides some empirical evidence about the supposed vulnerability of immigrants to the recent economic downturn, by using longitudinal data from the Italian Labour Force Survey. Immigrant workers always show a higher probability of ending an ongoing employment spell when compared to their native colleagues. However, their observable characteristics are more likely associated to higher separation rates, so that, when comparing similar workers, differences between immigrants and natives disappear, both before and after the downturn. The impact of the downturn is mostly related to observed characteristics, not to the immigrant status itself, and it is markedly different by gender. In 2009 job separations are increasing for all male workers, but the impact is stronger for immigrants, mainly because their characteristics are more likely to be hit by the downturn. On the contrary, both groups of female workers show a slightly lower probability of losing a job in 2009, so that observed differences remain the same before and after the downturn.
A framework for analyzing programs written in proprietary languages

There are several commercial products that use proprietary languages, which typically look like a wrapper around (some proprietary extension of) the standard SQL language. Examples of these languages include ABAP, Informix, XBase++, SQR and so on. These application are difficult to analyze not only because it is hard to model the semantics of the underlying database systems but also because of the lack of standard tools for analysis. One naive way to analyse such programs is to collect dynamic trace using proprietary debuggers and run the analyses on the trace. However, this form of dynamic trace collection can be a severe performance bottleneck. In this paper, we present our experience with building a framework to help in efficient program analysis in the context of ticket resolution for ABAP programs. In our framework, we first translate the given ABAP programs to semantically equivalent annotated Java programs. These Java programs are then executed to generate the required dynamic trace. Our framework allows the plugging of off-the-shelf static analysis tools (applied on the Java programs) and dynamic trace analysis tools (on the generated trace) and maps the results from these analysis tools back to the original ABAP programs. One novel aspect of our framework is that it admits incomplete ABAP grammar, which is an important aspect when dealing with proprietary languages where the grammar may not be publicly available. We have used our framework on several benchmarks to validate the translation, and establish the efficiency and the utility of our instrumented Java code along with the collected trace.
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Cc by towards Keyword Based Recommendation System

Recommender systems have been shown as valuable tools for providing appropriate recommendations to users. In the last decade, the amount of customers, services and online information has grown rapidly, yielding the big data analysis problem for recommender systems. Consequently, traditional service recommender systems often suffer from scalability and inefficiency problems when processing or analyzing such large-scale data. Moreover, most of existing recommender systems present the same ratings and rankings of items to different users without considering diverse users' preferences, and therefore fails to meet users personalized requirements. This project proposes a Keyword based Recommendation method, to address the above challenges. It aims at presenting a personalized recommendation list and recommending the most appropriate items to the users effectively. Specifically, keywords are used to indicate users' preferences, and a user-based Collaborative Filtering algorithm is adopted to generate appropriate recommendations. To improve its scalability and efficiency in big data environment, it is implemented on Hadoop, a widely-adopted distributed computing platform using the MapReduce parallel processing paradigm. Proposed system is used to improve the accuracy and scalability of service recommender systems over existing approaches.
An Improved Differential Fixpoint Iteration Method for Program Analysis

We present a differential fixpoint iteration method to be used in static program analyses. The differential method consists of two phases: first we transform the program analysis equations into differential ones, and then we apply a differential fixpoint iteration to the equations computing with the differences from the previous iterations. We implemented the method for the exception analysis of ML programs and also for the constant propagation and alias analysis of C and Fortran programs. For the exception analysis, our differential method saves about 20-50% computations. For the constant propagation and alias analysis, our method has a linear asymptotic performance: its cost remains linear to the height of the lattice structures. Our algorithm is not yet formally proven correct, but for the experiments the analysis results are confirmed identical to those from a non-differential fixpoint algorithm. Both analyses are for realistic ML/C/Fortran programs.
Monolithically integrated self-rolled-up microtube-based vertical coupler for three-dimensional photonic integration

We demonstrate a self-rolled-up microtube-based vertical photonic coupler monolithically integrated on top of a ridge waveguide to achieve three-dimensional (3D) photonic integration. The fabrication process is fully compatible with standard planar silicon processing technology. Strong light coupling between the vertical coupler and the ridge waveguide was observed experimentally, which may provide an alternative route for 3D heterogeneous photonic integration. The highest extinction ratio observed in the transmission spectrum passing through the ridge waveguide was 23 dB.
A Knowledge Management Process-Based Approach to Support Corporate Crisis Management

In the crisis-prone and complex contemporary business environment, modern organisations and their supply chains, large and small, are challenged by crises more than ever. Knowledge management has been acknowledged as an important discipline able to support the management of complexity in times of crisis. However, the role of effective knowledge retrieval and sharing in the process of crisis prevention, management and survival has been relatively underexplored. In this paper, it is argued that organisational crises create additional challenges for knowledge management, mainly because complex, polymorphic and both structured and unstructured knowledge must be efficiently harnessed, processed and disseminated to the appropriate internal and external supply chain actors, under specific time constraints. In this perspective, a process-based approach is proposed to address the knowledge management needs of organisations during a crisis and to help management in establishing the necessary risk avoidance and recovery mechanisms. Finally, the proposed methodological approach is applied in a knowledge- intensive Greek small and medium enterprise from the pharmaceutical industry, producing empirical results, insights on knowledge pathologies during crises and relevant evaluations.
Generation of porcine fetal fibroblasts expressing the tetracycline-inducible Cas9 gene by somatic cell nuclear transfer

Cas9 endonuclease, from so-called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) systems of Streptococcus pyogenes, type II functions as an RNA-guided endonuclease and edits the genomes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, including deletion and insertion by DNA double-stranded break repair mechanisms. In previous studies, it was observed that Cas9, with a genome-scale lentiviral single-guide RNA library, could be applied to a loss-of-function genetic screen, although the loss-of-function genes have yet to be verified in vitro and this approach has not been used in porcine cells. Based on these observations, lentiviral Cas9 was used to infect porcine primary fibroblasts to achieve cell colonies carrying Cas9 endonuclease. Subsequently, porcine fetal fibroblasts expressing the tetracycline-inducible Cas9 gene were generated by somatic cell nuclear transfer, and three 30 day transgenic porcine fetal fibroblasts (PFFs) were obtained. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), reverse transcription-PCR and western blot analysis indicated that the PFFs were Cas9-positive. In addition, one of the three integrations was located near to known functional genes in the PFF1 cell line, whereas neither of the integrations was located in the PFF1 or PFF2 cell lines. It was hypothesized that these transgenic PFFs may be useful for conditional genomic editing in pigs, and for generating ideal modified porcine models.
Securely Sharing Of Data with Others in Cloud Storage Using Public – Key Cryptosystem

Cloud storage could be a storage of information on-line in cloud that is accessible from multiple and connected resources. Cloud storage will offer smart accessibility and reliability, sturdy protection, disaster recovery, and lowest price. Cloud storage having vital practicality i.e. securely, with efficiency, flexibly sharing information with others. New public–key cryptography that is named as Key-aggregate cryptosystem (KAC) is introduced. Key-aggregate cryptosystem turn out constant size ciphertexts specified economical delegation of decoding rights for any set of ciphertext area unit attainable. Any set of secret keys are often mass and create them as single key, that encompasses power of all the keys being mass. This combination key are often sent to the others for decoding of ciphertext set and remaining encrypted files outside the set area unit remains confidential. Keywords— Cloud storage, data sharing, key-aggregate encryption, Public Key Encryption.
An Automatic Recommendation Scheme of TV Program Contents for (IP)TV Personalization

Due to the rapid increase of contents available under the convergence of broadcasting and Internet, efficient access to personally preferred contents has become an important issue. In this paper, an automatic recommendation scheme based on collaborative filtering is presented for intelligent personalization of (IP)TV services. The proposed scheme does not require TV viewers (users) to make explicit ratings on their watched TV program contents. Instead, it implicitly infers the users' interests on the watched TV program contents. For the recommendation of user preferred TV program contents, our proposed recommendation scheme first clusters TV users into similar groups based on their preferences on the content genres from the user's watching history of TV program contents. For the personalized recommendation of TV program contents to an active user, a candidate set of preferred TV program contents is obtained via collaborative filtering for the group to which the active user belongs. The candidate TV programs for recommendation are then ranked by a proposed novel ranking model. Finally, a set of top- N ranked TV program contents is recommended to the active user. The experimental results show that the proposed TV program recommendation scheme yields about 77% of average precision accuracy and 0.135 value of ANMRR (Average Normalized Modified Retrieval Rank) with top five recommendations for 1,509 people.
A 5-fluid hydrodynamic approach to model the solar system-interstellar medium interaction

Since about several decades now it is clearly recog- nized that the interaction of the solar system with the ambient interstellar medium flow primarily occurs on the basis of a hy- drodynamic adaptation of two counterflowing fluids, the solar wind and the interstellar plasmas. The hydrodynamic nature of the interaction unavoidably invokes structures like an inner so- lar wind termination shock (TS), the heliopause and an outer interstellar bow shock with plasma sheath regions in between. Though the main outlines of this interaction scenario were estab- lished long ago, some debates about the location and geometry of these structures still continue up to the present. Fundamen- tally new aspects of this interaction problem have only quite recently appeared calling for new and more sophisticated calcu- lations. The revisions of the earlier one-fluid interaction concept starts with the consideration of the neutral LISM H-atom gas passing through the solar system. At the occasion of ionizations of this neutral component a medium-energetic plasma compo- nent in form of keV-energetic pick-up ions (PUI's) is emerging. This component changes the distant solar wind properties by mass-, momentum-, and energy-loading, as well as by wave generation and lowering the solar wind Mach numbers. Also it has to be taken into account that PUI's serve as seed particles for a high-energetic plasma population with energies between 10 and 100 MeV/nuc called anomalous cosmic rays (ACR's). This latter component together with galactic cosmic rays (GCR's) not only modify the supersonic solar wind by means of their pressure gradients upstream and downstream of the termination shock but also, connected with the ACR shock acceleration pro- cess, modulate the shock structure itself. Since all these five fluid components are dynamically coupled, the interaction modes are strongly enriched with respect to what was taken into account in earlier approaches. In the numerical simulations of this paper it is shown how the characteristic features of this complicated 5-fluids interaction scenario look like and which differences oc- cur with respect to the earlier mono- or two-fluid views. As evi- dent the influence of H-atoms and PUI's systematically reduces TS- shock and heliopause locations to smaller scales, whereas ACR's mainly reduce the TS-shock compression ratios. GCR's dependent on their spatial diffusion coefficients more or less
NOCTURNAL NAVIGATION IN LEUCORCHESTRIS ARENICOLA (ARANEAE, SPARASSIDAE)

Abstract When the males of the Namib Desert spider Leucorchestris arenicola (Araneae, Sparassidae) reach the adult stage they undertake long nocturnal searches for females. From these searches they return to their home burrow often in a straight line only retracing a fraction of their outward path if at all. Distances of 40 m and 13 m are conservative estimates of the mean round trip length and maximum distance from the burrow. Returning to the starting point of a round trip of such length is theoretically only possible if the navigator uses external cues for positional reference. The possible involvement of a range of external cues in the male L. arenicola was investigated. The direction of gravity, the sun, polarized sunlight, olfaction, constant wind direction and vibrational beacons are ruled out or deemed unlikely to be involved in the spiders' homing.
Are those who flourished at school healthier adults? What role for adult education? [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 17]

This report concerns a two-part project about the importance for adult health and well-being of (1) broadly defined school success and (2) participation in adult learning. In the first part of the project we examine which aspects of schooling are markers for health and well-being in adulthood, using not only measures of attainment such as qualifications, but also measures of engagement. Our interest is in testing the strength of broad-ranging childhood indicators for adult health in order to help practitioners target appropriate resources. In the second part we consider the potential role for adult learning in improving health and well-being amongst adults generally, and in offsetting the disadvantage associated with not flourishing at school, thereby reducing health inequalities. We use longitudinal data to examine relationships between participation in adult learning and trajectories in health and well-being for adults who did and did not flourish at school. The differences in adult health and well-being between those who flourished at secondary school and those who did not are substantial and pervasive and go beyond the effect of qualifications attained, indicating the importance of engagement at school as well as academic attainment. We also find that patterns established in early life have a more profound effect than those adopted in later life, and the difference in scale and pervasiveness of the results for school and for adult education tend to support this. Our findings underline the importance of understanding why flourishing at secondary school is such an important signal for adult health and well-being. However, it does not negate the value of adult education, which seems to provide real opportunities for transformation of poor health and well-being amongst adults, whether or not they flourished at school.
Covering Landmark Interactions for Semantically Diverse Plans

Prior approaches to generating diverse plans in domain-independent planning seek out variations on plan structure such as actions or causal links used, or states entered. As a result, these approaches can achieve great plan set diversity by synthesizing unnecessarily long plans. This type of misleading diversity may be useful if, for example, the plans are used as training data for a learner; however, they have arguably low value to a human decision maker. We present an approach to domain-independent diverse planning that systematically varies the semantic attributes of plans so that we do not arbitrarily inflate plan length to achieve diversity. Our contribution is based upon the fact that landmarks, which represent the minimally necessary subgoals (semantics) of a planning domain, can be disjunctive and hence satisfied in a number of ways. Varying the disjuncts that must be satisfied by alternative plans leads to a form of diversity that does not encourage irrelevant plan structure. We present an extension of the LAMA planner called DLAMA that generates multiple plans, each required to systematically satisfy alternative landmark disjuncts. We show that, in comparison with prior diverse planners, DLAMA reduces average plan length while achieving plan set diversity.
On the Automatic Detection and Correction of Software Architectural Defects in Object-Oriented Designs

Design defects, antipatterns, code smells are software defects at the architectural level that must be detected and corrected to improve software quality. Automatic detection and correction of these software architectural defects, which suffer of a lack of tools, are important to ease the maintenance of objectoriented architectures and thus to reduce the cost of maintenance. A clear understanding of the different types of software architectural defects defects and a classification of these defects is necessary before proposing any techniques related to their detection or correction. We introduce a first classification and summarise existing techniques. Then, we introduce some challenges that our community must meet.
Automatic detection of planar contours from uncalibrated images

The present paper describes an original technique developed for detecting and matching unknown planar structures between a pair of uncalibrated images. Problems related to bad segmentation or to occlusion are automatically solved in most cases. The match process works hierarchically on pertinent point which provide local consistency and on contours which ensure the global consistency. After matching, contours are split into planar contour according to collineations. Tests made over different pairs of images demonstrate the efficiency of our approach.
Fingerprint enhancement based on non-separable wavelet

Fingerprint enhancement is necessary for low quality images. In this paper, we develop a new method for fingerprint enhancement based on non-separable filter banks. We first decompose the fingerprint image using the non-separable filter banks, which can decompose the fingerprint image efficiently and obtain wavelet coefficients, then modifies the coefficients by applying the adaptive approach to reduce the noises and increase the contrast between ridges and valleys according to the geometry feature of images. Then we apply the inverse wavelet transform to map the result and use a two-dimensional median filter to reduce noise and preserve edges. Experiments have been conducted on the fingerprint database FVC2002 in our study. The results demonstrate that the proposed method works well in fingerprint enhancement without under-enhancement and over-enhancement, and it is more effective and robust than other existing methods.