Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A controlled experiment assessing test case prioritization techniques via mutation faults

Regression testing is an important part of software maintenance, but it can also be very expensive. To reduce this expense, software testers may prioritize their test cases so that those that are more important are run earlier in the regression testing process. Previous work has shown that prioritization can improve a test suite's rate of fault detection, but the assessment of prioritization techniques has been limited to hand-seeded faults, primarily due to the belief that such faults are more realistic than automatically generated (mutation) faults. A recent empirical study, however, suggests that mutation faults can be representative of real faults. We have therefore designed and performed a controlled experiment to assess the ability of prioritization techniques to improve the rate of fault detection techniques, measured relative to mutation faults. Our results show that prioritization can be effective relative to the faults considered, and they expose ways in which that effectiveness can vary with characteristics of faults and test suites. We also compare our results to those collected earlier with respect to the relationship between hand-seeded faults and mutation faults, and the implications this has for researchers performing empirical studies of prioritization.
Effectiveness of a Framed Wiki-Based Learning Activity in the Context of HCI Education

In this paper, the effectiveness of a framed wiki-based learning activity is investigated. A one-group pretest -- posttest study was conducted towards this aim. The study involved 36 first year university students of a Greek Education Department using wikis to learn basic aspects and implications of usability evaluation in the frame of a first year course entitled "Introduction to Web Science". Analysis of the results showed significant improvement in learning outcomes, in particular for students with low initial performance. The average students' questionnaire score jumped from 35.2% to 54.0%. In addition, a positive attitude towards using wikis in their project was expressed by the students. The design of the activity, the context of the study as well as the results obtained are discussed in detail.
Ten years of integrated care: backwards and forwards. The case of the province of Québec, Canada

Introduction Québec’s rapidly growing elderly and chronically ill population represents a major challenge to its healthcare delivery system, attributable in part to the system’s focus on acute care and fragmented delivery. Description of policy practice Over the past few years, reforms have been implemented at the provincial policy level to integrate hospital-based, nursing home, homecare and social services in 95 catchment areas. Recent organizational changes in primary care have also resulted in the implementation of family medicine groups and network clinics. Several localized initiatives were also developed to improve integration of care for older persons or persons with chronic diseases. Conclusion and discussion Québec has a history of integration of health and social services at the structural level. Recent evaluations of the current reform show that the care provided by various institutions in the healthcare system is becoming better integrated. The Québec health care system nevertheless continues to face three important challenges in its management of chronic diseases: implementing the reorganization of primary care, successfully integrating primary and secondary care at the clinical level, and developing effective governance and change management. Efforts should focus on strengthening primary care by implementing nurse practitioners, developing a shared information system, and achieving better collaboration between primary and secondary care.
The Great DNS Wall of China

Internet freedom advocacy sites [1] have studied and documented these censorship practices, enumerating the techniques employed by the censoring bodies. For example, censors block the IP addresses of controversial websites, inspect TCP packet exchanges for keywords and tamper with DNS records. These advocacy sites have already catalogued the types of sites that are censored and the means by which censorship is employed; this paper focuses specifically on DNS tampering.
An Online News Recommender System for Social Networks

In this paper, an online news recommender system for the popular social network, Facebook, is described. This system provides daily newsletters for communities on Facebook. The system fetches the news articles and filters them based on the community description to prepare the daily news digest. Explicit survey feedback from the users show that most users found the application useful and easy to use. They also indicated that they could get some community specific articles that they would not have got otherwise.
Improved methods for calculating vectors of short length in a lattice

The standard methods for calculating vectors of short length in a lattice use a reduction procedure followed by enumerating all vectors of Z'. in a suitable box. However, it suffices to consider those x E Z'" which lie in a suitable ellipsoid having a much smaller volume than the box. We show in this paper that searching through that ellipsoid is in many cases much more efficient. If combined with an appropriate reduction procedure our method allows to do computations in lattices of much higher dimensions. Several randomly constructed numerical examples illustrate the superiority of our new method over the known ones.
Tangential Sphere Bounds on the Ensemble Performance of ML Decoded Low Density Parity Check Codes

Low density parity check (LDPC) codes were rediscovered by MacKay and Neal [4], after being first introduced in 1961 by Gallager in his seminal work [2, 3]. The experiments with LDPC codes, indicate that like turbo codes [1], they exhibit low bit error rates at low signal to noise ratios. The performance of LDPC codes was extensively investigated since and their exceptional performance with the suboptimal and practical iterative decoding algorithm was reported in the literature, as evidenced in [2]-[5],[8] and references therein. In this paper the phenomenal performance of LDPC codes with large block length and maximum likelihood (ML) decoding is demonstrated by the tangential sphere bound. This improved upper bound on the block error probability for a binary-input additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel [7] depends on the distance spectrum of the code, and it is not subjected to problems typical for the more popular union bounds in regions of low signal to noise ratios. The technique is applied in [9, 10] for upper bounding the performance of uniformly interleaved turbo and turbo-block codes with structured or random component codes, operating over an AWGN channel and ML decoded. These upper bounds are also compared in [9, 10] to simulation results of the ‘LogMAP’ iterative decoding algorithm, indicating in various cases the suboptimality of the iterative decoding algorithm at low values of energy per bit to noise spectral
Computer abuse and security: Update on an empirical pilot study

Questions about computer abuse abound in the popular press and in the computer trade and professional journals. Frequently asked questions focus on the extent of the problem and the abusers themselves. Some typical, critical questions are:* Is computer abuse a serious problem today in the U.S.? * How are systems being abused? * Who are the abusers and what motivates them? * Are privileged system users more prone to abuse systems than other users?
Optimal partial filters of EEG signals for shared control of vehicle

The development of equipment that measures EEG signals leads to the research that applies them to many domains. There are active research going on EEG signals for shared vehicle control system between human and car. An appropriate filtering method is also important because EEG signals normally have lots of noises. To reduce such noises, full matrix filter, sparse matrix reference filter, and common average reference (CAR) filter are presented and analyzed in this paper. In order to develop shared vehicle control system, we use controller, brain-computer interface (BCI), EEG signals, and car simulator program. By executing t-test, it was possible to find the optimal filter out of three filters mentioned above. With the analysis of t-test, it has revealed that full matrix filter is not appropriate for shared vehicle control system. In addition, it proves CAR filter has the best performance among these filters.
Practical Gröbner basis computation

We report on our experiences exploring state of the art Gröbner basis computation. We investigate signature based algorithms in detail. We also introduce new practical data structures and computational techniques for use in both signature based Gröbner basis algorithms and more traditional variations of the classic Buchberger algorithm. Our conclusions are based on experiments using our new freely available open source standalone C++ library.
Plant Size, Sexual Selection, and the Evolution of Protandry in Dioecious Plants

It is frequently observed that males of dioecious plant species flower earlier in the season than females, although the generality of this pattern has not been quantified. One hypothesis for earlier male flowering is that females require more time for resource acquisition before reproduction; another is that selection for access to unfertilized ovules favors early-flowering males. Here I show that protandry is indeed the usual pattern in dioecious plants—males typically initiate flowering before females—and I propose a new hypothesis to explain this pattern. In many natural plant populations, individuals that begin flowering early are larger and—in the case of females or hermaphrodites—therefore more fecund. When this population-level seasonal decline in size is included in simulations of flowering time evolution in a dioecious plant, males evolve earlier flowering onset than females. Correlations between size (or condition) and reproductive phenology are widespread and likely contribute to the prevalence of protandry in both plants and animals, but their importance seems to have been overlooked by botanists. I suggest that sexual selection (specifically, male-male competition for access to high-quality ovules) may play a more important role in the evolution of flowering phenology than has previously been recognized.
CASE-a lazy version of an SECD machine with a flat environment

CASE is an abstract machine which supports applicative programming and is a variation of Landin's classical SECD machine (P.J. Landin, 1964). Its environment is organized in a novel way which makes variable access more efficient by removing the overhead of following a static chain or of setting up a display as in more conventional stack architectures. The CASE machine also has features allowing the execution of code to reflect lazy evaluation semantics. A description is given of the architecture of the machine, its operational semantics and code generated by a typical compiler for some sample programs. Also discussed are some optimizations made to facilitate efficient code generation on real hardware and some measurements of the efficiency of the machine. <<ETX>>
A telephone-supported cardiovascular lifestyle programme (CLIP) for lipid reduction and weight loss in general practice patients: a randomised controlled pilot trial

Abstract Objective To evaluate a primary prevention care model using telephone support delivered through an existing health call centre to general practitioner-referred patients at risk of developing CVD, using objective measures of CVD risk reduction and weight loss. Design Participants were randomised into two groups: (i) those receiving a telephone-supported comprehensive lifestyle intervention programme (CLIP: written structured diet and exercise advice, plus seven telephone sessions with the Heart Foundation Health Information Service); and (ii) those receiving usual care from their general practitioner (control: written general lifestyle advice). Fasting plasma lipids, blood pressure, weight, waist circumference and height were assessed on general practice premises by a practice nurse at Weeks 0 and 12. Setting Two general practices in Adelaide, South Australia. Subjects Forty-nine men and women aged 48·0 (sd 5·88) years identified by their general practitioner as being at future risk of CVD (BMI = 33·13 (sd 5·39) kg/m2; LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) = 2·66 (sd 0·92) mmol/l). Results CLIP participants demonstrated significantly greater reductions in LDL-C (estimated mean (EM) = 1·98 (se 0·17) mmol/l) and total cholesterol (EM = 3·61 (se 0·21) mmol/l) at Week 12 when compared with the control group (EM = 3·23 (se 0·18) mmol/l and EM = 4·77 (se 0·22) mmol/l, respectively). There were no significant treatment effects for systolic blood pressure (F(1,45) = 0·28, P = 0·60), diastolic blood pressure (F(1,43) = 0·52, P = 0·47), weight (F(1,42) = 3·63, P = 0·063) or waist circumference (F(1,43) = 0·32, P = 0·577). Conclusions In general practice patients, delivering CLIP through an existing telephone health service is effective in achieving reductions in LDL-C and total cholesterol. While CLIP may have potential for wider implementation to support primary prevention of CVD, longer-term cost-effectiveness data are warranted.
Simulating topoclimatic data to support bioclimatic research in alpine environments: application and assessment of a mesoscale atmospheric model

Many bioclimatic modelling efforts are based on the use of gridded climatic datasets that inadequately account for topoclimatic effects. We evaluate a mesoscale atmospheric model, TAPM, as an alternative means of generating spatially explicit topoclimatic data applicable to small scale (200‐m resolution) bioclimatic research. Temporal and spatial assessments of TAPM were carried out across New Zealand's mountains. First, goodness‐of‐fit analyses of TAPM‐simulated meteorology against three weather station observations for January and July, 2001–2007, were carried out. Second, TAPM‐simulated January/July mean daily temperature extremes and wind speeds were compared against interpolated climate grid data for approximately 37 000 grid cells across New Zealand. Third, deviations of TAPM‐simulated data from the gridded climate dataset baseline were modelled against GIS‐derived landscape position in order to quantify the nature and extent of topoclimatic effects. Temporal assessments indicated that TAPM provided reasonably accurate simulations for hourly temperatures and wind speeds, moderately good estimates for solar radiation and poor estimates for humidity. On the whole, the greatest simulation errors occurred for daily extreme values. Relative to the climate grid baseline, TAPM‐simulated temperatures and wind speeds were also relatively unbiased. However, TAPM‐simulated values varied widely around climate grid values, and these deviations were significantly related to landscape position. The relative congruence of simulation biases across time and space suggests that uncertainties are systematic and inherent to the model architecture rather than due to location‐related variability. While results suggest caution in using TAPM to simulate daily extremes, biases may be less problematic for studies where relative differences in topoclimate across locations are of interest. Topoclimatic effects appear pervasive across New Zealand's mountain systems and are predictable as a function of topography. On the basis of our results, further investigations into the use of mesoscale atmospheric models to generate topoclimate data in support of research in mountainous areas are merited.
Divert Failure Route Protocol Based on AODV

This paper prototypes a new model for resolving link failure problem in Ad hoc network based on AODV protocol. Link failure is the major issue of the current Ad hoc network due to the nodes mobility, which can be avoided if the routing protocol responses quickly to the network topology change. In this research, we studied the Ad hoc on demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol, especially link failure features with profound analysis. We have proposed a Divert Failure Route Protocol scheme (DFRP) as a solution to link failure. DFRP tries to avoid a link failure in advance. DFRP monitors the link to next hop and predict the link status through the signal strength. DFRP consists of two models; “DETECTION–MODEL and NEW-PATH CONSTRUCTOR-MODEL”. Main functions of these Models are to predict the signal strength, and to find a new route to divert the data to the new path, respectively. The main benefit of this new protocol is reducing the delay resulting from sending link failure information back to the sender.
Three novel combinatorial theorems for the insertion/deletion channel

Although the insertion/deletion problem has been studied for more than fifty years, many results still remain elusive. The goal of this work is to present three novel theorems with a combinatorial flavor that shed further light on the structure and nature of insertions/deletions. In particular, we give an exact result for the maximum number of common supersequences between two sequences, extending older work by Levenshtein. We then generalize this result for sequences that have different lengths. Finally, we compute the exact neighborhood size for the binary circular (alternating) string Cn = 0101 . 01. In addition to furthering our understanding of the insertion/deletion channel, these theorems can be used as building blocks in other applications. One such application is developing improved lower bounds on the sizes of insertion/deletion-correcting codes.
An Angle-Based Approach to Two-Dimensional Mesh Smoothing

We present an effective and easy-to-implement angle-based smoothing scheme for triangular, quadrilateral and tri-quad mixed meshes. For each mesh node our algorithm compares all the pairs of adjacent angles incident to the node and adjusts these angles so that they become equal in the case of a triangular mesh and a quadrilateral mesh, or they form the ideal ratio in the case of a tri-quad mixed mesh. The size and shape quality of the mesh after this smoothing algorithm is much better than that after Laplacian smoothing. The proposed method is superior to Laplacian smoothing by reducing the risk of generating inverted elements and increasing the uniformity of element sizes. The computational cost of our smoothing method is yet much lower than optimization-based smoothing. To prove the effectiveness of this algorithm, we compared errors in approximating a given analytical surface by a set of bi-linear patches corresponding to a mesh with Laplacian smoothing and a mesh with the proposed smoothing method. The experiments show that a mesh smoothed with our method has roughly 20% less approximation error.
Content Based Image Retrieval Using Local Binary Pattern Operator and Data Mining Techniques

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) concerns the retrieval of similar images from image databases, using feature vectors extracted from images. These feature vectors globally define the visual content present in an image, defined by e.g., texture, colour, shape, and spatial relations between vectors. Herein, we propose the definition of feature vectors using the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) operator. A study was performed in order to determine the optimum LBP variant for the general definition of image feature vectors. The chosen LBP variant is then subsequently used to build an ultrasound image database, and a database with images obtained from Wireless Capsule Endoscopy. The image indexing process is optimized using data clustering techniques for images belonging to the same class. Finally, the proposed indexing method is compared to the classical indexing technique, which is nowadays widely used.
The corridor map method: a general framework for real‐time high‐quality path planning

In many virtual environment applications, paths have to be planned for characters to traverse from a start to a goal position in the virtual world while avoiding obstacles. Contemporary applications require a path planner that is fast (to ensure real‐time interaction with the environment) and flexible (to avoid local hazards such as small and dynamic obstacles). In addition, paths need to be smooth and short to ensure natural looking motions.
Progressive Visual Cryptography with Unexpanded Meaningful Shares

The traditional k-out-of-n Visual Cryptography (VC) scheme is the conception of “all or nothing” for n participants to share a secret image. The original secret image can be visually revealed only when a subset of k or more shares are superimposed together, but if the number of stacked shares are less than k, nothing will be revealed. On the other hand, a Progressive Visual Cryptography (PVC) scheme differs from the traditional VC with respect to decoding. In PVC, clarity and contrast of the decoded secret image will be increased progressively with the number of stacked shares. Much of the existing state-of-the-art research on PVC has problems with pixel expansion and random pattern of the shares. In this article, a novel scheme of progressive visual cryptography with four or more number of unexpanded as well as meaningful shares has been proposed. For this, a novel and efficient Candidate Block Replacement preprocessing approach and a basis matrix creation algorithm have also been introduced. The proposed method also eliminates many unnecessary encryption constraints like a predefined codebook for encoding and decoding the secret image, restriction on the number of participants, and so on. From the experiments, it is observed that the reconstruction probability of black pixels in the decoded image corresponding to the black pixel in the secret image is always 1, whereas that of white pixels is 0.5 irrespective of the meaningful contents visible in the shares, thus ensuring the value of contrast to alwasys be 50%. Therefore, a reconstructed image can be easily identified by a human visual system without any computation.
The 16 th Meeting on Image Recognition and Understanding Object Recognition by Integrated Information Using Speech and Web Images

It is an important task for a robot to bring objects requested by human via voice. In order to achieve the task, object recognition using speech and images is needed. Ozasa et al. [1] has proposed the method for object recognition by integrating speech and image features. Although this method requires both speech (word) and image models, the speech models are automatically constructed by combining phonemic acoustic models according to the dictionary. However, the image models have to be constructed manually in advance. In this paper, instead of the manual construction, we propose an automatic image model construction method for object recognition using Web images. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified in the object recognition by integrating speech and image features.