Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eine revidierte Fassung des Inventars zur Computerbildung (INCOBI-R)

Das INCOBI-R ist eine uberarbeitete Form eines bereits eingefuhrten Instruments zur Erfassung von praktischem und theoretischem Computerwissen, Computerangstlichkeit und computerbezogenen Einstellungen (vgl. Richter, Naumann & Groeben, 2001). Computerbezogene Einstellungen werden dabei uber 8 Einstellungsskalen operationalisiert, die inhaltlich nach evaluativem Fokus (personliche Erfahrung vs. gesellschaftliche Folgen), Nutzungsdomanen (Lernen und Arbeiten vs. Unterhaltung und Kommunikation) und Valenz (positive vs. negative Einstellungskomponenten) unterschieden sind. In einer Untersuchung mit 444 Universitatsstudierenden wurden Aspekte der Konstrukt- und Kriteriumsvaliditat des INCOBI-R uberpruft. Alle Skalen erwiesen sich als intern konsistent. Im Sinne der Konstruktvaliditat des Instruments zeigten sich hohere Korrelationen fur Skalen, die konzeptuell zusammenhangende Konstrukte erfassen. Die Testitems der Computerwissenstests zeigten eine gute Passung mit dem 1PL-Modell (Rasch-Modell) der Item-Respon.
Self-triggered robust output feedback model predictive control of constrained linear systems

This paper presents a self-triggered model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for constrained linear discrete-time systems in the presence of bounded state and output disturbances, when only the system output can be measured at triggering instants. The proposed algorithm mainly relies on a state estimator whose estimation error is bounded by an invariant set, and on the self-triggered robust model predictive control of a nominal system, in which the cost function penalizes the nominal system state and control effort as well as the triggering interval. The proposed algorithm is proved to drive the system to an invariant set with respect to the disturbances. Numerical examples are also provided to validate the proposed algorithm and to further illustrate better performance compared with the periodic MPC.
Cloud effects removal via sparse representation

Optical remote sensing images are often contaminated by the presence of clouds. The development of cloud effect removal techniques can maximize the usefulness of multispectral or hyperspectral images collected in the spectral range from visible to mid infrared. This paper presents a new data reconstruction technique, via dictionary learning and sparse representation, to remove the cloud effects. Dictionaries of the cloudy data (target data) and the cloud free data (reference data) are learned separately in the spectral domain, where each atom represents a fine ground cover component under the two imaging conditions. In this study, it is found that the sparse coefficients of the reference data are the true weightings of each atom, which can be used to replace the cloud affected coefficients to achieve data correction. Experiments were conducted using Landsat 8 OLI data sets downloaded from the USGS website. The testing results show that clouds of various thickness and cloud shadows can be removed effectively using the proposed method.
Compensation through Increased Functional Connectivity: Neural Correlates of Inhibition in Old and Young

With increasing age, people experience more difficulties with suppressing irrelevant information, which may have a major impact on cognitive functioning. The extent of decline of inhibitory functions with age is highly variable between individuals. In this study, we used ERPs and phase locking analyses to investigate neural correlates of this variability in inhibition between individuals. Older and younger participants performed a selective attention task in which relevant and irrelevant information was presented simultaneously. The participants were split into high and low performers based on their level of inhibition inefficiency, that is, the slowing of RTs induced by information that participants were instructed to ignore. P1 peak amplitudes were larger in low performers than in high performers, indicating that low performers were less able to suppress the processing of irrelevant stimuli. Phase locking analyses were used as a measure of functional connectivity. Efficient inhibition in both age groups was related to the increased functional connectivity in the alpha band between frontal and occipito-parietal ROIs in the prestimulus interval. In addition, increased power in the alpha band in occipito-parietal ROIs was related to better inhibition both before and after stimulus onset. Phase locking in the upper beta band before and during stimulus presentation between frontal and occipito-parietal ROIs was related to a better performance in older participants only, suggesting that this is an active compensation mechanism employed to maintain adequate performance. In addition, increased top–down modulation and increased power in the alpha band appears to be a general mechanism facilitating inhibition in both age groups.
Incorporating Mean Template Into Finite Mixture Model for Image Segmentation

The well-known finite mixture model (FMM) has been regarded as a useful tool for image segmentation application. However, the pixels in FMM are considered independent of each other and the spatial relationship between neighboring pixels is not taken into account. These limitations make the FMM more sensitive to noise. In this brief, we propose a simple and effective method to make the traditional FMM more robust to noise with the help of a mean template. FMM can be considered a linear combination of prior and conditional probability from the expression of its mathematical formula. We calculate these probabilities with two mean templates: a weighted arithmetic mean template and a weighted geometric mean template. Thus, in our model, the prior probability (or conditional probability) of an image pixel is influenced by the probabilities of pixels in its immediate neighborhood to incorporate the local spatial and intensity information for eliminating the noise. Finally, our algorithm is general enough and can be extended to any other FMM-based models to achieve super performance. Experimental results demonstrate the improved robustness and effectiveness of our approach.
Supply Chain Agility, Collaboration, and Performance: How do they Relate?

Business managers are concerned with what factors influence the degree of supply chain collaboration and what moderates supply chain collaboration’s effect on supply chain performance? This proposed study examines how supply chain agility acts as a moderator between supply chain collaboration and supply chain performance. Furthermore, the presence of environmental uncertainties will be shown to influence the degree of collaboration and the degree of collaboration will be shown to influence the supply chain performance.
Investigation of public attitude towards renewable energy sources using word association method in Hungarian settlements

In the framework of a questionnaire survey an attitude examination was conducted among inhabitants of 3-3 settlements of Hajdu-Bihar and Heves county in connection with the renewable energy sources. With the help of the word-association method authors tried to assess whether the population of the examined settlements is aware of the meaning of the renewable energy sources and its utilisation opportunities. Authors tried to determine the attitude of the inhabitants to the renewable energy sources. It turned out that the conceptual picture of the inhabitants about the renewable energy sources is quite superficial, but at the same time their attitude unambiguously positive. It turned out, that the inhabitants with higher educational level and the younger people have the most accurate knowledge about the renewable energy sources.
Review. Machine learning techniques for traffic sign detection

An automatic road sign detection system localizes road signs from within images captured by an on-board camera of a vehicle, and support the driver to properly ride the vehicle. Most existing algorithms include a preprocessing step, feature extraction and detection step. This paper arranges the methods applied to road sign detection into two groups: general machine learning, neural networks. In this review, the issues related to automatic road sign detection are addressed, the popular existing methods developed to tackle the road sign detection problem are reviewed, and a comparison of the features of these methods is composed.
A super-resolution algorithm for enhancement of FLASH LIDAR data

A novel method for enhancement of the spatial resolution of 3-diminsional Flash Lidar images is being proposed for generation of elevation maps of terrain from a moving platform. NASA recognizes the Flash LIDAR technology as an important tool for enabling safe and precision landing in future unmanned and crewed lunar and planetary missions. The ability of the Flash LIDAR to generate 3-dimensional maps of the landing site area during the final stages of the descent phase for detection of hazardous terrain features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes is under study in the frame of the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance (ALHAT) project. Since single frames of existing FLASH LIDAR systems are not sufficient to build a map of entire landing site with acceptable spatial resolution and precision, a super-resolution approach utilizing multiple frames has been developed to overcome the instrument's limitations. Performance of the super-resolution algorithm has been analyzed through a series of simulation runs obtained from a high fidelity Flash LIDAR model and a high resolution synthetic lunar elevation map. For each simulation run, a sequence of FLASH LIDAR frames are recorded and processed as the spacecraft descends toward the landing site. Simulations runs having different trajectory profiles and varying LIDAR look angles of the terrain are also analyzed. The results show that adequate levels of accuracy and precision are achieved for detecting hazardous terrain features and identifying safe areas of the landing site.
IndoorLoc platform: A public repository for comparing and evaluating indoor positioning systems

This paper presents the IndoorLoc Platform, a public repository for comparing and evaluating indoor positioning algorithms and sharing datasets. The proposed web platform can be used to download datasets, learn how some well-known algorithms work, study the implementation of those algorithms, test the methods, and even upload indoor positioning estimations of the user's methods to check the accuracy when comparing against the results provided by other methods already included in a ranking, among other functionalities. This paper also presents a comparative study of the accuracy of two well-known fingerprinting-based indoor localization algorithms using the datasets included in the platform. This comparative study can be performed using the tools included in the platform.
Stereotaxic localisation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for transcranial magnetic stimulation is superior to the standard reference position

Objective: To determine whether the standard method of localisation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is accurate and reliable, and to develop an empirically based method for operational localisation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with reference to the motor hand area. Method: We compared stereotaxic localisation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with the commonly used operational definition of 6 cm anterior to the site of the abductor pollicis brevis muscle in healthy participants (n = 18). We also report the average translational distance from the site of the abductor pollicis brevis to the stereotaxically defined dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Results: The stereotaxic method was less variable than the operational method of localisation and more frequently targeted the middle frontal gyrus. The average translational distance from the site of the abductor pollicis brevis to the stereotaxically targeted dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was x = −5 mm, y = 53 mm and z = −31 mm. Conclusions: Operational localisation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation with reference to the motor hand area is more variable than stereotaxic localisation. If future studies choose to use an operational definition of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, we suggest it should be 5 mm lateral, 53 mm anterior and 31 mm inferior to the site of the abductor pollicis brevis.
Wireless Snort - A WIDS in progress

The Snort intrusion detection system is a widely used and well-regarded open sourcesystem used for the detection of malicious activity in conventional wired networks. Recently, software patches to enable 802.11 wireless intrusion detection capability in Snort have been released. This paper focuses on the lessons learned from a live deployment of these wireless extensions to the Snort IDS. Generic issues with the deployment of wireless intrusion detection systems are discussed in this paper. In addition, preliminary findings and analysis from the data collected in the pilot study using the wireless enabled snort intrusion detection system are also presented.
Geopolitical Relations in the European Middle Ages: History and Theory

The European Middle Ages have recently attracted the attention of international relations (IR) scholars as a “testing-ground” for established IR theories. Neorealists, historicizing neorealists, and constructivists dispute the meanings of medieval anarchy and hierarchy in the absence of sovereignty. On the basis of a detailed critique of these approaches, I offer a historically informed and theoretically controlled interpretation of medieval geopolitics revolving around contested social property relations. My interpretation is meta-theoretically guided by dialectical principles. Lordships are the constitutive units of medieval authority, combining economic and political powers and assigning contradictory forms of rationality to their major agents, lords, and peasants. Interlordly competition over land and labor translates directly into distinct forms of geopolitical relations, generating a culture of war. Against this background, I clarify the specific meanings of the medieval “state,” territoriality, frontiers, peace, war, anarchy, and hierarchy before drawing out the wider implications of changing social property forms for IR theory.
Clarification of issues on the closed-form Green's functions in stratified media

The closed-form Green's functions (CFGF), derived for the vector and scalar potentials in planar multilayer media, have been revisited to clarify some issues and misunderstandings on the derivation of these Green's functions. In addition, the range of validity of these Green's functions is assessed with and without explicit evaluation of the surface wave contributions. As it is well-known, the derivation of the CFGF begins with the approximation of the spectral-domain Green's functions by complex exponentials, and continues with applying the Sommerfeld identity to cast these approximated spectral-domain Green's functions into the space domain in closed forms. Questions and misunderstandings of this derivation, which have mainly originated from the approximation process of the spectral-domain Green's functions in terms of complex exponentials, can be categorized and discussed under the topics of: 1) branch-point contributions; 2) surface wave pole contributions; and 3) the accuracy of the obtained CFGF. When these issues are clarified, the region of validity of the CFGF so obtained may be defined better. Therefore, in this paper, these issues will be addressed first, and then their origins and possible remedies will be provided with solid analysis and numerical demonstrations.
Find it if you can: a game for modeling different types of web search success using interaction data

A better understanding of strategies and behavior of successful searchers is crucial for improving the experience of all searchers. However, research of search behavior has been struggling with the tension between the relatively small-scale, but controlled lab studies, and the large-scale log-based studies where the searcher intent and many other important factors have to be inferred. We present our solution for performing controlled, yet realistic, scalable, and reproducible studies of searcher behavior. We focus on difficult informational tasks, which tend to frustrate many users of the current web search technology. First, we propose a principled formalization of different types of "success" for informational search, which encapsulate and sharpen previously proposed models. Second, we present a scalable game-like infrastructure for crowdsourcing search behavior studies, specifically targeted towards capturing and evaluating successful search strategies on informational tasks with known intent. Third, we report our analysis of search success using these data, which confirm and extends previous findings. Finally, we demonstrate that our model can predict search success more effectively than the existing state-of-the-art methods, on both our data and on a different set of log data collected from regular search engine sessions. Together, our search success models, the data collection infrastructure, and the associated behavior analysis techniques, significantly advance the study of success in web search.
Continuous detection of black holes for moving objects at sea

The main objectives of moving objects queries are to search for objects that either lie in some specific areas (i.e., range queries) or are close to one specific location (i.e., kNN queries). Such queries have been previously studied considering either offline database processes using some index techniques or online approaches where incoming data are processed to answer those queries "on the fly". The research presented in this paper considers hybrid queries applied to historical data as well as streaming data. When considering the specific context of the maritime domain and moving objects at sea, a key issue is to make a difference between covered and non covered areas (i.e., regions from where AIS positioning signals are either received or not received). This leads us to introduce the concept of "Black Holes" query where the objective is to identify regions respectively covered and non covered, this providing useful insights for maritime authorities in charge of the regulation of maritime transportation.
The emergence of migration theory and a suggested new direction.

"The literature on internal labour migration is surveyed using a four-fold taxonomic scheme. The potential migrant, as presented in the existing literature, can be viewed as a supplier of labour, an investor in human capital and a consumer of regional amenities such as public goods. The paper develops a fourth approach which treats the household, rather than the individual, as the migrating unit and which views the potential migrant as a producer of home produced commodities. The continuities as well as the contrasts between the four approaches are discussed in the paper. "
Extensible Data-Representation Selection for Correct-by-Construction Program Derivation

Program synthesis via refinement is a venerable approach for gradually transforming specifications into executable code, generating a proof trail showing that the final efficient program adheres to the specification. We present the first automated, proof-generating refinement system that invents new data structures to suit the needs of a program, applying global program analysis to understand those needs. Our system, based on the Fiat library for the Coq proof assistant, is extensible not just with new data structures but also with new rules for inventing more complex data structures by combining simpler ones. All data-structure operations come with semantic interfaces capturing their behavior in terms of abstract mathematical objects such as sets, and the system soundly and automatically tiles the specification with those operations to generate an OCaml-style program and a proof of its correctness. Starting from a high-level specification in extensible SQL-like language using logic to describe arbitrary operations on data, without explaining how to execute them, our system automatically matches those operations to proofgenerating data-structure-construction rules in our library to build an efficient, correct-by-construction implementation.
Ka band aperture-coupled patch antenna with stacked parasitic strips based on LTCC technology for circular polarization

This paper proposes a Ka-band aperture-coupled microstrip patch antenna (ACMPA) based on low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology for circular polarization (CP) at 29 GHz. The antenna consists of an aperture coupled patch with stacked parasitic strips (SPS). The CP is produced by cutting the patch and the parasitic strips. The antenna provides an impedance bandwidth of 1.2 GHz from 28 GHz to 29.2 GHz with an axial ratio bandwidth of 3.8GHz from 26.6 to 30.4 GHz. The radiation patters are broad sided with a maximum gain of 7.29dBi.
Extending a multilingual Lexical Resource by bootstrapping Named Entity Classification using Wikipedia’s Category System

Named Entity Recognition and Classification (NERC) is a well-studied NLP task which is typically approached using machine learning algorithms that rely on training data whose creation usually is expensive. The high costs result in the lack of NERC training data for many languages. An approach to create a multilingual NE corpus was presented in Wentland et al. (2008). The resulting resource called HeiNER describes a valuable number of NEs but does not include their types. We present a bootstrap approach based on Wikipedia’s category system to classify the NEs contained in HeiNER that is able to classify more than two million named entities to improve the resource’s quality.
Changes in Australian pan evaporation from 1970 to 2002

Contrary to expectations, measurements of pan evaporation show decreases in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere over the last 50 years. When combined with rainfall measurements, these data show that much of the Northern Hemisphere's terrestrial surface has become less arid over the last 50 years. However, whether the decrease in pan evaporation is a phenomenon limited to the Northern Hemisphere has until now been unknown because there have been no reports from the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we report a decrease in pan evaporation rate over the last 30 years across Australia of the same magnitude as the Northern Hemisphere trends (approximately −4 mm a−2). The results show that the terrestrial surface in Australia has, on average, become less arid over the recent past, just like much of the Northern Hemisphere. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society.
Use of a fluorescence plate reader for measuring kinetic parameters with inner filter effect correction.

A general method is presented here for the determination of the Km, kcat, and kcat/Km of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) substrates using a fluorescence plate reader. A simple empirical method for correcting for the inner filter effect is shown to enable accurate and undistorted measurements of these very important kinetic parameters. Inner filter effect corrected rates of hydrolysis of a FRET peptide substrate by hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 protease at various substrate concentrations enabled measurement of a Km value of 4.4 +/- 0.3 microM and kcat/Km value of 96,500 +/- 5800 M-1 s-1. These values are very close to the HPLC-determined Km value of 4.6 +/- 0.7 microM and kcat/Km value of 92,600 +/- 14,000 M-1 s-1. We demonstrate that the inner filter effect correction of microtiter plate reader velocities enables rapid measurement of Ki and Ki' values and kinetic inhibition mechanisms for HCV NS3 protease inhibitors.