Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Random Graphs: Structural-Contextual Dichotomy

A formal definition of random graphs is introduced which is applicable to graphical pattern recognition problems. The definition is used to formulate rigorously the structural-contextual dichotomy of random graphs. The probability of outcome graphs is expressed as the product of two terms, one due to the statistical variability of structure among the outcome graphs and the other due to their contextual variability. Expressions are obtained to estimate the various probability, typicality, and entropy measures. The members in an ensemble of signed digraphs are interpreted as outcome graphs of a random graph. The synthesized random graph is used to quantify the structural, contextual, and overall typicality of the outcome graphs with respect to the random graph.
BJÖRN ENGQUIST AND

This paper is concerned with fast solution of high frequency acoustic scattering problems in two dimensions. We introduce a directional multiscale algorithm for the N -body problem of the two dimensional Helmholtz kernel. The algorithm follows the approach developed in [Engquist and Ying, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. , 29 (4), 2007], where the three dimensional case was studied. The main observation is that, for two regions that follow a directional parabolic geometric configuration, the interaction between these two regions through the 2D Helmholtz kernel is approximately low rank. We propose an improved randomized procedure for generating the low rank separated representation for the interaction between these regions. Based on this representation, the computation of the far field interaction is organized in a multidirectional and multiscale way to achieve maximum efficiency. The proposed algorithm is accurate and has the optimal O(N logN) complexity for problems from two dimensional scattering applications. Finally, we combine this fast directional algorithm with standard boundary integral formulations to solve acoustic scattering problems that are of thousands of wavelengths in size.
SR-AODV: A Stable Route-AODV Protocol for Mobile Ad hoc Network

Mobile ad-hoc network is the collection of node which dynamically forms a temporary network without the use of any existing network infrastructure or centralized administration. When the mobility in the network is high and the topology changes frequently the route maintenance overhead in AODV increases. Because nodes can move link breakages can occurs. Long path is more vulnerable to link breakages and requires high control overhead for its maintenance. In this paper we introduce a new modified AODV protocol. This new protocol uses stability factor of intermediate nodes to find the most sable neighbors and therefore most stable path. This new proposed protocol is SRAODV (Stable Route AODV) protocol. We simulate both AODV and SR-AODV with ns-2 in similar scenario. We find that SR-AODV will show better performance than AODV.
Flow-guided warping for image-based shape manipulation

We present an interactive method that manipulates perceived object shape from a single input color image thanks to a warping technique implemented on the GPU. The key idea is to give the illusion of shape sharpening or rounding by exaggerating orientation patterns in the image that are strongly correlated to surface curvature. We build on a growing literature in both human and computer vision showing the importance of orientation patterns in the communication of shape, which we complement with mathematical relationships and a statistical image analysis revealing that structure tensors are indeed strongly correlated to surface shape features. We then rely on these correlations to introduce a flow-guided image warping algorithm, which in effect exaggerates orientation patterns involved in shape perception. We evaluate our technique by 1) comparing it to ground truth shape deformations, and 2) performing two perceptual experiments to assess its effects. Our algorithm produces convincing shape manipulation results on synthetic images and photographs, for various materials and lighting environments.
Knowledge application in the supply network of infrastructure programme management

Cost and value management has focused upon collaboration and knowledge management in recent years to i) increase effectiveness and deliver value, ii) improve efficiency and reduce costs. Attention has been given to the project level. Less attention has been paid to programme management and the supply chain network. This paper examines knowledge sharing and application among a major client, consultants, main contractors and subcontractors in a programme supply network for a multi-billion dollar national infrastructure programme of megaprojects. The interpretative methodology analyzes 20 interviews of 6 organizational members in a supply network supported by cognitive mapping. The findings show the supply side is failing to meet the increased demands of complex projects. A lack of investment, commitment and cultural leadership was found, hence the over-reliance on individuals and teams to take responsibility for knowledge sharing and application. The barriers to improvement include a lack of strategic front-end development on the client side, and scant programme management on the supply side. The conceptual outcome is a demand and supply side programme structuring and set of cultural norms that points to behavioural learned helplessness.
Examining Social Influence on Participation and Outcomes among a Network of Behavioral Weight-Loss Intervention Enrollees

Research suggests that social networks, social support, and social influence are associated with weight trajectories among treatment- and non-treatment-seeking individuals. This study examined the impact of having a social contact who participated in the same group behavioral weight-control intervention in the absence of specific social support training on women engaged in a weight-loss program. Participants (n = 92; 100% female; 54% black; mean age: 46 ± 10 years; mean BMI: 38 ± 6) were grouped based upon whether or not they reported a social contact enrolled previously/concurrently in our behavioral weight-control studies. Primary outcomes were 6-month weight change and treatment adherence (session attendance and self-monitoring). Half of the participants (53%) indicated that they had a social contact; black women were more likely to report a social contact than white women (67.3% versus 39.5%; P < 0.01). Among participants with a social contact, 67% reported at least one contact as instrumental in the decision to enroll in the program. Those with a contact lost more weight (5.9 versus 3.7 kg; P = 0.04), attended more group sessions (74% versus 54%; P < 0.01), and submitted more self-monitoring journals (69% versus 54%; P = 0.01) than those without a contact. Participants' weight change was inversely associated with social contacts' weight change (P = 0.04). There was no association between participant and contact's group attendance or self-monitoring. Social networks may be a promising vehicle for recruiting and engaging women in a behavioral weight-loss program, particularly black women. The role of a natural social contact deserves further investigation.
Super Critical Water-Cooled Nuclear Reactors (SCWRs) Thermodynamic Cycle Options and Thermal Aspects of Pressure-Channel Design

Research activities are currently underway worldwide to develop Generation IV nuclear reactor concepts with the objective of improving thermal efficiency and increasing economic competitiveness of Generation IV Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) compared to modern thermal power plants. The SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) concept is one of six Generation IV options chosen for further investigation and development in many countries, including Canada. Water-cooled reactors operating at subcritical pressures (7 – 16 MPa) have provided significant electricity production for the past 50 years. However, the thermal efficiency of current NPPs is not very high (30 – 35%). As such, more competitive designs with higher thermal efficiencies, which will be close to that of modern supercritical thermal power plants (45 – 50%), need to be developed and implemented. Previous studies have shown that direct cycles, with no-reheat and single-reheat configurations are the best choices for a SCWR concept. There are a few technical challenges associated with the no-reheat and singlereheat SCW NPP configurations. The single-reheat cycle requires nuclear steam-reheat, thus increasing the complexity of the reactor core design. Conversely, the major technical challenge associated with a SC no-reheat turbine is high moisture content in the low-pressure turbine exhaust. The SCWR-core concept investigated in this paper is based on a generic pressure-tube (pressure-channel) reactor with a 43-element bundle string cooled with supercritical water. The considered 1200-MWel reactor has the following operating parameters: pressure of 25 MPa and reactor inlet/outlet temperatures of 350°C/625°C. Previous studies have shown that if uranium dioxide (UO2) is used the fuel centerline temperature might exceed the conservatively established industry accepted limit of 1850°C. Therefore, this paper investigates a possibility of using uranium carbide (UC), uranium nitride (UN) and uranium dicarbide (UC2) as SCWR fuels since they have significantly higher thermal conductivities when compared to conventional nuclear fuels such as UO2, MOX and ThO2. Also, important thermalhydraulic parameters such as a bulk-fluid temperature, heat transfer coefficient, outersheath and fuel centerline temperatures have been calculated along the heated bundle-string length at nonuniform cosine-based Axial Heat Flux Profiles (AHFPs). In addition, a new heat-transfer correlation for supercritical water flowing in vertical circular bare tubes was proposed. This correlation can be used for a preliminary conservative estimation of heat transfer coefficients in SCWRs as bundle correlations have not been yet developed.
Incremental program testing using program dependence graphs

Program dependence graphs have been proposed for use in optimizing, vectorizing, and parallelizing compilers, and for program integration. This paper proposes their use as the basis for incremental program testing when using test data adequacy criteria. Test data adequacy is commonly used to provide some confidence that a particular test suite does a reasonable job of testing a program. Incremental program testing using test data adequacy criteria addresses the problem of testing a modified program given an adequate test suite for the original program. Ideally, one would like to create an adequate test suite for the modified program that reuses as many files from the old test suite as possible. Furthermore, one would like to know, for every file that is in both the old and the new test suites, whether the program components exercised by that file have been affected by the program modification; if no components have been affected, then it is not necessary to rerun the program using that file. In this paper we define adequacy criteria based on the program dependence graph, and propose techniques based on program slicing to identify components of the modified program that can be tested using files from the old test suite, and components that have been affected by the modification. This information can be used to reduce the time required to create new test files, and to avoid unproductive retesting of unaffected components. Although exact identification of the components listed above is, in general, undecidable, we demonstrate that our techniques provide safe approximations.
Technical Note: Towards ROC Curves in Cost Space

AbstractROC curves and cost curves are two popular ways of visualising classiﬁer performance, ﬁnding appro-priate thresholds according to the operating condition, and deriving useful aggregated measures such asthe area under the ROC curve (AUC) or the area under the optimal cost curve. In this note we presentsome new ﬁndings and connections between ROC space and cost space, by using the expected loss overa range of operating conditions. In particular, we show that ROC curves can be transferred to cost spaceby means of a very natural way of understanding how thresholds should be chosen, by selecting thethreshold such that the proportion of positive predictions equals the operating condition (either in theform of cost proportion or skew). We call these new curves ROC cost curves, and we demonstrate thatthe expected loss as measured by the area under these curves is linearly related to AUC. This opens upa series of new possibilities and clariﬁes the notion of cost curve and its relation to ROC analysis. Inaddition, we show that for a classiﬁer that assigns the scores in an evenly-spaced way, these curves areequal to the Brier curves. As a result, this establishes the ﬁrst clear connection between AUC and theBrier score.Keywords: cost curves, ROC curves, Brier curves, classiﬁer performance measures, cost-sensitive eval-uation, operating condition, Brier score, Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC).
Ion channel regulation by phosphoinositides analyzed with VSPs—PI(4,5)P2 affinity, phosphoinositide selectivity, and PI(4,5)P2 pool accessibility

The activity of many proteins depends on the phosphoinositide (PI) content of the membrane. E.g., dynamic changes of the concentration of PI(4,5)P2 are cellular signals that regulate ion channels. The susceptibility of a channel to such dynamics depends on its affinity for PI(4,5)P2. Yet, measuring affinities for endogenous PIs has not been possible directly, but has relied largely on the response to soluble analogs, which may not quantitatively reflect binding to native lipids. Voltage-sensitive phosphatases (VSPs) turn over PI(4,5)P2 to PI(4)P when activated by depolarization. In combination with voltage-clamp electrophysiology VSPs are useful tools for rapid and reversible depletion of PI(4,5)P2. Because cellular PI(4,5)P2 is resynthesized rapidly, steady state PI(4,5)P2 changes with the degree of VSP activation and thus depends on membrane potential. Here we show that titration of endogenous PI(4,5)P2 with Ci-VSP allows for the quantification of relative PI(4,5)P2 affinities of ion channels. The sensitivity of inward rectifier and voltage-gated K+ channels to Ci-VSP allowed for comparison of PI(4,5)P2 affinities within and across channel subfamilies and detected changes of affinity in mutant channels. The results also reveal that VSPs are useful only for PI effectors with high binding specificity among PI isoforms, because PI(4,5)P2 depletion occurs at constant overall PI level. Thus, Kir6.2, a channel activated by PI(4,5)P2 and PI(4)P was insensitive to VSP. Surprisingly, despite comparable PI(4,5)P2 affinity as determined by Ci-VSP, the Kv7 and Kir channel families strongly differed in their sensitivity to receptor-mediated depletion of PI(4,5)P2. While Kv7 members were highly sensitive to activation of PLC by Gq-coupled receptors, Kir channels were insensitive even when PI(4,5)P2 affinity was lowered by mutation. We hypothesize that different channels may be associated with distinct pools of PI(4,5)P2 that differ in their accessibility to PLC and VSPs.
A Network Emulator to Support the Development of Adaptive Applications

Mobile applications must operate in environments in which the network connectivity, input/output devices, power and contextual information available to them may all vary. Applications which react to changes in these parameters in order to ensure continuing service to the user are termed adaptive applications and have recently emerged as an area of intense research activity. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a network emulator which facilitates research in this field by allowing applications to be exposed to user controlled fluctuations in network service. The emulator can be used with any application which uses UDP and requires only minimal changes to the application or, it may be used with applications written using the ANSAware distributed systems platform in which case no changes are necessary to the application. The design and implementation of the emulator are described in this paper as our experiences of using the emulator to model three distinct types of wireless network: GSM, an analogue cellular service and a simple shared radio channel. The source code for the emulator is freely available and instructions on obtaining the code are also included.
Face detection based neural networks using robust skin color segmentation

This paper proposes a robust schema for face detection system via Gaussian mixture model to segment image based on skin color. After skin and non skin face candidatespsila selection, features are extracted directly from discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients computed from these candidates. Moreover, the back-propagation neural networks are used to train and classify faces based on DCT feature coefficients in Cb and Cr color spaces. This schema utilizes the skin color information, which is the main feature of face detection. DCT feature values of faces, representing the data set of skin/non-skin face candidates obtained from Gaussian mixture model are fed into the back-propagation neural networks to classify whether the original image includes a face or not. Experimental results shows that the proposed schema is reliable for face detection, and pattern features are detected and classified accurately by the backpropagation neural networks.
A model-based evolutionary algorithm for bi-objective optimization

The Pareto optimal solutions to a multi-objective optimization problem often distribute very regularly in both the decision space and the objective space. Most existing evolutionary algorithms do not explicitly take advantage of such a regularity. This paper proposed a model-based evolutionary algorithm (M-MOEA) for bi-objective optimization problems. Inspired by the ideas from estimation of distribution algorithms, M-MOEA uses a probability model to capture the regularity of the distribution of the Pareto optimal solutions. The local principal component analysis (local PCA) and the least-squares method are employed for building the model. New solutions are sampled from the model thus built. At alternate generations, M-MOEA uses crossover and mutation to produce new solutions. The selection in M-MOEA is the same as in non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Therefore, MOEA can be regarded as a combination of EDA and NSGA-II. The preliminary experimental results show that M-MOEA performs better than NSGA-II.
Attaining soft real-time constraint and energy-efficiency in web servers

M/M/1 queues have been traditionally used to model several systems like phone calls at a call center, banking services and so on. However, recent studies showed that it does not model properly a web server system. In this paper we investigate the impact of this assumption in providing timeliness constraint in an energy-efficient web server. Although energy efficiency is a key issue, it should not be attained at the expense of a poor quality of service. The work proposed here describes a technique that uses queueing theory results to balance energy consumption and adequate application response times in heterogeneous CPU-intensive server clusters. Moreover, we investigate the I/O impact on a purely CPU-oriented energy saving strategy. This proposal shows that the assumption of a Poisson process is a good approximation to model a web server.
A Tabu Search Algorithm to Construct BIBDs Using MIP Solvers 181

BIBD (balanced incomplete block design) is instrumental in design of experiments. This is usually constructed using algebraic tools such as finite projective (or affine) algebra or difference sets. Recently, heuristic algorithms have been tried, including artificial neural networks, simulated annealing, and local search method. In this paper, we present a novel approach to construct BIBDs that makes use of MIP (mixed integer programming) solvers. Based on this, tabu search algorithms is given, and this is compared against the local search method presented by a previous researcher.
Cosmological Evolution of the Duty Cycle of Quasars

Quasars are powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes, but the problem of the duty cycle related to the episodic activity of the black holes remains one of the major questions of the cosmological evolution of quasars. In this Letter, we obtain quasar duty cycles based on analyses of a large sample composed of 10,979 quasars with redshifts z ≤ 2.1 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 (DR3). We estimate the masses of the quasar black holes and obtain their mass function (MF) in the present sample. We then get the duty cycle (z) = 10-3 ~ 1 based on Sołtan's argument, implying that black holes are undergoing multiple episodic activity. We find that the duty cycle has a strong evolution. By comparison, we show that the evolution of the duty cycle follows the history of the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density in the universe, providing intriguing evidence of a natural connection between star formation and the triggering of black hole activity. Feedback on star formation from black hole activity is briefly discussed.
Assessing the impacts of agricultural intensification on biodiversity: a British perspective

Agricultural intensification is best considered as the level of human appropriation of terrestrial net primary production. The global value is set to increase from 30%, increasing pressures on biodiversity. The pressures can be classified in terms of spatial scale, i.e. land cover, landscape management and crop management. Different lowland agricultural landscapes in Great Britain show differences among these pressures when habitat diversity and nutrient surplus are used as indicators. Eutrophication of plants was correlated to N surplus, and species richness of plants correlated with broad habitat diversity. Bird species diversity only correlated with habitat diversity when the diversity of different agricultural habitats was taken into account. The pressures of agricultural change may be reduced by minimizing loss of large habitats, minimizing permanent loss of agricultural land, maintaining habitat diversity in agricultural landscapes in order to provide ecosystem services, and minimizing pollution from nutrients and pesticides from the crops themselves. While these pressures could potentially be quantified using an internationally consistent set of indicators, their impacts would need to be assessed using a much larger number of locally applicable biodiversity indicators.
Implementation of Contrast Image Enhancement using DWT in BF532 Processor

The SAR images which are termed as Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) images are employed in various fields of research oriented work. One of the drastic problems of these classifications of images is their low perception value. A new method is advised to overwhelm the satellite image which uses the normal type of basic level wavelets and threshold decomposition techniques. The novel algorithm that proposes, use Discrete Wavelet Transformation with a level of 2 dimensional in nature. This is to decompose the input image into various levels of sub bands. Frequency sub-band separation is done in the level of decomposition. Then, the high-frequency band separated (HH) images and the input low-validated image (LL) have been compared to give a new highly enhanced image by using the reverse process of Discrete Wavelet Transform. Thresholding is a scheme that is employed in nonlinear image analysis. This hybrid method will give greater results. In order to get an image with a greater level of accuracy, a mid level stage for estimating the sub bands has been proposed. The results identified should be validated with some parameters such as Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio and Root Mean Square Error. The results show deviation of the proposed technique over the conventional systems.