Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using a pull mechanism for connecting an informal learning collector with external applications

The TRAILER Project is an EU funded project in the Life Long Learning program. The project aims to provide a framework for recognition, tagging and acknowledgement of Informal learning activities. Within the scope of this project, a piece of software called Informal learning Collector (ILC) has been developed to act as a binding between informal PLE's and a learning Portfolio. This paper presents an enhancement to the ILC that changes turns it into an active component that pulls data instead of being pushed explicitly by the user.
Conditional Random Fields based Pronominal Resolution in Tamil

—This paper deals with Tamil pronominal resolution using Conditional Random Fields a machine learning approach. A detailed linguistic analysis of Tamil pronominals and its antecedence occurring in various syntactic constructs is done, which led to the selection of appropriate features for CRF approach. The syntactic features thus identified made the system learn most frequently occurring pronoun antecedent pattern from the training corpus. The performance of the system is highly encouraging.
Scattering Transform using Randomized Averages

The purpose of this work aims at implementation of scattering transform using random projection based averages which could result in better high frequency reconstruction and computation speed. First Scattering transform is applied on the image and first order coefficients are extracted. For computing the second order coefficients random projection averaged values of the first order values are used to compute next level transform. The results show that the edge quality of the image is enhanced and run-time of the method got reduced.
When a corporation rapes: perceptions of rape in civil court for corporate defendants

ABSTRACT In recent years, the coupling of poor outcomes for rape victims in criminal court and the widening scope of legal responsibility for sexual assault has prompted plaintiffs to file civil suits for rape against corporations. Unfortunately, we know little about juror perception of civilly litigated rape against corporate defendants and most jury research involving corporate defendants concerns non-sexual injury cases (e.g. premises liability, automobile accidents). With the increasing number of corporations being sued civilly for rape, we need to understand how civil juries perceive these cases. The present study investigated mock jurors’ perceptions of a fictional civil rape trial against a hotel. Community members (N = 155) read one of three trial summaries: Civil rape trial against the alleged perpetrator, civil rape trial against a hotel, or criminal rape trial. Results indicate females have higher pro-plaintiff judgments than males in civil court, perceptions of greed typically associated with civil litigation apply to rape, and favorable plaintiff decisions are most likely against a corporate defendant. Also, mental models suggest mock jurors conceptualize criminal and civil rape cases against an individual similarly. We discuss our results in terms of psychological, legal and practical expectations when suing for rape.
The application of nitric oxide to control biofouling of membrane bioreactors

A novel strategy to control membrane bioreactor (MBR) biofouling using the nitric oxide (NO) donor compound PROLI NONOate was examined. When the biofilm was pre‐established on membranes at transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 88–90 kPa, backwashing of the membrane module with 80 μM PROLI NONOate for 45 min once daily for 37 days reduced the fouling resistance (Rf) by 56%. Similarly, a daily, 1 h exposure of the membrane to 80 μM PROLI NONOate from the commencement of MBR operation for 85 days resulted in reduction of the TMP and Rf by 32.3% and 28.2%. The microbial community in the control MBR was observed to change from days 71 to 85, which correlates with the rapid TMP increase. Interestingly, NO‐treated biofilms at 85 days had a higher similarity with the control biofilms at 71 days relative to the control biofilms at 85 days, indicating that the NO treatment delayed the development of biofilm bacterial community. Despite this difference, sequence analysis indicated that NO treatment did not result in a significant shift in the dominant fouling species. Confocal microscopy revealed that the biomass of biopolymers and microorganisms in biofilms were all reduced on the PROLI NONOate‐treated membranes, where there were reductions of 37.7% for proteins and 66.7% for microbial cells, which correlates with the reduction in TMP. These results suggest that NO treatment could be a promising strategy to control biofouling in MBRs.
A Denoising Autoencoder that Guides Stochastic Search

An algorithm is described that adaptively learns a non-linear mutation distribution. It works by training a denoising autoencoder (DA) online at each generation of a genetic algorithm to reconstruct a slowly decaying memory of the best genotypes so far. A compressed hidden layer forces the autoencoder to learn hidden features in the training set that can be used to accelerate search on novel problems with similar structure. Its output neurons define a probability distribution that we sample from to produce offspring solutions. The algorithm outperforms a canonical genetic algorithm on several combinatorial optimisation problems, e.g. multidimensional 0/1 knapsack problem, MAXSAT, HIFF, and on parameter optimisation problems, e.g. Rastrigin and Rosenbrock functions.
HD 80606 b, a planet on an extremely elongated orbit

We report the detection of a planetary companion orbiting the solar-type star HD 80606, the brighter component of a wide binary with a projected separation of about 2000 AU. Using high-signal spectroscopic observations of the two components of the visual binary, we show that they are nearly identical. The planet has an orbital period of 111.8 days and a minimum mass of 3.9 M_Jup. With e=0.927, this planet has the highest orbital eccentricity among the extrasolar planets detected so far. We finally list several processes this extreme eccentricity could result from.
Iterative encoding of low-density parity-check codes

Motivated by the potential to reuse the decoder architecture, and thus reduce circuit space, we explore the use of iterative encoding techniques which are based upon the graphical representation of the code. We design codes by identifying associated encoder convergence constraints and also eliminating some well known undesirable properties for sum-product decoding such as 4-cycles. In particular we show how the Jacobi method for iterative matrix inversion can be viewed as message passing and employed as the core of an iterative encoder. Example constructions of both regular and irregular LDPC codes that are encodable using this method are investigated.
Factors Influencing Participant Perceptions of Program Impact: Lessons from a Virtual Fieldtrip for Middle-School Students

Participant perceptions of program effectiveness and impact are undoubtedly a popular focus of Extension program evaluations. However, the effects of participants' characteristics and contextual variables on program perceptions and how the resulting data can be used for program improvement are less explored in evaluation studies. Using data from the evaluation of an electronic fieldtrip as an exemplar case, this article describes a study that employed the method of linear regression to examine the influences of demographic variables and program contextual factors on participants' perceptions of program effectiveness. The implications for Extension evaluation and programming are also discussed.
Experimental keratomycosis in a mouse model.

PURPOSE To establish a murine model of corneal candidiasis that permits molecular evaluation of fungal adherence and invasion. METHODS Corneas of immunocompetent, methylprednisolone-treated, and cyclophosphamide-treated adult NIH Swiss and BALB/c mice were topically mock inoculated or inoculated with 10-fold increasing amounts between 100 and 100 million colony-forming units (CFU) of Candida albicans after unilateral corneal scarification. Mock-inoculated eyes served as the control. Eyes were scored daily on a 12-point scale to categorize corneal inflammation and were enucleated for quantitative fungal cultures, analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and histopathologic examination. RESULTS At least 100 CFU of C. albicans initiated measurable corneal infection, but 1 million or more colony-forming units were needed to induce consistent keratitis. Treatment with methylprednisolone increased disease severity in infected BALB/c mice and fungal persistence in both BALB/c and NIH Swiss mice. Treatment with cyclophosphamide increased disease severity and fungal persistence in both strains of mice. Infectious organisms were recovered by quantitative culture, and candidal DNA was detectable by PCR. C. albicans, inflammatory cells, and stromal necrosis were histologically evident within ocular tissue. CONCLUSIONS Although mice are innately resistant to Candida infection after corneal inoculation, moderate to severe keratomycosis can be established in immunocompromised mice by the route of corneal scarification. Although differences between mouse strains and among immunosuppressive regimens remain to be explored, this murine model provides the basis for understanding the pathogenesis of fungal infections of the cornea.
Adaptive binaural noise reduction based on matched-filter equalization and post-filtering

In this paper a binaural noise reduction system based on the adaptive matched filter array (MFA) and post-filtering is presented. The binaural MFA filter is formed using the interaural impulse response between left and right microphone signal which is estimated by means of the NLMS algorithm. The residual noise reduction by three post-filter types is then compared and evaluated according to objective and subjective measures. Furthermore, the performance of the algorithm for preserving binaural cues is discussed.
Lagrangian Relaxation for MAP Estimation in Graphical Models

We develop a general framework for MAP es- timation in discrete and Gaussian graphical models using Lagrangian relaxation techniques. The key idea is to refor- mulate an intractable estimation problem as one defined on a more tractable graph, but subject to additional constraints. Relaxing these constraints gives a tractable dual problem, one defined by a thin graph, which is then optimized by an iterative procedure. When this iterative optimization leads to a consistent estimate, one which also satisfies the constraints, then it corresponds to an optimal MAP estimate of the original model. Otherwise there is a "duality gap", and we obtain a bound on the optimal solution. Thus, our approach combines convex optimization with dynamic programming techniques applicable for thin graphs. The popular tree-reweighted max- product (TRMP) method may be seen as solving a particular class of such relaxations, where the intractable graph is relaxed to a set of spanning trees. We also consider relaxations to a set of small induced subgraphs, thin subgraphs (e.g. loops), and a connected tree obtained by "unwinding" cycles. In addition, we propose a new class of multiscale relaxations that introduce "summary" variables. The potential benefits of such generalizations include: reducing or eliminating the "duality gap" in hard problems, reducing the number of Lagrange multipliers in the dual problem, and accelerating convergence of the iterative optimization procedure.
Optimization by Simulated Annealing: An Experimental Evaluation; Part II, Graph Coloring and Number Partitioning

This is the second in a series of three papers that empirically examine the competitiveness of simulated annealing in certain well-studied domains of combinatorial optimization. Simulated annealing is a randomized technique proposed by S. Kirkpatrick, C. D. Gelatt and M. P. Vecchi for improving local optimization algorithms. Here we report on experiments at adapting simulated annealing to graph coloring and number partitioning, two problems for which local optimization had not previously been thought suitable. For graph coloring, we report on three simulated annealing schemes, all of which can dominate traditional techniques for certain types of graphs, at least when large amounts of computing time are available. For number partitioning, simulated annealing is not competitive with the differencing algorithm of N. Karmarkar and R. M. Karp, except on relatively small instances. Moreover, if running time is taken into account, natural annealing schemes cannot even outperform multiple random runs of the local optimization algorithms on which they are based, in sharp contrast to the observed performance of annealing on other problems.
Mobility adaptive hybrid routing for mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) require a dynamic and efficient routing protocol that can respond quickly to network topology changes. Ad hoc routing protocols for MANETs are classified into: (a) proactive, (b) reactive and (c) hybrid approaches. In general, proactive routing is more suitable for a stationary network, while reactive routing is better for a mobile network with a high mobility. In many applications, a node in a MANET is mobile, yet it can also fluctuate between being mobile and being stationary. Thus, a hybrid routing approach with the ability to adapt to the node mobility could improve the performance of MANETs. In this paper, we propose a Mobility Adaptive Hybrid Routing (MAHR) for MANETs, which varies its routing between reactive approach and proactive approach to adapt to node mobility. The MAHR consists of three parts: (a) calculation of mobility ratio, (b) core node selection, and (c) procedure of hybrid routing. The simulation results showed that MAHR could achieve the advantages of both reactive and proactive routing approaches in performance.
Molecular Cloning of Complementary DNA Encoding Mouse Seminal Vesicle-Secreted Protein SVS I and Demonstration of Homology with Copper Amine Oxidases1

Abstract The primary structure of mouse SVS I was determined by peptide sequencing and nucleotide sequencing of cloned cDNA. The precursor molecule consists of 820 amino acid residues, including a signal peptide of 24 residues, and the mature polypeptide chain of 91 kDa has one site for potential N-linked glycosylation. The SVS I is homologous with amiloride-binding protein 1 (ABP1), a diamine oxidase. However, it probably lacks enzymatic activity, because the cDNA codes for His instead of Tyr at the position of the active-site topaquinon. The SVS I monomer probably binds one molecule of copper, because the His residues coordinated by Cu(II) are conserved. The SVS I gene consists of five exons and is situated on mouse chromosome 6,B2.3. It is located in a region of 100 kilobases (kb) containing several genes with homology to SVS I, including the gene of ABP1 and two other proteins with homology to diamine oxidase. The locus is conserved on rat chromosome 4q24, but the homologous region on human chromosome 7q34-q36 solely contains ABP1. The other genes with homology to diamine oxidase were probably present in a progenitor of primates and rodents but were lost in the evolutionary lineage leading to humans—presumably during recombination between chromosomes. The estimated molecular mass of rat SVS I is 102 kDa (excluding glycosylation). The species difference in size of SVS I is caused by tandem repeats of 18 amino acid residues in the central part of the molecule: The mouse has seven repeats, and the rat has 12 repeats.
A Hybrid Tracking Method Based on Active Contour and Mean Shift Algorithm

Active Contour is a very accurate in target tracking and robust to variety of illumination, translation, rotation and large scale. Unfortunately, the problem that Active Contour method can not track target in real time because of huge computation is still not well resolved. On the contrast, Mean Shift is a very fast algorithm in target tracking but sensitive to the change of illumination, and can’t get the desription of target’s shape. In our work, we use Mean Shift method to determine the translation motion of target and build a initial rough contour for Active Contour method. So the computation of Active Contour method in early curves evolution stage is greatly reduced and the target can be tracked accurately by minimizing the energy function in few number of interative computation. Experimental results validate our method.
PENINGKATAN MUTU KINERJA GURU MELALUI SUPERVISI AKADEMIK DI SMK NEGERI 1 SALATIGA MENGHADAPI PKG 2016

Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi permasalahan yang muncul dalam pelaksanaan Penilaian Kinerja Guru 2015 yang belum efektif dan program supervisi akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga yang belum berjalan sesuai dengan yang diharapkan. Dari latar belakang tersebut permasalahan yang akan dibahas adalah; 1) Bagaimana Program Penilaian Kinerja Guru (PKG) dan Program Supervisi Akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga? 2) Apa kendala-kendala yang dihadapi dalam pelaksanaan Program PKG dan Program Supervisi Akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga? 3) Bagaimana cara mengatasi kendala-kendala program PKG dan Program Supervisi Akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga untuk menghadapi Penilaian Kinerja Guru 2016? Tujuan Penelitian ini adalah untuk ; 1) Memberikan gambaran mendalam tentang Program PKG dan Program Supervisi Akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga 2) Mengetahui kendala-kendala yang dihadapi dalam pelaksanaan program PKG dan Program Supervisi Akademik di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga 3) Memberikan masukan untuk perbaikan Program Supervisi Akademik untuk meningkatkan mutu kinerja guru di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga. Jenis penelitian ini adalah evaluasi program dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan menganalisis program Penilaian Kinerja Guru dan supervisi akademik yang dijalankan dalam bentuk studi kasus ( case study ). Model Evaluasi penelitian ini adalah Goal free Evaluation Model (Scriven) dengan SWOT Analysis (Strengths Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) IFAS (Internal Factors Analysis Summary) dan EFAS (Eksternal Factors Analysis Summary) . Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Sumber informasi penelitian adalah kepala sekolah, guru/ tenaga kependidikan dan tenaga non kependidikan di lingkungan SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga. Untuk mengecek keabsahan data, penulis menggunakan teknik triangulasi, yaitu 1) Triangulasi data 2) Triagulasi teknik 3) Triangulasi sumber. Hasil Penelitian dapat dideskripsikan bahwa Program Penilaian Kinerja guru dan Program Supervisi Akademik Pendidikan di SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga dengan manajemen lama belum efektifsehingga perlu perbaikan. Diperlukan model supervisi yang tepat yang diharapkan mampu membawa perubahan positif kearah peningkatan kinerja guru, dari model kepemimpinan lama yang masih membayangi langkah kepemimpinan baru saat ini. Gabungan Model Supervisi Akademik Artistik dan Cooperative Development secara sinergis dirasa lebih tepat untuk kondisi SMK Negeri 1 Salatiga yang memiliki SDM yang cukup memadai
Effective Stringy Description of Schwarzschild Black Holes

We start by pointing out that certain Riemann surfaces appear rather naturally in the context of wave equations in the black hole background. For a given black hole there are two closely related surfaces. One is the Riemann surface of complexified ``tortoise'' coordinate. The other Riemann surface appears when the radial wave equation is interpreted as the Fuchsian differential equation. We study these surfaces in detail for the BTZ and Schwarzschild black holes in four and higher dimensions. Topologically, in all cases both surfaces are a sphere with a set of marked points; for BTZ and 4D Schwarzschild black holes there is 3 marked points. In certain limits the surfaces can be characterized very explicitly. We then show how properties of the wave equation (quasi-normal modes) in such limits are encoded in the geometry of the corresponding surfaces. In particular, for the Schwarzschild black hole in the high damping limit we describe the Riemann surface in question and use this to derive the quasi-normal mode frequencies with the log(3) as the real part. We then argue that the surfaces one finds this way signal an appearance of an effective string. We propose that a description of this effective string propagating in the black hole background can be given in terms of the Liouville theory living on the corresponding Riemann surface. We give such a stringy description for the Schwarzschild black hole in the limit of high damping and show that the quasi-normal modes emerge naturally as the poles in 3-point correlation function in the effective conformal theory.
Prosthesis-user-in-the-loop: User-centered design parameters and visual simulation

After an amputation, processes of change in the body image as well as a change in body scheme have direct influences on the quality of living in every patient. Within this paper, a paradigm of experimental induced body illusion (the Rubber Hand Illusion, RHI) is integrated in a prosthetic hardware simulator concept. This concept combines biodynamical and visual feedback to enhance the quality of rehabilitation and to integrate patients' needs into the development of prostheses aiming on user-centered solutions. Therefore, user-centered design parameters are deducted. Furthermore, the basic concept of the visual simulation is presented and a possibility for its implementation is given. Finally, issues and conclusions for future work are described.
Re-texturing the sonic environment

This paper examines modeling the acoustic environment (i.e. soundscape) with respect to its textural qualities. This is explored in the context of an audiovisual installation which captures the external environment and re-synthesizes a corresponding, but nonetheless potentially differing immersive audiovisual environment from a given sound and image corpus in the exhibition space. In order to establish the association between sonic structures of the external and internal domains a perceptually grounded, compact and real-time capable method for modeling sound textures based on amplitude fluctuation patterns is devised and evaluated.
Resilience and competitiveness of small and medium size enterprises: an empirical research

A small- or medium-sized enterprise (SME) is normally a company that employs about 50–200 people. Because of the globalisation of market and operations, and technological advances, the competition among SMEs has radically increased over the years, and their survival is increasingly dependent on a number of factors including resilience of SMEs to refocus some of their strategies and technologies. In this article, a review of selected literature has been undertaken on some of the SME characteristics and new strategies, techniques and technologies that can provide a competitive advantage and sustainability in the global market and operations. Based on the literature review, a framework has been developed with key factors/enablers that determine the resilience and competitiveness of SMEs. This framework has been empirically studied by collecting data from SMEs. It involves a sample of 40 SMEs in the Southcoast of Massachusetts and provides further insight into the key characteristics associated with resilience and competitiveness of SMEs that are influenced by advances in operations strategies, technology and globalisation. Finally, a detailed summary of findings and conclusions are presented.