Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model-based self-adaptive resource allocation in virtualized environments

The adoption of virtualization and Cloud Computing technologies promises a number of benefits such as increased flexibility, better energy efficiency and lower operating costs for IT systems. However, highly variable workloads make it challenging to provide quality-of-service guarantees while at the same time ensuring efficient resource utilization. To avoid violations of service-level agreements (SLAs) or inefficient resource usage, resource allocations have to be adapted continuously during operation to reflect changes in application workloads. In this paper, we present a novel approach to self-adaptive resource allocation in virtualized environments based on online architecture-level performance models. We present a detailed case study of a representative enterprise application, the new SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark, deployed in a virtualized cluster environment. The case study serves as a proof-of-concept demonstrating the effectiveness and practical applicability of our approach.
Efficient Test Application for Rapid Multi-Temperature Testing

Different defects may manifest themselves at different temperatures. Therefore, the tests that target such temperature-dependent defects must be applied at different temperatures appropriate for detecting them. Such multi-temperature testing scheme applies tests at different required temperatures. It is known that a test's power dissipation depends on the previously applied test. Therefore, the same set of tests when organized differently dissipates different amounts of power. The technique proposed in this paper organizes the tests efficiently so that the resulted power levels lead to the required temperatures. Consequently a rapid multi-temperature testing is achieved. Experimental studies demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed technique.
Ambient air quality and human health in India

700 million Indians have used solid fuels in their homes for the last 30 years, contributing substantially to air pollutant emissions. The Indian economy and industrial, power generation, and transport sectors have grown considerably over the last decade, increasing emissions of air pollutants. These air pollutant emissions have caused present-day concentrations of ambient PM2.5 and O3 in India to be amongst the highest in the world. Exposure to this air pollution is the second leading risk factor in India, contributing one-quarter of the global disease burden attributable to air pollution exposure. Air pollutant emissions are predicted to grow extensively over the coming years in India. Despite the importance of air quality in India, it remains relatively understudied, and knowledge of the sources and processes causing air pollution is limited. This thesis aims to understand the contribution of different pollution sources to the attributable disease burden from ambient air pollution exposure in India and the effects of future air pollution control pathways. The attributable disease burden from ambient PM2.5 exposure in India is substantial, where large reductions in emissions will be required to reduce the health burden due to the non-linear exposure-response relationship. The attributable disease burden from ambient O3 exposure is larger than previously thought and is of similar magnitude to that from PM2.5 in the future. Key sources contributing to the present day disease burden from ambient PM2.5 and O3 exposure are the emissions from the residential combustion of solid fuels, land transport, and coal combustion in power plants. The attributable disease burden is estimated to increase in the future due to population ageing and growth. Stringent air pollution control pathways are required to provide critical public health benefits in India in a challenging environment. A key focus should be to reduce the combustion of solid fuels.
Self-balancing iBOT-like wheelchair based on type-1 and interval type-2 fuzzy control

This paper focuses on development of a wheelchair model and further on proposing a novel control strategy based on fuzzy logic control in order to lift the front wheels and maintain system stability in the upright position. A type-1 TSK FLS is first introduced to handle stability when the wheelchair is in an inverted pendulum-like situation. An extra control loop is designed to stop the motion after the system is stable. Then an interval type-2 TSK FLS is further developed by blurring the boundaries of the membership functions used in type-1 design. The effectiveness of the two type controllers is shown in the simulation results.
Inferring likely mappings between APIs

Software developers often need to port applications written for a source platform to a target platform. In doing so, a key task is to replace an application's use of methods from the source platform API with corresponding methods from the target platform API. However, this task is challenging because developers must manually identify mappings between methods in the source and target APIs, e.g., using API documentation. We develop a novel approach to the problem of inferring mappings between the APIs of a source and target platform. Our approach is tailored to the case where the source and target platform each have independently-developed applications that implement similar functionality. We observe that in building these applications, developers exercised knowledge of the corresponding APIs. We develop a technique to systematically harvest this knowledge and infer likely mappings between the APIs of the source and target platform. The output of our approach is a ranked list of target API methods or method sequences that likely map to each source API method or method sequence. We have implemented this approach in a prototype tool called Rosetta, and have applied it to infer likely mappings between the Java2 Platform Mobile Edition and Android graphics APIs.
Affordances and agentic orientations: An examination of ICT4D users

This study aims at understanding how resettled refugees interact with computer technology. In particular, the objectives of this research project are twofold. First, it analyses how information technology users interpret the affordances of computer technology in relation to their unique needs and goals. Second, it scrutinises how information technology users exercise their agency to act upon the materiality of computer technology. The combination of the concepts of affordance and temporal agentic orientation provides the theoretical foundations for this research. Data, obtained through in-depth, face-to face, semi-structured interviews with 53 participants across four locations in New Zealand, was thematically analysed. The findings show that user’s past experiences, current circumstances and evaluation of future outcomes significantly influence the perceived affordances of computer technology and, consequently, shape the way it is used.
Image processing verification tool-IPVT

Validation is an important part of image processing. Automated extraction of structures from medical images like MRI or CT is becoming a routine process for diagnosis. Therefore, the accurate region detection is necessary. The proposed Image Processing Verification Tool–IPVT is as a tool for statistical validation of the image processing results. The IPVT tool statistically evaluates the segmentation ability of the segmentation algorithm based on a comparison with references provided by the experts. This tool comprises a graphical users interface, a 2D and 3D image processing verification process, and report generation.
Multiplicative updates outperform generic no-regret learning in congestion games: extended abstract

We study the outcome of natural learning algorithms in atomic congestion games. Atomic congestion games have a wide variety of equilibria often with vastly differing social costs. We show that in almost all such games, the well-known multiplicative-weights learning algorithm results in convergence to pure equilibria. Our results show that natural learning behavior can avoid bad outcomes predicted by the price of anarchy in atomic congestion games such as the load-balancing game introduced by Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou, which has super-constant price of anarchy and has correlated equilibria that are exponentially worse than any mixed Nash equilibrium. Our results identify a set of mixed Nash equilibria that we call weakly stable equilibria. Our notion of weakly stable is defined game-theoretically, but we show that this property holds whenever a stability criterion from the theory of dynamical systems is satisfied. This allows us to show that in every congestion game, the distribution of play converges to the set of weakly stable equilibria. Pure Nash equilibria are weakly stable, and we show using techniques from algebraic geometry that the converse is true with probability 1 when congestion costs are selected at random independently on each edge (from any monotonically parametrized distribution). We further extend our results to show that players can use algorithms with different (sufficiently small) learning rates, i.e. they can trade off convergence speed and long term average regret differently.
Creating Successful Learning Contexts for Bilingual Literacy

The Philadelphia School District, like other large urban school districts in the United States, serves an increasingly bilingual school population. Of the district’s nearly 200,000 students in 1989, approximately 9 percent were Hispanic and 3 percent Southeast Asian. ’ The two elementary schools reported on here, each with about one thousand students, have concentrated language-minority populations: the Potter Thomas School, grades K-5, counts approximately 78 percent of its students as Hispanic (of which the vast majority are Puerto Rican); the Henry C. Lea School, grades K-8, counts about 37 percent of its students as Southeast Asian (of which the vast majority are Cambodian). 2 As these and other schools seek to serve linguistically and culturally diverse student populations, teachers are confronted with a complex teaching challenge. Such a challenge requires not one uniform solution but a repertoire of possibilities and alternatives. This article seeks to open up some of those alternatives by focusing on two teachers, in very different contexts, who appear to be successfully creating learning contexts for biliteracya new term designating bilingual literacy. The two classrooms, a fourth/fifth grade at Potter Thomas and a fourth grade at Lea, are situated in widely disparate communities, within different types of programs, and the particular languages involved contrast in a number of ways thought to be relevant to the development of biliteracy; yet in both classes, language-minority children appear to be successfully becoming biliterate. This article asks what the teachers do that permit this.3
An Independent Set Approach to Solving the Collaborative Attack Problem

Access control in distributed databases has tended to favor a hierarchical approach implemented via cryptographic schemes. In such schemes, a central authority generates keys for each level in the hierarchy such that users at a given level can compute, from their own key, the keys of users below them and gain access to information items they hold. Previous schemes proposed, have been found to be either vulnerable to “collaborative attack”1 or inefficient. This paper presents a method of assigning keys at each level in the hierarchy such that the probability of their being combined to generate illegal keys is minimized. We model the problem as a graph whose vertices represent the keys generated, and whose edges indicate the probability that their end points can be combined to generate a “collaborative attack”. The concept of independent sets is then used to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.
Implicit Smartphone User Authentication with Sensors and Contextual Machine Learning

Authentication of smartphone users is important because a lot of sensitive data is stored in the smartphone and the smartphone is also used to access various cloud data and services. However, smartphones are easily stolen or co-opted by an attacker. Beyond the initial login, it is highly desirable to re-authenticate end-users who are continuing to access security-critical services and data. Hence, this paper proposes a novel authentication system for implicit, continuous authentication of the smartphone user based on behavioral characteristics, by leveraging the sensors already ubiquitously built into smartphones. We propose novel context-based authentication models to differentiate the legitimate smartphone owner versus other users. We systematically show how to achieve high authentication accuracy with different design alternatives in sensor and feature selection, machine learning techniques, context detection and multiple devices. Our system can achieve excellent authentication performance with 98.1% accuracy with negligible system overhead and less than 2.4% battery consumption.
Microwave Satellite Data for Hydrologic Modeling in Ungauged Basins

An innovative flood-prediction framework is developed using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission precipitation forcing and a proxy for river discharge from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Aqua satellite. The AMSR-E-detected water surface signal was correlated with in situ measurements of streamflow in the Okavango Basin in Southern Africa as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.90. A distributed hydrologic model, with structural data sets derived from remote-sensing data, was calibrated to yield simulations matching the flood frequencies from the AMSR-E-detected water surface signal. Model performance during a validation period yielded a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.84. We concluded that remote-sensing data from microwave sensors could be used to supplement stream gauges in large sparsely gauged or ungauged basins to calibrate hydrologic models. Given the global availability of all required data sets, this approach can be potentially expanded to improve flood monitoring and prediction in sparsely gauged basins throughout the world.
A pneumatic robot for re-training arm movement after stroke: rationale and mechanical design

This paper describes the development of a pneumatic robot for functional movement training of the arm and hand after stroke. The device is based on the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX), a passive, mobile arm support developed for children with arm weakness caused by a debilitative condition. Previously, we scaled WREX for use by adults, instrumented it with potentiometers, and incorporated a simple grip strength sensor. The resulting passive device (Training WREX or "T-WREX") allows individuals with severe motor impairment to practice functional movements (reaching, eating, and washing) in a simple virtual reality environment called Java Therapy 2.0. However, the device is limited since it can only apply a fixed pattern of assistive forces to the arm. In addition, its gravity balance function does not restore full range of motion. Therefore, we are also developing a robotic version of WREX named Pneu-WREX, which can apply a wide range of forces to the arm during naturalistic movements. Pneu-WREX uses pneumatic actuators, non-linear force control, and passive counter-balancing to allow application of a wide range of forces during naturalistic upper extremity movements. Besides a detailed description of the mechanical design and kinematics of Pneu-WREX, we present results from a survey of 29 therapists on the use of such a robotic device.
Demonstration of a relationship between talin and P235, a major substrate of the calcium‐dependent protease in platelets

Talin is a 225,000‐Dalton protein we have purified from smooth muscle. In chick embryo fibroblasts talin is found in adhesion plaques (focal contacts), areas where the cell is closely opposed to the substratum. In comparison with other cytoskeletal proteins, we found talin to be unusually susceptible to proteolysis and have identified a 190,000‐Dalton proteolytic fragment of talin in the immunoblots of many tissues. These observations raised the possibility that the cleavage of talin to this fragment has physiological relevance. One system that we have investigated in which significant proteolysis occurs is platelets. During platelet activation several high‐molecular‐weight proteins are cleaved to lower‐molecular‐weight forms. Here we demonstrate that talin is closely related to one of these platelet high‐molecular‐weight proteins, P235. The purification of talin is comparable to that developed for P235, and the two proteins have similar biophysical properties. In addition, antibodies raised against chicken gizzard talin recognize P235 in purified form as well as in crude platelet extracts. The platelet protein also resembles smooth‐muscle talin in its susceptibility to endogenous proteolysis: P235 is rapidly cleaved to a 190‐200kD polypeptide by a calcium‐activated protease found in platelet extracts. Moreover, partial proteolysis of P235 and talin with chymotrypsin, elastase, or trypsin also generates remarkably similar one‐dimensional peptide maps. Because of their similar biophysical properties, immunological crossreactivity, and similar one‐dimensional partial peptide maps, we conclude that P235 is the platelet form of talin.
Nonclinical Assessment of Tumor Growth Enhancement Potential by B2A-Coated Ceramic Granules Used in Arthodesis

B2A is a synthetic peptide that augments osteodifferentiation and improves bony fusion when delivered on ceramic granules during arthrodesis surgery. Nonclinical safety assessments, including genotoxicity, supported the use of B2A-coated granules as a combination medical device in pilot clinical studies. As a prelude to pivotal clinical studies, an assessment of the possibility that B2A-coated granules (and B2A) could enhance tumor growth was undertaken. B2A-coated granules demonstrated no evidence of genotoxicity. Cell culture studies with human tumor cell lines demonstrated that neither exposure of cells to B2A or B2A-coated granules increased cell proliferation or invasive capability relative to controls. In vivo, surgically implanted B2A-coated granules did not increase tumor growth (4 human tumor cell lines) or metastasis (1 cell line) relative to vehicle controls in immune-compromised rodents. Thus, traditional genotoxicity, as well as specially designed tumor growth enhancement studies, indicates that the possibility of tumor enhancement appears unlikely.
Effect of inbreeding on genetic relatedness.

The effect of inbreeding on genetic relatedness (intragroup genotypic correlation) is examined in several models with special emphasis on social Hymenoptera (all male-haploid) living in nests. Inbreeding takes place in the form of intranidal matings, and the models are developed for polygyny (several females reproducing in one nest) and polyandry. The latter models are also developed for diploid populations. The equations derived here are applied to the population data from the ant Formica exsecta.
‘Bhuti’: Meaning and Masculinities in Xhosa Brothering

The article explores the connections between context, masculinity and the fraternal relationship to understand brotherhood in Xhosa culture. The participant was a Xhosa man (32 years old, with tertiary level education). Data were collected using a semi-structured interview. The data suggest that the fraternal bond is constructed as a complex interplay of sometimes contradictory stances including those that reinforce authoritarian and hierarchical brothering practices. Counternarratives highlight the potential for intimacy and equality in these male-male relationships.
The Stability of Self Perceptions of Instrumental and Expressive Traits and Social Self Esteem among Gifted and Talented Female Adolescents

Since Bem's (1974) formulation of androgyny, numerous research efforts have focused on the relationship between gender identity and self esteem. These efforts have tested the descriptive adequacy of the hypothesized relationship between gender identity and self esteem (Whitley, 1983). The present study examines the relationship between a circumscribed aspect of gender identity, self perceptions of socioaffective traits, as measured by the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) and of social self esteem as measured by the Texas Social Behavioral Inventory (TSBI), over a 14-month period among a sample of gifted and talented female adolescents (n=260). The results of typological and regression analyses reveal that: 1) substantial variability in classification group membership occurs over time; 2) the relationship between classification group membership and social self esteem remains relatively stable; and 3) self perceptions of stereotypically masculine instrumentality consistently emerges as the central contributor to social self esteem. Implications for counseling gifted and talented female adolescents wrestling with issues of gender-relevant self-perceptions, achievement and social self esteem are discussed.
Whole body motion planning – elements for intelligent systems designs

Humanoid robots become increasingly sophisticated, both in terms of their movement as well as their sensorial capabilities. This allows to target for more complicated problems, eventually leading to robotic systems that can perform useful tasks in every days environment. In this paper, we will give an overview on some elements we consider to be important for a movement control and planning architecture. We will first explain the whole body control concept which is the underlying basis for the subsequent elements. We then present a prediction and action selection scheme that evaluates a set of behavioral instances within a parallel prediction architecture. This architecture allows the robot to quickly react to changing environments. We then review a more global movement planning approach which casts the overall robot movement into an integral optimization problem, and leads to smooth and collision-free movements within interaction time.
A Data-driven Path Model of Student Attributes, Affect, and Engagement in a Computerbased Science Inquiry Microworld

Work in recent years has shown that a student’s goals, attitudes, and beliefs towards learning impact their level of engagement during learning, and that engagement during learning plays a key role in learning outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the mechanisms through which a student’s goals, attitudes, and beliefs impact the student’s engaged and disengaged behaviors. In particular, we study whether affect is a mediating variable between learner attributes and engagement/disengagement during learning. To this end, we conduct exploratory path analysis on data from middle school learners who were conducting inquiry in science a microworld. We find weak but significant relationships between variables related to attitudes and beliefs and variables related to affective states and engagement. We present a path model that highlights boredom as an important mediator between a tendency towards avoiding novelty and off-task behavior during learning.
Pruning generalized rules for stock markets accumulated by Genetic Network Programming with Rule Accumulation

A new strategy on pruning rules accumulated by Genetic Network Programming with Rule Accumulation (GNP-RA) has been proposed in this paper. The generalized rules extracted by training GNP are pruned by GA in the validation phase. Each rule has two variables: U and N. Variable U determines if the rule is used or not, while variable N shows that the information on N days is used. By mutating variables U and N of each rule, the portfolio of U and N is changed, as a result, the rules are pruned. The performance of the pruned rules is tested in the testing phase, meanwhile, the best mutation rates for variable U and variable N are also studied. The simulation results show that the pruned rules work better than the rules without pruning.