Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPEECH AUTHENTICATION BASED ON PERCEPTUAL FINGERPRINT HASHING 1

A perceptual fingerprint hashing method is proposed for audio authentication in this paper. First, the biologic fingerprint image is divided into overlapping rectangle blocks by randomly using a chaotic sequence, and then the gravity center of each block is calculated. Finally, the perceptual Hashing value is generated based on the gravity center of each block. To authenticate the speech identity source, the perceptual fingerprint hashing that represents speaker’s identity information and speech signal must be connected closely. So the perceptual fingerprint hashing value is embedded into the speech signal as a watermark. At the authentication stage, first, the perceptual fingerprint hashing value is extracted from the speech for authentication, and then it matches another perceptual fingerprint hashing value which is restructured by the suspicious fingerprint image. Finally, the authentication result can be decided by the matching result. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is not only robust against fingerprint rotation processing and noise attack, but also has high security and uniqueness.
Discovering the Rise and Fall of Software Engineering Ideas from Scholarly Publication Data

For researchers and practitioners of a relatively young discipline like software engineering, an enduring concern is to identify the acorns that will grow into oaks -- ideas remaining most current in the long run. Additionally, it is interesting to know how the ideas have risen in importance, and fallen, perhaps to rise again. We analyzed a corpus of 19,000+ papers written by 21,000+ authors across 16 software engineering publication venues from 1975 to 2010, to empirically determine the half-life of software engineering research topics. We adapted existing measures of half-life as well as defined a specific measure based on publication and citation counts. The results from this empirical study are a presented in this paper.
Exact Low-rank Matrix Recovery via Nonconvex M p-Minimization

The low-rank matrix recovery (LMR) arises in many fields such as signal and image processing, statistics, computer vision, system identification and control, and it is NP-hard. It is known that under some restricted isometry property (RIP) conditions we can obtain the exact low-rank matrix solution by solving its convex relaxation, the nuclear norm minimization. In this paper, we consider the nonconvex relaxations by introducing Mp-norm (0 < p < 1) of a matrix and establish RIP conditions for exact LMR via Mp-minimization. Specifically, letting A be a linear transformation from Rm×n into R and r be the rank of recovered matrix X ∈ Rm×n, and if A satisfies the RIP condition √ 2δmax{r+ 2k,2k} + ( k 2r ) 1 p− 12 δ2r+k < ( k 2r ) 1 p− 1 2 for a given positive integer k ≤ m − r, then r-rank matrix can be exactly recovered. In particular, we not only obtain a uniform bound on restricted isometry constant δ4r < √ 2 − 1 for any p ∈ (0, 1] for LMR via Mp-minimization, but also obtain the one δ2r < √ 2− 1 for any p ∈ (0, 1] for sparse signal recovery via lp-minimization. AMS Subject Classification: 62B10, 90C26, 90C59
Metagenomic Analysis of Microbiome in Colon Tissue from Subjects with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Reveals Interplay of Viruses and Bacteria

Abstract:Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are poorly understood disorders affecting the intestinal tract. The current model for disease suggests that genetically susceptible patients develop intolerance to gut microflora, and chronic inflammation develops as a result of environmental insults. Although interest has mainly focused on studying genetic variants and gut bacterial flora, little is known about the potential of viral infection to contribute to disease. Accordingly, we conducted a metagenomic analysis to document the baseline virome in colonic biopsy samples from patients with IBD in order to assess the contribution of viral infection to IBD. Libraries were generated from colon RNA to create approximately 2 GB sequence data per library. Using a bioinformatic pipeline designed to detect viral sequences, more than 1000 viral reads were derived directly from tissue without any coculture or isolation procedure. Herein, we describe the complexity and abundance of viruses, bacteria/bacteriophage, and human endogenous retroviral sequences from 10 patients with IBD and 5 healthy subjects undergoing surveillance colonoscopy. Differences in gut microflora and the abundance of mammalian viruses and human endogenous retroviruses were readily detected in the metagenomic analyses. Specifically, patients with herpesviridae sequences in their colon demonstrated increased expression of human endogenous viral sequences and differences in the diversity of their microbiome. This study provides a promising metagenomic approach to describe the colonic microbiome that can be used to better understand virus–host and phage–bacteria interactions in IBD.
Technology for robotic surface inspection in space

This paper presents on-going research in robotic inspection of space platforms. Three main areas of investigation are discussed: machine vision inspection techniques, an integrated sensor end-effector, and an orbital environment laboratory simulation. Machine vision inspection utilizes automatic comparison of new and reference images to detect on-orbit induced damage such as micrometeorite impacts. The cameras and lighting used for this inspection are housed in a multisensor end-effector, which also contains a suite of sensors for detection of temperature, gas leaks, proximity, and forces. To fully test all of these sensors, a realistic space platform mock-up has been created, complete with visual, temperature, and gas anomalies. Further, changing orbital lighting conditions are effectively mimicked by a robotic solar simulator. In the paper, each of these technology components will be discussed, and experimental results are provided.
A Glass Half Full? The Role of Entrepreneur Alternative Issue Interpretations on Firm Growth Intentions

Abstract Despite the extensive research on the determinants and consequences of firm growth, research focusing on how the actual process unfolds is still evolving. An important part of firm growth process research is entrepreneurial cognition. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial cognition and firm growth intentions. Specifically, we propose a theoretical model of entrepreneurial cognitive interpretation and categorization of market information as it relates to firm growth intentions. Drawing from the strategic cognition literature in general and strategic issue interpretation literature in particular, we propose that entrepreneurs’ interpretation of market information as opportunity or threat, gain or loss, and controllable or uncontrollable influences their firm growth intentions. Furthermore, our theoretical model discusses the condition under which favorable interpretation of market information leads to higher growth intentions by incorporating insights from the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) construct. This chapter extends our understanding of firm growth processes by highlighting the important role cognitive interpretation and categorization play in facilitating or hindering entrepreneurial firm growth.
A power saving scheme for delivering non-real-time data in IEEE 802.16m

How to save power in wireless networks is a crucial problem because the official power saving scheme in IEEE 802.16m does not work efficiently. In this paper, we propose a power saving scheme for delivering non-real-time data. According to behaviors of a client in communication, our power saving scheme can dynamically adjust the sleep time of a client to avoid waking up the client and consuming its power. We use simulations to prove that a client can save more power with our power saving scheme than with the official power saving scheme in IEEE 802.16m.
"Making History compulsory": Politically inspired or pedagogically justifiable?

While recognising the contested nature of History as a school subject, this article explores the political context and practical implications of making History compulsory until Grade 12. After twenty one years of democracy, South African society lacks social cohesion, a sense of nationhood and is experiencing occurrences of xenophobia. To address these concerns, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) established the History Ministerial Task Team (HMTT) to oversee the implementation of compulsory History in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. The terms of reference of the task team include: the strengthening of History content; a review of the content in the General Education and Training (GET) band; its implication for teacher education, professional development and textbooks. The campaign to make History compulsory was promoted by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) and intensified after the outbreak of xenophobic attacks in 2008. To maintain the academic and professional status of History teaching, this article attempts to answer the question: what is the purpose of History as a school subject? To respond to this question, Barton and Levstik’s model: “the purposes of History teaching”, is employed as a framework to evaluate the proposal. By conducting a review of the post-apartheid History curriculum with special reference to complex phenomena such as nation-building and xenophobia, this article argues for attention to be given to the improvement of teachers’ pedagogical practice and historical knowledge rather than policy reform which may be destabilising a large segment of the school system. The anticipated HMTT report is alerted against gratuitous political interference and to some practical implications of its work for educational practice.
Optimal rain rate estimation algorithm for light and heavy rain using polarimetric measurements

Abstract. In this paper, we propose an ameliorated physically-based rain rate estimation algorithm for semi-arid regions using the Rayleigh approximation. The proposed algorithm simultaneously uses the reflectivity and the specific differential phase to provide an accurate estimation for both small and large rain rates. In order to validate the proposed estimator, simulated polarimetric rain rate data based on a dual approach, referring to both physical and statistical models of the rain target, are used. Moreover, experimental radar data (the same as used in Matrosov et al., 2006) taken in light to moderate stratiform rainfalls with rain rates varying between 2 and 15 mm h−1 were collected as part of the GPM pilot experiment. It is shown that the proposed algorithm for rain rate estimation based on the full set of polarimetric radar measurements agree better with in situ disdrometer ones.
Multi-dimensional parameters joint estimator by Gibbs-MUSIC method

A multi-dimensional parameters joint estimator by Gibbs-MUSIC method (GSM) is proposed to jointly estimate the azimuth and elevation of multiple sources. In this method, the power of MUSIC spectrum function is regarded as target distribution up to a constant of proportionality, and Gibbs sampling is done on this distribution. Simulation results show that this new method preserves the performance of high-resolution in conventional MUSIC and reduces computation and storage costs at the same time when signal sources are quite limited.
Neighborhood Centroid Constrained Fairing Algorithm for Point Clouds

Apparatus for severing the running web of tipping paper in a filter tipping machine has a rotary anvil whose cylindrical peripheral surface is contacted by the running web, a rotary carrier which is adjacent to and defines with the anvil a nip for the running web, a knife which is movably mounted in the carrier and has an elongated cutting edge which cooperates with the web-contacting portion of the peripheral surface of the anvil to sever the web once during each revolution of the carrier, and a system of springs which bias the knife axially of the carrier so as to prevent movements of the knife under the action of centrifugal force and/or gravity but to allow the knife to move its cutting edge into a position in which the entire cutting edge contacts the peripheral surface of the anvil upon completion of the first cut. This reduces noise which is generated when the apparatus is in use. The springs can bear directly against the knife and/or carrier, or they may stress suitable slide blocks which frictionally engage the end portions of the knife or the adjacent sections of the carrier. Noise can be reduced still further by the provision of resilient elements and bearings which prevent radial and/or axial wobbling of the shafts for the anvil and knife carrier with respect to the housing of the tipping machine.
The ordinal quartet method

The utility of ordinal assertions for infer&g evolutionary trees from sequence data is examined. If M is a difference matrix derived from a set of sequences then “M(s,z) 5 M(s, y)” is an ordinal assertion supported by . &l where s, x and g( are sequences. Ordinal assertions are shown to be an accurate and robust source of evolutionary information. The following results are presentedz A method for inf&g @et topology, the Ordinal Quartet iVethod, is introduced Siulations are reported which demonstrate that the Ordkal Quartet Method is signiEcs&ly more accurate and robust than the popular We& Pour-Point Condition Method. This improvement drastically increases the accuracy of quartet recomb&&on methods, such as the Short Quartet Method [lo] and the Q’ Method [S] whose accuracy is critidy dependent upon the ability to infer quartet topology accurately. It is also demonstrated that, unlike other quartet inference methods sudh as the Weak FoePoint Condition Method, the Orwet Method does not require data correction. The first convergence rate analysis for methods utili&g ordinal assertions is presented. The results obtained are notable in that they apply to any method that utilize ordid assertions. ‘The author gratefully acknowledges the support of NSERC and OGS. *Department of Compnter Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON, CANADA N3L 3G1, pkwuneyemath.aoatooo. ca Permission to m&e digital/bard copies of all or part of this matenal for personal or classroomuseegranteduithoutfeeprovidedthatthe copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, the copyriEhtnoh‘ce,thetitleofthepubliutionanditsdateappear.andnoticris given that copyright is by penmss *on ofthe ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, torepublish to post on servers or to rediiiute to lists, requires specik permission andfor fee. RECOhB 9s New York NY USA Copyright 199s o-s9791-9769/9sl3.s5. 00
Hospitableness: the new service metaphor? Developing an instrument for measuring hosting

Over the last couple of decades the word hospitality has emerged from the shadow of being used to describe a cluster of commercial activities providing accommodation, food and drink experiences to guests for a fee. Hospitality describes a ubiquitous aspect of human behaviour. The need to protect and honour visitors has a tradition as long as human society and is practiced around the globe. The study of hospitality reveals that societies do have changing levels of obligation to be hospitable, and that many of the more advanced contemporary societies no longer practice the requirement to be hospitable with the same intensity that perhaps they once did. That said, philosophers and others suggest that in any given social context, there are differences amongst individuals in the commitment to being hospitable for the pleasure it gives them personally. They are not motivated by ulterior motives, personal gain, or the threat of punishment. Guests are unconditionally welcomed by hosts driven by altruistic motives. Whilst it has been possible to describe the behaviour of hospitable individuals, there has not been until now an instrument to measure the strength of genuine hospitality in individuals. This paper describes the development of a suite of questions designed to measure these qualities in individuals. This paper describes the development of the instrument and argues for the application of the instrument in wider array of tourist and other contexts than are described here.
Hafiz Imtiaz, Shaikh Anowarul Fattah

In this paper, a multi-resolution feature extraction algorithm for palm-print recognition is proposed based on two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform (2D-DWT), which efficiently exploits the local spatial variations in a palm-print image. The entire image is segmented into several small spatial modules and a palm-print recognition scheme is developed, which extracts histogram-based dominant wavelet features from each of these local modules. This not only drastically reduces the feature dimension but also results in a very high within-class compactness and between-class separability of the extracted features. Moreover, the improvement of the quality of the extracted features as a result of illumination adjustment has also been analyzed. A principal component analysis is performed to further reduce the feature dimension. From our extensive experimentations on different palm-print databases, it is found that the performance of the proposed method in terms of recognition accuracy and computational complexity is superior to that of some of the recent methods.
Biorealistic spiking neural network on FPGA

In this paper, we present a digital hardware implementation of a biorealistic spiking neural network composed of 117 Izhikevich neurons. This digital system works in hard real-time, which means that it keeps the same biological time of simulation at the millisecond scale. The Izhikevich neuron implementation requires few resources. The neurons behavior is validated by comparing their firing rate to biological data. The interneuron connections are composed of biorealistic synapses. The architecture of the network implementation allows working on a single computation core. It is freely configurable from an independent-neuron configuration to all-to-all configuration or a mix with several independent small networks. This spiking neural network will be used for the development of a new proof-of-concept Brain Machine Interface, i.e. a neuromorphic chip for neuroprosthesis, which has to replace the functionality of a damaged part of the central nervous system.
Life and community of Cambodian migrant workers in Thai society.

Thailand is experiencing an increased demand for lower-skilled foreign labor in a range of industries and sectors of the expanding economy. A shortage of Thai workers willing to perform unskilled labor began to emerge in 1993, and foreign migrants were recruited to fill this gap. While the Thai economy has benefited from migrant labor, at the inter-personal level, low-skilled migrants are still marginalized by mainstream Thais, and there has been little cross-cultural integration. This qualitative study investigates the life and community of migrant workers from Cambodia working in Thailand. It documents the various socio-cultural and historical attributes that migrant workers bring with them, and the prospects for greater integration within Thai society. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 20 key informants, comprised of 8 migrant workers and 12 non-migrant workers. This study found that the key motivating force for migration was a long-lasting period of unemployment in Cambodia. Migrant workers attach importance to kinship, networks and community ties, but violence in their recent past greatly affects their interactions and ability to integrate with Thai society. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that employers of Cambodian migrant workers treat them fairly and make a greater effort to understand the context of their lives and culture, and how that carries over to the workplace.
Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks

This paper shows that game theory can be used as a unifying framework to study radio resource management in a variety of wireless networks. with different service criteria. It focuses on infrastructure networks where users transmit to a common concentration point such as a base station in a cellular network or an access point. Since most of the terminals in a wireless network are battery-powered, energy efficiency is crucial to prolonging the life of the terminals. Also, in most practical scenarios, distributed algorithms are preferred over centralized ones. Throughout this article it focuses on distributed algorithms with emphasis on energy efficiency. A family of power control games is presented for energy-efficient resource allocation in wireless code-division multiple-access (CDMA) networks and give discussions and conclusions
Prior Individual Training and Self-Organized Queuing during Group Emergency Escape of Mice from Water Pool

We study the impact of prior individual training during group emergency evacuation using mice that escape from an enclosed water pool to a dry platform via any of two possible exits. Experimenting with mice avoids serious ethical and legal issues that arise when dealing with unwitting human participants while minimizing concerns regarding the reliability of results obtained from simulated experiments using ‘actors’. First, mice were trained separately and their individual escape times measured over several trials. Mice learned quickly to swim towards an exit–they achieved their fastest escape times within the first four trials. The trained mice were then placed together in the pool and allowed to escape. No two mice were permitted in the pool beforehand and only one could pass through an exit opening at any given time. At first trial, groups of trained mice escaped seven and five times faster than their corresponding control groups of untrained mice at pool occupancy rate ρ of 11.9% and 4%, respectively. Faster evacuation happened because trained mice: (a) had better recognition of the available pool space and took shorter escape routes to an exit, (b) were less likely to form arches that blocked an exit opening, and (c) utilized the two exits efficiently without preference. Trained groups achieved continuous egress without an apparent leader-coordinator (self-organized queuing)—a collective behavior not experienced during individual training. Queuing was unobserved in untrained groups where mice were prone to wall seeking, aimless swimming and/or blind copying that produced circuitous escape routes, biased exit use and clogging. The experiments also reveal that faster and less costly group training at ρ = 4%, yielded an average individual escape time that is comparable with individualized training. However, group training in a more crowded pool (ρ = 11.9%) produced a longer average individual escape time.
Content based audio classification and retrieval using joint time-frequency analysis

We present an audio classification and retrieval technique that exploits the non-stationary behavior of music signals and extracts features that characterize their spectral change over time. Audio classification provides a solution to incorrect and inefficient manual labelling of audio files on computers by allowing users to extract music files based on content similarity rather than labels. In our technique, classification is performed using time-frequency analysis and sounds are classified into 6 music groups consisting of rock, classical, folk, jazz and pop. For each 5 second music segment, the features that are extracted include entropy, centroid, centroid ratio, bandwidth, silence ratio, energy ratio, and location of minimum and maximum energy. Using a database of 143 signals, a set of 10 time-frequency features are extracted and an accuracy of classification of around 93% using regular linear discriminant analysis or 92.3% using the leave-one-out method is achieved.