Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multigrain parallel processing for JPEG encoding on a single chip multiprocessor

With the recent increase of multimedia content using JPEG and MPEG, low cost, low power consumption and high performance processors for multimedia application are desirable. In particular, single chip multiprocessor architecture having simple processor cores that will attain good scalability and cost effectiveness is attracting much attention. To exploit full performance of single chip multiprocessor architecture, multigrain parallel processing, which exploits coarse grain task parallelism, loop parallelism and instruction level parallelism, is attractive. This paper describes a multigrain parallel processing scheme for JPEG encoding on a single chip multiprocessor and its performance. The evaluation shows that an OSCAR type single chip multiprocessor having four single-issue simple processor cores gave a 3.59 times speed-up against sequential execution time.
Analysis of orientation problems using Plucker lines

The problems of exterior, relative, and absolute orientation are analysed using Plucker lines with the aim of finding constraint equations less complex than those in conventional use, and thus facilitating more accurate computation of the unknowns. The equations of perspective projection are avoided by modelling image-forming rays as 3D lines. An unusual coplanarity constraint is found for exterior orientation. It contains the minimal number of unknowns (the elements of rotation only) and so can be used to solve for them with greater accuracy and fewer limitations than when translation and rotation are sought together.
A Simple Value Range Propagation Pass for SUIF-1

Reconfigurable Computing (RC) uses reconfigurable logic devices such as FPGAs to assist generalpurpose computation. In order to make ecient use of FPGA resources, it is essential to size datapaths and functional units to the minimal possible bitwidth that will ensure correctness. Since the high-level languages used to program RC systems do not require (or even allow) the user to manually specify datapath widths, the compiler must infer them. This paper presents a simple dataflow analysis for determining datapath widths in C programs and oers a preliminary SUIF-based implementation.
Multi-channel, Multi-level Authentication for More Secure eBanking

For decades, traditional authentication methods have proved weak in protecting users and organizations from various different online attacks. These include brute force password cracking, phishing, sniffing, active man-in-the-middle attacks, and session hijacking. The introduction of the one-time-password (OTP) and multichannel authentication (MCA) has proven ability to protect users' online accounts from being compromised. However, without careful thought being given to implementation details, these authentication methods can still have weaknesses that could allow real-time attacks to succeed. This paper presents guidelines on how multi-channel authentication should be implemented so that it adequately protects users' online accounts. The proposed structure can be used in personal banking or corporate banking applications and has the potential to withstand the most commonly deployed attacks. In order to evaluate the proposed MCA and test user acceptance, a prototype web-application was implemented. Our evaluation of the MCA concept using this prototype with Omani participants showed that 61% of total 42 participants who evaluated the application are satisfied with the level of security offered by multi-channel authentication. 66% of them believed that it was easy to perform transactions. We found that most participants were not familiar with the vouching code (the fourth authentication factor proposed by RSA) implemented as part of the study. However, 69% stated that they found this feature convenient when the primary channel was unavailable. Finally, 79% of respondents agreed to recommend the multi-channel authentication mechanisms to others if implemented by their bank. Keywords; authentication; multi-channel; multilevel; multiprocess
Detection of SMS mobile malware

This paper relates to mobile malware detection for prevention against financial charge caused by the malicious behavior using SMS. In this paper, we propose the method that conducts malicious behavior monitoring and various analysis techniques to detect the attack. This method includes malware installation check, SMS sending and receiving analysis, and signature-based pattern matching. Therefore, we can effectively respond against SMS mobile malware attacks.
galign: A Tool for Rapid Genome Polymorphism Discovery

Background Highly parallel sequencing technologies have become important tools in the analysis of sequence polymorphisms on a genomic scale. However, the development of customized software to analyze data produced by these methods has lagged behind. Methods/Principal Findings Here I describe a tool, ‘galign’, designed to identify polymorphisms between sequence reads obtained using Illumina/Solexa technology and a reference genome. The ‘galign’ alignment tool does not use Smith-Waterman matrices for sequence comparisons. Instead, a simple algorithm comparing parsed sequence reads to parsed reference genome sequences is used. ‘galign’ output is geared towards immediate user application, displaying polymorphism locations, nucleotide changes, and relevant predicted amino-acid changes for ease of information processing. To do so, ‘galign’ requires several accessory files easily derived from an annotated reference genome. Direct sequencing as well as in silico studies demonstrate that ‘galign’ provides lesion predictions comparable in accuracy to available prediction programs, accompanied by greater processing speed and more user-friendly output. We demonstrate the use of ‘galign’ to identify mutations leading to phenotypic consequences in C. elegans. Conclusion/Significance Our studies suggest that ‘galign’ is a useful tool for polymorphism discovery, and is of immediate utility for sequence mining in C. elegans.
Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health

That America's natural environment has been degraded and despoiled over the past 25 years is beyond dispute. Nor has there been any shortage of reasons why - short-sighted politicians, a society built on over-consumption, and the dramatic weakening of environmental regulations. In Retaking Rationality, Richard Revesz and Michael Livermore argue convincingly that one of the least understood-and most important-causes of our failure to protect the environment has been a misguided rejection of reason. The authors show that environmentalists, labor unions, and other progressive groups have declined to participate in the key governmental proceedings concerning the cost-benefit analysis of federal regulations. As a result of this vacuum, industry groups have captured cost-benefit analysis and used it to further their anti-regulatory ends. Beginning in 1981, the federal Office of Management and Budget and the federal courts have used cost-benefit analysis extensively to determine which environmental, health, and safety regulations are approved and which are sent back to the drawing board. The resulting imbalance in political participation has profoundly affected the nation's regulatory and legal landscape. But Revesz and Livermore contend that economic analysis of regulations is necessary and that it needn't conflict with-and can in fact support-a more compassionate approach to environmental policy. Indeed, they show that we cannot give up on rationality if we truly want to protect our natural environment. Retaking Rationality makes clear that by embracing and reforming cost-benefit analysis, and by joining reason and compassion, progressive groups can help enact strong environmental and public health regulation.
Entity Resolution Using Social Graphs for Business Applications

Social network such as Linked In maintains profiles for its members in a semi-structured format. A lot of business applications like ad targeting and content recommendations rely on canonicalization of data elements like companies, titles and schools for enabling fine grained advertising or recommending candidates for job postings. In this paper we explore the issues around resolving company names for hundreds of millions of member positions to known company entities using the social graph. We proposed a machine learning approach leveraging three dimensional feature sets including the social graph, social behavior and various content and demographic features. The experiments showed that our approach achieved high precision at a reasonable coverage and is significantly superior to a baseline content based approach.
Fuzzy logic based frequency control by V2G aggregators

This paper presents a fuzzy based frequency control strategy by the aggregator based plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The frequency control is proposed from the view point of the frequency instability which possibly caused by the distribution level PV power penetration and load demand variation as well as uncontrolled charging and discharging of PEVs. Two fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) have been developed, one as charging station controller and another as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) controller, to provide frequency regulation. An IEEE 39-bus system like test system is simulated incorporating the proposed controllers and considering dual power and information flows between supply and demand sides. From the numerical simulation results, performances of the proposed controllers are found satisfactory to provide frequency regulation and to reduce tie-line power fluctuations.
Personal Name Matching: New Test Collections and a Social Network based Approach

This paper gives an overview of Personal Name Matching. Personal name matching is of great importance for all applications that deal with personal names. The problem with personal names is that they are not unique and sometimes even for one name many variations exist. This leads to the fact that databases on the one hand may have several entries for one and the same person and on the other hand have one entry for many different persons. For the evaluation of Personal Name Matching algorithms test collections are of great importance. Therefore existing test collections are outlined and three new test collections, based on real world bibliographic data, presented. Additionally state-of-the art techniques as well as a new approach based on semantics are described.
QoE/QoS Improvement in Wireless Internet

Error coding techniques are proposed to enhance the efficiency and reliability, and to minimize the delay of the future Internet. The need of such enhancement is established. Internally, a method is proposed for the replacement of all the Internet transmission protocol Checksums. An optimal coding algorithm is presented for all protocol applications beyond the Internet. Externally, a systematic method to generate a large number of low-density parity-check codes is demonstrated through statistical block designs. For wireless, a simple Internet-satellite channel model is derived for on-the-move handheld Internet users with mobile satellite communications. The paper outlines background information, brings forth the challenges, identifies problems, lists difficulties, and recommends solutions.
A Survey on Automatic Test Data Generation

In order to reduce the high cost of manual software testing and at the same time to increase the reliability of the testing processes researchers and practitioners have tried to automate it. One of the most important components in a testing environment is an automatic test data generator — a system that automatically generates test data for a given program. Through the years several attempts in automatic test data generations have been made. The focus of this article is program-based generation, where the generation starts from the actual programs. Thus, techniques such as GUI-based and syntax-based test data generation are not an issue in this article. In this article I present a survey on automatic test data generation techniques that can be found in current literature. Basic concepts and notions of test data generation as well as how a test data generator system works are described. Problems of automatic generation are identified and explained. Finally important and challenging future research topics are presented.
Alleviating Competitive Imbalance in NFL Schedules : An Integer-Programming Approach

The National Football League (NFL) uses numerous complex rules in scheduling regular season games to maintain fairness, attractiveness and its wide appeal to all fans and franchises. While these rules balance a majority of the features, they are not robust in spacing games to avoid competitive imbalance. We consider the scheduling of NFL regular season games and formulate a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) to alleviate competitive disadvantages originating from the assignment of bye-weeks, Thursday games and streaks of home-away games among various other sources. We propose a two-phase heuristic approach to seek solutions to the resulting large-scale MILP and conduct computational experiments to illustrate how past NFL schedules could have been improved for fairness. We also demonstrate the efficiency and stability of our approach by creating balanced schedules on an extensive set of simulated possible future NFL seasons. Our experiments show that the heuristic can quickly create a large pool of schedules that are completely free of disadvantages due to scheduling of bye-weeks and well-balanced in preparation time differences due to Thursday games.
Mosaic placement of very high density 3D capacitors for efficient decoupling functionality in the RF domain

In this paper, we present a layout driven approach used to fill empty space within MCM, with 3D high density decoupling capacitors. In a first time, a description of the innovative 3D unit cell is done based on process considerations. Then the method including the whole design flow is described and validated with the help of specific test cases and RF characterization data up to 6 GHz. A physical model is also proposed and implemented in the flow. The correlation between measurements and simulation data is found satisfactory and allows validating the proposed approach.
Inertial sensors as measurement tools of elbow range of motion in gerontology

Background and purpose Musculoskeletal system deterioration among the aging is a major reason for loss of autonomy and directly affects the quality of life of the elderly. Articular evaluation is part of physiotherapeutic assessment and helps in establishing a precise diagnosis and deciding appropriate therapy. Reference instruments are valid but not easy to use for some joints. The main goal of our study was to determine reliability and intertester reproducibility of the MP-BV, an inertial sensor (the MotionPod® [MP]) combined with specific software (BioVal [BV]), for elbow passive range-of-motion measurements in geriatrics. Methods This open, monocentric, randomized study compared inertial sensor to inclinometer in patients hospitalized in an acute, post-acute, and long-term-care gerontology unit. Results Seventy-seven patients (mean age 83.5±6.4 years, sex ratio 1.08 [male/female]) were analyzed. The MP-BV was reliable for each of the three measurements (flexion, pronation, and supination) for 24.3% (CI 95% 13.9–32.8) of the patients. Separately, the percentages of reliable measures were 59.7% (49.2–70.5) for flexion, 68.8% (58.4–79.5) for pronation, and 62.3% (51.2–73.1) for supination. The intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.15 (0.07–0.73), 0.46 (0.27–0.98), and 0.50 (0.31–40 0.98) for flexion, pronation, and supination, respectively. Conclusion This study shows the convenience of the MP-BV in terms of ease of use and of export of measured data. However, this instrument seems less reliable and valuable compared to the reference instruments used to measure elbow range of motion in gerontology.
Spin boson models for quantum decoherence of electronic excitations of biomolecules and quantum dots in a solvent

We give a theoretical treatment of the interaction of electronic excitations (excitons) in biomolecules and quantum dots with the surrounding polar solvent. Significant quantum decoherence occurs due to the interaction of the electric dipole moment of the solute with the fluctuating electric dipole moments of the individual molecules in the solvent. We introduce spin boson models which could be used to describe the effects of decoherence on the quantum dynamics of biomolecules which undergo light-induced conformational change and on biomolecules or quantum dots which are coupled by Förster resonant energy transfer.
A fingerprint based bio-cryptographic security protocol designed for client/server authentication in mobile computing environment

With fast evolution of mobile devices and mobile network, the need of protecting user sensitive information locally and performing secure user authentication remotely become evermore increasing. Bio-cryptography is emerging as a powerful solution which can combine the advantages of conventional cryptography and biometric security. In this paper, we present an efficient bio-cryptographic security protocol designed for client/server authentication in current mobile computing environment, with a reasonable assumption that server is secure. In this protocol, fingerprint biometric is used in user verification, protected by a computationally efficient Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The genuine fingerprint information is hidden in the feature vault which is the mixture of genuine and chaff features. Fingerprint features are not only used for biometric verification but also for cryptographic key generation. Our security analysis shows that the proposed protocol can provide a secure and trustworthy authentication of remote mobile users over insecure network. Experimental results on public domain database show an acceptable verification performance. We also tested the computational costs and efficiency of our protocol on the CLDC emulator using Java ME (previous J2ME) programming technology. The simulation results prove that the proposed protocol suits current mobile environment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ZaïRe's Hyperinflation, 1990-96

This paper reviews Zaire`s experience with hyperinflation during 1990-96 and develops an illustrative model based on a money demand function that includes government revenue as a determinant. Government revenue is itself subject to the "Tanzi effect," in which inflation tends to lower revenue collections. The model is estimated over the 1990-96 period, and simulations are also presented. The paper concludes with a number of observations and policy recommendations for stopping hyperinflation in Zaire.
A gene required for class II-restricted antigen presentation maps to the major histocompatibility complex

We have previously described a set of mutants (16.23-selected mutants) of a B lymphoblastoid cell line that are defective in the presentation of intact proteins to class II-restricted T cells, but effectively present immunogenic peptides. The mutations in these mutants are recessive in somatic cell hybrids and are not in Class II structural genes. Here, we report on a unique mutant, 5.2. 4, in which a similar defect in class II-restricted antigen presentation has occurred in association with a one-megabase homozygous deletion in the class II region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The defects in class II presentation among three of the 16.23-selected mutants, and between these mutants and 5.2. 4, are noncomplementary in somatic cell hybrids. This suggests that the class II presentation-defective phenotype in all four mutants results from lesions in a single MHC- linked gene, a conclusion strengthened by the finding that in a hybrid made with a second, unrelated MHC deletion mutant, T2, the class II presentation defect in a 16.23-selected mutant is also not complemented. Mutant 5.2. 4, in addition to its class II presentation defect, is also defective in surface expression of MHC class I molecules, most likely because its deletion encompasses the peptide supply factor 1 gene, whose function is known to be required for normal abundance of cell surface class I molecules. However, the surface abundance of class I molecules is normal in the 16.23-selected mutants, suggesting that the lesions affecting class I surface abundance and class II presentation result from mutations in different genes.
Performance investigation of Shunt Active Power Filter with PI and fuzzy controllers

The objective of this paper is to investigate performance of proportional-integral (PI) and fuzzy controllers for Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF). Instantaneous reactive power theory (IRP) and synchronous reference frame theory (SRF) are used to generate reference current signals of SAPF. DC capacitor voltage is maintained constant using PI, Mamdani fuzzy and Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy controllers. Performance is analyzed using simulation of SAPF with IRP and SRF reference current generation methods with PI and fuzzy controllers. Fuzzy controller has better results compare to PI controller. TS fuzzy controller is required less number of fuzzy sets, rules and computational time compare to Mamdani fuzzy controller.
KRDB Research Centre Technical Report : Supporting the Design of Ontologies for Semantic Data Access

The use of ontologies to mediate the access and integration of relational data sources has been proved successful by recent works in the area of the Semantic Web. In particular, we consider a common information integration scenario in which several relational sources can be queried through a single (global) ontology providing a reconciled and integrated view of the underlying sources. Although data sources can be integrated into the information system by providing direct mappings from the relational tables to the given ontology, we believe that a more principled approach consists in wrapping each information source by means of a (local) ontology which precisely characterise the data source. The process of mapping the local ontology to the global one is facilitated by the fact that global and local ontologies share the same logical formalism. While the global ontology provides a general view of the whole system, the local ontologies must be close to the data they wrap. This means that the new terms that they introduce must be “supported” by data from the relational sources; i.e. when queried, they should return nonempty answers. The problem of designing these wrapping ontologies is non-trivial and to tackle it those wrappers are usually carefully handcrafted by taking into account the query answering mechanism. In this report we address the problem of supporting the ontology engineer in this task. We provide an algorithm for verifying emptiness of a term in the enriched ontology w.r. t. the data sources. In addition, we show how this algorithm can be used to guide the ontology engineer in fixing potential terms unsupported by the data. 1Preliminary results on the research reported here appeared in the Working Notes of Description Logics Workshop [14].
Towards an Interactive Multilingual Environment

We want to present here two simple systems developed to help people work in a multilingual en-vironement. The rst system allows one to perform searches in a multilingual document collection , whereas the second one helps understanding documents in foreign languages. These systems can be coupled together to provide a substantial aid to people working in a multilingual environment .