Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value Stream Mapping and Pull System for Improving Productivity and Quality in Software Development Projects

In today’s business environment, increased globalization, rapid technological advances, and other competitive pressures are influencing the way the software companies used to manage software development projects. Software companies are competing to bring in more efficient process to improve productivity and quality in software development. In software industry, therefore, there has been a significant focus shift from traditional waterfall model to iterative agile/scrum methods to continuous lean software development in the last several years. The traditional waterfall model is the dominant project management paradigm. Agile methodology is direct response to waterfall model, and lean is recent one. In practice, when software companies make an attempt to adopt agile/scrum methods or bring in any process improvement, the team is unwilling to alter their way of doing the dayto-day work. This mismatch between processes makes the team very difficult to accept the new or improved approach and at the end regress to their former process – waterfall model, with confusion. On the other hand, flow based pull system (or Kanban) offers an opportunity to build on what is already working and gradually makes the transformation to better process. And the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) helps to bring in significant improvement by identifying and eliminating/reducing non-value-add activities during software development. Value stream mapping and pull system (or Kanban) are based on lean principles. Pull system (or Kanban) integrated with value stream mapping can positively impact the productivity and quality in software development projects.
Fine scale regulatory annotation of a gene

Background and Motivation. Acquiring knowledge of a gene is central in interpretation of what it does. A gene is close to the " the atom " of molecular biology (Keller, 2002) and must be annotated in terms of structure, selection profile, constraints, regulatory signals and its relation to other genes. In its extreme form, this necessitates understanding of the complete organism as a gene is part of a large interacting network of genes and signals. So making restrictions of this problem to define a worthwhile and still challenging problem is necessary. This project focuses on the identification and the characterisation of regulatory elements, which is likely to be a major challenge for quite some time to come and this project would easily scale to a complete PhD. However, it is also possible to formulate a pilot version, that is of interest in itself.
Simulation of Performance in Error

This paper purposes to describe S.PERERE (simulation of performance in error), a human behavior computational simulator, which main objective is to produce, in a random way, human error states. For the generation of error states, S.PERERE has a behaviour disturber mechanism and also a mechanism to start the perturbations. The construction of the simulator is based on ACT-R (atomic components of thought - rational) cognitive architecture
Applicability of infrared photorefraction for measurement of accommodation in awake-behaving normal and strabismic monkeys.

PURPOSE This study was designed to use infrared photorefraction to measure accommodation in awake-behaving normal and strabismic monkeys and describe properties of photorefraction calibrations in these monkeys. METHODS Ophthalmic trial lenses were used to calibrate the slope of pupil vertical pixel intensity profile measurements that were made with a custom-built infrared photorefractor. Day to day variability in photorefraction calibration curves, variability in calibration coefficients due to misalignment of the photorefractor Purkinje image and the center of the pupil, and variability in refractive error due to off-axis measurements were evaluated. RESULTS The linear range of calibration of the photorefractor was found for ophthalmic lenses ranging from -1 D to +4 D. Calibration coefficients were different across monkeys tested (two strabismic, one normal) but were similar for each monkey over different experimental days. In both normal and strabismic monkeys, small misalignment of the photorefractor Purkinje image with the center of pupil resulted in only small changes in calibration coefficients, that were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Off-axis measurement of refractive error was also small in the normal and strabismic monkeys (approximately 1 D to 2 D) as long as the magnitude of misalignment was <10 degrees. CONCLUSIONS Remote infrared photorefraction is suitable for measuring accommodation in awake, behaving normal, and strabismic monkeys. Specific challenges posed by the strabismic monkeys, such as possible misalignment of the photorefractor Purkinje image and the center of the pupil during either calibration or measurement of accommodation, that may arise due to unsteady fixation or small eye movements including nystagmus, results in small changes in measured refractive error.
th International Conference on Information Fusion ( FUSION ) Prediction and Reconstruction of Distributed Dynamic Phenomena Charactenzed by Linear Partial Differential Equations

A primary challenge for the reconstruction of continuous-time, continuous-amplitude distributed parameter systems is the inclusion of recent discrete-time, discreteamplitude, spatially discrete measurements. Hence, a systematic method for data processing is required that also handles incomplete and noisy data, e.g. data from a sensor network. This article presents two approaches to the reconstruction of distributed parameter systems that can be described by linear partial differential equations (PDEs) and involve one or several discrete measurement points. In both approaches, the linear PDE is first converted into a bank of linear lumped systems by means of modal analysis. In addition, a measurement equation relating state and (sensor) data is derived. In the second step, a Kalman filter (KF) is used to dynamically estimate the state of the lumped systems, which provides an approximation of the solution of the underlying PDE. The first approach uses Fourier Analysis. The second approach uses Fourier Analysis and the collocation method. The approaches are both demonstrated for a simple linear inhomogeneous PDE, the one-dimensional heat equation.
OpenArgue: Supporting argumentation to evolve secure software systems

When software systems are verified against security requirements, formal and informal arguments provide a structure for organizing the software artifacts. Our recent work on the evolution of security-critical software systems demonstrates that our argumentation technique is useful in limiting the scope of change and in identifying changes to security properties. In support of this work, we have developed OpenArgue, a tool for syntax checking, visualizing, formalizing, and reasoning about incremental arguments. OpenArgue has been integrated with requirements engineering tools for Problem Frames and i∗, and applied to an Air Traffic Management (ATM) case study.
Accelerating SGD for Distributed Deep-Learning Using Approximated Hessian Matrix

We introduce a novel method to compute a rank $m$ approximation of the inverse of the Hessian matrix in the distributed regime. By leveraging the differences in gradients and parameters of multiple Workers, we are able to efficiently implement a distributed approximation of the Newton-Raphson method. We also present preliminary results which underline advantages and challenges of second-order methods for large stochastic optimization problems. In particular, our work suggests that novel strategies for combining gradients provide further information on the loss surface.
THz Wave Modulator Based on the Decay of THz Surface Plasmon along an Intrinsic InSb Surface

THz surface plasmon are decayed exponentially when propagating along the surface of a semiconductor. A metal razor bladeis used to couple THz surface plasmon to THz waves at different position on the surface of an indium antimonide wafer. Thus the intensity of the output THz wave is modulated.
Dynamic analysis of platelet deposition to resolve platelet adhesion receptor activity in whole blood at arterial shear rate

Abstract Platelet activation is traditionally quantified using turbidimetric aggregometry, which reflects integrin αIIbβ3 activity, an important determinant of platelet function during pathophysiological thrombus formation. However, aggregometry does not recreate the shear conditions prevailing during thrombosis in vivo. Here we describe novel whole-frame analysis of real-time video microscopy to quantify platelet adhesion receptor activity under shear in parallel-plate flow chambers. We demonstrate that the rate of change of surface coverage (designated Platelet Population Mobility, PM) quantifies platelet mobility. On collagen, PM falls exponentially to a low level, corresponding to firm platelet adhesion, while on other substrates, PM remains high. Different receptor-specific thrombogenic surfaces reveal that the PM time constant reflects real-time changes in integrins αIIbβ3 and α2β1 activity. This ensemble kinetic analysis has the potential to provide valuable diagnostic information about platelet thrombus formation with both academic and clinical applications.
Transparency and super-resolution in metal-dielectric layered structures

A carefully designed metal-dielectric periodic stack forms a simple optical metamaterial with small losses and super-resolving properties for imaging between its external boundaries in the near-UV or visible wavelength range. The effective penetration depth reaches the order of one micrometer with the resolution even tenfold better than predicted by the Rayleigh criterion in air. Therefore the stack may be seen as a transparent and super-resolving metamaterial. Depending on the strength of Fabry-Perot resonances it may either support standing-wave internal field distributions or allow for approximately diffraction-free propagation not limited to any specific beam profiles. The latter case enables to design shaped elements such as prisms, or elements of optical cloaks which retain the same diffraction-free properties. Here an overview of the physical models which explain the super-resolution is presented - in particular with reference to the effective medium theory. The numerical simulations are based on the transfer matrix method. A discussion on the analogies between subwavelenegth imaging with metal-dielectric multilayers and isoplanatic imaging systems considered in the past within the framework Fourier Optics is included.
Distributed Angle Estimation by Multiple Frequencies Synthetic Array in Wireless Sensor Localization System

In this paper, we address the problem of distributed angle estimation in wireless sensor localization system. Given that the practical limitations on size and cost, i.e., anchor node cannot equip a complicated antenna or antenna array, we devise an alternative measure based on a fixed-spacing two-antenna equipment. Through the multiple frequencies tuning, a virtual non-uniform linear array, called multiple frequencies synthetic array (MFSA), can be rebuilt independently at each sensor node. We first provide in theory the angle unambiguity conditions for such virtual array and then propose two different algorithms to achieve the distributed angle of departure (AOD) estimation. The first algorithm is based on the spectral searching technique, which is an improved version of the conventional rank reduction estimator (RARE) and has the same performance but less computational complexity. To further alleviate the computational burden at sensor node end, we convert the above angle estimation into a congruence problem and provide another closed-form solution based on Chinese remainder theorem (CRT). We also derive the Cramer-Rao bound for the MFSA and demonstrate theoretically that the latter algorithm from the perspective of cumulative circular distance is suboptimal when compared with the former one. Numerical examples are provided to show the validity of the proposed algorithms and the corresponding conclusions.
Worst-case performance validation of safety-critical control systems with dropped samples

Safety critical control systems are widely spread over different domains. For such systems, a specified minimum amount of control performance must hold under all circumstances. Thereby such control systems are frequently applied in mass products, where cost reasons result in the effort to reduce the system platform's resources. As a consequence, these restricted system resources lead to negative effects like delays and dropped samples. When verifying the control systems performance, a system engineer has to take the worst case platform effects into account. We introduce in this paper a model, that bounds both the dynamic behavior of a control system and the occurrence of dropped samples for an arbitrary interval of consecutive samples. This approach enables a separate consideration of the worst case platform and control behavior, but also enables an efficient controller/platform co-design due to it's expressiveness. Based on this model we present methods to analyze the effect of dropped samples on the worst-case control behavior.
Current and future resources for functional metagenomics

Functional metagenomics is a powerful experimental approach for studying gene function, starting from the extracted DNA of mixed microbial populations. A functional approach relies on the construction and screening of metagenomic libraries—physical libraries that contain DNA cloned from environmental metagenomes. The information obtained from functional metagenomics can help in future annotations of gene function and serve as a complement to sequence-based metagenomics. In this Perspective, we begin by summarizing the technical challenges of constructing metagenomic libraries and emphasize their value as resources. We then discuss libraries constructed using the popular cloning vector, pCC1FOS, and highlight the strengths and shortcomings of this system, alongside possible strategies to maximize existing pCC1FOS-based libraries by screening in diverse hosts. Finally, we discuss the known bias of libraries constructed from human gut and marine water samples, present results that suggest bias may also occur for soil libraries, and consider factors that bias metagenomic libraries in general. We anticipate that discussion of current resources and limitations will advance tools and technologies for functional metagenomics research.
A general methodology and key metrics for scatternet formation in Bluetooth

To fully exploit the capabilities of Bluetooth for the deployment of wireless ad-hoc networks, the scatternet concept has been proposed. A scatternet is constituted by an overlapping of simple structures called piconets, each composed of up to eight devices sharing the same radio channel. A scatternet may present different topological configurations, depending on the number of composing piconets, the role of involved devices and the configuration of the links. This paper presents a general methodology for scatternet formation and proposes metrics that can be used to evaluate scatternet performance. Several numerical examples are presented and discussed, highlighting the impact of metric selection on scatternet performance.
SMaTTS: Standard Malay Text to Speech System

This paper presents a rule-based text- to- speech (TTS) Synthesis System for Standard Malay, namely SMaTTS. The proposed system using sinusoidal method and some pre- recorded wave files in generating speech for the system. The use of phone database significantly decreases the amount of computer memory space used, thus making the system very light and embeddable. The overall system was comprised of two phases the Natural Language Processing (NLP) that consisted of the high-level processing of text analysis, phonetic analysis, text normalization and morphophonemic module. The module was designed specially for SM to overcome few problems in defining the rules for SM orthography system before it can be passed to the DSP module. The second phase is the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) which operated on the low-level process of the speech waveform generation. A developed an intelligible and adequately natural sounding formant-based speech synthesis system with a light and user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) is introduced. A Standard Malay Language (SM) phoneme set and an inclusive set of phone database have been constructed carefully for this phone-based speech synthesizer. By applying the generative phonology, a comprehensive letter-to-sound (LTS) rules and a pronunciation lexicon have been invented for SMaTTS. As for the evaluation tests, a set of Diagnostic Rhyme Test (DRT) word list was compiled and several experiments have been performed to evaluate the quality of the synthesized speech by analyzing the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) obtained. The overall performance of the system as well as the room for improvements was thoroughly discussed.
The effect of expertise on software selection

Selection of hardware and software is a complicated task involving the consideration of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) as well as the expertise of the decision maker. Two MCDM studies examined whether or not expertise in database management systems (DBMS) would facilitate selection among DBMS alternatives. The results of the first study suggest that (I) experts seemed to exhibit more agreement on criterion weights than did novices, (2) experts were about twice as consistent in applying the weights they assigned to the choice task compared to novices, (3) novices tended to rate criteria with scores that were closer to the neutral midpoint than did experts, and (4) experts made different choices than did novices. Consistency was assessed using two different quantitative measures; one was based on ordinality and the other on position. In the second study, concurrent verbal protocols showed that experts tended to bring their own experience to the choice task, were distracted less frequently, and used superior strategies in elimination of weakest alternatives. This implies that staff members with significant domain expertise should be used in DBMS acquisition tasks. Future research should determine whether or not these findings generalize to other task domains.
Unied framework for human-object interaction recognition

We propose a framework for human-object interaction recognition in videos. Our method uses trajectories of body parts as a main source of information for classication. More specically, we represent interactions by a combination of the trajectory’s spatial information and the presence of objects. We exploit the appearance of an object in multiple frames to improve object classication and ultimately, interaction recognition. Our experiments show that: (a) using multiple frames increases object recognition,(b) implementing a specialized dynamical time warping kernel allows for accurate classication of the trajectories without discarding spatial information, (c) the combination of motion and object cues, using multiple kernel learning, improves classication. Our algorithm achieves results comparable or superior to the state of the art.
Dopamine-D2-Receptor Blockade Reverses the Association Between Trait Approach Motivation and Frontal Asymmetry in an Approach-Motivation Context

Individual differences in the behavioral approach system (BAS)—referred to as trait approach motivation or trait BAS)—have been linked to both frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha asymmetry between left and right hemispheres (frontal alpha asymmetry) and brain dopamine. However, evidence directly linking frontal alpha asymmetry and dopamine is scarce. In the present study, female experimenters recorded EEG data in 181 male participants after double-blind administration of either a placebo or a dopamine D2 blocker. As expected, trait BAS was associated with greater left- than right-frontal cortical activity (i.e., greater right- than left-frontal EEG alpha) in the placebo group, but a reversed association emerged in the dopamine-blocker group. Furthermore, frontal alpha asymmetry was associated with a genetic variant known to modulate prefrontal dopamine levels (the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism). Finally, each of these effects was significant only in the subgroup of male participants interacting with female experimenters rated as most attractive; this finding suggests that associations between frontal alpha asymmetry and both dopamine and trait BAS are detectable only in approach-motivation contexts.
Experimental Study to Enhance Resistance for Boundary Layer Flashback in Swirl Burners Using Microsurfaces

Flame flashback has been one of the major instability problems in premixed gas turbine combustion with the potential to cause considerable damage to the combustion system hardware in addition to significant increase in pollutant levels. Swirl combustion has been proven as an effective flame stabilizer over a wide range of operation conditions, although swirling systems can be prone to various types of flashback under fuel premixed conditions. Unfortunately, using methodologies for the mitigation of one flashback mechanism will lead to another one in these systems. Therefore, this paper focuses on improving Boundary Layer Flashback (BLF) while trying to mitigate Combustion Induced Vortex Breakdown (CIVB) in a medium swirl combustion system. A new technique inspired by Biomimetic Engineering has been developed to use micro-surfaces for this aim. The use of these biologically designed shapes for successful flow stabilisation allows improved control of the boundary layer, thus reducing outflow drag while resisting the random propagation of flashback. Therefore, boundary layer flashback resistance using this concept was investigated numerically and experimentally in a 150 kW tangential swirl burner to determine the effects of using a micro-surface in swirling flows with and without central air injection. Various techniques were used, including Hot Wire Anemometry, LDA measurements, LES CFD, and RANS CFD. The results showed enhancement of the system resistance to boundary layer flashback, and a new combustion stability map was generated with a wider operational region when using central injection combined with micro-surfaces, thus avoiding two types of flashback mechanisms, i.e. BLF and CIVB.