Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Affective Storytelling Based on Characters' Feelings

Most Interactive Storytelling systems developed to date have followed a task-based approach to story representation, using planning techniques to drive the story by generating a sequence of actions, which essentially “solve” the task to which the story is equated. One major limitation of this approach has been that it fails to incorporate characters’ psychology, and as a consequence important aesthetic aspects of the narrative cannot be easily captured by Interactive Storytelling. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to Interactive Storytelling which aims at reconciling narrative actions with the characters’ attributed psychology as stated in the narrative. Our long-term goal is to be able to explore Interactive Storytelling for those narrative genres which are based on the characters’ psychology rather than solely on their actions. We used as a starting point the formalisation by Flaubert himself of his novel Madame Bovary, which includes a detailed account of character’s desires and feelings. We describe a prototype in which characters’ behaviour is driven by a real-time searchbased planning system applying operators whose content is based on a specific inventory of feelings. Furthermore, the actual pattern of evolution of the character’s plan, as measured through the variation of the search heuristic, is used to confer a sense of awareness to the characters, which can be used to generate feelings about its overall situation, from feelings of boredom to hope, despair and helplessness.
mproved single phase modeling of propylene polymerization in a fluidized ed reactor

An improved model for the production of polypropylene in a gas phase fluidized bed reactor was developed. Comparative simulation studies were carried out using the well-mixed, constant bubble size and the improved models. The improved model showed different prediction characteristics of polymer production rate as well as heat and mass transfer behavior as compared to other published models. All the three models showed similar dynamic behavior at the startup conditions but the improved model preeywords: athematical modeling olymerization luidized bed reactor olypropylene iegler–Natta catalyst dicted a narrower safe operation window. Furthermore, the safe ranges of variation of the main operating parameters such as catalyst feed rate and superficial gas velocity calculated by the improved and well mixed models are wider than that obtained by the constant bubble size model. The improved model predicts the monomer conversion per pass through the bed which varies from 0.28 to 5.57% within the practical ranges of superficial gas velocity and catalyst feed rate. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A low hardware cost wear-leveling algorithm for application of smart mobile terminals

NAND flash memory has become a widely-used data storage media. With the scaling down of the cell size, the limited endurance of flash memory is becoming a critical issue. Wear-leveling is employed to evenly distribute program/erase and extend the reliability and lifetime of flash memory. In this paper, a novel wear-leveling algorithm is proposed based on three ideas: firstly, a Block Status Table instead of block erase cycle is constructed to record the status of blocks with lower SRAM consumption; secondly, the heavily worn blocks are screened to involve in garbage collection and free page allocation during dynamic wear-leveling; thirdly, an adjustable threshold is employed to improve the performance of static wear-leveling. Compared to three other state-of-the-art wear-leveling algorithms, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm features with well wear-leveling performance and larger maximum writable data for five different applications and can reduce the SRAM consumption by 54-60%.
Design of the GraphBLAS API for C

The purpose of the GraphBLAS Forum is to standardize linear-algebraic building blocks for graph computations. An important part of this standardization effort is to translate the mathematical specification into an actual Application Programming Interface (API) that (i) is faithful to the mathematics and (ii) enables efficient implementations on modern hardware. This paper documents the approach taken by the C language specification subcommittee and presents the main concepts, constructs, and objects within the GraphBLAS API. Use of the API is illustrated by showing an implementation of the betweenness centrality algorithm.
The media façade toolkit: prototyping and simulating interaction with media façades

Digital technologies are rapidly finding their way into urban spaces. One prominent example is media façades. Due to their size, visibility and their technical capabilities, they offer great potential for interaction and for becoming the future displays of public spaces. To explore their potential, researchers have recently started to develop interactive applications for various media façades. Existing development tools are mostly tailored to one specific media façade in one specific setting. They usually provide limited means to incorporate interaction by a user, and the applications developed are limited to running on only one particular media façade. In this paper, we present a flexible, generalized media façade toolkit, which is capable of mimicking arbitrary media façade installations. The toolkit is capable of running interactive applications on media façades with different form factors, sizes and technical capabilities. Furthermore, it ensures application portability between different media façades and offers the possibility of providing interactivity by enabling user input with different modalities and different interaction devices.
A Context-Aware Recommender System Using Ontology Based Approach for Travel Applications

— the purpose of tourism is to travel for relaxation and enjoyment. However, when tourists use internet to search for data about travel spots, events and relevant services they experience a data overload. It is also difficult for them to select what is truly interesting from sheer amount of available information. For a tourist guide system, it is still a tough task to provide proper travel information for tourists who posses different personal interests. Therefore, our aim is to develop a recommender system which considers tourists' personal interests and related context, so that tourists can get relevant travel information with least amount of effort. This recommender system uses an ontology based approach. Ontology consists of a set of concepts relevant to a specific domain and the relationships between them. Such an ontology structure can reason depending on the choices of a user. The user profile keeps the degrees of interest of the user on many concepts by making use of a membership function. Each concept of ontology is a fuzzy set and any user can fit into this fuzzy set to a definite degree. When preliminary assignment of user choices is done, we performed an upward and downward propagation of user's interest degrees which utilizes the taxonomical information of the ontology. The information about the user's choices is propagated throughout the complete set of concepts. This developed system has been successfully applied for a Tourism scenario and is based on user context. This system is built on an Android platform and has generated successful results.
A Direct Geometric Algebra Optical Flow Solution

Optical flow is the vector inverse problem of estimation motion though an image sequence. Geometric Algebra is an appropriate mathematical language for describing and solving vector problems. In this paper we apply Geometric Algebra to optical flow and pose a direct solution using a simple smoothness constraint. Implementational considerations are given and comparative assessment is made to two seminal optical flow methods, namely the Horn-Schunck and Lucas-Kanade algorithms. The new method is demonstrated to be fast and to give results comparable to these seminal methods.
Velodyne SLAM

Estimating a vehicles' own trajectory and generating precise maps of the environment are both important tasks for intelligent vehicles. Especially for the second task laser scanners are the sensor of choice as they provide precise range measurements. This work proposes an approach for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) specifically designed for the Velodyne HDL-64E laser scanner which exhibits characteristics not present in most other systems. This comprises the continuous, spinning data acquisition and the relative high sensor noise. Together, these make standard SLAM approaches generate noisy maps and inaccurate trajectories. We show that it is possible to generate precise maps and localize therein in spite of not using wheel speed sensors or other information. The presented approach is evaluated on a novel, challenging 3D data set being made publicly available.
Efficiently updating materialized views

Query processing can be sped up by keeping frequently accessed users' views materialized. However, the need to access base relations in response to queries can be avoided only if the materialized view is adequately maintained. We propose a method in which all database updates to base relations are first filtered to remove from consideration those that cannot possibly affect the view. The conditions given for the detection of updates of this type, called irrelevant updates, are necessary and sufficient and are independent of the database state. For the remaining database updates, a differential algorithm can be applied to re-evaluate the view expression. The algorithm proposed exploits the knowledge provided by both the view definition expression and the database update operations.
The Usefulness of Fair Value Estimates for Financial Decision Making - a Literature Review

The objective of this discussion is to answer the fundamental question: ‘Are Fair Value estimates currently useful for financial decision making? ’ Through a systematic review we analyse the qualitative secondary data from dedicated scientific articles, based on the relevance and reliability of Fair Value estimates, and find out that there are still ongoing problems with reliability of information mainly because of the managerial estimation process and the ‘human factor’ in general. We identify 3 problem areas that are closely interconnected: (1) the business entity, (2) auditing, and (3) financial regulators and accounting academics. Each area has its own set of challenges and several suggestions are given to improve the reliability and relevance of Fair Value estimates, but a lot of those propositions require dedicated attention from accounting academics, financial regulators, and standard-setters. All in all, there is a clear trend that the situation with Fair Value estimates (especially those of Level 3) has been improving recently, and Level 3 estimates can indeed be used in the current financial decision process, but with some level of scepticism.
LDA topic model for microblog recommendation

Microblog is a browser-based platform for web user's information sharing and communication. With the rapidly increasing of microblog population, its effective recommendation function becomes necessary. This paper proposes the recommendation by the Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic model, which combines the user interest to meet their needs. It also conducts a comparative analysis between indirect and direct recommendation algorithms. The experimental results show that the indirect recommendation is more effective for the micro-blog recommendation.
Evaluating Probabilistic Forecasts Using Information Theory

The problem of assessing the quality of an operational forecasting system that produces probabilistic forecasts is addressed using information theory. A measure of the quality of the forecasting scheme, based on the amount of a data compression it allows, is outlined. This measure, called ignorance, is a logarithmic scoring rule that is a modified version of relative entropy and can be calculated for real forecasts and realizations. It is equivalent to the expected returns that would be obtained by placing bets proportional to the forecast probabilities. Like the cost–loss score, ignorance is not equivalent to the Brier score, but, unlike cost–loss scores, ignorance easily generalizes beyond binary decision scenarios. The use of the skill score is illustrated by evaluating the ECMWF ensemble forecasts for temperature at London’s Heathrow airport.
An Assessment of Values Concerning Luxury Brand Purchase Intention: A Cross-Culture Comparison

This book is a great source for luxury brands producers and retailers. It compares two different cultures; western and Middle eastern specially, United State and Saudi culture regarding luxury purchase intentions . This book includes the three main values of luxury: functional, social and individual while also addressing consumer guilt. the main terms individualism and collectivism were also discussed ‎
Mutual commitment to support exchange: relation‐specific IT system as a substitute for managerial hierarchy

This paper examines the effects of Information Technology (IT) on the governance structure of vertically-related firms that are applying IT in search of competitive advantage via superior efficiency. By adopting transaction costs and resource-based perspectives on IT and governance, this paper examines how different types of IT systems change the boundary of the firm. It is proposed that a highly relation-specific IT system in inter-firm transactions plays a key role in the resulting inter-firm governance as a mutual sunk-cost commitment, in terms of both less integration (i.e., change in governance mode as a first-order effect) and a smaller number of suppliers (i.e., change within a governance mode as a second-order effect). As a result, this specific IT system can be an alternative governance mode of electronic integration as a substitute for managerial hierarchy. In addition, if a firm-specific IT system improves efficiency of internal transactions complementarily with other firm-specific resources, it can result in a larger scale of operations conducted within the firm as a co-specialized asset. From a strategic management perspective, this paper provides transaction costs and resource-based explanations for the organizational boundary decision and for sustainable competitive advantage of the firm. The strategic intent of searching for improved governance in acquiring and processing information while simultaneously managing economic incentives effectively continues to provide challenges for strategic management By analyzing the effects of a relation-specific IT system on the governance of supplier-buyer relationships, this paper extends studies in organizational economics and strategic management.
Survey on Retargeting Techniques used in Multimedia Forensic of Mobile devices

This is a survey paper on Multimedia forensic in mobile device. By observing numbers of multimedia forensic technique, This paper focus on Seam carving technique. Seam carving is an adaptive multimedia retargeting technique to resize multimedia data for different display sizes.This technique has found promising applications in media consumption on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. However, seam carving can also be used to maliciously alter image content and when combined with other tampering operations, makes tampering detection very difficult by traditional multimedia forensic techniques. In this paper, we study the problem of seam carving estimation and tampering localization using very compact side information called forensic hash. The forensic hash technique bridges two related areas, namely robust image hashing and blind multimedia forensics, to answer a broader scope of forensic questions in a more efficient and accurate manner. We show that our recently proposed forensic hash construction can be extended to accurately estimate seam carving and detect local tampering. General Terms Algorithms, Security
The Open University ’ s repository of research publications and other research outputs Assessing the effect of clones on changeability Conference Item

To prioritize software maintenance activities, it is important to identify which programming flaws impact most on an application's evolution. Recent empirical studies on such a flaw, code clones, have focused on one of the arguments to consider clones harmful, namely, that related clones are not updated consistently. We believe that a wider notion is needed to assess the effect of cloning on evolution. This paper compares measures of the maintenance effort on methods with clones against those without. Statistical and graphical analysis suggests that having a clone may increase the maintenance effort of changing a method. The effort seems to increase depending on the percentage of the system affected whenever the methods that share the clone are modified. We also found that some methods seem to increase significantly their maintenance effort when a clone was present. However, the characteristics analyzed in these methods did not reveal any systematic relation between cloning and such maintenance effort increase.
2 2 Architecture of a Generator

When a programming activity is well-understood, it can be automated. Automation transforms software development from activities like rote coding and tedious debugging to that of specification, where the “what” of an application is declared and the “how” is left to a complex, but automatable mapping. Programs that perform such mappings are application generators (or just generators). In the technical sense, application generators are compilers for domain-specific programming languages (DSLs). There is no strict criterion for characterizing a language as “domain-specific” but the term is commonly used to describe programming languages for specialized tasks (as opposed to “general-purpose” programming languages). Examples are languages for implementing communication protocols, partial differential equation solvers, windowing software, etc. Although all compilers can be viewed as generators, generator research and practice has focused on problems different than those usually found in a classical treatment of compilers (e.g., [1]), such as programming language extensibility and program transformations.
A proof-of-concept application of multi-hop robot teleoperation with online map building

In rescue operations, for example in the case of a tunnel collapse, it is sometimes helpful to take advantage of a robot or a robot team for exploration and mapping purposes. Robots can be teleoperated by a remote user and reach places in which the life of a human operator would be in danger. However, the teleoperation of a robot in such scenarios is quite a complicated task, especially if there is no communication infrastructure available. In such a case, ad-hoc networking techniques must be used to extend the coverage range and, if necessary, to cover the whole disaster area. Furthermore, if the environment is unknown or has substantially changed, it may be necessary to build a map for the later intervention of human rescue teams. In this paper we present a proof-of-concept application that aims to show a way of dealing with this kind of situation. In a sample scenario, a robot is teleoperated over a wireless multi-hop network while a human operator receives laser and video feedback in order to control it. At the same time a map of the environment is built at the base station using a SLAM technique.
Exploiting Representations from Statistical Machine Translation for Cross-Language Information Retrieval

This work explores how internal representations of modern statistical machine translation systems can be exploited for cross-language information retrieval. We tackle two core issues that are central to query translation: how to exploit context to generate more accurate translations and how to preserve ambiguity that may be present in the original query, thereby retaining a diverse set of translation alternatives. These two considerations are often in tension since ambiguity in natural language is typically resolved by exploiting context, but effective retrieval requires striking the right balance. We propose two novel query translation approaches: the grammar-based approach extracts translation probabilities from translation grammars, while the decoder-based approach takes advantage of n-best translation hypotheses. Both are context-sensitive, in contrast to a baseline context-insensitive approach that uses bilingual dictionaries for word-by-word translation. Experimental results show that by “opening up” modern statistical machine translation systems, we can access intermediate representations that yield high retrieval effectiveness. By combining evidence from multiple sources, we demonstrate significant improvements over competitive baselines on standard cross-language information retrieval test collections. In addition to effectiveness, the efficiency of our techniques are explored as well.
Crustal Emission and the Quiescent Spectrum of the Neutron Star in KS 1731–260

The type I X-ray-bursting low-mass X-ray binary KS 1731-260 was recently detected for the first time in quiescence by Wijnands et al. following a τob ≈ 13 yr outburst, which ended in 2001 February. We show that the emission area radius for a H atmosphere spectrum (possibly with a hard power-law component that dominates the emission above 3.5 keV) is consistent with that observed from other quiescent neutron star transients, R∞ = 23 km and examine possible IR counterparts for KS 1731-260. Unlike all other known transient neutron stars, the duration of this recent (and the only observed) outburst is as long as the thermal diffusion time of the crust. The large amount of heat deposited by reactions in the crust will have heated the crust to temperatures much higher than the equilibrium core temperature. As a result, the thermal luminosity currently observed from the neutron star is dominated not by the core but by the crust. This scenario implies that the mean outburst recurrence timescale found by Wijnands et al. (~200 yr) is a lower limit. Moreover, because the thermal emission is dominated by the hot crust, the level and the time evolution of quiescent luminosity is determined mostly by the amount of heat deposited in the crust during the most recent outburst (for which reasonable constraints on the mass accretion rate exist) and is only weakly sensitive to the core temperature. Using estimates of the outburst mass accretion rate, our calculations of the quiescent flux immediately following the end of the outburst agree with the observed quiescent flux to within a factor of a few. In this paper, we present simulations of the evolution of the quiescent light curve for different scenarios of the crust microphysics and demonstrate that monitoring observations (with currently flying instruments) spanning from 1 to 30 yr can measure the crust cooling timescale and the total amount of heat stored in the crust. These quantities have not been directly measured for any neutron star. This makes KS 1731-260 a unique laboratory for studying the thermal properties of the crust by monitoring the luminosity over the next few years to decades.