Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Game Adaptation for Optimizing Player Satisfaction

A methodology for optimizing player satisfaction in games on the "playware" physical interactive platform is demonstrated in this paper. Previously constructed artificial neural network user models, reported in the literature, map individual playing characteristics to reported entertainment preferences for augmented-reality game players. An adaptive mechanism then adjusts controllable game parameters in real time in order to improve the entertainment value of the game for the player. The basic approach presented here applies gradient ascent to the user model to suggest the direction of parameter adjustment that leads toward games of higher entertainment value. A simple rule set exploits the derivative information to adjust specific game parameters to augment the entertainment value. Those adjustments take place frequently during the game with interadjustment intervals that maintain the user model's accuracy. Performance of the adaptation mechanism is evaluated using a game survey experiment. Results indicate the efficacy and robustness of the mechanism in adapting the game according to a user's individual playing features and enhancing the gameplay experience. The limitations and the use of the methodology as an effective adaptive mechanism for entertainment capture and augmentation are discussed.
Support Vector Machines for Multiple Targets Tracking with Sensor Networks

In this paper, we address the problem of tracking multiple targets trajectories that potentially cross each other. We propose a solution to this problem by using the support vector machines (SVM) to predict the position of the targets from the past history of the measurements. We will predict the dynamic behaviour of the targets using the SVM method, after turning off the sensing mode. By this way, we will avoid wrong measures that might take sensors and which are due to the superposition of physical signals. The simulations results demonstrate the potential advantage of this approach.
Time-domain adaptive channel estimation for OFDM-based WLAN with multiple-antennas

In this paper, an adaptive time-domain (TD) channel estimation scheme, based on recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm, is proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless local area networks (WLANs). The estimator is then extended to perform decision-directed (DD) channel tracking during data transmission. The channel is assumed to be constant during one OFDM symbol but evolves in time according to the first-order Markov process. Different training rates at different Doppler frequencies were investigated. Simulation results show that the proposed estimation scheme has excellent performance measured in terms of the mean squares error (MSE) and the bit error rate (BER), provided that the forgetting factor of the RLS algorithm is optimally selected.
A Test of Social Learning Theory and Self-Control on Cyber Offending

ABSTRACT The current study examines the mediating and moderating effects of both social learning theory (SLT), focusing on peer interactions (including both traditional and virtual peers), and self-control theory on self-reported cyber offending. Results for the two strongest SLT predictors, differential association and definitions favorable to crime, were in line with previous studies of both traditional and cyber offending in their conditional relationship with cyber offending. Self-control had no direct effect on cyber offending but displayed a significant interaction effect with both differential reinforcement and definitions.
Evaluation of Clustering around Weighted Prototype and Genetic Algorithm for Document Categorization

Document clustering is very important in the field of text categorization. Genetic algorithm, which is an optimization based technique which can be applied for finding out the best cluster centres easily by computing fitness values of data points. While clustering around weighted prototype technique is especially helpful when proper pairwise similarities are available. This technique does not find global solution of the objective function. Experimental result shows that F-measure and Normalized mutual information of genetic algorithm is better than clustering around weighted prototype for 20 Newsgroup dataset. F-measure and accuracy of genetic algorithm is better than clustering around weighted prototype for the Reuter-21578 dataset.
Aortic biomechanics in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Ventricular-vascular coupling is an important phenomenon in many cardiovascular diseases. The association between aortic mechanical dysfunction and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is well characterized in many disease entities, but no data are available on how these changes are related in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Aim of the work: This study examined whether HCM alone is associated with an impaired aortic mechanical function in patients without cardiovascular risk factors and the relation of these changes, if any, to LV deformation and cardiac phenotype. Methods: 141 patients with HCM were recruited and compared to 66 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects as control group. Pulse pressure, aortic strain, stiffness and distensibility were calculated from the aortic diameters measured by M-mode echocardiography and blood pressure obtained by sphygmomanometer. Aortic wall systolic and diastolic velocities were measured using pulsed wave Doppler tissue imaging (DTI). Cardiac assessment included geometric parameters and myocardial deformation (strain and strain rate) and mechanical dyssynchrony. Results: The pulsatile change in the aortic diameter, distensibility and aortic wall systolic velocity (AWS') were significantly decreased and aortic stiffness index was increased in HCM compared to control (P < .001) In HCM AWS' was inversely correlated to age(r = − .32, P < .0001), MWT (r = − .22, P < .008), LVMI (r = − .20, P < .02), E/Ea (r = − .16, P < .03) LVOT gradient (r = − 19, P < .02) and severity of mitral regurg (r = − .18, P < .03) but not to the concealed LV deformation abnormalities or mechanical dyssynchrony. On multivariate analysis, the key determinant of aortic stiffness was LV mass index and LVOT obstruction while the role LV dysfunction in aortic stiffness is not evident in this population. Conclusion: HCM is associated with abnormal aortic mechanical properties. The severity of cardiac phenotype, not LV deformation, is interrelated to aortic stiffness in patients with HCM. The increased aortic stiffness seems to be promising module that can be added as clinical risk parameter in HCM.
A Framework for Hierarchical Scheduling on Multiprocessors: From Application Requirements to Run-Time Allocation

Hierarchical scheduling is a promising methodology for designing and deploying real-time applications, since it enables component-based design and analysis, and supports temporal isolation among competing applications. In hierarchical scheduling an application is described by means of a temporal interface. The designer faces the problem of how to derive the interface parameters so to make the application schedulable, at the same time minimizing the waste of computational resources. The problem is particularly relevant in multiprocessor systems, where it is not clear yet how the interface parameters influence the schedulability of the application and allocation on the physical platform. In this paper we present three novel contributions to hierarchical scheduling for multiprocessor systems. First, we propose the Bounded-Delay Multipartition (BDM), a new interface specification model that allows the designer to balance resource usage versus flexibility in selecting the virtual platform parameters. Second, we explore the schedulability region of a real-time application on top of a generic virtual platform, and derive the interface parameter. Finally, we propose Fluid Best-Fit, an algorithm that takes advantage of the extra degree of flexibility provided by the BDM to compute the virtual platform parameters and allocate it on the physical platform. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by simulations.
Learning Routing Paths in Anonymous Wireless Protocols

With the rapid growth of the Internet as a means of communication concerns about security have also grown. As one of such security issues, anonymity shields the participants of network communications. Anonymous communication has become advantageous or essential for many applications such as E-Voting and military applications. Various anonymous systems have been designed for wireless networks, however, there are no existing attack schemes for them. Due to the inherent features of a wireless medium such as dynamic topology and lack of centralized infrastructure, mobile ad-hoc networks are significantly different from wired networks. This renders traditional attack schemes for wired networks unsuitable in a wireless network environment. In this paper we propose an approach for estimating routing paths for anonymous wireless network protocols. Our proposed approach works with little information which can be obtained by passive monitoring of the network. Probabilities of edges belonging to routing paths are estimated and are fitted on a mixture of two Gaussians, which classifies the edges as ‘lying on some routing path’ and ‘not lying on some routing path’. Routing paths in the network are then constructed using the edges that were identified to be lying on some routing path. We present results on simulation data and based on these results provide recommedations for further enhancing anonymous wireless network protocols.
Sensitivity of ocean acidification to geoengineered climate stabilization

Climate engineering has been proposed as a possible response to anthropogenic climate change. While climate engineering may be able to stabilize temperatures, it is generally assumed that this will not prevent continued ocean acidification. However, due to the strong coupling between climate and the carbon cycle, climate engineering could indirectly affect ocean chemistry. We used a global Earth‐system model to investigate how climate engineering may affect surface ocean pH and the degree of aragonite saturation. Climate engineering could significantly re‐distribute carbon emissions among atmosphere, land and ocean reservoirs. This could slow pH decreases somewhat relative to the non‐engineered case, but would not affect the level of aragonite saturation due to opposing responses of pH and aragonite saturation to temperature change. However, these effects are dependent on enhanced carbon accumulation in the land biosphere; without this, climate engineering has little effect on pH, and leads to accelerated declines in aragonite saturation.
Placing Students at the Centre of the Decolonizing Education Imperative: Engaging the (Mis)Recognition Struggles of Students at the Postapartheid University

Misrecognition of South African university students is at the heart of this article. Misrecognition refers in this article to the exclusionary institutional discourses and practices of this country’s universities, which continue to prevent the majority of their (Black) students’ from achieving a successful education. It is a conceptual account of the ways in which these misrecognized students develop a complex educational life in their quest for a university education. The article argues that at the heart of students’ university experiences is an essential misrecognition of who they are, and how they access and encounter their university studies. I suggest that gaining greater purchase on their (mis)recognition struggles may place the university in a position to establish an engaging recognition platform to facilitate their educational success. Divided into four sections, the article starts with a rationale for bringing the institutional misrecognition of students into view. This is followed by a theoretical consideration of the notion of recognition, which opens space for what I call the recognitive agency of the education subject, who remains largely unknown to the university. The third section provides an account of the nature and extent of Black students’ survivalist educational navigations and practices in their family, community, school, and university contexts. The final and concluding section of the article presents a normative argument for developing an education platform for facilitating a productive encounter aimed at animating students’ educational becoming. This, I argue, should proceed on the basis of a decolonizing knowledge approach, involving curriculum recognition, which would accord students the conceptual tools for developing the epistemic virtues necessary for complex decolonized living.
Augmented navigation in outdoor environments

This paper introduces an augmented-reality system that provides navigation facilities, generation of itineraries and services delivery. The approach offers the possibility of combining real sceneries with digital representations of places of interest and services for a given itinerary. The first level of the approach supports the identification of a given place based on Augmented reality (AR), offering additional information (images and description) of that place. The second level generates navigation itineraries based on semantic Web services, user profiles and recommendations obtained from tourism sources. The experimental setup integrates smartphones with digital compass, GPS, camera and accelerometer. The framework has been experimented in Mexico downtown in the historical center "Zocalo". The applications are available in App Store and Google Play Store called "Turicel aumentado" and "Turicel2", respectively.
Acoustically detectable cellular-level lung injury induced by fluid mechanical stresses in microfluidic airway systems

We describe a microfabricated airway system integrated with computerized air–liquid two-phase microfluidics that enables on-chip engineering of human airway epithelia and precise reproduction of physiologic or pathologic liquid plug flows found in the respiratory system. Using this device, we demonstrate cellular-level lung injury under flow conditions that cause symptoms characteristic of a wide range of pulmonary diseases. Specifically, propagation and rupture of liquid plugs that simulate surfactant-deficient reopening of closed airways lead to significant injury of small airway epithelial cells by generating deleterious fluid mechanical stresses. We also show that the explosive pressure waves produced by plug rupture enable detection of the mechanical cellular injury as crackling sounds.
Dualidades y Polisemia. El Concepto de Derechos de la Naturaleza en la Retórica de Rafael Correa de 2015 a 2016

El articulo explora como el expresidente del Ecuador, Rafael Correa, legitimo politicas de desarrollo economico a traves de un discurso ambientalista. Se utiliza el analisis del discurso del termino 'Derechos de la Naturaleza' como metodo para ilustrar su condicion polisemica. Asi, se observa la forma en la que Correa constituye relacionalmente las identidades internas y externas del Ecuador y de sus politicas de desarrollo. Al estudiar los discursos de Rafael Correa durante el periodo 2015-2016, el presente articulo indaga como el expresidente del Ecuador coopto discursos medioambientales para justificar la modernizacion economica del pais y practicas ecologicas destructivas. Se identifican representaciones vinculadas tanto a retoricas neodesarrollistas como ecosocialistas, asi como narrativas neoliberales en oposicion a post-neoliberales. This paper explores how the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, legitimated economic development policies within a broader environmentalist framework. Through a discourse analysis of the concept of the “Rights of Nature”, its polysemic condition is revealed. Thus one can observe how Correa relationally constitutes Ecuador’s internal and external identities and development policies. By analyzing Correa’s speeches from 2015 to 2016, the paper shows how Correa has co-opted environmentalist discourses to justify economic modernization and ecologically-destructive economic practices. Representations voiced in the speeches are related to both neodevelopmentalist and ecosocialist rhetorics, as well as neoliberal in opposition to post-neoliberal narratives.
A STUDY OF INTRODUCTION OF THE VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY INTO OPERATOR CONSOLES

We introduce a virtualization technology into the control system as operator consoles. The virtualization technology is a hot topic for server computing. The virtualization technology enables to consolidate a lot of server computers to a few host computers and reduces system maintenance cost drastically. Recently a dozen of commercial and non-commercial virtualization products are proposed. We evaluated several virtualization products on the point of view on performance. The response time of the network communication between distributed computers on MADOCA control framework was measured. We selected Xen as a virtualization environment, since it has enough performance and a function of high availability. We discuss requirements of future computer for virtualization environments and showed a practical side of introducing the virtualization technology into beamline control system as operator consoles.
Diversity reception for CDMA based mobile communication systems

Multiple access schemes are used to allow many mobile users to share simultaneously a finite amount of radio spectrum. For high quality communications, this must be done without severe degradation in the performance of the system. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is one of the major multiple access techniques used now days to share the available bandwidth in a wireless communication system. CDMA systems are characterised by multipath interference. Rake receivers are commonly used in CDMA systems to restrict the multipath fading and provide efficient reception. These receivers collect the time-shifted versions of the transmitted signal, combine them and produce the strongest estimate of the original signal. This paper discusses the various structures of Rake receivers such as multiple antennas single Rake finger, single antenna multiple Rake fingers, multiple antennas multiple Rake fingers and performs the bit error rate (BER) comparison. BPSK modulation and code modulation are considered for spreading the original signal. Space diversity (Antenna diversity) technique is employed at the receiver.
Exploring new features for music classification

Automatic music classification aims at grouping unknown songs in predefined categories such as music genre or induced emotion. To obtain perceptually relevant results, it is needed to design appropriate features that carry important information for semantic inference. In this paper, we explore novel features and evaluate them in a task of music automatic tagging. The proposed features span various aspects of the music: timbre, textual metadata, visual descriptors of cover art, and features characterizing the lyrics of sung music. The merit of these novel features is then evaluated using a classification system based on a boosting algorithm on binary decision trees. Their effectiveness for the task at hand is discussed with reference to the very common Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients features. We show that some of these features alone bring useful information, and that the classification system takes great advantage of a description covering such diverse aspects of songs.
International Standardization of Next Generation Video Coding Scheme Realizing High-quality , High-efficiency Video Transmission and Outline of Technologies Proposed by NTT DOCOMO

†1 Currently Strategic Marketing Department †2 Currently Corporate Strategy & Planning Department Front cover 3D display image courtesy of ROKKON Inc. *1 ISO: International Organization for Standardization; an organization for standardization in the information technology. Sets international standards for all industrial fields except electrical and telecommunication fields. *2 IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission; an organization for standardization in the information technology. Sets standards in the electrical and telecommunication field. International Standardization of Next Generation Video Coding Scheme Realizing High-quality, High-efficiency Video Transmission and Outline of Technologies Proposed by NTT DOCOMO
Connectivity of Natura 2000 forest sites in Europe

Background/Purpose: In the context of the European Biodiversity policy, the Green Infrastructure Strategy is one supporting tool to mitigate fragmentation, inter-alia to increase the spatial and functional connectivity between protected and unprotected areas. The Joint Research Centre has developed an integrated model to provide a macro-scale set of indices to evaluate the connectivity of the Natura 2000 network, which forms the backbone of a Green Infrastructure for Europe. The model allows a wide assessment and comparison to be performed across countries in terms of structural (spatially connected or isolated sites) and functional connectivity (least-cost distances between sites influenced by distribution, distance and land cover). Main conclusion: The Natura 2000 network in Europe shows differences among countries in terms of the sizes and numbers of sites, their distribution as well as distances between sites. Connectivity has been assessed on the basis of a 500 m average inter-site distance, roads and intensive land use as barrier effects as well as the presence of "green" corridors. In all countries the Natura 2000 network is mostly made of sites which are not physically connected. Highest functional connectivity values are found for Spain, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. The more natural landscape in Sweden and Finland does not result in high inter-site network connectivity due to large inter-site distances. The distribution of subnets with respect to roads explains the higher share of isolated subnets in Portugal than in Belgium.
Solar-blind ultraviolet detection based on TiO2 nanoparticles decorated graphene field-effect transistors

Abstract Sensitive solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors are important to various military and civilian applications, such as flame sensors, missile interception, biological analysis, and UV radiation monitoring below the ozone hole. In this paper, a solar-blind UV photodetector based on a buried-gate graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) decorated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) was demonstrated. Under the illumination of a 325-nm laser (spot size ~2 μm) with a total power of 0.35 μW, a photoresponsivity as high as 118.3 A/W was obtained, at the conditions of zero gate bias and a source-drain bias voltage of 0.2 V. This photoresponsivity is over 600 times higher than that of a recently reported solar-blind UV photodetector based on graphene/vertical Ga2O3 nanowire array heterojunction (0.185 A/W). Experiments showed that the photoresponsivity of the TiO2 NPs decorated GFET photodetectors can be further enhanced by increasing the source-drain bias voltage or properly tuning the gate bias voltage. Furthermore, the photoresponse time of the TiO2 NPs decorated GFET photodetectors can also be tuned by the source-drain bias and gate bias. This study paves a simple and feasible way to fabricate highly sensitive, cost-efficient, and integrable solar-blind UV photodetectors.