Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DESIGN OF ENHANCED MULTI-BIT THRESHOLD BIT FLIPPING ALGORITHM FOR LOW COMPLEX LDPC DECODERS

Communication is transfer of information from source to sink or sender to receiver. The signal when transferred through the noisy channel gets affected by the noise and becomes an error signal when it reaches the receiver. Decoding is the process of retrieving the correct information from the received signal. The weighted bit flipping LDPC decoding algorithm gives a good performance in retrieving information. The proposed algorithm which is modified multi bit threshold weighted bit flipping decoding (MMTWBF) algorithm of low density check code (LDPC) gives a good performance and an effective practicability in comparison with reliability rate weighted bit flipping algorithm (RRWBF) and good speed compared to multi-bit threshold rate based weighted bit flipping algorithm(MTRWBF). This algorithm flips the plurality of bits at each time, which helps in reducing the shortcomings in improved reliability rate weighted bit flipping algorithm (IRRWBF) decoding convergence speed. The simulation results reveal the improvement in simulation speed and the decoding iteration is reduced.
Effect of food experience on tourist satisfaction: the case of Indonesia

Purpose The paper aims to investigate food-related experiences among international tourists visiting Indonesia and the effect of food on their overall satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through self-administrated questionnaires that were distributed randomly to tourists at Jakarta International Airport and some tourist areas around Jakarta. Statistical analyses such as factor analysis, multiple linear regression and descriptive analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings The findings of the multiple linear regression analysis showed that “heritage” and “ingredients” were significant factors that affected the overall satisfaction of tourists. Results imply that destinations can have differentiated themselves through using their unique foods. Practical implications A major contribution of this study is its implications for practitioners in the tourism industry for developing marketing strategies. Originality/value This study was one of the first to examine the effect of food experiences on the overall satisfaction of tourists in Indonesia.
Using augmented reality to assist forklift operation

Operating forklifts in warehouses is becoming an increasingly difficult task due to higher shelves and narrower aisles. In this paper we explore how Augmented Reality (AR) can aid forklift operators in performing their pallet racking and pick up tasks by superimposing virtual depth cues over the real world camera view. We developed a prototype interface, and evaluated it using a remote controlled toy forklift and a motion tracking. We measured the participant's performance on representative pallet handling tasks, finding a significant difference in the performance of participants using AR depth cues. The results show that AR could offer a novel, simple and efficient solution for the problems faced by forklift operators while performing pallet handling.
Comparative Parser Performance Analysis across Grammar Frameworks through Automatic Tree Conversion using Synchronous Grammars

This paper presents a methodology for the comparative performance analysis of the parsers developed for different grammar frameworks. For such a comparison, we need a common representation format of the parsing results since the representation of the parsing results depends on the grammar frameworks; hence they are not directly comparable to each other. We first convert the parsing result to a shallow CFG analysis by using an automatic tree converter based on synchronous grammars. The use of such a shallow representation as a common format has the advantage of reduced noise introduced by the conversion in comparison with the noise produced by the conversion to deeper representations. We compared an HPSG parser with several CFG parsers in our experiment and found that meaningful differences among the parsers' performance can still be observed by such a shallow representation.
Input/Output Subsystem in Singularity Operating System

Microsoft Singularity is a research operating system, which explores the possibilities of designing and building software platforms for reliable computer systems. Singularity uses processes to isolate system services and device drivers from the rest of the system, and to enable restarting failed components without affecting the entire operating system. This leads to better support for recovering from errors in system components and makes the system more dependable. The original version of Singularity does not support executing bus device drivers in separate processes and implements them as part of the operating system’s kernel. This thesis proposes a new bus driver model which extends the original implementation of Singularity and supports process-isolated bus drivers. The main concepts behind Singularity are briefly described and Singularity’s input/output subsystem is presented in-depth.
Circularity and Lambda Abstraction

In this tribute to Doaitse Swierstra, we present the first transformation between lazy circular programs à la Bird and strict circular programs à la Pettorossi. Circular programs à la Bird rely on lazy recursive binding: they involve circular unknowns and make sense equationally. Circular programs à la Pettorossi rely on the inductive construction of functions and their eventual application: they involve no circular unknowns and make sense operationally. Our derivation connects these equational and operational approaches: given a lazy circular program à la Bird, we decouple the circular unknowns from what is done to them, which we lambda-abstract with functions. The circular unknowns then become dead variables, which we eliminate. The result is a strict circular program à la Pettorossi. This transformation is reversible: given a strict circular program à la Pettorossi, we introduce circular unknowns as dead variables, and we apply the functions to them. The result is a lazy circular program à la Bird. We illustrate the two transformations by mapping an algebraic construct to an isomorphic one with new leaves, reading a binary number as suggested by Knuth, and backpatching.
Why We Blog: Homeschooling Mothers of Gifted Children

Blogs have become a go-to information resource for members of online communities. In this qualitative study we applied uses and gratifications theory (U>) to analyze the experiences and perceptions of four mothers of gifted children who maintain blogs about their homeschooling experiences. Data suggest that this novel context and population did not yield different categories of gratification; however, not all prior categories were represented among this relatively narrow sample. Results support findings from prior research in other contexts suggesting that bloggers find gratification from self-expression, social interaction, information exchange, maintaining community, and recording life events.
Human Arm Impedance and EMG in 3D

This paper shows the relationship between EMG signals and human arm stiffness, measured in 3-D space. Preliminary results demonstrate the viability of this approach, which can then be used to measure human arm impedance from EMG only. Understanding human stiffness during interaction tasks will allow the development of an appropriate skill transfer exercise for Programming-by-Demonstration. Making the human aware of her own stiffness adaption gives a better understanding towards programming a robot impedance controller.
Devising Instruction from Errors in Students' Assignments: a Case in Usability Engineering Education

Problem‐based learning emphasizes the role of problem solving as the main driver of instruction, thus critically relying on the quality of problem collections, which should exercise especially those aspects students find difficult to master. In areas in which extensive and tested problem collections are not available, it is useful to analyze the mistakes of students in previous year's assignments as a source of evidence for the design of new problems or tutorial resources. This paper reports preliminary results of that approach as applied to heuristic usability evaluation in the context of an introductory Human Computer Interaction course. The process is described, and some examples are reported as concrete cases in which assignment analysis lead to insights for devising instruction.
Nonlinear dynamics of heart rate variability after superoxide dismutase inhibition in rats

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a crucial enzyme for endogenous oxidative balance. We tested how diethylthiocarbamate (DETC), a nonspecific SOD inhibitor and oxidant, influence heart rate variability (HRV). Fourteen Wistar rats (divided into two groups) with implanted subcutaneous ECG electrodes, maintained unrestrained in experimental setup. Time-series of 1024 RR intervals (RRi) were extracted from continuous ECG recording for HRV analysis. SOD activity was measured by dedicated assay kit. Intraperitoneal injection of DECT resulted in SOD inhibition by 30%. HRV analysis confirms a role of ROS in the regulation of sinoatrial rhythm. Increased HR after DETC injection was followed by a reduction in overall HRV including LF/HF. A significant reduction of the recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) parameters: %REC, %DET, DFAal and DFAa2 is indicative of some loss of complexity and self-similarity within the tested RRi time-series. The reduction of intrinsic harmonic correlations can be interpreted as a simplification of the regulatory feedback loops with more random heart rhythm poorly controlled by autonomic nervous system. Nonlinear dynamics methods such as RQA have a potential to increase the reliability of data in experimental studies.
Asymmetries in specialization in ant–plant mutualistic networks

Mutualistic networks involving plants and their pollinators or frugivores have been shown recently to exhibit a particular asymmetrical organization of interactions among species called nestedness: a core of reciprocal generalists accompanied by specialist species that interact almost exclusively with generalists. This structure contrasts with compartmentalized assemblage structures that have been verified in antagonistic food webs. Here we evaluated whether nestedness is a property of another type of mutualism—the interactions between ants and extrafloral nectary-bearing plants—and whether species richness may lead to differences in degree of nestedness among biological communities. We investigated network structure in four communities in Mexico. Nested patterns in ant–plant networks were very similar to those previously reported for pollination and frugivore systems, indicating that this form of asymmetry in specialization is a common feature of mutualisms between free-living species, but not always present in species-poor systems. Other ecological factors also appeared to contribute to the nested asymmetry in specialization, because some assemblages showed more extreme asymmetry than others even when species richness was held constant. Our results support a promising approach for the development of multispecies coevolutionary theory, leading to the idea that specialization may coevolve in different but simple ways in antagonistic and mutualistic assemblages.
Quantitative Analysis of the Banned Food Dye Sudan-1 Using Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering with Multivariate Chemometrics†

Sudan-1 has been used for coloring food. However, recent alarms worldwide about the carcinogenic and mutagenic properties of azo-compounds have led to concerns over their human consumption. In the U.K. in 2005, over 570 products were found to be contaminated with the azo dye Sudan-1 and this and the health risks associated with this dye resulted in the subsequent international ban of this additive in all foodstuff, at all levels, relating to human consumption. These incidents have also necessitated the need for high throughput low cost reliable approaches for the detection and quantification of food contaminated by such azo compounds. While there are a small number of analytical techniques that can be considered portable, many lack sensitivity. By contrast, we show that employing a portable Raman spectrometer, using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), can provide good sensitivity, such that Sudan-1 can be quantified in a complex food matrix reliably over the range of 10−3 to 10−4 mol L−1. We also de.
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING BASED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL FOR THE PURPOSE OF AUTHOR IDENTIFICATION

With the increasing widespread use of computers and the internet large amount of informations are becoming available on the web. Automatic information processing and retrieval are therefore an urgent need In this paper a new approach to automatic authorship identification dealing with real-world text (or unrestricted) is presented. A different approach to identify the author using initial character N- gram is proposed.
Lack of Evidence for Human-to-Human Transmission of Avian Influenza A (H9N2) Viruses in Hong Kong, China 1999

In April 1999, isolation of avian influenza A (H9N2) viruses from humans was confirmed for the first time. H9N2 viruses were isolated from nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens collected from two children who were hospitalized with uncomplicated, febrile, upper respiratory tract illnesses in Hong Kong during March 1999. Novel influenza viruses have the potential to initiate global pandemics if they are sufficiently transmissible among humans. We conducted four retrospective cohort studies of persons exposed to these two H9N2 patients to assess whether human-to-human transmission of avian H9N2 viruses had occurred. No serologic evidence of H9N2 infection was found in family members or health-care workers who had close contact with the H9N2-infected children, suggesting that these H9N2 viruses were not easily transmitted from person to person.
On the need for a coordination mechanism to guarantee task completion in a cooperative team

To design good cooperative team members in robotics it is important to know what coordination mechanisms are required. Our approach to explore the need for a coordination mechanism is based on a systematic methodology to identify team coordination requirements. We show that a team combined of robots that each individually can solve a task not always is able to guarantee task completion as a team. In these cases some mechanism for coordination is required and we formally identify various problem classes that impose different requirements. We introduce a formal task model and distinguish between no, implicit and explicit coordination mechanisms. This model is used to study which mechanisms guarantee task completion. It allows us to prove some empirical findings reported in the literature such as that a simple foraging task does not require coordination.
DIY IR sensors for augmenting objects and human skin

Interaction designers require simple methods of creating ad-hoc sensors for prototyping interactive objects. Methods of creating custom sensing solutions commonly include various capacitive and resistive techniques. Near-infrared (IR) sensing solutions can be used as an alternative to these established methods. There are many situations in which IR sensors may be a preferred method of input, such as grasp detection and touch interactions on the skin. In this paper we outline the general approach for designing IR sensors and discuss the design and applications of two custom sensors.
A gene-expression signature as a predictor of survival in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND A more accurate means of prognostication in breast cancer will improve the selection of patients for adjuvant systemic therapy. METHODS Using microarray analysis to evaluate our previously established 70-gene prognosis profile, we classified a series of 295 consecutive patients with primary breast carcinomas as having a gene-expression signature associated with either a poor prognosis or a good prognosis. All patients had stage I or II breast cancer and were younger than 53 years old; 151 had lymph-node-negative disease, and 144 had lymph-node-positive disease. We evaluated the predictive power of the prognosis profile using univariable and multivariable statistical analyses. RESULTS Among the 295 patients, 180 had a poor-prognosis signature and 115 had a good-prognosis signature, and the mean (+/-SE) overall 10-year survival rates were 54.6+/-4.4 percent and 94.5+/-2.6 percent, respectively. At 10 years, the probability of remaining free of distant metastases was 50.6+/-4.5 percent in the group with a poor-prognosis signature and 85.2+/-4.3 percent in the group with a good-prognosis signature. The estimated hazard ratio for distant metastases in the group with a poor-prognosis signature, as compared with the group with the good-prognosis signature, was 5.1 (95 percent confidence interval, 2.9 to 9.0; P<0.001). This ratio remained significant when the groups were analyzed according to lymph-node status. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that the prognosis profile was a strong independent factor in predicting disease outcome. CONCLUSIONS The gene-expression profile we studied is a more powerful predictor of the outcome of disease in young patients with breast cancer than standard systems based on clinical and histologic criteria.
Electron and photon beams interacting with plasma

A comparison is made between the interaction of electron bunches and intense laser pulses with plasma. The laser pulse is modelled with photon kinetic theory, i.e. a representation of the electromagnetic field in terms of classical quasi-particles with space and wave number coordinates, which enables a direct comparison with the phase space evolution of the electron bunch. Analytical results are presented of the plasma waves excited by a propagating electron bunch or laser pulse, the motion of electrons or photons in these plasma waves and collective effects, which result from the self-consistent coupling of the particle and plasma wave dynamics.
Preliminary Version Space-and Time-adaptive Nonblocking Algorithms

We explore techniques for designing nonblocking algorithms that do not require advance knowledge of the number of threads that participate, whose time complexity and space consumption both adapt to various measures (rather than being based on predefined worst-case scenarios), and that can continue to reclaim memory even after thread failures. The techniques we introduce can be implemented using widely available hardware synchronization primitives. We present our techniques in the context of solutions to the well-known Collect problem. We also explain how our techniques can be exploited to achieve other results with similar properties, such as long-lived renaming and dynamic memory management for nonblocking data structures. In addition to the algorithmic techniques we introduce, we also clarify and generalize previous properties used to characterize measures of an algorithm’s “adaptivity”.
Beamspace time-frequency MUSIC with application to airborne antenna arrays

We introduce the beamspace time-frequency (t-f) MUSIC as a hybrid scheme which combines the advantages of beamspace processing and time-frequency distributions for high resolution directional finding of signals with time-varying characteristics. The proposed beamspace t-f MUSIC performs high resolution angle-of-arrival estimation using the time-frequency signatures of the outputs of the beams, rather than the sensor data, as previously proposed. Two beamspace t-f MUSIC techniques are presented, one is based on joint block-diagonalization of multiple t-f points whereas the other is based on averaging over t-f regions prior to subspace estimation. Both techniques utilize the power distribution of the signal arrivals within different beams over both time and frequency.
Exploiting mobility prediction for mobility & popularity caching and DASH adaptation

We present our recent work investigating how mobility prediction can be exploited for improving the performance of mobile users in two directions: proactive caching requested content close to the network attachment points where a mobile has a high probability to connect to and DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) video quality adaptation. For proactive caching we discuss a new model to proactively cache content based on both mobility prediction and content popularity. An important feature of the model is that it dynamically adapts caching decisions to the relative importance of the two factors. For DASH adaptation we discuss a procedure that exploits mobility and throughput prediction to select the quality levels of video segments requested by a DASH player in order to achieve improved QoE, in terms of both high video quality and few video quality switches.
Scheduling Algorithm Based on Force Directed Clustering

This paper describes a new task scheduling algorithm based on clustering. In this new approach, clustering of the tasks is achieved by applying a force model to the task graph. From an initial configuration of the task graph, forces act upon the nodes to manoeuvre them into a low energy or equilibrium state. Clusters are created from the equilibrium state and scheduled for an unlimited number of processors. This algorithm is compared in an extensive experimental evaluation to three other clustering algorithms namely, linear, single edge and dominant sequence clustering. By keeping the mapping and scheduling phases of the algorithms identical, we compare only the difference in clustering between all algorithms. Results show that force directed clustering is very promising, especially for a limited number of processors.
Custard: a custom threaded architecture and tools

This thesis describes an optimising framework for automatic processor customisation. There are four major contributions: 1. First, we present a compiler that supports code generation and power aware pipeline scheduling for a processor with an extensible instruction set. Custom instructions can be introduced by the user, or be selected automatically at compile time to generate scheduled code for an Application Specific Instruction Processor. 2. Second, we describe ‘Similar sub-instructions’, a novel technique for automatic processor customisation that is implemented as part of our compiler. Similar sub-instructions is a heuristic approach that is unique in being able to build general instruction datapaths that can accelerate several structurally similar operations. 3. Third, we introduce a multi-threaded processor with a customisable instruction set as a target for our compiler. The processor is supported using a simulator driven by a synthesizable hardware model. This arrangement facilitates rapid hardware testing, allows the processor microarchitecture to be specified at a high level of abstraction and provides accurate estimation of area and timing characteristics. 4. Fourth, we evaluate our system using six benchmarks from image/video processing and cryptography. The automatic customisation is able to achieve average speedups of over 97% at an average area cost of only 6%. The highest speedup attained was nearly 400% with only 0.33% area cost. The multi-threading capability of the processor provides zero-cycle context switching, together with up to 33% throughput improvement above a multiprocessor system that consumes over three times the area.
Detecting Novelty in the context of Progressive Summarization

A Progressive summary helps a user to monitor changes in evolving news topics over a period of time. Detecting novel information is the essential part of progressive summarization that differentiates it from normal multi document summarization. In this work, we explore the possibility of detecting novelty at various stages of summarization. New scoring features, Re-ranking criterions and filtering strategies are proposed to identify "relevant novel" information. We compare these techniques using an automated evaluation framework ROUGE, and determine the best. Overall, our summarizer is able to perform on par with existing prime methods in progressive summarization.