Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seeking Open Educational Resources to Compose Massive Open Online Courses in Engineering Education An Approach based on Linked Open Data

The OER movement has tended to define "openness" in terms of access to use and reuse educational materials, and to address the geographical and financial barriers among students, teachers and self-learners with open access to high quality digital educational resources. MOOCs are the continuation of this trend of openness, innovation, and use of technology to provide learning opportunities for large numbers of learners. In the last years, the amount of Open Educational Resources on the Web has increased dramatically, especially thanks to initiatives like OpenCourseWare and other Open Educational Resources movements. The potential of this vast amount of resources is enormous. In this paper an architecture based on Semantic Web technologies and the Linked Data guidelines to support the inclusion of open materials in massive online courses is presented. Linked Data is considered as one of the most effective alternatives for creating global shared information spaces, it has become an interesting approach for discovering and enriching open educational resources data, as well as achieving semantic interoperability and re-use between multiple Open Educational Resources repositories. The notion of Linked Data refers to a set of best practices for publishing, sharing and interconnecting data in RDF format. Educational repositories managers are, in fact, realizing the potential of using Linked Data for describing, discovering, linking and publishing educational data on the Web. This work shows a data architecture based on semantic web technologies that support the discovery and inclusion of open educational materials in massive online courses in engineering education. The authors focus on a type of openness: open of contents as regards re-use and re-mix, i.e. freedom to reuse the material, to combine it with other materials, to adapt and to share it further under an open license.
An analysis and extension of top-k spatial preference queries optimization methods

The paper presents a general overview of top-k spatial preference queries and their R-tree based optimization methods. It also proposes a modification of top-k spatial preference query description and a new optimization technique. Moreover, the paper presents an analysis of query definition influence on the process of its execution using algorithms which utilize different combinations of optimization methods. An analogous analysis of data character influence is also presented.
TCP-PR : TCP for Persistent Packet Reordering ∗ Extended Version

Most standard implementations of TCP perform poorly when packets are reordered. In this paper, we propose a new version of TCP that maintains high throughput when reordering occurs and yet, when packet reordering does not occur, is friendly to other versions of TCP. The proposed TCP variant, or TCPPR, does not rely on duplicate acknowledgments to detect a packet loss. Instead, timers are maintained to keep track of how long ago a packet was transmitted. In case the corresponding acknowledgment has not yet arrived and the elapsed time since the packet was sent is larger than a given threshold, the packet is assumed lost. Because TCP-PR does not rely on duplicate acknowledgments, packet reordering (including out-or-order acknowledgements) has no effect on TCP-PR’s performance. Through extensive simulations, we show that evaluate TCP-PR performs consistently better than existing mechanisms that try to make TCP more robust to packet reordering. In the case that packets are not reordered, we verify that TCP-PR maintains the same throughput as typical implementations of TCP (specifically, TCP-SACK) and shares network resources fairly.
Two-Arm Coordination Control by Learning on a B-Spline Model

To enable a two -arnt manipulator system to perform complex cooperating tasks such as carrying ci rigid object, establishing a contact to a sur face , grinding, etc . , a nonlinear multiple input system should be solved. We apply an approach to on -line automatic learning of a B-spline fuzzy controller : This controller model directly connects the sensor inputs to the compensation motion. By using the adaptation of control actions in all possible situations through practising of the robots in the real environment , uncertainties of the robot -object model can be taken into account. The compliant motion controller of the robot system can be adapted to new situations in a short time thanks to the on-line learning approach.
Between speaking out in public and being person-centred: collaboratively designing an inclusive archive of learning disability history

Abstract The Living Archive of Learning Disability History is being developed by an inclusive team of researchers both with and without learning disabilities. We argue the archive is important in making publicly visible the lives of people with learning disabilities. Yet – drawing on thinking that came out of our collaborative workshops – we also identify alternative imperatives, that you might want to have control over how you share your personal memories and stories, with whom, when you share them and for how long. We show how we are responding to these different ideas in the design of the Living Archive in order to create pathways between two traditions that have emerged through self-advocacy: ‘speaking out in public’ and ‘being person-centred’. We outline our research on consent processes to ensure that our archive builds capacity for as many people as possible to consent while also offering a legally compliant ‘Best Interests’ process in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act, England and Wales (2005). We argue that deploying and actively navigating between the different political logics of ‘speaking out in public’ and ‘being person-centred’ offers a way forward for ongoing debates concerning community engagement in archives, museums and heritage.
A Superblock-based Memory Adapter Using Decoupled Dual Buffers for Hiding the Access Latency of Non-volatile Memory

and MRAM have been considered for use as main memory components because of advantages such as low power consumption, higher density, and non-volatility compared with DRAMs, which have been the dominant main memory component technology. Despite these merits, access latencies of both PRAM and FeRAM are to slow to simply replace DRAMs. The access latency of new memories must be improved before they can be adopted for the main memory. In this paper, we propose a superblock-based adapting buffer located between on-chip cache and main memory. The adapting buffer is comprised of decoupled dual buffers: one is to utilize spatial locality aggressively, and the other exploits temporal locality adaptively. The proposed structure is implemented and evaluated by using a trace-based simulator using SPEC 2000 traces. The experimental results show that the proposed architecture improves buffer miss rate by about 47 percent, compared with the same-sized uniform buffer, making it possible to hide access latency of non-volatile memory effectively.
A hybrid transmit antenna/code selection scheme using space-time block codes

Complex orthogonal space-time block codes for more than two transmit antennas cannot achieve full rate over the fading channel. By relaxing the orthogonality constraint, however, it is possible to achieve full rate or even rates higher than one for any number of transmit antennas at the expenses of loosing some degree of diversity advantage. On the other hand, if a feedback channel is available and the fading coefficients are known at the transmitter, then maximum diversity advantage can be achieved with transmit antenna selection. In this paper, a new full-rate nonorthogonal space-time block code for three transmit antennas is proposed that needs only two RF chains, has decoding delay equal to two, and whose maximum likelihood decoder based on linear processing is the same as that of the Alamouti code. We then introduce hybrid transmit antenna/code selection. Based on the instantaneous fading coefficients, the transmitter selects either the proposed code with the best three antennas or the Alamouti code with the best pair of antennas. Simulations results for up to six transmit antennas and one receive antenna indicate that full diversity is achieved in spite of using a nonorthogonal code. With this simple example, coding gains of up to 0.4 dB over the pure antenna selection with Alamouti, proposed by Gore and Paulraj (2002), is also observed.
An algorithm combined with spectral subtraction and binary masking for monaural speech segregation

Monaural speech segregation from complex concurrent noise is an extremely challenging problem; binary mask is a method to solve this problem, however, the performance of binary mask is limited by remaining the noise in the result. In this paper, an algorithm integrated Spectral Subtraction and binary masking for speech separation and enhancement was proposed. It follows the framework of computational auditory scene analysis (CASA). The energy of time-frequency (T-F) unit was used as the clue to generate the binary mask; then the spectral subtraction algorithm was used to eliminate noise energy in original speech and an interim speech was obtained, after covered the binary mask on the interim speech, the target speech can be achieved. Systematic evaluation shows that the combined algorithm can stably improve the SNR and voice quality for noisy speech. It performs better than existing binary masking systems in most situations, especially when the noise and the speech have the similar power spectrum.
EtherProxy: Scaling Ethernet By Suppressing Broadcast Traffic

Ethernet is the dominant technology for local area networks. This is mainly because of its autoconfiguration capability and its cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, a single Ethernet network can not scale to span a large enterprise network. A main reason for this is broadcast traffic resulting from many protocols running on top of Ethernet. This paper addresses Ethernet's scalability limits due to broadcast traffic. We studied and characterized broadcast traffic in Ethernet networks using traces collected from real networks. We found that broadcast is mainly used in Ethernet for service and resource discovery. For example, the address resolution protocol (ARP) uses broadcast to discover a MAC address that corresponds to an IP address. To avoid broadcast for service and resource discovery, we propose a new device, the EtherProxy. An EtherProxy uses caching to suppress broadcast traffic. EtherProxy is backward compatible and requires no changes to existing hardware, software, or protocols. Moreover, it requires no configuration. In our evaluation, we used real and synthetic workloads. Using both workloads, we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of the EtherProxy.
CONSTRUCTING OPTIMAL PREDICTION INTERVALS FOR FUTURE ORDER STATISTICS

Prediction, by interval or point, of an unobserved random variable is a fundamental problem in statistics. This paper deals with constructing a prediction interval on a future observation Xr in an ordered sample of size n from an underlying distribution (under parametric uncertainty), where the first k observations X1 < X2 <  < Xk, 1k<rn, have been observed. Prediction intervals for future order statistics are widely used for reliability problems and other related problems. But the optimality property of these intervals has not been fully explored. To compare prediction intervals, we introduce a piecewise-linear loss function. The interval which minimizes a risk, associated with this piecewise-linear loss function, among the class of invariant prediction intervals is obtained. The technique used here for optimisation of prediction intervals based on censored data emphasizes pivotal quantities relevant for obtaining ancillary statistics. It allows one to solve the optimisation problems in a simple way. An illustrative example is given.
Object Frameworks. for Agent System Development

In this paper we present and analyze an instance of a mutli- agent development system we call the standard agent system that enables the construction of distributed agent-based software systems for R&D, industrial, and government applications. The standard-agent system is implemented as an extensible object framework that provides a means for constructing and customizing agent objects through specialization of standard base classes and by composition of component classesThe framework has been used to develop three major applications and has supported numerous research projects. Our position on agent toolkits is that object- centered frameworks containing standard design patterns and design patterns specialized for the agent domain provide the best compromise between generality and flexibility. Moreover, frameworks (systems of design patterns) enable reuse, contribute to the reliability, maintainability, and extensibility of an agent application. Design patterns capture the conceptualizations of common agent attributes while enabling variations of a design to coexist in the same system. We discuss the use of design patterns applied to agent programming and describe a design pattern that captures a general goal-directed deliberation mechanism. The agent programming environment is supported by supported by ¯ advanced object services such as distributed objects, object data bases, lifecycle protocols, and interfaces to the World- Wide Web. We discuss the relevance of these services to agent development.
Detection of Prion Infectivity in Fat Tissues of Scrapie-Infected Mice

Distribution of prion infectivity in organs and tissues is important in understanding prion disease pathogenesis and designing strategies to prevent prion infection in animals and humans. Transmission of prion disease from cattle to humans resulted in banning human consumption of ruminant nervous system and certain other tissues. In the present study, we surveyed tissue distribution of prion infectivity in mice with prion disease. We show for the first time detection of infectivity in white and brown fat. Since high amounts of ruminant fat are consumed by humans and also incorporated into animal feed, fat-containing tissues may pose a previously unappreciated hazard for spread of prion infection.
Exploiting Externalities to Estimate the Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Deworming

I investigate whether a school-based deworming intervention in Kenya had long-term effects on young children. I exploit positive externalities from the program to estimate impacts on younger children who were not directly treated. Ten years after the intervention, I find large cognitive effects—comparable to between 0.5 and 0.8 years of schooling—for children who were less than one year old when their communities received school-based mass deworming treatment. I find no effect on child height or stunting. I also estimate effects among children whose older siblings received treatment directly; in this subpopulation, cognition effects are nearly twice as large. (JEL I12, I18, I21, I26, I28, J13, O15)
La corruption au travail : une approche par la théorie de préservation des ressources

Workplace corruption is a global issue for private and public organizations. It has beenrecognized as a costly phenomenon having negative consequences in various aspects ofeconomic and human development. Since corrupt acts and behaviors of individuals atworkplace are a challenging subject for managers, this doctoral dissertation seeks to exploreorganizational corruption and also to emphasize the importance of organizational corruptionstudy from a managerial perspective. This study provides elements to better understand howto prevent and to control corrupt acts and behaviors at work. The research model isconstructed on the basis of conservation of resources (COR) theory of Hobfoll (1989). Corruption motivation is theorized through COR theory and within this framework, itproposes corruption as a strategy to prevent the perceived loss of valued motivationalresources. Specially, this research investigates the direct impact of powerlessness, sense ofmastery, distributive and procedural justice on workplace corruption. Furthermore, it studiesthe moderating effect of transparency and caring climate on the relationship betweenpowerlessness, sense of mastery, procedural justice, distributive justice, and workplacecorruption. Sample consists of 575 employees from international organizations havecontributed to this research. Results highlight that powerlessness positively, sense of masteryand procedural justice negatively impact on workplace corruption and deviance. However,distributive justice only negatively impacts on workplace corruption. Results mostly validateour principal hypotheses but suggest that the nature of corruption relates to the type ofresources felt threatened.
The specificity of cellular immune responses II. The structure of antigenic determinants leading to T-lymphocyte stimulation

T cells from guinea pigs immunized with the hapten 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP)-coupled directly to mycobacteria are of interest since they recognize and respond to DNP conjugated to many but not all carriers. The experiments reported here further analyze the structure of the complex, chemically defined antigenic determinants recognized by such T cells. These antigenic determinants can have DNP coupled either to the xi-amino group of lysyl residues or to the hydroxyl group of tyrosyl residues. Furthermore, essential contributions to the determinant recognized by such T cells are made by amino acid residues to which the hapten is not attached. Such residues are thought to be close to the hapten group itself, since introducing a small spacer between hapten and carrier prevents recognition. The hapten itself is also recognized and discriminated from other haptens with great precision by these T lymphocytes. The strain of guinea pig immunized affects the precise specificity characteristics of the responding T cells, in a way that may reflect the activity of histocompatibility-linked immune response genes. Finally, the characteristics of the immunogen have been studied. It is thought that the lipid content of the mycobacteria may be critical in inducing the hapten-reactive T cells, and this is supported by finding similar responses in T cells from guinea pigs immunized with DNP protein to which lipid has been covalently attached. Thus, the T- cell population being studied, while recognizing haptens with great precision, appears to require a larger determinant for activation than do hapten-specific B lymphocytes.
A Time-Predictable Object Cache

Static cache analysis for data allocated on the heap is practically impossible for standard data caches. We propose a distinct object cache for heap allocated data. The cache is highly associative to track symbolic object addresses in the static analysis. Cache lines are organized to hold single objects and individual fields are loaded on a miss. This cache organization is statically analyzable and improves the performance. In this paper we present the design and implementation of the object cache in a uniprocessor and chip-multiprocessor version of the Java processor JOP.
Increased Peptide Contacts Govern High Affinity Binding of a Modified TCR Whilst Maintaining a Native pMHC Docking Mode

Natural T cell receptors (TCRs) generally bind to their cognate pMHC molecules with weak affinity and fast kinetics, limiting their use as therapeutic agents. Using phage display, we have engineered a high affinity version of the A6 wild-type TCR (A6wt), specific for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA-A∗0201) complexed with human T cell lymphotropic virus type 111–19 peptide (A2-Tax). Mutations in just 4 residues in the CDR3β loop region of the A6wt TCR were selected that improved binding to A2-Tax by nearly 1000-fold. Biophysical measurements of this mutant TCR (A6c134) demonstrated that the enhanced binding was derived through favorable enthalpy and a slower off-rate. The structure of the free A6c134 TCR and the A6c134/A2-Tax complex revealed a native binding mode, similar to the A6wt/A2-Tax complex. However, concordant with the more favorable binding enthalpy, the A6c134 TCR made increased contacts with the Tax peptide compared with the A6wt/A2-Tax complex, demonstrating a peptide-focused mechanism for the enhanced affinity that directly involved the mutated residues in the A6c134 TCR CDR3β loop. This peptide-focused enhanced TCR binding may represent an important approach for developing antigen specific high affinity TCR reagents for use in T cell based therapies.
Earliest due first scheduling for application-level QoS delivery

The quality of service (QoS) of real time applications is affected in a rather direct manner by the timely delivery of application-level data units which are typically mapped into several ATM cells. As a consequence, it would be reasonable to associate a common deadline with all the cells in one data unit (batch) and develop a scheduling policy that aims to maximise the number of data units that are delivered by their respective deadlines. A batch-based earliest due first scheduling policy is proposed and analysed under periodic batch arrival processes which are typical of continuous media streams. Depending on whether partial batch service is performed or not, two variations of this scheduler are considered. It is shown that the proposed policies can be easily implemented in terms of a first batch in-first batch out (FBI-FBO) and a partial FBI-FBO schedulers respectively. Numerical results are presented and the induced batch and cell loss rates are compared against those induced by the standard FIFO scheduler as well as a FIFO scheduler which drops expired cells.
Optimal Statistical Tuning of the RED Parameters

Achieving minimal loss while satisfying an acceptable delay profile remains to be an open problem under the RED queuing discipline. In this paper, we present a framework targeted at optimal fine tuning of the RED parameters in order to address such problem. For a given traffic pattern and utilizing a statistical analysis of finite-state Markov chains, we formulate an optimization problem aimed at addressing the loss and delay tradeoff of the RED queuing discipline. Our two-step iterative solution to the problem identifies the optimal settings of the RED parameters. We prove the convergence of our solution and investigate its low complexity characteristics. We apply our framework to a number of generic queuing and TCP scenarios in order to capture loss and delay performance of our algorithms versus buffer capacity and service rate. Based on our results, we argue that our model is capable of optimally addressing the loss-delay tradeoff of RED queues accommodating time-varying traffic profiles.