Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An investigation into telecommunications billing system testing processes

Testing is an important part of the software development process, since it ultimately determines the quality of the product or service that the end user is provided. As error correction costs increase exponentially with time, it is important to resolve software defects as early as possible. The same applies to telecommunications billing software, where the level of competitiveness demands that the testing process be both accurate and efficient. The investigation undertaken aimed to evaluate and improve the testing process of a company that develops telecommunications billing software, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). The methodology used to perform the study involved the use of the Goal Question Metric (GQM) approach, which has been used extensively for process measurement and improvement. A research model was developed which derived process goals from the key research questions, ensuring that the research questions could be answered from the goal results. Four goals were determined using this method. These goals were to improve defect detection accuracy, defect correction accuracy, defect detection efficiency and defect correction efficiency. This led to 14 questions and 95 metrics in total. Defect detection accuracy was found to be insufficient, defect correction accuracy was determined to be satisfactory, defect detection efficiency was a key goal, and it was found to be unsatisfactory, while defect correction efficiency was acceptable, however there were many cases where error resolution was slow. Several specific proposals for improvement are suggested, as well as general process improvement suggestions. The process can be improved overall by using the agile Scrum approach. Scrum's cross-functional teams coupled with development testing through Test-driven Development will ensure that detection accuracy and efficiency are improved. The study found that because the process is more traditional than agile and separates testing and development, it is not well suited to the size of the projects and their timelines. In order to meet the needs of the industry and release quality services competitively, a more agile approach needs to be taken. The research conducted provides a contribution to a field where research is scarce, and provides evidence of the insufficiency of traditional development processes in small telecommunications projects, while motivating the use of agile methodologies to meet organisational goals.
Comparative study between luenberger observer and extended kalman filter for fault-tolerant control of induction motor drives

In this paper, a robust active fault tolerant control (AFTC) scheme is proposed for induction motor drives (IMD) via input-output linearization control (IOLC) and nonlinear observer. In order to estimate the states and to reconstruct the faults, two different observers are used; a Luenberger observer (LO) and an extended kalman filter (EKF). Further we introduce feedback linearization strategy by choosing the output function as the rotor speed and flux square. To provide a direct comparison between these FTCs schemes, the performance is evaluated using the control of IMD under failures, variable speed, and variable parameters, finally the obtained results show that the proposed controller with the proposed observers provides a good trajectory tracking, and these schemes are robust with respect to faults, parameter variations, and external load disturbances for induction motor drive system.
space and time: ant communities of the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa

Aim Patterns of biological diversity are often investigated across space but little work has attempted to explore the consistency of such observations through time. Here, our aim was to understand the patterns of diversity for a functionally critical taxon, the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), through space and time using an extensive dataset collected across an elevational gradient. In addition, we evaluated the importance of two key postulated drivers of elevational diversity patterns: temperature and available area. Location The Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa. Methods We sampled epigaeic ant communities biannually for 7 years (2006– 2012) at eight different elevational sites. We then used an information theoretic approach combined with generalized linear mixed models to: (1) describe diversity patterns through space and time; (2) assess the importance of different abiotic drivers; and (3) understand how much spatio-temporal variation can be explained by these drivers. Simple regression approaches were also used to test for differences in seasonal variation along the elevational gradient. Results We found clear mid-elevational peaks of species density and evenness measures. Abundance patterns were complex. The spatial distributions of all three metrics changed across seasons and years. Temperature variables had important roles in explaining both species density and abundance patterns, whilst species density was also influenced by available area. In conjunction, we found much greater seasonal variability in species density at low elevations. This variation was independent of differences in species pool size. Main conclusions We found patterns of ant diversity that are strongly modulated by temporal change. There was a consistent and strong signature of seasonality on the elevation–diversity patterns of the ants, whilst annual changes throughout the study period had a weaker influence. We conclude that both spatial and temporal patterns are driven primarily by temperature, with only a weak influence of available elevational area. This study is the first to describe the spatio-temporal distribution of a suite of community-level metrics along an elevational gradient and implies that temporal variation should be considered more carefully in studies of invertebrate diversity, particularly with respect to elevation and the mechanisms that may be maintaining diversity patterns.
MECHANISM OF INDUCED SUSCEPTIBILITY TO POSTHARVEST DISEASE (C. gloeosporioides) THROUGH 1-MCP TREATMENTS

The preformed (Z,Z)-1-acetoxy-2-hydroxy-4-oxo-heneicosa-12,15-diene (AFD) is the most active antifungal compound in avocado; it affects the quiescence of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in unripe fruit. Ethylene treatment (40 μg.l) of freshly harvested avocado fruits cv. Fuerte enhanced the expression patterns of genes encoding ∆ fatty acid desaturase, fatty acid elongase, their respective enzymatic activities, and the level of the AFD. Application of the ethylene-action inhibitor 1methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) after harvest and prior to ethylene treatment resulted in inhibition of fatty acid desaturase, fatty acid elongase and their enzymatic activities and AFD accumulation. 1-MCP treatment of fruit harvested 280 and 360 days after fruit set delayed fruit softening and reduced their AFD content compared with that in untreated fruits. However, decay symptoms caused by C. gloeosporioides were differentially affected by 1-MCP treatment after harvest. In the early-harvested fruits, the initial level of the AFD was 1820 μg. g fresh wt and the inhibition of the AFD synthesis by 1-MCP did not reduce it below its threshold for inhibiting C. gloeosporioides. In contrast, in the late-harvested fruits, the initial level of the AFD was only 950 μg. g fresh wt, and the 1-MCP treatment reduced the level of the AFD below its inhibition threshold, enabling fungal development in unripe fruits. These results demonstrate temporal relationships among fruit firmness, the synthesis of the precursor of AFD, the AFD content, and quiescence of C. gloeosporioides, and suggest that in avocado fruits, the processes of fruit ripening and AFD induction are independent processes that are differentially affected by ethylene action during fruit ripening.
Large Deviations for Boundary Driven Exclusion Processes

We study the totally asymmetric exclusion process on the positive integers with a single particle source at the origin. Liggett (1975) has shown that the long term behaviour of this process has a phase transition: If the particle production rate at the source and the initial density are below certain critical values, the stationary measure is a product measure, otherwise the stationary measure is spatially correlated. Following the approach of Derrida et al. (1993) it was shown by Grosskinsky (2004) that these correlations can be described by means of a matrix product representation. In this thesis we derive a large deviation principle with explicit rate function for the particle density in a macroscopic box based on this representation. The novel and rigorous technique we develop for this problem combines spectral theoretical and combinatorial ideas and has the potential to be applicable to other models described by matrix products.
Reasons for drinking wine and other beverages – comparison across motives in older adults

Objectives: Health as a positive reason for drinking wine (eg, antioxidant content) has scant empirical data to inform policy. This study attempted to examine that motive by including health as one of six motives for drinking, along with measures of problem drinking (the Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener [CAGE] questionnaire) in an older adult population. Design: Four drinking motives (enhancement, coping, social, and conformity), plus taste and health were included within a larger national telephone survey on drinking behaviors. We also recorded beverage preference. Results: In this analysis, 705 participants drank a preferred beverage. Taste was the most highly endorsed motive. Just under one quarter of the sample endorsed health as a positive reason for drinking. After controlling for age, sex, and preferred alcoholic beverage, the internal psychological motives of enhancement and coping predicted CAGE scores, but external motives did not. Believing that alcohol is healthy was a negative predictor of CAGE scores. Our results showed a different pattern to those with younger drinkers reported in previous research. Our older group was less likely to drink for social reasons and internal motives were predictive of CAGE scores. Conclusion: A motives-based approach to managing problem drinking will need to take account of a wider range of age-related motives. Based on the current data, there is little reason to suspect drinking wine for health reasons is associated with potential problem drinking.
Oral health literacy. A concise review.

According to the World Health Organization, Health Literacy (HL) corresponds to the cognitive and social abilities that determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access, to understand, and to use information in ways that provide and maintain good health. The development of HL in dentistry came late, and only in the last decade did it reach a level similar to that in the medical area. In dentistry, HL centered on the concept of Oral Health Literacy (OHL), defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic information on oral health and services that is necessary to make appropriate health decisions. The evidence suggests that people with low HL have worse health status and greater use of medical resources, which results in an increase in costs in the general population. Determinants of the level of OHL include age, level of education, and socioeconomic level. These determinants are reflected in low oral health and in less access to information or less understanding regarding care, pathologies, or dental treatments. The instruments for measuring HL and OHL are mainly aimed at recognizing arithmetic and reading skills, which are not fully related to the ability of the people surveyed to find, understand and use information related to health. OHL is an important issue at the level of health programs, because knowledge of OHL helps in medical practice, in disease prevention and in health promotion. OHL instruments must have validated and demonstrate adequate psychometric properties.
Influence of scatter of cyclic properties of material on operational endurance of construction

In this study we propose a simple computing procedure to determine in probabilistic form the material constants that enter fatigue-life calculation, namely fatigue strength (ductility) coefficient σ′ f , (ε ′ f) and fatigue strength (ductility) exponent b (c). The procedure, which assumes log-normal distribution of fatigue life on the S-N curve, is based on the shift of the regression line (representing the fatigue-life curve) to the desired value of the probability of occurrence, and yields a set of material constants σ′ f , b, ε ′ f , c ranging in probability of occurrence from 1 % to 99 %. Suitable application of this procedure to the life estimation model under random loading conditions yields the fatigue-life distribution function taking into consideration the scatter of cyclic material properties. The application of this method to evaluate fatigue reliability of a vehicle’s construction is also presented. Based on the proposed methodology, the maximum permissible value of the scatter of a welded joint’s cyclic properties was determined to ensure that the probability of premature fatigue failure occurrence would not exceed the allowable value. K e y w o r d s: material’s cyclic properties, fatigue-life distribution function, probabilistic analysis, welded joint
Application of Logistic Regression to Supporting Contractors Decision

The bid/no bid decision is one of the first and most important decisions to make by the contractor when seeking a construction contract. To facilitate the contractor’s reasoning by limiting randomness that may lead to mistakes decision support models are frequently applied. This paper presents possible applications of a logistic regression to support bidding decisions. On the basis of a set of data, the model was to suggest either participation in the bid or resignation from it. Methods of estimation and measurement of goodness of fit are presented in the paper. The results, 79,55% of correctly classified cases, confirmed the usability of logistic regression in solving the problem.
Design and Assessment of Joyful Mobile Navigation Systems based on TAM and Integrating Learning Models Applied on Ecological Teaching Activity

This research demonstrates the design of Joyful Mobile Navigation Systems (JMNS), which consists of joyful, mobile, flexible and ubiquitous features. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Integrating Learning Models (ILM) were used to design the teaching activities of Flow Learning and Inquiry-Based Learning in order to enhance learning motivation and interests for students in the ecological teaching activity. The developed JMNS belongs to a personalized informatin station of KIOSK that contains RFID bar-code recognization, tag reader, input device, mobile computation unit, QRcode, mobile display device, wireless local network and operating software. The aim of this research is to design and analyze the JMNS’s characteristics of the external variables, reliability and validity by measuring through the Human-Computer interface, which is achieved through the Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS) and implemented by using QR Code, GPS and RFID technologies. The developed JMNS have been applied in real teaching activity for improving learning intention. The research results show that the designed JMNS and teaching activity have a positive significant impact on learning motivation, material characteristics, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude to use, and behavioral intention. The results also show that only significant of part with support for the students’ system characteristics to the perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. That is, system developers should improve the design of Context Awareness System of teaching to help students in mobile navigation and teaching activity to have a comfortable interaction and increased learning intention. Furthermore, using JMNS in teaching activity can simultaneously increase learners’ motivation and offer a more joyful perception to learners during the learning process.
Data fusion of surface data sets of X-ray computed tomography measurements using locally determined surface quality values

Abstract. X-ray computed tomography as a measurement system faces some difficulties concerning the quality of the acquired measurements due to energy-dependent interaction of polychromatic radiation with the examined object at hand. There are many different techniques to reduce the negative influences of these artefact phenomena, which is also the aim of this newly introduced method. The key idea is to create several measurements of the same object, which only differ in their orientation inside the ray path of the measurement system. These measurements are then processed to selectively correct faulty surface regions. To calculate the needed geometrical transformations between the different measurements with the goal of a congruent alignment in one coordinate system, an extension of the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is used. To quantitatively classify any surface point regarding its quality value to determine the individual need of correction for each point, the local quality value (LQV) method is used, which has been developed at the Institute of Manufacturing Metrology. Different data fusion algorithms are presented whose performances are tested and verified using nominal–actual comparisons.
The monitoring role of the external ownership and discretionary accruals

Prior studies have focused on the role that the institutional investors play to control managerial behaviours as one of the factors of the external ownership in the developed countries specifically. Nevertheless, scant attention has given to the external ownership role whether the institutional or the foreign investors to maintain the minority shareholder interest especially with the presence of the central agency problem in the emerging markets such as Jordan. Thus, this study argued the monitoring role of the external ownership factors can minimize the managerial opportunistic behaviours through examining the relationship between external ownership factors and earnings management. Earnings management proxies using the performance-adjusted discretionary accruals model (Kothari et al. 2005 model) by applying the cross-sectional method to determine model parameters for each industry in each year. In order to achieve objectives of this research a sample of 798 firm-observation of the Jordanian nonfinancial firms listed in ASE during the period 2009-2015 were collected. The random-effect GLS regression model is used after following the correct procedures of the panel data analysis to determine the appropriate model as stated by the results of Hausman and LM tests. Hence, the correcting robust standard errors estimates method was used since the data was suffered from the heteroscedasticity problem. The results show that the institutional ownership in Jordan plays a vital role in mitigating the opportunistic behaviours of managers. Likewise, the existence of foreign ownership in firms minimizes the level of earnings management practices. These support the hypotheses that the institutional and foreign investors are able to control the managers of the firm. Also, provide evidence about the similarities between the role of the foreign investors and the role of institutional investors since there is a shortage of the evidence about foreign investors role especially with earnings management.
Tales on Tails

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Process Adaption and Modifications of a Nutrient Removing Wastewater Treatment Plant in Sri Lanka Operated at Low Loading Conditions

The Sri Lankan national water authority, that is The National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSD 2) The plant performance during the intermittent operation has been improved with respect to virtually all important pollution variables. The most striking improvement is the discharge total P level, reflecting that a substantial enhanced biological phosphorus removal takes. The typical discharge levels found during May 2012, were compared with the earlier obtained values. It is important to underline that the loading on the plant has slightly increased during May as compared with the previous operation period.
Barred galaxies in the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulation

We examine the properties of barred disc galaxies in a ΛCDM cosmological hydrodynamical simulation from the EAGLE project. Our study follows the formation of 269 discs identified at z = 0 in the stellar mass range 10.6 < log M★/M⊙ < 11. These discs show a wide range of bar strengths, from unbarred discs (≈60%) to weak bars (≈20%) to strongly barred systems (≈20%). Bars in these systems develop after redshift ≈1.3, on timescales that depend sensitively on the strength of the pattern. Strong bars develop relatively quickly (in a few Gyr, or roughly ∼10 disc rotation periods) in systems that are disc dominated, gas poor, and have declining rotation curves. Weak bars develop more slowly in systems where the disc is less gravitationally important, and are still growing at z = 0. Unbarred galaxies are comparatively gas-rich discs whose rotation speeds do not exceed the maximum circular velocity of the halos they inhabit. Bar lengths compare favourably with observations, ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 times the radius containing 90% of the stars. Bars slow down remarkably quickly as they grow, causing the inner regions of the surrounding dark halo to expand. At z = 0 strong bars in simulated galaxies have corotation radii roughly ten times the bar length. Such slow bars are inconsistent with the few cases where pattern speeds have been measured or inferred observationally, a discrepancy that, if confirmed, might prove a challenge for disc galaxy formation in ΛCDM.
Combining abilities of maize inbred lines for grey leaf spot (GLS), grain yield and selected agronomic traits in Kenya

The genetics of resistance to grey leaf spot (GLS) disease, grain yield and selected agronomic traits was studied in 42 F1 progenies from a full diallel cross among seven maize inbred lines. These 42 F1 progenies and seven parents were evaluated at three locations; Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Kiboko, KARI Kakamega and University of Nairobi (Field station) during the period June 2006 to April 2008. The experiments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Combining ability analyses were conducted on the across site data of grey leaf spot disease, grain yield and selected agronomic traits using Griffing’s method one, model one in the SAS program. Additive gene action played a greater role than non-additive gene action in the inheritance of resistance to grey leaf spot disease whereas the non additive effects were more important in the inheritance of grain yield. Reciprocal effects were not significant for GLS disease resistance and grain yield indicating absence of maternal effects for these traits. The inbred lines, CML 384 and CML 373 were the best combiners for grain yield with general combining ability (GCA) effects of 0.79 and 0.56 respectively while TZMI 711 and CML 373 were the best combiners for GLS resistance with highest negative values for GCA of -0.51 and -0.398, respectively. The local maize breeders could now incorporate the genes for GLS resistance in CML 373 and TZMI 711 and the grain yield genes in CML 384 into elite lines using recurrent and backcross methods, respectively in order to increase maize production and productivity in Kenya