Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online Personalization in Exploratory Search

Modern society produces vast amounts of digital data related to multiple domains of our lives. We produce data in our free time when browsing the net or taking photos with various personal devices, such as phones or ipads. Businesses and governments also gather a lot of information related to our interests, habits or otherwise personal information (legal status, health data, etc.). The amount of data produced is growning too large for us to be handled manually, and so to assist the user, specialized information retrieval systems have been developed to allow efficient perusal of different types of data. Unfortunately, as using such systems often requires expert understanding of the domain in question, many users get lost in their attempt to navigate the search space. This problem will only be exacerbated in the future, as the amount of data keeps growing, giving us less time to learn about the domains involved. Exploratory search is a field of research that studies user behaviour in situations, where users have little familiarity with the search domain, or have not yet decided exactly what their search goal is. Situations such as these arise when the user wishes to explore what is available, or is otherwise synthesizing or investigating the data. To assist the user in exploratory search and in finding relevant information, various methodologies may be employed, such as user modeling techniques or novel interfaces and data visualization techniques.
Robust fine-grained image classification

This thesis tackles fine-grained image recognition, the task of sub-category or species classification. It explores general methods to improve fine-grained image classification including the use of generative models and deep convolutional neural networks leading to novel models such as a Mixture of deep convolution neural networks. This work led to 9 peer reviewed publications and a Best Paper Award.
Working Paper Series Stochastic Convergence in the Euro Area

We investigate the dynamics of stochastic convergence of th e original Euro Area countries for inflation rates, nominal interest rates, and real interest rates. We test for convergence relative to Germany, taken as the ben chmark for core EU standards, using monthly data over the period January 2001 t o September 2010. We examine, in a time-series framework, three different pro files of the convergence process: linear convergence, nonlinear convergence , a d linear segmented convergence. Our findings both contradict and support conve rgence. Stochastic convergence implies the rejection of a unit root in the inflat ion rate, nominal interest rate, and real interest rate differentials. We find th at e differentials are consistent with a unit-root hypothesis when the alternativ e hypothesis is I(0) with a linear trend. But we frequently, but not always, reject the unit-root hypothesis when the alternative is I(0) with a broken trend. We also note that the current financial crisis plays a significant role in dating the breaks . Journal of Economic Literature Classification: F36, F42, C20, C50
Optimal Bit Allocation at Frame Level for Rate Control in HEVC

Rate control plays an important role in video coding systems, which makes the output bitrate of a video encoder equal to the target bitrate while minimizing the distortion of the compressed video. However, most of the existing rate control schemes achieve accurate bitrate control at the loss of rate-distortion (R-D) performance. This paper proposes an effective frame level bit allocation method to improve the R-D performance whilst maintaining the high accuracy of the bitrate control in HEVC. First, an improved R-D model is presented at the frame level, which, by making use of the information of encoded frames more completely, achieves higher accuracy with lower bitrate mismatch rate. Second, a group of picture (GOP) level bit allocation approach is introduced with the consideration of the temporal R-D dependency among different GOPs, which can further enhance the R-D performance. Finally, to achieve optimal R-D performance globally, a formulation for optimal frame level bit allocation is developed with a GOP level Lagrange multiplier introduced, which takes into account the coding effects of a current frame on the other frames within the same GOP. A scheme of recursive Taylor expansion is employed to find the GOP level Lagrange multiplier. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve considerable R-D performance improvement and accurate bitrate control. Specifically, our method shows 3.9% and 3.8% BD-rate saving in average compared against the HEVC reference software HM16.7 with rate control in the low-delay B and low-delay P coding structures, respectively.
Presidential Cycles and Time-Varying Bond-Stock Correlations : Evidence from More than Two Centuries of Data

Utilizing a DCC-GARCH model to capture time-varying correlations, we show that Democratic administrations are generally associated with lower degree of co-movement between the stock and government bond returns. The findings are in line with the documented presidential cycle effect on stock market returns and corroborate recent evidence that, when risk aversion is high, agents tend to elect the Democratic Party.
Framework for Measuring the Quality of Software Specification

This paper proposes a platform for measuring the quality of structure and functional requirement in software requirement specification (SRS). The SRS contains information needed to ensure the quality of the software. Measurement will be proposed based on four quality properties namely preciseness, consistency, completeness and correctness. The completeness properties will be used to measure the SRS which is based on IEEE 830 as a minimal standard. Meanwhile, the consistency, correctness and preciseness properties are proposed to be used for measuring the functional requirement in the document. The measurement of the overall quality of the SRS will be calculated based on all quality properties. The rules and formula for computing the SRS quality are embedded in proposed framework. , which is a basis for platform for assessing the software quality.
From text to task: Putting research on abstracts to work

In recent years there has been a noticeable upsurge in the amount of research devotedto abstracts, particularly research article abstracts. In a survey published in 2005,Montesi and Urdiciain identified 28 studies of abstracts, and several more haveappeared since then. In consequence, the issue that now arises is how to turn thesediscourse-analytic findings into materials and activities that will benefit theinternational community of scholars and research students. In this chapter, werespond to this issue by illustrating and discussing certain of the tasks contained in Abstracts and the writing of abstracts (Swales and Feak, 2009).
Dimenzije psihološke dobrobiti hrvatskih studenata: spolne razlike i povezanost s osobinama ličnosti

1 Andreja Brajša-Žganec je znanstvena savjetnica. Doktorirala je psihologiju na Sveučilištu u Zagrebu. Znanstveni interesi su joj: psihosocijalni razvoj djece i adolescenata, obiteljski odnosi, roditeljstvo i dječji razvoj, kvaliteta života u obitelji i školi, individualne karakteristike učenika, subjektivni indikatori kvalitete življenja, timski rad. Predaje kolegije iz područja razvojne psihologije i psihologije obrazovanja na Hrvatskim studijima i Učiteljskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. 2 Danijela Ivanović radi kao psiholog na poslovima obiteljsko pravne zaštite djece, mladih i obitelji u postupcima rastave braka, obiteljskim odnosima, pitanjima roditeljske skrbi, nasilja u obitelji, s djecom s poremećajima u ponašanju i udomiteljskim obiteljima. Završila je II. stupanj edukacije iz kognitivno – bihevioralne terapije. Znanstveni interesi su joj u području pozitivne psihologije i psihologije braka i obitelji. 3 Josip Burušić je znanstveni savjetnik, voditelj Centra za istraživanje znanja, obrazovanja i ljudskog kapitala. Doktorat znanosti stekao je 2003. na Sveučilištu u Zagrebu. Voditelj je značajnih i kompleksnih empirijskih projekata u području obrazovanja, osobito onih vezanih uz funkcioniranje i djelovanje osnovnoškolskog sustava Republike Hrvatske. Objavio je više od 70 znanstvenih članaka, stručnih publikacija i kongresnih priopćenja.
Spanning tree-based genetic algorithm for the bicriteria fixed charge transportation problem

In this paper, we present a genetic algorithm with a spanning tree representation for solving the bicriteria fixed charge transportation problem. First we consider the fixed charge transportation problem with a single objective function by the spanning tree-based genetic algorithm, and then extend this GA approach to solve the bicriteria problem. Due to the bicriteria program, the fitness function is constructed by dynamic scaling which normalizes the different data from the bicriteria region. The proposed genetic algorithm can find Pareto optimal solutions in the bicriteria space. Computational results will show the performance of the spanning tree-based genetic algorithm.
A Joint Scheduling / Admission Control Policy for Multimedia Services in UTRA FDD

Radio Resource Management (RRM) in 3G networks is a very challenging issue since it has to handle air interface resources in order to guarantee high capacity and QoS to different kinds of services. In particular in the terrestrial UMTS this issue is quite complex due to the soft capacity of its access technique (i.e. WCDMA). This paper is focused on RRM issues in the uplink, where the system is limited by the interference among the active users at the Node B. An innovative solution based on a joint scheduling/admission control policy is presented in this paper. Besides an UMTS radio access simulator, fully taking into account both user movement and channel conditions, is employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm and compare it to classic solutions. Simulation results show the improvements ttained by the proposed solution. a
Three Dimensional MR Brain Image Reconstruction and Interactive Segmentation Based Tumor Region Extraction Using Active Contour Models

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system projects the anatomical structures of brain onto spatial domain. Three-dimensional (3D) construction of brain tumor using several slides of MRI has always been of keen interest for diagnosis and for research purpose. This paper presents a three dimensional brain image reconstruction methodology which is very much helpful in predicting the depth of any abnormality in the image and also proposes an active contour based approach for the extraction of the abnormal (tumor) region. The extracted regions are modeled using Iso surface 3D view models.
Rewrite Support System for Simplifying Japanese News Scripts

NHK はインターネットサイト NEWS WEB EASY で外国人を対象としたやさしい 日本語のニュースを提供している. やさしい日本語のニュースは日本語教師と記者 の 2 名が通常のニュースを共同でやさしく書き換えて制作し,本文にはふりがな, 難しい語への辞書といった読解補助情報が付与されている. 本稿では NEWS WEB EASY のやさしい日本語の書き換え原則,および制作の体制とプロセスの概要と課 題を説明した後,課題に対処するために開発した 2 つのエディタを説明する. 1 つ は書き換えを支援する「書き換えエディタ」である. 書き換えエディタは先行のシ ステムと同様に難しい語を指摘し,書き換え候補を提示する機能を持つが,2 名以 上の共同作業を支援する点,難しい語の指摘機能に学習機能を持つ点,また,候補 の提示に書き換え事例を蓄積して利用する点に特徴がある. 他の 1 つは「読解補助 情報エディタ」である. 読解補助情報エディタは,ふりがなや辞書情報を自動推定 する機能,さらに推定誤りの修正結果を学習する機能を持つ. 以上のように 2 つの エディタは,自動学習と用例の利用により,読解補助情報の推定の誤り,やさしい 日本語の書き方の方針変更などに日々の運用の中で自律的に対応できるようになっ ている. 本稿では 2 つのエディタの詳細説明の後,日本語教師および記者を対象に 実施したアンケート調査,およびログ解析によりエディタの有効性を示す. キーワード:やさしい日本語,NEWS WEB EASY,書き換え支援システム,機械学習
PENENTUAN JUMLAH LOKET PELAYANAN YANG OPTIMAL DI BPJS KESEHATAN CABANG SIDOARJO

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengetahui rata-rata waktu tunggu,utilitas server dan rata-rata waktu pelayanan, memberikan usulan perbaikan system antrian dan model antrian yang sesuaipada BPJS Kesehatan Cabang Sidoarjo. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode simulasi dengan software ARENA versi 5.0. Metode simulasi dapat memberikan penyelidikan yang langsung dan terperinci dalam periode waktu tertentu dan lebih realistis terhadap system nyata. Data yang digunakan untuk analisis system antrian ini adalah data primer, yaitu berupa data waktu kedatangan pelanggan dan data waktu pelayanan (server), untuk pengukuran waktu dilakukan dengan menggunakan bantuan stopwatch. Pelanggan yang dating memiliki waktu antar kedatangan yaitu dari 1.8-2 menit. Kemudian waktu yang dihabiskan pelanggan untuk mengantri berkisar antara 6-38 menit, dan lama waktu loket dalam melayani pelanggan mengabiskan waktu antara 6-17 menit.Dari hasil penelitian dapat diketahui bahwa dengan menggunakan 6 loket didapat utilitas server sebesar 99,64% ; apabila menggunakan 7 loket didapat utilitas server sebesar 86,46%, sedangkan menggunakan 8 loket didapat utilitas server sebesar 69,26%. Berdasarkan hasil dari 3 usulan perbaikan, maka dipilih usulan ke-2 yang paling optimal yaitu dengan penambahan 1 fasilitas pelayanan loket. Maka model antrian yang cocok adalah dengan system antrian Multichannel-Single Phase .
Multimodal medical image fusion by combining gradient minimization smoothing filter and non-subsampled directional filter bank

A new algorithm was proposed for medical images fusion in this paper, which combined gradient minimization smoothing filter (GMSF) with non-sampled directional filter bank (NSDFB). In order to preserve more detail information, a multi scale edge preserving decomposition framework (MEDF) was used to decompose an image into a base image and a series of detail images. For the fusion of base images, the local Gaussian membership function is applied to construct the fusion weighted factor. For the fusion of detail images, NSDFB was applied to decompose each detail image into multiple directional sub-images that are fused by pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to the compared algorithms in both visual effect and objective assessment.
Effects of climate change on the future distributions of the top fi ve freshwater invasive plants in South Africa

a African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, APK Campus, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa b South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X101, Silverton, Pretoria 0184, South Africa c Department of Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Florida 1710, Florida Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa d Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag x17, Bellville, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Risk Preferences and the Impact of Credit and Insurance on Farm Technology Uptake

We use a series of credit and insurance simulation games to test the role of access to credit and insurance on magnitude and timing of farm technology uptake with small-scale farmers in South Africa. Using Cumulative Prospect Theory, we assess how insurance impacts technology uptake given risk preferences. Our findings suggest that risk aversion is linked to lower uptake of the insured technology. while loss averse farmers are more likely to adopt technology bundled with insurance. Higher weighting of small probability events leads to later uptake of the uninsured technology option. We further find that wealth is critical in uptake of technology, with cumulative experimental income and real household income stifling investment in insured and uninsured technology options even when real wealth is not at stake. Overall, we find that insurance is not sufficient to counter the behavioural factors linked to asset constraints and risk preferences that suppress modern farm technology uptake.
Planar array of right-angled isosceles triangular microstrip antenna using Koch and meander lines for the Internet of things

An ultrawideband antenna array using a right-angled isosceles triangular microstrip antenna as a basic element is presented using inset feed for applications in the Internet of things. A Koch fractal antenna array with defected ground plane is used to generate multiband applications. Further, meander lines are added to increase the equivalent inductance that reduces the size of the antenna and increases the bandwidth and gain. Antenna arrays have been constructed and experimentally studied. The measured results show good agreement with the numerical prediction and wideband operation.
Running head: NONFATAL STRANGULATION AND COERCIVE CONTROL

Strangulation is different to other types of physical violence as it often leaves no visible injuries, and is frequently motivated by coercive control. Few studies have explored nonfatal strangulation and coercive control, and no studies have explored these factors within a sample of stalkers. Given that stalking perpetrators exhibit many of the coercively controlling behaviors related to nonfatal strangulation, the current study explored nonfatal strangulation and other coercively controlling behaviors in a stalking sample. A police dataset of 9,884 cases of domestic violence that involved stalking was analyzed. Results revealed that coercive control, and related behaviors of excessive jealousy, victim isolation, victim fear, and victim’s belief that the perpetrator will kill them, were associated with higher likelihood of having experienced nonfatal strangulation. These results may help first responders to identify victims at risk of nonfatal strangulation, and suggest a need for nonfatal strangulation to be a criminal offense.
Edulabs AGIRE project – evaluation of ICT integration in teaching strategies

Abstract The AGIRE project, under the Edulab concept, aims to promote the adoption of innovative teaching practices. This paper reports the support strategies used to evaluate the teacher practices at the end of a teacher training course (TTC) and analyse its impact on teacher technology integration, using a design-based methodology. Teachers’ initial perception was gathered using an online questionnaire comprising ICT personal and professional competencies. The questionnaire results and the classroom observations showed that the majority of teachers were at the level of ICT adoption, before attending the TTC, reaching the adaptation level of integration of ICT, after the TTC. A variety of teaching strategies (flipped classroom, collaborative work, …) and technologies (interactive white boards, tablets, videos, …) were explored. The results sustain the thesis that, with proper support, ICT can be integrated in educational contexts in an innovative way and contribute to the development of teachers’ digital literacy.
A Runtime Metric of Design Confidence EECS 578 Final Project , Fall 2006

We offer a series of statistical approaches that quantify confidence in a digital system’s design at runtime. Using runtime checkers to detect errors, we present a system to collate information about these errors and assign a confidence number to both a design and modules in the design. We then show methods for implicating unchecked modules for failures deeper in the system. Using these methods, we give a series of examples of a small system with numerous errors among its modules. We show that even without checking all modules, we can often find the modules in which errors originate and replace these modules, resulting in the betterment of the system as a whole.
Improved Algorithm for Mining of High Utility patterns in one phase Based on Map Reduce Framework on Hadoop

Mining high utility itemsets from a value-based database alludes to the disclosure of itemsets with high utility like benefits. In spite of the fact that various significant calculations have been proposed lately, they bring about the problem of causing a sizably voluminous number of applicant itemsets for high utility itemsets. Such a large number of candidate itemsets degrades the mining performance in terms of execution time and space requirement. Earlier work shows this on two phase candidate generation. This approach suffers from scalability issue due to the huge number of candidates. Our paper presents the efficient approach where we can generate high utility patterns in one phase without generating candidates. Here we have taken experiments on linear data structure, our pattern growth approach is to search a reverse set enumeration tree and to prune search space by utility upper bounding. Also high utility patterns are identified by a closure property and singleton property. Iin this venture we are displaying new approach which is extending these calculations to conquer the restrictions utilizing the Map Reduce structure on Hadoop. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms, not only reduce the number of candidates effectively but also outperform other algorithms substantially in terms of runtime, especially when databases contain lots of long transactions.
Resource control and reconfiguration in software radio environment

The SoftWare Radio (SWR) concept is one of the emerging new technologies to solve nowadays bottlenecks in the converging telecommunication and information systems. In this paper we give a survey about resource control and reconfiguration support in software radio architecture developed in the frames of European CAST (Configurable radio with Advanced Software Technology) project.
Improving transmission rate in WIMAX technology downlink

In this article presents mathematical model of sub-channels distribution in networks with standard IEEE 802.16, which provides a guaranteed rate of user stations in downlink. Using various kinds of objective functions in offered model is directed to allocation of minimum data rate transmission of every user station. A comparative analysis of obtained solutions by using different objective functions was conducted. The given work presents mathematical model of sub-channels distribution in networks with standard IEEE 802.16, which provides a guaranteed rate of user stations in downlink. Using various kinds of objective functions in offered model is directed to allocation of minimum data rate transmission of every user station. A comparative analysis of obtained solutions by using different objective functions was conducted. The principles of structural and functional self-organization have to be used. A high level of selforganization can be achieved through perfected existence of network protocols and mechanisms responsible for allocation of network access resources.Subcarrier frequency is primary building block of OFDM method that using to distribute sub-channel for users, logical union of which forms an element of frequency resources, called the sub-channel[1]. Most of famous solutions for frequency resource allocation are directed to solving subcarriers allocation problem. Number of subcarriers forming a single frequency channel may be different and is determined by scaling factor. As a result task of frequency resources allocation should be reduced to the problem of sub-channels allocation between user network stations [2]. In developing of mathematical model it must be taken into account the fact that in the case of a allocated arrangement of sub-carriers in the specification of WMAN-OFDMA, there are two sub-modes determine formation of "frequency structure" of sub-channels [2]: submode OFDMA FUSC Full Usage of Subcarriers; submode OFDMA PUSC Partial Usage of Subcarriers. In addition to calculation of required variables it is necessary to meet a number of important conditions, restrictions [4]: 1) Condition of fixing of k sub-channel only for one user station: 1 1    N n l n x ( L l , 1  ); (1) 2) Condition selection of nuser desired rate :
Modeling of Consumer Buying Behaviour Using Z-Number Concept

AbstractConsumer behaviour has always been of a great interest in marketing research. The consumer buying behaviour has become an integral part of strategic market planning and includes mental, emotional and physical activities. The consumer behaviour and decision-making process are usually subject to uncertainties related to influences of socio-cultural, psychological and personal factors. In this paper, the Z-number concept is applied for handling uncertainties in analysing the consumer buying behaviour.