Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integration of the predictedwalk model estimate into the particle filter framework

Distortion robustness is one of the most significant problems in automatic speech recognition. While a lot of research in speech feature enhancement in automatic recognition has focused on stationary distortions, most of the observed distortions are non-stationary. To cope with the non-stationary behavior, just recently, various particle filter approaches have been proposed to track the non-stationary distortions on speech features in logarithmic spectral or cepstral domain. Most of those techniques rely on the prediction of the noise evolution model by a linear prediction matrix. The current estimation of the linear prediction matrix, however, needs noise only observations which have to be either given a priori or to be detected by voice activity detection. This makes it impossible to adapt the linear prediction matrix to the dynamics of the noise on speech regions. In this publication we propose to estimate or update the linear prediction matrix directly on the noisy speech observations. This is possible within the particle filter framework by weighting the different noisy estimates (particles) due to their likelihood in the estimation equation of the linear prediction matrix. Speech recognition experiments on actual recordings with different speaker to microphone distances confirm the soundness of the proposed approach.
Area-Delay-Power Efficient Fixed-Point LMS Adaptive Filter With Low Adaptation-Delay

In this paper, we present an efficient architecture for the implementation of a delayed least mean square adaptive filter. For achieving lower adaptation-delay and area-delay-power efficient implementation, we use a novel partial product generator and propose a strategy for optimized balanced pipelining across the time-consuming combinational blocks of the structure. From synthesis results, we find that the proposed design offers nearly 17% less area-delay product (ADP) and nearly 14% less energy-delay product (EDP) than the best of the existing systolic structures, on average, for filter lengths N=8, 16, and 32. We propose an efficient fixed-point implementation scheme of the proposed architecture, and derive the expression for steady-state error. We show that the steady-state mean squared error obtained from the analytical result matches with the simulation result. Moreover, we have proposed a bit-level pruning of the proposed architecture, which provides nearly 20% saving in ADP and 9% saving in EDP over the proposed structure before pruning without noticeable degradation of steady-state-error performance.
A system for automatic model verification and validation

The increasing use of digital computers in the simulation of dynamic systems presents a number of new problems. In particular, the inclusion of a digital computer in a predominantly analog environment introduces time base problems. The digital computer appears to the analog circuitry to be a particular pulsed filter. Time delays due to sampling, computation, and output appear dynamically as ideal transportation delays.The effects of time delays1 can be compensated for at the digital-to-analog or analog-to-digital interfaces by either analog2 or digital lead filters. Considerations with respect to problem constraints and the available equip ment dictate where and by what means the compensation is to be mechanized. Problem constraints involve the num ber of variables to be interfaced, the characteristics of the variables to be predicted (i.e., not highly nonlinear or dis continuous) and the effects of prediction errors on the variables. Digital simulation of a system of equations usu ally results in a highe.
Three-phase method for Nurse Rostering

ABSTRACT The nurse rostering problem (NRP) aims at assigning working shift-patterns to a given number of nurses so as to satisfy a given set of constraints. Because of its great practical relevance and its computational intractability, any new effective method would be an addition to the arsenal of tools for dealing with NRP. Three ideas leading to a three-phase method constitute our contribution. Variable-fixing (VF) is the first one. This heuristic significantly reduces the problem size by discarding unpromising variables (let RNRP be the resulting reduced problem). Although RNRP is a small and sparse restricted version of the original NRP, computational experiments conducted on NSPLib dataset show that each optimal solution to RNRP is extended to an optimal or near-optimal solution to NRP. The second phase is a standard iterated local search (ILS) metaheuristic intended to create ‘elite solutions’ to RNRP. Building on the latter, the third phase defines a very small NRP which is solved with a general-purpose MIP-solver. Extended to the original NRP, the output of the last phase is the best solution found by the three-phase method. Extensive computational results are obtained on NSPLib dataset. The comparison shows that the proposed three-phase method outperforms four recent existing methods. Although slightly dominated from solution quality point of view, it is much faster than a general-purpose commercial solver.
UNIVERSAL IDENTIFICATION OF LOCATION SERVICE

We describe a decentralized, adaptive mechanism for replica location in wide-area distributed systems. Unlike traditional, hierarchical (e.g, DNS) and more recent (e.g.,CAN, Chord, Gnutella) distributed search and indexing schemes, nodes in our location mechanism do not route queries, instead, they organize into an overlay network and distribute location information. We contend that this approach works well in environments where replica location queries are prevalent but the dynamic component of the system (e.g., node and network failures, replica add/delete operations) cannot be neglected. We argue that a replica location mechanism that combines probabilistic representations of replica location information with soft-state protocols and a flat overlay network of nodes brings important benefits: genuine decentralization, low query latency, and flexibility to introduce adaptive communication schedules. We support these claims in two ways. First, we provide a rough resource consumption evaluation: we show that, for environments similar to those encountered in large scientific data analysis projects, generated network traffic is limited and, more importantly, is comparable to the traffic generated by a request routing scheme. Second, we provide encouraging performance data from a prototype implementation.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN VARIED TEACHING APPROACHES ON ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION OF STUDENTS OF MATHEMATICS

The purpose of this study was to compare and delennine the more effective approach by use of Infonnation and Communication Technology (lCT) on achievement and retention of secondary school students of mathematics in Pakistan. The three approaches used fOf this study were, the Computer Based Instruction (CBl). Computer Bascd Learning (CBL). and Teacher Centered (TC) approach. The research design was the posttesl-only control group design. Seventeen research questions were put in the study. Sample of the study were 63 students alld was heterogeneous to provide representation aeross ability level and gender. The achievement and retention instruments were in the IQnn of researcher's made posHest and the delayed-postlest. The CRI and COL boys and girls studems (taught separately) were grouped as treatment groups whereas the TC boys and girls students were grouped as reference group. The same topic mathematics, "Concept of Matrices" was taught to all three groups. The CBI groups were taught through software Educational Program of Gifted Youth (EPGY), developed by Stanford University, USA. These groups were also supported by lectures, drill, and practice and self-assessment opportunities. The CBL groups used the EPGY software and in addition they made use of all possible resources of information and communication technology; internet, c-mail, chaHing and on-line help. The TC groups were taught through traditional teaching techniques. Two-way analysis of Covariance (ANCQVA) procedure from SPSS program wa~ adapted for the analysis of data of the study. Significant levels of all research hypothesis tested in this study were at the 0.05 levels, There was no significant difference among score oflhe students taught mathematics through CBI, CBL and
Optimum Image Filters for Various Types of Noise

In this paper, the quality performance of several filters in restoration of images corrupted with various types of noise has been examined extensively. In particular, Wiener filter, Gaussian filter, median filter and averaging (mean) filter have been used to reduce Gaussian noise, speckle noise, salt and pepper noise and Poisson noise. Many images have been tested, two of which are shown in this paper. Several percentages of noise corrupting the images have been examined in the simulations. The size of the sliding window is the same in the four filters used, namely 5x5 for all the indicated noise percentages. For image quality measurement, two performance measuring indices are used: peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM). The simulation results show that the performance of some specific filters in reducing some types of noise are much better than others. It has been illustrated that median filter is more appropriate for eliminating salt and pepper noise. Averaging filter still works well for such type of noise, but of less performance quality than the median filter. Gaussian and Wiener filters outperform other filters in restoring mages corrupted with Poisson and speckle noise.
Design of a GALS Wrapper for Network on Chip

In this paper, we present the design of a GALS wrapper used in Network on Chip (NoC) based on standard cells. The GALS wrapper includes two communication ports, 4-phase handshake circuits, data buffer and signal synchronizer. The detailed design methodology of GALS wrapper is given and the circuits are validated with Verilog-HDL and implemented in FPGA. The simulation results show that the wrapper provides fast and reliable asynchronous communication services for the subsystems working with different clocks in NoC.
ANALISIS PENERIMAAN PENGGUNA APLIKASI SISTEM INFORMASI MANAJEMEN GAJI TASPEN DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL (Studi pada Pemerintah Kabupaten Musi Banyuasin)

Kehadiran suatu teknologi baru dapat menimbulkan reaksi pada diri pengguna baik reaksi menerima maupun menolak. Oleh karena itu, dianggap perlu untuk menganalisis model penerimaan teknologi tersebut oleh para pengguna.Penelitian Hanafi et al . , (2012) menyatakan variabel persepsi kemanfaatan dan persepsi kemudahaan penggunaan berpengaruh positif tehadap penerimaan pengguna teknologi informasi, berbeda dengan penelitian Riskiawan (2012) variabel persepsi kemanfaatan dan persepsi kemudahaan penggunaan tidak mempunyai pengaruh terhadap penerimaan pengguna teknologi informasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji variabel-variabel yang mempengaruhi penerimaan pengguna aplikasi Sistem Informasi Manajemen GajiTaspen dengan mengambil variabel-variabel yang terdapat pada penelitian model Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) oleh Davis et al . , (1989) dan penelitian ini mengadopsi dari Gahtani dan King (1999). Penelitian ini dilakukan pada Satuan Kerja Perangkat Daerahdi Pemerintah Kabupaten Musi Banyuasin. Penelitian ini memperoleh respon sebanyak 126 bendahara gaji yang merangkap menjadi operator pengguna aplikasi Sistem Informasi Manajemen Gaji Taspen dan telah bekerja atau menggunakan Sistem Informasi Manajemen Gaji minimal tiga bulan. Peneliti menggunakan teknik regresi linear berganda dengan software SPSS versi 21 untuk menguji data penelitian. Hasil analisis untuk model ini menunjukkan bahwa secara simultan dan parsial variabel persepsi kemanfaatan, persepsi kemudahan penggunaan, dan persepsi kenyamanan berpengaruh positif terhadap penerimaan pengguna aplikasi Sistem Informasi Manajemen Gaji. Hal ini berarti penerimaan dari pengguna Sistem Informasi Manajemen Gaji dipengaruhi oleh persepsi kemanfaatan, persepsi kemudahan penggunaan, dan persepsi kenyamanan. Kata Kunci: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Sistem Informasi Manajemen Gaji
Detection algorithms and architectures for wireless spatial multiplexing in MIMO-OFDM systems

The development of wireless telecommunication systems has been rapid during the last two decades and the data rates as well as the quality of service (QoS) requirements are continuously growing. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques in combination with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO–OFDM) have been identified as a promising approach for high spectral efficiency wideband systems. The optimal detection method for a coded MIMO–OFDM system with spatial multiplexing (SM) is the maximum a posteriori (MAP) detector, which is often too complex for systems with high order modulation. Suboptimal linear detectors, such as the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) criterion based detection, offer low complexity solutions, but have poor performance in correlated fading channels. A list sphere detector (LSD) is a tree search based soft output detector that can be used to approximate the MAP detector with a lower computational complexity. The benefits of the more advanced detectors can be realized especially in a low SNR environment by, e.g., increasing the cell coverage. In this thesis, we consider the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) criterion based detectors and more advanced LSDs for detection of SM transmission. The LSD algorithms are not as such feasible for hardware implementation. Therefore, we identify the design choices that relate to the performance and implementation complexity of the LSD algorithms. We give guidelines to the LSD algorithm design and propose the proper tradeoff solutions for practical wireless systems. The more stringent requirements call for further research on architectures and implementation. In particular, it is important to address the parallelism and pipelining factors in the architecture design to enable an optimal trade-off between used resources and operating speed. We design pipelined systolic array architecture for LMMSE detector algorithms and efficient architectures with given algorithm properties for the LSD algorithms. We consider the VLSI implementation of the algorithms to study the true performance and complexity. The designed architectures are implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip and CMOS application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology. Finally, we present some measurement results with a hardware testbed to verify the performance of the considered algorithms.
Point-of-interest recommendation in location-based social networks with personalized geo-social influence

Point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is a popular topic on location-based social networks (LBSNs). Geographical proximity, known as a unique feature of LBSNs, significantly affects user check-in behavior. However, most of prior studies characterize the geographical influence based on a universal or personalized distribution of geographic distance, leading to unsatisfactory recommendation results. In this paper, the personalized geographical influence in a two-dimensional geographical space is modeled using the data field method, and we propose a semi-supervised probabilistic model based on a factor graph model to integrate different factors such as the geographical influence. Moreover, a distributed learning algorithm is used to scale up our method to large-scale data sets. Experimental results based on the data sets from Foursquare and Gowalla show that our method outperforms other competing POI recommendation techniques.
Measuring Business Process Consistency Across Different Abstraction Levels

Business process modeling can take place at three abstraction levels, namely the conceptual level for system requirements, the logical level for system specification, and the physical level for software development. The consistency between these process models is crucial in process mapping, process integration, and difference detection. Existing work either only provides a simple “yes” or “no” answer as the consistency result, or simply checks the consistency from the control flow perspective. This paper presents a systematic approach to the quantitative measurement of the consistency between business processes across different abstraction levels. We use the essential event constraints to quantify the consistency from the perspectives of control flow and data flow, where the importance of different essential event constraints can also be distinguished. Our approach is implemented in a prototype tool. We evaluate our approach using synthetic datasets, the results of which demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
What educational activities fit virtual worlds: Towards a theoretical evaluation framework

Many universities and colleges are investing in teaching and learning developments in virtual worlds despite a lack of any clear guidelines or rules for when virtual worlds will provide benefits over established communication media. Among activities that have been successfully tried out so far are interpersonal role play and oral language education, while other practices like traditional lecturing and business transaction oriented role plays seem to be less suitable for successful implementation. Our objective in this paper is to develop an evaluative framework educational for educational activities in virtual worlds based on Media Richness and Task Closure Theories from Management Information Systems. We demonstrate the use of the framework for three educational activities conducted in the virtual world of Second Life.
An Improved Markov Source Design for Scan BIST

Recently, Markov sources were shown to achieve 100% fault efficiency at low area overhead when used as pseudo-random pattern generators in scan BIST. In this paper we give a new method of designing Markov sources. The new design attempts to match probabilities of 1 to 0 and 0 to 1 transitions in consecutive bits of a set of test vectors, taking into account that the transition probabilities may be different for different bit positions. Experimental results show that the proposed method considerably reduces the hardware overhead and test lengths required to achieve 100% fault coverage.
Towards Agile Integration within Higher Education: A Systematic Assessment

Adopting an industry project-oriented approach in Higher Education teaching, research and management activities, under given quality metrics, has been intensively studied within Agile software development practices. The current work investigates Agile applicability and its practical implications into Higher Education, through a Systematic Assessment. The lack of a secondary study approach results in trending gaps and misalignments between new research proposals and the current state-of the art. Directions for further research and specific current developments are addressed in a structured manner, through relevant distributions of the publication fora according to Agile facets (research areas, methodologies, type of intervention and contribution). Study selection and data extraction have been performed under the Systematic Mapping protocol (question formulation, selection and filtering, mapping) offering a conclusive review on means of Agile integration over almost a decade.
Self-Organizing Energy-Saving Management Mechanism Based on Pilot Power Adjustment in Cellular Networks

Little literature concentrates on effective and self-organizing regional energy-saving schemes in cellular networks with dynamic traffic. In this paper, we propose a regional self-organizing energy-saving management mechanism through pilot power adjustment in cellular networks. The mechanism analyzes autonomic processes for saving energy firstly. Then, it proposes regional BS TP (Trigonal-Pair) compensation method to determine BS modes for saving energy. Next, it adopts intelligent coverage compensation algorithm to adjust pilot power of compensated BSs, so as to avoid coverage hole and ensure enough capacity. Integrated evaluation model is still proposed in the mechanism to validate efficiency of proposed algorithms. Simulations show that about 17% of regional energy consumption can be saved. In comparison to other ES methods, our ES mechanism can obtain better energy-saving outcomes and keep service quality and coverage above acceptable levels.
DOES A COMBINATION OF METAPHOR AND PAIRING ACTIVITY HELP PROGRAMMING PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT SELF- REGULATED LEARNING LEVEL?

This study aims to investigate the effects of metaphors and pairing activity on programming performance of students with different self-regulated-learning (SRL) level. A total of 84 computing students were involved in this seven-week study, and they were randomly assigned either to a group that received a combination of metaphor and pair programming (MPP) or to another group that received pair programming (PP) only. Students in both groups worked in pairs according to their SRL level (one high and one low) when solving programming problems in C++ language. The findings revealed that high SRL students in the MPP method performed significantly better in recall than their peers in the PP method, and similar result was observed among the low SRL students. However, no interaction effect was observed between the method and SRL level on programming performance, i.e., high SRL students always perform better either in the MPP or PP groups. Metaphors have assisted the learners to develop better conceptual understanding by linking the known to newly acquired
Scalable routing with adaptive route table updating in the large ad hoc networks

In this paper, we address the scalable route problem of the large ad hoc network. The routing problem of ad hoc network is particularly challenging, especially for the large ad hoc networks, because the large number of mobile node and the high mobility of the mobile node. FSR (Fisheye state routing) scheme is proposed to resolve the routing problem in large ad hoc networks, but the this protocol use fixed route table update interval, so routing overhead of FSR is relative large while the mobility of node is high. This paper proposed DTUI (dynamic route table update interval) scheme to keep the routing overhead increasing linearly with the increasing number of the mobile hosts in the ad hoc networks. In our adaptive scheme, each node adaptive adjust own route table update interval according to the mobility of the mobile nodes. We study two types of execution: range-based DTUI adaptation and continuous function DTUI adaptation. The simulations prove that our scheme can reduce the routing overhead while guarantee certain route accuracy.
Ontology-Based Categorisation of Medical Texts for Health Professionals

The appropriate categorisation of written information by health professionals is very important to guarantee its accessibility. Unfortunately, the information technology tools that support professionals on that task imply a heavy workload, so that the responsibility for categorising the written content is often delegated to administrative staff. Well-known health ontologies such as SNOMED-CT or MeSH provide a representation of the clinical contents to be used by the information systems. This research proposes a computer based method to automatically extract and code the diagnostics, procedures and treatments according to health ontologies. A Knowledge Management System based on an extended version of Drupal is used to implement and evaluate this proposal. Results provide a positive evidence on the application of the method to support medical professionals.