Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Empirical Exploration of Refactoring effect on Software Quality using External Quality Factors

Quality software are robust, reliable and easy to maintain, and therefore reduces the cost of software maintenance. Since software systems undergo modifications, improvements and enhancements to cope with evolving requirements, quality of software can be decreased. While software system is evolving, Refactoring is one of the methods which have been applied with the purpose of improving the software quality. Refactoring is defined as the process of improving the design of the existing code by changing its internal structure without affecting its external behavior, with the main aims of improving the quality of software product. Therefore, there is belief that refactoring improves quality factors such as understandability, flexibility, and reusability. However, there is limited empirical evidence to support such assumptions. The objective of this study is to validate/invalidate the claims that refactoring improves software quality. Experimental research approach was used to achieve the objective and ten selected refactoring techniques were used for the analysis. The overall impact of selected refactoring techniques and the impact of individual refactoring technique was assessed based on external measures namely; analyzability, changeability, time behavior and resource utilization. After analyzing the experimental results, overall analysis ended up with the result that refactoring deteriorate the code quality. However, individual analysis shows that some refactoring techniques improve the code quality while rest is deteriorating the code quality. Furthermore, among the tested ten refactoring techniques, “Replace Conditional with Polymorphism” ranked in the highest as having high percentage of improvement in code quality and “Introduce Null Object” was ranked as worst which is having highest percentage of deteriorate of code quality among the analyzed ten refactoring techniques.
High-level programming of coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures

Embedded signal processing systems are facing the challenges of increased computational demands. Reconfigurable architectures, which can be configured to form application-specific hardware, offer not only high degree of parallelism but also the possibility to dynamically allocate the resources during run-time. This allows the user to implement applications which are otherwise too large to be handled by a particular device. The reconfigurable computing devices have evolved over the years from the gate-level arrays to a more coarse-grained composition of highly optimized functional blocks or even program controlled processing elements, which are operated in a coordinated manner to improve performance and energy efficiency.
Use of online social networking sites among pre-service information technology teachers

The current study aimed to investigate the current status and perceptions of pre-service information technology (IT) teachers regarding the use of online social networking sites (SNSs). The investigation was further supported through participant feedback regarding the design and implementation of a blended learning environment to embrace online SNSs in instructional settings. The study had a qualitative nature and employed a focus group interview to collect data. Participants were ten fourth graders who were randomly selected from voluntary undergraduate students enrolled at an IT education department of a Turkish state university. Researchers resorted to content analysis through an inductive coding process, provided themes addressing student perceptions and needs, and proposed implications and suggestions for further instructional practices.
Estimation of rice growth status using RADARSAT data

The Multiple Temporal RADARSAT images were used to monitor the growth status of rice in Zhaoqing test site of south China. The relative brightness of rice fields shows that the radar backscatter increases as the rice grows up, and it is related to the growing period and status of rice and changes over different seasons.
Implementation of a neural network model for control in grasping a moving target

An approach to the control of a robot manipulator in grasping a simple moving target with constant speed is presented. A layered neural network architecture-based controller has been developed. It can automatically learn visual motor coordination for the fast reaching movements required in grasping a moving target. A learning scheme known as two-phase learning is described for teaching the skill to the controller. Learning in the controller is achieved through a sequence of trial movements without the presence of a 'teacher'. Visual feedback showing the action of the controller is used to adapt it so as to reduce the error between the target and the robot's gripper. <<ETX>>
A Cross-Layer Design for Downlink Scheduling in SDMA Packet Access Networks

This paper deals with the problem of downlink scheduling in SDMA packet access networks. The performance of the SDMA system is predominantly affected by the mutual interference between users. In order to ensure the quality of service (QoS) and enhance the resource utilization, the scheduler needs to jointly consider the constraints from the physical layer (spatial separability for instance) and the data link layer (such as QoS requirements). In this paper, we propose a simple cross-layer downlink scheduler for SDMA based systems. As an example, it is implemented on an OFDMA/SDMA system. Analysis and simulations are given to show the effectiveness of our proposal.
Learning advanced skills on new instruments

When learning a classical instrument, people often either take lessons in which an existing body of "technique" is delivered, evolved over generations of performers, or in some cases people will "teach themselves" by watching people play and listening to existing recordings. What does one do with a complex new digital instrument? In this paper I address this question drawing on my experience in learning several very different types of sophisticated instruments: the Glove Talk II real-time gesture-to-speech interface, the Digital Marionette controller for virtual 3D puppets, and pianos and keyboards. As the primary user of the first two systems, I have spent hundreds of hours with Digital Marionette and Glove-Talk II, and thousands of hours with pianos and keyboards (I continue to work as a professional musician). I will identify some of the underlying principles and approaches that I have observed during my learning and playing experience common to these instruments. While typical accounts of users learning new interfaces generally focus on reporting beginner's experiences, for various practical reasons, this is fundamentally different by focusing on the expert's learning experience.
Multiple-domain concurrent and comparative simulation

Multiple-domain concurrent and comparative simulation (MDCCS), a generalization of concurrent and comparative simulation (CCS), and thus of discrete event simulation, is introduced. MDCCS is a generalization that makes concurrent simulation applicable to virtually every task or problem that can be handled with discrete event simulation. <<ETX>>
Evaluating Interpreter's Skill by Measurement of Prosody Recognition

Sign language is a visual language in which main articulators are hands, torso, head, and face. For simultaneous interpreters of Japanese sign language (JSL) and spoken Japanese, it is very important to recognize not only the hands movement but also prosody such like head, eye, posture and facial expression. This is because prosody has grammatical rules for representing the case and modification relations in JSL. The goal of this study is to introduce an examination called MPR (Measurement of Prosody Recognition) and to demonstrate that it can be an indicator for the other general skills of interpreters. For this purpose, we conducted two experiments: the first studies the relationship between the interpreter’s experience and the performance score on MPR (Experiment-1), and the second investigates the specific skill that can be estimated by MPR (Experiment-2). The data in Experiment-1 came from four interpreters who had more than 1-year experience as interpreters, and more four interpreters who had less than 1-year experience. The mean accuracy of MPR in the more experienced group was higher than that in the less experienced group. The data in Experiment-2 came from three high MPR interpreters and three low MPR interpreters. Two hearing subjects and three deaf subjects evaluated their skill in terms of the speech or sign interpretation skill, the reliability of interpretation, the expeditiousness, and the subjective sense of accomplishment for the ordering pizza task. The two experiments indicated a possibility that MPR could be useful for estimating if the interpreter is sufficiently experienced to interpret from sign language to spoken Japanese, and if they can work on the interpretation expeditiously without making the deaf or the hearing clients anxious. Finally we end this paper with suggestions for conclusions and future work.
Simulating Routing Protocols Performance Using Ns-Allinone Tool

Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a challenging network in which communication between mobile node and Mobile Ad Hoc network are connected dynamically and arbitrarily located in such a way that the interconnections between nodes are capable of changing on a continual basis like IETF scenario which is unpredictable and difficult to analyze the performance of its routing protocols and application. In this paper, the performance of the routing protocols (AODV, DSDV, and DSR) over MANET has been measured using the network simulator NS2. We obtained critical analysis for routing protocols AODV, DSDV, and DSR measured by PDF (Packet Delivery Fraction), PDR (Packet Delivery Ratio), Packet loss, end-to-end delay, and throughput.
Performance of space-time trellis coding over Nakagami fading channels

Space-time trellis codes have previously been proposed as an efficient method to provide both transmit diversity and coding gains for high-data-rate wireless communications. In this paper, we study the use of space-time trellis coding over Nakagami fading channels. The performance analysis and evaluation of space-time trellis coding over slow Nakagami fading channels are presented. By assuming that all diversity branch fadings and noise are statistically independent, an upper bound of the pairwise error probability of space-time coding in Nakagami fading is obtained. In particular, the analysis shows that the design criteria of space-time trellis codes for Rayleigh fading still hold when used over both independent and correlated Nakagami fading channels. Simulation results are provided for space-time trellis coding over independent and correlated Nakagami fading channels with various fading parameters and correlation coefficients.
Optimal variable impedance control for a robot and its application to lifting an object with a human

This paper describes a control method of a robot cooperating with a human. A task in which a robot and a human move an object cooperatively is considered To develop the force controller of the robot, the characteristics of human arm are investigated. The arm is forced to move along a trajectory in the experiment and the exerted force and the displacement are analyzed. It is found that the force characteristics of the human arm is regarded as an optimal damper with minimizing a cost function. Then, the model is implemented to a robot and the cooperation of the robot and a human operator is examined. The effectiveness of the derived model is evaluated and the experimental results show that the human moves the object supported by the robot with a minimum jerk trajectory. Next, the proposed control method is applied to a task in which a human and a robot lift an object cooperatively. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.
Interactive 3D Medical Visualization: A Parallel Approach to Surface Rendering 3D Medical Data

Using Pixel-Planes 5, a parallel multicomputer for computer graphics [Fuchs 90], wehave constructed a system for visualizing volumetric medical data based on polygonalapproaches to surface rendering. The goal is a medical visualization system that hasintuitive navigation and exploration capabilities to present 3D clinical data using threedimensional images. To provide a natural navigation of patient data, segmentationparameters should provide user feedback at minimum rates of one update per second,and viewing direction and lighting control should respond in tenths of seconds. Ourapproach differs from other methods under investigation at UNC [Yoo 92] as we takeadvantage of the hardware graphics accelerators for polygon rendering rather thanattempt direct volume rendering.
Assessing operator effectiveness on finite state machines using fitness distributions

Given a representation in an evolutionary computation method, there are a number of variation operators that can be applied to extant solutions in the population to create new solutions. These variation operators can generally be classified into two broad categories, exploratory and exploitative operators. While exploratory operators allow for the traversal of a given search space, exploitative operators induce behavior that causes the solution to move towards nearby locally optimal points on the fitness landscape. Fitness distribution analysis is a recent technique for assessing the reliability and quality of variation operators in light of an objective function to be optimized. This technique is applied to the evolution of modular and non-modular finite state machines. Experiments are conducted on two instances of a tracking problem. Discussion is directed towards assessing the overall effectiveness of operators for such machines. The effect of the employed operators is consistent with previous intuitions when non-modular FSMs are used. Experiments using modular FSMs indicate a more exploratory nature for the employed variation operators. Results indicate a high degree of sensitivity to the employed variation operators when applied to modular FSMs.
Decentralized Information Retrieval Systems Based on Contents Information for Ubiquitous Services

In this paper, we propose and clarify distributed information retrieval (IR) manner uses of peer-to-peer (P2P) Technology, which has same accuracy approximately at current index-integrated search engine use of statistical information calculated from the contents. Decentralized IR mechanisms use of statistic information have following problems. One is the manner calculates the statistic information from all contents by the collaborated with distributed peers (nodes). Second problem is the efficient allocation of indices on logical space created by peers, and named it "Multiple-Ring". And the last problem is constructing efficient IR strategies with high accuracy on them. At end, the proposal distributed IR mechanism is suitable for the flexible IR systems from middle scale to small scale such as office, because the system scalability is limited by the propagation time periodically among peers.
Synchronization of turbo coded modulation systems at low SNR

This paper examines the synchronization of turbo coded modulation systems at low SNR where these systems are designed to operate. Maximum likelihood estimation theory is used to derive a causal, discrete-time synchronization structure for estimating the carrier phase and symbol timing of a general QAM signal, using a decision-directed structure which is known to be superior at low SNR. Simulation shows that efficient joint carrier phase and symbol timing estimates can be acquired using our synchronizer for turbo codes. Bit error performance for selected loop bandwidths is presented.
A class AB CMOS operational amplifier for application as rail–to–rail high current drive output buffer

A class AB CMOS operational amplifier specially designed to be used as unity gain buffer is presented. The novelty of the presented topology consists in using a classical rail-to-rail OTA with duplicated output port to drive the gates of the op-amp complementary output transistors and relying on a separate feedback loop to limit the quiescent current. The simplicity of classical two stage op-amps is maintained with advantages in terms of die size, transient response and process independence. The circuit, fabricated using the BCD3S process of STMicroelectronics, occupies a die size of 0.06 mm2and operates from a single 2.2V power supply with resistive loads as low as 300 Ω.
Fast Algorithm for Mining Item Profit in Retails Based on Microeconomic View

Xu Xiujuan1, Jia Lifeng1, Wang Zhe1, Zhang Hongyan1,2, Liang Shuang3, Zhou Chunguang1 1College of Computer Science, Key Laboratory of Symbol Computation and Knowledge Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China 2Changchun Institute of Technology 130023, China 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 119260, Singapore xuxiujuan666@yahoo.com. cn cgzhou@jlu.edu. cn
Feature-level data fusion for bimodal person recognition

Consistently high person recognition accuracy is difficult to attain using a single recognition modality. This paper assesses the fusion of voice and outer lip-margin features for person identification. Feature fusion is investigated in the form of audio-visual feature vector concatenation, principal component analysis, and linear discriminant analysis. The paper shows that, under mismatched test and training conditions, audio-visual feature fusion is equivalent to an effective increase in the signal-to-noise ratio of the audio signal. Audio-visual feature vector concatenation is shown to be an effective method for feature combination, and linear discriminant analysis is shown to possess the capability of packing discriminating audio-visual information into fewer coefficients than principal component analysis. The paper reveals a high sensitivity of bimodal person identification to a mismatch between LDA or PCA feature-fusion module and speaker model training noise-conditions. Such a mismatch leads to worse identification accuracy than unimodal identification.
Real-Time 3D Rendering with DirectX and HLSL: A Practical Guide to Graphics Programming

Get Started Quickly with DirectX 3D Programming: No 3D Experience Needed This step-by-step text demystifies modern graphics programming so you can quickly start writing professional code with DirectX and HLSL. Expert graphics instructor Paul Varcholik starts with the basics: a tour of the Direct3D graphics pipeline, a 3D math primer, and an introduction to the best tools and support libraries. Next, youll discover shader authoring with HLSL. Youll implement basic lighting models, including ambient lighting, diffuse lighting, and specular highlighting. Youll write shaders to support point lights, spotlights, environment mapping, fog, color blending, normal mapping, and more. Then youll employ C++ and the Direct3D API to develop a robust, extensible rendering engine. Youll learn about virtual cameras, loading and rendering 3D models, mouse and keyboard input, and youll create a flexible effect and material system to integrate your shaders. Finally, youll extend your graphics knowledge with more advanced material, including post-processing techniques for color filtering, Gaussian blurring, bloom, and distortion mapping. Youll develop shaders for casting shadows, work with geometry and tessellation shaders, and implement a complete skeletal animation system for importing and rendering animated models. You dont need any experience with 3D graphics or the associated math: Everythings taught hands-on, and all graphics-specific code is fully explained. Coverage includes The Direct3D API and graphics pipeline A 3D math primer: vectors, matrices, coordinate systems, transformations, and the DirectX Math library Free and low-cost tools for authoring, debugging, and profiling shaders Extensive treatment of HLSL shader authoring Development of a C++ rendering engine Cameras, 3D models, materials, and lighting Post-processing effects Device input, component-based architecture, and software services Shadow mapping, depth maps, and projective texture mapping Skeletal animation Geometry and tessellation shaders Survey of rendering optimization, global illumination, compute shaders, deferred shading, and data-driven engine architecture
Finding and reminding: file organization from the desktop

This paper summarizes and synthesizes two independent studies of the ways users organize and find files on their computers. The first study (Barreau 1995) investigated information organization practices among users of DOS, Windows and OS/2. The second study (Nardi, Anderson and Erickson 1995), examined the finding and filing practices of Macintosh users. There were more similarities in the two studies than differences. Users in both studies (1) preferred location-based finding because of its crucial reminding function; (2) avoided elaborate filing schemes; (3) archived relatively little information; and (4) worked with three types of information: ephemeral, working and archived. A main difference between the study populations was that the Macintosh users used subdirectories to organize information and the DOS users did not.
Fault-tolerant routing in hypercube multicomputers using local safety information

Previous methods of making wormhole-routed meshes fault tolerant have been based on adding virtual channels to the networks. This paper proposes an alternative method, one based on the turn model for designing wormhole routing algorithms. The turn model produces routing algorithms that are deadlock free, very adaptive, minimal or nonminimal, and livelock free for direct networks--whether or not they contain virtual channels. This paper illustrates how to modify the routing algorithms produced by the turn model to handle dynamic faults. This paper first describes how to modify the negative-first routing algorithm, which the turn model produces for n-dimensional meshes without virtual channels, to make it one-fault tolerant. Simulations of the one-fault-tolerant routing algorithm and other minimal and nonminimal routing algorithms in a two-dimensional mesh indicate that misrouting increases communication latencies significantly at high throughputs. The conclusion is that misrouting should be used only for increasing the degree of fault tolerance, never for just increasing adaptiveness. Finally , the paper describes how to modify the negative-first routing algorithm to make it (n - 1)-fault tolerant for n-dimensional meshes without virtual channels.