Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Markov Random Fields for Vision and Image Processing

This volume demonstrates the power of the Markov random field (MRF) in vision, treating the MRF both as a tool for modeling image data and, utilizing recently developed algorithms, as a means of making inferences about images. These inferences concern underlying image and scene structure as well as solutions to such problems as image reconstruction, image segmentation, 3D vision, and object labeling. It offers key findings and state-of-the-art research on both algorithms and applications. After an introduction to the fundamental concepts used in MRFs, the book reviews some of the main algorithms for performing inference with MRFs; presents successful applications of MRFs, including segmentation, super-resolution, and image restoration, along with a comparison of various optimization methods; discusses advanced algorithmic topics; addresses limitations of the strong locality assumptions in the MRFs discussed in earlier chapters; and showcases applications that use MRFs in more complex ways, as components in bigger systems or with multiterm energy functions. The book will be an essential guide to current research on these powerful mathematical tools.
Static and dynamic abstract formal models for 3D sensor images

The paper presents a perception oriented linguistic formal model for 3D sensors depth images. Both the static object extraction and short term dynamic evolution in the scene are analyzed. The target applications are subsystems in action involved in independent environment exploration and learning be it human or machine. Field of view depth images obtained with recently developed CMOS 3D sensors are analyzed in their capacity to provide immediate action oriented data. For the 3D scene images a selective segmented method is proposed in terms of salient objects in the depth image. The model as proposed uses a representation of the scene depth image in terms of object area and mean center location. An original abstract formal language representation is proposed. The extension of the context free grammar with attributes ads structure to the model. It is also shown that the generated language translates directly depth labeling into action planning on the environment. The performance of the proposed abstract representation method is analyzed in terms of estimated computation time and direct semantic relevance for a sample application. For applications of object motion detection and tracking the formal model was extended with attributes for direction and speed. The object position drift based on segment correspondence for speed determination is shown to be compatible to the formal model as proposed. Further development of the model for multi layered representations for more complex applications areas is also outlined.
5. Study of Arts Teachers’ Vision on Supporting “Artistic Talent”

Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out the arts teachers’ opinion regarding the three issues related to the strategies aimed to support pupils with artistic talent: what is? who supports? how do they support? the artistic talent. Three goals lead us to this aim: to sketch the profile of the pupils with artistic talent, depending on their conduct and needs; the identification of the activities to support these special children; the identification of the extent to which different institutions get involved in supporting the pupils with artistic talent. To achieve these goals, we used the opinion poll as a research method and the created instrument was represented by a five-item questionnaire - four of them requiring open answers and one for closed answers. A total of 29 teachers of visual arts and music education, theoretical and interpretive, were selected for this study. The obtained results brought us close to the image that the teachers have on the artistic talent phenomenon. According to the teachers, the artistic talent is visible if we pay attention to four fields: creativity, passion, harnessing talent, specific skills. Meeting the needs (material, emotional support, socialization with peers, recognition of their talent) can be sources of shaping the educational strategies to support pupils with artistic talent by the main responsible institutions - the Ministry of Education, inspectorates, schools, NGOs.
Visualizing and Classifying the Pattern of User’s Browsing Behavior for Website Design Recommendation

E-commerce website design is a highly complex and subjective task which is often very difficult to get right from the start. Once a design has been implemented, customer behavior usually needs to be monitored in order to correct bugs and inefficiencies. While there are tools available that record and visualize customer click stream data, the information provided by these tools cannot be directly translated into changes in the website design. Rather, an expert needs to go through a lengthy process of manual data analysis in order to identify and overcome weaknesses of websites. In this paper, we describe a click stream visualization technique using footstep graphs. We describe the experiment that produced these graphs and show how specific patterns can be identified that both point to problems with the website design and contain information about how to remedy them. We contend that the results we present in this paper represent the first step towards a technique for producing automatic recommendations for website improvements.
Peer Led Team Learning in Introductory Biology: Effects on Critical Thinking Skills

This study evaluated the potential effects of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) instructional model on undergraduate, biology peer leaders’ critical thinking skills. This investigation also explored peer leaders’ perceptions of their critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental pretest/post-test with control group design was used to determine critical thinking gains in PLTL/non-PLTL groups. Critical thinking was assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) among participants who had previously completed and been successful in the second semester of a two-semester introductory biology course sequence. Qualitative data from open-ended questionnaires confirmed that factors thought to improve critical thinking skills such as interaction with peers, problem solving, and discussion were perceived by participants to have an impact on critical thinking gains. However, no significant quantitative differences in peer leaders’ critical thinking skills were found between preand post-treatment CCTST measurements nor between experimental and control groups. Additionally, students led by peer leaders attained significantly higher exam and final course grades in introductory biology than similar students not participating in PLTL. Finally, among introductory biology students who opted not to enroll in the associated lab course, those who participated in PLTL averaged more than a letter grade higher than those who did not, and this difference was statistically significant. PEER LED TEAM LEARNING IN INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY: EFFECTS ON CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Spoon: Program Analysis and Transformation in Java

In this research report, we present Spoon, a framework for program transformation and static analysis in Java. More precisely, Spoon is an open and extensible Java compiler, written in pure Java by using Compile-time reflection techniques. We take advantage of the new features added by Java 5, and particularly of annotations and generics. Using annotations within the Spoon framework allows the programmer to extend the Java language without defining new syntactic elements, and in such a way that it is naturally supported by IDEs for Java 5 and greater. Generics, as a priceless complement, allow for the well-typing of Spoon programs that implement the programmers' language extensions. Enforcing typing naturally provides better IDE support (such as static checks, completion, documentation, and navigation), and also allows us to define a pure Java template mechanism, which we use as a tool to define well-typed and straightforward program transformations. In addition to its basic transformation capabilities, Spoon comes with a partial evaluation engine that is used to calculate the control flow of the program and to simplify the results of template-based transformations for correctness, optimization, and readability. In order to demonstrate the usability and usefulness of our framework, we present three applications, which have been chosen to cover most of Spoon's features: a translator from Java 1.4 programs into well-typed Java 5 programs, an efficient template-based AOP extension, and an automatic implementation and validation of the visitor pattern.
The function of discourse markers in Arabic newspaper opinion articles

The present study examines the function of discourse markers in Arabic newspaper opinion articles. In this study, discourse markers are not only connectingwords that contribute to the cohesion of text, but they are also crucial tools for achieving communicative act in the text. These expressions that come from different grammatical classes and mostly occur sentence-initially function across sentence boundaries to connect textual units above the sentence and to guide and influence the text-receivers’ interpretation throughout the text. Because of the crucial communicative role of discourse markers, they are important elements in text production and perception. The main goal of this study is to identify discourse markers that are used in Arabic newspaper opinion articles and describe their function at two levels of text structure, i.e. the sentence and the paragraph. To this effect, the study analyzes 50 texts that form the data in the study, taking a semantic/pragmatic relation-based approach. The analytical model employed in this study consists of three steps. The first step is segmenting the texts into paragraphs and sentences. The second step is describing the functional relations that connect units of texts at each level. Two descriptive tools are employed: the Rhetorical Structure Theory to describe relations between sentences and
PCASYS- A Pattern-Level Classification Automation System for Fingerprints | NIST

This report describes a system we have developed that automatically classifies images of fingerprints into six pattern-level classes. Automatic classification is useful in an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) because it can be used to partition the database of fingerprint cards and thereby reduce the amount of work that must be performed by the fingerprint matcher. Our program takes gray-level images of fingerprints as input, and for each fingerprint it produces a hypothesized classification as arch, left loop, right loop, scar, tented arch, or whorl, as well as a. number indicating how much confidence should be assigned to its classification decision. The system performs these processing steps: image segmentation; image enhancement; feature extraction; registration; application of a linear transform that both applies a pattern of regional weights and reduces dimensionality; running of a main classifier, which is a Probabilistic Neural Net, and of an auxiliary whorl-detecting classifier that traces and analyzes pseudoridges (approximate trajectories through the ridge flow); and finally, the combining of the outputs of the main and auxiliary classifiers so as to decide on a hypothesized class and a confidence level. The program’s memory and disk space requirements can be met by a typical desktop workstation. The distribution consists of source code, data files, a demonstration set of 2700 fingerprint images, and documentation.
Chemistry Students' Challenges in Using MBL's in Science Laboratories.

Understanding students' challenges about using microcomputer based laboratories (MBLs) would provide important data in understanding the appropriateness of using MBLs in high school chemistry laboratories. Identifying students' concerns about this technology will in part help educators identify the obstacles to science learning when using this technology. This study seeks to answer these two questions: (1) What advantages and challenges do students encounter during MBL activities? and (2) What are the views of high school chemistry students regarding the use of MBLs as a learning tool? The findings of the study included: (1) MBLs do not necessarily promote learning for all students; (2) special attention should be given to slow paced learners; (3) students feel challenged by MBL generated graphs; and (4) teachers should constantly be on the look out for graph anomalies that may simply be the result of misplugging of probes in the interface which may cause further graph interpretation confusion. (Contains 24 references.) (MVL) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Chemistry Students' Challenges in Using MBL's in Science Laboratories
Markets and computation: agoric open systems

Like all systems involving goals, resources, and actions, computation can be viewed in economic terms. Computer science has moved from centralized toward increasingly decentralized models of control and action; use of market mechanisms would be a natural extension of this development. The ability of trade and price mechanisms to combine local decisions by diverse parties into globally effective behavior suggests their value for organizing computation in large systems.
Intelligent Systems in Travel and Tourism

Travel and tourism is the leading application field in the b2c e-commerce, it represents nearly 50% of the total b2c turnover. Already in the past travel applications were at the forefront of Information Technology, i.e., the airline Computerized Reservation Systems in the early 60s. The industry and its product have rather specific features which explain this circumstance: the product is a confidence good, consumer decisions are solely based on information beforehand; and the industry is highly networked, based on world-wide cooperation of very different types of stakeholders. Consequently, this industry depends on advanced IT applications. As such travel and tourism may serve as an example of what happens and will happen in the emerging e-markets, pointing at structural changes as well as challenging application scenarios. The paper provides an overview about the industry, describes ongoing structural changes, outlines domain-specific requirements and discusses achievements and challenges in the field, following an AI and e-commerce point of view. It finishes with considerations regarding a future IT scenario.
Contour: a tile-based gridless router

We present an automatic maze router based on a corner-stitching data structure. The router is gridless and can deal with arbitrary wire width and spacing rules in any number of layers. It is versatile enough to route dense VLSI chips automatically with results comparable in quality with hand layout. d i g i t a l Western Research Laboratory 250 University Avenue Palo Alto, California 94301 USA
Completing the Information Chain: On the Theory of Optimal Information Acquisition for Quantitative Decision Making

Classical Information Theory solves the problem of maximizing the quantity of information that can be reliably transmitted over the given (imperfect) channel, without dealing with the questions of where the information comes from and what it’s going to be used for. If the information is to be used to make decisions, and the goal is to maximize the decision quality (e.g. by minimizing the properly defined loss) by making use of available information sources, then one needs to know what specific information is to be requested from a source so that, on one hand, the source would be able to fulfill the request accurately and, on the other hand, the information obtained would have a large impact on the decision quality for the specific problem at hand. It can be said that the developed methodology complements the classical Information Theory in that it deals–in the context of quantitative decision making at least–with the first and last link of the full “information chain”: extracting it from the source and using it to obtain the best possible decision. The classical Information Theory describes the middle link of that chain–in case a transmission of the information obtained from the source over some channel is involved. The middle link just happens to be largely independent of the end links and can be treated separately, while the end links are rather closely connected and therefore have to be treated together. It is curious to note that a similar state of affairs can often be observed in material supply chains: for example, if some raw material has to be extracted, transported and 1 used to make a certain product, then the material to be extracted depends on the product that needs to be made and the given material can be extracted best from a certain source. The transportation task, however, has a more universal character and can usually be considered in abstraction from the nature of the particular material. In classical Information Theory, the main question is two-fold: what is the maximum (theoretical) speed of accurate transmission for the given channel and how that speed can be (practically) achieved. The first part of the main question is addressed by calculating the channel capacity and the second part of the main question is addressed by designing appropriate codes for input symbols. The main question being addressed in the proposed approach is also two-fold: what is the maximum decision quality (for the given problem) that can be achieved by using the available information source(s) and what is the practical way of achieving that quality. The first part of this question is addressed by computing the pseudo-energy/loss efficient frontier for the given problem and (source specific) pseudo-temperature function, and the second part is addressed by designing appropriate questions (that lie on the efficient frontier) as means of extracting information from the source(s) optimally with respect to the decision making problem being solved.
A Scalable Architecture for Simplifying Full-Range Scientific Data Analysis

According to a recent exascale roadmap report, analysis will be the limiting factor in gaining insight from exascale data [Dongarra, J. et. al 2010]. Analysis problems that must operate on the full range of a dataset are among the most difficult. Some of the primary challenges in this regard come from disk access, data managment, and programmability of analysis tasks on exascale architectures. In this dissertation, I have provided an architectural approach that simplifies and scales data analysis on supercomputing architectures while masking parallel intricacies to the user. My architecture has three primary general contributions: 1) a novel design pattern and implmentation for reading multi-file and variable datasets, 2) the integration of querying and sorting as a way to simplify dataparallel analysis tasks, and 3) a new parallel programming model and system for efficiently scaling domain-traversal tasks. The design of my architecture has allowed studies in several application areas that were not previously possible. Some of these include large-scale satellite data and ocean flow analysis. The major driving example is of internal-model variability assessments of flow behavior in the GEOS-5 atmospheric modeling dataset. This application issued over 40 million particle traces for model comparison (the largest parallel flow tracing experiment to date), and my system was able to scale execution up to 65,536 processes on an IBM BlueGene/P system.
Automatic instant messaging dialogue using statistical models and dialogue acts

Instant messaging dialogue is used for communication by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but has received relatively little attention in computational linguistics. We describe methods aimed at providing a shallow interpretation of messages sent via instant messaging. This is done by assigning labels known as dialogue acts to utterances within messages. Since messages may contain more than one utterance, we explore automatic message segmentation using combinations of parse trees and various statistical models to achieve high accuracy for both classification and segmentation tasks. Finally, we gauge the immediate usefulness of dialogue acts in conversation management by presenting a dialogue simulation program that uses dialogue acts to predict utterances during a conversation. The predictions are evaluated via qualitative means where we obtain very encouraging results.
Nested encryption library for automated IPSec-based anonymous circuits establishment

Nowadays, security and privacy are becoming two of the most critical issues for current and future generation of communications systems. Since the 80's, many efficient systems have been proposed to ensure flows anonymity, mainly derived from the so-called Chaum's Mix networks. However, these solutions suffer from a lack of integration with standardized IP approaches and therefore missed a wide adoption by the general public. This paper proposes an anonymous circuit establishment scheme derived from the powerful Mix networks concept and inheriting from the IPSec Framework. This solution has been implemented and experimented over a real testbed in view to analyze its impacts on multimedia flows end-to-end transmission.
It Takes Glue to Tango: MeDICi integration framework creates data-intensive computing pipeline

Biologists increasingly rely on high-performance computing (HPC) platforms to rapidly process the tsunami of data generated by high throughput genome and metagenome sequencing technology and high-throughput proteomics. Unfortunately, the platforms that produce the massive data sets rarely work smoothly with the interactive analysis and visualization programs used in bioinformatics. This makes it difficult for researchers to exploit the computational power of HPC platforms to speed scientific discovery. At the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. , researchers are creating computing environments for biologists that seamlessly integrate collections of data and computational resources. These advantages enable users to rapidly analyze high-throughput data. A major goal is to shield the biologist from the complexity of interacting with multiple dissimilar databases and running tasks on HPC platforms and computational clusters. One of those environments the MeDICi Integration Framework is now available for free download. Short for Middleware for Data-Intensive Computing, MeDICi makes it easy to integrate separate codes into complex applications that operate as a data analysis pipeline.
Computer Networks, Fifth Edition: A Systems Approach

Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, designed for an advanced college-level course in network design and operation, provides the network applications programmer with detailed information about how networks do their thing. While Computer Networks is neither a user manual nor a technical reference, it provides an in-depth background on how network architectures and protocols work. In the beginning, Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie discuss why networks are important and talk about where networks may go in the long term. The authors then move right into a discussion of protocols. There's a fascinating section--complete with plenty of C code--in which the authors actually develop a network protocol called A Simple Protocol (ASP). They compare switching and packet networks and emphasize tunneling protocols. In the internetworking chapter, you'll learn practically all there is to know about Internet Protocol (IP). The concluding chapters talk about traffic management, congestion reduction, and high-speed networking technologies. Computer Networks reveals the guts of what's going on with computers that share data. Though way out of the league of most computer users, true geeks with an interest in networking will find what they need here.