Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Journal of Advances in Electrical and Electronics Engineering an Empirical Validation of Software Cost Estimation Model Using Fuzzy Technique

Software effort estimation is the greatest challenge for software developers.Software effort estimation is the process of predicting most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete and uncertain input.There are various models suggested by researchers for calculating effort.But no one can give accurate result.The best result are achieved by using soft computing technique.the various methodology used in soft computing for effort estimation are based on fuzzy logic, neural netwok and genetic algorithm.In this paper we have used the fuzzy logic approach. MATLAB is used for tuning the parameters of famous various cost estimation models. On published software projects data, the performance of the model is evaluated. Comparison of results from our model with existing ubiquitous models is done. The ability to estimate accurately the size, effort and duration of a software development project is crucial to project success. Inaccurate software estimate causes trouble in business process related to software development.As the demand for software application increases the software companies need accurate estimation of project under development.Cost Estimation is achieved in terms of person-months (PM), which can be translated into actual dollar cost. The concept of software cost estimation has been growing rapidly due to practicality and demand for it. Today the peoples are expecting high quality software with a low cost, the main objective of software engineering. boehm and Anish Mittal Model had came into existence. These models are created as a result of regression analysis and power regression analysis methods applied to historical data. Today most of the software companies follow COCOMOII for estimating the cost of products; we found some variations in this model [2], [6-11]. Newer computation techniques to cost estimation that are non-algorithmic were desired in the 1990's. Researchers particularly have turned their attention to a set of approaches that are soft computing based. These include fuzzy logic models artificial neural networks, and genetic algorithms. Fuzzy logic with its features of a powerful linguistic representation can signify imprecision in inputs and outputs, while providing a more expert knowledge based approach to model building. The fuzzy logic model uses the fuzzy logic concepts introduced by Lofti A. Zadeh [4], [5], [14]. Fuzzy reasoning consists of following three primary components: fuzzification process, inference from fuzzy rules and defuzzification process. Fuzzification process is where the objective term is transformed into a fuzzy concept. The membership functions are applied to the actual values of variables …
Adaptable Distance Functions for Similarity-based Multimedia Retrieval

Today’s abundance of storage coupled with digital technologies in virtually all scientific or commercial applications such as medical and biological imaging or music archives deal with tremendous quantities of images, videos or audio files stored in large multimedia databases. For content-based data mining and multimedia retrieval purposes, suitable similarity models are crucial. Adaptable distance functions are particularly well-suited to match the human perception of similarity. Quadratic Forms (QF) were introduced to capture the notion of inter-feature similarity which sets them apart from the more traditional feature-by-feature measures from e.g. the Euclidean or Manhattan dissimilarity functions. The Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD) was adopted in Computer Vision to better approach human perceptual similarities by allowing feature transformation under a number of restrictions. After recapping the concepts of distancebased similarity search in databases, we familiarize the reader with the flexible building stones behind Quadratic Forms and the EMD. These enable their application to a large variety of multimedia retrieval problems. Unfortunately, the flexibility comes at a cost. Their computation is relatively time-consuming, which severely limits its adoption in interactive multimedia database scenarios. Therefore, we research methods to speed up the retrieval process and show some encouraging recent results to achieve just that via an index-supported multistep algorithm based on new lower bounding approximation techniques.
METALLICITY IN THE GALACTIC CENTER: THE QUINTUPLET CLUSTER

We present a measurement of metallicity in the Galactic center Quintuplet cluster made using quantitative spectral analysis of two luminous blue variables (LBVs). The analysis employs line-blanketed non-LTE wind/atmosphere models fit to high-resolution near-infrared spectra containing lines of H, He i, Si ii, Mg ii, and Fe ii. We are able to break the H/He ratio versus mass-loss rate degeneracy found in other LBVs and to obtain robust estimates of the He content of both objects. Our results indicate solar iron abundance and roughly twice solar abundance in the α-elements. These results are discussed within the framework of recent measurements of oxygen and carbon composition in the nearby Arches cluster and iron abundances in red giants and supergiants within the central 30 pc of the Galaxy. The relatively large enrichment of α-elements with respect to iron is consistent with a history of more nucleosynthesis in high-mass stars than the Galactic disk.
Stability analysis and design of uniform ultimate boundedness control for a class of nonlinear switched difference systems

This paper addresses the problems of stability analysis and synthesis of uniform ultimate boundedness (UUB) control for a class of nonlinear switched difference systems. This kind of discrete-time systems could be regarded as the digitization systems induced from the corresponding continuous-time switched system in virtue of the numerical integration approach, such as Euler or Runge-Kutta method. A sufficient stability condition in terms of linear inequalities is presented to ensure that for prescribed digitalized steps the switched difference system is stable for an arbitrary switching signal. Moreover, a constructive algorithm based on the modified Gaussian elimination procedure is given to find the solutions to the linear inequalities. Finally, continuous state feedback control methods are developed to guarantee uniform ultimate boundedness of the switched systems with nonlinear and time-varying parameter uncertainties and unknown input disturbances. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Debugging the Universe

The first great age of automata began at the close of the medieval period and lasted into the 17th century[31]. The technological marvels of that era were clockwork confections machined from brass and iron—intricate assemblies of gears, cranks, levers, escapements and ratchets. The clocks of cathedrals and town halls displayed the phases of the moon and the progress of the sun through the zodiac; animated figures pranced out to strike the hours and entertain onlookers[21, 26, 30]. There was even a mechanized doll that took up a quill pen and wrote, “I think, therefore I am. ”[49] From machines that imitate life and the heavens, it is an easy step to the idea that life itself might be a mechanical process and that the stars could be driven by some kind of celestial gear train. The vision of a clockwork universe figures in the thinking of Dante, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. Yet another exponent of gears in the sky was Descartes, who also likened animals to mechanical automata. Then there was Rousseau, who wrote: “I see nothing in any animal but an ingenious machine, to which nature hath given senses to wind itself up. ” Ideas like these were very much in the air a few hundred years ago; and yet, as far as I can tell, the clockwork universe and the animal-as-automaton were always looked upon as metaphors rather than literal mechanisms. The universe was like a clock, but no one believed that the meshing of brass gears really moved the planets in their orbits. And Rousseau knew that if he were to open up a living creature, he would not find a mainspring inside. Today we live in another age of automata, though ours are mostly made of silicon rather than brass. The computer is everywhere in our lives, and so we are predisposed to see the world in terms of computational processes. In particular, if we seek a mechanistic understanding of the natural universe, we are quick to adopt the vocabulary of symbolic logic, algorithms and information theory, taking the viewpoint that the universe evolves by con-
Robust sequence storage in bistable oscillators

The versatility of nanodevices dynamics may allow original architectures for computation but care should be taken to handle fluctuations arising at this scale. In the network of oscillatory units which we propose, bistability with down-quiescent and up-oscillatory states enable tolerance to noise in storage and retrieval dynamics for patterns or sequences. We illustrate this by simulations of the stochastic differential equations for a network with connectivity corresponding to stored patterns.
Xia Yang Association Studies of Vascular Diseases Use of Functional Genomics to Identify Candidate Genes Underlying Human Genetic

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of genetic loci as being associated with vascular diseases or traits and their risk factors. Many of the loci uncovered represent novel discoveries with no obvious candidate genes and molecular mechanisms, testifying to the complexity of vascular diseases. To understand the functional consequences of genetic variations and help pinpoint the underlying genes and mechanisms of common complex diseases, functional genomics that integrate genetic variations and intermediate molecular traits such as gene expression has been extensively studied in the past few years. This review summarizes the key concepts of functional genomics, the current state of the field, and its application in vascular diseases. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2012;32:216-222.)
Localization and Characterization of Multiple Harmonic Sources

We introduce a new and intuitive algorithm to characterize and localize multiple harmonic sources intersecting in the spatial and frequency domains. It jointly estimates their fundamental frequencies, their respective amplitudes, and their directions of arrival based on an intelligent non-parametric signal representation. To obtain these parameters, we first apply variable-scale sampling on unbiased cross-correlation functions between pairs of microphone signals to generate a joint parameter space. Then, we employ a multidimensional maxima detector to represent the parameters in a sparse joint parameter space. In comparison to others, our algorithm solves the issue of pitch-period doubling when using cross-correlation functions, it estimates multiple harmonic sources with a signal power smaller than the signal power of the dominant harmonic source, and it associates the estimated parameters to their corresponding sources in a multidimensional sparse joint parameter space, which can be directly fed into a tracker. We tested our algorithm and three others on synthetic data and speech data recorded in a real reverberant environment and evaluated their performance by employing the joint recall measure, the root-mean-square error, and the cumulative distribution function of fundamental frequencies and directions of arrival. The evaluations show promising results: Our algorithm outperforms the others in terms of the joint recall measure, and it can achieve root-mean-square errors of 1 Hz or 1$^\circ$ and smaller, which facilitates, e.g., distant-speech enhancement or source separation.
Establishment of an Artificial Tick Feeding System to Study Theileria lestoquardi Infection

The establishment of good experimental models for Theileria sp. infection is important for theileriosis research. Routinely, infection of ticks is accomplished by feeding on parasite-infected animals (sheep, cows and horses), which raises practical and ethical problems, driving the search for alternative methods of tick infection. Artificial tick feeding systems are based mainly on rearing ticks on host-derived or hand-made artificial membranes. We developed a modified feeding assay for infecting nymphal stages of Hyalomma anatolicum ticks with Theileria lestoquardi, a highly pathogenic parasite of sheep. We compared two different membranes: an artificial silicone membrane and a natural alternative using mouse skin. We observed high attachment rates with mouse skin, whereas in vitro feeding of H. anatolicum nymphs on silicone membranes was unsuccessful. We could infect H. anatolicum nymphs with T. lestoquardi and the emerging adult ticks transmitted infective parasites to sheep. In contrast, similar infections with Rhipicephalus bursa, a representative tick with short mouth-parts that was proposed as a vector for T. lestoquardi, appeared not to be a competent vector tick species. This is the first report of an experimentally controlled infection of H. anatolicum with T. lestoquardi and opens avenues to explore tick-parasite dynamics in detail.
Volume-based pricing in Stackelberg duopoly wireless markets

Volume based data pricing is getting to be the most popular pricing scheme in cellular wireless data networks. While the flat-rate and unlimited data plans are being replaced with this new criterion worldwide, anticipating the provider profit is highly vital in a competitive market. The user behavior acts like a foundation for any analytical structure and it is linked to many network and market parameters. In this paper, we define an analytical framework in a Stackelberg duopoly market in which each provider offers one data plan. Similar to general Stackelberg markets, one provider has better service quality in terms of coverage and offered data rate that puts it in the place to make the first move in service definition. Users are concerned about the quality of service while they have a limitation on their budget as well. We adopt the widely accepted utility theory to build our analysis. In this paper, the budget limits along with negative service quality due to existence of other users and offered data volume size are applied in the user utility and consequently provider profit to build our optimization framework.
Survival of donor-derived cells in human corneal transplants.

PURPOSE To determine the fate of donor epithelial, stromal, and endothelial cells after corneal transplantation in humans. METHODS Fifty-two transplanted corneal buttons were explanted over a 2-year period from patients who required regrafting and had received corneas from donors of opposite sex. Fluorescence in situ hybridization of the sex chromosomes of the epithelial, stromal, and endothelial cells was performed in histologic sections prepared from each freshly explanted graft. Fluorescence microscopy was subsequently used to determine the origin of cells in the graft (donor or recipient) and to quantify the relative proportion of donor and recipient cells of each corneal cell type. RESULTS As early as 3 months after transplantation, donor epithelial cells were completely replaced by recipient epithelium in all corneal buttons examined. Donor stromal and endothelial cells, however, were found in all 52 buttons, with 4% to 95% of stromal cells and 6% to 95% of endothelial cells being of donor origin. No significant correlation between donor cell proportion and the age of the graft could be found. Donor-derived cells were found in significant numbers up to 32 years after transplantation. Eight corneas in this study were transparent, compensated grafts, and a similar long-term survival of donor stromal and endothelial cells was found in these cases. CONCLUSIONS Although donor epithelial cells are promptly replaced, a high proportion of donor stromal and endothelial cells can survive within the corneal transplant in the long-term. The proportion of surviving donor cells is highly variable; however, the source of this variability remains unknown.
Tug-of-war with noise: A game-theoretic view of the $p$-Laplacian

Fix a bounded domain Ω ⊂ Rd, a continuous function F : ∂Ω → R, and constants ǫ > 0 and 1 < p, q < ∞ with p−1 + q−1 = 1. For each x ∈ Ω, let uǫ(x) be the value for player I of the following two-player, zero-sum game. The initial game position is x. At each stage, a fair coin is tossed and the player who wins the toss chooses a vector v ∈ B(0, ǫ) to add to the game position, after which a random “noise vector” with mean zero and variance q p |v| 2 in each orthogonal direction is also added. The game ends when the game position reaches some y ∈ ∂Ω, and player I’s payoff is F (y). We show that (for sufficiently regular Ω) as ǫ tends to zero the functions uǫ converge uniformly to the unique p-harmonic extension of F . Using a modified game (in which ǫ gets smaller as the game position approaches ∂Ω), we prove similar statements for general bounded domains Ω and resolutive functions F . These games and their variants interpolate between the tug of war games studied by Peres, Schramm, Sheffield, and Wilson (p = ∞) and the motion-by-curvature games introduced by Spencer and studied by Kohn and Serfaty (p = 1). They generalize the relationship between Brownian motion and the ordinary Laplacian and yield new results about p-capacity and p-harmonic measure.
Convergence Properties of an Augmented Lagrangian Algorithm for Optimization with a Combination of General Equality and Linear Constraints

We consider the global and local convergence properties of a class of augmented Lagrangian methods for solving nonlinear programming problems. In these methods, linear and more general constraints are handled in different ways. The general constraints are combined with the objective function in an augmented Lagrangian. The iteration consists of solving a sequence of subproblems; in each subproblem the augmented Lagrangian is approximately minimized in the region defined by the linear constraints. A subproblem is terminated as soon as a stopping condition is satisfied. The stopping rules that we consider here encompass practical tests used in several existing packages for linearly constrained optimization. Our algorithm also allows different penalty parameters to be associated with disjoint subsets of the general constraints. In this paper, we analyze the convergence of the sequence of iterates generated by such an algorithm and prove global and fast linear convergence as well as show that potentially troublesome penalty parameters remain bounded away from zero.
Bayesian Special Section Learning Overhypotheses with Hierarchical Bayesian Models

Inductive learning is impossible without overhypotheses, or constraints on the hypotheses considered by the learner. Some of these overhypotheses must be innate, but we suggest that hierarchical Bayesian models can help to explain how the rest are acquired. To illustrate this claim, we develop models that acquire two kinds of overhypotheses – overhypotheses about feature variability (e.g. the shape bias in word learning) and overhypotheses about the grouping of categories into ontological kinds like objects and substances.
Artificial Pancreas: Past, Present, Future

The artificial pancreas (AP), known as closed-loop control of blood glucose in diabetes, is a system combining a glucose sensor, a control algorithm, and an insulin infusion device. AP developments can be traced back 50 years to when the possibility for external blood glucose regulation was established by studies in individuals with type 1 diabetes using intravenous glucose measurement and infusion of insulin and glucose. After the pioneering work by Kadish (1) in 1964, expectations for effectively closing the loop were inspired by the nearly simultaneous work of five teams reporting closed-loop control results between 1974 and 1978: Albisser et al. (2), Pfeiffer et al. (3), Mirouze et al. (4), Kraegen et al. (5), and Shichiri et al. (6). In 1977, one of these realizations (3) resulted in the first commercial device—the Biostator (7; Fig. 1), followed by another inpatient system, the Nikkiso STG-22 Blood Glucose Controller, now in use in Japan (8). FIG. 1. The Biostator (courtesy of William Clarke, University of Virginia). Although the intravenous route of glucose sensing and insulin infusion is unsuitable for outpatient use, these devices proved the feasibility of external glucose control and stimulated further technology development. Figure 2 presents key milestones in the timeline of AP progress. FIG. 2. Key milestones in the timeline of AP progress. EU, Europe; IP, intraperitoneal; NIH, National Institutes of Health; SC, subcutaneous. In 1979, landmark studies by Pickup et al. (9) and Tamborlane et al. (10) showed that the subcutaneous route was feasible for continuous insulin delivery. Three years later, Shichiri et al. (11) tested a prototype of a wearable AP, which was further developed in subsequent studies (12,13). In the late 1980s, an implantable system was introduced using intravenous glucose sensing and intraperitoneal insulin infusion (14). This technology was further developed, leading to clinical trials and …
A multicast protocol for physically hierarchical ad hoc networks

Routing and multicasting in ad hoc networks is a matured research subject. Most of the proposed algorithms assume a physically flat network architecture with mobile hosts having homogeneous capability in terms of network resources and computing power. In practice however, this assumption often may not hold true since there exist various types of mobile hosts with different role, capacity, and mobility pattern. In the military scenario for instance, the leader of the troop usually has more powerful networking equipment than the private soldiers. In this paper, we consider mobile ad hoc networks that have physically hierarchical architecture where different types of mobile hosts form an ad hoc network hierarchy. We present a novel and simple multicasting framework called PHAM (physical hierarchy-driven ad hoc multicast) for ad hoc networks with such an environment. PHAM builds multicast structure at each level of hierarchy for efficient and scalable multicast message delivery.
Adaptive monitoring and management of security events with SDN

All along changing connectivity requirements and new technologies have increased the complexity and dynamism of distributed system, thus presenting tough challenges for the network management and the network security. As a result new ways for monitoring and managing of security events are required. We present a novel idea how to exploit the software defined networking (SDN) and the real-time network anomaly detection to an efficient whole that offers for an operator both, a view of the security state of the network and the ability to immediately react to the changed situation. We use the man-in-the-middle attack detection as an example.
OBJECTIVES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CONDITIONS OF HEALTH RISK AREAS

Abstract The paper analyses the relationship between sustainable development and health conditions in hazardous areas. Therefore, we conducted a survey in Bissau, capital of Guinea-Bissau, Africa. The main methodological procedures were the Disease Occurrence Index (DOI), Access Index Health Services (AIHS) and Sanitation Index (SI), which allowed the quantitative analysis of the relationship between health and sanitation with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The main results showed that the targets of Goal 3 - Sustainable Development, Health and Welfare - are threatened due to lack of sanitation infrastructure, low education and low income. In hazardous areas, as studied in the article, health demands permeate several SDG.