Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Asac 2001 Conference Standards and Exporting: Canadian Companies and Iso 9000

In 1987, the Geneva-based International Standards Organization (ISO) introduced the ISO 9000-series standards as a way to encourage product and service quality improvement and facilitate international trade. Since that time, ISO 9000 standards have gained international recognition and have been widely adopted by manufacturing and service industries. In December 1999, more than 340,000 ISO 9000-series registration certificates had been issued around the world (ISO, 2000). Adoption of ISO 9000 standards has been greatest in Europe and Asia, with North America somewhat slower. Despite this situation, the number of North American adopters is significant. In Canada, for example, registrations totaled at least 9,600 in February 2000 (Globus International Quality Group Inc., 2000). ISO 9000 embodies a series of standards and guidance documents that help companies to establish a management system that focuses on quality improvement. The management system addresses three stages in the quality process: (1) setting goals and targets, (2) evaluating performance, and (3) determining how best to close any observed shortfalls. Interested companies subject themselves to scrutiny by an independent third party (registrars). If a company’s management system qualifies, a certificate is issued to that effect. Regular audits and reevaluations are carried out to ensure that standards are maintained. Trade facilitation was a driving force in the development of ISO standards, and international marketing writers link standards to export success (e.g., Ferguson, 1996; Johansson, 2000; Terpstra and Sarathy, 1997). Given this situation, the experiences of Canadian exporters with regard to ISO 9000 are examined in this paper.
On Extracting Unit Tests from Interactive Programming Sessions

Software engineering methodologies propose that developers should capture their efforts in ensuring that programs run correctly in repeatable and automated artifacts, such as unit tests. However, when looking at developer activities on a spectrum from exploratory testing to scripted testing we find that many engineering activities include bursts of exploratory testing. In this paper we propose to leverage these exploratory testing bursts by automatically extracting scripted tests from a recording of these sessions. In order to do so, we wiretap the development environment so we can record all program input, all user-issued functions calls, and all program output of an exploratory testing session. We propose to then use machine learning (i.e. clustering) to extract scripted test cases from these recordings in real-time. We outline two early-stage prototypes, one for a static and one for a dynamic language. And we outline how this idea fits into the bigger research direction of programming by example.
Hesitant-fuzzy-promethee method

We introduce a new type of fuzzy preference structure, called hesitant linguistic preference relations, to describe uncertain evaluation information in group decision making (GDM) processes. Moreover, it allows decision makers to offer all possible linguistic terms that are not accounted for in current preference structure types when one compares two alternatives. We give systematic aggregation operators to aggregate hesitant fuzzy linguistic information. In addition, we develop an approach to GDM based on PROMETHE method concepts and hesitant linguistic preference relations in order to consider the differences of opinions between individual decision makers. Real case study is implemented to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed method.
A study of multibiometric traits of identical twins

The increase in twin births has created a requirement for biometric systems to accurately determine the identity of a person who has an identical twin. The discriminability of some of the identical twin biometric traits, such as fingerprints, iris, and palmprints, is supported by anatomy and the formation process of the biometric characteristic, which state they are different even in identical twins due to a number of random factors during the gestation period. For the first time, we collected multiple biometric traits (fingerprint, face, and iris) of 66 families of twins, and we performed unimodal and multimodal matching experiments to assess the ability of biometric systems in distinguishing identical twins. Our experiments show that unimodal finger biometric systems can distinguish two different persons who are not identical twins better than they can distinguish identical twins; this difference is much larger in the face biometric system and it is not significant in the iris biometric system. Multimodal biometric systems that combine different units of the same biometric modality (e.g. multiple fingerprints or left and right irises.) show the best performance among all the unimodal and multimodal biometric systems, achieving an almost perfect separation between genuine and impostor distributions.
Male reproductive health and environmental xenoestrogens.

Male reproductive health has deteriorated in many countries during the last few decades. In the 1990s, declining semen quality has been reported from Belgium, Denmark, France, and Great Britain. The incidence of testicular cancer has increased during the same time incidences of hypospadias and cryptorchidism also appear to be increasing. Similar reproductive problems occur in many wildlife species. There are marked geographic differences in the prevalence of male reproductive disorders. While the reasons for these differences are currently unknown, both clinical and laboratory research suggest that the adverse changes may be inter-related and have a common origin in fetal life or childhood. Exposure of the male fetus to supranormal levels of estrogens, such as diethlylstilbestrol, can result in the above-mentioned reproductive defects. The growing number of reports demonstrating that common environmental contaminants and natural factors possess estrogenic activity presents the working hypothesis that the adverse trends in male reproductive health may be, at least in part, associated with exposure to estrogenic or other hormonally active (e.g., antiandrogenic) environmental chemicals during fetal and childhood development. An extensive research program is needed to understand the extent of the problem, its underlying etiology, and the development of a strategy for prevention and intervention. ImagesFigure 3. AFigure 3. BFigure 3. CFigure 3. DFigure 3. EFigure 3. F
Cluster Processing of Containment Queries in XML Databases

This paper reviews the XML data model and its associated query language within the context of a parallel computing environment. It examines several techniques for structuring and storing XML data across the different parallel nodes. In addition, this paper develops a number of algorithms suitable for processing a certain class of Xqueries, namely, the containment queries, against the parallel XML data. This paper also shows that one of these algorithms, the one that takes advantage of the parallelism that exist between the different documents within the XML database, is outperforming all of the other presented ones.
Exploiting Social Debates for Opinion Ranking

The number of opinions in news media platforms is increasing dramatically with daily news hits, and people spending more and more time to discuss topics and share experiences. Such user generated content represents a promising source for improving the effectiveness of news articles recommendation and retrieval. However, the corpus of opinions is often large and noisy making it hard to find prominent content. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a novel scoring model that ranks opinions based on their relevance and prominence. We define the prominence of an opinion using its relationships with other opinions. To this end, we (1) create a directed graph of opinions where each link represents the sentiment an opinion expresses about another opinion (2) propose a new variation of the PageRank algorithm that boosts the scores of opinions along links with positive sentiments and decreases them along links with negative sentiments. We have tested the effectiveness of our model through extensive experiments using three datasets crawled from CNN, Independent, and The Telegraph Web sites . The experiments show that our scoring model achieves high quality results.
Multicenter trial of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

BACKGROUND The aim of this multicenter trial was to prospectively evaluate neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and radiotherapy, including quality of life as outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eligible patients had malignant pleural mesothelioma of all histological types, World Health Organization performance status of zero to two and clinical stage T1-T3, N0-2, M0 disease considered completely resectable. Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy consisted of three cycles of cisplatin and gemcitabine followed by EPP. Postoperative radiotherapy was considered for all patients. RESULTS In all, 58 of 61 patients completed three cycles of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. Forty-five patients (74%) underwent EPP and in 37 patients (61%) the resection was complete. Postoperative radiotherapy was initiated in 36 patients. The median survival of all patients was 19.8 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 14.6-24.5]. For the 45 patients undergoing EPP, the median survival was 23 months (95% CI 16.6-32.9). Psychological distress showed minor variations over time with distress above the cut-off score indicating no morbidity with 82% (N = 36) at baseline and 76% (N = 26) at 3 months after surgery (P = 0.5). CONCLUSIONS The observed rate of operability is promising. A median survival of 23 months for patients undergoing EPP compares favourably with the survival reported from single center studies of upfront surgery. This approach was not associated with an increase in psychological distress.
Constructing and Exploiting Software Metrics Networks for Software Quality Assessment

Software quality is one of the important aspects of the reliable software. For this reason, software practitioners are interested in the methods that enable to predict defect with software metrics. Most studies focus on what kind of techniques would be fit for the prediction model; however, the research about what is the appropriate number of software metrics for building effective defect prediction model are relatively infrequent. In this paper, we propose a new approach for selecting a subset of software metrics by exploiting the correlation structure among them. We construct software metrics networks with two different relationship measures of MIC (Maximal Information Coefficient) and Pearson correlation coefficient. We then adjust the threshold for filtering out edges with weak correlation, and select representative features for each of the resulting connected components. We validate this subset selection approach with the Poisson regression model. Our results demonstrate that metrics selection using networks with relationship coefficient is efficient enough compared to model with the full set of features.
Low prevalence of hypertension with pharmacological treatments and associated factors.

OBJECTIVE To assess the determinants of the lack of pharmacological treatment for hypertension. METHODS In 2005, 3,323 Mozambicans aged 25-64 years old were evaluated. Blood pressure, weight, height and smoking status were assessed following the Stepwise Approach to Chronic Disease Risk Factor Surveillance. Hypertensives (systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg and/or antihypertensive drug therapy) were evaluated for awareness of their condition, pharmacological and non-pharmacological management, as well as use of herbal or traditional remedies. Prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated, adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors and non-pharmacological treatment. RESULTS Most of the hypertensive subjects (92.3%), and nearly half of those aware of their condition were not treated pharmacologically. Among the aware, the prevalence of untreated hypertension was higher in men {PR = 1.61; 95% confidence interval (95%CI 1.10;2.36)} and was lower in subjects under non-pharmacological treatment (PR = 0.58; 95%CI 0.42;0.79); there was no significant association with traditional treatments (PR = 0.75; 95%CI 0.44;1.26). CONCLUSIONS The lack of pharmacological treatment for hypertension was more frequent in men, and was not influenced by the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors; it could not be explained by the use of alternative treatments as herbal/traditional medicines or non-pharmacological management. It is important to understand the reasons behind the lack of management of diagnosed hypertension and to implement appropriate corrective actions to reduce the gap in the access to healthcare between developed and developing countries.
Realization of secondary indexing to NoSQL database with intelligent adaptation

This paper introduces the combination of NoSQL database HBase and enterprise search platform Solr so as to tackle the problem of the secondary indexing function and do fast query. An intelligent adaptation of adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) along with particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been employed off-line to tune seamless handoff and network traffic flow. Finally, the assessment using performance index has been done for several competitive benchmark databases and the proposed one, verifying the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.
Role of an Iron-Dependent Transcriptional Regulator in the Pathogenesis and Host Response to Infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae

Iron is a critical cofactor for many enzymes and is known to regulate gene expression in many bacterial pathogens. Streptococcus pneumoniae normally inhabits the upper respiratory mucosa but can also invade and replicate in lungs and blood. These anatomic sites vary considerably in both the quantity and form of available iron. The genome of serotype 4 pneumococcal strain TIGR4 encodes a putative iron-dependent transcriptional regulator (IDTR). A mutant deleted at idtr (Δidtr) exhibited growth kinetics similar to parent strain TIGR4 in vitro and in mouse blood for up to 48 hours following infection. However, Δidtr was significantly attenuated in a murine model of sepsis. IDTR down-regulates the expression of ten characterized and putative virulence genes in nasopharyngeal colonization and pneumonia. The host cytokine response was significantly suppressed in sepsis with Δidtr. Since an exaggerated inflammatory response is associated with a poor prognosis in sepsis, the decreased inflammatory response could explain the increased survival with Δidtr. Our results suggest that IDTR, which is dispensable for pneumococcal growth in vitro, is associated with regulation of pneumococcal virulence in specific host environments. Additionally, IDTR ultimately modulates the host cytokine response and systemic inflammation that contributes to morbidity and mortality of invasive pneumococcal disease.
Latina Undergraduate Students in STEM: The Role of Religious Beliefs and STEM Identity

Abstract This phenomenological research study explored how Latina college students in STEM made meaning of and developed their STEM identities, particularly focusing on the role that religious beliefs played in shaping STEM identity. Findings reveal that Latina students believed that their STEM identities and religious beliefs reinforced each other. STEM identity was developed based on the need to balance discrepancies between their religious beliefs and the concepts that they were learning in class. At times, students found it difficult to reconcile these beliefs and attempted to separate their religious identities and beliefs from their STEM knowledge.
Collaborative networks: Human aspects and corresponding IT support

Industrial SME face new challenges in the global market as customers are requiring more complete solutions and reducing the number of their suppliers. Small SME can face these new challenges through cooperation within collaborative networks. Human aspects are fundamental in collaborative networks as people, and not organizations or IT systems cooperate. This paper addresses the major human aspects encountered in this form of organization such as trust issues, knowledge sharing, coordination and planning activities as well as communication and mutual understanding and their influence on the business processes and the corresponding supporting IT tools.
Instantaneous Frequency Rate Estimation Based On the Robust Cubic Phase Function

The cubic phase function (CPF) is recently proposed to estimate the instantaneous frequency rate (IFR) for the polynomial phase signals (PPS) in a Gaussian noise environment. However, for an impulse noise environment, the performance of the standard CPF degrades significantly. In addition, the resulting noise in the CPF is a mixture of the Gaussian and impulse noise even for a Gaussian input noise. Hence, a modified robust CPF algorithm based on the alpha-trimmed form of L-estimation is proposed in this paper. Extension to the robust higher-order phase function (HPF) is also derived. Simulation results demonstrate that the robust CPF outperforms the standard CPF in impulse noise and is also valid to estimate the IFR in Gaussian noise
On the Weak Pigeonhole Principle

We investigate the proof complexity, in (extensions of) resolution and in bounded arithmetic, of the weak pigeonhole principle and of Ramsey theorem. In particular, we link the proof complexity of these two principles. Further we give lower bounds to the width of resolution proofs and to the size of (extensions of) tree-like resolution proofs of Ramsey theorem. We establish a connection between provability of WPHP in fragments of bounded arithmetic and cryptographic assumptions (the existence of one-way functions). In particular, we show that functions violating WPHP 2n n are one-way and, on the other hand, that one-way permutations give rise to functions violating PHP n+1 n , and that strongly collision-free families of hash functions give rise to functions violating WPHP 2n n (all in suitable models of bounded arithmetic). Further we formulate few problems and conjectures; in particular, on the structured PHP (introduced here) and on the unrelativised WPHP. The symbol WPHP m n (with any n < m 1) will denote both propositional and arithmetic formalizations of the weak pigeonhole principle; in the later case I write WPHP m n (R). The qualiication weak means m 2n and that is the case studied here. The propositional formalization is a set of clauses in atoms p i;j for i < m and j < n:
A low overhead DPA countermeasure of ECC based on randomized modular multiplication

Elliptic Curve Cryptography is a popular algorithm since it can achieve good security level with a small key size. However, the ECC hardware is suffering from some side channel attacks, such as Differential power-analysis (DPA), which can retrieve secret keys by analyzing power consumption of the attacked devices. In this paper, a countermeasure to secure the modular multiplication, an important operation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography, with randomization method is studied. The experiment results show that unprotected device reveal the secret key within 1000 power traces, while the protected one can defend DPA attack with 105 power traces, with only 8% additional area cost.
Hardware acceleration of sequence alignment algorithms-an overview

Sequence alignment is one of the most important activities in bioinformatics. With the ever increasing volume of data in bioinformatics databases, the time for comparing a query sequence with the available databases is always increasing. Many algorithms have been proposed to perform and accelerate sequence alignment activities. This paper introduces a taxonomy of the various sequence alignment algorithms found in the literature, with particular emphasis on the Smith-Waterman (S-W) algorithm. The paper also provides a classification of the available hardware acceleration methods used to speed up the S-W algorithm.
Semi-global robust output regulation for a class of nonlinear systems using output feedback

This paper studies the semi-global robust output regulation problem for the class of nonlinear affine systems in normal form. The same problem was studied before by Khalil under the assumption that the solution of the regulator equations is polynomial. By using the nonlinear internal model approach, we have relaxed the polynomial assumption on the solution of the regulator equations.
Deuterium observations in our galaxy – View A

Accurate measurements of the D/H ratio in our Galaxy provide critical tests of Galactic chemical evolution and constrain the primordial value of D/H. Very high quality ultraviolet spectra from the GHRS and STIS instruments on HST have been analyzed for lines of sight toward both early and late-type stars and hot white dwarfs. We will summarize the results that are being obtained for D/H along sightlines through the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) and other nearby warm clouds. All sightlines through the LIC are consistent with D/H = (1.53 ± 0.18) x 10-5 . Whether or not significantly different values of D/H are present in other clouds within 100 pc of the Sun is not yet settled, but there is evidence that D/H is significantly lower in Orion (500 pc). We will describe the likely sources of systematic errors in determining D/H that must be understood and quanitified when analyzing such ultraviolet spectra.
Fashion Forecast:Is Green the New Black?

This research aims to understand consumer perception regarding the ethics which surround the fashion industry. The impact upon the environment from the fashion industry is growing due to consumer demand for an increased cycle of new fashion, decrease in garment price and the use of developing economies to reduce production costs. Although the fashion industry may not be at the fore of environmental concerns there is a body of evidence which suggests that current consumption levels are unsustainable and that consumer behaviour requires a change in order to be ethical. However, consumer behaviour is habitual and change will need to be facilitated easily and with additional consumer benefits (Memeryet al 2005; Schaefer and Crane 2005).
Work Group 1 ( For Technologies ) TITLE : A Fast and Efficient Buffer Sharing Scheme for an Input Buffer ATM Switch

In this paper a fair and fast buffer sharing scheme based on the round robin cell distribution mechanism for an input buffer ATM switch is proposed. This buffer sharing scheme improves the performance of the input buffer ATM switch in terms of the cell loss ratio and the CDV by equalizing the occupancy of input buffers. In order to make the equalizing and buffer sharing operation fast and simple, the proposed buffer sharing scheme uses a dynamic threshold by which input buffers are separated into two groups according to their occupancy. The buffer sharing scheme equalizes the buffer occupancy of input buffers by distributing incoming cells to the input buffers of lower occupancy first. The performance of the proposed buffer sharing scheme is evaluated by computer simulation. The result shows that the input buffer ATM switch adopting the buffer sharing scheme outperforms those with conventional input buffer schemes based on virtual output queue (VOQ) and the simple round robin in terms of the cell loss ratio, the maximum throughput and the CDV.