Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probabilistic Temporal Logic Falsification of Cyber-Physical Systems

We present a Monte-Carlo optimization technique for finding system behaviors that falsify a metric temporal logic (MTL) property. Our approach performs a random walk over the space of system inputs guided by a robustness metric defined by the MTL property. Robustness is guiding the search for a falsifying behavior by exploring trajectories with smaller robustness values. The resulting testing framework can be applied to a wide class of cyber-physical systems (CPS). We show through experiments on complex system models that using our framework can help automatically falsify properties with more consistency as compared to other means, such as uniform sampling.
A Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking

Individual information seeking has become increasingly a critical determinant of the success of individual organizational members and of an organization as a whole. This study tests a Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) that contains three primary classes of variables: Antecedents, which provide the underlying imperatives to seek information; Information Carrier Characteristics, which shape the nature of specific intentions to seek information from particular carriers; and Information Seeking Actions, which reflect the nature of the search itself and are the outcomes of the preceding classes. The CMIS was tested and refined in tests related to the informal channel in a large, technically oriented governmental agency (N = 380), then the refined model was confirmed by tests on the formal channel. Both tests of the revised model were supportive, suggesting that the most important variables were those related to an individual's existing information base, those associated with an individual's need for programmed information seeking, and those dealing with information carrier characteristics.
Speech Recognition using Artificial Neural Network

— Humans prefer to interact with each other using speech. Since this is the most natural mode of communication, the humans also want to interact with machines using speech only. So, automatic speech recognition has gained a lot of popularity. Different approaches for speech recognition exists like Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), Vector Quantization (VQ), etc. This paper uses Neural Network (NN) along with Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC) for speech recognition. Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefiicients (MFCC) has been used for the feature extraction of speech. This gives the feature of the waveform. For pattern matching Feed-Forward Neural Network with Back propagation algorithm has been applied. The paper analyzes the various training algorithms present for training the Neural Network and uses train scg for the experiment. The work has been done on MATLAB and experimental results show that system is able to recognize words at sufficiently high accuracy.
Politics and Toughmindedness

Abstract The assertion that left-wing authoritarianism is a myth was investigated. Responses from 198 Australian undergraduates showed the “tough-minded” to be on either side of the Radical-Conservative divide, thus supporting Eysenck's (1954, 1975) hypothesis. Furthermore, rightists were found to hold authoritarian attitudes, whereas leftists were found to manifest antisubmissive behavior.
Dynamic task discovery in PaRSEC: a data-flow task-based runtime

Successfully exploiting distributed collections of heterogeneous many-cores architectures with complex memory hierarchy through a portable programming model is a challenge for application developers. The literature is not short of proposals addressing this problem, including many evolutionary solutions that seek to extend the capabilities of current message passing paradigms with intra-node features (MPI+X). A different, more revolutionary, solution explores data-flow task-based runtime systems as a substitute to both local and distributed data dependencies management. The solution explored in this paper, PaRSEC, is based on such a programming paradigm, supported by a highly efficient task-based runtime. This paper compares two programming paradigms present in PaRSEC, Parameterized Task Graph (PTG) and Dynamic Task Discovery (DTD) in terms of capabilities, overhead and potential benefits.
Method for tracking eye gaze during interpretation of endoluminal 3D CT colonography: technical description and proposed metrics for analysis.

PURPOSE To develop an eye-tracking method applicable to three-dimensional (3D) images, where the abnormality is both moving and changing in size. MATERIALS AND METHODS Research ethics committee approval was granted to record eye-tracking data from six inexperienced readers who inspected eight short (<30 seconds) endoluminal fly-through videos extracted from computed tomographic (CT) colonography examinations. Cases included true-positive and false-positive polyp detections from a previous study (polyp diameters, 5-25 mm). Eye tracking was performed with a desk-mounted tracker, and readers indicated when they saw a polyp with a mouse click. The polyp location on each video frame was quantified subsequently by using a circular mask. Gaze data related to each video frame were calculated relative to the visible polyp boundary and used to identify eye movements that pursue a polyp target as it changes size and position during fly-through. Gaze data were then related to positive polyp detections by readers. RESULTS Tracking eye gaze on moving 3D images was technically feasible. Gaze was successfully classified by using pursuit analysis, and pursuit-based gaze metrics were able to help discriminate different reader search behaviors and methods of allocating visual attention during polyp identification. Of a total of 16 perceptual errors, 15 were recognition errors. There was only one visual search error. The largest polyp (25 mm) was seen but not recognized by five of six readers. CONCLUSION Tracking a reader's gaze during endoluminal interpretation of 3D data sets is technically feasible and can be described with pursuit-based metrics. Perceptual errors can be classified into visual search errors and recognition errors. Recognition errors are more frequent in inexperienced readers.
An explanation for phonological word-final vowel shortening: Evidence from Tokyo Japanese

This paper offers an account for the cross-linguistic prevalence of phonological word-final vowel shortening, in the face of phonetic final lengthening, also commonly observed across languages. Two contributing factors are hypothesized: (1) an overlap in the durational distributions of short and long vowel phonemes across positions in the utterance can lead to the misidentification of phonemic vowel length and (2) the direction of bias in such misidentification is determined by the distributional properties of the short and long vowel phonemes in the region of the durational overlap. Because short vowel phonemes are typically more frequent in occurrence and less variable in duration than long vowel phonemes, long vowel phonemes are more likely to be misidentified than short vowel phonemes. Results of production and perception studies in Tokyo Japanese support these hypotheses.
On-line Aggregation and Filtering of Pattern-based Queries

We consider an environment where a subscription system continuously evaluates pattern-based requests over unbounded sequential data. We propose an extension of the traditional pattern-matching techniques for efficiently handling large sets of such continuous queries. This extension relies on the introduction of variables in patterns in order to augment their expressivity. Based on this extended class of parameterized queries, our main contributions are threefold. First, we define a refinement relation based on variable relaxation. Second, we use the semi-lattice structure of the set of parameterized patterns for patterns aggregation and filtering. We propose an on-line pattern aggregation algorithm so as to both reduce the cost of pattern-matching evaluation as well as to filter out sequences that cannot match any of the patterns in a subscription cluster. Finally we show, through analysis and experiments, that our technique reduces quite effectively the cost of the matching process
Mieux connaître les élèves: les motivations

L’hétérogénéité des classes nécessite un travail important de la part des enseignants dont la mission vise à contribuer à l’«Ecole de la réussite». En effet, la particularité de celle-ci réside dans l’individualisation l’enseignement qu’elle sous-tend. Il s’agit pour les enseignants de tenir compte au mieux des particularités de chacun. A ce propos, vérifier l’interaction aptitude-traitement en éducation physique constitue une piste qui doit être suivie. Il s’agit de déterminer comment les enseignants tiennent compte de l’hétérogénéité de la classe. L’explication des résultats d’un enseignement a longtemps été associée soit à l’effet du traitement seul (didactique, contenu ou interventions), soit à l’effet de l’aptitude seule (un trait personnel en relation avec la réussite). Pour que les élèves trouvent une pratique et reçoivent les interventions appropriées à leurs qualités et besoins, il semble toutefois que ce soit l’interaction du traitement et de l’aptitude qu’il faille mettre en évidence. Comme le suggère Cardinet (1986) pour les aptitudes intellectuelles, on pourrait situer les méthodes pédagogiques sur un continuum. A un extrême, une pratique globale accompagnée d’un minimum d’informations pourrait convenir à des sujets d’habileté motrice et de capacité de compréhension Dans le cadre des activités de recherche du service de Pédagogie des activités physiques et sportives de l’Université de Liège, les auteurs ont effectué une large étude portant sur le traitement différencié des élèves par les enseignements en éducation physique. Cet article présente un aspect des résultats qui n’avaient pas encore été abordés. Il fut préparé à partir d’une étude intitulée «Analyse de la prise en considération des caractéristiques individuelles des élèves dans les décisions et les comportements d'enseignants experts et débutants» subventionnée par la Communauté française de Belgique, Administration de l’Enseignement et de la Recherche Scientifique.
A Nonnegative Tensor Factorization Approach for Three-Dimensional Binary Wafer-Test Data

We introduce a new Blind Source Separation Approach called binNTF which operates on tensor-valued binary datasets. Assuming that several simultaneously acting sources or elementary causes are generating the observed data, the objective of our approach is to uncover the underlying sources as well as their individual contribution to each observation with a minimum number of assumptions in an unsupervised fashion. We motivate, develop and demonstrate our method in the context of binary wafer test data which evolve during microchip fabrication. In this application, we also have to deal with incomplete datasets which can occur due to the commonly used stop-on-first-fail testing procedure or result from the aggregation of several distinct tests into BIN categories.
The Ethics of Computing

Computing technologies and artifacts are increasingly integrated into most aspects of our professional, social, and private lives. One consequence of this growing ubiquity of computing is that it can have significant ethical implications that computing professionals need to be aware of. The relationship between ethics and computing has long been discussed. However, this is the first comprehensive survey of the mainstream academic literature of the topic. Based on a detailed qualitative analysis of the literature, the article discusses ethical issues, technologies that they are related to, and ethical theories, as well as the methodologies that the literature employs, its academic contribution, and resulting recommendations. The article discusses general trends and argues that the time has come for a transition to responsible research and innovation to ensure that ethical reflection of computing has practical and manifest consequences.
Women’s subjective experiences of food and eating on the island of the ‘Mediterranean diet’

The purpose of this research was to explore and develop an understanding of Cretan women’s subjective experiences regarding food and eating behaviors. On average, 43 community group participants provided reflective written feedback after eleven consecutive meetings. The participants ranged in age from 20 to 85 years. The group engaged in experiential activities and critical reflection with the aim of construction and generation of meanings regarding women’s subjective experiences of food, eating, nutrition and body image. The women expressed worry and confusion concerning what the ‘right’ foods are, and balancing ‘tradition’ with new and conflicting ‘lifestyles’. Younger women were more concerned with diet and body image, middle age participants with preparing ‘appropriate’ foods for their families, and older participants with the changing practices in traditional cuisine. This study offers a conceptual understanding of how a sample of women living within a culture considered privileged to possess ‘a medically sanctioned’ diet, subjectively experience food and eating.
Pathogenesis of coronary artery spasm in miniature swine with regional intimal thickening after balloon denudation.

Pathogenesis of coronary artery spasm induced by histamine in miniature pigs was studied angiographically in in vivo and in vitro conditions. Endothelial balloon denudation was performed and the animals were fed laboratory chow for 3 months, after which coronary artery spasm was repeatedly provoked by histamine given intracoronarily. Regional hypercontraction of the coronary artery was documented by selective coronary arteriography, and the resulting myocardial ischemia was confirmed by ECG-ST changes. To evaluate coronary artery spasm without the influence of blood constituents and neural control and to quantitate the pharmacophysiological characteristics of histamine-induced coronary constriction in the coronary spasm, the same heart was isolated and perfused with Krebs-Henseleit solution under a constant perfusion pressure of 90 mm Hg. Histamine (10(-5) M) reduced the diameter of the coronary artery of the isolated heart by 29 +/- 4 and 67 +/- 3% (p less than 0.001) in nondenuded and denuded areas, respectively. These figures were similar to data obtained angiographically in vivo after the administration of histamine 10 micrograms/kg. The constriction of the denuded areas in response to histamine was topologically the same in vivo and in vitro. The degree of focal constriction induced by histamine, defined as a percent of stenoses from the mean diameter of the areas of proximal and distal to the spastic site, was similar in in vivo (10 micrograms/kg i.c.) and in vitro (10(-5) M) conditions. KCl (40 mM) reduced both the denuded and nondenuded coronary artery diameter by 67 +/- 3% and 68 +/- 3% (NS), respectively. The dose-response relation of the coronary diameter to histamine was not influenced by pretreatment with the nerve transmitter blockers guanethidine (3 X 10(-6) M), atropine (10(-6) M), and tetrodotoxin (3 X 10(-7) M). Phenylephrine (10(-5) M) did not potentiate constriction of the denuded areas. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Flashing displays: user-friendly solution for bootstrapping secure associations between multiple constrained wireless devices

Future healthcare systems, smart homes, and similar will involve a large number of smart inter-connected wireless devices (such as wireless sensor nodes). One of the major challenges to securing these systems presents loading initial cryptographic credentials into a relatively large number of wireless devices. Furthermore, many of these technologies involve low-cost and highly interface constrained devices (lacking usual wired interfaces, displays, keypads, and alike). We propose two novel multichannel key deployment schemes for wireless networks that only require a presence of a light source device, such as a multi-touch screen (tablet or smartphone device). The first key deployment scheme is based on secret key cryptography and is suitable for interface/resource-constrained wireless devices. The second scheme assumes a strong attacker and requires the use of public key cryptography. In both our solutions, we use one-way visible light channel of multi-touch screens (flashing displays) to initialize devices in a secure, usable, and scalable way. From the user's perspective, this boils down to placing the devices on the multitouch screen after which the remaining process is fully automatized. We showed through the experiments with 48 users that our solution is user-friendly and scales linearly with the number of nodes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fragmented Work in Post-Bubble Japan: Negotiating Identity, Gender, Age, and Class in Triangular Employment Relationships

The ascendance of neoliberalism, often subsumed under the rubric of globalization, has a profound impact on the nature of work. Based on yearlong ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the rise of temporary agency work in post-bubble Japan where an increasing number of workers are assembled and dispatched by staffing agencies to receiving firms on limited-term contracts. Such a distinct triangular employment structure provides an exemplary field in which to explore recurring issues of labor flexibility and inequality that characterize contemporary globalization. By delving into minute details of how “dispatched workers” engaging in temporarily and spatially fragmented work make sense of themselves, the article aims to accentuate the role of power in the social construction of reality as well as the complexity of everyday practice.
Physics, biology and history

Abstract The title of the meeting at which this paper was originally presented – 'The contribution of physics to the study of the living' – found its origin and justification in the celebration of that annus mirabilis, 1905. But it also sounded like a sequel to a long tradition of unbalanced relations between physics and biology. The present vexed interdisciplinary relations between the two disciplines cannot be understood without a knowledge of this historical background. Yet focusing on traditional misunderstandings between physicists and biologists would somehow be a mistake, because similar difficulties of communication occur even within the life sciences – a population geneticist and a molecular biologist have very little in common, and use different modes of explanation – and I guess the same is true within physics. To the apparently simple (or at least traditional) problem of relations between disciplines should be added the major difficulty of interweaving the diverse explanatory schemes belonging to different disciplines.
On Becoming a Leader

"In a penetrating, insightful new book, Bennis distinguishes leadership by focusing on 28 individuals, including Apple's John Sculley, Johnson & Johnson's James Burke", (Sloan Management Review), and others. "A solid work that illuminates its subject and engages (the reader). Its ideas are wise enough to stand reexamination". --USA Today.
Frequency Window in Neurones under Low Frequency Modulated Microwaves

Low frequency (LF) alternating (AC) weak magnetic fields (MF) induce calcium efflux increase from molluscan neurones. A similar effect has been observed under exposure to LF AC-MF (0-20 Hz) amplitude modulating microwaves of 13.6 GHz. This effect is explained in base of the neurone membrane bilayer phospholipid superdiamagnetismo and calcium Coulomb explosion (SD-CE) model, followed by the calcium diffusion in the tissue fluid before neurone membrane channels capture. The calcium efflux is shown to follow a Lorentzian, function of AC MF frequency, and so appears as a frequency "resonance" between the biological structure and the AC MF. We show that the Lorentzian resonance stems from the freed calcium kinetics and diffusion in neurone inner and outer fluids towards their binders. The relaxation times for freed calcium are obtained.
Travel and the Home Advantage in Professional Sports

That the home team wins more than half its games is well-established. One factor said to produce this home advantage is travel between venues, which is seen as disruptive for the visiting team. Unfortunately, the media and athletes have been more supportive of travel effects than the research literature. While players continue to speculate that travel matters, empirical results find little support for travel factors. In the present paper we demonstrate that, at least for some professional sports, team travel can exert a very small influence on the outcome of the contest even after the quality of the teams competing is controlled. We conclude, however, that the belief that some factors confer an advantage to the home team is more the product of social forces than the influence those factors regularly have on game outcomes.
Burnout and Work Engagement: The JD–R Approach

Whereas burnout refers to a state of exhaustion and cynicism toward work, engagement is defined as a positive motivational state of vigor, dedication, and absorption. In this article, we discuss the main definitions and conceptualizations of both concepts used in the literature. In addition, we review the most important antecedents of burnout and work engagement by examining situational and individual predictors. We also review the possible consequences of burnout and engagement and integrate the research findings using job demands–resources theory. Although both burnout and work engagement are related to important job-related outcomes, burnout seems to be more strongly related to health outcomes, whereas work engagement is more strongly related to motivational outcomes. We discuss daily and momentary fluctuations in burnout and work engagement as possibilities for future research.
Molecular modelling of ionic liquids in the ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-5

Abstract We performed classical molecular dynamics simulations of the ionic liquids (ILs) [dmim+][Cl−] and [emim+][NTf2−], confined in a model CMK-5 material, which consists of amorphous carbon nanopipes (ACNPs) arranged in a hexagonal array. We compare our findings against the behaviour of the same ILs inside an isolated ACNP (i.e. no IL adsorbed on the outer surface of the ACNP) and inside a model CMK-3 material (which is similar to CMK-5, but is formed by amorphous carbon nanorods). Our results indicate that the presence of IL adsorbed in the outer surface of an uncharged ACNP in CMK-5 affects the dynamics and the density of an IL adsorbed inside the ACNP and vice versa. ILs adsorbed outside the nanopipes in CMK-5 (i.e. with IL also adsorbed inside the nanopipes) have faster dynamics and remain closer to the carbon surfaces when compared to the same ILs adsorbed on CMK-3 materials. The trends are IL-specific: [dmim+][Cl−] has slower dynamics when inside an isolated ACNP than when inside the ACNPs in CMK-5, but in contrast, [emim+][NTf2−] moves faster when it is inside an isolated ACNP than when it is inside the ACNPs in CMK-5 (i.e. with IL adsorbed outside the nanopipes).
Development of Empathic Understanding in Children

HUGHES, ROBERT, JR.; TINGLE, BRUCE A. ; and SAWIN, DOUGLAS B. Development of Empathic Understanding in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 122-128. Children's understanding of the emotions of others and of their own emotional reactions to emotion in others was assessed with boys and girls in kindergarten and second grade. The children were interviewed about their feelings and thoughts following the presentation of slide stories portraying the emotional experiences of other children. Older children were more likely than younger children to cite personal cues and psychological reasons rather than situational factors in their explanations of others' emotions and their own empathic reactions. However, younger children showed increased understanding about others' emotions following reflection on their own reactions to the others' feelings. Though age differences were pervasive, sex differences were not.