Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013 : Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning

With this workshop, we brought together the European communities of technology-enhanced learning, which typically meets at the ECTEL, and of computer-supported cooperative work, which typically meets at the ECSCW. While the ECTEL community has traditionally focused on technology support for learning, be it in formal learning environments like schools, universities, etc. or in informal learning environments like workplaces, the ECSCW community has traditionally investigated how computers can and do mediate and influence collaborative work, in settings as diverse as the typical “gainful employment” situations, project work within university courses, volunteer settings in NGOs etc. Despite overlapping areas of concerns, the two communities are also exploiting different theories and methodological approaches. Within this workshop, we discussed issues that are relevant for both communities, and have the potential to contribute to a more lively communication between both communities. More information about the workshop program and follow up activities is available at http://know-center.tugraz. at/ectel-meets-ecscw-2013/
HoliCoW: Automatically Breaking Team-Based Software Projects to Motivate Student Testing

Intensive testing is often applied by professional software engineers to assure the quality of enterprise information technology (IT) systems. For example, Netflix’s Simian Army consists of services that generate various types of failures, detect abnormal conditions, and test the ability of cloud-based enterprise IT software to survive them. Although software engineering students should be taught these types of rigorous testing techniques, it is often hard to motivate students to produce high-quality test suites for their assignments since classroom environments lack the harsh outcomes of unexpected system failures. This paper provides two contributions to work on strengthening coding and testing skills of software engineering students by aligning educational environment more closely with real-world industries. First, we describe the Holistic Code-Wrecker (HoliCoW), which is our testing method and tool that simulates production environments through forced logical error injections into student projects. The modified versions are then run against regression tests written by students, and the test results are analyzed to determine the robustness of original software. Second, this paper describes preliminary results from our ongoing experience applying HoliCoW to Software Engineering project courses at Vanderbilt University, where the tool is used to automatically evaluate student software project submissions to determine whether regression tests they define detect errors injected into their code.
Complementarity and Partial Nonexcludability: An Analysis of the Software/Computer Market

The concept of nonexcludability is generally associated with public goods. Many privately produced commodities, however, also display aspects of nonexcludability. For example, any recording is partially nonexcludable if copies of the recording can be made by individuals other than the original producer. A number of recent papers have considered markets of this type. For example, Ordover and Willig [1978] and Liebowitz [1985] consider the implications of journal publishers discriminating in price between libraries and personal subscribers, Novos and Waldman [1984] consider the effects of government restrictions on copying, while Johnson [1985] and Besen [1986] are generally concerned with the supply of partially nonexcludable commodities. The present paper also considers such markets, but in the context of a different issue. In particular, this paper considers the role of complementary goods when partial nonexcludability is present. There are two social welfare losses associated with the private marketing of partially nonexcludable goods. The first is known as the social welfare loss due to underproduction. The logic here is that some individuals get access to the good without paying the original producer, and hence, from a societal standpoint either quality or variety will be too low because the incentive to produce is inadequate. This loss is analogous to the loss that occurs in the classic public goods case (see e.g., Samuelson [1954]). The second loss is known as the social welfare loss due to underutilization. This loss stems from the fact that the producer's price will typically exceed his marginal cost of production because of the market power he possesses. In other words, because price exceeds mar-
A Multi-objective Virtual Machine Migration Policy in Cloud Systems

In a Cloud computing environment, the workload fluctuates dynamically producing undesirable situations such as load imbalance, lower utilization or workload hotspots. In such cases, virtual machine migration is a potential solution. However, an algorithm based on a single objective (e.g. service-level agreement) is usually used to direct the migration process. On the contrary, there exist unconsidered conflicting factors impacting the migration process such as load volume, power consumption and resource wastage. In this paper, we consider the migration process as a multiobjective problem where the objectives are typically non-commensurable. Therefore, we propose a novel migration policy consolidated by a new elastic multi-objective optimization strategy to evaluate different objectives (including migration cost) simultaneously, and to provide the flexibility for manipulating different cases. We have tested the proposed policy through an extensive set of simulation experiments using CloudSim, and the results ensure the efficiency of our policy to control the system performance by adjusting the migration objectives to suit various workload situations.
The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia

1. Introduction 2. Roots of the enterprise university (1): from policy to governance 3. Roots of enterprise university (2): from academy to global business 4. Territories and strategies: executive power in the enterprise university 5. College and corporation: institutional power in the enterprise university 6. Economics of invention: research power in the enterprise university 7. Many paths, one purpose: diversity in the enterprise university 8. Conclusion.
Fuzzy Decision Making in a Globalization Process

In a social context, Decision Making Support Systems use an aggregation mechanism to combine the input of individual characteristics as a way of reaching collective decision. In this paper we present our ideas about how these systems can achieve such goal in huge social nets (millions of agents). With this goal in mind, we have conjugated the power of Fuzzy Logic, Evolutionary Algorithms and Swarm Algorithms in a framework for obtaining a Collective Decision Making, in order to use simultaneously agent's specialization and connectivity. This framework incorporates different algorithms for the aggregation step.
A fast and accurate algorithm for facial feature segmentation

A facial feature segmentation algorithm for head and shoulder sequences is proposed. The method is based on simple spatial and temporal heuristics techniques for the purpose of practical implementation. Facial features are segmented using two common cues (i) regular and high image intensity variation in the temporal domain due to various motion like talking and moving, and (ii) high edge density around the feature regions. A simple motion detection method and a generic spatial operator are applied to achieve the required segmentation. The paper addresses the issue of how to combine both information to obtain final results and also assesses the segmentation performance.
A Study on RFID System with Secure Service Availability for Ubiquitous Computing

Spotlighted as an innovative information technology environment, ubiquitous computing has been actively researched on recently. Especially, domestic and global researches focus on the RFID system, which is being eyed to replace the existing bar-code system. As an essential technology for ubiquitous computing, the RFID system can be applied for various purposes. The security issues of the RFID system focus on how the low-priced tag type could have reasonable price competitiveness. The Auto-ID Center in the U.S. is spearheading the research on distribution service and omni-directional security. As for Japan, the researches on omni-directional security and EPC application are necessary in securing the technology for ubiquitous computing with support from the Ministry of Public Management Home Affairs, Posts, and Telecommunication. In this paper, a method of ensuring the availability of the RFID system service will be presented based on the ubiquitous computing environment with the existing omni-directional security and user-friendly interface. While the existing researches focus on the RF reader system and tag-based security, this paper`s suggestion also considers the availability of a sen ice to suggest ways of increasing the practical usage of a low-priced RF tag.
From Good Work to Sustainable Development - Human Resources Consumption and Regeneration in the Post-Bureaucratic Working Life

The thesis concentrates on the psychological consequences ofthe contemporary work. Two focal question of the thesis are,first, why do employeespsychological resources becomeconsumed in the contemporary working life? Second, how tocreate regenerative work enabling employeesdevelopmentin the present situation? The latter question aims todistinguish the conditions for sustainable individual andcollective development at work. The empirical research consistsof two studies; the Empirical Study I with explorative casestudies in two »new economy« companies and theEmpirical Study II with action research case studies in apublic hospital and a tenantsunion. In the EmpiricalStudy II, the case organizations defined their problemsrelating to human resources consumption. The subsequent actionresearch projects aimed to work on these problems and togenerate ideas for regenerative work.The case studies indicate that many contemporary workinglife problems relate to fundamental changes at work. Confinedbureaucratic work is gradually changing into more complex andboundaryless work. Instead of bureaucratic impersonality, suchwork requires comprehensive personal presence from employees.However, organizational arrangements have not followed thedevelopment. Organizational structures and practices are stillaimed at controlling and guiding compartmentalized, stablework. Consequently, post-bureaucratic work realities exist inbureaucratic work organizations; the clashes between the twooperation logics lead to negative consequences at individualand organizational levels.The thesis studies the reasons for the gap betweenbureaucratic organizational logic and post-bureaucratic worklogic. Furthermore, organizational and individual approachesleading to more comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful workare explored. When it comes to organizational approaches, theredoes not seem to exist a certain structure for apost-bureaucratic organization; such an organization is a stateof collective and individual mind rather than a fixed solution.At individual level, bureaucratic thinking has to grow intopost-bureaucratic thinking at all hierarchical levels.Responsibility taking and complex thinking are needed. Mentalmodels enabling versatile functioning within an organizationare required.KEY WORDS:good work, personal development, professionaldevelopment, stress, human resources, regenerative work,consuming work, bureaucracy, post-bureaucracy, actionresearch.
Reduced glomerular filtration rate due to loss of nephron mass may be an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND Whether living with reduced nephron mass (RNM) poses a risk to humans is the subject of ongoing controversy. The aim of this study was to discover whether or not RNMs are associated with greater atherosclerotic plaque burdens. METHODS Using the post-operative abdominal CT scans of 739 nephrectomized patients [NP; 315 women and 424 men; mean age 64.5 ± 15.0 years; observation period 4.9 ± 5.7 years (3675.9 patient-years)] and of an age- and a gender-matched control group, a retrospective observational and case-control study was conducted. The V600 calcium scoring method was used to determine the aortic calcium volume score (ACS) and thus the APB. RESULTS The ACS was 0.47 ± 0.77 mm(3) in the NPs compared with 0.41 ± 0.69 mm(3) in the control group (P <0.0001). The ACS and the glomerular filtration rate (GFR using the CKD-EPI formula) after nephrectomy correlated inversely (P = - 0.3652; P <0.0001), and the ACS and the time since nephrectomy correlated positively (P = 0.2919; P <0.0001). In linear regression models, age, time interval and GFR after nephrectomy proved to be independent factors of influence on ACS (P <0.05 each). Including the control group, age, GFR after nephrectomy and nephrectomy were independent factors of influence on the ACS. The factor GFR after nephrectomy explains ~ 10.7% in NPs, and 28% of the variance of the ACS in all patients. CONCLUSIONS The factors 'low GFR' and RNM are risk factors for greater atherosclerotic plaque burden. Patients with RNM should undergo regular control examinations to monitor arterial blood pressure and treat hypertension if it occurs.
Loblolly pine somatic embryogenesis: development of a maturation medium and resulting embryo quality

Clonal production of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) through somatic embryogenesis has great potential to meet the increasing industrial demands for highquality uniform raw materials. A major barrier to the commercialization of this technology is the low quality of resulting embryos. Twenty-five newly initiated loblolly pine genotypes were followed through the process of liquid culture establishment, embryo maturation, germination, and retrieval from cryogenic storage. A maturation medium, capable of promoting development of loblolly pine somatic embryos that can germinate, is presented that combines Y2 P6 modified salts, 2% maltose, 13% polyethylene glycol 8000, 5 mg/L abscisic acid, and 2.5 g/L Gelrite. A procedure for converting and acclimating germinants to growth in soil and greenhouse conditions is presented. A set of somatic seedlings, produced from the maturation medium, showed 100% survival when planted in a field setting. Somatic seedlings showed normal yearly growth when compared to standard seedlings from natural seed. Quality of resulting embryos is examined and compared to zygotic embryos using morphology, dry weight, germination performance, and gene expression. All observations support the conclusion that somatic embryos grow approximately halfway through the normal sequence of development and then prematurely discontinue growth.
Inhibitory Receptors Alter Natural Killer Cell Interactions with Target Cells Yet Allow Simultaneous Killing of Susceptible Targets

Inhibitory receptors expressed on natural killer (NK) cells abrogate positive signals upon binding corresponding major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on various target cells. By directly micromanipulating the effector–target cell encounter using an optical tweezers system which allowed temporal and spatial control, we demonstrate that Ly49–MHC class I interactions prevent characteristic cellular responses in NK cells upon binding to target cells. Furthermore, using this system, we directly demonstrate that an NK cell already bound to a resistant target cell may simultaneously bind and kill a susceptible target cell. Thus, although Ly49-mediated inhibitory signals can prevent many types of effector responses, they do not globally inhibit cellular function, but rather the inhibitory signal is spatially restricted towards resistant targets.
Click-through-based Deep Visual-Semantic Embedding for Image Search

The problem of image search is mostly considered from the perspectives of feature-based vector model and image ranker learning. A fundamental issue that underlies the success of these approaches is the similarity learning between query and image. The need of image surrounding texts in feature-based vector model, however, makes the similarity sensitive to the quality of text descriptions. On the other, the image ranker learning can suffer from robustness problem, originating from the fact that human labeled query-image pairs do not always predict user search intention precisely. We demonstrate in this paper that the above two issues can be well mitigated by jointly exploring visual-semantic embedding and the use of click-through data. Specifically, we propose a novel click-through-based deep visual-semantic embedding (C-DVSE) model for learning query and image similarity. The proposed model consists of two components: a deep convolutional neural networks followed by an image embedding layer for learning visual embedding, and a deep neural networks for generating query semantic embedding. The objective of our model is to maximize the correlation between semantic (query) and visual (clicked image) embedding. When the visual-semantic embedding is learnt, query-image similarity can be directly computed by cosine similarity on this embedding space. On a large-scale click-based image dataset with 11.7 million queries and one million images, our model is shown to be powerful for keyword-based image search with superior performance over several state-of-the-art methods.
An approach to consider behavioral plasticity as a source of uncertainty when forecasting species' response to climate change

The rapid ecological shifts that are occurring due to climate change present major challenges for managers and policymakers and, therefore, are one of the main concerns for environmental modelers and evolutionary biologists. Species distribution models (SDM) are appropriate tools for assessing the relationship between species distribution and environmental conditions, so being customarily used to forecast the biogeographical response of species to climate change. A serious limitation of species distribution models when forecasting the effects of climate change is that they normally assume that species behavior and climatic tolerances will remain constant through time. In this study, we propose a new methodology, based on fuzzy logic, useful for incorporating the potential capacity of species to adapt to new conditions into species distribution models. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to include different behavioral responses of species when predicting the effects of climate change on species distribution. Favorability models offered in this study show two extremes: one considering that the species will not modify its present behavior, and another assuming that the species will take full advantage of the possibilities offered by an increase in environmental favorability. This methodology may mean a more realistic approach to the assessment of the consequences of global change on species' distribution and conservation. Overlooking the potential of species' phenotypical plasticity may under- or overestimate the predicted response of species to changes in environmental drivers and its effects on species distribution. Using this approach, we could reinforce the science behind conservation planning in the current situation of rapid climate change.
A novel direct approach for blind source separation based on the characteristic function

We propose a new "direct-form" algorithm for blind source separation. In contrast to "iterative-form" algorithms, in a "direct-form" algorithm the mixing matrix is estimated directly from the observed data, using a single pass to collect some statistics. The statistics exploited by our algorithm are the empirical second-derivative matrices of the second joint characteristic function of the observations, evaluated at selected points, termed "processing points". Applying approximate joint diagonalization to these matrices yields a consistent estimate of the mixing matrix (under some mild regularity conditions) in the noiseless as well as in the noisy case, whenever the noise is Gaussian and spatially white. For spatially correlated Gaussian noise, a slightly modified version of the algorithm can still produce consistent estimates. The performance depends strongly on the choice of processing points, and can compare favorably to other BSS algorithms.
Control with disturbance preview and online optimization

We present a intuitive and self-contained formulation of a stability preserving receding horizon control strategy for a system where limited preview information is available for the disturbances. The simplicity of the derivation is due to (and its benefits somewhat offset by) a set of stringent and highly structured assumptions. The formulation uses a suboptimal value function for terminal cost, and relies on optimization strategies that only require a trivial improvement property, allowing implementation as an "anytime" algorithm. The nature of this strategy's performance is clarified with linear examples.
Internet nameserver IPv4 and IPv6 address relationships

The modern Domain Name System (DNS) provides not only resolution, but also enables intelligent client routing, e.g. for Content Distribution Networks (CDNs). The adoption of IPv6 presents CDNs the opportunity to utilize different paths when optimizing traffic, and the challenge of appropriately mapping IPv6 DNS queries. This work seeks to discover the associations between Internet DNS client resolver IPv6 address(es) and IPv4 address(es). We design and implement two new techniques, one passive and one active, to gather resolver pairings. The passive technique, deployed in Akamai's production DNS infrastructure, opportunistically discovered 674k (IPv4, IPv6) associated address pairs within a six-month period. We find that 34% of addresses are one-to-one, i.e. appear in no other pair, a fraction that increases to ~50% when aggregating IPv6 addresses into /64 prefixes. The one-to-one associations are suggestive, but not a sufficient condition, of dual-stack DNS recursive resolvers. We further substantiate our inferences via PTR records and software versions, and manual verification of sample pairings by three major Network Operators. Complex associations, where e.g. distributed DNS resolution leads to inferred address groupings that span continents and many autonomous systems exist, a subset of which we explore in more depth using the active probing technique. Among potential uses, Akamai is currently utilizing screened output from the passive technique, in conjunction with prior knowledge of IPv4, to inform IPv6 geolocation within its CDN.
Manipulator-based grasping pose selection by means of task-objective optimisation

This paper presents an alternative to inverse kinematics for mobile manipulator grasp pose selection which integrates obstacle avoidance and joint limit checking into the pose selection process. Given the Cartesian coordinates of an object in 3D space and its normal vector, end-effector pose objectives including collision checking and joint limit checks are used to create a series of cost functions based on sigmoid functions. These functions are optimised using Levenberg-Marquardt’s algorithm to determine a valid pose for a given object. The proposed method has been shown to extend the workspace of the manipulator, eliminating the need for precomputed grasp sets and post pose selection collision checking and joint limit checks. This method has been successfully used on a 6 DOF manipulator both in simulation and in the real world environment.