Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the Robustness of the Correlation Approach for Solving the Permutation Problem in the Convolutive Blind Source Separation

In this paper, we propose a modification to the correlation approach in convolutive blind source separati on to achieve an improved robustness. An often used approach for separation of convolutive mixtures is the transformation to the time-frequency domain. This allows for the use of an instantaneous ICA algorithm independently in each frequency bin, which greatly reduces complexity. The drawback of this approach are the so-called permutation and scaling problems. Here, we modify the well known correlation approach for making it more robust. We propose to incorporate a confidence functi on based on estimated SIR which allows for detection of frequen cy bins with high probability of wrong permutations. The results of the new algorithm will be shown on an real-world example.
Service Restoration for a Renewable-Powered Microgrid in Unscheduled Island Mode

This paper deals with the service restoration problem in renewable-powered microgrids that are driven islanded by an unscheduled breakdown from the main grid. The objective is to determine the maximum of the expected restorative loads by choosing the best arrangement of the power network configurations immediately from the beginning of the breakdown all the way to the end of the island mode. The intermittency nature of the renewable power, as well as the uncertainty of the duration of the breakdown pose new challenges to this classic optimization scheduling task. The proposed two scenario-splitting methods can be solved in a two-step solving procedure, in which a Lagrangian technique and dynamic programming are utilized to provide an analytical sub-optimal yet efficient solution to the original problem. Simulation results demonstrate that both methods can find solutions very close to optima effectively; the scheduling plan should be adjusted when the time evolves, especially when the renewable power generation takes a large portion in the power supply; and the energy storage system plays a significant role to reduce the risk of unreliability in the wind power forecasting, even with a small amount of capacity. Finally, the proposed approach can be applied to radially configured systems with other types of distributed generators.
A Robust Multi-Feature Cut Detection Algorithm for Video Segmentation

Video segmentation is the first task in almost all video analysis applications. It consists in identifying the boundaries of the meaningful video units (shots). Without a doubt, cuts are the most common among production effects that characterize the shot boundaries. In this paper we propose an algorithm for cut detection exploiting an innovative, robust frame difference measure. The measure is based on a combination of different visual features. To improve the precision of the cut detection algorithm, a temporal pattern analysis model, and a flashes removal are also proposed. Experimental results to prove the effectiveness of the proposed measure coupled with the temporal pattern analysis model on very heterogeneous and complex sets of videos are critically reported.
Impacto das Externalidades de Aglomeração no Crescimento do Emprego: O Caso do Cluster de Confecções em Pernambuco

Testa o impacto da “clusterização” horizontal no crescimento do emprego das Micro, Pequenas e Médias Empresas (MPMEs) de confecções do Estado de Pernambuco. Verifica se, acima de certo nível de “clusterização” horizontal, há impacto negativo no crescimento do emprego. Usa um modelo que explica o crescimento do emprego das MPMEs, adaptado de Fingleton; Igliori e Moore, e utilizando dados da Relação Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS) de 1995 e 2005, bem como do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) e do Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (INEP). Apresenta evidências de que a “clusterização” horizontal tem efeito positivo sobre o crescimento do emprego das MPMEs de confecções de Pernambuco; porém, à medida que esta “clusterização” cresce, há impacto negativo naquele. O modelo também aponta que as condições de demanda e oferta locais são importantes fatores que explicam o crescimento do emprego das MPMEs de confecções de Pernambuco.
A Critical Review of Interactive Drama Systems

This paper provides a critical review of existing interactive drama systems. An interactive drama takes place within a virtual world in which the user has a high degree of freedom to physically and mentally interact with non-player characters and objects within a dramatically interesting experience which is different on every play, and adapts to the user’s interactions. Those criteria which should provide the basis of interactive drama are detailed and discussed in this paper. The main existing interactive drama systems are then surveyed. The techniques used in each system are discussed, as are the contributions, and shortcomings, of each system. There is great potential for interactive drama systems, and this paper considers how best to achieve this.
Establishing a Human Baseline for the Winograd Schema Challenge

The Winograd Schema Challenge (WSC) is a pronoun resolution task for which deep semantic knowledge is required to achieve high performance. Until now it has been assumed that human performance on the WSC is nearly at ceiling, but evidence for this has been mainly anecdotal. Here we present the results of a large online experiment that both establishes a baseline for human performance on the WSC and demonstrates the importance of human testing, not only as a means of validating a particular corpus, but more fundamentally as a guide in defining desirable characteristics for Winograd
Industrial network design by improving construction logistics

Implementing an industrial network in the construction industry can be achieved by changing construction management activities directly on the construction site within the design and operation phase. Construction logistics plays a crucial role here, in particular on the downstream side where waste has to be efficiently collected, separated, sorted and, finally, transported from site to different waste management options. The objective of this paper is to introduce an approach for efficient construction logistics that can ensure successful implementation of an industrial network in the construction industry from the point of view of on-site materials management within the logistics of disposal. Two construction projects in Germany were investigated and it was found that the total number of material streams separated directly on site in each project could be increased from 1 to 7 and from 1 to 19 different fractions. The study also revealed that the reuse and recycling rate could be increased to over 75% in.
Using NLP to Support Scalable Assessment of Short Free Text Responses

Marking student responses to short answer questions raises particular issues for human markers, as well as for automatic marking systems. In this paper we present the Amati system, which aims to help human markers improve the speed and accuracy of their marking. Amati supports an educator in incrementally developing a set of automatic marking rules, which can then be applied to larger question sets or used for automatic marking. We show that using this system allows markers to develop mark schemes which closely match the judgements of a human expert, with the benefits of consistency, scalability and traceability afforded by an automated marking system. We also consider some difficult cases for automatic marking, and look at some of the computational and linguistic properties of these cases.
Understanding the Concept of Strategic Intent

This conceptual paper is a review of the concept of strategic intent in relation to the strategic management theories. It reviews literature on strategic management theories stemming from the origin of the word strategic management to the current discussion on strategic intent. The concept of strategic intent inspires the management leadership as the way to bring future into current thinking thus allowing them to reorganize the organization for future competition by developing products, core competencies, systems and relationship that will give them a competitive edge. The paper has identified that strategic intent goes beyond the strategic planning to get a deeper imagination of where the organization should be 10 â€“ 20 years into the future. This article is suggested to be an additional work into the understanding of strategic intent concept as one of the emerging issues in management
Loss of Catecholaminergic Neuromodulation of Persistent Forms of Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity with Increasing Age

Neuromodulation by means of the catecholaminergic system is a key component of motivation-driven learning and behaviorally modulated hippocampal synaptic plasticity. In particular, dopamine acting on D1/D5 receptors and noradrenaline acting on beta-adrenergic receptors exert a very potent regulation of forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity that last for very long-periods of time (>24 h), and occur in conjunction with novel spatial learning. Antagonism of these receptors not only prevents long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), but prevents the memory of the spatial event that, under normal circumstances, leads to the perpetuation of these plasticity forms. Spatial learning behavior that normally comes easily to rats, such as object-place learning and spatial reference learning, becomes increasingly impaired with aging. Middle-aged animals display aging-related deficits of specific, but not all, components of spatial learning, and one possibility is that this initial manifestation of decrements in learning ability that become apparent in middle-age relate to changes in motivation, attention and/or the regulation by neuromodulatory systems of these behavioral states. Here, we compared the regulation by dopaminergic D1/D5 and beta-adrenergic receptors of persistent LTP in young (2–4 month old) and middle-aged (8–14 month old) rats. We observed in young rats, that weak potentiation that typically lasts for ca. 2 h could be strengthened into persistent (>24 h) LTP by pharmacological activation of either D1/D5 or beta-adrenergic receptors. By contrast, no such facilitation occurred in middle-aged rats. This difference was not related to an ostensible learning deficit: a facilitation of weak potentiation into LTP by spatial learning was possible both in young and middle-aged rats. It was also not directly linked to deficits in LTP: strong afferent stimulation resulted in equivalent LTP in both age groups. We postulate that this change in catecholaminergic control of synaptic plasticity that emerges with aging, does not relate to a learning deficit per se, rather it derives from an increase in behavioral thresholds for novelty and motivation that emerge with increasing age that impact, in turn, on learning efficacy.
Adaptive online transmission of 3D TexMesh using scale-space analysis

Efficient online visualization of 3D mesh and photo realistic texture is essential for a variety of applications, such as museum exhibits and medical images. In these applications synthetic texture and a predefined set of views is not an option. We propose using a mesh simplification algorithm based on scale-space analysis of the feature point distribution, combined with an associated analysis of the surface texture, to address the needs of adaptive online transmission of high quality 3D objects. The premise of the proposed textured mesh (TexMesh) simplification is the following: minor variations in texture can be ignored in relatively smooth regions of a 3D surface, without significantly affecting human perception. Statistics on 3D feature point distribution and their associated texture fragments are gathered during preprocessing. Online transmission is based on these statistics, which can be retrieved in constant time. Based on monitored bandwidth a scaled mesh is first transmitted. Starting from a default texture quality, we apply an efficient harmonic time compensation algorithm based on the current bandwidth and a time limit, to adaptively adjust the texture quality of the next fragment. Properties of the algorithm are proved. Experimental results show the usefulness of our approach.
Impact des modèles de mobilités sur les performances des protocoles de routage en milieu urbain réaliste dans les réseaux VANET (V2V).

VANET (Vehicular Adhoc Networks) is a new emerging technology that integrates the features of the new generation of wireless for vehicles. Vehicular networks are characterized by a high mobility of nodes that pose many challenges of research. The mobility models can significantly affect the results of the simulation. Our goal, is to evaluate the impact of the mobility models such as IDM, IDM-IM and IDM-LC on routing protocols AODV, DSR and DSDV using the propagation model Nakagami in an urban scenario in particular “the city of Tlemcen”, generating realistic traces of vehicles thanks to a mobility simulator VanetMobiSim. The simulation results obtained at different densities and vehicular speed show that MANET routing protocols suffer from poor performance in VANET.
On the Turing Degrees of Weakly Computable Real Numbers

The Turing degree of a real number x is defined as the Turing degree of its binary expansion. This definition is quite natural and robust. In this paper we discuss some basic degree properties of semi-computable and weakly computable real numbers introduced by Weihrauch and Zheng [19]. Among others we show that, there are two real numbers of c.e. binary expansions such that their difference does not have an ω. c.e. Turing degree.
Propagation des contraintes tables souples Etude preliminaire

WCSP is a framework that has attracted a lot of attention during the last decade. In particular, there have been many developments of filtering approaches based on the concept of soft local consistencies such as node consistency (NC), arc consistency (AC), full directional arc consistency (FDAC), existential directional arc consistency (EDAC), virtual arc consistency (VAC) and optimal soft arc consistency (OSAC). Almost all algorithms related to these properties have been introduced for binary weighted constraint networks, and most of the conducted experiments typically include constraint networks involving only binary and ternary constraints. In this paper, we focus on extensional soft constraints of large arity. We propose an algorithm to filter such constraints and embed it in PFC-MRDAC. Despite still being preliminary at this stage, we show it can be used to solve efficiently a new benchmark of Crossword puzzles.
Heterogeneous Preferences and the Efficacy of Public School Choice

Public school choice plans are intended to increase equity and quality in education by offering students at under-performing schools immediate academic gains from attending a higherachieving school and by creating demand-side pressure on under-performing schools to improve. We develop a model to show how these gains from choice depend on heterogeneity in how parents choose schools, and test the model’s predictions using data on parental choices and lottery assignments to schools from a school choice plan in Charlotte, North Carolina. We estimate an exploded-mixed-logit model of demand for schools and find that higher-SES parents are more likely to choose higher-performing schools, while minority families must trade off preferences for high-performing schools against preferences for a predominantly minority school. These differences in choice behavior lead to low demand-side pressure for improvement at schools serving low-SES and minority families relative to those serving high-SES families. In addition, we find that children of parents placing high weight on academic achievement experience test score gains from moving to their preferred schools, while others experience no gain or declines in test scores. This is particularly true for minority families who must sacrifice attending a predominantly minority school to select a high-test-score school. Our results imply that public school choice may widen rather than narrow the gap in achievement. ______________________________________ This paper was previously circulated as Hastings, Kane, and Staiger (2007a) and (2007b). This paper combines and replaces those two papers. We thank the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board, Office of the Superintendent, as well as the excellent school district staff for making this project possible. We thank the editor, three anonymous referees, Joseph Altonji, Patrick Bayer, Steven Berry, David Card, Philip Haile, Carolyn Hoxby, Fabian Lange, Derek Neal, Sharon Oster, Miguel Villas-Boas, Sofia Villas-Boas, and numerous seminar participants for helpful comments and suggestions at various stages of the project. C. Sean Hundtofte and Jeffrey Weinstein provided outstanding research assistance. The project is funded by grants from the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University and the U.S. Department of Education.
The fluctuation-dissipation theorem

The linear response theory has given a general proof of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem which states that the linear response of a given system to an external perturbation is expressed in terms of fluctuation properties of the system in thermal equilibrium. This theorem may be represented by a stochastic equation describing the fluctuation, which is a generalization of the familiar Langevin equation in the classical theory of Brownian motion. In this generalized equation the friction force becomes retarded or frequency-dependent and the random force is no more white. They are related to each other by a generalized Nyquist theorem which is in fact another expression of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. This point of view can be applied to a wide class of irreversible process including collective modes in many-particle systems as has already been shown by Mori. As an illustrative example, the density response problem is briefly discussed.
Improved Separation and Collection of Charge Carriers in Micro-Pyramidal-Structured Silicon/PEDOT:PSS Hybrid Solar Cells

Silicon (Si)/organic polymer hybrid solar cells have great potential for becoming cost-effective and efficient energy-harvesting devices. We report herein on the effects of polymer coverage and the rear electrode on the device performance of Si/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) hybrid solar cells with micro-pyramidal structures. These hybrid solar cells provided adequate generation of charge carriers owing to the suppression of reflectance to below 13%. Additionally, the separation of the photogenerated charge carriers at the micro-pyramidal-structured Si/PEDOT:PSS interface regions and their collection at the electrodes were dramatically improved by tuning the adhesion areas of the PEDOT:PSS layer and the rear electrode materials, thereby attaining a power conversion efficiency of 8.25%. These findings suggest that it is important to control the PEDOT:PSS coverage and to optimize the rear electrode materials in order to achieve highly efficient separation of the charge carriers and their effective collection in micro-textured hybrid solar cells.
Signal pre-processing method suitable for compressive sensing based on frequency modulation

The sparse property of the signal to be processed is very important and directly affects the efficiency of compressive sensing. A signal pre-processing method suitable for compressive sensing is given, which is helpful to effective sensing and accurate reconstruction. Under the condition that the sparse characteristic of the signal is unknown, a frequency modulation pattern is introduced to pre-process the signal to increase the sparse proportion of the signal. Then we choose a difference matrix as the reconstruction matrix, the signal could be reconstructed accurately in the process of sparse reconstruction. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed pre-processing method for compressive sensing is very effective and efficient.
Simulation-based evaluation of robot and wireless sensor network interaction

The main goal of the present research is to analyze the interaction scenarios between an autonomous vehicle or robot and a wireless sensor network. This paper presents the design solutions and experimental results for two problems: autonomous navigation guided by a sensor network and environmental data acquisition using a moving robot. In order to evaluate different scenarios and algorithms a simulation application was developed. The application allows random or manual definition of environmental scenarios and implements different algorithms for navigation and data acquisition. The results can be analyzed through a graphical user interface. The application may be used to model and evaluate a given real scenario or to test new algorithms in a randomly generated environment.
PCRAMsim: System-level performance, energy, and area modeling for Phase-Change RAM

Phase-change random access memory (PCRAM) is an emerging memory technology with attractive features, such as fast read access, high density, and non-volatility. Because of these attractive properties, PCRAM is regarded as a promising candidate for future universal memories, and system-level designers could open up new design opportunities by leveraging this new memory technology. However, the majority of the PCRAM research has been at the device level, and system-level design space exploration using PCRAM is still in its infancy due to the lack of high-level modeling tools for PCRAM-based caches and memories. In this paper, we present a PCRAM model, called PCRAMsim, to bridge the gap between the device-level and system-level research on PCRAM technology. The model is validated against industrial PCRAM prototypes. This new PCRAMsim tool is expected to help boost PCRAM-related studies such as next-generation memory subsystems.
An Experiment Concerning the Recognition of Voices

A subjective experiment is described which confirms that characteristics of the spectral envelope of speech, notably formant positions, contribute to our ability to recognise a speaker's voice. Speakers with similar accent and rate of speaking were selected and their larynx frequency characteristics were eliminated in a vocoder system with fixed voicing frequency. A direct subjective comparison of resulting voice samples showed that the speakers' voices were still highly recognisable. A proportion of the voice samples were subjected to further treatment consisting of constant shifts of formants. It was found that the recognisability of the samples was destroyed although intelligibility was unimpaired.
Indoor Localization Error Measurements with Multiple Channels

Localization has been an important issue along with the development of context-aware systems applicable to dynamic mobile environment. In this article, we deployed indoor positioning experiment on positioning platform of CC2431 based on Zigbee wireless sensor networks. In real environment we study the positioning accuracy with respect to different channel number, and the number of different reference nodes. Then, we compared location error of our location scheme with the CC2431 ‘location engine’ and obtained lower location error. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of our approach on reducing location errors.