Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Candidate wire spiral antennas for the SKA radio telescope

The SKA is a next generation radio telescope employing phased aperture arrays at its lowest operating band (SKA-low) of 70-450 MHz. SKA-low is a dual-polarized array consisting of antenna elements with stable impedance and low cross-polarization. We select the well-known broadband conical spiral antenna and its dual-polarized derivative to be evaluated as candidate elements for SKA-low. Previously, we evaluated the sheet version of the conical spiral and found that it maintained well its broadband characteristics. Looking towards ease of manufacturing, we now evaluate wire versions of the designs. We find that the single-polarized wire version has stable impedance and low cross-polarization from 150-450 MHz. However, at low frequencies the cross polarization increases. The dual-polarized version maintains its characteristics over a small band but with higher (>; -20 dB) cross polarizations. Measured results confirm the simulated antenna behavior.
Investigation of Depression Level of Middle School Students’ According to Some Variables

This study investigated the important predictors of depression levels of middle school students' according to their recreational sport participation, gender, age and their socioeconomic status. The data's of the study collected from middle schools in the city center of Kutahya, 342 (113 woman, 198 man) students randomly recruited and voluntarily participate to the study, age range 11-15. The easy sampling method was preferred in the present study. As a data collection tool "Depression Scale for Kids" was used improved by Kovacs (1985) and adapted to Turkish by Oy (1991). In the evaluation of data first skewness and kurtosis values were evaluated and no skewness or kurtosis issues were found. Than reliability of the scale was assessed via Cronbach's alpha method and Cronbach's alpha calculated as . 657. Lastly for definition of the data's Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test used. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS version 21. For Windows. As a result there were not any significant difference between gender, age, sport involvement and depression level of the students (p>0, 05). But, there were a significant difference between socioeconomic status and depression level of the students (p<0, 05). The difference was between bad income and very good income.
A Visibility-Based Approach for Occupancy Grid Computation in Disparity Space

Occupancy grids are a very convenient tool for environment representation in robotics. This paper will detail a novel approach for computing occupancy grids from stereo vision and show its application to intelligent vehicles. In the proposed approach, occupancy is initially computed directly in the stereoscopic sensor's disparity space. The calculation formally accounts for the detection of obstacles and road pixels in disparity space, as well as partial occlusions in the scene. In the second stage, this disparity-space occupancy grid is transformed into a Cartesian space occupancy grid to be used by subsequent applications. This transformation includes spatial and temporal filtering. The proposed method is designed to easily be processed in parallel. Consequently, we chose to implement it on a graphics processing unit, which allows real-time processing for demanding applications. In this paper, we present this method, and we propose an application to the problem of perception in a road environment. Results are presented with real road data, qualitatively comparing this approach with other methods.
Offline Optimization for Online Ad Allocation [ Extended

We consider online ad allocation from the perspective of optimizing delivery of a given set of ad reservations. Ad allocation naturally fits into the class of online bipartite matching problems: ad nodes are fixed, and impression (ad slot) nodes arrive one at a time, and must be assigned a qualified ad upon arrival. However most previous work on online matching does not model an important aspect of ad allocation: since past site traffic is known to the the ad serving system, it can make useful forecasts about impression supply, and use those forecasts to make better serving decisions. We model these forecasts as a known distribution over ad slot types. Inspired by the “optimize-and-dispatch” architecture for expressive ad auctions (Parkes & Sandholm, 2005), we explore the use of offline optimization as way to “guide” online decisions about ad allocation. This general approach not only leads to better allocations, it has the advantage that it can incorporate complex constraints on ad targeting or serving (e.g., fairness, scheduling, budgets) while still maintaining the robustness of an online, dynamic allocation rule. Our technical contribution focuses on maximizing a simple efficiency metric (the number of ads served). We give an algorithm that employs a novel application of the idea of the power of two choices from load balancing (Azar et al, 1999; Mitzenmacher, 2001): we compute two disjoint solutions to the expected instance, and use both of them in the online algorithm in a prescribed preference order. We prove that our algorithm achieves an approximation ratio of 0.67 when compared to the optimal “in hindsight” ∗A full version of this paper can be found in [14]. †Google, New York, NY. Email: jonfeld@google.com ‡Google, Mountain View, CA. Email: aranyak@google.com §Google, New York, NY. Email: mirrokni@google.com ¶Google, New York, NY. Email: muthu@google.com Fifth Workshop on Ad Auctions 2009, Stanford, CA solution. Since 0.67 > 1 − 1/e, this result has independent interest from the perspective of online optimization theory, since the quantity 1 − 1/e is a notorious “ceiling” that previous algorithms for online matching problems have yet to surpass.
A Requirements-Driven Reconfigurable SoC Communication Infrastructure Design Flow

Classical approaches to dynamic reconfiguration address computational cores reconfiguration in order to configure the device with the best set of computational elements that are able to accomplish the desired task, thus focusing on a task-driven reconfiguration. This paper introduces a novel approach that exploits performance-driven reconfigurations, in order to adapt the current system configuration (in particular its communication infrastructure) to the required performances, in addition to the required functionalities. This is possible due to the Reconfiguration Oriented Metrics (ROMe) design flow, that leads to realize reconfigurable systems including a reconfiguration controller to manage the reconfiguration itself. This controller has to be able to make coherent decisions (with respect to a well defined set of reconfiguration oriented metrics) about communication infrastructure reconfiguration processes, in order to make it possible to achieve the desired performance (e.g. latency, throughput or power consumption).
When Should Borrowers Re fi nance Their Mortgages ? Sumit Agarwal FleetBoston Financial

We develop an analytically tractable option pricing model of a mortgage holder’s optimal refinancing behavior. This reduces to the choice of an optimal interest rate differential. At this optimal differential, the value of the interest saved equals the sum of refinancing costs and the difference between the old ‘in the money’ refinancing option that is implicitly given up at the refinancing and the new ‘out of the money’ refinancing option that is implicitly acquired. For a reasonable range of parameter values, we calculate the differential to be bounded below by 100 basis points. Using a unique panel data set from a large financial institution, we find that during the 1990s over half of refinancers did so at differentials of 100 basis points or fewer. We further estimate that the fraction of early refinancers in the whole population is on the order of 30%. We conjecture that the pattern of early refinancing may arise because mortgage holders ignore the option value of waiting to refinance; rather, they choose to refinance at the point where the net present value of interest saved is equal to the refinancing cost. This behavior is consistent with the advice of most popular finance books and websites.
High-Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Brain Stem at 3 T

Diffusion tensor imaging with 1.8-mm isotropic resolution was performed to delineate structures of the brain stem. High-resolution single-shot imaging was achieved by the combination of a high-field magnet (3T) and the SENSitivity Encoding (or SENSE) parallel imaging technique. Various structures in the brain stem, such as the inferior olivary nuclei, deep cerebellar nuclei, some cranial nerves, and white matter tracts were identified, which have been difficult to appreciate by conventional MR techniques.
On the Origin of Early Superhumps in WZ Sge-Type Stars

The origin of early superhumps, which are double-wave periodic modulations seen only during the earliest stage of a WZ Sge-type outburst, has not been well understood. Based on a recent discovery of two-armed archlike patterns on Doppler tomograms in conjunction with early superhumps, we propose a new interpretation on the origin of early superhumps, following a new interpretation by Smak (2001, Acta Astron., 51, 295) and Ogilvie (2002, MNRAS, 330, 937) of the two-armed pattern seen in IP Peg. If we consider irradiation of the elevated surface of the accretion disk caused by vertical tidal deformation, we can consistently explain the observed features on Doppler tomograms and photometric waves at the same time. We interpret that a combination of low mass-ratios (q )a nd low mass-transfer rates, necessary to give rise to these tidal effects, discriminate WZ Sge-type stars from other SU UMa-type dwarf novae. Based on recent fluid calculations, such an effect would be observable in higher q systems. We interpret that RZ Leo is an example of such objects.
VIPAR: Advanced Information Agents discovering knowledge in an open and changing environment

Given the rapid evolution of information technology, most people on a daily basis are confronted by more information than they can reasonably process. The challenge to organize/classify and comprehend immense amounts of information is vitally important to the scientific, business, and defense/security communities (particularly when projecting the future evolution of information technology. For example, the defense/security community is faced with the daunting challenge of gathering and summarizing information so that military/political leaders can make informed decisions and recommendations. One such group, the Virtual Information Center (VIC) at US Pacific Command, gathers, analyzes, and summarizes information from Internet-based newspapers on a daily basis (largely a manual, time and resource intensive process). This paper discusses the VIPAR project 3 , which has addressed this need. Intelligent agent technology was chosen 1) to utilize the ability for broadcast as well as peer-to-peer communication among agents, 2) to follow rules outlined in an ontology, and 3) because of the ability for agents to suspend processing on one machine, move to another, and resume processing (persistence). These strengths are well suited to addressing the challenges of automatically gathering Internet-based information. The VIPAR system is a multi-agent system that demonstrates the ability to self-organize newspaper articles in a manner comparable to humans. The VIPAR system demonstrates the important ability where agents use a flexible RDF ontology to monitor/manage Internet-based newspaper information. Moreover, VIPAR extends this capability by dynamically adding/clustering new information entering the system. The VIPAR system includes thirteen information agents that manage thirteen different newspaper sites. Results from the project show that VIPAR can organize information in a way comparable to human organized information and validates the agent approach taken.
BIOMECHANICAL COMPARISONS OF ACTIVE AND UNEXPECTED LANDINGS WITH CHANGES IN DROP HEIGHT

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences of kinematics, impact force, soft-tissue vibration, and muscle activity between active (AL) and unexpected landing (UL). Twelve trained male volunteers were requested to land from self-made elevated platform at three heights (30, 45, and 60cm) in AL and UL conditions. During active landing, human body can adjust the landing strategy of musculoskeletal system, mainly through more extended hip and knee joints, which leads to a decrease in peak impact forces / loading rates and relevant soft-tissue vibration, and also an increase in muscle activation. In contrast, during unexpected landing, the lower body was less prepared for the sudden drop landings, which leads to an inadequate postural control, higher impact forces, excessive soft-tissue vibrations, and less muscular activity in lower extremity.
Exploring the abuse of robots

Robots have been introduced into our society, but their social role is still unclear. A critical issue is whether the robot’s exhibition of intelligent behaviour leads to the users’ perception of the robot as being a social actor, similar to the way in which people treat computers and media as social actors. The first experiment mimicked Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, but on a robot. The participants were asked to administer electric shocks to a robot, and the results show that people have fewer concerns about abusing robots than about abusing other people. We refined the methodology for the second experiment by intensifying the social dilemma of the users. The participants were asked to kill the robot. In this experiment, the intelligence of the robot and the gender of the participants were the independent variables, and the users’ destructive behaviour towards the robot the dependent variable. Several practical and methodological problems compromised the acquired data, but we can conclude that the robot’s intelligence had a significant influence on the users’ destructive behaviour. We discuss the encountered problems and suggest improvements. We also speculate on whether the users’ perception of the robot as being “sort of alive” may have influenced the participants’ abusive behaviour.
Small-Scale Structure Deduced from X- and γ-ray Timing Measurements

X-ray timing observations of neutron stars and black holes are among the few available probes of ultrastrong magnetic ﬁelds, strong gravity, high densities, and the propagation of thermonuclear burning. Here we review the evidence for these eﬀects revealed with data from the Rossi Explorer in the last ﬁve years. We also discuss the exciting prospects for making the ﬁrst quantitative tests of strong-gravity general relativistic predictions with a large-area X-ray timing mission.
Region-Based Image Clustering and Retrieval Using Fuzzy Similarity and Relevance Feedback

This paper proposes an interactive approach for region-based image clustering and retrieval. By performing clustering before image retrieval, the search space can be reduced to those clusters that are close to the query target. First, the image is segmented to regions by using an unsupervised segmentation method. This is an area where a vast number of regions are involved. To reduce search space for region-based image retrieval, we use clustering based on genetic algorithm. Fuzzy similarity is used in order to compute the similarity of two images. Moreover, a two-class SVM is trained based on user interests to improve image retrieval. Experiments were performed on COREL image database and show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
On the many ways software engineering can benefit from knowledge engineering

Software Engineering is not only a technical discipline of its own. It is also a problem domain where technologies coming from other disciplines are relevant and can play an important role. One important example is knowledge engineering, a term that I use in the broad sense to encompass artificial intelligence, computational intelligence, knowledge bases, data mining, and machine learning. I see a number of typical software development issues that can benefit from these disciplines and, for the sake of clarifying the discussion, I have divided them into four categories: (1) Planning, monitoring, and quality control of projects, (2) The quality and process improvement of software organizations, (3) Decision making support, (4) Automation.First, the planning, monitoring, and quality control of software development is typically based, unless it is entirely ad-hoc, on past project data and/or expert opinion. As discussed below, several techniques coming from machine learning, computational intelligence, and knowledge-based systems have shown to be useful in this context. Second, software organizations are inherently learning organizations, that need to improve, based on experience and project feedback, the way they develop software in changing and volatile environments. Large amounts of data, numerous documents, and other forms of information are typically gathered on projects. The question then becomes how to enable the intelligent storage and use of such information in future projects. Third, during the course of a project, software engineers and managers have to face important, complex decisions. They need decision models to support them, especially when project pressure is intense. Techniques originally developed for building risk models based on expert elicitation or optimization heuristics can play a key role in such a context. The last category of applications concerns automation. Many automation problems, such as test data generation, can be formulated as constraint solving problems. A number of metaheuristic algorithms can be adapted for that purpose and have shown to be practically usable and flexible to adjust to numerous situations.This paper discusses all the points above, identify open issues and future research directions, and provide some carefully selected, key pointers for further reading.
Bit-interleaved coded modulation with shaping

The performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) with shaping (i.e., non-equiprobable bit probabilities) is studied. For the AWGN channel, the rates achievable with BICM and shaping are practically identical to those of coded modulation or multilevel coding, virtually closing the gap that made BICM suboptimal in terms of information rates.
Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

The sociopolitical context of schooling demands that teachers acknowledge the ways their students’ and their own experiences are shaped by the intersections of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other discriminatory factors. This is especially true during times of heightened civil unrest resulting from pervasive and persistent injustice experienced by minoritized populations. To engage students in pedagogy that connects with their lived experiences and that equips them to critically examine inequities, teachers must refute colorblind pedagogy in favor of woke pedagogy. Woke pedagogy, like critical multicultural education, is defined by teaching practices that integrate critiques of contemporary justice-related issues with academic content in a learning environment that encourages introspection, interrogation, and insurgence. This theoretical framework for woke pedagogy outlines a wide range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that equip teachers to promote critical thinking about complex issues—in other words, to be woke pedagogues. Grounded in Black feminist ideology, woke pedagogy distinguishes itself from critical multicultural education in important ways: 1) both teachers and students view their lived experiences as sources of knowledge and tools for knowledge creation, 2) teachers and students analyze injustice from an intersectional perspective, and 3) teachers exhibit activist care. This conceptual treatise includes suggestions for empirical research studies that will yield results that are crucial to the effective practice of woke pedagogy, a 21 st century approach to critical multicultural education.
Algoritmização da vida e organização da informação: Considerações sobre a tecnicidade no algoritmo a partir de Gilbert Simondon | Algorithmization of life and information organization: considerations on the technicity in the algorithm from Gilbert Simondon

RESUMO O artigo investiga a noção de algoritmo debatida no campo da cibernética, principalmente nos recentes estudos sobre automação, considerando a problemática da tecnicidade levantada por Gilbert Simondon. A hipótese da algoritmização da vida baseia-se na relação do homem com o mundo aspirando à concretização de problemas práticos. O objetivo é refletir o algoritmo na cultura da técnica e contribuir para um debate crítico no campo da organização da informação. Assim, em vez de pensar o algoritmo como neutro e, entre otimismos ou pessimismos, salvador ou vilão, propomos refletir suas potencialidades como objeto técnico capaz de organizar a interação entre humano e máquina. Palavras-chave: Algoritmo; Técnica; Simondon; Organização da Informação; Cibernética. ABSTRACT The article investigates the notion of algorithm debated in the field of cybernetics, especially in the recent studies on automation, considering the technicality problematic raised by Gilbert Simondon. The goal here is to reflect the algorithm in the culture of the technique and contribute to a critical debate in the field of information organization. Thus, instead of thinking of the algorithm as neutral and between optimisms or pessimisms, a villain or a savior, we propose to reflect its potential as a technical object capable of organizing the human-machine interaction.Keywords: Algorithm; Technique; Simondon; Information Organization; Cybernetics.
Wrapper-based evolution of legacy information systems

System evolution most often implies the integration of legacy components, such as databases, with newly developed ones, leading to mixed architectures that suffer from severe heterogeneity problems. For instance, incorporating a new program in a legacy database application can create an integrity mismatch, since the database model and the program data view can be quite different (e.g. standard file model versus OO model). In addition, neither the legacy DBMS (too weak to address integrity issues correctly) nor the new program (that relies on data server responsibility) correctly cope with data integrity management. The component that can reconciliate these mismatched subsystems is the R/W wrapper, which allows any client program to read, but also to update the legacy data, while controlling the integrity constraints that are ignored by the legacy DBMS.This article describes a generic, technology-independent, R/W wrapper architecture, a methodology for specifying them in a disciplined way, and a CASE tool for generating most of the corresponding code.The key concept is that of implicit construct, which is a structure or a constraint that has not been declared in the database, but which is controlled by the legacy application code. The implicit constructs are elicited through reverse engineering techniques, and then translated into validation code in the wrapper. For instance, a wrapper can be generated for a collection of COBOL files in order to allow external programs to access them through a relational, object-oriented or XML interface, while offering referential integrity control. The methodology is based on a transformational approach that provides a formal way to build the wrapper schema and to specify inter-schema mappings.