Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use and Limitations of Static-Analysis Tools to Improve Software Quality

tatic analysis has commonly been known as a technique for finding violations of superficial stylistic programming rules, and for alerting programmers to typing discrepancies in type-unsafe languages. The latest static-analysis tools go far beyond this, and are capable of finding serious errors in programs such as null-pointer de-references , buffer overruns, race conditions, resource leaks, and other errors. They can do so without requiring additional input from the users, and without requiring changes to development processes or practices. Actionable results are produced quickly with a low level of false positives. These static-analysis tools are not a silver bullet, however, because they can never prove that a program is completely free of flaws. The following is a description of how static-analysis tools work, followed by a discussion of how they can be used to complement traditional testing. The first thing a static analysis tool must do is identify the code to be analyzed. The source files that must be compiled to create a program may be scattered across many directories, and may be mixed in with other source code that is not used for that program. Static analysis tools operate much like compilers so they must be able to identify exactly which source files contribute and should ignore those that do not. The scripts or build system that builds the executable obviously know which files to use, so the best static analysis tools can extract this information by reading those scripts directly or by observing the build system in action. This way the tool gets to see not only the source files but also which compiler is being used and any command-line flags that were passed in. The parser that the static analysis tool uses must interpret the source code in the same way that the real compiler does. It does this by modeling how the real compile works as closely as possible. The command line flags are an essential input to that. As the build system progresses, each invocation of the compiler is used to create a whole program model of the program. This model consists of a set of abstract representations of the source, and is similar to what a compiler might generate as an intermediate representation. It includes the control-flow graph, the call graph, and information about symbols such as variables and type names. Once the model has been created, the analysis performs a symbolic execution on it. …
PAC-MEN: personal autonomic computing monitoring environment

The overall goal of this research is to improve the 'environment awareness' aspect of personal autonomic computing. Personal computing offers unique challenges for self-management due to its multiequipment, multisituation, and multiuser nature. The aim is to develop a support architecture for multiplatform working, based on autonomic computing concepts and techniques. Of particular interest is collaboration among personal systems to take a shared responsibility for environment awareness. Concepts mirroring human mechanisms, such as 'reflex reactions' and the use of 'vital signs' to assess operational health, are used in designing and implementing the personal computing architecture. A proof of concept self-healing tool is considered and lessons learned used for the requirements specification of the community-based environment awareness prototype environment - PAC-MEN (personal autonomic computing monitor environment).
Wireless video streaming for single-hop networks

Limited bandwidth and high packet loss rate pose a serious challenge for video streaming applications over wireless networks. Even when packet loss is not present, the bandwidth fluctuation as a result of an arbitrary number of active flows in an IEEE 802.11 network, can significantly degrade the video quality. This paper aims to enhance the quality of video streaming applications in wireless home networks via a joint optimization of video coding technique, admission control algorithm, and Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. Using an Aloha-like MAC protocol, we propose a novel admission control framework, which can be viewed as an optimization problem that maximizes the average quality of admitted videos, given a specified minimum video quality for each flow. We present some hardness results for the optimization problem under various conditions, and propose some heuristic algorithms for finding a good solution. In particular, we show that a simple greedy layer-allocation algorithm can perform reasonably well, although it is typically not optimal. Consequently, we present a more expensive heuristic algorithm that guarantees to approximate the optimal solution within a constant factor. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed framework can improve the video quality up to 26% as compared to those of the existing approaches.
Strategy and Dynamics in Contests

This book describes the theory structure underlying contests, in which players expend effort and/or spend money in trying to get ahead of one another. Uniquely, this effort is sunk and cannot be recovered, regardless of whether a player wins or loses in the competition. Such interactions include diverse phenomena such as marketing and advertising by firms, litigation, relative reward schemes in firms, political competition, patent races, sports, military combat, war and civil war. These have been studied in the field of contest theory both within these specific contexts and at a higher level of abstraction. The purpose of this book is to describe the fundamental common properties of these types of interactions and to uncover some common properties or laws that govern them. The book begins by describing the properties of static contests and tournaments. Aspects such as timing, entry, sabotage and delegation are added and contest design issues such as the admission or exclusion of players and the structure of prizes are discussed. Further, structures are analysed in which players interact repeatedly in the same or different contest environments. Examples are inter-group conflict followed by intra-group rivalry, elimination tournaments and other dynamic contest structures.
Why Don’t More Farmers Go Organic? Using A Stakeholder-Informed Exploratory Agent-Based Model to Represent the Dynamics of Farming Practices in the Philippines

In spite of a growing interest in organic agriculture; there has been relatively little research on why farmers might choose to adopt organic methods, particularly in the developing world. To address this shortcoming, we developed an exploratory agent-based model depicting Philippine smallholder farmer decisions to implement organic techniques in rice paddy systems. Our modeling exercise was novel in its combination of three characteristics: first, agent rules were based on focus group data collected in the system of study. Second, a social network structure was built into the model. Third, we utilized variance-based sensitivity analysis to quantify model outcome variability, identify influential drivers, and suggest ways in which further modeling efforts could be focused and simplified. The model results indicated an upper limit on the number of farmers adopting organic methods. The speed of information spread through the social network; crop yields; and the size of a farmer’s plot were highly influential in determining agents’ adoption rates. The results of this stylized model indicate that rates of organic farming adoption are highly sensitive to the yield drop after switchover to organic techniques, and to the speed of information spread through existing social networks. Further research and model development should focus on these system characteristics.
On software engineering and software methodologies a software developer's perspective

In this survey paper, the terms software engineering and software methodologies are studied through tracing the recent IEEE's International Conference in Software Engineering from 2006 on and IEEE Software magazine articles including its 25th anniversary recommendation of 35 top-pick articles listed in Jan/Feb 2009 issue. The question stipulated throughout the paper is the following: is software engineering a true engineering discipline? Mary Shaw brought up this question in her top-pick article in Software's December 1990 issue where she wrote, “Software engineering is not yet a true engineering discipline, but it has the potential to become one. Older engineering fields suggest the character software engineering might have. ” By surveying progresses made in software engineering over the last four decades, the paper considers the questions: who are the constituents in the software engineering profession? And what software methodologies do software engineers apply in our professional work? By presenting the current state of software and its development, the paper concludes with a future of software engineering where we—the software development professionals— may go from here.
Learning by Heart: Cultural Patterns in the Faunal Processing Sequence during the Middle Pleistocene

Social learning, as an information acquisition process, enables intergenerational transmission and the stabilisation of cultural forms, generating and sustaining behavioural traditions within human groups. Archaeologically, such social processes might become observable by identifying repetitions in the record that result from the execution of standardised actions. From a zooarchaeological perspective, the processing and consumption of carcasses may be used to identify these types of phenomena at the sites. To investigate this idea, several faunal assemblages from Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain, MIS 9-5e) and Gran Dolina TD10-1 (Burgos, Spain, MIS 9) were analysed. The data show that some butchery activities exhibit variability as a result of multiple conditioning factors and, therefore, the identification of cultural patterns through the resulting cut-marks presents additional difficulties. However, other activities, such as marrow removal by means of intentional breakage, seem to reflect standardised actions unrelated to the physical characteristics of the bones. The statistical tests we applied show no correlation between the less dense areas of the bones and the location of impacts. Comparison of our experimental series with the archaeological samples indicates a counter-intuitive selection of the preferred locus of impact, especially marked in the case of Bolomor IV. This fact supports the view that bone breakage was executed counter-intuitively and repetitively on specific sections because it may have been part of an acquired behavioural repertoire. These reiterations differ between levels and sites, suggesting the possible existence of cultural identities or behavioural predispositions dependant on groups. On this basis, the study of patterns could significantly contribute to the identification of occupational strategies and organisation of the hominids in a territory. In this study, we use faunal data in identifying the mechanics of intergenerational information transmission within Middle Pleistocene human communities and provide new ideas for the investigation of occupational dynamics from a zooarchaeological approach.
Guide for the elaboration of a Corporate Memory in CE

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a difficult task in which several designers in different fields collaborate to build a system that satisfy some requirements. Hence, it is important to facilitate teamwork and collaboration between participants in the development process. Learning from past cases can be considered as guidelines to manage problems that occur in CE task, especially in collaborative decision making. So, the need to build a memory of projects appears straightforward for this task.
Myocyte necrosis underlies progressive myocardial dystrophy in mouse dsg2-related arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

Mutations in the cardiac desmosomal protein desmoglein-2 (DSG2) are associated with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). We studied the explanted heart of a proband carrying the DSG2-N266S mutation as well as transgenic mice (Tg-NS) with cardiac overexpression of the mouse equivalent of this mutation, N271S-dsg2, with the aim of investigating the pathophysiological mechanisms involved. Transgenic mice recapitulated the clinical features of ARVC, including sudden death at young age, spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias, cardiac dysfunction, and biventricular dilatation and aneurysms. Investigation of transgenic lines with different levels of transgene expression attested to a dose-dependent dominant-negative effect of the mutation. We demonstrate for the first time that myocyte necrosis is the key initiator of myocardial injury, triggering progressive myocardial damage, including an inflammatory response and massive calcification within the myocardium, followed by injury repair with fibrous tissue replacement, and myocardial atrophy. These observations were supported by findings in the explanted heart from the patient. Insight into mechanisms initiating myocardial damage in ARVC is a prerequisite to the future development of new therapies aimed at delaying onset or progression of the disease.
Heart rate variability in patients with end-stage renal disease: an emerging predictive tool for sudden cardiac death?

Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have an elevated cardiovascular mortality. Although much interest has been focused on the understanding of the accelerated nature of their coronary artery disease, sudden cardiac death (SCD) has emerged as the single largest cause of cardiac death in our patient population. Multiple traditional and novel cardiovascular risk factors contribute to the particular vulnerability of dialysis patients towards SCD, including myocardial ischaemia, left ventricular hypertrophy/dilatation, electrolytes abnormalities, volume overload, sleep apnoea and sympathetic overactivity [1]. Despite our best efforts with revascularization and medical therapy, the risk of arrhythmically mediated death remains elevated and uncorrected in ESRD [2]. Careful examination of the impairments in heart rate variability (HRV) may allow for better insights into the ‘non-ischemic’ contributors of SCD and may have the potential to serve as both a monitoring and a prognostic tool in the ESRD population. There are multiple validated methods in quantifying HRV, which have been reviewed previously [3–5]. Commonly used techniques include time domain and spectral or frequency domain analysis of HRV. Basic pharmacological studies using animals and humans have formed the rationale for identifying high frequency (HF) power [>0.15 Hz] as an indicator of parasympathetic modulation of heart rate given that the administration of atropine or other blockers of the parasympathetic nervous system was able to abolish the HF component of HRV. Similarly, classical manoeuvres in augmenting central sympathetic outflow (e.g. tilt, lower body negative pressure) have resulted in increases in low frequency (LF) [0.05–0.15 Hz] power of HRV [6]. Further refinements of normalized ratios such as LF/HF have been used to estimate the sympathetic/vagal influence of HRV. It is important to note that most of the validation studies
GRS: Global Resolution Service for mobility support in the Internet

As it becomes a common need to support mobility in the Internet, there is a growing trend towards providing a general mobility management function in the protocol stack by resolving identifiers of mobile nodes to their locations. However, current mechanisms have drawbacks in both performance and functionality, especially when they are partially deployed. In this paper, we propose a Global Resolution Service (GRS) offered by Resolution Service Providers (RSP), which resolves identifiers in a flexible way according to diverse mobility scenarios. Simulation results show the advantages of our approach compared to existing solutions in terms of both flexibility and deployability.
On the State and Importance of Reproducible Experimental Research in Parallel Computing

Computer science is also an experimental science. This is particularly the case for parallel computing, which is in a total state of flux, and where experiments are necessary to substantiate, complement, and challenge theoretical modeling and analysis. Here, experimental work is as important as are advances in theory, that are indeed often driven by the experimental findings. In parallel computing, scientific contributions presented in research articles are therefore often based on experimental data, with a substantial part devoted to presenting and discussing the experimental findings. As in all of experimental science, experiments must be presented in a way that makes reproduction by other researchers possible, in principle. Despite appearance to the contrary, we contend that reproducibility plays a small role, and is typically not achieved. As can be found, articles often do not have a sufficiently detailed description of their experiments, and do not make available the software used to obtain the claimed results. As a consequence, parallel computational results are most often impossible to reproduce, often questionable, and therefore of little or no scientific value. We believe that the description of how to reproduce findings should play an important part in every serious, experiment-based parallel computing research article. We aim to initiate a discussion of the reproducibility issue in parallel computing, and elaborate on the importance of reproducible research for (1) better and sounder technical/scientific papers, (2) a sounder and more efficient review process and (3) more effective collective work. This paper expresses our current view on the subject and should be read as a position statement for discussion and future work. We do not consider the related (but no less important) issue of the quality of the experimental design.
Vulnerability in speaker verification - a study of technical impostor techniques

This paper reports on some ways to try to deceive a state-of-the-art speaker verification (SV) system. In order to evaluate the risk in SV systems one has to take into account the possible intentional impostors who know whom they are attacking. We defined a worst case scenario where the impostor has extensive knowledge about the person to deceive as well as the system to attack. In this framework we tested our SV system against concatenated client speech, re-synthesis of the client speech and diphone synthesis of the client.
Area-intensity probability distributions of rainfall based on a large sample of radar data

The history of weather radar is, among other applications, a manifestation of quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), shown e.g. by Collier and Hardaker (2003). The main objective in such activities is to develop quantitatively accurate hydrological applications, especially nowcasting and warning systems of flash floods. The advantage of weather radars compared to conventional gauge networks is the availability of measurements in real time, which exhibit typically 100 times better time resolution and 10 000 times better spatial resolution than national gauge networks. High resolution facilitates the derivation of rainfall intensities from small areas and short time periods. On the other hand, the absolute accuracy of radar based rain rate in a randomly selected bin is not very good. Two dBs is considered a good achievement as commonly at long ranges the bias is of the order of 5-10 dBs figures which were generally not accepted prior to the work of Joss and Waldvogel (1990). Much work has been devoted in removing systematic biases and random errors from the radar estimates of rainfall rate (R) and accumulated precipitation e.g. due to clutter and nonmeteorological targets (Peura (2002)), calibration errors (Huuskonen (2001)) and sampling differences between gauges and radar (Germann and Joss (2003), Koistinen et al. (2003a)). As sufficient absolute accuracy can’t be guaranteed radar data has not yet been widely used for deriving climatologically reliable statistics of precipitation. Those would be valuable as national hydrological planning standards are typically based on, let’s say, 50 years old gauge data. If the challenge of inaccuracy can be solved to an acceptable level, radar measurements
Endocannabinoids in the rat basolateral amygdala enhance memory consolidation and enable glucocorticoid modulation of memory

Extensive evidence indicates that the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) modulates the consolidation of memories for emotionally arousing experiences, an effect that involves the activation of the glucocorticoid system. Because the BLA expresses high densities of cannabinoid CB1 receptors, the present experiments investigated whether the endocannabinoid system in the BLA influences memory consolidation and whether glucocorticoids interact with this system. The CB1 receptor agonist WIN55,212-2 (5–50 ng per 0.2 μL per side), infused bilaterally into the BLA of male Sprague–Dawley rats immediately after inhibitory avoidance training, induced dose-dependent enhancement of 48-h retention. Conversely, the CB1 receptor antagonist AM251 (0.07–0.28 ng per 0.2 μL per side) administered after training into the BLA induced inhibitory avoidance retention impairment. Furthermore, intra-BLA infusions of a low and nonimpairing dose of AM251 (0.14 ng per 0.2 μL per side) blocked the memory enhancement induced by concurrent administration of WIN55,212-2. Delayed infusions of WIN55,212-2 or AM251 administered into the BLA 3 h after training or immediate posttraining infusions of these drugs into the adjacent central amygdala did not significantly alter retention performance. Last, intra-BLA infusions of a low and otherwise nonimpairing dose of AM251 (0.14 ng per 0.2 μL per side) blocked the memory-enhancing effect induced by systemic administration of corticosterone (3 mg/kg, s.c.). These findings indicate that endocannabinoids in the BLA enhance memory consolidation and suggest that CB1 activity within this brain region is required for enabling glucocorticoid effects on memory consolidation enhancement.
Modelling Synchronized Hypermedia Documents

This paper presents a synchronization model for hypermedia applications. Several media, continuous, like video or audio file, or non-continuous, like text pages or images, are delivered separately over a network in a Webbased environment, and presented to the user in a coordinated way. The model is based on a set of synchronization relationships which define objects behavior during presentation’s playback, and channels in which to play each object. The model is suited for a wide range of hypermedia documents type: some examples are self and distance education, professional training, Web advertising, cultural heritage promotion and news-on-demand. A virtual exhibition is analyzed as a test bed to vali-
Unemployment Replacement Rates Dataset Among 34 Welfare States, 1971-2009: An Update, Extension and Modification of the Scruggs' Welfare State Entitlements Data Set

This data set provides data on unemployment benefit schemes in 34 welfare states. The data set updates, extends and modifies Scruggs’ dataset (2005). The current data set includes all 27 member states of the European Union (EU) and 7 non-EU OECD countries for the period 1971-2009. The codebook contains descriptions of the variables included as well as country-specific sources and notes. Descriptive analyses show that replacement rates in EU15 countries have been increased and converged, while the trend for New Member States is downward sloping.