Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated functional testing of online search services

Search services are the main interface through which people discover information on the Internet. A fundamental challenge in testing search services is the lack of oracles. The sheer volume of data on the Internet prohibits testers from verifying the results. Furthermore, it is difficult to objectively assess the ranking quality because different assessors can have very different opinions on the relevance of a Web page to a query. This paper presents a novel method for automatically testing search services without the need of a human oracle. The experimental findings reveal that some commonly used search engines, including Google, Yahoo! , and Live Search, are not as reliable as what most users would expect. For example, they may fail to find pages that exist in their own repositories, or rank pages in a way that is logically inconsistent. Suggestions are made for search service providers to improve their service quality. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Handwritten music notation recognition using HMM — a non-gestural approach

We investigate the recognition of handwritten musical notation using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). In a non-gestural approach, handwritten musical notation is entered naturally via a pen tablet as we would do using pen and paper. A sequence of observed ink patterns representing musical symbols is captured and used to construct different HMM models. The proposed approach exploits both global and local information derived from ink patterns which we have demonstrated the exploitation of this information via different features employed in different HMMs. The specificity and sensitivity measures of these different classification models are compared using unseen test sets. The experiment shows that using non-gestural method is a very good approach to obtain handwritten music notation input, as it is most natural and does not require user training. It is also shown that HMM is very suitable to be used as the classifier in this domain, showing very high recognition rates. Additionally, the experimental results also concluded that models from HMMs with more hidden states also outperform the HMM with a lesser number of hidden states since a larger model has more capacity. The results also suggest that HMMs offer flexibility in encoding useful knowledge in the models.
Primates in Human-Modified and Fragmented Landscapes: The Conservation Relevance of Modelling Habitat and Disturbance Factors in Density Estimation

Accurate density estimations of threatened animal populations is essential for management and conservation. This is particularly critical for species living in patchy and altered landscapes, as is the case for most tropical forest primates. In this study, we used a hierarchical modelling approach that incorporates the effect of environmental covariates on both the detection (i.e. observation) and the state (i.e. abundance) processes of distance sampling. We applied this method to already published data on three arboreal primates of the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, including the endangered and endemic Udzungwa red colobus (Procolobus gordonorum). The area is a primate hotspot at continental level. Compared to previous, ‘canonical’ density estimates, we found that the inclusion of covariates in the modelling makes the inference process more informative, as it takes in full account the contrasting habitat and protection levels among forest blocks. The correction of density estimates for imperfect detection was especially critical where animal detectability was low. Relative to our approach, density was underestimated by the canonical distance sampling, particularly in the less protected forest. Group size had an effect on detectability, determining how the observation process varies depending on the socio-ecology of the target species. Lastly, as the inference on density is spatially-explicit to the scale of the covariates used in the modelling, we could confirm that primate densities are highest in low-to-mid elevations, where human disturbance tend to be greater, indicating a considerable resilience by target monkeys in disturbed habitats. However, the marked trend of lower densities in unprotected forests urgently calls for effective forest protection.
Do S&P's Corporate Ratings Reflect Credit Shocks?

This study examines empirically whether corporate ratings by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s reflect fundamental and publicly observable shocks to the credit quality of companies. This serves to assess the degree of information sensitivity of external ratings, and the timeliness of their adjustments. Our evidence on a large sample of European companies from 2000-2008 clearly indicates that external ratings frequently do not reflect fundamental changes in the credit quality of companies. This lack of information sensitivity seems neither attributable to private information from monitoring nor the rating-through-the-cycle approach employed by S&P. The intended regulation of rating agencies thus not only needs to validate the process of rating generation but needs to define the purpose and desirable characteristics of ratings in the first place. The proposed methodology in this study, which is based on publicly observable capital market information, can help investors and regulators to validate external ratings.
Performance of inkjet-printed narrow-line passive UHF RFID tags on different objects

Inkjet-printing offers a potential alternative to conventional tags manufactured by etching. The inkjet-printed narrow-line tags discussed in this paper are fabricated using less conductive materials than conventional tags. This paper presents the performance of the narrow-line tags when used on different materials. We present read range comparison of passive ultra high frequency (UHF) inkjet-printed narrow-line radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in air and attached to diverse objects. We have also compared the results to a dipole-type commercial copper fabricated tag. Measurement results show that materials under identification affect narrow-line tag performance such as read range and operational frequency and bandwidth.
Russian students’ awareness of and attitudes toward donating to biobanks

Today in Russia and all over the world significant efforts are invested in building biobanks—specialized facilities for storing biological materials for research and medical purposes. The successful functioning of biobanks depends directly on people’s willingness to donate their biological materials. No previous studies of people’s attitudes toward donations to biobanks have been undertaken in Russia. The goal of this study was to measure attitudes toward biobank donation among young Russians and to evaluate potential sociodemographic and personality factors that play a role in a person’s readiness to become a donor. data from 542 students at Saint Petersburg State University were collected from group-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Only one-fifth of the students knew about the existence of biobanks, while roughly the same number believed they might have heard something about them but were not absolutely certain. However, the students indicated a relatively high level of readiness to become biobank donors (74%). Willingness to be a biobank donor was correlated significantly with studying biology and was just modestly correlated with students’ values. In addition, we found gender-specific differences in the biobank characteristics that students felt were important in making a decision about whether to donate. The study demonstrated that today the attitudes of the general population (at least, those of the subgroup studied, students) do not pose a problem for the further development of biobanking in Russia.
Genetic influences on mechanically-assessed activity level in children.

BACKGROUND Activity level is an important component of children's temperament, as well as being part of the core symptom domain of hyperactivity-impulsivity within attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet it is poorly understood, due partly to limitations on parent and teacher ratings, which are typically used as measurements of these symptoms. METHODS We aimed to study the etiology of objectively-measured activity level across two situations, using actigraphs. A population-based sample of 463 7-9-year-old twin pairs were assessed individually both when apart undergoing laboratory-based cognitive testing and when together during a break in testing. RESULTS Heritability of activity level was estimated as 24% during the test session and at 30% during the break in testing. Shared environmental influences accounted for 27% of the variance in activity level during the test session and 42% of activity level measured during the break. A genetic correlation of 1.0 indicated that the same genes influenced activity level across the two situations, justifying the use of a composite measure of the two situations. This produced a heritability estimate of 36%. CONCLUSIONS Objectively-measured activity level shows a moderate degree of genetic influence, with a common set of genes influencing activity level across situations. This supports the use of actigraphs as an additional source of information in studies that aim to improve phenotype definition for molecular genetic studies of activity level and ADHD.
The Concept of Object and its Relation to Human Thinking: Some Misunderstandings Concerning the Connection between Object-Orientation and Human Thinking

All throughout the computer science community object-orientation is accepted as being built upon the same basic concepts that human beings use to apprehend reality. This misconcep- tion, as we think, is what we focus on in this paper. To show this we analyse two well-recognised object-oriented systems development methods. We try to pinpoint in what way these methods do not correspond to the way human beings apprehend reality in terms of objects. We show that the methods do not use the concepts of object or class in a manner that corresponds to the way hu- man beings use them to apprehend reality. Furthermore the method-creators do not separate the notion of an object and its representation in a model. We also suggest a better adaptation of the searching-for-objects model based on how human beings apprehend reality. When analysing, one should focus on the purpose of the actions and the two different modes with which an object can be treated: present-at-hand and readiness-to-hand. This will increase the conformity between object- orientation and the way human beings apprehend reality.
Knowledge translation versus knowledge integration: A “funder's” perspective

&NA; Each year, billions of US tax dollars are spent on basic discovery, intervention development, and efficacy research, while hundreds of billions of US tax dollars are also spent on health service delivery programs. However, little is spent on or known about how best to ensure that the lessons learned from science inform and improve the quality of health services and the availability of evidence‐based approaches. To close this discovery‐delivery gap, researchers and their funding agencies not only must recognize the gap between basic discovery and intervention development, addressed in part through translational research investments, but they must also work together with practitioners and their funding agencies to recognize the growing gap between innovative interventions developed through research and what is actually delivered to reduce the burden of chronic disease within the United States. From a funding‐agency perspective, the complexity of the challenges of translating lessons learned from science to public health, primary care, or disease specialty service settings requires a multifaceted partnership approach to accelerate the translation of research into practice. This essay reviews the background and challenges of closing the development‐to‐delivery gap and some exemplar strategies that have been used by funding agencies to address these challenges to date.
Abstract interpretation from Büchi automata

We describe the construction of an abstract lattice from a given Buchi automata. The abstract lattice is finite and has the following key properties. (i) There is a Galois connection between it and the (infinite) lattice of languages of finite and infinite words over a given alphabet. (ii) The abstraction is faithful with respect to acceptance by the automaton. (iii) Least fixpoints and ω-iterations (but not in general greatest fixpoints) can be computed on the level of the abstract lattice. This allows one to develop an abstract interpretation capable of checking whether finite and infinite traces of a (recursive) program are accepted by a policy automaton. It is also possible to cast this analysis in form of a type and effect system with the effects being elements of the abstract lattice. While the resulting decidability and complexity results are known (regular model checking for pushdown systems) the abstract lattice provides a new point of view and enables smooth integration with data types, objects, higher-order functions which are best handled with abstract interpretation or type systems. We demonstrate this by generalising our type-and-effect systems to object-oriented programs and higher-order functions.
Diversity Order Analysis of Dual-Hop Relaying with Partial Relay Selection

In this paper, we study the performance of dual hop relaying in which the best relay selected by partial relay selection will help the source-destination link to overcome the channel impairment. Specifically, closed-form expressions for outage probability, symbol error probability and achievable diversity gain are derived using the statistical characteristic of the signal-to-noise ratio. Numerical investigation shows that the system achieves diversity of two regardless of relay number and also confirms the correctness of the analytical results. Furthermore, the performance loss due to partial relay selection is investigated.
Cooling Flows of Self-gravitating, Rotating, Viscous Systems

We obtain self-similar solutions that describe the dynamics of a self-gravitating, rotating, viscous systems. We use simplifying assumptions but explicitly include viscosity and the cooling due to the dissipation of energy. By assuming that the turbulent dissipation of energy is a power law of the density and the speed vrms and for a power-law dependence of viscosity on the density, pressure, and rotational velocity, we investigate turbulent cooling flows. It has been shown that for cylindrical and spherical cooling flows the similarity indices are the same, and they depend only on the exponents of the dissipation rate and the viscosity model. Depending on the values of the exponents, which the mechanisms of the dissipation and viscosity determine, we may have solutions with different general physical properties. The conservation of the total mass and the angular momentum of the system strongly depend on the mechanism of energy dissipation and the viscosity model.
Sound-Induced Enhancement of Low-Intensity Vision: Multisensory Influences on Human Sensory-Specific Cortices and Thalamic Bodies Relate to Perceptual Enhancement of Visual Detection Sensitivity

Combining information across modalities can affect sensory performance. We studied how co-occurring sounds modulate behavioral visual detection sensitivity (d′), and neural responses, for visual stimuli of higher or lower intensity. Co-occurrence of a sound enhanced human detection sensitivity for lower- but not higher-intensity visual targets. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) linked this to boosts in activity-levels for sensory-specific visual and auditory cortex, plus multisensory superior temporal sulcus (STS), specifically for a lower-intensity visual event when paired with a sound. Thalamic structures in visual and auditory pathways, the lateral and medial geniculate bodies, respectively (LGB, MGB), showed a similar pattern. Subject-by-subject psychophysical benefits correlated with corresponding fMRI signals in visual, auditory, and multisensory regions. We also analyzed differential “coupling” patterns of LGB and MGB with other regions in the different experimental conditions. Effective-connectivity analyses showed enhanced coupling of sensory-specific thalamic bodies with the affected cortical sites during enhanced detection of lower-intensity visual events paired with sounds. Coupling strength between visual and auditory thalamus with cortical regions, including STS, covaried parametrically with the psychophysical benefit for this specific multisensory context. Our results indicate that multisensory enhancement of detection sensitivity for low-contrast visual stimuli by co-occurring sounds reflects a brain network involving not only established multisensory STS and sensory-specific cortex but also visual and auditory thalamus.
How Do Parent Expectations Promote Child Academic Achievement in Early Elementary School? A Test of Three Mediators

Using a longitudinal mediation framework and a low-income sample, this study had 2 aims: (a) to model bidirectional associations between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes from first through fifth grade, and (b) to explore 3 mediators of parental influence: parent involvement in child schooling, child learning behaviors, and child perceived academic competence. Participants included 356 children and their caregivers (89% mothers) recruited from Head Start centers (58% European American, 25% African American, 17% Latino). At each time point (grades 1, 2, 3, 5), parents rated their academic expectations, teachers rated parent involvement and child learning behaviors, and children rated their self-perceptions of their academic competence. Bidirectional longitudinal associations emerged between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes. Child learning behaviors mediated this association from first to third grade, whereas child perceived academic competence mediated from second to fifth grade. Parallel cross-lagged models replicated these findings with child academic outcomes assessed using a test of reading achievement and teacher ratings of academic performance.
A Study of the Consensus on Disclosure among Public Accountants and Security Analysts: A Reply

IN their note, Professors Chen and Lambert have reconsidered the research results reported in my paper (Chandra) and have offered a possible alternative interpretation of the data. They even have attempted to conclude differently. I will attempt to answer some of their questions here. The principal null hypothesis of the study was that there is no difference between the value of information to security analysts as perceived by accountants (Subject Group A) and the value of information to security analysts (Subject Group C) for equity investment decisions. On the basis of t tests conducted on the mean value of each of the information items, the null hypothesis was rejected for thirty-five of the fiftyeight questionnaire items at a significance level of . 05. The rejection of null hypothesis on such a large number of items was interpreted as suggesting a lack of consensus between the two groups on the value of certain types of information items. Additional support was derived for the interpretation from the x2 tests conducted on the data. The x2 tests did not necessitate computing mean of the value ratings (subjects were asked to rate each item on a five-point scale) and rejected the null hypothesis for thirty-three of the fifty-eight items. Thirty-one of the items for which the null hypothesis was rejected were common under both t test and x2 test. Chen and Lambert have noted that the calculated mean response of Group A subjects was numerically higher than that of Group C for eleven out of fiftyeight information items, while Group C had higher mean values vis-a-vis Group A for forty-seven out of fifty-eight items. They also noted a difference in the patterns of dispersion. I agree with their observations. The objective of the study was to examine whether the users and preparers of the corporate annual reports agree on the value of various information items for equity investment decisions. Differences in the value ratings were to be expected; however, the direction of the differences could not be predicted. I admit that the preponderance of differences in the mean values in one direction does raise some questions. There could be a variety of reasons for observed higher mean values and greater concentration of mean responses for Group C as compared to Group A. One, the security analysts consider the information items more "valuable" than the accountants and, two, the accountants
Internet of Things for Smart Crime Detection

The rapid economic development in South Korea has resulted in increase of crimes. Timely detection and reduction of crimes are primary focus of police officers. Internet of Things (IoT) and increasingly cheap and wearable sensors can be used to facilitate this task. Generally, the application of IoT technologies to the fields of smart cities, smart logistics and healthcare can be seen more often. In this paper, we present the design of IoT based smart crime detection system. The proposed system is able to detect crimes in real-time by analyzing the human emotions.
Should We Stop Looking for a Better Scoring Algorithm for Handling Implicit Association Test Data? Test of the Role of Errors, Extreme Latencies Treatment, Scoring Formula, and Practice Trials on Reliability and Validity

Since the development of D scores for the Implicit Association Test, few studies have examined whether there is a better scoring method. In this contribution, we tested the effect of four relevant parameters for IAT data that are the treatment of extreme latencies, the error treatment, the method for computing the IAT difference, and the distinction between practice and test critical trials. For some options of these different parameters, we included robust statistic methods that can provide viable alternative metrics to existing scoring algorithms, especially given the specificity of reaction time data. We thus elaborated 420 algorithms that result from the combination of all the different options and test the main effect of the four parameters with robust statistical analyses as well as their interaction with the type of IAT (i.e., with or without built-in penalty included in the IAT procedure). From the results, we can elaborate some recommendations. A treatment of extreme latencies is preferable but only if it consists in replacing rather than eliminating them. Errors contain important information and should not be discarded. The D score seems to be still a good way to compute the difference although the G score could be a good alternative, and finally it seems better to not compute the IAT difference separately for practice and test critical trials. From this recommendation, we propose to improve the traditional D scores with small yet effective modifications.