Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vehicular communication: a survey

Vehicular communication is an important and emerging area of research in the field of vehicular technology. The development of software and hardware in communication systems leads to the generation of new networks. Many researches and projects have been conducted in this upcoming area. Many government projects have been implemented in the USA, Japan and the European Union. The main objective of using this new technology is to create an accident free environment. New architectures, protocols and implementations of vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) have been made in recent years to provide Intelligent Transportation Services. In this study, the authors survey the current issues like development, deployment, security challenges and about the current projects running in different countries. They also survey the mobility models and simulators required to implement VANET. They have also reviewed the emerging applications of VANET which provides services to the end users. At last, they have presented future research problems in VANET. The main motive of this survey is to explore the current ideas in vehicular communication.
The Image Binarization Problem Revisited: Perspectives And Approaches

Image document analysis is a complex process that involves several steps of processing. However, due to their sensitivity to errors, most of these are not applied on the original image; instead, they use a simplified black and white version of the original image, which offers a clear separation between foreground and background. Unfortunately, achieving the optimal separation is difficult to achieve, as no proposed algorithm has managed to offer a solution that is adequate for any type of input. This paper aims to present some of the more recent approaches in the field and compare their results with some of the classic algorithms.
Big Data Biology: Between Eliminative Inferences and Exploratory Experiments

Recently, biologists have argued that data-driven biology fosters a new scientific methodology, namely, one that is irreducible to traditional methodologies of molecular biology defined as the discovery strategies elucidated by mechanistic philosophy. Here I show how data-driven studies can be included in the traditional mechanistic approach in two respects. On the one hand, some studies provide eliminative inferential procedures to prioritize and develop mechanistic hypotheses. On the other, different studies play an exploratory role in providing useful generalizations to complement the procedure of prioritization. Overall, this article aims to shed light on the structure of contemporary research in molecular biology.
Can action research be made more rigorous in a positivist sense? The contribution of an iterative approach

How can action research be made more rigorous? We discuss in this paper action research, positivism and some major criticisms of action research by positivists. We then examine issues relating the conduct of IS research in organisations through multiple iterations in the action research cycle proposed by Susman and Evered. We argue that the progress through iterations allows the researcher to gradually broaden the research scope and in consequence add generality to the research findings. A brief illustrative case is provided with a study on groupware introduction in a large civil engineering company. In the light of this illustrative case we contend that effective application of the iterative approach to action research has the potential to bring research rigour up closer to standards acceptable by positivists and yet preserve the elements that characterise action research as such.
Investigation of the role of angiotensin 1-9 in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) regulates blood pressure, and homeostasis through angiotensin II (AngII). Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a homologue of ACE, metabolizes AngII to Ang1-7. Ang1-7 antagonizes AngII via the receptor MAS. ACE2 also converts AngI to Ang1-9. Very little is known about Ang1-9 although it is thought to be a substrate for Ang1-7 generation via ACE. We investigated Ang1-9 and Ang1-7 function in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in rat neonatal and primary adult rabbit left ventricular cardiomyocytes. We have shown that Ang1-7 and Ang1-9 blocked AngII-induced hypertrophy. Furthermore, we demonstrated an independent role of Ang1-9 in cardiac hypertrophy and generated evidence that Ang1-9 signals via the angiotensin type 2 receptor. In vivo we delivered Ang1-9 via osmotic minipumps for 4 weeks into stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. Delivery of Ang1-9 reduced cardiac fibrosis and improved endothelial function compared to control animals. These findings have implications for our understanding of RAS function.
Application of Data Mining Technique in Invasion Recognition

The article introduced the importance of invasion recognition, as well as the traditional invasion recognition's type and the limitation. Also, according to the invasion recognition's general process and data mining characteristic, it establishes a data mining-based model of network invasion recognition which is designed for its flaw. As a result, the missing report reduces greatly; the examination rate enhances; and network system's security strengthened. Finally, the article lists several hot topics which need to be further studied. Keyword: Invasion recognition; Data Mining; Information Security
An object replacement strategy for global performance in distributed Web caching

The novel feature in the distributed Web caching system we developed is that every client node could act as a cache server and share its cache with neighboring nodes. In this paper we address the problem of object replacement in distributed Web caches. The problem is a version of the knapsack problem which is known to be NP-hard. We propose a heuristic based approach to the problem termed distributed Web caching for global performance (DWCG). Using event driven simulations, we show that in a distributed Web caching environment, the proposed strategy can outperform conventional uncooperative caching strategies such as LFU, LRU and GDSF in terms of LSR, HR and BHR.
PHEME D2.4: Qualitative Analysis of Rumours, Sources, and Diffusers Across Media and Languages

FP7-ICT Collaborative Project ICT-2013-611233 PHEME Deliverable D2.4 (WP2) This deliverable describes the work conducted in Work Package 2 for the study of conversations around rumours in social media. It describes our efforts towards developing an annotation scheme for analysing each of the messages that participate in rumourous conversations, and we put it into practice by creating a large-scale corpus of annotated tweets in English and German, including links to other media. This report also summarises our qualitative analysis of conversations around different types of rumours, looking at the diffusion across different media and languages. A sample of the corpus produced in this process is released along with this deliverable, which will be extended with the release of the whole corpus in December 2015. Keyword list: rumours, veracity, annotation scheme, social media, analysis
Normalisation method and data for Environmental Footprints

According to ISO 14044 (ISO 2006), normalisation, in the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is an optional step of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) which allows the practitioner to express results after the characterisation step using a common reference impact. This supports the comparison between alternatives using reference numerical scores. The normalisation factors express the total impact occurring in a reference region for a certain impact category (e.g. climate change, eutrophication, etc.) within a reference year. This document provides normalisation factors (NFs) for the implementation of the EU Environmental Footprint methodology (EC European Commission, 2013). The calculation of NFs is based on a ’EU-27 domestic inventory’ i.e. an extensive collection of emissions into air, water and soil as well as resources extracted in EU-27 with reference to 2010 (Sala et al., 2014). The International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) impact assessment methods and related characterisation factors (EC-JRC, 2011) were applied to the domestic inventory so to calculate the normalisation factors. In this report, the main methodological steps used to calculate the normalisation factors are described and discussed, and an overview is given of the improvements of current figures compared to similar studies (CML, 2013; Wegener Sleeswijk, et al., 2008; Wegener Sleeswijk and Huijbregts, 2010). Although the consideration of international trade in normalisation factors would allow for a more comprehensive picture of the actual environmental impacts due to EU production and consumption processes, this study shows, through a comparative assessment, that the present level of methodological development and data availability in modelling trade are not sufficiently mature. The main reasons are: i) significant variability in the results obtained using different methods for selecting and up-scaling products; ii) the ratio of imports to domestic products appears to be underestimated. The recommendation for normalisation factors in the Environmental Footprint context is therefore to rely on domestic figures for 2010. 3 Normalisation method and data for Environmental Footprints Suggested citation Benini L. , Mancini L. , Sala S. , Manfredi S. , Schau E. M. , Pant R. 2014 Normalisation method and data for Environmental Footprints. European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxemburg, ISBN: 978-92-79-40847-2
A Novel Architecture of Perception Oriented Web Search Engine Based on Decision Theory

The number of active web pages increases exponentially. According to the survey, the web has 14.3 trillion active web pages. The problem faced by present search engines is difficulty in returning relevant information. The current search engines do not perform semantic search and are not capable to return results based on user's perception. In this paper a perception based search engine is proposed that returns results as per the user point of view. To achieve semantic searching, a knowledge base is constructed which stores knowledge in the form of predicates. To extract knowledge from knowledge base, decision theory is used that does not restrict to any specific domain.
Enterprise Network Monitoring Using Treemaps

Treemaps may provide significant advantages over tabular data in corporate enterprise applications, due to their inherent ability to support users' integration of multiple dimensions of information. This study investigated the usability of treemaps for enterprise system administrators who monitor servers and web applications. Manipulated factors included hierarchy representation, data scale, and comparison with unsorted tables. The treemap hierarchy representations differed significantly in their support of the identification, comparison, and analysis tasks, but were significantly faster and more accurate than tabular data views. Treemap learnability was at least as successful as for tables. Performance differences between treemaps and tables increased with increasing size of datasets. Users' subjective ratings overwhelmingly supported treemaps over tabular data views. These results suggest that treemaps should be included as a standard graphical component in enterprise-level data analysis and monitoring applications.
Short‐term prediction of traffic parameters—performance comparison of a data‐driven and less‐data‐required approaches

Summary The travel decisions made by road users are more affected by the traffic conditions when they travel than the current conditions. Thus, accurate prediction of traffic parameters for giving reliable information about the future state of traffic conditions is very important. Mainly, this is an essential component of many advanced traveller information systems coming under the intelligent transportation systems umbrella. In India, the automated traffic data collection is in the beginning stage, with many of the cities still struggling with database generation and processing, and hence, a less-data-demanding approach will be attractive for such applications, if it is not going to reduce the prediction accuracy to a great extent. The present study explores this area and tries to answer this question using automated data collected from field. A data-driven technique, namely, artificial neural networks (ANN), which is shown to be a good tool for prediction problems, is taken as an example for data-driven approach. Grey model, GM(1,1), which is also reported as a good prediction tool, is selected as the less-data-demanding approach. Volume, classified volume, average speed and classified speed at a particular location were selected for the prediction. The results showed comparable performance by both the methods. However, ANN required around seven times data compared with GM for comparable performance. Thus, considering the comparatively lesser input requirement of GM, it can be considered over ANN in situations where the historic database is limited. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
IPSIM: systemc 3.0 enhancements for communication refinement

Refinement is a key methodology for SoC design. The proposed IPSIM design environment, based on a C++ modeling library developed on top of SystemC 3.0, supports an object-oriented design methodology, separates IP modules into behavior and communication components and further establishes two inter-module communication layers. The Message Box layer includes generic and system-specific communication, while the driver layer implements higher level user-defined communications as illustrated in a design example.
Improving student learning in engineering discipline using student- and lecturer-led assessment approaches

Abstract This article investigates the effectiveness of two distinct formative assessment methods for promoting deep learning and hence improving the performance amongst engineering students. The first method, applied for undergraduate students, employs a lecturer-led approach whereas the second method uses a student-led approach and e-learning for postgraduate teaching. Both studies demonstrate that the formative assessment and feedback has a positive effect on the performance of engineering students, especially those lying on the middle and lower grade tail. The mean exam marks increased by 15 to 20% as a result of introducing formative assessment to the case study modules. The main catalysts for performance improvement were found to be the feedback provided by the lecturer to the students, and by the students to their peer partners. Comparison of the two practices leads to the conclusion that whilst both methods are equally effective, peer assessment requires less time commitment from the lecturer.
Secure Virtualization Technology

Cloud is one of today’s most interesting technologies because of it can reduce cost and make flexibility and scalability. Hence, cloud computing became a promising business from a pure idea in a few years. However, there are some issues in cloud about which IT organizations concern such as security. As a matter of fact, basis of cloud computing is virtual environments. Although, the virtualization is not a new technology, appearance of cloud computing caused raising new concerns about security that may be caused hesitation before moving to cloud environments. This paper tries to describe security problems in the virtualization in cloud-environment aspect of view. This article tries to review issues and solutions of virtualization technology which is used in the cloud computing. The paper begins which a discussion on virtualization technology. Then, it addresses the challenges and available solutions.
The electronic paintbrush : computer graphics and art education

The overall thesis problem is to determine the major implications of using commercial computer graphics in Western secondary art programs. It is a conceptual study that uses conceptual frameworks established by authors from a variety of fields to show how Western culture has come to hold its views of art, technology, and education; a conceptual study that answers the thesis questions by reviewing the research on computer graphics in education and pertinent writings from the fields of art, art education, computer graphics development, and technology. Based on a critical review of major authors in these domains of knowledge and an emerging body of literature directly related to computer graphics in education, the thesis explains how digitized images function as art objects and shows how computer graphics can be compared to traditional art media in order to define its unique aesthetic, artistic, and cultural influences. The thesis argues that this technology should not be viewed as a neutral medium or tool in school art rooms but, rather, as a uniquely biased, educationally significant mediator of the way students come to understand and evaluate art. Therefore, art teachers should be reflective practitioners who are aware of the technological bias and cultural forces at work in art rooms where computer graphics come to draw time and funding away from traditional art experiences. Computer graphics should not be dismissed as a marginal tool while, at the same time, an increasing use of computer graphics should not suddenly or uncritically come to dictate the nature of art education. Aesthetic activity is not a mode of behaviour that should be separate from normal life, nor an adornment. It should be an intrinsic and unifying aspect of all experience but it needs to be cultivated through an adequate and appropriate education. (Sam Black, 1984, p. 23)
Pattern Matching in Compressed Texts and Images

Pattern Matching in Compressed Texts and Images surveys and appraises techniques for pattern matching in compressed text and images. Normally compressed data needs to be decompressed before it is processed. If however the compression has been done in the right way, it is often possible to search the data without having to decompress it, or, at least, only partially decompress it. The problem can be divided into lossless and lossy compression methods, and then in each of these cases the pattern matching can be either exact or inexact. Much work has been reported in the literature on techniques for all of these cases. It includes algorithms that are suitable for pattern matching for various compression methods, and compression methods designed specifically for pattern matching. This monograph provides a survey of this work while also identifying the important relationship between pattern matching and compression, and proposing some performance measures for compressed pattern matching algorithms. Pattern Matching in Compressed Texts and Images is an excellent reference text for anyone who has an interest in the problem of searching compressed text and images. It concludes with a particularly insightful section on the ideas and research directions that are likely to occupy researchers in this field in the short and long term.
Speech Denoising and Speech Enhancement Using Wavelet Filter

Speech plays an important role in multimedia system. Speech enhancement is to remove noise from speech for multimedia systems. Noise is an unwanted interference in any form of communication generally degrades the quality of the information signal. During transmission and reception signals are often corrupted by noise which can cause severe problems for downstream processing and user perception. Therefore an automated means of removing the noise would be an invaluable first stage for many signal processing tasks. Denoising has long been a focus of research and yet there always remains room for improvement. There are so many techniques to improve the signal quality or to regenerate the signal. In this paper we present a method for speech denoising using wavelet filter. Firstly the speech is recorded using matlab and played, finally the recorded speech is processed using wavelet filter.
A CMOS op amp using a regulated-cascode transimpedance building block for high-gain, low-voltage achievement

A CMOS, self-biasing, single-supply op amp for low-voltage, high-gain applications is presented. The two-stage op amp includes a transimpedance building block used as a composite load for the input stage. The dc gain of the stage is substantially enhanced thanks to the very high output resistance of the active load. The building block is designed with regulated cascode components and, for bias stabilisation, a technique of replica bias sensing and common-mode feedback. This technique allows the supply voltage lowering to about (2|V/sub T/|+2|V/sub dc, out/|), which determines the minimum supply voltage of the op amp. At V/sub dd//spl ges/1.8 V, major performances of the op amp are: A/sub dc/>115 dB, f/sub T/=9 10/sup 6/ Hz, S/sub R/=8 V//spl mu/s, P/sub dis/=0.55 mW.
Effect of tiotropium on heart rate variability in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

BACKGROUND The chronic use of the long-acting anticholinergic agent, tiotropium, in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been linked in some reports to an increase in adverse cardiovascular effects. Decreased heart rate variability (HRV) is a condition seen in COPD patients that has also been linked to poor cardiovascular outcome. We aimed in this study to investigate changes in HRV caused by tiotropium administration to COPD patients in order to determine whether changes occurred that might contribute to an increase in adverse cardiovascular events. METHODS Seventy patients with moderate-to-severe stable COPD were treated with once-daily dosing of tiotropium (two puffs of Spiriva Respimat, 2.5 μg solution) for 3 months. HRV, pulmonary function, and quality of life were measured before and after 1 and 3 months of therapy. RESULTS Pulmonary function and quality of life improved significantly, after both 1 and 3 months of therapy. No significant change in HRV parameters occurred, except for a significant decrease in the high-frequency and increase in the low-frequency component of HRV at the 1-month assessment. CONCLUSION Changes in HRV caused by tiotropium use are not sufficient to explain a possible increase in adverse cardiovascular events.
[Edifice program: analysis of screening exam practices for cancer in France].

INTRODUCTION The practices of screening and the parameters influencing these practices are not well known in France. The objectives of the Edifice study were to analyze a large cohort of patients and doctors in order to further characterize these parameters. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study was performed by the Institute TNS Healthcare-SOFRES, and included 2 parallel studies: 1) on 1 609 healthy persons representative of the global French population and aged 40 to 75 years (N = 1 509), with an over representation of patients aged 50 to 74 years living in the 22 pilot French departments pilots; 2) on 600 generalist practitioners. Data were collected and analyzed by the expert panel. RESULTS Ninety-three, 25, 36 and 6% of the patients in the general population declared to have performed at least one a screening exam for breast, colon, prostate, and lung carcinoma respectively. Seventy, 20, 60 and 4% of GP declare to propose systematically to a 40-75-year-old patient a screening test for breast, colon, prostate, or lung cancer. For breast cancer screening the adhesion of the GP is independent of the date of implementation of a general screening in their own regions, while for colorectal screening, 34 and 20% of the patients living in the pilot versus other departments were screened. Overall, prostate cancer screening is recommended by the GP panel for 77.1% of patients aged 50 to 75 years. CONCLUSIONS This study shows a good adhesion of screening procedures for GP and patients, shows that screening is improved by general screening policy in colorectal cancer, but that prostate cancer screening practices exceed what is recommended according to evidence based medicine.