Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Attraction: The Effects of Street Network Connectivity upon the Distribution of Retail Frontage in the City of Buenos Aires

The City of Buenos Aires has a radial street plan, regular blocks, and a clear central place. On the basis of an analysis of the city's GIS database, we show that measures describing the syntax of its street network have a significant relationship with commercial frontage density, over and above the impact of central business district attraction. These results are obtained while controlling for the effects of population and employment density, distance from public transportation stations, and zoning. Our findings support a hypothesis that emerges from recent literature, namely, that commercial uses are subject to the distributed attraction exercised by the street network, and according to the syntax of street network connectivity. Among the variables describing the street network, those that measure how direct the connection of a street segment is to the rest of the street network, have the greatest explanatory power on the distribution of commercial frontage density. Street width and the extent to which a street segment lies on the shortest routes between all pairs of potential origins and destinations (whether by metric distance or by direction changes), have less influence. Interactions between variables indicate that the effects of spatial syntax in determining the distribution of commercial frontage density by street segment are stronger when variables accounting for other attractors (population and employment density, proximity to metrostations or proximity to other shops in the surrounding area) assume higher values.
Direction Finding In The Presence Of Mutual Coupling

An eigenstructure-based method for direction finding in the presence of sensor mutual coupling, gain and phase uncertainties is presented. The method provides estimates of the directions of arrival of all the radiating sources as well as calibration of the gain and phase of each sensor and the mutual coupling in the receiving array. Calibration sources at known locations are not required. The proposed algorithm is described in detail, and its behaviour is illustrated by a numerical example.
Rapid Optical Flow Computation Based on Multigrid

In order to make optical flow methods suitable for real-time applications, this paper presents a rapid optical flow computation method based on multigrid. Multigrid computation method is well known for being the fastest numerical method when solving elliptic boundary-value problems, so we integrate multigrid into Horn-Schunck algorithm in order to obtain rapid computation. Firstly, we analyze the convergence process of traditional methods for optical flow computation; secondly, we combine the multigrid method with Horn-Schunck method, and in this way optical flow can be calculated efficiently; finally, the experiments show that our rapid optical flow computation method is efficient for target detection and video tracking systems.
Do personal attributes and an understanding of sarcasm and metaphor explain problematic experiences on the Internet? —A survey for the development of information literacy education tools—

The Internet today provides users with a great amount of convenience due to the improvement of tools and their functions, and the expansion in the numbers of users. However, with the expansion of both online content and time spent online, new and potential risks have emerged in this virtual space. A majority of Japanese students experience communication troubles over the Internet, and therefore higher education institutions have increased their efforts to reduce risks on the Internet by, for example, offering basic security education through information literacy programs. However, because of the number and variability of Internet risks, it is unlikely that these efforts have achieved satisfactory results. As one of the risk factors inducing troubles on the Internet, where users exchange information with other (anonymous) users, we examine the immaturity of the “theory of mind,” which is generally used to infer the conditions, viewpoints, and comprehension level of others. This study reports the results of a self-report questionnaire used to examine the problems or difficulties encountered on the Internet by young women in Japan. It focuses on the relationship between the comprehension of sarcasm and metaphor expressions, provided for the purpose of estimating the “theory of mind,” as well as of Internet terminology and the problematic experiences. The problems identified were roughly classified into four different categories: addictive Internet use, dishonest/illegal dealings, communication gaps, and shopping-related difficulties. Multiple regression analyses was conducted, aimed at identifying factors that could explain such problems. The results suggested that personal attributes and sensation-seeking tendencies, including social vulnerability and anxiety, and the understanding of sarcasm, metaphor expressions, and Internet terminology, might be significantly correlated with the problems experienced. On the basis of this study, proposals are made as to what areas should be focused on in information literacy education programs in the future.
A few comments on visual systems of a ship handling simulator for sea pilot training: Training for entering a port

We are using a ship handling simulator for sea pilots' training. However, regarding the visual image around the pilot's own ship in the case of entering a port, ordinary ship handling simulators do not have such a visual image (screen). We undertook to clarify the effect of a visual system around the pilot's own ship for entering a port. Training for entering a port is an important training factor for a sea pilot. This paper describes the characteristics of the captain's visual observation area and the mental workload for ship handling when entering a port. The visual observation area is determined from eye movement and the mental workload is determined from heart rate variability (R-R interval) and nasal temperature. The results show that the visual system around the pilot's own ship promotes safe ship handling when entering a port, based on eye movement. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(9): 10–17, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10358
A Framework for Dynamic Protocol Configuration

Traditional end-system protocols are not able to support the wide range of Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of existing and emerging distributed multimedia applications on top of current networks. The aim of protocol configuration in Da CaPo (Dynamic Configuration of Protocols) is to combine fine granular software and hardware building blocks at runtime in such a manner that the resulting protocol configuration fulfills the application requirements and needs as less resources as possible. Main features of Da CaPo include a formal model, a new approach for specifying application requirements as objective functions, and a unified module interface that allows syntactically unconstrained configuration of software and hardware building blocks. The performance evaluation of the prototype implementation demonstrates that the overhead introduced by the flexible approach is marginal compared to modules that access multiple bytes in each packet. Thus, decreasing protocol complexity by configuring appropriate protocols distinctly increases protocol performance. Furthermore, the flexible approach is able to support the broad range of QoS requirements and is open for future developments.
An End-User Oriented Visual Programming Language

With the promotion of IT applications and the rise of Web 2.0, mass users' individual requirements continue to emerge. How to quickly meet increasing development and maintenance requirements has been a critical problem of software development. Is it possible for end-users to develop software This paper chooses Web information systems as the research field, studies the end-user programming technology, and designs an end-user oriented visual domain-specific language VUDSL for university Web information systems. VUDSL programming tools are also implemented, to support end-users without the knowledge of software engineering to develop target information systems by visual programming.
An Indirect Fingerprint Authentication Scheme in Cloud Computing

The cloud computing offers dynamically scalable online resources provisioned as a service over the Internet cheaply. However, the security challenges it poses are equally striking. The reliable user authentication techniques are required to combat the rising security threat in cloud communications. Due to the non-denial requirements of remote user authentication scheme, it is most commonly achieved using some form of biometrics-based method. Fingerprint authentication is one of the popular and effective approaches to allow the only authorized users to access the cryptographic keys. While the critical issue in remote biometric cryptosystem is to protect the template of a user stored in a database. The biometric template is not secure and the stolen templates cannot be revoked, which is easy to leak user identity information. To overcome these shortcomings, in this paper, an indirect fingerprint authentication scheme is proposed. Further, we apply this secure scheme to the cloud system combing with PKI mechanism. At last, a comprehensive and detailed security analysis of the proposed scheme in cloud computing is provided.
Heuristics-based parallelization of a class of control systems

The paper proposes an effective approach for the parallelization of control system models governed by ordinary differential equations. The method takes a mathematical model expressed in block diagram language and automatically assigns the code to be executed on several parallel standard microprocessors. The integrity of the simulations is preserved, the computing resources available are efficiently used, and the simulations are compliant with real-time constraints. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Design of Near-Threshold CMOS Logic Gates

Numerous efforts have made to balance the tradeoff between power consumption, area and speed of a design. While studying the design at the two extreme ends of the design spectrum, namely the ultra-low power with acceptable performance at one end and high performance with power within limit at the other has not made. One solution to achieve the ultra-low power consumption is to operate the design in subthreshold region. The use of sub-threshold circuit designing in fast and energy efficient circuits is always needed in electronics industry especially in DSP, image processing and arithmetic units in microprocessors, where the low power is the primary concern and the delay can be tolerated. We design a simple CMOS inverter in weak inversion region (sub-threshold) and compare the power consumption with strong inversion region using Cadence 0. 18µm Technology.
Quality in academic text production

Abstract The article discusses quality aspects of academic text production in Translation Studies at various levels. The significance of evaluation criteria such as originality, relevance, methodology, clarity, and presentation are discussed from both the author's and the evaluator's point of view. A detailed description of quality standards in academic text production focussing on feedback already available within existing frameworks can support the harmonisation of academic work in Europe and help students and future authors avoid some typical pitfalls. This of course should not rule out the individual opinions of authors and readers and it must also be added that the experience is garnered mostly from German thesis writing.
Plat-Based Key Pre-Distribution Scheme in Sensor Network

ABSTRACT The security of wireless sensor networks is a challenging research area where the resources constraints are a bottleneck for any successful security design. Due to their computational feasibility, symmetric key algorithms that require key pre-distribution are more desirable for use in these networks. In the pre-distribution scheme, keys or keying materials are assigned to each node prior deployment to guarantee a secure communication within the entire network. Though several works are introduced on this issue, yet the connectivity and resiliency are imperfectly handled. In this paper, we revisit the grid based key pre-distribution scheme aiming to improve the connectivity, introduce a higher resiliency level, simplify the logic of key establishment and maintain same level of used of resources usage. The core of our modification relies on introducing the novel plat-based polynomial assignment and key establishment mechanism. To demonstrate the advantageous properties of our scheme over the revisited one, details of consumed resources, resulting connectivity, security and comparisons with relevant works are introduced.Key Words:Sensor Network, Key Pre-Distribution, Plat-Based, 3D-Grid
A new approach to preserve privacy data mining based on fuzzy theory in numerical database

With the rapid development of information techniques, data mining approaches have become one of the most important tools to discover the in-deep associations of tuples in large-scale database. Hence how to protect the private information is quite a huge challenge, especially during the data mining procedure. In this paper, a new method is proposed for privacy protection which is based on fuzzy theory. The traditional fuzzy approach in this area will apply fuzzification to the data without considering its readability. A new style of obscured data expression is introduced to provide more details of the subsets without reducing the readability. Also we adopt a balance approach between the privacy level and utility when to achieve the suitable subgroups. An experiment is provided to show that this approach is suitable for the classification without a lower accuracy. In the future, this approach can be adapted to the data stream as the low computation complexity of the fuzzy function with a suitable modification.
Modelling the Spatial Distribution of Shifting Cultivation in Luangprabang, Lao PDR

This research develops an agent-based land-use model for shifting cultivation, where the spatial distribution of crop cultivation is dynamically determined by the relationship between demand and supply of crops. We apply and evaluate the model using statistical and geographic data from Luangprabang Province, Laos, where rice and other crops are cultivated in various forms, including shifting cultivation. Our model explicitly incorporates socioeconomic dimensions of shifting cultivation in which villages are assigned the role of decision makers. We evaluate the model by comparing the simulation results with the existing statistical data and remote sensing images from the 1990s. Our model provides reasonably satisfactory estimates of aggregate area and volume of each crop type at the provincial level. We also evaluate the model across differing spatial resolutions for shifting cultivation areas. We find that the model has limited explanatory power at higher spatial resolutions of 0.5 km to 2.5 km grid cells, but can account for the spatial patterns fairly well at more aggregate levels with the resolutions of 5 km to 10 km.
Research on the Algorithm of Key Object Extraction in Motion Video Images

In this paper, we extract for key objects of motion video images (mainly people), then do researches with the technology of object detection and tracking. First, we extract moving object edge and foreground object template with the use of the method of edge detection, and then compare the resulting object template with the original image, thus dye the positions with the colour of the corresponding point coordinates in the original image which belongs to the extent of template filled region. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has some advantages and robustness and could meet project needs.
A Modular Feedback Keyboard Design

The modular feedback keyboard (MFK) design that we describe in this article was conceived and constructed at ACROE. It was first presented to the public on 17 October, 1989 in Grenoble at the opening celebration of our center's new studio. The system we present is the prototype of a more general device, and its construction is the result of research into the relationship between instrument and performer within the framework of a system for realtime sound synthesis and computer-assisted musical creation. The first feature of this device is that it is a gestural control system with feedback for the tactile senses-it enables actual fingering of a physical instrument to be simulated. The second important feature is that this is a modular system: the piano- or organ-type keyboard is its nominal form, but its mechanical morphology can be modified and easily configured for other applications or types of performance interfaces.
Typing Speed, Keying Rates, and Optimal Keyboard Layouts

Many variations on the standard typewriter keyboard have been proposed to save finger motion and speed up input. An analysis of keying times during touch typing showed that the standard layout is operated at near-maximum speeds. These times applied to the Dvorak layout showed that it would be no faster than the standard layout, and an imaginary “optimal” layout using higher percentages of fast keystrokes would be only 8% faster. Larger keying speed increases are possible through eliminating keystrokes than through rearranging the current layout.
Assessing age differences in touchscreen pointing movements using the method of ballistic movement

To enhance the use of touchscreens for the elderly population, this study tested the ballistic movement method for assessing age-related differences when executing pointing movements. Six old and six young healthy participants performed ballistic movements of specific distances on a modified touchscreen monitor. The measured data of constant errors, variable errors, and movement time were statistically analyzed and fitted using the ballistic movement models. Except that the older participants aimed at approximately 4 mm above where the young participants did, no significant aging effect was found on ballistic movement time and endpoint variable errors using analysis of variance. The two ballistic movement models predicted well the measured data of movement time and variable errors, except for the vertical variable error committed by the older participants. The ballistic movement method can reveal detailed differences in age and separately predict motor properties of speed and accuracy, helping design target sizes for specific populations.
A method of TV Logo Recognition based on SIFT

TV logo is an important symbol of TV station. Automatic identification of TV logo can be used in television monitoring and media assets management. By analyzing the characteristics of TV logos, a new algorithm for TV logo recognition is proposed in this paper. First of all, the TV logo information is obtained by applying a special mask image to the captured video frames. Then the coarse matching is performed based on color tone. Further more, the region of TV logo is separated into the master region and sub region and the SIFT keypoints are obtained based on this separation. Finally, the TV logo is recognized by comparing the number of keypoints with a threshold. Experiments results show that the algorithm proposed has a good performance in TV logo recognition, especially for transparent logo.
Essentials of probability

This text is essentially a progress report of the exciting work being done in thii area at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It describes the integration of Bayesian decision theory and Markov chains, and thus builds on the work initiated by Ronald Howard and reported in his little monograph on Markov chains and dynamic programming. Like Howard’s monograph, this book was also originally a Ph.D. thesis. However, unlike Howard’s delightful and light treatment, which can be read almost like a novel, this work by Martin takes a bit of effort to plough through, since the theoretical level is significantly higher. There are no baseball games, no toy manufacturers, and no used car salesmen to brighten the journey. It is good mathematical reading, and the effort required is well worth it. This book is not a text book but the report of research. However, those in applied statistics and operations research, who are actively engaged in work in this area, will find this book to be stimulating and delightful. The author does not pretend that the methodology has immediate applicability, but it is difficult for this reviewer to believe that applications will not be found. Thus, this book is an excellent outline of a facit of mathematical research that is ripe for harvesting and it will undoubtedly stimulate much additional work in this area.
Network Congestion Control Algorithm Simulation Research Based on NS2

Network congestion control problem is one of the most key problems in network study. This paper studies different versions of TCP source port algorithm such as Tahoe, Reno, NewReno, SACK and Vegas, and makes simulation research on linear network and dumbbell network environment algorithm by using NS2 network simulator, and finally it concludes that: when there is no competition in the network, it is better to choose Vegas algorithm; when there is competition, choose Reno, NewReno, or Sack algorithm is more advisable.
Internet as A Source of Help in Dealing with School Violence

In this study we examined possible advantages of the Internet as a medium for help and support for victims of school violence in Israel. Students in sixth, eighth, and tenth grades were asked about their willingness to seek help on the Internet for dealing with various forms of school violence, and the underlying force-driving processes of such approach was examined. Findings revealed that students are most willing to seek help for relational violence, followed by sexual, physical, and verbal forms of violence. The anonymity that the Internet can provide and the availability of help via Internet are the two foremost contributing factors to the willingness of students to seek help. In addition, the common gender differences in help-seeking behavior were mostly dismissed. Other situational variables and individual characteristics are discussed and possible implications are suggested.
Geospatial visualization with VisTracks

Recently with the widespread emergence of personal navigation devices and growth of mobile networks, large quantities of time‐stamped, location data have become available. To analyze real‐time spatial movement data, we have developed a Web 2.0 platform called VisTracks®. The platform includes spatial servers for generating maps, performing navigation, and tracking moving assets and a flexible Silverlight visual analytics web client. Using VisTracks, it is possible to develop rich visual analytics web applications for understanding location, movement, tracking, and analytics through time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.