Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertext writing: effects on writing processes and writing products

The ability to communicate ideas effectively as text is relatively difficult to acquire, and typically only develops as a result of classroom instruction. There is a growing body of research exploring what form this instruction should take in order to be most effective. Evidence, summarised in a recent meta-analysis (Graham and Perrin, 2007) suggests that interventions that aim to develop students' metacognitive understanding and self-regulated use of effective writing processes, rather than just on desirable features of the finished product, tend to be particularly successful. However, the mechanisms by which these interventions work are not well understood. One possibility, and an implicit assumption when process-focussed interventions are delivered (e.g., De La Paz and Graham, 2002), is that these intervention affect the kinds of activities that students engage in when producing text, and that this in turn affects that quality of what they finally produce. However, because evaluations have typically looked just at finished texts and have not explored the processes that students adopted in their creation, evidence for this claim is lacking. Papers in this symposium will explore both existing classroom practice and formal evaluations of novel interventions. They will discuss effects on process and on the quality of completed texts, and on the relationships between these. Graham, S. , & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3), 445-476.De La Paz, S. , & Graham, S. (2002). Explicitly teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge: Writing instruction in middle school classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(4), 687-698.
Speech-enabled CALL and pronunciation training: learning goals versus feasibility

A key challenge in developing speech-enabled CALL systems is to design for more linguistic-didactic functionality while remaining within the limits of technological feasibility. This especially applies to systems intended for practicing grammar. This presentation describes the DISCO system, which makes use of automatic speech recognition (ASR) to provide feedback on grammar and pronunciation of Dutch L2. We will also focus on the requirements for goal-oriented design and implementation of speech technology. On the one hand we are developing and testing speech technology modules to determine what is feasible. On the other we use this knowledge in the goal-oriented, ecological and ontological design of a CALL system for practicing pronunciation and grammar.
Foundations of multidimensional and metric data structures

Multidimensional data is data that exists and changes in more than one dimension, by time, or spatially, or both, sometimes dynamically. Think here of tracking hurricane data in order to project the storm's path, for just one example. As spatial and other multidimensional data structures become increasingly important for the applications in game programming, data mining, bioinformatics, and many other areas--including astronomy, geographic information systems, physics, etc., the need for a comprehensive book on the subject is paramount. This book is truly a life's work by the author who is clearly the best person for the job.
Inheritance and Specification-based Object-oriented Testing

The Test Template Framework is extended to include capabilities for speciication-based object-oriented testing. The Framework is moved to the object-oriented domain and is extended here to incorporate inheritance and abstract classes. Object-Z is the chosen speciication language that the Framework uses to derive testing information. Some Object-Z features are incorporated into the Framework. Conditions are iden-tiied under which testing information can be inherited without change, when it is inherited with modiications and when it must be derived from scratch. This enables the reuse of test suites by subclasses, alleviating the need for repetitious derivation.
Performance evaluation of the MPEG-4 visual coding standard

We first present an overview of the MPEG-4 video standard and its relationship to other existing as well as evolving video standards. MPEG-4 video, while introducing a new paradigm of treating each object in a scene independently, utilizes the traditional motion compensated DCT framework for coding of each object. Thus, while introducing new object based coding functionality, it is also capable of providing traditional frame-based coding. Furthermore, it supports advanced functionalities such as efficient coding of background as a sprite, robustness to channel errors, spatial and temporal scalability of arbitrary shape objects etc. Next, we evaluate the statistical performance of the MPEG-4 video under a number of selected conditions and compare it, depending on the application, with the H.263, the MPEG-1 and the MPEG-2 standards. For each traditional application, based on our limited set of experiments, MPEG-4 video appears to provide equal or better performance when compared to the most suitable existing standard addressing that application area. For the new object based applications, although MPEG-4 video when coding arbitrary shaped objects, incurs additional coding costs, perhaps with further optimization, the increased cost may be offset by improved tradeoffs in coding quality control, channel bandwidth and decoding resource adaptations.
Benefits and Risks of Open Government Data

Public sector bodies maintain a large amount of data from various domains. This data represents a potential resource that organizations and individuals can use to enhance their own datasets or which can be used to develop new and innovative products and services. In order to foster the reuse of the data held by the public sector bodies a number of countries around the world has started to publish its data according to the Open Data principles. In this paper we present a set of benefits that can be achieved by publishing Open Government Data (OGD) and a set of risks that should be assessed when a dataset is considered for opening up. Benefits and risks presented in this paper were mostly identified during two of our OGD activities.
Inferring domain plans in question-answering

The importance of plan inference in models of conversation has been widely noted in the computational-linguistics literature, and its incorporation in question-answering systems has enabled a range of cooperative behaviors. The plan inference process in each of these systems, however, has assumed that the questioner (Q) whose plan is being inferred and the respondent (R) who is drawing the inference have identical beliefs about the actions in the domain. I demonstrate that this assumption is too strong, and often results in failure not only of the plan inference process, but also of the communicative process that plan inference is meant to support. In particular, it precludes the principled generation of appropriate responses to queries that arise from invalid plans. I present a model of plan inference in conversation that distinguishes between the beliefs of the questioner and the beliefs of the respondent. This model rests on an account of plans as mental phenomena: "having a plan" is analyzed as having a particular configuration of beliefs and intentions. Judgements that a plan is invalid are associated with particular discrepancies between the beliefs that R ascribes to Q, when R believes Q has some particular plan, and the beliefs R herself holds. I define several types of invalidities from which a plan may suffer, relating each to a particular type of belief discrepancy, and show that the types of any invalidities judged to be present in the plan underlying a query can affect the content of a cooperative response. The plan inference model has been implemented in SPIRIT--a System for Plan Inference that Reasons about Invalidities Too--which reasons about plans underlying queries in the domain of computer mail.
Urban traffic networks equilibrium status recognition with neural network

This paper defines the concept of equilibriums function and equilibrium status, which exists not only in simple parallel links and paths, but also in traffic networks. Based on detailed mathematical analysis, it is found that link flow under traffic equilibrium condition is a function of OD matrix. Further, the traffic equilibrium status was developed. An example was designed to test the algorithm.
Perspectives in processing large amounts of information using Cloud

Nowadays it is easy for the users who live in a digital era, to access social networks not only from their computers, but also from their mobile phones, to upload pictures instantaneously, to send messages on Whatsapp or to share their location with other users. At the same time, the business world is also changing at highspeed. Dematerialization has already affected different business sectors; it has even put an end to a model that has been used for years. Cloud Computing allows technology to access in the economy and society, not only allowing users to be connected to this new digital world through their mobile devices, but also to do it through any kind of device, which is commonly called Internet of Things. This will create a large amount of digital information which will need the storage and processing capacity of large volumes known as Big Data. The aim of this work is to determine the ideas of investigation to allow a proper analysis of large volumes of data which has been created to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision making system.
Performance optimization of digital circuits

The design of complex, high performance systems requires automation of the design process. At the outset of automation, the focus of synthesis was to obtain small realizations that could be implemented as integrated circuits. However, with improvements in fabrication technology, the area of a design is of secondary importance and the performance of the circuit is the primary criterion that the designer wishes to maximize. Circuit performance is affected by various decisions taken during different phases of the design process. This thesis provides an understanding of the factors that affect the delay of logic circuits. Logic circuits are represented as an interconnection of functional units and registers. To improve the speed of an initial implementation, the designer may apply different types of optimizations. Using a set of bounded-input functions, functional units can be implemented by circuit structures that have small depth by repeated application of local transformation on the circuit. This phase is referred to as technology-independent optimization. Reduction in circuit depth usually leads to smaller delay. However, circuit speed also depends on the choice of gates used to implement the function. Gates differ in their delay characteristics. To utilize this flexibility technology-dependent optimizations are required. The paradigm of applying local transformations is extended to exploit the delay characteristics of gates during optimization. In circuits that contain registers, the freedom in positioning registers allows for further synchronous optimizations.
Análisis de la relación entre la diversificación y los resultados empresariales: una revisión teórica

La discusion respecto a la relacion que guardan las estrategias de diversificacion relacionada y no relacionada con los resultados empresariales ha sido objeto de abundantes analisis en la literatura especializada. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la evidencia teorica existente sobre esta relacion a traves de una amplia revision de los principales estudios que han tratado la cuestion, poniendo de manifiesto las conclusiones mas relevantes a las que han llegado. Por ultimo, tras la revision de la literatura se plantean las proposiciones del estudio y se presenta una tabla resumen con los diferentes estudios que han investigado el presente tema
Stiffness analysis and control of multi-fingered robot hands

Describes the stiffness of a grasp as a function of grasp configuration, grasping forces and joint stiffness of the fingers. The effects caused by the change of joint configuration is included in the computation of the joint stiffness in terms of stiffness induced from configuration change and force (SICC). Based on the analysis, the decentralized object stiffness control (DOSC) method is proposed so as to achieve the desired overall grasp stiffness. The effects of SICC at the joint stiffness and the performance of the proposed stiffness control method are experimentally verified using a two fingered robot hand.
Experiment of Document Clustering by Triple-pass Leader-follower Algorithm without Any Information on Threshold of Similarity

The number of clusters has to be defined a priori in most clustering algorithms, but it is usually unknown in situations to which document clustering is applied. Therefore, it would be convenient if a clustering algorithm could be executed without any information on the number of clusters. This article attempts to develop such an al- gorithm by extending the leader-follower clustering algorithm, which is appropriate for the clustering of large-scale datasets. Specifically, a threshold value required for executing the leader-follower clustering algorithm is automatically estimated from some pairs of documents by scanning the document file one time before executing the standard leader- follower algorithm. In particular, the triple-pass algorithm in which cluster vectors are generated in the second scan and each document is allocated to the most similar cluster in the third scan is proposed. The experimental result suggests that the triple-pass leader-follower clustering algorithm is sufficiently effective and comparable with the hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP) mixture model and with the spherical k-means algorithm with automatically estimating the number of clusters based on the cover-coefficient. The algorithm requires less computational iteration than the other two methods, and is thus cost effective.
Typographic layout and first impressions: testing how changes in text layout influence reader's judgments of documents

This study explores how the typographic layout of information influences readers’ impressions of magazine contents pages. Thirteen descriptors were used in a paired comparison procedure that assessed whether participants’ rhetorical impressions of a set of six controlled documents change in relation to variations in layout. The combinations of layout attributes tested were derived from the structural attributes associated with three patterns of typographic differentiation (high, moderate, and low) described in a previous study (see Moys, 2013). The content and the range of stylistic attributes applied to the test material were controlled in order to focus on layout attributes. Triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative data indicates that, even within the experimental confines of limited stylistic differentiation, the layout attributes associated with patterns of high, moderate, and low typographic differentiation do influence readers’ rhetorical judgments. In addition, the findings emphasize the importance of considering interrelationships between clusters of typographic attributes rather than testing isolated variables.
DEVELOPING HOT POTATOES-BASED MATERIALS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING AT SMK

Abstract : The aim of this study was to develop mulimedia-based materials for teaching and learning English at SMK Negeri 1 Balai. The development of Hot potatoes-based materials adopted research and development study. This study applied ADDIE steps as follows. Firstly, need analysis. The need analysis found that there was a need of multimedia-based materials for teaching and leaning English at SMK Negeri 1 Balai. Secondly, design, the design of the materials was based on need analysis and english subject curriculum. The blue print or lay out of the materials were created in this stage. Thirdly, development. The development involves some author wares, such as hot potatoes application,adobe reader, picture editors and web page maker. The pilot product was created in this stage. fourthly was implementation of the materials. There were 30 students of SMK Negeri 1 Balai were involved in this stage. Based on thier responses, there is norevision on the materials. The last step was evaluation. This stage involved two media-materials experts and a language expert. They evaluated and responded that the materials are useable for teaching and learning English. Keywords: ADDIE steps, Multimedia- based materials Abstrak : Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk mengembangkan bahan ajar berbasis multimedia untuk pembelajaran bahasa Inggris di SMK Negeri 1 Balai. Pengembangan bahan ajar ini menggunakan metode penelitian riset dan pengembangan. Penelitian ini menggunakan langkah-langkah ADDIE. Langkah pertama yaitu analisis kebutuhan. Pada tahap ini ditemukan bahwa adanya kebutuhan akan bahan ajar berbasiskan multimedia untuk proses pembelajaran pada SMK Negeri 1 Balai. Tahap kedua, Desain bahan ajar ini berdasarkan pada hasil dari analisis kebutuhan dan kurikulum bahasa inggris. layout dari bahan ajar dibuat pada tahap ini. Tahap ketiga yaitu pengembangan. Tahap ini menggunakan beberapa software pendukung, seperti aplikasi hot potatoes, picture editors, dan web page maker. Tahap ini menghasilkan bahan ajar percobaan. Tahap keempat adalah implementasi dari bahan ajar. Tahap ini melibatkan 30 orang siswa SMK Negeri 1 Balai. Berdasarkan respons mereka, bahan ajar ini tidak membutuhkan revisi. Langkah terakhir adalah evaluasi. Tahap ini melibatkan dua ahli bahan ajar multimedia dan seorang ahli bahasa. Mereka mengevaluasi dan merespon bahwa bahan ajar ini dapat digunakan didalam proses pembelajaran. Kata kunci: langkah-langkah ADDIE, Bahan ajar berbasis multimedia
Discrete-time control algorithms and adaptive intelligent systems designs

In this work, approximate dynamic programming (ADP) designs based on adaptive critic structures are developed to solve the discrete-time H2/H∞ optimal control problems in which the state and action spaces are continuous. This work considers linear discrete-time systems as well as nonlinear discrete-time systems that are affine in the input. This research resulted in forward-in-time reinforcement learning algorithms that converge to the solution of the Generalized Algebraic Riccati Equation (GARE) for linear systems. For the nonlinear case, a forward-in-time reinforcement learning algorithm is presented that converges to the solution of the associated Hamilton-Jacobi Bellman equation (HJB). The results in the linear case can be thought of as a way to solve the GARE of the well-known discrete-time H∞ optimal control problem forward in time. Four design algorithms are developed: Heuristic Dynamic programming (HDP), Dual Heuristic dynamic programming (DHP), Action dependent Heuristic Dynamic programming (ADHDP) and Action dependent Dual Heuristic dynamic programming (ADDHP). The significance of these algorithms is that for some of them, particularly the ADHDP algorithm, a priori knowledge of the plant model is not required to solve the dynamic programming problem. Another major outcome of this work is that we introduce a convergent policy iteration scheme based on the HDP algorithm that allows the use of neural networks to arbitrarily approximate for the value function of the discrete-time HJB equation. This online algorithm may be implemented in a way that requires only partial knowledge of the model of the nonlinear dynamical system. The dissertation includes detailed proofs of convergence for the proposed algorithms, HDP, DHP, ADHDP, ADDHP and the nonlinear HDP. Practical numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the developed optimization algorithms. For nonlinear systems, a comparison with methods based on the State-Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) is also presented. In all the provided examples, parametric structures like neural networks have been used to find compact representations of the value function and optimal policies for the corresponding optimal control problems.
The algorithm mapper: A system for modeling and evaluating parallel applications/archicture pairs

We present a methodology for eValuating the performance of application programs on distributed computing systems. An application A is represented by an annotated grn.ph G (A) giving its requirements for processing, memory and communication, plus the precedence between computation modules. Machines are represented by a similar graph G (M) and the methodology is to map G (A) into G (M). The mapping problem is subdivided into three steps (51) a reduction of the parallelism of G (A) to that of G(M), (52) scheduling the computational modules to (nearly) minimize communication costs, and (s3) acmal layout of resulting graph into G (M). The twO technical problems addressed here are (1) using communication delay models to sim· pli[y G (M) and the step (s3), (2) scheduling the modules (step (s2). Our communication models apply well to "uniform" architectures, we explicitly consider the following four. single bus and common memory. single bus and distributed memory, multiple bus and distributed common memory, Banyan interconnection and distributed common memory. • 'I'hi. I re.lc. arch was fiIPPOned by NSF gnml DMC-SSOB0684Al and ESPRIT Projed 15811. Moll of thu wu complar.o cd while she was willll1le E1earic::a1. Enginecing DepartmClJt of Purdue Univenity. This ~card1 was supported by ARO grant DAAG29-83-K-0026 BDd AFOSR gi1ln184-0385.
Simulating quantum computing: Quantum eXpress

Quantum computing (QC) research has gained a lot of momentum recently due to several theoretical analyses that indicate that QC is significantly more efficient at solving certain classes of problems than classical computing. While experimental validation will ultimately be required, the primitive nature of current QC hardware leaves practical testing limited to trivial examples. Thus, a robust simulator is needed to study complex QC issues. Most QC simulators model ideal operations, and thus cannot predict the actual time required to execute an algorithm or quantify the effects of errors in the calculation. We have developed a novel QC simulator that models physical hardware implementations. This simulator not only allows the accurate simulation of quantum algorithms on various hardware implementations, but also takes an important step towards providing a framework to determine their true performance and vulnerability to errors.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Based Approach to Learn Basic Programming Loops

This Research to Practice Full Paper presents a study on the difficulties 46 Biomedical Engineering students show in a particular topic of the first programming course, the loop topic. Students’ results in programming courses are often very disappointing and to improve these results it is fundamental to understand the type of difficulties students feel when they are leaning how to program. Most of the researches are too generic and do not report on specific programming topics and we consider important to be more specific. To achieve this purpose we organized a test, using the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, where all of the questions were about the programming loop topic. We did a statistical analysis based on the grades students obtained on each question of the test and we concluded that the approach we followed has clear pedagogical advantages to weaker students, making them more confident and motivated and allows teachers to use adequate strategies to each of the identified students’ difficulties. The authors propose, in the next future, a set of visual methodologies to be used with the students, which they expect can contribute to delineate a more motivating teaching strategy in overcoming students’ difficulties.