Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution and Fragilities in Scripted GUI Testing of Android applications

In literature there is evidence that Android applications are not rigorously tested as their desktop counterparts. However – especially for what concerns the Graphical User Interface of mobile apps – a thorough testing should be advisable for developers. Some peculiarities of Android applications discourage developers from performing automated testing. Among them, we recognize fragility, i.e. test classes failing because of modifications in the GUI only, without the application functionalities being modified. The aim of this study is to provide a preliminary characterization of the fragility issue for Android apps, identifying some of its causes and estimating its frequency among Android open-source projects. We defined a set of metrics to quantify the amount of fragility of any testing suite, and measured them automatically for a set of repositories hosted on GitHub. We found that, for projects featuring GUI tests, the incidence of fragility is around 10% for test classes, and around 5% for test methods. This means that a significant effort has to be put by developers in fixing their test suites because of the occurrence of fragilities.
Evaluation of organic tilapia culture in periphyton-based ponds

The introduction of hard surfaces in the water column to induce the growth of biofilms and peri- phyton on these surfaces is a method used to increase natural productivity of the water body and food for cultured aquatic organisms. In periphyton-based systems in Africa and Asia, substrate introduction and consequent periphyton development positively affected water quality and pro- duction of the target species. In Israel, this technology is being evaluated in the culture of organ- ically produced tilapia. Among other restrictions imposed by organic standards, fish stocking densities must be low and only organic feeds and manures must be supplied. Organic pelleted feeds cost twice as much as regular aquaculture feeds. Since feed constitutes the major pro- duction expense, economic viability is hampered by using costly organic feeds. An experiment was performed at the Dor Aquaculture Station to explore methods of improving natural food pro- duction for tilapia and reducing added feeds. Submerged plastic surfaces equivalent to 40% of the pond surface area were immersed in polyculture ponds containing 85% hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus x O. aureus), together with a reduction of 40% of the amount of pelleted feed. The treatment improved nitrification and saved 40% of the feed costs, with only a 10% reduction in the tilapia growth rate and yield. These results indicate that periphyton-based aqua- culture is an appropriate technology for reducing production costs and allowing economically viable organic tilapia production.
Success factors on joint venture projects for Indigenuous bumiputera contractors in Malaysia

The survey found a consensus of opinion which identifies seven (7) factors of success and eight (8) factors of failure of Joint venture through questionnaires survey to the 100 of indigenious Bumiputera Contractors Class ‘A’ which is locally incorporated and registered by the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board. Success factors such as agreement of contract terms, commitment, management control, inter-partner trust, cooperation, financial stability, criteria partner selection, profit, equity control, mutual understanding, partner’s experience and cultural understanding were considered critical and were significant from this research. The findings of this research significantly enhance and build upon existing levels of knowledge and understanding in knowledge-based management practices and organisational culture which influences project-based joint venture within the construction industry. When applied to a JV project in Malaysia will actively contribute to a profitable conclusion for one or more of the parties involved. These are considered to be the ‘Critical Factors Affecting JV’ projects in Malaysia. The result of this study is expected to provide useful guidelines for forming and implement efficient, effective joint venture in Malaysia and in other similar strategic alliance and to improve these venture prospects for success.
Spatial selectivity and demographic impact of recent German immigrants in the Swiss regions

The paper addresses the topic of determinants in German immigrants’ regional location choice and its resulting demographic impact in Switzerland, in the context of freedom of movement within the EU/EFTA countries. Our analyses relied on the statistics of the foreign resident population. They covered the period from June 2002 to December 2009. German immigrants’ characteristics were compared among the sixteen labour market regions of the country. The analyses confirmed current literature findings regarding the importance of migrant networks, regional attractiveness and geographical as well as cultural and linguistic proximity with the home country in the location choice. According to the “type of migrant” considered, these factors interacted however differently. Moreover, unemployment within Switzerland did not constitute a significant determinant of German immigration regarding their location choice. However, depending on the regional economic structure, different types of migrants were attracted, who presented varying dispositions to stay and settle down in Switzerland. Therefore, the demographic impact on the German as well as on the total population varied considerably between labour regions. The German-speaking and borderland regions accounted for up to twice as many German permanent residents in 2009 compared to 2002. Due to this increase, the regions encountered an important demographic growth. In Basel, Bern, St. Gallen or Chur, the increase of the German population was even higher than the growth of the rest of the permanent resident population. Our paper demonstrates the importance of considering different regions and types of migrants when trying to understand immigration and its impacts in a country like Switzerland. For various reasons, such as the linguistic diversity, the variety of economic structures and occupational activities as well as the regions’ positions on the center-periphery scale, analyses at the national level remain insufficient. Switzerland, Germans immigration, location choice, labour market regions, population growth, migrant networks, types of migrants Spatial Selectivity and Demographic Impact of Recent German Immigrants in the Swiss Regions
MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTIC OF SOCIAL NETWORK APPLICATION WITH MOBILE BASED MEMORY DATABASE AND DYNAMIC QUERYING

Social network applications are flattering progressively more familiar on mobile network. A mobile presence application is an imperative constituent of a social network application because it manages each mobile user’s occurrence information, such as the current standing (online/offline), GPS locality and network address, and also updates the user’s network friends with the information frequently. If updates occur habitually, the enormous number of messages distributed by servers may lead to a scalability problem in a large-scale mobile presence service. By avoiding the problem, we put forward efficient and scalable server structural design, called PresenceCloud; this enables mobile presence services to support large-scale social network applications. When a mobile user comes under a network, Presence Cloud searches for the presence of his/her friends and notifies them of his/her advent. Presence Cloud organizes quorum-based server-toserver architecture to improve searching performance. A directed search algorithm and a one-hop caching strategy to accomplish small constant search latency. We are going to analyze the performance of Presence Cloud in terms of the search cost and search satisfaction level. The search cost is depending on the total number of messages leaved by the presence server when a user arrives; and search satisfaction level is depending on the time takes to search for the arriving user’s friend list. The results of simulations exhibit that Presence Cloud achieves performance gains in the search cost without compromising search satisfaction.
Correlation between Tax Holidays and Earnings Management: An Empirical Study

ABSTRACT This study investigates tax avoidance activities among tax-exempt Malaysian companies. Pioneer status companies enjoy up to 100 percent tax exemption on their statutory income for promoting certain activities or producing certain products. In this context, we explore the tendency of companies to manage earnings by shifting income through certain periods and thereby minimizing tax liabilities. Following the literature, discretionary current accruals are used as proxy for earnings management. A control sample is introduced to identify abnormal accruals induced by the pioneer status of companies. Multiple regression analysis indicates that companies manage their earnings to minimize their tax burden. Specifically, pioneer status companies in Malaysia accelerate revenues to the year prior to the expiration of their tax exemptions to reduce tax liabilities in subsequent years. ABSTRAK Kajian ini menyiasat aktiviti pengelakan cukai dalam kalangan syarikat Malaysia yang dikecualikan cukai. Syarikat berstatus perintis menikmati pengecualian cukai sehingga 100 peratus ke atas pendapatan berkanun mereka jika menjalankan aktiviti atau mengeluarkan produk yang digalakkan. Dalam konteks ini, kajian ini meneroka kecenderungan syarikat untuk mengurus perolehan dengan mengalihkan pendapatan mereka melalui tempoh tertentu dan dengan itu mengurangkan liabiliti cukai. Berdasarkan hasil kajian terdahulu, akruan semasa bolehpilih telah digunakan sebagai proksi bagi pengurusan perolehan. Satu sampel kawalan juga telah diperkenalkan untuk mengenal pasti akruan yang tidak normal disebabkan oleh taraf perintis. Keputusan analisis regresi berganda menunjukkan bahawa syarikat menguruskan perolehan untuk mengurangkan beban cukai mereka. Secara khususnya, syarikat-syarikat taraf perintis di Malaysia mempercepatkan keuntungan tahun sebelum habis tempoh taraf perintis bagi mengurangkan liabiliti cukai mereka dalam tempoh pasca perintis.
Performance of basil powder as insecticide against maize weevil, Sitopillus zeamais (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky continue to cause considerable damage to maize grain in most stores in Africa. A study was carried out to determine effectiveness of Ocimum basilicum plant part powders of leaf, bark and combined effect of the two (1:1). The results indicated that basil leaf powder repelled S. zeamais the furthest distance (6.6cm) in comparison of bark (4.2cm) and admix of the two (5.5cm) within the first 2-hour exposure period. Prolonging exposure duration to 96 hoursr led to reduction of repelence distance to 3.2cm for basil leaf and 2.0 and 2.6cm for leaf and the admix (1:1) of the two respectively. Basil plant effective powder lethal dose (LD99) for leaf, bark and the admix (1:1) was achieved in 1.84, 1.83 and 2.25g powder amounts respectively. Plant powder shelf-life was determined to be a maximum of 2-weeks causing 40≥80% mortality of S. zeamais. These findings show that basil powders are only for a short duration as protectants against S. zeamais.
Deep Xi as a Front-End for Robust Automatic Speech Recognition

Currently, deep learning approaches to speech enhancement are most commonly used as front-ends for robust automatic speech recognition (ASR). A recently proposed deep learning approach to a priori SNR estimation, called Deep Xi, was able to produce enhanced speech at a higher quality and intelligibility than recent deep learning approaches to speech enhancement. Motivated by this, we investigate Deep Xi as a front-end for robust ASR. Deep Xi is evaluated using real-world non-stationary and coloured noise sources at multiple SNR levels. Our experimental investigation shows that Deep Xi as a frontend is able to produce a lower word error rate than recent deep learning approaches to speech enhancement. The results presented in this work show that Deep Xi is a viable front-end, and is able to significantly increase the robustness of an ASR system.Availability: Deep Xi is available at https://github.com/anicolson/DeepXi.
Movement Behaviour and Resource Tracking in the Pine Weevil Hylobius abietis

The pine weevil Hylobius abietis (L.) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) is, economically, the most important forest pest over large areas of Europe. The adults feed on the stem bark of newly planted conifer seedlings, causing severe damage and mortality. The aim of this thesis was to obtain knowledge about behaviours of the pine weevil associated with its feeding, which may be of use in designing measures to protect seedlings. A field experiment showed that the pine weevils use both olfaction and vision to find conifer seedlings. Their response to the combination of odour and visual stimuli were additive. Visual stimuli were at least as important as odour in finding an undamaged conifer seedling. Soil scarification, which usually exposes mineral soil, is widely used in Scandinavian forest regeneration. In a field experiment, half as many seedlings on mineral soil were attacked by weevils as on undisturbed humus. However, somewhat more weevils approached seedlings surrounded by mineral soil than by humus. It is concluded that the surrounding soil type strongly influences whether a pine weevil decides to feed on a seedling, and that this decision is taken in close proximity to the seedling. Another field experiment showed that feeding was less common on mounds of sand than on flat sand surfaces, but that there was more feeding in sandy pits. This effect of sandy slopes is attributed to the observed difficulty for the weevils to climb these slopes. Many insects spend a large proportion of their life inactive, hiding in shelters. The presence of shelters may, therefore, influence where insects feed. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that the pine weevils were highly attracted to shelters both above and below ground. Visual stimuli were used for orientation towards shelters. Visual stimuli also increased the probability of an individual remaining for a long period in a shelter. The presence of wind increased the weevils’ propensity to use shelters both above and below ground. The results of this thesis highlight the importance of planting seedlings in mineral soil, preferably on mounds, and of avoiding planting locations where the weevils can use above or below ground shelters in the vicinity of seedlings.
Identifying a Slums' Degree of Deprivation from VHR Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks

In the cities of the Global South, slum settlements are growing in size and number, but their locations and characteristics are often missing in official statistics and maps. Although several studies have focused on detecting slums from satellite images, only a few captured their variations. This study addresses this gap using an integrated approach that can identify a slums’ degree of deprivation in terms of socio-economic variability in Bangalore, India using image features derived from very high resolution (VHR) satellite images. To characterize deprivation, we use multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and quantify deprivation with a data-driven index of multiple deprivation (DIMD). We take advantage of spatial features learned by a convolutional neural network (CNN) from VHR satellite images to predict the DIMD. To deal with a small training dataset of only 121 samples with known DIMD values, insufficient to train a deep CNN, we conduct a two-step transfer learning approach using 1461 delineated slum boundaries as follows. First, a CNN is trained using these samples to classify slums and formal areas. The trained network is then fine-tuned using the 121 samples to directly predict the DIMD. The best prediction is obtained by using an ensemble non-linear regression model, combining the results of the CNN and models based on hand-crafted and geographic information system (GIS) features, with R2 of 0.75. Our findings show that using the proposed two-step transfer learning approach, a deep CNN can be trained with a limited number of samples to predict the slums’ degree of deprivation. This demonstrates that the CNN-based approach can capture variations of deprivation in VHR images, providing a comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic situation of slums in Bangalore.
PROCESSIBILITY OF WASTE TO WEALTH GREEN POLYMER WITH POLYETHYLENE BY INJECTION MOULDING

Green polymer from waste cooking oils is successfully converted into high functionality of hydroxylated green monomer. The green monomer was used crosslinker and known as Green Polymer. Green Polymer is compounded with High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE). These wastes to wealth green polymer are successfully compounded with HDPE and LDPE by melt-mixing used an injection molding machine known as Pro-GreP. The effect of different ratio of compounding materials on the mechanical properties of Pro-GreP was studied by tensile test. Morphological of surface fracture with magnification 100x on Pro-GreP is revealed the homogenous characteristic with high compatibility properties. Finally, the presence of biopolymer provide biodegradable properties, but it also improves the mechanical properties. It can be showed that the tensile strength and tensile strain is decreased than the neat thermoplastic and they were found to decreased with the increasing of biopolymer compounds. However, LDPE are lower in tensile strength and tensile strain than HDPE.
Absolute neighborhood retracts and local connectedness in arbitrary metric spaces

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An OBTG (Organizational-Business-Technological-Governmental) E-business Adoption Model for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Despite the increased number of SME adopters of information communication technology for their business, there are limited studies that address the factors affecting SME’s adoption decision. Especially, a theoretical perspective on E-business adoption model for SMEs is required to understand better the SME’s complex adoption decision and, in turn, to provide a realistic means of guidelines for other SME’s for their adoption decision. Thus, the goal of this study is three-fold: i) to review key literature of the factors affecting SME’s adoption decision and then summarize major determinants of key dimensions with definition and literature sources, ii) to propose a theoretical framework of e-business adoption, and iii) to provide an insightful discussion on the driving factors and barriers of the e-business adoption decision by SMEs.
Concerns and Challenges of Cloud Platforms for Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics traditionally concerns applying computational approaches for the management and the exploitation of large volumes of biomedical data that continues to expand in size and in distribution. Although the application of cloud computing in biomedical areas is still preliminary, an increasing number of biomedical applications rely on the Cloud for processing large datasets. This chapter investigates the extent to which cloud technology offers a viable platform for developing and deploying applications that support users in searching and integrating information offered by bioinformatics resources. The chapter outlines the basic features that such computing applications should exhibit and the challenging issues they deal with. The architecture and the functionality of the cloud-based environments are presented to stress how cloud platforms could offer added-value service components and flexibility that make their adoption attractive for bioinformatics.
First-Order Statistics Prediction for a Propagation Channel of Arbitrary Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbits

A method enabling the prediction of the firstorder statistics of received signal levels for arbitrary nongeostationary satellite orbits based on a reference dataset for a wide range of elevation angles is introduced for azimuth-independent scenarios and high elevation angles. The method is further validated by experimental data obtained during measurements with a remote-controlled airship utilized as a pseudo-satellite. These experimental trials were performed at a frequency of 2.0 GHz at two scenarios at Stromovka Park in Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2013 and March 2014. An excellent match between the predicted and actual cumulative distribution functions of received signal levels was identified for both scenarios.
Length-weight relationship, condition factor and feeding habits of Synodontis schall (Bloch and Schneider, 1801) In river Benue at Makurdi, Nigeria

The Length-Weight relationship (LWR), condition factor and feeding habits of Synodontis schall (Bloch and Schneider, 1801) were studied over a 24-month period from January, 2009 to December, 2010. A total number of 635 specimens comprising of 329 males and 306 females with the size range of 6.1-30.40 cm and the mean of 12.04 ± 0.11cm were studied. The weight ranged from 53.0-864g with the mean of 57.71 ± 2.26g. The LWRs for the females, males and combined sexes had r-values of 0.9333, 0.9308 and 0.9411respectively. The mean condition factor K was 2.874, 2.838 and 2.855; regression coefficient b 2.5290, 2.4977 and 2.6749 for the females, males and combined sexes respectively. Out of the 635 stomachs examined for food items, 153 (24.09%) were empty while 482 (75.91%) contained wide range and varying quantities of food items indicating that S.schall in River Benue is Omnivorous.
Weighted delay-and-sum beamforming guided by visual tracking for human-robot interaction

This paper describes the integration of weighted delay-and-sum beamforming with speech source localization using image processing and robot head visual servoing for source tracking. We take into consideration the fact that the directivity gain provided by the beamforming depends on the angular distance between its main lobe and the main response axis of the microphone array. A visual servoing scheme is used to reduce the angular distance between the center of the video frame of a robot camera and a target object. Additionally, the beamforming strategy presented combines two information sources: the direction of the target object obtained with image processing and the audio signals provided by a microphone array. These sources of information were integrated by making use of a weighted delay-and-sum beamforming method. Experiments were carried out with a real mobile robotic testbed built with a PR2 robot. Static and dynamic robot head as well as the use of one and two external noise sources were considered. The results presented here show that the appropriate integration of visual source tracking with visual servoing and a beamforming method can lead to a reduction in WER as high as 34% compared to beamforming alone.
Conformable optical coatings with epsilon near zero response

We design and experimentally demonstrate an optical free-standing and low-loss metamaterial showing a vanishing effective permittivity. The material consists of a stack of subwavelength polymer and silver nanolayers. We show that the material can withstand large mechanical deformations preserving its own optical properties with high reversibility and repeatability and that it can conform to targets with irregular surfaces, with a radius of curvature of the order of few microns. This material can be used to create an artificial metamaterial skin for nonflat materials and devices that cannot be processed directly for practical applications in field enhancement, wavefront shaping, all-optical modulation, and optical sensing.