Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
“... Foda!”: a bossa das palavras, música e imagens de Caetano Veloso

Study on the text-music-image trinomial in the video clip A Bossa Nova e foda [“Bossa nova is fucking great! ”] by Brazilian composer, poet and performer Caetano Veloso, directed by video makers Fernando Young and Tonho Quinta-feira (VELOSO, BANDA CE, YOUNG e QUINTA-FEIRA, 2013). It departs from multidisciplinary analytical references: [1] the interaction among textual, sound and imagistic languages in the comprehension and communication of signifieds (PEIRCE, 2005; SANTAELLA, 2005; PLAZA, 2003); [2] the concepts of Chunking, Activation Contour, Cinematics, Dynamics and Synch Points in dance movements (HAGA, 2008, adapted to music video analysis by BOREM, 2106; BOREM, 2014); [3] the recognition of emotions in body language, especially in facial expressions (basic emotions, EKMAN and FRIESEN, 2003). Results show that the intricate codification in the lyrics reveals great correspondence with both sounds and the video clip recording. Moreover, the integration among these three communication strata – words, sounds and images – shapes a sophisticated and complex mosaic that yields great structural unity at local, medium and global levels, allowing immediate reading and fruition as well as a more in depth analytical understanding.
Plenary lecture 1: using information technology to support knowledge conversion process

In documentation process is well known that first impulse is to try to find information on the web. Information literacy courses modules teach the strategies and methods to find information on the web. The purpose of this presentation is to investigate information quality assessment of information retrieved on the web. This paper reports on a usage study that was conducted in the autumn of 2010. The study included a survey of master students of Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Department behavior regarding information quality assessment on the web. These four components, consider ting core category were analyzed: credibility of content, credibility of site, predictive relevance and veracity assessment. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to identify all attributes of quality assessment.
BlurTags: Spatially Varying PSF Estimation with Out-of-Focus Patterns

Current research is targeting the estimation and correction of lens imperfections. often modeled as a set of spatially varying point spread functions (PSFs). One way to measure these PSFs is their calibration with checkerboard patterns. Previous work, however, does not fully exploit all benefits of using a checkerboard. In particular, we show in this paper that the pose of the checkerboard with respect to the camera can be exploited to yield information on the circle of confusion, and thus the image blur of an ideal camera. By removing this expected blur, we can estimate residual PSFs that are due to the deviation of the optical system from a thin-lens model. The residual PSFs can then be used to sharpen images at comparable lens settings. Practical side effects of our method are the design of a self-identifying pattern that can be robustly detected even in the case of image blur, and a corresponding algorithm for its detection.
Multi-Agent Cooperation using Trickle-Down Utility

Trickle-Down Utility, an original method for reward distribution in a multiagent reinforcement learning system is investigated. This method leaves it to the agents to find the optimal reward distribution between all the agents in the system, where agents are able to pass on a portion of any reward received to other agents in order to encourage mutually beneficial cooperative behavior. This is done by establishing benevolence levels between agents which dictate the amount of reward an agent will give to another, and this level is capable of being changed dynamically by the agent in hopes of selfishly optimizing its individual reward. This system is useful in designing artificially intelligent computer game agents that will interact with other agents and human players in a realistic manner to give the illusion of emulating a real world society of agents, as it is done using the Torque Game Engine in this research. It is found that selfish agents can perform better and receive more individual long-term reward by sharing immediate reward with other agents. Homogeneous agents benefit from being fully benevolent, sharing reward equally. Whereas, heterogeneous agents might benefit most from being partially benevolent, though system performance may suffer as a result.
Proceedings of the sixth international symposium on Automated analysis-driven debugging

Since the first AADEBUG meeting in Sweden in 1993, AADEBUG continues to be an important gathering of researchers and practitioners in the field of automated and analysis-driven program debugging and testing. As the size of program source codes and the complexity of execution behaviors increase, the importance of debugging and testing, and the need for automation and dynamic analysis in these tools continue to grow. In light of this, it is no coincidence that AADEBUG 2005 is the first AADEBUG sponsored by ACM. It is also the first AADEBUG event to be held in the US.We received 30 submissions in response to the call for paper. Each of these submissions was read by at least three members of the program committee. Of these submissions, 11 were accepted as regular papers, 2 were accepted as full demos, and 7 were accepted as short papers. Of the accepted papers and demos, 11 were (co-)authored by people in the US, and 10 were (co-)authored by people in Europe and Australia. Overall we think the program is of a very high quality. We hope AADEBUG will continue to grow and establish itself as a premier technical forum of researchers and practitioners in the field of not only automated and analysis driven debugging and testing but also in the field of general program debugging and testing.
Multi-Goal Path Optimization for Robotic Systems with Redundancy based on the Traveling Salesman Problem with Neighborhoods

Finding an optimal path for a redundant robotic system to visit a sequence of several goal locations is a complex optimization problem and poses two main technical challenges. Because of the redundancy in the system, the robot can assume an infinite number of goal configurations to reach each goal location. Therefore, not only an optimal sequence of the goals has to be defined, but also, for each goal, an optimal configuration has to be chosen among infinite possibilities. Second, the actual cost for the system to move from one configuration to the next depends on many factors, such as obstacle avoidance or energy consumption, and can be calculated only through the employment of specific path planning techniques. We first address the optimization problem of finding an optimal sequence of optimal configurations, while assuming the cost function to be analytically defined. This problem is modeled as a Traveling Salesman Problem with Neighborhoods (TSPN), which extends the well-known TSP to more general cases where each vertex (goal configuration) is allowed to move in a given region (neighborhood). In the literature, heuristic solution approaches are available for TSPN instances with only circular or spherical neighborhoods. For more general neighborhood topologies, but limited to the Euclidean norm as edge weighting function, approximation algorithms have also been proposed. We present three novel approaches: (1) a global Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP) optimizer and (2) a convex MINLP optimizer are modified to solve to optimality TSPN instances with up to 20 convex neighborhoods, and (3) a hybrid random-key Genetic Algorithm (GA) is developed to address more general problems with a larger number of possibly non-convex neighborhoods and with different types of edge weighting functions. Benchmark tests show that the GA is able to find the same optimal tour calculated by the MINLP solvers while drastically reducing the computational cost, and it always improves the best known solutions for available test problems with up to 1,000 neighborhoods. Second, we integrate the GA with a probabilistic path planning technique to apply the proposed procedure to two practical applications. We minimize the time currently required by an industrial vision inspection system to complete a multi-goal cycle, where the neighborhoods are defined using piecewise cubic splines in a seven-dimensional configuration space. Afterwards, we optimize the flight path and the energy consumption of a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on an urban survey mission. The specifications of the camera installed on the UAV are used here to define the neighborhoods as three-dimensional polyhedra. Cum his versare, qui te meliorem facturi sunt. Illos admitte, quos tu potes facere meliores. Mutuo ista fiunt, et homines, dum docent, discunt. Seneca, Epistulae Morales, VII, 8
Initial full-time classroom teaching experiences for interns and student teachers: factors contributing to their mathematics teaching development

Initial Full-time Classroom Experiences for Interns and Student Teachers: Factors Contributing to Their Mathematics Teaching Development. (May 2008) Diana Lynne Piccolo, B.S., Texas A&M University; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Robert M. Capraro In the Teaching Principle (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000), it explained that development and utilization of pedagogical content knowledge required teachers to continually increase their knowledges of mathematics content and pedagogy. This study researched the amalgamation of multi-faceted factors and inter-relatedness of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), content knowledge for teaching mathematics (CKTM), and mentoring support perceptions throughout elementary and middle level student teachers’ and interns’ initial full-time teaching experiences. In the first article 13 elementary and seven middle grade student teachers’ are examined based on differences between pedagogical content knowledge and content knowledge for teaching mathematics. Standardized difference scores were calculated and compared using multivariate contrasts on certification level. Results showed statistically significant differences (p < .01) on all three CKTM domains but no statistically significant differences were found on any of the five Classroom Observation
Simulated 3D Painting

This technical report looks at the motivation for simulating painting directly on 3D objects, and investigates the main issues faced by such systems. These issues include the provision of natural user interfaces, the reproduction of realistic brush effects and the surface parameterization for texture mapping so that the results of the painting can be stored on texture maps. The technical report further investigates the issues involved in using a haptic interface for simulating 3D painting, and the issues in surface parameterization for texture mapping with application to 3D painting. A survey of some work related to 3D painting, haptic rendering and surface parameterization for texture mapping is presented.
Partitioning for fpga-based reconfigurable computers

This thesis addresses the issues involved in partitioning and synthesis for Reconfigurable Computers (RC). Typically, RCs host multiple-FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and distributed-memories that are connected through a programmable interconnection network. State-of-the-art CAD environments for reconfigurable computers are far from utilizing the underlying hardware, storage, and interconnect resources to their full potential. In order to efficiently use an RC, there is need for effective specification, implementation and cost-evaluation models. In addition, a design may be implemented in several different ways (design space), depending on the amount of resources available. Accurate cost estimation and design space exploration techniques are required to guide the partitioner toward high-quality designs. Partitioning a design for an RC involves binding the computational elements of the design to the FPGAs, assigning physical memory space to the logical storage elements in the design, and implementing the necessary inter-FPGA communication and synchronization. This must be done without violating any implicit constraints such as FPGA area and memory size, while at the same time meeting the optimization goals. The thesis investigates partitioning and synthesis of designs specified in four different specification models that are progressively developed in a bottom-up fashion. First a data-flow graph model is considered. We then introduce control constructs and define a block graph specification model. In order to accommodate parallel control threads a task graph model is built around the block graph. Finally, we develop a unified specification model that succinctly captures the concurrency, synchronization, storage, and communication semantics of the design. For each specification model, we present a detailed partitioning and synthesis methodology, targeting an abstract RC model. In each case, we present the implementation model of the partitioned design, cost estimation techniques, and the design space exploration mechanism. A summary of advantages and disadvantages of each RC partitioning approach is discussed in detail. One of the challenging problems in RC partitioning is the development of an architecture-independent partitioner. The presence of complex interconnection patterns between the FPGAs and memories makes this process difficult. We call the combined problem of FPGA pin-assignment and inter-FPGA routing interconnection synthesis. An architecture independent interconnection synthesis technique based on Boolean satisfiability is presented. In addition, we also implement a board-specific interconnection router for the Wildforce reconfigurable computer. We tightly integrate the various interconnection synthesis modules, and other cost estimators with the partitioner and develop a partitioning tool for the Wildforce board. Several experiments were conducted to analyze the performance and feasibility of the partitioning environment. Results show that effectiveness of the partitioner in handling multiple RC constraints and optimization goals.
Proceedings of the second ACM international workshop on Wireless network testbeds, experimental evaluation and characterization

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the Second ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation and CHaracterization (WiNTECH '07), held in conjunction with ACM MobiCom 2007 conference in Montreal, QC, Canada. WiNTECH was created in response to the growing recognition in the mobile, wireless networking research community of the importance of experimental evaluation of wireless network protocols/applications using realistic testbeds, as well as the characterization of real-world aspects of wireless networking using traces from operational wireless networks. WiNTECH'07 follows the success of the previous year's WiNTECH'06, held in conjunction with MobiCom 2006. We hope this workshop will continue to be an annual forum focusing on research issues of interest to the experimental wireless networking community. We received a total of 19 regular paper submissions from around the world and 8 submissions for posters and demos. The program you are holding is the result of a rigorous review process involving the program chairs, technical program committee members, and external reviewers (names listed later in this proceeding). Each paper had at least 4 independent reviews from TPC members. Based on these reviews, we selected 11 regular papers, 3 posters and 3 demonstrations. The accepted papers cover a wide range of topics including considerations of the physical layer, hybrid wireless evaluation platforms, experimental studies, wireless testbeds and tools, spanning diverse types of wireless networks such as mesh and sensor networks. In addition, the workshop will feature a keynote speech by Eric Blossom, founder and maintainer of the GNU-Radio project. The talk is titled "GNU Radio as an experimental platform: Current capabilities and future directions".
Explicit N-Best Formant Features for Segment-Based Speech Recognition

This thesis investigates the use of explicit speech knowledge in computer speech-recognition. Speech knowledge is generally expressed in terms of acoustic events occurring near phonetic segment boundaries and the location, shape and dynamics of formant trajectories. This suggests the creation of a segment -based recognition framework and the use of explicit formant features in a flexible integration scheme to ultimately improve the phonetic recognition accuracy. We describe a segmentation algorithm that produces a lattice of segment hypotheses, each with an associated broad phonetic identity. We build a single phonetic segment classifies along with separate vowel/semi-vowel and consonant classifiers based on traditional cepstral features paying attention to reducing the mismatch between training and deployment conditions. We develop a robust, N-best formant tracking algorithm that generates a list of up to N consistent formant interpretations. The use of the N-best feature paradigm is based on the observation that there are generally only a handful of reasonable interpretation of the given formant information. Instead of finding the best formant interpretation through the use of a global cost function that includes energy maximization and smoothness terms, we delay the selection of the correct formant interpretation until after the segment classification and phonetic search. We use the formant interpretations to extract features for a vowel/semi-vowel segment classifier. The formant trajectories are approximated either by three line segments or by a third-order Legendre polynomial. We show that together with formant amplitude, formant bandwidth, pitch, and segment durations we can produce a classifier of comparable performance to a cepstral-based classifier. We further demonstrate the potential of the N-best classification paradigm and show that a combination of formant and cepstral features further improves the classification a accuracy. Finally, the validity of the entire approach of using a segment-based approach, separate classifiers for vowels and consonants, and explicit formant features is verified by phonetic recognition experiments.
Contribution à l'intégration de la fiabilité dans le flot de conception des circuits intégrés fondée sur l'utilisation d'un langage de description comportementale VHDL-AMS

L'evolution croissante des technologies CMOS entraine le renouvellement des techniques de prediction de la fiabilite des circuits. Les methodes statistiques ne suffisent plus pour evaluer la fiabilite des circuits a forte integration. De nouvelles techniques de fiabilite doivent etre definies et mises en place afin de repondre rapidement aux contraintes d'analyse de la fiabilite. Une etude de la fiabilite des circuits CMOS doit etre prise en charge en amont de la production. Pour cela, il est necessaire de tenir compte de la dependance des dispositifs elementaires aux mecanismes de degradation au cours du flot de conception des circuits. A partir d'un modele electrique de degradation du transistor MOSFET, fonde sur le langage de description comportementale VHDL-AMS, il est demontre qu'une prediction de la fiabilite des circuits CMOS est realisable a partir de simulations electriques. Une validation est realisee a partir d'un circuit CMOS de demonstration : l'amplification operationnel de transconductance. L'interet de cette methode est sa reproductibilite pour la construction de modeles VHDL-AMS de degradation de circuits CMOS d'abstraction superieure dans le but d'analyser la fiabilite des systemes.
Increasing the Effectiveness of Automated Testing

This paper describes techniques that can be used to reduce the execution time and maintenance cost of the automated regression test suites that are used to drive development in eXtreme Programming (XP). They are important because developers are more likely to write and run test, thus getting valuable feedback, if testing is as painless as possible. Test execution time can be reduced by using an in-memory database to eliminate the latency introduced by accessing a disk-based database and/or file system. This paper also describes how the effort of test development can be reduced through the use of a framework that simplifies setup and teardown of text fixtures.
The Rational Tree Machine

The Rational Tree Machine (RTM) is a type of graph reduction architecture, for the processing of logic programs, currently under development at Boeing's High Technology Center. The architecture is composed of three types of functional modules: tree memory, automata constructor, and automata simulation modules. A previous paper described the overall architecture and its functionality. This paper will concentrate on a detailed description of the automata constructor.
Even higher-order functions for parsing or Why would anyone ever want to use a sixth-order function?

A higher-order function is a function that takes another function as an argument or returns another function as a result. More specifically, a first-order function takes and returns base types, such as integers or lists. A kth-order function takes or returns a function of order k−1. Currying often artificially inflates the order of a function, so we will ignore all inessential currying. (Whether a particular instance of currying is essential or inessential is open to debate, but we expect that our choices will be uncontroversial.) In addition, when calculating the order of a polymorphic function, we instantiate all type variables with base types. Under these assumptions, most common higher-order functions, such as map and foldr, are second-order, so beginning functional programmers often wonder: What good are functions of order three or above? We illustrate functions of up to sixth-order with examples taken from a combinator parsing library. Combinator parsing is a classic application of functional programming, dating back to at least Burge (1975). Most combinator parsers are based on Wadler's list-of-successes technique (Wadler, 1985). Hutton (1992) popularized the idea in his excellent tutorial Higher-Order Functions for Parsing. In spite of the title, however, he considered only functions of up to order three.