Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bi-level image compression technique using neural networks

This study presents the utilisation of neural-network for bi-level image compression. In the proposed lossy compression method, the locations of pixels of image are applied to the inputs of a multilayer perceptron neural-network. The output of the network denotes the pixel intensity (0 or 1). The final weights of the trained neural-network are quantised, represented by a few bits, Huffman encoded and then stored as the compressed image. In the decompression phase, by applying the pixels locations to the trained network, the output determines the intensity. The results of experiments on more than 4000 different images indicate higher compression rate of the proposed structure compared with the commonly used methods such as Comite Consultatif International Telephonique of Telegraphique (CCITT) G4 and joint bi-level image experts group (JBIG2) standards. Moreover, quantisation issue in neural-network deployment is addressed and a solution is proposed. Further, an adaptive technique based on binary image characteristics is applied to achieve more compression rates.
Use of psychological data in building ASA models

Many kinds of events in the environment give rise to acoustic pressure waves. Typically, the sounds are overlapped in time and in frequency. Yet, despite this mixing, our auditory systems can recover separate descriptions for each separate sound-producing event, a capacity called auditory scene analysis (ASA). The computational modelling of ASA has easier and harder parts. The easiest part is building mechanisms to extract the cues from the incoming data. It is a good deal harder to figure out how to make them interact properly to converge on a good grouping of the sense data, because this involves choosing an architecture for the system. The author propose to lay out a set of requirements that, from his perspective as a psychologist, should govern this choice of architecture.
A 3.1 to 5 GHz CMOS Transceiver for DS‐UWB Systems

This paper presents a direct‐conversion CMOS transceiver for fully digital DS‐UWB systems. The transceiver includes all of the radio building blocks, such as a T/R switch, a low noise amplifier, an I/Q demodulator, a low pass filter, a variable gain amplifier as a receiver, the same receiver blocks as a transmitter including a phase‐locked loop (PLL), and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). A single‐ended‐to‐differential converter is implemented in the down‐conversion mixer and a differential‐to‐single‐ended converter is implemented in the driver amplifier stage. The chip is fabricated on a 9.0 mm2 die using standard 0.18 µm CMOS technology and a 64‐pin MicroLead Frame package. Experimental results show the total current consumption is 143 mA including the PLL and VCO. The chip has a 3.5 dB receiver gain flatness at the 660 MHz bandwidth. These results indicate that the architecture and circuits are adaptable to the implementation of a wideband, low‐power, and high‐speed wireless personal area network.
TDMA-based adaptive modulation with dynamic channel assignment (AMDCA) for high capacity multi-media microcellular systems

This paper proposes a time division multiple access (TDMA)-based adaptive modulation scheme with dynamic channel assignment (AMDCA) to realize a high capacity multi-media microcellular system under dynamically changing propagation path and traffic conditions. The proposed method measures the received carrier-to-noise plus interference power ratio (C/(N+I)) of each TDMA slot so as to search available slots as well as to find out the optimum modulation parameters for each slot. As a result, it can effectively combine the mitigating effect of spatially distributed electric field strength by slow adaptive modulation and of spatially and temporally distributed traffic by dynamic channel assignment (DCA). Computer simulation confirms that the proposed AMDCA system can achieve about 3 times higher system capacity than a conventional fixed channel assignment (FCA) using QPSK.
Optimizing area loss in flat glass cutting

This paper describes GGOAL, a genetic algorithm for the minimization of glass loss in cutting large sheets into several pieces. The algorithm takes into account several industrial constraints, stemming both from the glass cutting technology and from the requirement that the optimization must run in real-time, concurrently with the cutting operation. The algorithm delivers comparable or better results than optimization procedures embedded in comprehensive commercial software systems, and is now distributed with all flat glass cutting machines sold by Bottero SpA.
Intelligent Agents and Autonomous Cars : A Case Study

One of the found techniques in Artificial Intelligence is intelligent agent technology.The concept of Agents has become important both in Artificial Intelligence and in mainstream of Computer Science. Artificial Intelligence is defined as the branch of Computer Science that deals in developing intelligent agents and consequently, Intelligent Agent is defined as an automated agent that can replicate the functioning of human beings. It perceives its environment, analyses it, and takes actions that will maximize the probability of its success Intelligent agents continuously perform three functions: perception of dynamic conditions in the environment; reasoning to interpret perceptions, solve problems, draw inferences, and determine actions. In this paper, we begin with the basic terminologies related to intelligent agents, and then proceed towards the various environments that an agent may have to perceive. We discuss about the Multi Agent Systems then finally site the most extravagant intelligent agent i.e., Autonomous Cars with Google’s driverless car technology. Keywords— Agent, intelligent agent, agent environment, multi agent system, autonomous car, driverless car.
LinkedIn and Facebook in Belgium

This study investigates whether Belgian recruitment and selection (R&S) professionals use LinkedIn and Facebook during their R&S procedures and to what extent. A total of 398 and 353 respondents, respectively, from various sectors and from organizations of various sizes, responded to an online questionnaire concerning Facebook and LinkedIn. Descriptive analyses indicate that both the social network sites have become extra tools for recruiting applicants, to find additional information about them, and to decide who will be invited for an interview. Belgian R&S professionals do, however, use LinkedIn and Facebook in a different way, both for recruitment and for selection. Finally, it is shown that while R&S professionals claim profile pictures on Facebook do not provide signals on personality dimensions like emotional stability and agreeableness, they do tend to recognize signals of extraversion and maturity. The latter creates the risk that common selection biases occur even before the first interview.
The dynamic representation of AC drive systems by complex signal flow graphs

Induction motors represent nonlinear higher-order dynamic systems of considerable complexity. They are well amenable to a formal mathematical analysis. It has proved more difficult, however, to comprehend and penetrate in an imaginative way the principles of their operation under transient conditions. Complex graphic signal flow graphs are suited to visualize the dynamic performance of AC machines. They can assist to form an understanding of the internal dynamic processes of a machine and their interactions with external controls. <<ETX>>
Performing Languages: an example of integrating open practices in staff development for language teachers

In 2009 the Department of Languages at The Open University, UK, developed LORO (http://loro.open.ac.uk), a repository of Open Educational Resources for language teaching and learning aimed at language teaching professionals. Initially populated with over 300 hours of teaching resources for French, Spanish, German, Italian, Welsh, Chinese and English for Academic Purposes, LORO’s initial function was to provide an efficient and open way of accessing and sharing resources. Additionally, the integration of LORO into language teachers’ workflows is part of the department’s strategy for teachers’ professional development and a key enabler for increased transparency, collaboration, skills development, and pedagogical reflection and discussion, leading ultimately to the enhancement of the quality of teaching and learning. This case study describes how the vision of openness facilitated by LORO is being implemented at a practical level through the incorporation of open practices into teachers’ professional development activities. We look at the project Performing Languages (www.performinglanguages.eu), a Grundtvig Partnership project (part of the Lifelong Learning Programme) in which language teachers in the UK work with theatre associations in Spain, France and Italy. Besides the primary objective of exploring the role of drama in the language classroom as a tool for language and culture learning and intercultural communication, this project also intends to develop and publish most project resources (workshop activities, lesson plans, texts and video recordings, for example) as Open Educational Resources. The aim is to share the project experiences as widely as possible to maximise impact and ensure others can benefit from them. This case study looks at how the project has been designed so that collaborative writing, open sharing and peer review of the resources produced by participating language teachers are fully embedded in the project activities. We look at the strategies and tools that enable us to achieve these objectives in a distance context, and the resources that have been created and published by participants as a direct result of the project. Drawing on data from feedback questionnaires and a debriefing session with participants, we examine how teachers’ increased awareness of the benefits of sharing and collaboration has resulted in changes in practice, both in relation to openness and pedagogical approach.
A Survey of Tracking Technologies for Virtual Environments

Tracking for virtual environments is necessary to record the position and the orientation of real objects in physical space and to allow spatial consistency between real and virtual objects. This paper presents a top-down classification of tracking technologies aimed more specifically at head tracking, organized in accordance with their physical principles of operation. Six main principles were identified: time of flight (TOF), spatial scan, inertial sensing, mechanical linkages, phase-difference sensing, and direct-field sensing. We briefly describe each physical principle and present implementations of that principle. Advantages and limitations of these implementations are discussed and summarized in tabular form. A few hybrid technologies are then presented and general considerations of tracking technology are discussed.
Structural-Parameter-Based Jumping-Height-and-Distance Adjustment and Obstacle Sensing of a Bio-Inspired Jumping Robot

Jumping-height-and-distance (JHD) active adjustment capability is important for jumping robots to overcome different sizes of obstacle. This paper proposes a new structural-parameter-based JHD active adjustment approach for our previous jumping robot. First, the JHD adjustments, modifying the lengths of different legs of the robot, are modelled and simulated. Then, three mechanisms for leg-length adjustment are proposed and compared, and the screw-and-nut mechanism is selected. And for adjusting of different structural-parameters using this mechanism, the one with the best JHD adjusting performance and the lowest mechanical complexity is adopted. Thirdly, an obstacle-distance-and-height (ODH) detection method using only one infrared sensor is designed. Finally, the performances of the proposed methods are tested. Experimental results show that the jumping-height-and-distance adjustable ranges are 0.11 m and 0.96 m, respectively, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed JHD adjustment method.
Classification and clustering: Models, Software and applications

Really, in Excel 2007, you get much more because it now supports 1 048 576 rows and 16 384 columns. Such an Excel 2007 “Big Grid” spreadsheet is both the distinguished repository for data/distances and the perfect plotting board for multivariate graphics that can be composed in VBA-code (examples are dendrograms, plot-dendrograms, scatterplot matrices, density plots, principal components analysis plots,. . .), or can be obtained by “playing” with the properties of cells in cell-based graphics (pixel graphics) like the heat plot of a proximity matrix. Pairwise data clustering, and furthermore restricted in terms of the two simplest Gaussian model-based cluster analyses, will be considered in more detail here. That means, the usual estimation of expectation values of clusters is no more necessary. By using special randomized weights one can perform built-in validations of cluster analysis results by bootstrapping techniques [13].
Dynamique des interactions entre Dickeya dianthicola, Dickeya solani et leur hôte Solanum tuberosum

Chez la pomme de terre Solanum tuberosum, la jambe noire et la pourriture molle sont des maladies provoquees par des populations bacteriennes associant une ou plusieurs especes des genres Pectobacterium et Dickeya. Depuis plusieurs decennies en Europe, l’implication des Dickeya s’amplifie, notamment avec l’emergence recente de D. solani dans les annees 2000. Aucun moyen de lutte curatif n’est efficace contre ces phytopathogenes ; seules des approches prophylactiques sont mises en place par les filieres de production. Dans ce travail, l’analyse de la structure de populations pathogenes au sein de parcelles de pomme de terre du nord de la France montre que D. dianthicola et D. solani dominent en abondance relative les populations de Pectobacterium, tandis que D. dianthicola domine D. solani lorsque les deux populations coexistent. Dans une seconde partie, des populations artificielles de D. dianthicola et D. solani ont permis d’evaluer leur agressivite et leur competitivite en serre. Tandis que la population de D. dianthicola confirme sa plus forte agressivite et competitivite apres infection de plantes entiere de S. tuberosum, celle de D. solani s’avere plus agressive et competitive apres infection de jacinthes Hyacinthus orientalis, ainsi qu’en milieux de culture riche et minimum. L’analyse individuelle des isolats composant les populations artificielles de D. dianthicola et de D. solani montre que l’agressivite differente chez l’hote S. tuberosum est un trait distinctif de ces especes pathogenes ; ce qui renforce l’hypothese d’un transfert d’hote recent (plantes a bulbes vers plants de pomme terre) de D. solani. D’une maniere remarquable, dans les tissus infectes de S. tuberosum (tige et tubercules), les genes de virulence pelD et pelE sont plus fortement exprimes et d’une maniere plus heterogene chez les isolats de D. solani que ceux de D. dianthicola. Une analyse transcriptomique comparative confirme la variabilite de l’expression de fonctions de virulence entre 3 isolats de D. solani. L’ensemble de ce travail revele que D. solani est encore en phase d’adaptation a l’hote S. tuberosum avec une moindre competitivite contre D. dianthicola lors de co-infection mais a une expression des fonctions de virulence en condition de maceration plus importante que D. dianthicola. Ainsi, sous condition de selection de variations genetiques favorables a son installation sur l’hote S. tuberosum et a l’amelioration de sa competitivite contre D. dianthicola, D. solani represente un risque majeur a moyen terme pour la culture de pomme de terre.
Should a New Good Replace Existing Ones? A Network Approach

We study goods (or service) with network effect. Social network services are examples. An existing service has an advantage over new one because of the network effect. We study the condition that new goods (or service) replace the existing one, and show that the condition depends on the underlying network structures. For this purpose, we study a coordination game with network structure. If more than half of the players change their strategies, then new strategy beats the existing one in regular networks. On the other hand, if very small number of players with large degree changes their strategies, then the new strategy beats the existing one in scale-free networks.
Highway Lane Change Assistant

Increasing traffic on highways leads to more dangerous situations during lane changes. We propose a system which helps the driver avoiding some of these critical situations. The Highway Lane Change Assistant monitors the area behind and beside the own vehicle by vision and radar sensors. If a dangerous object is detected in the neighbouring lane, a warning is issued on a lane change. The system was tested by different drivers in different vehicles on German highways and showed reasonable, accepted warnings.
Cotxe intel·ligent de la Freescale Cup

La Freescale Cup es una competicio de cotxes autonoms en la qual els estudiants de diferents universitats, tots amb el mateix cotxe que proporciona Freescale, programen un algorisme de comportament que fa que aquest cotxe sigui capac de recorrer un circuit marcat per una linia negra sense cap tipus de comandament huma directe. En aquest article veurem com vam desenvolupar el treball per tal de programar el nostre propi algorisme de funcionament autonom per al cotxe que s'utilitza en aquesta competicio i com vam crear un programa per a comprovar que tots els components fisics del vehicle funcionen correctament aixi com una API per a facilitar una possible programacio d'altres algorismes en un futur. Per a realitzar aquestes tasques, vam recorrer a fonts externes per a obtenir les dades dels components fisics que disposavem aixi com fragments de codi per a fer funcionar cadascun d'aquests individualment i els vam sintetitzar en un codi unic que era capac de fer funcionar tots aquests a la vegada. Fet aixo, es va programar l'API per a facilitar l'ultima part del projecte, la programacio de l'algorisme final de comportament autonom. Finalment, vam aconseguir que el cotxe seguis el circuit marcat amb la propia API, havent superat diferents obstacles sorgits durant el projecte, amb un resultat final satisfactori.
Optimal control technique for AC VRM in high frequency AC power distribution systems

In this paper, two different control techniques-phase-shift control and PWM control are presented for an AC VRM topology used in high frequency AC power distribution systems. By employing these two different control techniques, the performance of the AC VRM in terms of power factor, total harmonic distortion in input current, zero voltage switching, voltage stress of the active switches and the overall efficiency are compared. Simulation and experimental results are presented to prove the theoretical concept.
Distributed genetic algorithms for function optimization

The genetic algorithm is a general purpose, population-based search algorithm in which the individuals in the population represent samples from the set of all possibilities, whether they are solutions in a problem space, strategies for a game, rules in classifier systems, or arguments for problems in function optimization. The individuals evolve over time to form even better individuals by sharing and mixing their information about the space. This dissertation proposes a parallelized version of a genetic algorithm called the distributed genetic algorithm, which can achieve near-linear speedup over the traditional version of the algorithm. This algorithm divides the large population into many equal-sized small subpopulations and runs the genetic algorithm on each subpopulation independently. Each subpopulation periodically selects some individuals and exchanges them with other subpopulations; the process known as migration. The functions used to evaluate the performance of the distributed genetic algorithm and the traditional algorithm are called Walsh polynomials, which are based on Walsh functions. Walsh polynomials can be categorized into classes of functions with each class having a different degree of difficulty. By generating a large number of instances of the various classes, the performance difference between the distributed and traditional genetic algorithms can be analyzed statistically. The first part of this dissertation examines the partitioned genetic algorithm, a version of the distributed genetic algorithm with no migration. The experiments on four different classes of Walsh polynomials show that the partitioned algorithm consistently outperforms the traditional algorithm as a function optimizer. This is because the physical subdivision of the population will allow each subpopulation to explore the space independently. Also, good individuals are more likely to be recognized in a smaller subpopulation than they would be in a large, diverse population. The second part of this research examines the effects of migration on the performance of the distributed genetic algorithm. The experiments show that with a moderate migration rate the distributed genetic algorithm finds better individuals than the traditional algorithm while maintaining a high overall fitness of the population. Finally, this dissertation also discusses the issue of balancing exploration against exploitation in the distributed genetic algorithm, by allowing different subpopulations to run with different parameters, so that some subpopulations can emphasize exploration while others emphasize exploitation. The distributed algorithm is shown to be more robust than the traditional version: even when each subpopulation runs with different combinations of crossover and mutation rates, the distributed algorithm performs better than the traditional one.
Single source shortest path problem on processor arrays

Algorithms for computing the shortest paths to every vertex from a single source vertex in nonnegatively weighted graphs are examined. A conventional data parallel algorithm and a replicated data algorithm for the single-source shortest path problem are presented. Both algorithms have been implemented on a Connection Machine CM-2 and a MasPar MP-1. Analytical and experimental speedups using the data replication technique are presented. <<ETX>>
Efecto antimicrobiano de aditivos naturales en carne de cerdo cruda

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar el efecto de tres aditivos comestibles, elaborados a base de especias culinarias (canela, clavo, cebolla, cilantro, pimienta negra, chile verde, ajo, oregano, hojas de laurel), asi como calices de jamaica verde y jugo de limon sobre la inhibicion en el crecimiento de Escherichia coli O157:H7 en carne cruda de cerdo. Los resultados experimentales mostraron que en particular el aditivo 3 fue el que logro mostrar la mayor concentracion de compuestos fenolicos totales asi como el mejor efecto antibacteriano. Dicho efecto se puede atribuir a su alto contenido de compuestos fenolicos totales, los cuales han sido reportados que poseen actividad antimicrobiana. La eficacia de los compuestos polifenolicos podria atribuirse a su interaccion con la membrana celular de los microorganismos, inhibiendo asi actividades metabolicas basicas de las celulas bacterianas.
Speaker-independent vowel classification from inaccurate formant features

Formant extraction is a notoriously unreliable procedure. Neural networks on the other hand are able to deal with such inaccurate data. It is shown that a multilayer perceptron is able to classify five types of vowels with acceptable accuracy (approximately 74%) when operating on very simple formant-based features. <<ETX>>