Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proof of Availability & Retrieval in a Modular Blockchain Architecture

This paper explores a modular design architecture aimed at helping blockchains (and other SMR implementation) to scale to a very large number of processes. This comes in contrast to existing monolithic architectures that interleave transaction dissemination, ordering, and execution in a single functionality. To achieve this we first split the monolith to multiple layers which can use existing distributed computing primitives. The exact specifications of the data dissemination part are formally defined by the Proof of Availability & Retrieval (PoA&R) abstraction. Solutions to the PoA&R problem contain two related sub-protocols: one that “pushes” information into the network and another that “pulls” this information. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research literature which is rectified in this paper. We present a family of pulling sub-protocols and rigorously analyze them. Extensive simulations support the theoretical claims of efficiency and robustness in case of a very large number of players. Finally, actual implementation and deployment on a small number of machines (roughly the size of several industrial systems) demonstrates the viability of the architecture’s paradigm.
Uma Experiência de Implantação de Processo de Testes - Caso PRODEPA

This paper reports a testing process definition and deployment experience at PRODEPA. In this report, we present the main results obtained with this experience: the PRODEPA Testing Process definition; the learned lessons and an initial quantitative analysis. Currently, there are two projects enacting this testing process and the preliminary results show an evidence of significant improvement on the developed software products quality.
The Establishment of the ROK Armed Forces and the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Activities of the U.S. Military Advisory Groups to the ROK and Japan

After the end of World War II, the Republic of Korea (ROK), having gained independence from Japan, established a new ROK Armed Forces under the guidance and advice of the U.S. Military Advisory Group to the ROK. In Japan, against the backdrop of its Constitution which maintains that the nation will never possess a military, the outbreak of the Korean War prompted the expedited establishment of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) under the guidance and advice of the U.S. Military Advisory Group to Japan. In this way, the activities of the U.S. military advisory groups played a significant role in the creation of the ROK Armed Forces and the JSDF. Nevertheless, there were some differences in their activities in Japan and the ROK, because of the international and domestic political situations in which in the two countries found themselves, the intentions and motives on the part of the United States, among other reasons. Specifically, the two countries differed in their processes of accepting advisory groups, the U.S. involvement in the formation of the concept behind the establishment of a military force, the organization of the advisory groups, and their activities. In short, in the ROK, the military organization of a new nation had to be built from zero, and therefore, the U.S. military advisory group was proactively involved in all aspects of the establishment of the ROK Armed Forces, ranging from its organization, personnel, quartermaster’s affairs, schooling and training, to its maneuvers. In Japan, on the other hand, out of consideration for its Constitution and Japan’s sovereignty, the U.S. military advisory group, while keeping its activities in check, indirectly supported the establishment of the JSDF that would be suitable for a free and democratic nation and was contrary to the former Imperial Army of Japan.
Do You Notice Me? How Bystanders Affect the Cognitive Load in Virtual Reality

In contrast to the real world, users are not able to perceive bystanders in virtual reality (VR). Bystanders may distract users and influence their cognitive load. This involves users to feel discomfort at the thought of unintentionally touching or even bumping into a physical bystander while interacting with the virtual environment. Not knowing the intentions of a bystander or whether one is present can unsettle the user. We investigate how a bystander affects a user’s cognitive load since it has a decisive impact on applications such as VR training. In a between-subjects lab study (N = 42), three conditions were compared: 1) no bystander, 2) an invisible bystander, and 3) a visible bystander (as an avatar). Over a series of iterations, the participants were asked to memorize four pairs of letters, perform a mental rotation task and then recall the pairs of letters. The results of our study demonstrate that a bystander acting as an avatar in the virtual environment increases the user’s cognitive load more than an invisible bystander. Moreover, the cognitive load of a VR user is significantly increased by a bystander. Therefore, our work suggests that either the examiner must be separated from the participant or the examiner’s influence (as a bystander) must be included in the analysis.
SPICE Model Implementation for LiFePO4 Cell

Faults in the design of battery-powered circuits can lead to battery destruction. Battery simulation is an extremely important topic as simulation of the battery and the circuit together emphasizes a detailed functioning before the physical implementation and can also reveal hidden faults. In this paper, a SPICE model for LiFePO4 battery cells was implemented and simulated. The model targets specifically the CALB CA180FA LiFePO4 cell used in automotive industry for Electric Vehicles (EV) or in Energy Storage Systems (ESS). There are no models currently implemented for the LiFePO4 battery cells, which affects the simulation process of the systems. The model proves of utmost importance in simulating battery-powered systems, energy storage systems and Battery Management Systems (BMS), helping in understanding the impact these circuits have on batteries they are powered from or are designed for. The most important characteristics implemented are the OCV (Open-Circuit Voltage) - SOC (State of Charge) curve and the internal resistance. The LiFePO4 cell model can be parameterized by choosing the values for cell capacity and internal resistance.
Personal-Internet-of-Things (PIoT): A vision for hyper-personalization delivered securely

The Personal-Internet-of-Things (PIoT) is an emerging domain encompassing devices, appliances, sensors, data, storage and computing performed in context of an individual and her environment. The data generated by individual sensors/devices is utilized by custom and third-party services to provide a high degree of personalization, automation and convenience to the user. The generated data is personal in nature requiring user-privacy to be preserved. It requires further aggregation from diverse sources and travels between the user home premises and the cloud, making it susceptible to security risks. Thus, user privacy, data security and device security need to be ensured to realize the vision of the PIoT and enable exciting new applications in the domain. This research paper proposes an architecture which delivers the hyper-personalization and smart automation vision of the PIoT in a secure and privacy preserving manner. Open issues and future work in the domain are also discussed.
Loss Analysis of Conventional and Three Level Boost DC-DC Converters employed for MPPT in PV Systems

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are often exposed to nonuniform insolation due to shading. Under these conditions, there exists multiple peaks in their power-voltage (P-V) characteristics and among which there is one global maximum power point (GMPP). Several GMPP tracking methods employed in the literature have focused mainly on the tracking efficiency. But, the PV system output has to include the DC-DC converter losses also to get the actual estimate of the power extracted. Hence, this paper attempts to analyze the losses incurred in the DCDC converters namely conventional boost converter (CBC) and three-level boost converter (TLBC) connected to a PV array. It is observed that the efficiency of converters depends on the location of GMPP in the (P-V) curve. Further, the impact of switching frequency on the losses of aforementioned two topologies is discussed. A detailed comparison of the loss analysis performed with simulation results obtained from MATLAB/Simulink is provided.
Bullet Comments for 360°Video

Time-anchored on-screen comments, as known as bullet comments, are a popular feature for online video streaming. Bullet comments reflect audiences’ feelings and opinions at specific video timings, which have been shown to be beneficial to video content understanding and social connection level. In this paper, we for the first time investigate the problem of bullet comment display and insertion for 360° video via head-mounted display and controller. We design four bullet comment display methods and evaluate their effects on 360° video experiences. We further propose two controller-based methods for bullet comment insertion. Combining the display and insertion methods, the user can experience 360° videos with bullet comments, and interactively post new ones by selecting among existing comments. User study results revealed how the factors of display and insertion methods affect 360° video experience. With the experiment findings, we also discuss useful design insights for 360° video bullet comments.
Using 3D Reconstruction to create Pervasive Augmented Reality Experiences: A comparison

This paper presents a prototype for configuration and visualization of Pervasive Augmented Reality (AR) experiences using two versions: desktop and mobile. It makes use of $3\mathrm{D}$ scans from physical environments to provide a reconstructed digital representation of such spaces to the desktop version and enable positional tracking for the mobile. While the desktop presents a non-immersive setting, the mobile provides continuous AR in the physical environment. Both versions can be used to place virtual content and ultimately configure an AR experience. The authoring capabilities of the proposed solution were compared by conducting a user study focused on evaluating their usability.
Failure Analysis of Commercial Ferroelectric Random Access Memory for Single Event Effect

In this article, the single event responses of a 4-Mb commercial two-transistor and two-capacitor (2T2C) ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) are studied. A microbeam was used to identify sensitive circuit areas. Various response categories are identified. The two most vulnerable sensitive areas were investigated using reverse engineering, and the results indicate that the n-well resistors located in the peripheral circuits are the primary source of the bit upset response and functional interruption. Analysis results indicate that ion strikes on the n-well resistor generate current disturbances in circuits, which can alter the polarization state of the ferroelectric bit storage capacitor and interrupt the data transfer process of the device.
Privacy-Preserving Collaborative Anomaly Detection to Fight Cybercrime

Anomaly detection is an important part of countering cybercrime, by detecting e.g., fraud or intrusions. Especially with an ever-growing amount of data (such as logs or transactions) being collected, automated analysis of these data for malicious behaviour becomes essential. In several settings, such analysis might be performed by third parties or be collaborative, to learn from more and diverse experiences by different collaborators. Thus, means to access such often confidential data in a privacy-preserving manner are required. Collaborative Learning and synthetic data are two promising approaches to fulfil this purpose.
Inspeção de Qualidade em Descrições de Casos de Uso: uma Avaliação Experimental em um Projeto Real

This article describes an experimental evaluation of a checklist based inspection technique proposed in the literature and its insertion in a real project. The evaluation was conducted using a strategy that combines two experimental study types. First, a controlled study with graduate students aiming at preliminarily evaluate the checklist technique and, then, its observation in a real project through the action research methodology. In both studies the results were favorable to the checklist technique when compared to the ad-hoc approach regarding the number of identified defects – no difference was identified in relation to the time spent variable. A second important result was the observation, only on the real project study, of a significant performance difference among the experienced and inexperienced inspectors. Based on the analysis of the field research actions we have the indication that the experience factor can be preponderant in checklist based inspections. Resumo. Este artigo descreve uma avaliação experimental de uma técnica de inspeção de casos de uso baseada em checklist proposta na literatura e a sua inserção em um projeto de software real. A avaliação foi conduzida por meio de uma estratégia que combina dois tipos de estudos experimentais. Primeiro, um estudo controlado com estudantes de pós-graduação, objetivando avaliar preliminarmente a técnica checklist. Posteriormente, em um projeto real, onde se observou a sua utilização por meio da metodologia da pesquisa-ação. Em ambos os estudos, os resultados foram favoráveis à técnica checklist em relação à abordagem ad-hoc quando considerado o número de defeitos identificados – não foi observada diferença em relação ao tempo gasto. Um segundo resultado importante foi a identificação, apenas no projeto real, de uma diferença significativa de desempenho entre inspetores experientes e inexperientes. Através da análise das ações de pesquisa em campo, tem-se a indicação de que o fator experiência pode ser preponderante em inspeções baseadas em checklist.
Smart Military E-Outfit of the Future

Wearable technologies are pervading in several fields. One could think of smart clothing that makes every individual to feel comfortable in any environment and during any activity, a suit that monitors our health and alerts in case of any danger. Soldiers who serve us tirelessly are undergoing many difficulties physically. The integration of electronics into the outfit will make the life of the soldiers easier. Smart clothing has become a indigenous component in the creation of new military uniforms which has been designed to monitor the health of the soldier. This outfit is designed in such a way that monitors the health, tracks the location and keeps them warm in cold conditions and vice versa. Heating approach is introduced into the fabric with help of conductive fibers.
Heuristic Algorithm for the Parametric Optimization of Multichannel Computing Devices Based on FPGA

The article considers the problem of parametric optimization of digital units in systems with task level parallelism. The separable programming problem is formulated with a quadratic loss functions, specified for multichannel computing devices based on FPGA. A heuristic algorithm for the formation of series of recursive functions is proposed. At the first pass for ordered quadratic functions a new series of additive recursive functions is formed. The assumption that the sum of the two arguments of the recursive function is equal to one is used. In the second pass, the recursive functions on first step are sorted in reverse order. A values of the units parameter is corresponding to the minimum points of the recursive functions. For recalculating the parameters of recursive function in each step we assume that the sum of their arguments is equal to one minus all the values allocated in the previous steps.
Compressive Properties of Polylactic Acid-Based Nanocomposite Foams Reinforced with Coconut Fibers

The investigation focused on the properties of composite foam obtained by a compression molding method. The results could clarify the interaction among PLA, silica nanoparticles and coconut fiber. The compressive properties, including the compressive force and modulus of composites, contained in coconut fiber were improved. The incorporation of silica nanoparticles was able to modify the compressive properties slightly, whereas the thermal properties were decreased explicitly. Hydrogen bonding between the carboxylic group of PLA and the silica bonded group affected the increment in mechanical properties of composites. However, the incorporation of coconut fibers in composites exhibited a rougher surface. In addition, beneficial distribution of silica nanoparticles and porosity in the nanocomposite foam, equivalent to neat PLA foam, could be obtained.
Bagadus: next generation sport analysis and multimedia platform using camera array and sensor networks

Today, a large number of (elite) sports clubs spend a large amount of resources to analyze their game performance, either manually or using one of the many existing analytics tools. In the area of soccer, there exist several systems where trainers and coaches can analyze the game play in order to improve the performance. However, most of these systems are cumbersome and relies on manual work from many people and/or heavy video processing. In this thesis, we present Bagadus, a prototype of a soccer analysis application which integrates a sensor system, soccer analytics annotations and video processing of a video camera array. The prototype is currently installed at Alfheim Stadium in Norway, and we demonstrate how the system can follow and zoom in on particular player(s), and search for and playout events from the games using the stitched panorama video and/or the camera switching mode. ii Bagadus: next generation sport analysis and multimedia platform
Force-feedback based active compliant position control strategy for a hydraulic quadruped robot

Most existing legged robots are developed under laboratory environments and,correspondingly,have good performance of locomotion.The robots‘ability of walking on rough terrain is of great importance but is seldom achieved.Being compliant to external unperceived impacts is crucial since it is unavoidable that the slip,modeling errors and imprecise information of terrain will make planned trajectories to be followed with errors and unpredictable contacts.The impedance control gives an inspiration to realize an active compliance which allows the legged robots to follow reference trajectories and overcome external disturbances.In this paper,a novel impedance force/position control scheme is presented,which is based on Cartesian force measurement of leg's end effector for our hydraulic quadruped robot The simulation verifies the efficiency of the impedance model,and the experimental results at the end demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.
A nonlinear maneuver-tracking algorithm based on modified current statistical model

The ‘current’statistical model depends on both the marginal value of the target acceleration and the fre-quency of the maneuver;this leads to a poor performance in tracking targets of low maneuverability or higher maneuver-ability.To obtain an improved model,we introduce to the existing ‘current’statistical(CS) model an activate function with the trace of the residual error variance as parameter for modifying the error covariance between the acceleration and the frequency.This modified model is then combined with an unscented Kalman filter(UKF) to form the modified current statistic model for the nonlinear maneuver tracking algorithm.Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithms not only keep equal performance level as the CS model in tracking general maneuvers,but provide excellent performance in tracking targets with low maneuverability;thus,extending the range of maneuverability in tracking targets.
Witness-Authenticated Key Exchange Revisited: Improved Models, Simpler Constructions, Extensions to Groups

We revisit the notion of Witness Authenticated Key Exchange ( WAKE ) where a party can be authenticated through a generic witness to an NP statement. We point out shortcomings of previous definitions, protocols and security proofs in Ngo et al. (Financial Cryptography 2021) for the (unilaretally-authenticated) two-party case. In order to overcome these limitations we introduce new models and protocols, including the first definition in literature of group witness-authenticated key exchange. We provide simple constructions based on (succinct) signatures of knowledge. Finally, we discuss their concrete performance for several practical applications in highly decentralized networks.
Um Estudo sobre a Correlação entre Defeitos de Campo e Warnings Reportados por uma Ferramenta de Ánalise Estática

Abstract. Despite the interest and the increasing number of static analysis tools for detecting defects in software systems, there is still no consensus about the actual gains that such tools can introduce in software development projects. Therefore, this paper reports a study carried out to evaluate the degree of correlation between defects reported by end-users (i.e. ﬁeld defects) and warnings issued by FindBugs, a bug ﬁnding tool widely used in Java systems. The study aimed to evaluate two types of correlation: direct correlation (when warnings contribute to locate and remove ﬁeld defects) and indirect correlation (when warnings serve as indications of future ﬁeld defects). As a result, we have concluded that there is no direct correlation between ﬁeld defects and warnings. However, statistical tests showed that there is a signiﬁcant level of indirect correlation between warnings and such types of software defects.
Benefícios, Fatores de Sucesso e Dificuldades da Implantação do Modelo MPS.BR

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the MPS.BR Model, aiming at identifying the benefits, success factors and difficulties related to its implementation. For this, a research was performed, involving software development companies from the São Paulo State, which already were evaluated according to this model. The results and conclusions are discussed and future related studies are pointed out, in order to contribute to the continuous improvement of software processes and products
Sex Education and Sexual Risk Behavior among Adolescents and Youth in the Deep South: Implications for Youth HIV Prevention

Using the 2015 Mississippi Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, the authors assessed the impact of sex education on four youth HIV-related sexual risk behaviors. Abstract Objectives Adolescents and young adults represent the largest group of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the United States, especially in the South. We wanted to determine whether abstinence only until marriage (AOUM) sex education programs were effective in reducing HIV vulnerability among youth in Mississippi. Methods Using the 2015 Mississippi Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, we examined the effect of AOUM sex education among a sample of youth ages 12 to 18 years on 4 HIV-related sexual risk behaviors. Results Compared with youth not enrolled in AOUM sex education, we found no statistically significant differences on sexual risk behaviors. Race, age, and gender were significant risk factors in predicting sexual risk behavior. Conclusions AOUM sex education programs are ineffective in reducing HIV vulnerability among youth in Mississippi. There is an urgent need to implement comprehensive sex education if we are to reduce the numbers of new HIV infections among youth and achieve our goals of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.