Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Output to Input: Concepts for Physical Data Representations and Tangible User Interfaces

Tangible user interfaces and physical representations of data are both promising approaches to improving insights derived from large data sets. Interactive tangible representations of data, which seamlessly combine those two approaches, potentially take advantage of cognitive processes, data representations, and interactions not supported by current approaches and may enhance collaboration. This paper describes user evaluations of two sets of prototypes comprised of physical blocks to represent data. One set uses six blocks of identical dimensions and another set uses six blocks with different dimensions. The objectives of this pilot study include (i) making general observations on how users interact with the two prototypes, (ii) making observations on the role these tangible interfaces play in collaboration, and (iii) comparing the two sets of tangible interfaces. We report on the results of the study and discuss future work. Author
Pseudo-distance Map Transformation for Interactive Object Tracing

In this paper, the algorithms for interactive objects tracing on grey-scale images are proposed that is based on a pseudo-distance map (PDM). The PDM is a simplified distance map of gray-scale image and uses only that features of image and objects that are necessary to build a optimal contour. The algorithms wors fast for large gray-scale images and allows constructing a high quality contour as well as central line.
RFID Essentials (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly))

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is rapidly changing the way businesses track inventory and assets. From Wal-Mart and Tesco to the U.S. Department of Defense, early efforts are already showing benefits, but software, integration, and data processing for RFID still present a challenge. If you are a developer or an architect charged with developing an RFID system, this book is for you. Drawing on extensive experience, Bill Glover and Himanshu Bhatt provide you with essential information on this emerging technology. With the knowledge you gain in these pages, you will possess the information and understanding you need to start designing, building, or integrating with RFID systems. In RFID Essentials you will find information on: ---- Tags and tag protocols, including the Electronic Product Code (EPC) ---- Readers and reader protocols ---- RFID middleware ---- Security and privacy ---- Managing RFID devices ---- RFID's impact on your architecture Bill Glover has been writing software since 1981 and has worked as a programmer, lead developer, or architect on systems of all sizes, from small, automated systems controlling dams and feedmills up to a complete redesign and reimplementation of one of the world's busiest travel web sites. Bill first worked with RFID in 1995, tracking individual cattle using ear tags. He is currently a Senior Java Architect with Sun Microsystems, Inc., and works with Sun's RFID consulting practice and the RFID Test Center. Himanshu Bhatt heads the U.S. RFID Practice and Software Technology Lab for Sun Microsystems, Inc. Prior to assuming this role, Himanshu was responsible for business development and consulting in emerging areas of technology. Himanshu has over 16 years of experience in the architecture and development of distributed, multitier systems using a host of technologies for Fortune 1000 companies. Himanshu has spoken at industry conferences such as JavaOne and the LoneStar Symposium and has published articles on Java/J2EE technologies. "The Information Age is over. We're entering an era where network connectivity is almost ubiquitous - it's participate or perish. " --Jonathan Schwartz, President and COO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Unique competitive advantage erupts from enterprises that couple the RFID technologies laid out in RFID Essentials with modern business integration using service-oriented architectures. This is the book to read in order to understand this new landscape. " --Mark Bauhaus, Senior Vice President, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "This is a must read for RFID Software and Solution architects and is highly recommended for anyone needing to gain more insight into the myriad of components, standards and technologies that make up an RFID solutions environment. " --Bryan Tracey, Chief Architect, GlobeRanger Corporation "The authors have done a commendable job of covering a lot of ground in the RFID space, including the infrastructure needed to share the volumes of data RFID will likely generate. " --Graham Gillen, Senior Product Manager, VeriSign
Multi-task Learning

A fundamental limitation of standard machine learning methods is the cost incurred by the preparation of the large training samples required for good generalization. A potential remedy is offered by multi-task learning: in many cases, while individual sample sizes are rather small, there are samples to represent a large number of learning tasks (linear regression problems), which share some constraining or generative property. If this property is sufficiently simple it should allow for better learning of the individual tasks despite their small individual sample sizes. In this talk I will review a wide class of multi-task learning methods which encourage low-dimensional representations of the regression vectors. I will describe techniques to solve the underlying optimization problems and present an analysis of the generalization performance of these learning methods which provides a proof of the superiority of multi-task learning under specific conditions. ROKS 2013
An Operational Characterization of the Notion of Probability by Algorithmic Randomness and Its Application to Cryptography Kohtaro Tadaki

The notion of probability plays an important role in almost all areas of science, including cryptography. In modern mathematics, however, probability theory means nothing other than measure theory, and the operational characterization of the notion of probability is not established yet. In this paper, based on the toolkit of algorithmic randomness we present an operational characterization of the notion of probability. Algorithmic randomness, also known as algorithmic information theory, is a field of mathematics which enables us to consider the randomness of an individual infinite sequence. We use the notion of Martin-Löf randomness with respect to Bernoulli measure to present the operational characterization. As the first step of the research of this line, in this paper we only consider the case of finite probability space, i.e., the case where the sample space of the underlying probability space is finite, for simplicity. This case is enough to study modern cryptography since all probability spaces which modern cryptography considers are finite. In the paper we make an application of our formalism to cryptography by presenting new equivalent characterizations of the notion of perfect secrecy in terms of our formalism.
HYPERLINK ANALYSIS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB:

-Hyperlink analysis is the name given to a collection of technique that have emerged to analyze the hyperlink structure that exists in the web.The analysis can be for a wide variety of purpose ranging from ranking pages returned from a web search engine to understanding the social dynamics behind the usage of the web as a whole.Information retrievel on the world wide web has been one of the challenging tasks in recent years.Most early work on information retrievel concentred on the content portion of the hypertext and little attention was paid to the hyperlink connectivity the various documents.The concept of the hyperlink was introduced with the invention of hypertext . Google was one of the earliest search engine that exploited the hyperlink information to improve the quality of research.The effectivness of google and its popularity has increased interests in using hyperliink to mine information from world wide web.A hyperlink is a structural unit that connect two pages.This connection is realized by inserting a hyperlink at the desired point in source page.The hyperlink contain the url of the destinaton page.In this paper we describe the nature of a hyperlink and how it can be used as an additional instrument in effectively mining the world wide web.
SHA-512 Based Wireless Authentication Scheme for Smart Grid Battery Management Systems

Modern cyber-physical systems depend on the battery backup systems for continuous service. Due to excessive wiring requirements, the traditional methods used for battery authentication cannot be applied to modern smart batteries, especially when they are composed of large number of cells. In this work, we proposed a wireless battery authentication scheme for use with the battery management system and the cells to prevent potential hardware attacks through the trojan cells. We designed a SHA-512 IP Core which operates at 157 MHz and occupies 974 CLB slices and one block RAM on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA device. We integrated the SHA-516 module with a synthesizable CPU to be able to create a real-world test scenario and finally, we verified the correct operation of an example authentication protocol through a wireless communication channel established with the use of two ESP8266 based Wi-Fi modules.
Applied Artificial Intelligence: An International Journal

& Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Law has been a burgeoning domain since the 1980s, but it was not until the 2000s that models of reasoning about legal evidence started to feature prominently. With regard to data mining, it has been applied to legal databases, as well as to law enforcement. We survey forensic applications of data mining to fraud and otherwise to crime intelligence or investigation. Traditionally a field separate from AI and Law, the two are now coming together. Success has been achieved especially in unravelling networks and in detecting fraud
Cheater Detection and Cheating Identification based on Shamir Scheme

In cryptography, a secret sharing scheme is a method for distributing a secret amongst a group of participants, each of which is allocated a share of the secret. The secret can only be reconstructed when the shares are combined together; individual shares are of no use on their own. The study of secret sharing schemes was independently initiated by Shamir[10] and Blakely[3] in 1979. Since then several other secret sharing schemes were introduced. Many of those schemes are (n,k) threshold systems. When shareholders present their shares in the secret reconstruction phase, dishonest shareholder(s) (i.e. cheater(s)) can always exclusively derive the secret by presenting faked share(s) and thus the other honest shareholders get nothing but a faked secret. Tompa and Woll[12] also suggested that Cheater detection and identification are very important to achieve fair reconstruction of a secret. Our proposed scheme uses the shares generated by the dealer to reconstruct the secret and, at the same time, to detect and identify cheaters We have included discussion on three attacks of cheaters and bounds of detectability and identifiability of our proposed scheme under these three attacks. Our proposed scheme is an extension of Shamir’s secret sharing scheme.
Information Presentation in Spoken Dialogue Systems

The goal of spoken dialogue systems is to offer an efficient and natural way of accessing information services of various types that range from product recommendation over access to emails to personal banking. The use of systems with speech interaction is particularly attractive for applications where the user communicates via telephone or can currently not use her hands and eyes to operate the system. A challenging issue in spoken dialogue systems, which this proposal addresses, is the restriction that (possibly complex) information has to be presented linearly. In traditional systems, all different options and their respective attributes are simply enumerated. But if a lot of complex information is to be conveyed, this form of presentation makes it difficult for the user to remember the various aspects of multiple options and to compare them in memory, especially if not all of the user's concentration can be focused on the task (for example in dialogue systems that are used while driving a car). So a great challenge in spoken dialogue system design is to present many options in an easily memorable and understandable way. This can be achieved by structuring the information in a way that takes into account the user's interest and valuation, leading to a structure that presents those criteria first that are most important for the user's decision process. What is important to a user is retrieved from a user model, which is acquired beforehand by either explicitly asking the user for the required information or by observing her choices. Dialogue duration is another very important issue. As the recent evaluation of 9 dialogue systems shows, shorter task duration correlates with higher user satisfaction. Possible ways to shorten dialogue duration are to identify a small subset of relevant options, so that only these are presented in detail. This has been done in recent work by either asking questions to the user in order to narrow down the set of remaining options or by applying the knowledge provided in a user model to identify the options that are particularly promising. A problem can arise when options are omitted and the information space is not fully accessible to the user. User confidence in the system might be decreased, because the user feels that the system is hiding information from her and she has no possibility to access it and override her user model. Another crucial aspect in system development is its transferability to new domains. If evaluation criteria are hard coded, extending the database or applying the system to another domain might cause adaptation to be very laborious. Therefore, an algorithm that calculates these criteria dynamically from the database improves system transferability. Improving system performance on these aspects will lead to greater user satisfaction and increase acceptance of spoken dialogue systems.
Will Restoration of Ecological Functions of Tank Cascade System Contribute to Reduce CKDu in Sri Lanka? A review

People in the dry zone of Sri Lanka where hydraulic civilization once thrived, suffer from occurrence of a chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu). The etiology for CKDu is now shown to be multi factorials and but related to water. Ancient people in the dry zone used surface water of tank cascades system and this system was interlinked with the ecosystem and social system of the area. It is hypothesized that the adverse changes that took place to the ecosystem of the tank cascade system and new commercial practices of agriculture in the CKDu prevalent area have also become reasons for the spreading of CKDu. This review assesses the effect of different components of the tank cascade systems in improving the water quality. A number of studies have reported positive effects of improving the surface water quality of the tank by the Wew Ismaththa (closer catchment), Thaulla (upper peripheral gentle sloping land), Kattakaduwa (Interceptor) Iswetiya or Potawetiya (upstream soil ridges), Godawala (small silt trapping pond). The review also identified functions of Thaulla area approximately similar to a constructed wetland. This review highlights the issues and gaps in our understanding the ecological functioning of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. It is suggested that reconstruction of ecofriendly structural components of tanks and reestablishment of tank cascade system in the area would help to combat the spreading of CKDu in dry and intermediate zone of the country.
Toward Measuring Visualization Insight

R ecent visualization research literature has paid a good amount of attention to evaluating visualizations. For example, this trend was evident at the 2005 IEEE Visualization conference where many of the presentations included evaluation components. The conference provided some inspiring presentations that probed the philosophical boundaries of visualization and evaluation.Unfortunately, there were also a few too many Boolean usability studies that offered only two alternatives: either the users liked the visualization tool in question, or they did not. In between, there was a variety of rigorously controlled experiments. Therefore, in light of this trend, it seems an appropriate time to reopen the question about what the ultimate purpose of visualization is and how it should be evaluated. One potential claim is: The purpose of visualization is insight. The purpose of visualization evaluation is to determine to what degree visualizations achieve this purpose. If this claim is true, then evaluating visualizations should seek to determine how well visualizations generate insight. Measuring insight would enable the direct comparison of visualization design alternatives, or the comparison against an insight goal. But what, exactly, is insight? How can it be measured and evaluated? Do current approaches for evaluating visualizations provide measures of insight?
AI Game Development

Neural networks, decision trees, genetic classifiers: If these are AI concepts you'd like to employ in your own games-and you know your way around C++-this is the book for you! In these pages, leading game AI developer Alex J. Champandard shows you how to create a slew of autonomous synthetic creatures-in the process exploring the techniques and theories central to AI game development. Complex concepts are made easily graspable, even fun, as you apply them to the step-by-step development of your own complete bot. The focus here is on designing individual creatures, each with unique abilities and skills. Each chapter tackles a specific problem, using demos and examples to drive the points home. Best of all, Alex draws on his own real-life experiences to provide tips and tricks to speed the process and resolve thorny issues. On the companion Web site, you'll find code examples and the samples of some of the games covered in the book.
Patient Safety in Surgery

Background:Improving patient safety is an increasing priority for surgeons and hospitals since sentinel events can be catastrophic for patients, caregivers, and institutions. Patient safety initiatives aimed at creating a safe operating room (OR) culture are increasingly being adopted, but a reliable means of measuring their impact on front-line providers does not exist. Methods:We developed a surgery-specific safety questionnaire (SAQ) and administered it to 2769 eligible caregivers at 60 hospitals. Survey questions included the appropriateness of handling medical errors, knowledge of reporting systems, and perceptions of safety in the operating room. MANOVA and ANOVA were performed to compare safety results by hospital and by an individual's position in the OR using a composite score. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was performed to validate the structure of the scale at the operating room level of analysis. Results:The overall response rate was 77.1% (2135 of 2769), with a range of 57% to 100%. Factor analysis of the survey items demonstrated high face validity and internal consistency (α = 0.76). The safety climate scale was robust and internally consistent overall and across positions. Scores varied widely by hospital [MANOVA omnibus F (59, 1910) = 3.85, P < 0.001], but not position [ANOVA F (4, 1910) = 1.64, P = 0.16], surgeon (mean = 73.91), technician (mean = 70.26), anesthesiologist (mean = 71.57), CRNA (mean = 71.03), and nurse (mean = 70.40). The percent of respondents reporting good safety climate in each hospital ranged from 16.3% to 100%. Conclusions:Safety climate in surgical departments can be validly measured and varies widely among hospitals, providing the opportunity to benchmark performance. Scores on the SAQ can serve to evaluate interventions to improve patient safety.
Fleeting Signs of the Course of Life

In this article, we consider whether facial expressions of emotion relate in theoretically interesting ways to personal adjustment. We first consider the conceptual benefits of this line of inquiry. Then, to anticipate why brief samples of emotional behavior should relate to personal adjustment, we review evidence indicating that facial expressions of emotion correspond to intrapersonal processes and social outcomes. We then review studies showing that facial expressions relate in theoretically significant ways to adjustment after the death of a spouse, in long-term relationships, and in the context of chronic psychological disorders.
Adaptive Naïve Bayesian Anti-Spam Engine

Internet community during the last few years and currently reached an alarming scale. Observations made at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research located in Geneva, Switzerland) show that spam mails can constitute up to 75% of daily SMTP traffic. A naïve Bayesian classifier based on a Bag Of Words representation of an email is widely used to stop this unwanted flood as it combines good performance with simplicity of the training and classification processes. However, facing the constantly changing patterns of spam, it is necessary to assure online adaptability of the classifier. This work proposes combining such a classifier with another NBC (naïve Bayesian classifier) based on pairs of adjacent words. Only the latter will be retrained with examples of spam reported by users. Tests are performed on considerable sets of mails both from public spam archives and CERN mailboxes. They suggest that this architecture can increase spam recall without affecting the classifier precision as it happens when only the NBC based on single words is retrained.
Protein Domains

Many cellular processes involve proteins comprised of multiple domains. The modular nature afforded by breaking up a protein’s three-dimensional structure into discrete domains has many evolutionary advantages. First, it allows proteins to evolve to complex cooperative functions that require elaborate, large and stable structural scaffolds, which would be impossible to form otherwise within the structural constraints associated with the protein folding process. Second, it can bring active sites in proximity in a fixed stoichiometric ratio. Third, otherwise unstable intermediates can be accommodated within inter-domain clefts. Fourth, the flexibility afforded by protein domain linker regions, e.g. hinge regions, can greatly aid the activity of the cooperative catalytic process carried out by a multi-domain enzyme. Fifth, the repeated and combinatorial use of domains in multi-domain proteins has provided nature both an evolutionary economic and versatile system to maintain and enhance cellular activity.
Robust coding with spiking networks: 1 a geometric perspective 2

The interactions of large groups of spiking neurons have been diﬃcult to understand or visualise. Using 10 simple geometric pictures, we here illustrate the spike-by-spike dynamics of networks based on eﬃcient spike coding, 11 and we highlight the conditions under which they can preserve their function against various perturbations. We show 12 that their dynamics are conﬁned to a small geometric object, a ’convex polytope’, in an abstract error space. Changes 13 in network parameters (such as number of neurons, dimensionality of the inputs, ﬁring thresholds, synaptic weights, 14 or transmission delays) can all be understood as deformations of this polytope. Using these insights, we show that the 15 core functionality of these network models, just like their biological counterparts, is preserved as long as perturbations 16 do not destroy the shape of the geometric object. We suggest that this single principle—eﬃcient spike coding—may 17 be key to understanding the robustness of neural systems at the circuit level. 18