Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Software Process Improvement Implementation: Avoiding Critical Barriers

T here are three major elements involved in SPI initiatives: SPI appraisal, process definition, and process deployment [1]. The SPI appraisal consumes a larger percent of the budget and resources, as it requires money to hire lead appraisers, time away from work for staff to be interviewed, and time away from work for the internal appraisal team. Process defining requires model knowledge , process definition knowledge/skills, and knowledge of the organization/com-pany. Many organizations, however, do not have the model knowledge, the process definition knowledge, or the skills. Often, deployment is not only multi-project , but multi-site and multi-customer type. The whole SPI initiative is a long-term approach and it takes time to fully implement. A Software Engineering Institute (SEI) report shows the number of months (see Figure 1) required to move from one maturity level of CMMI ® to the next [2]. The SPI approach is often considered as an expensive approach for many organizations [3] because, in order to fully implement an SPI initiative, an organization needs to invest enough resources for a long time. This problem is exacerbated if the SPI initiative does not achieve the desired results. Even with the large advances in SPI approaches, the SPI initiatives failure rate is very high (i.e., 70 percent) [4]. This is one of the reasons that many organizations are reluctant to embark on a long path of systematic process improvement. Thorough literature review revealed that many standards and models exist for SPI, but little attention has been paid to their effective implementation. The chaotic implementation process is the most common cause of SPI implementation failure [5]. Attention to a defined SPI implementation process is essential for the success of any SPI initiative. This article presents the empirical findings of what can undermine the implementation of SPI initiatives. To focus this study, I investigated the following research questions: • What barriers can undermine the SPI-implementing initiatives? • How can one avoid these barriers? The objective of addressing these research questions is to provide advice to SPI managers and practitioners on what and how to address CBs when developing SPI implementation initiatives. Research Methodology This study uses data from interviews with 34 Australian SPI practitioners (15 percent of the requested participants). The target population in this research was those software practitioners who have participated in SPI implementation initiatives. The invitation letter included a brief description of the research project and the …
Combined RNA-seq and Phenotype Analysis Reveals a Potential Molecular Mechanism of the Difference in Grain Size of Naked Barley From the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

To understand the molecular mechanism controlling the size of barley grains, a number of traits were analyzed and RNA-seq was conducted on grains of two barley materials with a significant difference in thousand-grain weight (TGW) after flowering. The trait dataset delineates the dynamic changes in grain size after flowering, and it provides an understanding of the source of the difference in TGW. By comparing the transcripts of barley grains at several stages after flowering, we identified the gene expression characteristics and significantly enriched pathways in each stage. At the early stage of grain development, genes involved in fatty acid metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction, and pathways involved in cytoskeleton formation were significantly upregulated. At the later stage of grain development, genes involved in starch synthesis, glucose metabolism, and other pathways were significantly upregulated. Further, we used weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) and correlation analysis of trait datasets to identify the coexpressed gene modules significantly associated with traits, such as grain length (GL), grain width (GW), and dry weight (DW). After comparing the modules with the differentially expressed gene (DEG) set, 12 candidate genes were selected, and among these, four genes were homologous to genes that regulate grain size in rice and other plants. The combined analysis identified many potential key regulatory factors that may control barley grain size and yield potential, thus providing new insights into the molecular mechanism of barley grain size.
Wireless power transfer using a field-enhancing coil and a small-sized receiver with low coupling coefficient

This study investigates the near-field wireless power transfer system with small-sized receiver. The receiver is placed at a relatively long distance from the power emitter. The coupling between the receiver and the emitter is very weak, which results in low-power delivery and efficiency. A passive resonance coil, which enhances the field, is added to the emitter to address these problems. The necessary coupled-mode theory is developed and combined with optimal operation of the class-E amplifier. The impact of the enhancing coil (EX) on the energy distribution is discussed from the perspective of energy amplification between the source coil and the EX. The point of the maximum energy of the EX is found and necessary conditions for improving transfer efficiency of such structure are proposed. An experimental setup operating at a frequency of 300 kHz was built using the EX concept. The maximum secondary magnetic field generated by the EX was established and used to wirelessly power a 4 cm receiver with more than 40 mW at 0.5 m. The structure is also compared with a similar system without an EX. Test results show that the inclusion of the EX in the emitter strengthens the spatial magnetic field and improves the transmission efficiency.
Reconhecendo Padrões em Planilhas no domínio de uso da Biologia

Most of research data handled by biologists are in electronic spreadsheets, which are easy to implement as isolated entities, but are inappropriate for integration with other data sources or for enhanced queries. Several initiatives aim to interpret implicit schemas of spreadsheets, making them explicit, in order to drive their mapping process to open standards of interoperability. However, such process is detached of the spreadsheet creation context. In this paper we present a strategy for characterizing spreadsheets, centered in their creation context, and we investigate how this characterization can be used to improve an automated interpretation and mapping process of their respective schemas in the Biology usage domain.
Reclassification of Infectious Disease in the Mondo Disease Ontology

The Mondo Disease Ontology (Mondo) represents cross-species diseases, which integrates several source disease terminologies to represent cross-species diseases, and provides precise semantic mappings to the original sources. Mondo spans both rare and 'common' diseases, as well as monogenic, acquired, neoplasms, infectious diseases, and more. Mondo is a community resource and is continuously updated and iteratively curated. Recent efforts sought to improve the representation of viral infectious diseases in Mondo, to properly represent primary infections, diseases caused by reactivation of a latent virus, such as shingles and diseases caused by aftereffects of a primary infection such as long COVID-19. This included the addition of new classes and new relations (object properties), and the creation of new design patterns. © 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Complementando o Aprendizado em Programação: Experiências no Curso de Sistemas de Informação da USP

The undergraduate Information Systems course at the University of São Paulo constantly seeks to improve the education it offers to its students, something that requires constant innovation and enrichment of the teachinglearning process executed by its lecturers and students. In the search of such enrichment, lecturers and students have been carrying out some efforts, amongst which are the experiences presented in this paper: the Programming Challenges course and the Programming Contest for First Years. Both experiences are focused on complementing the learning process of programming logic, algorithms and data structures – hard subjects from the didactic viewpoint, but indispensable to a high quality technical education. Resumo. O curso de Bacharelado em Sistemas de Informação da Universidade de São Paulo trabalha pela constante melhoria na formação que oferece para seus alunos, o que requer um trabalho contı́nuo de inovação e aprimoramento do processo de ensino-aprendizagem executados por seus professores e alunos. Na busca desta melhoria, os professores e alunos vêm realizando algumas ações, dentre as quais estão as experiências apresentadas neste artigo: as disciplinas de Desafios de Programação e o Campeonato de Programação para Calouros. Ambas estão focadas na complementação do aprendizado de lógica de programação, algoritmos e estruturas de dados – assuntos difı́ceis do ponto de vista didático, mas imprescindı́veis na formação técnica de qualidade.
Selection of the most suitable measurement path for router abnormality detection

Internet Service Provider (ISPs) need to measure large-scale end-to-end network performance for the purpose of monitoring customers' performance and providing network devices efficiently. This paper proposes, an IP performance measurement infrastructure that utilizes users' PCs as beacons. Probing packets are sent and received among the beacons under the control of a central server. The central server calculates the set of measurement paths that maximizes network coverage under constraints of users' PCs. The infrastructure is experimentally implemented and evaluated through simulation and real-world experiments and its considerable potential for practical network operations is demonstrated.
ANALYTICAL AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF TICKET QUEUES: IMPLICATIONS FOR SYSTEM PERFORMANCE, CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIOR

This dissertation investigates the system performance, customer perceptions of and behavior in ticket queues, the new generation of queuing systems that issue tickets to customers upon their arrival, using analytical and empirical approaches. Ticket queues are widely used by service providers to manage customer flows. In this dissertation, we present three studies with the goals of generalizing system representations of ticket queues, investigating the validity of the assumptions used in the analytical models, and providing empirical support for the analytical model results. The first essay proposes a Markov chain (MC) model for multi-server ticket queues with state-dependent balking and state-independent reneging customers. This study aims at analyzing the system performance of a multi-serve ticket queue and benchmarking ticket and physical (stand-in-line) queue performances. We develop exact analytical results for key system performances with customer abandonment (including both customer balking and reneging behavior), and present efficient and accurate heuristics to analyze large systems. The heuristics prove to be robust and accurate approximations. A ticket queue differs from a corresponding physical queue in terms of the amount of information available to customers. The lack of information for the number of existing customers in the ticket queue system results in naive customer abandonment behavior and worsens system performances compared to those in the corresponding physical queue. In order to close the performance gap, we propose to provide different types of information to ticket queue customers. We find that for each type of information provided, the customer balking probability decreases while the customer reneging probability increases, and the overall service completion rate improves. Therefore, providing information does not necessarily guarantee an improvement in each system
Power Electronics Packaging of "Low Profile" Module Integrated Converters for Photovoltaic Applications with Improved Reliability

This paper deals with thermal and reliability aspects of converters for grid connected photovoltaic applications (rated power approx 100 W) which can be integrated into solar modules. The use of these Module Integrated Converters (MIC) promises a reduction of costs due to mass production and an improved behaviour of the equipped photovoltaic system by avoiding voltage mismatch caused by shading effects. Since the MIC is part of the solar module, the electronic components of the MIC are exposed to extreme environmental conditions. A detailed thermal simulation of the MIC is used to optimise the MIC design according to temperature and reliability issues. The models used for thermal simulation are described. The effectiveness of using a single temperature sense to realise a over-temperature protection is investigated. Different realisations of integrating the designed low profile MIC into the solar module are evaluated. The presented MIC is capable to run in very high ambient temperatures. Using a Low Profile MIC with optimised design results in a maximised availability of the Photovoltaic system which consequently leads to a cost reduction of the electrical energy delivered to the grid.
Trajectory Control of an Air Cushion Vehicle.

In this report several propulsion systems of air cushion vehicles are introduced, and a state feedback control law is proposed for the trajectory control of an air cushion vehicle. This control system has to be treated as a nonholonomic system when we consider that the air cushion vehicle does not drift sideways for a good driving performance. We discuss the controllability of the nonholonomic system and use a Lyapunov-like function to develop a nonlinear state feedback control law. Effectiveness of the nonlinear state feedback control law for an ACV model was verified through numerical simulations.
To bridge or not to bridge: summary of the new evidence in endovascular stroke treatment

ALREADY Recently published summaries and meta-analyses of four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) 1–5 comparing direct mechanical thrombectomy (dMT) and bridging therapy with intravenous (IV) thrombolytics (alteplase) suggested that dMT is non- inferior to bridging therapy to achieve good functional outcome 3 months after stroke (modified Rankin Score 0–2) with the non- inferiority margin (NIM) <−5%.
Decision analysis models for aircraft engine maintenance planning using discrete event simulation

With stringent standards for materials, manufacturing, operation, and quality control, jet engines in use on commercial aircraft are very reliable. It is not uncommon for engines to operate for thousands of hours before being scheduled for inspection, service or repair. However, due to required maintenance and unexpected failures aircraft must be periodically grounded and their engines attended to. The tasks of maintenance and repair without optimal planning can be costly and result in prolonged maintenance times, reduced availability and possible flight delays. These factors have a negative impact on both the airline operators and the passengers alike. Aircraft manufacturers and maintainers, who provide after sale services, see significant benefits in constantly improving health management and maintenance practices by deploying the most effective maintenance strategies. Maintenance is seen as an imposed cost that ought to be minimized. Airlines must evaluate new technologies and their possible role in reducing the long term expenditure for operating a fleet of aircraft throughout its life cycle. A significant share of these expenses goes towards maintenance of these aircraft, especially their engines. This study presents a model-based integrated decision making system for aircraft engine maintenance planning. The goal is to determine the optimum number of engines on an aircraft for maintenance based on logged engine operation data in order to maximize the use of estimated remaining time to the next service as well as to minimize
Real-time crash prediction on urban expressways: identification of key variables and a hybrid support vector machine model

The traffic safety on expressways is crucial for the efficient operation of the expressway system, and there is a close relationship between traffic states and crashes on expressways, and the occurrence of crashes may be influenced by the interaction of different combinations of traffic states upstream and downstream of the crash location. Based on the crash data and the corresponding traffic flow detector data collected on expressways in Shanghai, this study proposes a hybrid model combining a support vector machine (SVM) model with a k-means clustering algorithm to predict the likelihood of crashes. The random forest (RF) model is employed to select the important and significant variables for model construction from the data of the traffic flow 5-10 min before the crash occurred. Then, the cross-validation and transferability of different models (SVM model without variable selection, SVM model with variable selection, and hybrid SVM model with variable selection) are determined using 577 crashes and 5794 matched non-crash events. The results show that the crash prediction model along with the four most important variables selected using the RF model can obtain a satisfactory prediction performance for crashes. With the combination of the clustering algorithm and SVM model, the accuracy of the crash prediction model can be as high as 78.0%. Moreover, the results of the transferability of the three different models imply that the variable selection and clustering algorithm both have an advantage for crash prediction.
Cytotoxic and antitumor properties of ziziphus spina-christi found in al bahah region of hejaz area: An in vitro study on oral cancer cell lines

Background: Ziziphus spina-christi (Z s-c) is traditionally been used as an herbal medicine and is part of Rhamnaceae plants family. Objectives: The probable cytotoxic effect of Z s-c, found in Al Bahah region, on human oral cancer cell lines (SCC-9) was assessed in the present study. Materials and Methods: Bioactive compounds of Z s-c were evaluated using thin layer chromatography, analytical high-performance liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analyses. The cytotoxic effect of Z s-c on SCC-9 cells was revealed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The mechanisms involved in the cytotoxicity of Z s-c were investigated in terms of apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential, and cell cycle using flow cytometry, while caspase-9 and p53 activity was investigated using the Western Blot analysis. Results: Z s-c has potent variable cytotoxic effect on SCC-9 cells demonstrated through lactate dehydrogenase and comet assay. An effective cell cycle arrest was observed at the G2M phase with apoptotic induction. They significantly induce G2M cell cycle arrest and promote apoptosis in SCC-9 cell line. The expression of caspase-9 and p53 was induced by Z s-c in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: Z s-c may be a novel candidate for the development of new natural product-based therapeutic agents against oral cancer.
Telerehabilitation and Monitoring Physical Activity in Patient with Breast Cancer: Systematic Review

Background: Timely rehabilitation in patients with Breast Cancer (BC) has a great impact on improving their physical and mental conditions. Thus, the appropriate follow-up method is essential especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to review the different technology-assisted interventions for improving physical activity in BC patients. Materials And Methods: In this systematic review, the original studies were extracted from the beginning of indexing in databases including PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science until 2019. Finally, 45 papers were included in this study based on the inclusion criteria for before the Covid-19 pandemic and 3 articles extracted for the Covid-19 period. Results: The most widely used technologies for BC patients were in the United States (46.67%). Telephone, mobile application, and web with 28.89%, 15.56%, and 8.89% frequencies were the most common technologies, respectively. Although the majority of the participants were satisfied with the intervention method, in some cases, the patients were unsatisfied due to the complexity of the technology. These technologies were used for various purposes, such as physical activity and functions, control of pain severity, fitness, quality of life, diet behavior, fatigue, muscle strength, cardio-respiratory capacity, as well as arm and shoulder exercises. Conclusions: In conclusion, virtual communication can improve the health of BC patients and also increases patients' desire and hope to continue treatment. It is worth noting that in the Covid-19 pandemic, with the strengthening of virtual communication infrastructure, more attention was paid to BC patients due to their sensitive conditions.
RAFT: A simulator for ReActive Flow and Transport of groundwater contaminants

This report documents the use of the simulator RAFT for the ReActive flow and Transport of groundwater contaminants. RAFT can be used as a predictive tool in the design and analysis of laboratory and field experiments or it can be used for the estimation of model/process parameters from experiments. RAFT simulates the reactive transport of groundwater contaminants in one, two-, or three-dimensions and it can model user specified source/link configurations and arbitrary injection strategies. A suite of solvers for transport, reactions and regression are employed so that a combination of numerical methods best suited for a problem can be chosen. User specified coupled equilibrium and kinetic reaction systems can be incorporated into RAFT. RAFT is integrated with a symbolic computational language MAPLE, to automate code generation for arbitrary reaction systems. RAFT is expected to be used as a simulator for engineering design for field experiments in groundwater remediation including bioremediation, reactive barriers and redox manipulation. As an integrated tool with both the predictive ability and the ability to analyze experimental data, RAFT can help in the development of remediation technologies, from laboratory to field.
A Self-learning Conversational Agent Framework for Team Collaboration

The conversational agent framework proposed in this paper employs data extraction algorithms to extend the conversational agents’ knowledge base with new information retrieved from goal-oriented human-to-human conversations without the need for manual intervention. When utilized as a team collaboration tool, this framework will help prevent the loss of internally generated information and make it available for the whole team. A demo case illustrates how the method works in supporting service teams in a collaborative way. The paper finishes with an outlook on future work.
Working Paper WP / 20 / 080 Finance , Institutions and Private Investment in Africa

The study extends the debate on finance versus institutions and measurement of property rights institutions. We assess the relationships between various components of property rights institutions and private investment, notably: political, economic and institutional governances. Comparative concurrent relationships of financial dynamics of depth, efficiency, activity and size are also investigated. The findings provide support for the quality of institutions as a better positive correlate of private investment than financial intermediary development. The interaction of finance and governance is not significant in potentially promoting private investment, perhaps due to substantially documented surplus liquidity issues in African financial institutions. The empirical evidence is based on 53 African countries for the period 1996-2010. Policy measures are discussed for reducing financial deposits, increasing financial activity and hence, improving financial efficiency. JEL Classification: G20; G24; E02; P14; O55