Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
eBATMAN: An Emulator-BAsed Testbed for Studying Mobile Ad-Hoc Network Security

Doing research on mobile ad hoc network (MANET) security involves several constraints, some of which are wireless environment's attributes, such as bandwidth and delay, and the correctness of network topology. Testing and evaluating using real wireless devices are costly and somehow impractical, so many tools have been developed in order to create media by which researchers can deeply investigate different aspects of network security. On software view, recently simulators gain much attention because they provide very detailed low-level models to network behaviors; however, they lack of some physical wireless characteristics. On the other hand, hardware view, emulators are presented to solve the shortcomings posed by simulators by providing a virtual wireless network at low level, and to support real code pieces that can be executed. In this paper, we propose a testbed supporting a highly realistic wireless environment for evaluation of MANET security. One of the features which best distinguishes our testbed from other is that it provides ability to emulate a MANET from layer 2 up while other ones cannot. Furthermore, our testbed integrates flexible configurability as well as deployment and it has effective mechanisms to generate different attacking scenarios. At last, the quality of our testbed is also shown in its ability to offer readiness in deploying various kinds of attack methods thus easier for us to evaluate jobs done.
All Learning Is Local: Multi-agent Learning in Global Reward Games

In large multiagent games, partial observability, coordination, and credit assignment persistently plague attempts to design good learning algorithms. We provide a simple and efficient algorithm that in part uses a linear system to model the world from a single agent's limited perspective , and takes advantage of Kalman filtering to allow an agent to construct a good training signal and effectively learn a near-optimal policy in a wide variety of settings.
Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression

Part I. From There to Here - Theoretical Background: 1. From visiousness to viciousness: theories of intergroup relations 2. Social dominance theory as a new synthesis Part II. Oppression and its Psycho-Ideological Elements: 3. The psychology of group dominance: social dominance orientation 4. Let's both agree that you're really stupid: the power of consensual ideology Part III. The Circle of Oppression - The Myriad Expressions of Institutional Discrimination: 5. You stay in your part of town and I'll stay in mine: discrimination in the housing and retail markets 6. They're just too lazy to work: discrimination in the labor market 7. They're just mentally and physically unfit: discrimination in education and health care 8. The more of 'them' in prison, the better: institutional terror, social control and the dynamics of the criminal justice system Part IV. Oppression as a Cooperative Game: 9. Social hierarchy and asymmetrical group behavior: social hierarchy and group difference in behavior 10. Sex and power: the intersecting political psychologies of patriarchy and empty-set hierarchy 11. Epilogue.
Evaluation of Surface Resistivity Measurements as an Alternative to the Rapid Chloride Permeability Test for Quality Assurance and Acceptance

Many entities currently use permeability specifications in portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements and structures. This project investigated the use of a surface resistivity device as an indication of concrete’s ability to resist chloride ion penetration for use in quality assurance (QA) and acceptance of concrete. ASTM C 1202 tests were conducted at various ages with the corresponding surface resistivity test and the results were compared. Samples tested included: field prepared samples, samples from the ongoing 09-4C: Evaluation of Ternary Cementitious Combinations project, and samples from the laboratory test matrix. The laboratory test matrix tested several mixtures common to Louisiana at a wide range of water to cementitious materials ratios to evaluate the range of the surface resistivity meter. The surface resistivity measurements correlate well with rapid chloride permeability measurements across a wide range of permeability values and sample testing ages. Suitable correlations were found to exist between both the 14-day and 28-day surface resistivity values and the 56-day rapid chloride permeability values. The standard deviation of the surface resistivity meter results are usually less than 3 k(omega)-cm compared to 300 to 500 Coulombs from the rapid chloride permeability test. The surface resistivity meter was also able to identify great differences in water to cementitious materials (w/cm) ratios for the same mixtures. The cost benefit analysis showed that implementation of the device will save the Department about $101,000 in personnel costs in the first year. It is estimated that contractors will save about $1.5 million in quality control costs. The cost benefit ratio for this project is estimated to be about 15. LADOTD TR Procedure, TR 233, has been developed and implementation of the surface resistivity device has begun.
DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON PERFORMANCE OF ROADS PROJECTS AT KENYA NATIONAL HIGHWAYS AUTHORITY

Purpose: The study aims at investigating the determinants of successful project management practices on performance of roads projects at Kenya National Highways Authority. This study was limited to four variables, which include project monitoring, management support, Project team, and Project funding.Methodology: The study employed a descriptive research design. The target population included the top project management team of KeNHA, Monitoring Officers of KeNHA, Project Engineers (PEs), financial officers and auditors, Consultants and Contractors in the entire structure of KeNHA totaling to 174. The study employed stratified random sampling technique to acquire a sample size of 87. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data through the use of a organized survey of questionnaire. Data was presented in the form of frequency distribution tables, graphs and pie charts that facilitates description and explanation of the study findings. Results: The study findings revealed that project monitoring, management support, Project team competency and Project funding influence performance of roads projects at KeNHA. The results of findings indicates that a unit increase in project monitoring, management support Project team competency and Project funding leads to 0.873, 0.581, 0.713 and 0.289 increase in performance of roads projects at KeNHA respectively. The study concluded that Project Funds greatly influence road Project Completion. Recommendations: The study recommends that management should provide the necessary provision to the practical and operating workers in the development of road project operations for real and practical success of objectives. Highly qualified and experienced management support with a relevant experience and technical skills should be hired to implement road projects. This will enable the Kenya government get value for their money, achieve on-time projects completion and save huge costs.
A Three-Frame Approach to Constraint-Consistent Motion Estimation

We study the motion estimation across three images by simultaneously enforcing the geometric constraint of trilinearity and the constant-brightness constraint. An iterative and hierarchical three-frame scheme is proposed to solve the geometry-consistent and appearance-consistent motion fields. It provides an uncalibrated approach to dense motion estimation, applicable to both 2D and 3D rigid scenes under perspective projection with unconstrained camera motion. Valid and consistent constraints are explored to alleviate the inherent aperture and over smoothing problems
Intersecting brane worlds

We review the construction of chiral four-dimensional compactifications of type IIA string theory with intersecting D6-branes. Such models lead to four-dimensional theories with non-Abelian gauge interactions and charged chiral fermions. We discuss the application of these techniques to building of models with spectrum as close as possible to the standard model, and review their main phenomenological properties.
A salutogenic strengths-based approach in practice – an illustration from a school in Sweden

ABSTRACT Despite an extensive debate and an openness of teachers to a strength-based approach to health and physical education, it is not always clear what a salutogenic strengths-based approach might look like in practice, at least not in the day-to-day work in schools. The purpose of this article is to present a salutogenic strengths-based school initiative in Sweden and to identify health discourses in the school's practice. An insider perspective is used to explore health in the school through Brookfield's four lenses for exploring one's own teaching practice. Two health discourses are identified: (1) an individual health discourse rooted in the fostering of personal development, and (2) a value-based health discourse build up around social relations and the fostering of democratic values. The individual health discourse can be understood as based in a pathogenic norm, and in the investigated school practice the individual health discourse dominated the school health initiative despite the salutogenic intentions.
An Approach for Devanagari Handwritten character recognition using HMM and Fuzzy ARTMAP

paper focus is on recognition of handwritten characters of Devanagari script. Recognition of Devanagari handwritten alphabets is important because of its applicability to a number of problems like many commercial forms, mythological records recognition in archeology department and offline document recognition generated by the expanding technological society. Though various new trends and technologies emerged in these days, still handwriting is playing an important role. To recognize handwritten data there are different strategies like Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP (SFAM). Our focus is on Fuzzy ARTMAP, which is an updated version of Predictive Adaptive Resonance Theory, works on feedback mechanism. It also has an ability to adjust clusters as per the requirements, which is beneficial to reduce noise.
On relativistic quantum mechanics in the rest-frame instant form of dynamics

A review is given of a new relativistic classical mechanics for N-particle systems compatible with relativistic bound states. It is formulated in global non-inertial frames in Minkowski space-time by means of parametrized Minkowski theories and then restricted to the intrinsic inertial rest frame of the isolated system. There is a complete control on the relativistic collective variables (Newton-Wigner center of mass, Fokker-Pryce center of inertia, M/oller center of energy) and on the realization of the Poincare' algebra (with the explicit form of the interaction-dependent Lorentz boosts). The particle world-lines are found to correspond to the ones of predictive mechanics and localization problems are clarified. The model can be consistently quantized avoiding the instantaneous spreading of the center-of-mass wave packets (Hegerfeldt theorem), because the non-local non-covariant center of mass is a non-measurable quantity. This implies that the Hilbert space must be the tensor product of the center-of-mass Hilbert space with the one of relative motions. This spatial non-separability (due to the Lorentz signature of space-time) makes relativistic entanglement much more involved than the non-relativistic one.
Estimating deformations of stationary processes

This paper studies classes of nonstationary processes, such as warped processes and frequency-modulated processes, that result from the deformation of stationary processes. Estimating deformations can often provide important information about an underlying physical phenomenon. A computational harmonic analysis viewpoint shows that the deformed autocovariance satisfies a transport equation at small scales, with a velocity proportional to a deformation gradient. We derive an estimator of the deformation from a single realization of the deformed process, with a proof of consistency under appropriate assumptions.
Photogrammetric determination of spatio-temporal velocity fields at Glaciar San Rafael in the Northern Patagonian Icefield

The paper describes an approach to determine spatio-temporal velocity fields at Glaciar San Rafael in the Northern Patagonian Icefield by terrestrial image sequence analysis. It discusses image acquisition schemes and concentrates on aspects of glacier surface feature tracking, georeferencing and trajectory precision. Glaciar San Rafael in the Northern Patagonian Icefield, with a length of 51 km and an ice area of 722 km 2 , is the lowest latitude tidewater outlet glacier in the world and one of the fastest and most productive glaciers in southern South America in terms of iceberg flux. In a joint project of the TU Dresden and CECS, spatio-temporal velocity fields in the region of the glacier front were determined in a campaign in austral spring of 2009. Monoscopic terrestrial image sequences were recorded with an intervallometer mode high resolution digital camera over several days. In these image sequences, a large number of glacier surface points were tracked by subpixel accuracy feature tracking techniques. Scaling and georeferencing of the trajectories obtained from image space tracking was performed via a multi-station GPS-supported photogrammetric network. The technique allows for tracking hundreds of glacier surface points at a precision in the order of one decimeter and an almost arbitrarily high temporary resolution. The results show velocities of up to 16 meter per day, which is in accordance with former measurements. A significant tidal signal, as theoretically predicted by other authors, could not be observed. As a by-product, a maximum value of 55 meter could be determined for the glacier front height.
Airways disease: just nosing around?

The airway is a continuous structure extending from the nasal vestibule to the alveoli, with the same pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium along much of its length. While an arbitrary line at the level of the vocal cords divides the airway into upper and lower subdivisions—a concept introduced in medical school anatomy tutorials and continued in patient care—airways disease does not conform to such specific anatomical regions. Upper and lower airway disease often coexist, with upper airway involvement often preceding that of the lower airway and even determining severity of disease and quality of life.1 This recognition has led to the development of the terms “united airways” and “one airway, one disease”. The nose is an air conditioner—filtering, warming and humidifying over 10 000 litres of air daily before it progresses to the lungs. The nasal passages and associated structures bear the brunt of environmental contact, being the first site of allergen, microbial and particle deposition. As a consequence, the upper airway is the location of a highly-developed innate and adaptive immune system. Effective mucociliary clearance is vital for respiratory health, as evidenced by the effects of defects such as primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and cystic fibrosis. Sinus disease is almost universal in these patients, and even the subgroup of idiopathic bronchiectasis demonstrates high rates of chronic sinus infection, polyps and inflammation.2 Simple measures such as nasal douching can help with symptoms and quality of life. Measurement of nasal nitric oxide is simple and quick,3 and very low levels can alert the physician to the possibility of PCD before major lung damage is sustained, thus allowing the benefit of early physiotherapy. An important lymphoid tissue mass (tonsils and adenoids) collectively termed Waldeyer’s ring and prominent in childhood is a unique immunological organ surrounding the upper airway. It supports development …
11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase enzymes in the testis and male reproductive tract of the boar (Sus scrofa domestica) indicate local roles for glucocorticoids in male reproductive physiology

11Beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11betaHSD) enzymes modulate the target cell actions of corticosteroids by catalysing metabolism of the physiological glucocorticoid (GC), cortisol, to inert cortisone. Recent studies have implicated GCs in boar sperm apoptosis. Hence, the objective of this study was to characterise 11betaHSD enzyme expression and activities in the boar testis and reproductive tract. Although 11betaHSD1 and 11betaHSD2 mRNA transcripts and proteins were co-expressed in all tissues, cortisol-cortisone interconversion was undetectable in the corpus and cauda epididymides, vas deferens, vesicular and prostate glands, irrespective of nucleotide cofactors. In contrast, homogenates of boar testis, caput epididymidis and bulbourethral gland all displayed pronounced 11betaHSD activities in the presence of NADPH/NADP(+) and NAD(+), and the penile urethra exhibited NAD(+)-dependent 11beta-dehydrogenase activity. In kinetic studies, homogenates of boar testis, caput epididymidis and bulbourethral gland oxidised cortisol with K(m) values of 237-443 and 154-226 nmol/l in the presence of NADP(+) and NAD(+) respectively. Maximal rates of NADP(+)-dependent cortisol oxidation were 7.4- to 28.5-fold greater than the V(max) for NADPH- dependent reduction of cortisone, but were comparable with the rates of NAD(+)-dependent cortisol metabolism. The relatively low K(m) estimates for NADP(+) -dependent cortisol oxidation suggest that either the affinity of 11betaHSD1 has been increased or the cortisol inactivation is catalysed by a novel NADP(+)-dependent 11betaHSD enzyme in these tissues. We conclude that in the boar testis, caput epididymidis and bulbourethral gland, NADP(+)- and NAD(+)-dependent 11betaHSD enzymes catalyse net inactivation of cortisol, consistent with a physiological role in limiting any local actions of GCs within these reproductive tissues.
Mathematical models in ruminant nutrition

Mathematical models can be used to improve performance, reduce cost of production, and reduce nutrient excretion by accounting for more of the variation in predicting requirements and feed utilization in each unique production situation. Mathematical models can be classified into five or more categories based on their nature and behavior. Determining the appropriate level of aggregation of equations is a major problem in formulating models. The most critical step is to describe the purpose of the model and then to determine the appropriate mix of empirical and mechanistic representations of physiological functions, given development and evaluation dataset availability, inputs typically available and the benefits versus the risks of use associated with increased sensitivity. We discussed five major feeding systems used around the world. They share common concepts of energy and nutrient requirement and supply by feeds, but differ in structure and application of the concepts. Animal models are used for a variety of purposes, including the simple description of observations, prediction of responses to management, and explanation of biological mechanisms. Depending upon the objectives, a number of different approaches may be used, including classical algebraic equations, predictive empirical relationships, and dynamic, mechanistic models. The latter offer the best opportunity to make full use of the growing body of knowledge regarding animal biology. Continuing development of these types of models and computer technology and software for their implementation holds great promise for improvements in the effectiveness with which fundamental knowledge of animal function can be applied to improve animal agriculture and reduce its impact on the environment.
CLAPI, une base de données multimodale pour la parole en interaction : apports et dilemmes

Dans cette contribution, nous presentons la base CLAPI developpee au laboratoire ICAR dans le contexte de l’evolution des bases de donnees de langues parlees en France au cours des trente dernieres annees. Nous detaillons les deux composantes de CLAPI, l’archive de corpus de langue parlee en interaction audio et video enregistres dans des situations sociales naturelles variees, et la plateforme d’outils.L’usage et l’apport de CLAPI sont illustres par deux etudes. L’une decrit comment la base peut etre utilisee pour des travaux de linguistique interactionnelle integrant la multimodalite (« oh la la ») ; l’autre concerne une recherche combinant donnees et metadonnees (« trop »). L’article est aussi l’occasion d’un bilan plus general. La mise en perspective montre en effet qu’apres la periode des questions est venue celle des dilemmes. La periode des questions, choix et decisions a toutes sortes de niveaux a accompagne la mise en place des bases de donnees. L’experience permet maintenant de mesurer leurs indeniables apports en termes non seulement de quantite de donnees disponibles (et traitables grâce aux outils), mais aussi de qualite (comme consequence des exigences de standardisation liees au partage des donnees). La periode des dilemmes nous conduit a nous interroger sur les meilleurs choix a operer aujourd’hui dans les relations entre la poursuite des recherches sur des corpus varies (et parfois sensibles) et les exigences des bases de donnees ouvertes.
Exchange rate Pass-Through to domestic prices in Tunisia: a short and long run analysis

This study analyzes the impact of the exchange rate fluctuations in the short and long-runs in Tunisia under a pure commitment policy through two channels. The first is the Structural Vector Autoregression used to analyze the short run effects of the exchange rate on the industrial production index and on the consumer and import price indexes. The second is the Vector Error Correction Model used to examine the long run dynamic effects of the exchange rate upon the same variables relying on Tunisian monthly data during the period January 1993 to June 2011. Unlike several empirical studies, which show that the impact of the exchange rate movements on prices has been reduced over the past few years in the industrialized countries, the exchange rate is found to be a potential source not only of production but also of inflation reduction in Tunisia. Indeed, the direct channel of the exchange rate seems to have a significant impact on production and inflation in the long-run, whereas the indirect one has no effect on the money supply. These results strongly support the monetary policy of the central bank targeting the exchange rate because there is a strong correlation between this rate and prices.
Precore – a Token-based Speculation Architecture for High-level Language to Hardware Compilation

We propose a universal method to automatically generate both datapaths and the appropriate application-specific speculation-support logic from high-level C-language descriptions. Our approach aims to be lightweight by extending efficient statically-scheduled microarchitectures with a limited dynamic token model to predict, commit, and replay speculation events. As a first source of speculativeness, we evaluate the use of data-value speculation to speed-up memory reads when targeting a reconfigurable adaptive computer .