Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Augmented Reality Interface Design to Support Visualisation of ‘Risk Landscapes’

Climate change is producing an increase in the severity and frequency of hydro-meterological hazards, such as hurricanes, storm surges, flooding, landslides and debris flows. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly susceptible to such hazards because of their limited economic base. Furthermore, the inhabitants of SIDS tend to live near the coast and along river valleys: both are high-risk locations. The first priority of the UN's Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is understanding disaster risk. To that end, the CommonSensing project is using satellite remote sensing data as the basis for an Augmented Reality application to support understanding of local "risk landscapes" for SIDS. This paper uses a systematic literature search to establish existing guidelines for Augmented Reality applications to support understanding of risk. There is very little recent research relating to developing interfaces for Augmented Reality applications, especially for risk reduction and management. Based on the results of this study, eight recommendations have been produced to support development of Augmented Reality applications. Additionally, suggestions have been made of how to apply these guidelines to an Augmented Reality for improved risk understanding and communication within SIDS.
Filter Based Scalable Blockchain for Domestic Internet of Things

With the advancements in technology, the ease of interconnectedness among devices has increased manifold, leading to the widespread usage of Internet of Things. Internet of Things has also reached our homes, often referred to as domestic Internet of Things. However, the security aspect of domestic Internet of Things has largely been under question as the increase in inter-device communication renders the system more vulnerable to adversaries. Largely popular blockchain technology is being extensively researched for integration into the Internet of Things framework in order to improve the security aspect of the framework. Blockchain, being a cryptographically linked set of data, has a few barriers which prevent it from being successfully integrated to Internet of Things. One of the major barrier is the high computational requirements and time latency associated with it. This work tries to address this research gap and proposes a novel scalable blockchain optimization for domestic Internet of Things. The proposed blockchain model uses a flow based filtering technique as an added security layer to facilitate the scenario. This work then evaluates the performance of the proposed model in various scenarios and compares it with that of traditional blockchain. The work presents a largely encompassing evaluation, explanation and assessment of the proposed model.
Speak to Me: Interacting with a Spoken Language Interface

This study addresses the importance of encouraging effective interaction of users with information systems. We examined the interaction between users and a spoken language interface through a user-centered Wizard of Oz experiment, in which the user behavior of a spoken language search interface which allows only spoken query and touch behavior, was compared with a generic keyboard baseline interface. Forty-eight participants joined the experiment, with each searching on 12 different topics of three types. Results showed that using the spoken interface resulted in significantly less interaction measured by the number of iterations, number of viewed webpages, and number of clicks/touches, than using the baseline interface. In terms of query length, participants using the spoken interface issued significantly longer queries than those using the baseline interface. Results also indicated that participants spent significantly more time in completing tasks, dwelling on each document, and making decisions on each document using the spoken language interface than using the baseline interface. Design criteria and implications for spoken language systems were discussed.
Rethinking Personas for Fairness: Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability in Data-Driven Personas

Algorithmic fairness criteria for machine learning models are gathering widespread research interest. They are also relevant in the context of data-driven personas that rely on online user data and opaque algorithmic processes. Overall, while technology provides lucrative opportunities for the persona design practice, several ethical concerns need to be addressed to adhere to ethical standards and to achieve end user trust. In this research, we outline the key ethical concerns in data-driven persona generation and provide design implications to overcome these ethical concerns. Good practices of data-driven persona development include (a) creating personas also from outliers (not only majority groups), (b) using data to demonstrate diversity within a persona, (c) explaining the methods and their limitations as a form of transparency, and (d) triangulating the persona information to increase truthfulness.
Transitioning from Plan-driven Methods to Agile Methods - Preparation for a Systematic Literature Review

Agile methods are becoming increasingly popular for software development projects in many organisations. Transitioning from the plan-driven methods to agile methods comes with a host of challenges, mainly due to the polar opposite ways in which these methods work. This paper describes the preparatory work done towards analysing the literature pertaining to the transition of organisations to swift methods from heavy-weight techniques, along end goal being a well-planned and well-organized review. A preliminary review provided in the existing literature suggests that organisations usually begin the transformation with formalized coaching, guidance sessions and documentation to introduce developers to agile methods, which often start as pilot projects with a small number of teams. Organisations attempting the transition face a variety of challenges - from bureaucratic processes that are not conducive to agile methods, to managerial systems that do not support an agile way of working. Existing literature reviews attempt to analyse a set of specific issues in the agile transformation process, or focus on primary studies on certain time limit and certain limit of agile method/integration of agile with other frameworks, limiting the scope of these studies. The research questions, and the inclusion criteria, and the search strategy used for selecting relevant papers are described.
Speech Standards: Lessons Learnt

During the past decades, the landscape of speech and DTMF applications has changed from being based on proprietary platforms to being completely based on speech standards. The W3C Voice Browser Working Group played a primary goal in this change. This chapter describes that change, highlights the standards created by the W3C VBWG, and discusses the benefits that these standards have provided in many other application fields, including multi-modal interfaces.
Design of Intelligent and Open Avionics System Onboard

The continuous development of space missions has put forward requirements for high performance, high reliability, intelligence, effective integration, miniaturization, and quick turn around productization of the electronic system of satellites. The complexity of satellites has continued to increase, and the focus of satellite competition has shifted from the launch of success shifts to communication capacity, performance indicators, degree of flexibility, and continuous service capabilities. So, the importance of onboard avionics system is becoming increasingly prominent. In the future, the advanced avionics system integrates most of the platform’s electronic equipment. The design level of the system largely determines the performance of the satellite platform. This chapter focuses on the application requirements of the new generation of intelligent avionics system for future communication satellites and adopts an “open” architecture of “centralized management, distributed measurement and drive, and software and hardware ‘modular’ design” to build a universal, standardized, and scalable intelligent avionics system.
Integration of the elements of a distributed IT system with a computer network core using island topology

This paper proposes anew architecture for wide area networks. The architecture is based on the concept of independent islands connected via adynamically reconfigured core. Reconfiguration can take place at the level of the physical layer and data link layer, which forces the reconfiguration of other network protocols. During normal network operation, the currently available alternative connections are permanently analysed and an optimal core structure is developed. To evaluate the next variants of the core topology, amulticriteria evaluation of various technical, economic, and operational parameters is applied.
Recognition of Sarcastic Sentences in Sentiment Analysis of a Text that Describes the Appearance of a Person

This article is devoted to the method of recognition of sarcasm in the text in order to improve the accuracy of sentiment analysis. As a domain area for the experiment, the task of determination the sentiment level of a text that describes the appearance of a person was chosen. At first, references to the personality and elements that describes appearance from the text written in a natural language are detected using the method of latent semantic analysis. Frame model of knowledge representation was chosen as the information structure of the human appearance. The next step is to evaluate the attitude to the person in the text using the pre-labeled sentiment dictionary. At this stage, the method of recognizing sarcastic sentences that contains a description of the appearance is used. The sentiment level should be re-evaluated in the slots of the frame instance. The F-measure was used as an efficiency criterion for correct sarcasm recognition. At the end of the article, the results of experiment are provided.
Study and development of emergent dispatching system for sudden water pollution accidents

Abstract Because of the frequent incidents of water pollution in China, the ecological environment and the socio-economic along the river are threatened seriously. In order to improve the ability of dealing with sudden water pollution accidents, the emergency dispatching system of sudden water pollution accidents is constructed by using data mining, database, GIS and other technologies combined with reservoir operation model, hydrodynamic model and water quality model. The main functions of the system include that the information management, scheme generation, simulation of water quality and quantity, emergency dispatch, and three-dimensional simulation. Applied research is carried out in Songhua River basin, which can provide technical support and decision-making platform for sudden water pollution accidents.
WikNectVR: A Gesture-Based Approach for Interacting in Virtual Reality Based on WikNect and Gestural Writing

In recent years, the usability of interfaces in the field of Virtual Realities (VR) has massively improved, so that theories and applications of multimodal data processing can now be tested more extensively. In this paper we present an extension of VAnnotatoR, which is a VR-based open hypermedia system that is used for annotating, visualizing and interacting with multimodal data. We extend VAnnotatoR by a module for gestural writing that uses data gloves as an interface for VR. Our extension addresses the application scenario of WikiNect, a museum information system, and its gesture palette for realizing gestural writing. To this end, we implement and evaluate seven gestures. The paper describes the training and recognition of these gestures and their use within the framework of a user-centered evaluation system for virtual museums as exemplified by WikiNect.
NTRU-Like Random Congruential Public-Key Cryptosystem for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the core of the Internet of Things and require cryptographic protection. Cryptographic methods for WSN should be fast and consume low power as these networks rely on battery-powered devices and microcontrollers. NTRU, the fastest and secure public key cryptosystem, uses high degree, N, polynomials and is susceptible to the lattice basis reduction attack (LBRA). Congruential public key cryptosystem (CPKC), proposed by the NTRU authors, works on integers modulo q and is easily attackable by LBRA since it uses small numbers for the sake of the correct decryption. Herein, RCPKC, a random congruential public key cryptosystem working on degree N=0 polynomials modulo q, is proposed, such that the norm of a two-dimensional vector formed by its private key is greater than q. RCPKC works as NTRU, and it is a secure version of insecure CPKC. RCPKC specifies a range from which the random numbers shall be selected, and it provides correct decryption for valid users and incorrect decryption for an attacker using LBRA by Gaussian lattice reduction. RCPKC asymmetric encryption padding (RAEP), similar to its NTRU analog, NAEP, is IND-CCA2 secure. Due to the use of big numbers instead of high degree polynomials, RCPKC is about 27 times faster in encryption and decryption than NTRU. Furthermore, RCPKC is more than three times faster than the most effective known NTRU variant, BQTRU. Compared to NTRU, RCPKC reduces energy consumption at least thirty times, which allows increasing the life-time of unattended WSNs more than thirty times.
IND-CCA1 Secure FHE on Non-Associative Ring

A fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) would be the important cryptosystem as the basic scheme for the cloud computing. Since Gentry discovered in 2009 the first fully homomorphic encryption scheme, some fully homomorphic encryption schemes were proposed. In the systems proposed until now the bootstrapping process is the main bottleneck and the large complexity for computing the ciphertext is required. In 2011 Zvika Brakerski et al. proposed a leveled FHE without bootstrapping. But circuit of arbitrary level cannot be evaluated in their scheme while in our scheme circuit of any level can be evaluated. The existence of an efficient fully homomorphic cryptosystem would have great practical implications in the outsourcing of private computations, for instance, in the field of the cloud computing. In this paper, IND-CCA1secure FHE based on the difficulty of prime factorization is proposed which does not need the bootstrapping and it is thought that our scheme is more efficient than the previous schemes. In particular the computational overhead for homomorphic evaluation is O(1).
Extracting and Evaluating Personal Interests with Dialogue Agent

In order to realize a continuous conversation between a dialog agent and a user, it is important to generate topics that are close to the user. In this paper, we propose a method for extracting and evaluating the concept "Personal Interests" that users are interested in through dialogue with a virtual agent (VA). In the proposed method, the VA first talks about a certain genre, asks the user for interests in that genre, and asks the user to talk about episodes about each interest. In addition, the system extracts the personal knowledge "Personal Ontology" from the user's answer, and built and stores that in the form of Linked Data. The extracted interests are evaluated based on three criteria P1 (length of the episode), P2 (the number of concepts included in the episode), and P3 (the number of reference sources of the concepts), and calculate the level of interest in each concept. We implemented a prototype of the proposed method and performed a subject experiment to extract and evaluate personal interests. As a result, it was found that the scores calculated by the criterion P1 and the criterion P2 correlated with the actual interest level of the user. In addition, it was suggested that the criterion P3 could discover new concerns from other concepts included in the episode.
Soft Computing Analytic Models for Multiplication of Asymmetrical Fuzzy Numbers

This paper presents the library of analytical models of the resulting membership functions (MFs) for the arithmetic operation “multiplication” with asymmetrical fuzzy numbers (AFNs), which may have various shapes of MFs. Sixteen analytic models are included to the developed library for multiplication of the triangular AFNs. The authors discuss practical examples and applications of the developed soft computing inverse/direct models.
Fake People, Real Effects

Can effects of social influence be elicited in virtual contexts, and if so, under which conditions can they be observed? Answering these questions has theoretical merit, as the answers can help broaden our understanding of the interaction mechanisms described by social psychology. The increasing popularity of immersive media in training applications, however, has made these questions of practical significance. Virtual reality (VR), in particular, is a weapon of choice in designing training and education simulations, as it can be used to generate highly realistic characters and environments. As a consequence, it is key to understand under which circumstances virtual ‘others’ can facilitate or impede performance and – especially – learning. In this study, we investigated the impact of virtual onlookers on an adapted Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task that was presented in VR. In each trial, participants responded to a series of spherical stimuli by tapping them with handheld controllers when they lit up. Depending on the experiment block, the sequence order was either the permutation of a fixed order (and therefore predictable given the first stimulus), or fully random (and therefore unpredictable). Participants were divided into three groups (audience variable), depending on the environment in which the task was set: a group without onlookers (none condition), a group with a computer-generated audience (CGI condition), and a group being watched by a prerecorded audience (filmed condition). Results showed that the presence of a virtual audience can hamper both overall performance and learning, particularly when the audience appears more realistic. This study further reinforces the notion that the effects of social influence transcend the physical presence of others, but rather extend to virtual audiences.
Statistical Disclosure Control When Publishing on Thematic Maps

The spatial distribution of a variable, such as the energy consumption per company, is usually plotted by colouring regions of the study area according to an underlying table which is already protected from disclosing sensitive information. The result is often heavily influenced by the shape and size of the regions. In this paper, we are interested in producing a continuous plot of the variable directly from microdata and we protect it by adding random noise. We consider a simple attacker scenario and develop an appropriate sensitivity rule that can be used to determine the amount of noise needed to protect the plot from disclosing private information.
Optimized Weight Selection in Levenberg-Marquardt Back-Propagation Using Wolf Search

Levenberg-Marquardt back-propagation (LMBP) algorithm is one of the most widely used alternative algorithms for training of artificial neural networks (ANN). In some cases, learning in LM can become a challenging machine-learning task owing to poor selection of weights and biases. In this manner, the network may become unstable and cause the search process to get stuck in local minima (i.e. resulting into network stagnancy). Recently, meta-heuristic algorithms have proven themselves to alleviate such problem and improve the convergence slow convergence in ANN. In this paper, Wolf Search (WS) that simulates the hunting behavior of wolves in their natural habitat is implemented with LMBP algorithm to optimize the weight selection in ANN. The performance of the proposed Wolf Search with Levenberg-Marquardt (WSLM) is compared with back-propagation and other stochastic LM algorithms by means of simulations on benchmark datasets. The simulation results show that the proposed WSLM performs superior to BPNN, ABC-BP, Bat-BP, and ABC-LM algorithms in terms of convergence speed and local minima avoidance.
Division-by-<i>q</i> dichotomization for interval uncertainty reduction by cutting off equal parts from the left and right based on expert judgments under short-termed observations

Abstract A problem of reducing interval uncertainty is considered by an approach of cutting off equal parts from the left and right. The interval contains admissible values of an observed object’s parameter. The object’s parameter cannot be measured directly or deductively computed, so it is estimated by expert judgments. Terms of observations are short, and the object’s statistical data are poor. Thus an algorithm of flexibly reducing interval uncertainty is designed via adjusting the parameter by expert procedures and allowing to control cutting off. While the parameter is adjusted forward, the interval becomes progressively narrowed after every next expert procedure. The narrowing is performed via division-by- q dichotomization cutting off the q −1 -th parts from the left and right. If the current parameter’s value falls outside of the interval, forward adjustment is canceled. Then backward adjustment is executed, where one of the endpoints is moved backwards. Adjustment is not executed when the current parameter’s value enclosed within the interval is simultaneously too close to both left and right endpoints. If the value is “trapped” like that for a definite number of times in succession, the early stop fires.
Appropriation, Design and User Experience in Public Spaces as a Part of the Language of the City

Semiotic thinking about cities, that is through the prism of their ways of representing various meanings, symbolic values and communication in this text is set into the framework of the User Experience (UX) Design. The primary aspect through which the city is perceived is the appropriation of public spaces by two different communities: Experts and Users – two groups engaged in daily communication situations within a city. Design and appropriation are viewed as a tool for modulation of a language of the city. While it is the inhabitants who use the city, and thus define it, experts exercise the power of setting communication norms and have the responsibility for the User-Centered Design approach in built environments. Elements of the "Language of the City" concept are explored and offered in a perspective of the User-Centered Design.