In this thesis we study the problem of computing a straight-line representation of a planarization with a fixed combinatorial structure. By the results of Mnëv [Mnë88] and Shor [Sho91] this problem is as hard as the Existential Theory of the Reals (∃R-Complete). We present a heuristic called Geometric Planarization Drawing to compute a straight-line representation of a planarization. We take an...

The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been organised before identity of three winners play-offs is revealed. Seeding based on Ranking released 31 March but these teams have drawn from weakest Pot 4. We show that official seeding policy does not balance difficulty levels groups to extent possible: a better alternative would assign placeholders according highest-ranked potential winner, simila...

Relational databases have been used to represent lexical knowledge since the days of machine-readable dictionaries. However, although software engineering provides a methodological framework for the construction of databases, most developing efforts focus on content, implementation and timesaving issues, and forget about the software engineering aspects of database construction. We have defined...

From its start, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) has been successfully exploiting social media networks, most notoriously Twitter, to promote its propaganda and recruit new members, resulting in thousands of social media users adopting pro-ISIS stance every year. Automatic identification of pro-ISIS users on social media has, thus, become the centre of interest for...

This paper describes the development of a software tool to support knowledge acquisition by means of rich pictures, for Object Oriented Analysis (OOA). Transposition of manual rich picture practise into software proved difficult, therefore we decided to follow a user-centered approach, design and implement a prototype with basic functionalities, then run a usability test with a few students and...

The ability to automatically detect ‘visually interesting’ regions in an image has many practical applications especially in the design of active machine vision systems. This paper describes a data-driven approach that uses eye tracking in tandem with principal component analysis to extract lowlevel image features that attract human gaze. Data analysis on an ensemble of image patches extracted ...

A map is at the same time a group. To represent a map (that is, a graph drawn on the sphere or on another surface) we usually use a pair of permutations on the set of the \ends" of edges. These permutations generate a group which we call a cartographic group. The main motivation for the study of the cartographic group is the so-called theory of \dessins d'enfants" of Grothendieck, which relates...