Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
State-of-the-art Parallel Sparse Simultaneous Linear Equation Solvers

The ability to calculate solutions to huge sets of simultaneous equations quickly is critical to the success of many physical simulations. This project is concerned with discovering how this problem is solved by the best parallel software available. A parallel software library called PETSc represents the state of the art in attempts to tackle this problem. A rudimentary package named IterSol that was developed by students over a period of a few months is compared to PETSc to learn about what factors decide a parallel linear simultaneous equation solver’s quality. An introduction to many important areas related directly to the problem of matrix solution is also provided to give the reader a framework for understanding the computational methods.
Modelling Quantified Microbial Source Specific Pollution from Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems during High Flows

The ability to model the transport of source specific faecal bacteria contamination in river networks can equip water resource managers with information of the different pathogens that are present. Such information can be particularly useful in catchment management plans for rivers from which potable water is extracted or where these rivers discharge to coastal zones where bathing or aquaculture is prominent and where the evaluation of human health risks is of primary importance. This paper presents an application and performance assessment of the commercially available MIKE11 Hydrodynamic model for evaluating the fate of faecal bacteria of human origin, Human Gene Marker HF183f, from Domestic Wastewater Treatment Systems within the Dargle catchment. The Dargle is a spate river and the upper catchment is characterised by steep slopes that incorporates peat bogs and land used for forestry and agricultural purposes. Residential dwellings within the area are predominantly single detached units that rely on septic tanks for wastewater treatment. In the context of faecal bacteria of human origin, malfunctioning systems are of concern, particularly in terms of surface ponding, leakage to groundwater and direct discharge to surface waters. The MIKE11 model was calibrated in a two stages process. Firstly, the model was calibrated for prediction of discharge and microbial water quality parameters, namely E. coli and Intestinal Enterococci (IE), using data from a real-time sensor network within the catchment that comprised rain gauges, weather stations and water level recorders, data from which was used to determine flow records from stage-discharge ratings. E. coli and IE concentrations were determined from high resolution sampling during storm events. Following this, water quality samples taken during storm event sampling were used to identify and quantify the human gene marker HF183f using quantitative polymer chain reaction (qPCR) techniques. Results from the qPCR analysis were used to further calibrate the model at sub-catchment level for the transport of microbial bacteria derived from human origins. Using non-compliance statistics from the EPA National Inspection Plan, domestic sources have been calculated based on the percentage number of malfunctioning septic tank units and average daily faecal gene marker concentrations per household. The study highlights issues with how the fate of the human gene marker is modelled using MIKE11, particularly in terms of advection-dispersion inputs and the requirement to associate microbial concentrations with total runoff when modelling surface and groundwater pathways.
CEOS comparison of IR brightness temperature measurements in support of satellite validation. Part I: Laboratory and Ocean surface temperature comparison of radiation thermometers.

A comparison of terrestrial based Infrared (IR) radiometric instrumentation used to support calibration and validation of satellite borne sensors with emphasis on Sea/water surface temperature was completed at NPL and at the University of Miami during April and May 2009. The objectives of the 2009 comparison were to establish the 'degree of equivalence' between terrestrially based IR Cal/Val measurements made in support of satellite observations of the Earth's surface temperature and to establish their traceability to SI units through the participation of national standards laboratories. During the 2009 comparison, NPL acted as the pilot laboratory and provided traceability to SI units during laboratory comparisons in Europe. NPL was supported by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), University of Miami, acting as hosts and by NIST providing traceability to SI units during laboratory measurements at RSMAS. The 2009 comparison consisted of two stages in order to allow maximum participation and enable the traceability chain to be established to both NPL and NIST. Stage 1 took place at NPL in April 2009 and involved laboratory measurements of participants' blackbodies calibrated using the NPL reference transfer radiometer (AMBER), while participants' radiometers were calibrated using the NPL variable temperature blackbody. Stage 2 took place at RSMAS in May 2009 and involved laboratory measurements of participants' blackbodies calibrated using the NIST Thermal-Infrared Transfer radiometer (TXR), while participants' radiometers were calibrated using the RSMAS and NIST water bath blackbodies. Stage 2 also included the testing of the same radiometers alongside each other, completing direct day-time and night-time measurements of the surface temperature of the Ocean. This report provides the results, together with uncertainties as provided by the participants, for the comparison of the participant's radiometers, when they were monitoring the radiance temperature of the NPL variable temperature blackbody, the RSMAS water bath blackbody and NIST water bath blackbody. It also provides results of the measurement of the Ocean surface temperature completed at the University of Miami. During the 2009 comparison, all participants were encouraged to develop uncertainty budgets for all measurements they reported. All measurements reported by the participants, along with their associated uncertainties were analysed by the pilot laboratory and presented in this report.
PCM Data Reliability Monitoring Through Estimation of Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Reliability monitoring of digital pulse-code modulation (PCM) data in coherent transmission systems can be based upon online estimation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver. Maximum likelihood SNR estimation is analyzed to determine the structure of the estimator and its ability to monitor error rates with a given degree of confidence. In particular, relationships between estimation confidence intervals, observation time, word error rates, and PCM word structure are developed.
Making children multilingual: language policy and parental agency in transnational and multilingual Moroccan families in Spain

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper is to analyse the role of family micro-Language Policies (LP’s) in the context of the Moroccan Diaspora in urban and semi-urban areas in Spain by examining and contrasting different cases of language transmission within transnational migrant families of Moroccan origin. The paper answers the following questions: How are heritage languages constructed by transnational Moroccan families and in what context and under what sociolinguistic regime(s) are families’ LPs developed, negotiated and decided upon? How can LPs develop a functional and practical status of heritage languages or linguistic varieties as well as increase children’s opportunities to construct multilingual repertoires? What proactive agency do parents display for these purposes? Data were collected in three projects using a qualitative, ethnographic sociolinguistic approach.
Leadership Training, Leadership Strategies and Organizational Performance: Designing an Experiment to Test the Causal Effect of Leadership on Performance

Leadership is fundamentally important for improving public sector performance, but the existing literature has severe endogeneity problems. Using a field experiment with 720 Danish leaders and 23.000 employees, the LEAP (Leadership and Performance) project will try to overcome these problems. We use a field experiment to study the effects of leadership training and leadership strategies on organizational performance. The research question is how leadership training affect leadership strategies, and how these strategies affect performance? This paper takes three steps towards answering this question. First, we discuss the conceptualization of leadership strategies. Second, we present our research design and clarify how we expect the leadership training to affect leadership strategies. Third, we discuss briefly how we measure the key concepts: Leadership and performance. Our aim is to develop stronger conceptualizations and operationalizations of transformational and transactional leadership strategies which do not confound leadership strategies with their effects. It is also important to understand how leadership strategies might have different effect in different settings and for different performance measures. Finally, developing leadership training programs to accommodate the problem of causality is also a very important task. Paper presented on the IRPSM conference in Ottawa 9-12 April 2014.
The impact of transnational co-authorship on the scientific quality of academic researchers-Case Studies: Slovenia, Poland and Romania

Abstract The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion about whether the scientific impact of an academic researcher (measured through bibliometrics indices as Hirsch score, citation scores or quantitative data about publications) can be accounted for by the presence of co-authors and the characteristics of the personal networks they are embedded in. With my study, I intend to demonstrate that there is statistical evidence between international co-authorship, measured through the number and the characteristics of international co-authors and the scientific impact of the researcher. Recent studies using bibliometrics and scientometrics approach shows that papers published with international co-authors may result in a higher citation rate than the ones written in a purely national manner (with national co-authors) (Glanzel & Schubert, 2001; Schmoch & Schubert, 2008). In the literature that addresses these issues, the main focus is put on international co-authorship, but my opinion is that the concept has undergone a series of methodological changes. I address these changes as a trend towards a transnational perspective. I explored the personal networks of university researchers, from three academic communities in the field of sociology. I analyzed the data using hierarchical regression models. This article is based on secondary data analysis starting from the data Hâncean used in 2016 (Hâncean & Perc, 2016). The data provided attribute and relational data for the focal nodes and their corresponding alters from Web of Science platform. Given the theoretical framework proposed by previous research (Adams, 2012; Hâncean & Perc, 2014; Glanzel & Schubert, 2004), I expected the scientific impact of an author to be positively influenced by the impact of the personal network he is embedded in. After running the analysis, the presence of transnational co-authors has a moderate impact on the citation distribution, especially for the Romania case. The biggest impact on the citation distribution, for all academic communities I included in the analysis, are the number of publications and the average number of co-authors’ citations. The description and the exploration of the data in all three communities of academic sociologists (Romania, Poland and Slovenia) will be used later in order to show new ways in which knowledge is transferred through the lens of a transnational perspective.
Transmission CT reconstruction for offset fan beam collimation

Offset fan beam collimation has shown to be an effective means of obtaining transmission CT (TCT) data for SPECT attenuation correction. This paper compared three methods for handling the truncation problem and reconstructing this TCT data: iterative OS-EM and filtered backprojection (FBP) with two different pre-processing approaches. The first approach (FBP1) extends the fan beam projection by sinogram interpolation, and the second (FBP2) uses parallel beam rebinning. With a TCT spatial resolution phantom, FBP2 demonstrated a small degree of resolution loss which was equalized across methods after post-reconstruction filtering. With a thorax phantom, all methods performed adequately at high count level; however, at low count level, FBP1 showed degraded image quality due to its handling of zero count projection bins. This finding was corroborated in patient images. We conclude that at practical count levels, the iterative OS-EM method offers a clear advantage in TCT image quality compared to FBP methods.
A real-world application of Social Stories as an intervention for children with communication and behaviour difficulties

ABSTRACT Increasingly, pragmatic language skills are viewed as playing a crucial role in the relationship between language and behaviour difficulties. This study aimed to explore whether Social Stories, a familiar intervention for children with autism, would lead to improvements in problematic behaviour for children with both behaviour and pragmatic language difficulties. Four children (3 males, 1 female) in Key Stage 2 and four school staff personnel in two primary schools in England were recruited to a single-case multiple-baseline design study. Direct observations were examined through visual analysis and intervention effects calculated. Generalisation and maintenance data were also collected and analysed. The Social Story intervention led to a reduction in problematic behaviour across all four participants, with intervention effect size ranging from small-medium (NAP = .58-.79). Social Stories, therefore, offer a promising intervention for children with pragmatic language and behaviour difficulties. Limitations of the study are discussed and directions for future research provided.
WHAT ARE EFFECTIVE APPROACHES FOR SUPPORTING EMERGENT LITERACY IN STUDENTS WHO ARE AT RISK FOR READING FAILURE

This master’s project, “What are effective approaches for supporting emergent literacy in students who are at risk for reading failure? ” reviews the professional literature on the most current instructional practices and approaches that effectively meet the reading development needs of all young students, especially those who are put at risk for reading failure as the result of a disconnect between the student’s instructional needs and the instruction she or he receives. The history of reading instruction in the United States and the history of instruction and intervention for students who are at risk for reading failure is explored to provide background for the literature review. This history describes how reading instruction and intervention programs have always been influenced by cultural climate. The studies included in this paper are organized into two major sections, the first section focuses on overall effective approaches to supporting emergent literacy in the classroom and the second section looks at those approaches specifically focused on students who are at risk for reading failure. The findings reveal that the teacher is a critical variable in any examination of an effective instructional or interventional approach. The effectiveness of any particular approach to supporting emergent literacy for students who are at risk for reading failure is dependent upon the style, intensity and fidelity with which the particular teacher or teachers implements it.
A want or a need? Exploring the role of grassroots gay rugby teams in the context of inclusive masculinity

ABSTRACT There is a long history of researching the ways that the roles and conceptualizations of gender and sexuality are entwined within sport. More recently, there has been an argument within sociology that homophobia is decreasing across Western sports, supposedly reflecting a decline of homophobia across society more generally and crucially, in a way that suggests cultural spaces have been opened up in which ‘inclusive’ conceptualizations of masculinity can be performed. This project adds to these debates, by bringing inclusive masculinity theory into conversation with research that has begun to recognize the plurality of (particularly urban) gay spaces for the first time. It does so by exploring the motivations behind gay men joining (what was at the time of writing), the most recently formed grassroots UK gay rugby team. The findings suggest that whilst players recognize more inclusive masculinities and a decline in homophobia across society more generally, it is in actual fact amongst the gay community itself that difficulties arise. Playing rugby in a gay-friendly team not only offers a safe space to perform inclusive masculinities, but to embody a more inclusive range of homosexualities as well.
Image and video classification and image similarity measurement by learning sparse representation

Sparse representation of signals has recently emerged as a major research area. It is well-known that many natural signals can be sparsely represented using a properly chosen dictionary (e.g. formed of wavelets bases). A dictionary could be complete or overcomplete depending on whether the number of bases it contains is the same or greater than the dimensionality of the given signal. Traditionally, the use of predefined dictionaries has been prevalent in sparse analysis. However, a more generalized approach is to learn the dictionary from the signal itself. Learnt dictionaries are known to outperform predefined dictionaries in several applications. This thesis explores the application of sparse representations of signals obtained by learning overcomplete dictionaries for three applications: 1) classification of images and videos, 2) measurement of similarity between two images, and 3) assessment of perceptual quality of an image. This thesis first capitalizes on the natural discriminative ability of sparse representations to develop efficient classification algorithms. The proposed algorithms are employed in image-based face recognition and video-based human action recognition. They are shown to perform better than the state-of-the-art. The thesis then studies how to obtain a good measure of similarity between two images. Despite the long history of image similarity evaluation, open issues still exist. These include the need of developing generic similarity measures that do not assume any prior knowledge of the task at hand or the data type. This thesis develops a generic image similarity measure based on learning sparse representations. Successful application of the proposed measure to clustering, retrieval and classification of different types of images is demonstrated. The thesis then examines a highly promising approach to assess the perceptual
Understanding the Disaster–Migration–Violent Conflict Nexus in a Warming World: The Importance of International Policy Interventions

The importance and extent of some of the linkages between disasters, migration and violent conflict are not very well understood. There has been controversy in the empirical analytical literature both over core elements of the nexus and over the mechanisms driving it. One reason for the current state of the pertinent literature is the widespread neglect of international policy interventions in the policy fields of disaster risk reduction, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, migration management as well as humanitarian and development assistance. This contribution highlights the importance of international interventions in these fields with respect to elements of the nexus. Based on a brief review of the comparative empirical evidence concerning the disputed links between disasters, migration and violent conflict it demonstrates how international policy interventions are affecting them. The study concludes with a call for more research into the ways in which international policy interventions contribute to shaping the disaster–migration–violent conflict nexus, arguing that a better understanding would enhance the potential for better policies to address its negative consequences.
Profession-specific training on decision-making and capacity assessment in aphasia for speech-language therapy students

ABSTRACT Background: Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) play a vital role in supporting people with aphasia to communicate. Recent studies have shown that despite SLTs’ expertise, skills, and knowledge to support people with aphasias’ communication needs; they are not regularly involved in the decision-making and capacity (DMC) assessments for people with aphasia. Literature suggests three key contributors to this under-involvement: (1) SLTs do not feel they understand their role in a DMC assessment, (2) they do not feel there is enough profession-specific training, and (3) they feel members of the multidisciplinary team do not fully understand their role and responsibilities to involve them in the process. Aims: This research reports the development of a profession-specific DMC training programme for SLT trainees, and its implementation to document change in their confidence, knowledge and understanding of the DMC process in people with aphasia. Methods & Procedures: Thirty-nine SLT students attended a two-hour DMC training session conducted in three phases: pre-training questionnaire, the training programme, and the post-training questionnaire. Topics in the training programme included: the knowledge and tenets of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA); DMC for people with aphasia, focusing specifically on the barriers faced by people with aphasia and professionals; the SLTs’ role within a multidisciplinary team regarding DMC assessments; and resources available for facilitating DMC assessments. The change in participants score from pre- to post-training questionnaire was taken as a measure of efficacy of the training programme. Outcomes & Results: Following training there was a significant increase in the confidence levels of SLT students in terms of ability to complete capacity assessments and train others in their role within a capacity assessment. Participants also had a better understanding of the MCA and an increased knowledge of resources available to support people with aphasia in these assessments. These results demonstrate a crucial need for profession-specific training, which has implications for inter-professional education. Conclusions: The findings highlight the effectiveness of a short training session in increasing SLT trainees’ knowledge and confidence in DMC for aphasia, and improving their understanding of SLTs’ role and responsibilities. It is anticipated that this type of training will place SLTs in a better position for future clinical practice, reducing the risks currently present not only to patients, but also to staff themselves. We propose that similar training programmes should become mandatory for SLT trainees as part of their clinical training.
Importing the Laboratory Model to the Social Sciences: Prospects for Improving Mentoring of Undergraduate Researchers

Abstract Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have been identified as High-Impact Practices that increase understanding of complex concepts, foster independent inquiry, and improve educational outcomes, such as student retention and graduation rates. This article argues that in order to make the URE truly “high-impact,” the laboratory model from the sciences can be used by social science faculty members in a variety of institutional settings to foster mentorship at multiple levels. The theoretical is combined with the practical, offering suggestions for best practices based on the author’s experience setting up a undergraduate laboratory in International Relations at a research-oriented institution.