Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptually meaningful image editing Manipulating perceived depth and creating the illusion of motion in 2 D images

R.J. Bailey ( ) · C.M. Grimm Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, USA {rjb1, cmg}@cse.wustl. edu Abstract We introduce a novel concept called perceptually meaningful image editing and present techniques for manipulating the apparent depth of objects and creating the illusion of motion in 2D images. Our techniques combine principles of human visual perception with approaches developed by traditional artists. For our depth manipulation technique, the user loads an image, selects an object and specifies whether the object should appear closer or further away. The system automatically determines luminance or color temperature target values for the object and/or background that achieve the desired depth change. Our approach for creating the illusion of motion exploits the differences between our peripheral vision and our foveal vision by introducing spatial imprecision to the image.
Multisite Evaluation of a Point-of-Care Instrument for CD4+ T-Cell Enumeration Using Venous and Finger-Prick Blood: The PIMA CD4

BackgroundCD4+ T-cell enumeration (CD4 count) is used as a criterion to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV patients and to monitor treatment efficacy. However, simple, affordable, and reliable point-of-care (POC) instruments adapted to resource-limited settings are still lacking. The PIMA CD4 analyzer is a new POC instrument for CD4 counting that uses disposable cartridges and a battery-powered analyzer. MethodsWhole blood samples were taken by venipuncture or by finger prick from 300 subjects, including HIV-infected patients and HIV (-) controls. CD4 counts were measured by PIMA (using venous or capillary blood) and by FACSCount (using venous blood) considered as the reference. ResultsSimilar CD4 counts were obtained by PIMA and FACSCount using either HIV+ venous blood or HIV+ finger-prick blood samples. However, with a concordance coefficient of 0.88 and a Pearson correlation of 0.89, finger-prick blood performed not as good as venous blood (0.97 and 0.98, respectively). For a clinical decision to start ART at 200 CD4 cells per microliter, sensitivity of PIMA was 90%/91% and specificity 98%/96% for venous/finger-prick blood, respectively, and for a treatment threshold of 350 CD4 cells per microliter, the sensitivity was 98%/91% and the specificity was 79%/80% for venous/finger-prick blood, respectively. Repeatability (precision) on venous blood resulted in a coefficient of variation of 4%. Using finger-prick blood, the average instrument error frequency resulting in aborted analyses was 14%. ConclusionsPIMA is a good POC instrument for screening adult HIV-infected patients in resource-limited settings for treatment eligibility. Its performance on finger-prick blood is not as good as on venous blood. Adequate training for correct use of finger-prick blood samples is mandatory.
Determinants of income patterns among pastoral childhood in Nigeria

Livelihood patterns of youth are highly imperative in developing policies and services that are appropriate and effective especially as far as rural youth are concerned. This is because young people are the life wire of every nation. In rural communities, youth are the future of agricultural and rural development and therefore the perception of youth as restive and problematic should be de-emphasized. Rather the positive and dynamic capacities of youth should be used in finding solution to the problems confronting rural communities. A study of youth living patterns will be a good take off for developing policies and programmes that take into consideration the ambition and initiatives of youth.
The Corporate Governance–Risk Taking Nexus: Evidence from Insurance Companies

This study aims to examine the impact of internal corporate governance mechanisms on insurance companies’ risk-taking in the UK context. ,The study uses a panel data of all listed insurance companies on FTSE 350 over the 2005-2014 period. Multivariate regression techniques are used to estimate the effect of internal corporate governance mechanisms on insurance companies’ risk-taking. ,The results show that the board size and board meetings are significantly and negatively related to risk-taking. In contrast, the results show that board independence and audit committee size are statistically insignificant but negatively related to risk-taking. The findings are robust to alternative measures and endogeneities. ,The findings have important implications for investors, managers, regulators of financial institutions and effectiveness of corporate governance reforms that have been pursued. Investors may further rely on internal corporate governance attributes to form expectations about risk-taking behaviour. Insurance companies need strong governance, as well as effective accounting and financial reporting standards, to enable proper insights into the company’s financial position. ,This study contributes to the corporate governance literature and creates significant evidence regarding the role of corporate governance in constraining risk-taking behaviour in an industry with significantly complex context.
No Reliance on Guidance: Counter-Signaling in Management Forecasts

This study presents and provides an explanation for a novel stylized fact: both high-performing public companies as well as more troubled companies withhold issuing guidance. We assume that the manager’s ability affects the level of earnings and the accuracy of the guidance, but issuing a forecast is costless for all manager types. Managers are thus able to signal their ability through accuracy in their forecasts. While high ability managers would seem to benefit the most from issuing guidance, in equilibrium we find that both high and low ability managers withhold guidance, while intermediate ability managers issue forecasts. This occurs since high ability managers do not need to rely on guidance in order to convey their ability to the market, while intermediate managers must forecast to separate from low ability managers. Hence, we find that high ability managers counter-signal in equilibrium by withholding guidance, which does not result in a subsequent “punishment” by the market. Additionally, the results offer new empirical predictions.
[Retroperitoneoscopic pyeloplasty for primary hydronephrosis: preliminary results of the first 30 procedures].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the preliminary results of retroperitoneoscopic pyeloplasty (RP) for the treatment of primary ureteropelvic junction syndrome (PUPJS) in terms of operating time, operative and postoperative complications, clinical functional and radiographic results, length of hospital stay and resumption of physical activity. MATERIAL AND METHODS From November 1997 to June 2000, from a consecutive series of 59 patients treated for an anomaly of the ureteropelvic junction (UPJ), the 29 patients (18 females and 11 males, mean age: 35.6 years [range: 17-68]) operated by RP for PUPJS (bilateral in one case) were reviewed. Twelve patients presented a lower pole vascular pedicle and 24 patients had an extrasinusal renal pelvis. The RP technique was identical for all patients (4 ports) and the UPJ repair was performed according to the technique described by Anderson-Hynes and Küss (28 cases) or Y-V plasty (2 cases). RESULTS The mean operating time was 150 minutes (range: 120-240) and the mean hospital stay was 4.2 days (range: 3-10). There were no intraoperative complications, but one conversion (3.3%) was necessary because of major adhesions. postoperative complications (23.3%) consisted of: four urinary tract infections with one case of acute pyelonephritis, perirenal haematoma, urine leak in the Redon drain due to obstructed double J stent, migration of the double J stent underneath the anastomosis leading to unstentable cicatricial stricture (treated by open pyeloplasty 3 weeks later). With a mean follow-up of 19.7 months (range: 7-40), 28 patients were asymptomatic and one patient presented persistent lumbar pain at 9 months with no signs of recurrence. The 3-month IVU, performed in 27 patients, showed reduction of hydronephrosis in 85.7% of cases and a patent ureteropelvic junction in 96.3% of cases. Complete resumption of physical activity and return to work were possible an average of 1 month postoperatively (a fortnight for the population under the age of 40 years). CONCLUSION PUPJS can be treated by RP according to the same principles as conventional surgery. RP pyeloplasty can be performed with an acceptable operating time and morbidity. The functional and radiological results in terms of patency of the UPJ need to be assessed in the longer term.
Determinants of Tax Compliance Behaviour under the Self-Assessment Scheme in Nigeria

This study examined the determinants of tax compliance behaviour under the self-assessment scheme in Nigeria. A non-random stratified sampling technique was used to evaluate taxpayer behaviour. Data was also gathered using questionnaire from three of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, namely South-South, South-West and North central zones respectively. The specific locations were Edo state, Lagos state, and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja resulting in 550 respondents which were analysed. The results showed that tax audit and awareness of offences and penalties had a positive and significant impact on tax compliance behaviour under the self-assessment scheme in Nigeria. Simplicity of tax administration and returns, tax knowledge and taxpayers’ integrity had a positive but not significant impact on tax compliance behaviour under the self-assessment scheme in Nigeria. The study recommends that the tax authorities should enhance the capacity of tax audit and ensure that there are sufficient tax officials to facilitate tax audit exercise, create greater awareness of the various offences and penalties through the mass media and undertake an upward review of extant penalties.
Determinants of audience demand for the televised professional baseball matches in Korea

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine factors influencing the audience demand for televised post-season games of the Korean professional baseball league.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from a total of 129 games – the entire post-season games from 2008 to 2016. Two dependent variables representing audience demand for televised baseball matches, obtained from the third-party television audit company AGB Nielsen, were regressed on a series of match-related and unrelated antecedent factors associated with each match. Pooled OLS regression with wild bootstrap standard errors with 100,000 replications was applied in the analysis.FindingsRegarding match-related factors, higher television ratings and the greater numbers of television viewers were associated with matches with greater significance, outcome uncertainty and score sum. In terms of the match-unrelated factors, the broadcast platform appeared to be the most powerful predictor of both television ratings and the numbers of viewers. Other than the broadcast platform, night matches, matches with full stadium occupancy and team values showed positive impacts on both the television ratings and the numbers of viewers.Practical implicationsThe sales of media rights and sponsorships are the major sources of revenues for professional sports leagues, and the size of these two streams of revenues is in proportion to the size of the audience demand for television and other media. This study provides valuable insights to the sports marketers of professional sports clubs and leagues by establishing proper understanding of the determinants of the audience demand for televised sports.Originality/valueThe characteristics specific to each professional league and country play unique roles in determining the antecedent factors of audience demand for televised sports; this study is one of the few attempts to examine Koran professional baseball league.
A multilevel model of care flow

Care is emerging as a key component of work processes that must be managed in organizations. We propose a model of care flow, which is defined as a multilevel work process through which caring feelings and actions are generated and spread throughout an organization to address the needs of its members. Our model (a) distinguishes between the generation and spread of care as concepts, (b) specifies the three cyclical stages and multilevel mechanisms (at dyadic, collective, and organizational system levels) through which caregivers and care recipients act together to enhance flow in a work system, and (c) argues that care is inherently relational and emotional. Most importantly, we argue that both caregivers and care recipients shape the reproduction of care in our model, which addresses a gap overlooked by many organizational theorists. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
REVITALISASI WAKAF UNTUK KEMASLAHATAN UMAT

Islam as a perfect teaching places the position of waqf as a very important instrument of society. The use of waqf as one of the resources used by the Muslim community has made progress now. This is evident from the increasing number of waqf assets in Indonesia. Aside from being a source of funding for social, educational and health activities, waqf can also be used as an alternative to empower the people>s economy as the main pillar of the welfare of the ummah, so that the benefits are sustainable. With the concept of waqf revitalization, it is expected to be able to support to improve the empowerment of waqf for the benefit of the ummah. Revitalization of waqf is not only able to give positive impact that can be felt directly but also indirectly able to form a professional waqf management capable of developing waqf so that waqf can become the strengthening of prosperity of the people.
Frequency ratios of spectral components of musical sounds

A recently developed high resolution frequency tracker [J. C. Brown and M. S. Puckette, ‘‘A high resolution fundamental frequency determination based on phase changes of the fourier transform,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 662–667 (1993)] has made it possible to measure the ratios of the frequencies of the upper harmonics of a sound with respect to its fundamental frequency with high accuracy. Calculations were carried out on digitized sounds produced by a clarinet, alto flute, voice, piano, violin, viola, and cello. The sounds produced by the stringed instruments included examples played pizzicato and bowed both with and without vibrato. Measured ratios were exactly equal to integers for all instruments except the piano and strings played pizzicato. Anomalous behavior was observed for the fundamental frequency for vibrato sounds played by stringed instruments with the frequency deviation exceeding the extrema of the other harmonics divided by their harmonic number by about 1% on average. Piano inharmonicity .
Does board composition influence CSR reporting? A meta-analysis

A variety of empirical studies analyzed the impact of board attributes on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting with mixed results during the last decade. In view of this heterogeneity and increased relevance, we conduct a meta-analysis on 51 empirical-quantitative studies and include board independence, the absence of CEO duality, gender diversity and board size as key board attributes. We find that board independence and gender diversity are positively linked with CSR reporting. Furthermore, we examine whether this relationship is moderated by country-specific governance aspects (shareholder protection, legal enforcement, and code law regime). We find that board independence and gender diversity are stronger related to CSR reporting in countries with a higher range of shareholder protection and higher legal enforcement strength. We do not find any evidence for a moderator effect of code law regimes. To analyze the sensitivity of our study, we differentiate between CSR reporting measures (individual disclosure scores versus external CSR disclosure ratings) and publication quality of our included papers (journals of the ABS ranking) and found robust results. Recommendations for future research practice and regulation will be discussed.
Amnesia and the Declarative/Nondeclarative Distinction: A Recurrent Network Model of Classification, Recognition, and Repetition Priming

A key claim of current theoretical analyses of the memory impairments associated with amnesia is that certain distinct forms of learning and memory are spared. Supporting this claim, B. J. Knowlton and L R. Squire found that amnesic patients and controls were indistinguishable in their ability to learn about and classify strings of letters generated from a finite-state grammar, but that the amnesics were impaired at recognizing the training strings. We show, first, that this pattern of results is predicted by a single-system connectionist model of artificial grammar learning (AGL) in which amnesia is simulated by a reduced learning rate. We then show in two experiments that a counterintuitive assumption of this model, that classification and recognition are functionally identical in AGL, is correct. In three further simulation studies, we demonstrate that the model also reproduces another type of dissociation, namely between recognition memory and repetition priming. We conclude that the performance of amnesic patients in memory tasks is better understood in terms of a nonselective, rather than a selective, memory deficit.
Epizootiology and pathology of avian tuberculosis in chickens in Saskatchewan.

Numerous publications on avian tuberculosis (AT) in various avian species are available (1,2). However, reports of the disease in chickens are very limited. The disease is worldwide in distribution and unfortunately, in Canada and in the USA, the presence of AT in chickens continues to be accepted with a certain complacency. In Canada, the incidence of AT in chickens varies greatly by region. It is comparatively higher in the western provinces with a frequency of diagnosed outbreaks of 1 to 38 per year (3). In the USA the highest incidence of infection occurs in flocks of the north-central states, with negligible incidence in the southern and western states (2,3). On some farms, avian tuberculosis in chickens remains a cause of unnecessary economic burden from mortality, condemnation and diminished egg production, and is a risk to man and susceptible farm animals (4,5,6,7,8). In this report we describe the epizootiological and pathological findings in 74 of 152 outbreaks of tuberculosis in chickens in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada from 1969 to 1986, based on a review of the diagnostic records of the Department of Veterinary Pathology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine. Selected cases were those in which whole birds (107 cases) were submitted for diagnosis and acid-fast organisms were demonstrated in the lesions. All submitted birds were examined at postmortem, and 37 submissions were examined histologically. In all submissions, acid-fast bacteria were demonstrated using an acid-fast stain on histological sections (19 submissions), impression smears (50 submissions), or both (five submissions). Lesions suspected to be caused by an agent other than Mycobacterium sp. were cultured on sheep blood agar and were incubated both aerobically and anaerobically (nine submissions). Lesions were not cultured for Mycobacterium sp. Birds were submitted from flocks throughout Saskatchewan. All outbreaks occurred in small flocks of 30 to 400 birds. All flocks had been reared outside in fenced pens or ranging free around buildings, and were fed either a mixed cereal grains diet (wheat, barley, oats) (20 outbreaks) or a mixture of cereal grains plus layer supplement (26 outbreaks). Diet was not reported in 28 outbreaks. Birds on most farms had access to grass in the spring, and some were provided with ground oyster shells.
The cardiovascular and metabolic responses to Wii Fit video game playing in middle-aged and older adults.

AIM The purpose of this study was (a) to assess the cardiovascular and metabolic responses to Wii Fit video games and (b) to determine if Wii Fit video games meet the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for improving and maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness. METHODS Twenty men and women (mean±SD age, height, and weight: = 58.1±8.8 years, 172.1±10.5 cm, 87.1±22.8 kg, respectively) completed a 20-min Wii Fit testing session consisting of six separate aerobic and balance games. Cardiovascular and metabolic data were collected via a portable calorimetric measurement system. RESULTS Mean relative exercise intensity was 43.4±16.7% of heart rate reserve. Absolute exercise intensity in metabolic equivalents (METS) was 3.5±0.96. Total net energy expenditure for the Wii Fit video game playing session was 116.2±40.9 kcal/session. CONCLUSION Results indicate that playing Wii Fit video games is a feasible alternative to more traditional aerobic exercise modalities for middle-aged and older adults that fulfills the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for improving and maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness.
Cohort cancer incidence among pulp and paper mill workers in British Columbia.

OBJECTIVES A study was conducted to investigate cancer risks in a cohort of pulp and paper workers. METHODS All male workers with > or =1 years of employment in 14 pulp and paper mills in 1950-1992 were studied. Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were used to compare the cancer incidence of the cohort with that of the Canadian male population. Record linkage with the National Cancer Registry was performed using the generalized iterative record linkage method. RESULTS Altogether 1756 cancer cases were observed in the entire cohort. For > or =15 years of work, the entire cohort had significantly increased SIR values for pleural and prostate cancer and skin melanoma; there was also a significantly increased risk for skin melanoma among workers in the kraft process only, rectal cancer among workers in the sulfite process only, and stomach and prostate cancer and all leukemias combined among workers in both the kraft and sulfite processes. A separate analysis comparing workers in pulping and papermaking with those in the pulping process only did not reveal any difference in cancer risk and hence did not modify the results. The SIR values for skin melanoma were not significantly increased in a comparison using the British Columbia male population. Nine of 10 pleural cancers were mesotheliomas, which likely reflect past asbestos exposure. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that long-term work in the pulp and paper industry is associated with excess risks of prostate and stomach cancers and all leukemias for work in both kraft and sulfite processes and of rectal cancer for work in the sulfite process only.
Development and Performance Evaluation of a Combined Infrared and Hot Air Dryer

In this study, a laboratory scale infrared and hot air dryer was developed in which some parameters such as the temperature of drying chamber, input air temperature, air flow rate and distance from the infrared source was adjustable by operator. Drying of tomato thin layers was performed under various combinations of these parameters. Experimental results showed that drying time for temperatures of 60, 70 and 80 °C was 60, 75 and 116 minutes, respectively. Drying is directly related to the amount of operational infrared power. Moreover, drying time for two air velocities of 0.6 and 1.1 m s-1 was 109 and 95 minutes, respectively. Increasing the drying air velocity leaded to reduction of drying time because of an increasing in evaporation rate of moisture from the surface of the product at low speeds. Results showed that by increasing the distance of drying chamber from the infrared source, drying time will increase due to reduction of heat that transferred to the product. Minimum and maximum drying times were belonging to the temperatures of 80 and 60 °C, respectively. Also, the drying rate was directly related to the velocity and temperature of input air.