Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lightweight Server-Assisted H-K Compression for Image-Based Embedded Wireless Sensor Network

Embedded wireless imaging systems based on wireless camera sensor network can be used to observe biological phenomena unobtrusively in various environmental monitoring applications. In our prior work, we have shown the feasibility and benefits of such a system through actual deployments. We have also shown that low-complexity data compression schemes can be employed to improve image transfer rate or to lower the energy costs of communication. In this paper, we extend upon our prior work and propose a scheme called as <italic>H–K compression</italic>, a simple lightweight image compression algorithm combining the ideas of Huffman coding and K-means clustering. Specifically, <italic>H–K compression</italic> applies K-means clustering for pixel color grouping and Huffman coding for the group color encoding, but combines the two schemes into one algorithm which can reduce the computational cost. Using 100 000 images collected from our pilot deployments at James Reserve, we study the applicability and impact of the proposed algorithm. Our results suggest that the cost of running the learning steps on an embedded sensor node may outweigh the benefit of compression, but offloading the learning can provide significant energy gains. Evaluations using the data set show that our proposed scheme compresses the data by <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula>57% and reduces power usage by <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula>43% when sending image updates from a bird nest periodically every 15 min.
An Intelligent Audio Workstation in the Browser

Music production is a complex process requiring skill and time to undertake. The industry has undergone a digital revolution, but unlike other industries the process has not changed. However, intelligent systems, using the semantic web and signal processing, can reduce this complexity by making certain decisions for the user with minimal interaction, saving both time and investment on the engineers’ part. This paper will outline an intelligent Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) designed for use in the browser. It outlines the architecture of the DAW with its audio engine (built on the Web Audio API), using AngularJS for the user interface and a relational database.
Linguistic Variation across Press Reportage in Pakistani Print Media : A Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Press reportage in Pakistani English newspapers is a great source of public education. It narrates every topic ranging from news to literature. The present study tries to explore the linguistic variation across press reportage in Pakistani print media by conducting multi-dimensional analysis based on Biber’s (1988) textual dimensions, which is regarded as the best alternative approach to analyzing register variation studies. Statistical linguistic differences have been found among newspapers on each sub-category of Pakistani press reportage on Biber’s (1988) textual dimensions. The analysis of the study reveal that the language of The Frontier Post newspaper is most distinct on all Biber’s (1988) textual dimensions. Findings also reveal, that unlike British Press reportage, Pakistani press reportage is more informational, narrative, explicit, covert in persuasion and there is more abstract discourse production.
Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation to Use Computers in the Workplace

Previous research indicates that perceived usefulness is a major determinant and predictor of intentions to use computers in the workplace. In contrast, the impact of enjoyment on usage intentions has not been examined. Two studies are reported concerning the relative effects of usefulness and enjoyment on intentions to use, and usage of, computers in the workplace. Usefulness had a strong effect on usage intentions in both Study 1, regarding word processing software (p = .a), and Study 2, regarding business graphics programs (fl = .79). As hypothesized, enjoyment also had a significant effect on intentions in both studies, controlling for perceived usefulness (p = .16 and .15 for Studies 1 and 2, respectively). Study 1 found that intentions correlated . 63 with system usage and that usefulness and enjoyment influenced usage behavior entirely indirectly through their effects on intentions. In both studies, a positive interaction between usefulness and enjoyment was observed. Together, usefulness and enjoyment explained 62% (Study 1) and 75% (Study 2) of the variance in usage intentions. Moreover, usefulness and enjoyment were found to mediate fully the effects on usage intentions of perceived output quality and perceived ease of use. As hypothesized, a measure of task importance moderated the effects of ease of use and output quality on usefulness but not on enjoyment. Several implications are drawn for how to design computer programs to be both more useful and more enjoyable in order to increase their acceptability among potential users.
Laser-Inscribed Stress-Induced Birefringence of Sapphire

Birefringence of 3×10−3 is demonstrated inside cross-sectional regions of 100 μm, inscribed by axially stretched Bessel-beam-like fs-laser pulses along the c-axis inside sapphire. A high birefringence and retardance of λ/4 at mid-visible spectral range (green) can be achieved using stretched beams with axial extension of 30–40 μm. Chosen conditions of laser-writing ensure that there are no formations of self-organized nano-gratings. This method can be adopted for creation of polarization optical elements and fabrication of spatially varying birefringent patterns for optical vortex generation.
Structure & Bonding

Four elements, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, are the major components of most organic compounds. Consequently, our understanding of organic chemistry must have, as a foundation, an appreciation of the electronic structure and properties of these elements. The truncated periodic table shown above provides the orbital electronic structure for the first eighteen elements (hydrogen through argon). According to the Aufbau principle, the electrons of an atom occupy quantum levels or orbitals starting from the lowest energy level, and proceeding to the highest, with each orbital holding a maximum of two paired electrons (opposite spins).
Predicting Progression in Parkinson’s Disease Using Baseline and 1-Year Change Measures

Background: Improved prediction of Parkinson’s disease (PD) progression is needed to support clinical decision-making and to accelerate research trials. Objectives: To examine whether baseline measures and their 1-year change predict longer-term progression in early PD. Methods: Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative study data were used. Participants had disease duration ≤2 years, abnormal dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging, and were untreated with PD medications. Baseline and 1-year change in clinical, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and imaging measures were evaluated as candidate predictors of longer-term (up to 5 years) change in Movement Disorders Society-Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) score and DAT specific binding ratios (SBR) using linear mixed-effects models. Results: Among 413 PD participants, median follow-up was 5 years. Change in MDS-UPDRS from year-2 to last follow-up was associated with disease duration (β= 0.351; 95% CI = 0.146, 0.555), male gender (β= 3.090; 95% CI = 0.310, 5.869), and baseline (β= –0.199; 95% CI = –0.315, –0.082) and 1-year change (β= 0.540; 95% CI = 0.423, 0.658) in MDS-UPDRS; predictors in the model accounted for 17.6% of the variance in outcome. Predictors of percent change in mean SBR from year-2 to last follow-up included baseline rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder score (β= –0.6229; 95% CI = –1.2910, 0.0452), baseline (β= 7.232; 95% CI = 2.268, 12.195) and 1-year change (β= 45.918; 95% CI = 35.994,55.843) in mean striatum SBR, and 1-year change in autonomic symptom score (β= –0.325;95% CI = –0.695, 0.045); predictors in the model accounted for 44.1% of the variance. Conclusions: Baseline clinical, CSF, and imaging measures in early PD predicted change in MDS-UPDRS and dopamine-transporter binding, but the predictive value of the models was low. Adding the short-term change of possible predictors improved the predictive value, especially for modeling change in dopamine-transporter binding.
J ul 2 01 8 Anatomy of B s → V V decays and effects of next-to-leading order contributions in the perturbative QCD factorization approach

By employing the perturbative QCD (PQCD) factorization approach, we calculated the branching ratios, CP-violating asymmetries, the longitudinal and transverse polarization fractions and other physical observables of the thirteen charmless hadronic B̄0 s → V V decays with the inclusion of all currently known next-to-leading order (NLO) contributions. We focused on the examination of the effects of all those currently known NLO contributions and found that: (a) for the measured decays B̄0 s → φφ,K∗0φ, K̄∗0K∗0 and ρ0φ, the NLO contributions can provide ∼ 20% to ∼ 40% enhancements to the leading order (LO) PQCD predictions of their CP-averaged branching ratios, and consequently the agreement between the PQCD predictions and the measured values are improved effectively after the inclusion of the NLO contributions; (b) for the measured decays, the NLO corrections to the LO PQCD predictions for (fL, f⊥) and (φ‖, φ⊥) are generally small in size, but the weak penguin annihilation contributions play an important role in understanding the data about their decay rates, fL and f⊥; (c) the NLO PQCD predictions for above mentioned physical observables do agree with the measured ones and the theoretical predictions from the QCDF, SCET and FAT approaches; (d) for other considered B0 s → V V decays, the NLO PQCD predictions for their decay rates and other physical observables are also basically consistent with the theoretical predictions from other popular approaches, future precision measurements could help us to test or examine these predictions.
Food Quality, Service Quality, Price Fairness and Restaurant Re-Patronage Intention: The Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction

The present study aims to investigate the influence of food quality, service quality, and price fairness on restaurant re-patronage intention, mediated by customer satisfaction in the context of halal-certified restaurants. This study employed a purposive sampling technique, and data collection was carried out through an online survey. A total of 110 usable responses were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The results showed that food quality, service quality, and price fairness influence customer satisfaction. In addition, customer satisfaction also leads to re-patronage intention. It was also found that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between the exogenous and endogenous variables. Finally, limitation and recommendations for future research were also discussed.
Several numerical simulations based on computational fluid dynamics ( CFD ) attempted to model focused waves and the interaction with a vertical fixed cylinder

For the stability of offshore structures, such as offshore wind foundations, extreme wave conditions need to be taken into account. Waves from extreme events are critical from the design perspective. In a numerical wave tank, extreme waves can be modeled using focused waves. Here, linear waves are generated from a wave spectrum. The wave crests of the generated waves coincide at a preselected location and time. Focused wave generation is implemented in the numerical wave tank module of REEF3D, which has been extensively and successfully tested for various wave hydrodynamics and wave-structure interaction problems in particular and for free surface flows in general. The open-source CFD code REEF3D solves the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations on a staggered Cartesian grid. Higher order numerical schemes are used for time and spatial discretization. For the interface capturing, the level set method is selected. In order to test the generated waves, the time series of the free surface elevation are compared with experimental benchmark cases. The numerically simulated free surface elevation shows good agreement with experimental data. In further computations, the impact of the focused waves on a vertical circular cylinder is investigated. A breaking focused wave is simulated and the associated kinematics are investigated. Free surface flow features during the interaction of non-breaking focused waves with a cylinder and during the breaking process of a focused wave are also investigated along with the numerically captured free surface.
Reintermediation in FinTech : Evidence from Online Lending August 6 , 2018

The peer-to-peer loan market was designed to allow borrowers and lenders to interact online without banks as middlemen. Yet we document that P2P lending platforms over time have evolved from trading venues into new credit intermediaries. Lenders now overwhelmingly outsource all decision-making to the platforms’ software and adopt passive investment strategies. The dominant role of lending platforms with little skin in the game makes the market vulnerable to moral hazard, checked by the threat of institutional investors’ withdrawal. Our findings suggest that the absence of private information spurs reintermediation as the platform’s expertise in loan evaluation crowds out that of investors.
Pressure Profiles and Mass Estimates Using High-resolution Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effect Observations of Zwicky 3146 with MUSTANG-2

The galaxy cluster Zwicky 3146 is a sloshing cool core cluster at z = 0.291 that in X-ray imaging does not appear to exhibit significant pressure substructure in the intracluster medium (ICM). The published M500 values range between to (22.50 ± 7.58) × 1014 M⊙, where ICM-based estimates with reported errors <20% suggest that we should expect to find a mass between M⊙ (from Planck, with an 8.4σ detection) and M⊙ (from ACT, with a 14σ detection). We investigate the ability to estimate the mass of Zwicky 3146 via the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect with data taken at 90 GHz by MUSTANG-2 to a noise level better than 15 μK at the center and a cluster detection of 61σ. We derive a pressure profile from our SZ data, which is in excellent agreement with that derived from X-ray data. From our SZ-derived pressure profiles, we infer M500 and M2500 via three methods—Y–M scaling relations, the virial theorem, and hydrostatic equilibrium (HE)—where we employ X-ray constraints from XMM-Newton on the electron density profile when assuming HE. Depending on the model and estimation method, our M500 estimates range from 6.13 ± 0.69 to (10.6 ± 2.0) × 1014 M⊙, where our estimate from HE is (±27% stat) (±7.9% sys, calibration) × 1014 M⊙. Our fiducial mass, derived from a Y–M relation is (±7.9% stat) (±5.4% sys, Y–M) (±6.9% sys, cal.) × 1014 M⊙.
Train Out-Domain Random Weights Train In-Domain Out-Trained Weights Test In-Domain Finetuned Weights F 1 Score ( a ) Low-Resource Domain Adaptation Train In-Domain Random Weights Test In-Domain Out-In-Trained Weights F 1 Score Out-Domain Sample Train In-Domain Finetuned

Recently, the impact of offensive language and derogatory speech to online discourse, motivated social media platforms to research effective moderation tools that safeguard internet access. However, automatically distilling and flagging inappropriate conversations for abuse remains a difficult and time consuming task. In this work, we propose an LSTM based neural model that transfers learning from a platform domain with a relatively large dataset to a domain much resource constraint, and improves the target performance of classifying toxic comments. Our model is pretrained on personal attack comments retrieved from a subset of discussions on Wikipedia, and tested to identify hate speech on annotated Twitter tweets. We achieved an F1 measure of 0.77, approaching performance of the in-domain model and outperforming out-domain baseline by about nine percentage points, without counseling the provided labels.
A challenging case of concurrent multiple sclerosis and anaplastic astrocytoma

Background: Cases of gliomas coexisting with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been described over the past few decades. However, due to the complex clinical and radiological traits inherent to both entities, this concurrent phenomenon remains difficult to diagnose. Much has been debated about whether this coexistence is incidental or mirrors a poorly understood neoplastic phenomenon engaging glial cells in the regions of demyelination. Case Description: We present the case of a 41-year-old patient diagnosed with a left-sided frontal contrast enhancing lesion initially assessed as a tumefactive MS. Despite systemic treatment, the patient gradually developed signs of mass effect, which led to decompressive surgery. The initial microscopic evaluation demonstrated the presence of MS and oligodendroglioma; the postoperative evolution proved complex due to a series of MS-relapses and tumor recurrence. An ulterior revaluation of the samples for the purpose of this report showed an MS-concurrent anaplastic astrocytoma. We describe all relevant clinical aspects of this case and review the medical literature for possible causal mechanisms. Conclusion: Although cases of concurrent glioma and MS remain rare, we present a case illustrating this phenomenon and explore a number of theories behind a potential causal relationship.
Employment and Unemployment Trends in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Introduction Following the onset of democratic rule in South Africa in April 1994, it soon became clear that the transition was a political one, in the narrowest sense of the term. Specifically, the new South African government has been, and indeed continues to be, beset with the longer term and more inertial consequences of apartheid. These consequences can be represented generically as the economic outcomes engendered by the policy of legislated racial exclusivity. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than within the arena of the labour market. The ability, or lack thereof, of the domestic economy to generate a sufficient quantum of jobs has constantly come under policymakers’ scrutiny. The focus of this paper then is to attempt to document and identify the key trends in the labour market – in an attempt at hopefully understanding the factors that may be driving the performance of this factor market.
Migration and socio-demographic factors associated with the sense of place attitudes of sub-Saharan Africans in northern and western Netherlands12

This paper investigates migration and socio-demographic factors associated with attitudes toward specific geographic settings (place attachment, PA, place identity, PI, place dependence, PD) in a cross-sectional data (N=175) of sub-Saharan African residents in northern and western regions of the Netherlands. Overall, it was found that scores of PA and PD were stronger in long-term African residents (over five years) than among short-term residents (below five years). The region of residence was positively related to PD, with participants in western Netherlands having stronger PD compared to those in northern region. Language proficiency was inversely associated with PD among participants with a little knowledge of Dutch compared to those who could speak Dutch fluently. Older African residents (46 to 55 years) were more likely to develop PA, and PD, than their younger counterparts (18 to 25 years). PA scores were significantly lower for participants with a tertiary education background than for those with high school or less educational attainment. PD scores were lower in females than males, and participants from Western Africa had stronger levels of PD compared to those from Central Africa. Implications of these findings are discussed. 1 Corresponding author: Victor Counted, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia; Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands 2 Co-authors: Andre Renzaho and Ahmed Moustafa, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia.
Wrongful Discharge Laws and
Asymmetric Cost Behavior

Exploiting the natural experiment created by the adoption of wrongful discharge laws (WDLs) across U.S. states, we examine the effect of legal protection against unjust employment termination on firm-level cost behavior. We find that the adoption of WDLs increases the asymmetric sensitivity of costs to activity (i.e., cost stickiness). The effect of WDLs on cost stickiness varies across firms and industries, as well as by adoption timing and multiplicity. Our evidence suggests that changes in the state-level legal environment have a significant effect on firm-level resource adjustment decisions and asymmetric cost behavior.
Dynamics of a Tropical Estuary : Curimataú River , NE Brazil

Observations of thermohaline properties and currents were undertaken in the Curimataú River estuary, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil (06o18'S), in two tidal cycles of consecutive neap-spring tide in the Autumn rainy season. Highly asymmetric neap tide along-channel velocities (-0.4 to 0.9 m s-1) and salinity stratification (20.5<S<36.3) were generated by an increase in the river water input. During the spring-tidal cycle the river discharge decreased and the longitudinal velocity components were higher, less asymmetric (-0.8 to 1.1 m s-1) and associated with moderate stratified conditions (29.0<S<36.7); the Tropical Water mass was predominant in the estuary during this tidal cycle. Due to the balance of tidal and baroclinic forcing and river discharge, the lower reach of the estuary alternates from being highly stratified (type 2b) during the neap tide, with advection and diffusion contributing with 36% and 64% to the net upstream salt flux, respectively, to being weakly stratified (transition from types 2a and 1a) during spring tide, when almost 99% of the net upstream salt transport was due to tidal diffusion. The flushing time, indicating a quickly renewal of the estuary water mass, varied from 0.7 and 1.4 days in the neap and spring tides experiments, and tidal excursion changed by a factor of three, being 4.2 and 12.0 km, respectively. The physical characteristics of the estuary were obtained as part of an interdisciplinary investigation of the Rational Sustentation of the Curimataú Estuary, sponsored by the Fundo Nacional do MeioAmbiente Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia (FNMA-MCT).
An analytical approach to study the dynamic characteristic of beams carrying any type of attachments with arbitrary distributions under elastic constraint boundary supports

An analytical method to study the dynamic characteristic of free vibration of beams carrying any type of attachments with arbitrary distributions on elastic constraint boundary supports is developed in the paper. To obtain an exact solution of the governing function, the displacement function is expressed as a modified Fourier series based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam differential equation, which consists of a standard Fourier cosine series plus several supplementary series used to improve uniform convergence of the series representation. Compared with other techniques, the current method offers a unified solution to entire situations of beams carrying various types of attachments, regarding different distributions and arbitrary boundary conditions. The results of different numerical examples are compared with the results of the references to illustrate the excellent accuracy of the current solution and validate the methodology. Furthermore, the proposed analytical method can be directly extended to caculate the natural frequencies of beam on Pasternak soil and with distribution attachment varying with its length which is never studied before.