Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Compression for interactive communications of visual contents

Interactive images and videos have received increasing attention due to the interesting features they provide. With these contents, users can navigate within the content and explore the scene from the viewpoint they desire. The characteristics of these media make their compression very challenging. On the one hand, the data is captured in high resolution (very large) to experience a real sense of immersion. On the other hand, the user requests a small portion of the content during navigation. This requires two characteristics: efficient compression of data by exploiting redundancies within the content (to lower the storage cost), and random access ability to extract part of the compressed stream requested by the user (to lower the transmission rate). Classical compression schemes can not handle random accessibility because they use a fixed pre-defined order of sources to capture redundancies. The purpose of this thesis is to provide new tools for interactive compression schemes of images. For that, as the first contribution, we propose an evaluation framework by which we can compare different image/video interactive compression schemes. Moreover, former theoretical studies show that random accessibility can be achieved using incremental codes with the same transmission cost as non-interactive schemes and with reasonable storage overhead. Our second contribution is to build a generic coding scheme that can deal with various interactive media. Using this generic coder, we then propose compression tools for 360-degree images and 3D model texture maps with random access ability to extract the requested part. We also propose new representations for these modalities. Finally, we study the effect of model selection on the compression rates of these interactive coders.
Inheritance and linkage studies in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.)

Inheritance and linkage relationships of growth habit, seed size, stipule colour, and stem pigmentation were studied in a cross involving cv. Selection-2 and K. 11 of cowpea. A trigenic ratio of 39:25 was observed for growth habit of which one is the basic gene, and the other two are inhibitory and anti inhibitory genes. Large seed size and red stipule colour were monogenically dominantover small seed and green stipule, respectively, with a good fit of 3:1 ratio in F2. A complementary digenic ratio of 9:7 was observed for stem pigmentation. The following gene symbols are proposed: growth habit (Vi-1, Vi-2, Vi-3), big seed (Bg), stipule colour (Sti), and stem pigmentation (Pp-1, Pp-2). Joint phenotypic segregation studies revealed that the basic gene for growth habit is linked with the dominant gene for seed size with a crossover value of 46%, whereas 17.4% crossing over was observed between one of the complementary genes for stempigmentation and the gene for stipule colour.
Effect of Talent Attraction on Organizational Performance: A Case of Hotels in South Rift Region, Kenya

Hotel sector in the tourism Industry is more and more treating human capital as a typical positive feature that can be leveraged to provide sustainable competitive advantage. As a consequence investors and administrators of hotels have resorted to embracing strategies geared towards talent building and relating it with their hotels. It is hoped that talented employees would enable the hotels realize their objectives. South Rift Region which was the focus of the study, exhibits diversity of star rated tourist hotels classified by Tourism Regulatory Authority. The study was conducted in two to five star hotels, within South Rift Region. This research sought to determine the effect of talent attraction on organizational performance of hotels in South Rift Region, Kenya. The study was guided by Resource Based View Theory. Given that the target population was small (40), a census survey was conducted and structured questionnaires administered to all Human Resource Managers and Hotel Managers in hotels in South Rift Region. The instrument was pilot tested to ascertain the reliability of the research instrument using Cronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficient. The reliability of the research instrument was found to be 0.946 which was considered reliable. The study employed both descriptive (frequency distributions, means and percentages) and inferential statistics. Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple Linear Regression analysis was conducted at significant level of α= 0.05. Data analysis was done with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The study established that talent attraction, has a positive significant effect on organizational performance of hotels in South Rift Region with correlation coefficients of ( r = 0. 810, p < 0.05). The study recommends that further research could be done on Influence of Innovation Management on organizational performance. Keywords: Talent attraction, Talent Management Practices, Organizational Performance, South Rift Region DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-6-02 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Influence of combined application of organic and inorganic amendments on nutrient status in a typic Haplaquept soil of West Bengal

Balanced nutrition based on soil test value is the key to sustain and improve soil productivity. Integrated management of organic, secondary and micronutrient inputs along with inorganic fertilizers in soils is required to prevent decline in soil fertility, crop productivity and sustainability. In present investigation is conducted to study the influence of farmyard manure (FYM), sulphur and zinc along with inorganic NPK fertilizers either alone or in combination on the nutrient availability in soil. Results revealed that use of FYM increased the organic carbon content and availability of nutrients over soil alone and soil treated with only inorganic fertilizers. Results further revealed that the beneficial effects of FYM got enhanced when it is applied along with S and Zn.
Conceptual understanding of osmosis and diffusion by Australian first-year biology students

Osmosis and diffusion are essential foundation concepts for first-year biology students as they are a key to understanding much of the biology curriculum. However, mastering these concepts can be challenging due to their interdisciplinary and abstract nature. Even at their simplest level, osmosis and diffusion require the learner to imagine processes they cannot see. In addition, many students begin university with flawed beliefs about these two concepts which will impede learning in related areas. The aim of this study was to explore misconceptions around osmosis and diffusion held by first-year cell biology students at an Australian regional university. The 18-item Osmosis and Diffusion Conceptual Assessment was completed by 767 students. From the results, four key misconceptions were identified: approximately half of the participants believed dissolved substances will eventually settle out of a solution; approximately one quarter thought that water will always reach equal levels; one quarter believed that all things expand and contract with temperature; and nearly one third of students believed molecules only move with the addition of external force. Greater attention to identifying and rectifying common misconceptions when teaching first-year students will improve their conceptual understanding of these concepts and benefit their learning in subsequent science subjects.
أثر القصة فی تنمیة القیم لد تلامیذ الصف الخامس الابتدائی فی دول الکویت. The Effect of the Story on the Development of Values of the Fifth Grade Primary students in the State of Kuwait

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى الکشف عن أثر القصة فی تنمیة القیم لدى تلامیذ الصف الخامس الابتدائی فی دولة الکویت، وذلک من خلال تطبیق المنهج التجریبی على صفین من صفوف الخامس الابتدائی، بمدرسة عبدالعزیز الرشید فی منطقة الفروانیة التعلیمیة، بالفصل الدراسی الثانی من العام الدراسی 2017- 2018م. مستخدمة الباحثة الأسلوب القصصی على العینة التجریبیة، وقد توصلت الدراسة إلى فاعلیة استخدام الأسلوب القصصی فی تنمیة القیم لدى تلامیذ الصف الخامس الابتدائی فی دولة الکویت، وبناء علیه تم تقدیم التوصیات والمقترحات التالیة:توظیف قصص تعلیمیة تهدف إلى تنمیة بعض القیم الأخلاقیة داخل کل درس من دروس الوحدات، والإفادة من برنامج تنمیة القیم الأخلاقیة لتلامیذ الصف الخامس الابتدائی، وضرورة الترکیز على الجانب الوجدانی أثناء تعلم القیم التربویة والذی یعد حجر الأساس فی تعلم القیم، وتهیئة الجو المناسب داخل الفصل الدراسی استعدادا لتقبل القیم وممارستها، وتوفیر بعض المواقف التعلیمیة المناسبة من واقع حیاة التلامیذ داخل الفصل الدراسی مما یجعل ممارسة القیم تتم بشکل واقعی. This study aimed to discover the effect of the story on the development of values ​​between fifth-grade primary students in the State of Kuwait, by applying the experimental curriculum to two of the fifth primary grades, at Abdulaziz Al-Rashid School in Al-Farwaniyah Educational area, in the second semester of the academic year 2017-2018. The researcher used the narrative method on the experimental sample. The study found the effectiveness of using the narrative method in developing the values ​​of the fifth elementary grade students in the State of Kuwait, and accordingly the following recommendations and proposals were presented: Employ educational stories aimed at developing some moral values ​​within each A lesson from the unit’s lessons, taking advantage of the program to develop moral values ​​for fifth-grade primary students, and the need to focus on the emotional side while learning educational values, which is the cornerstone of learning values, creating an appropriate atmosphere within the classroom in preparation for accepting and practicing values, providing some appropriate educational situations from The reality of students' lives in the classroom, which makes the practice of values ​​takes place in a realistic manner.
Is FIDO2 the Kingslayer of User Authentication? A Comparative Usability Study of FIDO2 Passwordless Authentication

The newest contender for succeeding passwords as the incumbent web authentication scheme is the FIDO2 standard. Jointly developed and backed by the FIDO Alliance and the W3C, FIDO2 has found support in virtually every browser, finds increasing support by service providers, and has adoptions beyond browser-software on its way. While it supports MFA and 2FA, its single-factor, passwordless authentication with security tokens has received the bulk of attention and was hailed by its supporters and the media as the solution that will replace text-passwords on the web. Despite its obvious security and deployability benefits—a setting that no prior solution had in this strong combination—the paradigm shift from a familiar knowledge factor to purely a possession factor raises questions about the acceptance of passwordless authentication by end-users.This paper presents the first large-scale lab study of FIDO2 single-factor authentication to collect insights about end-users’ perception, acceptance, and concerns about passwordless authentication. Through hands-on tasks our participants gather first-hand experience with passwordless authentication using a security key, which they afterwards reflect on in a survey. Our results show that users are willing to accept a direct replacement of text-based passwords with a security key for single-factor authentication. That is an encouraging result in the quest to replace passwords. But, our results also identify new concerns that can potentially hinder the widespread adoption of FIDO2 passwordless authentication. In order to mitigate these factors, we derive concrete recommendations to try to help in the ongoing proliferation of passwordless authentication on the web.
Determination of the Effect of Some Acidic Solutions on the Tenderness and Quality Properties of Chicken Breast Meat

In this study, it was aimed to determine the quality characteristics of chicken breasts treated with different ratios of acetic acid and apple cider vinegar solu-tions. Chicken breasts were allowed to marinate for 48 hours at 4°C using solutions containing apple cider vinegar prepared with concentrations in 50% (E1) and 100% (E2) concentrations and 0.1 M (A1) and 0.2 M (A2) acetic acid. Pure water was used for the control group (C). Texture profile analyzes and Meullenet-Owens Razor Shear (MORS) analysis with pH, color ( L* , a* , b* ), cooking loss, water holding capacity and marinade absorption were applied to each treatment group. According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that the pH value of chicken breast meat samples marinated with apple cider vinegar was lower than the other groups. It was determined that the lowest hardness value was in E2 group according to the results of the texture profile analysis. According to the MORS analysis, the lowest shear force was found in E2 group. It is observed that the shear force has the lowest value in group including 100% apple cider vinegar in parallel to the hardness value. As a result, it was observed that apple cider vinegar had a very good source to increase tenderness of chicken breasts compared to acetic acid.
Biological and aetiological inference from the statistical genetic analyses of blood cell traits

Blood cells are crucial to human physiology, with functions in oxygen transport, infection control, and wound healing. Molecular mechanisms endogenous to blood cells have been implicated in the aetiologies of cancer, infection and inflammatory and immune disorders. The genetic determinants of blood cell function have not been comprehensively characterised, because it is too difficult to perform direct assays of cell function in large population samples. High-throughput flow cytometry can be used to measure functionally relevant phenotypes such as cell granulation, nucleic acid content, and cell size. Many of these phenotypes are important for the diagnosis of diseases such as sepsis, Szary disease, toxic granulation, and myelodysplastic syndromes, or correlate with assessments of cell morphology from blood smear images. Here, I report the results of my genomewide association study of 63 previously genetically unstudied blood cell flow cytometry phenotypes. I have identified associated variants in loci containing genes coding for established drug targets with known roles in white cell function and immunity. I have colocalised the association signals with blood cell transcriptomic, blood proteomic, and disease risk, identifying possible causal roles for molecular mechanisms endogenous to white cells in the aetiology of a range of immune disorders, including atopic dermatitis, multiple sclerosis and celiac disease. My results have utility in drug design and therapeutic target selection, demonstrated by examples including the replication of the mechanism of action of Daclizumab, a treatment for multiple sclerosis, and evidence for the role of IL-18R1 in aetiology of celiac disease. Furthermore, mendelian randomisation analyses suggest a causal role for blood cell flow cytometry phenotypes in the aetiology of coronary artery disease, lung cancer, and asthma. In addition to my work on flow cytometry traits, I report a major contribution to the largest ever GWAS meta-analysis of routine clinical haematological phenotypes, including 563,085 individuals. I performed primary and conditional analyses, identifying parsimonious sets of independently associated variants. This is the largest genome-wide association study study of clinical haematological phenotypes to date and identifies 7,122 association signals.
Mortality and Healthcare: an Analysis under Epstein-Zin Preferences

This paper investigates optimal consumption, investment, and healthcare spending under Epstein-Zin preferences. Given consumption and healthcare spending plans, Epstein-Zin utilities are defined over an agent's random lifetime, partially controllable by the agent as healthcare reduces Gompertz' natural growth rate of mortality. In a Black-Scholes market, the stochastic optimization problem is solved through the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation. Compared with classical Epstein-Zin utility maximization, the additional controlled mortality process complicates the uniqueness of Epstein-Zin utilities and verification arguments. A combination of probabilistic arguments and analysis of the HJB equation are required to resolve the challenges. In contrast to prior work under time-separable utilities, Epstein-Zin preferences largely facilitate calibration. In five different countries we examined, the model-generated mortality closely approximates actual mortality data; moreover, the calibrated efficacy of healthcare is in close agreement with empirical studies on healthcare across countries.
Risk Factors for Cervical Cancer and Papanicolaou Test in Marginalized Adolescents in Bogotá, Colombia

Introduction: Cervical cancer is rare in young women, so screening in women under 21 years is not recommended. However, early and intense exposure to risk factors could increase the likelihood of early pre-neoplastic lesions. Currently, particular social conditions in adolescents can favor exposure, generate changes in lifestyles, and affect their immediate and future health. This work describes the frequency of risk factors and Pap results in adolescents of a child protection center. Materials and Methods: This paper presents a retrospective cross-sectional study that measured the frequency of exposure to risk factors for cervical cancer and Pap results of 889 adolescents exposed to critical social conditions. It used information from the cytology report files made between 2011 and 2016. Results: Normal Pap smear was found in 85 % of the cases. The risk factors had a very high prevalence, especially the early age of onset of sexual relations with 75 % before age 14, the number of sexual partners with more than one in 66.7 %, no use of a condom 95 % and high cigarette consumption. Discussion: The frequency of pre-malignant cervical lesions was very low; however, in women under 21 years old with premature and intense exposure to risk factors, an early-onset conservative screening accompanied by gynecological consultation for prevention, diagnosis, or treatment can be considered. The marginalized adolescent’s social problem requires interdisciplinary and intersectoral management.
The Intensity of Ground Motions from Induced Earthquakes with Implications for Damage Potential

The damage potential of induced earthquakes is compared to that of natural tectonic events, considering recent instrumental data and felt records from events of M 3.5–5.8 (in which M is the moment magnitude). Ground motions are mutually consistent at close distances (<30 km) for natural earthquakes in California, induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, and induced earthquakes in western Canada, despite differences in the dominant processes that trigger the events. Recorded peak ground motions may exceed the damage threshold for induced events of M∼4.0 within ∼5 km of the hypocenter; events of M≥4.5 are inferred to have significant damage potential within 5 km and may be damaging to greater distances. Felt and damage effects in Oklahoma, as reported on the U.S. Geological Survey’s online “Did You Feel It? ” system, show that the damage threshold (modified Mercalli intensity [MMI] = 6) is commonly exceeded for events of M∼4.5 at close distances (<10 km) and that significant damage effects (MMI=7) are observed for M>4.8 events within 10 km.
The disconcerting potential of online disinformation: Persuasive effects of astroturfing comments and three strategies for inoculation against them

This study is the first to scrutinize the psychological effects of online astroturfing in the context of Russia’s digitally enabled foreign propaganda. Online astroturfing is a communicative strategy that uses websites, “sock puppets,” or social bots to create the false impression that a particular opinion has widespread public support. We exposed N = 2353 subjects to pro-Russian astroturfing comments and tested: (1) their effects on political opinions and opinion certainty and (2) the efficiency of three inoculation strategies to prevent these effects. All effects were investigated across three issues and from a short- and long-term perspective. Results show that astroturfing comments can indeed alter recipients’ opinions, and increase uncertainty, even when subjects are inoculated before exposure. We found exclusively short-term effects of only one inoculation strategy (refutational-same). As these findings imply, preemptive media literacy campaigns should deploy (1) continuous rather than one-time efforts and (2) issue specific rather than abstract inoculation messages.
How Consumers Process Complex Information Related to Food Biotechnology: The Case of Citrus Greening

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to understand how consumers process information about different applications of biotechnology in food. The context of this study was the case of citrus greening, a bacterial disease infecting citrus groves around the world. The most promising solution to this disease involves the use of biotechnology, but it will be important to understand how consumers form attitudes toward food treated in this way to successfully bring the product to market. Social judgment theory and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) were used to guide the study, and eight focus groups (n = 73) were conducted to collect qualitative data from a sample of citrus consumers from four different regions in the USA. Evidence of ego involvement, peripheral cues, personal experiences, and knowledge seemed to be most indicative of assimilation, contrast, and non-commitment of information. Findings from this research can guide strategic marketing for novel food biotechnologies.
Properties and Composition of Magnetized Nuclei

The properties and mass distribution of the ultramagnetized atomic nuclei which arise in heavy-ion collisions and magnetar crusts, during Type II supernova explosions and neutron star mergers are analyzed. For the magnetic field strength range of 0.1–10 teratesla, the Zeeman effect leads to a linear nuclear magnetic response that can be described in terms of magnetic susceptibility. Binding energies increase for open shell and decrease for closed shell nuclei. A noticeable enhancement in theyield of corresponding explosive nucleosynthesis products with antimagic numbers is predicted for iron group and r-process nuclei. Magnetic enrichment in a sampleof 44Ti corroborate theobservational results and imply a significant increase in the quantity of the main titanium isotope, 48Ti, in the chemical composition of galaxies. The enhancement of small mass number nuclides in the r-process peak may be due to magnetic effects.