Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer assistance for digital libraries: contributions to middle-ages and authors' manuscripts exploitation and enrichment

In this paper, we are interested in digitized middle-ages and 18th century authors' manuscripts analysis for the realization of suitable assistance tools dedicated to humanists and historians. The purpose is to help them in their intuitive and empirical work of information retrieval (word retrieval, identification of writers, writing styles classification.) and to enrich ancient manuscripts with additional descriptions which are based on writing styles and shapes analysis. In this project, we intend to create efficient software that analyses images contents and automatically extracts necessary information for writing indexation. This work can be done by adapting our expertise in document image processing to the domain of middle-ages and authors' manuscript. The development of such dedicated solutions is a complex task which reaches today technological limits due to the difficulty to automatically process a growing mass of digitized images of handwriting documents from different origins
CREATING SPACE FOR CONNECTION: CREATIVE INTERVENTIONS IN COUNSELING Career Guided Imagery: A Narrative Approach for Emerging Adults

The purpose of this article is to explore the use of guided imagery in career counseling with emerging adults. Career guided imagery with a narrative approach, helps emerging adults explore questions as they begin to lay a foundation for their future. A structured guided imagery provides a safe environment for emerging adults to contemplate new possibilities, test options, and explore career choices. This article provides counseling with an intervention and theoretical lens for clinical practice. Cultural considerations are explored for implications for practice and future research.
The Generation of Color Sequences for Univariate and Bivariate Mapping

Recent technological advances have made it feasible to produce full color statistical maps on computer-controlled display systems. This has caused an appraisal of the use of color to represent statistical variables, and the development of a theoretical structure for the choice of suitable univariate and bivariate map coloring schemes. Realization of such schemes in an intuitive and controlled way is important to the comprehension of statistical variables from maps. Therefore, we present a method of generating specific color sequences within the framework of a uniform color space, allowing for the intuitive specification of color sequences and for their realization on various display systems.
Hidden Players of Ethical Mentoring for Women Graduate Students in Science and Engineering

• This material is based upon work supported the National Science Foundation (NSF) No. EEC1653140. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect those of NSF. • This material was also funded by an internal university grant from the Center for Women & Gender awarded to I. Villanueva. CONCLUSIONS/ NEXT STEPS EXAMPLE CASE STUDY (AUTONOMY)
An adaptive video watermarking algorithm

An adaptive data hiding method is proposed that encapsulates forbidden zone data hiding in order to improve the robustness of watermark under the premise of ensuring the subjective quality of host video and the invisibility of watermark. The algorithm based on human visual masking characteristics calculates each block's variance and energy and then selects the range of forbidden zone and the embedding strength according to two above values. This method is tested with H.264/AVC compression and strong common signal processing attacks, such as Gaussian filtering, to compare with the original algorithm. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method is more robust against attacks such as noise and compression and can be successfully utilized in video data hiding applications.
Evolution of Disk Accretion

We review the present knowledge of disk accretion in young low mass stars, and in particular, the mass accretion rate and its evolution with time. The methods used to obtain mass accretion rates from ultraviolet excesses and emission lines are described, and the current best estimates of mass accretion rate for Classical T Tauri stars and for objects still surrounded by infalling envelopes are given. We argue that the low mass accretion rates of the latter objects require episodes of high mass accretion rate to build the bulk of the star. Similarity solutions for viscous disk evolution suggest that the inner disk mass accretion rates can be self-consistently understood in terms of the disk mass and size if the viscosity parameter alpha is approximately 1e-2. Close companion stars may accelerate the disk accretion process, resulting in accretion onto the central star in less or equal than 1Myr; this may help explain the number of very young stars which are not currently surrounded by accretion disks (the weak emission T Tauri stars).
EYEORG: A Platform For Crowdsourcing Web Quality Of Experience Measurements

Tremendous effort has gone into the ongoing battle to make webpages load faster. This effort has culminated in new protocols (QUIC, SPDY, and HTTP/2) as well as novel content delivery mechanisms. In addition, companies like Google and SpeedCurve investigated how to measure "page load time" (PLT) in a way that captures human perception. In this paper we present Eyeorg [12], a platform for crowdsourcing web quality of experience measurements. Eyeorg overcomes the scaling and automation challenges of recruiting users and collecting consistent user-perceived quality measurements. We validate Eyeorg's capabilities via a set of 100 trusted participants. Next, we showcase its functionalities via three measurement campaigns, each involving 1,000 paid participants, to 1) study the quality of several PLT metrics, 2) compare HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 performance, and 3) assess the impact of online advertisements and ad blockers on user experience. We find that commonly used, and even novel and sophisticated PLT metrics fail to represent actual human perception of PLT, that the performance gains from HTTP/2 are imperceivable in some circumstances, and that not all ad blockers are created equal.
OPTIMAL PLACEMENT AND SIZING OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION AND CAPACITOR BANK FOR LOSS REDUCTION AND RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT IN DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

In this paper optimum size and location of capacitors and distributed generators (DGs) are determined for reliability improvement and power loss reduction using genetic algorithm (GA). The main innovation of this paper is using both of DG and Capacitor for the reliability improvement and power loss reduction. For this purpose an objective function consisting of reliability cost, power loss cost and also DG's and capacitor's investment cost are considered. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined in the 10 and 33 bus test systems and comparative studies are conducted before and after DG and Capacitor installation in the test systems. The results obtained show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
AD-AODV: A Improved Routing Protocol Based on Network Mobility and Route Hops

In order to alleviate the node mobility problem which cause frequent link ruptures between source and destination nodes and data packets loss during transmission in Mobile Ad hoc Networks, we propose a new routing protocol called AD-AODV based on the famous AODV protocol. By introducing a novel metric M whose value depends on the hop number and average mobility of a given route, we improve the routing mechanism of AODV and enable AD-AODV to select the most stable route.A lot of simulations are operated based on the variation of node number and node speed to evaluate the performance of AD-AODV protocol. Simulation results compared with AODV protocol indicate our protocol's superiority in terms of packet delivery ratio therefore AD-AODV's enhancement of routing reliability is proved.
Examining the Impact of Contextual Ambiguity on Search Advertising Keyword Performance: A Topic Model Approach

In this paper, we explore how the contextual ambiguity of a search can aﬀect a keyword’s performance. The context of consumer search is often unobserved and the prediction of it can be nontrivial. Consumer search contexts may vary even when consumers are searching for the same keyword. Due to the ambiguity of a keyword, a large portion of the ads displayed may fall outside a particular consumer’s interest, potentially leading to low click-through rates on search engines. In our study, we propose an automatic way of examining keyword contextual ambiguity based on probabilistic topic models from machine learning and computational linguistics. We quantify the eﬀect of contextual ambiguity on keyword click-through performance using a hierarchical Bayesian model that allows for topic-speciﬁc eﬀect and nonlinear position eﬀect. We validate our study using a novel dataset from a major search engine that contains information on consumer click activities for 12,790 distinct keywords across multiple product categories from over 4.6 million impressions. We ﬁnd that consumer click behaviors vary signiﬁcant across keywords, and keyword category and the contextual ambiguity of the keywords signiﬁcantly aﬀect such variation. Speciﬁcally, higher contextual ambiguity can lead to a higher click-through rate (CTR) on top-positioned ads, but the CTR tends to decay faster with position. Therefore, the overall eﬀect of contextual ambiguity on CTR varies across positions. Our study has the potential to help advertisers design keyword portfolios and bidding strategy by extracting contextual ambiguity and other semantic characteristics of keywords based on large-scale analytics from unstructured data. It can also help search engines improve the quality of displayed ads in response to a consumer search
Effects of Age and Aerobic Capacit on Arterial Stiffness in Healthy Adults

BackgroundIt has been well established that arterial stiffness, manifest as an increase in arterial pulse wave velocity or late systolic amplification of the carotid artery pressure pulse, increases with age. However, the populations studied in prior investigations were not rigorously screened to exclude clinical hypertension, occult coronary disease, or diabetes. Furthermore, it is unknown whether exercise capacity or chronic physical endurance training affects the age-associated increase in arterial stiffness. Methods and ResultsCarotid arterial pressure pulse augmentation index (AGI), using applanation tonometry, and aortic pulse wave velocity (APWV) were measured in 146 male and female volunteers 21 to 96 years old from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, who were rigorously screened to exclude clinical and occult cardiovascular disease. Aerobic capacity was determined in all individuals by measurement of maximal oxygen consumption ($Vo2max) during treadmill exercise. In this healthy, largely sedentary cohort, the arterial stiffness indexes AGI and APWV increased approximately fivefold and twofold, respectively, across the age span in both men and women, despite only a 14% increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP). These age-associated increases in AGI and APWV were of a similar magnitude to those in prior studies of less rigorously screened populations. Both AGI and APWV varied inversely with $Vo2max, and this relationship, at least for AGI, was independent of age. In endurance trained male athletes, 54 to 75 years old ($Vo2max=44±3 mL · kg-1 · min-1), the arterial stiffness indexes were significantly reduced relative to their sedentary age peers (AGI, 36% lower, APWV, 26% lower) despite similar blood pressures. ConclusionsEven in normotensive, rigorously screened volunteers in whom SBP increased an average of only 14% between ages 20 and 90 years. , major age-associated increases of arterial stiffness occur. Higher physical conditioning status, indexed by $Vo2max, was associated with reduced arterial stiffness, both within this predominantly sedentary population and in endurance trained older men relative to their less active age peers. These findings suggest that interventions to improve aerobic capacity may mitigate the stiffening ofthe arterial tree that accompanies normative aging. (Ciclation. 1993;88[part 11:1456-1462.)
A randomized controlled trial of a group-based gaze training intervention for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

The aim of this study was to integrate a gaze training intervention (i.e., quiet eye training; QET) that has been shown to improve the throwing and catching skill of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), within an approach (i.e., group therapy) that might alleviate the negative psychosocial impact of these motor skill deficits. Twenty-one children with DCD were split into either QET (8 male 3 female, mean age of 8.6 years (SD = 1.04) or technical training (TT) groups (7 male 3 female, mean age of 8.6 years (SD = 1.84). The TT group were given movement-related instructions via video, relating to the throw and catch phases, while the QET group were also taught to fixate a target location on the wall prior to the throw (QE1) and to track the ball prior to the catch (QE2). Each group partook in a 4-week, group therapy intervention and measurements of QE duration and catching performance were taken before and after training, and at a 6-week delayed retention test. Parental feedback on psychosocial and motor skill outcomes was provided at delayed retention. Children improved their gaze control and catching coordination following QET, compared to TT. Mediation analysis showed that a longer QE aiming duration (QE1) predicted an earlier onset of tracking the ball prior to catching (QE2) which predicted catching success. Parents reported enhanced perceptions of their child’s catching ability and general coordination in the QET group compared to the TT group. All parents reported improvements in their child’s confidence, social skills and predilection for physical activity following the trial. The findings offer initial support for an intervention that practitioners could apply to address deficits in the motor and psychosocial skills of children with DCD. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02904980
Where are the Women in the Ebola Crisis? An Analysis of Gendered Reporting and the Information Behavior Patterns of Journalists Covering a Health Outbreak

Health officials estimate that the 2014 Ebola crisis disproportionately victimized women, who made up 75% of the disease's victims. This interdisciplinary study has two main goals. The first is to evaluate the news media's performance in relation to their representation of women caught up in the Ebola crisis because the media play an important role in influencing public responses to health. This study sought to understand the information behavior patterns of journalists who covered the Ebola crisis by analyzing how job tasks influence a journalist's information behavior. This study employed qualitative methods to study the perceptions of journalists who covered the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Liberian and American journalists who covered the outbreak to understand the choices that guided their reporting of the Ebola crisis. A content analysis of The New York Times, The Times, and The Inquirer was also conducted to examine the new media's representation of women in an outbreak which mostly victimized women. The findings suggest that covering a dangerous assignment like Ebola affected the information behavior patterns of journalists. Audience needs, the timing of coverage, fear, and the accessibility of sources, were some of the factors that influenced the news gathering decisions taken by the reporters. The findings also suggest that women were mostly underrepresented by the media as sources, experts and subjects.
PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY AND NONIGNORABLE ATTRITION FROM THE BRITISH HOUSEHOLD PANEL STUDY

In this paper we study the importance of possible non-random attrition on variations in psychiatric morbidity using data from the first eight waves of the British Household Panel Study. To study attrition we use the model of Hausman and Wise (1979) which applies to continuous longitudinal data with nonignorable or informative dropout. The model combines a multivariate linear model for the underlying response with a probit regression model for the dropout process. The latter incorporates dependence of the probability of dropout on unobserved, or missing, observations. Parameters in the model are estimated by using maximum likelihood. It is seen that the assumption of an informative dropout rather than a random dropout process has practical implications for the interpretation of the data. In particular we find evidence of attrition bias among the cohorts of men and women who were over 64 years of age at the time of the first interview in 1991. The model predicts that among men and women over 64 years of age at the time of the first interview those with high levels of psychiatric morbidity are more likely to leave the panel. As a consequence, the study may understate levels of psychiatric morbidity in late adulthood.
Molecular responses of genetically modified maize to abiotic stresses as determined through proteomic and metabolomic analyses

Some genetically modified (GM) plants have transgenes that confer tolerance to abiotic stressors. Meanwhile, other transgenes may interact with abiotic stressors, causing pleiotropic effects that will affect the plant physiology. Thus, physiological alteration might have an impact on the product safety. However, routine risk assessment (RA) analyses do not evaluate the response of GM plants exposed to different environmental conditions. Therefore, we here present a proteome profile of herbicide-tolerant maize, including the levels of phytohormones and related compounds, compared to its near-isogenic non-GM variety under drought and herbicide stresses. Twenty differentially abundant proteins were detected between GM and non-GM hybrids under different water deficiency conditions and herbicide sprays. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that most of these proteins are assigned to energetic/carbohydrate metabolic processes. Among phytohormones and related compounds, different levels of ABA, CA, JA, MeJA and SA were detected in the maize varieties and stress conditions analysed. In pathway and proteome analyses, environment was found to be the major source of variation followed by the genetic transformation factor. Nonetheless, differences were detected in the levels of JA, MeJA and CA and in the abundance of 11 proteins when comparing the GM plant and its non-GM near-isogenic variety under the same environmental conditions. Thus, these findings do support molecular studies in GM plants Risk Assessment analyses.
Refinement of the Central Steps of Substrate Transport by the Aspartate Transporter GltPh: Elucidating the Role of the Na2 Sodium Binding Site

Glutamate homeostasis in the brain is maintained by glutamate transporter mediated accumulation. Impaired transport is associated with several neurological disorders, including stroke and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Crystal structures of the homolog transporter GltPh from Pyrococcus horikoshii revealed large structural changes. Substrate uptake at the atomic level and the mechanism of ion gradient conversion into directional transport remained enigmatic. We observed in repeated simulations that two local structural changes regulated transport. The first change led to formation of the transient Na2 sodium binding site, triggered by side chain rotation of T308. The second change destabilized cytoplasmic ionic interactions. We found that sodium binding to the transiently formed Na2 site energized substrate uptake through reshaping of the energy hypersurface. Uptake experiments in reconstituted proteoliposomes confirmed the proposed mechanism. We reproduced the results in the human glutamate transporter EAAT3 indicating a conserved mechanics from archaea to humans.
Full blind denoising through noise covariance estimation using Gaussian scale mixtures in the wavelet domain

We describe an efficient generalized expectation maximization algorithm for estimating the spectral features of a noise source corrupting an observed image. We use a statistical model for images decomposed in an overcomplete oriented pyramid. Each neighborhood of clean pyramid coefficients is modeled as a Gaussian scale mixture, whereas the noise is assumed Gaussian. Combining this GEM technique with a previous Bayesian denoise estimator, we obtain a full blind denoising algorithm, able to deal with homogeneous, Gaussian or mesokurtotic, noise sources of arbitrary covariance. Results demonstrate the high performance of the method for a wide range of corruption sources.
Functional Properties of Punica granatum L. Juice Clarified by Hollow Fiber Membranes

There is currently much interest in pomegranate juice because of the high content of phenolic compounds. Moreover, the interest in the separation of bioactive compounds from natural sources has remarkably grown. In this work, for the first time, the Punica granatum L. (pomegranate) juice—clarified by using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polysulfone (PSU) hollow fiber (HF) membranes prepared in the laboratory—was screened for its antioxidant properties by using different in vitro assays, namely 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP), and β-carotene bleaching tests, and for its potential inhibitory activity of the carbohydrate-hydrolysing enzymes, α-amylase and α-glucosidase. The effects of clarification on quality characteristics of the juice were also investigated in terms of total phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and ascorbic acid. Experimental results indicated that PVDF membranes presented a lower retention towards healthy phytochemicals in comparison to PSU membranes. Accordingly, the juice clarified with PVDF membranes showed the best antioxidant activity. Moreover, the treatment with PVDF membranes produced a clarified juice with 2.9-times fold higher α-amylase inhibitory activity in comparison to PSU (IC50 value of 75.86 vs. 221.31 μg/mL, respectively). The same trend was observed using an α-glucosidase inhibition test. These results highlight the great potential of the clarified juice as a source of functional constituents.