Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digit extraction and recognition from machine printed Gurmukhi documents

The work presented in this paper focuses on the problem of extraction and recognition of digits (Roman as well as Gurmukhi) from Machine Printed Gurmukhi documents. The whole process consists of three stages. The first, segmentation stage takes as input an image of a document and separates the different logical parts, like lines of paragraph, words of a line and characters of a word. Then probable set of digits is extracted based on their features which makes them different from other Gurmukhi text. The next, Feature Extraction stage analyzes the set of probable digits and selects a set of structural and statistical features that can be used to uniquely identify the digits. The selection of a stable and representative set of features is the heart of digit recognition system. The final, classification stage is the main decision making stage of the system and uses the features extracted in the previous stage to identify the digit. We have used non parametric statistical classifier i.e. K-Nearest Neighbour for recognition purposes. The most promising recognition accuracy is achieved by using DDD features which is 95% for roman digits and 92.6% for Gurmukhi digits.
Arrival times for the wave equation

We establish a definition of arrival time of a wavefront for a propagating wave in anisotropic media that is initially at rest and where the governing partial differential equation is the anisotropic wave equation. This definition of arrival time is not the same as the one in [8, 12]; it eliminates pathological discontinuities that can occur with the older definition and is still consistent with physical intuition. What is substantively new here is that we show that the newly defined arrival time is locally Lipschitz‐continuous. Then following the method in [8, 12] we establish that it satisfies the eikonal equation. Furthermore, in the isotropic case we establish that the arrival time, as defined here, is the unique viscosity solution of the eikonal equation. Our motivation for this work is to use this arrival time at points in the interior of a physical or biological material, which is estimated from displacement measurements, to determine properties of the medium that are represented as functions in the eikonal equation; see [8, 10, 11, 12]. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Christian Instrumentality of Sport as a Possible Source of Goodness for Atheists

Abstract The aim of this paper is to differentiate between religion and spirituality more strictly, or, specifically, between the religious and spiritual aspects of sport. The text is written in an autoethnographic genre from an ‘outsider’ position, by an author who is not Christian. Religion, including Christianity, represents a connectedness between the natural world (the profane) and an ontologically different reality (the sacrum) and its transcendence towards the sacrum. But spirituality is the centre of the human way of being and a manifestation of personality. So spirituality and spiritual values can and should be an integral part of human movement, including sport, while any religion is not an inherent quality of sport but an external factor that is only accidentally (not substantially) associated with the area of human physical activity. Despite this fact, the argumentation leads toward a conclusion that sport can serve as a tool and means for the realization of Christian values. If the instrumentality of sport means the realization of love as a basic Christian attitude to all people, then this should be a positive outcome not only for religious people, but also for agnostics and even atheists.
Automatic indexing of documents with ontologies

Indexing large bodies of data is necessary to enable satisfactory search results. Ontologies serve as fixed vocabularies to index data from different viewpoints. We describe howAIDAS, a software tool, automatically divides the source data (PDF documents) into reusable chunks, how it automatically indexes these chunks and stores them in a database to enable reuse.
Virtual Learning Environments for Students with Disabilities: A Review and Analysis of the Empirical Literature and Two Case Studies

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show varying levels of impairment in social skills situations. Interventions have been developed utilizing virtual environments (VEs) to teach and improve social skills. This article presents a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles focusing on social interventions in VEs involving K-12th grade students with ASD. This exhaustive analysis across four major online databases was guided by operational terms related to intervention type and K-12 students with ASD. The empirical search yielded a very narrow body of literature (n=19) on the use of VEs as social skill interventions for students with ASD. Two case study examples of experiments exploring the use of VEs and students with ASD are presented to illustrate possible applications of this technology.
Graph based resource recommender system

As technology improves day by day communication and browsing has become very much easier. However lots of information floods over the internet every moment thereby confusing the user as to select what or make decisions. To assist the user in identifying their interests and provide suggestions, recommendation systems came into existence. These systems filter the necessary content from large volumes of data to predict resources to the user. Common techniques used to implement recommender systems are content based approach or collaborative approach. However there are few limitations like data not being available for new users, ratings very sparse for resources. A graph based recommender system is proposed that makes useful recommendations by exploiting the significant content available. Clustering technique is used to identify the neighbourhood of the current user so that relevant resources are suggested. A weight based approach is used to calculate the ratings for the resources. This method is adopted to make the system less prone to data sparsity problem. This system is a web based client side application which makes recommendations by constructing user-resource graph and ranking the resources by a new method designed similar to that of search algorithms.
Genetically optimizing the speed of programs evolved to play tetris

Many new domains for genetic programming require evolved programs to be executed for longer amounts of time. For these applications it is likely that some test cases optimally require more computation cycles than others. Therefore, programs must dynamically allocate cycles among test cases in order to use computation time efﬁciently. To elicit the strategic allocation of computation time, we impose an aggregate computation time ceiling that applies over a series of ﬁtness cases. This exerts time pressure on evolved programs, with the effect that resulting programs dynamically allocate computation time, opportunistically spending less time per test case when possible, with minimal damage to domain performance. This technique is in principle extensible to resources other than computation time such as memory or fuel. We introduce the game Tetris as a test problem for this technique.
Success Factors for Dynamics NAV Solution Implementation : What Matters and How

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution implementation is a complex process that requires substantial resources and efforts and involves considerable risks reflected in the time, scope, and cost of project implementation, yet the results are very uncertain. As ERP hype has reached large organizations as well as small and medium enterprises, we examined the critical success factors in ERP implementation. Based on the literature review, a model was developed. The results of our survey in Slovenia demonstrated that organizations have to pay attention to different critical success factors in different phases of the implementation process. Recommendations for future implementations and comments on our findings are included in the conclusion.
Validation of Nighttime Sleepability Scale Against Objective and Subjective Measures of Sleep Quality

Quick self-assessment of night sleep quality with reliable and valid instruments is often required in various fundamental and applied studies in the field of sleep medicine and chronomedicine. Individual differences in sleep quality are usually assessed with a special scale, whereas such a scale is absent in most of questionnaires for evaluation of individual differences in the domain of chronobiology. One of two exceptions is the 6-scale Sleep-Wake Pattern Assessment Questionnaire. It contains the 12-item scale S designed to self-assess nighttime sleepability. The purpose of the present report was to examine external validity of this scale by searching for correlates and predictors of S score. One hundred and sixty participants of sleep deprivation experiments self-reported their sleep latency, total sleep duration, nap frequency, and times for going to bed and awakening for one week prior to the experiment. Their objective and subjective sleepiness after sleepless night was measures in the course of experiment. Moreover, sleep latency and total sleep duration were measured by means of polysomnography in studies with 35 female participants. Other objective measurements included percentages of sleep stages, awakenings after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency. Additionally, sleep latencies were detected during 9 day- and nighttime 20-min napping attempts of 15 from 35 participants. It was found that significant correlates and predictors of S score include subjective and objective measures of sleep latency, percentage of slow wave sleep, subjectively and objectively assessed sleepiness, and self-reported total sleep time. These results provided solid evidence for external validity of scale S.
90 nm CMOS MMIC amplifier

Small signal amplifiers at 20 and 40 GHz, based on a 90 nm CMOS process are demonstrated. A gain of 5.8 dB at 20 GHz for single stage has been obtained with a 1 dB compression point at 1 dBm. The corresponding figures for the 40 GHz amplifiers are 6 dB and -5.75 dBm. Noise figure for the 20 GHz amplifier is 6.4 dB. Both single gate access and double gate access transistors have been used in the design. DC power consumption of the 20 GHz single stage amplifier was found to be 10 mW whereas for the 40 GHz double stage amplifier it is approximately 19 mW. Total circuit area is 0.7/spl times/0.8 mm/sup 2/ for the single stage and 1/spl times/0.7 mm/sup 2/ for the 40 GHz double stage amplifier.
Optimised IGBT turn-off under active voltage control in PEBB applications

Active Voltage Control (AVC) is an implementation of classic Proportional-Derivative (PD) control and multi-loop feedback control to force an IGBT to follow a pre-set switching trajectory. Previously, AVC was mainly used for controlling series-connected IGBTs in order to enable voltage balance between IGBTs. In this paper, the nonlinear IGBT turn-off transient is further discussed and the turnoff of a single IGBT under AVC is further optimised in order to meet the demand of Power Electronic Building Block (PEBB) applications.
Genetic diversity and population structure of an insular tree, Santalum austrocaledonicum in New Caledonian archipelago

We present a study of the genetic diversity and structure of a tropical tree in an insular system. Santalum austrocaledonicum is endemic to the archipelago of New Caledonia and is exploited for oil extraction from heartwood. A total of 431 individuals over 17 populations were analysed for eight polymorphic microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 33 and the observed heterozygosity per population ranged from 0.01 in Maré to 0.74 in Ile des Pins. The genetic diversity was lowest in the most recent islands, the Loyautés, and highest in the oldest island, Grande Terre, as well as the nearby small Ile des Pins. Significant departures from panmixia were observed for some loci–population combinations (per population FIS = 0–0.03 on Grande‐Terre and Ile des Pins, and 0–0.67 on Loyautés). A strong genetic differentiation among all islands was observed (FST = 0.22), and the amount of differentiation increased with geographic distance in Iles Loyauté and in Grande Terre. At both population and island levels, island age and isolation seem to be the main factors influencing the amount of genetic diversity. In particular, populations from recent islands had large average FIS that could not be entirely explained by null alleles or a Wahlund effect. This result suggests that, at least in some populations, selfing occurred extensively. Conclusively, our results indicate a strong influence of insularity on the genetic diversity and structure of Santalum austrocaledonicum.
Development of the Attachment Affective Picture System

We developed the Attachment Affective Picture System (AAPS) to facilitate research on attachment. To construct the AAPS, we selected 903 color photographs depicting positive and negative parent–child attachment, positive and negative romantic attachment, and neutral nonattachment. Participants ( N = 78) rated the pictures’ valence, arousal, and attachment on a 9-point scale (1 = low to 9 = high ). All pictures were found to have high internal consistency reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alphas > .90; split-half reliability > .80). The scores on each dimension were consistent with the properties of the pictures and attachment themes were not significantly different in terms of dimensional properties. In conclusion, the AAPS is suitable for use in research conducted in the field of attachment theory, especially in relation to emotion.
Optical imaging in medicine: II. Modelling and reconstruction

The desire for a diagnostic optical imaging modality has motivated the development of image reconstruction procedures involving solution of the inverse problem. This approach is based on the assumption that, given a set of measurements of transmitted light between pairs of points on the surface of an object, there exists a unique three-dimensional distribution of internal scatterers and absorbers which would yield that set. Thus imaging becomes a task of solving an inverse problem using an appropriate model of photon transport. In this paper we examine the models that have been developed for this task, and review current approaches to image reconstruction. Specifically, we consider models based on radiative transfer theory and its derivatives, which are either stochastic in nature (random walk, Monte Carlo, and Markov processes) or deterministic (partial differential equation models and their solutions). Image reconstruction algorithms are discussed which are based on either direct backprojection, perturbation methods, nonlinear optimization, or Jacobian calculation. Finally we discuss some of the fundamental problems that must be addressed before optical tomography can be considered to be an understood problem, and before its full potential can be realized.
Routine Multiplex Mutational Profiling of Melanomas Enables Enrollment in Genotype-Driven Therapeutic Trials

Purpose Knowledge of tumor mutation status is becoming increasingly important for the treatment of cancer, as mutation-specific inhibitors are being developed for clinical use that target only sub-populations of patients with particular tumor genotypes. Melanoma provides a recent example of this paradigm. We report here development, validation, and implementation of an assay designed to simultaneously detect 43 common somatic point mutations in 6 genes (BRAF, NRAS, KIT, GNAQ, GNA11, and CTNNB1) potentially relevant to existing and emerging targeted therapies specifically in melanoma. Methods The test utilizes the SNaPshot method (multiplex PCR, multiplex primer extension, and capillary electrophoresis) and can be performed rapidly with high sensitivity (requiring 5–10% mutant allele frequency) and minimal amounts of DNA (10–20 nanograms). The assay was validated using cell lines, fresh-frozen tissue, and formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue. Clinical characteristics and the impact on clinical trial enrollment were then assessed for the first 150 melanoma patients whose tumors were genotyped in the Vanderbilt molecular diagnostics lab. Results Directing this test to a single disease, 90 of 150 (60%) melanomas from sites throughout the body harbored a mutation tested, including 57, 23, 6, 3, and 2 mutations in BRAF, NRAS, GNAQ, KIT, and CTNNB1, respectively. Among BRAF V600 mutations, 79%, 12%, 5%, and 4% were V600E, V600K, V600R, and V600M, respectively. 23 of 54 (43%) patients with mutation harboring metastatic disease were subsequently enrolled in genotype-driven trials. Conclusion We present development of a simple mutational profiling screen for clinically relevant mutations in melanoma. Adoption of this genetically-informed approach to the treatment of melanoma has already had an impact on clinical trial enrollment and prioritization of therapy for patients with the disease.
Remember and Review or Forget and Let Go? Views from a Functional Approach to Autobiographical Memory

As humans, we show a certain contrariness in our view of remembering, particularly in relation to remembering our own personal past: we love to remember and we love to forget. This article explores this tension, providing a view from the functional approach to autobiographical memory. The benefits of remembering versus forgetting are discussed through exploration of three central questions: (i) What is the goal, the desired outcome, of remembering-forgetting (ii) does one principle, to remember or to forget, apply for both good and bad memories, and (iii) is it ethical to internally or externally manipulate others’ memories to induce forgetting? Using the functional approach, memory is presented not simply as helpful in creating and maintaining well-being. Instead, both positive and negative memories are presented as resources that help us to orient more broadly, as social animals, in time and space (Liao & Bluck, 2013).
Heuristics for Dynamic Task Mapping in NoC-based Heterogeneous MPSoCs

Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoCs) is a trend in VLSI design, since they minimize the "design crisis " (gap between silicon technology and actual SoC design capacity) and reduce the time to market. Important issues in MPSoC design are the communication infrastructure and task mapping. MPSoCs may employ NoCs to integrate multiple programmable processor cores, specialized memories, and other IPs in a scalable way. Applications running in MPSoCs execute a varying number of tasks simultaneously, and their number may exceed the available resources, requiring task mapping to be executed at runtime to meet real-time constraints. Most works in the literature present static MPSoC mapping solutions. Static mapping defines a fixed placement and scheduling, not appropriate for dynamic workloads. Task migration has also been proposed for use in MPSoCs, with the goal to relocate tasks when performance bottlenecks are identified. This work investigates the performance of mapping heuristics in NoC-based MPSoCs with dynamic workloads, targeting NoC congestion minimization, a key cost function to optimize the NoC performance. Here, tasks are mapped on the fly, according to communication requests and the load in the NoC links. Results show execution time and congestion reduction when congestion-aware mapping heuristics are employed.
From Arabidopsis to cereal crops: Conservation of chloroplast protein degradation by autophagy indicates its fundamental role in plant productivity

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process leading to the degradation of intracellular components in eukaryotes, which is important for nutrient recycling especially in response to starvation conditions. Nutrient recycling is an essential process that underpins productivity in crop plants, such that remobilized nitrogen derived from older organs supports the formation of new organs or grain-filling within a plant. We extended our understanding of autophagy in a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, to an important cereal, rice (Oryza sativa). Through analysis of transgenic rice plants stably expressing fluorescent marker proteins for autophagy or chloroplast stroma, we revealed that chloroplast proteins are partially degraded in the vacuole via Rubisco-containing bodies (RCBs), a type of autophagosomes containing stroma. We further reported evidence that the RCB pathway functions during natural leaf senescence to facilitate subsequent nitrogen remobilization into newly expanding leaves. Thus, our recent studies establish the importance of autophagy in biomass production of cereals.
Diversity change of microbial communities responding to zinc and arsenic pollution in a river of northeastern China

Pollution discharge disturbs the natural functions of water systems. The environmental microbial community composition and diversity are sensitive key indicators to the impact of water pollutant on the microbial ecology system over time. It is meaningful to develop a way to identify the microbial diversity related to heavy metal effects in evaluating river pollution. Water and sediment samples were collected from eight sections along the Tiaozi River where wastewater and sewage were discharged from Siping City in northeastern China. The main pollutants contents and microbial communities were analyzed. As the primary metal pollutants, zinc (Zn) and arsenic (As) were recorded at the maximum concentrations of 420 and 5.72 μg/L in the water, and 1704 and 1.92 mg/kg in the sediment, respectively. These pollutants posed a threat to the microbial community diversity as only a few species of bacteria and eukaryotes with strong resistance were detected through denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Acinetobacter johnsonii, Clostridium cellulovorans, and Trichococcus pasteurii were the dominant bacteria in the severely polluted areas. The massive reproduction of Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri almost depleted the dissolved oxygen (DO) and resulted in the decline of the aerobic bacteria. It was noted that the pollution reduced the microbial diversity but the L. hoffmeisteri mass increased as the dominant community, which led to the overconsuming of DO and anaerobic stinking water bodies. Water quality, concentrations of heavy metals, and the spatial distribution of microbial populations have obvious consistencies, which mean that the heavy metals in the river pose a serious stress on the microorganisms.
THE DETERMINANTS OF MINIMUM WAGE VIOLATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper investigates the determinants of non-compliance or violation of minimum wage legislation in South Africa, a country where violation is high, at just under 50 percent. The number of labour inspectors per capita is used as a proxy for enforcement, whilst non-compliance is measured using an index of violation that measures both the proportion of individuals violated, as well as the depth of violation of an individual. Due to the potential simultaneity between enforcement and compliance, the number of labour inspectors is instrumented by the number of non-inspectors. The results suggest that there are a variety of factors impacting on violation, including firm-level, sectoral and spatial characteristics. One of the key determinants of violation is found to be the local unemployment rate.