Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Intention to Use of Small-scale Renewable Energy Technologies in District Sialkot, Pakistan

Due to existing energy shortage; there is need to adopt renewable energy technologies. Low awareness and acceptance are major barriers to development of renewable energy technologies. The present study was conducted to explore factors affecting intention to use of small-scale renewable energy technologies in Pakistan at household level. This present study was conducted in Sialkot District. and non-probability sampling technique was used to select the respondents. There were 160 respondents participated in this study. The theoretical model in this research was developed based on Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, and Innovation Diffusion Theory by Rogers and Theory of Planned Behavior. Major findings of this study highlighted that socio-economic factors, facilitating conditions perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, knowledge, persuasion, and subjective norms are significant determinants of intention to use small-scale renewable energy technologies. The study recommended that government and other stakeholders should use strategies to create awareness and sensitized the people about benefits of adopting small-scale renewable energy technologies and setting up awareness centers at local and national level for encouraging people to adopt small scale renewable energy technologies.
The effects of Tai-Chi-Soft-Ball training on physical functional health of Chinese older adult

This study was designed to investigate a 10-week training effects of Tai-Chi-Soft-Ball (TCSB), a novel Chinese exercise which combined the elements of Tai Chi and badminton, on physical functional health of private institutionalized older adults. Thirty-four participants were recruited in the training group with 60 minutes per session and two sessions per week TCSB training. Thirty-two participants were recruited simultaneously in the control group (no training). The measurements included the Senior Fitness Test (SFT), AAHPERD Soda Pop Test, self perceptive functional health. Two-way ANOVA/ ANCOVA with repeated measure in one factor was conducted to examine the testing factor (pre-test and post-test of TCSB training) and the effect of groups (training and control group) as well as their interaction effects. The significant training effects were found in training group (six out of eight items of SFT, AAHPERD Soda Pop Test and self perceptive functional health). In control group, significant functional deteriorations were found in SFT (back scratch test, 8-foot up-and-go) and self perceptive functional health. The previous findings showed that TCSB was not only effective in improving; but also in maintaining and decelerating the deterioration of physical functional health of sedentary Chinese older adult.
Comparative Evaluation of the Nanosphere Verigene RV+ Assay and the Simplexa Flu A/B & RSV Kit for Detection of Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Viruses

ABSTRACT Using retrospective (n = 200) and prospective (n = 150) nasopharyngeal specimens, we evaluated the Nanosphere Verigene RV+ and the Focus Diagnostics Simplexa Flu A/B & RSV tests. Overall, RV+ demonstrated sensitivities and specificities of 96.6% and 100% for influenza A virus, 100% and 99.7% for influenza B virus, and 100% and 100% for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), while the Simplexa test sensitivities and specificities were 82.8 and 99.7%, 76.2 and 100%, and 94.6 and 100%, respectively.
SEAMANSHIP HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY BASED ON GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS AT MARITIME SECONDARY SCHOOL - A CASE STUDY IN NATIONAL MARITIME SECONDARY SCHOOL PURWOKERTO, INDONESIA

The purpose of this study is to obtain the strategic model of seafarer human resource development which is able to be competitive (A case study in National Maritime Secondary School Purwokerto). This study employed qualitative naturalistic design and phenomenology method or impressionistic method and ethnography method. This study confirms that strategic management of human resources promotes a motivation in accordance with the planning. Meanwhile, education quality can be improved by encouraging instructor integrity, school readiness in providing laboratory, instructors training and education to foster better performance and professionalism. Within the component of human resource development, it calls for demonstrating various skills such as operating computer, sewing, accounting, etc. The implementation of strategic management of human resources is rather costly and it can be a burden of the students as a simulator of private maritime education institution. The elements which are essential in improving the quality of education are qualified instructors, the availability of facilities and media, and financial support. Quality improvement is performed to accomplish integrated quality management using top management comprehensively based on collectivism values, responsibility, awareness, willingness, affection, truth, and transparency. Article visualizations:
Entrepreneurial Insights into Developing the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Finland: the High Impotance of Mentoring and Networking in Nascent Entrepreneurship

This study investigates what insights entrepreneurs have for improving the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Finland. The research consists of qualitative interviews to determine what changes entrepreneurs would make in the ecosystem such that it would stimulate and encourage more people to create new companies that succeed and grow. The research indicates that Finland needs to change the way things are to make the environment more innovative. A proposed improvement is a higher focus on the development of communities for entrepreneurship. Establishing a well-functioning community for entrepreneurs provide networking opportunities and the social forces, feedback, and criticism of the community will fine-tune an innovation that has not been finalized. Central features of a well-functioning community for entrepreneurs are networking, mentoring and good-will.
Improving Supply Chain for Essential Drugs in Low-Income Countries: Results from a Large Scale Randomized Experiment in Zambia

Abstract Despite increased investments in procurement of essential medicines, their availability at health facilities remains extremely low in many low- and middle-income countries. The lack of a well-functioning supply chain for essential medicines is often the cause of this poor availability. Using a randomized trial conducted in 439 health facilities and 24 districts in Zambia, this study helps understand the optimal supply chain structure for essential medicines distribution in the public sector in low-income countries. It shows that a more direct distribution system where clinics order and receive medicines supply directly from the central agency through a cross-docking arrangement significantly reduces the duration and frequency of stockouts compared to a traditional three-level drug distribution system. As an example, the frequency of stockouts for first line pediatric malaria medicines reduced from 47.9% to 13.3% and the number of days of stockout in a quarter reduced from 27 days to 5 days. The direct flow of demand and order information from health facilities to the central supply agency reduces the problem of diffuse accountability that exists in multi-tiered distribution systems. It also shifts the locus of decision making for complex supply chain functions such as scarce stock allocation and adjustment of health facility order quantities to levels in the system where staff competency is aligned with what the function needs. Even when supply chain system redesign such as the one evaluated in this paper are demonstrated to be technically robust using rigorous evidence, they often require navigating a complex political economy within the overall health system and its actors.
Cucurbitacins: elucidation of their interactions with the cytoskeleton

Cucurbitacins, a class of toxic tetracyclic triterpenoids in Cucurbitaceae, modulate many molecular targets. Here we investigated the interactions of cucurbitacin B, E and I with cytoskeletal proteins such as microtubule and actin filaments. The effects of cucurbitacin B, E and I on microtubules and actin filaments were studied in living cells (Hela and U2OS) and in vitro using GFP markers, immunofluorescence staining and in vitro tubulin polymerization assay. Cucurbitacin B, E and I apparently affected microtubule structures in living cells and cucurbitacin E inhibited tubulin polymerization in vitro with IC50 value of 566.91 ± 113.5 µM. Cucurbitacin E did not affect the nucleation but inhibited the growth phase and steady state during microtubule assembly in vitro. In addition, cucurbitacin B, E and I all altered mitotic spindles and induced the cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase. Moreover, they all showed potent effects on actin cytoskeleton by affecting actin filaments through the depolymerization and aggregation. The interactions of cucubitacin B, E and I with microtubules and actin filaments present new insights into their modes of action.
A Salient Feature Extraction Algorithm for Speech Emotion Recognition

A salient feature extraction algorithm is proposed to improve the recognition rate of the speech emotion. Firstly, the spectrogram of the emotional speech is calculated. Secondly, imitating the selective attention mechanism, the color, direction and brightness map of the spectrogram is computed. Each map is normalized and down-sampled to form the low resolution feature matrix. Then, each feature matrix is converted to the row vector and the principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce features redundancy to make the subsequent classification algorithm more practical. Finally, the speech emotion is classified with the support vector machine. Compared with the tradition features, the improved recognition rate reaches 15%. key words: speech emotion recognition, spectrogram, selective attention, support vector machine
Ground Plan Based Exploration with a Mobile Indoor Robot

In order to navigate efficiently in its working space a mobile robot has to use some kind of map. To be completely autonomous the robot has to generate such a representation automatically by exploring all reachable area of the a priori unknown environment. Thus an exploration strategy for generating a complete and accurate map within minimal time is a key feature. This paper presents an integrated mapping and exploration approach that uses a 3D reconstruction technique for extracting a ground plan of the environment and for detecting interesting places (NBVs) that trigger the exploration process.
Ein echtzeitfähiger Evolutionärer Algorithmus zur netzweiten Optimierung der Lichtsignalsteuerung

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird mit GALOP ein echtzeitfahiger Genetischer Algorithmus zur netzweiten Optimierung der Lichtsignalsteuerung entwickelt und bewertet, der zur Verbesserung des Verkehrsablaufs des motorisierten Verkehrs beitragt. GALOP optimiert die Signalplane aller Lichtsignalanlagen des jeweiligen Netzes, wobei alle Steuerungsparameter gleichzeitig optimiert werden konnen. Grundannahme ist eine einheitliche Umlaufzeit fur das zu optimierende Netz. Zudem werden vorhandene Signalplane mit vorab geplanten moglichen Phasenfolgen (phasenorientierter Ansatz) fur die einzelnen Knotenpunkte vorausgesetzt. Das Verfahren ist so konzipiert, dass es tatsachlich auf die Strase gebracht werden kann, weil die Randbedingungen der in Deutschland weit verbreiteten lokalen verkehrsabhangigen Steuerung berucksichtigt werden.
Cartesian control issues for minimally invasive robot surgery

Telepresence in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is a promising application for robotics because the robot enhances the manipulation and sensation capabilities of the surgeon. Many of these surgical robots are equipped with passive joints that guarantee that no forces are exerted to the entry point. Due to these passive joints, which are dependent on the entry point's position, new algorithms for cartesian control have to be developed. After introducing the kinematics of the robot, used in the DLR minimally invasive robot surgery scenario, we show how the entry point (trocar) can be estimated, followed by the calculation of the inverse kinematics. To allow cartesian velocity control of the robot system we build an observer that is used to close the velocity control loop. Experiments show the performance of the chosen algorithms.
Sponsors as supporters.

In this paper we present an in-ground intrusion detection system for security applications. Here, an optical fibre pressure switch is directly connected to a standard digital input of a programmable logic controller (PLC). This is achieved using an intensiometric detection system, where a laser diode and Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) are optically mismatched, resulting in a static dc offset from the transmitted and reflected optical power signals. Pressure applied to the FBG, as the intruder stepped on it, induced a wavelength shift in the FBG. The wavelength shift was then converted into an intensity change as the wavelength of the FBG matched the wavelength of the laser. The change in intensity, measured by the optical detectors, resulted in a significant change in the DC offset, behaving as on optical switch. When connected to the PLC the optical pressure switch was used to drive a digital output, sounding an alarm in addition to displaying the intrusion event on the human machine interface.
Minimax Design of IIR Digital Filters Using Iterative SOCP

In this paper, a novel method for IIR digital filter design using iterative second-order cone programming (SOCP) is proposed under the minimax criterion. The convex relaxation technique is utilized to transform the original nonconvex design problem into an SOCP problem. By solving the relaxed problem, the lower and upper bounds on the optimal value of the original problem can be obtained. In order to reduce the discrepancy between the original and relaxed design problems, an iterative procedure is developed. At each iteration, a linear constraint is further incorporated to guarantee the convergence of the iterative procedure. In practice, the convergence speed can be further improved by introducing a soft threshold variable in this linear constraint. Accordingly, a regularization term is incorporated in the objective function of the design problem at each iteration. The stability of the designed filters can be ensured by a new positive realness based linear constraint. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Patterns of acknowledgement

Personal acknowledgements are commonplace in the scholarly communication process. The scale and significance of the phenomenon vary from field to field, and from journal to journal. Variation in practice is revealed in a twenty‐year analysis of acknowledgements in four of the top‐ranked information/library science journals (1971–1990). A small number of individuals are highly acknowledged; a majority are mentioned infrequently, if ever. The concentration is similar to that found in citation analyses of research productivity. There is a positive rank order correlation between frequency of acknowledgement and citation frequency. The implications for both institutional and individual evaluation are discussed.
An Evaluation of Four-Day Compressed Workweek of Ifugao State University System: Basis for Action Plan

ABSTRACT: The HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) in the Philippines, generally, are experiencing financial constrictions brought by increased social demands and status of learning, which are not given equal extent of funding in respective delivering institutions. This is due to the new guideline aiming to streamline the nation’s expenses to achieve excellent education. Conversely, the streamlining led to unproductivity and great decline of monetary appropriation for learning institutions. This study evaluated the compressed workweek program of IFSU (Ifugao State University) system in the Philippines, basis for further improvement. Descriptive-survey method was used. Data were collected through questionnaires, document analysis, and interviews. Respondents included 938 middle-level managers, faculty, staff, and junior students. Results disclosed that electricity and fuel consumption decreased after implementation of program. However, use of office supplies increased. Employees became more productive, committed, and satisfied in their job. Illegal conduct of out-of-job activities were eliminated and employees performed very satisfactorily. No significant difference exists in employees’ productivity and commitment. Management of time and other benefits showed high significant difference. No significant difference exists in performance of middle level managers and faculty before and after implementation of program. A system mechanism in monitoring and evaluating different areas of program before its implementation is recommended. KEY WORDS: Four-Day Compressed Workweek; Ifugao State University; Evaluation; Employees’ Productivity; Action Plan. About the Authors: Leudane L. Lonez is a Lecturer at the IFSU (Ifugao State University), Nayon, Lamut, Ifugao 3605, the Philippines. Dr. Nicette N. Ganal is a Lecturer at the PNU (Philippine Normal University), North Luzon Campus, Aurora, Alicia, 3306 Isabela, the Philippines. For academic interests, the authors are able to be contacted via e-mails at: leudanelonez@gmail.com and ganal.nn@pnu.edu. ph Suggested Citation: Lonez, Leudane L. & Nicette N. Ganal. (2018). “An Evaluation of Four-Day Compressed Workweek of Ifugao State University System: Basis for Action Plan” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies , Volume 11(1), August, pp.29-48. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press owned by ASPENSI with ISSN 1979-7877 (print) and ISSN 2621-587X (online). A rticle Timeline : Accepted (May 20, 2018); Revised (July 3, 2018); and Published (August 30, 2018).
Effect of an independent-sector treatment centre on provision of elective orthopaedic surgery in east and north Hertfordshire.

Introduction Independent Sector Treatment Centres (ISTCs) were created to relieve pressure from Acute Hospital Trusts. In October 2011, an ISTC opened on the grounds of a hospital within the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. Most elective orthopaedic procedures were transferred there. We investigated the effect on productivity of operating theatres working in the ISTC compared with those working in the Acute Hospital Trust (AHT). Methods A 3-month period of working at the AHT was compared with the same period 9-months later in the ISTC, which were termed 'pre-' and 'post-ISTC' opening, respectively. Data for upper limb (UL) as well as foot and ankle (F&A) surgery were collected. Differences in the number of lists and patients per list constituted usage analyses. Financial productivity was calculated from the latest Payment by Results (PbR) data. A two-tailed Mann-Whitney U-test at a confidence level of 95% was employed to compare costs between groups. Results The UL surgeon undertook 18 lists in both years with 66 patients (pre-ISTC) and 32 (post-ISTC), eliciting a reduction in productivity of 51.5%. There were 13 lists for F&A surgery pre-ISTC with 67 procedures, and 20 lists with 49 patients post-ISTC. Allowing for the difference in the number of lists, a reduction of 52.5% was noted. PbR analyses confirmed productivity of £169,695 (pre-ISTC) and £95,760 (post-ISTC) at a loss of £73,935 for the UL surgeon. F&A data revealed £97,801 (pre-ISTC) and £91,960 (post-ISTC) at a loss of £54,742 when correcting for the difference in the number of lists. There was a combined reduction in potential financial productivity of £128,677 over 3 months or £514,708 over 1 year. Discussion Implementation of the ISTC was detrimental to departmental efficiency, with <50% of the number of patients being treated and a marked reduction in financial productivity.
Dynamic Risk Assessment System for the Vulnerability Scoring

One of the key factors that endangers network security is software vulnerabilities. So, increasing growth of vulnerability emergence is a critical challenge in security management. Also, organizations constantly encounter the limited budget problem. Therefore, to do network hardening in a cost-benefit manner, quantitative vulnerability assessment for finding the most critical vulnerabilities is a vital issue. The most prominent vulnerability scoring systems is CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) that ranks vulnerabilities based on their intrinsic characteristics. But in CVSS, Temporal features or the effect of existing patches and exploit tools in risk estimation of vulnerabilities are ignored. So, CVSS scores are not accurate. Another deficiency with CVSS that limits its application in real networks is that, in CVSS, only a small set of scores is used for discriminating between numerous numbers of vulnerabilities. To improve the difficulties with existing scoring systems, here some security metrics are defined that rank vulnerabilities by considering their temporal features beside their intrinsic ones. Also, by the aim of improving scores diversity in CVSS, a new method is proposed for Impact estimation of vulnerability exploitation on security parameters of the network. Performing risk assessment by considering the type of the attacker which endangers the network security most is another novelty of this paper
Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 ORF35 is required for efficient lytic replication and latency.

Murine gammaherpesvirus (MHV) 68, a natural pathogen of field mice, is related to human gammaherpesviruses, Epstein–Barr virus (EBV; human herpesvirus 4) and Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV; human herpesvirus 8). The ORF35 of MHV-68 and its homologues of EBV and KSHV are located in the gene cluster composed of ORF34–ORF38 in which each gene overlaps with adjacent genes. Although MHV-68 ORF35 was reported to be an essential gene, its function during infection is presently unknown. In this study, we show, by analysing ORF35-transfected cells, that three serine residues in the C terminus are responsible for the phosphorylation and that the ORF35 protein forms homo-oligomers via a predicted coiled-coil motif. The ORF35 protein expressed by transfection was preferentially located in the cytoplasm of cells uninfected or infected with MHV-68. The recombinant virus lacking ORF35 (35S virus) exhibited genome replication and expression of lytic proteins comparable to those of the WT virus, but reduced levels of virus production, suggesting that the ORF35 protein acts at the virion assembly and/or egress step. Lytic replication in the lung after intranasal infection and the frequency of ex vivo reactivation from latency after intraperitoneal infection were lower in 35S virus-infected mice than in mice infected with the WT or marker-reverted virus. Our results indicate that ORF35 is not essential for MHV-68 lytic replication, but plays an important role in efficient viral replication and reactivation from latency.
A procedure for automatic alignment of phonetic transcriptions with continuous speech

A system for automatic alignment of phonetic transcriptions with continuous speech has been developed. The speech signal is first segmented into broad classes using a non-parametric Pattern classifier. A knowledge-based dynamic programming algorithm then aligns the broad classes with the phonetic transcriptions. These broad classes provide "islands of reliability" for more detailed segmentation and refinement of boundaries. By doing alignment at the phonetic level, the system can often tolerate inter and intra-speaker variability. The system was evaluated on sixty sentences spoken by three speakers, two male and one female. 93% of the segments are mapped into only one phoneme, 70% of the time the offset between the boundary found by the automatic alignment system and a hand transcriber is less than 10 ms. The performance can be improved by applying more heuristic rules.