Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid HIV testing with same-day results: a field trial in Uganda

Rapid, on-site HIV testing with same-day results may improve services and increase the number of clients who learn their serostatus in developing countries. To validate test performance under field conditions and assess the change in the proportion of clients who learn their serostatus, we conducted a field trial using the Capillus HIV-1/HIV-2 assay (Cambridge Diagnostics) at the AIDS Information Centre counselling and testing sites in Uganda. Compared to the standard 2-EIA testing algorithm, the sensitivity of Capillus was 99.6% (95% CI; 98.5%, 99.9%), the specificity was 98.8% (95% CI; 98.1%, 99.3%), the positive predictive value was 96.5% (95% CI; 94.5%, 97.8%), and the negative predictive value was 99.9% (95% CI; 99.5%, 100%). It took less than 5 min to perform a single test, and results were returned to clients in less than an hour, during which time clients were counselled. This resulted in a 27% increase in the proportion of clients who learned their serostatus and received counselling. We conclude that simple, rapid HIV tests can be performed accurately on-site within the time frame of a clinic visit, increasing the number of clients who learn their serostatus and receive post-test counselling.
Finite-time consensus for multi-agent systems with application to sensor fusion

This paper studies the finite-time consensus for a group of dynamic agents. For the entire group, we establish the explicit expression of the consensus state, which can be characterized by the new concept of weighted average consensus with respect to a monotonic function. For networks with undirected topology, we prove that the weighted average consensus with respect to a monotonic function can be solved in finite time when the interactions among agents are taken as power-law based function. These results are further extended to a class of networks where the topologies are directed and satisfy a detailed balance condition on coupling weights. As an application of the theoretical results to sensor fusion, we propose a distributed scheme to compute the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimate of unknown parameters. Numerical simulations show that the distributed scheme can be used to compute the ML estimate of unknown parameters effectively.
Cloud Computing: How does it differ from IT outsourcing and what are the implications for practice and research?

The purpose of this paper is to provide an evolutionary perspective of cloud computing (CC) by integrating two previously disparate literatures: CC and information technology outsourcing (ITO). We review the literature and develop a framework that highlights the demand for the CC service, benefits, risks, as well as risk mitigation strategies that are likely to influence the success of the service. CC success in organisations and as a technology overall is a function of (i) the outsourcing decision and supplier selection, (ii) contractual and relational governance, and (iii) industry standards and legal framework. Whereas CC clients have little control over standards and/or the legal framework, they are able to influence other factors to maximize the benefits while limiting the risks. This paper provides guidelines for (potential) cloud computing users with respect to the outsourcing decision, vendor selection, service-level-agreements, and other issues that need to be addressed when opting for CC services. We contribute to the literature by providing an evolutionary and holistic view of CC that draws on the extensive literature and theory of ITO. We conclude the paper with a number of research paths that future researchers can follow to advance the knowledge in this field.
Adults' use of ICTs for learning: reducing or increasing educational inequalities?

Abstract Within the hyperbole surrounding information and communications technologies (ICTs) and lifelong learning, our understanding of what learning activities ICTs are actually being used for throughout the adult population remains under-developed. Based on a household survey of 1001 adults in the west of England and South Wales, this article considers who amongst the adult population is using ICTs and what they are using them for. Moreover, the article also takes time to consider who is not using ICTs for learning given the widespread claims made about ICTs' potential for social inclusion. The survey data show that within adults' use of computers and the Internet, education and learning are minority activities, most commonly taking the form of informal learning at home. Moreover, any educative use of ICTs appears to be patterned by a number of social factors. In particular, logistic regression analysis shows that whether or not an individual uses ICTs for educative purposes can be predicted (with 82% accuracy) by the five variables of age, gender, educational background, occupational class and area of residence. The article concludes by discussing these findings in relation to the United Kingdom Government's present lifelong learning agenda.
Understanding Female Inactivity in Malta

This empirical study is based in Malta, a small island state with the highest rate of economically inactive women in the European Union (EU). Using a random sample of 402 inactive female homemakers, the responses to a telephone survey revealed that (a) this inactive group is motivated by aspects of social and economic well-being and to a lesser extent by aspects of personal and professional development; (b) work hindrances include low wages, family responsibilities, and a dependency on social security contributions/benefits; (c) the intention to work in the future is significantly associated with work motives, work hindrances, and demographic variables, resulting in an overall holdout accuracy of 84.8%; and (d) the respondents would be encouraged to work if there are more supportive/flexible work structures available for working mothers, equal opportunities for women at the workplace, and employment opportunities through in-work benefits that make work pay (particularly for those aged 40+, with limited skills and with low work intensity). The findings are discussed, and the study concludes by providing four policy recommendations aimed at addressing the present shortcomings of the Maltese labor market.
Fungal plant endosymbionts alter life history and reproductive success of aphid predators

Endosymbionts occur in most plant species and may affect interactions among herbivores and their predators through the production of toxic alkaloids. Here, we ask whether effects of mycotoxins produced by the symbiosis of the fungal endophyte Neotyphodium lolii and the grass Lolium perenne are transmitted to the aphidophagous ladybird Coccinella septempunctata when feeding on cereal aphids Rhopalosiphum padi on infected plants. The larval development of coccinellids was extended, while their survival was reduced when feeding exclusively on aphids from infected plants. Ladybirds developing on aphids from infected plants showed reduced fecundity and impaired reproductive performance. Body size and symmetries of ladybird adults were not affected by the endophytes. Consistently strong, negative effects of endophytes on the lifetime performance of ladybirds indicates that mycotoxins are transmitted along food chains, causing significant damage for top predators. Such cascading effects will influence the population dynamics of aphid predators in the long term and could feedback to the primary plant producers.
Finger spelling recognition using neural network

Finger spelling is a way of communication by expressing words using hand signs in order to ensure deaf and dumb community can communicate with others effectively. Therefore, a system that can understand finger spelling is needed. As a result of that, this work is conducted to primarily develop a tutoring system for finger spelling. To develop a robust real-time finger spelling tutoring system, it is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the finger spelling recognition. Even though there are existing solutions available for a decade, but most of them are just focusing on improving accuracy rate without implementing their solutions as a complete tutoring system for finger spelling. Consequently, it inspires this research project to develop a tutoring system for finger spelling. Microsoft Kinect sensor is used to acquire color images and depth images of the finger spells. Depth images are used to perform segmentation on the color images. After that, the segmented images are used as input and pass into a two hidden layers backpropagation neural network for classification.
Terrorism as Deviance or Social Control

The political character of terrorism is most clearly manifested when new categories of terrorism are being created or old categories are being transformed. Historical and comparative analyses of terrorism demonstrate its diverse, complex nature. This complexity creates numerous problems for researchers who attempt to examine terrorism as an analytical construct rather than a polemical construct. We suggest that because the state exists in a symbiotic relationship to terrorism, responses to terrorism by any state, particularly at the definitional stage, appear to maintain a fairly consistent pattern. It is important to utilize a political process approach to the definition of terrorism to produce systematic and precise explanations. For future research, we suggest the importance of examining the term’s latent structure of politicality, the role of hegemony, the low participation of one of the largest oppressed groups in the world and the art of statecraft.
Extraction of model card in metal oxide thin-film transistor by fitting measured curves with RPI model and simulation of circuits

In this paper, a simple and physical-based extraction technique for model card in metal oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) is proposed by fitting measured curves with RPI model. Using the obtained model card, we implemented the RPI model in circuit simulators. The single group of model parameters was extracted by using the algorithm of parameter extraction. By fitting measured curve with RPI model, the model card can be obtained. The validity of the circuit is verified by comparisons with measured data and the simulation results. The results indicate that it is a valuable tool for circuit design.
Friedreich Ataxia: Hypoplasia of Spinal Cord and Dorsal Root Ganglia

After Friedreich’s description in 1877, depletion of myelinated fibers in the dorsal columns, dorsal spinocerebellar and lateral corticospinal tracts, and neuronal loss in the dorsal nuclei of Clarke columns were considered unique and essential neuropathological features of Friedreich ataxia (FA). Lack of large neurons in dorsal root ganglia (DRG), thinning of dorsal roots (DR), and poor myelination in sensory nerves are now recognized as key components of FA. Here, we measured cross-sectional areas of the mid-thoracic spinal cord (SC) and neuronal sizes in lumbosacral DRG of 24 genetically confirmed FA cases. Mean thoracic SC areas in FA (24.17 mm2) were significantly smaller than those in 12 normal controls (37.5 mm2); DRG neuron perikarya in FA (1362 µm2) were also significantly smaller than normal (2004 µm2). DRG neuron sizes were not correlated with SC areas. The FA patients included a wide range of disease onset and duration suggesting that the SC undergoes growth arrest early and remains abnormally small throughout life. Immunohistochemistry for phosphorylated neurofilament protein, peripheral myelin protein 22, and myelin proteolipid protein confirmed chaotic transition of axons into the SC in DR entry zones. We conclude that smaller SC areas and lack of large DRG neurons indicate hypoplasia rather than atrophy in FA.
P2X7 Receptor Activates Multiple Selective Dye-Permeation Pathways in RAW 264.7 and Human Embryonic Kidney 293 Cells

P2X7 receptor has gained an increasing importance as a drug target. One important response to P2X7 receptor stimulation is the uptake of large molecular weight tracers into cells. However, mechanism for this response is not understood clearly, but it is generally believed that a nonselective large pore protein forms this P2X7 receptor-activated permeability pathway. We examined human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells transfected with rat P2X7 receptors (HEK-rP2X7) and a macrophage derived cell line, RAW 264.7, that expresses an endogenous P2X7 receptor. We used confocal microscopy to investigate uptake of different types of dyes into these cells after ATP application. Stimulation of P2X7 receptors in HEK-rP2X7 cells activated two different dye uptake pathways. The first was permeable to the cationic fluorescent dyes YO-PRO-1 and TO-TO-1 but not to the anionic dyes lucifer yellow and calcein and did not require intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) increase to be activated. The second pathway permeated only lucifer yellow and was completely dependent on [Ca2+]i for activation. In RAW 264.7 cells, P2X7 receptor stimulation activated uptake of ethidium, YO-PRO-1, TO-TO-1, lucifer yellow, and calcein. Again, two different permeation pathways were discerned in RAW 264.7 cells: one permeated only ethidium and the other one, only lucifer yellow. We did observed no clear [Ca2+]i dependence for these permeation pathways. Our results demonstrate that instead of a single nonselective pore, P2X7 receptor seems to activate at least two permeation pathways, one for cationic and one for anionic dyes with different activation properties.
Undo the codebook bias by linear transformation for visual applications

The bag of visual words model (BoW) and its variants have demonstrate their effectiveness for visual applications and have been widely used by researchers. The BoW model first extracts local features and generates the corresponding codebook, the elements of a codebook are viewed as visual words. The local features within each image are then encoded to get the final histogram representation. However, the codebook is dataset dependent and has to be generated for each image dataset. This costs a lot of computational time and weakens the generalization power of the BoW model. To solve these problems, in this paper, we propose to undo the dataset bias by codebook linear transformation. To represent every points within the local feature space using Euclidean distance, the number of bases should be no less than the space dimensions. Hence, each codebook can be viewed as a linear transformation of these bases. In this way, we can transform the pre-learned codebooks for a new dataset. However, not all of the visual words are equally important for the new dataset, it would be more effective if we can make some selection using sparsity constraints and choose the most discriminative visual words for transformation. We propose an alternative optimization algorithm to jointly search for the optimal linear transformation matrixes and the encoding parameters. Image classification experimental results on several image datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Hacking Tricks Toward Security on Network Environments

Mounting popularity of the Internet has led to the birth of instant messaging, an up-and-coming form of Internet communication. Instant messaging is very popular with businesses and individuals since it has instant communication ability. As a result, Internet security has become a pressing and important topic for discussion. Therefore, in recent years, a lot of attention has been drawn towards Internet security and the various attacks carried out by hackers over the Internet. People today often handle affairs via the Internet. For instance, instead of the conventional letter, they communicate with others by e-mails; they chat with friends through an instant messenger; find information by browsing Websites instead of going to the library; perform e-commerce transactions through the Internet, etc. Although the convenience of the Internet makes our life easier, it is also a threat to Internet security. For instance, a business email intercepted during its transmission may let slip business confidentiality; file transfers via instant messengers may also be intercepted, and then implanted with backdoor malwares; conversations via instant messengers could be eavesdropped. Furthermore, ID and password theft may lose us money when using Internet bank service. Attackers on the Internet use hacking tricks to damage systems while users are connected to the Internet. These threats along with possible careless disclosure of business information make instant messaging a very unsafe method of communication for businesses. The paper divides hacking tricks into three categories: (1) Trojan programs that share files via instant messenger; (2) phishing or fraud via e-mails; and (3) fake Websites
Information in Places

As global positioning, wireless communication, and mobile display technologies continue to advance, our notion of place will change. Information objects—first geocoded signs and later animated special effects—will begin to populate real physical space on what we call WorldBoard channels. WorldBoard is a proposed global infrastructure to associate information with places and ultimately to provide people with enhanced information perception services. This paper explores the notion of a WorldBoard from four perspectives: historical background, technical feasibility, potential applications, and social implications. Recent developments, ranging from lower-cost Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled car navigation systems to Casio Electronics' first-of-a-kind GPS-enabled wristwatch, foreshadow increased availability of location-aware information services and products. While significant technical, application development, and social challenges remain before a complete WorldBoard infrastructure can be made broadly, uniformly, and cost-effectively available, some feasible first steps toward this important goal are recommended. Finally, a notion like WorldBoard offers an opportunity to reflect on how technological possibilities unfold.
Transverse Rectus Abdominis Myocutaneous Flap Combined With Vascularized Costal Cartilages in Cranial Reconstruction

Abstract Exposing the alloplastic materials after skull reconstruction is very difficult because of the risk of infection and the choice of reconstruction procedures. Conventional procedures were divided into two-step or multi-step surgery. To perform one-stage surgery, a transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap combined with vascularized costal cartilages has been used for head reconstruction after exposing the alloplastic materials in two patients. This is the first report using the flap for skull reconstruction. In this article, we describe the usefulness and the disadvantages of the transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap combined with vascularized costal cartilages.
Toward the micro and macro-level consequences of interactional justice in cross-cultural joint ventures

Nested within the logic of social exchange, this study addresses the micro and macro-level consequences of interactional justice between boundary-spanning executives in cross-cultural joint ventures. At the micro-level, this study examines how interactional justice affects these executives' decision-making effectiveness and the interpersonal trust between boundary-spanning officers. At the macro-level, the study analyzes how interactional justice affects the levels of conflict and attachment between partner organizations from different nations. This study further analyzes how interactional justice buffers the effects of national cultural differences between partner organizations on the above consequences. Analysis of 152 international joint ventures suggests that interactional justice is positively associated with decision effectiveness, interpersonal trust, and interorganizational attachment, and that interactional justice suppresses the negative influence of national cultural differences between partners on interorganizational attachment.
Areal Delineation of Home Regions from Contribution and Editing Patterns in OpenStreetMap

The type of data an individual contributor adds to OpenStreetMap (OSM) varies by region. The local knowledge of a data contributor allows for the collection and editing of detailed features such as small trails, park benches or fire hydrants, as well as adding attribute information that can only be accessed locally. As opposed to this, satellite imagery that is provided as background images in OSM data editors, such as ID, Potlatch or JOSM, facilitates the contribution of less detailed data through on-screen digitizing, oftentimes for areas the contributor is less familiar with. Knowing whether an area is part of a contributor’s home region or not can therefore be a useful predictor of OSM data quality for a geographic region. This research explores the editing history of nodes and ways for 13 highly active OSM members within a two-tiered clustering process to delineate an individual mapper’s home region from remotely mapped areas. The findings are evaluated against those found with a previously introduced method which determines a contributor’s home region solely based on spatial clustering of created nodes. The comparison shows that both methods are able to delineate similar home regions for the 13 contributors with some differences.
Multiple model updating using the finite element method over a polynomial algebra

Vibration control is an important issue when it comes to preserving the structural integrity of mechanical structures, particularly in the case of lightweight structures found aboard flying vehicles, such as printed circuit boards. In order for a simulation to be effective, a suitable numerical model of the structure must be used. Such a model can be obtained using a model updating method, such as that which is presented in this work, based on the modified constitutive relation error principle. However, like many other model updating strategies, this method can be very expensive. When the structural parameters change over time, it would be too time consuming to perform another full calculation. In order to circumvent this problem, we introduce a new technique called the ‘finite element method over a polynomial algebra’, which involves modules defined over a ring of truncated polynomials in multiple variables. In this paper, we illustrate the method with the updating and reduction of a model of a beam instrumented with piezoelectric sensors and actuators, which are all taken into account in the numerical model. This is a simple problem, yet it is representative of the updating of printed circuit boards.
SciSumm: A Multi-Document Summarization System for Scientific Articles

In this demo, we present SciSumm, an interactive multi-document summarization system for scientific articles. The document collection to be summarized is a list of papers cited together within the same source article, otherwise known as a co-citation. At the heart of the approach is a topic based clustering of fragments extracted from each article based on queries generated from the context surrounding the co-cited list of papers. This analysis enables the generation of an overview of common themes from the co-cited papers that relate to the context in which the co-citation was found. SciSumm is currently built over the 2008 ACL Anthology, however the generalizable nature of the summarization techniques and the extensible architecture makes it possible to use the system with other corpora where a citation network is available. Evaluation results on the same corpus demonstrate that our system performs better than an existing widely used multi-document summarization system (MEAD).