Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Building the capacity of local government to scale up community-led total sanitation and sanitation marketing in rural areas

The World Bank administered Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) recently passed the mid-point of the four-year timeframe for its Global Scaling up Sanitation Project (TSSM). TSSM tests proven and promising Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approaches to create community-wide demand for stopping open defecation and improving sanitation. It is coupled with the use of sanitation marketing techniques to further strengthen the demand for sanitation at the household level and improve the supply of affordable sanitation-related goods and services produced by the local private sector for the rural poor. The report reviews the role of local government in these areas in the context of the management models that TSSM is using in all three countries. While there are variations in the models that reflect the country contexts, all three countries have placed local governments at the center of the implementation arrangements. In all three countries, the roles and responsibilities of the districts are carried out at three levels of local government, district, sub-district, and village. The study concludes that the model of working through local governments with the support of resource agencies, national or regional non- governmental organizations (NGOs), to build the capacity of local government, is fundamentally sound.
Innovation and Export of Vietnam’s SME Sector

Innovation has long been considered an important factor for creating and maintaining the competitiveness of nations and firms. The relationship between innovation and exporting has been investigated for many countries. However, there is a paucity of research in Vietnam with respect to this issue. In this paper we examine whether innovation performed by Vietnam’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) enhances their exporting likelihood. Using the recently released Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprise Survey 2005, we find that innovation as measured directly by ‘new products’, ‘new production process’ and ‘improvement of existing products’ are important determinants of exports by Vietnamese SMEs.
Evidence in Management and Organizational Science: Assembling the Field's Full Weight of Scientific Knowledge through Syntheses

This chapter advocates the good scientific practice of systematic research syntheses in Management and Organizational Science (MOS). A research synthesis is the systematic accumulation, analysis and reflective interpretation of the full body of relevant empirical evidence related to a question. It is the critical first step in effective use of scientific evidence. Synthesis is not a conventional literature review. Literature reviews are often position papers, cherry-picking studies to advocate a point of view. Instead, syntheses systematically identify where research findings are clear (and where they aren't), a key first step to establishing the conclusions science supports. Syntheses are also important for identifying contested findings and productive lines for future research. Uses of MOS evidence, that is, the motives for undertaking a research synthesis include scientific discovery and explanation, improved management practice guidelines, and formulating public policy. We identify six criteria for establishing the evidentiary value of a body of primary studies in MOS. We then pinpoint the stumbling blocks currently keeping the field from making effective use of its ever-expanding base of empirical studies. Finally, this chapter outlines a) an approach to research synthesis suitable to the domain of MOS and b) supporting practices to make synthesis a collective MOS project.
Marketing of a destination : Jordan as a case study

This study investigates the internal and external environmental factors that affect destination marketing in Jordan and the use of the destination marketing concept by tourism companies in Jordan. Furthermore, special emphasis is placed on investigating and identifying the existing relationship between the internal and external factors in destination marketing by pinpointing the factors being used by tourism companies and those factors that contribute to the attraction of tourists to Jordan. The empirical research to support the study uses survey methods to develop and test the critical factors of a destination marketing success model that can be used to market and promote Jordan, regionally and globally, as a preferred tourism destination area. A number of hypotheses were formulated to realise the objectives of the study. In the formulation of the research hypotheses, the researcher was guided by a deductive method regarding the groups of tourist destination attitudes and practices of marketing with consistency of questionnaire responses in comparison with available literature on the subject. Eight hypotheses covered the following aspects: tourists’ satisfaction, quality, product, accessibility, people, price, promotion and physical evidence. The results were quantitatively analysed by using SPSS. Review of previous research on critical factors of success, tactical management, destination tactical management and destination competitiveness models was undertaken in an endeavour to find a framework for the development of critical factors of the destination marketing success model that can be used for the identification and integration of critical factors of success. The findings indicate that respondents rated all the factors of service quality listed as critical. Most of the respondents felt that, in order to please the global tourists, the experience must be safe, secure, comfortable and relaxing. Also, the quality of capability, accommodation, access to natural areas, tour guides, tourist information, transportation, financial and communication institutions were factors regarded as contributors to tourist satisfaction. It was also revealed that the most critical factors of product of destination marketing development were improving the tourism products, identifying and exploring new opportunities and upgrading visitor services and facilities. The proposed destination marketing model was developed and tested in the Jordan context and proved to be operational. A number of recommendations were made in terms of safety and security management, destination product marketing development, accessibility systems, people development and dependable management. This study contributes to the field of tourism through testing a destination marketing success model that can be applied to global destinations.
Sub region identification in gait cycle for real time implementation

This paper presents the Difference based algorithm for identifying regions in knee joint movement for a gait cycle. Presented regions are different from biological regions like stance and swing. As the regions have different damping characteristics in subsequent regions, this algorithm has its unique application of controlling the damping in prosthetic knee for echo control prosthesis.
Impact of Mandatory Adoption of IFRS on the U.S. Independent Audits

This expository study provides insight into how the probable adoption of IFRS might affect the independent audits of listed companies in the U.S. Examining the experience of the EU with regard to how mandatory adoption of IFRS in 2005 has affected the independent audits of listed companies would help facilitate a deeper understanding of the challenges the U.S. auditing profession will have to confront if the SEC mandates IFRS in the U.S. Previous research has focused on four important components of audit engagements, which are audit quality, audit complexity, audit risk, and audit fees. Voluntary adopters have found that the shift towards IFRS results in an improvement of the quality of their financial statements, and thus audit quality. The opposite is true regarding mandatory adopters. Regarding audit complexity and audit risk, there is unanimous consensus about how IFRS adoption increases the complexity and risk when preparing financial statements as well as when auditing them. The increases in audit complexity and audit risk in Europe and many other countries has led to an increase in audit fees, which is exactly what it is expected to happen in the short term in the U.S. if IFRS are finally mandatory for public companies.
Dysphagia after Radiotherapy: Endoscopic Examination of Swallowing in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Dysphagia is a late sequela compromising the lives of more than one fourth of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who survive long after radiotherapy. By using fiberoptic endoscopic examination of swallowing as a modality for dysphagia evaluation, we were able to easily recognize the functional and anatomic changes in 31 dysphagic NPC patients. The majority of patients were found to aspirate after the act of swallowing (77.4%). Seventeen (54.8%) had tongue atrophy, and 9 (29%) had vocal cord palsy. Dysfunctions such as dry mouth (45.2%), velopharyngeal incompetence (58%), premature leakage (41.9%), delay or absence of swallow reflex (87.1%), poor pharyngeal constriction (80.6%), pharyngeal residue retention (83.9%), penetration or aspiration (93.5%), and silent aspiration (41.9%) were noted in these patients. Multiple dysfunctions were demonstrated in each patient. Abnormality of pharyngeal constriction and/or aberrant upper esophageal sphincter function played the major role in the postswallow aspiration of these irradiated NPC patients. Clinically compromised patients (weight loss of ≥5 kg in 1 year or pneumonia) had more of the above anatomic and functional impairments. The radiation dosage and volume bore no correlation to the time of symptom onset, or to the occurrence of functional changes.
Modeling and robust control of winding systems for elastic webs

The objective is to control a web transport system with winder and unwinder for elastic material. A physical modeling of this plant is made based on the general laws of physics. For this type of control problem, it is extremely important to prevent the occurrence of web break or fold by decoupling the web tension and the web velocity. Due to the wide-range variation of the radius and inertia of the rollers the system dynamics change considerably during the winding/unwinding process. Different strategies for web tension control and linear transport velocity control are presented. First, an H/sub /spl infin// robust control strategy which reduces the coupling between tension and velocity, is compared to the decentralized control strategy with proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers commonly used in the industry. Second, an H/sub /spl infin// robust control strategy with varying gains is shown to render the control more robust to the radius variations. Then, a linear parameter varying (LPV) control strategy with smooth scheduling of controllers is synthesized for different operating points and compared to the previous methods. Finally, this LPV control and the H/sub /spl infin// robust control strategy with varying gains are combined to give the best results on an experimental setup, for the rejection of the disturbances introduced by velocity variations and for the robustness to radius and inertia changes.
Economic status over the life course and racial disparities in health.

OBJECTIVES Racial and socioeconomic disparities in health have become a prominent feature of American society, though our understanding of the processes leading to such persistent disparities is still relatively limited. In this study, we focus on the impact of social and economic advantages and disadvantages over the life course on health disparities at older ages. In particular, we look at the roles of both cumulative and current financial resources and financial strains as determinants of a range of subjective and objective health assessments of physical conditions, functional impairment, and mental health. METHODS Our data come from the 2001 Aging, Stress, and Health Study, which interviewed over 1,100 White and African American adults aged 65 years and older living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Our results show that although racial and socioeconomic disparities in health do not follow a simple explanation, we do provide strong support for the fundamental importance of social and economic resources. Unlike previous studies that emphasize the role of financial resources such as income and wealth, we show that the lack of these resources, as indicated by high levels of financial strain, provides an important clue to how economic resources influence health.
Placental Morphometry in Toxaemia of Pregnancy

Placenta acts as a mirror which reflects intrauterine status of fetus. It is the most accurate record of infant’s prenatal experiences, so study of placenta gives valuable clues in cases of adverse fetal outcome. The study of placenta is a combined team work of an obstetrician, a pediatrician, a pathologist, an anatomist, a biochemist and an endocrinologist. A complete picture of placental function emerges through this team work. Objective of this study is to study and correlate morphometric changes occurring in the placenta of normal and hypertensive pregnancies that help in the assessment of the state of the well being of the foetus in utero. Total 510 placentae (220 from normal and 290 from hypertensive pregnancies) were collected. The parameters studied were mean birth weight of babies, mean placental weight, mean placental surface area, mean placental volume and mean foeto-placental weight ratio. Results reveal that there is significant decrease in mean birth weight, mean placental weight, mean surface area and mean volume of the placenta in toxaemia of pregnancy group as compared with control group. Mean foeto-placental weight ratio is higher in toxaemic group than in control group. Alterations in various parameters may be attributed to the effect of ischaemia produced by hypertension on the placenta, subsequently affecting the foetus in the womb of mother. Appropriate precautions if instituted during pregnancy, complications of PIH can be reduced.
Evaluation of mobile phone camera benchmarking using objective camera speed and image quality metrics

Abstract. When a mobile phone camera is tested and benchmarked, the significance of image quality metrics is widely acknowledged. There are also existing methods to evaluate the camera speed. However, the speed or rapidity metrics of the mobile phone’s camera system has not been used with the quality metrics even if the camera speed has become a more and more important camera performance feature. There are several tasks in this work. First, the most important image quality and speed-related metrics of a mobile phone’s camera system are collected from the standards and papers and, also, novel speed metrics are identified. Second, combinations of the quality and speed metrics are validated using mobile phones on the market. The measurements are done toward application programming interface of different operating systems. Finally, the results are evaluated and conclusions are made. The paper defines a solution to combine different image quality and speed metrics to a single benchmarking score. A proposal of the combined benchmarking metric is evaluated using measurements of 25 mobile phone cameras on the market. The paper is a continuation of a previous benchmarking work expanded with visual noise measurement and updates of the latest mobile phone versions.
Nursing Students Identify Fears Regarding Working With Diverse Critically Ill Patients: Development of Guidelines for Caring for Diverse Critically Ill Older Adults

Undergraduate students need to gain more exposure to communicating, assessing, and planning appropriate care and evaluating outcomes of care with diverse critically ill geriatric patients. This project developed teaching strategies that facilitated additional opportunities for gaining these valuable learning experiences for students. Nurse educators can use the Guidelines for Caring for Diverse Critically Ill Older Adults, the case study and simulation examples, and topical outline to assist them in teaching critical care students and nurses about diverse critically ill older adults.
Demand for freight transportation in the U.S.: a high-level view

Research on freight transportation has seen a tremendous increase in the last decades, yet it still lags behind that on passenger travel, particularly at a macro-level suitable for nation-wide policy analysis. A key challenge in freight demand modeling is the availability of data on key drivers of demand - such as cost, time, and trip length - which usually is proprietary and expensive. Moreover freight data available to the public is usually heterogeneous and published by a number of different bodies. In this study we integrate many publicly-available datasets on these attributes into a consistent database describing freight movement at the U.S. level. We then use this dataset to estimate a discrete-choice model of the shares of major single modes - truck, rail, and air, and compare our results with other similar exercises from the transportation economics literature. We thus present an analysis of the effect of generalized transportation costs and infrastructure quality - captured by travel time - on modal split at the national level. We conclude with recommendations regarding freight transportation data that arise from the insights offered by this exercise for policy-makers and practitioners.
Magnetism vs. LiFePO4 battery's state of charge: A route to a novel sensor concept

In recent years, LiFePO4 has become a versatile cathode active material for rechargeable batteries. Unfortunately, the control of the battery's state of charge is not uniquely determined by measuring just the LiFePO4 battery's open circuit voltage. For this reason, an alternative way of state of charge control is introduced by investigating the battery's magnetic susceptibility. This is motivated by the change of the iron atoms's magnetic state in the LiFePO4 cathode material during charging and discharging. The magnetic susceptibility of differently oxidized LiFePO4 samples will be investigated in order to correlate the magnetic sensitivity with the SOC in view of a new sensor concept.
Case—Control Studies of Cardiovascular Medications as Risk Factors for Clinically Diagnosed Depressive Disorders in a Hospitalized Population

Objective: Certain medications used in cardiovascular therapeutics may contribute to the etiology of substance-induced mood disorders. These medications include digoxin, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, β-blockers, and calcium channel blockers. The objective of this study was to evaluate associations between these drugs and clinical diagnoses of depressive disorders in a population of hospitalized patients. Method: Two case–control studies were conducted. For each study, subjects were selected from a health records data base maintained at the Calgary General Hospital. Selection of subjects in the first study was restricted to those receiving a discharge diagnosis of congestive heart failure and in the second study to subjects receiving a discharge diagnosis of hypertension. In each of these 2 studies, a single case group was selected along with 2 control groups: a psychiatric control group consisting of subjects receiving a psychiatric diagnosis other than a depressive disorder and a nonpsychiatric control group receiving no psychiatric diagnoses. Drug exposures and other variables were recorded from a chart review. Results: Exposures to digoxin, β-blockers, and calcium channel blockers were not associated with depressive diagnoses. An association was observed, however, for ACE inhibitors. An elevated odds ratio (OR) was observed in each case-control study and was stronger infernale subjects and subjects over the age of 65. Conclusions: This is the first reported epidemiological evidence of an association between ACE inhibitors and depressive disorders. The design of this study does not permit a determination of whether the observed association was causal. Additional studies are needed.
Think Before You Inject: Understanding Electrophysiological Radiofrequency Principles and the Importance of the Local Tissue Environment

Radiofrequency (RF) treatment is frequently used to treat spine pain. In interventional pain medicine, monopolar RF is most commonly used. For specific anatomical areas, 1 limitation of monopolar RF is the restricted size of the created lesion. In an effort to overcome this limitation, increased interest has been shown in both cooled and bipolar RF. In bipolar RF, a passive electrode replaces the grounding pad with the goal of focusing lesioning between the 2 electrodes. In cooled RF, an internally cooled electrode is used to allow for continuous internal cooling of the tip with a perfusate. The internal perfusate serves as a heat sink and removes heat closest to the electrode, which allows for greater current deposition. In order to use RF technology effectively, practitioners must understand the electrophysiological principles and technical aspects of RF. The ability to lesion specific tissues, while limiting destruction to nontargeted tissues, depends on factors that influence energy delivery and local physiologic tissue characteristics. Coagulation necrosis can be described by the Bioheat equation. Coagulationnecrosis 1⁄4 heatgenerated local tissue interactions ð Þ−heat lost
A Review on the Relationship of Capital Investment and Future Earning

Studies in early phase of capital investment are focused towards the investment decision and appraisal due to considerable controversy on, whether Net Present Value or Internal Rate of Return will essentially maximize the shareholder’s wealth. Later, capital investment is referred as crucial managerial decision in generating future benefit that eventually increases the national economy based on traditional capital investment dynamics. However, empirical findings show that not every capital investment announcement has significant positive relationship with future earnings. Literature reviews indicate mixed result of capital investment relationship with firm’s future earning, which varies according to the level of capital investment and financing. Review furthermore explains that capital investments are projected for other reasons despite future earning such as obligatory by government body. Based on the review, this study recognizes the need to understand the unique behavior of capital investment in various sectors in generating future earnings by looking at linearity level, effect capital investment on profitability and stock return.
Development of power semiconductors by quantitative nanoscale dopant imaging

Dopant imaging at high spatial resolution provides an indispensable tool for the improvement of novel power semiconductor devices. Cross-sections of next-generation devices based on Silicon (Si) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) have been investigated by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) derived dopant imaging techniques in a dedicated ultra-high vacuum (UHV) setup to determine the active carrier concentration in differently doped areas of the device under investigation. The physical location of the metallurgical p/n-junction and the associated space-charge regions (SCR) can be experimentally characterized with nanoscale precision. Furthermore, fabrication processes benefit from a reduced number of manufacturing cycles due to the profound knowledge on the evolution of dopant atoms and their corresponding impact on the device performance. Typical power device doping-levels in the range of 1014 cm-3 to 1014 cm-3 can be sensed by the here discussed approach.