Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emissivity maps to retrieve land-surface temperature from MSG/SEVIRI

Retrieval of land-surface temperature (LST) using data from the METEOSAT Second Generation-1 (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) requires adequate estimates of land-surface emissivity (LSE). In this context, LSE maps for SEVIRI channels IR3.9, IR8.7, IR10.8, and IR12.0 were developed based on the vegetation cover method. A broadband LSE map (3-14 /spl mu/m) was also developed for estimating longwave surface fluxes that may prove to be useful in both energy balance and climate modeling studies. LSE is estimated from conventional static land-cover classifications, LSE spectral data for each land cover, and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) information. Both International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) Data and Information System (DIS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) MOD12Q1 land-cover products were used to build the LSE maps. Data on LSE were obtained from the Johns Hopkins University and Jet Propulsion Laboratory spectral libraries included in the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer spectral library, as well as from the MODIS University of California-Santa Barbara spectral library. FVC data for each pixel were derived based on the normalized differential vegetation index. Depending on land cover, the LSE errors for channels IR3.9 and IR8.7 spatially vary from /spl plusmn/0.6% to /spl plusmn/24% and /spl plusmn/0.1% to /spl plusmn/33%, respectively, whereas the broadband spectrum errors lie between /spl plusmn/0.3% and /spl plusmn/7%. In the case of channels IR10.8 and IR12.0, 73% of the land surfaces within the MSG disk present relative errors less than /spl plusmn/1.5%, and almost all (26%) of the remaining areas have relative errors of /spl plusmn/2.0%. Developed LSE maps provide a first estimate of the ranges of LSE in SEVIRI channels for each surface type, and obtained results may be used to assess the sensitivity of algorithms where an a priori knowledge of LSE is required.
Statistical and sentiment analysis of consumer product reviews

Big Data commerce has given a big leap to e-commerce. It has opened up the avenues to smarter and informed decision making for large industries as well as the consumers. Online reviews on e-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart are one such paradigm which can be used to arrive at more profitable decisions. They are not only beneficial for the consumers but also for the product manufacturers. Online reviews have the potential to provide an insight to the buyers about the product like its quality, performance and recommendations; thereby providing a clear picture of the product to the future buyers. The usefulness of online reviews for manufacturers to realize customer requirements by analyzing helpful reviews is one such unrealized potential. Both positive and negative reviews play a big role in determining the customer requirements and extracting consumer's feedback about the product faster. Sentiment Analysis is a computational study to extract subjective information from the text. In this research, data analysis of a large set of online reviews for mobile phones is conducted. We have not only classified the text into positive and negative sentiment but have also included sentiments of anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise and trust. This delineated classification of reviews is helpful to evaluate the product holistically, enabling better-decision making for consumers.
Variational Image Denoising Approach with Diffusion Porous Media Flow

A novel PDE-based image denoising approach is proposed in this paper. One designs here a nonlinear filter for image noise reduction based on the diffusion flow generated by the porous media equation , where is a nonlinear continuous function of the form , . With respect to standard 2D Gaussian smoothing and some nonlinear PDE-based filters, this one is more efficient to remove noise from degraded images and also to reduce “staircasing” effects and preserve the image edges.
The Dynamics of Incentives, Productivity, and Operational Risk

Abstract This paper develops a dynamic principal-agent model and applies it to understand changes in labor productivity and operational risk. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of matching the terms of the job contract to the technology. Such issues would be especially important in service industries and in the knowledge-based economy where discretionary effort tends to play a greater role. We show that the production technology needs to be characterized by at least two parameters: one parameter which measures output independent of the worker’s effort and a second parameter which measures the effect of the effort. We solve for the Renegotiation-Proof Nash Equilibrium. We show that there can be a tension between increasing expected productivity and controlling costs per worker. Our analysis also adds to the growing interest in “operational risk”, which is associated with human actions. The closed form solutions provided by our model provide a natural way to consider the impact and possibility of this type of risk. Our analysis demonstrates why the effect of a negative event should be considered relative to a concept of normal which is based on an equilibrium, that uncertainty in the external environment enables (but does not cause) operational risk events and that both the equilibrium and the effects vary with the production technology.
The Nature of Volunteer Chinese Teaching Launched by the Hanban

With the increasing demand of Chinese language learning, the Hanban has been dispatching volunteer Chinese teachers worldwide for several years. Many studies on volunteer Chinese teaching have focused on the Hanban’s soft power projection, higher education cooperation, and policies. However, not much work has been done on the nature of official launched volunteer Chinese teaching via examining its teaching practices. Mainly referring to Phillipson’s theory of linguistic imperialism, my thesis aims to fill in the gap in the literature through exploring whether volunteer Chinese teaching launched by the Hanban in three Southeast Asian countries has features of linguistic imperialism. I conducted a qualitative case study on teaching practices of volunteer teachers in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia for the purpose of having a detailed understanding of the volunteer Chinese teaching situations. Combining with findings from interviews of volunteer Chinese teachers, the paper also contains a content analysis on materials from the Hanban website and online newspapers. My analysis indicates that volunteer Chinese teaching in the three Southeast Asian countries contains some features of linguistic imperialism, but cannot be completely defined as linguistic imperialism. The result on the nature of volunteer Chinese teaching clarifies some people’s concern about the promotion of Chinese language by China. Also, Chinese language teachers and administrators can have a better idea of what Chinese teaching should be like and how it could be improved.
Taking ‘Steps to Connect’ to later life: Exploring leisure program participation among older adults in rural communities

Steps to Connect is a leisure education program that facilitates participation in leisure activities to enable individuals to connect to themselves, to others around them, and to their communities. The authors’ previous program development efforts were focused on individuals with chronic conditions in rural settings, and now there is interest in adapting it for older adults. As such, the authors explored the perceptions and constraints associated with tailoring leisure activities and programs to older adults living in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. They conducted five focus groups in four rural communities, including 33 participants aged 60+ years. Thematic analysis of focus group transcripts revealed participants’ awareness of how leisure programs promote physical and mental health, social participation, as well as meaningful personal and community experiences. Participants also identified several leisure constraint themes that warrant consideration when implementing leisure programs to promote active aging among older adults living in rural communities, such as Steps to Connect.
Processing of intended and unintended strategic issues and integration into the strategic agenda.

BACKGROUND Strategic change is needed in hospitals due to external and internal pressures. However, research on strategic change, as a combination of management and medical expertise in hospitals, remains scarce. PURPOSE We analyze how intended strategic issues are processed into deliberate strategies and how unintended strategic issues are processed into emergent strategies in the management of strategy formation in hospitals. This study empirically investigates the integration of medical and management expertise in strategy formation. METHODOLOGY The longitudinal character of the case study enabled us to track patterns of intended and unintended strategic issues over 2 years. We triangulated data from interviews, observations, and documents. In accordance with the quality standards of qualitative research procedures, we analyzed the data by pattern matching and provided analytical generalization regarding strategy formation in hospitals. RESULTS Our findings suggest that strategic issues are particularly successful within the strategy formation process if interest groups are concerned with the strategic issue, prospective profits are estimated, and relevant decisions makers are involved early on. Structure and interaction processes require clear criteria and transparent procedures for effective strategy formation. CONCLUSION There is systematic neglect of medical expertise in processes of generating strategies. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Our study reveals that the decentralized structure of medical centers is an adequate template for both the operationalization of intended strategic issues and the development of unintended strategic issues. However, tasks, roles, responsibility, resources, and administrative support are necessary for effective management of strategy formation. Similarly, criteria, procedures, and decision-making are prerequisites for effective strategy formation.
Progressive Metabolic Changes Underlying the Chronic Reorganization of Brain Circuits during the Silent Phase of the Lithium–Pilocarpine Model of Epilepsy in the Immature and Adult Rat

The lithium-pilocarpine (Li-Pilo) model of epilepsy reproduces most of the features of human temporal lobe epilepsy. In the present study, we explored the correlation between metabolic changes, neuronal damage, and epileptogenesis during the silent phase following status epilepticus (SE) induced by Li-Pilo in 10- (P10) and 21-day-old (P21) and adult rats. Cerebral metabolic rates for glucose (CMR(glcs)) were measured at 14 and 60 days after SE by the 2-[(14)C]deoxyglucose method and neurodegeneration was assessed by the silver staining and cresyl violet techniques. In P10 rats, there was no damage and no metabolic consequences at any time after SE. In P21 rats, metabolic decreases were recorded at 14 days after SE, mainly in damaged forebrain regions. Conversely at 60 days after SE, P21 rats exhibited metabolic increases in both forebrain-damaged and brain-stem-intact areas. Finally, in adult rats studied at 14 days after SE, CMR(glcs) decreased in damaged forebrain areas involved in the circuitry of spontaneous seizures and increased in nondamaged brain-stem areas involved in the remote control of epilepsy. The increase in CMR(glcs) in damaged forebrain areas of P21 rats at 60 days after SE may reflect the genesis of a new circuitry underlying the occurrence of spontaneous seizures. The metabolic increase recorded in nondamaged brain-stem areas of P21 and adult rats occurs in regions involved in the remote control of seizures and might underlie a process of protection against the occurrence of seizures.
Porphyromonas gingivalis in periodontal pockets and heart valves

Background There is evidence that advanced infectious chronic periodontal inflammatory disease may have an impact on general health including cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this clinical study was to evaluate the ability of Porphyromonas gingivalis to colonize heart valves and, subsequently, to assess whether there is an association between the presence of the DNA of Porphyromonas gingivalis in periodontal pockets and in degenerated heart valves. Materials and Methods Thirty patients were enrolled in the study and 31 valve specimens harvested during cardiac surgery operations were examined. All patients underwent a periodontal examination. To evaluate the periodontal status of the patients the following clinical parameters were recorded: the pocket depth, bleeding on probing (BOP) and aproximal plaque index (API). The presence of P. gingivalis in heart valve specimens and samples from periodontal pockets was analyzed using a single–step PCR method. Results P. gingivalis DNA was detected in periodontal pockets of 15 patients (50%). However, the DNA of this periopathogen was found neither in the aortic nor in the mitral valve specimens. Conclusions This study suggests that P. gingivalis may not have an influence on the development of the degeneration of aortic and mitral valves.
High rate of CAD gene amplification in human cells deficient in MLH1 or MSH6

MutS and MutL homologs have been implicated in multiple genetic stabilization pathways. The activities participate in the correction of DNA biosynthetic errors, are involved in cellular responses to certain types of DNA damage, and serve to ensure the fidelity of genetic recombination. We show here that the rate of CAD (carbamyl-P synthetase/aspartate transcarbamylase/dihydroorotase) gene amplification is elevated 50- to 100-fold in human cell lines deficient in MLH1 or MSH6, as compared with mismatch repair-proficient control cells. Fluorescence in situ hybridization indicates that these amplification events are the probable consequence of unequal sister chromatid exchanges involving chromosome 2, as well as translocation events involving other chromosomes. These results implicate MutSα and MutLα in the suppression of gene amplification and suggest that defects in this genetic stabilization function may contribute to the cancer predisposition associated with mismatch repair deficiency.
Personality risk factors of occurrence of female breast cancer: a case-control study in China

Abstract To investigate the association of personality traits with breast cancer risk, a case-control study was conducted from May 2014 to February 2017, in which the case group consisted of 262 women with breast cancer and 262 without (control group). The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) (88-question Adult Edition) and another self-assessment questionnaire that contained open questions to obtain more specific character traits were used to complete this survey. The results of the E scale showed that 121 women (46.18%) in the case group and 94 women (35.88%) in the control group were extroverted. The results of the N scale showed that 150 women (57.25%) in the case group and 86 women (32.82%) in the control group had unstable personality. Adjusting for other confounding factors, extroversion and unstable personality were risk factors for breast cancer (E scale: OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.28–2.15; N scale: OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 1.77–4.91). Personality instability was a higher risk factor than extroversion was. People with unstable personalities were 3.18 times more likely to have breast cancer than were those who had stable personalities. The results of the self-assessment questionnaire suggested that the more frequent character traits mentioned were being concerned over everything, irritable, and perfectionistic, seeking to prevail over others, and being manipulative and oversensitive.
Measuring Individual Video QoE

The next generation of multimedia services have to be optimized in a personalized way, taking user factors into account for the evaluation of individual experience. Previous works have investigated the influence of user factors mostly in a controlled laboratory environment which often includes a limited number of users and fails to reflect real-life environment. Social media, especially Facebook, provide an interesting alternative for Internet-based subjective evaluation. In this article, we develop (and open-source) a Facebook application, named YouQ1, as an experimental platform for studying individual experience for videos. Our results show that subjective experiments based on YouQ can produce reliable results as compared to a controlled laboratory experiment. Additionally, YouQ has the ability to collect user information automatically from Facebook, which can be used for modeling individual experience.
Location-based services: An examination of user attitudes and socio-ethical scenarios

The location-based services (LBS) industry is characterised by a multitude of vendors, all of whom assume a vital role in the provision of location solutions to their respective customer base. An attractive target audience is Gen Y consumers, recognised as being early adopters of the latest (mobile) technologies and possessing an influential role in family purchasing decisions. This paper presents and examines the outcomes of an observational study centred on the compilation of GPS data logs and accompanying diary entries for the aforementioned participant group. The emergent scenarios are reviewed, as are the attitudes of the participants. While the data logging devices were initially perceived as a novelty by participants, significant concerns emerged after further consideration and extensive utilisation of the devices. Such anxieties are specifically attributed to location and time inconsistencies, technological and device implementation issues, and general feelings of unease concerning the prospect of drawing inferences about individuals based on incomplete and inaccurate data sets. Suggested means of overcoming the ensuing issues are also considered.
Cross correlation surveys with the Square Kilometre Array

By the time that the first phase of the Square Kilometre Array is deployed it will be able to perform state of the art Large Scale Structure (LSS) as well as Weak Gravitational Lensing (WGL) measurements of the distribution of matter in the Universe. In this chapter we concentrate on the synergies that result from cross-correlating these different SKA data products as well as external correlation with the weak lensing measurements available from CMB missions. We show that the Dark Energy figures of merit obtained individually from WGL/LSS measurements and their independent combination is significantly increased when their full cross-correlations are taken into account. This is due to the increased knowledge of galaxy bias as a function of redshift as well as the extra information from the different cosmological dependences of the cross-correlations. We show that the cross-correlation between a spectroscopic LSS sample and a weak lensing sample with photometric redshifts can calibrate these same photometric redshifts, and their scatter, to high accuracy by modelling them as nuisance parameters and fitting them simultaneously cosmology. Finally we show that Modified Gravity parameters are greatly constrained by this cross-correlations because weak lensing and redshift space distortions (from the LSS survey) break strong degeneracies in common parameterisations of modified gravity.
Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication PrinciplesA framework for medical image classification using soft set

Medical image classification is a significant research area that receives growing attention from both the research community and medicine industry. It addresses the problem of diagnosis, analysis and teaching purposes in medicine. For these several medical imaging modalities and applications based on data mining techniques have been proposed and developed. Thus, the primary objective of medical image classification is not only to achieve good accuracy but to understand which parts of anatomy are affected by the disease to help clinicians in early diagnosis of the pathology and in learning the progression of a disease. This furnishes motivation from the advancement in data mining techniques and particularly in soft set, to propose a classification algorithm based on the notions of soft set theory. As a result, a new framework for medical imaging classification consisting of six phases namely: data acquisition, data pre-processing, data partition, soft set classifier, data analysis and performance evolution is presented.
Population genetics and dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum: an ecological view

SUMMARY Molecular characterization of the Plasmodium falciparum genome has led to identification of polymorphic loci and the mechanisms generating genetic diversity in this parasite. This information has resulted in the development of molecular methods to type parasite diversity in the field. Consequently, we are now in a position to describe the population genetics and dynamics of P. falciparum. The limited number of field studies that have been conducted to date have revealed an extraordinary degree of genetic diversity in natural parasite populations. Heterozygous recombination which occurs during meiosis appears to be one mechanism for generating genetic diversity. The rate at which such recombination occurs in natural parasite populations defines the genetic structure of the parasite population and can influence the ability of the parasite to respond to selection pressure. The high frequency of single genotype infections and the female-biased gametocyte sex ratios found in hyperendemic malaria areas suggest that self-fertilization occurs frequently. Population- wide surveys of allele frequencies in endemic areas have, however, shown no evidence of linkage disequilibrium and are consistent with a panmictic population structure. We argue that these studies have only sampled symptomatic infections, within which rare or recombinant genotypes may be disproportionately represented. They also take no account of the spatial structure of P. falciparum populations. Systematic investigations of the amount of heterozygosity in small areas as part of population-wide surveys are required to define the genetic structure of P. falciparum populations. Population dynamic studies which consider genetic heterogeneity of P. falciparum have shown fluctuations of different serotypes in space and time. The host immune response appears to play an important role in generating these dynamics. Integrated field and laboratory studies, which consider the interaction between population genetics and dynamics, will be necessary to describe the population biology of P. falciparum.
On implementing a high-performance open API with Java∗

Lucent Softswitch (LSS) provides an LSS application programming interface (API) based on Java∗ Telephony API (JTAPI) to allow third parties to develop customized services. One of the biggest challenges with developing Java programs is performance, and this paper focuses on software design strategies to improve it. This paper discusses generic solutions that can be applied by other development communities. The design features a layered architecture that insulates the customer from the low-level switch APIs. Design strategies covered include overload control, threading strategies that enable high call loads in an event driven model, managing garbage collection, event dispatching, and the use of design and architectural patterns. © 2003 Lucent Technologies Inc.