Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Privatization and Its Reverse: Explaining the Dynamics of the Government Contracting Process

Empirical evidence shows local government contracting is a dynamic process that includes movements from public delivery to markets and from market contracts back to in-house delivery.This ‘‘reversecontracting’’reflectsthe complexityofpublicserviceprovisionin aworld where market alternatives are used along with public delivery. We develop a methodology to link responses to national surveys and create a longitudinal data set that captures the dynamics of the contracting process. We present a framework that incorporates principal agent problems, government management, monitoring and citizen concerns, and market structure. Our statistical analysis finds government management, monitoring, and principal agent problems to be most important in explaining both new contracting out and contracting back-in. Professional managers recognize the importance of monitoring and the need for public engagement in the service delivery process. The results support the new public service that argues public managers do more than steer a market process; they balance technical and political concerns to secure public value.
Comparing the results of the south Pacific albacore stocks assessed by four methods

Based on Schaefer’s surplus production, four methods were applied to assess south Pacific albacore stocks. Method-1 is based on the assumption of catch at equilibrium. Method-2 is Schnute’s method. Method-3 is Walters and Hilborn’s method. Both are of catch at non-equilibrium. Method-4 is a generalized method suggested by Wang. All of these methods are very simple and need the catch and effort data only. Method-1 provides the estimation of MSY, but no information about the parameters; intrinsic growth rate r, catchability q, and carrying capacity K. Method-2 and method-3 provide the estimation of r, q and K, but no information about MSY. Method-4 provides the estimations of r, q, carrying capacity of the virgin stock and of current year.
Unwinding forward and sliding back: an intermittent unwinding mode of the BLM helicase

There are lines of evidence that the Bloom syndrome helicase, BLM, catalyzes regression of stalled replication forks and disrupts displacement loops (D-loops) formed during homologous recombination (HR). Here we constructed a forked DNA with a 3′ single-stranded gap and a 5′ double-stranded handle to partly mimic a stalled DNA fork and used magnetic tweezers to study BLM-catalyzed unwinding of the forked DNA. We have directly observed that the BLM helicase may slide on the opposite strand for some distance after duplex unwinding at different forces. For DNA construct with a long hairpin, progressive unwinding of the hairpin is frequently interrupted by strand switching and backward sliding of the enzyme. Quantitative study of the uninterrupted unwinding length (time) has revealed a two-state-transition mechanism for strand-switching during the unwinding process. Mutational studies revealed that the RQC domain plays an important role in stabilizing the helicase/DNA interaction during both DNA unwinding and backward sliding of BLM. Especially, Lys1125 in the RQC domain, a highly conserved amino acid among RecQ helicases, may be involved in the backward sliding activity. We have also directly observed the in vitro pathway that BLM disrupts the mimic stalled replication fork. These results may shed new light on the mechanisms for BLM in DNA repair and homologous recombination.
SVM-based real-time hardware Trojan detection for many-core platform

Hardware Trojans inserted during design or fabrication time by untrustworthy design house or foundry possesses important security concerns. These Trojans lead to un-desired change in functionality of the design and provide easy access to sensitive information. Trojans attacks or malicious activities are triggered based on very rare conditions, which can evade test-time Trojan detection but can arise during long hours of field operation. In this paper we propose a run-time Trojan detection architecture for a custom many-core based on Machine Learning technique. We exploit Support Vector Machine (SVM) supervised machine learning algorithms. The Data-set is generated based on many-core router behavior under normal and Trojan triggered settings. The paper targets different communication attacks triggered by Hardware Trojans, namely core address spoofing, traffic diversion, route looping attack. Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm has detection accuracy in the range of 94% to 97%. We implemented a framework for many-core architecture with SVM kernel while triggering Trojans based on two different conditions. To demonstrate the performance of proposed security framework, we implement a bio-medical seizure detection application as a case study. The algorithm is mapped on 64 processing cores and it takes 2. 1μS to execute whereas with the proposed security framework it requires 4. 8μS execution time. The Distributed Attack Detection Framework is implemented with each attack detection module having 2% area overhead.
Identification and Functional Characterization of Genes Encoding Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Biosynthetic Activities from Unicellular Microalgae

In order to identify novel genes encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of nutritionally important omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, a database search was carried out in the genomes of the unicellular photoautotrophic green alga Ostreococcus RCC809 and cold-water diatom Fragilariopsis cylindrus. The search led to the identification of two putative “front-end” desaturases (Δ6 and Δ4) from Ostreococcus RCC809 and one Δ6-elongase from F. cylindrus. Heterologous expression of putative open reading frames (ORFs) in yeast revealed that the encoded enzyme activities efficiently convert their respective substrates: 54.1% conversion of α-linolenic acid for Δ6-desaturase, 15.1% conversion of 22:5n-3 for Δ4-desaturase and 38.1% conversion of γ-linolenic acid for Δ6-elongase. The Δ6-desaturase from Ostreococcus RCC809 displays a very strong substrate preference resulting in the predominant synthesis of stearidonic acid (C18:4Δ6,9,12,15). These data confirm the functional characterization of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic genes from these two species which have until now not been investigated for such activities. The identification of these new genes will also serve to expand the repertoire of activities available for metabolically engineering the omega-3 trait in heterologous hosts as well as providing better insights into the synthesis of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in marine microalgae.
Volume Visualization and Volume Graphics

Volume visualization is a method of extracting meaningful information from volumetric data using interactive graphics and imaging. It is concerned with volume data representation, modeling, manipulation, and rendering [36][137][138][227]. Volume data are 3D (possibly time-varying) entities that may have information inside them, might not consist of tangible surfaces and edges, or might be too voluminous to be represented geometrically. They are obtained by sampling, simulation, or modeling techniques. For example, a sequence of 2D slices obtained from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), functional MRI (fMRI), or Positron Emission Tomography (PET), is 3D reconstructed into a volume model and visualized for diagnostic purposes or for planning of treatment or surgery. The same technology is often used with industrial CT for non-destructive inspection of composite materials or mechanical parts. Similarly, confocal microscopes produce data which is visualized to study the morphology of biological structures. In many computational fields, such as in computational fluid dynamics, the results of simulations typically running on a supercomputer are often visualized as volume data for analysis and verification. Recently, the sub-area of volume graphics [144] has been expanding, and many traditional geometric computer graphics applications, such as CAD and flight simulation, have been exploiting the advantages of volume techniques. Over the years many techniques have been developed to render volumetric data. Since methods for displaying geometric primitives were already well-established, most of the early methods involve approximating a surface contained within the data using geometric primitives. When volumetric data are visualized using a surface rendering technique, a dimension of information is essentially lost. In response to this, volume rendering techniques were developed that attempt to capture the entire 3D data in a single 2D image. Volume rendering convey more information than surface rendering images, but at the cost of increased algorithm complexity, and consequently increased rendering times. To improve interactivity in volume rendering, many optimization methods both for software and for graphics accelerator implementations, as well as several special-purpose volume rendering machines, have been developed.
The Current-Free Electric Double Layer in a Coronal Magnetic Funnel

Current-free double layers (CFDLs) have been recently discovered in a number of laboratory devices, when a low collisional plasma is forced to expand from a high magnetic field source region to a low magnetic field diffusion region. This experimental setup bears a striking resemblance to the natural conditions prevailing in the magnetic funnels of the solar corona. It was commonly thought that magnetic-field-aligned potential disruptions were driven by electron currents, although the theoretical possibility of a CDFL has been known of for some time. Given its recent experimental verification, we make here a contribution to solar plasma physics by investigating the possibility of CFDLs in coronal funnels, which have much in common with the laboratory experiments. Therefore, CFDLs may play an important role in supplying and accelerating plasma in coronal funnels.
Obstacles to the use of indigenous knowledge

Tribal communities are often viewed as living in harmony with nature, and their traditional knowledge is regarded as essential in the sustainable use of resources and central to their inclusion in the development process. This article studies the main obstacles to the use of indigenous knowledge among the Reang tribal community in Tripura (northeast India), and presents two main arguments. First, that there are inherent problems and tensions within the concept of indigenous knowledge which is not evenly shared across the community. Second, the essence of indigenous knowledge remains futile in circumstances where the Indian state categorises indigenous knowledge and its holders as “backward” and “primitive”.
Evaluation of Metabolomic Changes as a Biomarker of Chondrogenic Differentiation in 3D-cultured Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using Proton (1H) Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the metabolomic changes in 3D-cultured human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in alginate beads, so as to identify biomarkers during chondrogenesis using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Materials and Methods hMSCs (2×106 cells/mL) were seeded into alginate beads, and chondrogenesis was allowed to progress for 15 days. NMR spectra of the chondrogenic hMSCs were obtained at 4, 7, 11, and 15 days using a 14.1-T (600-MHz) NMR with the water suppression sequence, zgpr. Real-Time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to confirm that that the hMSCs differentiated into chondrocytes and to analyze the metabolomic changes indicated by the NMR spectra. Results During chondrogenesis, changes were detected in several metabolomes as hMSC chondrogenesis biomarkers, e.g., fatty acids, alanine, glutamate, and phosphocholine. The metabolomic changes were compared with the Real-Time PCR results, and significant differences were determined using statistical analysis. We found that changes in metabolomes were closely related to biological reactions that occurred during the chondrogenesis of hMSCs. Conclusions In this study, we confirm that metabolomic changes detected by 1H-NMR spectroscopy during chondrogenic differentiation of 3D-cultured hMSCs in alginate beads can be considered as biomarkers of stem cell differentiation.
Towards constant time SLAM using postponement

Many recent approaches to simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) use an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to update and maintain a map of vehicle location. and multiple feature positions as a sensor moves through a scene. Although it is a highly powerful and well-used tool, it suffers from a well-known complexity problem. In this paper we outline the postponement technique which allows for much greater flexibility on when to use the available processing time, while not affecting the optimality of the filter. It works by updating a constant-sized data set based on current measurements, which can be used to affect the updates on all unobserved parts of the map at a later stage. By expanding the set of updated features when each new feature is observed we show that the full map update can be postponed indefinitely. We also demonstrate how postponement can be used to improve the performance of sub-optimal algorithms by applying it to a simple constant time method.
Using Mock-ups , a Feature of the Scandinavian Approach to User Involvement in Design

Mock-ups are various tools and techniques for the design of a system. They are inexpensive and simple enough to be comprehensible for users. Any participant is encouraged to contribute. That way, they are ideal for cooperative work between professional and lay designers. This paper provides an overview of how to involve the users efficiently in the design process using mock-ups in early stages of system design, also known as the Scandinavian Approach. It argues why users and designers should work in cooperation, how mock-ups can help do that, and explains how to effectively use mock-ups and prototypes in general.
Eyes-free Exploration of Shapes with Invisible Puzzle

Recent contributions proposed sonification techniques to allow people with visual impairment or blindness to extract information from images on touchscreen devices. In this contribution we introduce Invisible Puzzle Game, an application that is aimed at performing an instrumented remote evaluation of these sonification techniques. The aim is to reach a wide audience of both sighted and visually impaired users and to engage them, thanks to game elements, in playing over time, so that it is possible to evaluate how the performance of each sonification technique is affected by practice.
Conceptual and Embodiment Design of Robotic Prototypes

Main advances in artificial intelligence robotics are algorithms, embodied in software on the level of application software. Low-level hardware programming, electronic, and mechanics are the necessary basis to enable the implementation of newly developed algorithms. Complex autonomous systems are challenged by the tasks that require fast reactions, resulting in high accelerations and forces. These systems, therefore, generally need low masses, stiff limbs, and a precise control. To boost AI-research, more robotic systems that are appropriate to specific research questions are needed. Mechanical design is, therefore, faced with the task to provide specialized systems with a given amount of time and factors of production. This paper outlines an approach to increase the efficiency of engineering design in the field of robotics by analyzing the bilateral influence of the system concept with embodiment design driven by the state of the art small-batch manufacturing technologies. The humanoid robotic system AILA is presented and the selected steps out of its design process are discussed. A way to clearly state the axioms and requirements that the developed system is based on is presented. The resulting dependencies lead to the embodiment design of the systems components, which are also influenced by the choice of suitable manufacturing technologies.
Optic Disc and Optic Cup Segmentation for Glaucoma Screening using Superpixel Classification

For early detection of eye diseases automatic retinal image analysis is emerging as an important screening tool. Glaucoma is one of the most common causes of blindness in which neuro degeneration of the optic nerve takes place. One of standard procedure for detecting glaucoma is the manual examination of optic disk (OD). But this manual assessment is subjective, time consuming and costly procedure. Therefore, automatic assessment of optic nerve head seems to be very beneficial. We propose a glaucoma screening method by segmenting optic disc and optic cup using Superpixel classification. In this proposed approach, pre- processing such as image filtration, color contrast enhancement are performed on obtained fundus image which is followed by a combined approach for image segmentation and classification using texture, thresholding and morphological operation. To obtain accurate boundary delineation multimodalities including K-Means clustering, Gabor wavelet transformations are used. For cup segmentation, we incorporate previous knowledge of the cup by including location information. For glaucoma screening now CDR is computed based on the segmented disc and cup. System is tested on 27 retinal images from database, out of that 11 images gives result as moderate glaucoma, 12 gives normal result and 3 gives result as severe glaucoma, while 2 images shows incorrect reading. System achieves 98% of accuracy.
Structure and long-term change in the zonal asymmetry in Antarctic total ozone during spring

Abstract. The quasi-stationary asymmetry of total ozone over Antarctica during spring is studied by TOMS data during the period 1979–2005. Statistics on the amplitude and longitudinal position of zonal anomalies are obtained from the distribution of total ozone along seven individual latitudes at 5-degree intervals between 50° S and 80° S. As shown by the September-November means, the mid-latitude collar of ozone-rich stratospheric air has a sub-Antarctic maximum with a mean location in the quadrant 90° E–180° E and a total ozone level of about 380 DU between 50° S and 60° S. The steady displacement and elongation of the ozone hole under the influence of planetary waves causes a zonal anomaly of low ozone in the sector 0°–60° W with total ozone levels of about 200 DU between 70° S and 80° S. Climatologically, the highest amplitude of the zonal anomaly is 57.2±13.5 DU (relative asymmetry of 32% between high and low ozone levels) at 65° S latitude. A significant eastward shift of approximately 45° in longitude is observed in the total ozone minimum over the Weddell Sea – South Atlantic sector during 1979–2005, whereas the zonal maximum is relatively stable in location. Also apparent is a long-term shift in tropopause temperature distribution in the region. The geographical distribution of the zonal extremes in total ozone for the seven latitudes shows that (i) the extremes exhibit sensitivity to the shape of the Antarctic continent, (ii) the stationarity of the extremes increases poleward above the edge of continent and (iii) the positions of the extremes at the higher latitudes tend to follow the meridionally oriented elements of orography. It is suggested that the radiative influence of Antarctica contributes to the formation of this pattern. Anomalies in the horizontal structure of the tropopause, which appear related to orography, support this view. Mechanisms involved in the formation and decadal change in the total ozone asymmetry, as well as possible influences of the asymmetry on the stratospheric thermal regimes and regional UV irradiance redistribution are discussed.
Modelling primitive streaming of simple tone sequences through factorisation of modulation pattern tensors

We present a novel method for determining how the perceptual organisation of simple alternating tone sequences is likely to occur in human listeners. By training a tensor model representation using features which incorporate both low-frequency modulation rate and phase, a set of components is learned. Test patterns are modelled using these learned components, and the sum of component activations is used to predict either an ‘integrated’ or ‘segregated’ auditory stream percept. We find that for the basic streaming paradigm tested, our proposed model and method is able to correctly predict either segregation or integration in the majority of cases.
Breakfast at Tiffany'S: the Study of a Successful Business Intelligence solution as an Information Infrastructure

Business Intelligence (BI) solutions are complex and abstract. “You can build the solution, but users will not come,” Cindi Howson writes in her famous BI book, indicating that even if it is successfully implemented, a BI solution may not be used to its full intention. Guided by the research question, “How do we bootstrap and adapt a BI solution? ” this study investigates a successful BI solution at a large Norwegian company. Based on a case study, this paper argues that it is fruitful to regard a successful BI solution as the growth of an Information Infrastructure rather than the implementation of a certain technology alone. Drawing on the definition by Hanseth and Lyytinen, an Information Infrastructure is a shared, open, heterogeneous, and evolving socio-technical system (which they call an installed base) consisting of users, a set of IT capabilities, operations, and design communities. This paper attempts to describe how the case company is sustaining their successful BI solution and what we can learn. As a practical contribution, it offers three guidelines for BI practitioners. This study should be of interest to both users and managers of Business Intelligence solutions in the industry.
Pesticide Avoidance: Results From a Sri Lankan Study with Health and Environmental Policy Implications

In this paper the contingent valuation method (CVM) is used to elicit bids/values to avoid direct exposure to pesticides and the resulting illnesses among subsistence farmers in a developing country, namely Sri Lanka. Farmers using pesticides on their farms suffer from short-term as well as long-term illnesses. Deaths from direct exposure to pesticides are not uncommon. The CVM is used to determine the yearly value to an average farmer of avoiding the costs of direct exposure to pesticides and to calculate the pesticide cost scenarios for the entire country. The last section of the paper examines the factors that influence the willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid direct exposure to pesticides and the resulting illnesses and discuss the health and environmental policy implications stemming from the regression analysis.
Image scaling method based on protected region

To solve the problem of seriously distortion while enlarging images via seam carving, we proposed an improved method in this paper. Firstly, we enlarged the image with hierarchical interpolation model to the size of power of two times of original, which is closest to target size, while applying iterative curvature-based interpolation algorithm to protected areas and nearest interpolation to non-protected areas. And then, some seams to the target size were avoided via seam carving method. Through the subjective analysis and objective evaluation, the experiment on both standard library images and spatial images showed that the proposed method gave satisfactory results.