Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global funds: lessons from a not-too-distant past?

This paper suggests parallels between earlier attempts to address poverty through integrated rural development and current institutional arrangements for combating HIV/AIDS through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). The paper suggests that there are a number of lessons that can be learned from the integrated rural development (IRD) debacle if the current initiatives are to avoid some of the problems that plagued the IRD. The errors included top-down management, application of a standardised institutional template in different contexts, overburdened local institutions, internal brain drain and non-sustainability of initiatives. Cet article effectue une comparaison entre les premieres tentatives de lutte contre la pauvrete a travers un developpement rural integre, et les dispositions institutionnelles actuelles permettant de combattre le VIH/SIDA a travers les Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). Cet article affirme qu’un certain nombre d’enseignements peuvent etre tires de l’echec de l’IRD, afin d’eviter que le meme sort n’advienne aux initiatives actuelles. Parmi les erreurs notees figurent un systeme de gestion par le haut, l’application a differents contextes d’un modele institutionnel standardise, des institutions locales surchargees, la fuite interne de cerveaux ainsi que la non perennisation des initiatives.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Analysis: A Methodology for Organizational Neuroscience

Recently, the application of neuroscience methods and findings to the study of organizational phenomena has gained significant interest and converged in the emerging field of organizational neuroscience. Yet, this body of research has principally focused on the brain, often overlooking fuller analysis of the activities of the human nervous system and associated methods available to assess them. In this article, we aim to narrow this gap by reviewing heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, which is that set of methods assessing beat-to-beat changes in the heart rhythm over time, used to draw inference on the outflow of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). In addition to anatomo-physiological and detailed methodological considerations, we discuss related theoretical, ethical, and practical implications. Overall, we argue that this methodology offers the opportunity not only to inform on a wealth of constructs relevant for management inquiries but also to advance the overarching organizational neuroscience research agenda and its ecological validity.
Generation of learning samples for historical handwriting recognition using image degradation

Historical documents pose challenging problems for training handwriting recognition systems. Besides the high variability of character shapes inherent to all handwriting, the image quality can also differ greatly, for instance due to faded ink, ink bleed-through, wrinkled and stained parchment. Especially when only few learning samples are available, it is difficult to incorporate this variability in the morphological character models. In this paper, we investigate the use of image degradation to generate synthetic learning samples for historical handwriting recognition. With respect to three image degradation models, we report significant improvements in accuracy for recognition with hidden Markov models on the medieval Saint Gall and Parzival data sets.
Segmentation of model-free objects carried by human hand: Intended for human-robot interaction applications

Most of robot applications which require interaction with human intend to hand over different objects between the both parties. In general, most of previous systems have supposed that the transfer task will be exclusively performed by human. However, how the task will be performed if the human is blind, elderly, disabled or concentrating on something else? In this case the transfer task should be exclusively controlled by robot, where the human could be considered as the weakest part. This paper will present vision algorithms which help the robot to recognize and to segment any object which is carried by the human hand in order to hand it over from the human hand even if the human is disabled, blind etc. The proposed vision algorithms are able to detect and to segment the carried objects with no idea about the model of the object in a very short cycle time, even if they are textureless, if the objects have the same color as the human skin and if the light conditions are changed strongly. The proposed algorithms are supported by successful results on different kinds of object.
AFFECTIVE TIMELINES Towards the Primary-Process Emotions of the Movie Watchers Measurements based on a Self-Annotation and Affective Neuroscience

The economic success of a movie depends on the satisfaction of audience and on how much they are emotionally engaged while watching it. Our research is related to the identification of such kind of emotions felt by movie watchers during the movie screening. We endorse the model of 7 Primary-process emotions from Affective Neuroscience (SEEKING, PLAY, CARE, FEAR, GRIEF, RAGE and LUST) and ask subjects to watch 14 movies and match them with these 7 emotions. We provide a self-annotating application and reveal “Affective Timelines” of clicks with arousal scenes. We verify that it is possible to discriminate movie watcher's emotions according to its' self-annotation by obtaining 0.51 - 0.81 range of accordance in annotating 14 movies and comparing them with authors of this research. These timelines will be matched with physiological sensors in future research.
A task analysis of the withdrawer re-engagement event in emotionally focused couples therapy

A discovery-oriented task analysis was conducted to delineate what therapist interventions, behaviors, and responses and client emotional processes are involved in successful withdrawer re-engagement in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). EFT is an empirically validated approach to treating couples. Withdrawer re-engagement is seen as a key element of the change process in EFT; yet limited research is available as to how the process is facilitated in session. Seven videotaped samples of successful withdrawer re-engagement were critically examined using task analytic methods. Therapist interventions and client emotional experiencing were assessed using the Emotion Focused Therapy Coding Scheme (EFT-CS) and the Experiencing Scale (EXP). Implications for future research, clinical practice, and training are discussed.
Galaxy Clusters in Cosmology: Cluster Abundance as a Probe of Structure Formation

In gaussian theories of structure formation, the galaxy cluster abundance is an extremely sensitive probe of the density fluctuation power spectrum and of the density parameter, $\Omega$. We develop this theme by deriving and studying in detail the mass function of collapsed objects and its relation to these quantities. Application to current data yields constraints which are degenerate between the amplitude of the perturbations and the density parameter; we nevertheless obtain an important limit on the present day mass perturbation amplitude as a function of $\Omega$ and can rule-out the `standard' cold dark matter (CDM) model. Future observations of the evolution of the cluster abundance will break the degeneracy and provide important constraints on both the power spectrum and the density parameter, individually. We focus primarily on X-ray clusters in the discussion, and finish with a presentation of the promising new field of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich observations of cluster evolution.
A forensics tool of Foxmail client

Computer forensics is an important part of the computer crime investigation. So a Forensics system aimed to Foxmail data analysis and investigation is proposed in this paper. The system can index the email data based on Lucene technology and the MMSeg participle algorithm, and provides the full text retrieval of the email content function. Subsequently, a visual communication graph would be generated according to the retrieval results. Based on the communication graph, an algorithm on graphic structure analysis is proposed, and by means of centrality and minimum traffic filtering method, multilevel analysis is carried out on the graph, which can detect the possible suspicious personnel and their relationships and provide strong support for the computer crime investigation.
cK¢, A Model to Reason on Learners' Conceptions.

Understanding learners' understanding is a key requirement for an efficient design of teaching situations and learning environments, be they digital or not. This keynote outlines the modeling framework cK¢ (conception, knowing, concept) created with the objective to respond to this requirement, with the additional ambition to build a bridge between research in mathematics education and research in educational technology. After an introduction of the rationale of cK¢, some illustrations are presented. Then follow comments on cK¢ and learning. The conclusion evokes key research issues raised by the use of this modeling framework.
Graded structure in vocal expression of emotion: What is meant by “prototypical expressions”?

This study examined what determines typicality (gradedstructure) in vocal expressions of emotion. Separate groups ofjudges rated expressive speech stimuli (both acted andspontaneous expressions) with regard to typicality, ideality,and frequency of instantiation (FI). Also, a measure ofsimilarity to central tendency (CT) was obtained from listenerjudgments. Partial correlations and multiple regressionanalysis revealed that similarity to ideal, and not FI or CT,explained most variance in judged typicality. It is argued thatthese results may indicate that prototypical vocal expressionsare best characterized as goal-derived categories, rather thancommon taxonomic categories. This could explain howprototypical expressions can be acoustically distinct andhighly recognizable, while at the same time occur relativelyrarely in everyday speech.
Confidentiality-Preserving Publish/Subscribe

Publish/subscribe (pub/sub) is an attractive communication paradigm for large-scale distributed applications running across multiple administrative domains. Pub/sub allows event-based information dissemination based on constraints on the nature of the data rather than on pre-established communication channels. It is a natural fit for deployment in untrusted environments such as public clouds linking applications across multiple sites. However, pub/sub in untrusted environments leads to major confidentiality concerns stemming from the content-centric nature of the communications. This survey classifies and analyzes different approaches to confidentiality preservation for pub/sub, from applications of trust and access control models to novel encryption techniques. It provides an overview of the current challenges posed by confidentiality concerns and points to future research directions in this promising field.
Influence of Vascular Variant of the Posterior Cerebral Artery (PCA) on Cerebral Blood Flow, Vascular Response to CO2 and Static Functional Connectivity

Introduction The fetal origin of the posterior cerebral artery (fPCA) is a frequent vascular variant in 11–29% of the population. For the fPCA, blood flow in the PCA originates from the anterior instead of the posterior circulation. We tested whether this blood supply variant impacts the cerebral blood flow assessed by arterial spin labeling (ASL), cerebrovascular reserve as well as resting-state static functional connectivity (sFC) in the sense of a systematic confound. Methods The study included 385 healthy, elderly subjects (mean age: 74.18 years [range: 68.9–90.4]; 243 female). Participants were classified into normal vascular supply (n = 296, 76.88%), right fetal origin (n = 23, 5.97%), left fetal origin (n = 16, 4.16%), bilateral fetal origin (n = 4, 1.04%), and intermediate (n = 46, 11.95%, excluded from further analysis) groups. ASL-derived relative cerebral blood flow (relCBF) maps and cerebrovascular reserve (CVR) maps derived from a CO2 challenge with blocks of 7% CO2 were compared. Additionally, sFC between 90 regions of interest (ROIs) was compared between the groups. Results CVR was significantly reduced in subjects with ipsilateral fPCA, most prominently in the temporal lobe. ASL yielded a non-significant trend towards reduced relCBF in bilateral posterior watershed areas. In contrast, conventional atlas-based sFC did not differ between groups. Conclusions In conclusion, fPCA presence may bias the assessment of cerebrovascular reserve by reducing the response to CO2. In contrast, its effect on ASL-assessed baseline perfusion was marginal. Moreover, fPCA presence did not systematically impact resting-state sFC. Taken together, this data implies that perfusion variables should take into account the vascularization patterns.
Experiences with Content Extraction from the Web

We present the results of a ten-week field study that explored the use of automatic Web tools for collecting and organizing Web content in the context of users’ personal tasks. Our findings show that people welcome automatic gathering of structured information, such as job or rental listings, and are eager to use rich visualizations and displays of content they find on the Web. We also found that users collect a variety of Web content including a large amount of unstructured information and are interested in using automation not just for longterm content intensive tasks but also for short-lived transient tasks. Finally, we present a first exploration of an online collaborative repository of user-defined semantic content. Our study participants used this repository and modified the collaborative content to accomplish tasks. ACM Classification H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Graphical user interfaces. General Terms Design, Human Factors Author
Color Image Segmentation Based on Mean Shift and Normalized Cuts

In this correspondence, we develop a novel approach that provides effective and robust segmentation of color images. By incorporating the advantages of the mean shift (MS) segmentation and the normalized cut (Ncut) partitioning methods, the proposed method requires low computational complexity and is therefore very feasible for real-time image segmentation processing. It preprocesses an image by using the MS algorithm to form segmented regions that preserve the desirable discontinuity characteristics of the image. The segmented regions are then represented by using the graph structures, and the Ncut method is applied to perform globally optimized clustering. Because the number of the segmented regions is much smaller than that of the image pixels, the proposed method allows a low-dimensional image clustering with significant reduction of the complexity compared to conventional graph-partitioning methods that are directly applied to the image pixels. In addition, the image clustering using the segmented regions, instead of the image pixels, also reduces the sensitivity to noise and results in enhanced image segmentation performance. Furthermore, to avoid some inappropriate partitioning when considering every region as only one graph node, we develop an improved segmentation strategy using multiple child nodes for each region. The superiority of the proposed method is examined and demonstrated through a large number of experiments using color natural scene images.
Analysis of the effect of slot resolution on the simulating precision of thin-slot coupling with parallel implementation

This paper presents a new method with parallel FDTD algorithm based on MPI library to analyze thin-slot coupling, which often leads to huge computation. It is demonstrated that the adopted parallel strategy is feasible by comparing the results of serial FDTD computation with that of the proposed method. The high efficiency of this method is also proved. Comparison of the field components given by different slot resolutions indicates that the simulating error is huge when just several grids are used to model the slot and numerical convergence has been achieved with 15 cells/slot width.
Strengthening the virtual-source method for time-lapse monitoring

Time-lapse monitoring is a powerful tool for tracking subsurface changes resulting from fluid migration. Conventional time-lapse monitoring can be done by observing differences between two seismic surveys over the surveillance period. Along with the changes in the subsurface, differences in the two seismic surveys are also caused by variations in the near-surface overburden and acquisition discrepancies. The virtual-source method monitors below the time-varying near-surface by redatuming the data down to the subsurface receiver locations. It crosscorrelates the signal that results from surface shooting recorded by subsurface receivers placed below the near-surface. For the Mars field data, redatuming the recorded response down to the permanently placed ocean-bottom cable (OBC) receivers using the virtual-source method allows one to reconstruct a survey as if virtualsources were buried at the OBC receiver locations and the medium above them were a homogeneous half-space. Separating the recorded wavefields .
Organ Allocation for Liver Transplantation According to the Public Opinion

Background Although liver transplantation is the last resort for treating end stage liver diseases, this medical procedure is not available for all needful patients because of inadequate organ supply. Therefore, guidelines have been developed by medical experts to regulate the process. Some professionals believe that medical criteria are inadequate for organ allocation in all situations and may not secure fairness of organ allocation. Objectives The current study has been designed to identify decision criteria about allocation of donated liver to potential recipients from public points of view. Patients and Methods This is a qualitative study that was conducted through individual interviews and Focus Group Discussions. Individual interviews were conducted among patients’ companions and nurses in one of the two liver transplant centers in Iran. Group discussions were conducted among groups of ordinary people who had not dealt previously with the subject. Data was analyzed by Thematic Analysis method. Results Most of the participants in this study believe that in equal medical conditions, some individual and societal criteria could be used to prioritize patients for receiving donated livers. The criteria include psychological acceptance, ability to pay post-operative care costs, being breadwinner of the family, family support, being socially valued, ability to be instructed, lack of mental disorders, young age of the recipient, being on waiting list for a long time, lack of patient’s role in causing the illness, first time transplant recipient, critical medical condition, high success rate of transplantation, lack of concurrent medical illnesses, not being an inmate at the time of receiving transplant, and bearing Iranian nationality. Conclusions Taking public opinion into consideration may smooth the process of organ allocation to needful patients with equal medical conditions. It seems that considering these viewpoints in drafting organ allocation guidelines may increase confidence of the society to the equity of organ allocation in the country. This strategy may also persuade people to donate organs particularly after death.
Do wetland lakes exhibit alternative stable states? Submersed aquatic vegetation and chlorophyll in western boreal shallow lakes

Shallow lakes often exhibit alternative vegetative states, one a clear‐water state dominated by submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) and the other a turbid state dominated by pelagic phytoplankton. We determined the nutrient and vegetation status of 148 wetland lakes in boreal Alberta, Canada. The lakes were very shallow (mean depth, 1.3 m), rich in phosphorus (123 µg total P L−−1), and relatively low in available nitrogen (18 µg L−−1 NH4+ + NO3−−), and 62% of them exhibited alternative states. The results of principal components analysis suggested that these lakes could be divided into four categories: (1) phytoplankton‐dominated lakes (25%) with higher concentrations of chlorophyll a (>20 µg L−−1), are more turbid, and have low densities of SAV; (2) SAV‐dominated lakes (37%), with high densities of submersed aquatic plants (>25% cover), are clearer, and have lower phytoplankton concentrations; (3) high SAV and high phytoplankton lakes (12%), with dense populations of both SAV and phytoplankton; and (4) low SAV and low phytoplankton lakes (26%), with low densities of both SAV and phytoplankton. The phytoplankton‐dominated lakes are usually found in hypereutrophic conditions (mean = 205 µg TP L−−1), whereas the SAV‐dominated lakes primarily exist in eutrophic and mesotrophic conditions (mean = 82 µg total P L−−1) and have lower available N (11 µg L−−1 NH4+ + NO3−−). Because most of these lakes lack fish, we expect that nutrient status, depth, and invertebrate predators are probably the most important determinants of vegetative structure and alternative states.
Petroleum cuts as solvent extractor for oil recovery from petroleum sludge

Petroleum cuts were used as solvents to recover oil from dry and semi dry petroleum sludge. The effects of various parameters, namely shaking time, temperature and the solvent volume upon oil recovery were investigated. Within the range of the studied operating conditions herein, the maximum oil recovery obtained varied from 80 - 97% depending upon the amount of oil within the sludge and the solvent efficiency used for extraction. A detailed study of the kinetics of solvent extraction based on oil recovery was carried out. This technology reuses of separated components and minimizing greatly the waste disposal problems created by land ban. The overall cost as well as time involved for recovery and the disposal of hydrocarbon residue has been decreased. Capillary gas chromatography was used to estimate the economic value and reuse of recovered oil. Key words: Petroleum cuts, solvent extraction, petroleum sludge, shaking time, oil recovery and capillary gas chromatography.
Social Skills Program for Adolescents in Vulnerable Social Contexts

The study aims at examining the process indicators and evaluating the effects of a Social Skills program in social skills, self-efficacy and social support appraisals of 10 adolescents (age 13-17 years), of communities (slums) of Rio de Janeiro. An exploratory and promotion program in health was conducted with 10 sessions and process evaluation measures and results. The evaluation process included the record of behaviors in a protocol. The participants answered, before and after the intervention, the Social Skills Inventory for Adolescents, the Self-Efficacy Scale and the Social Support Appraisals Scale. The evaluation process revealed confidence indicators between adolescents and researchers. The results showed increased levels of social skills, social support of teachers and self-efficacy. Experimental and follow-up studies should be conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the program.