Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How to prioritise policies for poverty reduction: Applying Bayesian Model Averaging to Vietnam

The UN Millennium Development Goals have recognized poverty reduction as the main goal of global development policy. A comprehensive framework to evaluate the effectiveness of single policy measures and policy packages with respect to poverty reduction is still lacking, though. Policy evaluation is exposed to manifold uncertainties given the dependency of the preferred outcomes on a chosen policy, available information, and policy makers' preferences. We show that Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) is most valuable in this context as it addresses the parameter and model uncertainty inherent in development policies. Using data for the 61 Vietnamese provinces we are able to ascertain the most important determinants of poverty from a large number of potential explanatory variables.
A Novel Single-Feed Circular Microstrip Antenna With Reconfigurable Polarization Capability

A single-feed circular microstrip antenna with reconfigurable polarization capability is proposed. This antenna has a simple structure, which consists of a radiating circular patch, five switches (PIN diode), three matching stubs, and a 50 microstrip feed line. It can be switched between 4 different states: two states (low-frequency and high-frequency) for linear polarization (LP), one state for left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and one for right hand circular polarization (RHCP) by controlling the bias voltage of two PIN diodes. At the same time, three switchable matching stubs are used for matching every polarization state. Simulation results and experimental results show that the proposed antenna demonstrates a low cross polarization level, good impedance bandwidth, and a very good axial ratio in the circularly polarized states.
Mobile phones as a tactile display for tabletop typing

This paper presents a study into the use of mobile phones as private tactile displays for interactions with tabletop computers. Text entry performance on tabletop computers is often poor due to the soft keyboards that are normally used. We propose using the vibration motor in the user's mobile phone to provide tactile feedback to improve the experience and performance of typing on tabletop computers. We ran an experiment to compare the effects of two different sets of tactile feedback when delivered at two different distal locations on the body (wrist and trouser pocket) using a high quality actuator. The results showed that both sets of feedback improved the text entry rates at the two locations, and that providing more complex feedback produces greater benefits than simplified feedback. We also establish a baseline for standard text entry performance by novice users on tabletop computers using MacKenzie's phrase set.
THE USE OF ABSTRACT STIMULI IN VISUALLY INDUCED MOTION SICKNESS RESEARCH

The perception of self-motion, and by extension Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS), has traditionally been studied by exposing stationary observers to abstract visual stimuli consisting of moving random dots, stripes, or chequer patterns, using optokinetic drums and other projection systems. Whereas these stimuli have the advantage that they can be easily defined and manipulated, this paper discusses a novel self-motion illusion that illustrates the potential limitation of abstract stimuli in VIMS research. It is generally accepted that the path of visually induced illusory self-motion (vection) is opposite in direction to that of the optokinetic stimulus which produces it. However, when exposed to a radial optic flow pattern simulating oscillating fore-and-aft motion at a frequency of 0.2 Hz, thirteen out of eighteen participants (72%) reported feeling themselves as being swung on a swing despite the absence of angular components in the optic flow patterns. This is akin to the somatogravic illusion (SGI) whereby the gravitoinertial force is accepted as the true vertical resulting in an illusory perception of tilt. The occurrence of this ‘visual SGI’ indicates that abstract stimuli may be misinterpreted by the CNS resulting in misperceptions of self-motion. This, in turn, has important implications for the interpretation of VIMS results. The level of VIMS reported following exposure to abstract stimuli may not be entirely ascribed to the motion profile as defined by the optic flow pattern.
The impact of mobile phone use on social capital development: A preliminary study in South Korea

Social capital is one of the influential concepts in social science to understand contemporary societies. It has been found to influence many aspects of social life, directly or indirectly. It is also increasingly explored in relation to Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Nevertheless, social capital is a challenging variable to research, in part because of its multiple divergent definitions and measures. This paper presents and conducts a preliminary test of a model for understanding how ICT affects social capital. The model hypothesizes that the changes in social capital caused by ICT result from some degree of mobility in social interaction obtainable by using ICT over time. Principally, three types of mobility – temporal mobility, spatial mobility and contextual mobility – are identified. The preliminary test, using mobile phones as an example of ICT, was conducted in South Korea, which is one of the leading countries in mobile technology development. All three types of mobility are found to be important in explaining the impacts of mobile phones on social capital.
QUANTITATIVE VS. CONVENTIONAL PCR FOR DETECTION OF HUMAN ADENOVIRUSES IN WATER AND SEDIMENT SAMPLES

SUMMARY Human Adenoviruses (HAdV) are notably resistant in the environment. These agents may serve as effective indicators of fecal contamination, and may act as causative agents of a number of different diseases in human beings. Conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and, more recently, quantitative PCR (qPCR) are widely used for detection of viral agents in environmental matrices. In the present study PCR and SYBR(r)Green qPCR assays were compared for detection of HAdV in water (55) and sediments (20) samples of spring and artesian wells, ponds and streams, collected from dairy farms. By the quantitative methodology HAdV were detected in 87.3% of the water samples and 80% of the sediments, while by the conventional PCR 47.3% and 35% were detected in water samples and sediments, respectively.
A Novel Approach for Signing Multiple Messages : Hash-Based Signature

In this paper, we study digital signature algorithm (DSA) which are widely used in practice, and their security related issues which might occur in the presence of quantum computer. Security of traditional DSA relies on the factorization problem which is found to be susceptible in quantum ERA. We propose here a new approach for general purpose signature systems for signing multiple messages that is somewhat similar to the Merkle’s tree signature (MTS). The advantages of this new approachit is simple to implement, and can resist the attacks that are even made with the help of quantum computer. We compared overall signature size of the message which is generated using the proposed approach with Merkle’s approach. Results show that our algorithm is notable when it comes to space requirement and run-time of algorithm, due to reduced size of the path information and the number of hash operations that are required for verification of the MTS public key respectively, making our approach more computationally efficient. Experimental results are presented to verify proposed approach.
A valley-fill SEPIC-derived power factor correction topology for LED lighting applications using one cycle control technique

In this paper, a dimmable light emitting diode (LED) driver with one cycle control (OCC) is proposed for low power lighting applications. LEDs are more energy efficient than the incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs and even compact fluorescent light bulbs. High brightness white LEDs become feasible in residential, industry and commercial applications to replace since LED lighting represents a green technology, the issues of power factor and total harmonic distortion is very important. A power factor correction (PFC) topology is proposed with the valley- fill circuit in the single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC). The one cycle control technique (OCC) is implemented to drive the proposed converter in continuous conduction mode. The performance of the proposed system is verified using the Multisim simulation results in terms of power factor and total harmonic distortion (THD).
A KRC encryption solution protecting IEEE 802.11I 4-way handshake from DoS attacks

IEEE Std 802.11i [1] has specified the security functionality of wireless local area networks (WLANs). However, two types of DoS attacks have been disclosed which could block the 4-way handshake procedure [2]. Some improvements over them have been investigated. But all of them have obvious drawbacks. In this paper, we address the security issue in WLANs and analyze the operations of the 4-way handshake protocol. Based on the insight of the protocol and the existing potential vulnerabilities under the DoS attacks, we propose an enhancement solution to protect the protocol from DoS attacks. Compared with other existing works, our solution is more effective and efficient. Colored Petri Nets (CPN) has been employed to formally verify our solution.
Did the Stimulus Stimulate ? Effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

We use state and county level variation to examine the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on employment. A cross state analysis suggests that one additional job was created by each $107,000 in stimulus spending. Time series analysis at the state level suggests a smaller response with a per job cost of about $400,000. These results imply Keynesian multipliers between 0.5 and 1.0, somewhat lower than those assumed by the administration. However, the overall results mask considerable variation for different types of spending. Grants to states for education do not appear to have created any additional jobs. Support programs for low income households and infrastructure spending are found to be highly expansionary. Estimates excluding education spending suggest fiscal policy multipliers of about . 67 with a per job cost of $267,000.
Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant: The Politics of Immigration Reform

Acknowledgments A Note on Terminology Introduction: Th e Power of a Good Story 1 Considering Unlikely Outcomes: The Peculiar Politics of Immigration 2 Cases, Contexts, and the Puzzle of Policy Change 3 Contesting Illegalities: The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act 4 Immigrants versus Taxpayers: The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act 5 Problem Mexicans: Race, Nationalism, and Their Limits in Contemporary Immigration Policy Conclusion: Power and Image in Immigration Policymaking Epilogue Notes References Index About the Author
Markov Games: Receding Horizon Approach

Abstract : The authors consider a receding horizon approach as an approximate solution to two-person, zero-sum Markov games with infinite horizon discounted cost and average cost criteria. They first present error bounds from the optimal equilibrium value of the game when both players take correlated equilibrium receding horizon policies that are based on exact or approximate solutions of receding finite horizon subgames. Motivated by the worst-case optimal control of queueing systems by Altman, they then analyze error bounds when the minimizer plays the (approximate) receding horizon control and the maximizer plays the worst case policy. They give three heuristic examples of the approximate receding horizon control. They extend "rollout" by Bertsekas and Castanon and "parallel rollout" and "hindsight optimization" by Chang et al. into the Markov game setting within the framework of the approximate receding horizon approach and analyze their performances. From the rollout/parallel rollout approaches, the minimizing player seeks to improve the performance of a single heuristic policy it rolls out or to combine dynamically multiple heuristic policies in a set to improve the performances of all of the heuristic policies simultaneously under the guess that the maximizing player has chosen a fixed worst-case policy. Given epsilon > 0, they give the value of the receding horizon, which guarantees that the parallel rollout policy with the horizon played by the minimizer dominates any heuristic policy in the set by epsilon. From the hindsight optimization approach, the minimizing player makes a decision based on his or her expected optimal hindsight performance over a finite horizon. The authors discuss practical implementations of the receding horizon approaches via simulation.
Restoration of sensory dysfunction following peripheral nerve injury by the polysaccharide from culinary and medicinal mushroom, Hericium erinaceus (Bull.: Fr.) Pers. through its neuroregenerative action

Peripheral nerves have the unique capability to regenerate after injury. Insights into regeneration of peripheral nerves after injury may have implications for neurodegenerative diseases of the nervous system. We investigated the ability of polysaccharide from Hericium erinaceus mushroom in the treatment of nerve injury following peroneal nerve crush in Sprague-Dawley rats by daily oral administration. In sensory functional recovery test, the time taken for the rats to withdraw its hind limb from contact with the hot plate was measured. The test revealed acceleration of sensory recovery in the polysaccharide group compared to negative controls. Further, peripheral nerve injury leads to changes at the remotely located DRG containing cell bodies of sensory neurons. Immunofluorescence studies showed that Akt and p38 MAPK were expressed in DRG and strongly upregulated in polysaccharide group after peripheral nerve injury. The intensity of endothelial cells antigen-1 that recognized endothelial cells in the blood vessels of distal segments in crushed nerves was significantly higher in the treated groups than in the negative control group. Our findings suggest that H. erinaceus is capable of accelerating sensory functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury and the effect involves the activation of protein kinase signaling pathways and restoration of blood-nerve barrier.
A Novel Phosphodiesterase Type 4 Inhibitor, HT-0712, Enhances Rehabilitation-Dependent Motor Recovery and Cortical Reorganization After Focal Cortical Ischemia

Rehabilitation-dependent motor recovery after cerebral ischemia is associated with functional reorganization of residual cortical tissue. Recovery is thought to occur when remaining circuitry surrounding the lesion is “retrained” to assume some of the lost function. This reorganization is in turn supported by synaptic plasticity within cortical circuitry and manipulations that promote plasticity may enhance recovery. Activation of the cAMP/CREB pathway is a key step for experience-dependent neural plasticity. Here we examined the effects of the prototypical phosphodiesterase inhibitor 4 (PDE4) rolipram and a novel PDE inhibitor (HT-0712), known to enhance cAMP/CREB signaling and cognitive function, on restoration of motor skill and cortical function after focal cerebral ischemia. Adult male rats were trained on a skilled reaching task to establish a baseline level of motor performance. Intracortical microstimulation was then used to derive high-resolution maps of forelimb movement representations within the caudal forelimb area of motor cortex contralateral to the trained paw. A focal ischemic infarct was created within approximately 30% of the caudal forelimb area. The effects of administering either rolipram or the novel PDE4 inhibitor HT-0712 during rehabilitation on motor recovery and restoration of movement representations within residual motor cortex were examined. Both compounds significantly enhanced motor recovery and induced an expansion of distal movement representations that extended beyond residual motor cortex. The expansion beyond the initial residual cortex was not observed in vehicle injected controls. Furthermore, the motor recovery seen in the HT-0712 animals was dose dependent. Our results suggest that PDE4 inhibitors during motor rehabilitation facilitate behavioral recovery and cortical reorganization after ischemic insult to levels significantly greater than that observed with rehabilitation alone.
Bispectral index and their relation with consciousness of the patients who receive desflurane or sevoflurane anesthesia during wake-up test for spinal surgery for correction

Background Wake-up tests may be necessary during surgery for kypho-scoliosis to ensure that spinal function remains intact. It is difficult to predict the time when patients can respond to a verbal command. We evaluated the effectiveness of the bispectral index (BIS) and its relation to patients' levels of consciousness in wake-up tests during desflurane and sevoflurane anesthesia. Methods Eighteen patients each were enrolled in the desflurane and sevoflurane groups for spinal correction surgery. We measured BIS values, blood pressure, heart rate, and consciousness state and time, at the points when patients responded during the wake-up test. Results The BIS values when patients made fists upon a verbal command (T3) were 86.7 ± 7.5 for desflurane and 90.3 ± 5.4 for sevoflurane. Patients in the desflurane group had significantly shorter wake up delays than those in the sevoflurane group (6.9 ± 1.8 min vs. 11.8 ± 3.6 min). However, there was no difference between the groups in the time between the response to a verbal command and the time when a patient moved their toes in response to verbal commands. No recall of the wake-up tests occurred in either group. Conclusions The values obtained using the BIS index could to some extent predict the time of a patient's and would be informative during desflurane and sevoflurane anesthesia. Moreover, desflurane permitted faster responses to verbal commands than sevoflurane, and allowed the wake-up test to be performed sooner.
A VR Interface for Collaborative 3D Audio Performance

This paper presents a novel interaction paradigm to support musical performance using spatial audio. This method reduces the interface bottleneck between artistic intent and spatial sound rendering and allows dynamic positioning of sounds in space.The system supports collaborative performance, allowing multiple artists to simultaneously control the audio spatialization. The interface prototype is built upon standard virtual reality software and user interface technology. Tracked data gloves are used to manipulate audio objects and stereoscopic projection to display the virtual 3D sound stage.
Ontology based combined approach for sentiment classification

Text documents contain opinions or sentiments about the objects, such as movie reviews, book reviews, and product reviews etc. Sentiment analysis is the mining the sentiment or opinion words and identification and analysis of the opinion and arguments in the text. In this paper, we proposed an ontology based combination approach to enhance the exits approaches of sentiment classifications and use supervised learning techniques for classifications.
A Real-Time Approach for Gesture Recognition using the Kinect Sensor

In this paper we present an approach for real-time gesture recognition using the Kinect sensor and a set of machine learning techniques. We propose a novel approach for feature extraction using measurements on skeletal joints. We select a set of simple gestures and construct a data set. We train classifiers under the assumptions that they shall be evaluated to both known and unknown users. Experimental results prove the effectiveness and the potential of our approach.
Automated speech recognition in ATC environment

Air Traffic Management (ATM) in general, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems, in particular, are commonly limited by their capacity, as they are intended to balance demand in order to provide the best possible performance to the overall network. In the case of ATM, Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO) workload is identified as one of the main limiting factors to increase overall system capacity and properly match it to demand. ATCO workload can be measured by various methods, being one of them the identification of all the control events that he performs during his task. One key aspect in ATC is communication with pilots via voice (transmission and reception). Even though new technologies enable datalink communications, voice is still the main source of Ground-Air communications. Thereby, Automated Speech Recognition in ATM communications will lead to automated transcription of communications and, consequently -with a proper system at the back-end- to automated detection of the control events that the controller has performed using voice, allowing calculation of estimated workload. This paper describes a prototype developed to perform this Automated Speech Recognition and controllers event detection, as well as the methodology used to reach it.
Advanced 3-D trailer pose estimation for articulated vehicles

When crafting driver assistance systems designed for truck/trailer combinations, knowledge about the position and orientation of a truck relative to the attached trailer is a vital prerequisite for any kinematic calculation and trajectory estimation. An advanced optical sensor system measuring the 3-D state of an attached two-axle trailer is proposed in this publication. It uses a Kalman filter for enhanced pose estimation and is evaluated against previous versions of the sensor system for the same purpose.
The Working Elements of Moving the Goalposts: Football, Peer-education and Leadership in Kenyan Girls

Given the resources (economic, human, social, political) applied to SfD programs, it is important to understand the objects and impacts of sport and development. Moving the Goalposts (MTG) in Kenya is one of these SfD organizations. The general aim of this research was to explore which elements of Moving the Goalposts (MTG) contribute to leadership development in Kenyan girls, with a specific focus on football and peer education. In-depth interviews, participant questionnaires, digital story scripts and a participant observation were used from 88 participants conduct the research. On a participant level, the working elements in the program were the various program (development) opportunities, selection, supportive environment and moments of reflection. On the organizational level, active spread of information in community, level based trainings, co-facilitator, monthly meetings, monitoring and evaluation and a supportive organization ethos were contributive elements in the implementation of MTG. This study suggests to use sport as a ‘tool’ for development, while maintaining close relationship with the community to reach a girls’ leadership potential.
The domination and competition graphs of a tournament

Vertices x and y dominate a tournament T if for all vertices z 6 = x; y; either x beats z or y beats z. Let dom(T) be the graph on the vertices of T with edges between pairs of vertices that dominate T. We show dom(T) is either an odd cycle with possible pendant vertices or a forest of caterpillars. Since dom(T) is the complement of the competition graph of the tournament formed by reversing the arcs of T , complementary results are obtained for the competition graph of a tournament.