Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved HMM based face recognition system

In this paper we present a face recognition system based on an embedded hidden Markov models, which uses an efficient set of observation vectors obtained from the 2D-DCT coefficients. Two dimensional data such as images are much better modeled by a two dimensional HMM compared to a one dimensional HMM, but the computational complexity of the first makes the recognition process difficult. The embedded HMM realizes a compromise between the two models: due to its pseudo two dimensional structure is able to model the two dimensional data better than the one dimensional HMM and is computationally less complex than the two dimensional HMM. In order to improve the robustness of the recognition system to different illumination we apply an illumination normalization technique (CLAHE) prior to analysis.
Impact of Offshoring on Firm Performance

Despite the growing importance of IT enabled offshoring in the present day business, there is little academic research devoted to the subject. Moreover, to our knowledge , research on the impact of offshoring on firm performance is virtually non -existent, which is the prime motivation for this study. In this research, using resource -based view and resource dependence theory we conceptualize offshoring as a strategic resource sourcing decision for enhancing firm performance. Specifically, we assess the short term impact of offshoring event (OE) and offshoring intensity (OI) on financial performance metrics of the firm, which include revenue performance, cost performance, profitability performance, productivity perf ormance, and market performance. Results, suggest offshoring as a viable strategic option for improving firm performance. Through this research, we make some important contributions and offer implications for research and practice.
Detecting Body Mass Index from a Facial Photograph in Lifestyle Intervention

This study aimed to identify whether a research participant’s body-mass index (BMI) can be correctly identified from their facial image (photograph) in order to improve data capturing in dissemination and implementation research. Facial BMI (fBMI) was measured using an algorithm formulated to identify points on each enrolled participant’s face from a photograph. Once facial landmarks were detected, distances and ratios between them were computed to characterize facial fatness. A regression function was then used to represent the relationship between facial measures and BMI values to then calculate fBMI from each photo image. Simultaneously, BMI was physically measured (mBMI) by trained researchers, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (adult BMI). Correlation analysis of fBMI to mBMI (n = 1210) showed significant correlation between fBMI and BMIs in normal and overweight categories (p < 0.0001). Further analysis indicated fBMI to be less accurate in underweight and obese participants. Matched pair data for each individual indicated that fBMI identified participant BMI an average of 0.4212 less than mBMI (p < 0.0007). Contingency table analysis found 109 participants in the ‘obese’ category of mBMI were positioned into a lower category for fBMI. Facial imagery is a viable measure for dissemination of human research; however, further testing to sensitize fBMI measures for underweight and obese individuals are necessary.
Bioinformatic Prediction of Gene Functions Regulated by Quorum Sensing in the Bioleaching Bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

The biomining bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans oxidizes sulfide ores and promotes metal solubilization. The efficiency of this process depends on the attachment of cells to surfaces, a process regulated by quorum sensing (QS) cell-to-cell signalling in many Gram-negative bacteria. At. ferrooxidans has a functional QS system and the presence of AHLs enhances its attachment to pyrite. However, direct targets of the QS transcription factor AfeR remain unknown. In this study, a bioinformatic approach was used to infer possible AfeR direct targets based on the particular palindromic features of the AfeR binding site. A set of Hidden Markov Models designed to maintain palindromic regions and vary non-palindromic regions was used to screen for putative binding sites. By annotating the context of each predicted binding site (PBS), we classified them according to their positional coherence relative to other putative genomic structures such as start codons, RNA polymerase promoter elements and intergenic regions. We further used the Multiple EM for Motif Elicitation algorithm (MEME) to further filter out low homology PBSs. In summary, 75 target-genes were identified, 34 of which have a higher confidence level. Among the identified genes, we found afeR itself, zwf, genes encoding glycosyltransferase activities, metallo-beta lactamases, and active transport-related proteins. Glycosyltransferases and Zwf (Glucose 6-phosphate-1-dehydrogenase) might be directly involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis and attachment to minerals by At. ferrooxidans cells during the bioleaching process.
Tree-local MCTAG with Shared Nodes: An Analysis ofWord Order Variation in German and Korean

Tree Adjoining Grammars (TAG) are known not to be powerful enough to deal with scrambling in free word order languages. The TAG-variants proposed so far in order to account for scrambling are not entirely satisfying. Therefore, an alternative extension of TAG is introduced based on the notion of node sharing. Considering data from German and Korean, it is shown that this TAG-extension can adequately analyse scrambling data, also in combination with extraposition and topicalization.
Wireless Sensor Network Capacity Enhancement Using Spatial Concurrency

The capacity of an ad hoc wireless network is determined by its topology and the resulting signal-to-interference ratio experienced by the various wireless links that interconnect different nodes. The Shannon capacity theorem is the fundamental result that relates the link bandwidth and the signal-tointerference ratio (SIR) experienced by a link. The link capacity in turn defines the upper bound on the data rate that a wireless link can support under the prevailing link conditions. The Shannon capacity of different links can be used to determine capacity regions that ensure stable link scheduling and link data rates. Since much of the research reported so far in this area has not dealt with exploiting concurrency that can be provisioned in the spatial domain using beamforming techniques, the links are forced to use transmission schedules that limit the network capacity. Assuming that each transmitter and/or receiver uses a multi-element transmit/receive antenna array, in this paper we describe a spatial processing technique that allows a receiver to concurrently form multiple high gain beams in the direction of different transmitters. Each beamformer can be designed in such a way that it provides high gain toward a single selected data source while nulling out the other sources. The resulting technique is shown to lead to higher traffic carrying capacity in a wireless network as a result of increased signal-to-interference ratio in the presence of multiple concurrent transmitters. While the proposed technique can be applied to any type of wireless network, the paper’s primary focus is on wireless sensor network topologies for supporting sensor data fusion by forming ad-hoc clusters of sensor nodes.
Impact of gender and emotion type in dialogue emotion recognition

This paper presents a dialogue emotion recognition system using Hidden Markov Model (HMM). We have compared accuracy of Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), Energy, and wavelet sub-band energies and their first derivative and all possible combination. Based on our experiment, MFCC show better performance in comparison with the other studied features. We have also evaluated the impact of gender and emotion states on emotion detection. Experimental results show that a significant difference is observed depending on the type of emotion studied but also in the gender of the evaluated person.
Scales of fluctuation and the propagation of uncertainty in random porous media

The mechanics of transport and flow in a random porous medium are addressed in this paper. The hydraulic properties of the porous medium are modeled as spatial random processes. The heterogeneity of the medium is modeled as a superposition of scales of heterogeneity that are statistically uncorrelated. The stochastic process making up a hydraulic property is thus represented as a linear combination of normalized deterministic shapes multiplied by a set of uncorrelated random variables. The Karhunen‐Loeve expansion is used to formalize this representation. The uncertainty contained in each of these scales is then propagated through the system using the governing differential equation as a constraint. The solution process will thus consist of the original scales used to represent the porous medium as well as various interaction between these scales. The objective of this paper is to develop a procedure for quantifying the uncertainty in the field variables using the scales of fluctuation of the porous medium as the measuring stick.
Learning effects in coders and their implications for managing content analyses

ABSTRACT From the perspective of study management, research is surprisingly lacking on two of the major challenges for planning and performing content analysis: determining the sample size (i.e. number of objects to code) and the required number of coders to hire. The optimization of both of these numbers will ultimately determine how efficiently available resources are used. This study contributes to the methodological discussion on coding by identifying and conceptualizing the role of learning effects with respect to the coding task and by highlighting the importance of considering the coding process when managing a content analysis. We present empirical evidence for the existence and impact of learning effects on coders’ coding speed. Accordingly, study management should take account of learning effects when determining the sample size and number of coders. We also provide an illustrative example of how learning effects can impact the results of pretests.
Hop-Count Based Node-to-Anchor Distance Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Localization is one of the most important research issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Hop-count based localization has been proposed as a cost-effective alternative to the expensive hardware-based localization schemes. In this paper, we propose a new method to estimate distances between anchors and nodes based on hop-count information. Localization is then achieved using the estimated distances. Simulation results show that the performance of our proposed algorithm is much better than that of the DV-hop algorithm [1] in terms of the node-to-anchor distance estimation and localization accuracy, and the improvement is proportional to the node density.
Speaker-independent isolated digit recognition using an AER silicon cochlea

This paper presents speaker-independent isolated digit recognition experiments based on cochlear image maps that were computed using spatio-temporal spike patterns obtained from an Address-Event Representation silicon cochlea. The cochlear maps used in this study were computed by means of: (i) time-binned spike-counts; (ii) low-pass filtered spike trains; and (iii) Radon spike-count method. These maps were subsequently used as input to a back-end classifier of Support Vector Machines. The results show promising recognition accuracies on near 110 speakers from the TIDIGITS database. In fact, it is shown that despite the limited input dynamic range and the un-modelled nonlinearities produced by the hardware cochlea, the discriminative information present in its spike patterns can potentially be sufficient for a task as complex as speaker-independent isolated keyword recognition. Results report over 95% average word recognition accuracy on utterances by an unseen set of speakers.
On Mean Variance Portfolio Optimization: Improving Performance Through Better Use of Hedging Relations

In portfolio optimization, the inverse covariance matrix prescribes the hedge trades where a portfolio of stocks hedges each one with all the other stocks to minimize portfolio risk. In practice with finite samples, however, multicollinearity makes the hedge trades too unstable to be reliable. By reducing the number of stocks in each hedge trade to curb estimation errors, we motivate a “sparse” estimator of the inverse covariance matrix with multiple zero off-diagonal elements. Comparing favorably with those under no-short-sale constraints and using shrunk covariance matrix, a portfolio formed on this estimator achieves significant risk reduction out-of-sample. By improving hedge trades, the portfolio delivers higher certainty equivalent returns after transaction costs in a range of situations.
Impact of Stepping Stones on incidence of HIV and HSV-2 and sexual behaviour in rural South Africa: cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective To assess the impact of Stepping Stones, a HIV prevention programme, on incidence of HIV and herpes simplex type 2 (HSV-2) and sexual behaviour. Design Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting 70 villages (clusters) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Participants 1360 men and 1416 women aged 15-26 years, who were mostly attending schools. Intervention Stepping Stones, a 50 hour programme, aims to improve sexual health by using participatory learning approaches to build knowledge, risk awareness, and communication skills and to stimulate critical reflection. Villages were randomised to receive either this or a three hour intervention on HIV and safer sex. Interviewers administered questionnaires at baseline and 12 and 24 months and blood was tested for HIV and HSV-2. Main outcome measures Primary outcome measure: incidence of HIV. Other outcomes: incidence of HSV-2, unwanted pregnancy, reported sexual practices, depression, and substance misuse. Results There was no evidence that Stepping Stones lowered the incidence of HIV (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.67 to 1.35). The programme was associated with a reduction of about 33% in the incidence of HSV-2 (0.67, 0.46 to 0.97; P=0.036)—that is, Stepping Stones reduced the number of new HSV-2 infections over a two year period by 34.9 (1.6 to 68.2) per 1000 people exposed. Stepping Stones significantly improved a number of reported risk behaviours in men, with a lower proportion of men reporting perpetration of intimate partner violence across two years of follow-up and less transactional sex and problem drinking at 12 months. In women desired behaviour changes were not reported and those in the Stepping Stones programme reported more transactional sex at 12 months. Conclusion Stepping Stones did not reduce incidence of HIV but had an impact on several risk factors for HIV—notably, HSV-2 and perpetration of intimate partner violence. Trial Registration Clinical Trials NCT00332878.
Perceived Usability Evaluation of Learning Management Systems: A First Step towards Standardization of the System Usability Scale in Greek

Perceived usability is an important requirement of educational software, affecting greatly student's learning effectiveness and overall learning experience. Although the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire is considered as a de facto standard for perceived usability evaluation, surprisingly, few studies are reporting results from evaluations related to Learning Management Systems (LMSs). In addition, given that the questionnaire comprises 10 questions presented in English, its applicability in studies involving speakers of other languages is questionable. In this paper, a first step towards standardization of a Greek version of SUS in the context of LMSs perceived usability evaluation is reported. To this end, three studies involving 280 university students in both blended and distance learning education were conducted. Analysis of the results demonstrated the validity and reliability of the Greek version of SUS.
Multimodal Imaging of Spike Propagation: A Technical Case Report

SUMMARY: We report an 11-year-old boy with intractable epilepsy, who had cortical dysplasia in the right superior frontal gyrus. Spatiotemporal source analysis of MEG and EEG spikes demonstrated a similar time course of spike propagation from the superior to inferior frontal gyri, as observed on intracranial EEG. The tractography reconstructed from DTI showed a fiber connection between these areas. Our multimodal approach demonstrates spike propagation and a white matter tract guiding the propagation.
FULLY COMPRESSIVE TIDES IN GALAXY MERGERS

The disruptive effect of galactic tides is a textbook example of gravitational dynamics. However, depending on the shape of the potential, tides can also become fully compressive. When that is the case, they might trigger or strengthen the formation of galactic substructures (star clusters and tidal dwarf galaxies), instead of destroying them. We perform N-body simulations of interacting galaxies to quantify this effect. We demonstrate that tidal compression occurs repeatedly during a galaxy merger, independently of the specific choice of parameterization. With a model tailored to the Antennae galaxies, we show that the distribution of compressive tides matches the locations and timescales of observed substructures. After extending our study to a broad range of parameters, we conclude that neither the importance of the compressive tides (≈15% of the stellar mass) nor their duration (∼107 yr) is strongly affected by changes in the progenitors’ configurations and orbits. Moreover, we show that individual clumps of matter can enter compressive regions several times in the course of a simulation. We speculate that this may spawn multiple star formation episodes in some star clusters, through, e.g., enhanced gas retention.
Design practice and research: interconnections and the criterion-based approach

This paper examines the connections between research, and practices of design including research by design. The paper argues that owing to different worldviews, what constitutes an effective practice within each paradigm is different. The received paradigm of scientific research benefits from high levels of coherence between its aims, methods, and outcomes as a result of many centuries of refinement. Alternative paradigms can be strengthened by reference to these structural features. If design wishes to develop a coherent response to the demands of design research it must therefore find a way of analysing the fitness of its practices to its problems and audience needs. This should come from a criterion-based analysis of research per se, plus any discipline-specific needs of design. The authors are working on a major project to develop such analyses, and this paper discusses their criterion-based approach from a theoretical point of view, and in relation to the Research by Design doctoral programme at TU Delft.
Sliding mode multiple observer for perturbed output nonlinear systems

This paper deals with the problem of state estimation for perturbed output nonlinear systems. A multiple models approach is used to describe such class of systems. Then a structure of Lyapunov based sliding mode multiple observer is presented. The stability proof of the observer is ensured by a suitable choice of estimation gains which are solutions of a set Linear Matrix Inequalities(LMI). The simulation results for the denitrification application demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed estimator scheme.
MINDFULNESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The mindfulness practices have conquered the Western world since 1980, but in Romania they are still in their infancy. This study investigates the relationships between mindfulness, self-esteem and academic achievements. Research assumptions were: (1) we assume that the higher the level of mindfulness, the higher the level of self-esteem is. (2) we assume that there is a significant positive correlation between the level of mindfulness and the level of academic performance. The main method used in this research was the questionnaires survey. The research instruments were a demographic data questionnaire and reporting relevant grades: average study years, the mean of the final exams, Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. The obtained results show that there are moderate correlations between the studied variables. Cultivating mindfulness within the curriculum at the academic level and not only, can bring substantial benefits to educational agents: teachers, students, pupils.
Designing and Pricing Information

A monopolist sells informative experiments to heterogeneous buyers who face a decision problem. Buyers di¤er in their prior information, and hence in their willingness to pay for additional signals. The monopolist o¤ers a menu of experiments. Every optimal experiment in the optimal menu contains locally non-dispersed information, i.e., it rules out at least one realization of the underlying state. With binary states and actions, the optimal menu is coarse: the seller o¤ers at most two experiments, and we derive conditions under which at or discriminatory pricing is optimal. We apply our ndings to the sale of consumer-level information to enable targeted advertising.
Eye gaze behavior of virtual agent in gaming environment by using artificial intelligence

In the gaming environment, building natural looking avatar is a challenging task. An avatar represents a human character which includes speech, action, and eye movement in a virtual world. The movement and the expression of eye modeling is cognitive function. In order to assess virtual agent's eye gaze behavior on the basis of cognitive and emotional characteristics, this paper presents an experimental simulation to identify perfection of the eye gaze behavior. For this reason, this paper splits eye behavior into few levels by using CADIA Populus. But the goal of this research work is to focus on gaze behavior. In addition, it briefly describes the cognitive activities based on different cases. Furthermore this paper introduces an integrated framework for modeling the interaction of agent with the immersive environment. Finally, the gaze strategy and some simulation results from previous studies have been discussed to provide a concrete idea about gaze behavioral science in gaming environment using artificial intelligence.