Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona virus : Knowledge and attitude of Qassim University students , KSA

Globally, since September 2012, 1626 laboratory-confirmed infected cases with MERS including at least 668 related deaths have been reported to WHO from 26 countries. Approximately 80% of human cases have been reported by Saudi Arabia and the numbers of infected cases increase gradually. Effective infection prevention and control depends on awareness of people at all levels. The current study aim to assess the knowledge and attitude of QassimUniversity students in Saudi Arabia towards Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). A cross-sectional study was conducted among 733 undergraduate students at Qassim University. Knowledge and attitude were assessed by using self administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics were used for data summarization and presentation. The findings of this study showed that the main sourcesof information regarding Corona among students were internet followed by television and radio. Lessthan three quarters of students had satisfactory knowledge and majority of them had positive attitude.Whereas majority of students think that University did not provide awareness campaigns about Corona.Furthermore, the findings explained that female had better knowledge than male and medical studentsaremore knowledgeable than non-medical students with p> (0.000). The current study findingsconcluded that the studied sample had good knowledge score as well as positive attitude toward MERSCoV. Future research should recruit students from different regions of the country in order to better assessment of students’ knowledge about MERS-CoV.
8C.1 A STUDY ON TROPICAL CYCLONE STRUCTURE CHANGES AND ORGANIZED CONVECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH TC-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS

Scientists’ ability to forecast tropical cyclone (TC) tracks has improved dramatically in the past few decades. To improve our understanding of TCs’ impacts further, many studies have focused on the intensity and structure changes of TCs. In the western North Pacific, structure forecasting is more important than intensity forecasting because the structure of TCs is closely related to the tremendous rainfall associated with TCs, which causes much damage and is important to the development of quantitative precipitation forecasting techniques. Some studies (e.g. Chien et al. 2008; Chien and Kuo, 2011; Lee et al., 2011) have shown that southwesterly flows were an important ingredient leading to the asymmetric convections associated with typhoons, such as Typhoon Morakot (2009) and Mindulle (2004), which caused lots of damages in southern Taiwan. We noted that, in those monsoon-influenced typhoons, at least two different modes of active and long-lasting convective systems occurred when TCs encountered strong southwesterly flows. The first mode was the mesoscale convective systems that developed from distant rainbands, which were usually concentric to the inner-core. We will use the term “outer-MCSs” (OMCSs) to represent this kind of convective systems. On the other hand, the second mode was principle-rainbands (Willoughby et al. 1984) that became very active. We will use the term “Enhanced rainbands” (ERBs) to call them. The structure of TCs may evolve according to internal and external processes. The external processes are related to the environments in which TCs are embedded, such as vertical wind shears, moisture patterns and large scale circulations. Both OMCSs and ERBs usually caused a thick and vast region of stratiform precipitation to develop. Furthermore, they are greater in scale than rainbands in a typical hurricane. The convective effects of these two types of active and long-lasting convective systems may be considered as noticeable external forcing to TC structures.
Does the average downward speed of a lightning leader change as it approaches the ground ? – An observational approach

In the lightning literature, it is commonly assumed that the stepped-leaders that initiate the first return stroke in negative cloud-to-ground lightning flashes accelerate during the final stages of their development, but there have been only a few observational studies supporting this claim. Other studies have reported a tendency for positive leaders to accelerate and negative dart-leaders to decelerate. The aim of this investigation is to determine how the average two-dimensional (2-D) downward speed of lightning leaders changes as they approach the ground and to see if any such changes depend on the leader type, polarity, or instrumentation used to measure the speed. We have examined the optical properties of leaders that were recorded using high-speed video cameras at different sites in south and southeastern Brazil, southern Arizona, and South Dakota, in conjunction with data obtained by lightning locating systems. The GPS time-stamped cameras were operated at frame rates ranging from 1000 to 11,854 frames per second. Our dataset consisted of 46 negative steppedleaders, 53 negative dart-leaders, and 28 positive leaders. Two different approaches were used in the data analysis; first, the average downward speed of individual leaders was computed over preset distance intervals above the ground, i.e. from 0 to 500 m, 500 to 1000 m, etc, and then the geometric mean (GM) was calculated for all the cases in a given interval. We computed and compared the GMs since the speeds of positive leaders and negative dart-leaders follow a lognormal distribution (at the 0.05 level, according to the Shapiro-Wilk test), and the negative stepped-leaders have a similar distribution (according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). The GM of the positive leader speeds increases by about a factor of 10 as they get closer to the ground (i.e. from 10 to 10 m/s), and the GM speed of negative stepped-leaders varies between 2.5x10 and 3.0x10 m/s. On the other hand, the GM speed of negative dart-leaders shows a clear decrease as they approach the ground. The second approach involved analyzing the leaders individually over their measurable length, and we found that: a) 82% of the 20 positive leaders accelerated, 7% decelerated, and 11% oscillated around an average speed; b) 46% of the 46 negative stepped-leaders accelerated, 6% decelerated and 48% oscillated around an average speed; and c) 32.1% of the 53 negative dart-leaders accelerated, 54.7% decelerated, and 13.2% oscillated around an average speed. We conclude that the acceleration of negative stepped-leaders is not as strong as some authors have assumed, but the tendencies for positive leaders to accelerate and for negative dart-leaders to decelerate are clear and agree with previous studies. We believe that the presented behavior asymmetry between negative steppedand positive leaders might suggest microphysical differences in their propagation which should be investigated further.
Validity of a newly developed method to predict accumulated oxygen deficit

Rowers transfer power output (PO) to the handle with the movement of their body toward back and forth which is defined as internal work, however, accumulated oxygen deficit (AOD) is estimated from only PO. This study aimed to investigate the validity of a newly proposed method, which estimates oxygen demand from PO and internal work, by comparing the relationships between AOD and blood lactate related parameters. Eight male university rowers performed a 2-minute supramaximal test, and blood lactate samples were obtained for 90-min of the following recovery period to evaluate blood lactate concentration at the end of the exercise ([La]b(0)), its peak value ([La]b peak), and a quantity of lactate accumulation (QLaA). Higher AOD was observed in the new method relative to the conventional method (change of mean, 13.8 %; 90 % confidence limits (CL), ± 5.1 %). Furthermore, the AODs estimated by the both conventional and the new methods were likely to correlate with QLaA (r = 0.65; 90 % CL, ± 0.43 and r = 0.59; 90 % CL, ± 0.47, respectively), however, unclear to correlate with [La]b(0) (r = 0.12; 90 % CL, ± 0.62 and r = -0.03; 90 % CL, ± 0.63, respectively) and [La]b peak (r = 0.13; 90 % CL, ± 0.62 and r = 0.10; 90 % CL, ± 0.62, respectively). In conclusion, our results suggest that the both of estimation methods provide AOD being likely to show a moderate correlation with QLaA, however, the value is higher in the new method.
A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE CONTINUOUS AXIS VALUE OF THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL PAD SPEECH EMOTIONAL STATE MODEL

The traditional way of emotional classification involves using the two-dimensional (2D) emotional model by Thayer, which identifies emotion by arousal and valence. The 2D model is not fine enough to classify among the rich vocabularies of emotions, such as distinguish between disgusting and fear. Another problem of the traditional methods is that they don’t have a formal definition of the axis value of the emotional model. They either assign the axis value manually or rate them by listening test. We propose to use the PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance) emotional state model to describe speech emotion in a continuous 3-dimensional scale. We suggest an initial definition of the continuous axis values by observing into the pattern of Log Frequency Power Coefficients (LFPC) fluctuation. We verify the result using a database of German emotional speech. Experiments show that the classification result of a set of big-6 emotions on average is 81%.
Extraction of the intercellular skeleton from 2 D microscope images of early embryogenesis

We suggest an efficient method for automatic detection of the intercellular skeleton in microscope images of early embryogenesis. The method is based on the solution of two advective PDEs. First, we solve numerically the time relaxed eikonal equation in order to obtain the signed distance function to a given set – a set of points representing cell centers or a set of closed curves representing segmented inner borders of cells. The second step is a segmentation process driven by the advective version of subjective surface equation where the velocity field is given by the gradient of the computed distance function. The first equation is discretized by Rouy-Tourin scheme and we suggest a fixing strategy that significantly improves the speed of the computation. The second equation is solved using a classical upwind strategy. We present several test examples and we show a practical application the intercellular skeleton extracted from a 2D image of a zebrafish embryo.
16 A . 3 OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR NEXRAD WSR-88 D WIND SPEED REDUCTION FACTORS

The ratio of the gust or mean surface-level wind speed to the gradient wind speed is known as the wind speed reduction factor (WSRF). The WSRF is commonly used to determine both peak and mean surface-level wind speeds both over water and land. Wind engineers and meteorologists typically use flight-level aircraft, Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR), and Global Positioning System (GPS) dropwindsonde wind measurements to determine over water WSRFs (Franklin et al. 2003; Powell et al. 2009), while radiosonde and Doppler radar wind measurements have been used to compute WSRFs overland (Sparks and Huang 2001). Historical overland WSRF studies were summarized by Vickery et al. (2009). The authors state that Schwerdt et al. (1979) computed a coastal WSRF of 0.845 and an overland WSRF of 0.745 (19 km inland of the coast), while Batts et al. (1980) and Georgiou et al. (1985) computed overland WSRFs of 0.740 and 0.620 respectively. With regard to the underlying terrain conditions dictating the overland WSRFs, Vickery et al. (2009) express that Schwerdt et al. (1979) stated that the roughness regime was not rough, Batts et al. (1980) assigned a value of 0.005 m to the terrain, and Georgiou (1985) indicated that open terrain conditions could be assumed. Sparks and Huang (2001) computed WSRFs over land using radiosondes, Doppler radar, and automated surface observing system (ASOS) wind measurements taken at 10 m height above ground level (AGL) for four hurricanes. Comparisons with ASOS wind measurements were restricted to locations within 25 km of sites where the gradient wind speed was calculated and when wind speeds were not variable over a short period of time. Moreover, hourly mean wind speeds centered on the gradient wind speed determination were restricted to values stronger than 15 m s-1 and
A unified model of first and second language learning

The Unified Competition Model views first and second language learning as depending on a shared set of socio-cognitive processes. Differences between the two types of acquisition depend not on the expiration of a critical period, but on the operation of the risk factors of entrenchment, transfer, overanalysis, and isolation. Entrenchment is a neural process that arises from ongoing use of L1 across years. Transfer and parasitism arise from the dominance of L1 during initial L2 learning. Overanalysis stems from the tendency of adult learners to focus on content words, rather than phrases. Isolation arises from the tendency over time for L1 groups to reject the participation of out-group members and from increasing demands for the L1 group. These risk factors can be countered through the processes of resonance, decoupling, chunking, and participation that are available to all learners, but which must become sharpened to promote L2 acquisition.
Session 3 aSCa : Imitation , Accommodation , and Convergence in Speech Communication 3 aSCa 6 . Phonetic convergence , communicative efficiency , and language distance

Many English conversations across the globe today involve talkers with different language experiences. Here we show that, while language barriers challenge communicative efficiency, the detrimental effect of language distance may be mitigated by phonetic convergence. We analyzed a corpus of conversations in which talker pairs solved a spot-the-difference puzzle by verbally comparing two scenes only one of which was visible to each talker ("diapix" task). Language distance was varied by pairing talkers who either matched or mismatched in language background and in native/nonnative status relative to the target language. Communicative efficiency was measured by task-completion-time and word type-to-token ratio. Phonetic convergence was assessed by perceptual similarity tests in which listeners compared samples from one talker's speech to samples from his/her partner's speech from either early or late portions of the conversation. In this test, greater similarity for late than early samples indicates convergence. Results showed a negative correlation between language distance and communicative efficiency, a negative correlation between language distance and phonetic convergence, and a mitigating effect of phonetic convergence on the negative correlation between language distance and communicative efficiency. This suggests that convergence may be an effective mechanism for overcoming the detrimental effects of a language barrier.
Bank Profitability and Macroeconomic Factors Financial Stability Papers

Since 2000 the European banking sector observed high earnings volatility both across time and among individual banks, culminating in a sharp decline in profitability in 2008, which remained thereafter at much lower levels compared to the pre‐crisis norm. In this paper, we use panel data on a sample of European banks to answer the following questions: (i) how does bank profitability respond to macroeconomic variables? (ii) Is there heterogeneity in that response? To identify the effect of GDP growth on profitability, we use an instrumental variable approach with world GDP growth as an instrument. We find that there is a positive association between real GDP growth and bank profitability due to the procyclicality of impairments. We also find that, on average, European banks benefit from higher reference rates and steeper yield curves. JEL: G21, C36, C53
A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF PAKISTANI WORKING WOMEN’S ADVANCEMENT TOWARDS UPPER LEVEL MANAGERIAL POSITIONS

Women’s presence at top managerial positions is less than men across the world and Pakistan is also no exception. Pakistan is a conservative and male dominated society where working women face a lot of obstacles while making advancement in their careers. However, due to the increase in literacy rate and greater efforts from government, civil societies, and media, working women and women at managerial positions are becoming more acceptable by the society. Keeping in view this changing scenario, the objective of the current study is to understand the working women’s experiences, barriers, and related issues while making advancement towards managerial level positions. The study is qualitative in nature and used phenomenology as a main mode of inquiry. Sample of the study was drawn from banking, education, and telecom sector in Pakistan. Data was collected from thirty female managers working at various levels among the three mentioned sectors. Key findings of the study are that Pakistani female managers face familial, organizational, and cultural barriers. The study also identified that there is greater acceptance of female managers as compared to the past. Moreover, Pakistani female managers also possess some unique leadership characteristics which are not very common among male managers.
Platooning in SUMO : An Open Source Implementation

Platooning is an application that enhances autonomous driving by means of cooperation. Vehicles, by using wireless communication, exchange data such as position, speed, and acceleration to reduce their inter-vehicle gap and drive in groups, called indeed platoons. The benefits span from improved infrastructure usage to reduced pollution, and from increased safety to a better travel experience. The analysis of a platooning system is complex as it encompasses several research fields, including communication, control theory, traffic engineering, and vehicle dynamics. In addition, even small field operational tests can be extremely expensive in terms of money and time, let alone large scale scenarios. Research studies in platooning can thus highly benefit from simulative analyses, as they overcome the limitations of real world test beds. To this purpose, we developed PLEXE, an extension to the Veins vehicular networking framework that enables the simulation of platooning systems, both from a network and a vehicle dynamics perspective. In this paper we detail the changes PLEXE makes to SUMO to simulate platooning control systems, including realistic engine models for the simulation of vehicle dynamics. In addition, we provide two sample use cases to show its potential.
ANNOTATION USING TEXTUAL SEMANTIC SIMILARITY AND TERM-FREQUENCY ( TWITTER ) Research Paper

Researchers on social-media understandably assert that the contributions social media has made on various sectors is massive. Business development managers today have directed a huge amount of effort in strategizing efficient collaboration with both customers and other organizations using social-media. Despite the visible impact social media has made, a lot of digitally shared information is yet to be revealed. Gradually twitter has become the main hub for many Information system researchers, because tweets can freely be accessible in real-time by any one. Motivated by earlier studies where IS researchers addressed big-data analysis and management by employing content analysis techniques, this paper proposes a novel approach to perform unsupervised classification of the tweets into different labels. It introduces a unique algorithm that uses semantic similarity between texts, Term-frequency and a determinant threshold to perform content analysis. The goal of this approach to extract relevant features from a tweet thus reducing dimension and preparing training datasets that would be used to build classifiers. Key-words: semantic-similarity, lexicon, text-mining, twitter.
Location Privacy with Randomness Consistency

: Location-Based Social Network (LBSN) applications that support geo-location-based posting and queries to provide location-relevant information to mobile users are increasingly popular, but pose a location-privacy risk to posts. We investigated existing LBSNs and location privacy mechanisms, and found a powerful potential attack that can accurately locate users with relatively few queries, even when location data is well secured and location noise is applied. Our technique defeats previously proposed solutions including fake-location detection and query rate limits. To protect systems from this attack, we propose a simple, scalable, yet eﬀective defense that quantizes the map into squares using hierarchical subdivision, consistently returns the same random result to multiple queries from the same square for posts from the same user, and responds to queries with diﬀerent distance thresholds in a correlated manner, limiting the information gained by attackers, and ensuring that an attacker can never accurately know the quantized square containing a user. Finally, we verify the performance of our defense and analyze the trade-oﬀs through comprehensive simulation in realistic settings. Surprisingly, our results show that in many environments, privacy level and user accuracy can be tuned using two independent parameters; in the remaining environments, a single parameter adjusts the tradeoﬀ between privacy level and user accuracy. We also thoroughly explore the parameter space to provide guidance for actual deployments.
Sporadic Oropouche Virus Infection , Acre , Brazil

stroke located in the left hemisphere. IgG and IgM antibodies against TOSV were detected in a serum sample obtained at that time. The patient was discharged 1 week later with slight aphasia. The most relevant common signs observed in patients 1 and 2 were the ischemic complications. Few cases of complicated encephalitis with sequelae caused by TOSV have been described (5,6). Moreover, to our knowledge, persistent neurologic TOSV infection has not been reported. The immune status of these patients probably infl uenced the clinical outcome in both patients and the delayed serologic response in patient 1. Patient 3, a 41-year-old woman, sought treatment for exanthema at her health care center in July 2004. Test results for IgM antibodies against rubella, parvovirus B19, and Rickettsia conorii were negative. Specifi c antiTOSV IgM was detected. The infection was self-limited, and no signs of neurologic involvement were associated with the rash. This was the only case of anti-TOSV IgM detection in 358 serum specimens analyzed from patients with nonneurologic syndromes. Although this fi nding is not conclusive, it suggests that TOSV infection might be involved occasionally in other mild syndromes. Two other cases of TOSV infection without neurologic involvement have been reported elsewhere: febrile erythema in Italy (7) and an infl uenza-like illness in southern France (8). The unusual manifestations of TOSV infection reported here occurred in persons from rural areas within Granada Province, where seroprevalence rates have been shown to be higher than in urban areas (3). These data provide more information about this arboviral infection. Atypical TOSV infection could occur particularly in areas where the virus is endemic. This study was supported in part by project 05/305, Junta de Andalucía, Spain.
Fabulous arrays I : Operational and transformational semantics of static arrays in verification project

The purpose of the F@BOOL@ project is to develop a transparent for users, compact, portable and extensible verifying compiler F@BOOL@ for annotated computer programs, that uses effective and sound automatic programs for checking satisfiability of propositional Boolean formulas. The kernel programming language of the project interprets all variables by residuals modulo some fixed integer (that is a parameter). Paper presents an extension of the kernel language by different variable ranges and static multi-dimensional arrays, provides two kinds of semantics of the extension — operational and transformational (into the kernel language), sketches manual correctness proof for the transformational semantics.