Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educational Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Primary Schools: Challenges and Interventions.

Educational status is an important indicator of children's wellbeing and future life opportunities. It can predict growth potential and economic viability of a state. While this is an ideal situation for all children, the case may be different for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) due to the challenges they go through on a daily basis. This article aims to advance a debate on the findings of our study on the educational support provided for OVC through a critical engagement on the challenges experienced and the intervention measures to be taken in South African public primary schools context. The study involved one hundred and seven participants comprising sixty five OVC and forty two teachers. Questionnaires with structured and unstructured questions were utilised to collect descriptive and qualitative data. Findings suggest that, although the South African Government has put mechanisms in place to support OVC attain basic education, numerous challenges were found to be hindering some OVC from attaining quality education. Based on the findings, several intervention measures have been suggested.
Diversity and Taxonomic Implication of Angiosperms in Sinai Peninsula as Revealed by Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

Monitoring natural vegetation through remote sensing data in Egypt is just beginning. Only few studies were carried out to monitor Mangrove communities along Red Sea coast. ASD field spectroradiometer was used to measure spectral reflectance in the wavelength ranged from 350 to 2500 nm for 20 species belonging to the following genera Achillea (one species), Aerva (one species), Alkanna (one species), Asclepias (one species), Astragalus (one species), Ballota (one species), Echinops (one species), Fagonia (one species), Hyoscyamus (one species), Matthiola (two species), Origanum (one species), Peganum (one species), Phlomis (one species), Pyrethrum (one species), Stachys (one species), Teucrium (one species), Verbascum (one species), Zilla (one species), Zygophllum (one species) . Then, hyperspectral reflectance characteristics and Macro/micro-morphological features were investigated. One Way ANOVA (Tukey’s HSD Post Hoc Analysis) and Linear Discriminate Analysis were carried out to identify the optimal wavebands and wavelengths to classify the different genera with high pharmaceutical values. It was found that red (550 - 750 nm) and NIR (760 - 1000 nm) spectral zones were the optimal to discriminate the different genera. The specific wavelengths that could be used to isolate each genera were identified. It was found that Asclepias sinaic , Stachys aegyptiaca and Verbascum sinaiticum could be clearly isolated from the rest of the genera with unique spectral characteristics. At the same time, no specific wavelengths were investigated for Alkanna orientalis and Fagonia glutinosa .
Defect mitigation of plasma-induced delamination of TiW/Cu from SiNx layer in thin si interposer processing with glass carriers

Glass is widely used as a carrier substrate for processing thin silicon wafers for 3D applications. Moreover, the use of glass as an interposer material has recently attracted significant attention in both research and development. For silicon interposer applications, the silicon wafer with through silicon vias (TSVs) is first bonded to a temporary glass handler and subsequently subjected to wafer thinning to reveal the TSVs. After TSV reveal, wiring layers are patterned on the `grind-side' using photoresist, with sputtered TiW/Cu as the metal seed-layer and SiNx as the dielectric separating the metal layers. This paper reports a new `resistdependent' delamination phenomenon that occurs at the interface between TiW/Cu and SiNx surfaces, which is triggered during the plasma process. The delamination manifests as small blisters of raised TiW/Cu over the SiNx surface, and was observed while using glass wafers, either as a handler or as the actual electronic substrate. In this study, the root cause of delamination is identified as the Ar plasma used for clamping the wafers. The defect intensity is minimized by lowering the power of Ar plasma. Finally, defects are completely mitigated by substituting O2 gas in place of Ar during plasma processing.
Skewness and Location of Distributions of Wage Change Rates in the Presence of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity

The skewness-location approach to the analysis of downward nominal wage rigidity in micro data judges the existence of rigidity on the basis of estimated functional relationships between measures of location and of skewness of the distributions of individual rates of wage change in different years. Here it is shown that the properties of theoretical skewness-location relationships can deviate from those asserted by the skewness-location approach thus invalidating its test logic. Consequently, judgment based on the skewness-location approach is biased away from finding evidence for rigidity. Der Skewness-Location Ansatz zur Analyse von Abwartsnominallohnstarrheit in Mikrodaten beurteilt das Vorliegen von Starrheit anhand geschatzter funktionaler Beziehungen zwischen Lage- und Schiefemasen der Verteilungen von individuellen Lohnanderungsraten in verschiedenen Jahren. Hier wird gezeigt, dass die Eigenschaften theoretischer Skewness-Location Beziehungen von den im Skewness-Location Ansatz behaupteten abweichen konnen und so dessen zugrundeliegende Testlogik aushebeln. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit mit dem Skewness-Location Ansatz Abwartsnominallohnstarrheit zu finden ist daher nach unten verzerrt.
JCTC: A Large Job posting Corpus for Text Classification

The absence of an appropriate text classification corpus makes the massive amount of online job information unusable for labor market analysis. This paper presents JCTC, a large job posting corpus for text classification. In JCTC construction framework, a formal specification issued by the Chinese central government is chosen as the classification standard. The unsupervised learning (WE-cos), supervised learning algorithm (SVM) and human judgements are all used in the construction process. JCTC has 102581 online job postings distributed in 465 categories. The method proposed here can not only ameliorate the high demands on people's skill and knowledge, but reduce the subjective influences as well. Besides, the method is not limited in Chinese. We benchmark five state-of-the-art deep learning approaches on JCTC providing baseline results for future studies. JCTC might be the first job posting corpus for text classification and the largest one in Chinese. With the help of JCTC, related organizations are able to monitor, analyze and predict the labor market in a comprehensive, accurate and timely manner.
Technical Note: Application of positive matrix factor analysis in heterogeneous kinetics studies utilizing the mixed-phase relative rates technique

Abstract. The mixed-phase relative rates approach for determining aerosol particle organic heterogeneous reaction kinetics is often performed utilizing mass spectral tracers as a proxy for particle-phase reactant concentration. However, this approach may be influenced by signal contamination from oxidation products during the experiment. In the current study, the mixed-phase relative rates technique has been improved by combining a positive matrix factor (PMF) analysis with electron ionization aerosol mass spectrometry (unit-mass resolution), thereby removing the influence of m / z fragments from reaction products on the reactant signals. To demonstrate the advantages of this approach, the heterogeneous reaction between OH radicals and citric acid (CA) was investigated using a photochemical flow tube coupled to a compact time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (C-ToF-AMS). The measured heterogeneous rate constant (k2) of citric acid toward OH was (3.31 ± 0.29) × 10−12 cm3 molecule−1 s−1 at 298 K and (30 ± 3)% relative humidity (RH) and was several times greater than the results utilizing individual m / z fragments. This phenomenon was further evaluated for particulate-phase organophosphates (triphenyl phosphate (TPhP), tris-1,3-dichloro-2-propyl phosphate (TDCPP) and tris-2-ethylhexyl phosphate (TEHP)), leading to k2 values significantly larger than previously reported. The results suggest that heterogeneous kinetics can be significantly underestimated when the structure of the products is highly similar to the reactant and when a non-molecular tracer is measured with a unit-mass resolution aerosol mass spectrometer. The results also suggest that the heterogeneous lifetime of organic aerosol in models can be overestimated due to underestimated OH uptake coefficients. Finally, a comparison of reported rate constants implies that the heterogeneous oxidation of aerosols will be dependent upon a number of factors related to the reaction system, and that a single rate constant for one system cannot be universally applied under all conditions.
Segmentation of brain tumor from MRI images

Brain tumor is known as the most aggressive tumor among all other tumors, which leads to short life span of the patients. Therefore to improve the health of oncological patient, treatment planning is a critical stage. The most common method used worldwide is MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) to understand the behaviour of the tumors. MRI takes huge amount of data to properly define the criticality of tumor. The time taken during Manual segmentation can be reduced by utilizing exact quantitative technique for the future clinical practices. This research is focused towards studying the different techniques used in past by various researchers. This work would summarize the benefits, limitations and future opportunity to detect brain tumor more precisely.
Development of Analytical Compact Drain Current Model For 28 nm FDSOI MOSFETs U

An analytical drain current compact model for lightly doped short-channel ultra-thin body and box fully depleted silicon-on-insulator MOSFETs with back gate control, which includes the effects of drain-induced barrier lowering, channellength modulation, saturation velocity, mobility degradation, quantum confinement, velocity overshoot and self-heating, is presented. A comparison is performed with experimental transfer and output characteristics of devices with channel lengths 30 and 240 nm and with back bias varying from -3 to +3 V. The good accuracy of the model makes it suitable for implementation in circuit simulation tools.
Parameter optimization for HEVC/H.265 encoder using multi-objective optimization technique

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) is the latest video coding standard proposed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC). There are several parameters for HEVC/H.265 encoder that are used in video encoding. During video encoding single standard configuration file is used for all the videos that may not maintain the quality in all encoded videos because most of the videos having varying speed of moveable objects; so there is a need to optimize the encoder parameters for all the videos separately. The aim of proposed work is to optimize the encoder parameters for higher compression ratio and higher PSNR value for every video independently. Here, NSGA-II is used to find out the optimum parameters for the encoder that can provide good quality encoded videos. Six QCIF format videos having 176×144 resolutions, are used here. The experimental results show that different videos required different configuration files for good quality compression.
Expression profile analysis of long non‐coding RNA in acute myeloid leukemia by microarray and bioinformatics

Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nt that are involved in tumorigenesis and play a key role in cancer progression. To determine whether lncRNAs are involved in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we analyzed the expression profile of lncRNAs and mRNAs in AML. Five pairs of AML patients and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) controls were screened by microarray. Through coexpression analysis, differently expressed transcripts were divided into modules, and lncRNAs were functionally annotated. We further analyzed the clinical significance of crucial lncRNAs from modules in public data. Finally, the expression of three lncRNAs, RP11‐222K16.2, AC092580.4, and RP11‐305O.6, were validated in newly diagnosed AML, AML relapse, and IDA patient groups by quantitative RT‐PCR, which may be associated with AML patients’ overall survival. Further analysis showed that RP11‐222K16.2 might affect the differentiation of natural killer cells, and promote the immunized evasion of AML by regulating Eomesodermin expression. Analysis of this study revealed that dysregulated lncRNAs and mRNAs in AML vs IDA controls could affect the immune system and hematopoietic cell differentiation. The biological functions of those lncRNAs need to be further validated.
Modified Artificial Bees Colony algorithm with Nelder-Mead search algorithm

In this paper, a new Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) called NM-ABC which integrates NM into original ABC has been developed. ABC algorithm is one of the most recent biological-inspired optimization algorithm proposed in year 2005. ABC is inspired by the foraging behavior of honey bee swarm. The exploration and exploitation are two important mechanisms in ABC. Exploitation process starts when the employed bees approach to the food sources. However, ABC can perform better during exploration stage but weaker at exploitation stage. In this study, the exploitation search stage has been integrated with Nelder-Mead Simplex Method (NM). The numerical results shown that the NM-ABC can perform better than the original ABC with less colony size and number of cycle allocated
Applied Cosimulation of Intelligent Power Systems: Implementing Hybrid Simulators for Complex Power Systems

Smart grids link various types of energy technologies, such as power electronics, machines, grids, and markets, via communication technology, which leads to transdisciplinary, multidomain systems. Simulation packages for assessing the system integration of components typically cover only one subdomain, while greatly simplifying the others. Cosimulation overcomes this by coupling subdomain models that are described and solved within their native environments, using specialized solvers and validated libraries. This article discusses the state of the art and conceptually describes the main challenges for simulating intelligent power systems. The article "Cosimulation of Intelligent Power Systems: Fundamentals, Software Architecture, Numerics, and Coupling," published in the March 2017 issue of this magazine [88], covered the fundamental concepts of this topic, and this follow-up article covers the applied aspects of the subject.
An improved methodology for monitoring NBTI induced threshold voltage shift of scaled p-MOSFETS

Conventional fast switching measurement method for NBTI characterization, which relates linear drain current degradation DeltaI<sub>d</sub> to threshold voltage shift |DeltaV<sub>t</sub>| based on the first-order expression |DeltaV<sub>t</sub>| = intpartI<sub>d</sub>/g<sub>m</sub>, is shown to severely overestimate |DeltaV<sub>t</sub>|. By taking into account the effect of source/drain series resistance and vertical-field induced mobility reduction, results obtained using an improved ultra-fast switching method are shown to be consistent with those obtained from alternative ultra-fast V<sub>t</sub> and gate-voltage sweep methods.
Improved ant colony algorithm for Traveling Salesman Problems

An improved ant colony algorithm is proposed in this paper for Traveling Salesman Problems (TSPs). In the process of searching, the ants are more sensitive to the optimal path because the inverse of distance among cities is chosen as the heuristic information, while a candidate list is used to limit the number of candidate city. The method of local and global dynamic phenomenon update is used in order to adjust the distribution of phenomenon according to the routes. The method of 2-opt is only used for the current optimal tour, enhancing the convergence speed. The simulation results demonstrate the proposed algorithm works well and efficient.
Reinvestigation of Kuumbi Cave, Zanzibar, reveals Later Stone Age coastal habitation, early Holocene abandonment and Iron Age reoccupation

ABSTRACT The late Pleistocene and Holocene history of eastern Africa is complex and major gaps remain in our understanding of human occupation during this period. Questions concerning the identities, geographical distributions and chronologies of foraging, herding and agricultural populations — often problematically equated with the chronological labels ‘Later Stone Age (LSA)’, ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Iron Age’ — are still unresolved. Previous studies at the site of Kuumbi Cave in the Zanzibar Archipelago of Tanzania reported late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) and LSA, mid-Holocene Neolithic and late Holocene Iron Age occupations (Sinclair et al. 2006; Chami 2009). Kuumbi Cave considerably extends the chronology of human occupation on the eastern African coast and findings from the site have been the basis for the somewhat contentious identification of both a coastal Neolithic culture and early chicken, a domesticate that was introduced to Africa from Asia. The site therefore warrants further investigation. Here we report on a new excavation of the Kuumbi Cave sequence that has produced a suite of 20 radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates. Our results suggest that the cave’s stratigraphy is complex, reflecting taphonomic processes that present interpretive and dating challenges. Our assessment of the stratigraphic sequence demonstrates three phases of habitation, two of which reflect terminal Pleistocene occupation and are characterised by quartz microliths, bone points and the exploitation of terrestrial and marine species, and one of which reflects later reoccupation by AD 600. In this latter phase, Kuumbi Cave was inhabited by a population with a locally distinct material culture that included idiosyncratic Tana or Triangular Incised Ware ceramics and medium-sized limestone stone tools, but with a subsistence economy similar to that of the late Pleistocene, albeit with more emphasis on marine foods and smaller terrestrial mammals. Our results suggest that Kuumbi Cave may have been unoccupied for much of the Holocene, after Zanzibar became an island. Our findings also place into question earlier identifications of domesticates, Asian fauna and a mid-Holocene Neolithic culture at the site.
Application of Model Free Adaptive Control in Main Steam Temperature System of Thermal Power Plant

— At present, the cascade PID control is widely used to control the superheating temperature (main steam temperature). As Main Steam Temperature has the characteristics of large inertia, large time-delay and time varying, etc., conventional PID control strategy cannot achieve good control performance. In order to overcome the bad performance and deficiencies of main steam temperature control system, Model Free Adaptive Control (MFAC) - P cascade control system is proposed in this paper. By substituting MFAC in PID of the main control loop of the main steam temperature control, it can overcome time delays, non-linearity, disturbance and time variation.
Design of Dual-Passband Microstrip Bandpass Filters With Multi-Spurious Suppression

A systematic design method for microstrip bandpass filters with both dual-passband response and multi-spurious suppression is proposed in this letter. The filter is composed of stepped impedance resonators (SIRs). A novel asymmetric SIR structure is proposed to effectively increase the degree of freedom in the dual-passband bandwidth design. As a consequence, the transmission zero of the coupling stage could be used to suppress the unwanted higher order spurious responses. A complete design procedure considering both the synthesis of passband responses and the suppression of spurious responses is also depicted in detail. A fifth order filter is designed and fabricated to demonstrate this idea. The measured results show that the upper stopband can have an attenuation level near 30 dB up to more than 20 GHz (8.16 f 0).
Data reduction through kernel sparse coding

Sparse Modeling Representative Selection (SMRS) has been recently proposed for finding the most relevant instances in datasets. This method deploys a data self-representativeness coding in order to infer a coding matrix that is regularized with a row sparsity constraint. The method assumes that the score of any sample is set to the L2 norm of the corresponding row in the coding matrix. Since the SMRS method is linear, it cannot always provide good relevant instances. Moreover, many of its selected instances are already in dense areas in the input space. In this paper, we propose to alleviate the SMRS method's shortcomings. More precisely, We propose two kernel data self-representativeness coding schemes that are based on Hilbert space and column generation. Performance evaluation is carried out on reducing training image datasets used for recognition tasks. These experiments showed that the proposed kernel methods can provide better data reduction than state-of-the art selection methods including the SMRS method.
The Presynaptic Calcium Channel Is Part of a Transmembrane Complex Linking a Synaptic Laminin (α4β2γ1) with Non-Erythroid Spectrin

Nerve regeneration studies at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) suggest that synaptic basal lamina components tell the returning axon where to locate neurotransmitter release machinery, including synaptic vesicle clusters and active zones. Good candidates for these components are the synaptic laminins (LNs) containing α4, α5, or β2 chains. Results from a β2 laminin knockout mouse have suggested a linkage of this extracellular laminin to cytosolic synaptic vesicle clusters. Here we report such a transmembrane link at the electric organ synapse, which is homologous to the NMJ. We immunopurified electric organ synaptosomes and found on their surface two laminins of 740 and 900 kDa. The 740 kDa laminin has a composition of α4β2γ1 (laminin-9). Immunostaining reveals that as in the NMJ, α4 and β2 chains are concentrated at the electric organ synapse. Using detergent-solubilized synaptosomes, we immunoprecipitated a complex containing α4β2γ1 laminin, the voltage-gated calcium channel, and the cytoskeletal protein spectrin. Other presynaptic proteins such as 900 kDa laminin are not found in this complex. We hypothesize that α4β2γ1 laminin in the synaptic basal lamina attaches to calcium channel, which in turn is attached to cytosolic spectrin. Spectrin could then organize synaptic vesicle clusters by binding vesicle-associated proteins.
Morse complexes for shape segmentation and homological analysis: discrete models and algorithms

Morse theory offers a natural and mathematically‐sound tool for shape analysis and understanding. It allows studying the behavior of a scalar function defined on a manifold. Starting from a Morse function, we can decompose the domain of the function into meaningful regions associated with the critical points of the function. Such decompositions, called Morse complexes, provide a segmentation of a shape and are extensively used in terrain modeling and in scientific visualization. Discrete Morse theory, a combinatorial counterpart of smooth Morse theory defined over cell complexes, provides an excellent basis for computing Morse complexes in a robust and efficient way. Moreover, since a discrete Morse complex computed over a given complex has the same homology as the original one, but fewer cells, discrete Morse theory is a fundamental tool for efficiently detecting holes in shapes through homology and persistent homology. In this survey, we review, classify and analyze algorithms for computing and simplifying Morse complexes in the context of such applications with an emphasis on discrete Morse theory and on algorithms based on it.