Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-directional local adjacency descriptors (MDLAD) for heterogeneous face recognition

This paper presents new image descriptors for heterogeneous face recognition (HFR). The proposed descriptors combine directional and neighborhood information using a rotating spoke and concentric rings concept. We name the descriptors as multi-directional local adjacency descriptors (MDLAD). This family of descriptor captures the directional information through successive rotations of a pair of orthogonal spokes. Likewise, they capture the adjacency information through a comparison against the central pixel of a window with concentric rings around the central pixel. The MDLAD is found to describe the face images well for recognition purposes, which when matched using the chi-squared distance. The face recognition performance with MDLAD improves with its use as a layer in a deep neural network, which yields a robust classification for heterogeneous face recognition with respect to the state-of-the-art methods. The MDLADNET deep network is easily trainable with few hyperparameters and limited data samples as compared to existing similar deep networks. We have experimented on different heterogeneous modalities viz. Extended Yale B, CASIA, CUFSF, IIITD, LFW, Multi-PIE, and CARL, and have found proficient results.
Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Aquilaria sinensis, an endangered agarwood-producing tree

Abstract Aquilaria sinensis is one of the most important agarwood-producing trees but critically endangered at present. In this study, we produced the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of A. sinensis via genome survey analysis. The assembled genome is 174,914 base-pairs (bp) in length, with one large single-copy region of 87,361 bp and one small single-copy region of 3347 bp separated by two inverted repeats of 42,103 bp. The genome contains a total of 142 genes, including 96 protein-coding genes, 8 rRNAs, and 38 tRNAs. The phylogenomic tree strongly supports Aquilaria as a monophyly and A. sinensis sister to A. yunnanensis.
Analysis and Evaluation of a Linear Primary Permanent Magnet Vernier Machine With Multiharmonics

This article investigates a multiharmonics linear primary permanent magnet vernier machine. With the adoption of nonuniformly distributed PM arrays along the air gap, richer harmonics are achieved and make its performance superior to the conventional linear primary permanent magnet vernier machine. First, the structures are described and compared. Then, their operation principles are analyzed by the flux modulation theory. The electromagnetic performances of two machines are analyzed and compared through the finite element method and theoretical analysis. The results show that the multiharmonics linear primary permanent magnet vernier machine offers 15% higher thrust force density compared with the conventional linear primary permanent magnet vernier machine. Finally, the experiments on a prototype of the multiharmonics linear primary permanent magnet vernier machine are carried out for validation.
Analysis of the quality of electrodermal activity and heart rate data recorded in daily life over a period of one week with an E4 wristband

Wearable technology allows the monitoring of several psychophysiological responses, like electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR), in real-time and in daily life over a period of days and weeks. This paper serves as an introduction to a new approach which tries to warn alcoholics based on their psychophysiological responses, in order to prevent relapse. However, the first step is to determine the quality of the recorded data which is discussed in the present paper regarding the amount of data which is artifact-free and can be used for further analysis. An experiment was conducted with eight participants with a heavy drinking behavior over the period of one week. They wore the E4 wristband from Empatica which is capable of measuring EDA, HR, inter-beat interval (IBI) and blood volume pulse (BVP) among others. Several analyses were applied including standard analyses via Matlab, as well as self-programmed analysis-programs. The results state a high quality of the EDA data, with around 90% of the data detected as clean signal and is thus suitable for a further analysis including drawing reliable conclusions from it. Regarding the HR, only 2% of the data was determined as possible artifacts, in contrast to the IBI data where only 15% of the possible maximum values could be measured. This great difference can be explained by the BVP measurements which are used to compute the HR and the IBI, whereby the HR is always computed or estimated and the IBI only on the basis of sufficient measurements. However, it is still possible to use the HR data, but it is important only to use fractions of the data and never base a decision solely on the HR or IBI data.
Comparing students' engineering and science aspirations from age 10 to 16: Investigating the role of gender, ethnicity, cultural capital, and attitudinal factors

Women (along with minority ethnic and low‐income communities) remain underrepresented in engineering, despite a 30‐year history of research and equality legislation. Compared with the United States and other European Union countries, this underrepresentation is particularly pronounced in the United Kingdom. While existing literature gives insights into factors shaping retention and progression in university engineering students, comparatively less is known about the development of primary and secondary school students' engineering aspirations.
Conception of a Tissue Equivalent Plastic Dosimeter Using Scintillating Fibres for Hadronic Therapy and Space Radiation Effects Studies

Radiotherapy, and more specifically, proton therapy, presents a state-of-the-art treatment for many types of cancer. Although this relatively new approach to cancer treatment is enticing, it needs to be carefully monitored as it can result in unwanted severe sideeffects. The control of the treatment depends on test phases, namely to determine the dose to be deposited at the site, as well as on equipment that monitors the particle beam during treatment, a beam profile monitor, which verifies the stability of the intensity and position of the beam, its range and its straggling effect. This work proposes using scintillating fibres in the assembly of an equipment that allows measurements both for dose determination, as well as for beam monitor profile aplications. Plastic fibres in dosimetry present many advantages such as that gas is not required, the scintillation decay time is typically on the order of a few nanoseconds, the tissue equivalent characteristics of plastic, the spatial granularity is proportional to the fibre diameter and the signal amplitude is proportional to the deposited energy in the fibres. Though this linearity does not happen near the Bragg peak due to quenching, a typical effect in scintillating materials. Another issue is the crosstalk effect between adjacent fibres. Therefore this work is the beginning of a characterization study to learn about the fibre’s properties and evaluate their use in detectors for hadronic therapy and space effects studies. Given the complexity of the problem few results were obtained, nevertheless several iteration of Monte Carlo simulations are performed, we successfully measure the attenuation coefficient of the fibres as we also create a tray in order to quantify the crosstalk effect between adjacent fibres.
Last Frontier Investments: The Case of Alpine Wines

Abstract We identify and examine the performance of frontier investments from 2002 to 2017. Using fine wine as a setting, we find that the trade frequency and value of frontier investments in the form of Alpine wines have increased in recent years, leading to a rise in their prices above inflation rates. We further document that this frontier investment has been favorable in terms of risk-adjusted returns and volatility for investors. We also observe that the inclusion of frontier wines in a financial portfolio is favorable for investors, both in terms of returns and diversification benefits, due to low correlation coefficients. The identification and investment into frontier assets appears beneficial for investors looking for new opportunities. (JEL Classifications: C60, G11, Q11)
Dynamic Random Testing of Web Services: A Methodology and Evaluation

In recent years, service oriented architecture (SOA) has been increasingly adopted to develop distributed applications in the context of the Internet. To develop reliable SOA-based applications, an important issue is how to ensure the quality of web services. In this article, we propose a dynamic random testing (DRT) technique for web services, which is an improvement over the widely-practiced random testing (RT) and partition testing (PT) approaches. We examine key issues when adapting DRT to the context of SOA, including a framework, guidelines for parameter settings, and a prototype for such an adaptation. Empirical studies are reported where DRT is used to test three real-life web services, and mutation analysis is employed to measure the effectiveness. Our experimental results show that, compared with the three baseline techniques, RT, Adaptive Testing (AT) and Random Partition Testing (RPT), DRT demonstrates higher fault-detection effectiveness with a lower test case selection overhead. Furthermore, the theoretical guidelines of parameter setting for DRT are confirmed to be effective. The proposed DRT and the prototype provide an effective and efficient approach for testing web services.
Watson Caring Science Institute

Dr. Jean Watson is Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita, University of Colorado College of Nursing, where she held the nation’s first endowed Chair in Caring Science for 16 years. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing; past President of the National League for Nursing; founding member of International Association in Human Caring and International Caritas Consortium. Her latest activities include Founder and Director of non-profit foundation: Watson Caring Science Institute.
Biogeochemical processes accounting for the natural mercury variations in the Southern Ocean diatom ooze sediments

Abstract. Due to its toxic nature and its high potential for biomagnification, mercury is a pollutant of concern. Understanding the marine biogeochemical cycle of mercury is crucial as consumption of mercury-enriched marine fish is the most important pathway of human exposure to monomethylmercury, a neurotoxin. However, due to the lack of long-term marine records, the role of the oceans in the global mercury cycle is poorly understood. We do not have well-documented data of natural mercury accumulations during changing environmental conditions, e.g., sea surface conditions in the ocean. To understand the influence of different sea surface conditions (climate-induced changes in ice coverage and biological production) on natural mercury accumulation, we used a continuous ∼170 m Holocene biogenic sedimentary record from Adélie Basin, East Antarctica, which mainly consists of silica-based skeletons of diatoms. We performed principal component analysis and regression analysis on element concentrations and corresponding residuals, respectively, to investigate the link between sediment mercury accumulation, terrestrial inputs, and phytoplankton productivity. Preindustrial mercury in the remote marine basin shows extremely high accumulation rates (median: 556 µg m−2 yr−1) that displayed periodic-like variations. Our analyses show that the variations in total mercury concentrations and accumulation rates are associated with biological production and related scavenging of water-phase mercury by rapidly sinking algae or algae-derived organic matter after intense algae blooms. High accumulation rates of other major and trace elements further reveal that, in regions of high primary productivity, settling of biogenic materials removes a large fraction of dissolved or particulate-bound elements from the free water phase through scavenging or biological uptake. The link between mercury cycling and primary production will need to be considered in future studies of the marine mercury cycle under primary production enhancement through climatic, temperature, and nutrient availability changes.
Stable isotope composition of feathers help track the migratory patterns of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) along Western Flyways of North America

The large-scale patterns of movement for the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), a small forest hawk found throughout western North America, are largely unknown. However, based on field observations we set out to test the hypothesis that juvenile migratory A. striatus caught along two distinct migration routes on opposite sides of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of North America (Pacific Coast and Intermountain Migratory Flyways) come from different natal/breeding populations. We applied Stable Isotope Analysis (SIA) of hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) of feathers, and large scale models of spatial isotopic variation (IsoScapes) to formulate spatially explicit predictions of the origin of the migrant birds. For both hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition, novel relationships were assessed between the measured isotope values of feathers from A. striatus museum specimens of known origin and the IsoScape modeled compositions of precipitation at those known locations. We used these relationships to predict the origin regions for birds migrating along the two flyways from the measured isotope values of migrant’s feathers and the associated hydrogen and oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation where these feathers were formed. The A. striatus from the two migration routes had overlap in their natal/breeding origins and did not differentiate into fully separate migratory populations. The methodology based on oxygen isotopes had, in general, less predictive power than the one based on hydrogen. There was broad agreement between the two isotope approaches in the geographic assignment of the origins of birds migrating along the Pacific Coast Flyway, but not for those migrating along the Intermountain Migratory Flyway. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for conservation efforts of A. striatus in western North America, and the use of combined hydrogen and oxygen SIA to track the movement of birds of prey on continental scales.
Assédio sexual e suas consequências psicológicas em trabalhadoras

ABSTRACT Sexual Harassment is any unwanted conduct that is continually repeated in the workplace, even if repelled by the victim, restricting their sexual freedom. This study aimed to promote a survey of the prevalence of sexual harassment in women workers in the retail sector, being a quantitative and qualitative research. The research also aimed to identify the consequences to the psychological health of those affected, as well as to draw a profile of harassed women, and perform a functional analysis of the behavior of the participants in the face of harassment. The survey was of the Survey type, with the use of two written inventories and a semi-open interview. The instruments used were the Sexual Harassment Questionnaire, the Post Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale and a semi-structured interview script. The sample consisted of 76 workers from retail companies located in Rua Grande, in the center of Sao Luis-MA. Among the participants, it was found that 67.1% had already experienced at least one sexual harassment situation in the year of the survey. Significant moderate correlations were observed between the occurrence of sexual harassment and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder. Features such as age, length of service, and marital status were unrelated to acts of sexual harassment. It is concluded that sexual harassment is common practice in the companies of the participants and that it can cause intense suffering to the harassed.
Personal Entrepreneurial Attributes and Intentions to Start Business: The Moderating Role of Culture

Culture influence the entrepreneurial intentions, which make a contribution to entrepreneurial evolution. This study investigates that whether (Hofstede, Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context, 2001) cultural dimensions has a moderating role in converting Personal Entrepreneurial Attributes into their Intention to Start a Business. To measure these attributes, we applied bounded multidimensional model of social entrepreneurship as proposed by (Weerawardena & Mort, 2006) and applied by (Richter, et al., 2016). The effect of three Entrepreneurial Attributes namely risk taking, innovativeness and pro-activeness along with other demographic variables were tested against entrepreneurial intensions (EI). Their effect was moderated by five cultural dimensions namely Masculinity, Power Distance, Long-Term Orientation, Collectivism, and Uncertainty Avoidance. Data of 272 respondents from Pakistan was collected using close ended questionnaire and was analysed using Confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modelling by means of path model which specifies various constructs of this study. The results suggested that risk taking and pro-activeness had a positive and significant effect on EI, whereas innovativeness doesn’t seem to effect EI. This imply that risk takers and proactive individuals are more inclined towards entrepreneurship than innovators. With regards to cultural dimensions, Masculinity, Power Distance, and Collectivism seems to negatively affect EI, whereas Long-Term Orientation, and Uncertainty Avoidance seems to effect positively. Interestingly, Collectivism and Masculinity have positive and significant complementarities with innovativeness, whereas Uncertainty Avoidance have negative and significant effect. This means innovativeness does seem to effect EI in collective and masculine culture. This also suggested that innovators would be more inclined in converting their ideas into workable projects in collective decision making and hierarchical cultural settings. Conversely, Uncertainty Avoidance, seem to restrict Entrepreneurial aspirations in innovators. Cultural variable doesn’t seem to have a significant moderation effect with regards to risk taking, except of Long Term Orientation, that have significant negative complementarities. Surprisingly, Masculinity, and Collectivism had and significant negative moderating effect with pro-activeness and EI, whereas Long Term Orientation and Uncertainty Avoidance have a significant positive interaction. This suggested that hierarchical culture deter proactive people in fulfilling their EI, at the same time, encourage innovators. With regards to demographics, male seems to have more EI, whereas the coefficient of education and age found that advanced education and experienced individuals believes in development, increasingly slanted toward entrepreneurship. Frames of mind to completing the expectations are poor in entrepreneurship.
The benefit received from visual information when listening to clear and degraded speech in background noise

In order to improve speech understanding in background noise, visual information is used to enhance the incoming auditory signal. This enhancement is known as the visual speech benefit. Variation in the amount of visual speech benefit that is received by participants is the focus of this research project and is examined for both clear and vocoded speech. Vocoded speech simulates the type of speech experienced by cochlear-implant users. Experiments 1 and 2 examined variation in the amount of visual speech benefit gained if the type of background noise in the speech test changed. The key results from Experiment 1 and 2 were that the visual information provided was not enough to enhance speech understanding for particularly unintelligible speech. Experiment 3 assessed change to levels of visual speech benefit if the target talker in the stimuli changed. Significant differences in intelligibility between talkers was found. The amount of visual speech benefit increased as the audio intelligibility of the target talker decreased in clear speech. Overall, therefore, it is important that consideration is given to the levels of intelligibility provided by the stimuli used in speech perception testing as this may change outcomes. Experiments 4 and 5 examined individual differences that may predict the amount of visual speech benefit gained. In Experiment 4, the significant predictors of the amount of visual speech benefit gained in clear speech were general speech perception ability, ability to detect audio and visual synchrony, and tendency towards autistic traits. The results of Experiment 5 showed that general speech perception ability and time spent looking at the mouth area measured using eye-tracking were significant predictors of the amount of visual speech benefit gained in clear speech. Individual differences between participants may therefore predict differences in speech perception and should also be considered when testing speech perception.
A Multi-Switching Tracking Control Scheme for Autonomous Mobile Robot in Unknown Obstacle Environments

The obstacle avoidance control of mobile robots has been widely investigated for numerous practical applications. In this study, a control scheme is presented to deal with the problem of trajectory tracking while considering obstacle avoidance. The control scheme is simplified into two controllers. First, an existing trajectory tracking controller is used to track. Next, to avoid the possible obstacles in the environment, an obstacle avoidance controller, which is used to determine the fastest collision avoidance direction to follow the boundary of the obstacle at a constant distance, is proposed based on vector relationships between the robot and an obstacle. Two controllers combined via a switch strategy are switched to perform the task of trajectory tracking or obstacle avoidance. The stability of each controller in the control scheme is guaranteed by a Lyapunov function. Finally, several simulations are conducted to evaluate the proposed control scheme. The simulation results indicate that the proposed scheme can be applied to the mobile robot to ensure its safe movement in unknown obstacle environments.
The agency supervisor model: developing supervisors who facilitate therapist transfer of training in community behavioral health service organizations

ABSTRACT The Agency Supervisor training model, which accentuates the training function of clinical supervision, is an innovative strategy for scaling evidence-informed behavioral health services. The present study introduced a new measure, the Supervision Evaluation Form (SEF) (N = 1,264), to examine the effectiveness of agency supervisors in implementing strategies that facilitate transfer of training. The SEF was described by two correlated factors, and SEF total scores were positive predictors of therapist performance, as measured by independent reviews of treatment case materials (N = 832). Findings indicate that providing more supervisory transfer support within the Agency Supervisor model may contribute to higher quality treatment episodes.