Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Logical transforms and their use in non-linear algorithms for digital signal processing

In numerous fields, from defense and security to medicine to robotics, success in signal processing applications is typically achieved through the use of tools originally designed to operate on multi-bit gray-level data. Standard representations of this input data, such as those achieved by the common Fourier, Wavelet, and cosine transforms, are primarily restricted to gray-level values, and are unable to properly function on binary data. Therefore, a need exists for similar representation schemes applicable to the binary domain, as such a formulation would provide the opportunity for enhancements in the current procedures for processing these signal types. In this thesis, logical transforms are explored and their ability to create useful representations of the binary input data is demonstrated to be analogous with the gray-level forms. Through the introduction of new transforms, representations, and non-linear algorithms as well as the application of these developments to binary signals, it is shown that the logical transforms and methodologies employed in this work outperform classic binary techniques for several major areas of digital signal processing (filtering, edge detection, and interpolation), as indicated by both a minimization in algorithm complexity and increased functional accuracy. Further extensions to this model are included, allowing the binary processes presented to operate on gray-level input data as well, showing broad versatility over the traditional methods.
Policy options to attract nurses to rural Liberia : evidence from a discrete choice experiment

There is major geographic variation in nurse staffing levels in Liberia with the largest shortages in rural areas. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used to test how nurses and certified midwives in Liberia would respond to alternative policies being considered by the ministry of health and social welfare (MOHSW). The DCE methodology provides a quantitative estimate of how individuals value different aspects of their job. In Liberia we focused on six key job attributes: location, total pay, conditions of equipment, availability of transportation, availability of housing, and workload. Results were used to predict the share of nurses and certified midwives who would accept a job in a rural area under different schemes. Based on the DCE analysis there are four main actionable recommendations that emerge for improving recruitment and retention of nurses and certified midwives in rural areas of Liberia. First, the MOHSW should consider actively recruiting students from rural areas and exposing them to rural work conditions during their training. Second, the MOHSW should strongly consider increasing pay levels in rural areas as this is likely to be cost effective. Third, if for some reason financial bonuses are not feasible, the MOHSW should consider providing transportation to nurses and certified midwives in rural areas. Fourth, the MOHSW should reconsider its housing strategy. Providing newly constructed housing is not a cost effective policy according to the DCE study.
Opportunistic spectrum usage and optimal control in heterogeneous wireless networks

The present dissertation deals with how to use the precious wireless resources that are usually wasted by under-utilization of networks. We have been particularly interested by all resources that can be used in an opportunistic fashion using different technologies. We have designed new schemes for better and more efficient use of wireless systems by providing mathematical frameworks. In the first part, We have been interested in cognitive radio networks, where a cellular service provider can lease a part of its resources to secondary users or virtual providers. In the second part, we have chosen delay-tolerant networks as a solution to reduce the pressure on the cell traffic, where mobile users come to use available resources effectively and with a cheaper cost. We have focused on optimal strategy for smartphones in hybrid wireless networks. In the last part, an alternative to delay-tolerant networks, specially in regions that are not covered by the cellular network, is to use Ad-hoc networks. Indeed, they can be used as an extension of the coverage area. We have developed a new analytical modeling of the IEEE 802.11e DCF/EDCF. We have investigated the intricate interactions among layers by building a general cross-layered framework to represent multi-hop ad hoc networks with asymmetric topology and traffic
Restorative Capacity Optimization for Complex Infrastructure Networks

This paper focuses on the planning and scheduling of restoration efforts provided by infrastructure networks in the aftermath of disruptive events. Two mathematical formulations are presented to assign restoration crews to disrupted components and maximize network resilience progress in any given time horizon. In the first formulation, the number of assigned restoration crews to each component can vary to increase the flexibility of models in the presence of different disruption scenarios. Along with considering the assumptions of the first formulation, the second formulation models the condition where the disrupted components can be partially active during the restoration process. We test the efficacy of our formulations on the realistic dataset of 400-kV French electric transmission network and 32 realistic size datasets illustrating scale-free, small-world, lattice, and random networks. The results indicate that the proposed formulations can be used for a wide variety of infrastructure networks and for real-time restoration process planning.
Process Discovery and Guidance Applications of Manually Generated Logs

In this paper, we investigate the problem of the availability of complete process execution event logs in order to offer automatic process model generation (process discovery) possibility by process mining techniques. Therefore, we present the Process Observer project that generates manual logs and guides process participants through process execution. Like this, our project offers the possibility for the automatic generation of process models within organizations, without the availability of any information system. Process participants are encouraged to work with the Process Observer by various process execution support functions, like an auto-suggestion of process data and dynamic recommendations of following processes.
Making large art historical photo archives searchable

In recent years, museums, archives and other cultural institutions have initiated important programs to digitize their collections. Millions of artefacts (paintings, engravings, drawings, ancient photographs) are now represented in digital photographic format. Furthermore, through progress in standardization, a growing portion of these images are now available online, in an easily accessible manner. This thesis studies how such large-scale art history collection can be made searchable using new deep learning approaches for processing and comparing images. It takes as a case study the processing of the photo archive of the Foundation Giorgio Cini, where more than 300’000 images have been digitized. We demonstrate how a generic processing pipeline can reliably extract the visual and textual content of scanned images, opening up ways to efficiently digitize large photo-collections. Then, by leveraging an annotated graph of visual connections, a metric is learnt that allows clustering and searching through artwork reproductions independently of their medium, effectively solving a difficult problem of crossdomain image search. Finally, the thesis studies how a complex Web Interface allows users to perform different searches based on this metric. We also evaluate the process by which users can annotate elements of interest during their navigation to be added to the database, allowing the system to be trained further and give better results. By documenting a complete approach on how to go from a physical photo-archive to a state-of-the-art navigation system, this thesis paves the way for a global search engine across the world’s photo archives.
A Review Paper On Fruit Recognition System & Its Experiment

As of late, it has been exhibited that visual recognition and ML techniques can be utilized to create frameworks that keep tracks of human natural product utilization. The real handiness of this system intensely relies upon the ability of perceiving organic product in unconstrained situations. In this paper, we did a proper research review analysis in terms of all previous existing approaches , as per result we found some of the common problem which need to be solved.
Evaluating of VDR Gene Variation and its Interaction with Immune Regulatory Molecules in Osteoporosis

To evaluate VDR gene variation and its interaction with immune regulatory molecules in osteoporosis. Methods: Totally 205 pre and postmenopausal women were recruited in the study. After an overnight fast, peripheral blood was taken and centrifuged to sprat serum for measurement of serum parathyroid hormone, 25 hydroxyvitamin D, osteocal- cin and cross laps. The FokI polymorphism in exon 2 of the VDR gene was detected by PCR-RFLP. Expression of osteopro- tegrin, vitamin D receptor (VDR) and β-actin genes were quantified by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase. To design the experimental model we randomly selected five participants of each genotype groups. PBMC were cultured and induced with vitamin D. At several times, cells were harvested and total RNA was extracted . Then expression of target genes evaluated by real time PCR. Results: The frequencies of Ff, FF and ff genotypes were 34.2%, 56.5% and 9.2%. The mean of bone mineral density in FF genotype was higher than other genotypes. Also in this genotype, mean of serum inflammatory cytokines was lower than other genotypes. The expressions of the VDR and osteoprotegrin were up regulated by 1, 25(OH)2D3 in PBMC from participants with FF genotype. PBMC from healthy control comparison to osteoporotic patients had a clearly better response to vitamin D3 incubation. Conclusion: Inflammation may important role in osteoporosis whereas osteoporotic patients have elevated pro-inflamma- tory profile. This cytokine profile and gene expressions of VDR and Osteoprotegrin were different in VDR genotype groups.
University campus settings and the promotion of physical activity in young adults: lessons from research in Australia and the USA

Describes the decreasing prevalence of physical activity participation over the young adult years and the patterns of difference in the physical activity habits of young men and young women. Physical activity habits during the young adult years are likely to be important influences on habitual physical activity during overall adult life and, consequently, have significant implications for long-term health outcomes. Tertiary-education campuses are settings where there exist important yet partially neglected opportunities to influence the physical activity habits of young adults. Uses examples from Australia and the USA are used to characterise relevant contextual and practical aspects of the campus setting and the physical activity promotion opportunities that it may provide. Reviews findings from two campus-based physical activity intervention studies. In conclusion, identifies a set of issues that require further research.
A rational multi-criteria approach to priority setting: Should a lung health programme be implemented in Nepal?

Objectives: To identify and weigh the various criteria for priority setting, and to assess whether a recently evaluated lung health programme in Nepal should be considered a priority in that country. Methods: Through a discrete choice experiment with 66 respondents in Nepal, the relative importance of several criteria for priority setting was determined. Subsequently, a set of interventions, including the lung health programme, was rank ordered on the basis of their overall performance on those criteria. Results: Priority interventions are those that target severe diseases, many beneficiaries, and people of middle-age, have large individual health benefits, lead to poverty reduction, and are very cost-effective. Certain interventions in TB control rank highest. The lung health programme ranks 13th out of 34 interventions. Conclusion: This explorative analysis suggests that the lung health programme is among the priorities in Nepal when taking into account a range of relevant criteria for priority setting. The multi-criteria approach can be an important step forward to rational priority setting in developing countries.
Phantom Evaluation Of Temperature Measurements Using MR Molecular Diffusion Technique

Temperature measurements using magnetic resonance imaging of molecular diffusion are evaluated. Diffusion images and derived temperatures are obtained with gel-phantom. The temperatures measured from MRI are compared with those from probes to verify their accuracy. bults indicate that this thermometry approach is capable of meeting temperature and spatial resolution required for useful application in hyperthermia. In general, the average difference between temperatures determined from MR diffusion images over 0.3cm3 regions of interest and from temperature probes was 02°C. Techniques for reducing measurement time while maintaining accuracy are also discussed.
Energy-Efficient and Trustworthy Data Collection Protocol Based on Mobile Fog Computing in Internet of Things

The tremendous growth of interconnected things/devices in the whole world advances to the new paradigm, i.e., Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT use sensor-based embedded systems to interact with others, providing a wide range of applications and services to upper-level users. Undoubtedly, the data collected by the underlying IoTs are the basis of the upper-layer decision and the foundation for all the applications, which requires efficient energy protocols. Moreover, if the collected data are erroneous and untrustworthy, the data protection and application becomes an unrealistic goal, which further leads to unnecessary energy cost. However, the traditional methods cannot solve this problem efficiently and trustworthily. To achieve this goal, in this paper we design a novel energy-efficient and trustworthy protocol based on mobile fog computing. By establishing a trust model on fog elements to evaluate the sensor nodes, the mobile data collection path with the largest utility value is generated, which can avoid visiting unnecessary sensors and collecting untrustworthy data. Theoretical analysis and experimental results validate that our proposed architecture and method outperform traditional data collection methods in both energy and delay.
The Flora of NorthAmerica digital library

Missouri Botanical Garden's Center for Botanical Informatics is working with the Flora of North America (FNA) to create the first fully electronic floristic research project. The result will be an ever-expanding, continually refined digital library containing scientifically authoritative, up-to-date information on the approximately 20,000 species of vascular plants and bryophytes of North America north of Mexico. The library will contain a rich mix of documents, maps, illustrations, computational tools, library services, and, perhaps most important, FNA's database. With over 750 contributing scientists, FNA is one of the largest collaborative research projects ever assembled. The project began several years ago as a paper-based publishing effort; however, traditional publishing methods have not scaled to the task, and FNA has had difficulties meeting its ambitious production schedule. It has become necessary to move FNA into an electronic framework. Doing so is forcing us to confront difficult challenges that lie at the intersection of electronic publishing, large-scale scientific database activities, Internet-based project coordination, and digital libraries. In order to improve FNA's rate of production, it will be necessary to rethink our fundamental approach to scientific database activities and scientific publishing. Specifically, it will be necessary to reduce the algorithmic complexity of FNA's «data-base publishing» task. We propose to accomplish such a reduction by developing a «common form» coordination system in which all publishing activities occur over the common substrate of a single, virtual database representation of the core information. The strategy is to change the character and number of rate-limiting, interpersonal dependency relationships that exist in FNA's work processes. Within this framework, concepts such as «manuscript» and «volume» become abstractions over the base information, and edit and review consist of interactions between people and the common form which can be managed by the coordination system. This work has important implications for other large-scale, information-intensive scientific enterprises. This paper presents an analysis of FNA work processes and an overview of how we are approaching the construction of this important digital library.
Impact of Shift Work on Glycemic Control in Insulin Treated Diabetics Dar El Chefa Hospital, Egypt 2014

Background: Shift work has been associated with adverse health effects as it causes disturbance of circadian rhythms. Shift work is essential and unavoidable, even obligatory regimen in many occupations. Diabetic patients employed in shift work, particularly under insulintherapy may find difficulty in adjusting their glycemic control and the sleep pattern. Objectives: To compare glycemic control and microvascular complications among diabetic patients under insulintherapy, employee in shift work versus daytime work. Methods: In this cross-sectional study a total of 152 diabetic patient under insulin therapy (shift work group (76), and daytime work (76)) have been randomly selected; from attendant to outpatient clinic of diabetes and endocrinology, Dar El Chefa hospital. Questionnaires of demographicdata, especially employment status (shift work or daytime work), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) have been applied. Assessment of microvascular complications of diabetes for every subject has been employed. A measurement of fasting, postprandial blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) was applied. Results: The study revealed that shift work group, in comparison for daytime work group, has higher body mass index (BMI) (32.2(3.2)vs. 28.2(2.4)(P<0.05)), poor-sleep-quality(54(71.1%)vs. 6(7.9%)(P<0.05)) and higher HbA1c(9.8(1.2)vs. 8.1(1.3) (P < 0.05)). In spite of the higher percentage of diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, the difference was only significant for diabetic neuropathy. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that shift work adversely affect diabetic control and deteriorate measured HbA1c; and increase the incidence of microvascular complication.
Relationship Between Problem Solving Skill and Psychiatric Symptoms in Patients who have Undergone Myocardial Infarction

Myocardial Infarction is an acute and deadly disease and is defined as irreversible heart muscle necrosis that occurs as a result of prolonged ischemia [1]. Patients undergo high levels of depression, anxiety, insecurity and indecision following myocardial infarction, they experience guilt with regard to the disease and they may also feel their health or life goals to be under threat or to lose them all completely [2].
Panorama : A Unified Framework for Model Composition

Model Driven Engineering promotes the separation of concerns to deal with the design's complexity and maintainability. However, using this practice implies the creation of several heterogeneous models using different notations. It is then necessary to compose these models to reason on the overall designed system for many purposes such as : checking the global consistency of the models, understanding the interactions across the composed models, generating code, etc. Currently, model compositions are done in ad-hoc ways. Each tool provides its own composition operators and tools, preventing thereby the reuse of these operators. In order to propose a unified methodology to compose models, we present in this paper a comparison of existing composition operators and a framework for integrating these operators to metamodeling languages to support automatic composition capabilities for the models that conform to these languages.
Screening for gestational diabetes: examining a breakfast meal test

Objective: This study was performed to analyse the carbohydrate quantity of the non-standardised breakfast meal test consumed as part of a screening test for gestational diabetes. Design: A prospective descriptive design was utilised. Setting: Screening for gestational diabetes was performed in the High-Risk Antenatal Clinic at Tygerberg Academic Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Subjects: Fifty pregnant women who met the local selection criteria for diabetes screening. Outcome measures: The contents of the patient-provided breakfast meal tests were evaluated individually for total carbohydrate amount and compared with the 75 grams of carbohydrate provided by the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Results: The median carbohydrate amount was 71 g but the range (55–145 g) was wide. Only seven meals (14%) fell within 10% of the 75 g carbohydrate target. Conclusion: The patient-provided breakfast meal showed wide variation in carbohydrate amount. If a meal test is to be used instead of the formal OGTT a carefully measured, prepared, palatable, readily available product would need to be sourced and provided. Layman’s summary: It is necessary to screen for the development of diabetes during pregnancy. The standard test with 75 g of glucose is unpalatable and is sometimes replaced by a meal test. However, when this meal test is provided by the women themselves without standardisation, the sugar and starch quantities are too variable. Careful consideration needs to be given to an alternative screening test if it is to be reliable. Strong lay message: Non-standardised screening meal tests for gestational diabetes should not be used.
Family in Focus: On Design and Field Trial of the Dynamic Collage [DC]

In this paper we present the design and field trial of the Dynamic Collage. The Dynamic Collage was designed to facilitate and to stimulate participation of family members in the informal care of an elderly person. The Dynamic Collage enabled relatives to update their current activity by sending a photo to a digital collage at the elderly person's living space. The service is triggered when a family member visits the elderly person. The field trial revealed that all family members valued this type of communication and that they became more aware of informal care. This shows there are opportunities to support informal care in a broader circle than current practices allow. Apart from informal care, our design case contributes to the field of social awareness systems, which we will discuss in the paper.