Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel NeighShrink Correction Algorithm in Image Denoising

Image denoising as a pre-processing stage is a used to preserve details, edges and global contrast without blurring the corrupted image. Among state-of-the-art algorithms, block shrinkage denoising is an effective and compatible method to suppress additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Traditional NeighShrink algorithm can remove the Gaussian noise significantly, but loses the edge information instead. To overcome this drawback, this paper aims to develop an improvement shrinkage algorithm in the wavelet space based on the NeighSURE Shrink. We establish a novel function to shrink neighbor coefficients and minimize Stein’s Unbiased Risk Estimate (SURE). Some regularization parameters are employed to form a flexible threshold and can be adjusted via genetic algorithm (GA) as an optimization method with SURE fitness function. The proposed function is verified to be competitive or better than the other Shrinkage algorithms such as OracleShrink, BayesShrink, BiShrink, ProbShrink and SURE Bivariate Shrink in visual quality measurements. Overall, the corrected NeighShrink algorithm improves PSNR values of denoised images by 2 dB.
Political Uncertainty and Stock Bank Volatility in the Golf Countries

This paper examines the impact of political uncertainty (caused by the civil uprisings in the Arab World i.e., “Arab Spring”) on the volatility of returns for 8 Islamic banks and 11 conventional banks in the Golf Countries (GCC). By distinguishing between Islamic and conventional banks, we find that these two groups of banks react heterogeneously to the recent political turmoil. Our main finding is as follows. We document a significant small increase in the volatility of Islamic and conventional banks during the period of political unrests. Such difference is confirmed by further analysis in a various GARCH models. In general, the findings are important for the understanding of the role of the Arab spring on the financial stability of Islamic banks (IBs) and conventional banks (CBs), suggesting that they are of great significance to investors.
Non-Predictability of Abdominal Strength and Function with Trunk Manual Muscle Testing in Patients with Low Back Pain

The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of the Clarkson and Gilewich manual muscle test of trunk flexion and rotation to predict abdominal muscle strength and function in patients with low back pain. In examining movement and function, physical therapists routinely test muscle strength. The participants consisted of thirty-one adults with complaints of low back pain. For each subject, five tests were conducted. A manual muscle test of trunk flexion and rotation, dynamometer measurement of trunk flexion strength, and lumbar stabilization during a partial curl up and single leg slide were performed. Pearson product correlational statistics were calculated to test each hypothesis. Analysis of the results revealed no significant correlation between any of the tests. In addition, test results did not significantly correlate with the subject's pain level. Results of the study demonstrated that the manual muscle test of trunk flexion did not significantly correlate with actual abdominal strength. This clearly indicates that there is no predictive validity in using the trunk flexion manual muscle test to predict abdominal strength. The clinician that uses the trunk flexion manual muscle test for predicting actual abdominal muscle strength needs to reconsider this practice. It is apparent that the trunk flexion or rotation manual muscle test cannot be used to the abdominal muscle's ability to stabilize the lumbar spine. Stabilization is a complex neuromuscular skill. It appears that it can only be quantified through functional tests that measure an individual's ability to maintain a neutral spine.
Shear wave reflectivity imaging of the Nazca‐South America subduction zone: Stagnant slab in the mantle transition zone?

In this study we utilize over 5000 SS waveforms to investigate the high‐resolution mantle reflectivity structure down to 1200 km beneath the South American convergent margin. Our results indicate that the dynamics of the Nazca subduction are more complex than previously suggested. The 410‐ and 660‐km seismic discontinuities beneath the Pacific Ocean and Amazonian Shield exhibit limited lateral depth variations, but their depths vary substantially in the vicinity of the subducting Nazca plate. The reflection amplitude of the 410‐km discontinuity is greatly diminished in a ∼1300‐km wide region in the back‐arc of the subducting plate, which is likely associated with a compositional heterogeneity on top of the upper mantle transition zone. The underlying 660‐km discontinuity is strongly depressed, showing localized depth and amplitude variations both within and to the east of the Wadati‐Benioff zone. The width of this anomalous zone (∼1000 km) far exceeds that of the high‐velocity slab structure and suggesting significant slab deformation within the transition zone. The shape of the 660‐km discontinuity and the presence of lower mantle reflectivity imply both stagnation and penetration are possible as the descending Nazca slab impinges upon the base of the upper mantle.
1 Quantity Versus Shares in Estimating Demand Systems

This paper considers the estimation and testing of demand systems when the number of sample goods is smaller than the number of commodity choices available to consumers. In this case, the demand system is incomplete. The large majority of papers that appeared in the literature specifies and estimates a demand system in share format even when the system may be incomplete. The criterion for deciding whether a share format is admissible without loss of information is a test of the adding-up condition. This test, however, requires the estimation of a demand system in quantity format.
A Review on Enzymatic Treatment of Phenols in Wastewater

Tyrosinase is a natural enzyme and mainly catalyses the o-hydroxylation of monophenols into their corresponding o-diphenols. The synthesis of o-diphenols is a potentially valuable catalytic ability and thus tyrosinase has attracted a lot of attention with respect to industrial applications. In environmental technology, it is used for the detoxification of phenol-containing wastewaters and contaminated soils and also used in cosmetic and food industries as important catalytic enzyme. Phenols are present in effluents of a number of industries such as coal conversion, resins, plastic, petroleum refining, textiles, dyes and organic chemicals. Conventional processes for removal of phenols have drawbacks of incomplete removal of phenols. Hence, an alternative based on enzymes has been investigated. This review summarizes the current research based on removal of phenol from waste streams by enzyme polyphenoloxidase (tyrosinase).
Off-farm Labour Decision of Italian Farm Operators

This paper analyses the factors affecting off-farm labour decisions of Italian farm operators. Using micro-level data from the Farm Business Survey (REA) over the pre- and post-2003 CAP reform periods, we investigated the impact that operator, family, farm and market characteristics exert on these choices. Among other things, the paper focuses also on the differential impact of those variables for operators of smaller and larger holdings. The main results suggest that operator and family characteristics have a significant impact on the decision to participate in off-farm work more for smaller than for bigger farms. By contrast, farm characteristics are more relevant variables for bigger farms. In particular, decoupled farm payments, by increasing the marginal productivity of farm labour, lower the probability of working off the farm only in bigger farms, while coupled subsidies in pre-reform years do not have a significant impact on labour decisions. Finally, we show that, after accounting for the standard covariates, local and territorial labour market characteristics generally have a low effect on off-farm work operators’ choices.
Trade, convergence and exchange rate regime: evidence from Bulgaria and Romania

The aim of the paper is to reveal the similarities and differences of export and import demand functions of Bulgaria and Romania over the period 2000-2008 using quarterly data. On one hand, the countries are similar in respect to the convergence process with the euro area that they are undergoing, on the other hand they have different exchange rate regimes: Bulgaria has a currency board arrangement, Romania’s exchange rate regime is characterized by a managed float. The empirical analysis will therefore contribute to the debate if the countries with flexible exchange rates are in a more advantageous position concerning competitiveness compared to the countries with fixed exchange rates. The study shows that the export dynamics of Bulgaria and Romania over the period of investigation is largely explained by the EU growth, while the increasing market shares of the two countries are partly due to strong FDI inflows. A key conclusion of the paper is that the real exchange rate appreciation, which was more prominent in Romania than in Bulgaria, did not have significant impact on export developments of neither of the two countries. This is mainly due to the fact that the real exchange rate appreciation during this period of convergence is likely to reflect an upward movement in its equilibrium value, not a loss in competitiveness. Another important conclusion is that the convergence process in respect to trade in both economies is similar irrespective of their exchange rate regime, currency board or managed float.
Developing and evaluating an interactive tutorial on degenerate perturbation theory

We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with degenerate perturbation theory (DPT) carried out in advanced quantum mechanics courses by administering free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducting individual interviews with students. We find that students share many common difficulties related to this topic. We used the difficulties found via research as resources to develop and evaluate a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) which strives to help students develop a functional understanding of DPT. We discuss the development of the DPT QuILT and its preliminary evaluation in the undergraduate and graduate courses.
A survery on platform of secured routing algorithm

This paper describes the characteristics and techniques of Ad Hoc network. Ad Hoc networks are temporary network, set anywhere with-out any need of external infrastructure like wires. The essential premise of this paper is to exchange confidential message over wireless medium without route break and unauthorized eavesdroppers. In recent years, the research of routing protocol for AdHoc network has caused public concern widely. The multi hopping routing protocol has failed to meet the needs of network topology and route restructure. It must also consider the bandwidth and high error rate. The new routing protocol suitable for solving these problems in Ad Hoc network is AODV.
Non-Linear Effects of Fiscal Policy on Economic Growth: Moroccan Case

In the economic theory, many arguments were advanced to justify the efficiency of the fiscal policy with a view to stabilization. For some, expansionist fiscal policies can have favorable effects on the economic growth, while for others, the economy is always in a global balanced situation, and thus the fiscal policy will have no effect and can be even harmful for the economy. However, these two effects can coexist in the economy, therefore putting forward the nonlinear character of fiscal policy in the economy growth. This study has the objective of appreciating the nature of the relation between fiscal policy and the economic growth in a 36 developing country sample of, taking into account the existence of possible nonlinear effects of the fiscal policy. Due to the use of the methodology of endogenous thresholds, the iterative procedure for the determination of endogenous thresholds developed by Hansen (1996, 1999, 2000) has allowed us to identify an optimal budget deficit threshold of 5,1%, which makes the relation between budget deficit and growth become non-linear. In other words, below this threshold expansionist policies have favorable effects on the economic growth, while above these policies it becomes non-favorable.
The Impacts of Customer Focus on Innovation in Service Organizations

This paper investigates the impact of customer focus on process innovation and administrative innovation in service organizations. The data were collected from service organizations in Malaysia. The organizations are from different service subsectors and different sizes. Confirmatory Factors Analysis (CFA) was used to confirm and validate the constructs included in the proposed theoretical model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Results of hypothesis testing revealed that customer focus has a positive impact on both process and administrative innovations in the surveyed organizations. This study added the perspective of service organizations to the debate about the relationship between customer focus and innovation. The findings of this study will help managers to positively linking customer focus practices with process and administrative innovation.
Graphical Interface Toolbox for Modal Analysis

This paper introduces a new graphical user interface (GUI) based software toolbox for modal parameters (eigenfrequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes) identification. The toolbox is a MATLAB based software that implements several stateof-the-art techniques for modal analysis. Three frequency domain based techniques: the peak picking (PP) method, the frequency domain decomposition (FDD) method and the enhanced frequency domain decomposition (EFDD) method as well as two time domain based techniques: the Eigen realization algorithm (ERA) combined with the natural excitation technique (NExT) and stochastic subspace identification (SSI) method are adopted in the toolbox. Most of these techniques can be used for experimental (inputoutput data), operational (output-only data) and combined modal analysis of structures. The program inputs are raw measured data and if available, the excitation force. The toolbox offers extensive functionalities for the visualization and processing of the data, the determination and visualization of the structure’s modal parameters and comparison of the identified modal parameters. The program is compact, efficient and user friendly, making it very intuitive and easy to handle. This paper contains a detailed description of the various modal analysis capabilities of the toolbox, and runs through a sample application using the toolbox to extract modal parameters of a 3-story building model using experimental data.
Description of a new annual rivulid killifish genus from Venezuela

We describe a new genus to accommodate the species originally described as Rivulus stellifer Thomerson & Turner, 1973, but currently referred to the genus Rachovia Myers, 1927. Rachovia stellifer has had a complicated taxonomic history and has, at various times since its description, been placed in and out of three genera: Rivulus Poey, 1860, Pituna Costa, 1989 and Rachovia. However, phylogenetic analyses using 3537 mitochondrial and nuclear characters, and 93 morphological characters indicate it is not a member of any of these genera, but place it as a deeply divergent sister species to the genus Gnatholebias Costa, 1998. In addition to molecular characters, it is distinguished from the genera Rachovia and Gnatholebias by 13 and 33 morphological character states, respectively.
Africa and Emerging Economies Alemayehu , Matias and Solomon [ Type the document subtitle ] To be or Not To Be : The Dilemma Of Africa ’ s Economic Engagement With China And Other Emerging Economies

Africa is strengthening its economic ties with China and other emerging economies. We show that trade between China and Africa can be expanded further by removing behind-the-border and trade-facilitation constraints. However, China and India’s commodity demand boom is encouraging African countries to re-deepen their specialization in primary commodities. This paper calls for African strategy. We suggest establishment of an ‘industrial fund’ financed from the booming resource sector as well as negotiation over a ‘commodity-induced industrialization’ model – which could be called the ‘Non-Angolan Model’ – that will ensure commodity demand is not realized at the expense of the future industrialization of Africa.
Using Audio to Train Pace in a Virtual Environment

Virtual reality has been used for training in multiple domains including military, healthcare and manufacturing. The integration of additional modalities (other than visual) is an ongoing research topic in virtual reality. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the utility of using auditory cues to train temporal tasks (e.g., pace setting) in virtual training systems. There were four different auditory cues used for training pace: 1) a metronome, 2) non-spatial auditory earcons, 3) a spatialized auditory earcon, and 4) no audio. Sixty-eight people participated in the study. A prepost between subjects’ experimental design was used, with eight training trials. The measure used for assessing pace performance was the average deviation from a predetermined desired pace. The results demonstrated that a metronome was not effective in training participants to maintain a desired pace, while, spatial and non-spatial earcons were effective strategies for pace training. Moreover, an examination of post-training performance as compared to pre-training suggests some transfer of learning. Design guidelines were extracted for integrating auditory cues for pace training tasks in virtual environments.
Modelling and simulation of a grid connected doubly fed induction generator for wind energy conversion system

The Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind turbine with variable speed variable-pitch control scheme is the most popular wind power generator in the wind power industry. This machine can be operated either in grid connected or standalone mode. A thorough understanding of the modelling, control, and dynamic as well as the steady state analysis of this machine in both operation modes is necessary to optimally extract the power from the wind and accurately predict its performance. In this thesis, first a three phase PWM voltage source converter models expressed in the ABC and the DQO synchronous reference frame with its control schemes are developed and analysed. Then a DFIG-based wind turbine model connected to a constant voltage and frequency grid is developed in the Matlab/Simulink software in detail and its corresponding generator and turbine control structure is implemented. A thorough explanation of this control structure as well as the steady state behaviour of the overall wind energy conversion system which includes the aerodynamic models of the wind turbine, the DFIG models and the three-phase two-level PWM voltage source converter models are presented. A developed control schemes are also necessary to achieve useful output power from the WECS. These control schemes include the generator-side converter control, the grid-side converter control, the pitch angle control and the maximum power point tracking control. The grid-side converter controller is used to maintain the constant voltage across the capacitor and produce a unity power factor operation of the grid. The generator-side converter controller is used to regulating the torque, active power and reactive power.
Effects of welding parameters on penetration depth in mild steels A-TIG welding

A-TIG welding is a welding method in which TIG welding is conducted by covering a thin layer of activating flux on the weld bead beforehand. The most benefit of this process is the gain in weld penetration depth. A-TIG welds were produced on mild steel plates with TiO2 flux. The emphasis of this paper lies in introducing the effects of various process parameters (welding current, welding speed, powder/acetone ratio of the flux, arc length and electrode angle) in mild steel A-TIG welding. The weld penetration depth was the measured metallographically. An optimum value was determined for each welding parameter.
Variational Iteration Method of Dropping Shock Response for the Suspension Spring Packaging System

In accordance with dropping shock dimensionless cubic nonlinear dynamic equation of suspension spring system, by variational iteration method, a first-order approximate solution of the system was obtained. The nondimensional peak of displacement, the nondimensional peak of acceleration, and the dropping shock extended period were compared with the results of the Runge-Kutta method, at which relative errors were less than 4%. The influence of suspension angle on peaks of response were discussed. It shows that the maximum response nondimensional acceleration decreases with decrease of the suspension angle under condition of the same nondimensional dropping shock velocity. Conditions for resonance were obtained by applying the variational iteration method, which should be avoided in the packaging design. The results provide reference for suspension spring system design.
Using Activity Theory to Understand a Mathematics Leader's Motivations and Use of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching.

Despite the significance of the role, little is known about mathematics leaders in schools. Rachel, a mathematics leader, was observed leading planning meetings with junior primary teachers. Using activity theory, three of Rachel’s motivations were identified: influencing teacher affect, developing shared understandings, and avoiding conflict. Observation and interview data analysis revealed the use of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as a tool far more than subject matter knowledge. We posit that the dominant use of knowledge types associated with PCK was due mostly to Rachel’s object of avoiding conflict.
Security and Privacy Concerns for Australian SMEs Cloud Adoption: Empirical Study of Metropolitan Vs Regional SMEs

New national infrastructure initiatives such as National Broadband Network (NBN) could enable Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Australia to further embrace Cloud computing service. However, the ability of Cloud computing to store data remotely and share services in a dynamic environment bring along with it Cloud security and privacy concerns. In this study, we examined the influence of privacy and security factors on Cloud adoption by Australian SMEs through a questionnaire survey. Data was collected from 150 SMEs (i.e. 79 metropolitan SMEs and 71 regional SMEs) and structural equation modelling was used for data analysis. The findings show that Cloud privacy and security factors are not the most critical concern for Australian SMEs. Moreover, the results indicate that Cloud computing adoption is not influenced by the geographical location of the SMEs. This study extends the current understanding of Cloud computing adoption by Australian SMEs.