Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conceptual Text Summarizer: An Unsupervised Model Based On Word Embedding

: Traditional methods of summarization are not cost-effective and possible today. Extractive summarization is a process that helps to extract the most important sentences from a text automatically ,and generates a short informative summary. In this work, we propose a novel unsupervised method to summarize Persian texts. The proposed method adopt a hybrid approach that clusters the concepts of the text using deep learning and traditional statistical methods. First we produce a word embedding based on Hamshahri2 corpus and a dictionary of word frequencies. Then the proposed algorithm extracts the keywords of the document, clusters its concepts, and finally ranks the sentences to produce the summary. We evaluated the proposed method on Pasokh single-document corpus using the ROUGE evaluation measure. Without using any hand-crafted features, our proposed method achieves better results than the state-of-the-art related work results. We compared our unsupervised method with the best supervised Persian methods and we achieved an overall improvement of ROUGE-2 recall score of 7.5%.
Nonlinear transduction of emotional facial expression

To create neural representations of external stimuli, the brain performs a number of processing steps that transform its inputs. For fundamental attributes, such as stimulus contrast, this involves one or more nonlinearities that are believed to optimise the neural code to represent features of the natural environment. Here we ask if the same is also true of more complex stimulus dimensions, such as emotional facial expression. We report the results of three experiments combining morphed facial stimuli with electrophysiological and psychophysical methods to measure the function mapping emotional expression intensity to internal response. The results converge on a nonlinearity that accelerates over weak expressions, and then becomes shallower for stronger expressions, similar to the situation for lower level stimulus properties. We further demonstrate that the nonlinearity is not attributable to the morphing procedure used in stimulus generation.
The Role of Community Development Organisations in Promoting Women Empowerment in Wadzanai Community Development Trust of Zimbabwe

DOI: 10.21276/sjahss.2018. 6.1. 39 Abstract:This exploratory sequential mixed methods design investigated the role of Community-based Organisations in empowering women in Wadzanai Community Development Trust (WCDT) of Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe. Thirty female participants were first randomly selected and then selected by snowballing. In-depth face-to-face interviews and structured questionnaires were used to generate and gather data. The study’s first finding was that as a result of CBO, women’s rights as part of the global human rights were now observed in WCDT. Another finding from the study was that CBOs empowered women in WCDT with skills to start and manage their businesses. The other finding was that CBOs protected women against abuse. The fourth finding was that CBOs helped women with knowledge to start income generation activities. In view of the foregoing findings, five conclusions are made. First, CBOs promote observation of human rights, with women’s rights in particular in search of empowerment of women in all spheres of life. Second, CBOs capacitate women with skills to start and manage their own income generating projects and businesses. These income generating activities culminate in the establishment of sustainable livelihoods in Wadzanai Community Development Trust. Third, it can be deduced that as a result of exposing women to CBOs, women who are free from abuse are quick to empower and influence development activities and processes in their locality. Fourth, CBOs therefore provide the means and space for those affected by a particular phenomenon to be part of the solution to their problem, to co-operate and implement the solution with those willing to help them. Fifth, it has been established that soft loans are not a conducive way of empowering women. From the preceding conclusions, three recommendations emerge. First, the researchers recommend the need for CBOs to cast their net wide so that they can empower as many women as possible not only in Mashonaland Central, but in Zimbabwe as a whole. Second, CBOs need to work with schools and other public gatherings so that they could spread the message of not abusing women and violating their rights as well with the intent to empower women. Future research could focus on the efficacy of CBOs in promoting empowerment of societies rather than confining their efforts to women alone.
Sharing of a Digital Secret Image by Diverse Media for High Security

: -The efficient algorithms require correct protocols for authentication and key management. It is intended to modify the available crypto graphical algorithm to achieve more security and this will be done by incorporating visual cryptography. Conventional Visual Secret Sharing (VSS) schemes are used to hide secret images in the shares that are either encoded or printed on transparencies. Natural Visual Secret Sharing (NVSS) in which various carrier media is used to carry secret images, in which various carrier media is used to carry secret images by a share to protect the secret and the participants during the transmission phase has been proposed. The proposed (n, n) – NVSS scheme shares one digital secret image over (n - 1) arbitrary selected natural images and one noise-like share. Our aim is to use visual cryptography for transmission of the secret image and to protect the network in order to keep the data confidential.
Investigating Confidence-Based Category Transition of Spatial Gestures

Situated human-human communication typically involves a combination of both natural language and gesture, especially deictic gestures intended to draw the listener’s attention to target refer-ents. To engage in natural communication, robots must thus be similarly enabled not only to generate natural language, but to generate the appropriate gestures to accompany that language. In this work, we examine the gestures humans use to accompany spatial language, specifically the way that these gestures continuously degrade in specificity and then discretely transition into non-deictic gestural forms along with decreasing confidence in referent location. We then outline a research plan in which we propose to use data collected through our study of this transition to design more human-like gestures for language-capable robots.
EFFECT OF DIETARY FISH MEAL REPLACEMENT BY POULTRY BY-PRODUCT MEAL ON MUSCLE FATTY ACID COMPOSITION AND LIVER HISTOLOGY OF FRY OF NILE TI- LAPIA, OREOCHROMIS NILOTICUS (ACTINOPTERYGII: PERCIFORMES: CICHLIDAE)

Background. Poultry by-product meal (PBM) has been used as a potential substitute for fi sh meal (FM) in aquaculture feeds. However, there are concerns that high replacement of FM protein with PBM protein could adversely affect of the fi sh fl esh quality, due to lowered (Σ n-3 PUFA) fatty acids content. While fatty acid composition of fi sh muscle has critical importance in human nutrition, the fi sh liver is a key organ that facilitates digestion of feed and plays an important role in fi sh digestive system. As has been recently demonstrated, the monitoring of this organ is important in FM replacement experiments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential use of PBM on the fatty acid composition of the muscles and on the histological structure of the liver of fry of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758). Materials and methods. Five isonitrogenous (34%, crude protein), isolipidic (9%, crude lipid), and isoenergetic (15 MJ · kg–1, digestible energy) diets were formulated to contain graded levels of PBM, where FM protein was replaced with PBM protein at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% level with lysine-, methionine-, and threonine supplementation. Triplicate groups of 20 fi sh (mean weight 0.879 g) were fed three times daily to apparent satiation for 12 weeks. Results. At the end of the experiment, the fatty acid contents of the fi sh muscle were signifi cantly affected by the experimental diets. As the FM content decreased, there was no reduction of saturated fatty acids; the diet with lowest FM protein percentage having the highest monounsaturated fatty acids and lowest polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) proportions. The replacement of FM by PBM had a profound impact on the fatty acid composition of tilapia muscle with an increase in Σ n-6 PUFA and a decrease in the Σ n-3 and Σ n-3 : Σ n-6 PUFA ratio. The histological examination of liver tissue in all treatments of this study, revealed no histological abnormalities. Conclusion. The replacement of FM with PBM (range 0%–100%) signifi cantly decreases the amount of docosahexaenoic acid (12.2%–1.2%) and eicosapentaenoic acid (4.4%–0.4%) in the muscle of fi sh. Therefore, further study is needed with PBM as a substitute of FM to determine acceptable fatty acid composition for commercial production.
Useful Facts About Latent-Variable Generative Models

Variational optimization. Generally direct marginalization is intractable. In this case we can consider estimating an equivalent objective by minimizing an upper bound U(popX , pX , q) with a variational model q such that (1) it is easy to compute, and (2) it is tight for an optimal q (henceforth tightable). For instance, EM minimizes the KL divergence by minimizing the minimization of a tightable upper bound −ELBO(popX , pX , qZ|X) on H(popX , pX) where qZ|X estimates the intractable posterior pZ|X [6, 13]:
IMPACT OF GRAPEVINE LEAFROLL VIRUS INFECTIONS ON VINE PHYSIOLOGY AND THE BERRY TRANSCRIPTOME

Context and purpose of the study Grapevine leafroll associated virus (GLRaV) infections deteriorate vine physiological performance and cause high losses of yield and fruit quality and are thus causing serious economic losses in the wine industry. Physiological and molecular studies on the impact of leafroll infections on plant and fruit metabolism are relatively scare and the molecular mechanisms associated with the plant response to the virus during berry ripening are not well understood so far. Commonly observed phenotypic alterations consist in a ripening delay, a reduction in anthocyanin and sugar accumulation. The few molecular studies associated in particular the lack of anthocyanin of berries of infected vines to a repression of key genes of anthocyanin biosynthesis. However such studies did never account for berry heterogeneity and potential phenological shifts induced by virus infection, which could have introduced biases in gene expression studies. Material and methods In the present study a long-term experiment was established in the year 2000, with the aim to investigate the effects of infections with different GLRaVs (GLRaV 1 & GLRaV 1+3) on vine and grape physiology. Physiological data (yield, vigor, photosynthesis, berry quality) has been collected from 2015 to 2018. In 2018 a transcriptomic (RNA-seq) analysis of 2 reconstituted berry ripening stages was performed. Therefore 245 berries were individually sampled and individually analyzed for sugar and organic acids in order to re-constitute 2 homogenous ripening stages to circumvent intercluster berry heterogeneity and thus to compensate for phenological shifts induced by virus infections. RNA of reconstituted samples was extracted and sequenced by single end sequencing and subsequently analyzed for differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Results Physiological measurement showed a significant decrease in photosynthesis, yield and sugar content, which were highly significant in the co-infected vines (GLRaV 1+3). RNA-sequencing of berries revealed a total of 2136 DEGs between control and virus infections. Several transcriptions factors related to abiotic and biotic stress could be identified and showed interesting variation in dependence to ripening stage and infection severity. Strikingly previously reported repression of the anthocyanin biosynthesis and sugar metabolism could not be confirmed by gene expression. This illustrates that the main damaging effect on GLRaV infection is rather related to a phenological shift than to a direct impact on metabolism. The here reported results give new insight in the mechanism of leafroll infection and emphasize the importance of the sampling protocol of molecular studies investigating berry metabolism.
DIFFERENTIAL CAMBER INDUCED STRESSES IN SHEAR KEYS IN DECKED BULB TEE (DBT) GIRDER BRIDGES

Recently, accelerated bridge construction (ABC) has become more widely popular. Prefabricated bridge elements in ABC are usually produced under controlled environmental conditions off site, transported to the construction site, and assembled together using different types of connections. Decked bulb tee (DBT) girders are considered a promising system for ABC. Adjacent DBT girders are placed side by side and connected together along longitudinal joints. The longitudinal joint connections can consist of weld plates or headed bars and grouted shear keys. However, differential camber between adjacent girders, especially in skew bridges, could cause an issue during construction. Various leveling procedures have been implemented to minimize the differential camber between adjacent units such as jacking, surcharging, and crane-assisted leveling. However, shear force is induced in the longitudinal joint due to leveling forces. These forces might be resisted by weld plates until the grout is placed and cured. In the headed bar joints, a temporary clamp is needed to resist the camber leveling forces until the joints are grouted and sufficiently cured. These shear forces could affect the shear key joints or the interface. In this study, 3D finite element (FE) models were utilized to investigate the effect of the leveling forces of the early age behavior of shear key connections in DBT girder bridges.
A WR-4 Optically-Tunable Waveguide Attenuator with 50 dB Tuning Range and Low Insertion Loss

We report the development of a compact WR-4 (170260 GHz) optically-tunable waveguide attenuator based on the interaction between electromagnetic waves and photo-induced free carriers in semiconductors. This approach is promising for achieving superior performance, including a ~50 dB tuning range, low insertion loss, lowreturn loss (VSWR), and high tuning speed. Based on full-wave simulation results, an average attenuation level of ~50 dB can be achieved using a 1 mm long Ge absorber at a light intensity of 1 W/cm. By employing an E-plane taper design and energy absorption mechanism, return loss lower than -13 dB have been achieved. A prototype attenuator with Si absorber has been implemented using an E-plane split waveguide design. Initial measurement results show that ~14 dB attenuation can be achieved using a single illumination spot. The attenuation level can be improved by increasing the illumination region length employing multiple fibers.
Is Sharecropping associated with lower yields?

We conducted a survey of farming households in West-Champaran district of Bihar, to check for difference in the input and output intensities across owned and leased-in plots. No significant difference is found. We show that this absence of Marshallian distortion can arise if farmers operate at a level of zero, or suddenly falling marginal product. This can happen if there is excess supply in the labour market or the production function exhibits sudden drop in the marginal product. Social norms might also be at play by violating the ‘infinite supervision costs’ assumption of Marshallian framework. This absence of Marshallian inefficiency suggests that the tenancy reforms increase productivity, mainly through indirect general equilibrium effects rather than any direct increase in efficiency on tenant farms. However our sample size is small and this aspect needs further investigation with better data.
The Contribution of Sociotechnical Systems Thinking to the Effective Adoption of e-Government and the Enhancement of Democracy

: This paper reports a study which reviewed the literature and explored the approaches adopted by a small sample of local government bodies engaged in implementing e-Government. The findings suggest that the e-Government implementation process underway in the UK does not embody the principles of widening democracy and increasing social inclusion. The empirical data reveal limited citizen engagement the design, development or implementation process. The paper discusses the potential contribution to be made by adopting a sociotechnical systems approach in which citizens engage with IT professionals and information/service providers to identify needs, to test options and to achieve shared goals of e-Government.
An Optimized Multi-Character Pattern Matching Circuit For Network Intrusion Detection Systems

: There are various kinds of Network attacks often identifiable by the patterns of data they contain. More complex regular expressions that express these patterns need to be matched at a very high speed. Most hardware-based approaches build the equivalent automata using minimal hardware resources to detect pattern variations. This paper explains the design, structure, and suitability of an optimized hardware-based automata implementation called Equivalence Class Direct Table Synthesis Nondeterministic Finite Automata (ECD R TS-NFA). The optimized approach described in this paper builds upon the earlier published version called Equivalence Class Descriptor Nondeterministic Finite Automata (ECD-NFA). The ECD R TS-NFA also uses an Equivalence Classification (EC) technique. However, the ECD R TS-NFA approach utilizes a newer form of table compression for its compressed ECs, called Equivalence Class Descriptors (ECDs). The ECDs then used to match against multi-character strings rather than the initial single character approach implemented in the ECD-NFA design . The optimized technique implemented in the ECD R TS-NFA further improves the matching speed of the design, while at the same time significantly reducing the overall resources required. This is achieved by taking full advantage of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology used for the hardware implementation. The design further provides higher throughput and support for quick updates, and clocks at 385.78 MHz, with a maximum throughput value of 12.34 Gigabits per second (Gbps), depicting a 3.35% improvement over the next best rival design in this paper.
How Does the Tax and Benefit Structure of the Welfare State Shape Popular Support for Redistribution?

Why do people support redistribution more in some countries than in others? Two main institutional accounts can be said to compete: Is it universal benefits to all that makes people support redistribution (Korpi & Palme, 1998)? Or is it universal tax contributions by all (Rothstein, 1998)? Empirical support is not established for either account, particularly when tested against individual-level data. The lack of empirical support can be attributed to three reasons. First, previous research has focused on only one side of the coin – either taxes or benefits, although taxes and benefits can condition each other’s effects. Second, the pivotal role of the middle class – underlying causal mechanism of the two theories – has not been adequately examined. Third, previous measures of universalism (the overall dispersion of benefits or taxes) neither take the levels of benefits/taxes (whether they are 10 or 30 percent of income) nor how the levels vary across income groups (low, middle, and high income) into account. In a critical synthesis of two main institutional theories, I aim to assess to what extent the tax and benefit structure of the welfare state shapes individuals’ preference for redistribution. I argue that higher benefits to the middle class and higher taxes on low incomes are conducive to a broad support for redistribution. For 15 industrialized democracies, I use multi-level models for statistical estimation, drawing on data from Luxembourg Income Study and International Social Survey Programme. *Please do not cite or circulate this paper, which is based on preliminary outcomes of incomplete research.
Hazard Analysis for Software Safety: A Technology Maturation Study

As the role of software in safety-critical systems continues to grow, so does the need for appropriate, comprehensive, and efﬁcient methods to analyze software safety during the design process. This study reviews the historical development and maturation of software hazard analysis. Results of the study show that the major technological contributions have focused on development and internal exploration, with little effort put towards demonstration of the cost/beneﬁt advantages of the various techniques. As a result, software hazard analysis has not yet progressed to the popularization stages of maturity.
Relationship between Subsidized School Funding and Transition Rates in Kenyan Secondary Schools

DOI: 10.21276/sjahss.2018. 6.7. 18 Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between subsidized school funding and transition rates from public primary to secondary schools in Vihiga county, Kenya from 2008 to 2015. The study borrowed one of the basic tenets of Von Thunen’s Production Function Theory, which postulates a linear relationship between educational inputs and outputs. The descriptive survey research design was used to implement the study, whose target population included Sub-County Directors of Education, form three students, principals and teachers, all drawn from the 115 public secondary schools in Vihiga county, Kenya. The study sample comprised of 518 form three students, 102 teachers, 12 principals and 5 Sub-County Directors of Education. Saturated sampling technique was used to select the sub county directors of education, stratified random sampling for the schools, and simple random sampling for the students, teachers and principals. A questionnaire, an interview schedule and a document analysis guide were the main data collection instruments. Three weeks to the actual study, the three research instruments were piloted and found suitable for use in the actual study, as they were found to be both valid and reliable after assessment. Raw data were first analyzed descriptively, using frequencies, means and percentages, and then the null hypothesis tested inferentially, using Simple Linear Regression analysis. Results revealed a significant positive linear relationship between subsidized school funding and transition rate from primary to public secondary schools. On the basis of this revelation, it was recommended that the Ministry of Education reviews and enforces a more effective form one admission policy, which would ensure both day and boarding facilities receive the appropiate number of form one students without bias on either school category. This can be easily be achieved by allocating more funds to day schools, to enhance transition rate from primary to public day secondary schools.
Scholarship@Western Scholarship@Western

Sequence alignment is one of the most accomplished methods in the ﬁeld of bioinformatics, being crucial to determine similarities between sequences, from ﬁnding genes to predicting functions. The computation of Maximal Exact Matches (MEM) plays a fundamental part in some algorithms for sequence alignment. MEMs between a reference-query genome are often utilized as seeds in a genome aligner to increase its e ﬃ ciency. The MEM computation is a time-consuming step in the sequence alignment process and increasing the performance of this step signiﬁcantly increases the whole process of the alignment between the sequences. As of today, there are many programs available for MEM computing, from full-text index based algorithms, like essaMEM; to more e ﬀ ective ones, such as E-MEM, copMEM and bfMEM. However, none of the available programs for the computation of MEMs are able to work with highly related sequences. In this study, we propose an improved version, E-MEM2, of the well known MEM computing software, E-MEM. With a trade-o ﬀ between time and memory, the improved version runs faster than its previous version, presenting very large improvements when comparing closely-related sequences.