Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting Uninterruptible Durations of Office Workers by Using Probabilistic Work Continuance Model

SUMMARY In order not to disrupt a team member concentrating on his / her own task, the interrupter needs to wait for a proper time. In this research, we examined the feasibility of predicting prospective interrupt-ible times of o ﬃ ce workers who use PCs. An analysis of actual working data collected from 13 participants revealed the relationship between uninterruptible durations and four features, i.e. type of application software, rate of PC operation activity, activity ratio between keystrokes and mouse clicks, and switching frequency of application software. On the basis of these results, we developed a probabilistic work continuance model whose probability changes according to the four features. The leave-one-out cross-validation indicated positive correlations between the actual and the predicted durations. The medians of the actual and the predicted durations were 539 s and 519 s. The main contribution of this study is the demonstration of the feasibility to predict uninterruptible durations in an actual working scenario.
AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS THE BRAIDING ANGLE OF THE BRAIDED FABRICS USING IMAGE PROCESSING

: The braiding angle is one of the most important parameters of the braided structures, because it influences their mechanical properties. For this reason, any way of automatic inspection of the braiding angle can simplify the quality control of such products. Image analysis is one of the feasible non-contact measurement methods to obtain braiding angle. In this paper is presented a new program for image processing and analysis of the braiding angle. Nine different braided structures are analyzed manually and with the help of the program. The comparison of the results demonstrates that in the most cases the created algorithm produces accurate results but in few situations it analyses different geometrical properties in the image than those, analyzed by humans.
Unsupervised multi-feature tag relevance learning for social image retrieval

Interpreting the relevance of a user-contributed tag with respect to the visual content of an image is an emerging problem in social image retrieval. In the literature this problem is tackled by analyzing the correlation between tags and images represented by specific visual features. Unfortunately, no single feature represents the visual content completely, e.g., global features are suitable for capturing the gist of scenes, while local features are better for depicting objects. To solve the problem of learning tag relevance given multiple features, we introduce in this paper two simple and effective methods: one is based on the classical Borda Count and the other is a method we name UniformTagger. Both methods combine the output of many tag relevance learners driven by diverse features in an unsupervised, rather than supervised, manner. Experiments on 3.5 million social-tagged images and two test sets verify our proposal. Using learned tag relevance as updated tag frequency for social image retrieval, both Borda Count and UniformTagger outperform retrieval without tag relevance learning and retrieval with single-feature tag relevance learning. Moreover, the two unsupervised methods are comparable to a state-of-the-art supervised alternative, but without the need of any training data.
Soaking and germination effect on bioactive components of fenugreek seeds (Trigonella foenum graecum L.)

The research was aimed at observing the changes in bioactive component (polyphenol, tannin, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity) in fenugreek seed during soaking and germination. Soaking was carried out for 12 hours at the ratio of 1:5 (seed:water) in dark condition. Germination was carried out for 72 hours at 25°C and 90% RH. The raw, soaked and germinated seeds were dried and ground to powder to pass through 100 μm mesh size screens. The ascorbic acid and phenol content increased significantly during soaking and germination whereas tannin content decreased significantly. The scavenging activity of fenugreek seed (10.4%) increased significantly during soaking (13.6%) and germination (55.5%) in comparison to gallic acid (89.3%).
Simulation and Prediction of the Indian Ocean Dipole in the POAMA Seasonal Forecast Model

Predictive skill of the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) using the Bureau of Meteorology’s POAMA seasonal forecast model is assessed in light of the model’s ability to simulate the IOD. The analysis is based on a ten-member ensemble of nine-month forecasts that are initialized from observed ocean and atmosphere states once per month for the period 1982-2006. The observed IOD develops in late boreal spring, peaks in autumn and decays abruptly in winter, with about 1⁄2 of the variance of the IOD being associated with El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The seasonal phase locking of the development of the IOD is well depicted in the POAMA forecasts but the IOD’s structure is distorted and its amplitude weakens with increasing forecast lead time, while at the same time the IOD becomes spuriously over-dependent on ENSO. These deficiencies in the simulation of the IOD are attributed to inadequate horizontal resolution and development of biases in the mean state, which together affect depiction of important coupled dynamics for the IOD and of remote forcing by ENSO (which itself exhibits distortion of its spatial structure attributed to biases in the simulated mean state). Skilful prediction of the peak phase of the IOD in the September-November is limited to about 4-5 month lead time, with a rapid drop off in skill for forecasts initialized before June. Forecast skill for the IOD appears to be limited mainly by ability to predict development of SST anomalies in its eastern pole. Potential predictability estimates, assuming a perfect model, indicate great scope for improved prediction, although the IOD is much less predictable (potentially and in practice) than ENSO. However, the deficient depiction of the IOD at longer lead times means that estimates of potential predictability assuming a perfect model may be unreliable.
PROMOTING ENERGY EFFICIENCY INVESTMENTS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

6 Background . 7 Energy Sector Characteristics . 8 Current Building Energy Efficiency Policies . 12 Potential of Energy Efficiency in Buildings . 15 Potential for Commercial Buildings . 15 Potential for Residential Buildings . 17 Assessment Analysis Methodology . 20 Economic, Environmental, and Policy Analysis . 23 Energy Savings Analysis . 23 Economical and Environmental Analysis . 24 Policy Design Considerations. 28 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis . 28 Job Creation Analysis . 30 Barriers for Energy Efficiency Policies Implementation . 31 Conclusions and Recommendations . 32 References . 34 Appendix A: Building Energy Conservation Code of Practice of 1983 and 2010 . 36 Appendix B: Cost-Effectiveness of Optimal Energy Efficient Designs for Residences in Kuwait . 40
authenti-A BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC EXAMINATION

Electronic examination system was introduced into the examination system to overcome the stress and the time consumption factors commonly experienced in the traditional paper-based examination system. In both the traditional and the e-examination system, eligible students are allowed to write examination only after they have been manually authenticated by invigilators. However, impersonation problem persist owing to human or examiner error which occur when examiners cannot distinctively distinguish each student (e.g. in the case of twins). This paper attempts to address the problem by proposing fingerprint biometric authentication technologies to curb unethical conduct during electronic examination. The fingerprint biometric device has the ability of identifying unique biological characteristics of student. The e-examination system is made up of four phases; Registration, Verification, Examination and Submission phases. Two categories of software were used: the system software and the application software. The system software consists of the operating system which is Windows XP professional Service Pack 2 and the application software architecture is C# programming language. C# is a multi-paradigm programming language encompassing strong typing, imperative, declarative, functional, procedural, generic, object-oriented (class-based) and component-oriented programming disciplines. C# was used to implement the design because of its interactiveness and good functionalities in graphical outputs. Testing the new design with data, the result shows a system that can administer examination effectively.
Iron Deficiency among Patients with Febrile Seizures in Al Ramadi Maternity and Children teaching Hospital, Western Iraq

Background: Febrile seizures are the most predominant neurological disorders in children between 6 months-5 years, at the same time iron deficiency anaemia is one of nutritional insult that implicated as risk factor for occurrence of febrile seizures. Objective: To estimate the role of iron deficiency as a risk factor for febrile seizures in children aged 6 months -5 years, western Iraq. Patients and methods: A case control study has been conducted in AL Ramadi maternity and children teaching hospital during January to October of 2016. All children with history of febrile seizures aged 6 months-5 years were involved as cases group, others with febrile illness and no seizures were considered as control group. Data from 58 child of each group were collected. The data include age, sex, temperature, causes of febrile illness, Hb, haematocrit and s. ferritin levels. The data were subjected to statistical analysis run under IBM SPSS ver. 23. Results: Means age ± SD were 27.48 ± 14.83 and 23.24 ± 14.37 months in cases and control groups respectively with no significant difference between them. Most of the children (65.52%) of those with febrile seizures were less than 3 years old. Mean temperature of cases group (38.86°C) was found to be significantly greater than that of the control group (38.52°C) at p-value<0.01. Mean Hb level, PCV%, s. ferritin level were significantly lower in cases group than in control group. Proportion of iron deficiency anaemia was significantly higher in febrile seizure group (65.52%) than in control group (31.03%) at p-value<0.01. Conclusion: Occurrence of IDA in cases group is found to be more than 2 times of that in the control group. Early detection and proper treatment of IDA can play a prominent role in limitation the prevalence of febrile seizures among children below 5 years.
SCALE EFFECTS IN MEDIA WITH PERIODIC AND NEARLY PERIODIC MICROSTRUCTURES — I. MACROSCOPIC PROPERTIES by: M. SCHRAAD and N. TRIANTAFYLLIDIS

Traditional averaging and homogenization techniques, developed to predict the macroscopic properties of heterogeneous media, typically ignore microstructure related scale effects — that is, the influence of the size of the representative volume, relative to the size of the unit cell. This issue is presently investigated by exploring the behavior of a nonlinearly elastic, planar, lattice model, which is subjected to general macroscopic deformations. For these materials, scale effects may be due to nonuniformities in the macroscopic strain field throughout the specimen, or alternatively, to the presence of microstructural imperfections that may be either geometric or constitutive in nature. For the case of macroscopic strain nonuniformities, it is shown that the microstructure related scale effects can be accounted for by the presence of higher order gradient terms in the macroscopic strain energy density of the model. For the case of microstructural imperfections, the difference between the respective macroscopic properties of the perfect and imperfect models are shown to depend on the relative size of the specimen, and on the imperfection amplitude and wavelength, while being nearly insensitive to the imposed macroscopic strain. For all of the cases considered, several analytical approximations are proposed to predict the influence of scale on the macroscopic properties, and the accuracy of each method is examined. 2
Performance Characterization of Streaming Video over TCP Variants

—Video streaming has become the major source of Internet trafﬁc. In addition, content delivery network providers have adopted Video over HTTP/TCP as the preferred protocol stack for video streaming. In this paper, we characterize the performance of various TCP variants when transporting video trafﬁc over various network scenarios. We utilize network performance measurers, as well as video quality metrics, to characterize the performance and interaction between network and application layers of video streams for various network scenarios. We show that no widely deployed TCP variant is able to deliver best performance across all scenarios evaluated.
An \(\it{SIQS}\) Epidemic Model on the Specific Networks

The population structure is one of causes of infectious epidemics. The research, therefore, aims to study and construct specific heterogeneous networks. Also, the purpose of the study is to discuss their main characteristics, as well as touch on an impact of various network properties on disease spread through SIQS model. In this study, the basic reproductive number is derived in order to analyze the model stability. The networks have been constructed for three types under conditions of initial infected population connections, namely, the randomly initial infected, selectively initial infected with the highest number of links, and selectively initial infected with the lowest number of links. The results show an influence of the specific networks and a quarantined rate on dynamics and size of the infected epidemics. The outbreak has spread rapidly on the network in which the initially infected population has the highest number of connections. The increasing rate of quarantine has significantly reduced the number of infections. The practical applications of the study will be useful in controlling the spread of the disease for networks that the risk population are identified.
EFFECTS OF THE THICKNESS OF BLOCK CUTTING MACHINE GANG SAW ON WASTE PERCENTAGES AND PRODUCTIVITY

This paper aims at studying the stone waste percentages generated from cutting stone blocks into slabs using stone block cutting machine (Gang Saw). This type of stone waste is in the form of powder (fine stone particles) mixed with cooling water and converted to mud or slurry. Practical data for the Input (stone blocks) and the output (stone slabs) for this machine was collected from different stone companies in Palestine as random sample. Statistical analysis was carried out for these data related to the thickness of stone slabs. The practical results were investigated, calculated and compared with the ideal values, (ideal values were calculated theoretically for one cubic meter of stone block with dimensions of one meter length, one meter width, and one meter height). This study shows that, there is inverse relation between the cutting thickness of the gang saw (which equals the thickness of produced stone slabs) and the volume waste percentages and productivity (area of stone slabs produced in square meters per one cubic meter of stone block). Also, the volume waste percentages fluctuate around the ideal values which are 26% for 2cm, 19% for 3cm and 22% for the mixed 2&3cm thicknesses.
MULTISTAGE CLASSIFICATION OF DIABETIC RETINOPATHY USING FUZZYNEURAL NETWORK CLASSIFIER

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is complicated disorder in human retina which is affected due to an increasing amount of insulin in blood that results in vision impairment. Early detection of DR is used to support the patients to prevent blindness and to be aware of this disease. This paper proposes a novel technique for detecting DR using hybrid classifiers. It includes pre-processing of the image, segmentation of region of interest, feature extraction and classification. Retinal structures like microaneurysms, exudates, hemorrhages and blood vessels are segmented. Classification is performed with integration of Fuzzy logical System and Neural Network (NN) which improves the accuracy of classification. Experimentation is carried out with the MESSIDOR data set. Results are compared against various performance metrics like accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. An accuracy close to 100 percent and low average error rate of 0.012 are obtained using the proposed method. The results obtained are encouraging.
Choice of threshold alters projections of species range shifts under climate change

One of the least explored sources of algorithmic uncertainty in bioclimatic envelope models (BEM) is the selection of thresholds to transform modelled probabilities of occurrence (or indices of suitability) into binary predictions of species presence and absence. We investigate the impacts of such thresholds in the specific context of climate change. BEM for European tree species were fitted combining 9 climatic models and emissions scenarios, 7 modelling techniques, and 14 threshold-setting techniques. We quantified sources of uncertainty in projections of turnover, and found that the choice of the modelling technique explained most of the variability (39%), while threshold choice explained 25% of the variability in the results, and their interaction an additional 19%. Choice of future climates explained 9% of total variability among projections. Estimated species range shifts obtained by applying different thresholds and models were grouped by IUCN-based categories of threat. Thresholds had a large impact on the inferred risks of extinction, producing 1.7to 9.9-fold differences in the proportions of species projected to become threatened by climate change. Results demonstrate that threshold selection has large – albeit often unappreciated – consequences for estimating species range shifts under climate change. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF COLLOIDAL NANO-SILICA ON BLENDED CONCRETE CONTAINING FLY ASH AND ALCCOFINE

Cement is one of the essential constituent for the production of concrete. However, large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), green house gases etc are emitted during the calcinations of limestone; for the production of one tonne of cement, the raw materials of about 2 tonnes is required and it releases approximately 1 tonne of CO2. Since, the production of cement involves excessive emission of greenhouse gases that leads to damaging of ozone layer and many environmental problems, a substitute or alternative material to cement for a sustainable construction was required. Research works are being carried out for finding out the alternate cementing material which will replace cement partially or fully due to its ill effects on the environment. The present paper reports an attempt in this direction by experimental examination on the hardened properties of concrete by replacing cement with combination of Fly ash (FA), Alccofine (AL) and Colloidal Nano Silica (CNS) in order to form a blended concrete (BC). From the experimental results, it was clearly observed that the combination of FA, AL and CNS had shown a high early age strength gaining property. Incorporation of a combination of these admixtures enhanced the mechanical and water absorption properties of the concrete. BC mix with a combination of 25% FA, 10% AL and 1% CNS with a total of 36% replacement of cement has achieved higher mechanical and water absorption properties as compared with all other mixes. The relationship between compressive strength and splitting tensile strength as well as between compressive strength and percentage water absorption is also investigated.
Avoiding hard chromatographic segmentation: a moving window approach for the automated resolution of GC–MS-based metabolomics signals by multivariate methods

Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC–MS) produces large and complex datasets characterized by co-eluted compounds and at trace levels, and with a distinct compound ion-redundancy as a result of the high fragmentation by the electron impact ionization. Compounds in GC–MS can be resolved by taking advantage of the multivariate nature of GC–MS data by applying multivariate resolution methods. However, multivariate methods have to be applied in small regions of the chromatogram, and therefore chromatograms are segmented prior to the application of the algorithms. The automation of this segmentation process is a challenging task as it implies separating between informative data and noise from the chromatogram. This study demonstrates the capabilities of independent component analysis – orthogonal signal deconvolution (ICA–OSD) and multivariate curve resolution – alternating least squares (MCR–ALS) with an overlapping moving window implementation to avoid the typical hard chromatographic segmentation. Also, after being resolved, compounds are aligned across samples by an automated alignment algorithm. We evaluated the proposed methods through a quantitative analysis of GC-qTOF MS data from 25 serum samples. The quantitative performance of both moving window ICA–OSD and MCR–ALS-based implementations was compared with the quantification of 33 compounds by the XCMS package. Results shown that most of the R2 coe cients of determination exhibited a high correlation (R2>0.90) in both ICA–OSD and MCR–ALS moving window-based approaches.
Clinical Utility of Genetic Screening for 22q11.2 Deletion in a Cleft Palate Population and Interest of the Microarray Analysis

Aim: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is one of the most common syndromes. Its prevalence among children with isolated cleft palate is estimated to be one in 100. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether routine screening for 22q11 deletions in all infants with cleft palate (CP) is a good strategy for early detection. Methods: This prospective study was conducted from January 2014 to December 2017 in our cleft lip and palate multidisciplinary consultation at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV). Genetic screening using the Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) method has been routinely used to all new patients with CP to identify the chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Results: During the study period, 30 children with CP were treated in our Cleft Center. None of these patients had the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Conclusion: In our opinion, there is no significant advantage in organizing a systematic screening of our children with isolated CP. These patients should be followed closely to enable the detection of other clinical features that could lead to a 22q11DS diagnosis. Extensive information on 22q11DS should be widely furnished.
Antibacterial, antioxidant and antihypertensive properties of polyphenols from argentinean red wines varieties

The aims of this study were to determine the phenolic profile of three Argentinean wine varieties and their antioxidant, antihypertensive and antibacterial activities. Gallic acid, quercetin and rutin were the principal phenolic compounds identified in wines. All wines possess a high antihypertensive and antioxidant activities. Among 3 wines, merlot and malbec possess the higher ferric reducing power and DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity. Lower ferric reduced power and radical scavenging values were found in clarified wines. High correlation coefficients were found between phenolic content and antioxidant and antihypertensive capacities, confirming that phenolic compounds are likely the responsible for these activities in wines. The inhibition of biofilm formation and MIC and MBC values of wines polyphenols against E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and L. monocytogenes was demonstrated. The higher antibacterial, antioxidant and ACEI activities of merlot and malbec wines compared with cabernet sauvignon could be related to the higher concentration of individual phenolic compounds, such as quercetin, rutin, kaempferol, caffeic acid and gallic acids in malbec and merlot wines.