Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online Hand Gesture Recognition Using OpenCV

Human beings communicate with systems like computer desktops, handheld devices like remote control televisions, video games and many more. From long years back computers and many devices are operated by using wired devices like keyboard and mouse as inputs but now the recent trend on basis of gesture recognistion.By using gesture recognition algorithm or method , devices like computer systems, televisions and video games and many are controlled by hand gestures. In this paper, the input image is taken from the web camera which is colour image, by using background subtraction method the coloured image is converted into threshold image which is black and white image. Next the contour, convex hull, convexity defects are calculated. Finally the planned algorithm counts the number of fingers present in the image. IndexTerms—Handheld devices, wired devices, computer Systems, Gesture recognition, background subtraction. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Impacts of Venture Capital on Online P2P Lending Platforms: Empirical Evidence from China

ABSTRACT We examined the impacts of venture capital investment (VCI) on the performance of online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platforms. The research results show that: (1) Gaining the first round of VCI can increase the transaction scale and improve the compliance with regulatory requirement of the online P2P lending platforms; and (2) the platforms acquiring more rounds of VCI have greater turnover. The above research shows that under the background of information asymmetry, the certification function and monitoring mechanism of VCs can work in online P2P lending markets.
The corruption–growth relationship: Do political institutions matter?

Corruption is widely believed to negatively affect economic growth. However, many East and Southeast Asia countries either achieved or currently are achieving impressively rapid economic growth despite widespread corruption — the ‘East Asian Paradox’. Is this negative relationship equally likely to hold for autocracies and democracies? This paper examines the role of political institutions in mediating the corruption–growth relationship using panel data over one hundred countries for the period 1984–2016. We find clear evidence that corruption–growth relationship differs by the type of political institution, and the growth enhancing effect of corruption is more likely in autocracies than in democracies. The perceived credibility of long-term ruling political elites by promoting economic freedom to do business gives confidence to the firms, vital for investment and growth. Our findings provide suggestive evidence in support of the East Asian Paradox.
Spa tourism as a part of ageing well

ABSTRACT Due to increased life expectancy and the prevailing ideological elements of wellness and active ageing, wellness-related consumption has become a distinctive part of many retirees’ lifestyles in affluent societies. This qualitative case study illustrates this trend by examining older adults’ experiences of spa tourism in connection to their broader strategies for ageing well. The data consist of 18 interviews carried out in an Estonian spa destination among Finnish retirees regularly visiting spas in Estonia. Focusing on the perceived benefits, the study shows how spa vacation promotes participants’ wellness very holistically and is therefore an essential part of their individual wellness routines. The study demonstrates how variety of aspects related to ageing and retirement are reflected in participants’ experiences, motives and expectations of spa vacation. Thus the study suggests that the tourist's stage of life should be more widely taken into consideration in tourism experience research and the development and targeting of wellness services to different customer segments. Overall, regular spa tourism is a great example of retirement lifestyle tied to consumerism and wellness-based individualism that supports both individual and societal perceptions of good ageing.
Synchronization of Interconnected Discontinuous Neural Networks With Nonlinear Coupling Functions

Some criteria on exponential synchronization of multiple identical discontinuous neural networks with time delay are given in this paper. Different from the available results, the nodes of complex networks are coupled via nonlinear discontinuous functions. First, we study the existence of Filippov solution of the nonlinear coupled discontinuous neural networks (NCDNNs) based on differential inclusion theory. In addition, we derive some exponential synchronization criteria of the NCDNNs. Finally, we design a pinning impulsive controller to realize the exponential synchronization of NCDNNs. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the obtained results.
Making biased but better predictions: The trade-offs strategists face when they learn and use heuristics

The heuristics strategists use to make predictions about key decision variables are often learned from only a small sample of observations, which leads to a risk of inappropriate generalization when strategists misjudge regularities. Building on the statistical learning literature, we show how strategists can mitigate this risk. Strategies to learn heuristics that accept a bias, that is, a systematic deviation of predictions from actual outcomes, can outperform unbiased strategies because they can reduce the variance component of prediction error: the degree to which random fluctuations in observational data are inappropriately generalized. We demonstrate how strategists who are aware of the trade-off between bias and variance can learn heuristics more effectively if they are also aware of the relevant characteristics of their learning environment. We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of heuristics, (dynamic) capabilities, and managerial cognitive capabilities, and we outline opportunities for empirical work.
Total Factor Productivity Growth of Indian General Insurance Companies in the Recent Period: A Bootstrapped Approach

This study estimates Malmquist index of total factor productivity change of 14 major general insurers in India over the period 2009–10 to 2016–17 over 7 annual windows. The study decomposes total factor productivity index into its constituent components, using several approaches including Färe et al. (1989, Productivity Developments in Swedish Hospitals: A Malmquist Output Index Approach. Carbondale: Department of Economics, Southern Illinois University; 1992, Journal of Productivity Analysis 3(1): 85–101), Färe et al. (1994, American Economic Review 84(1): 66–83), Ray and Desli (1997, American Economic Review 87(5): 1033–39) and Wheelock and Wilson (1999, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 31(2): 212–23). Furthermore, the study uses bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to obtain bias-corrected point and interval estimates of Malmquist index and its components. Finally, the study makes a comparison of productivity performance between public and private sector insurers. The results indicate a modest growth in total factor productivity during the period contributed mainly by efficiency changes. The private sector insurers performed better than the public sector in terms of productivity growth. The variations in productivity performance indicate that insurer scale of activity can affect their performance. JEL Classification: G-23, C-61, D-21
School Counselors' Intention to Use Technology: The Technology Acceptance Model.

This study assessed school counselors’ intention to use computer technology to support school counseling services. A total of 125 school counselors (74.8% female) completed an online questionnaire that assessed the main constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Confirmatory factor analysis and alpha technique results provided evidence of the validity and reliability of this measure. Structural equation modeling provided support for the TAM. Specifically, school counselors who perceived ICT to be easy to use were more likely to perceive ICT as useful and to have a positive attitude about ICT; perceived usefulness also predicted positive attitudes toward ICT; and positive attitudes toward ICT predicted intention to use these technologies. The results are discussed in terms of school counselors’ technology acceptance in the Indonesian context.
Employment Contracts, Psychological Contracts, and Worker Well-Being: An International Study

Temporary employment has become a focus of policy debate, theory, and research. This book addresses the relationship between temporary employment contracts and employee well-being. It does so within the analytic framework of the psychological contract, and advances theory and knowledge about the psychological contract by exploring it from a variety of perspectives. It also sets the psychological contract within the context of a range of other potential influences on work-related well-being including workload, job insecurity, employability, and organizational support. The book identifies the relative importance of these various potential influences on well-being, covering seven countries; Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, as well as Israel as a comparator outside Europe. The book's conclusions are interesting and controversial. The central finding is that contrary to expectations, temporary workers report higher well-being than permanent workers. As expected, a range of factors help to explain variations in work-related well-being and the research highlights the important role of the psychological contract. However, even after taking into account alternative explanations, the significant influence of type of employment contract remains, with temporary workers reporting higher well-being. In addition to this core finding, by exploring several aspects of the psychological contract, and taking into account both employer and employee perspectives, the book sheds light on the nature and role of the psychological contract. It also raises some challenging policy questions and while acknowledging the potentially precarious nature of temporary jobs, highlights the need to consider the increasingly demanding nature of permanent jobs and their effects on the well-being of employees.
Effects of Long-Term Crop-Livestock-Forestry Systems on Soil Erosion and Water Infiltration in a Brazilian Cerrado Site

Integrating agricultural land uses is a suitable alternative for fostering economic development and improving food security. However, the effects of long-term integrated systems on soil erosion and water infiltration are still poorly understood. Here, we investigate the influence of different agricultural land uses on soil erosion and water infiltration in an Oxisol site located in the Brazilian Cerrado region. The experimental area consisted of continuous grazing under variable stocking rates with regular fertilization (CG-RF), continuous cropping under no-till (CC-NT) and no-till with 4-year subsoiling (CC-SS), rotation of one year cropping and three years livestock in the livestock phase (C1-L3), rotation of four years cropping and four years livestock in the cropping phase (CL-4C) and in the livestock phase (CL-4L), and integrated crop-livestock-forestry in the cropping phase (CLF-C) and in the livestock phase (CLF-L). To evaluate water infiltration and soil loss, we used a rainfall simulator with a constant rainfall intensity of 74.9 ± 3.6 mm h−1 in plots of 0.7 m2. We carried out 72 rainfall simulations comprising four repetitions in each treatment under vegetation and bare soil. Stable infiltration rate (SIR) ranged from 45.9 to 74.8 mm h−1 and 19.4 to 70.8 mm h−1 under vegetation covers and bare soil, respectively. Our findings indicated that SIR values under CLF-C were 60% greater than under CG-RF. We also found that soil loss rates under CLF-C were 50% smaller than under CG-RF. The crop–livestock rotation period that presented better results of SIR and soil loss was one year of cropping and three years of livestock (C1-L3). Overall, we noted that SIR and soil loss values under CLF-C are similar to the Cerrado native vegetation. Therefore, our study reveals the opportunity to increase agricultural production, improve food supply, and reduce soil erosion with adequate soil and agricultural management.
24th International Conference on Computational Linguistics Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Asian Language Resources

The aim of Linked Open Data (LOD) is to improve information management and integration by enhancing accessibility to the existing various forms of open data. The goal of this paper is to make Korean resources linkable entities. By using NLP tools, which are suggested in this paper, Korean texts are converted to RDF resources and they can be connected with other RDF triples. It is worth noticing that to the best of our knowledge there is a few of publicy available Korean NLP tools. For this reason, the Korean NLP platform presented here will be available as open source. And it is shown in this paper that the result of this NLP platform can be used as Linked Data entities.
Recognition of Hand Grasp Pattern via EMG Signals Using Neural Network Classifier

The aim of this study is the easy and efficient classification of five hand grasp pattern. For this aim, biomedical signals were used, which recorded via two-channel EMG sensors placed on the forearm muscles. At first stage of the study, a series of pre-processing steps (filtering and separating) was applied to the signals, then these signals were subjected to the feature extraction process. In this process, three-time domain and two frequency domain features were calculated for each channel. Finally grasp type was recognized using Neural Network (NN) classifier. Average classification success rate calculated as 96.40%. Based on this high success rate, it is said that bioelectrical based cognitive interaction method used in the study are suitable for prosthetic and orthotic devices control. Keywords : sEMG, Pattern recognition, Grasp
Data Analysis of Transmission Line Restoration Times

The world is highly dependent on electricity, and any service interruptions can be contagious sometimes leading to devastating blackouts. This in turn have severe impacts on customers. Large service interruption can impact an entire region. Therefore, reliability is an integral part of the system operations for utilities. On an interruption of power supply caused by a transmission or distribution failure, measures taken to restore the service highly depend on the interruption duration of normal supply paths. This thesis is a systematic study of transmission line restoration times with statistics obtained from a utility’s data. The empirical probability distribution of transmission line restoration times is obtained from 14 years of field data. The distribution of restoration times has a heavy tail that indicates that long restoration times, although less frequent, routinely occur. The heavy tail differs from the convenient assumption of exponentially distributed restoration times, impacts power system resilience, and makes estimates of the mean time to repair highly variable. The mean restoration time of the heavy tailed distribution and its confidence interval is estimated using special bootstrap methods and its implications are outlined. The heavy tail in transmission line restoration times is one factor to be considered in assessing power system resilience.
Overcoming Job Insecurity: Examining Grit as a Predictor

Advancing a nascent stream of research linking grit to employment retention, this article investigated how job insecurity interacted with a person’s level of grit to predict turnover intentions and career change intentions of hotel managers. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, grit was found to be a valid higher order construct that had an effect on turnover and career change intentions, and the effect was moderated by feelings of job insecurity. Specifically, when hotel managers reported less job insecurity, grit did not have a significant association with turnover and career change intentions. However, when job insecurity levels increased, hotel managers who were grittier also reported lower levels of turnover and career change intentions.
Novel Architecture for Low-Power CNTFET-Based Compressors

Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) are excellent candidates for the replacement of traditional CMOS circuits. One of the most important modules in many arithmetic circuits is multiplier. Sometimes multipliers may occupy more area as well as consume high power which may cause speed reduction in the critical path. Compressors are important building blocks which are used in most multipliers. In this paper, a low-power architecture is proposed which can be used in compressor designs. The proposed architecture uses a low-power three-input XOR gate to reduce area, delay and power consumption. In order to evaluate the delay and power consumption of circuits, we have used four different types of compressors (3–2, 4–2, 5–2 and 7–2). These four designs were simulated using HSPICE simulation tool with 32-nm CMOS model based on 1-V and 1-GHz frequency operator. The results indicate that the proposed compressor architectures have less power–delay product (PDP) and power consumption in comparison with the existing proposed compressors.
Improving Safety and Efficiency of Roundabouts Through an Integrated System of Guide Signs

A roundabout can improve intersection capacity in some extent by reducing conflict points and traffic delays. However, the complex environment in a large roundabout does not provide essential directional information to motorists. Therefore, drivers must spend more time identifying the exit they want, which may influence the intersection capacity and safety. Using perceptual constancy, a new guide sign system for roundabouts was developed to improve sense of direction. In order to observe how the guide sign system would affect drivers’ sense of direction, a series of driving simulator experiments were conducted to evaluate driving performance. The test results revealed that the guide sign system can effectively improve the accuracy of exit identification and reduce travel time driving through a roundabout despite the gender and age differences among drivers. This paper proposes a continuous and gradual guide sign system for roundabouts that can be used to help improve drivers’ sense of direction, which is beneficial to improve the safety and efficiency of roundabout operations. These findings are indicative of the future development of traffic sign design and practice in a roundabout.
Characterization and Detection of Political Manipulation in Online Communities

As an increasing number of people share their opinions in online communities, attempts to manipulate these opinions are also rising steadily. In particular, when manipulation is used for political purposes (e.g., to decrease the credibility of a presidential candidate), it can change the outcomes of elections, thus having a long-lasting, negative impact. This work is aimed at detecting such political manipulation. We collect 377K opinions from Internet forums at the peak of a presidential campaign in South Korea. We find various characteristics of political manipulation, including the distortion of opinion polls with numerous IDs and the continuity of the same, strong political inclination throughout manipulative posts. Based on these characteristics, we implement a detection system and evaluate it with the collected data. We demonstrate that this system accurately discovers more than 90% of online accounts involved in political manipulation. We also find clues indicating that greater than 10% of these accounts are collectively controlled by a few manipulative users. We believe that the proposed system can ensure people read trustworthy opinions and also relieve web administrators from manually screening for manipulative activities.
Cabinet committees as strategies of prime ministerial leadership in Canada, 2003–2019

ABSTRACT Cabinet committees are key elements in parliamentary government, yet they are understudied. This article examines recent uses of cabinet committees in Canada as strategic instruments of their chief architects: prime ministers. My assessment of cabinet committees under three prime ministers – Martin, Harper, and Trudeau, from 2003 to 2019 – finds both similarities and differences in their use as coordination and placation mechanisms. Harper created smaller and fewer policy committees with larger coordinating committees, while both Martin and Trudeau created larger policy committees with denser ministerial networks. However, distributions of ministerial influence did not vary significantly between prime ministers.
The Truth behind the Brexit Vote: Clearing away Illusion after Two Years of Confusion

Since the referendum in 2016, Brexit has become the most controversial conundrum in the UK. This study aimed to revisit this issue by focusing on the communicative patterns of Brexit-related parties (the Conservatives, Labour, and UK Independence Party). Firstly, it attempted to provide the conceptual backgrounds of Brexit by explaining its development process from Cameron’s pledge of an in/out referendum to the present. Subsequently, it reviewed empirical studies on Brexit in diverse areas of social science. Most empirical studies point out that British political practitioners’ perceptions about Brexit were the root cause, but they were not able to provide an overview of these perceptions. The novelty of this study lies in examining the patterns of these perceptions by focusing on communicative framings embedded in the posts created in their official Facebook pages from the date of the referendum to that of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. To extract these framings, this study adopted an automated semantic network analysis geared by NodeXL—software for data collection and visualisation. The results show that these parties emphasised that they were the only legitimate political party to solve the Brexit crisis without providing concrete solutions or measures. These parties’ ill-founded communications endanger sustainable social media communications and interactions in the UK. Hence, it is vital to establish a more reliable fact-checking information-sharing system between the political elite and the general public.
Clothing image feature extraction based on SURF

The SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features) is one of the most commonly used artificial feature extraction algorithms and has a good robustness. SURF is widely used in image processing and machine vision. This paper introduces the implementation of SURF in a more comprehensive way, and applies it to the feature extraction of clothing images. The clothing features extracted by using SURF can be applied in clothing classification, identification, retrieval and matching in combination with machine learning method. It can also be used as input sample of deep neural network to improve classification or recognition accuracy.