Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Fingertip Detection from Cluttered Background for Vision-based HCI *

Vision-based HCI (Human Computer Interaction) is an important technology to make machine more intelligent. Fingertip tracking and detection is the key for many vision-based HCI systems. In this paper, we propose a new fingertip detection approach from cluttered background, and present a new simple but effective foreground segmentation algorithm based on the characteristics of intensity change over the entire image, and a new background updating method based on foreground connection detection. The fingertip position is finally detected based on template matching after the finger foreground image has been successfully segmented. Based on the accurate detection of fingertip, a novel virtual character recognition system is designed. With this fingertip tracking based system, human can input characters to computer using just the movement of his fingertip, without any additional devices such as keyboard, digital pen, so that it provides a novel wireless character inputting modality for HCI
Enforcing RBAC Policies over Data Stored on Untrusted Server (Extended Version)

One of the security issues in data outsourcing is the enforcement of the data owner’s access control policies. This includes some challenges. The first challenge is preserving confidentiality of data and policies. One of the existing solutions is encrypting data before outsourcing which brings new challenges; namely, the number of keys required to access authorized resources, efficient policy updating, write access control enforcement, overhead of accessing/processing data at the user/owner side. Most of the existing solutions address only some of the challenges, while imposing high overhead on both owner and users. Though, policy management in the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model is easier and more efficient due to the existence of role hierarchical structure and role inheritance; most of the existing solutions address only enforcement of policies in the form of access control matrix. In this paper, we propose an approach to enforce RBAC policies on encrypted data outsourced to a service provider. We utilize Chinese Remainder Theorem for key management and role/permission assignment. Efficient user revocation, efficient role hierarchical structure updating, availability of authorized resources for users of new roles, and enforcement of write access control policies as well as static separation of duties, are of advantages of the proposed solution.
The Balassa-Samuelson Productivity Bias Hypothesis: Further Evidence Using Panel Data

Using panel data for fifty-nine industrialized and developing countries, this paper examines the Balassa-Samuelson productivity bias hypothesis. A random coefficients model that allows for country- and time-specific productivity effects is estimated covering the period 1965-1992. The advantage of such an approach is that it enables us to undertake the country-by-country empirical examination of the productivity bias hypothesis. Indeed, our findings show that there exists considerable variability in the productivity effect across countries and that for the overall period 1965-1992 the hypothesis fails to hold for most African and some Latin American countries while it holds for OECD countries and Asia. Our analysis also supports that time-effects are important, more specifically we find that during the seventies the effect of labour productivity on real exchange rates was weakened probably mainly due to the end of the Bretton-Woods agreement and the first oil crisis.
SHEAR STRENGTHENING OF R. C. T- BEAMS BY MEANS OF CFRP SHEETS

This research aimed to experimentally investigate the contribution of bonded web carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets to the shear strength of reinforced concrete (RC) T-beams. Two strengthening techniques using CFRP strips were applied along the shear-span zone: the first one is vertical U-jacket and the later is vertical strips bonded to the beam sides only. Fibers of both Ujacket and that the strengthening technique with U-jacket CFRP sheets improved the shear strength particularly. Three mechanisms of failure were recognized for the tested beams depending upon the end condition of the bonded CFRP sheet. Although the failure mode for the different beams was a brittle one, the strengthened beams provided with U-jacket CFRP sheets showed more or less a ductile behavior at a higher loading level up to a load level just before failure. As a consequence, these beams approved an acceptable enhancement in the structural ductility. Moreover, the obtained results concerning the strains induced in the CFRP sheets are used to study the applicability of the mathematical model suggested by the ACI code [1, 2].
Summertime OH reactivity from a receptor coastal site in the Mediterranean Basin

Abstract. Total hydroxyl radical (OH) reactivity, the total loss frequency of the hydroxyl radical in ambient air, provides the total loading of OH reactants in air. We measured the total OH reactivity for the first time during summertime at a coastal receptor site located in the western Mediterranean Basin. Measurements were performed at a temporary field site located in the northern cape of Corsica (France), during summer 2013 for the project CARBOSOR (CARBOn within continental pollution plumes: SOurces and Reactivity)–ChArMEx (Chemistry and Aerosols Mediterranean Experiment). Here, we compare the measured total OH reactivity with the OH reactivity calculated from the measured reactive gases. The difference between these two parameters is termed missing OH reactivity, i.e., the fraction of OH reactivity not explained by the measured compounds. The total OH reactivity at the site varied between the instrumental LoD (limit of detection = 3 s−1) to a maximum of 17 ± 6 s−1 (35 % uncertainty) and was 5 ± 4 s−1 (1σ SD – standard deviation) on average. It varied with air temperature exhibiting a diurnal profile comparable to the reactivity calculated from the concentration of the biogenic volatile organic compounds measured at the site. For part of the campaign, 56 % of OH reactivity was unexplained by the measured OH reactants (missing reactivity). We suggest that oxidation products of biogenic gas precursors were among the contributors to missing OH reactivity.
The Relationship between Iranian Male and Female EFL Learners’ Motivation and their Identity: Perfectionism and Hardiness

The learners’ identity is one of the most important key elements of learning to motivate learners to learn English. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the male and female EFL learners’ motivation and their identity with a focus on gender. The study had a descriptive correlational design. The participants of this study were 50 Iranian male and 50 female postgraduate English majors, aged between 23 and 41, who were selected through convenient sampling. Three questionnaires of motivation, hardiness, and perfectionism were distributed among the participants. The results of Pearson correlation analyses demonstrated that there was not a significant relationship between EFL learners’ motivation and their hardiness in both genders. Also, the results showed no significant relationship between EFL learners’ motivation and their perfectionism in the two groups. Moreover, the results of independent-sample t-tests failed to find any significant difference between male and female students’ motivation and their hardiness and perfectionism.
RESOLVING BUFFERBLOAT PROBLEM IN 802.11n WLAN BY WEAKENING MAC LOSS RECOVERY FOR TCP STREAM

IEEE 802.11n wireless LANs provide high-speed data transfer. If the radio condition degrades, however, the transfer rate will be reduced significantly and there may be some problems in the data transfer. In order to clarify this problem, we have evaluated the TCP performance over IEEE 802.11n LAN by changing the distance between the access point and a terminal. As a result, a severe increase of round trip time has been measured in the case of low data rate. This is a sort of bufferbloat problem, which is being actively studied in recent years. The detailed analysis of this experiment is our first contribution. We have inferred that one of the reasons for this increased delay is the powerful retransmission function of 802.11n. So, we propose, as the second contribution, a method to improve TCP delay performance by reducing this retransmission capability and by generating TCP segment loss intentionally. This paper describes the performance evaluations for our proposal in comparison with CoDel, which is an active queue management approach, and with the native 802.11n.
Assessing the Validity of the Altman’s Z-score Models as Predictors of Financial Distress in Companies Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya (A Case Study)

Corporate failures, insolvency and financial distresses are common phenomena across the world. Mega and small companies are closing down or experiencing operational challenges in both the developing and developed economies. Owing to the desire to estimate these events and avoid or timely remedy their possible negative consequences, several models have been developed to predict the likelihood of corporate failures. One such model is the Altman’s Z-score, which falls into three versions. This paper sought to evaluate the accuracy of these models in predicting failures of companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Two once mega companies, Mumias Sugar Company and Kenya Airways Limited, and which are currently operating in losses were selected. The data were obtained from their annual reports for the three year period (2010-2012) before they began recording losses, and quantitative methods used to analyze them. The results indicated that, indeed, the two companies’ financial performance trend was entering the distress zone. The Z-score values for the Mumias Sugar Company were 3.61, 2.29, and 1.81 in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively, while those of the Kenya Airways were 1.13, 1.63 and 0.82 over the same periods. This paper recommends further studies to be conducted with a focus on other sectors and with a control group included.
Chicken Swarm Optimization Based on Elite Opposition-Based Learning

Chicken swarm optimization is a new intelligent bionic algorithm, simulating the chicken swarm searching for food in nature. Basic algorithm is likely to fall into a local optimum and has a slow convergence rate. Aiming at these deficiencies, an improved chicken swarm optimization algorithm based on elite opposition-based learning is proposed. In cock swarm, random search based on adaptive distribution is adopted to replace that based on Gaussian distribution so as to balance the global exploitation ability and local development ability of the algorithm. In hen swarm, elite opposition-based learning is introduced to promote the population diversity. Dimension-by-dimension greedy search mode is used to do local search for individual of optimal chicken swarm in order to improve optimization precision. According to the test results of 18 standard test functions and 2 engineering structure optimization problems, this algorithm has better effect on optimization precision and speed compared with basic chicken algorithm and other intelligent optimization algorithms.
Conflictive heritages, civic competence and professional training in primary education1 Patrimonios en conflicto, competencias cívicas y formación profesional en educación primaria

This paper presents the results of a study on the development of the professional competence of students training to become primary education teachers. This study is based on incorporating research on immaterial, invisible or hidden heritage into education. The results are contrasted with those obtained when applying the model in the primary classroom during teaching practice. The objective of the study was to test whether heritage education can become an effective tool in the initial stages of teacher training and in the development of civic behaviour among primary school pupils. Our basis is a concept of heritage which transcends the traditional historical-artistic dimension. We have incorporated research on uncomfortable or conflictive aspects of heritage, such as victims and places relating to the memory of the Spanish Civil War. Our interpretative research followed a qualitative methodology, thereby making the ethnographic method compatible with the case study. Attention was paid both to the process followed in teacher training classes at university and its subsequent application and development in the primary education classroom. Two types of samples were selected for the study, both of which were incidental. The first consisted of a group of 74 teacher training students. In the second, a case study (1) Research financed by the Plan Nacional de I+D (EDU2015-65621-C3-1-R). was carried out analysing the results of two of those students who, during their period of teaching practice, worked in collaboration with two groups of pupils from the 4th and 5th years of primary education in a rural area. The trainee teachers employed and developed a teaching and learning model incorporating both the rational and emotional dimensions of heritage in order to construct identities, which they then applied with success in the primary classroom.
Role Effects in Education Transmission

Recent literature has analyzed the impact of parents’ education on children’s by controlling for parents’ unobservable endowments. By applying recent advances in latent class analysis as a tool for modeling individual heterogeneity, we study the direct causal effect of parents’ education conditional on children’s unobservable schooling endowment. We interpret this effect as reflecting social-norms based parental pressure, and we call it a role effect. In the UK NCDS dataset that we use we find that this effect is sizeable, and by looking separately at sons and daughters subsamples it emerges that it is mostly confined to the father–son relationship. JEL Classification Numbers I21, C35
Troubles de l'acquisition des coordinations à l'école maternelle : validation d'une échelle d'hétéroévaluation

Ce travail exploratoire porte sur l’elaboration d'une echelle de reperage du Trouble de l’Acquisition des Coordinations (TAC) a destination des enseignants d'ecole maternelle pour des eleves de 5 ans en classe de Grande Section (GS). Les enfants TAC font l'objet de reperage et de depistage tardifs ce qui a des consequences lourdes dans les domaines emotionnel, social et scolaire pour eux-memes et leur famille. Un reperage precoce doit permettre la pose d'un diagnostic des l'entree a l'ecole elementaire afin que des prises en charge s'organisent rapidement. Le modele theorique de reponse a l'item, le modele de Rasch employe, a permis d'elaborer une echelle d'intensite a 22 items, ajustee aux criteres diagnostics de la dyspraxie developpementale et des activites menees en maternelle : L’echelle d'adaptation a la viescolaire. Dans une premiere etude, cette echelle administree a 144 sujets de 3 ans 2 mois a 9 ans 2 mois (repartis en 4 groupes a profil specifique : en difficulte scolaire, en situation de handicap, avec TAC, avec TED) montre qu'elle est sensible aux effets de developpement et qu’elle discrimine sur un unique trait latent le groupe des enfants TAC.L'echelle administree a un second groupe de 185 enfants ordinaires de 3 ans 5 mois a 6 ans, montre un effet des variables « sexe » et « classe » pour les garcons. Cette seconde etude permet d'avancer un score seuil pour le depistage et un autre pour l'aide en classe. Les tests statistiques mettent en evidence la fidelite et la validite de l'echelle. Des travaux complementaires sont envisages et des pistes d'evolution de l'echelle sont proposees. Deux DVD d'informations portant sur les BEP et sur les TAC, incluant l'echelle de reperage a destination des enseignants (utilisateurs de l'echelle) sont egalement elabores.
Office workers’ daily exposure to light and its influence on sleep quality and mood

To study the amount of light entering the eye and its effects on office workers, measurements were taken from 23 office workers over a period of seven consecutive days. Two parameters of visible light were recorded: (i) illuminance and (ii) irradiance of the blue spectral component. Every evening before going to bed, a questionnaire had to be filled out, containing scales relating to the mood dimensions of pleasure and arousal, questions about the previous night’s sleep and a rough time table with information about the person’s whereabouts during the day. The exposure to light on workdays is regular but it varies strongly on days off. No evidence could be provided for the influence of age, sex or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) scores on the daily exposure to light of office workers. The amount of light entering the eye during the day appears to have a positive impact on sleep quality the following night. Pleasure and arousal were not significantly associated with daily light exposure.
Foreign direct investment and the challenges of sustainable development in Nigeria

The research paper is sets out to examine the impact of foreign direct investment on Nigeria economic growth and development. It specifically seeks to ascertain to examine the nature, trend and sectoria lnflow of Foreign Direct Investment in relation to the economic growth in Nigeria and identify the impact of FDI on some macro-economic indicators. Data for the study were extracted from Central Bank of Nigeria’s Statistical Bulletin volume 18, (2009) during the period 1970-2010 . The co-integration and error correction model were used to test the long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables the ADF and PP was used in testing for the unit root. The results revealed that there exist a long-run relationship between the dependent and the explanatory variables. The results conform to the economic a priori expectation. Finding shows that Gross Capital Formation has a positive and significant relationship with the economic growth. Based, on the findings of this research, we therefore, recommended that capital formation encourages economic growth via savings accumulation visa vise, increase in the gross domestic investment. Also, there is need for constructive attention to be given to provision of needed infrastructure, especially power generation and distribution, to enhance economic growth and development.
Mapping of quantitative trait loci for floral scent compounds in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.)

Floral scent is a very important trait in plant evolution. Currently, little is known about the inheritance of floral scent in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) or changes that might have occurred during its domestication. Therefore, we analysed scent volatiles and molecular markers in a population of 159 F7 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross of a domesticated blackeye cowpea cultivar, ‘524B’ and a wild accession ‘219-01’. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) 23 volatile compounds were identified that fall into five general functional categories. Twenty-two of the compounds displayed quantitative variation in the progeny, and a total of 63 QTLs influencing the amounts of these volatiles were mapped onto the cowpea genetic marker map. Although QTLs for volatile compounds putatively involved in cowpea flower scent were found on 9 of the 11 cowpea chromosomes, they were not evenly distributed with QTLs mainly clustered on LGs 1, LGs 2 and LG 4. Our results serve as a starting point for both more detailed analyses of complex scent biosynthetic pathways and the development of markers for marker-assisted breeding of scented rose varieties. (Less)
Genetic architecture of a complex trait and its implications for fitness and genome-wide association studies

A model is investigated in which mutations that affect a complex trait (e.g., heart disease) also affect fitness because the trait is a component of fitness or because the mutations have pleiotropic effects on fitness. The model predicts that the genetic variance, and hence the heritability, in the trait is contributed by mutations at low frequency in the population, unless the mean strength of selection of mutations that affect the trait is very small or weakly selected mutations tend to contribute disproportionately to the trait compared with strongly selected mutations. Furthermore, it is shown that each rare mutation tends to contribute more to the variance than each common mutation. These results may explain why most genome-wide association studies have failed to find associations that explain much of the variance. It is also shown that most of the variance in fitness contributed by new nonsynonymous mutations is caused by mutations at very low frequency in the population. This implies that most low-frequency SNPs, which are observed in current resequencing studies of, for example, 100 chromosomes, probably have little impact on the variance in fitness or traits. Finally, it is shown that the variance contributed by a category of mutations (e.g., coding or regulatory) depends largely upon the mean strength of selection; this has implications for understanding which types of mutations are likely to be responsible for the variance in fitness and inherited disease.
The content and context of organizational ethics

The aim of this paper is to provide an empirical contextual picture of what is truly valued most in different public and private sector organizations. Through a series of qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 38), that were a follow-up to an earlier survey study among public and private sector managers (n = 382), a number of crucial organizational values were presented to and discussed with a selection of top managers from a variety of Dutch public and private sector organizations. The decision-making context from the interviews provides insight into why, when, how and to what extent specific values are important. A number of unexpected differences and similarities between organizations with a different sectoral status emerge from the data, which shed new light on existing predispositions on value preferences in government and business conduct. © 2010 The Author. Public Administration © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DIFFERENT FORMS OF JOB SATISFACTION DOES JOB SATISFACTION MEAN SATISFIED EMPLOYEES?

This article introduces a qualitative model for different forms of job satisfaction that was originally proposed by Bruggemann, Grosskurth, and Ulich (1975), and further developed by Büssing (1992) and colleagues. This model is not new, but was probably buried in oblivion as a result of the longstanding and overwhelming dominance of the quantitative approach to job satisfaction in the English-speaking research community. We provide a brief historical overview on the quantitative research tradition of job satisfaction and basically discuss its methodological shortcomings. As an alternative, we describe different qualitative forms of job satisfaction according to Bruggemann et al. (1975) and Büssing (1992), and we additionally report some empirical results on the Bruggemann model. These findings suggest that the qualitative and quantitative approaches measure different aspects of job satisfaction, and that the integration of both approaches is a promising direction for future research. In the general discussion we propose some research perspectives and practical implications focusing on this integrative approach.