Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Health Coverage on Population Outcomes: A Country-Level Panel Data Analysis

The debate around universal health coverage (UHC) and the best ways to achieve it has come under the spotlight lately. The 2010 World Health Report reinforced calls for a push towards UHC across countries, broadly defined as providing all people with access to needed health services of sufficient quality to be effective, without financial hardship associated with their use. Although the potential link between health system coverage and population health has played a crucial role in that debate, the expected relationship between population outcomes and different proxies for system coverage is ambiguous in theory, with much of the available empirical evidence mirroring such indeterminacy. The main goal of this study is to contribute to the UHC debate by providing robust empirical evidence on the causal link from national levels of health system coverage to population outcomes. We assemble a large panel dataset available at the cross-country level, with annual data for the period 1995-2008 encompassing 153 developing and developed countries. We measure the level of health system coverage through indicators of pre-paid (pooled) public and private health expenditure and immunization rates, to try to capture effective access to needed care and protection from financial hardship due to health payments. Population health is measured by the under-five mortality rate and female and male adult mortality rates. We use a two-step instrumental variables approach that directly estimates the reverse causal effects of under-five and adult mortality on coverage indicators, so as to explicitly adjust for these impacts when estimating the effects of health coverage on mortality outcomes. We subject this model to a battery of specification and robustness tests, and also examine differential effects of the coverage variables according to country income levels. Taken together, our results strongly indicate that expansions in health system coverage lead, on average, to improved general population health. Higher government health spending per capita is consistently found to reduce both child and adult mortality rates. The estimated gains are the largest when under-five mortality is examined and are larger for low and middle income countries than in the full sample. Based on the results for under-five mortality and public health spending, the implied marginal cost of saving a year of life is just around US$1,000 in the full sample of countries. For the average country, pre-paid public spending seems more effective in reducing mortality than prepaid private insurance funds. Higher immunization coverage is also found to decrease mortality rates. Thus, our study offers hard evidence that investing in broader health coverage can generate significant gains in terms of population health.
HYDROLOGICAL SIMULATION OF MAHANADI RIVER BASIN AND IMPACT OF LAND USE / LAND COVER CHANGE ON SURFACE RUNOFF USING A MACRO SCALE HYDROLOGICAL MODEL

In the present study, Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) a macro-scale hydrological model was used to simulate the hydrology of Mahanadi river basin of India. The analysis was carried out for the impact of land use/ land cover (LULC) changes on stream flow pattern. Surface runoff was simulated for the year 1972, 1985 and 2003 to quantify the changes that have taken place due to change in LULC. An increase by 4.53% (3514.2 x 10 m) in the annual streamflow was estimated at Mundali outlet of the Mahanadi basin from 1972 to 2003. This may attributed due to decrease in forest cover by 5.71%. The validation of VIC model showed a close agreement between the observed and simulated runoff values with the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.821 and relative error of 0.085.
Upper ocean carbon fluxes in the Atlantic Ocean: The importance of the POC:PIC ratio

The mean depth distribution of the POC:PIC ratio of sinking particles, measured with particle interceptor traps deployed in the Atlantic Ocean, is fitted by an exponential function (POC:PIC = 64.3Z−0.56; r2 = 0.69) The function is successfully evaluated by comparison with (a) estimates of the POC:PIC ratio of export production, computed from seasonal changes of nitrate and alkalinity and (b) estimates of the POC:PIC ratio of remineralization on shallow isopycnals. The basin mean POC:PIC ratio of export production is 4.2–4.37. The POC:PIC‐depth function is combined with empirical relationships between the flux of particulate organic matter, primary production and depth, satellite derived primary production data sets, and the regional distribution of ψ (the ratio of released CO2:precipitated carbonate during CaCO3 formation) in order to estimate the effective carbon flux (Jeff) in the Atlantic Ocean. Remineralization of organic carbon above the winter mixed layer (11–17%) and CaCO3 sequestration from the winter mixed layer (13–16%), which is the balance between CaCO3 production and shallow dissolution, are the two main processes which control the difference between export production (0.9 and 2.9 GT C yr−1) and Jeff (0.64 and 2.2 GT C yr−1) on the basin scale (65°N to 65°S). CaCO3 sequestration is the dominant process modulating effective carbon export in the tropics, while shallow POC remineralization dominates in temperate and polar waters. Observed regional patterns like polarward increases of the POC:PIC export ratio and of ψ counteract each other largely when Jeff is computed.
SIMULTANEOUS LOCALIZATION OF A MONOCULAR CAMERA AND MAPPING OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN REAL TIME

In this work a Visual SLAM system (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) that performs in real time, building feature-based maps and estimating the camera trajectory is presented. The camera is carried by a person that moves it smoothly with six degrees of freedom in indoor environments. The features correspond to high quality corners parametrized with inverse depth representation. They are detected inside regions of interest and an occupancy criterion is applied in order to avoid feature agglomeration. The association process is developed using active search. The final representation is made in a three-dimensional environment.
Bioremediation of four food industrial effluents

Some effluents ((Whey Effluent (WhE); Orange Effluent (OE); Carrot Effluent (CE) and Chocolate Effluent (ChE)) were bioremediated using some allochthonous microorganisms (Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y-1347 and Dekkera bruxellensis). The highest biodegradable efficiency of the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Organic Nitrogen (TON) of the effluents under investigation was noticed when using the allochthonous microorganisms together with the autochthonous one. Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y-1347 proved to be the best utilizer of Whey (WhE) organic and nitrogenous compounds with the reduction of BOD, COD and TON by 12.36, 20.09 and 68.42%, respectively. Dekkera bruxellensis proved to be the organism of choice on using Orange Effluent (OE) where BOD, COD and TON were reduced by 18, 20 and 53.39%, respectively. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus proved to be the best utilizer of the Carrot Effluent (CE) constituents by reducing BOD, COD and TON by 24.27, 19.33 and 63.63%, respectively. Dekkera bruxellensis proved to be the best utilizer of the Chocolate Effluent (ChE) constituents by improving its quality and reducing BOD, COD and TON by 18.36 and 15.86 and 73.07%, respectively. A successful trial was made to use the treated effluents in the irrigation of Lens culinaris and Phaseolus vulgaris seeds for germination.
Modelling and simulation of particle-particle interaction in a magnetophoretic bio-separation chip

A Lagrangian particle trajectory model is developed to predict the interaction between cell-bead particle complexes and to track their trajectories in a magnetophoretic bio-separation chip. Magnetic flux gradients are simulated in the OpenFOAM CFD software and imported into MATLAB to obtain the trapping lengths and trajectories of the particles. A connector vector is introduced to calculate the interaction force between cell-bead complexes as they flow through a microfluidic device. The interaction force calculations are performed for cases where the connector vector is parallel, perpendicular, and at an angle of 45° with the applied magnetic field. The trajectories of the particles are simulated by solving a system of eight ordinary differential equations using a fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The model is then used to study the effects of geometric positions and angles of the connector vector between the particles as well as the cell size, number of beads per cell, and flow rate on the interaction for.
Long residence times of rapidly decomposable soil organic matter: application of a multi-phase, multi-component, and vertically resolved model (BAMS1) to soil carbon dynamics

Abstract. Accurate representation of soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics in Earth system models is critical for future climate prediction, yet large uncertainties exist regarding how, and to what extent, the suite of proposed relevant mechanisms should be included. To investigate how various mechanisms interact to influence SOM storage and dynamics, we developed an SOM reaction network integrated in a one-dimensional, multi-phase, and multi-component reactive transport solver. The model includes representations of bacterial and fungal activity, multiple archetypal polymeric and monomeric carbon substrate groups, aqueous chemistry, aqueous advection and diffusion, gaseous diffusion, and adsorption (and protection) and desorption from the soil mineral phase. The model predictions reasonably matched observed depth-resolved SOM and dissolved organic matter (DOM) stocks and fluxes, lignin content, and fungi to aerobic bacteria ratios. We performed a suite of sensitivity analyses under equilibrium and dynamic conditions to examine the role of dynamic sorption, microbial assimilation rates, and carbon inputs. To our knowledge, observations do not exist to fully test such a complicated model structure or to test the hypotheses used to explain observations of substantial storage of very old SOM below the rooting depth. Nevertheless, we demonstrated that a reasonable combination of sorption parameters, microbial biomass and necromass dynamics, and advective transport can match observations without resorting to an arbitrary depth-dependent decline in SOM turnover rates, as is often done. We conclude that, contrary to assertions derived from existing turnover time based model formulations, observed carbon content and Δ14C vertical profiles are consistent with a representation of SOM consisting of carbon compounds with relatively fast reaction rates, vertical aqueous transport, and dynamic protection on mineral surfaces.
Constraint-Based Time-Scale Modification of Music Recordings for Noise Beautification

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a patient is exposed to beat-like knocking sounds, often interrupted by periods of silence, which are caused by pulsing currents of the MRI scanner. In order to increase the patient’s comfort, one strategy is to play back ambient music to induce positive emotions and to reduce stress during the MRI scanning process. To create an overall acceptable acoustic environment, one idea is to adapt the music to the locally periodic acoustic MRI noise. Motivated by this scenario, we consider in this paper the general problem of adapting a given music recording to fulfill certain temporal constraints. More concretely, the constraints are given by a reference time axis with specified time points (e.g., the time positions of the MRI scanner’s knocking sounds). Then, the goal is to temporally modify a suitable music recording such that its beat positions align with the specified time points. As one technical contribution, we model this alignment task as an optimization problem with the objective to fulfill the constraints while avoiding strong local distortions in the music. Furthermore, we introduce an efficient algorithm based on dynamic programming for solving this task. Based on the computed alignment, we use existing time-scale modification procedures for locally adapting the music recording. To illustrate the outcome of our procedure, we discuss representative synthetic and real-world examples, which can be accessed via an interactive website. In particular, these examples indicate the potential of automated methods for noise beautification within the MRI application scenario.
Study the Biochemical Correlation of Insulin Resistance with HbA1c and Sex Hormones in NIDDM Patients/Meisan-Iraq

Objective: The association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and certain endocrine disorders has the paucity of information and limited data in the province of Meisan (southern of Iraq). Hence, in the present study, an attempt was made to investigate the levels of plasma HbA1c, serum insulin resistance and levels of serum sex hormones in men and women of control and type 2 diabetic patients. Also, the present study aimed to explored the correlation coefficient (r) between insulin resistance and level of HbA1c, FSH, LH, Tt, progesterone and estradiol in men and women patients with NIDDM. Methods: One hundred Iraqi volunteers with abdominal obesity were selected in the present study. Fifty diabetic patients with NIDDM (26 men, and 24 women) aged between (37) and (65) years and 50 healthy individuals (25 men, and 25 women) aged between (36) and (65) years considered as control group. Complete medical history was taken from each subject and complete clinical examinations were performed for all volunteers. Then, the two groups were matched for their fasting blood sugar, BMI, insulin hormone; c-peptide, HbA1c, sex hormones and insulin resistance parameters (HOMA2-IR, HOMA%B and HOMA%S) were calculated using HOMA2 calculator software. Results: We found that insulin resistance demonstrated negative correlations (p 0.05) with levels of serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), total testosterone, progesterone and estradiol. While, there was a positive and significant correlation (p 0.01) with value of HbA1c in men and women NIDDM patients. Conclusion: We conclude that an increase in the level of insulin resistance is associated with increased level of blood HbA1c and decreased in level of serum sex hormones (FSH, LH, Tt, E2 and progesterone) in men and women of diabetic group. These behaviors might suggest that insulin resistance can be used as a potential biomarker for predicting dysfunction of sex hygiene in NIDDM patients in addition to glycemic control.
EFFECTS OF JASMINUM SAMBAC FLOWER EXTRACT ON THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AND ESTROUS CYCLE MODIFICATION IN RATS

INTRODUCTION Sexual relationship between both males and females is the most essential factor in marriage life. In orders to have a satisfactory intercourse in males, the reproductive organs must function normally. Continues failure to perform the function or disturbance to sexual response cycle is denotes as male sexual dysfunction. Continues failure to perform the function or disturbance to sexual response cycle is denotes as male sexual dysfunction. It is more common in men of all ages, ethnic and culture background . This condition is caused by multifactor which is associated with unhealthy life style, increasing age, psychological disorders and also side effects of medications . Increasing prevalence of male sexual dysfunction, lead to an increase multiple types of modern treatment choices. But, because of their cost, undesired effects and availability, patients are hesitated to proceed with it . Vast range of medicinally important plants is being used and their effects were scientifically proven, one of plant which is being studied was Jasmines (Jasminum). Jasmines are one of the flowering plants which are important too and rich with quiet number of medicinal purposes .
A study of accuracy, precision in oligonucleotide arrays: extracting more signal at large concentrations

MOTIVATION Despite the success and popularity of oligonucleotide arrays as a high-throughput technique for measuring mRNA expression levels, quantitative calibration studies have until now been limited. The main reason is that suitable data was not available. However, calibration data recently produced by Affymetrix now permits detailed studies of the intensity dependent sensitivity. Given a certain transcript concentration, it is of particular interest to know whether current analysis methods are capable of detecting differential expression ratios of 2 or higher. RESULTS Using the calibration data, we demonstrate that while current techniques are capable of detecting changes in the low to mid concentration range, the situation is noticeably worse for high concentrations. In this regime, expression changes as large as 4 fold are severely biased, and changes of 2 are often undetectable. Such effects are mainly the consequence of the sequence specific binding properties of probes, and not the result of optical saturation in the fluorescence measurements. GeneChips are manufactured such that each transcript is probed by a set of sequences with a wide affinity range. We show that this property can be used to design a method capable of reducing the high intensity bias. The idea behind our methods is to transfer the weight of a measurement to a subset of probes with optimal linear response at a given concentration, which can be achieved using local embedding techniques. AVAILABILITY Program source code will be sent electronically upon request.
Korean Semantic Role Labeling Using Korean PropBank Frame Files

Semantic role labeling (SRL) is a process that determines the semantic relation of a predicate and its arguments in a sentence and is an important factor in the semantic analysis of natural language processing. In this research, we propose a method for automatic SRL using frame files included in the Korean version of Proposition Bank (PropBank). First, we select the proper sense of the predicate among multiple senses. Senses of the predicate are classified according to the semantic and syntactic properties of its arguments. The semantic similarities between the noun words from the example sentence of each sense in the frame file and the nouns in the given sentence are measured. Finally, the sense with the highest similarity value is selected and the frame information of the sense is applied to the SRL. We acquired about 90% of accuracy.
ACOUSTIC SCENE AND EVENT RECOGNITION USING RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS

The DCASE2016 challenge is designed particularly for research in environmental sound analysis. It consists of four tasks that spread on various problems such as acoustic scene classification and sound event detection. This paper reports our results on all the tasks by using Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). Experiments show that our models achieved superior performances compared with the baselines.
SINGLE IMAGE ORIENTATION USING LINEAR FEATURES AUTOMATICALLY EXTRACTED FROM DIGITAL IMAGES

As a first step for an automatic image orientation the paper will present a method for line extraction from digital image data. The extracted lines are used to orient an image to a laser scanner point cloud of the same scene. The image-line extraction consists of two parts – an automatic one and an interactive one: At first lines are detected, vectorised and afterwards visualised in the software product PointCloud. Since there may be some extracted lines, which are not eligible for image orientation, in the second step the user selects only appropriate features and measures corresponding 3D lines in the point cloud. The implemented method was evaluated with two different data sets taken from building facades. Thereat, the orientations of two images were determined involving either point features, manually measured or automatically extracted image-lines.
Implementation of Content-oriented Networking Architecture ( CONA ) : A Focus on DDoS Countermeasure

In this paper we introduce a Content-oriented Networking Architecture (CONA) and describe its implementation on the NetFPGA-OpenFlow platform. CONA seeks to substantiate a content-centric communication model to address accountability. In CONA, an access router is extended to figure out what contents are requested, and hence is called an agent. A CONA agent receives a content request from an attached host and delivers the requested content. In this way, CONA achieves the accountability and can take a countermeasure against resource-exhaustive attacks like DDoS. In the CONA implementation, we seek to support legacy hosts by redirecting HTTP requests (to the agent), capturing HTTP GET messages, and extracting content names. We implement CONA on a testbed consisting of NetFPGAOpenFlow platforms. We also carry out experiments to illustrate a scenario in which CONA limits the behavior of a malicious host that generates a resource-exhaustive attack.
Implementation On UTeMRISC Microcontroller With Embedded Fault-Tolerance

In the development of the microprocessor architecture, the focus is given more on the microprocessor’s performance parameters such as speed, size, cost and power consumption, while less attention is paid to the reliability of data. With the advancement of semiconductor technology node, internal components of a microprocessor are also prone to soft error due to sensitivity to glitches and noise. This paper presents an internal implementation of the fault-tolerance design for a low-end microcontroller. The UTeMRISC Microcontroller is chosen for this research and the fault-tolerance is designed based on the error correction code (ECC). The design is focused on the implementation of Hamming Code and Single-Error-Correction Double-Error-Detection (SEC-DED) Code that are synthesizable in the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). To evaluate the performance and functionality of the design, a number of pre-defined faults are injected into the Fault-Tolerant module at three different locations in the UTeMRISC Microcontroller architecture. Based on the experiment results, the embedded fault-tolerance design has produced acceptable error-recovery rate with the optimal operating frequency is peaked at 60MHz. The evaluation shows the promising results are obtained after comparison into error recovered and time latency. Overall, the integration of the fault-tolerance module in the microcontroller architecture offers a good starting point to create a reliable platform in the embedded system design.