Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BioSecure DS 2 : A Score-level Quality-dependent and Cost-sensitive Multimodal Biometric Test Bed

This paper presents a test bed for evaluating, comparing and be chmarking fusion algorithms for multimodal biometric authentication. It consists of a database design d to benchmarkquality-dependentand conventional fusion algorithms . These two types of algorithms are different because only th e former one uses quality measures to derive the fused score. These auxiliary measurements des crib the quality of a biometric signal. To the best of our knowledge, the BioSecure DS2 evaluation campaign is the first attempt to benchmark these quality-dependent fusion algorithms. A second unique characteristic of the Bi oSecure DS2 evaluation campaign is its focus on costsensitive fusion of multiple biometrics. In this type of eva luation, one considers a fusion task as an optimization problem whose goal is to achieve the highest performance wit h a minimal cost of acquiring and processing biometric information. The BioSecure DS2 database contain s 24 streams of match scores produced by using multiple biometrics and multiple samples of each biometric acquired using multiple devices. The database contains almost 1000 subjects. As a variant to benchmarking the quali ty-dependent and cost-based fusion schemes, the proposed experimental protocols allow one to benchmark per son-dependent (or client-specific) fusion algorithm, hence, providing a test bed for cost-, personand quality-d ependent fusion algorithms.
Tuberculosis in Bissau: incidence and risk factors in an urban community in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND Despite the long history of tuberculosis (TB) research, population-based studies from developing countries are rare. METHODS In a prospective community study in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, we assessed the impact of demographic, socioeconomic and cultural risk factors on active TB. A surveillance system in four districts of the capital identified 247 adult (>or=15 years) cases of intrathoracic TB between May 1996 and June 1998. Risk factors were evaluated comparing cases with the 25,189 adults living in the area in May 1997. RESULTS The incidence of intrathoracic TB in the adult population was 471 per 100 000 person-years. Significant risk factors in a multivariate analysis were increasing age (P < 0.0001), male sex (odds ratio [OR] = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.85, 3.60), ethnic group other than the largest group (Pepel) (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.20, 2.22), adult crowding (OR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.18, 2.39 for >2 adults in household), and poor quality of housing (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.24, 2.22). Household type was important; adults living alone or with adults of their own sex only, had a higher risk of developing TB than households with husband and wife present, the adjusted OR being 1.76 (95% CI: 1.11, 2.78) for male households and 3.80 (95% CI: 1.69, 8.56) for female households. In a multivariate analysis excluding household type, child crowding was a protective factor, the OR being 0.68 (95% CI: 0.51, 0.90) for households with >2 children per household. CONCLUSIONS Bissau has a very high incidence of intrathoracic TB. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), increasing age, male sex, ethnicity, adult crowding, family structure, and poor housing conditions were independent risk factors for TB. Apart from HIV prevention, TB control programmes need to emphasize risk factors such as socioeconomic inequality, ethnic differences, crowding, and gender.
Investigating the Drivers of Choice Behavior in Tourism: Corporate Image, Perceived Risk and Trust Interactions through Reputation Management

TThis study examines how reputation management (RM) activities influence consumers’ choice behaviors. In order to understand the relationship between them the possible consequences of RM activities such as corporate image, consumer trust, and perceived risk were analyzed as the antecedents of consumers’ choice behavior. Specifically, a structural equation model was developed for hypothesized relations between the constructs of the study. Empirical research was conducted using data from 232 individual consumers in Albania (n=109) and Turkey (n=123) to test our conceptual model. The data were analyzed through t-test and structural equation modelling (SEM). The study shows that RM activities obviously determine the constructs of corporate image and consumer trust positively, whereas they affect perceived risk by consumers negatively. The lower level of perceived risk through RM activities was found as a significant determinant of consumers’ choice behavior. Keywords: Tourism, reputation management, choice behavior, consumer trust, image
On Data Replication with QoS and Energy Consumption for Data Intensive Applications in Cloud Computing

In today’s IT field cloud computing provides scalability on storage resources.Data-intensive applications are also developed in this technology. Occurrence of data Corruption on these data intensive applications does not meet the QoS Requirements. Different applications have different quality of service (QoS). So in order to satisfy the requirements; the two algorithms are compared from existing paper. One is HQFR which uses the greedy algorithms. The Cost of data replication and the count of QoS violated data replicas cannot minimize by the HQFR algorithm. MCMF algorithm achieves these two objectives of QADR problem because it provides a polynomial time optimal solution. As we have to consider more number of nodes as it is in cloud environment due to which the computation time is high while compared to HQFR algorithm. Combination of nodes– Technique has been introduced in MCMF to find a solution for this time complexity. Further this implementation has been extended to concern energy consumption in cloud environment.
The role of social connection in satisfaction with Instagram photographs

We examined whether sharing photographs of known others on Instagram was associated with greater satisfaction and happiness. We asked 113 Instagram users to describe a number of the photographs they had shared on Instagram: 1 that made them feel happy and the 5 they had shared most recently (excluding the nominated happy photograph). For each photograph, participants indicated its content and rated how much satisfaction they obtained from looking at it and sharing it. Participants also completed a measure of motivations for using Instagram. We found that the nominated happy photograph was more likely to contain a known other than the average recent photograph. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the number of photographs of known others and satisfaction. Greater social interaction motivation predicted sharing more photographs of known others, which predicted greater satisfaction. The nominated happy photograph was also more likely to contain the self than the average recent photograph, although the number of recent photographs of the self was not associated with satisfaction. Receiving more comments on photographs was associated with greater satisfaction. Overall, the results are consistent with the idea that social connection is associated with happiness and satisfaction on Instagram.
Neutrophils contribute to ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat liver in vivo

To determine the role of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury, livers from male Fischer rats were subjected to 45 min of no‐flow ischemia followed by reperfusion for up to 24 h. Two phases of liver injury were identified, an initial phase during the first hour of reperfusion and a later progression phase with 80 ± 3% hepatocyte necrosis and an 80‐fold increase of neutrophil infiltration in the liver after 24 h. Pretreatment with a monoclonal antibody against neutrophils, which caused consistent neutropenia, protected the liver from reperfusion injury as indicated by 28 ± 10% necrosis, and 84% reduction of hepatic neutrophil accumulation and a complete recovery of the hepatic ATP content. Our data suggest that the later progression phase of reperfusion injury after hepatic no‐flow ischemia is mediated mainly by neutrophils. —Jaeschke, H. ; Farhood, A. ; Smith, C. W. Neutrophils contribute to ischemia/reperfusion injury in rat liver in vivo. FASEB J. 4: 3355–3359; 1990.
Development of optimization-based simulation tool for trajectory planning in planar arm reaching after stroke

Rehabilitation of people with upper extremity motor deficits is typically focused on relearning of motor abilities and functionalities requiring interaction with physiotherapists and/or rehabilitation robots. In a point-to-point movement training, the trajectories are usually arbitrarily determined without considering the motor impairment of the individual. In this paper, we report on development of an optimal control model based on arm dynamics enabling also incorporation of muscle functioning constraints (i.e. simulation of muscle tightness) to study optimal trajectories for planar arm reaching movements. In preliminary tests of the developed model we first tested the ability of the minimum joint torque cost function to replicate trajectories obtained in previously published experimental trials done by neurologically intact subjects, and second, we explored optimal trajectories when muscle constraints were modeled. The trajectories generated by the model without implemented muscle constraints show considerable similarity as compared to the experimental data, while muscle constraints considerably changed optimal trajectories.
Communication in health-related online social support groups/communities: a review of research on predictors of participation, applications of social support theory, and health outcomes

• Overview of growth and impact of online support groups/communities • Predictors of online support group/community participation • Key theoretical frameworks applied to online support groups/communities • Critique of online support group theory and empirical studies • Overview and critique of online support groups/communities and health outcomes • Agenda for future research This article reviews literature on online support groups/communities for individuals facing health concerns. Specifically, the article focuses on predictors of online support group/community participation, major theoretical frameworks that have been applied to the study of online support groups/communities, and coping strategies and health outcomes for individuals facing health concerns. Finally, the article discusses the strengths and limitations of existing empirical studies in this area; presents a critique of the relative merits and limitations of a number of theoretical frameworks that have been applied to the study of online support groups/communities for people facing health concerns; and it provides an agenda for future communication research on health-related online support groups/communities.
AGENT-BASED INTEGRATION OF SENSOR NETWORKS , REMOTE SENSING , AND SIMULATION MODELS

Understanding geographical and environmental phenomena requires the ability to observe, represent, and model the dynamics of entities and processes at widely varying scales of space and time. Spatially localized sensors and sensor webs can provide information about hundreds of physical, chemical, and biological properties at many time scales for specific locations or mobile entities. Remote sensing and other imaging technologies augment localized sensor data with space-filling observation of spectral and terrain data at generally coarser spatial and temporal resolutions. Computational technologies enable the creation of models of geospatial processes and entities that are used for discovery, analysis, forecast, and decision. These various technologies are brought together when different sensors are used to corroborate, complement, and enhance one another and to calibrate, initialize, populate, and validate models. Increasingly, however, opportunities exist for a mutual communication between models and sensors, with models providing a knowledge base for improvements to the gathering of data, and sensors providing real time grounding and guidance in the evolution of models. Implementation of this sort of mutual integration presents significant conceptual and computational challenges. Protocols range from fully centralized control to more distributed, complex negotiation. Decentralization offers greater flexibility and enhances opportunities for system evolution, but it requires more robust representational structures and computational protocols than the more traditional centralized methods. Extensions to the agent-based modeling paradigm can offer a reasonable foundation from which to address these problems. This report describes a geospatial agent-based methodology for the distributed integration of data sources and models.
A survey on behaviors exhibited by spammers in popular social media networks

Social networking sites have become a major factor of the Web and are playing an important role in the life of human being. People communicate with each other through social networking services (SNSs). Unfortunately, the Blogosphere has been infected by different forms of spam-like contents. The rise of social networking sites made them the targets of spammers as they lead the users to be fed up with irrelevant information while surfing. During early days, researchers were concentrating on the development of Honey pots for detecting spams. Twitter is a target platform for promoters and spammers. The authors survey the related literature that identifies the presence of spam as well as spammers in popular social media networks.
The Relationship between Selected Work Behaviors and Closed Head Injury

reasoning skills. Clinical intelligence dealt with the concept of how effective an individual's behav­ iors were in his or her environment and was a product of clinical investigators' efforts to describe behaviors. Neurological intelligence was related to the effects of brain lesions on lower animals and humans. Halstead (1947) believed that these definitions were inadequate and did not adequately explain the overall concept of intelli­ gence. Therefore/ after utilizing several newly developed tests of brain function and factor analyzing the results he proposed the concept of "biological intelligence. " Halstead believed that biological intelligence was differ­ ent from the intelligence measured by most psychological tests. He believed it was more closely attuned to the human nervous system and constituted its adaptive capabi­ lity (Russell, Neuringer, & Goldstein, 1970). Halstead's study identified four factors which were to become the basis for his early work in the development of a battery of tests to measure adaptive brain functioning. These factors were: (1) central integrative field factor (Fac­ tor C), (2) abstraction factor (Factor A), (3) power factor (Factor P), and (4) the directional factor (Factor D). These factors were initially described in Halstead's (1947) book. Brain and Intelligence. Factor C, central integrative field factor, was thought to measure memory. Factor A, abstraction factor, was thought to measure Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Satellite Radiolocalization From GPS to GNSS and Beyond: Novel Technologies and Applications for Civil Mass Market

It is known that satellite radiolocalization was born in the military environment and was originally conceived for defense purposes. Nevertheless, the commercial explosion (dated to 20 years ago) of global positioning system (GPS) in the civil market (automotive, tourism, etc.) significantly changed the original perspectives of this technology. Another big change is expected when other global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) such as the European Galileo or the Chinese COMPASS become operational and commercial. In fact, modern GNSSs are conceived principally for the civil market (at the opposite of GPS, whose civil employment is given as a sort of “kind gift,” with lower performance than that one granted to military users). The scope of this paper is to provide readers with a clear focus about the potentialities of current and forthcoming GNSSs and associated technologies in a renewed mass-market perspective. The paper also opens a window to the future of radiolocalization technology beyond GPS and GNSS, dealing with the role of digital signal processing and software-defined radio (SDR) in next-generation navigation systems and with the seamless integration of satellite-based navigation with other technologies in order to provide reliable position information also in hostile environments.
CHITOSAN-SODIUM ALGINATE NANOCOMPOSITES BLENDED WITH CLOISITE 30B AS A NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR ANTICANCER DRUG CURCUMIN

In the present research program, polymer nanocomposites have been used as the drug carrier for delivery systems of anticancer drug. Chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (ALG) with different ratios were blended with different wt% of Cloisite 30B solution by solvent evaporation method. Cloisite 30B was incorporated in the formulation as a matrix material component which also plays the role of a co-emulsifier in the nanocomposite preparation. Curcumin with different concentrations were loaded with CS-ALG/ C 30B nanocomposites for studying the in-vitro drug delivery systems. Morphology and structure characterization of nanocomposites were investigated by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transmission Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) respectively. The drug release was studied by changing time, pH and drug concentrations. The kinetics of the drug release was studied in order to ascertain the type of release mechanism. Based on the diffusion as well as the kinetics, the mechanism of the drug release from the composite matrix has been reported.
Flexible tactile sensor for the grasping control of robot fingers

Grasping an object of unknown weight is the most important demand for a robot. However, the control of the grasping force needs the detection of slippage to prevent the object falling from the robot's fingers. A novel flexible tactile sensor consists of piezoelectric and piezoresistive transducers for detecting incidents of slippage and contact force, respectively. The sensor structure is composed of two patterned flexible printed circuits (FPC) sandwiching a polymer piezoelectric film (PVDF), a foil strain gauge laminated on the bottom FPC, a bump-like structure attached on the top FPC corresponding to the PVDF area and the PDMS packaging material. As the tactile sensor is of a small size and intrinsically flexible, the sensor can easily conform to the robot finger surface as the feedback force sensor. In this study, numerical results verified two opposite voltage outputs from the PVDF film as lateral force acting on the sensor surface due to the bending effect of the bump-like structure. In addition, the sensitivity of the contact force is also enhanced due to the stress concentration of the bump-like structure. According to the experimental results, the tactile sensor can detect a contact force from 0.1 N to 10 N. However, the output voltages showed a two-stage linear behavior. The sensitivities of the contact force are 0.0313 mV/N and 0.0057 mV/N for the force ranges of 0.1~4 N and 5~20 N, respectively. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the periodic lateral force is 10.5 mV/N at 1 N for normal force clamped on the object. For the feedback of the contact force and to avoid incidents of slippage, readout circuits and a display program were also developed for the integration of the sensor with robotic control. In general, we have successfully demonstrated a flexible tactile sensor for the detection of the contact force and incidents of slippage, which could provide more precise control over grasping objects for a robot.
CULTURE AND IDENTITY : TOWARDS REDEFINING REPRESENTATIONAL MATERIAL FOR THE ESL/EFL CLASSROOM

This paper is a re-examination of the concept of language awareness, text awareness and cultural awareness in the ESL/EFL classroom. It deconstructs previous assumptions (Lazar (1993), McRae (2009), Halliday (2004) of commending any representational material in the EFL/ESL classroom by arguing that though such material ignites Learners’ imagination and critical abilities, it should be able to define the learner as well. In this light, the work attempts to answer the following question: what literary material for ESL/EFL classrooms? Besides the above query, the paper probes into examining how literature (the bearer of culture and identity) can serve as a catalyst to improving language skills (competence and performance) in the ESL/EFL classroom in cross cultural environment. The argument takes us into investigating the immediate environment of learners, their experiences and educational needs. It as well highlights the reasons for the adoption of a particular literature or culture-based approach to the teaching of English in foreign or second language context. The paper also suggests tasks typical of literature or culture-based models. Thus, introducing cross-cultural texts in ESL/EFL classroom (especially trans-cultural works like Adichie’s (2013) Americanah) will help learners not only to ignite their imagination and cultural awareness but will make the language more accommodating and give learners the possibilities of situating and adapting themselves within the individual and global milieu. The language as such, will not be a “foreign language” or colonial tool but will pass for a defining language.
Magnetic resonance imaging of skeletal muscles in sporadic inclusion body myositis.

OBJECTIVE To analyse whether MRI of upper and lower extremity muscles in a large patient group with sporadic IBM (sIBM) is of additional value in the diagnostic work-up of sIBM. METHODS Thirty-two sIBM patients were included. Magnetic resonance (MR) parameters evaluated in 68 muscles of upper and lower extremity were muscle atrophy, fatty infiltration and inflammation. These findings were correlated with disease duration, weakness and serum creatine kinase (sCK) levels. RESULTS Fatty infiltration was far more common than inflammation. Muscles most frequently infiltrated with fat were the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP), anterior muscles of the upper leg and all muscles of the lower leg, preferentially the medial part of the gastrocnemius. The rectus femoris was relatively spared compared with other quadriceps muscles as well as the adductors of the upper leg. Inflammation was common in general, but individually sparse, present in 78% of the patients with a median of two inflamed muscles per patient. A statistically significant correlation was found between the amount of fatty infiltration and disease severity, disease duration and sCK. CONCLUSION We provide a detailed description of the MRI in sIBM and show a distinct pattern of muscle involvement. Relatively severe affliction of the medial compartment of the gastrocnemius, combined with relative sparing of the rectus femoris or involvement of the FDP can be indicative of sIBM. MRI can contribute to the diagnosis in selected patients with clear clinical suspicion, but lacking the mandatory set of muscle biopsy features.
Factors Impacting Social Networking Adoption

This study empirically investigated the influence of technology acceptance model factors, social influence factors and demographic factors on the adoption of social networking technologies in the workplace. More than half of the surveyed respondents reported using instant messaging, Facebook or both at work for business-related or personal-related purposes. Results of a discriminant analysis suggest that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and subjective norm (collapsed into one construct), critical mass and gender are significant in distinguishing between adopters and non-adopters of social networking technologies. Compared to nonadopters, adopters perceived social networking to be more useful, easier to use and are more influenced by others.