Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Population and Poverty: New Views on an Old Controversy

There are two contrasting views about the relationship between population growth and poverty. Some believe that high fertility causes poverty and that lower fertility is the key to reducing poverty while others believe that economic policies determine poverty reduction and that contraception is a "private good. " However both the neo-Malthusians and their critics who shared the same long- term goal of reducing poverty were misled in thinking that their particular strategy is the sole solution. Family planning (FP) will not necessarily reduce poverty in developing countries but neither will many of the present models of economic development. On the other hand a slower rate of population growth combined with sound and equitable economic development and the reduction of gender inequality appears increasingly likely to achieve that goal. Overall fertility and FP is essential for poverty reduction for poor households and for poor countries. It is important therefore that policymakers understand the evidence supporting the view that lower fertility does contribute to poverty reduction and that public policies that help poor people manage their reproductive lives have societal as well as individual benefits.
A Versatile Technology Based on Deep Reactive Ion Etching and Anodic Bonding for the Application of Micromixers and Microfilters

A technology for the fabrication of silicon micromixers and microfilters is presented with their applications being analyzed. The versatility of this technology is observed with the use of two different photolithographic masks where active microfluidic components have been developed. The silicon micromixers and microfilters were developed and manufactured by photolithography (PL) and deep-reactive ion etching (DRIE) and then bonded onto sand-blasted glass wafers by anodic bonding. The fluidic flow within the specialized microchannel was observed under an optical microscope with micromixing using two differently colored dyes and the microfiltration of poly (D, L lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticles (MP-PLGA) for sizesorting and separation Finally, the microfiltering device was injected with a whole blood sample for the separation of larger leukocyte cells. Copyright © 2014 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Hindi Phoneme Recognition Using Time Delay Neural Network

INTRODUCTION Recent work on neural networks raises the possibility of new approaches to the speech recognition problem [1]-[4]. Currently, most speech recognition systems are based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), a statistical framework that supports both acoustic and temporal modelling. Despite their state-of-the-art performance, HMMs make a number of suboptimal modelling assumptions that limit their potential effectiveness. Neural networks avoid many of these assumptions, while they can also learn complex functions, generalize effectively, tolerate noise, and support parallelism. Several speech researchers implemented neural networks for speech recognition and the results were compared with the other available pattern classifiers. The Time Delay Neural Network (TDNN) has been successfully implemented by several speech researchers for the recognition of English and Japanese phonemes [5]-[7]. It has the ability to 1. ) represent temporal relationships between acoustic events, while at the same time 2. ) provide for the invariance under translation in time. Recently Hagelstange and Knohl [8] of University of Bochum, Germany have implemented TDNN techniques for the recognition of German phonemes and demonstrated superior performance. So far these techniques have not been applied to Indian languages. The authors have implemented TDNN (based on the Bochum system) for the recognition of unvoiced unaspirated and voiced unaspirated stop consonants of Hindi speech, and the results are presented in this paper.
A geometric interpretation and explicit form for higher-order Hankel operators

This paper deals with well-known higher-order generalizations of Hankel operators. We show that higher-order Hankel operators can be written explicitly as linear differential operators, and give the exact form of these differential operators. We also intoduce a novel Lie-theoretic perspective from which to study higher-order Hankel operators.
Atmosphere–Ocean Interaction in the North Atlantic: Near-Surface Climate Variability

The impact of an interactive ocean on the midlatitude atmosphere is examined using a 31-yr integration of a variable depth mixed layer ocean model of the North Atlantic (between 208 and 608N) coupled to the NCAR Community Climate model (CCM1). Coupled model results are compared with a 31-yr control simulation where the annual cycle of sea surface temperatures is prescribed. The analysis focuses on the northern fall and winter months. Coupling does not change the mean wintertime model climatology (December‐February); however, it does have a significant impact on model variance. Air temperature and mixing ratio variance increase while total surface heat flux variance decreases. In addition, it is found that air‐sea interaction has a greater impact on seasonally averaged variance than monthly variance. There is an enhancement in the persistence of air temperature anomalies on interannual timescales as a result of coupling. In the North Atlantic sector, surface air and ocean temperature anomalies during late winter are uncorrelated with the following summer but are significantly correlated (0.4‐0.6) with anomalies during the following winter. These autocorrelations are consistent with the ‘‘re-emergence’’ mechanism, where late winter ocean temperature anomalies are sequestered beneath the shallow summer mixed layer and are reincorporated into the deepening fall mixed layer. The elimination of temperature anomalies from below the mixed layer in a series of uncoupled sensitivity experiments notably reduces the persistence of year-to-year anomalies. The persistence of air temperature anomalies on monthly timescales also increases with coupling and is likely associated with ‘‘decreased thermal damping. ’’ When coupled to the atmosphere, the ocean is able to adjust to the overlying atmosphere so that the negative feedback associated with anomalous heat fluxes decreases, and air temperature anomalies decay more slowly.
Physiological, Psychological, and Behavioural Sequelae of Concussion in a Classical Conditioning Paradigm

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been identified as a major public health concern that places individuals at risk for psychological distress, including anxiety (Mooney & Speed, 2001). Research employing rodent models of mTBI have suggested that changes in aversive conditioning underlie this increased risk, and separate models examining psychological and behavioural factors have identified dysfunctional illness representations and coping as potential mechanisms. The present study included 30 participants (15 concussed athletes, 15 non-concussed non-athletes) that were matched on age, education, and both past and current anxiety and depression. All participants completed measures of coping and emotional symptoms (depression, anxiety, and stress), provided two salivary cortisol samples (at the beginning and end of the experiment), and completed two classical conditioning tasks (pleasant and aversive) while heart rate and skin conductance responses were recorded. Background information, including history of head injuries, was collected for all participants. Concussed athletes completed an additional measure of illness representations. The results indicate that athletes demonstrated faster reaction times to the conditioned stimulus during the acquisition phase of the aversive task, and higher expectancy ratings to the conditioned stimulus during the generalization phase of both the pleasant and aversive task. Further exploratory analyses also revealed a pattern in which athletes had higher expectancy ratings to the conditioned stimulus in the first trial of both the generalization and extinction phases of both tasks. There were no differences in any of the other measures of associative learning, or in cortisol-related stress responses. In terms of coping, approach CONCUSSION IN A CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PARADIGM v coping strategies were found to partially mediate the relationship between illness beliefs of personal control and post-concussive symptoms. In addition, correlations between cyclical timeline beliefs and poor outcome were identified. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. CONCUSSION IN A CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PARADIGM vi
Photosynthetic Response of an Alpine Plant, Rhododendron delavayi Franch, to Water Stress and Recovery: The Role of Mesophyll Conductance

Rhododendron delavayi Franch is an evergreen shrub or small tree with large scarlet flowers that makes it highly attractive as an ornamental species. The species is native to southwest China and southeast Asia, especially the Himalayan region, showing good adaptability, and tolerance to drought. To understand the water stress coping mechanisms of R. delavayi, we analyzed the plant's photosynthetic performance during water stress and recovery. In particular, we looked at the regulation of stomatal (gs) and mesophyll conductance (gm), and maximum rate of carboxylation (Vcmax). After 4 days of water stress treatment, the net CO2 assimilation rate (AN) declined slightly while gs and gm were not affected and stomatal limitation (SL) was therefore negligible. At this stage mesophyll conductance limitation (MCL) and biochemical limitation (BL) constituted the main limitation factors. After 8 days of water stress treatment, AN, gs, and gm had decreased notably. At this stage SL increased markedly and MCL even more so, while BL remained relatively constant. After re-watering, the recovery of AN, gs, and gm was rapid, although remaining below the levels of the control plants, while Vcmax fully regained control levels after 3 days of re-watering. MCL remained the main limitation factor irrespective of the degree of photosynthetic recovery. In conclusion, in our experiment MCL was the main photosynthetic limitation factor of R. delavayi under water stress and during the recovery phase, with the regulation of gm probably being the result of interactions between the environment and leaf anatomical features.
Price Momentum and Trading Volume In Commodity Futures Markets

In this study, we investigate whether momentum and other trend-following strategies are profitable when implemented in commodity futures markets. The study is motivated by the relatively low transactions costs in commodity futures, the supposition that commodity futures markets and equity markets are likely to be influenced by markedly different factors and the availability of commitments data in futures. We find that momentum profits in commodity futures are highly significant for short and intermediate time horizons, and that abnormal returns are at least equal in magnitude to those that have been reported in stocks. Interestingly, we show that pure trend-following strategies generally perform even better than momentum strategies. Our results appear to be robust with respect to the particular set of commodities they are implemented with, and also with respect to the time period (although post-1981 profits, albeit still highly significant, are lower then pre-1981). Unlike in the stock market, our results show that trading volume adds little information useful for predicting future returns. However, when we examine the relation between net long positions by trader type and trading rule indicators, we find strong evidence that in most futures markets commercial traders are contrarians, while non-commercial traders use trend-following strategies in the aggregate.
The Views of Healthcare Professionals, Drug Developers and Regulators on Information about Older People Needed for Rational Drug Prescription

Background The ICH E7 guideline intends to improve the knowledge about medicines in geriatric patients. As a legislative document, it might not reflect the needs of healthcare professionals. This study investigated what information healthcare professionals, regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical industries consider necessary for rational drug prescribing to older individuals. Methods and Findings A 29-item-questionnaire was composed, considering the representation in trials, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and convenience of use in older individuals, with space for additions. Forty-three European professionals with an interest in medication for older individuals were included. In order to investigate their relevance, five items were included in a second questionnaire, with 11 control items. Median scores, differences between clinical and non-clinical respondents and response consistency were analysed. Consistency was present in 10 control items. Therefore, all items of the first questionnaire and the five additional items were analysed. Thirty-seven (86%) respondents returned the first questionnaire; 31/37 (84%) the second. Information about age-related differences in adverse events, locomotor effects, drug-disease interactions, dosing instructions, and information about the proportion of included 65+ patients was considered necessary by most respondents. Clinicians considered information significantly more important than the non-clinical respondents about the inclusion of 75+, time-until-benefit in older people, anticholinergic effects, drug-disease interactions, and convenience of use. Main study limitations are the focus on information for daily practice, while the ICH E7 guideline is a legislative document focused on market approval of a new medicine. Also, a questionnaire with a Likert scale has its limitations; this was addressed by providing space for comments. Conclusions This study reveals that items considered necessary are currently not included in the ICH E7 guideline. Also, clinicians’ and non-clinicians’ opinions differed significantly in 15% of the items. Therefore, all stakeholders should collaborate to improve the availability of information for the rational prescribing to older individuals.
Minimal degrees for polynomial reducibilities

The existence of minimal degrees is investigated for several polynomial reducibilities. It is shown that no set has minimal degree with respect to polynomial many-one or Turing reducibility. This extends a result of Ladner in which only recursive sets are considered. A polynomial reducibility ≤<supscrpt><italic>h</italic></supscrpt><subscrpt><italic>T</italic></subscrpt> is defined. This reducibility is a strengthening of polynomial Turing reducibility, and its properties relate to the P = ? NP question. For this new reducibility, a set of minimal degree is constructed under the assumption that P = NP. However, the set constructed is nonrecursive, and it is shown that no recursive set is of minimal ≤ <supscrpt><italic>h</italic></supscrpt><subscrpt><italic>T</italic></subscrpt> degree.
Parameterization of ion-induced nucleation rates based on ambient observations

Atmospheric ions participate in the formation of new atmospheric aerosol particles, yet their exact role in this process has remained unclear. Here we derive a new simple parameterization for ion-induced nucleation or, more precisely, for the formation rate of charged 2-nm particles. The parameterization is semi-empirical in the sense that it is based on comprehensive results of one-year-long atmospheric cluster and particle measurements in the size range similar to 1-42 nm within the EUCAARI (European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality interactions) project. Data from 12 field sites across Europe measured with different types of air ion and cluster mobility spectrometers were used in our analysis, with more in-depth analysis made using data from four stations with concomitant sulphuric acid measurements. The parameterization is given in two slightly different forms: a more accurate one that requires information on sulfuric acid and nucleating organic vapor concentrations, and a simpler one in which this information is replaced with the global radiation intensity. These new parameterizations are applicable to all large-scale atmospheric models containing size-resolved aerosol microphysics, and a scheme to calculate concentrations of sulphuric acid, condensing organic vapours and cluster ions.
2D Partitioning Based Graph Search for the Graph500 Benchmark

Graph500 is a new benchmark to rank supercomputers with a large-scale graph search problem. We found that the provided reference implementations are not scalable in a large distributed environment. In this paper we implement an optimized method based on 2D based partitioning. Our implementation can solve BFS (Breadth First Search) of large-scale graph with 68.7 billion vertices and 1.1 trillion edges for 24.12 seconds with 512 nodes and 12288 CPU cores. This record corresponds to 22.8 GE/s. We found 2D based partitioning method is scalable for large-scale distributed systems. We also demonstrate thorough study of performance characteristics of our optimized implementation and reference implementations in a large-scale distributed memory super-computer with a Fat-Tree based Infiniband network.
A new relay assisted Hybrid ARQ scheme

In this paper, we propose a new relay assisted Hybird-ARQ scheme where the two transmitting nodes (source and relay) and the two received signals (from first transmission and retransmission) are viewed as a virtual MIMO and thus the source can send new codeword when the relay is retransmitting the old codeword. Moreover, to take advantage of time varying channel conditions, the retransmission of relay can be scheduled to a time slot with better channel condition. Simulation results show that the proposed method can improve the retransmission efficiency significantly.
Silver Nanocoating Technology in the Prevention of Prosthetic Joint Infection

Prosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a feared complication of total joint arthroplasty associated with increased morbidity and mortality. There is a growing body of evidence that bacterial colonization and biofilm formation are critical pathogenic events in PJI. Thus, the choice of biomaterials for implanted prostheses and their surface modifications may significantly influence the development of PJI. Currently, silver nanoparticle (AgNP) technology is receiving much interest in the field of orthopaedics for its antimicrobial properties and a strong anti-biofilm potential. The great advantage of AgNP surface modification is a minimal release of active substances into the surrounding tissue and a long period of effectiveness. As a result, a controlled release of AgNPs could ensure antibacterial protection throughout the life of the implant. Moreover, the antibacterial effect of AgNPs may be strengthened in combination with conventional antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents. Here, our main attention is devoted to general guidelines for the design of antibacterial biomaterials protected by AgNPs, its benefits, side effects and future perspectives in PJI prevention.
HACCS: Home Appliance Control Concierge System: Extending Functions on Web Service

Reducing our energy consumption has become an important issue all over the world, and power saving techniques are attracting attention. We propose "HACCS: Home Appliance Control Concierge System" which makes power-saving actions more natural. This system unites the state of home appliances, manual operation buttons, and information used to trigger power saving actions with the web screen of the PC or tablet the user is perusing. This system encourages the user to save electricity by operating home appliances more carefully.
DisCoTec Workshop on Context-Aware Adaptation Mechanisms for Pervasive and Ubiquitous Services ( CAMPUS 2010 ) Middleware for the Internet of Things , Design Goals and Challenges 1

As the number of wireless devices increases and their size becomes smaller, there can be more interaction between everyday objects of our life. With advances in RFID chips and the introduction of new generations of these devices that are smaller and cheaper, it is possible to put a wireless interface on almost all everyday objects: vehicles, clothes, foodstuffs, etc. This concept is called the Internet of Things. Interaction with thousands of wireless devices leads to a continuous and massive flow of events which are generated spontaneously. The question of how to deal with this enormous number of events is challenging and introduces new design goals for a communication mechanism. In this paper we argue that a middleware together with suitable linguistic abstractions is a proper solution. We also point out the challenges in developing this middleware. Moreover, we give an overview of recent related work and describe why they fail to address these challenges.
2003 DETC 2003 / CIE-48180 A RECONFIGURABLE 3 D ENGINEERING SHAPE SEARCH SYSTEM PART I : SHAPE REPRESENTATION

This paper presents an approach for a reconfigurable shape search system for 3D engineering models using a client-server-database architecture. The current paper focuses on the server functionality, while a subsequent paper will focus on the database issues. The server takes the shape query as input from the client and converts it into feature vectors and a new skeletal graph representation which we have developed. The algorithms such as voxelization, skeletonization, and skeletal graph extraction for accomplishing these are described in detail. The principal advantages of the skeletal graph representation are that (i) it preserves the geometry and topology of the query model, (ii) it is considerably smaller than the B-Rep graph, and (iii) it is insensitive to minor perturbations in shape, while sensitive enough to capture the major features of a shape. Our representation is also synergistic with the human cognitive representation of shape. The results indicate that the skeletal graph is considerably smaller than the B-Rep graph even for complicated shapes. 1. INTRODUCTION Designers spend about 60% of their time searching for the right information, which is rated as the most frustrating of engineers' activities [1]. Often designers have to make " assumptions " while designing, which may lead to problems at a later stage of the design. Such unforeseen errors can lead to allocation of scarce resources for solving unanticipated problems or putting out " fires. " In the product development context, fire-fighting describes the unplanned allocation of engineers' time and other resources to fix problems discovered late in a product's development cycle. Re-learning from errors is a costly method of learning. Nevertheless, fire-fighting has
SGRT: a mobile GPU architecture for real-time ray tracing

Recently, with the increasing demand for photorealistic graphics and the rapid advances in desktop CPUs/GPUs, real-time ray tracing has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, ray tracing in the current mobile environment is very difficult because of inadequate computing power, memory bandwidth, and flexibility in mobile GPUs. In this paper, we present a novel mobile GPU architecture called SGRT (Samsung reconfigurable GPU based on Ray Tracing) in which a fast compact hardware accelerator and a flexible programmable shader are combined. SGRT has two key features: 1) an area-efficient parallel pipelined traversal unit; and 2) flexible and high-performance kernels for shading and ray generation. Simulation results show that SGRT is potentially a versatile graphics solution for future application processors as it provides a real-time ray tracing performance at full HD resolution that can compete with that of existing desktop GPU ray tracers. Our system is implemented on an FPGA platform, and mobile ray tracing is successfully demonstrated.