Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Angular and Spectral Kernel-Driven Model: Assessment and Application

Land surface albedo is a critical parameter in the earth's energy budget. Multiple-sensor data contain more information than single-sensor data, enabling us to retrieve albedo more accurately. The Angular and Spectral Kernel driven model (ASK model), which introduces component spectra into a kernel-driven model, provides a way to combine multiple-sensor data to retrieve BRDF/albedo. The construction of the ASK model is detailed in Liu's paper. As a follow-up, this paper provides an extensive assessment of the ASK model and its application using multi-sensory data. The assessment is described in both angular and spectral dimensions using simulated datasets from ProSail, 5-Scale, and RGM. With the ability to combine information from the spectral and angular domains, the inversion of the ASK model requires fewer angular observations than the traditional model. Four angles are sufficient when combining seven MODIS bands. In the spectral dimension, the model performance reveals high numerical correlations among bands: the red and NIR bands are generally required to make a good spectra fitting, and adding an additional SWIR band can improve the performance. The synergistic retrieval of albedo combining FY3/VIRR, AVHRR, and MODIS shows a satisfactory agreement with in situ measurements, where the RMSE is 0.013 in the 4-day composited temporal resolution retrieval. The results show that the ASK model is promising for BRDF/albedo inversion using multi-sensor data, although it shows some dependence on the accuracy of the component spectra.
Accuracy and correlates of visual and verbal instruments assessing maternal perceptions of children's weight status: the Healthy Growth Study

Abstract Objective To examine the accuracy of maternal ability to classify their children's weight status correctly using a verbal and a visual classification instrument and to detect significant correlates of maternal misperceptions. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Primary schools in four counties from north, west, central and south Greece. Subjects A representative sample of 1858 primary-school children aged 9–13 years was examined. Two different instruments to assess maternal perceptions of their children's weight status, i.e. a verbal and a visual one, were used. Results Verbal and visual maternal underestimation rates of children's weight status were 15·0 % and 41·3 %, respectively. The frequency of underestimation was much higher among overweight and obese children for both instruments. The highest underestimation rates of 87·9 % and 82·1 % in overweight and obese boys, respectively, were obtained with the visual instrument. Multiple logistic regression modelling revealed that the likelihood of both verbal and visual maternal underestimation of their children's weight status was significantly higher for overweight mothers and for those with a lower educational level. Furthermore, children's male gender and a nanny or someone other than the mother as the child's primary caregiver were found to increase the odds of visual and verbal maternal underestimation of children's weight status, respectively. Conclusions The present study showed that the verbal instrument used to assess maternal perceptions of their children's weight status was more accurate compared with the visual one. However, both instruments showed that a considerable number of overweight and obese boys had their weight status underestimated by their mothers. Educating mothers to classify their children's weight status correctly might be a key factor for the implementation of successful childhood obesity prevention initiatives.
Bayesian Spectral Matching: Turning Young MC into MC Hammer via MCMC Sampling

In this paper, we introduce an audio mosaicing technique based on performing posterior inference on a probabilistic generative model. Whereas previous approaches to concatenative synthesis and audio mosaicing have mostly tried to match higher-level descriptors of audio or individual STFT frames, we try to directly match the magnitude spectrogram of a target sound by combining and overlapping a set of short samples at different times and amplitudes. Our use of the graphical modeling formalism allows us to use a standard Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) posterior inference algorithm to find a set of time shifts and amplitudes for each sample that results in a layered composite sound whose spectrogram approximately matches the target spectrogram.
Determining the Fraction of Intrinsic C IV Absorption in Quasi-stellar Object Absorption-Line Systems

We present the results of an exhaustive study of QSO absorption line systems (QSOALSs) with respect to intrinsic QSO properties using an updated catalog of data in the literature. We have searched the literature for 6 and 20 cm radio flux densities and have studied 20 cm contour plots from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) VLA Survey in order to compare the absorption properties with radio luminosity, radio spectral index, and radio morphology. Although the data in our catalog are decidedly heterogeneous, great care has been taken to account for potential biases during the course of our research. Analysis of relatively unbiased subcatalogs allows us to investigate the properties of QSOALSs with better statistics than with any single homogeneous catalog. This work focuses particularly on the nature of C IV QSOALSs and their distribution in velocity space in light of intrinsic QSO properties. We find that the distribution of narrow, C IV absorption systems with relative velocities exceeding 5000 km s-1 is dependent not only on the optical luminosity of the QSOs but also on the radio luminosity, the radio spectral index, and the radio morphology of the QSOs. These observations are apparently inconsistent with the hypothesis that these systems are predominantly due to intervening galaxies, and it would seem that the contamination of the intervening systems (from 5000 to 75,000 km s-1) by those that are intrinsic to the environment of the QSO is significantly larger than expected. We stress the need for truly homogeneous and unbiased surveys of QSOALSs to confirm these results from our inhomogeneous data set.
The adaptation of mobile phone addiction scale into turkish: Validity and reliability study Cep telefonu bağımlılığı ölçeği (CBÖ)’nin Türkçe’ ye uyarlanması: Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması

The aim of this study is to adapt the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale developed by Choliz (2012) for Turkish culture and investigate its validity and reliability. A total of 412 participants including 253 female and 159 male students who study in various high schools of Amasya province consists of the research sample. Within the context of the adaptation studies of the scale, group translation and back translation techniques were used. Item analysis, validity and reliability analyses of the research were realized following the linguistic equivalence study. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the construct validity and the analysis results proved that the compliance indices were at acceptable level (RMSEA = .094, CFI = .96, TLI = .96). As a result of these analyses, it was understood that the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale repeated the original factor structure in the sample of Turkish students and had sufficient validity. In addition, the Cronbach α values of the whole scale and its subscales were calculated to test the reliability of the scale. Cronbach α values were specified as . 92 for the whole of the scale, and . 77 and . 87 for subscales. In addition, split half correlation analyzes were conducted and the Spearmann Brown correlation value was found to be . 85. Consequently, these values show that the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale is a valid and reliable scaleforhigh school students in Turkey to measure mobile phone addiction. Extended English abstract is in the end of PDF (TURKISH) file . Ozet Bu calismada, Choliz (2012) tarafindan gelistirilen Cep Telefonu Bagimliligi Olcegi (CBO)’ni Turk Kulturune uyarlamak, gecerlik ve guvenirligini incelemek amaclanmistir. Arastirmanin calisma grubunu Amasya ilinde farkli liselerde ogrenim goren 253 kiz ve 159 erkek ogrenciden olusan 412 katilimci olusturmaktadir. Olcegin uyarlama calismalari kapsaminda grup cevirisi ve geri ceviri teknikleri kullanilmistir. Dilsel esdegerlik calismasinin ardindan madde analizi, gecerlik ve guvenirlik calismalari gerceklestirilmistir. Yapi gecerligini test etmek uzere dogrulayici faktor analizi yapilmis ve uyum indekslerinin kabul edilebilir bir duzeyde oldugu bulunmustur (RMSEA=.094, CFI=.96, TLI=.96). Bu analizler sonucunda Cep Telefonu Bagimliligi Olcegi’nin orijinal faktor yapisinin Turk lise ogrencilerinden olusan orneklemde tekrar ettigi ve yeterli duzeyde gecerlilige sahip oldugu anlasilmistir. Ayrica olcegin guvenirligini test etmek icin olcegin butununun ve alt boyutlarinin Cronbach α degeri hesaplanmistir. Cronbach α degerleri; olcegin butunu icin . 92, alt boyutlar icin ise . 77 ile . 87 olarak saptanmistir. Ayrica iki yari guvenirlik analiz yapilmis ve Spearmann Brown korelasyon degeri . 85 olarak bulunmustur. Sonuc olarak, elde edilen bu degerler Cep Telefonu Bagimliligi Olcegi’nin Turkiye’deki lise ogrencilerinin cep telefonu bagimliliklarini olcmede kullanilabilecek gecerli ve guvenilir bir olcek oldugunu gostermektedir.
Cost-Effectiveness of Rapid Syphilis Screening in Prenatal HIV Testing Programs in Haiti

BACKGROUND New rapid syphilis tests permit simple and immediate diagnosis and treatment at a single clinic visit. We compared the cost-effectiveness, projected health outcomes, and annual cost of screening pregnant women using a rapid syphilis test as part of scaled-up prenatal testing to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in Haiti. METHODS AND FINDINGS A decision analytic model simulated health outcomes and costs separately for pregnant women in rural and urban areas. We compared syphilis syndromic surveillance (rural standard of care), rapid plasma reagin test with results and treatment at 1-wk follow-up (urban standard of care), and a new rapid test with immediate results and treatment. Test performance data were from a World Health Organization-Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases field trial conducted at the GHESKIO Center Groupe Haitien d'Etude du Sarcome de Kaposi et des Infections Opportunistes in Port-au-Prince. Health outcomes were projected using historical data on prenatal syphilis treatment efficacy and included disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of newborns, congenital syphilis cases, neonatal deaths, and stillbirths. Cost-effectiveness ratios are in US dollars/DALY from a societal perspective; annual costs are in US dollars from a payer perspective. Rapid testing with immediate treatment has a cost-effectiveness ratio of $6.83/DALY in rural settings and $9.95/DALY in urban settings. Results are sensitive to regional syphilis prevalence, rapid test sensitivity, and the return rate for follow-up visits. Integrating rapid syphilis testing into a scaled-up national HIV testing and prenatal care program would prevent 1,125 congenital syphilis cases and 1,223 stillbirths or neonatal deaths annually at a cost of $525,000. CONCLUSIONS In Haiti, integrating a new rapid syphilis test into prenatal care and HIV testing would prevent congenital syphilis cases and stillbirths, and is cost-effective. A similar approach may be beneficial in other resource-poor countries that are scaling up prenatal HIV testing.
A system for Bangla community to enhance english capability through web browsing

Internet is the single largest source of information and it grows day by day. Since most of websites are in English language; so it is difficult to understand for a person when he is weak in English. To understand information by other languages community, there existed 'websites translator' facilities provided by Google, Microsoft and other companies. Unfortunately the translation facility from English to Bangla is not adequate although it is fifth most spoken language. The number of informative websites in Bangla are very few with respect to English and a major portion of less educated Bangla community are away to gather information from internet due to weakness in English. The aim of this project is to (1) develop a system that will provide English website in a transformed from containing Bangla meaning of all or specific English words and (2) provide facility to enhance knowledge on English language when browse English website. This developed 'Browse English Website with Bangla Words (BEWBW)' will analyze the contents of source English website and provide the transformed website with Bangla words corresponding to English with the help of a dictionary. This system will also track which English website he/she visited and for which words bangle meaning provided. The BEWBW (web and desktop based) will be helpful for the people who are weak in English in Bangladesh as well as Bangla community anywhere in the world.
Morale and the mental health worker: Burnout in the Department of Behavioral Health

The research question examined in this paper concerns the factors affecting burnout and turnover rates for the clinicians responsible for providing mental health services to the clients at the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) in San Bernardino. Specifically, this research project identified the rates of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment experienced by the clinicians at DBH. These factors were then examined in light of troubling occurrences in the workplace, job satisfaction, intention to quit, and social supports to determine which factors seem to lead to burnout and/or buffer the negative outcomes of stress for this population.
LONGEST AXIS OF COHERENCE REGION AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO ESTIMATE TOPOGRAPHIC PHASE

Lu Bai 1,2,3 Wen Hong 1,2 Fang Cao 1,2 Jing-song Chong 1,2 1 National Key Laboratory of Microwave Imaging Technology 2 Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 3 The Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 19, Bei Si Huan Xi Lu, Beijing 100190, China bailu81@126.com This paper presents a new method to identify the coherences samples in the coherence region that give the maximum distance. This method directly shifts the coherence region without stretching or rotation so that the shirted coherence regions preserve the original shape. The coherence region is shifted by large length in upper, right directions so that shifted regions locate within the upper, right half plane. The projection vectors giving the phase diversity of the shifted coherence regions provides the nearly estimation for the longest axis. Utilizing the phase diversity method proposed by Tabb et. al, the proposed method estimates four projection vectors’ candidates for the maximum distance from the two shifted coherence regions. Selected From the four candidates, the two candidates giving the maximum distances are the final estimations. Since the longest axis coincides with the orientation of the elliptical coherence region, the longest axis is used to estimate topographic phase. Experiments are applied on the ESAR polarimetric interferometric data to validate the proposed method and assess its potentials to estimate topographic phase.
University students’ perceptions of English as an International Language (EIL) in Taiwan and South Korea

ABSTRACT This study investigated Taiwanese and Korean students’ perceptions of four aspects of English as an International Language (EIL): Current Status of English (CSE), Varieties of English (VE), Strategies for Multilingual/Multicultural Communication (SMC), and English Speakers’ Identity (ESI). The authors surveyed a total of 246 non-English majors at one university (N = 105) in Taiwan and at two universities (N = 141) in South Korea. Three major findings were identified in this study: first, these contemporary Far Eastern EFL students positively endorse general concepts of EIL. Second, both groups perceive their English ownership in a similar, positive manner in contrast to their own local varieties such as Taiwanese English and Korean English. Third, English listening materials that include non-native English-speaking (NNES) accents, and interaction between NNESs seem to be less accepted by Korean students than is the case for Taiwanese students. Along with practical suggestions, this study will add new knowledge to the current EIL literature and expand our understanding of this issue across different contexts.
Effects of Constitutive β-Catenin Activation on Vertebral Bone Growth and Remodeling at Different Postnatal Stages in Mice

Background and Objective The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is essential for controlling bone mass; however, little is known about the variable effects of the constitutive activation of β-catenin (CA-β-catenin) on bone growth and remodeling at different postnatal stages. The goal of the present study was to observe the effects of CA-β-catenin on vertebral bone growth and remodeling in mice at different postnatal stages. In particular, special attention was paid to whether CA-β-catenin has detrimental effects on these processes. Methods Catnblox(ex 3) mice were crossed with mice expressing the TM-inducible Cre fusion protein, which could be activated at designated time points via injection of tamoxifen. β-catenin was stabilized by tamoxifen injection 3 days, and 2, 4, 5, and 7 months after birth, and the effects lasted for one month. Radiographic imaging, micro-computed tomography, immunohistochemistry, and safranin O and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining were employed to observe the effects of CA-β-catenin on vertebral bone growth and remodeling. Results CA-β-catenin in both early (3 days after birth) and late stages (2, 4, 5, and 7 months after birth) increased bone formation and decreased bone resorption, which together increased vertebral bone volume. However, when β-catenin was stabilized in the early stage, vertebral linear growth was retarded, and the mice demonstrated shorter statures. In addition, the newly formed bone was mainly immature and located close to the growth plate. In contrast, when β-catenin was stabilized in the late stage, vertebral linear growth was unaffected, and the newly formed bone was mainly mature and evenly distributed throughout the vertebral body. Conclusions CA-β-catenin in both early and late stages of growth can increase vertebral bone volume, but β-catenin has differential effects on vertebral growth and remodeling when activated at different postnatal stages.
Generalized Voronoi Partition Based Multi-Agent Search using Heterogeneous Sensors

In this paper we propose search strategies for heterogeneous multi-agent systems. Multiple agents, equipped with communication gadget, computational capability, and sensors having heterogeneous capabilities, are deployed in the search space to gather information such as presence of targets. Lack of information about the search space is modeled as an uncertainty density distribution. The uncertainty is reduced on collection of information by the search agents. We propose a generalization of Voronoi partition incorporating the heterogeneity in sensor capabilities, and design optimal deployment strategies for multiple agents, maximizing a single step search effectiveness. The optimal deployment forms the basis for two search strategies, namely, {\em heterogeneous sequential deploy and search} and {\em heterogeneous combined deploy and search}. We prove that the proposed strategies can reduce the uncertainty density to arbitrarily low level under ideal conditions. We provide a few formal analysis results related to stability and convergence of the proposed control laws, and to spatial distributedness of the strategies under constraints such as limit on maximum speed of agents, agents moving with constant speed and limit on sensor range. Simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical results presented in the paper.
Periodic continued fractions and hyperelliptic curves

We investigate when an algebraic function of the form ϕ(λ)=(−B(λ)+√R(λ))/A(λ), where R(λ) is a polynomial of odd degree N=2g+1 with coefficients in ℂ, can be written as a periodic α‐fraction of the form ϕ(λ)=[b0;b1,b2,…,bN¯]α=b0+λ−α1b1+λ−α2b2+⋱bN−1+λ−αNbN+λ−α1b1+λ−α2b2+⋱ for some fixed sequence αi. We show that this problem has a natural answer given by the classical theory of hyperelliptic curves and their Jacobi varieties. We also consider pure periodic α‐fraction expansions corresponding to the special case when bN=b0.
Effect of Cassava Flour Characteristics on Properties of Cassava-Wheat-Maize Composite Bread Types

Replacement of wheat flour by other kinds of flour in bread making is economically important in South East Africa as wheat is mainly an imported commodity. Cassava is widely available in the region, but bread quality is impaired when large amounts of cassava are used in the bread formulation. Effect of differently processed cassavas (sun-dried, roasted and fermented) on composite cassava-wheat-maize bread quality containing cassava levels from 20 to 40% (w/w) was evaluated in combination with high-methylated pectin (HM-pectin) added at levels of 1 to 3% (w/w) according to a full factorial design. Addition of pectin to cassava flour made it possible to bake bread with acceptable bread quality even at concentration as high as 40%. In addition to cassava concentration, the type of cassava flour had the biggest effect on bread quality. With high level of cassava, bread with roasted cassava had a higher volume compared with sun-dried and fermented. The pectin level had a significant effect on improving the volume in high level roasted cassava bread. Crumb firmness similar to wheat bread could be obtained with sun-dried and roasted cassava flours. Roasted cassava bread was the only bread with crust colour similar to wheat bread.
Incorporation of quantum dots on virus in polycationic solution

Developing methods to label viruses with fluorescent moieties has its merits in elucidating viral infection mechanisms and exploring novel antiviral therapeutics. Fluorescent quantum dots (QDs), an emerging probe for biological imaging and medical diagnostics, were employed in this study to tag retrovirus encoding enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) genes. Electrostatic repulsion forces generated from both negatively charged retrovirus and QDs were neutralized by cationic Polybrene®, forming colloidal complexes of QDs–virus. By examining the level of EGFP expression in 3T3 fibroblast cells treated with QDs-tagged retroviruses for 24 hours, the infectivity of retrovirus incorporated with QDs was shown to be only slightly decreased. Moreover, the imaging of QDs can be detected in the cellular milieu. In summary, the mild method developed here makes QDs-tagged virus a potential imaging probe for direct tracking the infection process and monitoring distribution of viral particles in infected cells.
The Role of Culture and Personality in the Leadership Process in Virtual Teams

Leadership is a key challenge of virtual teams. A particular leadership style, namely inspirational leadership, which is a sub-category of transformational leadership, has been found to be especially suited for the study of highly diverse teams. Virtual team leaders increasingly have to manage global virtual teams that contain members from different cultural backgrounds and value orientations. This study answers a call of incorporating the role of individual-level attributes and dispositions as moderators of inspirational leadership effects, considering cultural and individual values of followers in a virtual setting. Results reveal the importance of inspirational leadership influencing attitudinal outcomes (trust in leadership and cohesion). Furthermore, the effect of leadership is shown to be dependent on cultural as well as personal values of followers indicating the need to consider individual factors in the process of managing virtual teams.