Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FACIAL EXPRESSION ANALYSIS AND THE PAD SPACE

In this paper we present a technique for facial expression analysis and representing the underlying emotions in the PAD (Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance) space. We develop a purely appearance based approach using Multi-scale Gaussian derivatives and Support Vector Machines. The system can generalize well and is shown to outperform the baseline method.
Effective Kurdish Sign Language Detection and Classi�cation Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Sign Language Recognition (SLR) has an important role among the deaf-dump community since it is used as a medium of instruction to execute daily activities such as communication, teaching, learning, and social interactions. In this paper, a real-time model has been implemented for Kurdish sign recognition using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm. The main objective of this study is to recognize the Kurdish alphabetic. The model has been trained and predicted on the KuSL2022 dataset using different activation functions for a number of epochs. The dataset consists of 71,400 images for the 34 Kurdish sign languages and alphabets collected from two different datasets. The accuracy of the proposed method is evaluated on a dataset of real images collected from many users. The obtained results show that the proposed system's performance increased for both classi�cation and prediction models, with an average train accuracy of 99.91 %. These results outperform previous studies on Kurdish sign language in term of accuracy detection and recognition.
Basement faulting and the focal depths of the larger earthquakes in the Zagros mountains (Iran)

Summary. The present day seismicity of the Zagros seems to occur on high angle reverse faults distributed across the whole width of the belt. It does not indicate activity on a single inclined thrust surface and there do not seem to have been any well located events at intermediate depths. Modelling of the long period teleseismic body waves of seven large earthquakes presented here shows their focal depths to be in the range 8–15 km. This is thought to indicate faulting in the uppermost basement beneath the sedimentary cover, though the absence of published seismic refraction results renders the sediment thickness uncertain. Faulting of this type and depth may occur on inherited normal faults which have subsequently been reactivated as thrusts. Such reactivation allows considerable shortening to take place in the early stages of continental collision without the subduction or excessive thickening of continental crust.
DESIGNING A CHOICE EXPERIMENTS SURVEY TO ASSESS THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF ROMANIAN NATURAL AREAS

This paper explores the use of choice experiments method to design an efficient survey to assess the economic value of Romanian national and natural parks. The choice experiments method is based on the Lancaster theory according to which the consumer’s utility is defined as a function of several attributes that characterize the environmental good or service that is analyzed. A set of six attributes was identified to describe hypothetical natural areas that may be visited by tourists: distance from home to the park, observation of nature, type of information needed for the trip, placement of campsite, congestion level at the campsite and price of fuel. The choice sets are obtained by combining every level of each attribute with every level of all other attributes. The fractional factorial design generated 32 choice sets, which were blocked into eight sets, creating eight different versions of questionnaire. It may be concluded that efficient survey design implies a careful follow of the steps recommended in the literature, with a special attention on the design of choice sets.
E�cient puri�cation and characterization of high-purity phycoerythrin 545 from Rhodomonas sp.

Cryptomonad phycoerythrin 545 is an important type of phycobiliprotein in basic research and technological innovations. Herein, we report a minimalistic hydrophobic chromatography method for its puri�cation. High purity was achieved, with a purity ratio (A 545 /A 280 ) of 13.66 and a recovery ratio of 78.63%. Following SDS-PAGE, Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining and Zn 2+ -enhanced UV �uorescence autoradiography revealed three bands at 9 kDa, 10 kDa, and 20 kDa, corresponding to α 1 , α 2 and β subunits. Multiple spectral characteristics were analysed to ensure that optical activity was consistent with that of the natural protein. Absorption and �uorescence spectroscopies of puri�ed phycoerythrin 545 displayed a strong absorption peak at 545 nm and a shoulder peak at 564 nm, and a �uorescence emission peak of at 587 nm, which con�rmed unchanged energy transfer properties, and structural and functional integrity was veri�ed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. Compared with published puri�cation methods, this new puri�cation protocol replaces two-step ammonium sulphate fractionation, dialysis, and size exclusion chromatography with a single chromatography step, thereby reducing the cost of large-scale kilogram-level commercial production.
Organizational Structure and Employee Efficiency in Family-Owned Businesses in Nigeria

Establishment, growth and development of family-owned businesses (FOB) are integrated into Nigeria's economy. They contribute to the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria. However, there are observed deviations in human resource management practices in these ventures. Owners of family businesses organizations demonstrate more interest in profit maximization than investment in employee capacity for better performance. Hence, the thrust of this study was an examination of the effect of organizational structure on employee efficiency and management of FOB. Cross-sectional descriptive survey design was adopted. The population was 4,820 family businesses in selected sectors of the Nigerian economy. Multistage sampling techniques was used to select sample of 595, adopting Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill formula. Organizational Structure and Employee Efficiency Instrument was administered among the selected sample while the response rate was 99.1%, to obtain primary data which were validated using content validity, while a Cronbach Alpha value of 0.899 was derived to establish reliability of the questionnaire. Organizational structure highlighted formal communication lines, employee efficiency remained its function. In conclusion, organizational structure affected employee efficiency of FOB. Managers and operators of family business organizations should create a forum for suggestions from employees.
2017). Toward a construct of liability of origin. Industrial and Corporate Change, 26(2), 211-231

In this paper, we advance a novel concept of liability of origin to explicate the mechanisms through which location can be become either a liability or an advantage. Our analysis sheds light on how firms’ ability to compete and gain legitimacy can be derailed or enhanced by their geographical location. We illustrate our theoretical analysis using multiple cases in the airline industry in Africa. Four distinct phases that explicate how liability of origin manifests in firms’ legitimacy quest are indicated. Our work highlights how actions and inactions of rival firms can make the geographical origin of a firm “geographicalness” to shift from being a strategic asset to become a liability. We outline a number of implications for practice and fruitful avenues for future research.
A model to predict lightning-caused fire occurrences

This paper presents a model to predict the probability that a lightning flash will lead to a detectable fire. This is done by estimating the probability of the lightning flash having a long-continuing current, the probability of ignition, the probability of survival, and the probability of arrival. Individual probabilities are calculated using the lightning, noon weather, and forest inventory data and combined to predict the number of ignitions, holdovers, and detectable fires within a region. The model was run for six fire seasons in Saskatchewan and predicted results were compared with the actual number of fires for that season. The model successfully predicted the number of fires on 55.7% of the days with a 64.8% detection rate and a false alarm rate of 29.7%. The model was found to be highly sensitive to moisture conditions, resulting in some unusually high predictions under dry conditions.
Stimulus-induced drift inhibition revealed by retinal eye-tracking

It is now well established that the movement of the eyes, which occurs constantly even during �xation, tends to “freeze” in response to perceptual events, with a magnitude and time course that depends on the stimulus properties, attention, and anticipation. This “freeze” or oculomotor inhibition (OMI) was found for microsaccades, blinks, smooth-pursuit, and catch-up saccades; yet remains unclear whether it also applies to ocular drift. Since video-based eye-trackers are known to produce positional artifacts, we used here data from a high-speed and precision retinal imaging eye-tracker (FreezEye Tracker, FET). The observers (n = 15) watched a series of �ashed Gabor patches, with different spatial frequency and contrast while their eyes were tracked. We analyzed the data by removing the saccades, aligning the traces, and computing four drift measures relative to the stimulus onset: (1) velocity, (2) area, (3) diffusion, and (4) heat map. We found that all measures produced a highly signi�cant modulation over time. The overall drift velocity, area, and diffusion followed the microsaccade inhibition pattern, whereas the heat map peaks showed the opposite pattern. The drift inhibition was also stimulus dependent, showing shorter onset and prolonged release estimates for more salient stimuli, matching the microsaccade OMI for the onset but showing the opposite for the release. Overall, the results con�rm that the oculomotor inhibition effect can be generalized for ocular drift, but its opposite stimulus dependency for inhibition release and the shifted time course may suggest a complex interdependency between drift and saccades.
VRoxy: Wide-Area Collaboration From an Office Using a VR-Driven Robotic Proxy

Recent research in robotic proxies has demonstrated that one can automatically reproduce many non-verbal cues important in co-located collaboration. However, they often require a symmetrical hardware setup in each location. We present the VRoxy system, designed to enable access to remote spaces through a robotic embodiment, using a VR headset in a much smaller space, such as a personal office. VRoxy maps small movements in VR space to larger movements in the physical space of the robot, allowing the user to navigate large physical spaces easily. Using VRoxy, the VR user can quickly explore and navigate in a low-fidelity rendering of the remote space. Upon the robot’s arrival, the system uses the feed of a 360 camera to support real-time interactions. The system also facilitates various interaction modalities by rendering the micro-mobility around shared spaces, head and facial animations, and pointing gestures on the proxy. We demonstrate how our system can accommodate mapping multiple physical locations onto a unified virtual space. In a formative study, users could complete a design decision task where they navigated and collaborated in a complex 7.5m x 5m layout using a 3m x 2m VR space.
Confidence is higher in touch than in vision in cases of perceptual ambiguity

The inclination to touch objects that we can see is a surprising behaviour, given that vision often supplies relevant and sufficiently accurate sensory evidence. Here we suggest that this ‘fact-checking’ phenomenon could be explained if touch provides a higher level of perceptual certainty than vision. Testing this hypothesis, observers explored inverted T-shaped stimuli eliciting the Vertical-horizontal illusion in vision and touch, which included clear-cut and ambiguous cases. In separate blocks, observers judged whether the vertical bar was shorter or longer than the horizontal bar and rated the confidence in their judgments. Decisions reached by vision were objectively more accurate than those reached by touch with higher overall confidence ratings. However, while confidence was higher for vision rather than for touch in clear-cut cases, observers were more confident in touch when the stimuli were ambiguous. This relative bias as a function of ambiguity qualifies the view that confidence tracks objective accuracy and uses a comparable mapping across sensory modalities. Employing a perceptual illusion, our method disentangles objective and subjective accuracy showing how the latter is tracked by confidence and point towards possible origins for ‘fact checking’ by touch. From museum visitors feeling compelled to touch statues that they can see, to the biblical account of the incred-ulous Thomas who would not accept that Jesus was alive unless he could touch him, tactile ‘fact-checking’ is frequent. Similarly, in the clinical domain, the empirical literature shows that individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder are prone to check things by touch rather than sight 1,2 . Among other factors underlying these complex behaviours, we suggest that the privilege of touch might come from it carrying more evidential weight than seeing particularly when there is ambiguity 3 . To test this hypothesis, we compared the confidence that observers put in their perceptual decisions after either seeing or touching stimuli that gave rise to a geometric illusion known as the Vertical-Horizontal (VH
Association of Health Care Work With Anxiety and Depression During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Structural Topic Modeling Study

Background: Stressors for health care workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic have been manifold, with high levels of depression and anxiety alongside gaps in care. Identifying the factors most tied to HCWs’ psychological challenges is crucial to addressing HCWs’ mental health needs effectively, now and for future large-scale events. Objective: In this study, we used natural language processing methods to examine deidentified psychotherapy transcripts from telemedicine treatment during the initial wave of COVID-19 in the United States. Psychotherapy was delivered by licensed therapists while HCWs were managing increased clinical demands and elevated hospitalization rates, in addition to population-level social distancing measures and infection risks. Our goal was to identify specific concerns emerging in treatment for HCWs and to compare differences with matched non-HCW patients from the general population. Methods: We conducted a case-control study with a sample of 820 HCWs and 820 non-HCW matched controls who received digitally delivered psychotherapy in 49 US states in the spring of 2020 during the first US wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Depression was measured during the initial assessment using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and anxiety was measured using the General Anxiety Disorder-7 questionnaire. Structural topic models (STMs) were used to determine treatment topics from deidentified transcripts from the first 3 weeks of treatment. STM effect
Identi�cation the role of mono-ADP-ribosylation in colorectal cancer by integrated Transcriptome analysis

Purpose Our previous study has clari�ed the carcinogenic properties of arginine-specic mono-ADP ribosyltransferase 1(ART1), which is considered to be a critical post-translational modi�cation that changes the structure and function of proteins and is widely involved in important processes. This study provides, for the �rst time, a comprehensive insight of transcriptomic analysis for colorectal cancer cells interfered with ART1 silencing by Illumina RNA-Seq and related veri�cation experiments.
Hierarchical Bayesian Integrated Model for Estimating Migratory Bird Harvest in Canada

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) requires reliable estimates of the harvest of migratory game birds, including waterfowl, to effectively manage populations of these hunted species. The National Harvest Survey is an annual survey of hunters who purchase Canada’s mandatory migratory game bird hunting permit, integrating information from a survey of hunting activity with information from a separate survey of species composition in the harvest. We use these survey data to estimate the number of birds harvested for each species, as well as hunting activity metrics such as the number of active hunters and days spent hunting. The analytical methods used to generate these estimates have not changed since the survey was first designed in the early 1970s. Here we describe a new hierarchical Bayesian integrated model, which replaces the series of ratio estimators that comprised the old model. We are now using this new model to generate estimates for migratory bird harvests as of the 2019-2020 hunting season, and to generate updated estimates for all earlier years. The hierarchical Bayesian model uses over-dispersed Poisson distributions to model mean hunter activity and harvest (zero inflated Poisson and zero truncated Poisson, respectively). It also includes multinomial distributions to model some key components including, variation in total harvest across periods of the hunting season, the species composition of the harvest within each of those periods, and the age and sex composition in the harvests of a given species. We estimated the parameters of the Poisson and the multinomial distributions for each year as random effects using first-difference time-series. This time-series component allows the model to share information across years and reduces the sensitivity of the estimates to annual sampling noise. The new model estimates are generally very similar to those from the old model, particularly for the species that occur most commonly in the harvest, and so the results do not suggest any major changes to harvest management decisions and regulations. However, estimates for all species from the new model are more precise and less susceptible to annual sampling error, particularly for species that occur less commonly in the harvest (e.g., sea ducks and other species of conservation concern). This new model, with its hierarchical Bayesian framework, will also facilitate future improvements and elaborations, allowing the incorporation of prior information from the rich literature and knowledge in game bird management and biology.
26. MAGNETOSTRATIGRAPHY OF LEG 108 ADVANCED HYDRAULIC PISTON CORES1

This paper presents the magnetostratigraphic results from Leg 108 of the Ocean Drilling Program. Measurements made with the shipboard "pass-through" cryogenic magnetometer on whole cores and archive halves are combined with those made on discrete samples; these measurements constitute the paleomagnetic data base for the Leg 108 cores. Polarity determination on unoriented, low-latitude cores is somewhat subjective; we rely heavily on the available biostratigraphic data and document our line of reasoning where appropriate. The interpretations presented here, therefore, are compatible with the available biostratigraphic information; they are also in substantial agreement with orientation information where available.
Rethinking water and crops management in the irrigated district of Diyar-Al-Hujjej (Tunisia)

In Diyar-Al-Hujjej irrigated area, aquifer’s over-exploitation, sea intrusion and abandonment of irrigated areas and wells were took place. A yield decrease for all crops was observed. Average aquifer water electrical conductivity (EC) jumps from 4 dS/m to 6.6 dS/m between 1969 and 2017. A fresh surface water transfer over more than 100 km was launched in 1998 to safeguard this irrigated area but this fresh water supply is not stable, it varies from one year to another (about 1,900,000 m3 in 2015 and only 60,000 m3 in 2018) while annual cops water requirements of the perimeter is about 2,500,000 m3. An adaptation by farmers to this new situation of saline and water stress was observed. The follow-up surveys of the farmer’s practices showed that: (i) new crops with high added-value grown during the rainy season were introduced in association with dry season crops (strawberry-pepper association), (ii) rainfed crops, fallow and water blending are common practices, and (iii) growing of rainy season crops in the aim to reduce water supply. The instability of fresh surface water volume transferred constitutes the main threat for this perimeter. The use of aquifer salt water must be stopped; it is the cause of the large quantities of salts supplied (over 13,000 kg / ha) and also of the low annual net income achieved. Net revenue was less than 2,000 US $/ha under salt water and reached even 8,000 US $/ha when sufficient surface water is available. An agrarian reform policy must be applied for this perimeter; only crops whose water requirements are partially met by rain should be grown. Introduction of another more sustainable water source should be initiated (as desalination) even at private farm level.
Habitat Use of Texas Horned Lizards in Southern Texas

Microhabitat characteristics for the Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) were qualified from information gained from radio-tracking in Duval County, Texas. Microhabitat characteristics were assessed from known locations of lizards and random locations and included soil pH, soil particle size distribution, soil organic content, percent herbaceous vegetation, vegetation height, percent bare ground, vegetative basal area for bunch grasses, plant stem density, soil temperature, percent canopy cover, percent grasses, and percent forbs. Lizards (n = 16) disproportionately used the range of values for 11 of the 14 (soil pH, soil particle size distribution, soil organic content, percent bare ground, plant stem density, soil temperature, percent canopy cover, percent grasses, and percent forbs) microhabitat characteristics from their availability. Microhabitat characteristics recorded at bedding sites were used pro rata to availability. Soil moisture at bedding sites average 2.2% during the months July through October. Lizards would not bury themselves in soil for several days after precipitation; instead the bases of trees and bunch grasses were used as bedding sites.
Examining the Relevance and Philosophical Significance of Some Northern Sotho Proverbs in the Context of COVID-19: A Sociocultural Perspective

Proverbs have long been serving as a tool for shaping human being’s life. They serve as a philosophical tool for social cohesion among other socio-cultural significances. Though some critics regard them as ancient, proverbs are still fulfilling the philosophical purpose(s) in the COVID-19 era. Their philosophical nature and meaning remains relevant in many contemporary life occurrences. Observing how people self-conduct themselves and share information about the pandemic, it was imperative for the study of this nature to be documented to ease communication among people during and post the pandemic. It is against this backdrop that this paper aimed at contextualising the meaning(s) of some Northern Sotho proverbs in the COVID-19 epoch and examine how they are relevant to the pandemic’s situation and happenings. Qualitative research approach undergirded this study in the sense that the relevance of traditional Northern Sotho proverbs is tested against the global status quo (COVID-19 times). The study adopted Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural theory as its lynchpin to enable a critical and thorough examination and assessment of the importance of language (through proverbs) in the COVID-19 context. Relevant Northern Sotho proverbs were purposively selected due to their significant role in the COVID-19 epoch. The proverbs were synthesised and analysed thematically to reveal their relevance and philosophical purpose during and post the pandemic. The study ultimately argues that language, through proverbs as its fundamental aspects and ideological tools, remains a major philosophical source of communication among living folks.