Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiological Survey to Assess the Prevalence and Consequences of Domestic Violence among Married Women in Zage, Kano, Nigeria

Background: Domestic Violence refers to violence emanating from the household and within relationships defined by familial or emotional (former or present) attachment. It is the most common form of violence against women and affects women across the life span, from sex-selective abortion of female fetuses to forced suicide and abuse of older women. Domestic violence is evident to some degree in every society in the world. The main objective of the study was to assess the prevalence and consequences of domestic violence among married women. Methods: A community based crosssectional study was conducted in Zage from December, 2018 to February, 2019. Data was collected using a pretested structured questionnaire. Result: From 300 respondents 45% were physically abused, among these hand and leg accounts for 65.3% and 7% had ever been harmed with sharp materials. Of all the participants 35% were sexually abused, among these 61.7% had sexual intercourse against their will two to five times per year. In this study the prevalence of psychological abuse was 95%. The study noted that nearly three in four women were experienced at least one incident of domestic violence in their lifetime. Conclusion: Alarmingly, more than three quarter of women who experienced any physical violence had severe acts that could threaten them in their lifetime. This needs an urgent attention at all levels of societal hierarchy including policymakers, stakeholders and professionals to alleviate the situation.
A New User Authentication Scheme for Hierarchical Wireless Sensor Networks

Recently, Das et al. proposed a new password-based user authentication scheme in hierarchical wireless sensor networks and claimed this scheme is security against different kinds of attack. However, in this paper, we analyze their scheme and show that their scheme has some pitfalls and can be more efficient through optimize the authentication process. Then we propose an enhanced scheme to overcome the inherent weakness. The enhanced scheme achieves more secure and efficient in WSNs.
Resource optimization in relay based cooperative wireless systems under channel uncertainty

Over the last decade, the demand for wireless resources has been rising exponentially with the increase of the number of new users and services. The primary objective of wireless communication research is finding solutions to meet this increasing demand with limited radio resources. Relay based cooperative systems greatly enhance the performance of resourceconstrained wireless networks. By allowing cooperation via relays, it is possible to improve the transmission quality and energy efficiency and get similar benefits to those of multipleinput-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. However, the benefits of a relay based cooperation often depend on the channel state information (CSI) between various nodes. The CSI of such multi-hop systems is often imperfect and outdated due to channel fluctuations, limited feedback capacity, and channel estimation and quantization errors. To maximize the utilization of the radio resources, it is imperative to devise optimal resource allocation schemes that are robust under imperfect CSI. In this thesis, we consider different resource optimization problems for relay based cooperative systems and propose solutions that are robust and computationally efficient. First, we develop power allocation and relay selection schemes for a decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative wireless network under bounded channel uncertainty. We propose worst case optimization based approach to provide guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS) to the users. Next, we design a joint power allocation and admission control algorithm considering channel estimation error as unbounded Gaussian random variable. We propose a probabilisticallyconstrained optimization approach for QoS provisioning in slow fading channels. Finally, we propose to utilize user cooperation technique to establish communication among the sec-
Separating arguments from conclusions: the mistaken role of effect size in educational policy research

ABSTRACT Effect size is the basis of much evidence-based education policymaking. In particular, it is assumed to measure the educational effectiveness of interventions. Policy is being driven by the influential work of John Hattie, the Education Endowment Foundation, and others, which is grounded in this assumption. This article demonstrates the assumption is false and notes that, when criticized, proponents either attempt to inoculate themselves by listing (without checking) assumptions or use the specious reasoning that, however flawed their argument, no-one has disproved their conclusions.
Constraint-bounded polymorphism: an expressive and practical type system for object-oriented languages

We introduce and study Constraint-Bounded Polymorphism (CBP), an expressive type system for object-oriented languages. CBP advances constrained parametric polymorphism, under which declarations' type parameters can be restricted by imposing type constraints. Type constraints allow the programmer to express additional information and invariants about the code and can be checked at compile-time, reducing development time and likelihood of errors. CBP defines subtype and signature constraints with inference-based constraint solving, and allows independent parameterization and constraining of type, subtype, signature, and method declarations. This provides, in a uniform framework, a variety of known and new type system features. The new features include conditional subtyping; the known features include F-bounded polymorphism, programmer-defined co- and contravariant type parameters, Theta-style where clauses, structural subtyping, union and intersection types, and constraint-based typing of expressions. We give a formal definition of CBP and corresponding typechecking rules for a core host language, extending known approaches for constraint-based typing of expressions and typechecking of multi-methods. We establish type soundness. We provide a typechecking algorithm based on constraint solving, which is sound and terminating under certain restrictions on the structure of the source program's declarations. We validate CBP on the Vortex research compiler infrastructure, a 100,000-line Cecil program. Originally Vortex developers had not been significantly restricted by a type system (taking advantage of typechecking being optional in Cecil). We had found several coding idioms in Vortex that were not amenable to being typechecked by existing type systems, which served as a motivation for this work. We then implemented CBP in Cecil and made Vortex pass the typechecker. Our experience was that the type system was able to support almost all of the coding idioms in Vortex, occasionally with minor changes to the code. Since then, Vortex developers have reported that the type system had supported them and reduced development time. A study of Vortex after several years of its development under the typechecking discipline shows that CBP's advanced features are important for achieving static type-correctness but are used in Vortex in only a few idiomatic ways.
AFFORDANCE DESIGN REQUIREMENTS TO PROMOTE INTUITIVE USER-PRODUCT INTERACTION FOR ELDERLY USERS WITH DEMENTIA (I)

Product affordances comprise operational and functional affordances. These affordances serve different functions in intuitive user-product interactions. This study details the first year of a multiyear project involving intuitive interactions with product user interfaces. The project investigated the affordances and operational requirements of older users with dementia. The user interface of an electronic rice cooker was analyzed, and nine older adults with mild dementia were selected as the research subjects. A task analysis was conducted to elucidate the functional affordance requirements of various operational components for various operational tasks. A usability evaluation was conducted to determine the participants’ component operation behaviors and operational affordance requirements. The evaluation results also highlighted whether the affordances of the components were perceived by the participants. Findings indicated that operational affordances must be easily perceived by users and that functional affordances should conform to users’ cognitive abilities. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for developing an information system concerning component affordances that facilitate intuitive interaction. They can also serve as a reference for designing product user interfaces that promote intuitive interaction for older users with dementia.
How to make R, PostGIS and QGis cooperate for statistical modelling duties: a case study on hedonic regressions

We describe in this communication how we managed to make R, PostGIS and QGis work together to assist us in our econometric modelling of housing prices. We have evaluated different combinations of these three pieces of software that we have used extensively during the course of this research, to finally converge to the system that we are currently using. We were concerned mainly with performance (as large amounts of data are involved), spatial query capabilities, easiness to compute new spatial indicators and to take them into account in the statistical modelling, and finally spatial visualisation of statistical results and map production. As it is often the case with open source software, several possibilities exist to connect the pieces of software two by two. We tried some of them and give an insight on the results of our experiments.
Caracterización socioeconómica de las comunidades indígenas Wacoyo y Awaliba del municipio de Puerto Gaitán, Meta

El presente articulo se fundamenta en la presentacion de una linea base sobre los aspectos socioeconomicos y tecnologicos de uno de los nucleos productivos, ubicado en el municipio de Puerto Gaitan correspondiente a las comunidades indigenas Wacoyo y Awaliba. Informacion, que junto con los aspectos biofisicos permitira formular escenarios factibles relacionados con la conformacion y manejo de sistemas de produccion sostenibles, la identificacion y valoracion de alternativas productivas comerciales sostenibles, la organizacion empresarial y el fortalecimiento comunitario.
Multi-resolution segmentation parameters optimization and evaluation for VHR remote sensing image based on meanNSQI and discrepancy measure

ABSTRACT Multi-Resolution Segmentation (MRS) is known to be a general segmentation algorithm for very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing applications. The critical problems of MRS are the optimization of the parameters and the evaluation of segmentation quality. Based on the principle of maximizing the intra-object homogeneity and inter-object heterogeneity, we propose a novel Normalized Segmentation Quality Index (NSQI) and use level filtering to acquire the optimal parameters of the MRS algorithm. Using the geometric and arithmetic discrepancy between the segmented object and the reference object as the evaluation criterion, we then evaluate the quality of the segmented objects. The results of two experiments confirm the effectiveness of our meanNSQI and discrepancy measure approach. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis of the segmentation quality index demonstrates the reliability of the meanNSQI and the discrepancy measure.
Designing and Implementation of the Blended Instructional Model Based on Reigeluth, Merrill, Keller and the Investigation of Its Effect on Students’ Learning in Biology Course

Introduction Instruction and learning play an important role in the twenty-first century which has been named the knowledge society and knowledge economy. The present research seeks to design and implement a blended instructional model based on the theories of Reigeluth, Merrill, and Keller and investigate its effect on students’ learning in a biology course. Methods In this research, the pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental method with control was used. The population consisted of all second year high school students studying at Imam Khomeini high school in the 2013 - 2014 academic year. Using the random sampling method, the sample was selected and consisted of two classes, one of them as the control group and the other as the experimental group. Reliability of the research was calculated as 0.82 using the split-half method. Abundance, mean and standard deviation from descriptive statistics, and covariance methods were selected from inferential statistics, and SPSS version 20 was used to analyze data. Results The results revealed a meaningful and significant difference between the learning levels of the experimental group and the control group in a biology course (F1, 37 = 23.808; P < 0.01). The group which taught using the blended instructional design model based on the models of Reigeluth, Merrill, and Keller achieved a higher level of learning than the control group. Based on the results, it can be said that the research model has a good fit with real world data. Conclusions Use of the blended instructional design model based on Reigeluth, Merrill, and Keller’s models in a biology course was more effective than conventional methods. The findings indicate that the blended instructional design model is an effective and efficient method for teaching a biology course.
A Formal Approach to the Study of the Description of Chinese Lattice

Chinese lattice can be treated as patterns that can be widely used as design elements in modern design. However, the lack of formal descriptions of lattice makes its application process very inefficient. In this study, we utilize shape grammar as a formal approach to describe the Chinese lattice and give a complete definition for it. The formal description of Chinese lattice can clarify their unique style and greatly improve the efficiency of applying them in design practice.
Student voices: African American high school seniors' perception of culturally responsive teaching.

STUDENT VOICES: AFRICAN AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS' PERCEPTION OF CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING Whitney M. Stewart November 12, 2018 This dissertation examined African-American high school seniors’ perceptions of culturally responsive teaching in one public high school within a large urban publicschool district in the southeastern region of the United States. It begins with a brief historical overview on the plight of African-Americans in the US public education system and how public school educators have failed to leverage Afrocultural learning orientations as an asset to educate and increase the academic achievement of AfricanAmerican students in classrooms. The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference Framework (Nichols, 1986, 1995) will guide this dissertation study. The latter part of the dissertation reveals that a critical examination of Afrocultural learning orientations, specifically communalism, verve, and movement (music), and achievement has potential to improve performance, engagement, and motivation of African-American students in US public-school classrooms. This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 begins with a current snapshot of African-American students’ academic achievement and outcomes in the US publicschools system. Chapter 1 connects current trend data of African-American students’ academic achievement and outcomes to the purpose and analytical strategy of this research study. Chapter 1 also provides a definition of terms and lays out the organization of the research study. Chapter 2 gives a historical overview of African-Americans in the US educational system, reviews current literature on culturally responsive teaching and how the use of Afrocultural learning orientations has produced academic successfulness for African-American students. Chapter 3 focuses on the methodological approach used for this research. Chapter 4 focuses on research findings from the purposeful sampling of nine African-American high school seniors who were recruited through a Demographic Survey to participate in one-on-one interviews, a focus group interview, and who completed a Participant Profile sheet. Chapter 5 discusses the findings, and links the findings to implications and suggestions for future research. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iv ABSTRACT . viii CHAPTER
Innovative research on the construction of China's youth physical health promotion service system based on sensor technology

There is a certain correlation between human health and actual exercise. This has always been one of the focuses of many scholars. When analyzing the movement of human body, a lot of modern technology and equipment need to be used. In order to better realize the physical health of young people in our country, the health service system based on sensor technology has been put forward. By introducing accelerometer technology, real-time data capture and analysis of human motion posture and movement trajectory were carried out. At the same time, the reliability of the algorithm was improved. In order to verify the feasibility of the method, a practical case was verified. Experimental results showed that the method was more scientific and reasonable in motion capture analysis.
Effect of monocalcium phosphate on the physical, chemical, mechanical and biological properties of calcium silicate cement: An in vitro study

This study evaluated the effect of monocalcium phosphate (MCP) on the mechanical and biological properties of calcium silicate (CS) cement. Cements composed of CS with different weight ratios (0–40%) of MCP were prepared and their pH and compressive strength were tested using the pH detector and Universal Testing Machine, respectively. Cell viability, migration, mineralisation and differentiation were evaluated using the Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK-8), Transwell, alkaline phosphatase activity assay, Alizarin Red-S staining and real-time polymerase chain reaction, respectively. With the MCP content increase, the pH of the cements decreased from 11.5 to 8 and the compressive strength decreased from 25.81 to 3.45 MPa. The extracts of cements promoted cell proliferation, migration, osteoblastic differentiation and mineralisation when MCP was 10–20 wt-%. These suggested that MCP powder can regulate the properties of CS cement. Composite cement containing 10–20 wt-% MCP showed improved biocompatibility and mineralisation and promising for bone defect restoration.
AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF INDIVIDUAL CAULIFLOWER PLANTS FOR RAPID PHENOTYPING USING DRONE IMAGES

Abstract. Multitemporal drone surveys are a perfect tool to determine various geometric and spectral crop parameters for rapid phenotyping in field trials. Depending on the geometric resolution and the size of the crop, information at leaf level or canopy level can be obtained. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate which geometric properties can be automatically derived from high resolution drone imagery during the vegetation period. For this research approx. 1920 cauliflower with a large genetic variety were planted and monitored by five different drone surveys at an altitude of 20 m, using a high resolution 36 Mpix. RGB-camera. In order to minimize intensive radiometric calibration, BRDF effects and eliminate shade, flights were carried out at overcast skies. After photogrammetric image processing, detailed crop height models (CHM) were computed. 10 distinct crop parameters were derived from a combination of the orthophotos, the CHM and additional information. According to the phenological phase a specific set of parameters was developed for every flight. For instance, the position of the individual plants is computed right after the first flight. For the flight prior to harvesting, an algorithm for the head diameter and the curvature of the cauliflower heads was developed. Geometric parameters are generally better suited for automation, because they require less specific ground truth or reference information, than spectrally derived biophysical parameters.
Low rate audio compression using parametric spectral modeling techniques

As compression rates for audio signals approach the 1 bit/sample/Hz threshold, the applicability of parametric spectral modeling techniques is of increasing interest. This paper reports continued work in this area, in developing further the technique of adaptive predictive coding with transform domain quantization (APC-TQ). In particular, improvements in the efficiency of representation of the signal spectrum representation of the modeling of harmonic structure are addressed. <<ETX>>
Power allocation optimization for D2D communication underlaying cognitive full duplex relay networks

This paper investigates the joint use of full-duplex relay (FDR) and Device-to-Device (D2D) communication in cognitive wireless networks (CWNs). FDR not only increases the time-frequency efficiency by the time-frequency reuse compared to half-duplex relay (HDR), but also expands the network coverage by the use of the relay. In addition, D2D can enhance the wireless resource efficiency and achieve high data rates and network throughput. In the paper, we use jointly D2D and FDR to propose a new CWN model, in which the D2D link underlays the FDR link in secondary networks and D2D transmitter is arranged as a FDR node to assist the transmission between secondary users. Then we optimize the rates of the D2D link, namely improve the secondary network throughput by the transmission powers allocation of the secondary transmitter and the FDR node in the case that the good FDR link communication situation in secondary networks is guaranteed and the secondary network doesn't interfere the primary network. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed D2D communication underlaying cognitive full-duplex relay network outperforms the traditional CWNs and ones applying HDR and D2D in the secondary network throughput.
A NEW LOOK AT REFERENCE SCATTERING

It was first observed by Bradford that, for a large collection of journal references on a given subject, most of the articles are derived from a small proportion of the total titles. Bradford listed the journals concerned in order of decreasing productivity and, by plotting the logarithms of the cumulative totals of titles against the cumulative totals of relevant articles produced, he obtained a straight line. (Similar results have been obtained by many later workers. The pattern is illustrated by Table 1 which shows the distribution of references among journal titles obtained by the author during a study of literature usage in the petroleum industry.) On the basis of these results Bradford then formulated a simple mathematical model to describe reference scattering. Vickery later pointed out that this ‘law of scattering’ predicted not a straight line but a curve. Kendall has now provided a more refined statistical explanation of the straight line observed by Bradford.
Blind source separation of short duration finite alphabet signals

This paper presents a blind source separation technique for short duration, finite alphabet signals. The approach is derived by posing the BSS problem on the Grassman manifold and then successively fixing each column of the estimated source matrix. Two approaches have been described: one optimizes over the unfixed columns of S and the other optimizes over the mixing matrix, A. This approach is a compromise between the computationally intensive exhaustive search and a simple rounding approach applied to an unconstrained method. Simulation results show that this method is significantly superior to the modified SOBI algorithm, which uses a rounding approach in conjunction with second order statistical assumptions.