Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer facial animation for sign language visualization

Sign Language is a fully-fledged natural language possessing its own syntax and grammar; a fact which implies that the problem of machine translation from a spoken source language to Sign Language is at least as difficult as machine translation between two spoken languages. Sign Language, however, is communicated in a modality fundamentally different from all spoken languages. Machine translation to Sign Language is therefore burdened not only by a mapping from one syntax and grammar to another, but also, by a non-trivial transformation from one communicational modality to another. With regards to the computer visualization of Sign Language; what is required is a three dimensional, temporally accurate, visualization of signs including both the manual and nonmanual components which can be viewed from arbitrary perspectives making accurate understanding and imitation more feasible. Moreover, given that facial expressions and movements represent a fundamental basis for the majority of non-manual signs, any system concerned with the accurate visualization of Sign Language must rely heavily on a facial animation component capable of representing a well-defined set of emotional expressions as well as a set of arbitrary facial movements. This thesis investigates the development of such a computer facial animation system. We address the problem of delivering coordinated, temporally constrained, facial animation sequences in an online environment using VRML. Furthermore, we investigate the animation, using a muscle model process, of arbitrary three-dimensional facial models consisting of multiple aligned NURBS surfaces of varying refinement. Our results showed that this approach is capable of representing and manipulating high fidelity three-dimensional facial models in such a manner that localized distortions of the models result in the recognizable and realistic display of human facial expressions and that these facial expressions can be displayed in a coordinated, synchronous manner. III Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
THE ROLE OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SAFETY CULTURE IN AN OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION COMPANY IN ASALOUYEH, BUSHEHR PROVINCE, IRAN, IN2015

Received: August 2015, Accepted: October 2015 Background: One of the necessities of industrial societies is the application of developed measures/strategies for the prevention of occupational incidents in industrial companies. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the role of the safety management system on safety culture of an oil and gas exploration and production company. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 240 participants, chosen through simple random sampling, based on the research goals, statistical society size, and the Krejcie and Morgan table. For data collection, the Safety Management System Questionnaire, with a Cronbach’s α of 0.96, and the Safety Culture Questionnaire, with a Cronbach’sα of 0.91, were utilized after determining their validity. The gathered data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL softwares. Results: First level confirmatory factor analysis was performed with the use of LISREL package on 5 factors of encouraging/motivating employees to observe safety tips, educating employees on safety tips, safety policies in organizations, safety control in organizations, and urgent planning in organizations. The results showed that all the indices on obtained values were very desirable. In addition, the results of this research indicated that there was a statistically positive, meaningful relationship between the variable of safety management system and its components (i.e., safety policies, employees’ motivators, safety education, urgent prevention plans, and internal control), and safety culture (P<0.01). High education levels of the employees had meaningful impacts on the safety management system (P<0.01). However, there was no statistically significant relationship between the education level and occupational background of the employees and the company’s safety culture (P>0.05). Conclusions: The results of the present paper proved that the safety management system and its components play an important role in the development of the safety culture of an oil company. Therefore, notifying the related authorities of this fact in order to establish a safety management system is a vital issue.
EQUILIBRIUM MODEL FOR CARPOOLS ON AN URBAN NETWORK

Traffic equilibrium methods are presented in which the population of motorists consists of individuals who are minimizers of a linear combination of cost and travel time. The relative importance of travel time versus cost varies across the population, but fairly mild conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium can nevertheless be identified. The paradigm is of particular interest for carpooling studies because the occupants of carpools can divide the cost among themselves but they cannot do the same with the travel time. Thus, vehicles that have different occupancies compete for segments of the roads that are crowded or have tolls. It is therefore very useful to predict the impacts of special carpooling lanes, lower tolls for high-occupancy vehicles, and other transportation-system-management strategies on the distribution of traffic over an urban network.
Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration from bulb, leaf and root explants of African blue lily (Agapanthus praecox ssp. minimus)

The African blue lily (Agapanthus praecox ssp. minimus) is a valuable plant, reported to contain medicinal compounds such as saponins, sapogenins and phytoecdysteroids, besides gaining popularity as an ornamental and landscape species. This paper reports on high efficiency and rapid in vitro propagation of Agapanthus praecox ssp. minimus via somatic embryogenesis from tissues derived from sterile root, leaf and bulb explants obtained from one-month-old aseptic seedlings of this species. Detailed observations on developmental stages of somatic embryos (from globular to coleoptilar) of this monocotyledonous species were also reported in the present investigation. Friable callus which gave rise to high plant regeneration rate (95%) was lucratively produced within 1-2 months after the explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with picloram, 2,4-D, TDZ and combinations of NAA and BAP (0.5 mg/L to 2.0 mg/L). Subsequently, the proliferated calli were transferred onto the same media compositions at 2 weeks interval to encourage extensive production of somatic embryos, followed by transferring to plant growth regulator-free MS medium for complete plant regeneration. Analysis of results showed that explant types highly influenced the degree of response to hormone treatments, whereby root explants were the most responsive. Picloram (a systemic herbicide) was the most effective in inducing somatic embryogenesis from leaf explants, while 2,4-D had excellent influence on root and bulb explants. Further development of somatic embryos to complete plantlets was achieved on MS basal medium. Regenerated plantlets were then hardened and acclimatized on black (peat) soil with 86.67  6.31% survival rate. Scanning electron microscopic studies on leaf tissues showed no morphological variations between the in vivo and in vitro grown plants, hence mass propagation through tissue culture for true-to-type production of this species is feasible.
Environmental indicators of ecological integrity and their development for running waters in northern Portugal

The recognition of deleterious effects of the destruction and loss of habitats (e.g. regularization of rivers, dredging, water diversion), chemical pollution, eutrophication, and climatic alterations on the aquatic organisms, as a result of human activities, combined with an urgent need of a more environmentally sensitive and ecologically sustainable management of Portuguese river systems , made us seek methods that assess the ecological condition of these systems. This article tries to make a revision of the concept of ecological integrity and the methods commonly used to assess it. Different approaches to establish the reference condition for bio-assessment are also indicated. Finally it shows the new methodologies that have been developed in Portugal for assessing the ecological condition of streams and new directions in the evaluation processes based on a better understanding of the entire aquatic ecosystem are also pointed out. An enormous challenge consists in the integration of various measurements of riverine attributes founded on key ecological processes, and in the development of more dynamic approaches that might together establish river condition and their dependence along multiple temporal and spatial scales.
The Timing of Endogenous Wage Setting under Bertrand Competition in a Unionized Mixed Duopoly

The paper examines the timing of endogenous wage setting under Bertrand competition in a unionized mixed duopoly. The results are that when the public firm chooses the timing of wage setting: (1) sequential wage setting is the outcome and (2) simultaneous wage setting is the outcome. The first result coincides with the choices of the private firm, its union, and the union of the public firm if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently large. This result is in contrast to the findings of prior literature. However, but the second result does not coincide between firms and their unions if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently small. However, simultaneous wage setting is more likely to improve the welfare if imperfect substitutability is sufficiently small. Furthermore, we find that the impact of sequential wage setting on the equilibrium path is lower in terms of improving welfare than the other outcome of sequential wage setting.
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE U.S. BEEF AND PORK SECTORS: IMPACTS ON FARM-WHOLESALE MARKETING MARGINS AND LIVESTOCK PRICES

Real livestock prices and farm-wholesale marketing margins have steadily declined over the past 20 years. Many studies have examined the effects of increasing packer concentration on these declines. However, most have generally failed to account directly for technological change in livestock production and red meat slaughtering. We estimate reduced form models for beef and pork farm-wholesale marketing margins and cattle and hog prices that specifically include measures of technological change. Empirical results indicate that meat packing technology has reduced real margins and technological change embodied in cattle and hog production accounts for substantial declines in real slaughter cattle and hog prices. When technological change is explicitly considered, we find that increasing packer concentration: (1) does not affect real farm-wholesale marketing margins, (2) positively affects real slaughter cattle prices, and (3) does not affect real slaughter hog prices.
Customer retention through customer relationship management: The exploration of two-way communication and conflict handling

Organisations such as banks and short-term insurance organisations become more aware of the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) and its potential to help them acquire new customers, retain existing ones and maximise their lifetime value. A close relationship with customers will require a strong coordination between information technology (IT) and marketing departments to provide a long-term retention of selected customers. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the influence of selected independent variables, two-way communication and conflict handling on intentional customer loyalty via CRM as the intervening variable at a South African shortterm insurance organisation. Primary data were gathered using a questionnaire, with items referring to CRM, customer loyalty, two-way communication and conflict handling. The sample consisted of 254 customers in four major centres in South Africa. Data were factor-analysed. One independent variable, conflict handling exerted a statistically significant positive influence on the intervening variable (CRM), while two-way communication exerted a statistically significant negative influence on the intervening variable (CRM). The intervening variable (CRM) positively influenced the dependent variable (Customer Loyalty). If short-term insurance organisations communicate timeously and accurately, and are skilled in conflict handling, greater loyalty will be created among customers.
Social Capital in Dealing with Neo-Patrimonial Governance of Street Vendors

-This paper is intended to examine networks made by street vendors in dealing with local government actions affecting their livelihood. The study shows that the local governments dominate the process of decision-making, and governance of street vendors still continues through a top-down approach. The tradition of a centralistic approach compounded by the neo-patrimonial governance in public decision making is not entirely removed yet. The study concludes that creating social capital is essential for survival as a street trader in the urban areas. The more links street vendors have the more likely they are to be able to survive; those who have the least networks with other stakeholders are the most vulnerable.
Numerical Study of Elastic Wave Propagation Characteristics in Cracked Rock

Numerical methods can provide extremely powerful tools for analysis and design of engineering systems with complex factors that are not possible or very difficult with the use of the conventional methods. In this paper, we use the 2-D boundary element method (BEM) program to model elastic wave excited by a point explosive source propagating in cracked rocks. As an example, we consider the typical crack distributions in rocks, both models for the real crack structure are also talked about. The elastic wave propagating in rocks with aligned cracks and parallel fractures is assumed. Effects of different crack parameters, such as crack scale length and crack density are analyzed. Numerical results show that the BEM is a powerful interpretive tool for understanding the complicated wave propagation and interaction in cracked solids.
MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

i RELEASE FORM . ii APPROVAL FORM. iii LIST OF TABLES . vi DEDICATIONS . vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . viii DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS . ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS . x INTRODUCTION . 1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY . 1 PROBLEM STATEMENT . 10 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES . 11 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY . 12 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK . 13 RESEARCH METHODS . 15 Research Approach . 15 Research Design . 15 Sampling Procedure. 16 Sample Frame . 16 Sample Size . 16 Sources of Data . 17 Primary data . 18 Secondary data . 18 Research Instruments . 18 Questionnaire . 18 Personal interviews . 19 Ethical Considerations. 19 Limitationsto Research . 19 Delimitations . 20 DATA PRESENTATION . 21 DATA ANALYSIS . 37 RECOMMENDATIONS . 47
Macroeconomic News “Surprises” and the Rand/Dollar Exchange Rate

Abstract Economic theory in the context of floating exchange rates has focussed on underlying medium and long term directions of exchange rate movements. Daily volatility is less well understood. One theory that offers an explanation for short-term exchange rate movements is that of the efficient market hypothesis or EMH. Its application to the forex market allows exchange rate movements to be understood as the reaction of traders to relevant news. In an efficient market traders react to news and specifically to surprise news events which necessitate a re-evaluation of the currency value. We test for the validity of this hypothesis in the context of the daily rand/dollar forex market over a three-year period, adding an emerging market case to the literature. We test the significance of macroeconomic news surprises -measured by the difference between actual and forecast data - in driving daily exchange rates. We find that surprises in both real and nominal variables cause a statistically significant reaction in the exchange rate. The results support an asymmetry between news of different origin as only surprises that originate in the U.S. prove significant. Good news also seems to receive greater attention from traders than bad news in our sample. Finally, we find that the statistical significance of variables is time-varying.
Empowerment and Professional Ethics in Functional Context of Design, Cost, and Construction Working Teams

In view of the diversified requirements arising from the organizational changes affecting knowledge workers, it is uncertain how knowledge workers are empowered and whether the empowerment process can be differentiated among working teams carrying out different functions. Although the theory of empowerment and research is well-established, there exists a knowledge gap with regard to the question of whether acting in an ethical way on the job is empowering and whether this similarly applies to knowledge workers carrying different job functions. Yet, no work has been done to determine how ethical codes fit in the empowerment process. Since empowerment can be experienced via the form of “performance expectancy or the belief in personal efficacy”, an industry case approach is used to evaluate empowerment profiles in functional context of professional knowledge workers striving for high level of ethical codes laid out by professional organizations. It is contended that people are more empowered if they hold ethical values relating to those stipulated by the professional institutions. In this case, ethical principles are adopted as the structural variables to study empowerment in this research. Data were collected via a survey of professional workers in the field of cost, design and construction functions. Quantitative analysis is carried out with 138 responses using general statistical instrument and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings suggest that even within the same industry, professional workers of different functions exhibit different relationships between their empowerment profiles and the professional ethics they abide by. The results show that there are variances in the job functions. This study contributes to the literature of empowerment and the construction industry, in generating an insight that ethical value is one important denominator of empowerment.
Modelling trends in the digital sphere - a comparison of two methods

Corporate governance involves the management of conflicting interests amongst relevant stakeholders. Proximate stakeholders, such as shareholders, customers, suppliers and personnel, have relatively clear means at their disposal to influence the decision process; distant stakeholders and society at large rely on voice (e.g. public opinion) or coercion (e.g. regulation/litigation) to influence corporate governance. We explore the feasibility of formalizing the analysis of such measures by gathering data in the public digital sphere and modelling the formation of voice using two models of non-linear trend analysis. The ultimate goal is to be able to make early predictions on the prevalence and timing of a dominant voice. In this paper we will introduce data exemplars generated by SWAMMER and preliminary modelling results obtained through these models.
Development of a neural network to predict the final geometry of forged rings after cooling

Distortions can affect steel-made components during the cooling phase that follows hot forging operations determining deformations that can induce permanent damage with the consequence that the effective geometry at room temperature can substantially differ from the nominal one. This is due to phenomena occurring during this step of the productive process and, mainly, to phase transformations and non-homogeneous boundary conditions [1]. Nowadays, only few pieces in a batch are measured at room temperature: in such a way, anomalies occurred during the forging process can be detected only after a large number of components have been produced. From this stand-point, if final dimensions could be known from the forming stage, it would be possible to eventually have a retroactive control on the process itself. The possibility to reach this aim is strictly linked to the capability to accurately model the cooling phase after deformation taking into account all the phenomena occurring during it [2]. However, this task turns out to be quite difficult, mainly due to the coupling effects between phenomena that are not easy to be identified and quantified. Neural networks can represent the most suitable tool to reach the proposed aim, as they are able to infer the complex relationships existing between parameters, the knowledge of whose effects is not known a priori. The objective of the paper is to prove the possibility to utilise a well-trained neural network to predict the final geometry of rectangular section rings at room temperature after ring rolling operations. A large number of ANNs characterized by different topologies have been considered and evaluated in terms of accuracy in predicting final dimensions of rings, identifying the most suitable network; the training phase has been performed on a database of different geometries obtained through a calibrated numerical model of the cooling phase. In particular, data about material behaviour (42CD4 steel) during cooling have been introduced in the numerical model so that it could accurately reproduce the industrial reference process. Then, the testing phase of the neural model has been conducted on a set of geometries that hasn’t been used for training. Finally the neural network-based model has been industrially validated. ABSTRACT: The paper deals with an application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to predict the geometry of hot forged pieces after cooling. Different ANNs have been considered and evaluated; then a network with two hidden layers has been set up. Training and testing data have been obtained through calibrated numerical simulations of the cooling phase carried out with a finite element (F.E.) code. The good agreement between predicted and numerical results confirms the possibility of using well-trained neural network to foresee final dimensions of pieces after hot forging operations.
Oops: An Introduction to Seismic Wavefield Visualization

rd Science Solutions, Calgary, Alberta slync h@3rdScience.com Summary Despite all of the processes that we apply to our data, both processing and interpretation are ultimately visual sciences and our ability to make informed decisions rests heavily upon the effectiveness of the display at communicating coherent seismic information. Conventional seismic displays, however, cannot be considered as true seismic displays; they are seismic amplitude displays. A seismic wavefield is not defined by amplitude alone. It is continuous in both time and space and the amplitudes we record only represent one small part of the total wavefield. To fully visualize a seismic wavefield we must also visualize the connections between the amplitudes. It is my assertion that those connections contain far more information than the amplitudes alone and that by ignoring them we discard entire levels-of-detail of significant coherent information. A single unmigrated seismic section is examined using both conventional seismic amplitude displays and various seismic wavefield displays with the intent of proving that conventional seismic amplitude displays are incapable of imaging what should be visually dominating coherent features. An argument is made that we should adopt seismic wavefield displays for both processing and interpretation and that we should begin investigation of the features that they reveal.