Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characters Recognition using Convolutional Neural Network

: Handwritten Arabic character recognition systems face several challenges, including the unlimited variation in human handwriting and large public databases. In this work, we model a deep learning architecture that can be effectively apply to recognizing Arabic handwritten characters. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a special type of feed-forward multilayer trained in supervised mode. The CNN trained and tested our database that contain 16800 of handwritten Arabic characters. In this paper, the optimization methods implemented to increase the performance of CNN. Common machine learning methods usually apply a combination of feature extractor and trainable classiﬁer. The use of CNN leads to signiﬁcant improvements across different machine-learning classiﬁcation algorithms. Our proposed CNN is giving an average 5.1% misclassiﬁcation error on testing data.
Development of a viable concrete printing process Conference or Workshop Item

A novel Concrete Printing process has been developed, inspired and informed by advances in 3D printing, which has the potential to produce highly customised building components. Whilst still in their infancy, these technologies could create a new era of architecture that is better adapted to the environment and integrated with engineering function. This paper describes the development of a viable concrete printing process with a practical example in designing and manufacturing a concrete component (called Wonder Bench) that includes service voids and reinforcement. The challenges met and those still to be overcome particularly in the evaluation of the manufacturing tolerances of prints are also discussed.
Absence of Internal Ribosome Entry Site-Mediated Tissue Specificity in the Translation of a Bicistronic Transgene

ABSTRACT The 5′ noncoding regions of the genomes of picornaviruses form a complex structure that directs cap-independent initiation of translation. This structure has been termed the internal ribosome entry site (IRES). The efficiency of translation initiation was shown, in vitro, to be influenced by the binding of cellular factors to the IRES. Hence, we hypothesized that the IRES might control picornavirus tropism. In order to test this possibility, we made a bicistronic construct in which translation of the luciferase gene is controlled by the IRES of Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus. In vitro, we observed that the IRES functions in various cell types and in macrophages, irrespective of their activation state. In vivo, we observed that the IRES is functional in different tissues of transgenic mice. Thus, it seems that the IRES is not an essential determinant of Theiler’s virus tropism. On the other hand, the age of the mouse could be critical for IRES function. Indeed, the IRES was found to be more efficient in young mice. Picornavirus IRESs are becoming popular tools in transgenesis technology, since they allow the expression of two genes from the same transcription unit. Our results show that the Theiler’s virus IRES is functional in cells of different origins and that it is thus a broad-spectrum tool. The possible age dependency of the IRES function, however, could be a drawback for gene expression in adult mice.
The Role of the Pension Fund Trustee

Preface Foreword Trusts Trustees An Outline of State Pensions, Occupational Pensions and Personal Pensions Taxation and Revenue Limits Investment The Financial Services Act 1986 Responsibilities of Trustees Trustees' Discretionary Powers Disclosure Accounts and Trustees' Reports Equal Treatment Preservation and Transfers Funding and Surpluses Pensions on Divorce Accountability of Trustees The Liability of Trustees Delegation, Conflict and Disagreement Merger and Winding Up Glossary of Terms Appendices
BONUS ISSUE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ITS IMPACT ON SHARE PRICES OF COLOMBO STOCK

Over the year‟s bonus issues announcements and share prices have been subjected to many empirical discussions within the finance literatures. To the knowledge of the researchers very few studies have attempted to observe bonus issue announcement and share prices in Sri Lanka. In attempt to fill this research gap the present study initiated to find out the impact of bonus issue announcements on share prices. Primary information and secondary data were collected from Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The present study used the „standardevent study methodology‟ to examine the impact of bonus issues announcement on share prices. The study identified sixty-seven events (32 Companies) listed in the CSE for the period from year 2003 to 2007. These sixty-seven events were divided into financial sector and non financial sector. Several interrelated procedures were performed through t-test by the researchers during the data analysis procedures. Operational hypotheses were formulated and results revealed that 43% of Abnormal Returns (ARs) are positively and 57% of ARs are negatively on the event day “0” (announcement day). In addition the bonus issue announcements have insignificant impact on share price of the CSE i.e., 5% level or 10% level of significance. Outcomes of the study will be useful to the academicians, practitioners, policy makers and investors for making suitable policy formulations for the companies. Further the companies are able to decide a suitable polices in executing their financial decisions without harming to the market value of the shares. For full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac. lk
Immunization practices in acute lymphocytic leukemia and post-hematopoietic stem cell transplant in Canadian Pediatric Hematology/Oncology centers

ABSTRACT There are no Canadian immunization guidelines for children treated for malignancy. Guidelines do exist for patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), but they provide broad timeframes for initiating vaccination; there is no standard schedule. The optimal approach to immunization in these populations is unclear. We sought to describe immunization practices at Canadian Pediatric Hematology/Oncology centers. A 43-item online questionnaire was distributed to the 16 programs in the C17 research network of pediatric hematology/oncology centers to capture information on timing and criteria for immunization of patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and those who have undergone HSCT. At each center, 1–2 physicians or pharmacists completed the survey to reflect center-wide immunization practices. Responses were received from 11/16 (69%) programs; 11 respondents reported on practices for patients with ALL and 9 reported on practices for patients who are post-HSCT. In 5/11 ALL programs (45%) re-immunization is recommended routinely after chemotherapy, starting 3–6 months post-chemotherapy. In HSCT programs, timing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccination (PCV) varied from 3 months post-HSCT (4 programs) to 12 months post-HSCT (4 programs). Live vaccines were administered 24 months post-HSCT in 8/9 programs. All HSCT programs considered graft-versus-host-disease and 7 considered discontinuation of immunosuppression in immunization decisions. Pediatric hematology/oncology programs were divided in regards to re-immunization of patients with ALL post-chemotherapy. After HSCT, timing of PCV administration varied, with 4 programs initiating immunization later than Canadian guidelines recommend (3–9 months post-HSCT). These findings suggest a need to standardize immunization practices in these populations.
Dealer Behavior and the Trading of Newly Issued Corporate Bonds

This study examines dealer behavior and trading activity for a sample of 3,181 newly issued corporate bonds, focusing on underpricing at issuance and subsequent price dispersion. Unlike the equity market, the measured underpricing is the result of both an ex-ante pricing decision made by the bonds' underwriters and significant price dispersion that occurs in the after-market for trading corporate bonds. For the full sample, underpricing averages 45 basis points (BP) for investment grade and 124 BP for high yield offerings. In the aftermarket, customers purchasing a bond on the same day from the same dealer frequently pay prices differing by over $2 (per $100 face amount). However, the introduction of transparency is associated with a reduction in underpricing and aftermarket price dispersion. Whether these gains are potentially passed on to issuing companies is less clear, as non-syndicate member dealers account for a significant proportion of after-market trading activity and price dispersion. Finally, regardless of transparency regime, there is no evidence that dealers in newly issued bonds accumulate significant inventory positions, even when issues subsequently trade below the offering price.
A Generic Multi-Modulus Divider Architecture for Fractional-N Frequency Synthesisers

This paper describes the design of a new technique and architecture of multi-modulus divider for Sigma-Delta fractional-N PLL frequency synthesisers. The proposed architecture uses a memory-controlled technique that can achieve a wider range of prescaler modulus values, more flexible operation, and lower power dissipation. It has been implemented in an FPGA in conjunction the store-sequence architecture and a range of Sigma-Delta modulators. Both simulated and measured results are shown to demonstrate that a substantial improvement in performance is possible.
Credit Rationing as Another Cause of Financial Crisis: Evidence from Thailand

This paper examines the credit market to determine whether slow growth was caused by problems in credit markets as many scholars have suggested. In particular, the question of how a rise in interest rates affects behaviors of the banks and the firms, and how and to what extent credit restriction affects sales and growth were investigated. The model developed in the paper suggests that when loan terms are not restricted, lenders will statistically discriminate against small firms. In other words lenders will charge small firms higher interest rates. When loan contract terms are restricted, lenders might ration credit buy not lending to small firms that have higher risks. However, when interest rates are high, large firms might self-select out of the loan markets because they have other alternatives to cope with credit problem. The analysis from Thai data during the financial crisis reveals that Thailand faced mild credit rationing problems before the crises. The problem became stronger, but not severe, during the crises. Trade credit-borrowing ratio and the results from our regression equation suggest that the self-selection problem was more pronounced during the crises. However, even though problems of credit rationing and adverse selection did occur, the importance of trade credits and borrowing on sales declined during the crises.
Electrophoretic light scattering

Under a microscope, electrophoretic mobilities of visible particles can be determined in a free solution without any boundary or zonal separation. Electrophoretic light scattering based on the Doppler velocimetry can be taken as a nanometer‐scale version of the above traditional electrophoresis. An electrophoretic light scattering apparatus was developed to enable mobility determination of proteins and surfactant micelles which have been outside the range of the electrophoresis.
Group Think, Organizational Strategy, and Change

This department highlights change management strategies that may be successful in strategically planning and executing organizational change initiatives. With the goal of presenting practical approaches helpful to nurse leaders advancing organizational change, content includes evidence-based projects, tools, and resources that mobilize and sustain organizational change initiatives. In this article, the author discusses group think and the effect on organizational strategy and sustainable change.
Transportation Network Routing Models

O RNL has a staff with extensive experience in network modeling for freight and vehicle traffic on the highway, rail, and waterway networks in the United States. The modeling capability includes the ability to do intermodal routing analysis. The Oak Ridge National Highway Network contains approximately 500,000 miles of roadway in the US, Canada, and Mexico, including virtually all federal highways, rural arterials, and urban principal arterials in the US. Geographic accuracy is generally 100 m. It includes a large attribute set relevant to routing. The CTA Railroad Network is a representation of the North American railroad system that contains every active railroad route in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Corporate structure, a key to the simulation of routing, is explicitly temporal, allowing historical studies and comparisons. Supporting data on interlines and corporate ancestry allows the construction of routable networks for a specific target date. ORNL also uses the Corps of Engineers national waterway network to model movements of waterborne commerce. This includes navigable inland and coastal waterways, locks, ports, world-wide seaways, and the Commodity Flow Survey.
Practice Advisory for the Prevention and Management of Operating Room Fires

Practice Advisory for the Prevention and Management of Operating Room Fires: An Updated Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Operating Room Fires Jeffrey Apfelbaum;Robert Caplan;Steven Barker;Richard Connis;Charles Cowles;Jan Ehrenwerth;David Nickinovich;Donna Pritchard;David Roberson;Robert Caplan;Steven Barker;Richard Connis;Charles Cowles;Albert de Richemond;Jan Ehrenwerth;David Nickinovich;Donna Pritchard;David Roberson;Gerald Wolf; Anesthesiology
Urban wastewater and agricultural reuse challenges in India

Urban wastewater management has become a challenge in India as infrastructural development and regulations have not kept pace with population growth and urbanization. Annually, more and more people are moving into cities, and the figures are expected to reach about 600 million by 2030 making India more peri-urban than rural. This study attempted to analyze the current status of wastewater generation, its uses and livelihood benefits especially in agriculture, based on national data and case studies from Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Kolkata.
On process noise covariance estimation

This paper proposes a method for estimating the process noise covariance matrix, using multiple Kalman filters. The basic idea is to employ the difference between the expected prediction error covariance, calculated in the Kalman filters, and the measured prediction error covariance. The required estimate of the process noise covariance is obtained by solving a least squares problem. One simulated example is used to illustrate the main benefits of the proposed method.
Do we need other guidelines ?

Our space came into existence by the Big Bang, a huge explosion of the singularity. Nowadays we are living in the middle of the second explosion, explosion of information and guidelines. During our professional lives we are looking for information all the time and the ability to find information quickly and efficiently and to process it correctly is highly appreciated. Guidelines are a form of already preprocessed information. There are clinical practice guidelines on different issues everywhere. More than 2000 medical guidelines (anaesthesiology 11, critical care medicine 3) are currently represented in the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (www.guideline.gov), an American public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. There are plenty of American guidelines concerning anaesthesia and intensive/critical care medicine developed by different societies, respected are for instance American College of Cardiology / American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) 2007 Guidelines on Perioperative Cardiovascular Evaluation and Care for Non-Cardiac Surgery (2) or AHA Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (3). In Europe there are four common European guidelines of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) (e.g. Guidelines for safety and quality in anaesthesia practice in the European Union) (1); then exist guidelines developed by individual national expert societies. Briefly, there is an inflation of guidelines. The situation is even worse because there are not only clinical practice guidelines but also other tools including clinical decision rules and clini-
Scalable funding of Bitcoin micropayment channel networks

The Bitcoin network has scalability problems. To increase its transaction rate and speed, micropayment channel networks have been proposed; however, these require to lock funds into specific channels. Moreover, the available space in the blockchain does not allow scaling to a worldwide payment system. We propose a new layer that sits in between the blockchain and the payment channels. The new layer addresses the scalability problem by enabling trustless off-blockchain channel funding. It consists of shared accounts of groups of nodes that flexibly create one-to-one channels for the payment network. The new system allows rapid changes of the allocation of funds to channels and reduces the cost of opening new channels. Instead of one blockchain transaction per channel, each user only needs one transaction to enter a group of nodes—within the group the user can create arbitrarily many channels. For a group of 20 users with 100 intra-group channels, the cost of the blockchain transactions is reduced by 90% compared to 100 regular micropayment channels opened on the blockchain. This can be increased further to 96% if Bitcoin introduces Schnorr signatures with signature aggregation.
The PantoScope: a spherical remote-center-of-motion parallel manipulator for force reflection

Force reflecting manual man-machine interfaces can provide the user with useful kinesthetic information in teleoperation tasks and virtual reality applications. In this paper we discuss the design of a novel spherical remote-center-of-motion manipulator for force reflection in a laparoscopic surgery simulation environment. A description of the pantograph-linkage based parallel structure is presented together with a discussion of its direct and inverse geometric models, instantaneous kinematics and statics, and usable workspace.
Calcium transport in the endolymphatic space of cochlea and vestibular organ.

Ca++ concentrations and d.c. potential within the endolymphatic space of the cochlear duct and the semicircular canal following acute anoxia or ethacrynic acid intoxication (100 mg/kg i.v.) were measured by means of double-barrelled microelectrodes. Ionic calcium content and d.c. potential were found to change in a roughly biphasic fashion after either intervention. The maximal increase in Ca++ concentration coincided with the decline in the d.c. potential, which after a rapid decline finally reached and maintained negative voltages. This phenomenon was more pronounced in the cochlear part than in the semicircular canal. A model of calcium homeostasis is proposed in an attempt to reconcile the data presented with earlier evidence.
Making the HR Outsourcing Decision

Outsourcing has become increasingly attractive for many organizations. Much attention has focused recently on the outsourcing of staffing. A much less noticed, though growing, business has been that for human-resources business-process outsourcing, or HR-BPO. Some observers see outsourcing as a key trend shaping the future of HR. outsourcing any business activity creates potential risks as well as benefits. This article synthesizes the strongest of the available research and identifies the six key factors that companies should consider when making important outsourcing decisions: 1. dependency risks, 2. spillover risks, 3. trust, 4. relative proficiency, 5. strategic capabilities, and 6. commitment versus flexibility. The six factors of outsourcing were major considerations in a landmark outsourcing deal that BP signed with Exult Inc. in December 1999.
Racial differences in renal transplantation after immunosuppression with tacrolimus versus cyclosporine. FK506 Kidney Transplant Study Group.

BACKGROUND Results of a multicenter, randomized, clinical trial demonstrated that tacrolimus was more effective than cyclosporine in preventing acute rejection in cadaveric renal transplant patients. As African-Americans comprised approximately 25% of the study population, their outcome was analyzed relative to the experience of Caucasian patients. METHODS Of the 205 patients randomized to tacrolimus, 56 (27.3%) were African-American and 114 (55.6%) were Caucasian. Of the 207 patients randomized to cyclosporine, 48 (23.2%) were African-American and 123 (59.4%) were Caucasian. The efficacy variables were 1-year patient survival, graft survival, and incidence of acute rejection. RESULTS The incidence of acute rejection was significantly lower in African-American and Caucasian patients treated with tacrolimus than with cyclosporine. Additionally, no African-American patient who was treated with tacrolimus experienced moderate or severe acute rejection, as determined by blinded independent review. The incidence of nephrotoxicity, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal events, malignancies, and opportunistic infections was similar between treatments and race groups. However, there was an increased incidence of posttransplant diabetes mellitus in tacrolimus-treated patients, particularly in African-Americans, and tacrolimus was associated with significantly lower lipid levels in both Caucasians and African-Americans. African-American patients required a 37% mean higher dose of tacrolimus than Caucasian patients to achieve comparable blood concentrations. CONCLUSIONS Tacrolimus is more effective than cyclosporine in preventing acute rejection in both African-American and Caucasian patients. However, tacrolimus was associated with an increased risk of posttransplant diabetes mellitus, particularly in African-Americans, which was reversible in some patients.
Economics of Climate Change in East Asia

Excerpt] This study addresses the economics of climate change in selected countries in the East Asian region, focusing on the People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Mongolia. It is one in a series that ADB has been conducting for the Asia and the Pacific region, starting with the “Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia: A Regional Review,” and the “Economics of Climate Change in the Pacific. ” Further studies in preparation include similar topics in South Asia and Central West Asia. The importance of the East Asian region in terms of addressing the impact of climate change has significant consequences that cross regional boundaries and affect the world. East Asia is a uniquely important region for climate change. As an export-oriented industrial powerhouse, the region accounts for roughly 30% of the world’s total energy-related emissions. This suggests that initiatives to mitigate climate change must include the region. From a country perspective, the region is vulnerable to the impact of climate change. For instance, three urban areas or megacities in the region—Guangzhou and Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Osaka/Kobe in Japan—are among the top 10 urban areas in the world severely exposed to sealevel rise. Further, climate change, if not addressed, may reduce yields of key crops in the PRC, thus increasing reliance upon food imports, and could exacerbate land degradation and desertification in Mongolia. This study is an advance over previous global and regional studies on climate change economics in several important ways. It explores the economics of climate change adaptation at a subnational scale (i.e., provinces or regions), incorporates more climate scenarios, and examines climate uncertainty in more depth than previous work. Moreover, this study explicitly combines the costs of adaptation and mitigation into a single framework, while exploring linkages with the global economy.