Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Echocardiographic evaluation of ventricular septal defects

Ventricular septal defects (VSDs) are the most common forms of acyanotic congenital heart disease accounting for 37% of congenital heart disease in children. A VSD is defined by parts of the ventricular septum involved. There are four major types of VSDs: perimembranous, muscular, outlet, and inlet VSDs. Echocardiography is the most important clinical tool to help diagnose and characterize a VSD. Although most VSDs are clinically nonsignificant or close on their own, echocardiography with Doppler and color flow mapping can be used to provide accurate anatomic and hemodynamic evaluation of VSDs in order to determine if surgical or transcatheter‐based intervention is needed. Hence, understanding how to use echocardiography to characterize VSDs is of crucial importance when caring for patients with adult congenital heart disease.
Raman studies on species in aqueous solutions. Part II. Oxy-species of metals of Groups VIA, VA, and IVA

Raman and infrared spectra have been measured of solutions of oxides of metals of Groups VIA, VA, and IVA in aqueous hydrofluoric, hydrochloric, and perchloric acids. Evidence was obtained for the existence in such solutions of fluoro- and chloro-complexes of molybdenum and tungsten with cis-dioxo-ligands, of mono-oxo-pentahalogeno-species of niobium and vanadium, and of unsubstituted halogeno-complexes of tantalum, titanium, zirconium, and hafnium. Polynuclear complexes were formed in perchloric acid solutions.
An initialization method for SLIC algorithm based on concentration index

In this paper, hyperspectral image is taken as the research background. In order to solve the problem of under_segmentation or over_segmentation caused by artificial empirical value initialization for superpixel number (K value) in SLIC algorithm, a method based on concentration index is proposed to improve the accuracy of superpixel boundary segmentation and reduce the time cost of operation by initializing the K value properly.Before the segmentation, we use DPC algorithm to select several representative bands of HSI to reconstruct the image, reducing the bands redundancy and weakening the noise interference. Conducting experiments on Indian pines data_set and comparing results with method of empirical value, it is found that the method based on the concentration index can improve the efficiency of SLIC algorithm effectively.
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Hidden Markov Model for Hand Movement Recognition with Surface Electromyography

Surface Electromyography (sEMG) gesture recognition plays an important role in developing Muscle-Computer Interface (MCI) system and myoelectric controlled assistive devices. Its recognition accuracy is greatly affected by the selection of classifiers. This paper evaluates the performance of Hidden Markov Model (HMM)-based sEMG hand gesture recognition on the large scale Non-Invasive Adaptive Hand Prosthetic (NinaPro) Database. We conduct an HMM-based hand gesture recognition framework using sEMG signal and make comprehensive evaluations of three HMM classifiers (HMM with Gaussian emission (Gaussian-HMM), HMM with Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM-HMM) and Semi-Continuous-HMM (SCHMM)) using the Within-Subject cross-validation (WSCV). Our evaluation is based on three commonly used feature sets, and the experiments are conducted on seven benchmark databases of the NinaPro Database. The experimental results on the whole NinaPro Database show that SCHMM classifier consistently achieves the best performance among the evaluated HMM classifiers. This work presents comprehensive evaluation of three commonly used HMM classifiers on the benchmark database NinaPro and also proposes a new feature sets during the evaluation.
Kinetics of the localised transition model for thermoluminescence

The system of rate equations which describes the localised transition model for thermoluminescence is solved numerically. First-order glow curves have been obtained for all of the trap parameters considered. Detrapping of electrons occurs preferentially via the localised transition at low heating rates and via the conduction band at high heating rates. The heating-rate method can be used to determine the depths of the electron trap below the localised excited state and the conduction band.
Studies of nitrous oxide emission from a grass sward

The exchange of nitrous oxide (N/sub 2/O) between soils and the atmosphere is believed to play an important part in controlling stratospheric ozone levels, but so far, very little information is available on rates of emission or absorption of N/sub 2/O by soils in the field. The paper reports measurements of N/sub 2/O exchange made over 5 months from winter to summer in an unfertilized, mown, grass sward. Ambient air was drawn continuously in an open flow system through the above-ground portion of a steel cylinder driven into the ground. The enrichment or depletion of N/sub 2/O in the air stream was measured with an infrared gas analyzer. Exchange rates as small as 1 ng N/m/sup 2//S could be measured. Nitrous oxide was always emitted from the sward, even at very low soil moisture contents. The emission showed a clear diurnal cycle in phase with the temperature of the surface soil; peak emission rates occurred in the afternoon, minima near sunrise. Additions of water as small as 5 mm increased emission rates markedly. Both results suggest that most of the N/sub 2/O was produced close to the soil surface rather than at depth in the soil profile. Further, the productionmore » of N/sub 2/O was accompanied by a net increase in soil nitrate. Emissions were largest in the spring. With the soil moist to less than field capacity, average daily emissions over periods of several days ranged from 0.6 to 2.5 mg N/m/sup 2/. « less
Investigation of flow dynamic characteristics of inverse fluidized bed biofilm reactor for degrading pharmaceutical based biomedical wastewater

The paper investigates the flow dynamic behaviour of inverse fluidized bed biofilm reactor (IFBBR) for the treatment of pharmaceutical based biomedical wastewater. The residence time distribution (RTD) study has been employed as a tool to investigate the flow dynamic behaviour of wastewater within the reactor. The biofilm reactor is operated using Pseudomonas fluorescens for various ratios of settled bed volume to reactor working volume (Vb/Vr) with different superficial air velocities and examined their impact on flow dynamics. The outcomes of this study demonstrate the presence of dead volume and short circuiting in the reactor were reduced for the optimized (Vb/Vr) ratio of 0.20 and optimum superficial air velocity (Ug)m of 0.220 m/s. The potential of IFBBR was experimentally validated by analysing the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency, total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS) emanating from the wastewater. Findings of this study reveals that maximum COD reduction of about 92% was achieved when the reactor was operated with (Vb/Vr)m of 0.20 with superficial air velocity, Ugm of 0.220 m/s showing the optimal operating parameters for IFBBR which has good mixing and less back mixing condition inside the reactor.
Synthesis and Structure of a Hybrid Metal Phthalate Compound and Its Magnetic Property

The hybrid transition metal – alkali metal compound, [Ni(H2O)6·(μ-H2O)2·K2(phth)4(H2O)], (phth = phthalate) (1), was synthesized from nickel(II) nitrate, KOH and potassium hydrogen phthalate, and was isolated by crystallization. Single-crystal X-ray analysis revealed that 1 belongs to the monoclinic system, space group P21/c with a = 10.455(2) A, b = 6.8670(14) A, c = 29.704(6) A, γ = 98.14(3)°, R1 = 0.0585, wR2 = 0.1503. In the title compound, [K2(phth)4]2+ units are bonded to water-bridged Ni chains forming 2D lamellar-like compounds.
Computational analysis of MER with STN DBS in Parkinson‘s disease using machine learning techniques

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most commonest neurodegenerative chronic movement disorders, is caused by damage to the central nervous system (CNS). The manifestations or symptoms analogousto cardinal motoric features of PD have been mentioned as ‘Kampavata‘ in ancient Sanskrit Vedic Hindi documents. Parkinson‘s disease was termed “Shaking Palsy” by the Galen, a famed Roman physician. Irrespective of all the studies on PD, the formation mechanism of its symptoms remained unknown. It is still not obvious why damage only to the substantia nigra pars compacta, a small part of the brain, causes a wide range of symptoms. Moreover, the causes of brain damages remain to be fully elucidated. Exact understanding of the brain function seems to be impossible. Equally, various engineering and technological software tools are challenging to understand the behavior and performance of complex convoluted systems. Computational models are the most significant tools in this connection. Developing computational models and analysis for the PD has begun in recent decades which are effective not just in understanding the disease but contributing new therapies, and its prediction and control, and also in its early diagnosis. Modeling studies include two main groups: black-box models and gray-box models. Generally, in the blackbox modeling, regardless of the system information, the symptom is only considered as the output. Such models, besides the computational analysis studies, increase our knowledge of the disorders behavior and the disease symptoms. The gray-box models consider the involved structures in the symptoms appearance as well as the final disease symptoms. These models can effectively save time and be cost-effective for the researchers and help them select appropriate treatment mechanisms among all possible options. In this study (survey/review paper), primary efforts are made to investigate some studies on Parkinson‘s disease and
Survey of Security Diversiﬁcation Mechanisms for Internet of Things (long version) 1

Internet of Things (IoT) is the networking of physical objects having embedded various forms of electronics, software, and sensors, and equipped with connectivity to enable the exchange of information. The IoT wave is considered as the next stage in “the information revolution”. IoT is gaining popularity for the great beneﬁts it can oﬀer in domestic and industrial settings as well as public infrastructures. However, securing IoT ecosystems is a complex and daunting task, which is largely disregarded by industry for the reasons: i) IoT devices are inherently resource constrained, and ii) the need of IoT devices to be cheap is the business driving force that asks for functionality instead of safety and security. The poor security protection makes IoT systems more susceptible to exploiting vulnerabilities.Moreover, IoT devices are meant to be deployed in large numbers (in billlions) and in ways that make it diﬃcult to upgrade. The fact that such a large amount of devices are programmed in the same way allows an attacker to exploit one vulnerability in millions of devices by repeated application of the same attack, thus with much more gains at the same cost. In this paper, we propose to address the challenges pertaining to security and robustness in IoT settings by deliberate inclusion of diversity in design and development of IoT devices. Moreover, the diversiﬁcation mechanisms have to preserve the intended semantics of the overall application. First, we examine diversiﬁcation mechanisms in several relevant domains, and then we identify mechanisms that could be applicable in IoT settings, in terms of feasibility, security, and performance overhead. Also, we propose a layered approach to program diversity by using concurrent programming to diversify pro-gram‘s observable behaviour.
Mistakes in the management of carbohydrate intolerance and how to avoid them

dose-independent reaction of the immune system that can affect many organs and systems, and in some cases can be life threatening. By contrast, the symptoms and clinical consequences of food intolerance are dose dependent, generally less serious and are often limited to digestive problems. Mistake 1 Failing to distinguish food intolerance from food allergy Many patients report having a reaction to food and that may be ascribed to an allergy; however, especially in adults, most food reactions are caused by intolerance. For practical purposes, patients have to be made aware of the difference between food allergy and food intolerance. Carbohydrates not absorbed in the small intestine are fermented by colonic bacteria to organic acids and gases1 (e.g. carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane), part of which is absorbed in the colon, the other part remaining in the lumen.2,3 Large interindividual differences have been demonstrated for the production of such acids and gas.4,5 Carbohydrate malabsorption can be diagnosed by using the hydrogen breath test, because the gases produced after administration of a provocative dose of carbohydrate are unique products of bacterial carbohydrate fermentation.6,7 Fermentation products are thought to cause symptoms of bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and nausea;8 however, the role of the intestine in the pathogenesis of such symptoms is unclear in both adults and children.9–11 Indeed, an important discrepancy between the degree of malabsorption and symptom severity has been established.12,13 Here, we discuss mistakes that are made when managing patients who have bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and nausea, in whom carbohydrate malabsorption or intolerance have been diagnosed or are thought to contribute to the condition. The discussion focuses on lactose malabsorption, because of its well-known pathophysiology and high prevalence; however, similar mechanisms apply for intolerances to other poorly-absorbed fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (sugar alcohols) (FODMAPs) and related artificial sweeteners. As treatment focuses on symptom relief, evaluation of complaints that are presumably related to carbohydrate ingestion has to place emphasis on symptom assessment.14 Mistakes in the management of carbohydrate intolerance and how to avoid them
Effect of oregano (Oreganum syriacum L.) essential oil and cage density on performance parameters, egg quality criteria, some blood biochemical parameters, blood antioxidant capacity, and intestinal histopathology in laying hens

Although many methods have been developed in order to reduce the negative effects in laying hens reared at high cage density, researches on effects of dietary supplementation of oregano (Oreganum syriacum L., OEO) essential oil as a feed additive to the diets are extremely sparse. This study investigated the effects of OEO and caging density on performance parameters, egg quality criteria, some blood biochemical parameters, blood antioxidant capacity, and intestinal histopathology of laying hens. We used 276 white Lohmann laying hens aged 38–40 weeks in the experiment. The animals were divided to positive control (600 cm2 hen/cage, PC), negative control (360 cm2 hen/cage, NC), negative control+ 200 mg/kg OEO (NC+O2), negative control+ 400 mg/kg OEO (NC+O4), and negative control+ 600 mg/kg OEO (NC+O6). In this study, it was determined that egg weight and egg shell weight increased at higher caging density, but they did not change with dietary supplementation of OEO. In addition, the plasma calcium and phosphorus decreased with the higher caging density and dietary supplementation of OEO. Supplemented OEO to the diets of the laying hens reduced lipid peroxidation and improved antioxidant capacity and intestinal histopathology of laying hens. As a result, it was determined that OEO decreased the negative effects of high caging density. While this positive effect was found to be at a maximum dose at 400 mg/kg of OEO, it was determined that a dose of 600 mg/kg of OEO had a toxic effect, if even numerically.
Land Reform in the Philippines and Taiwan in the

Land reform, frequently regarded as a prerequisite for economic development, is difficult to achieve in traditional societies dominated by landowning elites. Consequently it has often been implemented only as a result of external intervention, such as rule by a colonial power. This paper compares the reforms adopted by colonial powers in Taiwan and the Philippines during the first half of the twentieth century. In Taiwan the Japanese authorities implemented a successful land reform which was later extended by their Guomingdang successors, but in the Philippines the U.S. authorities were less successful in implementing reforms. The paper discusses the importance of land reforms for economic development in the two countries and considers explanations for the differences in their experiences. Since the 1960s Taiwan has been more successful than the Philippines in achieving export-led industrialization but in the first half of the twentieth century the two countries possessed a number of similarities. Both were tropical countries and major producers of rice and sugar cane and in the first four decades of the twentieth century each achieved relatively high
Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for User Pairing in Full Duplex Networks

—In this article we employ a reinforcement learning solution called Upper Conﬁdence Bound (UCB) over the framework of Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) to solve User Equipment (UE) pairing problem in Full Duplex (FD) network. In the context of the total data rate maximization problem, our proposed solution is capable of learning the best UE pair iteratively by exploring and exploiting the solution space. By the presented simulation results, we show that our proposed algorithm is more robust to the absence of knowledge about inter-UE Channel State Information (CSI). In the complete absence of CSI about inter-UE channel gains, our proposed solution overperforms the Maximum Rate (MR) solution by 26%.
Global Analysis of SIRS Epidemic Model With General Incidence Function and Incomplete Recovery Rates Stochastical Model

In this paper, deterministic and stochastic models are developped for a class of SIRS epidemic models. Firstly, The conditions for the existence, local and global stability of the disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium are obtained. Secondly, we built the stochastic model. The populations are computationally simulated under various conditions. Comparisons are made between the deterministic and stochastic model.
THE POSSIBILITY OF USING NANOFERTILIZERS TO RAISE THE EFFICIENCY OF VEGETABLE CROPS PRODUCTIVITY, IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND REDUCE THE DAMAGE OF BIOLOGICAL STRESSES (REVIEW ARTICLE)

Several methods were used to increase productivity and quality of the product for vegetable crops and prolong their presence in the markets, including the treatment of various vegetable crops with industrial growth regulators and mineral fertilizers, whether fertilizers containing in their composition micronutrients or major nutrients. Global statistics have shown in many studies that there are large numbers of people in the world whose number exceeds 3 billion peoples who suffer from undernutrition, especially the shortage of micronutrients, as this problem can be overcome by adding fertilizers containing these elements to agricultural production fields in different ways, but the use of these chemical fertilizers may have negative harmful effects on the environment and public health in addition to the high prices, which constitute an economic burden on farms, so the researchers moved not long ago to adopt the idea of using nano-fertilizer to raise production efficiency and reduce the harm of biological stresses reduce the cost of production processes as well as it is the safest food source compared to chemical fertilizers in vegetable crops, which have been used and utilized in many scientific fields in many countries of the world.
INVESTMENT CAPITAL BUDGET METHOD ORIENTED TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

This paper proposes a method of managing the investment capital budget, using the principles of the Design Science Research methodology, which adapts budgetary management practices and increases synergy with project management, by adjusting the allocation of resources to the constraints and operational risks of business processes. As a result, it encourages flexibility to deal with unforeseen situations, focus on the strategic perspective, speed of budget management, cost-effective budgeting, value added to the enterprise, and encouragement for collaboration. The method was tested and analyzed in the present study. Recommendations for future research and development of the same complete the present work.
Integrating Evaluative Inquiry into the Organizational Culture: A Review and Synthesis of the Knowledge Base

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore, through an extensive review and integration of recent scholarly literature, the conceptual interconnections and linkages among developments in the domains of evaluation utilization, evaluation capacity building, and organizational learning. Our goal is to describe and critique the current state of the knowledge base concerning the general problem of integrating evaluation into the organizational culture. We located and reviewed 36 recent empirical studies and used them to elaborate a conceptual framework that was partially based on prior work. Methodologically, our results show that research in this area is underdeveloped. Substantively, they show that organizational readiness for evaluation may be favourably influenced through direct evaluation capacity building (ECB) initiatives and indirectly through doing and using evaluation. We discuss these results in terms of an agenda for ongoing research and implications for practice.
Recognizing Non-manual Signals in Filipino Sign Language

Filipino Sign Language (FSL) is a multi-modal language that is composed of manual signlas and non-manual signals. Very minimal research is done regarding non-manual signals (Martinez and Cabalﬁn, 2008) despite the fact that non-manual signals play a signiﬁcant role in conversations as it can be mixed freely with manual signals (Cabalﬁn et al., 2012). For other Sign Languages, there have been numerous researches regarding non-manual; however, most of these focused on the semantic and/or lexical functions only. Research on facial expressions in sign language that convey emotions or feelings and degrees of adjectives is very minimal. In this research, an analysis and recognition of non-manual signals in Filipino Sign Language are performed. The non-manual signals included are Types of Sentences (i.e. Statement, Question, Exclamation), Degrees of Adjectives (i.e. Absence, Presence, High Presence), and Emotions (i.e. Happy, Sad, Fast-approaching danger, Stationary danger). The corpus was built with the help of the FSL Deaf Professors, and the 5 Deaf participants who signed 5 sentences for each of the types in front of Microsoft Kinect sensor. Genetic Algorithm is applied for the feature selection, while Artiﬁcial Neural Network and Support Vector Machine is applied for classiﬁcation.