Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping the extent to which performance-based financing (PBF) programs reflect quality, informed choice and voluntarism and implications for family planning services: A review of indicators

Expanding access to and use of voluntary family planning (FP) services is a well-established global health goal–it is a specific target under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of good health and well-being, an integral component of Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), and the overall objective of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership, among other initiatives. | One promising approach for achieving global voluntary FP goals is performance-based financing (PBF), which deploys financial incentives to the health system to improve service availability, utilization, and quality as well as addressing some public financial management bottlenecks by directly targeting resources to facilities based on performance. | Setting global voluntary FP goals implies following a rights-based approach to family planning, which uses a set of standards and principles to guide program assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation that enables individuals and couples to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, to have the information and services to do so, and to be treated equitably and free of discrimination. | While both PBF, which uses financial disbursements to incentivize health service delivery and quality, and rights-based programming have informed efforts to strengthen and scale FP services, there are gaps in understanding the linkages between PBF and a rights-based approach (RBA) to FP services. To address this gap, a review of PBF operations manuals was undertaken together with an analysis of PBF indicators relevant to FP services. This and another report (Mapping the extent to which performance-based financing (PBF) programs reflect quality, informed choice, and voluntarism and implications for family planning services: A review of PBF operational manuals) assess whether existing FP indicators are sensitive to the principles associated with an RBA.
Synthesis and Physicochemical Properties of Poly(vinyl) Alcohol Nanocomposites Reinforced with Nanocrystalline Cellulose from Tea (Camellia sinensis) Waste

The purpose of this study was to utilize cellulose from tea waste as nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), which is used as a filler in poly(vinyl) alcohol (PVA) nanocomposites. To obtain the NCC, a chemical process was conducted in the form of alkali treatment, followed by bleaching and hydrolysis. Nanocomposites were formed by mixing PVA with various NCC suspensions. With chemical treatment, lignin and hemicellulose can be removed from the tea waste to obtain NCC. This can be seen in the functional groups of cellulose and the increase in crystallinity. The NCC had a mean diameter of 6.99 ± 0.50 nm. Furthermore, the addition of NCC to the PVA nanocomposite influenced the properties of the nanocomposites. This can be seen in the general increase in opacity value, thermal and mechanical properties, and crystallinity, as well as the decrease in the value of the swelling ratio after adding NCC. This study has revealed that NCC from tea waste can be used to improve the physicochemical properties of PVA film.
Critical Q analysis of a current-fed resonant converter for ICPT applications

Power electronic resonant converters designed for inductively coupled power transfer (ICPT) applications are normally controlled to switch at zero voltage switching (ZVS) frequencies and operate with minimal quality factor Q for economic and practical reasons. This Letter analyses various resonant frequencies and defines a new minimum bound on Q that ensures ZVS operation.
Spectral Reconstruction Using an Iteratively Reweighted Regulated Model from Two Illumination Camera Responses

An improved spectral reflectance estimation method was developed to transform captured RGB images to spectral reflectance. The novelty of our method is an iteratively reweighted regulated model that combines polynomial expansion signals, which was developed for spectral reflectance estimation, and a cross-polarized imaging system, which is used to eliminate glare and specular highlights. Two RGB images are captured under two illumination conditions. The method was tested using ColorChecker charts. The results demonstrate that the proposed method could make a significant improvement of the accuracy in both spectral and colorimetric: it can achieve 23.8% improved accuracy in mean CIEDE2000 color difference, while it achieves 24.6% improved accuracy in RMS error compared with classic regularized least squares (RLS) method. The proposed method is sufficiently accurate in predicting the spectral properties and their performance within an acceptable range, i.e., typical customer tolerance of less than 3 DE units in the graphic arts industry.
On Rehumanizing Pleistocene People of the Western Hemisphere

Since the emergence of the niche in Folsom, New Mexico, in the late 1920s, peopling archaeology has sought to understand the earliest human occupants of the Western Hemisphere. Three generations of practitioners have made great strides in the techno-environmental arena. However, we have largely failed to tap into PaleoIndigenous intellectual, emotional, and social lives—the very domains that made Ice Age people as fully human as we are. As a result, our interpretations of those pioneering populations could often apply as readily to a colony of ants or a herd of wildebeest as they do to living, breathing, thinking, dreaming, loving, striving human ancestors. This article first explores the reasons for our failure to fully actualize First Peoples, identifying and implicating a feedback loop that includes practitioner homogeneity (we have always been and continue to be disproportionately white men of European descent); our predominantly positivist worldview; our language, training, and practice; and even the limited nature of the material record we study. This article also, however, highlights the ways that an important minority of peopling scholars have sought to access the humanity of PaleoIndigenous people. By more consistently mobilizing our own human capacity to creatively interrogate the deep past, we will produce scholarship that more consistently recognizes the capacity of the people who lived it and, just as importantly, respects those living today.
A Quick Start Method for MEMS Disk Resonant Gyroscope

High-precision disk resonator gyroscope has a high quality factor in order to improve the performance of the gyroscope, as the high quality factor can lead to a long starting time. In this paper, a control system of the driving loop of the disk MEMS resonant gyroscope with the quick start is designed. The control system has functions of quick frequency locking and fast step response. Coarse-precision mode transition system is designed for quick frequency locking. A large-small mode transition system is designed for fast step response. The correctness of the design is verified by circuit test. The test results show that the start-up time is reduced by over 80% compared with the traditional control loop.
An Active Frequency Reconfigurable Epsilon-near-zero Antenna

In this paper, we combine the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) antenna with an electric-driven varactor diode to design a frequency tunable ENZ antenna. This antenna is constructed by a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) working at its transverse cutoff frequency of TE10 mode. The varactor enables a flexible control of the operating frequency without changing the geometric structure and the working mode of the ENZ antenna. In this way, the operating frequency of the tunable ENZ antenna can be adjusted from 3.57 GHz to 3.82 GHz by varying the capacitance of the varactor from 1 pF to 0.12 pF. The proposed antenna provides an efficient way to realize tunable performances which may find applications in compacting antenna systems.
Competency Level of Communication, Creative Thinking and Problem Solving among Tertiary Students

The challenges of Higher Learning Institutions (HEIs) today are closely related to efforts towards providing the human capital ultimately needed by the industries. Essentially, today’s industries seek highly skilled and competent human capital and workforce. Therefore, it is of the greatest tasks that higher learning institutions produce knowledgeable and highly skilled graduates. Nonetheless, the increase of unemployment rate among tertiary graduates raises several questions regarding the effectiveness of the national education system in producing high quality human capital for the workplace. This research paper discusses the competency level of communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills among Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students. A total of 534 study samples were involved. The questionnaire method was used and analysed using the SPSS analysis version 23. Results of the study showed that the level of communication skills competence was at a high level with the mean value of 4.164. Whereas, the level of critical thinking competence and problem solving skills were at a moderate level mean value of 3.84. This study proves the utmost importance of competence skills such as the communication skills, as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills among graduates in entering future work environment. Essentially, employers and industries value these fundamental skills to achieve positive, systematic and high productivity in their organisations.
Modeling and nonlinear analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesting from transverse galloping

A model for harvesting energy from galloping oscillations of a bar with an equilateral triangle cross-section attached to two cantilever beams is presented. The energy is harvested by attaching piezoelectric sheets to cantilever beams holding the bar. The derived nonlinear distributed-parameter model is validated with previous experimental results. The quasi-steady approximation is used to model the aerodynamic loads. The power levels that can be generated from these vibrations, and the variations of these levels with the load resistance and wind speed, are determined. Linear analysis is performed to validate the onset of galloping speed with experimental measurements. The effects of the electrical load resistance on the onset of galloping are then investigated. The results show that the electrical load resistance affects the onset speed of galloping. A nonlinear analysis is also performed to determine the effects of the electrical load resistance and the nonlinear torsional spring on the level of the harvested power. The results show that maximum levels of harvested power are accompanied by minimum transverse displacement amplitudes. It is also demonstrated that there is an optimum load resistance that maximizes the level of the harvested power.
Safety management system registration in the shipping industry

Shipping is perhaps the most internationally recognized of all the world's great industries – and one of the most dangerous. It has always been accepted that the best way of improving safety at sea is by developing international regulations that are followed by most shipping nations. Since 1993, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted the International Safety Management (ISM) Code as a minimum statutory requirement for ship operating companies to establish, implement and maintain their safety management systems (SMS). This paper compares the ISM Code with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system and the OHSAS 18001:1999 Occupational Health and Safety Standards. It reviews the SMS registration process and discusses the problems and difficulties commonly faced by ship operating companies in the process. A 15‐step implementation strategy for SMS registration is presented. The model provides ship operating companies with a practical reference to manage the SMS registration in compliance with the statutory requirements of the IMO.
Analyzing Contextual Linking of Heterogeneous Information Models from the Domains BIM and UIM

Information models from the domains Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Urban Information Modeling (UIM) are generally considered as information silos due to their heterogeneous character. These information silos can be bridged through linking where corresponding objects are identified and linked subsequently. However, whether two objects are considered as corresponding might depend on the scenario for which the links are created. The dependency of the link creation and the scenario refers to the term contextual linking and is analyzed in this paper with respect to building and city models. Therefore, different situational aspects influencing the link creation are discussed. Afterwards, the issue of contextual linking is demonstrated based on three different integration scenarios. In summary, this paper has three major outcomes: First, this paper introduces an application-oriented perspective on information integration and emphasize the role of the application when linking heterogeneous information models. Second, this paper shows that linking heterogeneous information models from the domains BIM and UIM at instance level depends on the scenario. Third, the results of the discourse about contextual linking serve as a framework supporting the design and development of artifacts for linking heterogeneous information models from the domains BIM and UIM.
Enzymatic Approach in Calcium Phosphate Biomineralization: A Contribution to Reconcile the Physicochemical with the Physiological View

Biomineralization is the process by which organisms produce hard inorganic matter from soft tissues with outstanding control of mineral deposition in time and space. For this purpose, organisms deploy a sophisticated “toolkit” that has resulted in significant evolutionary innovations, for which calcium phosphate (CaP) is the biomineral selected for the skeleton of vertebrates. While CaP mineral formation in aqueous media can be investigated by studying thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transitions in supersaturated solutions, biogenic mineralization requires coping with the inherent complexity of biological systems. This mainly includes compartmentalization and homeostatic processes used by organisms to regulate key physiological factors, including temperature, pH and ion concentration. A detailed analysis of the literature shows the emergence of two main views describing the mechanism of CaP biomineralization. The first one, more dedicated to the study of in vivo systems and supported by researchers in physiology, often involves matrix vesicles (MVs). The second one, more investigated by the physicochemistry community, involves collagen intrafibrillar mineralization particularly through in vitro acellular models. Herein, we show that there is an obvious need in the biological systems to control both where and when the mineral forms through an in-depth survey of the mechanism of CaP mineralization. This necessity could gather both communities of physiologists and physicochemists under a common interest for an enzymatic approach to better describe CaP biomineralization. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous enzymatic catalyses are conceivable for these systems, and a few preliminary promising results on CaP mineralization for both types of enzymatic catalysis are reported in this work. Through them, we aim to describe the relevance of our point of view and the likely findings that could be obtained when adding an enzymatic approach to the already rich and creative research field dealing with CaP mineralization. This complementary approach could lead to a better understanding of the biomineralization mechanism and inspire the biomimetic design of new materials.
To Assess the Main Drawbacks of Advanced Technology for the Accounting Sphere

Every accountant knows that accounting is a business language and that language has undergone many changes over the years. Dissemination in the use of information technology and the production of applications has contributed to intense shifts in accounting firms' Procedures as of the 1990s. From the view of accounting experts, the influence of these advances has not been adequately analysed. The general purpose of this study was therefore to determine the effect of technological progress on the accounting sphere in Namibia. A descriptive survey design was used to in this study, to establish whether there exists any relationship between advanced technology and Accounting today. The results indicate that the accelerated speed of technological progress tends to challenge conventional processes in all fields, including the accounting profession. The study also revealed that businesses have not only embraced the revolution of advanced technology, but have also started to adopt emerging innovations in the form of accounting software, mobility and the creation of social media platforms. With a figure of less than 50% IT-enabled use, it is obvious that accounting students and accountants do not know how to run accounting information systems, while companies continually rely on technological advancements to conduct their tasks.
A Transfer Learning Method based on VGG-16 Convolutional Neural Network for MI Classification

Brain computer interface (BCI) technology can help the disabled to achieve the recovery of neural function by using the Motor Imagery Electroencephalogram (MI-EEG) based rehebilitation system. However, it is difficult to acquire a large amount of available EEG data, transfer learning technology provides an effective method, and the source domain selection is one of key issues. In this study, we develop a novel parameter transfer learning method based on VGG-16 convolutional neural network (CNN) for MI classification. First, the number of all MI-EEG signals are augmented with the sliding window method, and the short-time Fourier transformation (STFT) is applied to obtain the time-frequency spectrum images (TFSI). Then, the VGG-16 CNN is pre-trained with TFSI of source domain, which is divided into five blocks. The parameters of the pre-trained CNN are transferred to the target network though a new transfer strategy, i.e. utilization of the data of part subjects from target domain to fine-tune the five blocks in turn. Finally, the fine-tuned CNN is used for MI classification of the rest subjects in target domain. This work is evaluated with a public dataset, the best classification accuracy of this study is 96.59%. The results show that the high correlation between the source domain and the target domain is better than using the domains with low correlation, and the proposed transfer strategy is efficiency.
A Tier-based Model for Realizing Context-Awareness of Digital Twins

Digital Twins are being increasingly used in manufacturing industry to support the whole plant lifecycle. The constantly changing environmental parameters, interactions between various systems and their Digital Twin as well as changes inside the Digital Twin influences the context of the available information. This context information is insufficiently considered to analyze process and optimize the interaction. This article presents an approach to model the internal and external context of a system using a graph-based context tier model. The usage and benefits of the concept are shown for a flexible production system.
Total Variation Regularized SENSE Image Reconstruction Based on Improved regularization parameter selection

In parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), total variation (TV) regularized sensitivity coding (SENSE) reconstruction is a kind of fast and effective image reconstruction method. However, in the process of TV-SENSE reconstruction, the value of regularization parameter is an important factor that affects the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of image and directly affects the quality of image reconstruction. To solve the unbalanced problems of low signal-to-noise ratio and insufficient detail information preservation, this paper presents a regularization parameter selection method based on Monte-Carlo SURE in TV-SENSE image reconstruction. Adaptive iteration is adopted to select the regularization parameter value which minimizes the mean square error (MSE) of reconstructed image, so that achieve the balance between regularization term and data fidelity term. The reconstruction experiments were carried out by collecting the MRI phantom data under different acceleration factors, and the reconstruction results were compared with the generalized cross-validation (GCV) TV-SENSE method and L-curve TV-SENSE method. The research results show that the TV-SENSE image reconstruction algorithm based on the improved regularization parameter selection can effectively suppress the artifacts, the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) has also been improved and the artifact power (AP) of reconstructed image is also decreased even in the case of a higher acceleration factor, thus further verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed TV-SENSE image reconstruction algorithm.
HIPERLAN: the High Performance Radio Local Area Network standard

The high performance radio local area network (HIPERLAN) standard is currently being developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). As well as providing a wired LAN substitute, with a target bit rate of 20 Mbit/s, the standard will provide for the creation of ad hoc networks, communication with mobile users, and access to interactive multimedia services. Radio spectrum has been recommended for HIPERLAN in the 5 GHz and 17 GHz bands. The constraints imposed by the nature of the microwave radio channel along with some of the main challenges in the design of the radio interface are described. >
Bad News? Send an AI. Good News? Send a Human

The present research demonstrates how consumer responses to negative and positive offers are influenced by whether the administering marketing agent is an artificial intelligence (AI) or a human. In the case of a product or service offer that is worse than expected, consumers respond better when dealing with an AI agent in the form of increased purchase likelihood and satisfaction. In contrast, for an offer that is better than expected, consumers respond more positively to a human agent. The authors demonstrate that AI agents, compared with human agents, are perceived to have weaker intentions when administering offers, which accounts for this effect. That is, consumers infer that AI agents lack selfish intentions in the case of an offer that favors the agent and lack benevolent intentions in the case of an offer that favors the customer, thereby dampening the extremity of consumer responses. Moreover, the authors demonstrate a moderating effect, such that marketers may anthropomorphize AI agents to strengthen perceived intentions, providing an avenue to receive due credit from consumers when the agent provides a better offer and mitigate blame when it provides a worse offer. Potential ethical concerns with the use of AI to bypass consumer resistance to negative offers are discussed.
Social, Technical, and Ethical Challenges in Biomedical Data Privacy

With the advent of biotechnology, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in biology and medicine towards data intensive scientific discoveries. This brings a flood of physiological, contextual, and biological data at the individual and population level, and provides the perfect opportunity for integrating multidimensional information to study human variation and disease. This also creates new avenues in data breaches, necessitating careful studies of biomedical data privacy from a social, technical, and ethical standpoint. In this workshop, we explore the privacy issues related biomedical data use to advance human health. We will discuss the ethical and regulatory frames regarding privacy and implementations of such ethical considerations. We will also discuss technical approaches to ensuring privacy such as cryptographic techniques that allow responsible use and sharing of data.