bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Study of Perceptions Held Toward Teacher Evaluation Policies and Practices by Teachers and Their Supervisors in Adventist Schools in Canada
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Higgins Dave
Published: May 2023

Problem. Most school administrators and teachers deem teacher evaluation systems to be extremely stressful, of little or no value, and a barrier to high staff morale. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current teacher evaluation policies and practices and the perceptions held toward these policies and practices by selected elementary and secondary' teachers and their supervisors in the Adventist schools in Canada. Method. The population of this study consisted of selected elementary and secondary teachers and their supervisors in the Adventist schools in Canada. Two hundred and twenty-five teachers and 48 supervisors were surveyed. The survey instrument used in the study was adapted from the one used by Hauge (1981). The instrument was designed to reflect the teachers' evaluation policies and practices as perceived by elementary and secondary teachers and their supervisors. The survey instrument and the cover letters were sent to the supervisors and the teachers by first-class mail. The 47 hypotheses were tested at the .05 level o f significance using /-tests and chi-square to determine whether a significant difference existed between variables by comparing the group means and whether or not an association existed between variables by calculating discrepancies between observed and expected cell frequencies, respectively. Results. The findings of this research study generally confirm that: 1. The supervisors thought they had a better knowledge of their teachers’ teaching capabilities than their teachers thought they had. 2. Both supervisors and teachers perceived the evaluation process to be a useful one. 3. Both teachers and supervisors viewed the improvement of teaching performance as the main purpose of performance evaluation. 4. While supervisors and teachers agreed in their perception concerning the implementation of four basic components of the evaluation process, they disagreed on another four. The general picture, however, indicates that supervisors tended to view themselves as implementing the basic components of the evaluation process to a greater extent than teachers viewed them as doing. 5. Most supervisors reported having had formal training in performance evaluation before and after assuming the supervisory role. Supervisors reported that they felt competent and at ease in the evaluator's role, and teachers concurred. 6. Both teachers and supervisors felt there was a need for more administrative assistance for supervisors so that they could have the time to conduct more frequent and more effective evaluations. They also felt that the evaluation process ought to include greater teacher involvement. Conclusion. From this study it can be concluded that most teachers and supervisors in Adventist schools in Canada deemed teacher evaluation policies and practices to be helpful. As well it was not as stressful, nor of little value as reported in the literature and pertinent research studies.
Intention to Pursue Post-Secondary Education, and Related Factors, Among Jamaican Senior High School Students
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Milford Teran
Published: May 2023

Purpose of the Study. The proportion of female students in post-secondary schools in Jamaica is approximately twice that of their male counterpart. This is in contrast to the observation that the proportion of male and female students in elementary and secondary schools is about the same. Little or no studies have been conducted to examine factors related to the disproportion of male and female students in tertiary institutions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the perception of senior high school students regarding their intention to pursue post-secondary education, and to determine the extent to which the value they place on education, personal, social, and school characteristics influenced this intention. Method. This study employed the survey research method in which a questionnaire was designed and administered to a sample of senior high school students in 23 public and 5 private high schools throughout the island of Jamaica. Thirty male and thirty female students were selected from each school. Proportional stratified random sampling was used to select both the schools and the subjects. One thousand six hundred and eighty students were selected to participate in this study. However, only 1185 chose to sign the consent form and hence, actually participated in this study. The questionnaire was designed to elicit demographic characteristics, levels of intention to pursue post-secondary education, and student perceptions with respect to the value of education, student characteristics, social characteristics, and school characteristics. Results. Eighty-seven percent of the students indicated a high degree of intention to pursue post-secondary education. The level of intention was slightly higher among female students. Parental support and peer influence were significantly related to levels of intention among male students. For female students, parental support, locus of control, and school climate were significant predictors. Conclusion. The level of intention to pursue post-secondary education among Jamaican senior high school students is quite high. Parental support appears to be an important factor that could influence the intention of students to pursue higher education. Reproduced
Teachers' and Students' Perceptions of Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Science Education in a Selected Seventh-day Adventist Union Conference
Authors:   ,   Andrews University, Sargeant Marcel
Published: May 2023

Problem. Science education has long been a great concern in the United States, where less than one-third of the students perform at or above the proficient level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of the science program in a selected Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist school system. Specifically, this study investigated the perceptions of teachers and students regarding the extent to which the science program meets the criteria of the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century and to what extent these criteria are related to academic performance as indicated by Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) science scores. Method. Two questionnaires designed by the researcher were used to get responses from 424 students in seventh and eighth grades and 68 teachers to see how this school system compares to the criteria of National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century. Three classroom configurations were investigated in this study, namely: (a) multi grade, (b) two-grade, and (c) single-grade. Crosstabulation, one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, and linear regression were used to analyze the four research questions of this study. Results. The single-grade classroom configuration received a better rating for the science criteria (p < 0.01), and students from single-grade performed significantly better than two-grade/ multi grade (p < 0.01) classroom configurations on their science achievement (ITBS). There were significant relationships among science achievement and the factors that measured the criteria of the National Commission for Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century. Conclusions. The differences in teaching practices explained the discrepancies in the three classroom configurations. Schools can therefore develop policies and strategies to improve the practices in the teaching and learning process in science education that were identified as being deficient by the criteria of National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century.
B Cell Profiling in Patients with Pemphigus Vulgaris
Authors: Abrikosova Viktoria A. , Mokrushina Yuliana A. , Ovchinnikova Leyla A. , Larina Ekaterina N. , Terekhov Stanislav S. , Baranova Margarita N. , Lomakin Yakov A. , Balabashin Dmitriy S. , Bobik Tatyana V. , Kaliberda Elena N. , Knorre Vera D. , Shpilevaya Marina V. , Aliev Teimur T. , Deryabin Dmitry G. , Karamova Arfenya E. , Kubanov Alexey A. , Kirpichnikov Mikhail P. , Smirnov Ivan V.
Published: May 2023

Pemphigus vulgaris is a severe, socially significant autoimmune disease associated with autoantibodies to the desmoglein 3 antigen. The disease affects all age groups, beginning at 18 years of age; the mortality rate of pemphigus can reach as high as 50%, depending on a patients age and a number of other factors. There is no highly selective or personalized therapy for pemphigus vulgaris at the moment. One of the well-known therapeutic approaches to the disease is to use rituximab, an anti-CD20 antibody that can help achieve B cell depletion in peripheral blood. To solve the problem of nonspecific elimination of B cells in patients with pemphigus vulgaris, it is reasonable to use specific immunoligands, their choice being based on an assessment of the level of autoantibodies specific to each of the fragments of desmoglein. In this work, the proportion of autoreactive B cells in patients diagnosed with pemphigus vulgaris is found to be 0.090.16%; a positive correlation was revealed between the antibody level and the number of autoreactive B cells to various fragments of desmoglein.
Specificity of Penicillin Acylases in Deprotection of N-Benzyloxycarbonyl Derivatives of Amino Acids
Authors: Morozova Irina A. , Guranda Dorel F. , Panin Nikolay V. , Švedas Vytas K.
Published: May 2023

Changes in the structure of the N-acyl group in N-acylated amino acid derivatives significantly affect both the recognition and activity of penicillin acylases on this series of substrates. However, penicillin acylases from both Alcaligenes faecalis and Escherichia coli are capable of removing the N-benzyloxycarbonyl protecting group in amino acid derivatives under mild conditions without the use of toxic reagents. Efficiency in using penicillin acylases in preparative organic synthesis can be improved by utilizing modern rational enzyme design methods.
Framework of Smarthome Automation and Security
Authors: M. Robinson Joel  , G.Manikandan  , Jose Saranish D  , Jensing Samuel A. S  , Kiruthika K  , Balavasan S
Published: May 2023

Numerous factors must be calibrated in accordance with the energy supply available to a smart home in order to schedule the functioning of household equipment. Due to the convenience and amenities it offers to homeowners, smart home automation is one of the current Internet of Things (IoT) applications that are gaining popularity. The NP-hard (nondeterministic polynomial time) problem of scheduling the operation of various appliances in a smart home, on the other hand, must be handled in polynomial time using an intelligent heuristic approach. In this piece of research, we put up the idea that wireless connectivity should be used to integrate sensors into household appliances so that owners can control them from a distance.
A Proveable Contextual Retrieval Strategy in the Public Cloud Using Optimal Matching Over Secured Data
Authors: Prof. Rahul Bhandekar  , Pranay Kumbhalkar
Published: May 2023

Semantic searching over encrypted data is a crucial task for secure information retrieval in public cloud. It aims to provide retrieval service to arbitrary words so that queries and search results are flexible. In existing semantic searching schemes, the verifiable searching does not be supported since it is dependent on the forecasted results from predefined keywords to verify the search results from cloud, and the queries are expanded on plaintext and the exact matching is performed by the extended semantically words with predefined keywords, which limits their accuracy.
In this paper, we propose a secure verifiable semantic searching scheme. For semantic optimal matching on ciphertext, we formulate word transportation (WT) problem to calculate the minimum word transportation cost (MWTC) as the similarity between queries and documents, and propose a secure transformation to transform WT problems into random linear programming (LP) problems to obtain the encrypted MWTC. For verifiability, we explore the duality theorem of LP to design a verification mechanism using the intermediate data produced in matching process to verify the correctness of search results. Security analysis demonstrates that our scheme can guarantee verifiability and confidentiality. Experimental results on two datasets show our scheme has higher accuracy than other schemes.
SMART FARMER – IoT Enabled Smart Farming Application
Authors: Dr. A. Velayudham  , Bharath Narayanan S  , Bharathi A  , Kavi Priya R  , Keerthana K
Published: May 2023

The Agriculture Parameters are utilizing an IOT Technology and system availability that draw in these objects to assemble and deal information. Agriculture is the primary occupation in our country for ages. In India about 70% of population depends upon farming and one third of the nation’s capital comes from farming. But now due to migration of people from rural to urban there is hindrance in agriculture. To overcome this problem we go for smart agriculture techniques using IOT. provide the information about the various environmental factors. Monitoring the environmental factors is not the complete solution.
IoT Based Automated Smart Waste Management System
Authors: Pavithra M  , Alagu Esakkiammal N  , Angel Melbha A  , Aruleeswaran R  , Balaji  N
Published: May 2023

With increase in population we have an increase in the garbage around urban areas. Here we propose a smart dustbin that operates automatically to help solve this issue using IOT and sensor based circuitry. Usual dustbins require to be opened by pressing foot against its lever and then throwing garbage. Also a person needs to keep track when it is full so that it can be emptied and does not overflow. Here we propose a smart dustbin that does all this by itself. Our system consists of a sensor in order to detect human clap signal and on a clap of foot tap it opens automatically without anyone needing to press its lever. The dustbin opens automatically when it receives the signal and closes its hatch. Also the dustbin consists of a level sensing ultrasonic sensor that constantly measures the level of garbage in the bin and automatically detects if it is about to fill up. The dustbin now consists of a smart circuitry that transmits this information over the web to signal the main garbage collector of the facility to empty the particular garbage bin. We use IOT to develop the online web part for the IOT system. This bin is of a vast usage in offices, homes and even in public places for garbage management. Thus, we get a fully automated smart dustbin that allows for automated garbage cleaning. This makes them well aware of the existing garbage level and instigate them whenever the bins reach the threshold level. They are sent with alert messages so that they can collect the garbage on time without littering the surrounding area. The fill patterns of specific containers can be identified by historical data and managed accordingly in the long term. In addition to hardware solutions, mobile applications are used to overcome the challenges in the regular waste management system, such as keeping track of the drivers while they are operating on the field. Thus, smart waste management provides us with the most optimal way of managing the waste in an efficient manner using technology.
A Detailed Study on Various Sources of Cabin Noise and Vibration in Crawler Dozers and Methodology Followed to Reduce the Noise
Authors: M. E. Jaikrishnamurthy  , G. Balu  , A. Anbumani  , S. Jayakumar  , S. Basavaraju
Published: May 2023

The major environmental concern in the field of opencast mining industries are the means of controlling and mitigating noise generated from different Heavy earth moving machineries (HEMM) like Excavators, Dozers, Dumpers, Loaders, Graders, etc. Continuous exposure of the operators to excess noise shall result in hearing impairment and other related health issues. Also, for the HEMM manufacturers, it is important to meet the statutory requirement and mine safety norms to qualify for the tenders. Crawler tractors also called Dozers are heavy earth-moving equipment used in open cast mines with metal blades attached in front of it for pushing or dozing of materials. Dozers being one of the major sources of such noise, in this paper we focus on noise control in dozers. The DGMS (Director General of Mine Safety) regulatory requirement specifies the noise generated inside the cabin should be less than 85dB. We present a detailed analysis of major sources of noise generation in dozers, including Structure borne, Air borne and Rattling noise. We also discuss the various stages and methodologies followed to mitigate the noise at different sources and inside the cabin to ensure that the noise level are within the accepted limits. Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the noise control measures that can be implemented in dozers to reduce noise exposure and ensure safety and well-being of operators in open cast mining industries.
Real-Time Chat Application
Authors: Ms. Archana Nikose  , Sakshi Dosani  , Shreya Pardhi  , Deep Nikode  , Anurag Jais
Published: May 2023

The emergence of new technologies has brought about significant changes in the way people communicate with each other. One of the most popular ways of communication in today's digital age is through messaging applications. To facilitate this need, several chat applications have been developed. In this thesis, we introduce a chat application built using the MEAN stack, which is a popular technology stack used for building web applications. This application provides users with the ability to create accounts, join chat rooms, and send messages to other users in real-time. With the use of web sockets and Angular's two-way binding, the application allows users to see messages as soon as they are sent. Moreover, the application also includes features such as user authentication and authorization to ensure secure access to the chat rooms. Through this project, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of building real-time chat applications using the Mern stack.
Estratégias para uma Assistência Inclusiva a Pessoas LGBTQIAP+ com Câncer
Authors: Sant'Ana Ricardo Souza Evangelista
Published: May 2023

Discutir ações de atenção inclusiva às pessoas LGBTQIAP+ com câncer é um movimento oportuno, pois elas enfrentam diariamente inúmeras barreiras para ter acesso a cuidados médicos, violência institucional e preconceito, além da falta de capacitação dos profissionais de saúde para o atendimento a pessoas dessa comunidade que necessitam de cuidados específicos. O cuidado com os membros da comunidade não pode ser pensado no modelo da heteronormatividade. Este trabalho tem como objetivo trazer esse debate para o âmbito acadêmico, considerando que, para o cuidado inclusivo, é necessário repensar suas implicações para a prática clínica, bem como estratégias de cuidado inclusivo em oncologia, como o início do tratamento desses pacientes com câncer e melhorar a comunicação com eles.
СТАЛЕ ЗРОСТАННЯ БІОЕНЕРГЕТИЧНОЇ ГАЛУЗІ УКРАЇНИ НА ОСНОВІ ЛІСОВОЇ ТА АГРАРНОЇ БІОМАСИ: ПРАВОВІ ПІДХОДИ
Authors: ТРЕГУБ Олександр
Published: May 2023

У статті досліджено окремі правові проблеми сталого виробництва та використання біомаси. Метою цієї статті є аналіз та уточнення окремих правових підходів щодо сталого зростання біоенергетичної галузі України на основі лісової та аграрної біомаси. Методологічну основу цього дослідження склали методи аналізу і синтезу, індукції та дедукції, узагальнення та абстрагування, формально-юридичний метод, а також інші загальнонаукові та спеціально-наукові методи. Виявлено основні фактори мілітарного та постмілітарного впливу на можливості використання лісової біомаси в енергетичних цілях. Уточнено, що розширення сталого використання лісової біомаси є можливим у разі встановлення правил раціонального поводження із відходами і продуктами лісового господарства та лісозаготівлі. Розглянуто критерії сталості та скорочення викидів парникових газів, що застосовуються у Європейському Союзі до біопалива, виробленого з лісової біомаси. Конкретизовано, що поглиблена адаптація законодавства України до оновлених положень права Європейського Союзу щодо регулювання біоенергетичних відносин передбачатиме введення жорсткіших обмежень на енергетичне використання лісових ресурсів, зокрема первинної деревної біомаси. Узагальнено наукові погляди та підходи щодо впливу енергетичних культур на стан деградованих та малопродуктивних земель з метою обґрунтування пропозицій щодо змін у правовому регулюванні земельних та енергетичних відносин. Уточнено концептуальний підхід, який ґрунтується на ідеї правової гармонізації цілей консервації деградованих та малопродуктивних земель із цілями вирощування на них енергетичних культур. Запропоновано встановити умови, виконання яких дозволить прирівнювати створення плантацій цих культур до консервації земель.
Online Large-Scale Taxi Assignment: Optimization and Learning
Authors: Rifki Omar , Garaix Thierry
Published: May 2023

We propose a solution method for online vehicle routing, which integrates a machine learning routine to improve tours’ quality. Our optimization model is based on the Bertsimas et al. (2019) re-optimization approach. Two separate routines are developed. The first one uses a neural network to produce realistic pick-up times for the customers to serve. The second one relies on Q-learning in addition to random walks for the construction of the backbone graph corresponding to the instance problem of each time step. The second routine gives improved results compared to the original approach.
La abyección y la intersección de las identidades de las mujeres trans: Examinando “hacer género” a través de las películas en malayalam Ardhanaari y Njan Marykutty
Authors: Varghese Anu M. , Tanupriya
Published: May 2023

La no confirmación de las controvertidas normas sociales de género coloca a las identidades trans en un estado de abyección. Los medios de comunicación, principalmente el cine, juegan un papel indispensable en la formación, el rechazo y la promulgación de tales ideologías. Para comprender este discurso, se toman las películas en malayalam Ardhanaari (2015) y Njan Marykutty (2018) para examinar la cuestión de la “abyección”, concepto de Kristeva y “hacer género”, de West y Zimmerman. El estudio argumenta que la abyección que enfrentan las identidades trans las obliga a interpretar su género de acuerdo con la feminidad cisnormativa. El estudio argumenta, además, que las identidades trans deben abrazar la abyección y emplearla como una herramienta política para alterar la estructura de género tradicional hegemónica establecida y sus definiciones.
Topik yang saya akan bahas kali ini adalah tentang pelayanan BPJS Kesehatan melalui aplikasi Mobile JKN, khususnya dalam pemberian informasi dan pelayanan. Mobile JKN merupakan suatu inovasi terbaru pelayanan jaminan Kesehatan nasional yang berbasis elekt
Authors: Parera Gilbert , Darwis Muhammad
Published: May 2023

Mobile JKN merupakan aplikasi baru Pemerintah, yang dapat memberikan kemudahan untuk pendaftaran, dan perubahan data kepesertaan, kemudahan untuk mendapatkan informasi data peserta keluarga, kemudahan untuk melihat biaya pembayaran iuran peserta. Permasalahan yang sering terjadi di lapangan adalah banyak orang yang menjadi peserta BPJS Kesehatan namun kurang paham tentang aplikasi ini. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan aplikasi Mobile JKN yang harus disosialisasikan dan memberikan informasi kepada masyarakat tentang kegunaan aplikasi tersebut untuk memudahkan dalam melakukan pendaftaran atau mendapatkan informasi tentang BPJS. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode System Usability Scale (SUS) untuk mengukur kepuasan secara cepat dan rapi. System Usability Scale (SUS) merupakan kuesioner yang dapat digunakan untuk mengukur usability suatu sistem komputer menurut sudut pandang subjektif pengguna. Dalam melakukan perhitungan SUS menggunakan skala Likert 5 point. Pada pengujian Aplikasi Mobile JKN dengan menggunakan System Usability Scale (SUS) pada penelitian ini memberikan 2 skor SUS yang berbeda. Skor SUS pertama didapat dari pengujian Aplikasi Mobile JKN dengan menyebarkan kuesioner SUS kepada 23 responden dan yang kedua dengan cara 3 responden dari kalangan yang sudah profesional di bidangnya. Perlakuan kuesioner SUS pada pengujian kedua adalah dengan menambahkan poin-poin rekomendasi perbaikan pada aplikasi Mobile JKN sesuai dengan hasil pertama pada setiap pernyataan kuesioner pengujian kedua. Dan hasil skor SUS pada pengujian kedua ini mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan dari 59 menjadi 81, hal ini menunjukkan bahwa rekomendasi perbaikan aplikasi Mobile JKN perlu ditingkatkan atau perlu banyak dikembangkan. Aplikasi Mobile JKN perlu banyak dikembangkan dalam hal pemutakhiran dan penyediaan informasi. tentang aplikasi ini karena masih banyak yang belum paham tentang aplikasi Mobile JKN
Multi-level Stress Assessment Using Multi-domain Fusion of ECG Signal
Authors: Ahmad Zeeshan , Khan Naimul
Published: May 2023

Stress analysis and assessment of affective states of mind using ECG as a physiological signal is a burning research topic in biomedical signal processing. However, existing literature provides only binary assessment of stress, while multiple levels of assessment may be more beneficial for healthcare applications. Furthermore, in present research, ECG signal for stress analysis is examined independently in spatial domain or in transform domains but the advantage of fusing these domains has not been fully utilized. To get the maximum advantage of fusing diferent domains, we introduce a dataset with multiple stress levels and then classify these levels using a novel deep learning approach by converting ECG signal into signal images based on R-R peaks without any feature extraction. Moreover, We made signal images multimodal and multidomain by converting them into time-frequency and frequency domain using Gabor wavelet transform (GWT) and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) respectively. Convolutional Neural networks (CNNs) are used to extract features from different modalities and then decision level fusion is performed for improving the classification accuracy. The experimental results on an in-house dataset collected with 15 users show that with proposed fusion framework and using ECG signal to image conversion, we reach an average accuracy of 85.45%.
Multi-level Stress Assessment from ECG in a Virtual Reality Environment using Multimodal Fusion
Authors: Ahmad Zeeshan , Rabbani Suha , Zafar Muhammad Rehman , Khan Naimul , Ishaque Syem , Krishnan Sridhar
Published: May 2023

ECG is an attractive option to assess stress in serious Virtual Reality (VR) applications due to its non-invasive nature. However, the existing Machine Learning (ML) models perform poorly. Moreover, existing studies only perform a binary stress assessment, while to develop a more engaging biofeedback-based application, multi-level assessment is necessary. Existing studies annotate and classify a single experience (e.g. watching a VR video) to a single stress level, which again prevents design of dynamic experiences where real-time in-game stress assessment can be utilized. In this paper, we report our findings on a new study on VR stress assessment, where three stress levels are assessed. ECG data was collected from 9 users experiencing a VR roller coaster. The VR experience was then manually labeled in 10-seconds segments to three stress levels by three raters. We then propose a novel multimodal deep fusion model utilizing spectrogram and 1D ECG that can provide a stress prediction from just a 1-second window. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the classical HRV-based ML models (9% increase in accuracy) and baseline deep learning models (2.5% increase in accuracy). We also report results on the benchmark WESAD dataset to show the supremacy of the model.
Facial Expression Recognition Under Partial Occlusion from Virtual Reality Headsets based on Transfer Learning
Authors: Houshmand Bita , Khan Naimul
Published: May 2023

Facial expressions of emotion are a major channel in our daily communications, and it has been subject of intense research in recent years. To automatically infer facial expressions, convolutional neural network based approaches has become widely adopted due to their proven applicability to Facial Expression Recognition (FER) task.On the other hand Virtual Reality (VR) has gained popularity as an immersive multimedia platform, where FER can provide enriched media experiences. However, recognizing facial expression while wearing a head-mounted VR headset is a challenging task due to the upper half of the face being completely occluded. In this paper we attempt to overcome these issues and focus on facial expression recognition in presence of a severe occlusion where the user is wearing a head-mounted display in a VR setting. We propose a geometric model to simulate occlusion resulting from a Samsung Gear VR headset that can be applied to existing FER datasets. Then, we adopt a transfer learning approach, starting from two pretrained networks, namely VGG and ResNet. We further fine-tune the networks on FER+ and RAF-DB datasets. Experimental results show that our approach achieves comparable results to existing methods while training on three modified benchmark datasets that adhere to realistic occlusion resulting from wearing a commodity VR headset. Code for this paper is available at: this https URL
An Interpretable Object Detection-Based Model for the Diagnosis of Neonatal Lung Diseases using Ultrasound Images
Authors: Bassiouny Rodina , Mohamed Adel , Umapathy Karthi , Khan Naimul
Published: May 2023

Over the last few decades, Lung Ultrasound (LUS) has been increasingly used to diagnose and monitor different lung diseases in neonates. It is a non invasive tool that allows a fast bedside examination while minimally handling the neonate. Acquiring a LUS scan is easy, but understanding the artifacts concerned with each respiratory disease is challenging. Mixed artifact patterns found in different respiratory diseases may limit LUS readability by the operator. While machine learning (ML), especially deep learning can assist in automated analysis, simply feeding the ultrasound images to an ML model for diagnosis is not enough to earn the trust of medical professionals. The algorithm should output LUS features that are familiar to the operator instead. Therefore, in this paper we present a unique approach for extracting seven meaningful LUS features that can be easily associated with a specific pathological lung condition: Normal pleura, irregular pleura, thick pleura, Alines, Coalescent B-lines, Separate B-lines and Consolidations. These artifacts can lead to early prediction of infants developing later respiratory distress symptoms. A single multi-class region proposal-based object detection model faster-RCNN (fRCNN) was trained on lower posterior lung ultrasound videos to detect these LUS features which are further linked to four common neonatal diseases. Our results show that fRCNN surpasses single stage models such as RetinaNet and can successfully detect the aforementioned LUS features with a mean average precision of 86.4%. Instead of a fully automatic diagnosis from images without any interpretability, detection of such LUS features leave the ultimate control of diagnosis to the clinician, which can result in a more trustworthy intelligent system.
ImmerVol: An Immersive Volume Visualization System
Authors: Khan Naimul , Kyan Matthew , Guan Ling
Published: May 2023

Volume visualization is a popular technique for analyzing 3D datasets, especially in the medical domain. An immersive visual environment provides easier navigation through the rendered dataset. However, visualization is only one part of the problem. Finding an appropriate Transfer Function (TF) for mapping color and opacity values in Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) is difﬁcult. This paper combines the beneﬁts of the CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment with a novel approach towards TF generation for DVR, where the traditional low-level color and opacity parameter manipulations are eliminated. The TF generation process is hidden behind a Spherical Self Organizing Map (SSOM). The user interacts with the visual form of the SSOM lattice on a mobile device while viewing the corresponding rendering of the volume dataset in real time in the CAVE. The SSOM lattice is obtained through high-dimensional features extracted from the volume dataset. The color and opacity values of the TF are automatically generated based on the user’s perception. Hence, the resulting TF can expose complex structures in the dataset within seconds, which the user can analyze easily and efﬁciently through complete immersion.
An Efficient Confidence Measure-Based Evaluation Metric for Breast Cancer Screening Using Bayesian Neural Networks
Authors: Tabassum Anika , Khan Naimul
Published: May 2023

Screening mammograms is the gold standard for detecting breast cancer early. While a good amount of work has been performed on mammography image classification, especially with deep neural networks, there has not been much exploration into the confidence or uncertainty measurement of the classification. In this paper, we propose a confidence measurebased evaluation metric for breast cancer screening. We propose a modular network architecture, where a traditional neural network is used as a feature extractor with transfer learning, followed by a simple Bayesian neural network. Utilizing a twostage approach helps reducing the computational complexity, making the proposed framework attractive for wider deployment. We show that by providing the medical practitioners with a tool to tune two hyperparameters of the Bayesian neural network, namely, fraction of sampled number of networks and minimum probability, the framework can be adapted as needed by the domain expert. Finally, we argue that instead of just a single number such as accuracy, a tuple (accuracy, coverage, sampled number of networks, and minimum probability) can be utilized as an evaluation metric of our framework. We provide experimental results on the CBIS-DDSM dataset, where we show the trends in accuracy-coverage tradeoff while tuning the two hyperparameters. We also show that our confidence tuning results in increased accuracy with a reduced set of images with high confidence when compared to the baseline transfer learning. To make the proposed framework readily deployable, we provide (anonymized) source code with reproducible results at https://git.io/JvRqE. 
A Novel Image-centric Approach Towards Direct Volume Rendering
Authors: Khan Naimul , Ksantini Riadh , Guan Ling
Published: May 2023

Transfer Function (TF) generation is a fundamental problem in Direct Volume Rendering (DVR). ATF maps voxels to color and opacity values to reveal inner structures. Existing TF tools are complex and unintuitive for the users who are more likely to be medical professionals than computer scientists. In this paper, we propose a novel image-centric method for TF generation where instead of complex tools, the user directly manipulates volume data to generate DVR. The user’s work is further simpliﬁed by presenting only the most informative volume slices for selection. Based on the selected parts, the voxels are classiﬁed using our novel Sparse Nonparametric Support Vector Machine classiﬁer, which combines both local and near-global distributional information of the training data. The voxel classes are mapped to aesthetically pleasing and distinguishable color and opacity values using harmonic colors. Experimental results on several benchmark datasets and a detailed user survey show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Motion Vector Extrapolation for Video Object Detection
Authors: Khan Naimul , True Julian
Published: May 2023

Despite the continued successes of computationally efficient deep neural network architectures for video object detection, performance continually arrives at the great trilemma of speed versus accuracy versus computational resources (pick two). Current attempts to exploit temporal information in video data to overcome this trilemma are bottlenecked by the state-of-the-art in object detection models. We present, a technique which performs video object detection through the use of off-the-shelf object detectors alongside existing optical flow based motion estimation techniques in parallel. Through a set of experiments on the benchmark MOT20 dataset, we demonstrate that our approach significantly reduces the baseline latency of any given object detector without sacrificing any accuracy. Further latency reduction, up to 25x lower than the original latency, can be achieved with minimal accuracy loss. MOVEX enables low latency video object detection on common CPU based systems, thus allowing for high performance video object detection beyond the domain of GPU computing. The code is available at this https URL.
Locality Guided Neural Networks for Explainable Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Tan Randy , Khan Naimul , Guan Ling
Published: May 2023

In current deep network architectures, deeper layers in networks tend to contain hundreds of independent neurons which makes it hard for humans to understand how they interact with each other. By organizing the neurons by correlation, humans can observe how clusters of neighbouring neurons interact with each other. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for back propagation, called Locality Guided Neural Network(LGNN) for training networks that preserves locality between neighbouring neurons within each layer of a deep network. Heavily motivated by Self-Organizing Map (SOM), the goal is to enforce a local topology on each layer of a deep network such that neighbouring neurons are highly correlated with each other. This method contributes to the domain of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), which aims to alleviate the black-box nature of current AI methods and make them understandable by humans. Our method aims to achieve XAI in deep learning without changing the structure of current models nor requiring any post processing. This paper focuses on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), but can theoretically be applied to any type of deep learning architecture. In our experiments, we train various VGG and Wide ResNet (WRN) networks for image classification on CIFAR100. In depth analyses presenting both qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate that our method is capable of enforcing a topology on each layer while achieving a small increase in classification accuracy
Piety, Transgression, and the Feminist Debate on Muslim Women: Resituating the Victim-Subject of Honor-Related Violence from a Transnational Lens
Authors: Jamal Amina
Published: May 2023

While I strongly endorse anti-imperialist feminist attempts to uphold devout Muslim women's gendered agency, I am concerned that these arguments fail to disrupt the intransigent association of freedom, particularly individual freedom, with secularism, and communitarian restraint with Islam. It is not surprising, therefore, that victim-subjects of honor-related violence, whether in a secular state such as Canada or an Islamic state like Pakistan, are discursively installed within the universal secular sphere and reevicted from the religious and cultural community. I propose the notion of transgressive piety rather than the dichotomy of secular society versus pious community within which to problematize gendered Muslim subjects. The transgression of ritualistic and institutionalized practices is associated with practices termed Sufism. Muslim feminists may use the idea of transgressive piety to offer faith-based support to those gendered subjects whose transgressive acts, appearance, or practices define them as legitimate targets of family, community, or state-based violence. In so doing, we may also challenge doctrinaire and narrow definitions of the Muslim Ummah, the all-encompassing and transcendent community of Muslims.
Foreign Internet Advertising: Journalism Professor Presents Her Research
Authors: Lindgren April
Published: May 2023

Testimony before the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on tax deductibility of foreign internet advertising in Canada.

For the committee's study on the deductibility of foreign Internet advertising, April Lindgren, a journalism professor at Ryerson University, presents her research about the precarious state of local news media.
Canada’s local news “poverty”
Authors: Lindgren April , Hodson Jaigris , Corbett Jon
Published: May 2023

Newsrooms outside the big cities are closing, and with them goes the critical information citizens require for everyday life.
The Methodological Instrumentarium for Managing Business Processes in an Organization
Authors:   Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Rybchuk Anatoliy V. , Lapchuk Yaroslav S. ,   Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Palasevych Mykola B. ,   Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University, Zinkevych Vasyl I. ,   Drohobych Professional College of Oil and Gas
Published: May 2023

The article analyzes the essence and content of business processes in a broad sense: as a structured sequence of actions to perform a certain type of activity at all stages of the life cycle of the subject of activity – from the creation of a conceptual idea through design to implementation and obtaining results. It is noted that there is no standard list of business processes – each organization must develop its own «architecture» of such processes. Concerning the aforesaid, the experience of implementing the process management has testified to the advisability of identifying and classifying the business processes by a specially formed team, which must include: the owners of the organization, top managers, and specialists who know the problems and technologies of the company. It is emphasized that process management helps to optimize the use of resources, reduce financial costs, increase the efficiency of the organization and the quality of work, increase customer and employee satisfaction, while process modeling and analysis allow to develop the organization, improve the efficiency and quality of its functioning. It is shown that in practice, business processes are usually determined based on the needs of customers, and it is important to ensure the smooth execution of the process, which, in turn, will allow the organization to increase added value and maximize the usefulness and value of products and services for its customers. The authors prove the need to use business process reengineering as a special approach to reforming the organization’s activities, which consists in a fundamental redesign of work processes in the organization in order to improve key indicators, reduce costs and, ultimately, increase profits.
Foreign Direct Investment In Ukraine in the Context of Integration Into the European Union
Authors:   Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Kovalchuk Natalia О.
Published: May 2023

The purpose of the article is to study the prerequisites for the inflow of foreign direct investment in Ukraine and the reasons that slow down this process, in particular in the context of EU integration, as well as to analyze the dynamics of foreign direct investment in Ukraine. The dynamics of foreign direct investment in Ukrainian economy in 2002-2022 were analyzed, with consideration of the reasons for their changes over the study period. Starting from 2013 and until 2016, the volume of investments declined rapidly, which was caused by political instability in the country and a number of other reasons; in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a major challenge, which also had its extremely negative consequences for the economies of countries and investors, and in 2022, russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to a decrease in foreign direct investment from 6687 million US dollars in 2021 to 190 million US dollars in 2022. One of the main problems of the Ukrainian economy is the low return on investment and its inefficient distribution. An analysis of foreign investment by type of economic activity leads to the conclusion that the largest share of foreign direct investment goes to the developed economic sectors. The main factors that negatively affected the dynamics of foreign direct investment in different periods were investor distrust caused by the high level of corruption in the country, doubts about the fairness of the judicial system, monopolization of markets, and instability of the national currency; russia’s war against Ukraine (since 2014); the COVID-19 pandemic; russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (since February 2022), which still continues. Ukraine’s European integration processes, along with reforms designed to accelerate these processes, as well as the end of the war in Ukraine, will help attract foreign direct investment aimed at recovering and developing Ukraine.
Sosialisasi Produk Hukum Tentang Undang-Undang Perlindungan Anak di Sekolah Menegah Pertama (SMP) Negeri 1 Tasikmadu Kabupaten Karanganyar
Authors: Kurniawan Itok Dwi , Septiningsih Ismawati
Published: May 2023

In essence, the regulation regarding children has been regulated in the Indonesian constitution, which is related to the regulation of human rights which is regulated in the 1945 Law of the Republic of Indonesia Article 28b paragraph 2 of the 2nd Amendment, August 18, 2000 clearly stipulates that children's rights are survival, growth and development as well as the right to protection from violence and discrimination. Childhood is a period of formation of character, personality and character. Forms of child protection are carried out from all aspects, starting with coaching in the family, social control over children's association. Law Number 35 of 2014 and also Law Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System principally aims to provide and protect children's rights so that they can live, grow and develop and participate optimally, and obtain protection from acts of violence and discrimination. The method of implementing this service is carried out in several activities, namely the survey stage, namely socialization. With the aim of realizing a Golden Generation of Child Protection Awareness
PEMBERDAYAAN SOSIAL EKONOMI MASYARAKAT DI DAERAH RAWAN BANJIR (Studi Kasus Banjir di Kecamatan Periuk Kota Tangerang)
Authors: Budi Baghas Budi Wicaksono , Wibowo FX. Pudjo , Kusnawan Agus , Hernawan Eso
Published: May 2023

Empowerment of the environment in society is very essential in the regional and national development agenda. Communities, governments, academics and business actors have an important role as drivers of innovation in national environmental preservation programs. In an effort to implement this function, several strategic studies are needed so that all initiator components can jointly protect the environment from potential natural releases including natural disasters such as floods. Based on this, community service research involving members of the Tangerang City DPRD, the Environment Service, the Public Works and Public Housing Service, the Social Service, the Regional Disaster Management Agency, Officials in the Periuk sub-district and Periuk Sub-District underwent a Focus Group Discussion on social impact economic consequences due to flooding in Periuk District. As for some assistance with problems, namely as follows: 1.) Officials in the Tangerang City area require intensive coordination and supervision to overcome flood problems and their economic impacts, (2.) The need for knowledge for the community regarding the socio-economic impacts that can be experienced as a result of flooding . Therefore, the results of community service research are as follows: (1) succeeded in formulating a policy package that has been approved by the executive and legislative components in the Periuk District and Tangerang City, (2.) The community feels helped by the existence of discussion and presentation facilities material organized by the Business Faculty of Buddhi Dharma University.