ethicalabs/Research-Intent-Collab huggingface dataset:
Interpretable Deep Learning for Satellite Image Classification Using Explainable AI Techniques

The rapid growth in remote sensing technologies and the increased availability of high-quality satellite images have significantly altered the way environmental monitoring, disaster management, crop cultivation, and city planning are performed today. In satellite image classification, deep learning models— particularly convolutional neural networks—have demonstrated remarkable efficacy, frequently surpassing more antiquated techniques like manual analysis or conventional machine learning. Despite their strength, these models are like "black boxes" in that they don't explain how they arrive at their results. The difficulty of accurately classifying satellite images has significantly decreased thanks to deep learning models. On the other hand, these models have their decision-making mechanism a lot like a black box, difficult to interpret. For flood mapping, deforestation monitoring, or land use management, knowing why a model predicts something is as important as knowing the result itself. XAI helps provide insight into AI decisions that can be more understandable to humans. This work introduces an XAI framework for enhanced satellite image classification in remote sensing by using visualization-based methods such as Grad-CAM, LIME, SHAP along with CNNs. The system shows which parts of the image-spatially and color-wise-most influence the model's decisions, helping the experts check the results with more confidence. This approach makes AI more transparent, enhances the reliability of the models, and supports better and more responsible decisions in key tasks of remote sensing. This framework provides a combination of the benefits of combining Deep Learning and the potential for Interpretability to foster trust, accuracy, interpretations, and actionable insight from satellite imagery to be used in practical applications in the real world.
Abstracts of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society. “Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology”

The 23rd annual meeting of the Willi Hennig Society took place in Paris with the support of Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and CNRS (Centre National de la recherche Scientifique), from the 18th to the 23rd of July 2004. Ninety four participants from 16 countries presented 67 talks and 11 posters. The symposia comprised both methodological contributions and strong analyses of case studies, focusing on hot topics in systematics, methodological advances in phylogenetic analysis, epistemology, phylogenetic analysis of behavioral and ecological traits, phylogeny and coevolution of microbial symbioses, taxon and character sampling, biogeography, and the evolution of arthropods. The student participation was very high with 30 student talks (45%) distributed among all symposia, showing the same healthy trend seen in previous meetings. The present abstracts show how much systematics and phylogenetics are scientifically growing and contribute significantly to all research fields of evolutionary biology in the framework of comparative biology.The Student Awards Committee (Cyrille D'Haese, Diana Lipscomb, John Wenzel) nominated the following winners: Johannes Bergsten, the Hennig Prize ($1000) for “Antagonistic coevolution between the sexes in diving‐beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae); phylogeny and experiments in reciprocal illumination”, Mahé Ben Hamed, the Brundin Prize ($500) for “Reconstructing the history of Chinese through lexicon. Cladistics, distances and trees” and Lara Lopardo, the Rosen Prize ($250) for the poster “Chilean Anapids and Their Webs, a Phylogenetic Approach (Araneae, Anapidae)”.© The Willi Hennig Society 2004.
Cultural Shifts and Organizational Transformation: The Role of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Adoption in Shaping Enterprise Culture

This paper explores the impact of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) adoption on organizational culture, highlighting the dynamic interaction between technical practices and cultural transformation. The integration of SRE practices is examined not only as a mechanism for improving system reliability and operational performance but also as a catalyst for reshaping organizational norms, values, and behavior. Through an in-depth analysis, we uncover the key drivers of this cultural shift, with particular emphasis on the balance between optimizing performance and fostering psychological safety within teams. The novelty of this research lies in its focus on how SRE, a discipline traditionally centered on operational excellence, can catalyze a broader cultural evolution within technology-driven organizations. By adopting principles of collaboration, transparency, and blameless postmortems, SRE facilitates a culture of trust and learning that underpins the success of high-performing teams. This paper also examines the challenges faced by organizations during this cultural shift, particularly the tension between risk aversion and the need for continuous innovation. Our methodology includes a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative interviews with SRE practitioners and a review of existing empirical data on organizational performance and cultural outcomes. Key findings reveal that successful SRE adoption requires more than just technical implementation; it demands an intentional focus on leadership, change management, and the nurturing of psychological safety across all levels of the organization. Furthermore, this cultural shift is shown to enhance organizational resilience, adaptability, and long-term performance. The practical implications for organizations are clear: adopting SRE practices can lead to a more agile, reliable, and psychologically safe workplace, but only if the transformation is supported by strong leadership and aligned with organizational goals. Finally, the paper outlines avenues for future research, suggesting a deeper exploration of how SRE influences cross-cultural dynamics in multinational organizations and its potential to drive broader systemic changes in the tech industry.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion and gains in health insurance coverage and access among cancer survivors

BACKGROUNDThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extends Medicaid coverage to millions of low‐income adults, including many survivors of cancer who were unable to purchase affordable health insurance coverage in the individual health insurance market.METHODSUsing data from the 2011 to 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the authors compared changes in coverage and health care access measures for low‐income cancer survivors in states that did and did not expand Medicaid.RESULTSThe study population of 17,381 individuals included adults aged 18 to 64 years, and was predominantly female, white, and unmarried. The authors found a relative reduction in the uninsured rate of 11.7 percentage points and a relative increase in the probability of having a personal physician of 5.8 percentage points. Stratifying by whether states expanded Medicaid by 2015, the authors found that relative gains in coverage and access were larger among those individuals residing in states with expanded Medicaid compared with those residing in nonexpansion states.CONCLUSIONSThe results of the current study suggest that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion has improved coverage and access for cancer survivors. Cancer 2018;124:2645‐52. © 2018 American Cancer Society.
The Protection of United Nations Whistleblowers against Retaliation

Abstract At a time when better protection of whistleblowers is increasingly demanded, how does the United Nations deal with its own whistleblowers? As un agents have immunity they rely on an internal un justice system. However, in 2005, the un Secretary-General issued a Bulletin that created a mechanism based in an Ethics Office to protect whistleblowers. In practice, the new system has not met expectations and has raised many legal issues, in particular with regard to the competence of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal to review the decisions of the Ethics Office. As a result, un agents have started to avoid the Ethics Office mechanism and have gone directly before un judges. Moreover, in early 2017, the new Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, reformed the un’s Ethics Office mechanism.
Health Technology Assessment of the Negative Pressure Wound Therapy for the treatment of acute and chronic wounds: efficacy, safety, cost effectiveness, organizational and ethical impact

Background: the aim of the study was to assess the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of negative Pressure wound therapy (nPT) for people with chronic and acute wounds.  Methods: the scope and the final draft of the report have been submitted to the stakeholders (producers, payers and patients). safety issues were addressed through a systematic review of the meta-literature. efficacy was addressed through a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (rcTs) comparing nPT and other standard therapies in patients with chronic or acute lesions. cost-consequence was analyzed through a systematic review of the existing studies.  Results: we retrieved 19 studies, 13 of which were included in the meta-analysis. Many studies had biases that may have resulted in a better performance for nPT. nPT showed: a slightly shorter healing time (-10.4 days, p=0.001), with no heterogeneity, apart from one small study with very positive results, and 40% more patients healed (p=0.002, no heterogeneity).We identified 15 original research papers on nPT costs and cost per outcome. The costs-per-patient- treated varied from +29% to -60%, with several studies reporting savings for nPT.  Conclusions: despite serious methodological flaws, the body of evidence available was sufficient to prove some clinical benefit of nPT in severe chronic and acute wound treatment. There is a need for independent and contextualized cost analyses....
Examining the Effect of Occupational Health and Safety Practices on Improving Workplace Safety Outcomes

With an emphasis on important elements, such as safety regulations, training initiatives, hazard identification, employee involvement, and leadership dedication, the research investigates how occupational health and safety (OHS) practices might enhance workplace safety results. The research investigates the impact of successful OHS initiatives on workplace injury rates, given the importance of workplace safety. Surveys were used to obtain data on OHS procedures and safety outcomes from a sample of 9500 employees in various sectors. The IBM SPSS software version of 29.0 was utilized and data were analyzed using independent t-tests to compare safety outcomes between organizations with different levels of OHS adherence, descriptive statistics to summarize the features of the data, and chi-square tests to assess the relationship between safety practices and injury rates. According to the results, there is a substantial correlation between reduced injury rates and important elements like thorough safety training, frequent risk assessments, and active employee participation in safety procedures. Additionally, when compared to organizations with less comprehensive OHS practices, those that exhibit leadership commitment, cultivate a strong safety culture, and follow industry-specific safety requirements have superior safety outcomes. To lower workplace accidents and the resulting financial and human consequences, the research highlights the significance of these critical elements. The results suggest that further research could explore the integration of technology in OHS practices and investigate the long-term impact of evolving safety regulations on workplace safety outcomes.
Chapter 10 Sustainability, Public Security, and Privacy Concerns Regarding Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

Around 100 central banks currently research or develop their own central bank digital currency (further CBDC). Two projects recently moved into the production phase. The introduction of CBDC by at least one major central bank in the coming years seems unavoidable, which would form a tipping point. CBDC would then enter the mainstream of the banking sector. This trend requires assessing CBDC projects broader than the central banks do. This chapter considers concerns regarding the introduction of CBDC and its design criteria. Addressing those issues at an early stage allows us to mitigate them. The most obvious concern concerns the central bank money's public security in the era of growing cyber threats. The other evident concern concerns privacy. However, one particular angle of discussions on CBDC does not get enough attention – sustainability. This chapter assesses whether and how current CBDC projects include sustainability, public security, and privacy. It then addresses areas worth further development to increase the implementation of sustainability by the central banks. Finally, this chapter reconstructs a design of CBDC that would be most desired from the perspective of sustainability, public security, and privacy, showing how taking those perspectives into consideration influences social acceptance of CBDC.
Science communication and public engagement on urgent topics for human and planetary health

In celebration of the South African National Science Week 2023, the National Research Fund recognises the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly for the year 2023 to be, “The International Year of Millets (IYoM)”. Here we provide a platform for general awareness of the contribution of millet to food security, nutrition and production of millet and grain products. This webinar is about how we use science to explore ways in which important messages around human or planetary health reach society using targeted science communication strategies. Panellist Margaret Gold shared the science-society communication strategies implemented during the year that Leiden was the European Science City in 2022.
A Microgravity Sounding-Rocket Experiment on Protoplanetary Dust Aggregation

Während der ersten Schritte der Bildung eines neuen Planetensystems klumpt und wächst Staub in der protoplanetaren Scheibe, die sich um einen neu-geformten Stern dreht. In dieser Scheibe führen Stöße zwischen Staubteilchen zu Teilchenwachstum. Staubaggregate wachsen bis ihre Größe und Relativgeschwindigkeiten hoch genug sind, dass Stöße zu Abprallen oder Fragmentierung führen.  Das Suborbital Particle and Aggregation Experiment (SPACE) wurde entworfen und gebaut, um Stöße zwischen 100 µm-großen SiO2 Aggregate zu beobachten. Das Experiment wurde am Fallturm Bremen im August 2011 und auf der REXUS 12 Rakete im März 2012 durgeführt, wo die Schwerelosigkeitsbedingungen Teilchen-Relativgeschwindigkeiten unter 1 cm/s ermöglichten. Während der Experimente wurde die Bildung von Klumpen beobachtet, bestehend aus einer Vielzahl an Einzelaggregaten (mehr als 10^4), die bis zu einer Größe von 5 mm wuchsen. Die Ergebnisse der Datenanalyse zeigten, dass die Haftwahrscheinligkeit zwischen solchen Klumpen und zwischen Einzelteilchen und Klumpen viel höher ist als für Stöße zwischen zwei Einzelteilchen. Während des Raketenfluges konnte diese Haftwahrscheinligkeit während des Übergangs von Haftung zu Abprallen durchgehend gemessen werden. Es wurde auch gezeigt, dass die gebildeten Klumpen zerbrechlicher als Einzelteilchen sind und schon bei Stoßgeschwindigkeiten von 5 cm/s fragmentieren.   Die Entwicklung der beobachteten Aggregatklumpen lieferte auch Informationen über ihre Stoß- und Kohäsionseigenschaften. Deren fraktale Dimension, Zugfestigkeit ihrer Komponenten und effektive Oberflächenenergie konnte gemessen werden. Zusätzlich wurden auch Kontakt Roll- und Bruchenergien Schwellwerte bestimmt. Diese verschiedenen Klumpen Eigenschaften sind wichtige Beiträge zu numerischen Simulationen, die Staubwachstum in protoplanetaren Scheiben berechnen.
s.Three Contemporary Applications, 12 The Emergence of “New” Health-Related Human Rights: Recognizing the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation

This chapter discusses the evolving understanding of human rights to encompass determinants of health through the human rights to water and sanitation, which are vital to the prevention of both communicable and non-communicable disease. In 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights argued that the right to water is a distinct human right derived from the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health. Solidified by the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, states have provided a normative framework for efforts to realize the human rights to water and sanitation. This recognition of the human rights to water and sanitation has provided a foundation to implement these rights through national policy and international organizations. With advocates now seeking accountability for these rights, human rights advocacy, litigation, and monitoring will be crucial for meeting water, sanitation, and hygiene needs.
SDWPF: A Dataset for Spatial Dynamic Wind Power Forecasting Challenge at KDD Cup 2022

The variability of wind power supply can present substantial challenges to incorporating wind power into a grid system. Thus, Wind Power Forecasting (WPF) has been widely recognized as one of the most critical issues in wind power integration and operation. There has been an explosion of studies on wind power forecasting problems in the past decades. Nevertheless, how to well handle the WPF problem is still challenging, since high prediction accuracy is always demanded to ensure grid stability and security of supply. We present a unique Spatial Dynamic Wind Power Forecasting dataset: SDWPF, which includes the spatial distribution of wind turbines, as well as the dynamic context factors. Whereas, most of the existing datasets have only a small number of wind turbines without knowing the locations and context information of wind turbines at a fine-grained time scale. By contrast, SDWPF provides the wind power data of 134 wind turbines from a wind farm over half a year with their relative positions and internal statuses. We use this dataset to launch the Baidu KDD Cup 2022 to examine the limit of current WPF solutions. The dataset is released at https://aistudio.baidu.com/aistudio/competition/detail/152/0/datasets.
Kinship Care, Responsibility, and Self-Determination: Exploring African Individual and Community Rights in Decolonized Social Work

This chapter explores how the notion of human rights and the practice of social care could further be embedded in an African way of life. Even though there appears to be a broad acceptance of social work as a human rights profession in many African societies, social work seems to be in dissonance with the deeply rooted cultural practice of kinship care and collective responsibility on the continent. It is noteworthy that cultural practices in kinship care and community responsibility in Africa are congruent to social work principles; however, there still remains a yawning gap between this reality in regard to social work education and practice. This chapter calls for the decolonization of human rights and social work discourses in Africa. We argue that wide-ranging culturally embedded values and collective practices should find expression in human rights and social work endeavors in Africa. This will lend itself to a deeper understanding of non-Western-oriented notions of human rights and social work, which are underpinned by community responsibility, and the principle of self-determination as a collective right.
A novel dataset of human daily activities: Its benchmarking results for classification performance via using deep learning techniques

İnsan aktivitelerini sınıflandırma çalışmaları, bireylerin içinde bulundukları ortam ile etkileşimini değerlendirerek günlük yaşamı kolaylaştıracak yeni sistemler geliştirilmesine katkı sağlayabilir. Bu çalışmada, bireylerin gün içerisinde gerçekleştirdikleri aktivitelerin sınıflandırılmasında kullanılmak üzere yeni bir veri kümesi sunulmaktadır. Öncelikle, çalışma kapsamında çeşitli derin mimari modelleri halkın kullanımına açık literatürde iyi bilinen hazır veri kümeleri ile test edilmiştir. Sonrasında, 25 - 55 yaş aralığındaki beş erkek ve beş kadından oluşan on gönüllü bireyin bel bölgesine yerleştirilen akıllı telefonla toplanan duyarga verileriyle oluşturulmuş yeni veri kümemiz kullanılarak çeşitli sınıflandırma deneyleri gerçekleştirilmiştir. Her bir aktivitenin iki farklı pozisyonda verisi alınmış, böylece 4 dinamik ve 3 statik aktivite içeren 15 saniyelik veriler elde edilmiştir. Her bir aktivite pozisyonu için 20 Hz örnekleme frekansıyla 1 saniyede sinyal penceresi başına 20 okuma yapılmaktadır. Çalışmadaki yazılımsal araç sayesinde tekrarlayan sinir ağ modelleri ve evrişimli sinir ağı modelini içeren derin öğrenme mimarilerinin farklı ağ parametreleri ve katman seçimine imkân sağlanarak çeşitli deneyler başarıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yeni veri kümesi ham verilerin yanı sıra, Butterworth filtresi kullanımıyla oluşturulan bazı alternatif altkümeleri de içermektedir. Deneyler sonucunda, bireylerin çeşitli aktiviteleri için %97 ilâ %99 doğruluk oranında sınıflandırma başarımı çeşitli veri kümeleriyle elde edilmiştir. Yeni veri kümesinin insan aktivitelerinin sınıflandırılması ve tahmin edilmesine dair çalışmalarda kullanıma uygunluğu kanıtlanmıştır.
Fast cosmic microwave background power spectrum estimation of temperature and polarization with Gabor transforms

We extend the analysis of Gabor transforms on a Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature map (Hansen, Gorski & Hivon 2002) to polarisation. We study the temperature and polarisation power spectra on the cut sky, the so-called pseudo power spectra. The transformation kernels relating the full-sky polarisation power spectra and the polarisation pseudo power spectra are found to be similar to the kernel for the temperature power spectrum. This fact is used to construct a fast power spectrum estimation algorithm using the pseudo power spectrum of temperature and polarisation as data vectors in a maximum likelihood approach. Using the pseudo power spectra as input to the likelihood analysis solves the problem of having to invert huge matrices which makes the standard likelihood approach infeasible.
A quest for waste reduction at institutions of higher learning: Investigating the integration of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methodologies with total quality management

Abstract   Institutions of higher learning are required to rethink strategies to eliminate ‘institutional waste’. The sector is facing numerous challenges with resource restrictions. Factors such as the impact of the Fees-must-fall campaign in South Africa and the global tendency of government initiatives to increase student enrolment targets, while subsidies, on a continual basis, are on the decrease, places institutions in higher education under enormous financial distress. This article argues that the majority of institutions’ quality management systems in South Africa and abroad are underpinned by the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM). There is a dearth of research on the implementation of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in higher education. This article investigates the integration of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma as mechanisms to reduce waste in the higher education sector. It reflects on how this integration can enhance a university’s core business and institutional functions through processes of continuous quality assurance, the latter is characteristic of the principles of TQM.