The Impact of Cultural Folklore on National Values: A Preliminary Study with a focus on Bhutan

Video of the National Storytelling Conference 2009. A male introduces Her Royal Highness Ashi Sonam Dechan Wangchuck who delivers the keynote address. This is followed by a presentation by Mr Steve Evans on the impact of cultural folklore on national values in Bhutan.World Oral Literature Project: an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record

Bilateral Curvularia keratitis

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Handwritten Vedic Sanskrit Text Recognition Using Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks

Recognizing Vedic Sanskrit text is essential for accessing classical Indo-Aryan language, predominantly utilized in the Vedas. Currently, there is limited awareness about the Vedas, making this field a highly demanding and challenging area in pattern recognition. To accelerate progress in optical character recognition (OCR), deep learning methods are indispensable. This article presents a novel approach to Vedic Sanskrit text recognition, incorporating deep convolutional architectures with their respective interpretations. We introduce three modified 4-fold CNN architectures and the AlexNet model. Our system comprises a handwritten dataset containing 140 distinct Vedic Sanskrit words, with approximately 500 images per word, totaling around 70,000 images. The dataset is partitioned for training and testing in an 80:20 ratio. Training is conducted using 20% of the samples, and the resulting model is applied to the deep convolutional network with varied sets of neurons in their hidden layers. Our proposed method demonstrates robust support for accurate Vedic Sanskrit word classification. The recognition rate achieved in our research is 97.42%, with an average recognition time of 0.3640 milliseconds, surpassing existing CNN-based approaches

PENGARUH TRADING VOLUME ACTIVITY, CASH FLOW OPERATION, RETURN ON ASSETS, CURRENT RATIO DAN DEBT TO EQUITY RATIO TERHADAP RETURN SAHAM PADA PERUSAHAAN SEKTOR PROPERTI DAN REAL ESTATE DI BEI PERIODE 2010-2014

Stock returns is one motivator in a process of investment, then the measurement of stock returns is a way that is often used by investors to compare different investment alternatives, thus allowing investors to determine its success in making an investment. This study was conducted to determine the extent of Trading Volume Activity (TVA), Cash Flow Operation (CFO), Return on Assets (ROA), the Current Ratio (CR) and Debt to Equity Ratio (DER) affect stock returns in property and real estate sectors. The method used is descriptive and verification methods, to address issues regarding all the variables independently sampling method using purposive sampling method. Of the forty-five companies, only thirty-nine companies included in the study sample. The results showed Debt to Equity Ratio (DER), Trading Volume Activity (TVA), Cash Flow Operation (CFO), does not significantly influence stock return. But Return on Assets (ROA), the Current Ratio (CR) significantly affect stock returns in which the value is more than 0.05

A Numerical Solution for Hirota-Satsuma Coupled KdV Equation

A Petrov-Galerkin method and product approximation technique are used to solve numerically the Hirota-Satsuma coupled Korteweg-de Vries equation, using cubic B-splines as test functions and a linear B-spline as trial functions. The implicit midpoint rule is used to advance the solution in time. Newton’s method is used to solve the block nonlinear pentadiagonal system we have obtained. The resulting schemes are of second order accuracy in both directions, space and time. The von Neumann stability analysis of the schemes shows that the two schemes are unconditionally stable. The single soliton solution and the conserved quantities are used to assess the accuracy and to show the robustness of the schemes. The interaction of two solitons, three solitons, and birth of solitons is also discussed

Public Spending Priorities in Qatar

Together with previous survey findings, SESRI’s study of fiscal priorities among Qataris demonstrates the importance to citizens of healthcare and education, and to a lesser extent other sectors such as social security and infrastructure. Not only do citizens desire to see these sectors prioritized fiscally, but they also want the state to provide these services free of charge. Healthcare and education are essential and universally-utilized services that, absent state provision, leave hefty bills for citizens as they seek these services privately. The state’s prioritization of healthcare and education in its 2017 budget is therefore in line with citizens’ preferences. Yet, prioritization need not necessarily imply increased spending. The findings here suggest that a key driver of Qataris’ prioritization of health, education and other sectors is dissatisfaction with the quality of service. In other words, fiscal prioritization may be in large part a proxy for perceived quality, and an increase in perceived quality of a given service may obviate the need for increases in actual spending. In a time of fiscal tightening, the state can address citizens’ concerns through a focus on efficient and professional service provision, rather than additional monetary investment. توضح نتائج الدراسة التي أجراها معهد البحوث االجتماعية واالقتصادية المسحية حول ترتيب أولويات اإلنفاق لدى القطريين، إلى جانب نتائج الدراسة المسحية السابقة؛ أهمية خدمات الرعاية الصحية والتعليم بالنسبة للمواطنين، وترتيب القطاعات األخرى مثل الضمان االجتماعي والبنية التحتية في سلم األولويات. وال يرغب المواطنون في رؤية هذه القطاعات تتصدر األولوية المالية فحسب؛ بل يتطلعون أيضًا إلى أن توفر لهم الدولة هذه الخدمات بالمجان. ويعد قطاعا الرعاية الصحية والتعليم من الخدمات األساسية والمقدمة على الصعيد العالمي، وتكلف المواطن فواتير ضخمة في سعيه للحصول عليها عبر القطاع الخاص، وذلك إذا غفلت الدولة عن توفيرها. ولذلك تتماشى أولويات الدولة في الرعاية الصحية والتعليم في ميزانيتها لعام 2017 مع تفضيالت المواطنين. ومع ذلك، فإن تحديد األولويات ال يعني بالضرورة زيادة اإلنفاق. وتشير النتائج هنا إلى أن أحد العوامل الرئيسية في تحديد أولويات القطريين في قطاعات الصحة والتعليم وغيرها من القطاعات هو ً عدم الرضا عن جودة الخدمة. وبعبارة أخرى، قد يشكل ترتيب األولويات المالية في جانب كبير منه بديال عن الجودة المتوقعة، وقد تؤدي الزيادة في جودة الخدمة المقدمة إلى تجنب الحاجة إلى زيادة اإلنفاق الفعلي. وبإمكان الدولة في فترات الترشيد المالي التعاطي مع مخاوف المواطنين من خالل التركيز على ً توفير الخدمات بكفاءة ومهنية، بدال من االستثمار النقدي اإلضافي

Inclusive Education in Nigeria: Access and Equity

Inclusive education involves bringing together persons with disabilities and the non-disabled to study in the same classroom with adaptable facilities and equipment. With this arrangement in place the assistive technology becomes an unconditional requirement for children with special needs. It involves public and private programmes and laws. And it involves a number of other things including people who work in the "helping" professions. This paper examines some of the basic requirement for the inclusive programme to be feasible in any environment. The attitudes of people towards those with  disabilities globally, the challenges of people’s attitudes towards disability in Africa, in Nigeria and the challenges of people with disabilities themselves with a view to encourage the non- disabled to develop positive attitudes towards the disabled for social change. Recommendations are made for a way forward.