University of Haifa

About: University of Haifa is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 7558 authors who have published 27141 publications receiving 711629 citations. The organization is also known as: Haifa University & Universiṭat Ḥefah.

Conceptual design of the International Axion Observatory (IAXO)

Abstract: The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) will be a forth generation axion helioscope. As its primary physics goal, IAXO will look for axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) originating in the Sun via the Primakoff conversion of the solar plasma photons. In terms of signal-to-noise ratio, IAXO will be about 4–5 orders of magnitude more sensitive than CAST, currently the most powerful axion helioscope, reaching sensitivity to axion-photon couplings down to a few × 10−12 GeV−1 and thus probing a large fraction of the currently unexplored axion and ALP parameter space. IAXO will also be sensitive to solar axions produced by mechanisms mediated by the axion-electron coupling gae with sensitivity — for the first time — to values of gae not previously excluded by astrophysics. With several other possible physics cases, IAXO has the potential to serve as a multi-purpose facility for generic axion and ALP research in the next decade. In this paper we present the conceptual design of IAXO, which follows the layout of an enhanced axion helioscope, based on a purpose-built 20 m-long 8-coils toroidal superconducting magnet. All the eight 60cm-diameter magnet bores are equipped with focusing x-ray optics, able to focus the signal photons into ~ 0.2 cm2 spots that are imaged by ultra-low-background Micromegas x-ray detectors. The magnet is built into a structure with elevation and azimuth drives that will allow for solar tracking for ~ 12 h each day.

Synergistic Face Detection and Pose Estimation with Energy-Based Models

Abstract: We describe a novel method for simultaneously detecting faces and estimating their pose in real time The method employs a convolutional network to map images of faces to points on a low-dimensional manifold parametrized by pose, and images of non-faces to points far away from that manifold Given an image, detecting a face and estimating its pose is viewed as minimizing an energy function with respect to the face/non-face binary variable and the continuous pose parameters The system is trained to minimize a loss function that drives correct combinations of labels and pose to be associated with lower energy values than incorrect ones The system is designed to handle very large range of poses without retraining The performance of the system was tested on three standard data sets---for frontal views, rotated faces, and profiles---is comparable to previous systems that are designed to handle a single one of these data sets We show that a system trained simuiltaneously for detection and pose estimation is more accurate on both tasks than similar systems trained for each task separately

Antecedents and consequences of teacher organizational and professional commitment

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to examine the distinctive relationships of teacher professional and organizational commitment with participation in decision making and with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The data were collected through questionnaires from a sample of 983 teachers at 25 middle schools and 27 high schools in Israel. The results of the structural equation model confirmed the main hypotheses and depicted distinctive patterns of relationships regarding professional commitment and organizational commitment in schools. First, whereas participation in the managerial domain was positively associated with both the professional and the organizational commitment, participation in the technical domain was positively related with only teachers’ professional commitment. Second, professional commitment was positively associated with OCBtoward the student, whereas organizational commitment was positively associated with all three dimensions of OCB(toward the student, the team, and the or...

Formant centralization ratio: a proposal for a new acoustic measure of dysarthric speech.

Abstract: Purpose The vowel space area (VSA) has been used as an acoustic metric of dysarthric speech, but with varying degrees of success. In this study, the authors aimed to test an alternative metric to t...

Low Mobility During Hospitalization and Functional Decline in Older Adults

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between mobility levels of older hospitalized adults and functional outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: A 900-bed teaching hospital in Israel. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred twenty-five older (≥70) acute medical patients hospitalized for a nondisabling condition. MEASUREMENTS: In-hospital mobility was assessed using a previously validated scale. The main outcomes were decline from premorbid baseline functional status at discharge (activities of daily living (ADLs)) and at 1-month follow-up (ADLs and instrumental ADLs (IADLs)). Hospital mobility levels and functional outcomes were assessed according to prehospitalization functional trajectories. Logistic regressions were modeled for each outcome, controlling for functional status, morbidity, and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of participants had declined in ADLs at discharge and 49% at follow-up; 57% had declined in IADLs at follow-up. Mobility during hospitalization was twice as high in participants with no preadmission functional decline. Low versus high in-hospital mobility was associated with worse basic functional status at discharge (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=18.03, 95% confidence interval (CI)=7.68–42.28) and at follow-up (AOR=4.72, 95% CI=1.98–11.28) and worse IADLs at follow-up (AOR=2.00, 95% CI=1.05–3.78). The association with poorer discharge functional outcomes was present in participants with preadmission functional decline (AOR for low vs high mobility=15.26, 95% CI=4.80–48.42) and in those who were functionally stable (AOR for low vs high mobility=10.12, 95% CI=2.28–44.92). CONCLUSION: In-hospital mobility is an important modifiable factor related to functional decline in older adults in immediate and short-term (1-month follow-up) functional outcomes.