Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical and Dynamical Modeling of Riemannian Trajectories with Application to Human Movement Analysis

The data explosion in the past decade is in part due to the widespread use of rich sensors that measure various physical phenomenon – gyroscopes that measure orientation in phones and fitness devices, the Microsoft Kinect which measures depth information, etc. A typical application requires inferring the underlying physical phenomenon from data, which is done using machine learning. A fundamental assumption in training models is that the data is Euclidean, i.e. the metric is the standard Euclidean distance governed by the `2 norm. However in many cases this assumption is violated, when the data lies on non Euclidean spaces such as Riemannian manifolds. While the underlying geometry accounts for the non-linearity, accurate analysis of human activity also requires temporal information to be taken into account. Human movement has a natural interpretation as a trajectory on the underlying feature manifold, as it evolves smoothly in time. A commonly occurring theme in many emerging problems is the need to represent, compare, and manipulate such trajectories in a manner that respects the geometric constraints. This dissertation is a comprehensive treatise on modeling Riemannian trajectories to understand and exploit their statistical and dynamical properties. Such properties allow us to formulate novel representations for Riemannian trajectories. For example, the physical constraints on human movement are rarely considered, which results in an unnecessarily large space of features, making search, classification and other applications more complicated. Exploiting statistical properties can help us understand the true space of such trajectories. In applications such as stroke rehabilitation where there is a need to differentiate between very similar kinds of movement, dynamical properties can be much more effective. In this regard, we propose a generalization to the Lyapunov exponent to Riemannian manifolds and show its effectiveness for human activity analysis. The theory developed in this thesis naturally leads to several benefits in areas such as data mining, compression, dimensionality reduction, classification, and regression.
Enhanced Algorithms For F-Pure Threshold Computation

In this dissertation, we explore different computational techniques for the F -pure threshold invariant of monomial ideals and of polynomials. For the former, we introduce a novel algorithm to reduce the number of generators of the ideal and the number of variables involved in the remaining generators, thus effectively creating a new “simpler” ideal with the same value of the F -pure threshold. Then, the value is the sum of entries of the inverse to the new ideal’s splitting matrix. This algorithm can be further improved by using the integral closure of the ideal. For polynomials, we introduce a direct computational technique involving properties of roots of Deuring polynomials, which are closely related to Legendre polynomials. This technique is then applied to two different families of polynomials: polynomials defining Elliptic Curves, and bivariate homogeneous polynomials with up to four distinct roots in projective space of dimension 1. The invariance of the F -pure threshold under changing variables is then used to prove properties of prime characteristic roots of Legendre polynomials. We end the dissertations with generalizing the Deuring polynomial techniques used thus far, and introducing a way to explicitly stratify the coefficient space of polynomials supported by a fixed set of monomials, by identifying regions representing polynomials with the same F -pure threshold. We give an explicit description of the different strata as subschemes of a projective space.
Enrichment of Large-Diameter Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Conjugated Polymer-Assisted Separation

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) with large diameters are highly desired in the construction of high performance optoelectronic devices. However, it is difficult to selectively prepare large-diameter s-SWCNTs since their structure and chemical stability are quite similar with their metallic counterparts. In this work, we use SWCNTs with large diameter as a raw material, conjugated polymer of regioregular poly-(3-dodecylthiophene) (rr-P3DDT) with long side chain as a wrapping agent to selectively separate large-diameter s-SWCNTs. It is found that s-SWCNTs with a diameter of ~1.9 nm are effectively enriched, which shows a clean surface. By using the sorted s-SWCNTs as a channel material, we constructed thin-film transistors showing charge-carrier mobilities higher than 10 cm2 V−1 s−1 and on/off ratios higher than 103.
The benefit of complete resection of contrast enhancing tumor in glioblastoma patients: A population-based study

Abstract Background New treatment modalities have not been widely adopted for patients with glioblastoma (GBM) after the addition of temozolomide to radiotherapy. We hypothesize that increased extent of resection (EOR) has resulted in improved survival for surgically treated patients with glioblastoma at the population level. Methods Retrospective analysis of adult patients operated for glioblastoma in the population of South–Eastern Norway. Patients were stratified into Pre-temozolomide- (2003–2005), temozolomide- (2006–2012), and resection-focused period (2013–2019) and evaluated according to age and EOR. Results The study included 1657 adult patients operated on for supratentorial glioblastoma. The incidence of histologically confirmed glioblastoma increased from 3.7 in 2003 to 5.3 per 100 000 in 2019. The median survival was 11.4 months. Complete resection of contrast-enhancing tumor (CRCET) was achieved in 386 patients, and this fraction increased from 13% to 32% across the periods. Significant improvement in median survival was found between the first 2 periods and the last (10.5 and 10.6 vs. 12.3 months; P < .01), with a significant increase in 3- and 5-year survival probability to 12% and 6% (P < .01). Patients with CRCET survived longer than patients with non-CRCET (16.1 vs. 10.8 months; P < .001). The median survival doubled in patients ≥70 years and (12.1 months). Survival was similar between the time periods in patients where CRCET was achieved. Conclusions We demonstrate an improved survival of GBM patients at the population level associated with an increased fraction of patients with CRCET. The data support the importance of CRCET to improve glioblastoma patient outcomes.
THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED LOYALTY PROGRAM AND SATISFACTION LEVEL TOWARDS LOYALTY LEVEL OF ONLINE TRANSPORTATION CONSUMERS

Competition in the business of ride-hailing services has also increased along with the rapid development of technology. This study aims to analyze the effect of perceptions of loyalty programs and the level of consumer satisfaction on the level of loyalty of Grab consumers. This study used a cross sectional study design and a survey method using an online questionnaire. The analysis carried out using descriptive analysis, Spearman correlation test using SPSS 25, and the influence test using the SEM method using Smart PLS. The population of this study is Indonesian society aged 18-50 years and using Grab services more than three times in the past three months. Respondents were selected by voluntary sampling with a total of 176 respondents. The results of the study found that there was no relationship between the characteristics of respondents and the perceived loyalty program, consumer satisfaction, and consumer loyalty. The Grab loyalty program that is well perceived by consumers can increase the level of Grab consumer loyalty. Then, the increasing level of consumer satisfaction can increase the level of Grab consumer loyalty
Human-Elf Marriage as Formula in Popular Fantasy

Understanding how stories of human-elf marriages are portrayed is very crucial because such stories can influence the public’s opinion regarding people who claim to have such relationships. Therefore, a study on human-elf marriage as a formula in popular fantasy contributes to a better understanding of the function and role of popular fantasy in society. Using Cawelti’s theory of formula (Cawelti, 1977) as starting point, this study tries to see how human-elf marriage as a formula may be portrayed differently in English fantasy works and popular Javanese stories. Several English fantasy works are presented as data for this study, along with Javanese stories collected from social media, television, and the box office that have strong influences from urban legends. Stories from the Arabian peninsula are also considered for their strong affinity to the predominantly Islamic society of Java. Miles & Huberman (1992) qualitative methods are applied interactively and continuously to optimize the data collection and analysis. The analysis shows that the portrayal of marriages between humans and Other beings, such as elves, fairies, or jinns, hugely depends on the manner of the depiction of Other beings involved. The elves of Tolkien are strongly associated with the heavenly light that humans long for, while the jinns in the Islamic and Javanese traditions are generally considered bearers of turmoil in human society. Consequently, the human-elf marriages of Tolkien are celebrated. All kinds of contact between humans and the jinns, however, fairy-like they may be, are avoided and even condemned in Javanese stories. This conclusion confirms that the formula in popular fantasy serves as both an endorsement or a condemnation of certain notions a particular society upholds.
Characterization of Post-COVID-19 Clinical Manifestations Among Patients Visiting a Post-COVID-19 Clinic in a Tertiary Care Center: A Descriptive Study

Background On December 21, 2019, a pneumonia-like outbreak of an unknown cause or origin was found to be emerging in Wuhan, China. In India, the first case of COVID-19 was found in Kerala and then started to spread all over India. Most of the infected people have recovered from the disease, but some patients were found to have symptoms at post-discharge follow-up. Although there are many studies on COVID-19 symptoms and signs during hospital stays, there is a scarcity of information regarding post-COVID-19 manifestations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the clinical characteristics of post-COVID-19 symptoms in patients attending the post-COVID-19 clinics. Methods A descriptive study was started on August 2021 at a tertiary care hospital in Southern India after institutional research and ethics committee clearance. All patients attending the post-COVID clinic, who tested positive for COVID-19 (RT-PCR or rapid antigen test (RAT) diagnosed or radiographically diagnosed COVID-19 (COVID-19 Reporting and Data System [CO-RADS] 5) were recruited. The proportion of people developing post-COVID-19 manifestations and categorization of symptoms in post-COVID-19 and its relationship to the severity of COVID-19 infections and the differences in post-COVID symptoms between hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients were studied. Results We enrolled 227 post-COVID patients who presented to the post-COVID clinic. The median age (IQR) of the participant was 52 (38-59) years, and the male-to-female ratio was 126/101 (1.24). Among 227 patients, 164 (72%) patients had exertional dyspnea, 109 (48%) patients had cough with expectoration, 96 (42.2%) patients with fatigue, 28 (12.33%) patients had myalgia, 18 (7.92) patients had a fever, 12 (5.28%) patients had hair loss, and 30 (13%) had other issues (loss of smell, sleep disturbances, and headache). Among 227, 142 (62.5%) patients were admitted to the hospital for acute COVID-19, and 85 (37.4) patients were in home isolation, but no statistical significance was found between in symptoms. Conclusion From this descriptive study, a high prevalence of post-COVID symptoms was noted, such aslike post-SARS syndrome. Mostly, researchers and clinicians have focused on acute COVID-19, but long-term follow-up with multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment is needed in all patients who recovered from acute COVID-19.
Despeckling PolSAR images with an adaptive bilateral filter

An improved bilateral filter with adaptive parameters estimation in space domain and polarimetric domain for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image despeckling, named PolSAR adaptive bilateral filtering (PABF), is proposed. On one hand, PABF sets the spatial parameter adaptively according to the local coefficient of variation. On the other hand, the polarimetric parameter is adjusted adaptively on the basis of the noise variance estimated from the convolution between the intensity image and Laplacian template. The experiments performed on simulated and real PolSAR data show that PABF effectively suppresses speckles while maintaining important details of images.
Robust consensus of unicycles using ternary and hybrid controllers

This paper presents consensus of the orientations and average positions for a group of unicycles using ternary and hybrid controllers. The decentralized controllers designed to reach consensus of the average positions take only values in the set {−1,0,+1}. In addition, a hybrid controller is introduced to control the orientations. Finite‐time practical consensus of the average positions is proven despite the simple ternary control laws together with asymptotic consensus of the orientations. Furthermore, the consensus problem is studied in the presence of matched input disturbances that are locally rejected using an internal‐model‐based controller. The analysis is performed in a hybrid framework. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the design. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Analysis of the Impact of Energy and Environmental Policies of the European Union on the Economic Performance of Companies. Case Study in the Transport Sector

The macroeconomic reason and objectives, in a normative framework, reside to a large extent in the support, catalysis, and efficiency of activities at the microeconomic level, the gear through which they are built. Responsible behaviour at the macro and microeconomic level involves the dynamic revelation of dysfunctions and conflicts, generated within each sphere, in their relationship, as well as in the involved normative framework, in order to establish effective mechanisms for balance and development. The purpose of this approach is to analyse the micro-macroeconomic convergence from the perspective of the link between economic performance and energy consumption from the point of view of ensuring the necessary resources and the efficiency of their use, with impact on the environment. The study covers the transport sector at the level of the member countries of the European Union in the period 2011-2020, the collected data being processed with the regression method. The growth in energy efficiency and energy dependence are, against the background of the increase in the volume of activity, factors that lead to an increase in the gross operating rate. From the analysis, it emerges that the use of renewable energy to a greater extent, as a result of sustainable development, does not constitute a significant factor for improving the economic performance of companies in the transport sector. The contributions of the two-dimensional approach conducted consist of mediating the conflict between the objectives of economic profitability and the environmental constraints, targeting both the microeconomic level, through the analysis of the gross operating rate in correlation with energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, as well as the macroeconomic level, constituting a benchmark in policies substantiation.
Hydraulophones: Acoustic musical instruments and expressive user interfaces

Hydraulophones: Acoustic musical instruments and expressive user interfaces Ryan E. Janzen Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2008 Fluid flow creates an expansive range of acoustic possibilities, particularly in the case of water, which has unique turbulence and vortex shedding properties as compared with the air of ordinary wind instruments. Sound from water flow is explained with reference to a new class of musical instruments, hydraulophones, in which oscillation originates directly from matter in its liquid state. Several hydraulophones which were realized in practical form are described. A unique user-interface consisting of a row of water jets is presented, in terms of its expressiveness, tactility, responsiveness to derivatives and integrals of displacement, and in terms of the direct physical interaction between a user and the physical process of sound production. Signal processing algorithms are introduced, which extract further information from turbulent water flow, for industrial applications as well as musical applications.
A dynamical link between deep Atlantic extratropical cyclones and intense Mediterranean cyclones

Breaking of atmospheric Rossby waves has been previously shown to lead to intense Mediterranean cyclones, one of the most prominent environmental risks in the region. Wave breaking may be enhanced by warm conveyor belts (WCBs) associated with extratropical cyclones developing over the Atlantic Ocean. More precisely, WCBs supply the upper troposphere with air masses of low potential vorticity that, in turn, amplify ridges and thus favor Rossby wave breaking. This study identifies the mechanism that connects Atlantic cyclones and intense mature Mediterranean cyclones through ridge amplification by WCBs, and validates its climatological relevance. Using European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA‐Interim reanalyses and a feature‐based approach, we analyze the 200 most intense Mediterranean cyclones for the years 1989–2008 and show that their majority (181 cases) is indeed associated with this mechanism upstream. Results show that multiple Atlantic cyclones are associated with each case of intense Mediterranean cyclone downstream. Moreover, the associated Atlantic cyclones are particularly deeply intensifying compared with climatology.
Synthesis of novel PVDF-co-PTFE membranes for ethanol–water separation using vacuum membrane distillation

Abstract Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) is an intriguing technique that has the potential to separate ethanol from an ethanol–water mixture. The goal of this work was to synthesize hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride–polytetrafluoroethylene (PVDF–PTFE) hybrid membranes that could be used in VMD. For membrane synthesis via phase inversion, the outcomes of different solvents, namely N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc), and dimethylformamide (DMF), as well as PTFE loading in PVDF dope solution were also evaluated. The desired membrane hydrophobicity was ensured by increasing contact angle from 69° to 135°. The obtained average maximum pore size fell between 0.19 μm and 0.22 μm. Plenty of work has been done on how the performance of the synthesized membrane depends on the VMD operating parameters (ethanol concentration, flow rate, feed temperature, and permeate pressure). The highest separation factor of 37.68 was offered by the membrane synthesized using DMF as a solvent, while the membrane synthesized with the help of DMAc solvent had the most increased ethanol flux of 10.55 kg m−2 h−1. A thorough report has been made on understanding membrane morphologies and VMD performance.
Validation of the Turkish version of Endometriosis Health Profile Questionnaire (EHP-30) to evaluate the quality of life in women with endometriosis

Background The Endometriosis Health Profile-30 (EHP-30) is a commonly used tool for assessing the impact of endometriosis on a person’s quality of life. The EHP-30 is a 30-item questionnaire that measures various aspects of endometriosis-related health, including physical symptoms, emotional well-being, and functional impairment. Objectives EHP-30 has not yet been evaluated with Turkish patients. Therefore, we aim to develop and validate the Turkish version of EHP-30 in this study. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 281 randomly selected patients from Turkish Endometriosis Patient-Support Groups. The items of the EHP-30 distributed across 5 subscales of the core questionnaire are generally applicable to all women with endometriosis. There are 11 items on the pain scale, 6 on the control and powerlessness scale, 4 on the social support scale, 6 on the emotional well-being scale, and 3 on the self-image scale. The patients were asked to complete the form with brief demographic information and psychometric evaluation included factor analysis, convergent validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, data completeness and the determination of floor and ceiling effects. Main outcome measure The main outcomes measures were the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and the assessment of construct validity. Results 102 consecutive cases were analysed with no cases confirming intraluminal disease. Non-specific evidence of endometriosis such as tight angulation of the bowel was found in 36.3%. Following sigmoidoscopy 100 patients proceeded to surgery and the risk of bowel resection during surgery was 4%. Conclusion In this study, 281 completed questionnaires were included with a return rate of 91%. Data completeness was accepted as excellent on all subscales. Floor effects were found in medical profession (37%), children (32%) and work (31%) modules. No ceiling effects were found. Division of the core questionnaire into five subscales identical to the original EHP-30 was confirmed by factor analysis performed. The intraclass correlation coefficient for agreement varied from 0.822 to 0.914. There was agreement between the EHP-30 and EQ-5D-3L on both of the hypotheses that were tested. There was a statistically significant difference in scores between endometriosis patients and healthy women across in all subscales (p<.01). What's new? EHP-30 had not yet been evaluated with Turkish patients and the results of this study demonstrate the validity and reliability of the Turkish translation of the EHP-30 in assessing endometriosis patients’ health- related quality of life. ClinicalTrials Registration NCT04862364.