Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mass Culture, Imports and Conspicuous Consumption

Abstract This study investigates how a country’s promotion of its culture affects another country’s consumption patterns. We collected primary data from Malaysians about their exposure to Korean drama and consumption of Korean cosmetics in order to test whether the imaging of Korean cultural richness through the international marketing strategy termed Hallyu (entailing the use of Korean TV drama to image South Korea as a celebrated country) instigates conspicuous consumption in Malaysia. Respondents with higher levels of education but lower income watched Korean drama more intensively, and the intensity of watching Korean drama was positively associated with the consumption of Korean cosmetics. Our results highlight the ability to affect trade between countries by advertising through mass culture and exploiting the need for conspicuous consumption by those individuals experiencing perceived relative deprivation
Indigenous knowledge indicators employed by farmers for adaptation to climate change in rural South Africa

The majority of indigenous farmers in South Africa depend on rain-fed agricultural production for their livelihoods. Reliable indigenous weather forecasts are, therefore, required to guide rural farmers’ decisions in regard to climate change. Much of the literature has shown that western scientific knowledge has failed at rural level. Indigenous knowledge has, for the past century assisted rural farmers’ households in tackling the challenges of climate stressors and enhanced decision-making for adaptation. There is, therefore, much room for advancement in assessment processes to ensure adequate credit for indigenous knowledge systems. This study aimed to address two major knowledge gaps (i) to assess the relevance of indigenous knowledge in weather forecasts used by local farmers for climate adaptation, and (ii) examine farmers’ perceptions in regard to climate change in Levubu and Nwanedi sites. Indigenous knowledge indicators used by farmers for weather forecasting, within their communities, were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The results revealed various forms of indigenous indicators used by local farmers for weather forecasting, such as, star and moon movement, appearance of red and black ants and mist-cover on mountains. A better knowledge of indigenous knowledge systems should play an important role in determining suitable adaptation strategies toward climate change. It is recommended, hence, that policy makers should enhance indigenous knowledge among local communities regarding the implications of climatic stressors to increase crop production.
A Neural Network Approach to Jointly Modeling Social Networks and Mobile Trajectories

Two characteristics of location-based services are mobile trajectories and the ability to facilitate social networking. The recording of trajectory data contributes valuable resources towards understanding users’ geographical movement behaviors. Social networking is possible when users are able to quickly connect to anyone nearby. A social network with location based services is known as location-based social network (LBSN). As shown in Cho et al. [2013], locations that are frequently visited by socially related persons tend to be correlated, which indicates the close association between social connections and trajectory behaviors of users in LBSNs. To better analyze and mine LBSN data, we need to have a comprehensive view of each of these two aspects, i.e., the mobile trajectory data and the social network. Specifically, we present a novel neural network model that can jointly model both social networks and mobile trajectories. Our model consists of two components: the construction of social networks and the generation of mobile trajectories. First we adopt a network embedding method for the construction of social networks: a networking representation can be derived for a user. The key to our model lies in generating mobile trajectories. Second, we consider four factors that influence the generation process of mobile trajectories: user visit preference, influence of friends, short-term sequential contexts, and long-term sequential contexts. To characterize the last two contexts, we employ the RNN and GRU models to capture the sequential relatedness in mobile trajectories at the short or long term levels. Finally, the two components are tied by sharing the user network representations. Experimental results on two important applications demonstrate the effectiveness of our model. In particular, the improvement over baselines is more significant when either network structure or trajectory data is sparse.
The effect of record length on the analysis of river flow trends in Wales and central England.

The detection of trends in hydrological variables is directly affected by the length of time series available for analysis and is of key importance to the global FRIEND community. Long-term (≤50 years) seasonal gauging station records from Wales and the English Midlands are analysed for different time spans up to 2001 to demonstrate the effect of record length on linear trend analysis. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall trend methods are applied to time series of different flow quantiles, and for different seasons, thereby assessing trends across the streamflow spectrum. Key differences are quantified between trends of varying record lengths, but the dominant trend is for streamflow increases at high and low flows over time periods greater than 30 years. The implications for the FRIEND community are widespread and support the need to maintain gauging station networks and maximise instrumental records.
Simulated Glacier Sliding over an Obstacle

Abstract The sliding of temperate ice over two obstacles with sine-wave profiles (wavelength, 0.53 m; maximum slope, 0.22) and low thermal conductivity has been reproduced at full scale within a steel chamber. As expected, large cavities form between the ice and the obstacles so that the drag is limited. However, the delayed elasticity of bubbly ice modifies the expected behaviour. At the base of the ice a fine-grained, bubble-free blue ice layer develops. The shear strain concentrates on the up-stream side of bumps and in the blue ice layer. Tap-water ions enhance tertiary creep-rates.
Planning Support Systems: A New Perspective on Computer-Aided Planning

This article examines the changing views of planning and computer-based information that provide the foundations for a new perspective on computer-assisted planning. It begins by tracing the evolving view of planning as applied science in the 1 960s, as politics in the 1970s, and then as communication in the 1980s. It then reviews the evolving concern of the information sciences with data in the 1960s, information in the 1970s, and knowledge in the 1980s. It concludes by suggesting that the increasingly popular topic of planning support systems (PSS) can be seen as continuing these trends to a include broader concern with intelligence and collective design.
Calibration of hydrological model GR2M using Bayesian uncertainty analysis

An outstanding issue of hydrological modeling is the adequate treatment of uncertainties in model calibration and prediction. The current paradigm is that the major sources of uncertainties, namely input, output and model uncertainty should be accounted for directly, instead of assuming they can be safely lumped into the output uncertainties. In this paper, Bayesian analysis is used to calibrate the conceptual hydrologic monthly model GR2M taking into account input, output, structural and initial state uncertainty through error models and priors. Calibration is performed under different error assumptions to study the influence of the initial state uncertainty, the consequences of large input errors, the impact of error assumptions on calibrated parameter posterior distributions and the definition of error models. It is shown how such an analysis can be used to separate, a posteriori, the different sources of errors, and in particular, to identify structural errors from data errors.
Nanovesicular-Mediated Intranasal Drug Therapy for Neurodegenerative Disease

Numerous neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and glioblastoma multiform are now becoming significant concerns of global health. Formulation-related issues, physiological and anatomical barriers, post-administration obstacles, physical challenges, regulatory limitations, environmental hurdles, and health and safety issues have all hindered successful delivery and effective outcomes despite a variety of treatment options. In the current review, we covered the intranasal route, an alternative strategic route targeting brain for improved delivery across the BBB. The trans-nasal pathway is non-invasive, directing therapeutics directly towards brain, circumventing the barrier and reducing peripheral exposure. The delivery of nanosized vesicles loaded with drugs was also covered in the review. Nanovesicle systems are organised in concentric bilayered lipid membranes separated with aqueous layers. These carriers surmount the disadvantages posed by intranasal delivery of rapid mucociliary clearance and enzymatic degradation, and enhance retention of drug to reach the site of target. In conclusion, the review covers in-depth conclusions on numerous aspects of formulation of drug-loaded vesicular system delivery across BBB, current marketed nasal devices, significant jeopardies, potential therapeutic aids, and current advancements followed by future perspectives.
Income inequality and economic growth: the reexamination of the existence of Kuznets curve: evidence from CEE countries

Motivation: In the last years, a lot of attention has been paid to economic inequality — a phenomenon that may lead to what some commentators predict as the end of capitalism. At the same time some economists believe that the economic inequalities are natural and excessive inequalities can be reduced through the process of economic growth. The natural starting point in the discussion concerning the relation between inequality and economic growth is the theory proposed by Simon Kuznets, according to which inequality rises in the early phases of economic development but falls eventually as the growth advances, taking the shape of the inverse-U shaped pattern. The empirical validity of the so-called “Kuznets curve” has been intensively investigated, but the evidence is ambiguous. In this context re-examining Kuznets theory in CEE countries is interesting especially because of the observed rapid economic growth as a result of structural transformation in these countries.Aim: The aim of the study is an attempt to investigate the nature of relation between economic growth and income inequality levels in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries in years 2004–2020 and verify if the analysed relation is taking an inverse-U shape as indicated by the Kuznets curve.Results: The results of conducted analysis indicate that the evidence for an inverted-U shaped relation between inequality levels and economic growth in CEE countries is much less robust than what is implied by Kuznets curve theory.
Impact of land-use and climatic changes on hydrology of the Himalayan Basin: A case study of the Kosi Basin

Land-use and climatic changes are of major concern in the Himalayan region because of their potential impacts on a predominantly agriculture-based economy and a regional hydrology dominated by strong seasonality. Such concerns are not limited to any particular basin but exist throughout the region including the downstream plain areas. As a representative basin of the Himalayas, we studied the Kosi basin (54,000 km$\sp2)$ located in the mountainous area of the central Himalayan region. We analyzed climatic and hydrologic information to assess the impacts of existing and potential future land-use and climatic changes over the basin. The assessment of anthropogenic inputs showed that the population grew at a compound growth rate of about one percent per annum over the basin during the last four decades. The comparison of land-use data based on the surveys made in the 1960s, and the surveys of 1978-79 did not reveal noticeable trends in land-use change. Analysis of meteorological and hydrological trends using parametric and nonparametric statistics for monthly data from 1947 to 1993 showed some increasing tendency for temperature and precipitation. Statistical tests of hydrological trends indicated an overall decrease of discharge along mainstem Kosi River and its major tributaries. The decreasing trends of streamflow were more significant during low-flow months. Statistical analysis of homogeneity showed that the climatological as well as the hydrological trends were more localized in nature lacking distinct basinwide significance. Statistical analysis of annual sediment time series, available for a single station on the Kosi River did not reveal a significant trend. We used water balance, statistical correlation, and distributed deterministic modeling approaches to analyze the hydrological sensitivity of the basin to possible land-use and climatic changes. The results indicated a stronger influence of basin characteristics compared to climatic characteristics on flow regime. Among the climatic variables, hydrologic response was much more sensitive to changes in precipitation, and the response was more significant in the drier areas of the basin. Rapid retreat of glaciers due to potential global warming was shown to be as important as projected deforestation scenarios in regulating sediment flux over the basin.
GENETIC ALGORITHM APPLICATIONS IN WATER RESOURCES

The current status of genetic algorithms (GAs) today is similar to that of finite element analysis in the mid-1970s. That is, the technique is accepted by the academic community as a valid optimization technique and at the same time is being slowly accepted by the engineering profession. Genetic algorithms have been developed by John Holland (Holland, 1975), and further developed by Goldberg ( 1989) and others in the 1980s. GA is an example of a search procedure that uses random choices as a tool to guide a highly exploitative search through the coding of a parameter space. Holland led the way in formulating genetic algorithms based on biologic evolution and on the survival of the fittest principle. They are derivative-free techniques, and as such could be easily applied to any function ranging from continuous functions to discontinuous ones. They combine the survival of the fittest among string structured yet randomized information exchange to form a search algorithm with some of the innovative flair of human search.
Psychology and Law: The State Of The Discipline

1. Psychology and Law: An Overview J.R. P. Ogloff, D. Finkelman. I: Human Behavior in the Trial Process. 2. Juries: The Current State of the Empirical Literature M.T. Nietzel, et al. 3. Witnesses to Crime: Social and Cognitive Factors Governing the Validity of People's Reports G.L. Wells, et al. 4. Preventing Mistaken Convictions in Eyewitness Identification Trials: The Case against Traditional Safeguards S.D. Penrod, B. Cutler. II: Forensic Assessment and Treatment. 5. Forensic Assessment R.B. Nicholson. 6. Predicting Violence in Mentally and Personality Disordered Individuals K.S. Douglas, C.D. Webster. 7. Forensic Treatment: A Review of Programs and Research K. Heilbrun, P. Griffin. 8. Civil Law: Employment and Discrimination J. Goodman-Delahunty. 9. Best Interests of the Child: New Twists on an Old Theme M.B. Liss, M.J. McKinley-Pace. IV: Ethics and Professional Issues. 10. Preparing for Two Cultures: Education and Training in Law and Psychology D.N. Bersoff. 11. Ethical and Legal Contours of Forensic Psychology J.R. P. Ogloff. Appendix. Index.
The seismic response of the Los Angeles basin, California

Using strong-motion data recorded in the Los Angeles region from the 1992 (Mw 7.3) Landers earthquake, we have tested the accuracy of existing three-dimensional (3D) velocity models on the simulation of long-period (≧2 sec) ground motions in the Los Angeles basin and surrounding San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys. First, the overall pattern and degree of long-period excitation of the basins were identified in the observations. Within the Los Angeles basin, the recorded amplitudes are about three to four times larger than at sites outside the basins; amplitudes within the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys are nearly a factor of 3 greater than surrounding bedrock sites. Then, using a 3D finite-difference numerical modeling approach, we analyzed how variations in 3D earth structure affect simulated waveforms, amplitudes, and the fit to the observed patterns of amplification. Significant differences exist in the 3D velocity models of southern California that we tested (Magistrale et al., 1996; Graves, 1996a; Hauksson and Haase, 1997). Major differences in the models include the velocity of the assumed background models; the depth of the Los Angeles basin; and the depth, location, and geometry of smaller basins. The largest disparities in the response of the models are seen for the San Fernando Valley and the deepest portion of the Los Angeles basin. These arise in large part from variations in the structure of the basins, particularly the effective depth extent, which is mainly due to alternative assumptions about the nature of the basin sediment fill. The general ground-motion characteristics are matched by the 3D model simulations, validating the use of 3D modeling with geologically based velocity-structure models. However, significant shortcomings exist in the overall patterns of amplification and the duration of the long-period response. The successes and limitations of the models for reproducing the recorded ground motions as discussed provide the basis and direction for necessary improvements to earth structure models, whether geologically or tomographically derived. The differences in the response of the earth models tested also translate to variable success in the ability to successfully model the data and add uncertainty to estimates of the basin response given input “scenario” earthquake source models.
Effects of Co-ingestion of Amino Acids with Fat on Postchallenge Glycemia and Lipidemia in Healthy Young Women

: Aim: To investigate the effects of co-ingestion of amino acids with fat on postchallenge glycemia and lipidemia. Methods: Nine healthy young Japanese women were enrolled. At each session, the subjects ingested one of three beverages containing fat cream (OFTT™ cream, 1 g/kg body weight, 0.35 g/kg as fat) and/or amino acid mixture (Amizet B™, 600 mg/kg body weight, 60 mg/kg as amino acids) in a randomized crossover design. The three beverages were as follows: fat cream (F trial), amino acid mixture (A trial), or both (FA trial). Venous blood samples were obtained before (0) and 0.5, 1, 2
Baltic Sea wave conditions under climate change scenarios

Anthropogenic climate change can alter the windand sea-ice climate and thus the wave conditions in the Baltic Sea. Here, transient simulations with the 3rd generation wave model WAM under two IPCC AR4 emission scenarios (A1B and B1) and two initial conditions of the forcing atmospheric fields are analyzed for the period 1961–2100. Future changes in the wave climate comprise higher significant wave height for most regions and simulations. Median waves show temporal and spatial consistent changes, whereas extreme waves (99th percentile and maximum) show much more variability in space and among the simulations. These changes in the wave fields result from not only higher wind speeds but also from a shift to more westerly winds, which leads to different fetch and thus to different significant wave height and direction. The multi-decadal and the inter-simulation variability illustrate the uncertainty in the estimation of the climate change signal.
The granites of the Southeast Asian Tin Belt

Four granite provinces have been delineated each with its own distinctive pattern of mineralization. 1. The Main Range Province. Endogenous greisen-bordered vein swarms of cassiterite and wolframite. 2. The Eastern Province. Magnetite–cassiterite skarns ± base metal sulphides with antimony in Thailand. 3. The Western (Peninsular Thailand–Burma) Province. Endogenous greisen-bordered vein swarms and pegmatites of cassiterite and wolframite. 4. The North Thailand Migmatitic Province. Endogenous vein and skarn replacement scheelite and fluorite deposits with some tin and local antimony. In all provinces, but particularly in the Main Range, granitoids designated as two-phase variants have been recognized where xenocrysts and xenoliths of coarse, primary texture granite are enclosed in, and corroded by an invasive, equigranular quartzo–feldspathic matrix. These rocks form an essential part of the granite sequence in all provinces and have probably resulted from the infiltration and disruption of the host granite by late stage magmatic fluids. Whole rock geochemistry from Peninsular Malaysia shows that the granites from the Main Range and Eastern Provinces comprise two contrasted suites which correspond approximately to the I and S-type categories advocated by Chappell & White (1974). In addition it is shown that individual plutons within batholiths in the two provinces have distinctive geochemical parameters. Variation diagrams of plutons having the intrusive sequence primary texture granite—two-phase granite—microgranite show linear trends with increasing SiO2, Na2O, Rb, W, Sn and U, and decreasing Sr, Ba, Th and all other major elements.
A Combination of DNN and BN for Automatic Skin Disease Diagnosis

Artificial intelligence aims to mimic human intelligence by giving machines the ability to perceive and think. However, current AI is on the horns of a dilemma. Tools like deep learning are good at finding similarities but cannot make reasonable inferences like humans. Their inability to integrate with human knowledge also requires large amounts of input data for tuning. In this paper, we propose an architecture that combines deep neural networks as nodes into Bayesian networks, which combines human knowledge with the perceptual results of deep learning tools. Using Bayesian networks for inference provides good interpretability and acceptable training data requirements. This architecture can correlate symptoms, demographic information, and deep neural networks in dermatological diagnosis. We conducted experiments on the ISIC 2019: Training dataset. With the help of dermatologists’ expert knowledge, the architecture achieves an overall diagnostic accuracy of 88.1%, which is 23.6% higher than the pure deep learning approach.
Feasibility of Smartphone-Attached UWB Tag for Daily life Indoor Pedestrian Tracking

Features like high bandwidth, low-cost, and low power consumption make ultra-wideband (UWB) technology a preferable candidate for indoor pedestrian tracking at centimeter-level accuracy. For that reason, the latest smartphones are embedded with UWB chips. However, the daily life wearable locations of smartphone can severely degrade the UWB tracking accuracy due to the signal blocking between the pedestrian-worn UWB sensor (UWB tag) and infrastructure UWB sensors (UWB anchors). And each wearable location of the UWB tag can lead up to meter-level error depending on the degree of signal blocking. This paper describes the feasibility of a smartphone-attached UWB tag for daily life indoor pedestrian tracking application. We evaluated the UWB tracking performance in daily life smartphone wearing locations, such as texting, calling, swinging, and pocketing, by performing a real-time indoor pedestrian walking experiment. For experimental validation, ground truth pedestrian trajectory is measured using state-of-the-art Hokuyo Lidar. The experimental results demonstrated that the mean absolute error of the UWB tracking can rise up to 0.37 m, 1.12m, 0.74m, and 0.46 m for the texting, calling, swinging, and pocketing, respectively, compared to the 0.14 m of head-placed UWB tag.