Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hydrologic scaling for hydrogeomorphic floodplain mapping: Insights into human‐induced floodplain disconnectivity

Hydrogeomorphic approaches for floodplain modelling are valuable tools for water resource and flood hazard management and mapping, especially as the global availability and accuracy of terrain data increases. Digital terrain models implicitly contain information about floodplain landscape morphology that was produced by hydrologic processes over long time periods, as well as recent anthropogenic modifications to floodplain features and processes. The increased availability of terrain data and distributed hydrologic datasets provide an opportunity to develop hydrogeomorphic floodplain delineation models that can quickly be applied at large spatial scales. This research investigates the performance of a hydrogeomorphic floodplain model in two large urbanized and gauged river basins in the United States, the Susquehanna and the Wabash basins. The models were calibrated by a hydrologic data scaling technique, implemented through regression analyses of USGS peak flow data to estimate floodplain flow levels across multiple spatial scales. Floodplain model performance was assessed through comparison with 100‐year Federal Emergency Management Agency flood hazard maps. Results show that the hydrogeomorphic floodplain maps are generally consistent with standard flood maps, even when significantly and systematically varying scaling parameters within physically feasible ranges, with major differences that are likely due to infrastructure (levees, bridges, etc.) in highly urbanized areas and other locations where the geomorphic signature of fluvial processes has been altered. This study demonstrates the value of geomorphic information for large‐scale floodplain mapping and the potential use of hydrogeomorphic models for evaluating human‐made impacts to floodplain ecosystems and patterns of disconnectivity in urbanized catchments.
The Challenge of Evaluating Situated Display based Technology Interventions Designed to Foster a Sense of Community

In this paper we discuss the obdurate problems associated with evaluating the extent to which technological interventions – in particular those based on mobile and ubiquitous technologies – can be judged to have 'improved a sense of community' in their given deployment settings. We report on experiences gained from several deployments of ubiquitous systems that share this design goal, and analyze common issues we observed during real life use of these systems. Based on these we discuss some of the key challenges for evaluating ubiquitous systems of this genre.
Nanjing University's System Report for NIST MT09 Workshop

This paper describes our participation (NJU-NLP) in the Chinese-to-English Progress Test of the NIST Open MT09 evaluation. We built a phrase-based machine translation system with the help of MOSES and tried several methods to improve the result. Our efiorts include pre-segmenting long train sentence pairs into shorter ones, phrase table smoothing, phrase table flltering. Details of these techniques as well as our evaluation results are reported.
Discrete Trajectory Tracking Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots

This paper proposes a novel discrete trajectory tracking controller for a class of nonholonomic vehicles. Using existing velocity control laws based on the kinematic model and backstepping technology, the proposed discrete controller can accommodate not only traditionally continuous trajectories but also trajectories involving discontinuity points, while retaining the stability proved by Lyapunov functions. Several simulation results are presented to show the validity of the proposed controller. Moreover, by investigating the implementation on the autonomous mobile robot SmartRob2 through Web pages, it is clearly illustrated that such a discrete trajectory tracking controller is of great feasibility and applicability
Hand Disinfectant Practice: The Impact of an Education Intervention

The primary hypothesis of this study was that a lecture on basic hygiene routines could be associated with an increase in the use of disinfectant for hand hygiene. A secondary hypothesis was that the lecture could positively affect the staff’s knowledge of and attitudes toward basic hygiene routines. A quasi-experimental design including one ward of the department of orthopedics in a Swedish university hospital was adopted. During the pre-intervention test period the consumption of hand disinfectant was measured for 30 days and a questionnaire was distributed to all staff. The hospital hygiene nurse subsequently provided a lecture on basic hygiene routines to all employees on the ward. During the post-intervention test period the hand disinfectant consumption was measured for another 30 days, and the questionnaire was distributed once again. A follow-up measurement was performed 9 months after the intervention. After the lecture on hygiene routines, the consumption of hand disinfectant increased by 93%. Nine months after the intervention, the consumption was still 21% higher than before the intervention. The result of the questionnaire showed that the employees considered themselves applying the disinfectant more thoroughly after the intervention. Some employees changed their perspective on basic hygiene routines after the lecture and stopped using watches and private clothes at work. Our findings suggest that a single education session, a hygiene lecture, could be a simple and cost-effective method to increase the use of hand disinfectant, thereby reducing the number of nosocomial infections on the wards.
Enhancing EEG Signals in Brain Computer Interface Using Wavelet Transform

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a hardware and software communication system that enables humans to interact with their surrounding without the involvement of peripheral nerves and muscles by using control signals generated from electroencephalographic activity. In this paper, we report on results of developing motor imagery feature extraction method for BCI. The wavelet coefficients were used to extract the features from the motor imagery EEG and the Bayes Net, SVM and RBFN were utilized to classify the pattern of left, right hand movement and forward imagery. The performance was tested using dataset from BCI competition III and satisfactory results are obtained with accuracy rate as high as 99.0674%.
Ventricular Function: I. Starling's Law of the Heart Studied by Means of Simultaneous Right and Left Ventricular Function Curves in the Dog

Starling's law of the heart has been studied in the dog with a complete circulation with the continuous registration of cardiac output, and atrial and arterial pressures. From this data ventricular function curves were constructed. In any given physiologic state there was a consistent and reproducible correlation between atrial pressure and ventricular stroke work on the same side. The classically conceived descending limb did not occur in the normal heart. The concept of a family of Starling or ventricular function curves adds a third dimension to the adaptive capacity of the heart as put forth by Frank and Starling.
The Association between Self-Reported Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Heart Rate Variability: The Salient Role of Not Accepting Negative Emotions

Difficulties in emotion regulation are associated with development and maintenance of psychopathology. Typically, features of emotion regulation are assessed with self-report questionnaires. Heart rate variability (HRV) is an objective measure proposed as an index of emotional regulation capacity. A limited number of studies have shown that self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation are associated with HRV. However, results from prior studies are inconclusive, and an ecological validation of the association has not yet been tested. Therefore, further exploration of the relation between self-report questionnaires and psychophysiological measures of emotional regulation is needed. The present study investigated the contribution of self-reported emotion regulation difficulties on HRV in a student sample. We expected higher scores on emotion regulation difficulties to be associated with lower vagus-mediated HRV (vmHRV). Sixty-three participants filled out the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and their resting HRV was assessed. In addition, a subsample of participants provided ambulatory 24-h HRV data, in order to ecologically validate the resting data. Correlation analyses indicated that self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation was negatively associated with vmHRV in both resting HRV and 24-h HRV. Specifically, when exploring the contribution of the different facets of emotion dysregulation, the inability to accept negative emotions showed the strongest association with HRV. The results are discussed and need for future research is described.
Probabilistic Load Flow Evaluation With Hybrid Latin Hypercube Sampling and Cholesky Decomposition

Monte Carlo simulation method combined with simple random sampling (SRS) suffers from long computation time and heavy computer storage requirement when used in probabilistic load flow (PLF) evaluation and other power system probabilistic analyses. This paper proposes the use of an efficient sampling method, Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) combined with Cholesky decomposition method (LHS-CD), into Monte Carlo simulation for solving the PLF problems. The LHS-CD sampling method is investigated using IEEE 14-bus and 118-bus systems. The method is compared with SRS and LHS only with random permutation (LHS-RP). LHS-CD is found to be robust and flexible and has the potential to be applied in many power system probabilistic problems.
Sleep, Hormones, and Circadian Rhythms throughout the Menstrual Cycle in Healthy Women and Women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

A relationship exists between the sleep-wake cycle and hormone secretion, which, in women, is further modulated by the menstrual cycle. This interaction can influence sleep across the menstrual cycle in healthy women and in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), who experience specific alterations of circadian rhythms during their symptomatic luteal phase along with sleep disturbances during this time. This review will address the variation of sleep at different menstrual phases in healthy and PMDD women, as well as changes in circadian rhythms, with an emphasis on their relationship with female sex hormones. It will conclude with a brief discussion on nonpharmacological treatments of PMDD which use chronotherapeutic methods to realign circadian rhythms as a means of improving sleep and mood in these women.
Seismicity of the Bora‐Tullu Moye Volcanic Field, 2016–2017

The Bora‐Tullu Moye (TM) volcanic field is a geothermal energy prospect in the central Main Ethiopian Rift, but little is known about the seismicity of the region. Here we document seismic activity between February 2016 and October 2017, locating more than a 1,000 seismic events of local magnitude 0 to 2.7. This provides new insights into fluid movement and deformation beneath what we only now realize is a complicated volcanic system. A discrete cluster of events lies beneath TM, but, surprisingly, most of the seismicity lies in two clusters that are beneath neither the Bora or TM edifices. In these regions, we use earthquake cluster orientations, fault plane solutions, and fast seismic shear‐wave orientations to show that seismicity is triggered by hydrothermal circulation of fluids along preexisting fractures. The fractures trend in multiple directions and are, in general, not parallel to rifting related structures. Instead, the fractures are parallel to structures created during previous caldera forming eruptions at both Bora and TM. Highly fractured regions such as this could be attractive targets for geothermal power generation. We estimate a minimum depth for a magmatic body beneath TM to be 6.5 km using the mapped brittle‐ductile transition. Frequency analysis of the earthquake waveforms reveal the bulk of the events to be volcano tectonic, but some low‐frequency seismicity is present at a depth of 5 km beneath the TM edifice triggered by high pore fluid pressures.
Scrum and CMMI Level 5: The Magic Potion for Code Warriors

Projects combining agile methods with CMMI1 are more successful in producing higher quality software that more effectively meets customer needs at a faster pace. Systematic Software Engineering works at CMMI level 5 and uses lean Software Development as a driver for optimizing software processes. Early pilot projects at Systematic showed productivity on Scrum teams almost twice that of traditional teams. Other projects demonstrated a story based test driven approach to software development reduced defects found during final test by 40%. We assert that Scrum and CMMI together bring a more powerful combination of adaptability and predictability than either one alone and suggest how other companies can combine them.
Factors Affecting Firm-Level Investment and Performance in Border Economic Zones and Implications for Developing Cross-Border Economic Zones between the People's Republic of china and its Neighboring GMS Countries, Journal of GMS Development Studies, Vol. 5, pp. 1-32

The establishment of cross-border economic zones (CBEZs) in the border areas of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its neighboring Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries has recently emerged as a strategy for further promoting trade and investments in the subregion. Unlike a border economic zone (BEZ), which is confi ned within the national territory, a CBEZ is an economic zone traversing a transnational area and requiring a unifi ed set of policies and incentives in such areas as fi nance, taxation, investment, trade, and customs regulation. While no CBEZ currently exists in the GMS, the establishment of this type of zone has recently been initiated for Hekou–Lao Cai along the North–South Economic Corridor border involving Yunnan Province in the PRC, and Lao Cai Province in Viet Nam. The design of incentive packages to be implemented in the CBEZ is thus a major challenge for policy makers. To help inform the design of incentive policies in CBEZs, this research studied BEZs in selected border areas in Yunnan Province, and in Lao Cai Province, with the objective of assessing (i) the factors that attract investments to the zones, and (ii) the effects of investment incentive policies on the performance of fi rms locating in these zones. Using three types of investment motives (marketseeking, resource-seeking, and effi ciency-seeking) as dependent variables, and applying parametric and nonparametric analysis, the study identifi ed signifi cant variables that affect the fi rms’ locational decisions and investment performance. The implications of these variables on the design of incentive policies were subsequently analyzed. x
Caracterização hidroquímica, distribuição e especiação de mercúrio nos estuários dos rios Ceará e Pacoti, região metropolitana de Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil

E apresentada uma caracterizacao preliminar da hidra quimica, distribuicao e especiacao de Hg ao longo de dois importantes estuarios da Regiao Metropolitana de Fortaleza, dos Rios Ce­ara e Pacoti. Os resultados mostram que o Rio Ceara apresenta condicoes hidroquimicas que sugerem eutrofizacao incipiente, com baixos niveis de oxigenacao de sues aguas (2,7 a 4,9 mg.L' ) e elevadas concentracoes . de nitrato, e nitrogenio total dissolvido. O Rio Pacoti apresenta-se ainda em condicoes de "background" regional. A distribuicao de Hg sugere uma contaminacao moderada por efluentes urbanos no Rio Ceara, com concentracoes totais de ate 28,5 ng.L - I, principalmente na forma particuladci. Resultados obtidos sobre a concentracao de Hg em sedi­ mentos de fundo do Rio Ceara confirmaram a contaminacao do estuario por despejos que ocor­ rem no seu principal afluente, o Rio Maranguapinho. Ha um ciumento significativo das concen­tracoes dissolvidas de Hg da parte fluvial para a parte marinha dos estuarios. Estes resultados sugerem ser urgente um rnonitoramento da biota local, particularmente na area de influencia do Rio Ceara, uma vez que outras regioes costeiras com concentracoes similares de Hg ja apresen­ tam contaminacao significativa da biota.
The species of white-nest swiftlets (Apodidae, Collocaliini) of Malaysia and the origins of house-farm birds: Morphometric and genetic evidence

The taxonomy of South-East Asian swiftlets (Apodidae, Collocaliini) has proved challenging because of their limited variation in size and plumage colouration. Of particular interest are 'white-nest' swiftlets, whose nests, built almost entirely of hardened secretions from paired sublingual salivary glands, are valued in the edible birds'-nest trade. The natural breeding sites of white-nest swiftlets are caves or grottoes but, for over a century, there has been a progressive increase in numbers occupying man-made structures. Through most of South-East Asia there is now a developed industry, utilising sophisticated practices to attract and retain white-nest swiftlets in purpose-made buildings, known as 'house-farms'-a novel form of domestication. A review of the systematics of wild populations based on museum skins collectedin late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before the expansion of house-farms, concludes that there are two largely allopatric species of white-nest swiftlet in Malaysia, identified as Grey-rumped Swiftlet Aerodramus inexpectatus, with subspecies A. i. germani and A. i. perplexus, and Thunberg's or Brown-rumped Swiftlet Aerodramus fuciphagus, with subspecies A. f. fuciphagus and A. f. vestitus. During 2003 to 2010, house-farm swiftlets in southern Thailand, east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak, Java and southern East Kalimantan, Indonesia, were photographed to show variability in plumage of the rump. House-farm birds of Sarawak resembled neither of the wild species occurring naturally in the state. Tissue samples from embryos in eggs were collected for genetic studies from house-farms in Medan, Sumatra, west and east coasts of Peninsular Malaysia, and Sibu, Sarawak. Results of phylogenetic analyses, AMOVA and pairwise FST comparison based on the partial cytochrome-b sequence are presented. Of the 11 haplotypes identified, two are restricted to a wild population of Brown-rumped Swiftlets A. f. vestitus of Middle Baram, Sarawak, thereby shown to be genetically distinct from house-farm birds. One haplotype is common among all house-farm birds, two are unique to Medan, three and one to Kuantan and Endau-Rompin, respectively. The birds from Sarawak share haplotypes with all other house-farm populations in Peninsular Malaysia and Medan, Sumatra. The evidence for two clades within house-farm samples indicates that Peninsular Malaysian birds combine genetic components from north (A. inexpectatus germani) and south (A. f. fuciphagus). Sarawak house-farm birds are similar to east coast Peninsular Malaysian populations in plumage characters and genes, and apparently arrived by spontaneous immigration from Peninsular Malaysia. If hybrids have arisen among Malaysian house-farm white-nest swiftlets, they are excluded from regulation by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
View-based query processing and constraint satisfaction

View-based query processing requires answering a query posed to a database only on the basis of the information on a set of views, which are again queries over the same database. This problem is relevant in many aspects of database management, and has been addressed by means of two basic approaches: query rewriting and query answering. In the former approach, one tries to compute a rewriting of the query in terms of the views, whereas in the latter, one aims at directly answering the query based on the view extensions. We study view based query processing for the case of regular-path queries, which are the basic querying mechanisms for the emergent field of semistructured data. Based on recent results, we first show that a rewriting is in general a co-NP function wrt to the size of view extensions. Hence, the problem arises of characterizing which instances of the problem admit a rewriting that is PTIME. A second contribution of the work is to establish a tight connection between view based query answering and constraint satisfaction problems, which allows us to show that the above characterization is going to be difficult. As a third contribution, we present two methods for computing PTIME rewritings of specific forms. The first method, which is based on the established connection with constraint satisfaction problems, gives us rewritings expressed in Datalog with a fixed number of variables. The second method, based on automata-theoretic techniques, gives us rewritings that are formulated as unions of conjunctive regular-path queries with a fixed number of variables.
QCRI-MES Submission at WMT13: Using Transliteration Mining to Improve Statistical Machine Translation

This paper describes QCRI-MES’s submission on the English-Russian dataset to the Eighth Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation. We generate improved word alignment of the training data by incorporating an unsupervised transliteration mining module to GIZA++ and build a phrase-based machine translation system. For tuning, we use a variation of PRO which provides better weights by optimizing BLEU+1 at corpus-level. We transliterate out-of-vocabulary words in a postprocessing step by using a transliteration system built on the transliteration pairs extracted using an unsupervised transliteration mining system. For the Russian to English translation direction, we apply linguistically motivated pre-processing on the Russian side of the data.
Control of a Muscle Actuated Manipulator using the NeuraBASE Network Model

This paper presents an alternative approach for the control of an antagonistic muscle actuated manipulator. The proposed method uses a neuronal network called NeuraBase to learn the sensor events obtained via a rotary encoder and to control the motor events of two DC motors, to rotate the manipulator. A neuron layer called the controller network links the sensor neuron events to the motor neurons. The proposed NeuraBase network model (NNM) has demonstrated its ability to successfully control the antagonistic muscle manipulator, in the absence of a dynamic model and theoretical control methods. The controller also demonstrated its robustness in the adaptive learning of control with imposed system changes. 
Elderly Households and Housing Wealth: Do They Use it or Lose it?

Over 80 percent of households in their 50s are homeowners and housing wealth accounts for over half of total household wealth for most of these homeowners. The evidence in the literature on whether the elderly are consuming their housing wealth has been mixed. Because home sales are infrequent and a high proportion of the elderly continue to own in old age, it appears that the elderly are not consuming housing wealth. There are, however, indications that housing wealth may be a form of self-insurance and that housing wealth is consumed, albeit at very old ages. To date, however, the evidence to support that hypothesis has been weak. This paper examines whether predictors of housing sales are consistent with the insurance story by looking at the extent to which indicators of changes in economic status and access to alternate insurance explain housing sales. The paper also examines the extent to which changes in health status predict housing sales. The results of the probit appear to indicate that, by and large, housing sales in old age for single households is mostly driven by worsening health. Widowhood has a large effect on increasing the probability of selling the house and the effect is larger if the husband is the surviving spouse. There are indications that poor married homeowners are consuming housing wealth and also indications that married households are responding to Medicaid tax incentives. This evidence seems to suggest that, at least among married households, housing decisions are financially motivated; however, the evidence does not by itself validate the insurance story.