Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating and ranking Southeast Asia's exposure to explosive volcanic hazards

Abstract. Regional assessments provide a large-scale comparable vision of the threat posed by multiple sources and are useful for prioritising risk-mitigation actions. There is a need for such assessments from international, regional and national agencies, industries and governments to prioritise where further study and support could be focussed. Most existing regional studies on the threat posed by volcanic activity have relied on concentric radii as proxies for hazard footprints and have focused only on population exposure, often using indices to make first-order estimates of exposure. However, this approach is an oversimplification of volcanic hazards and their associated impacts. We have developed and applied a new approach that quantifies and ranks exposure to multiple volcanic hazards for 40 high-threat volcanoes in Southeast Asia. For each of our 40 volcanoes, hazard spatial extent, and intensity where appropriate, was probabilistically modelled for four volcanic hazards across three eruption scenarios, giving 697,080 individual hazard footprints plus 19,560 probabilistic hazard outputs. We then developed a GIS framework to overlay the spatial extent of probabilistic hazard footprints with open-access datasets across five exposure categories. Finally, we used our calculated exposure values to rank each of the 40 volcanoes in terms of the threat they pose to surrounding communities. We present VolcGIS, an open-source Python code that implements all of the spatial operations required for exposure analysis, available at github.com/vharg/VolcGIS. We provide all our outputs - more than 6,500 geotif files and 70 independent estimates of exposure to volcanic hazards across 40 volcanoes - in user-friendly format. Results highlight that the island of Java in Indonesia has the highest median exposure to volcanic hazards, with Merapi consistently ranking as the highest threat volcano. Hazard seasonality, as a result of varying wind conditions affecting tephra dispersal, leads to increased exposure values during the peak rainy season (January, February) in Java, but the peak dry season (January, February, March) in the Philippines. A key aim of our study was to highlight volcanoes that may have been overlooked, perhaps because they are not frequently or recently active, but that have the potential to affect large numbers of people and assets. It is not intended to replace official hazard and risk information provided by the individual country or volcano organisations. This study and the tools developed provide a road map for future multi-source regional volcanic exposure assessments, with the possibility to extend the assessment to other geographic regions and/or towards impact and loss.
Low eGFR Is a Strong Predictor of Worse Outcome in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

Background: The clinical course of COVID-19 is more severe in elderly patients with cardio-metabolic co-morbidities. Chronic kidney disease is considered an independent cardiovascular risk factor. We aimed to evaluate the impact of reduced eGFR on the composite outcome of admission to ICU and death in a sample of consecutive COVID-19 hospitalized patients. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated clinical records of a consecutive sample of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. A total of 231 patients were considered for statistical analysis. The whole sample was divided in two groups on the basis of eGFR value, e.g., ≥ or <60 mL/min/1.73 m2. Patients with low eGFR were further divided among those with a history of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and those without (AKI, acute kidney injury). The primary outcome was a composite of admission to ICU or death, whichever occurred first. The single components were secondary outcomes. Results: Seventy-nine (34.2%) patients reached the composite outcome. A total of 64 patients (27.7%) died during hospitalization, and 41 (17.7%) were admitted to the ICU. A significantly higher number of events was present among patients with low eGFR (p < 0.0001). Age (p < 0.001), SpO2 (p < 0.001), previous anti-platelet treatment (p = 0.006), Charlson’s Comorbidities Index (p < 0.001), serum creatinine (p < 0.001), eGFR (p = 0.003), low eGFR (p < 0.001), blood glucose levels (p < 0.001), and LDH (p = 0.003) were significantly associated with the main outcome in univariate analysis. Low eGFR (HR 1.64, 95% CI 1.02–2.63, p = 0.040) and age (HR per 5 years 1.22, 95% CI 1.10–1.36, p < 0.001) were significantly and independently associated with the main outcome in the multivariate model. Patients with AKI showed an increased hazard ratio to reach the combined outcome (p = 0.059), while those patients with both CKD had a significantly higher probability of developing the combined outcome (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Patients with reduced eGFR at admission should be considered at high risk for clinical deterioration and death, requiring the best supportive treatment in order to prevent the worst outcome.
On the difficulty of promoting workers' safety behaviour: overcoming the underweighting of routine risks

The paper seeks to explain the seeming paradox whereby workers' safety behaviour during routine work depends largely on supervisory contingencies (i.e. pressures and rewards), rather than on self-preservation. We identify three behavioural tendencies accountable for underweighting of outcomes associated with safe behaviour, i.e. delayed outcomes (i.e. melioration bias), rare or uncertain outcomes (i.e. recency bias), and outcomes concerning social externalities. Jointly, they result in a tendency to favour unsafe behaviour in many routine work situations. Examination of effective and ineffective intervention programmes suggests that the key to success lies in providing frequent, personally meaningful, and immediate rewards for safe conduct, overriding the costs associated with that behaviour and exceeding the benefits of unsafe behaviour.
Sub-hundred nanosecond electrostatic actuated RF MEMS switched capacitors

This paper presents a new mechanical architecture for RF MEMS components that are able to achieve reconfiguration faster than conventional MEMS switches. For most MEMS switches, the electrical switching speed is generally limited to a few microseconds, inherently restricted by the delay required to mechanically move their mobile membrane up and down. By using a proper mechanical design and the structural material fabrication process, this paper will show miniature bridges that are able to exhibit mechanical resonance frequencies over 10 MHz range to be compared to the few tens of kHz for conventional RF MEMS switches. As a result, the switching speed of these miniature components is greatly improved and reaches 50 to 100 ns. Such performance has been achieved using composite micro-beams based on the multilayer material assembly of alumina/aluminum/alumina. To our knowledge, this is the fastest switching speed reported for RF MEMS components so far.
Choosing Appropriate Construction Contracting Method

This paper examines the compatibility of various construction contracting methods with certain types of owners and projects. Contracting methods, as defined in this paper, consist of four parts: scope, organization, contract, and award. An owner must create an appropriate contracting method for each project. It was determined that there are six main organizations around which the contracting variations are created: general contractor, construction manager, multiple primes, design‐build, turnkey, and build‐operate‐transfer. The most common method is the traditional system of an independent designer, a general contractor, and a competitively bid, lump‐sum price. This method is efficient in many cases; however, in some situations, alternative methods are more appropriate and should be explored. Choosing certain methods can decrease the project duration, provide flexibility for changes, reduce adversarial relationships, allow for contractor participation in design, provide cost savings incentives to the contr.
ECG Signal Detection and Classification of Heart Rhythm Diseases Based on ResNet and LSTM

Arrhythmia is one of the most threatening diseases in all kinds of cardiovascular diseases. It is important to achieve efficient and accurate automatic detection of arrhythmias for clinical diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Based on previous research on electrocardiogram (ECG) automatic detection and classification algorithm, this paper uses the ResNet34 network to learn the morphological characteristics of ECG signals and get the significant information of signals, then passes into a three-layer stacked long-term and short-term memory network to get the context dependency of the features. Finally, four classification tasks are implemented on the PhysioNet Challenge 2017 test dataset by using the softmax function. The activation function is changed from the ReLu function to the mish function in this model. Negative information of ECG signals is considered in the training process, which makes the model have more stable and accurate classification ability. In addition, this paper calculates and compares the average information entropy of correctly classified samples and incorrectly classified samples in the test set. Moreover, it eliminates the impact of obvious signal abnormalities (redundancy or loss) on the model classification results, to more comprehensively and accurately explain the classification effect and performance of the model. After eliminating the possibility of abnormal signal, the ResNet34-LSTM3 model obtained an average F 1 score of 0.861 and an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) of 0.972 on the test dataset, which indicates that the model can effectively extract the characteristics of ECG signals and diagnose arrhythmia diseases. Comparing the results of the ResNet34 model and ResNet-18 model on the same test dataset, we can see that the improved model in this paper has a better classification and recognition effect on ECG signals as a whole, which can identify atrial fibrillation diseases more effectively.
Developing a sustainable approach to corporate FM in Nigeria

Purpose – This paper aims to examine common environmental practices and strategies for implementing sustainable FM among Nigerian FM practitioners.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature on sustainability and environmental management was undertaken. Data collection was through self‐administered questionnaires directed to a sample of 150 facilities managers who are members of the International Facility Management Association (Nigeria Group), Lagos, Nigeria. Structured interviews with five top facilities management professionals were also conducted. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, means, z‐test, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and relative importance index. The survey achieved a response rate of 30 percent.Findings – The survey revealed that many of the practitioners put a premium on achieving energy efficiency as a very vital environmental practice within their organizations. A strategic management procedure is more important for the implementation o.
A Study on Evaporative Resistances of Two Skins Designed for Thermal Manikin Tore under Different Environmental Conditions

A cotton skin and Gore-Tex skin were designed for thermal manikin "Tore" to simulate different sweating styles (wet cotton skin inside and Gore-Tex outside to simulate sweating style of thermal manikin "Walter", and Gore-Tex skin inside with wet cotton skin outside to simulate sweating style of thermal manikins "Newton". The evaporative resistances of two skin combinations with clothing ensembles were compared at two different environmental conditions. In addition, the total evaporative resistance of clothing ensemble was calculated by both heat loss method (option 1) and mass loss method (option 2) according to ASTM F 2370. We found that the effect of different sweating mechanisms on clothing evaporative resistance should be considered. The results showed that the total evaporative resistances obtained by option 2 were more accurate than values by option 1 under an isothermal condition. It was also found that total evaporative resistance differences between two skin combinations with clothing ensembles decreased with increasing clothing ensemble layer. In a non-isothermal condition, the total evaporative resistance calculated by option 1 was more accurate than value obtained by option 2, which was due to lower ambient temperature and condensation between each adjacent layer. (Less)
Apparent Yield Stress of Sputum as a Relevant Biomarker in Cystic Fibrosis

The mucus obstructing the airways of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients is a yield stress fluid. Linear and non-linear rheological analyses of CF sputa can provide relevant biophysical markers, which could be used for the management of this disease. Sputa were collected from CF patients either without any induction or following an aerosol treatment with the recombinant human DNAse (rhDNAse, Pulmozyme®). Several sample preparations were considered and multiple measurements were performed in order to assess both the repeatability and the robustness of the rheological measurements. The linear and non-linear rheological properties of all CF sputa were characterized. While no correlation between oscillatory shear linear viscoelastic properties and clinical data was observed, the steady shear flow data showed that the apparent yield stress of sputum from CF patients previously treated with rhDNAse was approximately one decade lower than that of non-treated CF patients. Similar results were obtained with sputa from non-induced CF patients subjected ex vivo to a Pulmozyme® aerosol treatment. The results demonstrate that the apparent yield stress of patient sputa is a relevant predictive/prognostic biomarker in CF patients and could help in the development of new mucolytic agents.
Factors Associated with Under-Five Mortality: A Comparison between Empowered Action Group (EAG) and Non-EAG States of India

Background: In India under-five mortality (U5MR) has declined by 71% from 126 to 37 deaths per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2018. The Empowered Action Group (EAG) states accounts for 74% of the under-five deaths as compared to 26% among Non-EAG states. Method: National Family Health Survey round fourth (NFHS-4), 2015-16 was used for this study. A life table method and Cox Proportional Hazard (PH) model was used to examine the various factors associated with U5MR in EAG and Non-EAG states of India. Result: Overall, it was observed that U5MR is much higher in EAG compared to Non-EAG states. Absolute difference varies according to background characteristics. The highest difference was among mothers who had never breastfed (316 vs 150 U5MR per 1000 live births in EAG & Non-EAG states respec-tively). Factors—total children ever born to mother, household members, children never breastfed and size of the baby were found to be statistically significantly associated with under-five mortality after controlling for other factors in both EAG and Non-EAG states. Hazard of U5MR was two and half-times higher among birth order 4+ (AHR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.8 - 3.3) compared to birth order ≤2 after controlling for other factors in EAG states. The risk of under-five mortality was found three times higher among mother having up to primary or no education (AHR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.4 - 5.9) compared to mother having higher education in non-EAG states. Conclusion: The study revealed that both groups of states need health program interventions focused on high risk mothers, TT immunization and promoting basic health services and breastfeeding practices for the reduction U5MR.
Analyses of a single-machine system for harvesting pulpwood and/or energy-wood in early thinnings

Harwarder systems used in roundwood harvesting can be useful at sites where there are low volumes per hectare to be removed or a small total removal volume and where frequent or long-distance machine relocations are required. As well as being suitable for conventional roundwood harvesting, a multi-purpose forest machine can have its configuration changed, so that it can function as a harvester, forwarder, or harwarder, and thus can be considered viable for use in young stands when harvesting pulpwood or energy-wood or combining assortments. Accordingly, in this study we compare the time consumption and productivity of a Ponsse Dual machine system with two harvesting heads and one loading grapple (three machine configurations) when harvesting and forwarding pulpwood and/or energy-wood during early thinning at sites in northern Sweden. Our aim is to analyze costs and profitability under a range of site conditions. Working as a harvester, the machine reached the same level of productivity (trees per hour) whether it was operating with an accumulating felling head or a harvester head able to accumulate some trees; productivity was also independent of work method. The forwarding efficiency was highly correlated with biomass concentration and forwarding distance; whole-tree (tree section) removal over short forwarding distances resulted in the highest productivity. The system achieved the greatest cost-effectiveness when only energy-wood was removed. At current market prices, pulpwood extraction produced the highest net income per hectare, but even this was economically unprofitable. The Ponsse Dual achieves similar productivities to specialized harvesters and forwarders during thinning operations, but at a much higher cost per operating hour. Thus, a single-machine system would need to have ca. 20–30% lower operational costs than the Ponsse Dual to be an economically viable option for early thinning.
New modelling method for forward junction I-V analysis

This work presents a theoretical calculation of the I-V characteristics of an n-p junction. The total current across the n-p junction is presented as the superposition of currents due to each region of the junction. It results in ideality factor values between 1 and 2. Threshold voltage values, related to the low and high level injection in each region, are introduced. The theoretical model is used to describe the experimental emitter-base I-V characteristics of a bipolar transistor. The effects of the electrical ageing are taken into account as a creation of a defect layer in the base, near the junction. A maximum error of 6% between the theoretical model and experiment is obtained.
Revisiting Knowledge Management System Use: Unravelling Interventions that Nurture Knowledge Seeking

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are adopted with the aim of facilitating knowledge flow within the organization. However, it is seen that member participation on these platforms is limited. The objective of this work is to identify aspects that influence intention to seek knowledge on KMS. Antecedents to knowledge seeking behaviour were identified through a morphological review of literature. A conceptual model was proposed based on the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the adequacy of the model. Results show that seeking happens when the individual has an intrinsic motivation to learn and when the quality of knowledge available on KMS is perceived as having high content value. Interestingly, we find that top management has no bearing on one’s intention to seek. Findings reveal that HR activities need to identify people management practices, such as hiring people with a curious disposition and promoting seeking as a positive behaviour. KM practices need to focus on stimulating curiosity and learning amongst members.
A technical note on the inclusion of pressure dependent demand and leakage terms in water supply network models

Abstract This note suggests a technique for including pressure dependent demand and leakage terms in simulation models for water distribution systems. Empirical functions are used to relate consumer outflows and leakage losses to the network pressures and the inclusion of these functions in the mathematical formulation of the network analysis problem is described. An application to an existing distribution system is presented where it is shown that the extended network model proposed leads to more realistic simulation results when the network pressures are too low to provide specified consumer demands, or high enough to cause significant leakage losses. It is also found that the computational requirements of network analysis and simulation are not significantly affected by the inclusion of the additional terms.
A comprehensive method for the elastic calculation of the two-point wheel–rail contact

This work shows the method developed to solve the wheel–rail contact problem via a look-up table with a three-dimensional elastic model. This method enables the introduction of the two contact-point effect on vehicle movement using three-dimensional analysis of surfaces, including the influence of the angle of attack. This work presents several dynamic simulations and studies the impact that the introduction of the two contact points on three dimensions has on wear indexes and derailment risk against traditional bi-dimensional analysis. Furthermore, it studies advantages and disadvantages of using a look-up table against an on-line resolution of the problem.
Host‐parasite dynamics shaped by temperature and genotype: quantifying the role of underlying vital rates

1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA; 2Department of Animal Ecology and Physiology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; 3Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics, Department of Biology, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; 4Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 5Animal Ecology, NIOOKNAW, Wageningen, The Netherlands; 6Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 7Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, Nord University, Bodø, Norway; 8Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland; 9Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland; 10Leibniz Institüt für Gewasserökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB), Berlin, Germany and 11Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
The Power of Combinative Capabilities: Facilitating the Outcome of Frequent Innovation in Pharmaceutical R&D Projects

The purpose of this article is to investigate how organizations organize the early phases of research and development (R&D) projects in the pharmaceutical industry to achieve frequent innovation. The investigation was designed as a qualitative multiple case study. The analysis identified a standardized projectification of the preproject phases, leading to certain conflicts, such as a severe tension between dynamic, project, and multiproject capabilities, which hamper frequent innovation. Optimizing combinative capabilities to balance the capabilities triumvirate can provide powerful leverage and boost frequent innovation.