Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of ITS Traffic Safety Measures with Socio-Economic Factors Case Study: Wrong Way Driving.

This thesis deals with the socio-economic evaluation of traffic accidents in the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) field. There are many new technologies being developed nowadays but very little is known about their actual impact on traffic safety. Therefore, a method has to be developed to help stakeholders working in the ITS field as well as public authorities to estimate the possible socio-economic effects before an actual implementation of a new ITS takes place. Care also has to be taken that the actual effects are measured after a certain time. This should be done in order to be able to quantify the effects that have in fact been achieved with the investment. Consequently, this work focuses on the development of a method that combines the knowledge of traffic safety research and classic cost benefit analysis in order to deliver convincing results. A comparative before-after study is also described to be able to evaluate the actual implementation of a new ITS after a certain amount of time. Then the proposed method is applied to a case study which is wrong way driving on highways. There it is assumed that the technology from the iRoad project can be used as the basis to deliver a detection and warning system on highway ramps. The three different countries Sweden, Denmark and Austria have been used in the analysis in order to give an overview of how different data sources concerning a certain field of traffic safety can be. The results of this research and the case study are a method to describe socioeconomic effects of a new ITS investment in road safety as well as the follow up procedure in order to evaluate the investment. These numbers can then be used by officials and the industry to argue for or against the implementation of a certain system. It is advantageous for the developed method to be easy to apply so it is possible for a broader audience to use it as a pre-estimation. The case study at hand is a good basis for one’s further calculations in the field. The results from the case study are of different character and show that the settings are quite different from country to country and it is therefore important to do country specific calculations when dealing with ITS. Some of the major results of the case study are for example that it has been shown that data quality for wrong way driving is insufficient in Sweden to calculate any results and that a full country rollout would be favourable over a stretch application of iRoad technology in Austria.
QUANTITY VERSUS QUALITY : AN EXPERIMENT ON THE EFFECT OF INCENTIVES ON INFORMATION SHARING

ABSTRACT. Public information sharing has become increasingly important in helping individuals make better, more informed choices. Our project uses a novel theoretical framework and laboratory experiments to analyze three simple, commonly used incentive schemes against an unincentivized baseline. Each incentive scheme has qualitatively different theoretical predictions for behavior and efficiency, while our laboratory experiments examine the degree to which these differences manifest themselves, and the best-case theory’s robustness to human behavior. Our findings indicate the possibility for substantial efficiency gains by introducing incentives that reward the provision of public information, even where those incentives drive a wedge between those providing and making use of information. In particular, our results point to a misaligned incentive commonly found in the field, sales commissions, as being a robust institution to stimulate the exchange of information.
Stock Price Reaction to Supervisory Board Interventions: Empirical Evidence from Germany

Within the discussion about an efficient corporate governance system, considerable attention has been paid to the supervisory board’s responsibility to monitor top executives raising the question about the value relevance of supervisory board’s actions (i.e., control). We conduct an event study analyzing the effect of supervisory board interventions on the value of publicly listed firms in Germany between 2000 and 2006. With our study, we are among the first to empirically test two suppositions by Hermalin Weisbach (1998) which propose a negative stock price reaction when the CEO is fired based on private information of the supervisory board and a positive stock price reaction when the CEO is fired based on public information. Assuming that the amount of information available to the public increases with the media coverage of a company, we expect effects to differ depending on the company’s level of media coverage. This is confirmed by our empirical results: Looking at companies receiving low media coverage, we find a negative and significant effect of supervisory board interventions on firm value. Focusing on companies with high media coverage we find that supervisory board interventions have a positive effect on stock prices which is also significant when returns are cumulated over several days. These results supporting the predictions of Hermalin Weisbach (1998) prove to be robust when controlling for company characteristics (in particular size) in a multivariate regression setting.
THE DECOUPLING CONTROL FOR PMA-DRIVEN SERIAL MECHANISM

The serial mechanism is driven by pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) and used the tendon transmission structure. Between the various joints, the torque coupling and the location coupling seriously affect the control performance. By analyzing the location equation of tendons, a matrix which can describe the coupling is obtained. Combined with the model of PMA, the dynamic equation of the coupled system is derived. For features of the tendon drive coupling and PMA, the computed torque algorithm is improved. In order to overcome the hysteresis of PMA, the control signal is compensated ahead. Finally the decoupling control algorithm which adapted to the PMA drive and the tendon drive is proposed. Experiment proved that, compared to the PID control, improved computed-torque control can decreases the coupling, accelerates the response speed and decreases the steady-state error.
The Risk Cubic Model with Cyclic and Transitory Effects for Pricing Mortality-Linked Securities

Recently, the risk cubic model proposed by Lane (2000) has been used for pricing mortality-linked securities. The model considers the frequency and severity of the loss distribution in the insurance pricing framework and has been developed for pricing catastrophe risks. As mortality risk is not identical to catastrophe risk, the risk cubic model cannot be applied without further adjustments. Therefore the pricing model is extended by integrating a dummy variable for the mortality risk. The results of the analysis reveal that the price for a mortality-linked security is signiﬁcantly smaller than for other insurance-linked securities. It could also be shown that a cyclic effect with a length of 4.5 years determines the pricing mechanism in the market for insurance-linked securities. Furthermore, the integration of transitory effects demonstrates a price reaction in the market after hurricane Katrina in 2005. The proposed pricing framework can be applied to calculate the premiums of mortality-linked securities.
The rapid topological reconstruction of 3D-solid and simplification of weighted QEM

For enhancing the speed of reconstruction and simplification of 3D mesh model, and improving the simplification effect, half-edge data structure is adopted. During the topological reconstruction process, the time complexity is reduced by using an additional index table. By calculating the normal variance and maximum deviation of triangular facets connected to a vertex to determine the important degree of the vertex, and adding it to QEM as weights. Compared with the Garland algorithm, the use of half-edge structure can directly gain the adjacency relation, and accelerate the speed of the model simplification. Experiment shows that new error metric formula can exactly measure the simplification error, the simplification speed and the effect of the model are both satisfied.
Prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial to evaluate infection prevention in adult patients after tension-free inguinal hernia repair.

OBJECTIVE Infection is one of possible complications after prosthetic material hernia repair surgery. Antibiotic prophylaxis is applied routinely in China, but its effect is still controversial. The present study aims to offer direct clinical evidence on prevention of infection after tension-free inguinal hernia repair. METHODS A total of 1,200 cases with primary inguinal hernia treated in 6 hospitals in Shaanxi Province were enrolled in this study. They were randomly divided into three groups (n = 400 per group): placebo control group, Cefazolin group and Levofloxacin group after tensionfree inguinal hernia repair using polypropylene mesh. Hernia type, age, gender, weight and complications were recorded. The surgical-site infection was diagnosed according to APIC, CDC criteria (http://www.apic. org). Infections were evaluated every other day in the first week, and then at 14 days, 21 days and 30 days following surgery. RESULTS Two cases from the placebo group, 3 from the Cefazolin group and 3 from the Levofloxacin group failed to follow-up. Six patients (2 non-following the protocol, 2 severe depression, and 2 laparoscopic surgery) from the placebo group, 14 (8 nonreceiving trial medication, 5 laparoscopic surgery, and 1 failure to tolerance) from the Cefazolin group, and 12 (2 combination of antibiotic usage, 5 laparoscopic surgery and 5 failure to tolerance) from the Levofloxacin group were excluded. The data of the 1,160 cases were statistically analyzed in the incidence rates of surgical-site infection and complications after inguinal hernia repair. Surgical-site infection including wound infection, cellulitis or mesh-related infection was found in 20 cases (5.1%) of the control group, 15 (3.92%) of the Cefazolin group and 17 (4.42%) of the Levofloxacin group, and the difference among the three groups was not statistically significant (χ2 = 0.438, p = 0.803). There was also no significant difference in post-surgery complications including seroma (p = 0.6366), urinary retention (p = 0.8136), fat liquefaction (p = 0.8061), pulmonary infection (p = 0.1911), and urinary tract infection (p = 0.8144) among the three groups. CONCLUSIONS Prophylactic use of Cefazolin or Levofloxacin did not significantly decrease the risk of wound infection in these patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair. The present results do not support the administration of antibiotic prophylaxis for tension-free inguinal hernia repair. *The authors contributed equally to this work.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Advances in Pulmonary Care in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

D uchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a degenerative neuromuscular disease leading to progressive muscle weakness and loss. This review discusses advances in understanding the natural history of DMD, as well as recent pharmacotherapies. Decline in expiratory and inspiratory pulmonary function results in ineffective airway clearance, sleep-disordered breathing and nocturnal and daytime respiratory failure. Routine measures of pulmonary function include forced vital capacity (FVC) and peak expiratory flow (PEF). Both measures follow parallel trajectories and relentlessly decline, reaching the lower limit of normal of 80% of predicted at early teenage years. Moreover, decline in PEF and FVC are closely correlated with respiratory complications and clinically relevant thresholds for FVC are defined in standard of care recommendations. Glucocorticoids (GCs) delay the onset of pulmonary function decline, but once patients have reached the 80% of predicted threshold the decline of FVC and PEF in GC users and patients not using GCs is comparable. In the successful phase III DELOS trial in DMD patients not using GCs, the short-chain benzoquinone idebenone (Raxone®, Santhera Pharmaceuticals, Liestal, Switzerland) has demonstrated statistically significant and clinically relevant efficacy on expiratory and inspiratory function in patients in the pulmonary function decline stage. These results indicate that idebenone can modify the natural course of respiratory disease progression, which is relevant in clinical practice where loss of respiratory function continues to be a predominant cause of early morbidity and mortality in DMD.
Induction of Multiple Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Polypeptide (PACAP) Transcripts through Alternative Cleavage and Polyadenylation of proPACAP Precursor mRNA a

Many regulated events guide neuropeptide biosynthesis, processing, and secretion. For PACAP peptides, these events have not been well examined. In our studies of PACAP expression in sympathetic neurons, we discovered that neuronal depolarization not only increased the levels of the 2.2 kb form of proPACAP mRNA identified in neuronal tissues, but also induced a novel 0.9 kb PACAP transcript, which appeared similar in size to a form present in testes. Using reverse-transcription PCR and 3' RACE studies, we demonstrated that the 0.9 kb PACAP mRNA in depolarized SCG neurons was not identical to the testicular PACAP mRNA, but represented shortened, more stable, forms of the 2.2 kb transcript resulting from alternative upstream polyadenylation site usage. These results demonstrate that post-transcriptional mechanisms play important roles in determining cellular PACAP levels and provide several important insights. For example, alternative upstream polyadenylation can elicit a major influence on the amount of bioactive peptide that can by synthesized, since short 3' UTR transcripts are usually more stable due to elimination of destabilizing elements present in the longer messages. In cells such as testicular germ cells, which have restricted transcriptional periods, stable mRNAs allow longer translational events and extended periods of peptide production. The neuronal PACAP system adopts a similar post-transcriptional strategy following neuronal depolarization, and although the roles of PACAP remain unclear, this suggests important roles for PACAP peptides during increased neuronal activity. Additionally, unlike alternative polyadenylation described for many genes, alternative site usage in the proPACAP transcript does not result from alternative splicing. The mechanism of alternative site usage may be related to changes in the expression and binding of polyadenylation factors to the short and long 3' UTR proPACAP sites leading to production of more stable transcripts and increased PACAP precursor biosynthesis. The implications of increased PACAP production following altered neurophysiological states and the mechanisms underlying alternative polyadenylation site choice are important considerations for future inquiries.
Outcome and risk factors for left ventricular disorders in chronic uraemia.

BACKGROUND Left ventricular disease occurs frequently in dialysis patients. It may be manifest as concentric LV hypertrophy, LV dilatation with or without LV hypertrophy, or systolic dysfunction. Little is known concerning the clinical outcome and risk factors for these disorders. METHODS A cohort of 432 end-stage renal disease patients who survived at least 6 months had an echocardiogram on initiation of dialysis therapy. Clinical, laboratory and echocardiographic data was obtained annually during follow-up. RESULTS On initiation of ESRD therapy 16% of patients had systolic dysfunction, 41% concentric LV hypertrophy, 28% LV dilatation, and only 16% had normal echocardiograms. Median time to development of heart failure was 19 months in patients with systolic dysfunction, 38 months in concentric LV hypertrophy and 38 months in LV dilatation. The relative risks of heart failure in the three groups were significantly worse than in the normal group, after adjusting for age, diabetes and ischaemic heart disease. Median survival was 38 months in systolic dysfunction, 48 months in concentric hypertrophy, 56 months in LV dilatation, and >66 months in the normal group. Two hundred and seventy-five patients had a follow-up echocardiogram 17 months after starting dialysis therapy together with serial measurement of potential risk factors prior to the echocardiogram. On follow-up echocardiogram the degree of concentric LV hypertrophy was independently related to hypertension while on dialysis, older age, and anaemia while on dialysis; the degree of LV dilatation was related to ischaemic heart disease, anaemia, hypertension and hypoalbuminemia while on dialysis; the degree of systolic dysfunction was associated with ischaemic heart disease and anaemia during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Manifestations of left ventricular disease are frequent and persistent in chronic uraemia, and are associated with high risks of heart failure and death. Potentially reversible risk factors include anaemia, hypertension, hypoalbuminaemia and ischaemic heart disease.
Reverse hybridization StripAssay detection of β-thalassemia mutations in northeast Egypt

Abstract Aim: β-Thalassemias are widely distributed in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. Reverse hybridization StripAssay method is reported to be rapid, simple, reproducible and less expensive. The aim of this study is to evaluate reverse hybridization StripAssay method for detection of β-thalassemia mutations in Egyptian children. Subjects and methods: Forty children with β-thalassemia major with mean age of 10·33±4·75 years were recruited consecutively from outpatient Hematology Clinic of Mansoura University Children's Hospital. Mutation analysis was performed by the β-Globin StripAssay MED. Results: The most frequent mutant alleles detected were; IVS 1·110, IVS 1·1 and IVS 1·6 accounting for 33·75, 27·5 and 18·75% respectively. The detection rate of the used method in our population was 90%. Conclusion: β-globin StripAssay is a fast, easy-to-perform and reliable method for genetic screening of β-thalassemia patients in Egypt. IVS 1·110, IVS 1·1 and IVS 1·6 are the most frequent mutant alleles with poor phenotype/genotype correlation.
Flach , P . , & Kull , M . ( 2015 ) . Precision-Recall-Gain Curves : PR Analysis

Precision-Recall analysis abounds in applications of binary classification where true negatives do not add value and hence should not affect assessment of the classifier’s performance. Perhaps inspired by the many advantages of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under such curves for accuracybased performance assessment, many researchers have taken to report PrecisionRecall (PR) curves and associated areas as performance metric. We demonstrate in this paper that this practice is fraught with difficulties, mainly because of incoherent scale assumptions – e.g., the area under a PR curve takes the arithmetic mean of precision values whereas the Fβ score applies the harmonic mean. We show how to fix this by plotting PR curves in a different coordinate system, and demonstrate that the new Precision-Recall-Gain curves inherit all key advantages of ROC curves. In particular, the area under Precision-Recall-Gain curves conveys an expected F1 score on a harmonic scale, and the convex hull of a PrecisionRecall-Gain curve allows us to calibrate the classifier’s scores so as to determine, for each operating point on the convex hull, the interval of β values for which the point optimises Fβ . We demonstrate experimentally that the area under traditional PR curves can easily favour models with lower expected F1 score than others, and so the use of Precision-Recall-Gain curves will result in better model selection.
A Framework for Automatic Classification of e-Business Web Content

Classifying the specific e-Business Web content in search results is presently done manually by human who visit a website and then define under which topic headings the web page or site belongs. This is a tedious and expensive process done by many portal websites. Unfortunately, it has become almost impossible for a casual user to look for specific e-Business information without getting lost among huge amounts of mixed data. In particular, retrieval failures arise because of the ambiguity of natural language. Queries are at best imperfect representations of the user's information needs and words chosen by the author are imperfect representations of the information contained in the document. It should come as no surprise that matching query words to document words, which is the heart of any information retrieval system, yields a very imperfect result. Moreover, the distributed nature of the WWW adds new problems to old: documents may be duplicated many times at many different sites; Web pages are added at alarming rates, creating an extremely dynamic information environment; the quality of information contained in Web pages varies greatly; Web pages are deleted or moved frequently, leaving behind dangling references. This paper proposes a framework and a system implementation for automatic eBusiness Web content classification in search results, which tries to fill the gaps mentioned above by using present research techniques including study of human retrieval behavior and other information placed inside the html code itself. In order to evaluate the system, two test sets (offline and online) were taken under consideration. For offline testing, we used 7 e-Business Web collection groups from CMU World Wide Knowledge Base, 1250 Web pages for training and 2000 Web pages for testing. For online testing, we used Web collection from the results in search engine for testing. Both of the results show that the average system performance is about 85 %.
Draft Genome Sequence of Lactobacillus salivarius L28 Isolated from Ground Beef

ABSTRACT In this report, we describe the draft genome sequence of a newly discovered probiotic strain, Lactobacillus salivarius L28. L. salivarius L28 demonstrates antagonistic effects against human foodborne pathogens, including Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp. , and Listeria monocytogenes, in coculture experiments and food matrices.
DNA–Osmium Complexes: Recent Developments in the Operative Chemical Analysis of DNA Epigenetic Modifications

The development of a reaction for the detection of one epigenetic modification in a long DNA strand is a chemically and biologically challenging research subject. Herein, we report and discuss the formation of 5‐methylcytosine–osmium complexes that are used as the basis for a bisulfite‐free chemical assay for DNA methylation analysis. Osmium in the oxidized state reacts with C5‐methylated pyrimidines in the presence of a bipyridine ligand to give a stable ternary complex. On the basis of this reaction, an adenine derivative with a tethered bipyridine moiety has been designed for sequence‐specific osmium complex formation. Osmium complexation is then achieved by hybridization of a short DNA molecule containing this functional nucleotide to a target DNA sequence and results in the formation of a cross‐linked structure. This novel concept of methylation‐specific reaction, based on a straightforward chemical process, expands the range of methods available for the analysis of epigenetic modifications. Advantages of the described method include amplification‐insensitive detection, 5‐hydroxymethylcytosine complexation, and visualization through methylation‐specific in situ hybridization.
A non-linear ReRAM cell with sub-1μA ultralow operating current for high density vertical resistive memory (VRRAM)

A non-linear RRAM cell with sub-1μA ultralow operating current has been successfully fabricated for high density vertical ReRAM (VRRAM) applications. A uniform and reproducible low power resistive switching was achieved by engineering transition metal oxides and imposing thin insulating layer as a tunnel barrier. The non-linear I-V characteristics ensure the possible incorporation of RRAM cell into high density cross-type array structure including VRRAM. By varying the current compliance, a multi level switching behavior was obtained. Moreover, excellent endurance of more than 107 cycles without read disturbance for up to 104 seconds was demonstrated.