Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model-based detection of progress using D4AR models generated by daily site photologs and building information models

In this paper a new approach that automatically recognizes progress from daily construction photologs and Building Information Models (BIMs) is presented. Currently daily site photologs are being collected at almost no cost on all construction sites; meanwhile BIM models are increasingly turning into binding components of AEC contracts. Using these emerging sources of information, we present a 4 Dimensional Augmented Reality – DAR – modeling approach for integrated visualization of asbuilt and as-planned models as well as a novel framework for automated recognition of progress. Our approach is based on structure-from-motion, multi-view stereo plus voxel coloring and labeling algorithms to calibrate cameras, reconstruct the building scene, traverse and label the integrated asbuilt and as-planned scene for occupancy and visibility. Next, a machine learning scheme built upon a Bayesian model is proposed that automatically detects physical components in presence of occlusions and demonstrates that component-based tracking could be fully automated. Finally, the system enables the as-planned and as-built models to be jointly explored with an interactive, image-based 3D viewer where deviations are automatically color-coded over the BIM model. To that extent, we present our underlying hypotheses and algorithms for generation of integrated as-built and as-planned models plus automated progress monitoring which is the first of its kind that takes advantage of unordered daily site photologs. Experimental results are presented for challenging datasets collected under different lighting conditions and sever occlusions from two ongoing construction projects.
Drought-Induced Reduction in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 2000 Through 2009

Reversing the Trend Terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP, the amount of atmospheric carbon fixed by plants and accumulated as biomass) increased from 1982 through 1999, which has been attributed to factors such as nitrogen deposition, CO2 fertilization, forest regrowth, and climatic changes. Zhao and Running (p. 940) used satellite data to estimate global terrestrial NPP over the past decade and found that the earlier trend has been reversed and that NPP has been decreasing. Combining this result with climate change data suggests that large-scale droughts are responsible for the decline. Future widespread droughts caused by global warming may thus further weaken the terrestrial carbon sink. Terrestrial biomass declined during the hot past decade, reversing the trend of the previous 20 years. Terrestrial net primary production (NPP) quantifies the amount of atmospheric carbon fixed by plants and accumulated as biomass. Previous studies have shown that climate constraints were relaxing with increasing temperature and solar radiation, allowing an upward trend in NPP from 1982 through 1999. The past decade (2000 to 2009) has been the warmest since instrumental measurements began, which could imply continued increases in NPP; however, our estimates suggest a reduction in the global NPP of 0.55 petagrams of carbon. Large-scale droughts have reduced regional NPP, and a drying trend in the Southern Hemisphere has decreased NPP in that area, counteracting the increased NPP over the Northern Hemisphere. A continued decline in NPP would not only weaken the terrestrial carbon sink, but it would also intensify future competition between food demand and proposed biofuel production.
Requirement and Design Analysis for the Post-Trauma Mobile Psychology Service

In 2008, a serious earthquake struck Sichuan province. Tens of thousands of people in disaster areas have suffered injuries both in physical and mental aspects. Thus, a Post-Trauma Mobile Service (PTMS) is launched and implemented in Sichuan province, which creates a new mode of long-distance psychological counseling service. This study discusses the comparisons between mobile-based and traditional psychological counseling method, indicating that mobile-based method is a significant experiment both in the post-disaster psychological assistance work and mobile communication service. Besides, requirement analysis is explored, which guides the work of PTMS system design. The system design is described in three stages including architecture design, service mode design and industry chain analysis, in which online and offline service mode are highlighted. This study presents the implementation of PTMS service, which shows that the mobile-based platform and service mode have acceptable psychometric properties, equivalent with paper-based method.
Recognition of Human Activity for Physical Rehabilitation from RGB-D Videos

In this paper, we present a 3D computer vision system for physical assessment and rehabilitation based on the data collected from a depth sensor. Physical rehabilitation is a complex and long-term process that requires clinician experts and appropriate tools. Hence a system that can successfully support the rehabilitation of individuals is of great interest to all the parties in sports and health industry. Exergames combined with activity monitoring technologies have been promising as a form of game that may make people involved in these video games more actively and physically. We propose a computer vision system for physical activity assessment. Due to the large temporal and spatial variations in actions performed by humans, human action recognition has been a long-standing challenge. Our approach recognizes certain human activities based on a motion descriptor that uses 3D human skeleton data. We define a motion descriptor (SHOJD) using the 3D distance between the most frequent key poses that occur throughout the action that is intended to be recognized. SHOJD features are then fed into an artificial neural network for classification. Experimental results indicate that the SHOJD based human action recognition system is robust with high recognition rate.
Optimal relay coordination suitable for grid-connected and islanded operational modes of microgrid

Microgrids are the localized grids which consists of number of distributed generators (DGs) with the distribution system. Introduction of DGs into distribution system cause changes in the fault current levels & directions, thus results in inaccurate operation of the existing protection system. Fault currents in the system also varies significantly following the transition of grid-connected and islanded operational modes of microgrid. Procuring a coordinated protection system which operates accurately in DGs integrated scenario is still a challenging aspect for the planners. In this paper, protection system has been proposed which is suitable for both grid-connected and islanded operational modes of microgrid. Differential evolution (DE) algorithm has been used for achieving the proper coordination of directional overcurrent relays (DOCR) in the distribution systems. IEEE-9-bus distribution system integrated with four DGs have been analysed in this paper. Discrete plug setting (PS) and time multiplier setting (TMS) has been obtained which are feasible for numerical relays. Obtained optimized relay settings provide efficient and accurate operation of relays with minimum operating time.
1.9 Å x‐ray study shows closed flap conformation in crystals of tethered HIV‐1 PR

Three‐dimensional structure of an asymmetrically mutated (C95M) tethered human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease enzyme (HIV‐1 PR) has been determined in an unliganded form using X‐ray diffraction data to 1.9 Å resolution. The structure, refined using X‐PLOR to an R factor of 19.5%, is unexpectedly similar to the ligand‐bound native enzyme, rather than to the ligand‐free native enzyme. In particular, the two flaps in the tethered dimer are in a closed configuration. The environments around M95 and C1095 are identical, showing no structural effect of this asymmetric mutation at position 95. Oxidation of Cys1095 has been observed for the first time. There is one well‐defined water molecule that hydrogen bonds to both carboxyl groups of the essential aspartic acids in the active site. Proteins 2001;43:57–64. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Optimal Combinations of Diagnostic Tests Based on AUC

Summary When several diagnostic tests are available, one can combine them to achieve better diagnostic accuracy. This article considers the optimal linear combination that maximizes the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC); the estimates of the combination's coefficients can be obtained via a nonparametric procedure. However, for estimating the AUC associated with the estimated coefficients, the apparent estimation by re‐substitution is too optimistic. To adjust for the upward bias, several methods are proposed. Among them the cross‐validation approach is especially advocated, and an approximated cross‐validation is developed to reduce the computational cost. Furthermore, these proposed methods can be applied for variable selection to select important diagnostic tests. The proposed methods are examined through simulation studies and applications to three real examples.
Using Molecular Tools to Dissect the Role of Gαs in Sensitization of AC1

Short-term activation of Gαi/o-coupled receptors inhibits adenylyl cyclase, whereas persistent activation of Gαi/o-coupled receptors results in a compensatory sensitization of adenylyl cyclase activity after subsequent activation by Gαs or forskolin. Several indirect observations have suggested the involvement of increased Gαs-adenylyl cyclase interactions in the expression of sensitization; however, evidence supporting a direct role for Gαs has not been well established. In the present report, we used two genetic approaches to further examine the role of Gαs in heterologous sensitization of Ca2+-sensitive type 1 adenylyl cyclase (AC1). In the first approach, we constructed Gαs-insensitive mutants of AC1 (F293L and Y973S) that retained sensitivity to Ca2+ and forskolin activation. Persistent (2 h) activation of the D2 dopamine receptor resulted in a significant augmentation of basal or Ca2+- and forskolin-stimulated AC1 activity; however, sensitization of Gαs-insensitive mutants of AC1 was markedly reduced compared with wild-type AC1. In the second strategy, we examined the requirement of an intact receptor-Gαs signaling pathway for the expression of sensitization using dominant-negative Gαs mutants (α3β5 G226A/A366S or α3β5 G226A/E268A/A366S) to disrupt D1 dopamine receptor activation of recombinant AC1. D1 dopamine receptor-Gαs signaling was attenuated in the presence of α3β5 G226A/A366S or α3β5 G226A/E268A/A366S, but D2 agonist-induced sensitization of Ca2+-stimulated AC1 activity was not altered. Together, the present findings directly support the hypothesis that the expression of sensitization of AC1 involves Gαs-adenylyl cyclase interactions.
Significant factors influencing the bid mark-up decision of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract Tender estimates play a vital role in achieving bid successes. A bid price which has an optimum mark-up is governed by many factors. The research aims to identify the significant factors influencing the bid mark-up decision of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. Using a literature review, semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey, the study identifies nine significant factors influencing the mark-up decision of infrastructure projects. The identified significant factors are ‘estimated direct cost’, ‘competitiveness of other bids’, ‘type of work’, ‘project duration’, ‘the ability to predict pre-tender estimate’, ‘project location’, ‘reliability of the company estimate’, ‘number of bidders’ and ‘need for work’, respectively. The study also reveals potential relationships between the identified significant factors and bid mark-up based on case studies. Amongst, ‘reliability of the company estimate’, ‘number of bidders’ and ‘type of work’ have shown positive relationships with mark-up. The contents should be of interest to bidders and researchers in construction.
Hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor for the treatment of high-strength landfill leachate

Performance assessment of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology for the treatability of high-strength landfill leachate is relatively limited or lacking. This study examines the feasibility of treating high-strength landfill leachate using a hollow-fiber MBR. For this purpose, a laboratory-scale MBR was constructed and operated to treat leachate with a chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 9000–11,000 mg/l, a 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of 4000–6,000 mg/l, volatile suspended solids (VSS) of 300–500 mg/l, total nitrogen (TN) of 2000–6000 mg/l, and an ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) of 1800–4000 mg/l. VSS was used with the BOD and COD data to simulate the biological activity in the activated sludge. Removal efficiencies > 95–99% for BOD5, VSS, TN and NH3-N were attained. The coupled experimental and simulation results contribute in filling a gap in managing high-strength landfill leachate and providing guidelines for corresponding MBR application.
Re-Fracturing Wells Selection by Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process—Taking Mahu Oilfield as An Example

Re-fracturing treatments of horizontal wells are increasingly gaining popularity to address the issue of rapid production decline and low recovery ratio for the conglomerate reservoir of the Mahu Oilfield. How to effectively select the horizontal wells with potentiality for re-fracturing and conduct the re-fracturing operation to achieve the purpose is the key problem that needs to be investigated urgently. However, the conventional methods for vertical wells are not in our consideration, and some methods for horizontal wells have their limits for the Mahu reservoir. To cope with problems mentioned above, fourteen factors from geology parameters, engineering parameters, and production performance parameters are considered to establish a multi-level evaluation model to quantify the potentiality of each horizontal well for re-fracturing in the Mahu Oilfield. First, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to obtain the weights of various factors affecting the productivity of horizontal wells, and on this basis, the subordination degree and evaluation matrix are then calculated, and finally, the fuzzy synthetic determination is obtained to determine the candidate wells for re-fracturing. The results have shown that the weights corresponding to engineering parameters obtained by the AHP method are the largest, followed by geology parameters, and the weights of production performance parameters are the minimal relatively; the number of fractures and the sand quantity of single cluster are the main controlling factors in engineering factors, and the initial formation pressure is the main controlling factor in geological factors; there is obvious correlation between the cumulative oil production after 90 days of primary fracturing with final cumulative production. Wells M15, M13, and M7 rank top three among the candidate wells. Through re-fracturing treatment by temporary plugging, the daily oil production of well M15 has increased significantly and is even higher than that of the primary hydraulic fracturing stimulation, confirming the reliability of the proposed selection method.
Global Decisions and Local Realities: Priorities and Producers’ Upgrading Opportunities in Agricultural Global Production Networks

As certification is proving ever more popular as a particular manifestation of economic, social and environmental upgrading activities, this paper seeks to explore the socio-economic, commercial and environmental priorities which shape stakeholder certification choices in global production networks (GPNs), and the implications which upgrading intentions entail for smallholders’ development outcomes. The paper argues that there is a need to problematize firstly the diverging socio-economic, environmental and commercial priorities which different stakeholders associate with the implementation of sustainability standards, and secondly to unpack the assumed automatism of upgrading activities entailing benefits for producers at the local level. The paper introduces a malleable approach, the ‘constellation of priorities’, that enables systematic assessment of drivers across stakeholders, thus providing agency to all GPN participants. The paper presents two agricultural global production networks as case-studies, the production of fresh fruit and vegetables in Kenya and the cocoa sector in Nicaragua. The case-studies explore the complexities of the tensions between stakeholders’ socio-economic, commercial and environmental priorities, highlighting that priorities projected through stakeholders’ power and embeddedness relations affect how local outcomes, positive and negative, materialise for farmers.
A Model of Perceived Co-creation Value in Tourism Service Setting: An Application of Structure Equation Modeling

This study explores how the perceived co-creation values (PCVs) from tourists’ perspectives are applied in the customized tour arrangement service setting. The sequential qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted for this study. The initial qualitative method in terms of the proactive semi-structured interview is conducted to identify and explore the dimension of the PCV construct and to develop its measurement scale. The quantitative method by the structure equation model is employed for the proposed conceptual model fitness assessment and consolidation. Our work contributes to the progression of value co-creation research in a customized tourism context and provides a valid and reliable PCV instrument to tourism practitioners for a better service platform designing. The mediating role of customer satisfaction (CS) between PCV and customer loyalty (CL) offers service providers a deeper understanding of customer psychology and behavior, and thus, the loyal customer cultivation strategy.
Chinese Female Consumers’ Intention to Use Mobile Payment Services

Purpose – This study intended to investigate ways to influence on the Chinese female consumers’ use of mobile payment services. For this purpose, this research investigated the relationships among security and compatibility of the mobile payment service, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, psychological benefit, and intention to use mobile payment. Research design, data, and methodology – This research developed a structural equation model in which the usefulness, the ease of use, and the psychological benefit are predictors and the intention to use is a dependent variable. Data were collected from China female in Jiangsu and Shandong province. Results – Empirical results showed that the security and the compatibility had a positive influence on the usefulness and the ease of use. The usefulness and the ease of use influenced on the psychological benefit respectively and the psychological benefit had a positive influence on the intention to use. Conclusions – This research contributed to the mobile payment service literature by showing how Chinese women consumers adopt the mobile payment service based on TAM. Moreover, current study introduced the security and the compatibility as antecedents of the usefulness and the ease of use and revealed the mediating role of psychological benefit. Managerially, theses results suggested retailing companies ways to influence on the Chinese female consumers’ use of mobile payment services.
On the Effectiveness of Virtualization Based Memory Isolation on Multicore Platforms

Virtualization based memory isolation has been widely used as a security primitive in many security systems. This paper firstly provides an in-depth analysis of its effectiveness in the multicore setting, a first in the literature. Our study reveals that memory isolation by itself is inadequate for security. Due to the fundamental design choices in hardware, it faces several challenging issues including page table maintenance, address mapping validation and thread identification. As demonstrated by our attacks implemented on XMHF and BitVisor, these issues undermine the security of memory isolation. Next, we propose a new isolation approach that is immune to the aforementioned problems. In our design, the hypervisor constructs a fully isolated micro computing environment (FIMCE) that exposes a minimal attack surface to an untrusted OS on a multicore platform. By virtue of its architectural niche, FIMCE offers stronger assurance and greater versatility than memory isolation. We have built a prototype of FIMCE and measured its performance. To show the benefits of using FIMCE as a building block, we have also implemented several practical applications which cannot be securely realized by using memory isolation alone.
Effects of Neuropeptide Y on Stem Cells and Their Potential Applications in Disease Therapy

Neuropeptide Y (NPY), a 36-amino acid peptide, is widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous systems and other peripheral tissues. It takes part in regulating various biological processes including food intake, circadian rhythm, energy metabolism, and neuroendocrine secretion. Increasing evidence indicates that NPY exerts multiple regulatory effects on stem cells. As a kind of primitive and undifferentiated cells, stem cells have the therapeutic potential to replace damaged cells, secret paracrine molecules, promote angiogenesis, and modulate immunity. Stem cell-based therapy has been demonstrated effective and considered as one of the most promising treatments for specific diseases. However, several limitations still hamper its application, such as poor survival and low differentiation and integration rates of transplanted stem cells. The regulatory effects of NPY on stem cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation may be helpful to overcome these limitations and facilitate the application of stem cell-based therapy. In this review, we summarized the regulatory effects of NPY on stem cells and discussed their potential applications in disease therapy.
The application of maximum differential algorithm in adaptive ocean sampling

This paper presents a technique for adaptive ocean sampling using ocean sampling platforms equipped with multiple sensors. The virtual environment of 2D ocean sampling is established, so as to simulate the ocean sampling region by means of the sampling platforms. There are three important phases which can be written as collecting scientific data, drawing the sampling area, and utilizing the maximum differential algorithm (MDA) in ocean sampling. By analyzing the sampling data and using the maximum differential algorithm, the sampling platforms achieve the optimizing sampling path. The simulation results by adaptive ocean sampling of single sampling platform and multiple platforms show that the proposed approach is effective and feasible. This method can be applied to conduct the moving direction based on the ocean sampling platforms.
Culturing muscle fibres in hanging drop: A novel approach to solve an old problem

The satellite cells (SCs) associated with muscle fibres play a key role in postnatal growth and regeneration of skeletal muscle. Commonly used methods of isolation and in vitro culture of SCs lead to the mixture of their subpopulations that exist within muscle. To solve this problem, we used the well established technique, the hanging drop system, to culture SCs in a three‐dimensional environment and thus, to monitor them in their original niche.