Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of the South Bay Ocean Outfall (SBOO) on ocean beach water quality near the USA–Mexico border

In early 1999, primary treatment and discharge of sewage from Tijuana, Mexico (approximately 95 million liters per day) began through South Bay Ocean Outfall (SBOO) into the ocean 4.3 km offshore. In this study, statistical comparisons were made of the bacterial water quality (total and fecal coliforms and enterococci densities) of the ocean, both before and after discharge of sewage to the SBOO began, so that the effect of this ocean discharge on nearshore ocean water quality could be quantitatively assessed. The frequency of exceedence of bacterial indicator thresholds was statistically analyzed for 11 shore (surfzone) stations throughout US and Mexico using the Fisher's exact test, for the years before (1995–1998) as compared to after the SBOO discharge began (1999–2003). Only four of the 11 shoreline stations (S2, S3, S11, and S12) showed significant improvement (decreased frequency of exceedence of bacterial indicator thresholds) after SBOO discharge began.
Multi-agent product systems: controllability and non-blocking properties

Multi-agent (MA) product systems are defined in Romanovski and Caines (2005), where the notion of an MA controllable vector language specification was introduced, and necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a supervisor for such a specification were derived. In this paper we present a set of results concerning the controllability of an MA product system and its component structures (such as standard controllability and the MA controllability of projections). The non-blocking property under the MA product construction is then formulated, and necessary and sufficient conditions are established for this property to hold. Several examples are given to illustrate the results of the paper
A user-centric evaluation of recommender algorithms for an event recommendation system

While several approaches to event recommendation already exist, a comparison study including different algorithms remains absent. We have set up an online user-centric based evaluation experiment to find a recommendation algorithm that improves user satisfaction for a popular Belgian cultural events website. Both implicit and explicit feedback in the form of user interactions with the website were logged over a period of 41 days, serving as the input for 5 popular recommendation approaches. By means of a questionnaire users were asked to rate different qualitative aspects of the recommender system including accuracy, novelty, diversity, satisfaction, and trust. Results show that a hybrid of a user-based collaborative filtering and content-based approach outperforms the other algorithms on almost every qualitative metric. Correlation values between the answers in the questionnaire seem to indicate that both accuracy and transparency are correlated the most with general user satisfaction of the recommender system.
Opportunities, Emerging Features, and Trends in Electronic Distribution in Tourism

Information and Communication Technologies ICT and Tourism development are interlinked. ICT provide the tools and promote tourism demand and supply, by facilitating the existence and development of tourism and in resolving the needs inherent to the tourism activity. Consequently, tourism increases ICT requirements, since technological developments facilitate the tasks of economic agents in this sector. ICT enables the tourism industry to become more flexible, because it allows for faster and more efficient responses to requests from customers, while reducing operating costs and enabling more competitive prices. In this article it is presented an overview over the opportunities, emerging features and trends that ICT brings from electronic distribution in tourism, this can help and support the decisions of the various actors in the value chain of this business as well as researchers in the tourism field. Namely, it focus on the opportunities granted to tourism distribution by electronic means, the particularities of electronic tourism and the description of the technologies and trends that the tourism organizations have to consider in order to ensure competitiveness. Finally, it is presented a study using 18 Western European countries showing empirically the importance of the ICT to the tourism activity, by focusing how the number of internet users positively affects tourism demand in those countries.
Comparison of the Menghini, Klatskin and Tru‐Cut Needles in Diagnosing Cirrhosis

The Menghini, Klatskin and Tru-Cut needles were used to obtain multiple biopsies from cirrhotic livers at autopsy. Comparison of specimens showed that Tru-Cut biopsies were the longest and least fragmented, produced the greatest diagnostic accuracy and fewest false negative diagnoses of cirrhosis. Pending further evaluation of its safety, the Tru-Cut needle seems the instrument of choice for the biopsy diagnosis of cirrhosis.
Forms of Understanding and the Future of Educational Research

y address this afternoon is partly the story of a personal odyssey and partly a confessional. It has three parts. The odyssey, the first part, relates to the journey I have taken to try to understand the development of mind and the forms through which its contents are made public. How my ideas about these matters evolved is a story I want to tell. The confessional, the second part, refers to the dilemmas, uncertainties, and conundrums that the ideas that I embrace have caused me. This presidential address is more about quandaries than certitudes. I intend to display my quandaries. My hope is that at least some of what puzzles me will intrigue you. Indeed, I hope it intrigues you enough to want to join me. Finally, in the third part, I want to say what I think the ideas I have explored might mean for the future of educational research, both how it is pursued and how it is presented. As some of you know, when I was in my 20s, I was a teacher of art and, before that, a painter. I moved from painting to teaching because I discovered that the children with whom I worked, economically disenfranchised African Americans living on Chicago's West Side, became more important to me than the crafting of images; for some reason I came to believe then, as I believe now, that the process of image-making could help children discover a part of themselves that mostly resides beneath their consciousness. Art was a way of displaying to the children and adolescents with whom I worked dimensions of themselves that I desperately wanted them to discover. It was my interest in children and my need to clarify my vague convictions about the educational potential of art that led me to the University of Chicago and to an initiation into the social sciences, which were at that time the style of intellectual life that defined doctoral study. The Department of Education at Chicago, while steeped in the social sciences, was also intellectually open, and I was given enough slack not only to sustain, but to pursue, my interest in the arts. While no one on the faculty worked in arts education or knew much about it, my intellectual mentors-John Goodlad, Phil Jackson, Joseph Schwab, Ben Bloom, and Bruno Bettelheim-provided support and encouragement. Later I found additional support in the work of Ernst Cassirer, Susanne Langer, Rudolf Arnheim, Michael Polanyi, John Dewey, and Nelson Goodman. My encounter with the social sciences at Chicago and my long-standing engagement in art, both as a painter and a teacher of art, forced me to confront the tension between my desire to understand and cultivate what is individual and distinctive and my wish to grasp what is patterned and regular. ' My effort to resolve this tension and my interest in the cognitive character of the arts have been a career-long journey. This journey has been guided by a variety of beliefs.
Workplace Wellness Recognition for Optimizing Workplace Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association

The workplace is an important setting for promoting cardiovascular health and cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention in the United States. Well-designed, comprehensive workplace wellness programs have the potential to improve cardiovascular health and to reduce mortality, morbidity, and disability resulting from cardiovascular disease and stroke. Nevertheless, widespread implementation of comprehensive workplace wellness programs is lacking, and program composition and quality vary. Several organizations provide worksite wellness recognition programs; however, there is variation in recognition criteria, and they do not specifically focus on cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention. Although there is limited evidence to suggest that company performance on employer health management scorecards is associated with favorable healthcare cost trends, these data are not currently robust, and further evaluation is needed. As a recognized national leader in evidence-based guidelines, care systems, and quality programs, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association is uniquely positioned and committed to promoting the adoption of comprehensive workplace wellness programs, as well as improving program quality and workforce health outcomes. As part of its commitment to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association will promote science-based best practices for comprehensive workplace wellness programs and establish benchmarks for a national workplace wellness recognition program to assist employers in applying the best systems and strategies for optimal programming. The recognition program will integrate identification of a workplace culture of health and achievement of rigorous standards for cardiovascular health based on Life’s Simple 7 metrics. In addition, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association will develop resources that assist employers in meeting these rigorous standards, facilitating access to high-quality comprehensive workplace wellness programs for both employees and dependents, and fostering innovation and additional research.
A Comparative Study of Wine Auction Prices: Mouton Rothschild Premier Cru Classé

Auctions of selected wines have regularly taken place internationally and from natural reasons they have mostly involved the finest wines as e.g. the top wines from Bordeaux. In order to analyse specific auction wine prices, the Mouton Rothschild (Medoc Premier Cru Classe) has been selected for investigation, where auction data have been collected from the USA (The Chicago Wine Company), Denmark (Bruun Rasmussen, Selected Wines Auctions) and from other sources as well. The price development of this specific icon wine is expected to be influenced by many factors, although theoretically, investment decisions concerning e.g. icon wines, ought not to be highly sensitive to short‐run business conditions. The empirical findings exhibit that the auction prices of the Mouton Rothschild differ relatively much between the auction houses, and the time series analysis reveals only weak evidence of co‐movements between wine prices and selected business cycle indicators.
Purification and Characterization of Thermostable Laccase from Thermophilic Geobacillus thermocatenulatus MS 5 and its applications in removal of Textile Dyes

Laccases are multicopper-containing oxidases (EC 1.10.3.2.) and they are widely found in fungi, higher plants and bacteria. Because of their high pH stability and thermostability, laccases from this strain have a potential for the treatment of textile bleaching effluents. In this research, the thermophilic test strain isolated from the Manikaran thermal springs, in Himachal Pradesh, were subjected to analysis of 16S rRNA sequence. The obtained sequence data were compared with data from the database in the Genbank and as a result it has been identified that this organism is a member of Geobacillus genus (GenBank number KC515152). The laccase from Geobacillus thermocatenulatus MS5 was purified by using precipitate of saturation (NH4)2SO4, DEAE-cellulose and Sephacryl S200 and the molecular mass of the enzyme were determined by SDS-PAGE. It has been depicted that purified laccase enzyme preparations can degrade textile dyes successfully, playing a significant role in the bioremediation of synthetic dyes, thus can be used further for bioremediation of industrial effluents.
The Relationship of Ethnic Identity and Gender Role Attitudes to the Development of Career Choice Goals among Black and Latina Girls.

This study is a preliminary exploration of how individual differences in gender role attitudes and ethnic identity might be related to career decision self-efficacy and the gender traditionality of career choice goals in a sample of 102 9th-grade Black and Latina girls. Extending social-cognitive career theory, the authors examined 2 path models in which career decision self-efficacy mediated the effects of gender role attitudes and ethnic identity on the traditionality of the participants' career choice goals. Models depicting full and partial mediation were considered. The results of the path analyses provided confirmation for an extension of the social-cognitive career theory model, indicating that for this sample, career decision self-efficacy fully mediated the influence of egalitarian gender role attitudes and ethnic identity on gender traditionality in career choice goals. These findings offer support for consideration of the role of gender role attitudes and ethnic identity in career self-exploration and vocational guidance with Black and Latina girls. Limitations, implications for counseling, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Battery-Ultracapacitor based Hybrid Energy System for Standalone power supply and Hybrid Electric Vehicles-Part I : Simulation and Economic Analysis

Electric Vehicles (EVs) require energy storage system that can address its fast changing load requirements such as sudden acceleration or quick regenerative braking by being able to supply or absorb high power as demanded. Lead Acid Batteries, commonly used in cheaper EVs (like electric tempo in Nepal), can properly supply these variable loads and get recharged but this mode of operation drastically reduces the life cycle of the battery. A solution to improve the life cycle of the battery and enhance the system’s overall performance is to provide a secondary energy storage device, such as Ultracapacitor, having relatively high power density, to act as a buffer by supplying or absorbing the fast changes in load. This combination can reduce the power demand in battery and improves its life cycle. This paper proposes an approach to interface the Ultracapacitor with the battery using digital hysteresis current mode controlled bi-directional boost converter. This approach has the advantage of simplicity and lower cost compared to other topologies. The system was modeled in MATLAB® Simulink and was simulated for step changes in load and regenerative braking conditions. The results show that the fast changing load requirements are supplied by the Ultracapacitor and the lead acid battery supplies the slow changing demand and steady state demand. Considering the average life of batteries in vehicular system as 15 months, the storage system is found to be economically feasible if the battery life is extended to 18 months. Index Terms Boost Converter, Electric vehicles, Ultracapacitor.
On the Accuracy Versus Transparency Trade-Off of Data-Mining Models for Fast-Response PMU-Based Catastrophe Predictors

In all areas of engineering, modelers are constantly pushing for more accurate models and their goal is generally achieved with increasingly complex, data-mining-based black-box models. On the other hand, model users which include policy makers and systems operators tend to favor transparent, interpretable models not only for predictive decision-making but also for after-the-fact auditing and forensic purposes. In this paper, we investigate this trade-off between the accuracy and the transparency of data-mining-based models in the context of catastrophe predictors for power grid response-based remedial action schemes, at both the protective and operator levels. Wide area severity indices (WASI) are derived from PMU measurements and fed to the corresponding predictors based on data-mining models such as decision trees (DT), random forests (RF), neural networks (NNET), support vector machines (SVM), and fuzzy rule based models (Fuzzy_DT and Fuzzy_ID3). It is observed that while switching from black-box solutions such as NNET, SVM, and RF to transparent fuzzy rule-based predictors, the accuracy deteriorates sharply while transparency and interpretability are improved. Although transparent automation schemes are historically preferred in power system control and operations, we show that, with existing modeling tools, this philosophy fails to achieve the “3-nines” accuracy figures expected from a modern power grid. The transparency and accuracy trade-offs between the developed catastrophe predictors is demonstrated thoroughly on a data base with more than 60 000 instances from a test (10%) and an actual (90%) system combined.
Matching Places of Interest With Music

In this paper we address a particular kind of cross domain personalization task consisting of selecting simultaneously two items in two different domains and recommending them together because they fit the user preferences and also they fit well together. We show that given some personalized recommendations for places of interests (POIs), the user satisfaction for these POIs can be increased by enriching their presentation with music tracks that match the user’s profile and are also matching the POIs. We present the results of an online experiment where alternative approaches for matching POIs and music, based on tagging and text matching, have been tested with users.
Tense and temporality: How young children express time in Cantonese

This study investigated how a representative sample of 492 Cantonese-speaking children aged 36, 48 and 60 months expressed time during naturalistic conversations with peers. Spontaneous utterances produced by dyads of children in a 30-minute role-play context were collected, transcribed and analyzed. A productive repertoire of 62 nouns, 69 adverbs and 9 aspects was identified and classified into an appropriate typology. An age-related increase in types of temporal noun and adverb and repertoire size was found. It was also discovered that three-year-olds might already possess knowledge of aspect markers even though they might not be able to produce temporal nouns about “season” and “week” before 4 or 5 years of age. Some instances of double aspectual marking and misplacing aspects were found in the expressions. Linguistic, cognitive and conversational influences presumed to shape performance are discussed together with the implications of the findings for early childhood language education.
Increased Circulating T Follicular Helper Cells Are Inhibited by Rituximab in Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is a severe autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. The existence of autoantibody targeting aquaporin-4 (AQP4-Ab) indicates the involvement of humoral immunity in the pathogenesis of this disease. Rituximab (RTX), a monoclonal antibody against CD20, has been used to treat NMOSD by depleting circulating B cells and overall satisfactory outcome has been achieved. Although T follicular helper cells have been proved to regulate B cell activation and antibody production, the role of these cells in NMOSD and the impact of RTX treatment on these cells remain less understood. In this study, we found that frequencies of circulating T follicular helper (cTfh) cells and B cells together with the related cytokines, IL-21 and IL-6, were closely correlated with disease activity of NMOSD. Furthermore, B cell depletion with RTX treatment inhibited the expansion of cTfh cells, and these effects were achieved through eliminating IL-6-producing B cells and blocking the direct contact between cTfh cells and B cells. These findings imply the complicated cross talk between cTfh cells and B cells and may provide a novel therapeutic target for NMOSD.
Efficient Analysis and Design Strategies for Evanescent Mode Ridge Waveguide Filters

In this paper, a research on the compromises arisen in the design of traditional evanescent mode waveguide filters is carried out. As a result, clear design methodologies for optimizing length, losses, power handling and spurious-free out-of-band response are developed. In addition, an efficient and very accurate modal analysis tool for this kind of structures is presented. Several filters have been designed according to the different strategies proposed, and a prototype has been finally manufactured. Measurements and filter dimensions validate the proposed design procedures
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Tsmap3d: Browser Visualization of High Dimensional Time Series Data

—Large volumes of high dimensional time series data are increasingly becoming commonplace, and the ability to project such data into three dimensional space to visually inspect them is an important capability for scientific exploration. Algorithms such as Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) can be used to reduce high dimensional data into a lower dimensional space. The time sensitive nature of such data requires continuous processing in time windows and visualizations to be shown as moving plots. In this paper we present: 1. an MDS-based approach to project high dimensional time series data to 3D with automatic transformation to align successive data segments; 2. an open source commodity visualization of three-dimensional time series in web browser based on Three.js; and 3. An example based on stock market data. The paper discusses various options available when producing the visualizations and how one optimizes the heuristic methods based on experimental results. I. INTRODUCTION TSmap3D is a software toolkit for generating and visualizing high dimensional time series data in 3D space as a sequence of 3D point plots. It consists of a web portal, Web-PlotViz for viewing the points in 3D, a highly efficient parallel implementation of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) [1] for mapping high dimensional data to 3D from large data sets, and a generic workflow with tools to prepare data for processing and visualization. The input to the system is a set of data points taking sequence of values at each time step. The output is a sequence of 3D point plots that can be portrayed by the visualization software as a continuous moving plot with user interactions enabled for the plots. The timestamp associated with a data point is used to segment the data into time windows, which can be calculated by a method such as sliding window approach. This sequence of data segments define the time steps of the time series. A distance metric between each pair of data points in a data segment is chosen, and the points are projected to 3D by the MDS algorithm such that the distances between the items in new 3D space matches the original distances as closely as possible. The MDS projection of points to 3D is ambiguous up to an overall rotation, translation and reflection. When MDS is applied to each segment in a series of consecutive data segments for a time series data set, the resulting 3D points in …