Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Verification of ECMWF products at the Finnish Meteorological Institute

A new verification system became operational in the end of 2008 replacing the previous one with various new features. The technical structure is totally new and enables better options for enhancements and further developments. The new system will allow for direct comparison of direct model output, post-processed model output, and end products based on gird-edited data of the forecasters. Some results are presented here.
Annual Conference Growing with youth – Croître avec les jeunes Laval ( Greater Montreal ) June 12-15 , 2019 Investigation and Analysis of the Rework Leading Indicators in Construction Projects : State-ofthe-Art Review

Abstract: During the design and construction phases, many large-scale construction projects suffer from the issuance of rework orders that ultimately lead to substantial cost overruns and major schedule delays. It is estimated that more than half of the construction industry’s projects encounter significant rework and subsequent cost overruns and schedule delays. Scholars and practitioners worldwide are assessing the impact of these rework and the critical causes behind them, primarily focusing on identifying the entitybased rework indicators, as it is crucial to identify the key project, human, and organizational factors that lead to the rework. This study investigated, identified, and prioritized the human, organization, and projectbased indicators of rework. Numerous research documents were reviewed to identify the leading rework indicators and prioritize them, based on their frequency of occurrence in the literature. Poor design, a vague scope definition, and site location issues are the project-based indicators most frequently found in literature; ineffective coordination and communication are the organization-based rework indicators most often found in literature; and lack of knowledge, skills, and experience are the most critical and frequently referenced indicators for human-based rework. The findings of this study will help practitioners identify the causes of rework at the right time in order to allocate resources properly for mitigating the number and cost of rework.
econstor Make Your Publications Visible . A Service of zbw

Due to the fi nancial crises from 2008 to 2012, unconventional monetary policy caused an environment of record low interest rates around the world. Maintaining the low interest rate policy might be reasonable for the ECB in the short run in order to fi ght the fragmentation of the fi nancial market and the risk of defl ation in the Eurozone. Some authors argue that permanently low interest rates lead to wrong incentives in the fi nancial market for debtors and creditors alike. They fear potential risks for fi scal policy and fi nancial stability in Germany and recommend macroprudential measures beyond the Basel III framework and a beginning exit of the ECB from its unconventional monetary policy. Others warn against overburdening monetary policy. They fi nd rather that effective fi nancial market regulation and proper fi scal rules and institutions are required to secure fi nancial market stability and the sustainability of public debt and that a premature exit from accommodating monetary policies would do more harm than good. They argue that monetary policy alone will not solve Europe’s problems. The differing recommendations are mainly based on differing assessments of the European business cycle. JEL Classifi cation: E52, E58, H63
New insights from Rheo-SANS

Rheo-small angle neutron scattering (rheo-SANS) methods combine microstructural SANS measurements with an applied deformation field in order to measure flow-induced structures in complex fluids. Such methods enable a robust characterization of the microstructure and flow properties of surfactant wormlike micelle (WLM) solutions. The development of new sample environments now enables the flow-induced microstructure to be measured in the three planes of shear: the flow-vorticity (1-3), flow-gradient (1-2) and gradient-vorticity (2-3) planes. Advances in neutron collection and data analysis have improved the temporal resolution of time-dependent responses, significantly reducing the time required to perform such measurements. Theoretical advances in constitutive modeling and the stress-SANS rule now permit the development and testing of structure-property relationships. Such methodologies have allowed flow instabilities, such as shear and vorticity banding, and shear-induced structural transitions to be identified in WLM solutions. Additional sample environments have enabled the study of WLMs under extensional and Poiseuille flows, in addition to flows in microfluidic devices.
Fingerprint Presentation Attack Detection utilizing Time-Series, Color Fingerprint Captures

Fingerprint capture systems can be fooled by widely accessible methods to spoof the system using fake fingers, known as presentation attacks. As biometric recognition systems become more extensively relied upon at international borders and in consumer electronics, presentation attacks are becoming an increasingly serious issue. A robust solution is needed that can handle the increased variability and complexity of spoofing techniques. This paper demonstrates the viability of utilizing a sensor with time-series and color-sensing capabilities to improve the robustness of a traditional fingerprint sensor and introduces a comprehensive fingerprint dataset with over 36,000 image sequences and a state-of-the-art set of spoofing techniques. The specific sensor used in this research captures a traditional gray-scale static capture and a time-series color capture simultaneously. Two different methods for Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) are used to assess the benefit of a color dynamic capture. The first algorithm utilizes Static-Temporal Feature Engineering on the fingerprint capture to generate a classification decision. The second generates its classification decision using features extracted by way of the Inception V3 CNN trained on ImageNet. Classification performance is evaluated using features extracted exclusively from the static capture, exclusively from the dynamic capture, and on a fusion of the two feature sets. With both PAD approaches we find that the fusion of the dynamic and static feature-set is shown to improve performance to a level not individually achievable.
University of Groningen CT-measured skeletal muscle mass used to assess frailty in patients with head and neck cancer

Background Skeletal muscle depletion or sarcopenia is related to multiple adverse clinical outcome. However, frailty questionnaires are currently applied in the daily practice to identify patients who are potentially (un)suitable for treatment but are time consuming and straining for patients and the clinician. Screening for sarcopenia in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) could be a promising fast biomarker for frailty. Our objective was to quantify sarcopenia with pre-treatment low skeletal muscle mass from routinely obtained neck computed tomography scans at level of third cervical vertebra in patients diagnosed with HNC and evaluate its association with frailty. Methods A total of 112 HNC patients with Stages III and IV disease were included from a prospective databiobank. The amount of skeletal muscle mass was retrospectively defined using the skeletal muscle index (SMI). Correlation analysis between SMI and continuous frailty data and the observer agreement were analysed with Pearson’s r correlation coefficients. Sarcopenia was present when SMI felt below previously published non-gender specific thresholds (<43.2 cm/m). Frailty was evaluated by Geriatrics 8 (G8), Groningen Frailty Indicator, Timed Up and Go test, and Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool. A univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed for all patients and men separately to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results The cohort included 82 men (73%) and 30 women (27%), with a total mean age of 63 (±9) years. The observer agreement for cross-sectional measurements was excellent for both intra-observer variability (r = 0.99, P < 0.001) and inter-observer variability (r = 0.98, P < 0.001). SMI correlated best with G8 frailty score (r = 0.38, P < 0.001) and did not differ per gender. Sarcopenia was present in 54 (48%) patients, whereof 25 (46%) men and 29 (54%) women. Prevalence of frailty was between 5% and 54% depending on the used screening tool. The multivariate regression analysis for all patients and men separately isolated the G8 questionnaire as the only independent variable associated with sarcopenia (OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.66–0.89, P < 0.001 and OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.66–0.88, P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions This is the first study that demonstrates that sarcopenia is independently associated with frailty based on the G8 questionnaire in HNC patients. These results suggest that in the future, screening for sarcopenia on routinely obtained neck computed tomography scans may replace time consuming frailty questionnaires and help to select the (un)suitable patients for therapy, which is highly clinically relevant.
Applications of Random Sampling Consensus to Space Object Motion Analysis

This paper explores the Random Sampling Consensus [1], (RANSAC) algorithm as a methodology for data association and illustrates its direct integration with angles-only Initial Orbit Determination (IOD). The resulting Consensus Sets of measurements are analyzed using a connectivity matrix which indicates the membership between measurements and best-fitting IOD states which meet certain quality criteria. Using this metric, it is demonstrated how potential outliers and miss-tags in input data can be identified and discarded from subsequent precision orbit determination processes. Finally, challenging input datasets which include violations of the assumptions of the motion estimation process will be analyzed, demonstrating the utility of this method as an indicator of complex behavior contained within collected data.
Number : WUCSE-2006-48 2006-0101 Design and analysis of an accelerated seed generation stage for BLASTP on the Mercury system

NCBI BLASTP is a popular sequence analysis tool used to study the evolutionary relationship between two protein sequences. Protein databases continue to grow exponentially as entire genomes of organisms are sequenced, making sequence analysis a computationally demanding task. For example, a search of the E. coli. k12 proteome against the GenBank Non-Redundant database takes 36 hours on a standard workstation. In this thesis, we look to address the problem by accelerating protein searching using Field Programmable Gate Arrays. We focus our attention on the BLASTP heuristic, building on work done earlier to accelerate DNA searching on the Mercury platform. We analyze the performance characteristics of the BLASTP algorithm and explore the design space of the seed generation stage in detail. We propose a hardware/software architecture and evaluate the performance of the individual stage, and its effect on the overall BLASTP pipeline running on the Mercury system. The seed generation stage is 13x faster than the software equivalent, and the integrated BLASTP pipeline is predicted to yield a speedup of 50x over NCBI BLASTP. Mercury BLASTP also shows a 2.5x speed Type of Report: Other Department of Computer Science & Engineering Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1045 St. Louis, MO 63130 ph: (314) 935-6160 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY THE HENRY EDWIN SEVER GRADUATE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF AN ACCELERATED SEED GENERATION STAGE FOR BLASTP ON THE MERCURY SYSTEM by Arpith Chacko Jacob Prepared under the direction of Jeremy Buhler and Roger Chamberlain A thesis presented to the Henry Edwin Sever Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE August 2006 Saint Louis, Missouri WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY THE HENRY EDWIN SEVER GRADUATE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
THE IMPORTANCE OF PRICING AS AN INFLUENTIAL MARKETING MIX TOOL : A FACTOR AND PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

When marketers talk about what they do as part of their responsibilities for marketing products, the tasks associated with setting price are often not at the top of the list. Marketers are much more likely to discuss their activities related to promotion, product development, market research and other tasks that are viewed as the more interesting and exciting parts of the job. Even though pricing is noted to be the only marketing mix tool that has direct impact on both sales and profits, it has not gained the needed attention as some of the marketing mix tools. As such, prices are not varied enough for different product items, market segments and purchase occasions. In order to achieve empirically verifiable results, the research was based on a sample size of 60 drawn from three Professional Service Firms in the Greater Accra region of Ghana namely Millward Brown, KPMG, and ACS. This included all the 12 top managers of the companies, 24 marketing experts, 12 operations experts, 6 human resource experts and 6 accounting experts. Quota sampling technique was used to select the experts in the ratio of 4:2:1:1 respectively. The study found that the relative importance of the marketing mix variables occur in the following order: Price, People, Product, Promotion, Place, Physical evidence and Processes. Managers in the sector should prioritize their attention, energies, and resources given to the marketing mix variables in the same order. The practical implication of the results are discussed.
Efficacy of Computer-Assisted Cognitive Training in People with Early Dementia-A Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Objectives: With the advancement of technology, computer-assisted cognitive training specifically targeted to mild dementia has been developed and its positive effect on cognitive and affective status as well as functional performances has also been identified. The aim of our study is to verify the efficacy of computer-assisted cognitive training in people with early dementia in the local community. Research Design and Methods: Sixty participants were recruited and randomly allocated into intervention group (n=30) and waitlist control group (n=30). The participants in intervention group had received a 6-weeks computer-assisted cognitive training program while that in waitlist control group had received usual intervention during the period. Outcome measures of their cognitive function, functional performance, self-esteem and quality of life were administered to both groups by an assessor blinded to subject randomization prior to the training (A0), immediately after (A1) and 6 weeks after the intervention (A2). Results: Sixty patients were screened and included in the study, with thirty participants randomly allocated into intervention and waitlist control group respectively. There was a statistically significant group x time interaction effects in ADAS-cog (F=16.51, p<0.001) and CDAD scores (F=4.37, p=0.015) compared to waitlist control group. Contrast tests revealed that scores of ADAS-cog at Time A0 was significantly different from that at Time A1, while no significant difference was found between Time A1 and Time A2. Scores of CDAD in intervention group did not significantly change over the three time periods compared to the waitlist control group. Discussion and Implications: The findings indicated that computer-assisted cognitive training was effective in improving cognitive function as well as in delaying the functional impairment of people with early dementia. This encouraging result definitely promotes the development of computerassisted cognitive training for people with dementia in the local community.
SATELLITE BASED ESTIMATION OF PM 10 FROM AOT OF LANDSAT 7 ETM + OVER CHENNAI CITY *

In this study we discuss about the calculated AOT, the relationship function between AOT and estimated Particulate matter with diameter less than ten micrometre (PM10) in the atmosphere from the satellite imagery of LANDSAT 7 ETM+ slc-off. The main objective of this study to determine Particulate Matter (PM10) concentration has been exceed that annual mean value of NAAQS value with huge variation. Estimated PM10 concentration were also compared with the Ground PM10 data estimated from different location of Chennai region during 2011-2012. The retrieval result gives the accuracy of correlation coefficient of (R>0.9) over Chennai region. The derived result provide confidence that multispectral algorithm PM10 model can make accurate prediction of PM10 concentration of various locations.
A comparative analysis of rankings of Polish provinces in terms of social cohesion for metric and interval-valued data

The article describes a comparative analysis of rankings of Polish provinces in terms of social cohesion based on metric and interval-valued data between 1st and 3rd quartiles (50% of observations), 1st and 9th deciles (80% of observations) and the minimum and maximum (100% observations). The rankings were obtained using a hybrid approach combining the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) with linear ordering. Interval-valued variables characterise the objects of interests more accurately than metric data. Metric data are of an atomic nature, i.e. an observation of each variable is expressed as a single real number. In contrast, an observation of each intervalvalued variable is expressed as an interval. Interval-valued data were derived by aggregating metric data on social cohesion at the level of districts to the province level. All observations were included in the aggregation and then outliers were omitted.
Crisis Sub-Events on Social Media: A Case Study of Wildfires

Social media has been extensively used for crisis management. Recent work examines possible sub-events as a major crisis unfolds. In this paper, we first propose a framework to identify sub-events from tweets. Then, leveraging 4 California wildfires in 2018-2019 as a case study, we investigate how sub-events cascade based on existing hypotheses drawn from the disaster management literature, and find that most hypotheses are supported by social media, e.g., fire induces smoke, which causes air pollution, which later harms health and eventually affects the healthcare system. In addition, we discuss other unexpected sub-events that emerge from social media.
BELLWETHERS OF COMPOSITION OPERATORS ACTING BETWEEN WEIGHTED BERGMAN SPACES AND WEIGHTED BANACH SPACES OF HOLOMORPHIC FUNCTIONS

Let D denote the open unit disk in the complex plane and H(D) the set of all analytic functions on D. Now, let v : D → (0,∞) be a weight, Av the weighted Bergman space generated by the weight v and H∞ v the weighted Banach space of holomorphic functions f on D such that supz∈D v(z)|f(z)| <∞. An analytic self-map φ of D induces the linear composition operator Cφ : H(D) → H(D), f 7→ f ◦ φ. We investigate under which conditions on the symbol φ and the weight v the operator Cφ : A 2 v → H∞ v is a bellwether for boundedness of composition operators where Cφ being a bellwether means that Cφ acts boundedly if and only if all composition operators act boundedly. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 47B38, 47B33
Limitations of Insomnia Severity Index and Possible Remedies

Objectives: To identify major limitations for scoring of Likert type Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) items and to transfer ordinal data to a metric scale satisfying the requirement of measurement theories and to compare empirically the proposed method with usual summative scoring Methods: Data driven weights assigned to different levels of different items (Stage 1) are followed by choosing weights to different items (Stage 2, before normalization and also after normalization) for meaningful inferences. Properties of the proposed methods discussed. Empirical verification undertaken with hypothetical data. Results: Generated continuous scores satisfied monotonic, equidistant property with higher discriminating power of the test, facilitated assessment of progress /deterioration of a patient. Further weights to items satisfied additional properties like minimizing variance of test score and/or making the test score equicorrelated with the items, and to find test reliability. Proposed methods passed test of normality. Showed strong linear relationship with the summative score and produced same number of independent factors with different factor loadings. Conclusion: Resultant Weighted Insomnia Severity scores (WISC) facilitated undertaking analysis in parametric set up. Strong correlations provide the bridge between the psychometric issues in the ordinal /interval controversy. However, considering the theoretical advantages including meaningfulness of operations, better comparison of subjects and parameters of test and items, WISC may be preferred and used for meaningful scoring of ISI items. Further studies may be undertaken to transform ordinal Likert items to interval or ratio scale exploring examination of unidimensionality of the items comprising a test.
A Systematic Review on Factors Associated with Health-Related Quality of Life among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) is an important data in managing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Therefore, it is essential to determine factors that associated with HRQOL and identify the gaps for future research. A systematic search using PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus was performed to discover factors that could impact HRQOL among COPD patients. Socio-demographic factors like age, gender, educational level, smoking status, income were found associated with HRQOL. Other factors included Body Mass Index (BMI), comorbidities, sleep quality and exercise capability also could influence HRQOL of COPD patients. Other than that, lung function, dyspnea and exacerbation also found closely related with HRQOL. However, future study is needed to explore more factors such as nutritional status. Besides that, the finding only focused on general population and very little information on elderly population.
Basin asymmetry and associated tectonics : A case study of Achankovil river basin

Tectonic activity plays an important role in developing drainage pattern and controlling river behaviour (Holbrook and Schumm, 1999, Sinha Roy, 2001; Valdiya and Narayana, 2007) that can be described both qualitatively and quantitatively (Hare and Gardner 1985, Keller and Pinter 2002). Various geomorphic indices are commonly used as reconnaissance tool in tectonic geomorphology to describe the interplay of tectonics and drainage basin morphologies (Bull and Mc Fadden, 1977; Burbank and Anderson, 2001). Among these geomorphic indices Asymmetry Factor (AF) and Transverse Topographic Symmetry Factor (TTSF) are significant to identify the basin asymmetry which is an important indicator Abstract