Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated Performance Assessment of Engineering Projects at the Interface of Emergent Properties and Uncertainty

Investigation of the performance of engineering project organizations is critical for understanding and eliminating inefficiencies in today’s dynamic global markets. The existing theoretical frameworks consider project organizations as monolithic systems and attribute the performance of project organizations to the characteristics of the constituents. However, project organizations consist of complex interdependent networks of agents, information, and resources whose interactions give rise to emergent properties that affect the overall performance of project organizations. Yet, our understanding of the emergent properties in project organizations and their impact on project performance is rather limited. This limitation is one of the major barriers towards creation of integrated theories of performance assessment in project organizations. The objective of this paper is to investigate the emergent properties that affect the ability of project organization to cope with uncertainty. Based on the theories of complex systems, we propose and test a novel framework in which the likelihood of performance variations in project organizations could be investigated based on the environment of uncertainty (i.e., static complexity, dynamic complexity, and external source of disruption) as well as the emergent properties (i.e., absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and restorative capacity) of project organizations. The existence and significance of different dimensions of the environment of uncertainty and emergent properties in the proposed framework are tested based on the analysis of the information collected from interviews with senior project managers in the construction industry. The outcomes of this study provide a novel theoretical lens for proactive bottom-up investigation of performance in project organizations at the interface of emergent properties and uncertainty.
Renaissance of a caveat: Allee effects in marine ﬁsh

The population dynamics of marine ﬁsh at low abundance has long been of interest. One century ago, Johan Hjort drew attention to the importance of understanding “the laws which govern the renewal of the animal population”. Integral to the current work on the recovery of collapsed ﬁsh stocks is the association between abundance and per capita population growth rate ( r ), a negative correlation being representative of compensation and a positive correlation indicative of an Allee effect, also termed depensation. Allee effects are predicted to slow the rate, and increase the uncertainty, of recovery. Based on studies having sufﬁcient data at low abundance, the magnitude of depletion experienced by some ﬁsh populations appears to have been sufﬁcient to have generated either an Allee effect or a transition from strong to weak (or absent) compensatory dynamics. To a ﬁrst approximation, empirically based Allee-effect reference points are consistent with suggested thresholds for overﬁshing and stock collapse. When evaluating Allee effects in marine ﬁsh, it is important not to conﬂate causal mechanism(s) with the pattern between r and abundance; the latter is of greater practical import. An additional caveat is that the longer a population remains at low abundance, the more likely it is that the environment around it will change in ways that are unfavourable to recovery. It might be this “temporal tyranny” of small population size that is most likely to produce an emergent Allee effect and depensatory dynamics in some collapsed marine ﬁsh populations.
Ethnopharmacological versus random plant selection methods for the evaluation of the antimycobacterial activity

The municipality of Oriximina, Brazil, has 33 quilombola communities in remote areas, endowed with wide experience in the use of medicinal plants. An ethnobotanical survey was carried out in five of these communities. A free-listing method directed for the survey of species locally indicated against Tuberculosis and lung problems was also applied. Data were analyzed by quantitative techniques: saliency index and major use agreement. Thirty four informants related 254 ethnospecies. Among these, 43 were surveyed for possible antimycobacterial activity. As a result of those informations, ten species obtained from the ethnodirected approach (ETHNO) and eighteen species obtained from the random approach (RANDOM) were assayed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the microdilution method, using resazurin as an indicator of cell viability. The best results for antimycobacterial activity were obtained of some plants selected by the ethnopharmacological approach (50% ETHNO x 16,7% RANDOM). These results can be even more significant if we consider that the therapeutic success obtained among the quilombola practice is complex, being the use of some plants acting as fortifying agents, depurative, vomitory, purgative and bitter remedy, especially to infectious diseases, of great importance to the communities in the curing or recovering of health as a whole.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Very Low Birth Weight Infants

11 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS 13 INTRODUCTION 14 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 15 1. Definition of bronchopulmonary dysplasia 15 2. Epidemiology 16 3. Clinical presentation 17 3.1. Classic BPD 17 3.2. New BPD 17 4. Radiographic findings 18 5. Normal lung development 19 6. Pathological findings in BPD 20 6.1. Airways and alveoli 20 6.2. Pulmonary vasculature 20 7. Factors involved in the pathogenesis of BPD 20
Quantum Rayleigh Annihilation of Entangled Photons

The interpretation of published experimental results intended to prove the existence of a quantum phenomenon of non-locality involving photonic entangled states did not take into consideration the existence of the quantum Rayleigh conversion of photons in dielectric media. This phenomenon leads to the existence of high levels of correlations between two independent photonic and linearly polarized quantum states generated after the entangled photons have been absorbed through the quantum Rayleigh conversion. Both pure and mixed individual states of polarization result in expressions normally associated with entangled photonic states, providing support for the view that the physical reality of quantum non-locality is highly questionable.
Linking at-sea mortality of a pelagic shearwater to breeding colonies of origin using biogeochemical markers

An emerging issue in seabird conservation is the ability to link at-sea mortality with observed demographic changes at breeding colonies. Applications of modelling and biochemical markers can be used to assign mortalities of unknown provenance to a colony of origin ensuring conservation actions are targeted at those colonies identified as the most affected. We analysed feathers (n = 120) from flesh-footed shearwater Puffinus carneipes collected from 5 breeding colonies throughout their range. Using stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) and trace element concentrations (Mn, Ni, Cu, Mo, Ag, Ba, Pb), we assigned birds recovered from fishing vessels off Australia, New Zealand, and the North Pacific to colony of origin, and investigated the rate of correct assignment at 3 spatial scales. Using quadratic discriminant analysis, samples of known origin were correctly assigned to basin, region, and breeding colonies at similar rates (92.3, 81.3, and 88.1%, respectively). Stable isotopes succeeded in assigning individuals among basins (72.8%), performing less well at the region and colony level (52.5 and 36.4%, respectively). In contrast, correct assignment was consistent at all 3 scales using only trace elements (93.2, 95.7, and 96.6%, respectively). Applying our final model based on trace elements to 116 flesh-footed shearwaters taken as bycatch in eastern Australia (n = 30), Western Australia (n = 32), New Zealand (n = 16), eastern North Pacific (n = 27) and western North Pacific (n = 11), we assigned individuals to colonies in New Zealand (35.3%), Western/South Australia (36.2%), Western Australia (27.6%), and Lord Howe Island (0.9%). Bycatch in fisheries may help explain ongoing declines in fleshfooted shearwater populations across the species’ range, highlighting the utility of assignment tools to account for unobservable mortality of wildlife at-sea.
User-Based Visual-Interactive Similarity Definition for Mixed Data Objects - Concept and First Implementation

The definition of similarity between data objects plays a key role in many analytical systems. The process of similarity definition comprises several challenges as three main problems occur: different stakeholders, mixed data, and changing requirements. Firstly, in many applications the developers of the analytical system (data scientists) model the similarity, while the users (domain experts) have distinct (mental) similarity notions. Secondly, the definition of similarity for mixed data types is challenging. Thirdly, many systems use static similarity models that cannot adapt to changing data or user needs. We present a concept for the development of systems that support the visual-interactive similarity definition for mixed data objects emphasizing 15 crucial steps. For each step different design considerations and implementation variants are presented, revealing a large design space. Moreover, we present a first implementation of our concept, enabling domain experts to express mental similarity notions through a visual-interactive system. The provided implementation tackles the different-stakeholders problem, the mixed data problem, and the changing requirements problem. The implementation is not limited to a specific mixed data set. However, we show the applicability of our implementation in a case study where a functional similarity model is trained for countries as objects.
Real Challenge of Mobile Networks Toward 5G - An Expectation for Antennas & Propagation -

The next generation mobile system “5G” are under research, development and standardization for a service start of around year 2020. It is likely to use frequency bands higher than existing bands to have wider bandwidth for high throughput services. This paper reviews technical issues on higher frequency bands applying mobile systems including system trials and use case trials. It identifies expectations for antennas & propagation studies toward 5G era. key words: mobile communication systems, 5G, massive MIMO, eMBB, mMTC, URLLC, WRC-19
Synergetic Hepatoprotective Effects of Korean Red Ginseng and Pueraria Radix on the Liver Damaged-Induced by Carbon Tetrachloride (CCl4) in Mice

This study was designed to investigate the synergetic hepatoprotective effects from a mixture of Korean Red Ginseng and Pueraria Radix on carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 )-induced hepatotoxicity in mice. Liver toxicity was induced by intraperitoneal administration of CCl 4 (0.6 mg/kg) in 12 groups of ICR mice. The negative control group was given CCl 4 without test samples and the normal group was given no treatment. Among treatment groups, the RGAP treatment (Korean Red ginseng acetic acid extract : Pueraria radix water extract, w/w, 38.4:57.6) decreased CCl 4 -elevated ALT (101.60 IU/L), AST (833.89 IU/L), and LDH (365.02 IU/L) levels in the serum, and increased the SOD (11.03 unit/mg protein) and CAT (0.37 unit/mg protein) levels and the LPO levels (59.09 μM/g tissue) more than that in the mice group with CCl 4 -induced control group hepatotoxicity. These results suggest that administration of a mixture of Korean Red ginseng and Pueraria radix decreases CCl 4 -induced liver damage and enhances antioxidant activity in mice and imply that administration of the mixture in a certain ratio is more effective than single administration of either Korean Red ginseng or Pueraria radix alone.
CNN Feature Similarity: Paintings Are More Self-Similar at All Levels

Self-similarity is often an indicator of highly aesthetic paintings; a key aspect is what feature to use for evaluating self-similarity. Previous works use low-level features such as the gradient orientation to show that artworks and natural scenes share a similar degree of self-similarity. In this study, we take advantage of the AlexNet model to evaluate the changes of self-similarity at different convolutional layers in a CNN model. Compared to previous measures, our approach takes into account low, mid, and high level features. Different behaviors with regards to self-similarity at different layers is observed in paintings. The results confirm previous findings that artworks and natural scenes share similar degrees of self-similarity. For paintings and photographs with similar subject matters, while different degrees of self-similarity are observed at the first layer, other layers show closer values. Finally, the proposed measure of self-similarity is able to better differentiate between images which belong to a similar category but different datasets of images.
Performance-intensity functions for normal-hearing adults and children using CASPA

Objectives—The Computer Aided Speech Perception Assessment (CASPA) is a clinical measure of speech recognition that uses ten-item, isophonemic word lists to derive performance-intensity (PI) functions for adult listeners. Because CASPA was developed for adults, the ability to obtain PI functions in children has not been directly evaluated. The current study sought to evaluate PI functions for adults and four age groups of children with normal hearing to compare speech recognition as a function of age using CASPA. Comparisons between age groups for scoring by words and phonemes correct were made to determine the relative benefits of available scoring methods in CASPA. Design—Speech recognition using CASPA was completed with twelve adults and four age groups of children (5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 year-olds), each with twelve participants. Results were scored by the percentage of words, phonemes, consonants and vowels correct. All participants had normal hearing and age-appropriate speech production skills. Results—Adults had higher mean speech recognition scores than children in the 5-6 year-old and 7-8 year-old age groups when responses were scored by the percentage of words correct. However, only differences between the 5-6 year-olds and adults were statistically significant when responses were scored by the percentage of phonemes correct. Speech recognition scores decreased as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for both children and adults. However, the magnitude of degradation at poorer SNRs did not vary between adults and children, suggesting that mean differences could not be explained by interference from noise. Conclusions—Obtaining PI functions in noise using CASPA is feasible with children as young as 5 years-old. Statistically significant differences in speech recognition were observed between adults and the two youngest age groups of children when scored by the percentage of words correct. When results were scored by the percentage of phonemes correct, however, the only significant difference was between the youngest group of children and the adults. These results suggest that phoneme scoring may help to minimize differences between recognition scores between adults and children, since children may be more likely to provide responses that are phonemic approximations when words are outside their lexicon.
Interacting with Objects in the Environment by Gaze and Hand Gestures

A head-mounted wireless gaze tracker in the form of gaze tracking glasses is used here for continuous and mobile monitoring of a subject’s point of regard on the surrounding environment. We combine gaze tracking and hand gesture recognition to allow a subject to interact with objects in the environment by gazing at them, and controlling the object using hand gesture commands. The gaze tracking glasses was made from low-cost hardware consisting of a safety glasses’ frame and wireless eye tracking and scene cameras. An open source gaze estimation algorithm is used for eye tracking and user’s gaze estimation. A visual markers recognition library is used to identify objects in the environment through the scene camera. A hand gesture classiﬁcation algorithm is used to recognize hand-based control commands. When combining all these elements the emerging system permits a subject to move freely in an environment, select the object he wants to interact with using gaze (identiﬁcation) and transmit a command to it by performing a hand gesture (control). The system identiﬁes the target for interaction by using visual markers. This innovative HCI paradigm opens up new forms of interaction with objects in smart environments.
Real-time OCT for study of cornea of living Indian frogs and toads

A high-speed Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system based on single mode fiber which can capture eight images per second was used to acquire OCT images of the eyes of Indian frogs and toads. The axial resolution of the set up was estimated to be 18 m. With these OCT images, the ocular parameters, viz. corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth and anterior chamber angle were estimated. The thickness of the cornea of frog and toad is found to be 136.12 m and 100.66 m respectively. Measurement of corneal thickness is needed in many physiological and clinical studies and is helpful in diagnosis of several corneal disorders.
The climate impact of aerosols on the lightning flash rate: is it detectable from long-term measurements?

Abstract. The effect of aerosols on lightning has been noted in many case studies, but much less is known about the long-term impact, relative importance of dynamics–thermodynamics versus aerosol, and any difference by different types of aerosols. Attempts are made to tackle all these factors, whose distinct roles are discovered by analyzing 11-year datasets of lightning, aerosol loading and composition, and dynamic–thermodynamic data from satellite and model reanalysis. Variations in the lightning rate are analyzed with respect to changes in dynamic–thermodynamic variables and indices such as the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and vertical wind shear. In general, lightning has strong diurnal and seasonal variations, peaking in the afternoon and during the summer. The lightning flash rate is much higher in moist central Africa than in dry northern Africa presumably because of the combined influences of surface heating, CAPE, relative humidity (RH), and aerosol type. In both regions, the lightning flash rate changes with aerosol optical depth (AOD) in a boomerang shape: first increasing with AOD, tailing off around AOD = 0.3, and then behaving differently, i.e., decreasing for dust and flattening for smoke aerosols. The deviation is arguably caused by the tangled influences of different thermodynamics (in particular humidity and CAPE) and aerosol type between the two regions. In northern Africa, the two branches of the opposite trends seem to echo the different dominant influences of the aerosol microphysical effect and the aerosol radiative effect that are more pronounced under low and high aerosol loading conditions, respectively. Under low-AOD conditions, the aerosol microphysical effect more likely invigorates deep convection. This may gradually yield to the suppression effect as AOD increases, leading to more and smaller cloud droplets that are highly susceptible to evaporation under the dry conditions of northern Africa. For smoke aerosols in moist central Africa, the aerosol invigoration effect can be sustained across the entire range of AOD by the high humidity and CAPE. This, plus a potential heating effect of the smoke layer, jointly offsets the suppression of convection due to the radiative cooling at the surface by smoke aerosols. Various analyses were done that tend to support this hypothesis.
The FRIENDS Cognitive Behavioral Program in Japanese schools: An examination of the treatment effects

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for childhood anxiety is effective in schools; however, researchers have reported mixed results and expressed concerns regarding sociocultural differences in treating childhood anxiety. This study examined the efficacy of the FRIENDS program, which is a CBT program used at a universal school level. Students (N = 154; 11- to 12-years-old) participated in either a program or waitlist condition and completed the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale at prior and subsequent to implementation of the program and during follow up. Results revealed a significant interaction between group and gender in the social phobia subscale and a significant main effect of gender in six subscales. The feasibility and limitations of universal CBT in a Japanese school setting are discussed.
The Comparative Study of Achievement of Male and Female Mathematics Students of Higher Secondary Schools and Colleges at Intermediate Level in Punjab.

The main purpose of the study was to compare the achievement of male and female mathematics students of higher secondary schools and colleges at intermediate level in Punjab. The major objectives of the study were: To compare the achievement of male and female students in the subject of mathematics at higher secondary school level, to compare the achievement of male and female students in the subject of mathematics with respect to teachers’ teaching experience, to compare the achievement of male and female students in the subject of mathematics with respect to teachers’ qualifications and to examine gender difference, gender difference in positive attitude of teachers towards students. The population of the study comprised 1336 mathematics teachers and 73455 male and female mathematics students of higher secondary schools and colleges of Punjab province. The study was delimited to two Boards, i.e. Rawalpindi and Sargodha. The researchers used two questionnaires as research instruments. The researchers personally visited the selected institutions and the questionnaires were administered to 440 mathematics students of part-2 at intermediate level, and 60 mathematics teachers from higher secondary schools and colleges. The data were analyzed by using t-test and chi-square-test. The main conclusions of the study were: The performance of girls was better than performance of boys. Students taught by experienced teachers showed better performance. Teachers’ qualification influenced students’ performance. Students taught by highly qualified teachers (M. Phil. /Ph.D.) showed better performance than those taught by less qualified teachers. The female teachers had more positive attitude towards students than male teachers.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) Transplants as Affected by Shade Level: Microenvironment, Growth, Photosynthetic Efficiency, Osmoprotectants, Plant Water Status, and Leaf Mineral Nutrients

In traditional vegetable-producing regions, transplanting is a well-known technique used especially for higher valued vegetables to improve growth performance and productivity. However, young vegetable seedlings transplants in arid and/or semiarid regions are often exposed to environmental stresses of various levels depending on the season, such as drought and heat stresses [1]. In greenhouse system there are many effective growth factors such as temperature, relative humidity, light and solar radiation. Of all the climatic factors affecting vegetable production, temperature is considered as one of the most important factors. Global temperature has increased by 0.3-0.6 °C since the late 19th century and by 0.2-0.3 °C over the last 40 years.