Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving PAGER's real-time earthquake casualty and loss estimation toolkit: a challenge

We describe the on-going developments of PAGER’s loss estimation models, and discuss value-added web content that can be generated related to exposure, damage and loss outputs for a variety of PAGER users. These developments include identifying vulnerable building types in any given area, estimating earthquakeinduced damage and loss statistics by building type, and developing visualization aids that help locate areas of concern for improving post-earthquake response efforts. While detailed exposure and damage information is highly useful and desirable, significant improvements are still necessary in order to improve underlying building stock and vulnerability data at a global scale. Existing efforts with the GEM’s GED4GEM and GVC consortia will help achieve some of these objectives. This will benefit PAGER especially in regions where PAGER’s empirical model is less-well constrained; there, the semi-empirical and analytical models will provide robust estimates of damage and losses. Finally, we outline some of the challenges associated with rapid casualty and loss estimation that we experienced while responding to recent large earthquakes worldwide.
Using Sensemaking Theory to Improve Risk Management and Risk Communication: What Can We Learn?

Risks and communication surrounding risks must be interpreted and responded to by employees in a way that honors the organization’s health and safety (H&S) goals. This chapter integrates sensemaking theory and organizational risk management processes. In doing so, information is gleaned about gaps in risk communication messaging and dissemination. This proposed model has the potential to enhance the organizational and communication processes necessary to support the cognitive, motivation, and social coordination components in risk communication messaging that underlie H&S decision making.
Electron driven reactions in sulphur containing biological prototypes

The interaction of ionising radiation with living tissues may direct or indirectly generate several secondary species with relevant genotoxic potential. Due to recent findings that electrons with energies below the ionisation threshold can effectively damage DNA, radiation-induced damage to biological systems has increasingly come under scrutiny. The exact physico-chemical processes that occur in the first stages of electron induced damage remain to be explained. However, it is also known that free electrons have a short lifetime in the physiological medium. Hence, electron transfer processes studies represent an alternative approach through which the role of "bound" electrons as a source of damage to biological tissues can be further explored. The thesis work consists of studying dissociative electron attachment (DEA) and electron transfer to taurine and thiaproline. DEA measurements were executed in Siedlce University with Prof. Janina Kopyra under COST action MP1002 (Nanoscale insights in ion beam cancer therapy). The electron transfer experiments were conducted in a crossed atom(potassium)-molecule beam arrangement. In these studies the anionic fragmentation patterns were obtained. The results of both mechanisms are shown to be significantly different, unveiling that the damaging potential of secondary electrons can be underestimated. In addition, sulphur atoms appear to strongly influence the dissociation process, demonstrating that certain reactions can be controlled by substitution of sulphur at specific molecular sites.
Geographic variation in the repeatability of a personality trait

Animal personalities are interindividual behavioral differences that are consistent across time or contexts. Increasing research is revealing the adaptive significance of personalities, although the mechanisms driving this variation remain largely unknown. A possible source of variation in personality traits is interpopulational differences in the strength of selection acting upon them. The response to selection can be measured indirectly via the behavior’s repeatability, as repeatability generally sets an upper limit to trait heritability. However, no information currently exists on geographic variation in personality repeatability. We therefore quantified repeatability in exploratory behavior, a common personality trait, over multiple trials for 3 populations of rufouscollared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis), focusing on 3 specific measures (exploration speed, diversity of perches visited, and number of hops). We also asked how differences in repeatability of these 3 measures affect other aspects of exploration, such as the temporal consistency of intercorrelations between the measures. Exploration speed was highly repeatable across all populations, whereas diversity was only repeatable in 2 of 3 populations and hopping behavior not at all. These differences in repeatability lead to temporal variation in the correlation matrices of the 3 exploration measures. Finally, only trial number influenced interindividual variability in exploration, whereas population identity, experimental conditions (i.e., conducting the novel environment assay under laboratory or field conditions), and time since capture all had no effect. Our findings highlight the complexity of using measures of behavioral consistency as a definition of personalities and emphasize the value of quantifying interpopulational patterns of trait repeatability. Key words: animal personalities, exploratory behavior, novel environment experiment, repeatability, Zonotrichia capensis. [Behav Ecol]
On the Importance of Market Identification

Excerpt] Identifying markets is regarded as necessary for all companies and for research across many disciplines. In industrial organization (10) economics, the definition of markets is critical for antitrust and regulatory policy; in marketing, it is the basis for pricing, product development, positioning, promotion, and distribution. Market definition is crucial in strategic management, as well. By thinking about what the market is and what it could be, firms often uncover new opportunities for innovation. Successful innovations follow when firms identify new and more profitable segments of existing markets and redefine their own market, which they can serve with new product variants or new services. The nature of the market affects the firm’s identity and the skills or expertise that it needs to amass in order to be competitive (Geroski, 1998).
Middle Managers' Leadership and Students' Learning Behaviour: The Role of Teacher Collective Efficacy as Mediator

This research aims to identify the influence of school middle managers’ leadership towards the teachers’ collective efficacy and students’ learning behaviour. The objectives of this research focus specifically in determining whether teachers’ collective efficacy is the mediator between school middle managers’ transformational and instructional leadership with students’ learning behaviour. 320 teachers are selected randomly from public secondary schools of three states from Northern Part of Peninsular Malaysia. The data for this research were obtained via adapted questionnaires from the instruments by Leithwood and Jantzi (1999); Ross and Gray (2006); Kursunoglu and Tanriogen (2009); Leithwood, Patten and Jantzi (2010). These data were analysed using the AMOS 18. The results from SEM analysis (structural equation modelling) showed that transformational leadership (β=0.23, p<0.01) and instructional leadership (β=0.19, p<0.01) have positive effect towards the teachers’ collective efficacy with variance of 47%. Meanwhile, transformational leadership (β=0.19, p<0.01), instructional leadership (β=0.28, p<0.01) and teachers’ collective efficacy (β=0.30, p<0.01) posed a direct and positive influence towards students’ learning behaviour with a variance of 44%. Results also revealed that teachers’ collective efficacy act as a partial mediator between middle managers’ transformational leadership and students’ learning behaviour. On the other hand, teachers’ collective efficacy act as a full mediator between instructional leadership and students’ learning. In terms of its implications, this research implies that the school management should place emphasis on the transformational and instructional leadership practices in enhancing students’ learning behaviour. While teachers should also strive in building confidence in teaching that is to be shared with students which propels their learning behaviour.
Reconstruction and analysis of erythemal UV radiation time series from Hradec Králové (Czech Republic) over the past 50 years

Abstract. This paper evaluates the variability of erythemal ultraviolet (EUV) radiation from Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic) in the period 1964–2013. The EUV radiation time series was reconstructed using a radiative transfer model and additional empirical relationships, with the final root mean square error of 9.9 %. The reconstructed time series documented the increase in EUV radiation doses in the 1980s and the 1990s (up to 15 % per decade), which was linked to the steep decline in total ozone (10 % per decade). The changes in cloud cover were the major factor affecting the EUV radiation doses especially in the 1960s, 1970s, and at the beginning of the new millennium. The mean annual EUV radiation doses in the decade 2004–2013 declined by 5 %. The factors affecting the EUV radiation doses differed also according to the chosen integration period (daily, monthly, and annually): solar zenith angle was the most important for daily doses, cloud cover, and surface UV albedo for their monthly means, and the annual means of EUV radiation doses were most influenced by total ozone column. The number of days with very high EUV radiation doses increased by 22 % per decade, the increase was statistically significant in all seasons except autumn. The occurrence of the days with very high EUV doses was influenced mostly by low total ozone column (82 % of days), clear-sky or partly cloudy conditions (74 % of days) and by increased surface albedo (19 % of days). The principal component analysis documented that the occurrence of days with very high EUV radiation doses was much affected by the positive phase of North Atlantic Oscillation with an Azores High promontory reaching over central Europe. In the stratosphere, a strong Arctic circumpolar vortex and the meridional inflow of ozone-poor air from the southwest were favorable for the occurrence of days with very high EUV radiation doses. This is the first analysis of the relationship between the high EUV radiation doses and macroscale circulation patterns, and therefore more attention should be given also to other dynamical variables that may affect the solar UV radiation on the Earth surface.
Strictly Proper Scoring Rules

Epistemic scoring rules are the en vogue tool for justifications of the probability norm and further norms of rational belief formation. They are different in kind and application from statistical scoring rules from which they arose. In the first part of the paper I argue that statistical scoring rules, properly understood, are in principle better suited to justify the probability norm than their epistemic brethren. Furthermore, I give a justification of the probability norm applying statistical scoring rules. In the second part of the paper I give a variety of justifications of norms for rational belief formation employing statistical scoring rules. Furthermore, general properties of statistical scoring rules are investigated. Epistemic scoring rules feature as a useful technical tool for constructing statistical scoring rules.
A Novel Differential Evolution based optimization algorithm for Non-Sliceable VLSI Floorplanning

Floorplanning is an important step in physical design of VLSI circuits. It is used to plan the positions of a set of circuit modules on a chip in order to optimize the circuit performance. However, modern floorplanning takes better care of providing extra options to place dedicated modules in the hierarchical designs to align circuit blocks one by one within certain bounding box for helping sequential data transfer (bus or pipeline) signal in the VLSI circuit. In this paper, the placement of circuit blocks with alignment constraints can be handled using B*tree representation with Differential Evolutionary algorithm. In order to reduce the solution space, feasibility conditions of nonslicing floorplan with alignment constraints have been examined. The properties associated with our proposed Differential Evolutionary algorithm provide the way to produce optimal floorplan. Experimental results based on the MCNC benchmark circuits with the alignment constraint shows that our Differential algorithm can produce promising solutions.
Enriching Data-Oriented Parsing by blending morphology and syntax

Esperanto is a constructed language with a rich and regular morphology. It seems likely that taking its morphology into account when parsing syntax will improve accuracy. I will investigate the eects of considering morphological and phrase structure analysis as separate, autonomous steps, versus combining them into a single DOP model. I will assume a hierarchical representation for both syntax and morphology. We describe a formal grammar that enumerates the word forms of Esperanto. Using a DOP model sequences of morphemes and tags can be analysed and assigned a hierarchical structure. The resulting DOP model can either be merged with a syntactic treebank into a combined DOP model, or mapped to the leaves of the parse trees produced by a syntactic model, to obtain tree structures with both phrasal and morphological constituents. The resulting system will be applied to a small corpus of morphology and syntax. Evaluation with a larger syntactic treebank, as well as the induction of morphology tags from dictionaries remains to be done. 1
Swat model for in potential contamination a tributary of the rio São Francisco, Brazil

O uso e ocupacao do solo nas planicies inundaveis na bacia hidrografica do rio Betume vem acarretando graves impactos ambientais entre eles: contaminacao do solo e agua por agrotoxicos provenientes da agricultura e pecuaria. A modelagem ambiental e uma ferramenta util para subsidiar a gestao e o manejo de uma bacia hidrografica, permitindo prever os diferentes impactos das atividades antropicas na agua e no solo. O modelo SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) permite avaliar impactos provocados pela alteracao do uso do solo sobre os processos hidrologicos e a dinâmica de agrotoxicos em uma bacia hidrografica. Este estudo tem como objetivo simular a potencialidade de contaminacao dos agrotoxicos no rio Betume, por meio da rizicultura. Foram gerados dois cenarios para aplicacao de agrotoxico na area da rizicultura: soluvel em agua e dissolvido no sedimento, padronizando a quantidade de agrotoxico aplicado no arroz, conforme indicacoes do fabricante em diferentes periodos. Durante os anos de 2013 a 2014, foram feitas 12 campanhas de monitoramento para avaliar a contaminacao por diferentes agrotoxicos nas aguas superficiais do rio Betume. Foi constatada a presenca dos fungicidas, tebuconazole e tetrabuconazole e do carrapaticida clorpirifos. Desta forma, buscou-se atraves do ArcSWAT gerar cenario, com o agrotoxico soluvel em agua. Com o resultado constatou-se a presenca de concentracao do Tebuconazole soluvel na agua, mais atenuante entre os dados simulados e observados, isto pode ser explicado pela sua maior solubilidade em agua e aplicacao mais frequente, deste principio ativo, pelos produtores, no combate a praga do Brusone.
Histomorphological effects of the oil extract of Sphenocentrum jollyanum seed on benign prostatic hyperplasia induced by exogenous testosterone and estradiol in adult Wistar rats

Objective: Sphenocentrum jollyanum (SJ) seed has many health benefits due to its very potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Despite its widespread use, it has not been validated for use in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). This study was conducted to examine histomorphological effects of SJ seed on BPH that usually causes bladder outlet obstruction. Materials and Methods: There were a total of six groups of animals each comprising 5 adult male rats. Apart from group 1 (normal control), in the remaining five groups, BPH was induced. Group 2 (negative control) was sacrificed immediately after BPH induction; groups 3 and 4 received the extract at 300 and 600 mg/kg respectively by gavages for thirty days; group 5 received finasteride (0.1 mg/kg) for thirty days and group 6 received the extract (600 mg/kg) simultaneously with the steroid administration for thirty days. The animals’ were weighed before the experiment and subsequently every three days until the end of the study. Results: The extract caused marked decrease in prostate weight of rats with BPH with histo-morphology of the tissue showing degenerated stromal and epithelial cells with few epithelial involutions of glandular tissue. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) level as well as testosterone level significantly (p<0.05) decreased in the treated groups compared to negative control. BPH animals treated with extract/finasteride exhibited remarkable increases in anti-oxidant enzymes level with concurrent decreases in peroxidative activity. Conclusion: SJ effectively ameliorated prostatic hyperplasia in BPH animals causing marked degenerative changes in prostate stromal and epithelial cells and also exhibited marked anti-oxidant effect.
Towards Nano Mechanical Sensors

This paper is about the impact of scaling on the system performance of mechanical inertia sensors and first activities towards nano mechanical sensors. Permanent cost pressure will result in continuous efforts to integrate more functions into further miniaturized systems. As a consequence microsystems (MEMS) may also incorporate functional nano devices such as carbon nanotubes in the future. Therefore an overview of recent activities for the application of carbon nanotubes with a focus on mechanical sensors is provided.
Teacher Perceptions of Administrative Support for Democratic Practice: Implications for Leadership and Policy

This paper reports results from a qualitative study that examined perceptions of administrative practiceexpressed by members of a grassroots teacher group committed to the practice of democraticeducation. The group (the Friday Roundtable) was comprised of K-12 public school teachers in ruralAppalachian Ohio who spent considerable time together trying to answer the collective question howcan we be better teachers? A key element of that dialogue involved consideration of increased stateand national pressures that often included educational expectations of their building administrators thatthe teachers perceived as undemocratic. Using case studies of eleven individual teachers situated inboth a Narrative Inquiry and Appreciative Inquiry design, the investigation examines the democraticeducational work of these teachers as they pursue educational equity in their highly-challenged schools.
Disclosure Quality and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Iran

This study explores the relationship between disclosure quality and corporate governance in Tehran stock exchange (TSE). In this study, the mechanisms of corporate governance are consist of internal audit, ownership concentration, CEO duality, board independence, board size, board chairman independence, and chairman tenure. On the other hand, the measure of disclosure quality calculated by the Stock Exchange Organization (SEO) has been used as a proxy for disclosure quality. Using a sample of 83 accepted firms on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) over the period from 2005 to 2010, the results reveal that there is a significant and positive relationship disclosure quality and each of independent variables such as internal audit, ownership concentration, CEO duality, board independence, and chairman independence, but no association between disclosure quality and each of board size and chairman tenure.
Stability in a job market with linearly increasing valuations and quota system

We consider a job market in which preferences of players are represented by linearly increasing valuations. The set of players is divided into two disjoint subsets: a set of workers and a set of firms. The set of workers is further divided into subsets, which represent different categories or classes in everyday life. We consider that firms have vacant posts for all such categories. Each worker wants a job for a category to which he/she belongs. Firms have freedom to hire more than one worker from any category. A worker can work in only one category for at most one firm. We prove the existence of a stable outcome for such a market. The college admission problem by Gale and Shapley is a special case of our model.
Berechnung der Energiebedarfe von Wohngebäuden und Modellierung energiebezogener Kennwerte auf der Basis semantischer 3D-Stadtmodelle

Auf Basis des sogenannten Energieatlasses werden Methoden zur gebaudescharfen und grosraumigen EnEV-konformen Berechnung der Heizwarmebedarfe und Einsparpotentiale durch Sanierung, der Strom- und Warmwasserbedarfe von Wohngebauden entwickelt und implementiert. Grundlage des Energieatlasses sind semantische 3D-Stadtmodelle einschlieslich Geobasis- und statistischer Daten, welche als Integrations- und Simulationsplattform dienen. Die Eingangswerte und Energiebedarfe werden als Erweiterung des CityGML-Standards (EnergyADE) im Energieatlas modelliert.
The relationship between positive patient experience in acute hospitals and person-centred care

Internationally, person-centred care has become a c entral tenet of many health and social care related policies and strategies. However, few studies exist that explicitly examine the linkage between patien ts’ perceptions of a person-centred care climate and pa tients’ experiences of care. This has been hampered by a dearth of instruments with acceptable psychome tric properties. The aim of this study is to examin e the relationship between patients’ perceptions of p erson-centredness and their experiences of care. A cross sectional survey design was used to purposive ly sample (n = 345, 57.5%) patients from across 10 acute hospitals settings in Ireland. The data was c ollected Feb 2013-May 2013. Standardised instruments were used to measure patients’ perceptions of perso n-centredness and their experiences of care. Questionnaire packs were distributed to a sample of patients based on predetermined inclusion criteria . Completed questionnaires were returned in a sealed envelope. The instruments were psychometrically tested prior to full analysis of the results. Ethic al approval was granted by Research Ethics Committees in all participating hospitals. The psychometric prope rties of both instruments were determined as satisfactory. There was a moderate positive and sig nificant relationship between patients’ perceptions of a person-centred climate and patient experiences. P atients who perceived care as being more personcentred also reported a more positive patient exper ience. The emergence of new instruments designed to measure patients’ perceptions of person-centredness and patient experiences have been shown to have acceptable psychometric properties. This study demo nstrates clear linkage between patients’ experience s of care and the key indicators of person-centred ca re.