Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Green public procurement practices in Norway : the application of environmental criteria and the use of scoring rules in Norwegian road transport tenders

The goal of this thesis is to examine green public procurement (GPP) practices in Norway with a focus on road transport. In recent years, both in Norway and in the European Union there has been an increased focus on using public procurement to support environmental goals. The most suitable award method for this purpose is MEAT – most economically advantageous tender – which not only considers the price and minimum requirements of a bid but also other quality aspect. Such quality aspects can concern the environment. The use of MEAT as an award method usually requires organisations to adopt scoring rules. This thesis both identifies the extent to which public organisations in Norway consider environmental aspects in tenders and whether optimal scoring rules are applied. For this purpose, we use three data sources. First, two datasets comprised of road related tenders in Norway set the base for our analysis to better understand the status quo and past developments of green public procurement in Norway. Secondly, expert interviews help us explain some of the observations made in the data analysis. Lastly, survey results from public transport organisations in Norway inform us about the current scoring rules used for tenders, and allow comparing them with an existing framework on optimal scoring rules for different preferences. Our results show that there has been an increase in the share of tenders including environmental criteria in the past years and that there are regional, organisational and contractual differences. Northern Norway appears to have the lowest share of road transport related tenders with environmental criteria. Furthermore, tenders published at a county or municipal level are more likely to consider the environment than tenders published at a national level. In terms of contract type, it appears that service contracts have a higher share of environmental criteria than product contracts. Finally, we find that organisations or departments with the sole purpose of procuring road vehicles seem to value environmental criteria at a higher level than organisations where transport tenders are only a part of their value chains. When it comes to the use of scoring rules by public transport organisations in Norway, we identify a mismatch between the organisations’ stated preferences regarding tender features and the actual scoring rules that are used. The results of our thesis inform policy makers about current GPP practices in Norway and on which basis they can assess whether the current level is as desired.
Effect of lignocellulose nanofibril and polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate addition on plasticized lignin/polycaprolactone composites

Kraft lignin was plasticized with ε-caprolactone via twin-screw extrusion at 150 °C, and its glass transition temperature was decreased from 155 to 96 °C. The lignin or plasticized lignin (p-lignin)/polycaprolactone (PCL) composites with and without lignocellulose nanofibril (LCNF) or polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (pMDI) were prepared, and their properties were compared. The p-lignin was better dispersed in the PCL than neat lignin, and the p-lignin/PCL composites exhibited a homogenous fractured surface despite the addition of LCNF. An increase in the lignin or p-lignin content decreased the tensile strength and elastic moduli but increased the melt flow index (MFI). With the addition of pMDI and LCNF, the tensile properties and MFI improved and declined, respectively. The strength improvement by pMDI and LCNF was better in the p-lignin/PCL composite than in the lignin/PCL composite.
Modelling the Inorganic Bromine Partitioning in the Tropical Tropopause over the Pacific Ocean

The stratospheric inorganic bromine burden (Br y ) arising from the degradation of brominated very short-lived organic substances (VSL org ), and its partitioning between reactive and reservoir species, is needed for a comprehensive assessment of the ozone depletion potential of brominated trace gases. Here we present modelled inorganic bromine abundances over the Pacific tropical tropopause based on aircraft observations of VSL org of two campaigns of the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX 2013 carried out over eastern Pacific and ATTREX 2014 carried out over the western Pacific) and chemistry-climate simulations (along ATTREX flight tracks) using the specific meteorology prevailing. Using the Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry (CAM-Chem), we model that BrO and Br are the daytime dominant species. Integrated across all ATTREX flights BrO represents ~ 43 % and 48 % of daytime Bry abundance at 17 km over the Western and Eastern Pacific, respectively. The results also show zones where Br/BrO > 1 depending on the solar zenith angle (SZA), ozone concentration and temperature. On the other hand, BrCl and BrONO 2 were found to be the dominant night-time species with ~ 61 % and 56 % of abundance at 17 km over the Western and Eastern Pacific, respectively. The western-to-eastern differences in the partitioning of inorganic bromine are explained by different abundances of ozone (O 3 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and total inorganic chlorine (Cl y ).
Young children's fall prevention based on computer vision recognition

In this paper a computer vision system is proposed to detect risk factors of young children's falls in the home environment and to produce actions to remove the factors. The system recognition tasks, clutter detection and children tracking, are defined in accordance with general suggestions which request a caregiver's continuous supervision to prevent young children's falls from the UK Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT). The current system uses only one commercial camera without any sensor or marker on the subject for practical purposes. This paper focuses on the system design and clutter detection. The algorithms for moving object and clutter detection have been developed, implemented and tested.
Novel Enhanced Particle Filters Approach for Moving Object Detection in Video Surveillance System

Video tracking is very essential task in many applications of computer vision such as surveillance, vehicle navigation, autonomous robot navigation etc. Object detection and tracking are important and challenging tasks. Video surveillance in a dynamic environment, especially for humans and vehicles, is one of the current challenging research topics in computer vision. It is a key technology to fight against terrorism, crime, public safety and for efficient management of traffic. It contains detection of interesting moving objects and tracking of such objects from frame to frame. Its main task is to find and follow a moving object or multiple objects in image sequences. Normally there are three stages of video analysis; object detection, object tracking, and object reorganization. This paper presents The main objective of the proposed work is to detect the moving objects with less complexity and accuracy using frame differencing method. First background subtraction is detected using recursive technique. Then noises are removed by Morphological filter and YCbCr Color space for foreground object. In order to obtain accurate detection, Novel Enhanced Particle Filters (NEPF) approach is used. Finally the experimental results show that this method can reduce complexity and generate accurate image without any noises
Higher incidence of postoperative up-staging in lung micropapillary adenocarcinoma

Objective: We investigated the association of the diagnostic accuracy for the preoperative clinical stage of lung adenocarcinoma with its histologic subtype of micropapillary pattern adenocarcinoma (MPA) or non-micropapillary pattern adenocarcinoma (NMPA). Methods: We evaluated 303 patients with pathologic adenocarcinoma who underwent 18Ffluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scanning, from 2008 to 2013, before undergoing surgical resection. Patients had been evaluated for clinical stage and were classified by the histologic subtype of MPA or NMPA. Results: There was a significant difference in postoperative up-staging between the MPA and NMPA (P < 0.0001) cases. In addition, there was a significant difference in the frequency of postoperative upgrading in the lymph node (N) factor (P < 0.0001), but not in the tumor (T) factor (P = 0.8271). Postoperative up-staging and postoperative N factor up-grading were observed more frequently in the MPA cases. Conclusion: In lung adenocarcinoma, some lymph node metastases were undetectable by preoperative imaging studies and, consequently, postoperative up-staging was observed in some patients. While FDG-PET is useful for preoperative evaluation of the spread of a lesion, it is necessary to conduct treatment while remembering that lymph node metastasis is difficult to detect in some patients, depending on the histological subtype.
White dwarf cooling sequences and cosmochronology

The evolution of white dwarfs is a simple gravothermal process. This means that their luminosity function, i.e. the number of white dwarfs per unit bolometric magnitude and unit volume as a function of bolometric magnitude, is a monotonically increasing function that decreases abruptly as a consequence of the finite age of the Galaxy. The precision and the accuracy of the white dwarf luminosity functions obtained with the recent large surveys together with the improved quality of the theoretical models of evolution of white dwarfs allow to feed the hope that in a near future it will be possible to reconstruct the history of the different Galactic populations.
Remarks on Heron's cubic root iteration formula

The existence as well as the computation of roots appears in number theory, algebra, numerical analysis and other areas. The present study illustrate the contributions of several authors towards the extraction of different order roots of real number. Different methods with several approaches are studied to extract the roots of real number. Some of the methods described earlier are equivalent as observed in the present study. Heron developed a general iteration formula to determine the cube root of a real number N i.e. $\displaystyle\sqrt[3]{N}=a+\frac{bd}{bd+aD}(b-a)$, where $a^3<N<b^3$, $d=N-a^3$ and $D=b^3-N$ . Although the direct proof of the above method is not available in literature, some authors have proved the same with the help of conjectures. In the present investigation, the proof of Heron's method is explained and is generalized for any odd order roots. Thereafter it is observed that Heron's method is a particular case of the generalized method.
Microfibres of conducting polythiophene and biodegradable poly(ester urea) for scaffolds

Hybrid scaffolds constituted of a mixture of conducting and biodegradable polymers are obtained by the electrospinning technique. Specifically, poly(3-thiophene methyl acetate) (P3TMA) and a copolymer derived from L-leucine, which bears ester, urea and amide groups (PEU-co-PEA), have been employed. Both polymers were selected because of their intrinsic properties and their high solubility in organic solvents. The biodegradable polymer renders continuous and homogeneous microfibers under most of the electrospinning conditions tested, appearing to be an ideal carrier for the polythiophene derivative. A spontaneous phase separation has been observed for concentrated solutions of PEU-co-PEA and P3TMA in chloroform–methanol mixtures. An enriched dense phase results on the conducting polymer and can be successfully electrospun, giving rise to scaffolds with up to 90 wt% of P3TMA. Morphological observations have indicated that continuous and regular microfibers are attained despite the high conducting polymer content. P3TMA presents a high doping level and leads to stable electrospun scaffolds by the simple addition of a low percentage of a high molecular weight carrier. The resulting scaffolds are practically amorphous and thermally stable, also presenting a pronounced electrochemical response and being electrochemically active. Thus, the formation of polarons and bipolarons at specific positions, the ability to exchange charge reversibly and the electrical stability of hybrid PEU-co-PEA/P3TMA electrospun scaffolds and P3TMA alone are practically the same.
Visitors’ Motivation for Attending Traditional Cultural Events as the Basis for Market Segmentation: Evidence from Slovakia

In an increasingly competitive festival market, identifying visitors’ motivation has been recognized as a key prerequisite for satisfaction, which is expected to lead to positive referrals and future visitations of an event. The objective of this study is to identify the main factors which motivate visitors to attend traditional cultural events in Slovakia and to examine their viability as the basis for festival market segmentation. Building upon previous research on festival attendees’ motivation, a set of potential drivers of visitors’ behavior has been identified and by the application of exploratory factor analysis further refined into the following six domains of visitors’ motivation: new and different experience, friends and family togetherness, reconnection with culture and tradition, socialization, recover equilibrium and change from everyday life. The application of k-means clustering on the basis of motivational domains indicated four clusters of festival visitors and provided evidence in support of suitability of visitors’ motivation as the basis for festival market segmentation. Findings of the study have been discussed, limitations are noted and directions for future research are highlighted.
Application of time-frequency distributions in diagnostic signal processing problems: a case study

In this paper, the author analyzed an applicability of selected types of time-frequency distributions that belong to Cohen’s class and their reassignments for signals similar to those obtained during machinery diagnostics. At the first step of performed studies a synthetic multicomponent signal that contains both stationary and non-stationary components was analyzed using algorithms based on various time-frequency distributions. This allows for evaluating effectiveness of identification of particular components by applied time-frequency distributions and selecting a group of the most effective algorithms. At the second step, the selected time-frequency distributions were applied for analysis of signals acquired during diagnosis of rolling bearings in order to verify the effectiveness of identification of components responsible for a priori known faults occurred in bearings.
LAYER PEELING THROUGH VOLUME-BASED CLUSTERING IN 3D POINT CLOUD MODELS

Three-dimensional (3D) point cloud model presents limited geometric detail. Many existing research works have to apply Nearest-Neighbor (NN) search technique to implicitly find the closest appropriate point to form regular triangle mesh, in order to acquire more geometric detail (e.g. vectors, area and etc.) to define the model. This paper introduces a volume-based clustering technique to group the associated points in different regions. The region can adaptively be partitioned based on the density of the points. Each region will be consigned a key point to represent all its members. This can easily control the complexity of the model and alleviate the computational process. In our implementation, we further extend this to layer peeling which can reveal more of the inner structure of a model for other research application. We have tested on three models and produce different layers of peeling. Each gives unique and interesting region representation. This piece of work is significance for beginners who would deal with high density of 3D point cloud models.
Concurrent Validity of Functional Reach in Community-Dwelling Elderly Women

The purpose o f this correlational study was to establish concurrent validity o f functional reach, the maximal distance one can reach forward beyond arm's length without taking a step, as a measure of physical decline, by determining the relationship between functional reach and other physical performance measures. Subjects included 46 community-dwelling women over 65 years o f age who performed the functional reach test, the timed Up and Go, and the 10-foot walk. Data analysis employed Pearson correlation coefficients. The association between FR and timed Up and Go and 10-foot walk was r = -. 51 and r = -. 53 respectively. After controlling for age, partial correlation coefficients between FR and timed Up and Go and 10-foot walk were r = -. 46 and -. 48, respectively {p = . 001). In conclusion, FR showed modest concurrent validity with other physical performance measures.
Decapod crustaceans from the Paleocene of Central Texas, USA

Fourteen species of decapods crustaceans are described from a single locality near Mexia, Texas, where Paleocene sediments of the Mexia Clay Member of the Wills Point Formation crop out. The species are represented by Hoploparia sp. , Linuparus wilcoxensis Rathbun, 1935, an unnamed paguroid, Kierionopsis nodosa Davidson, 1966, Pithonoton cardwelli new species, Caloxanthus sp. , Macroacaena johnsoni (Rathbun, 1935), new combination, Raninoides bournei (Rathbun, 1928), R. treldenaesensis (Collins and Jakobsen, 2003), Prehepatus sp. , Tehuacana americana (Rathbun, 1935), new combination, Costacopluma texana new species, Paraverrucoides alabamensis (Rathbun, 1935) and Viapinnixa mexiaensis new species. Morphological details unknown for previously described species are included. New systematic placements are offered based on recent research. Intraspeciﬁ c morphological variation is documented for the goneplacoid crab Tehuacana americana. Costacopluma texana is the second Paleogene species of that genus in southeastern USA, and because of its abundance represents the most completely described species for the genus. This fauna represents one of the most diverse assemblages of Paleocene crustacean decapods.
Optimizing the reservoir operating rule curves by genetic algorithms

Genetic algorithms, founded upon the principle of evolution, are applicable to many optimization problems, especially popular for solving parameter optimization problems. Reservoir operating rule curves are the most common way for guiding and managing the reservoir operation. These rule curves traditionally are derived through intensive simulation techniques. The main aim of this study is to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of two genetic algorithms (GAs), i.e., binary coded and real coded, to derive multipurpose reservoir operating rule curves. The curves are assumed to be piecewise linear functions where the coordinates of their inflection points are the unknowns and we want to optimize system performance. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methods are tested on the operation of the Shih‐Men reservoir in Taiwan. The current M‐5 operating curves of the Shih‐Men reservoir are also evaluated. The results show that the GAs provide an adequate, effective and robust way for searching the rule curves. Both sets of operating rule curves obtained from GAs have better performance, in terms of water release deficit and hydropower, than the current M‐5 operating rule curves, while the real‐coded GA is more efficient than the binary‐coded GA. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effective Scheme for Global Abnormal Event Detection for Surveillance Video

An effective algorithm for global abnormal detection from surveillance video is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is based on sparse representation. To deal with the illumination change in video scenes, specific feature extract methods are designed for corresponding illumination conditions. In the case of non-uniform illumination, features are extracted directly on the original image; in the case of uniform illumination, features are extracted on the binary image obtained by threshold segmentation on the difference image, where the thresholds are computed by the Otsu’s method. The features extracted on normal video are used to learn an over-complete dictionary. Then, the sparse reconstruction cost over the dictionary is used to detect abnormal events. Experiments on the open global abnormal dataset and the comparison to the state-of-the-art methods validate effectiveness and quickness of our algorithm. Keywords-abnormal detection; illumination change; binary images; sparse reconstruction cost
Framing Goals to Increase Or Decrease Personal Savings: the Effect of Specific Goals and Construal Level

We show that anticipated success, commitment to saving, and the actual amount saved, can be increased or decreased simply by changing the way consumers think about saving goals. Consumers can (a) specify or not specify an exact amount to save (goal specificity), and (b) focus on either how to save, or why to save (construal level). Specific (vs. non-specific) goals help consumers save more under high-level construal but this effect reverses under low-level construal. Mediation analyses reveal that specific (vs. non-specific) goals are perceived to be more important under high-level construal, and more difficult under low-level construal.
Effect of Preliminary Unit Root Tests on Predictors for an Unknown Mean Gaussian AR(1) Process

It is known from Diebold and Kilian [1] and Niwitpong [2] that a preliminary Dickey-Fuller unit root test [3] is useful for a one-step-ahead forecast of the trend of an AR(1) process and an unknown mean Gaussian AR(1) process respectively. In this paper, the more powerful preliminary unit root tests, based on the weighted symmetric estimator described by Fuller [4], Pantula et al. [6] and Shin and So [5], are compared with Dickey-Fuller unit root test. Monte Carlo simulation results are given to compare the relative efficiencies of predictors using the scaled prediction mean squares error for an unknown mean AR(1) process after preliminary unit root tests.
Religious Indoctrination or Marginalization Theory? Muslim-Christian Public Discourses and Perceptions on Religious Violence in Kenya

The numerous killings of non-Muslims by Muslim jihadi groups in Kenya, have fuelled ethno-religious tensions manifested in hatred and anger against the entire Muslim community. Though anti-jihadi Muslims have rightly condemned the targeting of their non-Muslim countrymen by the jihadists, the Christian leaders have not been satisfied by their counterpart’s internal self-criticism. There are suspicions from Christians, even when anti-jihadi Muslims disassociate themselves from the heinous criminal acts of the jihadists, that all Muslims are the same, and posing a threat to peace in the country. In this context, there has arisen two theories of why we do have jihadist Islam in Kenya, and, for that matter, in other parts of the world. The one argument is that it is due to the social and economic marginalisation and exclusion of Muslims from the dominant and governing hegemony of the mainly Christian-affiliated parties in the country. This causes discontent and dissatisfaction among Muslims, especially among the poor and underprivileged, with the result of their radicalisation, attraction and exposure to, the jihadi groups. The other argument, and this coming from the Christian side, is that Muslims are not the only ones economically marginalized in the country. For them, one of the main factors for the radicalisation of some Muslims and their joining of jihadi groups, is the indoctrination by charismatic Muslim leaders (imams). Foregrounding the potency of both these accounts for explaining why some Muslims join the jihadi movement, as well as why we have jihadi violence (especially against Christians in Muslim-Christian Public Discourses and Perceptions on Religious Violence 155 Kenya), this article addresses these two theories and attempts to point to a way forward. It shall also address the issue of public rhetoric emanating from Christian religious leaders, against Muslims.