Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the rapidly-emerging landscape of net zero targets

In the five years since the Paris Agreement, achieving net zero emissions has become a defining frame for climate action. We review over 4000 countries, companies, and subnational governments, which together make up the preponderance of global emissions. We find 769 of these entities have net zero targets, but only 152 meet minimum criteria for robustness, including timing, status, coverage, use of offsets, and governance. Though net zero is now widespread as a concept, its operationalization is still in its infancy. Making net zero targets robust should now be a priority for policymakers in order to deliver Paris-consistent action, as well as securing more ambitious targets. Key policy insights: . Net zero targets now cover two-thirds of the global economy, but robust net zero targets only cover around five percent. Strengthening targets and their implementation is particularly needed in the following areas: target status (including setting targets into law); coveraneuge of activities; limits to and transparency regarding the use of offsets; and publication of plans and of progress reports. Policymakers should aim to strengthen net zero targets by setting standards for robust net zero targets; building the capacity of entities, particularly those in the global South, to meet the technical and resource challenges required to effectively operationalize net zero emission targets. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 28 March 2021 Accepted 28 November 2021
Model of Passenger Flow Assignment for Urban Rail Transit Based on Entry and Exit Time Constraints

The rail transit system in China has established network operations in many major cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing. With the automatic fare collection (AFC) system, a passenger can buy one ticket at the origin station and complete travel between two stations of different rail lines, an improvement in convenience for passengers. However, there may be many paths between the origin station and the destination station, and the path chosen by passengers cannot be determined simply. Thus, the problem of passenger flow assignment on the network arises. The AFC system can record the entry and exit times of passengers exactly, and the train operation plan can be obtained by train timetables. Because of the entry and exit times and the train operations, the range of feasible paths chosen by one passenger may be narrow. A passenger flow assignment model was devised, and an algorithm process was designed that calculates the chosen possibility of every feasible path and then matches the passengers to the most likely paths. Actual passenger data from the Beijing subway were used to verify the model and algorithm.
A three-phase grid-connected PV system

This work deals with the design and laboratory implementation of a static converter for grid connected PV power systems. The converter is made zip of a DC-DC boost structure controlled by a neural network and a three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) with optimised sinusoidal PWM strategy. The DC-DC boost converter allows the PV system to operate at maximum power point. The three-phase VSI provides the necessary voltage and frequency for interconnection to the grid. The optimised switching strategy used guarantees harmonics elimination at the VSI output voltage up to the 17/sup th/ harmonic. The DC-DC and DC-AC structures use IGBT as power switches, and the system control signals are generated by a 80X51 microcontroller-based circuit Experimental results are shown to access the performance of the system PV system and its behaviour at the interconnection point.
Liver Regeneration and Cell Transplantation for End-Stage Liver Disease

Liver transplantation is the only curative option for end-stage liver disease; however, the limitations of liver transplantation require further research into other alternatives. Considering that liver regeneration is prevalent in liver injury settings, regenerative medicine is suggested as a promising therapeutic strategy for end-stage liver disease. Upon the source of regenerating hepatocytes, liver regeneration could be divided into two categories: hepatocyte-driven liver regeneration (typical regeneration) and liver progenitor cell-driven liver regeneration (alternative regeneration). Due to the massive loss of hepatocytes, the alternative regeneration plays a vital role in end-stage liver disease. Advances in knowledge of liver regeneration and tissue engineering have accelerated the progress of regenerative medicine strategies for end-stage liver disease. In this article, we generally reviewed the recent findings and current knowledge of liver regeneration, mainly regarding aspects of the histological basis of regeneration, histogenesis and mechanisms of hepatocytes’ regeneration. In addition, this review provides an update on the regenerative medicine strategies for end-stage liver disease. We conclude that regenerative medicine is a promising therapeutic strategy for end-stage liver disease. However, further studies are still required.
The Recovery Umbrella in the World of Elite Sport: Do Not Forget the Coaching and Performance Staff

In the field of sports science, the recovery umbrella is a trending topic, and even more so in the world of elite sports. This is evidenced by the significant increase in scientific publications during the last 10 years as teams look to find a competitive edge. Recovery is recognized to be an integral component to assist athlete preparation in the restoration of physical and psychological function, and subsequently, performance in elite team sports athletes. However, the importance of recovery in team staff members (sports coaches and performance staff) in elite sports appears to be a forgotten element. Given the unrelenting intense nature of daily tasks and responsibilities of team staff members, the elite sports environment can predispose coaches to increased susceptibility to psycho-socio physiological fatigue burden, and negatively affect health, wellbeing, and performance. Therefore, the aim of this opinion was to (1) develop an educational recovery resource for team staff members, (2) identify organizational task-specific fatigue indicators and barriers to recovery and self-care in team staff members, and (3) present recovery implementation strategies to assist team staff members in meeting their organizational functions. It is essential that we do not forget the coaching and performance staff in the recovery process.
Quality management and performance: a comparison between the UK and Turkey

Purpose: The aim of this article is to detail the correlation between quality management, specifically its tools and critical success factors, and performance in terms of primary operational and secondary organisational performances. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data from the UK and Turkey were analysed using exploratory factor analyses, structural equation modelling and regression analysis. Findings: The results show that quality management has a significant and positive impact on both primary and secondary performances; that Turkish and UK attitudes to quality management are similar; and that quality management is widely practised in manufacturing and service industries but has more statistical emphasis in the manufacturing sector. The main challenge for making quality management practice more effective lies in an appropriate balanced use of the different sorts of the tools and critical success factors. Originality/value: This study takes a novel approach by: (i) exploring the relationship between primary operational and secondary organisational performances, (ii) using service and manufacturing data and (iii) making a cross-country comparison between the UK (a developed economy) and Turkey (a developing economy). Limitations: Detailed contrast provided between only two countries.
Relevance vector-machine-based solar cell model

This paper proposes an advanced machine learning method, relevance vector machines (RVMs), to model photovoltaic (PV) cells with a few measured data, over a range of expected operating conditions. RVMs are established on a Bayesian formulation which results in usage of less number of relevance vectors leading to much more sparse representation than the support vector machine. The RVM model can be used to predict short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage and thereby maximum power point for any unknown temperature and irradiation. Coordinate translation technique is used to plot the nonlinear I–V characteristics of PV cells. The proposed method matches the measured data more accurately than the pure neural network model and the neuro-fuzzy model.
Influence of Solid Body Temperature on the Thermal EHL Behavior in Circular Contacts

In order to investigate the influence of the body temperature of contacting solids on the lubrication performance of machine components, such as gears and roller bearings, a full numerical solution for the thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) problem in circular contacts under steady state has been achieved. The analysis assumed that the body temperature is different from the temperature of the supplied lubricating oil. The effects of the body temperature, the slide-roll ratio, and the velocity parameter have been discussed. Results show that if the entrainment velocity is not very high, the solid body temperature plays a dominant role in the EHL behavior; however, the influence of the body temperature decreases as the entrainment velocity increases.
Hyperspectral Estimation of Winter Wheat Leaf Area Index Based on Continuous Wavelet Transform and Fractional Order Differentiation

Leaf area index (LAI) is highly related to crop growth, and the traditional LAI measurement methods are field destructive and unable to be acquired by large-scale, continuous, and real-time means. In this study, fractional order differential and continuous wavelet transform were used to process the canopy hyperspectral reflectance data of winter wheat, the fractional order differential spectral bands and wavelet energy coefficients with more sensitive to LAI changes were screened by correlation analysis, and the optimal subset regression and support vector machine were used to construct the LAI estimation models for different growth stages. The precision evaluation results showed that the LAI estimation models constructed by using wavelet energy coefficients combined with a support vector machine at the jointing stage, fractional order differential combined with support vector machine at the booting stage, and wavelet energy coefficients combined with optimal subset regression at the flowering and filling stages had the best prediction performance. Among these, both flowering and filling stages could be used as the best growth stages for LAI estimation with modeling and validation R2 of 0.87 and 0.71, 0.84 and 0.77, respectively. This study can provide technical reference for LAI estimation of crops based on remote sensing technology.
The U.S. Census Bureau Mail Return Rate Challenge: Crowdsourcing to Develop a Hard-to-Count Score

In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau posed a challenge under the America COMPETES Act, an act designed to improve the competitiveness of the United States by investing in innovation through research and development. The Census Bureau contracted Kaggle.com to host and manage a world-wide competition to develop the best statistical model to predict 2010 Census mail return rates. The Census Bureau provided competitors with a block-group-level database consisting of housing, demographic, and socio-economic variables derived from the 2010 Census, five-year American Community Survey estimates, and 2010 Census operational data. The Census Bureau then challenged teams to use these data (and other publicly available data) to construct the models. One goal of the challenge was to leverage winning models as inputs to a new model-based hard-to-count (HTC) score, a metric to stratify and target geographic areas according to propensity to self-respond in sample surveys and censuses. All contest winners employed data mining and machine learning techniques to predict mail return rates using the database supplied by the Census Bureau along with data from external sources. This made the models relatively hard to interpret (when compared with the Census Bureau’s original HTC score) and impossible to directly translate to a new HTC score. Nonetheless, the winning models contained insights toward building a new model-based score using variables from the database. This paper describes the original algorithm-based HTC score, insights gained from the Census Return Rate Challenge, and the model underlying a new, block-group-level low response score. ∗Center for Statistical Research and Methodology; Email: chandra.erdman@census.gov †Research and Methodology Directorate; Email: nancy.a. bates@census.gov
Fully interleaved linear arrays with predictable sidelobes based on almost difference sets

The present study proposes an analytical technique based on almost difference sets (ADSs) for the design of interleaved linear arrays with well-behaved and predictable radiation features. Thanks to the mathematical properties of ADSs, such a methodology allows the design of interlaced arrangements with peak sidelobe levels (PSLs) only dependent on the aperture size, the number of elements of each subarray and the behaviour of the autocorrelation function of the ADS at hand. PSL bounds are analytically derived and an extensive numerical validation is provided to assess the reliability, the computational efficiency and the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It is worth noticing that, although without any optimisation, such an analytic techniques still able to improve (on average ≃0.3 dB) the performances of GA-optimised layouts.
Admission Dehydration Status Portends Adverse Short-Term Mortality in Patients with Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

The impact of dehydration at admission of patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) on short-term mortality remains ambiguous due to scarce data. All of the consecutive patients with spontaneous ICH, who were referred to our neurovascular center in 2018/19, were assessed for hydration status on admission. Dehydration was defined by a blood urea-to-creatinine ratio > 80. In a cohort of 249 patients, 76 patients (31%) were dehydrated at the time of admission. The following factors were significantly and independently associated with increased 30-day mortality in multivariate analysis: “signs of cerebral herniation” (p = 0.008), “initial midline shift > 5 mm” (p < 0.001), “ICH score > 3” (p = 0.007), and “admission dehydration status” (p = 0.007). The results of the present study suggest that an admission dehydration status might constitute a significant and independent predictor of short-term mortality in patients with spontaneous ICH.
Investigation of power/ground plane resonance reduction using lumped RC elements

A study of reducing package resonance between power and ground planes with discrete RC components is presented. Package resonance is an inherent problem in electronic packages that use solid power planes because of parallel plate standing waves that may appear. The standing waves produce resonant spikes in the impedance seen by a device that is connected to the power delivery system. The RC components function to disrupt some of these patterns thereby flattening the resonant impedance spikes by providing a "matched load" to the power and round plane impedance while maintaining DC isolation between the planes.
Evaluation of passenger service within the area of Beijing west railway station

Purpose This study aims to analyze passenger service quality in Beijing West Railway Station from the perspective of passengers, to better understand the current service quality and obtain the areas of weakness for improvement. Design/methodology/approach The research investigates the passenger experience of service in Beijing West Railway Station by using a questionnaire survey. The service quality (SERVQUAL) evaluation method is used to analyze the survey data, and it divides the passenger service into 5 attributes with 20 indicators. This research uses the Likert five-level scale method to process data and calculates the SERVQUAL value and weight difference of each attribute to evaluate the passenger service. Therefore, the deficiencies have been pointed out, so the station manager can improve the passenger service accordingly. Findings It is indicated that among the five studied attributes, Beijing West Railway Station has the smallest service quality value in terms of timeliness, which means this part needs the largest improvement. To the five attributes, each lacks in station security check, ticketing efficiency, station identification accuracy, emergency processing of train delays and the restroom environment, respectively. Originality/value The research can provide specific suggestions for the optimization of the passenger service of Beijing West Railway Station, and provide reference information for the formulation of policies.
Improved Efficiency-Bandwidth Product of Modified Uni-Traveling Carrier Photodiode Structures Using an Undoped Photo-Absorption Layer

Effects of undoped photo-absorption layers in modified uni-traveling carrier photodiode structures on quantum efficiency and bandwidth are reported. Modified uni-traveling carrier photodiode structures having different undoped photo-absorption layer thicknesses were fabricated and characterized. Efficiency and bandwidth of photodiodes having an optimized undoped photo-absorption layer were larger than those of photodiodes without such a layer, which agrees well with the theoretical analysis of the dynamic behavior of the photodiodes using drift-diffusion model. The results indicate that both the quantum efficiency and bandwidth of the uni-traveling carrier photodiode structures can be extended by incorporating an optimized thickness of undoped photo-absorption layer.
Backscattering from bioturbated sediments at very high frequency

Recent backscattering measurements made in the Gulf of La Spezia, Italy, using a sonar operating at 140 kHz combined with thorough characterization of seabed interface and volume properties illustrate the importance of seabed volume scattering. Three-dimensional fluctuation statistics of density variability and vertical density gradients, both of which are attributed to the level of bioturbation (e.g., sea shell fragments, burrows, pockets of water) have been quantified using X-Ray computed tomography. Two-dimensional interface roughness spectra have also been determined using a digital stereo photogrammetry system. The combined ground truth has allowed a backscattering model to be fully constrained. Measured backscattering strength versus angle is compared to a model that includes the effects of varying density and sound speed. Data-model comparisons show that scattering from the volume of strongly inhomogeneous sediments can often be a primary contributor to seafloor scattering away from normal incidence.
Optofluidic Devices for Droplet and Cell Manipulation

The field of lab-on-a-chip offers exciting new capabilities for chemical and biological assays, including increased automation, higher throughput, heightened sensitivity of detection, and reduced sample and reagent usage. This area of study has seen remarkable progress in the last decade, with applications ranging from drug development to point-of-care diagnostics. The research presented herein focuses on the development of semiconductor-based optoelectrowetting (OEW) and optoelectronic tweezers (OET) platforms, which can respectively perform operations on droplets and cells/particles. This thesis discusses progress achieved on both OEW and OET platforms. For OEW, a novel optimization model has been developed to accurately predict the interaction of droplets, semiconductor layers, and a programmable DLP-based optical source. Consequently, parallel and arrayed droplet manipulation is now possible over a large operational area (cm × cm). In addition, critical droplet operations such as mixing, splitting, and dispensing have been demonstrated. As a biological application of OEW, this work will discuss the parallel, real-time, isothermal polymerase chain reaction detection of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in droplet arrays. For OET, the effort in long-term culture of adherent mammalian single cells into clonal colonies will be discussed; OET surface functionalization enables large (0.5-mm-diameter) growth patches in which positioned single cells can adhere and proliferate. Lastly, the link between the OEW and OET devices and how both droplet and particle manipulation can be enabled on a unified platform will be presented.
P-MMR and LDN beside MMN as Speech-evoked Neural Markers in Children with Cochlear Implants: A Review

ABSTRACT This review mainly explores less-reported neural markers to speech-evoked contrasts in children with cochlear implants (CI). Databases and electronic journals were searched with keywords of “mismatch responses” AND “positive mismatch response” (p-MMR) AND “late discriminate negativity” (LDN). P-MMR likely is as a measurement of brain immaturity in CI children while the developmental trajectories of LDN remain unexplained in older CI children. In CI children, there is a p-MMR-MMN-LDN sequence to speech stimuli developmentally. Whereas these aforementioned neural responses anticipate developmental changes in CI groups, it is still uncertain about the cutoff age for disappearance of p-MMR and LDN.
Empirical feasibility analysis of thermoelectric energy harvesting in thermally limited compact mobile computers

Thermoelectric (TE) generation technology was experimentally established in previous research by our group as a viable technique for energy scavenging in a large notebook computer with no significant impact to system performance. The computer under investigation was designed to have additional thermal headroom, with Central Processing Unit (CPU) temperature significantly below its maximum limit under maximum workload conditions. Yet the question remained on if and how such scavenging could be done in small, thermally limited systems, which increasingly represent a larger portion of the contemporary microelectronic products. This paper thus empirically demonstrates the feasibility of thermoelectric energy scavenging in a compact mobile system, where CPU temperature readily reaches the maximum limit as the workload activity is increased. A detailed Finite Element model is presented first for what-if studies. The simulation results from the model are then correlated with the experimental thermal characteriza.