Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Empirical Assessment of Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Target-Year Synthetic Populations

This study contributes by presenting an empirical assessment of the accuracy of the target-year populations synthesized with different base-year populations, data-fusion methods, and control tables. Forty-five synthetic populations were generated for 12 census tracts in Florida for this purpose. The empirical results indicate the value of synthesizing base-year populations more accurately by accommodating multi-level controls. Although fewer controls are typically available for target years, the use of multi-level controls in the target year with appropriate synthesis methods does benefit the accuracy of the synthetic population. This study also establishes that the magnitude of the overall error in the synthesized population appears to be linearly related to the magnitude of the input errors introduced via the control tables. The improvements in accuracy are statistically significant and hold after controlling for differences in population sizes and growth rates for the different census tracts. Overall, efforts to accurately synthesize base-year populations and to good forecasts of target-year controls can help synthesize accurate target-year populations.
Absorption and cutaneous deposition of yellow pigment in male and female broilers in response to different levels of xanthophylls from Tagetes erecta

To determine the saturation point of absorption and cutaneous deposition of yellow xanthophylls (XA) in broilers, two hundred and sixteen Ross 308 chickens (108 males and 108 females) were sorted by sex and randomly assigned to 6 dietary treatments containing 6 replications of 6 birds each. Treatments consisted of increasing levels of xanthophylls from Aztec marigold flower ( Tagetes erecta ) (65, 92, 119, 146, 173, and 200 ppm). Weight gain, feed consumption, and feed conversion were measured weekly. Plasma pigment levels and skin yellowness in live birds were measured twice per week. Growth performance was analysed through ANOVA for a 6X2 factorial arrangement, where the first factor was the XA adding at six levels, and the second factor was sex at two levels. Pigment plasma concentration and skin yellowness were fitted into a multiple linear regression model. Results indicated that the highest levels of plasma xanthophylls and skin yellowness were found after 28 d of feeding. Skin yellowness increased by 2.24 b* for every d of xanthophylls consumption. In the females, skin yellowness was 1.35 b* higher than in the males. Increasing dietary xanthophylls by 10 ppm was reflected in 0.83 b* of increase in skin yellowness.
CONFLICT BETWEEN PERCEPTION, COGNITION AND VALIDATION AS YEAR 12 AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ANALYSE THE PROBABILITY OF AN EVENT

Eighteen Year 12 students and 2 cohorts of final-year BEd students (74 students) were shown a “fair” (equiprobable outcomes) spinner with three noncontiguous colours and asked whether each of the three colours had the same chance of “being spun”. Half of the Year 12 students either gave unequivocal incorrect responses derived from inappropriate considerations of sector size or number of sectors per colour, or vacillated between correct and incorrect responses and were unable to make a decision (equivocal). These findings were echoed with the university students although their incorrect responses tended to be more unequivocal than equivocal. Validation through trialing (with the university students) did not help as the results did not show exactly 1 / 3 for each colour and, in fact, were interpreted as supporting an incorrect response.
Analytical Hierarchy Process in Concept Selection of Wastewater Treatment Plant

In most Engineering designs concept selection is a critical stage of the design process. This study focuses on the concept selection for the design of a proposed wastewater treatment facility for a settlement (Forcados-Yokri) located in Burutu Local Government Area (LGA), Nigeria. Three wastewater treatment concepts (Completely Mixed Activated Sludge (CMAS), Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) and Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB)) were proposed. Also, based on seventeen sub-criteria which were grouped into four major criteria (Environmental Impact, Social Impact, Operability and Economic/schedule), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied for the selection of the best concept. Among the seventeen sub-criteria were ten boundary conditions generated with respect to the study area and the acceptable effluent discharge standards (FEPA, DPR-EGASPIN & WHO). The parameter weight was done with respect to data from literature and project stakeholders (interested parties involved in the selection process). The total relative score with respect to the ten sub-criteria (which also served as boundary condition) for CMAS, SBR and UASB were correspondingly 9.11, 30.40 and 25.63 respectively. This makes SBR the recommended choice of the three proposed wastewater treatment concepts.
[Short paper] When to use OCR post-correction for named entity recognition?

In the last decades, a huge number of documents has been digitised, before undergoing optical character recognition (OCR) to extract their textual content. This step is crucial for indexing the documents and to make the resulting collections accessible. However, the fact that documents are indexed through their OCRed content is posing a number of problems, due to the varying performance of OCR methods over time. Indeed, OCR quality has a considerable impact on the indexing and therefore the accessibility of digital documents. Named entities are among the most adequate information to index documents, in particular in the case of digital libraries, for which log analysis studies have shown that around 80% of user queries include a named entity. Taking full advantage of the computational power of modern natural language processing (NLP) systems, named entity recognition (NER) can be operated over enormous OCR corpora eﬃciently. Despite progress in OCR, resulting text ﬁles still have misrecognised words (or noise for short) which are harming NER performance. In this paper, to handle this challenge, we apply a spelling correction method to noisy versions of a corpus with variable OCR error rates in order to quantitatively estimate the contribution of post-OCR correction to NER. Our main ﬁnding is that we can indeed consistently improve the performance of NER when the OCR quality is reasonable (error rates respectively between 2% and 10% for characters (CER) and between 10% and 25% for words (WER)). The noise correction algorithm we propose is both language-independent and with low complexity.
An improved fuzzy critical chain approach in order to face uncertainty in project scheduling

ABSTRACT This paper proposes an improved critical chain method with fuzzy approach to schedule projects under uncertainty. Utilizing fuzzy numbers can be wise because of the natural uncertainty in estimation of required work to accomplish the project tasks. To minimize the project duration as an objective taking into account resource limitations and other constrains, a resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) model is adopted. The output of this model determines the project schedule. Then, a new buffer sizing approach based on the square root of the sum of the squares (SSQ) method is introduced which is modified by coefficients to overcome the schedule risk more efficiently. As a result, a project buffer is added to the end of the project schedule and is used if necessary. The methodology can be used as a control procedure.
Affective state of ethnic community as related to gender and marital status

The study was aimed at understanding the affective state of Bangladeshi ethnic community in relation to gender and marital status. Towards this end, positive and negative affects of 103 adult indigenous persons were measured. Analysis of data in multiple regressions demonstrated that both gender and marital status are significantly associated with positive affect (Gender: β = 0.318, p < 0.001; Marital status: β = 0.201, p < 0.05) but not with negative affect. Results indicated that the indigenous males have 0.32 standard deviations increased positive affect as compared to the indigenous females and that married individuals have 0.20 standard deviations increased positive affect as compared to their unmarried counterparts. Along with previous studies the present study advances the understanding that gender and marital status inequalities in affect are not specific to a particular community; rather it is a generalized picture of all societies. In general, men possess more positive affect than females; married persons possess more positive affect than the unmarried persons.
Computational Aesthetics in HCI: Towards a Predictive Model of Graphical User Interface Aesthetics

This thesis describes the development and validation of a predictive model of graphical user interface (GUI) aesthetics. The development was informed by the processing-fluency theory of aesthetic pleasure and involved outlining several visual dimensions of GUI designs, which could affect aesthetics impression. Each of the dimensions was grounded in theory and represents a unique visual aspect of GUI design. The resulting model automatically evaluates the design dimensions and combines them in an estimate of the average impression that GUI appearance would make on the user population. The model was validated in a number of user studies proving high validity and reliability. The model outputs an aesthetics score ofuser impression and could inform the creation of more beautiful GUIs by highlighting which of the design dimensions could be improved. The thesis describes the studies that validated the model on several types of GUIs and demonstrated a potential application of the model in future research and practice.
Participation Research and Open Strategy

: In this chapter we focus on participation in open strategy. We examine how the issue of participation has been dealt with in previous strategy literature and elaborate on how research on open strategy can be linked with and advance this body of work. We identify three main views on participation in strategy research: participation as an inherent part of the strategy process, participation as enabled or constrained by practices, and participation as an issue of subjectivity. We then elaborate three distinctively different approaches to participation that might inform our understanding of inclusion in open strategy: open strategy as limited participation, open strategy as co-creation of strategies, and open strategy as ‘deep engagement’ defining the rules of the game. Based on these approaches, we discuss their implications on open strategy research and suggest a research agenda for future studies of participation in open strategy.
Tissue response around Morse Taper and exTernal hexagon iMplanTs: preliMinary resulTs of a randoMized spliT-MouTh design

Introduction: the rehabilitation of edentulous mandible by four interforaminal implants with the distal ones inserted tilted in order to avoid proximity with the mentual foramen as well as improving prosthesis support have been argued as an adequate design for implant supported fixed prosthesis. Objective: the aim of this study was to compare tissue response around immediately loaded mandibular dental implants with two different prosthetic connections. Methods: a total of 48 implants were inserted in the anterior region of the mandible of 12 edentulous patients following a randomized split-mouth design. Morse Taper and External Hexagon Recebido em: 08/12/2012 Aceito em: 29/04/2013 1Graduate student, Latin American Institute of Dental Research and Education (Curitiba, Parana, Brazil) 2Assistant Professor, Latin American Institute of Dental Research and Education (Curitiba, Parana, Brazil) 3Professor, IMPPAR DENTISTRY (Londrina, Parana, Brazil) 4Director, Latin American Institute of Dental Research and Education (Curitiba, Parana, Brazil)
A new development paradigm

In terms of revenue raised, the recent Gulf of Mexico licensing round was the most prolific ever. However, with the delays and complications surrounding some deepwater projects, did the latest bidding round reflect a new development paradigm? Kicking off OE's latest Gulf of Mexico round-up, Infield Systems' Dr Roger Knight and Julian Callanan investigate the competing strategies shaping the region's development.
Wind Energy Resource Prediction and Optimal Storage Sizing to Guarantee Dispatchability: A Case Study in the Kenyan Power Grid

Kenya is experiencing a fast increase in grid-connected intermittent renewable energy sources (RESs) to meet its increased power demand, and at the same time be able to fulfill its Paris Agreement obligations of abating greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, Kenya has 102 MW of grid-tied solar power and 410 MW of grid-tied wind power. However, these sources are very intermittent with low predictability. Thus, after their installation and integration into the grid, they impose a new challenge for the secure, reliable, and economic operation of the system. To mitigate these and to ensure proper planning of the system operations, accurate and faster prediction of the generation output of the wind energy resources and optimal design and sizing of storage for the large-scale wind energy integration into the grid are of paramount importance. Artificial intelligence (AI) and metaheuristic techniques have proven to be efficient and robust in offering solutions to complex nonlinear prediction and optimization problems. Therefore, this study aims to utilize backpropagation neural network (BPNN) algorithm to conduct hourly prediction of the generation output of Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant (LTWPP), a 310 MW plant connected to the Kenyan power grid, and optimally size its battery energy storage system (BESS) using genetic algorithm (GA) to guarantee its dispatchability. The historical weather data, namely wind speed, ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, and generation output from LTWPP, are employed in the training, testing, and validation of the neural network. LTWPP and BESS are modelled in MATLAB R2016a software. Thereafter, the developed BPNN and GA algorithms are applied to the modelled systems to predict the wind output and optimize the storage system, respectively. BESS optimization with neural prediction reduces the BESS capacity and investment costs by 59.82%, while the overall dispatchability of LTWPP is increased from 73.36% to 90.14%, hence enabling the farm to meet its allowable loss of power supply probability (LPSP) index of 0.1 while guaranteeing its dispatchability.
Thermodynamic modeling of the NbeB system

In the present work, the Nb e B binary system was thermodynamically optimized. The stable phases in this system are BCC (niobium), Nb 3 B 2 , NbB, Nb 3 B 4 , Nb 5 B 6 , NbB 2 , B (boron) and liquid L. The borides Nb 3 B 2 , NbB, Nb 3 B 4 and Nb 5 B 6 and the B (boron) were modeled as stoichiometric phases and the liquid L, BCC (niobium) and NbB 2 as solutions, using the sublattices model, with their excess terms described by the Redlich e Kister polynomials. The Gibbs energy coefﬁcients were optimized based on the experimental values of enthalpy of formation, low temperature speciﬁc heat, liquidus temperatures and temperatures of invariant transformations. The calculated Nb e B diagram reproduces well the experimental values from the literature.
AI-driven liquidity provision in OTC financial markets

Providing liquidity in over-the-counter markets is a challenging under-taking, in large part because a market maker does not observe where their competitors quote, nor do they typically know how many rivals they compete with or what the trader's overall liquidity demand is. Optimal pricing strategies can be derived in theory assuming full knowledge of the competitive environment, but these results do not translate into practice where information is incomplete and asymmetric. This paper studies whether artificial intelligence, in the form of multi-armed bandit reinforcement learning algorithms, can be used by liquidity providers to dynamically set spreads using only information that is commonly available to them. We also investigate whether collusive effects can arise when competing liquidity providers all employ such algorithms. Our findings are as follows. In a single-agent setup where only one liquidity provider is optimising pricing in an otherwise static environment, all the algorithms considered are able to locate the theoretically optimal pricing policy, albeit they do so quite inefficiently when compared to a model-based approach. In a multi-agent setting where competing liquidity providers simultaneously and independently use algorithms to optimise pricing, we demonstrate that for one class of algorithms (pseudo) collusion cannot arise, while for another it can arise in certain circumstances and we provide examples where it does. The scenarios where collusive effects appear, however, are fragile, sensitive to the specific configuration and exceedingly unlikely to occur in practice. Moreover, with a modest number of competitors, collusive effects that might otherwise arise in some of the most contrived scenarios are largely or entirely eliminated.
The person of the therapist: therapists’ personal characteristics as predictors of alliance and treatment outcomes

Abstract Objective Studies examining the unique contribution that the therapist has on outcomes (i.e., “therapist effects”) have increased in recent years. Therapist effects are believed to occur via how the therapist’s interpersonal and intrapersonal qualities influence the therapeutic relationship, which in turn influences outcomes. The current study focused on the extent to which professional self-doubt, counseling self-efficacy, and humility are therapist qualities that influence treatment outcomes. Methods: Data were collected from 46 therapists at a multi-site community behavioral health organization. Therapists completed measures of therapist characteristics. Therapists’ responses were matched with de-identified archival client data (N = 1, 817) that contained an outcome and alliance measure administered every session. Multilevel modeling was used to determine the extent to which therapists’ personal characteristics predicted client outcomes. Results: Results of the unconditional model for the alliance measure indicated a lack of growth in alliance scores across treatment. Approximately 5% of the variance in rate of growth for treatment outcome was between therapists. When controlling for the effects of counseling self-efficacy, professional self-doubt was marginally significant. When counseling-self-efficacy was removed from the model, professional self-doubt was no longer marginally significant. Conclusion: The findings highlight the complexity of therapist effects and the need for future research on this topic.
A non-array customizable tactile sensor based on spraying process

Purpose The tactile sensor with array structure normally has the defects of existing nondetection zone, complex and nonstretchable structure. It is difficult to seamlessly attach to the surface of the robot. For this reason, this paper proposes a method to prepare nonarray structure tactile sensor directly on the surface of the robot by spraying process. Design/methodology/approach Based on the principle of gradient potential distribution, the potential fields are constructed in two different directions over the conductive film in time-sharing. The potentials at touching position in the two directions are detected to determine the coordinate of the touching point. The designed tactile sensor based on this principle consists of only three layers. Its bottom layer is designed as a weak conductive film made of graphite coating and used to construct the potential field. It can be sprayed either on PET substrate or directly on robot surface. Findings The radial basis function neural network is used for remodeling the potential distribution, which can effectively solve the problem of nonlinear potential distribution caused by irregular sensor shape, and uneven conductivity at different points of the spraying coating. The simulation and experimental results show that the principle of the proposed tactile sensor used for touching position detection is feasible to be applied to complex surfaces of the robot. Originality/value This paper proposed a nonarray customizable tactile sensor based on the spraying process. The sensor has a simple structure, and only five lead wires are needed to realize the coordinate detection of the touch position.
A broadband absorptive filtering antenna and its application in a 5G multi‐input multi‐output array

To meet the needs of 5G communication and protect power amplifiers from the reflected energy interference, a broadband absorptive filtering antenna (AFA) covering N77 band (3.3–4.2 GHz) is designed, and further applied to a multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) array. The presented AFA element realizes a wide range of reflectionless all‐pass characteristics by establishing an absorptive branch. The independently adjustable operating band and absorptive stopband are obtained by using a filtering structure and a defective ground structure (DGS) structure respectively. When the transfer functions of the radiative channel and the absorptive channel are complementary, the proposed AFA element achieves a reflectionless bandwidth of 2.55–5.05 GHz (65%) and an average gain in the operating band of 8.3 dBi. Unlike traditional antennas that reflect the stop‐band energy, the AFA element dissipates the stop‐band reflected energy, which can effectively reduce the correlation of the MIMO elements, thereby improving the radiation performance of the MIMO antenna. Simulation and measurement results show that the MIMO antenna composed of the proposed AFA elements achieves in‐band average gain of 7.4 dBi, port isolation of more than 24 dB, out‐of‐band suppression more than 20.1 dB, and extremely low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) less than 2 × 10−4 due to the unique out‐of‐band reflectionless filtering characteristics of the AFA element.
An innovative approach for optimising geothermal energy recovery / Tiefe geothermische Energiegewinnung – Innovative Wege zur Optimierung

The overall economics of a geothermal project are basically governed by the formation temperature gradient and the productivity of the reservoir. At the Chair of Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Recovery, a simulator has been developed considering different well geometries and casing strings or liner completions as well as total or partial cementation. In order to optimize heat transfer or to minimize losses, various tubing types like gas‐ or vacuum isolated pipes as well as relined or outside coated pipes can be simulated. The program also allows the simulation of transient states as well as the circulation of various media with various rates in closed systems. This enables the optimisation of energy recovery by simulating various materials and circulation rates over a long term, which is essential for the evaluation of the economical limits and energy efficiency of a geothermal project. The program can also be used for the simulation of oil and gas production since the conservation of energy results in less friction losses and higher flow velocities in gas wells which finally results in better deliquification behaviour.
SIMULATION OF TEMPERATURE AND AIR FLOW IN A SECOND SKIN FA<;ADE

The Second Skin Facades can be an useful tool for increasing the efficient use of natural ventilation in order to decrease the energy consumption for ventilation and cooling purposes and to increase the indoor thermal comfort levels. To analyze this type of facades a simulation is set up. The simulation is carried out with the simulation code Simulink.