Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time for AI (Ethics) Maturity Model Is Now

There appears to be a common agreement that ethical concerns are of high importance when it comes to systems equipped with some sort of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Demands for ethical AI are declared from all directions. As a response, in recent years, public bodies, governments, and universities have rushed in to provide a set of principles to be considered when AI based systems are designed and used. We have learned, however, that high-level principles do not turn easily into actionable advice for practitioners. Hence, also companies are publishing their own ethical guidelines to guide their AI development. This paper argues that AI software is still software and needs to be approached from the software development perspective. The software engineering paradigm has introduced maturity model thinking, which provides a roadmap for companies to improve their performance from the selected viewpoints known as the key capabilities. We want to voice out a call for action for the development of a maturity model for AI software. We wish to discuss whether the focus should be on AI ethics or, more broadly, the quality of an AI system, called a maturity model for the development of AI systems.
Personalization and Recommendation Technologies for MaaS

Over the last few years, MaaS has been extensively studied and evolved into offering a multitude of mobility services that continuously increase, from alternative car or bike-sharing modes to autonomous vehicles, that aspire to become a part of this novel ecosystem. MaaS provides end-users with multimodal, integrated, and digital mobility solutions, including a multitude of different choices able to cover users specific needs in a personalized manner. This practically leads to a range of novel MaaS products, that may have complex structures and the challenge of matching them to user preferences and needs so that suitable products can be provided to end-users. Moreover, in the everyday use of MaaS, travelers require support to identify routes to reach their destination that adhere to their personal preferences and are aligned to the MaaS product they have purchased. This paper tackles these two user-centric challenges by exploiting state-of-the-art techniques from the field of Personalization and Recommendation systems and integrating them in MaaS platforms and route planning applications.
From Geometry to Topology: Inverse Theorems for Distributed Persistence

What is the"right"topological invariant of a large point cloud X? Prior research has focused on estimating the full persistence diagram of X, a quantity that is very expensive to compute, unstable to outliers, and far from a sufficient statistic. We therefore propose that the correct invariant is not the persistence diagram of X, but rather the collection of persistence diagrams of many small subsets. This invariant, which we call"distributed persistence,"is perfectly parallelizable, more stable to outliers, and has a rich inverse theory. The map from the space of point clouds (with the quasi-isometry metric) to the space of distributed persistence invariants (with the Hausdorff-Bottleneck distance) is a global quasi-isometry. This is a much stronger property than simply being injective, as it implies that the inverse of a small neighborhood is a small neighborhood, and is to our knowledge the only result of its kind in the TDA literature. Moreover, the quasi-isometry bounds depend on the size of the subsets taken, so that as the size of these subsets goes from small to large, the invariant interpolates between a purely geometric one and a topological one. Lastly, we note that our inverse results do not actually require considering all subsets of a fixed size (an enormous collection), but a relatively small collection satisfying certain covering properties that arise with high probability when randomly sampling subsets. These theoretical results are complemented by two synthetic experiments demonstrating the use of distributed persistence in practice.
Unexpected LIGO events and the mirror world

We consider the possibility that LIGO events GW190521, GW190425 and GW190814 may have emerged from the mirror world binaries. Theories of star evolution predict so called upper and lower mass gaps and masses of these merger components lie in that gaps. In order to explain these challenging events very specific assumptions are required and we argue that such scenarios are order of magnitude more probable in mirror world, where star formation begins earlier and matter density can exceed 5 times the ordinary matter density.
Optimal control for interacting particle systems driven by neural networks

We propose a neural network approach to model general interaction dynamics and an adjoint based stochastic gradient descent algorithm to calibrate its parameters. The parameter calibration problem is considered as optimal control problem that is investigated from a theoretical and numerical point of view. We prove the existence of optimal controls, derive the corresponding first order optimality system and formulate a stochastic gradient descent algorithm to identify parameters for given data sets. To validate the approach we use real data sets from traffic and crowd dynamics to fit the parameters. The results are compared to forces corresponding to well-known interaction models such as the Lighthill-Whitham-Richards model for traffic and the social force model for crowd motion.
Rational Hypergeometric Ramanujan Identities for $1/\pi^c$: Survey and Generalizations

We give a simple unified proof for all existing rational hypergeometric ramanujan identities for 1/π, and give a complete survey (without proof) of several generalizations: rational hypergeometric identities for 1/πc, Taylor expansions, upside-down formulas, and supercongruences.
Swelling and metal ion uptake characteristics of kaolinite containing poly ((acrylic acid)-co-acrylamide) hydrogels

Hydrogels of poly [(acrylic acid)-co-acrylamide], with N,NN-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) crosslinker and different compositional ratios of kaolinite were prepared and investigated. The swelling characteristics of the hydrogels were investigated in distilled water as a function of clay content. The clay-hydrogel composite of 5.3% clay percentage showed a higher swelling property in distilled water relative to clay-free hydrogel. The swelling ratio was found to be affected by the change in contact time, pH, salt solution and temperature. The adsorption properties of the hydrogels towards Mn(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) in aqueous solutions were also studied at different conditions. The rate of adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics. Elution behavior of loaded hydrogel (P3) was also studied in EDTA solution.
Diagnosing a Solar Flaring Core with Bidirectional Quasi-periodic Fast Propagating Magnetoacoustic Waves

Quasi-periodic fast propagating (QFP) waves are often excited by solar flares, and could be trapped in the coronal structure with low Alfvén speed, so they could be used as a tool for diagnosing both the flaring core and magnetic waveguide. As the periodicity of a QFP wave could originate from a periodic source or be dispersively waveguided, it is a key parameter for diagnosing the flaring core and waveguide. In this paper, we study two QFP waves excited by a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-class C1.3 solar flare occurring at active region NOAA 12734 on 2019 March 8. Two QFP waves were guided by two oppositely oriented coronal funnels. The periods of two QFP waves were identical and were roughly equal to the period of the oscillatory signal in the X-ray and 17 GHz radio emission released by the flaring core. It is very likely that the two QFP waves could be periodically excited by the flaring core. Many features of this QFP wave event are consistent with the magnetic tuning fork model. We also investigated the seismological application with QFP waves, and found that the magnetic field inferred with magnetohydrodynamic seismology was consistent with that obtained in the magnetic extrapolation model. Our study suggests that the QFP wave is a good tool for diagnosing both the flaring core and the magnetic waveguide.
Acute Ostial Right Coronary Artery Occlusion During Valve Deployment of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Leading to Acute Right Ventricular Failure: A Perfect Storm and Successful Navigation

Acute coronary obstruction is a relatively rare complication of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Left coronary ostial obstruction is much more common compared to right coronary occlusion due to its relatively lower ostial height from the aortic annulus. We present a case of acute ostial right coronary occlusion immediately upon deployment of a 29-mm Sapien 3 transcatheter aortic valve. The acute right coronary ostial occlusion manifested with ventricular fibrillation, acute right ventricular failure, and right-sided cardiogenic shock. The patient, after undergoing an initial unsuccessful attempt at percutaneous revascularization, was placed on veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO). This was later transitioned to percutaneous right atrial to pulmonary artery right ventricular support, which led to subsequent recovery.
Relationship Between Degeneration or Sagittal Balance With Modic Changes in the Cervical Spine

Objective: This study evaluates the relationship between degenerative and Modic changes (MCs) in the cervical spine and compares the results with the cervical sagittal balance parameters. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 275 patients with neck pain who applied to our outpatient clinic and underwent cervical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cervical anteroposterior (AP)/lateral (Lat) X-ray radiography between January 2016 and January 2018. The clinics, demographic information, and radiological findings of the patients were examined. Modic changes, disc degeneration, and facet degeneration (FD) were examined by cervical MRI, and T1 slope and Cobb angle were measured by cervical AP/Lat X-ray radiography. These results were compared to evaluate their relations with each other. Results: No relationship between the presence or absence of degenerative changes (Modic changes, facet degeneration, and disc degeneration) and sagittal balance parameters (T1 slope and Cobb angle) was found. However, when each cervical segment was examined separately, facet degeneration at the C4-C5 level and Modic changes at the C3-C4, C4-C5, and C6-C7 levels were statistically significant with the Cobb angles, and the Modic changes at the C3-C4 level and disc degeneration at the C2-C3 level were found to be significant with T1 slope values. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that MCs increased with decreased cervical curvature, increasing disc and facet degeneration, although the causal mechanisms are not clear.
Characterization of stable isotope fractionation during methane production in the sediment of a eutrophic lake, Lake Dagow, Germany

We measured δ13C of CO2, CH4, and acetate‐methyl in profundal sediment of eutrophic Lake Dagow by incubation experiments in the presence and absence of methanogenic inhibitors chloroform, bromoethane sulfonate (BES), and methyl fluoride, which have different specificities. Methyl fluoride predominantly inhibits acetoclastic methanogenesis and affects hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis relatively little. Optimization of methyl fluoride concentrations resulted in complete inhibition of acetoclastic methanogenesis. Methane was then exclusively produced by hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and thus allowed determination of the fractionation factors specific for this methanogenic pathway. Acetate, which was then no longer consumed, accumulated and allowed determination of the isotopic signatures of the fermentatively produced acetate. BES and chloroform also inhibited CH4 production and resulted in accumulation of acetate. The fractionation factor for hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis exhibited variability, e.g., it changed with sediment depth. The δ13C of the methyl group of the accumulated acetate was similar to the δ13C of sedimentary organic carbon, while that of the carboxyl group was by about 12% higher. However, the δ13C of the acetate was by about 5% lower in samples with uninhibited compared with inhibited acetoclastic methanogenesis, indicating unusual isotopic fractionation. The isotope data were used for calculation of the relative contribution of hydrogenotrophic vs. acetoclastic methanogenesis to total CH4 production. Contribution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis increased with sediment depth from about 35% to 60%, indicating that organic matter was only partially oxidized in deeper sediment layers.
DNA DAMAGE INDUCED VIA 5,6-DIHYDROTHYMID-5-YL IN SINGLE-STRANDED OLIGONUCLEOTIDES

5,6-Dihydrothymid-5-yl (4) is generated via Norrish type I cleavage of isopropyl ketone 7. Ketone 7 was site specifically incorporated into chemically synthesized polythymidylates and an oligonucleotide containing all four native deoxyribonucleotides. No damage is induced in oligonucleotides containing 7 upon photolysis under anaerobic conditions. In the presence of O2, strand breaks and alkaline labile lesions are formed at the original site of 7, and at nucleotides adjacent to the 5‘-phosphate of 7. Kinetic isotope effect experiments reveal that direct strand scission at the thymidine adjacent to the 5‘-phosphate of 4 arises from C1‘ hydrogen atom abstraction. The observed KIE (∼3.9) is attributed to hydrogen atom abstraction from C1‘ by the peroxyl radical 35 derived from 4. Enzymatic end group analysis and measurement of free base release are consistent with a process involving C1‘ hydrogen atom abstraction. Cleavage experiments carried out in the presence of t-BuOH (1.05 M) and NaN3 (10 mM) indicate .
Pattern of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever related high risk behaviors among Iranian butchers and its relation to perceived self-e�cacy

Background: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is highly fatal to humans and an acute viral disease. The CCHF disease has been reported in occupations such as butchers, slaughterhouse butchers and workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of CCHF related high risk behaviors among butchers and determine the effects of perceived self-e�cacy of the participants on their membership in latent classes. Methods: The participants of this cross-sectional study were recruited from all the meat distribution centers in Ardabil Province in 2019-2020. The LCA approach was used to observe the CCFH related high risk behaviors patterns. Results: The statistical signi�cance level was assigned at P-value (cid:0) 0.05 in all the analyses. Three latent classes were identi�ed; namely, 1) low risk (16.1%), 2) high risk (53.6%), and 3) very high risk (30.2%). After adjusting for other possible confounders higher score of perceived self-e�cacy signi�cantly decrease the odds of membership in high risk class (OR=0.74) and very high risk class (OR=0.62) compared to the low risk class. Also, age (OR=1.07) and experience (OR=0.91) associate with very high risk class. Conclusions: This study revealed the co-occurrence of CCHF related high risk behaviors in the majority of workers in the livestock and meat industry. It is necessary to provide butchers and slaughterhouse workers with general education, force them to use protective equipment and investigate the rate of tick bites in risky occupations.
Spectroscopic Study on the Interaction of Al3+ with Flavonoids and BSA

The interaction of Chinese herbal medicine component flavonoids (morin and rutin) with trivalent aluminium ion and the complex of aluminium ion and Bovine Serum Albumin in Hank′s artificial simulate body fluid was studied using UV-Vis absorption spectra. The result showed that morin and rutin could conjugate with Al3+ in Hank′s artificial simulate body fluid. It was found that morin and rutin could competed with the complex of aluminium ion and Bovine Serum Albumin for aluminium ion. The mechanism of flavonoids and Bovine Serum Albumin compete aluminium ion was discussed, and the constant of rutin complex with aluminium ion was calculated.
A study on compatibility of polymer blends of polystyrene/poly(4-vinylpyridine)

Blends of polystyrene/poly (4-vinylpyridine) have been prepared by casting from a common solvent. The compatibility of the blends was studied by using dilute solution viscometry (DSV), differential scanning calorimetery (DSC), Fourier transformation-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The relative viscosity versus composition plots for the blends are not perfect linear. The corresponding intrinsic viscosity values show negative deviation from ideal behavior when plotted against composition. Also, the modified Krigbaum and Wall interaction parameter, Δb, shows small and negative values for all compositions except for the blend PS/P4VP (25 : 75). The results indicate that the polymers are incompatible but small interaction values predict physically miscible blends which eventually show phase separation, as is observed in the present studies. However, the blends as obtained show a single, composition-dependent, glass transition temperature that fits the Fox equation well, indicating the presence of homogeneous phase. The constant, k obtained from Gordon-Taylor equation suggests intermolecular attraction between these polymers. FT-IR and SEM support the results of DSV and DSC. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011
Impact of the Clinical Trials Act on Noncommercial Clinical Research in Japan: An Interrupted Time-series Analysis

Background: The number of new noncommercial clinical studies conducted in Japan declined within the first year of the implementation of the Clinical Trials Act (CTA) on April 1, 2018. This study aimed to examine the impact of the CTA's enforcement on the number of new noncommercial clinical studies registered in the Japanese Clinical Trial Registry. Methods: An interrupted time-series design was used in the analysis, which was conducted for the period of April 2015 to March 2019. We collected data for trials registered in the Clinical Trial Registry, managed by the University Hospital Medical Information Network. Results: In total, 35,811 studies were registered in the registry; of these, 16,455 fulfilled the eligibility criteria. The difference in the trend of monthly number of new trials after CTA enforcement decreased significantly by 15.0 trials (95% CI, -18.7 to -11.3), and the level decreased by 40.8 (95% CI, -68.2 to -13.3) from the pre-enforcement to the post-enforcement period. Multigroup analyses indicated that the act exerted a significant effect on the trend of new clinical trials, particularly those with smaller sample sizes, interventional study designs, and nonprofit funding sponsors. Conclusions: The number of Japanese noncommercial clinical studies declined significantly following implementation of the CTA. It is necessary to establish a system to promote clinical studies in Japan while ensuring transparency and safety.
How best do we engage the general population in testing for COVID-19?

The UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) emphasises the need for high levels of engagement with communities and individuals to ensure the effectiveness of any COVID-19 testing programme. A novel pilot health surveillance programme to assess the feasibility of weekly mass RT-LAMP testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus using saliva samples collected at home was developed and piloted by the University of Southampton and Southampton City Council. Rapid qualitative evaluation was conducted to explore experiences of those who took part in the programme, of those who declined and of those in the educational and healthcare organisations involved in the pilot testing who were responsible for roll-out. This included 77 interviews and 20 focus groups with 223 staff, students, pupils and household members from four schools, one university, and one community healthcare NHS trust. Conversations revealed that high levels of communication, trust and convenience were necessary to ensure public engagement with the programme. This suggests community leaders and stakeholder organisations should be involved throughout programme development and implementation to optimise these features of the testing. Participants and stakeholders motivations, challenges and concerns need to be understood and these insights used to modify the programme in a continuous, real-time process to ensure and sustain engagement with testing over the extended period necessary.
The relation between short- and long-term deformation in actively deforming plate boundary zones

Satellite-based measuring systems are making it possible to monitor deformation of the Earth's surface at a high spatial resolution over periods of several decades and a significant fraction of the seismic cycle. It is widely assumed that this short-term deformation directly reflects the long-term pattern of crustal deformation, although modified in detail by local elastic effects related to locking on individual faults. This way, short-term deformation is often jointly inverted with long-term estimates of fault slip rates, or even stress, over periods of 10 s to 100 s kyrs. Here, I examine the relation between these two timescales of deformation for subduction, continental shortening and rifting tectonic settings, with examples from the active New Zealand and Central Andean plate boundary zone. I show that the relation is inherently non-unique, and simple models of locking on a deep-seated megathrust or decollement, or mantle flow, provide excellent fits to the short-term observations without requiring any information about the geometry and rate of surface faulting. The short-term deformation, in these settings at least, cannot be used to determine the behaviour of individual faults, but instead places constraints on the forces that drive deformation. Thus, there is a fundamental difference between the stress loading and stress relief parts of the earthquake cycle, with failure determined by dynamical rather than kinematic constraints; the same stress loading can give rise to widely different modes of long-term deformation, depending on the strength and rheology of the deforming zone, and the role of gravitational stresses. The process of slip on networks of active faults may have an intermediate timescale of kyrs to 10 s kyrs, where individual faults fail piecemeal without any characteristic behaviour. Physics-based dynamical models of short-term deformation may be the best way to make full use of the increasing quality of this type of data in the future. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Understanding earthquakes using the geological record’.
Phase unwrapping based on accumulation of residual maps with local denoising

Abstract. Phase unwrapping aims to reconstruct the absolute phase from its values mod 2π, which is a key problem in many non-contact optical metrologies and is still a challenging issue in the presence of noise. We present a robust phase unwrapping method with two steps based on local denoising and the accumulation of residual map (ARM). In the first step, based on the local polynomial approximations and intersection of confidence intervals, we adopt a sine–cosine filtering and iteration algorithm to denoise the wrapped phase, which uses the periodicity of the trigonometric function to avoid the influence of phase jumps effectively. In the second step, the denoised wrapped phase is unwrapped by the improved ARMs method, in which we modify the edge regular term to avoid over-fitting and maintain edge information. The algorithm is tested with a set of numerical simulations under various noise levels, and the experimental results confirm its effectiveness and robustness.