Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge in local policy-making: The case of local air quality management in Southampton

This article examines how the English city of Southampton has implemented the EU Air Quality Framework Directive 1996 that requires EU local authorities to periodically review and assess local air quality and develop action plans to reduce certain pollutants to acceptable levels. In particular, the research aimed at examining how the local governance regime and institutional setting in the case study filtered different types of knowledge throughout the policy process and helped or limited policy learning and sustainability. The case study is part of the EU funded project Governance for Sustainability. (G-FORS) which studies the role of different types of knowledge in local environment policies and compares how different governance systems and institutional settings across Europe filter knowledge in local decision-making and impede the achievement of reflectivity and learning, contrasting in particular hierarchy with markets and networks. As we will see, our case study reflected a very hierarchical setting of public policy which has regulated policy processes and outcomes. Air quality management was chosen as an area requiring sophisticated air quality data and modelling to develop local action. In this article, we are particularly interested in the link between the strategy aimed at linking local air quality management (LAQM) to the local transport plan in Southampton. Within that context, we will first summarise the theoretical approach, outlining the concepts of governance and knowledge identified. Secondly, we will expose the key characteristics of the case study, outlining the main forms of knowledge and governance arrangement identified in LAQM. Finally, we will outline the key findings in terms of knowledge, governance and the relationship between the two, in particular its impact on policy sustainability.
A performance evaluation model for the Stockpoint Logistics Integrated Communication Environment (SPLICE).

Abstract : This thesis investigates ways of improving the real-time performance of the Stockpoint Logistics Integrated Communication Environment (SPLICE). Performance evaluation through continuous monitoring activities and performance studies are the principle vehicles discussed. The method for implementing this performance evaluation process is the measurement of predefined performance indexes. Performance indexes for SPLICE are offered that would measure these areas. Existing SPLICE capability to carry out performance evaluation is explored, and recommendations are made to enhance that capability.
Multiple Radar Target Tracking in Environments with High Noise and Clutter

Tracking a time-varying number of targets is a challenging dynamic state estimation problem whose complexity is intensified under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or high clutter conditions. This is important, for example, when tracking multiple, closely spaced targets moving in the same direction such as a convoy of low observable vehicles moving through a forest or multiple targets moving in a crisscross pattern. The SNR in these applications is usually low as the reflected signals from the targets are weak or the noise level is very high. An effective approach for detecting and tracking a single target under low SNR conditions is the track-before-detect filter (TBDF) that uses unthresholded measurements. However, the TBDF has only been used to track a small fixed number of targets at low SNR. This work proposes a new multiple target TBDF approach to track a dynamically varying number of targets under the recursive Bayesian framework. For a given maximum number of targets, the state estimates are obtained by estimating the joint multiple target posterior probability density function under all possible target existence combinations. The estimation of the corresponding target existence combination probabilities and the target existence probabilities are also derived. A feasible sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) based implementation algorithm is proposed. The approximation accuracy of the SMC method with a reduced number of particles is improved by an efficient proposal density function that partitions the multiple target space into a single target space. The proposed multiple target TBDF method is extended to track targets in sea clutter using highly time-varying radar measurements. A generalized likelihood function for closely spaced multiple targets in compound Gaussian sea clutter is derived together with the maximum likelihood estimate of the model parameters using an iterative fixed point algorithm. The TBDF performance is improved by proposing
Forward Reaction Prediction as Reverse Verification: A Novel Approach to Retrosynthesis

Pupils' intuitive knowledge can lead them to verify multiplication by means of division. Based on this analogy, this study introduces the basic reverse verification concept to verify retrosynthesis through forward reaction. In this work, we present a "combined" model approach for retrosynthetic reaction prediction, where the first model is applied to retrosynthesis, and the second model, which is a "verified" model, is applied to the forward reaction prediction to verify the top-n reactants predicted by the retrosynthetic model. Using a "combined" model borrowed from human language translation, sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) + transformer models, we improve the top-1 accuracy of retrosynthetic prediction by 4.3% (37.4% vs 41.7%). The application of the similarity + seq2seq models increases the top-1 accuracy by 4.6% (52.9% vs 57.5%). In this way, we can not only improve the accuracy but also automate the evaluation of the synthetic route.
The Research on the Cognitive Status of Clinical Epidemiology and the Influence Factors of the Teaching Result of the Medical Postgraduates in a College

Backgroud To understand the cognitive status of clinical epidemiology of medical postgraduates, and find out the key factors influencing the clinical epidemiology teaching result through the analysis of factors that influence the teaching result, so as to provide the scientific basis for the establishment of measures to improve the teaching effect.Methods Selecting all the medical postgraduate of 2015 grade in a certain university located in Zhengzhou as investigation object, adopts the unified self-administration questionnaire to survey the cognitive status of clinical epidemiological situation of the postgraduates, and adopt the method of multiple linear regression analysis to analyze the factors that affect the learning effect.Results The medical postgraduates have a limited knowledge reserve of clinical epidemiology and a lack of the importance of this course, elder, female, Seven-year medical students, frequently preview before class, review after class, and often participate in class discussion have a positive effect on the learning effect.Conclusions Clinical epidemiology is a discipline that requires constant learning and practice. It is necessary to set up this course for medical postgraduates. The teaching of clinical epidemiology for postgraduate students should emphasize the importance of the conversion of the way to reflect, targeted teaching depends on the characteristics of each student should be implemented in the process of the course in order to better improve the teaching effectiveness of the course.
Parental and young driver compliance with the conditions of graduated licensing: findings from the New Zealand Drivers Study

The effectiveness of graduated driver licensing (GDL) programmes to reduce crash risk is limited if the main components are not complied with. The aim of this paper was to examine factors associated with compliance with GDL conditions. This study was part of the New Zealand Drivers Study, a prospective cohort study of newly licensed car drivers, interviewed at learner, restricted and full licence stages of GDL. After the new drivers had gained a restricted licence, their parents were interviewed. They reported knowledge of, and support for, the GDL conditions, their enforcement of the learner licence condition, and the limits they intended to place on their adolescentrs restricted licence stage driving. At the full licence interview, young drivers reported on vehicle ownership, driving experience, and compliance with the restricted licence conditions. 23 per cent of restricted licence drivers reported regularly breaching GDL conditions, in terms of driving unsupervised with passengers and at night (10pm-5am). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that adolescents were at increased odds of breaching these conditions if their parent reported low knowledge of conditions, allowed them to breach the learner licence supervisor condition, intended to place few limits on their driving, and if adolescents owned a vehicle as a restricted licensed driver. Parents would benefit from having a better understanding of the importance of their role, and the influence they have on their adolescentrs driving. Supporting GDL conditions is not enough; parents need to enforce compliance, place limits on their adolescentrs driving and limit vehicle ownership.
Emerging Free and Open Source Software Practices

Project infrastructure and software repositories are now widely available at low cost with easy extraction, providing a foundational base to conduct detailed cyber-archeology at a scale not open to researchers before. Emerging Free and Open Source Software Practices provides a collection of empirical research acting as a focal point to the status of these repositories and infrastructures along with the F/OSS project. Emerging Free and Open Source Software Practices presents a framework and state-of-the-art references on F/OSS projects, reporting on past and on-going case studies of projects covering a wide range of F/OSS applications and domains. This book postulates trends in the evolution of software practices and solutions to the challenges ubiquitous nature free and open source software provides.
Intuitive interaction, prior experience and aging: An empirical study

This paper describes an experiment undertaken to investigate intuitive interaction, particularly in older adults. Previous work has shown that intuitive interaction relies on past experience, and has also suggested that older people demonstrate less intuitive uses and slower times when completing set tasks with various devices. Similarly, this experiment showed that past experience with relevant products allowed people to use the interfaces of two different microwaves more quickly, although there were no significant differences between the different microwaves. It also revealed that certain aspects of cognitive decline related to aging, such as central executive function, have more impact on time, correct uses and intuitive uses than chronological age. Implications of these results and further work in this area are discussed.
Taking a Capability Approach to Technology and Its Design : A Philosophical Exploration

What people are realistically able to do and be in their lives, their capabilities, are of central moral importance according to the capability approach (CA) of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Examples are the capabilities to be healthy or to be part of a community. The CA has become an influential normative framework for reflecting on justice, equality, well-being and development. In the past decades it has been successfully applied to areas such as education and health care. Only quite recently have scholars started to use the CA to reflect on technology, for example on the contribution of ICT to development in the Global South (ICT4D). Much of this work is empirical. This dissertation contributes to the theoretical foundations for future empirical and ethical work by providing a philosophical exploration of how the CA can be brought to bear on technology. It discusses the applicability and added value of the CA for the design of technical artifacts (‘capability sensitive design’), for the evaluation of technological development projects, and for the assessment of technology from the perspective of the good life. One main question addressed in this dissertation is which technology theories and design approaches could fruitfully supplement the CA, in order to ‘operationalize’ it in this new area. For this purpose participatory design, value sensitive design, the use plan account of technical artifacts, inclusive/universal design, actor-network theory, appropriate technology, pluralist theories of technology and the system/network view of technology are discussed. Another guiding question is what the exact nature is of (a) human capabilities as discussed in the CA, and (b) technology in the sense of technical artifacts, and how we can then conceptualize the relation between them. It is argued that we need to regularly move back and forth between ‘zooming in’ and ‘zooming out’. The former allows us to see the details of design of technical artifacts, the latter how exactly technical artifacts are embedded in broader socio-technical networks. Both, it is claimed, are crucial for the expansion of human capabilities.
Electronic Literature Seen from a Distance. The Beginnings of a Field

This paper outlines the development of the hypertext fiction community that developed in the United States of America from the late eighties and onwards. This community was separate from the interactive fiction community (and largely thought of its works as different from “games”) and largely revolved around the use of Storyspace, a software tool for creating electronic literature, and later, around Eastgate, a publisher of hypertext fiction and the company that developed Storyspace. While some work was written and published in Hypercard and other systems, the technology of a dominant software authoring tool and of the mechanics of distribution (diskettes sold by mail order) formed the hub of the electronic literature community during this period. There was little or no communication with other communities, such as the IF community or digital art communities. With the advent of the web, new authoring and distribution channels opened up, and this hub gradually lost its dominance. The transition from this relatively centralised and explicit community to the networked communities and scattered individuals of the Web is an interesting one to explore. I will base this research on historical websites and articles published at the time, as well as on interviews.
High-resolution microwave ranging with homodyne transceiver using synthetic bandwidth signals

In this article, we study the short-range homodyne microwave transceiver processing the composite signal constructed from linear frequency-modulated chirps repeated with uniform increment of the carrier frequency. The ability of FMCW sensor to produce the chirp signal with high linearity of the frequency modulation in the whole bandwidth determines its range resolution. For many applications, the single chirp may be replaced with a stepped-frequency sequence of narrowband signals also known as a stepped-frequency pulse train. Analysis of the existing publications on processing of similar signals has demonstrated that although this technique is not targeted for short-range sensors, certain modifications of signal parameters and processing technique provide simple and effective way to implement reliable homodyne sensors capable to operate with the proposed composite wideband signals. The simplified synthetic bandwidth technique is capable to provide stable results in highly cluttered environment and sufficiently robust to the signal corruption and inaccuracies of the pulse train parameters. A validity of the proposed approach is confirmed by the easily reproducible experiment.
Sammen?

Å besøke hellige hus Det siste året har jeg lest en god del forskning på ekskursjoner innenfor religionsundervisning. Noen finner store læringseffekter ved å besøke et hellig hus og møte trosrepresentanter, og det framstår i hovedsak som en verdsatt undervisningsaktivitet som legger til rette for at elever kan utvikle ulike former for kunnskap. Europarådets retningslinjer for religionsundervisning (2014) anbefaler ekskursjoner og besøk av trosrepresentanter, og med større vekt på møter med levd religion i et fornyet KRLE-fag, kan ekskursjoner bli en enda mer aktuell arbeidsform. Samtidig peker de fleste forskerne på fallgruver og utfordringer, og ulike didaktikklærebøker vurderer arbeidsmåten ulikt. Så langt jeg kan se, gir ekskursjoner læringsmuligheter som vanskelig finnes i et klasserom, men lærere må vise klokskap når de legger opp til det – og det er et felt som svært gjerne kan forskes mer på. I dette nummeret av Prismet gir Tove Nicolaisen et bidrag til feltet. «Ekskursjoner utvider læringsrommet når elever erfarer at de forstår levende og materiell religion bedre. Da har de forstått noe av andres perspektiver», skriver Nicolaisen i artikkelen Religionenes kunst i klasserom og hellige rom. Hun har erfart at (K)RLE-ekskursjoner har bidratt stort til læring, men peker også blant annet på at møter med noe som oppleves som svært fremmed kan føre til «avvisning, andregjøring og eksotisering av andres visuelle uttrykk og praksiser». I artikkelen presenterer hun perspektiver og begreper som er nyttige for å bidra til bedre ekskursjoner og møter med religiøs kunst for elever.
Development of a novel Electro Active Polymer (EAP) actuator for driving the wings of flapping micro air vehicle

This paper describes the development and testing of an EAP (electroactive polymer) actuator for driving the wings of an MAV (micro air vehicle). Creating the drive system for a flapping MAV is extremely challenging because of the required combined bending/twisting of the wing during flapping. Silicone-based DEs (dielectric elastomer) were used for the actuator material. In addition, the EAP actuators were operated at resonant frequency which is an important means of producing optimal flight performance with reduced power consumption. The paper presents the optimisation of the structural and operational performance of the EAP actuator. The paper also presents the test results of the actuator driving an actual MAV wing.
Implicit Culture Framework for behavior transfer. Definition, implementation and applications

People belong to different communities: business communities, Web 2.0 communities, religious communities, scientific communities, just to name a few. Everyone can belong to and acquire experience in more than one community. This experience is related to the community activity and comes in the form of best practices, behavior, implicit (tacit) knowledge, ways of using artifacts, etc. All these accumulates and evolves over time and slowly becomes a part of the culture of the community. If community activity is very specific, it can be reflected also in the specificity of the community culture. Newcomers in such community might suffer from what is called “culture shock”, i.e. a feeling of confusion when not able to grasp what is common for old-timers. This occurs because part of the community culture is not explicit, i.e. not readily available, and it is very hard to extract valuable information from it. Such information can be used for increasing economic and social benefits of the community members (e.g., for performing recurring tasks, easier integration of newcomers, better quality of life). Moreover, the awareness of the community culture could help the community to handle the turnover of members and structural changes, while preserving the culture. All these introduce the need for transfer of culture between or within communities. Currently, there is no domain-independent approach for discovering, representing, transferring, and preserving community culture. Moreover, taking into account the amount of information accumulated by communities, computer aided tools for such representation and transfer are of utmost importance. A key property of such tools should be their non-intrusiveness, i.e. they must be as much integrated in the community practices as possible. Research challenges in solving these problems include, but are not limited to: 1) providing a generic approach for dealing with community culture; 2) designing a framework and computer aided supporting tools for transferring culture; 3) implementing the framework, applying and evaluating it in different domains. This thesis addresses the problem of culture transfer. First, we formalize the notion of culture, which includes behavior, knowledge, artifacts, best practices, etc., and provide a classification of problems that involve culture. Second, using this formalism, we propose the Implicit Culture Framework, which is an agent-based framework for transferring behavior among community members or among communities. Then we describe three applications developed using the IC-Service in the domain of recommendation systems: a system for web search, a system for software pattern selection, and a system for web service discovery. Finally, we present the results of the evaluation of the applications with real users and with ad-hoc user models.
Development of a RIMS-based FFDL system at the experimental fast reactor JOYO

A series of experiments has been examined the applicability of RIMS to the trace xenon isotopic analysis needed for the tagging gas FFDL. The measurement of the JOYO cover gas equivalent clarified the existence of non-resonantly produced argon ions which could disturb the trace analysis. We proposed to apply the mass gating and solved the problem, which enabled us to succeed in demonstrating that RIMS satisfies the requirement for the FFDL at the MONJU.
Promoting Transportation Flexibility in Extreme Events Through Multi-Modal Connectivity

Extreme events of all kinds are increasing in number, severity, or impacts. Transportation provides a vital support service for people in such circumstances in the short-term for evacuation and providing supplies where evacuation is not undertaken, yet, transportation services are often disabled in disasters. Nationwide and in New York (NY) and New Jersey (NJ) record-setting weather disasters have occurred and are expected to continue. Disadvantaged populations are particularly vulnerable. Network theories provide insights into vulnerability and directions for adaptation by defining interconnections, such as multi-modality. Multi-modal connectivity provides passenger flexibility and reduces risks in extreme events, and these benefits are evaluated in the NY area. Focusing on public transit, selected passenger multimodal facilities are identified that connect to transit, emphasizing rail-bus connectivity. Publicly available databases are used from Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), NJ rail, and U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT’s) Intermodal Passenger Connectivity Database (IPCD). For New York City (NYC), statistical analyses suggest there may be some differences by poverty levels. For NYC and three northeastern NJ cities connectivity differs for stations that are terminuses and have high rail convergence. This report provides statistical summaries, cases, and a literature review to characterize multi-modal facilities and their use in extreme events. Recommendations and future research directions are provided for the role of passenger multi-modality to enhance transit flexibility.