Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Cost-Effective Method for Reconstructing City-Building 3D Models from Sparse Lidar Point Clouds

The recent popularization of airborne lidar scanners has provided a steady source of point cloud datasets containing the altitudes of bare earth surface and vegetation features as well as man-made structures. In contrast to terrestrial lidar, which produces dense point clouds of small areas, airborne laser sensors usually deliver sparse datasets that cover large municipalities. The latter are very useful in constructing digital representations of cities; however, reconstructing 3D building shapes from a sparse point cloud is a time-consuming process because automatic shape reconstruction methods work best with dense point clouds and usually cannot be applied for this purpose. Moreover, existing methods dedicated to reconstructing simplified 3D buildings from sparse point clouds are optimized for detecting simple building shapes, and they exhibit problems when dealing with more complex structures such as towers, spires, and large ornamental features, which are commonly found e.g., in buildings from the renaissance era. In the above context, this paper proposes a novel method of reconstructing 3D building shapes from sparse point clouds. The proposed algorithm has been optimized to work with incomplete point cloud data in order to provide a cost-effective way of generating representative 3D city models. The algorithm has been tested on lidar point clouds representing buildings in the city of Gdansk, Poland.
Equivalent linkage representation of a railway wheelset for dynamic simulation with kinematic non-linearities

In this work, a four-link serial-chain mechanism which is an equivalent representation of railway wheelset is proposed. Through this representation, it has been shown that the concepts like instantaneous roll centre, dynamically varying link lengths, and shape constraints can be used to account for wheel–rail contact into the existing multibody formulation. An outline of the framework is described for dynamic analysis of a suspended wheelset model. It is possible to conveniently include kinematic non-linearities into the equations of motion. Usually, these terms are overlooked while using elastic approach for wheel–rail contact. Essentially, benefits of two conventionally followed approaches, namely, elastic, and constrained contact, are exploited in this work. Through a parametric study, it was found that such nonlinear terms have significant impact on hunting stability of wheelsets having high conicity.
Vaccination Attitudes and Experiences of Medical Doctors in Croatia amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Social Roles Conflict?

The study aimed to investigate the range of experiences and attitudes of Croatian medical doctors (MDs) related to vaccination and vaccine hesitancy. In January 2021 three asynchronous online focus groups were held using MRQual, a web-based platform, which included 46 MDs from all three levels of the healthcare system in Croatia. NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software package, was used for the thematic analysis of collected data. The participants expressed a high level of support for the Croatian immunization program and vaccines in general. However, some skepticism was expressed regarding new vaccines and the regulatory processes of their approval. A significant number of participants raised concerns over the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, especially given their rapid development. The results also revealed that the process of communication with patients is often based on the very elaborate categorizations of patients based on previous experience, which leads to prioritizing and a communication breakup when dealing with “problematic patients”. MDs find themselves in a delicate situation where a fine balance between time-consuming communication with patients and the demands for maintaining satisfying vaccination uptake is needed. The situation arises from a social roles conflict that is embedded in wider social values and expectations, since communication problems do not arise in the doctor’s office, and therefore cannot be solved without addressing the social forces that cause trust deficiencies. To achieve better immunization results public health leaders need to better understand the social contexts and constraints of MDs vaccine-related behaviors.
Development of Table Tennis Learning Media Based on Android Applications

This study aims to develop a table tennis learning media based on an android application that is tested for its product feasibility and can be used in lectures both online and as a guide in offline lectures. The research carried out was only up to the development or development stage because the other purpose of this research was only to develop and produce a table tennis learning media product based on an android application called "B-PONG" (Basic Ping-Pong). Ping-Pong is another name for table tennis and is already popular among the public. The instrument used in this research is a questionnaire/questionnaire given to experts/experts to determine or assess eligibility according to the validator's expertise so that it is validated by 3 experts/experts including table tennis material experts, physical education learning media experts, technical and informatics experts. In addition, a questionnaire/questionnaire is also given for users (students) to get feedback from users. The results of product validation indicate that the table tennis learning media "B-Pong" is categorized as good and suitable for use in the learning process. The results of the response to the use of the table tennis learning media product "B-Pong" are also categorized as good. Based on the results of the three experts, and the product usability test, the table tennis learning media product "B-Pong" is said to be feasible and can be used in the table tennis learning process. The next research plan will test the effectiveness of the product so that it can be seen the effect of "B-Pong" media when used in the table tennis learning process.
A LoRaWAN Architecture for Communications in Areas without Coverage: Design and Pilot Trials

This article proposes a system based on a long-distance communications system with low economic and energy costs that allows connectivity to be carried out independently from the existing cellular coverage in the area. In addition, it describes the design, development, implementation and analysis of an Internet of Things (IoT) architecture based on Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN). Moreover, the system has been deployed as a prototype, and the behavior and scope of the system have been analyzed in various real environments: urban, rural and natural. The results obtained from the analysis show that the system is suitable for working in areas without coverage such as mountains.
Intersexual Differences in Behaviour and Resource Use of Specialist Phengaris teleius Butterflies

Simple Summary In this study, we compared intersexual differences in behaviour and resource use of well-known Scarce Large Blue butterflies. The results indicated that females take short, but exceptionally regular flights, exploring available resources for oviposition. Males took longer, less regular flights, characterised by frequent interactions in search for receptive females. Interestingly, interactions between conspecific butterflies of the investigated species lasted significantly longer than with other species, especially when different sexes were involved. This suggests that individuals were able to quickly and efficiently recognise potential mating partners. Finally, the focal species showed strong association with its larval host plant while resting and nectaring, and less so with other plants with similarly coloured and shaped flowers. Females were particularly strongly restricted to the larval host plant, which provides some evidence that their sensory system shows neural limitation towards this valuable resource. Abstract Although the behaviour of the Large Blue butterflies of the genus Phengaris (= Maculinea) is relatively well studied, most empirical data come from investigations of their dispersal and oviposition. Here, we assessed overall intersexual differences in resource use by tracking Phengaris teleius (Bergsträsser, 1779) individuals and recording the duration of their behaviours. Females were characterised by frequent, short flights, and devoted more time to resting and oviposition. Males engaged in numerous, but usually short interactions, and spent most of the time in flight exploring their surroundings for receptive females. Their average flight time was significantly longer compared to females. Average feeding time did not differ between the sexes but was shorter when butterflies were feeding on Sanguisorba officinalis L. Intraspecific interactions within P. teleius were three times longer than those with other insect species, and interactions between sexes were particularly long lasting. Significantly shorter interspecific interactions imply that butterflies can easily recognise conspecifics and differentiate between sexes, which offers obvious fitness benefits. Both sexes, but especially females, showed strong association with their larval host plant, and less so with other flowers of similar colour and shape. Females predominantly used their host plant for feeding, which possibly indicates neuro-sensory constraints towards this resource.
Analytical model for collisional impurity transport in tokamaks at arbitrary collisionality

The physics governing the collisional transport of impurities in tokamak plasmas can change significantly depending on four main parameters, namely the collisionality, the impurity charge and mass, and the trapped particle fraction, which can vary widely from the core to the edge of a fusion device. We present an analytical model for collisional impurity transport with a consistent dependence on broad scans in these four parameters, showing good agreement with the drift-kinetic code NEO. Radial profiles of collisional fluxes are calculated for different impurity species using ASDEX Upgrade experimental profiles as well as ITER simulated profiles, and they are also compared to NEO. This model is well suited for fast integrated modelling applications due to its low computational cost.
A Scoping Review of Non-Pharmacological, Non-Surgical Secondary Prevention Strategies in Ischaemic Stroke and TIA in National Stroke Guidelines and Clinical Audit Documents

The Stroke Action Plan for Europe (2018–2030) calls for national-level secondary prevention plans that address lifestyle, in addition to prevention medications and surgical interventions. This scoping review examines national stroke care guideline and audit documents across WHO regions to identify non-pharmacological, non-surgical stroke secondary prevention recommendations and associated performance indicators. Using a snowballing methodology, 27 guideline documents met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen (59%) detailed, non-pharmacological, non-surgical stroke secondary prevention-addressing known, modifiable population attributable risk factors, of physical inactivity (N = 11), smoking (N = 11), unsafe alcohol consumption (N = 10), diet (N = 8), weight (N = 5), stress (N = 4) and depression (N = 2). Strategies recommended to address these risk factors were: assessment of stroke risk/risk factors (N = 4); provision of advice and information on reducing lifestyle related risk (N = 16); education and counselling for lifestyle behaviour change (N = 8) and onward referral for specialist management of risk (N = 4). Of the nine stroke audits/registries identified, only three (33%) included non-pharmacological, non-surgical quality indicators of documented provision of advice or information on the following: general lifestyle (N = 2); smoking cessation for current smokers (N = 2); reduction in alcohol consumption, where relevant (N = 1), exercise participation (N = 1) and diet (N = 1). Preventive quality indicators addressing the management of weight, stress or depression were absent. This review highlights current gaps in optimal stroke secondary prevention recommendations and their implementation.
Utilizing Human Social Norms for Multimodal Trajectory Forecasting via Group-Based Forecasting Module

Trajectory forecasting to generate plausible pedestrian trajectories in crowded scenes requires an understanding of human-human social interactions. Groups of pedestrians with the social norm move along similar trajectories, while groups of pedestrians with different norms make changes to their trajectories to avoid a collision. This paper introduces a group-based forecasting module for modeling inter- and intra-group interactions to enable an understanding of the social norm of humans for trajectory forecasting. In addition, group-based forecasting module takes the trajectory predicted by another prospection module as input to consider potential interactions with other groups in the future. In this way, our method models the complex group-level social interactions in crowded scenes through the attention mechanism and predicts socially plausible trajectories in accordance with each social norm. Comparisons we conducted with state-of-the-art forecasting methods show the effectiveness of our approach on three publicly available crowd datasets (ETH, UCY, and SDD). From experimental results, our network enables to predict plausible social trajectories by introducing two forecasting modules.
A Wearable Breath Sensor Based on Fiber-Tip Microcantilever

Respiration rate is an essential vital sign that requires monitoring under various conditions, including in strong electromagnetic environments such as in magnetic resonance imaging systems. To provide an electromagnetically-immune breath-sensing system, we propose an all-fiber-optic wearable breath sensor based on a fiber-tip microcantilever. The microcantilever was fabricated on a fiber-tip by two-photon polymerization microfabrication based on femtosecond laser, so that a micro Fabry–Pérot (FP) interferometer was formed between the microcantilever and the end-face of the fiber. The cavity length of the micro FP interferometer was reduced as a result of the bending of the microcantilever induced by breath airflow. The signal of breath rate was rebuilt by detecting power variations of the FP interferometer reflected light and applying dynamic thresholds. The breath sensor achieved a high sensitivity of 0.8 nm/(m/s) by detecting the reflection spectrum upon applied flow velocities from 0.53 to 5.31 m/s. This sensor was also shown to have excellent thermal stability as its cross-sensitivity of airflow with respect to the temperature response was only 0.095 (m/s)/°C. When mounted inside a wearable surgical mask, the sensor demonstrated the capability to detect various breath patterns, including normal, fast, random, and deep breaths. We anticipate the proposed wearable breath sensor could be a useful and reliable tool for respiration rate monitoring.
Correlation between Level of Functional Ability and Sports Performance among Football Players with Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI)

Background: Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is the most common injury among the football players and it occurs with the players who have history of repetitive ankle sprain. This will result in limitation of functional ability and sport performance of a football player. However, most of the sport rehabilitation focused on the sport performance of an athletic after ankle sprain injury and the functional ability was not stressed on during the return to sport process. It is because the relationship between the level functional ability and sport performance among the football players with CAI is still unclear. Objectives: To determine the relationship between the level of functional ability and sports performance among the football players with chronic ankle instability (CAI). Study Design: Correlation study. Methods: Forty two (n=42) of football players were involved in this study by convenience sampling design. Football players filled in the questionnaire which was Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM) which included the activities of daily living (ADL) subscale and sports subscale. The total score of each subscale for all the players were calculated and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the relationship. Results: A total of twenty five (60%) of the football players had higher ADL score than the sports score while seventeen (40%) of them had higher sports score than ADL score. The mean score for ADL subscale was 79.63±20.64 (%) whereas for sports subscale was 75.59±25.43 (%). Pearson’s correlation was . 92 (r=.92) and it is significant at . 01 level (p <.00). Conclusion: There is a significant relationship between the level of functional ability and sports performance among the football players with chronic ankle instability (CAI). Implication: It provides a guideline for the physiotherapy or football player to plan a more structured rehabilitation in order to improve the quality of return to sport performance.
Testing the neutrino mass generation mechanism at the future colliders

The generation of the neutrino mass is an essential observation from the neutrino oscillation experiments. This indicates a major revision of the Standard Model which initiated with the massless neutrinos. A possible interesting scenario is the seesaw mechanism where SM gauge singlet Right Handed Neutrinos are introduced. Another interesting aspect is the extension of the SM with SU(2)L triplet fermions. Alternatively a general U(1) extension of the SM is also an interesting idea which involves three generations of the SM singlet RHNs to generate the tiny neutrino mass through the seesaw mechanism. Additionally such models can contain a / ′ boson which could be tested at the colliders through the pair production of the RHNs.
Impact of Alternate b-Value Combinations and Metrics on the Predictive Performance and Repeatability of Diffusion-Weighted MRI in Breast Cancer Treatment: Results from the ECOG-ACRIN A6698 Trial

In diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), choice of b-value influences apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values by probing different aspects of the tissue microenvironment. As a secondary analysis of the multicenter ECOG-ACRIN A6698 trial, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of alternate b-value combinations on the performance and repeatability of tumor ADC as a predictive marker of breast cancer treatment response. The final analysis included 210 women who underwent standardized 4-b-value DW-MRI (b = 0/100/600/800 s/mm2) at multiple timepoints during neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment and a subset (n = 71) who underwent test–retest scans. Centralized tumor ADC and perfusion fraction (fp) measures were performed using variable b-value combinations. Prediction of pathologic complete response (pCR) based on the mid-treatment/12-week percent change in each metric was estimated by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Repeatability was estimated by within-subject coefficient of variation (wCV). Results show that two-b-value ADC calculations provided non-inferior predictive value to four-b-value ADC calculations overall (AUCs = 0.60–0.61 versus AUC = 0.60) and for HR+/HER2− cancers where ADC was most predictive (AUCs = 0.75–0.78 versus AUC = 0.76), p < 0.05. Using two b-values (0/600 or 0/800 s/mm2) did not reduce ADC repeatability over the four-b-value calculation (wCVs = 4.9–5.2% versus 5.4%). The alternate metrics ADCfast (b ≤ 100 s/mm2), ADCslow (b ≥ 100 s/mm2), and fp did not improve predictive performance (AUCs = 0.54–0.60, p = 0.08–0.81), and ADCfast and fp demonstrated the lowest repeatability (wCVs = 6.71% and 12.4%, respectively). In conclusion, breast tumor ADC calculated using a simple two-b-value approach can provide comparable predictive value and repeatability to full four-b-value measurements as a marker of treatment response.
Bio-Based Solutions for Agriculture: Foliar Application of Wood Distillate Alone and in Combination with Other Plant-Derived Corroborants Results in Different Effects on Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa L.)

Simple Summary Bio-stimulants are showing growing success and are gradually replacing synthetic fertilizers in agriculture. Wood distillate (WD), also known as wood vinegar or pyroligneous acid, is a by-product of biomass pyrolysis and is increasingly used as a bio-stimulant for crop production. The purpose of this work was to test two types of WD utilizations: (i) pure WD (from BioDea®) and (ii) WD combined with 3% soy lecithin and 5% flavonoid-rich wood glycolic extract (BF; BioDea Flavor®), at concentrations of 0.25% and 0.50%. Our results indicate that foliar applications of both WD and BF increased chlorophyll content, biomass, and starch content in the treated lettuce, while WD, at a concentration of 0.50%, also increased glucose and fructose content. All the treatments were found to be safe, as neither of them showed a significant increase in the content of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in lettuce. Abstract Bio-stimulants are showing growing success and are gradually replacing synthetic fertilizers in agriculture. Wood distillate (WD), also known as wood vinegar or pyroligneous acid, is a by-product of biomass pyrolysis and is increasingly used as a bio-stimulant for crop production. This study investigated whether weekly foliar applications of 0.25% and 0.50% WD have a differential effect on the chlorophyll and sugar content as well as biomass production in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Moreover, the additional beneficial effect from the addition of corroborants of plant origin such as 3% soy lecithin and 5% flavonoid-rich wood glycolic extract to WD (BF) was investigated. Moreover, the possible toxicological concern from some potentially toxic elements (PTEs), namely Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn, which may be abundant in WD was verified. After four weeks, we found that 0.25% WD not only increases lettuce biomass, which has an economic value, but also has beneficial effects on other qualitative parameters such as sugars and total sweetness. On the other hand, the use of 0.5% WD decreased the content of soluble sugars, suggesting a hormetic-type effect. We did not find evidence of further beneficial effects from the addition to WD of plant-derived corroborants, nor of any enrichment in the content of the investigated PTEs.