Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A circularly polarized array antenna with inclined patches using both-sided MIC technology

A 2 × 2 circularly polarized array antenna for X-band applications is proposed in this letter. A new technique is employed to attain circular polarization by means of linear polarization patches. Two orthogonal modes with quadrature phase shift is achieved by making two patches quarter wavelength ahead and orthogonal with respect to other two patches. The feed network of the array is designed using both-sided MIC technology to overcome the impedance matching problem of conventional feed networks. A 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 1.41% is obtained and antenna gain is around 6.36 dBic.
Awareness Based Coaching - a tool for leadership development: A qualitative study of how awareness based coaching can lead to personal and professional development amongst leaders

Our world is growing increasingly complex, creating new challenges for leadership. Hence there is a need for leadership development to meet the larger society needs. Coaching is a well-known tool used to support leaders in their developmental process. The purpose of this thesis is to research the longer term impact of awareness based coaching on leaders’ personal and professional development. In order to explore and understand more about the impact of this new awareness based technology, I have conducted a qualitative study where empirical data has been collected through interviews.I have had a hermeneutical approach to the work of analyzing and interpreting my empirical data. Through a thematic analysis, I found four categories: Awareness is the most important thing, Changes in behavior, Changes in attitude, and Perceived internalized leadership development support practices. To expose, contextualize and understand my findings I have discussed the categories in relation to relevant theory. In the discussion I have mainly used the theories of Kegan (1982, 1994, 2000), Kegan and Lahey (2009), Joiner and Josephs (2007), Jordan (2002, 2011), Heifetz (2009, 2010), Dweck (2006) and Argyris (1991) to try and answer my research question:What is the longer term impact of awareness based coaching on leaders’ personal and professional development? Through the course of analyzing and discussing my empirical data I found that the impact of awareness based coaching is individual, and hence there is variety in experienced outcome. Trying to understand why participants experience different impacts of the coaching I saw that varieties in outcome could be explained by differences in my research participants starting points and level of cognitive growth. Although in varying degrees, empirical data suggests that awareness based coaching has led to an increased awareness, changes in behavior, attitudes and leadership style in my research participants. Also, experienced changes seem to be on both a personal and professional level.
The Buffer Stock Model Redux? An Analysis of the Dynamics of Foreign Reserve Accumulation

Cointegration analysis suggests that the buffer stock precautionary model accounts for the optimal reserve demand in nine developing countries located in Asia and Latin America. The corresponding VECMs are further interpolated, using the permanent and transitory innovation decomposition procedure, in order to assess the relative impact of the time series on the convergence to equilibrium after a shock. Finally the (asymmetric) effect on the speed of convergence of positive/negative changes in signal variables—such as the excess reserves of the previous period, relative competitiveness and US monetary stance—is found to be significant, in line with mercantilistic and fear of floating motives for hoarding reserves.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Best Management Practices in Gilgel Gibe Basin Watershed—Ethiopia

Soil erosion/sedimentation is an immense problem threatening the live storage capacity of dam reservoirs in Ethiopia. This in turn reduces the power generation capacities of hydropower reservoirs. Therefore, studies which give insight into soil erosion/sedimentation mechanisms and mitigation methods is important. The high rate of soil erosion/sedimentation threats the lifespan of Gilgel Gibe-1 hydropower reservoir. The problem of sedimentation in Gilgel Gibe-1 will also affect Gilgel Gibe-2 which uses the water released from Gilgel Gibe-1. The sustainability of these hydropower plants needs catchment management practices that will reduce soil erosion. This paper presents the results of monthly and yearly sediment yield simulations experiments conducted for Gilgel Gibe-1 under different BMP (best management practice) scenarios. The scenarios applied in this paper are: (1) maintaining existing conditions; (2) introducing filter strips; (3) applying stone/soil bunds; (4) reforestation. The SWAT (soil and water assessment tool) was used to model soil erosion, identify soil erosion prone areas and assess the impact of BMPs on sediment reduction via simulations. The simulation results showed that applying filter strips, stone bunds and reforestation scenarios could reduce the current sediment yields at soil erosion prone areas and at the outlet of the catchment area which is the inlet to Gilgel Gibe-1 reservoir.
Automated Atrial Fibrillation Detection from Electrocardiogram

In this study, a novel Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) detection algorithm is presented based on Electrocardiography (ECG) signals. In particular, the spectrogram of ECG signal is used as an input to a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify normal and AFib ECG signals. This model is shown to perform well with an accuracy of 92.91% and a value of 0.9789 for the area under the ROC curve (AUC). This study demonstrated the potential of using image classification methods and CNN model to detect abnormal biosignals with noise.
Open Source PhotoVoltaics Library for Systemic Investigations

For the planning of photovoltaic power plants standard software tools are used. Most of these software tools use statistical solar data to determine the overall energy harvest of a photovoltaic plant over one year. The calculations rely on stationary location and ideal boundary conditions, e.g., constant ambient temperature. Even though, for example, shadowing may be considered by standard software, the investigation of untypical configurations and problems cannot be performed by such software, as most configurations cannot be changed by the user. The presented PhotoVoltaics library was developed with the intention to provide a flexible framework for standard and non-standard problems. Particularly, the PhotoVoltaics library can be coupled with other Modelica libraries to perform systemic investigations. An application library, PhotoVoltaics_TGM, is provided as add-on, where measured data of two photovoltaic pants of the TGM in Vienna can be compared with simulation results. This add-on library serves as validation of the PhotoVoltaics library. In the PhotoVoltaics library the following components are included:
Denosumab in the treatment of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) is the most common form of secondary osteoporosis. In May 2018, denosumab was approved for the treatment of GIOP in men and women at high risk of fracture. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the efficacy and safety of denosumab in the prevention and treatment of GIOP. Methods We searched PubMed, CINAHL, American College of Rheumatology and American Society for Bone and Mineral Research meeting abstracts for relevant studies. We included studies in which subjects were taking systemic glucocorticoid therapy and were assigned to take denosumab or control therapy, and assessed the effect of treatment on areal bone mineral density (BMD), fractures and/or safety. Results Three eligible studies were included in the primary meta-analysis. Denosumab significantly increased lumbar spine BMD (2.32%, 95% CI 1.73%, 2.91%, P<0.0001) and hip BMD (1.52%, 95% CI 1.1%,1.94%, P<0.0001) compared to bisphosphonates. Adverse events, serious adverse events and fractures were similar between denosumab and bisphosphonate arms. Conclusion Results suggest that denosumab is superior to bisphosphonates in its effects on lumbar spine and total hip BMD in patients with GIOP. There was no difference in the incidence of infections, adverse events or serious adverse events. Studies were underpowered to detect differences in the risk of fracture. Denosumab is a reasonable option for treatment of GIOP. However, further studies are needed to guide transitions off denosumab.
The Nexus of Private Savings and Economic Growth In Emerging Economy: A Case Of Nigeria

This study discusses the trend in Nigerian saving behaviour and reviews policy options to increase domestic saving. It also examines the determinants of private saving in Nigeria during the period covering 1970 – 2007. It makes an important contribution to the literature by evaluating the magnitude and direction of the effects of the following key policy and non-policy variables on private saving: Income growth, interest rate, fiscal policy, and financial development. The framework for analysis involves the estimation of a saving rate function derived from the Life Cycle Hypothesis while taking into cognizance the structural characteristics of a developing economy. The study employs the Error-Correction modelling procedure which minimizes the possibility of estimating spurious relations, while at the same time retaining long-run information. The results of the analysis show that the saving rate rises with both the growth rate of disposable income and the real interest rate on bank deposits. Public saving seems not to crowd out private saving; suggesting that government policies aimed at improving the fiscal balance has the potential of bringing about a substantial increase in the national saving rate. Finally, the degree of financial depth has a negative but insignificant impact on saving behaviour in Nigeria. Keywords: Private Saving, Saving Rate, Macroeconomic Policy, Interest Rate, Economic Growth.
DeepBall: Deep Neural-Network Ball Detector

The paper describes a deep network based object detector specialized for ball detection in long shot videos. Due to its fully convolutional design, the method operates on images of any size and produces \emph{ball confidence map} encoding the position of detected ball. The network uses hypercolumn concept, where feature maps from different hierarchy levels of the deep convolutional network are combined and jointly fed to the convolutional classification layer. This allows boosting the detection accuracy as larger visual context around the object of interest is taken into account. The method achieves state-of-the-art results when tested on publicly available ISSIA-CNR Soccer Dataset.
The Effect of Intrahippocampal Injection of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 on Morphine-Induced Amnesia in Wistar Rats

Background: Morphine is wildly used as a painkiller in clinics, but causes several side effects such as hyperalgesia, depression and more notably amnesia. Here, we assumed that insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) as a peptide with widespread distribution of receptors in brain regions, especially hippocampus, might be capable to alleviate morphine-induced amnesia. Methods: Thirty one male Wistar rats were divided into four groups including: morphine+saline, saline+saline, Morphine+IGF-1 and Saline+IGF-1 groups. The animals were cannulated in hippocampus using stereotaxic apparatus. IGF-1 (5 μg/ 1μL /rat) was intrahippocampally injected 30 minutes prior to morphine (10 mg/kg/i.p) injection, and then rats were trained in step-through passive avoidance task. First Latency time (FLT) to enter and total time spent (TTS) in dark were measured 1.5 and 24 hours later. Control group received the same volume of saline. Results: The results showed that injection of 10 mg/kg morphine, compared with saline, significantly decreased FLT (p=0.001), but increased TTS (p=0.001) 24 hours after the training. Whereas, administration of IGF-1 compared with morphine, significantly increased FLT (p=0.001), but decreased TTS (p=0.001) assessed 24 hours after the training, Conclusions: These findings indicate that administration of morphine disturbs passive avoidance learning and memory and injection of IGF-1, 30 minutes before morphine injection, prevents amnesia.
Evaluation and Clinical Application of a Commercially Available Iterative Reconstruction Algorithm for CBCT-Based IGRT

Purpose: We have quantitatively evaluated the image quality of a new commercially available iterative cone-beam computed tomography reconstruction algorithm over standard cone-beam computed tomography image reconstruction results. Methods: This iterative cone-beam computed tomography reconstruction pipeline uses a finite element solver (AcurosCTS)-based scatter correction and a statistical (iterative) reconstruction in addition to a standard kernel-based correction followed by filtered back-projection-based Feldkamp-Davis-Kress cone-beam computed tomography reconstruction. Standard full-fan half-rotation Head, half-fan full-rotation Head, and standard Pelvis cone-beam computed tomography protocols have been investigated to scan a quality assurance phantom via the following image quality metrics: uniformity, HU constancy, spatial resolution, low contrast detection, noise level, and contrast-to-noise ratio. An anthropomorphic head phantom was scanned for verification of noise reduction. Clinical patient image data sets for 5 head/neck patients and 5 prostate patients were qualitatively evaluated. Results: Quality assurance phantom study results showed that relative to filtered back-projection-based cone-beam computed tomography, noise was reduced from 28.8 ± 0.3 HU to a range between 18.3 ± 0.2 and 5.9 ± 0.2 HU for Full-Fan Head scans, from 14.4 ± 0.2 HU to a range between 12.8 ± 0.3 and 5.2 ± 0.3 HU for Half-Fan Head scans, and from 6.2 ± 0.1 HU to a range between 3.8 ± 0.1 and 2.0 ± 0.2 HU for Pelvis scans, with the iterative cone-beam computed tomography algorithm. Spatial resolution was marginally improved while results for uniformity and HU constancy were similar. For the head phantom study, noise was reduced from 43.6 HU to a range between 24.8 and 13.0 HU for a Full-Fan Head and from 35.1 HU to a range between 22.9 and 14.0 HU for a Half-Fan Head scan. The patient data study showed that artifacts due to photon starvation and streak artifacts were all reduced, and image noise in specified target regions were reduced to 62% ± 15% for 10 patients. Conclusion: Noise and contrast-to-noise ratio image quality characteristics were significantly improved using the iterative cone-beam computed tomography reconstruction algorithm relative to the filtered back-projection-based cone-beam computed tomography method. These improvements will enhance the accuracy of cone-beam computed tomography-based image-guided applications.
Low dimensional neutron moderators for enhanced source brightness

In a recent numerical optimization study we have found that liquid para-hydrogen coupled cold neutron moderators deliver 3-5 times higher cold neutron brightness at a spallation neutron source if they take the form of a flat, quasi 2-dimensional disc, in contrast to the conventional more voluminous shapes used by now. In the present paper we describe a simple theoretical explanation of this unexpected behavior, which is based on the large difference in para-hydrogen between the values of the scattering mean free path for thermal neutrons (in the range of 1 cm) and its much larger equivalent for cold neutrons. This model leads to the conclusions that the optimal shape for high brightness para-hydrogen neutron moderators is the quasi 1-dimensional tube and these low dimensional moderators can also deliver much enhanced cold neutron brightness in fission reactor neutron sources, compared to the much more voluminous liquid D2 or H2 moderators currently used. Neutronic simulation calculations confirm both of these theoretical conclusions.
SEMA TIC A ALYSIS OF SATELLITE IMAGE TIME SERIES

Large archives of satellite images have been created over time. The existence of these archives enables us to extract evolutions of the same of same geographic area over time, creating satellite image time series (SITS). As SITS represent an amount of information far greater than individual images, their analysis is complex and difficult. In this paper we propose a new unsupervised SITS analysis method based on the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model, a hierarchical model originally developed for text analysis. In this model documents are represented as random mixture of latent topics, each topic being characterized by a distribution over words. This paper extends the use of LDA model for satellite image time series analysis by proposing a description language for SITS modeling according to the LDA model, and is applied on a SITS of 11 Landsat TM scenes acquired in 2007.
The Functional Role of Striatal Cholinergic Interneurons in Reinforcement Learning From Computational Perspective

In this study, we explore the functional role of striatal cholinergic interneurons, hereinafter referred to as tonically active neurons (TANs), via computational modeling; specifically, we investigate the mechanistic relationship between TAN activity and dopamine variations and how changes in this relationship affect reinforcement learning in the striatum. TANs pause their tonic firing activity after excitatory stimuli from thalamic and cortical neurons in response to a sensory event or reward information. During the pause striatal dopamine concentration excursions are observed. However, functional interactions between the TAN pause and striatal dopamine release are poorly understood. Here we propose a TAN activity-dopamine relationship model and demonstrate that the TAN pause is likely a time window to gate phasic dopamine release and dopamine variations reciprocally modulate the TAN pause duration. Furthermore, this model is integrated into our previously published model of reward-based motor adaptation to demonstrate how phasic dopamine release is gated by the TAN pause to deliver reward information for reinforcement learning in a timely manner. We also show how TAN-dopamine interactions are affected by striatal dopamine deficiency to produce poor performance of motor adaptation.
Use of Transversus Abdominis Plane Block in Cosmetic Abdominoplasties: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is used in abdominoplasties for postoperative pain control. There has been no systematic review and meta-analysis of its use reported in the literature. The authors performed a systematic review that focused on the use of TAP block in abdominoplasties. EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Ovid Medicine, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and PubMed databases were searched from its inception to April 2019. Peer-reviewed articles published in the English language were included. The efficacy of TAP block was determined from a review of the reported studies. The authors’ search retrieved 30 unique articles. Two independent reviewers screened texts, selecting 6 articles for inclusion. Of the included studies, 3 were randomized controlled studies, 1 was a prospective controlled study, 1 was a retrospective cohort study, and 1 was a prospective nonrandomized uncontrolled study. The level of evidence of included studies ranges from level II to level III. There were no level I studies. All of the studies concluded that TAP block was more effective in controlling pain and decreasing narcotic use compared with controls. There was significant heterogeneity in the method of administration, compositions, and dosage of the TAP block. The TAP block provides effective analgesia after abdominoplasty and reduces the use of opioids. However, its effectiveness seems to be limited to the first few postoperative hours. More studies are needed to evaluate for the optimum dosing and mode of delivery of the anesthetic.
Seasonal variations of the rate of multiple-muons in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory

It is well known that the rate of cosmic ray muons depends on the atmospheric temperature, and that for events with a single muon the peak of the rate is in summer, in underground laboratories in the northern hemisphere. In 2015 the MINOS experiment, in USA, found that, for small distances between the multiple-muons, the rate of multiple-muons peaks in the winter and that the amplitude of the modulation is smaller than in the case of a single muon. I have done a re-analysis of data of the past MACRO experiment. The result is that under Gran Sasso the rate of multiple-muons at small distances peaks in the summer. This difference with MINOS could be explained by differences in the atmospheric temperature due to latitude. This results could be of interest for dark matter experiments looking to dark matter seasonal modulation due to the Earth’s motion.
Isomorphic Diffusionin Public Sector: Focus on China

Based on widely ranged theoretical discus­sion of isomorphic diffusion, this article traces the process of isomorphism in the context of public service center diffusion in China and dis­covers relationships between isomorphism and distance within different time and space. With data for a sample of 238 prefecture level cities collected from China, the authors aim to explore the correlation between isomorphism diffusion and spatial distance. The results of the analysis suggest that local governments will be at a disadvantage if these are stated in a further location when isomorphic diffusion takes place. Moreover, the correlation between isomorphic diffusion and spatial dis­tance varies according to the different phases of the diffusion process. The effect of geographical distance is initially strong in the growth period, but weakens later. The results will build bridges on isomorphic and geographical distance within diverse time and space in China, and have impli­cations both theoretically and practically.
Chapter 2 Operation Management on Autonomous Power System

The running developments in the field of power systems have, as a result, the maximization of complexity and their marginal operation with regard to their dynamic security. This becomesmore perceptible in autonomous power systems. Consequently, in the modern energy environment, the use of enhanced operation management and monitoring programs is judged necessary. The results that are arrived at in the present chapter were developed via a concretization of algorithms, which were incorporated in an implemented operation and planning management system. The presented algorithms have as object to improve the level of combination between unit commitment, economic dispatch and dynamic security assessment (DSA).
The Interaction of Motivation, Perception, and Environment: One EFL Learners' Experience.

This paper discusses a Korean learner’s struggle to achieve English language proficiency over a 20-year period using an autobiographical approach. It concentrates on the issues of individual motivation and social learning environments and examines the interactions between this learner’s motivation and affect, self-confidence, and environment. The effect of this interaction on shaping English learning is also examined. The discussion of individual motivation and its relationship to social perceptions and values is expanded using both a socio-educational model in second language acquisition and attribution theory in educational/social psychology. The learning experiences in formal, self-instructional, and natural learning environments are also examined. Mastery of a foreign/second language seems to be an outcome of the interaction between individual motivation and educational environment embedded in a socio-cultural context. The paper suggests some practical implications for students and teachers; discusses how to foster perceptions that enhance foreign language learning while incorporating learners’ situated perceptions in their culture; and notes several possible ways to increase motivation.