Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The European lightning location system EUCLID – Part 1: Performance analysis and validation

Abstract. In this paper we present a performance analysis of the European lightning location system EUCLID for cloud-to ground flashes/strokes in terms of location accuracy (LA), detection efficiency (DE) and peak current estimation. The performance analysis is based on ground truth data from direct lightning current measurements at the Gaisberg Tower (GBT) and data from E-field and video recordings. The E-field and video recordings were collected in three different regions in Europe, namely in Austria, Belgium and France. The analysis shows a significant improvement of the LA of the EUCLID network over the past 7 years. Currently, the median LA is in the range of 100 m in the center of the network and better than 500 m within the majority of the network. The observed DE in Austria and Belgium is similar, yet a slightly lower DE is determined in a particular region in France, due to malfunctioning of a relevant lightning location sensor during the time of observation. The overall accuracy of the lightning location system (LLS) peak current estimation for subsequent strokes is reasonable keeping in mind that the LLS-estimated peak currents are determined from the radiated electromagnetic fields, assuming a constant return stroke speed. The results presented in this paper can be used to estimate the performance of the EUCLID network related to cloud-to-ground flashes/strokes for regions with similar sensor baselines and sensor technology.
Studies of the Earth''s center of mass periodical movements

At present the Earth reference coordinate frame ITRF is realized on the base of space geodesy observations in strictly secular sense with purely linear temporal changes (velocities) without any conventional models. These linear changes include primarily non modeled geophysical motions, mostly of tectonic origin. In the base of all space geodesy techniques (except of VLBI), there are precise orbits of the observable satellites, which are moving under the influence of the Earth gravity field around of the entire Earth’s center-of-mass (CM). To keep the convention of the coincidence of the terrestrial coordinate system origin with the entire Earth center-of-mass, the first harmonics (C1,1, S1,1, C1,0) of the gravity field models, used for orbital calculations, are equated to zero. Studies of the ITRF precision and stability, carried out at the different research centers, INASAN included, show that origin of the coordinate system (Geocenter) is moving relatively to the center of mass. Besides the main geophysical effects: atmosphere pressure, oceanic tides and currents, ice melting, have been taken into consideration. The annual and semiannual amplitudes of the geocenter variations are not the same for different types of measurements and fluctuate in the interval 1–23 mm for all three components of the position vector. And Z-component is always 2–3 times more than planar components. The absolute scale of the network is determined with the accuracy around of 0.5 · 10−13, that is equivalent 3 mm in the station height. The further improvement of the ITRF accuracy and stability is possible with the use of more dense and equally distributed tracking networks, equipped with the different types of modern instruments, allowed to minimize systematic errors, characteristic for every usable technique. In this connection the International Association of Geodesy arrived to a decision on the development of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), which will consist of about 40 permanent ground tracking sites, space segment of special research satellites and centers of merging, storage and analyses of the data.
Cognitive Foundations of Early Mathematics: Investigating the Unique Contributions of Numerical, Executive Function, and Spatial Skills

There is an emerging consensus that numerical, executive function (EF), and spatial skills are foundational to children’s mathematical learning and development. Moreover, each skill has been theorized to relate to mathematics for different reasons. Thus, it is possible that each cognitive construct is related to mathematics through distinct pathways. The present study tests this hypothesis. One-hundred and eighty 4- to 9-year-olds (Mage = 6.21) completed a battery of numerical, EF, spatial, and mathematics measures. Factor analyses revealed strong, but separable, relations between children’s numerical, EF, and spatial skills. Moreover, the three-factor model (i.e., modelling numerical, EF, and spatial skills as separate latent variables) fit the data better than a general intelligence (g-factor) model. While EF skills were the only unique predictor of number line performance, spatial skills were the only unique predictor of arithmetic (addition) performance. Additionally, spatial skills were related to the use of more advanced addition strategies (e.g., composition/decomposition and retrieval), which in turn were related to children’s overall arithmetic performance. That is, children’s strategy use fully mediated the relation between spatial skills and arithmetic performance. Taken together, these findings provide new insights into the cognitive foundations of early mathematics, with implications for assessment and instruction moving forward.
Estimating Control Torque for Postural Balance Among Unilateral Lower Limb Amputees During Different Visual Environments

Lower limb impairment leads to the loss of sensory feedback and, as a result, poor postural abnormalities compared to able-bodied individuals. To maintain postural balance during gait initiation, individuals with lower extremity amputation over-depend on visual inputs and somatosensory information from the sound limb. This additional demand leads to higher cognitive load and additional extension and flexion torque in the healthy limb, leading to the unacceptability of current prostheses. In this study, a biomechanically relevant ankle-foot prosthesis model with a fractional order filter-based internal model control-based proportional integral derivative approach was explored to estimate the required control torque on the prosthetic ankle joint during dynamic weight-shifting activities in different visual environments. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in adapting the balance uncertainties in different visual conditions. Pilot findings during weight shifting exercises show that the proposed ${f}$ -IMC-PID and traditional IMC-PID controllers present a maximum RMSE between the experimental and achieved lean angles of 0.01371° and 0.08414°, respectively. In addition, the present work compares the two baseline postural models: the shock absorption inverted pendulum model and the inverted pendulum-based virtual model. The present work could potentially reduce the rehabilitation duration by addressing the design-oriented challenges in prosthetic solutions.
Glasgow Coma Scale Motor Score Predicts Need for Tracheostomy After Decompressive Craniectomy for Traumatic Brain Injury

Objective Many patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) require a tracheostomy after decompressive craniectomy. Determining which patients will require tracheostomy is often challenging. The existing methods for predicting which patients will require tracheostomy are more applicable to stroke and spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) motor score can be used as a screening method for predicting which patients who undergo decompressive craniectomy for severe TBI are likely to require tracheostomy. Methods The neurosurgery census at the University of Kansas Medical Center was retrospectively reviewed to identify adult patients aged over 18 years who underwent decompressive craniectomy for TBI. Eighty patients met the inclusion criteria for the study. There were no exclusion criteria. The primary outcome of interest was the need for tracheostomy. The secondary outcome was the comparison of the total length of stay (LOS) and intensive care unit LOS between the early and late tracheostomy patient groups. Results All patients (100%) with a GCS motor score of 4 or less on post operative (POD) 5 required tracheostomy. Setting the threshold at GCS motor score of 5 on POD 5 for recommending tracheostomy resulted in 86.7% sensitivity, 91.7% specificity, and 90.5% positive predictive value, with an area under the receiver operator curve of 0.9101. Conclusion GCS motor score of 5 or less on POD 5 of decompressive craniectomy is a useful screening threshold for selecting patients who may benefit from tracheostomy, or may be potential candidates for extubation.
The relationship between director’s compensation and audit fee: Empirical evidence from developing countries

The present study investigates the correlation between director remuneration and audit fees within the context of a corporation operating in a developing nation. Additionally, this study investigates whether the extent of national consumption strengthens the association between director compensation and audit fees. This study employed the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method to analyses a dataset consisting of 3,417 samples of non-financial firm data reported on the stock exchanges of Indonesia and Malaysia. The observation period for this study spanned from 2015 to 2019. The findings of this study indicate a substantial positive relationship between director salaries and audit fees in both countries. Furthermore, the evidence shows that the level of household consumption in a country will increase because of the positive relationship between director compensation and audit fees. In addition, CEOs and CFOs who have experience working as auditors carry a more negligible risk for the company. Meanwhile, directors' overcompensation will pose a greater risk for the company. This study is robust based on sensitivity testing using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and Heckman regression. In general, the amount of compensation paid to the CEO shows the company's financial capacity, which reflects the company's liquidity and asset capabilities, which will be read as risk. Furthermore, the distinctiveness of the governance systems in these two countries, as observed in our sample, demonstrates a consistent outcome.
Road Extraction From Satellite Images Using Attention-Assisted UNet

These days, extracting information from remote sensing data has a great impact on various aspects of our lives, such as infrastructure and urban planning, transportation and traffic management, forecasting and tracking natural disasters, searching for mineral resources, monitoring environmental changes, and numerous other fields. One crucial application is extracting accurate road information from aerial images, which has many practical applications ranging from our daily lives to long-term planning for transportation systems to autonomous vehicles. Deep learning models have shown great promise in image-processing tasks, specifically in accurately detecting and extracting roads from aerial images. In this study, various techniques were employed to achieve the desired performance. The model is a UNet assisted with attention blocks in the decoder part and trained with a patched, rotated, and augmented dataset that has been extracted from the DeepGlobe dataset. The preprocessing of the dataset included image and mask patching, rotation, exclusion of background-only images, and excluding images with very little road surface. Both patching and background exclusion in preprocessing as hard attention and attention blocks in the model as soft attention were deployed in order to tackle the inherently biased nature of the dataset. This combination of different techniques empowers the proposed model for superior remote sensing image segmentation performance with an accuracy level of 98.33%. In addition to achieve better performance by the model, another objective is to find the issues that cause the model's performance degradation on some image samples. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of metrics, with a focus on precision and recall as proper metrics for biased dataset analysis, was conducted to identify potential shortcomings in the model or the dataset, and based on the result, several proposals for future work and further investigations were formulated.
A Randomized Cross-Over Study Comparing Cooling Methods for Exercise-Induced Hyperthermia in Working Dogs in Training

Simple Summary Working dogs are at high risk of heat stress and heat stroke, as they often are required to perform physically demanding tasks for long periods of time. Handlers’ intervention upon noticing signs of heat stress can prevent more serious consequences for the dog. This study assessed the effectiveness of two different, easily implementable cooling interventions that handlers could use with their dogs: partial water immersion and isopropyl alcohol application to paw pads. While both interventions were more effective than no intervention at all, partial water immersion cooled dogs faster and led to an overall cooler temperature in dogs post-exercise than isopropyl alcohol application. Isopropyl alcohol additionally raised dogs’ heart rates significantly more than partial water immersion or no intervention, which may be due to its aversive odor and potential for topical irritation. As such, partial water immersion is preferred over isopropyl alcohol for cooling dogs after exercise. Further studies are required to explore the extent to which dogs must be immersed in water and the effectiveness of other water-assisted cooling methods like cooling towels. Abstract Working dogs are at a high risk of canine non-pyrogenic hyperthermia, a life-threatening condition that can occur due to physical exertion or environmental factors that inhibit dogs’ ability to cool themselves. Two frequently recommended cooling methods to reduce body temperature are water immersion and the application of isopropyl alcohol to paw pads. This cross-over study compared the relative efficacy of these methods in 12 working-dogs-in-training with post-exertional heat stress. On each study day, dogs had a physical exam and performed a warm-up exercise followed by sequential recalls in which dogs ran approximately 25 m between two designated handlers for 10 min until they showed multiple signs of heat stress or their core temperature reached 105 °F (40.6 °C). Dogs’ temperature and heart rate were collected after each recall. Dogs completed three study days, and each day, randomly received one of three interventions: passive cooling (no intervention), partial water immersion, or isopropyl alcohol. Post-intervention dogs rested for 20 min. Partial water immersion and isopropyl alcohol both cooled dogs more than no intervention, and water immersion cooled dogs more efficiently than isopropyl alcohol. Additionally, the application of isopropyl alcohol raised dogs’ heart rates more than water immersion or no intervention, suggesting that the process of applying isopropyl alcohol is potentially stressful to dogs. Thus, partial water immersion is preferred to cool dogs post-exertion due to its more efficient cooling and better tolerance of use.
The predictive validity of a Brain Care Score for dementia and stroke: data from the UK Biobank cohort

Introduction The 21-point Brain Care Score (BCS) was developed through a modified Delphi process in partnership with practitioners and patients to promote behavior changes and lifestyle choices in order to sustainably reduce the risk of dementia and stroke. We aimed to assess the associations of the BCS with risk of incident dementia and stroke. Methods The BCS was derived from the United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) baseline evaluation for participants aged 40–69 years, recruited between 2006–2010. Associations of BCS and risk of subsequent incident dementia and stroke were estimated using Cox proportional hazard regressions, adjusted for sex assigned at birth and stratified by age groups at baseline. Results The BCS (median: 12; IQR:11–14) was derived for 398,990 UKB participants (mean age: 57; females: 54%). There were 5,354 incident cases of dementia and 7,259 incident cases of stroke recorded during a median follow-up of 12.5 years. A five-point higher BCS at baseline was associated with a 59% (95%CI: 40-72%) lower risk of dementia among participants aged <50. Among those aged 50–59, the figure was 32% (95%CI: 20-42%) and 8% (95%CI: 2-14%) for those aged >59 years. A five-point higher BCS was associated with a 48% (95%CI: 39-56%) lower risk of stroke among participants aged <50, 52% (95%CI, 47-56%) among those aged 50–59, and 33% (95%CI, 29-37%) among those aged >59. Discussion The BCS has clinically relevant and statistically significant associations with risk of dementia and stroke in approximately 0.4 million UK people. Future research includes investigating the feasibility, adaptability and implementation of the BCS for patients and providers worldwide.
An Improved White Space Prediction Algorithm for Cognitive Radio Systems

Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology to enhance the current low usage of limited frequency resources. TV white space (TVWS) - TV bands at a particular time in a particular geographic area that are not being used by licensed services - is perceived as the most suitable frequency bands for CR. This paper proposes a new prediction TVWS algorithm for CR systems based on the ITU 1546.1 and the Okumura-Hata models. The proposed algorithm is verified with the data of 22 provinces in the South of Vietnam. The numerical results confirm the advantage of the proposed algorithm as well as the possibility of TVWS CR networks.
DRAFT Technical Background Document on Impacts of Pedestrian Strategies Based on a Review of the Empirical Literature

The reviewed studies examine three aspects of the walking environment: sidewalk characteristics, pedestrian environment quality, and neighborhood type. Studies that address the more macro-scale aspects of the built environment that may influence walking infrastructure, including street network connectivity, land use mix, density, and regional accessibility are excluded. The potential of these characteristics for reducing VMT are addressed separately in the briefs addressing land-use related policies. Many studies focus on recreational walking or do not distinguish between recreational and utilitarian walking. The review includes only studies that focus on walking for utilitarian purposes (i.e. as a mode of travel to a destination) and excludes those that examine walking solely as a form of recreation or physical exercise. Walking is measured in several different ways, including the probability of walking mode choice, the number of walking trips, daily walking miles, and daily walking time. One study examines non-vehicle mode choice, mixing walking with bicycling and transit use (Cervero and Kockelman, 1997). Four studies provide evidence on the effect of pedestrian strategies on vehicle travel, measured either as number of vehicle trips or VMT. Studies by Parsons Brinkerhoff (1993), Fan (2007), and Ewing, et al. (2009) are included even though they are not published in the peer-review literature, because of the limited number of studies that provide evidence of the effect of sidewalk characteristics on either utilitarian walking or VMT. Effect Size, Methodology and Applicability Issues Sources for the estimated effect sizes are shown in Tables 1, 2, and 3. Ewing and Cervero (2010) conducted a thorough review of the literature on the relationship between the built environment and travel behavior. They report elasticities (change in walking or VMT for a 1 percent increase in the measure of the built environment). In many cases, Ewing and Cervero estimated the elasticities (or the effects sizes in other forms) based on data presented in the published paper or from additional data acquired from the authors of the paper. For this reason, the effect sizes in the Ewing and
Mental well-being of teachers working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: Teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina had insufficient skills in educational technology but had to lead the introduction of online teaching and adapt all aspects of the educational process to the online environment, which placed a great burden on them. The main objective of this research was to identify the challenges faced by teachers during the lockdown period. The sudden shift to online teaching, lack of preparation, and social isolation resulted in significant changes in job demands, perceived control, and social support in the workplace. Methods: A correlational study was conducted with a sample of 345 employees in the education sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Descriptive analysis, multiple regression analysis, and t-tests were performed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: The results indicate that teachers who did not have adequate workspace at home experienced greater workload but remained highly motivated. High job demands and low social support at work are associated with increased stress and decreased psychophysical functioning, while higher social support is associated with higher life satisfaction. In addition, higher job demands and stronger social support were related to greater intrinsic and extrinsic motivation at work. Conclusion: Results show that teachers lacking proper home workspaces reported their work as notably more demanding and stress-inducing, with a reported decline in their overall psychophysical well-being. Moreover, they expressed a reduced sense of control over their work, diminished social support, and lower levels of life satisfaction. These findings provide a valuable foundation for developing recommendations to address crisis situations in education, particularly when teachers transition from physical classrooms to virtual spaces, which is also important for online teaching and learning in typical times.
Attitudes and Interests Towards Biotechnology: the Mismatch Between Students and Teachers

Increasing the scientific literacy of Australians has become an educational priority in recent times. The ‘Science State – Smart State’ initiative of the Queensland Government involves an action plan for improving science education that includes a Science for Life action. A desired outcome is for an increased understanding of the natural world so that responsible decisions concerning our future wellbeing can be made in an age of science and technology. Biotechnology is a technology that is having profound impact on our lives. This paper describes how 15-16 year old students and biology teachers revealed a mismatch in both attitudes and interests towards biotechnology between the students and teachers. The findings are of interest as the teachers are writing biotechnology into their work programs in response to new syllabus documents. The teacher’s areas of interest did not match those of the students, possibly resulting in a curriculum the teachers want to teach, but the students do not want to learn.
A Flat-Gain Array Antenna Comprising Disparate Elements Designed for 5G Applications

A planar array antenna consisting of a patch antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW) and a patch antenna excited through near-field coupling is presented. The utilization of a mixed-mode feed line, which incorporates both direct and indirect feed lines, enables radiating elements to resonate at two distinct frequencies. The feed network delivers an electric current to one patch antenna through a metalized via, whereas a surface equivalent magnetic current is induced in the other patch antenna through near-field coupling. Resonance occurs at 26 GHz after balanced series stubs are added to the feed line. To achieve a flat gain response, a notched slot is positioned between the locations of the electric and magnetic current sources. The measurement results of the antenna show a flat gain response covering an impedance bandwidth of 16.45% (25.1–29.6 GHz), which fulfills the 26 GHz and 28 GHz bands of fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication systems.