Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Context based pedestrian intention prediction using factored latent dynamic conditional random fields

Autonomous Vehicles (AV) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) require smart built-in systems to recognize pedestrian intention to avoid casualties. Recent approaches towards predicting pedestrian intention use motion information and his/her situational awareness to distinguish between intention of either crossing or stopping before a vehicle. We investigate the power of including contextual information into this problem. Examples of contextual cues include pedestrian position with respect to the curb of a road and relative locations of the vehicles with respect to the pedestrian in the scene. We propose a graphical model Factored Latent Dynamic Conditional Random Fields (FLDCRF) to integrate contextual and motion features of a pedestrian as well as to capture the intrinsic relationship between intention and action of a pedestrian. We show that the inclusion of context information aids early prediction of a pedestrian intention and the motion information provides more accuracy to the predicted output, resulting in an early and accurate joint model to predict pedestrian intention. We also show that FLDCRF performs better over the concatenated motion and context features when compared with existing state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. The results show accurate estimates of pedestrian intention with high average probabilities (>0.7) as early as 1.2 second before the performed action.
Dark Networks as Problems

Networks and networking are viewed as ways of dealing with complex problems that beset both the state and society. Homelessness, health care, and crime are all viewed as problems that networks can manage better than single organizations can. This article views these problems as networks that must be confronted if Western democracies wish to deal with terrorism, drug smuggling, and the manifold pathologies that confront failed states. In this article we adopt the perspective of networks as problems. The majority of the literature on networks and collaboration is quite positive. Collaborative networks are seen as appropriate devices to tackle public management problems and successfully coordinate political, social, and economic action. From the level of global governance, European integration, sectoral policy networks at the national level, and service implementation networks at the local level, these devices are all viewed as ways of solving governance problems in a complex and differentiated world. The research proposed here intends to develop a more holistic view of this phenomenon by looking at dark networks. The article tries to evaluate how network structures and governance are used for criminal or immoral ends. Because the judgment of ends is inherently normative, we propose to talk about overt and legal versus covert and illegal networks. We then analyze where the similarities and differences between the two sets are and what we might be able to learn regarding both forms if we mirror them against each other. The article develops a set of propositions drawn from selected cases of drug-trafficking networks, the diamond and weapons trade, and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Most of the literature on networks and collaboration is quite positive. Collaborative networks are seen as appropriate devices to tackle public management problems and to successfully coordinate political, social, and economic action. Figure 1 portrays a familiar relationship between public organizations and problems. Each organization (01, 02, 03, and 04) intersects with only part of the problem, and none of the organizations is linked in any kind of a A first version of this article was presented at the International Conference on the Empirical Study of Governance, Management, and Performance, Barcelona, 4-5 October 2002. We would like to thank the participants of the conference, especially Larry O'Toole, for their helpful comments on the revision of this article. DOI: 10.1093/jopart/mug029 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 413-439 c 2003 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc. This content downloaded from 207.46. 13.15 on Sat, 23 Apr 2016 05:07:31 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms 414 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Figure 1 The Rationale for Network Collaboration
The efficiency of community detection by most similar node pairs

Individuals that share common properties self-organize into communities. Therefore, community analysis is an important way to ascertain whether or not a complex system consists of sub-structures with different properties. In this paper, we give a two-level community structure analysis for the SSCI journal system by most similar node pairs. Five different strategies for the selection of node pairs are introduced. The efficiency is checked by normalized mutual information (NMI) technique. Statistical properties and comparisons of the community results show that both of the two level detections could give instructional information for the community structure in complex systems. Further comparisons of the five strategies show more indications. Firstly, it is always efficient to assign individuals with maximum similarity into the same community whether the interaction information is complete or not; secondly, rational random selection plays an important role in community diversity, and it is not a good idea to keep two much information for rational random selection; finally, random selection generates small-world community structure with no inside order. These results give valuable indication for efficient and stable community detection for huge complex systems with big interaction data.
Donor Policies, Industry Structure, and the Global Allocation of Electrification Aid, 1970-2001

Access to electricity is widely recognized as an essential element of economic development. This paper uses a comprehensive dataset on electrification aid projects to quantify and model the determinants of multilateral and bilateral electrification aid in the last three decades of the 20th century. Total annual electrification aid fluctuated substantially over the period. While multilateral and bilateral donors were relatively concentrated, aid recipients were widely dispersed. Our major finding is that electrification aid by the 1990s had moved marginally toward poorer countries, except for those in Africa, and toward countries with better governance structures and ones that had restructured their electric power sector. This likely reflected the liberalization and privatization policies affecting the industry from the mid-1980s on.
Extent of peri-implantitis-associated bone loss.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study was to describe the extent of peri-implantitis-associated bone loss with regard to implant position. MATERIAL AND METHODS Patient files and intra-oral radiographs from 182 subjects were analysed. Among the 1070 examined implants, 419 exhibited peri-implantitis-associated bone loss. The position of each implant within the jaw and fixed reconstructions was determined. In the radiographs the distance between the abutment-fixture junction and the most coronal position of bone to implant contact was assessed at the 419 "affected" implants using a magnifying lens (x 7) with a 0.1 mm graded scale. RESULTS About 40% of the implants in each subject was affected by peri-implantitis-associated bone loss. The proportion of such implants varied between 30% and 52% in different jaw positions and the most common position was the lower front region. In addition, affected implants were found in larger proportions among "mid" than "end" abutments irrespective of supporting fixed complete or fixed partial dentures. CONCLUSION It is suggested that peri-implantitis occurs in all jaw positions and that an "end"-abutment position in a fixed reconstruction is not associated with an enhanced risk for peri-implantitis.
Appendicular robusticity and the paleobiology of modern human emergence.

The emergence of modern humans in the Late Pleistocene, whatever its phylogenetic history, was characterized by a series of behaviorally important shifts reflected in aspects of human hard tissue biology and the archeological record. To elucidate these shifts further, diaphyseal cross-sectional morphology was analyzed by using cross-sectional areas and second moments of area of the mid-distal humerus and midshaft femur. The humeral diaphysis indicates a gradual reduction in habitual load levels from Eurasian late archaic, to Early Upper Paleolithic early modern, to Middle Upper Paleolithic early modern hominids, with the Levantine Middle Paleolithic early modern humans being a gracile anomalous outlier. The femoral diaphysis, once variation in ecogeographically patterned body proportions is taken into account, indicates no changes across the pre-30,000 years B.P. samples in habitual locomotor load levels, followed by a modest decrease through the Middle Upper Paleolithic.
Funky offices: Reflections on office design in the ‘new economy’

This paper discusses office design in the ‘new economy’. Office buildings of dot.com companies seem to be dominated by colourful materials, luxurious facilities such as gyms or lounge areas and gimmicks such as jukeboxes and pool tables. Employees ‘float’ around in these offices wherever and whenever they want. Such work environments seem very attractive and productive. Still, the meaning and relevance of such ‘fun offices’ can be questioned. In this paper the authors try to explain where this informal and casual office style comes from, relating it to labour market developments and changes in organisational culture. Secondly, they discuss the merits of ‘fun’ office design. How does it affect people’s creativity, their ideas about work and the distinction between work and private life?
Catalytic Activities of Glycogenin Additional to Autocatalytic Self-glucosylation (*)

Glycogenin is the autocatalytic, self-glucosylating protein that initiates glycogen synthesis in muscle and other tissues. We have sequenced the cDNA for rabbit muscle glycogenin and expressed and purified the protein in high yield as well as two mutant proteins in which Phe or Thr replaces Tyr-194, the site of glucosylation. While the wild-type protein can self-glucosylate, the mutants cannot, but all three utilize alternative acceptors by intermolecular glucose transfer for which the mutants have altered specificity. Tyr-194 is therefore not essential for the catalytic activity of glycogenin. All three proteins also hydrolyze UDP-glucose to glucose at rates comparable with the rate of self-glucosylation. The hydrolysis is competitive with glucose transfer to p-nitrophenyl α-maltoside. Self-glucosylation, glucosylation of other acceptors, and hydrolysis all appear to be catalyzed by the same active center. In the absence of peptidase inhibitors, the homogenous recombinant proteins of Mr 37,000 break down to equally active species having Mr 32,000. The kinetics of self-glucosylation catalyzed by the wild-type enzyme suggest that the reaction could be intermolecular rather than, as previously reported, intramolecular. The wild-type recombinant enzyme and native muscle glycogenin, which is phosphorylated, are inhibited quite differently by ATP at physiological concentration.
Identity economics: towards a more realistic economic agent?

In times of the global crisis, where most governments are eager to cut their deficits, but at the same time do not want to raise taxes too much, politicians and economists alike should take a closer look at George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton’s recently published book Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-being. One of the main conclusions that can be drawn from their work in terms of political economy is that many desired changes in people’s behaviour can be induced not by changing prices and people’s income, as standard economics would suggest, but by modifying existing norms and ideals that particular groups of people follow as well as existing stereotypes associated for example with gender and race. Doing so with information campaigns and education programmes would cost money too, but it may actually be cheaper, more efficient in the long run and also more welfare improving than any monetary gains and losses imposed on people. For example, according to Akerlof and Kranton’s identity economics approach, removing the gender tag from jobs (such as for example ‘female’ nurses and ‘male’ doctors) would increase women’s participation in the labour force and decrease occupational segregation (p. 90). Why is this so? Because this would change people’s identity and leave them, in this particular case, with more choices concerning professional careers and occupations. This is certainly an important welfare improving aspect. Identity as understood by Akerlof and Kranton is formed by the ‘social categories’ to which people belong (p. 13). Each of these social categories has particular norms and ideals, which people not only follow, but also believe in and actually cherish. This is different from standard economics, where norms are interpreted as constraints that people follow because otherwise they would be punished and this would impose a cost. Here however, people want to follow norms. Norms are an important source of motivation. Given different social categories, there are different norms and ideals; this explains why people with otherwise similar backgrounds (such as e.g. schooling, education, professional experience, etc.) but who belong to different categories (e.g. men, women) may still end up in different social positions and hence with different economic outcomes (e.g. doctor, nurse). This explanation is, according to Akerlof and Kranton, their big contribution to economics and it follows a list of other, previous amendments proposed over the last decades that bring economics closer to reality. They especially distinguish themselves from Gary Becker’s approach that extended traditional utility functions to include a diversity of social aspects and not only typical consumption goods. Like Becker, Akerlof and Kranton’s identity economics focuses on the individual in the social setting, but in their approach tastes and motivations can change according to context and are not universally stable and given as Becker had assumed them to be.
Structural Diversity of Mitochondria

Mitochondria display considerable structural diversity particularly in terms of the folding of the energy‐transducing inner membrane. The hypothesis is forwarded that the topology of the mitochondrial inner membrane is not random but rather is a regulated cell parameter. Its effects on internal diffusion of metabolites and soluble proteins can influence such mitochondrial processes as ATP production and protein release during apoptosis. Progress toward understanding the factors that control mitochondrial inner‐membrane curvature and dynamics (fusion and fission) is summarized, with a focus on remodeling events associated with apoptosis and oxidative stress.
Drug and alcohol treatment providers’ views about the disease model of addiction and its impact on clinical practice: A systematic review

ISSUES Addiction treatment providers' views about the disease model of addiction (DMA), and their contemporary views about the brain disease model of addiction (BDMA), remain an understudied area. We systematically reviewed treatment providers' attitudes about the DMA/BDMA, examined factors associated with positive or negative attitudes and assessed their views on the potential clinical impact of both models. APPROACH Pubmed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus and Sociological Abstracts were systematically searched. Original papers on treatment providers' views about the DMA/BDMA and its clinical impact were included. Studies focussing on tobacco, behavioural addictions or non-Western populations were excluded. KEY FINDINGS The 34 included studies were predominantly quantitative and conducted in the USA. Among mixed findings of treatment providers' support for the DMA, strong validity studies indicated treatment providers supported the disease concept and moral, free-will or social models simultaneously. Support for the DMA was positively associated with treatment providers' age, year of qualification, certification status, religious beliefs, being in recovery and Alcoholics Anonymous attendance. Greater education was negatively associated with DMA support. Treatment providers identified potential positive (e.g. reduced stigma) and negative (e.g. increased sense of helplessness) impacts of the DMA on client behaviour. IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSION The review suggests treatment providers may endorse disease and other models while strategically deploying the DMA for presumed therapeutic benefits. Varying DMA support across workforces indicated service users may experience multiple and potentially contradictory explanations of addiction. Future policy development will benefit by considering how treatment providers adopt disease concepts in practice.
Do Firms in Transition Economies Have Soft Budget Constraints? A Reconsideration of Concepts and Evidence

This paper first examines various definitions of Kornai's soft budget constraint (SBC) and the difficulties involved in interpreting data on losses, subsidies and financing, and then considers selective evidence from transition economies. Stocks of overdue trade credit are no larger than in Western economies and firms in transition economies (TEs) typically impose hard budget constraints on each other. Banks have not been a systematic source of SBCs as often as is sometimes argued on the basis of data on classified loans; in 1992 Hungarian banks were imposing hard budget constraints on firms at the same time that they were classifying large volumes of their loans as bad. Tax arrears have emerged as a major source, and in the rapidly reforming TEs, the major source, of SBC's.
Control of Alternative Splicing by Signal-dependent Degradation of Splicing-regulatory Proteins*

Alternative pre-mRNA splicing is a major gene expression regulatory mechanism in metazoan organisms. Proteins that bind pre-mRNA elements and control assembly of splicing complexes regulate utilization of pre-mRNA alternative splice sites. To understand how signaling pathways impact this mechanism, an RNA interference screen in Drosophila S2 cells was used to identify proteins that regulate TAF1 (TBP-associated factor 1) alternative splicing in response to activation of the ATR (ATM-RAD3-related) signaling pathway by the chemotherapeutic drug camptothecin (CPT). The screen identified 15 proteins that, when knocked down, caused the same change in TAF1 alternative splicing as CPT treatment. However, combined RNA interference and CPT treatment experiments indicated that only a subset of the identified proteins are targets of the CPT-induced signal, suggesting that multiple independent pathways regulate TAF1 alternative splicing. To understand how signals modulate the function of splicing factors, we characterized one of the CPT targets, Tra2 (Transformer-2). CPT was found to down-regulate Tra2 protein levels. CPT-induced Tra2 down-regulation was ATR-dependent and temporally paralleled the change in TAF1 alternative splicing, supporting the conclusion that Tra2 directly regulates TAF1 alternative splicing. Additionally, CPT-induced Tra2 down-regulation occurred independently of new protein synthesis, suggesting a post-translational mechanism. The proteasome inhibitor MG132 reduced CPT-induced Tra2 degradation and TAF1 alternative splicing, and mutation of evolutionarily conserved Tra2 lysine 81, a potential ubiquitin conjugation site, to arginine inhibited CPT-induced Tra2 degradation, supporting a proteasome-dependent alternative splicing mechanism. We conclude that CPT-induced TAF1 alternative splicing occurs through ATR-signaled degradation of a subset of splicing-regulatory proteins.
A comparison of reinforcement learning based approaches to appliance scheduling

Reinforcement learning is often proposed as a technique for intelligent control in a smart home setup with dynamic real-time energy pricing and advanced sub-metering infrastructure. In this paper, we introduce a variation of State Action Reward State Action (SARSA) as an optimization algorithm for appliance scheduling in smart homes with multiple appliances and compare it with the popular reinforcement learning method Q-learning. A simple, intuitive and unique treelike Markov decision process (MDP) structure of appliances is proposed which takes into account the states, such as on/off/runtime status, of all schedulable appliances but does not require the knowledge of the state to state transition probabilities.
Impedance Model-Based SSR Analysis for TCSC Compensated Type-3 Wind Energy Delivery Systems

This paper employs impedance model-based frequency domain analysis to detect subsynchronous resonances (SSRs) in Type-3 wind farms with thyristor-controlled series capacitor (TCSC). The contributions of this paper are 1)the derivation of dynamic phasor-based TCSC impedance model and 2)the application of such an impedance model in Type-3 wind energy systems for SSR analysis. Impedance models for TCSC with constant firing angle control and impedance control are derived in this paper. With the derived impedance models, Nyquist stability criterion is applied to compare SSR stability in Type-3 wind farm with TCSC or with fixed capacitor compensation. This paper employs analytical models to demonstrate TCSCs capability in avoiding SSR in Type-3 wind generator interconnection systems. The analytical results obtained through impedance models are validated by detail model-based (with thyristor switch-modeled) time-domain simulation in MATLAB/SimPowerSystems.
Philippine fiscal behavior in recent history

The Philippine national government had large and unsustainable budget deficits in the 1980s. But after a brief period of near-balanced budget in the mid-1990s, large deficits have reemerged in recent years. What explains the poor fiscal performance of the Philippines in recent years? Was it the result of unfortunate events, macroeconomic shocks, or misdirected fiscal policy? The large public-sector deficits in the early 1980s and those in recent years have similarities and differences. Both episodes of deficits occurred during periods of soaring oil prices, high interest rates, and volatile foreign exchange rates. Both episodes were also associated with low tax effort. The gains from the 1986 tax reform program during the middle years were lost in recent years because of discretionary changes. Over time, spending priorities changed. Marcos focused on infrastructure spending, while Aquino and Estrada focused on social services. Investment in physical infrastructure has a positive effect on fiscal balance. It makes private investment more productive, reduces transactions costs, increases the profitability of private-sector businesses, and thus expands economic output.
Performance in European higher education: A non‐parametric production frontier approach

This study examines technical efficiency in European higher education (HE) institutions. To measure efficiency, we consider the capacity of each HE institution, on one hand, to provide competencies to graduates and, on the other hand, to match competencies provided during education to competencies required in the job. We use a large sample of young graduates interviewed three years after graduation from 209 HE institutions among eight European countries. A non‐parametric approach (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to evaluate efficiency of converting multiple inputs into multiple outputs. Objectives selected are consistent as the same types of institution are found to be efficient in different specifications.