Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patient-Reported Outcomes in Pleural Effusions: A Systematic Review

Pleural effusions cause breathlessness, decreased activity levels, and impaired quality of life. Clinical trials of drainage of pleural effusion use patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess these variables. This systematic review aimed to identify which PROMs have been used in clinical trials in pleural effusions, what variables were assessed, whether they were responsive to pleural interventions, and whether they have been validated in patients with pleural effusions, including a defined minimal clinically important difference (MCID). A systematic review was performed to identify relevant clinical trials from Medline, EMBASE, Emcare, and CINAHL and data were extracted. From 329 abstracts, 29 clinical trials of pleural effusion drainage that used PROMs as an outcome measure were identified. A total of 16 different PROMs were used. The most used PROMs were unidimensional measurements of breathlessness, particularly the visual analogue scale for dyspnoea (VASD), all of which nearly showed improvements in breathlessness following pleural fluid drainage. Other variables commonly assessed included activity levels and health-related quality of life. Multidimensional PROMs showed inconsistent responsiveness to pleural fluid drainage. Only the VASD was validated in this patient group with a defined MCID. A range of PROMs are used in clinical trials of pleural fluid drainage. No single PROM measures all the outcomes of interest. Unidimensional measurements of breathlessness are responsive to pleural fluid drainage. Only the VASD is validated with an MCID. There is a need for properly validated, response PROMs which measure the key outcomes of interest in this patient group.
KAMEL: A Scalable BERT-based System for Trajectory Imputation

Numerous important applications rely on detailed trajectory data. Yet, unfortunately, trajectory datasets are typically sparse with large spatial and temporal gaps between each two points, which is a major hurdle for their accuracy. This paper presents Kamel; a scalable trajectory imputation system that inserts additional realistic trajectory points, boosting the accuracy of trajectory applications. Kamel maps the trajectory imputation problem to finding the missing word problem; a classical problem in the natural language processing (NLP) community. This allows employing the widely used BERT model for trajectory imputation. However, BERT, as is, does not lend itself to the special characteristics of trajectories. Hence, Kamel starts from BERT, but then adds spatial-awareness to its operations, adjusts trajectory data to be closer to the nature of language data, and adds multipoint imputation ability to it; all encapsulated in one system. Experimental results based on real datasets show that Kamel significantly outperforms its competitors and is applicable to city-scale trajectories, large gaps, and tight accuracy thresholds.
When Civil Protection Meets Urban Planning: Conceptualising A Resilient City Development Process

It is the first time in history that more people are living in cities than in rural areas. As urban space has become the central aspect of modern societies creating new types of vulnerabilities, resilience has emerged as a key priority for urban planners as well as civil protection officers aiming to build smart and more disaster resilient cities. There is a large set of urban planning practices, such as hazard mapping and building permits, aiming at increasing urban disaster resilience. However, there is still a lack of endeavour to research how these urban planning processes are being incorporated into national civil protection systems. Therefore, this paper aims to bridge the gap and analyses the relationship between urban planning and civil protection in conceptualizing resilient space planning processes. In this paper, using a case study approach, we examine if and how, the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) integrates urban planning and civil protection in Denmark in order to build more resilient cities. To do this, we draw upon the knowledge of those working within the urban planning and civil protection systems to identify the opportunities and obstacles for the existence of their cooperation. Copenhagen, ranked the world’s most climate resilient city, was selected for the urban planning case analysis, as well as Vejle, being part of the “100 Resilient Cities” network. The results indicate that although both DEMA and urban planners aim to build disaster resilient cities and wish to contribute to creating a more resilient society, the dialogue between the two bodies is almost non-existent with regards to resilient urban space planning processes.
Updating residual stem volume estimates using ALS- and UAV-acquired stereo-photogrammetric point clouds

ABSTRACT To improve precision management and the cost effectiveness of forest practices, we investigate a pre-harvest airborne laser scanning (ALS) forest inventory with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) acquired post-harvest digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) inventory to identify the location and residual volume of stands following selection harvesting. ALS data and field measurements collected pre-harvest in 2013 (T1) and UAV imagery collected post-harvest in 2015 (T2) were processed to produce analogous point clouds of the study area near Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Tree height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and species were recorded from systematically located variable radius plots subsequent to ALS and DAP collection. Point cloud metrics and field measurements from each data set were used to create T1 ALS and T2 DAP predictive volume models. Direct and indirect volume change estimates were created from the difference between T1 ALS and T2 DAP model results. The estimated root mean square error (RMSE) for volume was 17.34% and 18.50% for the 2013 ALS and 2015 DAP models, respectively. The indirect and direct models predicting volume change produced errors of 16.65% and 86.56%, respectively. Results achieved from ALS and DAP models indicate strong potential for inventories generated using UAV-acquired DAP to estimate the quantity and location of residual volume after harvest operations, and could be applied in tandem to act as a semi-automated inventory cycling method to improve operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in Canadian forest management.
Convective thinning of the lithosphere: A mechanism for the initiation of continental rifting

Thinning of the lithosphere by heat carried convectively to its base is a possible mechanism for the initiation of continental rifting. The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary marks the transition from a quasi-rigid behavior of the mantle on geological time scales to a viscous one. The boundary lies at or close to the solidus of the mantle material and its position is a function of temperature and pressure. Additional heat carried to the boundary will cause it to rise and the lithosphere to thin. A one-dimensional model is used to study the upward movement of the boundary from an initial equilibrium position as a consequence of an increase in the heat flux from the convecting mantle. The ratio of the amount of thinning to the initial thickness is directly proportional to the increase in heat flux from the asthenosphere and inversely proportional to the difference between the final subcrustal geothermal gradient and the slope of the transition temperature profile. The rate of thinning is determined by the initial and final equilibrium thicknesses, the thermal diffusivity, the transition temperature profile and the plume temperature profile. It depends only slightly on any latent heat associated with the lithosphere-asthenosphere transition. During a large fraction of the time between the initial and final equilibrium states, the lithosphere thins at a rate which is inversely proportional to the square root of time t. Even 300-km-thick lithospheres may be thinned to 50 km or crustal thicknesses in tens of million years by the heat advected by mantle plumes. This heat contributes to an enhanced surface heat flow. Because of the constant level of radioactive heat production in the crust, the ratio of the final to the initial surface heat flow increases much less than the ratio of the final to the initial heat flow from the asthenosphere. For large increases in asthenospheric heat flow, the lithosphere is almost thinned to the crust before any significant change of surface heat flow occurs. Uplift due to thermal expansion upon lithospheric thinning is of the order of 102–103 m. A Rayleigh-Taylor instability acting on the thinning lithosphere may further increase thinning rates and cause magmatic intrusions of the lithosphere and surface volcanism.
On the Evaluation of Diverse Vision Systems towards Detecting Human Pose in Collaborative Robot Applications

Tracking human operators working in the vicinity of collaborative robots can improve the design of safety architecture, ergonomics, and the execution of assembly tasks in a human–robot collaboration scenario. Three commercial spatial computation kits were used along with their Software Development Kits that provide various real-time functionalities to track human poses. The paper explored the possibility of combining the capabilities of different hardware systems and software frameworks that may lead to better performance and accuracy in detecting the human pose in collaborative robotic applications. This study assessed their performance in two different human poses at six depth levels, comparing the raw data and noise-reducing filtered data. In addition, a laser measurement device was employed as a ground truth indicator, together with the average Root Mean Square Error as an error metric. The obtained results were analysed and compared in terms of positional accuracy and repeatability, indicating the dependence of the sensors’ performance on the tracking distance. A Kalman-based filter was applied to fuse the human skeleton data and then to reconstruct the operator’s poses considering their performance in different distance zones. The results indicated that at a distance less than 3 m, Microsoft Azure Kinect demonstrated better tracking performance, followed by Intel RealSense D455 and Stereolabs ZED2, while at ranges higher than 3 m, ZED2 had superior tracking performance.
Stormflow generation in forest headwater catchments: a hydrogeomorphic approach

During the past few decades, different paradigms have emerged to describe the processes of stormflow generation in steep, forested headwater catchments. A hydrogeomorphic model has recently been developed, based on studies in Japan, to explain stormflow response. This conceptual model recognizes the close coupling of hillslope and channel hydrological processes and the unique contributions of geomorphic features in the catchment. The model can be used to assess the effects of various forest management practices, including protection forests, on stormflow generation. For the driest conditions, catchment water yield is very low and runoff occurs as saturated overland flow from the small riparian zone and via direct channel interception. For slightly wetter conditions, subsurface flow from the soil matrix augments stormflow. As wetness increases, two significant non-linear hydrologic responses occur: 1) a threshold response in geomorphic hollows (zero-order basins) where runoff initiates after an accumulation of shallow groundwater; and 2) self-organization and expansion of preferential flow pathways, which facilitate subsurface drainage. Increases in stormflow during periods of increasing antecedent wetness depend upon temporal and spatial linkages, and the unique hydrologic behavior of three components: riparian corridors, linear hillslopes and geomorphic hollows. These linkages form the basis of the hydrogeomorphic concept of stormflow generation.
An A-Φ Formulation Solver in Electromagnetics Based on Discrete Exterior Calculus

An efficient numerical solver for the A-Φ formulation in electromagnetics based on discrete exterior calculus (DEC) is proposed in this paper. The A-Φ formulation, where A is the vector potential and Φ is the scalar potential, can be decoupled by using the generalized Lorenz gauge. Compared with the E-H formulation in Maxwell’s equations, the A-Φ formulation is immune to low-frequency breakdown thanks to the additional gauge term which removes the null space of the double curl operator. Thus, the A-Φ formulation is ideal for broadband and multi-scale analysis in electromagnetics. In addition, as the rapid development of quantum technology, the incorporation of quantum effects in computational electromagnetics is attracting increasing attention. The potential quantities A and Φ are natural bridges that connect classical electromagnetics with quantum effects, which fact gives another advantage in solving the A-Φ formulation over the E-H formulation. Exterior calculus is a concept in differential geometry, where physical quantities, such as the vector potential A and scalar potential Φ, are cast into differential forms and their physical equations are described by exterior calculus operators. Differential geometry and exterior calculus offer new insights into electromagnetic problems as well as how the A-Φ equations should be discretized. Discrete exterior calculus is the discretized version of exterior calculus for digital computations. In general, DEC can be viewed as a generalized version of the finite difference method, where the Stokes’ theorem and Gauss’s theorem are naturally preserved. The preservation of Stokes’ theorem and Gauss’s theorem can get rid of spurious solutions, which can improve computational accuracy. Furthermore, compared with finite difference method, where rectangular grids are applied, DEC can be implemented with more flexible meshes, such as tetrahedral meshes. It makes DEC be able to capture complicated structures more easily and efficiently. In this paper, the A-Φ formulation along with the generalized Lorenz gauge are presented, and its DEC matrix equations are introduced as well. The proposed algorithm is validated with numerical example at the end of the paper.
Is Bitcoin Really Un-Tethered?

This paper investigates whether Tether, a digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar, influenced Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices during the 2017 boom. Using algorithms to analyze blockchain data, we find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in sizable increases in Bitcoin prices. The flow is attributable to one entity, clusters below round prices, induces asymmetric autocorrelations in Bitcoin, and suggests insufficient Tether reserves before month-ends. Rather than demand from cash investors, these patterns are most consistent with the supply-based hypothesis of unbacked digital money inflating cryptocurrency prices.
RECOVERY SYSTEM OF THE MULTI-HELICOPTER UAV

The developments of UAS over the last decades have imposed approaches regarding the recover and rescue segment for aerial vectors. Operational and research requirements for UAV impose the use of recover systems due to the nature of the missions. The main purpose of the paper is to offer a global image regarding the recover and salvation systems used of the UAVs. Keyworks: Unmanned aerial vehicles/sistems (UAV/UAS), recover system, multi-helicopter, paragliding
IPCA-SVM based real-time wrinkling detection approaches for strip steel production process

Strip steel wrinkling is one of the common problems in strip steel production line. The wrinkling phenomenon has a serious impact on the quality of the products, resulting in product waste, and even leading to the entire production line downtime. The key point to solve the problem is real-time detection for strip wrinkling while making an early warning. This paper proposes an IPCA-SVM based online wrinkling detection approach. IPCA is used to compress each frame image from industrial camera and extract effective features from frame images. The projection coefficients of each frame image on the principal components are the inputs to SVM model for classification. Experiment results show that the proposed method is valid for real-time wrinkling detection for strip steel production process.
Autosomal dominant optic atrophy and cataract “plus” phenotype including axonal neuropathy

Objective To characterize the phenotype in individuals with OPA3-related autosomal dominant optic atrophy and cataract (ADOAC) and peripheral neuropathy (PN). Methods Two probands with multiple affected relatives and one sporadic case were referred for evaluation of a PN. Their phenotype was determined by clinical ± neurophysiological assessment. Neuropathologic examination of sural nerve and skeletal muscle, and ultrastructural analysis of mitochondria in fibroblasts were performed in one case. Exome sequencing was performed in the probands. Results The main clinical features in one family (n = 7 affected individuals) and one sporadic case were early-onset cataracts (n = 7), symptoms of gastrointestinal dysmotility (n = 8), and possible/confirmed PN (n = 7). Impaired vision was an early-onset feature in another family (n = 4 affected individuals), in which 3 members had symptoms of gastrointestinal dysmotility and 2 developed PN and cataracts. The less common features among all individuals included symptoms/signs of autonomic dysfunction (n = 3), hearing loss (n = 3), and recurrent pancreatitis (n = 1). In 5 individuals, the neuropathy was axonal and clinically asymptomatic (n = 1), sensory-predominant (n = 2), or motor and sensory (n = 2). In one patient, nerve biopsy revealed a loss of large and small myelinated fibers. In fibroblasts, mitochondria were frequently enlarged with slightly fragmented cristae. The exome sequencing identified OPA3 variants in all probands: a novel variant (c.23T>C) and the known mutation (c.313C>G) in OPA3. Conclusions A syndromic form of ADOAC (ADOAC+), in which axonal neuropathy may be a major feature, is described. OPA3 mutations should be included in the differential diagnosis of complex inherited PN, even in the absence of clinically apparent optic atrophy.
Factors Influencing Responses of Loblolly Pine Stands to Fertilization

ROJAS, JULIO CESAR. Factors influencing responses of loblolly pine stands to fertilization (Under the direction of Dr. H. Lee Allen). Fertilization of pine plantations has increased dramatically in the last decade. Over 600,000 hectares are being fertilized annually to overcome chronic widespread nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) limitations. However, responses to fertilization vary widely since specific responses after fertilization for any particular stand will be the result of complex interactions of nutrients and rates applied, stand and site conditions at time of application, years since application, and climatic conditions after application. Stand, soil and forest floor (FF) responses to fertilizations were assessed at three different sites located in the “flatwoods” area of southeast Georgia and northeast Florida after five years of repeated fertilizer additions. Significant leaf area index (LAI), stemwood growth and FF responses were found at all three sites. Leaf area index was double for some treated plots as compared to control plots (from 1.4 to 3.0), five year cumulative growth on treated plots almost tripled that of the control plots (32 to 89 m ha ). Soil N availability increased dramatically soon after fertilization however, it decreased few months after application. Several nutrients affected growth at these three sites, N and P at all three sites and potassium (K) and manganese (Mn) at the Georgia study sites. Factors affecting growth efficiency (GE) of loblolly pine plantations across the southeast were examined using 86 studies sites with different climatic, edaphic and stand conditions. Two modeling approaches were developed, one where GE would change with levels of LAI (non-linear using Gompertz model) and a second where GE was independent of the level of LAI (linear model), in both cases significant reduction in RMSE (>200%) was achieved when parameters in the models were allowed to be functions of edaphic, climatic and stand characteristics. In conclusion, GE is a dynamic rather than static stand parameter; it changes with stand age, drainage, soil texture and climate. Current year climatic variables were better predictors of GE than long term climatic averages, indicating that the inter-annual variation on temperature and rainfall exerts great influence on GE. Further modeling efforts were undertaken to determine factors affecting the variation in growth responses to N+P fertilization in loblolly pine stands. By utilizing a standardization procedure on the original data, 66% of the variation in the standard response was explained by LAI, Foliar N, and growth efficiency. These variables are ecophysiological variables proposed as drivers of stand response to fertilizer application(s). Two other variables, quadratic mean diameter ( q D ), and stand age were also significant predictors in the model. Factors influencing responses of loblolly pine stands to fertilization
Image alignment by line triples

An algorithm has been developed to automatically align the two images of a stereo pair by using line features called line triples. Each triple consists of three line segments. The center segment can be either a straight line or a circular arc, while the two end segments must be straight. A line triple is characterized by the type of center segment, the length of the individual segments, and the magnitude of the two deflection angles. The alignment process yields the conformal transformation parameters (two translations, one rotation, and one scale factor) between the two images. The algorithm has been successfully tested using several stereo pairs, two of which are reported in this paper.
How countries plan to address agricultural adaptation and mitigation: An analysis of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. CCAFS dataset

In its founding documents, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) seeks the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to “ensure[s] that food production is not threatened” (UNFCCC 1992. Article 2). In addition, agriculture is listed among the sectors falling within the obligation of Parties to develop mitigation plans and measures (UNFCCC 1992. Article 4.1(c)). However, agriculture has historically been excluded from the UNFCCC negotiations (Kalfagianni and Duyck 2015). There was a breakthrough at COP17 in Durban (2011) when agriculture was referred to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) for an eventual decision on agriculture. But progress thereafter remained slow, with four agricultural topics identified for discussion in 2015 and 2016. Despite this lack of progress, agriculture is prominent in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by Parties to the UNFCCC (Richards et al. 2015). Of 160 Party submissions analysed, 103 include agricultural mitigation. And of the 113 Parties that include adaptation in their INDCs, almost all (102) include agriculture among their adaptation priorities.