Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Notes on Urban Planning, Landscape and Architecture of Nabataean Petra Paradigm

Hellenism was a real cultural force in Nabataean Petra's urban planning and architectural products. Petra is a paradigm of our knowledge of how the Nabataeans designed and built their urban settlement. In approaching the city, one immediately notices how they planned the city to maximise and take advantage of the accessible majestic landscape topography. They created an extraordinary metropolis in the city centre and the surrounding sandstone mountains. There are many aspects of the particularity and creativity of Nabataean culture during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In the Nabataean Petra paradigm, we can observe the following: cultural interaction, cultural interchange, cultural exchange, cultural adaptation, and cultural sharing, which acted as cultural links between the peoples of the east and west. Thus, creating a new expression and direction of the cultural sharing between the East and West. Metropolitan cities, as in the case of the Nabataean Petra, are focal points where these changes and their effects are experienced significantly.This paper attempts to shed light on the functional, structural, typological, and morphological conceptions and aspects of the urban development and architecture of Nabataean Petra, particularly in the public spaces of the city centre and the surrounding tomb architecture. It argues that this development and formation was the expression of the highly developed self-image of the citizens of Petra reflected in its urban planning, landscape, architecture, and cultural significance.
Human Leukocyte Antigen as a Predictor of COVID-19 Severity

Since the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many countries have been suffering from the disease, and patients exhibit an extensive spectrum of symptoms from mild to severe, and in some cases, it leads to death. Identifying vulnerability factors may help detect very high-risk subjects to prevent disease mortality. Since people have different human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles, and the frequency of the alleles varies between different races and geographic regions, it is inferred that there is an association between HLA and the vulnerability of the population. The present study aimed to find the most frequent HLA alleles that profoundly affect COVID-19 outcomes. To find the relevant articles, medical databases (Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and the like) were searched by the keywords, and the results related to the association between HLA and COVID-19 morbidity were selected and briefly presented. Regarding the extracted information from several studies, HLA alleles with a strong affinity to COVID-19 epitopes such as HLA-A*11:01, HLA-A*02:06, and HLA-B*54:01 could result in mild symptoms, while those with weak affinity such as HLA-B*44:06 and HLA-B*46:01 contributed to severe symptoms and high mortality rate. Further, heterozygosity and frequency of HLA alleles could affect the disease outcome within populations. As a result, the vulnerability of the patients can be predicted through their HLA pattern, and preventive measures can be taken instantly for populations expressing high-risk alleles. HLA can be assumed as a global predictor of COVID-19 disease outcomes. High frequent alleles which affect the outcome of the disease are introduced as susceptibility-determining alleles.
On momentum images of representations and secant varieties

Let $K$ be a connected compact semisimple group and $V_\lambda$ be an irreducible unitary representation with highest weight $\lambda$. We study the momentum map $\mu:\mathbb P(V_\lambda)\to\mathfrak k^*$. The intersection $\mu(\mathbb P(V_\lambda))^+=\mu(\mathbb P(V_\lambda))\cap{\mathfrak t}^+$ of the momentum image with a fixed Weyl chamber is a convex polytope called the momentum polytope of $V_\lambda$. We construct an affine rational polyhedral convex cone $\Upsilon_\lambda$ with vertex $\lambda$, such that $\mu(\mathbb P(V_\lambda))^+\subset\Upsilon_\lambda \cap {\mathfrak t}^+$. We show that equality holds for a class of representations, including those with regular highest weight. For those cases, we obtain a complete combinatorial description of the momentum polytope, in terms of $\lambda$. We also present some results on the critical points of $||\mu||^2$. Namely, we consider the existence problem for critical points in the preimages of Kirwan's candidates for critical values. Also, we consider the secant varieties to the unique complex orbit $\mathbb X\subset\mathbb P(V_\lambda)$, and prove a relation between the momentum images of the secant varieties and the degrees of $K$-invariant polynomials on $V_\lambda$.
Random walk on unipotent matrix groups

We introduce a new method for proving central limit theorems for random walk on nilpotent groups. The method is illustrated in a local central limit theorem on the Heisenberg group, weakening the necessary conditions on the driving measure. As a second illustration, the method is used to study walks on the $n\times n$ uni-upper triangular group with entries taken modulo $p$. The method allows sharp answers to the behavior of individual coordinates: coordinates immediately above the diagonal require order $p^2$ steps for randomness, coordinates on the second diagonal require order $p$ steps; coordinates on the $k$th diagonal require order $p^{\frac{2}{k}}$ steps.
Harmonic analysis of a class of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces arising from groups

We study two extension problems, and their interconnections: (i) extension of positive definite (p.d.) continuous functions defined on subsets in locally compact groups $G$; and (ii) (in case of Lie groups $G$) representations of the associated Lie algebras $La\left(G\right)$, i.e., representations of $La\left(G\right)$ by unbounded skew-Hermitian operators acting in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space $\mathscr{H}_{F}$ (RKHS). Our analysis is non-trivial even if $G=\mathbb{R}^{n}$, and even if $n=1$. If $G=\mathbb{R}^{n}$, (ii), we are concerned with finding systems of strongly commuting selfadjoint operators $\left\{ T_{i}\right\} $ extending a system of commuting Hermitian operators with common dense domain in $\mathscr{H}_{F}$. Specifically, we consider partially defined positive definite (p.d.) continuous functions $F$ on a fixed group. From $F$ we then build a reproducing kernel Hilbert space $\mathscr{H}_{F}$, and the operator extension problem is concerned with operators acting in $\mathscr{H}_{F}$, and with unitary representations of $G$ acting on $\mathscr{H}_{F}$. Our emphasis is on the interplay between the two problems, and on the harmonic analysis of our RKHSs $\mathscr{H}_{F}$.
Critical Communication Simulation in Natural Disaster Situations

After natural disasters such as earthquake, flood, hurricane; because of damage to telephone and internet networks and instantaneous traffic density created by subscribers, voice and data networks lose their functions to a large extent. Service providers make many practices to prevent service interruptions in communication networks and not to disrupt the operation of the protocols used during and after a natural disaster. Since natural disasters are non-repeatable and unpredictable, these measures cannot be carried out with comprehensive assessments. In this context, simulation software is the best approach for testing communication networks in case of natural disasters. In this study, the issue of analyzing the outages that may occur in the infrastructure of Telecom service providers after natural disasters with network simulations is mentioned.
The Effect of Career Development and Employee Involvement on Employee Performance through Job Satisfaction as a Mediation Variable at the Aceh Population Registration Office

This study aims to examine the career development and employee involvement contribution to employee performance through job satisfaction at the Aceh Population Registration Office. The population is Aceh Population Registration Office employees with a total of 81 people. The number of respondents was determined by the census method where the entire population members were the respondents in this study. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SEM-AMOS. The results reveal that in Aceh Population Registration Office the career development, employee involvement, satisfaction, and the employee performance are good, career development affects satisfaction, involvement affects satisfaction, career development affects the Office's employee performance, employee involvement affects the Office's employee performance, satisfaction affects the Office's employee performance, career development affects the Office's employee performance through satisfaction, and involvement affects the Office’s employee performance through Satisfaction. The findings also explain satisfaction as a partial mediator in the model. The result explains the employee performance improvement model of the Aceh Population Registration Office is a function of increasing satisfaction based on career development and employee involvement.
Additive Schwarz preconditioner for the general finite volume element discretization of symmetric elliptic problems

A symmetric and a nonsymmetric variant of the additive Schwarz preconditioner are proposed for the solution of a nonsymmetric system of algebraic equations arising from a general finite volume element discretization of symmetric elliptic problems with large jumps in the entries of the coefficient matrices across subdomains. It is shown in the analysis, that the convergence of the preconditioned GMRES iteration with the proposed preconditioners, depends polylogarithmically on the mesh parameters, in other words, the convergence is only weakly dependent on the mesh parameters, and it is robust with respect to the jumps in the coefficients.
EVALUATING THE ACCESSIBILITY OF A SUSTAINABLE CITY: CASE STUDY OF MASDAR CITY, UAE

An epitome of a sustainable city, Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates, boasts of its integrated land use and multi-modal transportation network. When developed as planned, it could be an example for designing future cities. However, little is known of how accessible it could be in spite of its unique design. Conversely, accessibility, as a conceptual and operational definition, has gone through several iterations. However, it still remains an often misunderstood and poorly defined and measured construct. Masdar City, as planned, consists of several types of sustainable transportation options including walking, biking, personal rapid transit (PRT), group rapid transit (GRT), bus/light rapid transit, and metro. The hierarchical additive approach (considering both spatial analysis and the time-based analysis), reports that majority of Masdar City has low accessibility to the regional metro station. Also, the result indicates that more than half of the city will need between 13.1 to 25 minutes, with an average of 15 minutes, to reach the metro station. In all, the city has medium accessibility to the metro station with opportunities to enhance the overall accessibility. Elimination of transit stops that are redundant can reduce the headway and stalling time and hence the total travel time. Also, by locating new transit stops (bus, PRT or LRT) in grids where access to closest public transit is more than 400 m by walking can help balance the capital cost of infrastructure (public transit) while improving the accessibility to the regional metro for its residents. The follow-up analysis reported that the medium accessibility increased from 20% to 24%. Evaluation of accessibility in planned areas (city or neighbourhood) can provide insights on efficiency of a sustainable city such as Masdar City.
Integer moments of complex Wishart matrices and Hurwitz numbers

We give formulae for the cumulants of complex Wishart (LUE) and inverse Wishart matrices (inverse LUE). Their large-N expansions are generating functions of double (strictly and weakly) monotone Hurwitz numbers which count constrained factorisations in the symmetric group. The two expansions can be compared and combined with a duality relation proved in [F. D. Cunden, F. Mezzadri, N. O'Connell and N. J. Simm, arXiv:1805.08760] to obtain: i) a combinatorial proof of the reflection formula between moments of LUE and inverse LUE at genus zero and, ii) a new functional relation between the generating functions of monotone and strictly monotone Hurwitz numbers. The main result resolves the integrality conjecture formulated in [F. D. Cunden, F. Mezzadri, N. J. Simm and P. Vivo, J. Phys. A 49 (2016)] on the time-delay cumulants in quantum chaotic transport. The precise combinatorial description of the cumulants given here may cast new light on the concordance between random matrix and semiclassical theories.
Maximally extended sl(2|2), q-deformed d(2,1;ϵ) and 3D kappa-Poincaré

We show that the maximal extension sl(2)⋉psl(2|2)⋉C3 of the sl(2|2) superalgebra can be obtained as a contraction limit of the semi-simple superalgebra d(2,1;ϵ)×sl(2). We reproduce earlier results on the corresponding q-deformed Hopf algebra and its universal R-matrix by means of contraction. We make the curious observation that the above algebra is related to kappa-Poincaré symmetry. When dropping the graded part psl(2|2) we find a novel one-parameter deformation of the 3D kappa-Poincaré algebra. Our construction also provides a concise exact expression for its universal R-matrix.
Graph Autoencoder-Based Embedded Learning in Dynamic Brain Networks for Autism Spectrum Disorder Identification

Recent applications of pattern recognition techniques to brain connectome-based classification focus on static functional connectivity (FC) neglecting the dynamics of FC over time, and use input connectivity matrices on a regular Euclidean grid. We exploit the graph convolutional networks (GCNs) to learn irregular structural patterns in brain FC networks and propose extensions to capture dynamic changes in network topology. We develop a dynamic graph autoencoder (DyGAE)-based framework to leverage the time-varying topological structures of dynamic brain networks for identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The framework combines a GCN-based DyGAE to encode individual-level dynamic networks into time-varying low-dimensional network embeddings, and classifiers based on weighted fully-connected neural network (FCNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) to facilitate dynamic graph classification via the learned spatial-temporal information. Evaluation on a large ABIDE resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) dataset shows that our method outperformed state-of-the-art methods in detecting altered FC in ASD. Dynamic FC analyses with DyGAE learned embeddings also reveal apparent group difference between ASD and healthy controls in network profiles and switching dynamics of brain states.
Looking for complementarities. Within-industry diversification and geographic diversification of Venture Capital Firms

ABSTRACT Research on Venture Capitalists' (VCs) industrial diversification is supplemented with the notion of diversification along an industry’s value chain. VCs are hypothesized to create a portfolio of complementary investments along the value chain, accompanied by low geographic diversification. Further, VCs specializing in an industry with network externalities are predicted to devote relatively more investments to this industry, followed by an increased propensity for diversification along the value chain. This, subsequently, will result in less geographic diversification. The hypotheses are supported through a study on VCs in the US and Europe. Contributions to the literature on VCs, diversification, geographic agglomeration and network effects are discussed.
SmartAccess: Attribute-Based Access Control System for Medical Records Based on Smart Contracts

Cross-organisation data sharing is challenging because all the involved organisations must agree on ‘how’ and ‘why’ the data is processed. Due to a lack of transparency, the organisations need to trust that others comply with the agreements and regulations. We propose to exploit blockchain and smart contracts technologies to define an Attribute-Based Access Control System for cross-organisation medical records sharing, coined SmartAccess. SmartAccess offers joint agreement over access policies and dynamic access control besides blockchain transparency and auditability. We leverage the Attribute-Based Access Control model to implement smart contracts. We deploy and test them on a private and permissioned blockchain, transforming the access control process into a distributed smart contract execution. This paper proposes the SmartAccess system and its application in two healthcare use cases. We introduce the threat model and perform a security analysis of the system. To demonstrate the feasibility of our proposal, we implement a proof-of-concept of the smart contracts, written in Solidity language, with a size-efficient policy representation, and analyse the complexity and scalability of the contracts’ functions. Furthermore, we present performance results, measuring the latency and throughput of the transactions to execute the access control functions with different blockchain network consensus setups. We also compare the performance of the SmartAccess system against two open-source Solidity implementations of smart contract-based access control, Role-based Access Control and Access Control List. Finally, we discuss the strengths and drawbacks of our proposal. SmartAccess requires the overhead of a decentralised system, but the trade-off is transparency, regulation compliance and auditability for complex cross-organisation data sharing.
Color Constancy Beyond Standard Illuminants

The effects of strong color casts in traditional, learning-based and data-driven color constancy algorithms is analyzed. This is the first study investigating the response of color constancy methods to illuminants on the edges and outside the color temperature curve. According to the comprehensive experiments, while traditional studies do not fail to "discount the illuminant" from inputs which have strong color casts, the efficiency of learning-based and data-driven algorithms in obtaining canonical outputs decreases significantly compared to traditional methods. We discuss the reasons behind this performance decay and introduce a traditional color constancy algorithm, which presents competitive results in a challenging dataset.
Actions of nonamenable groups on $\mathcal{Z}$-stable $C^*$-algebras

We study strongly outer actions of discrete groups on C*-algebras in relation to (non)amenability. In contrast to related results for amenable groups, where uniqueness of strongly outer actions on the Jiang-Su algebra is expected, we show that uniqueness fails for all nonamenable groups, and that the failure is drastic. Our main result implies that if $G$ contains a copy of the free group, then there exist uncountable many, non-cocycle conjugate strongly outer actions of $G$ on any Jiang-Su stable tracial C*-algebra. Similar conclusions apply for outer actions on McDuff tracial von Neumann algebras. We moreover show that $G$ is amenable if and only if the Bernoulli shift on a finite strongly self-absorbing C*-algebra absorbs the trivial action on the Jiang-Su algebra. Our methods consist in a careful study of weak containments of the Koopman representations of different Bernoulli-type actions.
A Multi-Period Regulation Methodology for Reliability as Service Quality Considering Reward-Penalty Scheme

In distribution systems, reliability insurance and financial performance are often hard to reconcile due to a natural monopoly. While many studies have proposed regulatory design of reward-penalty scheme (RPS) as an effective performance-based regulation framework to compensate for this natural monopoly, little attention is devoted to consideration of RPS in reliability as service quality. In this paper a novel methodology is proposed for considering an RPS in regard to reliability assessment problems to ensure a reasonable balance between reliability improvement and financial performance. In the proposed methodology, the impact of the utilities’ financial and reliability performance in one regulation period is considered as to how it influences the next periods, i.e., multi-period modeling. The implementation results in an IEEE test system are utilized to reveal possible improvements in both reliability and financial performance, which lead to the delivery of a satisfactory level of service quality to customers in both the short- and long-term. The proposed methodology can be regarded as a performance-based standard for reliability improvement and efficient investment in distribution systems.
State-of-the-Art Review on Recent Advancements on Lateral Control of Autonomous Vehicles

The most well-known research on driverless vehicles at the moment is connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs), which reflects the future path for the self driving field. The development of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) is not only increasing logistics operations, but it is also opening up new possibilities for the industry’s sustainable growth. In this review, we will explore the cloud-controlled wireless network-based model of cyber physical aspect of the autonomous vehicle, which is coupled with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Additionally, this model is Internet of Things (IoT) managed and AI-based, with a blockchain-based security mechanism. Additionally, we’ll focus on lateral control in autonomous driving, particularly the lane change maneuver, taking social behavior into account. Here, we briefly reviewed Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication, which is carried out by on-board sensors and connected wireless medium that enhance the lane departure processes while retaining human driver behavior relying on obstacle avoidance.
New ladder operators for a rational extension of the harmonic oscillator and superintegrability of some two-dimensional systems

New ladder operators are constructed for a rational extension of the harmonic oscillator associated with type III Hermite exceptional orthogonal polynomials and characterized by an even integer m. The eigenstates of the Hamiltonian separate into m + 1 infinite-dimensional unitary irreducible representations of the corresponding polynomial Heisenberg algebra. These ladder operators are used to construct a higher-order integral of motion for two superintegrable two-dimensional systems separable in cartesian coordinates. The polynomial algebras of such systems provide for the first time an algebraic derivation of the whole spectrum through their finite-dimensional unitary irreducible representations.
Vessel Segmentation and Dirt/Reflection Detection For Retinal Fundus Photographs

We propose an adversarial training framework to simultaneously address the vessel segmentation and dirt/reflection removal problems in fundus photographs used for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis. This framework contains two primary subnetworks, each triggered by a set of loss terms, i.e., one for segmentation and the other for reconstruction. These two subnetworks act as inverse functions of each other so that they form an autoencoder framework with a 2-dimensional latent code, which can be a vessel segmentation mask after binarization. To further improve the segmentation and reconstruction performance, we devise a loss function based on gradient vector flow (GVF) and reorganize the generator network. Experimental results show that the proposed method has a good generalization capability. Trained on DRIVE’s training set, our model can produce segmentation and reconstruction-based artifact removal results stably on other datasets like CHASE-DB1 and STARE. The average F1-score of our segmentation results of DRIVE’s testing set reaches 0.7964, and the artifact-free reconstruction results can achieve an average PSNR of 24 dB.