Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relation between the turbulent intensity on the crest of a ridge and wind direction relative to the ridge line–Part 2: Wind tunnel experiments

Many studies have focused attention on the airflow and turbulence for a 2-D ridge or a circular hill. These include wind tunnel experiments of Pearse et al.(1981), Pearse (1982), Arya and Gadiyaram (1986), Teunissen et al. (1987), Finnigan et al. (1990), Gong and Ibbertson (1989), Ishihara et al.(1999); and field experiments of Bradley(1980), Mason and King (1985), Mason (1986), Taylor and Teunissen (1987) and Salmon et al.(1988). A review on boundary-layer flow over hills was written by Taylor et al. (1987). On the crest of a 2-D ridge, the wind speed is larger than upstream at the same height above the ground as a result of the stream convergence occurring when wind blows perpendicular to the ridge line. Therefore, on the crest of a ridge, wind speed is larger when the prevailing wind blows perpendicular to the ridge line as compared to that blowing parallel to it (Wegley et al. 1982). However, the relation between the turbulence intensity on the crest and the prevailing wind direction to the ridge line has not been studied. This study is a part of a series of studies carried out to investigate the relation between the turbulence on the crest of ridges and the wind direction/ridge orientation angle. In the first study (Part 1), we have analyzed the
Att uppmärksamma luftföroreningar med hjälp av spelifiering

The purpose of this work is to investigate how gamification can be implemented in an application to raise attention of the subject air pollution. Gamification is used to create interest and motivation for e-services by utilizing game elements such as scoring, score boards and levels. This will be investigated through the producing of a design proposal of an application. The design proposal has been created based on literature and user tests in the form of focus groups. The design proposal was produced by the Design and creation research strategy, where the design proposal has been evaluated iteratively three times. The study results in how a design proposal for an application that attempts to detect air pollution through gamification can look like. Finally, how gamification can be implemented in an application to raise attention among users, and what should be avoided is discussed, both in the field of air pollution and other subjects in general.
Adaptive motion pattern generation on balancing of humanoid robot movement

This paper discusses about adaptive trajectory control applied in motion pattern trajectory of humanoid robot movement. The aim of this research is to increase the stabilization of robot during walking and running. In this research, the control system produced the next step of the trajectory based on the current condition and analyzed the center of gravity point from the body of the robot. According to this, robot posed the foot step depend on the location of center of gravity point and stop the swing of its foot when the foot has reached the ground. In order to reduce the vibration effect arised by the swing of robot steps, this system is supported by vibration control. Robot is also supported by hand reaction learning system based on recurrent neural network. The trajectory pattern of robot movement has 2 trajectory equations: ankle trajectory formed by circle function in Cartesian coordinate space and pelvis trajectory formed by the third order polynomial equation. Both of them are influenced by inclination of the body of robot. We used the inverted pendulum approach combined with dynamic step trajectory. By using this system, robot can walk in the different surface and uneven surface. This system is applied on humanoid robot EROS (EEPIS Robot Soccer).
Subclinical Atherosclerosis among HIV-Infected Adults Attending HIV/AIDS Care at Two Large Ambulatory HIV Clinics in Uganda

Background The increased immune activation and inflammation of chronic HIV-infection and the characteristic dyslipidemias associated with HIV infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART) contribute to an increased risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease among HIV-infected adults. There is an emerging need to understand determinants of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among individuals aging with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. We determined the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis [carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) ≥0.78 mm] and its correlation with traditional CVD risk factors among HIV-infected adults. Methods In a cross-sectional study, HIV-infected adults (ART-naïve and ART-treated) were consecutively selected from patients' enrollment registers at two large HIV clinics at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. We measured traditional CVD risk factors including age, biophysical profile, fasting blood sugar and serum lipid profile as well as biomarkers of inflammation. High resolution ultrasound was used to measure common carotid CIMT. Results Of 245 patients, Median age [Interquartile range (IQR)] 37 years (31–43), 168 (69%) were females; and 100 (41%) were ART-treated for at least 7 years. Overall, 34/186 (18%) had subclinical atherosclerosis; of whom 15/108 (14%) were ART-naïve whereas 19/78 (24%) were ART-treated. Independent predictors of subclinical atherosclerosis included age [odds ratio (OR) 1.83 per 5-year increase in age; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.24–2.69; p = 0.002], body mass index (BMI); OR 1.15; CI 1.01–1.31; p = 0.041 and high low density lipoprotein (LDL) [OR 2.99; CI 1.02–8.78, p = 0.046]. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) was positively correlated with traditional cardio-metabolic risk factors including waist circumference (r = 0.127, p = 0.05), triglycerides (r = 0.19, p = 0.003) and Total Cholesterol: High Density Lipoprotein ratio (TC:LDL) (r = 0.225, p<0.001). Conclusion The prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis was 18% among HIV-infected adults in Uganda. Traditional CVD risk factors were associated with subclinical atherosclerosis. We recommend routine assessment of traditional CVD risk factors within HIV care and treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Techniques and a Framework for Characterizing Computer Systems' Workloads

The performance of any system cannot be determined without knowing the workload, that is, the set of requests presented to the system. Workload characterization is the process by which we produce models that are capable of describing and reproducing the behavior of a workload. Such models are imperative to any performance related studies such as capacity planning, workload balancing, performance prediction and system tuning. In this paper, we provide a summary and classification of the most common techniques used for characterizing several types of information and commutation systems. Based on analyzing a profusion of case studies, we propose a methodology for workload characterization as a framework. We believe that the described characterization techniques, and the proposed framework give a good introduction to the topic, assist in exploring the different options of characterization tools that can be adopted, and provide general guidelines for deriving a good workload model suitable as an input to performance studies
Secure file system versioning at the block level

In typical file systems, valuable data is vulnerable to being accidentally or maliciously deleted or overwritten. Versioning file systems protect data from accidents by transparently retaining old versions, but do less well in protecting data from malicious attack. These systems remain vulnerable to attackers who gain unauthorized access to prune old file versions, who bypass the file system to directly manipulate storage, or who exploit bugs in any part of the operating system. This paper presents VDisk, a secure, block-level versioning system that adds file-grain versioning to a standard, unmodified file system. VDisk consists of a set of untrusted user-mode tools and a trusted, secure kernel that is implemented within an isolated Xen virtual machine domain. The secure kernel is designed to be simple and thus trustworthy. This kernel logs file-system updates to a secure log, exports a read-only view of the log to the rest of the system and securely removes unwanted versions from the log. Secure cleaning is implemented in a two-level manner. An untrusted, user-mode cleaner selects log entries for reclamation and submits cleaning requests to the trusted VDisk kernel along with a proof that the request satisifies the device's version-retention policy. The secure kernel verifies the proof and updates the log.
Outcome-based education : comparing students' perceived learning outcomes with their assessment scores / Thevy Rajaretnam and Bhajan Kaur

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the perception of the 30 undergraduates in the Faculty of Dentistry who underwent the Language Enhancement for the Health Sciences course regarding their mastery of the learning outcomes was reflected in their assessment scores as a result of the teaching learning process using the a BE & SCL curriculum. These students learnt skills broadly underfour course outcomes which were further subdivided into 24 learning outcomes. The four course outcomes were assessed through four on-going formative assessments. Students responded to a Course Entrance Survey and a Course Exit Survey. Their responses to both these surveys were analysed using the paired samples t-test to find out the differences in their perception of their mastery of the learning outcomes. The differences in their perception were compared to their performances in the assessments using the Pearson correlation analysis. Although there was a significant difference in the students' perception of their mastery of the learning outcomes, it was not reflected in their performances in the assessments.
Towards more human-like computer opponents

Current-generation online games typically incorporate a “computer” opponent to train new players to compete against human opponents. The quality of this training depends to a large degree on how similar the computer’s play is to that of an experienced human player. For instance, inhuman weaknesses in computer play encourage new players to develop tactics, prediction rules and playing styles that will be ineffective against people. Game designers often compensate for weaknesses in the computer’s play by providing it with superhuman capabilities such as omniscience. However, such abilities render otherwise important tactics ineffective and thus discourage players from developing useful skills. These differences are especially pronounced in “real-time strategy” games such as Starcraft where tactics are often designed to take advantage of specific human limitations. An informal survey of experienced Starcraft players reveals numerous play-critical differences between human and computer performance. In this paper, we identify several of these differences, and then discuss a prototyping tool for constructing appropriately humanlike software agents.
An IntermediationShill-DeterrentFeeSchedule ( SDFS )

Internet-basedonlineauctionsprovideunprecedentedopportunitiesfor sellers to submitshill bids.Shill bidding increasesthe seller’s expectedutility but deceivesbuyers and damagesauctioneer s’ reputation. Becausethe anonymityof the Internetmakesit difficult to catch shill bidders throughstatisticalanalysisor encryption,we suggest that the mosteffectiveapproach is to make it uneconomicalto conductthe fraud. To achieve it, we emphasizethe essentionrole of an auctioneerin deterring fraud and designa Shill-Deterrent Fee Schedule (SDFS)for an auctioneerto discourage sellers from shill bidding. We analyzethe seller’s optimal strategy underSDFSandwhatmeasur estheauctioneershouldtaketo ensuretheproperimplementationof SDFS. (JEL D44).
High Density Impulse Noise Removal Using Modified Switching Bilateral Filter

this paper, we propose a modified switching bilateral filter to remove impulse noise and enhance the image details in an image. The proposed filter consists of noise detection stage and noise reduction stage. The noise detection is based on the gray level [Lmin, Lmax]. The noise reduction is based on the global trimmed mean with modified switching bilateral filter. This modified switching bilateral filter effectively removes the salt and pepper noise at very high noise density. Simulation results show that our proposed filter achieves high peak signal to noise ratio, Image Enhancement factor and correlation factor. Even though the time complexity of proposed filter is greater than the other impulse noise filters, the performance of the proposed filter with respect to noise removal is better than the existing filters.
Deciding Definability in FO_2(<_h, <_v) on Trees

We prove that it is decidable whether a regular unranked tree language is definable in FO2(<h,<;v). By FO2(<h,<v) we refer to the two variable fragment of first order logic built from the descendant and following sibling predicates. In terms of expressive power it corresponds to a fragment of the navigational core of XPath that contains modalities for going up to some ancestor, down to some descendant, left to some preceding sibling, and right to some following sibling. We also investigate definability in some other fragments of XPath.
ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Initial public offer (IPOs) is a prominent cornerstone in the life cycle of a firm and has the significant effect on the firm’s performance. Worldwide, underpricing is one of the most observed anomalies in the new issue market. In this paper, we elucidate the impact of Indian stock market crisis on initial performance of IPO underpricing and to examine the changes occurs, due to a market crisis. We have collected variables like firm’s age, issue size (total amount to be raised), market capitalization, subscription rate, number of shares offered to investor’s and pricing mechanism (dummy variable). This paper experiment to explore the relationship between the dependent variables underpricing of an issue and firm’s age, issue size (total amount to be raised), market capitalization, subscription rate and number of shares offered to investor’s and pricing mechanism. We determine 51.4% R square & 43.3% adjusted R square. However, Durbin-Watson has given 1.793 values, which designate there is no serial autocorrelation & hetroscadisticity problem exist for the regression model. We encounter that market capitalization; number of shares offered to investor’s and issue size is significant affecting level of underpricing. Issue size & number of shares offered is found to be negative affecting underpricing. Market capitalization is found to be positive relationship with underpricing. Nevertheless, firm’s age, subscription rate and pricing mechanism is not significant relative with underpricing.
Early operators and late topic-drop/pro-drop

This paper compares two reduction principles in child language, Tense/Agreement Omission (Schutze 1997;Wexler 1998) and Root Peripheral Truncation (Rizzi 1994, 2001). The paper argues that the empirical content of these proposals as well as their partial overlap follows from an inherent hierarchy of acquisition steps of the kind predicted in Jakobson (1942). The empirical support for this reinterpretation follows from the construction of longitudinal graphs. The approach accommodates the lack of optional infinitives in Romance languages.
Ionospheric flow during extended intervals of northward but By -dominated IMF

Abstract. We present SuperDARN radar observations of the nightside high-latitude ionospheric flow during two 6-hour intervals of quasi-steady northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). During both intervals (01:30–07:30 UT on 2 December and 21:00–03:00 UT on 14/15 December 1999), the solar wind and IMF remained relatively steady with Bz positive and By negative, such that the IMF clock angle was ~ - 50° to - 60°. Throughout both intervals the radar data clearly indicate the presence of a highly distorted By-dominated twin cell flow pattern, indicative of an open magnetosphere, which is confirmed by DMSP and auroral data. Estimates of the changes in open flux present during each interval indicate approximately balanced dayside and nightside reconnection at rates of ~ 30–35 kV over the full 6 h. However, strong bursts of flow with speeds of over ~ 1000 ms-1 are observed near magnetic midnight on time scales of ~ 1 h, which are associated with increases in the transpolar voltage. These are indicative of the net closure of open flux by recon-nection in the tail. During one large flow burst, the night-side reconnection rate is estimated to have been ~ 1.5 times the dayside rate, i.e. ~ 45–60 kV compared with ~ 30–40 kV. Magnetic bays, which would indicate the formation of a sub-storm current wedge, are not observed in association with these bursts. In addition, no low-latitude Pi2s or geostationary particle injections were observed, although some local, small amplitude Pi2-band (5–50 mHz) activity does accompany the bursts. Coincident measurements of the flow and of the low amplitude magnetic perturbations reveal nightside ionospheric conductances of no more than a few mho, indicative of little associated precipitation. Therefore, we suggest that the flow bursts are the ionospheric manifestation of bursty reconnection events occurring in the more distant geomagnetic tail. The main implication of these findings is that, under the circumstances examined here, the convection cycle is not equivalent to the usual substorm cycle that occurs for southward IMF. Key words. Ionosphere (plasma convection; ionosphere-magnetosphere interactions) – Magnetospheric Physics (magnetotail)
Detecting Student Emotions in Computer-Enabled Classrooms

Affect detection is a key component of intelligent educational interfaces that can respond to the affective states of students. We use computer vision, learning analytics, and machine learning to detect students' affect in the real-world environment of a school computer lab that contained as many as thirty students at a time. Students moved around, gestured, and talked to each other, making the task quite difficult. Despite these challenges, we were moderately successful at detecting boredom, confusion, delight, frustration, and engaged concentration in a manner that generalized across students, time, and demographics. Our model was applicable 98% of the time despite operating on noisy real-world data.
CPPP/UFMS at ImageCLEF 2014: Robot Vision Task

This paper describes the participation of the CPPP/UFMS group in the robot vision task. We have applied the spatial pyramid matching proposed by Lazebnik et al. This method extends bag-of-visualwords to spatial pyramids by concatenating histograms of local features found in increasingly fine sub-regions. To form the visual vocabulary, kmeans clustering was applied in a random subset of images from training dataset. After that the images are classified using a pyramid match kernel and the k-nearest neighbors. The system has shown promising results, particularly for object recognition.
“Diminishing returns” in the scaling of functional leaf traits across and within species groups

More than 5,000 measurements from 1,943 plant species were used to explore the scaling relationships among the foliar surface area and the dry, water, and nitrogen/phosphorus mass of mature individual leaves. Although they differed statistically, the exponents for the relationships among these variables were numerically similar among six species groups (ferns, graminoids, forbs, shrubs, trees, and vines) and within 19 individual species. In general, at least one among the many scaling exponents was <1.0, such that increases in one or more features influencing foliar function (e.g., surface area or living leaf mass) failed to keep pace with increases in mature leaf size. Thus, a general set of scaling relationships exists that negatively affects increases in leaf size. We argue that this set reflects a fundamental property of all plants and helps to explain why annual growth fails to keep pace with increases in total body mass across species.
The potential impacts of climate change and variability on forests and forestry in the Mid-Atlantic Region

As part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment, an evaluation is being made of the impacts of climate variability and potential future climate change on forests and forestry in the Mid-Atlantic Region. This paper provides a brief overview of the current status of forests in the region, and then focuses on 2 components of this evaluation: (1) modeling of the potential impacts of climate change on tree species' distributions, and (2) a survey of how extreme weather events affect forests and forest land management in the region. The tree distribution modeling indicates that climate change may result in large increases in the amount of forest dominated by oak and pine, and large decreases in maple/beech/birch forest, assuming that trees are able to migrate in pace with climate change. The forest management survey results suggest that the major impacts of severe weather on forest operations currently are related more to extreme precipitation and high wind events than to temperature extremes. The implications of these results for future climate change are discussed.
Synthesis of linear array antenna for fixed level of side lobe level and first null beam width using particle swarm optimization

In this paper, a very simple and powerful method for the synthesis of linear array antenna is proposed. This method ensures the desired level of side lobe level (SLL) along with the minimum desired value of first null beam width (FNBW). Method includes finding a set of non-uniform amplitude excitation using particle swarm optimization (PSO) and finding the appropriate value of uniform element spacing for the linear array, which qualifies the desired value of SLL and provides minimum desired FNBW value. PSO algorithm is a high-performance algorithm capable of solving general N-dimensional, linear and nonlinear optimization problems. Work in this paper includes, two-step method for getting the fixed value of SLL and minimum desired FNBW. In the first step, PSO is used for optimizing both SLL and FNBW, but the main emphasis is given for the desired SLL requirement to achieve. In the second step, SLL remains almost constant but FNBW is minimized to archive the desired value or even below the desired value of FNBW. The simulation results have shown that this technique is able to find the desired value of SLL with the very narrow FNBW.
Growth Inhibition of Human Cancer Metastases by Camptothecins in Newly Developed Xenograft Models 1

Several metastatic models have been developed using clonal selection of human malignant cells metastasizing into a specific organ in NIH-I Swiss immunodeficient mice. The organs of choice were the central nervous system (CNS), targeted by metastases of malignant melanoma, and the liver, with metastases of colon adenocarcinoma. Additional models of adrenal metastases by malignant melanoma, and CNS involvement by implanted human lung squamous carcinoma or lymphoblastoid cells, are also available. Organ metastases, as well as the effects of treatment, were confirmed by autopsies and histological examination of the tissues or by a surgical inspection of the liver. The treatment end points were established as the increases in survival times of treated mice relative to placebo treated controls. Camptothecins injected km. or delivered via gastrointes final tract inhibit the growth of CNS metastases and increase the survival of treated animals. 9-Amino.20(S). camptothecin was effective in the CNS model and in the model of liver metastases. The drug increased 3.3. and 5.7-fold the survival rates relative to untreated controls with metastases of colon adenocarcinoma to the liver, and all camptothecins were signifi cantly more effective than 5-fluorouracil, currently a drug of choice in treatment of this disease. The xenograft models of metastases are available for studies of drug passage through the blood-brain barrier optimization of drug delivery to the liver, and for the development of new campto thecin-based treatment strategies.