Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Machine Learning Approach for Flight Departure Delay Prediction and Analysis

The expected growth in air travel demand and the positive correlation with the economic factors highlight the significant contribution of the aviation community to the U.S. economy. On‐time operations play a key role in airline performance and passenger satisfaction. Thus, an accurate investigation of the variables that cause delays is of major importance. The application of machine learning techniques in data mining has seen explosive growth in recent years and has garnered interest from a broadening variety of research domains including aviation. This study employed a support vector machine (SVM) model to explore the non-linear relationship between flight delay outcomes. Individual flight data were gathered from 20 days in 2018 to investigate causes and patterns of air traffic delay at three major New York City airports. Considering the black box characteristic of the SVM, a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the relationship between dependent and explanatory variables. The impacts of various explanatory variables are examined in relation to delay, weather information, airport ground operation, demand-capacity, and flow management characteristics. The variable impact analysis reveals that factors such as pushback delay, taxi-out delay, ground delay program, and demand-capacity imbalance with the probabilities of 0.506, 0.478, 0.339, and 0.338, respectively, are significantly associated with flight departure delay. These findings provide insight for better understanding of the causes of departure delays and the impacts of various explanatory factors on flight delay patterns.
Leaf uptake and subsequent partitioning of urea-N as affected by the concentration and volume of spray solution and by the shoot leaf position in apple (Malus domestica) trees

Summary In a ®eld experiment on `Golden Delicious' apple trees, different combinations of labelled (10 at. % 15N) urea concentrations (4, 20 and 40 g l±1) and spray volumes (1500, 300 and 150.l ha±1) were used in mid summer to foliar apply 920.mg N per tree by the following treatments: 1) low concentration-high volume, 2) medium concentration-low volume, 3) high concentration-ultra low volume. The fate of urea-N sprayed on leaves was followed during a 5.d period from spraying by determining 15N concentration on leaf samples collected at different timings and on entire branches, previously girdled. Basal and apical leaves were sampled 1, 5, 24, 48 and 120.h after spraying. Leaves intercepted on average 24.mg labelled N per m2 of leaf area, regardless of treatment and leaf age. Leaf N uptake within 48.h was highest when urea was sprayed at low concentration-high volume. At the end of the experiment (120.h), however, no signi®cant effect of treatments on leaf uptake was recorded. Urea-N penetrated at higher rates on apical than basal leaves. While about 50% of the intercepted urea-N was recovered in the leaves sampled 120.h after application, the sum of fertilizer N recovered in the different organs of the girdled branches accounted for 84% of the estimated amount of N intercepted. The discrepancy between these two estimations can be explained considering that part of the N taken up from the leaves was rapidly exported and recovered in the fruits. Application of low volume with a high concentration of urea should be considered as a tool to decrease costs while maintaining a high N use ef®ciency.
UPPER LIMB KINEMATICS DURING THE TOPSPIN DOUBLE-HANDED BACKHAND STROKE IN TENNIS

The purpose of this study was to compare non-dominant wrist kinematics during tennis double-handed backhand strokes in players using either an eastern or continental grip position. Trajectory data for two grips (eastern & continental) and depths (deep & short) were captured for sixteen sub-elite right-handed tennis players using a 12-camera Vicon motion capture system (250 Hz). The eastern grip demonstrated significantly faster horizontal racket head velocities compared to the continental grip. However, no differences were observed in accuracy or spin rate between grips (p > 0.05). In the non-dominant upper limb for the continental condition, elbow flexion was smaller while wrist extension was larger throughout the swing. Collectively, these data suggest that the continental grip may place the wrist in a position that is more vulnerable to overuse injury.
Prevalence and Presentation of Diabetes-Related Hypoglycemia Amongst Persons with Diabetes in a Tertiary Health Instition in Nigeria

Background: Hypoglycaemia is the most common acute complication of Diabetes Mellitus and often treatment-limiting, serious adverse effect of intensive diabetes therapy. Although it is preventable, hypoglycaemic episodes, especially if severe or recurrent may result in significant psychosocial dysfunction and lower quality of life. Aim: To determine the prevalence, frequency and timing of diabetes-related hypoglycaemia amongst persons with diabetes mellitus. Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study involving patients attending the diabetes clinic and selected using systematic random sampling. An interviewer- administered questionnaire was used to obtain socio-demographic characteristics as well as experience of hypoglycaemia in the past 12months and severity graded. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0, IBM SPSS Statistics, New York, USA Result: A total of 216 patients were recruited for the study. Eighty nine patients (41.2%) reported experiencing hypoglycaemia, out of which 46 (51.7%) occurred in the morning before breakfast and 16 (18.0%) experienced severe Hypoglycaemia. Skipped meal (58.4%) and overdose of GLA (31.5%) were the most common recognized causes of hypoglycaemia. Level 1 hypoglycaemia was the commonest grade of hypoglycaemia, while males and those on insulin alone had higher odds of having hypoglycaemia (P=0.059). Conclusion: The reported prevalence of hypoglycaemia amongst persons with diabetes mellitus within the last one year prior to the study was rather high which shows that hypoglycaemia is a common experience amongst type 2 diabetic undergoing management. Continuous patient education on the risks, causes, symptoms, and treatment of hypoglycaemia as well as self-monitoring of blood glucose is recommended for every person with diabetes at every health visits.
Colistin-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii: a case report and literature review

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as one of the most troublesome pathogens in healthcare settings. Its clinical significance has been propelled by its remarkable ability in acquiring resistance to almost all available antibiotics. Colistin (COL), an old antibiotic, has become the last resort of treatment for multidrug-resistant A. baumannii. Unfortunately, COL heteroresistance and COL resistance have been reported all over the world in A. baumannii. Being the first report of COL-resistant A. baumannii from our institution, we have tried to explore the prolonged stay in the ICU of the patient and also briefly reviewed the literature. However, well designed trials of new therapeutic approaches are certainly required.
MERIT: Model-driven Rehoming for VNF Chains

Network service providers often run service chains of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) on privately owned clouds with limited capacity. These specialized service chains need to meet strict Service Level Objectives (SLOs), especially along the lines of availability (e.g., First responder services). Hence, VNFs in such thinly provisioned clouds may need to be frequently moved, or rehomed, when reacting to various cloud events like hotspots, failures and upgrades. In this paper, we perform a detailed measurement study to show that naive strategies for rehoming, applied uniformly across all VNFs of the service chain, are often sub-optimal when considering different metrics like the user-perceived service downtime and the provider-incurred time delay to complete the rehoming. We propose a novel ModEl-driven RehomIng Technique (MERIT) for VNF chains and empirically analyze the effect of various system parameters on different rehoming actions. Based on our analysis, we develop generic rehoming cost models and further, design and implement an autonomous rehoming system based on MERIT that identifies and executes the optimal rehoming action for each VNF in a service chain. Our experimental results on OpenStack using real-world chains show that MERIT can reduce the chain rehoming delay by up to 47% and the chain downtime by up to 49%.
THE EMERGENCE OF LOW-FREQUENCY ACTIVE ACOUSTICS AS A CRITICAL ANTISUBMARINE WARFARE TECHNOLOGY

For the three decades following World War II, the United States realized unparalleled success in strategic and tactical antisubmarine warfare operations by exploiting the high acoustic source levels of Soviet submarines to achieve long detection ranges. The emergence of the quiet Soviet submarine in the 1980s mandated that new and revolutionary approaches to submarine detection be developed if the United States was to continue to achieve its traditional antisubmarine warfare effectiveness. Since it is immune to sound-quieting efforts, low-frequency active acoustics has been proposed as a replacement for traditional passive acoustic sensor systems. The underlying science and physics behind this technology are currently being investigated as part of an urgent U.S. Navy initiative, but the United States and its NATO allies have already begun development programs for fielding sonars using low-frequency active acoustics. Although these first systems have yet to become operational in deep water, research is also under way to apply this technology to Third World shallowwater areas and to anticipate potential countermeasures that an adversary may develop.
Reproducibility of behavioral phenotypes in mouse models - a short history with critical and practical notes

Progress in pre-clinical research is built on reproducible findings, yet reproducibility has different dimensions and even meanings. Indeed, the terms reproducibility, repeatability, and replicability are often used interchangeably, although each has a distinct definition. Moreover, reproducibility can be discussed at the level of methods, analysis, results, or conclusions (1, 2). Despite these differences in definitions and dimensions, the main aim for an individual research group is the ability to develop new studies and hypotheses based on firm and reliable findings from previous experiments. In practice this wish is often difficult to accomplish. In this review, issues affecting reproducibility in the field of mouse behavioral phenotyping are discussed.
Prospect of Solar Thermal Integration for Multiple Processes in Oleochemical and Poultry Industries

The implementation of solar thermal technology in the industries has huge potential in a tropical region due to abundant solar radiation. Getting limitless source of sunlight throughout the year is not a guarantee for solar thermal to be implemented in industries as many factors from the demand and supply sides need to be considered. These include process heat demand profiles, solar intensity, weather patterns, types and capacity of the solar thermal system, site suitability, and availability. This paper presents the establishment of a process heat demand profile to examine the potential of solar thermal integration in oleochemical and poultry industries in Malaysia. A systematic method for matching the solar energy supply under variable climatic conditions with an appropriate heat demand profile leads to improved design and created an optimal operating strategy. Two illustrative case studies are demonstrated to highlight the potential of solar thermal integration at the process and product sides in oleochemical and poultry industries, which provide significant progress towards fossil fuel and emissions reduction. The results revealed that the increase of process demand needs to be accommodated with bigger thermal storage tanks and larger solar collector area to achieve and maintain high solar fraction. The increase of investment cost was offset by larger energy savings and concluding all the simulated scenarios had their payback period within 13 to 18 y.
ASSESSING THE SEISMIC HAZARD IN NORTHWESTERN PERU

Northwestern Peru is a highly seismically active region situated above the downgoing Nazca plate within the South America subduction zone. Historically, a total of 28 earthquakes of moment magnitude (M) 7.0 and greater have occurred in the region, including the 1619 M 7.7 to 8 Trujillo earthquake. Several active crustal faults have been identified in the region but likely many more have yet to be discovered. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) was performed to assess the hazard in the region as exemplified by the city of Cajamarca. The basic inputs into the PSHA include the seismic source model, ground motion prediction models, and a description of the geologic and geotechnical conditions beneath the site. The seismic source model includes 21 Quaternaryage (active) crustal faults, the South America subduction zone, including both the megathrust and intraslab (WadatiBenioff) zone, and an areal crustal source zone. As part of reconnaissance field investigations, several previously recognized crustal faults were characterized as being Quaternary active. The unrecognized La Quinua fault was identified as an active fault capable of generating a maximum earthquake of M 6.0 to 6.6. Its slip rate is estimated, however, to be relatively low at less than 0.1 mm/yr. Other local faults characterized include for example, the Carbon, Tapado, Conga, Perol, and Antena faults. A review of the surfacefaulting earthquakes in Peru indicates that fault displacements are significantly larger than expected given the mapped fault lengths and empirical relationships. Other significant regional faults include the Chaquilbamba and Bambamarca faults. The South America subduction zone megathrust is poorly understood in northwestern Peru. Whether it can generate large (M > 8.0) megathrust earthquakes is highly uncertain because few large historical earthquakes have been definitely identified as being associated with the megathrust. In this study, we estimate a maximum magnitude for megathrust earthquakes of M 8.0 ± 0.5. Its recurrence interval is estimated to be anywhere from 400 to 10,000 years, very uncertain given the lack of data. State-of-the-art ground motion prediction models were used in the PSHA for the subduction zone and crustal earthquakes. The latter included the recently developed Next Generation of Attenuation (NGA)-West2 models for actively tectonic regions such as Peru. For the subduction zone, we selected three state-of-the-art models. A generic soil Vs30 of 270 m/sec was used in the PSHA. The hazard in Cajamarca is relatively moderate with PGA values at the building code return periods of 475 and 2475 years of 0.31 and 0.55 g, respectively. The hazard is lower in this part of Peru compared to other regions in the country due to the uncertainty on whether the megathrust to generate very large earthquakes (M > 8) because of the flat subduction of the South America plate beneath northwestern Peru.
An efficient method using Cre recombinase-mediated cassette exchange for N-terminal tagging of Schizosaccharomyces pombe proteins

In this study we designed an N-terminus protein tagging protocol using a Cre recombinasemediated cassette exchange method. A Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain that carried null allele of ura4 and leu1 genes was genomically modified by insertion of two lox sites, one original (loxP) and the other mutated (loxM3) preceded by ura4 gene, flanking the whole rad22 gene including the genes promoter. This base strain was transformed with the plasmid pAW8 carrying the sequence loxPpromoter-EGFP-rad22-loxM3, LEU2 selection marker, and the P1 bacteriophage Cre recombinase gene. Gene replacement between plasmid and chromosome occurred with high efficiency. We then assessed the phenotype of the strains expressing the N-terminal EGFP-Rad22 fusion protein and found no anomaly with respect to gamma and genotoxic sensitivity, foci formation and the dynamic in S-phase after hydroxyurea release. Together with other previously published protocols aiming genome modifications using Cre recombinase-mediated cassette exchange, this methodology may constitute a system for easy and accurate genome modifications for experimental studies.
Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal

Understanding farmers’ attitudes and responses to agricultural risks is important for designing financial support services and effective extension activities. Risk attitudes of farmers are also one of the critical barriers for conversion to organic agriculture. Few studies have been conducted to explore and compare risk perceptions between organic and conventional farmers. The purposes of this research were to elicit and compare the risk attitudes of organic and conventional Turkish hazelnut producers and to determine the barriers additional to their risk attitudes toward conversion to organic agriculture in the Terme district of Samsun, Turkey. The Equally Likely Certainty Equivalent (ELCE) model was used to elicit responses from producers. The data used in this study were collected by using a structured questionnaire administered to both 64 randomly selected conventional hazelnut producers and all organic hazelnut producers (39) in the research area. Research results revealed that organic hazelnut producers were less risk averse than conventional producers. It was also found that the variables of education level of operators, farm income, total assets, time allocated outside the farm, farm land area, size of hazelnut orchard, number of hazelnut plots, and total information score were other barriers for conversion to organic hazelnut production, in addition to the producers’ risk attitudes. Providing better extension services and farmers’ training activities relating to organic agriculture and land consolidation, focusing on raising the educational level of producers, facilitating producers with greater access to credit to increase farm land and to enhance farm assets are factors that may accelerate the process of conversion to organic hazelnut production.
Herbivory under different flow regimes: a field experiment and test of a model with a benthic stream insect

An experiment was conducted in an open-canopy mountain stream to examine the effects of different densities of the grazing caddisfly Agapetus boulderensis (Trichoptera: Glossosomatidae) on algal biomass and assemblage structure at two current velocities. Unglazed ceramic tiles were colonized by algae in grazer-free troughs for 30 d at slow (∼ 20 cm s −1 ) and fast (∼ 40 cm s −1 ) velocities before transfer to open troughs of similar velocity, where they were exposed to grazer densities ranging from ca 0.7 to 2.7 times natural streambed densities. At low velocity, algal biomass (chl-a and particulate C) and absolute densities of bacillariophytes, chlorophytes and cyanophytes declined as grazer density increased. Grazers also significantly altered algal assemblage structure by reducing the relative abundance of cyanophytes (mostly Anabaena cf. affinis) and chlorophytes (Ulothrix zonata) and increasing the relative abundance of some bacillariophytes (Cocconeis placentula, Fragilaria pinnata, F. vaucheriae, Melosira italica). The algal assemblage was effectively converted from a «late-successional» to an «early-successional» stage by grazers. By contrast, at high velocity, initial algal density was relatively low and grazers were less effective in inducing changes. As grazer density increased, total algal cell abundance (mostly bacillariophytes) declined, although the relative abundances of individual diatom species remained unmodified under increasing grazer densities. Grazers essentially maintained the «early-successional» nature of the algal assemblage under high velocity conditions. Further, for both current velocities, we tested a model that predicts algal biomass as a function of grazer density and time. Independent estimates of current-dependent grazing rate and algal growth rate were used in the model to generate predictions of particulate C along a gradient of grazer density at two current velocities. Algal biomass predicted by the model compared favorably with an empirical fit of the data under low and high velocities. These results suggest that the role of grazers in structuring algal assemblages may vary spatially with local current velocity in heterogeneous stream systems
VarSim: A Fast and Accurate Variability and Leakage Aware Thermal Simulator

Some of the fastest thermal estimation techniques at the architectural level are based on Green’s functions (impulse response of a unit power source). The resultant temperature profile can be easily obtained by computing a convolution of the Green’s function and the power profile. Sadly, existing approaches do not take process and temperature variation into account, which are integral aspects of today’s technologies. This problem is still open. In this paper, we provide a closed-form solution for the Green’s function after taking process, temperature, and thermal conductivity variation into account. Moreover, during the process of computing the thermal map, we reduce the amount of redundant work by identifying similar regions in the chip using an unsupervised learning-based approach. We were able to obtain a 700,000X speedup over state-of-the-art proposals with a mean absolute error limited to 0.7◦C (1.5%).
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE CHANGES IN CITY ELECTIONS AFTER A SWITCH IN FORM OF GOVERNMENT

Elections at the municipal level historically have the lowest levels of voter turnout in America. Citizen participation in local and specifically city elections is critical because city governments have the greatest impact on the daily lives of citizens. This participation varies by the type of city government. In this research I look at what happens to elections when city governments change from one type of government to another. Most extant research into the relationship between government type and election or participation has been cross-sectional and restricted to voter turnout. I look more comprehensively at how changes in city government form do or do not change elections. I use newspaper articles about elections over multiple years along with voter turnout data from eight medium-sized cities that changed their form of government from 1993 to the present. I explore variables such as attention to the candidate, attention to issues, election competitiveness, policy types, focus of the office and voter turnout. Aside from voter turnout, my findings do not indicate clear patterns that allow a change in form of government to predict changes in elections. However, my findings suggest that switching to a mayor-council form increases voter turnout. In addition, my findings also confirm previous research that switching to a council-manager system decreases voter turnout. This conclusion has the utmost significance because cities are increasingly adopting the council-manager system despite its impediment to the cornerstone of citizen participation in government.