Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polymer modified asphalt

Considering the international position of Venezuelan oil industry as one of the leaders of the current world asphalt production, it is important to be aware of the source of opportunities that polymer modified asphalt (PMA) offers in today’s market. Based on that, this paper presents an overview of the characteristics of polymerasphalt binders, mostly used in the paving industry. Emphasis is being made on the relationships of composition and formulation with the properties of the binder, and the relationships of the binder properties and performance of the mixture. Although polymer modification seems to be the best solution to improve asphalt properties, these systems present three main problems: a) poor asphalt polymer compatibility (which influences the stability of the system), b) higher viscosities during asphalt processing and application, and c) higher cost. These issues are also covered in the present study, altogether with some field experiences. A summary of advantages and disadvantages of most used polymers to modify asphalt binders (styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS), reclaimed tire rubber, polyethylene (PE), and atactic polypropylene (aPP)) is also provided.
Spatial distribution of genetic relatedness in a moorland population of red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus)

Abstract Several aspects of the ecology and biology of red grouse ( Lagopus lagopus scoticus ) could prevent the complete admixture of genes within and between populations. Male red grouse display a high degree of natal philopatry, are territorial, and show less aggression to kin than to non-kin. Such factors acting in combination predict limited male-mediated gene flow, which will promote social structure within a population by the formation of stable kin clusters, and facilitate a rapid rise in allelic coancestry and/or inbreeding. In this study we utilize hypervariable microsatellite polymorphisms to examine the extent of social affiliation between relatives in a moorland population of grouse from NE Scotland. Levels of genetic relatedness between individual male red grouse occupying territories at Glas Choille in the spring and autumn of 1995 were examined, and kin clusters delimited. Nine kin groups (mean size =2.4 individuals) were identified prior to breeding in the spring, which increased to 11 kin groups (mean size =4.0 individuals) when territories were reformed in the autumn. The majority of those individuals that were recruited into the adult population during the autumn already had a first-order male relative established, supporting the hypothesis that recruitment is facilitated by behavioural interactions among relatives. The demographic and population genetic consequences of philopatric recruitment and kin clustering are examined and discussed.
Teaching mathematics to primary teachers in Australia

Primary teacher education is a relatively low status option for school leavers in Australia, when judged by competitive rankings of university entry scores. Although undergraduate primary education students have completed 12 years of study in mathematics, their knowledge is not always secure and their understandings are largely instrumental. Although most students are continuing from school, there are also mature-aged students (mostly women) among this cohort who have been out of education for many years. Not surprisingly, mathematics anxiety is manifest among many students, young and old. This paper will give details of an innovative approach to strengthening the foundation of mathematical knowledge as well as broadening the students’ perspectives on the nature of mathematics itself, with a view to influencing the pedagogical approaches that the students will eventually adopt. The course content is based upon Bishop’s (1988) ‘six universals’: counting, locating, measuring, designing, explaining, and playing. As with all educational endeavours, the paper represents a work-in-progress. It will outline the theoretical foundations of the course structure, describe student responses, and evaluate the progress of this course which has run since 2000.
A rare case of true vaginal prolapse in a bitch after abortion due to hypoluteoidism

The aim of the present report was to describe a clinical case of spontaneous true vaginal prolapse in a bitch as a complication of complete abortion due to hypoluteoidism 49 days after mating. Ovariohysterectomy and cervicopexy were performed after repositioning of the protruded vaginal wall. Both ovaries contained very small luteal bodies. In conclusion, the true vaginal prolapse without signs of dystocia in the present case could result from pelvic tissue relaxation following the abnormal luteal function and serum progesterone decline.
One-dimensional diffusion processes and their boundaries

It is recalled how one-dimensional homogeneous diffusion processes can be constructed from the Wiener process via a time change and a space transformation. No Lipschitz requirements of the drift coefficient and of the diffusion coefficient as functions of the space variable are needed for this construction to be valid. The process constructed in this way will be the unique weak solution of the corresponding stochastic differential equation. Furthermore, a complete classification of boundary types and boundary behaviour is a direct result of the construction. The boundary behaviour of one-dimensional diffusion processes is illustrated by examples, in particular this boundary behaviour is discussed for a population model recently proposed by Lungu and 0ksendal.
Temporal and spatial combining for 5G mmWave small cells

This chapter proposes the combination of temporal processing through Rake combining based on direct sequence-spread spectrum (DS-SS), and multiple antenna beamforming or antenna spatial diversity as a possible physical layer access technique for fifth generation (5G) small cell base stations (SBS) operating in the millimetre wave (mmWave) frequencies. Unlike earlier works in the literature aimed at previous generation wireless, the use of the beamforming is presented as operating in the radio frequency (RF) domain, rather than the baseband domain, to minimise power expenditure as a more suitable method for 5G small cells. Some potential limitations associated with massive multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) for small cells are discussed relating to the likely limitation on available antennas and resultant beamwidth. Rather than relying, solely, on expensive and potentially power hungry massive MIMO (which in the case of a SBS for indoor use will be limited by a physically small form factor) the use of a limited number of antennas, complimented with Rake combining, or antenna diversity is given consideration for short distance indoor communications for both the SBS) and user equipment (UE). The proposal’s aim is twofold: to solve eroded path loss due to the effective antenna aperture reduction and to satisfy sensitivity to blockages and multipath dispersion in indoor, small coverage area base stations. Two candidate architectures are proposed. With higher data rates, more rigorous analysis of circuit power and its effect on energy efficiency (EE) is provided. A detailed investigation is provided into the likely design and signal processing requirements. Finally, the proposed architectures are compared to current fourth generation long term evolution (LTE) MIMO technologies for their anticipated power consumption and EE.
An assessment of vitamin D serum levels in allergic children

Agnieszka Rustecka, Anna Jung, Katarzyna Jobs, Bolesław Kalicki © Pediatr Med Rodz 2016, 12 (1), p. 85–93 © Medical Communications Sp. z o.o. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND). Reproduction is permitted for personal, educational, non-commercial use, provided that the original article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited. DOI: 10.15557/PiMR.2016. 0008 Received: 14.01. 2016 Accepted: 11.03. 2016 Published: 31.03. 2016 Agnieszka Rustecka, Anna Jung, Katarzyna Jobs, Bolesław Kalicki
Informedia@TRECVID 2013

In the first part of this three-part report we describe our system and novel approaches used in the TRECVID 2013 Multimedia Event Detection (MED) and Multimedia Event Recounting (MER) tasks. A separate section of the report (SIN) details methods and results for the Semantic Indexing task. The final section (SED) describes our approaches and results on the Surveillance Event Detection task.
Effect of racism on African American women's development of psychological distress: The role of psychological well-being and racism-related social support

Researchers have studied the potential negative association between racism and health extensively. Possible mechanisms of this link have been examined, but no definite answers exist. Based on Ryff’s conceptualization of psychological well-being, this study examined whether psychological well-being mediated the relationship between perceived racism and subsequent development of psychological distress. The unique role of each dimension of psychological well-being was also examined. Further, the hypothesis that racism-related social support would buffer the effect of perceived racism on psychological well-being was also tested. Data were from the Wave 4 and Wave 5 assessments of 659 African American women (with an average age of 44.94) who participated in the Family and Community Health Study. Analyses were conducted using latent variable structural equation modeling methods. Age, educational level, and marital status were control variables in this study. Results indicated that there was a significant indirect effect from perceived racism to subsequent change of psychological distress via psychological well-being. Perceived racism uniquely predicted environmental mastery (negatively) and personal growth (positively) but did not uniquely predict other dimensions of psychological well-being. None of the psychological well-being dimensions uniquely predicted subsequent development of psychological distress. This study found a direct but not a buffering effect of racism-related social support. Findings from this study contribute to both theoretical conceptualizations of psychological well-being as well as practice related to African American women’s mental health.
APPLICATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN PRECISION APICULTURE

Precision Agriculture approach has proved to be successful in various agricultural subbranches like precision livestock farming, precision farming, precision horticulture and precision viticulture. Apiculture or beekeeping is one of the agriculture’s sub directions, where Precision Agriculture (PA) methods can be successfully applied. Adaptation of PA methods and techniques into Apiculture, as well as integrating information technologies into beekeeping process can improve the beekeepers knowledge about behavior of individual bee colonies. We propose following definition: Precision Apiculture or Precision Beekeeping is an apiary management strategy based on the monitoring of individual bee colonies to minimize resource consumption and maximize the productivity of bees. One of the objectives of Precision Apiculture in the field of monitoring is to develop real time on-line tools for continuous monitoring of bees during their life and production using the automatic solutions avoiding exposure of bees to additional stress or unproductive activities. The aim of these technical tools is not to replace but rather to support the beekeeper. In passive wintering period it is important to recognize automatically such events as the death of the bee colony and have up to the date information about the state of the brood rearing and food consumption process. In summer period it is important to detect the preswarming, queenless, broodless and other states of a bee colony. Several individual bee colony related parameters currently can be continuously measured and used for Precision Apiculture purposes: temperature by temperature sensors or infrared imaging, air humidity, gas content, sound, vibration of hive, counting of outgoing and incoming bees, video oebservation and weighing. Practical application examples of Precision Apiculture enabling measurement systems both for winter and summer periods are mentioned.
Writing A Literature Review For An Applied Master's Degree

Many of the books and articles that discuss and provide instructions for writing a literature review are geared to doctoral students (Randolph, 2009), professors, researchers, and medical researchers. Few discuss the issues pertaining to Master's Degree students pursuing an applied master's degree. This overview is written specifically for those completing a capstone for the Master's Degree in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania. Graduate students often experience a great deal of trepidation and anxiety when facing the task of writing a literature review for their Master's Degree capstone. This is unfortunate, as reading the literature and writing a literature review can be an informative, interesting and thought-provoking endeavor. Graduate students have the opportunity to learn about an issue of importance to them, to gain a thorough understanding of the research that has been conducted about their capstone focus, and learn what gaps exist in the literature in their area of focus.
Palaeodiets of Humans and Fauna at the Spanish Mesolithic Site of El Collado

The first human stable isotope results from the Spanish Levant, from the Mesolithic (ca. 7500 BP, Mesolithic IIIA phase) site of El Collado (near Oliva, Valencia) provide evidence for the consumption of marine protein by humans, estimated at approximately 25% of the dietary protein for some individuals. Isotopic analysis of human remains from other coastal Mesolithic sites in Europe, particularly along the Atlantic coast, also shows significant consumption of marine foods, but the amount of marine food consumed by the El Collado humans was much less than at those sites. This may be because of a different dietary adaptation or because the Mediterranean is much less productive than the Atlantic.
An analysis of a class of variational multiscale methods based on subspace decomposition

Numerical homogenization tries to approximate the solutions of elliptic partial differential equations with strongly oscillating coefficients by functions from modified finite element spaces. We present in this paper a class of such methods that are very closely related to the method of M{\aa}lqvist and Peterseim [Math. Comp. 83, 2014]. Like the method of M{\aa}lqvist and Peterseim, these methods do not make explicit or implicit use of a scale separation. Their compared to that in the work of M{\aa}lqvist and Peterseim strongly simplified analysis is based on a reformulation of their method in terms of variational multiscale methods and on the theory of iterative methods, more precisely, of additive Schwarz or subspace decomposition methods.
Applying mean shift and motion detection approaches to hand tracking in sign language

Hand gesture recognition is very important to communicate in a sign language. In this paper, an effective object tracking and the hand gesture recognition method is proposed. This method is a combination of two wellknown approaches, the mean shift and the motion detection algorithm. The mean shift algorithm can track objects based on a color, then when hand passes the face occlusion happens. Several solutions such as the particle filter, kalman filter and dynamic programming tracking have been used, but they are complicated, time consuming and so expensive. The proposed method is so easy, fast, efficient and low costly. The motion detection algorithm in the first step subtracts the previous frame from the current frame to obtain the changes between two images and white pixels (motion level) are detected by using the threshold level. Then the mean shift algorithm is applied for tracking the hand motion. Simulation results show that this method is faster than two times compared with the old common algorithms.
HEAT TREATING ALUMINUM FOR AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS

It is of low weight. Its alloys can be heat treated to relatively high strengths. It is of reasonable cost, and it is easy to bend and machine. Because of these advantages, aluminum is the most common material used in aerospace today. This article discusses typical applications of aluminum heat treating in the aerospace industry. An overview of the physical metallurgy of the various alloys is given, as is a description of common heat treating defects in aluminum. The benefits and advantages of polymer quenchants are also examined.
Title The use of three-dimensional printing technology in orthopaedicsurgery : A review

Three-dimensional (3-D) printing or additive manufacturing, an advanced technology that 3-D physical models are created, has been wildly applied in medical industries, including cardiothoracic surgery, cranio-maxillo-facial surgery and orthopaedic surgery. The physical models made by 3-D printing technology give surgeons a realistic impression of complex structures, allowing surgical planning and simulation before operations. In orthopaedic surgery, this technique is mainly applied in surgical planning especially revision and reconstructive surgeries, making patient-specific instruments or implants, and bone tissue engineering. This article reviews this technology and its application in orthopaedic surgery.
Emotion processing in different media types: Realism, complexity, and immersion

With the aim to improve the ecological validity when studying real life phenomena, research has increasingly been employing more complex and realistic materials, from pictorial and verbal (e.g., movies vs. pictures, narratives vs. single words), to interactive or virtual settings. This article has the objective to understand the emotional impact of these different types of media. It first summarizes neuroimaging findings on emotion processing, focusing on the development toward more realistic and complex materials. The presented literature shows that all media types, simple words or complex movies, may induce consistent emotional responses, mirrored in activations in core emotion regions. Regions related to the (embodied) simulation of another’s bodily state, and mentalizing, the cognitive representation of another’s mental state, are particularly reported in response to more complex, narrative or social materials. Other media-specific responses are described in sensory or language brain regions, while dynamic and multimodal stimuli are reported to yield behavioral advantages together with increased emotional brain responses. Finally, the article discusses the role of immersive processes for emotional engagement in different media settings. The potential to make the viewer immerse into fictional or artificial worlds, is proposed as a crucial modulator for emotional responses in different media types, leading to the formulation of open questions and implications for future research on emotion processing. Correspondence to: Lorna Schlochtermeier, FreieUniversität Berlin, HabelschwerdterAllee 45, 14195 Berlin, Tel: +49 (0)176 64760649, Fax: +49 (0)30 838 55620; E-mail: l.schlochtermeier@fu-berlin.de
SDRT and Multi-modal Situated Communication

Classical SDRT (Asher and Lascarides, 2003) discussed essential features of dialogue like adjacency pairs or corrections and up-dating. Recent work in SDRT (Asher, 2002, 2005) aims at the description of natural dialogue. We use this work to model situated communication, i.e. dialogue, in which sub-sentential utterances and gestures (pointing and grasping) are used as conventional modes of communication. We show that in addition to cognitive modelling in SDRT, capturing mental states and speech-act related goals, special postulates are needed to extract meaning out of contexts. Gestural meaning anchors Discourse Referents in contextually given domains. Both sorts of meaning are fused with the meaning of fragments to get at fully developed dialogue moves. This task accomplished, the standard SDRT machinery, tagged SDRSs, rhetorical relations, the up-date mechanism, and the Maximize Discourse Coherence constraint generate coherent structures. In sum, meanings from different verbal and non-verbal sources are assembled using extended SDRT to form coherent wholes.
A PFM-based control architecture for a visually guided underwater cable tracker to achieve navigation in troublesome scenarios

Nowadays, the surveillance and inspection of underwater installations, such as power or telecommunication cables and pipelines, are carried out by trained operators who, from the surface, control a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) with cameras mounted over it.This is a tedious, time-consuming and expensive task, prone to errors mainly because of loss of attention or fatigue of the operator and also due to the typical low quality of seabed images. In this study, a control architecture based on Potential Field Methods (PFM) for visually guiding an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to detect and track a cable, or pipeline, laid on the seabed is presented. Additionally, a solution to the typical trapping problem linked to this kind of control systems is proposed. The efficiency of the solution is evaluated and compared against other popular strategies appearing in the literature. A 3D simulation environment which incorporates the hydrodynamic model of a real underwater vehicle called GARBI has been used with this purpose.
Multicriteria evaluation of discharge simulation in Dynamic Global Vegetation Models

In this study, we assessed the performance of discharge simulations by coupling the runoff from seven Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs; LPJ, ORCHIDEE, Sheffield‐DGVM, TRIFFID, LPJ‐GUESS, CLM4CN, and OCN) to one river routing model for 16 large river basins. The results show that the seasonal cycle of river discharge is generally modeled well in the low and middle latitudes but not in the high latitudes, where the peak discharge (due to snow and ice melting) is underestimated. For the annual mean discharge, the DGVMs chained with the routing model show an underestimation. Furthermore, the 30 year trend of discharge is also underestimated. For the interannual variability of discharge, a skill score based on overlapping of probability density functions (PDFs) suggests that most models correctly reproduce the observed variability (correlation coefficient higher than 0.5; i.e., models account for 50% of observed interannual variability) except for the Lena, Yenisei, Yukon, and the Congo river basins. In addition, we compared the simulated runoff from different simulations where models were forced with either fixed or varying land use. This suggests that both seasonal and annual mean runoff has been little affected by land use change but that the trend itself of runoff is sensitive to land use change. None of the models when considered individually show significantly better performances than any other and in all basins. This suggests that based on current modeling capability, a regional‐weighted average of multimodel ensemble projections might be appropriate to reduce the bias in future projection of global river discharge.
hymnMark : Towards Efficient Digital Watermarking on Android Smartphones

Fast growth in ubiquitous use of digital-camera-equipped smartphones in our daily life has generated large amount of multimedia data such as images, audio, and video clips that need to be processed, stored, and transmitted on batterypowered mobile devices. Yet little research has been done to protect those multimedia data on smartphone platforms. This paper presents design and implementation of an efficient digital watermarking application, called hymnMark, to perform watermark embedding and detection for digital images on the Android platform. Preliminary evaluation shows that hymnMark can successfully embed in color images different types of watermarks with good resistance to noise as well as a number of digital signal processing attacks, in the meantime entail low power consumption.