Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Camera Based Visibility Estimation

MeteoSwiss operates a network of panorama cameras positioned along Switzerland’s main flight paths. This network supports the meteorologist in creating general aviation forecasts, which are a summary of expected prevailing visibility and cloud base height along the path. We present preliminary results for estimating visibility automatically from panorama camera images. The estimation algorithm is based on Koschmieder’s law, which relates apparent contrast of an object to its distance from the observer. Local contrast information is computed from image patches using a standard measure for human contrast perception. The observation distance is computed from the known camera position and a digital elevation model. We evaluate the algorithm by comparison to expert judgements provided by three trained observers, on a data set of diverse weather conditions and topographies. We show that the estimate of the algorithm is typically in agreement with the expert judgments. We also discuss the limitations of the algorithm and present cases where the estimation accuracy is unsatisfactory. Finally, we present an automated image quality control mechanism that can reliably identify some of those cases.
PHYSIOCHEMICAL RESPONSES OF ZALEYA PENTANDRA ( L . ) JEFFREY TO NACL TREATMENTS

Zaleya pentandra is a moderately salt resistant xero-halophyte, used locally as cattle fodder and as a source of medicine for various ailments. The present study deals with the effect of salinity on growth, leaf water relations, photosynthesis and antinutritive chemicals of this plant. Plants were grown in plastic pots containing sandy loam soil irrigated with Hoagland’s nutrient solution under various salt (0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl) treatments in an open netted green house. Shoot and root length and biomass, number of leaves and nodes, remained unchanged at 75 mM NaCl treatment compared to non-saline controls. Shoot dry weight decreased by about 70% at 150 mM NaCl treatment, while root dry weight remained unaffected by salinity. Leaf osmotic potential also was unaffected at 75 Mm NaCl but decreased at 150 mM NaCl. Leaf water potential decreased progressively with increasing salinity treatments. Calculated turgor pressure decreased with increase in salinity. Rate of photosynthesis was unaffected under 75 mM NaCl treatment but decreased by about 50% at high NaCl treatment (i.e. 150 mM NaCl). Similar trends were observed for stomatal conductance and rate of transpiration with concomitant increase in water use efficiency (WUE) at 150 mM NaCl. There was no change in the intrinsic photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) (no photoinhibition) under saline conditions. However, the effective photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv’/Fm’) was generally low particularly at 150 mM NaCl. Among anti-nutrient chemicals, saponin and nitrate decreased significantly under saline conditions, tannins increased whereas, oxalates, phenols and flavonoids were unaffected. However, all these chemicals were within acceptable limits for cattle feed except for oxalates, which were marginally higher.
Aerodynamics of high-speed trains in confined spaces

In confined spaces the air movements around high speed trains may be amplified. Moving-model aerodynamic experiments were undertaken to identify the fundamental changes to train-induced air movements by firing a 1/25 scale high-speed train past instrumented walls and through box-shaped tunnels. The effect of confinement on velocities in the boundary layer and wake are assessed. Moreover the peak gusts are analysed using a prescribed European methodology to determine whether confined spaces cause the flow to exceed acceptable criteria. All results showed significant increases in velocity in the near wake, with the gusts exceeding allowable limits of velocity at positions extending far from the train side. The pressure transient increased in magnitude with increasing confinement, although the increases were lower than those predicted by European standards.
Empirical Analysis of Centrality Characteristics in Real Online Social Networks

In this paper, we analyzed topological characteristics of four famous centrality indexes (including degree, closeness, betweenness, and the k-core) and their correlations (including Pearson correlation and Kendall Rank correlation) in two real data sets. It’s the fundamental work of identifying the influential nodes in complex networks. After simulations on two real data sets, we found that the distribution of degree, betweenness, and the k-core totally follow the power-law distribution. The Pearson correlation between degree and betweenness is the highest, however, the Kendall Rank Correlation between degree and k-core is relatively larger than values between degree and other two indexes.
1 A New Promela Frontend for LTSmin : SpinS

We show how Promela can be supported by the high-performance generic model checker LTSmin. The success of the Spin model checker has made Promela an important modeling language. SpinJa was created as a Java implementation of Spin, in an effort to make the model checker easily extendible and reusable while maintaining some of its efficiency. While these goals were certainly met, the downside of SpinJa remained its dependability on Java, degrading performance by a factor 5 and obstructing support for embedded C code in Promela models. LTSmin aims at language-independence through the definition of the generic Partitioned Next-State Interface (pins). The toolset has shown that a generic model checker can indeed be competitive in terms of efficiency by supporting several languages from different paradigms and implementing many analysis algorithms that compete with other state-of-the-art model checkers. We extended SpinJa to emit C code that implements the pins interface. Our new version of SpinJa, called SpinS (Spin + pins), also improves Promela support, greatly extending the support of models beyond toy and academic examples. In this paper, we demonstrate the usage of LTSmin’s analysis algorithms: multi-core model checking of assertion violations, deadlocks and never claims (full LTL), inspection of error trails, partial order reduction (POR), state compression, symbolic reachability using (multi-core) decision diagrams and distributed reachability. Our experiments show that the performance of these methods beats other leading model checkers.
Effectiveness of ‘ Training Program ’ on knowledge and practices of Hand hygiene among health care workers

Hand hygiene is recognized as the leading measure to prevent cross-transmission of microorganisms and to reduce the incidence of health care associated infections in patients and staff. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of training program on knowledge and practice of hand hygiene among health care workers.A pre-experimental research one group pre-and post-test design 40 health care workers were selected from selected obstetric unit of selected hospital. Total enumeration sampling was used to select the samples to assess the level of knowledge and event sampling method was used to collect the data. Selfmade tools like, Demographic variable,Structured Knowledge questionnaire and observational checklist were made by the researcher. Content validity and reliability was done.Teaching program included one day hands-on training cum instructionincluding supply of printed guideline on Hand hygiene practices.Study findings showed mean age of the participants was 34.78±10.5 years and ranged between 23 and 60 years. Majority 95% of the participants were females. The knowledge score regarding Hand Hygiene was significantly improved from 8.4 ± 2.4 to 12.8 ± 1.9. The practice score of hand hygiene was significantly improved from 11.1±2.5 to 22.3±2.4. Present study revealed that the training program on infection control strategies significantly improved the knowledge and practice score regarding hand hygiene KeywordsHand Hygiene, Training Program, Knowledge, Practice --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 07-07-2017 Date of acceptance: 27-07-2017 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MPEG Surround binaural rendering – Surround sound for mobile devices ( Binaurale Wiedergabe mit MPEG Surround – Surround sound für mobile Geräte )

Technological progress and increasing popularity of surround sound drive many existing stereo-based audio applications towards the adoptio n of surround sound. With "MPEG Surround" a standard was developed to meet the dema nds of such applications in terms of both quality and efficiency. It enables multi-chann el services where mono or stereo backward compatibility is required as well as appli cations with severely bandwidth-limited distribution channels, e.g. broadcasting. MPEG Surr ound not only covers reproduction over discrete loudspeakers, but also considers binaural decoding of multi-channel sound in an efficient manner. In this way, surround sound repro duction with high quality becomes feasible on mobile devices. An outline of the under lying MPEG Surround architecture, the binaural decoding process, and subjective testing r esults will be given in the paper.
Re-Animator : Versatile High-Fidelity System-Call Tracing and Replaying

Modern applications are complex and difficult to understand. One approach to investigating their characteristics is system-call tracing: captured traces can be analyzed to gain insight, or replayed to reproduce and debug behavior in various settings. However, existing system-call tracing tools have several deficiencies: (1) they often do not capture all the information—such as raw data buffers—needed for full analysis; (2) they impose high overheads on running applications; (3) they are proprietary or use non-portable trace formats; and (4) they often do not include versatile and scalable analysis and replay tools. We have developed two prototype system-call trace capture tools: one based on ptrace and the other on modern Linux tracepoints. Both capture as much information as possible, including complete data buffers, and produce trace files in a standard DataSeries format. We also developed a prototype replayer that focuses on system calls related to file-system state. We evaluated our system on long-running server applications such as key-value stores and databases. We found that ptrace-based tracers can impose an order of magnitude in overhead, but require no superuser privileges or kernel changes. In contrast, our tracepoints-based tracer requires some kernel changes to capture buffers and optimize trace writing, but it has an overhead of only 1.8–2.3× for macro-benchmark applications. The replayer verifies that its actions are correct, and faithfully reproduces the on-disk state generated by the original application.
Magnetotellurics : Status Quo and Quo

The natural source electromagnetic technique magnetotellurics (MT) is still a somewhat esoteric method, principally in the academic domain, that has not reached its enormous potential. It was proposed conceptually initially in Japan in the 1940s and then in France and Russia in the 1950s, and early developments were primarily related to theory and to hardware; the first commercial application of MT was for geothermal studies. Well into the 1970s the electric and magnetic time series were often digitized from paper records, processing was relatively unsophisticated using Fourier transform spectral methods, and interpretation was often based on one-dimensional approaches. From the early 1980s onwards there have been tremendous advances in instrumentation, processing, analysis, modelling and inversion to the extent that MT is now a relatively robust and established mapping tool used for imaging three-dimensional electrical conductivity variations from the near surface (100 m) to deep within the mantle (1,000 km), both on land and in marine environments. Diverse commercial applications include environmental geophysics (using very high frequency radio-MT, RMT), geothermal and mining studies (using high frequency audio-MT, AMT), hydrocarbon studies and deep crustal studies (using conventional MT), and lithospheric mantle studies (using long period MT, LMT). At this time three-dimensional inversion is being applied more and more routinely, even to profile data, thanks to codes generously made freely-available. However, appreciation and understanding of the inherent difficulties in 3D MT inversion is in its infancy, especially of how to treat galvanic distortions. The three main limitations of MT currently limiting its broader adoption and application are (1) insufficient sensors, (2) inadequate methods for treating heavily noise contaminated data, and (3) inability to model Earth at the scale of conductivity variation. Advances on all three of these should occur over the next decade. For (1), we are typically spatially undersampling our targets of interest, and there really needs to be a huge reduction in cost of especially electric field electrodes, but also magnetic coils, and attendant recorders. For (2), MT is hampered in semi-urban environments, and often in rural environments, due to contamination from anthropogenic electromagnetic noise sources, such as AC power sources, DC trains, cow fences, pumps (especially DC), leaky transformers etc., and also some natural electromagnetic noise sources, such as frequent lightning strokes. Although MT time series processing advanced significantly in the 1980s with the implementation of robust processing schemes, these are inadequate when noise contamination dominates the time series. Finally, the lateral variations in conductivity can be at the electrode line-length scale, or even electrode scale, yet our current capability limits inversion in both lateral directions so our smallest cells are at larger scales. Multi-scale inversion methods need to be developed that mimic the physics of induction.
Preparation and Characterization of Tellurium Nanorods

Tellurium nanorods have been synthesized in one step by hydrothermal redox route method staring from sodium tellurite (Na2Te03) and hydrazine hydrate (N2H4 .H2O). The effect of annealing on the properties of the prepared tellurium nanorods has been studied. The x-ray diffraction studies indicated the formation of tellurium nanorods with facecentered cubic phase and no secondary phase was observed. The composition analysis results show that tellurium is present in the sample. SEM images reveal that Tellurium nanorods have diameter ranging from 25-40 nm and length of 1-2 μm. The diameter and length of nanorods have been found to increase with increase in annealing temperature.
Parametric Study of HRM for Gasoline Sprays

Flash boiling is known to be a common phenomenon for Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engine sprays. Homogeneous Relaxation Model has been adopted in many recent numerical studies for predicting cavitation and flash boiling. Assessment of the Homogeneous Relaxation Model has been presented in this study. Sensitivity analysis of the model parameters has been documented to infer the driving factors for the flash boiling predictions. The model parameters have been varied over a range and the differences in predictions for the extent of flashing have been studied. Apart from flashing in the near-nozzle regions, mild cavitation is also predicted inside the gasoline injectors. The variation in the predicted time-scales through the model parameters for predicting these two different thermodynamic phenomena (cavitation, flash) have been elaborated in this study. ∗Corresponding Author: ksaha@anl.gov
Coupled Simulations, Ground-Based Experiments and Flight Experiments for Astrodynamics Research

Near-Earth satellites undergo complex and poorly understood interactions with their environment, leading to large uncertainties in predicting orbits and an associated risk of collision with other satellites and with space debris. The nature, evolution and behaviour of the growing cloud of space debris in that environment is even less well understood. Significant effort and expenditure is currently being made by governments in Australia, UK, USA, Europe and elsewhere in space surveillance and tracking, in order to mitigate the risk. However, a major gap exists with respect to the science of in-orbit behaviour.
BAYESIAN INFERENCE FOR FUNCTIONALS AND SPECTRAL PROJECTORS OF COVARIANCE MATRIX

Let X1, . ,Xn be an i.i. d. sample in Rp with zero mean and covariance matrix Σ∗. Its empirical covariance is given by ̂ Σ def = n n ∑ j=1 XjX j . We study the (pseudo-)posterior distribution of the covariance matrix Σ and demonstrate that a prior influence on the (pseudo-)posterior vanishes as sample size grows. In particular, we demonstrate that the posterior computed from some arbitrary prior deviates not a lot from the posterior that corresponds to one special class of prior – the Inverse Wishart prior. We do not impose any conditions on a prior; the error of approximation of the corresponding posterior by the Inverse Wishart posterior is described in terms of two crucial concepts. One of these concepts is the posterior contraction of the posterior, and the other is the flatness of the prior. So, our result makes sense if the prior is such that: • the posterior concentrates in a relatively small vicinity of the true covariance Σ∗, • the prior is “flat” enough in this vicinity, that is, it can be well-approximated by a constant;
Circulating Mucosal-Associated Invariant T Cells in a Large Cohort of Healthy Chinese Individuals From Newborn to Elderly

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, which are enriched in human blood and express a semi-invariant TCR chain, play important roles in conditions such as infectious diseases and cancer. The influence of age on levels and functional characteristics of circulating MAIT cells have not been fully addressed. Here we have collected blood samples from a large cohort of healthy Chinese individuals from newborn (cord blood) to the elderly and assessed the levels of circulating MAIT cells as well as their phenotype, activation and apoptosis status, and cytokine expression profiles after in vitro stimulation. We found that the frequencies of circulating MAIT cells gradually increased in blood from newborns as they progressed into adulthood (20–40 years old) but then decreased during further progression toward old age (>60 years old). The lowered numbers of circulating MAIT cells in the elderly was correlated with a gradual increase of apoptosis. A majority of circulating MAIT cells expressed the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CCR6, and most also expressed CD8 and CD45RO. Few expressed CD69 in cord blood, but the frequency increased with age. Upon in vitro activation with PMA plus ionomycin or IL12 plus IL18, fewer MAIT cells isolated from the young adult group expressed IFN-γ, IL17A and Granzyme B then cells from other age groups while the proportion of cells that expressed TNF-α was similar. Taken together, our data provide information for guiding the assessment of normal levels and phenotypes of MAIT cells at different ages in healthy individuals and patients.
Training category expansion with stops and ejectives in Ktunaxa

Ktunaxa is an isolate spoken in the interior of BC and northern Idaho and Montana, and like most Northwest languages, it employs a distinctive sound system that is markedly different fromEnglish. Included in the sound inventory are ejective counterparts for all stops in the language, as well as glottalized nasals and vowels. The ejectives in particular are difficult for English speakers to perceive. This is an important issue for efforts to teach adult members of the community to speak their heritage language, because the adult learners, all of whom are L1 speakers of English, have difficulty perceiving the difference, making it all but impossible for them to learn to produce the different sounds (Flege 1995). This study therefore is intended to expand the categorical perception of certain sounds in a program that is sensitive to the needs, resources, and constraints of the community. Because of their salience, in terms both of frequency and of the cultural significance of these distinctive sounds, I have concentrated on the velar and uvular stops, but this should be viewed as the beginning of a process of category expansion that could (and should) continue to cover the other stops in the language.
CHAPTER 9 Cooperative Learning and Achievement : Theory and Research

177 FOUR MAJOR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 179 Motivational Perspective 179 Social Cohesion Perspective 180 Cognitive Perspectives 182 WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO THE ACHIEVEMENT EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING? 184 Structuring Group Interactions 185 Group Goals and Individual Accountability 185 IS THERE ANY ALTERNATIVE TO GROUP GOALS AND INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTABILITY? 187 Higher Level Cognitive Tasks 188 Controversial Tasks Without Single Answers 188 Voluntary Study Groups 188 Structured Dyadic Tasks 188 Communal Study Groups 189 RECONCILING THE FOUR PERSPECTIVES 189 WHICH STUDENTS GAIN MOST? (IMPORTANT SUBPOPULATIONS) 190 OUTCOMES OTHER THAN ACHIEVEMENT 191 DIRECTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH 191 REFERENCES 193
TRADITION SHOULD NOT SUPPLANT UNDERSTANDING AND INSIGHT

Technological changes and theoretical advances in the past several decades have created new demands and opportunities for cooperation between the statistical mainstream and application area specialists. Against this, traditions of statistical analysis have become embedded in some places that too often hinder understanding and insight. This paper will discuss: a) approaches that were never a good idea; b) common approaches which are outdated due to advances in modeling and computer technology; c) use of over-simplistic modeling assumptions; d) data pre-processing which removes key information; and e) discipline focus on one specific statistical paradigm, rather than choosing the paradigm that relates best to the research question. How can change best be effected through education and collaboration? What role may applied and mathematical statisticians have in such change?
A coupled hygro-chemo-mechanical damage model for ASR-affected concrete

The paper presents a hygro-chemo-mechanical model for ASR affected concrete, which is based on concepts of the Theory of Porous Media. Concrete is regarded as a mixture of three main interacting constituents: the skeleton, the pore liquid and the pore gas. The skeleton in turn represents a binary mixture of the unreacted, unswollen and the already reacted, swollen material. When ASR takes place, mass of the unreacted material is non-instantaneously converted into mass of the reacted material. Since the unreacted material is characterized by a smaller density, the material swells. The applicability of the model is demonstrated by a numerical simulation of the long-term degradation of an ASR-affected concrete beam subjected to a time-variant hygral loading history.
Effect of substrate temperatures on CO 2 gas sensing properties of spray deposited La 2 O 3 thin films

Carbon dioxide gas (CO2) sensing properties of La2O3 thin films synthesized by spray pyrolysis deposition method are studied. La2O3 thin films are characterized for their structural, surface morphological, optical and electrical properties and used for CO2 gas response measurements. SEM analyses indicates porous surface morphology, to which CO2 gas is found to be sensitive. The deposited La2O3films are crystalline with pronounced orientation along (110) plane, uniform and adherent to glass substrate. From optical absorbance studies, the optical band gap is obtained as 4.2 eV. With this morphology, the maximum response of 15 % at 623 K is recorded on exposure to 400 ppm of CO2 gas.