Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Record Network Performance Model for Urban Rail Systems-- Manuscript Draft

This paper proposed a general data-driven Network Performance Model (NPM) for daily network performance monitoring using smart card data. The major component of NPM is a schedule-based network loading model with strict capacity constraints. The potential applications of NPM include estimating crowding patterns, diagnosing crowding sources and evaluating network resilience. A method for calibrating train capacity is introduced, which explicitly recognizes that capacity may be different at different stations depending on the congestion level. Case studies are conducted based on the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong. The NPM model was first validated using denied boarding survey and exit demand data. Then, we demonstrated its capability in performance monitoring by analyzing the spatio-temporal crowding patterns and evaluating the network resilience. Manuscript Classifications: Public Transportation Planning and Development AP025; Network Analysis; Transit Assignment; Transit Capacity and Quality of Service AP015; Capacity; Measuring; Public Transportation; Rail Transit Systems (not Light, Freight, Commuter, or Highspeed) AP065; Network; Subway; Systems; Performance
Industry Level and Aggregate Measures of Productivity Growth with Explicit Treatment of Taxes on Products

We derive industry and aggregate level measures of TFP growth in an open economy as well as the aggregation/decomposition rules from/to the industry level. Net taxes on products in intermediate uses are assumed to be nonzero also at the economy level and different industries are allowed to face different tax rates for the same intermediate inputs. The economy is assumed to be maximizing either the value of deliveries to final demand or value added. In the final demand approach the aggregation equation includes, besides terms representing reallocation of labour and capital, also terms representing reallocation of products in intermediate uses. In the case of Törnqvist indices, if double deflation is used, even reallocation of deliveries final demand between industries contributes to the aggregate TFP growth. For value added there are two alternatives, the approach based on the production possibilities frontier of the industries value added and the one based on the economy level production function. In the latter case also reallocation of value added between industries contributes to the aggregate TFP growth. When the Divisia and Laspeyres indices are used reallocation terms disappear if tax rates/ prices are identical across industries. In the case of the Törnqvist indices a reallocation term relating to an input only disappears if the growth rate of the input and its value share in the industrys total output are identical across industries. Our results can be generalized to differences in the prices paid by the purchasers caused by any other factor as well. The paper includes an empirical experiment based on the Finnish data.
Context-Aware Object Detection With Convolutional Neural Networks

Although the state-of-the-art object detection methods are successful in detecting and classifying objects by leveraging deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), these methods overlook the semantic context which implies the probabilities that different classes of objects occur jointly. In this work, we propose a context-aware CNN (or conCNN for short) that for the first time effectively enforces the semantics context constraints in the CNN-based object detector by leveraging the popular conditional random field (CRF) model in CNN. In particular, conCNN features a context-aware module that naturally models the mean-field inference method for CRF using a stack of common CNN operations. It can be seamlessly plugged into any existing region-based object detection paradigm. Our experiments using COCO datasets showcase that conCNN improves the average precision (AP) of object detection by 2 percentage points, while only introducing negligible extra training overheads.
The Phenomena of Rupture and Flow in Solids

3. Application of the Theory to a Cracked Plate 167 4. Experimental Verification of fche Theory 172 5. Deductions from the Foregoing Eesults 177 6. The Strength of Thin Fibres . '. ' 180 7. Molecular Theory of Strength Phenomena 183 8. Extended Application of the Molecular Orientation Theory 186 9. Practical Limitations of the Elastic Theory 192 10. Methods of Increasing the Strength of Materials , 194 11. Application of the Theory to Liquids 195 12. Summary of Conclusions „ 197
Cornerstones of a Smart City: More Sustainable and More Versatile

Konsept olarak akilli sehirler; muhendislik uygulamalarina dayanan enerji sebekeleri, su yonetimi, atik sistemleri, akilli mobilite ve akilli ulasim dahil olmak uzere onemli kentsel sistemleri bir araya getirerek, vatandaslarina daha iyi hizmet vermenin yollarini amaclar. Akilli sehirler, kentin sosyo-ekonomik bel kemigini guclendirmeyi hedeflemelidir, yani akilli sehirler kavrami cok boyutlu ve multdisipliner bir yaklasimla ele alinmalidir. Bu sebepten oturu akilli teknoloji planlarini ve sistemlerini tasarlamak icin muhendislik, mimarlik, sosyoloji, ekonomi ve kentsel tasarim gibi farkli disiplinler uygulanmaktadir. Yenilikci akilli sehir projeleri, farkli ihtiyaclara esneklik saglayan surdurulebilir, mobil, dijital, guvenli altyapilar sunsa da, kenti gercekten daha akilli kilan seyin ne olduguna dair literaturde karar kilinan tek bir formul yoktur. Bu calisma akilli sehirleri butunlesik modeller olarak ele almakta ve sosyoekonomik gelisme kapsaminda akilli sehir projelerindeki temel katalizorleri aciklamayi hedeflemektedir. Ayrica, bilgi yogun dijital uygulamalarin sagladigi kentsel gelisim araclarini ve akilli mobilite sistemlerinde dogaya dayali cozumleri tartisip, acik verilerin onemini vurgulamaktadir. Akilli sehirlerin cesitli boyutlari ve unsurlari, farkli kitalarda bulunan bes akilli kentin projelerine gore tanimlanmaktadir. Her bir projenin kritik sistemleri, goze carpan konseptleri ve unsurlari hakkindaki bulgulari ile kentleri akilli olma yoluna sokabilecek endikatorler paylasilmistir.
Career choice for nursing students in Kuwait

Background: The process of entering nursing, as one of the pivotal healthcare discipline, certainly affects quality of care, and retention of nurses in the profession. Aims: Exploring factors affecting the nursing students’ decision to enter nursing and their attitude towards future career. Subjects and methods: Ninety currently registered students in Nursing Institute, Kuwait participated in a cross-sectional study conducted in 2013. Self-administered questionnaire was used. Results: Kuwaiti females outnumbered males, while the percentage of non-Kuwaiti males with undetermined nationality (bedoon) were higher than females. The majority of the students (88.9%) mentioned that they knew their future specialty after graduation. The first favorable specialties of the students were school health or primary health care followed by other specialties. Regarding the criteria for choosing nursing career, 48.9% reported like of work, 24.4% due to their scientific excellence, 23.3% due to work dedication, and 20.0% due to self-confidence, and 17.8% due to their committed practical work. The most important ambitions and priorities after graduation for the students were to get suitable work inside Kuwait, want work stability, and complete education. Conclusions: Improving the complement of nurses, and changing the attitudes and perceptions towards them are crucial to recruit more students in nursing school.
University of Groningen Diel pattern of corticosterone metabolites in Arctic barnacle goslings (Branta leucopsis) under continuous natural light Scheiber,

Here we describe the excretion pattern of corticosterone metabolites collected from droppings in barnacle goslings (Branta leucopsis) raised under 24 hours of continuous natural light in the Arctic. In lower latitudes, circulating corticosterone peaks around waking and shows a nadir between midnight and 4:00, whereas the peak and nadir are time-delayed slightly when measuring corticosterone metabolites from droppings. Photoperiod, along with other environmental factors, helps to entrain an animal’s endogenous rhythm to that of the natural world. North of the Arctic Circle, photoperiod may not be a reliable cue as light is continuously absent during the winter and continuously present during the summer. Here, for the first time, we used droppings to describe a 24-hour excretion pattern of corticosterone metabolites (CORTm). By applying circular statistics for dependent data, we found a diel rhythmic pattern even under continuous natural light. We discuss potential alternative ‘Zeitgeber’ that may function even in the polar regions, focusing on melatonin. We propose a line of research to measure melatonin non-invasively from droppings. We also provide a validation of the adopted enzyme immunoassay (EIA) that was originally developed for greylag geese.
Bend or PIN: Studying Bend Password Authentication with People with Vision Impairment

People living with vision impairment can be vulnerable to attackers when entering passwords on their smartphones, as their technology is more 'observable'. While researchers have proposed tangible interactions such as bend input as an alternative authentication method, limited work have evaluated this method with people with vision impairment. This paper extends previous work by presenting our user study of bend passwords with 16 participants who live with varying levels of vision impairment or blindness. Each participant created their own passwords using both PIN codes and BendyPass, a combination of bend gestures performed on a flexible device. We explored whether BendyPass does indeed offer greater opportunity over PINs and evaluated the usability of both. Our findings show bend passwords have learnability and memorability potential as a tactile authentication method for people with vision impairment, and could be faster to enter than PINs. However, BendyPass still has limitations relating to security and usability.
Polymer Simulations and DNA Topology

In 2009 the Hi-C procedure provided a new way to query the structure of the genome through genome-wide contact maps. A contact map indicates the probability that any two locations in the genome are in physical contact in the nucleus. This information was used to determine that chromatin, which is the composite polymer of DNA and protein that resides in the nucleus, has a fractal globule structure. The fractal globule is an unknotted yet densely packed polymer conformation model that is locally expandable. Hi-C data also provides information about higher-level structures present in the genome, such as the presence of open and closed compartments, which are regions of lower and higher density. All of this data represents an ensemble average of genomes. We develop and utilize computational tools to simulate chromatin dynamics and provide methods to reconstruct polymer conformations that reproduce these observed higher-level structures. This provides a way to use average Hi-C data to produce candidate individual genome conformations. Several video clips of data obtained from this simulation procedure can be found online at http://bit.ly/107Qlo4. We also give some detail on the algorithmic theory of molecular dynamics and polymer simulations as well as a discussion of a practical implementation of a polymer simulator on graphics processing units. Next we take up the problem of double strand breaks and mutation. Double strand breaks are a form of DNA damage in which the DNA polymer is broken at one point into two pieces, and are a type of damage known to be highly carcinogenic. One common explanation for this is that double strand breaks cause chromosomal rearrangements or translocations, both of which modify the sequence of nucleotides. We suggest the possibility of a new mechanism for double strand break toxicity, the topological mutation. Instead of altering the DNA sequence, a double strand break allows topology violating strand passes to occur. These can destroy the special dynamical properties of the fractal globule, such as topological unknottedness and the consequent local expandability. This is a property of fractal globules in which any small subsection of the polymer can be unfolded from the dense globule packing without disturbing the rest of the structure. This phenomenon could have a role in facilitating access to specific parts of the genome, for example for gene expression. We demonstrate that after simulated double strand breaks, chromatin loses this local expandability property, thus providing evidence for the existence of topological mutations.
Role of PKGI α-mediated Spinal Dorsal Horn Plasticity in Chronic Pain

Copyright: © 2014 Liu S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Chronic pain due to a variety of health conditions is the primary reason people seek medical care, yet current therapies either are inadequate or cause intolerable side effects. Understanding cellular and molecular processes that lead to the initiation and maintenance of chronic pain will give promise to the development of more effective, more specific pain therapies. Chronic pain is an expression of neuronal plasticity, which is mediated in part by increased excitability of nociceptive neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord [1]. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this nociceptive plasticity are not fully understood. In the spinal cord, Nitric Oxide (NO) is known to contribute to central mechanisms that induce hyperalgesia and allodynia [2-9]. There is also convincing evidence that a downstream molecule of the NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling pathway, Protein Kinase G (PKG), is involved in spinal nociceptive processing [10-16]. However, PKG phosphorylation targets in the spinal cord and their role in the central sensitization of chronic pain have not been elucidated.
Grid-job scheduling with reservations and preemption

Computational grids make it possible to exploit grid resources across multiple clusters when grid jobs are deconstructed into tasks and allocated across clusters. Grid-job tasks are often scheduled in the form of workflows which require synchronization, and advance reservation makes it easy to guarantee predictable resource provisioning for these jobs. However, advance reservation for grid jobs creates roadblocks and fragmentation which adversely affects the system utilization and response times for local jobs. We provide a solution which incorporates relaxed reservations and uses a modified version of the standard grid-scheduling algorithm, HEFT, to obtain flexibility in placing reservations for workflow grid jobs. Furthermore, we deploy the relaxed reservation with modified HEFT as an extension of the preemption based job scheduling framework, SCOJO-PECT job scheduler. In SCOJO-PECT, relaxed reservations serve the additional purpose of permitting scheduler optimizations which shift the overall schedule forward. Furthermore, a propagation heuristics algorithm is used to alleviate the workflow job makespan extension caused by the slack of relaxed reservation. Our solution aims at decreasing the fragmentation caused by grid jobs, so that local jobs and system utilization are not compromised, and at the same time grid jobs also have reasonable response times.
A review on the occurrence of opportunistic infections after applications of stem cell techniques

One of the most recent advances in the ield of medical science is the invention of stem cells technology, and its usage in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases and tissue engineering. In fact, many aspects of such techniques should be elucidated for the better decisions on its usage and acceptance between scienti ic communities. However, the therapeutic use of this method has been reported to be completely safe. Recently, more than two thousand people have used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for treatment of various diseases [1,2]. Majority of these studies have been reported with successful results. In fact, there are critical and practical problems with both of the autologous and heterologous stem cells in clinical applications. For example, obtaining homologous active cells from some patients, such as diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, or elderly individuals is dif icult. On the other hand, heterologous cells have graft-versus-host, and MHC histocompatibility problems [3]. Therefore, inding MSCs of optimized and with the best clinical treatment ef icacy are need some further efforts. On the other hand, there is still no comprehensive information on the short-term or long-term risks of their application particularly on the prevalence of bacterial opportunistic infections or uncontrollable in lammatory immune system responses in both autologous or heterologous transplants [4]. Therefore, in this review it has been paid to some of the complications or side effects of stem cells in vivo applications including in lammation and opportunistic infections which in turn can destroy their therapeutic effect.
ClioPatria: A Logical Programming Infrastructure for the Semantic Web

ClioPatria is a comprehensive semantic web development framework based on SWI-Prolog. SWI-Prolog provides an efficient C-based main-memory RDF store that is designed to cooperate naturally and efficiently with Prolog, realizing a flexible RDF-based environment for rule based programming. ClioPatria extends this core with a SPARQL and LOD server, an extensible web frontend to manage the server, browse the data, query the data using SPARQL and Prolog and a Git-based plugin manager. The ability to query RDF using Prolog provides query composition and smooth integration with application logic. ClioPatria is primarily positioned as a prototyping platform for exploring novel ways of reasoning with RDF data. It has been used in several research projects in order to perform tasks such as data integration and enrichment and semantic search.
CONTRIBUTION OF INTERNAL REFLECTION IN LANGUAGE EMERGENCE WITH AN UNDER-RESTRICTED SITUATION

Owing to language emergence, human beings have been able to understand the intentions of others, generate common concepts, and extend new concepts. Artificial intelligence researchers have not only predicted words and sentences statistically in machine learning, but also created a language system by communicating with the machine itself. However, strong constraints are exhibited in current studies (supervisor signals and rewards exist, or the concepts were fixed on only a point), thus hindering the emergence of real-world languages. In this study, we improved Batali (1998) and Choi et al. (2018)’s research and attempted language emergence under conditions of low constraints such as human language generation. We included the bias that exists in humans as an “internal reflection function” into the system. Irrespective of function, messages corresponding to the label could be generated. However, through qualitative and quantitative analysis, we confirmed that the internal reflection function caused “overlearning” and different structuring of message patterns. This result suggested that the internal reflection function performed effectively in creating a grounding language from raw images with an under-restricted situation such as human language generation.
Effect of bypass fat on growth and body condition score of male Beetal goats during summer

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of feeding rumen bypass fat on the growth of male Beetal goats. Twenty-seven male kids with an average bodyweight of 34 ± 1.8 kg (mean ± SD) and aged 12 to 15 months were randomly divided into three treatment groups under a completely randomized design. The treatments consisted of : i) CON, basal diet without added fat (basal diet of chopped sorghum with 0.75 kg concentrate per animal); ii) MF, basal diet with added fat at 2.5% of dry matter in concentrate (Energizer-RP10, Scothorn Nutrition, Malaysia); and iii) HF, basal diet with added fat at 5% of dry matter in concentrate. Dry matter intake (DMI) and faecal score were recorded daily. Live bodyweight was recorded fortnightly. Linear body measurements, which included wither height (WH), heart girth (HG), body length (BL), and body condition scores (BCS), were recorded monthly. The results indicated that the addition of bypass fat in concentrate did not affect DMI linearly. However, a quadratic trend of DMI was observed in response to fat addition (P 0.05). Moreover, the addition of bypass fat did not affect the BCS, WH, HG, and BL. The HF group had a higher faecal score than the CON and MF groups (P <0.05). The current findings conclude that the addition of bypass fat in diets did not improve the growth performance of yearling Beetal male goats. Keywords : average daily gain, body measurements, supplemental fat
Exploring Video Conferencing for Doctor Appointments in the Home: A Scenario-Based Approach from Patients' Perspectives

We are beginning to see changes to health care systems where patients are now able to visit their doctor using video conferencing appointments. Yet we know little of how such systems should be designed to meet patients’ needs. We used a scenario-based design method with video prototyping and conducted patient-centered contextual interviews with people to learn about their reactions to futuristic video-based appointments. Results show that video-based appointments differ from face-to-face consultations in terms of accessibility, relationship building, camera work, and privacy issues. These results illustrate design challenges for video calling systems that can support video-based appointments between doctors and patients with an emphasis on providing adequate camera control, support for showing empathy, and mitigating privacy concerns.
GUIDELINES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF THE FINAL PAPER

With the boost of smart meter installations, the technical difficulties for demand response (DR) have been overcome a lot. For years, numerous DR programs have been in operation to enhance the system reliability. Meanwhile, some DR programs run on the profit of participating the power market, like arbitraging between the wholesale market and the retail market in regions with a deregulated power market. In this paper, the business model for DR aggregators under deregulated markets is revisited for comparison. The business models under regulated markets are then proposed targeting three different power dispatch modes: economic dispatch, energy-saving dispatch and open and impartial dispatch. Numerical cases are calculated to test if the utility can make profit through the proposed models. Furthermore, the influence of implementing such models on the system is analysed.