Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semantic Grid-Based Road Model Estimation for Autonomous Driving

For autonomous driving, knowledge about the current environment and especially the driveable lanes is of utmost importance. Currently this information is often extracted from meticulously (hand-)crafted offline high-definition maps, restricting the operation of autonomous vehicles to few well-mapped areas and making it vulnerable to temporary or permanent environment changes. This paper addresses the issues of map-based road models by building the road model solely from online sensor measurements. Based on Dempster-Shafer theory and a novel frame of discernment, sensor measurements, such as lane markings, semantic segmentation of drivable and non-drivable areas and the trajectories of other observed traffic participants are fused into semantic grids. Geometrical lane information is extracted from these grids via an iterative path-planning method. The proposed approach is evaluated on real measurement data from German highways and urban areas.
An Idealized Numerical Study of Shear-Relative Low-Level Mean Flow on Tropical Cyclone Intensity and Size

Given comparable background vertical wind shear (VWS) magnitudes, the initially imposed shear-relative low-level mean flow (LMF) is hypothesized to modify the structure and convective features of a tropical cyclone (TC). This study uses idealized Weather Research and Forecasting Model simulations to examine TC structure and convection affected by various LMFs directed toward eight shear-relative orientations. The simulated TC affected by an initially imposed LMF directed toward downshear left yields an anomalously high intensification rate, while an upshear-right LMF yields a relatively high expansion rate. These two shear-relative LMF orientations affect the asymmetry of both surface fluxes and frictional inflow in the boundary layer and thus modify the TC convection. During the early development stage, the initially imposed downshear-left LMF promotes inner-core convection because of high boundary layer moisture fluxes into the inner core and is thus favorable for TC intensification because of large radial fluxes of azimuthal mean vorticity near the radius of maximum wind in the boundary layer. However, TCs affected by various LMFs may modify the near-TC VWS differently, making the intensity evolution afterward more complicated. The TC with a fast-established eyewall in response to the downshear-left LMF further reduces the near-TC VWS, maintaining a relatively high intensification rate. For the upshear-right LMF that leads to active and sustained rainbands in the downshear quadrants, TC size expansion is promoted by a positive radial flux of eddy vorticity near the radius of 34-kt wind (1 kt ≈ 0.51 m s−1) because the vorticity associated with the rainbands is in phase with the storm-motion-relative inflow.
Interdecadal change in the lagged relationship between the Victoria mode and ENSO

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the interdecadal variability in the lagged relationship between the spring Victoria mode (VM) and the following-winter El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It is found that the relationship is strong during high correlation (HC) periods, e.g. 1957–1964 and 1981–2004, but weak during low correlation (LC) periods, e.g. 1907–1924, 1926–1956, 1965–1980, and 2005–2008. The surface air–sea coupling and the evolution of subsurface ocean temperature anomaliesh along the equatorial Pacific associated with the VM are found to be strong during HC periods and weak during LC periods, which results in a stronger impact of the VM on the following-winter ENSO during HC periods. The interdecadal change in the relationship between the VM and ENSO is mainly due to the interdecadal change in the intensity of the VM, which is found to be influenced by the North Pacific Oscillation. Our findings may improve the prediction skill for the onset of ENSO events. Graphical Abstract Of the tested 13 Bifidobacterium species in this study, 10 species showed polyamine transport ability.
Genomic characteristics of deleterious BRCA1 and BRCA2 alterations and associations with baseline clinical factors in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) enrolled in TRITON2.

5031 Background: The phase 2 TRITON2 study (NCT02952534) is evaluating the PARP inhibitor rucaparib in patients with mCRPC who have a deleterious germline or somatic alteration in BRCA ( BRCA1 or BRCA2) or 1 of 13 other DNA damage repair genes. Here we present analyses of tumor genomics and baseline clinical characteristics in mCRPC patients with a deleterious alteration in BRCA. Methods: Plasma (baseline) and tissue (archival or baseline) samples from patients with a deleterious alteration in BRCA were analyzed using Foundation Medicine next-generation sequencing assays. The alterations and zygosity of the alterations that were detected, as well as the somatic/germline status from Color Genomics testing, were summarized. Associations between genomic alterations, DNA yield, allele frequency, and baseline clinical characteristics were investigated. Results: Results are shown in the Table for a cohort of 40 BRCA2 and 5 BRCA1 patients enrolled in TRITON2 (Abida W et al. Presented at ESMO 2018. Abst 793PD). A biallelic alteration was observed in 21 of the 22 BRCA2 patients (95%) for whom alteration zygosity could be determined. Among the 5 BRCA1 patients, 1 alteration was monoallelic and 4 were of unknown zygosity. Co-occurring alterations in cancer-related or DNA damage repair genes were observed in many patients with BRCA alterations. At baseline, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) yield correlated positively with the sum of target lesions (STL; P= 0.04), but not with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels ( P= 0.86). No correlation was observed between allele frequency of the BRCA alteration baseline STL ( P= 0.68) or PSA levels ( P= 0.97). Conclusions: Patients with a BRCA mutation enrolled in TRITON2 demonstrate a profile of genomic alterations consistent with that of prior studies of patients with mCRPC. Plasma cfDNA profiling showed a correlation between baseline cfDNA yield and measurable tumor burden, but not baseline PSA. Clinical trial information: NCT02952534. [Table: see text]
Heracleum persicum: chemical composition, biological activities and potential uses in poultry nutrition

Heracleum persicum (golpar) is an endemic medicinal plant that is commonly known as hogweed or Persian hogweed. It contains flavonoids and furanocoumarins that probably could stimulate both cell- and antibody-mediated immune responses. Besides, golpar has a substantial immunostimulatory effect on beta-lymphocytes and macrophages that played important role in antibody synthesis. Its extract at a supplementation level of 1-2.5 ml/l in drinking water showed a remarkable increase in the total immunoglobulins (Ig) (70%), immunoglobulin G (IgG) (100%) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) (94%) titres and an increase in antibody titre against Newcastle disease virus (96%) in broilers. In addition, supplementation positively affected the feed intake (9.4%), weight gain (14.7%) and food conversion ratio (FCR) (8.7%) in broilers. Moreover, in several studies, it has potential as an antifungal, antidiabetic, hypocholesterolaemic and growth enhancer agent; which endorsed its extensive contents of phytochemicals (terpenoids, triterpenes, furanocoumarins, volatile substances, flavonoids and alkaloids). It has a positive effect on the levels of glutathione (GSH), peroxidation lipids (MDA), the total antioxidant capacity of plasma or ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) and glutathione s-transferase (GST), in addition to modulatory effects on liver enzymes including alanine transferase (ALT) and aspartate transferase (AST). After reviewing the published literature, it was apparent that golpar has multidimensional biological effects. Nevertheless, little research is available on the effects of golpar on productive performance and other health-related parameters in avian species. Hence, this review encourages veterinarians and poultry researcher to undertake further work to demonstrate the promising beneficial effects of golpar at effective levels to potentially replace the synthetic antibiotic growth promoters in commercial poultry diets.
NASM: Nonlinearly Attentive Similarity Model for Recommendation System via Locally Attentive Embedding

Recommendation system, as a core service for many customer-oriented online services, is employed to predict the personalized rating of users on their potentially preferable items. In modern industrial settings, an item-based collaborative filtering (item-based CF) method has been long popular owing to its excellent interpretability and high efficiency in the real-time personalized recommendation. In this model, the current target item is recommended according to the interacted similarity from the user’s profile, which implies that the key of item-based CF is in the estimation of historical item similarity. Early studies usually utilize statistical measures including cosine similarity and Pearson correlation coefficient to estimate similarity with low accuracy caused by lacking optimization tailed. Recently, there are some learning-based models attempting to learn item similarity by optimizing a recommendation-aware loss function. However, these efforts are mainly concentrated on the application of the shallow linear model, and relative works that deploy some deep learning components for item-based CF are scarce. In this paper, we propose a nonlinearly attentive similarity model (NASM) for item-based CF via locally attentive embedding by introducing local attention and novel nonlinear attention to capture local and global item information, simultaneously. The NASM is based on a neural attentive item similarity (NAIS) model and further achieves significantly superior performance. The experimental results demonstrate that the NASM achieves more competitive recommendation performance in terms of hit ration (HR) and the normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDGC) in comparison with other state-of-the-art recommendation models.
Präoperative Hypertonie – Muss der Elektiveingriff verschoben werden?

Zusammenfassung Leitlinien zur Klassifikation und Therapie der Volkskrankheit „essenzielle Hypertonie“ sind über nationale 1 und internationale Fachgesellschaften verfügbar und unterliegen einem regelmäßigen Review- und Novellierungsprozess. Eine spezifische Leitlinie zum Management von hypertensiven Patienten in der perioperativen Sondersituation stellt ein Novum dar und richtet sich an alle im perioperativen Setting beteiligten Fachdisziplinen 3.
Multifaceted activities of plant gum synthesised platinum nanoparticles: catalytic, peroxidase, PCR enhancing and antioxidant activities.

A single pot, green method for platinum nanoparticles (Pt NP) production was devised with gum ghatti (Anogeissus latifolia). Analytical tools: ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were employed. Wide continuous UV-vis absorption and black solution colouration proved Pt NP formation. Face-centred cubic crystalline structure of NP was evidenced from XRD. NPs formed were nearly spherical with a mean particle size of 3 nm. NP demonstrated a myriad of properties including catalytic, peroxidase, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enhancing and antioxidant activities. Catalytic action of NP was probed via NaBH4 reduction of arsenazo-III dye. NP displayed considerable peroxidase activity via catalysis of 3, 3', 5, 5'-tetramethylbenzidine oxidation by H2O2. NP showed exceptional stability towards varying pH (3-11), temperature (25-100°C), salt concentration (0-100 mM) and storage time duration (0-12 months). In comparison with horse radish peroxidase, its applicability as an artificial peroxidase is advantageous. NP caused a two-fold enhancement in PCR yield at 0.4 nM. Also showed significant 1', 1' diphenyl picryl-hydrazyle scavenging (80.1%) at 15 µg/mL. Author envisages that the biogenic Pt NP can be used in a range of biological and environmental applications.
Chronic nicotine exposure affects programmed death-ligand 1 expression and sensitivity to epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor in lung cancer

Background Smoking histories are independently associated with poor response to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with activating EGFR mutations. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of nicotine exposure on programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in EGFR mutant lung cancer cells. Methods Human lung adenocarcinoma PC9 cells were exposed to 1 µM nicotine for 3 months designated as PC9/N, and cells were stimulated with gefitinib (0, 0.1, or 1 µM) for 48 hrs. Cell viability by the MTT assay and morphological changes by immunofluorescence staining were assessed. The protein expression of EGFR, mTOR, AKT, α1-nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAchR) and PD-L1 were measured by Western blot. Gene expression of α1-nAchR and PD-L1 were examined by RT-PCR. Intratumoral levels of PD-L1 expression were compared according to the burden of smoking dosage in 54 EGFR mutant lung cancer patients. Results Cellular growth was inhibited by treatment with gefitinib, and PC9 cells were significantly more sensitive to gefitinib than PC9/N cells. Pleomorphic appearance with atypical nuclei and to be detached and shrunken with condensed nuclei in PC9 than PC9/N cells. The gene expression level of α1-nAchR and PD-L1 gene were higher in PC9/N cells compared to those in PC9 cells after treatment with gefitinib. Phosphorylation levels of EGFR, mTOR, AKT and PD-L1 level were decreased by gefitinib in PC9/N cells, which was to a lesser extent than that in PC9 cells. In tumors, heavy smokers (≥30 PY) showed 28.5% of ≥50% PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) while light smoker and never smokers had 12.5% and 9.7% of ≥50% PD-L1 TPS, respectively. However, there was no statistical significance (P value =0.628). Conclusions Chronic nicotine exposure could increase PD-L1 expression related to intrinsic resistance to EGFR-TKI in NSCLC patients harboring activating EGFR mutation. Considering the clinical importance of inevitable EGFR resistance, further studies regarding the role of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment are needed, especially in EGFR mutant smokers.
Neural Network-Based Metaheuristic Parameterization with Application to the Vehicle Matching Problem in Ride-Hailing Services

The majority of transportation problems include optimizing some sort of cost function. These optimization problems are often NP-hard and have an exponential increase in computation time with the increase in the model size. The problem of matching vehicles to passenger requests in ride hailing (RH) contexts typically falls into this category.Metaheuristics are often utilized for such problems with the aim of finding a global optimal solution. However, such algorithms usually include lots of parameters that need to be tuned to obtain a good performance. Typically multiple simulations are run on diverse small size problems and the parameters values that perform the best on average are chosen for subsequent larger simulations.In contrast to the above approach, we propose training a neural network to predict the parameter values that work the best for an instance of the given problem. We show that various features, based on the problem instance and shareability graph statistics, can be used to predict the solution quality of a matching problem in RH services. Consequently, the values corresponding to the best predicted solution can be selected for the actual problem. We study the effectiveness of above described approach for the static assignment of vehicles to passengers in RH services. We utilized the DriveNow data from Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) for generating passenger requests inside Munich, and for the metaheuristic, we used a large neighborhood search (LNS) algorithm combined with a shareability graph.
Ordering sequential competitions to reduce order relevance: Soccer penalty shootouts

In sequential competitions, the order in which teams take turns may have an impact on performance and the outcome. Previous studies with penalty shootouts have shown mixed evidence of a possible advantage for the first shooting team. This has led to some debate on whether a change in the rules of the game is needed. This work contributes to the debate by collecting an extensive dataset of shootouts which corroborates an advantage for the first shooter, albeit with a smaller effect than what has been documented in previous research. To evaluate the impact of alternative ordering of shots, we model shootouts as a probability network, calibrate it using the data from the traditional ordering, and use the model to conduct counterfactual analysis. Our results show that alternating the team that shoots first in each round would reduce the impact of ordering. These results were in part developed as supplement to field studies to support the International Football Association Board’s (IFAB) consideration of changing the shooting order.
Occurrence of Highly Resistant Microorganisms in Ruai Wastewater Treatment Plant and Dandora Dumpsite in Nairobi County, Kenya

Wastewater treatment plants and solid dump sites act as potential reservoirs of highly resistant bacterial strains. This study presents information on the patterns of antimicrobial resistance among pathogenic bacteria in the sewage treatment plants and solid dump site in Nairobi County, Kenya. We employed standard microbiological methods to isolate and identify bacteria from these selected sites. Members of Escherichia, Klebsiella, Serratia, Shigella, Pseudomonas, Citrobacter spp, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Yersinia, Vibro cholera, Providencia, Morganella and Proteus spp were isolated. Escherichia and Klebsiella recorded the highest occurrence at 13.9% and 10.3% in wastewater. Shigella, Serratia Citrobacterfreundii, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Escherichia and Klebsiella recorded the highest level of occurrence at 15.1%, 14.1%, 12%, 11%, 10.4%, 10.3%, and 8.3% in dumpsite respectively. Drug sensitivity using the Disc diffusion method showed that Ampicillin, Ceftazidime, Cefotaxime, Amoxicillin, and Cefepime had the highest levels of inactivity at (68.5%, 89.5%), (64.2%, 87%), (54.5%, 80.2%), (52%, 74%) and (49.1%, 72.4%) respectively while Levofloxacin and Gentamicin showed the smallest level of antibiotic resistance at (4.8%, 4.7%) and (4.2%, 2.6%) in both sites. Members of Escherichia, Klebsiella, Proteus vulgaris, Salmonella, Pseudomonas, Shigella and Serratia showed the highest level of ESBLs production at 28.9%, 18.4%, 15.8%, 10.5%, 7.9%, 7.9%, 7.9% and 7.9% in the wastewater whereas Shigella, Escherichia, Serratia, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, and Proteus vulgaris showed the highest level ESBLs production at 45.5%, 10.9%, 9.1%, 9.1%, 7.3% and 7.3% from the dump site. All the antibiotics tested except for Gentamicin, Chloramphenicol and Ciprofloxacin differed significantly in terms of resistance levels (p < 0.05). The study concluded that, wastewater treatment plant and dump sites bear heavy burdens of potentially virulent resistant bacterial strains which may constitute major public health hazards to scavengers and those living near these sites. There is need therefore to educate people on the use of appropriate protective materials and the settlement patterns of individuals and communities near these sites.
Review, Comparison, and Proposal for PWM Converters Integrating Differential Power Processing Converter for Small Exploration Rovers

Partial shading often appears on photovoltaic (PV) strings installed in small space probes, such as moon exploration rovers, due to their body structures, reducing the power yield of PV strings. Such partial shading issues can be precluded by differential power processing (DPP) converters. However, in addition to a main dc-dc converter, a DPP converter is required, increasing the system complexity and cost. In this paper, several kinds of integrated pulse width modulation (PWM) converters that can reduce the system complexity thanks to the integration are reviewed and are quantitatively compared in terms of the switch and magnetic component counts, and voltage conversion ratio. Based on the comparison and consideration from the perspectives of reliability, circuit volume, and voltage conversion requirement, a single-switch single-magnetic integrated PWM converter with a resonant voltage multiplier (RVM) was selected as the best suitable topology for small exploration rovers. Furthermore, the improved version with a non-resonant voltage multiplier (NRVM) was also proposed to achieve further circuit miniaturization and improved reliability. The experimental verification tests using the proposed integrated PWM converter were performed emulating a partial-shading condition. The maximum power yield from the PV modules was improved by 11.1% thanks to the DPP function of the proposed integrated converter.
Sulphinpyrazone Reduces Deposition of Fibrin on Dialyser Membranes

Activation of platelets may be responsible for thrombus deposition on dialyser membranes during haemodialysis despite adequate anticoagulation with heparin. This thrombus deposition increases residual blood loss within the dialyser and may impair dialyser efficiency thus limiting the reuse of disposable dialysers. To determine whether the antiplatelet agent sulphinpyrazone reduces such thrombus deposition dialyser 131I-fibrinogen and platelet fibrinogen levels during dialysis were compared in thirteen pairs of dialyses in five patients during a nontreatment control period and while the patients were receiving sulphinpyrazone 200 mg tds. The mean fibrin deposition within the dialysers measured as gram x10-3 of clottable fibrinogen was significantly less during the treatment period (2.5) than during the control period (5.3). Sulphinpyrazone reduced the fall in platelet count during dialysis. Plasma fibrinogen levels during haemodialysis were significantly higher with sulphinpyrazone treatment compared to control dialyses and this difference could not be explained solely by reduction of fibrin deposition on the dialyser membranes. It is probable that sulphinpyrazone reduces fibrinogen consumption within the patient during dialysis as well as within the dialyser membrane itself.
Development of an Autonomous Android with Conversational Capability based on Intention and Desire

Development of an Autonomous Android with Conversational Capability based on Intention and Desire 石 黒 浩∗1∗2 港 隆 史∗2 小 山 虎∗1∗3 ∗1大阪大学大学院基礎工学研究科 ∗2国際電気通信基礎技術研究所 ∗3山口大学時間学研究所 Hiroshi Ishiguro∗1∗2, Takashi Minato∗2 and Tora Koyama∗1∗3 ∗1Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University ∗2Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International ∗3The Research Institute for Time Studies, Yamaguchi University
The Effect of Entrepreneurship on Foreign Direct Investment in India

Entrepreneurship has become an important and extensively researched concept in business studies. Research on foreign direct investment (FDI) has become widespread due to the growth of FDI and its importance in globalization. Most entrepreneurship studies examined the importance and influence of entrepreneurial orientation in a micro-level context. On the other hand, studies and research concerning FDI used statistical techniques to analyze the effect, determinants, and motives of FDI on a macroeconomic level, ignoring empirical studies on other noneconomic determinants. In order to bridge the gap between the theory and empirical evidence on FDI and the theory and research on entrepreneurship, this study examines the impact of entrepreneurship on inward foreign direct investment. The relationship between entrepreneurship and foreign direct investment is investigated through regression analysis of pooled time-series and cross-sectional data. The results suggest that entrepreneurship has a significant effect on FDI. Keywords:Entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment, globalization, economic freedom.