Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity analysis of the row model's input parameters

In this study, we use the variance based sensitivity method to analyze the sensitivities of the row crop model's input parameters. This method consists of three steps: sample generation, model execution and the calculation of sensitivity indices. The results of sensitivity analysis of row crop model's input parameters indicate that the sensitivities of the row model's parameters are different under different viewing angles. We also find that the row structure of canopy can affect the sensitivities of model's inputs parameters. LAI is found to be generally the most sensitive parameter in three typical spectral bands. a and h are also identified as sensitive parameters in the along-row or near-along row directions in the VNIR bands. LIDF.a is relatively sensitive at some viewing angles and LIDF.b is insensitive in three typical spectral bands. k has marginal influence on the model outputs in all of the viewing angles and spectral bands, except around hotspot directions in the red band. The main contribution of this work is that the technique of global sensitivity analysis is applied to the row model and the results are informative for the retrieval of the parameters during the inversion.
Effects of Weight Stigma on Exercise Motivation and Behavior

This study examined the relation between weight stigma, exercise motivation and exercise behavior. One hundred female undergraduates (BMIs [kg/m2] 17—38) completed measures of experiences with weight stigma, body dissatisfaction, self-esteem and exercise motivation, and reported on their exercise behavior. Stigma experiences were positively correlated with BMI and body dissatisfaction. Importantly, stigma experiences were related to increased desire to avoid exercise, even when controlling for BMI and body dissatisfaction. Exercise avoidance was in turn related to less frequent strenuous and moderate exercise. These findings suggest that weight stigma (through its impact on avoidance motivation) could potentially decrease physical activity levels.
Pension reform in the UK : re-casting the public/private mix in pension provision 1997-2000

The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that is not facing a serious pension crisis. The reasons for this are straight forward: state pensions (both in terms of replacement ratio and as a proportion of average earnings) are among the lowest in Europe, the UK has a long-standing funded private pension sector . and its governments have, since the beginning of the 1980s, taken measures to prevent a pension crisis developing. These measures have involved making systematic cuts in unfunded state pension provisions and increasingly transferring the burden of providing pensions to the funded private sector, principally on a defined contribution basis.
Procurement and financing of motorways in Europe

Introduction. (G. Ragazzi, W. Rothengatter). The Regulatory Issues of Transport Infrastructures, and of Toll Highways in Particular. (M. Ponti). Analysis of Highway Concession in Europe. (A. Fayard). Concessions versus Network-Wide Tolling Schemes, the Community' Framework for Motorway Tolling in Europe. (C. Borgnolo, W. Rothengatter). Tolls and Project Financing: A Critical View. (G. Ragazzi). Applying a Price Cap: RAB and Regulatory Accounting. (P. Ranci). Trans European Networks. EU Infrastructure Proposals. (J.H. Rees). Motorways and Motorway Finance in Germany and Austria. (W. Rothengatter). French Motorways: Experience and Assessment. (A. Fayard, F. Gaeta). Public Private Partnerships in the Irish Roads Sector: An Economic Analysis. (E. Reeves). History and Regulation of Italian Highways Concessionaires. The Concession through a Bid - the New Brescia-Milan Highway: a Case Study. (A. Greco, G. Ragazzi). Financing Motorways in Poland. (M. Bak, J. Burnewicz). Portuguese Experience in Motorway Concessions with Real and Shadow Tolls. (C. Fernandes, J.M. Viegas). Financing and Regulating Highway Construction in Scandinavia - Experiences and Perspectives. (S. Brathen). Is a Mixed Funding Model for the Highway Network Sustainable Over Time? The Spanish Case. (G. Bel, X. Fageda). Pricing and Financing Transport Infrastructures in Switzerland. A Success Story? (R. Rudel, O. Tarola, R. Maggi). Financing Roads in Great Britain. (P. Mackie, N. Smith). The Private Finance Initiative: the UK Experience. (M. Sawyer).
DEFENDING THE SCADA NETWORK CONTROLLING THE ELECTRICAL GRID FROM ADVANCED PERSISTENT THREATS

Modern civilization, with its dependency on information technology, require a steady supply of electrical power to prosper. A century of relentless work by power engineers has ensured that the power grid is reliable. One of tools they used to achieve that goal is increased automation and remote control of the electrical grid. This technology allows the controllers supervising the power grid to automatically adjust operational parameters to meet external constraints as they evolve. A new surge in demand from a cold night will trigger an automated increase in supply. Remote control commands will be sent to open sluice gates at the hydroelectric plant to make turbines spin faster and generate more power. This ensures the electric grid always functions at peak efficiency and reliably deliver power no matter what the external conditions are. Paradoxically, the gains provided by the automated systems invited a previously unknown risk to the reliability of power delivery: cyber attacks. In order to achieve automation, utility operators have turned to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, technology. In this era, SCADA technology is built on top of commercial off the shelf hardware and software such as TCP/IP over Ethernet networks and Windows operating system. This enables malicious entities to leverage their pre-existing knowledge of offensive techniques known to work on these platform to attack the SCADA networks controlling critical infrastructure. Of those entities, the majority are unfocused attackers searching for commodity assets such as storage capacity to store illegal materials, processing power to send spam or credentials to enable fraud. However, some actors are deliberatively targeting the SCADA networks for their ability to cause damage in the physical realm. These actors aggressively search for vulnerabilities and are stubborn in the face of an increase in defensive measures and are dubbed advanced persistent threats, or APTs. As such, it is more difficult to turn them away. If we want to prevent these advanced persistent threats from preying on the SCADA networks controlling our critical infrastructure, we need to devise a defense that does not rely on completely removing vulnerabilities. A number of operational constraints, such as the need to operate 24/7 precluding the opening of maintenance windows, ensure that there will always be a vulnerability that can be exploited by an attacker.
Microbial Ecology of Dental Plaque and its Significance in Health and Disease

Dental plaque forms naturally on teeth and is of benefit to the host by helping to prevent colonization by exogenous species. The bacterial composition of plaque remains relatively stable despite regular exposure to minor environmental perturbations. This stability (microbial homeostasis) is due in part to a dynamic balance of both synergistic and antagonistic microbial interactions. However, homeostasis can break down, leading to shifts in the balance of the microflora, thereby predisposing sites to disease. For example, the frequent exposure of plaque to low pH leads to inhibition of acid-sensitive species and the selection of organisms with an aciduric physiology, such as mutans streptococci and lactobacilli. Similarly, plaque accumulation around the gingival margin leads to an inflammatory host response and an increased flow of gingival crevicular fluid. The subgingival microflora shifts from being mainly Gram-positive to being comprised of increased levels of obligately anaerobic, asaccharolytic Gram-negative organisms. It is proposed that disease can be prevented or treated not only by targeting the putative pathogens but also by interfering with the processes that drive the breakdown in homeostasis. Thus, the rate of acid production following sugar intake could be reduced by fluoride, alternative sweeteners, and low concentrations of antimicrobial agents, while oxygenating or redox agents could raise the Eh of periodontal pockets and prevent the growth and metabolism of obligately anaerobic species. These views have been incorporated into a modified hypothesis (the "ecological plaque hypothesis") to explain the relationship between the plaque microflora and the host in health and disease, and to identify new strategies for disease prevention.
Millimeter Wave I/Q Generation with the Inductive Resonator Matched Poly-Phase Filter

A way of generating millimeter wave I/Q signal using inductive resonator matched poly-phase filter is suggested. Normally the poly-phase filter generates quite accurate I/Q phase and magnitude but the loss of the filter is considerable due to series connection of passive RC components. This loss term directly increases system noise figure when the poly-phase filter is used in RF Front-end. The proposed matching method eliminates above mentioned loss and in addition provides gain on the passive filter. The working algorithm is illustrated by mathematical analysis. The generated I/Q signal is used in implementing millimeter wave phase shifter for the 60 GHz communication system to verify its effectiveness. The circuit is fabricated in 90 nm TSMC RF CMOS process under 1.2 V supply voltage. The measurement results showed that the suggested method improved gain by 6.5 dB and noise by 2.3 dB. The summary of the proposed I/Q generation is compared with previous works.
Integration of Stereo, Texture, and Outline Cues during Pinhole Viewing of Real Ridge-Shaped Objects and Stereograms of Ridges

Three experiments are reported in which the possible role of blur cues as a factor needing to be taken into account in cue-integration studies involving conflicts between stereo and texture/outline cues was investigated. The earlier suggestion was tested that uncontrolled blur cues might have caused the quite different patterns of cue integration reported for real ridge-shaped objects oriented vertically and for stereograms depicting similar surfaces. Blur cues were manipulated by pinhole viewing intended to render accommodation open loop. The results for real ridges were as predicted by the blur-cue hypothesis: pinhole viewing strengthened texture/outline cues in vertically oriented ridges, thereby diminishing the pattern of stereo dominance hitherto observed for these stimuli (and as observed here in non-pinhole-viewing control conditions and in horizontally oriented ridges). The results for the stereograms did not conform to predictions: pinhole viewing, assumed to remove blur cues from the cue-integration process, still produced the pattern observed in control conditions in which a texture/outline cue for a shallow ridge overwhelmed stereo cues for a steep ridge. This result is against the hypothesis that perhaps blur cues for the stereogram projection surface differentially favoured the shallow texture/outline cues. A new variant of the blur-cue hypothesis is offered to account for this result. The main conclusion from the study is: beware drawing firm conclusions from stereograms about the pattern of cue integration that can be expected when real objects are being viewed. The two situations can produce very different results as far as cue integration is concerned. This is a conclusion with serious implications for the use of stereograms for studying the integration of stereo with other cues.
Misclassification in Big Data Soft Set Environment

In order to deal with classification for large data, data filtering and data cleansing are used as preprocessing methods. Generally it remove noisy data, misclassified data, errors and inconsistent data and results unreliable classification. Because sometimes cleaned data can also affect the prediction accuracy or other testing. In this paper, we performed analysis of misclassified data and identify how much data has been wrong classified. For future aspect, This misclassified data is need to be rectified to get valuable information. To demonstrate this concept, we have used Air Traffic dataset from Statistical Computing Statistical Graphics (SCSG) to examine misclassified content in data set. Five supervised classifiers are used: Support vector Machine, decision procedure, k-nearest neighbor, random forest and logistic regression. The results shows that out of these classifiers, SVM classify 86% of the data correctly and only 14% of data has misclassification.
Exploring psychosocial risks in Greek SMEs - A qualitative study

ehps.net/ehp The European Health Psychologist Psychosocial risks concern aspects of the design and management of work and its social and organizational contexts (Leka, Griffiths, & Cox, 2003). Psychosocial risks are linked to stress, workplace violence and harassment, and they are associated with negative impacts on health and safety outcomes as well as performance and organizational aspects of work (Cox, 1993; McDaid, 2008; Leka, Jain, Cox, & Kortum, 2011). The societal and economic crisis that burst out in Europe in 2008 and still continues poses an even more important reason for the urgent need to addressing psychosocial risks in the workplace in more broad and deep ways. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of the European economy, face even more difficulties than larger enterprises in terms of tackling these issues (and not only), and should therefore, be considered for priority actions. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dominate the Greek business economy, accounting for 72% of added value and 86% of employment (European Commission, 2014). The aim of the study was to explore emergent psychosocial risks in Greek SMEs as well as the opinion of participants regarding obstacles in addressing the psychosocial risks and potential solutions. Method
Wait for it . . . Delaying Instruction Improves Mathematics Problem Solving: A Classroom Study

Engaging learners in exploratory problem-solving activities prior to receiving instruction (i.e., explore-instruct approach) has been endorsed as an effective learning approach. However, it remains unclear whether this approach is feasible for elementary-school children in a classroom context. In two experiments, second-graders solved mathematical equivalence problems either before or after receiving brief conceptual instruction. In Experiment 1 (n = 41), the explore-instruct approach was less effective at supporting learning than an instruct-solve approach. However, it did not include a common, but often overlooked feature of an explore-instruct approach, which is provision of a knowledge-application activity after instruction. In Experiment 2 (n = 47), we included a knowledge-application activity by having all children check their answers on previously solved problems. The explore-instruct approach in this experiment led to superior learning than an instruct-solve approach. Findings suggest promise for an explore-instruct approach, provided learners have the opportunity to apply knowledge from instruction. Correspondence: Abbey Marie Loehr, 230 Appleton Place, Peabody #552, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203; Phone: (615) 343-7149. Email: abbey.loehr@vanderbilt.edu
A Sectorial Analysis of Possible Information leakages prior to Merger and Acquisition Deals in Istanbul Stock Exchange

This study aims to track insider trading activities prior to announcement of merger and acquisition deals in Istanbul Stock Exchange. 35 companies and 50 deals are examined for the period 2002 -2013 and significant average abnormal returns one months to twelve months prior to the dissemination of the related information are detected, indicating private information becoming public in some way. Abnormal price changes in M&A deals in Turkey may call for closer monitoring, stricter legislations and more cautious investors in the market. Significant returns are detected but no evidence regarding with sectorial differences are found in terms of information leakage.
Determinants of Financial Distress of ST and PT Companies: A Panel Analysis of Chinese Listed Companies

Many prior studies have been devoted to financial distress of Chinese listed companies over the last two decades. However, these distressed companies are still failed to find out the exact determinants of financial distress. Therefore, the purposes of this paper are to provide an investigation of financial distressed companies trading on Chinese Stock Exchanges, and to elaborate the determinants of falling into financial distress by using a panel data set containing information on the stock market under Binary Logit Model during the period 1998-2005. The empirical findings present the relationship between 13 independent variables and the probability of financial distress, and particularly analyze the impact of corporate governance on Chinese financial distressed companies. Of these corporate governance variables, agency costs and ownership structure appear to be important factors to affect the probability of financial distress.
A Wideband Dual-Polarized L-Probe Antenna Array With Hollow Structure and Modified Ground Plane for Isolation Enhancement

A two-element wideband dual-polarized L-probe antenna array with hollow structure is presented in this letter. The hollow structure is applied to offer space for hosting other antennas (e.g., the concept of shared-aperture antenna). Each radiating element is designed with a compact size of 51 mm × 51 mm × 24.5 mm (0.374λ<sub>0 </sub> × 0.374λ<sub>0</sub> × 0.18λ<sub>0</sub> at 2.2 GHz) and has a hollow volume of 31 mm × 31 mm × 24.5 mm. With a slotted square ring patch and unique L-probes, the antenna element exhibits a fairly large fractional bandwidth of 45%, ranging from 1.71 to 2.69 GHz. Moreover, a narrow slot and T-shaped metallic structures on the ground plane are introduced to increase the input-port isolation of the proposed antenna array to 26 dB across the entire operating bandwidth. The experimental results indicate that the antenna array has an average realized gain of 10.5 dBi, which correlates well with the simulations.
State observer design for linear systems with delayed measurements

The state observer design problem for linear systems with delayed measurements is considered. A functional-based transformation is first presented, which transforms the system with delayed measurements into a system without delay formally. Based on the transformed system, we design full-order observer and reduced-order observer for the original delayed measurements systems respectively. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach.
A test management approach for structured testing

Despite encouraging results with various quality improvement approaches, the IT industry is still far from achieving zero defect software. Testing will remain an important activity within software development and maintenance, often taking more than 30 - 40% of the total budget. Both the increasing importance of software in the society and the costs that are involved in testing, confirm the need for structuring the testing process. This paper provides an outline description of TMap, the Test Management approach for structured testing (both white-box and black-box) of software products. It provides answers to the what, when, how, where and who questions of testing. To structure the organisation and execute the test processes TMap is based on four cornerstones: o a development process related l~te cycle modelfor the testing activities (L); o solid organisational embedding (0); • the right resources and infrastructure (I); • usable techniques for the various testing activities (T). In recent years TMap has evolved towards the standard fir software testing in The Netherlands. It is being used by more than two hundred Dutch organisations. Most Dutch banks, insurance companies, pensions funds and government departments use TMap partly or as a whole. More and more SME’s have adopted TMap and new market segments have been penetrated such as consumer electronics, telecommunications and logistics. The TMap book (in Dutch) has proven to be a best seller; international interest and awareness has resulted in a plan for the release of an English version.
Export from Seagrass Meadows Contributes to Marine Carbon Sequestration

Seagrasses export a substantial portion of their primary production, both in particulate and dissolved organic form, but the fate of this export production remains unaccounted for in terms of seagrass carbon sequestration. Here we review available evidence on the fate of seagrass carbon export to conclude that this represents a significant contribution to carbon sequestration, both in sediments outside seagrass meadows and in the deep sea. The evidence presented implies that the contribution of seagrass meadows to carbon sequestration has been underestimated by only including carbon burial within seagrass sediments.
Board Structure and Corporate Performance

This paper attempts to analyze the impact of board structure attributes on their accounting and stock market performance. Our analyses are built on an emerging market, Turkey for the period between 1995 and 2006. We conduct our analyses through binary logistic methodology. Our findings show that, while board ownership does not have any impact on the accounting performance, it has a fairly positive influence on the stock market performance of firms during the crisis period. Similarly, the situation when the CEO of a firm is also the chairman of the board is not found to have any impact on the corporate performance of firms, although its negative impact is present during the crisis period. Moreover, board independence is found to not to have an effect on accounting performance, yet the stock market perceives board independence positively, both in general and in the crisis periods. Finally, board size has a positive impact , both on the accounting and on the stock market performance of firms, yet the impact on the corporate performance reverts to adverse during the crisis period.
Cancer screening behaviors and barriers in Asian Americans.

OBJECTIVES To determine differences in screening for routine physical exam and cancers among Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Cambodian Americans. METHODS The sample consisted of 2011 participants. Chi square was used to identify relationships between demographic/acculturation factors and screenings. RESULTS Never-screened rates were high for all Asian subgroups. Never-screened rates for mammography ranged from 20.1% to 78.5% for Pap test, 28% to 75.6% for prostate cancer, 56.7% to 97% for colorectal cancer, 65.3% to 94.9%. Koreans had the highest never screened for health checkups (34.7%). CONCLUSIONS Efforts should be made to comply with screening guidelines among Asian Americans.