Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FM-SERVQUAL: A NEW APPROACH OF SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK IN LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of services provided by local authorities (LA) to the public. An FM‐SERVQUAL instrument was developed to meet an appropriate measurement of such services.Design/methodology/approach – The development of FM‐SERVQUAL based on integrated facility management (FM) framework. It involved measurements of 40 elements of human capital components, property, technology and ICT, and working processes of Johor Bahru City Council which is one of the major cities in Malaysia. Primarily, two phases of data collection were carried out, of which 100 and 191 respondents were involved during the first and second phases, respectively.Findings – The study revealed that, five elements in technology and ICT and six elements of property which were identified below the service quality (SQ) level. On the other hand, 29 elements of other services were achieved with minimum quality level.Practical implications – The LA executives recognized FM‐SERVQUAL, as it is very usef.
Mean Shift BasedClustering in High Dimensions : A

Feature spaceanalysisis the main modulein manycomputer vision tasks. The mostpopular technique, k-means clustering, however, hastwo inherent limitations: theclusters are constrainedto be sphericallysymmetricand their numberhasto be knowna priori. In nonparametricclustering methods,like the one basedon meanshift, these limitations are eliminatedbut the amountof computation becomesprohibitively large as the dimensionof the space increases. We exploit a recentlyproposedapproximation technique, locality-sensitivehashing(LSH), to reducethe computationalcomplexity of adaptivemeanshift. In our implementationof LSHtheoptimalparameter s of thedata structurearedeterminedbya pilot learningprocedure, and the partitions are data driven. As an application,the performanceof modeandk-meansbasedtextonsarecompared in a texture classificationstudy.
Effects of Algal Composition, Seston Stoichiometry, and Feeding Rate on Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) Nutrient Excretion in Two Laurentian Great Lakes

445 Introduction . 446 Methods . 447 Experimental Design . 447 Sampling and Handling . 448 Nutrient Excretion . 448 Variables Affecting Nutrient Excretion . 449 Feeding Rate Variables . 449 Seston Quality and Temperature . 449 Algal Composition . 449 Analytical Procedures . 450 Results . 450 Ambient Water Quality Conditions. 450 Seasonal Excretion Rates for Natural Seston . 450 Transplant Experiments . 451 Effects of Temperature and Food Quality and Quantity . 453 Discussion . 456 Seasonal Excretion Rates for Natural Seston . 456 Ecosystem Considerations.457 References . 458 446 Quagga and Zebra Mussels: biology, iMpacts, and control most strongly correlated to temperature, while phosphorus excretion was most strongly related to assimilation of chlorophyll and phosphorus. Nitrogen excretion rates were approximately twice as high for mussels from Lake Erie compared to mussels from Saginaw Bay, whereas phosphorus excretion rates were more than 10-times higher for Lake Erie mussels than Saginaw Bay mussels. Higher excretion rates for Lake Erie mussels were associated with the greater availability of phosphorus as reflected by both concentrations and carbon to phosphorus or nitrogen to phosphorus ratios of the seston, as well as a more desirable algal composition as measured by both the percent preferred algae and the lower frequency of cyanophytes that have been shown to be an undesirable food source. Overall, excretion of phosphorus was strongly driven by phosphorus assimilation that was strongly affected by feeding rate, which in turn was driven by algal composition. It has been broadly reported that mussels highly impact phytoplankton abundance and composition through direct grazing pressure and phytoplankton productivity through recycling of nutrients into the water column. Results of this study reveal, in turn, the strong impact that phytoplankton composition and nutrient availability have on determining mussel feeding rates and nutrient excretion rates. Such ecosystem-specific responses must be considered in any modeling or mass-balance approaches that attempt to quantify the impact of mussel feeding and excretion on phytoplankton and nutrient dynamics.
Mask roughness induced LER control and mitigation: aberrations sensitivity study and alternate illumination scheme

Here we conduct a mask-roughness-induced line-edge-roughness (LER) aberrations sensitivity study both as a random distribution amongst the first 16 Fringe Zernikes (for overall aberration levels of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75nm rms) as well as an individual aberrations sensitivity matrix over the first 37 Fringe Zernikes. Full 2D aerial image modeling for an imaging system with NA = 0.32 was done for both the 22-nm and 16-nm half-pitch nodes on a rough mask with a replicated surface roughness (RSR) of 100 pm and a correlation length of 32 nm at the nominal extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) wavelength of 13.5nm. As the ideal RSR value for commercialization of EUVL is 50 pm and under, and furthermore as has been shown elsewhere, a correlation length of 32 nm of roughness on the mask sits on the peak LER value for an NA = 0.32 imaging optic, these mask roughness values and consequently the aberration sensitivity study presented here, represent a worst-case scenario. The illumination conditions were chosen based on the possible candidates for the 22-nm and 16-nm half-pitch nodes, respectively. In the 22-nm case, a disk illumination setting of σ = 0.50 was used, and for the 16-nm case, crosspole illumination with σ = 0.10 at an optimum offset of dx = 0 and dy = . 67 in sigma space. In examining how to mitigate mask roughness induced LER, we considered an alternate illumination scheme whereby a traditional dipole's angular spectrum is extended in the direction parallel to the line-and-space mask absorber pattern to represent a "strip". While this illumination surprisingly provides minimal improvement to the LER as compared to several alternate illumination schemes, the overall imaging quality in terms of image-log-slope (ILS) and contrast is improved.
Molecular prognostic markers in soft tissue sarcomas

I dette studiet har vi forsokt a finne ut hvordan uttrykk av faktorer ansvarlige for tumor vekst og differensiering pavirker pasientens skjebne ved blotvevssarkomer. Vi har brukt immunfargete tissue microarray multiblokker for a gjore det. TGF-β og PI3K bl.a. visste mest dodelig pavirkning. Vi har ogsa funnet at de fleste markorer er kjonnsavhengig i sine aktiviteter og at steroid hormon reseptorer kan forsterke effekten. I tillegg fant vi ut at det samme protein Akt gir sarkomer forskjellig aggressivitetsgrad, avhengig av fosforyleringspunkt. Vare funn vil hjelpe definere subgrupper av pasienter som trenger mer aggressiv behandling. Denne behandlingen kan inneholde bl.a. antihormonale medisiner.
The accuracy of semi-numerical reionization models in comparison with radiative transfer simulations

We have developed a modular semi-numerical code that computes the time and spatially dependent ionization of neutral hydrogen (HI), neutral (HeI) and singly ionized helium (HeII) in the intergalactic medium (IGM). The model accounts for recombinations and provides different descriptions for the photoionization rate that are used to calculate the residual HI fraction in ionized regions. We compare different semi-numerical reionization schemes to a radiative transfer (RT) simulation. We use the RT simulation as a benchmark, and find that the semi-numerical approaches produce similar HII and HeII morphologies and power spectra of the HI 21cm signal throughout reionization. As we do not track partial ionization of HeII, the extent of the double ionized helium (HeIII) regions is consistently smaller. In contrast to previous comparison projects, the ionizing emissivity in our semi-numerical scheme is not adjusted to reproduce the redshift evolution of the RT simulation, but directly derived from the RT simulation spectra. Among schemes that identify the ionized regions by the ratio of the number of ionization and absorption events on different spatial smoothing scales, we find those that mark the entire sphere as ionized when the ionization criterion is fulfilled to result in significantly accelerated reionization compared to the RT simulation. Conversely, those that flag only the central cell as ionized yield very similar but slightly delayed redshift evolution of reionization, with up to 20% ionizing photons lost. Despite the overall agreement with the RT simulation, our results suggests that constraining ionizing emissivity sensitive parameters from semi-numerical galaxy formation-reionization models are subject to photon nonconservation.
Quantifying Changes on Forest Succession in a Dry Tropical Forest Using Angular-Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

The tropical dry forest (TDF) is one the most threatened ecosystems in South America, existing on a landscape with different levels of ecological succession. Among satellites dedicated to Earth observation and monitoring ecosystem succession, CHRIS/PROBA is the only satellite that presents quasi-simultaneous multi-angular pointing and hyperspectral imaging. These two characteristics permit the study of structural and compositional differences of TDFs with different levels of succession. In this paper, we use 2008 and 2014 CHRIS/PROBA images from a TDF in Minas Gerais, Brazil to study ecosystem succession after abandonment. Using a −55° angle of observation; several classifiers including spectral angle mapper (SAM), support vector machine (SVM), and decision trees (DT) were used to test how well they discriminate between different successional stages. Our findings suggest that the SAM is the most appropriate method to classify TDFs as a function of succession (accuracies ~80 for % for late stage, ~85% for the intermediate stage, ~70% for early stage, and ~50% for other classes). Although CHRIS/PROBA cannot be used for large-scale/long-term monitoring of tropical forests because of its experimental nature; our results support the potential of using multi-angle hyperspectral data to characterize the structure and composition of TDFs in the near future.
Comorbidity of gastrointestinal stromal tumor and adenocarcinoma in stomach : a report of three cases and review of literature

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is the most common tumor with mesenchymal origin in the gastrointestinal tract with stomach as the preferred site. Gastric adenocarcinoma is the most common primary tumor in the stomach. The comorbidity of tumors with different tissue origins in the same patient was thought to be rare. However, more and more cases were reported in the wake of advancement of diagnostic technology and increased awareness of physicians. Here, we report three comorbidity cases of GIST and gastric adenocarcinoma and review the literatures. We suggest that for patients with gastric adenocarcinoma, physicians should carefully perform preoperative, intra-operative and post-operative examinations to avoid missed diagnosis of GIST and prolong the survival of patients.
Potential dependence of the conductivity of highly oxidized polythiophenes, polypyrroles, and polyaniline: Finite windows of high conductivity

In situ measurements of the relative conductivity of polythiophenes, polyaniline, and polypyrroles as a function of electrochemical potential reveal that they have finite potential dependent windows of high conductivity. Further, the high conductivity is found where charge is injected or withdrawn from the polymer. The polymers studied, polyaniline and I-VI, are prepared by anodic polymerization onto microelectrode arrays of the appropriate monomer: thiophene (I), 3-methylthiophene (II), 3-phenylthiophene (III), 1-methyl-1{prime}-(3-(thiophene-3-yl)propyl)-4,4{prime}-bipyridinium (IV), 3,4-dimethylpyrrole (V), and N-methylpyrrole (VI). The use of a liquid SO{sub 2}/electrolyte medium as the electrochemical solvent makes it possible to define the window of high conductivity, because it allows the polymers to be reversibly oxidized to a greater extent than has previously been achieved. The conductivities of I-IV increase by at least 10{sup 6}-10{sup 9} when they are oxidized from neutral to the potential of maximum conductivity and then decrease by 10{sup 1}-10{sup 4} when they are further oxidized to the greatest extent possible without irreversible degradation in liquid SO{sub 2}/electrolyte.
Mechanisms of Cold Fusion : Comprehensive Explanations by The Nattoh Model

The phenomena of cold fusion seem to be very complicated; inconsistent data between the production rates of heat, neutrons, tritiums and heiiums. Our thoughts need to drastically change in order to appropriately understand the mechanisms of cold fusion. Here, a review is described for the Nattoh modei, that has been developed extensively to provide comprehensive explanations for the mechanisms of coid fusion. Important experimental findings that prove the model are described. Furthermore several subjects including impacts on other fields are also discussed.
Repetitive Exposure of IL-17 Into the Murine Air Pouch Favors the Recruitment of Inflammatory Monocytes and the Release of IL-16 and TREM-1 in the Inflammatory Fluids

The infiltration of Th17 cells in tissues and organs during the development of many autoimmune diseases is considered a key step toward the establishment of chronic inflammation. Indeed, the localized and prolonged release of IL-17 in specific tissues has been associated with an increased severity of the inflammatory response that remains sustained over time. The cellular and molecular mechanisms behind these effects are far from being clear. In this study we investigated the effects of two repetitive administration of recombinant IL-17 into the murine air pouch to simulate a scenario where IL-17 is released over time in a pre-inflamed tissue. Consistent with our previous observations, mice receiving a single dose of IL-17 showed a transitory influx of neutrophils into the air pouch that peaked at 24 h and declined at 48 h. Conversely, mice receiving a double dose of the cytokine—one at time 0 and the second after 24 h—showed a more dramatic inflammatory response with almost 2-fold increase in the number of infiltrated leukocytes and significant higher levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in the inflammatory fluids. Further analysis of the exacerbated inflammatory response of double-injected IL-17 mice showed a unique cellular and biochemical profile with inflammatory monocytes as the second main population emigrating to the pouch and IL-16 and TREM-1 as the most upregulated cytokines found in the inflammatory fluids. Most interestingly, mice receiving a double injection of IL-1β did not show any change in the cellular or biochemical inflammatory response compared to those receiving a single injection or just vehicle. Collectively these results shed some light on the function of IL-17 as pro-inflammatory cytokine and provide possible novel ways to target therapeutically the pathogenic effects of IL-17 in autoimmune conditions.
Building Visual Maps with a Team of Mobile Robots

This paper tackles the problem of Simultaneous Localization and Map Building (SLAM) carried out by a team of robots. Particularly these robots build landmark-based maps by extracting interest points from the environment. These points are characterized by a local descriptor and a 3D position on the environment, constituting the visual landmarks. In this approach we consider the situation in which the robots start their mapping task independently. That is to say, the path followed by the robots and the observations are estimated independently. After a while, there is a set of independent local maps that can be fused in order to obtain a global map. For that reason, we have also solved the problem of aligning and fusing visual maps. Finally, once a global map is obtained, the robots continue the map building task jointly. Regarding the sensors used in order to extract information from the environment, some authors use range sensors such as SONAR (Wijk & Christensen, 2000; Kwak et al., 2008) or LASER (Leonard & Durrant-Whyte, 1991; Thrun, 2001). However, in the last years, there is a great interest on using cameras as sensors. This approach is denoted as visual SLAM (Valls-Miro et al., 2006). The cameras are less expensive than laser and offer a higher amount of information from the environment. This advantage makes it possible to incorporate additional applications to the robot, such as face recognititon. Additionally, 3D information can be obtained from the environment when using stereo vision (Murray & Little, 2000; Gil, Reinoso, Fernandez, Vicente, Rottmann M Little et al., 2002) and SURF (Murillo et al., 2007). In (Gil et al., 2009; Ballesta, Gil, Reinoso & Ubeda, 2010) we performed an evaluation comparing several detection and description methods in order to obtain the most suitable feature extractor for visual SLAM. As a result, we obtained that the Harris Corner Detector in combination with the u-SURF descriptor satisfied our requirements in visual SLAM. The task of building a map of the environment while simultaneously localizing in it can be performed by a single robot. However, it will be carried out with more efficiency if there is a team of robots which collaborates in this task. This approach is denoted as multi-robot SLAM (Konolige et al., 2003). In this field, two main solutions can be found. On the one hand, in some proposals the robots build a unique global map (Gil, Reinoso, Martinez-Mozos, Stachniss & Burgard, 2006; Fenwick et al., 2002). In this case, the exploration task can be performed more efficiently since the robots have a global notion 6
A Case Study of System and Planktonic Responses in a Subtropical Warm Plume Receiving Thermal Effluents from a Power Plant

To explore planktonic and ecosystem responses to thermal effluents of a power plant, three transect surveys were conducted in Nov-01’, May-02’ and Jun-02’ at the bay adjacent to the outlet of Taiwan Nuclear Power Plant II. At the given station, seasonal trends were evident with most maximal measurements observed in Jun-02’. Physical mixing between background seawater and thermal effluents played an important role in determining planktonic biomass since chlorophyll (Chl, 1 - 3.7) in deeper regions. High observed dissolved organic carbon (DOC) anomaly (23 - 34 gC m 3 − ) implied that heterotrophic metabolism was seldom limited by bottom-up control processes. Short-term manipulation experiments showing that BGR and CR increased with rising temperature up to ca. 37°C, which was ~12°C higher than frequently reported values from most coastal and estuarine ecosystems. We ascribed this to the effects of temperature-substrate interaction. The results of organic carbon (zooplankton extract) ad
Vortex lattices in binary mixtures of repulsive superfluids

We present an extension of the framework introduced in [1] to treat multicomponent systems, showing that new degrees of freedom are necessary in order to obtain the desired boundary conditions. We then apply this extended framework to the coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations to investigate the ground states of two-component systems with equal masses thereby extending previous work in the lowest Landau limit [2] to arbitrary interactions within Gross-Pitaevskii theory. We show that away from the lowest-Landau level limit, the predominant vortex lattice consists of two interlaced triangular lattices. Finally, we derive a linear relation which accurately describes the phase boundaries in the strong interacting regimes.
Developing a size indicator for fish populations

Monitoring temporal and/or spatial variations in fish size-at-age data can often provide fisheries managers with important information about the status of fish stocks and therefore help them identify necessary changes in management policies. However, due to the multivariate nature of size-at-age data, commonly used single-age-based approaches ignore covariance between sizes of different age groups. Different results may therefore be derived when evaluating temporal variations using different age groups for the comparison. The possibility of atypical errors in size-at-age data due to ageing and measurement errors further complicates the comparison. We propose a two-step approach for developing an indicator for monitoring temporal and/or spatial variation in size-at-age data. A robust approach, minimum volume ellipsoid analysis, is used to identify possible outliers in size-at-age data. Then a weighted principal component analysis is applied to the data with the identified outliers down-weighted. An indicator is defined from the resultant principal components for monitoring temporal/spatial variations in size-at-age data. We illustrate the proposed approach with size-at-age data for cod ( Gadus morhua ) in the northwest Atlantic, NAFO subdivision 3Ps. The overall size-at-age indicator identified shows that the pre-1980 year classes tend to have a much higher size-at-age than the post-1980 year classes.
3D Investigation of Temperature and Hole Transport Material Variation on Performance of Perovskite Solar Cell

Recently, organo-metal halide perovskite solar cells based on planar architecture have demonstrated an exceptional progress These structures show lower defect density, high carrier mobility, and broader absorption spectra in compare to other solar cells. In this work a 3D finite element method (FEM) technique is used to simulate a planer perovskite solar cell. Coupled electricaloptical modeling is constructed to fully characterize the proposed device. We investigate variation of short circuit current (Jsc), open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) in different temperature ranges (280-340 K). Also, the effect of material replacement (Cu2O material instead of CuSCN), as hole transport material (HTM), has been investigated on solar cell performance. It is caused to change Jsc. Based on the result the best PCE is 14.32%. These simulation results open up a way to find accurate design parameters in solar cell with best performance.
Sectoral Heterogeneity, Production Networks, and the Effects of Government Spending

We study the effects of government spending shocks in an economy with multiple interconnected production sectors that differ in their price rigidity, factor intensities, use of intermediate inputs, and contribution to final demand. The cumulative aggregate output multiplier associated with an aggregate government spending shock is 84% larger than that obtained in the average one-sector economy. This amplification is mainly driven by sectoral heterogeneity in price rigidity and the presence of input-output linkages. We also document substantial heterogeneity in the aggregate effects of sector-specific government spending shocks, and identify the key factors that account for it. Government spending shocks tend to have larger effects on aggregate output when they originate in sectors that have relatively rigid prices and high labor shares in value added, and are located downstream in the production network.
Optimal Design of PCS Ceramic Microwave Filters using the Differential Evolution Algorithm

─ The optimal geometrical design of a ceramic microwave filter according to the specifications of the downlink band of the PCS-1900 mobile communications protocol is investigated in this paper. An efficient combination of the Differential Evolution Algorithm and the Finite Element Method leads to the optimal values of four design parameters. Index Terms ─ Evolutionary algorithm, microwave filter design, PCS.