Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supplementary Material of IPCC-TP: Utilizing Incremental Pearson Correlation Coefficient for Joint Multi-Agent Trajectory Prediction

In our experiments, we leverage the Minimum Joint Average Displacement Error (minJointADE) and Minimum Joint Final Displacement Error (minJointFDE) as the evaluation metrics, which are specifically proposed for multi-agent trajectory prediction task in INTERPRET Challenge [3]. They are different from Minimum Average Displacement Error (minADE) and Minimum Final Displacement Error (minFDE), which are frequently used in the benchmarking of ego-motion prediction. Since we focus on predicting a scene-compliant future interaction among the agents, metrics that consider all agents in the scene, such as minJointADE and minJointFDE, are more suitable options. MinJointADE represents the minimum value of the Euclidean Distance averaged by time and all agents between the ground truth and the mode with the lowest value [1]. Note that in the problem statement in subsection 3.1, we only analyze the case when the number of modes M = 1. In this case, the future states and the corresponding estimations at step t are Ft = {F t i |i = 1, . , N} and F̂t = {F̂ t i |i = 1, . , N} respectively, where F t i = {F tx i ,F ty i } and F̂ t i = {F̂ tx i , F̂ ty i } are the position ground truth and estimation for agent i at this step. Since a specific current situation could develop into multiple possible future interactions, most MTP model predicts multiple interaction modes, where M > 1, thus F̂ t i = {F t im|m = 1, . ,M} and ˆ F t im = { ˆ F tx im, ˆ F ty im}. The minJointADE is calculated as
The Role of Real Annuities and Indexed Bonds in an Individual Accounts Retirement Program

We explore four issues concerning annuitization options that retirees might use in the decumulation phase of an individual accounts' retirement saving system. First, we investigate the operation of both real and nominal annuity individual annuity markets in the United Kingdom. The widespread availability of real annuities in the U.K. dispels the argument that private insurance markets could not, or would not, provide real annuities to retirees. Second, we consider the current structure of two inflation-linked insurance products available in the United States, only one of which proves to be a real annuity. Third, we evaluate the potential of assets such as stocks, bonds, and bills, to provide retiree protection from inflation. Because equity real returns have been high over the last seven decades, a retiree who received income linked to equity returns would have fared very well on average. Nevertheless we cast doubt on the inflation insurance' aspect of equity, since this is mainly due to stocks' high average return, and not because stock returns move in tandem with inflation. Finally, we use a simulation model to assess potential retiree willingness to pay for real, nominal, and variable payout equity-linked annuities. For plausible degrees of risk aversion, inflation protection appears to have only modest value. People would be expected to value a variable payout equity-linked annuity more highly than a real annuity because the additional real returns associated with common stocks more than compensate for the volatility of prospective payouts. These finding are germane to concerns raised in connection with Social Security reform plans that include individual accounts.
Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes

In the past century, European agriculture has undergone profound changes. Through technical advances and structural changes, productivity is snowballing while farmland ecosystems are increasingly affected. These changes are taking place not only at the field scale through increased inputs and outputs, but also at the landscape scale through landscape simplification, with ecological effects being attributable to changes at both scales. While the decline of many farmland organisms in response to agricultural intensification is the most apparent effect, many of the biological functions provided by the systems biodiversity (so called ecosystem services such as pollination, nutrient cycling etc.) are also threatened, which could have great economical implications. To counter negative effects of agricultural intensification, EU Member States are using agri-environmental schemes (AESs) to incite farmers to use environmentally friendly practices. However, the effects of these schemes have been questioned both on the uncertain effects on biodiversity and on farmers’ reluctance to participate. Many studies have tried to relate AES participation to characteristics of schemes, or demographics of farms and farmers including attitudes. Farmers seem to prefer schemes with flexible contract terms that only infer small changes in farm management. However, linking AES participation to farm characteristics is problematic, and studies often reach opposing results. Regarding ecological effects, lack of clearly stated objectives and the low scientific quality of the CMEF evaluations cloud the assessment of measures. Further, the effects of AESs have been found to vary with landscape composition (cleared/complex) and between taxa. With a deeper understanding of how AES effects interact with the landscape and how farmers relate to conservation initiatives, there are opportunities to improve scheme design. Collection of baseline data, evidence‐based measures and result-­based payments are examples of ways to advance AESs. To increase farmer engagement in AESs, participatory approaches play an important part in bridging the attitudinal gap between conservationists, legislation and farmers.
Prospective multicenter evaluation of tramadol exposure.

BACKGROUND Tramadol is a novel analgesic possessing both opiate and noradrenergic effects. Its low potential for abuse suggests increasing use, but there are limited data on the toxicity in overdose. METHODS Multicenter prospective case series. All exposures from October 1995 through August 1996 reported to seven Poison Centers were evaluated. RESULTS There were 126 cases of which 87 were tramadol alone. Of the tramadol alone cases, 51 were female (59%). Age ranged from 1 to 86 y with a mean and median of 26.8 y (SD 17.2) and 25 y, respectively. There were 15 cases of children less than 6 years old. Symptoms reported with overdose were: lethargy 26 (30%), nausea 12 (14%), tachycardia 11 (13%), agitation 9 (10%), seizures 7 (8%), 4 each (5%) of coma and hypertension, and respiratory depression 2 (2%). All seizures were brief. Naloxone reversed sedation and apnea in 4 of 8 patients. One patient experienced a seizure immediately after administration of naloxone. Other treatments were: diazepam (3 patients), and phenytoin, lorazepam and nifedipine (1 patient each). Tramadol 500 mg was the lowest dose associated with seizure, tachycardia, hypertension or agitation while 800 mg was the lowest dose associated with coma and respiratory depression. Urine drug screens performed on 19 patients were negative for opiates. All symptomatic cases exhibited effects within 4 h of ingestion. Mean hospital stay was 15.2 h (range 2-96 h, SD 15.8). Nineteen patients were admitted to an intensive care unit with a mean stay of 25 h (SD 20). DISCUSSION Much of the toxicity in tramadol overdose appears to be attributable to the monoamine uptake inhibition rather than its opioid effects. Agitation, tachycardia, confusion and hypertension suggest a possible mild serotonin syndrome. No arrhythmias beyond tachycardia were seen. CONCLUSION This study suggests significant neurologic toxicity from tramadol overdose. Serious cardiovascular toxicity was not seen.
recent trends in the characteristics and prognosis of patients hospitalized with acute heart failure

Background: Despite the magnitude and impact of heart failure (HF) in the United States, relatively little data are available that describe the prognosis associated with acute HF, especially from the perspective of a population-based investigation. The purpose of this nonconcurrent prospective study was to describe the overall, and changing trends therein, prognosis of 4228 patients discharged from all eleven greater Worcester (MA) medical centers after a documented episode of acute HF and factors associated with an increased risk of dying after hospital discharge. Methods: The study population consisted of residents of the Worcester metropolitan area discharged after being hospitalized for acute HF at all greater Worcester medical centers during 1995 (n = 1783) and 2000 (n = 2445). Results: The 3-month (20% versus 18%), 1-year (41% versus 38%), and 5-year (84% versus 82%) death rates were lower in patients discharged from all metropolitan Worcester hospitals in 2000 versus 1995, respectively. Improving long-term survival rates for patients discharged in 2000 as compared with 1995 were magnified after controlling for several confounding demographic and clinical factors of prognostic importance. A number of potentially modifiable demographic, medical history, and clinical factors were associated with an increased risk of dying during the first year after hospital discharge for acute HF. Conclusion: The results of this community-wide observational study suggest improving trends in the long-term prognosis after acute HF. Despite these encouraging trends, the long-term prognosis for patients with acute HF remains poor, and several at-risk groups can be identified for early intervention and increased monitoring efforts. Clinical Epidemiology is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on disease and drug epidemiology, identification of risk factors and screening procedures to develop optimal preventative initiatives and programs. Specific topics include: diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, screening, prevention, risk factor modification, systematic reviews, risk & safety of medical interventions, epidemiology & bio- statical methods, evaluation of guidelines, translational medicine, health policies & economic evaluations. The manuscript management system is completely online and includes a very quick and fair peer-review system, which is all easy to use.
Does Distance Still Matter in Facilitating Social Ties? The Roles of Mobility Patterns and the Built Environment

In this paper, the authors argue that spatial proximity, measured in residential distance, though still matters, probably is not the most important facilitator for social interactions. People’s mobility patterns, both at an individual level and at a pair level, can be an equally important factor if not more. The authors tested this hypothesis by utilizing a unique mobile phone dataset with both location information and calling information for a large urbanized city in China. Through this dataset, the authors are able to identify social ties as well as calculate various measures on spatial proximity and mobility patterns. The analyses were carried out both at the individual level for the number of social ties and at the pair level for the strength of a tie. The results appear to confirm the hypothesis: social ties, both in terms of scope (number of social ties) and strength, are closely related to mobility patterns attributes; more than to the spatial proximity measure. The authors also evaluate the role of the built environment in affecting social ties and show that though living in a dense area can potentially increase the number of social ties, but the effect is very small. There are two simple takeaways from the paper: first, if you want to have more friends, visit new places often; you do not need to travel far though; second, if you want to strengthen an existing tie, visit new places often and those places that will bring your mobility pattern closer to that of the other party.
Roadrunner

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' 1972 song “Roadrunner” captures the freedom and wonder of cruising down the highway late at night with the radio on. Although the song circles Boston's beltway, its significance reaches far beyond Richman's deceptively simple declarations of love for modern moonlight, the made world, and rock & roll. In Roadrunner, cultural theorist and poet Joshua Clover charts both the song's emotional power and its elaborate history, tracing its place in popular music from Chuck Berry to M.I. A. He also locates “Roadrunner” at the intersection of car culture, industrialization, consumption, mobility, and politics. Like the song itself, Clover tells a story about a particular time and place—the American era that rock & roll signifies—that becomes a story about love and the modern world.
The Open Ophthalmology Journal

: Background: Intravitreal ranibizumab (IVR) is increasingly used as an off-label treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The most clinically used dose is 0.25 mg; however, its late outcomes are rarely reported. This study compares the late refractive, visual, and retinal outcomes in children with type 1 ROP treated with 0.25 mg IVR to those with type 2 ROP that regressed spontaneously. Methods: This retrospective study included 48 children (96 eyes) with ROP history. Birth history data, spherical equivalent (SE) of cycloplegic refraction, and the prevalence of visual and retinal anomalies were compared between type 1 (68 eyes) and type 2 ROP (28 eyes).
FROM THE MOB TO THE COMMUNITY: THE ALTERNATIVE TO DEVELOPMENTALITY

Everyone understands from one’s own experience that the current model of economic development has some cracks and faults, that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, the natural world is being destroyed, the air that we breathe is becoming toxic, the food that we eat contains poisonous chemicals, and access to materials to satisfy the basic needs of life are getting more and more expensive. Most recall the relatively cleaner environment and healthier food of the past, and accept that industrial development and the modern lifestyle have caused everything to deteriorate for good. Some do perceive that the benefits of development are inequitable. Nevertheless, everyone seems to consider all the discomfort and hazards of modern life as the necessary price to pay for GDP growth, which everyone accepts as the Greater Common Good. All the Biblical virtues – Hope, Faith and Love – are sacrificed at the altar of Development.
International Differences in Longevity and Health and Their Economic Consequences

In 1975, 50 year-old Americans could expect to live slightly longer than their European counterparts. By 2005, American life expectancy at that age has diverged substantially compared to Europe. We find that this growing longevity gap is primarily the symptom of real declines in the health of near-elderly Americans, relative to their European peers. In particular, we use a microsimulation approach to project what US longevity would look like, if US health trends approximated those in Europe. We find that differences in health can explain most of the growing gap in remaining life expectancy. In addition, we quantify the public finance consequences of this deterioration in health. The model predicts that gradually moving American cohorts to the health status enjoyed by Europeans could save up to $1.1 trillion in discounted total health expenditures from 2004 to 2050.
Does Control Self-Assessment Influence Financial Reporting Quality?

: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of control self-assessment (CSA) on financial reporting quality by using CSA as a proxy of monitoring quality. CSA has an important feature that allows the employees themselves to become involved in the assessment of internal controls’ effectiveness. Moreover, CSA has two important monitoring functions. First, it can add value to internal auditing. Second, because all employees of operational units participate in the assessment of internal controls in CSA, that control environment is expected to be mature. The investigation of this study used data from 3,517 Japanese firms listed on the First Section, Second Section, Mothers, and JASDAQ of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The result of 2SLS regression shows that CSA adoption has a negative relationship with the number of financial restatements and audit fees, and therefore, I conclude that CSA has positive consequences for financial reporting quality. This result indicates that the internal monitoring mechanism that continuously monitors internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) effectiveness and in which all employees participate has some positive effects on financial reporting quality. There are two reasons for this result. First, employees have easier access to negative information concerning ICFR effectiveness than outsiders and can share that information with the internal personnel in charge of monitoring (e.g., internal auditors). Moreover, CSA is expected raise an entity’s awareness of ICFR, that is, the control environment of ICFR components is made into an environment that prevents and detects impropriety in the accounting process.
An Exploratory Analysis of ECoC Tourism as a Niche Product in Cultural Tourism

The research aims to explore, as part of a pilot project, whether visiting ECoC cities is mainly motivated by a broad interest in cultural experiences – and it is the richness of these cities’ cultural programme which acts as a pull-factor for visitors – or whether the unique status of being a European Capital of Culture is able to add an attraction beyond the general value of the cultural supply. In other words, may ECoC tourism be considered as a niche segment within cultural tourism?
The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning Strategies in Multicultural University Classrooms.

Cooperative learning applications in multicultural university classrooms were the focus of this investigation. The purpose of the study was to compare selected cooperative learning methods (drill and review dyads, cooperative response techniques, and group grading incentives) with traditional learning methods. For 18 weeks, 61 students in undergraduate educational psychology classes participated in one of the two conditions. On three of four measures of achievement, the cooperative group showed significantly stronger performance than the noncooperative group. In addition, students exposed to the cooperative instructional methods reported significantly more favorable attitudes toward classroom instruction.
Mechanisms governing degradation of phytoplankton pigments in fjords

Fiordland, New Zealand, provides a great opportunity to study a near-pristine estuarine fjord ecosystem to study mechanisms that drive the fate of phytoplankton from the water column to the sediment across strong estuarine gradients. Large amounts of freshwater enter Doubtful Sound, creating a highly stratified (physical, chemical) upper water column in the inner fjord, and well-mixed water column in the outer fjord. Steep fjord walls and chromophoric dissolved organic matter-rich freshwater, which influences phytoplankton production and degradation, dominate the light environment in Fiordland. In this study, phytoplankton pigments and environmental observations were used to investigate how phytoplankton detritus is degraded, altered, and preserved within the water column and into the sediment record. In particular, degradation and preservation processes within the water column, sediment surface, and in long-term sediment records were evaluated using water samples, grazing experiments, sediment traps, early diagenesis experiments, and sediment cores. The most important factors influencing phytoplankton pigment composition in the upper water column were photosynthetically active radiance, direct irradiance, rain and wind stress, which together together with salinity and temperature explained 86.7% of the variance in the phytoplankton community data. The best explanatory variable for each season investigated were physical parameters in spring and summer (up to 58.4% explained variance) and climate parameters in autumn and winter (up to 48.0% explained variance). Copepod herbivory was a major driver of chlorophyll a destruction and conversion to steryl and carotenol chlorin esters. Diatoms and phototrophic ciliates were the preferred ingested taxa. Grazing removed up to 13% of the daily phytoplankton standing stock. The flux of phytoplankton pigments through the water column generally corresponded with phytoplankton bloom periods. Increased flux of grazing biomarkers coincided with increased flux of chlorophyll a, highlighting the importance of zooplankton fecal pellets as a means of transport to the sediment. Incorporation of phytoplankton detritus into the surface sediment during experiments was enhanced in anoxic versus oxic sediments and the effect of bioturbation was significant (p < 0.05) with time (1 month) within anoxic sediments, increasing detrital burial. The main means of transport for
The Development of the Linear Actuator with the Series Elastic System for Robot Linkage Mechanisms

This paper discusses the development of electric linear actuators to be used in the link structure of robots. Linkage is used in the parallel mechanism of robots, which can solve the disadvantage of serial mechanisms that cannot share the load with other actuators and have low accuracy. In order for linear actuators to be used in robots (especially walking humanoids), high speed is required, unlike conventional linear actuators that focused on high forces. In addition, the linear actuator should be lightweight to reduce the moment of inertia of the robot. This will reduce the required torque of the motor and reduce the power consumption of the robot. Additionally, the linear actuator should measure the external force so that the robot can perform force control. The Series Elastic Actuator(SEA) is one of the actuators capable of measuring external forces by measuring the amount of change in an elastic object. SEA also prevents high forces and high frequencies from being transmitted into the system through springs. However, this has the disadvantage that the force bandwidth is limited when determining the spring constant. In order to adopt only the advantages of SEA, the developed linear actuator solved this disadvantage by measuring an external force with a current of a motor through a low gear ratio. Therefore, at the end of the developed linear actuator is the Series Elastic System, which serves as a physical filtering function. Finally, experiments will verify the functions of this linear actuator and prove that it is optimized for the linkage mechanism of the robot.
Application of a Methodology for the Design and Construction of Power Chokes for Low Voltage Filter-Compensating Systems

This paper presents the results from application of a methodology for the design of a power choke for low voltage filter-compensating systems. The main task of the study is to demonstrate the workability of a practical methodology for the construction and realization of a specialized product - a power choke, applicable to filter-compensating systems, detuning reactors for capacitor batteries, TCSC-type power compensators, compensating reactors, etc. The synthesized methodology was used in the development of a physical model of a choke with adjustable power 2-10 kVAr (400V, Y connection circuit) by changing the air gap and with discrete steps of windings - 25, 50, 75 and 100%. The report presents comparative analysis of choke parameters, achieved from the design methodology and the physical model produced by Elprom EMZ Ltd., Bulgaria.