Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semiautomatic Construction of 2-D Façade Footprints From Mobile LiDAR Data

Although mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology has excellent potential in mapping street scenes, there is little research in constructing façade footprints from unorganized, uneven, and incomplete mobile LiDAR point clouds. In fact, façade footprint vectorization from mobile LiDAR data still involves a lot of manual work, especially in complex street scenes with various types of buildings. In this paper, we present a new and effective framework for extracting 2-D façade footprints from mobile LiDAR point clouds. The proposed framework consists of three steps: 1) line segment extraction from projected point clouds based on a hypotheses and selection strategy; 2) completion of missing parts between adjacent walls using line intersections; and 3) delineation of footprints through finding the least cost path in the graph of the line segments. We compare our method with several existing ones and discuss its robustness against data missing and noise such as nonwall structures and vegetation. Our proposed method is also tested in two large-scale data sets, a residential data set, and an urban data set. The coverage ratio, i.e., the percentage of outer wall points covered by the generated outlines in the residential data set is 93.4% and 91.7% in the urban data set is achieved. The mean distance between points of ground truth and constructed footprints for the residential data set and urban data set is 0.019 and 0.028 m, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework is effective in modeling various façade footprints from mobile LiDAR point clouds.
The Oligocene marine microfossil record: Age assessments using strontium isotopes: Paleoceanography

A d-c fuse having a clearing ability ranging from currents close to the minimum fusing current to major fault currents is provided with a wide ribbon fuse link having a matrix-like system of perforations. The fuse link is wrapped around gas-evolving rod means in such a fashion as to form a gap between the longitudinal edges thereof resulting in the formation of currents of arc-quenching gas evolving from said rod means and flowing transversely across said edges of said ribbon fuse link.
A novel benefit-tree based dynamic clustering algorithm of comp in dense network

We focus here on the Energy Efficiency (EE), and propose an improved dynamic clustering algorithm that is incorporated into Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) with sleeping mode. Thanks to the frame structure of Benefit-tree employed in dynamic clustering of CoMP, the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the EE by choosing the most energy efficient competitive clustering strategy. At the same time, it can save energy by sleeping the underutilized base stations in the cellular network. In the performance simulation for EE, the proposed algorithm provides 10% higher in EE than the existing algorithm.
Nitrogen leaching from organic agriculture and conventional crop rotations

The Seine basin, characterised by intensive arable crops, has most of its surface and ground-water contaminated by nitrate (Nitrate Directive EU, 1991). The goal of our study is to investigate nitrogen leaching from arable crops in organic (OF) and conventional farming (CF) in the North of France. In 2012-13, a network of ceramic suction cups have been installed in 8 farms taking into account complete rotations. Our first results showed a gradient of sub-roots concentrations : legumes have the lowest subroots concentrations whereas crops fertilised after legumes have the highest. Catch-crops, when efficient, can decrease leaching by a factor 2. Soil and climatic variations have a major impact on the nitrogen leached, due to the amount of infiltrated water (30 to 400 mm). The leaching means are 10 to 36 kgN.ha. yr for OF and 26 to 41 kgN.ha. yr for CF in Seine & Marne. In final, OF leads to a decrease of nitric contamination of 20-50% in the different areas.
Abrupt climatic changes over the last 60,000 years.

Depuis quelques centaines de milliers d'annees, le climat de la Terre oscille cycliquement, alternant des periodes glaciaires et des periodes interglaciaires, selon des frequences liees aux variations d'insolation de la Terre. Cette apparente regularite a ete interrompue par moment par des accidents climatiques courts mais intenses : les evenements de Heinrich, les oscillations de Dansgaard-Oeschger, le Younger Dryas, le coup de froid intervenu il y a 8200 ans, etc. Depuis une dizaine d'annees, plus d'une centaine d'articles ont ete publies sur le sujet : plusieurs ont propose des hypotheses pour tenter d'expliquer ces anomalies. A l'heure actuelle, il n'y a toujours pas de consensus dans la communaute internationale. Cet article fait le point sur les decouvertes majeures et les hypotheses emises recemment sur le sujet.
Hydric-Agent: Ferramenta de Simulação Baseada em Agentes para Gestão da Água em Áreas Residenciais

Na implementacao de planos de gerenciamento hidrico, se faz necessario compreender o comportamento dos agentes consumidores deagua diante de decisoes, planos e projetos de gerenciamento do sistema hidrico. Essa integracao possibilita tomadas de decisao por parte dos gestores em concordância com a realidade do sistema hidrico. No presente trabalho se apresenta a ferramenta Hydric-Agent desenvolvida em JADEX que permite a simulacao de consumidores deagua sob diferentes cenarios de gestao hidrica, fornecendo ao usuario da plataforma uma visao do cooperativismo do agente consumidor deagua e o grau de adesaoa acao de gestao estabelecida.
Evaluation of the Relationship between HRM Practices, Employee Retention and Internal and External Factors: A literature Review

The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between HRM practices, employee retention and internal and external factors. This objective led to four components within the scope of the literature review. The first track dealt with definitions and reviews of the key concepts related to HRM practices and employee retention. The second track of the literature review aimed to ground the study in the wide body of knowledge by examining HRM policies and practices for improving staff retention. The third track of the literature review considered the critical points of current knowledge including substantive findings by identifying internal factors influencing HRM practices and employee retention. The fourth and final track of the literature review looked into recent empirical studies and explored the roles and impacts of external factors on HRM practices and employee retention. Findings from the study showed that although environmental factors influence HRM practices and ultimately employee retention, HRM practices contribute to establishing social climates which, in turn enhance ambidextrous learning and ultimately organizational performance. One observation that may be made on this study is that the effect of HRM practices on ambidexterity is not directly causal, but indirect. It is likely that the social climates created by HRM practices also enhance a number of other skills likewise favorable to organizational performance. HRM practices are therefore contributory, but not determinative, of the likelihood of skills development, including ambidexterity.
Melatonin Synthesis: Analysis of the More Than X0-Fold Nocturnal Increase in Serotonin WAcetyltransferase Messenger Ribonucleic Acid in the Rat Pineal Gland

In vertebrates, the circadian rhythm in the activity of serotonin N-acetyltransferase [arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AA-NAT); EC 2.3. 1.871 drives the daily rhythm in circulating melatonin. We have discovered that expression of the AA-NAT gene in the rat pineal gland is essentially turned off during the day and turned on at night, resulting in a more than 150-fold rhythm. Expression is regulated by a photoneural system that acts through an adrenergic-CAMP mechanism in pinealocytes, glands. Results were confirmed in an independent experiment.
Observed decline of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation 2004–2012

Abstract. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) has been observed continuously at 26° N since April 2004. The AMOC and its component parts are monitored by combining a transatlantic array of moored instruments with submarine-cable-based measurements of the Gulf Stream and satellite derived Ekman transport. The time series has recently been extended to October 2012 and the results show a downward trend since 2004. From April 2008 to March 2012, the AMOC was an average of 2.7 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3 s−1) weaker than in the first four years of observation (95% confidence that the reduction is 0.3 Sv or more). Ekman transport reduced by about 0.2 Sv and the Gulf Stream by 0.5 Sv but most of the change (2.0 Sv) is due to the mid-ocean geostrophic flow. The change of the mid-ocean geostrophic flow represents a strengthening of the southward flow above the thermocline. The increased southward flow of warm waters is balanced by a decrease in the southward flow of lower North Atlantic deep water below 3000 m. The transport of lower North Atlantic deep water slowed by 7% per year (95% confidence that the rate of slowing is greater than 2.5% per year).
Advanced 0–3 ceramic polymer composites for high frequency applications

The main object of this thesis was to research injection mouldable 0–3 type ceramic polymer composites and their dielectric and magnetic properties in the GHz frequency region. The work has been divided into three sections. In the first section, two–phase ceramic polymer composites containing dielectric and magnetic fillers have been investigated and their characteristics analysed by reference to pre–existing mixing rules. The exploitation of these composites in miniaturizing devices, such as antennae, is presented and discussed. The second part describes three phase composites containing different nanosize additives (silver, silicon and alumina fibres) towards improving their dielectric properties. In the third part, some periodical and multilayer structures for ceramic polymer composite layers are proposed. In the case of two–phase ceramic polymer composites, with 37 vol.% of dielectric filler (Barium Strontium Titanate, BST) embedded into a thermoplastic polymer (ER140) matrix, the highest measured relative permittivity was 15 with a dielectric loss value of 0.008 at 1 GHz. With 43 vol.% of magnetic filler (hexaferrite, CO2Z) in ER182 matrix, the highest achieved relative permeability was 1.8 with a magnetic loss value of 0.077 at 1 GHz. Composites with Co2Z filler provide a 77% size reduction, and could thus be used advantageously in antennae. It was found that a 2–6 vol.% nanoaddition in BST–ER140 composites enhanced the relative permittivity drastically with only a minor effect on the dielectric losses. In particular, with only 2 vol.% addition of nanosize silver particles into the BST–ER140 composite, a 52% increase in the relative permittivity was obtained, with no significant change in the dielectric losses (tan δe = 0.004). Vertically and horizontally periodical dielectric composite structures comprising layers of different dielectric properties have been fabricated as well as multilayered structures containing dielectric and magnetic layers. The measurement results indicate that such multimaterial multilayer structures are good candidates for components with reduced dielectric and magnetic losses.
Merlot Journal of Online Learning and Teaching a Case Study: Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills in an Online Health Care Ethics Course

This case study describes the journey of revising an online health care ethics course in an accelerated nursing program. The primary goal was to incorporate additional opportunities for fostering critical thinking along with updating the course design to reflect the university's standard of academic rigor. This required health care ethics course has been known to be challenging from the student's perspective, due not only to the volume of the work involved, but also to the inclusion of sensitive topics that are addressed such as beginning of life issues and whistle-blowing. The revisions, constructed from student feedback, were aimed at stimulating critical thinking, providing spaces for reflection, and adding engaging activities that could solidify concept acquisition while reducing both redundancy and temptations to participate in academic dishonesty.
Web maps adaptation for smart phones

This thesis presents the web maps viewer adaption for smartphones. The first part describes development of the media maps, with the emphasis on mobile cartography description. The concept of mobile cartography, user tasks in a mobile environment, design and adaptation of mobile maps are described. The second part introduces smartphones, their connection to the Internet and their operating systems. Practical part of the thesis includes the presentation of the mobile tourist map of Novo mesto creation. Tourism in Novo mesto is briefly described, editorial plan preparation is made and the actual procedure of making this map is presented. The map testing, eventual possibilities and solutions for upgrading are discussed, too.
Fast Algebraic Attacks on Stream Ciphers with Linear Feedback

Many popular stream ciphers apply a ﬁlter/combiner to the state of one or several LFSRs. Algebraic attacks on such ciphers [10,11] are possible, if there is a multivariate relation involving the key/state bits and the output bits. Recent papers by Courtois, Meier, Krause and Armknecht [1,2,10,11] show that such relations exist for several well known constructions of stream ciphers immune to all previously known attacks. In particular, they allow to break two ciphers using LFSRs and completely “well designed” Boolean functions: Toyocrypt and LILI-128, see [10,11]. Surprisingly, similar algebraic attacks exist also for the stateful combiner construction used in Bluetooth keystream generator E0 [1]. More generally, in [2] it is proven that they can break in polynomial time, any combiner with a ﬁxed number of inputs and a ﬁxed number of memory bits. In this paper we present a method that allows to substantially reduce the complexity of all these attacks. We show that when the known keystream bits are consecutive, an important part of the equations will have a recursive structure, and this allows to partially replace the usual sub-cubic Gaussian algorithms for eliminating the monomials, by a much faster, essentially linear, version of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm. The new method gives the fastest attack proposed so far for Toyocrypt, LILI-128 and the keystream generator that is used in E0 cipher. Moreover we present two new fast general algebraic attacks for stream ciphers using Boolean functions, applicable when the degree and/or the number of inputs is not too big. Nessie, E0, Bluetooth.
Sero-Prevalence of Toxoplasma infection in human and dog population in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract Shad-Del, F. , Sarvestani, R. G. and Milani, M. S. 1993. Sero-prevalence of Toxoplasma infection in human and dog population in Shiraz, Iran. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 3: 83–89. Sero-prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in human beings by indirect fluorescent antibody technique and dogs by Sabin-Feldman dye test, of Shiraz and its suburbs was studied Out of 225 human serum samples examined, 21.3% were found positive showing the serum titers 1:64 to 1:1024. Persons with close contacts with animals i.e., farmers, butchers and cat owners showed maximum infection. Agewise, those in the age group of 18–27 years showed higher infection (35.7%). Sex differences were not significant. Out of 100 dogs examined, 31(31.0%) were positive for T. gondii. Of these 41.8% strary and 9.1% pet dogs were positive. The dogs above 3years of age showed highest (57.14%) injection rate and like human beings, sex of dogs did not affect infection rate. The high infection rate in stray dogs might pose serious public health pr.
WORKING PAPER SERIES SOVEREIGN DEBT PORTFOLIOS , BOND RISKS , AND THE CREDIBILITY OF MONETARY POLICY

We are grateful to Mark Aguiar, Daniel Andrei, Adrien Auclert, John Campbell, Lorenzo Garlappi, Joshua Gottlieb, Oleg Itskhoki, Thomas Mertens, Vincenzo Quadrini (discussant), Julio Rotemberg, Rosen Valchev (discussant), Adrien Verdelhan, Jenny Tang, and seminar participants at AEA 2016, UCLA Anderson, Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, NBER Summer Institute, UC Santa Barbara, the San Francisco Federal Reserve, and the University of British Columbia for helpful comments. Jiri Knesl and Sandra Ramirez provided excellent research assistance. Pflueger thanks MIT Sloan and Stanford GSB for their hospitality and UBC for research funding while working on this research. Schreger thanks the Princeton Economics Department for their hospitality during the research process and the Harvard Business School Division of Research for financial support. The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, any other person associated with the Federal Reserve System, or the National Bureau of Economic Research. All errors are our own.
Enhancement of radiography images by two algorithms based on a cartoon–texture decomposition

Radiography is a technique used to view the internal defect regions in welded objects using x-rays or gamma rays. Information extraction from the radiographs depends on the image quality and the interpreter’s skill. The use of image enhancement methods is an important goal in industrial radiographic testing for contrast improvement of radiographs. In this study, two cartoon–texture image decomposition methods (CTID) based on the nonlinear low pass and high pass filter (NLHF) algorithm and the total variation L1 (TV-L1) algorithm were used to detect and improve the defect(s) visualization in the radiographs of the GDXray database. These methods utilize iterative methods along with different filters to generate the cartoon and texture components of the image. The proposed methods were successfully implemented to the high and low contrast radiography images. Improvement in the defect regions was achieved while sharpening the edges and fine detail of the radiographs. Experts’ evaluations showed that the contrast of the texture component in the NLHF method was better than the TV-L1 and the original radiograph.
Stromal Cell-Derived Factor 1 (CXCL12) Induces Human Cell Migration into Human Lymph Nodes Transplanted into SCID Mice1

Stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1; CXCL12), a CXC chemokine, has a primary role in signaling the recruitment of hemopoietic stem cell precursors to the bone marrow during embryonic development. In postnatal life, SDF-1 is widely expressed and is induced in chronically inflamed tissues such as psoriatic skin and the rheumatoid synovium, but has also been implicated in the migration of lymphocytes to lymphoid organs. To investigate the role of SDF-1 in recirculation and homing in vivo, we have developed a model in which human peripheral lymph nodes (huPLN) are transplanted into SCID mice. We have shown that huPLN transplants are viable, vascularized by the murine circulation that forms functional anastomoses with transplant vessels. In addition, grafts retain some features of the pretransplantation tissue, such as lymphoid follicles, lymphatic and high endothelial venule markers. We also show that SDF-1 is capable of inducing the migration of a SDF-1-responsive cell line (U937) and human PBLs from the murine circulation into the grafts in a dose-dependant manner, inhibitable by CXCR4 blockade. The mechanism of action of SDF-1 in this model is independent from that of TNF-α and does not rely on the up-regulation of adhesion molecules (such as ICAM-1) on the graft vascular endothelium. This is the first description of huPLN transplantation into SCID mice and of the functional effects of SDF-1 in regard to the migration of human cells into huPLN in vivo. This model provides a powerful tool to investigate the pathways involved in cell migration into lymphoid organs and potentially to target them for therapeutic purposes.
Polymicrogyria: An Unusual Case of Secondary Mania

Background: Secondary mania refers to a manic episode that arises during a medical illness other than bipolar disorder or in response to a drug or medication. As the psychopathological features of secondary mania resemble those of mania due to bipolar disorder, misdiagnosis is frequent. Purpose and Basic Procedures: We present the case of a 20-year-old woman who developed a manic episode with psychotic symptoms, in whom polymicrogyria, a malformation of the cortical development with abnormal electroencephalographic activity, was documented. After initiating antiepileptic management, the affective symptoms completely subsided. Main Findings: To date, no specific recommendations are available concerning when to perform advanced studies in patients with a manic episode; however, as our case shows, these are much needed. Principal Conclusion: Because the treatment of secondary conditions largely depends on finding the underlying cause, patients with a new-onset mania should undergo a thorough assessment for secondary causes.
Characterization of Aptamer-Protein Complexes by X-ray Crystallography and Alternative Approaches

Aptamers are oligonucleotide ligands, either RNA or ssDNA, selected for high-affinity binding to molecular targets, such as small organic molecules, proteins or whole microorganisms. While reports of new aptamers are numerous, characterization of their specific interaction is often restricted to the affinity of binding (KD). Over the years, crystal structures of aptamer-protein complexes have only scarcely become available. Here we describe some relevant technical issues about the process of crystallizing aptamer-protein complexes and highlight some biochemical details on the molecular basis of selected aptamer-protein interactions. In addition, alternative experimental and computational approaches are discussed to study aptamer-protein interactions.
MODELING POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF LAND DEVELOPMENT ON SEDIMENT YIELDS

To assist land-use managers in addressing the problem of erosion, a computer simulation model (SEDCAD) can be used to determine the effectiveness of well-applied erosion-control practices in reducing the loss of soil from actively developing sites. The program includes procedures based on a modified version of the Universal Soil Loss Equation, which is widely used by water resource managers to estimate soil erosion rates over a range of spatial scales. For a construction site in northeastern Ohio, the computer program SEDCAD was used to estimate the changes in off-site sediment delivery that occur when the soil on the site is completely exposed as a result of clearing, grading, and other construction activities. Assuming application of erosion-control best-management practices, ranging from the use of straw mulch to the use of a sediment basin, SEDCAD simulation results indicate that proper management practices can reduce sediment delivery to wetlands adjacent to this site to pre-development levels. This .