Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Sustainability of Alternative Last-Mile Delivery Strategies

Author(s): Jaller, Miguel; Pahwa, Anmol | Abstract: In the last decade, e-commerce has grown substantially and transformed individual shopping behaviors. Most shopping activities—at least part of the search, if not the purchase itself—now involve an online component. This has consequently changed commodity flow and urban goods distribution. E-commerce has the potential to reduce the negative impacts of shopping on the environment by substituting individual shopping trips to stores using personal cars with optimized truck deliveries. However, shopping behavior is often more complex than this one-to-one substitution.Additionally, e-retailers entice consumers with free shipping, free returns, same-day, one-hour or two-hour expedited deliveries, and more in a quest for increased market share. These enhanced services result in additional distances driven, emissions, and operational costs for the e-retailer. The increasing customer expectations around lead time, delivery time, and return policy present a need for more sustainable delivery options, particularly for the “last mile” between the distribution center and the customer. Last-mile operators are considering alternatives to traditional diesel truck-based, door-to-door delivery such as use of alternative fuel (e.g., electric) vehicles, delivery from micro-hubs using cargo bikes, customer pickup at collection points, and crowdsourced deliveries. Researchers at the University of California, Davis developed models for e-commerce demand, last-mile delivery operations, and cost and sustainability assessment, then applied this modeling framework to a case study in Southern California to evaluate the potential impact of these strategies under different delivery scenarios. This policy brief summarizes findings from that research, along with policy implications.View the NCST Project Webpage
Assessment of Commercial Truck Driver Injury Severity as a Result of Driving Actions

The disaggregate modeling approach is a new trend in the literature to analyze the injury severity of truck-involved crashes. The assessment of truck driver injury severity based on driver action is still missing in the literature. This paper presents an extensive exploratory analysis that highlights significant variability in the severity of truck drivers’ injuries based on various action types (i.e., aggressive driving, failure to keep proper lane, driving too fast, and no improper driving). Binary logistic regression with the Bayesian random intercept approach was developed to examine the factors contributing to fatal or any injuries of truck drivers using 10 years (2007–2016) of historical crash data in Wyoming. Log-likelihood ratio tests were performed to justify that separate models by various driving action types are warranted. The results demonstrated the effects of various vehicle, driver, crash, and roadway characteristics, combined with truck driver-specific action, on the corresponding severity of driver injury. The gross vehicle weight, age and gender of the driver, time of day, lighting condition, and the presence of junctions were found to have significantly different impacts on the severity of truck driver injury in various driving action-related crashes. With the incorporation of the random intercept in the modeling procedure, the analysis found a strong presence (27%–33%) of intra-crash correlation in driver injury severity within the same crash. Finally, based on the findings of this study, several recommendations are made.
A Simple Proposal for Including Designer Preferences in Multi-Objective Optimization Problems

Including designer preferences in every phase of the resolution of a multi-objective optimization problem is a fundamental issue to achieve a good quality in the final solution. To consider preferences, the proposal of this paper is based on the definition of what we call a preference basis that shows the preferred optimization directions in the objective space. Associated to this preference basis a new basis in the objective space—dominance basis—is computed. With this new basis the meaning of dominance is reinterpreted to include the designer’s preferences. In this paper, we show the effect of changing the geometric properties of the underlying structure of the Euclidean objective space by including preferences. This way of incorporating preferences is very simple and can be used in two ways: by redefining the optimization problem and/or in the decision-making phase. The approach can be used with any multi-objective optimization algorithm. An advantage of including preferences in the optimization process is that the solutions obtained are focused on the region of interest to the designer and the number of solutions is reduced, which facilitates the interpretation and analysis of the results. The article shows an example of the use of the preference basis and its associated dominance basis in the reformulation of the optimization problem, as well as in the decision-making phase.
A New Affinely Adjustable Robust Model for Security Constrained Unit Commitment under Uncertainty

Currently, optimization models for the safe and reliable operation of power systems deal with two major challenges: the first one is the reduction of the computational load when considering N−1 contingencies; the second one is the adequate modeling of the uncertainty of intermittent generation and demand. This paper proposes a new affinely adjustable robust model to solve the security constrained unit commitment problem considering these sources of uncertainty. Linear decision rules, which take into account the forecasts and forecast errors of the different sources of uncertainty, are used for the affine formulation of the dispatch variables, thus allowing the tractability of the model. Another major novelty is that the evaluation of the N−1 security constraints is performed by incorporating a novel method, proposed in the literature, based on the user-cuts concept. This method efficiently and dynamically adds only the binding N−1 security constraints, increasing the computational efficiency of the model when transmission line contingencies are considered. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations on the post-optimization results were run to demonstrate the effectiveness, feasibility and robustness of the solutions provided by the proposed model.
The Effects of the Economic Adjustment Programmes for Greece: A Quasi-Experimental Approach

Three Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) were implemented in Greece, between 2010 and 2015, without achieving the proposed economic objectives. This article analyses the impact of the EAPs in Greece using the synthetic control method (SCM) and has three main contributions. First, it identifies a long-term negative impact worth 35.3 per cent of the Greek GDP per capita caused by the application of the EAPs. Second, it finds that three-quarters of the estimated negative and unsustainable impact accumulated over the 2010–2012 period. Third, it identifies a regressive effect of the EAPs on income distribution, the Greek population with lower incomes experienced a greater negative effect caused by the adjustment programmes. These results underscore the need to review and correct the conditional financial assistance framework currently in force in the European Union.
Secondary Organic Aerosol - Formation Mechanisms and Source Contributions in Europe

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as an atmospheric pollutant is strongly related to increased mortality and morbidity. The empirically established link between aerosol concentration and human health compels increased efforts to reduce the atmospheric concentrations of fine particles. Organic material accounts for about 20-60% of the total PM2.5 and contains substances of known toxicity. It has been shown that in some areas secondary organic aerosol (SOA) accounts for 20% of the total organic aerosol throughout the year but can contribute up to 70% in smog episodes. The estimation of the sources and concentrations of organic aerosol is therefore crucial to the proper assessment of related health effects Part of this work attempts a critical review of the literature on SOA. The goal is to describe formation mechanisms, to identify likely precursor gases, and to estimate the SOA contribution to PM2.5. SOA forms by oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The aerosol yield varies significantly among different VOC species as well as source sectors and the contribution of SOA to the total particulate organic material is dependent on the time of the day and the season. The consequences of these findings for reduction strategies are discussed. The knowledge gained in the literature review is further used to exemplify a possible procedure to assess and compare the aerosol formation potential of some source sectors used in the RAINS model. It is found that traffic and solvent use in the printing industry and paint are important sectors for SOA production.
Fake News Detection & Sentiment Analysis on Twitter Data Using NLP

- Messages posted to online social networks (OSN) have recently caused a stir due to the deliberate spread of fake news or rumour. The goal of this research is to understand and analyse the characteristics of fake news, particularly in relation to sentiments, in order to automate the detection of fake news and rumours. We offer a notion that there is a relation between bogus communications or rumours and the sentiments of texts submitted online, based on actual evidence. We validate our theory by comparing it to cutting-edge baseline text-only fake news detection methods that do not consider sentiments. We ran tests on a standard Twitter fake news dataset and found significant improvements.
PICKBUS: UMA SOLUÇÃO PARA SERVIÇOS DE TRANSPORTE FRETADO DE PASSAGEIROS

Tendo em vista o crescimento dos centros urbanos nas últimas décadas e os problemas derivados desse processo, somado a uma crescente demanda por soluções inovadoras em mobilidade urbana que agreguem simplicidade e velocidade ao cotidiano das pessoas, este trabalho usa uma visão empreendedora e ferramentas de desenvolvimento de negócios presentes na literatura do empreendedorismo para desenvolver um novo produto. O resultado deste projeto foi um sistema multiplataforma, constituído por um aplicativo móvel e uma aplicação web, para gerenciamento do transporte fretado de passageiros. Dentre os recursos principais desenvolvidos para o produto, chamado PickBus, cita-se a criação de viagens, participação de passageiros, gerenciamento de pagamentos e lista de passageiros. O trabalho também demonstra que há um espaço sem concorrência no mercado para um produto voltado a esse público-alvo.
Caracterización morfológica de la semilla de Hibiscus cannabinus (Malvaceae) e influencia del tiempo de almacenamiento sobre la viabilidad

Hibiscus cannabinus L. (Malvaceae) “kenaf ” es una especie de ciclo anual primavero-otoñal, que se cultiva para la producción de fibra para papel, bioetanol de segunda generación y forraje. Los objetivos de esta investigación fueron caracterizar la morfología de la semilla de H. cannabinus y establecer la influencia del tiempo de almacenamiento sobre la viabilidad de dos cultivares, Endora y Tainung 1. Se realizaron observaciones de cortes histológicos y mediciones con microscopio óptico y estereoscópico. Se evaluó la germinación a los 30, 180 y 730 días después de cosecha. Las semillas de H. cannabinus presentan una forma asimétrica, cuneiforme y/o triangular (ca. 5,1 mm x 2,8 mm), son endospermadas y derivan de óvulos campilótropos. La cubierta seminal tiene tricomas unicelulares, eglandulares distribuidos en todala superficie con predominio en la región del hilo. El embrión es plegado, con cotiledones conduplicados de posición axial sub tipo curvo. El episperma presenta un marcado predominio de la capa de macroesclereidas. Se encontró que las semillas de los cultivares Endora y Tainung 1, almacenadas por dos años a temperatura ambiente y con 9,5% de humedad, mantienen un alto porcentaje de germinación con valores cercanos al 80%. Los resultados permiten afirmar que las semillas de “kenaf ” mantienen las características morfológicas internas constantes típicas de las Malváceas, y que los cultivares estudiados presentan una alta viabilidad sostenida en el tiempo.
Application Layer Denial-of-Service Attacks and Defense Mechanisms

Application layer Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks are generated by exploiting vulnerabilities of the protocol implementation or its design. Unlike volumetric DoS attacks, these are stealthy in nature and target a specific application running on the victim. There are several attacks discovered against popular application layer protocols in recent years. In this article, we provide a structured and comprehensive survey of the existing application layer DoS attacks and defense mechanisms. We classify existing attacks and defense mechanisms into different categories, describe their working, and compare them based on relevant parameters. We conclude the article with directions for future research.
Treating Post-Traumatic Seizures to Limit Tau Accumulation in Larval Zebrafish

Seizures Are a Druggable Mechanistic Link Between TBI and Subsequent Tauopathy Alyenbaawi H, Kanyo R, Locskai LF, et al. Elife. 2021;10:e58744. doi:10.7554/eLife.58744 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a prominent risk factor for dementias including tauopathies such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The mechanisms that promote prion-like spreading of Tau aggregates after TBI are not fully understood, in part due to lack of tractable animal models. Here, we test the putative role of seizures in promoting the spread of tauopathy. We introduce “tauopathy reporter” zebrafish expressing a genetically encoded fluorescent Tau biosensor that reliably reports accumulation of human Tau species when seeded via intraventricular brain injections. Subjecting zebrafish larvae to a novel TBI paradigm produced various TBI features including cell death, post-traumatic seizures, and Tau inclusions. Bath application of dynamin inhibitors or anticonvulsant drugs rescued TBI-induced tauopathy and cell death. These data suggest a role for seizure activity in the prion-like seeding and spreading of tauopathy following TBI. Further work is warranted regarding anticonvulsants that dampen post-traumatic seizures as a route to moderating subsequent tauopathy.
Photodegradation of uoroquinolones in aqueous solution under light conditions relevant to surface waters, toxicity assessment of photoproduct mixtures

Sarka Klementova (  sklement@jcu.cz ) University of South Bohemia Faculty of Science: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Prirodovedecka Fakulta https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3646-5945 Martina Poncarová University of South Bohemia: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Helena Langhansová University of South Bohemia Faculty of Science: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Prirodovedecka Fakulta Jaroslava Lieskovská University of South Bohemia Faculty of Science: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Prirodovedecka Fakulta David Kahoun University of South Bohemia Faculty of Science: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Prirodovedecka Fakulta Pavla Fojtíková University of South Bohemia Faculty of Science: Jihoceska Univerzita v Ceskych Budejovicich Prirodovedecka Fakulta
Poland’s Proposal for a Safe Solution of Waste Treatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Circular Economy Connection

The purpose of the study presented in this text is to show the influence of COVID-19 on waste management systems and circular economy stream, and their impact on circular economy, particularly the economic impact of the pandemic on the waste management sector, impact on circular economy objectives’ implementation as well as additional challenges like the need for hygienization of waste streams during different implementation efforts, such as changes in the municipal solid waste market and different waste processes of their disposal. Additionally, some methods—such as thermal treatment—which seemed to be not fully aligned with the circular economy approach have advantages not taken into account before. Incineration of higher volume of waste affects the waste structure and will change some of the circular economy objectives. The analysis was carried out on the example of the Polish market.
A New Approach To Produce [18F]MC225 Via One-Step Synthesis, A PET Radiotracer For Measuring P-gp Function.

Lara Garcia Varela University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen https://orcid.org/00000001-9803-4708 Khaled Attia Symeres, Kadijk 3,9747 AT Groningen John Carlo Sembrano Symeres, Kadijk 3, 9747 AT Groningen Olivier Jacquet Symeres, Kadijk 3, 9747 AT Groningen Inês farinha antunes University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen Chantal Kwizera University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen Ton J. Visser Symeres, Kadijk 3, 9747, AT Groningen Rudi A.J.O. Dierckx University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen Philip H. Elsinga University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen Gert Luurtsema (  g.luurtsema@umcg.nl ) University Medical Centre Groningen: Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen
Resilience of Pontian Farmers in the Face of the Impact Changes of Rapid Development in Iskandar Malaysia

The issues of community resilience arise from the need to develop an understanding of how people would respond to internal and external disturbances. In-depth discussion towards the impact of a city to a neighbouring district has little been discussed. The District of Pontian is located west of Iskandar Malaysia. It has received an unprecedented level of infrastructural development to boost the economy of Iskandar Malaysia. This study examines the land use pattern change of Pontian District impacted by Iskandar Malaysia. Additionally, the study aims to assess the social, economic and environmental capital and the factors that contribute to the adaptabilities and resilience of farmer communities in Pontian. Build-up area for each period using Google earth satellite imagery from the year 2005 to 2015, was classified to analyze the change of build-up area. Markov Chains technique is applied to predict changes of land use. Next, survey questionnaires were utilized to measure the levels of community resilience. Subsequently, an interview was employed to identify the factors that contribute to the stresses. The results indicate that rapid development of Iskandar Malaysia gave an impact to agricultural land and changed the land use pattern of Pontian. The findings revealed the perspective of individuals, community, and system resilience capacity to survive. It was found that farmers were able to adapt to various stresses. The result indicates that individuals and communities can be adaptive, absorptive, and transformative. The findings can assist in formulation of strategies for communities to be better prepared for the current and future impact of the triple threat of urbanization, globalization and climate change.
Lightweight and Highly Conductive Aerogel-like Carbon from Sugarcane with Superior Mechanical and EMI Shielding Properties

Aerogel-like carbon (ALC) based on sugarcane was prepared by a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and postpyrolysis process. The ALC prepared from sugarcane exhibits a typical cellular structure with low density, high specific surface area, and excellent electrical conductivity. Although with low density, the specific elastic modulus of ALC can reach 484.7 MPa·cm3/g, based on our knowledge, this is the strongest aerogel-like carbon ever reported. The average electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness of ALC in X band is 51.0 dB with an absorption-dominant shielding feature. More importantly, the specific surface area of ALC, which has subtle influence on the properties of ALC, can be fined tuned by the HTC process. Considering the chemical-free fabrication process with sustainable raw materials, adjustable structure, excellent mechanical properties, the lightweight and highly conductive ALCs are postulated to have promising potential applications in sensor, energy conversion and storage, and.
The Consumption of a ‘Self-development’ Product or Service?Take the Dance Club at Copenhagen Business School as an Example

This research takes the Dance Club at Copenhagen Business School as an example to attempt to explain consumption behaviors of a ‘self-development’ product, using qualitative methods. With 3 different qualitative methods, the researcher analyzes the consumption behavior in culture perspective, consumer rituals, identity and consumption/selves in transition. The dancing classes have many virtues to contribute to the identity construction of female college students and the research gives the a clear understanding of female college students’ consumer behaviors in dancing classes. Upon understanding, marketers will have a clearer insight into the current market and trend.
Association between Umbilical Cord Blood Cortisol and Maternal Cortisol during Pregnancy

Several preclinical and clinical studies suggest that maternal psychosocial stress and anxiety during pregnancy may have persistent consequences for the long-term health of the offspring. The aim of our study was to evaluate possible associations between maternal cortisol levels, gestational age, baby’s birth weight and umbilical cord blood cortisol concentration. 145 women who attended the Obstetrics’ Service, Hospital de Clinicas “José de San Martín”, at the time of delivery, were included in this study. The population was divided into two groups: group 1 was constituted by 89 healthy women (26.5 ± 7.0 years) while group 2 was made up of 56 women (29 ± 7.8 years) who presented different pathologies. Total population was also divided according to the type of birth (cesarean section or vaginal). Group 2 was divided considering baby’s APGAR 5/10 score and birth weight. Cortisol was measured by a chemoluminiscent method (Immulite 2000 Siemens). Umbilical cord blood cortisol concentration correlated with pregnancy week (r=0.451, p=0.0001), birth weight (r=0.284, p=0.010) and maternal cortisol concentration; (r=0.424, p=0.0001). After dividing the population according to the type of birth, significant differences were found in umbilical cord blood cortisol concentration (p=0.003), pregnancy week (p=0.0001) and birth weight, (p=0.002), were found. A linear regression analysis was performed showing that maternal cortisol and pregnancy week were associated with umbilical cord blood cortisol concentrations (F=6.502, p=0.004) even after adjusting for birth weight. The correlation found between maternal cortisol and umbilical cord blood cortisol levels could be related to a probable fetal programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.