Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lean Construction Leveraging Collaboration and Advanced Practices to Increase Project Efficiency

Reproduction or dissemination of any information contained herein is granted only by contract or prior written permission from McGraw Hill Construction. and target and build relationships that will win more business. McGraw Hill Construction serves more than one million customers through its trends and forecasts, industry news, and leading platform of construction data, benchmarks, and analytics. has been a leader in the engineering and construction industry for over 30 years. Currently, he has lead responsibility for MHC's market research group as well as MHC's thought leadership initiatives in areas such as green building, BIM, interoperability, innovation and global construction markets. Previously, Bernstein served as the president and CEO of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation. He currently serves as a member of the Princeton University Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Council and as a visiting professor with the University of Reading's School of Construction Management and Engineering in England. Bernstein has an M.B.A. from Loyola College, an M.S. in engineering from Princ-eton University and a B.S. in civil engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Stephen A. Jones, leads McGraw-Hill Construction's (MHC) initiatives in BIM and integrated project delivery, as well as developing alliance relationships for technology and content. Active in numerous industry organizations, he frequently speaks at events around the world about the business impact of emerging technologies and trends. Before joining MHC, Jones was a vice president with Primavera Systems (now Oracle), a leading provider of project management software. Prior to that, he spent 19 years in creative, marketing and management roles with design firms, most recently as a Principal and Board of Directors member with Burt Hill (now Stantec), a large, global architectural and engineering firm. Jones holds an M.B.A. from Wharton and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins. W hile concerns about the inefficiency of the construction industry are not new, the devastating impacts of the long recession have made it clear that, even as the economy slowly recovers , business as usual can no longer be an acceptable approach in the construction industry. Lean construction offers an alternative that allows companies to thrive in any economic conditions. in the last few years, Mcgraw Hill Construction has explored many ways in which the industry has addressed questions of inefficiency. our series of biM reports demonstrate, among other findings , that the collaborative approach biM can help foster has strong impacts on productivity and profitability. similarly, the 2011 …
Eective divisors on moduli spaces

The pseudo-effective cone Eff(X) of a smooth projective variety X is a fundamental, yet elusive invariant. On one hand, a few general facts are known: the interior of the effective cone is the cone of big divisors so, in particular, X is of general type if and only if KX ∈ int(Eff(X)); less obviously [4], a variety X is uniruled if and only if KX is not pseudo-effective and the dual of Eff(X) is the cone of movable curves; and, the effective cone is known to be polyhedral for Fano varieties. For further background, see [60]. On the other hand, no general structure theorem is known and the calculation of Eff(X) is a daunting task even in some of the simplest cases. For instance, the problem of computing the cone Eff(C) for a very general curve C of genus g is known to be equivalent to Nagata’s Conjecture, see [16]. The aim of this paper is to survey what is known about the effective cones of moduli spaces, with a focus on the moduli spacesMg,n of stable curves, Ag of principally polarized abelian varieties andMg,n(X,β) of stable maps. Because related moduli spaces often have an inductive combinatorial structure and the associated families provide a rich cycle theory, the study of effective cones of moduli spaces has often proven more tractable and more applicable than that of general algebraic varieties. For example, in the case of Mg, we may define, following [49], the slope s(D) of a divisor class D of the form aλ − bδ − cirrδirr − ∑ i ciδi, with a and b positive,
Certification of Training and Training Outcomes

External certification of workplace skills obtained through on-the-job training is widespread in many countries. This may indicate that training is financed by workers, and certification serves to assure the quality of the training offered by the firm. However, other evidence shows that general training is financed by firms, especially in Germany. We show in this paper that external certification of training may also be necessary for an equilibrium with firm-sponsored training. Firm financing of training is only possible if firms have monopsony power over the workers after training. If the training firm can extract too much of the employment rents, however, workers may not have sufficient incentives to put forth effort during training. Certification increases the values of training to the outside market, and hence to workers, making firm-sponsored training possible.
A climate-change adaptation framework to reduce continental-scale vulnerability across conservation reserves

Rapid climate change, in conjunction with other anthropogenic drivers, has the potential to cause mass species extinction. To minimize this risk, conservation reserves need to be coordinated at multiple spatial scales because the climate envelopes of many species may shift rapidly across large geographic areas. In addition, novel species assemblages and ecological reorganization make future conditions uncertain. We used a GIS analysis to assess the vulnerability of 501 reserve units in the National Wildlife Refuge System as a basis for a nationally coordinated response to climate change adaptation. We used measures of climate change exposure (historic rate of temperature change), sensitivity (biome edge and critical habitat for threatened and endangered species), and adaptive capacity (elevation range, latitude range, watershed road density, and watershed protection) to evaluate refuge vulnerability. The vulnerability of individual refuges varied spatially within and among biomes. We suggest that the spat.
DELPHINIDIN PROTECTS CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS AGAINST BACTERIAL INFECTIONS

Delphinidin-3-glucoside (D3G) is a pigment widely represented in various fruits and vegetables. Being an anthocyanin compound, D3G offers an antioxidant property which could influence oxidative damage. In this paper, the researchers are interested in pathogen-associated oxidative damage. Hence, this paper investigates the protective property of D3G on Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) against different pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia), and Proteus mirabilis (P. mirabilis). The C. elegans were nourished with varying concentrations of D3G and were infected with different pathogens. The lifespan of the nematode was observed in these other conditions. Results show a significant increase (p≤0.05) in the lifespan of C. elegans when exposed to S. aureus, E. faecalis, K. pneumonia, and P. mirabilis. However, the efficiency of D3G against the different pathogens differ. Taken together, the researchers speculate that D3G may have an additional protective mechanism against various pathogens to lengthen the lifespan of the C. elegans.
ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CERTAIN MEDICINAL PLANT AND THEIR ESSENTIAL OILS ON THE ISOLATED BACTERIA FROM UTI PATIENTS.

Mohamed H. Mourad 1 ,Soheir Abdel-Rahman Salih 2 , Mahmoud M. Elaasser 1 , Nesreen A. Safwat 1 and Mostafa Y. Ibrahim 3 . 1. The Regional Center for Mycology and Biotechnology, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. 2. Department of Clinical pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University (Girls Branch), Cairo, Egypt. 3. Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. Manuscript Info Abstract . Manuscript History
Dynamique du copepode Eurytemora hirundoides dans l'estuaire de la Gironde: Effet de la temperature

INTRODUCTION Jacques Castel, Claude Courties, Jea n-M ichel Poli Institut de Biologie Marine, Universite de Bordeaux l, 2. rue du Professeur Jolycl. 33120 Arcachon, France. Les fluctuations d'abondance du copepode planctonique Euryremora hirundoides ont ete etudiees dans l'estua ire de la Gironde pendant 6 ans. Les plus fortes valeurs d'effectifs sont associees a des temperatures comprises entre 10 et 20 oc. Cependant, pour cette g:lrnmc de tcmperalUTc. l'abondance est plus elcvce au printemps qu'cn automne. l 'evol ution du taux intrinseque d'accroissement (rm • determine en laboratoire), en fonction de la temperature du milieu pTevoit un pic d'abondance fin mai, ce q ui est con forme aux observations, La diminution de Tm a partir de 18 oC n'explique pas entieremen t le declin des popu lations en ete; d'a utres fn cteurs interviennent : tensions en oxygene, competition, Deux types d'action de la temperature, directe au printemps, indirecte en ete, doivent etre consideres pour evaluer l'impact thermique des rejets d'industries utilisant l'cau de mer comme source d'eau fro ide, Oce(llIO/' Acta, 1983. Actes 17e Symposium Europeen de Biologie Marine, Brest 27 septembre-I eroctobre 1982, 57-6 1. Dyna mics of the copepod Eurylemora hirundoides in the G ironde estuary : efTect of tempcrature The seasonal pattern of the abundance of the planktonic copepod Eurytemora "irundou/t',\' has been studied in the Gironde esluary du ring a 6-years pcriod. The highcst numbcrs a re associated with temperatures between 10 and 20 oc. However, for this temper.tture range, the abundance is higher in spring than in autumn. The evolution of the intrinsic rate of increase (Tm. dctcrmined in laboratory), as a function of the environmental temperature. predicts a penk abundance a l the end o f May which isconsistent with the observations. The decrease of Tm occurring from 18 OC can nat he the only expia natio n for the decline of the summer populatio n. Other factors a re invo lved : oxygen tension, competition. Two types of action of the temperaturc, direct in spring, indirect in summer must bc taken into account to evaluatc the thermal impact of industries using cooling water from estuu ries. Oœallol, Acra, 1983. Proceedi ngs 17th Europenn Marine Biology Symposium. Brest. France, 27 ScptembcrI October, 1982. 57-61. Les o rganismes 7.00pla nctoniques estua riens presentent une grande va riabilite temporelle. Il est souvent difficile ,de fai re la dis tinction entre une evolution a long terme, une composante saisonniere et des fluctuations aleatoires, Des travaux recents mettent en evidence des pas de temps caracteristiques pendan t lesquels s'exerce un con trole physique ou biologique de la distribution des effectifs, en particulier dans le domaine pelagique (Platl Denman. 1975 ; Laneur el al. , 1979 ; Colebrook, 1981), mais peu de travaux relient les st ructures periodiques observees a des resultats d 'ordrc i. -cophysiologique.
Functional elements of the cytoskeleton in the early Drosophila embryo.

INTRODUCTION . 67 Synopsis of Early Embryonic Development and Major Features of the Embryonic Cytoskeleton . 68 IDENTIFICATION AND PERTURBATION OF CYTOSKELETAL ELEMENTS . 72 Biochemical and Molecular Approaches . _ . 72 Genetic Approaches . 73 Disruption and Modification of the Cytoskeleton by Epigenetic Means. 74 NUCLEAR MIGRATION AND OTHER FORMS OF LARGE SCALE MOTION WITHIN THE CYTOPLASM . 75 Nuclear Migration . 76 Motion and Transport of Particles in the Periplasm . 79 DYNAMIC REARRANGEMENTS AT THE CORTEX OF THE SYNCYTIAL BLASTODERM . 80 Correspondence of Surface and Cytoskeletal Dynamics . 81 Centrosomes as Cytoplasmic Organizers. 83 CYTOKINESIS . : . 86 Pole Cell Formation . 87 Blastoderm Cellularization . 89 CONCLUSION . 94
Propositional Lax Logic

We investigate a peculiar intuitionistic modal logic, called Propositional Lax Logic (PLL), which has promising applications to the formal verification of computer hardware. The logic has emerged from an attempt to express correctness up to behavioural constraints? a central notion in hardware verification? as a logical modality. As a modal logic it is special since it features a single modal operator ? that has a flavour both of possibility and of necessity. In the paper we provide the motivation for PLL and present several technical results. We investigate some of its proof-theoretic properties, presenting a cut-elimination theorem for a standard Gentzen-style sequent presentation of the logic. We go on to define a new class of fallible two-frame Kripke models for PLL. These models are unusual since they feature worlds with inconsistent information; furthermore, the only frame condition imposed is that the ? -frame be a subrelation of the ? -frame. We give a natural translation of these models into Goldblatt's J-space models of PLL. Our completeness theorem for these models yields a Godel-style embedding of PLL into a classical bimodal theory of type (S4,S4) and underpins a simple proof of the finite model property. We proceed to prove soundness and completeness of several theories for specialized classes of models. We conclude with a brief exploration of two concrete and rather natural types of model from hardware verification for which the modality ? models correctness up to timing constraints. We obtain decidability of ? -free fragment of the logic of the first type of model, which coincides with the stable form of Maksimova's intermediate logicL?
ShadowTouch: a Multi-user Application Selection Interface for Interactive Public Displays

In order to make public displays more attractive, recent work has begun to explore the concept of multi-application systems that allow passers-by to interactively choose from a set of display applications. However, the use of traditional desktop approaches (e.g., menus or tiles) for choosing an application in such circumstances is limiting, in particular in multi-user setups where multiple passers-by can concurrently interact with different applications on different parts of the screen. In order to explore novel means of application control, we have developed and evaluated a multi-user application selection interface called ShadowTouch. ShadowTouch uses information from a depth-camera to present the available applications overlaid within the bounds of the users' on-screen silhouettes (i.e., their "shadow"). In this paper we present the design, development, and initial usability evaluation of ShadowTouch.
Neurofuzzy Construction Algorithms 1 2 Year Progress Report

Neurofuzzy systems have been developed as grey box modelling technique ideal for the task of system identiication. Neurofuzzy models combine the mathematical structure of Associative Memory Networks (AMNs) with the transparency of fuzzy systems. This produces a modelling technique to which mathematical analysis can be applied, while being more transparent than traditional black box models. Unfortunately , conventional neurofuzzy models suuer from the curse of dimensionality, where the size and complexity of the model grows exponentially with the input dimension. This curse restricts the use of neurofuzzy systems to low dimensional problems. Parsimony is an important issue in modelling where the best models are obtained using the simplest possible structure. This principle can often be employed to alleviate the curse of dimensionality, where an alternative more representative neurofuzzy system can be employed. Several alternative neurofuzzy systems that try to exploit structural dependencies are presented in this report. Another problem, common to most modelling techniques, is model identiication i.e. nding the appropriate model structure (and representation) that best performs the modelling task. This report presents some algorithms that construct parsimonious neurofuzzy systems oo-line from a set of system observations. The aim is to construct a parsimonious neurofuzzy model, hence alleviating the curse of dimensionality and providing a qualative insight into the physical behaviour of the system in the form of fuzzy rules. These algorithms are all based on the general iterative identiication algorithm, COSMOS, also presented in this report.
Design of a nanoplatform for treating pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the USA. Asymptomatic early cancer stages and late diagnosis leads to very low survival rates of pancreatic cancers, compared to other cancers. Treatment options for advanced pancreatic cancer are limited to chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, as surgical removal of the cancerous tissue becomes impossible at later stages. Therefore, there’s a critical need for innovative and improved chemotherapeutic treatment of (late) pancreatic cancers. It is mandatory for successful treatment strategies to overcome the drug resistance associated with pancreatic cancers. Nanotechnology based drug formulations have been providing promising alternatives in cancer treatment due to their selective targeting and accumulation in tumor vasculature, which can be used for efficient delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to tumors and metastases. The research of my thesis is following the principle approach to high therapeutic efficacy that has been first described by Dr. Helmut Ringsdorf in 1975. However, I have extended the use of the Ringsdorf model from polymeric to nanoparticle-based drug carriers by exploring an iron / iron oxide nanoparticle based drug delivery system. A series of drug delivery systems have been synthesized by varying the total numbers and the ratio of the tumor homing peptide sequence CGKRK and the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin at the surfaces of Fe/Fe3O4-nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity of these nanoformulations was tested against murine pancreatic cancer cell lines (Pan02) to assess their therapeutic capabilities for effective treatments of pancreatic cancers. Healthy mouse fibroblast cells (STO) were also tested for comparison, because an effective chemotherapeutic drug has to be selective towards cancer cells. Optimal Experimental Design methodology was applied to identify the nanoformulation with the highest therapeutic activity. A statistical analysis method known as response surface methodology was carried out to evaluate the in-vitro cytotoxicity data, and to determine whether the chosen experimental parameters truly express the optimized conditions of the nanoparticle based drug delivery system. The overall goal was to optimize the therapeutic efficacy in nanoparticle-based pancreatic cancer treatment. Based on the statistical data, the most effective iron/iron oxide nanoparticle-based drug delivery system has been identified. Its Fe/Fe3O4 core has a diameter of 20 nm. The surface of this nanoparticle is loaded with the homing sequence CGKRK (139-142 peptide molecules per nanoparticle surface) and the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin (156-159 molecules per surface), This nanoplatform is a promising candidate for the nanoparticle-based chemotherapy of pancreatic cancer. DESIGN OF A NANOPLATFORM FOR TREATING PANCREATIC CANCER
Numerical Analysis of the Scarlet Oak Complex (Quercus subgen. Erythrobalanus) in the Eastern United States: Relationships above the Species Level

Seven species, representing three generally accepted series, of Quercus subgen. Erythrobalanus were subjected to numerical analyses. Results from principle coordinate analysis followed by nonmetric multidimensional scaling are compared to those from other analytic methods. The twodimensional ordination demonstrates that the traditionally recognized series do not appear in these phenetic analyses, and these numerical results may be more indicative of actual evolutionary relationships. When Trelease (1924) monographed the American oaks, he divided each subgenus into series, stating that "within the large groups the species fall naturally into smaller assemblages, differing in form of leaf and fruit, etc., but agreeing in fundamental characters. " While Trelease realized that his perceived relationships had many probable errors, he was confident of his treatment of the well known species, especially those of eastern North America, including species of two subgenera, Lepidobalanus (white oaks) and Erythrobalanus (red and black oaks). Within the latter subgenus Trelease recognized eight series in the eastern United States, one of which, Coccineae, is composed of several quite variable species and has been variously interpreted by other students of Quercus. The Coccineae, as established by Trelease (1924), included six species: Quercus coccinea Muenchhausen, Q. borealis Michaux, Q. ellipsoidalis Hill, Q. maxima Ashe, Q. shumardii Buckley, and Q. texana Buckley. In attempting to clarify relationships within this series, Palmer (1942) maintained the group but added a new species, Q. nuttallii Palmer, and submerged two others by treating Q. maxima and Q. texana as varieties of Q. borealis (=Q. rubra Linnaeus) and Q. shumardii respectively. At approximately the same time Camus (1934-49) was monographing the genus on a worldwide basis. Camus' treatment of these same species differed from Palmer's (1942) in that Q. nuttallii was placed in series Palustres (Q. palustris Muenchhausen). Additionally, Camus recognized Q. texana as a distinct species, as had Trelease (1924). In 1951 Muller, in his monograph of the oaks of Texas, also presented the species in serial arrangement and included Coccineae as one of these. He maintained Q. texana as a species and added several western species to 1 This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant GB-40637, the Society of the Sigma Xi, the Willard Sherman Turrell Herbarium Fund Grant No. 1, and the Graduate School, Miami University. I thank Donald Schaefer, Beverly Tall, and Mike Manuel of the Wright State University Computer Center for help. 2 Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton OH 45435.
A flexible class of covariance functions for multivariate spatial processes

In this work we present full Bayesian inference for a new flexible nonseparable class of cross-covariance functions for multivariate spatially referenced data. A Bayesian test is proposed for separability which is much more interpretable than parameters related to separability. Inference is based on an approximation for the likelihood function making inference scalable for several multivariate components. Spatial models have been increasingly applied in several areas, such as environmental science, climate science and agriculture. These data are usually available in space, time and possibly for several processes. In this context the modeling of dependence is crucial for correct uncertainty quantification and reliable predictions. In particular, for multivariate spatial data we need to specify a valid cross-covariance function, which defines the dependence between the components of a response vector for all locations in the spatial domain. However, cross-covariance functions are not easily specified and the computational burden is a limitation for model complexity. In this work, we propose a nonseparable covariance function that is based on the convex combination of separable covariance functions and on latent dimensions representation of the vector components. The covariance structure proposed is valid and flexible. To treat the computational limitation we approximate the full covariance matrices using a decomposition based on the Kronecker product of two separable matrices of minor dimensions. These approximations have been applied to the likelihood function in order to obtain fast estimation of parameters but we still keep the interpretation and flexibility of the multivariate nonseparable model. The effects of using the approximation are evaluated for simulated datasets in terms of prediction error. The usefulness of our proposal is illustrated with simulated datasets.