Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the Intra-Regional Precipitation Variability in Northwestern China over the Past 1,400 Years

There has been a surge of paleo-climatic/environmental studies of Northwestern China (NW China), a region characterized by a diverse assortment of hydro-climatic systems. Their common approach, however, focuses on “deducing regional resemblance” rather than “exploring regional variance. ” To date, efforts to produce a quantitative assessment of long-term intra-regional precipitation variability (IRPV) in NW China has been inadequate. In the present study, we base on historical flood/drought records to compile a decadal IRPV index for NW China spanned AD580–1979 and to find its major determinants via wavelet analysis. Results show that our IRPV index captures the footprints of internal hydro-climatic disparity in NW China. In addition, we find distinct ~120–200 year periodicities in the IRPV index over the Little Ice Age, which are attributable to the change of hydro-climatic influence of ocean-atmospheric modes during the period. Also, we offer statistical evidence of El Niño Southern Oscillation (Indo-Pacific warm pool sea surface temperature and China-wide land surface temperature) as the prominent multi-decadal to centennial (centennial to multi-centennial) determinant of the IRPV in NW China. The present study contributes to the quantitative validation of the long-term IRPV in NW China and its driving forces, covering the periods with and without instrumental records. It may help to comprehend the complex hydro-climatic regimes in the region.
Vortical surf zone velocity fluctuations with 0(10) min period

Observations of velocity fluctuations with periods between about 4 and 30 min, thus longer than infragravity waves and referred to as very low frequency (VLF) surf zone motions, are described and compared with numerical simulations. The VLF motions discussed here exclude instabilities (generated by the wave-driven alongshore current velocity shear) that occur in the same frequency range by selecting cases with weak alongshore currents only. Numerical simulations are based on the linear shallow water equations including friction and forced by nonlinear difference-frequency interactions between incident sea and swell waves. The model is initialized with sea and swell frequency directional spectra observed seaward of the surf zone. Modeled and observed VLF velocity fluctuation magnitudes agree within a factor of 2; both increase approximately linearly with increasing incident wave height and rapidly decay seaward of the surf zone. Observed frequency-wave-number, f-ky, spectra of VLF velocity fluctuations, estimated with instrumented alongshore arrays, are energetic in a broad range of ky in the vortical band. Observed and modeled VLF pressure fluctuations are relatively weak. Still, the model momentum balance suggests that VLF pressure gradients are as important as the nonlinear wave group forcing by sea and swell in accelerating/decelerating the VLF velocities. Model calculations demonstrate that the VLF-f-ky response is a function of the modulations of short-wave forcing associated with the frequency directional distribution of the incident sea and swell spectra. This results in VLF motions which span the surf zone and have O(50–1000 m) alongshore scales with O(200–2000 s) time scales. Given the fact that modulations of short waves resulting from directionally spread incident waves are common during field conditions we expect VLFs to be ubiquitous.
Role of Photodynamic Therapy in the Palliation of Obstructing Esophageal Cancer

Background/Aims The aim of this non-randomized study was to determine the role of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in a multimodal approach for the palliation of advanced esophageal carcinoma. Methods Twenty consecutive patients with obstructing esophageal cancer were enrolled in this study. Each subject had dysphagia, and nine could not swallow fluid. External beam radiotherapy or a self-expandable metal stent was used following PDT for dysphagia due to recurrence of the malignancy. Results At 4 weeks post-PDT, a significant improvement in the dysphagia score was observed in 90% of patients, from 2.75 ± 0.91 to 1.05 ± 0.83 (p < 0.05). Patients with recurrent dysphagia underwent stent insertion at an average of 63 days (range, 37 to 90). The rate of major complications was 10%. Two esophageal strictures occurred, which were treated by placement of a modified expandable stent across the stricture. The median survival in these cases was 7.0 ± 0.6 months. One patient that was treated with PDT and radiotherapy is alive and showed a complete tumor response. Conclusions PDT as a multimodality treatment is safe and effective for relieving malignant esophageal obstruction with minimal complications.
Beyond Boundaries: The Development and Potential of Ethnography in the Study of Sport and Physical Culture

Ethnographic approaches to the study of sport and physical culture have developed primarily within physical education and kinesiology programs and are typically framed in dialogue with sociological theorizing of agency, structure, power, and inequality. Beginning with reference to anthropology and sociology, we review the emergence, development, and subsequent transdisciplinary travels of ethnographic study of sport and physical culture. In doing so, we underscore the importance of theory, context, and disciplinary tradition in the development of sporting ethnographies. We then critically outline the place of ethnography in physical cultural studies (PCS). Rather than exhuming existing debates about the originality and uniqueness of the PCS enterprise, we highlight the need to decenter the hyper-reflexive researcher and advocate for the consideration of pleasure in ethnographic studies to achieve the interventionist goals PCS protagonists set themselves.
Evidence-Based Percutaneous Closure of the Left Atrial Appendage in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and its prevalence is increasing. Cardioembolic stroke, most of the times secondary to thrombus formation in the left atrial appendage, is its most feared and life threatening consequence. Oral anticoagulation with vitamin-K-antagonists is currently the most used prophylaxis for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation; unfortunately, its benefits are limited by a narrow therapeutic window and an increased risk for bleeding, making it often undesired. Percutaneous occlusion of the left atrial appendage is a novel alternative strategy for cardioembolic stroke prophylaxis in patients with atrial fibrillation at a high risk of stroke but with contraindication for long-term oral anticoagulation therapy. At present, several devices have been developed specifically for percutaneous occlusion of the left atrial appendage. Current results show good feasibility and efficacy for these devices, with a high rate of successful implantation, although also associated with the inherent potential periprocedural complications. This work reviews the current state of the art of percutaneous left atrial appendage closure for stroke prophylaxis in patients with atrial fibrillation.
The effect of humorous passages on developing learners’ reading comprehension

Sense of humor as a key factor for increasing the effect of instruction has been overlooked by research in the field of education. This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of the use of humor on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. For this purpose, a group of Iranian EFL learners were taught reading comprehension through the use of humorous passages while another group of learners were taught through neutralized passages. Eighty four students studying in different private language institutes in Takestan participated in this study. All subjects were male with ages between 16 and 19. The results of the study showed that the use of humorous texts significantly enhanced the reading comprehension performance of the EFL learners’. The results also showed that the learners’ motivation was enhanced through the use of humorous reading materials.
The Dynamic Interplay Between Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes Supporting Prospective Remembering

Like many dual process theories in the psychological sciences, existing models of prospective memory (i.e., remembering to execute future intentions) emphasize the role of singular top-down or bottom-up processes that act in isolation. We argue that top-down and bottom-up processes are interconnected and dynamically interact to support prospective memory. We elaborate on this dynamic multiprocess framework by focusing on recent behavioral, neuroimaging, and eye-tracking research that demonstrated the dynamic nature of monitoring (top-down) and spontaneous retrieval (bottom-up) processes in relation to contextual factors, metacognition, and individual differences. We conclude that identifying how dual processes interact with environmental and individual difference factors is crucial for advancing understanding of cognition and behavior.
Learning from labeled and unlabeled data with label propagation

We investigate the use of unlabeled data to help labeled data in classiﬁcation. We propose a simple iterative algorithm, label propagation, to propagate labels through the dataset along high density areas deﬁned by unlabeled data. We analyze the algorithm, show its solution, and its connection to several other algorithms. We also show how to learn parameters by minimum spanning tree heuristic and entropy minimization, and the algorithm’s ability to perform feature selection. Experiment results are promising.
Climate Change detection over different land surface vegetation classes

A global land cover classification data set is used to divide the globe into seven regions to study surface temperature changes over different vegetation/surface classes. Statistically significant warming is found from the year 1900 over all regions (except for the ice sheets over Greenland and Antarctica). Outputs from three coupled climate models (CGCM2, HadCM2 and the Parallel Climate Model (PCM)) are used to examine the detection and attribution of surface temperature trends over the various vegetation classes for the past half century. An anthropogenic warming trend is detected in six of the seven regions. Observed trends are consistent with those simulated in response to greenhouse gas and sulfate aerosol forcing except over tropical forest and water where the models appear to overestimate the warming. The similarity between the resultant scaling factors for each region from the different models underscores the reliability of our detection results. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society.
Genetic programming using genotype-phenotype mapping from linear genomes into linear phenotypes

In common genetic programming approaches, the space of genotypes, that is the search space, is identical to the space of phenotypes, that is the solution space. Facts and theories from molecular biology suggest the introduction of non-identical genospaces and phenospaces, and a generic genotype-phenotype mapping which maps unconstrained genotypes into syntactically correct phenotypes. Neutral variants come into effect due to this mapping. They enhance genetic diversity and allow for escaping local optima in phenospace via high-dimensional saddle surfaces in genospace. We propose a concrete mapping that maps linear binary genotypes into linear phenotypes of an arbitrary context-free programming language. Empirical results are presented which show that the mapping improves the performance of GP under mutation and reproduction.
Learning by watching: extracting reusable task knowledge from visual observation of human performance

A novel task instruction method for future intelligent robots is presented, In our method, a robot learns reusable task plans by watching a human perform assembly tasks. Functional units and working algorithms for visual recognition and analysis of human action sequences are presented. The overall system is model based and integrated at the symbolic level. Temporal segmentation of a continuous task performance into meaningful units and identification of each operation is processed in real time by concurrent recognition processes under active attention control. Dependency among assembly operations in the recognized action sequence is analyzed, which results in a hierarchical task plan describing the higher level structure of the task. In another workspace with a different initial state, the system re-instantiates and executes the task plan to accomplish an equivalent goal. The effectiveness of our method is supported by experimental results with block assembly tasks. >
Optimal Recovery from Large-Scale Failures in IP Networks

Quickly recovering IP networks from failures is critical to enhancing Internet robustness and availability. Due to their serious impact on network routing, large-scale failures have received increasing attention in recent years. We propose an approach called Reactive Two-phase Rerouting (RTR) for intra-domain routing to quickly recover from large-scale failures with the shortest recovery paths. To recover a failed routing path, RTR first forwards packets around the failure area to collect information on failures. Then, in the second phase, RTR calculates a new shortest path and forwards packets along it through source routing. RTR can deal with large-scale failures associated with areas of any shape and location, and is free of permanent loops. For any failure area, the recovery paths provided by RTR are guaranteed to be the shortest. Extensive simulations based on ISP topologies show that RTR can find the shortest recovery paths for more than 98.6% of failed routing paths with reachable destinations. Compared with prior works, RTR achieves better performance for recoverable failed routing paths and uses much less network resources for irrecoverable failed routing paths.
Research on the vortical and turbulent structures in the lobed jet flow using laser induced fluorescence and particle image velocimetry techniques

The changes in vortical and turbulent structure in the near field (X / D < 3.0) of jet mixing flow caused by a lobed nozzle were investigated experimentally in the present study. The techniques of planar laser induced fluorescence and particle image velocimetry were used to accomplish flow visualization and velocity field measurements. The experimental results showed that, compared with a circular jet flow, lobed jet mixing flow was found to have a shorter laminar region, a smaller scale of the spanwise Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices, earlier appearance of small scale turbulent structures and a larger region of intensive mixing in the near field of the jet mixing flow. The central line velocity decay of the lobed jet mixing flow was also found to be much faster than that in a conventional circular jet. All these indicated that the lobed nozzle provides better mixing performance than does a conventional circular nozzle.
Geometric visual servoing

This paper presents a global diffeomorphism from a visible set of rigid-body configurations, a subset of SE(3), to an image space. Using the diffeomorphism, we develop an image-based, essentially global, dynamic visual servoing algorithm that keeps features in the field of view and avoids self-occlusions. The approach is geometric in the sense that the visible set and its corresponding image are differentiable manifolds, and the diffeomorphism is global. The mapping to image space and the resulting Jacobian rely on a specific target geometry, a sphere with a known radius marked with an "arrow" feature point. The paper presents simulation experiments for a more typical visual target comprised of a collection of isolated feature points. In this setting, the diffeomorphism to image space is approximate, nevertheless, the simulations converge for a wide variety of target geometries and initial conditions.
Gathering evidence: use of visual security cues in web browsers

Web browsers support secure online transactions, and provide visual feedback mechanisms to inform the user about security. These mechanisms have had little evaluation to determine how easily they are noticed and how effectively they are used. This paper describes a preliminary study conducted to determine which elements are noted, which are ignored, and how easily they are found. We collected eyetracker data to study user's attention to browser security, and gathered additional subjective data through questionnaires. Our results demonstrated that while the lock icon is commonly viewed, its interactive capability is essentially ignored. We also found that certificate information is rarely used, and that people stop looking for security information after they have signed into a site. These initial results provide insights into how browser security cues might be improved.
Modeling of radar scattering from oil films

Oil films on the sea surface damp the capillary waves of the surface height spectrum. This hydrodynamic damping influences the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of contaminated seas, comparatively to clean seas. First, a simple appropriate damping model is presented with parameters that match experimental results. Second, the two-dimensional bistatic NRCS of the contaminated sea surface is presented by comparison with that of a clean sea.
Non-negative Multiple Tensor Factorization

Non-negative Tensor Factorization (NTF) is a widely used technique for decomposing a non-negative value tensor into sparse and reasonably interpretable factors. However, NTF performs poorly when the tensor is extremely sparse, which is often the case with real-world data and higher-order tensors. In this paper, we propose Non-negative Multiple Tensor Factorization (NMTF), which factorizes the target tensor and auxiliary tensors simultaneously. Auxiliary data tensors compensate for the sparseness of the target data tensor. The factors of the auxiliary tensors also allow us to examine the target data from several different aspects. We experimentally confirm that NMTF performs better than NTF in terms of reconstructing the given data. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed NMTF can successfully extract spatio-temporal patterns of people's daily life such as leisure, drinking, and shopping activity by analyzing several tensors extracted from online review data sets.
Metformin Prevents Renal Stone Formation through an Antioxidant Mechanism In Vitro and In Vivo

Oxidative stress is a causal factor and key promoter of urolithiasis associated with renal tubular epithelium cell injury. The present study was designed to investigate the preventive effects of metformin on renal tubular cell injury induced by oxalate and stone formation in a hyperoxaluric rat model. MTT assays were carried out to determine the protection of metformin from oxalate-induced cytotoxicity. The intracellular superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in vitro. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into control group, ethylene glycol (EG) treated group, and EG + metformin treated group. Oxidative stress and crystal formations were evaluated in renal tissues after 8-week treatment. Metformin significantly inhibited the decrease of the viability in MDCK cells and HK-2 cells induced by oxalate. Besides, metformin markedly prevented the increased concentration of MDA and the decreased tendency of SOD in oxalate-induced MDCK cells and HK-2 cells. In vivo, the increased MDA levels and the reduction of SOD activity were detected in the EG treated group compared with controls, while these parameters reversed in the EG + metformin treated group. Kidney crystal formation in the EG + metformin treated group was decreased significantly compared with the EG treated group. Metformin suppressed urinary crystal deposit formation through renal tubular cell protection and antioxidative effects.
Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage

Given incomplete factor markets, appropriate time paths of flow variables must be chosen to build required stocks of assets. That is, critical resources are accumulated rather than acquired in "strategic factor markets" Barney [Barney, J. 1986. Strategic factor markets: Expectations, luck, and business strategy. Management Sci. October 1231-1241. ]. Sustainability of a firm's asset position hinges on how easily assets can be substituted or imitated. Imitability is linked to the characteristics of the asset accumulation process: time compression diseconomies, asset mass efficiencies, inter-connectedness, asset erosion and causal ambiguity.
Study of freshly excised brain tissues using terahertz imaging

We demonstrated that tumors in freshly excised whole brain tissue could be differentiated clearly from normal brain tissue using a reflection-type terahertz (THz) imaging system. THz binary images of brain tissues with tumors indicated that the tumor boundaries in the THz images corresponded well to those in visible images. Grey and white-matter regions were distinguishable owing to the different distribution of myelin in the brain tissue. THz images corresponded closely with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results. The MRI and hematoxylin and eosin-stained microscopic images were investigated to account for the intensity differences in the THz images for fresh and paraffin-embedded brain tissue. Our results indicated that the THz signals corresponded to the cell density when water was removed. Thus, THz imaging could be used as a tool for label-free and real-time imaging of brain tumors, which would be helpful for physicians to determine tumor margins during brain surgery.
Initial Explorations on using CRFs for Turkish Named Entity Recognition

This paper reports the highest results (95% in MUC and 92% in CoNLL metric) in the literature for Turkish named entity recognition; more specifically for the task of detecting person, location and organization entities in general news texts. We give an in depth analysis of the previous reported results and make comparisons with them whenever possible. We use conditional random fields (CRFs) as our statistical model. The paper presents initial explorations on the usage of rich morphological structure of the Turkish language as features to CRFs together with the use of some basic and generative gazetteers.
Variety Trade and Skill Premium in a Calibrated General Equilibrium Model: The Case of Mexico

It can be theoretically shown that variety trade can be a possible source of increased skill premium in wages. No past studies, however, have empirically quantified how much of the increase in skill premium can be accounted for by the increase in variety trade. This paper now formulates a static general equilibrium model and then calibrates it to the Mexican input-output matrix for 1987. In the calibrated model, our numerical experiments show that the increase in U.S.-Mexican variety trade can explain approximately 12 percent of the actual increase in skill premium in Mexico from 1987 to 2000.
Ieee Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 1 Socially Constrained Structural Learning for Groups Detection in Crowd

—Modern crowd theories agree that collective behavior is the result of the underlying interactions among small groups of individuals. In this work, we propose a novel algorithm for detecting social groups in crowds by means of a Correlation Clustering procedure on people trajectories. The affinity between crowd members is learned through an online formulation of the Structural SVM framework and a set of specifically designed features characterizing both their physical and social identity, inspired by Proxemic theory, Granger causality, DTW and Heat-maps. To adhere to sociological observations, we introduce a loss function (G-MITRE) able to deal with the complexity of evaluating group detection performances. We show our algorithm achieves state-of-the-art results when relying on both ground truth trajectories and tracklets previously extracted by available detector/tracker systems.