Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soils Cool as Climate Warms in the Great Lakes Region: 1951–2000

Abstract We modeled soil temperatures at 50-cm depth, using 1951–2000 air temperature and precipitation data from 194 National Weather Service stations in Wisconsin and Michigan. The accuracy and bias of the physical model used in this study were validated by comparing its output data to 22,401 actual soil temperature readings taken from sandy soils at thirty-nine forested sites throughout northern Michigan; the model was shown to have almost no temperature bias. Although mean annual air temperatures across the region show no strong spatial or temporal trends over the fifty-year period, at many sites, especially in Wisconsin, wintertime air temperatures have been increasing slightly in recent years. Conversely, mean annual soil temperatures have been decreasing at most sites in the region, some by more than 0.5°C. Likewise, wintertime soil temperatures are also decreasing, especially at sites downwind from the Great Lakes—many of which are in snowbelt locations. Increasing wintertime air temperatures over the past fifty years coincide with (and probably have led to) more variable and thinner snowpacks, lessening their insulating impact and contributing to decreasing wintertime soil temperatures that our model show are occurring in the eastern and northern parts of the region. These findings illustrate the complex response of natural systems to slow atmospheric warming, and draw attention to the potential changes that are occurring in growing season characteristics, phenology, and spring runoff characteristics in the Great Lakes region.
Optimal Detection Using Cyclostationary EOFs

Abstract Many climatic and geophysical processes are cyclostationary and exhibit appreciable cyclic (monthly, daily, etc.) variation of their statistics in addition to interannual fluctuations. Utilization of this nested variation of statistics will lead to a better chance of detecting a signal in such a varying background noise field, especially when the signal is strongly phase locked with the nested cycle. In this study, a detection technique is constructed in terms of cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions, which take the nested periodicity of noise statistics into account. To investigate the improved performance of the cyclostationary approach the developed algorithm is applied to three specific detection examples: El Nino, greenhouse warming, and sunspot fluctuations. In all the test cases, signal-to-noise ratio is raised between 2% and 43% compared with that of a stationary detection technique. The variation of signal strength when a detection filter is constructed based on a different sect.
Association Between Hospital Intraoperative Blood Transfusion Practices for Surgical Blood Loss and Hospital Surgical Mortality Rates

Objective:Blood loss during surgery is an important operative complication in patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery and may increase postoperative morbidity and mortality. Variations in the delivery of operative blood transfusions to treat blood loss depend not only on the patient and surgery characteristics but also on the hospital transfusion practices, and may explain differences in the hospitals' postoperative outcomes. We determine the relationship between hospital-level rates of intraoperative blood transfusion and 30-day mortality among older patients with significant intraoperative blood loss. Methods:Among 46,608 operative patients aged 65 years or older whose estimated blood loss was 500 mL or greater in 122 Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals during years 1997 to 2004, we examined the relationship between hospital-level transfusion rates and adjusted 30-day postoperative mortality rates using linear regression modeling. Results:Hospital-level rates of intraoperative blood transfusion for older surgical patients with significant blood loss varied from 10% to 92%. Hospitals in the highest tertile for the rate of intraoperative transfusion had the highest number of patients with 500 mL or more surgical blood loss and lowest risk-adjusted 30-day surgical mortality. For every 10% increase in the rate of intraoperative blood transfusion, there was a 0.7% (95% CI: 0.3%–1.1%) decrease in the hospital's adjusted 30-day postoperative mortality for these high-risk patients. Conclusions:Large variation exists in hospitals' intraoperative blood transfusion practices for older patients with significant surgical blood loss. Hospitals with higher transfusion rates for patients with significant surgical blood loss have lower adjusted 30-day mortality for these patients. Hospital intraoperative blood transfusion practices may be a promising surgical quality indicator.
A laboratory study of the self sealing behaviour of a compacted sand–bentonite mixture

Bricks made of compacted sand–bentonite mixture are considered as a possible engineered barrier to isolate high-level radioactive waste at great depth. This work is aimed at investigating some specific effects related to the presence of discontinuities at the contact between the bricks and the excavation wall. In order to do this, an experimental device was developed in the laboratory. The model is made up of a specially designed infiltration cylinder which allows the precise definition of a planar discontinuity between the compacted specimen (a sand–bentonite mixture made up of sand and Kunigel clay from Japan) and a metal wall. During hydration and subsequent specimen swelling, the planar wall is filled, resulting in a healing process. Three total pressure gauges placed along the wall allow a detailed observation of the increase in total stress against the wall. After different periods of swelling, the maximum resistance of the specimen–wall interface to pressure was tested by imposing a pressure increase through a porous stone placed at one end of the cylinder. It was found that the maximum pressure supported by the interface is a function of the initial thickness of the discontinuity and the initial density of the specimen. It was also found that the maximum sustainable pressure depends linearly on the elapsed time. These results are of interest for optimizing water infiltration procedures in either mock-up tests or real disposal systems. If the maximum sustainable pressure at the interface is known, it is possible either to ensure homogeneous hydration of a mass of bricks by respecting the maximum injection pressure limit or to accelerate hydration by forcing water paths along the discontinuities.
HUBCODE: message forwarding using hub-based network coding in delay tolerant networks

Most people-centric delay tolerant networks have been shown to exhibit power-law behavior. Analysis of the temporal connectivity graph of such networks reveals the existence of Hubs, a fraction of the nodes, which are collectively connected to the rest of the nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel forwarding strategy called HubCode, which seeks to use the hubs as message relays. The hubs employ random linear network coding to encode multiple messages addressed to the same destination, reducing the forwarding overheads. Further, the use of the hubs as relays, ensures that most messages are delivered to the destinations. Two versions of HubCode are presented, with each scheme exhibiting contrasting behavior in terms of the computational costs and routing overheads. We simulate a large-scale vehicular DTN using empirically collected movement traces of a city-wide public transport network and demonstrate the efficacy of our solutions in comparison with other forwarding schemes.
Charcot‐marie‐tooth disease subtypes and genetic testing strategies

Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth disease (CMT) affects 1 in 2,500 people and is caused by mutations in more than 30 genes. Identifying the genetic cause of CMT is often necessary for family planning, natural history studies, and for entry into clinical trials. However genetic testing can be both expensive and confusing to patients and physicians.
A much lower density for the transiting extrasolar planet WASP-7

We present the first high-precision photometry of the transiting extrasolar planetary system WASP-7, obtained using telescope defocussing techniques and reaching a scatter of 0.68 mmag per point. We find that the transit depth is greater and that the host star is more evolved than previously thought. The planet has a significantly larger radius (1.330 � 0.093 R Jup versus ; R Jup ) and much lower density (0.41 � 0.10 ? Jup versus ; ? Jup ) and surface gravity (13.4 � 2.6 m s -2 versus ; m s -2 ) than previous measurements showed. Based on the revised properties it is no longer an outlier in planetary mass-radius and period-gravity diagrams. We also obtain a more precise transit ephemeris for the WASP-7 system. Based on data collected by MiNDSTEp with the Danish 1.54 m telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory.Lightcurves data is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat? J/A+A/527/A8
Extended Kalman Filter for Estimation of Parameters in Nonlinear State-Space Models of Biochemical Networks

It is system dynamics that determines the function of cells, tissues and organisms. To develop mathematical models and estimate their parameters are an essential issue for studying dynamic behaviors of biological systems which include metabolic networks, genetic regulatory networks and signal transduction pathways, under perturbation of external stimuli. In general, biological dynamic systems are partially observed. Therefore, a natural way to model dynamic biological systems is to employ nonlinear state-space equations. Although statistical methods for parameter estimation of linear models in biological dynamic systems have been developed intensively in the recent years, the estimation of both states and parameters of nonlinear dynamic systems remains a challenging task. In this report, we apply extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to the estimation of both states and parameters of nonlinear state-space models. To evaluate the performance of the EKF for parameter estimation, we apply the EKF to a simulation dataset and two real datasets: JAK-STAT signal transduction pathway and Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK signaling transduction pathways datasets. The preliminary results show that EKF can accurately estimate the parameters and predict states in nonlinear state-space equations for modeling dynamic biochemical networks.
Soil aggregate stabilization and carbon sequestration: Feedbacks through organomineral associations

Primary production (specifically, the rate and quality of C transfer below ground) and soil microbial activity (specifically, the rates of C transformation and decay) are recognized as the overall biological processes governing soil organic C (SOC) dynamics. These two processes and, hence, SOC cycling and storage are controlled by complex underlying biotic and abiotic interactions and feedbacks, most of which can be tied in one way or another to the influences of the five state factors related to soil formation, and many of which are sensitive to management practices. Overall, C input rates and quality are largely dependent on climate (especially temperature and precipitation), vegetation type and landscape, soil type, and management practices. Decomposition processes and turnover rates, however, are greatly influenced by climate, the type and quality of organic matter (e.g., N content and the ratios of C:N and lignin:N), chemical or physicochemical associations of organic matter (OM) with soil mineral components, and the location of OM within the soil.
Cross‐correlation of the unresolved X‐ray background with faint galaxies

At the faint end of the deepest X-ray surveys, a population of X-ray luminous galaxies is seen. In this paper, we present the results of a cross-correlation between the residual, unresolved X-ray photons in a very deep X-ray survey and the positions of faint galaxies, in order to examine the importance of these objects at even fainter flux levels. We measure a significant correlation on all angular scales up to ∼1 arcmin. This signal could account for a significant fraction of the unresolved X-ray background, approximately 35 per cent if the clustering is similar to optically selected galaxies. However, the angular form of the correlation is seen to be qualitatively similar to that expected for clusters of galaxies and the X-ray emission could be associated with hot gas in clusters or with QSOs within galaxy clusters rather than emission from individual faint galaxies. The relative contribution from each of these possibilities cannot be determined with the current data.
Hardy-Lieb-Thirring inequalities for fractional Schrödinger operators

We show that the Lieb-Thirring inequalities on moments of negative eigenvalues of Schrodinger-like operators remain true, with possibly different constants, when the critical Hardy-weight C │x│^(-2) is subtracted from the Laplace operator. We do so by first establishing a Sobolev inequality for such operators. Similar results are true for fractional powers of the Laplacian and the Hardy-weight and, in particular, for relativistic Schrodinger operators. We also allow for the inclusion of magnetic vector potentials. As an application, we extend, for the first time, the proof of stability of relativistic matter with magnetic fields all the way up to the critical value of the nuclear charge Zɑ = 2/π, for ɑ less than some critical value.
Convection-evaporation feedback in the equatorial Pacific

The coupling between convection and surface evaporation is investigated to assess the importance of evaporative cooling in regulating the tropical sea surface temperature. It is found that such a coupling is scale dependent. On timescales of several days, convective activity enhances surface evaporation, which together with the decrease of surface solar radiation, acts to cool the sea surface. However, on scales of climatic interest, convection acts to reduce surface evaporation. High sea surface temperature gives rise to more convective activity, which through interaction with the large-scale circulation, increases the low-level large-scale convergence and decreases the surface wind, leading to low evaporation in spite of the increased surface-air humidity difference. Therefore, although individual convective events can significantly enhance surface evaporation on short timescales, the long-term average effect of convection is to suppress surface evaporation at high SST due to its interaction with the large-scale circulation. One potential implication of this result is that evaporative cooling on climate timescales may not provide a negative feedback on the sea surface temperature of warm oceans with convectively disturbed tropospheres.
Joint Millimeter Wave and Microwave Resources Allocation in Cellular Networks With Dual-Mode Base Stations

The use of dual-mode base stations that can jointly exploit millimeter wave (mmW) and microwave (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) resources is a promising solution for overcoming the uncertainty of the mmW environment. In this paper, a novel dual-mode scheduling framework is proposed that jointly performs user applications (UAs) selection and scheduling over <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and mmW bands. The proposed scheduling framework allows multiple UAs to run simultaneously on each user equipment (UE) and utilizes a set of <italic>context information</italic>, including the channel state information per UE, the delay tolerance and required load per UA, and the uncertainty of mmW channels, to maximize the quality-of-service (QoS) per UA. The dual-mode scheduling problem is then formulated as an optimization problem with minimum unsatisfied relations problem, which is shown to be challenging to solve. Consequently, a long-term scheduling framework, consisting of two stages, is proposed. Within this framework, first, the joint UA selection and scheduling over the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> band is formulated as a one-to-many matching game between the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> resources and UAs. To solve this problem, a novel scheduling algorithm is proposed and shown to yield a two-sided stable resource allocation. Second, over the mmW band, the joint context-aware UA selection and scheduling problem is formulated as a 0-1 Knapsack problem and a novel algorithm that builds on the Q-learning algorithm is proposed to find a suitable mmW scheduling policy while adaptively learning the UEs’ line-of-sight probabilities. Furthermore, it is shown that the proposed scheduling framework can find an effective scheduling solution, over both <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and mmW, in polynomial time. Simulation results show that, compared with conventional scheduling schemes, the proposed approach significantly increases the number of satisfied UAs while improving the statistics of QoS violations and enhancing the overall users’ quality-of-experience.
Features of the Acoustic Mechanism of Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions

In the context of 2D, axisymmetric, multigroup, radiation/hydrodynamic simulations of core-collapse supernovae over the full 180° domain, we present an exploration of the progenitor dependence of the acoustic mechanism of explosion. All progenitor models we have tested with our Newtonian code explode. However, some of the cores left behind in our simulations, particularly for the more massive progenitors, have baryon masses that are larger than the canonical ~1.5 M☉ of well-measured pulsars. We investigate the roles of the standing accretion shock instability (SASI), the excitation of core g-modes, the generation of core acoustic power, the ejection of matter with r-process potential, the windlike character of the explosion, and the fundamental anisotropy of the blasts. We find that the breaking of spherical symmetry is central to the supernova phenomenon, the delays to explosion can be long, and the blasts, when top-bottom asymmetric, are self-collimating. We see indications that the initial explosion energies are larger for the more massive progenitors and smaller for the less massive progenitors and that the neutrino contribution to the explosion energy may be an increasing function of progenitor mass. However, the explosion energy is still accumulating by the end of our simulations and has not converged to final values. The degree of explosion asymmetry we obtain is completely consistent with that inferred from the polarization measurements of Type Ic supernovae. Furthermore, we calculate for the first time the magnitude and sign of the net impulse on the core due to anisotropic neutrino emission and suggest that hydrodynamic and neutrino recoils in the context of our asymmetric explosions afford a natural mechanism for observed pulsar proper motions.
Water yield from forest snowpack management: Research findings in Arizona and New Mexico

Snow falling in high-elevation forests is an important source of water for much of the arid Southwest. Snowpack conditions in Arizona and New Mexico differ from those in more northern regions, because of the variability in annual accumulations and the intermittent melting throughout the winter season. Snow management research in Arizona and New Mexico over the past 25 years has indicated the possibilities of increasing snowmelt water yields through forest management activities. The effects of management can be predicted from forest inventory data. Other research has resulted in the development of snow-runoff forecasting procedures and computer simulation models of forest snowpack dynamics, as well as increasing the general knowledge of snow hydrology.
Insolation over the western Mediterranean Sea: A comparison of direct measurements and Reed's formula

Direct measurements of solar radiation at sea were carried out in the Western Mediterranean Sea during several cruises in the years 1989–1994. The data collected were used to perform a test on the empirical formula proposed by Reed [1977]. The agreement between measured and empirical data is noteworthy, taking into account the coarseness of the formula. Nevertheless, Reed's estimates show a bias of about 5 W m−2. In order to investigate the causes of this bias, the data were analyzed according to the time of year and the cloud cover index. The results reveal that the computed insolation is overestimated under clear sky conditions and underestimated for cloudy sky. The disagreement of clear sky predictions can be ascribed to a regional misevaluation of both aerosols and water vapor attenuation. The inadequacy of the cloud cover index is indicated to explain the discrepancy of the estimates under cloudy sky. In any case, the mean difference between observations and formula is very slight, and this supports the use of this type of formula to compute long time average insolation over the sea.
Concise Characteristic Function Representations in Coalitional Games Based on Agent Types

Forming effective coalitions is a major research challenge in AI and multi-agent systems. Thus, coalitional games, including coalition structure generation, have been attracting considerable attention from the AI research community. Traditionally, the input of a coalitional game is a black-box function called a characteristic function. In this paper, we develop a new concise representation scheme for a characteristic function, which is based on the idea of agent types. This representation can be exponentially more concise than existing concise representation schemes. Furthermore, this idea can be used in conjunction with existing schemes to further reduce the representation size.
Heart rate variability is related to disease activity and smoking in rheumatoid arthritis patients

We investigated the heart rate variability (HRV) parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and assessed their relationship with disease characteristics. Twenty‐three female patients with RA [age 48 ± 7 (mean ± SD) years] free of cardiovascular diseases and 23 age‐ and gender‐matched healthy controls were evaluated. After careful clinical examination, the following parameters were obtained after 24‐h Holter recordings: average of all normal‐to normal (NN) intervals over the entire 24‐h ECG recording (meanNN, ms); the standard deviation for the time between NN complexes (SDNN, ms); the standard deviation of the average NN intervals for each 5‐min period (SDANN, ms) and the square root of the mean‐squared differences of successive NN intervals (rMSSD, ms). We also assessed quantitative parameters of the Poincaré plot: the standard deviation of the points perpendicular to the line‐of‐identity (SD1, ms); the standard deviation along the line‐of‐identity (SD2, ms) and their ratio (SD12). HRV parameters excluding SD2 were significantly lower in patients with RA, than in control group (p < 0.05). Significant correlations of SDNN and SDANN with swollen joints count, Ritchie articular index, disease activity score (DAS) and disease duration were found. SDNN also correlated with leucocyte count and smoking. SD1 significantly correlated only with disease duration. Relationships between SDNN and smoking, swollen joints count and DAS were confirmed using multivariate analysis. Our data indicate that in patients with RA reduced HRV is independently associated with high disease activity and smoking. HRV assessment may be useful as a part of cardiovascular risk stratification in RA patients.