Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shape of Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Tracks and the Indian Monsoon

We find a significant enhancement of the North Atlantic subtropical high on interannual timescales (1970–2016) concurrently linked to an anomalously strong Indian monsoon in September. Consistent with a stronger North Atlantic subtropical high, enhanced anticyclonic flow and subtropical easterlies in the eastern Atlantic basin are found during strong monsoon years. Observational regression analysis combined with a statistical track model are used to assess the influence of these monsoon‐linked wind variations on Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) tracks originating in the main development region. When controlling for effects of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a westward shift of TC tracks is shown to be robustly correlated to internal monsoon variability in September. This work highlights variability of the Indian monsoon as an additional constraint on Atlantic TCs, with increased landfall probability during a strong monsoon. Previous attribution of similar steering effects to ENSO need to be reconsidered to account for ENSO's correlation with the monsoon.
Multigrid and multilevel methods for nonconforming Q1 elements

In this paper we study theoretical properties of multigrid algorithms and multilevel preconditioners for discretizations of second-order elliptic problems using nonconforming rotated Q 1 finite elements in two space dimensions. In particular. for the case of square partitions and the Laplacian we derive properties of the associated intergrid transfer operators which allow us to prove convergence of the W-cycle with any number of smoothing steps and close-to-optimal condition number estimates for V-cycle preconditioners. This is in contrast to most of the other nonconforming finite element discretizations where only results for W-cycles with a sufficiently large number of smoothing steps and variable V-cycle multigrid preconditioners are available. Some numerical tests. including also a comparison with a preconditioner obtained by switching from the nonconforming rotated Q 1 discretization to a discretization by conforming bilinear elements on the same partition, illustrate the theory.
In vitro prostaglandin production by bovine corpora lutea destined to be normal or short-lived.

Basal and calcium ionophore (CaI)-influenced production of prostaglandins (PGs) by corpora lutea (CL) destined to be normal or short-lived were compared. Ovulation was induced in 24 lactating beef cows with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG, 1000 IU) administered between 35 and 40 days postpartum. Ten cows received norgestomet implants for 9 days prior to induced ovulation (Normal CL) and 14 served as untreated controls (Subnormal CL). Five cows in each treatment were unilaterally ovariectomized on Day 6 (Day 0 = day of hCG administration) and CL were collected. Blood samples were collected daily through-out the experimental period from cows not ovariectomized. Plasma progesterone (P4) in ovary-intact animals indicated that short-lived CL were induced in 8/8 cows not pretreated with norgestomet, and normal luteal lifespan was observed in 4/5 implanted cows. Dispersed luteal cells were incubated for 8 h with 0, 0.05, 0.5, or 5 microM CaI (A23187). Incubation media were analyzed for P4, PGF2 alpha, 6-keto-PGF1 alpha (PGI), and PGE2. The weight, cell number, and basal or CaI-influenced production of P4 did not differ between Normal CL and Subnormal CL. Basal production of PGF2 alpha, PGI, and PGE2 was higher in Subnormal CL than in Normal CL (p less than 0.05). In response to 0.05 microM CaI, PGF2 alpha was stimulated in Subnormal CL (p less than 0.01), while PGI (p less than 0.05) and PGE2 (p less than 0.1) were increased in Normal CL. Production of PGs was reduced by 5 microM CaI in Subnormal CL (p less than 0.01), but not in Normal CL. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Detecting Dementia Through Interactive Computer Avatars

This paper proposes a new approach to automatically detect dementia. Even though some works have detected dementia from speech and language attributes, most have applied detection using picture descriptions, narratives, and cognitive tasks. In this paper, we propose a new computer avatar with spoken dialog functionalities that produces spoken queries based on the mini-mental state examination, the Wechsler memory scale-revised, and other related neuropsychological questions. We recorded the interactive data of spoken dialogues from 29 participants (14 dementia and 15 healthy controls) and extracted various audiovisual features. We tried to predict dementia using audiovisual features and two machine learning algorithms (support vector machines and logistic regression). Here, we show that the support vector machines outperformed logistic regression, and by using the extracted features they classified the participants into two groups with 0.93 detection performance, as measured by the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve. We also newly identified some contributing features, e.g., gap before speaking, the variations of fundamental frequency, voice quality, and the ratio of smiling. We concluded that our system has the potential to detect dementia through spoken dialog systems and that the system can assist health care workers. In addition, these findings could help medical personnel detect signs of dementia.
Prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and basolateral amygdala plasticity in a rat model of autism spectrum

We aimed to investigate the effect of prenatal administration of valproic acid (VPA) (500 mg/kg) at embryonic day 12.5 on the anatomical properties of the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and basolateral amygdala, at three different ages: immediately after weaning (postnatal day 21 [PD21]), prepubertal (PD35), and postpubertal (PD70) ages in a rat model of autistic spectrum disorder. Quantitative analysis of the thickness of the prefrontal cortex revealed a reduced size at all study ages in the cingulate 1 area of the prefrontal cortex and CA1 of the dorsal hippocampus in prenatally exposed animals compared to controls. At the level of the basolateral amygdala, a reduction in the size was observed at PD35 and PD70 in the VPA group. In addition, a reduced thickness was observed in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex in VPA animals at PD35. Interestingly, no differences in cortical thickness were observed between control and VPA animals in the infralimbic region of the prefrontal at any age. Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to VPA differentially alters cortical limbic regions anatomical parameters, with implication in the autistic spectrum disorder. Synapse 68:468–473, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reassembling Social Science Methods: The Challenge of Digital Devices

The aim of the article is to intervene in debates about the digital and, in particular, framings that imagine the digital in terms of epochal shifts or as redefining life. Instead, drawing on recent developments in digital methods, we explore the lively, productive and performative qualities of the digital by attending to the specificities of digital devices and how they interact, and sometimes compete, with older devices and their capacity to mobilize and materialize social and other relations. In doing so, our aim is to explore the implications of digital devices and data for reassembling social science methods or what we call the social science apparatuses that assemble digital devices and data to ‘know’ the social and other relations. Building on recent work at CRESC on the social life of methods, we recommend a genealogical approach that is alive to the ways in which digital devices are simultaneously shaped by social worlds, and can in turn become agents that shape those worlds. This calls for attending to the specificities of digital devices themselves, how they are varied and composed of diverse socio-technical arrangements, and are enrolled in the creation of new knowledge spaces, institutions and actors. Rather than exploring what large-scale changes can be revealed and understood through the digital, we argue for explorations of how digital devices themselves are materially implicated in the production and performance of contemporary sociality. To that end we offer the following nine propositions about the implications of digital data and devices and argue that these demand rethinking the theoretical assumptions of social science methods: transactional actors; heterogeneity; visualization; continuous time; whole populations; granularity; expertise; mobile and mobilizing; and non-coherence.
Spatially explicit fire-climate history of the boreal forest-tundra (Eastern Canada) over the last 2000 years

Across the boreal forest, fire is the main disturbance factor and driver of ecosystem changes. In this study, we reconstructed a long-term, spatially explicit fire history of a forest-tundra region in northeastern Canada. We hypothesized that current occupation of similar topographic and edaphic sites by tundra and forest was the consequence of cumulative regression with time of forest cover due to compounding fire and climate disturbances. All fires were mapped and dated per 100 year intervals over the last 2000 years using several fire dating techniques. Past fire occurrences and post-fire regeneration at the northern forest limit indicate 70% reduction of forest cover since 1800 yr BP and nearly complete cessation of forest regeneration since 900 yr BP. Regression of forest cover was particularly important between 1500s–1700s and possibly since 900 yr BP. Although fire frequency was very low over the last 100 years, each fire event was followed by drastic removal of spruce cover. Contrary to widespread belief of northward boreal forest expansion due to recent warming, lack of post-fire recovery during the last centuries, in comparison with active tree regeneration more than 1000 years ago, indicates that the current climate does not favour such expansion.
Facet Joint Orientation Difference Between Cephalad and Caudad Portions: A Possible Cause of Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

Study Design. A case-control study. Objective. To measure the orientation of the facet joints at both cephalad and caudad portions and to compare them between patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS) and patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS, controls). Summary of Background Data. Several radiologic studies have indicated a correlation between DS and an increased sagittal orientation of the facet joints. However, the orientation of the facet joints have only been measured on 1 axial cut of computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance imaging. Methods. Thirty-two patients with DS only at the L4–L5 level were assigned to group-1, and 28 patients with LSS without DS were assigned to group-2. Two computed tomography scans for the cephalad and caudad portions of the facet joint were made for L3–L4 and L4–L5 levels, respectively. Delta facet angle was defined as facet angle (cephalad)–facet angle (caudad). Results. Facet angles of the cephalad portion were more sagittally oriented (P < 0.001) than those of the caudad portion in group-1. The mean facet angle of the cephalad portion was 72° and that of the caudad portion was 57° at L4–L5. The mean facet angle of the cephalad portion at L4–L5 was greater (P = 0.001) in group-1 (72°) than in group-2 (62°). Delta facet angles were significantly greater in group-1 than in group-2. Mean delta facet angle was 15° in group-1 and 2° in group-2 at L4–L5 (P < 0.001), and 4° and 0°, respectively, at L3–L4 (P = 0.046). Conclusion. In this study, we confirmed that the cephalad portion of the facet joints were more sagittally oriented and that the caudad portion of the facet joints were more coronally oriented in patients with DS. These findings were observed not only at L4–L5 but also at the uninvolved L3–L4 level in patients with DS at the L4–L5 level.
Eco-evolutionary partitioning metrics: assessing the importance of ecological and evolutionary contributions to population and community change.

Interest in eco-evolutionary dynamics is rapidly increasing thanks to ground-breaking research indicating that evolution can occur rapidly and can alter the outcome of ecological processes. A key challenge in this sub-discipline is establishing how important the contribution of evolutionary and ecological processes and their interactions are to observed shifts in population and community characteristics. Although a variety of metrics to separate and quantify the effects of evolutionary and ecological contributions to observed trait changes have been used, they often allocate fractions of observed changes to ecology and evolution in different ways. We used a mathematical and numerical comparison of two commonly used frameworks - the Price equation and reaction norms - to reveal that the Price equation cannot partition genetic from non-genetic trait change within lineages, whereas the reaction norm approach cannot partition among- from within-lineage trait change. We developed a new metric that combines the strengths of both Price-based and reaction norm metrics, extended all metrics to analyse community change and also incorporated extinction and colonisation of species in these metrics. Depending on whether our new metric is applied to populations or communities, it can correctly separate intraspecific, interspecific, evolutionary, non-evolutionary and interacting eco-evolutionary contributions to trait change.
CAREL: Computer Aided Reliability Evaluator for Distributed Computing Networks

An efficient method to compute the terminal reliability (the probability of communication between a pair of nodes) of a distributed computing system (DCS) is presented. It is assumed that the graph model G(V,E) for DCS is given and that the path and/or cut information for the network G(V,E) is available. Boolean algebraic concepts are used to define four operators: compare, reduce, combine, and generate. The proposed method, called CAREL, uses the four operators to generate exclusive and mutually disjoint events. CAREL has been implemented using bit vector representation on an Encore MULTIMAX 320 system. It is shown that CAREL solves large DCS networks (having a pathset on the order of 780 and a cutset on the order of 7300 or more) with a reasonable memory requirement. A comparison with other algorithms reveals the computational efficiency of the method. The proof of correctness of CAREL is included. >
Shallow-Layer p-y Relationships for Micropiles Embedded in Saturated Medium Dense Sand Using Quasi-Static Test

Micropiles are being increasingly used in existing structures for foundation rehabilitation and in new structures to enhance their seismic safety. For the seismic design of piles in sands, numerical models of piles under lateral loading using the p-y relationships proposed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) are widely used. However, the validity of this approach has been questioned by many researchers. In this regard, this study presents the development of experimental and numerical p-y relationships for shallow layers (depths less than 1.0 m) of micropiles in fully saturated medium-dense sands using a quasi-static test. A steel pipe was embedded into the sands and fixed at the bottom of the soil container. Lateral loads were applied on the pile head using the displacement-control technique. A piecewise-function–based p-y derivation method was adopted to develop the experimental p-y curves. Distributions of bending moment, shear force, soil reaction, rotation, and deflection along the pile are presented. Subsequently, bilinear shallow-layer p-y relationships are proposed. Test results show that experimental p-y curves for micropiles at the shallow depths are more flexible (lower initial stiffness) and stronger (greater strength) than those recommended by the API. The quasi-static test is then simulated using either the proposed bilinear p-y relationships or those recommended by the API. Results show that the global force-displacement relationship, bending moment distribution and lateral deflection of piles are accurately predicted by the proposed shallow-layer p-y relationships. By contrast, the conventional API p-y relationship reasonably predicts the lateral strength and maximum bending moment while overly predicting the depth-to-maximum bending moment of micropiles in saturated medium-dense sands.
Source Apportionment of Aerosol Ammonium in an Ammonia‐Rich Atmosphere: An Isotopic Study of Summer Clean and Hazy Days in Urban Beijing

Aerosol ammonium (NH4+) can be a major component of fine particles, especially during severe haze episodes. The abatement of ammonia (NH3) emissions is important for reducing fine particles, but NH3 sources remain poorly constrained and are largely unregulated in China and most other regions. This study uses stable isotopes to interpret the role NH3 sources play in generating different sized NH4+ aerosols in Beijing between 21 June and 4 July 2013 with fine particle concentrations of 20–242 μg/m3. The concentrations and nitrogen stable isotope composition of aerosol NH4+ (δ15N‐NH4+) were both elevated during the five haze episodes that were sampled. These increases were driven by enhancements in the fine mode as opposed to substantial increases in the coarse mode aerosol. After accounting for the isotope fractionation that occurs during gas‐to‐particle partitioning (17.7‰ to 28.2‰), the “initial” (prepartitioning) δ15N‐NH3 values were estimated to be −35‰ for a clean period (i.e., a nonhazy day) and ranged from −14.3‰ to −22.8‰ for hazy days. Source apportionment using the “IsoSources” isotopic mixing model indicated that the dominant contribution to NH3 shifted from agricultural sources during the clean period (86%) to fossil fuel emissions (54%–81%) during hazy days and when back trajectories rotate from the northwest to the west and/or south. These results together suggest that even in summer, fossil fuel‐related sources from Beijing and the surrounding areas are the major source of NH3 during haze events and that controlling these sources may be important for alleviating particulate matter pollution.
A cognitive dynamic system for chemical coagulation control

Chemical coagulation process efficiently removes both natural organic matter and small colloidal particles that have negative impacts on taste, smell and appearance of treated water. The current practice requires regular manual intervention. In smaller WTPs, often serving remote communities, regular intervention by experienced operators is not feasible and, hence, coagulant overdosing and underdosing can occur regularly negatively affecting the cost of water production and the health of communities. We present an autonomous system that includes a learning based control, regulating the process during abrupt changes in water quality, and a model predictive control, responsible to compensate for the slow to moderate changes during regular operations. The conformity of the system to the cognitive dynamic framework is discussed. Results based on a laboratory scale implementation show that the system can start without the knowledge input-output mapping and can successfully address changes in observed and unobserved intake water quality parameters.
The Uppsala-FBK systems at WMT 2011

This paper presents our submissions to the shared translation task at WMT 2011. We created two largely independent systems for English-to-French and Haitian Creole-to-English translation to evaluate different features and components from our ongoing research on these language pairs. Key features of our systems include anaphora resolution, hierarchical lexical reordering, data selection for language modelling, linear transduction grammars for word alignment and syntax-based decoding with monolingual dependency information.
Networked LQG control over unreliable channels

In this article the Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) optimal control problem for networked control systems when data is transmitted through a TCP-like network and both measurement and control packets are subject to random packet dropouts, is addressed for two cases. In the first case it is assumed that the control acknowledgment packets in TCP-like protocols are always available and we pròpose how to design a linear optimal “hold-input” control law for this case. In the second problem, we assume the acknowledgement packets may go missing with a known probability. We derive a suboptimal linear estimation-control law for this part. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.
β2-Agonist Induced cAMP Is Decreased in Asthmatic Airway Smooth Muscle Due to Increased PDE4D

Background and Objective Asthma is associated with airway narrowing in response to bronchoconstricting stimuli and increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass. In addition, some studies have suggested impaired β-agonist induced ASM relaxation in asthmatics, but the mechanism is not known. Objective To characterize the potential defect in β-agonist induced cAMP in ASM derived from asthmatic in comparison to non-asthmatic subjects and to investigate its mechanism. Methods We examined β2-adrenergic (β2AR) receptor expression and basal β-agonist and forskolin (direct activator of adenylyl cyclase) stimulated cAMP production in asthmatic cultured ASM (n = 15) and non-asthmatic ASM (n = 22). Based on these results, PDE activity, PDE4D expression and cell proliferation were determined. Results In the presence of IBMX, a pan PDE inhibitor, asthmatic ASM had ∼50% lower cAMP production in response to isoproterenol, albuterol, formoterol, and forskolin compared to non-asthmatic ASM. However when PDE4 was specifically inhibited, cAMP production by the agonists and forskolin was normalized in asthmatic ASM. We then measured the amount and activity of PDE4, and found ∼2-fold greater expression and activity in asthmatic ASM compared to non-asthmatic ASM. Furthermore, inhibition of PDE4 reduced asthmatic ASM proliferation but not that of non-asthmatic ASM. Conclusion Decreased β-agonist induced cAMP in ASM from asthmatics results from enhanced degradation due to increased PDE4D expression. Clinical manifestations of this dysregulation would be suboptimal β-agonist-mediated bronchodilation and possibly reduced control over increasing ASM mass. These phenotypes appear to be “hard-wired” into ASM from asthmatics, as they do not require an inflammatory environment in culture to be observed.
Consensus of heterogeneous multi-agent systems without velocity measurements

This article considers the consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent system composed of first-order and second-order agents, in which the second-order integrator agents cannot obtain the velocity (second state) measurements for feedback. Two different consensus protocols are proposed. First, we propose a consensus protocol and discuss the consensus problem of heterogeneous multi-agent system. By applying the graph theory and the Lyapunov direct method, some sufficient conditions for consensus are established when the communication topologies are undirected connected graphs and leader-following networks. Second, due to actuator saturation, we propose another consensus protocol with input constraint and obtain the consensus criterions for heterogeneous multi-agent system. Finally, some examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained criterions.