Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vegetation community composition along disturbance gradients of four typical open‐pit mines in Yunnan Province of southwest China

Open‐pit mining causes severe land degradation in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Vegetation restoration on the degraded land with open‐pit mining is challenging due to great physical and chemical condition changes of the post‐mined landscape. In this study, we compared the vegetation community composition and environmental factors along three disturbance gradients (mining area, restoration area, and control area) in four typical open‐pit mine types (phosphate, zinc, tin, and iron sites). Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that there are significant differences in the vegetation communities along three gradients for these mine sites. Quality species were selected by indicator species analysis for vegetation restoration as follows: Chloris virgata Sw. and Artemisia princeps Pamp at the phosphate site; Coriaria nepalensis Wall. , Artemisia princeps Pamp, and Picris hieracioides L. at the zinc site; Artemisia princeps Pamp at the tin site; and Panicum brevifolium L. at the iron site. Canonical Correspondence Analysis ordination and Monte Carlo permutation tests were further used to determine the effects of environmental factors on vegetation diversity. The results showed that Cd, As, Zn, Pb, TC, and altitude all had significant effects on vegetation diversity (P < 0.05). Additionally, we found that the integrated effects of these variables on vegetation were greater in the mining area than in the other two gradients based on the model with the lowest Akaike Information Criterion. These results suggest that any plans for vegetation restoration in open‐pit mining areas should take disturbance intensity, mine types, and critical environmental variables into account.
Anthropometric indices in relation to overweight and obesity among Turkish medical students

Introduction The aim of this study was to present the reference anthropometric data associated with obesity for cardiovascular risk and metabolic diseases for healthy young adults in a Turkish population. Material and methods The study group consisted of 1163 second-year medical students (650 women, 513 men) aged 20-25 years from Çukurova University in Adana and the measurements were made using a flexible standard measuring tape. The data were collected during the period 2007-2011. Results From 1163 medical students, the mean values of body mass index, circumferences of waist, hip, neck, mid-arm, thigh and calf were 20.89 ±1.6 kg/m2, 73.15 ±5.1 cm, 95.35 ±4.8 cm, 30.32 ±1.37 cm, 24.12 ±1.75 cm, 47.23 ±3.26 cm and 34.36 ±2.19 cm respectively in women, while the same measurements were 21.98 ±1.67 kg/m2, 77.73 ±5.81 cm, 95.64 ±4.81 cm, 35.61 ±1.43 cm, 25.60 ±1.84 cm, 44.10 ±3.26 cm and 34.92 ±2.08 cm respectively in men. Moreover, waist to hip ratio, waist to height ratio and neck to height ratio were respectively 0.76, 0.44 and 0.18 in women and 0.81, 0.43 and 0.19 in men. Conclusions The precise knowledge of anthropometric data could be used as reference values for evaluating the body composition and fat distribution of Turkish young people.
Online Contention Resolution Schemes

We introduce a new rounding technique designed for online optimization problems, which is related to contention resolution schemes, a technique initially introduced in the context of submodular function maximization. Our rounding technique, which we call online contention resolution schemes (OCRSs), is applicable to many online selection problems, including Bayesian online selection, oblivious posted pricing mechanisms, and stochastic probing models. It allows for handling a wide set of constraints, and shares many strong properties of offline contention resolution schemes. In particular, OCRSs for different constraint families can be combined to obtain an OCRS for their intersection. Moreover, we can approximately maximize submodular functions in the online settings we consider. We, thus, get a broadly applicable framework for several online selection problems, which improves on previous approaches in terms of the types of constraints that can be handled, the objective functions that can be dealt with, and the assumptions on the strength of the adversary. Furthermore, we resolve two open problems from the literature; namely, we present the first constant-factor constrained oblivious posted price mechanism for matroid constraints, and the first constant-factor algorithm for weighted stochastic probing with deadlines.
Linking distributive and procedural justice to employee engagement through social exchange: a field study in India

Research linking justice perceptions to employee outcomes has referred to social exchange as its central theoretical premise. We tested a conceptual model linking distributive and procedural justice to employee engagement through social exchange mediators, namely perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological contract, among 238 managers and executives from manufacturing and service sector firms in India. Findings suggest that POS mediated the relationship between distributive justice and employee engagement, and both POS and psychological contract mediated the relationship between procedural justice and employee engagement. Theoretical and practical implications with respect to organizational functions are discussed.
Humboldt Bay, California is more important to spring migrating shorebirds than previously recognized

Worldwide, many shorebird populations are in decline (Nebel et al. 2008, Delaney et al. 2009, Andres et al. 2012). An important conservation approach addresses such trends by recognizing and protecting habitats. For shorebirds, the ʽstaging paradigmʼ (Myers 1983, Myers et al. 1987) highlights key wetlands or landscapes along flyways that connect populations moving between breeding and nonbreeding ranges. Moreover, the importance of a site (e.g. Hemispheric, International or Regional designation under the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, WHSRN) is gauged by either total abundance or percentage of a flyway population that uses a wetland complex. For example, Delaware Bay is a WHSRN Hemispheric site because >500,000 shorebirds occur there annually during spring migration (Clark et al. 1993). WHSRN designations also apply to breeding areas such as the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska (Brown et al. 2007) or wintering locales such as The Grasslands of California’s Central Valley (e.g. Shuford et al. 1998). Accordingly, the importance of a site requires accurate estimates of abundance in order to ascertain the percentage of a flyway population that uses a site. Often, however, estimates are derived from single surveys, which may not accurately represent abundances, especially during short intervals when many individuals are moving rapidly between sites along a flyway.
Optimization metrics for Phase Change Memory (PCM) cell architectures

We reported here a comparative study of PCM cell architectures. The developed architectures are considered in a program/read efficiency framework and in an integration context. The Self-Heating approach is slightly more efficient, owing to heat generation happening directly within GST, but shows hazardous technology implementation with Ge2Sb2Te5, due to high aspect ratios. The heater-based Wall architecture represents the best and easiest solution for PCM from the technology standpoint: it features relaxed aspect ratios and benefits from lots of geometry-based knobs for optimization with slightly higher process complexity and slightly lower efficiency. Strengths and drawbacks of the different architectures are schematically reported in Fig. 14.
Depression in Old Age *

ABSTRACT: We are increasingly becoming a society of older people. The most prevalent emotional disturbance in this group is depression. Its management is an urgent concern to professionals in the mental health field. A review is presented of the clinical management of depression in old age in the special out‐patient setting of an Affective Disorders Clinic. Sociologic, psychologic, and biologic factors as they affect the aging process are discussed in the frame of a developmental approach to aging. Illustrative clinical material shows the value of this approach in the assessment and management of depression in the aged.
Adaptive-based, scalable design for autonomous multi-robot surveillance

In this paper the problem of positioning a team of mobile robots for a surveillance task in a non-convex environment with obstacles is considered. The robots are equipped with global positioning capabilities (for instance they are equipped with GPS) and visual sensors able to monitor the surrounding environment. The goal is to maximize the area monitored by the team, by identifying the best configuration of the team members. Due to the non-convex nature of the problem, an analytical solution cannot be obtained. The proposed method is based on a new cognitive-based, adaptive optimization algorithm (CAO). This method allows getting coordinated and scalable controls to accomplish the task, even when the obstacles are unknown. Extensive simulations are presented to show the efficiency of the proposed approach.
Antibodies against crystals

We suggest that crystals, when introduced into an organism, may behave as conventional antigens, mediating the production of specific antibodies. These antibodies would bear an imprint of the crystal surface and may consequently behave as a nucleating matrix in a new crystallization event. Thus, they would behave as catalytic antibodies. We show that IgG antibodies isolated from patients suffering from gout, a joint disease caused by crystals of monosodium urate monohydrate (MSUM), accelerate the appearance of new crystals of MSUM from a supersaturated solution of the salt in vitro. The same effect is not observed for IgG antibodies isolated from the joint fluids of patients with other joint diseases, such as pseudogout, rheumatoid arthritis, or osteoarthritis. Furthermore, IgG antibodies obtained from rabbits injected subcutaneously with crystals of MSUM, were also nucleating towards MSUM crystals. —Kam, M. ; Perl‐Treves, D. ; Caspi, D. ; Addadi, L. Antibodies against crystals. FASEB J. 6: 2608‐2613; 1992.
2D tracking and over-flight of a target by means of a non-linear guidance law for UAV

This work deals with the definition and the analysis of a 2D guidance law, suitable to be implemented on an UAV guidance loop, capable of driving it toward a target, while it is moving or not. The purpose of the guidance law is to track the target by heading to it and then by indefinitely loitering around it at a prescribed distance. The main features of the proposed law are that it is nonlinear, globally stable, it automatically takes into account the flight performances of the aircraft never forcing unsuited commands. Only the knowledge of the target present position is required. The geometric methodology used in deriving the expression of the law is explained and the global stability of the proposed law is demonstrated for a particular, although important, case, by a Lyapunov-based criterion. The performances of the closed loop behavior has been tested by means of numerical simulations.
A New Cloud Computing Governance Framework

Nowadays, most service providers adopted cloud-computing technology. Moving to cloud creates new risks and challenges. The cloud era is to outsource our services to Cloud Service Provider (CSP). However, we have to develop a strong governance framework to review the service level, manage risk effectively and certify that our critical information is secure. In this paper, we develop an innovative governance model. It is based on the theoretical GUO governance model for cloud computing. We distribute Cloud Control Matrix (CCM) on the GUO model categories. This turns the theoretical GUO model to a practical model. Governance model alone will not allow us to bridge the gap between control requirements, technical issues and business risks. As a result, we introduce a new cloud governance framework using the processes on the new cloud governance model.
3D MoSURF Hierarchical Learning for Hand Fine-Motion Recognition

The times of Big Data promotes increasingly higher demands for fine-motion analysis, such as hand activity recognition. However, in real-world scenarios, hand activity recognition suffers huge challenges with variations of illumination, poses and occlusions. The depth acquisition provides an effective way to solve the above issues, and simultaneously increases the computational complexity significantly. In this paper, a novel 3D scale-and rotation-invariant descriptor, called 3D MoSURF, is presented for hand fine-motion analysis, which outperforms previously proposed schemes with respect to robustness and high efficiency for 3D data processing. Hierarchical classification based on content (HCC) is proposed for activity recognition. Experiments based on public available RGB-D datasets show a consistently better performance for real-world applications with fine-motion analysis in terms of high effectiveness and efficiency.
Novel somatic mutations in heterotrimeric G proteins in melanoma

Heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins) mediate signals between G-protein coupled receptors and their downstream pathways, and have been shown to be mutated in cancer. In particular, GNAQ was found to be frequently mutated in blue nevi of the skin and uveal melanoma, acting as an oncogene in its mutated form. To further examine the role of heterotrimeric G proteins in malignant melanoma, we performed a comprehensive mutational analysis of the 35 genes in the heterotrimeric G protein gene family in a panel of 80 melanoma samples. Somatic alterations in a G protein subunit were detected in 17% of samples spanning 7 genes. The highest rates of somatic, non-synonymous mutations were found in GNG10 and GNAZ, neither of which has been previously reported to be mutated in melanoma. Our study is the first systematic analysis of the heterotrimeric G proteins in melanoma and indicates that multiple mutated heterotrimeric G proteins may be involved in melanoma progression.
Water-Soluble Polymers from Acid-Functionalized

Unprotected exo,exo-5-norbornene-2,3-dicarboxylic acid and exo,exo-7-oxa5-norbornene-2,3-dicarboxylic acid were polymerized via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. This reaction yielded polymers with molecular weights (Mn from GPC) ranging from 31 to 242 kg/mol and polydispersity indices between 1.05 and 1.12, using Grubbs’ third generation catalyst. The water solubility as a function of pH value of the polymers was investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS). DLS and acid-base titration revealed that the oxanorbornene polymer was water soluble over a wider pH range than its norbornene analog. VC 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1266–1273, 2009
Reducing the framing effect in older and younger adults by encouraging analytic processing.

OBJECTIVES The present study explored whether the framing effect could be reduced in older and younger adults using techniques that influenced the accessibility of information relevant to the decision-making processing. Accessibility was manipulated indirectly in Experiment 1 by having participants engage in concurrent tasks, and directly in Experiment 2, through an instructions manipulation that required participants to maintain a goal of analytic processing throughout the experimental trial. METHODS We tested 120 older and 120 younger adults in Experiment 1. Participants completed 28 decision trials while concurrently either performing a probability calculation task or a memory task. In Experiment 2, we tested 136 older and 136 younger adults. Participants completed 48 decision trials after either having been instructed to "think like a scientist" or base decisions on "gut reactions. " RESULTS Results demonstrated that the framing effect was reduced in older and younger adults in the probability calculation task in Experiment 1 and under the "think like a scientist" instructions manipulation in Experiment 2. DISCUSSION These results suggest that when information relevant to unbiased decision making was made more accessible, both older and younger adults were able to reduce susceptibility to the framing effect.
Intelligent Techniques for Web Personalization and Recommender Systems

The personalization algorithms are polished on log data and ready to face real users. But what you can expect when real users hit the newly minted personalized Web site? The talk will focus on user behavior in personalized Web systems and examines how user behavior is affected by personalized guidance and recommendation. It will review the results of several long-term studies of personalized systems and discuss both local impact (whether the users follow recommendations) and global impact of personalization.
Event-driven gate-level simulation with GP-GPUs

Logic simulation is a critical component of the design tool flow in modern hardware development efforts. It is used widely from high level descriptions down to gate level ones to validate several aspects of the design, particularly functional correctness. Despite development houses investing vast resources in the simulation task, particularly at the gate level, it is still far from achieving the performance demands required to validate complex modern designs. In this work, we propose the first event driven logic simulator accelerated by a parallel, general purpose graphics processor (GPGPU). Our simulator leverages a gate level event driven design to exploit the benefits of the low switching activity that is typical of large hardware designs. We developed novel algorithms for circuit netlist partitioning and optimized for a highly parallel GPGPU host. Moreover, our flow is structured to extract the best simulation performance from the target hardware platform. We found that our experimental prototype could handle large, industrial scale designs comprised of millions of gates and deliver a 13x speedup on average over current commercial event driven simulators.
Point prevalence of bulimia nervosa in 1982, 1992, and 2002

Background. Recent epidemiological data suggest a decline in bulimia nervosa (BN) incidence in primary care. We sought to examine BN point prevalence from 1982 to 2002 in a college population. Method. In 1982, 1992, and 2002, 800 women and 400 men were randomly sampled from a university for a study of health and eating patterns. Participation rates were 72% in women and 63% in men, resulting in n=2491 participants. Results. BN point prevalence decreased significantly in women over the period of observation. Eating Disorder Inventory Bulimia scores decreased across cohorts, and these decreases remained significant when male and female and Caucasian and non-Caucasian students were analyzed separately. Conclusion. These data support a decline in BN rates that cannot be attributed to changes in service utilization. Changing socio-cultural factors may explain a true decrease in BN incidence and prevalence.
Physical Activity Is Associated With Reduced Risk of Executive Function Impairment in Older Women

Objective: To examine whether baseline levels of physical activity, measured by total caloric expenditure, predicted domain-specific cognitive impairments over a 9-year period. Method: Participants included 376 community-dwelling older women aged 70 to 80 years at baseline from the Women’s Health and Aging Study II. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the associations between self-reported physical activity and risk of cognitive impairments in psychomotor speed, executive function, and verbal memory. Models were adjusted for age, race, education, number of chronic illnesses, and number of depressive symptoms at baseline. Results: Greater baseline levels of caloric expenditure were associated with better executive function in the most active quintile of adults compared with the least active quintile. Caloric expenditure was not associated with improved scores for any of the other domains assessed. Discussion: The results of this study suggest that higher levels of physical activity modified risk of incident impairment in executive function.
Bi-level clustering of mixed categorical and numerical biomedical data

Biomedical data sets often have mixed categorical and numerical types, where the former represent semantic information on the objects and the latter represent experimental results. We present the BILCOM algorithm for 'Bi-Level Clustering of Mixed categorical and numerical data types'. BILCOM performs a pseudo-Bayesian process, where the prior is categorical clustering. BILCOM partitions biomedical data sets of mixed types, such as hepatitis, thyroid disease and yeast gene expression data with Gene Ontology annotations, more accurately than if using one type alone.
Do Patients Bypass Rural Hospitals?: Determinants of Inpatient Hospital Choice in Rural California

Rural hospitals play a crucial role in providing health care to rural Americans, a vulnerable and underserved population; however, rural hospitals have faced threats to their financial viability and many have closed as a result. This paper examines the hospital characteristics that are associated with patients choosing rural hospitals, and sheds light on the types of patients who depend on rural hospitals for care and, hence, may be the most harmed by the closure of rural hospitals. Using data from California hospitals, the paper shows that patients were more likely to choose nearby hospitals, larger hospitals, and hospitals that offered more services and technologies. However, even after adjusting for these factors, patients had a propensity to bypass rural hospitals in favor of large urban hospitals. Offering additional services and technologies would increase the share of rural residents choosing rural hospitals only slightly.
THE WEST EUROPE PRESSURE ANOMALY (WEPA): A SIMPLE SEA-LEVEL-PRESSURE BASED CLIMATE INDEX CONTROLLING WINTER WAVE HEIGHTS ALONG THE WESTERN COAST OF EUROPE FROM PORTUGAL TO UK (36-52°N)

A method based on a 66-year numerical weather and wave hindcast is developed to optimize a climate index based on the sea level pressure (SLP) that best explains winter wave height variability along the coast of western Europe, from Portugal to UK (36–52°N). The resulting so-called Western Europe Pressure Anomaly (WEPA) is based on the sea level pressure gradient between the stations Valentia (Ireland) and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands). WEPA outscores by 25–150% the other leading atmospheric modes in explaining winter-averaged significant wave height. WEPA is also the only index capturing the 2013/2014 extreme winter, characterised by a succession of large storms throughout the winter season and causing widespread coastal erosion and flooding in Western Europe. More detail can be found in the recently published study of Castelle et al. (2017).
An efficient method for contrast enhancement of real world hyper spectral images

This paper proposed an efficient method for contrast enhancement of real world hyper spectral images. The contrast of image is an important characteristic by which the quality of image can be judged as good or poor quality. The proposed method is consists of two stages: In first stage the poor quality of image is process by automatic contrast adjustment in spatial domain and in second stage the output of first stage is further process by adaptive filtering for image enhancement in frequency domain. Simulation and experimental results on benchmark real world hyper spectral image database demonstrates that proposed method provides better results as compared to other state-of-art contrast enhancement techniques. Proposed method performs better in different dark and bright real world hyper spectral images by adjusting their contrast very frequently. Proposed method is very simple and efficient approach for contrast enhancement of real world hyper spectral images. This method can be used in different applications where images are suffering from different contrast problems.