Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An experimental investigation into the pressure - leakage relationship of some failed water pipes

This paper reports on an experimental study that was conducted to measure the leakage exponents of different types of leak openings (holes, corrosion holes, and longitudinal and circumferential cracks) and pipe materials (asbestos cement, mild steel and uPVC). A number of failed pipes taken from the Johannesburg water distribution system were tested, as well as a number of pipes with artificially induced leaks. The results of the study confirmed that leakage exponents can be significantly higher than the theoretical value of 0.5. While leakage exponents for round holes were close to 0.5, the values for corrosion holes varied between 0.67 and 2.30, for longitudinal cracks between 0.79 and 1.85, and for circumferential cracks between 0.41 and 0.52. Conclusions include that the highest leakage exponents were found in corroded steel pipes and that under certain circumstances, leakage exponents can be less than 0.5.
Evidence Accumulation in the Magnitude System

Perceptual interferences in the estimation of quantities (time, space and numbers) have been interpreted as evidence for a common magnitude system. However, if duration estimation has appears sensitive to spatial and numerical interferences, space and number estimation tend to be resilient to temporal manipulations. These observations question the relative contribution of each quantity in the elaboration of a representation in a common mental metric. Here, we elaborated a task in which perceptual evidence accumulated over time for all tested quantities (space, time and number) in order to match the natural requirement for building a duration percept. For this, we used a bisection task. Experimental trials consisted of dynamic dots of different sizes appearing progressively on the screen. Participants were asked to judge the duration, the cumulative surface or the number of dots in the display while the two non-target dimensions varied independently. In a prospective experiment, participants were informed before the trial which dimension was the target; in a retrospective experiment, participants had to attend to all dimensions and were informed only after a given trial which dimension was the target. Surprisingly, we found that duration was resilient to spatial and numerical interferences whereas space and number estimation were affected by time. Specifically, and counter-intuitively, results revealed that longer durations lead to smaller number and space estimates whether participants knew before (prospectively) or after (retrospectively) a given trial which quantity they had to estimate. Altogether, our results support a magnitude system in which perceptual evidence for time, space and numbers integrate following Bayesian cue-combination rules.
Radium 228 based nitrate fluxes in the eastern Indian Ocean and the South China Sea and a silicon‐induced “alkalinity pump” hypothesis

The activities of 228Ra and 226Ra in the seawaters of the eastern Indian Ocean and its adjacent seas were measured during the 1996/1997 “Piscis Austrinus” Expedition using R/V Hakuho‐Maru. The surface Ra data are in good agreement with those in literature and indicate that the continental shelves of the southeast Asian Seas are strong sources for 228Ra and, to much lesser extent, for 226Ra which are largely transported by the surface currents into the Indian Ocean. The vertical profiles of 228Ra obtained at six stations from the different oceanic regimes along the cruise track generally showed an almost exponential decrease from the surface to the middepths of 1200‐ 1500 m. Coupling the vertical profiles of 228Ra and nitrate and using the vertical one‐dimensional model developed by Ku et al., [1995], we estimated the nitrate fluxes into the euphotic zone ranging from 1.5 mmol N m−2 d−1 (or 0.55 mol m−2 yr−1) in Andaman Sea to 4.0 mmol N m−2 d−1 (1.5 mol m−2 yr−1) in the Southern Ocean. In steady state, these nitrate fluxes correspond to the new production of 11–26 mmol C m−2 d−1 (or 3.9–9.6 mol C m−2 yr−1). In the sub‐Antarctic region between 30° and 40°S, north of the polar front, dissolved Si is depleted relative to nitrate in the upper water column as compared to their ∼1:1 molar ratio demanded by diatoms. In such high‐nitrate but low‐silicate regions, growth of diatoms is likely to be limited by available silicate. It also favors calcareous coccoliths to grow by utilization of nitrate, as deduced from a decrease in alkalinity in the surface waters. During the last glacial period, supply of atmospheric dust containing silicon and iron to the surface ocean was much more intense than that during the interglacial period, and hence, diatom production might have been enhanced in the Si‐depleted regions. Diatoms would utilize nitrate readily and inhibit growth of coccoliths, resulting in increases in alkalinity and pH in the surface water. This species change of phytoplankton may account for the lowered atmospheric CO2 level during the glacial period without causing a large‐scale depletion of dissolved oxygen in the deep sea. The records of opal and carbonate contents in the Antarctic sediment cores studied by Charles et al. [1991] seem to be consistent with this silicon‐ induced alkalinity pump hypothesis.
EVOLUTION AND MORPHOGENETIC RULES: THE SHAPE OF THE VERTEBRATE LIMB IN ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY

The notion of a “developmental constraint” has become a catchphrase for a collection of poorly defined notions about how ontogeny affects phylogeny. In this paper, we shall attempt to define this idea more precisely by examining the vertebrate limb from three viewpoints. First, theoretical models of morphogenesis suggest several generalizations about how limb geometry is laid down during development. Comparative studies and experimental manipulations of developing limbs independently confirm these generalizations, which amount to a set of “construction rules” for determining how the major features of limb architecture are established in ontogeny. Armed with these rules, we can inquire how limb morphology can be varied during evolution and suggest a more precise operational definition of “developmental constraints” on morphological evolution.
Role for GTP in glucose-induced phospholipase C activation in pancreatic islets.

We have previously demonstrated a permissive role for GTP in insulin secretion; in the current studies, we examined the effect of GTP on phospholipase C (PLC) activation to explore one possible mechanism for that observation. In rat islets preexposed to the GTP synthesis inhibitors mycophenolic acid (MPA) or mizoribine (MZ), PLC activation induced by 16.7 mM glucose (or by 20 mM alpha-ketoisocaproic acid) was inhibited 63% without altering the labeling of phosphoinositide substrates. Provision of guanine, which normalizes islet GTP content and insulin release, prevented the inhibition of PLC by MPA. Glucose-induced phosphoinositide hydrolysis was blocked by removal of extracellular Ca2+ or by diazoxide. PLC induced directly by Ca2+ influx (i.e., 40 mM K+) was reduced 42% in MPA-pretreated islets but without inhibition of the concomitant insulin release. These data indicate that glucose-induced PLC activation largely reflects Ca2+ entry and demonstrate (for the first time in intact cells) that adequate GTP is necessary for glucose (and Ca(2+)-)-induced PLC activation but not for maximal Ca(2+)-induced exocytosis.
ANALYSING MORTALITY RATES AND DATA OF CHILDHOOD LEUKAEMIA BY TIME SERIES METHODS

The Hungarian mortality rates were analyzed by autoregressive integrated moving average models and seasonal time series models examined the data of acute childhood lymphoid leukaemia. The mortality data may be analyzed by time series methods such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling. This method is demonstrated by two examples: analysis of the mortality rates of cerebrovascular diseases and analysis of the mortality rates of cancer of cervix. The relationships between time series of mortality rates were studied with ARIMA models. Calculations of confidence intervals for autoregressive parameters by tree methods: standard normal distribution as estimation and estimation of the White's theory and the continuous time case estimation. We present a new approach to analyzing the occurrence of acute childhood lymphoid leukaemia. We decompose time series into components. The periodicity of acute childhood lymphoid leukaemia in Hungary was examined using seasonal decomposition time series method. The seasonal components of the dates of diagnosis revealed that a higher percent of the peaks fell within the winter months than in the other seasons. This proves the seasonal occurrence of the childhood leukaemia in Hungary.
High Affinity Antibodies to Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Antigens Are Associated with Protection from Malaria

Background Malaria kills almost 1 million people every year, but the mechanisms behind protective immunity against the disease are still largely unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, surface plasmon resonance technology was used to evaluate the affinity (measured as kd) of naturally acquired antibodies to the Plasmodium falciparum antigens MSP2 and AMA1. Antibodies in serum samples from residents in endemic areas bound with higher affinities to AMA1 than to MSP2, and with higher affinities to the 3D7 allele of MSP2-3D7 than to the FC27 allele. The affinities against AMA1 and MSP2-3D7 increased with age, and were usually within similar range as the affinities for the monoclonal antibodies also examined in this study. The finding of MSP2-3D7 type parasites in the blood was associated with a tendency for higher affinity antibodies to both forms of MSP2 and AMA1, but this was significant only when analyzing antibodies against MSP2-FC27, and individuals infected with both allelic forms of MSP2 at the same time showed the highest affinities. Individuals with the highest antibody affinities for MSP2-3D7 at baseline had a prolonged time to clinical malaria during 40 weeks of follow-up, and among individuals who were parasite positive at baseline higher antibody affinities to all antigens were seen in the individuals that did not experience febrile malaria during follow up. Conclusions/Significance This study contributes important information for understanding how immunity against malaria arises. The findings suggest that antibody affinity plays an important role in protection against disease, and differs between antigens. In light of this information, antibody affinity measurements would be a key assessment in future evaluation of malaria vaccine formulations.
Carnivores from the Middle Miocene Ngorora Formation (13-12 Ma), Kenya

The late Middle Miocene Ngorora Formation has yielded several interesting carnivore fossils. Among these are a huge creodont, Megistotherium osteothlastes, at 12 Ma, possibly the youngest record of the species, an amphicyonid, two species of mustelids (an otter and a honey badger), two kinds of viverrids (one about the size of a civet, one the size of a genet) and an extremely small herpestid the size of a dwarf mongoose. It has also yielded remains of a moderate sized percrocutid. Perhaps the most interesting carnivore is a new genus and species of bundont viverrid that is intermediate in size and morphology between Early Miocene Orangictis on the one hand and Plio-Pleistocene Pseudocivetta on the other. This lineage of bundont viverrids appears to have been restricted to Africa.
Multilinear generalized Radon transforms and point configurations

We study multilinear generalized Radon transforms using a graph-theoretic paradigm that includes the widely studied linear case. These provide a general mechanism to study Falconer-type problems involving $(k+1)$-point configurations in geometric measure theory, with $k \ge 2$, including the distribution of simplices, volumes and angles determined by the points of fractal subsets $E \subset {\Bbb R}^d$, $d \ge 2$. If $T_k(E)$ denotes the set of noncongruent $(k+1)$-point configurations determined by $E$, we show that if the Hausdorff dimension of $E$ is greater than $d-\frac{d-1}{2k}$, then the ${k+1 \choose 2}$-dimensional Lebesgue measure of $T_k(E)$ is positive. This compliments previous work on the Falconer conjecture (\cite{Erd05} and the references there), as well as work on finite point configurations \cite{EHI11,GI10}. We also give applications to Erd\"os-type problems in discrete geometry and a fractal regular value theorem, providing a multilinear framework for the results in \cite{EIT11}.
Visual Perception of Thick Transparent Materials

Under typical viewing conditions, human observers readily distinguish between materials such as silk, marmalade, or granite, an achievement of the visual system that is poorly understood. Recognizing transparent materials is especially challenging. Previous work on the perception of transparency has focused on objects composed of flat, infinitely thin filters. In the experiments reported here, we considered thick transparent objects, such as ice cubes, which are irregular in shape and can vary in refractive index. An important part of the visual evidence signaling the presence of such objects is distortions in the perceived shape of other objects in the scene. We propose a new class of visual cues derived from the distortion field induced by thick transparent objects, and we provide experimental evidence that cues arising from the distortion field predict both the successes and the failures of human perception in judging refractive indices.
Research Commentary: Information Systems and Conceptual Modeling - A Research Agenda

Within the information systems field, the task of conceptual modeling involves building a representation of selected phenomena in some domain. High-quality conceptual modeling work is important because it facilitates early detection and correction of system development errors. It also plays an increasingly important role in activities like business process reengineering and documentation of best-practice data and process models in enterprise resource planning systems. Yet little research has been undertaken on many aspects of conceptual modeling. In this paper, we propose a framework to motivate research that addresses the following fundamental question:How can we model the world to better facilitate our developing, implementing, using, and maintaining more valuable information systems? The framework comprises four elements: conceptual-modeling grammars, conceptual-modeling methods, conceptual-modeling scripts, and conceptual-modeling contexts. We provide examples of the types of research that have already been undertaken on each element and illustrate research opportunities that exist.
Nutrient dynamics in different sub-types of peat swamp forest in central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Nutrient dynamics of two sub-types of peat swamp forest, mixed swamp forest and low pole forest, in the upper catchment of the Sebangau River in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia were studied. Three permanent study plots, 50 x 50 m, were established in each forest sub-type to facilitate collection of throughfall, stemflow, litterfall, decomposition, above ground and below ground biomass, peat and water samples. Graphical presentation, Wilm's method, and analysis of variance were carried out for both sub-types of forest in order to analyse data to detect any significant differences. Rainfall is slightly acid (pH 5.96+0.35) with a predominance of NH4-N, Ca and K. Throughfall and stemflow are enriched in most elements analysed compared to rainfall and the pH values are lower. Throughfall pH is 4.76±0.33 in mixed swamp forest and 4.37±0.33 in low pole forest. Stemflow pH is 4.03±0.19 in mixed swamp forest and 3.57±0.11 in low pole forest. Greater litter production was obtained in mixed swamp forest (8,411 kg ha-1 yr-1) than in low pole forest (6,534 kg ha-1 yr-1). Dry weight of the different fractions of litterfall (leaves, branches, reproductive parts and other debris) for MSF and LPF were 6216,1246, 460 and 489 kg ha-1 and 4864,1251,169 and 251 kg ha-1, respectively. Decomposition rates (k) in the MSF and LPF are 0.396 yr-1and 0.285 yr-1 respectively. Above ground biomass in MSF and LPF are 313,899 and 252,547 kg ha-1 respectively, while below ground (root biomass) is 26,533 and 14,382 kg ha respectively. Nitrogen is the predominant nutrient in peat soil at 50 cm depth in both MSF and LPF, while manganese is the lowest. Calcium is the element in greatest amount in water run off in MSF and LPF at 8,15 and 7.15 kg ha-1 yr-1 respectively, while manganese was the lowest at 0.01 and 0.02 kg ha-1 yr-1, respectively. Nutrient inputs were higher than nutrient losses during the 1-year study period with the greatest nutrient gain for calcium while manganese was the lowest in both sub-types of forest. Moreover, the results of this study highlight that nutrient concentrations in peat soils are low and the substrates are acidic. These factors are likely to be strongly limiting to agricultural development, including plantations of estate crops and trees. Under such conditions the maintenance of intact forest for natural ecosystem services (e. g. carbon storage, watershed, biodiversity maintenance, timber production in certain time period) is likely to be a far wiser land use from a long-term perspective.
Deep Echo State Network (DeepESN): A Brief Survey

The study of deep recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and, in particular, of deep Reservoir Computing (RC) is gaining an increasing research attention in the neural networks community. The recently introduced deep Echo State Network (deepESN) model opened the way to an extremely efficient approach for designing deep neural networks for temporal data. At the same time, the study of deepESNs allowed to shed light on the intrinsic properties of state dynamics developed by hierarchical compositions of recurrent layers, i.e. on the bias of depth in RNNs architectural design. In this paper, we summarize the advancements in the development, analysis and applications of deepESNs.
Management of In-Flight Medical Emergencies: Are Senior Medical Students Prepared to Respond to this Community Need?

Introduction In-flight medical emergencies on commercial aircraft are common in both domestic and international flights. We hypothesized that fourth-year medical students feel inadequately prepared to lend assistance during in-flight medical emergencies. This multicenter study of two U.S. medical schools obtains a baseline assessment of knowledge and confidence in managing in-flight medical emergencies. Methods A 25-question survey was administered to fourth-year medical students at two United States medical schools. Questions included baseline knowledge of in-flight medicine (10 questions) and perceived ability to respond to in-flight medical emergencies. Results 229 participants completed the survey (75% response rate). The average score on the fund of knowledge questions was 64%. Responses to the 5-point Likert scale questions indicated that, on average, students did not feel confident or competent responding to an in-flight medical emergency. Participants on average also disagreed with statements that they had adequate understanding of supplies, flight crew training, and ground-based management. Conclusion This multicenter survey indicates that fourth-year medical students do not feel adequately prepared to respond to in-flight medical emergencies and may have sub-optimal knowledge. This study provides an initial step in identifying a deficiency in current medical education.
Air-Sea Heat Exchanges Characteristic of a Prominent Midlatitude Oceanic Front in the South Indian Ocean as Simulated in a High-Resolution Coupled GCM

Abstract An integration of a high-resolution coupled general circulation model whose ocean component is eddy permitting and thus able to reproduce a sharp gradient in sea surface temperature (SST) is analyzed to investigate air–sea heat exchanges characteristic of the midlatitude oceanic frontal zone. The focus of this paper is placed on a prominent SST front in the south Indian Ocean, which is collocated with the core of the Southern Hemisphere storm track. Time-mean distribution of sensible heat flux is characterized by a distinct cross-frontal contrast. It is upward and downward on the warmer and cooler flanks, respectively, of the SST front, acting to maintain the sharp gradient of surface air temperature (SAT) that is important for preconditioning the environment for the recurrent development of storms and thereby anchoring the storm track. Induced by cross-frontal advection of cold (warm) air associated with migratory atmospheric disturbances, the surface flux is highly variable with intermittent en.
A New Piecewise Linear Hyperchaotic Circuit

When the polarity information in diffusionless Lorenz equations is preserved or removed, a new piecewise linear hyperchaotic system results with only signum and absolute-value nonlinearities. Dynamical equations have seven terms without any quadratic or higher order polynomials and, to our knowledge, are the simplest hyperchaotic system. Therefore, a relatively simple hyperchaotic circuit using diodes is constructed. The circuit requires no multipliers or inductors, as are present in other hyperchaotic circuits, and it has not been previously reported.
International Capital Mobility Revisited : Resurrecting the Feldstein-Horioka Hypothesis *

In this paper we resolve the long standing Feldstein-Horioka (FH, 1980) puzzle dynamically and explain it statistically. We first study the dynamic properties of capital mobility, and re-estimate the evolution of the FH coefficient using a time-varying-parameter model for each of 67 countries from 1970 to 2009. We find that the trend of the FH coefficient is highly consistent with increased global financial integration. We then rigorously test this notion by examining the relation between our new dynamic estimate of the FH coefficient, per year and per country, and a measure of global financial integration by Lane and Milesi-Ferretti (2007). We are able to reaffirm that, in this dynamic sense the FH puzzle is "resolved". Next, we re-focus on the FH puzzle in cross-sectional sense. We argue that the FH coefficient contains information not only about capital mobility, but also capital market imperfection. We examine this argument by considering a capital market openness index (Chinn and Ito, 2008). Our empirical findings show that financial market imperfections influence the viability of FH coefficient in measuring capital mobility. Specifically, across countries, the FH coefficient is more likely to reveal information about international capital mobility only in deregulated financial markets.