Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is the Brewer‐Dobson circulation increasing or moving upward?

The meridional circulation of the stratosphere, or Brewer‐Dobson circulation (BDC), is projected to accelerate with increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. The acceleration is typically quantified by changes in the tropical upward mass flux (Ftrop) across a given pressure surface. Simultaneously, models project a lifting of the entire atmospheric circulation in response to GHGs; notably, the tropopause rises about a kilometer over this century. In this study, it is shown that most of the BDC trend is associated with the rise in the circulation. Using a chemistry‐climate model (CCM), Ftrop trends across 100 hPa are contrasted with those across the tropopause: while Ftrop at 100 hPa increases 1–2 %/decade, the mass flux entering the atmosphere above the tropopause actually decreases. Similar results are found for other CCMs, suggesting that changes in the BDC may better be described as an upward shift of the circulation, as opposed to an increase, with implications for the mechanism and stratosphere‐troposphere exchange.
Cyberbullying Detection using Time Series Modeling

Cyber bullying is a new phenomenon resulting from the advance of new communication technologies including the Internet, cell phones and Personal Digital Assistants. It is a challenging bullying problem occurring in a new territory. Online bullying can be particularly damaging and upsetting because it's usually anonymous or hard to trace. In this paper, the proposed method is utilizing a dataset of real world conversations (i.e. Pairs of questions and answers between cyber predator and the victim), in which each predator question is manually annotated in terms of severity using a numeric label. We approach the issue as a sequential data modelling approach, in which the predator's questions are formulated using a Singular Value Decomposition representation. The motivation of this procedure is to study the accuracy of predicting the level of cyber bullying attack using classification methods and also to examine potential patterns between the lingustic style of each predator. More specifically, unlike previous approaches that consider a fixed window of a cyber-predator's questions within a dialogue, we exploit the whole question set and model it as a signal, whose magnitude depends on the degree of bullying content. Using feature weighting and dimensionality reduction techniques, each signal is straightforwardly parsed by a neural network that forecasts the level of insult within a question given a window between two and three previous questions. Throughout the time series modeling experiments, an interesting discovery was made. By applying SVD on the time series data and taking into account the second dimension (since the first is usually modeling trivial dependencies between instances and attributes) we observed that its plot was very similar to the plot of the class attribute. By applying a Dynamic Time Warping algorithm, the similarity of the aforementioned signals was proved to exist, providing an immediate indicator for the severity of cyber bullying within a given dialogue.
A Polynomial Translation of S4 into T and Contraction-Free Tableaux for S4

The concern of this paper is the study of automated deduction methods for propositional modal logics. We use tableau proof-systems to show that Fitting's translation of the transitive modal logic S4 into T can be constructed in deterministic polynomial time. This result is exploited in order to establish a polynomial bound to the length of branches in both tableau and sequent proof search for the transitive logics S4 and K4. This allows the elimination of \periodicity tests" when proving S4-validity; moreover, it provides directly a form of \contraction elimination result" in modal sequent calculi, in the sense that the number of contractions needed in a branch of a sequent proof need not exceed a given polynomial function of the endsequent. In order to obtain a complete contraction free fragment of the sequent calculus for S4, Mints's translation of modal formulae into modal clauses is used. Mints's notion of modal clause is also used to provide polynomial translations of S4 and K4 into K, by means of a preliminary (polynomial) rewriting of the input formulae into clausal form.
Online and Distance Learning: Information Science Reference Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data British Cataloguing in Publication Data Fast Prototyping as a Communication Catalyst for E-learning Design Introduction: Some Issues in Large E-learning Projects

Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this encyclopedia set is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this encyclopedia set are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher. ABSTRACT This chapter proposes a renewed perspective on a known project management model, fast proto-typing, which was adapted for the specific issues of e-learning development. Based on extensive experience with large e-learning projects, we argue that this model has a positive impact on e-learning project team communication, and that it provides a good basis for effective management of the design and development process, with specific stress on human-factor management. The chapter stems from the experience gained at the eLab (e-learning laboratory— www.elearninglab.org), a lab run jointly by the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI —University of Lugano) and the Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI—University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland) in Switzerland. It contains three case studies of different applications of the fast prototyping model and has a strongly practical focus.
Categorical and coordinate visuospatial processing in younger and older adults

In this thesis, four experiments were conducted in which participants made a categorical or coordinate spatial relation judgement concerning the location of a dot in relation to a bar. The main aim was to investigate how, if at all, categorical and coordinate VS processes changed with older age. In addition, the importance of task demand and the underlying cognitive processes involved in categorical and coordinate VS judgements were also examined. In every experiment participants were faster and more accurate to make categorical visuospatial judgements than coordinate visuospatial judgements. This was taken to suggest that categorical visuospatial judgements are less demanding than coordinate visuospatial judgements. Younger adults were also found to process visuospatial information more quickly than older adults; however, accuracy rates and discrimination ability were similar. Furthermore, in contrast to expectation, coordinate visuospatial processes were not disproportionately affected by age-related decline. Processing of categorical and coordinate visuospatial judgements was found to be affected by the distance of the dot from the bar and by the visual field in which stimuli were presented. However, the inconsistent effects of visual field across experiments made interpretation of these findings difficult. Experiment 4 examined patterns of eye movements associated with categorical and coordinate visuospatial processes to gain insight into the underlying cognitive processes. The results indicated that visuospatial cognitive processing that occurs for above/below and near/far judgements is often qualitatively different from that which occurs when the task required precise distance estimation. In conclusion, the experiments presented in this thesis provide significant insight into the cognitive processes associated with categorical and coordinate visuospatial judgements.
Influence of annual weather on growth of pedunculate oak in southern Sweden

Abstract• A network of oak (Quercus robur L.) chronologies containing 49 sites and 635 single trees was analysed to identify weather variables affecting annual tree-ring increment dynamics in southern Sweden during 1860–2000. • We analysed (1) the growth response of oak to non-extreme weather, and (2) the temporal and spatial patterns of regional growth anomalies (pointer years) and associated climatic extremes resolved on a monthly scale. • Growth was controlled by precipitation in the current (June–July) and the previous growing season (August) in 48% and 22% of all sites, respectively. Temperature during July of the current year and August of the previous year was negatively correlated with growth in 29% and 43% of the sites, respectively. Growth was positively correlated with temperature in October of the previous season in 72% of the sites. The most extensive growth anomaly occurred in 1965 and was probably caused by intrusion of cold Arctic air masses into the region at the end of March that year. • During climatically non-extreme years, oak growth is driven mostly by the dynamics of summer precipitation. Many of the negative growth anomalies, however, were associated with temperature extremes. Southern Swedish oak pointer years tend not to coincide with the pan-European oak pointer years. Résumé• Une série de chronologies de chênes (Quercus robur L.) comprenant 49 stations et 635 arbres individuels a été analysée pour identifier les variables climatiques affectant la dynamique de croissance annuelle des cernes dans le Sud de la Suède, pendant la période 1860–2000. • Nous avons analysé (1) la réponse de croissance des chênes aux événements météorologiques non extrêmes et (2) les patrons temporels et spatiaux des anomalies régionales de croissance (années indices) et les extrêmes climatiques associés au pas de temps mensuel. • La croissance était contrôlée par les précipitations de la saison de végétation (juin–juillet) et les précipitations de la saison de végétation précédente (août), respectivement dans 48 % et 22 % de toutes les stations. Les températures du mois de juillet de la saison de végétation et du mois d’août de l’année précédente étaient corrélées négativement avec la croissance, respectivement dans 29 % et 43 % des stations. La croissance était corrélée positivement avec la température du mois d’octobre de l’année précédente dans 72 % des stations. L’anomalie de croissance la plus considérable est arrivée en 1965 et a été causée probablement par l’intrusion de masses d’air froid arctique dans la région, à la fin du mois de mars. • Pendant les années climatiquement non-extrêmes, la croissance du chêne est principalement commandée par la dynamique des précipitations estivales. Cependant, beaucoup d’anomalies négatives de croissance ont été associées avec des extrêmes de température. Les années indices du Sud de la Suède ont tendance a ne pas coïncider avec les années indices pan-européennes.
H/sup /spl infin// control and estimation with preview-part II: fixed-size ARE solutions in discrete time

H/sup /spl infin// preview control and fixed-lag smoothing problems are solved in general discrete time linear systems, via a reduction to equivalent open-loop differential games. To prevent high order Riccati equations, found in some solutions, the state of the Hamilton-Jacobi system resides in a quotient space of an auxiliary extended state space system. The dimension of that auxiliary space is equal to the state space dimension of the original system (ignoring the delay).
Eager Aggregation and Lazy Aggregation

Efficient processing of aggregation queries is essential for decision support applications. This paper describes a class of query transformations, called eager aggregation and laty aggregation, that allows a query optimizer to move group-by operations up and down the query tree. Eager aggregation partially pushes a groupby past a join. After a group-by is partially pushed down, we still need to perform the original groupby in the upper query block. Eager aggregation reduces the number of input rows to the join and thus may result in a better overall plan. The reverse transformation, lazy aggregation, pulls a group-by above a join and combines two group-by operations into one. This transformation is typically of interest when an aggregation query references a grouped view (a view containing a groupby). Experimental results show that the technique is very beneficial for queries in the TPC-D benchmark.
Rapid opiate detoxification and antagonist induction under general anaesthesia or intravenous sedation is humane, sometimes essential and should always be an option. Three illustrative case reports involving diabetes and epilepsy and a review of the literature

When abstinence is an appropriate goal, controlled studies and systematic reviews confirm that rapid, antagonist-precipitated opiate withdrawal procedures are the most effective and cost effective methods of initiating abstinence, and naltrexone (NTX) maintenance. While ‘rapid’ withdrawal, better conceptualised as Rapid Antagonist Induction (RAI), can often be humanely achieved with modest sedation levels, we present three case histories to support our argument that for some patients, general anaesthesia (GA), or techniques of intravenous sedation (IVS) that approach GA, are essential for safety and success. This includes patients with intercurrent disease (e.g. epilepsy or insulin-dependent diabetes) but also those with severe withdrawal phobia after previous distressing experiences. We discuss the history of the procedure. The dangers of RAI under GA or IVS in experienced hands have been exaggerated and the appropriate expertise should be more easily available. Patients and clinicians readily accept risks of major surgery for the excessive intake of food that causes most obesity. Similar risk-acceptance exists in cosmetic surgery and obstetrics. The increasing use and effectiveness of long-acting implants or depot-injections of NTX for relapse-prevention have largely solved compliance problems that undermined the potential of oral NTX. Their ability to prevent opiate overdose in abstinent, non-tolerant patients also strengthens arguments both for offering RAI as a therapeutic option and for reducing psychological, professional and practical barriers to using it.
Relationship between corn vitreousness and ruminal in situ starch degradability.

The objective of this experiment was to determine the relationship between corn kernel vitreousness and ruminal in situ starch degradation. Fourteen U.S. and five Brazilian corn hybrids cultivated in their respective countries were evaluated. The U.S. dent hybrids were harvested at one-half milk line, black layer, and 21 d after black layer stages of maturity. Brazilian flint hybrids were harvested only at the latest stage of maturity. Vitreousness was determined by manual dissection of the kernels. Ruminal in situ degradation of starch was determined in three lactating Holstein cows fitted with ruminal cannulae. Vitreousness of the five mature Brazilian hybrids averaged 73.1% (range of 64.2% to 80.0%), while vitreousness of the 14 mature U.S. hybrids averaged 48.2% (range of 34.9% to 62.3%). Within the 14 U.S. hybrids, average vitreousness increased from 42.8% to 48.2% as stage of maturity progressed from one-half milk line to 21 d after black layer. The correlation between kernel density and vitreousness was 0.87. The correlations between kernel vitreousness or density and ruminal starch availability were -0.93 and -0.87, respectively. With advancing maturity, kernel vitreousness and density increased while ruminal starch availability decreased. Kernel vitreousness and density may be useful parameters for which to select corn hybrids for high ruminal starch availability. Density may be a more practical measurement than vitreousness for screening large corn data sets.
A floating-point arithmetic error analysis of direct and indirect coefficient updating techniques for adaptive lattice filters

The ways in which finite precision arithmetic effects can deleteriously manifest themselves in both the stochastic gradient and the recursive least squares adaptive lattice filters are discussed. closed form expressions are derived for the steady-state variance of the accumulated arithmetic error in a single adaptive lattice coefficient using a floating-point stochastic arithmetic error analysis. The analytical results show that the performance of adaptive lattice filters using a direct updating computational form is less sensitive to finite precision effects than that of adaptive lattice filters using an indirect updating computational form. In addition, a method for reducing the self-generated noise is presented. Experimental results obtained on a 32-b floating-point hardware implementation of the adaptive lattice filters and with computer simulations are included to verify the analytical results describing the effects of finite precision on adaptive lattice filters. >
The shirking model--a theory of how people answer survey questions

This thesis explores survey responses in an attempt to uncover behavior that might indicate that respondents are not exerting sufficient effort to ensure reliable responses. By developing a rational choice theory about survey response behavior, new tests for examining how respondents behave when answering opinion questions are established. The first and most important problem addressed in this work is the identification of respondents who shirk by providing responses that are not fully thought-out. Assuming that shirking behavior is indicated by ``no opinion' responses, this work explores the frequency and sources of this behavior. The results from this analysis provide useful recommendations for survey design. However, to further explore the implications of shirking behavior a new measure of shirking is proposed. This measure, based on survey response times, enables an examination of the implications of shirking behavior and proposes possible ways by which shirking behavior might be accounted for in the analysis of survey data. The results from this work suggest that if analysts want to ensure that accurate results drawn from survey data, consideration should be given to the likelihood that respondents shirk in answering survey questions.
Oxford Handbook of Human Action

1. Basic Principles, Systems, and Phenomena 2. The Activation, Selection, and Expression of Action 3. Action and Mental Representation 4. Affect, Goals, and Motivation 5. The Origins and Sources of Action 6. Control, Choice, and Volition 7. Phenomenal and Metacognitive Components of Action
Sticking the Landing: An Asymptotically Zero-Variance Gradient Estimator for Variational Inference

We propose a simple and general variant of the standard reparameterized gradient estimator for the variational evidence lower bound. Speciﬁ-cally, we remove a part of the total derivative with respect to the variational parameters that corresponds to the score function. Removing this term produces an unbiased gradient estimator whose variance approaches zero as the approximate posterior approaches the exact posterior. We analyze the behavior of this gradient estimator theoretically and empirically, and generalize it to more complex variational distributions such as mixtures and importance-weighted posteriors.
Saikosaponin A mediates the inflammatory response by inhibiting the MAPK and NF-κB pathways in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells

Saikosaponin A (SSA) is a major triterpenoid saponin isolated from Radix bupleuri (RB), a widely used Chinese traditional medicine to treat various inflammation-related diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity, as well as the molecular mechanism of SSA in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. In this study, we demonstrated that SSA markedly inhibits the expression of certain immune-related cytotoxic factors, including cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS), as well as pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6. It also significantly upregulates the expression of IL-10, an important anti-inflammatory cytokine, suggesting its anti-inflammatory activity in LPS-stimulated macrophages. We further demonstrated that SSA inhibits the activation of the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway by suppressing the phosphorylation of inhibitory NF-κB inhibitor α (IκBα) and thus holding p65 NF-κB in the cytoplasm to prevent its translocation to the nucleus. In addition, SSA also inhibits the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway by downregulating the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (c-JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), the three key components of the MAPK family. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that SSA has an anti-inflammatory effect by regulating inflammatory mediators and suppressing the MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.
Patterns and drivers of intraspecific variation in avian life history along elevational gradients: a meta‐analysis

Elevational gradients provide powerful natural systems for testing hypotheses regarding the role of environmental variation in the evolution of life‐history strategies. Case studies have revealed shifts towards slower life histories in organisms living at high elevations yet no synthetic analyses exist of elevational variation in life‐history traits for major vertebrate clades. We examined (i) how life‐history traits change with elevation in paired populations of bird species worldwide, and (ii) which biotic and abiotic factors drive elevational shifts in life history. Using three analytical methods, we found that fecundity declined at higher elevations due to smaller clutches and fewer reproductive attempts per year. By contrast, elevational differences in traits associated with parental investment or survival varied among studies. High‐elevation populations had shorter and later breeding seasons, but longer developmental periods implying that temporal constraints contribute to reduced fecundity. Analyses of clutch size data, the trait for which we had the largest number of population comparisons, indicated no evidence that phylogenetic history constrained species‐level plasticity in trait variation associated with elevational gradients. The magnitude of elevational shifts in life‐history traits were largely unrelated to geographic (altitude, latitude), intrinsic (body mass, migratory status), or habitat covariates. Meta‐population structure, methodological issues associated with estimating survival, or processes shaping range boundaries could potentially explain the nature of elevational shifts in life‐history traits evident in this data set. We identify a new risk factor for montane populations in changing climates: low fecundity will result in lower reproductive potential to recover from perturbations, especially as fewer than half of the species experienced higher survival at higher elevations.