Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Geospatial Appraisal of Ecological and Geomorphic Change on Diego Garcia Atoll, Chagos Islands (British Indian OceanTerritory)

This study compiled a wide range of modern and historic geospatial datasets to examine ecological and geomorphic change at Diego Garcia Atoll across a 38-year period (1967–2005). This remarkable collection of spatially referenced information offered an opportunity to advance our understanding of the nature and extent of environmental change that has taken place with the construction of the military airbase at Diego Garcia. Changes assessed included movements of the lagoon rim shorelines, changes in the terrestrial vegetation on the lagoon rim and amendments to the bathymetry of the lagoon basin through dredging activities. Data compiled included detailed shoreline and vegetation maps produced as part of the H.M.S. Vidal Indian Ocean Expedition (1967), three Ikonos satellite images acquired in 2005 that collectively covered the complete Atoll area, a ground truthing field dataset collected in the northern section of the lagoon for the purpose of seafloor mapping (2005), observational evidence of shoreline erosion including photographs and descriptions of seawater inundations and bathymetric soundings from five independent surveys of the lagoon floor (1967, 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1997). Results indicated that much of the change along the lagoon rim is associated with the expansion of the inner lagoon shoreline as a result of the construction of the military airbase, with an estimated increase in land area of 3.01 km2 in this portion of the atoll rim. Comparisons of 69 rim width transects measured from 1967 and 2005 indicated that shorelines are both eroding (26 transects) and accreting (43 transects). Within a total vegetated area of 24 km2, there was a notable transition from Cocos Woodland to Broadleaf Woodland for a land area of 5.6 km2. From the hydrographic surveys, it was estimated that approximately 0.55 km3 of carbonate sediment material has been removed from the northwest quadrant of the lagoon, particularly in the vicinity of the Main Passage. As no previous record of benthic character exists, a complete benthic habitat map of the atoll was derived through classification of the three IKONOS satellite images. Management implications arising from this overall appraisal of geomorphic and ecological change at Diego Garcia included the need for ongoing monitoring of shoreline change at a representative set of sites around the atoll rim, monitoring of the water flow regime through the northern channels between the open ocean and the lagoon basin and an ongoing mapping campaign to record periodic changes in the character of the benthic surface ecology.
Red plumage and its association with reproductive success in red-capped robins

Red plumage is produced mainly by deposition of carotenoid'pigments into the feathers, and is assumed to be costly. Recent studies suggest red plumage may be a condition-dependent, sexually selected signal. To date, few studies have explored the relationship between carotenoid-based plumage colour and genetic (realised) reproductive success. This is despite the rarity of genetic monogamy among. avian mating systems. We studied. this-relationship. in the red-capped robin (Petroica goodenovii) across two breeding seasons, using spectrophotometric techniques, to score colour and molecular markers to assign paternity. Males with the highest. within-pair. reproductive success during the first season moulted into,the most colourful plumage at the conclusion of that season. We found;no such correlations, when using putative measures of reproductive success, underlining the importance of unambiguous paternity assignment. However, males that moulted into the most, colourful plumage did not go on to attain highest. reproductive success during-the, subsequent breeding season (while displaying this plumage). Instead, variation in male reproductive success was explained by male body condition and age. These results suggest that the information value of male-plumage colour is unpredictable.
Structural and evolutionary classification of G/U wobble basepairs in the ribosome

We present a comprehensive structural, evolutionary and molecular dynamics (MD) study of the G/U wobble basepairs in the ribosome based on high-resolution crystal structures, including the recent Escherichia coli structure. These basepairs are classified according to their tertiary interactions, and sequence conservation at their positions is determined. G/U basepairs participating in tertiary interactions are more conserved than those lacking any interactions. Specific interactions occurring in the G/U shallow groove pocket—like packing interactions (P-interactions) and some phosphate backbone interactions (phosphate-in-pocket interactions)—lead to higher G/U conservation than others. Two salient cases of unique phylogenetic compensation are discovered. First, a P-interaction is conserved through a series of compensatory mutations involving all four participating nucleotides to preserve or restore the G/U in the optimal orientation. Second, a G/U basepair forming a P-interaction and another one forming a phosphate-in-pocket interaction are replaced by GNRA loops that maintain similar tertiary contacts. MD simulations were carried out on eight P-interactions. The specific GU/CG signature of this interaction observed in structure and sequence analysis was rationalized, and can now be used for improving sequence alignments.
Embedded systems security: Threats, vulnerabilities, and attack taxonomy

Embedded systems are the driving force for technological development in many domains such as automotive, healthcare, and industrial control in the emerging post-PC era. As more and more computational and networked devices are integrated into all aspects of our lives in a pervasive and “invisible” way, security becomes critical for the dependability of all smart or intelligent systems built upon these embedded systems. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of the existing threats and vulnerabilities in embedded systems based on public available data. Moreover, based on the information, we derive an attack taxonomy for embedded systems. We envision that the findings in this paper provide a valuable insight of the threat landscape facing embedded systems. The knowledge can be used for a better understanding and the identification of security risks in system analysis and design.
On the delay lower bound for the emergency message dissemination in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Active safety in vehicular environment can be achieved by means of installation of the wireless equipment on the boards of cars. Design of highly efficient protocols for car-to-car communications is a challenging task. If an emergency situation happens on the road, the information about it should be disseminated to the stakeholders with low delay and high reliability. In this paper, we derive a theoretical lower bound for the mean message transmission delay in multi-hop vehicular ad-hoc networks.
AspC-Mediated Aspartate Metabolism Coordinates the Escherichia coli Cell Cycle

Background The fast-growing bacterial cell cycle consists of at least two independent cycles of chromosome replication and cell division. To ensure proper cell cycles and viability, chromosome replication and cell division must be coordinated. It has been suggested that metabolism could affect the Escherichia coli cell cycle, but the idea is still lacking solid evidences. Methodology/Principle Findings We found that absence of AspC, an aminotransferase that catalyzes synthesis of aspartate, led to generation of small cells with less origins and slow growth. In contrast, excess AspC was found to exert the opposite effect. Further analysis showed that AspC-mediated aspartate metabolism had a specific effect in the cell cycle, as only extra aspartate of the 20 amino acids triggered production of bigger cells with more origins per cell and faster growth. The amount of DnaA protein per cell was found to be changed in response to the availability of AspC. Depletion of (p)ppGpp by ΔrelAΔspoT led to a slight delay in initiation of replication, but did not change the replication pattern found in the ΔaspC mutant. Conclusion/Significances The results suggest that AspC-mediated metabolism of aspartate coordinates the E. coli cell cycle through altering the amount of the initiator protein DnaA per cell and the division signal UDP-glucose. Furthermore, AspC sequence conservation suggests similar functions in other organisms.
Optimalization of Poly(neutral red) Coated-wire Electrode for Determination of Citrate in Soft Drinks

This report presents an optimization of potentiometric measurements with citrate-selective electropolymerized poly(neutral red) electrodes. The optimal background electrolyte for these measurements is a TRIS buffer with nitrate at pH 8.5. The electrodes described here exhibit stable and reproducible near-Nernstian response to citrates with a low detection limit of 6 × 10-6 M. Electrodes polymerized from sulfuric acid and acetonitrile are compared in detail. Simple and sensitive method for quantification of citrate in real-life samples by potentiometry with poly(neutral red) electrodes are presented. Data from potentiometric measurements of citrate are compared with capillary electrophoresis.
Parsing of Grammatical Relations for Databases of Spoken Language

Despite the significant advances in syntactic parsing o f written text, the application of these techniques to spontaneous spoken language has received more limited attention. The explosive growth of available corpora of transcribed spoken language opens up new opportunities in that direction. High accuracy parsers for spoken language will in turn provide a pl atform for development of a wide range of applications, as well as for advanced research on the n ature of conversational interactions. One concrete field that is ripe for the application of such parsing to ols is the study of child language acquisition. In this proposal, I describe a plan for developing a new a pproach for analyzing the syntactic structure of spontaneous conversational language in parent -child interactions. Specific emphasis is placed on the challenge of accurately annotating the English co rpora in the CHILDES database with grammatical relations that are of particular interest and utility to researchers in child language acquisition. This work will involve rule-based and corpus-based natural language processing techniques, as well as a methodology for combining results from differe nt approaches into a high-performance system. One practical application of this research is the auto ma ion of language competence measures used by clinicians and researchers of child language development. I will implement an automatic version of one such measurement scheme, providing not only a useful too l for the child language research community, but also a task-based evaluation framework for grammatical rel tion identification.
Transparent motion perception as detection of unbalanced motion signals. I. Psychophysics

Our visual system can solve the difficult problem of representing multiple motions in the same part of the visual space, the motion transparency problem. We investigated the conditions under which transparent motion perception occurs through psychophysical observations, using a series of visual displays composed of two simple patterns moving in opposite directions. We found that whenever a display has finely balanced opposing motion signals in all local regions, it is perceptually nontransparent. The displays that appeared transparent always contain locally unbalanced motion signals, with some local regions having net motion signals in one direction and some other regions in the opposite direction. These interdigitating net motion signals in both directions appear to be integrated separately to form two overlapping transparent surfaces. Displays that were spatially balanced could be made perceptually transparent if the two components moving in opposite directions were at different stereo depth planes or had different spatial frequency contents. Our results can be explained by proposing a disparity- and spatial frequency-specific suppression stage in the motion pathway, at which motion signals of different directions, but of the same disparity and spatial frequency contents, locally inhibit each other. Such a mechanism would suppress noise input to the motion system, which generally activates several direction channels simultaneously, and would still not eliminate activity evoked by transparent surfaces that are at different depths or have different textures.
QUASARS PROBING QUASARS. VI. EXCESS H i ABSORPTION WITHIN ONE PROPER Mpc OF z ∼ 2 QUASARS

With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We use a sample of 650 projected quasar pairs to study the H i Lyα absorption transverse to luminous, z ∼ 2 quasars at proper separations of 30 kpc < R⊥ < 1 Mpc. In contrast to measurements along the line-of-sight, regions transverse to quasars exhibit enhanced H i Lyα absorption and a larger variance than the ambient intergalactic medium, with increasing absorption and variance toward smaller scales. Analysis of composite spectra reveals excess absorption characterized by a Lyα equivalent width profile W = 2.3 Å (R⊥/100 kpc)−0.46. We also observe a high (≃ 60%) covering factor of strong, optically thick H i absorbers (H i column 10^{17.3}\, {\rm cm^{-2}}$? >) at separations R⊥ < 200 kpc, which decreases to ∼20% at R⊥ ≃ 1 Mpc, but still represents a significant excess over the cosmic average. This excess of optically thick absorption can be described by a quasar-absorber cross-correlation function ξQA(r) = (r/r0)γ with a large correlation length (comoving) and . The H i absorption measured around quasars exceeds that of any previously studied population, consistent with quasars being hosted by massive dark matter halos Mhalo ≈ 1012.5 M☉ at z ∼ 2.5. The environments of these massive halos are highly biased toward producing optically thick gas, and may even dominate the cosmic abundance of Lyman limit systems and hence the intergalactic opacity to ionizing photons at z ∼ 2.5. The anisotropic absorption around quasars implies the transverse direction is much less likely to be illuminated by ionizing radiation than the line-of-sight.
User-assisted ink-bleed correction for handwritten documents

We describe a user-assisted framework for correcting ink-bleed in old handwritten documents housed at the National Archives of Singapore (NAS). Our approach departs from traditional correction techniques that strive for full automation. Fully-automated approaches make assumptions about ink-bleed characteristics that are not valid for all inputs. Furthermore, fully-automated approaches often have to set algorithmic parameters that have no meaning for the end-user. In our system, the user needs only to provide simple examples of ink-bleed, foreground ink, and background. These training examples are used to classify the remaining pixels in the document to produce a computer-generated result that is equal to or better than existing fully-automated approaches. To offer a complete system, we also provide tools that allow any errors in the computer-generated results to be quickly "cleaned up" by the user. The initial training markup, together with the computer-generated results, and manual edits are all recorded with the final output, allowing subsequent viewers to see how a corrected document was created and to make changes or updates. While an ongoing project, our feedback from the NAS staff has been overwhelmingly positive that this user-assisted framework is a practical way to address the ink-bleed problem.
Sparse Deep Stacking Network for Image Classification

Sparse coding can learn good robust representation to noise and model more higher-order representation for image classification. However, the inference algorithm is computationally expensive even though the supervised signals are used to learn compact and discriminative dictionaries in sparse coding techniques. Luckily, a simplified neural network module (SNNM) has been proposed to directly learn the discriminative dictionaries for avoiding the expensive inference. But the SNNM module ignores the sparse representations. Therefore, we propose a sparse SNNM module by adding the mixed-norm regularization (l1/l2 norm). The sparse SNNM modules are further stacked to build a sparse deep stacking network (S-DSN). In the experiments, we evaluate S-DSN with four databases, including Extended YaleB, AR, 15 scene and Caltech101. Experimental results show that our model outperforms related classification methods with only a linear classifier. It is worth noting that we reach 98.8% recognition accuracy on 15 scene.
Lattice Zariski k-ples of Plane Sextic Curves and Z-Splitting Curves for Double Plane Sextics

A simple sextic is a reduced complex projective plane curve of degree 6 with only simple singularities. We introduce a notion of Z-splitting curves for the double covering of the projective plane branching along a simple sextic, and investigate lattice Zariski k-ples of simple sextics by Z-splitting curves. We define specialization of lattice types, and classify all lattice types of Z-splitting curves of degree less than or equal to 3 up to specializations.
Media and Occupational Choice

We address the question of whether media influences occupational choices. To theoretically examine media effects, we construct a dynamic Bayesian occupational choice model with sequential decisions under ambiguity due to imperfect information. We show that sufficiently intensive positive media articles and reports about entrepreneurship increase the probability of self-employment and decrease the probability of wage work. To test our model, we use an instrumental variable approach to identify causal media effects using US micro data and a country-level macro panel with two different media variables. We find that an increase in positive media articles and reports about entrepreneurs generates effects on choice probabilities that are consistent with our model.
Circadian variation in abomasal digesta flow in grazing ewes during lactation

1. Lactating grazing ewes, fistulated at the rumen and abomasum were either not supplemented or offered, individually, 600 g/d of either pelleted, molassed sugar-beet pulp (‘energy’ supplement) or a pelleted 1:1 (w/w) mixture of this feed and formaldehyde-treated soya-bean meal (‘protein’ supplement). Digesta flows at the abomasum were estimated from the concentrations of the markers CrEDTA and ruthenium phenanthroline complex, during their administration by continuous intra-rumen infusion. Digesta samples were taken at 09.00 hours and at six further times at 4 h intervals. This was repeated 2 d later. 2. No significant difference in flow between days was noted. Daily flows of dry matter (DM) and non-ammonia-nitrogen (NAN) (g/d) in supplemented ewes were significantly higher than in unsupplemented ewes, both in total digesta and its particulate phase. However, there were significant differences between sampling times or significant interactions between sampling time and supplement treatment. The results were therefore examined by Fourier analysis for possible circadian variation in digesta flow. As there was marked between-animal variability in flow-rate, the digesta-flow values for each sampling time were re-expressed as percentages of the flows calculated from daily mean marker concentrations. 3. In unsupplemented animals, marked and significant circadian variation was then identified in the flow of DM, total N and NAN in both whole digesta and the particulate phase. There was also significant circadian variation in the flow of DM, total N and NAN in the digesta of the supplemented ewes. Curves were of the same general shape as those for unsupplemented animals, but some significant differences were found, principally for digesta NAN flow. In both supplemented and unsupplemented animals, peak flows occurred in the period 20.00-01.00 hours. The proportion of DM and NAN flowing in the particulate phase was relatively constant through the day for unsupplemented ewes, but significant circadian variation occurred for supplemented ewes. 4. The possible mechanisms generating the circadian variation in digesta flow, such as grazing behaviour and the rumen digestion of supplements, are discussed. Values are also presented to indicate the extent of the likely errors if digesta flows were estimated from samples which did not represent all stages of the circadian pattern.
Junctional Adhesion Molecule, a Novel Member of the Immunoglobulin Superfamily That Distributes at Intercellular Junctions and Modulates Monocyte Transmigration

Tight junctions are the most apical components of endothelial and epithelial intercellular cleft. In the endothelium these structures play an important role in the control of paracellular permeability to circulating cells and solutes. The only known integral membrane protein localized at sites of membrane–membrane interaction of tight junctions is occludin, which is linked inside the cells to a complex network of cytoskeletal and signaling proteins. We report here the identification of a novel protein (junctional adhesion molecule [JAM]) that is selectively concentrated at intercellular junctions of endothelial and epithelial cells of different origins. Confocal and immunoelectron microscopy shows that JAM codistributes with tight junction components at the apical region of the intercellular cleft. A cDNA clone encoding JAM defines a novel immunoglobulin gene superfamily member that consists of two V-type Ig domains. An mAb directed to JAM (BV11) was found to inhibit spontaneous and chemokine-induced monocyte transmigration through an endothelial cell monolayer in vitro. Systemic treatment of mice with BV11 mAb blocked monocyte infiltration upon chemokine administration in subcutaneous air pouches. Thus, JAM is a new component of endothelial and epithelial junctions that play a role in regulating monocyte transmigration.
Validation of a Short Scale in Italian to Measure Teacher Burnout

This study creates and validates a short, Italian-language scale to measure teacher burnout. To this end, we used two scales from the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory which had already been translated into Italian in a previous study. We administered this measure to two samples of teachers (n1 = 2688 and n2 = 676) in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. The final scale consisted of 10 items that measure teacher burnout on the dimensions of work- and student-related burnout. We performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to assess the psychometric properties of the instrument as well as conducting analyses of invariance between the sexes and across school sectors. Results showed that work- and student-related burnout were significantly correlated with the constructs of perceived workload, optimism, and life satisfaction. Moreover, neither dimension of burnout was associated with sex, age, seniority, or family status, although both dimensions of burnout were significantly correlated with professional status and percentage of working hours per week. Overall, the analyses show that the final short scale is a valid instrument for measuring teacher burnout. Because of its brevity, this scale can easily be integrated into surveys conducted by public health institutions and education departments.