Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation of Agricultural Production Relations in the LUC Model for China

China's demand for grains has been growing rapidly during the past two decades, largely as a result of the increasing demand for meat. This raises the important question of whether in the coming years China will be able to satisfy these increasing needs. The answer to this question will have implications that reach far beyond China's borders, especially in the light of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The answer depends on many factors, including the policy orientation of the Chinese government, the loss of cropland caused by the ongoing industrialization and urbanization processes, and the effect of climate change on the country's agricultural potential. To analyze these issues, the Land-Use Change (LUC) Project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has been developing an intertemporal welfare-maximizing policy analysis model. This report presents the input-output relationships for agricultural crops in the model. The specified relationships are geographically explicit and determine the crop output combinations that can be achieved under the prevailing biophysical conditions across China from given input combinations in each of some 2,040 counties based on data for 1990. The non-land inputs are chemical and inorganic fertilizer, labor, and machinery. Irrigated land and rain-fed land are distinguished as separate land-use types. Distinct relationships are estimated by cross-section for the eight economic regions distinguished in the LUC model. The biophysical potential enters as an asymptote in a generalized Mitscherlich-Baule yield function and is computed on the basis of an agro-ecological assessment of climatic and land resources, including irrigation. The chosen form globally satisfies the required slope and curvature conditions. Estimation results show that all key parameters are significant and are of the expected sign. The calculated elasticities of aggregate output with respect to inputs quite closely reflect the relative scarcity of irrigated land, labor, and other inputs across the different regions. It also appears that if both the local population density and the distance to main urban centers are taken into account, the observed cropping patterns are generally consistent with profit maximization. The often-noted labor surplus is confirmed in all regions, particularly in the southern and southeastern regions.
To believe is to understand

This paper is about language understanding using Belief Networks. Language understanding is a key technology in human-computer conversational systems. These systems often need to handle information-seeking queries from the user regarding a restricted domain. We devised a method for identifying the user’s communicative goal(s) out of a finite set of within-domain goals. The problem is formulated as N binary decisions, each performed by a Belief Network. This formulation allows for the identification of queries with multiple goals, as well as queries with out-of-domain goals. Experiments with the ATIS corpus shows that around 90% of the user queries are correctly handled via goal classification, rejection or multiple goal identification.
Early Morning Attenuation of Endothelial Function in Healthy Humans

Background—Cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, sudden death, and stroke have a peak incidence in the early hours after waking. The mechanisms involved in this circadian variation are not clear. Endothelial dysfunction is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events. We tested the hypothesis that endothelial function is reduced in the early morning, around the time of waking, compared with measurements obtained both before sleep and later in the day in healthy humans. Methods and Results—We studied 30 subjects (19 men, 11 women; mean age, 41.6 years). All participants underwent polysomnography to exclude obstructive sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. Brachial artery flow–mediated endothelium-dependent vasodilation (FMD) and endothelium–independent dilation (non-FMD) were measured on 3 different occasions: before subjects went to sleep (9 PM), the next morning immediately after waking (6 AM), and during the late morning 5 hours after waking (11 AM). All subjects had normal sleep with good sleep efficiency of 84±2%. Compared with before sleep, FMD decreased markedly in the early morning after waking and recovered by late morning (9 pm, 7.5±1%; 6 am, 4.4±0.7%; 11 am, 7.7±1%; P =0.02). Non-FMD was similar for the 3 periods of observation (9 pm, 17.3±1.6%; 6 am, 17.2±1.3%; 11 am, 18.5±1.7%). Conclusions—FMD is blunted in the early morning in healthy subjects. Decreased endothelial function in the early morning may have implications for our understanding of the morning peak in cardiac and vascular events.
Rainfall partitioning through a mixed cedar swamp and associated C and N fluxes in Southern Ontario, Canada

Partitioning of rainfall through a forest canopy into throughfall, stemflow, and canopy interception is a critical process in the water cycle, and the contact of precipitation with vegetated surfaces leads to increased delivery of solutes to the forest floor. This study investigates the rainfall partitioning over a growing season through a temperate, riparian, mixed coniferous‐deciduous cedar swamp, an ecosystem not well studied with respect to this process. Seasonal throughfall, stemflow, and interception were 69.2%, 1.5%, and 29.3% of recorded above‐canopy precipitation, respectively. Event throughfall ranged from a low of 31.5 ± 6.8% for a small 0.8‐mm event to a high of 82.9 ± 2.4% for a large 42.7‐mm event. Rain fluxes of at least 8 mm were needed to generate stemflow from all instrumented trees. Most trees had funnelling ratios <1.0, with an exponential decrease in funnelling ratio with increasing tree size. Despite this, stand‐scale funnelling ratios averaged 2.81 ± 1.73, indicating equivalent depth of water delivered across the swamp floor by stemflow was greater than incident precipitation. Throughfall dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) averaged 26.60 ± 2.96 and 2.02 ± 0.16 mg L−1, respectively, which were ~11 and three times above‐canopy rain levels. Stemflow DOC averaged 73.33 ± 7.43 mg L−1, 35 times higher than precipitation, and TDN was 4.45 ± 0.56 mg L−1, 7.5 times higher than rain. Stemflow DOC concentration was highest from Populus balsamifera and TDN greatest from Thuja occidentalis trees. Although total below‐canopy flux of TDN increased with increasing event size, DOC flux was greatest for events 20–30 mm, suggesting a canopy storage threshold of DOC was readily diluted. In addition to documenting rainfall partitioning in a novel ecosystem, this study demonstrates the excess carbon and nitrogen delivered to riparian swamps, suggesting the assimilative capacity of these zones may be underestimated.
Density Effects on Soil-Water Characteristics, Soil-Gas Diffusivity, and Emissions of N2
O and N2
 from a Re-packed Pasture Soil

Density-induced soil structural changes may potentially alter both soil total porosity and soil pore size distribution, and thus change the soil’s water retention characteristics, gas diffusion and transport properties, and subsequent greenhouse emissions. In this study, we characterized and parameterized water retention, pore size distribution, gas diffusivity and cumulative emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and nitrogen (N 2 ) fluxes in a differently compacted silt-loam sampled from a grazed pasture in Lincoln, New Zealand. The soils used for the simulations were subjected to five different density treat-ments (1.1, 1.2, 1.3. 1.4, 1.5 Mg m - 3 ), subsequently saturated and successively drained to 11 matric potentials at which water retention, gas diffusivity and flux measurements were performed. Results show strong correlations between best-fit soil-water characteristic parameters and the density levels. A recent predictive gas diffusivity model developed for undisturbed soils was modified to better characterize the measured gas diffusivity data in sieved-repacked pasture soils. Further, two exponential and linear parametric models were developed to adequately parameterize the observed fingerprints of cumulative (35-d) N 2 O and N 2 fluxes, respectively. Results clearly distinguished the densi-ty-induced changes in pore structure, pore size distribution, gas diffusivity and emission of gas fluxes and hence provide useful implications for pasture man-agement to reduce future emission of greenhouse gases. Results particularly highlighted the importance of ensuring a diffusivity ≥0.038 to limit extensive emission of N 2 O and N 2 fluxes. The improved parametric models and parameter correlations provide valuable numerical insight to better characterize density-dependent behavior in soil physical properties and functions.
Quality Basic Education Development in Nigeria: Imperative for Use of ICT

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has been continuously linked to higher efficiency, higher productivity, and higher educational outcomes, including quality of cognitive, creative and innovative thinking. In response to the global imperative of Education for All, and not willing to be left at lower side of ‘digital divide’ Nigeria launched Universal Basic Education in 1999 and developed an ICT policy in 2001. One of the objectives of the policy focused on integrating ICT into the mainstream of education and training, including basic education. This has been evolving through a number of private and donor-funded initiatives though there is the need to ensure effective and sustained use of ICT in mainstream formal education system. This study explores Nigeria’s ICT in education policies, implementation efforts, and availability of ICT tools in schools; teachers’ knowledge, experience and practices in use of ICT at the basic education level; using qualitative analysis of existing documents and descriptive research design. The survey instrument is a self-designed and validated 50-item questionnaire administered to sampled basic education teachers in Lagos state. Findings showed that Nigeria is yet to fully commit to ICT integration in education as two key ingredients are lacking- skilled teachers and ICT tools and other infrastructures. It was recommended that these issues must be addressed within a focused and implementation committed ICT in education policy.
Simulation of Ant Routing Protocol for Ad-hoc networks in NS-2

Ant routing is a new scheme for routing inspired by the behavior of real ants. Real ants are able to find the shortest path to a food source by following the trail of a chemical substance called pheromone deposited by other ants. In ant routing, the ants (control packets) collect information about the network conditions and are used to update and maintain the routing tables. The load balancing of routes used in ant routing has been proved successful in fixed networks. This, together with the increasing popularity of ad-hoc wireless networks, has given us the idea to adapt ant routing for such mobile networks and determine whether it is suitable or not. A version of this ant routing protocol has been implemented to work within the network simulator NS-2. Then, a performance comparison has been done with two well-known ad-hoc routing protocols, i.e. AODV and DSR. Results show that the overhead due to route maintenance is high, so the performance degrades and is inferior to AODV and DSR. However, more simulations in another environment should be done before rejecting this scheme for ad-hoc wireless networks.
The "Exterior Approach" Applied to the Inverse Obstacle Problem for the Heat Equation

In this paper we consider the “exterior approach" to solve the inverse obstacle problem for the heat equation. This iterated approach is based on a quasi-reversibility method to compute the solution from the Cauchy data while a simple level set method is used to characterize the obstacle. We present several mixed formulations of quasi-reversibility that enable us to use some classical conforming finite elements. Among these, an iterated formulation that takes the noisy Cauchy data into account in a weak way is selected to serve in some numerical experiments and show the feasibility of our strategy of identification.
Detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in genital specimens by the Chlamydiazyme test

Cotton swabs were used to collect two specimens each from 416 patients (206 males, 210 females) attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic. The first swab was transported in Specimen Storage Reagent and extracted in Specimen Dilution Buffer for enzyme immunoassay by Chlamydiazyme (Abbott Laboratories); the second swab was extracted into 2SP and inoculated into McCoy cell cultures. In the first phase of the study (215 patients: 111 males, 114 females) enzyme immunoassay results were positive (optical density greater than or equal to 0.1) in 30 of 35 instances in which Chlamydia trachomatis was isolated (sensitivity, 86%). Of 18 false-positive enzyme immunoassay results, 15 (83%) were cervical swabs (specificity, 90%). In a phase II study, using a modified Chlamydiazyme kit, 201 patients were tested (95 males, 106 females). Of 41 chlamydial isolates, 8 were not detected by the Chlamydiazyme test (sensitivity, 81%). Only three positive Chlamydiazyme test results could not be confirmed by culture (specificity, 98%). Overall, Chlamydiazyme assay provided a rapid (4 h), sensitive, and specific assay for the detection of chlamydial antigens.
Evaluation of Digital Photography for Quantifying Cryptococcus fagisuga (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae) Density on American Beech Trees

ABSTRACT Beech scale (Cryptococcus fagisuga Lindinger) (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae) is an invasive forest insect established in the eastern United States and Canada. It predisposes American beech (Fagus grandifolia Ehrhart) trees to infection by Neonectria spp. Fungi causing beech bark disease. White wax secreted by the diminutive scales obscures individual insects, making it difficult to accurately quantify beech scale density. Our goals were to 1) evaluate the relationship between the area of wax and number of beech scales on bark samples, 2) determine whether digital photos of bark could accurately quantify beech scale density, and 3) compare efficiency and utility of a qualitative visual estimate and using the quantitative digital photo technique to assess beech scale populations. We visually estimated beech scale abundance and photographed designated areas on the trunk of 427 trees in 40 sites across Michigan. Photos were analyzed using a binary threshold technique to quantify the area of beech scale wax on each photo. We also photographed and then collected 104 bark samples from 45 additional beech trees in ten sites. We removed the wax, counted individual scales on each sample using a microscope, and assessed the linear relationship between wax area and scale counts. Area of wax explained ≈80% of the variability in scale density. We could typically quantify beech scale density on 15 photographs per hour. Qualitative visual assessments of beech scale in the field corresponded with estimates derived from photos of bark samples for 79% of trees.
Upregulation of PPARβ/δ Is Associated with Structural and Functional Changes in the Type I Diabetes Rat Diaphragm

Background Diabetes mellitus is associated with alterations in peripheral striated muscles and cardiomyopathy. We examined diaphragmatic function and fiber composition and identified the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR α and β/δ) as a factor involved in diaphragm muscle plasticity in response to type I diabetes. Methodology/Principal Findings Streptozotocin-treated rats were studied after 8 weeks and compared with their controls. Diaphragmatic strips were stimulated in vitro and mechanical and energetic variables were measured, cross bridge kinetics assessed, and the effects of fatigue and hypoxia evaluated. Morphometry, myosin heavy chain isoforms, PPAR α and β/δ gene and protein expression were also assessed. Diabetes induced a decrease in maximum velocity of shortening (−14%, P<0.05) associated with a decrease in myosin ATPase activity (−49%, P<0.05), and an increase in force (+20%, P<0.05) associated with an increase in the number of cross bridges (+14%, P<0.05). These modifications were in agreement with a shift towards slow myosin heavy chain fibers and were associated with an upregulation of PPARβ/δ (+314% increase in gene and +190% increase in protein expression, P<0.05). In addition, greater resistances to fatigue and hypoxia were observed in diabetic rats. Conclusions/Significance Type I diabetes induced complex mechanical and energetic changes in the rat diaphragm and was associated with an up-regulation of PPARβ/δ that could improve resistance to fatigue and hypoxia and favour the shift towards slow myosin heavy chain isoforms.
Dissipation of micro-cantilevers as a function of air pressure and metallic coating

In this letter, we characterize the internal dissipation of coated micro-cantilevers through their mechanical thermal noise. Using a home-made interferometric setup, we achieve a resolution down to in the measurement of their deflection. With the use of the fluctuation dissipation theorem and of the Kramers-Kronig relations, we rebuild the full mechanical response function from the measured noise spectrum, and investigate frequency-dependent dissipation as a function of the air pressure and of the nature of the metallic coatings. Using different thicknesses of gold coatings, we demonstrate that the internal viscoelastic damping is solely due to the dissipation in the bulk of the coating.
The Term Structure of Interest Rates: Bounded or Falling

This short paper resolves an apparent contradiction between Feldman's (1989) and Riedel's (2000) equilibrium models of the term structure of interest rates under incomplete information. Feldman (1989) showed that in an incomplete information version of Cox, Ingersoll, and Ross (1985), where the stochastic productivity factors are unobservable, equilibrium term structures are ‘interior’ and bounded. Interestingly, Riedel (2000) showed that an incomplete information version of Lucas (1978), with an unobservable constant growth rate, induces a ‘corner’ unbounded equilibrium term structure: it decreases to negative infinity. This paper defines constant and stochastic asymptotic moments, clarifies the apparent conflict between Feldman's and Riedel's equilibria, and discusses implications. Because productivity and growth rates are not directly observable in the real world, the question we answer is of particular relevance. JEL Classification codes: E43, G12, D92, D80, D51.
Wave analysis of different splitting methods in the linearised shallow water equations

The shallow water equations describe motions in a shallow, incompressible and nonviscous fluid layer on the rotating Earth. Due to their relative simplicity, they are widely used for testing and analysing new numerical methods developed for weather prediction models. In this paper, we apply different operator splittings, based on directional decomposition, to the linearised form of the shallow water equations obtained by the method of small perturbations. This system has three types of harmonic wave solutions with known dispersion relations and phase velocities. We investigate how the application of operator splitting modifies these important characteristics, and compare the performance of different splitting methods from this point of view.
Analysis of regional left ventricular wall motion during diastole in mitral stenosis.

SUMMARY Left ventricular angiograms of 16 patients with mitral stenosis and 18 normal subjects were digitised frame by frame to study regional diastolic wall motion. Left ventricular cavity volume and its rate of change were derived, and plots constructed to show regional wall motion throughout the cardiac cycle. Patients with mitral stenosis had a significantly reduced peak filling rate of 380±170 ml/s, in comparison with normal (690±260 ml/s). A slow rate of filling, however, was not associated with slow and uniform outward movement of the endocardium of the left ventricle. In patients with mitral stenosis, peak outward velocities were normal at the apex and along the inferior wall, and only slightly reduced anteriorly (9±3 cm/s, normal 11±4 cm/s). Instead, striking non-uniformity of wall motion was present, so that the interval over which peak wall motion occurred in the three regions of the cavity was extended to 93± 53 ms (normal 43±25 ms). The same applied to the termination of rapid outward movement, which occurred over an interval of 110±44 ms (normal 43 ±21). A second manifestation of regional asynchrony was abnormal outward wall movement during isovolunmic relaxation, and in nine patients it had reached its peak velocity in at least one region before the mitral valve opened. Finally, the ventricular cavity was seen to oscillate as it filled in six patients, with the endocardium moving inwards in one region after mitral valve opening associated with accentuated outward movement elsewhere. The reduced left ventricular filling rate in mitral stenosis thus manifests itself in small part only as slow outward wall motion. The main disturbance to regional left ventricular function was a reproducible series of disturbances causing striking asynchrony. This dissociation of regional wall motion from filling and the constant finding of motion of the anterior free wall of the ventricle preceding that elsewhere are similar to the disturbances seen in patients with
Field and Numerical Investigation of Transport Mechanisms in a Surface Storage Zone

In‐stream surface storage zones (SSZs) caused by lateral recirculation areas play a significant role in the transport and fate of contaminants in rivers. Lateral recirculating areas have long residence times that favor nutrient uptake, accumulation of pollutants, and interactions with reactive sediments. In watersheds affected by acid‐mine drainage, SSZs have profound effects on biogeochemical processes, controlling the local concentration and distribution of toxic elements along the channel. Despite the importance of turbulent flow dynamics on these processes, limited work has been carried out to analyze mass transport in natural SSZs with complex geometries. In this investigation we study a SSZ in the Lluta River, located in a high‐altitude environment in northern Chile, by coupling field measurements and 3‐D numerical simulations to understand the transport mechanisms with the main channel. We measure the velocity field using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) and large‐scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV), extracting the bathymetry from digital image processing. Using these data, we perform detached‐eddy simulations (DES) to analyze the mean flow, turbulence statistics, and the dynamics of large‐scale coherent structures. From this detailed description of the turbulent flow, we study the mass exchange and the time evolution of the mean concentration of a passive scalar in the SSZ by testing three upscaled models: a classical linear transport model, a two‐storage formulation, and a fractional transport model. The analysis integrates temporal and spatial scales to provide a new perspective on the turbulent flow in SSZs and their effects on global mass transport in rivers.