Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling solute leaching during fingered flow by integrating and expanding various theoretical and empirical concepts

Wetting front instability (fingered flow) accelerates solute transport through the unsaturated zone to the groundwater table. Whether fingers widen or dissipate close to the groundwater is unclear. Water flow in a two-dimensional artificial capillary fringe below a dry layer exhibiting fingered flow was investigated. The flow diverged strongly in the wet soil, suggesting that fingers dissipate. Expressions for the finger radius in dry and wet soil were combined and adapted to a soil hydraulic property parameterization popular in numerical modelling. The modified equation provided finger radii for soils in humid and arid climates. The fingers in the arid soil were excessively wide. The finger radii were used to model solute transport, assuming fingers dissipated in the subsoil. Modelling was cumbersome for the arid climate. One shower may often be insufficient to trigger fingering in arid regions with short, heavy showers. In soils with shallow groundwater, the diverging subsoil flow determines solute leaching. | Wetting front instability (fingered flow) accelerates solute transport through the unsaturated zone to the groundwater table. Whether fingers widen or dissipate close to the groundwater is unclear. Water flow in a two-dimensional artificial capillary fringe below a dry layer exhibiting fingered flow was investigated. The flow diverged strongly in the wet soil, suggesting that fingers dissipate. Expressions for the finger radius in dry and wet soil were combined and adapted to a soil hydraulic property parameterization popular in numerical modelling. The modified equation provided finger radii for soils in humid and arid climates. The fingers in the arid soil were excessively wide. The finger radii were used to model solute transport, assuming fingers dissipated in the subsoil. Modelling was cumbersome for the arid climate. One shower may often be insufficient to trigger fingering in arid regions with short, heavy showers. In soils with shallow groundwater, the diverging subsoil flow determines solute leaching.
Antitruncation of Disks in Early-Type Barred Galaxies

The disks of spiral galaxies are commonly thought to be truncated: the radial surface brightness profile steepens sharply beyond a certain radius (3-5 inner disk scale lengths). Here we present the radial brightness profiles of a number of barred S0-Sb galaxies with the opposite behavior: their outer profiles are distinctly shallower in slope than the main disk profile. We term these "antitruncations"; they are found in at least 25% of a larger sample of barred S0-Sb galaxies. There are two distinct types of antitruncations. About one-third show a fairly gradual transition and outer isophotes that are progressively rounder than the main disk isophotes, suggestive of a disk embedded within a more spheroidal outer zone—either the outer extent of the bulge or a separate stellar halo. But the majority of the profiles have rather sharp surface brightness transitions to the shallower, outer exponential profile and, crucially, outer isophotes that are not significantly rounder than the main disk; in the Sab-Sb galaxies, the outer isophotes include visible spiral arms. This suggests that the outer light is still part of the disk. A subset of these profiles are in galaxies with asymmetric outer isophotes (lopsided or one-armed spirals), suggesting that interactions may be responsible for at least some of the disklike antitruncations.
Polyhedral realizations of crystal bases for quantum algebras of finite types

Polyhedral realization of crystal bases is one of the methods for describing the crystal base B(∞) of a quantized enveloping algebra explicitly. This method can be applied to symmetrizable Kac-Moody types. We can also apply this method to the crystal bases B(λ) of integrable highest weight modules and of modified quantum algebras. But, the explicit forms of the polyhedral realizations of crystal bases B(∞) and B(λ) are only given in the case of arbitrary rank 2, of An and of An(1). So, we will give the polyhedral realizations of crystal bases B(∞) and B(λ) for all simple Lie algebras in this paper.
Sampled-data synchronization for chaotic Lur'e systems and application to secure communication

This paper increases the upper bound of sampling interval for synchronization of chaotic Lur'e systems. First, the characteristics of a sampling pattern and nonlinearities are fully utilized in a new piecewise-differentiable Lyapunov functional, which is continuous at sampling instant. Second, appropriate slack variables are used for handling a zero constraint. Using the slack variables gives the relaxation of a synchronization criterion. Based on the Lyapunov functional and the zero constraint, the synchronization criterion is derived by applying free-matrix-based integral inequalities and Finsler's lemma. The free-matrix-based integral inequalities are used for yielding tight bounds on integral terms related to the sampling pattern. Finsler's lemma is applied for transforming a bilinear matrix inequality that is generated by slack variables into a linear matrix inequality. This paper applies the proposed criterion to the application to the secure communication. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed criterion.
Contributing Factors to Pointcut Fragility

Pointcut fragility is a well-documented problem of AspectOriented Programming with changes to the base-code causing join points to incorrectly fall in or out of scope. In order to combat this problem a tool was developed that provides mechanical assistance to pointcut maintenance. This tool relied on the deep structural commonalities between program elements to detect when pointcut fragility occurs. During the assessment of this tool a number of common practices were uncovered that were employed both in the aspect and basecode that contributed to or prevented pointcut fragility. This paper documents the practices uncovered and describes how they can affect pointcut fragility and design stability in general.
Effect of stand width and adjacent habitat on breeding bird communities in bottomland hardwoods

Bottomland hardwood forests support an abundant and diverse avifauna, but area of this forest type has been reduced, and current projections indicate continued declines. We compared breeding bird abundance indices and species richness among bottomland hardwood stands ranging in width from 1,000 m and enclosed by forested habitat. We also compared avian abundance indices and richness among stands enclosed by pine (Pinus spp.) forest and stands enclosed by field-scrub habitats. Total species richness and species richness of Neotropical migrants were associated positively (P 1,000 m. Counts of Neotropical migrants differed (P < 0.05) among width classes in 1993 and 1995 and followed the same general trend as total bird count. Acadian flycatcher (Empidonax virescens), blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), and red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceous) were more abundant in smaller width classes (P < 0.05), whereas the opposite was true for white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) and northern parula (Parula americana). Probability of occurrence was associated positively (P < 0.05) with stand width for 12 species and negatively with stand width for 1 species. Total bird count and the counts of blue-gray gnatcatcher in 1995 and of northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in both years were higher in field-enclosed stands (FES) than in pine-enclosed stands (PES). No species analyzed was more abundant in PES than in FES. We conclude that even narrow riparian zones can support an abundant and diverse avifauna, but that conservation of wide (≥500 m) riparian zones is necessary to maintain the complete avian community characteristic of bottomland hardwood forests in South Carolina.
A single-center experience in radioembolization as salvage therapy of hepatic metastases of uveal melanoma

Background Overall survival (OS) of patients with hepatic metastases of uveal melanoma is strongly linked with hepatic tumor control. Due to the lack of an effective systemic chemotherapy, locoregional therapies like radioembolization should play an increasingly important role. Purpose To report complications and response rates of radioembolization as salvage therapy for hepatic uveal melanoma metastases. Material and Methods Between October 2006 and January 2014, eight patients (age, 59.1 ± 15.3 years; 5 men) with histologically proven uveal melanoma and hepatic metastases received radioembolization with glass microspheres at a single center. All patients had been heavily pretreated with multiple systemic/locoregional therapies resulting in a long median interval between diagnosis of hepatic metastases and radioembolization (17.1 months; range, 6.4–23.2 months). Follow-up consisted of clinical assessment, laboratory tests and tri-phasic computed tomography (CT) before and 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after radioembolization. Response to therapy was evaluated by CT using RECIST version 1.1 and by survival time. Safety (laboratory and clinical toxicity) was rated according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events 4.03. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis time to progression of hepatic metastases (hTTP) and OS were calculated. Results One month after radioembolization 50% of patients presented with stable and 50% with progressive disease. Median hTTP and OS after radioembolization were 4.3 weeks (range, 3.4–28.6 weeks) and 12.3 weeks (range, 3.7–62.6 weeks), respectively. Median OS after diagnosis of hepatic metastases was 19.9 months (range, 7.3–31.4 months). Radioembolization was tolerated well in all patients without toxicity higher than grade 2. Conclusion Radioembolization is a safe salvage therapy even in heavily pretreated hepatic metastases of uveal melanoma.
THE L723 LOW-MASS STAR FORMING PROTOSTELLAR SYSTEM: RESOLVING A DOUBLE CORE

We present 1.35 mm Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations around the low-mass Class 0 source IRAS 19156+1906, at the center of the LDN 723 (L723) dark cloud. We detected emission from dust as well as emission from H2CO 30,3–20,2, DCN 3–2, and CN 2–1 lines, which arise from two cores, SMA 1 and SMA 2, separated by 2. ″9 (880 AU in projected distance). SMA 2 is associated with the previously detected source VLA 2. Weak SiO 5–4 emission is detected, possibly tracing a region of interaction between the dense envelope and the outflow. We modeled the dust and H2CO emission from the two cores. The results from the modeling show that the cores have similar physical properties (density and temperature distribution) but that SMA 2 has a larger p–H2CO abundance (by a factor of 3–10) than SMA 1. The p–H2CO abundances' findings are compatible with the value of the outer part of the circumstellar envelopes associated with Class 0 sources. SMA 2 is harboring an active multiple low-mass protostellar system and powering at least one molecular outflow. In contrast, there are no known signs of outflow activity toward SMA 1. This suggests that SMA 2 is more evolved than SMA 1. The kinematics of the two sources show marginal evidence of infall and rotation motions. The mass detected by the SMA observation, which trace scales of ≲1000 AU, is only a small fraction of the mass contained in the large-scale molecular envelope, which suggests that L723 is still in a very early phase of star formation. Despite the apparent quiescent nature of the L723, fragmentation is occurring at the center of the cloud at different scales. Thus, at ≃1000 AU, the cloud has fragmented in two cores: SMA 1 and SMA 2. At the same time, at least one of these cores, SMA 2, has undergone additional fragmentation at scales of ≃150 AU, forming a multiple stellar system.
Self-reported vs. self-rated pronunciation in a non-native language

The study investigates how their own accent in English is self-perceived by Polish learners. More specifically, we compare how, and to what extent, self-reported pronunciation differs from self-rated pronunciation prior to and after the exposure to one’s recorded speech. Previous research on non-native accent rating has concentrated on scores obtained from native speakers or other proficient speakers of English. In the current study, we concentrate on how learners evaluate their own accent in English for parameters such as pronunciation, articulation, and fluency. We also introduce an independent variable of proficiency to see if it interacts with the perception of learners’ pronunciation. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted and the result showed that there are no major differences between how learners report their accent in English and how they rate it from the recording of their own speech. It indicates that the general self-image of one’s accent is fairly stable and exposure to the sample of one’s speech does not change the overall self-perception.
Factors Affecting the Perceived Effectiveness of Pair Programming in Higher Education

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted on postgraduate students of an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) course in which pair programming was applied as an educational technique. This study addressed the question Why is pair programming sometimes ineffective? The focus of the study was on exploring the factors that may affect the success of pair programming. We employed a combination of data gathering techniques and triangulated them to analyze the data. We observed, recorded and interviewed students who pair programmed. They also completed questionnaires. There was evidence that matching by skill level and the task in hand are the main factors in the success of a pair programming session.
Health-related quality of life, lung function and dyspnea rating in COPD patients.

BACKGROUND AND AIM COPD is a progressive and irreversible disease, thus assessing the impact of the disease on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is important in the management of COPD. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between HRQOL, lung function and dyspnea rating in patients with stable COPD. METHODS One hundred COPD patients (mean age = 64.76 +/- 11.43 years) were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Lung function test was measured using a FlowScreen portable spirometry. Dyspnea rating was measured using the baseline dyspnea index (BDI). HRQOL was assessed using the SF-36v2 which summarized two components; physical health component summary (PHCS) and mental health component summary (MHCS). THE RESULTS The mean value of lung function (Forced expiratory volume in 1 second, FEV1% predicted) was 58.19 +/- 30.24 and dyspnea rating was 6.85 +/- 2.68. The lung function was significantly correlated with MHCS (r=.294, p < 0.05) but not with the PHCS (p > 0.05). The dyspnea rating was significantly correlated with both PHCS (r=.730, p < 0.05) and MHCS (r = .324, p < 0.05). Regression analysis indicated that dyspnea rating emerged as the most significant predictor for PHCS and MHCS accounting for 54% and 12% of the variances respectively. CONCLUSIONS The findings show that dyspnea rating is an important factor in predicting HRQOL of patients with COPD. This indicates that dyspnea rating influences HRQOL to a greater extent than the physiological measurement of lung function. Therefore, focusing on such predictors at an early stage may provide meaningful benefits in the management of COPD.
Shuffling: A framework for lock contention aware thread scheduling for multicore multiprocessor systems

On a cache-coherent multicore multiprocessor system, the performance of a multithreaded application with high lock contention is very sensitive to the distribution of application threads across multiple processors (or Sockets). This is because the distribution of threads impacts the frequency of lock transfers between Sockets, which in turn impacts the frequency of last-level cache (LLC) misses that lie on the critical path of execution. Since the latency of a LLC miss is high, an increase of LLC misses on the critical path increases both lock acquisition latency and critical section processing time. However, thread schedulers for operating systems, such as Solaris and Linux, are oblivious of the lock contention among multiple threads belonging to an application and therefore fail to deliver high performance for multithreaded applications. To alleviate the above problem, in this paper, we propose a scheduling framework called Shuffling, which migrates threads of a multithreaded program across Sockets so that threads seeking locks are more likely to find the locks on the same Socket. Shuffling reduces the time threads spend on acquiring locks and speeds up the execution of shared data accesses in the critical section, ultimately reducing the execution time of the application. We have implemented Shuffling on a 64-core Supermicro server running Oracle Solaris 11™ and evaluated it using a wide variety of 20 multithreaded programs with high lock contention. Our experiments show that Shuffling achieves up to 54% reduction in execution time and an average reduction of 13%. Moreover it does not require any changes to the application source code or the OS kernel.
Prevalence of obesity and affecting factors in physically disabled adults living in the city centre of Malatya

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity, and the risk factors associated with it, in physically disabled adults living in the city centre of Malatya, Turkey. Method This research was designed as a cross-sectional study conducted on physically disabled people aged 20–65 years living in the city centre of Malatya. The prevalence of obesity in disabled people was within 95% CIs, the power was calculated as 80%, and the sample size of our population was calculated as 258 individuals. Results The prevalence of obesity was found to be 13.2%. The relationship between disability type and obesity status was found to be significant. The prevalence of obesity was 21.3% in visually impaired people, 17.9% in speech-impaired people, 17.8% in hearing-impaired people and 6.5% in orthopaedically disabled people. Conclusions Educational interventions on nutrition and lifestyle can be effective considering the high prevalence of obesity in visually impaired people, the prevalence of weakness in orthopaedically disabled people and the risk related to the area in which body fat is localised even when body mass index is within the normal range. Training disabled people in sports appropriate to their disability type and building appropriate facilities for those sports might have a positive effect.
Dietary Restriction Depends on Nutrient Composition to Extend Chronological Lifespan in Budding Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The traditional view on dietary restriction has been challenged with regard to extending lifespan of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. This is because studies have shown that changing the balance of dietary components without reduction of dietary intake can increase lifespan, suggesting that nutrient composition other than dietary restriction play a pivotal role in regulation of longevity. However, this opinion has not been reflected in yeast aging studies. Inspired by this new finding, response surface methodology was applied to evaluate the relationships between nutrients (glucose, amino acids and yeast nitrogen base) and lifespan as well as biomass production in four Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (wild-type BY4742, sch9Δ, tor1Δ, and sir2Δ mutants) using a high throughput screening assay. Our results indicate that lifespan extension by a typical dietary restriction regime was dependent on the nutrients in media and that nutrient composition was a key determinant for yeast longevity. Four different yeast strains were cultured in various media, which showed similar response surface trends in biomass production and viability at day two but greatly different trends in lifespan. The pH of aging media was dependent on glucose concentration and had no apparent correlation with lifespan under conditions where amino acids and YNB were varied widely, and simply buffering the pH of media could extend lifespan significantly. Furthermore, the results showed that strain sch9Δ was more responsive in nutrient-sensing than the other three strains, suggesting that Sch9 (serine-threonine kinase pathway) was a major nutrient-sensing factor that regulates cell growth, cell size, metabolism, stress resistance and longevity. Overall, our findings support the notion that nutrient composition might be a more effective way than simple dietary restriction to optimize lifespan and biomass production from yeast to other organisms.
Convergence of dependent walks in a random scenery to fBm-local time fractional stable motions

It is classical to approximate the distribution of fractional Brownian motion by a renormalized sum $ S_n $ of dependent Gaussian random variables. In this paper we consider such a walk $ Z_n $ that collects random rewards $ \xi_j $ for $ j \in \mathbb Z,$ when the ceiling of the walk $ S_n $ is located at $ j.$ The random reward (or scenery) $ \xi_j $ is independent of the walk and with heavy tail. We show the convergence of the sum of independent copies of $ Z_n$ suitably renormalized to a stable motion with integral representation, whose kernel is the local time of a fractional Brownian motion (fBm). This work extends a previous work where the random walk $ S_n$ had independent increments limits.
350 MHz opamp-RC filter in 0.18 μm CMOS

A 350 MHz fifth-order elliptic opamp-RC filter demonstrates that opamp-based filters need not have bandwidth disadvantages compared to transconductor-based filters. The filter, fabricated in standard digital 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS with 1.8 V V/sub DD/, achieves 0.5 Vp-p signal swing at -40 dB THD.
Acute and Chronic Cocaine-Induced Potentiation of Synaptic Strength in the Ventral Tegmental Area: Electrophysiological and Behavioral Correlates in Individual Rats

The initiation of the psychostimulant sensitization process depends on the mesolimbic system, which projects from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens. Although such initiation is primarily dependent on glutamatergic activity in VTA neurons, the exact role VTA excitatory synapses play in this process is poorly understood. Here, we examine the effects of repeated in vivo injections of cocaine on the magnitude and duration of the increase in strength at VTA excitatory synapses reported previously to be elicited by a single in vivo exposure to cocaine (Ungless et al., 2001; Saal et al., 2003). We also compare the synaptic modifications induced by cocaine with its effects on locomotor activity. Surprisingly, repeated cocaine exposure potentiated the ratio of AMPA receptor-mediated to NMDA receptor-mediated EPSCs to a similar extent and duration as a single in vivo cocaine exposure. In naive animals, the magnitude of the cocaine-induced locomotor activity after a single injection of cocaine correlated with the magnitude of the accompanying synaptic enhancement. This correlation was lost on the seventh day of repeated cocaine administration, as well as when a challenge injection was given 10 d after the cessation of repeated cocaine administration. These results suggest that the cocaine-induced synaptic plasticity at VTA excitatory synapses is transient, and its duration depends on the last exposure to cocaine. Furthermore, chronic cocaine exposure disrupts the normal, presumably adaptive relationship between synaptic enhancement in the VTA and behavior.