Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ConMap approach for terrain‐based digital soil mapping

We present a new digital terrain analysis framework for digital soil mapping, referred to as contextual elevation mapping (ConMap). In contrast to common regression approaches based on features from digital terrain analysis, ConMap is not based on standard terrain attributes, but on elevation differences from the centre pixel to each pixel in circular neighbourhoods only. These differences are used as features in random forest regressions. We applied and validated the framework by predicting topsoil silt content in a loess region of 1150 km2 in Rhineland‐Palatinate and Hesse, Germany. Three hundred and forty‐two samples and a 20‐m resolution digital elevation model were used for this illustration and validation. We compared ConMap with standard and multi‐scale terrain analysis approaches as well as with ordinary kriging interpolations. Cross‐validation root mean square error (RMSE) decreased from 16.1 when the standard digital terrain analysis was used to 11.2 when ConMap was used. This corresponds to an increase in variance explained (R2) from 15 to 61%. Even though ordinary kriging out‐performed standard terrain analysis as well, the variance explained was 6% smaller compared with that using ConMap. The results show that the geomorphic settings in the study area must have induced the spatial trend, which can be accounted for by ConMap over different scales. We conclude that ConMap shows great potential for digital soil mapping studies.
Police perceptions in intimate partner violence cases: the influence of gender and sexual orientation

Abstract This study examined how disputants’ gender and sexual orientation influence police officers’ perceptions of an intimate partner violence (IPV) incident. A sample of 273 police officers from 27 states in the US completed an online research study that provided scenarios depicting an IPV incident that manipulated perpetrator and victim gender and sexual orientation. Results showed officers rated the heterosexual male perpetrator more of a threat of danger to others compared to gay male, lesbian, or heterosexual female perpetrators. Heterosexual female and gay male perpetrators were least likely to be perceived as harming their partner in the past compared to lesbian and heterosexual male perpetrators. Officers were also likely to believe victims of female perpetrators were more responsible for the IPV incident and more of a danger to family members than victims of male perpetrators. Victims of male perpetrators were considered more credible and victims of lesbian and heterosexual male perpetrators were believed to exhibit more thoughts and behaviors indicative of mental illness. Taken together, results suggest police perceptions of potential danger, likelihood of past or future harm to their partner, and victim credibility are influenced by disputant gender and sexual orientation.
Value versus Growth Investing: Why Do Different Investors Have Different Styles?

We find that several factors explain an individual investor׳s style, i.e., the value versus growth orientation of the investor׳s stock portfolio. First, we find that an investor׳s style has a biological basis and is partially ingrained in an investor from birth. Second, we show that an investor׳s hedging demands as well as behavioral biases explain investment style. Finally, an investor׳s style is explained by life course theory in that experiences, both earlier and later in life, are related to investment style. Investors with adverse macroeconomic experiences (e.g., growing up during the Great Depression or entering the labor market during an economic recession) or who grow up in a lower socioeconomic status rearing environment have a stronger value orientation several decades later. Our research contributes a new perspective to the long-standing value and growth debate in finance.
An empirical analysis of structuring commercial mortgage-backed securities : Australian evidence

The ultimate goal of structuring Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) transactions is to obtain a high credit rating as this has an impact on the yield obtainable and the success of the issue. Though bond rating agencies claim that their ratings reflect each agency’s opinion about an issue’s potential default risk and rely heavily on a committee’s analysis of the issuer’s ability and willingness to repay its debt and therefore researchers would not be able to replicate their ratings quantitatively (Kim 2005), we follow previous researchers who gone ahead and replicated bond ratings on the premise that the financial variables extracted from public financial statements, such as financial ratios, contain a large amount of information about a company’s credit risk (Huang et al. 2004). We use artificial neural networks (ANN) and ordinal regression (OR) as alternative methods to predict CMBS ratings. OR results show that rating agencies use only a subset of variables they describe or indicate as important to CMBS rating as some of the variables they use were statistically insignificant. Overall, ANN show superior results to OR in predicting CMBS ratings.
Experimental Analysis of Binary-Level Software Fault Injection in Complex Software

The injection of software faults (i.e., bugs) by mutating the binary executable code of a program enables the experimental dependability evaluation of systems for which the source code is not available. This approach requires that programming constructs used in the source code should be identified by looking only at the binary code, since the injection is performed at this level. Unfortunately, it is a difficult task to inject faults in the binary code that correctly emulate software defects in the source code. The accuracy of binary-level software fault injection techniques is therefore a major concern for their adoption in real-world scenarios. In this work, we propose a method for assessing the accuracy of binary-level fault injection, and provide an extensive experimental evaluation of a binary-level technique, G-SWFIT, in order to assess its limitations in a real-world complex software system. We injected more than 12 thousand binary-level faults in the OS and application code of the system, and we compared them with faults injected in the source code by using the same fault types of G-SWFIT. The method was effective at highlighting the pitfalls that can occur in the implementation of G-SWFIT. Our analysis shows that G-SWFIT can achieve an improved degree of accuracy if these pitfalls are avoided.
The p47phox mouse knock-out model of chronic granulomatous disease

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is caused by a congenital defect in phagocyte reduced nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase production of superoxide and related species. It is characterized by recurrent life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections and tissue granuloma formation. We have created a mouse model of CGD by targeted disruption of p47phox, one of the genes in which mutations cause human CGD. Identical to the case in human CGD, leukocytes from p47phox-/- mice produced no superoxide and killed staphylococci ineffectively. p47phox-/- mice developed lethal infections and granulomatous inflammation similar to those encountered in human CGD patients. This model mirrors human CGD and confirms a critical role for the phagocyte NADPH oxidase in mammalian host defense.
Spatial Long-Term Variations in Urban , Rural and Indoor Environments

A widely used property of the mobile channel is the assumption, that the spatial structure is constant over fairly a long time. In the present work we try to quantify this feature by help of a measurement campaign conducted in Vienna November 2001. We review the de nition of the F-eigen-ratio which is a measure for the discrepancy between two covariance matrices. In urban, rural and indoor scenarios, we present results in terms of cumulative distribution functions of the F-eigen-ratio for di erent time spaces t, i.e. for covariance matrix pairs which are valid for time instances t0 t and t0, respectively. In addition, the spatial long-term time constant and the WSS quality are de ned. It turns out, that the spatial properties can be viewed constant for more than 100 doppler cycles in the urban and rural environment, but less than 20 doppler cycles in the indoor environment. The latter result makes the WSS assumption questionable for indoor environments, at least in the spatial sense.
Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals

Elinor Ostrom was both a groundbreaking thinker and one of the foremost economists of our age. The first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, her revolutionary theorizing of the commons opened the way for non-capitalist economic alternatives on a massive scale. And yet, astonishingly, most modern radicals know little about her. Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals fixes that injustice, revealing the indispensability of her work on green politics, alternative economics, and radical democracy. Derek Wall’s analysis of her theses addresses some of the common misconceptions of her work and reveals her strong commitment to a radical ideological framework. This helpful guide will engage scholars and activists across a range of disciplines, including political economy, political science, and ecology, as well as those keen to implement her work in practice. As activists continue to reject traditional models of centralized power, Ostrom’s theories will become even more crucial in creating economies that exist beyond markets and states.
Wallerian Degeneration in Central Nervous System: Dynamic Associations between Diffusion Indices and Their Underlying Pathology

Background Although diffusion tensor imaging has been used to monitor Wallerian degeneration, the exact relationship between the evolution of diffusion indices and its underlying pathology, especially in central nervous system, remains largely unknown. Here we aimed to address this question using a cat Wallerian degeneration model of corticospinal tract. Methodology/Principal Findings Twenty-five domestic mature Felis catus were included in the present study. The evolution of diffusion indices, including mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA), primary (λ1) and transverse eigenvalues (λ23) of the degenerated corticospinal tract, were observed at baseline (before modeling) and at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45 and 60 days after modeling in 4 cats. Pathological examinations were performed at eight time points mentioned above. Wallerian degeneration can be detected as early as the 2nd day after modeling by both diffusion tensor imaging and pathology. According to the evolution of diffusion indices, Wallerian degeneration can be classified into 2 stages. During the early stage (within 8 days after modeling), progressive disintegration of axons and myelin sheaths underlies the decreases in FA and λ1 and the increase in λ23. However, during the late stage (after 8 days), the gradual increases in FA, MD and λ1 and the unchanged λ23 seem to be a comprehensive reflection of the pathological processes including microglia activation, myelin clearance, and astrocytosis. Conclusions/Significance Our findings help the understanding of the altered diffusion indices in the context of pathology and suggest that diffusion tensor imaging has the potential to monitor the processes of Wallerian degeneration in the central nervous system in vivo after acute damage.
Against the current: A grounded theory study on the estrangement experiences of a select group of Filipino gay older persons

ABSTRACT According to Healthy People (2011), in order to understand the health concerns of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT), the oppression and discrimination that they have faced must be scrutinized. Among the many issues they face, their estrangement experiences are one of the most understudied. However, little is known about how it is experienced by the gay elderly population, hence, this investigation. This grounded theory purports to describe the process by which estrangement is experienced among the Filipino gay older adults. Strauss and Corbin’s Grounded Theory (1990) design was utilized. A total of 10 gay older persons were purposively chosen to participate in semi-structured interviews. Field texts were subjected to thematic analysis involving open, axial, and selective coding. The study generated The Sailing Model of Estrangement. Remarkably, three phases relative to estrangement emerged, namely: sequestering, striving, and surviving. Primarily, the sequestering phase involves the gay persons’ need to express self, search for acceptance, and its subsequent reactions. The striving phase typifies the struggle in dealing with estrangement leading to either feelings of depression, remorse and shame or positivity, hopefulness, and motivation. Finally, in the surviving phase, gay persons may either feel contented and fulfilled or sad, lonely, and remorseful as they acquiesce aging with estrangement. Findings of the study offer an understanding of how Filipino gay older adults employ coping strategies in response to estrangement.
Attributes Selection for Predicting Students' Academic Performance using Education Data Mining and Artificial Neural Network

Education Data mining plays an important role in predicting students’ performance,. It is a very promising discipline which has an imperative impact. In this paper students’ performance is evaluated and some attributes are selected which generate rules by means of association rule mining. Artificial neural network checks accuracy of the results. A Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network is employed for selection of interesting features using 10 – fold cross validation.The artificial neural network selects 5 out of 8 attributes based on the accuracy obtained for correctly classified data. It is observed that in association rule mining important rules are generated using these selected attributes. The Experiment is conducted using Weka and real time data set available in the college premises.
Selective Gene Expression in Failing Human Heart: Quantification of Steady‐State Levels of Messenger RNA in Endomyocardial Biopsies Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction

BackgroundEvaluation of gene expression in failing human heart has been limited by the availability of cardiac tissue. Methods and ResultsWe used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to assess gene expression in small quantities of failing and nonfailing human heart. PCR is a powerful new molecular biological tool that allows a small quantity of DNA to be amplified as much as 1 million-fold. Total RNA was extracted from 3-5 mg samples of human heart and reverse-transcribed to complementary DNA (cDNA). With selected oligonucleotide primers, we used PCR to amplify cDNAs encoding atrial natriuretic peptide, β-myosin heavy chain, phospholamban, and cytoskeletal β-actin. To quantify the relative levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) in human heart, a known amount of a control RNA was present in the reverse transcription and PCR reactions. The amount of mRNA in the sample could therefore be assessed in relation to the amount of control product. The control RNA was transcribed from a synthetic DNA template containing primers complementary to those used to amplify the cDNAs of interest. Atrial natriuretic factor mRNA could not be detected in nonfailing human heart but was abundant in ventricular myocardium from failing human heart. In contrast, steady-state levels of phospholamban mRNA decreased, whereas levels of β-myosin heavy-chain mRNA were unchanged with heart failure. ConclusionsAlterations in gene expression in the failing human heart appear to be selective. In addition, the present study suggests that PCR provides a rapid and economical way to quantify the expression of multiple genes of interest in endomyocardial biopsy specimens and may therefore be used to advance our understanding of heart muscle disease. (Circulation 1991;83:1866—1872)
Estimating sizes of faint, distant galaxies in the submillimetre regime

We measure the sizes of redshift similar to 2 star-forming galaxies by stacking data from the At-acama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We use a uv-stacking algorithm in combination with model fitting in the uv-domain and show that this allows for robust measures of the sizes of marginally resolved sources. The analysis is primarily based on the 344 GHz ALMA continuum observations centred on 88 submillimetre galaxies in the LABOCA ECDFS Submillimeter Survey (ALESS). We study several samples of galaxies at z approximate to 2 with M-* approximate to 5 x 10(10) M-circle dot, selected using near-infrared photometry (distant red galaxies, extremely red objects, sBzK-galaxies, and galaxies selected on photometric redshift). We find that the typical sizes of these galaxies are similar to 0.6 arcsec which corresponds to similar to 5 kpc at z = 2, this agrees well with the median sizes measured in the near-infrared z band (similar to 0.6 arcsec). We find errors on our size estimates of similar to 0.1-0.2 arcsec, which agree well with the expected errors for model fitting at the given signal-to-noise ratio. With the uv-coverage of our observations (18-160 m), the size and flux density measurements are sensitive to scales out to 2 arcsec. We compare this to a simulated ALMA Cycle 3 data set with intermediate length baseline coverage, and we find that, using only these baselines, the measured stacked flux density would be an order of magnitude fainter. This highlights the importance of short baselines to recover the full flux density of high-redshift galaxies.
Asymmetric interference between domains: evidence from the stimulus order effect in complex span tasks

ABSTRACT The stimulus order effect refers to the finding that recall in complex span tasks is better when span lists begin with a longer processing task and end with a shorter task than when these processing tasks are presented in the reverse order. This study independently manipulated processing time and processing difficulty between Long-final and Short-final lists. The processing task required participants to solve arithmetic problems with either verbal (Experiment 1) or visuospatial (Experiment 2) materials. The memory items used in the storage task were either digits (verbal material) or dots-in-matrices (visuospatial materials). Storage of both verbal and visuospatial materials was sensitive to the change in processing difficulty, but not processing time. Furthermore, this study provides further evidence for the asymmetry of domain interference in working memory. The similarities and differences between verbal and visuospatial storage in working memory are discussed.
Understanding the exploration–exploitation dilemma: An fMRI study of attention control and decision-making performance

This paper studies the cognitive processes that enable decision makers to switch between exploitation and exploration. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of expert decision makers to make two main contributions. First, we identify and contrast the specific brain regions and cognitive processes associated with exploitation and exploration decisions. Exploitation activates regions associated with reward seeking, which track and evaluate the value of current choices, while exploration relies on regions associated with attentional control, tracking the value of alternative choices. Second, we propose and test the idea that stronger activation of the brain circuits related to attentional control allows individuals to achieve better decision-making performance as a result. We discuss the implications of these results for strategic management research and practice.
Reirradiation using robotic image-guided stereotactic radiotherapy of recurrent head and neck cancer

The purpose of this study was to examine the prognosis for patients with head and neck cancer after reirradiation using Cyberknife stereotactic body irradiation with special focus on mucosal ulceration. We conducted a retrospective multi-institutional review of 107 patients with previously irradiated head and neck cancer. The median follow-up time for all patients was 15 months, and the 2-year overall survival rate was 35%. Significant prognostic factors for overall survival were primary site (nasopharynx versus other sites), presence of ulceration, and PTV volume. Detailed analysis of ulceration showed a lower response rate (28%) in the ulceration (+) group than the ulceration (−) group (63%; P = 0.0045). The 2-year overall survival rates were 8% in the ulceration (+) group and 42.7% (P = 0.0001) in the ulceration (−) group, respectively. We recorded 22 severe toxicities, including 11 patients with carotid blow-out syndrome (CBOS), which was fatal in 9 patients. CBOS occurred in 6 patients with ulceration (6/25; 24%), and 5 patients experienced CBOS without ulceration (5/82; 6%; P=0.027). In conclusion, ulceration is an important prognostic factor, not only for adverse events but also for survival after reirradiation using CyberKnife.
Genetic G2548A polymorphism of leptin gene and risk of cancer: a meta-analysis of 6860 cases and 7956 controls.

PURPOSE The results from the published studies on the association between LEP (leptin) genetic polymorphism and cancer risk are conflicting. The common G2548A genetic polymorphism has been reported to be functional and may contribute to genetic susceptibility to cancers. However, the association between LEP G2548A genetic polymorphism and cancer risk remains inconclusive. METHODS To better understand the role of LEP G2548A genetic polymorphism in global cancer, we conducted this comprehensive meta-analysis encompassing 6860 cases and 7956 controls. RESULTS Overall, the LEP G2548A genetic polymorphism was associated with higher cancer risk in three genetic models (AA vs GG, AA vs AG/GG, A vs G). In the stratified analysis, there was significant association of LEP G2548A variant with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) under homozygous co-dominant model (OR=1.27, 95% CI 1.01-1.60) and additive genetic model (OR=1.14, 95% CI 1.01-1.28). Moreover, a significantly increased cancer risk was found in three genetic models (AA vs GG, AA vs AG/GG, A vs G) among Caucasian population. For Asians, no significant associations were observed in any genetic model tested. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the LEP G2548A genetic polymorphism may increase the susceptibility of cancers in NHL, especially in the homozygote co-dominant model and the additive genetic model among Caucasian populations. The phenomenon also indicates that the SNP functions as a recessive mutation, which needs to be verified or linked with functional studies.