Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of submicron aerosols at a rural site in Pearl River Delta of China using an Aerodyne High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometer

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in South China is one of the most economically developed regions in China, but it is also noted for its severe air pollution due to industrial/metropolitan emissions. In order to continuously improve the understanding and quantification of air pollu- tion in this region, an intensive campaign was executed in PRD during October-November 2008. Here, we report and analyze Aerodyne High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrom- eter measurements at Kaiping, a rural site downwind of the highly-polluted central PRD area, to characterize the gen- eral features of submicron particulate pollution in the re- gional air. The mean measured PM1 mass concentration was 33.1±18.1 µg m 3 during the campaign and composed of or- ganic matter (33.8%), sulfate (33.7%), ammonium (14.0%), nitrate (10.7%), black carbon (6.7%), and chloride (1.1%), which is characterized by high fractions of inorganic ions due to huge emissions of SO2 and NOx in PRD. The av- erage size distributions of the species (except BC) were all dominated by an accumulation mode peaking at 450 nm in vacuum aerodynamic diameter. Calculations based on high-resolution organic mass spectra indicate that C, H, O, and N on average contributed 56.6, 7.0, 35.1, and 1.3% to the total organic mass, respectively, corresponding to an or- ganic matter mass to organic carbon mass ratio (OM/OC) of 1.77±0.08. Based on the high-resolution organic mass spec- tral dataset observed, Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis differentiated the organic aerosol into three compo- nents, i.e., biomass burning (BBOA) and two oxygenated (LV-OOA and SV-OOA) organic aerosols, which on aver- age accounted for 24.5, 39.6 and 35.8% of the total organic mass, respectively. The BBOA showed strong features of biomass burning emissions and has been mainly attributed to the open field burning of crop residues after the harvest in PRD rural areas. The LV-OOA and SV-OOA were found to correspond to more aged (and thus less-volatile) and fresher (and semi-volatile) secondary organic aerosol (SOA), respec- tively. Analysis of meteorological influence supported that regional transport from the central PRD area was the major origin of the PM1 observed at the Kaiping site.
Becoming the Person Your Dog Thinks You Are: An Assessment of Florida Prison-Based Dog Training Programs on Postrelease Recidivism

ABSTRACT Dog Training Programs have recently become a popular rehabilitative program within correctional facilities, however the empirical literature on the effectiveness of these widespread programs is sparse. Using propensity score matching and logistic regression, a cohort of inmates released from Florida prisons between the years of 2004-2011 is examined to determine the effectiveness of dog training programs on post-release recidivism. Findings indicate that participation in a prison-based dog training program in Florida statistically significantly affects recidivism by decreasing the likelihood of re-arrest for any reason (p=0.03) and re-arrest for a new crime (p=.10) within one year. This finding is discussed in light of desistance theory and limiting the pains of imprisonment, followed by policy implications and potential avenues for future research.
Incremental learning for spoken affect classification and its application in call-centres

This paper introduces a system for real-time incremental learning in a call-centre environment. The classifier used is a Support Vector Machine (SVM) and it is applied to telephone-based spoken affect classification. A database of 391 natural speech samples depicting angry and neutral speech is collected from 11 speakers. Using this data and features shown to correlate speech with emotional states, a SVM-based classification model is trained. Forward selection is employed on the feature space in an attempt to prune redundant or harmful dimensions. The resulting model offers a mean classification rate of 88.45% for the two-class problem. Results are compared with those from an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) designed under the same circumstances.
Cracking the Database Store

Query performance strongly depends on finding an execution plan that touches as few superfluous tuples as possible. The access structures deployed for this purpose, however, are non-discriminative. They assume every subset of the domain being indexed is equally important, and their structures cause a high maintenance overhead during updates. This approach often fails in decision support or scientific environments where index selection represents a weak compromise amongst many plausible plans. An alternative route, explored here, is to continuously adapt the database organization by making reorganization an integral part of the query evaluation process. Every query is first analyzed for its contribution to break the database into multiple pieces, such that both the required subset is easily retrieved and subsequent queries may benefit from the new partitioning structure. To study the potentials for this approach, we developed a small representative multi-query benchmark and ran experiments against several open-source DBMSs. The results obtained are indicative for a significant reduction in system complexity with clear performance benefits.
Evidence for an Outer Disk in the Prototype “Compact Elliptical” Galaxy M32

M32 is the prototype for the relatively rare class of galaxies referred to as compact ellipticals. It has been suggested that M32 may be a tidally disturbed r1/4 elliptical galaxy or the remnant bulge of a disk-stripped early-type spiral galaxy. This Letter reveals that the surface brightness profile, the velocity dispersion measurements, and the estimated supermassive black hole mass in M32 are inconsistent with the galaxy having, and probably ever having had, an r1/4 light profile. Instead, the radial surface brightness distribution of M32 resembles an almost perfect (bulge+exponential disk) profile; this is accompanied by a marked increase in the ellipticity profile and an associated change in the position angle profile where the "disk" starts to dominate. Compelling evidence that this bulge/disk interpretation is accurate comes from the best-fitting r1/n bulge model, which has a Sérsic index of n = 1.5, in agreement with the recently discovered relation between a bulge's Sérsic index and the mass of a bulge's supermassive black hole. An index of n ≥ 4 would also be inconsistent with the stellar velocity dispersion of M32. The bulge-to-disk size ratio re/h equals 0.20, and the logarithm of the bulge-to-disk luminosity ratio log(B/D) equals 0.22, typical of Sϕ galaxies. The effective radius of the bulge is 27'' (~100 pc), while the scale length of the disk is less well determined: owing to possible tidal stripping of the outer profile beyond 220''-250'', the scale length may be as large as 1.3 kpc. M32 is a relatively face-on, nucleated dwarf galaxy with a low surface brightness disk and a high surface brightness bulge. This finding brings into question the very existence of the compact elliptical class of galaxies.
What troubles early childhood educators in New Zealand: a 20-year cross-sectional study of ethical difficulties in early childhood practice

Abstract For more than 20 years, the New Zealand early childhood (EC) sector has had guidance about how to deal with situations of ethical difficulty in daily practice through the ECE Code of Ethics. This paper reports on three surveys undertaken at 10-year intervals that sought to understand EC educators’ experiences of such situations, and how they addressed them within their EC settings. An analysis of educators’ stories of ethically troubling situations from the three data-sets traced shifts and similarities in the content reported, and in how educators responded to these challenges over the two-decade period. We situate this analysis alongside changes in the New Zealand ECE policy context during the same time frame. We argue that a connection exists between the reported situations and teachers’ responses to them, and changes within the policy and professional context of daily EC practice.
The Impact of Neuroimmune Alterations in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves a complex interplay of both genetic and environmental risk factors, with immune alterations and synaptic connection deficiency in early life. In the past decade, studies of ASD have substantially increased, in both humans and animal models. Immunological imbalance (including autoimmunity) has been proposed as a major etiological component in ASD, taking into account increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines observed in postmortem brain from patients, as well as autoantibody production. Also, epidemiological studies have established a correlation of ASD with family history of autoimmune diseases; associations with major histocompatibility complex haplotypes and abnormal levels of immunological markers in the blood. Moreover, the use of animal models to study ASD is providing increasing information on the relationship between the immune system and the pathophysiology of ASD. Herein, we will discuss the accumulating literature for ASD, giving special attention to the relevant aspects of factors that may be related to the neuroimmune interface in the development of ASD, including changes in neuroplasticity.
The IMF and star formation history of the stellar clusters in the Vela D cloud

Aims. We present the results of a Near-Infrared deep photometric survey of a sample of six embedded star clusters in the Vela-D molecular cloud, all associated with luminous (∼10 3 L� ) IRAS sources. The clusters are unlikely to be older than a few 10 6 yrs, since all are still associated with molecular gas. Methods. We employed the fact that all clusters lie at the same distance and were observed with the same instrumental setting to derive their properties in a consistent way, being affected by the same instrumental and observational biases. We extracted the clusters’ K Luminosity Functions and developed a simple method to correct them for extinction, based on colour-magnitude diagrams. The reliability of the method has been tested by constructing synthetic clusters from theoretical tracks for pre-main sequence stars and a standard Initial Mass Function. The clusters’ Initial Mass Functions have been derived from the dereddened K Luminosity Functions by adopting a set of pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks and assuming coeval star formation. Results. All clusters are small (∼100 members) and compact (radius ∼0.1−0.2 pc); their most massive stars are intermediate-mass (∼2−10 M� ) ones. The dereddened K Luminosity Functions are likely to arise from the same distribution, suggesting that the selected clusters have quite similar Initial Mass Functions and star formation histories. The Initial Mass Functions are consistent with those derived for field stars and clusters. Adding them together we found that the “global” Initial Mass Function appears steeper at the high-mass end and exhibits a drop-off
A student perspective on prior experience in CS1

This work explores the effects of prior exposure to programming on student experiences in an introductory computer programming course CS1). We take a student-focused approach: using a combination of surveys and semi-structured interviews, we obtain information on the student experiences in CS1 and their relationship to prior programming experience (PE). The analysis of the results provides insight into the following two questions: a) How does PE affect peer interaction: pair programming sessions, assignment partnerships, and online and in-class interactions? b) What are the students' beliefs on the relationship between PE and success in the course?
Effects of Latency Jitter and Dropouts in Pointing Tasks

Interactive computing systems frequently use pointi ng as an input modality, while also supporting other forms o f input. We focus on pointing and investigate the effects of variations, i.e. jitter, in the input device latenc y, as well as dropouts on 2D pointing speed and accuracy. First, we characterize the latency, latency jitter, and dropo uts in several common input technologies. Then we present an experiment, based on ISO 9241-9, where we systemati cally explore combinations of dropouts, latency, and late ncy jitter on a desktop mouse to measure how these factors aff ect human performance. The results indicate that latenc y and dropouts have a strong effect on human performance, while moderate amounts of latency jitter do not change performance in a statistically significant way in m ost cases. The findings are useful for the design of pointing technologies for interactive systems. Our results p ermit prediction of the impact of various detrimental fac tors on performance, which provides guidelines for dealing with latency, latency jitter, and dropouts. Author
Structure and Time-Evolution of the Internet Community pussokram.com

Statistics for the structure and time-evolution of a large, complex, evolving, real-world network is presented. The data comes from the communication flow in an Internet community of around 25 000 users with user activity logged for about 500 days. The vastness and precise time resolution of an Internet community offers unique possibilities to monitor social network formation and dynamics. The data allows us to study the dynamic process during an extended period of time compared to previous studies. Time evolution of well-known quantities, such as clustering, mixing (degree-degree correlations), average geodesic length, degree, and reciprocity is studied. The effective sampling time is long enough for most of these measures to converge. In contrast to earlier analyses of scientific collaboration networks, mixing between vertices is found to be disassortative. Furthermore, both the evolutionary trajectories of the average geodesic length and of the clustering coefficients have minima.
Projections for efficient document clustering

Clustering is increasing in importance, but linearand even constant-time clustering algorithms are often too slow for real-time applications. A simple way to speed up clustering is to speed up the distance calculations at the heart of clustering routines. We study two techniques for improving the cost ofdistance calculations, LSI and trrmcation, and determine both how much these techniques speed up clustering and how much they affect the quality of the resulting clusters. We find that the speed increase is significant while — surprisingly — the quality of clustering is not adversely affected. We conclude that truncation yields clusters as good as those produced by full-profile clustering while offering a significant speed advantage.
A space-vector modulated sensorless direct-torque control for direct-drive PMSG wind turbines

This paper proposes a space-vector modulation (SVM)-based direct-torque control (DTC) scheme for a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) used in a variable-speed direct-drive wind power generation system. A quasi-sliding-mode observer (QSMO) that uses a finite sampling frequency is proposed to estimate the rotor position and stator flux linkage based on the current model of the PMSG. The optimal torque command is directly obtained and used for DTC by which the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control of the wind turbine generator is achieved without the need of any wind speed or rotor position sensors. In addition to realizing the fixed switching frequency and low flux and torque ripples, the benefits of the proposed control also include the removal of a torque observer, which leads to reduced computational cost, improved dynamic response, and enhanced robustness of the whole system. Simulation studies on a 3-kW PMSG wind turbine demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SVM-DTC algorithm with 10 kHz controlling frequency.
Application-driven Statistical Paraphrase Generation

Paraphrase generation (PG) is important in plenty of NLP applications. However, the research of PG is far from enough. In this paper, we propose a novel method for statistical paraphrase generation (SPG), which can (1) achieve various applications based on a uniform statistical model, and (2) naturally combine multiple resources to enhance the PG performance. In our experiments, we use the proposed method to generate paraphrases for three different applications. The results show that the method can be easily transformed from one application to another and generate valuable and interesting paraphrases.
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Anticholinergic Side Effects of Long-acting Antipsychotics

Background: There are few studies on the anticholinergic side effects of long-acting antipsychotics. They tend to be used with stigmatized, severely ill and non-concordant patients rather than first episode psychosis. Aim: To investigate prevalence/incidence rate of anticholinergic side effects of long-acting antipsychotics. Methods: We included all participants with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or schizotypal disorder on depot antip- sychotics in the trials within all Cochrane reviews published by the Cochrane schizophrenia group. A search was under- taken in the Cochrane Database and data extracted into Microsoft Excel to analyze frequencies, prevalence and confidence intervals of the anticholinergic side effects of all identified long-acting antipsychotic medications. Result: We found seven reviews for seven depot antipsychotics. For example for fluphenazine decanoate at least a quarter of the participants experienced blurred vision 24.5% (CI 11 to 47) in the short-term, 16 % (CI 10-27) in the medium-term, and 21.4 % (CI 16-28) in the long-term. Conclusion: The anticholinergic side effects of long-acting depot antipsychotics are not any more frequent than the anti- cholinergic side effects of oral antipsychotics. There is no evidence to suggest that oral medications are better tolerated than long-acting depot preparations.
IL-21 Enhances Tumor Rejection through a NKG2D-Dependent Mechanism1

IL-21 is a cytokine that can promote the anti-tumor responses of the innate and adaptive immune system. Mice treated with IL-21 reject tumor cells more efficiently, and a higher percentage of mice remain tumor-free compared with untreated controls. In this study, we demonstrate that in certain tumor models IL-21-enhanced tumor rejection is NKG2D dependent. When engagement of the NKG2D receptor was prevented, either due to the lack of ligand expression on the tumor cells or due to direct blocking with anti-NKG2D mAb treatment, the protective effects of IL-21 treatment were abrogated or substantially diminished. Specifically, IL-21 only demonstrated a therapeutic effect in mice challenged with a retinoic acid early inducible-1δ-bearing lymphoma but not in mice bearing parental RMA tumors lacking NKG2D ligands. Furthermore, treatment with a blocking anti-NKG2D mAb largely prevented the therapeutic effect of IL-21 in mice challenged with the 4T1 breast carcinoma, the 3LL lung carcinoma, and RM-1 prostate carcinoma. By contrast, IL-21 did mediate beneficial effects against both the parental DA3 mammary carcinoma and DA3 tumors transfected with H60, a NKG2D ligand. We also observed that IL-21 treatment could enhance RMA-retinoic acid early inducible-1δ tumor rejection in RAG-1−/− deficient mice, thereby demonstrating that the IL-21-induced protective effect can be mediated by the innate immune system and that, in this case, IL-21 does not require the adaptive immune response. Collectively, these findings suggest that IL-21 therapy may work optimally against tumors that can elicit a NKG2D-mediated immune response.
The visible environment of galaxies with counterrotation

In this paper we present a statistical study of the environments of 49 galaxies in which there is gas- or stellar-counterrotation. The number of possible companions in the field (to apparent magnitude 22), their size and concentration were considered. All the statistical parameters were analysed by means of Kolgomorov-Smirnov tests, using a control sample of 43 galaxies without counterrotation. From our data, no significant differences between the counter-rotating and control samples appear. This is different to Seyfert or radio-loud galaxies which lie in environments with a higher density of companions. On the contrary, if a weak tendency exists, for galaxies with gas counterrotation only, it is discovered in regions of space where the large scale density of galaxies is smaller. Our results tend to disprove the hypothesis that counterrotation and polar rings derive from a recent interaction with a small satellite or a galaxy of similar size. To a first approximation, they seem to follow the idea that all galaxies are born through a merger process of smaller objects occurring very early in their life, or that they derive from a continuous, non-traumatic infall of gas that formed stars later. Whatever the special machinery is which produces counterrotation or polar rings instead of a co-planar, co-rotating distribution of gas and stars, it seems not to be connected to the present galaxy density of their environments.
Reducing Calibration Time For Brain-Computer Interfaces: A Clustering Approach

Up to now even subjects that are experts in the use of machine learning based BCI systems still have to undergo a calibration session of about 20-30 min. From this data their (movement) intentions are so far infered. We now propose a new paradigm that allows to completely omit such calibration and instead transfer knowledge from prior sessions. To achieve this goal we first define normalized CSP features and distances in-between. Second, we derive prototypical features across sessions: (a) by clustering or (b) by feature concatenationmethods. Finally, we construct a classifier based on these individualized prototypes and show that, indeed, classifiers can be successfully transferred to a new session for a number of subjects.
Symbolic Safety Analysis of Memory Accesses Within Loops ( DRAFT )

One of the biggest challenges in operating systems, distributed systems, and mobile code is how to ensure safety of untrusted code. Two recent proposals are Software Fault Isolation (SFI) and Proof-Carrying Code (PCC). A diicult challenge is how to deal with memory accesses within loops. SFI generates run-time bounds checks at every access, which incurs non-negligible overhead in tight loops, while PCC currently requires that the loop be pre-annotated with invariants that specify these bounds. I present a static analysis for automatically determining the bounds of the memory accesses within a loop. Given a loop in either source code (e.g., C) or executable binary, the analysis attempts to generate a symbolic expression for each memory access in the loop that describes its range in terms of the context (e.g., values of variables) before the loop. An operating system can use the results of the analysis in one of two ways: 1] to prove statically that the surrounding context guarantees that these ranges are in safe bounds and then execute the unmodiied code (as in PCC, but now fully automatic); or 2] to insert a guard before the loop entry that will guarantee at run-time that the ranges are in safe bounds (as in SFI, but hoisted outside the loop). The analysis uses symbolic composition of transfer relations and does not require a xed-point calculation. I demonstrate my analysis on DEC Alpha assembly code for Internet Checksum and Standard ML code for TCP/IP byte copy.