Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of UKF Algorithm for Target Tracking in DTV-Based Passive Radar

In this paper the geometry of DTV-based passive radar is studied, with the form of the ambiguity function (AF) of the system given to get TDOA and Doppler parameters, and the state and measurement models established. Then the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) method with TDOA/Doppler measurements is presented for target tracking. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively locate and track target, and has better location and velocity estimation accuracy compared with EKF method.
Water Use Practices Limit the Effectiveness of a Temephos-Based Aedes aegypti Larval Control Program in Northern Argentina

Background A five-year citywide control program based on regular application of temephos significantly reduced Aedes aegypti larval indices but failed to maintain them below target levels in Clorinda, northern Argentina. Incomplete surveillance coverage and reduced residuality of temephos were held as the main putative causes limiting effectiveness of control actions. Methodology The duration of temephos residual effects in household-owned water-holding tanks (the most productive container type and main target for control) was estimated prospectively in two trials. Temephos was applied using spoons or inside perforated small zip-lock bags. Water samples from the study tanks (including positive and negative controls) were collected weekly and subjected to larval mortality bioassays. Water turnover was estimated quantitatively by adding sodium chloride to the study tanks and measuring its dilution 48 hs later. Principal Findings The median duration of residual effects of temephos applied using spoons (2.4 weeks) was significantly lower than with zip-lock bags (3.4 weeks), and widely heterogeneous between tanks. Generalized estimating equations models showed that bioassay larval mortality was strongly affected by water type and type of temephos application depending on water type. Water type and water turnover were highly significantly associated. Tanks filled with piped water had high turnover rates and short-lasting residual effects, whereas tanks filled with rain water showed the opposite pattern. On average, larval infestations reappeared nine weeks post-treatment and seven weeks after estimated loss of residuality. Conclusions Temephos residuality in the field was much shorter and more variable than expected. The main factor limiting temephos residuality was fast water turnover, caused by householders' practice of refilling tanks overnight to counteract the intermittence of the local water supply. Limited field residuality of temephos accounts in part for the inability of the larval control program to further reduce infestation levels with a treatment cycle period of 3 or 4 months.
Modeling Elliptical Galaxies: Phase-Space Constraints on Two-Component (γ1, γ2) Models

In the context of the study of the properties of the mutual mass distribution of the bright and dark matter in elliptical galaxies, I present a family of two-component, spherical, self-consistent galaxy models, in which one density distribution follows a γ1 profile and the other a γ2 profile [hereafter (γ1,γ2) models], with different total masses and "core" radii. A variable amount of (radial) orbital anisotropy is allowed in both components, following the Osipkov-Merritt parameterization. For these models, I derive analytically the necessary and sufficient conditions that the model parameters must satisfy in order to correspond to a physical system (the so-called model consistency). Moreover, the possibility of adding a black hole at the center of radially anisotropic γ models is discussed, determining analytically a lower limit of the anisotropy radius as a function of γ. The analytical phase-space distribution function for (1, 0) models is presented, together with the solution of the Jeans equations and the quantities entering the scalar virial theorem. It is proved that a globally isotropic γ = 1 component is consistent for any mass and core radius of the superimposed γ = 0 model; on the other hand, only a maximum value of the core radius is allowed for the γ = 0 model when a γ = 1 density distribution is added. The combined effects of mass concentration and orbital anisotropy are investigated, and an interesting behavior of the distribution function of the anisotropic γ = 0 component is found: there exists a region in the parameter space where a sufficient amount of anisotropy results in a consistent model, while the structurally identical but isotropic model would be inconsistent.
Leisure activities and well-being in midlife and older age with special reference to physical activity and resistance training

Kekäläinen, Tiia Leisure activities and well-being in midlife and older age with special reference to physical activity and resistance training Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2019, 97 p. (JYU Dissertations ISSN 2489-9003; 56) ISBN 978-951-39-7677-4 (PDF) Finnish summary Diss. Participation in leisure activities is related to better well-being. Participation in leisure time physical activity also has several positive effects on functional capacity and health. Notwithstanding, only a minor proportion of adults, including older adults, participate in physical activity at a sufficient level for maintaining or improving their health. This study investigated both crosssectional and longitudinal associations between different types of leisure and physical activities and well-being. This dissertation is based on data from three research projects: the Finland 2014 – Consumption and Lifestyle postal survey, conducted with a random sample representative of the Finnish adult population (n=1354); data collected at ages 42 and 50 (n=303) as part of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development; and the Minimum Resistance Training Frequency study, which was a randomized controlled trial including a ninemonth supervised resistance training program for older adults aged 65-75 (n=104). Leisure activities and well-being were measured by self-report questionnaires. The cross-sectional results showed that, in general, leisure activities and leisure time physical activity were related to better current well-being in midlife and older age. The longitudinal results, in turn, showed that higher mental well-being predicted later participation in leisure time physical activity in midlife, not vice versa. The resistance training intervention improved some components of well-being and some exercise-related motivational and volitional characteristics among older adults. Moreover, improvements in these motivational and volitional characteristics predicted later participation in resistance training. This research indicates that the associations between leisure activities including leisure time physical activity and well-being are complex. More attention should be paid to well-being and motivational characteristics as predictors of physical activity.
Counseling Immigrant Children in the Schools.

The number of immigrant children in the schools is increasing. As immigrant populations expand in major urban areas across the country, public school systems must accommodate growing numbers of immigrant students. California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, in particular, are receiving a high influx of immigrants (Haney, 1987). Combining data from the United States Census Bureau and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service with other assumptions (i.e., the size of undocumented arrivals to the United States), Haney has calculated the total number of immigrant school-age children (5-18 years of age) to fall between 2.1 and 2.7 million. Given the stressors encountered by immigrant children, it is important that school mental health professionals be prepared to address their social and emotional needs.
The Effects of Four Different Types of Corrective Feedback on EFL Students’ Writing in Taiwan

This study compared four ways of responding to EFL students in writing class to study whether they resulted in different outcomes in term of student‟s errors in writing. A total of 119 intermediate level students were selected as subjects, including students from three English reading and writing classes, and some voluntary participants. The students of three English reading and writing classes received three different kinds of reviews for their writing: one group received coded corrective feedback from the teacher followed by peer to peer feedback and student-teacher conference; one group received coded corrective feedback from the teacher followed by student-teacher conference only; and one group received feedback of direct written correction only. The group of the voluntary participants served as the control group, which received no correction on their grammatical errors in their writing. The results showed that the group receiving coded corrective feedback from the teacher followed by the student-teacher conference only and the group receiving coded corrective feedback from the teacher followed by the peer-peer interaction and student-teacher conference outperformed the group receiving written correction from the teacher and the group receiving no feedback in terms of verb and noun endings in their post-review writings. In addition, this study reconfirmed that highly rule-governed linguistic knowledge, such as noun endings, can be learned; it also revealed that peer interaction as well as student-teacher interaction can facilitate this learning.
Is there a link between the neutron-star spin and the frequency of the kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations?

There is a general consensus that the frequencies of the kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) in neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries are directly linked to the spin of the neutron star. The root of this idea is the apparent clustering of the ratio of the frequency difference of the kHz QPOs, and the neutron-star spin frequency, Deltanu/nus, at around 0.5 and 1 in 10 systems for which these two quantities have been measured. Here, we re-examine all available data of sources for which there exist measurements of two simultaneous kHz QPOs and spin frequencies, and we advance the possibility that Deltanu and nus are not related to each other. We discuss ways in which this possibility could be tested with current and future observations.
A 780-year annually resolved record of Indian Ocean monsoon precipitation from a speleothem from south Oman

[1] Meteorological records of monsoon rainfall in the Indian Ocean are generally less than 100 years long. The relative brevity of these records makes it difficult to investigate monsoon variation on decadal and centennial timescales, to determine what factors influence the intensity of rainfall on these timescales, or to place possible changes in the twentieth century into a broader historical context. Development of a geologic proxy for rainfall that records annual variation in the monsoon over much longer time periods than are covered by instrumental records would be a significant step forward. We have developed an annually resolved record of monsoon rainfall variation for the past 780 years based on annual layer thickness and stable isotope analyses of a laminated stalagmite from southern Arabia. Our results show that monsoon variation over the past century is not outside of the range of the past 800 years. Decreasing monsoon rainfall over the past century is related to increasing sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean. Spectral analyses of the record are dominated by cycles that are similar to those observed in records of solar activity on centurial timescales. Decadal to interannual cycles in the record appear to originate in the tropical Pacific Ocean. INDEX TERMS: 3344 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology; 3354 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Precipitation (1854); 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 1699 Global Change: General or miscellaneous; KEYWORDS: Monsoon, paleoclimate, rainfall, Indian Ocean, speleothem, oxygen isotopes
The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Youth Labour Markets

This paper investigates the impact of the GFC on youth unemployment and long term unemployment. In particular, we study whether the GFC had a bigger impact on youths than adults, and whether youth unemployment rates increased due to an increase in youth wages relative to adult wages. To anticipate our results, we find that the youth unemployment rates increased significantly more than that of adults even though youth wages had been falling relative to adult wages.
Strategies for development of fungus-resistant transgenic plants

AFTER centuries of improving crop plants by breeding for desirable traits, agricultural scientists are now using the tools of molecular biology and genetic engineering to develop transgenic plants with the desired genes. Enormous progress has been made over the past decade in our understanding of the highly complex molecular events that occur in plant–pathogen interactions. This knowledge in turn has provided a number of options and strategies which can be and have been used to make transgenic plants resistant to pathogens. This review deals with fungal pathogens of crop plants. Starting from the first step of mutual recognition of host and pathogen which involves resistance gene–avirulence gene interaction , moving onto immediate response of the plant in terms of hypersensitive response, production of active oxygen species, followed by local resistance response in terms of production of pathogenesis-related proteins and other antifungal proteins, then to the final step of syste-mic acquired resistance (SAR), all this information has been/or is being used to produce fungus-resistant trans-genic plants in different crop species. In this review we discuss strategies that have been used to produce fungus-resistant transgenic plants and also discuss some of the emerging possibilities in the wake of large scale genome sequencing projects being undertaken in crop plants. Significant yield losses due to fungal attacks occur in most of the agricultural and horticultural species. In Indian context, fungal diseases are rated either the most important or second most important factor contributing to yield losses in our major cereal, pulse and oilseed crops. On the basis of a recent survey 1 , contribution of fungal diseases towards total yield loss in some important crops in India has been summarized in Table 1. Incidence of plant diseases has been controlled by agronomic practices that include crop rotation and use of agrochemicals and by breeding new strains and varieties that contain new resistance conferring genes. The use of agrochemicals poses many dangers that include harmful effects on the ecosystem and an increase in the input cost of the farmers. The breeding of resistant crops is time consuming and has to be a continuous process as often new races of pathogens evolve and crops become susceptible. Despite the boom and bust cycles, breeders have been successful in protecting some of the major crops grown around the world from fungal diseases. A major success story is wheat in which systematic breeding has been done to develop varieties …
EGRET Upper Limits on the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission of Galaxy Clusters

We report EGRET upper limits on the high-energy gamma-ray emission from clusters of galaxies. EGRET observations between 1991 and 2000 were analyzed at positions of 58 individual clusters from a flux-limited sample of nearby X-ray-bright galaxy clusters. Subsequently, a co-added image from individual galaxy clusters has been analyzed using an adequately adapted diffuse gamma-ray foreground model. The resulting upper 2 σ limit for the average cluster is ~6 × 10-9 cm-2 s-1 for E > 100 MeV. Implications of the nondetection of prominent individual clusters and of the general inability to detect the X-ray-brightest galaxy clusters as a class of gamma-ray emitters are discussed. We compare our results with model predictions on the high-energy gamma-ray emission from galaxy clusters as well as with recent claims of an association between unidentified or unresolved gamma-ray sources and Abell clusters of galaxies and find these contradictory.
ApoE4: is it the absence of good or the presence of bad?

It is well established that ApoE genotype is highly associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (see Ashford & Mortimer discussion in Debate 3, this volume). The establishment of this association has led to an intense search for the role that ApoE plays in brain function, particularly in functions such as neuroplasticity that are most involved with the Alzheimer neuropathological process. In the course of this search, results have tended to show either that the ApoE e-3 protein has some beneficial effect, or the e-4 protein has some harmful effect. The issue in this debate hinges around this point, which perspective is most sound? Whether the e-3 protein helps to protect the brain from Alzheimer pathology (e-3 good) or the e-4 protein directly instigates the pathological process (e-4 evil)? The debate on the goodness of ApoE e3 or the badness of ApoE e4, in Cincinnati in July, 2001, and in the written summaries both reflect the dichotomous positions of the roles attributed to the different ApoE alleles. The disparity of the two sides and the importance of this issue were most clearly framed at the beginning of the summary statement by Rebeck et al., in relating the issue to treatment decisions:
de Travail du Centre d ’ Economie de la Sorbonne Predicting Stock Returns in a Cross-Section : Do Individual Firm Characteristics Matter ?

It is a common wisdom that individual stocks’ returns are difficult to predict, though in many situations it is important to have such estimates at our disposal. In particular, they are needed to determine the cost of capital. Market equilibrium models posit that expected returns are proportional to the sensitivities to systematic risk factors. Fama and French (1993) three-factor model explains the stock returns premium as a sum of three components due to different risk factors: the traditional CAPM market beta, and the betas to the returns on two portfolios, “Small Minus Big” (the differential in the stock returns for small and big companies) and “High Minus Low” (the differential in the stock returns for the companies with high and low book-to-price ratio). The authors argue that this model is sufficient to capture the impact on returns of companies’ accounting fundamentals, such as earnings-toprice, cash flow-to-price, past sales growth, long term and short-term past earnings. Using a panel of stock returns and accounting data from 1979 to 2008 for the companies listed on NYSE, we show that this is not the case, at least at individual stocks’ level. According to our findings, fundamental characteristics of companies’ performance are of higher importance to predict future expected returns than sensitivities to the Fama and French risk factors. We explain this finding within the rational pricing paradigm: contemporaneous accounting fundamentals may be better proxies for the future sensitivity to risk factors, than the historical covariance estimates.
Project Spraoi: two year outcomes of a whole school physical activity and nutrition intervention using the RE-AIM framework

We aimed to assess the impact of Project Spraoi: a school-based physical activity (PA) and nutrition intervention that reached 473 primary school children and 43 school staff in Cork (Ireland). Four primary schools (2 intervention, 2 control) with similar characteristics participated and for 2 school years, intervention schools were assigned an ‘Energizer’, who promoted PA and healthy eating. A subsample of children from the intervention schools (n = 106) and matching controls (n = 125) had measures of body mass, waist circumference, blood pressure, fitness, nutritional knowledge/attitudes and PA recorded at baseline and after 2 school years. Process evaluation techniques assessed the impact of the intervention on teachers, parents and children. Analysis of covariance revealed the intervention was associated with smaller waist circumference relative to gender and age (p < 0.0005), slower resting heart rate (p = 0.003) and favourable nutritional attitudes among 10 year olds. No significant change across other variables or among 6 year olds was found. Teachers, parents and children reported positive outcomes for PA behaviour and nutritional knowledge/attitudes. Project Spraoi has shown to improve heart rate and prevent further gains in fat mass amongst older aged children. The positive impact of the intervention supports the need for its continued delivery, particularly as children age.
New method of assessing cycle lengths in human atrial fibrillation

Measuring the mean cycle length (CL) of a rapidly beating heart is considered an efficient way to monitor arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation (AF). Routinely, sequential CL mapping, using contact catheters in the atria, provides indications on the localization of regions involved in AF. In particular, this technique helps the practitioner, during ablation procedures, to identify some features of the arrhythmia, as, for instance, the driving atrium, or the fastest regions, or its complexity. In this study, we propose a non invasive mapping of CL (niCL), using phase information extracted from electrocardiographic imaging signals (ECGI). niCL mapping provides with a real time ablation planning to the bedside of patients, prior to ablation procedure. The results of this study validate the method in showing a direct correlation between endocavitory (inside the heart) measurements of CL (enCL) and niCL mapping.
Annual trace element cycles in calcite–aragonite speleothems: evidence of drought in the western Mediterranean 1200–1100 yr BP

Each of two calcitic stalagmites from Grotte de Clamouse, Herault, southern France, displays a discrete aragonite layer dated at around 1100 yr BP. The layer of fanning aragonite ray crystals is immediately preceded by calcite with Mg and Sr compositions that are uniquely high for the past 3 kyr. Trace element compositions close to the boundary between original aragonite and calcite are consistent with quasi‐equilibrium partitioning of trace elements between the phases. Study of modern dripwaters demonstrates that pronounced covariation of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios in dripwater occurs owing to large amounts of calcite precipitation upflow of the drips that fed the stalagmites. Trace element to Ca ratios are enhanced during seasonally dry periods. Ion microprobe data demonstrate a pronounced covariation of trace elements, including Mg and Sr in calcite, and Sr, U and Ba in aragonite. The mean peak spacing is close to the long‐term mean of annual growth rates determined by differences in U‐series ages and so the trace element peaks are interpreted as annual. The trace element chemistry of the stalagmites on annual to inter‐annual scales thus directly reflects the amounts of prior calcite precipitation, interpreted as an index of aridity. The longer‐term context is a multi‐decadal period of aridity (1200–1100 yr BP) possibly correlated with an analogous episode in Central America. The arid period culminated in the nucleation of aragonite, but within a decade was followed by a return to precursor conditions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.