Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of sap flow driving factors of jujube plantation in semi-arid areas in Northwest China

Jujube is widely cultivated in the semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau in Northwest China due to its high water deficit tolerance. In such an ecologically vulnerable area, it is critical to explore the water consumption processes of key tree species and their responses to driving factors. Sap flow data gathered during a two-year field study in a jujube plantation were analyzed as a surrogate for transpiration measurements. The measured sap flows were related to changes in the soil water content, meteorological factors (the vapor pressure deficit and the level of photosynthetically active radiation), and plant physiological factors (the sap wood area, leaf area and leaf area index). The factors that govern sap flow were found to vary depending on the growing season, and on hourly and daily timescales. The plants’ drought tolerance could be predicted based on their peak sap flows and the variation in their sap flow rates at different soil water levels. The sap flow was most strongly affected by the water content of the topmost (0-20 cm) soil layer. Of the studied meteorological factors, the photosynthetically active radiation had a greater effect on sap flow than the vapor pressure deficit. The correlation we found could be applied to predict jujube tree water consumption and assist the design of irrigation scheme. Keywords: jujube, sap flow, soil water content, photosynthetically active radiation, the Loess Plateau DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe. 20171002.2140 Citation: Wei X G, Li B, Guo C J, Wang Y K, He J Q, Liu S Y, et al. Identification of sap flow driving factors of jujube plantation in semi-arid areas in Northwest China. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2017; 10(2): 172–183.
Valuing American Options Using Fast Recursive Projections

We introduce a fast and widely applicable numerical pricing method that uses recursive projections. We characterize its convergence speed. We find that the early exercise boundary of an American call option on a discrete dividend paying stock is higher under the Merton and Heston models than under the Black-Scholes model, as opposed to the continuous dividend case. A large database of call options on stocks with quarterly dividends shows that adding stochastic volatility and jumps to the Black-Scholes benchmark reduces the amount foregone by call holders failing to optimally exercise by 25%. Transaction fees cannot fully explain the suboptimal behavior.
Offense Type as Determinant of Revenge and Forgiveness After Victimization: Adolescents’ Responses to Injustice and Aggression

ABSTRACT Victims of injustice and aggression may have strong feelings about the perpetrator(s) that may impede their efforts to cope with the victimizing experience. We examined to what extent adolescents’ interpersonal responses to victimization in terms of revenge and forgiveness depend on offense type. Of 455 Dutch students from various educational levels, 379 participants reported being victimized by incidents of injustice, aggression, or violence. These incidents were categorized according to type and related to respondents’ self-reported revenge, avoidance, and benevolence toward the perpetrator. Victims of criminal offenses (physical and sexual violence, theft, and threat) reported less forgiving motivations than victims of noncriminal transgressions (bullying, ostracism, and other forms of indirect aggression). Sexual violence primarily elicited avoidance, rather than revenge. Gender differences in responses to victimization depended on offense type, too. Hence, to enhance our knowledge about revenge and forgiveness after victimization, future studies may need to take offense characteristics into account.
Can People Identify “Deceptive” or “Misleading” Items that Tend to Produce Mostly Wrong Answers?

In many domains, two-alternative forced-choice questions produce more correct responses than wrong responses across participants. However, some items, dubbed “deceptive” or “misleading”, produce mostly wrong answers. These items yield poor calibration and poor resolution because the dominant, erroneous response tends to be endorsed with great confidence, even greater than that of the correct response. In addition, for deceptive items, group discussion amplifies rather than mitigates error while enhancing confidence in the erroneous response. Can participants identify deceptive items when they are warned about their existence? It is argued that people's ability to discriminate between deceptive and non-deceptive items is poor when the erroneous responses are based on the same process assumed to underlie correct responses. Indeed, participants failed to discriminate between deceptive and non-deceptive perceptual items when they were warned that some of the items (Experiment 1) or exactly half of the items (Experiment 2) were deceptive. A similar failure was observed for general-knowledge questions (Experiment 3) except when participants were informed about the correct answer (Experiment 4). Possibly, for these tasks, people cannot escape the dangers lurking in deceptive items. In contrast, the results suggest that participants can identify deceptive problems for which the wrong answer stems from reliance on a fast, intuitive process that differs from the analytic mode that is likely to yield correct answers (Experiment 5). The practical and theoretical implications of the results were discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
VIDEO UNDERSTANDING THROUGH THE DISENTANGLEMENT OF APPEARANCE AND MOTION

Understanding the inner workings of deep learning algorithms is key to efficiently exploit the large number of videos that are generated every day. For the self-supervised learning of the spatiotemporal information contained within these videos, there are several types of algorithms based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) following an auto-encoder style architecture. However, we have checked that this type of models, trained for the frame prediction task, learn jointly these spatio-temporal information, so the model is not able to recognize appearance-motion combinations not seen during training. Our proposed model, called DisNet, can learn separately the appearance and motion through disentanglement, so that it solves the generalization and scalability problems. To demonstrate this, we conducted numerous experiments under highly controlled conditions, generating specific datasets that make the “conventional” model fails for the appearance and motion classification tasks, and analyzing how well our proposal behaves under the same conditions.
MATERNAL-INFANT ANTIBODIES TO DENGUE VIRUS

Antibodies of all four dengue virus serotypes were detected by hemagglutination inhibition (HI) in 97% of 2,000 infants’ cord sera at the time of delivery. In comparison with 250 mother–infant’s paired sera, we found that 53% of the infants’ serum HI titers were higher than those of the mother’s. The mother/infant IgG subclasses 1, 2, 3, and 4 titers were 53.1/87.0, 8.4/11.7, 0.14/0.11, and 1.1/1.0 mg/dL, respectively. In 18 months of follow-up of 100 infants studied, we observed that antibody to dengue virus disappeared in 3% by two months of age, in 19% by four months of age, in 72% by six months of age, in 99% by nine months of age, and in 100% by 12 months of age, with a half-life of 41 days. We conclude that the antibodies to dengue virus disappeared in the first year of life. We suggest that the most appropriate age for vaccination with a live-attenuated dengue vaccine in an endemic area is one year of age.
Environmental Disorder Leads to Self-Regulatory Failure

This article examines the influence of environmental orderliness on consumers' self-regulation. It is proposed that a disorganized environment threatens the individual's sense of personal control. Because experiencing this control threat depletes resources, individuals exposed to a disorganized (vs. organized) environment are more likely to exhibit self-regulatory failure in subsequent tasks. The results from four studies provide support for this hypothesis. Further, they offer evidence of the underlying process by demonstrating that a perceived threat to control mediates the effect of environmental orderliness on self-regulation, and that providing individuals with an opportunity to recoup their resources mitigates this effect. This research has crucial practical implications concerning public health and consumer well-being.
Characterizing Changbai larch through veneering. Part 2: Effect of diameter at breast height and radial growth

This is the second part of a large research initiative aimed at characterizing Changbai larch (Larix olgensis Henry) for veneer and high-valued product potential. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of the tree growth characteristics, particularly diameter at breast height (DBH) and radial growth from pith (or peeler core) to bark on clear wood and veneer properties. A population of 36 trees was chosen and classified into three DBH classes, namely 20, 25, and 30 cm, and crosscut into six segments each along the vertical stem. With the entire veneer ribbon peeled from the pith to bark for each segment, the effect of sapwood and heartwood on wood properties was revealed. The tree DBH and height were moderately and positively correlated. The tree DBH significantly affected properties of both clear wood and veneer in a similar pattern. For the larch veneer population, veneer mean ultrasonic propagation time (UPT) and density decreased but veneer mean dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOE) increased from the heartwood to sapwood or from the pith to bark. Among the three DBH classes, the 25 cm DBH yielded the highest mean veneer density and MOE, followed by the 20 cm DBH and 30 cm DBH. This was found to be caused by the radial evolution of veneer properties from the pith to bark in combination with the variation of veneer yield and stem position.
Title 13-year mortality trends among hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Studies document increasing rates of hospitalization among patients with inflammatory bowel disease, but temporal trends for in-hospital mortality among patients with inflammatory bowel disease are not characterized. We sought to determine whether in-hospital mortality changed over a 13-year period among nationwide hospitalizations associated with inflammatory bowel disease. We additionally sought to identify factors correlated with mortality. Methods: We used the National Hospital Discharge Survey, a large nationally representative database, for the years 1994 through 2006. Ageand mortality-adjusted rates of in-hospital mortality and standardized mortality ratios were calculated for four time periods. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess associations between advancing time and mortality in adjusted analyses. Results: 150 (0.9%) of 17,393 hospitalizations for patients with inflammatory bowel disease ended in death. Age-adjusted in-hospital mortality decreased from 3.6 deaths per 1,000 hospital days in 1994–96 to 2.4 per 1,000 in 2003–06; standardized mortality ratio decreased from 0.33 to 0.27. Similar trends were seen for patients with ulcerative colitis, but mortality did not change over time among patients with Crohn’s disease. Multivariable logistic regression analysis confirmed the significance of these changes in mortality, with 17% decreased odds of in-hospital death per three-year period (P=0.012). Subject age (OR 1.06 per year, P< 0.001), Charlson comorbidity index (OR 1.29 per 1-point increase, P< 0.001), and diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (versus Crohn’s disease, OR 1.41, P= .042) were also associated with in-hospital mortality. Conclusions: The odds of in-hospital mortality among hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel disease decreased by 17% per 3-year period from 1994 to 2006 in analysis adjusted for age and comorbidity status, in this large, nationally representative database. Multiple factors likely contribute to these trends.
Modeling and mapping isotopic patterns in the Northwest Atlantic derived from loggerhead sea turtles

Stable isotope analysis can be used to infer geospatial linkages of highly migratory species. Identifying foraging grounds of marine organisms from their isotopic signatures is becoming de rigueur as it has been with terrestrial organisms. Sea turtles are being increasingly studied using a combination of satellite telemetry and stable isotope analysis; these studies along with those from other charismatic, highly vagile, and widely distributed species (e.g., tuna, billfish, sharks, dolphins, whales) have the potential to yield large datasets to develop methodologies to decipher migratory pathways in the marine realm. We collected tissue samples (epidermis and red blood cells) for carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope analysis from 214 individual loggerheads (Caretta caretta) in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWA). We used discriminant function analysis (DFA) to examine how well δ13C and δ15N classify loggerhead foraging areas. The DFA model was derived from isotopic signatures of 58 loggerheads equipped with satellite tags to identify foraging locations. We assessed model accuracy with the remaining 156 untracked loggerheads that were captured at their foraging locations. The DFA model correctly identified the foraging ground of 93.0% of individuals with a probability greater than 66.7%. The results of the external validation (1) confirm that assignment models based on tracked loggerheads in the NWA are robust and (2) provide the first independent evidence supporting the use of these models for migratory marine organisms. Additionally, we used these data to generate loggerhead-specific δ13C and δ15N isoscapes, the first for a predator in the Atlantic Ocean. We found a latitudinal trend of δ13C values with higher values in the southern region (20–25 °N) and a more complex pattern with δ15N, with intermediate latitudes (30–35 °N) near large coastal estuaries having higher δ15N-enrichment. These results indicate that this method with further refinement may provide a viable, more spatially-explicit option for identifying loggerhead foraging grounds.
MR Imaging of the Brain with a T1-Weighted Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery Sequence: Comparison with Conventional T1-Weighted Spin Echo Sequence

Ti-weighted spin-echo (T1SE) images are widely used as a standard sequence to study the anatomy of the brain. They may demonstrate signal changes characteristic of certain pathologic abnormalities. However, the image contrast is not sufficient to differentiate white from gray matter and to delineate most pathologic lesions. We tried to improve lesion conspicuity with comparable acquisition time with T1-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (T1FLAIR) sequence. T1-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (T1FLAIR) sequence is the fast inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence coupled an inversion recovery (IR) preparation pulse and a fast spin echo (FSE) readout with interleaved data acquisition. Ninety-nine patients underwent T1SE and T1FLAIR during the same imaging session. The following features on T1-weighted images performed using T1FLAIR and T1SE sequences were compared quantitatively: individual signal intensity of gray matter, white matter, CFS, lesion, edema and noise; white matter-gray matter contrast (SI(subscript white matter)-SI(subscript gray matter)), white matter-gray matter contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) (SI(subscript white matter)-SI(subscript gray matter)/noise) and contrast ratio (SI(subscript white matter)-SI(subscript gray matter)/SI(subscript white matter)); white matter-CSF contrast. CNR and contrast ratio: white matter-lesion contrast, CNR, and contrast ratio; lesion-CSF contrast, CNR and contrast ratio; white matter-edema contrast, CNR and contrast ratio. T1FLAIR yielded better gray matter-white matter contrast and white matter-CSF contrast and CNR than T1SE did. Lesion conspicuity on T1FLAIR was also superior to that on T1SE, especially within the white matter. T1FLAIR can provide superior gray-white matter contrast and improve lesion conspicuity with comparable acquisition time.
Tinea caused by Microsporum gypseum

Dermatophytosis can be classified as superficial (tinea capitis, tinea corporis, tinea cruris, tinea manuum, tinea pedis, onychomycosis and tinea imbricata), and deep infections (tinea barbae, kerion celsi, favus, trichophytic granuloma, dermatophytic mycetoma and dermatophytic disease [Hadida]). The severity and course of the infection depends on the causative agent and the host immune response [2]. This is a worldwide disease, but it predominates in tropical countries and it can be seen in different socioeconomic levels. Based on the transmission mechanism, the different causative agents can be acquired from the environment (geophilic dermatophytes), from infected animals like cats, dogs, rodents and cattle, among others (zoophilic dermatophytes) or from infected people (anthropophilic fungi) [2,3].
HRM Practices and Organizational Performance in Hospitals

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among the HRM Practices, and Organizational Performance. For this study, a sample of 250 nurses was drawn from the population of 600 nurses using a structured questionnaire from four Leading hospitals in Tiruchirapalli district. The results of Partial Least Square Path Modelling (PLS-PM) have shown that Out of the five HRM practices, Two HRM practices viz., Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development are found to be significant predictors of organizational performance.
The structure of reionization in hierarchical galaxy formation models.

Understanding the epoch of reionization and the properties of the first galaxies represents an important goal for modern cosmology. The structure of reionization and hence the observed power spectrum of redshifted 21-cm fluctuations are known to be sensitive to the astrophysical properties of the galaxies that drove reionization. Thus, detailed measurements of the 21-cm power spectrum and its evolution could lead to measurements of the properties of early galaxies that are otherwise inaccessible. In this paper, we make predictions for the ionized structure during reionization and the 21-cm power spectrum based on detailed models of galaxy formation. We combine the semi-analytic GALFORM model implemented within the Millennium-II dark matter simulation, with a semi-numerical scheme to describe the resulting ionization structure. Semi-analytic models based on the Millennium-II Simulation follow the properties of galaxies within haloes of mass greater than ∼1.4 × 108 M⊙ at z > 6, corresponding to the faint sources thought to dominate reionization. Using these models we show that the details of supernovae (SNe) and radiative feedback affect the structure and distribution of ionized regions, and hence the slope and amplitude of the 21-cm power spectrum. These results indicate that forthcoming measurements of the 21-cm power spectrum could be used to uncover details of early galaxy formation. We find that the strength of SN feedback is the dominant effect governing the evolution of structure during reionization. In particular, we show SN feedback to be more important than radiative feedback, the presence of which we find does not influence either the total stellar mass or overall ionizing photon budget. Thus, if SN feedback is effective at suppressing star formation in high-redshift galaxies, we find that photoionization feedback does not lead to self-regulation of the reionization process as has been thought.
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission. XXIII. CoRoT-21b: a doomed large Jupiter around a faint subgiant star

CoRoT-21, a F8IV star of magnitude V = 16 mag, was observed by the space telescope CoRoT during the Long Run 01 (LRa01) in the first winter field (constellation Monoceros) from October 2007 to March 2008. Transits were discovered during the light curve processing. Radial velocity follow-up observations, however, were performed mainly by the 10-m Keck telescope in January 2010. The companion CoRoT-21b is a Jupiter-like planet of 2.26 ± 0.33 Jupiter masses and 1.30 ± 0.14 Jupiter radii in an circular orbit of semi-major axis 0.0417 ± 0.0011 AU and an orbital period of 2.72474 ± 0.00014 days. The planetary bulk density is (1.36 ± 0.48) × 10 3 kg m −3 , very similar to the bulk density of Jupiter, and follows an M 1/3 − R relation like Jupiter. The F8IV star is a sub-giant star of 1.29 ± 0.09 solar masses and 1.95 ± 0.2 solar radii. The star and the planet exchange extreme tidal forces that will lead to orbital decay and extreme spin-up of the stellar rotation within 800 Myr if the stellar dissipation is Q∗/k2∗ ≤ 10 7 .
Analysis of English Teachers’ Roles as Facilitators and Leading Strategies in a Professional Book Discussion Group

This study analyzes five elementary school English teachers’ roles as facilitators and their leading strategies in an English teachers’ learning community in a suburban elementary school in northwest Taiwan. Based on the thematic data analysis of interview, document and observation fieldnotes, this study has the following major findings. These participants aspired to be facilitators, but their lack of linguistic competence and leading strategies in the design and delivery of content made them more like sharers. Luckily, other participating teachers’ support and engagement helped them to be more like facilitators. Suggestions for effectively leading a teacher study group are provided.
Modeling of Identifying Mediator Effects between Project Delivery Systems and Cost Performance

This paper addresses the problem of explaining the reason for mixed assessment results in comparing cost performance of project delivery systems (PDS). In particular, we focus on mediator effects for the explanation that would traditionally not be handled by project performance evaluation disciplines. Previous studies revealed that two kinds of disciplines deal with change orders from different points of view. Evaluating PDS by project owners uses change order as a cost performance metric, whereas contractors consider it as a method to increase project cost for their own profit. A Path Analysis model was established by integrating these viewpoints to explain the discrepancy in assessment of PDS. It describes the process how PDS impact on change orders. For the path model, 234 public sector projects completed between 1998 and 2013 in Korea were collected and analyzed. The dataset consists of both Design-Build and Design-Bid-Build projects which are the most prevalent delivery systems. While examining the total effect of PDS on cost performance using the path analysis, mediator effects were significant in building construction project type. This study fills the gap between the successful performance result and the failed adoption of PDS using causal relationship as explanation. The intervention of procurement methods between PDS and their cost performance may provide the clue that project decision makers should consider mediator effects and project characteristics when they select and assess PDS.