Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Memory truncation receivers for transmultiplexers

In this paper, the design of optimal receive filter banks for transmultiplexer-based data transmission over frequency selective channels is investigated. A new design strategy based on the principle of memory truncation, rather than equalization, is presented. Through the receive filters, each subchannel is truncated to a certain length, and the actual data detection is then carried out via low-complexity, independently operating Viterbi detectors. Design examples are presented for high-speed transmission over copper wires. The examples show that memory truncation allows significant performance improvements over MMSE equalization.
Automatic non-volcanic tremor detection in the Mexican subduction zone

An automatic non-volcanic tremor (NVT) detection algorithm is developed. NVT occurs in the 1 – 10 Hz frequency range, but high ambient noise dominates above 2 Hz at many of the MesoAmerican Seismic Experiment (MASE) stations, so the seismograms are bandpass filtered 1 – 2 Hz. The site amplification effect is de termined by comparing the coda envelopes of regional earthquakes at all stations and then removed. A median filter is applied to the absolute amplitude of the bandpass filtered data to remove the spikes of local earthquakes. Day-long data files of each station are detrended and the median value is removed to suppress the effect of storms and local noise. An average of all data files per day is then obtained to amplify the coherent energy from NVT and diminish residual noise. An amplitude cutoff for NVT is empirically determined and applied to all daily data within the study period to generate the NVT catalog. The automatically determined catalog is compared with a catalog created by visual analysis of daily spectrograms. A detailed comparison is done of the month with the greatest difference between the two catalogs, May 2006. It is found that the automatic detection algorithm had fewer false picks and undetermined NVT than the initial visual NVT detection. Thus, the automatic NVT detection algorithm developed has fewer errors and can be effectively used for further analysis of the tremor activity.
Potential impacts of climate change on ecosystems: a review of implications for policymakers and conservation biologists

Climate change represents a significant threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has been ratified by 118 nations and came into force in 1994, has amongst its aims the protection of ecosystems. This paper reviews the relevant text in the Convention and gives an overview of scientific efforts to provide policymakers wlth the necessary information on ecosystem impacts. The sensitivity of different types of ecosystem to climatic change is discussed and the concepts of ecological limits and thresholds are addressed and examples given. The paper concludes there is a need for a better understanding of the impacts of climate change on ecosystem resilience in order to maintain biological diversity and respond to the needs of policymakers in implementing the UNFCCC. Recommendations are made for increased research effort, including increased resolution of climate models, better predictive capacity at a regional level for withinand between-year rainfall patterns, seasonality and extreme events. Collaborative monitoring programs, including long-term ecological research along climate gradients, are proposed for 4 biomes: coastal wetlands, montane ecosystems, coral reefs and Arctic ecosystems. K E Y WORDS: Adaptation . Biodiversity . Climate Conservation . Critical levels . Ecosystem impacts Global warming . Protected areas UNFCCC
Sulfate source inventories from a Svalbard ice core record spanning the Industrial Revolution

[1] The 800-year sulfate record from Lomonosovfonna was analyzed by a novel multiple linear regression algorithm that attempts to explain sulfate variability in terms of other chemical species measured in the core and sulfur emission inventories. We use three statistical approaches to determine sulfate sources. We examine trends using singular spectrum analysis with confidence intervals, finding clear evidence that anthropogenic sources are important but not dominant; we use cross-wavelet coherence to examine significant multidecadal covariance in terrestrial sulfate; but our main tool is multiple regression analysis of the sulfate dependency on other ions and anthropogenic emission inventories. Models are fitted in a moving time window of typically 50 years length, explaining 80% of the sulfate variance. A suite of model predictors are examined, and the variation in relative magnitudes of the model coefficients along the core can be used to infer variations in the strength of various sulfate sources. We observe large changes in sulfate sources at the end of the Little Ice Age associated with changes in Barents Sea marine productivity, changes in North Atlantic sulfate input and a long-lasting period of disturbance caused by the large Laki volcanic eruption. Modeling sulfur emission inventories shows that western Europe contributes about 15% of the sulfate budget, with essentially no input from other regions, in contrast with predictions from global circulation models incorporating sulfur chemistry. Multidecadal cycles are mainly confined to the Little Ice Age and most likely associated with increased storminess and enhanced deposition of both marine aerosol and biogenic sulfate from the Atlantic Ocean. The model residuals do not show a normal distribution but display very large spikes. Unexpectedly, those significant at the 99% level can be closely matched to major volcanic eruptions using independent dating methods. The 20th century sulfate in the core is inventoried as sea salt (15%), terrestrial (10%), volcanic (5–10%), western European anthropogenic (10–25%), Barents Sea biogenic (20–40%), and Atlantic biogenic (10–15%).
Body Composition and Carcass Tissue Distribution of Karadi Lamb Maintained on Concentrate or Pasture

Fourteen weaned (90 days) entire male Karadi lambs were equally and randomly divided to be fed either on concentrate ad lib or on pasture supplemented with barley. All lambs were slaughtered when each animal reached its designed body weight (35 kg). Result revealed that lambs raised on concentrate had significantly (P˂ 0.05) lower percentage of lean (63.90%) and higher proportion of fat (14.89%) than lambs fed on pasture supplemented with barley (66.12; 11.63%, respectively). It seems also that the greatest proportion of body fat is the carcass fat, followed by fat tail and finally the non-carcass fat. Keywords : carcass, tissue, feeding system, Karadi lambs.
Land Flatworms (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida) in Remnants of Deciduous Forest in the Northeast Region Of Southern Brazil

Land flatworms show high endemism due to their restricted mobility. In southern Brazil, land flatworm communities have been found mainly in areas of ombrophilous forests. Thus, this study documents land planarian species composition in remnants of deciduous seasonal forest in the northeast region of southern Brazil. Direct, diurnal samplings reveal the occurrence of 26 species of land flatworms, of which one belongs to the subfamily Rhynchodeminae and the others to the subfamily Geoplaninae. The Rhynchodeminae genus Rhynchodemus Leidy 1851 and the following Geoplaninae genera occurred: CephaloflexaCarbayo & Leal-Zanchet, 2003, Choeradoplana Graff, 1896, Imbira Carbayo et al., 2013, IssocaFroehlich, 1955, LuteostriataCarbayo, 2010, Obama Carbayo et al., 2013, Paraba Carbayo et al., 2013, Pasipha Ogren & Kawakatsu, 1990 and XerapoaFroehlich, 1955, besides the collective group Pseudogeoplana Ogren & Kawakatsu, 1990. The genus Obama had the highest species richness (S=6), followed by Paraba (S=4) and Pasipha (S=3). Eighteen species were recorded exclusively in one of the two study areas, and eight species occurred in both sites. The known distribution of Luteostriata abundans (Graff, 1899), Choeradoplana iheringiGraff, 1899, Obama ficki (Amaral & Leal-Zanchet, 2012), Imbira guaiana (Leal-Zanchet & Carbayo, 2001) and Pasipha hauseri (Froehlich, 1959) is increased. Results emphasize the relevance of expanding taxonomic studies on land flatworms and including more study areas in southern Brazil.
Foreign Direct Investment and Growth: An Empiricial Investigation Based on Cross-Country Comparison

This paper investigates empirically the impact of FDI on economic growth of Turkey and Pakistan over the period of 1975-2004. To analyse the causal relationship between FDI and economic growth, the Engle-Granger cointegration and Granger causality tests are used. It is found that these two variables are cointegrated for both countries studied. Our empirical findings suggest that it is GDP that causes FDI in the case of Pakistan, while there is strong evidence of a bi-directional causality between the two variables for Turkey.
The relationships between soil erosion and crust strengths to polyvinylalcohol (PVA) applications on different types of soils in Menemen Plain, Turkey

-1 ) under laboratory conditions with two replications. The PVA solutions were sprayed on soil samples and two consecutive rain storms (65 mm h -1 ) were applied on the experimental soils. Erosion plot was weighted under a platform that has 4 infrared lamps (250 W) at 16 h between two consecutive simulated rainfalls. The results showed that the PVA treatments decreased runoff and soil loss significantly in Typic Xerofluvent, soils in 1st and 2nd simulated rainfall, and Aquic Xeropsamment soils in the second rainfall applications.
The Hudson Bay Lithospheric Experiment (HuBLE): insights into Precambrian plate tectonics and the development of mantle keels

Abstract Hudson Bay Lithospheric Experiment (HuBLE) was designed to understand the processes that formed Laurentia and the Hudson Bay basin within it. Receiver function analysis shows that Archaean terranes display structurally simple, uniform thickness, felsic crust. Beneath the Palaeoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen (THO), thicker, more complex crust is interpreted as evidence for a secular evolution in crustal formation from non-plate-tectonic in the Palaeoarchaean to fully developed plate tectonics by the Palaeoproterozoic. Corroborating this hypothesis, anisotropy studies reveal 1.8 Ga plate-scale THO-age fabrics. Seismic tomography shows that the Proterozoic mantle has lower wavespeeds than surrounding Archaean blocks; the Laurentian keel thus formed partly in post-Archaean times. A mantle transition zone study indicates ‘normal’ temperatures beneath the Laurentian keel, so any cold mantle down-welling associated with the regional free-air gravity anomaly is probably confined to the upper mantle. Focal mechanisms from earthquakes indicate that present-day crustal stresses are influenced by glacial rebound and pre-existing faults. Ambient-noise tomography reveals a low-velocity anomaly, coincident with a previously inferred zone of crustal stretching, eliminating eclogitization of lower crustal rocks as a basin formation mechanism. Hudson Bay is an ephemeral feature, caused principally by incomplete glacial rebound. Plate stretching is the primary mechanism responsible for the formation of the basin itself.
REGULARITY CONDITIONS IN NONNOETHERIAN

We show that properties of /{-sequences and the Koszul complex which hold for noetherian local rings do not hold for nonnoetherian local rings. For example, we construct a local ring with finitely generated maximal ideal such that hdB M < co but M is not generated by an Ä-sequence. In fact, every element of M— M2 is a zero divisor. Generalizing a result of Dieudonné, we show that even in local (nonnoetherian) integral domains a permutation of an /{-sequence is not necessarily an /{-sequence. Introduction. A fundamental theorem of local algebra states that for a noetherian local ring P with maximal ideal M the following are equivalent: (i) M is generated by a regular sequence (also called P-sequence or prime sequence), (ii) hdfl M<co. If these conditions are satisfied, P is called regular. A natural question to ask is: Is the theorem true if we remove the noetherian hypothesis (but still assume M is finitely generated)? In this paper we answer this question in the negative (§3, Example 3) and investigate several alternate "regular conditions. " Once and for all, all rings are commutative with unit. We use the phrase "(P, M) is local" to mean P is any commutative ring with unique maximal ideal M. Let P be a ring, J= (xx,., xn) an ideal of P. Let Xx,. , Xn be indeterminates. Following Grothendieck, we say x = (xi)1sisn is a regular sequence iff, for l^í'á«, Xi is not a zero divisor of P/25 = ï Bx,. We say * is a quasi-regular sequence iff the canonical surjection a: R/J[XX,. , Xn] -» ~2.Ji/Ji + 1 defined by a(A'i) = xi+J2 is bijective [5, 15.1. 7, p. 15]. We let K(x, R) or R^Xiy:dXi = xi denote the Koszul complex; that is, the exterior algebra generated by {Xx,. , Xn} with boundary map dXi = xt. The homology groups of K(x, R) are denoted by Ht(x, R). The symbol hdB means homological dimension. We introduce the following new terminology: Definition 1. A sequence x = (Xi)x¿i¿n is called Koszul-regular (resp. Hiregular) iff Hi(x, P) = 0 for all i^ 1 (resp. Hx(x, P) = 0). Definition 2. Let (R, M) be local with M finitely generated. We say (a) M is a regular ideal (resp. (b) Koszul-regular, (b') Hx-regular, (c) quasi-regular) iff M is Received by the editors May 26, 1970. AMS 1969 subject classifications. Primary 1395.
Knowledge Sharing Behavior and Cognitive Dissonance: The Influence of Assertive Conflict Management Strategy and Team Psychological Safety

Today’s workers face more numerous and complex challenges and are required to be increasingly interdependent and faster learners. Knowledge sharing activities between people have been understood as a significant element affecting organizational innovation performance. While they do have the potential to spark cognitive conflict, disagreement is important from an organizational perspective because it can stimulate the development of new ideas and perhaps pave the way for creativity, innovation, and competitive advantage. How teams cope with the cognitive conflict dimension of knowledge sharing and the associated interpersonal risk is what captures our attention. Specifically, assertive conflict management strategies have a positive influence on knowledge sharing behaviors, and team psychological safety has a positive influence on knowledge sharing intention. This paper focuses on explaining the impact that these factors have on the shaping of an individual’s decision to engage or not in knowledge sharing activities. To accomplish this, we performed an empirical analysis on the results of our questionnaire about knowledge-sharing related conflict management and team psychological safety in pharmaceutical enterprises located in North America, Europe, and Asia. First, univariate analysis is used to characterize behavior regarding conflict management strategy into two groups. Group 1 presents assertive conflict management strategies and group 2 shows unassertive ones. Then, by using SEM methodology, we evaluated the relationships between them and the team psychological safety construct with the knowledge sharing process. The results of the SEM analysis show that assertive conflict management strategies affect the knowledge sharing process the most with a small, but significant effect from team psychological safety. The findings suggest that assertive conflict management strategies are just as important as knowledge sharing intentions for encouraging knowledge sharing behavior. This paper provides clear insights into how employees manage the sharing of their knowledge in the face of conflict and interpersonal risk and the relative importance of these factors in sustaining productive knowledge sharing activities. Keywords—Cognitive dissonance, conflict management, knowledge sharing, organizational behavior, psychological safety.
Unproductive Activities and the Rate of Surplus Value at the Industry Level in Korea, 1995–2015

ABSTRACT In order to explain how the Korean economy underwent structural change through the two crises of 1997– 1998 and 2008 within the context of globalisation, this article focuses on class analysis and inter-sectoral value transfer by estimating the sectoral rates of exploitation along with the sectoral monetary expressions of labour time. Our data indicate the possibility that the expansion of unproductive activities, accompanied by intensification of exploitation within the unproductive sectors, might not have overtaken capital accumulation in Korea during 1995–2015. It can also be concluded that the condition for manufacturing’s capital accumulation steadily improved since the 1997–1998 crisis but started to deteriorate after 2011. Our value-theoretic analysis provides a foundation for understanding the context of the regime change, which may plausibly characterise the Korean economy in the last couple of decades.
THERMOREGULATION OR HABITAT SELECTION? ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTORS OF THE BODY SHAPE VARIATION IN SHARKS (CHONDRICTHYES: SELACHIMORPHA)

Ecomorphology is the study of the relation between organisms' shape and environmental factors. It assumes that variations in the organisms' shape lead to functional differences, resulting in changes in resource and habitat use. Here, we aimed to evaluate the effects of environmental variables, representing hypotheses of thermoregulation and habitat selection, over the sharks' body shape on a global scale. According to the thermoregulation hypothesis, the more fusiform species should be more commonly found in colder waters, and regarding the habitat selection hypothesis, we expected that the flatter species would occur nearest to the shore, and in the shallowest waters. Based on the body shape and occurrences of the shark species, we estimated the mean and median body shape index (body height: length ratio) of shark species on each cell in a 400 x 400 km grid, and applied a model selection by AIC approach to identify the relative importance of four environmental factors faced by the shark species: minimum temperature of the coldest month (Tc), maximum temperature of the warmest month (Tw), bathymetry (Bathy), and distance to shore (DistShr). Our results indicate a consistent trend of dorsoventral flattening towards coastal zones and shallow areas. A second detected trend was the increase in the body shape index values towards the tropical regions all over the globe, while flattened species were more common above 30o latitude in both hemispheres. Minimum temperature of the coldest month was included in all the best fitted models, but it did not follow our initial predictions of negative relation to body shape index, thus we did not find support for the thermoregulation hypothesis. On the other hand, Bathy and DistShr presented a positive relation to body shape index, thus consistent with our initial predictions. Our results indicate that the sharks body shape is not a response to a selective pressure for heat conservation in cold environments, but rather to where they live and how they obtain their food, contrary to what has been reported to ecologically equivalent marine mammals (suborder Odontoceti).
Effects of Acute Beetroot Juice Consumption on Physiological and Performance Variables during Endurance Exercise in Severe Hypoxia

Purpose: Acute consumption of red beetroot juice has been shown to reduce systemic blood pressure and improve endurance exercise performance. Inhalation or infusion of nitrates, the active ingredient in beetroot juice, has been shown to partially alleviate hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) and hypoxic pulmonary hypertension, and partially restore exercise performance in severe hypoxia. We studied the effects of acute red beetroot ingestion on physiological markers of HPV and performance during high-intensity endurance cycle ergometry in severe hypoxia. Methods: Nine male competitive cyclists completed a performance time trial (PTT) at a PPO2 of 86 Torr following acute ingestion of red beetroot juice (BR), denitrated beetroot juice (PL), or water. Systemic blood pressure and arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) were measured prior to and during exercise. Oxygen consumption was measured during exercise. Time to complete the PTT and average power output were used as performance markers and exercise economy was calculated based on exercising oxygen consumptions and power outputs. Results: No significant differences were observed due to treatment for any of the physiological or performance variables. Conclusion: Results suggest that acute beetroot juice consumption does not affect performance or physiological markers of HPV during exercise in severe hypoxia.
Effects of musicianship and experimental task on perceptual segmentation

The perceptual structure of music is a fundamental issue in music psychology that can be systematically addressed via computational models. This study estimated the contribution of spectral, rhythmic and tonal descriptors for prediction of perceptual segmentation across stimuli. In a real-time task, 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians indicated perceived instants of significant change for six ongoing musical stimuli. In a second task, 18 musicians parsed the same stimuli using audio editing software to provide non-real-time segmentation annotations. We built computational models based on a non-linear fuzzy integration of basic and interaction descriptors of local musical novelty. We found that musicianship of listeners and segmentation task had an effect on model prediction rate, dimensionality and components. Changes in tonality and rhythm, as well as simultaneous change of these aspects were important to predict segmentation by listeners. Our results suggest that musicians pay attention to more features than non-musicians, including more high-level structure interactions. Prediction of non-real-time annotations involved more features, particularly interactions thereof, suggesting high context dependency. The role of interactions on perception of musical change has an impact on the study of neural, kinetic and speech stream processing. Topic area: Musical structure, Cognitive modeling of music
Factors Affecting Ghanaian Consumers’ Purchasing Decision of Bottled Water

The objective of the study was to examine the factors influencing consumers’ choice of bottled drinking water. The survey research design was employed. Questionnaire was used as the data collections instrument. The items measuring the constructs were adapted from the extant literature. A sample size of two hundred and forty (240) bottled water consumers answered the questionnaire. Data was analysed using ANOVA and correlation test. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software was used to analyse the data. The results show that there is a relationship between age categories, income groups, educational levels and bottled water buying behaviour in the Ghanaian market. Again, the study found a relationship between perception and beliefs of bottled water usage. Furthermore, quality, brand price, availability and package were found to influence consumers’ choice of bottled water. Recommendations have been provided at the end of the study. Studies of this nature are very rare in Ghana making this study novel.