Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kernel Learning and Applications in Wireless Localization by Qiaojun Wang Dissertation Director :

OF THE DISSERTATION Kernel Learning and Applications in Wireless Localization by Qiaojun Wang Dissertation Director: Ivan Marsic Recent advances in mobile and pervasive computing have enabled accurate location tracking of users wearing wireless devices indoors, where GPS isn’t available. Many indoor WiFi location estimation techniques use received radio signal strength (RSS) values from various access points to track users. In recent years, machine learning techniques have been applied to this application and demonstrated the effectiveness for tracking mobile devices. However, many existing systems suffer from the following problems: (1) lack of labeled data, and (2) non-stationary data distribution. In this thesis, we will describe our kernel learning-based method for solving the these challenges. First, since it can be expensive to collect and label RSS training data in large and complex buildings, we propose a semi-supervised learning approach to learn labelaware base kernels, which are shown to be better aligned to the target comparing to traditional base kernels spanned by the eigenvectors of the kernel matrix (or the graph Laplacian); second, since the data distribution changes constantly as devices change and over different time periods, we propose a transfer learning approach in Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space(RKHS) to adapt the data distribution changes. Experimental results on real-world benchmark data demonstrate the encouraging performance of our proposed schemes.
Distribution and virulence of fungal species isolated from yam (Dioscorea spp.) tubers in three agroecological zones of Nigeria

Abstract Field surveys were conducted in 2012 and 2013 to evaluate the distribution and virulence of fungal isolates associated with tuber rot disease among yam (Dioscorea spp.) producing agroecological zones (AEZs) of Nigeria. A total of 70 and 66 farmers’ fields were surveyed in 2012 and 2013, respectively among three yam species, Dioscorea rotundata, D. alata and D. cayenensis. Fifteen rotted samples were randomly collected per each yam species in fourteen districts across the humid rainforest (HF), the derived savanna (DS) and the southern Guinea savanna (SGS) agroecologies. Twenty-one fungal species were isolated in the HF, 18 species in the DS and 16 in the SGS. The highest rot severity was in HF agroecology in the D. rotundata which varied from 27.2% to 65.7% in 2012 and from 21.1 to 57.4% in 2013, while the SGS agroecology had the least severity. Lasiodiplodia theobromae was the most virulent pathogen with lesion diameter of 26.8–42.1 mm at 14 days after inoculation. Findings provide baseline information for the formulation of management strategies for yam tuber rot disease in Nigeria.
Assessment of Dithionite and Oxalate Extractable Iron and Aluminium Oxides on a Landscape on Basement Complex Soil in South-Western Nigeria

The study investigats the morphological, physical and chemical characteristic of a toposequence on basement complex in Ejioku area, south-western Nigeria on latitude 07°28.675'N; and longitude 004°07.219'E; 180 m above sea level at the upper slope. It terminates at the valley bottom on latitude 07°28.756'N; and longitude 004°07.229'E; 175 m above sea level. The topography of the site is moderately slope (not greater than 10%). The aim is to examine the two forms of sesquioxides (crystalline-dithionite extractible Fe & Al and amorphous-oxalate Fe & Al) and their distribution on the toposequence. The crystalline form of Fe oxide dominates all the positions and ranges from 7.2 g/kg at the valley bottom to 444.3 g/kg at the crest compared to the amorphous forms that range from 2.7 g/kg to 10.9 g/kg. The crystalline and amorphous aluminium oxide contents of the soils are low (2.9 g/kg - 43.3 g/kg and 1.3 g/kg - 8.7 g/kg respectively). There is significant negative relationship between Fed and Fed/Feo (r =-0.15; P n = 16). There is also a correlation between Feo and Ald (r = 0.63; P n = 16), FeO and FeO/Fed (r = 0.44; P n = 16), signifying a high level of weathering. The relatively high amount of Fed virtually at all the horizons indicates that the crystalline and less active forms of the oxides exist more on the landscape and may be responsible for the non-availability of some nutrient like phosphorus that may be sorbed to their crystals lattice. All forms of Al in the soils are low especially, the oxalate extractable forms, when compare with the dithionite extractable forms. However, there is a significant correlation between Ald and Feo/Fed (r = 0.57; P
Seasonal influence on testicular morphophysiological parameters of bat Carollia perspicillata in fragments of the Atlantic Forest, northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT: Bats belong to the order Chiroptera, family Phyllostomidae, and present a wide diversity of reproductive strategies. However, information on the reproductive biology of male bats is scarce, mainly in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Thus, this study evaluated the seasonal testicular histomorphometry of the bat Carollia perspicillata in fragments of the Atlantic Forest in Pernambuco state. To this end, adult males were collected, euthanized for removal of the testicles, and later submitted to a routine histological technique. Histomorphometric analysis included assessment of the areas of tubular and intertubular compartment occupation, as well as quantification of spermatocytes, rounded spermatids, elongated spermatids, and Sertoli and Leydig cells. Results indicated that this bat species presents reproductive seasonality, because significantly higher averages of the testicular parameters were observed in the rainy season, which is a period of greater availability of food resources. Such inferences indicate that there is a synchrony between peak spermatogenesis and hormonal inversion in the months of high precipitation; furthermore, a higher carrying capacity of the Sertoli cells is noted. C. perspicillata males possibly present greater sperm and androgenic activity in the rainy season, associated with increased tubular area and number of spermatogenic cells, as well as with the intertubular area and number of Leydig cells, respectively.
Skill Biased Technical Change: Wage Effects from a Panel of Occupational Task Measures

At the heart of the Skill Biased Technical Change literature is a discussion of the temporal impact of technological change on wages. The narrative describes technological change as allowing for the increased codification of routine tasks which enables capital to become more easily substituted for occupations with a high degree of engagement in these tasks. Existing empirical analyses have focused on the impact of SBTC by examining repeated cross-sections of individuals using constant measures of occupational task requirements. That approach is unable to explore how wages respond to the time variant components of occupational task requirements. This analysis expands the existing literature by examining wage effects using a panel of occupational task requirements constructed from 19 releases of the O*Net database. The panel of occupational task requirements is combined with a micropanel of workers and used to estimate the returns to differential task requirements both within and across occupations. These estimates confirm previous empirical findings that have relied on repeated cross sections but show that controlling for individual fixed effects reduces the magnitude of estimates across occupations. In addition, the analysis develops a structurally derived fixed effects model that helps to provide evidence that the same wage effects are absent for changes to tasks within occupations. The within occupation estimates do, however, illustrate how cross-occupational dynamics and employment transitions might be playing a role in the observed cross-sectional estimates.
Detection of simple and complex de novo mutations without, with, or with multiple reference sequences

The characterization of de novo mutations in regions of high sequence and structural diversity from whole genome sequencing data remains highly challenging. Complex structural variants tend to arise in regions of high repetitiveness and low complexity, challenging both de novo assembly, where short-reads do not capture the long-range context required for resolution, and mapping approaches, where improper alignment of reads to a reference genome that is highly diverged from that of the sample can lead to false or partial calls. Long-read technologies can potentially solve such problems but are currently unfeasible to use at scale. Here we present Corticall, a graph-based method that combines the advantages of multiple technologies and prior data sources to detect arbitrary classes of genetic variant. We construct multi-sample, coloured de Bruijn graphs from shortread data for all samples, align long-read-derived haplotypes and multiple reference data sources to restore graph connectivity information, and call variants using graph path-finding algorithms and a model for simultaneous alignment and recombination. We validate and evaluate the approach using extensive simulations and use it to characterize the rate and spectrum of de novo mutation events in 119 progeny from four Plasmodium falciparum experimental crosses, using long-read data on the parents to inform reconstructions of the progeny and to detect several known and novel non-allelic homologous recombination events.
GAUDI: A Preparatory Archive for the COROT Mission

The GAUDI database (Ground-based Asteroseismology Uniform Database Interface) is a preparatory archive for the COROT (Convection, Rotation, and Planetary Transits) mission developed at the Laboratorio de Astrofísica Espacial y Física Fundamental (Laboratory for Space Astrophysics and Theoretical Physics, Spain). Its intention is to make the ground-based observations obtained in preparation of the asteroseismology program available in a simple and efficient way. It contains spectroscopic and photometric data together with inferred physical parameters for more than 1500 objects gathered since 1998 January 1998 in 6 years of observational campaigns. In this paper, the main functions and characteristics of the system are described.
Broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity of volatile organic compounds from endophytic Pseudomonas putida BP25 against diverse plant pathogens

ABSTRACT Black pepper endophytic Pseudomonas putida BP25 produced diverse antimicrobial volatile organic compounds having potential for plant disease management. Chemically synthesised volatiles such as 2, 5-dimethyl pyrazine; 2-methyl pyrazine; dimethyl trisulphide; 2-ethyl 5-methyl pyrazine; and 2-ethyl 3, 6-dimethyl pyrazine showed inhibitory activity against oomycete pathogens, Phytophthora capsici & Pythium myriotylum; fungal pathogens, Rhizoctonia solani, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Athelia rolfsii, Gibberella moniliformis & Magnaporthe oryzae; bacterial pathogen, Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum and plant parasitic nematode, Radopholus similis. Among them, dimethyl trisulphide completely inhibited oomycete and fungal pathogens as well as R. similis at a concentration of 2.65 µg cm−3 under in vitro conditions. Pyrazines suppressed Phytophthora lesions on shoot cuttings of black pepper upon in planta volatile treatment. Dimethyl trisulphide was the only compound that exhibited soil fumigant activity against P. capsici, R. solani and A. rolfsii (6.25 µg cm−3), C. gloeosporioides and G. moniliformis (12.5 µg cm−3), and R. similis (50 µg cm−3). Altogether, endophytic Pseudomonas putida BP25 and its volatile organic compounds offer an alternative strategy for eco-friendly disease management in agriculture.
Drug prescription based on WHO indicators: Tehran university of medical sciences facilities with pharmacy

Background : Rationalize of drug use in societies is one of the main responsibilities of health policy makers. In our country irrational use of dugs has increased in the recent years, for example one study in 1998 has shown that average number of medicines per prescription was 3.6 , percentage of prescriptions containing antibiotics was 43% and percentage of prescriptions containing Injections was 39%. One of the best tools for evaluation of drug use is the WHO guideline for calculating prescribing indicators. In this study, we had an assessment about prescribing patterns in South of Tehran, Islamshahr and Rey Health Centers. Methods : In order to evaluating prescribing indicators in Tehran University of Medical Sciences region 35 facilities which had pharmacy were selected according to WHO gridline and 4190 prescription from these facilities were studied. Indicators were calculated according to formulas has explained in article. Results : The average number of drug per prescription was 2.58 , percentage of drug prescribed by generic name: 99.8% , percentage of encounters prescribed Antibiotics: 62.39% percentage of encounters prescribed Injection: 28.96% & the percentage of drugs prescribed from PHC formulary 99.46% . These findings were almost similar in the three Health Centers. Conclusions: Health facilities are one of the most important bases to improve rational use of Drugs and general practitioners are the major chain in RUD cycle. Results show that we need to design intervention especially educational interventions to improve two WHO prescribing indicators, percentage of encounters prescribed Antibiotics & Injections in this region. For reaching this goals we need to design educational programs for physicians, pharmacists and people too. These educations can be as workshops, seminars, conferences or printed materials such as books, leaflets and etc.
Examining the Utilization of the Bicycle Rental System through Customer Satisfaction Index

The Taipei City government in Taiwan has developed transportation for shorter distances that produces little pollution and consumes little energy: the “YouBike” bicycle rental system. This study intends to uncover the utilization of and satisfaction with YouBikes among the general public in Taiwan. This study combines the indicators of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and the European Customer Satisfaction Index. We adopt a questionnaire survey and conduct analysis with a structural equation modeling to discover the bilateral impacts between each latent variable. The results show that image, perceived quality, and perceived value have a positive impact on customer satisfaction, while customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty. We hope to provide these results for the executive authority of YouBike as a reference for attracting more participants to utilize YouBike bicycles, and engage themselves to care for the earth through concrete actions.
Global dynamics of asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes with negative mass

The Einstein vacuum equations in 5D with negative cosmological constant are studied in biaxial Bianchi IX symmetry. We show that if initial data of Eguchi–Hanson type, modelled after the 4D Riemannian Eguchi–Hanson space, have negative mass, the future maximal development does not contain horizons, i. e. the complement of the causal past of null infinity is empty. In particular, perturbations of Eguchi–Hanson–AdS spacetimes within the biaxial Bianchi IX symmetry class cannot form horizons, suggesting that such spacetimes are potential candidates for a naked singularity to form. The proof relies on an extension principle proven for this system and a priori estimates following from the monotonicity of the Hawking mass.
Size‐dependence of growth and mortality influence the shade tolerance of trees in a lowland temperate rain forest

1 A trade‐off between growth in high‐light and survival in low‐light of species is often proposed as a key mechanism underpinning the dynamics of trees in forest communities. Yet, growth and survival are known to depend on plant size and few studies have analysed how this trade‐off can vary between juvenile life stages and the potential consequences of the trade‐off for the differences in regeneration rate between species in mixed forests. 2 We quantified growth and mortality for two different juvenile life stages – seedlings and saplings – of seven tree species common in temperate rain forests in New Zealand using data from field studies. We found strong evidence that the ranking of species for survival in shade and growth in full light was affected by size. There was a trade‐off between seedling survival in low light and sapling height growth in high light, but no trade‐offs were observed when considering other combinations of life stages (seedling growth vs. seedling survival, seedling growth vs. sapling survival, or sapling growth vs. sapling survival). 3 We ran simulations with an individual‐based forest dynamics model – SORTIE/NZ – to explore how the trade‐off drives the differences in tree species regeneration success in gaps vs. under closed forest conditions. These simulations indicate that because species’ ranks in shade tolerance varied with life stage, regeneration success was not predicted from knowledge of tree performance at a single life stage. For instance, high‐light sapling growth was a strong determinant of regeneration success in forest gaps, but seedling growth was also influential. Under closed forest, regeneration success was primarily limited by low‐light mortality at the seedling stage, but seedling growth and sapling survival were also influential. 4 Synthesis. Growth‐survival trade‐offs can be strongly affected by the size of the individual analysed, resulting in completely different rankings of the shade tolerance of species across different juvenile life stages. Performance of both seedlings and saplings influenced regeneration success, highlighting the need to consider growth‐survival trade‐offs and the shade‐tolerance strategies of tree species over a large range of juvenile sizes.
Effect of ultrasound on olive oil extraction and optimization of ultrasound-assisted extraction of extra virgin olive oil by response surface methodology ( RSM )

In this study, the effects of different extraction parameters including ultrasound time, temperature and malaxation time on olive oil quality were investigated. The extraction variables ultrasound initial temperature (20–50 °C), ultrasound time (2–10 min) and malaxation time (30–50 min) were studied to obtain ideal conditions of ultrasonic treatment on the olive paste for obtaining of a greater yield in the extraction of oil, while maintaining a maximum level of commercial quality. To evaluate the level of commercial quality, absorbance in the UV region, peroxide (PV) and free acidity values (AV), the total chlorophyll, carotenoid, phenol contents, total antioxidant activity and sensory analysis of EVOOs extracted from Edremit cultivar were determined. The optimum conditions were found to be 50 °C, 2 min and 43.23 min for ultrasound initial temperature, sonication time and malaxation time, respectively. This optimal condition gave an extraction yield of 8.25 % and the acidity value of 0.24 mg oleic acid/100 g olive oil. The experimental values obtained under optimal conditions were in agreement with the theoretical values
Insolvency Resolution and the Missing High Yield Bond Markets

In many countries, bankruptcy is associated with low recovery by creditors. We develop a model of corporate credit markets in such an environment. Corporate credit is provided by either a bond market or risk-averse banks. Restructuring of insolvent firms happens out of court if in-court bankruptcy is inefficient, giving banks an advantage over bondholders. Riskier borrowers will use bank loans anywhere, but also bonds when bankruptcy is efficient. The model matches empirical debt mix patterns better than fixed-issuance-cost models. Across systems, efficient bankruptcy should be associated with more bond issuance by high-risk borrowers. This effect is small or absent for safe firms. We find that both predictions hold both cross-country and using insolvency reforms as natural experiments. Our empirical estimates suggest that a one-standard-deviation increase in the efficiency of bankruptcy is associated with an increase in the stock of corporate bonds equal to 5% of firm assets. This is equivalent to two thirds of the difference between the US and other countries.
Evaluation of Inundation and Damage Caused by Tsunamis and Storm Surges on the Coast of Okinawa Prefecture

Numerical simulations for both tsunamis and storm surges on the coast of Okinawa Prefecture, which are expected to be the most dangerous cases, were conducted to evaluate the possible inundation area and potential damage. The detailed topographic model derived form filtered LiDAR observation data was applied to inundation simulation. Nonlinear long wave theory was used in tsunami simulation. The third generation wave spectrum model (SWAN) and VOF method (CADMAS-SURF) were used to calculate wave height and overflow volume, respectively, in storm surge simulation. The simulation results were compiled in inundation maps and computer graphic animations, and they were distributed to municipalities along the coast to promote tsunami and storm surge disaster prevention measures.
Semen Extender Ratio and Season’s Effects on Hatchability of Turkeys in Nepal

This study was carried out to identify the effects of season and semen extender ratio on hatchability of artificially inseminated turkeys of Chitwan, Nepal. Trials were conducted using four treatments of different dilutions of semen with skim milk powder in the ratio of 1:1 (T1), 1:2 (T2), 2:3 (T3) and 3:4 (T4). The 32 turkeys were artificially inseminated in 4 days interval for 3 months. The dose of insemination was 0.03 ml and insemination were done around 6:00 p.m. Trials were done in winter and spring seasons of 2017 to find out the seasonal variation on hatchability of turkey. The data were analyzed using GenStat3.6. 2, computer software. The hatchability was noted on total eggs as well as fertile eggs. In total eggs, it was found that hens with T1 (67.80%) gave higher hatchability than T2 (63.82%), T3 (63.04%) and T4 (63.98%) whereas in fertile eggs, T3 (83.26%) and T4 (83.01%) gave higher hatchability than T1 (82.96%) and T2 (82.90%). Hatchability rate was almost similar in both spring and winter seasons in total eggs with non-significant differences. On the other hand, in fertile eggs, the hatchability rate was found higher in spring season. Similarly, seasonal effect on hatchability rate of various semen extender ratios in total eggs and fertile eggs was also carried out. In total eggs, T1 and T3 produced higher hatchability rate in spring than in winter; T2 had similar hatchability rate in both seasons and T4 had higher hatchability in winter than in spring. However, there were no significant differences on hatchability rate of semen extender ratio due to seasonal variation. In fertile eggs, all the 4 dilutions had more hatchability rate in winter season than in spring with significance (P<0.05). The hatchability was highest in T1 (85.19%) in winter season. The present study provides evidence that in total eggs of turkey inseminated with 1:1 semen dilutions provides more hatchability rate than other dilutions, whereas fertile eggs have more hatchability with dilutions 1:2 and 2:3 than others and hatchability rate based on total eggs is higher in spring than winter.