Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying hiss-driven energetic electron precipitation: A detailed conjunction event analysis

We analyze a conjunction event between the Van Allen Probes and the low-altitude Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) to quantify hiss-driven energetic electron precipitation. A physics-based technique based on quasi-linear diffusion theory is used to estimate the ratio of precipitated and trapped electron fluxes (R), which could be measured by the two-directional POES particle detectors, using wave and plasma parameters observed by the Van Allen Probes. The remarkable agreement between modeling and observations suggests that this technique is applicable for quantifying hiss-driven electron scattering near the bounce loss cone. More importantly, R in the 100–300 keV energy channelmeasured bymultiple POES satellites over a broad L magnetic local time region can potentially provide the spatiotemporal evolution of global hiss wave intensity, which is essential in evaluating radiation belt electron dynamics, but cannot be obtained by in situ equatorial satellites alone.
Parasitic Helminths as Potential Therapeutic Agents Against Autoimmune Disorders

In developed countries, the prevalence of both allergic disease (asthma) and autoimmune disorders such as Crohn’s disease (CD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and type 1 diabetes (T1D) is increasing. This trend seems to be inversely correlated to prominent decreases in infectious diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, and hepatitis A (Bach, 2002). Based on such epidemiological observations, the “hygiene hypothesis”, that exposure to infectious agents; i.e. bacteria, viruses, and parasites, especially in childhood, lowers the risk of later onset of immunological disorders, has attracted much attention. According to the hypothesis, a reduced exposure to infectious agents due to improved hygienic conditions in developed countries, urbanized areas, and/or a westernized lifestyle is responsible for the higher incidence of autoimmunity and allergies in modern society. A number of epidemiological and experimental studies have demonstrated the plausibility of this hypothesis. However, there is also considerable evidence that does not support or contradicts the hypothesis. In this chapter, conflicting reports are introduced and discussed. Most studies trying to elucidate the mechanisms involved have been conducted using rodent models. In various models of autoimmune or allergic diseases, effects of bacterial, viral or parasitic infections were tested. Consequently, in many cases, preventive or ameliorating effects of infectious agents have been confirmed. In the main part of this chapter, the influence of parasitic helminths on autoimmune disorders will be introduced. Although the mechanisms underlying the amelioration and/or prevention of immunological disorders by infectious agents have been studied extensively, they are not yet fully understood. As both Th1-polarizing (bacteria and viruses) and Th2-polarizing (parasitic helminths) infectious agents have anti-autoimmune/anti-allergic activities (Zaccone & Cooke, 2011), the “Th1/Th2 paradigm” is not enough to explain the mechanisms involved. Additionally, some autoimmune diseases have been shown to be dependent on a pathogenic T helper subset (Th17), and not on the Th1 subset. The suppressive mechanisms of infectious agents have been attributed to various regulatory/suppressive cell populations, such as Treg cells, Breg cells, NKT cells and alternatively activated macrophages (AA MΦs). In addition, the involvement of suppressive cytokines (e.g. IL-4, IL10 or TGF-β) has been studied and demonstrated. Focusing on helminth infections, the possible involvement of regulatory cells and cytokines is discussed. Some autoimmune diseases are being treated successfully with recently developed biological products (mainly humanized monoclonal antibodies against pro-inflammatory
Tropical Pacific Decadal Variability and Its Relation to Decadal Modulations of ENSO

A 1000-yr integration of a coupled ocean-atmosphere model (ECHO-G) has been analyzed to describe decadal to multidecadal variability in equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) and thermocline depth (Z20), and their relationship to decadal modulations of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) behavior. Although the coupled model is characterized by an unrealistically regular 2-yr ENSO period, it exhibits significant modulations of ENSO amplitude on decadal to multidecadal time scales. The authors' main finding is that the structures in SST and Z20 characteristic of tropical Pacific decadal variability (TPDV) in the model are due to an asymmetry between the anomaly patterns associated with the model's El Nino and La Nina states, with this asymmetry reflecting a nonlinearity in ENSO variability. As a result, the residual (i.e., the sum) of the composite El Nino and La Nina patterns exhibits a nonzero dipole structure across the equatorial Pacific, with positive perturbation values in the east and negative values in the west for SST and Z20. During periods when ENSO variability is strong, this difference manifests itself as a rectified change in the mean state. For comparison, a similar analysis was applied to a gridded SST dataset spanning the period 1871-1999. The data confirms that the asymmetry between the SST anomaly patterns associated with El Nino and La Nina for the model is realistic. However, ENSO in the observations is weaker and not as regular as in the model, and thus the changes due to ENSO asymmetries for the observations can only be detected in the Nino-12 region.
Modelling job crafting behaviours: Implications for work engagement

In this study among 206 employees (103 dyads), we followed the job demands–resources approach of job crafting to investigate whether proactively changing one’s work environment influences employee’s (actor’s) own and colleague’s (partner’s) work engagement. Using social cognitive theory, we hypothesized that employees would imitate each other’s job crafting behaviours, and therefore influence each other’s work engagement. Results showed that the crafting of social and structural job resources and the crafting of challenge job demands was positively related to own work engagement, whereas decreasing hindrance job demands was unrelated to own engagement. As predicted, results showed a reciprocal relationship between dyad members’ job crafting behaviours – each of the actor’s job crafting behaviours was positively related to the partner’s job crafting behaviours. Finally, employee’s job crafting was related to colleague’s work engagement through colleague’s job crafting, suggesting a modelling process.
Simulation of field injection experiments in heterogeneous unsaturated media using cokriging and artificial neural network

Simulations of moisture flow in heterogeneous soils are often hampered by lack of measurements of soil hydraulic parameters, making it necessary to rely on other sources of information. In this paper, we develop a methodology to integrate data that can be easily obtained (for example, initial moisture content, θi, bulk density, and soil texture) with data on soil hydraulic properties via cokriging and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)‐based pedotransfer functions. The method is applied to generate heterogeneous soil hydraulic parameters at a field injection site in southeastern Washington State. Stratigraphy at the site consists of imperfectly stratified layers with irregular layer boundaries. Cokriging is first used to generate three‐dimensional heterogeneous fields of bulk density and soil texture using an extensive data set of field‐measured θi, which carry signature about site heterogeneity and stratigraphy. Soil texture and bulk density are subsequently input into an ANN‐based site‐specific pedotransfer function to generate three‐dimensional heterogeneous soil hydraulic parameter fields. The stratigraphy at the site is well represented by the estimated pedotransfer variables and soil hydraulic parameters. The parameter estimates are then used to simulate a field injection experiment at the site. A relatively good agreement is obtained between the simulated and observed moisture contents. The spatial distribution pattern of observed moisture content as well as the southeastward moisture movement is captured well in the simulations. In contrast to earlier work using an effective parameter approach (Yeh et al., 2005), we are able to reproduce the observed splitting of the moisture plume in a coarse sand unit that is sandwiched between two fine‐textured units. The simple method of combining cokriging and ANN for site characterization provides unbiased prediction of the observed moisture plume and is flexible so that additional measurements of various types can be included as they become available.
Effect of different levels of dietary energy on growth and carcass traits of Black Bengal goat

The present study was aimed to know the effect of dietary energy levels on growth and carcass characteristics in Black Bengal goats. Nine female Black Bengal goats were divided into three groups having three goats in each group. Three iso-nitrogenous diets containing three levels of metabolizable energy (9.17, 10.40 and 11.63 MJ/kg DM) were randomly assigned to three groups. Goats were stall fed and slaughtered after 150 days of trial. Results showed that live weight gain was higher (28.3 ± 1.7 g/day) in high energy fed goats than others. There were no significant differences on total and daily average dry matter intake in different groups of goats. Body length was significantly higher in high energy fed group than others. Carcass weight and dressing percentage were also higher (p<0.05) in high energy fed goats. Caul fat and gut fill weight differed significantly (p<0.05) among the treatment groups, and higher caul fat and lower gut fill were obtained in high energy fed goats than others. In conclusion, high energy diet enhanced the growth, dressing percentage and carcass gain of female goats. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjas.v43i2. 20719 Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2014. 43 (2): 159-165
Subtitle System Visualizing Non-verbal Expressions of Voice for Hearing Impaired – Ambient Font –

- In recent years, the hearing impaired has been able to enjoy watching TV, because the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan promotes the closed-captioned TV, which is superimposed letters of serifs and/or narrations on screen. In general, normal persons recognize the contents on screen with the visual and the audio information from TV set and the textual information by the closed caption, whereas the hearing impaired can hardly obtain non-verbal information from the sound. Against the situations, some countermeasures distinguishing speakers, the sex of speakers, and so on are done. However, the closed-caption cannot give any non-verbal information such as the speed, the loudness and the tone of voice. On the other hand, in the cartoon world various techniques of presenting the non-verbal information such as the tone of voice and the feeling as if you were there are used, which are based upon character representations. In this study, we propose a font technique giving the hearing impaired the ambient of scene, which we call as “The Ambient Font”. The ambient font is defined by a typeface, a size, a metric, a color, a style and so on, and visualizes non-verbal information that cannot be expressed by text only. The ambient font enables us to give the hearing impaired not only the textual information but also the non-verbal information such as the ambient of scene and the tone of voice.
Job Stress and Presenteeism among Nurses in Tertiary Level Hospitals in Pakistan

Presenteeism among nurses is the decision to attend work while sick. It is a vital issue for nurse administrators and managers. The unusual circumstances of the health work atmosphere leads to the creation of job stress that further results in negative consequences- such as decreased productivity and poor quality care services to patients for organizations. This research explores the levels of job stress and presenteeism and the relationship between overall job stress and overall presenteeism perceived by nurses in tertiary level hospitals in Pakistan.
Web Robot Detection: A Semantic Approach

Web robots constitute nowadays more than half of the total web traffic. Malicious robots threaten the security, privacy and performance of the web, while non-malicious ones are involved in analytics skewing. The latter constitutes an important problem for large websites with unique content, as it can lead to false impressions about the popularity and impact of a piece of information. To deal with this problem, we present a novel web robot detection approach for content-rich websites, based on the assumption that human web users are interested in specific topics, while web robots crawl the web randomly. Our approach extends the typical representation of user sessions with a novel set of features that capture the semantics of the content of the requested resources. Empirical results on real-world data from the web portal of an academic publisher, show that the proposed semantic features lead to improved web robot detection accuracy.
Regional and Sectoral Effects of a Common Monetary Policy: Evidence from Euro Referenda in Denmark and Sweden

This article provides empirical evidence for the (anticipated) net costs and benefits of a common monetary policy that varies across regions depending on the industry mix. The paper is the first to approach the issue of the regional and sectoral effects of a common monetary policy by using empirical spatial models to analyze referenda. Here, the referenda examined are the 2000 and 2003 referenda held in Denmark and Sweden regarding participation in the EMU. We find that voters in regions with a high proportion of interest-sensitive sectors and low international integration tend to oppose participation in a currency union. The opposite is true for non-interest-sensitive sectors with relatively high integration. These findings are in line with the hypothesis of rational voters maximizing utility. Furthermore, perceived net costs are found to increase with distance from the European core and with the age of voters, indicating that a national currency represents an experience good. These results are robust to spatial dependencies and are not driven by broader forms of Euro-skepticism.
Convergence in OECD countries: technical change, efficiency and productivity

The aim of this study is to analyse labour productivity convergence in the OECD countries over the period 1975-90. A nonparametric frontier approach is used to calculate the Malmquist productivity index. By breaking it down, the contribution in the growth of labour productivity of technical progress, of changes in efficiency, and of the accumulation of inputs per worker are quantified. Unlike other studies, the results obtained show that technical change has worked against labour productivity convergence, since it has always been greater in the countries with higher labour productivity.
The diurnal cycle of cloud profiles over land and ocean between 51° S and 51° N, seen by the CATS spaceborne lidar from the International Space Station

Abstract. We document, for the first time, how detailed vertical profiles of cloud fraction (CF) change diurnally between 51∘ S and 51∘ N, by taking advantage of 15 months of measurements from the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) lidar on the non-sun-synchronous International Space Station (ISS). Over the tropical ocean in summer, we find few high clouds during daytime. At night they become frequent over a large altitude range (11–16 km between 22:00 and 04:00 LT). Over the summer tropical continents, but not over ocean, CATS observations reveal mid-level clouds (4–8 km above sea level or a.s.l.) persisting all day long, with a weak diurnal cycle (minimum at noon). Over the Southern Ocean, diurnal cycles appear for the omnipresent low-level clouds (minimum between noon and 15:00) and high-altitude clouds (minimum between 08:00 and 14:00). Both cycles are time shifted, with high-altitude clouds following the changes in low-altitude clouds by several hours. Over all continents at all latitudes during summer, the low-level clouds develop upwards and reach a maximum occurrence at about 2.5 km a.s. l. in the early afternoon (around 14:00). Our work also shows that (1) the diurnal cycles of vertical profiles derived from CATS are consistent with those from ground-based active sensors on a local scale, (2) the cloud profiles derived from CATS measurements at local times of 01:30 and 13:30 are consistent with those observed from CALIPSO at similar times, and (3) the diurnal cycles of low and high cloud amounts (CAs) derived from CATS are in general in phase with those derived from geostationary imagery but less pronounced. Finally, the diurnal variability of cloud profiles revealed by CATS strongly suggests that CALIPSO measurements at 01:30 and 13:30 document the daily extremes of the cloud fraction profiles over ocean and are more representative of daily averages over land, except at altitudes above 10 km where they capture part of the diurnal variability. These findings are applicable to other instruments with local overpass times similar to CALIPSO's, such as all the other A-Train instruments and the future EarthCARE mission.
Potential spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 by wildfowl: dispersal ranges and rates determined from large-scale satellite telemetry

Summary 1. Migratory birds are major candidates for long-distance dispersal of zoonotic pathogens. In recent years, wildfowl have been suspected of contributing to the rapid geographic spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus. Experimental infection studies reveal that some wild ducks, geese and swans shed this virus asymptomatically and hence have the potential to spread it as they move. 2. We evaluate the dispersive potential of HPAI H5N1 viruses by wildfowl through an analysis of the movement range and movement rate of birds monitored by satellite telemetry in relation to the apparent asymptomatic infection duration (AID) measured in experimental studies. We analysed the first large-scale data set of wildfowl movements, including 228 birds from 19 species monitored by satellite telemetry in 2006–2009, over HPAI H5N1 affected regions of Asia, Europe and Africa. 3. Our results indicate that individual migratory wildfowl have the potential to disperse HPAI H5N1 over extensive distances, being able to perform movements of up to 2900 km within timeframes compatible with the duration of asymptomatic infection. 4. However, the likelihood of such virus dispersal over long distances by individual wildfowl is low: we estimate that for an individual migratory bird there are, on average, only 5–15 days per year when infection could result in the dispersal of HPAI H5N1 virus over 500 km. 5. Staging at stopover sites during migration is typically longer than the period of infection and viral shedding, preventing birds from dispersing a virus over several consecutive but interrupted long-distance movements. Intercontinental virus dispersion would therefore probably require relay transmission between a series of successively infected migratory birds. 6. Synthesis and applications. Our results provide a detailed quantitative assessment of the dispersive potential of HPAI H5N1 virus by selected migratory birds. Such dispersive potential rests on the assumption that free-living wildfowl will respond analogously to captive, experimentallyinfected birds, and that asymptomatic infection will not alter their movement abilities. Our approach of combining experimental exposure data and telemetry information provides an analytical framework for quantifying the risk of spread of avian-borne diseases.
Endoscopic Repair of Skull Base Defects-An Experience Spanning 25 Years

We present our experience in managing spontaneous CSF rhinorrhoea which could be devastating if untreated. This is a retrospective study of all the cases of spontaneous CSF leaks treated by the first author between 1991 and 2016 in a tertiary referral centre. A total of 450 patients underwent endoscopic repair of CSF fistula, with an overall success rate of 98.8%. 14 patients required revision, of which nine patients underwent second surgery successfully. The remaining opted to get treated elsewhere. Apart from three patients who had minor post operative early meningitis, which were treated promptly, no serious complications were encountered. Patient follow up ranged from 6 months to 25 years. The principles of diagnosis of CSF rhinorrhoea, surgical management and results are discussed. Precise identification of the bony defect, meticulous preparation of the graft bed, careful elevation of dura, placement of cartilage in the extra-dural pocket and judicious use of just enough tissues and adequate graft support are key factors in a successful repair.
Growth and deprivation in India: What does recent data say?

We investigate the relationship between growth and deprivation in India, an issue of immense interest. Given the continuing controversy in India over poverty lines, we use a framework that rigorously assesses the impact of growth on the poor over a range of poverty lines. Using National sample Surveys on consumption expenditure, we show that while growth has "trickled down" in both rural and urban areas, it has not been in favour of the poor. In urban areas, growth has been "anti-poor. " We extend this methodology to incorporate sub-groups and consider disadvantaged caste groups and poorer/lower classes. We find that growth has not been in favour of the poor among these groups. Our findings raise serious concerns about the "inclusiveness" of Indian growth. Our analysis also has implications for pro-poor growth and the measurement of inequality.
Surface-complexation modelling for describing adsorption of phosphate on hydrous ferric oxide surface

Adsorption of dissolved phosphate onto synthetic hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) was measured in the laboratory as a function of pH, ionic strength, and phosphate relative concentration. Experimental data were used to constrain optimal values of surface complexation reactions using a geochemical modeling code JCHESS according to the diffuse layer model. The results provide a consistent set of model equilibrium constant (log K) values at 25‹ C and 100 KPa for the following reactions: >FeOH + PO 4 3- + 3H + = >FeO-H 2 PO 4 + H 2 O (log K1int = 19.0) >FeOH + PO 4 3- + 2H+ = >FeO-HPO4- + H2O (log K2int = 14.3 « 0.17) >FeOH + PO 4 3- + H + = >FeO-PO 4 2- + H 2 O (log K3int = 8.32 « 0.27) These results differ significantly from previously-published estimates of log K2int and log K3int [1.3], and provide a more accurate fit to experimental measurements over a broad range of pH (3.12), ionic strength (0.001.0.1 mol/.) and total relative phosphate concentration (12.500 ƒEmol phosphate/g HFO). The results provide a close fit to the experimental data within a wide range of conditions, and should be adopted in modelling the chemical speciation of phosphate in natural systems containing HFO as a predominant adsorbing material. Keywords : phosphate, adsorption, hydrous ferric oxide, surface complexes, equilibrium constants