Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatially Adaptive Bayesian P-Splines with Heteroscedastic Errors

An increasingly popular tool for nonparametric smoothing are penalized splines (P-splines) which use low-rank spline bases to make computations tractable while maintaining accuracy as good as smoothing splines. This paper extends penalized spline methodology by both modeling the variance function nonparametrically and using a spatially adaptive smoothing parameter. These extensions have been studied before, but never together and never in the multivariate case. This combination is needed for satisfactory inference and can be implemented effectively by Bayesian \mbox{MCMC}. The variance process controlling the spatially-adaptive shrinkage of the mean and the variance of the heteroscedastic error process are modeled as log-penalized splines. We discuss the choice of priors and extensions of the methodology,in particular, to multivariate smoothing using low-rank thin plate splines. A fully Bayesian approach provides the joint posterior distribution of all parameters, in particular, of the error standard deviation and penalty functions. In the multivariate case we produce maps of the standard deviation and penalty functions. Our methodology can be implemented using the Bayesian software WinBUGS.
The use of a flexible patch leaving rule under exploitative competition: a field test with swans

Learning animals are predicted to use a flexible patch-leaving threshold (PLT) while foraging in a depletable environment under exploitative competition. This prediction was tested in flock-feeding Bewick's swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) depleting hidden tubers of fennel pondweed (Potamogeton pectinatus) in a two-dimensional, continuous environment. The swans' patch residence time was measured by combining recordings of the foraging behaviour and movement paths. The tuber biomass density was measured before and after the period of exploitation, using the presumable foraging window of the swans as the scale of measurement. Swan foraging was simulated in order to predict the effects of flexible and fixed PLTs, respectively, on the patch residence time and the spatial heterogeneity of the tuber biomass density. Flexible PLTs were predicted to lead to short and decreasing patch residence times and a decrease in the coefficient of variation in tuber biomass densities, whereas the reverse was generally the case for fixed PLTs. Observed patch residence times did not decrease with time and were intermediate between those predicted for swans with flexible and fixed PLTs. Furthermore, an increase of the coefficient of variation in the tuber biomass density was observed. Given the observed giving-up biomass densities the most likely model was one with swans with a fixed rather than a flexible PLT. These results point at factors that may affect the spacing behaviour or constrain the use of a flexible PLT in swans.
Assessing the Errors of Cloud Liquid Water and Precipitation Flux Retrievals in Marine Stratocumulus Based on Doppler Radar Parameters

The errors of formulations of cloud retrievals based on radar reflectivity, mean Doppler velocity, and Doppler spectrum width are evaluated under the controlled framework of the Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs). Cloud radar parameters are obtained from drop size distributions generated by the high-resolution Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) large-eddy simulation (LES) model with explicit microphysics. It is shown that in drizzling stratocumulus the accuracy of cloud liquid water (Ql) retrieval can be substantially increased when information on Doppler velocity or Doppler spectrum width is included in addition to radar reflectivity. In the moderate drizzle case (drizzle rate R of about 1 mm day 1 ) the mean and standard deviation of errors is of the order of 10% for Ql values larger than 0.2 g m 3 ; in stratocumulus with heavy drizzle (R 2m m day 1 ) these values are approximately 20%–30%. Similarly, employing Doppler radar parameters significantly improves the accuracy of drizzle flux retrieval. The use of Doppler spectrum width d instead of Doppler velocity yields about the same accuracy, thus demonstrating that both Doppler parameters have approximately the same potential for improving microphysical retrievals. It is noted that the error estimates herein represent the theoretical lower bound on retrieval errors, because the actual errors will inevitably increase, first and foremost, due to uncertainties in estimation contributions from air turbulence.
Analysis of Crowd Behavior Based on Optical Flow: Detection,Classification, and Clustering

Crowd behavior analysis, a subdomain of human activity recognition, is a broad topic in computer vision that includes crowd management, public space design, virtual environments, visual surveillance, and intelligent environments. Recent areas of high interest include interactions between small groups of people and large crowds of people at gatherings such as a sporting venue, concert, or religious pilgrimage. Tragic incidents, such as the stampeding that occurred at the 2010 Loveparade concert and the multiple incidents that have occurred at the Jamarat Bridge necessitate a need for crowd analysis. Since 1994, over 1500 people have been killed or injured in stampedes and related incidents during the Hajj. Advances in crowd analysis research have improved and insured the safety of individuals of future events. Our research is aimed at preventing such incidents from occurring through real-time detection of abnormal crowd behavior. In this dissertation, we present two methods for abnormal behavior detection in an effort to reduce the number of tragic incidents occurring in large crowds. The first method is based upon deviations in primary or dominant motion paths within the scene. We implement a method for dominant motion extraction based upon optical flow clustering and develop a matching algorithm to compare dominant motion paths at various points in the video. Our second method, using a particle advection model for local motion, predicts the location of a particle based upon its previous motion. By measuring the distance between the predicted trajectory and the observed trajectory, we are able to determine the presence of abnormal behavior. This method addresses several deficiencies in our first. Lastly, we present a method for video clustering of crowd motion based upon optical flow. Our methodology uses histograms of optical flow to train a support vector machine to classify types of dominant motion. Using these classes, we cluster similar videos using hierarchical methods. Experiments use hundreds of videos from several public video motion data sets.
An extensive search for rapid optical variability in ultracool dwarfs

In this paper, a summary of optical time-series photometry of 125 ultracool dwarfs is given. The observing strategy was to monitor each object continuously for 2–3 h in order to ascertain whether it was rapidly variable. Many of the targets were observed at multiple epochs, to follow up possible short time-scale variability, or to test for slow brightness changes on longer timescales. The 353 data sets obtained contain nearly 22 000 individual measurements. Optical (IC) magnitudes, accurate to roughly 0.1–0.2 mag, were derived for 21 objects for which there is no optical photometry in the literature. It is shown that photometry is affected by variable seeing in a large percentage of the time-series observations. Since this could give the appearance of variability intrinsic to the objects, magnitudes are modelled as functions of both time and seeing. Several ultracool dwarfs which had not been monitored before are variable, according to certain model-fitting criteria. A number of objects with multi-epoch observations appear to be variable on longer time-scales. Since testing for variability is far from being straightforward, the time-series data are made available so that interested readers can perform their own analyses.
Understanding Workplace Adaptation as an Acculturation Process: A Qualitative Examination of South Korean Highly Skilled Workers in Japan

Although study on job stress and coping among Highly Skilled Migrants (HSMs) has been increasing around Anglo European countries, little is known about Asian migrants working in Asian countries. The present study examined stress factors among South Korean HSMs in Japan and explored their coping strategies in relation to acculturation processes. Semi-structured interviews with eight participants found three main domains affecting work adaptation-related stress: acculturation and adjustment, life events, and job stress. Job demand, relationship formation, and company climate were identified as major job stress factors. HSMs tended to perceive job stress factors as being related to a cultural difference or unique characteristics of Japanese organizations. This qualitative study addresses an initial step towards researching Asian migrant workers in Japan society, suggesting importance of incorporating culture-specific issues in acculturation processes with their job adjustment issues. It is necessary for immigration policy makers to encourage reciprocal understandings between migrants and local colleagues for improving mental health and well-being of both groups in organizations.
The Reduction in Total Mortality with Drug-Eluting Stents: Does Emperor has New Clothes?

Over last 3 decades, percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) has transformed management of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Commenced with balloon dilation i.e. plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA) of severe obstructive CAD lesions, gradually evolved into stenting started with bare-metal stents (BMS), initially first-generation (stain-less steel) and now contemporary second-generation BMS (cobalt-chromium with thinner struts). BMS was rapidly superseded by drugeluting stents (DES); at first with first-generation (paclitaxeleluting, taxus; and sirolimus-eluting, cypher) now with secondgeneration (zotarolimus-eluting, endeavor; and everolimuseluting, xience) and with ongoing refinements thirdgeneration drug-eluting stents (with biodegradable polymers, polymer-free and biodegradable stents on the basis of poly-Llactide or magnesium) are undergoing trials and many are available for use in contemporary practice.
Why Does China Invest So Much?

China has had a remarkably high ratio of investment to output ever since economic reform began in 1978, surpassing almost all other economies. This is an important proximate determinant of China's high growth rate. This paper gathers together the available evidence to explain why investment is so high: factors both on the demand and on the supply side, and in the latter case the availability of both resources and funds. It analyzes the rate of return on capital and its evolution, and the factors that have kept it up. It draws on the literature to explain the high saving rate, and considers why the imperfect capital market and institutional deficiencies have not constrained investment. The state-owned and private sectors are treated separately because of their different objectives, behavior, and funding.
Effects of Aircraft Impact on a Seismically Isolated Reactor Building (K214)

During the past decade, a lot of effort has been spent to develop strategies to mitigate the damaging effects of earthquakes. This work has been directed at both civil structures and nuclear facilities. A highly attractive strategy for nuclear facilities, especially for liquid metal reactor plants, is to use seismic isolation. Because the design of heavy metal reactors requires the use of a coolant that physically weighs a lot and the use of a thin-walled reactor vessel, it is difficult to meet seismic requirements. However by using seismic isolation, it is possible to decouple the reactor building’s response from the strong ground motions. Up until September 11, 2001, seismic isolation systems were designed to handle only the seismic threat. Threats from aircraft impact were usually not considered because nuclear power plant sites, for the most part, were chosen to be away from airports and, thus, outside of flight paths. Now with the possibility of a deliberate aircraft crash into a reactor building, existing and future seismic isolation systems must also be evaluated against this new threat. This paper presents a preliminary study on the response of a reactor building impacted by commercial aircraft. The study evaluates the response of a representative seismically isolated reactor building subjected to separate impacts from either a Boeing 720 or a 747 aircraft. It is shown that for the representative seismically isolated reactor building studied, the isolation system response is favourable with a comfortable margin of safety.
Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of Direct Tension Test for Cylindrical Concrete Specimens

Concrete cracking strength can be defined as the tensile strength of concrete subjected to pure tension stress. However, as it is difficult to apply direct tension load to concrete specimens, concrete cracking is usually quantified by the modulus of rupture for flexural members. In this study, a new direct tension test setup for cylindrical specimens (101.6 mm in diameter and 203.2 mm in height) similar to those used in compression test is developed. Double steel plates are used to obtain uniform stress distributions. Finite element analysis for the proposed test setup is conducted. The uniformity of the stress distribution along the cylindrical specimen is examined and compared with rectangular cross section. Fuzzy image pattern recognition method is used to assess stress uniformity along the specimen. Moreover, the probability of cracking at different locations along the specimen is evaluated using probabilistic finite element analysis. The experimental and numerical results of the cracking location showed that gravity effect on fresh concrete during setting time might affect the distribution of concrete cracking strength along the height of the structural elements.
Association of Cardiovascular Responses in Mice with Source-apportioned PM2.5 Air Pollution in Beijing

ABSTRACT In this study, factor analysis and mass regression were used to identify four fine particulate matter sources and estimate their contributions to the ambient air pollution in Beijing. The identified sources were traffic re-suspended soil, mixed industrial sources, oil combustion, and secondary sulfate. The estimated source contributions were then introduced into two models as exposure variables to explore the relationships between cardiovascular responses in mice and PM exposures. We observed that PM2.5 has a small negative acute effect on heart rate, but the individual source factors showed much more significant effects. Traffic re-suspended soil had the most significant effect on heart rate, with a positive contribution on the day of exposure and a negative one on day lag 1. Acute heart rate variability outcomes were better explained by the total PM2.5 than by the source components. Chronic effects were observed as a decreased heart rate but an increased number of heart rate variability outcomes.
REJ-2016-1885-ver9-Palomera-Avalos_1P 1..17

Inflammation and oxidative stress (OS) are key points in age progression. Both processes impact negatively in cognition and in brain functions. Resveratrol (RV) has been postulated as a potent antioxidant natural compound, with rejuvenating properties. Inducing a metabolic stress by high-fat (HF) diet in aged C56/BL6 (24 months) led to cognitive disturbances compared with control age mated and with young mice. These changes were prevented by RV. Molecular determinations demonstrated a significant increase in some inflammatory parameters (TNF-a, Cxcl10, IL-1, IL-6, and Ccl3) in old mice, but slight changes in OS machinery. RV mainly induced the recovery of the metabolically stressed animals. The study of key markers involved in senescence and rejuvenation (mitochondrial biogenesis and Sirt1-AMPK-PGC1-a) demonstrated that RV is also able to modulate the changes in these cellular metabolic pathways. Moreover, changes of epigenetic marks (methylation and acetylation) that are depending on OS were demonstrated. On the whole, results showed the importance of integrative role of different cellular mechanisms in the deleterious effects of age in cognition and the beneficial role of RV. The work presented in this study showed a wide range of processes modified in old age and by metabolic stress, weighting the importance of each one and the role of RV as a possible strategy for fighting against.
Emissions of trace gases and aerosols during the open combustion of biomass in the laboratory

[1] We characterized the gas- and speciated aerosol-phase emissions from the open combustion of 33 different plant species during a series of 255 controlled laboratory burns during the Fire Laboratory at Missoula Experiments (FLAME). The plant species we tested were chosen to improve the existing database for U.S. domestic fuels: laboratory-based emission factors have not previously been reported for many commonly burned species that are frequently consumed by fires near populated regions and protected scenic areas. The plants we tested included the chaparral species chamise, manzanita, and ceanothus, and species common to the southeastern United States (common reed, hickory, kudzu, needlegrass rush, rhododendron, cord grass, sawgrass, titi, and wax myrtle). Fire-integrated emission factors for gas-phase CO2, CO, CH4 ,C 2–4 hydrocarbons, NH3 ,S O2, NO, NO2, HNO3, and particle-phase organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), SO4� ,N O3 ,C l � ,N a + ,K + , and NH4 generally varied with both fuel type and with the fire-integrated modified combustion efficiency (MCE), a measure of the relative importance of flaming- and smoldering-phase combustion to the total emissions during the burn. Chaparral fuels tended to emit less particulate OC per unit mass of dry fuel than did other fuel types, whereas southeastern species had some of the largest observed emission factors for total fine particulate matter. Our measurements spanned a larger range of MCE than prior studies, and thus help to improve estimates of the variation of emissions with combustion conditions for individual fuels.
LIMITATIONS TO THE OBSERVATION OF BEAM ORDERING

The observation of beam ordering for low intensity cooled ion beams depends on various parameters. Experimental observations concerning the influence of fluctuations of beam energy and magneticfield on the lowest measured momentum spread detected by Schottky noise analysis are reported. Further measurements illustrate the limits due to the sensitivity of the Schottky noise detection system and the resolution of transverse beam size measurements.
OPTIMUM WEIGHT DESIGN OF MULTILAYERED FIBER COMPOSITE PLATES WITH DISCRETE PLY ANGLES AND UNCERTAINTY IN PLY THICKNESSES

The presented paper discusses the minimum weight design of multilayered fiber composite plates with tolerances in individual ply thicknesses. These tolerances are given by the maximum acceptable deviation of every individual ply thickness from its nominal value. The robustness of the design is achieved by diminishing the design state variable (buckling load factor) by the product of arbitrary assumed tolerances and appropriate sensitivities. The proposed approach is illustrated with examples of a simply supported rectangular laminated plate design under uni- and bi-axial compression. The minimum weight identified by the total number of layers is found to assure plate stability. For the discussed analysis, buckling load sensitivity formulas with respect to ply thicknesses are given. Based on these relations, the impact of the discussed variations on the optimal laminate stacking sequence and buckling mode shape is studied in detail. The achieved results emphasize the importance of robust design opposed to merely nominal approaches.
Minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery Current status and future perspective : an evidence based review

The history of laparoscopy started as a primitive diagnostic procedure and it took close to a century before it became an effective therapeutic tool in the management of surgical problems. In this review, we examine the history of laparoscopy, methods of access, and the current application of minimally invasive surgery for the management of common gastrointestinal surgical problems. An evidence based review was utilized with emphasis on systematic reviews published from 1987 to 2009. Following the wide spread use of laparoscopic techniques for gall bladder removal, the benefits of laparoscopic surgery was established in the management of common gastrointestinal surgical problems. Laparoscopic management of colorectal cancer, morbid obesity, and _________________________________ Correspondent author: Abdelrahman A Nimeri E-mail: nimeri@yahoo.com gastroesophageal reflux diseases (GERD) are examined in this review based on the current review of the literature. I. History of laparoscopy The history of laparoscopy dates back to the beginning of the last century. The first 3 primitive laparoscopic examinations of the abdomen were performed by George Kelling in 1901, Dimitri Ott in 1901, and Hans Christian Jacobeus in 1910. Initially, Kelling described an examination of the peritoneal cavity of an anesthetized dog. That same year, Ott examined the abdomen of a pregnant woman. Nine years later, Jacobeus performed several laparoscopic examinations of the abdomen in humans and human cadavers. However, it took over 80 years for the first video laparoscopic cholecystectomy to be performed by Philippe Mouret in 1987 for several reasons. The reasons why laparoscopy never improved from a diagnostic modality to therapeutic surgery for this long time were mainly due to the primitive optics, lack of an adequate light source, and poor instrumentation allowing for a very poor image of the peritoneal cavity projected at the end of the laparoscope. The images of
All Day, Every Day: Factory and Family in the Making of Women's Lives

All Day, Every Day presents a dramatic analysis of the subordination women face as workers, wives, and mothers under conditions set by patriarchal capitalism. Having spend a year living and working with the women of a British hosiery factory, Sallie Westwood identifies the interwoven layers of work processes and patriarchal ideologies, within gender, class and racial definitions. She manages to clarify how notions, culturally internalized and institutionalized, have ensured the oppression and subordination of all women on all shopfloors. Westwood emphasizes that women's struggle is political and only through collective effort can they overcome the oppressive conditions. She painstakingly unravels the particulars of a struggle, played out through resistance and celebration, that reflects their understanding of the situation. Through determined effort they create a dynamic shopfloor culture, which paradoxically empowers the women to resist the system, yet at the same time, reinforces their dependence and subordination.
How wood evolves: a new synthesis

Recent advances in wood physiology, molecular phylogeny, and ultrastructure (chiefly scanning electron microscopy, SEM), as well as important new knowledge in traditional fields, provide the basis for a new vision of how wood evolves. Woody angiosperms have, in the main, shifted from conductive safety to conductive efficiency (with many variations and modifications) and from ability to resist cavitation (low vulnerability) to ability to refill vessels. The invention of the vessel was a kind of dimorphism (vessel elements plus tracheids) that permitted division of labor and many kinds of wood repatterning that suit conductive safety–efficiency trade-offs. Angiosperms were primarily adapted to mesic habitats but were not failures or “unstable. ” They have survived to the present in such habitats well, along with older structural adaptations (e.g., the scalariform perforation plate) that are still suited to such habitats. These “primitive” features are evident in earlier branchings of phylogenetic trees based.