Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forest Changes in the Great Lakes Region at 5-7 ka BP

Pollen stratigraphy from 90 sites in and bordering the Great Lakes record the 5-7 ka history of forest development of the Great Lakes region. By 7 ka beech (Fagus grandifolia) had invaded the oak-hickory (Quercus-Carya) forest of lower Michigan and hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) and beech the white pine (Pinus strobus)-dominated forest of southern Ontario. At the same time, white pine replaced jack pine (P banksiana) as it expanded northward to the Clay Belt beyond its present-day range. Forest changes at 6 and 5 ka were dominated by range extensions of beech and hemlock in a northwesterly direction, by northward expansion of eastern white cedar (Cupressineae), and southward migration of white pine into the Michigan basin. The beech and hemlock migrations (160 m yr-1 and 280 m yr-1, respectively) may have been influenced by the cool-moist climate generated by the Nipissing Great Lakes in combination with enhanced regional warming. White pine and eastern white cedar responded to regional warming and reduced precipitation, whereas birch (Betula) and alder (Alnus) may have been influenced more by fire activity caused by the warm-dry climate. The boreal-mixed forest ecotone was displaced 140 km northward at 5-7 ka compared to 60-70 km for the mixed-deciduous forest ecotone.
Efficient Indexing Mechanism for Unstructured Data Sharing Systems in Edge Computing

Edge computing promises a dramatic reduction in the network latency and the traffic volume, where many edge servers are placed at the edge of the Internet. Furthermore, these edge servers cache data to provide services for edge users. The data sharing among edge servers can effectively shorten the latency to retrieve the data and further reduce the network bandwidth consumption. The key challenge is to construct an efficient data indexing mechanism no matter how the data is cached in the edge network. Although this is essential, it is still an open problem. Moreover, existing methods such as the centralized indexing and the DHT indexing in other fields fail to meet the performance demand of edge computing. This paper presents a COordinate-based INdexing (COIN) mechanism for the data sharing in edge computing. COIN maintains a virtual space where the switches and the data indexes are associated with the coordinates. Then, COIN distributes data indexes to indexing edge servers based on those coordinates. The COIN is effective because any query request from an edge server can be responded when the data has been stored in the edge network. More importantly, COIN is efficient in both routing path lengths and forwarding table sizes for publishing/querying the data indexes. We implement COIN in a P4 prototype. Experimental results show that COIN uses 59% shorter path length and 30% less forwarding table entries to retrieve the data index compared to using Chord, a well-known DHT solution.
Late Saalian and Eemian deposits in the Amsterdam glacial basin

Abstract During its maximum extension, the Saalian ice cap reached into the central Netherlands, where glacier tongues excavated over 100 m deep basins in the unconsolidated Middle and Early Pleistocene sediments. The basins are filled by relatively thick successions of Late Saalian, Eemian and Weichselian sediments. The fill of the Amsterdam glacial basin is among the best known and studied in the Netherlands. The Late Saalian sediments consist mainly of warves and ill-bedded clays and silts with, along its southern margin, influxes of sands from the surrounding ice-pushed ridges. During deposition of these sediments, the Amsterdam basin formed part of a large lake extending into the present North Sea. Draining of this lake at the end of the Late Saalian left small, shallow pools at the site of the glacial basins. Late Saalian and Eemian sediments are probably separated by a short break, although sedimentation may have been continuous in the deepest part of the basin. The Eemian deposits consist in main lines of a thin, diatom-rich sapropel at the base, overlain by an up to 30 m thick clay-rich sequence covered by a wedge of sand that measures more than 20 m in the northern part of the basin and that peters out southwards. As appears from the fauna, most of the clays were deposited in a lagoonal setting shielded behind a threshold and/or barrier. The rate of sediment supply was low so that lagoonal conditions were maintained over a long timespan. Sands derived from the surrounding ice-pushed ridges and transported by longshore drift and tidal currents formed a spit at the northern margin of the basin, which moved southward after eustatic sea-level rise stabilized and the lagoon was filled by clay. Loading of this clay-rich sequence by the spit and its washover fans induced subsidence, however, because of compaction, so that marine conditions were maintained until after the Eemian highstand. Fluvial and eolian sediments of Weichselian age, locally reaching a thickness of almost 10 m, eventually levelled the Amsterdam glacial basin.
The Occurrence of Polythionates as Intermediates in the Metabolism of Thiosulphate by the Thiobaeilli

Further evidence for the inclusion of polythionates in the pathway of thiosulphate oxidation by members of the genus Thiobacillus is presented. Manometric experiments showed tetrathionate oxidation to be a stage in thiosulphate oxidation by suspensions of T. thioparus and T. thiocyanoxidans. Thiobltcillus thioparus accumulated a sufficient concentration of polythionate in the medium to allow chromatograms to be prepared, and the type of polythionate accumulated was influenced by the ratio between the sodium and potassium ions in the medium. The restriction of the oxidation of tetrathionate at the lower concentrations of K+ may be due to a restriction in the entry of phosphate into the cell during growth; this is discussed.
The Impact of Debt Structure on Firm Investments: Empirical Evidence from Turkey

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of corporate debt structure on firm investments in Turkey. The regression and correlation analysis reveal a significant positive effect between corporate debt structure and firm investments. This effect is relatively strong for companies with high growth opportunities compare to companies with low growth opportunities. Consistent with the existent literature these findings provide support that a higher level of long-term debt in total debt structure reduces investments for firms with high growth opportunities. These effects need, therefore, to be incorporated in debt structure for Turkish firms to support their assets with proper financing sources.
The role of media in supporting a stress management protocol: An experimental study

Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology – ATN-P Lab. (Italy) Stress management (SM) is a term widely used with a seemingly obvious meaning but it is not clear how many different forms of SM exist and how efficacious they are according to the target problem. Stress is a multidimensional condition and we believe that it requires a wide-spectrum approach. We consider that a combination of stress management techniques can produce more significant outcomes than did single-strategy programs. For this reason we propose an integration of three approaches to cope with stress and improve emotional management from different points of view: the Emotion Focused Therapy; the Behavioral Therapy, and in particular Relaxation; the Rational Emotive Therapy. In particular, we decided to use two mediated experiences – audio and immersive 3D video to support the Relaxation phase. The critical role in mediated experiences is played by the sense of presence that allows the experience to evoke the same perceptual reactions and emotions as a real one. To verify the efficacy of the SM protocol we carried out a controlled trial, comparing an experimental Video group, an Audio group (that only listened to the relaxing narrative), and a control group without treatment. Results showed the efficacy of integrating different approaches to cope with stress and suggested the importance of the sense of presence as a mediating variable between the experience and the efficacy of the relaxation process. THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN SUPPORTING A STRESS MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
‘5 Minutes Mindful Breathing’ Smartphone Application for Reduction of Perceived Distress: A Pilot Study

Background: We have found our 5-minute mindful breathing technique to be effective in reducing distress in palliative cancer patients. As palliative cancer patients tend to experience high levels of distress, the integration of this technique into a smartphone-based application could be a viable intervention option for these patients as well as their caregivers. Objective: We aim to further examine the efficacy of our mindful breathing module on distress reduction within the context of a smartphone-based application for palliative cancer patients and caregivers over a seven day period. We hypothesized that the intervention group (access to mindful breathing module) would have significantly greater distress regulation than the control group (access to soothing music) over seven days of using the smartphone-based application.Methods: 35 subjects were recruited from the palliative care ward at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and randomly assigned to either the control (access to soothing music) or intervention (access to mindful breathing module) group respectively. They then used and followed instructions as per the smartphone-based application for seven days. Results: While both groups reported a reduction in distress in using the application, there was no significant difference in reported distress levels between those who had access to the mindful breathing module and those who had access to only soothing music over the seven days. Our hypothesis was not supported. Conclusion: Although not significantly greater than the control group, the intervention group reported a reduction in distress using the smartphone application, which suggests that the integration of mindfulness and smartphone applications could potentially play a role in future distress reduction for patients and caregivers in view of its accessibility, ease of administration and anonymity.
Distribution update Occupancy and range extension of the Cape fox in northern Botswana

The Cape fox resides in open and arid environments throughout the central and western regions of Southern Africa. The Cape fox is nocturnal and generally difficult to observe, making camera traps an ideal method for estimating its distribution. We used camera trapping and hierarchical occupancy models to estimate the distribution of the Cape fox in Ngamiland District of northern Botswana, an area where the species was previously undocumented. We deployed 221 camera traps across a 550km2 area between February and July 2015. We included percent cover of mopane shrub and woodlands and road density as covariates for Cape fox occupancy probabilities, and vegetative thickness surrounding the camera stations as a covariate for Cape fox detection probabilities. Our hierarchical occupancy models were then analysed using a Bayesian framework. We photographed Cape fox on 27 occasions, resulting in an overall mean probability of occupancy of 0.31 (SD = 0.105). Cape fox occupancy was negatively related to mopane cover and road density, and the probability of photographing a Cape fox was positively related to vegetative thickness. To our knowledge, this is the first confirmed documentation of the Cape fox north of Maun, Botswana. The presumed range extension of the Cape fox into northern Botswana may be a consequence of observed climate change in the Kalahari, which has resulted in increasingly open and arid environments that are more suitable for the Cape fox.
Interoperability and Network Externalities in Electronic Payments

The causes of and extent of network externalities in payment systems such as the ATM and the ACH-market have been analysed and tested in earlier studies. In this paper a similar study is made for the market for electronic card payments, i.e. the EFTPOS-market. A panel data set of variables relevant to the evolution of the EFTPOS market in the G-10 countries, Australia and the Nordic countries for the period 1988—1999 is gathered and used in a statistical description of the evolution of the market. Also the hypothesis regarding the positive effects of standardisation for the evolution of the market is tested. The results are highly significant and the coefficients have the expected signs. A model that describes the banks’ adoption decision of EFTPOS technology is developed. It is assumed that if network externalities are present, the larger the use of common standards, the larger will be the transaction demand for this particular instrument. Within the specific context of the EFTPOS market, the model illustrates the trade off between network effects and competition effects often described in the literature. Existence of pure strategy equilibria requires that banks are not exceedingly asymmetric in terms of their relative sizes in the acquiring market. The full adoption with common standards outcome is more likely to result the smaller benefits banks derive from differentiation. ∗I am greatly indebted to Jonas Häckner, my supervisor at Stockholm University for helpful comments and support. I also want to thank my colleagues Jonas Björnerstedt, James McAndrews, Felice Marlor, Björn Segendorff, Anders Warne, Anders Vredin, Staffan Viotti and Göran Zettergren. The views expressed in this paper are solely the responsibility of the author and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Executive Board of Sveriges Riksbank.
Observation and investigation of the uranyl tetrafluoride dianion (UO2F42−) and its solvation complexes with water and acetonitrile

Bare uranyl tetrafluoride (UO2F42−) and its solvation complexes by one and two water or acetonitrile molecules have been observed in the gas phase using electrospray ionization and investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations. The isolated UO2F42− dianion is found to be electronically stable with an adiabatic electron binding energy of 1.10 ± 0.05 eV and a repulsive Coulomb barrier of ∼2 eV. Photoelectron spectra of UO2F42− display congested features due to detachment from U–O bonding orbitals and F 2p lone pairs. Solvated complexes by H2O and CH3CN, UO2F4(H2O)n2− and UO2F4(CH3CN)n2− (n = 1, 2), are also observed and their photoelectron spectra are similar to those of the bare UO2F42− dianion, suggesting that the solvent molecules are coordinated to the outer sphere of UO2F42− with relatively weak interactions between the solvent molecules and the dianion core. Both DFT and CCSD(T) calculations are performed on UO2F42− and its solvated species to understand the electronic structure of the dianion core and solute–solvent interactions. The strong U–F interactions with partial (d–p)π bonding are shown to weaken the UO bonds in the [OUO]2+ unit. Each H atom in the water molecules forms a H-bond to a F atom in the equatorial plane of UO2F42−, while each CH3CN molecule forms three H-bonds to two F ligands and one axial oxygen.
Microstructural Characterization of Oxides Formed on Model Zr Alloys Using Synchrotron Radiation

To understand how alloy chemistry and microstructure impact corrosion performance, oxide layers formed at different stages of corrosion on various model zirconium alloys (Zr-xFe-yCr, Zr-xCu-yMo, for various x, y) and control materials (pure Zr, Zircaloy-4) were examined to determine their structure and the connection of such structure to corrosion kinetics and oxide stability. Microbeam synchrotron radiation diffraction and fluorescence of oxide cross sections were used to determine the oxide phases present, grain size, and orientation relationships as a function of distance from the oxide-metal interface. The results show a wide variation of corrosion behavior among the alloys, in terms of the pretransition corrosion kinetics and in terms of the oxide susceptibility to breakaway corrosion. The alloys that exhibited protective behavior at 500°C also were protective during 360°C corrosion testing. The Zr-0.4Fe-0.2Cr model ternary alloy showed protective behavior and stable oxide growth throughout the test. The results of the examination of the oxide layers with microbeam X-ray diffraction show clear differences in the structure of protective and nonprotective oxides both at the oxide-metal interface and in the bulk of the oxide layer. The nonprotective oxide interfaces show a smooth transition from metal to oxide with metal diffraction peaks disappearing as the monoclinic oxide peaks appear. In contrast, the protective oxides showed a complex structure near the oxide-metal interface, showing peaks from Zr3O suboxide and a highly oriented tetragonal oxide phase with specific orientation relationships with the monoclinic oxide and the base metal. The same interfacial structures are observed through their diffraction signals in protective oxide layers formed during both 360°C and 500°C corrosion testing. These diffraction peaks showed much higher intensities in the samples from 500°C testing. The results for the various model alloys are discussed to help elucidate the role of individual alloying elements in oxide formation and the influence of oxide microstructure on the corrosion mechanism.
Mic2Mic: using cycle-consistent generative adversarial networks to overcome microphone variability in speech systems

Mobile and embedded devices are increasingly using microphones and audio-based computational models to infer user context. A major challenge in building systems that combine audio models with commodity microphones is to guarantee their accuracy and robustness in the real-world. Besides many environmental dynamics, a primary factor that impacts the robustness of audio models is microphone variability. In this work, we propose Mic2Mic - a machine-learned system component - which resides in the inference pipeline of audio models and at real-time reduces the variability in audio data caused by microphone-specific factors. Two key considerations for the design of Mic2Mic were: a) to decouple the problem of microphone variability from the audio task, and b) put minimal burden on end-users to provide training data. With these in mind, we apply the principles of cycle-consistent generative adversarial networks (CycleGANs) to learn Mic2Mic using unlabeled and unpaired data collected from different microphones. Our experiments show that Mic2Mic can recover between 66% to 89% of the accuracy lost due to microphone variability for two common audio tasks.
Crowdsourcing Consumer Research

Data collection in consumer research has progressively moved away from traditional samples (e.g., university undergraduates) and toward Internet samples. In the last complete volume of the Journal of Consumer Research (June 2015–April 2016), 43% of behavioral studies were conducted on the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The option to crowdsource empirical investigations has great efficiency benefits for both individual researchers and the field, but it also poses new challenges and questions for how research should be designed, conducted, analyzed, and evaluated. We assess the evidence on the reliability of crowdsourced populations and the conditions under which crowdsourcing is a valid strategy for data collection. Based on this evidence, we propose specific guidelines for researchers to conduct high-quality research via crowdsourcing. We hope this tutorial will strengthen the community’s scrutiny on data collection practices and move the field toward better and more valid crowdsourcing of consumer research.
On the R-Sectoriality and the Initial Boundary Value Problem for the Viscous Compressible Fluid Flow

In this paper, we prove the R-sectoriality of the resolvent problem for the boundary value problem of the Stokes operator for the compressible viscous fluids in a general domain, which implies the generation of analytic semigroup and the maximal Lp-Lq regularity for the initial boundary value problem of the Stokes operator. Combining our linear theory with fixed point arguments in the Lagrangian coordinates, we have a local in time unique existence theorem in a general domain and a global in time unique existence theorem for some initial data close to a constant state in a bounded domain for the initial boundary value problem of the Navier-Stokes equations describing the motion of compressible viscous fluids. All the results obtained in this paper were announced in Enomoto-Shibata [12].
, genome feature scoring : Performance of Markov-dependentDictyostelium discoideumof De novo search for non-coding RNA genes in the AT-rich genome data

object identifier (DOIs) and date of initial publication. by PubMed from initial publication. Citations to Advance online articles must include the digital publication). Advance online articles are citable and establish publication priority; they are indexed appeared in the paper journal (edited, typeset versions may be posted when available prior to final Advance online articles have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet
Cross-sectional return seasonalities and intra-industry overreaction to earnings seasonalities

Recent asset pricing literature describes prevalent and recurring return seasonalities in both the time series and cross section of stock returns. Most interestingly for this study, Keloharju, Linnainmaa, and Nyberg (2016) document cross-sectional return seasonalities e.g. in individual stocks, well-diversified portfolios, and various anomalies. Furthermore, Chang et al. (2017) document abnormal returns to earnings seasonalities and find evidence for investors failing to properly price information contained in the seasonal patterns of earnings. This study is the first attempt to combine these seasonality effects and explain at least a part of the prevalent and persistent occurrence of cross-sectional return seasonalities – even after controlling for firms’ own earnings announcements – by the joint effect of abnormal returns to earnings seasonalities and investor overreaction to intra-industry information. The methodology used to achieve the objective of this study consist of three main sets of methods: Firstly, to calculate cross-sectional return seasonalities, I follow the methodology presented by Keloharju, Linnainmaa, and Nyberg (2016). Secondly, to calculate abnormal returns to earnings seasonalities, I follow the methodology presented by Chang et al. (2017). Finally, to calculate overreaction to intra-industry earnings announcements, I base by methodology to that of Thomas and Zhang (2008). Quarterly earnings data used in the analyses come from Compustat Fundamentals Quarterly file. Monthly and daily stock return data come from Center for Research in Securities Prices (CRSP). Despite the strong theoretical foundation as well as promising baseline results, the main results of this study are inconclusive: I find that cross-sectional return seasonalities in industry portfolios are lower in magnitude when the effect of intra-industry overreaction to earnings seasonalities is taken into account. Even though this effect is limited, I find certain indications for the importance of intraindustry overreaction in explaining seasonalities in the cross section of stock returns. This study contributes to the existing literature in two main ways: It structures the theoretical reasoning behind this potential explanation for cross-sectional return seasonalities. Furthermore, it presents the basic methodology for further testing this potential explanation in the future utilizing even enhanced methods.