Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Illite: Origins, Evolution and Metamorphism

This monograph discusses the major problems relating to the surface environment by using clay mineralogy as a unifying theme. Since the stability and development of illite, the most abundant and most common clay mineral, is the key to surface mineral dynamics, understanding its structure and transformation is an absolute prerequisite to understanding the problems of environmental change. Using illite as the frame, the authors describe problems in soil chemistry, clay stability and clay kinetics in sedimentary rocks. This book is valuable for graduate students, scientists and researchers in the fields of sedimentology, sediment petrography and soil sciences.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF INDEPENDENT HEALTH AND POLICE SOURCES OF INFORMATION TO THE ASCERTAINMENT OF TRAFFIC DEATHS IN A EUROPEAN URBAN SETTING

The purposes of the follow-up retrospective study presented in this scientific poster are to identify all traffic deaths in Barcelona, Spain from police and health information sources, and to examine underreported traffic deaths from police data and the factors related to this. Data were obtained from: the Mortality Registry (MR), the Forensic Institute (FI), and from the local police registry (GUB)). In 1997, the three information sources identified a total number of 161 traffic deaths, of which 157 came from the Fl, 144 came from the MR and 56 came from the GUB. The main reason for disagreement among the MR and the FI was related to the lack of specific coding in the cause of death in the MR. The high agreement in the traffic deaths cases included in forensic and mortality sources observed, together with the fact that almost all deaths registered by the local police are also identified in the health sources, indicates that most traffic deaths in Barcelona are registered in the studied information sources. However, the ability to adequately monitor deaths resulting from traffic crashes in the city is limited. This could be improved through the systematic inclusion of information on place of occurrence of the traffic crash in forensic sources, together with a review of hospital discharge records to identity deaths that may have occurred beyond the first days after the crash and not included in the police registry. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E203511.
Immune Phenotype as a Biomarker for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

The treatment of rheumatoid arthritis was revolutionized with the use of molecular-targeted drugs that target immunoregulatory molecules. The success of treatment with these drugs prompted the development of molecular-targeted drugs for systemic lupus erythematosus. However, systemic lupus erythematosus is a disease with high heterogeneous immune abnormalities, and diverse cells or molecules can be treatment targets. Thus, the identification of subpopulations based on immune abnormalities is essential for the development of effective treatment. One analytical method used to identify subpopulations is the immunophenotyping of peripheral blood samples of patients. This analysis evaluates the validity of target molecules for peripheral blood immune cell subsets, which are expected to be developed as biomarkers for precision medicine in which appropriate treatment targets are set for each subpopulation.
Drought, Political Exclusion, and Civil War

Dominant climate models suggest that large parts of Africa will experience greater climatic variability and increasing rates of drought in coming decades. This could have severe societal consequences as the economies and food supplies of most African countries depend on rain-fed agriculture. According to leading environmental security scholars, policy makers, and NGOs, an increase in scarcity-driven armed conflicts should also be expected. Drawing on these arguments, we present a conditional theory of environmental conflict predicting that drought increases the risk of civil war primarily when it strikes vulnerable and politically marginalized populations in agrarian societies. This general proposition is evaluated empirically through a unique gridded dataset of post-colonial Africa that combines high-resolution meteorological data with georeferenced data on civil war onset and the local ethno-political context. Despite popular conception, we find little evidence of a drought-conflict connection. Instead, the local risk of civil war can be explained by sociopolitical and geographic factors: a politically marginalized population, high infant mortality, proximity to international borders, and high local population density. Pre-proof version of published article. Please cite: Theisen, Ole Magnus, Helge Holtermann, and Halvard Buhaug. 2011/12. Climate wars? Assessing the claim that drought breeds conflict. International Security 36(3): 79–106.
University of Birmingham Environmental reconstruction of a later prehistoric palaeochannel record from Burrs Countryside Park, Bury, Greater Manchester

The results from an analysis of pollen, insect and plant macrofossil remains from the shallow wood peat fill of a palaeochannel associated with hummocky (deglacial) sediments infilling the valley of the River Irwell at Walmersley known locally as Burrs Countryside Park, Bury, Greater Manchester (NGR SD 796 127) are presented. Radiocarbon dates from the deposit provide an age range from 1310 to 1040 cal. BC to 920 to 800 cal. BC. The environmental record indicates that during the Middle and Late Bronze Age the valley floor was covered by carr woodland consisting mainly of alder and hazel, including areas of open water. Insect and pollen remains indicate that mixed deciduous woodland (birch, elm, beech and ash) was present on the surrounding slopes. Although non-arboreal pollen remains low and may merely indicate woodland edge grassland communities, increases in the percentage of oak and birch pollen over time may reflect small-scale clearance of the alder carr in the valley bottom. Alternatively, if the pollen diagram is merely recording a decline in alder pollen at the top of the profile, this could also explain the increase in the relative proportion of other arboreal taxa. There are no taxa present directly indicative of human activities associated with the nearby Castle Steads hillfort. The palaoenvironmental results from this site appear to match those for the Greater Manchester area and wider north-west region in general, suggesting that there was a mosaic of environments present in the Bronze Age, with some areas cleared of woodland earlier than others.
Environmental and Convective Influence on Tropical Cyclone Development versus Non-Development.

Abstract : Composite and individual case analyses were made with USAF northwestern Pacific 950 mb (approx 1500 feet) investigative reconnaissance flights into tropical disturbances. Physical processes associated with early-stage tropical cyclone development vs. non-development were studied. Analysis of a 7-year period provides about 100 cases of development vs. 100 cases of non-development. Significantly higher radial inflow is observed in the inner-core of developing cases as compared to non-developing cases. Many formation cases had strong 'packets' of radial momentum surges to inner-core radii at selective azimuthal locations. These wind surges were related to satellite-observed concentrations of deep convectuon near the inner- core of the developing disturbances and appear to be environmentally induced. Another factor influencing tropical disturbance's upper-tropospheric (250 mb) relative wind 'blowthrough' or ventilation. The direction of the 250 mb relative wind to the tropical disturbance's moving center was found to have a major influence on the location of the distrurbance's meso-scale vortex ( 1-2 deg in diameter) or Low-Level Circulation Center (LLCC) in relation to the center of the parent cloud cluster convection . A fundamental characteristic of developing disturbances over non-developing disturbances was their ability to generate more LLCCs.
Dynamism, disruption orientation

Supply chains are becoming increasingly dynamic in response to changing business environments and technology. This has created challenges in managing the flow of materials and created greater risk of disruption. As such this study investigates the impact of such dynamism on disruption orientations, resilience, and financial performance. Herein an integrated conceptual framework is developed and then tested using survey data from a cross section of 241 Chinese companies and structural equation modelling. The results of the study reveal that supply chain dynamism has a significant positive effect on supply chain disruption orientation and supply chain resilience. Supply chain resilience is also affected by supply chain disruption orientation. However, the financial performance impacts of supply chain disruption orientation are strictly through supply chain resilience.
Simulation of static and dynamic properties of edge-emitting multiple-quantum-well lasers

This paper demonstrates simulation tools for edge-emitting multiple-quantum-well (MQW) lasers. Properties of the strained MQW active region are simulated by eight-band kp calculations. Then, a two-dimensional simulation along the transverse cross section of the device is performed based on a drift-diffusion model, which is self-consistently coupled to equations for the optical field. Furthermore, a method is described that allows for an efficient quasi-three-dimensional simulation of dynamic properties of multisection edge-emitting lasers.
Hastening slowly: insights about teacher development from an evaluation of courses at the WCED’s Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

In the area of teacher professional development, South African education administrators face the challenge of reconciling two imperatives that have entirely different implications for programme time frames and budgets. On the one hand, there is an urgent need to improve the pedagogic content knowledge of many teachers to improve the overall standard of teaching and learning in the public school system. Considering the scale and urgency of the matter, centralised course-based in-service training seems to be the only affordable alternative. On the other hand, researchers have long warned that once-off course-based training on its own has limited impact on teachers’ practice, and has to be accompanied by further professional support in the school and classroom, or be abandoned in favour of more enduring professional learning communities. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has grappled with this dilemma in the Department’s various professional development initiatives for teachers, a mainstay of which is the training offered by the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI). This paper presents some of the data and findings from an external evaluation that ORT SA CAPE conducted in 2011–2012 of courses offered by the WCED at the CTLI. The hierarchy of INSET outcomes proposed by Harland and Kinder (1997) was applied to record changes in the practice of 18 teachers at eight schools. The progress of five of the teachers is discussed to illustrate the interplay between school-level factors and the experiences of individual teachers which influenced the impact of CTLI training on their teaching.
Effect of Intermittent versus Continuous Light Exposure on Pupillary Light Response, As Evaluated by Pupillometry

Objective Continuous and intermittent stimuli with green light affect the pupillary light response (PLR) differently. Since the majority of pupillometric studies use blue and red lights, we investigated the effect of continuous and intermittent stimulations on the PLR using red and blue lights. Methods Seventeen healthy subjects underwent continuous- and intermittent light stimuli, using red (643 nm) and blue light (463 nm). To avoid the influence of pupil size on the amount of light entering the eye, the procedures were repeated with the stimulus–eye in dilated condition. The maximal pupillary constriction and the early redilation phase of post-illumination pupillary response (PIPREarly) represented the mixed response of melanopsin and rod–cone photoreceptors. The late redilation phase of PIPR (PIPRLate) was the marker of melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells. Results Intermittent stimuli with blue light elicited significantly larger maximal contraction during dilated condition (P = 0.001), and larger sustained pupillary contraction under dilated as well as undilated condition (P < 0.001) compared to continuous light exposure. Except the PIPREarly during undilated condition, none of the PIPR metrics were significantly different between intermittent and continuous blue light stimuli. Intermittent red light stimuli elicited also a more sustained pupillary contraction regardless of mydriatic instillation (P ≤ 0.02). In addition, intermittent red light exposure resulted in a slightly larger PIPREarly under undilated condition (P = 0.02) and a slightly larger PIPRLate under dilated condition (P = 0.049). Except the PIPRLate to continuous red light stimulus, all PIPR parameters were larger when the light was presented after induction of unilateral mydriasis. Conclusion PLR parameters during and after light exposures depend on both the light stimulation mode and the entrance pupillary size.
STATE OF REGIONAL HEMODYNAMICS AND LEVEL OF ADAPTATION OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM IN PATIENTS WITH OPTIC NEURITIS

Intension of AP was more common in the group of the partial atrophy of optic nerve (PAON). Parasympathetic activity was increased by 36.8% according to the HF (%) indicator in PAON group, which apparently characterizes the end of the inflammation productive phase. Conclusions: the peculiarities of regional hemodynamics, the AP of the cardiovascular system and the regulation of the ANS in patients with ON and its outcome have been determined.
Predicting protein function from protein/protein interaction data: a probabilistic approach

MOTIVATION The development of experimental methods for genome scale analysis of molecular interaction networks has made possible new approaches to inferring protein function. This paper describes a method of assigning functions based on a probabilistic analysis of graph neighborhoods in a protein-protein interaction network. The method exploits the fact that graph neighbors are more likely to share functions than nodes which are not neighbors. A binomial model of local neighbor function labeling probability is combined with a Markov random field propagation algorithm to assign function probabilities for proteins in the network. RESULTS We applied the method to a protein-protein interaction dataset for the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the Gene Ontology (GO) terms as function labels. The method reconstructed known GO term assignments with high precision, and produced putative GO assignments to 320 proteins that currently lack GO annotation, which represents about 10% of the unlabeled proteins in S. cerevisiae.
Error Exponents for Neyman–Pearson Detection of Markov Chains in Noise

A numerical method for computing the error exponent for Neyman-Pearson detection of two-state Markov chains in noise is presented, for both time-invariant and fading channels. We give numerical studies showing the behavior of the error exponent as the transition parameters of the Markov chain and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are varied. Comparisons between the high-SNR asymptotics in Gaussian noise for the time-invariant and fading situations will also be made.
Cognitive-Behavioural Intervention for Test Anxiety in Adolescent Students: Do Benefits Extend to School-Related Wellbeing and Clinical Anxiety

Cognitive-behavioural interventions have been shown to be effective treatments for test anxiety. Studies on school-aged populations, however, are lacking. In the present study we evaluated a six-session cognitive-behavioural intervention for test anxiety in a sample of secondary school students aged 14-16 years preparing for high-stakes examinations. Furthermore, we extended outcomes to include school-related wellbeing and clinical anxiety. A screening procedure was used to identify highly test anxious persons who were randomly allocated to intervention or wait-list control groups. Test anxiety showed a large reduction following intervention compared to control group participants who showed a moderate reduction. Clinical anxiety showed a small to moderate reduction following intervention compared to control group participants who showed a negligible reduction. The reduction in clinical anxiety was mediated by concurrent reductions in test anxiety. This supports an integrative network approach that deactivating core aspects of anxiety can deactivate associated networks of anxiety symptoms. The intervention showed no impact on school-related wellbeing which increased at a similar rate for both intervention and control group participants. This is likely because test anxiety is just one contributor of many to school-related wellbeing. Implications for school-based treatments are discussed.
A CNN-Based Identification of Honeybees’ Infection using Augmentation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions have been extensively explored and implemented in the apiculture industry. Designing an efficient system for continuous observation of bees for their health and activities has been a challenge and of great interest among researchers. Several studies manifest that AI-based solutions can accommodate the purpose of beehive monitoring. However, the systems constructed based on computer vision techniques are found to be incompetent with noisy and insufficient data. This research proposes a computer vision-based approach to classify bee images for infected or healthy bees, dealing with indistinct and inadequate image data. As a solution, image contrast enhancement and data augmentation methods are used to improve the quality and size of data, respectively. The foggy bee images are managed using the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), enhancing the image contrast to make it more understandable. The small dataset is augmented using an advanced method, Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGAN), which is capable of generating new images resembling the real ones. We investigate the capability of DCGAN as an alternative to the conventional augmentation technique that uses the varied geometric transformation of the image. An optimized Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model is used to classify the augmented bee image data. Further, one of the transfer learning techniques, VGG16, is applied to compare the classifiers’ performance on the same data sets. The effectiveness of the preprocessing method CLAHE and augmentation method DCGAN is assessed against original images and conventional augmentation methods. The classifiers CNN and VGG16 are compared alongside for their performance on non-augmented and augmented data sets. The investigations conducted on the given bee data sets delivered promising results. The CLAHE pre-processing method not only improved the image sharpness by 10% but also enhanced the CNN classifier’s performance as compared to the original images. The optimized CNN’s performance enhanced with conventional geometrically transformed augmented data. However, the classifier outperformed with added DCGAN generated synthetic images in the original data set providing up to 99.9% accuracy. Further, fine-tuned transfer learning classification model provided comparable accuracy alongside CNN with added efficiency building and executing the model. The success of this preliminary investigation paves the way to explore different variations of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to augment the image data together with enhancing its quality.
A Paradox of Telecommuting and Staggered Work Hours in the Bottleneck Model

We study the long- and short-term effects of telecommuting (TLC), staggered work hours (SWH), and their combined scheme on peak-period congestion and location patterns. In order to enable a unified comparison of the schemes' long- and short-term effects, we develop a novel equilibrium analysis approach that consistently synthesizes the long-term equilibrium (location and percentage of telecommuting choice) and short-term equilibrium (preferred arrival time and departure time choice). By exploiting their special mathematical structures similar to optimal transport problems, we derive the closed-form solution to the long- and short-term equilibrium while explicitly considering their interaction. These closed-form solutions elucidate the discrepancies between the effects of each scheme and uncover a paradoxical finding: the introduction of SWH, in conjunction with TLC, may increase the total commuting costs compared to the scenario with only TLC, without yielding any improvement in worker utility.
Using Monte Carlo Tree Search to Calculate Mutual Information in High Dimensions

Mutual information is an important measure of the dependence among variables. It has become widely used in statistics, machine learning, biology, etc. However, the standard techniques for estimating it often perform poorly in higher dimensions or with noisy variables. Here we significantly improve one of the standard methods for calculating mutual information by combining it with a modified Monte Carlo Tree Search. We present results which show that our method gives accurate results where the standard methods fail. We also describe the software implementation of our method and give details on the publicly-available code.
Tuning pythia for forward physics experiments

Event generators like Pythia play an important role in physics studies at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While they make accurate predictions in the central region, i.e. at pseudorapidities $\eta<5$, a disagreement between Pythia and measurements in the forward region, $\eta>7$, has been observed. We introduce a dedicated forward physics tune for the Pythia event generator to be used for forward physics studies at the LHC, which uses a more flexible modelling of beam remnant hadronization and is tuned to available particle spectra measured by LHCf. Furthermore, we provide an uncertainty estimate on the new tune in a data-driven way which can be used as a means of flux uncertainty for future forward physics studies. We demonstrate an application of our tune by showing the updated neutrino and dark photon spectra at the FASER experiment.
The Stellar, Gas, and Dynamical Masses of Star-forming Galaxies at z ~ 2

We present analysis of the near-infrared spectra of 114 rest-frame UV-selected star-forming galaxies at z ~ 2. By combining the Hα spectra with photometric measurements from observed 0.3-8 μm, we assess the relationships among kinematics, dynamical masses, inferred gas fractions, and stellar masses and ages. The Hα line widths give a mean dynamical mass Mdyn = (6.9 ± 0.6) × 1010 M☉ within a typical radius of ~6 kpc, after excluding AGNs. The average dynamical mass is ~2 times larger than the average stellar mass, and the two agree to within a factor of several for most objects. However, ~15% of the sample has Mdyn ≫ M⋆. These objects are best fit by young stellar populations and tend to have high Hα equivalent widths, WHα ≳ 200 Å, suggesting that they are young starbursts with large gas masses. Rest-frame optical luminosity and velocity dispersion are correlated with 4 σ significance. Using the local empirical correlation between star formation rate per unit area and gas surface density, we estimate the mass of the gas associated with star formation and find a mean gas fraction of ~50% and a strong decrease in gas fraction with increasing stellar mass. The masses of gas and stars combined are considerably better correlated with the dynamical masses than are the stellar masses alone, and agree to within a factor of 3 for 85% of the sample. The combination of kinematic measurements, estimates of gas masses, and stellar population properties suggest that the factor of ~500 range in stellar mass across the sample cannot be fully explained by intrinsic differences in the total masses of the galaxies, which vary by a factor of ~40; the remaining variation is due to the evolution of the stellar population and the conversion of gas into stars.