Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observations of a severe hail-bearing storm by an operational X-band polarimetric radar in the Mediterranean area

Several experimental studies undertaken in the last decade have outlined the benefit of dual-polarization techniques in compensating the major limitation on the use of X-band radars for heavy precipitation measurements (e.g., Matrosov et al., 2005; Anagnostou et al., 2008; Anagnostou et al., 2010), i.e., attenuation. Taking advantages from differential phase measurements, it is either possible to compensate attenuation or to improve rainfall estimates, especially in heavy precipitation regimes (Wang and Chandrasekar, 2011). However, despite the generally comforting results in rainfall amount and Raindrop Size Distribution (RSD) retrieval, it is trivial to state that any attenuation correction technique cannot overtake the physical limit represented by signal extinction, that can be considered as the main limitation on the quantitative use of a standalone X-band radar for operational purposes that can be mitigated by resorting to a proper network design (Junyent and Chandrasekar, 2009). In Matrosov et al. (2013), the utility of X-band polarimetric radar observations for convective-rainfall estimations in presence of rainhail mixture was explored. The authors confirmed the benefit on the use of phase-based algorithms, they being “uncontaminated” by dry hailstones, due to the spherical-like appearance related to tumbling fall mode. Generally speaking, the presence of hail enhances scattering and absorption processes at microwaves, increasing reflectivity and attenuation. According to Rasmussen and Heymsfield (1987), a torus of water forms around the melting hailstones, leading to a pseudostable non-tumbling fall mode. Consequently, the polarimetric signature of melting hail can be characterized by positive differential reflectivity and differential phase shift, depending on size and water coat thickness. At C-band, Tabary et al. (2009), attributed the huge observed differential attenuation to wet hail, confirming the water torus hypothesis. This work is aimed at documenting the effects of rain-hail mixture on the polarimetric radar signatures analyzing a strong convective precipitation event, flash flooding the city of Catania (Sicily), Italy, observed by the operational X-band weather radar located in the nearby airport. Absolute and differential attenuation are dealt with differential phase measurements properly processed through an iterative approach using a 2-km moving window. A Bayesian hydrometeor classification algorithm is also adopted to support the analysis of the storm characteristics. Extemporaneous signal extinction caused by close-range hail core causing significant differential phase shift in very short range path is documented. Nevertheless, the localized and nearby peak of precipitation amount was very well reconstructed using a combined polarimetric rainfall algorithm based on RSD measurements in California by Matrosov et al.(2005). Figure 1: Visibility maps of the considered radar system at 1, 2, 3 and 5 deg antenna elevation, respectively.
Multi-level zero-inflated Poisson regression modelling of correlated count data with excess zeros

Count data with excess zeros relative to a Poisson distribution are common in many biomedical applications. A popular approach to the analysis of such data is to use a zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression model. Often, because of the hierarchical study design or the data collection procedure, zero-inflation and lack of independence may occur simultaneously, which render the standard ZIP model inadequate. To account for the preponderance of zero counts and the inherent correlation of observations, a class of multi-level ZIP regression model with random effects is presented. Model fitting is facilitated using an expectation-maximization algorithm, whereas variance components are estimated via residual maximum likelihood estimating equations. A score test for zero-inflation is also presented. The multi-level ZIP model is then generalized to cope with a more complex correlation structure. Application to the analysis of correlated count data from a longitudinal infant feeding study illustrates the usefulness of the approach.
Bayesian Estimation of Stimulus Responses in Poisson Spike Trains

A Bayesian method is developed for estimating neural responses to stimuli, using likelihood functions incorporating the assumption that spike trains follow either pure Poisson statistics or Poisson statistics with a refractory period. The Bayesian and standard estimates of the mean and variance of responses are similar and asymptotically converge as the size of the data sample increases. However, the Bayesian estimate of the variance of the variance is much lower. This allows the Bayesian method to provide more precise interval estimates of responses. Sensitivity of the Bayesian method to the Poisson assumption was tested by conducting simulations perturbing the Poisson spike trains with noise. This did not affect Bayesian estimates of mean and variance to a significant degree, indicating that the Bayesian method is robust. The Bayesian estimates were less affected by the presence of noise than estimates provided by the standard method.
Citylab Action: Guiding Sustainable Urban Development

This article reports on the development of the certification scheme Citylab Action. The process of development is described, design considerations for the scheme are accounted for, and results from a pilot study, in which twelve projects are testing the first part of the scheme, are provided. The scheme has been developed through an iterative process, involving more than 400 practitioners and experts. First a draft definition of sustainable urban development was formulated, based on an analysis of how urban development can contribute to national and international goals for sustainable development. The draft was then discussed in a series of workshops, after which the resulting comments and suggestions were used to develop the draft definition into a draft scheme. This resulted in the definition of 17 objectives for sustainable urban development. Moreover, ten effects were defined, clarifying what the scheme ultimately seeks to support. The first version of the guide was released in October 2015. In essence, the guide defines what is important to consider when planning an urban development project. The guide was also complemented with a program for urban development projects, in which urban development projects that want to focus in sustainability can share knowledge and experiences. A pilot version of the program is running January to December 2016. The next step in developing the scheme is to follow up on the pilot, as well as to complement the scheme with indicators and criteria for certifying the planning process, as well as for ex-post evaluation of the performance of the urban development projects.
The weakening of autumn drought intensity in Korea after late 1990s

Abstract Using data of autumn (September–November) Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) observed at 61 weather observation stations for 1974–2013 provided by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the present study applies the statistical change-point analysis to the PDSI time-series in order to determine variability of autumn drought in Korea. The study result shows a trend that autumn drought in Korea has been weakened since 1998. This weakening trend is statistically significant at the 90% confidence level. Thus, a difference in autumn mean between 1998–2013 (PDSI: –1.6, which means ‘wetness’ condition) and 1974–1997 periods (PDSI: –0.6, which means ‘drought’ condition) is analyzed in order to determine the cause of the weakening of autumn drought in Korea in recent years. The analysis on 850 hPa stream flows shows that the Mascarene high (MH) is strengthened in the southeast sea of Madagascar and anomalous northeasterlies blown from this anomalous anticyclonic circulation are moved to the north along the eastern coast of Africa as the cross-equatorial flows and then move from India to the east towards the South China Sea (SCS) by the anomalous cyclone (Arabian low, AL) located in the south sea of the Arabian Peninsula. Then, the anomalous flows move to the north direction towards Korea and Japan by the anomalous anticyclone (western North Pacific subtropical high, WNPSH) located in the east of Japan and anomalous cyclone located in the East Asia continent thereby showing clear anomalous southerlies in those regions. The anomalous pressure system pattern of west low and east high type is a typical pressure system pattern revealed during summer in East Asia. That is, the anomalous southerlies played an important role in supplying warm and humid airs in the low latitude to mid-latitude regions in East Asia including Korea and Japan. In addition, the predictability for autumn drought in Korea is diagnosed using three anomalous pressure systems (MH, AL, WNPSH).
Development of a Novel Power Processing Unit for Hall Thrusters

A newly developed power processing unit (PPU) offers the advantages of smaller size and lighter weight than conventional PPUs. The thrust performance of a magnetic layer type Hall thruster developed at Kyushu University with this new PPU was investigated; it showed a good performance as compared with conventional power supplies. The thrust to power ratio was improved to 58 mN/kW at discharge voltage of 150 V and anode xenon mass flow rate of 1.0 mg/s.
Climate Change and Its Consequences for Cultural and Language Endangerment

Climate change is arguably one of the most pressing issues facing humanity. The implications for natural ecological (terrestrial and marine) and agricultural systems are enormous. The diminishment and extinction of native species and the increase in number and impact of invasive species are well documented. As natural systems are altered, the local communities and indigenous groups that have co-evolved with, and depend on, native plants and animals are challenged to maintain their integrity and livelihoods. Thus, the erosion of biological diversity can lead directly to the erosion of cultural and, thusly, linguistic diversity. Here the ramifications of climate change with respect to cultural and language endangerment are examined, with particular emphasis on island systems, ecological calendars, civil conflict, and migration. Strong mitigation and adaptation strategies will be essential for cultural and language survival.
EISCAT 3D: the next generation international atmosphere and geospace research radar

EISCAT 3D is the next generation international atmosphereand geospace research radar in Arctic Europe. The EISCAT 3D construction started in September 2017 and the radar system is expected to be operational in the end of 2021. The EISCAT 3D facility will be distributed across three sites in Northern Scandinavia in Skibotn, Norway, near Kiruna in Sweden, and near Karesuvanto in Finland. Each site will consist of about 10.000 antennas fed by a powerful 5 MW transmitter at Skibotn and a receiver at each of the three sites. EISCAT 3D is designed for novel measurement techniques, ones which have never been combined in one radar system: volumetric-, aperture synthesisand multi-static imaging, trackingand adaptive experiments, together with continuous operations. This unique versatility will enable tracking hard targets such as space debris, NEO:s and meteor head echoes in parallel with radar experiments to solve fundamental questions of cross-layer coupling in the atmosphere, solar-terrestrial interactions and plasma turbulence. In this presentation we review the current project status and outline the EISCAT 3D capabilities for contributing to Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST).
Sampling operations on big data

The 3Vs - Volume, Velocity and Variety - of Big Data continues to be a large challenge for systems and algorithms designed to store, process and disseminate information for discovery and exploration under real-time constraints. Common signal processing operations such as sampling and filtering, which have been used for decades to compress signals are often undefined in data that is characterized by heterogeneity, high dimensionality, and lack of known structure. In this article, we describe and demonstrate an approach to sample large datasets such as social media data. We evaluate the effect of sampling on a common predictive analytic: link prediction. Our results indicate that greatly sampling a dataset can still yield meaningful link prediction results.
Simple and effective analysis of statically-typed object-oriented programs

To use modern hardware effectively, compilers need extensive control-flow information. Unfortunately, the frequent method invocations in object-oriented languages obscure control flow. In this paper, we describe and evaluate a range of analysis techniques to convert method invocations into direct calls for statically-typed object-oriented languages and thus improve control-flow information in object-oriented languages. We present simple algorithms for <i>type hierarchy analysis, aggregate analysis, and interprocedural and intraprocedural type propagation</i>. These algorithms are also fast, <i>O</i>(|procedures| * &sum;<inf>p</inf><sup>procedure</sup> <i>n</i><inf><i>p</i></inf> * <i>v</i><inf><i>p</i></inf>) worst case time (linear in practice) for our slowest analysis, where <i>n</i><inf><i>p</i></inf> is the size of procedure <i>p</i> and <i>v</i><inf><i>p</i></inf> is the number of variables in procedure <i>p</i>, and are thus practical for use in a compiler. When they fail, we introduce <i>cause analysis</i> to reveal the source of imprecision and suggest where more powerful algorithms may be warranted. We show that our simple analyses perform almost as well as an oracle that resolves all method invocations that invoke only a single procedure.
Load-Aware Strategies for Cloud-Based VoIP Optimization with VM Startup Prediction

In this paper, we address cloud VoIP scheduling strategies to provide appropriate levels of quality of service to users, and cost to VoIP service providers. This bi-objective focus is reasonable and representative for real installations and applications. We conduct comprehensive simulation on real data of twenty three on-line non-clairvoyant scheduling strategies with fixed threshold of utilization to request VMs, and twenty strategies with dynamic prediction of the load. We show that our load-aware with predictions strategies outperform the known ones providing suitable quality of service and lower cost. The robustness of these strategies is also analyzed varying VM startup time delays to deal with realistic VoIP cloud environments.
Sparse Modeling of Intrinsic Correspondences

We present a novel sparse modeling approach to non‐rigid shape matching using only the ability to detect repeatable regions. As the input to our algorithm, we are given only two sets of regions in two shapes; no descriptors are provided so the correspondence between the regions is not know, nor we know how many regions correspond in the two shapes. We show that even with such scarce information, it is possible to establish very accurate correspondence between the shapes by using methods from the field of sparse modeling, being this, the first non‐trivial use of sparse models in shape correspondence. We formulate the problem of permuted sparse coding, in which we solve simultaneously for an unknown permutation ordering the regions on two shapes and for an unknown correspondence in functional representation. We also propose a robust variant capable of handling incomplete matches. Numerically, the problem is solved efficiently by alternating the solution of a linear assignment and a sparse coding problem. The proposed methods are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively on standard benchmarks containing both synthetic and scanned objects.
Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronization: Are Developing Countries Any Different?

Some key criteria in the optimal currency area literature are that countries should join a currency union if they have closer international trade links and more symmetric business cycles. However, both criteria are endogenous. Frankel and Rose (1998) find that trade intensity increases cycle correlation among industrial countries. We study whether the same result holds true for the case of developing countries, as their different patterns of international trade and specialization may lead to cyclical asymmetries among them and between industrial and developing countries. We gather annual information for 147 countries for 1960-99 (33,676 country pairs) and find: (i) countries with higher bilateral trade exhibit higher business cycle synchronization, with an increase of one standard deviation in bilateral trade intensity raising the output correlation from 0.05 to 0.09 for all country pairs; (ii) countries with more asymmetric structures of production exhibit a smaller business cycle correlation; (iii) the impact of trade integration on business cycles is higher for industrial countries than both developing and industrial-developing country pairs; (iv) a one standard deviation increase in bilateral trade intensity leads to surges in output correlation from 0.25 to 0.39 among industrial countries, from 0.08 to 0.10 for our sample of industrial-developing country pairs, and from 0.03 to 0.06 among developing countries; (v) the impact of trade intensity on cycle correlation is smaller the greater the production structure asymmetries between the countries.
Performance Analysis of Bit-Width Reduced Floating-Point Arithmetic Units in FPGAs: A Case Study of Neural Network-Based Face Detector

This paper implements a field programmable gate array- (FPGA-) based face detector using a neural network (NN) and the bit-width reduced floating-point arithmetic unit (FPU). The analytical error model, using the maximum relative representation error (MRRE) and the average relative representation error (ARRE), is developed to obtain the maximum and average output errors for the bit-width reduced FPUs. After the development of the analytical error model, the bit-width reduced FPUs and an NN are designed using MATLAB and VHDL. Finally, the analytical (MATLAB) results, along with the experimental (VHDL) results, are compared. The analytical results and the experimental results show conformity of shape. We demonstrate that incremented reductions in the number of bits used can produce significant cost reductions including area, speed, and power.
Delineating runoff processes and critical runoff source areas in a pasture hillslope of the Ozark Highlands

The identification of runoff contributing areas would provide the ideal focal points for water quality monitoring and Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation. The objective of this study was to use a field‐scale approach to delineate critical runoff source areas and to determine the runoff mechanisms in a pasture hillslope of the Ozark Highlands in the USA. Three adjacent hillslope plots located at the Savoy Experimental Watershed, north‐west Arkansas, were bermed to isolate runoff. Each plot was equipped with paired subsurface saturation and surface runoff sensors, shallow groundwater wells, H‐flumes and rain gauges to quantify runoff mechanisms and rainfall characteristics at continuous 5‐minute intervals. The spatial extent of runoff source areas was determined by incorporating sensor data into a geographic information‐based system and performing geostatistical computations (inverse distance weighting method). Results indicate that both infiltration excess runoff and saturation excess runoff mechanisms occur to varying extents (0–58% for infiltration excess and 0–26% for saturation excess) across the plots. Rainfall events that occurred 1–5 January 2005 are used to illustrate the spatial and temporal dynamics of the critical runoff source areas. The methodology presented can serve as a framework upon which critical runoff source areas can be identified and managed for water quality protection in other watersheds. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aberrant Localization of FUS and TDP43 Is Associated with Misfolding of SOD1 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is incurable and characterized by progressive paralysis of the muscles of the limbs, speech and swallowing, and respiration due to the progressive degeneration of voluntary motor neurons. Clinically indistinguishable ALS can be caused by genetic mutations of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1), TAR-DNA binding protein 43 (TDP43), or fused in sarcoma/translocated in liposarcoma (FUS/TLS), or can occur in the absence of known mutation as sporadic disease. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that FUS/TLS and TDP43 gain new pathogenic functions upon aberrant accumulation in the cytosol that directly or indirectly include misfolding of SOD1. Methodology/Principal Findings Patient spinal cord necropsy immunohistochemistry with SOD1 misfolding-specific antibodies revealed misfolded SOD1 in perikarya and motor axons of SOD1-familial ALS (SOD1-FALS), and in motor axons of R521C-FUS FALS and sporadic ALS (SALS) with cytoplasmic TDP43 inclusions. SOD1 misfolding and oxidation was also detected using immunocytochemistry and quantitative immunoprecipitation of human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells as well as cultured murine spinal neural cells transgenic for human wtSOD1, which were transiently transfected with human cytosolic mutant FUS or TDP43, or wtTDP43. Conclusion/Significance We conclude that cytosolic mislocalization of FUS or TDP43 in vitro and ALS in vivo may kindle wtSOD1 misfolding in non-SOD1 FALS and SALS. The lack of immunohistochemical compartmental co-localization of misfolded SOD1 with cytosolic TDP43 or FUS suggests an indirect induction of SOD1 misfolding followed by propagation through template directed misfolding beyond its site of inception. The identification of a final common pathway in the molecular pathogenesis of ALS provides a treatment target for this devastating disease.
Role Mining with Probabilistic Models

Role mining tackles the problem of finding a role-based access control (RBAC) configuration, given an access-control matrix assigning users to access permissions as input. Most role-mining approaches work by constructing a large set of candidate roles and use a greedy selection strategy to iteratively pick a small subset such that the differences between the resulting RBAC configuration and the access control matrix are minimized. In this article, we advocate an alternative approach that recasts role mining as an inference problem rather than a lossy compression problem. Instead of using combinatorial algorithms to minimize the number of roles needed to represent the access-control matrix, we derive probabilistic models to learn the RBAC configuration that most likely underlies the given matrix. Our models are generative in that they reflect the way that permissions are assigned to users in a given RBAC configuration. We additionally model how user-permission assignments that conflict with an RBAC configuration emerge and we investigate the influence of constraints on role hierarchies and on the number of assignments. In experiments with access-control matrices from real-world enterprises, we compare our proposed models with other role-mining methods. Our results show that our probabilistic models infer roles that generalize well to new system users for a wide variety of data, while other models’ generalization abilities depend on the dataset given.