Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Uneven Nature of Daily Precipitation and Its Change

A few days with heavy rain contribute disproportionately to total precipitation, while many days with light drizzle contribute much less. What is not appreciated is just how asymmetric this distribution is in time, and the even more asymmetric nature of trends due to climate change. We diagnose the temporal asymmetry in models and observations. Half of annual precipitation falls in the wettest 12 days each year in the median across observing stations worldwide. Climate models project changes in precipitation that are more uneven than present‐day precipitation. In a scenario with high greenhouse‐gas emissions, one fifth of the projected increase in rain falls in the wettest 2 days of the year and 70% in the wettest 2 weeks. Adjusting modeled unevenness to match present‐day unevenness at stations, half of precipitation increase occurs in the wettest 6 days each year.
A Compact Vertical Scanner for Atomic Force Microscopes

A compact vertical scanner for an atomic force microscope (AFM) is developed. The vertical scanner is designed to have no interference with the optical microscope for viewing the cantilever. The theoretical stiffness and resonance of the scanner are derived and verified via finite element analysis. An optimal design process that maximizes the resonance frequency is performed. To evaluate the scanner’s performance, experiments are performed to evaluate the travel range, resonance frequency, and feedback noise level. In addition, an AFM image using the proposed vertical scanner is generated.
The Carbon Dioxide Vents of Ischia, Italy, A Natural System to Assess Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Ecosystems: An Overview of Research and Comparisons with Other Vent Systems

As the ocean continues to take up carbon dioxide (CO2), it is difficult to predict the future of marine ecosystems. Natural CO2 vent sites, mainly of volcanic origin, that provide a pH gradient are useful as a proxy to investigate ecological effects of ocean acidification. The effects of decreased pH can be assessed at increasing levels of organisation, from the responses of individuals of a species up through populations and communities to whole ecosystems. As a natural laboratory, CO2 vent sites incorporate a range of environmental factors, such as gradients of nutrients, currents and species interactions that cannot be replicated in the laboratory or mesocosms, with the caveat that some vent systems have confounding factors such as hydrogen sulphide and metals. The first CO2 vent sites to be investigated in an ocean acidification context were the vents at the Castello Aragonese on the island of Ischia, Italy. The gas released is primarily CO2 with no evidence of toxic substances. They have been the focus of a wealth of studies, which are reviewed here and in context with research at other vent systems. Investigations of the species that occur along the pH gradients at Ischia show that, as the pH decreases, there is a reduction in calcifying species, reflecting the trends seen at other vent systems and in laboratory studies. The species assemblages at the Castello vents living at near future (2100) ocean acidification conditions (mean pH 7.8), show the resilience of many species to elevated CO2, including many calcifying species (e.g. sea urchins, serpulids, bryozoans, foraminifera and corals). These taxa show different physiological and ecological mechanisms for acclimatisation and adaptation to low pH. As the oceans continue to acidify to pH levels <7.8, species assemblages are likely to become dominated by fleshy algae and smaller-bodied, generalist invertebrates. These observations suggest that ocean acidification will result in a simplification of marine food webs and trophic complexity.
Knowledge-Aided Adaptive Coherence Estimator in Stochastic Partially Homogeneous Environments

This letter introduces a stochastic partially homogeneous model for adaptive signal detection. In this model, the disturbance covariance matrix of training signals, <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">${\bf R}$</tex></formula>, is assumed to be a random matrix with some a priori information, while the disturbance covariance matrix of the test signal, <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">${\bf R}_{0}$</tex></formula>, is assumed to be equal to <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\lambda{\bf R}$</tex> </formula>, i.e., <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">${\bf R}_{0}=\lambda{\bf R}$</tex></formula>. On one hand, this model extends the stochastic homogeneous model by introducing an unknown power scaling factor <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\lambda$</tex></formula> between the test and training signals. On the other hand, it can be considered as a generalization of the standard partially homogeneous model to the stochastic Bayesian framework, which treats the covariance matrix as a random matrix. According to the stochastic partially homogeneous model, a scale-invariant generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) for the adaptive signal detection is developed, which is a knowledge-aided version of the well-known adaptive coherence estimator (ACE). The resulting knowledge-aided ACE (KA-ACE) employs a colored loading step utilizing the a priori knowledge and the sample covariance matrix. Various simulation results and comparison with respect to other detectors confirm the scale-invariance and the effectiveness of the KA-ACE.
Field trials of downlink multi-cell MIMO

Multi-cell MIMO technique theoretically promises large improvement in spectral efficiency and fairness in cellular networks and is regarded as the key enabling technique for solving the troublesome issue of inter-cell interference. To evaluate its practical performance in the cellular network, we have implemented the real-time downlink multi-cell MIMO trial system operating over bandwidth of 20MHz. The initial field trial indeed shows a significant spectral efficiency gain of downlink multi-cell MIMO over the traditional single-cell transmissions in an indoor deployment of two operating base stations and two terminals. Particularly, several principal operation modes of multi-cell MIMO are evaluated and compared in the field trial measurements, including coherent joint transmission (JT), non-coherent JT and interference nulling. The field trial results agree quite well with expectations from theory.
Score-safe term-dependency processing with hybrid indexes

Score-safe index processing has received a great deal of attention over the last two decades. By pre-calculating maximum term impacts during indexing, the number of scoring operations can be minimized, and the top-k documents for a query can be located efficiently. However, these methods often ignore the importance of the effectiveness gains possible when using sequential dependency models. We present a hybrid approach which leverages score-safe processing and suffix-based self-indexing structures in order to provide efficient and effective top-k document retrieval.
Contribution of Subregions of Human Frontal Cortex to Novelty Processing

Novelty processing was studied in patients with lesions centered in either OFC or lateral pFC (LPFC). An auditory novelty oddball ERP paradigm was applied with environmental sounds serving as task irrelevant novel stimuli. Lesions to the LPFC as well as the OFC resulted in a reduction of the frontal Novelty P3 response, supporting a key role of both frontal subdivisions in novelty processing. The posterior P3b to target sounds was unaffected in patients with frontal lobe lesions in either location, indicating intact posterior cortical target detection mechanisms. LPFC patients displayed an enhanced sustained negative slow wave (NSW) to novel sounds not observed in OFC patients, indicating prolonged resource allocation to task-irrelevant stimuli after LPFC damage. Both patient groups displayed an enhanced NSW to targets relative to controls. However, there was no difference in behavior between patients and controls suggesting that the enhanced NSW to targets may index an increased resource allocation to response requirements enabling comparable performance in the frontal lesioned patients. The current findings indicate that the LPFC and OFC have partly shared and partly differential contributions to the cognitive subcomponents of novelty processing.
A CYTOCHEMICAL LOCALIZATION OF REDUCTIVE SITES IN A GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIUM

In bacteria the exact location of a respiratory enzyme system comparable to that of the mitochondria of other cells has remained uncertain. On the one hand, the existence of particulate "bacterial mitochondria" has been advocated (Mudd); on the other hand, important enzymes of the respiratory chain were recovered in the cytoplasmic membranes associated with some granular material (Weibull). In order to gain insight into this question, sites of reducing activity were localized in thin sections of bacteria using the reduction of potassium tellurite as an indicator. When this salt was added to the culture medium of Bacillus subtilis, it turned out that in this Gram-positive organism the reduced product is strictly bound at two sites, and that the plasma membrane does not materially gain in electron opacity through deposition of the reduced product. The reduction product is found on or in the membranes of particular organelles, which may possibly be regarded as the mitochondrial equivalents in Gram-positive bacteria, and which are sometimes seen connected to the plasma membrane. The second location is in thin rod-like elements at the cell periphery, possibly the sites from which the flagella emerge.
The Soprano Extensible Object Storage System

An efficient object manager, a middle layer on top of a storage system, is essential to ensure acceptable performance of object-oriented database systems, since a traditional record-based storage system is too simple to provide object abstraction. In addition, an object storage systemâ€“object managers in combination with storage systems - should be extensible to meet the various requirements of emerging applications. In this research, we design and implement an extensible object storage system, called Soprano, in an object-oriented fashion which has shown great potential in extensibility and code reusability. Soprano provides a uniform object abstraction and gives us the convenience of persistent programming through many useful persistent classes. Also, Soprano supports efficient object management and pointer swizzling for fast object access. This paper investigates several aspects of the design and implementation of the extensible object storage system. Our experience shows the feasibility of using an object-oriented design and implementation in building an object storage system that should have both extensibility and high performance.
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems Human Object Recognition Using Colour and Depth Information from an Rgb-d Kinect Sensor Regular Paper

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Human object recognition and tracking is important in robotics and automation. The Kinect sensor and its SDK have provided a reliable human tracking solution where a constant line of sight is maintained. However, if the human object is lost from sight during the tracking, the existing method cannot recover and resume tracking the previous object correctly. In this paper, a human recognition method is developed based on colour and depth information that is provided from any RGB‐D sensor. In particular, the method firstly introduces a mask based on the depth information of the sensor to segment the shirt from the image (shirt segmentation); it then extracts the colour information of the shirt for recognition (shirt recognition). As the shirt segmentation is only based on depth information, it is light invariant compared to colour‐based segmentation methods. The proposed colour recognition method introduces a confidence‐based ruling method to classify matches. The proposed shirt segmentation and colour recognition method is tested using a variety of shirts with the tracked human at standstill or moving in varying lighting conditions. Experiments show that the method can recognize shirts of varying colours and patterns robustly.
RyR-NCX-SERCA Local Cross-Talk Ensures Pacemaker Cell Function at Rest and During the Fight-or-Flight Reflex

Rationale: A recent study published in Circulation Research by Gao et al used sinoatrial node (SAN)–targeted, incomplete Ncx1 knockout in mice to explore the role of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX) in cardiac pacemaker. The authors concluded that NCX is required for increasing sinus rates, but not for maintaining resting heart rate. This conclusion was based, in part, on numeric model simulations performed by Gao et al that reproduced their experimental results of unchanged action potentials in the knockout SAN cells. The authors, however, did not simulate the NCX current (INCX), that is, the subject of the study. Objective: We extended numeric examinations to simulate INCX in their incomplete knockout SAN cells that is crucial to interpret the study results. Methods and Results: INCX and Ca2+ dynamics were simulated using different contemporary numeric models of SAN cells. We found that minimum diastolic Ca2+ levels and INCX amplitudes generated by remaining NCX molecules (only 20% of control) remained almost unchanged. Simulations using a new local Ca2+ control model indicate that these powerful compensatory mechanisms involve complex local cross-talk of Ca2+ cycling proteins and NCX. Specifically, lower NCX expression facilitates Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release and larger local Ca2+ releases that stabilize diastolic INCX. Further reduction of NCX expression results in arrhythmia and halt of automaticity. Conclusions: Remaining NCX molecules in the incomplete knockout model likely produce almost the same diastolic INCX as in wild-type cells. INCX contribution is crucially important for both basal automaticity of SAN cells and during the fight-or-flight reflex.
Sarcopenia and Age-Related Endocrine Function

Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of skeletal muscle, is characterized by a deterioration of muscle quantity and quality leading to a gradual slowing of movement, a decline in strength and power, and an increased risk of fall-related injuries. Since sarcopenia is largely attributed to various molecular mediators affecting fiber size, mitochondrial homeostasis, and apoptosis, numerous targets exist for drug discovery. In this paper, we summarize the current understanding of the endocrine contribution to sarcopenia and provide an update on hormonal intervention to try to improve endocrine defects. Myostatin inhibition seems to be the most interesting strategy for attenuating sarcopenia other than resistance training with amino acid supplementation. Testosterone supplementation in large amounts and at low frequency improves muscle defects with aging but has several side effects. Although IGF-I is a potent regulator of muscle mass, its therapeutic use has not had a positive effect probably due to local IGF-I resistance. Treatment with ghrelin may ameliorate the muscle atrophy elicited by age-dependent decreases in growth hormone. Ghrelin is an interesting candidate because it is orally active, avoiding the need for injections. A more comprehensive knowledge of vitamin-D-related mechanisms is needed to utilize this nutrient to prevent sarcopenia.
A Drum Pattern Retrieval Method by Voice Percussion

This paper presents a method for voice percussion recognition and its application to drum pattern retrieval. Recognition of voice percussion (verbalized expression of drum soundby voice)requires an approach that is different from existing methods. Individual differences in both vocal characteristics and the kinds of verbal expressions used add further complication to the task. The approach taken in this study uses onomatopoeia as internal representation of drum sounds, and combines the recognition of voice percussion with the retrieval of intended drum patterns. This scheme is intended to deal with the two types of individual differences mentioned above. In a recognition experiment with 200 utterances of voice percussion, our method achieveda recognitionrateof91.0% forthehighesttuned setting.
Globule: a User-Centric Content Delivery Network

Web users often experience slow document transfers caused by poorly performing servers and overloaded network links. A classical solution to this problem is to replicate documents across the Internet and serve client requests at a nearby replica. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), such as Akamai, offer such replication services to content providers by offering them a worldwide distributed platform to host their content. This poster presents Globule, a content delivery network to be operated by end-users themselves. Instead of delegating content delivery to an external company, content providers can organize together to trade their (relatively cheap) local resources against (valuable) remote resources. As a result, a user participating in the Globule network is offered a distributed set of servers in which his/her Web content can be replicated. Globule is designed in the form of an add-on module for the Apache Web server. To replicate their content, content providers only need to compile an extra module into their Apache server and edit a simple configuration file. Globule automatically replicates the site’s content and redirects clients to a nearby replica. Servers also monitor each other’s availability, so that client requests are not redirected to a failing replica. Future versions will allow automatic replica placement, replication of dynamic content and security measures. Globule prototypes are available under an open-source licence at h tp://www.globule. org/ .
Is Information Risk a Determinant of Asset Returns

We investigate the role of information-based trading in affecting asset returns. We show in a rational expectation example how private information affects equilibrium asset returns. Using a market microstructure model, we derive a measure of the probability of information-based trading, and we estimate this measure using data for individual NYSE-listed stocks for 1983 to 1998. We then incorporate our estimates into a Fama and French (1992) asset-pricing framework. Our main result is that information does affect asset prices. A difference of 10 percentage points in the probability of information-based trading between two stocks leads to a difference in their expected returns of 2.5 percent per year. Copyright The American Finance Association 2002.
Energy Efficiency Optimization for MIMO Broadcasting Channels

Characterizing the fundamental energy efficiency (EE) limits of MIMO broadcast channels (BC) is significant for the development of green wireless communications. We address the EE optimization problem for MIMO-BC in this paper and consider a practical power model, i.e., taking into account a transmit independent power which is related to the number of active transmit antennas. Under this setup, we propose a new optimization approach, in which the transmit covariance is optimized under fixed active transmit antenna sets, and then active transmit antenna selection (ATAS) is utilized. During the transmit covariance optimization, we propose a globally optimal energy efficient iterative water-filling scheme through solving a series of concave fractional programs based on the block-coordinate ascent algorithm. After that, ATAS is employed to determine the active transmit antenna set. Since activating more transmit antennas can achieve higher sum-rate but at the cost of larger transmit independent power consumption, there exists a tradeoff between the sum-rate gain and the power consumption. Here ATAS can exploit the best tradeoff and thus further improve the EE. Optimal exhaustive search and low-complexity norm based ATAS schemes are developed. Through simulations, we discuss the effect of different parameters on the EE of the MIMO-BC.
Diagnosis and Management of Childhood Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

OBJECTIVES: This revised clinical practice guideline, intended for use by primary care clinicians, provides recommendations for the diagnosis and management of the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in children and adolescents. This practice guideline focuses on uncomplicated childhood OSAS, that is, OSAS associated with adenotonsillar hypertrophy and/or obesity in an otherwise healthy child who is being treated in the primary care setting. METHODS: Of 3166 articles from 1999–2010, 350 provided relevant data. Most articles were level II–IV. The resulting evidence report was used to formulate recommendations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The following recommendations are made. (1) All children/adolescents should be screened for snoring. (2) Polysomnography should be performed in children/adolescents with snoring and symptoms/signs of OSAS; if polysomnography is not available, then alternative diagnostic tests or referral to a specialist for more extensive evaluation may be considered. (3) Adenotonsillectomy is recommended as the first-line treatment of patients with adenotonsillar hypertrophy. (4) High-risk patients should be monitored as inpatients postoperatively. (5) Patients should be reevaluated postoperatively to determine whether further treatment is required. Objective testing should be performed in patients who are high risk or have persistent symptoms/signs of OSAS after therapy. (6) Continuous positive airway pressure is recommended as treatment if adenotonsillectomy is not performed or if OSAS persists postoperatively. (7) Weight loss is recommended in addition to other therapy in patients who are overweight or obese. (8) Intranasal corticosteroids are an option for children with mild OSAS in whom adenotonsillectomy is contraindicated or for mild postoperative OSAS.
Local knowledge-based water management and irrigation in the Western Pamirs

For many people living in Central Asia, the economic decline and societal disintegration of the postSoviet space meant a dramatic socio-economic marginalization and pauperization. Against this background and accompanied by the liquidation of numerous state enterprises, many citizens lost their jobs and secure wages. Simultaneously, the state radically cut the provision of social services. The increased uncertainty led to a rising dependency on access to, as well as utilization and the decentralized management of, locally available resources and assets for one’s own survival, especially in the countryside. Because of the immediate relationship between these challenges and the comparatively scarce availability of affordable food products, the collaborative management of scarce water sources and common operation of labour-intensive irrigation infrastructure for local agricultural food production are especially significant in arid high mountain regions such as the remote Western Pamirs in Tajikistan. By means of a micro-level study conducted in the Wakhan Valley, it will be shown how self-organized management practices and pragmatic technical solutions fed by local knowledge contribute to addressing the uneven and irregular spatiotemporal water supply for irrigation. The findings reveal that local-specific water management and irrigation arrangements prove to be not only an essential basis for local food production but also a central instrument for balancing interests within a community and a means of social organization. The study provides an example of where human and social assets such as local environmental, cultural and social knowledge; common decision-making; and coordinated action become key factors for equitable utilization of locally available natural resources on the one hand. On the other hand, the study shows how local knowledge-informed collaborative resource management contributes to community cohesion and individual survival in a society which is struggling with manifold societal challenges.