Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY IN WATERSHED HEALTH ASSESSMENT

Watersheds constituted by different geology, geomorphology, climates, land uses, soils, ecological communities, and vegetation covers. The watershed landscapes have established over geologic time while being shaped by patterns of climate, vegetation, and lithology. However, understanding the nexus between watershed health, geology and geomorphology has been less considered and requires a deep knowledge of their spatiotemporal scales of evolution. The current article, therefore, attempts to provide a brief review of geology and geomorphology concepts, importance and applications in watershed health assessment. Additionally, a list of most important geologic and geomorphologic criteria for watershed management and assessment provided as well. The provided information provides useful insights for land managers and decision makers and thus helps in the identification of gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed on a priority basis. It is highly suggested that the future developments in watershed health studies have focused in the direction of the geological and geomorphological process, taking advantage of empirical observations, mathematical and conceptual modeling to attain a quantitative description of real watershed health conditions.
Use of colour transformation and the geodesic method for road centreline extraction from VHR satellite images

ABSTRACT Seed point-based road extraction methods are vital for extracting road networks from satellite images. Despite its effectiveness, roads in very high-resolution (VHR) satellite images are complicated, such as road occlusion and material change. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes to use the colour space transformation and geodesic method. First, the test image is converted from Red-Green-Blue colour space to Hue-Saturation-Value colour space to reduce the material change influence. The geodesic method is subsequently applied to extract initial road segments that link road seed points provided by users. At last, the initial result is adjusted by a kernel density estimation method to produce centred roads. The presented method is quantitatively evaluated on three test images. Experiments show that the proposed method yields a substantial improvement over cutting-edge technologies. The findings in this study shine new light on a practical solution for road extraction from satellite images.
Identifying Bundles of Product Options using Mutual Information Clustering

Mass-produced goods tend to be highly standardized in order to maximize manufacturing efficiencies. Some high-value goods with limited production quantities remain much less standardized and each sale can be configured to meet the specific requirements of the customer. In this work we suggest a novel methodology to reduce the number of options for complex product configurations by identifying meaningful sets of options that exhibit strong empirical dependencies in previous customer orders. Our approach explores different measures from statistics and information theory to capture the degree of interdependence between the choices for any pair of product components. We use hierarchical clustering to identify meaningful sets of components that can be combined to decrease the number of unique product specifications and increase production standardization. The focus of our analysis is on the influence of different similarity measure including chi-squared statistics and versions of mutual information on the ability of the clustering to find mean-
Elimination of the BKCa Channel's High-Affinity Ca2+ Sensitivity

We report here a combination of site-directed mutations that eliminate the high-affinity Ca2+ response of the large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel (BKCa), leaving only a low-affinity response blocked by high concentrations of Mg2+. Mutations at two sites are required, the “Ca2+ bowl,” which has been implicated previously in Ca2+ binding, and M513, at the end of the channel's seventh hydrophobic segment. Energetic analyses of mutations at these positions, alone and in combination, argue that the BKCa channel contains three types of Ca2+ binding sites, one of low affinity that is Mg2+ sensitive (as has been suggested previously) and two of higher affinity that have similar binding characteristics and contribute approximately equally to the power of Ca2+ to influence channel opening. Estimates of the binding characteristics of the BKCa channel's high-affinity Ca2+-binding sites are provided.
Assessing Appropriateness of Lipid Management Among Patients With Diabetes Mellitus: Moving From Target to Treatment

Background— Performance measures that emphasize only a treat-to-target approach may motivate overtreatment with high-dose statins, potentially leading to adverse events and unnecessary costs. We developed a clinical action performance measure for lipid management in patients with diabetes mellitus that is designed to encourage appropriate treatment with moderate-dose statins while minimizing overtreatment. Methods and Results— We examined data from July 2010 to June 2011 for 964 818 active Veterans Affairs primary care patients ≥18 years of age with diabetes mellitus. We defined 3 conditions as successfully meeting the clinical action measure for patients 50 to 75 years old: (1) having a low-density lipoprotein (LDL) <100 mg/dL, (2) taking a moderate-dose statin regardless of LDL level or measurement, or (3) receiving appropriate clinical action (starting, switching, or intensifying statin therapy) if LDL is ≥100 mg/dL. We examined possible overtreatment for patients ≥18 years of age by examining the proportion of patients without ischemic heart disease who were on a high-dose statin. We then examined variability in measure attainment across 881 facilities using 2-level hierarchical multivariable logistic models. Of 668 209 patients with diabetes mellitus who were 50 to 75 years of age, 84.6% passed the clinical action measure: 67.2% with LDL <100 mg/dL, 13.0% with LDL ≥100 mg/dL and either on a moderate-dose statin (7.5%) or with appropriate clinical action (5.5%), and 4.4% with no index LDL on at least a moderate-dose statin. Of the entire cohort ≥18 years of age, 13.7% were potentially overtreated. Facilities with higher rates of meeting the current threshold measure (LDL <100 mg/dL) had higher rates of potential overtreatment (P<0.001). Conclusions— Use of a performance measure that credits appropriate clinical action indicates that almost 85% of diabetic veterans 50 to 75 years of age are receiving appropriate dyslipidemia management. However, many patients are potentially overtreated with high-dose statins.
High-power high-speed photodetectors-design, analysis, and experimental demonstration

A novel velocity-matched distributed photodetector (VMDP) is proposed to simultaneously achieve high saturation photocurrent and broad bandwidth. Theoretical analysis on the tradeoff between saturation power and bandwidth shows that the VMDP offers fundamental advantages over conventional photodetectors. A comprehensive theoretical model has been developed for the design and simulation of the VMDP. Experimentally, the VMDP with very high saturation (56-mA) photocurrent and instrument-limited 3-dB bandwidth (49 GHz) has been demonstrated. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the VMDP is very attractive for high-performance microwave photonic links and high-power optical microwave applications.
Analytics, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things

Our increasingly connected world, combined with low-cost sensors and distributed intelligence, will have a transformative impact on industry, producing more data than humans will be able to process. How will businesses adapt and evolve quickly enough to maintain their place in the competitive landscape? How will humans make sense of and benefit from these new sources of information and intelligence embedded in our environment?
Does a Story Understander Need a Point of View?

At the Carbonell Memorial Conference in 1974, there was a good deal of informal discussion of the use by people of analogue simulations in knowledge retrieval or question-answering. We asked each other questions like, "How many traffic lights are there along your usual route from the railroad station to your house? " Or, "Can a salt shaker be used as a stool? ". The former type of question usually gives rise to introspective reports of a mental simulation of the traversal of the requested route, replete with visual imagery. The latter type of question may or may not give rise to a mental simulation. Some people report knowing propositlonally that a salt shaker cannot be used as a stool because its size is insufficient. Others report mentally playing through the motor sequence of sitting on a salt shaker, whence they rudely discover the negative answer.
SLA-Aware and Green Resource Management of IaaS Clouds

Cloud computing has become a most popular computing pattern in both industry and academia. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud platform provides an elastic way to require computing resources in a pay-as-you-go paradigm. While bringing great convenience to both customers and service providers, the cloud platform has some problems demanding prompt solution, one of which is how to achieve energy saving with a low Service Level Agreement (SLA) violation rate. Though existing works achieve optimization to a certain extent, most of them do not take the overall resource utilization balancing into account. In this paper, heuristic greedy algorithms are proposed based on a novel conception, "Healthy Threshold". By regulating resource utilization of clouds towards Healthy Threshold, the overall balancing of resource utilization is achieved, so energy consumption can be reduced more effectively. Besides, we also propose a strict SLA enforcement strategy to further guarantee a low SLA violation rate. Results of real-world trace driven simulations show that our algorithms outperform other works when solving the problem.
Increased stream flow in the Nu River (Salween) Basin of China, due to climatic warming and increased precipitation

ABSTRACT This study investigates the influence of climatic changes on the annual stream flow of the Nu (Salween) River, over the period from 1958 to 2004. While the flow of the Nu River is mainly influenced by precipitation, the role of temperature in governing stream flow appears to be increasing as the climate warms. The first principal component extracted from climatic data accounts for 52.5% of observed variance in stream flow over the period 1958–2004. A transition toward a warmer, more humid regional climate has been ongoing since the 1980s, as evidenced by increases in temperature, precipitation, and stream flow in the Nu River Basin. A continuing trend toward higher temperatures and more intense precipitation will likely lead to increased Nu River stream flow in the future. Synoptic climatology indicates a link between extremes in annual Nu River stream flow and anomalies in atmospheric circulation patterns such as the mid-latitude westerlies and the South Asian Summer Monsoon.
Lactococcal 949 Group Phages Recognize a Carbohydrate Receptor on the Host Cell Surface

ABSTRACT Lactococcal bacteriophages represent one of the leading causes of dairy fermentation failure and product inconsistencies. A new member of the lactococcal 949 phage group, named WRP3, was isolated from cheese whey from a Sicilian factory in 2011. The genome sequence of this phage was determined, and it constitutes the largest lactococcal phage genome currently known, at 130,008 bp. Detailed bioinformatic analysis of the genomic region encoding the presumed initiator complex and baseplate of WRP3 has aided in the functional assignment of several open reading frames (ORFs), particularly that for the receptor binding protein required for host recognition. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the 949 phages target cell wall phospho-polysaccharides as their receptors, accounting for the specificity of the interactions of these phages with their lactococcal hosts. Such information may ultimately aid in the identification of strains/strain blends that do not present the necessary saccharidic target for infection by these problematic phages.
Stiffness properties of intraply woven hybrid composites by numerical homogenisation

Hybrid fabrics represent a rapidly emerging branch of reinforcements for composite materials. A justified use of these textiles requires good understanding of their behaviour and their modelling tools. Hybrid composites have significant strain differences amongst their phases. The lack of information on the applicability of the homogenisation methods in finite element and mesomechanical models in predicting the mechanical properties of Intraply Woven hybrid Composites (IWHC) has provided the motivation for this study. The emphasis was put on developing FE model, while investigating other meso-mechanical models concerning their efficiency, accuracy, applicability and limitations. Results were obtained from FEA and meso-mechanical models. Tensile testing was conducted to characterise the properties and mechanisms of failure for different carbon content hybrid composites.
Endocannabinoid Enhancement Protects against Kainic Acid-Induced Seizures and Associated Brain Damage

Endocannabinoids are released in response to pathogenic insults, and inhibitors of endocannabinoid inactivation enhance such on-demand responses that promote cellular protection. Here, AM374 (palmitylsulfonyl fluoride), an irreversible inhibitor of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), was injected i.p. into rats to test for endocannabinoid enhancement. AM374 caused a prolonged elevation of anandamide levels in several brain regions, including the hippocampus, and resulted in rapid activation of the extracellular signal regulated-kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway that has been linked to survival. To evaluate the neuroprotective nature of the FAAH inhibitor, we tested AM374 in a seizure model involving rats insulted with kainic acid (KA). AM374 was injected immediately after KA administration, and seizure scores were significantly reduced throughout a 4-h observation period. The KA-induced seizures were associated with calpain-mediated cytoskeletal breakdown, reductions in synaptic markers, and loss of CA1 hippocampal neurons. FAAH inhibition protected against the excitotoxic damage and neuronal loss assessed 48 h postinsult. AM374 also preserved pre- and postsynaptic markers to levels comparable with those found in noninsulted animals, and the synaptic marker preservation strongly correlated with reduced seizure scores. With regard to behavioral deficits in the excitotoxic rats, AM374 produced nearly complete functional protection, significantly improving balance and coordination across different behavioral paradigms. These data indicate that AM374 crosses the blood-brain barrier, enhances endocannabinoid responses in key neuronal circuitries, and protects the brain against excitotoxic damage.
Expression of macrophage‐derived chemokine (MDC) mRNA in macrophages is enhanced by interleukin‐1 β, tumor necrosis factor α, and lipopolysaccharide

A cDNA encoding the CC chemokine MDC was isolated from a human macrophage cDNA library by differential hybridization using monocyte‐ and macrophage‐specific cDNA probes. During monocyte to macrophage differentiation in vitro, MDC expression is first detected after 1 day of culturing and reaches maximum levels after 6 days when macrophages have fully matured, as judged from the expression of known macrophage marker genes. Exposure of macrophages to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in a dose‐dependent increase in MDC mRNA levels, with maximum induction occurring after 6–8 h, whereas expression levels of macrophage inflammatory protein‐1α (MIP‐1α), MIP‐2, interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) respond much faster to LPS. Furthermore, MDC expression in macrophages is enhanced by the inflammatory mediators TNF‐α and IL‐1β. Similar to other TNF‐α/IL‐1β‐inducible genes, costimulation of macrophages with both cytokines leads to higher MDC expression levels than stimulation with a single cytokine. By contrast, both resting and activated monocytes do not express MDC mRNA. J. Leukoc. Biol. 63: 606–611; 1998.
Employing Natural History Collections in the Aid of Conservation: Streamlining an Approach to Model Species Distributions En Masse for the Preservation of Biodiversity

Using ​species distribution models​​ (SDMs) in ​Natural History Collections​​ (NHCs) can influence how humans implement ​conservation​​ changes in flora and fauna communities and ecosystems. Through the use of legacy data (old NHCs and their associated locality/collection information), data correction (background data or pseudo absences added to ​presence-only data​​), and the SDM software, Maxent​​ (and its associated ​geographic information systems​​ or GIS projected models), it has been shown that it is feasible to create a low budget protocol/setup to project the past, present and future of species population changes. This has been done in the past few decades as more collections and their locality data have become digitized, potentially allowing more natural history collecting institutions and scientists to participate in more conservation projects. We can learn from how past and present population ranges have changed due to climate change, urbanization, and deforestation (among other changes) to be able to project where species ranges could exist in the future. ​The ultimate goal of this project is to provide both a streamlined protocol to input NHC data into Maxent in order to share the results of the Maxent models and associated statistics of NHC data, even if not publication worthy, to larger stakeholders, environmental policy makers and non-profits. Additionally, this project can allow scientists to follow up on the methods and results of the models to see if there really are possible conservation concerns. Interns, citizen sciences, collections workers (non-PhD scientists) can do this in smaller NHCs, and report their findings from their collections. This project has the potential to have a broader impact on rare species housed in smaller collections. Further, it has the capacity to be able allow for specific species and biota to be conserved with the help of precise small grants for specified flora and fauna to be modelled. While this type of project is not the end all be all cure for the ​biodiversity crisis​​, it can be a way to use available resources and technology for the advancement of our planet and its inhabitants.
TUD: Semantic Relatedness for Relation Classification

In this paper, we describe the system submitted by the team TUD to Task 8 at SemEval 2010. The challenge focused on the identification of semantic relations between pairs of nominals in sentences collected from the web. We applied maximum entropy classification using both lexical and syntactic features to describe the nominals and their context. In addition, we experimented with features describing the semantic relatedness (SR) between the target nominals and a set of clue words characteristic to the relations. Our best submission with SR features achieved 69.23% macro-averaged F-measure, providing 8.73% improvement over our baseline system. Thus, we think SR can serve as a natural way to incorporate external knowledge to relation classification.
Cerebrolysin enhances neurogenesis in the ischemic brain and improves functional outcome after stroke

Cerebrolysin is a peptide preparation mimicking the action of neurotrophic factors and has beneficial effects on neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. The present study investigated the effect of Cerebrolysin on neurogenesis in a rat model of embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). Treatment with Cerebrolysin at doses of 2.5 and 5 ml/kg significantly increased the number of bromodeoxyuridine‐positive (BrdU+) subventricular zone (SVZ) neural progenitor cells and doublecortin (DCX) immunoreactivity (migrating neuroblasts) in the ipsilateral SVZ and striatal ischemic boundary 28 days after stroke when the treatment was initiated 24 hr after stroke. The treatment also reduced TUNEL+ cells by ∼50% in the ischemic boundary. However, treatment with Cerebrolysin at a dose of 2.5 ml/kg initiated at 24 and 48 hr did not significantly reduce infarct volume but substantially improved neurological outcomes measured by an array of behavioral tests 21 and 28 days after stroke. Incubation of SVZ neural progenitor cells from ischemic rats with Cerebrolysin dose dependently augmented BrdU+ cells and increased the number of Tuj1+ cells (a marker of immature neurons). Blockage of the PI3K/Akt pathway abolished Cerebrolysin‐increased BrdU+ cells. Moreover, Cerebrolysin treatment promoted neural progenitor cell migration. Collectively, these data indicate that Cerebrolysin treatment when initiated 24 and 48 hr after stroke enhances neurogenesis in the ischemic brain and improves functional outcome and that Cerebrolysin‐augmented proliferation, differentiation, and migration of adult SVZ neural progenitor cells contribute to Cerebrolysin‐induced neurogenesis, which may be related to improvement of neurological outcome. The PI3K/Akt pathway mediates Cerebrolysin‐induced progenitor cell proliferation. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A method based on structure-from-motion photogrammetry to generate sub-millimetre-resolution digital elevation models for investigating rock breakdown features

Abstract. We have generated sub-millimetre-resolution DEMs of weathered rock surfaces using SfM photogrammetry techniques. We apply a close-range method based on structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry in the field and use it to generate high-resolution topographic data for weathered boulders and bedrock. The method was pilot tested on extensively weathered Triassic Moenkopi sandstone outcrops near Meteor Crater in Arizona. Images were taken in the field using a consumer-grade DSLR camera and were processed in commercially available software to build dense point clouds. The point clouds were registered to a local 3-D coordinate system (x, y, z), which was developed using a specially designed triangle-coded control target and then exported as digital elevation models (DEMs). The accuracy of the DEMs was validated under controlled experimental conditions. A number of checkpoints were used to calculate errors. We also evaluated the effects of image and camera parameters on the accuracy of our DEMs. We report a horizontal error of 0.5 mm and vertical error of 0.3 mm in our experiments. Our approach provides a low-cost method for obtaining very high-resolution topographic data on weathered rock surfaces (area < 10 m2). The results from our case study confirm the efficacy of the method at this scale and show that the data acquisition equipment is sufficiently robust and portable. This is particularly important for field conditions in remote locations or steep terrain where portable and efficient methods are required.
Air Pollutant Uptake by Sacramento's Urban Forest

A dry deposition model was employed to estimate air pollutant uptake by Sacramento's urban forest. Assuming 1990 air pollutant concentrations, model simulations estimated that approximately 1,457 metric tons of air pollutant are absorbed annually, at an implied value of US$28.7 million. The growing season daily uptake for ozone was approximately 2.4 metric tons per day, while particulate matter (< 10 u. diameter, PM10) uptake was slightly greater, at 2.7 metric tons per day. Daily uptake of NCX, and particulate matter represented 1 % to 2% of anthropogenic emissions for the county. Estimated growing-season annual air pollutant uptake rates averaged 10.9 kg/(ha land area per yr) for the entire study area, 13.9 kg/(ha land area per yr) for urban areas and 4.2 kg/(ha land area per yr) for rural areas. Pollutant uptake rates decreased with decreasing tree canopy cover, along an urban-to-rural gradient.