Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rice crop mapping and monitoring using ERS-1 data based on experiment and modeling results

Information on rice growing areas and on rice growth conditions are necessary in rice monitoring programs and in studies on the emission of methane from flooded rice fields. The objective of this paper is to assess the use of ERS-1 SAR data to map rice growing areas and to retrieve rice parameters. The approach includes first a synthesis of experimental results at two different test areas followed by a development of a theoretical model to interpret the observations. The synthesis of experimental data at two test areas, a tropical site with short cycle rice (Semarang, Indonesia) and a temperate site with long cycle rice (Akita, Japan), has shown that flooded rice fields have characteristic increasing temporal radar responses. When the radar backscattering coefficients are expressed as a function of the rice biomass, the effect of cultural practices and climate (long cycle versus short cycle) is reduced. The observations have been interpreted by a theoretical model, which relies on a realistic description of rice plants and which considers the backscattering enhancement and clustering effects of the scatterers. Good agreement has been obtained between experimental data and theoretical results. The strong temporal variation of the radar response of rice fields is due to the wave-vegetation-water interaction, which increases from the transplanting stage to reproductive stage. By simulations using the validated model, the length of the rice cycle or the rice varieties have shown minor effects on the temporal curve. A method for rice fields mapping has been developed, based on the temporal variation of the radar response between two acquisition dates. Inversion of SAR images into plant height and plant biomass has also been performed. The results appear promising for the use of ERS-1 and RADARSAT data for rice monitoring.
Discounts or gifts? Not just to save money

Purpose Decision theory holds that the ambiguity of decision information affects the choices of decision makers, who have the emotion of “ambiguity aversion” when making fuzzy decisions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the neural mechanism how the information ambiguity of different sales promotion strategies influences consumers’ purchasing decision. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the event-related potential (ERP) technique and experiment. Findings Results indicate that the information ambiguity of sales promotion strategies did influence the purchasing decision of consumers, and there were significant differences in the amplitudes of brain wave P2, N2 and P3 when consumers encountered the sales promotions of different types (discounts and gift-giving). This reflects the difference in perceived risk, decision-making conflict and decision-making attitude. It means that compared with discounts, the perceived risk and difficulty increased while the decision-making confidence plunged when consumers were faced with gift-giving promotions. This finding gives an explanation on the neural level why consumers prefer discounts, rather gift-giving sales promotions. Practical implications For the merchants to promote commodities online, it is suggested that the actual benefit from the sales promotion should be specified to reduce the ambiguity of sales promotion information. As the neuromarketing develops, merchants have obtained more effective approaches to study marketing strategies. Originality/value One of the theoretical contributions this paper made is that the authors innovatively explored the consumer’s preference to online sales promotion strategies from the perspective of fuzzy decision. Second, the authors adopted the ERP technique to study the influence of the ambiguity of sales promotion information on the consumer’s purchasing behaviors. Third, this study provides an explanation for why consumers prefer the sales promotion type of discounts according to the neural mechanism of decision making.
Nuclear Enrichment of Folate Cofactors and Methylenetetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase 1 (MTHFD1) Protect de Novo Thymidylate Biosynthesis during Folate Deficiency*

Background: MTHFD1 is the primary source of one-carbon units for thymidylate synthesis. Results: MTHFD1 localizes to the nucleus in folate deficiency and S- and G2/M phases in mammalian cells to support de novo thymidylate biosynthesis. Conclusion: MTHFD1 nuclear localization explains the incorporation of formate into thymidylate during de novo thymidylate biosynthesis. Significance: Nuclear localization of MTHFD1 protects DNA by limiting uracil misincorporation into DNA. Folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism is a metabolic network of interconnected pathways that is required for the de novo synthesis of three of the four DNA bases and the remethylation of homocysteine to methionine. Previous studies have indicated that the thymidylate synthesis and homocysteine remethylation pathways compete for a limiting pool of methylenetetrahydrofolate cofactors and that thymidylate biosynthesis is preserved in folate deficiency at the expense of homocysteine remethylation, but the mechanisms are unknown. Recently, it was shown that thymidylate synthesis occurs in the nucleus, whereas homocysteine remethylation occurs in the cytosol. In this study we demonstrate that methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 1 (MTHFD1), an enzyme that generates methylenetetrahydrofolate from formate, ATP, and NADPH, functions in the nucleus to support de novo thymidylate biosynthesis. MTHFD1 translocates to the nucleus in S-phase MCF-7 and HeLa cells. During folate deficiency mouse liver MTHFD1 levels are enriched in the nucleus >2-fold at the expense of levels in the cytosol. Furthermore, nuclear folate levels are resistant to folate depletion when total cellular folate levels are reduced by >50% in mouse liver. The enrichment of folate cofactors and MTHFD1 protein in the nucleus during folate deficiency in mouse liver and human cell lines accounts for previous metabolic studies that indicated 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate is preferentially directed toward de novo thymidylate biosynthesis at the expense of homocysteine remethylation during folate deficiency.
Holistic Analysis and Management of Distributed Social Systems

The paper describes the use of invented, developed, and tested in different countries of the high-level spatial grasp model and technology capable of solving important problems in large social systems, which may be represented as dynamic, self-evolving and distributed social networks. The approach allows us to find important solutions on a holistic level by spatial navigation and parallel pattern matching of social networks with active self-propagating scenarios represented in a special recursive language. This approach effectively hides inside the distributed and networked language implementation traditional system management routines, often providing hundreds of times shorter and simpler high-level solution code. The paper highlights the demands to efficient simulation of social systems, briefs the technology used, and provides some programming examples for solutions of practical problems.
A review of current literature on the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Introduction Of the 49.7 million HIV infections that had occurred worldwide by late 1999, 72% were in sub-Saharan Africa; 84% of AIDS deaths, 91% of child HIV infections and 94% of child AIDS deaths worldwide have occurred in Africa [1]. Of children orphaned by AIDS throughout the world, 95% have occurred Africa where numbers of orphans will continue to rise throughout the next decade reaching 40 million by 2010 (Figure 1). Long term solutions will need to be crafted for these children because the impact of HIV/AIDS will linger for decades after the epidemic begins to wane. Even if rates of new infections were to level off in the next few years, the long incubation period means mortality rates will not plateau until 2020. Thus, the proportion of orphans will remain unusually high at least through 2030 [2]. For a variety of reasons, little attention has been paid to the situation of children affected by HIV/AIDS [3]. Greater understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on children is important in the design and evaluation of programmes to support children living in difficult circumstances. This paper reviews epidemiological characteristics of children affected by HIV/AIDS, coping mechanisms and current knowledge of the impact of HIV on children. Areas where important gaps in knowledge exist are highlighted.
Strategic Networking for Online Success

The growth of online social networks and the decreasing effectiveness of traditional marketing have lead to a large interest in social networks. For an appropriate application of new marketing approaches marketers have to understand the impact of interactions and relationships among network members on their individual outcome and network popularity in order to use online social networks effectively in marketing. In this study we analyze networking behavior of music artists for promoting their music. Our sample consists of a set of 480 music artists who actively operate online social networks for personal success on two independent online social network platforms at the same time. Personal network information on both platforms is tracked monthly over a period of six months. Applying a count data approach we relate well-established egocentric network measures to online success. Our results indicate that online success is determined by the social network structure and networking activities of the music artists rather than by their outside popularity. Most importantly, the drivers of online success are not limited to the size of the of the artist’s personal network. The findings of our study provide several insights into the use of personal online social networks for marketing products and services.
Aeromonas rivipollensis sp. nov., a novel species isolated from aquatic samples

Two gram‐negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile and rod‐shaped bacteria, strains P2G1T and P1A11, were isolated from the Ter River in Ripoll, Spain. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that both strains are closely related to each other and that their closest relatives were Aeromonas media ATCC 33907T (99.4%) and Aeromonas hydrophila ATCC 7966T (99.3%). Multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) based on the partial sequences of gyrA, gyrB, rpoD, recA, and dnaJ genes suggested that these two strains represent a novel species that clustered with A. media ATCC 33907T. This was further supported by DNA–DNA hybridization analysis between P2G1T and A. media LMG 9073T. Phenotypic features also allowed their differentiation from closely related species. These two strains should, therefore, be considered to represent a novel species within the genus Aeromonas, for which the name Aeromonas rivipollensis sp. nov. is proposed.
Design patterns and Fortran 2003

interface ! Subroutine for storing the initial values ! subroutine initial( solver, initial_data ) type(ode_solver) :: solver real, dimension(:) :: initial_data end subroutine initial ! Function to compute the derivative ! function eval_deriv( x, t ) real, dimension(:) :: x real, dimension(size(x)) :: eval_deriv ! Derivative is array of ! same size as x real :: t end function eval_deriv ! Interface function to hide the internal workings ! function next(solver, time, time_step) type(ode_solver) :: solver real :: time real :: time_step real, dimension(size(ode_solver%state)) :: next_step end function next_step ! Function to actually compute the new values ! function solve_step(solver, time, time_step) type(ode_solver) :: solver real :: time real :: time_step real, dimension(size(ode_solver%state)) :: next_step 9 ACM Fortran Forum, December 2008, 27, 3 end function next_step end interface ! Declaration of the functions ! procedure(initial) :: initial_values procedure(next) :: next_step procedure(solve_step) :: solve_euler procedure(solve_step) :: solve_heun procedure(solve_step) :: solve_runge_kutta procedure(solve_step) :: . Definition of the specific methods for ! solving the ODE ! type(ode_method), dimension(10) :: solvers = & (/ ode_method(solve_euler), ode_method(solve_heun), & ode_method(solve_runge_kutta), . /)
A family of proteins related to Spätzle, the toll receptor ligand, are encoded in the Drosophila genome

The Drosophila gene Spätzle encodes the activating ligand for the Toll receptor. This signaling pathway is required for dorso‐ventral patterning in the early embryo and an antifungal immune response in larvae and adults. The genome sequence of Drosophila shows that there are a total of eight Toll‐like receptors and these may function in other aspects of embryonic development and innate immunity. Here we describe five Drosophila homologues of Spätzle (Spz2‐6) found using an iterative searching method. All five appear to encode proteins containing neurotrophin‐like cystine‐knot domains. In addition, most retain a characteristic intron‐exon structure shared with the prototype Spätzle gene. This provides evidence that the family arose by ancient gene duplication events and indicates that the gene products may represent activating ligands for corresponding Toll receptors. Expression studies show that only Spz4 is expressed strongly in larvae and adults and thus may be involved in an ancillary antifungal response mediated by Toll‐5. By contrast, Spz6 shows a complex spatial and temporally regulated expression pattern in the late embryo. Thus the new Toll/Spätzle families of signaling molecules may have important roles in other aspects of development and immunity. Proteins 2001;45:71–80. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Disease-Associated Human Telomerase RNA Variants Show Loss of Function for Telomere Synthesis without Dominant-Negative Interference

ABSTRACT Telomerase adds simple-sequence repeats to chromosome ends to offset the terminal sequence loss inherent in each cycle of genome replication. Inherited mutations in genes encoding subunits of the human telomerase holoenzyme give rise to disease phenotypes including hematopoietic failure and pulmonary fibrosis. Disease-associated variants of the human telomerase RNA are expressed in heterozygous combination with wild-type telomerase RNA. Here, we exploit a sensitized human primary cell assay system to investigate the biological function of disease-linked telomerase RNA variants and their impact on the function of coexpressed wild-type telomerase RNA. We find that telomerase RNA variants discovered in patients with dyskeratosis congenita or aplastic anemia show loss of function without any indication of dominant-negative impact on telomere maintenance by the coexpressed wild-type RNA. To reconcile this result with contradictory findings from reconstitution assays in vitro, we demonstrate that the lack of dominant-negative impact on telomere maintenance correlates with physiological assembly of active human telomerase holoenzyme ribonucleoproteins harboring monomers rather than higher-order multimers of telomerase RNA and telomerase reverse transcriptase. These findings support loss of function of telomerase RNA as a general mechanism of human disease.
Disguised Corruption: Evidence from Consumer Credit in China

Abstract Using a comprehensive sample of credit card data from a leading Chinese bank, we show that government bureaucrats receive 16% higher credit lines than non-bureaucrats with similar income and demographics, but their accounts experience a significantly higher likelihood of delinquency and debt forgiveness. Regions associated with greater credit provision to bureaucrats open more branches and receive more deposits from the local government. After staggered corruption crackdowns of provincial-level political officials, the new credit cards originated to bureaucrats in exposed regions do not enjoy a credit line premium, and bureaucrats’ delinquency and reinstatement rates are similar to those of non-bureaucrats.
A likelihood estimation of HIV incidence incorporating information on past prevalence.

SUMMARY The prevalence and incidence of an epidemic are basic characteristics that are essential for monitoring its impact, determining public health priorities, assessing the effect of interventions, and for planning purposes. A direct approach for estimating incidence is to undertake a longitudinal cohort study where a representative sample of disease free individuals are followed for a specified period of time and new cases of infection are observed and recorded. This approach is expensive, time consuming and prone to bias due to loss-to-follow-up. An alternative approach is to estimate incidence from cross sectional surveys using biomarkers to identify persons recently infected as in (Brookmeyer and Quinn, 1995; Janssen et al., 1998). This paper builds on the work of Janssen et al. (1998) and extends the theoretical framework proposed by Balasubramanian and Lagakos (2010) by incorporating information on past prevalence and deriving maximum likelihood estimators of incidence. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through a simulation study, and its use is illustrated using data from the Botswana AIDS Impact (BAIS) III survey of 2008.
(2R)-4-[(9H-Fluoren-9-ylmethoxy)carbonyl]-2-methylpiperazin-1-ium chloride

The synthesis of the title salt, C20H23N2O2 +·Cl−, was carried out with a precursor of known absolute configuration (R) and the X-ray analysis confirmed that the product retained the absolute configuration. In the crystal, the dominant packing motif is a chain running along [010] generated by N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonding. C—H⋯O and C—H⋯Cl interactions are also observed.
Automatic 3 D Car Model Alignment for Mixed Image-Based Rendering

Image-Based Rendering (IBR) allows good-quality freeviewpoint navigation in urban scenes, but suffers from artifacts on poorly reconstructed objects, e.g., reflective surfaces such as cars. To alleviate this problem, we propose a method that automatically identifies stock 3D models, aligns them in the 3D scene and performs morphing to better capture image contours. We do this by first adapting learning-based methods to detect and identify an object class and pose in images. We then propose a method which exploits all available information, namely partial and inaccurate 3D reconstruction, multi-view calibration, image contours and the 3D model to achieve accurate object alignment suitable for subsequent morphing. These steps provide models which are well-aligned in 3D and to contours in all the images of the multi-view dataset, allowing us to use the resulting model in our mixed IBR algorithm. Our results show significant improvement in image quality for free-viewpoint IBR, especially when moving far from the captured viewpoints.
Determinants of Immigration in Europe. The Relevance of Life Expectancy and Environmental Sustainability

This research analyzes the main variables that determine immigration in Europe and includes aspects related to the economy, population, healthcare, and environmental sustainability. The empirical analysis consists of two sets of data: one made up of all EU member states (EU-28) and the other containing countries that form a part of the Eurozone (EU-19), using the Generalized Method of Moments. The sample covers the period between 2000 and 2014, and the data are analyzed separately and comparatively in the most relevant stages during that time (economic prosperity, crisis, and recovery). The most notable results indicate that the variables related to GDP and public debt largely serve to justify the level of immigration since the crisis (2008–2014), while the life expectancy and levels of pollution are determining factors in all three stages examined here. The study concludes that countries in the Eurozone are more sensitive to variation in the variables studied compared to all the EU member states and thus the impact of immigration among the EU-19 countries is more notable.
The conditional effect of word of mouth on the relationship between sales promotion and brand equity among consumers of detergents in Nairobi County, Kenya

Building a strong Brand equity in the market is the current goal of every organization, as this leads to higher prices, greater market share, more responsive promotions, earlier market penetration and more efficient product line extensions. This study aims at investigating the conditional effect of Word of Mouth on the relationship between Sales Promotion and Brand Equity. Explanatory research design was used and data collected by questionnaires from a sample size of 160 using convenience sampling technique. Instrument reliability was tested by Cronbach alpha. Pearson correlation and multiple regression models used to analyze the data and to test the hypotheses. Results reveal that Sales Promotion and Word of Mouth, both having a significant and direct effect on Brand equity. Furthermore, Word of Mouth significantly has a conditional effect on the relationship between Sales Promotion and Brand equity, hence
Electric-Field-Controlled Magnetoelectric RAM: Progress, Challenges, and Scaling

We review the recent progress in the development of magnetoelectric RAM (MeRAM) based on electric-field-controlled writing in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs). MeRAM uses the tunneling magnetoresistance effect for readout in a two-terminal memory element, similar to other types of magnetic RAM. However, the writing of information is performed by voltage control of magnetic anisotropy (VCMA) at the interface of an MgO tunnel barrier and the CoFeB-based free layer, as opposed to current-controlled (e.g., spin-transfer torque or spin-orbit torque) mechanisms. We present results on voltage-induced switching of MTJs in both resonant (precessional) and thermally activated regimes, which demonstrate fast (<;1 ns) and ultralow-power (<;40 fJ/bit) write operations at voltages ~1.5-2 V. We also discuss the implications of the VCMA-based write mechanism on memory array design, highlighting the possibility of crossbar implementation for high bit density. Results are presented from a 1 kbit MeRAM test array. Endurance and voltage scaling data are presented. The scaling behavior is analyzed, and material-level requirements are discussed for the translation of MeRAM into mainstream memory applications.
How to cure cancer: unbinding entrepreneurs in medicine

Purpose Since the 1960s, experts have predicted that we are on the verge of curing cancer. The purpose of this paper is to explore the obstacles to progress, and to propose policies that will lead more quickly to more success. Design/methodology/approach To speed future cures, we need to look at the traits, and methods of those innovative medical entrepreneurs who achieved breakthroughs in the past, and learn what institutions and policies enabled, or blocked, their progress. Findings Breakthrough innovators tend to be less-credentialed outsiders who “see what others do not see,” often by nimble and persistent pursuit of serendipitous discoveries or slow hunches. For example, Freireich and DeVita were less-credentialed outsiders. Freireich cured childhood leukemia and DeVita cured Hodgkin’s lymphoma, by pursuing nimble trial-and-error experimentation in their anti-cancer chemotherapy cocktails. Min Chiu Li pursued his slow hunch that his patients would benefit from longer chemotherapy than the mandated National Cancer Institute protocol allowed. He was fired, but his patients were cured. Today, FDA-mandated regulatory protocols, often defended as applications of the precautionary principle, greatly restrict innovative medical entrepreneurs, thereby delaying cancer cures and costing lives. Originality/value The paper proposes a new approach to medical innovation, allowing cancer researchers to engage in trial-and-error experiments that follow up on serendipitous discoveries and plausible hunches. The result will be more cures and longer lives.