Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring methods for groundwater – surface water interactions: a review

Abstract. Interactions between groundwater and surface water play a fundamental role in the functioning of riparian ecosystems. In the context of sustainable river basin management it is crucial to understand and quantify exchange processes between groundwater and surface water. Numerous well-known methods exist for parameter estimation and process identification in aquifers and surface waters. Only in recent years has the transition zone become a subject of major research interest; thus, the need has evolved for appropriate methods applicable in this zone. This article provides an overview of the methods that are currently applied and described in the literature for estimating fluxes at the groundwater – surface water interface. Considerations for choosing appropriate methods are given including spatial and temporal scales, uncertainties, and limitations in application. It is concluded that a multi-scale approach combining multiple measuring methods may considerably constrain estimates of fluxes between groundwater and surface water.
Noisy Parallel Approximate Decoding for Conditional Recurrent Language Model

Recent advances in conditional recurrent language modelling have mainly focused on network architectures (e.g., attention mechanism), learning algorithms (e.g., scheduled sampling and sequence-level training) and novel applications (e.g., image/video description generation, speech recognition, etc.) On the other hand, we notice that decoding algorithms/strategies have not been investigated as much, and it has become standard to use greedy or beam search. In this paper, we propose a novel decoding strategy motivated by an earlier observation that nonlinear hidden layers of a deep neural network stretch the data manifold. The proposed strategy is embarrassingly parallelizable without any communication overhead, while improving an existing decoding algorithm. We extensively evaluate it with attention-based neural machine translation on the task of En→Cz translation.
A face versus non-face context influences amygdala responses to masked fearful eye whites

The structure of the mask stimulus is crucial in backward masking studies and we recently demonstrated such an effect when masking faces. Specifically, we showed that activity of the amygdala is increased to fearful facial expressions masked with neutral faces and decreased to fearful expressions masked with a pattern mask—but critically both masked conditions discriminated fearful expressions from happy expressions. Given this finding, we sought to test whether masked fearful eye whites would produce a similar profile of amygdala response in a face vs non-face context. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning sessions, 30 participants viewed fearful or happy eye whites masked with either neutral faces or pattern images. Results indicated amygdala activity was increased to fearful vs happy eye whites in the face mask condition, but decreased to fearful vs happy eye whites in the pattern mask condition—effectively replicating and expanding our previous report. Our data support the idea that the amygdala is responsive to fearful eye whites, but that the nature of this activity observed in a backward masking design depends on the mask stimulus.
Towards Design-by-Contract based software architecture design

Design-by-Contract (DbC) gained wide familiarity among software developers for specifying software. It aids in documenting the behaviour of class methods as contracts between clients of the methods (pre-) and their suppliers (post-condition). This not only allows developers to document software behaviour precisely at such a high-level that can more easily be communicated, but also enables the formal verification of the behaviour. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive extension to DbC so that it can also be applied to the level of software architecture design. We illustrate this through our architecture description language XCD. Components in XCD have four different types of interfaces: provided and required interfaces of methods or emitter and consumer interfaces of events where methods/events are contractually specified. Contract specification is separated into functional and interaction contracts thus modularising the functional and interaction component behaviours. Furthermore, treating interaction protocols as connectors, XCD allows to specify connectors with interaction contracts that participating components adhere to. The formal semantics of XCD are defined using Finite State Process (FSP) thus enabling formal analysis of contractually specified software architectures for quality properties, e.g., deadlock.
No-reference Image Semantic Quality Approach using Neural Network

Assessment for image quality traditionally needs its original image as a reference but the most of time it is not the case. So, No-Reference (NR) Image Quality Assessment (IQA) seeks to assign quality scores that are consistent with human perception but without an explicit comparison with the reference image. Unfortunately, the field of NR IQA has been largely unexplored. This paper presents a new NR Image Semantic Quality Approach (NR-ISQA) that employs adaptive Neural Networks (NN) to assess the semantic quality of image color. This NN measures the quality of an image by predicting the mean opinion score (MOS) of human observer, using a set of proposed key features especially to describe color. This challenging issues aim at emulating judgment and replacing very complex and time-consuming subjective quality assessment. Two variants of our approach are proposed: the direct and the progressive of the overall quality image. The results show the performances of the proposed approach compared with the human performances.
Percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with acute coronary syndrome: focus on bivalirudin

Previously, indirect thrombin inhibitors such as unfractionated heparin or low-molecular-weight heparin were used as a standard anticoagulation during percutaneous coronary intervention to prevent procedural thrombotic complications but at a risk of hemorrhagic complications. More recently, bivalirudin, a member of the direct thrombin inhibitor class, has been shown to have 1) predictable pharmacokinetics, 2) ability to inhibit free- and clot-bound thrombin, 3) no properties of platelet activation, 4) avoidance of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, and 5) a significant reduction of bleeding without a reduction in thrombotic or ischemic endpoints compared to heparin and glycoprotein IIbIIIa inhibitors when used in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome who are planned for an invasive treatment strategy.
“Too many Americans are trapped in fear, violence and poverty”: a psychology-informed sentiment analysis of campaign speeches from the 2016 US Presidential Election

Abstract Most automatic sentiment analyses of texts tend to only employ a simple positive-negative polarity to classify emotions. In this paper, I illustrate a more fine-grained automatic sentiment analysis [Jockers, Matthew. 2016. Introduction to the Syuzhet package. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/syuzhet/vignettes/syuzhet-vignette.html (accessed 07 March 2017). ; Mohammad, Saif M. & Peter D. Turney. 2013. Crowd sourcing a word-emotion association lexicon. Computational Intelligence 29(3). 436–465. ] that is based on a classification of human emotions that has been put forward by psychological research [Plutchik, Robert. 1994. The psychology and biology of emotion. New York, NY: HarperCollins College Publishers. ]. The advantages of this approach are illustrated by a sample study that analyses the emotional sentiment of the campaign speeches of the two main candidates of the 2016 US presidential election.
Service Oriented Architecture and the Roles in an IT Organization

This report discusses the changing and new roles in an IT organization that is implementing Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Firstly, the report introduces the basic concepts of SOA. SOA is all about organization and governance: to success in SOA the old roles have to be changed in all levels of an IT organization. The biggest change will happen in the mindset and way of working: SOA requires cross-organizational understanding of business processes and services that implement these processes. Also reuse is the new design principle that should be supported by all the roles in an IT organization that is going for SOA.
Recognition of Similar Objects Using a Hybrid Classifier

A novel method for classification of objects based on a hybrid of decision theoretic and structural methods is presented in this paper. The circumstances of scaling and presence of noise are included as the part of the study. Images are degraded by some known types of noise like Gaussian, salt & pepper and speckle and iterative filtering algorithm based on classification results and using alpha-trimmed mean filter was used. Fuzzy clustering algorithm is used for thresholding and background removal in cluttered images and spurious parts are reduced using morphological operations. Input database is made up of images having similar shapes lied on their most usual appearance. Feature vectors are composed of moment invariant and Interior angles of polygons and was extracted after normalizing the object boundary with respect to size and orientation. Interior angles are extracted from a shape, described using a new polygonal approximation technique. Similarity measurement is done by combining two classifiers, Euclidean distances in decision theoretic and string matching in structural methods. In order to investigate the reliability of presented method in presence of noise, the classification results obtained from a hybrid method are compared with those of the decision theoretic or structural methods.
AN AGE CONSTRAINT FOR THE VERY LOW MASS STELLAR/BROWN DWARF BINARY 2MASS J03202839−0446358AB

2MASS J03202839−0446358AB is a recently identified, late-type M dwarf/T dwarf spectroscopic binary system for which both the radial velocity orbit for the primary and spectral types for both components have been determined. By combining these measurements with predictions from four different sets of evolutionary models, we determine a minimum age of 2.0 ± 0.3 Gyr for this system, corresponding to minimum primary and secondary masses of 0.080 M☉ and 0.053 M☉, respectively. We find broad agreement in the inferred age and mass constraints between the evolutionary models, including those that incorporate atmospheric condensate grain opacity; however, we are not able to independently assess their accuracy. The inferred minimum age agrees with the kinematics and absence of magnetic activity in this system, but not the rapid rotation of its primary, further evidence of a breakdown in angular momentum evolution trends amongst the lowest luminosity stars. Assuming a maximum age of 10 Gyr, we constrain the orbital inclination of this system to i ≳ 53°. More precise constraints on the orbital inclination and/or component masses of 2MASS 0320−0446AB, through either measurement of the secondary radial velocity orbit (optimally in the 1.2–1.3 μm band) or detection of an eclipse (only 0.3% probability based on geometric constraints), would yield a bounded age estimate for this system, and the opportunity to use it as an empirical test for brown dwarf evolutionary models at late ages.
The Effects of Child Maltreatment From Parents on Reactive Aggression Among Upper-Elementary-School Students and the Moderating Role of Effortful Control

Objective: This study examined the influences of child maltreatment and effortful control on reactive aggression among upper-elementary-school students and investigated whether children’s effortful control had any moderating effects on the relationship between child maltreatment and reactive aggression. Methods: The participants of this study consisted of 438 students (225 boys and 213 girls) from four elementary schools located in Seoul, Incheon, and the Gyeonggi Province. The level of reactive aggression was assessed via the Peer Conflict Scale (Marsee, Kimonis, & Frick, 2004). The Child Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink, 1998) was used to measure the level of child maltreatment from parents. Effortful control was measured by the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire—Revised (Ellis & Rothbart, 2001). The statistical analyses of data for this study included descriptive statistics and hierarchical regressions. The moderating effect of effortful control was analyzed by using the procedures proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986). Results: The results of this study indicate that the level of child maltreatment increases the level of reactive aggression and that the level of effortful control decreases the level of reactive aggression for boys and girls. In addition, effortful control only moderated the influence of maltreatment on reactive aggression for girls. Conclusion: Higher levels of child maltreatment led to lower levels of child effortful control and (subsequently) higher levels of reactive aggression.
A materialist analysis of contemporary feminist movements

Social movements on the left, such as the International Women’s Strike on 8 March 2017, see in the present moment a reorganization of capital accumulation in which gender, sexuality, race and class play significant roles. The 8 March strike, in particular, has been characterized by the willingness to emphasize and render visible the link between masculinist violence, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, and the dynamics of dispossession, privatization of common resources, and environmental destruction caused by neoliberal capitalism—dynamics that are rendering ever-wider strata of the population vulnerable to poverty, marginality and insecurity. This study draws on an analysis of the contributions that approaches such as social reproduction theory and the feminist reinterpretation of Rosa Luxemburg’s thought on primitive accumulation may make to understanding the present historical moment, in order to interrogate the nature of the contemporary struggles of feminist social movements.
SUZAKU OBSERVATIONS OF THE EXTREME MeV BLAZAR SWIFT J0746.3+2548

We report the Suzaku observations of the high luminosity blazar SWIFT J0746.3+2548 (J0746) conducted in 2005 November. This object, which, with z = 2.979, is the highest redshift source observed in the Suzaku Guaranteed Time Observer period, is likely to show high gamma-ray flux peaking in the MeV range. As a result of the good photon statistics and high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum, the Suzaku observation clearly confirms that J0746 has an extremely hard spectrum in the energy range of 0.3–24 keV, which is well represented by a single power-law with a photon index of Γph ≃ 1.17 and Galactic absorption. The multiwavelength spectral energy distribution of J0746 shows two continuum components, and is well modeled assuming that the high-energy spectral component results from Comptonization of the broad-line region photons. In this paper, we search for the bulk Compton spectral features predicted to be produced in the soft X-ray band by scattering external optical/UV photons by cold electrons in a relativistic jet. We discuss and provide constraints on the pair content resulting from the apparent absence of such features.
Environmental education (EE) policy and content of the contemporary (2009–2017) Mexican national curriculum for primary schools

Abstract In Mexico a reformed curriculum is being implemented at the national primary level focused on the competence model and incorporating EE as a key element. This article reports our analyses of what theories, policies and/or EE related-contents were included in the documents that integrated this curriculum: general study plan, study programs of Grades and official students’ textbooks. Results indicate that in those official documents was incorporated a competence related to EE called ‘competences for the coexistence’, implying harmonic relationships with others and the nature. Additionally, EE for sustainability was included as a transversal topic expecting that contributes to reach the graduate profile of basic education that indicates that students should promote and assume the care of health and the environment. Nevertheless, it is not clear how it is expected that teachers implement EE in practice, lacking clarity of the environmental theory that support this curriculum.
Nicotine increases size and severity of experimental choroidal neovascularization.

PURPOSE Cigarette smoking is the strongest environmental risk factor for all forms of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In the present study, the influence of nicotine on the severity of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in a mouse model of neovascular AMD and its effects on vascular smooth muscle cells derived from mouse choroid were investigated. METHODS A mouse model for CNV was used to study the effects of nicotine in young and middle-aged mice. Nicotine was administered orally in the drinking water to achieve serum levels consistent with those of chronic smokers. Hexamethonium, a nonspecific nicotinic receptor antagonist, was injected subconjunctivally to counteract the effects of nicotine. A mouse choroidal vascular smooth muscle cell line was exposed to nicotine, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), or a combination of one of the factors and nicotine. Cell growth was determined by cell counts, and the activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and -9 was quantified by gel zymography. RESULTS Nicotine administration resulted in increased size and vascularity of CNV, and older mice developed a greater relative increase than younger mice. This effect was blocked by subconjunctival hexamethonium. Choroidal vascular smooth muscle cells demonstrated a statistically significant increase in growth after exposure to a combination of PDGF and nicotine. Nicotine also reversed VEGF-induced suppression of MMP-2 activity. CONCLUSIONS Nicotine increases size and severity of experimental CNV in the present mouse model, possibly by potentiating PDGF-mediated upregulation of proliferation of choroidal smooth muscle cells or by other mechanisms. These results suggest that non-neuronal nicotinic receptor activation probably mediates some of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking in wet AMD.
Finite State Machines in Movie Scene Classification

In this paper, we address the problem of the scene classifications in feature films and propose a robust framework for the stated problem. The framework utilizes the structural information of the movie scenes rather than analyzing the global low level feature values. We propose and demonstrate that the Finite State Machines (FSM) are suitable for classifying the movie scenes into three categories: conversation, explosion/gunfire and suspense. Three major characteristics of motion pictures,motion, color and audio, are used in our approach. The transitions of the FSMs are determined by the mid-level features of each shot in the scene. Our FSMs have been experimented on a large set of data with both positive and negative examples and produces impressive results.
Predictors of relationship skills training in clinical psychology Ph.D. programs.

Ninety psychotherapy instructors from APA/CPA accredited clinical psychology Ph.D. programs were surveyed to examine the hypothesized effects of clinical/research orientations and instructor beliefs on relationship skills training. A path analysis indicated that instructors who believed that relationship skills are more trainable and more important and who perceived themselves more as clinicians than as researchers trained relationship skills more often. Programs’ clinical/research orientations were not associated with relationship skills training. Post-hoc analyses indicated that instructor age was positively associated with relationship skills training and that this association was mediated by instructors’ beliefs and instructors’ clinical/research orientations. These findings have important implications for course assignment, program design, professional development seminars, and for the future of clinical psychology psychotherapy training. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee for their assistance with this project. I would like to thank Dr. Frisch and Dr. Kane for their helpful suggestions and boundless enthusiasm. The excitement that each of my committee members has conveyed about this area of research has helped to make my thesis experience truly enjoyable. I would especially like to thank Dr. Porter, who has been very supportive and inspirational from the very beginning of the project. A special thanks goes to Dr. Frisch for agreeing to be my primary research advisor while Dr. Porter was on sabbatical. I would also like to thank my friends and family, whose enthusiasm about my project have kept it fresh right to the end. I would particularly like to thank my husband, who has provided tremendous support throughout this process despite the hundreds of miles between us. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER
The consumption of alcohol and neurocognitive function in youth

Binge drinking appears to be associated with frontal lobe damage and executive function impairments in adults (Wilcox et al., 2014). It is suggested that as adolescent’s brains have not yet reached full development (Petit et al., 2013), they may be particularly vulnerable to these effects. The current study aimed to investigate if binge drinking is associated with deficits in behavioral and psychophysiological measures of executive function, interference control. Twenty two adolescent males (11 binge drinkers and 11 low level drinkers) were recruited. All participants completed a flanker/go-nogo task which required them to respond to target stimuli whilst withholding their responses to irrelevant stimuli. Binge drinkers did not show a significantly higher number of errors or longer reaction times on the flanker/go-nogo task in comparison to low level drinkers. Additionally, binge drinkers did not show significantly reduced N2 and P3 amplitude at frontal and parietal electrode sites in comparison to low level drinkers. However, low level drinkers showed significantly greater N2 amplitude at frontal in comparison to central electrode sites, whereas binge drinkers did not show this difference. The results from the current study suggest that binge drinkers may employ more widespread recruitment of electrophysiological resources to inhibit their responses and attend to stimuli with no increase in task performance, in comparison to low level drinkers. This study has identified that early intervention may be especially important for adolescent males in order to attempt to reduce binge drinking and protect adolescents from cognitive difficulties associated with binge drinking.