Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geochemical and Micropaleontological Characterization of Lacustrine and Marine Hypersaline Environments from Brazilian Sedimentary Basins: Chapter 3

Geological studies integrated with paleogeographical, geochemical, and micropaleontological evidence, suggest that part of the organic-rich Permian and Lower Cretaceous to middle Albian successions in the Brazilian sedimentary basins were deposited in marine and lacustrine to marine hypersaline environments. Biological marker and micropaleontological data can be used to characterize four distinct hypersaline systems: 1. a Late Permian epicontinental hypersaline system (Irati Formation, Parana basin), composed of calcareous black shales that contain abundant lipid-rich organic matter (total organic carbon [TOC] up to 24%); 2. an Early Cretaceous, shallow lacustrine, hypersaline system composed of thick, organic-rich, calcareous black shales (TOC up to 9%) containing lipid-rich organic matter; 3. an Aptian, shallow marine evaporitic system (proto-oceanic gulf) mainly composed of marlstones, carbonates, and calcareous black shales containing abundant lipid-rich amorphous organic matter (TOC up to 14%); and 4. a late Aptian-middle Albian, marine semi-restricted, dominantly neritic, hypersaline system, composed of marlstones and calcareous black shales containing abundant lipid-rich algal organic matter (TOC up to 12%). The main molecular features diagnostic of these environments are: phytane more abundant than pristane, low abundances of diasteranes and tricyclic terpanes, high abundances of gammacerane, s-hopanes, s-carotane, regular C27 to C29 steranes, regular C25 isoprenoid and squalane, Ts<Tm, and C35s-hopanes more abundant than C34s-hopanes. End_Page 17------------------------- The micropaleontological features that characterize these systems are the occurrence of abundant low-diversity communities representing opportunistic species, and common occurrence of millimeter-thick strata with census populations, representing mass mortality events during short-term environmental turnovers.
Tectonic fabric and lithospheric strength of northern Eurasia based on gravity data

The isostatic gravity anomalies over the whole former USSR (FSU) from land gravimetry are presented here for the first time at a spatial resolution adequate to study the tectonic fabric and the lithospheric rigidity. The short wavelength gravity anomalies improve the delineation of the regional tectonic units of the FSU, originally identified from the geological and aeromagnetic data. A study of the coherence between the Bouguer gravity anomaly and topography of East European and Siberian Cratons allowed us to estimate the elastic plate thickness Te of 78 to 109 km. Relying on the current knowledge of the thermal state of Archean lithosphere, we inferred from Te the thermal plate thickness Tp of 200–250 km.
A statistical methodology for deriving reservoir properties from seismic data

The use of seismic data to better constrain the reservoir model between wells has become an important goal for seismic interpretation. We propose a methodology for deriving soft geologic information from seismic data and discuss its application through a case study in offshore Congo. The methodology combines seismic facies analysis and statistical calibration techniques applied to seismic attributes characterizing the traces at the reservoir level. We built statistical relationships between seismic attributes and reservoir properties from a calibration population consisting of wells and their adjacent traces. The correlation studies are based on the canonical correlation analysis technique, while the statistical model comes from a multivariate regression between the canonical seismic variables and the reservoir properties, whenever they are predictable. In the case study, we predicted estimates and associated uncertainties on the lithofacies thicknesses cumulated over the reservoir interval from the seism.
Eating and hypothalamus changes in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia

Behavioral‐variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder, clinically characterized by changes in cognition, personality, and behavior. Marked disturbances in eating behavior, such as overeating and preference for sweet foods, are also commonly reported. The hypothalamus plays a critical role in feeding regulation, yet the relation between pathology in this region and eating behavior in FTD is unknown. This study aimed to address this issue using 2 complementary approaches.
Analysis of fashion consumers’ motives to engage in electronic word-of-mouth communication through social media platforms

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse consumers' interactions with fashion brands on social networking sites, focusing on consumers' motives for engaging in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication.Existing WOM motivation frameworks are expanded to include context-specific fashion and brand variables that influence consumers to engage in eWOM on Facebook and Twitter. Subsequently, the motives are incorporated into an extended Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) model. The study demonstrates that high brand commitment and fashion involvement motivate people to engage in talking about and interacting with fashion brands. Furthermore, those who are motivated by product involvement or have a high need for social interaction engage more frequently in fashion brand-related eWOM than those that are not motivated by those factors.
Efficient and Rich Annotations for Large Photo Collections

Large unstructured photo collections from Internet usually have distinguishable keyword tagging associated with the images. Photos from tourist and heritage sites can be described with detailed and part-wise annotations resulting in an improved automatic search and enhanced photo browsing experience. Manually annotating a large community photo collection is a costly and redundant process as similar images share the same annotations. We demonstrate an interactive web-based annotation tool that allows multiple users to add, view, edit and suggest rich annotations for images in community photo collections. Since, distinct annotations could be few, we have an easy and efficient batch annotation approach using an image similarity graph, pre-computed with instance retrieval and matching. This helps in seamlessly propagating annotations of the same objects or similar images across the entire dataset. We use a database of 20 K images (Heritage-20 K) taken from a world-famous heritage site to demonstrate and evaluate our annotation approach.
Managing product variety on platform: Product market risk and scope economies

While millions of products are available on online retailing platforms, We investigate how a platform owner, facing product market risk and scope economies, may identify which products are worthwhile for itself selling (called reselling mode, purchasing products from manufacturers and selling them to consumers) and which ones are the best left for platform selling (on which manufacturers selling their products directly to consumers). Weather the reselling mode or platform mode is preferred depending on the magnitude of scope economies and product market risk. We show that the platform owner itself stocks and sells when the degree of scope economies is strong and the product market risk is low.
Lithospheric Deformation at the South Island Oblique Collision, New Zealand

Lithospheric deformation is investigated within the Southern Alps oblique collision zone of the Australian and Pacific plate boundary. Seismological methods and gravity modelling are used to estimate seismic anisotropy, wave-speed anomalies and mass anomalies in the uppermost mantle. While seismic anisotropy is generally interpreted to result from Cenozoic mantle shear, wave-speed and mass anomalies can be explained solely by thermal contraction of mantle rocks that results from the downward deflection of isotherms during mantle shortening. Along the eastern Southern Alps foothills and approximately 15' clockwise from their axis, earthquake Pn waves propagate at 8.54 +/- 0.20 km/s. This high wave speed is attributed to a high average Pn speed (8.3 +/- 0.3 km/s) and Pn anisotropy (7 - 13 %) in the mantle lid beneath central South Island. Two-dimensional ray-tracing suggests that the crustal thickness is 48 +/- 4 km beneath the Southern Alps' southern extent near Wanaka (western Otago). Such a thickness represents an 18 +/- 4 km thick crustal root that is thicker than necessary to isostatically sustain the approximately 1000 m topographic load of this region. A mass excess is proposed in the mantle below the region of over-thickened crust to compensate for the crustal root mass deficit. Assuming that the crustal root represents a -300 kg/m3 density contrast with the mantle lid, this mantle mass excess requires a minimum density contrast of 35 +/- 5 kg/m3, 110 +/-20 km width and 70 +/- 20 km thickness that will impart a downward pull on the overlying crust.
Mesozoic palynology of svalbard IV. toarcian dinoflagellates from spitsbergen

Abstract Well preserved dinoflagellate cyst assemblages from phosphorite pebbles of the Brentskardhaugen Bed (Toarcian) in Spitsbergen are described. They are dominated by a unique species complex of small cysts possessing simple, hexagonal intercalary archeopyles of the Broomea/Moesiodinium‐type. Some of the species reflect the tabulation formula 4–5’, 3a, 6–7 “, 5 ‘”;, 2 “”;. A pareodinoid relationship is suggested. The assemblages present wide morphological variation within an evolutionary lineage not described previously and they may be of importance for the understanding of dinoflagellate evolution. Eighteen species are recorded, nine of which are formally described as new and are referred to four genera also proposed as new: Parvocysta n. gen. (P. bullula n. sp., P. contracta n. sp., P. nasuta n. sp., P. barbata n. sp., ? P. cracens n. sp.), Facetodinium n. gen. (F. faustum n. sp., F. inflatum n. sp.), Ovalicysta hiata n. gen. & sp. and Mikrocysta erugata n. gen. & sp. In addition, six species are de.
Environment recognition system based on multiple classification analyses for mobile robots

Recently, various mechanisms have been developed combining linkage mechanisms and wheels, especially, the combination of passive linkage mechanisms and small wheels is one of main research trends, because standard wheel type mobile mechanisms have difficulties on rough terrain movements. In our research, a 6-wheeled mobile robot employing a passive linkage mechanism has been developed to enhance maneuverability and achieved climbing capability over a 0.20[m] height of bump. We designed a controller using neural network for high energy efficiency. In this paper, we propose an environment recognition system for the wheel type mobile robot which consists of multiple classification analyses. We evaluate the recognition performance by comparing principle component analyses (PCA), k-means and self-organizing map (SOM).
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PREDICTORS OF TREATMENT RESPONSE TO COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL GROUP THERAPY IN OBSESSIVE–COMPULSIVE DISORDER

The available research on the relationship between neuropsychological functioning and the therapeutic outcome of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, our aim was twofold. First, we sought to evaluate the effects of cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) on neurocognitive functions in OCD patients. Second, we assessed the viability of neuropsychological test performance as a predictor of treatment response to CBGT.
Stochastic learning feedback hybrid automata for dynamic power management in embedded systems

Dynamic power management (DPM) refers to the strategies employed at system level to reduce energy expenditure (i.e. to prolong battery life) in embedded systems. The trade-off involved in DPM techniques is between the reductions of energy consumption and latency suffered by the tasks. Such trade-offs need to be decided at runtime, making DPM an on-line problem. We formulate DPM as a hybrid automaton control problem and integrate stochastic control. The control strategy is learnt dynamically using stochastic learning hybrid automata (SLHA) with feedback learning algorithms. Simulation-based experiments show the expediency of the feedback systems in stationary environments. Further experiments reveal that SLHA attains better trade-offs than several former predictive algorithms under certain trace data.
Design support functions for developing multiagent system on repository-based multiagent framework

Agent systems have been designed and developed using recent agent technologies. However, design and debugging of these systems remain as difficult tasks of designers because agents have situational and nondeterministic characteristics and because no useful design support facilities have been provided for designers. To raise agent system-design efficiency, we propose an interactive design environment for agent system (IDEA) founded on an agent-repository-based multiagent framework. We specifically examine the design support functions for developing multiagent systems and emphasize the effectiveness of these functions.
Fast Shadowing Algorithm for Linear Light Sources

This paper presents a fast shadowing algorithm for linear light sources that uses a ray‐oriented buffer. Space segmentation by the buffer guarantees that if a point is included in a subspace, all light rays toward the point are also contained in the subspace. Each cell of the buffer stores a list of objects that lie within or intersect the subspace allocated to the cell. Therefore, candidate objects, those that may cast shadows onto a point, are determined by referring to the cell where the point is mapped. In addition, whether each candidate object actually casts shadows or not is tested with the bounding‐volume of the shadow space to reduce the number of objects subjected to expensive light clipping. The bounding‐volumes are also stored in the buffer. For efficiently generating the ray‐oriented buffer, we present the cylindrical scan‐conversion algorithm. The algorithm preconverts objects' surfaces to trapezia to decrease the light clipping cost, then connects the trapezia to the buffer cells.
Music recommendation and discovery revisited

The world of music is changing rapidly. We are now just a few clicks away from being able to listen to nearly any song that has ever been recorded. This easy access to a nearly endless supply of music is changing how we explore, discover, share and experience music. As the world of online music grows, music recommendation and discovery tools become an increasingly important way for music listeners to engage with music. Commercial recommenders such as Last.fm, iTunes Genius and Pandora have enjoyed commercial and critical success. But how well do these systems really work? How good are the recommendations? How far into the "long tail" do these recommenders reach? In this tutorial we look at the current state-of-the-art in music recommendation and discovery. We examine current commercial and research systems, focusing on the advantages and the disadvantages of the various recommendation strategies. We look at some of the challenges in building music recommenders and we explore some of the novel techniques that are being used to improve future music recommendation and discovery systems.
Prospects of Stem Cells for Retinal Diseases

Abstract Retinal diseases, including glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration, are the leading causes of irreversible visual impairment and blindness in developed countries. Traditional and current treatment regimens are based on surgical or medical interventions to slow down the disease progression. However, the number of retinal cells would continue to diminish, and the diseases could not be completely cured. There is an emerging role of stem cells in retinal research. The stem cell therapy on retinal diseases is based on 2 theories: cell replacement therapy and neuroprotective effect. The former hypothesizes that new retinal cells could be regenerated from stem cells to substitute the damaged cells in the diseased retina, whereas the latter believes that the paracrine effects of stem cells modulate the microenvironments of the diseased retina so as to protect the retinal neurons. This article summarizes the choice of stem cells in retinal research. Moreover, the current progress of retinal research on stem cells and the clinical applications of stem cells on retinal diseases are reviewed. In addition, potential challenges and future prospects of retinal stem cell research are discussed.
Individual RNA Recognition Motifs of TIA-1 and TIAR Have Different RNA Binding Specificities (*)

TIA-1 and TIAR are two closely related RNA recognition motif (RRM) proteins which possess three RRM-type RNA binding domains (RRMs 1, 2, and 3). Although both proteins have been implicated as effectors of apoptotic cell death, the specific functions of TIA-1 and TIAR are not known. We have performed in vitro selection/amplification from pools of random RNA sequences to identify RNAs to which TIA-1 and TIAR bind with high affinity. Both proteins selected RNAs containing one or several short stretches of uridylate residues suggesting that the two proteins have similar RNA binding specificities. Replacement of the uridylate stretch with an equal number of cytidine residues eliminates the protein-RNA interaction. Mutational analysis indicates that, for both TIA-1 and TIAR, it is the second RNA binding domain (RRM 2) which mediates the specific binding to uridylate-rich RNAs. Although RRM 2 is both necessary and sufficient for this interaction, the affinity for the selected RNA (as determined by filter binding assays) does increase when the second domain of TIAR is expressed together with the first and third domains (K = 2 × 10M) rather than alone (K = 5 × 10M). Although RRM 3 (of either TIA-1 or TIAR) does not interact with the uridylate-rich sequences selected by the full-length proteins, it is a bona fide RNA binding domain capable of affinity-precipitating a population of cellular RNAs ranging in size from 0.5 to 5 kilobases. In contrast, RRM 1 does not affinity-precipitate cellular RNA. The inability of RRM 1 to interact with RNA may be due to the presence of negatively charged amino acids within the RNP 1 octamer.
Semantic annotation of biosystematics literature without training examples

This article presents an unsupervised algorithm for semantic annotation of morphological descriptions of whole organisms. The algorithm is able to annotate plain text descriptions with high accuracy at the clause level by exploiting the corpus itself. In other words, the algorithm does not need lexicons, syntactic parsers, training examples, or annotation templates.The evaluation on two real-life description collections in botany and paleontology shows that the algorithm has the following desirable features: (a) reduces/eliminates manual labor required to compile dictionaries and prepare source documents; (b) improves annotation coverage: the algorithm annotates what appears in documents and is not limited by predefined and often incomplete templates; (c) learns clean and reusable concepts: the algorithm learns organ names and character states that can be used to construct reusable domain lexicons, as opposed to collectiondependent patterns whose applicability is often limited to a particular collection; (d) insensitive to collection size; and (e) runs in linear time with respect to the number of clauses to be annotated.
A Bio-Inspired Memetic Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for  Multi-objective Optimization Problems

This paper proposes a bio-inspired particle swarm optimization algorithm that incorporates random walk for local search techniques in the non-dominated sorting Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm in addition to the mechanism of crowding distance, resulting in an efficient and effective optimization method. The proposed algorithm was implemented and evaluated using different benchmark test problems including unconstrained and constrained problems. The obtained results were compared with published ones. The results showed that the proposed bio-inspired algorithm generates a precise well distributed set of non-dominated solutions justifying the superiority of the random walk method.
Redesigning care at the Flinders Medical Centre: clinical process redesign using “lean thinking”

*The Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) Redesigning Care program began in November 2003; it is a hospital-wide process improvement program applying an approach called "lean thinking" (developed in the manufacturing sector) to health care. *To date, the FMC has involved hundreds of staff from all areas of the hospital in a wide variety of process redesign activities. *The initial focus of the program was on improving the flow of patients through the emergency department, but the program quickly spread to involve the redesign of managing medical and surgical patients throughout the hospital, and to improving major support services. *The program has fallen into three main phases, each of which is described in this article: "getting the knowledge"; "stabilising high-volume flows"; and "standardising and sustaining". *Results to date show that the Redesigning Care program has enabled the hospital to provide safer and more accessible care during a period of growth in demand.
Word Embedding for Social Book Suggestion

This paper presents the joint work of the Universities of Grenoble and Saint-´ Etienne at CLEF 2016 Social Book Search Suggestion Track. The approaches studied are based on personalization, considering the user's profile in the ranking process. The profile is filtered using Word Embedding, by proposing several ways to handle the generated relationships between terms. We find that tackling the problem of " non-topical " only queries is a great challenge in this case. The official results show that Word Embedding methods are able to improve results in the SBS case.
Assessment of NMDA receptor genes (GRIN2A, GRIN2B and GRIN2C) as candidate genes in the development of degenerative lumbar scoliosis

Degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS) progresses with aging after 50–60 years. The genetic association of DLS remains largely unclear. In this study, the genetic association between glutamate receptor, ionotropic, N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA, GRIN) receptor genes and DLS was investigated. A total of 9 coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (cSNPs) in NMDA receptor genes [GRIN2A (rs8049651, Leu425Leu; rs9806806, Tyr730Tyr); GRIN2B (rs7301328, Pro122Pro; rs35025065, Asp447Asp; rs1805522, Ile602Ile; rs1806201, Thr888Thr; rs1805247, His1399His); and GRIN2C (rs689730, Ala33Ala; rs3744215, Arg1209Ser)] were selected and genotyped using direct sequencing in 70 patients with DLS and 141 healthy controls. Multiple logistic models (codominant, dominant and recessive) were calculated for the odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and corresponding P-values. The SNPStats, SNPAnalyzer and HelixTree programs were used for the evaluation of the genetic data. Among the SNPs examined, no significant associations were observed between the NMDA receptor genes and DLS. When the patients were divided into two groups according to clinical characteristics based on Cobb’s angle (<20° or ≥20°) and lateral listhesis (<6 mm or ≥6 mm), associations were observed between rs689730 of GRIN2C and Cobb’s angle (codominant, P=0.038; dominant, P=0.022) and between rs7301328 of GRIN2B and lateral listhesis (codominant, P=0.003; dominant, P=0.015; recessive, P=0.015). These results indicate that the GRIN2A, GRIN2B and GRIN2C genes do not affect the development of DLS. However, the GRIN2C gene may be associated with Cobb’s angle, while the GRIN2B gene may be associated with lateral listhesis.