Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Status and distribution of mangrove forests of the world using earth observation satellite data

Aim Our scientific understanding of the extent and distribution of mangrove forests of the world is inadequate. The available global mangrove databases, compiled using disparate geospatial data sources and national statistics, need to be improved.Here,we mapped the status and distributions of global mangroves using recently available Global Land Survey (GLS) data and the Landsat archive. Methods We interpreted approximately 1000 Landsat scenes using hybrid supervised and unsupervised digital image classification techniques. Each image was normalized for variation in solar angle and earth‐sun distance by converting the digital number values to the top-of-the-atmosphere reflectance. Ground truth data and existing maps and databases were used to select training samples and also for iterative labelling. Results were validated using existing GIS data and the published literature to map ‘true mangroves’. Results The total area of mangroves in the year 2000 was 137,760 km 2 in 118 countries and territories in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Approximately 75% of world’s mangroves are found in just 15 countries, and only 6.9% are protected under the existing protected areas network (IUCN I-IV). Our study confirms earlier findings that the biogeographic distribution of mangroves is generallyconfinedtothetropicalandsubtropicalregionsandthelargestpercentage of mangroves is found between 5° N and 5° S latitude. Main conclusions We report that the remaining area of mangrove forest in the world is less than previously thought. Our estimate is 12.3% smaller than the most recent estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.We present the most comprehensive, globally consistent and highest resolution (30 m) global mangrove database ever created.We developed and used better mapping techniques and data sources and mapped mangroves with better spatial and thematic details than previous studies.
Antinociceptive Activity and Redox Profile of the Monoterpenes (+)-Camphene, p-Cymene, and Geranyl Acetate in Experimental Models

Objective. To evaluate antinocicpetive and redox properties of the monoterpenes (+)-camphene, p-cymene, and geranyl acetate in in vivo and in vitro experimental models. Methods. Evaluation of the in vitro antioxidant activity of (+)-camphene, p-cymene, and geranyl acetate using different free radical-generating systems and evaluation of antinociceptive actions by acetic acid-induced writhing and formalin-induced nociception tests in mice. Results. p-Cymene has the strongest antinociceptive effect, but (+)-camphene and geranyl acetate also present significant activity at high doses (200 mg/kg). (+)-Camphene had the strongest antioxidant effect in vitro at TBARS and TRAP/TAR assays and also had the highest scavenging activities against different free radicals, such as hydroxyl and superoxide radicals. Sodium nitroprussiate-derived NO production was enhanced by (+)-camphene. Geranyl acetate and p-cymene also presented some antioxidant effects, but with a varying profile according the free radical-generating system studied. Conclusion. (+)-Camphene, p-cymene, and geranyl acetate may present pharmacological properties related to inflammation and pain-related processes, being potentially useful for development of new therapeutic strategies, with limited possibilities for p-cymene and geranyl acetate.
Differential effects of temperature change and human impact on European Late Quaternary mammalian extinctions

Species that inhabited Europe during the Late Quaternary were impacted by temperature changes and early humans, resulting in the disappearance of half of the European large mammals. However, quantifying the relative importance that each factor had in the extinction risk of species has been challenging, mostly due to the spatio‐temporal biases of fossil records, which complicate the calibration of realistic and accurate ecological niche modeling. Here, we overcome this problem by using ecotypes, and not real species, to run our models. We created 40 ecotypes with different temperature requirements (mean temperature from −20 °C to 25 °C and temperature range from 10 °C to 40 °C) and used them to quantify the effect of climate change and human impact. Our results show that cold‐adapted ecotypes would have been highly affected by past temperature changes in Europe, whereas temperate and warm‐adapted ecotypes would have been positively affected by temperature change. Human impact affected all ecotypes negatively, and temperate ecotypes suffered the greatest impacts. Based on these results, the extinction of cold‐adapted species like Mammuthus primigenius may be related to temperature change, while the extinction of temperate species, like Crocuta crocuta, may be related to human impact. Our results suggest that temperature change and human impact affected different ecotypes in distinct ways, and that the interaction of both impacts may have shaped species extinctions in Europe.
Performance analysis for indoor wireless systems employing directional antennas in the presence of external interference

External interference can cause significant performance degradation in indoor wireless systems such as third/fourth-generation mobile systems and WLANs. Strategic deployment of simple antennas (e.g., the directional patch) at base stations is an attractive low-cost solution that can mitigate, to some extent, the effect of external interference by modifying the propagation of signals in the environment. An experimental investigation of the influence of external interference on the performance of an indoor wireless system is presented. Although appropriate deployment of directional antennas can reduce the impact of external interference, the effectiveness and the optimal antenna arrangement of this deployment strategy are dependent on the relative power level of the external interference.
Fitting FFT onto the G 80 Architecture

In this work we present a novel implementation of FFT on GeForce 8800GTX that achieves 144 Gflop/s that is nearly 3x faster than best rate achieved in the current vendor’s numerical libraries. This performance is achieved by exploiting the Cooley-Tukey framework to make use of the hardware capabilities, such as the massive vector register files and small on-chip local storage. We also consider performance of the FFT on few other platforms.
Risky Business: When a CRM Vendor Masqueraded as an ERP Specialist

Taking a social shaping perspective we unpack the development trajectory of a packaged software product to show, that contrary to mainstream accounts, design is not completely specified a-priori and that the process continues throughout implementation, and use. We show how developers, in this case third party vendors, can continue to engage in shaping packages during implementation and also how users contribute to the development effort. In particular, we illustrate how a customer relationship management package application targeted at a particular organisational function was configured to make an enterprise wide system and the key role of the vendor in this effort. To do this we refer to a 3- year qualitative field study of an expanding United Kingdom based consultancy company undergoing extreme ICT related change. This empirical research is used to explore an often ignored phenomenon, that of the role of vendors in appropriating ICTs and the potential risks they bring. Through this, we highlight the plight and responsibilities of low-level organisational actors in this process in cognisance of the fact they usually have a minor role in ICT selection but become a major player in dealing with vendors at the implementation stage when the devil is truly in the detail. The risks we identify relate to: vendor sales pitches of products as specifically related to their capabilities and the products they put forward; the calling upon of organisational resources by vendors; vendor knowledge of the application are and the actual ‘social’, ‘technical’ and ‘organisational’ capabilities of vendors to deliver a working product. We also point to the risks managers in vendor and consumer organisations create by placing their staff in difficult conditions within appropriation processes. The implications of our work centre on the need for further research related to: vendor/developer risks of packaged software, custom and open source projects; notions of professionalism and ethics in the software industry and project working conditions.
Effective Tag Set Selection in Chinese Word Segmentation via Conditional Random Field Modeling

This paper is concerned with Chinese word segmentation, which is regarded as a character based tagging problem under conditional random field framework. It is different in our method that we consider both feature template selection and tag set selection, instead of feature template focused only method in existing work. Thus, there comes an empirical comparison study of performance among different tag sets in this paper. We show that there is a significant performance difference as different tag sets are selected. Based on the proposed method, our system gives the state-of-the-art performance.
Modeling of Saturation Due to Main and Leakage Flux Interaction in Induction Machines

Saturation due to main flux and rotor leakage flux interaction appears in induction machines, particularly if rotor slots are skewed or closed. Conventional saturation models used in connection with dynamic equivalent-circuit models do not take this phenomenon into account. In this paper, explicit functions for modeling this mutual saturation are proposed. These functions are physically reasonable and are easy to fit, and the number of their parameters is small. The proposed functions can be used in real-time applications and in computer simulations if high accuracy and physical consistency are preferable. The model fits well to the data obtained from finite-element analysis or experimental data of a 2.2-kW motor. The model predicts the stator current with good accuracy both in steady state and in transients.
Identification of a novel ADAMTS9/GON-1 function for protein transport from the ER to the Golgi

ADAMTS9 is required for protein transport from the ER to the Golgi, which is dependent on the C-terminal GON domain but not on protease activity. This novel function of the GON domain is conserved in both C. elegans (GON-1) and mammalian cells (ADAMTS9). The GON domain acts inside the ER but not outside the cells.
A Heuristic Adaptive Threshold Algorithm on IaaS Clouds

Due to the wide applications of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), energy-saving technologies of IaaS clouds has attracted much attention. However, it is very difficult for IaaS cloud providers to guarantee both of energy saving and performance under the condition of satisfying SLA (Service Level Agreement). Recently, adaptive-threshold-based methods are proposed to relieve the trade off between energy saving and satisfying SLA, however, high variable workloads have to be conducted. Thus, a more energy-saving method with lower workloads is desired. In this paper, in order to adaptively discover optimal thresholds, we propose a novel workload prediction-based framework, which seamlessly integrates a feature-selection-based prediction method and a model of measuring the relationship between the energy cost of the migration of virtual machine (VM) and the power incomes when the physical machine (PM) shuts down. Furthermore, a threshold discovering algorithm is designed to dynamically capture reasonable thresholds effectively. Finally, we verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed methods through extensive experiments on Cloud Sim based on Google workload trace data set, and show the significant performance improvement compared with existing techniques. For instance, the proposed methods can improve the energy consumption by 10-20 percents.
The NLPRIR Entity Linking System at TAC 2012

In this paper, we describe our KBP Entity Lining system at TAC 2012. Our system consists of three modules. 1) Query expansion and candidate entity selection module. In this module, we identify all the possible entities for an entity mention through a variety knowledge sources. 2) Entity disambiguation module. In this module, we use a maximum margin approach to rank the candidate entity. 3) NIL clustering module. In this module, we cluster all the NIL entities which have been detected in the second module using Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering alrorithm.
Object tracking based on online partial instance learning with multiple local strong classifiers

In this paper, we propose a new appearance model based on Partial Instance Learning (PIL) with multiple local strong classifiers. The key idea of PIL is that image examples are divided into several partial image examples (or local-images), each of which is then independently trained with a local strong classifier. Finally, a tracker is updated for the optimal solution in the sense that the joint probability of partial image examples for each input image example becomes the largest. The proposed PIL method can be considered a risk diversification strategy for unpredictable partial occlusions or appearance changes of an object. Also, it can be regarded as a divide-and-conquer method of Online Boosting (OB), so that PIL only requires approximately 20% of computations compared with other OB methods in terms of iterations taken for learning process. Experiment results show that the proposed PIL-based object tracking method achieves better performance in tracking accuracy and much faster processing speed than other compared real-time based ones.
Community Counseling: Empowerment Strategies for a Diverse Society

Part 1 The community counselling model: the search for more effective counselling paradigms the community-counselling model the role of the community counsellor from model concept to model programme the community-counselling model in action the community-counselling model in action - the "I-have-a-future" programme. Part 2 Preventive education: a rationale for prevention stress - an overview stress-management interventions health-promotion programmes health promotion in a rural setting - the Madison County Health Project life-skills training - promoting personal competence. Part 3 Outreach to vulnerable populations: defining vulnerable populations model outreach programmes crisis intervention and suicide prevention. Part 4 Community counselling and the counselling process: the role of direct-counselling services promoting personal responsibility systems theory and environmental influences practical applications of community counselling. Part 5 Client advocacy: introduction stigmatization empowerment through self-help groups. fostering a responsive helping network. Part 6 The community counsellor as social-change agent: the role of social-change agent ecological considerations in counselling practices indirect community programmes as empowerment strategies. Part 7 Applications of the community-counselling model: review of the community-counselling model mental-health agencies career-development agencies specialized agencies business and industry educational settings. Part 8 Managing the community-counselling programme: planning budgeting organizing leadership and supervision evaluation unique managerial challenges.
Coil therapy for patients with severe emphysema and bilateral incomplete fissures – effectiveness and complications after 1-year follow-up: a single-center experience

Background Lung volume reduction coil (LVRC) treatment is established in daily endoscopic lung volume reduction routine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LVRC treatment. Patients and methods This was a retrospective analysis of 86 patients (male/female: 40/46, mean age: 64±7 years) with severe COPD and bilateral incomplete fissures. A total of 10 coils were unilaterally implanted in a single lobe, and 28 out of 86 patients were treated bilaterally. At 90-, 180-, and 365-day follow-up, changes in pulmonary function test (PFT), 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale, as well as possible complications, were recorded. Results At 90 days, the forced expiratory volume in 1 second did improve (P<0.001), but the improvement was not sustained at the 180- and 365-day follow-up (baseline: 0.71±0.21 vs 0.77±0.23 vs 0.73±0.22 vs 0.70±0.18 L). Both vital capacity and residual volume improved significantly (P<0.001) at the 90- and 180-day follow-up, but the improvement was lost after 365 days. Total lung capacity decreased at the 90-day follow-up but returned to baseline values at the 180- and 365-day follow-up. 6MWT (P=0.01) and mMRC (P=0.007) also improved at 90 and 180 days (Δ6MWT of 31±54 and 20±60 m, respectively), but the improvement was also lost at the 365-day follow-up. No significant further improvement was evident at any point in the follow-up after the second procedure. A total of 4 out of 86 patients passed away due to complications. Significant complications in the first 3 months and then at 12 months included the following: severe hemoptysis in 4 (3.5%) and 4 (3.5%) patients, pneumonia requiring hospitalization in 32 (28.1%) and 9 (7.9%) patients and pneumothorax in 7 (6.1%) and 2 (1.7%) patients, respectively. Milder adverse events included self-limited hemoptysis, pneumonias, or COPD exacerbations treated orally. Conclusion LVRC improved PFT, 6MWT and mMRC initially, but the improvement was lost after 365 days. Furthermore, we observed 4 deaths and significant severe complications, which need to be further elucidated.
&ACTORIAL -ODELING ! -ETHOD FOR %NHANCING THE %XPLANATORY AND 0REDICTIVE 0OWER OF #OGNITIVE -ODELS

The construction and evaluation of cognitive models can, and often do, lead to NOVEL insights into what might constitute a valid account for an empirical phenomenon. These insights constrain the space of viable models, and could be useful also on a theoretical plane, by promoting a deeper understanding of the studied phenomenon. We propose the factorial method for deriving novel, that is, not theory–based constraints IN A PRINCIPLED WAY during model development. The method is based on a systematic comparison of alternative models, realized through a cross–combination of model components in a generic cognitive model. We illustrate the method by describing an application in the area of mental imagery. We conclude by discussing ways to increase the generalizability of results that can be obtained using the factorial method.
BodyAvatar : Creating Freeform 3 D Avatars using

BodyAvatar is allows users without professional skills to create freeform 3D based 3D modeling tools, BodyAvatar center first treats their own body as a physi avatar performs gestures to their own body as if wanting to modify it, which in turn results in corresponding modification the avatar. and playful formative system from initial user trial Author
Did Unilateral Divorce Raise Divorce Rates? Evidence from Panel Data

This paper revisits the evidence on the impact of unilateral divorce laws on divorce rates in the United States. Most states switched from requiring mutual consent to allowing unilateral or no-fault divorce between 1970 and 1985, while the national divorce rate more than doubled after 1965. According to the Coase theorem, however, the legal shift should have had no effect on divorce rates. Recent papers using cross-sectional micro data have disputed the empirical importance of unilateral divorce, disagreeing in particular about controls for state-level heterogeneity in divorce propensities. This paper uses a panel of state-level divorce rates which includes virtually every divorce in the U.S. over the entire period of the law changes. Adding comprehensive controls - year and state fixed effects and state fixed trends - for changing unobservable divorce propensities reveals that the divorce rate would have been about 6% lower if states had not switched to unilateral divorce, accounting for 17% of the increase in the divorce rate between 1968 and 1988. Additional results in this paper demonstrate that the type of unilateral divorce law that states adopted matters. Weaker versions of unilateral divorce, which retain elements of mutual divorce, raised the divorce rate significantly, but by less than the strongest versions of unilateral divorce did.
Shared recovery for energy efficiency and reliability enhancements in real-time applications with precedence constraints

While Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS) remains as a popular energy management technique for modern computing systems, recent research has identified significant and negative impacts of voltage scaling on system reliability. To preserve system reliability under DVS settings, a number of reliability-aware power management (RA-PM) schemes have been recently studied. However, the existing RA-PM schemes normally schedule a separate recovery for each task whose execution is scaled down and are rather conservative. To overcome such conservativeness, we study in this article novel RA-PM schemes based on the shared recovery (SHR) technique. Specifically, we consider a set of frame-based real-time tasks with individual deadlines and a common period where the precedence constraints are represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). We first show that the earliest deadline first (EDF) algorithm can always yield a schedule where all timing and precedence constraints are met by considering the effective deadlines of tasks derived from as late as possible (ALAP) policy, provided that the task set is feasible. Then, we propose a shared recovery based frequency assignment technique (namely SHR-DAG) and prove its optimality to minimize energy consumption while preserving the system reliability. To exploit additional slack that arises from early completion of tasks, we also study a dynamic extension for SHR-DAG to improve energy efficiency and system reliability at runtime. The results from our extensive simulations show that, compared to the existing RA-PM schemes, SHR-DAG can achieve up to 35% energy savings, which is very close to the maximum achievable energy savings. More interestingly, our extensive evaluation also indicates that the new schemes offer non-trivial improvements on system reliability over the existing RA-PM schemes as well.
Aerodynamic Fluid Bearings for Translational and Rotating Capacitors in Noncontact Capacitive Power Transfer Systems

Wireless power transfer (WPT) is commonly accomplished with magnetic (inductive) techniques for a wide range of applications. Electrostatic or capacitive power transfer (CPT) approaches to WPT have had limited exposure primarily due to lower achievable power density when compared to inductive WPT techniques. Recently, high-frequency (in kilohertz to megahertz) power electronics have reintroduced capacitive techniques as an option for WPT over short distances ( <; 2 mm) for applications such as slip ring replacement. To further the practicality of CPT, capacitive coupling must be maximized in an effective manner, i.e., the volumetric capacitance density of rotating/translational capacitors must be significantly increased. This paper proposes the use of aerodynamic fluid bearings to maximize capacitive coupling between stationary and moving surfaces, by minimizing their separation distance, allowing for greater surface area per unit volume. The technique allows micrometers of separation distance between moving surfaces while maintaining manufacturability and mechanical robustness. Coupling capacitance is increased up to 100 times greater than rigid plate rotating and translational CPT systems. Additional benefits include the estimation of mechanical system parameters such as speed. Operational characteristics and design highlights are presented and corroborated with experimental results for general slip ring replacement applications.