Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Observation‐Driven Geo‐Ontology Engineering

Big Data, Linked Data, Smart Dust, Digital Earth, and e‐Science are just some of the names for research trends that surfaced over the last years. While all of them address different visions and needs, they share a common theme: How do we manage massive amounts of heterogeneous data, derive knowledge out of them instead of drowning in information, and how do we make our findings reproducible and reusable by others? In a network of knowledge, topics span across scientific disciplines and the idea of domain ontologies as common agreements seems like an illusion. In this work, we argue that these trends require a radical paradigm shift in ontology engineering away from a small number of authoritative, global ontologies developed top‐down, to a high number of local ontologies that are driven by application needs and developed bottom‐up out of observation data. Similarly as the early Web was replaced by a social Web in which volunteers produce data instead of purely consuming it, the next generation of knowledge infrastructures has to enable users to become knowledge engineers themselves. Surprisingly, existing ontology engineering frameworks are not well suited for this new perspective. Hence, we propose an observation‐driven ontology engineering framework, show how its layers can be realized using specific methodologies, and relate the framework to existing work on geo‐ontologies.
The Dispersion of Surface Waves on Multilayered Media

abstract A matrix formalism developed by W. T. Thomson is used to obtain the phase velocity dispersion equations for elastic surface waves of Rayleigh and Love type on multilayered solid media. The method is used to compute phase and group velocities of Rayleigh waves for two assumed three-layer models and one two-layer model of the earth9s crust in the continents. The computed group velocity curves are compared with published values of the group velocities at various frequencies of Rayleigh waves over continental paths. The scatter of the observed values is larger than the difference between the three computed curves. It is believed that not all of this scatter is due to observational errors, but probably represents a real horizontal heterogeneity of the continental crusts.
Online Extreme Learning on Fixed-Point Sensor Networks

Anomaly detection is a key factor in the processing of large amounts of sensor data from Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Efficient anomaly detection algorithms can be devised performing online node-local computations and reducing communication overhead, thus improving the use of the limited hardware resources. This work introduces a fixed-point embedded implementation of Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OS-ELM), an online learning algorithm for Single Layer Feed forward Neural Networks (SLFN). To overcome the stability issues introduced by the fixed precision, we apply correction mechanisms previously proposed for Recursive Least Squares (RLS). The proposed implementation is tested extensively with generated and real-world datasets, and compared with RLS, Linear Least Squares Estimation, and a rule-based method as benchmarks. The methods are evaluated on the prediction accuracy and on the detection of anomalies. The experimental results demonstrate that fixed-point OS-ELM can be successfully implemented on resource-limited embedded systems, with guarantees of numerical stability. Furthermore, the detection accuracy of fixed-point OS-ELM shows better generalization properties in comparison with, for instance, fixed-point RLS.
A perceptual subspace approach for modeling of speech and audio signals with damped sinusoids

The problem of modeling a signal segment as a sum of exponentially damped sinusoidal components arises in many different application areas, including speech and audio processing. Often, model parameters are estimated using subspace based techniques which arrange the input signal in a structured matrix and exploit the so-called shift-invariance property related to certain vector spaces of the input matrix. A problem with this class of estimation algorithms, when used for speech and audio processing, is that the perceptual importance of the sinusoidal components is not taken into account. In this work we propose a solution to this problem. In particular, we show how to combine well-known subspace based estimation techniques with a recently developed perceptual distortion measure, in order to obtain an algorithm for extracting perceptually relevant model components. In analysis-synthesis experiments with wideband audio signals, objective and subjective evaluations show that the proposed algorithm improves perceived signal quality considerable over traditional subspace based analysis methods.
Front-End Isolated Quasi-Z-Source DC–DC Converter Modules in Series for High-Power Photovoltaic Systems—Part II: Control, Dynamic Model, and Downscaled Verification

This paper is the continuation of Part I in which a quasi-Z-source modular cascaded converter (qZS-MCC), comprising front-end isolated qZS half-bridge dc-dc converter submodules (SMs), for dc integration of high-power photovoltaic (PV) systems is proposed. The qZS-MCC-based PV system features modular structure, high-voltage dc collection of PV power, simple control with a unified and constant duty cycle for the front-end isolation converter of all SMs, and low qZS impedance due to no double-line-frequency pulsating power. Here, control scheme of the qZS-MCC PV system integrated into the dc collection grid is investigated. Dynamic model of the system is established for controllers design and time-domain transient simulation. Experimental tests are carried out on the downscaled prototype as a proof-of-concept of the proposed control and modeling, demonstrating the validity of the proposed approaches.
Magnetic fabric of Pleistocene clays from the Tyrrhenian arc; A magnetic lineation induced in the final stage of the middle Pleistocene compressive event

We present the results of an analysis of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) in early Pleistocene clay sediments from the southern Apennines and its foreland (Apulia). Measurements were performed on samples from different tectonic units; the Apulian Unit, the Bradano Unit, and the Apenninic belt. The AMS is characterized by a dominant magnetic foliation parallel to the bedding plane in all cases, pointing to a primary sedimentary magnetic fabric. No lineation is found in the clays from the Apulian Unit, whereas the inner part of the Bradano Unit and the Apenninic belt show a clear NW–SE trending magnetic lineation which is perpendicular to the main compressive stresses known for this area. There is a very consistent WNW-ESE trending magnetic lineation for the clays from the southern Apennines and the Calabrian block to the south. Correction of this lineation with the established tectonic rotations shows that the lineation is clearly of postrotational origin and reflects the latest stages of deformation. The lineation is linked to middle and late Pleistocene tectonics: its alignment occurred in the final stages of the compressive event affecting the Tyrrhenian arc system. For the Sant'Arcangelo basin in the southern Apennines, anomalous trends of magnetic lineation (compressive stress) were established.
Relative Importance of Perceptual and Mnemonic Variance in Human Temporal Bisection

We investigated the relative contributions of perception and reference memory to behavioural variability in a temporal discrimination with human subjects. We used two temporal bisection tasks. In both tasks each trial consisted of a sequential presentation of three intervals, two standards, and a probe, and subjects were asked to judge the similarity of each probe against the two standards. In a “single bisection”, the standards’ duration was constant across trials. In a “roving bisection”, the two standards were trial unique. We compared our results with the predictions from a model related to Scalar Expectancy Theory, with the added assumption that the decision process minimizes the expected number of errors given the information available. The model shows that if errors in reference memory were dominant the psychometric function should be identical for single and roving tasks, and if perceptual errors were dominant the psychometric function should be steeper for the single than for the roving bisection. As we found that psychometric functions were steeper for the single than for the roving tasks, we concluded that perceptual errors are dominant.
Transforming Sustainability thru Adaptive Co-Management: A Critique of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan

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Evaluating the effects of size in linesets

LineSets represent information about sets by drawing one line for each set on an existing visualization of data items. This paper addresses the following question: does manipulating the size of visual elements affect the comprehension of LineSets? We empirically evaluated two types of size treatments applied to LineSets drawn on networks: varying set-line thickness, to reflect relative set cardinality, and varying node diameter, to reflect data items' relative degree of connectivity. The evaluation required participants to perform tasks that were thought to be aided by the size variations alongside tasks where no benefit was anticipated. Viewing comprehension through accuracy and time performance, we found that varying set-line thickness and node diameter significantly improves the effectiveness of LineSets. As a consequence, this research leads to the recommendation that LineSets vary sizes of lines and nodes.
Remote sensing of soil moisture content over bare field at 1.4 GHz frequency

An algorithm for estimating moisture content of a bare soil from the observed brightness temperature at 1.4 GHz is discussed and applied to a limited data base. The method is based on a radiative transfer model calculation, which has been successfully used in the past to account for many observational results, with some modifications to take into account the effect of surface roughness. Besides the measured brightness temperatures, the three additional inputs required by the method are the effective soil thermodynamic temperature, the precise relation between moisture content and the smooth field brightness temperatures and a pair of parameters related to surface roughness. The procedures of estimating surface roughness parameters and of obtaining moisture content from observed brightness temperature are discussed. The algorithm is applied to observations from truck mounted and airborne radiometers. The estimated moisture contents compare favorably with the observations in the top 2 cm layer.
Experimental evaluation of an adiabiatic quantum system for combinatorial optimization

This paper describes an experimental study of a novel computing system (algorithm plus platform) that carries out quantum annealing, a type of adiabatic quantum computation, to solve optimization problems. We compare this system to three conventional software solvers, using instances from three NP-hard problem domains. We also describe experiments to learn how performance of the quantum annealing algorithm depends on input.
A lock-free, concurrent, and incremental stack scanning for garbage collectors

Two major efficiency parameters for garbage collectors are the throughput overheads and the pause times that they introduce. Highly responsive systems need to use collectors with as short as possible pause times. Pause lengths have decreased significantly during the years, especially through the use of concurrent garbage collectors. For modern concurrent collectors, the longest pause is typically created by the need to atomically scan the runtime stack. All practical concurrent collectors that we are aware of must obtain a snapshot of the pointers on each thread's runtime stack, in order to reclaim objects correctly. To further reduce the length of the collector pauses, incremental stack scans were proposed. However, previous such methods employ locks to stop the mutator from accessing a stack frame while it is being scanned. Thus, these methods introduce a potential long and unpredictable pauses for a mutator thread. In this work we propose the first concurrent, incremental, and lock-free stack scanning for garbage collectors, allowing high responsiveness and support for programs that employ fine-synchronization to avoid locks. Our solution can be employed by all concurrent collectors that we are aware of, it is lock-free, it imposes a negligible overhead on the program execution, and it supports the special in-stack references existing in languages like C#.
A Polarization Control System for Intensity-Resolved Guided Mode Resonance Sensors

In this study, a polarization-control setup for intensity-resolved guided mode resonance sensors is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation data based on rigorous coupled wave approach calculations. The proposed intensity-resolved measurement setup transfers polarization ellipses, which are produced from guided mode resonance to a linear polarization state under a buffer solution condition, and then suppresses the signals to dark using a polarization-control set. Hence, any changes in the refractive index results in an increase in the intensity signals. Furthermore, no wavelength-resolved or angular-resolved measurement is needed in this scheme. According to the experimental results, a wide linear detection range of 0.014 refractive index units is achieved and the limit of detection is 1.62E-4 RIU.
Design of irregular LDPC codes for BIAWGN channels with SNR mismatch

Belief propagation (BP) algorithm for decoding low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over a binary input additive white Gaussian noise (BIAWGN) channel requires the knowledge of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver to achieve its ultimate performance. An erroneous estimation or the absence of a perfect knowledge of the SNR at the decoder is referred to as "SNR mismatch". SNR mismatch can significantly degrade the performance of LDPC codes decoded by the BP algorithm. In this paper, using extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts, we design irregular LDPC codes that perform better (have a lower SNR threshold) in the presence of mismatch compared to the conventionally designed irregular LDPC codes that are optimized for zero mismatch. Considering that min-sum (MS) algorithm is the limit of BP with infinite SNR over-estimation, the EXIT functions generated in this work can also be used for the efficient analysis and design of LDPC codes under the MS algorithm.
The Average Conformation at Micromolar [Ca2+] of Ca2+-ATPase with Bound Nucleotide Differs from That Adopted with the Transition State Analog ADP·AlFx or with AMPPCP under Crystallization Conditions at Millimolar [Ca2+]*

Crystalline forms of detergent-solubilized sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase, obtained in the presence of either a substrate analog, AMPPCP, or a transition state complex, ADP·fluoroaluminate, were recently described to share the same general architecture despite the fact that, when studied in a test tube, these forms show different functional properties. Here, we show that the differences in the properties of the E1·AMPPCP and the E1·ADP·AlFx membraneous (or solubilized) forms are much less pronounced when these properties are examined in the presence of 10 mm Ca2+ (the concentration prevailing in the crystallization media) than when they are examined in the presence of the few micromolar of Ca2+ known to be sufficient to saturate the transport sites. This concerns various properties, including ATPase susceptibility to proteolytic cleavage by proteinase K, ATPase reactivity toward SH-directed Ellman's reagent, ATPase intrinsic fluorescence properties (here described for the E1·ADP·AlFx complex for the first time), and also the rates of 45Ca2+-40Ca2+ exchange at site “II. ” These results solve the above paradox at least partially and suggest that the presence of a previously unrecognized Ca2+ ion in the E1·AMPPCP crystals should be re-investigated. A contrario, they emphasize the fact that the average conformation of the E1·AMPPCP complex under usual conditions in the test tube differs from that found in the crystalline form. The extended conformation of nucleotide revealed by the E1·AMPPCP crystalline form might be only indicative of the requirements for further processing of the complex, toward the transition state leading to phosphorylation and Ca2+ occlusion.
On the Design of Frequency-Invariant Beampatterns With Uniform Circular Microphone Arrays

This paper deals with two critical issues about uniform circular arrays (UCAs): frequency-invariant response and steering flexibility. It focuses on some optimal design of frequency-invariant beampatterns in any desired direction along the sensor plane. The major contributions are as follows. 1) We explain how to include the steering information in the desired directivity pattern. 2) We show that the optimal approximation of the beamformer's beampattern with a UCA from a least-squares error perspective is the Jacobi–Anger expansion. 3) We develop an approach to the design of any desired symmetric directivity pattern, where the deduced beampattern is almost frequency invariant and its main beam can be pointed to any wanted direction in the sensor plane. 4) With the proposed approach, we derive an explicit form of the white noise gain (WNG) and the directivity factor (DF), and explain clearly the white noise amplification problem at low frequencies and the DF degradation at high frequencies. The analysis also indicates that increasing the number of microphones can always improve the WNG. We show that the proposed method is a generalization of circular differential microphone arrays. The relationship between the proposed method and the so-called circular harmonics beamformers is also discussed.
Staffing and job satisfaction: nurses and nursing assistants.

AIM The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between staffing and job satisfaction of registered nurses (RNs) and nursing assistants (NAs). BACKGROUND Although a number of previous studies have demonstrated the link between the numbers of patients cared for on the last shift and/or perceptions of staffing adequacy, we could find only one study that utilized a measure of actual staffing (opposed to perceptions of staffing adequacy) and correlated it with job satisfaction of registered nurses. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 3523 RNs and 1012 NAs in 131 patient care units. Staff were surveyed to determine job satisfaction and demographic variables. In addition, actual staffing data were collected from each of the study units. RESULTS Hours per patient day was a significant positive predictor for registered nurse job satisfaction after controlling for covariates. For NAs, a lower skill mix was marginally significant with higher job satisfaction. In addition, the more work experience the NAs reported, the lower their job satisfaction. CONCLUSION Adequate staffing levels are essential for RN job satisfaction whereas NA job satisfaction depends on the number of assistive personnel in the mix of nursing staff. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT Two implications are (1) providing adequate staffing is critical to maintain RN job satisfaction and (2) the NA job needs to be re-engineered to make it a more attractive and satisfying career.
TCP over Low-Power and Lossy Networks: Tuning the Segment Size to Minimize Energy Consumption

Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs), like wireless networks based upon the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard, have strong energy constraints, and are moreover subject to frequent transmission errors, not only due to congestion but also to collisions and to radio channel conditions. This paper introduces an analytical model to compute the total energy consumption in an LLN due to the TCP protocol. The model allows us to highlight some tradeoffs as regards the choice of the TCP maximum segment size, of the Forward Error Correction (FEC) redundancy ratio, and of the number of link-layer retransmissions, in order to minimize the total energy consumption.
Exhumation of the Schistes Lustrés complex: in situ laser probe 40Ar/39Ar constraints and implications for the Western Alps

The Schistes Lustrés (SL) suture zone occupies a key position in the Alpine chain between the high‐pressure (HP) Brianconnais domain and the ultrahigh‐pressure (UHP) Dora Maira massif, and reached subduction depths ranging from c. 40–65 km (Cottian Alps). In order to constrain the timing of HP metamorphism and subsequent exhumation, several phengite generations were differentiated, on the basis of habit, texture, paragenesis and chemistry, as belonging to the first or second exhumation episode, respectively, D2 or D3, or to earlier stages of the tectono‐metamorphic evolution.
Contribution of the TOPEX NASA Radar Altimeter to the global monitoring of large rivers and wetlands

For certain major rivers and wetlands, hydrological information can often be difficult to obtain due to the inaccessibility of the region, the sparse distribution of gauge stations, or the slow dissemination of data. Satellite radar altimeters have the potential to monitor height variations over inland waters. Here, it is shown that the NASA radar altimeter (NRA), currently operating on board the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite, can successfully track both large wetlands and rivers of >1 km width. The coverage, performance, and limitations of the NRA altimeter are discussed with relevance to these regions, and the merits of utilizing the geophysical data records (GDRs) and the sensor data records (SDRs) are explored. Time series of relative water level variations, for the first ∼3.7 years of the mission, have been obtained for a selection of the world's largest rivers, and for major wetlands of international importance. Validation shows the results can be accurate to ∼11 cm rms, offering the potential to observe these regions as part of a long‐term hydrological monitoring program.
Extrahippocampal Desynchronization in Nonlesional Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Although temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is traditionally associated with both hypersynchronous activity in the form of interictal epileptic discharges and hippocampal sclerosis, recent findings suggest that desynchronization also plays a central role in the dynamics of this pathology. The objective of this work is to show the imbalance existing between mesial activities in patients suffering from mesial TLE, with normal mesial structures. Foramen ovale recordings from six patients with mesial TLE and one with lateral TLE were analyzed through a cluster analysis and synchronization matrices. None of the patients present findings in the MRI presurgical evaluation. Numerical analysis was carried out in three different situations: awake and sleep interictal and also during the preictal stage. High levels of desynchronization ipsilateral to the epileptic side were present in mesial TLE patients. Low levels of desynchronization were present in the lateral TLE patient during the interictal stage and almost zero in the preictal stage. Implications of these findings in relation with seizure spreading are discussed.