Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soil moisture algorithm validation using data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) in Mongolia

New satellite-based low frequency microwave radiometers are being evaluated for estimating soil moisture. These include the Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) instruments on the NASA Aqua satellite and the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-II). Although there have been satellite instruments in space previously with these frequencies, the AMSR programs include the first ever commitments to providing a soil moisture product. As part of its algorithm selection process, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been evaluating four different soil moisture algorithm approaches including a single channel method. This algorithm was evaluated here using validation data collected in Mongolia. Data quality issues, approaches to validation and algorithm performance are analyzed and discussed. Overall, the algorithm performed as expected based upon previous research.
Late Proterozoic glacial carbonates in northeast Spitsbergen: new insights into the carbonate–tillite association

Abstract Carbonate-rich glacial deposits from two discrete Vendian glacial periods are described. The older is represented by the 24–40 m thick Petrovbreen Member (E2) of the Elbobreen Formation which contains abundant detrital dolomite. Clasts in E2 and their possible source rocks have positive δ13C and negative δ18OPDB values. In contrast the carbonate mud-fraction of E2 sediments has different cathodoluminescence characteristics from clasts, slightly negative δ13C values, and higher Fe and Mn concentrations than clasts. Oxygen isotopes vary from −2.5 to +4.5‰PDB, thought to be related to various seawater–meltwater mixtures in the depositional environment. Preservation of information about glacial sedimentary environments is attributed to early diagenetic recrystallization forced by excess surface free energy (Ostwald's ripening) and coinciding with sulphate reduction. The younger glaciation is represented by the Wilsonbreen Formation (170 m) which has a distinctive glaciolacustrine Middle Carbonate Member (W2). W2 contains precipitated periglacial carbonates (with high Mn/Fe ratio): both limestone (rhythmitic and stromatolitic) and dolostone (rhythmites, stromatolites and dolomite-rich sandstones) which are compared with carbonates in modern Antarctic lakes. Evaporitic environments for dolomitic sandstones and stromatolitic dolostones are indicated by heavy oxygen isotope values (up to + 10.5‰PDB), high Na concentration and evidence for dissolved evaporites. High Mn concentration in detrital dolostones in W2 is suggestive of syn-sedimentary dolomite recrystallization in freshwater diamictites and haematitic siltstones. The carbonate–tillite association ultimately arises from the erosion of underlying carbonates which originated (in this case) under radically different climatic conditions. Glacial depositional waters then became carbonate-saturated as a result of dissolution of detrital carbonate. Massive recrystallization of glacially transported carbonate is proposed as a geologically significant process with considerable potential for palaeoenvironmental analysis. In glacial lakes carbonate precipitated in response to evaporation or photosynthesis. Carbonate precipitation as the result of seawater freezing, or in warm interglacial conditions, is not yet established. Oxygen isotope value are inconsistent (too heavy) with the presence of high-latitude meltwaters, implying that glaciation extended to low latitudes as proposed by Harland.
An Evolutionary Learning Spam Filter System

Accurate spam filters are of high necessity in present days as the high amount of commercial mail entering accounts has become a real threat to everyone, from causing personal computers to crash to costing big companies billions of dollars annually because of employees loss of productivity. Moreover, lately, spam also carries viruses along. Current paper presents an evolutionary model of a spam filter which can also be generalized to the more complex issue of text categorization. The model learns the rules that lie behind the classification of training e-mails into spam and non-spam and then uses them to label unseen, incoming mail. The evolutionary learning classifier system uses genetic chromodynamics to evolve the rule set. A comparison of its correctness of prediction depending on whether chromosomes representing rules are binary or real encoded is conducted. Experimental results showed that the binary encoding appeared to be less effective than the real one.
Chapter 10 The rock coast of South and Central America

Abstract The great variety of climatic conditions, tidal ranges and wave regimes of South and Central America act on a complex geology and tectonic framework. Many of the rock and cliffed coasts of South America are strongly controlled by the occurrence of extensive Cenozoic and Pleistocene sediments that crop out at the coast. Geology and the different uplift rates are a major factor in the whole coastal geomorphology of South and Central America, and consequently are a very important control of the processes and landforms of rock coasts. This chapter covers several aspects of the rock coast of South and Central America, with special attention to the combination of tectonic movements and Quaternary Pleistocene–Holocene sea-level changes.
A Quasi-Resonant Current-Fed Converter With Minimum Switching Losses

A quasi-resonant dc-dc converter with high voltage gain and low current stresses on switches is proposed in this paper. This converter preserved inherent advantages of current-fed structures, for instance, zero magnetizing dc offset, low input ripple, and low transformer turn ratio. Moreover, by employing the active-clamp circuit, the voltage spikes across the main switch, due to the existence of leakage inductance of the isolating transformer, is absorbed, and switches work in zero voltage switching. Since quasi-resonant switching strategy is employed, turn-off current (TOC) and losses of switches are considerably reduced. Because of zero current switching (ZCS), reverse recovery problem of diodes is alleviated. Experimental results on a 150-W prototype are provided to validate the proposed concept.
Involvement of the Supplementary Eye Field in Oculomotor Predictive Behavior

The presentation of saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements as two separate systems has recently been reconsidered: The two subsystems share a number of anatomical structures, and recent data suggest that this sharing also extends to physiological processes. The aim of our study was first to test whether these two subsystems share a common predictive process. We designed a new predictive smooth pursuit paradigm that requires the triggering of unpredictable saccades, performed either during low (ongoing pursuit) or high (pursuit direction reversal) predictive behavior. Saccade latency was used as a probe to reveal a possible sharing of prediction between the two subsystems. The main finding was that saccade latencies were markedly decreased when triggered around pursuit direction reversal and performed in the direction of the predicted pursuit. The aim of the second part of this study was to determine the neural substrate of this common predictive process. According to previous studies, the supplementary eye field (SEF) would be involved in the control of predictive pursuit. The same subjects therefore performed the same tasks, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over this area: Decreased saccade latencies were no longer observed, whereas it continued to be observed when applied over the occipital cortex. These results are consistent with (1) The existence of a common predictive process shared by both oculomotor subsystems; (2) The view of the SEF not as a primary oculomotor area but as a higher order structure able to elaborate complex processes, such as prediction, independently of the oculomotor output.
A Randomized Algorithm for Large Scale Support Vector Learning

This paper investigates the application of randomized algorithms for large scale SVM learning. The key contribution of the paper is to show that, by using ideas random projections, the minimal number of support vectors required to solve almost separable classification problems, such that the solution obtained is near optimal with a very high probability, is given by O(log n); if on removal of properly chosen O(log n) points the data becomes linearly separable then it is called almost separable. The second contribution is a sampling based algorithm, motivated from randomized algorithms, which solves a SVM problem by considering subsets of the dataset which are greater in size than the number of support vectors for the problem. These two ideas are combined to obtain an algorithm for SVM classification problems which performs the learning by considering only O(log n) points at a time. Experiments done on synthetic and real life datasets show that the algorithm does scale up state of the art SVM solvers in terms of memory required and execution time without loss in accuracy. It is to be noted that the algorithm presented here nicely complements existing large scale SVM learning approaches as it can be used to scale up any SVM solver.
Geodesic Propagation for Semantic Labeling

This paper presents a semantic labeling framework with geodesic propagation (GP). Under the same framework, three algorithms are proposed, including GP, supervised GP (SGP) for image, and hybrid GP (HGP) for video. In these algorithms, we resort to the recognition proposal map and select confident pixels with maximum probability as the initial propagation seeds. From these seeds, the GP algorithm iteratively updates the weights of geodesic distances until the semantic labels are propagated to all pixels. On the contrary, the SGP algorithm further exploits the contextual information to guide the direction of propagation, leading to better performance but higher computational complexity than the GP. For video labeling, we further propose the HGP algorithm, in which the geodesic metric is used in both spatial and temporal spaces. Experiments on four public data sets show that our algorithms outperform several state-of-the-art methods. With the GP framework, convincing results for both image and video semantic labeling can be obtained.
Algorithm 848: A recursive fixed-point algorithm for the infinity-norm case

We present the PFix algorithm for approximating a fixed point of a function f that has arbitrary dimensionality, is defined on a rectangular domain, and is Lipschitz continuous with respect to the infinity norm with constant 1. PFix has applications in economics, game theory, and the solution of partial differential equations. PFix computes an approximation that satisfies the residual error criterion, and can also compute an approximation satisfying the absolute error criterion when the Lipschitz constant is less than 1. For functions defined on all rectangular domains, the worst-case complexity of PFix has order equal to the logarithm of the reciprocal of the tolerance, raised to the power of the dimension. Dividing this order expression by the factorial of the dimension yields the order of the worst-case bound for the case of the unit hypercube. PFix is a recursive algorithm, in that it uses solutions to a d-dimensional problem to compute a solution to a (d + 1)-dimensional problem. A full analysis of PFix may be found in Shellman and Sikorski [2003b], and a C implementation is available through ACM ToMS.
Subsoil nitrogen mineralisation and its potential to contribute to NH4 accumulation in a Vertosol

High concentrations of NH4+ (up to 270 kg N/ha) have been observed in a Vertosol below 1 m depth in south-east Queensland. This study examined the possibility that mineralisation associated with the removal of native vegetation (Acacia harpophylla) for cropping was responsible for the production of NH4+. Particularly, the potential contribution of decomposing root material and/or dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) leached into the subsoil after clearing was investigated. The amount of N that was contained within native vegetation root material was determined from an area of native vegetation adjacent to the cleared site containing elevated NH4+ concentrations. In addition, the amount of NH4+ that could be mineralised in the native vegetation soil was determined by monitoring NH4+ concentrations over 360 days in intact cores, and by conducting waterlogged incubations. To determine the rate at which a source of DON leached into the subsoil would mineralise, soil was amended with glutamic acid at a rate of 250 mg N/kg and placed under waterlogged incubation. The possibility that the acidic pH of the subsoil, or the lack of a significant subsoil microbial population, was inhibiting mineralisation was also examined by increasing soil pH from 4.4 to 7.0, and inoculating the subsoil with surface soil microorganisms during waterlogged incubations. Low concentrations of N, approximately 90 kg N/ha between 1.2 and 3 m, were found in the native vegetation root material. In addition, no net N mineralisation was observed in either the extended incubation of intact cores or in the control samples of the waterlogged incubations. Net N mineralisation was also not detected when the subsoil was amended with a source of organic N. Results indicate that this lack of mineralisation is largely due to pH inhibition of the microbial population. It is concluded that the mineralisation of either in situ organic material, or DON transported to the subsoil during leaching events, is unlikely to have significantly contributed to the subsoil NH4 accumulation at the study site.
CFTR and its key role in in vivo resting and luminal acid‐induced duodenal HCO3− secretion

Background and aims: We investigated the role of the recently discovered, villous‐expressed anion exchanger Slc26a6 (PAT1) and the predominantly crypt‐expressed cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) in basal and acid‐stimulated murine duodenal HCO3− secretion in vivo, and the influence of blood HCO3− concentration on both.
Structural Insight into the Heme-based Redox Sensing by DosS from Mycobacterium tuberculosis*

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is thought to undergo transformation into its non-replicating persistence state under the influence of hypoxia or nitric oxide (NO). This transformation is thought to be mediated via two sensor histidine kinases, DosS and DosT, each of which contains two GAF domains that are responsible for detecting oxygen tension. In this study we determined the crystal structures of the first GAF domain (GAF-A) of DosS, which shows an interaction with a heme. A b-type heme was embedded in a hydrophobic cavity of the GAF-A domain and was roughly perpendicular to the β-sheet of the GAF domain. The heme iron was liganded by His-149 at the proximal heme axial position. The iron, in the oxidized form, was six-coordinated with a water molecule at the distal position. Upon reduction, the iron, in ferrous form, was five-coordinated, and when the GAF domain was exposed to atmospheric O2, the ferrous form was oxidized to generate the Met form rather than a ferrous O2-bound form. Because the heme is isolated inside the GAF domain, its accessibility is restricted. However, a defined hydrogen bond network found at the heme site could accelerate the electron transferability and would explain why DosS was unable to bind O2. Flavin nucleotides were shown to reduce the heme iron of DosS while NADH was unable to do so. These results suggest that DosS is a redox sensor and detects hypoxic conditions by its reduction.
Inverse larval development in a Devonian edrioasteroid from Spain and the phylogeny of Agelacrinitinae

The first edrioasteroid to be discovered from the Iberian Peninsula is reported from the Emsian (late Lower Devonian) of the north Spanish coast. It belongs to the species Krama devonica (Bassler) but is unusual in being a mirror image form. This is interpreted as the product of situs inversus during larval development whereby the coeloms on the right side rather than the left side of the bilateral larva have given rise to the definitive adult structures. Thus the hydropore lies in its mirror image position vis-a-vis the anterior/posterior axis and this axis must be homologous with Loven's symmetry plane in echinoids. The phylogenetic position of Krama is analysed cladistically and, by combining this with available stratigraphical information, the most parsimonious phylogenetic tree is produced for the subfamily Agelacrinitinae.
Unsupervised Declarative Knowledge Induction for Constraint-Based Learning of Information Structure in Scientific Documents

Inferring the information structure of scientific documents is useful for many NLP applications. Existing approaches to this task require substantial human effort. We propose a framework for constraint learning that reduces human involvement considerably. Our model uses topic models to identify latent topics and their key linguistic features in input documents, induces constraints from this information and maps sentences to their dominant information structure categories through a constrained unsupervised model. When the induced constraints are combined with a fully unsupervised model, the resulting model challenges existing lightly supervised feature-based models as well as unsupervised models that use manually constructed declarative knowledge. Our results demonstrate that useful declarative knowledge can be learned from data with very limited human involvement.
A novel image registration approach by the aid of point and curve features

With the advantages of point-feature and curve feature, a novel image registration approach is proposed in this paper. The method is more robust and more reliable, since it adopts the location information indexed by the correct matching pair of feature-points and transformation information determined by the correct matching pair of curves simultaneously. Also, the feasibility and advantages of this algorithm are all confirmed by the experiments in this paper.
Decomposition of litter in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest and a Pinus radiata plantation in southeastern Australia

This study of litter decomposition was part of an extensive project examining the partitioning of rainfall, the associated chemistry, and litterfall in a dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest and a Pinus radiata plantation in southeastern Australia. The eucalypt species studied were Eucalyptus rossii, E. mannifera and E. dives. The components tested were Pinus radiata needles, leaves of the three eucalypt species, and the bark of E. rossii and E. mannifera.
Cortical Thickness in Congenital Amusia: When Less Is Better Than More

Congenital amusia (or tone deafness) is a lifelong disorder characterized by impairments in the perception and production of music. A previous voxel-based morphometry (VBM) study revealed that amusic individuals had reduced white matter in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) relative to musically intact controls (Hyde et al., 2006). However, this VBM study also revealed associated increases in gray matter in the same right IFG region of amusics. The objective of the present study was to better understand this morphological brain anomaly by way of cortical thickness measures that provide a more specific measure of cortical morphology relative to VBM. We found that amusic subjects (n = 21) have thicker cortex in the right IFG and the right auditory cortex relative to musically intact controls (n = 26). These cortical thickness differences suggest the presence of cortical malformations in the amusic brain, such as abnormal neuronal migration, that may have compromised the normal development of a right frontotemporal pathway.
Knowledge on Alzheimer's Disease among Public Hospitals and Health Clinics Pharmacists in the State of Selangor, Malaysia

The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has increased with the fast growing of aging population, thereby posing great challenges to provision of care for AD patients. Pharmacists play a vital role in the management of AD; this includes recognizing early symptoms of AD, providing medication counseling to AD patients and their caretakers, and identifying potential adverse drug reactions. A comprehensive understanding of the disease progression, as well as the pharmacological therapy, is essential to provide effective care to AD patients. The level of knowledge about AD among the pharmacists, however, remains unknown. Hence, this study aimed to assess the knowledge on AD among the pharmacists in public hospitals and health clinics and its correlates. A clear picture of the characteristics associated with different levels of knowledge could facilitate the targeted re-training of pharmacists. The 30-item validated Alzheimer disease knowledge scale (ADKS) tool was pilot-tested and used in this cross-sectional study. All pharmacists, from nine public hospitals and seven public health clinics in the State of Selangor, Malaysia, were invited to participate in this cross-sectional survey. The ADKS score was computed and compared across demographics characteristics. A total of 445 pharmacists responded to the survey. These pharmacists had a moderate overall score in ADKS; nevertheless, high scores were recorded in the domains of treatment management and care giving. No difference in AD knowledge was found among pharmacists worked in public hospitals and health clinics, except for the domain of care giving (p = 0.033). Ethnicity and age group were independent predictors of ADKS score in the current study. The pharmacists in the current study had moderate AD knowledge. On-going education and training programme on AD, in particular the domains other than treatment management and care giving, should be provided to the pharmacists to ensure delivery of quality care to AD patients.
Detection of Bacteria in Phagocyte‐Smears from Septicemia‐Suspected Blood by In Situ Hybridization Using Biotinylated Probes

We report herein the detection of intracellular bacteria in phagocyte‐smears obtained from septicemia‐suspected blood samples by in situ hybridization. This was obtained by using nick‐translated biotin‐11‐dUTP‐labeled DNA probes and streptavidin‐alkaline phosphatase conjugates for visualization of the hybridized signals. The probes were made from random genomic DNA clones of bacteria which are frequently the causative agents of bacteremia, such as Staphylococcus spp. , Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter spp. When our in situ hybridization method was compared with conventional culture protocols for the ability to detect bacteria from the blood of patients suspected of having septicemia, 30 positive results were obtained in 50 specimens by in situ hybridization methods. In contrast, only 7 positive results were obtained by blood cultures. Thus, even if bacteria cannot be detected by conventional blood cultures and histology, our in situ hybridization method allows for direct observation of bacterial foci in circulating phagocytes and identification of the bacteria. Our investigations suggest that in septicemia, circulating polymorphonuclear neutrophils carry some surviving bacteria as well as metabolized bacterial DNA and RNA for a considerable period of time. Thus, our in situ hybridization method using the phagocyte‐smears have diagnostic value for detecting most bacteria which cause septicemia.