Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Game ranching and land reform : Claims for the land exclaim tension : a case study of the Mapungubwe region

South Africa’s game ranching industry is perceived both positively and negatively. Positive perceptions of the industry exist owing to the argument that game ranching carries the prospect of augmenting sustainable conservation. Notwithstanding, negative associations of the industry arise from a growing body of evidence that game ranchers are thwarting the land reform process by fencing off their land to secure game ownership . Such perceptions are embedded within a sense of tension; wherein, if game ranching practices are a form of conservation, then such conservation practices may be contributing to conflict over land ownership and associated land usage. Accordingly, further investigation to ascertain what ranching practices entail and furthermore, what sustainable conservation involves could clarify the tension. A contextual analysis of ranching in the Mapungubwe region was thus sought. Fieldwork involving interviews with available key informants was conducted in the region. It was found, firstly, that a conceptual tension underpins game ranching; secondly, not all ranching can be deemed sustainable conservation and finally, that the sustainability of ranching itself is conditioned upon a range of factors. Tension between game ranching and land reform was discovered; yet such tension could not be attributed to nor felt by all of the key informants interviewed. It was concluded that tension is indeed present, but the tension is multi-dimensional in nature.
Assessing and discussing the efficacy in high-resolution aerosol optical depth using HJ-1 data

Atmospheric aerosol, which is an important parameter required for climate change studies, local air quality monitoring, global aerosol transport modeling, atmospheric correction and global aerosol characterization, decreases seriously regional air quality and may have a negative impact on public human health. Because aerosols had complex sources and the short lifetime, it is difficult to study the particles directly. Remote sensing satellites provided the best ways to characterize spatial field and regional characterization of aerosol particles. The study presents a prototype method for extracting high resolution aerosol optical depth (AOD) in eastern China using remote sensing satellites data. An AOD derivation experiment by HJ-1 CCD data was carried out in Zhejiang province, China, in April 22th, 2010. NASA's aerosol retrieval algorithm was introduced in the study which was developed Robert C. Levy and Lorraine A. Remer based on the Dark Dense Vegetation(DDV) algorithm of Kaufman. The Look-up Table was computed from the 6S RT model. The results had been validated by MODIS atmospheric aerosols production suggesting that the HJ-1 data works well for atmosphere particles detection under complex land characteristic of eastern China, especially in Zhejiang province. Such investigations are expanding satellites for AOD detection, as well as exploring the potential capability for air quality monitoring for HJ-1 data. A very large potential for HJ-1 as an efficient satellite data to retrieve aerosol products was also demonstrated in the study.
Overfeeding Polyunsaturated and Saturated Fat Causes Distinct Effects on Liver and Visceral Fat Accumulation in Humans

Excess ectopic fat storage is linked to type 2 diabetes. The importance of dietary fat composition for ectopic fat storage in humans is unknown. We investigated liver fat accumulation and body composition during overfeeding saturated fatty acids (SFAs) or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). LIPOGAIN was a double-blind, parallel-group, randomized trial. Thirty-nine young and normal-weight individuals were overfed muffins high in SFAs (palm oil) or n-6 PUFAs (sunflower oil) for 7 weeks. Liver fat, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), total adipose tissue, pancreatic fat, and lean tissue were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Transcriptomics were performed in SAT. Both groups gained similar weight. SFAs, however, markedly increased liver fat compared with PUFAs and caused a twofold larger increase in VAT than PUFAs. Conversely, PUFAs caused a nearly threefold larger increase in lean tissue than SFAs. Increase in liver fat directly correlated with changes in plasma SFAs and inversely with PUFAs. Genes involved in regulating energy dissipation, insulin resistance, body composition, and fat-cell differentiation in SAT were differentially regulated between diets, and associated with increased PUFAs in SAT. In conclusion, overeating SFAs promotes hepatic and visceral fat storage, whereas excess energy from PUFAs may instead promote lean tissue in healthy humans.
Constructing Inverted Files on a Cluster of Multicore Processors Near Peak I/O Throughput

We develop a new strategy for processing a collection of documents on a cluster of multicore processors to build the inverted files at almost the peak I/O throughput of the underlying system. Our algorithm is based on a number of novel techniques including: (i) a high-throughput pipelined strategy that produces parallel parsed streams that are consumed at the same rate by parallel indexers; (ii) a hybrid trie and Btree dictionary data structure that enables efficient parallel construction of the global dictionary; and (iii) a partitioning strategy of the work of the indexers using random sampling, which achieve extremely good load balancing with minimal communication overhead. We have performed extensive tests of our algorithm on a cluster of 32 nodes, each consisting of two Intel Xeon X5560 Quad-core, and were able to achieve a throughput close to the peak throughput of the I/O system. In particular, we achieve a throughput of 280 MB/s on a single node and a throughput of 6.12GB/s on a cluster with 32 nodes for processing the ClueWeb09 dataset. Similar results were obtained for widely different datasets. The throughput of our algorithm is superior to the best known algorithms reported in the literature even when compared to those running on much larger clusters.
Teenagers' perceptions of advertising in the online social networking environment : an exploratory study

This study explores teenager perceptions towards advertising in the online social networking environment. The future of online social networking sites is dependant upon the continued support of advertisers in this new medium, which is linked to the acceptance of advertising on these sites by their targeted audience. This exploratory study used the qualitative research methods of focus groups and in-depth personal interviews to gain insights from the teenager participants. The literature review in Chapter Two examined the previous research into advertising theories, consumer attitudes and issues such as advertising avoidance, advertising as a service and trust and privacy in the online social networking environment. The teenage consumer was also examined as were the influences of social identity theory. From this literature review eleven propositions were formed which provided a structure to the analysis of the research. Chapter Three outlined the multi-method research approach of using focus groups and in-depth interviews. The key findings were outlined in Chapter Four and Chapter Five provides discussion regarding these findings and the implications for theory and advertising practice. The main findings from this study suggest that teenagers have very high levels of advertising avoidance and are sceptical towards advertising on their online social networking sites. They have an inherent distrust of commercial messages in the online social networking environment; however they are extremely trusting with the information that they disclose online. They believe that if their site is classified as private, then the information disclosed on this site is not accessible to anyone. The study explores the reasons behind these views. This research has resulted in the identification of seven motivations behind online social networking use. A new model of advertising avoidance in the online social networking environment is also presented and discussed. This model makes a contribution towards filling the gap in available research on online social networking sites and advertising perception. The findings of this study have also resulted in the identification of the characteristics of online social networking sites as an advertising medium. The newness of online social networking sites coupled with the enthusiastic adoption of online social networking by the teenage demographic means that this exploratory study will be of interest to both academics and practitioners alike.
Intrusion Detection using Hidden Markov Model

The success of modern day technologies highly depends on its effectiveness of the world‘s norms, its ease of use by end users and most importantly its degree of information security and control. Cloud computing is a new and emerging information technology that changes the way of IT architectural solutions and put forward by means of moving towards the theme of virtualization of data storage, local networks (infrastructure) as well as software. Cloud computing has been envisioned as a next generation information technology (IT) paradigm for provisioning of computing services with a reduced cost and fast accessibility. It provides greater flexibility with lesser cost like on demands services, scalable network, and virtualized services to the end users[13][14]. Security threats in existing technologies and legacy will remain for intruders [14]. In this paper, different intrusion detection and prevention techniques are studies which affect availability, confidentiality and integrity of Cloud resources and services. Also examines proposals incorporating Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) in Cloud and types of attacks. Proposal of new ideas for detection and preventions of intruders to achieve desired security in the cloud [24]. General Terms Cloud computing, Hidden Markov Model
Irrigated Tip Catheters for Radiofrequency Ablation in Ventricular Tachycardia

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation with irrigated tip catheters decreases the likelihood of thrombus and char formation and enables the creation of larger lesions. Due to the potential dramatic consequences, the prevention of thromboembolic events is of particular importance for left-sided procedures. Although acute success rates of ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation are satisfactory, recurrence rate is high. Apart from the progress of the underlying disease, reconduction and the lack of effective transmural lesions play a major role for VT recurrences. This paper reviews principles of lesion formation with radiofrequency and the effect of tip irrigation as well as recent advances in new technology. Potential areas of further development of catheter technology might be the improvement of mapping by better substrate definition and resolution, the introduction of bipolar and multipolar ablation techniques into clinical routine, and the use of alternative sources of energy.
Markov and Semi-Markov Switching of Source Appearances for Nonstationary Independent Component Analysis

Independent component analysis (ICA) is currently the most popularly used approach to blind source separation (BSS), the problem of recovering unknown source signals when their mixtures are observed but the actual mixing process is unknown. Many ICA algorithms assume that a fixed set of source signals consistently exists in mixtures throughout the time-series to be examined. However, real-world signals often have such difficult nonstationarity that each source signal abruptly appears or disappears, thus the set of active sources dynamically changes with time. In this paper, we propose switching ICA (SwICA), which focuses on such situations. The proposed approach is based on the noisy ICA formulated as a generative model. We employ a special type of hidden Markov model (HMM) to represent such prior knowledge that the source may abruptly appear or disappear with time. The special HMM setting then provides an effect of variable selection in a dynamic way. We use the variational Bayes (VB) method to derive an effective approximation of Bayesian inference for this model. In simulation experiments using artificial and realistic source signals, the proposed method exhibited performance superior to existing methods, especially in the presence of noise. The compared methods include the natural-gradient ICA with a nonholonomic constraint, and the existing ICA method incorporating an HMM source model, which aims to deal with general nonstationarities that may exist in source signals. In addition, the proposed method could successfully recover the source signals even when the total number of true sources was overestimated or was larger than that of mixtures. We also propose a modification of the basic Markov model into a semi-Markov model, and show that the semi-Markov one is more effective for robust estimation of the source appearance.
A Population-Based Study of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and Sleep Problems in Elderly Twins

Background & Aims Previous studies indicate an association between sleep problems and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Although both these conditions separately have moderate heritabilities, confounding by genetic factors has not previously been taken into account. This study aimed to reveal the association between sleep problems and GERD, while adjusting for heredity and other potential confounding factors. Methods This cross-sectional population-based study included all 8,014 same-sexed twins of at least 65 years of age and born in Sweden between 1886 and 1958, who participated in telephone interviews in 1998–2002. Three logistic regression models were used 1) external control analysis, 2) within-pair co-twin analysis with dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs discordant for GERD, and 3) within-pair co-twin analysis with monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs discordant for GERD. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and adjusted for established risk factors for GERD, i.e. sex, age, body mass index (BMI), tobacco smoking, and educational level. Results A dose-response association was identified between increasing levels of sleep problems and GERD in the external control analysis. Individuals who often experienced sleep problems had a two-fold increased occurrence of GERD compared to those who seldom had sleep problems (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.8–2.4). The corresponding association was of similar strength in the co-twin analysis including 356 DZ pairs (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.6–3.4), and in the co-twin analysis including 210 MZ pairs (OR 1.5, 95% CI 0.9–2.7). Conclusion A dose-dependent association between sleep problems and GERD remains after taking heredity and other known risk factors for GERD into account.
Did Silencing Suppression Counter-Defensive Strategy Contribute to Origin and Evolution of the Triple Gene Block Coding for Plant Virus Movement Proteins?

Comparison of gene silencing in tissues and whole organisms shows intriguing similarities between plants and animals (Cohen and Xiong, 2011; Hyun et al., 2011; Jose et al., 2011; Melnyk et al., 2011; Molnar et al., 2011) despite that they are very different from each other in many aspects related to the cell-to-cell communications (Ritzenthaler, 2011). Interestingly, one of the shared mechanisms is the reprogramming of intracellular silencing pathways and intercellular communications during development of virus infections. As a part of their counter-defensive strategy, viruses encode silencing suppressors to inhibit various stages of the silencing process. These suppressors are diverse in sequence and structure and act via different molecular mechanisms including, particularly, blockage of intercellular and systemic spread of mobile small interfering RNAs (siRNAs; Li and Ding, 2006; Bivalkar-Mehla et al., 2011; Burgyan and Havelda, 2011; Shimura and Pantaleo, 2011; Song et al., 2011). Importantly, plant, insect, and animal virus suppressors can substitute for each other in different eukaryotic model systems (Schnettler et al., 2008; Jing et al., 2011; Maliogka et al., 2012; Zhu et al., 2012). Many viral proteins that in the past were characterized as proteins involved in systemic plant invasion are now known to be suppressors of gene silencing. For example, tombusvirus P19 blocks the intercellular movement of the silencing signal by binding DCL4-dependent 21-nt siRNA. Cucumovirus 2b protein inhibits the systemic movement of RNA silencing by either binding dsRNA/siRNA or inhibiting the slicer activity of AGO1. Potato virus X P25 protein also inhibits the systemic movement of RNA silencing (Li and Ding, 2006; Burgyan and Havelda, 2011; Shimura and Pantaleo, 2011). Direct link between the viral suppressor activity and the ability of virus to move cell-to-cell and long-distance is further strengthened by the discovery of plant movement proteins (MPs) acting also as silencing suppressors (Bayne et al., 1995; Voinnet et al., 1999; Yaegashi et al., 2007; Powers et al., 2008; Lim et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2010; Senshu et al., 2011; Renovell et al., 2012). On the other hand, it has been shown that the MPs of certain viruses act as viral enhancers of RNA silencing by promoting the propagation of RNA silencing from cell to cell (Vogler et al., 2008; Zhou et al., 2008; Lacombe et al., 2010; Amari et al., 2012).
Eye movements in monkeys with local dopamine depletion in the caudate nucleus. II. Deficits in voluntary saccades

Unilateral infusion of MPTP into the monkey caudate nucleus produced deficits in task-specific saccades, in addition to the deficits in spontaneous eye movements (preceding article). We trained three monkeys to perform two kinds of saccade tasks: (1) saccade task for eliciting visually guided saccades and (2) delayed saccade task for eliciting memory-guided saccades. After the MPTP infusion, dopaminergic function, estimated by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity, was shown to be decreased locally around the infusion site at the head-body junction of the caudate. We found that the deficits were prominent in the saccades directed to the side contralateral to the infusion (contralateral saccades). Memory-guided saccades were sometimes misdirected to the ipsilateral side even when the cue stimulus was presented on the contralateral side. Among the parameters of saccades, a selective change was found in the saccade latency: the latency was prolonged consistently in contralateral memory-guided saccades. The amplitude and velocity of saccades decreased in contralateral saccades, either memory guided or visually guided. The duration of saccades tended to increase in visually-guided saccades and memory-guided saccades, in both directions. Only one monkey, in which the decrease in TH activity included a large part of the putamen and the head of the caudate, showed prolongation of manual reaction time for lever release.
A guessing game and randomized online algorithms

We present the first general framework for proving lower bounds for randomized online algorithms using the von Neumann/Yao principle. This framework encompasses and explains many existent lower bound results, and allows us to prove several new ones. The foremost of the new results is a lower bound of 1.58197 for the online TCP acknowledgment problem of Dooly, Goldman and Scott [11]. Other new results include: a lower bound of 1.34880 for randomized online two-machine flow shop scheduling, a lower bound of 1.15775 for randomized online total completion time scheduling on parallel machines and a lower bound of 1.06532 for scheduling with machine cost. Out method provides a sort of 'Master theorem' for proving randomized lower bounds.
HUA: an interactive calligraphy and ink-wash painting system

This paper presents a novel Chinese calligraphy and painting system, which servers as an expressive vehicle for interactively creating Chinese traditional calligraphy and ink-wash painting works. We developed a calligraphy-brush model, which gives the user natural control of complex calligraphy-brush strokes. This model enhances the realistic sense of the user's manipulating the pen with the pressure sense. We also develop an ink-wash painting model which simulates Tuiyun - a unique Chinese ink-wash painting technique. User feedback has shown that the system is able to create vivid art works easily and smoothly.
The TWIST Data Acquisition System at Triumf

The TRIUMF Weak Interaction Symmetry Test (TWIST) is an experiment to measure precisely the Michel parameters describing the energy and angular dependence of positrons emitted from the decay of polarized positive muons. The detector consists of a 2 Tesla superconducting solenoid containing 56 planar chambers for high precision tracking of the positrons through readout of some 4200 multihit TDC channels. Being a high precision, high statistics experiment, control and monitoring of the beam and ambient conditions had to be closely integrated into the data acquisition system. A successful data run in 2002 produced more than 6 Giga events expected to yield some first physics results. This paper will describe the details and performance of the DAQ system including slow controls and online monitoring techniques.
Selective Sequential Model Selection

Many model selection algorithms produce a path of fits specifying a sequence of increasingly complex models. Given such a sequence and the data used to produce them, we consider the problem of choosing the least complex model that is not falsified by the data. Extending the selected-model tests of Fithian et al. (2014), we construct p-values for each step in the path which account for the adaptive selection of the model path using the data. In the case of linear regression, we propose two specific tests, the max-t test for forward stepwise regression (generalizing a proposal of Buja and Brown (2014)), and the next-entry test for the lasso. These tests improve on the power of the saturated-model test of Tibshirani et al. (2014), sometimes dramatically. In addition, our framework extends beyond linear regression to a much more general class of parametric and nonparametric model selection problems. To select a model, we can feed our single-step p-values as inputs into sequential stopping rules such as those proposed by G'Sell et al. (2013) and Li and Barber (2015), achieving control of the familywise error rate or false discovery rate (FDR) as desired. The FDR-controlling rules require the null p-values to be independent of each other and of the non-null p-values, a condition not satisfied by the saturated-model p-values of Tibshirani et al. (2014). We derive intuitive and general sufficient conditions for independence, and show that our proposed constructions yield independent p-values.
Seeking New Insights: A design thinking approach to the development of persuasive technology aimed at supporting clients of a weight management program

The application of persuasive technology has been shown to be effective in a weight management context. However, it has been observed that the impact is not as significant as predicted. The aim of this project was to investigate whether a Design Thinking approach could generate new insights that could be used to drive the development of an innovative application to help people on their weight management journey. Findings show that although no radically new user needs were identified, the needs that users did express most pertinently are not effectively met by currently available technology. Further, we examined the Design Thinking approach itself and sought to identify criteria for the design of successful insight gathering activities, through end-user engagement. We summarize these at the end of this paper. Author