Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Anthropogenic Phosphorus Loads to Freshwater and Associated Grey Water Footprints and Water Pollution Levels: A High‐Resolution Global Study

We estimate the global anthropogenic phosphorus (P) loads to freshwater and the associated grey water footprints (GWFs) for the period 2002–2010, at a spatial resolution of 5 × 5 arc min, and compare the GWF per river basin to runoff to assess the P‐related water pollution level (WPL). The global anthropogenic P load to freshwater systems from both diffuse and point sources is estimated at 1.5 Tg/yr. More than half of this total load was in Asia, followed by Europe (19%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (13%). The domestic sector contributed 54% to the total, agriculture 38%, and industry 8%. In agriculture, cereals production had the largest contribution to the P load (31%), followed by fruits, vegetables, and oil crops, each contributing 15%. The global total GWF related to anthropogenic P loads is estimated to be 147 × 1012 m3/yr, with China contributing 30%, India 8%, USA 7%, and Spain and Brazil 6% each. The basins with WPL > 1 (where GWF exceeds the basin's assimilation capacity) together cover about 38% of the global land area, 37% of the global river discharge, and provide residence to about 90% of the global population.
The presence of secondary circulating prostate tumour cells determines the risk of biochemical relapse for patients with low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer who are treated only with external radiotherapy

Introduction The classification of patients with prostate cancer is used to determine treatments based on risk factors. The presence of secondary circulating prostate tumour cells (CPCs) detected in peripheral blood after a curative treatment has been associated with a worse prognosis. We present a prospective study of CPC detection post radiotherapy and the oncological results. Patients and methods All of the patients classified as low and intermediate risk that were treated with radiotherapy were included. Three months after finishing treatment, an 8-ml blood sample was taken to detect CPCs. Mononuclear cells were obtained using gel centrifugation, and CPCs were identified using immunocytochemistry with anti-prostate-specific antigen. Patients were classified as low-risk CPC positive or negative and intermediate-risk CPC positive or negative. The biochemical relapse-free survival analysis was determined based on a follow-up of up to 15 years using the Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression models. Biochemical failure was defined according to the Pheonix II criteria. Results Of 241 patients, 181 (75.1%) were classified as low risk and 60 (24.9%) as intermediate risk. Biochemical failure was observed in 27.1% (49/181) of the low-risk prostate cancer participants and in 53.3% (32/60) of intermediate-risk participants after 15 years of follow-up. 20.4% (37/181) of the low-risk cancer participants had detectable CPCs in comparison with 43.3% (26/60) of the intermediate-risk cancer participants (p < 0.001 overall risk 2.98, confidence interval (CI) 95% 1.59–5.56; relative risk 2.12, CI 95% 1.41–3.19). Positive CPC patients had a worse prognosis, and a shorter time period until biochemical relapse, regardless of risk group. The biochemical relapse-free survival curves show that intermediate-risk participants who were CPC negative had a higher survival rate and slower disease progression than those participants who were low risk but CPC positive. Conclusions CPC detection is a risk factor for biochemical relapse and could be useful in identifying patients that will need additional treatment.
A hybrid approach for the recognition of hand postures using texture and skin saliency map

Recognition of Hand Postures using skin, texture and saliency map is proposed in this paper. The first task is to separate the hand from the background in the input image. Hand detection depends on whether the image includes only the hand against a background or the entire person and this is a very challenging task. All the techniques which have been proposed in the past have certain limitations. Their performance is affected by the illumination or lighting conditions and complexity of backgrounds of the hand images. To overcome the above mentioned limitations, a new technique is proposed for the recognition of hand posture which involves using the Skin, Texture and Saliency map for the classification of hand gesture. This technique efficiently makes the use of different color spaces, skin detection, saliency map and texture features of the hand image. To recognize the different hand gesture classes, the features are extracted using the proposed methodology. The classification is done by combining the features from these different techniques and this final feature vector is used for the classification of hand posture. The SVM classifier is used for classifying the hand posture based on the feature. The application of this technique on array of experimental images shows that the proposed model has stable performance for a wide range of applications in different and complex environments.
Study on classification of land cover targets over parts of Burdwan, West Bengal using RISAT-1 hybrid polarimetric SAR images and optical remote sensing data

The objective of this paper study delineates the m-delta and m-chi space decomposition methods to determine the behavior of scattering mechanisms in terms of odd bounce, even bounce and volume component for detection of crops and other land cover targets over parts of Burdwan, West Bengal using hybrid SAR images of India's first microwave radar imaging satellite-1 (RISAT-1). It is observed that volume component is similar in both the decompositions. However, this component is over-estimated as compared to odd and even bounce scattering mechanisms for all land cover targets. The supervised maximum likelihood classification has been performed in this paper. Apart from this, the same area was also monitored using optical remote sensing imagery. An overall classification accuracy of above 85 % is observed using hybrid SAR and optical data.
Distinct colonization waves underlie the diversification of the freshwater sculpin (Cottus gobio) in the Central European Alpine region

Ecological speciation and adaptive radiation are key processes shaping northern temperate freshwater fish diversity. Both often involve parapatric differentiation between stream and lake populations and less often, sympatric intralacustrine diversification into habitat‐ and resource‐associated ecotypes. However, few taxa have been studied, calling for studies of others to investigate the generality of these processes. Here, we test for diversification within catchments in freshwater sculpins in a network of peri‐Alpine lakes and streams. Using 8047 and 13 182 restriction site‐associated (RADseq) SNPs, respectively, we identify three deeply divergent phylogeographic lineages associated with different major European drainages. Within the Aare catchment, we observe populations from geographically distant lakes to be genetically more similar to each other than to populations from nearby streams. This pattern is consistent with two distinct colonization waves, rather than by parapatric ecological speciation after a single colonization wave. We further find two distinct depth distribution modes in three lakes of the Aare catchment, one in very shallow and one in very deep water, and significant genomewide differentiation between these in one lake. Sculpins in the Aare catchment appear to represent an early‐stage adaptive radiation involving the evolution of a lacustrine lineage distinct from parapatric stream sculpins and the repeated onset of depth‐related intralacustrine differentiation.
MICHELLE simulation and performance using domain decomposition

Progress has been made in the area of domain decomposition using the NRL CAPSTONE mesher and the MICHELLE beam optics code. Domain decomposition, being the standard for parallelization for mesh-based solvers, has been implemented in the MICHELLE code environment. CAPSTONE was chosen as the volumetric mesher for a variety of reasons, but for this purpose it is suited to the production of Domain-Decomposed meshes. The approach taken to support domain-decomposition from the mesher through to the solution and visualization is presented.
Distributed source coding of multiview images

Considering nodes energy and channel bandwidth limitations in a multiview images network, avoiding inter-node communication in the coding scheme is necessary and makes the communication efficient, in comparison with conventional coding methods with internode communication. In our system, we consider a multiview images network as an array of nodes on a line with the same distance to each other. Each node in this system includes a camera to capture with a limited processing and communication abilities. We propose a multiview images coding without requiring inter-node communication, to gain the advantage of correlation at decoder side for two network configurations, but the main concept of the proposed coding for both network configurations is the same. The two network configurations are distinguished based on presence of parent node in each cluster, which sends full information to central node (i.e. joint decoder). The other nodes called children nodes and send their partial information to central node. In this paper, a coding scheme is proposed for multiview images network with parent node based on the number of parent nodes (i.e. “one parent node cluster” and “two parent node cluster”) in each cluster. Not that, because we are involved with multiview images, the decoding procedure is searching for correspondence between partially sent multiview images data. In coding scheme with parent node, if each parent node fails the decoding task of children nodes will be failed or the error caused by corresponding search during the decoding of children nodes is increased if network uses other parent nodes to decode the cluster without parent node. To make the network robust in case of node failure, we avoid parent nodes, and developed a network configuration where all nodes are children nodes (i.e. "without parent node cluster"). For such a network, we also propose a coding algorithm for multiview images that the joint decoder at central node is able to decode the partial information of each children node with side information of other children node. So, in case of losing any viewpoint, joint decoder is still able to decode other received partial information of children nodes. Finally, we have compared coding scheme of network with and without inter-node communication for different cluster configuration mentioned herein, and “all parent node cluster” configuration, considering communication rate in the network, symmetry in communication and decoding quality of children node, and their robustness in case of nodes failure.
Effects of living at moderate altitude on pulmonary vascular function and exercise capacity in mice with sickle cell anaemia

Sickle cell disease (SCD) results in cardiopulmonary dysfunction, which may be exacerbated by prolonged exposure to environmental hypoxia. It is currently unknown whether exposure to mild and moderate altitude exacerbates SCD associated cardiopulmonary and systemic complications. Three months of exposure to mild (1609 m) and moderate (2438 m) altitude increased rates of haemolysis and right ventricular systolic pressures in mice with SCD compared to healthy wild‐type cohorts and SCD mice at sea level. The haemodynamic changes in SCD mice that had lived at mild and moderate altitude were accompanied by changes in the balance between pulmonary vascular endothelial nitric oxide synthase and endothelin receptor expression and impaired exercise tolerance. These data demonstrate that chronic altitude exposure exacerbates the complications associated with SCD and provides pertinent information for the clinical counselling of SCD patients.
Reference values of vessel diameters, stenosis prevalence, and arterial variations of the lower limb arteries in a male population sample using contrast-enhanced MR angiography

Introduction Morphological characterization of leg arteries is of significant importance to detect vascular remodeling triggered by atherosclerotic changes. We determined reference values of vessel diameters and assessed prevalence of stenosis and arterial variations of the lower limb arteries in a healthy male population sample. Methods Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography at 1.5 Tesla was performed in 756 male participants (median age = 52 years, range = 21–82 years) of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania. Vessel diameters were measured in 9 predefined segments of the pelvic and leg arteries and 95th percentiles were used for upper reference values of means of left and right side arteries. Results Reference values of vascular diameters decreased from proximal to distal arteries: common iliac = 1.18cm; internal iliac = 0.75cm; external iliac = 1.03cm; proximal femoral = 1.02cm; distal femoral = 0.77cm; popliteal = 0.69cm; anterior tibial = 0.42cm; posterior tibial = 0.38cm; fibular = 0.40cm. Body-surface area indexed reference values increased with age in all segments. A number of 53 subjects (7.0%) had at least one stenosis, mainly in the lower leg arteries anterior tibial (n = 28, 3.7%), posterior tibial (n = 18, 2.4%) and fibular (n = 20, 2.6%). The risk of stenosis increased considerably with age (odds ratio = 1.08; p<0.001). The most common arterial variant was type I-A in both legs (n = 620, 82%). Conclusion We present reference values for different pelvic and leg artery segment diameters in men that decrease from proximal to distal and increase with age. Stenoses were most prevalent in lower leg arteries and type I-A was the most common variant in the lower leg.
Are neoliberals more susceptible to bullshit?

We conducted additional analyses of Pennycook et al.’s (2015, Study 2) data to investigate the possibility that there would be ideological differences in “bullshit receptivity” that would be explained by individual differences in cognitive style and ability. As hypothesized, we observed that endorsement of neoliberal, free market ideology was significantly but modestly associated with bullshit receptivity. In addition, we observed a quadratic association, which indicated that ideological moderates were more susceptible to bullshit than ideological extremists. These relationships were explained, in part, by heuristic processing tendencies, faith in intuition, and lower verbal ability. Results are inconsistent with approaches suggesting that (a) there are no meaningful ideological differences in cognitive style or reasoning ability, (b) simplistic, certainty-oriented cognitive styles are generally associated with leftist (vs. rightist) economic preferences, or (c) simplistic, certainty-oriented cognitive styles are generally associated with extremist (vs. moderate) preferences. Theoretical and practical implications are briefly addressed.
Probabilistic roadmaps-spline based trajectory planning for wheeled mobile robot

This paper proposes a trajectory planning of a mobile robot using Probabilistic Roadmaps [PRM] with spline technique. In the proposed method, the PRM method is combined with the spline technique to generate smooth trajectories, which are important for curved path navigation of a wheeled mobile robot. The PRM technique is expanded to a cubic Ferguson's curve, a spline based method. Trajectories that are been generated using the proposed PRM-Spline combination satisfies direction constraints approach on both source and target positions. This makes the proposed algorithm remarkably unlike from other trajectory planning algorithms. As a result, the paths produced by the mobile robots are sub-optimal, dynamically and geometrically feasible, and satisfy direction constraints approaches. Simulation results that are performed affirm these PRM-Spline technique properties and manifest the proposed algorithm validity, implying that it can be efficiently used in trajectory planning of wheeled mobile robot operating in real-time environments.
Subsynchronous Oscillations Caused by Open-Loop Modal Coupling Between VSC-Based HVDC Line and Power System

A closed-loop interconnected model of a power system with a voltage source converter (VSC)-based HVDC line (VSC-HVDC line) is established, wherein, a selected control system of the VSC-HVDC line and rest of the power system are modeled as two separate open-loop subsystems. Based on the established model, a special condition of open-loop modal coupling is studied, when a complex pole of the open-loop selected control subsystem of the VSC-HVDC line is close to a subsynchronous oscillation (SSO) mode of open-loop power subsystem on the complex plane. Theoretical analysis indicates that when the open-loop modal coupling occurs, subsynchronous interactions (SSIs) between the VSC-HVDC line and the rest of power system may become strong. It is very likely that the open-loop modal coupling may degrade the damping of power system SSOs. Hence, the mechanism that the VSC-HVDC line may cause the SSOs in the power system is revealed from the perspective of open-loop modal coupling. In this paper, study cases of example power systems with the VSC-HVDC line are presented to demonstrate and evaluate the analysis and conclusions made.
A DC link capacitors' voltage balancing method in unidirectional cascaded H-bridge converter using multi-limb-core (MLC) transformer

The DC-DC modular cascaded H-bridge topology is being employed in high-/medium-voltage dc grids. The primary problem that may arise in modular converters is capacitor voltage unbalance which may cause module failure. This paper presents a modular cascaded H bridge with transformer isolated DC-DC converter which operates at synchronized half duty cycle. The converter is isolated by a multi-limb-core (MLC) transformer. A control-free and reliable balancing method for capacitors' voltage is proposed. The mechanism of the balancing method has also been presented. Simulation and experimental results are provided as a verification to the feasibility of the proposed voltage balancing method.
A new way to look at simulation-based assessment: the relationship between gaze-tracking and exam performance.

OBJECTIVE A key task of the team leader in a medical emergency is effective information gathering. Studying information gathering patterns is readily accomplished with the use of gaze-tracking glasses. This technology was used to generate hypotheses about the relationship between performance scores and expert-hypothesized visual areas of interest in residents across scenarios in simulated medical resuscitation examinations. METHODS Emergency medicine residents wore gaze-tracking glasses during two simulation-based examinations (n=29 and 13 respectively). Blinded experts assessed video-recorded performances using a simulation performance assessment tool that has validity evidence in this context. The relationships between gaze patterns and performance scores were analyzed and potential hypotheses generated. Four scenarios were assessed in this study: diabetic ketoacidosis, bradycardia secondary to beta-blocker overdose, ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and metabolic acidosis caused by antifreeze ingestion. RESULTS Specific gaze patterns were correlated with objective performance. High performers were more likely to fixate on task-relevant stimuli and appropriately ignore task-irrelevant stimuli compared with lower performers. For example, shorter latency to fixation on the vital signs in a case of diabetic ketoacidosis was positively correlated with performance (r=0.70, p<0.05). Conversely, total time spent fixating on lab values in a case of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was negatively correlated with performance (r= −0.50, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS There are differences between the visual patterns of high and low-performing residents. These findings may allow for better characterization of expertise development in resuscitation medicine and provide a framework for future study of visual behaviours in resuscitation cases.
Fine-grained complexity for sparse graphs

We consider the fine-grained complexity of sparse graph problems that currently have Õ(mn) time algorithms, where m is the number of edges and n is the number of vertices in the input graph. This class includes several important path problems on both directed and undirected graphs, including APSP, MWC (Minimum Weight Cycle), Radius, Eccentricities, BC (Betweenness Centrality), etc. We introduce the notion of a sparse reduction which preserves the sparsity of graphs, and we present near linear-time sparse reductions between various pairs of graph problems in the Õ(mn) class. There are many sub-cubic reductions between graph problems in the Õ(mn) class, but surprisingly few of these preserve sparsity. In the directed case, our results give a partial order on a large collection of problems in the Õ(mn) class (along with some equivalences), and many of our reductions are very nontrivial. In the undirected case we give two nontrivial sparse reductions: from MWC to APSP, and from unweighted ANSC (all nodes shortest cycles) to unweighted APSP. We develop a new ‘bit-sampling’ method for these sparse reductions on undirected graphs, which also gives rise to improved or simpler algorithms for cycle finding problems in undirected graphs. We formulate the the notion of MWC hardness, which is based on the assumption that a minimum weight cycle in a directed graph cannot be computed in time polynomially smaller than mn. Our sparse reductions for directed path problems in the Õ(mn) class establish that several problems in this class, including 2-SiSP (second simple shortest path), s-t Replacement Paths, Radius, Eccentricities and BC are MWC hard. Our sparse reductions give MWC hardness a status for the Õ(mn) class similar to 3SUM hardness for the quadratic class, since they show sub-mn hardness for a large collection of fundamental and well-studied graph problems that have maintained an Õ(mn) time bound for over half a century. We also identify Eccentricities and BC as key problems in the Õ(mn) class which are simultaneously MWC-hard, SETH-hard and k-DSH-hard, where SETH is the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis, and k-DSH is the hypothesis that a dominating set of size k cannot be computed in time polynomially smaller than nk. Our framework using sparse reductions is very relevant to real-world graphs, which tend to be sparse and for which the Õ(mn) time algorithms are the ones typically used in practice, and not the Õ(n3) time algorithms.
Home bias persistence in foreign direct investments

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the issues related to home bias and foreign direct investments (FDIs). We study the role of physical, cultural, and institutional distances from home on FDI decisions taken by corporations to assess whether the globalization of the past two decades has reduced their influence. Using the ‘home bias’ framework from the finance literature and the gravity model from the economics literature, we utilize a large sample of both developed and emerging markets, using FDI flows of 6263 unique bilateral country pairs over a 30-year period. We find strong empirical evidence of persistent home bias in FDI outflows, and we show that not only physical distance but also cultural and institutional similarities between host and source countries remain a decisive factor in foreign corporate investment decisions. We also show that such home bias is persistent over time and is observed around the world.