Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile air monitoring data-processing strategies and effects 2171 Collect Data Design Study Local Emission Plume Detection Background Standardization Smoothing : Temporal and / or Spatial Data Analysis Time Alignment Emissions Quantification

The collection of real-time air quality measurements while in motion (i.e., mobile monitoring) is currently conducted worldwide to evaluate in situ emissions, local air quality trends, and air pollutant exposure. This measurement strategy pushes the limits of traditional data analysis with complex second-by-second multipollutant data varying as a function of time and location. Data reduction and filtering techniques are often applied to deduce trends, such as pollutant spatial gradients downwind of a highway. However, rarely do mobile monitoring studies report the sensitivity of their results to the chosen data-processing approaches. The study being reported here utilized 40 h ( > 140 000 observations) of mobile monitoring data collected on a roadway network in central North Carolina to explore common data-processing strategies including local emission plume detection, background estimation, and averaging techniques for spatial trend analyses. One-second time resolution measurements of ultrafine particles (UFPs), black carbon (BC), particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were collected on 12 unique driving routes that were each sampled repeatedly. The route with the highest number of repetitions was used to compare local exhaust plume detection and averaging methods. Analyses demonstrate that the multiple local exhaust plume detection strategies reported produce generally similar results and that utilizing a median of measurements taken within a specified route segment (as opposed to a mean) may be sufficient to avoid bias in near-source spatial trends. A time-series-based method of estimating background concentrations was shown to produce similar but slightly lower estimates than a location-based method. For the complete data set the estimated contributions of the background to the mean pollutant concentrations were as follows: BC (15 %), UFPs (26 %), CO (41 %), PM 2.5−10 (45 %), NO2 (57 %), PM10 (60 %), PM2.5 (68 %). Lastly, while temporal smoothing (e.g., 5 s averages) results in weak pair-wise correlation and the blurring of spatial trends, spatial averaging (e.g., 10 m) is demonstrated to increase correlation and refine spatial trends.
Spatial and temporal trends in brominated fl ame retardants in seabirds from the Paci fi c coast of Canada

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) are bioaccumulative flame retardants. PBDEs increased in many ecosystems during the late 20th century, but recently have declined in some environments. To examine trends in the northern Pacific, we analysed PBDEs, HBCDD and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (d13C and d15N) to account for dietary effects in archived eggs of three seabird species from British Columbia, Canada, 1990e2011 (rhinoceros auklets, Cerorhinca monocerata; Leach's storm-petrels, Oceanodroma leucorhoa; ancient murrelets, Synthliboramphus antiquus, 2009 only). PBDEs increased until approximately 2000 and then decreased, while HBCDD increased exponentially throughout the examined period. No significant changes in dietary tracers were observed. HBCDD and SPBDE levels varied among species; SPBDE also varied among sites. Temporal changes in contaminant concentrations are unlikely to have been caused by dietary changes, and likely reflect the build-up followed by decreases associated with voluntary phase-outs and regulations implemented in North America to control PBDEs. Crown Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A survey of the castor oil content, seed weight and seed-coat colour on the United States Department of Agriculture germplasm collection

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is an important non-edible oilseed crop that can potentially be used as feedstock for biodiesel production. There are 1033 accessions in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) castor germplasm collection. The range of oil content in these accessions has never been surveyed. For exploiting castor as a feedstock for biodiesel production, the entire USDA castor collection was procured from the National Plant Germplasm System (Germplasm Resources Information Network) and the oil content was measured with nuclear magnetic resonance. The variation of oil content among all castor accessions ranged from 37.2 to 60.6% with an average of 48.2%. One hundred seed weights were determined and seed-coat colour was also recorded from each accession. One hundred seed weight ranged from 10.1 to 73.3 g with an average of 28.3 g. There was a significant correlation between seed weight and oil content but the correlation value was low (r = 0.1572, P < 0.0001). Fifty accessions with a wide range of oil content were selected to be field grown for further evaluation. The results obtained from this survey will be useful for castor breeders seeking germplasm accessions with high oil content in the collection.
An Investigation and Design of Networked Learning in Inner-City Leeds

A pedagogical framework for the implementation of a World Wide Web based course at an inner city Leeds school is described together with a detailed study of students own summarisation of course notes contained therein. Results of this study lead to some recommendations, principally that an artificial Learning Companion would help with the summarisation process, a feature which is lacking with the present support tool. Finally, an overview of a preliminary design for such a Learning Companion is presented as future work. Introduction Chapeltown and Harehills Assisted Learning Computer School (CHALCS) is an inner city Leeds school providing tuition and a supporting environment for pupils out of their normal school hours (Barker, 1998). The Computer Based Learning Unit at the University of Leeds has a long-standing research relationship with CHALCS and has in the past provided help in Science topics (Mohammed, 1996) and in evaluating CHALCS' effectiveness (Ravenscroft & Hartley, 1998). The work reported here is based upon the development of a novel Physics course in Astronomy and Optics utilising WebCT, a commercially available Virtual Learning Environment (Barker, 1999). This work aims to introduce Information Communications Technologies (ICT) to the CHALCS context together with an appropriate pedagogical framework then evaluate the utility of the approach. This paper begins with an introduction to the pedagogical framework adopted for this work. An investigation which aims to highlight the difficulties students have with one key area of ICT use, i.e. creating their own notes, is then described together with the results analyses. The following section outlines the recommendations resulting from this investigation then finally conclusions are reached about the work so far and possible directions for future work are proposed. Pedagogy of Networked Learning A three-phase pedagogical model has been iteratively developed for the introduction of ICT-based learning at CHALCS. It consists of Acquisition, Argumentation and Application (Barker 1999). Acquisition is concerned with obtaining knowledge from the course material and can be likened to the processes of accommodation and assimilation (Ausubel, 1985). The next stage, Argumentation, is concerned with reinforcing internalised knowledge by seeking evidence, comparing or (self) explaining and is best carried out in a challenging social context. At a scientific level argumentation would involve the formal process of deduction (Johnson-Laird, 1988) particularly relevant in Physical experimentation. Taking a broader view, argumentation can be taught in terms of linguistic techniques, by exploring the 1 The authors can now be contacted at tim@timbarker.org and r.m. pilkington@bham.ac. uk, respectively.
Production technology and quality characteristics of mead and fruit-honey wines: a review.

Mead is perhaps the oldest fermented drink in the world, yet it is difficult to find it commercially. A brief review of the history of mead, its value as a health tonic and technology of mead production has been given in the present paper. Fermentation of honey can be used to produce different varieties of mead, sherry, sparkling wine and fruit-honey wines and it may have different flavours depending upon floral source of honey, additives and type of yeast used in the fermentation. Honey which is the raw material to produce mead shows lot of variations in colour and composition which are likely to affect the end product (mead) produced. Composition of honey from different floral sources has also been described. One of the unique characters of honey is that it contains many minor constituents which are responsible for antioxidant activity of mead. Information on physical, chemical, microbiological and sensory evaluation of mead and honey wines prepared by using fruit juices has also been summarised.
Multitemporal Analysis of Floods and Tsunami Effects : annotations and quantitative analysis

This paper addresses the problem of multitemporal analysis of an available TerraSAR-X data time series covering the Sendai region in order to assess flood extent and damages caused by Tohuku-oki tsunami. Over the last decade the use of Earth Observation satellites to support disaster and emergency relief has considerably grown. In order to fully exploit highresolution satellite images, a method based on patches (each image is divided into non-overlapping tiles) is proposed to extract relevant contextual information. The local features of each patch act as a compact content descriptor. Further on, considering the available descriptors, the next step is to cluster the data in order to find similar semantic classes. The SVM classifier implements the concept of query by example using image content. The results include well-defined semantic classes, derived through semiautomatic methods thus developing an effective approach to the multitemporal analysis.
Augmented reality: an application of heads-up display technology to manual manufacturing processes

The authors describe the design and prototyping steps they have taken toward the implementation of a heads-up, see-through, head-mounted display (HUDset). Combined with head position sensing and a real world registration system, this technology allows a computer-produced diagram to be superimposed and stabilized on a specific position on a real-world object. Successful development of the HUDset technology will enable cost reductions and efficiency improvements in many of the human-involved operations in aircraft manufacturing, by eliminating templates, formboard diagrams, and other masking devices. <<ETX>>
Unconscious reward facilitates motion perceptual learning

Reward signal plays an important role in guiding human learning behaviour. Recent studies have provided evidence that reward signal modulates perceptual learning of basic visual features. Typically, the reward effects on perceptual learning were accompanied with consciously presented reward during the learning process. However, whether an unconsciously presented reward signal that minimizes the contribution of attentional and motivational factors can facilitate perceptual learning remains less well understood. We trained human subjects on a visual motion detection task and subliminally delivered a monetary reward for correct response during the training. The results showed significantly larger learning effect for high reward-associated motion direction than low reward-associated motion direction. Importantly, subjects could neither discriminate the relative values of the subliminal monetary reward nor correctly report the reward-direction contingencies. Our findings suggest that reward signal plays an important modulatory role in perceptual learning even if the magnitude of the reward was not consciously perceived.
LQR Problem of Continuous-time LTI Systems with Random Gains

EXTENDED ABSTRACT. This paper studies the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) problem of continuous-time LTI systems with random gains. The main novelty of this work is the use of the channel/controller co-design framework which bridges and integrates the design of the channels and the controller. The co-design is carried out by the twist of channel resource allocation, i.e., the channel capacities can be allocated by the control designer subject to an overall capacity constraint. By virtue of this additional design freedom, under certain conditions, a nice analytic solution is obtained for the LQR problem with random gains. The optimal control law is a linear state feedback.
Probing the Circulation of Ring-shaped Bose-Einstein Condensates

Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technologyand the University of Maryland, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA(Dated: January 10, 2014)This paper reports the results of a theoretical and experimental study of how the initial circulationof ring–shaped Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) can be probed by time–of–ﬂight (TOF) images.We have studied theoretically the dynamics of a BEC after release from a toroidal trap potential bysolving the 3D Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) equation. The trap and condensate characteristics matchedthose of a recent experiment. The circulation, experimentally imparted to the condensate by stirring,was simulated theoretically by imprinting a linear azimuthal phase on the initial condensate wavefunction. The theoretical TOF images were in good agreement with the experimental data. Weﬁnd that upon release the dynamics of the ring–shaped condensate proceeds in two distinct phases.First, the condensate expands rapidly inward, ﬁlling in the initial hole until it reaches a minimumradius that depends on the initial circulation. In the second phase, the density at the inner radiusincreases to a maximum after which the hole radius begins slowly to expand. During this secondphase a series of concentric rings appears due to the interference of ingoing and outgoing matterwaves from the inner radius. The results of the GP equation predict that the hole area is a quadraticfunction of the initial circulation when the condensate is released directly from the trap in whichit was stirred and is a linear function of the circulation if the trap is relaxed before release. Thesescalings matched the data. Thus, hole size after TOF can be used as a reliable probe of initialcondensate circulation. This connection between circulation and hole size after TOF will facilitatefuture studies of atomtronic systems that are implemented in ultracold quantum gases.
A comparative phylogenetic analysis of medicinal plant Tribulus terrestris in Northwest India revealed by RAPD and ISSR markers

Kumar A, Verma N. 2012.A comparative phylogenetic analysis of medicinal plant Tribulus terrestris inNorthwestIndia revealed by RAPD and ISSR markers.Biodiversitas 13: 107-113.Several DNA marker systems and associated techniques are available today for fingerprinting of plant varieties. A total of 5 RAPD and 8 ISSR primers were used. Amplification of genomic DNA of the 6 geno types, using RAPD analysis, yielded 164 fragmthat could be scored, of which 47 were polymorphic, with an average of 9.4 polymorphic fragments per primer. Number of amplified fragments with random primers ranged from 6 (AKR -1) to 10 (AKR-4) and varied in size from 200 bp to 2,500 bp. Percentage polymorphism ranged from 16% (AKR-4) to a maximum of 41% (AKR-4), with an average of 29.6%. The 8 ISSR primers used in the study produced 327 bands across 6 genotypes, of which 114 were polymorphic. The number of amplified bands varied from 7 (ISSR 7) to 1 2 (ISSR 1&3), with a size range of 250 -2,800 bp. The average numbers of bands per primer and polymorphic bands per primer were 40.87 and 14.25, respectively. Percentage polymorphism ranged from 24% (ISSR 4) to 53.8 4% (ISSR 2), with an average percentage polymorphism of 35.59% across all the genotypes. The 3 2-anchored primers based on poly (AC) and poly (AT) motifs produced high average polymorphisms of 53.84% and 40.81%, respectively. ISSR markers were more efficient than the RAPD assay, as they detected 35.59% polymorphic DNA markers inTribulus terrestris as compared to 29.6% for RAPD markers.Clustering of genotypes within groups was not similar when RAPD and ISSR derived dendrogram were compared, whereas the pattern of clustering of the genotypes remai ned more or less the same in ISSR and combined data of RAPD and ISSR
Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio Predicts Short-Term Functional Outcome in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Inflammatory cascade following acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is an important pathological process in damaged brain tissue [4, 5]. The inflammatory process in AIS involves cytokines and chemokines released from ischemic tissues, promoting the accumulation of leukocytes to the ischemic areas [5, 6]. Among circulating leukocytes, neutrophils have been regarded as crucial mediators of ischemic injury [6-8]. Accumulated neutrophils release free oxygen radicals, various inflammatory cytokines, and neurotoxic substances, all of which cause cellular necrosis and apoptosis in ischemic tissues [9]. Lymphocytes, a type of leukocyte, are also known to be involved in inflammatory responses to AIS [10]. Low lymphocyte counts increase sympathetic activity and baseline cortisol levels, which can cause an increase in the production of inflammatory cytokines that aggravate ischemic injury [11]. Therefore, increased total white blood cell (WBC) and leukocyte counts, and reduced lymphocyte counts are associated with poor outcomes in various cardiovascular diseases [10,11]. Theoretically, anti-inflammatory therapy may be beneficial in stroke management and has been shown to be effective in some experimental models [12, 13]. However, anti-neutrophil Abstract: The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been proposed to predict clinical outcome in cardiovascular diseases. We assessed the significance of the NLR as a predictor of outcome in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients.
Importance of Yeast in Ruminants Feeding on Production and Reproduction

Benefits of yeast supplements for ruminants are shifts in microbial population numbers and species, favorable changes in volatile fatty acids contents of rumen, positive effects on rumen ammonia disappearance, positive effects on rumen pH, promotes metabolism digestion, increase in fiber digestibility and changes in microbial protein and amino acids in large intestine. In addition, benefits of Yeast supplements for ruminants are improving the overall intestinal bacteria balance, reducing digestive problems, lower risk of acidosis and reduction in the humidity of bedding resulting in lower stress levels. Feeding on feed mixture contained Active dry yeast (ADY) improved the appetite of animals which lead to increase the feed intake and consequently increased the daily weight gain of the treated animals. From the physiological point of view, adding ADY caused significant increase the levels of both T 4 and T 3 hormones which lead to increase the protein and fat biosyntheses. Moreover, benefits of yeast supplements for ruminants are increased milk production and improvements in milk quality, improves milk selenium content, reduced mastitis and somatic cell count, less stillbirths, weak neonates, improves fertility, reduced incidence of retained placenta, improved immune response, increases immune resistance, high content in B-vitamins and trace elements, enhances weight gain and feed utilization.
Non-text Ink Stroke Classification in Japanese Handwriting Based on Markov Random Fields

In this paper, we present an approach for separating text and non-text ink strokes in online handwritten Japanese documents based on Markov random fields (MRFs), which effectively utilize the spatial relationship between strokes. Support vector machine (SVM) classifiers are trained for individual stroke and stroke pair classification, and on converting the SVM outputs to probabilities, the likelihood clique potentials of MRF are derived. In experiments on the TUAT Kondate database, the proposed MRF approach yield superior performance compared to individual stroke classification and sequence classification based on hidden Markov models (HMMs).
Simple graphene chemiresistors as pH sensors: fabrication and characterization

We report the fabrication and characterization of a simple gate-free graphene device as a pH sensor. The graphene sheets are made by mechanical exfoliation. Platinum contact electrodes are fabricated with a mask-free process using a focused ion beam and then expanded by silver paint. Annealing is used to improve the electrical contact. The experiment on the fabricated graphene device shows that the resistance of the device decreases linearly with increasing pH values (in the range of 4–10) in the surrounding liquid environment. The resolution achieved in our experiments is approximately 0.3 pH in alkali environment. The sensitivity of the device is calculated as approximately 2 kΩ pH−1. The simple configuration, miniaturized size and integration ability make graphene-based sensors promising candidates for future micro/nano applications.
Rolling Circle Amplification Is More Sensitive than PCR and Serology-Based Methods in Detection of Banana streak virus in Musa Germplasm

Banana (Musa sp.) is a popular and important crop among many communities in East Africa. Banana production is however threatened by the wide-spread banana streak disease (BSD), caused by Banana streak virus (BSV). The success of BSV management is inherently coupled to the availability of a sensitive indexing method. In this study, the sensitivity of three BSV detection techniques: rolling circle amplification (RCA), immunocapture PCR (with degenerate and Gold finger primers) and standard PCR was compared. A set of 32 BSD-asymptomatic samples were used to compare the techniques. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparison of the four techniques showed that there were significant differences (P < 0.05) among all the means, with RCA and direct PCR having the highest detection mean values. Owing to its fidelity and capacity to circumvent the amplification of the integrated nuclear viral sequences, the RCA technique is recommended for routine indexing of Musa tissues for BSV. This study unveils a more reliable BSV detection method, a need that has remained unaddressed for a long while.
Sol-gel as methodology to obtain bioactive materials

We employed the sol-gel methodology to obtain a silica matrix modified with calcium and phosphate ions. We prepared the matrix by hydrolysis and condensation of the precursors triethyl phosphate, calcium nitrate, and tetraethylorthosilicate, which were the sources of phosphate, calcium, and silicon, respectively. We dried and heat-treated the samples at 110 or 900°C and placed them in simulated body fluid (SBF) for three days. We conducted scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and infrared spectroscopy analyses, which evidenced that the sample treated at 110°C contained calcium phosphate silicate and hydroxyapatite before and after contact with SBF, respectively. The sample treated at 900°C exhibited a hydroxyapatite phase before and after contact with SBF, but the crystalline phase was more evident after the contact. In conclusion, the sol-gel methodology provided bioactive samples for bone regeneration.