Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
First radiocarbon dating of pollen and spores from syngenetic ice-wedge ice Eds.: by M.Philips, S.M.Springman, L.U.Arenson

The objectives of our study are to 1) elaborate the procedure for pollen concentrate extracting and AMS radiocarbon dating of pollen and spores extracted from syngenetic ice-wedges and surrounding sediments, 2) to obtain AMS radiocarbon dates of pollen concentrate from the ice-wedges ice and from host sediments 3) to work up quantitative criteria for evaluation of the dates obtained in terms of autochthonous and allochthonous matrix ratio in the samples using ancient pollen contents in the sample 4) to remove the non-pollen organic matrix and silicates. Taking into account the variety of techniques and different approaches to pretreatment of sediments of different origin (Brown et al. 1989; Gillespie 1990; Regnell 1992; Richardson & Hall 1994; Zhou et al. 1997; Kretschmer et al. 1999) and also the features of syngenetic ice-wedge formation, we elaborated a modified technique for pollen concentrate extraction from ice-wedge ice for AMS-dating. The first 14C dates of pollen and spores from syngenetic ice-wedge ice using AMS techniques shown that pollen in 3–5 kg of ice-wedge ice is enough for 14C dating, the dates of pollen are in good correlation with ratio of re-deposited and autochthonous pollen in the samples. Permafrost, Phillips, Springman & Arenson (eds) © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, ISBN 90 5809 582 7 Figure 1. Location map of Seyaha and Duvanny Yar Late Pleistocene syngenetic ice-wedge ice complexes. was developed (Long et al. 1992, Regnell 1992). The date of the bulk sample of the lacustrine sediments was also older in comparison with the date of pollen. Every variety of sediments required some modification of methods of sample pretreatment to find the optimal manner of pollen and spore extraction (Richardson & Hall 1994; Kretschmer et al. 1999). Taking into account these methods and also features of pollen occurrence in ice-wedge ice, such as the size of tundra plants pollen, incoming pollen into frost cracks together with melt water, and dust partially from host sediments we developed the methods of pretreatment ice-wedge ice samples (Table 1). The main tasks of our methods involved removal of organic admixtures and quartz debris and to prepare a relatively pure pollen concentrate without using carbonbased chemicals. As a result of the pretreatment, organic impurity of non-pollen origin and mineral admixture have been excluded. Fraction 10–60 of pure pollen concentrate was combusted to carbon dioxide and dated at Tandetron 4130 AMS of Seoul National University.
Nostalgic Sentiment Analysis of YouTube Comments for Chart Hits of the 20th Century

Examining the comments associated with YouTube postings of songs from the later decades of the 20th century can be fascinating. Many older people express how nostalgic the music might make them feel for that time in their lives, and how it evokes a desire to be young again. It is interesting to understand whether they reflect a social phenomenon only possible through modern technologies. The aim of this paper is to make an initial investigation. YouTube videos for Number 1 songs from the British charts since the 1960’s were identified. Their comments were extracted and labelled as being nostalgic or not. Two Machine learning techniques from the GATE tool were applied to the data for different feature sets to find which technique performed best at classifying nostalgia. The results show that, with cross-validation, the Decision Tree Classifier outperformed the Naïve Bayes. Additionally, it is shown that the feature set has an influence on the accuracy.
Losing the boxes: fragmentation as a source of system complexity

Despite the advances in mature engineering disciplines, some complex systems continue to fail, and sometimes catastrophically. The lack of understanding of a problem and all its constituting elements is a key determinant in project failure. This paper, which looks at systems containing people, argues that the use of transdisciplinary approaches will aid in the insight and comprehension of complex problems. It will also be shown that the inclusion of subjective and inter-subjective system aspects can contribute to a holistic systems approach, however, the appropriate tools to do that need to be selected.
Investigating the role of dust in ice nucleation within clouds and further effects on the regional weather system over East Asia – Part 2: modification of the weather system

Abstract. An updated version of the Weather Research and Forecast model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) was applied to quantify and investigate the full effects of dust on the meteorological field over East Asia during March and April 2012. The performances of the model in simulating the shortwave and longwave radiation, surface temperature, and precipitation over East Asia are improved by incorporating the effects of dust in the simulations. The radiative forcing induced by the direct radiative effect of dust is greater than that by the dust-enhanced cloud radiative effect. The indirect effects of dust result in a substantial increase in ice clouds at the middle to upper troposphere and a reduction in liquid clouds at the low to mid-troposphere. The radiative forcing combined with the redistribution of atmospheric water vapor results in an overall decrease in near-surface temperature and an increase in temperature at the middle to upper troposphere over East Asia, leading to an inhibition of atmospheric instability over most land areas, but an enhancement of atmospheric instability over south China. Upon considering the effects of dust, convective precipitation exhibits an inhibition over areas from central to east China and an enhancement over south China. Meanwhile, the locations of non-convective precipitation are shifted due to the perturbation of cloud water path. The total amount of precipitation over East Asia remains unchanged; however, the precipitation locations are shifted. The precipitation can be enhanced or inhibited by up to 20 % at particular areas.
Current Challenges in English Language Learning in Turkish EFL Context.

Accepted: 134.03. 2015 The purpose of this study was to investigate the current challenges in English language learning and teaching in Turkey from high and low achievers’ perspective. The study was qualitative in nature and the participants of the study were twenty-two students attending at various departments of a state university in Turkey. In this study, the question of “what were the challenges that you had while learning English? ” was asked to each participant and their responses were classified in terms of overall ideas, language skills, method, approach, practice, linguistic differences in two languages, personal differences, teacher, material, family and environment. The results of the study suggest that the objectives of English course should be realistic and be considered as a whole from primary education to higher education. Teaching and improving four language skills are supposed to be the focus of attention rather than grammar-centred language teaching. English courses should be designed as practice-based rather than theory-based. In addition, foreign language teachers should take into consideration the individual differences, learner characteristics and plan the activities in this regard. Foreign language teachers should take inservice training and update their professionalism from time to time. Finally, the materials such as course books, videos, and internet web sites should be chosen carefully according to the students’ interest, level and needs.
Clinical utility of microRNA-451 as diagnostic biomarker for human cancers

We conducted comprehensive analyses to assess the diagnostic ability of miRNA-451 in cancers. A systematic online search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, China’s national knowledge infrastructure, and VIP databases from inception to July 31, 2017. The bivariate random effect model was used for calculating sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and area under cure (AUC). The whole pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.85 (0.77–0.90) and 0.85 (0.78–0.90) with their 95% confidence interval (95%CI), respectively. The pooled AUC was 0.91 (95%CI: 0.89–0.94). Positive likelihood ratio was 5.57 (95%CI: 3.74–8.31), negative likelihood ratio was 0.18 (95%CI: 0.11–0.28), and diagnostic odds ratio was 31.33 (95%CI: 15.19–64.61). Among Asian population, the sensitivity and specificity were 0.85 (95%CI: 0.77–0.91) and 0.86 (95%CI: 0.78–0.91), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 5.87 (95%CI: 3.78–9.12) and 0.17 (95%CI: 0.11–0.28). The diagnostic odds ratio and AUC were 34.31 (15.51–75.91) and 0.92 (0.89–0.94). The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and AUC for digestive system cancer were 0.83, 0.88, 6.87, 0.20, 35.13, and 0.92, respectively. The other cancers were 0.87, 0.81, 4.55, 0.16, 28.51, and 0.90, respectively. For sample source, the results still remain consistent. Our results indicated miRNA-451 has a moderate diagnostic ability for cancers, and could be a potential early screening biomarker, and considered as an adjuvant diagnostic index when being combined with other clinical examinations.
MOOCs and their Influence on Higher Education Institutions: Perspectives from the Insiders

Since Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) became a global phenomenon in 2012, there has been constant evolution in the way Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) make sense of them. HEIs embracing MOOCs have dedicated a variety of human resource to this venture. Only in a minority of cases, staff have been appointed exclusively to this role. In all other cases, MOOC related tasks have been allocated to professionals who were already performing other educational tasks. This article contains a study that captures the experiences of these professionals in a Spanish university and a British university, as relates to their involvement in MOOCs. Interviews and group sessions were conducted to ascertain the influence of MOOCs in their practice, and in their opinions about the role of MOOCs in their institutions. The results seem to suggest that participants have positive attitudes towards incorporating MOOCs at the university, although they demand a serious bet for this educational approach from the strategic decision makers in the institutions.
Effect of Mastery Learning Approach on Secondary School Students Achievement in Chemistry in Rivers State Nigeria

The study examined the effect of mastery learning on secondary school achievement in chemistry. It adopted a quasi experimental design. A fifty (50) item multiple choice option of chemistry Achievement test constructed from chemical strometer, mole concept, electrolysis, acid, base and salt) was used for the collection of protest posttest scores. A 2x2x2 factorial design was used. The analysis of covariance ANCOVA was used in testing significance and validity of different variables used in the hypothesis. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSDS) was used for data analysis, to enhance accuracy of the result obtained. The resu1ts show that the mean difference in academic achievement between the two teaching approaches was in favour of the experimental group was very minimal (F(1.157=83,378, p=0.000), It also indicates that the mean difference in achievement between the male and female between the urban and rural students of the experimental group is very minimal (F(l, 77=1.233, p=2.70). It revered that the mean difference in achievement between the male and the female urban students of the experimental group was very minimal (F(I, 37=.871, p=357). It indicates that the mean difference in academic achievement between the male and the female rural students of the experimental group is very minimal F1, = 1.667, P = . 205). The experimental group (mastery learning) performed significantly better than the control group (conventional teaching method); government should motivate teachers by ensuring good conditions of service, considering that mastery learning strategy demand absolute dedication on the part of teachers, the schools should allow more flexibility in the time assigned to teach a unit of subject in order to attain mastery.
Rethinking the crime reducing effect of education : the role of social capital and organized crime

This paper estimates the causal effect of education on adolescent crime by exploiting a compulsory education reform implemented in 1999 in Italy. To identify the causal relation we use the reform as an instrument for adolescent high school enrollment, and compare the offending rates of the cohorts affected by the reform with the ones not affected. We find that one percentage point increase in the enrollment ratio reduces adolescent crime by 2.47 percent, and that the effect is highly heterogeneous across areas and mostly influenced by the degree of social capital and by the presence of organized crime. In areas characterized by pervasive organized crime, preventing adolescents from staying on the streets, by keeping them at school, is not enough to ensure the same crime reduction effect as in areas where organized crime is not pervasive.
SEASONAL VARIATION AND SPECIES DIVERSITY OF FISHES IN THE NEYY AR RIVER OF THE WESTERN GHATS

Temporal variation in the abundance of fish populations and diversity of assemblage~ in different sections of the Neyyar River in the Western Ghats were investigated during the year 1981+. A decreasing trend in. the ·abundance of fishes from the headwaters downwards has been noted" The fish community is represented by 33 species assignable to 15 families, The. diversity indices of Shannon-Wiener and Margalef and Pielou's evenness have been calculated. The diversity indices are discussed in the light of . species richness in different sectors.
Towards a Cloud Based Smart Traffic Management Framework

Abstract. Traffic big data has brought many opportunities for traffic management applications. However several challenges like heterogeneity, storage, management, processing and analysis of traffic big data may hinder their efficient and real-time applications. All these challenges call for well-adapted distributed framework for smart traffic management that can efficiently handle big traffic data integration, indexing, query processing, mining and analysis. In this paper, we present a novel, distributed, scalable and efficient framework for traffic management applications. The proposed cloud computing based framework can answer technical challenges for efficient and real-time storage, management, process and analyse of traffic big data. For evaluation of the framework, we have used OpenStreetMap (OSM) real trajectories and road network on a distributed environment. Our evaluation results indicate that speed of data importing to this framework exceeds 8000 records per second when the size of datasets is near to 5 million. We also evaluate performance of data retrieval in our proposed framework. The data retrieval speed exceeds 15000 records per second when the size of datasets is near to 5 million. We have also evaluated scalability and performance of our proposed framework using parallelisation of a critical pre-analysis in transportation applications. The results show that proposed framework achieves considerable performance and efficiency in traffic management applications.
Understanding the experience of interactive art: Iamascope in Beta_space

This paper describes a study into the situated experience of interactive art. The study was conducted with audiences of the artwork Iamascope and is framed by the four categories of embodied experience that have been proposed by its artist Sidney Fels. The video-cued recall method we employed was shown to reveal rich detail about situated interactive art experience. The results provide a detailed account of how the categories of embodiment manifest themselves in audience experience and lead to the proposal of a blueprint for the trajectory of interaction produced by Iamascope which may be generalisable to other interactive artworks.
The Adorno Legacy

Adorno's legacy to social psychology has little to do with the F-Scale of The Authoritarian Personality (1950). Instead, his contribution to this study was the method of qualitative con tent-analysis used in interpreting the interview material. The method can be identified as a dialectical, materialist, hermeneu tics. It construes the statements of respondents as "texts" that must be "deciphered," and emphasizes the way language unintention ally expresses the material structure of social reality. The larg er significance of Adorno's effort to merge science and art is that it begins to reinstate art as a legitimate mode of knowledge while at the same time recognizing the moment of "fantasy" in the proce dures of social science. Implied here is a new alternative to the natural science paradigm, the ideological content and inadequacies of which Adorno and his colleagues at the Frankfurt Institute did so much to expose.
The Influences of the Model Configuration on the Simulation of Stratospheric Northern-Hemisphere Polar Vortex in the CMIP5 Models

As a basic part of the atmosphere, the stratosphere plays an important role in the tropospheric climate and weather systems, especially during the winter, when the stratosphere and troposphere have their strongest interactions. This study assesses the abilities of the Fifth Phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and CMIP3 models to simulate the boreal winter stratospheric polar vortex. Analysis indicates that the models with well-resolved stratospheres, that is, with a high model top (HTOP) covering the whole stratosphere, a high vertical resolution (HVer) of the stratosphere, and nonorographic gravity wave drag (NOG), rank higher in both the temporal scoring system and the spatial scoring system. The extreme cold polar vortex bias, which was found in the CMIP3 models, vanishes in the CMIP5 models with HTOP, HVer, and NOG but persists in the other CMIP5 models. A dynamical analysis shows that the heat flux propagating into the stratosphere is stronger in models with HTOP, HVer, and NOG, but these propagations are still weaker than those in the ERA40 reanalysis, indicating the lack of variability in the current CMIP5 models.
Disinfection of Dental Equipment - Inactivation of Enterococcus mundtii on stainless steel and dental handpieces using Surface Micro-Discharge Plasma

are required to avoid the transmission of microorganisms not only from one patient to the other but also from/to the user. The autoclaving process is a well-established and proven method for disinfection ABSTRACT: Cold atmospheric plasma produced by a surface micro discharge (SMD) device Enterococcus mundtii inoculated and dried on stainless steel and dental handpieces. The novelty of this approach can be explained by the used setup incorporating a circular plasma system. The circular plasma system produces reactive plasma species, which are transported through the narrow cavities of a dental handpiece into a separate treatment chamber and which are subsequently recycled and transported back
Comparative Advantage of India in Agricultural Exports vis-a-vis Asia: A Post-reforms Analysis

Recent developments in the international trade scenario and corresponding alterations in Indiaâ€™s foreign trade policies have depicted far reaching implications for Indiaâ€™s agricultural sector in general and agricultural exports in particular. The present study has ascertained the changes in comparative advantage status of Indiaâ€™s major agricultural exports vis-a-vis other Asian players during the post-reforms period (1991-2004). It has been found that in exports of certain commodities like cashew and oil meals, India has been able to maintain its comparative advantage, but several others like tea, coffee, spices, marine products, etc. have been negatively affected. India has been found losing out its comparative advantage in export of some of the agricultural commodities to other Asian competitors during the period after economic reforms.
Psycho-physiological responses of mountain bike riders during anaerobic and aerobic testing

The objective was to compare the descriptive characteristics and psycho-physiological responses of elite and non-elite mountain bike riders to anaerobic and aerobic cycle testing. Nineteen male mountain bike riders were assessed for descriptive characteristics (anthropometric, VO 2max ) and for psychological (state-anxiety and perceived exertion) physiological (heart rate variability (HRV), testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) salivary hormones), and performance responses to a single bout of anaerobic and aerobic cycle test. The athletes were separated into elite (n=6) and the non-elite sub-divided into non-elite I (n=6), those with more experienced at riding, and non-elite II (n=7) who had less. No group difference were found for descriptive characteristics as well as for the state-anxiety, T and C hormones changes ( P >0.05). A significantly higher performance in both tests and a higher perceived exertion during the aerobic test were reported by the elite group compared to non-elite II group ( P <0.05). Also, the elite group produced a significantly larger HRV response than non-elite I and II ( P <0.001) in rest period. In conclusion, we can speculate that, the cumulative effect of mountain bike training could influence in the psychophysiological variables such as the great cardiac autonomic responses and perceived of exertion in male riders towards a better cycling performance.
Hydrologic Responses to Land Use Change in the Loess Plateau: Case Study in the Upper Fenhe River Watershed

We applied an integrated approach to investigate the impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) changes on hydrology at different scales in the Loess Plateau of China. Hydrological modeling was conducted for the LULC maps from remote sensing images at two times in the Upper Fenhe River watershed using the SWAT model. The main LULC changes in this watershed from 1995 to 2010 were the transformation of farmland into forests, grassland, and built-up land. The simulation results showed that forested land contributed more than any other LULC class to water yield, but built-up land had most impact due to small initial loss and infiltration. At basin scale, a comparison of the simulated hydrological components of two LULC maps showed that there were slight increases in average annual potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and water yield, but soil water decreased, between the two intervals. In subbasins, obvious LULC changes did not have clear impacts on hydrology, and the impacts may be affected by precipitation conditions. By linking a hydrological model to remote sensing image analysis, our approach of quantifying the impacts of LULC changes on hydrology at different scales provide quantitative information for stakeholders in making decisions for land and water resource management.
Car Racing Experiment : World Model for Feature Extraction

A generative recurrent neural network is quickly trained in an unsupervised manner to model popular reinforcement learning environments through compressed spatiotemporal representations. The world model’s extracted features are fed into compact and simple policies trained by evolution, achieving state of the art results in various environments. We also train our agent entirely inside of an environment generated by its own internal world model, and transfer this policy back into the actual environment. Interactive version of paper: https://worldmodels.github. io