Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Heavy Metals Pollution in Dumpsites in Ilorin Metropolis

Speciation and distribution of heavy metals in soil controls the degree to which metals and their compounds are mobile, extractable, and plant available. Eight strategically located dumpsites in Ilorin metropolis (an averagely growing city and a state capital) were chosen for dumpsites-soil characteristics study. Both the estimated total and potentially available metals were studied using EPA 1311 and Tessier’s et al methods respectively. It was observed that the groundwater is vulnerable to contamination as no treated basement to adsorb toxic metals was provided for in the sites. About 70% of Mn, Fe, Zn, Cd and Pb were found in the exchangeable bound to carbonate and bound to iron/manganese oxide fractions. These fractions represent the mobile and lethal portion of the total metals to the ecosystem. The metal enrichment factor revealed that Zn, Cd and Pb were of anthropogenic source while Fe is of natural and anthropogenic sources. The dumpsites in Ilorin, therefore pose negative consequences on the soil and groundwater environment
infinite state automaton to model changes of word frequency in a document stream , with state transitions considered as events

Detecting important events in high volume news streams is an important task for a variety of purposes. The volume and rate of online news increases the need for automated event detection methods that can operate in real time. In this paper we develop a networkbased approach that makes the working assumption that important news events always involve named entities (such as persons, locations and organizations) that are linked in news articles. Our approach uses natural language processing techniques to detect these entities in a stream of news articles and then creates a time-stamped series of networks in which the detected entities are linked by co-occurrence in articles and sentences. In this prototype, weighted node degree is tracked over time and change-point detection used to locate important events. Potential events are characterized and distinguished using community detection on KeyGraphs that relate named entities and informative noun-phrases from related articles. We performed an evaluation against human annotation and against simple text-based clustering, finding that our system detects more events than simple clustering and compares well to human annotations.This methodology already produces promising results and will be extended in future to include a wider variety of complex network analysis techniques.
LIDAR-Based Lane Marking Detection For Vehicle Positioning in an HD Map

Accurate self-vehicle localization is an important task for autonomous driving and ADAS. Current GNSS-based solutions do not provide better than 2–3 m in open-sky environments [1]. Moreover, map-based localization using HD maps became an interesting source of information for intelligent vehicles. In this paper, a Map-based localization using a multi-layer LIDAR is proposed. Our method mainly relies on road lane markings and an HD map to achieve lane-level accuracy. At first, road points are segmented by analysing the geometric structure of each returned layer points. Secondly, thanks to LIDAR reflectivity data, road marking points are projected onto a 2D image and then detected using Hough Transform. Detected lane markings are then matched to our HD map using Particle Filter (PF) framework. Experiments are conducted on a Highway-like test track using GPS/INS with RTK correction as ground truth. Our method is capable of providing a lane-level localization with a 22 cm cross-track accuracy.
Hands Up at Home: Militarized Masculinity and Police Officers Who Commit Intimate Partner Abuse

The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the almost daily news stories about abusive and violent police conduct are currently prompting questions about the appropriate use of force by police officers. Moreover, the history of police brutality directed towards women is well documented. Most of that literature, however, captures the violence that police do in their public capacity, as officers of the state. This article examines the violence and abuse perpetrated by police in their private lives, against their intimate partners, although the public and private overlap significantly to the extent that the power and training provided to police officers by the state makes them significantly more dangerous as abusers. Intimate partner abuse by police officers is a systemic, structural issue created and fueled by the ways in which police officers are socialized and trained. Police officers are more likely than others to abuse their partners, and as a result of their training and their state imprimatur, police abuse of partners is more problematic and more potentially dangerous than abuse by civilians. Changing the behavior of abusive police officers may be nearly impossible given the interplay of policing and masculinity. Policing is a male profession; it encourages and rewards many of the same notions of masculinity that underscore intimate partner abuse. Feminist theories about how intimate partner abuse serves a means of asserting control over one’s partner may not explain officer-involved domestic violence; intimate partner abuse in law enforcement may be part of a larger pattern of violent behavior justified by problematic notions of masculinity. Moreover, the increasing militarization of police forces has given rise to a particularly pernicious type of masculinity, militarized masculinity, which is reflected in the attitudes and training of and methods used by police officers, both on the street and at home. Despite the high rates of intimate partner abuse by police officers, however, each incident is treated as an isolated event, rather than part of a systemic problem, and officers are largely able to act with impunity because of their centrality in the law and policy response to intimate partner abuse in the United States. The state has a serious stake in this conversation, not only because it trains and arms abusers, but because it depends upon these same abusers to enforce the very laws that they are violating in their own relationships. The U.S. response to intimate partner abuse relies heavily on the criminal justice system to enforce domestic violence laws; this article asks whether criminalization can succeed as a policy when police officers are disproportionately committing intimate partner abuse.
Exploring Microworlds of Music Meanings

Los trabajos publicados en esta revista están bajo la licencia Creative Commons AtribuciónNoComercial 2.5 Argentina Exploring Micro-worlds of Music Meanings Ignazio Macchiarella Università di Cagliari, Italia macchiarella@unica.it, i.macchiarella@gmail.com Abstract A musical practice may have exclusive meanings shared only by some groups of people within a society. In fact, music has the capacity to create spaces for reserved communication between groups of individuals. Within these ambits, performance activity accompanies more or less articulated forms of thinking of the same performers and parts of competent listeners, since, if nothing else, each musical event is imagined previously and discussed afterwards. This shared knowledge impregnates the concreteness of musical expression, often explaining the variability which is perceptible when listening from outside the group. To investigate this kind of ambit of construction of meanings, it is necessary to try to get as close as possible to the cognitions shared by those who belong to it. To this end, a very significant contribution can come from heuristic approaches based on the strategies of dialogue, above all, negotiated dialogues (and not simple juxtapositions of different opinions) where, on the basis of deep mutual trust, through the intertwining and interaction of different points of view, elements of interpretation emerge for the scholar. This text aims to deal with this, based on a concrete methodological experience.
Adaptive Power Level for DSRC Congestion Control

Vehicular industries and researchers have invested efforts to reduce avoidable accidents through the means of Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) wireless communication using Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) through the periodic exchange of Basic Safety Messages (BSMs). The transmission rate of BSMs is defined by IEEE 1609 to be 10 Hz. With a high vehicular density, Network Congestion can quickly arise in the 5.9 GHz spectrum, rendering the system as unreliable because safety messages are not delivered on time. Researchers have focused on altering the rate of transmission and/or power of transmission in congestion control algorithms. The rate of transmission dictates how many messages each vehicle sends per second. Further, the transmission power dictates how far each message travels; it is known that messages transmitted with higher power will reach further distances. Based on that, our algorithm performs two operations to mitigate channel congestion; a) we send a number of low powered packets based on the node’s velocity, the higher the velocity then the higher transmission power, then followed by a high powered packet to maintain awareness for distant vehicles, b) we increase the power of transmission in a cyclic fashion. By doing so, we can maintain necessary level of awareness for closer vehicles, while sacrificing some awareness for distant ones. The goal is to provide adequate awareness for all vehicles, while reducing the overall congestion of the wireless channel.
Ventriculo-Arterial Coupling: an ideal problem for collaboration between clinicians and engineers

The performance of the cardiovascular system depends on the interaction between the left ventricle and the arterial tree. Functional analysis of this interaction requires that the left ventricle and the arterial system be described in similar terms. Effective arterial elastance (Ea) characterizes the functional properties of the arterial system and ventricular end-systolic elastance (Ees) characterizes the ventricular systolic function. The efficiency of energy transfers between the left ventricle and the arterial system strongly depends on Ees/Ea ratio. The aim of this paper is to show the interest of collaboration between cardiologists and engineers, to elaborate new original techniques to assess ventriculo-arterial coupling in critically ill patient and guide hemodynamic therapy.
Dynamics of carbon allocation in a deep-water population of the deciduous kelp Pleurophycus gardneri (Laminariales)

Pleurophycus gardneri (Laminariales) is common in the low intertidal of the Northeast Pacific, but dominates many deep (30 to 40 m) rocky reefs in central California. Seasonal dynamics of productivity and resource allocation of a deep-water population of this deciduous, stipitate kelp were studied to understand how blade abscission affects the annual carbon budget. Patterns of growth, metabolism, and carbon storage and mobilization were measured monthly for 1 yr relative to in situ light and temperature, and used to model the annual carbon budget. The resulting carbon budget was used to determine if blade abscission effectively reduced respiratory demand during the winter period of low light availability. Metabolic properties (photosynthesis, photoacclimation, and respira- tion) were seasonally constant and showed evidence of photoacclimation to this deep, low-light environment. Blades grew between February and July, followed by senescence and sloughing from August to December. Concentrations of laminaran and mannitol increased in the blades from the onset of sloughing in August until just prior to blade abscission in mid-December, suggesting translocation of these carbohydrates may have occurred from the blade to the stipe and holdfast. Carbon budget estimates revealed that scalar irradiance measures overestimated the light available for photosynthesis of these paddle-shaped kelp blades by 50 to 75%. The calculations also revealed that blade retention allowed for the maintenance of positive carbon balance throughout the year. Thus, conservation of the internal carbon reserve for metabolic survival during the low-light period does not appear to be a viable explanation for the deciduous life history of P. gardneri. Abscission may reduce hydrodynamic drag, thus minimizing the probability of dislodgment of entire plants during winter storm events, or promote spore dispersal as abscised blades and sori drift away from the parent holdfast.
Viability of the use of grass in the cultivation of the medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum

The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of ten types of grasses as base substrate for the cultivation of strain GLM-10/02 of Ganoderma lucidum, considering the chemical characterization of the substrates, the biological efficiency (BE), the quantification of fresh and dry basidiomata and the number of basidiomata as evaluation criteria. Ten treatments were outlined, made up with napier or elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), marandu grass (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu), aruana grass (Panicum maximum cv. Aruana), massai grass (Panicum maximum cv. Massai), mombaca grass (Panicum maximum cv. Mombaca), brachiaria grass (Brachiaria decumbens cv. Basilisk), humidicola (Brachiaria humidicola cv. humidicola), xaraes grass (B. brizantha cv. Xaraes), tifton (Cynodon species cv. Tifton 85), piata grass (B. brizantha cv. BRS Piata) and a control treatment based on eucalyptus sawdust. All the treatments had 80% of grass, 18% of wheat bran and 2% of limestone, with humidity adjusted to 60%. The treatments based on B. brizantha cv. Aruana (aruana) and Cynodon spp. cv. Tifton 85 (tifton) showed the best results, with 22.9 and 25% of BE, respectively. These data showed that not all grasses used in the experiment have the same fungal biomass conversion and it was concluded that B. brizantha cv. Aruana (aruana) and Cynodon spp. cv. tifton 85 (tifton) were the most indicated grasses for the cultivation of G. lucidum. Key words: Productivity, biological efficiency, substrates, fungi.
Vegetation dynamics contributes to the multi‐decadal variability of precipitation in the Amazon region

Precipitation in most of the Amazon shows multi‐decadal fluctuations that were linked to oceanic forcing in the Atlantic. This modeling study shows that vegetation dynamics may play a major role in such low‐frequency variability in the Amazon. Despite the large amount of annual precipitation, the presence of a dry season (albeit short) facilitates a strong impact of dynamic vegetation on precipitation persistence in the model. The year‐to‐year variation of net primary productivity (NPP) is dominated by that of the dry season NPP. As a result, above‐normal (below‐normal) precipitation in a particular year can enhance (suppress) vegetation growth, leading to widespread increase (decrease) of vegetation density in the subsequent year. Precipitation in the subsequent year is therefore more likely to be above (below) normal. This damping effect of vegetation enhances low‐frequency variability of precipitation and leads to recurrent droughts or floods, a result previously considered characteristic of arid and semi‐arid regions.
Phloem‐specific resistance in Brassica oleracea against the whitefly Aleyrodes proletella

The cabbage whitefly [Aleyrodes proletella L. (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)] is becoming a serious pest in Brassica oleracea L. (Brassicaceae) crops. However, almost nothing is known about the interaction of this insect with its host plants. Previous studies have shown differences in the natural occurrence of adults, eggs, and nymphs on the closely related B. oleracea cultivars Christmas Drumhead and Riviera grown in the field. In this study, we aimed to identify the nature of these differences and to gain insight into the resistance mechanisms against A. proletella. We used no‐choice experiments on field‐ and greenhouse‐grown plants to show that the differences between the two cultivars are mainly based on antibiosis (traits that reduce herbivore performance) and not on antixenosis (traits that deter herbivory). This was further supported by laboratory choice experiments that indicated little or no discrimination between the two cultivars based on plant volatiles. We showed that resistance is dependent on plant age, that is, resistance increased during plant development, and is mainly independent of environmental factors. Analysis of probing behaviour revealed that the resistance trait affects A. proletella at the phloem level and that morphological differences between the two cultivars are most likely not involved. We suggest that compounds present in the phloem reduce sap ingestion by the whitefly and that this explains the observed resistance.
ICT, Output and Productivity Growth in the United Kingdom: A Sectoral Analysis

Much has been written, including in previous issues of the Monitor, on the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in productivity growth, but this research has focused primarily on North America. In the fourth article, Giovanni Notaro of London Economics investigates this issue for the United Kingdom using a bottom-up analysis, in which aggregate trends are derived from trends in the 11 sectors of the economy. Using a standard growth accounting framework, Notaro finds ICTs made a substantial contribution to output growth in the largest sectors of the UK economy in the 1990s, and that ICT capital is a primary driver of labour productivity growth in all UK sectors except mining and quarrying. He concludes that the weaker productivity performance of the United Kingdom relative to the United States can be attributed mainly to slower accumulation of capital, both ICTs and non-ICTs.
Reduction of a matrix depending on parameters to a diagonal form by addition operations

It is shown that any n by n matrix with determinant 1 whose entries are real or complex continuous functions on a finite dimensional normal topological space can be reduced to a diagonal form by addition operations if and only if the corresponding homotopy class is trivial, provided that n 5$ 2 for real-valued functions; moreover, if this is the case, the number of operations can be bounded by a constant depending only on n and the dimension of the space. For real functions and n = 2, we describe all spaces such that every invertible matrix with trivial homotopy class can be reduced to a diagonal form by addition operations as well as all spaces such that the number of operations is bounded. Introduction. Let X be a topological space Rx the ring of all continuous functions X -* R (the reals), Rx the subring of bounded functions. For any natural number n and a ring A, MnA denotes the ring of all n by n matrices over A. A matrix a in MnRX can be regarded as a real matrix depending continuously on a parameter which ranges over X, or as a continuous map X -+ MnR. Assume now that det(a) = 1, i.e. a E SLnRX. We want to reduce a to the identity matrix ln by addition operations, i.e. represent a as a product of elementary matrices ai7, where a E A = RX, 1 < i :$ j < n. Since the subgroup EnA of SLnA generated by all elementary matrices is normal [6], it does not matter whether we use row or column addition operations, or both. Note that, by the Whitehead lemma, every diagonal matrix in SLnA is a product of 4(n -1) elementary matrices (for any commutative ring A), so a matrix a in SLnA, can be reduced to ln if and only if it can be reduced to a diagonal form. When X is a point, so A = Rx = R, it is well known that this can be done. Moreover [3, Remark 10 with sr(R) = m = 1], this can be done using at most (n 1)(3n/2 + 1) addition operations. For an arbitrary X, a homotopy obstruction may exist which prevents the reduction. Namely, the addition operations do not change the homotopy class ir(a) of the corresponding map X -+ SLnR. So if this class is not trivial, the reduction is impossible. Assume now that the homotopy class r(a) is trivial (for example, this is always the case when X is contractible). Is it possible to reduce a to ln by addition operations, i.e. does a belong to the subgroup EnRX of SLnRX generated by elementary matrices)? If yes, how many operations are needed? Received by the editors March 2, 1987 and, in revised form, June 18, 1987. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification (1985 Revision). Primary 18F25. 1988 American Mathematical Society 0002-9939/88 $1.00 + $. 25 per page
Preparation and characterization of nanofibrous polymer scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering

Polymer substrates obtained from poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibres modified with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and gelatin (GEL) for cartilage tissue engineering are studied. The work presents the results of physical, mechanical, and biological assessment. The hybrid structure of PLA and gelatine nanofibres, carbon nanotubes - (CNTs-) modified PLA nanofibres, and pure PLA-based nanofibres was manufactured in the form of fibrous membranes. The fibrous samples with different microstructures were obtained by electrospinning method. Microstructure, physical and mechanical properties of samples made from pure PLA nanofibres, CNTs-, and gelatin-modified PLA-nanofibres were studied. The scaffolds were also tested in vitro in cell culture of human chondrocytes collected from patients. To assess the influence of the nanofibrous scaffolds upon chondrocytes, tests for cytotoxicity and genotoxicity were performed. The work reveals that the nanofibrous structures studied were neither genotoxic nor cytotoxic, and their microstructure, physical and mechanical properties create promising scaffolds for potential use in cartilage repairing.
Influence of Building Heights and Nature of Rooftop Views on Propagation Loss Prediction for Tropical Environment in Ondo State, Nigeria

In One of the underlying difficulties with the application of a predicting path loss model for any environment is that no two areas have the same building composition. It is therefore intractable to formulate the exact path loss model for all location. In order to overcome some of the problem stated above, parameters of certain propagation models must be finetuned with reference to target environment. In this study, the ITU-R 526 adopted WalfischBertoni (W/B) path loss model is optimized base on the experimental campaign over some selected locations in Western part of Nigeria. Afterwards, the multiple diffraction loss component of the W/B model was modified to incorporate effects of building height variation ∆Hb . In addition to variations in buildings height, the effect of top view of buildings on the diffraction of roof top fields down to street level were estimated between 1.61 dB and 5.32. The optimized model will be useful for the new breed technologies especially the advanced long term evolution in Nigeria.
Pathwise construction of tree-valued Fleming-Viot processes

In a random complete and separable metric space that we call the lookdown space, we encode the genealogical distances between all individuals ever alive in a lookdown model with simultaneous multiple reproduction events. We construct families of probability measures on the lookdown space and on an extension of it that allows to include the case with dust. From this construction, we read off the tree-valued $\Xi$-Fleming-Viot processes and deduce path properties. For instance, these processes usually have a.s. cadlag paths with jumps at the times of large reproduction events. In the case of coming down from infinity, the construction on the lookdown space also allows to read off a process with values in the space of measure-preserving isometry classes of compact metric measure spaces, endowed with the Gromov-Hausdorff-Prohorov metric. This process has a.s. cadlag paths with additional jumps at the extinction times of parts of the population.