Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indoor Emissions of Carbonaceous Aerosol and Other Air Pollutants from Household Fuel Burning in Southwest China

Field campaigns were conducted to determine indoor emissions of carbonaceous aerosols and other air pollutants from household fuel burning in southwest China. “1-h peak” concentrations of CO, PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 were 14.0 ppm, 200, 220, and 260 µg/m3 for wood and 10.3 ppm, 80, 110, and 180 µg/m3 for coal, respectively. Daily average levels of CO, PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 were 5.7 ppm, 100, 110, and 160 µg/m3 for wood and 6.0 ppm, 50, 70, and 100 µg/m3 for coal, respectively. For wood and coal, particle size distribution show a prominent Aitken mode with peaks at around 40–80 nm. Emission factors of BC and OC were 0.57 and 2.69 g/kg for wood and 0.01 and 0.31 g/kg for coal, respectively. The total BC emissions from wood and coal (anthracite) burning in China were 63.3 Gg in 2000 and 81.6 Gg in 2005, respectively
DialPort : Real-World Data for Academia Spoken Dialog Systems

This paper describes the DialPort spoken dialog Portal which gives academic dialog system creators the opportunity to connect with other dialog systems and run studies with real users. Indeed, the interaction with real users challenges system builders in ways that paid workers never do. The DialPort connection toolkit makes it easier for developers to link their systems to the Portal. With this ease in connecting and a flow of real data, DialPort paves the way for future academic research on an open platform.
Design Choices for Automated Disease Surveillance in the Social Web

The social web has emerged as a dominant information architecture accelerating technology innovation on an unprecedented scale. The utility of these developments to public health use cases like disease surveillance, information dissemination, outbreak prediction and so forth has been widely investigated and variously demonstrated in work spanning several published experimental studies and deployed systems. In this paper we provide an overview of automated disease surveillance efforts based on the social web characterized by their different high level design choices regarding functional aspects like user participation and language parsing approaches. We briefly discuss the technical rationale and practical implications of these different choices in addition to the key limitations associated with these systems within the context of operable disease surveillance. We hope this can offer some technical guidance to multi-disciplinary teams on how best to implement, interpret and evaluate disease surveillance programs based on the social web.
Learning Attribute Representations with Localization for Flexible Fashion Search

In this paper, we investigate ways of conducting a detailed fashion search using query images and attributes. A credible fashion search platform should be able to (1) find images that share the same attributes as the query image, (2) allow users to manipulate certain attributes, e.g. replace collar attribute from round to v-neck, and (3) handle region-specific attribute manipulations, e.g. replacing the color attribute of the sleeve region without changing the color attribute of other regions. A key challenge to be addressed is that fashion products have multiple attributes and it is important for each of these attributes to have representative features. To address these challenges, we propose the FashionSearchNet which uses a weakly supervised localization method to extract regions of attributes. By doing so, unrelated features can be ignored thus improving the similarity learning. Also, FashionSearchNet incorporates a new procedure that enables region awareness to be able to handle region-specific requests. FashionSearchNet outperforms the most recent fashion search techniques and is shown to be able to carry out different search scenarios using the dynamic queries.
Structured Skip List: A Compact Data Structure for 3D Reconstruction

The model produced by 3D reconstruction algorithm is usually represented by voxels. The management of these voxels is usually divided into two categories: ordered and unordered methods. The ordered method holds too many empty voxels to maintain data order which leads to a low storage efficiency. On the contrary, the unordered method keeps massive index data to only store nonempty voxels. In this paper, we design a new data management method for real-time indoor 3D reconstruction, called Structured Skip List (SSL). The SSL can be treated as a semi-ordered method, because the advantages of both the ordered and unordered methods are taken into account: 1) it only holds nonempty voxels similar to the unordered method; 2) the structured information is introduced to reduce the storage space of index data. By these designs, the SSL has a better performance on storage efficiency. To handle the data collision in voxel allocation, a hash allocation list (HAL) is proposed. The length of each Skip List is kept balanced by fusing the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) information for a high operation efficiency. The storage efficiency analysis of different data management methods is shown in this paper. What's more, exhaustive investigation is carried out on several datasets with these methods. The experimental result demonstrates that our design can achieve a high storage efficiency with little time loss compared to the state-of-the-art methods.
Discriminative training of GMM parameters for audio scene classification and audio tagging

This report describes the algorithm for audio scene classification and audio tagging and the result for DCASE 2016 challenge data. We propose a discriminative training algorithm to improve the baseline GMM performance. The algorithm updates the baseline GMM parameters by maximizing the margin between classes to improve discriminative performance. For Task1, we use a hierarchical classifier to maximize discriminative performance, and achieve 84% accuracy for given cross validation data. For Task4, we apply binary classifier for each label, and achieve 16.71% EER for given cross validation data.
Title. Preeclamptic placentae release factors that damage neurons: implications for foetal programming of disease Authors and affiliations

Prenatal development is a critical period for programming of neurological disease. Preeclampsi a, pregnancy complication involving oxidative stress in the placenta, has been associated with longterm health implications for the child, including an increased risk of developing schizophrenia and auti sm spectrum disorders in later life. To investigate if molecules released by the placenta may be impor tant mediators in foetal programming of the brain, we analysed if placental tissue delivered from pat ients with preeclampsia secreted molecules that could affect cortical cells in culture. Applica tion of culture medium conditioned by preeclamptic placentae to mixed cortical cultures caused changes in neurons and astrocytes that were related to key changes observed in brains of patients with schizophrenia and
Data Quality Network for Spatiotemporal Forecasting

The importance of learning from spatiotemporal data has been growing with the increasing number of data sources distributed over space. While numerous studies have been done for analyzing the spatiotemporal signals, existing models have assumed that the heterogeneous data sources in spatial domain are equally reliable over time. In this paper, we propose the novel method that infers the time-varying data quality level based on the local variations of spatiotemporal signals without explicitly assigned labels. Furthermore, we extend the formulation of the quality level by combining with graph convolutional networks to exploit the efficient architecture. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method by simulating a forecasting task with real-world climate data.
Alkali-ion Conduction Paths in LiFeSO4F and NaFeSO4F Tavorite-Type Cathode Materials

A new family of fluorosulfates has attracted considerable attention as alternative positive electrode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries. However, an atomic-scale understanding of the ion conduction paths in these systems is still lacking, and this is important for developing strategies for optimization of the electrochemical properties. Here, the alkali-ion transport behavior of both LiFeSO4F and NaFeSO4F are investigated by atomistic modeling methods. Activation energies for numerous ion migration paths through the complex structures are calculated. The results indicate that LiFeSO4F is effectively a three-dimensional (3D) lithium-ion conductor with an activation energy of ∼0.4 eV for long-range diffusion, which involve a combination of zigzag paths through [100], [010], and [111] tunnels in the open tavorite lattice. In contrast, for the related NaFeSO4F, only one direction ([101]) is found to have a relatively low activation energy (0.6 eV). This leads to a diffusion coefficient that is more.
People with a borderline personality disorder diagnosis describe discriminatory experiences

The psychiatric diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) attracts considerable stigma. People given this diagnosis may be characterised as manipulative, difficult, attention-seeking or untreatable. This paper describes a New Zealand study where eight people with a BPD diagnosis who self-identified as encountering discriminatory experiences from healthcare professionals were interviewed. Themes found included that discriminatory experiences contributed to participants' negative self-image and negative messages about the BPD label were communicated. A self-harm history appeared to be related to an increased number of discriminatory experiences. Connecting with the person and ‘seeing more’ (beyond an individual's diagnosis and/or behaviour) epitomised helpful experiences. Additionally, a relationship between stigma and the complaints process was noted. This study privileges the voice of those interviewed and may stimulate thought and discussion for services and health professionals working with this group.
Softening of Membrane Bilayers by Detergents Elucidated by Deuterium NMR Spectroscopy

Material properties of lipid bilayers were studied on the mesoscopic scale using deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The fluid phase of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) was compared with DMPC containing a nonionic detergent as an additive. Order parameter profiles were obtained from the deuterium NMR spectra of DMPC having perdeuterated acyl chains (DMPC-d54). A reduction of the order parameters of DMPC-d54 in the presence of the detergent octaethyleneglycol-mono-n-dodecyl ether (C12E8) was observed, consistent with an increased configurational freedom of the phospholipid acyl chains. Relaxation rates and were measured and spectral densities Jm(mω0) where m = 1,2 were calculated from the combined relaxation results. Profiles of the observables, i.e., order parameters, relaxation rates, and spectral densities were interpreted within the framework of a new composite membrane deformation model, which describes characteristic properties of the membrane in terms of a continuum .
Harmonizing Speculative and Non-Speculative Execution in Architectures for Ordered Parallelism

Multicore systems should support both speculative and non-speculative parallelism. Speculative parallelism is easy to use and is crucial to scale many challenging applications, while non-speculative parallelism is more efficient and allows parallel irrevocable actions (e.g., parallel I/O). Unfortunately, prior techniques are far from this goal. Hardware transactional memory (HTM) systems support speculative (transactional) and non-speculative (non-transactional) work, but lack coordination mechanisms between the two, and are limited to unordered parallelism. Prior work has extended HTMs to avoid the limitations of speculative execution, e.g., through escape actions and open-nested transactions. But these mechanisms are incompatible with systems that exploit ordered parallelism, which parallelize a broader range of applications and are easier to use. We contribute two techniques that enable seamlessly composing and coordinating speculative and non-speculative work in the context of ordered parallelism: (i) a task-based execution model that efficiently coordinates concurrent speculative and non-speculative ordered tasks, allowing them to create tasks of either kind and to operate on shared data; and (ii) a safe way for speculative tasks to invoke software-managed speculative actions that avoid hardware version management and conflict detection. These contributions improve efficiency and enable new capabilities. Across several benchmarks, they allow the system to dynamically choose whether to execute tasks speculatively or non-speculatively, avoid needless conflicts among speculative tasks, and allow speculative tasks to safely invoke irrevocable actions.
Molecular Evolutionary Studies of Genome Degradation in Bacteria

The genus Rickettsia belongs to the α-proteobacteria and consists of obligate intracellular bacteria, which often are pathogenic for humans. All Rickettsia have small genomes, highly adapted to an intracellular lifestyle. However, the ancestors of Rickettsia were most likely free-living organisms with substantially larger genomes, This thesis is a study of the reductive evolutionary processes by which Rickettsia has adapted to a life inside eukaryotic cells. The Rickettsia prowazekii genome sequence confirmed the close phylogenetic relationship between the genus Rickettsia and the mitochondria. In addition, 12 putative pseudogenes and an unusually large fraction of non-coding DNA (24%) were identified. Analysis of the metK genomic region in different Rickettsia species identified metK as a pseudogene in all but two lineages. The pattern of mutations indicated that the pseudogenes are no longer under purfying selection, and that metK was inactivated several times independently in different lineages. Similar patterns were found in many other Rickettsia pseudogenes, revealing an ongoing genome degradation process in the Rickettsia.Analysis of neutrally evolving pseudogenes showed that deletions dominate over insertions, and that there is a mutational bias towards A+T nucleotides, in the Rickettsia genomes. In agreement, the long intergenic regions in the R. prowazekii genome have a decreased G+C content. Several of these regions showed sequence homology to genes in orthologous positions in other Rickettsia genomes, which indicated that the long intergenic regions represent old genes that are disappearing from the genome.The ancestor of the two major Rickettsia groups may have encoded 200-300 additional genes compared to R. prowazekii. Differential loss of mostly genus specific genes during the evolution resulted in the present-day Rickettsia genomes. Currently, Rickettsia inactivates genes at a higher than they are eliminated from the genome by fixation of deletions.
Modern Techniques Of Teaching Elementary School Children With Migrant Backgrounds

Educational institutions take the leading place in psychological, pedagogical, sociocultural, and language adaptation of children with migrational backgrounds. The success of teaching mainly depends on the teacher. For effective work with children with migrational backgrounds, a teacher should have multicultural competences which are expressed in personal qualities and professional skills. An important component of teachers’ multicultural attributes is the understanding of forms, approaches, and working methods in a multicultural class in other words technologies of teaching and assisting pupils. The research objective is to systematize the technologies of teaching described in foreign and Russian scientific literature, to reveal the techniques of teaching children with migrational backgrounds applied in teaching practice. We used questionnaires with open questions in this study. The feedback from respondents were subjected to content analysis. Casual selection from sixty-three elementary school teachers were used in this research. Russian elementary school teachers working with children with migrational backgrounds were mostly considered in this study and we used ethnocultural, group, interactive, game technologies, technologies of individualization of teaching processes, and technologies of differentiated teaching. 21% of the interviewed teachers gave additional Russian lessons for children with migrational backgrounds, but did not use the technique of teaching Russian as foreign language. Also, several limitations in application of questioning methods in this research have come to light. These limitations have been related to the impossibility of obtaining specified, straightforward, and concretized answers from the respondents. © 2017 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.UK
SAUR53 regulates organ elongation and apical hook development in Arabidopsis

ABSTRACT SAUR53 is a member of SAUR (Small Auxin-Up RNA) gene family of primary auxin responsive genes. In Arabidopsis, SAUR gene family is represented by 81 genes including two pseudogenes; however, the functions of most of these genes are not fully characterized yet. In the present study, we show that SAUR53 expresses throughout the plant and localizes to both plasma membrane and the nucleus. Unlike most other SAUR genes, expression of SAUR53 is not induced in response to auxin. Ectopic expression of SAUR53 results in the elongation of cells and organs, and also interferes with normal apical hook development by accelerating the hook maintenance phase. Moreover, root growth of SAUR53 overexpression seedlings is significantly insensitive to IAA and 2,4-D, while showing wild-type sensitivity to NAA, suggesting that elevated level of SAUR53 may interfere with normal auxin transport. Collectively, this study indicates that while SAUR53 positively regulates cell and organ elongation, it probably negatively regulates auxin transport in Arabidopsis.
Origin and Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Matter in a Mariculture Area Suffering From Summertime Hypoxia and Acidification

Based on six cruises from March to September in 2016, we investigated monthly distributions of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and ancillary water chemistry parameters in a mariculture area in the Northern Yellow Sea, where summertime hypoxia and seawater acidification were observed. The most severe oxygen depletion (hypoxia covered approximately one third of the aquaculture area) and the largest pH decrease (8.07 ± 0.05 in surface layer vs. 7.66 ± 0.07 in bottom layer) were revealed in August. Concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the absorption properties of chromophoric DOM (CDOM) were used to characterize DOM. Results showed that DOM was mainly originated from marine in situ processes. In March, a DOM pool with the lowest DOC concentration of 2.53 ± 0.28 mgC L-1 and nearly uniform optical characteristics were presented in the well-mixed water column. In August, however, DOC increased to 4.33 ± 0.35 mgC L-1 in the surface layer and 4.10 ± 0.30 mgC L-1 in the bottom layer. Two nonlinear relationships between the absorption coefficient at 355 nm (aCDOM(355)) and the absorption spectral slope over 275–295nm (S275-295) were revealed. According to modelling results, the nonlinear relationships were mostly caused by the conservative mixing of a refractory CDOM pool with a freshly-produced CDOM pool. Apparent oxygen utilization in August was positively related to DOC but not to aCDOM(355) and S275-295, presumably due to multiple sources of CDOM in bottom waters. The absorption properties of CDOM respond largely to varied pH, however, they would be less affected by ocean acidification since the latter process leads to a limited pH decline.
Curcumin attenuates proangiogenic and proinflammatory factors in human eutopic endometrial stromal cells through the NF‐κB signaling pathway

Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological inflammatory disorder in which immune system dysregulation is thought to play a role in its initiation and progression. Due to altered sex steroid receptor concentrations and other signaling defects, eutopic endometriotic tissues have an attenuated response to progesterone. This progesterone‐resistance contributes to lesion survival, proliferation, pain, and infertility. The current agency‐approved hormonal therapies, including synthetic progestins, GnRH agonists, and danazol are often of limited efficacy and counterproductive to fertility and cause systemic side effects due to suppression of endogenous steroid hormone levels. In the current study, we examined the effects of curcumin (CUR, diferuloylmethane), which has long been used as an anti‐inflammatory folk medicine in Asian countries for this condition. The basal levels of proinflammatory and proangiogenic chemokines and cytokines expression were higher in primary cultures of stromal cells derived from eutopic endometrium of endometriosis (EESC) subjects compared with normal endometrial stromal cells (NESC). The treatment of EESC and NESC with CUR significantly and dose‐dependently reduced chemokine and cytokine secretion over the time course. Notably, CUR treatment significantly decreased phosphorylation of the IKKα/β, NF‐κB, STAT3, and JNK signaling pathways under these experimental conditions. Taken together, our findings suggest that CUR has therapeutic potential to abrogate aberrant activation of chemokines and cytokines, and IKKα/β, NF‐κB, STAT3, and JNK signaling pathways to reduce inflammation associated with endometriosis.
The wealth→life history→innovation account of the Industrial Revolution is largely inconsistent with empirical time series data

Abstract Baumard proposes a model to explain the dramatic rise in innovation that occurred during the Industrial Revolution, whereby rising living standards led to slower life history strategies, which, in turn, fostered innovation. We test his model explicitly using time series data, finding limited support for these proposed linkages. Instead, we find evidence that rising living standards appear to have a time-lagged bidirectional relationship with increasing innovation.
REforge Associates Transcription Factor Binding Site Divergence in Regulatory Elements with Phenotypic Differences between Species

Abstract Elucidating the genomic determinants of morphological differences between species is key to understanding how morphological diversity evolved. While differences in cis-regulatory elements are an important genetic source for morphological evolution, it remains challenging to identify regulatory elements involved in phenotypic differences. Here, we present Regulatory Element forward genomics (REforge), a computational approach that detects associations between transcription factor binding site divergence in putative regulatory elements and phenotypic differences between species. By simulating regulatory element evolution in silico, we show that this approach has substantial power to detect such associations. To validate REforge on real data, we used known binding motifs for eye-related transcription factors and identified significant binding site divergence in vision-impaired subterranean mammals in 1% of all conserved noncoding elements. We show that these genomic regions are significantly enriched in regulatory elements that are specifically active in mouse eye tissues, and that several of them are located near genes, which are required for eye development and photoreceptor function and are implicated in human eye disorders. Thus, our genome-wide screen detects widespread divergence of eye-regulatory elements and highlights regulatory regions that likely contributed to eye degeneration in subterranean mammals. REforge has broad applicability to detect regulatory elements that could be involved in many other phenotypes, which will help to reveal the genomic basis of morphological diversity.