Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of self-thinning line for Gmelina arborea Roxb stands in Nigeria

Self-thinning line defined the site occupation of species and it is an important tool for manipulation of stand density and simulating thinning regime. Few studies have defined the self-thinning line of Gmelina arborea especially in Nigeria. Therefore, in this study, the self-thinning line of G. arborea in Oluwa Forest Reserve was determined. Data were obtained from twenty-four temporary sample plots (TSPs) of 20 x 20 m size established in the G. arborea stands. Three methodologies were used to define the self-thinning line including quantile regression (QR), stochastic frontier function with half-normal and stochastic frontier function with truncated-normal. Root means squared error (RMSE), Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion were used to assess the methods. The results showed that the three methods performed relatively well in describing the self-thinning line of the stand. Stochastic frontier with halfnormal with minima AIC and BIC of -5.321 and -0.609, respectively was more suitable. It predicted maximum density of 2630, 1537 and 1079 N/ha at quadratic mean diameter of 15, 25 and 35 cm, respectively. This information would help in the manipulation of the growth condition and determination of thinning schedule of the G. arborea stands. Keywords: Quantile regression, stand density, stochastic frontier regression
Global Fixed-Time Output Feedback Stabilization for a Class of Double Integrator Systems

This brief deals with the problem of fixed-time output feedback stabilization for a class of stable double integrator systems. A simple output feedback nonlinear proportional-derivative (PD) control is proposed. Lyapunov stability theory and bi-limit homogeneity technique are employed to show global fixed-time stability, i.e., there exists a convergence time that is uniformly bounded a priori and such a bound is independent of the initial states. The appealing feature of the proposed control is that it is fairly easy to construct with intuitive structure and can ensure global fixed-time stability by output feedback. Simulations illustrate the improved performance of the proposed approach.
Correlates of Inter-Districts Migrations in Tanzania. A Gravity-Type Modeling Approach

In this paper, we investigate the role of environmental factors as potential drivers of internal migrations in Tanzania, along with a number of socio-economic factors traditionally identified as key correlates. Climate changes are expected to exert pressure on areas which mainly rely on agricultural activities and, as a result, act as push factors for population movements. Yet, understanding the association between migration, environmental conditions, and objectively-determined characteristics of origin and destination territories remains a challenging task, especially in developing countries. In this study, we follow a macro approach and focus on migration flows across Tanzanian districts. By implementing a gravity-type model, we analyse the potential impact of environmental shocks and socio-economic characteristics of both the area of origin and destination on inter-districts migration.
The Simulation of Vortex Structures Induced by Different Local Vibrations at the Wall in a Flat-Plate Laminar Boundary Layer

The compact finite difference scheme on non-uniform meshes and the Fourier spectral hybrid method are used to directly simulate the evolution of vortex structures in a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate. To this end, two initial local vibration disturbances, namely, the positive–negative and the negative–positive models, at the wall were adopted. The numerical results show that the maximum amplitudes of vortex structures experience a process of linear growth and nonlinear rapid growth. The vertical disturbance velocity and mean flow shear and the derivative term of the stream-wise disturbance velocity and the span-wise disturbance velocity, are important factors for vortex structure development; the high- and low-speed stripe and the stream-wise vortex are consistent with structures seen in full turbulence. The maximum amplitude of the negative–positive model grows more quickly than that of the negative–positive model, and the detailed vortex structures are different for the two models. The mean flow profiles both become plump, which leads to the instability of the laminar boundary layer. The way in which the disturbance is generated with different local vibrations influences the dynamics of vortex structures in a laminar boundary layer.
Statistical methods for estimating ecological breakpoints and prediction intervals

The relationships among ecological variables are usually obtained by fitting statistical models that go through the conditional means of the dependent variables. For example, the nonparametric loess and the parametric piecewise linear regression models, which pass through the conditional mean of the response variable given the predictor, are used to analyze simple to complex relationships among variables. We used loess and bootstrapped confidence interval to subjectively identify the number and positions of potential ecological breakpoints in a bivariate relationship, and a piecewise linear regression model (PLRM) to quantitatively estimate the location of breakpoints and the associated precision. We also estimated breakpoint location and precision using a piecewise linear quantile regression model (PQRM), which is fitted to the quantiles of the conditional distribution of the response variable given the predictor and provides much richer information in terms of estimating relationships and breakpoints. We compared the precision of breakpoints estimated by PQRM relative to PLRM. We compared the precision of the methods using two examples from the ecological literature suspected to exhibit multiple breakpoints: relating a Fish Index of Biotic Integrity (an index of wetlands' fish community 'health') to the amount of human activity in wetlands' adjacent watersheds; and relating the biomass of cyanobacteria to the total phosphorus concentration in Canadian lakes. Statistically significant breakpoints were detected for both datasets, demarcating the boundaries of three line segments with markedly different slopes. We recommend the piecewise linear quantile regression as an effective means of characterizing bivariate environmental relationships where the scatter of points represents natural environmental variation rather than measurement error.
Rationale of the Knee Society clinical rating

condition. The program lasted 6 months; contained the following elements: therapeutic exercises, functional training, massage, kinesiotaping; dietary recommendations; patient education. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated according to the dynamics of Forgotten Joint Score-12, Knee Society Score, goniometry of the knee joint, manual muscle testing of the thigh muscles. Results. In elderly patients with knee endoprosthesis and sarcopenia, functional symptoms of changes in the movement pattern of the lower limb in the form of a violation of the structural and functional state of the knee joint, joint contracture, and a decrease in the strength of the hip muscle groups were revealed. The developed physical therapy program revealed a statistical improvement in the condition of patients due to the influence on the components of the movement pattern of the knee joint due to the improvement of the functional state of the knee joint, improvement of its flexibility, strength of the thigh muscles, reduction of pain in comparison with the initial indicators for all the studied parameters (р<0 .05); however, the indicators of the control group were not reached (p>0.05). Low rehabilitation compliance of patients in the comparison group, despite being aware of the risks of polymorbidity, was associated with a lack of improvement over a similar follow-up period. Conclusions. Elderly patients with the consequences of total knee arthroplasty and sarcopenia require the development of physical therapy programs taking into account and correcting the specifics of each condition, the presence of physical status disorders and the risk of falling, which will increase the overall effectiveness of rehabilitation measures.
Analysis of cell culture models of mammary drug transport

A human-derived, mammary epithelial cell culture model would allow drug transport in the mammary epithelium to be studied in greater detail while minimizing risks to mothers and nursing infants. MCF10A and primary human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) were investigated for their utility as human, cell-based model systems for drug transport studies. Polarized monolayers are essential for transcellular flux studies of drug transporter function, and their formation was measured by transepithelial electrical resistance, immunofluorescence microscopy and vectoral flux studies. Both cell types failed to form adequately polarized monolayers despite various modifications to the cells or culture conditions. Transporter-mediated drug uptake and efflux in MCF10A cells was measured using flow cytometry, a technique which enables the measurement of intracellular drug concentrations. The fluorescent drug, mitoxantrone, was used to assess active efflux transport by the ABC transporters ABCG2 (BCRP) and ABCB1 (MDR1). After accounting for the inter-day variability with a linear mixed effects model, inhibitor effects on intracellular drug concentrations were evident. Specific inhibition of MDR1 using verapamil increased mitoxantrone accumulation as expected; however, BCRPspecific inhibition with fumitremorgin C decreased accumulation. Flow cytometry studies on mitoxantrone uptake suggested that it is a substrate for an unidentified active
Electron and photon performance measurements with the ATLAS detector using the 2015–2017 LHC proton-proton collision data

This paper describes the reconstruction of electrons and photons with the ATLAS detector, employed for measurements and searches exploiting the complete LHC Run 2 dataset. An improved energy clustering algorithm is introduced, and its implications for the measurement and identification of prompt electrons and photons are discussed in detail. Corrections and calibrations that affect performance, including energy calibration, identification and isolation efficiencies, and the measurement of the charge of reconstructed electron candidates are determined using up to 81 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected at √s=13 TeV between 2015 and 2017.
The LUMBA UVES stellar parameter pipeline

Context. The Gaia-ESO Survey has taken high-quality spectra of a subset of 100 000 stars observed with the Gaia spacecraft. The goal for this subset is to derive chemical abundances for these stars that will complement the astrometric data collected by Gaia. Deriving the chemical abundances requires that the stellar parameters be determined. Aims. We present a pipeline for deriving stellar parameters from spectra observed with the FLAMES-UVES spectrograph in its standard fibre-fed mode centred on 580 nm, as used in the Gaia-ESO Survey. We quantify the performance of the pipeline in terms of systematic offsets and scatter. In doing so, we present a general method for benchmarking stellar parameter determination pipelines. Methods. Assuming a general model of the errors in stellar parameter pipelines, together with a sample of spectra of stars whose stellar parameters are known from fundamental measurements and relations, we use a Markov chain Monte Carlo method to quantitatively test the pipeline. Results. We find that the pipeline provides parameter estimates with systematic errors on effective temperature below 100 K, on surface gravity below 0.1 dex, and on metallicity below 0.05 dex for the main spectral types of star observed in the Gaia-ESO Survey and tested here. The performance on red giants is somewhat lower. Conclusions. The pipeline performs well enough to fulfil its intended purpose within the Gaia-ESO Survey. It is also general enough that it can be put to use on spectra from other surveys or other spectrographs similar to FLAMES-UVES.
Arecibo 4.5/1.4/0.33-GHz polarimetric single-pulse emission survey

We report on an Arecibo 4.5-GHz polarimetric single-pulse survey of the brightest pulsars at high frequency within its sky. The high-frequency profiles are accompanied by a collection of both previously published and unpublished high quality 1.4- and 0.33-GHz observations. Here our analyses and discussion primarily involve the average and statistical properties of the 46 pulsars polarimetric pulse sequences, profile classification and frequency evolution, and polarimetric profiles and peak-occurrence histograms. In most cases both the fractional linear polarization and profile widths decrease with frequency as expected, but there are some exceptions. Similarly, we were able to review and/or extend the profile classifications for this population of pulsars and work out their beaming characteristics quantitatively showing that almost all show properties compatible with the core/double-cone emission beam model. The entirety of these observations’ average profiles are accessible for download.
A High-Efficiency Compressed Sensing-Based Terminal-to-Cloud Video Transmission System

With the rapid popularization of mobile intelligent terminals, mobile video and cloud services applications are widely used in people's lives. However, the resource-constrained characteristic of the terminals and the enormous amount of video information make the efficient terminal-to-cloud data upload a challenge. To solve the problem, this paper proposes an efficient compressed sensing-based high-efficiency video upload system for the terminal-to-cloud upload network. The system contains two main new components. First, to effectively remove the inter-frame redundant information, an encoder sampling scheme with high efficiency is developed by applying the skip block-based residual compressed sensing sampling technology. For the time-varying channel state, the encoder can adaptively allocate the sampling rate for different video frames by the proposed adaptive sampling scheme. Second, a local secondary reconstruction-based multi-reference frames cross-recovery algorithm is developed at the decoder. It further improves the reconstruction quality and reduces the quality fluctuation of the recovered video frames to improve the user experience. Compared with the state-of-the-art reference systems reported in the literature, the proposed system achieves the high-efficiency and high-quality terminal-to-cloud transmission.
Design-Space Exploration of Embedded Hardware Accelerators for Image Processing Applications

of “ Design-Space Exploration of Embedded Hardware Accelerators for Image Processing Applications ” by Onur Can Ulusel, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2016 Computer vision applications have gained significant popularity in their use for mobile, battery powered devices. These devices range from every-day smart-phones to autonomously navigating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). While the image processing required by these applications may be transferred to the cloud or other off-device computing engines, because of real-time computing requirements and limited data transfer capabilities, it is desirable for computation to be handled locally whenever possible. However, local computation can be quite challenging for mobile and embedded systems due to the highly computationally intensive nature of computer vision algorithms and require careful consideration of the target design constraints and possible design parameters. In this dissertation work, we first implement two real-time image processing accelerators as test cases to be used for fast design space exploration: one for image deblurring and one for block matching. For these designs, we identifiy both algorithmic and hardware parameters that optimize these accelerators and demonstrate the performance, power and accuracy trade-offs in our target applications on FPGAs. For the second part of this dissertation, we present a power and performance evaluation of several low cost feature detection and description algorithms implemented on various embedded systems platforms (embedded CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs). We present a streamlined FPGA implementation for feature detection which includes a pre-processing stage to eliminate unnecessary computation and a computation flow which makes maximum utilization of pixel proximity and avoids down-time after the initial loading of image pixels. In addition, we present a combined FPGA implementation on low-cost Zynq SoC FPGAs which pipelines feature detection with feature description, realizing increased efficiencies in performance, power dissipation and energy consumption compared to other embedded platforms. We show that despite the high-level parallelization embedded GPU platforms like NVIDIA Jetson TK1 provide, computation of multiple kernels are highly bounded by the kernel scheduler and memory bottlenecks reducing GPUs’ effectiveness whereas customization of FPGAs on multiple layers can tackle operation of multiple kernels much more efficiently.
Enhanced FBG Temperature Sensitivity in PbS-Doped Silica Optical Fiber

We demonstrate a novel fiber Bragg grating (FBG) temperature sensor based on lead sulfide (PbS)-doped silica optical fiber, prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) doping technique. The FBGs are fabricated using the phase mask method, without hydrogen loading. The temperature sensitivity of the FBG-PbS is found to be <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim$</tex-math></inline-formula>19 pm/<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula>C within 20–150 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula>C, showing great linearity and repeatability. It is increased by approximately 60% compared to the temperature sensitivity of FBG in standard single mode fiber (SMF). Furthermore, the temperature characteristics of PbS-doped silica optical fiber are investigated. The thermal expansion coefficient and thermal-optic coefficient of PbS-doped silica fiber are 6.3 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times\; 10^{-7}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and 1.23 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times\; 10^{-5}$</tex-math></inline-formula>/<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^\circ$</tex-math></inline-formula>C, respectively. Moreover, the thermal-optic coefficient value of the PbS-doped silica optical fiber is nearly one order of magnitude higher than that of SMF. Therefore, the FBG based on PbS-doped silica optical fiber appears to be very attractive for the temperature sensing fields.
Biomechanics of nonpenetrating aortic trauma: a review

Life threatening chest injury can involve partial or full tears of the aorta. Investigations of fatal injuries in automobile accidents indicate that aortic trauma occurs in 10-20% of the cases. The major sites of aortic trauma include the aortic isthmus, the root, and the aortic insertion at the diaphragm - all of which are points of aortic tethering. The biomechanics of the injury process involve stretching of the vessel from points of tethering and hydrodynamic increases in blood pressure, which stretch the tissue to failure at a strain of about 150%. The non-isotropic stretch response of aortic tissue is discussed with reference to the frequent transverse orientation of the laceration. Congenital and pathophysiological conditions also influence the failure characteristics of the tissue. The significant factors associated with traumatic injury of the aorta are discussed in this review paper which is based on published technical information. For the covering abstract of the conference see HS-036 716. (Author/TRRL)
45 degree arrangement of compact array antenna for MIMO application

A study on the compact array microstrip patch antenna for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system based on the antenna arrangement is performed. The 2.45 GHz rectangular array are arranged in 45 degree slanted inward and outward for each other to reduce the mutual coupling effect between the patches. The antenna properties are analyzed and compact antenna design is determined based on the simulation results. The results show the antennas can very compact while maintaining low mutual coupling. The gain of the MIMO antenna is 11.3 dBi. The simulated and tested return losses, together with the radiation patterns, are presented and discussed.
The Nearest-Instance-Centroid-Estimation Kernel Recursive Least Squares Algorithms

The nearest-instance-centroid-estimation kernel least mean-square (NICE-KLMS) algorithm has been proposed to balance the time and space requirements in kernel adaptive filters. However, the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion used in NICE-KLMS leads to performance degradation in some nonlinear problems. In this brief, the NICE is developed under the least-squares errors in the kernel space, generating a novel NICE kernel recursive least squares (NICE-KRLS) algorithm for performance improvement of NICE-KLMS. The weight update form for the solution to the least-squares errors existing in NICE-KRLS is therefore obtained recursively. To obtain a sparsification network, the vector quantization is combined into NICE-KRLS for online applications. Simulations on chaotic time-series prediction validate the superiorities of the proposed NICE-KRLS and its sparsification version.
Curcumin as an anti-inflammatory medicine: effects on PGE2 and IL-6 in LPS stimulated canine whole blood

Treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in dogs commonly consists of modification of the diet and immunomodulation by means of prednisolone or metronidazole. Unfortunately, these therapeutics have their drawbacks and negative side-effects and their effect has not always been proven. A more natural and safe alternative might be curcumin, a major constituent of curry powder, prepared from the roots of Curcuma longa . Various preclinical and clinical studies show that curcumin might help in all sorts of chronic diseases, including neoplastic, neurological, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic and psychological diseases. An experiment was set up to test the possible attenuating effects of curcumin in dogs with IBD. Canine whole blood was triggered to inflammation by lipopolysaccharide in the presence of various concentrations of curcumin (1nM, 10 nM, 100 nM, 1 μM, 10 μM). Besides standard curcumin, Meriva® was tested, a curcumin-phosphatidylcholine complex that has been shown to be absorbed better. After 24 hours of incubation with LPS and curcumin or Meriva®, the pro-inflammatory mediators prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and interleukine 6 (IL-6) were measured. The results showed that curcumin and Meriva® in a 10 μM concentration can attenuate inflammation by decreasing PGE2 production, as demonstrated in a model of whole canine blood stimulated with LPS. IL-6 levels seemed not to be influenced by curcumin or Meriva®. Considering the small sample size of our study and the intrinsic biological variation in our model, it should however be noted that no firm conclusions can be drawn from our results. Former research is ambiguous about the effect of curcumin on both PGE2 and IL-6, but curcumin has shown to be a promising cure for several diseases and ailments. There is strong suggestion that human IBD is one of the diseases that might be alleviated by curcumin, and hopefully this goes for canine IBD as well. Our experiment was set up as a small step towards a possible clinical trial testing the effects