Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyperspectral Image Denoising Using a Nonlocal Spectral Spatial Principal Component Analysis

Abstract. Hyperspectral images (HSIs) denoising is a critical research area in image processing duo to its importance in improving the quality of HSIs, which has a negative impact on object detection and classification and so on. In this paper, we develop a noise reduction method based on principal component analysis (PCA) for hyperspectral imagery, which is dependent on the assumption that the noise can be removed by selecting the leading principal components. The main contribution of paper is to introduce the spectral spatial structure and nonlocal similarity of the HSIs into the PCA denoising model. PCA with spectral spatial structure can exploit spectral correlation and spatial correlation of HSI by using 3D blocks instead of 2D patches. Nonlocal similarity means the similarity between the referenced pixel and other pixels in nonlocal area, where Mahalanobis distance algorithm is used to estimate the spatial spectral similarity by calculating the distance in 3D blocks. The proposed method is tested on both simulated and real hyperspectral images, the results demonstrate that the proposed method is superior to several other popular methods in HSI denoising.
Spatial Regulation of PKC by Pharmacological Approaches in Cancer: Are We There Yet?

PKC is a ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine protein kinase, sit at the junction of many signaling pathway and play key roles in mediating myriad cellular functions. Therefore, the precise control of PKC directed signal transduction is essential for cellular homeostasis. Deregulation of PKC-mediated signaling leads to the several pathophysiological conditions including cancer. The activity of PKC is regulated by multiple molecular mechanisms such as phosphorylation, co-factor recruitment, interaction with binding partner proteins and cellular localization. Moreover, number of natural and synthetic compounds available that are involves in controlling the PKC mediated signal transduction, but a drug that can specifically regulate the activity of particular isoform of the PKC is not known. Therefore, it is essential to gain an insight into how the PKC activated and presumed to work. This review will provide comprehensive idea about regulation of PKC at various activation steps, a short account of some of available efforts in cellular transformation, challenges, and possibilities to design novel PKC modulators.
Spatio-temporal Phase Patterns in Coupled Chaotic Maps with Parameter Deviations

In this study, spatio-temporal chaotic behavior in coupled chaotic maps with parameter deviations is shown. The chaotic map which has been governed by a fifth-power polynomial function is properly selected as a chaotic cell. We consider a simple model which each cell has parameters with slight error margin are connected to four neighbors by arbitrary coupling strength. Analytical bifurcation diagram and Lyapunov exponent of the chaotic map are investigated rigorously. Several phase patterns of spatio-temporal chaos are shown.
An Investigation of Advertising Appeal on Consumer Response in Service Advertising

Advertising appeal plays a significant role in the execution of advertising. In service advertising, they are of more importance because of the peculiar characteristics of services. This study attempts to investigate the impact of emotional and rational appeal on service advertising. This study also studies the impact of typology of service as a moderating variable in the relation of advertising appeal and consumer response. The study has developed a scale to measure the attitude towards advertisement, brand and purchase intention. The data has been analyzed using Factor analysis and Independent sample T Test. The research concludes that advertising appeal does have an impact on service advertising and the impact of the advertising appeal varies as per the typology of service. Print advertisements were specially created for this study with the help of experts. This study has used triangulation using both qualitative as well as quantitative methods. Content analysis is used as a method for qualitative research.
Anchored Bayesian Gaussian mixture models

Finite mixtures are a flexible modeling tool for irregularly shaped densities and samples from heterogeneous populations. When modeling with mixtures using an exchangeable prior on the component features, the component labels are arbitrary and are indistinguishable in posterior analysis. This makes it impossible to attribute any meaningful interpretation to the marginal posterior distributions of the component features. We propose a model in which a small number of observations are assumed to arise from some of the labeled component densities. The resulting model is not exchangeable, allowing inference on the component features without post-processing. Our method assigns meaning to the component labels at the modeling stage and can be justified as a data-dependent informative prior on the labelings. We show that our method produces interpretable results, often (but not always) similar to those resulting from relabeling algorithms, with the added benefit that the marginal inferences originate directly from a well specified probability model rather than a post hoc manipulation. We provide asymptotic results leading to practical guidelines for model selection that are motivated by maximizing prior information about the class labels and demonstrate our method on real and simulated data.
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of aquatic and terrestrial plants of the San Francisco Bay estuarine system

We report measurements of seasonal variability in the C‐N stable isotope ratios of plants collected across the habitat mosaic of San Francisco Bay, its marshes, and its tributary river system. Analyses of 868 plant samples were binned into 10 groups (e.g., terrestrial riparian, freshwater phytoplankton, salt marsh) to determine whether C‐N isotopes can be used as biomarkers for tracing the origins of organic matter in this river‐marsh‐estuary complex. Variability of δ13C and δ15N was high (~5–10‰) within each plant group, and we identified three modes of variability: (1) between species and their microhabitats, (2) over annual cycles of plant growth and senescence, and (3) between living and decomposing biomass. These modes of within‐group variability obscure any source specific isotopic signatures, confounding the application of C‐N isotopes for identifying the origins of organic matter. A second confounding factor was large dissimilarity between the δ13C‐δ15N of primary producers and the organic matter pools in the seston and sediments. Both confounding factors impede the application of C‐N isotopes to reveal the food supply to primary consumers in ecosystems supporting diverse autotrophs and where the isotopic composition of organic matter has been transformed and become distinct from that of its parent plant sources. Our results support the advice of others: variability of C‐N stable isotopes within all organic‐matter pools is high and must be considered in applications of these isotopes to trace trophic linkages from primary producers to primary consumers. Isotope‐based approaches are perhaps most powerful when used to complement other tools, such as molecular biomarkers, bioassays, direct measures of production, and compilations of organic‐matter budgets.
MOLECULAR DOCKING ANALYSIS OF FEW COMPOUNDS FROM CURCUMA LONGA ANDHEDYCHIUM CORONARIUM

Molecular Docking is safe and easy to use tool helps in investigating, interpreting, explaining and identification of molecular properties using three-dimensional structures. Molecular docking is used to predict the structure of the intermolecular complex formed between two or more molecules. When a structure is available for the target, computer-based screening using molecular docking was considered. In the present study, all nine ligands tested against peptide deformylase, New Delhi Metallo-beta-Lactamase-1 and dehydrosqualene synthase resulted in curcumin I as the best compound which showed greater binding affinity towards the active site amino acids of each protein. Curcuma longa and Hedychium coronarium were carried out to test their effective rate of inhibitions against selective protein targets from E. coli, K. pneumonia and S. aureus respectively.
The Effects of Changes in the Legal Work Shift on Wages and Hours Worked in Colombia

"Estimamos el efecto de un incremento en el numero de horas que definen la jornada laboral diurna por ley, sobre los salarios por hora y las horas trabajadas. Para identificar el parametro de interes, estimamos modelos de diferencias en diferencias. Aunque los datos no contienen informacion en cuanto al horario de las horas trabajadas, explotamos las condiciones necesarias para que la intervencion tenga un efecto sobre el horario trabajado para poder definir los grupos de tratamiento y control. Encontramos que los salarios de hombres mayores de 25 anos trabajando en la industria en las principales areas metropolitanas de Colombia cayeron mas de 11% debido a la reforma, mientras que sus contrapartes mujeres redujeron el numero de horas trabajadas a la semana en 3.6 horas. Existe evidencia, aunque menos robusta, de incrementos en los salarios por hora de los trabajadores hombres en otros sectores de la economia, lo cual sugiere que los empleadores incrementaron su demanda por empleo en estos otros sectores. En general, la reforma parece haber tenido efectos positivos para todos los trabajadores afectados, con excepcion de aquellos que trabajan en la industria. "
Community structure and bioturbation potential of macrofauna at four North Sea stations with contrasting food supply

We investigated the macrobenthic faunal composition, vertical distribution, biomass, abundance and trophic structure in 4 North Sea sediments with contrasting quantity and quality of organic matter and with different hydrodynamic environments. The vertical distribution of macrofauna biomass generally followed the TOC (total organic carbon) profiles. The trophic structure reflected differences in relative quality of the organic matter. In the high amount-high quality TOC sediment at the German Eight station, most organisms were found at shallow sediment depths (
A general method for parameter est imation of avera ging models

Averaging models have been proposed within the framework of In formation Integrat ion Theory (Ande rson, 1965). Nowadays, these models are applied in several psychological areas. However, statistical pro blems such as divergence, uniqueness, and goodness of fit arise from parameter identification. To deal with these i ssues, Anderson (1981 , 1982) suggested the method of sub -designs, capable of providing theoretically valid estima tions. Using the empirical results obtained by this a pproach, Zalinski (1984, 1987) offered a statistical pro cedure for the estimation of weights and scale values in averaging models. This procedure can be primarily a pplied when a full factorial design is followed by all its sub -designs ; it considers a sub set of the possible averaging mo dels, and the software permits to ma nage data from one subject and one session at a time. Mor eover, Wang and Yang (1998) noted that, although this procedure was carefully designed to a llow for proper tests of statistical significance esp ecially involving the Chi square test, it does not involve validation cri teria for the estimated weights and scale values as, for example, the inform ation crit erion. The present paper proposes a new method which allows co nsidering the results of all the acceptable sub -design experimental conditions with a new stati stical procedure to improve the esti mation of weights and scale values and to provide validation criteria.
Age-structured Human Capital and Spatial Total Factor Productivity Dynamics

This paper models total factor productivity (TFP) in space and proposes an empirical model for TFP interdependence across spatial locations. The interdependence is assumed to occur due to age-structured human capital dynamics. A semi-parametric spatial vector autoregressive framework is suggested for modeling spatial TFP dynamics where the role of demographic state and technological change are explicitly incorporated in the model to influence their spatial TFP co-movements. Empirical scrutiny in case of Asian countries suggests that cross-country human capital differences in their accumulation and appropriation pattern significantly influenced TFP volatility interdependence. The finding of complementarity in TFP in spatial locations calls for joint policy program for improving aggregate and individual country welfare.
Understanding the Effects of Various Factors on the Public Response to Congestion Charge: A Latent Class Modeling Approach

The standard ordered response model (SORM) is a common disaggregate approach with ordered outcomes in which the effects of various exogenous attributes are assumed constant across ordinal choices. In this study, an innovative latent class based generalized ordered response model (LC-GORM) is formulated and used to assess the effects of various factors on respondents’ choice behavior with respect to congestion charge proposal for Jakarta, Indonesia. The proposed model probabilistically assigns respondents into selfish and altruistic class memberships (latently) based on their knowledge of the proposed scheme and their specific attributes. Aiming to capture observable preference heterogeneity across ordinal choices and allow the thresholds to be varied across observations, we parameterize the thresholds as a linear function of the exogenous variables for each ordinal preference. Using stated preference data collected in Jakarta in December 2013, we incorporate the influence of a comprehensive set of explanatory variables into four categories: charges, latent variables related to respondent’s psychological motivations, mobility attributes and socio-demographic characteristics. Empirical results obviously verify the existence of preference heterogeneity across outcomes. The findings confirm that the altruistic class are more sensitive with respect to acceptance of the scheme, while the selfish class are more sensitive with respect to rejection. The key factors influencing public acceptability include the charge level and respondent variables such as car dependency, awareness of the problem of cars in society, frequency of visits to the city center and frequency of private mode usage.
Performance Study of Ethanol Blended Gasoline Fuel in Spark Ignition Engine

Growing energy needs and environmental concern worldwide have propelled the interest for quest and utilization of renewable and eco friendly fuels . Various substitutes are available to be used engines with the possibility of reducing harmful emissions. In this work gasoline is taken as reference which is blended with ethanol. Physical properties relevant to the fuel were determined for the four blends of gasoline and ethanol. A four cylinder, four stroke, varying rpm, Petrol engine connected to eddy current type dynamometer was run on blends containing 5%,10%,15%,20% ethanol and performance characteristics were evaluated. In this paper it is shown that the higher blends can replace gasoline in a SI engine, results showed that there is a reduction in exhaust gases and increase in Mechanical efficiency, Specific Fuel Consumption and air fuel ratio on blending. We can conclude from the result that using 10% ethanol blend is most effective and we can utilize it for further use in SI engines with little constraint on material used to sustain little increase in pressure.
A classroom experiment to demonstrate ferroelectric hysteresis

We have developed a classroom experiment suitable for undergraduate students in which they fabricate a ferroelectric capacitor from potassium nitrate and then observe the electrical behavior as the film is cooled through its transition temperature. The experiment can be carried out using a capacitance bridge that is simple to construct and inexpensive. The experiment gives students a hands-on experience with ferroelectric phenomena, a subject of considerable interest from both a fundamental and a technological standpoint.
Fixation sequences in imagery and in recognition during the processing of pictures of real-world scenes

Thirty photographs of real-world scenes were presented for encoding, and half the participants then performed a recognition test, deciding whether each of 60 images were old (from the original set) or new. The other participants performed an imagery task immediately after encoding each of the 30 images. After completing this task, the recognition group then performed the imagery task in response to prompts that were unique verbal descriptors, and the imagery group performed the recognition task. All participants returned 2 days later, and repeated the imagery test. Eye movements were recorded during all phases. Differences in average fixation duration, average number of fixations and average saccadic amplitude were found between task groups and between experimental phases. Scan patterns were compared with a string-editing algorithm. Close similarities were observed between experimental phases that involved more similar tasks (e.g., initial encoding vs. recognition, and immediate imagery vs. delayed imagery). Scan patterns were equally similar when the task was presented immediately or after 2 days. We propose that the more similar the encoding and retrieval processes are, the more similar eye movements will be at each of these experimental stages.
Codebook metrics evaluation for millimeter wave communications by antenna array response and signal to noise ratio

Codebook design is a key point in beam-forming which is necessary for millimeter Wave (mmWave) communications to compensate its huge path loss. In our study, we demonstrate the benefits of the number of antenna elements for beamforming; we focus on the number of required beams to cover the whole circle with considering the available number of antenna elements. In addition to, we propose a new codebook structure based on unique phase states. Based on the Array Factor (AF) and Signalto-Noise Ratio (SNR), the proposed codebook is compared and evaluated with the uniform weighting codebook, circular array codebook, and IEEE802.15. 3c standard codebook. The results show that the proposed codebook achieves SNR values and side-lobes cancel a bit better than IEEE802.15. 3c, but higher peak and wider dynamic range of SNR and better array directivity compared with the uniform weighting and circular antenna codebooks. Thus, the proposed codebook is expected to improve signal quality and increases user throughput significantly.
Human Capital and Structural Explanations of Post-School Success for Youth with Disabilities: A Latent Variable Exploration of the National Longitudinal Transition Study.

This paper explores the transition from school to young adulthood of youth with disabilities from the first wave (n=939) of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS). Two popular sociological perspe,. tives which explain the postschool success of youth with disabilities were examined: human capital in the form of education and training, and structural factors such as family and community background. Seven latent constructs were identified as generally representing either of the conceptual orientations, their combination, or postschool success and were reflected in a number of measured variables. These seven constructs include: Community Thrive, Family Thrive, School Thrive, School Programs, Academic Difficulty, Individual Aptitude, and Postschool Success. Results suggested that both structural and human capital constructs significantly relate to postschool success. However, the relative importance of the two types of factors varied by disability. For example, Family Thrive related to all disability groups similarly with the exception of mental retardation, while School Programs generally favored youth with learning disabilities and sensory impairments. An appendix offers background information on the NLTS sample. (Contains 'approximately 80 references.) (JDD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************,:****************************************************
Net primary productivity following forest fire for Canadian ecoregions

Recent modelling results indicate that forest fires and other disturbances determine the magnitude of the Canadian forest carbon balance. The regeneration of post-fire vegetation is key to the recovery of net primary produc- tivity (NPP) following fire. We geographically co-registered pixels classed using the Boreal Ecosystem Productivity Simulator, a process-based model with AVHRR (advanced very-high resolution radiometer) satellite estimates of leaf- area index and land cover type, with polygons from a recent database of large Canadian fires. NPP development with time since fire was derived for the first 15 years following the disturbance in the boreal and taiga ecozones. About 7 × 10 6 ha were analysed for over 500 fires occurring between 1980 and 1994. NPP increases linearly through this period, at rates that depend on ecoregion. A longer data set for the Boreal Plains ecozone of Alberta shows that NPP levels off at about 20-30 years and remains constant for 60 years. The NPP trajectories can be used as spatial averages to sup- port models of forest carbon balance and succession through the most fire-prone regions of Canada.
Bouncing Back from Extreme Weather Events: Some Preliminary Findings on Resilience Barriers Facing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Extreme weather events (EWEs) pose unprecedented threats to modern societies and represent a muchâ€ debated issue strongly interlinked with current development policies. Small and mediumâ€ sized enterprises (SMEs), which constitute a driving force of economic growth, employment and total value added, remain highly vulnerable to and ill prepared for such environmental perturbations. This study investigates barriers to SMEsâ€™ resilience to EWEs in an attempt to shed light on enabling factors that can define effective organizational responses to nonâ€ linear environmental stimuli. Relying on structural equation modeling and data gathered from 109 SMEs that recently experienced EWE impacts, we link the general concept of SMEsâ€™ resilience barriers to EWEs with a series of elements to determine specific internal and external factors that contribute the most to EWE resilience. In particular, external barriers of institutional conditions and mechanisms of support and guidance as well as internal barriers of resources and managerial perceptions are found to be the most critical ones in determining resilience. The assessment offers essential research evidence for practitioners on SME management and sets forth linkages with current mechanisms for policy interventions towards an appropriate resilience agenda for SMEs. Copyright Â© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Effects of Ability Grouping in Secondary Schools in Great Britain.

EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Ability Grouping; *Academic Achievement; Analysis of Variance; Cohort Analysis; Educational Background; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Longitudinal Studies; *Mathematics Tests; Parent Influence; *Reading Comprehension; Regression (Statistics); *School Organization; *Scores; Sex Differences; Social Background; Tables (Data) IDENTIFIERS *Great Britain; National Child Development Study