Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Streamflow Generation From Catchments of Contrasting Lithologies: The Role of Soil Properties, Topography, and Catchment Size

Understanding streamflow generation and its dependence on catchment characteristics requires large spatial data sets and is often limited by convoluted effects of multiple variables. Here we address this knowledge gap using data‐informed, physics‐based hydrologic modeling in two catchments with similar vegetation and climate but different lithology (Shale Hills [SH], shale, 0.08 km2, and Garner Run [GR], sandstone, 1.34 km2), which influences catchment topography and soil properties. The sandstone catchment, GR, is characterized by lower drainage density, extensive valley fill, and bouldery soils. We tested the hypothesis that the influence of topographic characteristics is more significant than that of soil properties and catchment size. Transferring calibration coefficients from the previously calibrated SH model to GR cannot reproduce monthly discharge until after incorporating measured boulder distribution at GR. Model calibration underscored the importance of soil properties (porosity, van Genuchten parameters, and boulder characteristics) in reproducing daily discharge. Virtual experiments were used to swap topography, soil properties, and catchment size one at a time to disentangle their influence. They showed that clayey SH soils led to high nonlinearity and threshold behavior. With the same soil and topography, changing from SH to GR size consistently increased dynamic water storage (Sd) from ~0.12 to ~0.17 m. All analyses accentuated the predominant control of soil properties, therefore rejecting the hypothesis. The results illustrate the use of physics‐based modeling for illuminating mechanisms and underscore the importance of subsurface characterization as we move toward hydrological prediction in ungauged basins.
Reproducing Core-Mantle Dynamics and Predicting Crustal Activities Through Advanced Computing

The solid Earth is a very complex nonlinear system, consisting of the crust, mantle and core that are different, both physically and chemically, from each other. Our vision in solid Earth science is to develop an integrated simulation model for reproducing the core-mantle dynamic processes such as geodynamo, mantle convection and global plate motion, and for predicting the diverse crustal activities such as earthquake occurrence, volcanic eruption and mountain building. Recent advances in high performance computer technology and numerical simulation methodology are bringing this vision within reach.
A Comparison of Appalachian and Non-Appalachian Kentucky DUI Offenders

ABSTRACT:Background: Driving under the influence has been an overlooked consequence of the opioid epidemic. Though recent reports have highlighted the increased prevalence of DUI in rural communities and the extensive mental health problems and criminal and drug use histories among rural Appalachian DUI offenders, it is unclear how Appalachian DUI populations compare to DUI offenders in other regions.Purpose: To help fill this void in the literature, the current study uses a statewide sample to examine how Appalachian DUI offenders differ from non-Appalachian DUI offenders in a predominantly rural state.Methods: Assessment records for 11,640 Kentucky DUI offenders who completed an intervention in 2017 were examined. Appalachian DUI offenders were compared to non-Appalachian metro and non-metro DUI offenders. Demographic information, DUI violation details, DSM-5 substance use disorder criteria, and referral information were compared using ANCOVAs and logistic regression models.Results: More than one-fourth of the sample was convicted in an Appalachian county. Compared to non-Appalachian DUI offenders, Appalachian offenders were significantly older and more likely to have a prior DUI conviction, to meet DSM-5 criteria for a drug use disorder, and to drive drug-impaired. Referral and intervention compliance also varied across groups.Implications: Results suggest that Appalachian DUI offenders are more drug-involved and have increased risk of recidivism. Findings indicate a need for practitioners to consider the distinct needs of Appalachian DUI offenders during service delivery. Future research should explore alternative intervention methods for preventing continued impaired driving in Appalachia given limited treatment availability in the region.
Factors Affecting Tourist Destination Choice: A Survey of International Travelers to Hanoi, Vietnam

The study enhances tourism destinations’ competitiveness from the tourist’s perspective. Departing from the concept of customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1991), our purpose is to construct a linkage between customer-based brand equity for a tourism destination (destination image, destination awareness, quality of destination and destination loyalty) and behavioral intentions for selecting a tourist destination (revisit and/or recommendation to other people), in order to better understand the role of tourism destination branding. This paper carried out a survey of international tourists who selected Hanoi Vietnam as their holiday destination and our findings show that brand image and brand loyalty play an important role on tourist’s decision of returning or recommendation to others while brand awareness and quality have no impact.
End-to-End dialogue systems with Dynamic Memory Networks and FastText

Conversational dialogue systems act as the foremost layer of contact of an AI system while making machine-human interactions. Traditional dialogue systems incorporate a modular approach which demand for handcrafting of each module thus increasing the chances of propagating errors from one module to the other. To overcome this, an end to end dialogue system with Dynamic memory Network (DMN) for Question Answering was constructed. This project thrives to improve the performance of DMN by using FastText word to vector conversion technique and compares it with the DMN implemented using global vectors. Results obtained after testing on five different types of Question formats prove that FastText performs well with at least 4% increase in the accuracy. If the same technique was implemented for all dialogue systems prior to building a model, then a gradual shift in the improvement conversational systems can be observed.
Spectral Modeling of Solar and Atmospheric Radiation for Solar Power Integration

Author(s): Li, Mengying | Advisor(s): Coimbra, Carlos F. M. | Abstract: Atmospheric longwave irradiance (LW, with wavenumbers ranging from 0 to 2,500 cm-1) and solar shortwave irradiance (SW, wavenumbers ranging from 2,500 to 40,000 cm-1) determine the radiative balance in the atmosphere. The balance between these radiative flux contributions is also essential in the design and operation of cooling systems, including evaporative cooling towers, passive dry fans, and optically selective materials, among many other natural and engineered surfaces exposed to solar and atmospheric radiation. Large scale solar farms interact with the local atmosphere through greenhouse gases emission offset and by replacing surface albedo with materials that respond to radiation very differently than soil or vegetation. Solar photovoltaic (PV) farms are highly absorbing (lower albedo) while concentrated solar power (CSP) farms are highly reflective (higher albedo) when compared to the ground where they are usually deployed. This work employs detailed and comprehensive spectral radiative models to calculate LW and SW through the atmosphere for different ground surfaces in order to quantify local interactions caused by the different boundary conditions for a model of the atmosphere.First, existing data-driven empirical models for determination of the surface downwelling longwave irradiance (DLW) are reviewed and recalibrated, and a more accurate comprehensive empirical model is proposed. The broadband empirical model then serves as a benchmark to validate a Line-by-Line (LBL) spectral radiative model that is able to capture details of the highly wavenumber-dependent nature of the irradiance fluxes. For the atmospheric longwave spectrum that is emitted and absorbed by gases, aerosols, clouds and the ground, a high-resolution two-flux model with a recursive scattering method is developed. For the shortwave (solar) part of the spectrum, which includes scattering from atmospheric constituents and the ground, comprehensive Monte-Carlo LBL simulations are used. The LW spectral model is then used to quantify the contribution of each atmospheric constituent to DLW as well as the spectral and vertical distribution of LW irradiance. The SW spectral model is used to quantify the albedo replacement effects of PV and CSP farms on local SW irradiance field. A thermal balance accounting for both longwave and shortwave irradiance is then performed for both PV and CSP surfaces. In general, CSP farms reduce while PV farms increase ground temperatures with respective changes in relative humidity. The change in temperature is a function of solar zenith angle, column water vapor content, aerosol optical depth, cloud optical depth and cloud fraction. This work then quantifies the temperature anomaly due to albedo replacement as function of these parameters. A hybrid solar farm design to minimize both local thermal effects and operational variability is proposed.
Effects of agricultural droughts in the province of Kujawsko-Pomorskie and possibilities of minimizing their impact

The aim of the research was an evaluation of the frequency and intensity of agricultural droughts and their effects in the province of Kujawsko-Pomorskie as well as to indicate ways of increasing productivity in such drought periods by applying irrigation. It was found that the drought periods around Bydgoszcz occurred in 17 vegetation seasons out of 30 analysed. They were differentiated by intensity and duration but were also characterized by high irregularity of their occurrence. In the past 30-year period, droughts were especially intensified in the years 1989-1995. In the years 2001-2005 droughts were rare (36%), as compared with the previous 15-year period of 1986-2000 (64%). Crop production of some selected agricultural cultivations in the province of Kujawsko-Pomorskie depended to a large extent on the degree of precipitation shortages in the periods of intensified water demand. The best correlations and determination coefficients exceeding 80% concerned maize cultivations. The occurrence of droughts, expressed by the degree of atmospheric precipitation shortages in June and July, led to a decrease in grain crops in the province by 13%, on average. In the extremely dry year of 2006, a decrease by 27%, in relation to average crops, was observed. Active methods of minimizing effects of agricultural droughts are connected mainly with the development of irrigation systems. In the experiments conducted in the years 2006-2016, it was shown that the appliJacek Żarski, Stanisław Dudek, Renata Kuśmierek-Tomaszewska, Wojciech Żarski 814 cation of irrigation of barley and maize in the drought periods not only prevented 40-45% decrease in crops but also provided higher cropping level (by 33-40%) than the one obtained on average without irrigation.
The Rio de la Plata Cratonic Region of Southwestern Gondwanaland

Middle Precambrian to early Paleozoic orogenesis can be recognized in formerly adjacent parts of southwestern Africa and eastern South America, especially in southern Brazil, Uruguay and eastern Argentina. The Transamazonian and Brazilian cycles are represented by a variety of rocks and tectonic settings, some of which were reviewed in the September issue of Episodes by Ramos and Rapela and Kay. This article is one of the first to relate the Precambrian units of Uruguay to the Tandilia ranges of Argentina, where both cycles are wel displayed. (Ed.)
TransLiTex: A Parallel Corpus of Translated Literary Texts

In this paper, we present our ongoing research work to create a massively parallel corpus of translated literary texts which is useful for applications in computational linguistics, translation studies and cross-linguistic corpus studies. Using a crowdsourcing approach, we identified and collected 29 translations of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published in 23 languages including less-resourced languages. We report on the current status of the corpus, with 5 chapter-aligned translations (English-Dutch, two English-Hungarian, English-Polish and English-Russian). We evaluated the correctness of chapter alignment by computing the percentage of common words between the English version and the translated ones. Results show high percentages that vary between 43% and 64% proving the high correctness of chapter alignment.
Erudition of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by troubles with social interaction and communication and also by restricted and repetitive behavior. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a broad term used to refer to a group of prevalent and debilitating developmental disorders, which includes Autistic Disorder (AD). Autism can look different in different people. It’s a developmental disability that affects the way people communicate, behave, or interact with others. There’s no single cause for it, and symptoms can be very mild or very severe. It also includes Asperger’s Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder‐Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS). Each of these pervasive neuro‐developmental conditions is characterized by impairments in verbal and non ‐ verbal communication, social interaction, and a restricted repertoire of activities and interests combined with repetitive behavior and stereotypes. Children with autism are usually diagnosed between the age of 2 and 4. This paper reveals the main factors involved in ASD, and the diagnosis of this debilitating disorder, causes, symptoms and the treatments which can help to control symptoms.
Weight monitoring in bed using E-scale

Wheelchair users are more than twice as likely to be obese compared to the general population. This is not surprising considering that it is challenging for wheelchair users to monitor their weight as well as maintain an active lifestyle, both of which are factors that strongly influence a person’s ability to manage their weight. The E-scale is a weight monitoring system that was designed for wheelchair users to be able to weigh themselves frequently in their homes. It is comprised of a set of weight sensors that are placed under the legs of a bed or other piece of furniture and passively and continuously measures the weight on each bed leg. This dissertation focuses on the design evolution of the E-scale, and specifically on developing and testing two key aspects of the E-scale that are related to its commercial viability. To make sure that the E-scale can be used in the common scenario where beds are shared by a couple, algorithms for monitoring and differentiating the weight of multiple people using the same bed were developed. To test the usefulness of the E-scale, a weight loss study for wheelchair users was conducted to determine if the E-scale is a feasible technology to use along with a standard behavioral weight loss program adapted specifically for wheelchair users. The results of these two studies as well as a description of future work and preliminary discussions of other applications of the E-scale are reported.
Combining InSAR and GNSS to Track Magma Transport at Basaltic Volcanoes

The added value of combining InSAR and GNSS data, characterized by good spatial coverage and high temporal resolution, respectively, is evaluated based on a specific event: the propagation of the magma intrusion leading to the 26 May 2016 eruption at Piton de la Fournaise volcano (Reunion Island, France). Surface displacement is a non linear function of the geometry and location of the pressurized source of unrest, so inversions use a random search, based on a neighborhood algorithm, combined with a boundary element modeling method. We first invert InSAR and GNSS data spanning the whole event (propagation phase and eruption) to determine the final geometry of the intrusion. Random search conducted in the inversion results in two best-fit model families with similar data fits. Adding the same time-period GNSS dataset to the inversions does not significantly modify the results. Even when weighting data to provide even contributions, the fit is systematically better for descending than ascending interferograms, which might indicate an eastward flank motion. Then, we invert the GNSS time series in order to derive information on the propagation dynamics, validating our approach using a SAR image acquired during the propagation phase. We show that the GNSS time series can only be used to correctly track the magma propagation when the final intrusion geometry derived from InSAR and GNSS measurements is used as an a priori. A new method to extract part of a mesh, based on the representation of meshes as graphs, better explains the data and better accounts for the opening of the eruptive fissure than a method based on the projection of a circular pressure sources. Finally, we demonstrate that the temporal inversion of GNSS data strongly favors one family of models over an other for the final intrusion, removing the ambiguity inherent in the inversion of InSAR data.
Assessing the Performance of Low Impact Development (LID) Measures During Large Rainfall Events in the Humber River Watershed, Ontario, Canada

ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT (LID) MEASURES DURING LARGE RAINFALL EVENTS IN THE HUMBER RIVER WATERSHED, ONTARIO, CANADA Philip De Boer Advisors: University of Guelph, 2019 Dr. Andrew Binns Dr. Yiping Guo This research used an EPA SWMM model of the Humber River watershed and simulated the 2 to 100 year rainfall event to assess peak flow attenuation for LID measures. The EPA SWMM model used a semi-distributed modelling approach to test three configurations of LID measures. The LID measures were implemented on 39 subcatchments grouped into four categories. Two design storm distributions (Chicago and AES) and a continuous simulation from 1976 to 1997 were input as rainfall into the model. The continuous simulation was compared to the design storm results by converting maximum annual peak flows using the extreme value distribution to 2 to 100 year peak flows. The design storm and continuous simulation modelling demonstrated that LID measures offer minimal reduction to the peak flow for large rainfall events and provide inconclusive conclusions for smaller rainfall events suggesting design storm modelling can be inaccurate in determining peak flow.
Landscape Genetics of Mammals in American Ecosystems

Since the term was coined in 2003, landscape genetics (LG) is a field that integrates population genetics, landscape ecology, and spatial analytical techniques to quantify the effects of landscape on microevolutionary processes. Despite the growing interest in LG, there is little knowledge about the trends in LG research for America in general and regarding mammals in particular, as well as about which ecosystems are being most studied. Deserts represent nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface and are characterized by high heterogeneity and species richness. However, they are underrepresented in the LG literature. Hence, we performed a thorough review of published scientific articles addressing LG of mammals in America, with emphasis on deserts. The objectives were to 1) determine the mammal groups that have been most studied; 2) establish the representation of desert ecosystems; 3) describe the research questions and analytical methods most frequently used; and 4) summarize the key landscape factors and environmental variables associated with genetic diversity and structure patterns of mammals in America. We conducted a comprehensive literature search of published articles between 2003 and 2019 in the Web of Science (http://apps.webofknowledge.com) based on search words specific to the revision subject. We verified and screened the articles recovered, and gathered basic information (species, authors, publication year), together with the research questions addressed and the genetic and statistical methods used. We recovered 36 publications on LG involving mammals in America; of these, only eight were conducted on desert ecosystems (Table 1). Rodentia was the most represented order in all American ecosystems (n = 20), while Artiodactyla (n = 4) was specifically represented in deserts. Of all studies, the most common research questions focused on estimating ‘connectivity’ (n = 14) and ‘genetic structure’ (n = 12), and the most frequent analytical methods were Mantel and partial Mantel tests. Dispersal capabilities and vegetation cover were the most important variables regarding the genetic structure of desert populations. Most studies evaluated connectivity with simple and partial Mantel tests, but the use of novel methodologies (i. e., genomics) was also identified. Ecological traits of species, particularly for rodents, and vegetation cover were the main factors related to genetic patterns in deserts. Notably, we identified that North America is the most studied region, while LG studies with mammals are scarce in Mexico and South America (one study encompassed North and Central America), as well as in desert ecosystems, hence the urgency to conduct studies in those regions and in deserts.
Transient probabilistic design of flexible multibody system using a dynamic fuzzy neural network method with distributed collaborative strategy

To improve the efficiency and accuracy of transient probabilistic analysis of flexible multibody systems, a dynamic fuzzy neural network method-based distributed collaborative strategy is proposed by integrating extremum response surface method and fuzzy neural network. Distributed collaborative dynamic fuzzy neural network method is mathematically modeled and derived by considering the high nonlinearity, strong coupling, and multicomponent characteristics of a flexible multibody system. The proposed method is demonstrated to perform the transient probabilistic analysis of a two-link flexible robot manipulator. We obtain the distributional characteristics, reliability degree, and sensitivity degree of robot manipulator, which are useful for the effective design of robot manipulator. By comparing the full-scale method, extremum response surface method, dynamic fuzzy neural network method, and distributed collaborative dynamic fuzzy neural network method, we find that the distributed collaborative dynamic fuzzy neural network method can be used to perform the transient probabilistic analysis of the robot manipulator and improve the computational efficiency while maintaining a good accuracy. Moreover, this study offers a useful insight for the reliability-based design optimization of flexible multibody systems, and enriches the field of mechanical reliability theory as well.
The Narrative Brain Dataset (NBD), an fMRI Dataset for the Study of Natural Language Processing in the Brain

We present the Narrative Brain Dataset, an fMRI dataset that was collected during spoken presentation of short excerpts of three stories in Dutch. Together with the brain imaging data, the dataset contains the written versions of the stimulation texts. The texts are accompanied with stochastic (perplexity and entropy) and semantic computational linguistic measures. The richness and unconstrained nature of the data allows the study of language processing in the brain in a more naturalistic setting than is common for fMRI studies. We hope that by making NBD available we serve the double purpose of providing useful neural data to researchers interested in natural language processing in the brain and to further stimulate data sharing in the field of neuroscience of language.