Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Turin , ITALY Daily Urban NOx Peak Forecasting Using Recurrent Neural Network

The previsions of air pollutant trends have received great attention in the last years because the urban air pollution is an increasing problem. In particular the previsions of NOx, as an indicator of motor vehicle exhaust, is a useful tool to monitor pollution levels; it allows local authorities to manage the urban traffic to prevent the air pollution concentration values that are dangerous for human health. In the cities with heavy vehicular traffic it is possible to have high concentrations of air pollutants. This model can be useful for administrations to rationalise the preventive intervention to reduce the occurrence of high pollutants concentrations and to avoid useless annoyances to people. In this paper, the authors developed a recurrent neural network (RNN) model to forecast the maximum daily nitrogen oxides (NOx) concentrations in Palermo. The authors have compared the neural network results with those obtained from a stochastic model (AR2). The RNN model is different from the statistic models because it utilizes a pattern recognition approach. The research is based upon collected data from six monitoring sites during the period 2003-2004. The model developed is a potential tool for the predictions air quality parameters and it is superior to the traditional stochastic model.
Spatial patterns of vegetative and sexually reproducing individuals of Marsilea strigosa Willd

Draper, D. & Iriondo, J. M. : Spatial pattern of vegetative and sexually reproducing individuals of Marsilea strigosa Willd. — Bocconea 21: 95-104. 2007. — ISSN 1120-4060. We analyzed the spatial distribution of Marsilea strigosa, an aquatic fern, considering two life stages (vegetative and sexual) and interpreted results taking into account possible facilitation or competition effects among individuals as well as existing colonization strategies. Marsilea strigosa is distributed from Spain to the Black Sea. It is considered a rare species due its high habitat specificity and small fragmented populations. We surveyed 95% of the Balearic population of M. strigosa, covering a surface of approximately 1000 m2. Single life stage and bivariate distribution patterns were analyzed using second-order spatial analysis based on Ripley’s Kfunction. The relationship between vegetative and sexual node types is discussed. Aggregation of vegetative and sexual nodes was the only spatial point pattern found. The same results were obtained when both stages were analyzed together with bivariate function. We discuss the effect of life stage on the balance between competition and facilitation in dynamic environments. The importance of these two processes in colonization sites can best be understood by comparing them between different life stages.
A Short Note on Trend Modeling using Moving Windows

In some geostatistical modeling applications, such as for properties deposited under a known physical or genetic phenomenon or for categorical variables, the use of trend models may be useful. Trends are incorporated into geostatistics through methods such as universal kriging, kriging with a locally varying mean, or using the trend to compute residuals. Several methods exist to model explicit trend models including kriging, regression, moving windows, and radial basis functions. This paper explores the use of moving window averaging for computing vertical, aerial and three dimensional trends. A flexible program is developed to allow users to explore moving windows for trend modeling. Flexibility in window geometry, weighting schemes, and filtering is provided along with plotting capabilities for vertical trends. It is also possible to calibrate three dimensional trends to reproduce a vertical trend, since the later is often more informed than the former.
Comparison of Abnormal Accrual Estimation Procedures in the Context of Investor Mispricing

Existing research provides a number of different procedures for estimating abnormal accruals. Using variations of the Jones (1991) model and the Dechow-Dichev (2002) model, we estimate abnormal accruals using 22 models. Also, based on procedures employed in existing research, we identify three dichotomous choices for measuring accruals and two dichotomous choices for estimating the regression model. In combination, these alternatives result in a total of 704 abnormal accrual estimation procedures (i.e., 22 abnormal accrual models for 32 (= 2) accrual measurement/regression approach combinations). For each of these estimation procedures, we measure the relation between current abnormal accruals and future abnormal returns to identify a ‘best’ approach in modeling abnormal accruals in the context of investor mispricing. Currently, there is no clear consensus in the literature as to which abnormal accrual estimation procedure is best. With so many alternatives available, a large-scale comparison is warranted. We find that about half of the estimation procedures provide evidence consistent with investor mispricing of abnormal accruals. In general, we find greater evidence of investor mispricing when abnormal accrual estimation procedures 1) use total accruals rather than working capital accruals as the dependent variable, 2) measure accruals from the statement of cash flows rather than the balance sheet, 3) scale accruals by average total assets rather than beginning total assets, 4) estimate the regression model by-firm rather than cross-sectionally within industry, and 5) include an intercept in the regression model rather than exclude it. The abnormal accrual estimation procedure that produces the greatest evidence of mispricing involves a firm-specific regression (including an intercept) of total accruals, as measured from the statement of cash flows and scaled by average total assets, on current operating cash flows. This simple procedure for estimating abnormal accruals has not been employed in previous research. We call for future research to investigate whether this model performs well in other settings. Our paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating that alternative measures and regression procedures are important in evaluating the performance of specific abnormal accruals models in the context of mispricing. Our empirical findings provide guidelines for researchers in estimating abnormal accruals if mispricing is an important element in their investigation. We identify a best-performing model to detect mispricing, which should be of interest to investors, regulators and researchers. Comparison of Abnormal Accrual Estimation Procedures in the Context of Investor Mispricing
Event Detection and Classification for the Digital Humanities

In recent years, event processing has become an active area of research in the Natural Language Processing community but resources and automatic systems developed so far have mainly addressed contemporary texts. However, the recognition and elaboration of events is a crucial step when dealing with historical texts: research in this domain can lead to the development of methodologies and tools that can assist historians in enhancing their work and can have an impact both in the fields of Natural Language Processing and Digital Humanities. Our work aims at shedding light on the complex concept of events adopting an interdisciplinary perspective. More specifically, theoretical and practical investigations are carried out on the specific topic of event detection and classification in historical texts by developing and releasing new annotation guidelines, new resources and new models for automatic annotation.
Introduction to Quantum Thermodynamics (Lecture Notes)

The theory of quantum thermodynamics investigates how the concepts of heat, work, and temperature can be carried over to the quantum realm, where fluctuations and randomness are fundamentally unavoidable. Of particular practical relevance is the investigation of quantum thermal machines: Machines that use the flow of heat in order to perform some useful task. In this lectures series, we give a brief introduction into how the laws of thermodynamics arise from quantum theory and how thermal machines can be described with Markovian quantum master equations. Recent results are illustrated with examples such as a quantum dot heat engine and a qubit entangler.
Distribution of Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Procaccini in the Mediterranean Sea

The Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla (Sonder) Verlaque, Huisman & Procaccini has been reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea along the coast of South Turkey. This NIS is actively expanding into the Eastern and Western Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, we present an overview of the current distribution of this alga in the Mediterranean Sea, based on relevant scientific publications, grey literature and personal observations. New records from the Sicilian coast (Italy) are also reported. Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla was found over a wide range of environmental conditions (depth, light and substratum), suggesting a broad ecological plasticity of this alga which makes it a potential threat for the Mediterranean benthic communities. In this respect, artificial structures, often linked to harbours and maritime traffic, seem to provide suitable habitats for this NIS. Since maritime traffic is intense in the Mediterranean Sea, further expansion of C. taxifolia var. distichophylla in this region is to be expected. For this reason, it is very important to build up an overview on the current distribution of the species and its possible pattern of colonisation in relation to environmental conditions, as well as in view of future climate change scenarios.
In vitro Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of an Endophytic Fungus Phomopsis liquidambari QH 4 from Artemisia annua

Endophytic fungi from medicinal plants are prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites. The present study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and antitumor activities of mycelia of an endophytic Phomopsis liquidambari (strain QH4), from Artemisia annua. The antioxidant activities of QH4 extracts extracted from methanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, chloroform and hexane were determined via five different antioxidant models namely free radical scavenging capacity using 2, 2’-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS+), 2,2dipheny l-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl radicals, reducing power assay and ferrous ion chelating ability. The antitumor activity was determined by MTT assay. The methanol extract (200 μg/ml and 4.0mg/ml) exhibited strong antioxidant capacity in each antioxidant model systems, while the ethyl acetate extract (20 μg/ml) was active against HL-60 leukemia, MCF-7 breast and COLO205 colon cell lines with a growth inhibition of 71.99 %, 53.66 % and 92.70 %, respectively. Total phenolic contents (TPC) of the extracts with different solvents were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The TPC was highest in methanol extract (60.07 ± 0.31 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight of the mycelia) and lowest in hexane extract (6.54 ± 0.29 mg GAE/g DW of the mycelia). The correlation coefficients from regression analysis showed various relationships between TPC in the extracts and antioxidant activities tested via different models including ABTS+ (R2 = 0.9651), DPPH (R2 = 0.8490), hydroxyl radical scavenging ability (R2 = 0.9438), reducing power assay (R2 = 0.8266) and ferrous ion chelating ability (R2 = 0.4836). The endophytic Phomopsis liquidambari QH4 may have the potential to become a source of natural antioxidant and/or antitumor agents.
Induction of Pigmentation and Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Harvested Strawberry Fruit by Methyl Jasmonate

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is an important fruit worldwide. The fruit has high nutritional value such as anthocyanins and ascorbic acid. However, strawberry fruit is delicate and highly perishable to mechanical injury, desiccation, and physiological disorders after harvest. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA), a naturally occurring plant endogenous hormone, plays an important role in plant development, fruit ripening, and defense mechanism.
Target groups „ Waverer ” & „ Female Students “ : Description and Suggestion for the Utilization of Starting Points

The present material is based on the research project „Mobilization of female innovative entrepreneurial potentials MobI UP “, sub-project at the BTU Cottbus, Chair of Prof. Dr. Christiane Hipp, public funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) from October 2007 until March 2010. The purpose of the material is the transfer of the results and implications of this project.
Does predictive processing imply predictive coding in models of spoken word recognition?

Pervasive behavioral and neural evidence for predictive processing has led to claims that language processing depends upon predictive coding. In some cases, this may reflect a conflation of terms, but predictive coding formally is a computational mechanism where only deviations from topdown expectations are passed between levels of representation. We evaluate three models’ ability to simulate predictive processing and ask whether they exhibit the putative hallmark of formal predictive coding (reduced signal when input matches expectations). Of crucial interest, TRACE, an interactive activation model that does not explicitly implement prediction, exhibits both predictive processing and modelinternal signal reduction. This may indicate that interactive activation is functionally equivalent or approximant to predictive coding, or that caution is warranted in interpreting neural signal reduction as diagnostic of predictive coding.
Supplemental Material for “ Training Convolutional Networks on Large Weakly Supervised Data ”

This document contains all supplemental material for the paper “Training Convolutional Networks on Large Weakly Supervised Data”. The supplemental material contains six sections: (1) details on the overlap between the CUB2002011 Birds dataset and the Imagenet ILSVRC2014 dataset; (2) a plot of the word frequency distribution in the Flickr 100M dataset; (3) a section with additional details on the bounds for the approximate multi-class logistic loss of Section 3 in the main paper; (4) additional details on the experimental setup of the transfer learning experiments; (5) additional results of the transfer-learning experiments, comprising all vocabulary sizes; and (6) high-resolution versions of the t-SNE maps presented in the paper.
Theoretical background , therapeutic process , therapeutic relationship , and therapeutic techniques of REBT and CT ; and some parallels and dissimilarities between the two approaches

REBT AND CT ARE THE TWO WELL KNOWN COGNITIVE APPROACHES OF COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY. REBT WAS ESTABLISHED BY ALBERT ELLIS. ELLIS DERIVED REBT THEORY MAINLY FROM THE ANCIENT ASIAN PHILOSOPHERS, GAUTAMA BUDDHA, LAO TSU, AND CONFUCIUS; THE GREEKS AND THE ROMANS, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS, EPICURUS, SENECA; AND OTHERS. ALSO, HE DERIVED REBT FROM SEVERAL MODERN CONSTRUCTIVIST PHILOSOPHERS, SUCH AS KANT, RUSSEL, DEWEY AND WITTGENSTEIN. ELLIS HAS EMPHASISED THE NEGATIVE ROLE OF DYSFUNCTIONAL COGNITIONS IN HUMAN BEINGS’ LIVES. IN ELLIS’ APPROACH, COUNSELLORS WOULD OFTEN USE COGNITIVE, EMOTIVE, AND BEHAVIOURAL TECHNIQUES WITH THEIR CLIENTS.CT WAS ESTABLISHED BY AARON T. BECK. BECK’S BELIEF ALSO DERIVED FROM THE GREEK STOIC PHILOSOPHERS THAT HOW ONE THINKS LARGELY DETERMINES HOW ONE FEELS AND BEHAVES. IN BECK’S APPROACH, THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES HELP CLIENTS OVERCOME THEIR MENTAL PROBLEMS. REBT AND CT ARE COGNITIVE THERAPIES WHICH ARE USED BY COUNSELLORS AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS IN THE WORLD. ALTHOUGH REBT AND CT SHARE SOME SIMILARITIES, THERE ARE SOME DISSIMILARITIES BETWEEN THESE TWO APPROACHES WHICH NEED ENOUGH CONSIDERATION. IN THE PRESENT ARTICLE, THEORETICALBACKGROUND, THERAPEUTIC PROCESS, THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP, AND THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES OF REBT AND CT WILL BE ADDRESSED SEPARATELY. THEN, SOME PARALLELS AND DISSIMILARITIES BETWEEN THESE TWO APPROACHES WILL BE DISCUSSED BRIEFLY.
Sequential Purification of RNA , DNA and Protein from a Single Sample using Norgen ' s RNA / DNA / Protein Purification Kit and Comparison to a Market Competitor

INTRODUCTION Norgen's RNA/DNA/Protein Purification Kit provides a rapid method for the isolation and purification of total RNA, genomic DNA and proteins sequentially from a single sample of cultured animal cells, small tissue samples, blood, bacteria, yeast, fungi or plants. The kit streamlines sample preparation by enabling the simultaneous purification of nucleic acids and proteins from the same cell or tissue sample. As there is no need to split the sample prior to purification, the recovery of all analytes is maximized. In addition, no organic solvents such as phenol or acetone are required for the procedure.
ercury contamination and stable isotopes reveal variability in oraging ecology of generalist California gulls arah

Environmental contaminants are a concern for animal health, but contaminant exposure can also be used as a tracer of foraging ecology. In particular, mercury (Hg) concentrations are highly variable among aquatic and terrestrial food webs as a result of habitatand site-specific biogeochemical processes that produce the bioaccumulative form, methylmercury (MeHg). We used stable isotopes and total Hg (THg) concentrations of a generalist consumer, the California gull (Larus californicus), to examine foraging ecology and illustrate the utility of using Hg contamination as an ecological tracer under certain conditions. We identified four main foraging clusters of gulls during pre-breeding and breeding, using a traditional approach based on light stable isotopes. The foraging cluster with the highest ı15N and ı34S values in gulls (cluster 4) had mean blood THg concentrations 614% (pre-breeding) and 250% (breeding) higher than gulls with the lowest isotope values (cluster 1). Using a traditional approach of stable-isotope mixing models, we showed that breeding birds with a higher proportion of garbage in their diet (cluster 2: 63–82% garbage) corresponded to lower THg concentrations and lower ı15N and ı34S values. In contrast, gull clusters with higher THg concentrations, which were more enriched in 15N and 34S isotopes, con34 sumed a higher proportion of more natural, estuarine prey. ı S values, which change markedly across the terrestrial to marine habitat gradient, were positively correlated with blood THg concentrations in gulls. The linkage we observed between stable isotopes and THg concentrations suggests that Hg contamination can be used as an additional tool for understanding animal foraging across coastal habitat
Novel nematode species in living stromatolites in the Andean Puna

The recently discovered “living” stromatolites in the Argentinean Puna are considered one of the most extreme stromatolites found so far. A rich biodiversity of bacteria and archaea were previously reported in such stromatolites. As nematodes are the most numerous multicellular animals on Earth, the aim of this work was to investigate their presence in the stromatolites from Socompa lake at 3570 meters above sea level (masl). Nematodes were extracted and identified as belonging to the Monhysteridae family, with 91–92% homology to Diplolaimella dievengatensis. The phylogenetic analysis suggested they are novel species and probably belong to a new genus. This study represents the first report related to the presence of novel nematodes in such peculiar stromatolites. Knowing their functions and genetic features involved in the adaptation to these harsh conditions could help to elucidate important aspects about the ecological impact of these organisms in hostile environments. How to cite this article: D’Almeida R.E. , García M.E. , Pérez M.F. , Farías M.E. , Dib J.R. 2019. Novel nematode species in living stromatolites in the Andean Puna // Invert. Zool. Vol.16. No.3. P.211–218, video. doi: 10.15298/invertzool.16. 3.01
Title Spectral discrimination of breast pathologies in situ using spatial frequency domain imaging

Introduction: Nationally, 25% to 50% of patients undergoing lumpectomy for local management of breast cancer require a secondary excision because of the persistence of residual tumor. Intraoperative assessment of specimen margins by frozen-section analysis is not widely adopted in breast-conserving surgery. Here, a new approach to wide-field optical imaging of breast pathology in situ was tested to determine whether the system could accurately discriminate cancer from benign tissues before routine pathological processing. Methods: Spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) was used to quantify near-infrared (NIR) optical parameters at the surface of 47 lumpectomy tissue specimens. Spatial frequency and wavelength-dependent reflectance spectra were parameterized with matched simulations of light transport. Spectral images were co-registered to histopathology in adjacent, stained sections of the tissue, cut in the geometry imaged in situ. A supervised classifier and feature-selection algorithm were implemented to automate discrimination of breast pathologies and to rank the contribution of each parameter to a diagnosis. Results: Spectral parameters distinguished all pathology subtypes with 82% accuracy and benign (fibrocystic disease, fibroadenoma) from malignant (DCIS, invasive cancer, and partially treated invasive cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy) pathologies with 88% accuracy, high specificity (93%), and reasonable sensitivity (79%). Although spectral absorption and scattering features were essential components of the discriminant classifier, scattering exhibited lower variance and contributed most to tissue-type separation. The scattering slope was sensitive to stromal and epithelial distributions measured with quantitative immunohistochemistry. Conclusions: SFDI is a new quantitative imaging technique that renders a specific tissue-type diagnosis. Its combination of planar sampling and frequency-dependent depth sensing is clinically pragmatic and appropriate for breast surgical-margin assessment. This study is the first to apply SFDI to pathology discrimination in surgical breast tissues. It represents an important step toward imaging surgical specimens immediately ex vivo to reduce the high rate of secondary excisions associated with breast lumpectomy procedures.