Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phytoplankton Composition, Community Structure and Regional Climatic Variations in Two Tropical Model Ponds in India

Simulated freshwater model ponds have been used as ideal natural laboratories for the comparative assessment of physicochemical and biological parameters. The study was conducted simultaneously at two places, one in Northern India (Delhi) and the other in Eastern India (West Bengal) carrying similar trophic structure and eutrophication dose during non-monsoon season (October 2003 to March 2004). The study emphasizes the local and regional climatic influence on plankton’s species composition, diversity and density variation in freshwater pond ecosystem along with dispersal and grazing pressure.
Evidence of radionuclide fractionation due to meltwater percolation in a temperate glacier

The article discusses the use of 3 H and 137 Cs as temporal markers in ice cores extracted from temperate glaciers. We present a complete tritium ( 3 H) profile for a 46 m ice core drilled from Adamello glacier, a temperate glacier in the Italian Alps, and compare it to 137 Cs profile from the same ice core. Our analysis reveals contamination of tritium between 19 and 32 m of depth, which can be attributed to the worldwide radioactive contamination caused by atmospheric nuclear bomb testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Results show that the radioactive peak associated with 1963 is not coincident for 3 H and 137 Cs, but 5 the 3 H peak occurs 1.5 m above the 137 Cs one. This misalignment is caused by meltwater-induced postdepositional processes that affect 137 Cs, which is more sensitive to percolation than 3 H. The total inventory of 137 Cs in this ice core is also among the lowest ever reported, providing additional evidence that meltwater disturbed its distribution into the ice. On the contrary, the total tritium inventory is comparable to what is reported in literature, making it a more reliable temporal marker for temperate glaciers. 10
Final report on feasibility of real-time geochemical analysis at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, using LIBS technology

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an analytic method whereby an intense laser pulse is used to vaporize and excite a small volume of material into atomic emission. Calibrated spectral analysis of the laser spark light provides detection and quantification of the elemental composition of the target material. We performed laboratory and field tests to assess the feasibility of developing field-portable LIBS-based instruments for real-time analyses of Yucca Mountain rocks in conjunction with Yucca Mountain Project drilling, coring, sampling, and characterization tasks. We developed one prototype instrument designed to analyze air core drilling dust and another prototype instrument designed to analyze rock and fracture surfaces. In realistic field tests at the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, we demonstrated that the LIBS prototypes are capable of measuring major, minor, and some trace elements in real time. Laboratory LIBS analyses show that we can identify characteristic element ratios in a range of manganese oxide minerals present at Yucca Mountain as fracture surface coatings and matrix grains. Preliminary LIBS analyses also indicate that the U/Na ratio may distinguish tuffs containing the hazardous zeolite mineral erionite from non-erionite bearing tuffs, and that a LIBS-based instrument may be useful to detect in real time the probable presence of erionite encountered in core drilling and other operations at Yucca Mountain.
Pitch Detection Using Modified Autocorrelation and Web Audio API

: Pitch detection is a vital aspect of music signal processing and has numerous applications in areas such as speech recognition, music transcription, and audio compression. The paper presents a novel approach to pitch detection using autocorrelation and the Web Audio API. The approach involves capturing audio input from a microphone and using the Web Audio API to perform autocorrelation on the audio signal. Applying a peak-picking algorithm to the autocorrelation function to identify the fundamental frequency, which in turn gives the pitch of the audio signal. The approach is validated and compared with other pitch detection algorithms and demonstrate that our method is both accurate and efficient. Overall, the approach to pitch detection using autocorrelation and the Web Audio API represents a promising avenue for future research in music signal processing and has the potential to facilitate the development of new applications in this field.
The “why” and “how” of spectral unmixing.

In vivo fluorescence imaging displays a very broad utility and has become a well-established modality for functional imaging in small animals. Nevertheless, fluorescence imaging is often perceived as difficult and cumbersome, especially in comparison with bioluminescence imaging. Spectral unmixing is by far the best technology tool to make fluorescence imaging more sensitive, specific, and more reliable.
TheWorld vs. SCOTT: Synthesis of COncealment Two-level Texture

: We propose an original method of Synthesis of COncealment Two-level Texture (SCOTT). SCOTT was designed according to the Human Visual System so that the concealment texture is faithful to the visual environment it will be placed in, in terms of forms and colors. The results of simulation prove that the concealment texture is efﬁcient although it is made of simple forms and only a few colors. Even if SCOTT has initially been designed for an application of reducing the visual pollution caused by manmade equipments (antenna, electrical cabinets, distributor boxes, repeater shelters, etc.), it may be used in many applications, such as inpainting, and even in image compression.
Implicit Parallelism : Trends in Microprocessor Architectures *

The traditional logical view of a sequential computer consists of a memory connected to a processor via a datapath. All three components – processor, memory, and datapath present bottlenecks to the overall processing rate of a computer system. A number of architectural innovations over the years have addressed these bottlenecks. One of the most important innovations is multiplicity – in processing units, datapaths, and memory units. This multiplicity is either entirely hidden from the programmer, as in the case of implicit parallelism, or exposed to the programmer in different forms. In this chapter, we present an overview of important architectural concepts as they relate to parallel processing. The objective is to provide sufficient detail for programmers to be able to write efficient code on a variety of platforms. We develop cost models and abstractions for quantifying the performance of various parallel algorithms, and identify bottlenecks resulting from various programming constructs. We start our discussion of parallel platforms with an overview of serial and implicitly parallel architectures. This is necessitated by the fact that it is often possible to re-engineer codes to achieve significant speedups (2 × to 5× unoptimized speed) using simple program transformations. Parallelizing sub-optimal serial codes often has undesirable effects of unreliable speedups and misleading runtimes. For this reason, we advocate optimizing serial performance of codes before attempting parallelization. As we shall demonstrate through this chapter, the tasks of serial and parallel optimization often have very similar characteristics. After discussing serial and implicitly parallel architectures, we devote the rest of this chapter to organization of parallel platforms, underlying cost models for algorithms, and platform abstractions for portable algorithm design. Readers wishing to delve directly into parallel architectures may choose to skip Sections 1.1 and 1.2.
This paper

Given the increasing ubiquity of online embedded devices, analyzing their ﬁrmware is important to security, privacy, and safety. The tight coupling between hardware and ﬁrmware and the diversity found in embedded systems makes it hard to perform dynamic analysis on ﬁrmware. However, ﬁrmware developers regularly develop code using abstractions, such as Hardware Abstraction Layers (HALs), to simplify their job. We leverage such abstractions as the basis for the re-hosting and analysis of ﬁrmware. By providing high-level replacements for HAL functions (a process termed High-Level Emulation – HLE ), we decouple the hardware from the ﬁrmware. This approach works by ﬁrst locating the library functions in a ﬁrmware sample, through binary analysis, and then providing generic implementations of these functions in a full-system emulator. Wepresent these ideas in a prototype system, HALucinator, able to re-host ﬁrmware, and allow the virtual device to be used normally. First, we introduce extensions to existing library matching techniques that are needed to identify library functions in binary ﬁrmware, to reduce collisions, and for inferring additional function names. Next, we demonstrate the re-hosting process, through the use of simpliﬁed handlers and peripheral models , which make the process fast, ﬂexible, and portable between ﬁrmware samples
Registered Report: Researcher Predictions of Effect Generalizability Across Global Samples

The generalizability of effects is an increasing concern among researchers in psychological science. Traditionally, the field has relied on university samples from Europe and North America to make claims about humans writ large. The proposed research will examine researcher predictions regarding the generalizability of four psychological effects. Predictions of outcomes and effect sizes overall and within regional subsamples will be compared to the results of four large scale international collaborative studies. We will also examine relationships between researcher characteristics and prediction accuracy. Our investigation will reveal whether researchers can accurately predict the generalizability of these psychological effects across cultural contexts while offering insight into what features of the researchers are related to their prediction accuracy.
Impact of RAR (cid:2) and miR-138 on retinoblastoma etoposide resistance

BACKGROUND: Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common childhood eye cancer. Chemotherapeutic drugs such as etoposide used in RB treatment often cause massive side effects and acquired drug resistances. Dysregulated genes and miRNAs have a large impact on cancer progression and development of chemotherapy resistances. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the involvement of retinoic acid receptor alpha ( RAR (cid:2) ) in RB progression and chemoresistance as well as the impact of miR-138, a potential RAR (cid:2) regulating miRNA. METHODS: RAR (cid:2) and miR-138 expression in etoposide resistant RB cell lines and chemotherapy treated patient tumors compared to non-treated tumors was revealed by Real-Time PCR. Overexpression approaches were performed to analyze the effects of RAR (cid:2) on RB cell viability, apoptosis, proliferation and tumorigenesis. Besides, we addressed the effect of miR-138 overexpression on RB cell chemotherapy resistance. RESULTS: A binding between miR-138 and RAR (cid:2) was shown by dual luciferase reporter gene assay. The study presented revealed that RAR (cid:2) is downregulated in etoposide resistant RB cells, while miR-138 is endogenously upregulated. Opposing RAR (cid:2) and miR-138 expression levels were detectable in chemotherapy pre-treated compared to non-treated RB tumor specimen.OverexpressionofRAR (cid:2) increasesapoptosislevelsandreducestumorcellgrowthofaggressiveetoposideresistant RB cells in vitro and in vivo. Overexpression of miR-138 in chemo-sensitive RB cell lines partly enhances cell viability after etoposide treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our ﬁndings show that RAR (cid:2) acts as a tumor suppressor in retinoblastoma and is downregulated upon etoposide resistance in RB cells. Thus, RAR (cid:2) may contribute to the development and progression of RB chemo-resistance.
Apoptosis , Neurogenesis , and Information Content in Hebbian Networks

The functional significance of alternate forms of plasticity in the brain (such as apoptosis and neurogenesis) is not easily observable with biological methods. Employing Hebbian dynamics for synaptic weight development, a three-layer neural network model of the hippocampus is used to simulate non-supervised (autonomous) learning in the context of apoptosis and neurogenesis. This learning is applied to the characters of a pair of related alphabets, first the Roman and then the Greek, resulting in a set of encodings endogenously developed by the network. The learning performance takes the form of a U-shaped curve, showing that apoptosis and neurogenesis favorably inform memory development. We also discover that networks that converge very quickly on the Roman alphabet take much longer to handle the Greek, while networks which converge over an extended timeframe can then adapt very quickly to the new language. We find that the effect becomes increasingly pronounced as the number of neurons in the dentate gyrus layer decreases, and identify a strong correlation between cases where the Roman alphabet is quickly learned and cases where a few neurons saturate many of their weights almost immediately, minimizing participation of other neurons. Cases where learning the Roman alphabet requires more time lead to larger numbers of neurons participating with a larger diversity in synaptic weights. We present an information-theoretic argument about why this implies a better, more flexible learning system and why it leads to faster subsequent correlated Greek alphabet learning, and propose that the reason that apoptosis and neurogenesis work is that they promote this effect. C. Crick Yale University Tel. : +011-203-432-1246 Fax: +011-203-432-0593 E-mail: christopher.crick@yale.edu W. Miranker Yale University Tel. : +011-203-432-7226 Fax: +011-203-432-0593 E-mail: willard.miranker@yale.edu
Modeling Human Reasoning About Conditionals

Numerous results in psychology demonstrate that inferences humans draw from conditional statements (i.e., statements of the form if antecedent then consequent) differ systematically from classical two-valued logical inferences. Today, still no formal approach yet exists which captures the speciﬁcs of semantic differences between types of conditionals (obligation vs. factual) or types of antecedents ( necessary vs. non-necessary). We claim that the three-valued, non-monotonic weak completion semantics can model human conditional reasoning adequately, especially with this distinction. We test the predictions of the weak completion semantics in a psychological experiment and demonstrate its cognitive adequacy. We situate the results within formal and cognitive theories and argue that we need logics that are descriptive for the human inference process.
Biotechnology techniques

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Biotechnology techniques Richard Meilan, Zhonglian Huang, Gilles G. Pilate
CFD Modelling of indoor atmosphere and water exchanges during the cheese ripening process

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. CFD Modelling of indoor atmosphere and water exchanges during the cheese ripening process. Pierre-Sylvain Mirade
Essential tools of the trade: An assistive technology specialist shares her toolkit

The marketplace offers a diz-zying array of choices. As manycomputer users have discovered, itis not difficult to fill a hard-drive.To facilitate technology enhancedproductivity, Edyburn & Gardner(1998) have advanced the conceptof technology toolkits as a means ofidentifying and validating the coretools and productivity strategiesthat enhance our work. However,the lack of resources to locate andbuild a toolkit means that most ef-forts to utilize technology to en-hance instruction or professionalproductivity must be do-it-yourself.As a result, it seems appropriate tofoster discussion within the profes-sional community about technol-ogy tools that are essential for ourwork.In this article, we introducereaders to the first author whoworks as an assistive technologyspecialist. Marsye briefly describesher experience with technology andthe context of her work. Then, weexamine the types of tools she hasselected for the technology toolkitand how these tools enhance herprofessional productivity.
From the ﬁ eld into the lab: causal approaches to the evolution of spatial language

: Striking variation exists in preferences for specific spatial linguistic strategies among different speech communities. Increasing evidence now suggests that this might not simply be a result of neutral drift, but rather a form of linguistic adaptation to the local social, cultural, or physical environment. Recent studies indicate that different factors like topography, subsistence style, and bilingualism successfully predict the choice of spatial frames of reference (FoR) on linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. However, the exact causal relationships between these variables and the cultural evolutionary mechanisms behind the selection of one FoR strategy over another are still not fully understood. In this paper, we argue that to arrive at a more mechanistic and causal understanding of the cultural evolution of spatial language, observations from descriptive fieldwork should be combined with experimental and computational methods. In the framework we present, causal relationships between linguistic and non-linguistic variables (such as FoR choice and topography) can be isolated and systematically tested in order to shed light on how sociotopographic factors motivate the variation in spatial language we observe cross-linguistically. We discuss experimental results from behavioral studies and computer simulations that illustrate how this approach can deliver empirical findings that go beyond simple correlations.
Synergetic Control for DC-DC Boost Converter: Implementation Synergetic Control for DC-DC Boost Converter: Implementation Options Options

— The theory of synergetic control was introduced in a power electronics context in a previous paper. In this paper, we review the theory, then focus on some practical aspects with reference to both simulations and actual hardware. In particular, we address management of the current limit condition and solve it with several different approaches. Adaptive and other control laws are also introduced to improve the control performance. The various controls are evaluated by applying the classical voltage reference step test and the step load test.
Rebellious youth and ineffective advice: A study of Vietnamese adolescents’ capability to deal with digital threats

The digital era brings various benefits to adolescents. However, operating on the digital environment without sufficient knowledge and skills will expose them to multiple types of risks, especially in the country with low digital safety education rate like Vietnam. The current study examines factors that can contribute to cultivating adolescents’ digital resilience using the information-processing reasoning of the Mindsponge Theory. A UNESCO dataset of 1061 Vietnamese high school students was analyzed using the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework analytics. It is found that adolescents’ daily Internet usage frequency, parents’ Internet safety guidance, and teachers’ safety guidance are positively associated with digital resilience. However, the effects of parents’ and teachers’ Internet safety guidance on digital resilience are conditional on the daily Internet usage frequency. Par ents’ guidance only enhances adolescents’ digital resilience if they use the Internet less than four hours per day. In contrast, the positive effect of teachers’ guidance on adolescents’ digital resilience becomes stronger when the students spend more time on the Internet (more than 1 hour). Based on these findings, we suggest that adolescents can learn to minimize risks and protect themselves by exposing more to the digital environment. Parents’ and teachers’ supports are important in enhancing adolescents’ capability to deal with digital threats, but types of supports need to be carefully considered to avoid reverse impacts on adolescents’ resilience.
Synthesis, Properties, and Applications of Carbon Nanotubes: An Overview

The current study attempts to review the literature concerning the synthesis, properties, and application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The methods used to produce carbon nanotubes include laser ablation, electric arc discharge, chemical vapor deposition, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, pulsed laser deposition, use of low-frequency ultrasound waves, heating a bulk polymer, and bulk sputtering. CNTs have excellent mechanical and thermal properties that strongly depend upon their structure. Functionalized magnetic CNTs are involved in magnetic force microscopy used in biomedicine. The liquid and plastic limit of kaolinite can be increased by adding CNTs to it. In the medical field, CNTs have numerous applications including gene delivery to cells, cancer therapy, drug delivery, and tissue regeneration. Their antioxidant nature also enables them to be used in cosmetic products and in the field of dermatology. They are also used to purify the environment, water, and in modern food-packaging technology. The sensors containing CNTs composite pellets are sensitive to gases, such as NH3, CO2, and CO H2O. CNTs are used to construct gas containers for hydrogen storage. They are also considered ideal for structural applications and their properties can be improved by making their composites with metals. Such metals may be introduced into the core of CNTs by different methods including solid-state reaction, arc-discharge method, and electrochemical techniques. The value of absorbed hydrogen gas in CNTs varies between 0.4 and 67 mass %. Recent advances encourage more research on CNTs to increase their clinical applications in the future.
(2019). Research topics, author profiles, and collaboration networks in the top-ranked journal on educational technology over the past 40 years: a bibliometric analysis

Targeting at analyzing the research status and trend of the educational technology field, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis on research topics, author profiles and collaboration networks using a top ranked journal Computers & Education (ISSN: 0360-1315). Using the Web of Sciences database, we retrieved 3,963 articles published by the journal during the period 1978-2018. The annual distribution of articles demonstrates a significant increase in the journal publications, especially since 2005 to 2011. The scientific collaboration between authors, intuitions, and countries/regions has become increasingly close. The scientific collaboration rate between authors from the same institution, and from the same country/region, is relatively higher, compared with those from different ones. Keyword evolution analysis highlights some prevalent topics such as ‘interactive learning environment’, ‘teaching/learning strategies’, ‘pedagogical issue’,