Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outline of Diagenesis in the Monterey Formation Examined Laterally Along the Santa Barbara Coast, California

Abstract Lateral differences in Monterey strata along the Santa Barbara coast indicate increased diagenesis toward the west. Continuous exposure for 55 km, simple homoclinal structure, paleogeographic setting, and detailed analysis of 14 stratigraphic sections together show that sediments were laterally similar as originally deposited. Overburden thicknesses and thermal changes in organic matter indicate that lateral diagenetic differences are due to postdepositional differences in temperature and burial depth, which both generally increased from east to west. In general, silica alters westward from biogenous opal-A (in diatom frustules) through diagenetic opal-CT to diagenetic quartz, but silica phases transformed at varying temperatures in closely associated beds. These differences in transformation temperature are related to differences in the ratio of silica to detrital minerals in individual beds: as this ratio decreased, diagenetic opal-CT formed at progressively higher temperatures and diagenetic quartz subsequently formed at progressively lower temperatures. Silica diagenesis was unaffected by carbonate except in rocks containing at least 8 times more silica than detrital minerals; in the latter rocks, some diagenetic quartz formed early in diagenesis, probably when most rocks were diatomaceous. Locally, quartz cherts formed in carbonate-bearing strata by replacement and pore-filling early in diagenesis; such quartz does not indicate the diagenetic “grade” of surrounding strata. Also locally, disseminated dolomite formed in a wide variety of calcite-bearing rocks. Differences among individual beds in the temperature of silica phase transformations produced a transformation sequence as temperature increased. Opal-CT formed first in cherts and cherty porcelanites, then in porcelanites, and finally in siliceous mudstones. Quartz, on the other hand, formed first in siliceous mudstones, then in porcelanites, and finally in cherty porcelanites and cherts. Rocks with contrasting silica phases are thus interbedded at many localities and can be intimately interlayered, showing that phases changed independently in individual beds down to the scale of very thin (
An OWL Framework for Rule-based Recognition of Places in Italian Non-structured Text

In this paper we present a technique for recognising location names in non-structured texts. Our approach is based on grammar rules devised for the Italian language and semantic web tools such as geographic linked datasets, OWL ontologies, and SWRL rules, to handle data and reason about them, even in presence of name ambiguities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt of addressing the problem of location recognition in the context of Italian texts with such an ontological support.
Analysis of Aftershock and Foreshock Activity in Stable Continental Regions: Implications for Aftershock Forecasting and the Hazard of Strong Earthquakes

The Omori-law aftershock parameters for 13 earthquakes in stable continental regions (SCRs) globally are found to distribute in the same way as those for California aftershock sequences. Of 19 SCR mainshocks with M ≥ 6.0 since 1968, eight had their largest aftershock within five days of the mainshock and 11 within 30 days of the mainshock. The mean magnitude difference between the mainshock and the largest aftershock of these 19 SCR events is 1.4 ± . 7 magnitude units, with a range from 0.3 to 3.6 magnitude units. From 1968 to 2003 the rate at which SCR earthquakes of M ≥ 4.5 worldwide were followed by a comparable or larger earthquake within the next 30 days is 5%. These statistics can be used to produce aftershock forecasts for strong SCR earthquakes and to estimate the chances that an SCR earthquake of M ≥ 4.5 will be followed by a larger seismic event within the next month.
User specific product recommendation and rating system by performing sentiment analysis on product reviews

Recommendation systems have emerged rapidly in the past decade. Recommendation of products to attract customers that meet their requirements is very important for the vendors to survive in the global market. The approach proposed in this paper is novel and serves as a better alternative to rate a product based on its technical specification by analyzing large number of user reviews which are extracted dynamically from several top e-commerce websites. This avoids the need, for the user, to search for opinions and comments online before making a purchase. The proposed approach in this study extracts specification list like battery, processor, camera etc. and customer reviews for a user specified product from different websites and identifies crucial terms corresponding to the technical features of the product in the review to determine polarity of the feature and classifying it under the specification list. Each specification is assigned a score based on polarity i.e. positive/negative feedback. Overall product rate is calculated by aggregating the score specific to individual features. This approach is very useful for those customers who target at specific features in a product.
Transposable Elements: From DNA Parasites to Architects of Metazoan Evolution

One of the most unexpected insights that followed from the completion of the human genome a decade ago was that more than half of our DNA is derived from transposable elements (TEs). Due to advances in high throughput sequencing technologies it is now clear that TEs comprise the largest molecular class within most metazoan genomes. TEs, once categorised as "junk DNA", are now known to influence genomic structure and function by increasing the coding and non-coding genetic repertoire of the host. In this way TEs are key elements that stimulate the evolution of metazoan genomes. This review highlights several lines of TE research including the horizontal transfer of TEs through host-parasite interactions, the vertical maintenance of TEs over long periods of evolutionary time, and the direct role that TEs have played in generating morphological novelty.
Coffee, cirrhosis, and transaminase enzymes.

BACKGROUND A minority of persons at risk develop liver cirrhosis, but knowledge of risk modulators is sparse. Several reports suggest that coffee drinking is associated with lower cirrhosis risk. METHODS We studied 125,580 multiethnic members of a comprehensive prepaid health care plan without known liver disease who supplied baseline data at voluntary health examinations from 1978 to 1985. Subsequently, through 2001, 330 of them were diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. Review of medical records confirmed the diagnosis of cirrhosis and ascertained probable etiology. The association of coffee drinking with cirrhosis was estimated by Cox proportional hazards models with 7 covariates. We also did a cross-sectional analysis of baseline aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels, studied by logistic regression. RESULTS In the cohort study, relative risks of alcoholic cirrhosis (199 subjects) for coffee drinking (vs none) were less than 1 cup per day, 0.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.4-1.1); 1 to 3 cups, 0.6 (95% CI, 0.4-0.8; P<.001); and 4 or more cups, 0.2 (95% CI, 0.1-0.4; P<.001). For 131 subjects with nonalcoholic cirrhosis, relative risks were less than 1 cup, 1.2 (95% CI, 0.6-2.2); 1 to 3 cups, 1.3 (95% CI, 0.8-2.1); and 4 or more cups, 0.7 (95% CI, 0.4-1.3). These relative risks for coffee drinking were consistent in subsets. Tea drinking was unrelated to alcoholic or nonalcoholic cirrhosis. In the cross-sectional analyses, coffee drinking was related to lower prevalence of high aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels; for example, the odds ratio of 4 or more cups per day (vs none) for a high aspartate aminotransferase level was 0.5 (95% CI, 0.4-0.6; P<.001) and for a high alanine aminotransferase level, 0.6 (95% CI, 0.6-0.7; P<.001), with stronger inverse relations in those who drink large quantities of alcohol. CONCLUSION These data support the hypothesis that there is an ingredient in coffee that protects against cirrhosis, especially alcoholic cirrhosis.
Visualizing the search process of particle swarm optimization

It is a hard problem to understand the search process of particle swarm optimization over high-dimensional domain. The visualization depicts the total search process and then it will allow better understanding of how to tune the algorithm. For the investigation, we adopt Sammon's mapping, which is a well-known distance-preserving mapping. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed methodology by applying it to some function optimization problems.
Does motivation in citizen science change with time and culture?

Citizen scientists are motivated by a variety of factors to contribute biodiversity data to collaborative projects, and these factors change over time. Initially, citizen scientists tend to be motivated by their own intrinsic interests. However, for them to continue to contribute, other factors are necessary to motivate them: feedback about their contribution, acknowledgement by scientists and peers, a sense of belonging to a community, and often more. Culture is known to have a deep and pervasive influence on all aspects of our lives, but how does it influence volunteering in citizen science? Three separate interview studies conducted in the USA, India, and Costa Rica suggest that cultural norms and institutional structures influence citizen science.
Pregnancy Complicated by Portal Hypertension Secondary to Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a rare idiopathic neonatal cholestatic disease characterized by the destruction of both the intra- and extrahepatic biliary ducts. As the disease is progressive all cases will develop portal fibrosis, cirrhosis, and portal hypertension with the sequelae of varices, jaundice, and eventually liver failure requiring a transplant. Survival rates have improved considerably with many females living well in to be childbearing age. Due to the complexity of the disease these pregnancies are considered, high risk. We report the antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum managements of a pregnancy complicated by biliary atresia. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach in optimizing obstetric care for this high risk group.
JGRE: An Analysis of JNI Global Reference Exhaustion Vulnerabilities in Android

Android system applies a permission-based security model to restrict unauthorized apps from accessing system services, however, this security model cannot constrain authorized apps from sending excessive service requests to exhaust the limited system resource allocated for each system service. As references from native code to a Java object, JNI Global References (JGR) are prone to memory leaks, since they are not automatically garbage collected. Moreover, JGR exhaustion may lead to process abort or even Android system reboot when the victim process could not afford the JGR requests triggered by malicious apps through inter-process communication. In this paper, we perform a systematic study on JGR exhaustion (JGRE) attacks against all system services in Android. Our experimental results show that among the 104 system services in Android 6.0. 1, 32 system services have 54 vulnerabilities. Particularly, 22 system services can be successfully attacked without any permission support. After reporting those vulnerabilities to Android security team and getting confirmed, we study the existing ad hoc countermeasures in Android against JGRE attacks. Surprisingly, among the 10 system services that have been protected, 8 system services are still vulnerable to JGRE attacks. Finally, we develop an effective defense mechanism to defeat all identified JGRE attacks by adopting Android's low memory killer (LMK) mechanism.
Persistence of skewness in longitudinal dispersion data: Can the dead zone model explain it after all?

Field studies reporting coefficients of temporal skewness that do not decrease in the main flow direction have cast doubt on the transient storage (TS) or dead zone model of longitudinal dispersion in rivers and streams. In this study, the conditions under which the TS model predicts persistent or growing skewness coefficients are investigated. The findings clearly show that, though not outright impossible, and instantaneous slug release into a uniform channel reach is, indeed, extremely unlikely to result in persistent or growing skewness coefficients. In contrast, the passage of a tracer or pollutant along a sequence of (hydraulically) different subreaches may easily give rise to nondecaying skewness coefficients, the occurrence of which is governed by the parameter sets of the subreaches concerned. Thus, the TS model does show a certain potential to explain the persistence of skewness. The findings reported here are expected to be useful in guiding future field studies on the subject. An application of the newly derived criterion to stream tracer data has been successful.
Research on Parallel Interleaved Inverters with Discontinuous Space-Vector Modulation

Parallel converter can significantly increase the capacity of the converter and improve the power quality of AC side, but the circulation which can lead to high switching loss and even damage the devices will easily exist in the direct parallel converters. In this paper, the average model of parallel interleaved inverters system to analyze the circulation current is shown, and the cross current is relevant to DC-bus voltage and the overlap time of zero vectors in the switching period. Based on this observation, a discontinuous space vector modulation without using zero vectors (000) is eliminate and suppress the zero-sequence current to entire system. Finally, the effectiveness of modulation strategy is verified by the simulations in this paper.
Scenario Update Applied to Causal Reasoning

In this paper, we propose to define the update of a scenario (sequence of observations at different time points) by a piece of information (value of a fluent or event occurrence) at a given time point. This operation computes the possible world evolutions (called trajectories) satisfying this piece of information that are the most in accordance with the initial scenario. It enables us to identify the consequences that a modification may involve on the evolution of the world. Updating scenarios allows us to define formally the counterfactual aspect of causation: to check if an event is a cause in a given scenario amounts to update this scenario by the nonoccurrence of this event.
Using infrared radiation to detect local inflammation in cattle

RADIANT heat loss accounts for most of the heat lost from the bodies of healthy animals, and varies according to metabolic rate and environmental temperature and humidity in cattle (Blaxter 1962). The hide of cattle can act in a similar way to a black-body, emitting the vast majority of body surface radiation (Ring 2004). This infrared radiation emitted by the body surface can be captured using infrared thermography and thermometry and, for both technologies, it is possible to make inferences about body surface temperature based on the assessment of the emitted radiation. Infrared sensing is a non-contact assessment and is therefore more reliable for body surface temperature assessments than contact methods. In the past decade, the application of infrared sensing technology in scientific, clinical and on-farm settings has expanded considerably, mainly due to technical advances associated with the …
On the Fundamental Tradeoff of Spatial Diversity and Spatial Multiplexing of MIMO Links with Imperfect CSIT

Multiple antennas can be used for increasing the packet reliability (spatial diversity) or the spectral efficiency (spatial multiplexing) in wireless communication systems operating under a slow fading environment. Zheng and Tse showed that both types of gains can be simultaneously obtained for a given multiple antenna channel, but there exist a fundamental tradeoff between spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing. They considered the case of no channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) but perfect channel state information at the receiver (CSIR). In this paper, we provide an alternative derivation of the fundamental tradeoff with no CSIT and extend the framework to analyze the role of CSIT on the fundamental performance tradeoff for a MIMO link. Defining CSIT quality order as alpha = - log sigmaDelta 2/log rho, where sigmaDelta 2 is the CSIT error variance, we showed that the diversity order dlowbar(alpha, rlowbar) is a piecewise linear function interpolating the points (k, (m-k)(n-k) + alphamax(m,n), for k = 0,1,. , min(m,n) where m is the number of transmit antennas and n is the number of receive antennas. The relationship suggests that if the imperfect CSIT is asymptotically "good", (alpha ne 0) then an additional diversity order of alphamax(m, n) can be realized compared to the no CSIT case. This additional diversity gain is independent of the average spatial multiplexing gain
Relationship of occupational therapy inpatient rehabilitation interventions and patient characteristics to outcomes following spinal cord injury: The SCIRehab Project

Abstract Background/objective Describe associations of occupational therapy (OT) interventions delivered during inpatient spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation and patient characteristics with outcomes at the time of discharge and 1-year post-injury. Methods Occupational therapists at six inpatient rehabilitation centers documented detailed information about treatment provided. Least squares regression modeling was used to predict outcomes at discharge and 1-year injury anniversary for a 75% subset; models were validated with the remaining 25%. Functional outcomes for injury subgroups (motor complete low tetraplegia and motor complete paraplegia) also were examined. Results OT treatment variables explain a small amount of variation in Functional Independence Measure (FIM) outcomes for the full sample and significantly more in two functionally homogeneous subgroups. For patients with motor complete paraplegia, more time spent in clothing management and hygiene related to toileting was a strong predictor of higher scores on the lower body items of the self-care component of the discharge motor FIM. Among patients with motor complete low tetraplegia, higher scores for the FIM lower body self-care items were associated with more time spent on lower body dressing, manual wheelchair mobility training, and bathing training. Active patient participation during OT treatment sessions also was predictive of FIM and other outcomes. Conclusion OT treatments add to explained variance (in addition to patient characteristics) for multiple outcomes. The impact of OT treatment on functional outcomes is more evident when examining more homogeneous patient groupings and outcomes specific to the groupings. Note This is the third of nine articles in the SCIRehab series.
Lidar remote sensing of ocean waters

In the ocean, typical concentrations of suspended particulates are between 10 and 200 mg/liter. Light-scattering nephelometers have been used for over 15 years to infer concentration and particulate perturbations. The nephelometers are sensitive to about particle concentration of 1 to 2 mg/liter. These particle concentrations can also be remotely sensed by ocean penetrating lidar. The particulate concentrations relate to the turbidity of the water, increasing the backscattering and attenuation of incident laser radiation; the attenuation is usually characterized by K, the diffuse attenuation coefficient. By appropriate processing of the lidar return waveforms, we can remotely infer the K, and thus the particulate concentrations - to a few mg/liter.
VIIRS on‐orbit calibration methodology and performance

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor aboard the Suomi National Polar‐orbiting Partnership spacecraft has successfully operated since its launch in October 2011. The VIIRS collects data in 22 spectral bands that are calibrated by a set of onboard calibrators (OBC). In addition, lunar observations are made to independently track VIIRS long‐term calibration stability for the reflective solar bands (RSB). This paper provides an overview of VIIRS OBC functions as well as its on‐orbit operation and calibration activities. It also describes sensor calibration methodologies and demonstrates VIIRS on‐orbit performance from launch to present. Results reported in this paper include on‐orbit changes in sensor spectral band responses, detector noise characterization, and key calibration parameters. Issues identified and their potential impacts on sensor calibration are also discussed. Since launch, the VIIRS instrument nominal operation temperature has been stable to within ±1.0 K. The cold focal plane temperatures have been well controlled, with variations of less than 20 mK over a period of 1.5 years. In general, changes in thermal emissive bands (TEB) detector responses have been less than 0.5%. Despite large response degradation in several near‐infrared and short‐wave infrared bands and large SD degradation at short visible wavelengths, the VIIRS sensor and OBC overall performance has been excellent postlaunch. The degradation caused by the telescope mirror coating contamination has been modeled and its impact addressed through the use of modulated relative spectral response in the improved calibration and the current sensor data record data production. Based on current instrument characteristics and performance, it is expected that the VIIRS calibration will continue to meet its design requirements, including RSB detector signal to noise ratio and TEB detector noise equivalent temperature difference, throughout its 7 year design lifetime.
Anti-tumor necrosis factor α treatment of interferon-α-induced murine lupus nephritis reduces the renal macrophage response but does not alter glomerular immune complex formation.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the mechanism for the therapeutic effects of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) inhibition in a murine model of systemic lupus erythematosus. METHODS We used the (NZB × NZW)F(1) (NZB/NZW) mouse model of interferon-α-induced lupus nephritis and treated mice with TNF receptor type II (TNFRII) Ig after TNFα expression was detected in the kidneys. Autoantibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and autoantibody- forming cells were determined using an enzyme-linked immunospot assay. Activation of splenocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry. Kidneys were harvested and analyzed using flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, ELISA, Western blotting, and real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS TNFRII Ig treatment stabilized nephritis and markedly prolonged survival. Autoantibody production and systemic immune activation were not inhibited, but the renal response to glomerular immune complex deposition was attenuated. This was associated with decreases in renal production of chemokines, renal endothelial cell activation, interstitial F4/80(high) macrophage accumulation, tubular damage, and oxidative stress. In contrast, perivascular lymphoid aggregates containing B cells, T cells, and dendritic cells accumulated unabated. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that TNFα is a critical cytokine that amplifies the response of the nephron to immune complex deposition, but that it has less influence on the response of the systemic vasculature to inflammation.