Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
'Meat Smells Like Corpses': Sensory Perceptions in a Sicilian Urban Marketplace

Based on in-depth ethnographic research, this article analyses how the tendency to sanitising urban spaces has affected the urban marketplace of La Pescheria, Catania, Sicily, and how this is reflected in the sensory experience of the space itself. Local authorities aim to render the market more appealing for a new clientele, mainly tourists and gastronomic experts. The reactions to this urban gentrification attempt are observable through the ethnography of people’ sensory experience, which informs what kind of social order is maintained and/or contested within the market. Focusing on what is allowed to be experienced helps to unveil stratification of meanings, which demonstrate that bodily knowledge is deeply connected to space. The market is seen as a space under construction, in which cultural values are intertwined within the economic system. I examine accounts related to smell, touch and hearing as central arenas of contention in the marketplace. The shift in the direction of a more sanitised and secluded urban space encounters resistance and a smelly, noisy market can be understood as a space of disobedience, in which noise and smell become a statement against authority.
KEY WATER RESOURCES STATISTICS IN AQUASTAT FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture

2 ABSTRACT: This article describes the methodology used by AQUASTAT to assess natural and actual freshwater resources for the world by country. It deals with renewable water resources and concentrates mainly on the physical assessment of internal and external resources. It presents a picture of the state of the world's water resources that is not only the natural state but also the current situation, taking into account existing uses of water and their implications for countries sharing river basins. Much remains to be done in order to obtain sound statistics on water resources, and particularly standardized data sets, at global level. This article presents some reflections in this sense. For example, more effort needs to be focussed on the assessment of the variability of water resources in space (basin level), in time (dry-year resources) and according to constraints (exploitable resources). Disaggregated information at river-basin level is particularly important in large countries with very diverse climatic conditions. National averages hide local differences and, for large countries, are of little use for evaluating the country's water situation. In order to improve the comparability of water information at regional and global level, AQUASTAT has also been working on the development of global GIS-based data sets and modelling tools. The model developed was used for cross-checking the Africa data sets and showed that the combined use of country-based data and global water-balance modelling can enhance the overall reliability of the results. Field-based approaches (based on measurements) and modelling approaches are certainly complementary.
Mesh Retrieval by Components

This paper examines the application of the human vision theories of Marr and Biederman to the retrieval of three-dimensional objects. The key idea is to represent an object by an attributed graph that consists of the object's meaningful components as nodes, where each node is fit to a basic shape. A system that realizes this approach was built and tested on a database of about 400 objects and achieves promising results. It is shown that this representation of 3D objects is very compact. Moreover, it gives rise to a retrieval algorithm that is invariant to non-rigid transformations and does not require normalization.
P is a proper subset of NP

The purpose of this article is to examine and limit the conditions in which the P complexity class could be equivalent to the NP complexity class. Proof is provided by demonstrating that as the number of clauses in a NP-complete problem approaches infinity, the number of input sets processed per computation performed also approaches infinity when solved by a polynomial time solution. It is then possible to determine that the only deterministic optimization of a NP-complete problem that could prove P = NP would be one that examines no more than a polynomial number of input sets for a given problem. It is then shown that subdividing the set of all possible input sets into a polynomial-sized search partition is a problem in the FEXP complexity class. By demonstrating that at least one NP-complete problem exists such that the set of all possible input sets for that problem cannot be partitioned in polynomial time, it then will follow that P = NP.
Multi-Site Evaluations of Candidate Methodologies for Determining Coarse Particulate Matter (PMc) Concentrations

i List of Tables . iii List of Figures . iv
Novel Three-Phase CM/DM Conducted Emission Separator

This paper presents two novel three-phase common-mode (CM)/differential-mode (DM) noise separation networks, which are passive and active networks, to be used in electromagnetic compatibility conducted emission (CE) measurements of three-phase equipment. The passive network is analyzed theoretically, and a prototype is constructed and tested. Its evaluation is presented through frequency response measurements and CE tests performed on a three-phase motor drive and verifies that the network is capable of separating the CM and DM information in a CE measurement condition.
A new proposal to adjust Moran's I for population density.

We analyse the effect of using prevalence rates based on populations with different sizes in the power of spatial independence tests. We compare the well known spatial correlation Moran's index to three indexes obtained after adjusting for population density, one proposed by Oden, another proposed by Waldhör, and a third proposed by us in this paper. We find an effect of spatially correlated populations in the type I error probability on the test based on Moran's and Waldhör's indexes. We conclude also that the test proposed by Oden is powerful to test risk heterogeneity, but it has disadvantages when the interest is solely on the spatial correlation of morbidity risks. In this latter case, we recommend using our proposed test which is more powerful than the usual Moran's index applied directly to the rates.
Air quality in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River channel: a cruise campaign

Abstract. The Yangtze River is the longest river in China; nearly one-third of the national population lives along the river. Air quality over the Yangtze River is important as it may have significant influences on the aquatic ecosystem, the health of everyone living along the Yangtze River, and regional climate change. Chemical compositions of ambient aerosol were determined during a comprehensive cruise campaign carried out along the mid–lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR) in winter of 2015. The total average concentration of PM2.5 was 119.29±33.67 µg m−3, and the dominant ionic composition in PM2.5 was SO42- with an average concentration of 15.21±6.69 µg m−3, followed by NO3- (13.76±4.99 µg m−3), NH4+ (9.38±4.35 µg m−3), and Ca2+ (2.23±1.24 µg m−3) in this cruise. Based on the filter samples, the concentration and chemical composition of PM2.5 were remarkably varied or fluctuated from coastal areas to inland over the MLYR region. Crustal elements (Ca, Mg, Al, and K) from floating dust showed peak concentrations in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, while secondary inorganic species (SO42-, NO3-, and NH4+) and some of the most enriched elements (Pb, As, Se, and Cd) presented high levels in central China (Wuhan region). The significant correlation between Se and SO42- suggested that coal combustion may play an important role in secondary inorganic aerosol formation. The relatively high enrichment factors (EFs) of Ca (EFs >100) suggested the crustal elements may derive from anthropogenic sources. Furthermore, the concentration of levoglucosan in PM2.5 and the CO column level from satellite observation were greatly enhanced in the rural areas (Anhui and Jiangxi), indicating that biomass burning may make a remarkable contribution to rural areas. The concentrations of typical tracer for heavy oil (V and Ni) significantly increased in the Shanghai port, which was mainly ascribed to ship emissions, based on the air mass source analysis and the relatively high ratio of V ∕ Ni as well. The results shown herein portray a good picture of air pollution along the Yangtze River.
Minimizing interacting finite state machines: a compositional approach to language containment

We address the problem of compositional minimization of collections of interacting finite state machines that arise in the context of formal verification of hardware designs by language containment. Typically much of the behavior of the system is redundant with respect to a given property being verified, and so the system can be replaced by substantially simpler representations. We show that these redundancies can be captured by computing states that are input-output equivalent in the presence of fairness. Since computing complete equivalences is computationally expensive, we propose a spectrum of approximations which are efficiently computable. Directly minimizing the entire system requires forming the complete product machine, which can be very large, and hence we describe procedures that hierarchically minimize the system with respect to explicit and BDD representations. We present experimental results on some standard verification examples to show that our algorithms allow the product machine to be represented by very small implicit or explicit representations. We conclude with some further directions. <<ETX>>
Novel sol-gel titania-based hybrid organic-inorganic coatings for on-line capillary microextraction coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography

Novel sol-gel titania-poly(dimethylsiloxane) (TiO2-PDMS) and titania-silica-N(triethoxysilylpropyl)-O-polyethylene oxide urethane (TiO2-SiO2-TESP-PEO) coatings were developed for capillary microextraction (CME) to perform on-line preconcentration and HPLC analysis of trace impurities in aqueous samples. Due to chemical inertness of titania, effective covalent binding of a suitable organic ligand to its surface is difficult via conventional surface modification methods. In this research, sol-gel chemistry was employed to chemically bind hydroxy-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and N-(triethoxysilylpropyl)-O-polyethylene oxide urethane (TESP-PEO) to sol-gel titania and sol-gel titania-silica network, respectively. A method is presented describing in situ preparation of the titania-based sol-gel PDMS and TESP-PEO coatings and their immobilization on the inner surface of a fused-silica microextraction capillary. To perform on-line CME-HPLC, the sol-gel TiO2-PDMS or TiO2-SiO2-TESP-PEO capillary was installed in the HPLC injection port as an external sampling loop, and a conventional HPLC separation column was used for the liquid chromatographic separation. The sol-gel
Biological effects of a porcine-derived collagen membrane on intrabony defects

Purpose To prolong the degradation time of collagen membranes, various cross-linking techniques have been developed. For cross-linking, chemicals such as formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde are added to collagen membranes, but these chemicals could adversely affect surrounding tissues. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of porous non-chemical cross-linking porcine-derived collagen nanofibrous membrane to enhance bone and associated tissue regeneration in one-wall intrabony defects in beagle dogs. Methods The second and third mandibular premolars and the first molars of 2 adult beagles were extracted bilaterally and the extraction sites were allowed to heal for 10 weeks. One-wall intrabony defects were prepared bilaterally on the mesial and distal side of the fourth mandibular premolars. Among eight defects, four defects were not covered with membrane as controls and the other four defects were covered with membrane as the experimental group. The animals were sacrificed 10 weeks after surgery. Results Wound healing was generally uneventful. For all parameters evaluating bone regeneration, the experimental group showed significantly superior results compared to the control. In new bone height (NBh), the experimental group exhibited a greater mean value than the control (3.04 ± 0.23 mm/1.57 ± 0.59, P = 0.003). Also, in new bone area (NBa) and new bone volume (NBv), the experimental group showed superior results compared to the control (NBa, 34.48 ± 10.21% vs. 5.09 ± 5.76%, P = 0.014; and NBv, 28.04 ± 12.96 vs. 1.55 ± 0.57, P = 0.041). On the other hand, for parameters evaluating periodontal tissue regeneration, including junctional epithelium migration and new cementum height, there were no statistically significant differences between two groups. Conclusions Within the limitations of this study, this collagen membrane enhanced bone regeneration at one-wall intrabony defects. On the other hand, no influence of this membrane on periodontal tissue regeneration could be ascertained in this study.
Expanding Queries Using Multiple Resources

We describe our participation in the TREC 2006 Genomics track, in which our main focus was on query expansion. We hypothesized that applying query expansion techniques would help us both to identify and retrieve synonymous terms, and to cope with ambiguity. To this end, we developed several collection-specific as well as online strategies. Our proposed methods yield a noticeable improvement in retrieval performance over the baseline. To counter the negative effects of query expansion on recall, we introduce conjunctive Boolean constraints on the query terms and added expansion terms. When these additional constraints are imposed, results improve even further. The improvements in our results are noticeable on the document, passage, as well as aspect level.
Developing Replicate Weight-Based Methods to Account for Imputation Variance in a Mass Imputation Application

The Census Bureau is currently developing a new imputation-based methodology to improve the estimates of the group quarters population for small areas. As a part of that work, a new variance estimation methodology was needed that would properly account for the imputation variance component in addition to the sampling variance component. Furthermore, any methodology would need to be incorporated into the American Community Survey (ACS) replicate weight variance methodology in order to minimize the impact on production tabulation systems. A benchmark was established using multiple imputation techniques for a fixed sample. We then compared alternative methods that attempted to incorporate the full measure of variance which incorporates the imputation variance into the replicate weights. Details on how the replicate weights are computed are described. This work led to a recommendation of a variance estimation methodology used in the 2011 ACS data products. The group quarters (GQ) population is only a small component of the total population nationally at approximately three percent. However, at substate and subcounty geographies such as census tract, the GQ population can be a substantial proportion of the population. The current statistical design for the production of American Community Survey (ACS) group quarters estimates is to support the GQ profile data product that is released only at the state and national levels. However, the GQ data are also included in the production of estimates for the characteristics of the total resident population in substate areas. This conflict between the design and ultimate use of the GQ data can lead to substantial variances in the substate estimates of both the GQ population and the total resident
On the Characteristics and Reasons of Long-lived Internet Flows *

Prior studies of Internet traffic have considered traffic at different resolutions and time scales: packets and flows for hours or days, aggregate packet statistics for days or weeks, and hourly trends for months. However, little is known about the long-term behavior of individual flows. In this paper, we study individual flows (as defined by the 5-tuple of protocol, source and destination IP address and port) over days and weeks. While the vast majority of flows are short, and most bytes are in short flows, we find that about 20% of the overall bytes are carried in flows that last longer than 10 minutes, and flows lasting 100 minutes or longer make up 2% of traffic. We show that long-lived flows are qualitatively different from short flows: they are generally slower, less bursty, and are due to different applications and protocols. We investigate the causes of short-and long-lived flows, and show that the traffic mix varies significantly depending on duration time scale, with computer-to-computer traffic more and more dominating in larger time scales. The conclusions of this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of DHS or NSF. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
Accurate and Robust Stereoscopic Matching in Efficient Algorithms

The thesis studies dense stereoscopic techniques which are usable for accurate, robust and fast matching of high-resolution images of complex 3D scenes. The main contributions are: (1) Image sampling invariant and affine insensitive complex correlation statistic (CCS) which is based on representing the image point neighbourhood as a response to complex Gabor filters. The CCS is a complex number with a magnitude of invariant similarity and a phase of estimated maximum position between pixels. (2) Methods for refining a disparity to sub-pixel precision as an outcome of CCS phase, and alternatively also as a single continuous optimization problem based on a simple quadratic criterion. (3) A fast matching algorithm which avoids computing correlations for the entire disparity space by growing promising correspondence hypotheses from initial (even random) seeds. The growth is coupled with a confidently stable matching algorithm by Šára, ECCV 2002, which robustly selects the matching among competing hypotheses. (4) An algorithm for verification of given correspondences by uncalibrated dense matching. It is destined for selecting correspondences before RANSAC in challenging matching problems, with low ratio of inliers, in cluttered scenes where standard descriptor-based approach fails. An efficient procedure driven by Wald’s sequential decision process grows a given correspondence while collecting statics until the decision based on learned models. Some methods presented in the thesis go beyond the scope of 3D reconstruction, and they are applicable in many problems where the correspondences between images are sought.
Cosmological parameter estimation and Bayesian model comparison using Very Small Array data

We constrain the basic cosmological parameters using the first observations by the Very Small Array (VSA) in its extended configuration, together with existing cosmic microwave background data and other cosmological observations. We estimate cosmological parameters for four different models of increasing complexity. In each case, careful consideration is given to implied priors and the Bayesian evidence is calculated in order to perform model selection. We find that the data are most convincingly explained by a simple flat ACDM cosmology without tensor modes. In this case, combining just the VSA and COBE data sets yields the 68 per cent confidence intervals Ω b h 2 = 0.034 + 0 . 0 0 7 - 0 . 0 0 7 , Ω d m h 2 = 0.18 + 0 . 0 6 - 0 . 0 4 , h = 0.72 + 0 . 1 5 - 0 . 1 3 , n s = 1.07 + 0 . 0 6 - 0 . 0 6 and σ 8 = 1.17 + 0 . 2 5 - 0 . 2 0 . The most general model considered includes spatial curvature, tensor modes, massive neutrinos and a parametrized equation of state for the dark energy. In this case, by combining all recent cosmological data, we find, in particular, a 95 per cent limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio R < 0.63 and on the fraction of massive neutrinos f v < 0.11; we also obtain the 68 per cent confidence interval w = -1.06 + 0 . 2 0 - 0 . 2 5 on the equation of state of dark energy.
FOLD PROFILE GEOMETRY OF THE ROCK OF THE AREA AROUND PITHORAGARH, UTTARAKHAND

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Classification automatique des signaux audio-fréquences : reconnaissance des instruments de musique. (Automatic Classification of Audio Signals: Machine Recognition of Musical Instruments)

L'objet de cette these est de contribuer a ameliorer l'identification automatique des instruments de musique dans des contextes realistes, (sur des solos de musique, mais egalement sur des pieces multi-instrumentales). Nous abordons le probleme suivant une approche de classification automatique en nous efforcant de rechercher des realisations performantes des differents modules constituant le systeme que nous proposons. Nous adoptons un schema de classification hierarchique base sur des taxonomies des instruments et des melanges d'instruments. Ces taxonomies sont inferees au moyen d'un algorithme de clustering hierarchique exploitant des distances probabilistes robustes qui sont calculees en utilisant une methode a noyau. Le systeme exploite un nouvel algorithme de selection automatique des attributs pour produire une description efficace des signaux audio qui, associee a des machines a vecteurs supports, permet d'atteindre des taux de reconnaissance eleves sur des pieces sonores refletant la diversite de la pratique musicale et des conditions d'enregistrement rencontrees dans le monde reel. Notre architecture parvient ainsi a identifier jusqu'a quatre instruments joues simultanement, a partir d'extraits de jazz incluant des percussions.
Frequency Analysis Of Return Period On Wellington Reservoir In Cuddalore District, Tamilnadu, India

Frequency analysis is used to bepredicting design of water channel for sites along a watershed and reservoir. The techniqueinvolves using observed annual peak full tank level data to calculate statistical information suchas mean values, standard deviations, skewness, and recurrence intervals. These statistical dataare then used to construct frequency distributions, which are graphs and tables that tell thelikelihood of various full tank level as a function of recurrence interval or exceedence probability.The full tank level, frequency relationship is commonly required for planning anddesigning of various water resource projects. Many sets of relationships have been developed and usedin several parts of the world. The full tank level frequency is a mathematical relationship between the rainfall intensity, the duration and the return period. This relationship is determined through statistical analysisof samples of records at proper meteorological stations. Lekkur in the Northwestern part of the Tittagudi, Cuddalore district, Indiayearly full tank level recordingfrom 1968 since 2012. A total of six different durationsranging from yearly for return periods of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 years were analyzed. The water level frequency curves for the region are developed using the available full tank leveldata. The main aim of this paper is to construct full tank level frequency curves for the region using FTL frequencyanalysis techniques. Also, the paper proposes regional water level frequency to estimate FTL intensity forvarious return periods and FTL durations at ungauged sites.