Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sediment accumulation in Roseires Reservoir

Sedimentation is a serious problem faced by natural and man-made reservoirs. It is a major problem which endangers and threatens the performance and sustainability of reservoirs. It reduces the effective flood control volume, presents hazards to navigation, changes water stage and groundwater conditions, affects operation of low-level outlet gates and valves, and reduces stability, water quality, and recreational benefits. Reservoirs are often threatened by loss of capacity due to sedimentation. While there being many causes of reservoir sedimentation watershed, sediment and river characteristics are among the main natural contributing factors. Other important factors are reservoir size, shape and reservoir operation strategy. Man-made activities also play a significant role particularly in land use patterns. This paper is an attempt to assess sediment accumulation as well as the rate of sedimentation in the Roseires Reservoir. The basis for the study is the previous bathymetric surveys carried out on the reservoir in the years 1976, 1981, 1985, 1992, 2005 and 2007. Analysis and comparative studies were carried out between the different surveys to quantify the amount of sediment deposited as well the rate at which sedimentation took place. The design storage capacity of 1967 for the different reservoir levels was taken as a baseline. The sediment accumulation rates for the different bathymetric surveys are obtained as the difference between baseline capacity and the computed capacity at the respective levels during the specific survey. It was found that sedimentation in the Roseires Reservoir resulted in the reduction of the reservoir capacity from design storage of 3.0 Bm3 in 1966 to 1.9 Bm3 in 2007, i.e., a loss of approximately 1.1 Bm3 during 41 years of operation. The sedimentation rate varies with both time and levels in the reservoir.
Quantitation of TGF-β proteins in mouse tissues shows reciprocal changes in TGF-β1 and TGF-β3 in normal vs neoplastic mammary epithelium

Transforming growth factor-βs (TGF-βs) regulate tissue homeostasis, and their expression is perturbed in many diseases. The three isoforms (TGF-β1, -β2, and -β3) have similar bioactivities in vitro but show distinct activities in vivo. Little quantitative information exists for expression of TGF-β isoform proteins in physiology or disease. We developed an optimized method to quantitate protein levels of the three isoforms, using a Luminex® xMAP®-based multianalyte assay following acid-ethanol extraction of tissues. Analysis of multiple tissues and plasma from four strains of adult mice showed that TGF-β1 is the predominant isoform with TGF-β2 being ~10-fold lower. There were no sex-specific differences in isoform expression, but some tissues showed inter-strain variation, particularly for TGF-β2. The only adult tissue expressing appreciable TGF-β3 was the mammary gland, where its levels were comparable to TGF-β1. In situ hybridization showed the luminal epithelium as the major source of all TGF-β isoforms in the normal mammary gland. TGF-β1 protein was 3-8-fold higher in three murine mammary tumor models than in normal mammary gland, while TGF-β3 protein was 2-3-fold lower in tumors than normal tissue, suggesting reciprocal regulation of these isoforms in mammary tumorigenesis.
Estimation of Probabilistic Context-Free Grammars

The assignment of probabilities to the productions of a context-free grammar may generate an improper distribution: the probability of all finite parse trees is less than one. The condition for proper assignment is rather subtle. Production probabilities can be estimated from parsed or unparsed sentences, and the question arises as to whether or not an estimated system is automatically proper. We show here that estimated production probabilities always yield proper distributions.
Hypervisors as a Foothold for Personal Computer Security: An Agenda for the Research Community

Abstract : The purpose of this paper is to propose the creation of a security-enhancing hypervisor for PCs as a collaborative agenda for the research community. This agenda is not necessarily about answering fundamentally new research questions. Rather, it is a call to action about a rare chance for the community to have substantial impact. If researchers demonstrate compelling near-term benefits from a modest security layer, then OS vendors may adopt such a layer as a way to increase security without costly reengineering. The introduction of this secure foothold into the consumer software stack could then yield significant long-term benefits by providing a much better avenue for deploying security solutions. This agenda consists of two parts: (1) exploring how hypervisors can address end-user security issues and (2) exploring how to architect a small, secure hypervisor that provides several of these facilities. We believe that there are interesting and worthwhile challenges in both parts. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. We begin by explaining why hypervisors provide a highly attractive insertion point for security (Section 2) and summarizing work in this area (Section 3). We then discuss security facilities that a hypervisor can provide in Section 4, with a focus on trusted paths to online services. We conclude by discussing challenges associated with our proposal in Section 5.
Reactions to Trauma Research among Women Recently Exposed to a Campus Shooting We Express Our Sincere Gratitude To

Subjective and objective reactions to writing and reading a narrative of their experiences after having been recently exposed to a campus shooting were examined in 58 women. Posttraumatic stress, depression, anxiety symptoms, and physical exposure to the shooting were considered in relation to laboratory indices. The latter used a multimethod approach to index distress; these included subjective (self-report) and objective (heart rate, skin conductance, and cortisol) components. Consistent with prior research, reports of symptoms were significantly positively correlated with subjective distress (r ranged from .35 to .45), but only posttraumatic stress symptoms uniquely predicted subjective distress in regression analyses (partial r = .33). Objective distress, however, was not significantly related to any participant measure. Finally, a clear majority (85%) of participants reported they would participate in the study again. Points of convergence and divergence with prior studies are discussed. Over the past decade researchers have examined reactions to participating in trauma-related research, with increased interest directed toward both understanding reactions to trauma as well as to participating in research in the short-term aftermath of a large-scale traumatic event (see Boscarino et al., 2004; Galea et al., 2005). Whereas Boscarino et al. and Galea et al. assessed reactions to survey studies, the present study examined reactions to laboratory tasks in the short-term aftermath of the trauma of a campus shooting in which there were multiple victims. Such an extension is important, as research suggests that experimental tasks of trauma-related research are associated with heightened distress (Griffin, Resick, Waldrop, & Mechanic, 2003). Finding relatively lower levels of positive reactions to a laboratory study than to survey studies might provide important information regarding the ap-propriateness of conducting laboratory studies in the short-term aftermath of traumatic events. Moreover, determining whether anxiety, depression, physical exposure to trauma, and posttrau-matic stress (the characteristics associated with distress in response to survey-based studies in Boscarino et al., 2004, and Galea et al., 2005) are associated with distress from participating in a laboratory study might lead to improvements in research procedures, such as a fuller informed consent process. Finally, the relatively low correspondence between subjective and objective indices of distress (e.g., Watson & Pennebaker, 1989) suggests the use of a multimethod approach for assessing objective distress. The fourth deadliest university shooting in United States history occurred on Northern Illinois University's (NIU) campus the afternoon of February 14, 2008, when a gunman entered a lecture hall and opened fire, killing …
Hadoop. TS: Large-Scale Time-Series Processing

The paper describes a computational framework for time-series analysis. It allows rapid prototyping of new algorithms, since all components are re-usable. Generic data structures represent different types of time series, e. g. event and interevent time series, and define reliable interfaces to existing big data. Standalone applications, highly scalable MapReduce programs, and User Defined Functions for Hadoop-based analysis frameworks are the major modes of operation. Efficient implementations of univariate and bivariate analysis algorithms are provided for, e. g. , long-term correlation, crosscorrelation and event synchronization analysis on large data sets.
STATUS OF THE SEVIRI LEVEL 1.5 DATA

RESUME This paper reports on the current status of the SEVIRI Level 1.5 image data processing. It describes the quality and availability of the Level 1.5 image data obtained during the first 6 months of Meteosat-8 (MSG-1) routine operations. The status of the calibration is also addressed. Finally, plans to further improve the quality in some areas are presented.
R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Distributed Queries

Few database query optimizer models have been validated against actual performance. This paper extends an earlier optimizer validation and performance evaluation of R’ to di.rfribu& queries, i.e. single SQL statements having tables at multiple sites. Actual R* message, I/O, and CPU resources consumed and the corresponding costs estimated by the optimizer were written to database tables using new SQL commands, permitting automated control from application programs for collecting, reducing, and comparing test data. A number of tests were rnn over a wide variety of dynamically-created test databases, SQL queries, and system parameters. Both high-speed networks (comparable to a local area network) and medium-speed long-haul networks (for linking geographically dispersed hosts) were evaluated. The tests confirmed the accuracy of R*‘s message cost model and the significant contribution of local (CPU and I/O) costs, even for a medium-speed network. Although distributed queries consume more resources overall, the response time for some execution strategies improves disproportionately by exploiting both concurrency and reduced contention for buffers. For distributed joins in which a copy of the inner table must be transferred to the join site, shipping the whole inner table dominated the strategy of fetching only those inner tuples that matched each outer-table value, even though the former strategy may require additional I/O. Bloomjoins (hashed semijoins) consistently performed better than semijoins and the best R* strategies. Few of the distributed optimizer models proposed over the last decade CAPER 83, BERN 81~. CHAN 82, CHU 82, EPST 78, HEVN 79. KERS 82, ONUE 83, PERR 84, WONG 83, YAO 79, YU 831 have been validated by comparison with actual performance. The only known validations, for Distributed INGRES [STON 821 and the Crystal multicomputer [LU 853, have assumed only a high-speed local-area network linking the distributed systems. Also, the Distributed INGRES study focused primarily on reducing response time by exploiting parallelism using table partitioning and broadcast messages. In contrast, R* seeks to minimize total resonrces consumed, has not implemented table partitionings, and does not presume a network broadcast capability. There are many important questions that a thorough validation should answer: . Under what circumstances (regions of the parameter space) does the optimizer choose a suboptimal plan, or, worse, a particularly bad plan? To which parameters is the actual performance most sensitive? Are these parameters being modeled accurately by the optimizer? What is the impact of variations from the optimizer’s simplifying as. Is it possible to simplify the optimizer’s model (by using heuristics, for
The gut microbiota and inflammatory bowel disease

Although genetic findings have significantly advanced our insight into inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) biology, there has been little progress in translating this knowledge toward clinical practice, like more cost-efficient drug development. Our aim was to use genetic knowledge to identify drugs that warrant further investigation in IBD treatment. We identified drugs that target the proteins encoded by IBD candidate genes using the DrugBank. We included proteins that are in direct protein–protein interaction with proteins encoded by IBD risk genes. Promising potential IBD drugs were selected based on a manual literature search of all identified drugs (PubMed, ClinicalTrials. gov). We have identified 113 drugs that could potentially be used in IBD treatment. Fourteen are known IBD drugs, 48 drugs have been, or are being investigated in IBD, 19 are being used or being investigated in other inflammatory disorders treatment, and 32 are investigational new drugs that have not yet been registered for clinical use. We confirm that proteins encoded by IBD candidate genes are targeted by approved IBD therapies. Furthermore, we show that Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs could possibly be repositioned for IBD treatment. We also identify investigational new drugs that warrant further investigation for IBD treatment. Incorporating this process in IBD drug development will improve the utilization of genetic data and could lead to the improvement of IBD treatment.
Attitudes Towards Mathematics: Construction and Validation of a Measurement Instrument

The measure of attitudes towards mathematics is a valuable area within the so-called affective domain in mathematics due to the number of investigations and the extension of their relations. However, most of the instruments currently available to measure these attitudes are validated by not overly robust psychometric procedures and, sometimes, in not very large samples. Using a sample of 4,807 students of all the non-university levels and following both the classical test theory, structural equation models (measurement models), and the proposal of the item response theory (graded response model), a solid and robust instrument to measure attitudes towards mathematics is presented, with contrasted evidence of validity and reliability.
Persistent Expression of a Newly Characterized Hyposoter Didymator Polydnavirus Gene in Long-term Infected Lepidopteran Cell Lines

An Hyposoter didymator ichnovirus (HdIV) gene was stably maintained and efficiently transcribed in lepidopteran cell lines more than 3 years after HdIV infection. This K-gene had two introns and the fully spliced cDNA, named K19, comprised a short open reading frame and a long 3h-untranslated region with 13 imperfectly repeated sequences (44 to 102 nt). Transcripts related to the K-gene were detected in several long-term infected cell lines (Sf9, Spodoptera littoralis haemocytes, Trichoplusia ni). Conversely, no transcripts related to seven other viral cDNAs were detected, suggesting that the K-related DNA is selectively retained in long-term infected Sf9 cells. The function of the K-gene product and its association with stably transformed insect cell lines remains to be investigated. Polydnaviruses (PDVs) are unusual insect viruses associated with parasitic Hymenoptera and characterized by polydisperse double-stranded DNA genomes. Viral genomes are integrated in the wasp genome and transmitted as integrated proviral DNA (Stoltz, 1990). Virus replication takes place in the reproductive tracts of female wasps. Viral particles are stored in female oviducts and then injected into the lepidopteran host during oviposition. In the lepidopteran host, no virus mor-phogenesis has been observed (Blissard et al., 1986), but PDVs are transcriptionally active. Few PDV genes have been characterized, and the function of viral gene products in the lepidopteran host remains poorly understood although they are essential for parasitoid development, and are responsible for host immune-suppression (Webb, 1998). To identify Hyposoter didymator ichnovirus (HdIV) genes expressed in the lepidopteran host, Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda ; ATCC CRL1711) cells were infected with HdIV, and RNAs were extracted for cDNA synthesis at 24 h post-infection (p.i.) (Volkoff et al., 1999). Seven distinct viral cDNAs were identified (S6, D8, M24, C28, K29, P30, X41), all related to RNAs also expressed in parasitized Spodoptera littoralis larvae (A.-N. Volkoff and others, unpublished results). The seven viral cDNAs were digested with EcoRI, $#P-labelled and used as probes for mRNA expression in non-infected or HdIV-infected Sf9 cells. All cDNAs hybridized with viral RNAs expressed in HdIV-infected cells from 2 h until 10 days p.i. (data shown only for K29 ; Fig. 1 A, lanes 2 and 3). However, at 10 days p.i. only RNAs related to K29 were detected (Fig. 1 A, lanes 4 to 9). To confirm this result by RT–PCR, total RNAs were extracted for cDNA synthesis from non-infected, 48 h and 3 year infected Sf9 cells and from parasitized larvae [5 days …
All the optimal stabilizer codes of distance 3

Optimal quantum stabilizer codes of distance 3 are explicitly constructed for all lengths except for the follo wing four families of lengths 8fm { 1, 2} and fm+2 { 2, 3} with fm = 4 m 1 3 and m � 2 being integer, for which our codes are of the best parameters known and are only one logical qubit less than the quantum Hamming bound. The optimality of our codes is ensured by saturating either the quantum Hamming bound or a stronger bound for three families of lengths 8fm + {1, 2} and fm+2 1 with m � 1 derived from the linear programming bound. For the lengths less than 128 three previously unknown codes ((36, 29, 3)), ((37, 30, 3)) and ((81, 73, 3)) have been found.
Holocene surface ruptures of the Rurrand Fault, Germany : insights from palaeoseismology, remote sensing and shallow geophysics

S U M M A R Y The Lower Rhine Embayment in Central Europe hosts a rift system that has very low deformation rates. The faults in this area have slip rates of less than 0.1 mm yr−1, which does not allow to investigate ongoing tectonic deformation with geodetic techniques, unless they cover very long time spans. Instrumental seismicity does only cover a small fraction of the very long earthquake recurrence intervals of several thousands of years. Palaeoseismological studies are needed to constrain slip rates and the earthquake history of such faults. Destructive earthquakes are rare in the study area, but did occur in historic times. In 1755/1756, a series of strong earthquakes caused significant destruction in the city of Düren (Germany) and the surrounding areas. In this study we document palaeoseismological data from the nearby Rurrand Fault. In contrast to earlier studies on the same fault, we found evidence for a surface rupturing earthquake in the Holocene, and we identified at least one more surface rupturing event. Our study shows that the Rurrand Fault currently accommodates deformation in earthquakes rather than by creeping. The coseismic offsets were determined to be between less than 0.5 m per event. We assign maximum possible magnitudes of Mw 5.9–6.8 for the Rurrand Fault and a slip rate of at least 0.02–0.03 mm yr−1 for the last ∼130–50 kyr. The surface ruptures did not occur at the main fault trace that has a clear morphological expression due to older tectonic motions, but on a younger fault strand in the hanging wall of the main fault. Terrain analyses based on 1 m resolution airborne LiDAR data have been used to image the subtle morphological expression of this young fault zone. Georadar and electric resistivity tomography were applied to image the fault zone at depth and to test if these shallow geophysical methods can be used to identify and trace the fault zone. Georadar failed to produce reliable results, but geoelectrics were successfully applied and allowed us to retrieve slip rate estimates. Our results indicate that the Düren 1755/1756 earthquakes did not produce surface ruptures at the Rurrand Fault, either because they did not rupture the surface at all, or because they occurred at another, neighbouring fault.
Retrieving Video Segments Based on Combined Text, Speech and Image Processing

This paper describes a multimedia, multilingual and multimodal research system (CIMWOS) supporting content-based indexing, archiving, retrieval and ondemand delivery of audiovisual content. There are several projects, aiming at developing advanced technologies and systems to tackle the problems encountered in multimedia archiving and indexing [8], [9], [10]. CIMWOS [1] (Combined IMage and WOrd Spotting) incorporates an extensive set of multimedia technologies by seamless integration of three major subsystems – text, speech and image processing – producing a rich collection of XML metadata annotations following the MPEG-7 standard. These XML annotations are further merged and loaded into the CIMWOS Multimedia Database. Additionally, they can be dynamically transformed for interchanging semantic-based information into RDF and Topic Maps documents via XSL stylesheets. The CIMWOS Retrieval Engine is based on a weighted boolean model with intelligent indexing components. An ergonomic and userfriendly web-based interface allows users to efficiently retrieve video segments by a combination of media description, content metadata and natural language text. The database is a large collection of broadcast news and documentaries in three languages (English, Greek, and French), while the open architecture allows for more languages to be incorporated in the future.
Diversification and the Optimal Construction of Basis Portfolios

Nontrivial diversification possibilities arise when a factor model describes security returns. This paper catalogs the merits of alternative strategies for constructing basis portfolios to mimic the common factors. We show how to use the ? 2 statistic for the joint significance of mean basis portfolio returns to rank alternative procedures and the bootstrap to perform inferences on the disparity between ? 2 statistics across portfolio formation procedure, estimation method, cross-section size, and number of factors. Our main conclusion is that maximum likelihood factor analysis coupled with minimum idiosyncratic risk portfolio formation yields economically and statistically superior basis portfolios compared with those derived from asymptotic principal components.
On Watermarking/fingerprinting for Copyright Protection

Collusion-secure codes are used for digital fingerprinting and for traitor tracing. In both cases, the goal is to prevent unauthorised copying of copyrighted material, by tracing at least one guilty user when illegal copies appear. Many recent works have introduced collusion-secure codes based on the Marking Assumption. In this paper we study how error-correction makes it possible to relax this assumption, and we modify two existing schemes to enable error-correction.