Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating farm hedgerows for their climate change mitigation potential in the lower Fraser River delta of British Columbia

Hedgerows have potential to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural activities by sequestrating carbon in woody biomass and in soil. In the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, a hedgerow stewardship program supports farmers to plant hedgerows to create habitat for biodiversity conservation and to improve ecosystem services, but it is unclear how much hedgerows contribute to climate change mitigation. This study evaluated components of the mitigation potential of two types of hedgerows, those planted by the stewardship program, and those that are remnant in the region. We quantified the carbon stored in woody biomass and soil, and greenhouse gas emissions of these two hedgerow types relative to neighbouring production fields used for cultivation of annual crops. There was no significant difference in the biomass carbon in the two hedgerow types despite age differences. Woody vegetation species diversity was significantly greater in planted hedgerows than remnant hedgerows for richness, Shannon, and Simpson measures. Planted hedgerows stored greater soil carbon than remnant hedgerows to 1.2 t m-² standard soil mass. Soil carbon was significantly correlated with the Shannon, and Simpson diversity of the hedgerow shrubs and trees indicating that planting a diversity of woody species likely has a positive effect on the mitigation potential of hedgerows on farmland. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane effluxes from soil, measured bi-monthly for one year indicate that the mitigation potential is not straightforward. For the 6-month production and non-production seasons, carbon dioxide was significantly greater in hedgerows than production fields. Relative emissions, emissions from hedgerows relative to their neighbouring production fields, from planted hedgerows were significantly greater than remnant hedgerows. For the 6-month production season, nitrous oxide emissions were significantly lower in hedgerows than productions fields, while no difference were observed in the non-production season or between hedgerow types. No significant differences were observed between seasons or hedgerow types for methane fluxes. These findings suggest that planting hedgerows may be an important management option to store carbon on agricultural land in the Fraser River delta relative to remnant hedgerows, but their net impact on climate change mitigation is still unclear.
Documents de Travail du Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne

: This paper assesses the long-run optimal level of public debt in a framework where aggregate ﬂuctuations are taken into account. House-holds are subject to both aggregate and idiosyncratic shocks and the market structure prevents them from perfectly insuring against risk. We ﬁnd that the long-run optimal level of public debt is generally higher in a setting embedding aggregate ﬂuctuations than in a setting without. Aggregate ﬂuctuations modify both the cost and the motive for precautionary saving. Higher levels of public debt, by eﬀectively reducing the cost of precautionary saving, help agents to smooth consumption when they face price and employment ﬂuctuations.
of Birmingham Vehicle dispatch in on-demand ride-sharing with stochastic travel times

—On-demand ride-sharing is a promising way to improve mobility efﬁciency and reliability. The quality of passenger experience and the proﬁt achieved by these platforms are strongly affected by the vehicle dispatch policy. However, existing ride-sharing research seldom considers travel time uncertainty, which leads to inaccurate dispatch allocations. This paper proposes a framework for dynamic vehicle dispatch that leverages stochastic travel time models to improve the performance of a ﬂeet of shared vehicles. The novelty of this work includes: (1) a stochastic on-demand ride-sharing scheme to maximize the service rate (percentage of requests served) and reliability (probability of on-time arrival); (2) a technique based on approximate stochastic shortest path algorithms to compute the reliability for a ride-sharing trip; (3) a method to maximize the proﬁt when a penalty for late arrivals is introduced. Based on New York City taxi data, it is shown that by considering travel time uncertainty, ride-sharing service achieves higher service rate, reliability and proﬁt.
LeakMyelography: A Specific Marker of CSF Renal Excretion of Contrast on CT

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity and speci ﬁ city of renal/ureteric opaci ﬁ cation on postmyelographic CT as a sign of CSF leak. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of postmyelographic CT scans from 49 consecutive patients seen between January 2008 and August 2018 with imaging and/or clinical ﬁ ndings related to intracranial hypotension. Each scan was evaluated by both a neuroradiology fellow and a board-certi ﬁ ed neuroradiologist for the presence of contrast in the renal excretory system. A similar assessment was also performed on 90 consecutive control subjects who underwent CT myelography for alternative indications. RESULTS: Among the 49 patients with suspected CSF leak, 21 (43%) had an overt CSF leak on postmyelographic CT (group 1) and 28 (57%) did not (group 2). Overall, renal contrast was identi ﬁ ed in 7/49 patients (14.3%): 5 (24%) patients in group 1, and 2 (7%) patients in group 2. Renal contrast was not seen in any of the 90 controls on postmyelographic CT. CONCLUSIONS: Renal contrast was exclusively seen in patients with a clinically or radiographically suspected CSF leak. Given its 100% speci ﬁ city, identi ﬁ cation of this ﬁ nding should prompt a second look for subtle myelographic contrast extravasation or an underlying CSF-venous ﬁ stula. Our results suggest that this sign may be considered an additional diagnostic criterion for CSF leak in the absence of an identi ﬁ able leak.
Mg 2 +-dependent gating of MgtE channel underlies Mg 2 + homeostasis

Thank you for submitting your manuscript for consideration by the EMBO Journal. It has now been seen by three referees whose comments are enclosed. As you will see, all three referees find your study interesting, appreciate the high quality of your data and are supportive of publication. However, there are some issues that would first need to be addressed. A major point, raised by all three referees, concerns the mutations generated within the pore of MgtE: you do not demonstrate whether these mutant proteins are expressed and properly folded, thus precluding conclusions from being drawn as to their functionality. Reviewer 1 also questions the nature of the solutions used for the electrophysiological assays, which do not represent the physiological situation. It would be important to address both these criticisms before we are able to consider publication.
Embodying Meaningful Digital Media A Strategy to Design for Product Attachment in the Digital Age

Technological products have become central to the ways in which many people communicate with others, conduct business and spend their leisure time. Despite their prevalence and significance in people’s lives, these devices are often perceived to be highly replaceable. From a sustainability perspective, there is value in creating technological products with meaning directly associated with their materiality to reduce the rate of product consumption. We set out to explore the potential for design to promote the formation of product attachment by creating technological devices with meaningful materiality, closely integrating the physical form with the significance of its digital contents. We used the life stories and ongoing input of our intended user as inspiration for the creation of Melo , a bespoke music player. The evaluation and critical reflection of our design process and resulting artefact are used to propose a design strategy for promoting product attachment within the growing sector of technological devices.
Singularities of Moduli of Curves with a Universal Root

In a series of recent papers, Chiodo, Farkas and Ludwig carry out a deep analysis of the singular locus of the moduli space of stable (twisted) curves with an $\ell$-torsion line bundle. They show that for $\ell\leq 6$ and $\ell\neq 5$ pluricanonical forms extend over any desingularization. This allows to compute the Kodaira dimension without desingularizing, as done by Farkas and Ludwig for $\ell=2$, and by Chiodo, Eisenbud, Farkas and Schreyer for $\ell=3$. Here we treat roots of line bundles on the universal curve systematically: we consider the moduli space of curves $C$ with a line bundle $L$ such that $L^{\otimes\ell}\cong\omega_C^{\otimes k}$. New loci of canonical and non-canonical singularities appear for any $k\not\in\ell\mathbb{Z}$ and $\ell>2$, we provide a set of combinatorial tools allowing us to completely describe the singular locus in terms of dual graph. We characterize the locus of non-canonical singularities, and for small values of $\ell$ we give an explicit description.
Theoretical Considerations for Software Component Metrics

static and dynamic aspects of component assembly. The static metrics measure complexity and criticality of component assembly, wherein complexity is measured using Component Packing Density and Component Interaction Density metrics. Further, four criticality conditions namely, Link, Bridge, Inheritance and Size criticalities have been identified and quantified. The complexity and criticality metrics are combined to form a Triangular Metric, which can be used to classify the type and nature of applications. Dynamic metrics are collected during the runtime of a complete application. Dynamic metrics are useful to identify super-component and to evaluate the degree of utilisation of various components. In this paper both static and dynamic metrics are evaluated using Weyuker's set of properties. The result shows that the metrics provide a valid means to measure issues in component assembly. We relate our metrics suite with McCall's Quality Model and illustrate their impact on product quality and to the management of component-based product development.
Sperm DNA fragmentation testing in clinical management of reproductive medicine

Approximately 8%–12% of couples worldwide face infertility, with infertility of individuals assigned male at birth (AMAB) contributing to at least 50% of cases. Conventional semen analysis commonly used to detect sperm abnormalities is insufficient, as 30% of AMAB patients experiencing infertility show normal results in this test. From a genetic perspective, the assessment of sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) is important as a parameter of sperm quality.
People, Places and Things: Leveraging Insights from Distributed Cognition Theory to Enhance the User-Centered Design of Meteorological Information Systems

At the same time as major constraints are being imposed on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) resources there are rising levels of end-user expectations about the availability, quality and delivery of weather services. These circumstances have led to an increasing workload on forecasters and recognition within the BoM of the need to redesign the information systems used to support the forecasting process. The forecast streamlining and enhancement project (FSEP) aims to guide the development, design and implementation of the next generation of these information systems. Significantly, the FSEP project has recognized that these information systems must aim to support not just the specialized skill sets of forecasters, but also the interactions between them in the forecasting process. The need to thoroughly understand the weather forecasting process poses a major challenge for researchers due to the nature of the BoM’s working environment: How can understanding of the information requirements of forecasters be acquired without interrupting the continuous work of forecasting? Compounding this research challenge is the fact that many of the most critical information requirements arise in the cognitive interactions between forecasters and because a ‘key bottleneck’ for weather products remains the situated, embodied and distributed nature of the interactions used to generate
Mantle dynamics beneath the Pacific Northwest and the Mantle dynamics beneath the Pacific Northwest and the generation of voluminous back ‐ arc volcanism generation of voluminous back arc volcanism

[ 1 ] The Pacific Northwest (PNW) has a complex tectonic history and over the past (cid:1) 17 Ma has played host to several major episodes of intraplate volcanism. These events include the Steens/Columbia River flood basalts (CRB) and the striking spatiotemporal trends of the Yellowstone/Snake River Plain (Y/SRP) and High Lava Plains (HLP) regions. Several different models have been proposed to explain these features, which variously invoke the putative Yellowstone plume, rollback and steepening of the Cascadia slab, extensional processes in the lithosphere, or a combination of these. Here we integrate seismologic, geody-namic, geochemical, and petrologic results from the multidisciplinary HLP project and associated analyses of EarthScope USArray seismic data to propose a conceptual model for post-20 Ma mantle dynamics beneath the PNW and the relationships between mantle flow and surface tectonomagmatic activity. This model invokes rollback subduction as the main driver for mantle flow beneath the PNW beginning at (cid:1) 20 Ma. A major pulse of upwelling due to slab rollback and upper plate extension and consequent melting produced the Steens/CRB volcanism, and continuing trench migration enabled mantle upwelling and hot, shallow melting beneath the HLP. An additional buoyant mantle upwelling is required to explain the Y/SRP volcanism, but subduction-related processes may well have played a primary role in controlling its timing and location, and this upwelling likely continues today in some form. This conceptual model makes predictions that are broadly consistent with seismic observations, geodynamic modeling experiments, and petrologic and geochemical constraints.
Basin‐scale assessment of the land surface water budget in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction operational and research NLDAS‐2 systems

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the components of the land surface water budget in the four land surface models (Noah, SAC‐Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting Model, (VIC) Variable Infiltration Capacity Model, and Mosaic) applied in the newly implemented National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational and research versions of the North American Land Data Assimilation System version 2 (NLDAS‐2). This work focuses on monthly and annual components of the water budget over 12 National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs). Monthly gridded FLUX Network (FLUXNET) evapotranspiration (ET) from the Max‐Planck Institute (MPI) of Germany, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) total runoff (Q), changes in total water storage (dS/dt, derived as a residual by utilizing MPI ET and USGS Q in the water balance equation), and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observed total water storage anomaly (TWSA) and change (TWSC) are used as reference data sets. Compared to these ET and Q benchmarks, Mosaic and SAC (Noah and VIC) in the operational NLDAS‐2 overestimate (underestimate) mean annual reference ET and underestimate (overestimate) mean annual reference Q. The multimodel ensemble mean (MME) is closer to the mean annual reference ET and Q. An anomaly correlation (AC) analysis shows good AC values for simulated monthly mean Q and dS/dt but significantly smaller AC values for simulated ET. Upgraded versions of the models utilized in the research side of NLDAS‐2 yield largely improved performance in the simulation of these mean annual and monthly water component diagnostics. These results demonstrate that the three intertwined efforts of improving (1) the scientific understanding of parameterization of land surface processes, (2) the spatial and temporal extent of systematic validation of land surface processes, and (3) the engineering‐oriented aspects such as parameter calibration and optimization are key to substantially improving product quality in various land data assimilation systems.
ELECTRONIC TENDERING AND SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE IN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN WESTERN REGION, KENYA

-Electronic procurement is one the critical functions adopted by county governments in their procurement departments to shorten lead time, increase transparency and increase levels efficiency. Despite these, reports indicate that many counties in western region Kenya are still having challenges of longer lead times, poor supply performance and inadequate efficiency in procurement processes. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of electronic tendering on supply chain performance. The study was guided by technology acceptance theory. The target population of the study was 216 respondents and stratified random sampling was used to select 140 respondents from the county government employees. Both primary and secondary data was collected. A pilot study was done in Kisumu County. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test reliability. Validity was tested by experts and factor analysis. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 27. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were obtained. Descriptive statistics comprised of variance, standard deviation and mean. Inferential statistics comprised of multiple regression analysis. Data was presented using tables. Multiple regression analysis indicated that electronic tendering electronic tendering had a significant effect on supply chain performance by reducing the inventory cost with a coefficient of -0.771. The study depicted that 46.0% variation in supply chain performance is caused by electronic tendering. The study may help policymakers to create e-procurement regulations and the information from the study findings may also be used by investors to help in deciding how much money they should spend on electronic purchases in order to cut costs and increase profits. The study concluded that electronic tendering affected supply chain performance negatively and significantly through reduction of inventory cost. The study therefore recommended county government should effectively adopt electronic tendering and train its employees on how to use electronic tendering efficiently in order to help in preparation of documents during tendering process.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Performance of first-and second-order methods for ℓ1-regularized least squares problems

We study the performance of ﬁrst-and second-order optimization methods for (cid:2) 1 -regularized sparse least-squares problems as the conditioning of the problem changes and the dimensions of the problem increase up to one trillion. A rigorously deﬁnedgeneratorispresentedwhichallowscontrolofthedimensions,theconditioning andthesparsityoftheproblem.Thegeneratorhasverylowmemoryrequirementsand scaleswellwiththedimensionsoftheproblem
Conjugate Point Equatorial Experiment (COPEX) Campaign in Brazil: Electrodynamics highlights on spread F development conditions and day-to-day variability

[1] A Conjugate Point Equatorial Experiment (COPEX) campaign was conducted during the October–December 2002 period in Brazil, with the objective to investigate the equatorial spread F/plasma bubble irregularity (ESF) development conditions in terms of the electrodynamical state of the ionosphere along the magnetic flux tubes in which they occur. A network of instruments, including Digisondes, optical imagers, and GPS receivers, was deployed at magnetic conjugate and dip equatorial locations in a geometry that permitted field line mapping of the conjugate E layers to dip equatorial F layer bottomside. We analyze in this paper the extensive Digisonde data from the COPEX stations, complemented by limited all-sky imager conjugate point observations. The Sheffield University Plasmasphere-Ionosphere Model (SUPIM) is used to assess the transequatorial winds (TEW) as inferred from the observed difference of hmF2 at the conjugate sites. New results and evidence on the ESF development conditions and the related ambient electrodynamic processes from this study can be highlighted as follows: (1) large-scale bottomside wave structures/satellite traces at the equator followed by their simultaneous appearance at conjugate sites are shown to be indicative of the ESF instability initiation; (2) the evening prereversal electric field enhancement (PRE)/vertical drift presents systematic control on the time delay in SF onset at off-equatorial sites indicative of the vertical bubble growth, under weak transequatorial wind; (3) the PRE presents a large latitude/height gradient in the Brazilian sector; (4) conjugate point symmetry/asymmetry of large-scale plasma depletions versus smaller-scale structures is revealed; and (5) while transequatorial winds seem to suppress ESF development in a case study, the medium-term trend in the ESF seems to be controlled more by the variation in the PRE than in the TEW during the COPEX period. Competing influences of the evening vertical plasma drift in favoring the ESF development and that of the TEW in suppressing its growth are discussed, presenting a perspective on the ESF day-to-day and medium-term variabilities.
An alternative method to calculate cloud radiative forcing: Implications for quantifying cloud feedbacks

A modification to the traditional cloud radiative forcing (CRF) formula is presented. This alternative approach uses incident–rather than absorbed–solar radiation to calculate shortwave cloud radiative forcing at the surface. By removing the competing influence of surface albedo on CRF, the new formula more effectively isolates the impact of clouds and cloud changes under different climatic regimes. The removal of surface albedo effects makes the change in CRF a more useful measure of cloud feedback, although other factors (such as changes in clear‐sky solar absorption) can still muddle the interpretation. I present examples from GCM greenhouse simulations that demonstrate how this new formula can help to differentiate between actual cloud feedbacks versus apparent ones induced by snow and ice meltback using the traditional CRF equation. The results suggest that changes in surface albedo contribute approximately 20 to 40% of the high‐latitude CRF anomaly using the standard formula applied to an equilibrium 2 × CO2 simulation and about 50% to the greater Arctic when used on 21st‐century transient greenhouse experiments.
Providing advice to jobseekers at low cost

We develop and evaluate experimentally a novel tool that redesigns the job search process by providingtailoredadviceatlowcost.Weinvitedjobseekerstoourcomputerfacilitiesfortwelveconsecutive weeklysessionstosearchforrealjobsonourwebinterface.Forone-half,insteadofrelyingontheirownsearchcriteria,weusereadilyavailablelabourmarketdatatodisplayrelevantalternativeoccupationsand associatedjobs.Thedataindicatethatthisbroadensthesetofjobstheyconsiderandincreasestheirjobinterviewsespeciallyforparticipantswhootherwisesearchnarrowlyandhavebeenunemployedforafew months.
FIELD EXPERIMENT ON BEACH NOURISHMENT USING GRAVEL AT JINKOJI COAST

Beach nourishment using 87,000 m3 of gravel with grain size between 2.5 and 13 mm was experimentally carried out until April 2008 at the Jinkoji coast, which faces the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by artificial headlands. Monitoring surveys, a boring test and core sampling on the beach were carried out to investigate the mechanism of the formation of gravel layers and their effect on protecting the foot of the seawall. It was found that the nourishment gravel was deposited with a slope of 1/8 at the foot of the seawall, thus providing some protection to the seawall, and that the nourishment gravel was stably deposited without offshore discharge.