Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interaction between abiotic photodegradation and microbial decomposition under ultraviolet radiation

Elevated ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been demonstrated to stimulate litter decomposition. Despite years of research, it is still not fully understood whether the acceleration in litter degradation is primarily attributed to abiotic photodegradation or the combined effects of abiotic photodegradation and microbial decomposition. In this study, we used meta‐analysis to synthesize photodegradation studies and compared the effects of UV radiation on litter decomposition between abiotic and biotic conditions. We also conducted a microcosm experiment to assess the effects of UV radiation on litter biodegradability and microbial activity. Overall, our meta‐analysis found that under abiotic photodegradation, UV radiation reduced the remaining litter mass by 1.44% (95% CI: 0.85% to 2.08%), did not affect the remaining lignin and increased the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration by 14.01% (1.49–23.67%). Under combined abiotic photodegradation and microbial decomposition, UV radiation reduced the remaining litter mass and lignin by 1.60% (0.04–3.58%) and 16.07% (9.27–24.23%), respectively, but did not alter DOC concentration. UV radiation had no significant impact on soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), but it reduced microbial respiration by 44.91% (2.26–78.62%) and altered the composition of the microbial community. In addition, UV radiation reduced nitrogen (N) immobilization by 19.44% (4.77–37.92%). Our microcosm experiment further indicated that DOC concentration and the amount of respired C in UV‐treated litter increased with UV exposure time, suggesting that longer UV exposure resulted in greater biodegradability. Overall, our study suggested that UV exposure could increase litter biodegradability by increasing the microbial accessibility of lignin, as well as the labile carbon supply to microbes. However, the remaining litter mass was not different between the abiotic and biotic conditions, most likely because the positive effect of UV radiation on litter biodegradability was offset by its negative effect on microbial activity. Our results also suggested that UV radiation could alter the N cycle during decomposition, primarily by inhibiting N immobilization.
Effect of extrinsic grain-boundary defects on grain-boundary sliding resistance

Abstract A computer simulation was performed to examine the role of extrinsic grain-boundary (GB) defects in the sliding of the {11, (101){131} symmetric tilt boundary in aluminium by means of an embedded-atom method potential. The sliding resistance of the equilibrium GB was determined from a computation of the dependence of the boundary energy on in-plane translation of one grain relative to the other. Low-energy faulted structures were found that correspond to unstable intermediate states and the presence of stable partial GB dislocations. Extrinsic dislocations and disconnections were found to lower significantly the sliding stress relative to the equilibrium GB.
Experiments in Evaluating Interactive Spoken Language Systems

As the DARPA spoken language community moves towards developing useful systems for interactive problem solving, we must explore alternative evaluation procedures that measure whether these systems aid people in solving problems within the task domain. In this paper, we describe several experiments exploring new evaluation procedures. To look at end-to-end evaluation, we modified our data collection procedure slightly in order to experiment with several objective task completion measures. We found that the task completion time is well correlated with the number of queries used. We also explored log file evaluation, where evaluators were asked to judge the clarity of the query and the correctness of the response based on examination of the log file. Our results show that seven evaluators were unanimous on more than 80% of the queries, and that at least 6 out of 7 evaluators agreed over 90% of the time. Finally, we applied these new procedures to compare two systems, one system requiring a complete parse and the other using the more flexible robust parsing mechanism. We found that these metrics could distinguish between these systems: there were significant differences in ability to complete the task, number of queries required to complete the task, and score (as computed through a log file evaluation) between the robust and the non-robust modes.
Evaluation of MODIS LAI/FPAR Product Collection 6. Part 1: Consistency and Improvements

As the latest version of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) products, Collection 6 (C6) has been distributed since August 2015. This collection is evaluated in this two-part series with the goal of assessing product accuracy, uncertainty and consistency with the previous version. In this first paper, we compare C6 (MOD15A2H) with Collection 5 (C5) to check for consistency and discuss the scale effects associated with changing spatial resolution between the two collections and benefits from improvements to algorithm inputs. Compared with C5, C6 benefits from two improved inputs: (1) L2G–lite surface reflectance at 500 m resolution in place of reflectance at 1 km resolution; and (2) new multi-year land-cover product at 500 m resolution in place of the 1 km static land-cover product. Global and seasonal comparison between C5 and C6 indicates good continuity and consistency for all biome types. Moreover, inter-annual LAI anomalies at the regional scale from C5 and C6 agree well. The proportion of main radiative transfer algorithm retrievals in C6 increased slightly in most biome types, notably including a 17% improvement in evergreen broadleaf forests. With same biome input, the mean RMSE of LAI and FPAR between C5 and C6 at global scale are 0.29 and 0.091, respectively, but biome type disagreement worsens the consistency (LAI: 0.39, FPAR: 0.102). By quantifying the impact of input changes, we find that the improvements of both land-cover and reflectance products improve LAI/FPAR products. Moreover, we find that spatial scale effects due to a resolution change from 1 km to 500 m do not cause any significant differences.
A New Method Based on Deep Belief Networks for Learning Features from Symbolic Music

As the rapid increase of music data, Music Information Retrieval (MIR) have been receiving increasing attention in both the academic and commercial spheres. Feature extraction is a crucial part of many Music Information Retrieval (MIR) tasks. In recent years, deep learning approaches have gained significant interest as a way of learning a higher abstract representation from unlabeled data. In this paper, we present a system that can automatically extract relevant from symbolic music data. Firstly, The lower level features are extracted by using toolbox Music21, the higher level feature are then learned by a Deep Belief Network (DBN), finally the activations of the trained network as inputs for a non-linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The experiment results demonstrate that the learned features obtain a better classification accuracy than other classical methods.
Perioperative and Anesthetic Considerations in Ebstein’s Anomaly

Ebstein’s anomaly is a complex and heterogeneous form of congenital heart disease characterized by malformation and apical displacement of the tricuspid valve leaflets. Patients may present at any time from the neonatal period to adulthood with symptoms ranging from cardiac failure and cyanosis to paroxysmal arrhythmias. Depending on the timing of presentation, various surgical options are available for the management of symptomatic patients. This review will discuss the perioperative and anesthetic management of patients with Ebstein’s anomaly with reference to the more common surgical approaches.
Survey and Challenges of QoE Management Issues in Wireless Networks

With the move towards converged all-IP wireless network environments, managing end-user Quality of Experience (QoE) poses a challenging task, aimed at meeting high user expectations and requirements regarding reliable and cost-effective communication, access to any service, anytime and anywhere, and across multiple operator domains. In this paper, we give a survey of state-of-the-art research activities addressing the field of QoE management, focusing in particular on the domain of wireless networks and addressing three management aspects: QoE modeling, monitoring and measurement, and adaptation and optimization. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the key aspects and challenges that need to be considered when conducting research in this area.
Platelet-Derived Growth Factor Receptor Association with Na+/H+ Exchanger Regulatory Factor Potentiates Receptor Activity

ABSTRACT Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a potent mitogen for many cell types. The PDGF receptor (PDGFR) is a receptor tyrosine kinase that mediates the mitogenic effects of PDGF by binding to and/or phosphorylating a variety of intracellular signaling proteins upon PDGF-induced receptor dimerization. We show here that the Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor (NHERF; also known as EBP50), a protein not previously known to interact with the PDGFR, binds to the PDGFR carboxyl terminus (PDGFR-CT) with high affinity via a PDZ (PSD-95/Dlg/Z0-1 homology) domain-mediated interaction and potentiates PDGFR autophosphorylation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation in cells. A point-mutated version of the PDGFR, with the terminal leucine changed to alanine (L1106A), cannot bind NHERF in vitro and is markedly impaired relative to the wild-type receptor with regard to PDGF-induced autophosphorylation and activation of ERK in cells. NHERF potentiation of PDGFR signaling depends on the capacity of NHERF to oligomerize. NHERF oligomerizes in vitro when bound with PDGFR-CT, and a truncated version of the first NHERF PDZ domain that can bind PDGFR-CT but which does not oligomerize reduces PDGFR tyrosine kinase activity when transiently overexpressed in cells. PDGFR activity in cells can also be regulated in a NHERF-dependent fashion by stimulation of the β2-adrenergic receptor, a known cellular binding partner for NHERF. These findings reveal that NHERF can directly bind to the PDGFR and potentiate PDGFR activity, thus elucidating both a novel mechanism by which PDGFR activity can be regulated and a new cellular role for the PDZ domain-containing adapter protein NHERF.
An optimized microgrid energy management system based on FIS-MO-GA paradigm

The efficient integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the actual electrical grid has gained recently a high attention in the Smart Grids (SGs) research topic. The evolution of existing electric distribution networks into SGs can be accomplished gradually and conveniently through the installation of local grid-connected Microgrids (MGs), usually installed nearby the RESs and provided by Energy Storage Systems (ESSs). Each MG is in charge to manage connected RES, assuring the local power demand, as well as the safety and stability of the electric grid. To this aim, the Energy Management System (EMS) must provide intelligent decision making in fixing both MG configuration and energy flows between each subsystem in real time, according to some objective functions. In this work, it is proposed a MG EMS based on a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) optimized through a custom implementation of Multi Objective Genetic Algorithm (MO-GA). In particular, the EMS is based on a three inputs FIS and it has been designed in order to reduce the fluctuations of energy exchanged with the grid (i.e. the grid stress) and to maximize the energy auto-consumption by employing an efficient utilization of the ESS. Results show that it is possible to improve considerably the auto-consumption performance, and at the same time to reduce grid stress, improving peak shaving concerning the maximum power request from the main grid.
Invited session proposal “ Low-rank approximation ”

Low-rank approximations play an important role in systems theory and signal processing. The problems of model reduction and system identification can be posed and solved as a low-rank approximation problem for structured matrices. On the other hand, signal source separation, nonlinear system identification, and multidimensional signal processing and data analysis can be approached with powerful methods of low-rank tensor factorizations. The proposed invited session is focused on theoretical and algorithmic aspects of matrix and tensor low-rank approximations, with applications in system theory and multidimensional signal processing.
Thermal behavior of liposomes containing PCs with long and very long chain PUFAs isolated from retinal rod outer segment membranes DOI 10.1194/jlr.M200057-JLR200

About one-fourth the phosphatidylcholines (PC) from retina photoreceptor rod outer segment (ROS) membranes contain docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) at sn-2 and a very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (VLCPUFA) (C24 to C36) at the sn-1 position of the glycerol backbone. In order to study the thermotropic behavior of these PCs, subfractions and molecular species of PC (16:0/22:6, 18:0/22:6, 22:6/22:6, 32:5/22:6, 32:6/22:6, 34:5/22:6), were isolated from bovine ROS, and liposomes containing different proportions of these PCs and dimyristoyl-PC (DMPC) or dipalmitoyl PC (DPPC) were compared using the fluorescence probes Laurdan and 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH). With both probes, the 22:6n-3 containing PCs from ROS, in all proportions tested, decreased the transition temperature (Tt) of both DMPC and DPPC. Below the transition temperature, coexistence of phases was evidenced in all cases. Liposomes formed with 100% of any of these PCs did not show phase transitions in the temperature range studied (8°C to 50°C). At physiological temperatures, as it is likely to be the case in ROS membranes, all of these PC species were in the liquid-crystalline state. With Laurdan, all dipolyunsaturated PCs seemed to behave similarly: despite the large number of double bonds per molecule, all of them decreased the Tt of DPPC less than did the hexaenoic PCs. With DPH, an ample difference was detected between the dipolyunsaturates, 22:6/22:6-PC and VLCPUFA/22:6-PCs, and between the latter and hexaenoic PCs throughout the temperature range studied. This difference is consistent with the interpretation that the largest “disorder” produced by PCs containing a VLCPUFA like 32:6n-3 at the sn-1 position occurs toward the center of the membrane.
Sensory Drive, Color, and Color Vision

Colors often appear to differ in arbitrary ways among related species. However, a fraction of color diversity may be explained because some signals are more easily perceived in one environment rather than another. Models show that not only signals but also the perception of signals should regularly evolve in response to different environments, whether these primarily involve detection of conspecifics or detection of predators and prey. Thus, a deeper understanding of how perception of color correlates with environmental attributes should help generate more predictive models of color divergence. Here, I briefly review our understanding of color vision in vertebrates. Then I focus on opsin spectral tuning and opsin expression, two traits involved in color perception that have become amenable to study. I ask how opsin tuning is correlated with ecological differences, notably the light environment, and how this potentially affects perception of conspecific colors. Although opsin tuning appears to evolve slowly, opsin expression levels are more evolutionarily labile but have been difficult to connect to color perception. The challenge going forward will be to identify how physiological differences involved in color vision, such as opsin expression levels, translate into perceptual differences, the selection pressures that have driven those differences, and ultimately how this may drive evolution of conspecific colors.
Systematic Review of Skin Graft Donor-Site Dressings

Background: Debate continues about what split-thickness skin graft donor-site dressing provides the best outcomes for patients at the lowest cost. The goal of this systematic review was to determine which donor-site dressings are associated with the best outcomes for the following: pain, infection rate, healing quality, healing rate, quality of life, and cost. Methods: A comprehensive literature review and assessment was undertaken by two independent reviewers. Articles were selected using specific inclusion criteria. Split-thickness skin graft donor-site dressings were classified as either moist or nonmoist based on the state of the dressing upon initial application. Methodological quality of randomized controlled trials was assessed using the Jadad scale. Results: Seventy-five relevant articles were included in the final analysis, three of which were review articles. The most commonly measured outcome was healing rate (64 of 72), followed by pain (58 of 72), infection rate (40 of 72), healing quality (40 of 72), and cost (15 of 72). No studies measured quality of life. The majority of articles were randomized controlled trials (35 of 75), followed by observational studies (22 of 75), unsystematic clinical observations (15 of 75), and review articles (three of 75). It was difficult to compare moist and nonmoist dressings in this review because of the methodological heterogeneity of the included articles. The available evidence suggests, however, that moist dressings are superior in terms of pain. Conclusions: Some weak evidence exists that supports “wet dressings. ” To determine the best split-thickness skin graft donor-site dressing, more methodologically sound randomized controlled trials are needed. Trials with parallel economic evaluations should be undertaken to answer this question.
Designing a Security-typed Language with Certificate-based Declassification

This paper presents the design of a programming language that supports information-flow security policies and certificate-based declassification. The language uses monadic information-flow annotations in the style of Abadi et al.’s dependency core calculus, and has an effects system and fixpoints. The type system conflates security concepts such as labels, principals, and privileges with abstract types, allowing a uniform treatment of lattice structures throughout the language. Myers’ and Liskov’s decentralized label model is encoded using type constructors that describe confidentiality and integrity policies, and label refinements and principal groups follow naturally from intersection and union types. Singleton types, combined with bounded universal and existential quantifications, connect the type system with public-key infrastructures whose digital certificates provide authorization for privileged operations such as declassification. These features allow specification of security policies in term of dynamic entities such as run-time user identities and file access permissions. Besides showing that the language is sound, we present a security theorem that generalizes standard noninterference to account for information flows introduced by declassification. Although this result gives only a coarse approximation to the information potentially leaked, it captures our intuitions about certificatebased declassification.
Potentiometric Method for Evaluating the Oxidant/Antioxidant Activity of Seminal and Follicular Fluids and Clinical Significance of this Parameter for Human Reproductive Function

Potentiometric method based on the sharp change of electrode potential for the ferricyanide/ferrocyanide mediator system after addition of the seminal or follicular fluid sample into the measuring electrochemical cell has been developed to enable the easy assessment of the oxidant/antioxidant status of these kind of biological fluids. Platinum screen printed electrode has been used as an indicator. Essential advantage of the proposed method is simultaneous use of the both forms of the ferricyanide/ferrocyanide mediator system (oxidized and reduced ones) that allows estimating oxidant and antioxidant components of the seminal or follicular fluids samples which were obtained, respectively, from 99 male and 27 female subjects. Oxidant activity of seminal fluids has been observed in pathology conditions of reproductive system of male studied subjects and related with possible male infertility symptoms.
Particle Filter with Constraints for Articulated Upper Body Tracking

For sophisticated background, a human body tracking algorithm using particle filter based on a 3D articulated body model is introduced. First, a high-fidelity biomechanical upper body model, which is accurate for representing varies complicated human poses and simple to be developed, has been built. Then sequences of images are obtained by using a stereo camera. After calibration, verification and background subtraction, depth map, foreground silhouette, arms skeleton are chosen to construct the likelihood function. The state vectors describing the human pose are computed by fitting the articulated body model to observed person using particle filter. In order to reduce the computational complexity and the number of particles, constraints are employed to restrict the state parameters. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can track human upper body with different poses, different person under different illumination conditions fast and accurately.
Towards an Ontology of ElPub/SciX: A Proposal

A proposal is presented for a standard ontology language defined as ElPub/SciX Ontology, based on the content of a web digital library of conference proceedings. This content, i.e., ElPub/SciX documents, aims to provide access to papers presented at the total editions of the International Conference in Electronic Publishing (ElPub). After completing its 10 th years in 2006, ElPub/SciX is now a comprehensive repository with over 400 papers. Previous work has been used as a basis to build up the ontology described here. It has been presented at Elpub2004 and it dealt with an Information Retrieval System using Computational Linguistics (SiRILiCo). ElPub/SciX ontology constitutes a lightweight ontology (classes and just some instances) and is the result of two basic procedures. The first one is a syntactic analysis carried out through the Syntactic Parser-VISL. This free tool, based on lingsoft's ENGCG parser, is made available through the Visual Interactive Syntactic Learning, a research and development project at the University of Southern Denmark, Institute of Language and Communication (ISK). The second one, carried out after that, is a semantic analysis (concept extraction) conducted through GeraOnto, an acronym that stands for “generating an ontology”, which extracts the concepts needed in order to build up the ontology. The program has been developed by Gottschalg-Duque, in 2005, in Brazil. The ensuing ontology is then edited via Protege, a free, open source ontology editor. The motivation to carry out the work reported here came from problems faced during the preparation of a paper to Elpub2006, which aimed to present data about a number of aspects regarding the ElPub/SciX collection. While searching the collection, problems with the lack of standardization of authors and institutions names and the non-existence of any control of keywords had been identified. Such problems seem to be related to an apparent absence of “paper preparation” before entering into the SciX database. Lack of preparation, in turn, has brought about the desire of finding a solution, which is expected to support the work of those interested in searching the collection to retrieve information. ElPub/SciX ontology, therefore, is seen as that helping solution to support ElPub information retrieval.