Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the mineralogy of atmospheric dust sources

The variability of atmospheric dust mineralogy influences the impact of desert dust on the Earth's radiative budget and biogeochemical cycles. Until now, atmospheric transport models have assumed that dust was a constant homogeneous mixture, hence neglecting this variability. The lack of mineralogical data in arid areas prevented a better description of the atmospheric dust composition, and we propose here a new formulation to estimate the mineral content of arid surfaces on a global scale. First, we collect a Database of Arid Soil Surface Mineralogy for eight major minerals: quartz, feldspar, calcite, gypsum, illite, kaolinite, smectite, and hematite, both for the clay and silt fraction. On the basis of this, we formulate a Mean Mineralogical Table that relates classical soil types to surface mineralogy. We use this table and the geographical distribution of soil types given in the Food and Agriculture Organization Soil Map of the World to obtain the mineralogy of arid surfaces globally. In order to validate these results, we present a compilation of measured mineralogical composition of dust samples with identified sources. The correlation between observed dust mineralogy and those inferred from soil types in corresponding areas is between 0.70 and 0.94. We then calculate the maps of the single scattering albedo and of the ratio of infrared extinction to visible extinction for the erodible fraction of arid areas. Mineralogical maps presented here will be used in future studies with an emission scheme in a global transport model.
Detection of Dangerous Cornering in GNSS-Data-Driven Insurance Telematics

We propose a framework for the detection of dangerous vehicle cornering events, based on statistics related to the no-sliding and no-rollover conditions. The input variables are estimated using an unscented Kalman filter applied to global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements of position, speed, and bearing. The resulting test statistic is evaluated in a field study where three smartphones are used as measurement probes. A general framework for performance evaluation and estimator calibration is presented as depending on a generic loss function. Furthermore, we introduce loss functions designed for applications aiming to either minimize the number of missed detections and false alarms, or to estimate the risk level in each cornering event. Finally, the performance characteristics of the estimator are presented as depending on the detection threshold, as well as on design parameters describing the driving behavior. Since the estimation only uses GNSS measurements, the framework is particularly well suited for smartphone-based insurance telematics applications, aiming to avoid the logistic and monetary costs associated with, e.g., on-board-diagnostics or black-box dependent solutions. The design of the estimation algorithm allows for instant feedback to be given to the driver and, hence, supports the inclusion of real-time value-added services in usage-based insurance programs.
Concerns to the emerging grid codes for wind turbines' LVRT in weak AC grid

Wind turbine generators (WTGs) are required to ride through grid faults due to the increasing wind power penetrations. The existing grid codes around the world concerning low voltage ride-through (LVRT) were designed under the assumption that wind turbine operates in strong AC grid. However, under weak AC grid condition, the secure operating area (SOA) of WTG has changed obviously. Thus the behaviors of WTG restrained by the existing grid codes during LVRT may put itself at the risk of instability in weak grid, which may lead to the WTGs' disconnection from the grid and deteriorate the system transient stability after faults. The Limitations of WTGs' SOA caused by weak grid during LVRT are studied in this paper. And the results are verified by time domain simulations in Simulink/MATLAB.
A climatology of ozone mini-holes over the northern hemisphere

A comprehensive climatology of ozone mini-hole occurrence over mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere is constructed, based on daily measurements of total column ozone from the Nimbus-7 TOMS (total ozone mapping spectrometer) satellite, using version-7 data, over a 14-year period. An ozone mini-hole is a synoptic-scale area of strongly reduced total column ozone amount, which undergoes a cycle of growth and decay, in direct association with tropospheric weather systems. A computer-based analytical method for searching for local minima in the daily TOMS ozone fields is employed to build up a catalogue of mini-hole events, tracking location and intensity. Geographical and seasonal variations in the resulting data are summarised and possible trends over the data period are assessed. Ozone mini-hole activity exhibits a strong annual cycle, peaking in the late winter. Mini-holes are shown to be generally more frequent over the N. Atlantic/European sector than the N. Pacific/N. American sector. An alternative method of defining a threshold is also discussed in which ozone minima are viewed as anomalies from local climatological mean ozone levels. Mini-hole activity is seen to exhibit a close spatial correlation to each of the storm-track regions of the hemisphere. © 1998 Royal Meteorological Society
The clinical management of incest and sexual abuse of children.

SINCE the publication of "The Battered Child Syndrome" by Kempe et al in 1962,1physicians have been increasingly concerned with the problem of child abuse. Early thinking in the field focused on children who were seriously injured by their caretakers. As practice has evolved and experience has grown, it has become clear that battering of children is but the tip of an iceberg of childhood maltreatment. Professionals have started to be increasingly aware of the existence of sexual and emotional abuse, as well as of the gross neglect of children by their caretakers. In the early 1960s, child abuse was seen as an attack by a malicious adult against an unsuspecting child in need of protection. As workers have become more familiar with abusing adults, they have realized that these people had themselves been the unfortunate victims of abusive situations in their past. A more compassionate attitude toward these
Ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials Via Bone-Conducted Vibrations Applied to Various Midsagittal Cranial Sites

Objective: This study applied bone-conducted vibration (BCV) stimulation to various midsagittal sites on the cranium to optimize stimulation conditions for ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMPs). Study Design: Ten healthy subjects (7 men and 3 women, aged 25-32 yr) without previous ear disorders were enrolled in this study. Each subject underwent oVEMP test using BCV applied to 4 cranial sites on the midsagittal plane, namely, the Fpz (above the glabella), Fz (the midline forehead at the hairline), Cz (vertex), and inion. In addition, the linear distances from the vestibule to the 4 sites were measured via multiplanar reconstruction of computed tomographic scans. Setting: Tertiary referral university hospital. Results: All 10 subjects showed 100% clear oVEMPs at the Fpz, Fz, inion, and Cz sites. The mean ± SD nI latencies of these 4 sites were 8.9 ± 0.8, 9.8 ± 2.4, 11.2 ± 1.5, and 14.0 ± 2.0 milliseconds, respectively, exhibiting significant differences among the 4 sites. The median (range) nI-pI amplitudes of oVEMPs stimulated via the Fpz, Fz, inion, and Cz sites were 15.8 &mgr;V (4.2-55.8 &mgr;V), 9.9 &mgr;V (3.8-29.0 &mgr;V), 11.5 &mgr;V (5.5-58.0 &mgr;V), and 6.1 &mgr;V (2.5-21.4 &mgr;V), respectively, indicating significant differences among the 4 sites. Of them, the oVEMPs elicited by BCV mode at the Fpz represented the largest nI-pI amplitude, when compared with the other 3 sites. Furthermore, the linear distances from the vestibule to the Fpz, Fz, inion, and Cz sites were 10.7 ± 0.4, 11.5 ± 0.5, 8.6 ± 0.4, and 12.0 ± 0.5 cm, respectively. The inion site had the shortest distance to the vestibule, but it did not show the earliest nI latency. Conclusion: The Fpz may be the optimal site for BCV stimulation for screening oVEMPs in reflex magnitude.
On the possibility of transformational superplasticity in the Earth's mantle

It is well known that metals and some ceramics deform superplastically during polymorphic phase transitions, but this phenomenon has not been considered as a possible deformation mechanism in the earth's mantle. Although phase transitions in the mantle can be expected to move significant distances in response to changing surface loads, the time scale of this motion (of the order of 105 yr) is too long to allow simple applications of laboratory results in the absence of a well understood mechanism. To examine possible mechanisms, an apparatus capable of applying a shear traction parallel to a polymorphic phase boundary has been developed. Preliminary results with the β-α transformation in CsCl show that macroscopic deformation was localized at the phase boundary and that microscopic deformation appears to be restricted to the high-temperature phase, in agreement with the mechanism proposed by Greenwood and Johnson. Seismic evidence suggesting that flow is localized at the 400- and 650-km discontinuities in the earth's mantle is reviewed.
Mechanical stability of the Redbank Thrust Zone, central Australia: dynamical and rheological implications

Deep seismic reflection profiling and other studies indicate that the Moho has been significantly displaced by intracratonic deformation on the Redbank Thrust Zone in central Australia. A two‐dimensional finite‐element model of the thick‐skinned crustal structure of the Redbank Thrust Zone shows that the gravitational stresses generated by the distribution of crustal masses are in agreement with the tectonic and seismic quiescence of the area. Rock failure is concentrated in the downthrusted, and therefore Theologically weakened, crustal segments. Conversely, the upthrusted slices of lower crust and upper mantle undergo little deformation and no failure and thus constitute a mechanically strong whole‐crustal core. The presence of north‐south oriented intraplate stresses derived from far‐field plate boundary forces does not contribute to the inferred mechanical equilibrium of the crust in central Australia. The results may have implications for the mechanical stability of intracratonic thick‐skinned crusta.
The System Research of Integrated EEG Analysis and Feature Extracting for Weak Signal

An EEG integrated analysis system was developed by LabVIEW, which expanded bandwidth above 3 (KHz) to collect more useful information. The novel bandwidth preamplifier was designed and the system of data acquisition, integrated analysis was implemented, which could analyze EEG with an optional combination of time domain, frequency domain, time-frequency, nonlinearity, chaotics, several spectral analysis, wavelets and other special algorithms under multi-parameter. The system syncretized a variety of dedicated processing methods to meet the need of feature extraction for weak EEG signals. In the system the dual-channel analysis system with multiparameter was developed to strengthen comparing analysis of multi-signal feature. Epileptic EEG as example signal was analyzed and system showed good performances. As novel system it could comparatively analyze the human physiological signals at different stages by combining different algorithms, parameters and filters. The system will be an important tool in researches of human disease and brain function, which is better way to explore the relationships between EEG and health, brain function, brain cognitive.
Molar microwear textures and the diets of Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis

Many researchers have suggested that Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis were among the earliest hominins to have diets that included hard, brittle items. Here we examine dental microwear textures of these hominins for evidence of this. The molars of three Au. anamensis and 19 Au. afarensis specimens examined preserve unobscured antemortem microwear. Microwear textures of these individuals closely resemble those of Paranthropus boisei, having lower complexity values than Australopithecus africanus and especially Paranthropus robustus. The microwear texture complexity values for Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis are similar to those of the grass-eating Theropithecus gelada and folivorous Alouatta palliata and Trachypithecus cristatus. This implies that these Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis individuals did not have diets dominated by hard, brittle foods shortly before their deaths. On the other hand, microwear texture anisotropy values for these taxa are lower on average than those of Theropithecus, Alouatta or Trachypithecus. This suggests that the fossil taxa did not have diets dominated by tough foods either, or if they did that directions of tooth–tooth movement were less constrained than in higher cusped and sharper crested extant primate grass eaters and folivores.
Water under pressure

Abstract The world's water resources are currently under more stresses and strains than ever before. These forces on water will mount as the century unfolds, causing the water scarcity affecting the Middle East, parts of Africa and southern Asia at present, to develop into a world water crisis. This paper examines the capability of society to deal with this crisis and some of the measures that might be undertaken to alleviate it. In particular, it advocates the adoption of the ecosystem approach to river basin management and it discusses the response of the hydrological community to these problems.
Service provisioning update scheme for mobile application users in a cloudlet network

Cloudlet based network provides a platform to offloading the traffic workload generated by mobile devices. It can significantly reduce the access delay for mobile application users. However, the high dynamic mobility of users brings significant challenges to the service provisioning for mobile applications, especially for the delay-sensitive big data applications. To increase the overall admitted traffic served by local cloudlets, and to reduce the access delay as well as the virtual-machine migration delay, this paper aims to study the adaptively service-provisioning update scheme for a given group of mobile users under a cloudlet-based network. A profit maximization problem is first formulated as an integer linear programming using absolute value manipulation techniques. Then, we propose a framework of heuristic algorithms to solve this problem. The numerical simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.
Sensitivity of the CH4 growth rate to changes in CH4 emissions from natural gas and coal

The observed rate of increase in atmospheric CH4 declined gradually during the late 1980s [Steele et al., 1992] and then fell dramatically by ∼4 to 7 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) yr−1 from 1991 to 1992 [Dlugokencky et al., 1994a]. Post-1993 the CH4 growth rate has recovered to pre-1991 levels. In this study, we assess the sensitivity of the CH4 growth rate to changes in CH4 emissions from the coal and gas industries over the last 15 years using a global two-dimensional (2-D) model of the atmosphere. Emissions are estimated from available production data, and in the case of natural gas, a spectrum of leakage rates is assumed. Changes in the former Soviet Union (FSU) have been assessed separately from the rest of the world (ROW). Prior to 1989, increased coal and natural gas production led to an increase in the CH4 growth rate (i.e., opposite to that which was observed). During the period 1989 to 1993 the modelled CH4 growth rate decreased by ∼1–2 ppbv yr−2 at northern mid-latitudes (assuming constant gas leakage rates), showing that declining emissions, primarily in the form of natural gas from the FSU, may have contributed to the general reduction in the CH4 growth rate from 1989 to 1991. However, this does not explain the large reduction which was observed between 1991 and 1992. A model run with FSU gas leakage rates decreasing by 1% yr−1 from 5% in 1990 to 2% in 1993 shows a decrease in the CH4 growth rate of ∼9–12 ppbv yr−1 (or ∼3–5 ppbv yr−2) over this period. This is similar in magnitude to the observed decline over the same period. This sensitivity study illustrates the large potential for significantly lowering the growth rate of atmospheric CH4 by reducing fossil fuel emissions from coal and, in particular, by reducing the leakage rates from natural gas installations.
Ensuring the QoS requirements in 802.16 scheduling

IEEE 802.16 standard defines the wireless broadband access network technology called WiMAX. WiMAX introduces several interesting advantages, and one of them is the support for QoS at the MAC level. For these purposes, the base station must allocate slots based on some algorithm. We propose a simple, yet efficient, solution for the WiMAX base station that is capable of allocating slots based on the QoS requirements, bandwidth request sizes, and the WiMAX network parameters. To test the proposed solution, we have implemented the WiMAX MAC layer in the NS-2 simulator. Several simulation scenarios are presented that demonstrate how the scheduling solution allocates resources in various cases. Simulation results reveal the proposed scheduling solution is ensures the QoS requirements of all the WiMAX service classes and shares fairly free resources achieving the work-conserving behaviour.
Genetic Characterization and Classification of Human and Animal Sapoviruses

Sapoviruses (SaVs) are enteric caliciviruses that have been detected in multiple mammalian species, including humans, pigs, mink, dogs, sea lions, chimpanzees, and rats. They show a high level of diversity. A SaV genome commonly encodes seven nonstructural proteins (NSs), including the RNA polymerase protein NS7, and two structural proteins (VP1 and VP2). We classified human and animal SaVs into 15 genogroups (G) based on available VP1 sequences, including three newly characterized genomes from this study. We sequenced the full length genomes of one new genogroup V (GV), one GVII and one GVIII porcine SaV using long range RT-PCR including newly designed forward primers located in the conserved motifs of the putative NS3, and also 5' RACE methods. We also determined the 5’- and 3’-ends of sea lion GV SaV and canine GXIII SaV. Although the complete genomic sequences of GIX-GXII, and GXV SaVs are unavailable, common features of SaV genomes include: 1) “GTG” at the 5′-end of the genome, and a short (9~14 nt) 5′-untranslated region; and 2) the first five amino acids (M [A/V] S [K/R] P) of the putative NS1 and the five amino acids (FEMEG) surrounding the putative cleavage site between NS7 and VP1 were conserved among the chimpanzee, two of five genogroups of pig (GV and GVIII), sea lion, canine, and human SaVs. In contrast, these two amino acid motifs were clearly different in three genogroups of porcine (GIII, GVI and GVII), and bat SaVs. Our results suggest that several animal SaVs have genetic similarities to human SaVs. However, the ability of SaVs to be transmitted between humans and animals is uncertain.
Accurate reconstruction of discontinuous functions using the singular pade-chebyshev method

In this paper, we present a singularity-based resolution of the Gibbs phenomenon that obstructs the reconstruction of a function with jump discontinuities by a truncated Chebyshev series or a PadA©-Chebyshev approximation. We tackle the more difficult case where the jump locations are not known. The identification of unknown singularities is carried out using a Padi-Chebyshev approximation. Numerical examples to illustrate the method are provided, including an application on postprocessing computational data corrupted by the Gibbs phenomenon.
Cunning Ant System : An Extension of Edge Histogram Sampling Algorithms to ACO

In this paper, we propose a variant of an ACO algorithm called the cunning Ant System (cAS). In cAS, each ant generates a solution by borrowing a part of a solution which was generated in previous iterations, instead of generating the solution entirely from pheromone density. Thus we named it, cunning ant. This cunning action reduces premature stagnation and exhibits good performance in the search. The experimental results showed cAS worked very well on the TSP and it may be one of the most promising ACO algorithms.
Exposure to Increased Environmental Complexity during Rearing Reduces Fearfulness and Increases Use of Three-Dimensional Space in Laying Hens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

The complexity of the rearing environment is important for behavioral development and fearfulness. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that laying hens reared in a complex aviary system with exposure to mild intermittent stressors would be less fearful, less sensitive to stress, and would use elevated areas of the pen more often as adults than hens reared in a barren cage environment. Laying hens (N = 160) were housed in the same rearing house; half of the birds (n = 80) in an aviary and the other half (n = 80) in cages. At 16 weeks of age, the birds were transported to the experimental facilities. Their behavior was recorded at 19 and 23 weeks of age and analyzed by analysis of variance on individual scores for a fearfulness-related principal component generated using principal component analysis. The results indicate that aviary-reared birds have lower levels of fearfulness compared with cage-reared birds both at 19 weeks and at 23 weeks of age. When comparing the response induced by initial exposure to a novel object at 19 and 23 weeks of age, more aviary-reared birds tended to fly up at 19 weeks compared to the cage-reared birds, indicating a tendency toward a more active behavioral response in the aviary-reared birds than in cage-reared birds. There was no difference between treatments in the flight response at 23 weeks. The groups did not differ in defecation frequency or the concentration of fecal corticosterone metabolites at either age. At 19 weeks, observation of the spatial distribution in the home pens indicated that more aviary-reared birds spent time on the low perch, the elevated platform, and the upper perch, compared to the cage-reared birds. However, at 23 weeks of age, these differences were no longer detected. The results of this study support the hypothesis that increased environmental complexity during rearing reduces fearfulness of adult laying hens.
Improving Educational Resources Retrieval using a Multiagent Platform

In this work we propose a multiagent architecture f or web educational resources retrieval that helps users to find courses according to their pers onal and cultural aspects. Cultural aspects are preferences and ways of behavior determined by the person’s culture. In this work, the cultural aspects are just the features that distinguish betw een the preferences of users from different regions . This multiagent platform includes several kinds of agents with different functionalities. We particularly model the Educational Resources Finder Agent as a Graded BDI Agent, which is in charged of a flexible retrieval of the best courses according to the student profile. We outline the overall multiagent system and present an example il lustrating the searching process.