Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for island effects and diurnal signals in satellite images of clouds over the tropical western pacific

Instruments to measure atmospheric radiation and ancillary meteorological variables will be set up on Manus Island as the first site of the tropical western pacific (TWP) locale of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) program. Manus is in the {open_quotes}warm pool{close_quotes} region of the TWP. This region is critical in establishing global atmospheric circulation patterns and is a primary energy source for the Hadley and Walker cells. The myriad islands and enclosed seas in the immediate vicinity of Manus have been referred to as the {open_quotes}maritime continent{close_quotes}, which has the deepest convective activity in the world. Manus is in a region having a global impact on climate and where island effects on clouds are likely to be important. In this preliminary analysis we have sought evidence of island effects in the cloud fields around Manus and have studied the variability of the diurnal cycles of cloud cover over Manus and over other islands and areas of open sea in the region.
Administrative Costs and the Organization of Individual Retirement Account Systems: A Comparative Perspective

What is the most cost-effective way to organize individual accounts that are part of a mandatory social security system? Defined-contribution individual account components of social security systems are criticized for being too expensive. The authors investigate the cost-effectiveness of two methods for constructing mandatory individual accounts: a) Investing through the retail market with relatively open choice among investment companies (the method first used by Chile and adopted by most Latin American countries). b) Investing through the institutional market with constrained choice. For the retail market, they use data from mandatory pension funds in Chile and other Latin American countries and from voluntary mutual funds in the United States. For the institutional market, they use data from systems in Bolivia and Sweden and from larger pension plans and the federal Thrift Saving Plan in the United States. The institutional approaches aggregate numerous small accounts into large blocks of money and negotiate fees on a centralized basis, often through competitive bidding. They retain workers'choice o some funds. Fees and costs are kept low by reducing incentives for marketing, avoiding excess capacity at system start-up, and constraining choice to investment portfolio that are inexpensive to manage. In developed financial markets, the biggest potential cost saving stems from constrained portfolio choice, especially from a concentration on passive investment. The biggest cost saving for a given portfolio and for countries with weak financial markets comes from reduced marketing activities. In the retail market, where annualized fees and costs range from 0.8 percent to 1.5percent of assets, use of the institutional market in individual retirement account systems has reduced those fees and costs to less than 0.2 percent to 0.6 percent of assets. This reduction can increase pensions by 10 - 20 percent relative to the retail market. Countries that can surmount rebidding problems, weaker performance incentives, inflexibility in the face of unforeseen contingencies, and an increased probability of corruption, collusion, and regulatory capture should seriously consider the institutional approach, especially at the start-up of a new multipillar system or for systems with small asset bases.
ON-LINE BLIND SEPARATION OF NON-STATIONARY SIGNALS

This paper addresses the problem of blind separation of non-stationary signals. We introduce an on-line separating algorithm for estimation of independent source signals using the assumption of non-stationarity of sources. As a separating model, we apply a self-organizing neural network with lateral connections, and define a contrast function based on correlation of the network outputs. A separating algorithm for adaptation of the network weights is derived using the state-space model of the network dynamics, and the extended Kalman filter. Simulation results obtained in blind separation of artificial and real-world signals from their artificial mixtures have shown that separating algorithm based on the extended Kalman filter outperforms stochastic gradient based algorithm both in convergence speed and estimation accuracy.
Encoding and storage of spatial information in the retrosplenial cortex

Significance The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is a key part of a network of brain regions that processes and stores spatial information. However, it is unclear whether the RSC actually encodes or stores spatial information. With time-lapse two-photon in vivo imaging that allowed us to study the immediate early gene c-fos expression in tens of thousands of cells in the RSC, we uncovered repetitive activation of a fraction of cells in this structure during spatial learning. We also showed that RSC inactivation disrupts performance in a spatial task, whereas overexpressing of the transcription factor CREB results in enhanced spatial memory. Silencing the CREB-expressing neurons occluded these memory enhancements. These results demonstrate that the retrosplenial cortex is involved in the formation and storage of spatial information. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is part of a network of interconnected cortical, hippocampal, and thalamic structures harboring spatially modulated neurons. The RSC contains head direction cells and connects to the parahippocampal region and anterior thalamus. Manipulations of the RSC can affect spatial and contextual tasks. A considerable amount of evidence implicates the role of the RSC in spatial navigation, but it is unclear whether this structure actually encodes or stores spatial information. We used a transgenic mouse in which the expression of green fluorescent protein was under the control of the immediate early gene c-fos promoter as well as time-lapse two-photon in vivo imaging to monitor neuronal activation triggered by spatial learning in the Morris water maze. We uncovered a repetitive pattern of cell activation in the RSC consistent with the hypothesis that during spatial learning an experience-dependent memory trace is formed in this structure. In support of this hypothesis, we also report three other observations. First, temporary RSC inactivation disrupts performance in a spatial learning task. Second, we show that overexpressing the transcription factor CREB in the RSC with a viral vector, a manipulation known to enhance memory consolidation in other circuits, results in spatial memory enhancements. Third, silencing the viral CREB-expressing neurons with the allatostatin system occludes the spatial memory enhancement. Taken together, these results indicate that the retrosplenial cortex engages in the formation and storage of memory traces for spatial information.
Identification of protein IT of the intestinal cytoskeleton as a novel type I cytokeratin with unusual properties and expression patterns

A major cytoskeletal polypeptide (Mr approximately 46,000; protein IT) of human intestinal epithelium was characterized by biochemical and immunological methods. The polypeptide, which was identified as a specific and genuine mRNA product by translation in vitro, reacted, in immunoblotting after SDS-PAGE, only with one of numerous cytokeratin (CK) antisera tested but with none of many monoclonal CK antibodies. In vitro, it formed heterotypic complexes with the type II CK 8, as shown by blot binding assays and gel electrophoresis in 4 M urea, and these complexes assembled into intermediate filaments (IFs) under appropriate conditions. A chymotrypsin-resistant Mr approximately 38,000 core fragment of protein IT could be obtained from cytoskeletal IFs, indicating its inclusion in a coiled coil. Antibodies raised against protein IT decorated typical CK fibril arrays in normal and transformed intestinal cells. Four proteolytic peptide fragments obtained from purified polypeptide IT exhibited significant amino acid sequence homology with corresponding regions of coils I and II of the rod domain of several other type I CKs. Immunocytochemically, the protein was specifically detected as a prominent component of intestinal and gastric foveolar epithelium, urothelial umbrella cells, and Merkel cells of epidermis. Sparse positive epithelial cells were noted in the thymus, bronchus, gall bladder, and prostate gland. The expression of protein IT was generally maintained in primary and metastatic colorectal carcinomas as well as in cell cultures derived therefrom. A corresponding protein was also found in several other mammalian species. We conclude that polypeptide IT is an integral IF component which is related, though somewhat distantly, to type I CKs, and, therefore, we propose to add it to the human CK catalogue as CK 20.
Sentiment based service selection in mobile ad hoc networks

The availability of the Web 2.0 applications in the mobile devices have enabled the users to express sentiments about their invoked services in fast and flexible ways. These sentiments, accessible over the Internet, can greatly influence a potential service user's selection especially in a service rich ambiance. Often, user assisted sentiment analysis can be both costly and inefficient due to the Internet tariff and mobile devices' inherent limitations. However, in public events and places, users can deploy a network over their connectivity enabled mobile devices to share sentiments at no monetary cost and analyze them to select a service. Yet, this network, feasible as a mobile ad hoc network, does not consider automatic incorporation of users' sentiments for service selection. Therefore, we propose a service selection method that integrates users' sentiments simultaneously with the traditional minimum hop count method to select a service in the mobile ad hoc network. These sentiments, classified by the Support Vector Machine with semantic pruning, have been quantified for integration. The novelty of the proposed selection method is further supported through simulation results.
A Mixture-model Approach to the Analysis of Survival Data

In this paper, we study a mixture model for survival data where covariates may innuence both the incidence probabilities and their conditional latency distributions. The data may include the exactly observed, the right-censored, and the interval-censored failure times. We apply the EM algorithm to nd the maximum likelihood estimate. We also carry out a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm for Bayesian inference. Model selection methods based on the predictive density for cross-validated data are developed. These methods allow us to assess whether simpler models would suuce as opposed to the mixture models. The potential of the methods is illustrated with our beetle (Tribolium castaneum) data given by Hewlett (1974).
On the Exponent of the NK0-Groups of Virtually Infinite Cyclic Groups

Abstract It is known that the $K$ -groups that appear in the calculation of the $K$ -theory of a large class of groups can be computed from the $K$ -theory of their virtually infinite cyclic subgroups. On the other hand, Nil-groups appear to be the obstacle in calculations involving the $K$ -theory of the latter. The main difficulty in the calculation of Nil-groups is that they are infinitely generated when they do not vanish. We develop methods for computing the exponent of $\text{N}{{\text{K}}_{0}}$ -groups that appear in the calculation of the ${{K}_{0}}$ -groups of virtually infinite cyclic groups.
Book Note: Promote or Protect?: Perspectives on Media Literacy and Media Regulations

Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson (eds), Promote or Protect? : Perspectives on Media Literacy and Media Regulations. Göteborg: The International Clearinghouse on Children and Media, 2003. US$25.00. 260 pp. Within an ever-increasing media landscape, new information technologies increasingly push the boundaries of existing regulatory systems, further intensifying anxieties surrounding media consumption. As children are considered an integral market for media conglomerates, the child is persistently embroiled within a struggle by parents, policy-makers and teachers to safeguard their well-being. In the past this protection was fundamentally that of external regulation. However, within a society that continues to promote the democratic principle of freedom of expression, a more self-regulatory system entwined with media literacy has been propelled to the fore. For some, instead of hindering consumption, the preparation of children as consumers through media education seems the pertinent answer. However, this collection of essays insinuates that ‘promote’ and ‘protect’ should not be considered as separate entities, which previous publications have proposed. Consequently, the essays critique: (1) the role of media literacy in and outside the classroom; (2) parental responsibility and their media awareness; (3) various regulatory systems and their effectiveness; and (4) media professionals’ awareness of children’s media rights. Overall, this book provides concrete examples from various countries, which display the effectiveness of the varying approaches and highlight ways of improving children’s media consumption. As the examples represent only a few countries, generalizations cannot be made; they do nevertheless provide a useful insight into how other countries operate and allow inferences to be drawn as to where responsibility should lie.
Propagation of Intercellular Calcium Waves in Retinal Astrocytes and Müller Cells

Intercellular Ca2+ waves are believed to propagate through networks of glial cells in culture in one of two ways: by diffusion of IP3 between cells through gap junctions or by release of ATP, which functions as an extracellular messenger. Experiments were conducted to determine the mechanism of Ca2+ wave propagation between glial cells in an intact CNS tissue. Calcium waves were imaged in the acutely isolated rat retina with the Ca2+ indicator dye fluo-4. Mechanical stimulation of astrocyte somata evoked Ca2+ waves that propagated through both astrocytes and Müller cells. Octanol (0.5 mm), which blocks coupling between astrocytes and Müller cells, did not reduce propagation into Müller cells. Purinergic receptor antagonists suramin (100 μm), PPADS (20–50 μm), and apyrase (80 U/ml), in contrast, substantially reduced wave propagation into Müller cells (wave radii reduced to 16–61% of control). Suramin also reduced wave propagation from Müller cell to Müller cell (51% of control). Purinergic antagonists reduced wave propagation through astrocytes to a lesser extent (64–81% of control). Mechanical stimulation evoked the release of ATP, imaged with the luciferin–luciferase bioluminescence assay. Peak ATP concentration at the surface of the retina averaged 78 μm at the stimulation site and 6.8 μm at a distance of 100 μm. ATP release propagated outward from the stimulation site with a velocity of 41 μm/sec, somewhat faster than the 28 μm/sec velocity of Ca2+ waves. Ejection of 3 μm ATP onto the retinal surface evoked propagated glial Ca2+ waves. Together, these results indicate that Ca2+ waves are propagated through retinal glial cells by two mechanisms. Waves are propagated through astrocytes principally by diffusion of an internal messenger, whereas waves are propagated from astrocytes to Müller cells and from Müller cells to other Müller cells primarily by the release of ATP.
Frequency spectrum sensing of cognitive radio based on Bayesian network

Cognitive radio has become a key technology to improve the low utilization of spectrum. Although some traditional detection methods could solve the problem of spectrum utilization, the detection performance is not high enough. This paper presents a cognitive radio spectrum sensing method based on Bayesian network in order to improve its detection performance. The spectrum of the primary user has two states, which are binary detection signals. Bayesian criterion and maximum a posteriori probability criterion used in the Bayesian network are suitable for the binary signals' detection. Firstly, the posterior probability of each state can be obtained from the Bayesian network structure, then the posterior probability is used as the prior probability for the maximum a posteriori probability criterion, and thereby the spectrum can be sensed. It can be seen from the MATLAB simulations that detection probability is improved with the maximum a posteriori probability detection criterion and its detection performance is higher than that of the traditional methods.
Beyond substitutive dynamical systems: S-adic expansions

An S-adic expansion of an infinite word is a way of writing it as the limit of an infinite product of substitutions (i.e., morphisms of a free monoid). Such a description is related to continued fraction expansions of numbers and vectors. A fundamental example of this relation is between Sturmian sequences and regular continued fractions. We study S-adic words from different perspectives, namely word combinatorics, ergodic theory, and Diophantine approximation, by stressing the parallel with continued fraction expansions.
Towards optimal keyword-based content dissemination in DHT-based P2P networks

Keyword-based content alert services, e.g., Google Alerts and Microsoft Live Alerts, empower the end users with the ability to automatically receive useful and most recent content. In this paper, we leverage the favorable properties of DHTs, such as scalability, and propose a design of a scalable keyword-based content alert service. The DHT-based architecture matches textual documents with queries based on document terms: For each term, the implementation assigns a home node that is responsible for handling documents and queries that contain the term. The main challenge of this keyword-based matching scheme is the high number of terms that appear in a typical document resulting in a high publication cost. Fortunately, a document can be forwarded to the home nodes of a carefully selected subset of terms without incurring false negatives. In this paper we focus on the MTAF problem of minimizing the number of selected terms to forward the published content. We show that the problem is NP-hardness, and consider centralized and DHT-based solutions. Experimental results based on real datasets indicate that the proposed solutions are efficient compared to existing approaches. In particular, the similarity-based replication of filters that is a key element of our solution is shown to mitigate the effect of hotspots that arise due to the fact that some document terms are substantially more popular than the others, both inside documents and queries.
The state, planning and labour: towards transforming the colonial labour process

The transition to socialism involves a number of interrelated and often contradictory processes: on the one hand, the need to transform colonial structures; while, on the other hand, because of the necessity to avoid economic collapse, productive forces must be preserved. Planning in such a context should address the issue of the transformation of colonial‐capitalist labour processes in the early stages of the transition as colonial labour regimes enter crisis. The Zimbabwean experience shows that the emphasis on preserving productive forces ‐ while an important aspect of transition ‐ can provide a convenient platform for those forces in society which have little interest in fundamental change.
Universal Design of Web Security Based on AOP

Security modules is very important for a robust system,but in the past the programmer are always in the pursuit the security of a system but intertwine the software code with the security code.This paper introduce a universal design of web security based on AOP to provide the reader a way to separate the security aspect from the main logic of the system.
Significance-Aware Channel Power Allocation for Wireless Multimedia Streaming

We develop a novel transmit power-allocation strategy for wireless multimedia communications using cross-layer optimization. Because the individual frames in a compressed video carry different degrees of importance in terms of quality of service (QoS), improving the packet-loss probability does not necessarily coincide with perceivable improvements in QoS from a client's point of view. We propose a channel power-allocation scheme that properly incorporates the importance of frames when allocating transmit power. The system is modeled in terms of the number of remaining packets to be sent, the interference level, and the QoS importance of the packet that is being transmitted. Dynamic programming formulation is developed to obtain the optimal transmit power that simultaneously minimizes power consumption and maximizes the user-perceivable QoS. Using dynamic programming, we establish a state transition equation in discrete time intervals that incorporates the packet-loss probability. A simulation-based experiment is performed to test our transmit power-allocation scheme. We use four publicly available Motion Pictures Expert Group 4 (MPEG-4) video clips, comparing the performance of three different channel power-allocation strategies: constant power-allocation, interference-aware power-allocation, and significance-aware power-allocation. Optimal channel power under varying interference levels and the respective packet loss behaviors are examined. The results prove that our significance-aware transmit power-allocation scheme exhibits superior performance in terms of the loss ratio PSNR and power-utilization efficiency. The total packet byte loss decreases by 3%-8%. The loss rate of the I frame decreases from 24% to 1%. Significance-aware power-allocation successfully provides unequal protection to the more important packets. Total power consumption is reduced by 18%-34% without loss of user-perceivable QoS.
A Kernel-Modified SVM Based Computer-Aided Diagnosis System in Initial Caries

Clinical initial caries appear as no obvious difference to normal ones in X-ray images. Researchers attempt to set up computer-aided system to facilitate clinical initial caries diagnosis. This paper mainly made two efforts, image enhancement using watershed and modification of SVM kernel function. Experiments show that the testing accuracy of the kernel-modified SVM caries detection is improved compared to the former research, and the image enhancement helps dentists to find caries easier.