Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preliminary Estimation of Black Carbon Deposition from Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid Data and Its Possible Impact on Snow Albedo Changes Over Himalayan Glaciers During the Pre-Monsoon Season

The possible minimal range of reduction in snow surface albedo due to dry deposition of black carbon (BC) in the pre-monsoon period (March-May) was estimated as a lower bound together with the estimation of its accuracy, based on atmospheric observations at the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid (NCO-P) sited at 5079 m a.s. l. in the Himalayan region. We estimated a total BC deposition rate of 2.89 g m-2 day-1 providing a total deposition of 266 micrograms/ square m for March-May at the site, based on a calculation with a minimal deposition velocity of 1.0 10(exp -4) m/s with atmospheric data of equivalent BC concentration. Main BC size at NCO-P site was determined as 103.1-669.8 nm by correlation analysis between equivalent BC concentration and particulate size distribution in the atmosphere. We also estimated BC deposition from the size distribution data and found that 8.7% of the estimated dry deposition corresponds to the estimated BC deposition from equivalent BC concentration data. If all the BC is deposited uniformly on the top 2-cm pure snow, the corresponding BC concentration is 26.0-68.2 microgram/kg assuming snow density variations of 195-512 kg/ cubic m of Yala Glacier close to NCO-P site. Such a concentration of BC in snow could result in 2.0-5.2% albedo reductions. From a simple numerical calculations and if assuming these albedo reductions continue throughout the year, this would lead to a runoff increases of 70-204 mm of water drainage equivalent of 11.6-33.9% of the annual discharge of a typical Tibetan glacier. Our estimates of BC concentration in snow surface for pre-monsoon season can be considered comparable to those at similar altitude in the Himalayan region, where glaciers and perpetual snow region starts in the vicinity of NCO-P. Our estimates from only BC are likely to represent a lower bound for snow albedo reductions, since a fixed slower deposition velocity was used and atmospheric wind and turbulence effects, snow aging, dust deposition, and snow albedo feedbacks were not considered. This study represents the first investigation about BC deposition on snow from atmospheric aerosol data in Himalayas and related albedo effect is especially the first track at the southern slope of Himalayas.
CHARACTERIZATION OF TEMPORAL BIODEGRADATION OF RADIATA PINE BY GLOEOPHYLLUM TRABEUM THROUGH PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS-BASED TWO-DIMENSIONAL CORRELATION FTIR SPECTROSCOPY

Brown rot fungi produce a special pattern of wood decay. In the first stages of biodegradation, fast depolymerisation of holocellulose causes a rapid loss of wood strength while lignin is not substantially depolymerized. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is a powerful tool for examining changes in wood chemistry. FTIR is an accurate, non-destructive technique, which usually requires a minimum of sample preparation and sample size. Principal component analysis-based two-dimensional (PCA2D) correlation spectroscopy of a spectral data set was applied to assess temporal brown-rot wood decay. Pinus radiata with soil support was degraded by brown rot fungi Gloeophyllum trabeum for a period of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks simulating the natural process of biodegradation. Decayed samples were monitored and analyzed periodically by FTIR. Most of the autopeaks had contributions from lignin, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. The main effect observed by PCA2D correlation was the significant decrease in the intensities of bands predominantly in the region of 2000-1000 cm -1 , associated with polysaccharides in the biodegraded wood. An increase in the intensities of bands at 1698 and 1664 cm -1 associated with the oxidation of wood components, mostly lignin, was also observed. Detailed analysis of asynchronous map showed that the wood oxidation began after the depolymerisation of polysaccharides. Figure 1. Reconstructed data of the FTIR spectra of the wood sample studied from loading vectors and scores of PC1, PC2 and PC3 in 1800–800 cm -1 . Arrows indicate the directions of the changes in the intensity bands with increasing of biodegradation time.
The role of local-scale processes on terrestrial and deep-sea gastropod body size distributions across multiple scales

Question: Does resource partitioning among body sizes at local spatial scales account for the distribution of body sizes at all spatial scales? Hypothesis: Processes controlling regional or global patterns of species richness within size classes are scale-dependent, with regional or global patterns being influenced by macroevolutionary processes such as size-biased extinction/speciation and constraints on maximum/ minimum size as opposed to local-scale interactions. Organisms: 297 species of terrestrial and deep-sea gastropods. Sampling sites: 838 terrestrial sites from 10 biogeographic provinces within a 2300 × 2800 km area in eastern North America, and 37 deep-sea sites from three biogeographic provinces at a depth of 196–5042 m in the western North Atlantic Methods: Multiple parametric and non-parametric statistical tests were used to identify the presence of significant deviations between the distribution of individuals and taxa from site to regional scales in both systems. Conclusions: The number of taxa does not always simply reflect the number of individuals across the body size spectrum with deviations becoming more prevalent with increasing spatial scale. Thus, local-scale interactions and resource partitioning alone are insufficient to explain patterns in body size at larger scales.
Accounting and accountability in local government: Contributions from accounting history research

This work provides an analysis of published historical research on accounting and accountability in local government (LG) and in public organizations that have links to LG. Within this context, the study identifies the main themes and trends in this historical research, the extent of adoption of particular theoretical perspectives, the nature of sources examined, the periods of time investigated, and the main contributions of published research on accounting’s past within LG settings. By so doing, this article highlights possible future research topics and makes a call for rigorous and robust research on the development of systems of accounting and accountability in LG around the globe. Such research will recognize that accounting, besides being perceived as a technical practice, is also a social practice, with implications for organizational and social functioning.
“Next Door They Have Regulation, But Not Here …”: Assessing the Opinions of Actors in the Opaque World of Unregulated Lobbying

The lobbying of government by various interests is regarded as central to the democratic process. Deliberative democratic theorists tell us that the regulation of lobbying has a positive effect on political systems, and the behaviour of those within them. Yet, only four democratic systems (Canada, USA, EU and Germany) have legislation regulating lobbyists’ activities, and even this regulation is not all pervasive. Here we examine the attitudes of actors in states, provinces, and institutions in the above democracies, where no regulations exist. This ensures that the actors we deal with have knowledge of lobbying regulations, what these regulations entail, as well as the consequences of the absence of any such regulations. Our objective is to discover if these actors see benefits in the introduction of lobbying legislation, as is suggested by deliberative democratic theory.
Cosmological dark matter annihilations into γ rays: A closer look

We investigate the prospects of detecting weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter by measuring the contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray radiation induced, in any dark matter halo and at all redshifts, by WIMP pair annihilations into high-energy photons. We perform a detailed analysis of the very distinctive spectral features of this signal, recently proposed in a short letter by three of the authors: The gamma-ray flux which arises from the decay of ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ mesons produced in the fragmentation of annihilation final states shows a severe cutoff close to the value of the WIMP mass. An even more spectacular signature appears for the monochromatic gamma-ray components, generated by WIMP annihilations into two-body final states containing a photon: the combined effect of cosmological redshift and absorption along the line of sight produces sharp bumps, peaked at the rest frame energy of the lines and asymmetrically smeared to lower energies. The level of the flux depends both on the particle physics scenario for WIMP dark matter (we consider, as our template case, the lightest supersymmetric particle in a few supersymmetry breaking schemes), and on the question of how dark matter clusters. Uncertainties introduced by the latter are thoroughly discussed implementing a realistic model inspired by results of the state-of-the-art N-body simulations and semianalytic modeling in the cold dark matter structure formation theory. We also address the question of the potential gamma-ray background originating from active galaxies, presenting a novel calculation and critically discussing the assumptions involved and the induced uncertainties. Furthermore, we apply a realistic model for the absorption of gamma-rays on the optical and near-IR intergalactic radiation field to derive predictions for both the signal and background. Comparing the two, we find that there are viable configurations, in the combined parameter space defined by the particle physics setup and the structure formation scenario, for which the WIMP induced extragalactic gamma-ray signal will be detectable in the new generation of gamma-ray telescopes such as GLAST.
CNN-based Flow Field Feature Visualization Method

The feature-based visualization method can separate important areas for users from flow field data, which can better highlight the feature structure. However, most of the current feature extraction methods are only applicable to single typical features, and they need complex mathematical analysis. Based on the above reasons, this paper proposes a universal feature visualization method, recognizes demand in the region of flow data, shows the characteristics of structure protruding from the global visual effect in the design of a multi-dimension parallel convolution kernel that contains the recognition model, and further puts forward the method of feature visualization based on a convolutional neural network. Compared with the classical three level BP neural network model, our model gets a high accuracy rate. We verify the effectiveness of the method and solve the problem of insufficient expansion of existing methods.
Strengths of Emigration from Lithuania: Demographic, Social and Economic Consequences

The main aim of this paper is to show the strengths of emigration from Lithuania and highlight the drama of social and economic development of the country in this context. The article analyses the causes and consequences of emigration from Lithuania, its extent and structure, as well as problems – decrease in population number, illegal emigration, young people and women emigration, brain drain. The research shows that the fundamental reason of emigration is ineffective economic policy and the lack of self-realization opportunities in Lithuania.
Outlier Removal Approach as a Continuous Process in Basic K-Means Clustering Algorithm

Clustering technique is used to put similar data items in a same group. K-mean clustering is a commonly used approach in clustering technique which is based on initial centroids selected randomly. However, the existing method does not consider the data preprocessing which is an important task before executing the clustering among the different database. This study proposes a new approach of k-mean clustering algorithm. Experimental analysis shows that the proposed method performs well on infectious disease data set when compare with the conventional k-means clustering method.
SPARSE MULTIRESOLUTION REGRESSION FOR UNCERTAINTY PROPAGATION

The present work proposes a novel nonintrusive, i.e., sampling-based, framework for approximating stochastic solutions of interest admitting sparse multiresolution expansions. The coefficients of such expansions are computed via greedy approximation techniques that require a number of solution realizations smaller than the cardinality of the multiresolution basis. The effect of various random sampling strategies is investigated. The proposed methodology is verified on a number of benchmark problems involving nonsmooth stochastic responses, and is applied to quantifying the efficiency of a passive vibration control system operating under uncertainty.
Longstaff-Schwartz, Effective Model Dimensionality and Reducible Markov-Functional Models

The popularity of the so-called Market Models has led researchers and practitioners to ask two important questions about modelling interest-rate derivatives. The first (and highly contentious) question is, how many stochastic drivers are needed to value accurately any given derivative? The second, which arises because of the high dimensionality of Market Models, even those with a small number of stochastic drivers, is how can callable products be valued using Monte Carlo simulation? In this paper we consider the Longstaff-Schwartz algorithm, an effective algorithm developed to answer the second of these questions, and in so doing we shed light on the first of these questions. We show that the success of the Longstaff-Schwartz algorithm for high-dimensional models demonstrates that, in a way we make precise, low-dimensional models are sufficient, but that in another sense the higher dimensionality still plays a part. Using the insight gained from this analysis we go on to develop models which have these desirable properties - high dimensionality and accurate calibration properties on the one hand, but the ability to collapse the models onto lower-dimensional 'core' models for the purposes of valuing callable derivatives. The core models that we develop are Markovian and can thus be implemented efficiently using lattice methods, avoiding the need for more costly Monte Carlo simulation.
Cultivating a Community of Practice Among Student Teachers and Cooperating Teachers

: This study examined the experience of four student teachers and their supervising teachers who participated in a Community of Practice (CoP) during their internship semester. Their experience can be separated into the four key components of a Community of Practice: (a) structure, (b) processes, (c) content, and (d) conditions. On July 2009, Duncan a $4.35 billion dollar fund to support the Race to the Top initiative. These competitive funds are geared to reform American schools. States are competing for these funds. The 19 states that have received these funds have created reform efforts to improve teaching and learning (White House, 2013). With the Race to the Top reform, the focus of education has fallen on four key efforts: (a) accountability, (b) individual quality, (c) technology, and (d) fragmented strategies (Fullan, 2011). According to Fullan (2011), these are the wrong drivers. “A ‘wrong driver’ is a deliberate policy force that has little chance of achieving the desired result, while a ‘right driver’ is one that ends up achieving better measurable results for students” (Fullan, 2011, p. 3). The right drivers focus on: (a) capacity building, (b) group quality, (c) pedagogy, and (d) systematic strategies. In summary, the right drivers work directly on “changing the culture of school systems” (Fullan, 2011, p. 5). Changing the culture involves building social capital. Social capital consists of a network of relationships where trust and norms are key
Comparing the cognitive-behavioral aspects of pain and pain acceptance based on mindfulness level in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders

Background: Pain is an inevitable part of life that affects thoughts, feelings and behavior of people. The aim of the study was to compare cognitive behavioral aspects of pain and pain acceptance based on mindfulness level in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID). Materials and Methods: In this study, the participants were all patients with FGID referred to the digestive psychosomatic disorders clinic in Isfahan in 2014. One-hundred sixty seven cases were selected using census method. Then among them, three groups (30 in each group) were randomly selected based on mindfulness level (low 1.5-3, medium 3.1-4.5 and high 4.6-6). To collect information, the scales of the Mindful Attention and Awareness (MAAS), the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) and Acceptance of chronic pain (CPAQ) were used. Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Man Whitney-U tests. Results: Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed that based on cognitive behavioral aspects of pain there was a significant difference between three groups: impairment in daily function (P<0.05), pain intensity (P<0.01) and emotional distress (P<0.01). No significant difference was seen for pain acceptance. Conclusion: According to the findings, except for pain acceptance, the mindfulness level is related to other cognitive behavioral aspects of pain. Hence, mindfulness-based programs can be effective on pain reduction and its negative aspects in patients with FGID, which pain is one of its main symptoms.
Design Case Study: MANaging Vessels In Ports(MAN VIP) Project

This paper reviews the practical and theoretical issues associated with designing maritime technology. It follows the implementation of the Human Centred Design (HCD) component of the HCD and SQA Guideline that was developed under the auspices of the IMO e-navigation initiative. First we describe the project, which focused on the development of a shared interface for pilots and tug masters. Next we describe the implementation of the HCD process. Finally we reflect on some of the challenges associated with the implementation of the process. Implications for the movement of ships in ports, and for maritime technology design are identified.
Adaptive technologies for the blind and visual impaired persons in the traffic network

AbstractThe information about the environment and the precise guidance of visually impaired people is the basis for their safe movement of the traffic network. Therefore, the information and communication services should be adapted to this group of users. The services based on the advanced information and communication technologies provide the visually impaired persons with information about the environment while moving along the traffic network. This paper analyses the currently available information systems of users when moving traffic network, and the currently most services based on new ICT (Information and Communications Technology). The analysis was carried on a representative sample of the City of Zagreb (Croatia) in involving all interest groups of visually impaired people. Based on defined user requirements is proposed a new services based on NFC (Near Field Communication) and RTLS (Real-Time Locating Systems). Testing and analysing the efficiency of single information and communication technolog.
Cooperative Sensing Protocol for Cognitive Radio

As the wireless communication services grow quickly, the seriousness of spectrum scarcity has been on the rise gradually. The cognitive radio (CR), an emerging technology, has been come out to solve today’s spectrum scarcity. In this paper, we focus on spectrum sensing part, the most critical part in the CR, and propose the notification protocol to exchange sensing information efficiently. It is designed to avoid overlapped information by inserting broadcast phases. Hence, it makes possible to dynamically coordinate sensing period in the CR network. The simulation result shows that required packets of proposed protocol are not directly proportional to the number of CR nodes even in the large network.
Perceptual evaluation of the multi-exposure quality of the image Fusion

Multi-exposure image fusion (MEF) is considered an effective quality enhancement technique widely adopted in consumer electronics, but little work has been dedicated to the perceptual quality assessment of multi-exposure fused images. In this paper, we first build an MEF database and carry out a subjective user study to evaluate the quality of images generated by different MEF algorithms. There are several useful findings. First, considerable agreement has been observed among human subjects on the quality of MEF images. Second, no single state-of-the-art MEF algorithm produces the best quality for all test images. Third, the existing objective quality models for general image fusion are very limited in predicting perceived quality of MEF images. Motivated by the lack of appropriate objective models, we propose a novel objective image quality assessment (IQA) algorithm for MEF images based on the principle of the structural similarity approach and a novel measure of patch structural consistency. Our experimental results on the subjective database show that the proposed model well correlates with subjective judgments and significantly outperforms the existing IQA models for general image fusion. Finally, we demonstrate the potential application of the proposed model by automatically tuning the parameters of MEF algorithms.
Cross-continental age calibration of the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary

Abstract. The age of the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary has remained elusive for the past decades. In this study we evaluate how well the determined boundary age agrees between two distinct sections from different sedimentary basins, and whether we can constrain a globally valid Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary age. Here we present high-precision U-Pb zircon age determinations on single grains of volcanic zircon of two sections that span the Jurassic/Cretaceous: the Las Loicas section, Argentina, and the Mazatepec section in Mexico. These two sections display well-established primary and secondary stratigraphic markers as well as interbedded volcanic horizons that allow bracketing the age of the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary at 140.22 ± 0.13 Ma. We also present the first age determinations in the early Tithonian and tentatively propose a minimum duration of ~ 7 Ma for the Tithonian stage.
REDUCED SERUM HOMOCYSTEINE LEVELS IN DIABETIC PATIENTS

Background and Objectives: Type 2 diabetes is the most prevalent form of diabetes mellitus and is associated with a variety of complications. Homocysteine is an important independent risk factor for atherosclerotic diseases in both diabetic and non diabetic subjects. The association between these two is still unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the serum homocysteine levels in uncomplicated type 2 diabetic patients and control subjects. Materials and Methods: Eighty five diabetic patients and 85 healthy control subjects with the mean age of 57.65 and 57.68 years, respectively, were selected during 2010 in Ahwaz City, southwest of Iran. Serum glucose, lipids and lipoproteins were measured by standard enzymatic techniques and homocysteine levels by enzyme –linked immunosorbent assay method. Results: In patients as a whole and with respect to the gender, homocysteine levels were generally lower than controls. Compared to other studies, homocysteine levels ranging from 12.19 to 18 μmol/l were slightly higher in both population. Conclusion: Homocysteine levels, however, were compatible with normal range of adults. The patients were not nephropathic and it is most likely that this is the main reason for maintaining the normal levels. Slightly higher levels of homocysteine in the region are due to multiple genetic and environmental factors.