Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards the integration of animal‐borne instruments into global ocean observing systems

Marine animals are increasingly instrumented with environmental sensors that provide large volumes of oceanographic data. Here, we conduct an innovative and comprehensive global analysis to determine the potential contribution of animal‐borne instruments (ABI) into ocean observing systems (OOSs) and provide a foundation to establish future integrated ocean monitoring programmes. We analyse the current gaps of the long‐term Argo observing system (>1.5 million profiles) and assess its spatial overlap with the distribution of marine animals across eight major species groups (tuna and billfishes, sharks and rays, marine turtles, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians, flying seabirds and penguins). We combine distribution ranges of 183 species and satellite tracking observations from >3,000 animals. Our analyses identify potential areas where ABI could complement OOS. Specifically, ABI have the potential to fill gaps in marginal seas, upwelling areas, the upper 10 m of the water column, shelf regions and polewards of 60° latitude. Our approach provides the global baseline required to plan the integration of ABI into global and regional OOS while integrating conservation and ocean monitoring priorities.
DMSO_A_222570 2003..2010

Laura Gaita Romulus Timar Nicoleta Lupascu Deiana Roman 1 Alin Albai Ovidiu Potre Bogdan Timar 2,5 1Second Department of Internal Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania; 2Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, “Pius Brinzeu” Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 3First Department of Internal Medicine, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania; 4Department of Hematology, Municipal Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 5Department of Functional Sciences, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania Purpose: Hyperuricemia (HUA) is linked to a variety of non-communicable diseases such as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hypertension, with evidence showing its role in the development of diabetes mellitus (DM). Our study’smain aim was to explore the associations of HUAwith other traditional risk factors in Romanian patients with DM and to assess the impact of the increase of serum UA on DM complications and HbA1c. Patients and methods: In this cross-sectional, non-interventional study, we enrolled, according to a population-based, consecutive-case principle, 133 patients previously diagnosed with DM. HbA1c, uric acid, lipid profile, urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, glomerular filtration rate, TSH and FT4 measurements were performed, while the diagnosis of retinopathy and of diabetic neuropathy was established using standardized methods. Results: An increased uric acid level was associated with a significant increase in the risk for development of stroke (OR=1.526; p=0.004). Aweak, positive and statistically significant correlation can also be observed between the BMI and the presence of hyperuricemia (r=0.131; p=0.034), and between the triglyceride levels and hyperuricemia (r= 0.173; p=0.004). Glomerular filtration rate was correlated to hyperuricemia in a strong and negative manner, having an important statistical significance (r=−0.818; p=0.003). In our study, UA levels and HbA1c were negatively correlated, without reaching statistical significance. Conclusion: Serum UA is strongly correlated with the BMI, triglyceride level and GFR in Romanian patients with DM and HUA is significantly associated with a higher risk of stroke in these individuals.
To buy or not buy (insurance)? An experiment on public funds distribution under different rooted risks

The distribution of income and wealth resulting from risk-taking behavior significantly affects cooperation and risk-sharing in many areas in many governmental programs, including health insurance and agricultural production. This paper studies redistributive decision making and fairness preferences under different rooted risks using a laboratory experiment, in the treatment of which the subjects can endogenously determine whether they want to buy insurance before they face one of three possible outcomes that will be realized with equal probability. If the first outcome is realized, a high payment will be delivered regardless of whether the subject buys insurance or not. The second risk is an avoidable loss contingent upon the subject buying insurance. The third outcome is an inevitable loss, i.e., minimum payment will be delivered no matter if the subject has or does not have insurance. Then we investigate fairness preferences of randomly paired subjects who are informed about the choices and outcomes for both parties and are asked to make redistributive tasks. The experimental design mimics the scenario of risk-sharing in health insurance and agricultural production. We find that how people make redistributive decisions depends on the insurance purchase decisions and income inequality. The results provide some policy implications for improving insurance efficiency.
Feeding the cities and greenhouse gas emissions: a new economic geography approach

In this paper, we argue ’buying local’ does not necessarily reduces transport-related greenhouse gas emissions even if transport and production technologies, as well as natural endowment are homogeneous in space. We develop a model of rural-urban systems where the spatial distribution of food production within and between regions is endogenously determined. We exhibit cases where locating a significant share of the food production in the least-urbanized regions results in lower transport-related emissions than in configurations where all regions are self-sufficient (’pure local-food’). In addition, the optimal spatial allocation of food production does not exclude the possibility that some regions should rely solely on local production, provided their urban population sizes are neither too large nor too small.
Does HECS deter?: factors affecting university participation by low SES groups

The decision whether or not to undertake higher education studies is influenced by a wide range of economic, social and educational reasons. The first section of this report attempts to identify factors that explain low rate of participation and in particular address the issue of whether the introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) discouraged persons from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds from undertaking higher education. The next section sets out the development of definitions of socio-economic status used to measure the participation of persons from low SES background and describes their historically low participation. A description of the policy response aimed at improving the participation levels is the focus of the third section. Underlying reasons are canvassed in the fourth section. Various methodologies are discussed but each of the methodologies employed - attitudinal surveys, multi-variate analysis and quasi-experimental analysis - point to HECS being only a minor influence for low participation. Other factors, such as values and attitudes, which may influence participation in higher education are discussed in section five.
Effects of Administration with BQ 788 on Heat Stroke in Rats

Heat stroke was induced by placing urethane-anesthetized rats in the hot chamber with 42℃ ambient temperature. Instead, the normothermic control rats were placed in chamber with room temperature, 24℃. The onset of the rapidly decreased mean arterial pressure (MAP) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) from peak level was defined as the onset of heat stroke. And the interval from the onset of heat stroke to cardiac arrest was defined as the survival time (ST) of rats. The values of MAP and CBF after heat stroke onset were significantly lower than those in control rats. However, plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were higher. Extracellular concentration of glutamate and lactate/pyruvate ratio (cellular ischemia markers), and glycerol (a cellular injury marker) in the corpus striatum were markedly greater. The role of ET-1 in the pathological manifestations of heat stroke is worth further study. Effects following endothelin B (ETB) receptor activation (but not ETA receptor) by ET-1 on cytokine production of human monocytes with 7-fold higher release of TNF-α, compared to another cytokines. There were sufficient evidences to show that high levels of TNF-α not only resulted multi-organ dysfunction via inflammatory response and led to shorten the survival time of heat stroke animals, but were closely associated with cardiac function in various cardiovascular disorders. Additionally, there was less attention to clarify in detail the effective on heat stroke with ETBR antagonists. Therefore, in present study, we attempted to investigate effects of acute treatment or pretreatment with an ETBR antagonist (BQ 788) on heat stroke-induced pathophysiologic changes (including arterial hypotension, cerebral ischemia, and neuronal damage) and survival in a rat model. In present study, our results suggest that heat stroke induced low SBF, high levels of plasma TNF-α, arterial hypotension, cerebral ischemia, neuronal damage, and a decrease in survival time in rats. We tried to give BQ 788 immediately or beforehand, and expect to be able to improve the heat stroke-induced arterial hypotension, cerebral ischemia, and neuronal damage, and eventually resulted in prolongation of the survival time; however, ETBR antagonist, showed no efficacy in those lesions and symptoms. Our investigations implicate that the pretreatment or treatment with ETBR may have no efficiency to diminish the damage and pathological formation of heat stroke in a rat model.
Millimeter-Wave Channel Measurement Based Ray-Tracing Calibration and Analysis in Metro

In order to meet the increasing data rate demands of the onboard passengers in the metro, millimeter-wave (mmWave) wideband communication is considered as a potential candidate. In this paper, a channel measurement based ray-tracing (RT) calibration approach is employed to calibrate key parameters and reveal the reasons of the multi-path components in an inside-metro environment. The measurement was conducted in Madrid Metro with frequency ranging from 26.5 GHz to 40 GHz. By minimizing the error between the RT simulation and the measurement, the environment model and electromagnetic (EM) parameters of the related objects are calibrated. It is found that the poles and the train body can generate strong reflection and scattering components. The provided EM parameter set and the calibrated environment model will lay fundamentals to further characterize the mmWave channel and guide design of communication network inside Metro.
ALL-POLE MODELS OF AUDITORY FILTERING

The all-pole gammatone filter (APGF), which we derive by discarding the zeros from the popular gammatone filter (GTF), and the related all-pole filter cascade (APFC) provide models of auditory filtering with simple parameterization and useful properties. Compared to the GTF, these all-pole models offer fewer parameters, a more controlled behavior of the tuning-curve tail, and an easier way to model level-dependent gain, bandwidth, asymmetry, and center-frequency (CF) shift. The order-N APGF is the Nth power of a filter with one complex-conjugate pair of poles; the GTF has this same set of poles, but, in addition, has spurious zeros on the real axis that complicate its description and behavior. Since the APGF is the Nth power of a simple pole-pair filter, many of its properties—such as gain, bandwidth, delay, and dispersion—are easy to compute as analytic functions of the parameters, which may be tied to sound level or to output power level. Good approximate and empirical results extend these functions to the APFC, which is an efficient tapped filtercascade structure that has a mathematical link to an underlying traveling-wave structure via the Liouville‐Green (or WKB) approximation. Fixing the all-pole filter’s tail gain, rather than fixing the peak gain, as we vary parameters with sound level, allows us to construct more realistic models of how the auditory system behaves across levels, emphasizing approximate linearity at low frequencies; variation in the damping parameter of the poles can then be interpreted in terms of automatic gain control near CF. The APGF and APFC represent two steps from the popular GTF toward more flexible, realistic, physically grounded, and efficiently implemented models of auditory filtering.
Ergodicity of Iwasawa continued fractions via markable hyperbolic geodesics

Abstract We prove the convergence and ergodicity of a wide class of real and higher-dimensional continued fraction algorithms, including folded and $\alpha $ -type variants of complex, quaternionic, octonionic, and Heisenberg continued fractions, which we combine under the framework of Iwasawa continued fractions. The proof is based on the interplay of continued fractions and hyperbolic geometry, the ergodicity of geodesic flow in associated modular manifolds, and a variation on the notion of geodesic coding that we refer to as geodesic marking. As a corollary of our study of markable geodesics, we obtain a generalization of Serret’s tail-equivalence theorem for almost all points. The results are new even in the case of some real and complex continued fractions.
A Combined Markov Chain Model and Generalized Projection Nonnegative Matrix Factorization Approach for Fault Diagnosis

The presence of sets of incomplete measurements is a significant issue in the real-world application of multivariate statistical process monitoring models for industrial process fault detection. Since the missing data in the incomplete measurements are usually correlated with some of the available variables, these measurements can be used if an efficient algorithm is presented. To resolve the problem, a novel method combining Markov chain model and generalized projection nonnegative matrix factorization (MCM-GPNMF) is proposed to detect and diagnose the faults in industrial process. The basic idea of the approach is to use MCM-GPNMF to extract the dominant variables from incomplete process data and to combine them with statistical process monitoring techniques. and statistics are defined as online monitoring quantities for fault detection and corresponding contribution plots are also considered for fault isolation. The proposed method is applied to a 1000 MW unit boiler process. The simulation results clearly illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.
Simulation of flowering plants

Plants have always intrigued scientists as besides of its sheer importance for the earth, their beauty and enormous variety of shapes tempt to thoroughly inquire about its nature. One of the aspects of this inquiry is the creation of the virtual model in order to mimic real plants to a high degree of accuracy. The focus of our study is the flowering plants, which play a huge role in our life from nutritive and medical purposes to beautifying the environment. Obtaining an accurate geometrical model of a flower is quite useful as it plays an important role in the validation of the virtual model. Besides, the visualization of parameters not traceable directly in living flowering plants is a stand-by in studying their physiology. A huge biological diversity both within and between individuals provides a vast area of objectives which the image synthesis must challenge.Flower modelling constitutes a part of a larger research area, plant modelling. Flowering plants have their particular structural features which are different from the structure of trees, bushes or grass. Still not a lot of emphasis has been placed to date on this problem, as it was categorized within the modelling of plants in general. We chose a procedural modeling using L-systems as a base of our research. L-system is a very powerful method of plant simulation. It provides a means of characterizing the topology of a plant at every stage of its growth. Grasping the plant structure with just several lines of grammar attracted immediate interest and later on evolved into several powerful geometrical interpretation system used in plant modelling. Our purpose is to study efficient ways of describing the structure of flowering plants by means of L-systems. First, we will propose to represent the shapes of leafs, petals, stamens, carpels, etc. with an extension of L-systems – a model based on three dimensional generalized maps – 3Gmaps L-systems, which can be successfully applied for the modelling of flowering plants. The grammar description of the structure of the flowering plants provides an unlimited number of its geometrical interpretations. Second, we will improve the process of grammar writing by adding a new functionality of interactive parameter adjustment. Third, we will propose a new method of inverse modelling of flowering plants, where the user can interactively define the flower characteristics. The algorithm uses this information as an input, which is then analyzed and coded as L-systems grammar. Finally, we will present a method for creating virtual glades of flowers using Kinect gestures. We want to remark that our work has been done with 3Gmaps L-system software platform developed in the scope of the thesis to integrate all the proposed techniques.
Structure and evolution of the Lofoten continental margin, offshore Norway

The continental margin of westeni Norway, in the Lofoten area between 67°N and 69°30'N, is geologically complex. The continental shelf is narrow and dominated by rotated extensional fault blocks. The inner shelf has a series of deep half grabens infilled by thick sedimentary sequences, primarily of Cretaceous age. The outer shelf is dominated by a complex structural high, the Utrost Ridge, where crystalline basement rocks are at the seabed or covered by a thin veneer of sediments. Seaward of the Utrost Ridge, beneath the continental slope and extending out to water depths of approximately 3000 m, a possible Mesozoic rift basin is buried by Paleogene tlow basalts and Cenozoic sediments several kilometers thick. The Lofoten Escarpment marks the approximate edge of the Tertiary oceanic crust. West of the Lofoten Escarpment a zone of seaward dipping retlectors is observed within the oceanic basalts, interpreted to be controlled by a series of landward dipping listric faults. The oceanic basalts are overlain by a sequence of Eocene and younger Cenozoic sediments. This paper discusses the observed geological structure and presents a general model for this part of the Norwegian margin.
Earnings Determination and Taxes: Evidence from a Cohort Based Payroll Tax Reform in Greece

This paper analyzes the response of earnings to payroll tax rates using a cohort-based reform in Greece. All individuals who started working on or after 1993 face permanently a much higher earnings cap for payroll taxes, creating a large and permanent discontinuity in marginal payroll tax rates by date of entry in the labor force for upper earnings workers. Using full population administrative Social Security data and a Regression Discontinuity Design, we estimate the long-term incidence and effects of marginal payroll tax rates on earnings. Standard theory predicts that, in the long run, new regime workers should bear the entire burden of the payroll tax increase (relative to old regime workers). In contrast, we find that employers compensate new regime workers for the extra employer payroll taxes but not for the extra employee payroll taxes. We do not find any evidence of labor supply responses around the discontinuity, suggesting low efficiency costs of payroll taxes. The non-standard incidence results are the same across firms of different sizes. Tax incidence, however, is standard for older workers in the new regime as they bear both the employee and employer tax. Those results, combined with a direct small survey of employers, can be explained by social norms regarding seniority-based pay which create a growing wedge between pay and productivity as workers age.
Explicit Hecke series for symplectic group of genus 4

Shimura conjectured the rationality of the generating series for Hecke operators for the symplectic group of genus $n$. This conjecture was proved by Andrianov for arbitrary genus $n$, but the explicit expression was out of reach for genus higher than 3. For genus $n=4$, we explicitly compute the rational fraction in this conjecture. Using formulas for images of double cosets under the Satake spherical map, we first compute the sum of the generating series, which is a rational fraction with polynomial coefficients. Then we recover the coefficients of this fraction as elements of the Hecke algebra using polynomial representation of basis Hecke operators under the spherical map. Numerical examples of these fractions for special choice of Satake parameters are given.
Predictive significance of T cell subset changes during ex vivo generation of adoptive cellular therapy products for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Adoptive T cell immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells (CIKs) has been demonstrated to prolong the survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the expansion of effector T cells and the decrease of regulatory T cells (Tregs) that occurred during the ex vivo generation of DC-CIKs were associated with improved clinical outcome in patients who received treatment. CIKs were generated ex vivo over a 28-day period from the peripheral blood apheresis product of 163 patients with advanced cancer (including 30 with NSCLC). CIKs were also generated from an additional cohort of 65 patients with NSCLC over a 15-day period. The progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) time of patients treated with CIKs was determined by reviewing the patients' medical records. The number of CIKs gradually increased during the culture period and peaked at day 15, followed by a slight decline until day 28. Similarly, the percentages of T cell subtypes associated with anti-tumor activity (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+ and CD8+CD28+) peaked at day 15. Although the percentage of CD4+CD25+CD127+ Tregs increased by day 7, a decrease was subsequently observed. Among the 95 patients with NSCLC, those with a post/pre-culture ratio of CD8+CD28+ T lymphocytes >2.2 had significantly better PFS and OS compared with those with ratios ≤2.2. Those with a post/pre-culture CD4+CD25+CD127+ Treg ratio ≤0.6 had significantly better OS and PFS compared with those with ratios >0.6. The peak expansion of CIKs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells occurred at day 15 of ex vivo culture. PFS and OS were associated with post/pre-culture CD8+CD28+ T lymphocyte ratio >2.2 and post/pre-culture CD4+CD25+CD127+ Treg ratio <0.6 in the CIKs of patients with advanced NSCLC treated with adoptive T cell immunotherapy. Further efforts are underway to optimize the DC-CIK infusion for cancer immunotherapy.