Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Revisiting global fossil fuel and biofuel emissions of ethane

Recent measurements over the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the long‐term decline in the atmospheric burden of ethane (C2H6) has ended and the abundance increased dramatically between 2010 and 2014. The rise in C2H6 atmospheric abundances has been attributed to oil and natural gas extraction in North America. Existing global C2H6 emission inventories are based on outdated activity maps that do not account for current oil and natural gas exploitation regions. We present an updated global C2H6 emission inventory based on 2010 satellite‐derived CH4 fluxes with adjusted C2H6 emissions over the U.S. from the National Emission Inventory (NEI 2011). We contrast our global 2010 C2H6 emission inventory with one developed for 2001. The C2H6 difference between global anthropogenic emissions is subtle (7.9 versus 7.2 Tg yr−1), but the spatial distribution of the emissions is distinct. In the 2010 C2H6 inventory, fossil fuel sources in the Northern Hemisphere represent half of global C2H6 emissions and 95% of global fossil fuel emissions. Over the U.S., unadjusted NEI 2011 C2H6 emissions produce mixing ratios that are 14–50% of those observed by aircraft observations (2008–2014). When the NEI 2011 C2H6 emission totals are scaled by a factor of 1.4, the Goddard Earth Observing System Chem model largely reproduces a regional suite of observations, with the exception of the central U.S., where it continues to underpredict observed mixing ratios in the lower troposphere. We estimate monthly mean contributions of fossil fuel C2H6 emissions to ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrate surface mixing ratios over North America of ~1% and ~8%, respectively.
Effects of terracing on soil water and canopy transpiration of Chinese pine plantation in the Loess Plateau, China

Abstract. Terracing has long been considered one of the most effective measures for soil water conservation and site improvement. However, the quantitative effects of terracing on soil water dynamics and vegetation water use have not been reported. To fill these knowledge gaps, in this study, soil water content and canopy transpiration were monitored in both terrace and slope environments in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China in 2014 and 2015. Results showed that terracing increased soil water content of different soil layers. Mean soil water content of the terrace site was 25.4 % and 13.7 % higher than that in the slope site in 2014 and 2015, and canopy transpiration at the terrace site increased by 9.1 % and 4.8 %, respectively. Canopy conductance at the terrace site was 3.9 % higher than that at the slope site and it decreased logarithmically with vapor pressure deficit. This study highlighted the critical role of terracing in increasing the soil water content and mitigating water stress in semiarid environments. Thus, terracing has the potential to enhance sustainable vegetation restoration in water-limited regions.
Increasing colorectal cancer cell sensitivity to oxaliplatin through hyperthermia and chloroquine treatment

Colorectal cancer is the third most lethal form of cancer worldwide, with most patients dying of liver metastases. Patients with metastatic livers can be treated with hyperthermia therapy, which often uses IHP (Isolated Hepatic Perfusion). Hyperthermia has become as a highly anticipated method. Using traditional hyperthermia alone is unable to inhibit tumor cell proliferation. Tumor can be inhibited effectively by combining oxaliplatin with a 42°C hot water bath. However, this combination has been shown to induce autophagy in colorectal cancer cell lines, which inhibits tumor cell death to some extent. In order to combat this problem, we used oxaliplatin in combination with autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) at 42°C. We found that oxaliplatin combined with CQ at 42°C induces caspase-dependent apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells. This treatment not only impacts BCL-2 family proteins, but also downregulates the HSP and IAP family proteins. Activated caspase and PRAP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase) proteins are all upregulated. The results are suggesting that oxaliplatin combined with CQ at 42°C is a novel anti-tumor approach against colorectal cancer.
A CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT OF LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: AN EXISTENTIAL CRITICAL APPROACH

This paper aims to critically analyze the concept of lifelong learning with regard to the conditions of the contemporary world in the light of existentialism. Definitions which point to accumulation of knowledge and skills throughout life, for the purpose of adjustment and adaptation of oneself with the changes that new technologies bring with them, neglect the human aspects of life. Such definitions, inevitably, have led to alienation and reification of human beings. The educational systems based on such approaches turn schools into factories that produce sophisticated, efficient servants of the dominant groups for the purpose of guaranteeing the status quo and reproduction of power relations in the best interest of capitalist and market values. An existentialist definition of lifelong learning aspires for achievement of a self-consciousness that is attained through feeling the responsibility for understanding one’s existence as a whole in relation to other humans and strives for emancipation and self-actualization and freedom.
Quarterly Progress and Status Report Preliminary results from cross-language perception studies in early infancy

This paper presents a general overview of the procedural aspects of speech perception studies conducted at the Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, as part of the Swedish contribution to the international Human Frontiers project, “Language Learning and Brain Plasticity” (Kuhl et al., Seattle, Washington). The project’s goal is to assess changes in young infants’ representations of a native and a non-native speech contrasts. Behavioral and neurological data are being collected from infants living in monolingual and bilingual homes in the US, Sweden, Finland and Japan. The specific findings of this project cannot be reported at this time since there are still being processed and will be subsequently be compiled in a joint publication submitted by all the involved research teams.
Trivial and non‐trivial applications of entropy maximization in ecology: a reply to Shipley

Entropy maximization (EM) is becoming an increasingly popular modelling technique in ecology, but its potential and limitations are still poorly understood. In our previous contribution (Haegeman and Loreau 2008), we showed that even a trivial application of EM can yield predictions that provide an excellent fit to empirical data. In his response, Shipley (2009) distinguishes two different versions of the EM procedure, an information-theoretical version and a combinatorial version, to justify a trivial application of EM. Here we first provide a brief user's guide to EM to clarify the various steps involved in the procedure. We then show that the information-theoretical and combinatorial rationales for EM are but complementary views on the same procedure. Lastly, we attempt to identify the conditions that lead to trivial and non-trivial applications of EM. We discuss how non-trivial applications of EM can yield valuable new insights in ecology.
Pangolins in south-west Nigeria – current status and prognosis

Despite being officially listed as endangered in Nigeria, pangolins are still hunted in Ogun State, where deforestation has fragmented and reduced their forest habitat. To investigate pangolin status in the state, the authors interviewed hunters, forest workers and market traders selling wild animals or their parts for medicinal use. The authors also counted pangolins stocked by market traders during weekly visits to markets in six towns/villages. Only one of Nigeria's three pangolin species, Manis tricuspis, was encountered frequently. Hunters' reports and evidence of forest destruction suggest that even this species is becoming rare. An estimate of extinction-susceptibility shows that pangolins are at fairly high risk. Creation of sanctuaries for pangolins and other important sympatric vertebrates in forest relicts in south-west Nigeria and the establishment of semicaptive pangolin populations are advocated.
Intraocular Pressure-Lowering Effect of Ripasudil Hydrochloride Hydrate and Reasons for Discontinuation of Use in Clinical Practice

Background: To evaluate the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering effect of ripasudil hydrochloride hydrate and the reasons for the discontinuation of its use in glaucomatous eyes with at least 2 ocular hypotensive medications. Design: Retrospective case series. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 116 consecutive patients with primary open angle, secondary, or developmental glaucoma. The preand post-application IOP up to 6 months after the initiation of ripasudil application was compared after adjusted by the last observation carried forward method. Multivariate analyses were used to identify factors that could account for the IOP-lowering effect of ripasudil. The reasons for discontinuation were evaluated. Results: The median preand post-application IOP at 1, 3, and 6 months was 19.0, 17.5, 17.0, and 16.0 mmHg, respectively. IOP was significantly reduced after ripasudil application at all time points (P < 0.00001, the mixed effect model). The pre-application IOP and glaucoma type were associated with the IOP-lowering effect of ripasudil. Twenty-seven and 8 patients discontinued the application because of unsatisfactory IOP reduction and intolerable side effects, respectively. Conclusion: Ripasudil reduced IOP in some patients with multiple ocular hypotensives but was discontinued in a fraction of patients due to unsatisfactory IOP reduction and intolerable side effects. ReSeARch ARTIcle
The Cloud Radiative Forcing over Asian-Pacific Summer Monsoon Region

The strength of the Asian-Pacific summer monsoon (APSM) is associated with intensities from two major convective heat sources centered primarily over the Bay of Bengal (BB) and the western North Pacific (WNP). Because of the complexity of the APSM, especially over WNP, almost all of the general circulation models (GCMs) cannot simulate the climate features around the Asian monsoon region satisfactorily. This could be due to the inability of the GCMs to simulate correct cloud formations and radiative properties of clouds. In this study we will focus on the role of clouds and cloud radiative forcing (CRF) in the evolution of the APSM. Our study relies on radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) and cloud data from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP-D1) to inquire about some common properties of CRF in the four regions of East and Southern Asia: the BB, South China Sea (SCS), WNP and Central China (CC). During the APSM, we arrived at the following conclusions: After the onset of the summer monsoon, there is a lower OLR and a larger high cloud fraction with heavy and persistent rainfall in the BB throughout the whole summer. At the same time, extremely dense clouds (with thick optical depth) reaching into the higher atmosphere associated with strong convergence in the lower layers and divergences over the upper troposphere persistently occur in the BB. The strong dynamic force associated with closed spaced convective updrafts, as in BB, can result in a significant negative CRF (as low as -70 Wm-²). However, WNP and SCS are different from BB, not only in the CRF but also in the cloud’s temporal and spatial distributions. A brief recess of deep convection occurs in mid-July in WMP and SCS, which causes the magnitude of precipitation, cloud amount, optical depth and CRF for the entire summer to average less than in BB. In both WNP and SCS, individual elements within the convective cloud system show a wide range of net radiative forcing (from the thick anvil clouds near convective cores to thin cirrus clouds near the edges of the anvil cloud) which produces a net CRF of near zero when averaged over the convective cloud system. Through spectral analysis of high cloud amounts, we can find that over BB, the highest power is in the period around 75 days, which is the intra-seasonal timescale. While over WNP, the leading spectral peaks are at 10-20 days and 8-9 days. These two dominant frequencies are definitely related to the fast annual cycle (proposed by LinHo and Wang). Failure to simulate correctly these two frequencies may be the primary reason why the GCMs exhibit great difficulty in reproducing correct precipitation in the WNP. The cloud structures and CRF in CC are very different from the oceanic regions in our analysis and where mid-low level clouds with thick optical depths play more of a role than does the high, thin cloud.
Linear time-varying regression with a DCC-GARCH model for volatility

ABSTRACT This article provides a new linear state space model with time-varying parameters for forecasting financial volatility. The volatility estimates obtained from the model by using the US stock market data almost exactly match the realized volatility. We further compare our model with traditional volatility models in the ex post volatility forecast evaluations. In particular, we use the superior predictive ability and the reality check for data snooping. Evidence can be found supporting that our simple but powerful regression model provides superior forecasts for volatility.
Characterization of pathologic cries of newborns based on fundamental frequency estimation

The majority of the sick babies seem in good health at birth and early diagnosis of the various pathologies that can afflict newborn is crucial. For this reason we introduce in this paper the use of the fundamental frequency and the different modes of cries as Hyper-phonation, phonation and high pitched cries to differentiate the pathological cries from the cries of the healthy babies. The automatic estimation of these characteristics enabled us to establish a quantitative characterization of healthy newborn cries and pathologic newborn cries. The results obtained agree with the spectrographic analysis carried out on the healthy and pathologic cries of the newborns.
Metaphors that facilitate Organisational Understanding: Reaching for the New and How Machine and Organism Metaphors do not enable Sustainable Development

The challenge in this paper is that the in using machine and organism metaphors a story is being perpetuated that dehumanises and de-prioritises us (humans) at the expense of the organisation (the abstract) which in turn becomes a prioritised subject. This is a result that is not consistent with the whole of humanity narrative and the moral way of acting that is entwined with the sustainable development concept. To develop this the paper reviews sustainable development through a metaphor lens, discusses the limitations of the machine and organism metaphors and brings forward results from prior research that illustrates how some organisational leaders are thinking in humanising ways and are a pointer towards new sources of sustainable development congruent metaphors.
Towards 5G: An Empirical Evaluation of Software-Defined End-to-End Network Slicing

Emerging systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grids (SGs), Industry 4.0, and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) impose a diverging set of requirements on underlying Information and Communication Technology (ICT) topologies. This relates to performance indicators including network delay, data rate, reliability as well as security. To meet these criteria, 5G aims to provide network slices, i.e., virtually independent architectures on top of a single, unified communication infrastructure. In this context, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been identified as key technologies for implementing such a solution. This work utilizes these ingredients in conjunction for providing isolated end-to-end slices, from wireline cloud servers over the Software-Defined Radio (SDR)-based Long Term Evolution (LTE) Radio Access Network (RAN) down to individual User Equipments (UEs). Thereby, a prototypical 5G end-to-end slicing solution is designed and implemented. The system enables independent management of each slice by either its respective owner or the ICT infrastructure operator. Also, resources are allocated dynamically to slice tenants in order of their priority. A comprehensive empirical evaluation based on real-world traffic patterns, such as Floating Car Data (FCD), is given. Hence, compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - crucial to stable operation of e.g., SGs - is demonstrated for up- and downlink traffic flows.
Differences in taste preference between red-winged blackbirds and European Starlings

ABSTRAc-r. -Consumption of biologically relevant taste stimuli (NaCI, D-fructose, citric acid, tannic acid, L-alanine) by male and female European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and male Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were examined in one-bottle tests. Male starlings showed greater avidity for fructose than females, and both males and females exhibited greater avidity for fructose than male Red-winged Blackbirds. In addition, male starlings consumed more citric acid than either female starlings or male Red-winged Blackbirds. For both species, high consumption of NaCl (relative to consumption of other tastes) and low consumption of tannic acid were consistent with data reported for other birds. High consumption of L-alanine by both species (with highest consumption exhibited by male Starlings) suggests sensitivity to and preference for free amino acids. We speculate that one mechanism for interand intra-specific differences in food selection under field conditions may be differences in taste sensitivity. Received 17 July 1989, accepted 20 Sept. 1989.
Male fertility: Genome integrity and sperm DNA methylation

Male infertility is a complex multifactorial pathology that is correlated in some extent with semen parameters including sperm counts, motility, morphology, viability and nucleus integrity. The large debate surrounding global decline of semen parameters motivated numerous studies dealing with this important issue. The present article reviews different factors shown to impact on male fertility by affecting semen parameters, namely, epigenetics and sperm genome integrity.
Correlation between morphological facial index and canine relationship in adults − An anthropometric study

Aim: The aim of this study was to correlate the morphological facial index and canine relationship in adults. Materials and Methods: The research was conducted on 1000 randomly selected subjects of Indo-Aryan North Indian population (563 males and 437 females), aged 18–40 years. The parameters were morphological facial height and morphological facial width. The standard, spreading caliper with its scale was used for the measurement of facial parameters. Canine relationship was observed intra-orally with the subjects seated on the dental chair. Results: Euryprosopic facial type (53.2%) was most common in majority of the subjects followed by mesoprosopic (21.6%), hypereuryprosopic (19%), and leptoprosopic (5.6%), and the least common was hyperleptoprosopic (0.6%). The canine relation was mostly class I in both the genders, but females showed a higher value of class II and class III canine relations. Conclusion: The overall majority owned the euryprosopic facial type, and there was no significant association between facial morphologic types and canine relationship in both the genders in different age groups at either side. The canine relationship association with facial morphologic type was significant only for the left side.
Chapter 15 Human Factors in Product Development and Design

The design and operation of product development processes are typical problems in engineering domains and quality management. In order to guarantee the efficient and effective realization of products various methods and tools have been developed and established in the past. Nevertheless these methods where usually designed to fit engineer-to-cost strategies for cost efficient products. Recent success stories of companies in different industrial sectors have proven, that engineer-to-value strategies can lead to an even higher profitability of products due to higher margins when combining value and cost orientation (ISO/IEC: 15288:2008; Schuh 2012). The two levers for engineer-to-value product management are illustrated in Fig. 15.1. One of the major key elements for a successful introduction of engineer-to-value product management is the introduction and consideration of human factors. Therefore the integration of the customer in product development processes and the detailed analysis of the customer perception are essential (Brecher et al. 2014). The aspects concerning the role of customers in the product development will be presented in the first and second chapter of this paper. The third chapter will change the focus on the company perspective and will discuss new approaches and possible solutions how to develop products in a more efficient and human oriented way.
Comparison of different cephalometric variables in patients with and without history of snoring

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome has a high prevalence among adults. Cephalometric variables can be a valuable method for evaluating patients with this syndrome. The objective of this study is to evaluate and compare the craniofacial variables in subjects with and without snoring by cephalometric analysis. Methods: 40 patients were included in the study who were divided into two groups; group 1 of 20 snoring patients and group 2 control group of 20 non-snoring patients and were evaluated and compared for various cephalometric variables. Results: The distance from the hyoid bone to the mandibular plane (MP-H) was the only variable that showed a statistically significant correlation between two groups. Conclusions: Cephalometric variables are useful tools for evaluating the patients with snoring who are predisposed to obstructive sleep apnoea. The distance from the hyoid bone to the mandibular plane showed a statistically significant correlation between two groups.