Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A case study of aerosol data assimilation with the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model over the contiguous United States using 3D-Var and optimal interpolation methods

Abstract. This study applies the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) 3D-Var assimilation tool originally developed by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), to improve surface PM2.5 predictions over the contiguous United States (CONUS) by assimilating aerosol optical depth (AOD) and surface PM2.5 in version 5.1 of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. An optimal interpolation (OI) method implemented earlier (Tang et al., 2015) for the CMAQ modeling system is also tested for the same period (July 2011) over the same CONUS. Both GSI and OI methods assimilate surface PM2.5 observations at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 UTC, and MODIS AOD at 18:00 UTC. The assimilations of observations using both GSI and OI generally help reduce the prediction biases and improve correlation between model predictions and observations. In the GSI experiments, assimilation of surface PM2.5 (particle matter with diameter
Learning of Artificial Sensation Through Long-Term Home Use of a Sensory-Enabled Prosthesis

Upper limb prostheses are specialized tools, and skilled operation is learned by amputees over time. Recently, neural prostheses using implanted peripheral nerve interfaces have enabled advances in artificial somatosensory feedback that can improve prosthesis outcomes. However, the effect of sensory learning on artificial somatosensation has not been studied, despite its known influence on intact somatosensation and analogous neuroprostheses. Sensory learning involves changes in the perception and interpretation of sensory feedback and may further influence functional and psychosocial outcomes. In this mixed methods case study, we examined how passive learning over 115 days of home use of a neural-connected, sensory-enabled prosthetic hand influenced perception of artificial sensory feedback in a participant with transradial amputation. We examined perceptual changes both within individual days of use and across the duration of the study. At both time scales, the reported percept locations became significantly more aligned with prosthesis sensor locations, and the phantom limb became significantly more extended toward the prosthesis position. Similarly, the participant’s ratings of intensity, naturalness, and contact touch significantly increased, while his ratings of vibration and movement significantly decreased across-days for tactile channels. These sensory changes likely resulted from engagement of cortical plasticity mechanisms as the participant learned to use the artificial sensory feedback. We also assessed psychosocial and functional outcomes through surveys and interviews, and found that self-efficacy, perceived function, prosthesis embodiment, social touch, body image, and prosthesis efficiency improved significantly. These outcomes typically improved within the first month of home use, demonstrating rapid benefits of artificial sensation. Participant interviews indicated that the naturalness of the experience and engagement with the prosthesis increased throughout the study, suggesting that artificial somatosensation may decrease prosthesis abandonment. Our data showed that prosthesis embodiment was intricately related to naturalness and phantom limb perception, and that learning the artificial sensation may have modified the body schema. As another indicator of successfully learning to use artificial sensation, the participant reported the emergence of stereognosis later in the study. This study provides the first evidence that artificial somatosensation can undergo similar learning processes as intact sensation and highlights the importance of sensory restoration in prostheses.
The Ankyrin Repeat Domain Controls Presynaptic Localization of Drosophila Ankyrin2 and Is Essential for Synaptic Stability

The structural integrity of synaptic connections critically depends on the interaction between synaptic cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) and the underlying actin and microtubule cytoskeleton. This interaction is mediated by giant Ankyrins, that act as specialized adaptors to establish and maintain axonal and synaptic compartments. In Drosophila, two giant isoforms of Ankyrin2 (Ank2) control synapse stability and organization at the larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Both Ank2-L and Ank2-XL are highly abundant in motoneuron axons and within the presynaptic terminal, where they control synaptic CAMs distribution and organization of microtubules. Here, we address the role of the conserved N-terminal ankyrin repeat domain (ARD) for subcellular localization and function of these giant Ankyrins in vivo. We used a P[acman] based rescue approach to generate deletions of ARD subdomains, that contain putative binding sites of interacting transmembrane proteins. We show that specific subdomains control synaptic but not axonal localization of Ank2-L. These domains contain binding sites to L1-family member CAMs, and we demonstrate that these regions are necessary for the organization of synaptic CAMs and for the control of synaptic stability. In contrast, presynaptic Ank2-XL localization only partially depends on the ARD but strictly requires the presynaptic presence of Ank2-L demonstrating a critical co-dependence of the two isoforms at the NMJ. Ank2-XL dependent control of microtubule organization correlates with presynaptic abundance of the protein and is thus only partially affected by ARD deletions. Together, our data provides novel insights into the synaptic targeting of giant Ankyrins with relevance for the control of synaptic plasticity and maintenance.
Speech Comprehension and Its Relation to Other Auditory Parameters in Elderly Patients With Tinnitus

Deteriorated speech comprehension is a common manifestation of the age-related decline of auditory functions (presbycusis). It could be assumed that when presbycusis is accompanied by tinnitus, general hearing functions, and particularly comprehension of speech in quiet and speech in noise (SIN), will be significantly affected. In this study, speech comprehension ability and other parameters of auditory function were assessed in elderly subjects with (T, n = 25) and without (NT, n = 26) tinnitus, aiming for examination of both peripheral and central auditory processing. Apart from high-frequency audiograms in quiet and in background noise, speech recognition thresholds in silence or in competitive babble noise, and the ability to understand temporally gated speech (GS), we measured also sensitivity to frequency modulation (FM) and interaural delay, gap detection thresholds (GDT), or the difference limens of intensity. The results show that in elderly participants matched by age (mean ages around 68 years), cognitive status (median MoCA scores around 27), and hearing thresholds [median pure-tone averages (PTA) around 16 dB hearing loss (HL)], tinnitus per se has little influence on speech comprehension. The tinnitus patients also show similar GDT, sensitivity to interaural intensity difference, and sensitivity to FM as the NT subjects. Despite these similarities, nevertheless, significant differences in auditory processing have been found in the tinnitus participants: a worse ability to detect tones in noise, a higher sensitivity to intensity changes, and a higher sensitivity to interaural time differences. Additional correlation analyses further revealed that speech comprehension in the T subjects is dependent on the sensitivity to temporal modulation and interaural time delay (ITD), while these correlations are weak and non-significant in the NT subjects. Therefore, despite similarities in average speech comprehension and several other parameters of auditory function, elderly people with tinnitus exhibit different auditory processing, particularly at a suprathreshold level. The results also suggest that speech comprehension ability of elderly tinnitus patients relies more on temporal features of the sound stimuli, especially under difficult conditions, compared to elderly people without tinnitus.
The Failure of Workfare: Another Reason for a Basic Income Guarantee

There has been a major shift in welfare policies in the developed world towards activation, decentralization, and privatization. The 1996 US welfare reform welfare for single mother families was no longer an entitlement and there were stiff work requirements enforced by sanctions and time limits. In Western Europe, although there is variation, welfare has become conditional for social assistance recipients  the "socially excluded. " Social assistance is administered at the municipal level, which contracts with private companies. Caseworkers are supposed to make individualized contracts emphasizing work activities. This paper examines the field-level data in several US programs and finds that there is a symbiotic relationship between governments and contractors; caseworkers, whether public or private, focus on process rather than substantive plans; government does not question the data; contracts are imposed; the most employable are placed; and the most vulnerable are sanctioned or otherwise not allowed on welfare. Research in some European countries is showing similar results  activation programs are difficult to administer and increase the risks for the most vulnerable. Individualized contracts are a myth, given administrative constraints and client dependency. The paper argues that the difficulties of activation are an additional reason for a basic income guarantee. The socially excluded will have an exit option and well-being will be improved.
Minimax Adjustment Price Setting and Price Rigidities / Preissetzung nach dem Minimax-Anpassungsprinzip und Preisstarrheiten

Summary We consider a model of a price setting monopolistic firm that has to decide on a price adjustment in light of some new information about the uncertain demand for its product. It is assumed that the firm applies the so-called minimax adjustment principle for this purpose. This optimality principle is based on the notion that human decision makers tend to be reluctant to change their behaviour and prefer to take the current price as a benchmark rather than to compute optimal new prices all the time. We show that the current price is maintained as long as it lies in some set that is derived from the firm’s degree of uncertainty and its degree of conservatism as regards changing behaviour. Otherwise, the price is adjusted but kept as close as possible to the current price. Hence, the model provides an explanation for the existence of price rigidities which is not based on any technical adjustment or menu costs but simply on how human decision makers may deal with uncertainty. Zusammenfassung Wir betrachten das Modell eines preissetzenden Monopolisten, der angesichts neuer Informationen über die unsichere Nachfrage nach dem von ihm angebotenen Produkt über eine Preisanpassung zu entscheiden hat. Es wird angenommen, daß der Monopolist hierzu das sogenannte Minimax-Anpassungsprinzip einsetzt. Dieses Optimalitätsprinzip basiert auf der Vorstellung, daß menschliche Entscheidungsträger einer Verhaltensänderung häufig eher ablehnend gegenüberstehen und sich bevorzugt am derzeitigen Preis orientieren anstatt fortlaufend neue optimale Preise zu bestimmen. Es wird gezeigt, daß der aktuelle Preis beibehalten wird, solange er zu einer bestimmten Menge von Preisen gehört, welche aus dem Grade der Unsicherheit bezüglich der Nachfrage und dem Grade der Abneigung gegenüber Verhaltensänderungen abgeleitet ist. Andernfalls wird der Preis zwar geändert, jedoch so nahe wie möglich am ursprünglichen Preis gehalten. Das Modell liefert somit eine Erklärung für die Existenz von Preisstarrheiten, die nicht auf technischen Anpassungskosten oder sogenannten menu-costs basiert, sondern alleine aus dem Umgang menschlicher Entscheidungsträger mit einer vorhandenen Unsicherheit folgt.
Crystal structure of hexaaquamagnesium sulfate bis(N,N,N-trimethylaminoethanoic acid) trihydrate, [Mg(H2O)6]SO4 · 2(CH3)3NCH2COO · 3H2O

Abstract C10H40MgN2O17S, monoclinic, P121/c1 (no. 14), a = 6.3729(8) Å, b = 15.905(1) Å, c = 24.994(2) Å, β = 97.521(7)°, V = 2511.7 Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.041, wRref(F2) = 0.123, T = 293 K.
Der Rückgang konjunktureller Schwankungen in Deutschland: Bessere Geldpolitik oder nur Glück gehabt?

It is often argued that the globalisation of the world economy might have contributed to an increased instability of real economic activity, in particular for small open economies. At the same time, there is evidence that the volatility of real economic activity might in fact have been dampened. This contribution addresses the question whether the volatility of GDP in Germany has changed and, if so, which factors could be responsible for this. We argue that a more successful monetary policy has to some extent contributed to this development. However, the lion’s share of the volatility decline is likely to come from other factors like smaller exogenous shocks, technological progress, and the effect of globalisation. JEL-Classification: F 36, F 41, F 47,E 32, G 15.
Evolutionary Dynamics and Long-Run Selection

We study the emergence and nature of long-run behavior of continuous state space dynamics that are subjected to random shocks. It is shown that the fine details of the underlying deterministic dynamics may be crucial in determining the evolution of the system. In particular, a risk dominated strategy can emerge in an evolutionary game subject to symmetric decaying perturbations.
International Journal of Emerging Electric Power Systems Individual Channel Design for Synchronous Generators

In this paper a novel control strategy for a real synchronous generator is presented. It is based on linear, diagonal, low order, minimum-phase, fixed, and stable controllers. The controller was obtained via individual channel design (ICD), a framework that allows analysis and synthesis of multivariable control systems by means of classical techniques based on the Bode and Nyquist plots. The generator is part of a one machine – infinite bus system. A linearised model around an operating point in a rotating coordinate frame is used. The theoretical principles behind this control strategy are summarised for completeness. The results using this novel control strategy are obtained throughout simulations in MATLAB®.
The dimensionality of notation

Abstract Elements of notation are variables and sentences are sequences of different variables. Both listening and reading are processes, which makes a sentence a stream of variations of a single variable. Thus, a simple sentence is a one-dimensional object, measured along the stream of variation. A sentence with coordinated or subordinated material effectively encodes multiple streams which makes a complex sentence a two-dimensional object with that second dimension measured across the multiple streams. A single symbol does not vary and is therefore a zero-dimensional object. Processes exist in time and the dimensions of notation are therefore abstract dimensions.
Advance Disclosure of Managers' Stock Trades: A Proposal to Improve Executive Compensation

Economists’ Voice November, 2006 © The Berkeley Electronic Press T he corporate scandals that erupted several years ago exposed major flaws in the executive compensation arrangements of public companies. One such flaw: boards permitted managers to sell shares on inside information. Managers made billions of dollars annually selling before “bad news. ” In some cases, the bad news was that managers had been inflating the firm’s earnings. Unfortunately, precious little has been done to deal with this problem. One simple step would be to require executives to announce their intended trades several weeks in advance. The disclosure of unusual sell orders would intensify scrutiny of the firm. When investors believe the company is hiding bad news, the stock price would decline before managers sell, reducing their insider trading profits.
MoDeST: A compositional modeling formalism for real-time and stochastic systems

This paper presents Modest (MOdeling and DEscription language for Stochastic Timed systems), a formalism that is aimed to support (i) the modular description of reactive system's behaviour while covering both (ii) functional and (iii) nonfunctional system aspects such as timing and quality-of-service constraints in a single specification. The language contains features such as simple and structured data types, structuring mechanisms like parallel composition and abstraction, means to control the granularity of assignments, exception handling, and non-deterministic and random branching and timing. Modest can be viewed as an overarching notation for a wide spectrum of models, ranging from labeled transition systems, to timed automata (and probabilistic variants thereof) as well as prominent stochastic processes such as (generalized semi-)Markov chains and decision processes. The paper describes the design rationales and details of the syntax and semantics.
Crystal structure of dimethanol-bis(1,3-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)- propan-2-olato)dicopper(II) dibromide, [Cu2(C13H19N4O)2(CH3OH)2]Br2

Abstract C28H46Br2Cu2N8O4, orthorhombic, Pbca (no. 61), a = 11.914(4) Å, b = 16.368(5) Å, c = 18.237(6) Å, V = 3556.4 Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.060, wRref(F2) = 0.185, T = 298 K.
Convergence of Dirichlet forms with changing speed measures on ℝ d

Abstract We consider a sequence of vaguely convergent measures μn = σn dx → σ dx = μ on ℝ d and a sequence of symmetric Dirichlet forms {ℰn }, ℰ n (f, g) = ∑ d i,j=1 ∫ℝ d an i,j∂i f ∂j g dx, where every ℰ n is defined on L 2(σn dx). We apply a functional analytic theory of Mosco convergence on changing L 2-spaces recently developed by K. Kuwae and T. Shioya and obtain some new results about convergence of {ℰn } and weak convergence of finite dimensional distributions of associated stochastic processes.
Inversion of top of atmospheric reflectance values by conic multivariate adaptive regression splines

Spatial technologies offer high flexibility to handle substantial amount of spatial data and wide range of modelling capabilities. Remotely sensed data are the most significant data source used in spatial technologies. However, it is often associated with uncertainties due to atmospheric effects (i.e. absorption and scattering by atmospheric gases and aerosols). Methods based on rigorous treatment of radiative transfer models still have some drawbacks in the inversion of top of atmospheric reflectance values to surface reflectance values on large numbers of satellite images. In this paper, our aim is to represent a more flexible (adaptive) approach for the regional atmospheric correction by employing nonparametric regression splines within the frame of inverse problems and modern techniques of continuous optimization. To achieve this objective, atmospheric correction models obtained through conic multivariate adaptive regression splines, which is an alternative method to multivariate adaptive regression splines by constructing a penalized residual sum of squares as a Tikhonov regularization problem, are applied on a set of satellite images in order to convert the top of atmospheric reflectance values into surface reflectance values. The results are compared with the ones obtained by both multivariate adaptive regression splines and a radiative transfer-based method.
The dilemma of invasive and non-invasive investigations for adult and paediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: has the time come for a new biochemical marker?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver dysfunction, as determined by liver function testing, and it has been estimated that, with increasing levels of obesity in the USA, 20 million patients are affected. NAFLD represents a spectrum of diseases, ranging from simple fatty liver (steatosis) to steatosis with inflammation and necrosis to cirrhosis that occurs in individuals who drink little or no alcohol. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) represents the more severe end of this spectrum and is associated with progressive liver disease, fibrosis and cirrhosis. The major risk factors are obesity and insulin resistance, and the prevalence of these risk factors has increased rapidly throughout the world (1). NAFLD is rapidly becoming an important problem. Undiagnosed, this condition may progress silently and result in cirrhosis, portal hypertension, and liver-related death in early adulthood (1). Recently the increase or decrease in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) has been used as a marker to diagnose or monitor treatment for NASH (1, 2). Serum ALT levels are often increased above the normal range in many patients, although the increase is less than that observed with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (1). Obesity is the condition most commonly associated with NAFLD and, therefore, weight loss is frequently advocated, which may result in reductions in ALT in some patients (1). However, the level of serum ALT can be misleading in assessing treatment efficacy and in predicting the outcome of NASH. Previously, treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid, vitamin E and vitamin C decreased serum ALT, but failed to show a parallel improvement in histology. Treatment with
The Influence of Posture, Applied Force and Perturbation Direction on Hip Joint Viscoelasticity

Limb viscoelasticity is a critical neuromechanical factor used to regulate the interaction with the environment. It plays a key role in modelling human sensorimotor control, and can be used to assess the condition of healthy and neurologically affected individuals. This paper reports the estimation of hip joint viscoelasticity during voluntary force control using a novel device that applies a leg displacement without constraining the hip joint. The influence of hip angle, applied limb force and perturbation direction on the stiffness and viscosity values was studied in ten subjects. No difference was detected in the hip joint stiffness between the dominant and non-dominant legs, but a small dependency was observed on the perturbation direction. Both hip stiffness and viscosity increased monotonically with the applied force magnitude, with posture being observed to have a slight influence. These results are in line with previous measurements carried out on upper limbs, and can be used as a baseline for lower limb movement simulation and further neuromechanical investigations.