Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calibration and evaluation of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System for improved wildland fire danger rating in the United Kingdom

Abstract. Wildfires in the United Kingdom (UK) pose a threat to people, infrastructure and the natural environment. During periods of particularly fire-prone weather, wildfires can occur simultaneously across large areas, placing considerable stress upon the resources of fire and rescue services. Fire danger rating systems (FDRSs) attempt to anticipate periods of heightened fire risk, primarily for early-warning and preparedness purposes. The UK FDRS, termed the Met Office Fire Severity Index (MOFSI), is based on the Fire Weather Index (FWI) component of the Canadian Forest FWI System. The MOFSI currently provides daily operational mapping of landscape fire danger across England and Wales using a simple thresholding of the final FWI component of the Canadian FWI System. However, it is known that the system has scope for improvement. Here we explore a climatology of the six FWI System components across the UK (i.e. extending to Scotland and Northern Ireland), calculated from daily 2 km × 2 km gridded numerical weather prediction data and supplemented by long-term meteorological station observations. We used this climatology to develop a percentile-based calibration of the FWI System, optimised for UK conditions. We find this approach to be well justified, as the values of the "raw" uncalibrated FWI components corresponding to a very "extreme" (99th percentile) fire danger situation vary by more than an order of magnitude across the country. Therefore, a simple thresholding of the uncalibrated component values (as is currently applied in the MOFSI) may incur large errors of omission and commission with respect to the identification of periods of significantly elevated fire danger. We evaluate our approach to enhancing UK fire danger rating using records of wildfire occurrence and find that the Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC), Initial Spread Index (ISI) and FWI components of the FWI System generally have the greatest predictive skill for landscape fire activity across Great Britain, with performance varying seasonally and by land cover type. At the height of the most recent severe wildfire period in the UK (2 May 2011), 50 % of all wildfires occurred in areas where the FWI component exceeded the 99th percentile. When all wildfire events during the 2010–2012 period are considered, the 75th, 90th and 99th percentiles of at least one FWI component were exceeded during 85, 61 and 18 % of all wildfires respectively. Overall, we demonstrate the significant advantages of using a percentile-based calibration approach for classifying UK fire danger, and believe that our findings provide useful insights for future development of the current operational MOFSI UK FDRS.
Estimation of Weight and Lipid Composition in Preimplantation Embryos from Jersey and Beef Breeds of Cattle

Cryopreservation is the main functional means for storage of excess embryos produced from artificial reproductive technologies; the process assumes embryos chemical nature is highly conserved across embryos of the same species. However, in practice there appears to be a high degree of variability in embryo tolerance to cryopreservation, suggesting potential differences in embryo chemistry. The objective of the current study was to develop reproducible means of estimating relative embryos weight and associating those weights to lipid content. Relative embryo weights of frozen/thawed in-vivo Jersey and Crossbred beef breed embryos were determined using a modified specific gravity chamber. Embryo weights were then correlated with lipid content. Results suggest that beef cattle embryos are 20% - 27% heavier than Jersey embryos (P
DOES MODERN SOCIETY LET ME BE ME? SOME MODERATORS OF USING THE SELF AS A REFERENCE FOR BEHAVIOR by JACQUELINE ALEXANDRA NEWBOLD

Behavior is jointly determined by one’s environment and personality, but the extent to which they influence behavior may vary across cultures. Immediate-return societies have a loose culture (i.e., few societal norms) while delayed-return societies have a tight culture (i.e., many strict societal norms). Because of this difference in societal norms, immediatereturn societies (vs. delayed-return societies) allow for more expression of individual differences in strong attitudes or personality traits. In two studies, I explored the relation between two internal dispositions and related behaviors. Experiment 1 utilized a strong disposition (i.e., highly heritable), and Experiment 2 utilized a weak deposition (not highly heritable). I hypothesized that the disposition-behavior relation would be stronger for participants placed in an immediate-return (v. delayed-return) mindset when a strong disposition was tested, but that there would be no difference in the strength of the disposition-behavior relationship between condition when a weak disposition was measured. These hypotheses were supported and suggest that some societies may foster a personality-behavior link, whereas others foster a norm-behavior link. INDEX WORDS: Immediate-return societies, autonomy, situational strength, culture
Distribution patterns of the barnacle, Chelonibia testudinaria, on juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Bahia Magdalena, Mexico Patrones de distribución del balano, Chelonibia testudinaria, en tortugas verdes (Chelonia mydas) juveniles en bahía Magdalena, México

The barnacle, Chelonibia testudinaria, is an obligate commensal of sea turtles that may show population variability according to the physical characteristics of the environment and properties of turtle hosts; therefore, we characterized the distributional patterns and the potential effects on health of C. testudinaria on juvenile green turtles in Bahia Magdalena, Mexico. Barnacle attachment position, abundance, and size-class structure were described, while the relationship between barnacle abundance and turtle health condition and size was explored through generalized linear models. Juvenile green turtles of Bahia Magdalena offered an appropriate habitat for C. testudinaria as their frequency of occurrence was high and their abundance was similar to that found in other green turtle populations. Barnacles showed an aggregated distribution that may be facilitating their reproduction during the warm summer months. Barnacle abundance is unaffected by turtle size or seasonality, while their attachment position appears to be influenced by water flow over the turtle carapace and by plastron abrasion by the turtle against the sea floor. Healthier turtles exhibited a decreased barnacle load; therefore we suggest that C. testudinaria abundance may be a useful indicator of health for juvenile green turtles.
Dating nodes on molecular phylogenies: a critique of molecular biogeography

Taxa have been dated using three methods: equating their age with the age of the oldest known fossil, with the age of strata the taxa are endemic to, and with the age of paleogeographic events. All three methods have been adopted as methods of dating nodes in molecular phylogenies. The first method has been the most popular, but both this and the second method involve serious difficulties. Studies often, correctly, introduce oldest known fossils as providing minimum ages for divergences. However, in the actual analyses these ages, and ages derived from them, are often treated as absolute ages and earlier geological events are deemed irrelevant to the phylogeny. In fact, only younger geological events can be irrelevant. Studies correlating the age of nodes with age of volcanic islands often overlook the fact that these islands have been produced at subduction zones or hot spots where small, individually ephemeral islands are constantly being produced and disappearing, and a metapopulation can survive indefinitely. Correlating the age of taxa with that of associated paleogeographic events is probably the most promising method but has often been used in a simplistic way, for example in assuming that all divergence across the Isthmus of Panama dates to its final rise. Most workers now agree that a global molecular clock does not exist, and that rates can change between lineages and within a lineage over time. New methods of estimating branch lengths do not assume a strict clock, but the number of models for molecular evolution is then effectively infinite. Problems with calibrating the nodes, as well as with substitution models, mean that phylogeography's claim to be able to test between vicariance and dispersal is not justified.
The Prevalence of Possible Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Avium in Fecal Sample from Dairy Cows

A comparative study of fecal culture, hspX Map real-time PCR and nested 1311-based PCR tests was undertaken to determine the incidence of positive fecal test results using IS1311base nest PCR primers relative to fecal culture and real-time PCR using hspX. Three hundred sixty-eight fecal samples from the Florida Johne’s Disease Dairy Herd Demonstration Project had been analyzed using fecal culture, real-time PCR and nested PCR for the detection of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis {Map}. Forty-one fecal specimens tested positive by the direct fecal nested Map PCR test (FecaMap®}. In 34 of the cases, the corresponding real time PCR test for Map was also positive. Mycobacterium isolates were achieved by fecal culture in 21 of the 41 cases. In 20 of the 21 cases of culture recovery of a mycobacterium, IS900-based primers confirmed Map. In the remaining case, fecal culture demonstrated case heavy growth and the corresponding hspX real time PCR were both positive. In the remaining 6 direct nested PCR tests, no evidence of mycobacterium growth was present. Assuming fecal culture to be 100% sensitive, the project herd false-positive incidence using IS1311 based nested primers would be approximately
Towards the Design of Eco-Driving Feedback Information Systems – A Literature Review

Road transportation contributes to about 17% of worldwide CO2-emissions, thereby accounting heavily for the still accelerating climate change. Eco-efficient driver behavior is a cost efficient, yet powerful means to significantly decrease emissions from road transportation. Using feedback IS in the car to support and promote drivers towards a less fuel consuming driving style has shown to be effective in a variety of studies. However, there are many ways for designing an eco-driving feedback IS (EDFIS). What is still missing is a general design theory for EDFIS. To fill this gap we conducted a systematic literature review that covers research on EDFIS of the IS community and beyond. A detailed set of evaluation criteria gives an overview of the status quo on EDFIS research that might serve as a basis of upcoming work towards the developments of an EDFIS design theory, thus leveraging the potential contribution of eco-driving behavior for future green transportation.
Extreme values and integral of solution of uncertain differential equation

Background Probability theory, since it was founded by Kolmogorov in 1933, has been a crucial tool to model indeterminacy phenomena when probability distributions of the possible events are available. However, due to economical or technological reasons, we often cannot obtain sample data, based on which we estimate the probability distribution via statistics. In this case, we have to invite domain experts to evaluate their belief degree. Since human beings tend to overweight unlikely events, the belief degree usually has a much larger range than the real frequency (Kahneman and Tversky [1]). As a result, it cannot be treated as probability, otherwise some counterintuitive results may happen. An extreme counterexample was proposed by Liu [2]. In order to model the belief degree, an uncertainty theory was founded by Liu [3], and refined by Liu [4] based on normality, duality, subadditivity and product axioms. So far, it has been applied to many areas, and has brought many branches such as uncertain programming (Liu [5]), uncertain risk analysis (Liu [6]), uncertain inference (Liu [7]), uncertain logic (Liu [8]), and uncertain statistics (Liu [4]). In order to describe the evolution of an uncertain phenomenon, Liu [9] proposed a concept of uncertain process. Then Liu [10] designed a Liu process that is an uncertain process with stationary and independent normal uncertain increments, and founded uncertain calculus to deal with the integral and differential of an uncertain process with respect to Liu process. Then Liu and Yao [11] extended uncertain integral from single Liu process to multiple ones. Besides, Chen and Ralescu [12] founded uncertain calculus with respect to general Liu process. As a complementary, Yao [13] founded uncertain calculus with respect to uncertain renewal process. Uncertain differential equation was first proposed by Liu [9] as a type of differential equation driven by Liu process. Chen and Liu [14] gave an analytic solution for linear uncertain differential equation. Following that, Liu [15] and Yao [16] gave some methods
Lip Tracking using Pattern Matching Snakes

Lip reading is an important tool used by hearing impaired people to increase their understanding of spoken language. Linguistics experiments show that the features of speech that are degraded by noise in audio systems are the features of speech that are most distinct visually. An automatic visual speech recognition system should therefore be a beneficial complement to an audio speech recognition system when the audio system is used in a noisy environment. An automatic lipreading system requires a robust method to track lips from the image sequence, regardless of the variations of lip shapes, colours and movement amongst speakers. One of the most common lip tracking methods is the use of active contour models or snakes to detect outer lip contours. This paper proposes a robust and adaptable lip tracking method that uses a combination of snakes and a 2D template matching technique. The snake, an energy minimising spline, is driven by 2D template matching techniques to find the expected lip contour of a specific speaker. Our experiments show that the technique can track the unadorned lips in various colours and shapes of speakers, including the lips of a bearded speaker.
Full autopilot for small electrical helicopter

A small helicopter can be considered as a test bench of a highly nonlinear unstable multiconnected mechanical control system. An automatic stabilization system was designed on a standard computer for a small electrical helicopter. The sensor device consists of two Web cameras connected to the computer and four onboard diodes. The control signal is transmitted to actuators through a wireless control panel connected to the computer. Results of experiments are reported where the full autopilot system stabilizes a helicopter near a fixed 3-dimensional point that is not far from the ground. TV tracking is reproduced on the screen. 1 Device description. Small helicopters with manual control by a wireless control panel are easily available in the market in various configurations. They are extremely unstable and require a skilled driver to prevent a downfall. The time constant in the lateral channel of a small electrical helicopter is much less than 1 s. There are four control actuators that are closely interconnected in a highly nonlinear system. The system can be described to various levels of accuracy from the second order time invariant plants to turbulence equations. It is shown in this paper, that a simple autopilot system can be successfully designed for a widely spread model of helicopter with TV observations and software installed on a standard computer. An electrical helicopter Walkera X450 was chosen for experiments. Its height is 830 g. The main rotor has a diameter of 700 mm and a hub of the Hiller type with two blades and two servo blades. Each pair of blades is hard connected on a rod and the collective pitch is fixed. The rotor draft is controlled by rotation frequency at 27 29 Hz. The other control inputs are the rotation frequency of the tail rotor and two angles of the swash plate position. The control signals are transmitted from computer directly through USB port to the control panel that sends a radio signal to the onboard actuators. Dependence of the lateral, directional and lifting forces and torques from the controls was approximated in experiments on special test benches. Dependence of the main rotor speed from the control was identified in experiments by the stroboscope. A full aerodynamic nonlinear model is derived. It contains both differential and algebraic equations with nonunique solutions. An effective computational algorithm is proposed that finds a unique admissible solution of the system. Balanced operational points are determined for arbitrary linear velocity of a helicopter. All algorithms were written on Matlab and C. Their performance was studied by simulations.
Media bias, news customization and competition

The media bias literature has focused its attention on single-ideology media rms. We analyze the incentives for media rms to adopt a multi-ideology strategy. A multi-ideology strategy occurs when a media rm adapts news to consumerspolitical preferences. In this sense, news customization can reduce media bias, since media rms can cover a larger variety of political opinions. We show that although the incentives to customize are larger under duopoly than under monopoly, a monopolist might also end up o¤ering customized news to consumers. In this sense, we argue that the competition policy for the media sector should take into consideration not only media concentration issues, but also the plurality of political opinions embraced inside a media rm. Keywords: Media Bias, Customization, Media Firms. JEL Classi cation: L13, L82. I am grateful to Hans Jarle Kind and Lars Sørgard for helpful comments during the preparation of this work. The usual disclaimer applies. yAddress for correspondence: Armando J. Garcia Pires, Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration (SNF), Breiviksveien 40, 5045 Bergen, Norway. Tel: +(47)55959622, Fax: +(47)55959439; E-mail: armando.pires@snf.no. 1 SNF Working Paper No 14/10
A Wavelet-Based Watermarking for Digital Images of Different Size

We describe an digital watermarking algorithm for colour images protection and authenticity: robust, not-blind, wavelet-based. Our algorithm can work with any images, in fact it includes resize techniques that adapt the size of original image for Wavelet transform. The watermark signal is calculated in correlation with the image features and statistic properties. In detection step we apply a re-synchronization between the original and watermarked image according to the Neyman-Pearson statistic criterion. Experimentation on a large set of different images has shown to be resistant against geometric, filtering, and StirMark attacks with a low rate of false alarm. [ DOI : 10.1685/CSC06002] About DOI
Mixed topological semimetals and orbital magnetism in two-dimensional spin-orbit ferromagnets

The concepts of Weyl fermions and topological semimetals emerging in three-dimensional momentum space are extensively explored owing to the vast variety of exotic properties that they give rise to. On the other hand, very little is known about semimetallic states emerging in two-dimensional magnetic materials, which present the foundation for both present and future information technology. Here, we demonstrate that including the magnetization direction into the topological analysis allows for a natural classification of topological semimetallic states that manifest in two-dimensional ferromagnets as a result of the interplay between spin-orbit and exchange interactions. We explore the emergence and stability of such mixed topological semimetals in realistic materials, and point out the perspectives of mixed topological states for current-induced orbital magnetism and current-induced domain wall motion. Our findings pave the way to understanding, engineering and utilizing topological semimetallic states in two-dimensional spin-orbit ferromagnets.
On Trifunction Variational Inequalities

In this paper, we introduce and consider a class of variational inequalities, which is called the trifunction variational inequality. We use the auxiliary principle technique to suggest and analyze an implicit iterative methods for solving the trifunction variational inequalities. We study the convergence criteria of this new method under pseudomonotonicity condition, which is weaker condition than monotonicity. Several special cases are also considered.
Radiative impact of fireworks at a tropical Indian location: A case study

During Diwali festival, extensive burning of crackers and fireworks is made. Weeklong intensive observational campaign for aerosol study was carried out at a representative urban location in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), Varanasi (25.3°N, 83.0°E), from October 29 to November 04, 2005 (Diwali on November 01, 2005), to investigate behavioral change of aerosol properties and radiative forcing between firework affected and nonaffected periods. Results show a substantial increase (~27%) in aerosol optical depth, aerosol absorption coefficients, and aerosol scattering coefficients during affected period as compared to non-affected periods. Magnitudes of radiative forcing at top of atmosphere during affected and non-affected periods are found to be
A link between terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes and intracloud lightning discharges

Atmospheric electric field change (sferic) waveforms were detected at Los Alamos Sferic Array stations in association with terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes (TGFs). Five TGF sferic waveforms detected at sufficiently close range were all found to be consistent with a positive‐polarity intracloud (+IC) discharge process which transported electrons upward. The amplitudes of the events were among the top 5% of IC discharge flashes. Altitudes obtained from ionosphere reflections for two of the closer events were found to be 13.6 km and 11.5 km. These altitudes are lower than expected if one assumes that the sferic was near the source of the gamma‐rays. One of the sferics was an energetic narrow bipolar event which occurred near the inferred onset of a flash, suggesting that the preceding TGF may correspond to the actual onset.
Anticoagulant Therapy in Primary and Secondary Recurrent Pregnancy Losses with Hereditary Thrombophilia and Perinatal Outcomes

Objective: To investigate the effect of anticoagulant treatment and perinatal outcomes in patients with primary or secondary recurrent pregnancy loss without cause other than inherited trombophilia. Methods: A total of 143 pregnant patients with recurrent pregnancy loss (≥2 abortus) and had no detected cause other than thrombophilia, were included in the study. Patients with no livebirth history were accepted as primary and patients with at least one livebirth were as secondary recurrent spontaneous aborters (PrimRSAs and SecRSAs). Inherited thrombophilia genetic results of the patients in both groups were compared. The effects of low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH) and low-dose aspirin (LDA) treatments alone or together, livebirth rates and pregnancy outcomes were investigated. Results: Sixty-eight patients were in PrimRSAs and 75 were in SecRSAs. Ages, numbers of total, early and late pregnancy loss of both groups were similar. In PrimRSAs 49 (72.1%) and in SecRSAs 50 (66.6%) patients had three or more inherited thrombophilia genetic mutations. Of 113 patients who used LMWH+LDA during pregnancy 88 (77.6%) had livebirth; however, of 19 patients who used LMWH 6 (31.6%) and of 11 women who used LDA 8 (72.7%) had livebirth. Livebirth rate was significantly higher in patients who used LMWH+LDA together (p=0.001). Livebirth rates were higher in SecRSAs than PrimRSAs irrespective to the anticoagulant treatment (p=0.002). Conclusion: LMWH and LDA treatment together may increase livebirth rates in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss and inherited thrombophilia. Having at least one livebirth of the patients is a good prognostic factor. J Clin Exp Invest 2016; 7 (1): 29-34