Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linking Farmer, Forest and Watershed: Understanding Forestry and Soil Resource Management Along the Upper River Njoro, Kenya

This paper describes subsistence farmers’ soil and forestry management techniques and their implication for watershed managers and policy makers in the Upper Catchment of the River Njoro (UCRN) in Kenya. This research seeks to answer the following questions: How do farmers in the UCRN view and manage soil and forestry resources? What does this imply for development and conservation planners concerned with watershed and environmental services? The study blends social science approaches and biophysical assessment. Interviews were conducted between July and September of 2003 with a sample of 15 hillside farmers located within 200 meters (m) of first order streams or springs. Questions addressed agronomic practices, economic issues, the use of local tree resources, soil management perceptions and practices, and farmer awareness of landscape ecology and hydrology. Biophysical data included inventory, frequency and use of on-farm tree species, soil samples, and GPS points for each farm. Laboratory tests revealed soil quality indicators. This paper presents UCRN farmer perceptions of soil fertility and yields from the interviews and compares these perceptions to an agronomic analysis of yield limitations. Use and perception of forestry resources by farmers is also described in relation to large-scale agroecological processes, such as altered hydrologic cycling and soil erosion under new land use and cropping patterns. This information is compared with biophysical data to identify “gaps” between local and scientific knowledge. Consideration of biophysical characteristics of these upland agroecosystems in tandem with farmer perception and management provides insight for environmental planners concerned with the promotion of improved farm and land use systems (LUS) in the highlands of East Africa.
Spare Debt Capacity: Company Practices in Australia, Britain and Japan

The paper reports the residis of an investigation of the extent to which a sample of listed Australian, British and Japanese companies maintain spare borrowing capacity. Unused debt capacity is not directly observable and can be in various forms, including committed and uncommitted lines of credit or a level of borrowing that is, substantially below an upper limit. Some 60% of Australian, 90% of British and 32% of the Japanese respondents follow this policy. Regression analyses suggest that spare borrowing capacity is linked to company size, proxies for the proportion of company value in intangible form, and upper limits on borrowings.
Using Proteomics to Understand Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Where Are We?

Proteomics have been widely used to investigate potential biomarkers in a variety of diseases. Aortic aneurysm is an increasingly common vascular disorder with frequently fatal implications. However, there is no established diagnosis other than the one based on aneurysmal size. Despite widespread investigation, biomarkers for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) development, progression and rupture are still lacking. A proteomic approach could reveal novel biomarkers. MEDLINE/PubMed and EMBASE were searched with the medical subject heading abdominal aortic aneurysm and keywords: size, rupture and expansion rate and proteomics. Studies investigating the association among AAA expansion, rupture or size with tissue, secretome and circulating biomarkers using proteomics were selected. Sixteen papers were identified. To summarize the data pointed out by these papers, we classified into functional categories, based on Gene Ontology, the proteins identified in tissue, secretome and in plasma/serum. This analysis highlighted that most of these proteins belong to categories related to cell adhesion, cytoskeleton, proteolysis, lipid metabolic process, blood coagulation, and acute phase response. We noted that some of these proteins correlated to AAA in all biological specimens. These proteins could be candidate biomarkers even if larger clinical studies are needed to evaluate their value as ‘biomarkers’, and to advance them to clinical use.
Major O‐glycosylated sialoglycoproteins of human hematopoietic cells: Differentiation antigens with poorly understood functions

All human hematopoietic cells seem to contain a major, heavily O‐glycosylated sialoglycoprotein. Glycophorin A is specific for the erythroid lineage of cells, and leukocytes have a major sialoglycoprotein, also called leukosialin or sialophorin. Cell differentiation results in patterns of O‐glycosylation in these proteins, which reflect the stage of differentiation within a cell lineage as well as lineage specificity. The altered carbohydrate compositions may influence the interactions of the cells with external ligands. Healthy individuals lacking glycophorin A in their red cells are known, whereas a deficiency of the leukocyte sialoglycoprotein may result in immunological disease. Although little is known about the physiological functions of these proteins, they form interesting models for studies on regulation of glyco‐sylation, biosynthesis of O‐glycosylated glyoproteins, and function of cell surface receptors.
Irrationality Re-Examined: A Few Comments on the Conjunction Fallacy

In this paper, I argue that the probability model used to infer irrationality for the subjects in the famous Linda problem is not appropriate, and I suggest different approaches based on fuzzy reasoning models. My line of argument is two-fold: 1) If the term “probability” is understood properly (mathematically), then the experimenters used the wrong model. 2) If the term “probability” is understood casually (non- mathematically), then alternative models perhaps should be used to justify the subjects’ responses. The objective is to experiment with new ways of looking at irrationality and raise a discussion regarding the relation between irrationality, reasoning errors and logical models that are used as frameworks to study irrationality.
A Fast Simulation Model of Modular Multilevel Converter with Dead Time Effect

In China, the project of HVDC transmission is under comprehensive planning and many projects have been put into operation. However, conventional models of MMC did not achieve the dead time effect of MMC which influences the harmonic component of arm current. In this paper, the dead time effect of MMC is firstly analyzed and then the fast simulation model is proposed. Fast simulation models and reference models were built on the MATLAB platform to validate the accuracy, advantage and speed of proposed model. The result shows.
Characteristics of a tropospheric ozone profile and implications for the origin of ozone over subtropical China in the spring of 2001

[1] During the Transport and Chemical Evolution Over the Pacific (TRACE-P) period in the spring of 2001 we launched an ozonesonde at three Chinese sites: Kunming (102.68°E, 25.03°N), Hong Kong (114.17°E, 22.31°N), and Linan (119.75°E, 30.30°N). The sites extend from subtropical southwestern China close to the Southeast (SE) Asian border, to the southeastern Asian coast, and to the edge of the middle latitudes of central eastern China, respectively. The aims of the study are to provide ozonesonde data within the source regions of the Chinese mainland, to investigate the source of tropospheric ozone (O3), and to investigate to what extent SE Asian biomass burning emissions impact both tropospheric O3 over the subtropical Chinese mainland and O3 outflows to the Pacific. The results show that there are substantial variations in vertical O3 distributions over these sites, with low O3 values in the upper troposphere of Hong Kong, high O3 values in the middle and upper troposphere of Linan, and frequent O3 enhancements in the lower troposphere of Hong Kong and Kunming. The low values in the upper troposphere over Hong Kong in the spring of 2001 were not usually observed from 1993 to 2000 and are the result of the transport of O3-depleted air from the intertropical convergence zone of equatorial SE Asian regions following the eastern Asia local Hadley circulation. Such transport processes do not affect the higher latitude at the edge of the middle latitude of Linan, where stratospheric O3 is the major contributing source to middle and upper tropospheric O3. The O3 enhancements over the lower troposphere of Kunming and Hong Kong are caused by SE Asian biomass burning emissions. Such enhancements are frequently observed over Hong Kong, less often over Kunming, and scarcely ever over Linan. Our analysis shows that biomass burning emissions from SE Asia in the spring of 2001 mainly affected the southern parts of the subtropical Chinese region.
A grid generation procedure for the design of single-layer freeform structures

Computer aided design software enables the rapid creation of any curved surface geometry, whereas it is neither a convenient nor an obvious task for engineers to efficiently create a discrete grid structure on a complex surface that also meets architectural requirements. This emphasizes the importance of grid generating tools and methods in the initial design stage. This paper presents an efficient design tool for the synthesis of free-form grid structures based on the concept of a “guide line”. The process starts with defining a limited number of curves (named the “guide lines”) on the surface, which are then used to determine the directions of the ‘rods’ of the grid. Two variations of this concept are introduced in the paper: the ‘Guide Line Scaling Method’ (GSM) and the ‘Two Guide Lines with Two End Vertices Method’ (2G2VM). Case studies on the British Museum Court Roof are provided which illustrate the successful execution of these procedures. The results show that the free-form grid structures generated with the proposed methods feature a regular shape and fluent lines, thereby satisfying aesthetic requirements. These two methods have been programmed into the software ZDMesher, enabling rapid grid generation for structural design purposes.
Enhancing Profile and Context Aware Relevant Food Search through Knowledge Graphs

Foodbar is a Cloud-based gastroevaluation solution, leveraging IBM Watson cognitive services. It brings together machine and human intelligence to enable cognitive gastroevaluation of “tapas” or “pintxos” , i.e., small miniature bites or dishes. Foodbar matchmakes users’ profiles, preferences and context against an elaborated knowledge graph based model of user and machine generated information about food items. This paper reasons about the suitability of this novel way of modelling heterogeneous, with diverse degree of veracity, information to offer more stakeholder satisfying knowledge exploitation solutions, i.e., those offering more relevant and elaborated, directly usable, information to those that want to take decisions regarding food in miniature. An evaluation of the information modelling power of such approach is performed highlighting why such model can offer better more relevant and enriched answers to natural language questions posed by users.
On the Onset of Taylor Vortices in Finite-Length Cavity Subject to a Radial Oscillation Motion

TaylorCouette flow (TCF) is an important template for studying various mechanisms of the laminarturbulent transition of rotating fluid in enclosed cavity. It is also relevant to engineering applications like bearings, fluid mixing and filtration. Furthermore, this flow system is of potential importance for development of bio-separators employing Taylor vortices for enhancement of mass transfer. The fluid flowing in the annular gap between two rotating cylinders has been used as paradigm for the hydrodynamic stability theory and the transition to turbulence. In this paper, the fluid in an annulus between short concentric cylinders is investigated numerically for a three dimensional viscous and incompressible flow. The inner cylinder rotates freely about a vertical axis through its centre while the outer cylinder is held stationary and oscillating radially. The main purpose is to examine the effect of a pulsatile motion of the outer cylinder on the onset of Taylor vortices in the vicinity of the threshold of transition, i.e., from the laminar Couette flow to the occurrence of Taylor vortex flow. The numerical results obtained here show significant topological changes on the Taylor vortices. In addition, the active control deeply affects the occurrence of the first instability. It is established that the appearance of the Taylor vortex flow is then substantially delayed with respect to the classical case; flow without control.
Prediction of Wheat Production Using Artificial Neural Networks and Investigating Indirect Factors Affecting It: Case Study in Canterbury Province, New Zealand

An artificial neural network (ANN) approach was used to model the wheat production. From an extensive data collection involving 40 farms in Canterbury, New Zealand, the average wheat production was estimated at 9.9 t ha -1 . The final ANN model developed was capable of predicting wheat production under different conditions and farming systems using direct and indirect technical factors. After examining more than 140 different factors, 6 factors were selected as influential input into the model. The final ANN model can predict wheat production based on farm conditions (wheat area and irrigation frequency), machinery condition (tractor hp ha -1 and number of passes of sprayer) and farm inputs (N and fungicides consumption) in Canterbury with an error margin of ±9% (±0.89 t ha -1 ).
Impulsive and Premeditated Homicide: An Analysis of Subsequent Parole Risk of the Murderer

criminal.3 The prevalence of violent crime within a minority group has been reported in other countries as well. The higher rates of violent crime in England among the Irish and West Indian minorities of London4 and Birmingham5 are a matter of record. More general analysis of Commonwealth immigration into England has led to the conclusion that delinquency rates were generally low, except for violent crimes.6 Migrant workers of various European nationalities more frequently committed crimes against persons, although their overall prevalence figures were actually lower than for the populations of the host countries.7 Homicides committed in Israel between 1950-1964 were more
Recognizing patterns of movements in visitor flows in nature areas

This paper presents some approaches for geo-spatial analysis of movement behavior of visitors of recreational areas. The approaches are bases on the use of moving object databases containing Temporary Annotated Sequences (TAS). The TAS result from the use of GPS or mobile phones for tracking visitors. Two examples are presented for a case study carried out in the Dutch National Park Dwingelderveld. About 461 visitors were tracked using a GPS device. Based on these GPS recordings their trajectories have been reconstructed. The relation between the type of landscape in terms of openness and the speed of movement have been analyzed. Additionally a similarity analyses based on Frechet analysis shows clusters of movements.
STATUS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERCONDUCTING UNDULATORS AT THE ESRF

This note describes the present status of the development of superconducting undulators at the ESRF. Magnetic models of superconducting undulators suitable for the ESRF storage ring have been developed and evaluated. The superconducting undulators studied are horizontally polarizing undulators with a flat field profile. The vertical physical aperture of the undulator is 6 mm. 2D models of the local field in a period of the undulator as well as 3D models of the complete super-conducting undulator, including the end sections and current leads, have been evaluated. The practical limit for the obtainable magnetic field was estimated from the known performance of superconducting wire available from the cabling industry. The conceptual design of the cryostat of the superconducting undulator and estimations of the expected heat load to the cryostat at different filling modes of the storage ring are also described.
A Cloud-Based Anti-Malware Solution

In this work we focus on cloud-based malware detection. We investigate the existing academic and industry cloud-based malware detection solutions, and identify the drawbacks of those solutions. We also recommend a remedy for the drawbacks of those solutions. At the end we provide a summary of our proposed cloud-based anti-malware solution. The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds and the Open Grid Forum Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan March 19 25, 2011
International Wealth Effects

This paper presents a detailed investigation of the wealth effect for 16 industrial countries using the recently proposed technique that exploits the sluggishness of consumption growth. I argue that, compared to the widespread cointegration-based methodology, the approach I apply has better theoretical foundations and is more immune to parameter instability. Empirically, this new technique implies smaller magnitude of the wealth effect in the G-8 countries and larger size of the income effect. I also document that the wealth effect tends to be larger in countries with more developed financial markets and has decreased substantially in the last twenty years.
Land Use, Production Growth, and the Institutional Environment of Smallholders: Evidence from Burkinabè Cotton Farmers

The cotton boom in Burkina Faso consisted of a growth in cotton land shares together with an overall increase in total cultivated land. This paper examines the impact of institutional changes in the cotton sector on the evolution of smallholders’ land-use decisions. The empirical analysis is supported by a structural model that takes into account the specific institutional features of the Burkinabè cotton sector and builds upon household-level data collected in rural Burkina Faso. We attribute most of the change in land use to the newly established institutional arrangements between producers and stakeholders, mechanization, and slackening of the food-security constraint. (JEL O13, Q15)
RAVE stars in K2: I. Improving RAVE red giants spectroscopy using asteroseismology from K2 Campaign 1

We present a set of 87 RAVE stars with detected solar like oscillations, observed during Campaign 1 of the K2 mission (RAVE K2-C1 sample). This data set provides a useful benchmark for testing the gravities provided in RAVE data release 4 (DR4), and is key for the calibration of the RAVE data release 5 (DR5). The RAVE survey collected medium-resolution spectra (R = 7500) centred in the Ca II triplet(8600 A) wavelength interval, which although being very useful for determining radial velocity and metallicity, even at low S/N, is known be affected by a log (g)-Teff degeneracy. This degeneracy is the cause of the large spread in the RAVE DR4 gravities for giants. The understanding of the trends and offsets that affects RAVE atmospheric parameters, and in particular log (g), is a crucial step in obtaining not only improved abundance measurements, but also improved distances and ages. In the present work, we use two different pipelines, GAUFRE and Sp-Ace, to determine atmospheric parameters and abundances by fixing log (g) to the seismic one. Our strategy ensures highly consistent values among all stellar parameters, leading to more accurate chemical abundances. A comparison of the chemical abundances obtained here with and without the use of seismic log (g) information has shown that an underestimated (overestimated) gravity leads to an underestimated (overestimated) elemental abundance (e.g. [Mg/H] is underestimated by ∼0.25 dex when the gravity is underestimated by 0.5 dex). We then perform a comparison between the seismic gravities and the spectroscopic gravities presented in the RAVE DR4 catalogue, extracting a calibration for log (g) of RAVE giants in the colour interval 0.50 < (J-KS) < 0.85. Finally, we show a comparison of the distances, temperatures, extinctions (and ages) derived here for our RAVE K2-C1 sample with those derived in RAVE DR4 and DR5. DR5 performs better than DR4 thanks to the seismic calibration, although discrepancies can still be important for objects for which the difference between DR4/DR5 and seismic gravities differ by more than ∼0.5 dex. The method illustrated in this work will be used for analysing RAVE targets present in the other K2 campaigns, in the framework of Galactic Archaeology investigations.
Efficacy of Pseudomonads as biocontrol agents of phytopathogens

Microbial plant pathogens infecting different crops cause great economic losses worldwide. Thus plant diseases need to be controlled to maintain the quality and abundance of these crops. Different approaches have been used to control plant diseases, mainly chemical fertilizers and pesticides. However, environmental pollution and pathogens induced resistance due to excessive use of these agrochemicals; may exclude their successful application. Consequently, researchers have focused on developing alternatives to control plant diseases; among these alternatives is biological control. The term biological control or biocontrol applies to the use of living antagonists to suppress or kill deleterious plant pathogens. The saprophytic microbe which antagonises the pathogen is called the biological control agent (BCA) or bioagent.
Resilient gossip-inspired all-reduce algorithms for high-performance computing: Potential, limitations, and open questions

We investigate the usefulness of gossip-based reduction algorithms in a high-performance computing (HPC) context. We compare them to state-of-the-art deterministic parallel reduction algorithms in terms of fault tolerance and resilience against silent data corruption (SDC) as well as in terms of performance and scalability. New gossip-based reduction algorithms are proposed, which significantly improve the state-of-the-art in terms of resilience against SDC. Moreover, a new gossip-inspired reduction algorithm is proposed, which promises a much more competitive runtime performance in an HPC context than classical gossip-based algorithms, in particular for low accuracy requirements.
On-Campus Housing: Theory vs. Experiment

Many universities in the US offer on-campus housing opportunities to incoming as well as already enrolled students. Recent research has theoretically as well as experimentally shown that the most common student assignment mechanism used in the US is subject to serious efficiency losses. In this paper we first show that a particular mechanism which is currently in use at the MIT for about two decades is in fact equivalent to a natural adaptation of the well-known Gale-Shapley mechanism of two-sided matching theory. Motivated from the increasing popularity and success of the Gale-Shapley mechanism in a number of markets, we next experimentally compare the performances of the MIT mechanism with that of the leading theory mechanism Top Trading Cycles. Contrary to theory, the MIT mechanism performs better in terms of efficiency and participation rates, while we observe no significant difference between the two mechanisms in terms of truth-telling rates.