Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Global Sensitivity Analysis of Commonly Used Satellite-Derived Vegetation Indices for Homogeneous Canopies Based on Model Simulation and Random Forest Learning

Remote sensing (RS) provides operational monitoring of terrestrial vegetation. For optical RS, vegetation information is generally derived from surface reflectance (ρ). More generally, vegetation indices (VIs) are built on the basis of ρ as proxies for vegetation traits. At canopy level, ρ can be affected by a variety of factors, including leaf constituents, canopy structure, background reflectivity, and sun-sensor geometry. Consequently, VIs are mixtures of different information. In this study, a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is made for several commonly used satellite-derived VIs in order to better understand the application of these VIs at large scales. The sensitivities of VIs to different parameters are analyzed on the basis of PROSPECT-SAIL (PROSAIL) radiative transfer model simulations, which apply for homogeneous canopies, and random forest (RF) learning. Specifically, combined factors such as canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) and canopy water content (CWC) are introduced in the RF-based GSA. We find that for most VIs, the leaf area index is the most influential factor, while the broad-band sensor-derived enhanced VI (EVI) exhibits a strong sensitivity to CCC, and the universal normalized VI (UNVI) is sensitive to CWC. The potential and uncertainty for the application of all the considered VIs are analyzed according to the GSA results. The results can help to improve the use of VIs in different contexts, and the RF-based GSA method can be further applied in more sophisticated situations.
Active Gate Control Methods for the Turn-On of High-Voltage Power MOSFETs in Hard Switching Applications

An analysis of turn-on active gate control for high-voltage power MOSFETs to reduce the reverserecovery current of the body diode is presented. The turn-on switching behaviour of the MOSFETs is analysed in theory and simulation when controlled by two dedicated gate drive circuits. The performance depending on the dedicated gate drive circuits is investigated and compared with that of the common basic gate drive circuit. One gate drive circuit is investigated practically.
An Improvement on Audio-to-MIDI Alignment Using Triplet Pair

In this paper, we employ a neural network based cross-modality model on audio-to-MIDI alignment task. A novel loss function based on Hinge Loss is proposed to optimize the model learning an Euclidean embedding space, where the distance of embedding vectors can be directly used as a measure of similarity in alignment. In the previous alignment system also based on cross-modality model, there are positive and negative pairs in the loss function, which represent aligned and misaligned pairs. In this paper, we introduce an extra pair named overlapping to capture musical onset information. We evaluate our system on the MAPS dataset and compare it to other previous methods. The results reveal that the align accuracy of the proposed system beats the transcription based method by a significant margin, e.g., 81.61% to 86.41%, when the align error threshold is set to 10 ms. And the proposed loss also has an improvement on the statistics of absolute onset errors in comparison to the loss function implemented in other audio-to-MIDI alignment system. We also conduct experiments on the dimension of embedding vectors and results show the proposed system can still maintain the alignment performance with lower dimension.
HAY SUBSTITUTION WITH A FIELD PEA-BASED BLENDED RDP-RUP COMPOUND SUPPLEMENT FED DAILY OR ON ALTERNATE DAYS TO GESTATING-LACTATING BEEF COWS

Senturklu, S. , D. G. lanDblom, k. koch and G. a. Perry, 2014. Hay substitution with a field peabased blended rdp-rup compound supplement fed daily or on alternate days to gestating-lactating beef cows. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 20: 933-942 To evaluate a forage mitigation strategy, third trimester beef cows were used to determine the effect on subsequent beef cow performance when 28.1% of forage dry matter (dM) was replaced with a nutrient-dense pelleted rumen degradable protein-rumen undegradable protein supplement (rdp-rup) fed daily (D) or on alternate days (Alt-D). In the 111 day study, one hundred seven,3-10 year old beef cows, were randomized to the following treatments: 1) all hay control group ©, 2) hay and strawforagethat was reduced 28% and replaced with a field pea-barley malt sprout-distillers dried grain with solubles supplement (pEA-BMS-ddGS) fedd at 0.25% of initial body weight(BW) or, 3) hay and straw foragethat was reduced 28% and replaced witha pEA-BMS-ddGS fed on Alt-d at 0.50% of initial BW. Control cows consumed 14.1 kg of hay compared to supplemented cows that consumed 8.10 kg hay, 2.03 kg straw, and 1.37 kg of supplement daily for a total of 11.5 kg. The experimental supplement that was fed supplied 61% rdp and 36% rup. reducing hay in the experimental diets and replacing it with wheat straw and the pEA-BMS-ddGS supplement fed either d or on ALT-d did not affect ending cow BW, body condition score, fat thickness, pre-breeding estrous cyclicity, reproductive cycle pregnancy, or the total percent of cows pregnant (p > 0.10). Control and Alt-d calf birth weight was heavier than the d supplemented group (p 0.10). Biologically, there was no difference between C and supplemented cows throughout the study and it was determined that one unit of pEA-BMS-ddGS supplement could replace 2.9 units of forage. On average, and on the basis of 100 cows supplemented for the 111 day period, 15.1 mt of supplement replaced 44.1 mt of forage (p<0.001). Compared to feeding the all hay C diet,the cost of replacing hay with wheat straw and the nutrient-dense pEA-BMS-ddGS supplement was $287.54, $304.44, and $302.43 per cow for the C,d, and ALT-d treatments, respectively. The slightly higher cost for supplementation in the drought mitigation strategy tested wasminiscule compared to selling cows to fit the available forage supply. These data suggest that adequate nutrient supply to the rumen and small intestine can be obtained when feeding a pEA-BMSddGS on ALT-d and that the dietary strategy can be used to mitigate drought related hay shortages.
Title Electronic Dietary Intake Assessment ( e-DIA ) : Comparison of a Mobile Phone Digital Entry App for Dietary Data Collection With 24-Hour Dietary

Background: The electronic Dietary Intake Assessment (e-DIA), a digital entry food record mobile phone app, was developed to measure energy and nutrient intake prospectively. This can be used in monitoring population intakes or intervention studies in young adults. Objective: The objective was to assess the relative validity of e-DIA as a dietary assessment tool for energy and nutrient intakes using the 24-hour dietary recall as a reference method. Methods: University students aged 19 to 24 years recorded their food and drink intake on the e-DIA for five days consecutively and completed 24-hour dietary recalls on three random days during this 5-day study period. Mean differences in energy, macro-, and micronutrient intakes were evaluated between the methods using paired t tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and correlation coefficients were calculated on unadjusted, energy-adjusted, and deattenuated values. Bland-Altman plots and cross-classification into quartiles were used to assess agreement between the two methods. Results: Eighty participants completed the study (38% male). No significant differences were found between the two methods for mean intakes of energy or nutrients. Deattenuated correlation coefficients ranged from 0.55 to 0.79 (mean 0.68). Bland-Altman plots showed wide limits of agreement between the methods but without obvious bias. Cross-classification into same or adjacent quartiles ranged from 75% to 93% (mean 85%). Conclusions: The e-DIA shows potential as a dietary intake assessment tool at a group level with good ranking agreement for energy and all nutrients. (JMIR mHealth uHealth 2015;3(4):e98) doi:10.2196/mhealth.4613
Exploring Multiple Features for POS Guessing of Chinese Unknown Words with Maximum Entropy Models

A key requirement for high-performing part-ofspeech (POS) tagging systems is capable of predicting with accuracy the POS categories of unknown words in openended text. However, the topic of unknown word guessing has not been much explored for Chinese so far. This is because Chinese plain text contains very little explicit clues for unknown word guessing. In this paper, we attempt to explore morphological features for POS prediction of Chinese unknown words. To this end, we first take morphemes as the basic units in Chinese word formation, and then decompose each unknown word in Chinese sentences into a sequence of morphemes associated with their morphological position patterns. Finally, we incorporate different word-internal morphological clues with contextual information under the framework of maximum entropy modeling. Experimental results show that our method performs better in unknown word guessing than most of the best systems for POS tagging closed tracks at the fourth ACL-SIGHAN bakeoff, demonstrating that morphological features are of great value to POS guessing of Chinese unknown words.
Life Cycle Assessment of solar‐driven oxidation as a polishing step of secondary‐treated urban effluents

BACKGROUND In this work, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is utilized to estimate the environmental footprint of solar Fenton oxidation at pilot scale used as a polishing step of secondary-treated urban effluents. All inputs (e.g. natural resources, raw materials, etc.) and outputs (e.g. emissions, etc.) of the process were quantitatively defined and/or estimated. The system under study includes raw materials, energy, land use, chemicals, local transportation needs, and air-/waterborne emissions. RESULTS The main environmental hotspots of this system were identified (i.e. energy consumption and use of chemicals). The environmental sustainability of this technology was found to be high, since its environmental footprint for the treatment of 1 m3 of wastewater was found to be only 8.7 kg CO2/m3, which is approx. 1.6% of the total CO2 emissions of the treatment of the daily effluents of a Cypriot resident. Nevertheless, alternative scenarios were investigated, in order to further enhance its overall environmental performance. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that the majority of the environmental impacts of this process were attributed mainly to indirect emissions, tracing back to electricity generation, followed by the emissions from the chemicals’ used. The most critical improvement identified herein, is the use of a renewable energy source.
Effect of Fertigation Frequency from Subsurface Drip Irrigation on Tomato Yield Grown on Sandy Soil

2 Abstract: Drip irrigation provides an efficient method of fertilizer delivery and allows precise timing and uniform distribution of applied nutrients. Fertilizer application through drip irrigation (fertigation) can reduce fertilizer usage and minimize groundwater pollution due to fertilizer leaching from excessive irrigation. Fertigation events can be scheduled as often as irrigation, up to several times per season. Optimum fertigation interval for drip-irrigated crops in general and for tomato in particular, is meager. A two-year field experiment was conducted on a sandy soil with subsurface drip-irrigated tomato to determine the effects of two N application rates and four-fertigation frequencies (intervals of 1, 3, 7, and 14 days) on tomato yield, N uptake and soil N status. Total tomato yield and yield components were responsive to N rate and to decreased fertigation frequency. The highest total fruit yields averaged (67.75, 65.13 and 63.29 - t/ha) with the frequencies of 1, 3 and 7 days respectively. Yields with the longest duration were significantly lower than these values (54.32 - t/ha). Wide differences in leaves N concentrations were observed in the early vegetative stage which mainly dependent on the rate of N supply. Although these differences gradually disappeared as season progressed, the differences in plant size remained until the end of the season. Similarly, N rate and fertigation frequency resulted in significantly differences in N uptake, N recovery and N use efficiency (NUE). Total N uptake was appreciable higher with increasing N rate and with more frequent than with less frequent fertigation. The averaged N recovery across fertigation frequencies was 60 a nd 54 % and NUE was 221 and 194 kg yield/kg N with 200 and 300 kg N/ha applied respectively. Analysis of soil samples following tomato harvest indicated considerable influence of fertigation frequency on 3 3 NO -N distribution in soil profile. The NO -N in lower soil profiles (50-70 cm soil depth) with the - -
A New Mutation Identified in an Imatinib and Nilotinib Resistant ChronicMyeloid Leukemia Patient

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a heterogeneous disease induced by BCR-ABL oncogene. Since the emergence of Tyrosine kinase inhibitors(TKIs), treatment of CML has been drastically changed. However, resistance and intolerance of TKIs have frequently been reported, especially in advanced-stage patients. The most critical reason for TKIs resistance is point mutations within the ABL1 kinase domain that interfere the binding of ABL1 with TKIs. The types and frequencies of mutations have been reported in different population. In this study, we identified a new mutation A2387G (N796S) within the BCR domain (exon 10) via next generation exon sequencing in an imatinib and nilotinib resistant CML patient.
COMPUTATION OF THE SECOND MAXIMUM PATH WEIGHT IN A MAX-PLUS MATRIX

The problem of efficient computation of all second maximum path weights for a given square matrix A of dimension n in max-plus algebra is solved by computing so-called double power sequence of a specific extension ¯ A of A. An algorithm using this method is presented, by which the second maximum cycle mean value l2(A) can be computed in O(n 4 ) time.
TransDroid: Automatic Client-based Service Evolving in Android Apps

Interoperability is a crucial feature of internetware. One approach to achieve interoperability in existing applications is generating services by analyzing the run-time behavior of the application(client). We call these services a client-based service. However, client-based service relies heavily on the binary code of the original application. Failure may occur when the app updates, especially in top Android applications which is updated frequently. The code obfuscation and dynamic loading make it a very difficult task to evolve service automatically. In response, we have developed TransDroid, a tool that automatically detecting the validity of client-based services and proposing the service evolving plan. We evaluated the correctness and feasibility of the TransDroid on 4 top Android apps chosen from the Google Play Store. In the detecting process, the accuracy rate is 100%, and the recall rate is 85.85% on average. And the accuracy of symbol evolving recommendation in the service evolving plan is 100%.
A New Method for Copyright and Integrity Protection for Bitmap Images by Removable Visible Watermarks and Irremovable Invisible Watermarks*

Nowadays, digital images may be copied or tampered easily, resulting possibly in unauthorized uses or modifications of them. A new method of embedding both removable visible watermarks and irremovable invisible watermarks in BMP images is proposed to solve this problem, which is based on the use of a human visual model and the least-significant-bit replacement technique. The method can be employed to embed visible watermarks in images for direct claim of image ownership. The visible watermark is specially designed and may be removed, whenever necessary, to restore the original image, so that only the watermarked image need be kept to save storage space. On the other hand, irremovable invisible watermarks may also be embedded behind images, which may be extracted to prove the copyright of the images. Furthermore, by checking the existence of watermark signals in images, any tempering of image blocks can be detected and so the image integrity can be verified. Good experimental results prove the feasibility of the proposed method. * This work was supported partially by the Ministry of Education under the Project of Excellency No. 90-E-FA04-1-4.
The Brazilian wage gap between teachers in the public and private sectors across education levels

The two stage wage gap decomposition proposed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009) permits measuring the contribution of observable and unobservable characteristics of the wage gap formation and evolution comparing teachers earnings in the public and private sectors from 2006 to 2016. We found that teachers from the public sector earn more than the ones from the private sector at mean, median and quantile 10 due to the composition effect. The analysis across education levels shows that the composition effect is important to explain the wage gap in Early Childhood Education, while the structure effect is more relevant in the wage gap decomposition in Elementary and High School Education. Key-words: wage gap decomposition; private and public sectors; teachers’ wage
In vivo hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic effects of aqueous extract of Spondias mombin leaves and detoxification of reactive oxygen species in alloxan-induced diabetic rats

The effect of aqueous extract of Spondias mombin leaves extract on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant activity in alloxan induced diabetes was studied. Forty male albino Wistar rats (100-150 g body weight) were used. The rats were randomly selected into four groups containing 10 rats each. Group 1 was the control group and it was placed on normal rat chow. Group 2 was the Spondias mombin (spm) group placed on normal rat chow and given 250 mg/kg extract orally. Group 3 was the alloxan-induced diabetic (150 mg/kg) group (DM) and Group 4 was the diabetic group treated with 250 mg/kg extracts (Dm+spm). At the end of 30 days blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture and used for biochemical analysis. Results obtained revealed that blood glucose level in group 3 (Dm) was significantly higher (p<0.05) than control but the administration of Spondias mombin leaves extract significantly reduced the blood glucose level (p<0.05). Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) were significantly raised in the diabetic group while High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) was significantly reduced (p<0.05). Treatment with extract decreased TC, TG, LDL but significantly increased the HDL level (p<0.05). Lipid peroxidation was increased in the diabetic group and treatment with extract significantly reduced (p<0.05) the level of lipid peroxidation. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities were decreased significantly in the diabetic group. Administration of extracts increased the antioxidant enzymes activities. The result suggests that aqueous extracts of Spondias mombin leaves possess hypoglycemic effects and improve lipid profile of diabetic rats. This effect may be secondary to its ability to reduce oxidative stress. © 2016 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.
Diabetes Mellitus and Vascular Disease An association between diabetes mellitus and circulatory

doi: 10.1111/j.1755-5922.2010. 00166.x In this review we will discuss the cerebrovascular consequences of dysglycemia and current evidence for therapy, making reference to recent work in the fields of neuropathology, epidemiology, and relevant clinical trial data. Prospective observational and clinical trial data show a clear association between diabetes mellitus and vascular disease, which extends to cerebrovascular disease. The benefits of intervention to lower blood glucose in terms of microvascular health are well established but benefit on macrovascular, especially cerebrovascular, health has been less apparent. Recent large-scale trials and metaanalyses have helped us to better define the role of glycemic control in macrovascular disease. Although few studies of glycemic therapy have used cerebrovascular disease as a primary endpoint, stroke-specific data can be derived. Associations between blood glucose and outcome are also apparent for acute stroke. A period of hyperglycemia is common, with elevated blood glucose in the periinfarct period consistently linked with poor outcome in patients with and without diabetes. The mechanisms that underlie this deleterious effect of dysglycemia on ischemic neuronal tissue remain to be established, although in vitro research, functional imaging, and animal work have provided clues. While prompt correction of hyperglycemia can be achieved, trials of acute insulin administration in stroke and other critical care populations have been equivocal. Diabetes mellitus and hyperglycemia per se are associated with poor cerebrovascular health, both in terms of stroke risk and outcome thereafter. Interventions to control blood sugar are available but evidence of cerebrovascular efficacy are lacking. In diabetes, glycemic control should be part of a global approach to vascular risk while in acute stroke, theoretical data suggest intervention to lower markedly elevated blood glucose may be of benefit, especially if thrombolysis is administered. Trials have been underpowered to demonstrate treatment effect and any intervention must be balanced against risk of hypoglycemia.
Physical Activities and Health-related Quality of Life of Individuals Post Stroke

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the physical activities of individuals post-stroke and their HRQL, as well as to determine whether their functional abilities contribute to their amounts of physical activity. METHODS: The study`s subjects included 90 individuals post-stroke. Their amounts of physical activity were measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and their HRQL was measured using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-form Health Survey (SF-36). In addition, the functional abilities of the subjects were measured. For the measures of physical activities and the HRQL, Pearson`s correlation coefficients were used to identify the strengths of the associations between the measures. A hierarchical linear regression model was used to determine whether physical activities had independent impacts on the HRQL. RESULTS: This study found that the physical activities performed by the subjects affected the SF-36 physical component score (PCS) (12%). However, the physical activities and the SF-36 mental component score (MCS) showed no statistically significant relationship, whereas functional abilities and physical activities had a statistically significant relationship (r
Physico-Chemical Properties of Biodiesel from Jatropha and Castor Oils

Biodiesel is becoming prominent among the alternatives to conventional petro-diesel due to economic, environmental and social factors. The quality of biodiesel is influenced by the nature of feedstock and the production processes employed. High amounts of free fatty acids (FFA) in the feedstock are known to be detrimental to the quality of biodiesel. In addition, oils with compounds containing hydroxyl groups possess high viscosity due to hydrogen bonding. American Standards and Testing Materials, (ASTM D 6751) recommends FFA content of not more than 0.5% in biodiesel and a viscosity of less than 6 mm 2 /s. The physico-chemical properties of jatropha and castor oils were assessed for their potential in biodiesel. The properties of jatropha and castor oils were compared with those of palm from literature while that of biodiesel were compared with petro-diesel, ASTM and European Standards (EN14214). Results showed that high amounts of FFA in oils produced low quality biodiesel while neutralized oils with low amounts of FFA produced high quality biodiesel. The quality of biodiesel from jatropha and castor oils was improved greatly by neutralising the crude oils.