Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Principal Component Analysis for Extremes and Application to U.S. Precipitation

We propose a method for analyzing extremal behavior through the lens of a most efficient basis of vectors. The method is analogous to principal component analysis, but is based on methods from extreme value analysis. Specifically, rather than decomposing a covariance or correlation matrix, we obtain our basis vectors by performing an eigendecomposition of a matrix that describes pairwise extremal dependence. We apply the method to precipitation observations over the contiguous United States. We find that the time series of large coefficients associated with the leading eigenvector shows very strong evidence of a positive trend, and there is evidence that large coefficients of other eigenvectors have relationships with El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
Next generation of GIS: must be easy

ABSTRACT Existing GIS software mainly target at expert users and do not sufficiently integrate resources for efficient computing. They are difficult for non-experts to use and are often slow in completing the complicated geographic analysis. To address these problems, future generation of GIS software must be ‘easy’. By ‘easy’ we mean ‘easy to use’ and ‘easy to compute’. ‘Easy to use’ means that software system should be goal-oriented, rather than the currently procedure-oriented doctrine. The goal-oriented will relieve users, particularly novice users, the burden of knowing the exact commands and their sequences to perform for achieving the goal they want to achieve. ‘Easy to compute’ means that implementation of GIS analytical functionality should be able to utilize the high-performance computing infrastructures for complicated geographic analysis. Two case studies, one in digital soil mapping and the other in digital terrain analysis, are presented to illustrate the meaning of ‘easy’. We believe that the future generations of GIS platforms should be goal-driven, intelligent, high-performance computing enabled, easily accessible, and participatory. It allows anyone to participate in geo-computation at anywhere and anytime.
Combined Effects of Fire, Mound-building by Pocket Gophers, Root Loss and Plant Size on Growth and Reproduction in Penstemon-grandiflorus

-A 3-yr study examined how plant size and disturbances by fire and pocket gophers affected patterns of growth and reproduction in 2124 Penstemon grandiflorus plants. A late spring burn significantly reduced the probability of reproducing and the probability of increasing in size class both during the year of the burn and during the following year. Mound-building and tunneling behavior of pocket gophers create areas with sparse vegetation. Plants growing naturally in areas with these pocket gopher disturbances showed no change in the probability of reproducing, but did exhibit a significantly higher probability of increasing in size class, and therefore of reproducing sooner. Plants transplanted into an experimentally devegetated pen from which gophers were excluded exhibited greater rates of subsequent growth and reproduction than plants transplanted into a reference pen (naturally vegetated, gophers also excluded). A root removal experiment, designed to simulate gopher herbivory of roots, showed that root loss did not result in a decrease in rate of flowering or pod production in surviving plants. There was no evidence of a fire x vegetation cover interaction on Penstemon growth and reproduction. However, the effects of fire and gophers on growth and reproduction are mediated by plant size, with small plants being those most effected.
Searching Better Architectures for Neural Machine Translation

Neural architecture search (NAS) has played important roles in the evolution of neural architectures. However, no much attention has been paid to improve neural machine translation (NMT) through NAS approaches. In this work, we propose a gradient-based NAS algorithm for NMT, which automatically discovers architectures with better performances. Compared with previous NAS work, we jointly search the network operations (e.g., LSTM, CNN, self-attention etc) as well as dropout rates to ensure better results. We show that with reasonable resources it is possible to discover novel neural network architectures for NMT, which achieve consistently better performances than Transformer [1], the state-of-the-art NMT model, across different tasks. On WMT’14 English-to-German translation, IWSLT’14 German-to-English translation and WMT’18 Finnish-to-English translation tasks, our discovered architectures could obtain 30.1, 36.1 and 26.4 BLEU scores, which are great improvement over Transformer baselines. We also empirically verify that the discovered model on one task can be transferred to other tasks.
Evaluating the radioactive contaminations of soil samples in some schools of Mosul province: a health detection

In this study, we will investigate the radiation activity of 20 soil samples from five schools in Mosul Province were measured the gamma spectrum by using NaI (TI) Discovery which has dimensions 3*3 crystal. The activity concentrations of naturally occurring of 40K ranged from (310.414±3.40 to 1359.220±1.37) Bqkg−1, 238U reached from (1.035±0.300 to 62.636±0.108) Bq kg−1 and 232Th ranged from (0.583±0.060 to 24.139±0.47) Bq kg−1while the average activity concentration observed 40K was 936.340 ± 3.88 Bqkg−1, 238U was 18.861±0.391 Bqkg−1and 232Th was 5.376 ± 0.312Bqkg−1. The radiological hazard parameters (representative level index, radium equivalent activity, outdoor and indoor dose rates, outdoor and indoor annual effective dose equivalents, and radiation hazard index) were calculated from the radioactivity in the soil. Results of the present work concerning values of radium equivalent activity, outdoor annual effective dose rates, the gamma index, and internal and external hazard indices, all were found to be lower than their corresponding allowed limits given by the world average. The data produced in the present work can be used as baseline radiological data for future investigations.
Design of High-Selective Printed-Ridge Gap Waveguide Filter Using Source–Load and Cross Couplings

In this letter, high-selective bandpass filters, in the printed ridge gap waveguide technology, are presented. The filters are designed to perform 4.68% fractional bandwidth at center frequency <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> = 24.78 GHz. In the proposed filters, to obtain high selectivity, a cross-coupling between the nonadjacent resonators and also a coupling between the input and output ports to create an extra pair of transmission zeros in the transfer function of the filters are used. Finally, the filters are fabricated, and their scattering parameters are measured to verify the simulation results.
Observations on the occurrence of Heterakis gallinarum in laying hens kept on soil

Abstract The occurrence of Heterakis gallinarum infection in a flock of Rhode Island Red laying hens is described. These hens were entirely kept in houses on a farm for commercial egg production, where a deep litter production system was adopted. Faecal samples from 120 hens selected at random were examined by common flotation technique and modified McMaster’s technique. H. gallinarum eggs were detected in 50% of the examined samples with very low faecal egg counts (<50 eggs per gram of faeces). There was no evidence of clinical signs, gross pathological lesions, and consequences on production level linkable to heterakiasis. H. gallinarum is transmitted by direct ingestion of infective eggs from the soil and is one of the most important intestinal helminths of poultry due to the role it plays as vector of histomoniasis. In accordance with European legislation on the welfare of laying hens, a progressively increasing number of farmers can adopt breeding programs on soil. Periodic coprological examinations of chickens reared on commercial farms from areas throughout Italy are thus advisable to determine the exact distribution of H. gallinarum and the extent to which heterakiasis may influence health status and production of chickens in this country.
Impact of O2O platform multihoming and vertical integration on performance of local service firms - a quantile regression approach

This study takes the cinema industry as the research context and investigates the impact of online to offline (O2O) platforms on cinemas' performance. Specifically, the purposes of this paper are threefold: first, to study the influence of platform multihoming on cinemas' performance; second, to examine the interaction impact of platform multihoming and vertical integration; third, to investigate how the influence of platform multihoming varies with cinemas' performance. ,This study collects data from 1918 cinemas in China, employs quantile regressions to estimate the model and test the proposed hypotheses and adopts an instrumental variable method to examine the robustness of our results. ,The findings confirm the positive role of platform multihoming for cinemas' performance. However, when a cinema has low-degree platform multihoming, the cinema's vertical integration is positively associated with its performance; when a cinema has high-degree platform multihoming, the cinema's vertical integration is negatively associated with its performance. Furthermore, results from quantile regressions indicate that low-performance cinemas benefit more than high-performance cinemas from employing platform multihoming strategy. ,This paper extends previous research by investigating the impact of platform multihoming on heterogeneous firms and the impact of interaction between platform multihoming and vertical integration. The findings imply that the impact of platform multihoming on firms' performance depends on firms' performance attributes and their vertical relationships. ,Platform multihoming can be a double-edged sword for local service firms. When multihoming platforms, a local service firm should think about the fit between platforms and its own attributes, and identify the potential conflict between platform relationships and traditional relationships of industrial organization. ,There is a growing interest in understanding platforms' role in the digital economy. The impact of platform participation on local service firms' performance is not sufficiently investigated. Previous research rarely addressed the impact by incorporating local service firms' performance attributes and the existing relationships of industrial organization.
Behavioral Correlates of Male Morphology in a Horned Beetle

Beetle horns have been variously rationalized as nonfunctional allometric growth, antipredator armaments, digging implements, and products of sexual selection, operating through either male-male aggression or female choice (reviews in Eberhard 1979, 1980). Recent analyses have demonstrated that beetle horns can function like the horns and antlers of ungulates, as weapons used by rival males (Eberhard 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981; Palmer 1978; Brown 1980; Brown and Siegfried 1983). Ungulates show a positive relationship between the size of a male's horns and his success in winning aggressive bouts and obtaining mates or resources (Geist 1971; Lincoln 1972). This relationship is still questionable among beetles, since past studies have not controlled for the independent effects of horn and body size. Beetle horns differ from those of mammals in that they remain the same size throughout life. In addition, some species of horned beetles are dimorphic for horn size. "Minor" males have small horns and small bodies, and "major" males have large horns and large bodies. Furthermore, large males tend to have proportionally larger horns than small males, even in species that are not distinctly dimorphic (Otte and Stayman 1979; Eberhard 1982). Past analyses of beetle horn function, although demonstrating that a larger male wins access to a mate, food, or breeding sites over smaller males (Beebe 1944, 1947; Palmer 1978), may simply demonstrate that big males beat small males, not that horns themselves are important. In. this paper we report more-controlled experiments with male forked fungus beetles, Bolitotherus cornutus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). We demonstrate that the relative size of a male's horns is an important determinant of male access to mates but that it does not appear to affect the access to resources.
Chemical nature of feeding stimulants for the juvenile Dover sole, Solea solea (L.)

Juvenile Dover sole, Solea solea, were weaned from a live food, Artemia salina nauplii, on to a casein-based particulate diet flavoured with flesh of the mussel, Mytilus edulis. These fish would not accept an unflavoured casein-based diet but readily ate the diet flavoured with either mussel flesh or a mixture of pure chemicals whose composition was based on an analysis of the low-molecular weight fraction of mussel flesh. The rate of growth and survival over a seventy-seven day period was essentially the same on either of the flavoured diets. The active constituent in the mixture of pure chemicals was identified as glycine betaine for fish of wet weight exceeding 50g while glycine betaine with certain L-amino-acids was required for fish of about 2.5 g wet weight. These results are discussed in relation to the known feeding behaviour and food preferences of the wild Dover sole.
The influence of radiant heat load on reproduction in the Merino ewe. III.* Duration of oestrus, cyclical oestrous activity, plasma progesterone, LH levels and fertility of ewes exposed to high temperatures before mating

The effects of high ambient temperatures on the length of the oestrous cycle, duration of oestrus, ovulation rate, fertility and the levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and progesterone in blood were examined in mature Merino ewes. In experiments 1 and 2, after synchronization of oestrus half the ewes in a group were exposed to hot-room conditions for 6 days prior to the onset of the next expected oestrus. Conditions in the control pen and hot room were, respectively, 22-24°C with vapour pressure 2.10 kPa and 40.0-41 . 5"C, 2.80-3.50 kPa. In experiment 1, blood samples were taken 4-hourly for 2 days before and after expected oestrus, and analysed for LH and progesterone. In expermlent 3, two of three groups of synchronized ewes were exposed to hot-room conditions for days 8-11 inclusive and days 12.5-15.5 inclusive of the oestrous cycle after synchronizing. In all experiments the two heat-treated groups had significantly higher rectal temperatures and respiration rates during treatment than the third (control) group. In experiments 1 and 2 approximately one-third of the heat-treated ewes did not display oestrus, although all ewes in experiment 1 had LH peaks and ovulated. Interference with cyclical oestrous activity was confined to the oestrus immediately after heating. In experiment 2, heat treatment before mating reduced by 30-50% the period that most ewes were receptive to the ram, and one-third did not show oestrus. Ewes heat-treated for 2-3 days immediately before oestrus showed oestrus for a significantly shorter time than those heat-treated between days 8 and 11 of the cycle or controls. Oestrus was completely blocked in 35% of ewes only when heating lasted 6 days and included the critical period immediately before oestrus. If heating was restricted to the critical period, only the duration of oestrus was affected. The oestrous cycle during which treatment was imposed was up to 4 days longer (mean 1.7 days) in most ewes heated prior to oestrus in experiment 1, and by an average of 0.6 day in experiment 2. Progesterone in venous plasma of these heat-treated ewes remained high for longer than in controls, and consequently the LH surge before ovulation was delayed. The fertility of ewes which showed oestrus after heat treatment was not affected, and heated ewes and controls had similar ovulation rates. High temperatures may cause disruption to cyclical oestrous activity by (a) blocking behavioural oestrus, (b) reducing the duration of oestrus, or (c) increasing the length of the oestrous cycle. The severity of such effects depends upon both the duration of heating and on the stage of the oestrous cycle when ewes are exposed. It is suggested that some of the observed disruptions may have a hormonal basis, and possible interference with hormonal or neural mechanisms which determine behavioural oestrus is discussed.
"Naive anatomy" in the Kazakh language world picture in comparison with English and Russian

The article explores the naive and anatomical representations of native speakers of Kazakh in comparison with English and Russian languages. For comparative study, the method of cross-linguistic analysis using descriptors comparison parameters was chosen. Quantitative and qualitative comparison of descriptors allows us to identify common and different signs in the conceptualization of the liver and lungs. The liver, the most important concept of the naive anatomy of the Kazakhs, is the focus of kinship relations, which are the dominant social and clan organization of nomads. The liver is the main organ in Kazakh naive anatomy. It undergoes a multifaceted, versatile conceptualization in this culture. Lungs are a significant component of the naive anatomy of Kazakhs. They appear to be the carriers of exclusively negative emotions and qualities. The naive anatomy of different peoples (Russians, English) reveals common features based on the unity of the physiological and anatomical structure of a person, and features determined by national history and culture. The cross linguistic analysis of vocabulary and phraseology of the Kazakh, English, Russian languages underlines the unique picture of the world of Kazakhs concerning their perception of a liver and lungs.
In-Air Continuous Writing Using UWB Impulse Radar Sensors

We developed an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar-based system that can recognize alphanumeric characters in midair without the need for any handheld device. The hardware consists of four IR-UWB radar sensors set up with a rectangular geometry. Writing a single character in midair results in artifacts that make some characters look similar on a position trajectory-based ( $x$ , $y$ ) plane, which makes them difficult to classify. Thus, we developed an algorithm that transforms 2D coordinate image data into trigonometric ratios (i.e., tangents) and plots them against the time axis to obtain unique images for training a convolutional neural network. An extended Kalman filter is used to obtain the 2D trajectories of hand motions. To evaluate our proposed method, we first applied it to characters that may be written in midair very simply without creating artifacts and compared its performance with that of a state-of-the-art digit classification algorithm. Then, we considered combining characters written midair with and without artifacts. After the individual character recognition, we combined the characters into words. We defined a specific marker based on an energy threshold to detect the start and end of a character for midair writing. The energy level was found to change drastically when the hand is pulled in and out of the radar plane. The proposed method was found to outperform the current state of the art at character classification when artifacts are present in the images.
Periodically alternated metallic/dielectric nanocomposites and dielectric films for the fabrication of high-efficiency Bragg reflectors: a case study

A 183 nm periodic structure including four pairs of Au NPs/SiO2 nanocomposites and SiO2 films was fabricated by repeatedly implanting Au ions into the SiO2 film produced by the radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. Our results reveal that the fabricated periodic structure, although its refractive index variation is only 0.26, can reach a peak reflectivity of 70% at a wavelength of about 550.0 nm. Besides, the peak reflectivity of such structure has been found to be nearly proportional to the number of nanocomposite layers. Our findings could be very helpful to construct small-sized but high-efficiency Bragg reflectors in the large-scale photonic integrated circuits.
Genetic analysis of the avirulence of wheatgrass powdery mildew fungus on common wheat

F1 hybrid cultures between Erysiphe graminis f.sp. agropyri (wheatgrass mildew fungus) and E. graminis f.sp. tritici (wheat mildew fungus) were produced by using a common host of the two formae speciales. When three common wheat cultivars, Triticum aestivum cv. Norin 4, T. aestivum cv. Norin 10, and T. compactum cv. No. 44, were inoculated with a population of F1 cultures, avirulent and virulent cultures segregated in a 3:1 ratio. This indicated that two major genes are involved in the avirulence of E. graminis f.sp. agropyri, Ak-1, on each of the three cultivars. Further analyses revealed that the three pairs of avirulence genes have one gene in common. On T. aestivum cv. Shin-chunaga, T. aestivum cv. Norin 26, and a strain of T. macha, the F1 population segregated in the same pattern as on T. aestivum cv. Norin 4, indicating that the same pair of avirulence genes is operating on these four cultivars. On T. aestivum cv. Red Egyptian the distribution of F1 phenotypes was continuous, suggesting that no maj.
Designing, Facilitating, and Supporting for the Critical Engagement of Self-Reflection, Critical Diaglogue, and Justice-Oriented Teaching.

This article provides a response to the collective body of articles in this issue of Teacher Education Quarterly . It offers a brief discussion of current pressing issues found in the preparation of teacher candidates as they navigate through coursework and field experiences, and the tensions found in their first years of teaching. Included is a discussion about critical critiques, counter pedagogies, and the resistance found in the range of ideas and thoughts in the five articles presented here. A number of considerations surface about dialogic pedagogy, the reconciliation of theory and practice, controversial public issues, community-based clinical placements, race-visable conversations, and maintaining and defending justice-oriented work. This response also points to the work of teacher education programs in creating brave space, normalizing the disruption of teaching as usual, and the capacity for sustainability with the intention of lifelong relationships and development.
Monocular Connected-Vehicle Position Estimation on Sloping and Uneven Roads

Assessing the relative position of surrounding vehicles is a core requirement of autonomous vehicles to make decisions and plan driving trajectories. Many approaches based on monocular vision are designed for flat roads but contain unpredictable errors in some corner cases, such as sloping and uneven roads. In this article, the proposed method focuses on a relative-distance measurement adaptive to rough roads, using monocular vision and the features from connected vehicles. The proposed model takes the perspective-n-point approach as a basic framework. A connected-vehicle network can provide the fixed topology of feature points on the target vehicles for position estimation. The fixed topology replaces the requirement of cameras’ extrinsic parameters, which may change unpredictably on rough roads. The proposed approach is implemented on real vehicles driving on sloping and uneven roads. The results are compared with Mobileye, a widely used product for relative positioning. The experiments take the real-time kinematic GPS as ground truth and show that the proposed method achieves decimeter-level measurements and outperforms Mobileye on sloping and uneven roads. This article also shows great potential to improve environment perception using the connected-vehicle network in the future.