Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of regional improvement in global climate models for agricultural impact research

Global climate models (GCMs) have become increasingly important for climate change science and provide the basis for most impact studies. Since impact models are highly sensitive to input climate data, GCM skill is crucial for getting better short-, medium- and long-term outlooks for agricultural production and food security. The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 ensemble is likely to underpin the majority of climate impact assessments over the next few years. We assess 24 CMIP3 and 26 CMIP5 simulations of present climate against climate observations for five tropical regions, as well as regional improvements in model skill and, through literature review, the sensitivities of impact estimates to model error. Climatological means of seasonal mean temperatures depict mean errors between 1 and 18 ° C (2–130% with respect to mean), whereas seasonal precipitation and wet-day frequency depict larger errors, often offsetting observed means and variability beyond 100%. Simulated interannual climate variability in GCMs warrants particular attention, given that no single GCM matches observations in more than 30% of the areas for monthly precipitation and wet-day frequency, 50% for diurnal range and 70% for mean temperatures. We report improvements in mean climate skill of 5–15% for climatological mean temperatures, 3–5% for diurnal range and 1–2% in precipitation. At these improvement rates, we estimate that at least 5–30 years of CMIP work is required to improve regional temperature simulations and at least 30–50 years for precipitation simulations, for these to be directly input into impact models. We conclude with some recommendations for the use of CMIP5 in agricultural impact studies.
Mystery of Mosul Dam the most Dangerous Dam in the World: The project

Mosul Dam is an earthfill multipurpose dam. It is located on the River Tigris in northwestern Iraq. The dam is 3.65 km long and its crest elevation is at 341 m above sea level. The storage capacity at normal operation level (330 m above sea level) is 11.11km 3 . The work to build the dam started on 25 th January, 1981 and finished on 24 th July, 1986. The total cost of the development was estimated at 2.6 billion US$. The foundation of the dam lies on the Fatha Formation. This formation is composed of alternating beds of marls, limestone, gypsum and claystone. It is highly karstified, which has which created a lot of problems during the construction, impounding and operation phases.
A Theory of Exchange Rate Determination

This paper develops an equilibrium model of the determination of exchange rates and prices of goods. Changes in relative prices of goods, due to supply or demand shifts, induce changes in exchange rates and deviations from purchasing power parity. These changes may create a correlation between the exchange rate and the terms of trade, but this correlation cannot be exploited by the government to affect the terms of trade by foreign exchange market operations.
Trends in Mediterranean gridded temperature extremes and large-scale circulation influences

Abstract. Two recently-available daily gridded datasets are used to investigate trends in Mediterranean temperature extremes since the mid-20th century. The underlying trends are found to be generally consistent with global trends of temperature and their extremes: cold extremes decrease and warm/hot extremes increase. This consistency is better manifested in the western part of the Mediterranean where changes are most pronounced since the mid-1970s. In the eastern part, a cooling is observed, with a near reversal in the last two decades. This inter-basin discrepancy is clearer in winter, while in summer changes are more uniform and the west-east difference is restricted to the rate of increase of warm/hot extremes, which is higher in central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean over recent decades. Linear regression and correlation analysis reveals some influence of major large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on the occurrence of these extremes – both in terms of trend and interannual variability. These relationships are not, however, able to account for the most striking features of the observations – in particular the intensification of the increasing trend in warm/hot extremes, which is most evident over the last 15–20 yr in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.
Coupling mechanisms of insulin secretion - roles of mitochondrial metabolism and cAMP.

Popular Abstract in Swedish Typ 2 diabetes ar en sjukdom som okar lavinartat i vastvarlden. Dess framsta kannetecken ar insulinresistens och defekter i insulinsekretion. Insulinresistens ar kopplat till fetma, och framtrader ofta langt innan man utvecklar typ 2 diabetes. Nar man blir insulinresistent kompenseras detta av att betacellerna i de langerhanska oarna i bukspottskorteln producerar mer insulin, vilket leder till hyperinsulinemi. Detta tillstand behover inte utgora en riskfaktor i sig sjalv, manga utvecklar allvarlig insulinresistens och hyperinsulinemi utan att nagonsin fa typ 2 diabetes. Emellertid har vissa personer betaceller som inte klarar av att oka produktionen av insulin tillrackligt mycket for att kompensera for insulinresistensen, nagot som kan orsakas av genetiska faktorer. Detta leder till hyperglykemi, vilket ar definitionen pa diabetes. For att kunna behandla diabetes maste man klarlagga vilka defekter i betacellerna som orsakar den forsamrade insulinutsondringen. Syftet med den har avhandlingen var att undersoka mekanismer for insulinutsondring, och speciellt att utrona vad som kopplar glukosstimulering av betacellen till insulinutsondring. Vi har upptackt att anapleros via pyruvatkarboxylas ar nodvandigt for bade forsta och andra fasen i glukosstimulerad insulinfrisattning, och att det formodligen sker genom en okning av ATP/ADP ration. Vidare har vi funnit att uttrycket av PDK1 ar uppreglerat i INS-1 832/13 celler som odlats i hoga glukoskoncentrationer, och att hamning av PDK1 forbattrar insulinutsondringen. Bada dessa upptackter visar att mitokondriell metabolism ar viktigt for insulinutsondring, och tyder pa att olika kretslopp for pyruvat ar inblandat. Vi har ocksa visat att PKA-signalering stimuleras av glukos, och att inhibering av PKA leder till forsamrad insulinsekretion i INS-1 832/13 celler. (Less)
ON THE APPLICABILITY OF RESOURCES OPTIMIZATION MODEL FOR MITIGATING FREE RIDING IN P2P SYSTEM

The survival of peer-to-peer systems depends on the contribution of resources by all the participating peers. Selfish behavior of some peers that do not contribute resources inhibits the expected level of service delivery. Free riding has been found to seriously affect the performance and negates the sharing principle of peer-to-peer networks. In this paper, first, we investigate through simulations the effectiveness of a proposed linear model for mitigating free riding in a P2P system. Second, we extended the initial linear model by incorporating additional constraints on download and upload of each peer. This helps in reducing the effects of free riding behavior on the system. Lastly, we evaluate the impacts of some parameters on the models. Keywords: Peer-to-Peer, Resources, Free rider, Optimization, Constraints, Algorithm
Research on Edge Detection in License Plate Recognition

In traditional recognition system of license plate, the problem is the low recognition rate caused by inaccurate segmentation. This paper proposes a novel adaptive edge detection segmentation algorithm based on first-order differential operator to solve this problem, it can detect the edge of object in vehicle images from complex Keywords-Edge detection, image segmentation, locate license plate, imaging processing
Intelligent Cooperative Adaptive Weight Ranking Policy via dynamic aging based on NB and J48 classifiers

The increased usage of World Wide Web leads to increase in network traffic and create a bottleneck over the internet performance. For most people, the accessing speed or the response time is the most critical factor when using the internet. Reducing response time was done by using web proxy cache technique that storing a copy of pages between client and server sides. If requested pages are cached in the proxy, there is no need to access the server. But, the cache size is limited, so cache replacement algorithms are used to remove pages from the cache when it is full. On the other hand, the conventional algorithms for replacement such as Least Recently Use (LRU), First in First Out (FIFO), Least Frequently Use (LFU), Randomised Policy, etc. may discard essential pages just before use. Furthermore, using conventional algorithms cannot be well optimized since it requires some decision to evict intelligently before a page is replaced. Hence, this paper proposes an integration of Adaptive Weight Ranking Policy (AWRP) with intelligent classifiers (NB-AWRP-DA and J48-AWRP-DA) via dynamic aging factor. To enhance classifiers power of prediction before integrating them with AWRP, particle swarm optimization (PSO) automated wrapper feature selection methods are used to choose the best subset of features that are relevant and influence classifiers prediction accuracy. Experimental Result shows that NB-AWRP-DA enhances the performance of web proxy cache across multi proxy datasets by 4.008%,4.087% and 14.022% over LRU, LFU, and FIFO while, J48-AWRP-DA increases HR by 0.483%, 0.563% and 10.497% over LRU, LFU, and FIFO respectively. Meanwhile, BHR of NB-AWRP-DA rises by 0.9911%,1.008% and 11.5842% over LRU, LFU, and FIFO respectively while 0.0204%, 0.0379% and 10.6136 for LRU, LFU, FIFO respectively using J48-AWRP-DA.
Taylor’s Power Law for Leaf Bilateral Symmetry

Leaf shape and symmetry is of interest because of the importance of leaves in photosynthesis. Recently, a novel method was proposed to measure the extent of bilateral symmetry in leaves in which a leaf was divided into left and right sides by a straight line through the leaf apex and base, and a number of equidistant strips were drawn perpendicular to the straight line to generate an equivalent number of differences in area between the left and right parts. These areal differences are the basis for a measure of leaf bilateral symmetry, which was then examined to see how well it follows Taylor’s power law (TPL) using three classes of plants, namely, 10 geographical populations of Parrotia subaequalis (H.T. Chang) R.M. Hao et H.T. Wei, 10 species of Bambusoideae, and 10 species of Rosaceae. The measure of bilateral symmetry followed TPL for a single species or for a class of closely related species. The estimate of the exponent of TPL for bamboo plants was significantly larger than for the dicotyledonous trees, but its goodness of fit was the best among the three classes of plants. The heterogeneity of light falling on branches and leaves due to above-ground architectural patterns is an important contributor to leaf asymmetry.
The island status of clausal complements: Evidence in favor of an information structure explanation

Abstract The present paper provides evidence that suggests that speakers determine which constructions can be combined, at least in part, on the basis of the compatibility of the information structure properties of the constructions involved. The relative “island” status of the following sentence complement constructions are investigated: “bridge” verb complements, manner-of-speaking verb complements and factive verb complements. Questionnaire data is reported that demonstrates a strong correlation between acceptability judgments and a negation test used to operationalize the notion of “backgroundedness”. Semantic similarity of the main verbs involved to think or say (the two verbs that are found most frequently in long-distance extraction from complement clauses) did not account for any variance; this finding undermines an account which might predict acceptability by analogy to a fixed formula involving think or say. While the standard subjacency account also does not predict the results, the findings strongly support the idea that constructions act as islands to wh-extraction to the degree that they are backgrounded in discourse.
Upper bounds on the performance of discretisation in reinforcement learning : research article

Reinforcement learning is a machine learning framework whereby an agent learns to perform a task by maximising its total reward received for selecting actions in each state. The policy mapping states to actions that the agent learns is either represented explicitly, or implicitly through a value function. It is common in reinforcement learning to discretise a continuous state space using tile coding or binary features. We prove an upper bound on the performance of discretisation for direct policy representation or value function approximation.
Usage of Enzyme Substrate to Protect the Activities of Cellulase, Protease and α-Amylase in Simulations of Monogastric Animal and Avian Sequential Total Tract Digestion

Cellulase from Aspergillus niger, (a-amylase from Bacillus sp. and protease from Bacillus globigii were used as enzyme sources in this study to examine how their respective substrates protect them in two kinds of simulated gastrointestinal tract digesting processes. Avian total digest tract simulation test showed that filter paper, Avicel and cellulose resulted in 7.7, 6.4 and 7.4 times more activity than of unprotected cellulose, respectively. Protease with addition of casein, gelatin or soybean protein showed no significant protection response. Starch protected amylase to be 2.5 times activity of the unprotected one. Monogastric animal total tract digestion simulation test showed that filter paper, Avicel and cellulose resulted in 5.9, 9.0 and 8.8 times activity of unprotected cellulase, respectively. Casein, gelatin and soybean protein resulted in 1.2, 1.3 and 2.0 times activity of unprotected protease, respectively. Starch did not protect amylase activity in monogastric animal total tract simulation. Protection of mixed enzymes by substrates in two animal total tract simulation tests showed that filter paper in combination with soybean protein resulted in 1.5 times activity of unprotected cellulose, but all substrates tested showed no significant protection effect to protease. Soybean protein and starch added at the same time protected the amylase activity to be two times of the unprotected one. Test of non-purified substrate protection in two animal total digest tract simulation showed that cellulase activity increased as BSA (bovine serum albumin) concentration increased, with the highest activity to be 1.3 times of unprotected enzyme. However, BSA showed no significant protection effect to protease. Amylase activity increased to 1.5 times as BSA added more than 1.5% (w/v). Cellulase activity increased to 1.5 times as soybean hull was added higher than 1.5%. Amylase had a significant protection response only when soybean hull added up to 2%. Protease activity was not protected by soybean hull to any significant extent.
The Philosophical Assumptions, Utility and Challenges of Asset Mapping Approaches to Community Engagement

This literature review is a discussion of asset-based approaches to community engagement. Following a literature search, we identified several asset mapping approaches: Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD); Participatory Inquiry into Religious Health Assets, Networks and Agency (PIRHANA); Community Health Assets Mapping for Partnerships (CHAMP); the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA); Planning for Real® and approaches using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These approaches are framed by assumptions about ‘assets’, ‘needs’, and ‘community’ and their associated community engagement methods that may be influenced by dynamics related to conflict, competition and language. We conclude that asset mapping approaches derive their value from their capacities to support partnership building, consensus creation, and community agency and control.
The effects of wine consumption on cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors: a narrative review

Accumulating evidence suggests that regular moderate consumption of wine can positively influence risk factors associated with cardiovascular health. These effects are often attributed to grape and wine-derived phenolic compounds and their effects on risk factors such as atherosclerosis, for which mechanisms have been clearly identified, such as a decrease in the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol and reduction of oxidative stress, and an increase in nitric oxide and related restoration of endothelial function. In addition, the ethanol component of wine increases HDL-cholesterol, inhibits platelet aggregation, promotes fibrinolysis and reduces systemic inflammation. Scientific research needs to be conducted, however, before we can begin to provide science-based dietary recommendations, although there is sufficient evidence to generally recommend consuming food sources rich in bioactive compounds such as wine in moderation. This narrative review examines published evidence on the cardioprotective effects associated with wine-derived compounds, with a primary focus on the development and progression of atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
PET/CT in der Strahlentherapie

Zusammenfassung Das therapeutische Konzept einer suffizienten Strahlentherapie ist die Applikation einer ausreichend hohen therapeutischen Dosis im anvisierten Zielvolumen bei gleichzeitiger maximaler Schonung des umgebenden Normalgewebes. Es zeigt sich jedoch mehr und mehr, dass die traditionellen Anatomie-basierten Schnittbildgebungen (CT, MRT) die Tumorausdehnung häufig über- oder unterbewerten. Seit der Einführung der Positronen-Emissions-Tomografie (PET) in die klinische Routine wird angestrebt, die morphologische Basis der Bestrahlungsplanungs-CT durch die funktionellen Informationen der PET zu ergänzen und somit zu einer biologisch funktionellen Bestrahlungsplanung zu gelangen. Durch eine präzise Koregistrierung der funktionellen, metabolischen Daten mit den für die Bestrahlungsplanung erforderlichen anatomischen Informationen aus den CT-Aufnahmen kommt die PET/CT-Technik den Anforderungen der Hochpräzisionsbestrahlung entscheidend entgegen. Klinische Studien bei nahezu allen Tumorentitäten zeigen einen erheblichen Einfluss der PET/CT auf die Konturierung der Zielvolumina. Erhebliche Änderungen zeigen sich in 20 % bis über 50 % der Fälle gegenüber rein CT-basierten Konturierungen. Im Folgenden haben wir die wesentlichen Daten in Bezug auf Staging und Zielvolumendefinition und soweit vorhanden auf Therapieansprechen zusammengefasst.
Uncertainty management and the dynamic adjustment of deep decarbonization pathways

Contrary to ‘static’ pathways that are defined once for all, this article deals with the need for policy makers to adopt a dynamic adaptive policy pathway for managing decarbonization over the period of implementation. When choosing a pathway as the most desirable option, it is important to keep in mind that each decarbonization option relies on the implementation of specific policies and instruments. Given structural, effectiveness, and timing uncertainties specific to each policy option, they may fail in delivering the expected outcomes in time. The possibility of diverging from an initial decarbonization trajectory to another one without incurring excessive costs should therefore be a strategic element in the design of an appropriate decarbonization strategy. The article relies on initial experiences in France and Germany on decarbonization planning and implementation to define elements for managing dynamic adjustment issues. Such an adaptive pathway strategy should combine long-lived incentives, like a pre-announced escalating carbon price, to form consistent expectations, as well as adaptive policies to improve overall robustness and resilience. We sketch key elements of a monitoring process based on an ex ante definition of leading indicators that should be assessed regularly and combined with signposts and trigger values at the subsector level. Policy relevance These research questions are of special interest and urgency following the Paris Agreement in 2015. It calls on all countries to monitor the implementation of their national contributions and review their ambition regularly. The regular revision of decarbonization pathways constitute a great research opportunity to gather experiences on decarbonization pathway implementation and on dynamic management issues to progress towards an operational dynamic adaptive policy pathway mechanism.
Generation of Useful Hydrocarbons and Hydrogen during Photocatalytic Decomposition of Acetic Acid on CuO/Rutile Photocatalysts

The presented studies have focused on a photocatalytic generation of useful hydrocarbons, mainly methane and ethane, from acetic acid under N 2 atmosphere. CuO-loaded rutile, as well as unmodified rutile and anatase-phase T i O 2 photocatalysts were applied in the experiments. The efficiency of the catalysts towards methane generation changed in the following order: Cu- T i O 2 (10% Cu) > crude T i O 2 ≈ C u - T i O 2 (20% Cu) > Cu- T i O 2 (5% Cu) > rutile. The amount of C H 4 produced in the presence of the catalyst containing 10 wt% of Cu was higher for ca. 33% than in case of pure rutile. The concentration of ethane was 14–16 times lower than the amount of methane, regardless of the catalyst used. Low concentrations of hydrogen were also detected in the gaseous mixtures. After 5 hours of the process conducted with the catalyst containing 5–20 wt% of Cu the concentration of hydrogen amounted to 0.06–0.14 vol.%, respectively.
A review of the spectral, pseudo‐spectral, finite‐difference and finite‐element modelling techniques for geophysical imaging

Modelling methods are nowadays at the heart of any geophysical interpretation approach. These are heavily relied upon by imaging techniques in elastodynamics and electromagnetism, where they are crucial for the extraction of subsurface characteristics from ever larger and denser datasets. While high‐frequency or one‐way approximations are very powerful and efficient, they reach their limits when complex geological settings and solutions of full equations are required at finite frequencies. A review of three important formulations is carried out here: the spectral method, which is very efficient and accurate but generally restricted to simple earth structures and often layered earth structures; the pseudo‐spectral, finite‐difference and finite‐volume methods based on strong formulation of the partial differential equations, which are easy to implement and currently represent a good compromise between accuracy, efficiency and flexibility and the continuous or discontinuous Galerkin finite‐element methods that are based on the weak formulation, which lead to more accurate earth representations and therefore to more accurate solutions, although with higher computational costs and more complex use. The choice between these different approaches is still difficult and depends on the applications. Guidelines are given here through discussion of the requirements for imaging/inversion.
CONSTRUCTIVE INTERPRETATION WITH EXAM- PLES FROM INTERPRETING FLOOR PLANS

This paper describes the role that interpretation plays in facilitating situated design and presents an implementation that demonstrates a system interpreting floor plans. Designers often see more in what they produce than they intentionally put there. Cognitive studies suggest that this helps develop design ideas. Interpretation is described as the use of expectations to construct an internal representation of an external representation (such as a sketch). An implementation of this notion of interpretation is described. As an example of its capability the system, primed on floor plans, looks at a randomly generated image and can find a floor plan within it. The system produces different results with the same image if it has different expectations. This is used to discuss the notions of a space of possible designs and the two-way relationship between expectations informing interpretation and interpretation changing the expectations (design ideas) of a designer. Further work is suggested and the ideas are discussed.