Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical Issues in Weather Forecasting *

Research and operational applications in weather forecasting are reviewed, with emphasis on statistical issues. It is argued that the deterministic approach has dominated in weather forecasting, although weather forecasting is a probabilistic problem by nature. The reason has been the successful application of numerical weather prediction techniques over the 50 years since the introduction of computers. A gradual change towards utilization of more probabilistic methods has occurred over the last decade; in particular meteorological data assimilation, ensemble forecasting and post‐processing of model output have been influenced by ideas from statistics and control theory.
The Phosphoserine Phosphatase Alters the Free Amino Acid Compositions and Fecundity in Cyrtorhinus lividipennis Reuter

The mirid bug Cyrtorhinus lividipennis (Reuter) is an important predator that consumes eggs and young nymphs of the brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens as a primary food source and thus becomes an important member of the rice ecosystem. We identified and characterized the ClPSP gene in C. lividipennis encoding the phosphoserine phosphatase enzyme. The ClPSP has an open reading frame (ORF) of 957 bp encoding a protein with a length of 294bp and it possesses a haloacid dehalogenase-like (HAD) hydrolase, phosphoserine phosphatase, eukaryotic-like (HAD_PSP_eu) conserved domain. Furthermore, the in silico analysis of the ClPSP gene unveiled its distinct characteristics and it serves as a key player in the modulation of amino acids. The ClPSP showed expression in all developmental stages, with higher expression observed in the ovary and fat body. Silencing the ClPSP by RNA interference (RNAi) significantly decreased PSP enzyme activity and expression compared to dsGFP at two days after emergence (2DAE). The dsPSP treatment altered free hemolymph amino acid compositions, resulting in a significant reduction of serine (Ser) and Arginine (Arg) proportions and a significant increase of Threonine (Thr), Cystine (Cys), and Tyrosine (Tyr) in the C. lividipennis female at 2 DAE. Additionally, a hindered total protein concentration in the ovary and fat body, and reduced vitellogenin (Vg) expression, body weight, and number of laid eggs, were also observed. The same treatment also prolonged the preoviposition period and hindered ovarian development. Our data, for the first time, demonstrated the influential role of the PSP gene in modulating the fecundity of C. lividipennis and provide a platform for future insect pest control programs using the PSP gene in modulating fecundity.
Computer recognition of printed Bangla script

This paper considers optical character recognition (OCR) of Bangla, the second most popular script in the Indian subcontinent. A complete OCR system is described for documents of single Bangla font, where more than three hundred character shapes are recognized by a combination of template and feature-matching approach. Here the document image captured by a flatbed scanner is subject to tilt correction, line, word and character segmentation, simple and compound character separation, feature extraction and finally character recognition. Some character occurrence statistics have been computed to aid the recognition process. The simple character recognition is done by a feature-based tree classifier, and the compound character recognition involves a template matching approach preceded by a feature-based grouping. At present, recognition accuracy of about 96% is obtained by the system.
Wear Life Testing of a Mission Critical Separation Interface

This paper covers the wear life validation testing performed for a mission critical separation interface. The test was performed for the purpose of risk reduction, to demonstrate wear life margin prior to performing official qualification testing. The following is an overview of the mechanism, the design rationale of the test equipment and method, the test results, and the lessons learned. In addition to the specifics of the test, the implications of the test data on the design of launch lock mechanisms are discussed
Tempo-Spatial Distributions and Transport Characteristics of Two Dust Events over Northern China in March 2021

The Taklamakan Desert and the Gobi Desert in East Asia constitute the second-largest sources of dust in the world. In particular, dust originating from the Gobi Desert is more susceptible to long-range transport, with consequent impacts in downwind Asian countries and the Northwest Pacific region. Two intensive dust events (the 3·15 dust event and the 3·28 dust event) were experienced in North China in March 2021. The 3·15 dust process was rated as the most intensive dust process in China in the past 10 years. In this study, by using a combination of spaceborne remote sensing datasets from geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, ground-based columnar observations of aerosol optical parameters, meteorological reanalysis data, and backward trajectory simulations of air masses, the transport pathways and the three-dimensional structure characteristics of dust aerosols during the transport of the two dust events in March 2021 were cross-validated. The results of the study indicated that the two dust events were induced by the Mongolian cyclone. Due to the different configurations of the ground meteorological system conditions, a backflow process occurred during the 3·15 dust event transmission process. After passing over North China and the Bohai Sea, the direction of transport of the dust plume was reversed. The wind deflected from northwest to northeast, and the dust reached the eastern coastal areas of China and was finally deposited on land. The 3·28 dust event exhibited aerosol stratification in the transport path, the higher pure dust layer reached up to 9 km height, and the lower layer underwent aerosol mixing and became a polluted dust aerosol. This study implies that the investigation of dust aerosol transport and the deposition processes, the impact on the ocean, and the impact of marine aerosols on land also needs to be taken into consideration; the integration of advanced satellites and ground-based remote sensing data, the meteorological reanalysis data and the backward trajectories simulation, which complemented and verified each other, can enhance the ability to delineate the transport pathways and the three-dimensional structural characteristics of dust events.
Reordering Sets of Parallel Coordinates Plots to Highlight Differences in Clusters

Visualizing high-dimensional (HD) data is a key challenge for data scientists. The importance of this challenge is to properly map data properties, e.g., patterns, outliers, and correlations, from a HD data space onto a visualization. Parallel coordinate plots (PCPs) are a common way to do this. However, a PCP visualization can be arranged in several ways by reordering its axes, which may lead to different visual representations. Many methods have been developed with the aim of evaluating the quality of reorderings of given PCP view. A high-dimensional data set can be divided into multiple classes, and being able to identify differences between the classes is important. Then, besides overlaying the groups in a single PCP, we can show the different groups in individual PCPs in a small multiple fashion. This raises the problem of jointly reordering sets of PCPs to create meaningful reorderings of the set of plots. We propose a joint reordering strategy, based on maximizing the pairwise visual difference in PCPs, such as to support their contrastive comparison. We present an implementation and an evaluation of the reordering strategy to assess the effectiveness of the method. The approach shows feasible in bringing out pairwise difference in PCP plots and hence support comparison of grouped data.
Evaluation of the Efficacy of CPP-ACP Remineralizing Mousse in Molar-Incisor Hypomineralized Teeth Using Polarized Raman and Scanning Electron Microscopy—An In Vitro Study

Remineralization of tooth enamel can be achieved by applying a complex of casein phosphopeptides and amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP). However, the efficacy and optimization of this agent in molar–incisor hypomineralization (MIH) lacks evidence. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of CPP-ACP tooth mousse in remineralizing MIH-affected enamel in an optimized 28-day protocol using polarized Raman microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The protocol was applied to two types of MIH opacities, white and yellow, and compared against sound enamel specimens before and after treatment. Data was analyzed using a one-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc multiple comparisons test (p < 0.05) for the Raman analysis. Hypomineralized enamel showed an improvement of its structure after CPP-ACP supplementation. In addition, Raman spectroscopy results showed a decrease in the depolarization ratio of the symmetric stretching band of phosphate (p < 0.05 for both groups). In conclusion, there was an improvement in mineral density and organization of the hypomineralized enamel after treatment with CPP-ACP tooth mousse.
Effects of Short-Term Salinity Stress on Ions, Free Amino Acids, Na + /K + -ATPase Activity, and Gill Histology in the Threatened Freshwater Shellﬁsh Solenaia oleivora

: Salinity is an important ecological factor affecting the osmolality of aquatic animals. Solenaia oleivora is an endemic and economically important freshwater shellﬁsh in China. However, its osmotic response and osmoregulatory mechanisms under high salinity stress are still unclear. In this study, S. oleivora was exposed to saline water (salinity: 2.2‰) for 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h, and then the changes in osmolality, ion concentrations, free amino acid (FAA) content, Na + /K + -ATPase (NKA) activity, and gill histology were analyzed. The hemolymph osmolality increased from 3 h after salinity stress and stabilized between 24–48 h. Na + in the hemolymph increased from 24 h after salinity stress, and Cl − increased from 3 h. The content of total FAAs in the hemolymph increased after salinity stress. The content of alanine, glycine, glutamine, proline, and other FAAs increased after salinity stress. NKA activity in the gill, hepatopancreases, adductor muscle, and axe foot decreased during 3–48 h of salinity stress. The gill ﬁlament space increased and the number of gill cilia decreased after salinity stress. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the ﬁrst two principal components (PC1 and PC2) cumulatively explained 77.6% of the total variation. The NKA activity was positively associated with PC1, while the ion concentration and most FAAs were negatively associated with PC1. Thus, these results indicated that S. oleivora is an osmoconformer, and inorganic ions, FAA, NKA, and gill structure changes play an important role in its osmoregulation.
Bringing order to consistent truncations using generalised geometry

In this paper we introduce a type of ﬁbre bundle with added structure known as a Courant Algebroids. We aim to show how Courant Algebroids can be used to build the generalised geometry of type II supergravity and how their structure capture the symmetries of their bosonic ﬁelds. We also aim to show that it is possible to characterise whether a Courant Algebroid is parallelisable and how this enables us to predict consistent truncations on theories of gravity constructed using them.
Novel Cognitions in Allelopathy: Implications from the “Horizontal Natural Product Transfer”

Whereas the translocation of allelochemicals between plants is well established, a related general transfer of genuine specialized metabolites has not been considered so far. The elucidation of the so-called “Horizontal Natural Product Transfer” revealed that alkaloids, such as nicotine and pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are leached out from decomposing alkaloid-containing plants (donor plants), are indeed taken up by the roots of plants growing in the vicinity (acceptor plants). Further studies demonstrated that phenolic compounds, such as coumarins or stilbenes, are also taken up by acceptor plants. Contemporary analyses from co-cultivation experiments outlined that natural products are not exclusively transferred from dead and rotting donor plant materials, but also from vital plants. In analogy to xenobiotics, the imported specialized metabolites might also be modified within the acceptor plants. As known from the uptake of xenobiotics, the import of specialized metabolites is also generally due to a simple diffusion of the substances across the biomembranes and does not require a carrier. The uptake depends in stricto sensu on the physicochemical properties of the certain compound. This article presents a current overview of the phenomenon of “Horizontal Natural Product Transfer” and discusses its relevance for our understanding of allelopathic interactions. The knowledge that specialized metabolites might in general be readily translocated from one plant into others should significantly contribute to our understanding of plant–plant interactions and—in particular—to the evolution of typical allelopathic effects, such as inhibition of growth and germination of potential competitors.
The Effect of Foreign Capital Inflows on Economic Growth in Nigeria

: Foreign capital inflows are major forms of resource transfer from the developed to the developing countries where they are usually found to be more productive and the result can be positive or negative. Hence, the work set out to empirically investigate the effect of foreign capital inflows and some selected macroeconomic variables on economic growth in Nigeria. The study applied the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model on time series data for the period, 1981-2020. The findings from the paper indicate that foreign capital inflows: FDI, Gross fixed capital formation and personal remittances have significant impact on real gross domestic product in Nigeria. Consequently, the study recommends that government should continue to fine tune bilateral trade and investment agreements with other nations of the world.
Spectral evolution of young stellar objects

An evolutionary sequence, from protostars to pre-main sequence stars, for the classification of young stellar objects is derived by comparing the predictions of the theoretical protostar models of Adams and Shu (AS, 1986) with the morphological classification scheme of Lada and Wilking (1984). It is shown that the AS models adequately explain the emergent spectral energy distributions of unidentified objects with negative spectral indices in the mid-IR and near-IR in both Taurus and Ophiuchus. If the infalling dust envelope is then completely removed, the spectra of the underlying stars and nebular disks used by AS provide a natural explanation for the near-IR and mid-IR excesses and the positive spectral indices of embedded T Tauri stars. It is found that the addition of a simple physical model for residual dust envelopes can reproduce the far-IR excesses found in some of these T Tauri stars. 80 references.
Novel erbium-doped fiber for high-power applications

A novel erbium doped fiber (EDF) designed for high power WDM applications is presented. The fiber design and performance versus numerical aperture and cutoff wavelength are described based on an advanced EDFA model. The optical and spectral characteristics of the high power fiber are shown. Experimental measurement results of this fiber and comparison with typical commercially available EDFs are given. Performance results show that the new EDF is ideal for high power EDFA applications. It features high power conversion efficiency at high pump power, especially with 980nm pumping, extremely flat gain shape, very low splice loss to typical pigtail fibers, and negligible macro-bending loss.
Feasibility of Intratumoral Anti-PD1 as Treatment of Human Basal Cell Carcinoma: An Explorative Study with Adjuvant Ablative Fractional Laser

Simple Summary The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is expanding with the approval for locally advanced and metastasizing keratinocyte carcinoma. Most cases, however, are non-aggressive. Systemic therapy remains limited by severe side effects. Local administration could broaden ICI, but an adequate immune response might require an immune-attractive adjuvant such as ablative fractional laser (AFL). Accordingly, aiming to broaden the field of ICI to keratinocyte carcinoma, this study investigates the intratumoral injection of anti-PD1 with and without AFL in basal cell carcinoma (BCC), exploring anti-PD1 concentration, immune cell infiltration, tumor response, and safety. With the results of the study showing the feasibility of intratumoral anti-PD1 and increase in immune cell infiltration and tumor reduction upon combined anti-PD1 and AFL, local, hence broader, application of anti-PD1 holds potential for future treatment of non-aggressive keratinocyte carcinomas. Abstract The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is expanding with the approval for advanced/metastatic keratinocyte carcinoma; however, most tumors are non-aggressive. Local administration could broaden ICI, but adequate immune response might require an immune-attractive adjuvant such as ablative fractional laser (AFL). Accordingly, this study aimed to explore intratumoral injection of anti-PD1 with and without AFL in basal cell carcinoma (BCC), exploring anti-PD1 concentration, immune cell infiltration, tumor response, and safety. This open-label, proof-of-concept trial investigated intratumoral anti-PD1 + AFL combination therapy versus anti-PD1 or AFL monotherapy in 28 BCC patients. The primary endpoints were immune cell infiltration evaluated immunohistochemically and clinical tumor response after 3 months. The secondary outcomes were tumoral drug concentration and safety. The most robust response was obtained following intervention with combined anti-PD1+AFL, leading to a ~2.5-fold increase in CD3+ cells (p = 0.027), and tumor reduction ≥25% in 73%, including two tumors with complete remission. Upon anti-PD1 monotherapy, a slight decrease in CD3+ cells was observed while a non-significant increase following AFL was seen. Tumor reduction ≥25% was seen in 45% and 50%, respectively, after anti-PD1 and AFL monotherapy. The CD8/CD3 ratio remained unchanged after anti-PD1+AFL and anti-PD1 monotherapy, while AFL led to a decreased ratio. A non-significant decline in the Foxp3/CD3 ratio was observed for all groups. Side-effects were mild with no systemic drug concentration detected. Intratumoral anti-PD1 injection is feasible, and a single exposure to locally injected anti-PD1 with adjuvant AFL increased immune cell infiltration and reduction in BCC with limited side-effects.
Towards Inductive Learning of Domain-Specific Heuristics for ASP

Domain-specific heuristics are a crucial technique for the efficient solving of problems that are large or computationally hard. Answer Set Programming (ASP) systems support declarative specifications of domain-specific heuristics to improve solving performance. However, such heuristics must be invented manually so far. Inventing domain-specific heuristics for answer-set programs requires expertise with the domain under consideration and familiarity with ASP syntax, semantics, and solving technology. The process of inventing useful heuristics would highly profit from automatic support. This paper presents a first step in this direction. We use Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) to learn declarative domain-specific heuristics from examples stemming from (near-)optimal answer sets of small but representative problem instances. Our experimental results indicate that the learned heuristics improve solving performance and solution quality when solving larger, harder problem instances.
A Dialogue Dataset Containing Emotional Support for People in Distress

—Many people suffer from emotional distress due to many reasons, such as signiﬁcant life change, ﬁnancial crisis, or various physical and mental health conditions. Inability to regulate emotion can potentially lead to self-destructive behavior such as substance abuse, self-harm, or suicide. Even though many helplines and therapeutic consultations are available to assist such people in distress, most people do not reach for help due to the public and personal stigma associated with mental health. Even therapeutic consultations are limited and are not available 24/7 to support people going through a traumatic episode. Therefore, it is important to assess the ability of AI-driven chatbots to help people deal with emotional distress. One of the signiﬁcant limitations in developing such a chatbot is the lack of a large, curated dialogue dataset containing emotional support. This work curates a dataset containing two million emotional dialogues from Reddit and analyzes it at the lexical, sentiment, and emotional level. In this paper, we outline the data selection and curation process and the important observations made related to sentiment and emotion in speaker and listener turns of the resulting dataset. This dataset is expected to help build future chatbots that could offer emotional support for people in distress.
The dependency of geoengineered sulfate aerosol on the emission strategy

The climatic effect of geoengineered stratospheric sulfate aerosol depends on the strategy for sulfur emission that determines the microphysical evolution of the resulting sulfate layer, in particular the radius and radiative impact of the aerosols. Simulations with a three‐dimensional general circulation model (GCM), including an aerosol microphysical model, show e.g. decreasing sulfate lifetime with increasing emission rate. Furthermore, scenarios that differ with respect to location, local and temporal distribution and chemical composition of the emissions are studied. The study shows detailed information on particle radius, sulfate burden and radiative impact for these scenarios. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society
In vivo continuous glucose monitoring using a chip based near infrared sensor

Diabetes is a serious health condition considered to be one of the major healthcare epidemics of modern era. An effective treatment of this disease can be only achieved by reliable continuous information on blood glucose levels. In this work we present a minimally invasive, chip-based near infrared (NIR) sensor, combined with microdialysis, for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor principle is based on difference absorption spectroscopy in the 1st overtone band of the near infrared spectrum. The device features a multi-emitter LED and InGaAs-Photodiodes, which are located on a single electronic board (non-disposable part), connected to a personal computer via Bluetooth. The disposable part consists of a chip containing the fluidic connections for microdialysis, two fluidic channels acting as optical transmission cells and total internally reflecting mirrors for in- and out-coupling of the LED light to the chip and to the detectors. The sensor is combined with an intraveneous microdialysis to separate the glucose from the cells and proteins in the blood and operates without any chemical consumption. In vitro measurements showed a linear relationship between glucose concentration and the integrated difference signal with a coefficient of determination of 99 % in the relevant physiological concentration range from 0 to 400 mg/dl. In vivo measurements on 10 patients showed that the NIR-CGM sensor data reflects the blood reference values adequately, if a proper calibration and signal drift compensation is applied. The MARE (mean absolute relative error) value taken over all patient data is 13.8 %. The best achieved MARE value is at 4.8 %, whereas the worst is 25.8 %, with a standard deviation of 5.5 %.