Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unsupervised Gaussian mixture models for the classification of outdoor environments using 3D terrestrial lidar data

The processing of 3D lidar point clouds enable terrestrial autonomous mobile robots to build semantic models of the outdoor environments in which they operate. Such models are interesting because they encode qualitative information, and thus provide to a robot the ability to reason at a higher level of abstraction. At the core of a semantic modelling system, lies the capacity to classify the sensor observations. We propose a two-layer classi- fication model which strongly relies on unsupervised learning. The first, intermediary layer consists of a Gaussian mixture model. This model is determined in a training step in an unsupervised manner, and defines a set of intermediary classes which is a fine-partitioned representation of the environment. The second, final layer consists of a grouping of the intermediary classes into final classes that are interpretable in a considered target task. This grouping is determined by an expert during the training step, in a process which is supervised, yet guided by the intermediary classes. The evaluation is done for two datasets acquired with different lidars and possessing different characteristics. It is done quantitatively using one of the datasets, and qualitatively using another. The system is designed following the standard learning procedure, based on a training, a validation and a test steps. The operation follows a standard classification pipeline. The system is simple, with no requirement of pre-processing or post-processing stages.
Empirical Methods for Predicting Eutrophication in Impoundments. Report 3. Phase II. Model Refinements.

Abstract : Empirical eutrophication models are useful tools for some aspects of reservoir water quality assessment and management. This report modifies existing model structures and parameter estimates to improve their generality and permit application under a wider spectrum of reservoir conditions. A network of models is assembled for predicting reservoir-average concentrations of total phosphorus, total nitrogen, chlorophyll-a, transparency, organic nitrogen, particulate phosphorus, and hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rate (near-dam) as functions of reservoir mean depth, hydraulic residence time, and inflow concentrations of total phosphorus, ortho-phosphorus, total nitrogen, and inorganic nitrogen. Models are tested against several independent lake and reservoir data sets compiled from the literature. An error analysis indicates that the prediction of chlorophyll-a, the most direct measure of eutrophication response, is limited more by variabilities in the biological responses to a given set of nutrient concentrations and other environmental conditions than by uncertainties in predicting pool nutrient levels from external loadings. Inflow available phosphorus concentration and mena depth are shown to explain most of the variance in reservoir tropic state indicators and hypolimnetic oxygen status. Keywords include: Eutrophication; Reservoirs; Reservoir operation; Water quality--measurement; Water quality management.
Improving the impact of amphibian conservation

Enhancing efforts to conserve amphibians will help ameliorate a sixth mass extinction event. In this thesis, I analyse current perceptions of success in amphibian conservation, and review the quantity and content of conservation-related scientific studies with a view to improving conservation impact. Achieving and measuring success is dependent on the way success is defined. Perceptions of success among practitioners and scientists were predominantly associated with improving the status of target species and habitats; specifically stabilising or increasing population trajectories. However, respondents with fewer years of experience view the human dimensions of conservation – such as public education, engagement, and capacity building – to be increasingly more important in defining success. This may have repercussions for interdisciplinary conservation action in the future. Secondly, the availability of relevant literature is crucial for science-based and accountable decision-making. Amphibian research is not meeting conservation needs, particularly in terms of threatened species, prevalent threats such as habitat loss and fragmentation, and studies relevant to conservation management. Improving the impact of conservation action requires the effectiveness of interventions to be tested in diverse contexts. Evidence is unrepresentative geographically, with just 10% of all studies conducted in the tropics, and there is also a deficiency for threatened species. Available evidence is unrelated to the number of amphibian conservation scientists per country. Threat mitigation studies for certain stressors (pollution, exploitation, climate change) is very limited or non-existent, and education and engagement initiatives are poorly represented, restricting understanding of the social dynamics of amphibian conservation. This limits what can currently be deduced about effective conservation practice. An expert assessment of global evidence found that over half of conservation interventions are ineffective and/or harmful, or effectiveness is unknown due to limited evidence. My findings indicate clear directions for future conservation-related research: social aspects of amphibian conservation require greater attention; research should be made more relevant to conservation objectives, focusing on neglected species, threats and approaches to conservation practice; developing increased global collaboration and capacity building is crucial to addressing knowledge gaps, as is generating the necessary funding opportunities; and a culture of evidence-based conservation should be promoted. Improving amphibian conservation impact will require a paradigm shift to enhance interdisciplinary action, increase innovation, and enable this cause to be understood and supported globally by conservation agencies, policy-makers, and funding bodies. This can be achieved through targeted and coordinated action from existing global networks in amphibian conservation science and practice.
A Four-Item Questionnaire to Measure Problematic Social Media Use: The Social Media Disorder Test

While the use of video games and social media is an enjoyable recreational activity for most users, a minority develop problematic patterns of use. In the ICD-11, for the first time, there is a category of “disorders due to addictive behaviors” (including gaming disorder). The scientific literature also suggests a potential for the problematic use of social media. Economic screening tools for this are still needed. A very economical questionnaire to record gaming disorder is the ICD-11-based Gaming Disorder Test (GDT). The purpose of the present survey was to investigate the psychometric properties of an adapted questionnaire (Social Media Disorder Test, SMDT) to assess problematic social media use (PSMU). Therefore, 443 youths (mean age: 20.11 years) were examined with the SMDT and other measures regarding PSMU, self-control, and psychopathology. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability and correlation analyses were conducted. For the SMDT, we observed very good fit indices in the CFA, suggesting a one-factor structure; the reliability coefficient was 0.90, and we found the first indications for criterion validity. If the results can be confirmed, the SMDT, with its four questions, would be a very economical instrument to measure PSMU based on the ICD-11 criteria for behavioral addictions.
Desempenho do satélite sino-brasileiro de recursos terrestres CBERS-2 no mapeamento da cobertura da terra no Distrito Federal, Brasil

The successful launching of two satellites, the assurance of the continuity of the program by the involved federal governments and the availability of its data without costs in the web made the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS-2) an excellent option for optical and medium spatial resolution remote sensing users in several applications. In this study, the CBERS-2 multispectral and multitemporal data from Federal District (FD) of Brazil were processed to analyze their potential to discriminate representative land cover classes. We analyzed 101 samples over representative areas of natural vegetation (grasslands, shrublands and woodlands) and land use (urban areas, reforestations and croplands). Results from this research showed the potential of CBERS-2 data to discriminate land cover classes of FD and a possible limitation to monitor their seasonal variations due to the persistent cloud cover in most of the images acquired in 2005.
Anomaly Detection for Modbus over TCP in Control Systems Using Entropy and Classification-Based Analysis

This article presents a statistical approach using entropy and classification-based analysis to detect anomalies in industrial control systems traffic. Several statistical techniques have been proposed to create baselines and measure deviation to detect intrusion in enterprise networks with a centralized intrusion detection approach in mind. Looking at traffic volume alone to find anomalous deviation may not be enough—it may result in increased false positives. The near real-time communication requirements, coupled with the lack of centralized infrastructure in operations technology and limited resources of the sensor motes, require an efficient anomaly detection system characterized by these limitations. This paper presents extended results from our previous work by presenting a detailed cluster-based entropy analysis on selected network traffic features. It further extends the analysis using a classification-based approach. Our detailed entropy analysis corroborates with our earlier findings that, although some degree of anomaly may be detected using univariate and bivariate entropy analysis for Denial of Service (DOS) and Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, not much information may be obtained for the initial reconnaissance, thus preventing early stages of attack detection in the Cyber Kill Chain. Our classification-based analysis shows that, overall, the classification results of the DOS attacks were much higher than the MITM attacks using two Modbus features in addition to the three TCP/IP features. In terms of classifiers, J48 and random forest had the best classification results and can be considered comparable. For the DOS attack, no resampling with the 60–40 (training/testing split) had the best results (average accuracy of 97.87%), but for the MITM attack, the 80–20 non-attack vs. attack data with the 75–25 split (average accuracy of 82.81%) had the best results.
Analisis Perubahan Makna Gairaigo Dalam Website Marisol

Gairaigo is a type of Japanese vocabulary that comes from a foreign language and then adapted to the Japanese linguistic rules. Along with its development, many gairaigo underwent language changes of meaning compared to its original meaning. This will make Japanese language learners confused because it can lead them to different perception and will result in misinterpretation about the gairaigo meaning. This study aims to describe the semantic change of gairaigo which derived from English on the Marisol website. The type of research is a qualitative research with descriptive method. The data collection technique used in this research is to use watch method and note-taking technique. The data analysis techniques used in this study are match method and determining element sorting technique. The data used in this study is gairaigo which has changed the meaning contained in the Marisol website. The data source is the Marisol website. The result of this study showed that there were 39 data that have semantic change (underwent changes of meaning), there are 14 data whose meanings change broadly, 24 data meanings change to narrow and 1 data have total change in meaning.
Protective Effect of Alpha-Linolenic Acid on Human Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Metastasis and Apoptotic Cell Death

Oral cancer ranks sixth among Taiwan’s top 10 cancers and most patients with poor prognosis acquire metastases. The essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) has been found to diminish many cancer properties. However, the anti-cancer activity of ALA in oral cancer has yet to be determined. We examined the mechanisms underlying ALA inhibition of metastasis and induction of apoptotic cell death in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Migration and invasion assays confirmed the cancer cells’ EMT capabilities, whereas flow cytometry and Western blotting identified molecular pathways in OSCC. ALA dramatically reduced cell growth in a concentration-dependent manner according to the findings. Low concentrations of ALA (100 or 200 μM) inhibit colony formation, the expression of Twist and EMT-related proteins, the expression of MMP2/-9 proteins, and enzyme activity, as well as cell migration and invasion. Treatment with high concentrations of ALA (200 or 400 μM) greatly increases JNK phosphorylation and c-jun nuclear accumulation and then upregulates the FasL/caspase8/caspase3 and Bid/cytochrome c/caspase9/caspase3 pathways, leading to cell death. Low concentrations of ALA inhibit SAS and GNM cell migration and invasion by suppressing Twist and downregulating EMT-related proteins or by decreasing the protein expression and enzyme activity of MMP-2/-9, whereas high concentrations of ALA promote apoptosis by activating the JNK/FasL/caspase 8/caspase 3-extrinsic pathway and the Bid/cytochrome c/caspase 9 pathway. ALA demonstrates potential as a treatment for OSCC patients.
The development of a spatially explicit landscape-scale model of migration and its application to investigate the response of trees to climate change

A spatially explicit model (MIGRATE) was developed to simulate the spread of a single species at the landscape scale. Current models such as forest stand models operate at a very small scale (typically less than one hectare) or at a very large scale as in the case of biome models. The biome models predict the final outcome to environmental change but give no indication as to how this state may be reached or how long it will take. The forest stand Models show how successional changes may occur at a small scale but can not be used to predict changes involving species migrations that occur over tens of kilometres or more. MIGRATE is an attempt at bridging the gap between these two scales of modelling. It incorporates biologically meaningful parameters that have been identified as being the most important factors in determining migration rates and patterns. The two-dimensional version of MIGRATE was applied to the particular problem of the response of trees to changes in both climate and land use. Data from the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology were used in order to create a model landscape that could be considered to represent a real landscape. The use of these data enabled both the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation and the effects of climate change to be explored. The simulation modelling work concentrated on the migration of Tilia cordata since its ecology is particularly well documented and its response to climate well understood. Results from these simulations showed that habitat loss and fragmentation could have a significant effect on the ability of trees to respond to future climatic change. A one-dimensional version of MIGRATE was also developed as a tool for investigating the sensitivity of the model to the values given to its parameters. The palaeoecological record of the response of trees to past climatic change has indicated that they migrated at the remarkably rapid rates of 100 2000 m yr1 (Huntley and Birks, 1983). However, due to difficulties in interpreting the fossil record there are areas of uncertainty regarding the exact nature of their migration. MIGRATE was used to attempt to address the particular question of whether migration occurred as a continuous front or by the establishment of small isolated populations with gradual infilling. Attention is given both in the literature review discussed in Chapter 1 and in the field work described in Chapter 3 to the measurement of propagule dispersal distances since dispersal is believed to have played an important role in facilitating the rapid migration of trees in response to past climatic change.
The effects of weight loss and improved metabolic health status on the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease—results from a prospective cohort in China

Background The impact of weight loss and/or improved metabolic status on the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has yet to be determined. Methods A total of 35,322 participants without NAFLD were followed. NAFLD risk was compared between consistently metabolically healthy non-obese (MHNO) and non-MHNO who lost weight to become non-obese and/or improved their metabolic health, using Cox proportional hazards and logistic regression models. Results Following 148,186 person-years, 8,409 participants had onset NAFLD, with an incidence rate of 56.75 (95% CI: 55.57, 57.94) per 1,000 person-years. Metabolically healthy obese (MHO), metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO), and metabolically unhealthy non-obese (MUNO) at baseline were associated with increased NAFLD risk, with hazard ratios of 4.48 (95%CI:4.24, 4.73), 8.85 (95%CI:7.95, 9.84), and 10.70 (95%CI:9.73, 11.78). Weight loss and/or metabolic status improvements could significantly reduce NAFLD risk by 79.46 to 41.46%. Specifically, after weight loss from MHO to MHNO, the reduction in NAFLD risk [OR decreased from 12.01 (95%CI:9.40, 15.35) to 4.14 (95%CI:3.08, 5.57)] was greater than that of the MUNO subgroup whose metabolic status improved to MHNO [OR decreased from 5.53 (95%CI:5.15, 5.94) to 2.71 (95%CI:2.50, 3.93)]. In the MUO subgroup, the group with the greatest risk reduction of NAFLD was the weight and metabolic state both improvement group [MUO to MHNO, OR decreased from 22.74 (95%CI:17.61, 29.37) to 4.67 (95%CI:3.05, 7.16)], followed by the weight loss only group [MUO to MUNO, OR decreased to 6.83 (95%CI:4.87, 9.57)], and finally the group with the least and insignificant risk reduction was the metabolic state improvement group [MUO to MHO, OR decreased to 13.38 (95%CI:9.17,19.53)]. NAFLD risk was negatively correlated with the duration of improvement (p < 0.001). Conclusion Individuals with non-MHNO were more likely to develop NAFLD than those with consistent MHNO, but metabolic improvements and weight loss can alleviate the risk. Their NAFLD risk was negatively correlated with improvement duration. However, it remained higher than in individuals with consistent MHNO at an average follow-up of 4.2 years.
The Private and Social Benefits of Preparing for Natural Disasters

In this paper we inquire about the consequences of preparing for hurricanes for individuals and the larger community. Are there collective action benefits from individual-level preparation activities; do the actions individuals take to prepare themselves for a pending hurricane have social benefits for the entire community? We identify shadow evacuations – persons evacuating from areas not designated for evacuation–as a significant social cost that might be mitigated by individual preparation for severe weather. We test our hypotheses with data from a survey conducted with residents of Harris County, Texas, after Hurricane Ike in 2008. We find that preparation has a negative effect on personal injury and property damage and that preparation has a significant and negative effect on the likelihood individuals evacuate, especially residents of non-evacuation areas (low risk areas). Our findings have strong implications on how emergency planners and local officials should prepare for and communicate with the public before severe weather episodes.
Ozone depletion at mid‐latitudes: Coupling of volcanic aerosols and temperature variability to anthropogenic chlorine

Satellite observations of total ozone at 40–60°N are presented from a variety of instruments over the time period 1979–1997. These reveal record low values in 1992–3 (after Pinatubo) followed by partial but incomplete recovery. The largest post‐Pinatubo reductions and longer‐term trends occur in spring, providing a critical test for chemical theories of ozone depletion. The observations are shown to be consistent with current understanding of the chemistry of ozone depletion when changes in reactive chlorine and stratospheric aerosol abundances are considered along with estimates of wave‐driven fluctuations in stratospheric temperatures derived from global temperature analyses. Temperature fluctuations are shown to make significant contributions to model calculated northern mid‐latitude ozone depletion due to heterogeneous chlorine activation on liquid sulfate aerosols at temperatures near 200–210K (depending upon water vapor pressure), particularly after major volcanic eruptions. Future mid‐latitude ozone recovery will hence depend not only on chlorine recovery but also on temperature trends and/or variability, volcanic activity, and any trends in stratospheric sulfate aerosol.
Response of Overwintering Caribou to Burned Habitat in Northwest Alaska

Caribou ( Rangifer tarandus granti ) use lichens, when available, as primary forage on their winter range. In boreal forest habitats, wildland fires effectively destroy lichens, and overwintering caribou are known to avoid burned areas for decades while lichen communities regenerate. However, little has been published about caribou response to burned habitat in tundra ecosystems. To assess the relationship between winter caribou distribution and burned areas, we instrumented Western Arctic Herd caribou with satellite telemetry collars and evaluated their locations in relation to recent burns of known age (? 55 years old) across northwestern Alaska. We analyzed caribou distribution for different habitat types (tundra and boreal forest), age categories of burns, and possible edge effects. We also reanalyzed the data, limiting available habitat to a uniform traveling distance (5658 m) from daily satellite locations. Using selection indices that compared caribou use of burns and buffers to their availability, we found that caribou strongly selected against burned areas within the tundra ecosystem. Recent burns were selected against at both large (range-wide) and intermediate (5658 m) spatial scales. Caribou particularly selected against 26- to 55-year-old burns and the interior (core) portions of all burns. We found that caribou were more likely to select burned areas in the late fall and early spring than midwinter. Increased fires in northwestern Alaska could decrease the availability and quality of winter habitat available to the herd over the short term (up to 55 years), potentially influencing herd population dynamics and reducing sustainable harvest levels. We recommend that fire managers consider caribou midwinter range condition and extent: however, management that achieves a mosaic pattern of fire history may benefit a wide array of species, including caribou. A better understanding of the current regional fire regime and the distribution of available winter range will be required before practicable management recommendations can be developed for this herd.