Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ground‐based microwave ozone radiometer measurements compared with Aura‐MLS v2.2 and other instruments at two Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change sites

[1] Ozone measurements made by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board the Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura Satellite are compared with measurements made by ground-based microwave radiometers (MWR) in the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) stations at Lauder, New Zealand (45°S, 169°E) and Mauna Loa, Hawaii (20°N, 204°E). The latter instruments measure ozone over the pressure range 56 to 0.03 hPa (about 20 to 72 km), allowing validation of ozone to the upper range of the MLS profiles. In addition, because they operate continuously, separate daytime and nighttime comparisons with MLS can be made to account for the large diurnal variations of ozone in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. MLS-MWR comparisons show agreement generally within 5% between 24 and 0.04 hPa (about 26 to 70 km) and 5 to 13% elsewhere. To more thoroughly investigate ozone in the stratosphere and mesosphere and establish a consensus between different sets of measurements, comparisons, and analyses with other satellite-borne instruments, including the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE-II), Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), and Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), are also made, using the ground-based microwave measurements as a reference. The resulting MLS-consensus difference profiles remove some of the features present in the MLS-MWR comparisons and indicate that the overall agreement between MLS and the correlative data, between 56 and 0.04 hPa, is mostly within 5% at both sites.
Using a business simulator with elements of machine learning to develop personal finance management skills

Any person, not even a financier, should be knowledgeable in the field of personal finance management. As a result of the survey, it was concluded that schoolchildren and students should be interested in the study of personal finance, even within other disciplines in the form of separate sections. Successful personal experience and knowledge of the teacher in the field of personal finance is an important component of the effectiveness of the formation of competence of pupils, students, and adults in the field of personal finance. Business simulators come in handy here. That is why the authors developed a business simulator for the development of personal finance management skills, which was developed in the form of a web service. The main features of this simulator, which are presented in different sections of the simulator, are considered. It is shown what skills of personal finance management are developed using this business simulator. Since this simulator was designed to develop personal finance management skills, an attempt was made to apply machine-learning elements to make this business simulator work even better. The proposed simulator can be used in the future to teach the elements of personal finance management to people who are not sufficiently knowledgeable in the field of such finance. Moreover, the web application can be useful even for school-age children, so the simulator can complement the educational process within the economic courses not only in higher education institutions but also in secondary education institutions of Ukraine.
Orbital, ice-sheet, and possible solar forcing of Holocene lake-level fluctuations in west-central Europe: A comment on Bleicher

Bleicher (2013) discussed interpretations proposed by Magny (2004) that Holocene lake-level fluctuations in west-central Europe suggest possible solar forcing of climate. He pointed out that the method used by Magny (2004) is a variant of a cumulative probability function (CPF) and cannot prove solar forcing of central European lake-level changes. He concluded that only few episodes of lake-level changes are climatically driven and that non-climatic factors were dominating. While Bleicher’s paper offers a stimulating contribution to the general debate on CPFs, the present comment is based on an approach which, in contrast to CPFs, excludes any consideration of variations in the probabilities over the time intervals given by calibration of 14C dates, as well as any distinction between types of dates (radiocarbon versus tree ring). It produces a revised pattern of the mid-European high lake-level events for the whole Holocene, supporting the hypothesis proposed in Magny (2004). Comparisons with other regional and North Atlantic palaeoclimatic records suggest that, without excluding other forcing factors, the successive high lake-level events recognised in west-central Europe reflect a combination of three main forcing factors acting on millennial and centennial scales, i.e. orbitally driven changes in insolation, impacts of deglacial outbursts and, possibly, variations in solar activity. Finally, it is clear that further investigations are still needed in order to improve the chronological data set for mid-European lake-level fluctuations, with particular attention to better defining the beginning and end of events.
The geochemical characteristics of granitoids in contrasting arcs and comments on magma sources

Geochemical variations in modern subduction-related igneous suites with respect to arc ‘maturity’ in time and space are illustrated using data for both volcanic suites (basalt, andesite and dacite) and intrusive granitoid suites (diorite, tonalite/granodiorite and granite) from circum-Pacific arcs. Using trace element data we suggest that two groups of processes control the natural variation in the parental magmas of both suites: (a) subduction-zone enrichment of lithospheric mantle, locally coupled with crustal assimilation allied with fractional crystallization (AFC) in zones of thickened crust, all of which yield magmas with enhanced concentrations of the large-ion lithophile (LIL) elements K, Rb, Th, U, LREEs, etc; (b) with increasing distance from the active trench, contributions from within-plate sub-continental lithosphere producing mantle-derived magmas with enhanced levels of high-field strength (HFS) elements, among which Nb, Ta, Hf and Y are particularly distinctive. Thus, even for the evolved granitoids of intrusive arc series, ratios of HFS/LIL elements not significantly affected by crystal fractionation, such as (Ta, Nb)/(K, Rb, La), may throw some light on the origin of mafic-intermediate precursor magmas. In terms of these elements we suggest the following groupings for interpreting the tectonic associations of granitoid suites. 1. Primitive, calcic arc granitoids with low LIL and HFS element abundances. 2. Normal, calc-alkaline continental arc granitoids with enhanced LIL element abundances and low HFS/LIL ratios. 3. Mature alkali-calcic arc granitoids with high levels of LIL and HFS elements and higher HFS/LIL ratios. 4. Back-arc/anorogenic alkaline granitoids with the highest levels of HFS elements.
Athena: a resource for rapid visualization and systematic analysis of Arabidopsis promoter sequences

SUMMARY To better understand the regulatory networks that control plant gene expression, tools are needed to systematically analyze and visualize promoter regulatory sequences in Arabidopsis thaliana. We have developed the Athena database, which contains 30,067 predicted Arabidopsis promoter sequences and consensus sequences for 105 previously characterized transcription factor (TF) binding sites. Athena provides four novel tools to facilitate the analysis of promoter sequences: a promoter visualization tool to enable the rapid inspection of key regulatory sequences in multiple promoters; a TF binding site enrichment tool to identify statistically over-represented TF sites occurring in a user-selected subset of promoters; a data-mining tool to rapidly select promoter sequences containing the specified combination of TF binding sites; and a tool to display the distribution of TF binding site positions in a selected set of promoter sequences.
Reconstruction of Recent and Late Quaternary oceanographic conditions in the Eastern South Atlantic Ocean based on calcareous- and organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts

32 surface sediment sampies from the Southem Ocean (eastem Atlantic sector), between the Subtropical Front and the Weddell Gyre, were investigated to provide information on the distribution of modem organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts in relation to the oceanic fronts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. A clearly distinguishable distribution pattem was observed in relation to the water masses and fronts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The dinoflagellate cysts of species characteristic of open oceanic environments, such as Impagidinium species, are highly abundant around the Subtropical Front, whereas South of this front, cosmopolitan species such as Nematosphaeropsis labyrinthus and the cysts of Protoceratium reticulatum characterise the transition from Subtropical to Subantarctic surface waters. The Subantarctic surface waters are dominated by the cysts of heterotrophie dinoflagellates, such as Protoperidinium spp. and Selenopemphix antarctica. The cysts of Protoperidinium spp. form the dominant part of the assemblages around the Antarctic Polar Front, whereas Selenopemphix antarctica concentrations increase further to the south. The presence of S. antarctica in sediments of the Maud Rise, a region of seasonal sea-ice cover, reflects its tolerance for low temperatures and sea-ice cover. A previously undescribed species, Cryodinium meridianum gen. nov. sp. nov., has a restricted distribution pattem between the Antarctic Polar Front and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current -Weddell Gyre Boundary.
Dayside magnetic topology at the Earth's magnetopause for northward IMF

[1] When the Interplanetary Magnetic Field is northward, magnetic reconnection occurs at the Earth's high latitude magnetopause in regions poleward of the Earth's magnetospheric cusps. Observations at the high latitude magnetopause appear to support reconnection poleward of both northern and southern hemisphere cusps, forming closed field lines in the magnetosheath. However, observations at the dayside low latitude magnetopause and in the low altitude cusp do not support this reconnection scenario. Using plasma and magnetic field data from the Cluster spacecraft, signatures of reconnection poleward of both cusps were investigated as a function of latitude. It was found that reconnection in at least one hemisphere occurs essentially all the time for northward IMF. This investigation also confirmed the apparent discrepancy between high and low latitude observations. A scenario for reconnection in both cusps whereby the field line reconnected poleward of one cusp convects away from the dayside magnetopause before reconnecting in the opposite hemisphere is consistent with observations at all latitudes.
Weak Security Notions of Cryptographic Unkeyed Hash Functions and Their Amplifiability

Cryptographic unkeyed hash functions should satisfy preimage resistance, second-preimage resistance and collision resistance. In this article, weak second-preimage resistance and weak collision resistance are defined following the definition of weak one-wayness. Preimage resistance is one-wayness of cryptographic hash functions. The properties of weak collision resistance is discussed in this article. The same kind of results can be obtained for weak second-preimage resistance. Weak collision resistance means that the probability of failing to find a collision is not negligible, while collision resistance means that the success probability is negligible. It is shown that there really exist weakly collision resistant hash functions if collision resistant ones exist. Then, it is shown that weak collision resistance is amplifiable, that is, collision resistant hash functions can be constructed from weakly collision resistant ones. Unfortunately, the method of amplification presented in this article is applicable only to a certain kind of hash functions. However, the method is applicable to hash functions based on discrete logarithms. This implies that collision resistant hash functions can be obtained even if the discrete logarithm problem is much easier than is believed and only weakly intractable, that is, exponentiation modulo a prime is weakly one-way.
The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization

The gecekondu are the shantytowns of Turkey. This study by Kemal Karpat investigates within a broad historical, conceptual and comparative framework the migration and urbanization of the people of these settlements. It is based on personal interviews with people living in three gecekondu in the northern hills of Istanbul, along the Bosporus. The gecekondu are considered here as a part of the entire process of rural migration and urbanization - and so of the transformation of the economic, political, social and cultural order in the Third World nations. Special emphasis has been placed on the historical factors that undermined the traditional social structure in the third world and freed a large number of people for migration and resettlement, and also on the impact of the gecekondu upon the home villages. The author draws on several academic points of view - economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, history - and, himself a native Turk, brings a long acquaintance with that land and its people to this study of an institution whose importance has been largely unrecognized.
A Bayesian approach to jointly estimate tire radii and vehicle trajectory

High-precision estimation of vehicle tire radii is considered, based on measurements on individual wheel speeds and absolute position from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The wheel speed measurements are subject to noise with time-varying covariance that depends mainly on the road surface. The novelty lies in a Bayesian approach to estimate online the time-varying radii and noise parameters using a marginalized particle filter, where no model approximations are needed such as in previously proposed algorithms based on the extended Kalman filter. Field tests show that the absolute radius can be estimated with millimeter accuracy, while the relative wheel radius on one axle is estimated with submillimeter accuracy.
HYDROPERIOD CLASSIFICATION OF CERVANTES COOLIMBA COASTAL WETLANDS USING LANDSAT TIME SERIES IMAGERY

Geomorphic classification of wetlands relies on information regarding landform and hydroperiod. Additional attributes of wetland size, vegetation cover and salinity can be collected for lower order classification. Hydroperiod is important in determining features that characterize the ecological function of the wetland. This study examines how Landsat time series imagery was used to describe the hydroperiod of wetlands along the coastal zone between Cervantes to Coolimba in Western Australia. Inundation extent maps were derived using 17, Landsat Band 5 images captured between 1988 and 2011. The number of times a wetland basin was more than 10 % inundated was then calculated. This inundation frequency dataset was then the basis for hydroperiod classification. Wetlands were classified as being permanently inundated if they had more than 10% inundation in 12 or more of the 17 images available (approximately 70%). A Landsat image captured 2 weeks prior to field work was used to determine Band 5 thresholds to identify areas of inundation and assess classification accuracy. Field measurements of surface water cover, depth, secchi depth, vegetation cover and salinity were taken across 16 plots located close to inundation boundaries. The accuracy of the inundation maps was highly dependent on the degree of vegetation cover. Mapping accuracy was heavily influenced by vegetation cover and achieved an overall accuracy of 87.5%. The resulting hydroperiod datasets provides an accurate record of inundation frequency which can be used to aid classification of wetlands and also allows changes to inundation frequency over time to be assessed.
Plants, Animals, And People: Agropastoral Systems Research

Part 1 A decade of research in the SR-CRSP sociology project, Constance M. McCorkle. Part 2 Agropastoral systems - form and functioning: integration versus conflict - crops and goats in Piura, Peru, Avi Perevolotsky the role of goats in agropastoral production systems of the Brazilian Sertao, George Primov range-animal ecology and agropastoralism in Morocco's Western High Atlas mountains, Lloyd Mendes and Hamid Narjisse the agropastoral dialectic and the organization of labour in a Quechua community, C.M. McCorkle the social organization of production in community-based agropastoralism in the Andes, Maria E. Fernandez. Part 3 Agropastoral systems change and development: The impact of alfalfa introduction on common field agropastoral regimes - Quechua villagers in south-western Peru, David W. Guillet outreach pilot project - small ruminant research and extension in West Java, Paula Bilinsky and Mark Gaylord women, men, goats and bureaucrats - the Samia Women's Dairy Goat Project, Amanda Noble population pressure and changing agropastoral management strategies in Western Kenya, W.Thomas Conelly the transformation of the Kenyan agrarian sector - the case of Western Kenya, Nkonge Mbabu.
Detección de cluster espaciales de cáncer pediátrico en los municipios de la Región de Murcia

El objetivo de este trabajo es la identificación de agrupaciones o cluster de municipios con elevada incidencia de Cáncer Pediátrico en la Región de Murcia. Para alcanzar este objetivo se utilizan diversas técnicas estadísticas englobadas bajo el nombre de Análisis exploratorio de datos espaciales. El principal obstáculo para la obtención de resultados fiables radica en la baja incidencia de la enfermedad que se acentúa con el pequeño nivel de desagregación espacial en el que se analiza la información. Así, en primer lugar se plantea en problema de la inestabilidad de la varianza y con el fin de salvar este obstáculo se plantean diversas alternativas. Los resultados de nuestros análisis muestran en todos los casos la ausencia de spatial cluster (zonas calientes) en la Región de Murcia.
Hierarchical Control of Situated Agents through Natural Language

When humans perform a particular task, they do so hierarchically: splitting higher-level tasks into smaller sub-tasks. However, most works on natural language (NL) command of situated agents have treated the procedures to be executed as flat sequences of simple actions, or any hierarchies of procedures have been shallow at best. In this paper, we propose a formalism of procedures as programs, a method for representing hierarchical procedural knowledge for agent command and control aimed at enabling easy application to various scenarios. We further propose a modeling paradigm of hierarchical modular networks, which consist of a planner and reactors that convert NL intents to predictions of executable programs and probe the environment for information necessary to complete the program execution. We instantiate this framework on the IQA and ALFRED datasets for NL instruction following. Our model outperforms reactive baselines by a large margin on both datasets. We also demonstrate that our framework is more data-efficient, and that it allows for fast iterative development.
People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management With Local Communities

National parks, wildlife reserves, and other types of protected areas are at the forefront of efforts to conserve biological diversity. But many protected areas are in crisis. Already underfunded, these areas have come under increasing pressure from the expanding scale of human activities outside - and sometimes inside - their boundaries. Conflicts of interest have thus arisen in many areas of the world between protected areas and local people. Traditional approaches to park management and enforcement activities have been unable to balance these competing objectives. In response, a new set of initiatives has been launched. These projects attempt to ensure the conservation of biological diversity by reconciling the management of protected areas with the social and economic needs of local people. The smaller projects include biosphere reserves, multi-use areas, and a variety of initiatives on the boundaries of protected areas, including buffer zones. Larger projects include the implementation of regional land use plans with protected area components, as well as large-scale development projects with links to nearby protected areas. This study looks at the early experiences of 23 such projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The report explores the social, ecological, technical, and institutional issues that arise from these attempts to link protected area management with local development.
The timing of Robin migration in Belgium as shown by ringing recoveries

1079 recoveries of Robins ringed in Belgium and 86 records of Robins with a foreign ring recovered in Belgium, were analysed. Birds were ringed in the period 1927–1982. In Belgium, autumn migration starts with the departure of local birds from the last week of August onwards. Foreign Robins migrate through Belgium from mid‐September until mid‐November (with a peak in the first half of October). In the period December to mid‐March few movements occur. In spring, Robins migrate through Belgium from mid‐March onwards. Most of them pass in the first half of April. Few migrant Robins are observed in May. The timing of migration found in this study coincides very well with the results of a field study of a Robin population in the north of Belgium, and with the results of several other studies elsewhere in Europe.
Animating and Rendering Virtual Humans - Extending X3D for Real Time Rendering and Animation of Virtual Characters

In this paper, we focus on the different aspects of real time visualization and animation of realistic virtual characters. The common goal was to come up with solutions based on the concepts of the open ISO standard X3D and if necessary to propose generalized extensions to the standard. First we describe the high level control language PML and its implementation, which is also suitable for non-graphics experts. Then we focus on realistic rendering, how X3D must be extended to allow special effects and realization of novel rendering algorithms, including skin and emotion rendering. Next we explain the challenges of dynamics related to virtual characters covering play-back and blending of pre-defined animations, online simulation of locomotion and last but not least hair simulation.