Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Body Mass Estimates in Extinct Mammals from Limb Bone Dimensions: the Case of North American Hyaenodontids

The body mass estimation of several limb bone dimensions (shaft cross‐sectional properties, articular sizes, and bone lengths) were examined using bivariate linear regression analyses. The sample included taxonomically and behaviourally diverse small to medium‐sized Recent carnivorans and carnivorous marsupials. All examined limb bone dimensions indicated low errors (percentage standard error of estimate, 8–13) for the body mass estimations. Among them, humeral and femoral shaft properties correlated best with body weight, while limb bone lengths gave larger errors. Both humeral and femoral head dimensions have relatively large individual variations, and distal humeral articular dimensions seem to be influenced more by phylogenetic differences. The regressions based on each locomotor group gave slightly lower errors than those based on the total pooled sample. The results were then applied to hyaenodontid creodonts from the Eocene–Oligocene of North America. The estimated body masses (kg) are: Arfia, 5.4–9.5; Prototomus, <6.0; Pyrocyon, 2.6; Sinopa, 1.3–1.4; Tritemnodon, 7.6–13; Prolimnocyon, 1.6; Thinocyon, 0.7–2.5; Machaeroides, 12; Limnocyon, 7.8– 16; Hyaenodon, 9.1–43. The various limb bone dimensions give different body mass values, but the variation in estimates is smaller compared to those derived from dental or cranial measurements.
The exceptional advances of the Muldrow, Black Rapids, and Susitna glaciers

Muldrow Glacier in Alaska advanced extremely rapidly during the winter of 1956–1957, with surface movements of ice amounting to over 6.6 km. This flow was accompanied by a pronounced lowering of the surface of the upper portion of the glacier by 170 m, or more, with a corresponding rise in surface ice levels in the terminal portion; the net exchange of ice is roughly computed to be equal. No other glacier in the region showed evidence of a similar movement during the same period. However, the Black Rapids Glacier in 1937, the Yanert in 1942, and the Susitna in 1953 did make advances of a similar nature. Unusual medial moraines indicate that at least two of these glaciers have previously alternated between stagnation and sudden, brief movements. No evidence was found to suggest short-term climatic conditions favorable to large snow accumulation on these glaciers prior to their advances. Correlation between local earthquakes and these ice movements is also lacking. Evidence does indicate that these advances result from critical dynamic conditions met with in certain glacier systems favoring long periods of stagnation followed by sudden displacements of ice.
Estimation of Aquifer Parameters Under Transient and Steady State Conditions: 3. Application to Synthetic and Field Data

The last paper of this three-part series illustrates and explores various features of the methodology we have proposed in papers 1 and 2 (J. Carrera and S. P. Neuman, this issue (a, b)) by applying it to a synthetic test case and to a set of field data from the southwestern United States. In addition to demonstrating the ability of our method to estimate model parameters under a variety of conditions, the synthetic example is used to investigate the relative worth of transient and steady state data in terms of their ability to bring about an improvement in the quality of the estimates. A similar investigation is performed with regard to the role that prior information may play in reducing the variance of the estimation errors. The paper demonstrates the potential utility of our inverse methodology to the optimum design of observation and measurement networks in space and time. Based on a synthetic example, the paper shows that the model structure identification criteria introduced in paper 1 (J. Carrera and S. P. Neuman, this issue (a)) can be used successfully to choose the best parameter zonation pattern among a number of given alternatives. In particular, a criterion due to R. L. Kashyap (1982) is found to be the most adequate for this purpose because it responds in the most convincing manner to noise in the data. The field example illustrates a case where one must account for temporal autocorrelation between water level data at a given observation point. By validating the model against data which have not been used for parameter estimation, one finds that the validation results improve when the temporal error structure of the water level data is represented by a lag-one autocorrelation model. Both the synthetic and the field examples are used to obviate the advantages of performing the analysis of the estimation errors in the eigenspace instead of the original parameter space and to relate the results of this analysis to the fundamental questions of identifiability, uniqueness, and stability where appropriate.
Helium, argon and carbon isotopic compositions in diamonds and their implications in mantle evolution.

Helium and argon isotopic data of diamonds suggest that the mantle where diamonds crystallised has remained almost a closed system for most of the Earth's history. The 3He/4He–3He evolution diagram implies that at least two diamonds studied are nearly as old as the Earth. Carbon isotopic compositions of the stones studied varied from -3.3 to -29.7‰, while older diamonds show less deviation from the generally considered average δ13C for diamonds.
An interactive region merging method

The paper presents a novel region merging method based on the interactive information from users. An image firstly is partitioned into homogeneous regions by using an initial segmentation and the regions will be label by taking an interactive scheme. In this scheme, the users only roughly specify the position and main features of the object and background, then any region will belong to non-label region or label region i.e. object or background. A similarity rule is used to guide the merging process with the help of the users' markers. And then the object of interest is extracted from the image. Experiment results show that the proposed method is efficient for us to extract the object of interest from the complex background.
Modelling the potential range of the koala at the Last Glacial Maximum: future conservation implications

The koala Phascolarctos cinereus is the only member of the once diverse marsupial family Phascolarctidae to have survived the Last Glacial Maximum. A climate envelope model for P. cinereus was developed to predict the range for this species at present and at the Last Glacial Maximum. The model was compared to the contemporary koala records and the known fossil records of P. cinereus during the Quaternary.The predicted current core range for koalas was concentrated in southeast Queensland, eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria. At the Last Glacial Maximum their predicted core range contracted significantly to southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. Our findings concord with other studies that find species experienced range contractions during glacial maxima. In the context of the future conservation planning for koalas in the wild, our historical perspective demonstrates the past adaptations of koalas to changes in climate and their probable range contraction to climatic refugia.The future survival of wide-ranging specialist species, such as the koala, may depend on identifying and protecting, future climatic refugia.
Comparison of two methods for evaluating image quality of chest radiographs

The Imix radiography system (Oy Imix Ab, Finland) consists of an intensifying screen, optics, and a CCD camera. An upgrade of this system (Imix 2000) with a red-emitting screen and new optics has recently been released. The image quality of Imix (original version), Imix 2000, and two storage-phosphor systems, Fuji FCR 9501 and Agfa ADC70 was evaluated in physical terms (DQE) and with visual grading of the visibility of anatomical structures in clinical images (141 kV). PA chest images of 50 healthy volunteers were evaluated by experienced radiologists. All images were evaluated on Siemens Simomed monitors, using the European Quality Criteria. The maximum DQE values for Imix, Imix 2000 Agfa and Fuji were 11%, 14%, 17% and 19%, respectively (141 kV, 5 (mu) Gy). Using the visual grading, the observers rated the systems in the following descending order: Fuji, Imix 2000, Agfa, and Imix. Thus, the upgrade to Imix 2000 resulted in higher DQE values and a significant improvement in clinical image quality. The visual grading agrees reasonably well with the DQE results; however, Imix 2000 received a better score than what could be expected from the DQE measurements.
The Curling Number Conjecture

Given a finite nonempty sequence of integers S, by grouping adjacent terms it is always possible to write it, possibly in many ways, as S = X Y^k, where X and Y are sequences and Y is nonempty. Choose the version which maximizes the value of k: this k is the curling number of S. The Curling Number Conjecture is that if one starts with any initial sequence S, and extends it by repeatedly appending the curling number of the current sequence, the sequence will eventually reach 1. The conjecture remains open, but we will report on some numerical results and conjectures in the case when S consists of only 2's and 3's.
Hybrid modelling approach to prairie hydrology: fusing data-driven and process-based hydrological models

Abstract Much of the prairie region in North America is characterized by relatively flat terrain with many depressions on the landscape. The hydrological response (runoff) is a combination of the conventional runoff from the contributing areas and the occasional overflow from the non-contributing areas (depressions). In this study, we promote the use of a hybrid modelling structure to predict runoff generation from prairie landscapes. More specifically, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is fused with artificial neural networks (ANNs), so that SWAT and the ANN module deal with the contributing and non-contributing areas, respectively. A detailed experimental study is performed to select the best set of inputs, training algorithms and hidden neurons. The results obtained in this study suggest that the fusion of process-based and data-driven models can provide improved modelling capabilities for representing the highly nonlinear nature of the hydrological processes in prairie landscapes. Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor L. See
Microplot Sampling of Fire Behavior on Populus tremuloides Stands in North-Central Colorado

Fire behavior research has traditionally used whole burns as sampling units. Numerous burns were required to quantify relationships between pre-burn descriptors, fire behavior, and fire effects. Recent studies have used small plots within burns (called microplots) as the sampling units. This study measured pre-burn descriptors and fire behavior on 0.75-m2 microplots in two Populus tremuloides Michx. burns in north-central Colorado. Microplot estimates of woody fuels, spread rate, and area burned were comparable with measurements from whole burns. Two methods of estimating fire intensity on microplots produced inconsistent results. Juniperus communis L. patches burned more intensely and released more heat than herbaceous areas. Duff characteristics were the most useful pre-burn descriptors for predicting area burned, spread rate, flame length, and total heat release. Microplot sampling on two bums enabled us to relate variability in fire behavior to pre-burn characteristics and to obtain replicate estimates of these relationships.
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk

Considerable advances have occurred in recent years in the scientific knowledge of the benefits of breastfeeding, the mechanisms underlying these benefits, and in the clinical management of breastfeeding. This policy statement on breastfeeding replaces the 1997 policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics and reflects this newer knowledge and the supporting publications. The benefits of breastfeeding for the infant, the mother, and the community are summarized, and recommendations to guide the pediatrician and other health care professionals in assisting mothers in the initiation and maintenance of breastfeeding for healthy term infants and high-risk infants are presented. The policy statement delineates various ways in which pediatricians can promote, protect, and support breastfeeding not only in their individual practices but also in the hospital, medical school, community, and nation.
Simulating the dissolution of a complex dense nonaqueous phase liquid source zone: 2. Experimental validation of an interfacial area–based mass transfer model

A multiphase flow–aqueous phase transport numerical model (DNAPL3D‐MT) is developed to simulate the dissolution of complex source zones containing both pooled and residual dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs). The multiphase flow model (DNAPL3D) is coupled to the aqueous species transport code (MT3D) via a flexible mass transfer function, which can employ the local equilibrium assumption or the single–boundary layer expression for rate‐limited dissolution either incorporating a lumped (correlation function) coefficient or explicitly accounting for the interfacial area (IFA) between the fluids. For the latter, this work employs the thermodynamically based Explicit IFA Submodel (Grant and Gerhard, 2007), which provides IFA as a function of saturation and saturation history. A bench‐scale experiment is presented involving the complete, natural dissolution of a DNAPL source zone emplaced by a point source release into heterogeneous porous media. DNAPL3D‐MT simulations of the experiment, involving no calibration to results, are compared with the observed evolution of both (1) measured downgradient dissolved phase concentrations and (2) DNAPL source zone configuration. The model, employing a mass transfer expression equipped with the Explicit IFA Submodel, simulates the experiment more accurately than when equipped with either a local equilibrium assumption or a published empirical correlation expression. Sensitivity simulations indicate that this model validation is sensitive to a number of the key assumptions in the Submodel derivation except one: the relationship between interfacial area and residual DNAPL saturations. The employed assumption of a single mass transfer coefficient value is supported by an analysis of the evolution of Peclet numbers throughout the DNAPL source zone, which reveals that the low hydraulic gradient employed resulted in diffusion‐dominated mass transfer conditions throughout the experiment. This study suggests that simulations of global mass flux from complex DNAPL source zones are sensitive to the interrelationship of rate‐limited mass transfer and groundwater velocity (and thus aqueous phase relative permeability and DNAPL saturation) at the local scale.
Measurement of Non-Tariff Barriers

For governments, the advantage of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) to trade is that their effects are more certain than for tariffs. Now that tariff barriers have been substantially reduced, there has been increasing interest in the ways that non-tariff barriers (NTBs) may distort and restrict international trade. This working paper assesses currently available methods for quantifying NTBs. Calculation of the tariff equivalent of a given NTB for a given economic indicator is complex, and requires a great deal of information. Measures that are equivalent for one indicator will not be so for others, and there is no substitute for NTB-specific expertise . Barrieres non tarifaires L’avantage, pour les gouvernements, des barrieres non tarifaires au commerce (BNT), est que leurs effets sont plus certains que ceux des droits de douane. Les manieres dont les BNT peuvent entrainer un effet de distorsion et de restriction du commerce international suscitent un interet croissant depuis la reduction substantielle des barrieres tarifaires. Ce document de travail analyse les methodes actuellement disponibles qui permettent d’evaluer quantitativement les BNT. Le calcul du droit de douane equivalent a une BNT donnee, pour un indicateur economique donne, est complexe et necessite un grand nombre d’information. Des mesures equivalentes pour un indicateur ne le seront pas pour d’autres, et rien ne peut remplacer les connaissances techniques d’un type specifique de BNT .
The Surface Rupture and Slip Distribution of the 17 August 1999 İzmit Earthquake (M 7.4), North Anatolian Fault

The 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake occurred on the northern strand of the North Anatolian fault zone. The earthquake is associated with a 145-km-long surface rupture that extends from southwest of Duzce in the east to west of Hersek delta in the west. Detailed mapping of the surface rupture shows that it consists of five segments separated by releasing step-overs; herein named the Hersek, Karamursel-Golcuk, Izmit-Sapanca Lake, Sapanca-Akyazi, and Karadere segments from west to east, respectively. The Hersek segment, which cuts the tip of a large delta plain in the western end of the rupture zone, has an orientation of N80°. The N70°-80°E-trending Karamursel-Golcuk segment extends along the linear southern coasts of the Izmit Gulf between Karamursel and Golcuk and produced the 470-cm maximum displacement in Golcuk. The northwest-southeast-striking Golcuk normal fault between the Karamursel-Golcuk and Izmit-Sapanca segments has 2.3-m maximum vertical displacement. The maximum dextral offset along the Izmit-Sapanca Lake segment was measured to be about 3.5 m, and its trend varies between N80°E and east-west. The Sapanca-Akyazi segment trends N75°-85°W and expresses a maximum displacement of 5.2 m. The Karadere segment trends N65°E and produced up to 1.5-m maximum displacement. The Karadere and Sapanca-Akyazi segments form fan-shape or splaying ruptures near their eastern ends where the displacement also diminished.
Caractérisation des surfaces par réflexion rasante de rayons X. Application à l'étude du polissage de quelques verres silicates

La theorie presentee permet d'obtenir une formulation explicite de l'influence des rugosites ainsi que des variations locales de constante dielectrique n2 (dues par exemple a une modification de composition ou de compacite) sur la reflexion rasante d'un faisceau de rayons X monochromatique, dans la mesure ou les rugosites relevent d'une distribution gaussienne et a condition que n2 ne depende que de la profondeur Z par rapport au plan moyen de la surface eclairee. L'analyse des verres silicates polis mecaniquement sur polissoir en poix, a l'aide de suspensions aqueuses d'oxydes divers, revele que la couche de polissage se compose en realite de deux zones bien distinctes. La premiere, tout a fait superficielle, l'epaisseur ne depassant pas quelques dizaines d'angstroms, presente une densite toujours inferieure a celle du coeur de l'echantillon et semble imputable au fluage plastique et a l'hydrolyse de la surface pendant le polissage. La seconde, sous-jacente, s'etend au contraire sur plusieurs centaines d'angstroms et met en jeu un processus soit de densification (silice pure, alumino-silicate) soit de lacunisation (verres a assez forte teneur en ions alcalins). Nous examinons egalement l'influence de la duree du polissage, du type d'oxyde utilise, et (ou) des traitements thermiques effectues apres polissage, sur les divers parametres qui caracterisent ces couches.
Escholarship@umms Program in Systems Biology Publications and Presentations Program in Systems Biology Evidence for Transcript Networks Composed of Chimeric Rnas in Human Cells Philipp Kapranov Repository Citation Evidence for Transcript Networks Composed of Chimeric Rnas in Human Cells Evidence for

Evidence for transcript networks composed of chimeric RNAs in human cells" (2012). Program in Systems Biology Publications and Presentations. Paper 5. Abstract The classic organization of a gene structure has followed the Jacob and Monod bacterial gene model proposed more than 50 years ago. Since then, empirical determinations of the complexity of the transcriptomes found in yeast to human has blurred the definition and physical boundaries of genes. Using multiple analysis approaches we have characterized individual gene boundaries mapping on human chromosomes 21 and 22. Analyses of the locations of the 59 and 39 transcriptional termini of 492 protein coding genes revealed that for 85% of these genes the boundaries extend beyond the current annotated termini, most often connecting with exons of transcripts from other well annotated genes. The biological and evolutionary importance of these chimeric transcripts is underscored by (1) the non-random interconnections of genes involved, (2) the greater phylogenetic depth of the genes involved in many chimeric interactions, (3) the coordination of the expression of connected genes and (4) the close in vivo and three dimensional proximity of the genomic regions being transcribed and contributing to parts of the chimeric RNAs. The non-random nature of the connection of the genes involved suggest that chimeric transcripts should not be studied in isolation, but together, as an RNA network. Copyright: ß 2012 Djebali et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Affymetrix manufactured the arrays used and these were purchased at the sale price agreed to in the reported grant. TG were employees of Affymetrix Inc. at the time of the study. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Emerging Concepts of Artificial Intelligence in the Hotel Industry: A Conceptual Paper

The hotel sector is undergoing a fast transformation by artificial intelligence (AI), which brings new and imaginative methods to improve guests' experiences and streamline operations. This article examines the developing ideas of AI in the hotel sector and the possible influence AI might have on hotels. Hotels are leveraging AI technologies to improve customer service and satisfaction, including creating personalized guest experiences through AI-powered profiling and recommendations and seamless interactions enabled by chatbots and virtual assistants. AI-driven sentiment analysis and marketing techniques respond to individual tastes and optimize revenue management, while voice-activated room controls and predictive maintenance technologies contribute to a touchless and efficient environment. In addition, incorporating AI into security procedures and developing robotics for use in guest services can transform the industry's current safety regulations and produce unforgettable customer experiences. However, as AI becomes more widespread, ethical issues and human engagement will remain essential to finding the appropriate balance between automated hotels and customized service.