Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Harmonized forest categories in central Italy

ABSTRACT To support sustainable forest management, planning policies and environmental actions, it is essential to have available common and standardized geospatial information on forest structure, composition and distribution. In this paper we present a harmonized forest categories (HFCs) map of four administrative Regions located in central Italy (i.e. Marche, Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise) at a scale of 1:400,000. The study area extends over 42,246 km2, 14,878 km2 of which are covered by forests. Four regional forest maps were harmonized in order to produce common standardized information on composition, structure and the distribution of forests in central Italy. A forest category is a forest vegetation unit defined by the main tree species composition. In this study we adopted a nomenclature scheme composed of 16 forest and shrubland categories. This work represents the first HFCs map in Italy over a large area. The legend is also harmonized with the European Environment Agency forest types nomenclature.
TerraSAR-L system and mission objectives

TerraSAR-L is the new imaging radar mission of the European Space Agency, with Astrium Ltd. acting as Prime Contractor. The platform, based on the novel Snapdragon concept, is built around the active phase array antenna of the L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (L-SAR). Specification of the L-SAR has been guided by careful analysis of the product requirements resulting in a robust baseline design with appropriate margins. Besides providing commercial geo-information products, TerraSAR-L will contribute to the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative and serve the scientific user community. Major application areas are: Kyoto inventory and wetland monitoring, solid earth science including seismic and volcanic activity as well as land slides and subsidence, land cover classification in different levels of detail and marine applications. The TerraSAR-L operations strategy is based on a long-term systematic and repetitive acquisition scenario to ensure consistent data archives and to maximise the exploitation of this very powerful SAR system.
Towards Sobolev Pruning

The increasing use of stochastic models for describing complex phenomena warrants surrogate models that capture the reference model characteristics at a fraction of the computational cost, foregoing potentially expensive Monte Carlo simulation. The predominant approach of fitting a large neural network and then pruning it to a reduced size has commonly neglected shortcomings. The produced surrogate models often will not capture the sensitivities and uncertainties inherent in the original model. In particular, (higher-order) derivative information of such surrogates could differ drastically. Given a large enough network, we expect this derivative information to match. However, the pruned model will almost certainly not share this behavior. In this paper, we propose to find surrogate models by using sensitivity information throughout the learning and pruning process. We build on work using Interval Adjoint Significance Analysis for pruning and combine it with the recent advancements in Sobolev Training to accurately model the original sensitivity information in the pruned neural network based surrogate model. We experimentally underpin the method on an example of pricing a multidimensional Basket option modelled through a stochastic differential equation with Brownian motion. The proposed method is, however, not limited to the domain of quantitative finance, which was chosen as a case study for intuitive interpretations of the sensitivities. It serves as a foundation for building further surrogate modelling techniques considering sensitivity information.
Vocabulary of Flaky Tests in Javascript

Context: Regression testing is a software verification and validation activity in modern software engineering. In this activity, tests can fail without any implementation change, characterizing a flaky test. Flaky tests may delay the release of the software and reduce testing confidence. One way to identify flaky tests is by re-running the tests, but this has a high computational cost. An alternative to re-execution is the static analysis of the code of the test cases, identifying patterns related to flaky tests. Objective: The objective of this work was to identify flaky tests in Javascript applications by analyzing the source code of the test cases, without executing them. Method: A dataset was built with flaky test cases extracted from open source software hosted on GitHub and implemented in Javascript. Then, a classification model and a flakiness vocabulary were created, considering the source code of flaky tests in the Javascript language. Results: We observed good results during the execution of most classifiers using the training and validation sets, with the best result being the logistic regression algorithm. However, when classifying the test set, the performance was not good, with the best results being the linear discriminant analysis. We obtained a vocabulary related to instability with words associated with asynchronous behavior ( then , await , return ) and related to UI ( layout , gd , plot , click ). Conclusions: This work presents relevant results toward a more efficient identification of flaky tests in projects that use Javascript. Further studies are required to consolidate a reliable classification of tests regarding flakiness using the
Effect of thermal regime on growth increment and spacing of contraction joints in basaltic lava

Columnar joints in volcanic rocks are thermal contraction cracks that bound elongate rock columns. The joints grow incrementally toward the interior of a cooling extrusion by successive formation of new segments on the joint edges. Joint spacing as measured by column diameter is often smaller in the upper portion of a lava flow and larger in the lower portion. We investigated incremental growth of columnar joints and factors controlling their spacing by measuring growth increments and spacings of joints in basaltic lava and by modeling the observations using fracture mechanics principles. The field data show that growth increment and spacing are linearly correlated and increase up to a limit with distance from the cooling surface on which the joints start. The models of incremental joint growth combine fracture mechanics with thermomechanical models of layers cooling by conduction or water-steam convection in joints. A joint propagates when tensile stress concentrated at its tip builds up during cooling and exceeds the lava's resistance to fracture. The joint arrests when its tip reaches hot ductile lava with a very high resistance to fracture. Blunting of the arrested tip by ductile flow reduces joint tip stresses and thus stabilizes the joint until further cooling restores critical stress at the tip. The models predict that the joint growth increment will increase slightly from cycle to cycle up to a limit as observed in the field. Faster solidification rates with higher thermal gradients produce smaller growth increments because the level to which a joint propagates will have migrated relatively little when the arrested joint tip cools sufficiently to restart joint growth. An analysis accounting for the mechanical interaction of joints shows that a joint extended beyond its neighbors reduces the joint tip stress of its neighbors, thereby inhibiting their growth and determining a minimum joint spacing. The predicted minimum spacing increases with growth increment in agreement with field measurements. The data and model results therefore indicate that faster solidification promotes smaller joint growth increments that, in turn, produce smaller joint spacings.
The Natural Situation of North South Transect of Eastern China

Based on a lot of historical data,this paper introduced the natural situation about the agricultural terrestrial ecosystem transect in eastern China,which included the geographical extension,physiognomy,climate,soil,vegetation and so on. We found that the precipitation as well as the air temperature were the most important factors affecting the distribution of vegetation by the correlation\|analysis between climate and vegetation in the East China Transect. In addition,the paper introduced the content of key project “Study on the interaction between the agricultural terrestrial ecosystem in eastern China and global change”.
Study on the relationship between Kaschin - Beck Disease distribution and land use changes in Tibet

Objective To explore the relationship between the expand of KBD distribution and the land use changes in Tibet. Methods Using Geograpilic Information System (CIS) technique classified all counties in Tibet by KBD distribution changes from 1980s to 1999 as non - KBD counties, old - KBD counties and new - KBD counties. Analysed the cultivated land changes in each county from 1990 to 1999. Results KBD in Tibet mainly distributes in agricultural counties and half- agricultural counties, minor distributes in paturing counties. Cultivated land in new - KBD counties have significant increases from 1990 to 1999. Conclusions The expand of KBD distribution in Tibet have significant relations to the agricultural development and the increase of cultivated land. Quit farming to grazing should be one of the key methods to control KBD in Tibet.
Comparing Computer Versus Human Data Collection Methods for Public Usability Evaluations of a Tactile-Audio Display

We present a public usability study that provides preliminary results on the effectiveness of a universally designed system that conveys music and other sounds into tactile sensations. The system was displayed at a public science museum as part of a larger multimedia exhibit aimed at presenting a youthsâ perspective on global warming and the environment. We compare two approaches to gathering user feedback about the system in a study that we conducted to assess user responses to the inclusion of a tactile display within the larger audio-visual exhibit; in one version, a human researcher administered the study and in the other version a touch screen computer was used to obtain responses. Both approaches were used to explore the publicâs basic understanding of the tactile display within the context of the larger exhibit. The two methods yielded very similar responses from participants; however, our comparison of the two techniques revealed that there were subtle differences overall. In this paper, we compare the two study techniques for their value in providing access to public usability data for assessing universally designed interactive systems. We present both sets of results, with a cost benefit analysis of using each in the context of public usability tests for universal design.
Numerical simulation of ground movement behavior inclined multiple seams mining with deep dip angle

On the foundation of hongling mining practice,according to the complex mining and geological conditions of deep excavation in hongling mine,numerical simulation is carried out for studying on the rule of strata movement and surface subsidence due to coal extraction in hongling mining district.The results are of tutorial impact for practical mining and governing of subsidence hazards.
Spatial and temporal characterization of particulate matter.

Geographical and temporal variations of the concentration and composition of PM 2.5 influence PM exposure (Chapter 2) and provide important insights into the processes that influence particle formation and distribution (Chapter 3). Characterizing the temporal, spatial, and chemical variations of particles and their precursor gases, as well as the size properties of particles, enhances understanding of emission sources (Chapters 4 and 7), secondary PM formation, and transport. This information establishes key features of the data that should be reproduced by modeling studies and allows air-quality models to be tested against ambient measurement data (Chapter 8). Measurements thereby support the use of models as an important tool for assessing proposed emission-management strategies or evaluating source contributions to existing aerosol concentrations. Where a data record exists that is long enough to support trend assessments (typically decadal), characterization of trends provides an important technique for evaluating the success of ongoing management programs.
Evaluating polarizable biomembrane simulations against experiments

Owing to the increase of available computational capabilities and the potential for providing more accurate description, polarizable molecular dynamics force fields are gaining popularity in modelling biomolecular systems. It is, however, crucial to evaluate how much precision is truly gained with the increased cost and complexity of the simulation. Here, we leverage the NMRlipids open collaboration and Databank to assess the performance of available polarizable lipid models—the CHARMM-Drude and the AMOEBA-based parameters—against high-fidelity experimental data and compare them to the top-performing non-polarizable models. While some improvement in the description of ion binding to membranes is observed in the most recent CHARMM-Drude parameters, and the conformational dynamics of AMOEBA-based parameters are excellent, the best non-polarizable models tend to outperform their polarizable counterparts for each property we explored. The identified shortcomings range from inaccuracies in describing the conformational space of lipids to excessively slow conformational dynamics. Our results provide valuable insights for further refinement of polarizable lipid force fields and for selecting the best simulation parameters for specific applications.
Tracking lethal threat: in-depth review of rabies

An infectious disease known as rabies (family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus) causes severe damage to mammals’ central nervous systems (CNS). This illness has been around for a very long time. The majority of human cases of rabies take place in underdeveloped regions of Africa and Asia. Following viral transmission, the Rhabdovirus enters the peripheral nervous system and proceeds to the CNS, where it targets the encephalon and produces encephalomyelitis. Postbite prophylaxis requires laboratory confirmation of rabies in both people and animals. All warm-blooded animals can transmit the Lyssavirus infection, while the virus can also develop in the cells of cold-blooded animals. In the 21st century, more than 3 billion people are in danger of contracting the rabies virus in more than 100 different nations, resulting in an annual death toll of 50,000–59,000. There are three important elements in handling rabies disease in post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), namely wound care, administration of anti-rabies serum, and anti-rabies vaccine. Social costs include death, lost productivity as a result of early death, illness as a result of vaccination side effects, and the psychological toll that exposure to these deadly diseases has on people. Humans are most frequently exposed to canine rabies, especially youngsters and the poor, and there are few resources available to treat or prevent exposure, making prevention of human rabies challenging.
Temporal Variations of Earthquake Magnitude‐Frequency Relation in the Source Area of M ≥ 6.0 Earthquakes: A Systematic Survey in Taiwan

Recent studies in the earthquake magnitude‐frequency relation (b‐value) found that the b‐value can decrease with time before large earthquakes in the source area. Such a decrease even coincided with a burst of foreshocks immediately before the earthquakes implying a preslip migrating toward the nucleation zone. We systematically survey the b‐value variations in space and time in the source area of 17 earthquakes with magnitudes greater than ML 6.0 in Taiwan. We relocated the earthquakes released by the Central Weather Administration of Taiwan since 2012 as timing can provide a sufficiently low completeness magnitude (MC) of 1.5. We carefully determine the spatiotemporal search criteria on seismicity in the source area of all targeted earthquakes. We surveyed the temporal b‐value systematically using moving time windows with a given number of earthquake events with the magnitudes greater than MC. We found the b‐value decreased clearly for 2 days before the 2018 ML 6.3 Hualien earthquake, coinciding with a burst of ML 5.8 earthquake and its aftershocks nearby as foreshocks. The foreshocks migrated updip toward the hypocenter of the 2018 ML 6.3 Hualien earthquake and revealed a second decrease in the b‐value 10 hours before it occurred. The b‐value precursor primarily comes from a rapid reduction of small earthquakes in the foreshocks and agrees with recent key findings of preslip. However, there is no strong correlation between the b‐value precursor and coseismic slip. Apart from this, the b‐values did not change significantly in most cases of earthquakes in Taiwan before and after they occurred.
Control Groups Added Latency in NFVs: An Update Needed?

The Linux kernel is continuously developing, and the development teams constantly add new versions of libraries with additional features. The cgroups feature of the Linux kernel was recently updated. It is widely used by lightweight virtualization technologies such as Docker or LXC for resource isolation. cgroups underwent a significant revamp from version 1 (v1) to version 2 (v2). Researching the performance difference between these two versions regarding network latencies and throughput enables the usage of containers in time-critical applications for Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Previous work does not consider cgroups as a potential source of latency in NFV in their evaluations. In this paper, we use commodity hard- and software to measure the difference between v1 and v2 in isolation. Our experiments show that the two versions achieve the same degree of isolation. However, the tail latencies of v1 are higher than v2, which can be explained by a more efficient, 2.4 % less instruction-consuming implementation of v2. Based on our findings, we recommend using v2 for low-latency, lightweight virtualization network deployments wherever possible.
Aberrant expression prediction across human tissues

Despite the frequent implication of aberrant gene expression in diseases, algorithms predicting aberrantly expressed genes of an individual are lacking. To address this need, we compiled an aberrant expression prediction benchmark covering 8.2 million rare variants from 633 individuals across 48 tissues. While not geared toward aberrant expression, the deleteriousness score CADD and the loss-of-function predictor LOFTEE showed mild predictive ability (1-1.5% average precision). Leveraging these and further variant annotations, we next trained AbExp, a model that yielded 10% average precision by combining in a tissue-specific fashion expression variability with variant effects on isoforms and on aberrant splicing. Integrating expression measurements from clinically accessible tissues led to another two-fold improvement. Furthermore, we show on UK Biobank blood traits that performing rare variant association testing using the continuous and tissue-specific AbExp variant scores instead of LOFTEE variant burden increases gene discovery sensitivity and enables improved phenotype predictions.
Expression and Functional Analysis of the Compact Thermophilic Anoxybacillus flavithermus Cas9 Nuclease

Research on Cas9 nucleases from different organisms holds great promise for advancing genome engineering and gene therapy tools, as it could provide novel structural insights into CRISPR editing mechanisms, expanding its application area in biology and medicine. The subclass of thermophilic Cas9 nucleases is actively expanding due to the advances in genome sequencing allowing for the meticulous examination of various microorganisms’ genomes in search of the novel CRISPR systems. The most prominent thermophilic Cas9 effectors known to date are GeoCas9, ThermoCas9, IgnaviCas9, AceCas9, and others. These nucleases are characterized by a varying temperature range of the activity and stringent PAM preferences; thus, further diversification of the naturally occurring thermophilic Cas9 subclass presents an intriguing task. This study focuses on generating a construct to express a compact Cas9 nuclease (AnoCas9) from the thermophilic microorganism Anoxybacillus flavithermus displaying the nuclease activity in the 37–60 °C range and the PAM preference of 5′-NNNNCDAA-3′ in vitro. Here, we highlight the close relation of AnoCas9 to the GeoCas9 family of compact thermophilic Cas9 effectors. AnoCas9, beyond broadening the repertoire of Cas9 nucleases, suggests application in areas requiring the presence of thermostable CRISPR/Cas systems in vitro, such as sequencing libraries’ enrichment, allele-specific isothermal PCR, and others.
A multi‐DOE approach to investigate the effect of different factors on the properties of ternary binders

The Design of Experiment (DOE) is a widely recognized approach to designing and analyzing experiments. It is a statistical method utilized to simultaneously examine the impact of multiple factors on the results. In this study, two different DOE methods, including mixture and factorial design were employed to evaluate the influence of various factors on the performance of ternary binders. To assess the effect of each component such as Portland cement (PC), calcium aluminate cement (CAC) and sulphate (CŜHx) on the workability and strength of ternary binders, mixture design was utilized. A two‐stage factorial design was implemented to investigate the impact of various factors on the fresh and hard properties of ternary binders. In the first stage the influence of composition, supplementary cementitious material (SCM) and cement replacement ratio were examined. In the second stage the impact of composition, CAC and CŜHx type were analyzed. Principal Component Analysis was also employed to analyse the continuous data obtained from the XRD patterns. The study results indicated that increased CAC and CŜHx content in the mixture enhances the workability of the pastes. High compressive strengths were found to be a result of increased cement content in the mixture and low SCM substitution.
Assessment of Preoperative Risk Factors for Post-LASIK Ectasia Development

Purpose To evaluate preoperative risk factors (mainly those related to corneal topography/tomography) for post-LASIK ectasia development. Methods A retrospective case review for post-LASIK ectasia for myopia or myopic astigmatism. The evaluated data included preoperative subjective refraction, method of flap creation, and topometric/tomographic parameters from Oculus Pentacam, including subjective curvature pattern, topometric, elevation, and pachymetric indices from the Belin Ambrosio display “BAD”, and the Pentacam Random Forest Index (PRFI). Moreover, preoperative ectasia detection indices were calculated (including Percentage of Tissue Altered “PTA” index, Randleman Ectasia Risk Score System “ERSS”, and Navarro Index for Corneal Ectasia “NICE”). Results Twenty-four eyes of 15 patients were enrolled. Concerning the risk factors, age was lower than 25 in 19 eyes (79%); flaps were created using a microkeratome in 17 eyes (70.8%); thinnest pachymetry was lower than 510μm in eight eyes (33%); total deviation from BAD was higher than 1.6 in 50%; Ambrósio’s relational thickness (ART) max was lower than 340 in 45.83%; PTA index was higher than 40% in 16%; ERSS was more than 3 points in 62.5%; NICE was higher than 8 points in three eyes (12.5%); PRFI index was more than 0.125 in 87.5%; two eyes (8%) had no identifiable risk factors. Conclusion Current ectasia risk assessment criteria were insufficient for detecting a relatively large number of cases. There is an unequivocal need for more information, which may be derived from biomechanical assessment and epithelial thickness mapping. Novel corneal tomography indices derived from artificial intelligence may increase accuracy in characterizing ectasia susceptibility.