Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing an Index for Determining the Optimal Harvest Timing of Lagenaria siceraria (THE 1st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ARID LAND (ICAL 1) "DESERT TECHNOLOGY X (DT X)")

Harvest timing affects farmer’s income as well as cultivation technology. Harvest timing of the fruit crops is usually decided by intuition and experience of farmers or other experts. However it may be difficult to determining the optimum harvest timing for fruits with large and hard surfaces. We only can objectively confirm the fruit maturity after harvesting. Therefore, we attempted to develop more objective method for optimal harvest timing, using the measurement of spectral reflectance. We selected fruits of bottle gourd as the target and the spectral reflectance characteristics were observed during the growth period until the day of harvesting using spectrometer. Measuring positions were set at the fruit base, the fruit body, the fruit apex and the leaf surface. We selected the spectral reflectance of four wavelength bands, the blue band, green band, red band, near infrared band. We analyzed the diurnal variations of four wavelength bands. As a result, in the near the harvesting stage, the value of spectral reflectance tended to decrease in at the fruit base. While, spectral reflectance value in the fruit body tend to increase. We focused the wavelength on the difference of spectral reflectance curve in the fruit base. One is 550 nm in the green band which shows the local peak of reflectance curve. Another is 720 nm which shows the local reflection point of reflectance curve in the near infrared band. We proposed harvest timing index using spectral reflectance of these two wavelengths (named the base value), after examining the correlation between the degree of fruit maturity and this index. As a result, the base value of 65 shows the threshold value for harvest timing. Thus, we suggest the base value has a potential to determine of optimal harvest timing objectively.
H5N1/highly pathogenic avian influenza in Cambodia : evaluating poultry movement and the extent of interaction between poultry and humans

Since 2003, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), subtype H5N1, has spread across the Asian, African and European continents at an exceptional rate. To date, H5N1 remains primarily a pandemic within poultry populations with limited onward transmission to humans. Since there have been a limited number of human cases throughout the world, epidemiologic uncertainties exist regarding the extent of contact necessary to result in successful transmission between infected poultry and humans. In this thesis I undertook two large-scale surveys to evaluate poultry movement and the extent of interaction between humans and poultry to better define the risks of sustained transmission of H5N1 in poultry and onward transmission to humans. The thesis begins with a review of current knowledge on the epidemiology of HPAI, specifically subtype H5N1, and current options for its control worldwide and specifically within Cambodia. The first half of the thesis presents the methodology and results from a large-scale cross sectional survey of 3,600 rural subjects from 115 villages in six provinces throughout Cambodia. The results from this survey are used to explore animal ownership and husbandry, poultry mortality experienced and poultry mortality reporting, and the extent and frequency of poultry handling behaviours of subjects and how they differ by age and gender. The second half of the thesis presents results from a second cross-sectional survey of 715 rural villagers, 123 rural, peri-urban and urban market sellers and 139 middlemen from six Provinces and Phnom Penh, which was conducted to evaluate poultry movement and trading practices. The results from this survey are used to construct poultry movement networks using social network analysis techniques, to identify critical points for surveillance and to understand the potential transmission and control of HPAI over this network and to identify a spatial model to predict poultry movements. Finally in the last chapter the key findings are presented and discussed in the context of HPAI transmission in the region.
A general criterion for solid instability and its application to creases

A general force-perturbation-based criterion for solid instability is proposed, which can predict instability including crease without priori knowledge of instability configuration. The crease instability is analyzed in detail, we found that the occurrence of solid instability does not always correspond to the non-positive definiteness of global stiffness matrix. An element stiffness-based criterion based on material stiffness is proposed as a stronger criterion in order to fast determine the occurrence of instability. This criterion has been shown to degenerate into the criterion for judging instability of certain known phenomena, such as necking and shear band phenomena. Besides, instability in strongly anisotropic materials is also predicted by the element stiffness-based criterion.
Synaptic representation of locomotion in single cerebellar granule cells

The cerebellum plays a crucial role in the regulation of locomotion, but how movement is represented at the synaptic level is not known. Here, we use in vivo patch-clamp recordings to show that locomotion can be directly read out from mossy fiber synaptic input and spike output in single granule cells. The increase in granule cell spiking during locomotion is enhanced by glutamate spillover currents recruited during movement. Surprisingly, the entire step sequence can be predicted from input EPSCs and output spikes of a single granule cell, suggesting that a robust gait code is present already at the cerebellar input layer and transmitted via the granule cell pathway to downstream Purkinje cells. Thus, synaptic input delivers remarkably rich information to single neurons during locomotion. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.07290. 001
Universality in the Decay and Revival of Loschmidt Echoes.

A critically enhanced decay of the Loschmidt echo is characteristic of sudden quench dynamics near a quantum phase transition. Here, we demonstrate that the decay and revival of the Loschmidt echo follows power-law scaling in the system size and the distance from a critical point with equilibrium critical exponents. We reveal such dynamical scaling laws by analyzing relevant perturbations to the Loschmidt echo cast in a scaling invariant form. We confirm the validity and the generality of the predicted dynamical scaling laws with a diverse range of critical models such as Ising spin models with a short and long range interaction, a finite-component system phase transition, and a topological phase transition. Moreover, using the integrability of systems in the thermodynamic limit, we derive such scaling laws analytically from a microscopic analysis. Our finding promotes the Loschmidt echo to a quantitative non-equilibrium probe of criticality and allows for quantitative predictions on the role of criticality on various physical scenarios where the Loschmidt echo is central to describing non-equilibrium dynamics.
Integrating climate change considerations in planning for urban development in Sierra Leone :the case of Freetown

i Dedication.ii Acknowledgement.iii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations.iv List of Figures.vi List of Tables.vii Table of Content.viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 CONCEPTUAL AND PERSONAL BASIS OF THE STUDY . 2 1.3 CLIMATE CHANGE, CITIES AND THE INCONGRUITY OF LEADING DISCOURSES . 3 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES . 6 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY . 7 1.6 RESEARCH STRATEGY . 8 1.7 RESEARCH SETTING: THE LOCATION, POLITY AND GEOGRAPHY . 8 1.7. 1 Population growth . 10 1.7. 2 The residential pattern of Freetown. 13 1.8 WHY THE CHOICE OF RESEARCH SETTING . 14 1.9 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH . 15 1.10 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS . 16 CHAPTER TWO: CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE A REVIEW OF THE THEORETICAL ISSUES . 20 2.
PR ] 1 J ul 2 01 1 Lévy area logistic expansion and simulation

We present a new representation for the Lévy chordal area for a two-dimensional Wiener process conditioned on its endpoints. This is based on an infinite weighted sum of Logistic random variables. We develop a numerical simulation algorithm for the Lévy area based on truncating this series and simulating the tail by a suitable Normal random variable. We show how to improve the efficiency of the algorithm by approximating higher order terms, which are large sums of independent identically distributed Logistic random variables, by two separate methods: using a suitable Normal approximation and, sampling directly from the fixed density function for the logarithm of the product of decimal magnitudes of independent identically distributed Exponential random variables. To implement a strong Milstein numerical integrator for a stochastic differential equation driven by a multi-dimensional Wiener process, we must maintain a local mean-square error of order the cube of the stepsize. To achieve this prescribed accuracy, the latter two Lévy area sampling methods we propose, reduce the number of uniform random variables required to be sampled over each timestep, a measure of the complexity, from reciprocal squareroot complexity to logarithmic complexity.
A Study on Debris Flow Landslide Disasters and Restoration at Inje of Kangwon Province, Korea

The main purpose of this work is to analyse damages caused by debris flows during the heavy rainfalls at Inje of Kangwon Province, Korea. A series of site investigations have been carried out to survey the characteristics of debris flows occurred during the summer season of 2006. It has been found that major losses in human life and property are caused by discharge of soil and rock fragments from landslides. During the rainfall high precipitation rate of 113.5 mm/hour and 355 mm/day was recorded, which could happen at 80-500 year period. Comparing the rainfall record with the time of landslides being occurred, occurrence of the landslides is directly related to heavy rainfalls. At present, several debris barriers have been built at the valleys and natural slopes have been protected by the seed spray method. It is intended to propose an alternative of restoration of landslide damages and maintenance based on findings from the current study.
Copy Number Variants and Segmental Duplications Show Different Formation Signatures

In addition to variation in terms of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), whole regions ranging from several kilobases up to a megabase in length differ in copy number among individuals. These differences are referred to as Copy Number Variants (CNVs) and extensive mapping of these is underway. Recent studies have highlighted their great prevalence in the human genome. Segmental Duplications (SDs) are long (>1kb) stretches of duplicated DNA with high sequence identity. First, we analyzed the co-localization of SDs and find that SDs are significantly co-localized with each other, resulting in a power-law distribution, which suggests a preferential attachment mechanism, i.e. existing SDs are likely to be involved in creating new ones nearby. Second, we look at the relationship of CNVs/SDs with various types of repeats. We we find that the previously recognized association of SDs with Alu elements is significantly stronger for older SDs and is sharply decreasing for younger ones. While it might be expected that the patterns should be similar for SDs and CNVs, we find, surprisingly, no association of CNVs with Alu elements. This trend is consistent with the decreasing correlation between Alu elements and younger SDs, the activity of Alu elements has been decreasing and by now it they seem no longer active. Furthermore, we find a striking association of SDs with processed pseudogenes suggesting that they may also have mediated SD formation. Moreover, find strong association with microsatellites for both SDs and CNVs that suggests a role for satellites in the formation of both.
Spectral Properties of the Neumann–Poincaré Operator in 3D Elasticity

We consider the adjoint double layer potential (Neumann–Poincaré (NP)) operator appearing in 3-dimensional elasticity. We show that the recent result about the polynomial compactness of this operator for the case of a homogeneous media follows without additional calculations from previous considerations by Agranovich et al., based upon pseudodifferential operators. Further on, we define the NP operator for the case of a nonhomogeneous isotropic media and show that its properties depend crucially on the character of nonhomogeneity. If the Lamé parameters are constant along the boundary, the NP operator is still polynomially compact. On the other hand, if these parameters are not constant, two or more intervals of continuous spectrum may appear, so the NP operator ceases to be polynomially compact. However, after a certain modification, it becomes polynomially compact again. Finally, we evaluate the rate of convergence of discrete eigenvalues of the NP operator to the tips of the essential spectrum.
Adaptive noise cancelling: Principles and applications

This paper describes the concept of adaptive noise cancelling, an alternative method of estimating signals corrupted by additive noise or interference. The method uses a "primary" input containing the corrupted signal and a "reference" input containing noise correlated in some unknown way with the primary noise. The reference input is adaptively filtered and subtracted from the primary input to obtain the signal estimate. Adaptive filtering before subtraction allows the treatment of inputs that are deterministic or stochastic, stationary or time variable. Wiener solutions are developed to describe asymptotic adaptive performance and output signal-to-noise ratio for stationary stochastic inputs, including single and multiple reference inputs. These solutions show that when the reference input is free of signal and certain other conditions are met noise in the primary input can be essentiany eliminated without signal distortion. It is further shown that in treating periodic interference the adaptive noise canceller acts as a notch filter with narrow bandwidth, infinite null, and the capability of tracking the exact frequency of the interference; in this case the canceller behaves as a linear, time-invariant system, with the adaptive filter converging on a dynamic rather than a static solution. Experimental results are presented that illustrate the usefulness of the adaptive noise cancelling technique in a variety of practical applications. These applications include the cancelling of various forms of periodic interference in electrocardiography, the cancelling of periodic interference in speech signals, and the cancelling of broad-band interference in the side-lobes of an antenna array. In further experiments it is shown that a sine wave and Gaussian noise can be separated by using a reference input that is a delayed version of the primary input. Suggested applications include the elimination of tape hum or turntable rumble during the playback of recorded broad-band signals and the automatic detection of very-low-level periodic signals masked by broad-band noise.
Treatment with a neutralizing anti-murine interleukin-17 antibody after the onset of collagen-induced arthritis reduces joint inflammation, cartilage destruction, and bone erosion.

OBJECTIVE Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a proinflammatory cytokine that is expressed in the synovium of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. This T cell cytokine is implicated in the initiation phase of arthritis. However, the role of IL-17 during the effector phase of arthritis has still not been identified; this was the objective of the present study. METHODS Mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) were treated with polyclonal rabbit anti-murine IL-17 (anti-IL-17) antibody-positive serum or normal rabbit serum after the first signs of arthritis. In addition, during a later stage of CIA mice were selected and treated with anti-IL-17 antibody or control serum. Arthritis was monitored visually, and joint pathology was examined radiologically and histologically. Systemic IL-6 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and local synovial IL-1 and receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL) expression was analyzed using specific immunohistochemistry. RESULTS Treatment with a neutralizing anti-IL-17 antibody after the onset of CIA significantly reduced the severity of CIA. Radiographic analysis revealed marked suppression of joint damage in the knee and ankle joints. Histologic analysis confirmed the suppression of joint inflammation and showed prevention of cartilage and bone destruction after anti-IL-17 antibody therapy. Systemic IL-6 levels were significantly reduced after anti-IL-17 antibody treatment. Moreover, fewer IL-1beta-positive and RANKL-positive cells were detected in the synovium after treatment with neutralizing IL-17. Interestingly, initiation of anti-IL-17 antibody therapy during a later stage of CIA, using mice with higher clinical arthritis scores, still significantly slowed the progression of the disease. CONCLUSION IL-17 plays a role in early stages of arthritis, but also later during disease progression. Systemic IL-6 was reduced and fewer synovial IL-1-positive and RANKL-positive cells were detected after neutralizing endogenous IL-17 treatment, suggesting both IL-1-dependent and IL-1-independent mechanisms of action. Our data strongly indicate that IL-17 neutralization could provide an additional therapeutic strategy for RA, particularly in situations in which elevated IL-17 may attenuate the response to anti-tumor necrosis factor/anti-IL-1 therapy.
Global Proteome Survey -Transforming antibody-based affinity proteomics into a global discovery platform

Proteomics is expected to generate new insights into biological processes as well as identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets since most biological functions are transmitted through proteins. However, due to the complexity displayed by a proteome and inherent limitations associated with current methodologies, proteomic analyses often result in incomplete coverage and inconsistent measurements. Clearly, the development of novel high-performing proteomic platforms will be essential in order to successfully decipher the human proteome(s). This thesis, based on four original papers denoted I to IV, describes the development and applicability of a novel proteomic technology platform entitled Global Proteome Survey (GPS) capable of transforming affinity proteomics into a global discovery engine. The GPS methodology combines the best features of affinity proteomics and mass spectrometry, and is based on using antibodies specific for short C-terminal amino acid peptide motifs shared by many proteins. This opens up the possibility to identify and quantify significant portions of a proteome, while still using a limited set of binders in a specie independent manner (Paper I-IV). Furthermore, structural models were generated for a large set of the experimentally verified captured peptides and the matching antibodies (Paper III). The data generated novel insights into antibody-peptide interactions and showed that a few key residues were essential for establishing specificity and acting as anchor residues. The GPS assay reproducibility was extensively tested (Paper I, II, and IV) and displayed median coefficient of variations in the range of 10-20% in tissue profiling. In addition, the sensitivity was demonstrated by successfully targeting proteins present in a range of abundance values spanning over a million down to less than 50 copies per yeast cell (Paper I and II). In Paper IV, the first clinical proteomic application of GPS was demonstrated by generating in-depth proteomic insights of 52 breast tumor tissues. While using only 9 antibodies, the GPS-platform enabled identification and quantification of over 1300 proteins, and most importantly established a link between a molecular signature and tumor progression. Highly relevant and promising cancer-associated protein signatures related to histologic grade, estrogen receptor, and HER2/neu-status were identified. In conclusion, we have developed and demonstrated the quantitative capability, reproducibility, sensitivity, and coverage of the GPS methodology. It provides important methodological solutions to the complexity of proteome analysis and may act as a valuable tool for analyzing large numbers of clinical samples in an accurate, sensitive, and discovery-based manner. Hence, antibody-based affinity proteomics have been transformed into a global discovery platform and will pave the way for novel proteomic insights into complex molecular pathways in health and disease.
Ergodicity reveals assistance and learning from physical human-robot interaction

A measure of task information encoded by motion identifies differences between movements that are not captured by standard measures. This paper applies information theoretic principles to the investigation of physical human-robot interaction. Drawing from the study of human perception and neural encoding, information theoretic approaches offer a perspective that enables quantitatively interpreting the body as an information channel and bodily motion as an information-carrying signal. We show that ergodicity, which can be interpreted as the degree to which a trajectory encodes information about a task, correctly predicts changes due to reduction of a person’s existing deficit or the addition of algorithmic assistance. The measure also captures changes from training with robotic assistance. Other common measures for assessment failed to capture at least one of these effects. This information-based interpretation of motion can be applied broadly, in the evaluation and design of human-machine interactions, in learning by demonstration paradigms, or in human motion analysis.
On the Taylor Expansion of Probabilistic lambda-terms

We generalise Ehrhard and Regnier’s Taylor expansion from pure to probabilistic λ -terms through notions of probabilistic resource terms and explicit Taylor expansion. We prove that the Taylor expansion is adequate when seen as a way to give semantics to probabilistic λ terms, and that there is a precise correspondence with probabilistic Böhm trees, as introduced by the second author.
Can Information Alone Change Behavior? Arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh

We study how effectively information alone induces people to incur the cost of avoiding a risk to health. Arsenic contamination of the groundwater in Bangladesh provides an unfortunate natural experiment. We find that the response to specific information about the safety of one’s well is large and rapid; having an unsafe well raises the probability that the individual changes to another well within one year by 0.5. The estimate of the impact of information is unbiased, because arsenic levels are uncorrelated with individual characteristics. Evidence suggests that a media campaign communicates general information about arsenic as effectively as does a more expensive door-to-door effort. JEL codes: O12, Q50