Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contribution of virtual classrooms to the personal learning environments (PLE) of the students of the career of informatics applied to education of National University of Chimborazo

The incorporation of Information Technology and Communication in education has ensured new learning environments, such as virtual classrooms present today in most Ecuadorian universities, both for distance education or online or to complement classroom education whose duality is known as B-Learning. This is the case of the National University of Chimborazo, Public Higher Education Institution of the Ecuador, which five years ago has begun to gradually integrate these new computing learning's resources. The present study investigates the use of virtual classrooms as tools constitute student's Personal Learning Environments (PLE) in the career of Informatics Applied to Education, where the involved students are studying in the annual mode National University Chimborazo Ecuador. The main results of the study we can mention that in the career in question, there is an increasing the number of subjects that support virtual classrooms for classroom teaching, but learning occurs both in and out of these new learning environments, thus, Web 2.0 tools are important in these processes either to access, process, publish and share resources and content. Finally, we believe that this study is the starting point for future research on the relevance, impact, effectiveness, etc. incorporating the VLE in addition to university teaching as well as on relations and possibilities of integration between LMS and PLEs and latest topics as mobile learning and mobile PLEs.
THE CLEARANCE OF GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX IS INFLUENCED BY THE PRESENCE OF ACID REFLUX AND AGE: 24

An early signaling event activated by amino acids and growth factors in many cell types is the phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR; FRAP), which is functionally linked to ribosomal protein s6 kinase (p70(s6k)), a kinase that plays a critical regulatory role in the translation of mRNAs and protein synthesis. We previously showed that intestinal cell migration, the initial event in epithelial restitution, is enhanced by l-arginine (ARG). In this study, we used amino acids as prototypic activators of mTOR and ARG, IGF-1, or serum as recognized stimulators of intestinal cell migration. We found that 1) protein synthesis is required for intestinal cell migration, 2) mTOR/p70(s6k) pathway inhibitors (rapamycin, wortmannin, and intracellular Ca(2+) chelation) inhibit cell migration, 3) ARG activates migration and mTOR/p70(s6k) (but not ERK-2) in migrating enterocytes, and 4) immunocytochemistry reveals abundant p70(s6k) staining in cytoplasm, whereas phospho-p70(s6k) is virtually all intranuclear in resting cells but redistributes to the periphery on activation by ARG. We conclude that mTOR/p70(s6k) signaling is essential to intestinal cell migration, is activated by ARG, involves both nuclear and cytoplasmic events, and may play a role in intestinal repair.
Response of different crop growth and yield to enhanced UV-B radiation under field conditions

Enhanced UV-B radiation due to stratospheric ozone depletion may have impacts on the productivity of agricultural crops. Which crop will be more sensitive to increased UV-B has received little attention. This paper presents a comparative study of the effects of supplemental UV-B on plant height, leaf area, biomass and yield among soybean, cotton, corn and wheat which were cultivated in fields in Nanjing, China. The experimental results showed that the four crops response to enhanced UV-B irradiation was shortened plant height, decreased leaf area and reduced biomass and yield of crops. Using the same criteria, the response of soybean and cotton to elevated UV-B is bigger than that of wheat and corn. RI (response index) is an integrated index which is the accumulation of relative change in plant height, leaf area, biomass and yield, reflecting general impact of increased UV-B on crops. The results suggested that the RI for the four crops was minus, demonstrating a negative impact of enhanced UV-B on the crops. According to the RI, the soybean and cotton belong to the sensitive plants category, wheat is a moderately sensitive plant and corn is a tolerant plant.
Large-scale circulation and water mass distribution in the Arctic Ocean from model results and observations

We combine results from hydrographic measurements and numerical models to investigate the circulation in the Arctic Ocean. Observations exhibit a marked difference in the temperature and salinity distribution west and east of the St. Anna Trough. West of the St. Anna Trough the warm and saline core of the Fram Strait branch is found close to the shelf break. East of the St. Anna Trough the highest temperatures and salinities are found further off shore. A colder, relatively fresh layer of Barents Sea outflow displaces the Fram Strait branch. The numerical model reproduces these hydrographic structures. It depicts the Barents Sea branch as the most important inflow into the Arctic with respect to heat, fresh water, and volume. The divergence of the heat transport in the Barents Sea is as great as the net heat transport into the Arctic Ocean. A large part of the freshwater input takes place in the area of the Barents/Kara Sea. The model transports associated with the Fram Strait branch are smaller because most of the Atlantic water recirculates in Fram Strait. Bottom topography plays a crucial role for the model circulation. Our results support previous conceptual models of the Atlantic layer circulation in the Arctic Ocean. The model circulation is mainly thermohaline driven. Ventilation times for the Eurasian and Canadian Basins below 1-km depth are estimated as 220 and 420 years, respectively.
The public and wildland fire management: social science findings for managers

Presents key social science findings from three National Fire Plan-sponsored research projects. Articles highlight information of likely interest to individuals working to decrease wildfire hazards on both private and public lands. Three general topic areas are addressed: (1) public views and acceptance of fuels management, (2) working with homeowners and communities, and (3) tools that can help us understand social issues.
Adaptive Spatiotemporal Smoothing of Seismicity for Long‐Term Earthquake Forecasts in California

We present new methods for time‐independent earthquake forecasting that employ space–time kernels to smooth seismicity. The major advantage of the methods is that they do not require prior declustering of the catalog, circumventing the relatively subjective choice of a declustering algorithm. Past earthquakes are smoothed in space and time using adaptive Gaussian kernels. The bandwidths in space and time associated with each event are a decreasing function of the seismicity rate at the time and location of each earthquake. This yields a better resolution in space–time volumes of intense seismicity and a smoother density in volumes of sparse seismicity. The long‐term rate in each spatial cell is then defined as the median value of the temporal history of the smoothed seismicity rate in this cell. To calibrate the model, the earthquake catalog is divided into two parts: the early part (the learning catalog) is used to estimate the model, and the latter one (the target catalog) is used to compute the likelihood of the model’s forecast. We optimize the model’s parameters by maximizing the likelihood of the target catalog. To estimate the kernel bandwidths in space and time, we compared two approaches: a coupled near‐neighbor method and an iterative method based on a pilot density. We applied these methods to Californian seismicity and compared the resulting forecasts with our previous method based on spatially smoothing a declustered catalog (Werner et al. , 2011). All models use small M ≥2 earthquakes to forecast the rate of larger earthquakes and use the same learning catalog. Our new preferred model slightly outperforms our previous forecast, providing a probability gain per earthquake of about 5 relative to a spatially uniform forecast.
The determination of cloud pressures from rotational Raman scattering in satellite backscatter ultraviolet measurements

We have retrieved cloud pressures with the Nimbus 7 solar backscatter ultraviolet spectrometer and total ozone mapping spectrometer by utilizing properties of rotational Raman scattering. The retrieved cloud pressures are compared with coincident cloud pressures derived from the temperature humidity infrared sounder, as well as climatological cloud pressures from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. Results show good agreement between cloud pressures measured using ultraviolet and infrared techniques, although a small bias is present. The bias in cloud pressures is likely due in part to different radiative properties of clouds at ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. The ultraviolet measurements described here are sensitive to cloud optical thickness, while infrared measurements are sensitive to cloud top temperature. Ultraviolet cloud pressure measurements combined with measurements from other spectral regions may therefore provide information about cloud type. Cloud pressures measured by means of ultraviolet scattering properties will be more appropriate for use in satellite backscatter ultraviolet ozone retrieval algorithms. We suggest ways in which future ultraviolet remote sounding instruments may be designed to more optimally measure cloud pressure.
Air-sea interacting effects to the sea surface temperature observation by NOAA/AVHRR

Abstract Abstract. By combining the brightness temperatures by NOAA-9/AVHRR and the sea surface temperature by Mutsu Bay automatic marine monitoring buoy system, the total number of 390 match-ups was set up. The temporal and spatial coincidence in each match-up is within 30 minutes and one pixel resolution. Following to the split-window method, a regression function for the sea surface temperature estimation was calculated and its standard deviation of estimation errors was 0-59°C. The residues were carefully examined with respect to the sensor calibration data and the meteorological data at match-up collections. Then it was found that large errors appeared when differences between the air temperature and the buoy temperature were large. Those were estimated to be caused by the air-sea interacting effects. By removing the match-ups with larger errors, a selected data set with 334 match-ups was prepared and the SST estimation function was recalculated. The standard deviation of errors reduced to 0-34 °C.
Retrieving chlorophyll and nonchlorophyll matter from ocean color satellite data in Baltic case 2Y waters

Based on in situ data collected in the Southern Baltic Proper at three different periods of the year this study investigates the possibility to empirically retrieve Chlorophyllous and Non Chlorophyllous matter absorption coefficients in the Baltic Sea using 'SeaWiFS' type spectral information. It relies on the classical relationship between 'remote-sensing' reflectance and the back-scattering and absorption coefficients of the in-water optically active components. The use of reflectance ratios minimizes the effect of the 'f/Q' variability if one assume its low wavelength dependency. A reflectance ratio can therefore be expressed as the product of the total absorption ratio and of the total back-scattering wavelength dependency, classically defined as a power law of the wavelength ratio. Empirical relationships, valid for the considered data set, are used to estimate the exponent N of this power law from specific reflectance ratios, the 443/510 and 510/550 ratios being the best candidates. It is thus shown that, in these yellow substances dominated waters, total absorption ratios could allow the estimation of non chlorophyllous matter absorption at 412 nm and of pigment absorption at 443 nm.
OPTIMIZING THE MIGRATION OF VIRTUAL COMPUTERS

conference reports example, a stock trading system may have several redundant pathways for entering a trade, to protect against trades being lost before they have been entered. For the IT infrastructure, this means the redundant pathways need to be synchronized at some point. This type of problem is rarely considered by researchers or product developers. Third, error logging and reporting is important. As an industry, we currently support very primitive logging with no mechanisms for root-cause analysis or correlation of failures. Error messages are often arcane or not useful, and " first-failure " capture is impossible. This is evidenced by a common, though unreal-istic, request from support center staff: " Turn logging on and recreate the failure. " Because logging events need to be correlated, error tracking and logging should be a basic service of the OS. The problem addressed in this paper is that distributed application performance is important but hard to understand. CDN selection and CRM systems were offered as examples to illustrate the problem. The basic approach proposed is to use end-user latency analysis: (1) content (e.g., an HTML Web page) is tagged to collect data; (2) tagged data is observed on the desktop (end-client system); and (3) data is analyzed on the management server. The challenges for this approach include (1) technique issues such as larger data sets, heavy-tailed data, and the derivation of request properties, and (2) social and economic issues such as privacy. The results show that end-user latency analysis can monitor relevant information , which is obscured otherwise. MIT's Technology Review recently ran a story titled " Why Software Is So Bad. " The key is the problem of integration. CIOs spend 35% of their budgets on integration, because every new system must work with the existing infrastructure. The complexity of integration is driven up by the constraints of the business environment as well as those of the software. Several lessons can be learned from studying systems usage. First, standards and componentization are proving ineffectual for complex systems. For example , LDAP is a fine protocol, but no two organizations use the same schema. Making matters worse, interoperability is poor due to differing interpretations of standards, edge conditions, and vendor specific extensions. This is leading to a change from creating solutions by mixing " best-of-breed " products to using a single " best-of-suite " package. Unfortunately, much of the literature on building component …
Simulation of nitrogen constituent measurements from the August 28, 1976, Stratoprobe III flight

A simulation of the altitude distributions of HNO3, NO2, and NO measured on the Stratoprobe balloon flight of August 28, 1976, has been carried out by using a time-dependent stratospheric model with extensive photochemistry. The measured ozone and temperature profiles were employed in the simulation. The simulated ratios for HNO3/NO2 and HNO3/NO are significantly larger than the measured ratios for HNO3/NO2 and HNO3/NO in the altitude range 20–30 km. Since these ratios are proportional to the hydroxyl densities, it is proposed that the actual hydroxyl densities are a factor of 3–5 lower than calculated in the model, using current chemical rate data. By assigning a pressure dependence to the OH + HO2 reaction rate as well as including the OH + HNO3 reaction rate to reduce the OH densities in the model over this altitude range, an empirical simulation of the measured ratios was obtained. The pressure dependence chosen for the rate was such that reasonable agreement with existing measurements of hydroxyl densities at higher altitudes was still obtained.
Relationships between autumn precipitation anomalies in southeastern South America and El Niño event classification

The classification of El Niño events was performed based on the time evolution of sea surface warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean during the period 1950–2000. Two sets of events were constructed: one in which the warming core migrates eastward along the tropical Pacific until April–June of the following year, and another one in which it evolves westward until November–January. The first type has associated positive precipitation anomalies over southeastern South America during April–June. It results from a favourable combination of cyclonic vorticity advection and humidity convergence. At high levels, cyclonic vorticity advection is explained in terms of an eastward extension of the subtropical jet. Enhanced humidity advection takes place by an increased low‐level northwesterly flow to the east of the Andes. It provides enough moisture availability that, in combination with the upper‐level cyclonic vorticity advection, supports heavy precipitation during April–June. The second type of event exhibits slight negative or near‐normal precipitation anomalies over the same region. Both low and high‐level circulation anomalies are also weaker in this case. The 1997–1998 El Niño is analysed separately because it cannot be classified into any of the previously described event types.
Mass-balance rates derived by mapping internal tephra layers in Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull ice caps, Iceland

Abstract Internal tephra layers of known age have been detected by radio-echo soundings within the Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull ice caps in Iceland. Assuming steady state, the estimated strain rates since these isochrones were deposited on the glacier surface have been used to calculate past average specific net balance rates in the accumulation zones along three flowlines on Mýrdalsjökull and one on Vatnajökull. For the period 1918-91 the specific mass-balance rate has been estimated to 4.5 and 3.5 m a-1 at 1350 ma.s. l. on the southern and northern slopes of Mýrdalsjökull, respectively. At 1800 m elevation on the Bardarbunga ice dome in Vatnajökull, the specific net balance averaged over the last three centuries is estimated to be about 2.1 ma–1. Given this specific net balance, a revised age-depth timescale is presented for a 400 m deep ice core recovered in 1972 from Bardarbunga. The ice at the bottom is estimated to be from AD 1750.
Multiphase electrokinetic coupling: Insights into the impact of fluid and charge distribution at the pore scale from a bundle of capillary tubes model

[1] A bundle of capillary tubes model is used to investigate multiphase electrokinetic coupling during the flow of water and an immiscible second phase such as air or oil. The charge on the surface of each capillary is assumed constant, and the impact of charge distribution at the pore scale is investigated by calculating the relative streaming potential coupling coefficient assuming that the diffuse part of the electrical double layer is (1) much less than the capillary radius (“thin”) and (2) comparable to the capillary radius (“thick”). The relative coupling coefficient generally decreases with decreasing water saturation, falling to zero at the irreducible water saturation. In the limit of a thin double layer, the relative coupling coefficient at partial saturation is independent of capillary size distribution and depends upon the wettability of the capillaries only if surface electrical conductivity is significant and the irreducible water saturation is small. In the limit of a thick double layer, the relative coupling coefficient depends upon the capillary size distribution and wettability. If water is the only phase that contains an excess of charge, the relative coupling coefficient can be described in terms of the water relative permeability, relative electrical conductivity, and relative excess countercharge density transported by the water. This latter quantity increases with decreasing water saturation in water-wet models and decreases with decreasing water saturation in oil-wet models. It does not scale inversely with water saturation as has been assumed previously and depends upon the pore scale distribution of fluid and charge.
QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF SEDIMENT DELIVERY RATIOS

Summary Ability to adequately estimate sediment yield is an important step in dealing effectively with soil erosion problems. Predictions of sediment yield made using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) with different forms of sediment delivery ratio (SDR) are compared with those made by Modified USLE (MUSLE) and a fundamentally derived Erosion-Deposition Model (EDM). The USLE and USLE with SDR are poor predictors of sediment yield for individual storms compared to the MUSLE and EDM. Although MUSLE gave better results than USLE it showed somewhat more scatter of data points than the recently developed EDM.
Interaction effects of solution pH and calcium-concentration on Lupin (Lupinus-Angustifolius L) growth

The effects of sand solution calcium (Ca) concentration and pH on the growth of narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) were examined in an attempt to assess the relative importance of these two soil factors. Two pH (6.5, 8.5) and three Ca concentration treatments (0.625, 6.25, 16.25 mM) were applied by growing lupin in columns of sand which were flushed regularly with otherwise complete nutrient solutions. Root and shoot weights 63 days after sowing were reduced by both increasing pH and increasing Ca concentration. The pH x Ca interaction effect on shoot weight suggested increasing Ca played an important role (which was greatest at pH 6.5) in reducing lupin growth. It was unlikely that growth was reduced by either disrupted iron (Fe) nutrition or poor nodulation of the lupins.
The Deacon Cell and the other meridional cells of the Southern ocean

Abstract The meridional circulation cells of the Southern Ocean are investigated using the results from a fine-resolution primitive equation model. Zonal integration along depth levels shows the classical series of meridional cells but integration along density layers shows a number of differences, including the virtual disappearance of the Deacon cell. To investigate the differences, the meridional transport is calculated as a function of both density and depth. The results show that the Deacon cell is associated with systematic changes in the depth of density surfaces between the western boundary current region off South America and the return flow in the interior of the ocean. Water flowing on each density surface produces a meridional cell with a vertical excursion of a few hundred meters. Thew cells combine, without water crossing density surfaces, to produce a single integrated Deacon cell extending from the surface to below 2000 m. The results also show that, at each latitude, water on each of the .
Progress in satellite remote sensing of ice sheets

Understanding the changing mass balance and surface dynamics of the Earth’s major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica is of fundamental importance for accurate predictions of future sea-level rise. In this review, the remote sensing data sources available to ice-sheet studies are considered and the range of information that can be gained from remote sensing is examined. The review demonstrates that the integration of a range of remote sensing data sets can provide information on ice-sheet dynamics and volume changes, melt patterns and formation and drainage of supra- and subglacial lakes. Such data are highly complementary to field investigations by providing a regional-scale, synoptic perspective. The review concludes that emerging remote sensing techniques such as SAR interferometry, feature tracking, scatterometry, altimetry and gravimetry provide vital information without which an understanding of ice sheets would be far less advanced. It also concludes that there remain several key challenges for remote sensing, in particular relating to the observation of rapid dynamical changes that are characteristic of contemporary ice-sheet response to continued climatic warming.