Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biogenic sulfur emissions in the SURE region

The objective of this study was to estimate the magnitude of biogenic sulfur emissions from the northeastern United States - defined as the EPRI Sulfate Regional Experiment (SURE) study area. Initial laboratory efforts developed and validated a portable sulfur sampling system and a sensitive, gas chromatographic analytical detection system. Twenty-one separate sites were visited in 1977 to obtain a representative sulfur emission sampling of soil orders, suborders, and wetlands. The procedure determined the quantity of sulfur added to sulfur-free sweep air by the soil flux as the clean air was blown through the dynamic enclosure set over the selected sampling area. This study represents the first systematic sampling for biogenic sulfur over such a wide range of soils and such a large land area. The major impacts upon the measured sulfur flux were found to include soil orders, temperature, sunlight intensity, tidal effects along coastal areas. A mathematical model was developed for biogenic sulfur emissions which related these field variables to the mean seasonal and annual ambient temperatures regimes for each SURE grid and the percentage of each soil order within each grid. This model showed that at least 53,500 metric tons (MT) of biogenic sulfur are emitted from themore » SURE land surfaces and approximately 10,000 MT are emitted from the oceanic fraction of the SURE grids. This equates to a land sulfur flux of nearly 0.02 gram of sulfur per square meter per yr, or about 0.6% of the reported anthropogenic emissions withn the SURE study area. Based upon these data and the summertime Bermuda high clockwise circulation of maritime air across Florida and the Gulf Coast states northward through the SURE area, the total land biogenic sulfur emission contribution to the SURE area atmospheric sulfur burden might approach 1 to 2.5% of the anthropogenic. « less
Human prion diseases

The term ‘prion diseases’ refers to a group of neurodegenerative disorbm thought to be caused by prions, pathogenic agents with novel modes of replication and transmission. Prion diseases are characterized by long incubation periods ranging from months to years and are invariably fatal once clinical symptoms have appeared. They are also called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), on account of the predominant neuropathological change observed in the central nervous system. The most important members of this group are Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) of man displaying sporadic, inherited and infectious forms, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, ‘mad cow disease’) of cattle, and scrapie of sheep. Despite their rarity, human prion diseases have recently been covered extensively in the media because of the likely connection between a new variant of human CJD (vCJD) and BSE and the possibility of contamination of human blood and blood products by the vCJD agent. This short review discusses the basic biological properties of prions, followed by a presentation of the clinical and pathological features of the most important human prion diseases.
Pulmonale Hypertonie: Differenzialdiagnostik und therapeutische Konsequenzen

Pulmonale Hypertonie (PH) beschreibt einen hämodynamischen Zustand, der durch eine Erhöhung des pulmonalarteriellen Druckes (PAP) gekennzeichnet ist. Die PH ist insgesamt ein häufiges Phänomen, von dem ca. 1% der Gesamtbevölkerung und bis zu 10% der Personen > 65 Jahre betroffen sind [1]. Sie kann als gemeinsame Endstrecke einer Vielzahl von Erkrankungen angesehen werden, welche aufgrund unterschiedlicher Mechanismen eine Erhöhung des PAP bedingen mit der Folge einer konsekutiven chronischen Rechtsherzbelastung [2]. Unabhängig von der Genese geht bereits eine moderate PH mit einer eingeschränkten Lebenserwartung einher [3]. Die konsekutive Rechtsherzinsuffizienz bedingt einen erhöhten rechtsatrialen Druck und führt vor allem durch systemisch-venöse Stauung zu systemischen Konsequenzen in zahlreichen Organsystemen, welche Morbidität und Letalität mit beeinflussen [4].
Short-term responses of the small mammal communities to forest management within Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project sites

We conducted a capture-recapture study on the northeast-facing slopes of the MOFEP sites in south central Missouri to determine the initial effects of even- and uneven-aged forest management on species composition, species richness, and relative abundance of the small mammal communities. We compared changes between pre-treatment (1994-1995) and post-treatment (1998-2000) measures. Species richness ranged from two to six species per site across years; eight different species were caught across all nine sites and years. Overall small mammal relative abundance estimates ranged from 0.23 to 7.75 individuals captured per 100 trap nights per site across years. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations indicate that forest management had no short-term effect on species composition or species richness, but did have an effect upon total small mammal relative abundance 2, 3, and 4 years after harvest. Even-aged management, and uneven-aged management to a lesser extent, appeared to have dampened a natural decline in small mammal relative abundance that was observed on control sites. Relative abundance estimates on treated sites were slightly higher than those on control sites.
Design and Measurement of a 1-bit Reconfigurable Transmitarray With Subwavelength H-Shaped Coupling Slot Elements

A novel 1-bit 256-element reconfigurable transmitarray antenna (RTA) at the Ku-band is presented. The element consists of two orthogonal H-shaped slots as receiving and transmitting structures, and the power transmission is realized by a coupling microstrip line in between. Two p-i-n diodes integrated on the coupling line can be electronically controlled to reverse the excitation directions, thus generating two states with 180° phase difference and low transmission loss. A subwavelength element spacing of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/3 is utilized to stabilize the element performance under oblique incidence. A transmitarray prototype with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16 \times 16$ </tex-math></inline-formula> elements and aperture size of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5.3\lambda _{0}\times 5.3\lambda _{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 12.5 GHz is fabricated and measured for the experimental verification. The measured results show that the maximum gain is 17.0 dBi with an aperture efficiency of 14.0%, and 2-D scanning beams within ±50° angular range are obtained. The 3-dB gain bandwidth of the broadside beam is 9.6%.
Approach to the preliminary analysis of environmental systems

In the preliminary analysis of environmental problems, mathematical modelling studies can sometimes aid in hypothesis development and in the integration of preliminary data. Circumstances usually require models used in this way to be simulation models closely based on traditional scientific descriptions of component processes. As a result, such models contain many ill-defined parameters, a fact which severely limits the reliance that can be placed on the outcome of any single simulation. In an attempt to overcome this difficulty, it has been proposed that parameters be assigned statistical distributions which reflect the degree of parametric uncertainty and that these distributions be used in Monte Carlo simulation analyses. The authors propose a variation on this theme in which they first stipulate the systems' problem-defining behavior and define a classification algorithm to be applied to the model's output. This algorithm results in each simulation run being classified as a behavior, B, or not a behavior, anti B. The parameters leading to the result are stored according to the behavioural outcome. Subsequently, all parameter vectors are subjected to analysis to determine the degree to which the a prior; distributions separate under the behavioral mapping. This separation, or lack thereof, forms the basis for amore » generalized sensitivity analysis in which parameters and their related processes important to the simulation of the behaviour are singled out. The procedure has been applied to a eutrophication problem in the Peel-Harvey Inlet of Western Australia with encouraging results. « less
Modeling User Satisfaction with Hidden Markov Models

Models for predicting judgments about the quality of Spoken Dialog Systems have been used as overall evaluation metric or as optimization functions in adaptive systems. We describe a new approach to such models, using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). The user's opinion is regarded as a continuous process evolving over time. We present the data collection method and results achieved with the HMM model.
Resonance Chiral Lagrangian analysis of τ − → η ( ′ ) π − π 0 ν τ decays

The hadronization structure of τ− → ηππντ decays is analyzed using Chiral Perturbation Theory with resonances, considering only the contribution of the lightest meson resonances at leading order in the 1/NC expansion. After imposing the asymptotic behavior of vector spectral functions ruled by QCD, unknown effective couplings are determined by fitting the τ− → ηππντ branching ratio and decay spectrum to recent data. Predictions for the partner decay τ− → ηππντ and the lowenergy behavior of the cross section σ(ee → ηππ) are also discussed. PACS : 11.15. Pg, 12.38. -t, 12.39. Fe
Cloud Computing Security: A Survey

Due to volume output, easy access of information, less time more work to be done, virtualization technique and pay per use increase the use of cloud computing in today’s era. It may be used in all the area including Social websites, E-Commerce, Education and heavy data warehouse system. The on demand remote capacity makes it the first reason to choose cloud service. Now several companies are choosing the services of cloud computing. Then the question of security of the cloud data may arise. As the data on the cloud computing should be secure. In this paper a study has been made in the direction of cloud computing security. Based on the study some new insights has been gathered and suggested.
Trade in orphans and bushmeat threatens one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's most important populations of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)

Following the invasion of the Bili-Uere Domaine de Chasse by illegal gold miners in June 2007 and the subsequent abandonment of a long-term community conservation and research project there, the first author conducted a survey of chimpanzees and other large mammals on the south side of the Uele River, in the forests around the cities of Buta, Aketi, and Bambesa. This survey confirmed the presence of a large population of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in these forests, consistent with findings from surveys north of the Uele between 2004 and 2007. We also documented an expansion of the bushmeat trade to the south of the Uele River, linked to the artisanal diamond and gold mining industries and centered on Buta. Over an 18-month period from September 2007 to March 2009, we observed 42 chimpanzee orphans and 34 chimpanzee carcasses in markets, houses, and by the roadsides. This encounter rate of orphans and carcasses to the south of the Uele River was 20-30 times higher than that of the Bili area to the north. Interviews with local villagers and hunters indicate that there has been a major increase in bushmeat hunting, and the hunting of chimpanzees in particular, over the past 15 years. This wave of killing is currently expanding rapidly across the region. Given that the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to one of the largest continuous populations of chimpanzees remaining in Africa, it is crucial that this region be accorded the highest conservation priority. We recommend four lines of intervention to respond to this major and urgent threat: 1) Bring an end to the slaughter, 2) Establish formal protection for key chimpanzee populations and their habitats, 3) Begin educational campaigns via films and radio, and 4) Ensure the care of existing orphans.
Development of a tightly coupled composite Vision/Laser sensor for indoor SLAM

Autonomous navigation in unknown environments has been the focus of attention in the mobile robotics community for the last three decades. When neither the location of the robot nor a map of the region are known, localization and mapping are two tasks that are highly inter-dependent and must be performed concurrently. This problem, is known as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). In order to gather accurate information about the environment, mobile robots are equipped with a variety of sensors that together form a perception system that allows accurate localization and reconstruction of reliable and consistent representations of the environment. We believe that a perception system composed of the odometry of the robot, an omnidirectional camera and a 2D laser range finder provide enough information to solve the SLAM problem robustly. In this context we propose an appearance-based approach to solve the SLAM problem and reconstruct a reliable 3D representation of the environment. This approach relies on a tightly-coupled laser/omnidirectional sensor in order to take profit of the complementarity of each sensor modality. A novel generic robot-centered representation that is well adapted to the appearance-based SLAM is proposed. This augmented spherical view is constructed using the depth information from the laser range finder and the floor plane, together with lines extracted from the omnidirectional image. The appearance-based localization method minimizes a non-linear cost function directly built from the augmented spherical view. However, recursive optimization methods suffer from convergence problems when initialized far from the solution. This is also true for our method where an initialization sufficiently close to the solution is needed to ensure rapid convergence and reduce computational cost. A Enhanced Polar Scan Matching algorithm is used to obtain this initial guess of the position of the robot to initialize the algorithm.
Abraded rock landforms (whalebacks) developed under ice streams in mountain areas

Like many mountain ranges, the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, have undergone both local and ice-sheet glaciation. Effects of ice sheets are concentrated along major valleys and on adjacent spurs and passes which carried strong flows of diffluent ice. The major valleys are broad glacial troughs with frequent rock basins. Their slopes are broken into rounded, steep-sided bosses whalebacks abraded on all sides: they are of the order of 100 m to 1 km long, and 10 m high. In the southern Coast Mountains, the distribution of these whalebacks is consistent with a proposed pattern of former ice streams 1.0–2.1 km thick, within the Cordilleran ice sheet. They are best developed where geological structures parallel the valley and thus the former ice-flow direction, but they are found on a range of lithologies and some are transverse to structure. The whalebacks provide an impression of glacial streamlining, and occasionally grade into rock drumlins. Roches moutonnées are rare in the major troughs. It is hypothesised that these whalebacks and rock drumlins develop under ice streams of Greenland or East Antarctic type, sliding rapidly over bedrock and exploiting rock weaknesses to produce streamlined features. Lee slopes are abraded when thick ice suppresses bed separation, even with rapid flow; basal ice of low viscosity would aid this suppression. Water pressures under the ice streams may have remained high, so that lee-side plucking was rare; such plucking is most likely where pressure fluctuates dramatically, and especially when lee cavities under active ice reach atmospheric pressure.
Integrative Cardiovascular Physiology and Pathophysiology Significant role of the cardiopostural interaction in blood pressure regulation during standing

Da Xu, Ajay K. Verma, Amanmeet Garg, Michelle Bruner, Reza Fazel-Rezai, Andrew P. Blaber,* and Kouhyar Tavakolian* Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; Department of Electrical Engineering, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Department of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Exploring the Possibility of Using Humanoid Robots as Instructional Tools for Teaching a Second Language in Primary School

As robot technologies develop, many researchers have tried to use robots to support education. Studies have shown that robots can help students develop problem-solving abilities and learn computer programming, mathematics, and science. However, few studies discuss the use of robots to facilitate the teaching of second languages. We discuss whether language teaching needs robot support, whether robots present an appropriate medium for language instruction, and what challenges must be overcome. In order to explore the possibility of using robots as an instructional tool for teaching a second language, this paper reviews prior studies concerning educational robots and analyzes the characteristics of robots and instructional media. Furthermore, we report on the design and testing of five instruction scenarios for teaching second language. Based on our empirical experience, we provide suggestions for future research directions in the realm of robots for language education. Keyword
Competence Description for Personal Recommendations: The Importance of Identifying the Complexity of Learning and Performance Situations

Prins, F. J., Nadolski, R. J., Berlanga, A. J., Drachsler, H. , Hummel, H. G. K. , & Koper, R. (2008). Competence Description for Personal Recommendations: The importance of identifying the complexity of learning and performance situations. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 11(3), 141-152.
Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland

THE pathology of malignant tumours of the thyroid forms a fitting introduction to this symposium on thyroid malignancy. Many reviews have been written on this subject, and in this brief discussion I would like to concentrate on some of the more controversial and interesting facets. Those who would like to study an authoritative and more detailed account of the pathological classification of thyroid malignancy are recommended to consult the recent World Health Organization International Histological ClassiJication of Thyroid Turnours (Hedinger and Sobin, 1974), and for clinicopathological correlation the work of the Mayo Clinic group (Woolner et al., 1961, 1968). In considering primary carcinomas of the thyroid it is important to recognize that the mammalian thyroid is not one endocrine gland but two apparently functionally separate but structurally intermixed glands (Fig. 1). By far the larger component is composed of follicular cells, whose function relates to the concentration of iodide, the synthesis of thyroglobulin and eventually the release of thyroxine and tri-iodothyronine. The smaller component is formed by the parafollicular or C cells, which secrete calcitonin. These cells are not uniformly present through the whole gland, and when they are found, occur singly or in small groups. They are difficult to identify in man, but probably account for far less than 1 per cent of the epithelial cell component. Carcinoma of the thyroid can therefore be classified as of follicular cell origin or of parafollicular cell origin. While evidence of tumour differentiation towards the characteristics of one cell type does not prove origin from that cell type, in the context of the thyroid it seems reasonable to accept this as the likely sequence. Tumours derived from follicular cells show an unusually clear demarcation into well-differentiated
Detección de Betalactamasas de Espectro Extendido en cepas de la familia Enterobacteriaceae

La alta incidencia de las enfermedades infecciosas y el surgimiento de enterobacterias resistentes a los antibioticos representan un gran problema actualmente, siendo las cepas productoras de Betalactamasas de Espectro Extendido (BLEE) un ejemplo de este fenomeno. A fin de determinar la produccion de BLEE en cepas pertenecientes a la familia Enterobacteriaceae aisladas en el Centro de Referencia Bacteriologica del Servicio Autonomo del Hospital Universitario de Maracaibo, durante el periodo enero 2006-diciembre 2007, se analizaron 3883 enterobacterias distribuidas en 14 especies diferentes. Para la deteccion de BLEE se utilizo como metodo preliminar el de Kirby-Bauer, siguiendo los lineamientos del CLSI; adicionalmente se utilizaron pruebas confirmatorias como sinergia del doble disco, el metodo del disco combinado y el metodo de E-Test ESBL. Del total de enterobacterias estudiadas 951 (24,49%) fueron productoras de BLEE. K. oxytoca (43,33%), K. pneumoniae (40,10%), y Enterobacter cloacae (31,54%), fueron los microorganismos con mayor produccion de BLEE. Al correlacionar la produccion de BLEE con el servicio de atencion del paciente, se encontro asociacion estadisticamente significativa (p<0,05) entre la produccion de BLEE y las UCI. Estos resultados reflejan el uso excesivo de antibioticos, lo que trae como consecuencia la aparicion y diseminacion de la resistencia
The LGM surface climate and atmospheric circulation over East Asia and the North Pacific in the PMIP2 coupled model simulations

Abstract. The surface conditions and atmospheric circulation over East Asia and the North Pacific during the last glacial maximum have been investigated using outputs from several coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model in the PMIP2 database. During the boreal summer, the weakening of the high pressure system over the North Pacific and less precipitation over East Asia are found in most models. The latter can be attributed to reduced moisture transport. During the boreal winter, an intensification of the Aleutian low and southward shift of the westerly jet stream in the upper troposphere are found in most models. Some of the results in the present study seem to be consistent with the paleoclimatic reconstructions in the previous studies: pollen and lake-status records suggest dry climate over East Asia during the last glacial maximum, and part of the dust record has a signal that the East Asian winter monsoon was more strong and the westerly jet stream in the upper troposphere was further south during the last glacial maximum than at the present day. This result confirms that a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model is a promising tool to understand not only the global climate but also the regional climate in the past.
OECD public pension programmes in crisis : an evaluation of the reform options

Public pension programmes in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries are difficulties. With aging populations, and declining participation of working age men in paid work, existing pension arrangements are likely to be unsustainable in the future in many of the richer OECD countries. Indeed, supporting existing pension commitments, even before the 'baby boom' generation reaches retirement, has already proved problematic in countries such as Italy. Some governments have already taken steps to tackle the pension issue but there is inevitably conflict over who will bear the burden of retrenchment: will it be current taxpayers, current pensioners, or future generations of taxpayers and pensioners. Perhaps not yet born? This paper considers several issues. It examines the evidence as to whether public pension programmes in some richer OECD countries are indeed in need of major surgery, focusing in particular on the issue of fiscal sustainability. It then considers why programmes have got into financial difficulties. Consideration of this issue provides some clues as to what type of reform process is likely to be viable and credible. The paper then examines the strengths and weakness of some reform strategies. A central issue considered there is whether pension programmes should be funded or unfunded.