Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The ethics of digital ethnography in a team project

Abstract This article draws on researcher vignettes to explore ethical decisions made in the process of collecting and analysing mobile messaging data as part of a team ethnographic project exploring multilingualism in superdiverse UK cities. The research involves observing key participants at work as well as recording them at home and collecting their digital interactions. The nature of ethnographic research raises ethical issues which highlight the impossibility of divorcing ethics from project decision-making. We therefore take on board a reconceptualisation of research ethics not as an external set of guidelines but as being at the core of research, driving decision-making at all steps of the process. The researcher vignettes on which we draw in exploring this process facilitate a reflexive approach and enable us to identify and address ethical issues in our research. In this article, we focus on the potential impact that digital communication technologies can have on the kinds of relationships that are possible between researchers and research participants, and on the roles that both carry out within the project. In doing so, we explore the part that digital communications play in the co-construction of social distance and closeness in research relationships. Our discussions around these issues highlight the need for an awareness not only of how our participants’ media ideologies shape their use and perceptions of digital technologies, but also how our own assumptions inform our handling of the digital data.
Acceleration of buoyancy-driven fractures and magmatic dikes beneath the free surface

SUMMARY By performing buoyancy-driven fracture experiments in brittle gelatin we observe that the ascent velocity of a fracture containing a finite volume of fluid increases when approaching the free surface. We theoretically describe this free-surface effect and quantify it by introducing an effective depth-dependent fracture toughness and developing an ascent model on the basis of linear fracture mechanics. We develop a successful inversion approach and resolve the actual and critical fracture length and the ascent velocity far away from the free surface from the observation of the fracture tip migration alone. Other parameters, as the fluid volume included in the fracture and the in situ fracture toughness, can be derived. Applying the model and inversion to the 1998 eruption at Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island, reveals estimates of the length and critical length of the feeding magma batch, the magma batch volume and the in situ fracture toughness. It further indicates that the ascent velocity of the magma batch was probably much smaller at greater depths and that the batch might have been initiated several months or years before the eruption.
The asperity model and the nature of large subduction zone earthquakes.

Regional variations in the rupture characteristics of large shallow earthquakes in circum-Pacific subduction zones are interpreted in the context of the asperity model of heterogeneous stress distribution on the fault plane. It is assumed that the degree of seismic coupling between the downgoing and overriding plates is reflected in the maximum earthquake rupture dimensions in each region, and that gross features of the regional stress distribution can be inferred from the rupture process of large earthquakes. The results of numerous studies of the historic record and detailed source process of large subduction zone events are summarized for each region. The systematic variation in maximum rupture extent in different zones indicates that four fundamental categories of behavior are observed. These are (1) the Chile-type regular occurrence of great ruptures spanning more than 500 km; (2) the Aleutian-type variation in rupture extent with occasional ruptures reaching 500 km in length, and temporal clustering of large events; (3) the Kurile-type repeated failure over a limited zone of 100-300 km in length in isolated events; and (4) the Marianas-type absence of large ruptures. The rupture processes associated with each category have distinctive features. The great earthquakes of category (1), such as the 1964 Alaskan event, are often preceded by a prolonged period of increased seismicity, and the body wave source process is characterized by a long duration (~ 120 sec) time function. The earthquakes in category (2) are usually preceded by seismic quiescence and may occur as doublets or multiplets. The body wave source time functions of these events tend to consist of several long duration (30 to 60 sec) discrete ruptures. Category (3) events commonly have a precursory quiescence followed by extensive foreshock activity, and the body waves are complicated since they result from a sequence of short duration (< 30 sec) ruptures. Interpreting these features with the asperity model indicates that the stress distribution in categories 1,2,3, and 4 are characterized by very large asperities and strong coupling, large but discrete asperities, numerous smaller asperities, and an absence of significant asperities, and large component of aseismic slip, respectively.
Dynamic Robotic Cloth Manipulation

Robotic cloth manipulation is challenging due to the many degrees of freedom and properties of the cloth material affecting the dynamics of the manipulated cloth. The nonlinear dynamics of the cloth have particularly strong significance in dynamic cloth manipulation, where some parts of the cloth are not directly controllable. This thesis presents a novel approach for solving dynamic cloth manipulation by training policies using reinforcement learning (RL) in simulation and transferring the learned policies to the real world directly. The proposed method uses visual feedback and material property randomization in a physics simulator to achieve generalization in the real world. Experimental results show that using only visual feedback is enough for the policies to learn dynamic cloth manipulation in a way that transfers from simulation to the real world. In addition, the randomization of the dynamics in simulation enables capturing the behavior of a variety of cloths in the real world.
Can a paleo-drought record be used to 1 reconstruct streamflow ? A case-study for 2 the Missouri River Basin 3

15 Recent advances in paleoclimatology have revealed dramatic long-term hydro-climatic variations that 16 provide a context for limited historical records. A notable dataset derived from a relatively dense 17 network of paleoclimate proxy records in North America is the Living Blended Drought Atlas (LBDA): a 18 gridded tree-ring based reconstruction of summer Palmer Drought Severity Index. This index has been 19 used to assess North American drought frequency, persistence and spatial extent over the past two 20 millennia. Here, we explore whether the LBDA can be used to reconstruct annual streamflow. Relative to 21 streamflow reconstructions that use tree rings within the river basin of interest, the use of a gridded 22 proxy poses a novel challenge. The gridded series have high spatial correlation, since they rely on tree 23 rings over a common radius of influence. A novel algorithm for reconstructing streamflow using 24 regularized canonical regression and inputs of local and global covariates is developed and applied over 25 the Missouri River Basin, as a test case. Effectiveness in reconstruction is demonstrated with 26 reconstructions showing periods where streamflow deficits may have been more severe than during 27 recent droughts (e.g. the Civil War, Dust Bowl and 1950s droughts). The maximum persistence of 28 droughts and floods over the past 500 years far exceed those observed in the instrumental record and 29 periods of multi-decadal variability in the 1500s and 1600s are detected. Challenges for an extension to 30 a national streamflow reconstruction or applications using other gridded paleoclimate datasets such as 31 adequate spatial coverage of streamflow and applicability of annual reconstructions are discussed. 32
Numerical algorithms for low-rank matrix completion problems

We consider a problem of recovering low-rank data matrix from sampling of its entries. Suppose that we observe m entries selected uniformly at random from an n1×n2 matrix M . One can hope that when enough entries are revealed (O(nrlogn)), it is possible to recover the matrix exactly. We downloaded eight solvers implemented in Matlab for low-rank matrix completion and tested them on different problems. The report includes brief description of the solvers used (based on the original papers) and results of the experiment carried out.
) How to obtain division algebras used for fast-decodable space-time block codes. Advances in Mathematics of Communications

We present families of unital algebras obtained through a doubling process from a cyclic central simple algebra D = ( K/F,σ,c ), employing a K -automorphism τ and an element d ∈ D × . These algebras appear in the construction of iterated space-time block codes. We give conditions when these iterated algebras are division which can be used to construct fully diverse iterated codes. We also brieﬂy look at algebras (and codes) obtained from variations of this method.
On Smooth Frame Field Design

We analyze actual methods that generate smooth frame ﬁelds both in 2 D and in 3 D . We formalize the 2 D problem by representing frames as functions (as it was done in 3 D ), and show that the derived optimization problem is the one that previous work obtain via “representation vectors”. We show (in 2 D ) why this non linear optimization problem is easier to solve than directly minimizing the rotation angle of the ﬁeld, and observe that the 2 D algorithm is able to ﬁnd good ﬁelds. Now, the 2 D and the 3 D optimization problems are derived from the same formulation (based on representing frames by functions). Their energies share some similarities from an optimization point of view (smoothness, local minima, bounds of partial derivatives, etc.), so we applied the 2 D resolution mechanism to the 3 D problem. Our evaluation of all existing 3 D methods suggests to initialize the ﬁeld by this new algorithm, but possibly use another method for further smoothing.
Soil fertility in Africa is at stake

Soil fertility in Africa is under pressure as an increasing number of fanners attempt to make a living based on what the land can offer to growing plants. Studies in Africa from about 1989 have focused on different spatial scales, i.e., subcontinental, subnational, and farm. This chapter reviews the results obtained at these three levels and compares methodologies and implications. For N, annual depletion was recorded at all levels at rates of 22 kg ha (sub-Saharan Africa), 112 kg ha" (Kisii District, Kenya), and 71 kg ha~' (average for 26 farms in Kisii, Kakamega, and Embu Districts). If the soil nutrient balance is to become a suitable land quality indicator for wider use as a policy instrument, increased sophistication is required, including data on soil nutrient stocks and availability. The advantage of the nutrient balance approach over traditional rate-response research on fertilizers is that it includes all possible nutrient flows at the spatial scales discussed. A drawback, however, is the lack of hard data on flows that are difficult to measure (leaching, gaseous losses, and erosion), and the fact that the balance comprises several inputs minus the sum of several outputs. Nonetheless, the message comes out clearly that improved soil nutrient management is crucial for maintaining and improving soil productivity in Africa. Soil fertility is not a static feature. On the contrary, it changes constantly and its direction (accumulation or depletion) is determined by the interplay between physical, chemical, biological, and anthropogenic processes. This dynamism also is reflected in terminology such as nutrient cycles, budgets, or balances, referring to inputs and outputs in natural ecosystems and managed agroecosystems, to which nutrients are added and from which nutrients are removed. As the world Copyright © 1997 American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, 677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711, USA. Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa. SSSA Special Publication no. 51.
Measuring Ocean Salinity with ESA’s SMOS Mission – Advancing the Science

1 ESA Directorate of Earth Observation, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 2 Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain 3 Institut de Ciències del Mar CMIMA-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain 4 CESBIO, Toulouse, France 5 Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, USA 6 Nansen Environmental & Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), Bergen, Norway 7 Université Paris Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France 8 Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Survival of Indigenous Australians receiving renal replacement therapy: closing the gap?

Objectives: To compare mortality rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians commencing renal replacement therapy (RRT) over time and by categories of remoteness of place of residence. Design, setting and participants: An observational cohort study of Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA) data on Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians registered with ANZDATA who commenced RRT from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2009 and were followed until 31 December 2011. Main outcome measures: Five-year all-cause mortality for Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients in three cohorts (1995–1999, 2000–2004 and 2005–2009) and five remoteness (of place of residence) categories. Results: Indigenous patients were younger, more likely to have diabetes, be referred late and be from a more remote area than non-Indigenous patients. Age and comorbid conditions increased with successive cohorts for both groups. Unadjusted analysis (using the log-rank test) showed an increased risk of death for Indigenous patients in the 1995–1999 ( P = 0.02) and 2000–2004 ( P = 0.03) cohorts, but not for the 2005–2009 cohort ( P = 0.7). However, a Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for covariates (age, sex, late referral and comorbid conditions [diabetes, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, lung disease], and body mass index < 18.5 kg/m 2 and > 30 kg/m 2 ) showed the following Indigenous:non-Indigenous hazard ratios (with 95% CIs) for major capital cities: 1995–1999, 1.47 (1.21–1.79); 2000–2004, 1.35 (1.12–1.63); and 2005–2009, 1.37 (1.14–1.66). Conclusions: Although unadjusted analysis suggests that the survival gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients receiving RRT has closed, there remains a significant disparity in survival after adjusting for the variables considered in our study.
sterile endophthalmitis rates and particle size analyses of different formulations of triamcinolone acetonide

Purpose: To evaluate the rate of sterile endophthalmitis (SE) following intravitreal injection of three different formulations of triamcinolone acetonide (TA) in a single physician practice and also to assess the mean diameter and concentration of particles of the two TA formulations currently available commercially in the USA. It was hypothesized that TA formulations with smaller particles and/or greater concentrations would have a higher incidence of SE. Methods: Single-site, interventional case series in which the medical records of 392 consecutive eyes receiving intravitreal TA as Triesence ® , Kenalog ® -40, or preservative-free TA between September 2008 and October 2013 were retrospectively reviewed for the incidence of SE. Particle sizing of TA formulations was conducted by an independent commercial laboratory. Results: Five cases of SE were identified. The four cases of SE following Triesence ® (4.6%) represented a rate significantly higher than the one case of SE following preservative-free TA (0.6%; P = 0.049) and the 0% incidence rate of SE following Kenalog ® -40 ( P = 0.0210). Triesence ® had significantly smaller particles than Kenalog ® -40 ( P , 0.0001). Conclusion: The rate of SE was the highest with the formulation of TA that had the smallest particle size and highest particle load (number of particles injected). The lowest rate of SE was seen with Kenalog ® -40, the only TA formulation that contained a benzyl alcohol preservative. The data do not support a principal causative role of benzyl alcohol in the development of TA-induced SE. Instead, the data support the particle theory of TA-induced SE; however, larger-scale, multicenter studies are needed to confirm and expand on these findings.
Journal of Computer and System Sciences

The generative capacity of combinatory categorial grammars (CCGs) as generators of tree languages is investigated. It is demonstrated that the tree languages generated by CCGs can also be generated by simple monadic context-free tree grammars. However, the important subclass of pure combinatory categorial grammars cannot even generate all regular tree languages. Additionally, the tree languages generated by combinatory categorial grammars with limited rule degrees are characterized: If only application rules are allowed, then these grammars can generate only a proper subset of the regular tree languages, whereas they can generate exactly the regular tree languages once ﬁrst-degree composition rules are permitted. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Earthquakes Pose a Serious Hazard in Afghanistan

Printed on recycled paper The nation of Afghanistan is located in a geologically active part of the world where the northward-moving Indian plate is colliding with southern part of the Eurasian plate at a rate of about 1.7 inches per year (43 mm/yr) (fig. 1). This collision has created the world’s highest mountains and causes slips on major faults that generate large, often devastating earthquakes. An example is the magnitude 7.6 earthquake on October 8, 2005, in Kashmir, Pakistan, which caused more than 80,000 fatalities and left an estimated 4 million people homeless. Each year Afghanistan is struck by moderate to strong earthquakes, and every few years, a powerful earthquake causes significant damage or fatalities. As Afghanistan rebuilds following decades of war and strife, new construction and development need to be designed to accommodate the hazards posed by strong earthquakes. To assist in reconstruction efforts, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed a preliminary seismic-hazard map of Afghanistan. This preliminary assessment of Afghanistan’s seismic hazard incorporates data from thousands of earthquakes (a subset is shown in figure 1) combined with data about historical accounts of earthquakes, information about active faults, and models of how earthquake energy travels through the Earth’s crust in the region. The resulting map is the first detailed, systematic assessment of expected levels of ground shaking in Afghanistan that uses modern hazard-analysis methodologies. Earthquakes in Afghanistan are most abundant in and near the northeastern part of the country where the effects of the plate collision between India and Asia are most pronounced. In this region, tectonic forces have created the mountains of the Hindu Kush and Pamirs along with frequent moderate to large earthquakes (see fig. 3). Historical accounts show that the damaging earthquakes have also occurred elsewhere, even in the A S S E S S I N G T H E H A Z A R D C O N T R I B U T E S T O R E C O N S T R U C T I O N
Does Geography Explain Differences in Economic Growth in Peru?

In Peru, a country with an astonishing variety of different ecological areas, including 84 different climate zones and landscapes, with rainforests, high mountain ranges and dry deserts, the geographical context may not be all that matters, but it could be very significant in explaining regional variations in income and welfare. The major question this paper tries to answer is: what role do geographic variables, both natural and manmade, play in explaining per capita expenditure differentials across regions within Peru? How have these influences changed over time, through what channels have they been transmitted, and has access to private and public assets compensated for the effects of an adverse geography? We have shown that what seem to be sizable geographic differences in living standards in Peru can be almost fully explained when one takes into account the spatial concentration of households with readily observable non-geographic characteristics, in particular public and private assets. In other words, the same observationally equivalent household has a similar expenditure level in one place as another with different geographic characteristics such as altitude or temperature. This does not mean, however that geography is not important but that its influence on expenditure level and growth differential comes about through a spatially uneven provision of public infrastructure. Furthermore, when we measured the expected gain (or loss) in consumption from living in one geographic region (i. e. , coast) as opposed to living in another (i. e. , highlands), we found that most of the difference in log per-capita expenditure between the highland and the coast can be accounted for by the differences in infrastructure endowments and private assets. This could be an indication that the availability of infrastructure could be limited by the geography and therefore the more adverse geographic regions are the ones with less access to public infrastructure. It is important to note that there appear to be non-geographic, spatially correlated, omitted variables that need to be taken into account in our expenditure growth model. Therefore policy programs that use regional targeting do have a rationale even if geographic variables do not explain the bulk of the difference in regional growth, once we have taken into account differentials in access to private and public assets.
Does progressive resistance and balance exercise reduce falls in residential aged care? Randomized controlled trial protocol for the SUNBEAM program

Introduction Falls are common among older adults. It is reported that approximately 60% of residents of aged care facilities fall each year. This is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and a significant burden for health care providers and the health system. Among community dwelling older adults, exercise appears to be an effective countermeasure, but data are limited and inconsistent among studies in residents of aged care communities. This trial has been designed to evaluate whether the SUNBEAM program (Strength and Balance Exercise in Aged Care) reduces falls in residents of aged care facilities. Research question Is the program more effective and cost-effective than usual care for the prevention of falls? Design Single-blinded, two group, cluster randomized trial. Participants and setting 300 residents, living in 20 aged care facilities. Intervention Progressive resistance and balance training under the guidance of a physiotherapist for 6 months, then facility-guided maintenance training for 6 months. Control Usual care. Measurements Number of falls, number of fallers, quality of life, mobility, balance, fear of falling, cognitive well-being, resource use, and cost-effectiveness. Measurements will be taken at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Analysis The number of falls will be analyzed using a Poisson mixed model. A logistic mixed model will be used to analyze the number of residents who fall during the study period. Intention-to-treat analysis will be used. Discussion This study addresses a significant shortcoming in aged care research, and has potential to impact upon a substantial health care problem. Outcomes will be used to inform care providers, and guide health care policies.