cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: A SPATIAL SAMPLE SELECTION MODEL
Creators: name: Ward, Patrick S.
name: Florax, Raymond J.G.M.
name: Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso
name: Ward, Patrick S.
name: Florax, Raymond J.G.M.
name: Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Land Economics/Use
subject: Productivity Analysis
subject: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods
subject: Agricultural productivity
subject: climate change
subject: spatial econometrics
subject: sample selection
subject: generalized method of moments

description: Using data at a high spatial resolution, we estimate a cereal yield response function conditional upon climatological and topographical features using a recently developed estimator for spatial process models when sample selection is of concern. We control for localized spatial correlation in unobserved disturbances affecting both the selection to plant cereals as well as in the resulting conditional yield response. We find that cereal yields across Sub-Saharan Africa will decline with increasing temperatures resulting from global climate change, and that failing to control for sample selection leads to underestimation of these adverse effects.
The simulation extrapolation method for fitting generalized linear models with additive measurement error
Creators: name: Hardin, James W.
name: Schmiediche, Henrik
name: Carroll, Raymond J.
name: Hardin, James W.
name: Schmiediche, Henrik
name: Carroll, Raymond J.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods
subject: simulation extrapolation
subject: measurement error
subject: instrumental variables
subject: replicate measures
subject: generalized linear models

description: We discuss and illustrate the method of simulation extrapolation for fitting models with additive measurement error. We present this discussion in terms of generalized linear models (GLMs) following the notation defined in Hardin and Carroll (2003). As in Hardin, Schmiediche, and Carroll (2003), our discussion includes specified measurement error and measurement error estimated by replicate error-prone proxies. In addition, we discuss and illustrate three extrapolant functions.
Stabilization of causally and non-causally coupled map lattices
Creators: name: Atmanspacher, H.
name: Scheingraber, H.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Two-dimensional coupled map lattices have global stability properties that depend on the coupling between individual maps and their neighborhood. The action of the neighborhood on individual maps can be implemented in terms of "causal" coupling (to spatially distant past states) or "non-causal" coupling (to spatially distant simultaneous states). In this contribution we show that globally stable behavior of coupled map lattices is facilitated by causal coupling, thus indicating a surprising relationship between stability and causality. The influence of causal versus non-causal coupling for synchronous and asynchronous updating as a function of coupling strength and for different neighborhoods is analyzed in detail.
description: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Physica A
Entropic Out-of-Distribution Detection: Seamless Detection of Unknown Examples
Creators: name: Macêdo, David
name: Ren, Tsang Ing
name: Zanchettin, Cleber
name: Oliveira, Adriano L. I.
name: Ludermir, Teresa
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: Machine Learning (stat.ML)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In this paper, we argue that the unsatisfactory out-of-distribution (OOD) detection performance of neural networks is mainly due to the SoftMax loss anisotropy and propensity to produce low entropy probability distributions in disagreement with the principle of maximum entropy. Current out-of-distribution (OOD) detection approaches usually do not directly fix the SoftMax loss drawbacks, but rather build techniques to circumvent it. Unfortunately, those methods usually produce undesired side effects (e.g., classification accuracy drop, additional hyperparameters, slower inferences, and collecting extra data). In the opposite direction, we propose replacing SoftMax loss with a novel loss function that does not suffer from the mentioned weaknesses. The proposed IsoMax loss is isotropic (exclusively distance-based) and provides high entropy posterior probability distributions. Replacing the SoftMax loss by IsoMax loss requires no model or training changes. Additionally, the models trained with IsoMax loss produce as fast and energy-efficient inferences as those trained using SoftMax loss. Moreover, no classification accuracy drop is observed. The proposed method does not rely on outlier/background data, hyperparameter tuning, temperature calibration, feature extraction, metric learning, adversarial training, ensemble procedures, or generative models. Our experiments showed that IsoMax loss works as a seamless SoftMax loss drop-in replacement that significantly improves neural networks' OOD detection performance. Hence, it may be used as a baseline OOD detection approach to be combined with current or future OOD detection techniques to achieve even higher results.
description: Accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems: Special Issue on Deep Learning for Anomaly Detection
Additional file 3 of Formation of ultralong DH regions through genomic rearrangement
Creators: name: Brevin A. Smider
name: Smider, Vaughn V.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Additional file 3: Figure S3. Phylogenetic of DH paralogs from clusters 2 and 3.
Maximum likelihood estimation of generalized linear models with covariate measurement error
Creators: name: Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia
name: Skrondal, Anders
name: Pickles, Andrew
name: Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia
name: Skrondal, Anders
name: Pickles, Andrew
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods
subject: covariate measurement error
subject: measurement model
subject: congeneric measurement model
subject: factor model
subject: adaptive quadrature
subject: nonparametric maximum likelihood
subject: NPMLE
subject: latent class model
subject: empirical Bayes
subject: simulation
subject: wrapper
subject: sensitivity analysis
subject: gllamm
subject: cme

description: Generalized linear models with covariate measurement error can be estimated by maximum likelihood using gllamm, a program that fits a large class of multilevel latent variable models (Rabe-Hesketh, Skrondal, and Pickles 2004). The program uses adaptive quadrature to evaluate the log likelihood, producing more reliable results than many other methods (Rabe-Hesketh, Skrondal, and Pickles 2002). For a single covariate measured with error (assuming a classical measurement model), we describe a “wrapper” command, cme, that calls gllamm to estimate the model. The wrapper makes life easy for the user by accepting a simple syntax and data structure and producing extended and easily interpretable output. The commands for preparing the data and running gllamm can also be obtained from cme. We first discuss the case where several measurements are available and subsequently consider estimation when the measurement error variance is instead assumed known. The latter approach is useful for sensitivity analysis assessing the impact of assuming perfectly measured covariates in generalized linear models. An advantage of using gllamm directly is that the classical covariate measurement error model can be extended in various ways. For instance, we can use nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation (NPMLE) to relax the normality assumption for the true covariate. We can also specify a congeneric measurement model which relaxes the assumption that the measurements for a unit are exchangeable replicates by allowing for different measurement scales and error variances.
Fingerprinting Encrypted Voice Traffic on Smart Speakers with Deep Learning
Creators: name: Wang, Chenggang
name: Kennedy, Sean
name: Li, Haipeng
name: Hudson, King
name: Atluri, Gowtham
name: Wei, Xuetao
name: Sun, Wenhai
name: Wang, Boyang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper investigates the privacy leakage of smart speakers under an encrypted traffic analysis attack, referred to as voice command fingerprinting. In this attack, an adversary can eavesdrop both outgoing and incoming encrypted voice traffic of a smart speaker, and infers which voice command a user says over encrypted traffic. We first built an automatic voice traffic collection tool and collected two large-scale datasets on two smart speakers, Amazon Echo and Google Home. Then, we implemented proof-of-concept attacks by leveraging deep learning. Our experimental results over the two datasets indicate disturbing privacy concerns. Specifically, compared to 1% accuracy with random guess, our attacks can correctly infer voice commands over encrypted traffic with 92.89\% accuracy on Amazon Echo. Despite variances that human voices may cause on outgoing traffic, our proof-of-concept attacks remain effective even only leveraging incoming traffic (i.e., the traffic from the server). This is because the AI-based voice services running on the server side response commands in the same voice and with a deterministic or predictable manner in text, which leaves distinguishable pattern over encrypted traffic. We also built a proof-of-concept defense to obfuscate encrypted traffic. Our results show that the defense can effectively mitigate attack accuracy on Amazon Echo to 32.18%.
Critical couplings in topological-insulator waveguide-resonator systems observed in elastic waves
Creators: name: Yu, Si-Yuan
name: He, Cheng
name: Sun, Xiao-Chen
name: Wang, Hong-Fei
name: Wang, Ji-Qian
name: Zhang, Zi-Dong
name: Xie, Bi-Ye
name: Tian, Yuan
name: Lu, Ming-Hui
name: Chen, Yan-Feng
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Waveguides and resonators are core components in the large-scale integration of electronics, photonics, and phononics, both in existing and future scenarios. In certain situations, there is critical coupling of the two components; i.e., no energy passes through the waveguide after the incoming wave couples into the resonator. The transmission spectral characteristics resulting from this phenomenon are highly advantageous for signal filtering, switching, multiplexing, and sensing. In the present study, adopting an elastic-wave platform, we introduce topological insulator (TI), a remarkable achievement in condensed matter physics over the past decade, into a classical waveguide-ring-resonator configuration. Along with basic similarities with classical systems, a TI system has important differences and advantages, mostly owing to the spin-momentum locked transmission states at the TI boundaries. As an example, a two-port TI waveguide resonator can fundamentally eliminate upstream reflections while completely retaining useful transmission spectral characteristics, and maximize the energy in the resonator, with possible applications being novel signal processing, gyro/sensing, lasering, energy harvesting, and intense wave-matter interactions, using phonons, photons, or even electrons. The present work further enhances the confidence of using topological protection for practical device performance and functionalities, especially considering the crucial advantage of introducing (pseudo)spins to existing conventional configurations. More in-depth research on advancing phononics/photonics, especially on-chip, is foreseen.
Carbon-accounting methods and reforestation incentives
Creators: name: Cacho, Oscar J.
name: Hean, Robyn L.
name: Wise, Russell M.
name: Cacho, Oscar J.
name: Hean, Robyn L.
name: Wise, Russell M.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2003
Subjects: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy

description: The emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, and the consequent potential for climate change are the focus of increasing international concern. Temporary land-use change and forestry projects (LUCF) can be implemented to offset permanent emissions of carbon dioxide from the energy sector. Several approaches to accounting for carbon sequestration in LUCF projects have been proposed. In the present paper, the economic implications of adopting four of these approaches are evaluated in a normative context. The analysis is based on simulation of Australian farm–forestry systems. Results are interpreted from the standpoint of both investors and landholders. The role of baselines and transaction costs are discussed.
Additional file 4 of Fluid removal associates with better outcomes in critically ill patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy: a cohort study
Creators: name: Hall, Anna
name: Crichton, Siobhan
name: Dixon, Alison
name: Skorniakov, Ilia
name: Kellum, John A.
name: Ostermann, Marlies
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: Science Policy
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 4 : Table S4. Multivariable analysis (excluding patients who did not meet a FB nadir).
Lax Pair for Strings in Lunin-Maldacena Background
Creators: name: Frolov, Sergey
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Recently Lunin and Maldacena used an SL(3,R) transformation of the AdS_5 x S^5 background to generate a supergravity solution dual to a so-called beta-deformation of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. We use a T-duality-shift-T-duality (TsT) transformation to obtain the beta-deformed background for real beta, and show that solutions of string theory equations of motion in this background are in one-to-one correspondence with those in AdS_5 x S^5 with twisted boundary conditions imposed on the U(1) isometry fields. We then apply the TsT transformation to derive a local and periodic Lax pair for the bosonic part of string theory in the beta-deformed background. We also perform a chain of three consecutive TsT transformations to generate a three-parameter deformation of AdS_5 x S^5. The three-parameter background is dual to a nonsupersymmetric marginal deformation of N=4 SYM. Finally, we combine the TsT transformations with SL(2,R) ones to obtain a 6+2 parameter deformation of AdS_5 x S^5.
description: 28 pages, v2: a discussion of a 4+2 parameter solution added in section 5; new Appendix B with a 6+2 parameter deformation of AdS_5 x S^5; typos corrected, references added, v3: typos corrected
3D volume ultrasound : probe calibration and extended field-of-view
Creators: name: Poon, Tony Chingtoa
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: Real-time 3D ultrasound is a new generation ultrasound system that uses a dedicated hand-held probe to create volume data sets instead of standard 2D cross-sectional images. For applications in image-guided surgery and radiation therapy, a position tracker is added to the probe so that the volumes can be located in space. Calibration plays a critical role in determining the overall accuracy of an ultrasound volume tracking system. In this thesis, three calibration methods are developed specifically for 3D probes. The three methods are based on a IXI-wire phantom, a cube phantom and a stylus. The performance of each method is evaluated in terms of calibration reproducibility, point accuracy and reconstruction accuracy by distance measurement. The mean errors in the reproducibility tests are 1.50 mm (IXI-wire), 1.16 mm (cube) and 5.13 mm (stylus). The RMS errors of the point accuracy measure are 2.15 mm (IXI-wire), 4.91 mm (cube) and 2.36 mm (stylus). The RMS errors of the reconstruction accuracy by distance measure are 1.52 mm (IXI-wire), 1.59 mm (cube) and 1.85 mm (stylus). Overall, the LXI-wire phantom achieved the best results among the three. 3D extended field-of-view ultrasound creates panoramic views from a set of volume acquired from a dedicated 3D ultrasound machine and a position tracker. A simple compounding technique can then be used to combine the volumes together using only the position measurements but some misalignment remains. We applied two different registration methods to correct these errors in the overlapping regions. The first method divides the overlap into smaller blocks and warps the blocks to best align the features. The second method uses rigid body registration of the blocks. Experiments in vitro and in vivo showed that block-based registration with warping produced the most reproducible results and the greatest increase in similarity among the overlapping regions. It also produced the best reconstruction accuracy with a mean distance measurement error of 0.4 mm on a fetus phantom.
Additional file 5 of Fluid removal associates with better outcomes in critically ill patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy: a cohort study
Creators: name: Hall, Anna
name: Crichton, Siobhan
name: Dixon, Alison
name: Skorniakov, Ilia
name: Kellum, John A.
name: Ostermann, Marlies
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: Science Policy
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 5 : Table S5. Multivariable analysis (excluding 116 patients with negative cumulative fluid balance of day of initiation of CRRT).
Experimentally Probing the Shape of Extra Dimensions
Creators: name: Sher, Marc
name: Sullivan, Kelly A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In brane world scenarios in which only gravity can propagate in the extra dimensions, effects on the gravitational force may be experimentally testable if there are two or three large extra dimensions. The strength of the force at distances smaller than the compactification radius will be sensitive to the volume of the extra dimensions, but the determination of the shape requires knowing the gravitational potential at intermediate scales. We determine the dependence of the potential vs. distance as a function of both the relative size of the extra dimensions and the possible angle between the extra dimensional unit vectors, and show that high precision measurements of the gravitational force will allow the determination of the shape of the extra dimensions.
description: Much more pedagogical version. Version to be published in the American Journal of Physics
Assessment of developing-country urban consumers’ willingness to pay for quality of leafy vegetables: The case of middle and high income consumers in Nairobi, Kenya
Creators: name: Ngigi, Marther W.
name: Okello, Julius Juma
name: Lagerkvist, Carl Johan
name: Karanja, Nancy
name: Mburu, John G.
name: Ngigi, Marther W.
name: Okello, Julius Juma
name: Lagerkvist, Carl Johan
name: Karanja, Nancy
name: Mburu, John G.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Crop Production/Industries
subject: Demand and Price Analysis
subject: Willingness to pay
subject: food safety
subject: urban consumers
subject: leafy vegetables
subject: Kenya

description: The improvement in income in developing countries has led to emergence of middle and high income consumers in urban centers. Improvement in income usually causes the shift to consumption of non-staples including leafy vegetables. Thus in major developing country urban centers there has been rapid expansion of the grocery sections featuring leafy vegetables in leading retail stores. Specialty stores have also emerged featuring broad range vegetables. Many middle and high income consumers shop these stores. This study examines the willing of the middle and high income consumers who shop specialized stores to pay for quality of leafy vegetables and drivers of willingness to pay for quality. The study uses contingent valuation and the payment card method in eliciting consumers’ WTP. It considers a broad range of quality attributes including safety, nutrition, environmental friendliness, hygiene in handling. The study finds that mean willingness to pay for quality is higher among high income consumers (>60%). It also finds that income, age of children the consumer has, access to information of food safety are among the significant drivers of kale consumers’ willingness to pay for quality of kales. The study concludes that there is demand for quality of leafy vegetables and discusses policy implications.
Determinants of the Speed of Adoption of Soil Fertility-Enhancing Technologies in Western Kenya
Creators: name: Odendo, Martins
name: Obare, Gideon A.
name: Salasya, Beatrice
name: Odendo, Martins
name: Obare, Gideon A.
name: Salasya, Beatrice
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Crop Production/Industries
subject: Land Economics/Use
subject: Adoption
subject: duration analysis
subject: soil nutrients

description: Most adoption studies have employed cross-sectional data in a static discrete choice modelling framework to analyze why some farmers adopt at a certain point in time. The static approach does not consider the dynamic environment in which the adoption decision is made and thus does not incorporate the speed of adoption and the effect of time-dependent elements in explaining adoption. The adoption speed of an innovation is important in various aspects. Based on data from a survey of a random sample of 331 smallholder households in western Kenya, this study investigated determinants of time to adoption of mineral fertilizer, animal manure and compost using Duration analysis. Results revealed that factors that influenced timing of the adoption varied by the practices. Whilst education level of the household head, cattle ownership, location of the farm, access to extension services, and participation in land management programmes accelerated the adoption of different practices, age of household head, relative farming experience and market liberalization retarded the adoption. Gender of household head gave mixed results. To speed up adoption of the practices requires policies that promote farmers’ participation in land management programs, access to extension services and markets in addition to stratified targeting of different practices to specific locations and farmers.
Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed with the Spectrometer SPI Onboard INTEGRAL
Creators: name: von Kienlin, A.
name: Rau, A.
name: Beckmann, V.
name: Deluit, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The spectrometer SPI is one of the main detectors of ESA's INTEGRAL mission. The instrument offers two interesting and valuable capabilities for the detection of the prompt emission of Gamma-ray bursts. Within a field of view of 16 degrees, SPI is able to localize Gamma-ray bursts with an accuracy of 10 arcmin. The large anticoincidence shield, ACS, consisting of 512 kg of BGO crystals, detects Gamma-ray bursts quasi omnidirectionally above ~70 keV. Burst alerts from SPI/ACS are distributed to the interested community via the INTEGRAL Burst Alert System. The ACS data have been implemented into the 3rd Interplanetary Network and have proven valuable for the localization of bursts using the triangulation method. During the first 8 months of the mission approximately one Gamma-ray burst per month was localized within the field of fiew of SPI and 145 Gamma-ray burst candidates were detected by the ACS from which 40 % have been confirmed by other instruments.
description: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Conference "30 Years of GRB Discovery", Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, September 8-12, 2003
Post-Covid 19 Pandemic Physical Education Setting with Technology and social media
Creators: name: Hernando P. Diaz
name: Estela F. Diaz
name: Marifel Rojas Muli
Publisher: name: gjrpublication
Year: 2024

description: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the education of about 1.6 billion learners at its height in year 2020, UNESCO (2022) responded immediately introduced new model for international cooperation with telecommunication companies, technology industry, and the mass media. This unique model of collaboration ensures the continuity of educational processes. Educators have adopted social media in education and for other purposes. Studies have confronted that social media used for learning has significant contribution in education (Zhu, 2012). The objective of the study was to determine the effects of the technology and social media on students’ performance in physical education. A mixed method in design, descriptive quantitative to acquire data, and a qualitative approach to look into the experiences of the 120 participants, in a locally funded university in the City of Manila, 1st Semester of SY 2023-2024. Based on the results and findings the students in different PE classes used different technology and social media. Open communication, quick information accessibility, acquired informative videos and search international scientific references were the experiences beneficial to students accomplished task activities came-out in the interviews. Technology and social media supplemented the teaching of physical education in this post pandemic era.
Does the environment in which ICT-based market information services (MIS) projects operate affect their performance? Experiences from Kenya
Creators: name: Okello, Julius Juma
name: Ndirangu, Lydia K.
name: Okello, Julius Juma
name: Ndirangu, Lydia K.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Research Methods/ Statistical Methods
subject: ICT-based MIS projects
subject: the DrumNet model
subject: operational environment
subject: performance
subject: Kenya

description: The need to provide agricultural information to farmers has led to emergence of numerous ICTbased MIS projects in developing country. These projects aim at promoting commercialization of smallholder agriculture and subsequently their welfare. This study examines the how the environment in which such ICT-based MIS affect their performance. It specifically uses the DrumNet project, an ICT-based MIS, to assess how the socio-economic, physical, political and physical environment in the project areas affected its performance. The study finds that those transaction-related problems, especially strategic default, deriving from these environmental factors greatly undermined the performance of DrumNet forcing it to relocate severally. It discusses policy implications of these findings.
Spatial distribution patterns of benthic macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups in two rivers of the olifants river system, South Africa
Creators: name: Addo-Bediako, Abraham
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Space Science
subject: 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified

description: Benthic macroinvertebrates play a vital role in ecosystem functioning, such as nutrient cycling, primary production, decomposition and material translocation. A study was done to determine the functional feeding groups (FFGs) distribution along two streams of the Olifants River System, South Africa. There were longitudinal differences of the functional groups but were more pronounced in the Dwars River than in the Spekboom River. Collector-gatherers and collector-filterers were the most abundant groups recorded in both rivers. The least abundant groups were the shredders and scrapers in both rivers. The highest abundance of shredders in both rivers was at upstream sites (DS1 and SS1), more scrapers were found at midstream sites (DS3 and SS2), collector-gatherers and collector-filterers increased in the downstream (SS4) of the Spekboom River and predators were nearly constant in relative abundance at all sites. The relative abundance and richness of the FFGs did not conform completely to the river continuum concept (RCC). This could be related to the degradation of the catchment resulting from human activities which affected the quality of the water.
Utilizing Public Blockchains for the Sybil-Resistant Bootstrapping of Distributed Anonymity Services
Creators: name: Matzutt, Roman
name: Pennekamp, Jan
name: Buchholz, Erik
name: Wehrle, Klaus
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)
subject: Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Distributed anonymity services, such as onion routing networks or cryptocurrency tumblers, promise privacy protection without trusted third parties. While the security of these services is often well-researched, security implications of their required bootstrapping processes are usually neglected: Users either jointly conduct the anonymization themselves, or they need to rely on a set of non-colluding privacy peers. However, the typically small number of privacy peers enable single adversaries to mimic distributed services. We thus present AnonBoot, a Sybil-resistant medium to securely bootstrap distributed anonymity services via public blockchains. AnonBoot enforces that peers periodically create a small proof of work to refresh their eligibility for providing secure anonymity services. A pseudo-random, locally replicable bootstrapping process using on-chain entropy then prevents biasing the election of eligible peers. Our evaluation using Bitcoin as AnonBoot's underlying blockchain shows its feasibility to maintain a trustworthy repository of 1000 peers with only a small storage footprint while supporting arbitrarily large user bases on top of most blockchains.
description: To be published in the proceedings of the 15th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM ASIACCS'20)
Additional file 1 of Formation of ultralong DH regions through genomic rearrangement
Creators: name: Brevin A. Smider
name: Smider, Vaughn V.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Additional file 1: Figure S1. Alignment of Bos taurus DH regions.
Additional file 2 of Formation of ultralong DH regions through genomic rearrangement
Creators: name: Brevin A. Smider
name: Smider, Vaughn V.
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Additional file 2: Figure S2. Alignment of DH clusters 2, 3, and 4.
Minimizing the effect of sinusoidal trends in detrended fluctuation analysis
Creators: name: Nagarajan, Radhakrishnan
name: Kavasseri, Rajesh G.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) [Peng et al., 1994] and its extensions (MF-DFA) [Kantelhardt et al., 2002] have been used extensively to determine possible long-range correlations in self-affine signals. While the DFA has been claimed to be a superior technique, recent reports have indicated its susceptibility to trends in the data. In this report, a smoothing filter is proposed to minimize the effect of sinusoidal trends and distortion in the log-log plots obtained by DFA and MF-DFA techniques.
The quality turn in South Africa: insights from a comprehensive investigation into the food quality behaviours, perceptions and knowledge of South African consumers with a focus on middle and upper socioeconomic groups
Creators: name: Vermeulen, Hester
name: Bienabe, Estelle
name: Vermeulen, Hester
name: Bienabe, Estelle
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: Farm Management

description: Internationally, alternative food quality movements have given rise to a quality turn from the mass consumption model toward an increasing qualitative differentiation of products and demand (Allaire, 2002). While food quality trends and their implications have been widely analyzed internationally, little has been written on the local quality dynamics in South Africa, a country with clear dualistic socio-economic features. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of South African consumers’ present food quality evaluation with a specific focus on ‘conventional’ and ‘advanced’ quality attributes associated with fresh food produce (fruit / vegetable and meat). Primary data was collected during 2009 through an extensive nationally representative consumer survey (n=420) (LSM 7 – 10), preceded by focus groups and retailer observations of actual quality claims on fresh food labels. Statistical analysis involved descriptive and comparative analyses and Kmeans cluster analysis in SPSS 17.0. The paper substantiates the fact that when selecting food purchase outlets and fresh food products, South African consumers largely apply ‘conventional’ quality and convenience considerations (e.g. appearance, taste). Even though ‘advanced’ / credence attributes (e.g. animal welfare, environmental practices, safety) are generally less important the results also demonstrate that they already have a relatively significant foothold in the local market, being more established for higher LSM groups in particular and suggesting potential opportunity for market growth.. The complexity of consumers’ behaviours and evaluation towards advanced food quality issues is also pointed out. Implications surrounding guaranteeing bodies and small-scale farmers’ market access are also addressed, as well as study limitations and recommendations for future research.
Field Theory of Propagating Reaction-Diffusion Fronts
Creators: name: Escudero, Carlos
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The problem of velocity selection of reaction-diffusion fronts has been widely investigated. While the mean field limit results are well known theoretically, there is a lack of analytic progress in those cases in which fluctuations are to be taken into account. Here, we construct an analytic theory connecting the first principles of the reaction-diffusion process to an effective equation of motion via field-theoretic arguments, and we arrive at the results already confirmed by numerical simulations.
Additional file 3 of Fluid removal associates with better outcomes in critically ill patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy: a cohort study
Creators: name: Hall, Anna
name: Crichton, Siobhan
name: Dixon, Alison
name: Skorniakov, Ilia
name: Kellum, John A.
name: Ostermann, Marlies
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Neuroscience
subject: Immunology
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: Science Policy
subject: Computational Biology

description: Additional file 3 : Table S3. Time between initiation of CRRT and nadir of cumulative fluid balance depending on initial cumulative fluid balance.
Mechanisms of dynamic near-wake modulation of a utility-scale wind turbine
Creators: name: Abraham, Aliza
name: Martinez-Tossas, Luis A.
name: Hong, Jiarong
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The current study uses large eddy simulations to investigate the transient response of a utility-scale wind turbine wake to dynamic changes in atmospheric and operational conditions, as observed in previous field-scale measurements. Most wind turbine wake investigations assume quasi-steady conditions, but real wind turbines operate in a highly stochastic atmosphere, and their operation (e.g., blade pitch, yaw angle) changes constantly in response. Furthermore, dynamic control strategies have been recently proposed to optimize wind farm power generation and longevity. Therefore, improved understanding of dynamic wake behaviors is essential. First, changes in blade pitch are investigated and the wake expansion response is found to display hysteresis as a result of flow inertia. The timescales of the wake response to different pitch rates are quantified. Next, changes in wind direction with different timescales are explored. Under short timescales, the wake deflection is in the opposite direction of that observed under quasi-steady conditions. Finally, yaw changes are implemented at different rates, and the maximum inverse wake deflection and timescale are quantified, showing a clear dependence on yaw rate. To gain further physical understanding of the mechanism behind the inverse wake deflection, the streamwise vorticity in different parts of the wake is quantified. The results of this study provide guidance for the design of advanced wake flow control algorithms. The lag in wake response observed for both blade pitch and yaw changes shows that proposed dynamic control strategies must implement turbine operational changes with a timescale on the order of the rotor timescale or slower.
Technical efficiency of olive oil manufacturing and efficacy of modernization programme in Tunisia
Creators: name: Kashiwagi, Kenichi
name: Mtimet, Nadhem
name: Zaibet, Lokman
name: Nagaki, Masakazu
name: Kashiwagi, Kenichi
name: Mtimet, Nadhem
name: Zaibet, Lokman
name: Nagaki, Masakazu
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Crop Production/Industries
subject: olive oil manufacturing
subject: stochastic frontier production function
subject: technical efficiency
subject: modernization programme
subject: Tunisia

description: This study investigates firm level technical efficiency of production and its determinants in a sample of 137 olive oil manufacturing firms in Tunisia using a stochastic frontier production model applied to cross-section data. Results indicate that technical efficiency of production in the sample of olive oil manufacturing firms investigated ranges from a minimum of 47.1% to a maximum 99.5% with an average technical efficiency estimate of 86.5%. This implies olive oil manufacturing firms in Tunisia can increase their production on average by 13.5% through more efficient use of technology and production inputs. The fact that 93 firms represented more than 64.4% of the sample hit more than 80% of technical efficiency score implies the efficacy of modernization programme implemented in Tunisia. The estimated coefficients in the technical inefficiency effects model indicate that level of technology, frequent use of computer and internet, the owner’s age, the share of skilled labour, the employment of management staff, and the input sourcing by the own production have a significant and positive effect on technical efficiency. On the other hand, negative relationships are found between technical efficiency and entrepreneur dummy variable, continuous relationship with the suppliers in the same district, and with the private sector and trader as customers. These results imply that the adoption of new technology, accumulation of skill and knowledge as well as stable input sourcing contribute to improve the technical efficiency of olive oil manufacturing.
Ovni-net : a flexible cluster interconnect for the new OVNI Real-time simulator
Creators: name: De Rybel, Tom
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: The original OVNI Real-time simulator employs one of the lowest latency network solutions available today. However, with the advent of the MATE solution scheme, a new, more flexible interconnect solution became necessary. Also, the current system is limited in bandwidth and tied into the IDE hard-disk interface. This technology is soon to disappear, in favor of serial ATA. The new system presented circumvents any of the normal PC standard ports and is build directly on top of the industry-standard PCI bus. Also, the parallel connections between the nodes are replaced by high-speed full-duplex serial links, allowing for a system of larger physical size with a more manageable wiring solution. These enhancements yield in an even lower latency while significantly boosting the throughput. It also allows the hardware to be used on non-PC platforms such as Sun, Apple, HP, and IBM workstations. A major change to accommodate the flexibility of MATE was the incorporation of an intelligent shared-memory hub, avoiding many of the latency issues introduced by switched packet network solutions. To further boost the performance, no microprocessors were used in the network system. Instead, the required intelligence was distributed throughout the system and implemented locally in logic. This allows for a highly parallel operation of the interconnect with an absolute minimum of overhead. The integration of the new interconnect system and the MATE solution scheme is now so tight that the network system itself became part of the solution algorithm. However, due to the highly modular design approach, and the extensive use of FPGA technology, the system can be modified at will. Very different solution schemes and enhancements such as hardware error control, digital and analog I/O, and other features can be implemented without electrical modifications, allowing the same physical hardware to be used in both a research and a production environment. The result is a economic, obsolescence proof, flexible, high-speed low-latency cluster interconnect system build around industry-standard components.
Volatility Spill-over in a Customs Union: The Case of South Africa Sheep Import from Namibia
Creators: name: Oyewumi, Olubukola Ayodeju
name: Sarker, Rakhal
name: Oyewumi, Olubukola Ayodeju
name: Sarker, Rakhal
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: Livestock Production/Industries

description: Prices guide economic agents’ resource allocation and output mix decisions. The extent of price transmission determines the nature of market integration. Volatility spill-over in spatially linked agricultural markets has been investigated, but not across borders. We developed an E-GARCH model which enabled us to explore various properties of price volatility – volatility persistence, asymmetric interference and volatility spill-over. We found the existence of significant volatility spill-over within the South African Customs Union (SACU) using sheep price data in Namibia and South Africa, especially with the introduction of Small Livestock Marketing Scheme (SLMS) in namibia. The results show more stickiness in the retail market than the wholesale market in South Africa (90% and 49%), suggesting a greater impact of price volatility on South Africa consumers than the processors. In terms of volatility spill-over, the asymmetric effect is significant at 5 percent suggesting that these two markets are somewhat integrated, since the incidence of volatility spill-over from Namibia has influenced price information transmission in the South African sheep market. Furthermore, 79 percent of the volatility in the Namibian market is transmitted through sheep meat retail prices to the South African sheep market. The measure of volatility persistence is significant; indicating that 45 percent of the volatility transmitted to the South African sheep market is persistent.
Specification for the plan4res Platform Implementation
Creators: name: Haus, Utz-Uwe
name: Lazzaro, Alfio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: plan4res container

description: This document provides a specification for the Plan4res platform, a software environment • suitable to be used on all partner site’s compute infrastructure, • suitable to be used on a wide range of hardware performance classes, • usable to obtain repeatable results over time, • able to communicate with the MarketLab data repository, • suitable to run the necessary data transformations and optimization codes, • permitting exchange of data and code as well as executables between partners. In appendices it also contains a description of the Universal Data Junction software (UDJ), as well as reference manuals for the first releases of UDJ, (Deliverable D6.2), the SMS++ library and the data format used by it (Deliverable D6.3).
Assessing rural consumers’ WTP for orange, biofortified maize in Ghana with experimental auctions and a simulated radio message
Creators: name: De Groote, Hugo
name: Tomlins, Keith
name: Haleegoah, Joyce
name: Awool, Manfred
name: Frimpong, Benedicta
name: Banerji, Abijit
name: Chowdury, Shyamal K.
name: Meenakshi, J.V.
name: De Groote, Hugo
name: Tomlins, Keith
name: Haleegoah, Joyce
name: Awool, Manfred
name: Frimpong, Benedicta
name: Banerji, Abijit
name: Chowdury, Shyamal K.
name: Meenakshi, J.V.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Crop Production/Industries
subject: Demand and Price Analysis
subject: maize
subject: biofortification
subject: consumers
subject: experimental auction
subject: sensory evaluation

description: Deficiencies of micronutrients such as vitamin A are widespread, expecially in Africa. Biofortified crops such as maize, bred for high levels of provitamin A might offer a solution, but these crops are often bright orange, and African maize consumers prefer white. To estimate the consumers interest in orange biofortified maize, sensory evaluations were organized in rural Ghana with white, yellow and orange maize. The effect of information on willingness to pay for biofortification was estimated using a simulated radio message. Results indicate that color preferences are highly regional, wide variation exist within regions, and the provision of information is able to change these preferences. The color of biofortified maize should therefore not be seen as major impediment, but proper information messages should be targeted at the right channels such as rural radio.
Anthropogenic drivers of plant species coexistence in selected riparian systems, Kumawu district, Ashanti region (Ghana)
Creators: name: Nsor, Collins Ayine
name: Mensah, John Nkrumah
name: Barnes, Victor Rex
name: Akomatey, Peter Kwesi
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Inorganic Chemistry
subject: FOS: Chemical sciences

description: Anthropogenic drivers have long been recognized as influencing species coexistence and the maintenance of biodiversity in riparian ecosystems among others. Despite their important role, riparian zones have been subjected to progressive alteration. This study aimed at evaluating how anthropogenic drivers influence plant species coexistence in riparian zones differing in scale of disturbance – intact zone (Amobia), slightly disturbed zone (Onwame), moderately disturbed zone (Ninian) and degraded zone (Pame), respectively, located in the Kumewu District of Ahanti Region (Ghana). Plots were randomly laid perpendicular to the anthropogenic gradients such as fire, grazing pressure, erosion, farming, animal trampling, bare ground and logging. Number of individuals was counted per plot and the percentage cover estimated per species. Species packing model was employed to quantify how competing species for resources coexisted, while Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to evaluate the effect of anthropogenic drivers on the variability of species assemblages. High number of species heterogeneity at Amobia riparian zone was a reflection of their tolerance to species coexistence than in the severely disturbed Pame riparian zone. However, species optimum and maximum probability of occurrence tend to be highest in Pame and lowest at Amobia riparian zone. This may be that widespread driver like fire, grazing pressure, farming and logging created conditions in gaps suitable for the recruitment of diverse species, with functional traits facilitating coexistence. These anthropogenic disturbances were responsible for 53.48% variability in species composition and coexistence. Thus, to enhance species coexistence, restoration of severely disturbed Pame, should be of priority concern by park managers.