Generating fuzzy rules by learning from olive tree transpiration measurement - An algorithm to automatize Granier sap flow data analysis

The present study aims at developing an intelligent system of automating data analysis and prediction embedded in a fuzzy logic algorithm (FAUSY) to capture the relationship between environmental variables and sap flow measurements (Granier method). Environmental thermal gradients often interfere with Granier sap flow measurements since this method uses heat as a tracer, thus introducing a bias in transpiration flux calculation. The FAUSY algorithm is applied to solve measurement problems and provides an approximate and yet effective way of finding the relationship between the environmental variables and the natural temperature gradient (NTG), which is too complex or too ill-defined for precise mathematical analysis. In the process, FAUSY extracts the relationships from a set of input–output environmental observations, thus general directions for algorithm-based machine learning in fuzzy systems are outlined. Through an iterative procedure, the algorithm plays with the learning or forecasting via a simulated model. After a series of error control iterations, the outcome of the algorithm may become highly refined and be able to evolve into a more formal structure of rules, facilitating the automation of Granier sap flow data analysis. The system presented herein simulates the occurrence of NTG with reasonable accuracy, with an average residual error of 2.53% for sap flux rate, when compared to data processing performed in the usual way. For practical applications, this is an acceptable margin of error given that FAUSY could correct NTG errors up to an average of 76% of the normal manual correction process. In this sense, FAUSY provides a powerful and flexible way of establishing the relationships between the environment and NTG occurrencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Grain Surface Models and Data for Astrochemistry

AbstractThe cross-disciplinary field of astrochemistry exists to understand the formation, destruction, and survival of molecules in astrophysical environments. Molecules in space are synthesized via a large variety of gas-phase reactions, and reactions on dust-grain surfaces, where the surface acts as a catalyst. A broad consensus has been reached in the astrochemistry community on how to suitably treat gas-phase processes in models, and also on how to present the necessary reaction data in databases; however, no such consensus has yet been reached for grain-surface processes. A team of ∼25 experts covering observational, laboratory and theoretical (astro)chemistry met in summer of 2014 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden with the aim to provide solutions for this problem and to review the current state-of-the-art of grain surface models, both in terms of technical implementation into models as well as the most up-to-date information available from experiments and chemical computations. This review builds on the results of this workshop and gives an outlook for future directions

Reproducibility in the absence of selective reporting : An illustration from large-scale brain asymmetry research

Altres ajuts: Max Planck Society (Germany).The problem of poor reproducibility of scientific findings has received much attention over recent years, in a variety of fields including psychology and neuroscience. The problem has been partly attributed to publication bias and unwanted practices such as p-hacking. Low statistical power in individual studies is also understood to be an important factor. In a recent multisite collaborative study, we mapped brain anatomical left-right asymmetries for regional measures of surface area and cortical thickness, in 99 MRI datasets from around the world, for a total of over 17,000 participants. In the present study, we revisited these hemispheric effects from the perspective of reproducibility. Within each dataset, we considered that an effect had been reproduced when it matched the meta-analytic effect from the 98 other datasets, in terms of effect direction and significance threshold. In this sense, the results within each dataset were viewed as coming from separate studies in an "ideal publishing environment," that is, free from selective reporting and p hacking. We found an average reproducibility rate of 63.2% (SD = 22.9%, min = 22.2%, max = 97.0%). As expected, reproducibility was higher for larger effects and in larger datasets. Reproducibility was not obviously related to the age of participants, scanner field strength, FreeSurfer software version, cortical regional measurement reliability, or regional size. These findings constitute an empirical illustration of reproducibility in the absence of publication bias or p hacking, when assessing realistic biological effects in heterogeneous neuroscience data, and given typically-used sample sizes

Limits on the production of scalar leptoquarks from Z (0) decays at LEP

A search has been made for pairs and for single production of scalar leptoquarks of the first and second generations using a data sample of 392000 Z0 decays from the DELPHI detector at LEP 1. No signal was found and limits on the leptoquark mass, production cross section and branching ratio were set. A mass limit at 95% confidence level of 45.5 GeV/c2 was obtained for leptoquark pair production. The search for the production of a single leptoquark probed the mass region above this limit and its results exclude first and second generation leptoquarks D0 with masses below 65 GeV/c2 and 73 GeV/c2 respectively, at 95% confidence level, assuming that the D0lq Yukawa coupling alpha(lambda) is equal to the electromagnetic one. An upper limit is also given on the coupling alpha(lambda) as a function of the leptoquark mass m(D0)

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

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Searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson in pp collisions at root S=7, 8, and 13 TeV

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Measurements of differential production cross sections for a Z boson in association with jets in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

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