87value/wos11967 huggingface dataset:
Coral reefs provide important ecological services such as biodiversity, climate regulation, and cultural benefits through recreation and tourism. However, many of the world's reefs are declining, with Caribbean reefs suffering a significant decline in living corals over the past half century. This situation emphasizes the need to assess and monitor reef conditions using a variety of methods. In this study, a new method for assessing reef conditions to inform management using participatory mapping by coral reef experts in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is described. Occupational SCUBA divers were recruited (n=87) to map coral reef conditions, uses, and threats (stressors) using an internet-based mapping website. The data reveal an uneven geographic distribution of reef conditions in the USVI with the most frequently mapped perceived healthy reef characteristics being: large amount of physical reef structure (n=872 markers); endangered or threatened species present (n=721); and large amount of live coral cover (n=615). The greatest perceived threats were: invasive species (n=606); water pollution (n=234); and unsustainable fishing (n=200). Areas of important reef characteristics, perceived threats to reefs, and perceived recovery potential were plotted to identify areas requiring critical management attention. The authors found that perceptions of healthy reef conditions outnumbered perceptions of reef threats for nine of the ten most familiar coral reefs; the most frequent activity type within the coral reefs was tourism diving; and for the most familiar coral reefs, the divers perceived a high recovery potential. Given the novelty of participatory mapping methods to assess coral reefs, the strengths and weaknesses of the method is evaluated. The authors further propose a management typology for categorizing reef areas to inform their future management. In the absence of primary data, or, as a supplement to underwater surveys and remotely-sensed data on reef condition, participatory mapping can provide a cost-effective means for assessing coral reef conditions while identifying place-specific reef locations requiring management attention.
Smokeless tobacco (ST) use among US high school males living in rural areas exceeds national levels. Subgroups at heightened risk of ST use have been identified, but less is known regarding ST decision-making within high-risk groups. The study objective was to describe rural adolescent males' perceived ST acceptability, health risks, and social implications and how those perceptions differ between ST users and never-users. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 55 male students (32 ST ever-users) at three rural California high schools. Interviews were audio recorded and professionally transcribed. Investigators collaboratively developed a codebook based on thematic content and then independently coded transcripts, reconvening frequently to achieve consensus. Coded text was systematically organized into themes following a general inductive approach. ST users and non-users shared multiple ST-related perceptions, including: that ST is a common, normative way of life in rural country culture among certain groups; that ST use conveys oral health risks; and that the decision to use (or not to use) is rooted in personal choice. ST users' and never-users' perceptions differed regarding the immediacy, severity, and inevitability of health risks, particularly relative to cigarette smoking. Other differences included perceived parental permissiveness and the expected social benefits of ST use, such as peer acceptance and conveying maturity. Within this population of rural male adolescents, ST users emphasized the social benefits of ST use, while acknowledging but discounting health risks. Differences and similarities in tobacco perceptions among adolescents living in similar environments may inform effective health communication.
This paper reports on the design, development and evaluation of a framework which implements virtual humans for information provision. The framework can be used to create interactive multimedia information visualizations (e.g., images, text, audio, videos, 3D models) and provides a dynamic data modeling mechanism for storage and retrieval and implements communication through multimodal interaction techniques. The interaction may involve human-to-agent, agent-to-environment or agent-to-agent communication. The framework supports alternative roles for the virtual agents who may act as assistants for existing systems, standalone applications or even as integral parts of emerging smart environments. Finally, an evaluation study was conducted with the participation of 10 people to study the developed system in terms of usability and effectiveness, when it is employed as an assisting mechanism for another application. The evaluation results were highly positive and promising, confirming the system's usability and encouraging further research in this area.
We present a Python program, FREQ for calculating the optimal scale factors for calculating harmonic vibrational frequencies, fundamental vibrational frequencies, and zero-point vibrational energies from electronic structure calculations. The program utilizes a previously published scale factor optimization model (Alecu et al., 2010) to efficiently obtain all three scale factors from a set of computed vibrational harmonic frequencies. In order to obtain the three scale factors, the user only needs to provide zero-point energies of 15 or 6 selected molecules. If the user has access to the Gaussian 09 or Gaussian 03 program, we provide the option for the user to run the program by entering the keywords for a certain method and basis set in the Gaussian 09 or Gaussian 03 program. Four other Python programs, input.py, input6, pbs.py, and pbs6.py, are also provided for generating Gaussian 09 or Gaussian 03 input and PBS files. The program can also be used with data from any other electronic structure package. A manual of how to use this program is included in the code package. Program summary Program title: FREQ Catalogue identifier: AFBH_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AFBH_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland at http://www.cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk or from Truhlar group software page at comp.chem.umn.edu/freq/Licensing provisions: GNU GPL v3 No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3013 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 212537 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: PYTHON. Computer: Any computer with PYTHON compiler. Operating systems: Linux, Unix. Classifications: 16.3, 23. External routines: Gaussian 03 or Gaussian 09 (see Restrictions). Nature of problem: Optimization of property-specific scale factors for vibrational frequencies for a specific electronic model chemistry. Solution method: The method is based on minimizing the root-mean-square deviation between a set of zero-point energies derived from harmonic vibrational frequencies (either provided by the user or computed on the fly) and their experimentally determined counterparts. Restrictions: In order to compute the electronic model chemistry's harmonic zero-point energies on the fly, the user must have access to the Gaussian 03 or Gaussian 09 program. If the electronic model chemistry's zero-point energies are read in, no other program is required. Additional comments: After opening the FREQ.tar.gz file, the user will find a run.sh file which can be used to run all the programs to obtain the scaling factors for a user-chosen electronic structure model chemistry. Running time: Less than a second if the user provides the zero-point energies; if zero-point energies are to be computed, the running time depends on the electronic model chemistry used to compute them as well as the efficiency of the Gaussian 09 program, in our test we obtain the results within 10 min by using one node with eight processors for each Gaussian 09 input on Minnesota Supercomputing Institute's Meabi supercomputer. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
The Mek ong River is ranked as the 8th in terms of water discharge and as the 10th in terms of sediment load in the world. During the last 4500 years, its delta prograded more than 250 km to the south due to a tremendous amount of sediments deposited, and turned from a tide-dominated delta into a wave-and-tide dominated delta. This study aims at completing our knowledge on the fate of sediments that may be stored in estuarine or coastal systems, or dispersed over the continental shelf and slope. Sediment transport in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) coastal area was studied by numerical simulations using the Delft3D model. The model configuration was calibrated and validated from data collected in situ during 4 periods from 2012 to 2014. Then, 50 scenarios corresponding to different wave conditions (derived from the wave climate) and river discharge values typical of low flow and flood seasons enabled us to quantify the dispersal patterns of fluvial sediments close to the mouths and along the coast. Sediments mostly settled in the estuary and close to the mouths under calm conditions, and suspended sediment with higher concentrations extend further offshore with higher waves. Waves from the Southeast enhanced the concentration all along the MRD coastal zone. Waves from the South and Southwest induced coastal erosion, higher suspended sediment concentrations in front of the southern delta, and a net transport towards the Northeast of the delta. Because of episodes of Southern and Southwestern waves during the low flow season, the net alongshore suspended sediment transport is oriented Northeastward and decreases from the Southwestern part of the coastal zone (similar to 960 x 10(3) t yr(-1)) to the Northeastern part (similar to 650 x 10(3) t yr(-1)).
Construction of a random ssDNA sublibrary is an important step of the aptamer screening process. The available construction methods include asymmetric PCR, biotin-streptavidin separation, and lambda exonuclease digestions, in which PCR amplification is a key step. The main drawback of PCR amplification is overamplification increasing nonspecific hybridization among different products and by-products, which may cause the loss of potential high-quality aptamers, inefficient screening, and even screening failure. Cycle number optimization in PCR amplification is the main way to avoid overamplification but does not fundamentally eliminate the nonspecific hybridization, and the decreased cycle number may lead to insufficient product amounts. Here, we developed a new method, asymmetric emulsion PCR, which could overcome the shortcomings of conventional PCR. In asymmetric emulsion PCR, different templates were separated by emulsion particles, allowing single-molecule PCR, in which each template was separately amplified, and the nonspecific hybridization was avoided. Overamplification or formation of by-products was not observed. The method is so simple that direct amplification of 40 or more cycles can provide a high-quality ssDNA library. Therefore, the asymmetric emulsion PCR would improve the screening efficiency of systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment. (C) 2015 The Authors. Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Microscopic colitis (MC) refers to chronic inflammation of the colon which is characterized by histologic changes at the level of a radiologically and endoscopically normal mucosa. It is a common cause of chronic non-bloody diarrhea that occurs primarily in older individuals; however, there are few studies in the literature with strong scientific evidence compared to other inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which limits the knowledge of physicians and pathologists. This article aims to review the information on MC, describing diagnostic methods and drugs available for treatment. We conducted a search of the Pubmed database and CAPES Portal using the keywords microscopic colitis, collagenous colitis, lymphocytic colitis, and review for selection of articles published between 1996 and 2015 related to the topic. Based on the studies discussed in this review, we conclude that MC is a relatively new gastrointestinal disorder, most studies are incipient particularly with respect to pathophysiology and immunology, and budesonide is the best documented short-term treatment. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the best strategy for treatment in the long term.
The web browser is the new desktop. Not only do many users spend most of their time using the browser, the browser has also become host to rich and dynamic applications that were previously tailored to each individual operating system. The lingua franca of web scripting, JavaScript, was pivotal in this development. Imagine that all desktop applications allocated memory from a single heap managed by the operating system. To reclaim memory upon application shutdown, all processes would then be garbage collected-not just the one being quit. While operating systems improved upon this approach long ago, this was how browsers managed memory until recently. This article explores compartmentalized memory management, an approach tailored specifically to web browsers. The idea is to partition the JavaScript heap into compartments and allocate objects to compartments based on their origin. All objects in the same compartment reference each other direct, whereas cross-origin references go through wrapper objects. We carefully evaluate our techniques using Mozilla's Firefox browser-which now ships with our enhancements-and demonstrate the benefits of collecting each compartment independently. This simultaneously improves runtime performance (up to 36%) and reduces garbage collection pause times (up to 75%) as well as the memory footprint of the browser. In addition, enforcing the same-origin security policy becomes simple and efficient with compartments.
Between people, eye gaze and other forms of nonverbal communication can influence trust. We hypothesised similar effects would occur during human-robot interaction, predicting a humanoid robot's eye gaze and lifelike bodily movements (eye tracking movements and simulated breathing) would increase participants' likelihood of seeking and trusting the robot's opinion in a cooperative visual tracking task. However, we instead found significant interactions between robot gaze and task difficulty, indicating that robot gaze had a positive impact upon trust for difficult decisions and a negative impact for easier decisions. Furthermore, a significant effect of robot gaze was found on task performance, with gaze improving participants' performance on easy trials but hindering performance on difficult trials. Participants also responded significantly faster when the robot looked at them. Results suggest that robot gaze exerts pressure upon participants, causing audience effects similar to social facilitation and inhibition. Lifelike bodily movements had no significant effect upon participant behaviour.
Lies and deceptions are prevalent in our daily lives, yet most people merely guess when attempting to distinguish between lies and truths. In the current research, we examined the validity of the saying that it takes a thief to know a thief' by showing that it takes a good liar - one high in attachment insecurity - to detect another liar. In Study 1, 68 card players participated in a Bullshit tournament - a card game in which players try to deceive other players while also striving to detect their deceptions. In Study 2 (N = 99), people who cheated on their romantic partner (versus those who did not) were asked to detect cues of infidelity. Results confirmed our expectations and showed that good liars and cheaters, who are usually insecure individuals, are better at detecting lies and dishonesty. These results are discussed from the perspective of social defense theory, highlighting the utility of personality traits that are often deemed maladaptive. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The present study was conducted to assess the possible risks induced by construction of Gavi Dam in Ilam Province; western part of Iran, using MIKE-11 model and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. For this purpose, vulnerable zone of the dam site against the flooding risk of Gavi River was calculated for different return periods. The flooding zones were stimulated by MIKE-11 model. In order to check whether or not the dam construction could affect the quality of the Gavi River, the physicochemical quality of the river water was also tested. Afterwards, a questionnaire was prepared containing an inventory of possible risks supposed to be induced by construction of Gavi Dam. The questionnaires were placed at disposal of experts to score the items based on their importance. The questionnaires were then analyzed using SPSS Software, version 16. According to which, a total number of 12 risk factors were identified. The dam construction risks were qualitatively assessed by preliminary hazard analysis. Based on the results, 3 of 12 identified risks were recognized unacceptable. The shortlisted risks were prioritized at final step using technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. Habitat fragmentation with a weight of 0.3002, water pollution with a weight of 0.295, and impacts on aquatics with a weight of 0.293 were identified as three top priority flooding risks. Among the most important corrective measures for mitigation of the risks at construction phase can be pointed to restoration of the land cover, conservation of areas surrounding the dam as a new wildlife habitat, prevention of water contamination, and conservation of fish spawning sites.
Background: Freedom from discrimination is one of the key principles in a human rights-based approach to maternal and newborn health. Objective: To review the published evidence on discrimination against Romani women in maternity care in Europe, and on interventions to address this. Search strategy: A systematic search of eight electronic databases was undertaken in 2015 using the terms Roma and maternity care. A broad search for grey literature included the websites of relevant agencies. Data extraction and synthesis: Standardised data extraction tables were utilised, quality was formally assessed and a line of argument synthesis was developed and tested against the data from the grey literature. Results: Nine hundred papers were identified; three qualitative studies and seven sources of grey literature met the review criteria. These revealed that many Romani women encounter barriers to accessing maternity care. Even when they are able to access care, they can experience discriminatory mistreatment on the basis of their ethnicity, economic status, place of residence or language. The grey literature revealed some health professionals held underlying negative beliefs about Romani women. There were no published research studies examining the effectiveness of interventions to address discrimination against Romani women and their infants in Europe. The Roma Health Mediation Programme is a promising intervention identified in the grey literature. Conclusions: There is evidence of discrimination against Romani women in maternity care in Europe. Interventions to address discrimination against childbearing Romani women and underlying health provider prejudice are urgently needed, alongside analysis of factors predicting the success or failure of such initiatives.
Basketball game involves, beyond physical preparation, the individual technical-tactical knowledge essential for the good development of the game, a proactive attitude towards the goal of the action or a team spirit. It consists in the interaction of players and is based on mutual knowledge, acceptance and understanding, on cooperation for reaching the common goal. The athletes' ability to communicate and create relationships can be analysed in connection with the individual ability to shift attention, with the sociometric and preferential statuses, consequently with the team cohesion level. Sociometric analysis will be achieved periodically, according to the team structure, composition and evolution in order to ensure an optimal integration of athletes into the team, to increase its cohesion and eventually its performance. Sociometric analysis correlated to nonverbal communication ability, while knowing the preferential status indices (Psi), is the purpose of our research. The 20 subjects are members of the representative women's basketball team, juniors U16. Nonverbal communication ability positively correlates with the preferential status index of the team player. Research methods: bibliographic study, PONS (Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity) test, Moreno's psycho-sociometric analysis, statistical and mathematical method, graphical representation. Average score obtained by calculating the Psi has a negative value, very close to zero, namely -0.000006. Regarding the minimal (-0.15) and maximal (0.26) values, it can be noted a balanced distribution of scores, as compared to central tendency. The value of Pearson's correlation coefficient for PONS and Psi variables is rf = 0.833, which indicates a very close positive correlation between variables. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk
Our team is currently the global technology leader in the field of both carbon-carbon ultracapacitors and hybrid lithium-carbon devices. Main expertise includes R&D in material science, electrochemistry, process engineering, manufacturing engineering, electrical system design and manufacture of ultracapacitor electrodes, cells and modules. The team participated in a number of international research projects, and prototypes of ultracapacitors and hybrids were tested in the Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis, in JME Inc., in Wayne State University, and some other labs. All the test results confirm the superlative performance of the devices developed: carbon-carbon ultracapacitors demonstrate the extremely low inner resistance resulting in the highest power capability and efficiency that also reduces the cooling requirements and improves safety. Our parallel hybrid devices demonstrate substantially higher energy and power density than competing LIC technologies. In order to make ultracapacitor technology even more attractive to automakers, new organic electrolytes have been developed and are currently under testing (not ionic liquids) at temperatures about 100 degrees C and voltages up to 3.0 V.
In this study we empirically tested the effects of the use of third-person perceptions in the context of the stock market using a sample of 109 professional stock traders and 130 members of the lay public. Findings show that people perceived anonymous information recommending stocks on the Internet as having a greater influence on others than on themselves. Additionally, participants demonstrated a third-person perception when others were novice investors with little knowledge or experience in stock trading than when others were presumed to be experienced investors. Professional stock traders perceived a greater influence on others than did the lay public. We also found support for the relationship between third-person perceptions and attitudes toward support for warnings about anonymous information.