Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contributions of Citizen Scientists and Habitat Volunteers to Monarch Butterfly Conservation

ABSTRACT Volunteers can contribute to wildlife conservation by protecting and restoring habitat, or by collecting citizen science data. Much remains unknown about how citizen scientists contribute to conservation beyond data collection, or the extent that volunteering with citizen science or habitat conservation is associated with increased participation in other forms of conservation. We surveyed citizen science and habitat volunteers from monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) programs. Both types of volunteers conducted conservation outreach and created and managed monarch habitat. Habitat volunteers were more likely to create new habitat for monarchs in urban or suburban areas, whereas citizen scientists were more likely to maintain existing habitat in rural areas. Most volunteers increased their participation in conservation after joining a formal monarch project. Our results provide information about the capacity for habitat volunteers to engage in conservation, as well as evidence of an unexplored benefit of citizen science, the creation and protection of habitat.
Efficient Data Hiding with High Payload

Good rate-distortion performance is desired in data hiding, and the theoretical bounds are dependent on the range of allowable modifications made on cover samples. This work proposes a novel data-hiding scheme suitable for various modification ranges, and a family of data-hiding methods with different embedding rates and distortion levels can be generated. In the scheme, the secret digits are represented as a summation of vectors derived from cover samples in a shift manner. By introducing a trellis construction, the distortions of the possible sample-value sequences that can represent the secret data are calculated and only the sequence with the lowest distortion is selected as a new cover. It is shown the rate-distortion performance approaches the theoretical bounds with high embedding rate.
Bases epistemológicas sobre sentido(s) e significado(s) do trabalho em estudos nacionais Epistemological bases for senses and meanings of work in Brazilian studies Bases epistemológicas de los sentido(s) y significado(s) del trabajo en los estudios nacionales

The profound changes in the context of work and its sociological and psychological centrality indicate the relevance of understanding the senses and meanings attributed to it. The objective of this study is to analyze the epistemological foundations that sustain Brazilian scientific production in empirical studies that deal with the phenomenon. An integrative review was done with 25 publications indexed on the PePSIC and SciELO databases. It is noteworthy that the scientific production is in full development, with a prevalence of studies using the existentialist and socio-historical approaches, as well as the increasing use of the psychodynamic of work approach, in collaboration with the others. Epistemological perspectives are, mainly, located in two subjective quadrants, and the subjectivity axis of Work and Organizational Psychology. The diversity of approaches to the phenomenon underscores the importance of greater theoretical understanding, avoiding inconsistencies in the construction of research, as well as expanding the scope of the study with the inclusion of international analysis.
Occurrence of dorsal axis-inducing activity around the vegetal pole of an uncleaved Xenopus egg and displacement to the equatorial region by cortical rotation.

Specification of the dorsoventral axis is a subject of great importance in amphibian embryogenesis. We have found that cytoplasm of the vegetal dorsal cells of a 16-cell embryo of Xenopus laevis, when injected into the ventral vegetal cells of a recipient at the same stage, can induce formation of a second axis. In the present experiments,using the same assay procedure, we found that the cytoplasm around the vegetal pole of an egg before cortical rotation is also active in inducing a second axis,that the activity decreases throughout the second half of the cell cycle and appears in a presumptive dorsal equatorial region at the 2- to 16-cell stages. This is the first demonstration of the localization of dorsal forming activity in any specific region of an egg. After UV irradiation,a treatment that is known to block cortical rotation and thereby inhibit axis specification, the activity remains near the vegetal pole beyond the first cell cycle and does not appear in an equatorial region, at least at the 16-cell stage. This suggests that cortical rotation ora related force is in some way involved in changes in distribution of the activity.We also found that UV-irradiated 8-cell embryos can rescue dorsal development when they are cut into halves along the first cleavage plane. Histological examination revealed that the rescued embryos have a neural tube and notochord. In the half embryo, the animal and vegetal regions came into contact during wound healing, an event that enables the activity to localize in the new equator of an embryo. Therefore this rescue suggests that, if the activity is distributed only in the equatorial region, dorsal specification occurs. In fact, the dorsal side of the rescued embryos seems to correspond to the plane through which the embryos have been cut.Based on our results, we propose (1) that a determinant that carries axis-inducing activity is first present around the vegetal pole, (2) that the determinant shifts from the vegetal pole to an equatorial region by or in close association with cortical rotation and (3) that occurrence of the determinant in the equatorial region is a prerequisite for axis specification.
Whole Cigarette Smoke Increased the Expression of TLRs, HBDs, and Proinflammory Cytokines by Human Gingival Epithelial Cells through Different Signaling Pathways

The gingival epithelium is becoming known as a regulator of the oral innate immune responses to a variety of insults such as bacteria and chemicals, including those chemicals found in cigarette smoke. We investigated the effects of whole cigarette smoke on cell-surface-expressed Toll-like receptors (TLR)-2, −4 and −6, human β-defensin (HBD) and proinflammatory cytokine expression and production in primary human gingival epithelial cells. Whole cigarette smoke was shown to increase TLR2, TLR4 and TLR6 expression. Cigarette smoke led to ERK1/2, p38 and JNK phosphorylation in conjunction with nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) translocation into the nucleus. TLR expression following cigarette smoke exposure was down regulated by the use of ERK1/2, p38, JNK MAP kinases, and NFκB inhibitors, suggesting the involvement of these signaling pathways in the cellular response against cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke also promoted HBD2, HBD3, IL-1β, and IL-6 expression through the ERK1/2 and NFκB pathways. Interestingly, the modulation of TLR, HBD, and cytokine expression was maintained long after the gingival epithelial cells were exposed to smoke. By promoting TLR, HBDs, and proinflammatory cytokine expression and production, cigarette smoke may contribute to innate immunity dysregulation, which may have a negative effect on human health.
Association of specific chromosome alterations with tumour phenotype in posterior uveal melanoma

Posterior uveal melanomas have recurrent alterations of chromosomes 1, 3, 6 and 8. In particular, changes of chromosomes 3 and 8 occur in association, appear to characterize those tumours with a ciliary body component, and have been shown to be of prognostic significance. The relevance of other chromosome alterations is less certain. We have performed cytogenetic analysis on 42 previously untreated primary posterior uveal melanomas. Of interest was the observation that as tumour size increased the involvement of specific chromosome changes, and the amount of chromosome abnormalities likewise increased. Loss, or partial deletions, of the short arm of chromosome 1 were found to associate with larger ciliary body melanomas; typically, loss of the short arm resulted from unbalanced translocations, the partners of which varied. Trisomy of chromosome 21 occurred more often in ciliary body melanomas, whilst rearrangements of chromosomes 6 and 11 were primarily related to choroidal melanomas. Our results imply that alterations of chromosome 1 are important in the progression of some uveal melanomas, and that other chromosome abnormalities, besides those of chromosomes 3 and 8, are associated with ocular tumours of particular locations. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
Time Integration and Steady-State Continuation for 2d Lubrication Equations

Lubrication equations describe many structuring processes of thin liquid films. We develop and apply a numerical framework suitable for their analysis employing a dynamical systems approach. In particular, we present a time integration algorithm based on exponential propagation and an algorithm for steady-state continuation. Both algorithms employ a Cayley transform to overcome numerical problems resulting from scale separation in space and time. An adaptive time-step allows one to study the dynamics close to hetero- or homoclinic connections. The developed framework is employed, on the one hand, to analyze different phases of the dewetting of a liquid film on a horizontal homogeneous substrate. On the other hand, we consider the depinning of drops pinned by a wettability defect. Time-stepping and path-following are used in both cases to analyze steady-state solutions and their bifurcations as well as dynamic processes on short and long time-scales. Both examples are treated for two- and three-dimensional.
How to educate prescribers in antimicrobial stewardship practices

Widespread antimicrobial use has compromised its value, leading to a crisis of antimicrobial resistance. A major cause of misuse is insufficient knowledge of prescribing of antimicrobials in many categories of professionals. An important principle of antimicrobial stewardship is avoiding selection pressure in the patient, both on pathogen and commensal by avoiding unnecessary use, choosing the least broad-spectrum antibiotic, adequate doses, a good timing and the shortest possible duration. Up to now, most educational efforts have been targeted at professionals (mostly medical doctors) after their training and at the adult public. In the past few years, progress has been made in educating children. It is now crucial that academia and ministries of Health and Education jointly focus on an adapted undergraduate medical/professional curriculum that teaches all necessary principles of microbiology, infectious diseases and clinical pharmacology, with emphasis on the principles of prudent prescribing.
How Robust Is Robust Covariance? Evidence from International Portfolio Selection

This paper investigates whether the use of robust covariance improves portfolio performance and, in the presence of uncertainty, whether the 1/N strategy is as good as you think. In addition to sample covariance, we use a battery of robust covariance matrix. Our empirical evidence has two findings: First, the range of in-sample estimation horizon and out-of-sample holding period matter the most; secondly, generally, assets selected by robust covariance does not matter, the only exception is covariance estimated by multivariate t distribution Although the 1/N strategy is as optimal as the literature suggests, it does not cover all assets, yet n assets selected out of N by certain strategy perform better. Whether the out-of-sample holding period is set to be 1 and 3 months, our empirical illustration shows that: n assets selected from 90-day estimation window performs best, portfolio with 1/n weight consistently outperforms that with pre-optimized weights. As a result, robust investment strategy matters the most, rather than robust covariance. The factors that affect covariance estimator is not outliers, but the one that balance information.
Analysis of integrated cloud liquid and precipitable water vapor retrievals from microwave radiometers during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project

We investigated a variety of factors that influence the determination of precipitable water vapor (V) and integrated cloud liquid (L) by dual-channel microwave radiometers (MWRs). These factors include radiometric calibration; dry, water vapor, and liquid absorption coefficients; and physical versus statistical retrieval methods. We then applied the analysis to the MWR that was operated by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean project. In the work reported here, MWR data taken from April 1 to July 31, 1998, were analyzed. Data acquired in situ did not always agree with the original MWR liquid retrievals, with MWR estimates at times being too large by perhaps a factor of 2. These differences led us to examine in detail several of the assumptions that go into V and L retrievals. The radiometer was carefully examined and found to be well calibrated with a 0.3 K RMS error. The predicted accuracy in the L retrievals, for this 0.3 K RMS radiometric error and a statistical retrieval, was 25 g m 2 RMS. This accuracy improves to 10%, if we use the improved knowledge of cloud temperature, as can be obtained using radiosondes and cloud radar/lidar measurements. We also studied the degree to which different clear air and cloud liquid models have an effect on V and L retrievals. The most significant changes from the original ARM retrievals were due to the dry opacity and the cloud liquid dielectric model. Although nothing was found in the original ARM data that was grossly incorrect, application of these models reduced the original ARM retrievals by roughly 20 to 30%. The change of clear-air absorption model from the original to a more recent one has little impact on V retrievals except when V is 0.5 cm.
Emotional understanding in clinical and normal children in correlation with mothers' emotional awareness and attitudes toward children's expressiveness

Children’s understanding of ambivalence love/anger and happy/sad, and understanding of how angry and sad feelings change were examined in clinical and control chiidren of two age groups, 7-8 and 10-11. The clinical group consisted of boys who had been referred to and diagnosed by psychiatric units at three major hospitals in Bogotà, Colombia (n= 1 5 in both age groups). The control group was drawn from boys attending public schools in Bogotâ and surrounding areas (n =1 7 for the 7-8 and n= 1 6 for the 1 0-1 1). Mothers’ attitudes toward children’s emotional expression and their level of awareness of emotion were also examined (n= 63) and compared between groups. Resuits confirm a progression with age of emotional understanding for most of the variables examined, but the only significant difference between clinical and control children was in understanding of how angry feelings change. There were also no differences between mothers ofclinical and control chiidren in their attitudes toward emotional expression or in their emotional awareness. Parental variables were flot significantly correlated with the children’s variables. This study represents an effort to understand emotional cognition in clïnically diagnosed children and presents information regarding a sample from a Latin American country.
Verifying a Chinese collection for text categorization

This article describes the development of a free test collection for Chinese text categorization. A novel retrieval-based approach was developed to detect duplicates and label inconsistency in this corpus and in Reuters-21578 for comparison. The method was able to detect certain types of similar and/or duplicated documents that were overlooked by an alternative repetition-based method [1]. Experiments showed that effectiveness was not affected by the confusing documents.
Working Paper 9902 Taylor Rules in a Limited Participation Model

We use the limited participation model of money as a laboratory for studying the operating characteristics of Taylor rules for setting the rate of interest. Rules are evaluated according to their ability to protect the economy from bad outcomes such as the burst of in°ation observed in the 1970s. Based on our analysis, we argue for a rule which: (i) raises the nominal interest rate more than one-for-one with a rise in in°ation; and (ii) does not change the interest rate in response to a change in output relative to trend. JEL numbers: E1, E4, E52, E58 ¤Portions of this document are reprinted, with the permission of the University of Chicago Press, from a comment by us that is forthcoming in Taylor (1999a). The ̄rst author is grateful to the National Science Foundation for a grant to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
VALIDITY OF LITTLE'S IRREGULARITY INDEX ON PHOTOCOPIED IMAGES OF DENTAL CASTS

Crowding whether primary or secondary is one of the main reasons for seeking orthodontic treatment. Incisor irregularity is an easy and excellent indicator of the severity of crowding. Assessment of incisor irregularity on photocopied images can prove to be a good mean as an alternate to the conventional method of assessment on dental casts. In this study a sample of 58 dental casts were selected using non probability purposive sampling technique. The accuracy of assessment of incisor irregularity on photocopied images is judged by finding its comparison with direct method of assessment on dental casts which showed a good agreement when assessed using paired sample t test (p- value= 0.201) and the correlation was 0.775. An advantage of assessment of incisor irregularity on photocopied images is that the vertical errors that can occur in conventional method are precluded. Thus this study concludes that an alternate way of assessment of incisor irregularity on photocopied images is a reliable diagnostic tool which can be considered in our routine diagnostic procedures.
Optical Silencing of C. elegans Cells with Arch Proton Pump

Background Optogenetic techniques using light-driven ion channels or ion pumps for controlling excitable cells have greatly facilitated the investigation of nervous systems in vivo. A model organism, C. elegans, with its small transparent body and well-characterized neural circuits, is especially suitable for optogenetic analyses. Methodology/Principal Findings We describe the application of archaerhodopsin-3 (Arch), a recently reported optical neuronal silencer, to C. elegans. Arch::GFP expressed either in all neurons or body wall muscles of the entire body by means of transgenes were localized, at least partially, to the cell membrane without adverse effects, and caused locomotory paralysis of worms when illuminated by green light (550 nm). Pan-neuronal expression of Arch endowed worms with quick and sustained responsiveness to such light. Worms reliably responded to repeated periods of illumination and non-illumination, and remained paralyzed under continuous illumination for 30 seconds. Worms expressing Arch in different subsets of motor neurons exhibited distinct defects in the locomotory behavior under green light: selective silencing of A-type motor neurons affected backward movement while silencing of B-type motor neurons affected forward movement more severely. Our experiments using a heat-shock-mediated induction system also indicate that Arch becomes fully functional only 12 hours after induction and remains functional for more than 24 hour. Conclusions/Sgnificance Arch can be used for silencing neurons and muscles, and may be a useful alternative to currently widely used halorhodopsin (NpHR) in optogenetic studies of C. elegans.
Technology and school–home communication

Abstract This paper examines the linked concepts of school–home communications, and parental engagement in children’s learning, both of which are vital for supporting learning, particularly at times of transition. The paper examines the theoretical basis for both of these concepts. A distinction is drawn between communication (which can be simply the giving/receiving of information) and dialogue, which requires active participation by both parties. The literature in the fields of parental engagement, communication and technology is examined, including the importance of support for children above primary age, leading to a series of principals for the introduction of technology in school–home communication. The introduction of technology into the life of the school and communication with families can represent a considerable cost, both in terms of finance and in terms of teachers’ time, and therefore decisions in these areas should be made on the basis of the best possible evidence. The paper concludes with challenges and recommendations for policy-makers, researchers and practitioners.
Neuroimaging studies of brain networks in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common and disabling neurodegenerative disease characterised by tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. These symptoms arise from degeneration of dopaminergic cells along the nigro-striatal tract impacting cortical areas critical in the control of movement. It is widely considered that motor control is dependent upon the integrated operation of large-scale distributed brain networks. Recent methodological advances in MRI techniques allow both structural and functional connectivity between critical regions of motor control to be investigated and increase our understanding of the impact of PD pathology on motor networks and its subsequent effect on symptomatology. This work contains three studies combing both structural and functional MRI techniques to assess the neural PD motor network and to test the general hypothesis that loss of effective motor control in PD arises from disrupted connectivity.
Blimp1 Suppresses Chx10 Expression in Differentiating Retinal Photoreceptor Precursors to Ensure Proper Photoreceptor Development

The zinc finger transcription factor Blimp1 plays fundamentally important roles in many cell lineages and in the early development of several cell types, including B and T lymphocytes and germ cells. Although Blimp1 expression in developing retinal photoreceptor cells has been reported, its function remains unclear. We identified Blimp1 as a downstream factor of Otx2, which plays an essential role in photoreceptor cell fate determination. To investigate Blimp1 function in the mouse retina, we ablated Blimp1 in the developing retina by conditional gene targeting. In the Blimp1 conditional knockout (CKO) retina, the number of photoreceptor cells was markedly reduced in the differentiated retina. We found that the numbers of both bipolar-like cells and proliferating retinal cells increased noticeably, with ectopic localizations in the postnatal developing retina. In contrast, a reduction of the number of photoreceptor precursors was observed during development. Forced expression of Blimp1 by in vivo electroporation suppressed bipolar cell genesis in the developing retina. Multiple genes involved in bipolar development, including Chx10, were upregulated in the Blimp1 CKO retina. Furthermore, we showed that Blimp1 can bind to the Chx10 enhancer and repress Chx10 enhancer activity. These results suggest that Blimp1 plays a crucial role in photoreceptor development by repressing genes involved in bipolar cell fate specification and retinal cell proliferation in differentiating photoreceptor precursors.