Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Avian Response to Meadow Restoration in the Central Great Plains

Native grassland is one of the most heavily degraded of all North American ecosystems, and restoration of altered grasslands is a tool used to mitigate some of the biological ramifications of past land use practices. Providing habitat for grassland-dependent bird species often is one of the many goals of restoration. We evaluated the efficacy of meadow restoration for breeding birds in the Nebraska Platte River Valley by comparing the bird community and vegetation structure on 25 natural (original sod) and 25 restored meadows. We conducted principal components analyses on the vegetation structure and on the bird community, and modeled the densities of common bird species in relation to vegetation features. Vegetation structure of natural and restored meadows overlapped broadly, although some metrics differed between the 2 types of meadows. With the exception of Dickcissel (Spiza americana), natural meadows supported higher densities of upland bird species, whereas restored meadows supported generalist species associated with moister conditions and brushier vegetation. Models of bird density reflected some of the differences in bird communities and vegetation structure between the 2 types of meadows: species with higher densities on natural meadows were associated with less bare ground, less woody vegetation, and less litter, whereas species that were more common on restored meadows were associated with more bare ground, more woody vegetation, more litter, less grass, and greater vegetation height-density. Periodic burning and grazing may help restore planted meadows in the Platte River Valley while maintaining species diversity. Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conference 20:313-324
Performance of four homogeneous direct methods for LDL-cholesterol.

BACKGROUND Homogeneous LDL-cholesterol methods from Genzyme, Reference Diagnostics, Roche, and Sigma were evaluated for precision, accuracy, and specificity for LDL in the presence of abnormal lipoproteins. METHODS Each homogeneous method was performed by a Roche/Hitachi 911 according to the vendors' instructions, and the results were compared with the beta-quantification reference method. We measured precision over 20 days using quality-control and frozen serum specimens. Sera from 100 study participants, including 60 with hyperlipidemias, were assayed by each method. Accuracy was evaluated from regression and total error analysis. Specificity was evaluated from the bias (as a percentage) vs concentration of triglycerides. RESULTS The total CV was <2% for all methods. Regression slope and intercept (with 95% confidence intervals) were as follows: Genzyme, 0.955 (0.92 to 0.99) and 30.3 (-12 to 73) mg/L; Reference Diagnostics, 0.975 (0.93 to 1.02) and -8 (-63 to 47) mg/L; Roche, 1.067 (1.02 to 1.11) and -101 (-161 to -42) mg/L; and Sigma, 0.964 (0.91 to 1.02) and 164 (89 to 239) mg/L. The percentages of individual results with >12% bias were as follows: Genzyme, 8.0%; Reference Diagnostics, 11.0%; Roche, 10.0%; and Sigma, 30.0%. Total error calculated from mean systematic bias and all-sources random bias was as follows: Genzyme, 12.6%; Reference Diagnostics, 16.5%; Roche, 41.6%; and Sigma, 38.3%. Slopes of bias (as a percentage) vs triglycerides were P <0.001 for all methods except the Roche method, which was P = 0.094. CONCLUSIONS The evaluated methods show nonspecificity toward abnormal lipoproteins, thus compromising their ability to satisfy the National Cholesterol Education Program goal for a total error of <12%. These homogeneous LDL-cholesterol results do not improve on the performance of LDL-cholesterol calculated by the Friedewald equation at triglyceride concentrations <4000 mg/L.
S-WAVE SPECTRAL ANALYSIS AND ESTIMATION OF SPECTRAL PARAMETERS IN NORTHWESTERN GREECE

During a 12-month period (August 1998 - June 1999), a dense microseismic network of 44 portable seismographs, was installed in Epirus - Northwestern Greece, by the Seismological Laboratory, of the University of Patras and recorded 1368 earthquakes. We selected a subset of 200 well recorded events, with duration magnitude ranging from 1.61 to 2.92 and focal depths ranging from a few hundred meters to 35km; the majority was in the 0-10km range. This study uses this high quality dataset to (i) calculate the earthquake spectra and source parameters; (ii) perform linear regression between Seismic Moment (M 0 ) and the source parameters Source Radius (r), Stress Drop ( Δσ ) and Displacement (s); (iii) correlate source parameter’s distribution with the tectonics of the area. Finally, we compare the derived empirical laws with similar studies.
AFEM for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on graphs: Design and conditional contraction property

We present an adaptive finite element method (AFEM) of any polynomial degree for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on C 1 graphs in R d (d 2). We first derive residual-type a posteriori error estimates that account for the interaction of both the energy error in H 1 () and the surface error in W 1 1() due to approximation of . We devise a marking strategy to reduce the total error estimator, namely a suitably scaled sum of the energy, geometric, and inconsistency error estimators. We prove a conditional contraction property for the sum of the energy error and the total estimator; the conditional statement encodes resolution of in W 1 1. We conclude with one numerical experiment that illustrates the theory.
On the Thermomechanical Behavior of Epoxy Polymers: Experiments and Modeling

On the Thermomechanical Behavior of Epoxy Polymers: Experiments and Modeling. (December 2010) Xavier Marc Nicolas Poulain, B.S., CESTI/Supmeca; M.S., Universite Paris VI Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Amine Benzerga Amorphous polymers under their glass transition temperature (Tg) exhibit large inelastic deformations. Their mechanical behavior is highly dependent upon temperature, strain rate, pressure and loading mode (tension, compression, shear). They also exhibit small strain isotropic hardening, softening and large strain anisotropic rehardening. In addition, while in their glassy state, polymers are far from thermodynamic equilibrium so that their properties may change over time (physical aging). This complex behavior is reflected in the response of composites and affects the onset and propagation of damage therein. Therefore, in order to design polymer composite structures, it is fundamental to develop relevant tools and methodologies which aim at understanding, capturing and predicting the full thermomechanical response of glassy polymers. In this study, the thermomechanical behavior of a thermosetting polymer epoxy is characterized experimentally for temperatures below Tg. The intrinsic behavior of the polymer is obtained using a new methodology based on digital image correlation (DIC) in combination with video-monitored extensometry. In particular, inelastic flow localization patterns are discussed based on the full-field strain measurements and their connection to the stress-strain curves are highlighted. The Boyce-Parks-Argon
Evaluating upstream passage and timing of approach by adult bigheaded carps at a gated dam on the Illinois River

Dams are a conservation threat because they function as barriers to native fish movement; however, they may prevent the spread of invasive species. Invasive bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) threaten the Great Lakes ecosystem and are advancing towards Lake Michigan via the Illinois River. Navigation dams on the Illinois River may deter bigheaded carps' upstream movement. We investigated the permeability of the Starved Rock Lock and Dam (SRLD), the most downstream gated Illinois River dam, to bigheaded carps' migration by examining the timing of individuals approaching and passing through SRLD in relation to gate openness, tailwater elevation, and water temperature. Using acoustic telemetry of (N = ~104 per year) tagged fish, 13 upstream passages of bigheaded carps occurred through SRLD between 2013 and 2016. Eleven passages occurred through the dam gates and 2 through the lock chamber, indicating deterrents (e.g., CO2) placed in SRLD lock chamber may only limit passage of a small proportion of all fish passing through the lock‐and‐dam structure. Passages were documented only in 2013 and 2015. Most of the dam gate passages occurred during high water when gates were completely out of the water. Timing of bigheaded carps approaching SRLD was positively correlated with rising water temperature and high tailwater elevation, and all fish approached during late March through mid‐September. Movement through dams is rare; modifying gate operations to reduce gate openness during late spring and summer could further reduce the permeability of gated dams such as SRLD to bigheaded carps, slowing their upstream advance.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 the Effects of Gamelike Features and Test Location on Cognitive Test Performance and Participant Enjoyment

Computerised cognitive assessments are a vital tool in the behavioural sciences, but participants often view them as effortful and unengaging. One potential solution is to add gamelike elements to these tasks in order to make them more intrinsically enjoyable, and some researchers have posited that a more engaging task might produce higher quality data. This assumption, however, remains largely untested. We investigated the effects of gamelike features and test location on the data and enjoyment ratings from a simple cognitive task. We tested three gamified variants of the Go-No-Go task, delivered both in the laboratory and online. In the first version of the task participants were rewarded with points for performing optimally. The second version of the task was framed as a cowboy shootout. The third version was a standard Go-No-Go task, used as a control condition. We compared reaction time, accuracy and subjective measures of enjoyment and engagement between task variants and study location. We found points to be a highly suitable game mechanic for gamified cognitive testing because they did not disrupt the validity of the data collected but increased participant enjoyment. However, we found no evidence that gamelike features could increase engagement to the point where participant performance improved. We also found that while participants enjoyed the cowboy themed task, the difficulty of categorising the gamelike stimuli adversely affected participant performance, increasing No-Go error rates by 28% compared to the non-game control. Responses collected online vs. in the laboratory had slightly longer reaction times but were otherwise very similar, supporting other findings that online crowdsourcing is an acceptable method of data collection for this type of research.
A semi-implicit material point method for the continuum simulation of granular materials

We present a new continuum-based method for the realistic simulation of large-scale free-flowing granular materials. We derive a compact model for the rheology of the material, which accounts for the exact nonsmooth Drucker-Prager yield criterion combined with a varying volume fraction. Thanks to a semi-implicit time-stepping scheme and a careful spatial discretization of our rheology built upon the Material-Point Method, we are able to preserve at each time step the exact coupling between normal and tangential stresses, in a stable way. This contrasts with previous approaches which either regularize or linearize the yield criterion for implicit integration, leading to unrealistic behaviors or visible grid artifacts. Remarkably, our discrete problem turns out to be very similar to the discrete contact problem classically encountered in multibody dynamics, which allows us to leverage robust and efficient nonsmooth solvers from the literature. We validate our method by successfully capturing typical macroscopic features of some classical experiments, such as the discharge of a silo or the collapse of a granular column. Finally, we show that our method can be easily extended to accommodate more complex scenarios including two-way rigid body coupling as well as anisotropic materials.
Achieving high-capacity wireless by merging multicarrier CDMA systems and oscillating-beam smart antenna arrays

We establish the network capacity (measured in terms of number of users) of a wireless system merging multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) and smart antennas with oscillating-beam patterns. The MC-CDMA component supports high performance (in a probability-of-error sense) via frequency diversity and high network capacity via code division. The smart antenna with oscillating-beam pattern further enhances performance via transmit diversity (in the form of an induced time diversity) and further enhances network capacity via spatial division. The proposed merger has been shown to achieve a very high performance by exploiting a two-dimensional time-frequency diversity. We demonstrate the impressive network capacity gains achieved by this merger.
Off-Line Learning and the Primary Motor Cortex

We are all familiar with acquiring skills during practice, but skill can also continue to develop between practice sessions. These “off-line” improvements are frequently supported by sleep, but they can be time dependent when a skill is acquired unintentionally. The magnitude of these over-day and overnight improvements is similar, suggesting that a similar mechanism may support both types of off-line improvements. However, here we show that disruption of the primary motor cortex with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation blocks off-line improvements over the day but not overnight. This suggests that a memory may be rescued overnight and subsequently enhanced or that different aspects of a skill, with differential dependencies on the primary motor cortex, are enhanced over day and overnight. Off-line improvements of similar magnitude are not supported by similar mechanisms; instead, the mechanisms engaged may depend on brain state.
Dirichlet mean identities and laws of a class of subordinators

An interesting line of research is the investigation of the laws of random variables known as Dirichlet means. However, there is not much information on interrelationships between different Dirichlet means. Here, we introduce two distributional operations, one of which consists of multiplying a mean functional by an independent beta random variable, the other being an operation involving an exponential change of measure. These operations identify relationships between different means and their densities. This allows one to use the often considerable analytic work on obtaining results for one Dirichlet mean to obtain results for an entire family of otherwise seemingly unrelated Dirichlet means. Additionally, it allows one to obtain explicit densities for the related class of random variables that have generalized gamma convolution distributions and the finite-dimensional distribution of their associated L\'{e}vy processes. The importance of this latter statement is that L\'{e}vy processes now commonly appear in a variety of applications in probability and statistics, but there are relatively few cases where the relevant densities have been described explicitly. We demonstrate how the technique allows one to obtain the finite-dimensional distribution of several interesting subordinators which have recently appeared in the literature.
Effect of gamma‐vinyl GABA on human pattern evoked visual potentials

We studied the effects on human visual evoked potentials of gamma-vinyl GABA, an anticonvulsant drug that increases cerebral levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid. The subjects were 15 epileptic patients undergoing a clinical trial of this drug. Serial recordings were made from each patient periodically for 1 year. The stimulus was a reversing checkerboard pattern with a check size of 50 minutes. Plasma levels of other antiepileptic medications remained constant throughout the study. No changes, other than a normal variation of ±5 msec, were observed in peak latency throughout the study. These results indicate that there are no GABA-ergic effects on the P100 component evoked by large checkerboard pattern-reversal.
Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptors Induce Phosphorylation of cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein through a Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase-Dependent Stimulation of the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Cascade in Neurons

Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors may play a key role during developmental neuroplasticity, learning and memory, and neuronal loss in a number of neuropathologies. However, the intracellular signaling pathways used by AMPA receptors during such processes are not fully understood. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is an attractive target because it has been shown to be involved in gene expression, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal stress. Using primary cultures of mouse striatal neurons and a phosphospecific MAPK antibody we addressed whether AMPA receptors can activate the MAPK cascade. We found that in the presence of cyclothiazide, AMPA caused a robust and direct (no involvement of NMDA receptors or L-type voltage-sensitive Ca2+ channels) Ca2+-dependent activation of MAPK through MAPK kinase (MEK). This activation was blocked by GYKI 53655, a noncompetitive selective antagonist of AMPA receptors. Probing the mechanism of this activation revealed an essential role for phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) and the involvement of a pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive G-protein, a Src family protein tyrosine kinase, and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II. Similarly, kainate activated MAPK in a PI 3-kinase-dependent manner. AMPA receptor-evoked neuronal death and arachidonic acid mobilization did not appear to involve signaling through the MAPK pathway. However, AMPA receptor stimulation led to a Ca2+-dependent phosphorylation of the nuclear transcription factor CREB, which could be prevented by inhibitors of MEK or PI 3-kinase. Our results indicate that Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors transduce signals from the cell surface to the nucleus of neurons through a PI 3-kinase-dependent activation of MAPK. This novel pathway may play a pivotal role in regulating synaptic plasticity in the striatum.
Hospitalization for Type 2 Diabetes: The Effects of the Suspension of Reality on Patients' Subsequent Management of Their Condition

Hospitalization still plays a major part in the management of uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and its complications. In this article, we assess the effects of self-management education on the individual practices of 42 patients after discharge from specialized diabetes units on the French island of Reunion. Hospitalization offers respite and temporarily suspends the realities of daily life. When patients leave the unit where they have acquired new knowledge and practices, the extent to which the latter can be maintained depends on the practice in question, the individual's circumstances, and his or her social relationships and support systems. In the longer term, therefore, the effects of self-management education interventions can be weak. The study findings reveal the complexities surrounding the acquisition of habits that maintain health and prevent illness. The article makes a significant contribution to the debate on patient support and the role of inpatient educational units.
The constraints of antiretroviral uptake in rural areas: the case of Thamaga and surrounding villages, Botswana

Abstract This article examines the constraints of antiretroviral (ARV) uptake in the villages of Thamaga, Kumakwane, Mankgodi and Gakgatla which are in the Kweneng District of Botswana. The social interactionist approach and theories of health behaviour provided the theoretical basis of the study. Data were obtained by using interviewer-administered questionnaires which were applied to a sample of 145 respondents and 61 people living with HIV/AIDS in the four villages. The results of the study showed that people aged 30–39 years represented the highest proportion of the persons on ARV treatment in the villages. Some of the people living with HIV believed that ARV therapy could better their lives during the initial stages of introduction, but with time, they lost hope and gave up the treatment. Culturally, parents and children in the villages do not discuss sexual matters at home and it was found in the study that there was little communication between parents and children on AIDS and ARV issues. Some churches in the area discouraged the use of ARV. There were also traditional doctors who made their patients mix traditional herbs treatment with ARV treatment. Distance, travel costs, cultural beliefs, stigma and discrimination among others were found to be important socio-economic factors inhibiting ARV uptake. Even though there were constraints on ARV uptake in the villages, efforts were being made by Government and non-governmental organizations to overcome them. The Ministry of Health provided information and education to the public using its strategy known as Information, Education and Communication. Nurses, doctors and chiefs taught people at kgotlas (traditional courts) in the villages about the dangers of the epidemic. Free HIV testing, ARVs and condoms were provided to the villagers. The outlook for ARV uptake looks generally promising for the future. However, if HIV/AIDS is to be contained, sexual behaviour of people in the villages needs to change.
Classification of MRI Brain Scan Data Using Shape Criteria

Two mechanisms for classifying Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) brain scans according to the nature of the corpus callosum are described. The first mechanism uses a hierarchical decomposition approach whereby each MRI scan is decomposed into a hierarchy of “tiles” which can then be represented as a tree structure (one tree per scan). A frequent sub-graph data mining mechanism is then applied so that sub-graphs that occur frequently across the image set are identified. These frequent sub-graphs can be viewed as describing a feature space; as such the input images can be translated, according to this feature space, into a set of feature vectors (one per image) to which standard classification techniques can be applied. The second approach uses a time series mechanism to represent the corpus callosum in each image. Using this representation a pre-labelled training set was used to define a Case Base (CB) to which Case Based Reasoning (CBR) techniques can be applied so as to classify new cases. Extremely accurate results were obtained with respect to datasets used for evaluation purposes.
Data Offloading in Load Coupled Networks: A Utility Maximization Framework

We provide a general framework for the problem of data offloading in a heterogeneous wireless network, where some demand of cellular users is served by a complementary network. The complementary network is either a small-cell network that shares the same resources as the cellular network, or a WiFi network that uses orthogonal resources. For a given demand served in a cellular network, the load, or the level of resource usage, of each cell depends in a non-linear manner on the load of other cells due to the mutual coupling of interference seen by one another. With load coupling, we optimize the demand to be served in the cellular or the complementary networks, so as to maximize a utility function. We consider three representative utility functions that balance, to varying degrees, the revenue from serving the users vs the user fairness. We establish conditions for which the optimization problem has a feasible solution and is convex, and hence tractable to numerical computations. Finally, we propose a strategy with theoretical justification to constrain the load to some maximum value, as required for practical implementation. Numerical studies are conducted for both under-loaded and over-loaded networks.