Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
International Nature Conservation Law and the Adaptation of Biodiversity to Climate Change: A Mismatch?

Biological diversity worldwide is expected to come under increasing stress on account of climate change. International cooperation between states is required, inter alia because species and ecosystems will (attempt to) shift their distributions, including across jurisdictional boundaries. Current international nature conservation regimes were, however, not created with climate change in mind and are likely to fall short of what is required to adequately facilitate the adaptation of species and ecosystems to climate change. The article explores the mismatch involved and the associated challenge of making international nature conservation law climate change proof.
Spectroscopic intravascular photoacoustic imaging of lipids in atherosclerosis

Abstract. The natural history of atherosclerosis is marked by changes in the lipid biochemistry in the diseased arterial wall. As lesions become more vulnerable, different cholesterol species accumulate in the plaque. Understanding unstable atherosclerosis as a pharmacological and interventional therapeutic target requires chemically specific imaging of disease foci. In this study, we aim to image atherosclerotic plaque lipids and other vessel wall constituents with spectroscopic intravascular photoacoustics (sIVPA). sIVPA imaging can identify lipids in human coronary atherosclerotic plaque by relying on contrast in the near-infrared absorption spectra of the arterial wall components. Using reference spectra acquired on pure compounds, we analyzed sIVPA data from human coronary plaques ex vivo, to image plaque composition in terms of cholesterol and cholesterol ester content. In addition, we visualized the deeper lying connective tissue layers of the adventitia, as well as the fatty acid containing adipose cells in the peri-adventitial tissue. We performed simultaneous coregistered IVUS imaging to obtain complementary morphological information. Results were corroborated by histopathology. sIVPA imaging can distinguish the most prevalent lipid components of human atherosclerotic plaques and also visualize the connective tissue layers of the adventitia and the fatty acid containing adipose cells in the peri-adventitial tissue.
Sunlight exposure, antioxidants, and age-related macular degeneration.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association of sunlight exposure and antioxidant level with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHODS Four thousand seven hundred fifty-three participants aged 65 years or older in the European Eye Study underwent fundus photography, were interviewed for adult lifetime sunlight exposure, and gave blood for antioxidant analysis. Blue light exposure was estimated by combining meteorologic and questionnaire data. RESULTS Data on sunlight exposure and antioxidants were available in 101 individuals with neovascular AMD, 2182 with early AMD, and 2117 controls. No association was found between blue light exposure and neovascular or early AMD. Significant associations were found between blue light exposure and neovascular AMD in individuals in the quartile of lowest antioxidant level-vitamin C, zeaxanthin, vitamin E, and dietary zinc-with an odds ratio of about 1.4 for 1 standard deviation unit increase in blue light exposure. Higher odds ratios for blue light were observed with combined low antioxidant levels, especially vitamin C, zeaxanthin, and vitamin E (odds ratio, 3.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-8.9), which were also associated with early stages of AMD. CONCLUSIONS Although it is not possible to establish causality between sunlight exposure and neovascular AMD, our results suggest that people in the general population should use ocular protection and follow dietary recommendations for the key antioxidant nutrients.
A Closed-Loop Brain–Computer Interface Triggering an Active Ankle–Foot Orthosis for Inducing Cortical Neural Plasticity

In this paper, we present a brain-computer interface (BCI) driven motorized ankle-foot orthosis (BCI-MAFO), intended for stroke rehabilitation, and we demonstrate its efficacy in inducing cortical neuroplasticity in healthy subjects with a short intervention procedure (~15 min). This system detects imaginary dorsiflexion movements within a short latency from scalp EEG through the analysis of movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs). A manifold-based method, called locality preserving projection, detected the motor imagery online with a true positive rate of 73.0 ± 10.3%. Each detection triggered the MAFO to elicit a passive dorsiflexion. In nine healthy subjects, the size of the motorevoked potential (MEP) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation increased significantly immediately following and 30 min after the cessation of this BCI-MAFO intervention for ~15 min (p = 0.009 and p <; 0.001, respectively), indicating neural plasticity. In four subjects, the size of the short latency stretch reflex component did not change following the intervention, suggesting that the site of the induced plasticity was cortical. All but one subject also performed two control conditions where they either imagined only or where the MAFO was randomly triggered. Both of these control conditions resulted in no significant changes in MEP size (p = 0.38 and p = 0.15). The proposed system provides a fast and effective approach for inducing cortical plasticity through BCI and has potential in motor function rehabilitation following stroke.
Modelling the Visitor Experience in the Gardens of Great Britain

Ensuring satisfactory visitor experiences forms a crucial role in determining the long-term viability and success of visitor attractions. However, identifying and managing the common features that unite visitors in enjoyment and appreciation of attractions, poses significant challenges for managers. While there is a growing literature on managing the visitor experience in attractions, methodological approaches to assessing visitor experiences are still at an early stage of development. This paper explores the nature and scope of the visitor experience within the context of gardens in Great Britain, drawing on the results of surveys of garden visitors and garden owners/managers. Comparisons of the perceptions of the importance of various elements of the visitor experience are made using structural equation modelling in order to identify differences between garden visitors (n = 593) and garden owners/managers (n = 546). The results indicate that there is reasonable consensus between the two groups, although implications for the future development of the garden visit experience exist for individual sites and the development of the garden attraction market.
The race to implement co-creation of value with stakeholders: five approaches to competitive advantage

Purpose – After leading more than thirty co-creation projects, and observing more than 200 others, the author can offer a view on why co-creation with stakeholders is becoming a cornerstone of the creative economy and suggest how the most popular approaches contribute to helping firms gain a competitive advantage through connections that enable continuous innovation. Design/methodology/approach – To tackle large, complex problems, co-creation, in its most generic form, requires adopting five processes that each represent a potential source of competitive advantage; an approach can utilize each process from very little to a lot. A co-creation strategy will be most powerful when all five processes are used in combination. Findings – Leading theorists are predicting that in the foreseeable future the co-creation model will become a primary source of the firm's competitive advantage. Practical implications – Opening up the traditional value chain to stakeholders could precipitate a race to co-creation, as eve.
The tourist frontier of Nouveau Quebec: Functions and regional linkages

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it wants to elaborate on the relationship between tourist generating areas and destinations per se, the principal objective being to make us better grasp the consequences for a tourist destination inherent in its relative positioning within the geographic confines of the travel hierarchy at large. Second, having identified the various types of destinations (through this spatial hierarchal schema), we will look at a case study — the tourist frontier of New Quebec — a wilderness destination environment with the purpose of arriving at a more accurate account of how such a destination has developed, how its present tourist services function, and how they link up with the region. More particularly, we want to look into the very much debated relationship commercial tourist operations — regional resource utilization — economic linkages between a few isolated, small settlements in an otherwise practically uninhabited and fairly inhospitable tourist region.
Communal Conflict and Decentralisation in Indonesia

Decentralising reforms in the period 1999-2001 were associated in some places with communal (religious and ethnic) warfare. The connection can be better understood with the techniques of resource mobilisation than with those looking for grievances. The former takes more interest in history and politics than in timeless hurts. A study of the conflict narratives shows that these episodes emerged as 'politics by other means' at a moment of opportunity following the collapse of the New Order in 1998. They were led by urban middle class elements in provincial towns outside Java that were particularly dependent on state subsidies. The history of these mainly administrative towns is entwined with that of state formation throughout the twentieth century. In the short term, a practical solution to these problems has been found in learning to make better local rules. In the longer term, they lie in building a substantive democracy in Indonesia, even at the risk of messy communitarian expressions of popular sovereignty.
Lymphoid hyperplasia of the gastrointestinal tract: A study of 26 cases and review of the literature

ABSTRACTBased on a study of 26 cases and a review of the literature, lymphoid hyperplasia of the gastrointestinal tract can be categorized into four clinicopathologic groups: focal lymphoid hyperplasia of the stomach, focal lymphoid hyperplasia of the small intestine, focal lymphoid hyperplasia of the rectum, and nodular lymphoid hyperplasia of the gastrointestinal tract.The focal lesions are single, variably circumscribed, and produce thickening of the wall of the affected part of the viscus. While a substantial number of the gastric lesions are associated with chronic peptic ulcers, ulceration is absent or insignificant in focal lesions located in the intestine. The extent of the infiltrate may range from involvement of the mucosa and submucosa only to infiltration of the full thickness of the wall.Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia of the gastrointestinal tract produces multiple discrete mucosal nodules in a variable segment of the small intestine, large intestine, or both. Gastric involvement is rare. The lymphoid infiltrate is confined to the lamina propria and superficial submucosa. Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia is most commonly encountered incidentally during radiologic examination or at autopsy, but it also occurs in association with hypo-gammaglobulinemia, especially late-onset acquired hypogammaglobulinemia.Lymphoid hyperplasia of the gastrointestinal tract can be distinguished from malignant lymphoma by the polymorphic nature of the infiltrate, the absence of significant cytologic atypia, and the presence of reactive follicles within the lesion.
A comparative study of three teaching methods on student information literacy in stand-alone credit-bearing university courses

Three teaching methods, applied to credit-bearing information literacy (IL) university courses, were evaluated and compared. The effects of lecture-based learning (LBL), project-based learning (PjBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) were investigated using the information literacy test (ILT) as an assessment tool, with regard to the total ILT score, specific IL contents according to the five ACRL standards and students’ mental skills according to the Bloom’s cognitive categories. While all three teaching methods showed a significant improvement in the ILT post-test, the active-learning groups of PjBL and PBL scored significantly better than the LBL group. The most notable positive difference was observed in students’ effective access to information related to database searching skills, in the intellectual property/ethics issues and in the cognitive category of comprehension. The PjBL and PBL post-test results did not differ significantly, indicating that both active learning methods resulted in similar improvements of students’ IL.
Chronic Diseases and Use of Contraception Among Women at Risk of Unintended Pregnancy.

BACKGROUND Women with chronic diseases are at increased risk of having unintended pregnancies. Little is known whether chronic diseases are associated with increased likelihood of effective/highly effective contraceptive use. METHODS We analyzed 2008-2010 Florida Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data for women aged 18-44 years who were at risk of unintended pregnancy. Multivariable Poisson regression estimated adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for contraceptive use in relation to diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and current asthma. We assessed the association of chronic disease status with use of three different contraception outcomes: (1) any method versus none, (2) less effective methods (methods associated with ≥10 unintended pregnancies/100 women/year) versus none, and (3) effective/highly effective methods (<10 unintended pregnancies/100 women/year) versus none. RESULTS Among 4473 women at risk for unintended pregnancy, 87% were using any method of contraception (22.5% less effective methods and 64.5% effective/highly effective methods). Women with CVD were more likely than those without CVD to use any contraception (aPR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.15), less effective (aPR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.70), and effective/highly effective (aPR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.19) contraception. Women with diabetes were more likely to use less effective methods than women without diabetes (aPR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.72). No significant associations were observed for asthma, regardless of contraceptive effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS Self-reported use of effective/highly effective contraception was higher than nonuse or use of less effective methods among all women at risk of unintended pregnancy, but could be improved, especially among women with chronic diseases.
Present denudation rates at selected sections of the South African escarpment and the elevated continental interior based on cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne

Measurements of cosmogenic He-3 and Ne-21 concentrations in dolerite and quartzite samples front selected sites across the South African coastal escarpment and the interior plateau provide valuable estimates of the short-term (i.e., a few hundred thousand years) denudation rates. Present-day denudation rates at the summit of the escarpment and on the inland plateau are more than an order of magnitude lower than those in the Cretaceous. Values between 1.0 and 2.1 m/Ma obtained from resistant quartzite samples and between 1.5 and 3 m/Ma from dolerite sills suggest a strong lithology control on the erosion. The observed patterns of denudation across different landform sites on the high plateau and along its flanking escarpment suggest that the morphology of the sampling sites together with the local climate conditions have controlled the denudation processes.
Failure to Exercise Call Options: An Anomaly and a Trading Game

In the U.S., exchange-traded options are unprotected from cash dividend payments on the underlying stock. Consequently, it may become optimal to exercise deep in-the-money call options just prior to the ex-dividend day. In this study, we examine the extent to which option holders fail to exercise their call options on the day prior to an ex-dividend day when it is optimal to do so. Using a sample of call options on stocks with quarterly dividends of at least a penny per share during the period January 1996 through April 2006, we find that more than half of outstanding long positions go unexercised. We estimate that this failure to exercise has caused call option holders to lose over $491 million over a ten-year period. We also show how market makers capture the lion's share of the proceeds by using a dividend spread trading strategy.
The Impact of High-Tech Capital on Productivity: Evidence from Australia

This article examines the relationship between high-tech capital use and productivity. Using Australian data, some evidence is found of a positive relationship between high-tech capital use and productivity in the market sector, but there is much less evidence of excess returns. These results are robust to the use of a variety of different measures of high-tech capital. At the industry level however, the relationship is significant and positive for only some industries. This suggests that the benefits of investment in high-tech capital are not spread evenly across the economy. (JEL O3) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Evolutionary and geographical history of the Leishmania donovani complex with a revision of current taxonomy

Leishmaniasis is a geographically widespread severe disease, with an increasing incidence of two million cases per year and 350 million people from 88 countries at risk. The causative agents are species of Leishmania, a protozoan flagellate. Visceral leishmaniasis, the most severe form of the disease, lethal if untreated, is caused by species of the Leishmania donovani complex. These species are morphologically indistinguishable but have been identified by molecular methods, predominantly multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. We have conducted a multifactorial genetic analysis that includes DNA sequences of protein-coding genes as well as noncoding segments, microsatellites, restriction-fragment length polymorphisms, and randomly amplified polymorphic DNAs, for a total of ≈18,000 characters for each of 25 geographically representative strains. Genotype is strongly correlated with geographical (continental) origin, but not with current taxonomy or clinical outcome. We propose a new taxonomy, in which Leishmania infantum and L. donovani are the only recognized species of the L. donovani complex, and we present an evolutionary hypothesis for the origin and dispersal of the species. The genus Leishmania may have originated in South America, but diversified after migration into Asia. L. donovani and L. infantum diverged ≈1 Mya, with further divergence of infraspecific genetic groups between 0.4 and 0.8 Mya. The prevailing mode of reproduction is clonal, but there is evidence of genetic exchange between strains, particularly in Africa.
A Robust Heart Rate Monitoring Scheme Using Photoplethysmographic Signals Corrupted by Intense Motion Artifacts

Goal: Although photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals can monitor heart rate (HR) quite conveniently in hospital environments, trying to incorporate them during fitness programs poses a great challenge, since in these cases, the signals are heavily corrupted by motion artifacts. Methods: In this paper, we present a novel signal processing framework which utilizes two channel PPG signals and estimates HR in two stages. The first stage eliminates any chances of a runaway error by resorting to an absolute criterion condition based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition. This stage enables the algorithm to depend very little on the previously estimated HR values and to discard the need of an initial resting phase. The second stage, on the other hand, increases the algorithm's robustness against offtrack errors by using recursive least squares filters complemented with an additional novel technique, namely time-domain extraction. Results: Using this framework, an average absolute error of 1.02 beat per minute (BPM) and standard deviation of 1.79 BPM are recorded for 12 subjects performing a run with peak velocities reaching as high as 15 km/h. Conclusion: The performance of this algorithm is found to be better than the other recently reported algorithms in this field such as TROIKA and JOSS. Significance: This method is expected to greatly facilitate the presently available wearable gadgets in HR computation during various physical activities.
Place Meanings and Participatory Planning Intentions

Interest in integrating human connections and natural areas into resource management decision making has steadily increased. While efforts to validate place meaning dimensions have identified meanings beyond established place dependence and identity concepts, further research to identify tangible and intangible meanings of nature-based recreation areas is needed. This study sought to examine place meanings as a second-order construct consisting of ecological integrity, economic dependency, place dependence, family identity, community identity, and place identity and to determine the influence of place meanings on participatory planning intentions (PPI). Data were collected from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation area visitors. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that six factors were reliable and valid, representing place meanings as an overarching concept. Structural equation modeling showed a significant association between place meanings and PPI. These findings demonstrated the importance of understanding place meanings that influence behavioral intentions, which is relevant to understanding participation in planning processes.
Hyperbolic Discounting, Borrowing Aversion and Debt Holding

type="main"> Analysis of an original Internet-based survey reveals that debt holding is related to time discounting through: (i) present bias, measured by the degree of declining impatience in the generalized hyperbolic discount function; (ii) borrowing aversion, captured by a sign effect in that future losses are discounted at lower rates than future gains; and (iii) impatience, measured by the overall discount rate. Hyperbolic respondents are classified naive if their answers reveal them to be time-inconsistent procrastinators, and otherwise sophisticated. Naive respondents with more steeply declining impatience are more likely to be debtors. The sign effect relates negatively to borrowing. Survey responses indicative of high or declining impatience are associated with credit card borrowing and other overborrowing indicators.
A Conceptual Framework for Measuring E-fulfillment Dimensions: A Consumer Perspective

The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual framework for measuring the key dimensions of the e-fulfillment process and its relationship with online shopping satisfaction in pure e-tailing. The key dimensions relevant to the e-fulfillment process are explored in the literature during the first part of the study. These dimensions are categorized into three distinct processes of e-fulfillment: order procurement, order fulfillment, and product returns. In the second part of the study, the authors propose a conceptual framework and develop hypotheses to understand the relationship between the key dimensions of the e-fulfillment process, including e-business quality, product quality, availability, timeliness, condition, billing accuracy, ease of return, and online shopping satisfaction. Furthermore, the constructs in the proposed framework were empirically tested. This study will help e-tailers, academicians, and practitioners understand the consumers’ expectations regarding the key dimensions of the e-fulfillment process to design a consumer-centric e-fulfillment architecture.