Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Ecological Significance of Tool Use in New Caledonian Crows

Clever Crows Understanding the adaptive significance of animal tool use requires reliable information on the foraging behavior in the wild. New Caledonian crows consume a range of foods and use sticks as tools to extract wood-boring beetle larvae from their burrows. These larvae, with their unusual diet, have a distinct isotopic signature that can be traced after consumption by the crows in the crows' feathers and blood. By comparing the stable isotope profiles of crows' tissues with those of their food sources, Rutz et al. (p. 1523) estimated the proportion of larvae in crow diets, providing a proxy for tool-use dependence in individual crows. Just a few larvae can satisfy a crow's daily energy requirements, highlighting the substantial rewards available to competent tool users and their offspring. Thus, tool use provides New Caledonian crows with access to a very nutritional food source that is not easily exploited by beak alone. Stable isotope analysis reveals the nutritional benefits of tool use in wild New Caledonian crows. Tool use is so rare in the animal kingdom that its evolutionary origins cannot be traced with comparative analyses. Valuable insights can be gained from investigating the ecological context and adaptive significance of tool use under contemporary conditions, but obtaining robust observational data is challenging. We assayed individual-level tool-use dependence in wild New Caledonian crows by analyzing stable isotope profiles of the birds’ feathers, blood, and putative food sources. Bayesian diet-mixing models revealed that a substantial amount of the crows’ protein and lipid intake comes from prey obtained with stick tools—wood-boring beetle larvae. Our calculations provide estimates of larva-intake rates and show that just a few larvae can satisfy a crow’s daily energy requirements, highlighting the substantial rewards available to competent tool users.
The Next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and Assessing a Hierarchical Model With 15 Facets to Enhance Bandwidth, Fidelity, and Predictive Power

Three studies were conducted to develop and validate the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), a major revision of the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Study 1 specified a hierarchical model of personality structure with 15 facet traits nested within the Big Five domains, and developed a preliminary item pool to measure this structure. Study 2 used conceptual and empirical criteria to construct the BFI-2 domain and facet scales from the preliminary item pool. Study 3 used data from 2 validation samples to evaluate the BFI-2’s measurement properties and substantive relations with self-reported and peer-reported criteria. The results of these studies indicate that the BFI-2 is a reliable and valid personality measure, and an important advance over the original BFI. Specifically, the BFI-2 introduces a robust hierarchical structure, controls for individual differences in acquiescent responding, and provides greater bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power than the original BFI, while still retaining the original measure’s conceptual focus, brevity, and ease of understanding. The BFI-2 therefore offers valuable new opportunities for research examining the structure, assessment, development, and life outcomes of personality traits.
Conversational Voice, Communicated Commitment, and Public Relations Outcomes in Interactive Online Communication

Organizations face unique challenges in communicating interactively online with publics that comprise dauntingly large numbers of individuals. This online survey examined the perceptions of people who had experienced interactive communication with a large consumer-tech-industry company via organizational blogs. Those reporting the greatest exposure to the blogs in this study were more likely to perceive the organization as communicating with a conversational voice. Conversational human voice and communicated relational commitment (relational maintenance strategies) correlated positively with trust, satisfaction, commitment, and control mutuality (relational outcomes). Building on prior research, this survey supports a model of distributed public relations—one in which key outcomes of public relations are fostered by a wide range of people communicating interactively while representing an organization.
Through Silicon Capacitor co-integrated with TSV as an efficient 3D decoupling capacitor solution for power management on silicon interposer

First part of this paper discusses decoupling method limitation within the Power Delivery Network of a classical circuit and challenges introduced by 3D integrated circuit in term of power management. Solutions are exposed, such as integration of decoupling capacitor on silicon interposer. Second part of the paper focuses on the Through Silicon Capacitor (or TSC) as an alternative decoupling solution co-integrated with Through Silicon Vias on silicon interposer. TSC realization is described and architectural benefits of adding a partial copper-filling prior to the Metal-Insulator-Metal stack deposition are discussed. A distributed analytical model is used to quantify partial filling resistance contribution, pointing out a 6 decade decrease in ESR value of the structure. TSC process and matrix design parameters impact on capacitance density are studied. Finally, electrical performances of TSC modules are evaluated showing a low intrinsic impedance behavior granted by TSC parallel structure.
An Early Assessment of Accountable Care Organizations’ Efforts to Engage Patients and Their Families

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) have incentives to meet quality and cost targets to share in any resulting savings. Achieving these goals will require ACOs to engage more actively with patients and their families. The extent to which ACOs do so is currently unknown. Using mixed methods, including a national survey, phone interviews, and site-visits, we examine the extent to which ACOs actively engage patients and their families, explore challenges involved, and consider approaches for dealing with those challenges. Results indicate that greater ACO use of patient activation and engagement (PAE) activities at the point-of-care may be related to positive perceptions among ACO leaders of the impact of PAE investments on ACO costs, quality, and outcomes of care. We identify a number of important practices associated with greater PAE, including high-level leadership commitment, goal-setting supported by adequate resources, extensive provider training, use of interdisciplinary care teams, and frequent monitoring and reporting on progress.
Beidseitiges Üben sportmotorischer Fertigkeiten

Zusammenfassung. Das Einbeziehen beider Korperseiten beim Training einseitig ausgefuhrter Fertigkeiten fuhrt oft zu besseren Lernfortschritten als das Uben mit nur einer Seite. Die hier vorliegende Untersuchung widmet sich aus trainingspraktischer Sicht der Frage, ob beidseitiges Uben schon beim Einstieg ins Technikerwerbstraining zu empfehlen ist. Zwei Gruppen trainierten die Ruckhand-Kontertechnik im Tischtennis an drei aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen. Insgesamt wurden 840 Ubungsversuche in 28 Serien ausgefuhrt. Eine Gruppe (alternierende Gruppe (AG), n = 10) ubte von Beginn an alternierend eine Serie mit der linken und der rechten Hand. Eine zweite Gruppe (verzogerte Gruppe (VG), n = 11) ubte in den ersten 14 Serien ausschlieslich mit der dominanten rechten Hand und erst dann alternierend mit beiden Seiten. Die Leistung mit der dominanten rechten Hand wurde anhand der Treffgenauigkeit in einem Vor-, Zwischen-, Transfer- und Abschlusstest ermittelt. Dabei ergaben sich signifikant unterschiedliche Entwicklung.
Examining the relationship between managerial power and affective organizational commitment: An empirical study in the sport sector of Iran

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of five dimensions of power (coercive, expert, legitimate, referent, and reward) on employees’ affective commitment in the sport organizations using social exchange theory. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a questionnaire including managerial power and affective commitment measures. A sample of 318 employees from a number of sport organizations operating in the Iran was used. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationship between managerial power and affective commitment. Findings – There are two major findings in this research. First, the relationships among expert power, legitimate power, reward power, referent power, and affective commitment are positive and significant. Second, the construct of coercive power was not associated with employees’ affective commitment. The findings suggest that managerial power relates with a social exchange relationship where employees exchange positive outcomes including .
Decreased Reactivity of Skin Microcirculation in Response to l-Arginine in Later-Onset Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to evaluate the vasodilatory effect of l-arginine infusion on the skin microcirculation and to assess the relationship between this effect and the presence of microangiopathy in patients with type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Capillaroscopy was performed before and after l-arginine infusion in 48 diabetic patients (26 women and 22 men; age, 39.8 ± 6.3 years) and 24 volunteers free of any chronic disease (13 women and 11 men; age, 38.0 ± 6.7 years). The skin microcirculation reactivity, as expressed by the percentage of area covered by capillaries (coverage) and the distance between capillaries (distance), and the relationship between microcirculation reactivity and the presence of microangiopathic complications were assessed. RESULTS The distance before l-arginine infusion was significantly lower in patients than in controls (221 [153–311] vs. 240 [185–356] µm; P = 0.02) and did not differ after l-arginine infusion (223.5 [127–318] vs. 242.5 [181–341] µm; P = 0.27). The difference between the coverage values obtained before and after l-arginine infusion (Δcoverage) was significantly different from zero in the control group but not in the diabetes group. Patients with later onset of diabetes were characterized by decreased skin microcirculation reactivity when compared with patients with earlier onset of diabetes (−1.18 [−5.07 to 11.60] vs. 1.36 [−6.00 to 8.06]; P = 0.02) despite the higher prevalence of retinopathy in patients with earlier onset of diabetes (64% vs. 26%; P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Skin microvascular reactivity is impaired in patients with later onset of type 1 diabetes. Capillaroscopy with l-arginine infusion is useful for the identification of skin microangiopathy in type 1 diabetes.
Tunneled Hemodialysis Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study from Spain

Purpose Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) are common among patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis (HD) worldwide. The aim of this study was look into the incidence, epidemiology, and risk factors for CRBSI in four medical centers and Spanish dialysis facilities following a common protocol for insertion and management of tunneled hemodialysis catheters (THCs). Methods. Prospective study including all THCs inserted from September-04 to October-05. Follow-up was from THC insertion to its withdrawal, onset of CRBSI or end of study. Data of all THCs, CRBSI episodes, and catheter complications were collected. A descriptive analysis of CRBSI incidence and etiology and multivariate Cox regression to identify risk factors for CRBSI was performed. Results. A total of 130 THCs in 123 patients were inserted. There were 34 879 catheter-days. Twelve CRBSI in 11 patients with a CRBSI rate of 0.34/1000 catheter-days were recorded. CRBSI was caused by gram-positive coccus in 91.7% of the cases. Vascular cause of renal disease (HR 25.5 CI95% 5.5–117.2), and a previous THC (HR 5.1 CI95% 1.3–19.1) were identified as risk factors for CRBSI. CRBSI were satisfactorily resolved in 83.3% of the cases. Overall mortality was 14.6% (18/123), in two cases (2/11) death occurred within 30 days after CRBSI onset. Conclusions. Although some factors, such as vascular cause of renal disease and previous THC medical history, have been related to the onset of tunneled catheter-related bloodstream infections, the incidence of these bacteremia, mainly produced by gram-positive coccus, is low among hemodialysis patients and the mortality rate is not high.
Use of Instructional Time in Classrooms Serving Students with and without Severe Disabilities

This investigation explored the use of teacher and student time in an inclusive elementary school where students with mild to profound disabilities were enrolled in general education classrooms. Participants included 6 students with severe disabilities and 12 students without disabilities. Observers recorded time used for instruction, as well as levels and types of student engagement and types of interruptions. Students in each group evidenced comparable levels of engaged time, and students with severe disabilities had no effect on losses of instructional time. Results were discussed in light of this school's contextual characteristics and the inclusive schools movement.
Correlation preserved dictionary learning for sparse representation

Sparse representation(SR) based classification has recently led to promising results in image classification, while the performance of classification relies on the quality of SR. However, most of the existing SR approaches failed to consider the geometrical structure of dictionary, which has been shown essential for classification. In this paper, we propose a reinforced SR algorithm by jointly preserving data structure consistency for sparse coding and dictionary correlation for dictionary learning. Specifically, we utilize an inconsistency regularization term to enforce structure consistency between data and SR. In addition, a new non-correlation regularization term is introduced to preserve the correlations between dictionary atoms. Therefore, the learned sparse representations will simultaneously respect the data structure and dictionary correlation. Some experiments carried out with two standard image databases validate the effectiveness of the proposed method for image classification.
Cognitive Style, Gender, and Self-Report of Principle as Predictors of Adult Performance on Piaget's Water Level Task

Summary The relationship of cognitive style (as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test), gender, S self-report of the principle of invariant water level, and the actual performance on a paper and pencil version of Piaget's water level task was assessed in 85 college students. Women performed significantly worse than men on the water level task, and analytical (disembed-ding) Ss performed significantly better than global (nondisembedding) Ss. However, when gender effects were compared in an analysis of variance with cognitive style equated, no significant effect of sex was obtained. As expected, self-report of the principle of invariant water level was significantly related to water level performance; however, the correctness in stating the principle was not a particularly good predictor of water level conservation behavior.
Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering INFLUENCE ON THE QUALITY OF ESSENTIAL LEMON ( Citrus aurantifolia ) OIL BY DISTILLATION PROCESS

The essential oil of key lime (Citrus aurantifolia) was obtained by steam distillation at normal conditions (1.0 bar/25oC) with steam at 110oC, during 10h. The GC analysis identified about 10 main substances, being limonene, p-cymene, myrcene and β-bisabolene the most significant compounds. Aldehyde content increased significantly during distillation time (upper phase). After 10h of process, oil has presented more than 3% of aldehydes content due to oxidative reactions.
Single bacterial strain capable of significant contribution to carbon cycling in the surface ocean

Significance Primary production generates a reservoir of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the ocean as large as the global inventory of atmospheric CO2. Once formed, DOC accumulates on timescales from less than 1 hour to millennia. Bacteria are important contributors to the respiration of DOC to CO2 and the conversion of DOC to refractory biopolymers. Yet, the quantitative contribution of individual species within diverse consortia to DOC cycling remains unknown. We report that a single bacterial strain can consume as much DOC as diverse free-living microbial communities. This taxon is commonly observed in seawater when labile carbon is available, and may serve a key ecosystem function by rapidly recycling and regulating the level of DOC while also supporting ocean food webs. Marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) encompasses one of the largest reservoirs of carbon on Earth. Heterotrophic bacteria are the primary biotic force regulating the fate of this material, yet the capacity of individual strains to significantly contribute to carbon cycling is unknown. Here we quantified the ability of a single Alteromonas strain [Alteromonas sp. strain Scripps Institution of Oceanography (AltSIO)] to drawdown ambient DOC in a coastal ecosystem. In three experiments, AltSIO alone consumed the entire pool of labile DOC, defined here as the quantity consumed by the submicron size fraction of ambient microbial assemblages within 5 d. These findings demonstrate that complete removal of the labile DOC pool in coastal surface seawater can be achieved by a single taxon. During long-term incubations (>1 y) testing semilabile DOC consumption, AltSIO entered dormancy but remained viable, while the diverse assemblages continued to consume carbon. Given that AltSIO is a large bacterium and thus subject to increased grazing pressure, we sought to determine the ecological relevance of this phenotype. Growth dynamics in natural seawater revealed that AltSIO rapidly outgrew the native bacteria, and despite intense grazing pressure, was never eliminated from the population. A survey in the California Current Ecosystem revealed that large bacteria (≥40 fg C⋅cell−1) were persistent, accounting for up to 12% of total bacterial abundance and 24% of total bacterial biomass. We conclude that large, rapidly growing bacteria have the potential to disproportionately alter the fate of carbon in the mesotrophic ocean and play an important role in ecosystem function.
Comparison of early postoperative period electrophysiological and clinical findings following carpal tunnel syndrome: is EMG necessary?

BACKGROUND In this study, we aimed to compare the clinical findings and ENMG results of the patients who underwent surgery due to CTS, in the preoperative and early postoperative period. METHODS 33 wrists of 29 patients who underwent open carpal tunnel surgery in our clinic due to CTS, between 2009 and 2011, were evaluated. Electrophysiological progress was evaluated with ENMG and clinical state with Boston scale. RESULTS A significant decrease was observed in the postoperative BS symptomatic (SSS) and functional (FSS) scores of patients as compared to preoperative period (P=0.00), In the electrophysiological findings, statistically significant improvement was observed in all groups but very severe CTS group (P<0.05). When preoperative and postoperative EMG findings were compared, changes in DSL and DSA values were statistically significant (P<0.05). However, no statistically significant difference was seen between DML (P=0.085) and DMA (P=246) values on the 3rd month. When an examination was conducted on the patients whose DML and DSL values could not be obtained in the preoperative EMG, DML values were obtained in the early postoperative period in 6 of 7 cases (85.71% P<0.001), and DSL values were obtained in 17 of 24 cases (70.8% P<0.000). CONCLUSIONS Sensory nerve findings were more significant, showed faster recovery compared to motor nerve findings, and accompanied the clinical recovery. Performance of an EMG test, especially on sensory nerves, will be more effective in patients selected in the early period, with the exception of patients with very severe CTS.
Social-motivational processes and interpersonal relationships: Implications for understanding motivation at school.

Social-motivational processes and socialization experiences can play a critical role in students' academic success. However, the search for specific mechanisms and processes that explain these social influences on motivation is still in its inception. The purpose of this article was to begin to articulate some of these processes in the hope that more precise explanations of influence will emerge. The 1st section of the article focuses on ways in which social-motivational processes are relevant for understanding motivation to achieve academically, using goal pursuit as a case in point. Models describing complementary, developmental, and hierarchical relations among social and task-related goals and their implications for understanding student achievement are presented. Then, ways in which students' social encounters and experiences with parents, teachers, and peers might influence their adoption and internalization of socially valued goals are examined. New directions for theoretical and empirical inquiry are presented.
Family Portraits: Stories As Standards for Family Relationships

Two studies were conducted to investigate the link between the themes of stories individuals feel describe their family and the way people evaluate their family relationships. Individuals described a story characterizing their own family and then re-told that story so that it reflected an ‘ideal’ family. The themes that emerged from these stories, as well as the discrepancies between the themes portrayed in the two stories, were examined. Findings indicated that the themes typifying people’s stories about their own family were associated with individuals’ family satisfaction. Stories reflecting care, togetherness, adaptability, reconstruction, and humorwere positively linked to satisfaction, whereas those portraying disregard, hostility, chaos, divergent values, and personality attributeswere negatively related to individuals’ feelings about their family. The themes characterizing people’s stories about what they saw as the ‘ideal’ family, by contrast, were unrelated to satisfaction. But, as expected, the discrepancies between many of the themes represented in people’s own family stories and those portrayed in their ‘ideal’ stories were associated with the way individuals felt about their family relationships. Furthermore, the way people perceived their own family stories was linked to their beliefs that, at some point, their own stories would change to become more like their ‘ideal’ stories.
Automatic Single Page-Based Algorithms for Medieval Manuscript Analysis

We propose three automatic algorithms for analyzing digitized medieval manuscripts, text block computation, text line segmentation, and special component extraction, by taking advantage of previous clustering algorithms and a template-matching technique. These three methods are completely automatic, so no user intervention or input is required to make them work. Moreover, they are all per-page based; that is, unlike some prior methods—that need a set of pages from the same manuscript for training purposes—they are able to analyze a single page without requiring any additional pages for input, eliminating the need for training on additional pages with similar layout. We extensively evaluated the algorithms on 1,771 images of pages of six different publicly available historical manuscripts, which differ significantly from each other in terms of layout structure, acquisition resolution, writing style, and so on. The experimental results indicate that they are able to achieve very satisfactory performance, that is, the average precision and recall values obtained by the text block computation method can reach as high as 98% and 99%, respectively.