Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the effectiveness of wildflower seed mixes for boosting floral diversity and bumblebee and hoverfly abundance in urban areas

1. There is growing interest in improving the biodiversity of urban and suburban areas. Here we report on the effectiveness of a very simple intervention that may be used to boost flower and pollinator abundance; the sowing of plots of wildflowers in amenity grasslands. The abundance of flowers, bumblebees (Bombus spp.), and hoverflies (Syrphidae) was surveyed in 30 such plots, either 1 or 2 years after they had been sown. 2. Overall, sown plots had 25 times more flowers, 50 times more bumblebees, and 13 times more hoverflies compared to paired control plots. Floral abundance and bee abundance increased from year 1 to year 2, but hoverflies were more abundant in plots in their first year, reflecting their preference for shallow annual flowers. 3. Our data demonstrate that flower-poor amenity grasslands can be readily converted to flower-rich areas that are highly attractive to pollinators, providing a simple tool for pollinator conservation in urban areas.
Intraspecific morphological variation of Scutovertex sculptus Michael (Acari: Oribatida: Scutoverticidae) and description of its juvenile stages

This paper provides a detailed redescription of the adult and the first morphological description of all juvenile stages of Scutovertex sculptus. Specimens from four European countries, Austria, Germany, France and Spain were investigated. The species specific characters are the broadened posterior notogastral setae (lp, h 1 –h 3 ), the slightly broadened anterior notogastral seta (dm), the gastronotic cuticle with irregularly distributed foveae and a thick layer of secretion forming blocs with color dispersive qualities on the posterior half of notogastral region. Minor differences in the shape of notogastral setae and in the thickness of the secreted layer on the posterior gastronotic region were found in specimens from different countries. The investigation of the juveniles of S. sculptus showed that the larva and nymphs can be easily distinguished from those of S. minutus; the lateral setae on tibia I are leaf-shaped in S. sculptus and knife-shaped in S. minutus.
The behaviour of a fibre-reinforced cemented soil

Triaxial compression tests with internal measurement of deformation and scanning electron microscopy were carried out to evaluate the effect of randomly distributed glass fibre reinforcement and cement content on the response of a sandy soil to load. Cemented specimens were prepared with cement contents varying from 0 to 5% by weight of dry soil and cured for 7 days. The fibre length was 12·8 mm, varying in a content from 0 to 3% by weight of dry soil. The cementation itself notably increased in stiffness and peak strength, while fibre inclusion increased both residual and peak strength and reduced stiffness, changing the behaviour of the cemented soil from brittle to more ductile. Peak strength envelopes indicated that the friction angle was increased from 35 to 41° as a result of cementation and 46° as a consequence of fibre inclusion. However, the peak cohesion intercept was unchanged after fibre addition, being a function only of cementation.
Microstructural Evolution during Partial Remelting of a 2024 Aluminum Alloy Prepared by Cold Pressing Ball-Milled Alloy Powders

A novel method, known as powder thixoforming is proposed. The effect of ball milling on the microstructural evolution of a 2024 alloy, prepared by cold pressing ball-milled powders is examined during partial remelting. Additionally the effect of reheating temperature on the microstructure has also been investigated. Results indicate that welding and deformation of the milled powders occurred. A semisolid microstructure with fine spheroidal primary particles results following partial remelting. Microstructural evolution comprises three stages, the rapid coarsening and formation of compact particles, separation of the welded particles with reduction of the particle size, and finally coarsening. Compared with the microstructural evolution of the powder compacts prepared by un-milled powders, the first stage is accelerated, but the second stage is retarded. The microstructural evolution is also accompanied by densification. A suitably elevated temperature is favorable to achieve a compact semisolid microstructure for thixoforming. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2015367]
Synergistic effects of reserves and connectivity on ecological resilience

In light of the global extent and cascading effect of our impact on the environment, we design and manage reserves to restore biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. Mobile organisms link important processes across ecosystems, however, their roles in providing these services are often overlooked and we need to know how they influence ecosystem functions in reserves. Herbivorous fish play a key role in coral reef seascapes. By removing algae, they promote coral growth and recruitment, and help to increase resilience. We examined how connectivity with mangroves affected herbivore populations and benthic succession on reefs in eastern Australia. We surveyed fish assemblages, examined reef composition and characterised benthic recruitment on reefs at multiple levels of connectivity with mangroves, in a no-take reserve and areas open to fishing. Our results show that connectivity enhanced herbivore biomass and richness in reserves, and that these connectivity and reserve effects interacted to promote herbivory on protected reefs near mangroves. Connectivity and reserve protection combined to double the biomass of roving herbivorous fish on protected reefs near mangroves. The increase in grazing intensity drove a trophic cascade that reduced algal cover and enhanced coral recruitment and reef resilience. Synthesis and applications. Our findings demonstrate that ecosystem resilience can be improved by managing both reefs and adjacent habitats together as functional seascape units. By understanding how landscapes influence resilience, and explicitly incorporating these effects into conservation decision-making, we may have greater success with environmental restoration and preservation actions.
COSNET: Connecting Heterogeneous Social Networks with Local and Global Consistency

More often than not, people are active in more than one social network. Identifying users from multiple heterogeneous social networks and integrating the different networks is a fundamental issue in many applications. The existing methods tackle this problem by estimating pairwise similarity between users in two networks. However, those methods suffer from potential inconsistency of matchings between multiple networks. In this paper, we propose COSNET (COnnecting heterogeneous Social NETworks with local and global consistency), a novel energy-based model, to address this problem by considering both local and global consistency among multiple networks. An efficient subgradient algorithm is developed to train the model by converting the original energy-based objective function into its dual form. We evaluate the proposed model on two different genres of data collections: SNS and Academia, each consisting of multiple heterogeneous social networks. Our experimental results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model. On both data collections, the proposed COSNET method significantly outperforms several alternative methods by up to 10-30% (p << 0:001, t-test) in terms of F1-score. We also demonstrate that applying the integration results produced by our method can improve the accuracy of expert finding, an important task in social networks.
Athlete Engagement in Elite Sport: An Exploratory Investigation of Antecedents and Consequences

In this exploratory study, we examined hypothesized antecedents (basic psychological needs) and consequences (dispositional flow) of athlete engagement (AE); plus the extent to which AE mediated the relationship between basic needs and flow. Structural equation modeling with a sample of 201 elite Canadian athletes (60.20% female, mean age = 22.92 years) showed that needs satisfaction (particularly competence & autonomy) predicted athlete engagement (30% explained variance); and needs satisfaction and athlete engagement predicted dispositional flow (68% explained variance). AE partially mediated the relationship between needs satisfaction and flow. Practical suggestions are offered for needs-supportive coaching programs designed to increase both AE and flow.
Fluctuating Hearing Loss in the Only Hearing Ear: Cochlear Implantation in the Contralateral Deaf Side

Objective To investigate the hearing performance of adult patients presenting unilateral deafness with contralateral fluctuating hearing loss who received a cochlear implant on the deaf side. Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting University tertiary referral center. Subjects and Methods Preoperatively and at 6 and 12 months postoperatively, 23 patients underwent pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry with disyllabic and monosyllabic words in a quiet environment and sentences in quiet and noisy (signal-to-noise ratio +10 dB SPL) environments under best-aided conditions. The Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) inventory was evaluated preoperatively and at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Results No difference was found between pre- and postoperative tests for disyllabic and monosyllabic words. For sentences in quiet and noisy environments, a difference between pre- and postoperative performance was present at 1 year (P = .002 and P = .02, respectively). In a noisy environment, a difference was present at 6 and 12 months postoperatively as compared with the preoperative value (mean ± SD: 6 months: 42% ± 7.1% vs 61% ± 6.5%, P = .016). A significant improvement in the APHAB score was found at 6 and 12 months postimplantation (Friedman’s 2-way analysis of variance by ranks, P < .001). The number of years of hearing deprivation of the deaf ear was not correlated with performance. Conclusion When incapacitating fluctuating hearing loss occurs in patients presenting a contralateral deaf ear, a cochlear implant is indicated in the latter ear, significantly improving performance in noisy conditions and allowing a better quality of communication to be achieved.
The Empire Effect: The Determinants of Country Risk in the First Age of Globalization, 1880-1913

This paper reassesses the importance of colonial status to investors before 1914 by means of multivariable regression analysis of the data available to contemporaries. We show that British colonies were able to borrow in London at significantly lower rates of interest than non-colonies precisely because of their colonial status, which mattered more than either gold convertibility or a balanced budget. Allowing for differences not only in monetary and fiscal policy but also in economic development and location, the â¬SEmpire effectâ¬? was a discount of around 100 basis points. We conclude that investors saw colonial status as a no-default guarantee.
Schizophrenia and comorbid cannabis use disorders : Brain structure , function and the effect of antipsychotic medications ' s-Hertogenbosch : Boxpress

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Event-Triggered Quantized Communication-Based Distributed Convex Optimization

A NOVEL distributed algorithm based on multiple agents with continuous-time dynamics is proposed for a convex optimization problem where the objective function is the summation of local objective functions and the state of each agent is subject to a convex constraint set. Considering the limited bandwidth of the communication channels, we introduce a dynamic quantizer for each agent. To further save on communication costs, we develop an event-based broadcasting scheme for each agent. In comparison with algorithms that rely on continuous communication, the proposed algorithm serves to save communication expenditure by exploiting temporal and spatial aspects. Though a joint design of dynamic quantizers and event-trigger functions are under mild conditions, the states of the agents asymptotically approach the global optimal point with an adjustable error bound without incurring Zeno behavior.
Quantification of Cohesive Healing of Asphalt Binder and its Impact Factors Based on Dissipated Energy Analysis

ABSTRACT The effect of healing on asphalt material fatigue performance has been accepted as an important property which is, at least partially, responsible for the significant difference between the laboratory and field fatigue behavior. Although some studies have been conducted to characterize the asphalt healing and its mechanism, very few researches have clearly identified how different loading and climate conditions can influence the effect of healing in a quantitative way. In addition, little suggestion has been provided on the integration healing into fatigue life prediction and pavement design. Therefore, this study develops a research based on the fundamental dissipated energy analysis to quantify the cohesive healing in asphalt binder. The key impact factors on healing are evaluated in a systematic way under different loading and environmental conditions. A healing rate predictive model and fatigue life prediction model based on binder rheological properties and visco-elastic energy dissipation is developed, which provides a promising way to integrate healing into a more mechanistic based pavement design procedure. The methodology used in this study can also be applied to investigate and quantify the adhesive healing at the aggregate-asphalt interface when aggregates are introduced into the experimental testing.
Blessing of dimensionality: mathematical foundations of the statistical physics of data

The concentrations of measure phenomena were discovered as the mathematical background to statistical mechanics at the end of the nineteenth/beginning of the twentieth century and have been explored in mathematics ever since. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it became clear that the proper utilization of these phenomena in machine learning might transform the curse of dimensionality into the blessing of dimensionality. This paper summarizes recently discovered phenomena of measure concentration which drastically simplify some machine learning problems in high dimension, and allow us to correct legacy artificial intelligence systems. The classical concentration of measure theorems state that i.i. d. random points are concentrated in a thin layer near a surface (a sphere or equators of a sphere, an average or median-level set of energy or another Lipschitz function, etc.). The new stochastic separation theorems describe the thin structure of these thin layers: the random points are not only concentrated in a thin layer but are all linearly separable from the rest of the set, even for exponentially large random sets. The linear functionals for separation of points can be selected in the form of the linear Fisher’s discriminant. All artificial intelligence systems make errors. Non-destructive correction requires separation of the situations (samples) with errors from the samples corresponding to correct behaviour by a simple and robust classifier. The stochastic separation theorems provide us with such classifiers and determine a non-iterative (one-shot) procedure for their construction. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Hilbert’s sixth problem’.
Effect of Acid and Fluoride Release from Four Glass Ionomer Cements on Streptococcus mutans: An In Vitro Study

Objectives: The objective was to evaluate fluoride and acid release from four glass ionomer cements (GICs) over time and to evaluate and compare their effect on Streptococcus mutans over time. Materials and Methods: The fluoride and acid release from the prepared samples (GICs, Miracle Mix, Fuji IX, d-tech ® , Ketac Molar) were measured daily using digital fluoride meter and pH meter, respectively, after placing them in deionized distilled water for 15 days. The water was replaced daily. The samples were aged by placing them in distilled water for 1, 3, 5, and 7 days. The antimicrobial activity was assessed by measuring the zone of inhibition around the samples (fresh and aged) placed on the bacterial cultures after 48 h of incubation. Mean and standard deviation were calculated. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The antimicrobial activity of the four GICs was greatest immediately after the cements were mixed. The greatest fluoride and acid release was from d-tech. Conclusion: Both acid and fluoride release that contributed to the antibacterial activity of the Glass ionomer cements reduced significantly as the cement aged.
Performance of hybrid genetic algorithms incorporating local search

This paper investigates the effects of learning strategy and probability of local search on the performance of hybrid genetic algorithms. It compares the performance of two genetic-local hybrids using different learning strategies and different probabilities of local search. Two test functions are used for the comparisons. The results show that the solution quality of hybrids is not only affected by the Lamarckian or Baldwinian learning strategy, but also by the probability of local search. This probability, together with the learning strategy, has a great impact on population size requirements. These requirements are also affected by the local search method, and the fitness landscape. Reducing the population size can lead to an increase in the algorithm convergence speed
Building Supramolecular Nanostructures at Surfaces by Hydrogen Bonding Fruitful discussions with A. de Vita, B. Müller, and H. Brune are acknowleged.

Supramolecular structures formed by the self-assembly of functional molecular building blocks are a promising class of materials for future technologies. [1±3] Particularly useful for their fabrication is hydrogen bonding,[4] which provides both high selectivity and directionality. [5] Hydrogen-bonded archiSAM. [9] This kinetic inhibition towards spontaneous adsorption was not observed when Bu4NPF6 was used instead of Bu4NBF4. The rate of spontaneous adsorption in the presence of tetrafluoroborate is sufficiently slow to allow the selective electrochemisorption described herein. We have developed an electrochemical method for the selective formation of self-assembled monolayers on a particular gold electrode in the presence of another nearby electrode. The monolayers produced are very similar in thickness, wettability, blocking of heterogeneous electron transfer, and elemental composition to analogous SAMs formed by the chemisorption of alkanethiols. The selectivity of this synthetic method should allow the preparation of microelectrode arrays with differentiated surface chemistry, a goal of great importance in the fabrication of sophisticated sensor arrays. [5±7, 21, 22] Other attractive features of this electrosynthesis of SAMs are: a) the control it provides over the degree of coverage; b) the short time (less than a minute) needed to form a SAM; c) the ability to form SAMs easily on gold that is not freshly evaporated; and d) the use of precursors without an unpleasant odor (for precursor alkyl groups containing more than about ten carbon atoms). The formation of SAMs by the electrochemical oxidation of alkyl thiosulfates may be extendable to other metals, as long as anodic dissolution of the metal does not interfere at the potential necessary to oxidize the Bunte salts. In preliminary experiments, we found that SAMs can also be formed from aqueous solutions by the reduction of an alkyl thiosulfate, a process known to produce thiols. [10]
An application of escape theory to binge eating

The application of Escape Theory (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991) to binge eating was studied in a non-clinical sample of 129 women. Structural equation modelling (SEM) showed a good fit between the Escape Model and the data. Perfectionism strongly predicted aversive self-awareness which, in turn, predicted negative affect. Negative affect predicted levels of avoidant coping which strongly predicted levels of binge eating. Implications for understanding and treating binge eating are considered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Enhancing PHY Security of Cooperative Cognitive Radio Multicast Communications

In this paper, we propose a cooperative approach to improve the security of both primary and secondary systems in cognitive radio multicast communications. During their access to the frequency spectrum licensed to the primary users, the secondary unlicensed users assist the primary system in fortifying security by sending a jamming noise to the eavesdroppers, while simultaneously protect themselves from eavesdropping. The main objective of this paper is to maximize the secrecy rate of the secondary system, while adhering to all individual primary users’ secrecy rate constraints. In the case of active eavesdroppers and perfect channel state information (CSI) at the transceivers, the utility function of interest is nonconcave and the involved constraints are nonconvex, and thus, the optimal solutions are troublesome. To solve this problem, we propose an iterative algorithm to arrive at least to a local optimum of the original nonconvex problem. This algorithm is guaranteed to achieve a Karush–Kuhn–Tucker solution. Then, we extend the optimization approach to the case of passive eavesdroppers and imperfect CSI knowledge at the transceivers, where the constraints are transformed into a linear matrix inequality and convex constraints, in order to facilitate the optimal solution.
Progesterone receptor membrane component 1 as a potential prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

AIM To investigate the clinicopathological significance of progesterone receptor membrane component 1 (PGRMC1) and PGRMC2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS We performed immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), PGRMC1, and PGRMC2 in a clinical cohort consisting of 89 paired HCC and non-tumor liver samples. We also analyzed HCC data (n = 373) from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We correlated the expression status of PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 with clinicopathological indicators and the clinical outcomes of the HCC patients. We knocked down or overexpressed PGRMC1 in HCC cell lines to evaluate its biological significance in HCC cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and invasion. RESULTS We found that few HCC cases expressed ER (5.6%) and PR (4.5%). In contrast, most HCC cases expressed PGRMC1 (89.9%) and PGRMC2 (100%). PGRMC1 and PGRMC2 exhibited significantly lower expression in tumor tissue than in non-tumor tissue (P < 0.001). Lower PGRMC1 expression in HCC was significantly associated with higher serum alpha-fetoprotein expression (P = 0.004), poorer tumor differentiation (P = 0.045) and liver capsule penetration (P = 0.038). Low PGRMC1 expression was an independent predictor for worse disease-free survival (P = 0.002, HR = 2.384, CI: 1.377-4.128) in our cases, as well as in the TCGA cohort (P < 0.001, HR = 2.857, CI: 1.781-4.584). The expression of PGRMC2 did not relate to patient outcome. PGRMC1 knockdown promoted a poorly differentiated phenotype and proliferation of HCC cells in vitro, while PGRMC1 overexpression caused the opposite effects. CONCLUSION PGRMC1 is a non-classical hormonal receptor that negatively regulates hepatocarcinogenesis. PGRMC1 down-regulation is associated with progression of HCC and is a poor prognostic indicator.