Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ecomorphology of sedentary and migratory Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla populations in Portuguese continental and island habitats

The morphology of a given species is determined largely by constraints put on it by the environment and the way the individual uses its habitat. This holds true to the particular demands faced by flying animals, like birds. In these, one of the most important ecological traits shaping morphology are the usually long migratory flights many species, or populations within a species, undertake regularly. However, the requirements for long-distance flight have to be balanced with the species’ need to be best adapted to their particular environment, which means that, even within a species, different migratory tendencies results in slightly different morphological traits. Another important factor driving the morphology of many species is the adaptation to the particular characteristics of insular environments, with opposing views arising as to whether size and morphology follow predetermined patterns (the “island rule”) or if this general view diminishes the importance of the particular islandspecies interaction. In the present work we sampled individuals from Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla L. , 1758 (a passerine model species) from continental Portugal and from the nine islands of the Azores archipelago, in order to assess the differences in morphology of continental migrants and residents, and also the differences of these to sedentary birds from the Azores. These patterns were assessed using both univariate biometric measures and indexes of structural and wing size and shape derived from multivariate principal component analysis. Results confirm most predictions regarding comparisons of sedentary with migratory continental populations, with migrants showing attributes best suited towards maximizing flight efficiency (long, pointed wings), while residents are better adapted towards exploiting their habitat (relatively longer tails, bill and tarsi). The relatively large structural size of migrants when compared to continental sedentary birds is probably best explained by Bergmann’s rule. Blackcap populations from the Azores conform in general to island rule predictions, being bigger than continental sedentary birds, falling within the range of migrants. Birds from the more distant Western Group had more pronounced island morphology, with rather large sizes and rounder wings. Some trends associated with distance to mainland and island area are recovered, but are not conclusive.
ESTIMATION OF BIOMASS AND VOLUME OF SHRUB VEGETATION USING LiDAR AND SPECTRAL DATA IN A MEDITERRANEAN ENVIRONMENT

Several studies have addressed the biomass and volume of trees using Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR ) data. However, little research has been conducted into shrub vegetation, which covers a high percentage of Mediterranean forest. We used LiDAR data and an airborne image to estimate biomass and volume of shrub vegetation. Field data were collected in 29 square plots of 100 m2. In each plot, the percentage of the surface covered was measured in the field. Shrub vegetation inside 3 stands for each plot was clear cut to calculate the biomass and volume of the 29 plots. To find the best fit between LiDAR-spectral data and field measurements, stepwise regressions were performed using previously selected variables. The highest accuracy was found when variables derived from LiDAR data and the airborne image were combined (R2 values of 0.78 and 0.84 for biomass and volume, respectively). Biomass and volume were predicted using variables from height metrics of LiDAR data (median and standard deviation); density metrics (percentage of points whose height was between 0.50 m to 0.75 m, 0.75 m to 1 m, and higher than 1 m); and spectral data (standard deviation of green band, mean of the vegetation index NDVI). These results revealed the potential of LiDAR and spectral data to characterize shrub structure and make it possible to estimate and map the biomass and volume of this vegetation.
Radiative Recombination Mechanisms of Large InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots

The optical properties of large InAs/GaAs quantum dots were investigated by low-temperature photoluminescence as a function of the excitation-power density. The presence of excited states was clearly detected below the saturation regime of the ground state. We analyzed the dependence of the integrated-photoluminescence intensity on the excitation-power density and the type of radiative recombination involving the electronic ground state and the excited states inside the quantum dots. We concluded that the probability to have more than one exciton by dots must be considered, and the usual equation , must be revised to correctly describe the origin of the recombination and must include other factors as scattering, relaxation time, radiative recombination rate, and others.
RUNNING HEAD: ESEM FOR FACTOR REPLICABILITY Beyond Congruence Measures for the Evaluation of Personality Factor Structure Replicability: An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Approach

The present study aims to illustrate an encompassing approach to the evaluation of personality factor structure replicability based on novel exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) methods. This approach comprises formal tests of measurement invariance applied to the flexible ESEM framework and overcomes the limitations of congruence measures that have traditionally been used to assess factor replicability in personality research. On the basis of 1566 responses to the widely-used NEO Five-Factor-Inventory (NEO-FFI), we demonstrate this ESEM approach in the context of examining the invariance of the NEO-FFI factor structure across gender. The approach is shown to converge with traditional congruence measures and extend these measures for examining factorial structure consistency. In addition, more general replicative data supporting the validity of the NEO-FFI are reported. We discuss the ESEM approach as a viable alternative to the congruence approach and acknowledge some important limitations of the method.
Cramér–Rao Lower Bound on AoA Estimation Using an RF Lens-Embedded Antenna Array

In this letter, we investigate the Cramér–Rao lower bound (CRLB) on angle of arrival (AoA) estimation of an RF lens-embedded antenna array. We first derive an expression for the received signal, in terms of intrinsic lens characteristics, using an RF lens-embedded antenna array. As the AoA changes, the received signal through the RF lens also changes in amplitude. This differentiates the RF lens-embedded antenna array from a conventional uniform linear array (ULA) without an RF lens. Based on this property, we next derive the CRLB on AoA estimation and confirm that the CRLB of an RF lens-embedded antenna array may be better than the CRLB for a conventional ULA in a certain desired range. The results can be used as a guideline for designing RF lens-embedded antenna arrays in fifth generation localization.
PENERAPAN PEMBELAJARAN GROUP INVESTIGATION UNTUK MENINGKATKAN HASIL BELAJAR MATEMATIKA SISWA KELAS X IPA 1 MAN 2 BANYUWANGI

Based on preliminary study, it is known that the students of class XIPA 1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi have problems in the learning process ofmathematics. Therefore, teachers need to seek solutions. Theteacher's efforts include applying cooperative learning model ofGroup investigation type. This study aims to determine: 1) Increasedmotivation and learning activities of mathematics throughcooperative learning model type of gruop investigation on studentsclass X IPA 1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi. 2) improving mathematicslearning outcomes through cooperative learning model type of gruopinvestigation on students class X IPA 1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi. Thisresearch is a classroom action research conducted on the subject ofMathematics. Subjects in the meticulous are students of Class X IPA1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi academic year 2017/2018. The researchprocedure consists of two cycles for 4 meetings. Each cycle iscarried out with activities: Planning, Action Implementation,Observation, Evaluation, Reflection. Analytical technique that willbe used is descriptive technique. The results showed: 1) there is anincrease in motivation and learning activities of mathematicsthrough cooperative learning model type of gruop investigation instudents of class X IPA 1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi. 2) there isimprovement of mathematics learning outcomes through cooperativelearning model type of gruop investigation in students of class XIPA 1 MAN 2 Banyuwangi.
The Minimum Wage and Infant Mortality

Interest in the non-economic impact of minimum wage laws have led to a growing literature examining how population health measures respond to state minimum wage increases in the US. These studies rely on the canonical two-way fixed effect estimator, which is an unreliable method to infer causal effects with spatially heterogeneous populations. In this paper, I study the impact of minimum wage differences across states and within-state ordinances on infant mortality rates. I isolate the causal effect of the minimum wage by employing a spatial regression discontinuity design using neighboring counties in different states that are contiguous to a common state border as local treatment and control populations. I find that a 10 percent increase in local cost-of-living adjusted minimum wage reduces infant mortality rates by 3.2 percent among lower-educated mothers—a group more likely affected by minimum wage changes. I find that reductions in infant mortality is concentrated in the post-neonatal period. I also demonstrate that the traditional empirical approach employed in this literature will produce lower estimates of the health impact of the minimum wage. My findings provide robust evidence that minimum wage increases are causally linked with improved infant health. †Department of Economics, University of Utah. Contact: ali.jalali@economics.utah. edu. I am deeply grateful for the mentorship and encouragement I received from my PhD committee chair, Norman Waitzman, and for valuable advice from my PhD committee members Peter Phillips, Eric Sjöberg, J. Paul Leigh, and Mark Glick. I would also like to acknowledge Richard Nelson for his immeasurable guidance while employed as a research assitant with the Health Economics Core of the Population Health Research Foundation, University of Utah School of Medicine. This paper has benefited from constructive comments from members of the the Department of Economics’ Applied Microeconomics research group. This project was supported in part by the Jewel J. Rasmussen Doctoral Research Grant and the Howard Karsten Memorial Fellowship.
Discussion Paper Series The Effect of Wage Subsidies on Piece Rate Workers : Evidence from the Penny Per Pound Program in Florida Hyejin Ku

This paper studies a fair trade program in which consumers provide a wage subsidy (bonus) to piece-rate tomato pickers. The total subsidy—determined by sales to participating buyers—is divided among workers based on their relative output: a worker who produces more gets a larger share of the bonus. Although seemingly mimicking the existing piece-rate pay scheme, the mechanism associated with the bonus payment is really a relative performance evaluation, as the size of total bonus is exogenous and invariant to workers’ effort. Therefore, for a given sized subsidy, the combined total (or per worker average) utility gains would become the largest if the workers keep their efforts at the pre-program level. Empirical analysis shows that worker effort (and hence productivity) increases substantially in response to the program, suggesting that currently, workers’ combined gains per dollar of subsidy are not being maximized. Alternative distribution schemes are discussed.
Systematics of Croizatia (Euphorbiaceae)

Croizatia, a genus known from Panama and Venezuela (Euphorbiaceae, Phyllanthoi- deae), has been considered closely related to the Old World genus Actephila. However, the spinose pollen of Croizatia is very different from the semitectate pollen of Actephila, and the two genera appear clearly distinct. The pollen morphology of Croizatia suggests a possible relationship with the Oldfieldioideae, and it may be the closest extant taxon to a connecting link between the subfam- ilies. Three species of Croizatia are tentatively recognized, including a new species, Croizatia pan- amensis; but species delimitations must be regarded as provisional. The Euphorbiaceous genus Croizatia (Steyer- mark 1952), named for the eminent student of the systematics of the Euphorbiaceae, Leon Croizat-Chaly (Steyermark 1983), has long been regarded as of uncertain affinity. The first species published, C. neotropica (Steyermark 1952), was described from a fruiting specimen collected in the state of Anzoategui, Venezuela. Later, Steyermark (1978) added a second species, C. naiguatensis, from another fruiting specimen found on the Cerro Naiguata, Distrito Federal,
Gambling and Impulsivity: An Exploratory Study in a French Adolescent Population

Pathological gambling can be a serious problem, more so to a vulnerable population such as adolescents and youth. This study aims to investigate the links between gambling behaviours and impulsivity through a multidimensional approach in a French adolescent population. A secondary aim of this study is to find out the prevalence of pathological gambling behaviour amongst adolescents who are not meant to have legal access to such games. We administered the UPPS Impulsive behaviour Scale (UPPS-P) and the Canadian Pathological Gambling Index CPGI to 1800 adolescents aged between 11 to 17 years. Our results indicate that 33% of subjects have gambled at least once during the last year and that girls gamble as much as boys (17% and 16% respectively). Scratch games are the most common games played by adolescents (81.4%). We also notice that 1.6% of our population has problematic gambling behaviour. Although we found that many dimensions of impulsivity (Urgency, Positive urgency and Sensation seeking) are correlated to gambling behaviour, only sensation seeking seems to be a good predictor of pathological gambling severity. These results can be taken into account in the development of prevention programs.
Wide Distribution of the Waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) &Dgr;G210 PPX2 Mutation, which Confers Resistance to PPO-Inhibiting Herbicides

Resistance in waterhemp to herbicides that inhibit protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) previously was shown to result from the deletion of a glycine codon at position 210 (&Dgr;G210) in the PPO-encoding gene, PPX2. Research was conducted to determine if this same mechanism accounted for resistance in geographically separated populations—from Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri—and, if so, to determine if the mutation conferring resistance was independently selected. A dose–response study with lactofen indicated that the resistant populations had different levels of resistance. These differences, however, could be accounted for by different frequencies of resistant individuals within populations and, therefore, the dose–response data were consistent with the hypothesis that the populations contained the same resistance mechanism. Direct evidence in support of this hypothesis was provided by DNA sequencing, which showed that nearly all resistant plants evaluated contained the &Dgr;G210 mutation. A variable region of the PPX2 gene was sequenced and resulting sequences were aligned and organized into a phylogenetic tree. The phylogenetic tree did not reveal clear clustering by either geography or phenotype (resistant vs. sensitive). Possibly recombination within the PPX2 gene has masked its evolutionary history. Nomenclature: Common waterhemp, Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) Sauer var. rudis (Sauer) Costea and Tardif AMATU.
A NEW APPROACH TO REPRODUCTION, NUTRITION AND IMMUNE RESPONSE RELATIONSHIP IN DAIRY COWS

Speaking in terms of general relationship between nutrition and reproduction, many different aspects are more or less involved according to geographical areas, species, production systems, technological levels etc. They are deficiency conditions: energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals, but also some excesses (few minerals) or toxic substances like micotoxins or plant compounds (i.e. oestrogen-like). Their relevance is different in the intensive systems for an easier making of appropriate diets. Nevertheless intensification does not reduce the nutritional risks for livestock reproduction for several reasons, namely a suspected higher susceptibility to the usual stresses and a new one: the metabolic stress. The latter is particularly relevant when early lactation and new pregnancy are close (dairy cows, does and, in some extent, sows). The negative energy balance is the main cause of metabolic stress, but the oxidative stress as well as the disease stress (pro-inflammatory cytokines) seem to be of great relevance. In dairy cows, inflammatory phenomena around calving – then an immune response in spite of clinical symptoms can be missing – are significantly related to a lower pregnancy rate, while milk yield and BCS are also reduced. The apparent paradox could be justified by pro-inflammatory cytokines which modify liver synthesis and seem to impair energy balance (increasing expenditure and reducing feed intake).
Direct Detection of extra-solar Planets with ESPRESSO

In visible wavelengths, an exoplanet’s signature is essentially reflected light from the host star several orders of magnitude fainter. Unfortunately, it is superimposed on the star spectrum and hidden amidst the stellar noise. This makes its detection a difficult observational challenge. Luckily, the development of a new generation of instruments like ESPRESSO and next generation telescopes like the E-ELT will put us in a privileged position to detect these planets’ reflected light as the next generation observing facilities will make available extremely high signal-to-noise ratio spectra. With this work, we propose an alternative approach for the direct detection of the reflected light of an exoplanet. We simulated observations with ESPRESSO@VLT and HIRES@E-ELT of several star+planet systems, encompassing 10h of the most favorable orbital phases. To the simulated spectra we applied the Cross Correlation Function to operate in a much higher signal-to-noise ratio domain than when compared to the spectra. The use of the Cross-Correlation Function permitted the recovery of the simulated the planet signals at a level above 3 σnoise significance on several prototypical (e.g., Neptune type planet with a 2 days orbit with the VLT at 4.4 σnoise significance) and real planetary systems (e.g., 55 Cnc e with the E-ELT at 4.9 σnoise significance). Even by using a more pessimistic approach to the noise level estimation, where systematics in the spectra increase the noise 2-3 times, the detection of the reflected light from large close-orbit planets is possible. We have also shown that this kind of study is currently within reach of current instruments and telescopes (e.g., 51 Peg b with the VLT at 5.2 σnoise significance), although at the limit of their capabilities.
Voluntary disclosure of contributions: an experimental study on nonmandatory approaches for improving public good provision

There has been an increasing interest in nonpecuniary measures to encourage prosocial behavior. Among these is the use of social comparison, or social information. Although successful in promoting, for instance, greater resource conservation, studies of this measure have so far relied on the assumption of the availability of social information. In situations in which information is costly to collect and disseminate, alternative mechanisms must be considered. This study explores the use of voluntary disclosure to provide social information in a linear public goods game in a lab experiment. It finds that individuals tend to disclose their contribution information when given the option, suggesting that voluntarily disclosed social information remains a possible policy option when the cost of information collection is high. In addition, voluntarily revealed contributions are significantly higher than contributions under mandated disclosure, leading to greater cooperation in the voluntary disclosure treatments under certain circumstances. Finally, evidence is provided that voluntary disclosure may be helpful in attenuating the boomerang effect, i.e., when high contributors reduce their contributions in response to social information.
Clinical and Urodynamic Study of Adult Female Patients with Urinary Incontinence

Background Urodynamics provide objective pathophysiological explanations for symptoms and/or dysfunction of the lower urinary tracts. It reproduce patient symptoms during the performance of the study and assist clinicians in determining the precise cause, aid in diagnostic process and follow up of patients with urinary incontinence. Objective To evaluate the role of urodynamic study in confirming the diagnosis of urinary incontinence in Iraqi women. Differentiate the types of urinary incontinence and assess the importance of risk factors in its development. Methods This study was performed in the Urology Department, Al-Sader Medical City, Holly Najaf between March 2013 and March 2014. One hundred and twenty female subjects aged 20 to 60 years were studied. They comprised 60 patients and 60 control subjects. Medical history, clinical examination and urodynamic tests were performed for them. Result Thirty four patients presented with stress urinary incontinence, nineteen with urge type, five with mixed type and only two patients presented with overflow urinary incontinence. The patients were complaining of cough, constipation (most of them in stress type) and presence of cystocele (most of them in stress urinary incontinence patients). In addition, there was positive history of hypertension and positive family history of urinary incontinence. The strong desire to urination and the maximum urinary bladder capacity of patients was significantly smaller than those of control subjects, specifically those patients with stress and urge urinary incontinence. Conclusion Age, Parity and body mass index significantly affect the prevalence of urinary incontinence in women who have given birth vaginally. Stress urinary incontinence is the most common type of UI among women regardless the small sample size in the study. Cystometric changes of urodynamic study were markedly evident in the stress urinary incontinence patients as compared to the healthy women.
Faithful Semitoric Systems

This paper consists of two parts. The first provides a review of the basic properties of integrable and almost-toric systems, with a particular emphasis on the integral affine structure associated to an integrable system. The second part introduces faithful semitoric systems, a generalization of semitoric systems (introduced by Vu Ngoc and classified by Pelayo and Vu Ngoc) that provides the language to develop surgeries on almost-toric systems in dimension 4. We prove that faithful semitoric systems are natural building blocks of almost-toric systems. Moreover, we show that they enjoy many of the properties that their (proper) semitoric counterparts do.