Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biology and Impacts of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 2. Boiga irregularis, the Brown Tree Snake (Reptilia: Colubridae)1

ABSTRACT The Brown Tree Snake, Boiga irregularis (Merrem, 1802), was accidentally transported to the island of Guam shortly after World War II. Over the following two decades it spread throughout the island with little public or professional recognition of its extent or impacts. This secretive nocturnal arboreal snake occurs in all habitats on Guam, from grasslands to forests. Under the right conditions, it is capable of high rates of reproduction and population growth. The Brown Tree Snake caused the extirpation of 13 of Guam's 22 native breeding birds and contributed to the extirpation of several species of native bats and lizards. Guam's 12 forest birds were especially impacted, with 10 species eliminated and the other two severely reduced. In addition, the snake continues to substantially impact domestic poultry, pets, the island's electrical power infrastructure, and human health. To protect other vulnerable Pacific islands, the U.S. government annually spends several million dollars inspecting cargo outbound from Guam to exclude Brown Tree Snakes. Cargo destinations most at risk are in Micronesia, especially the Northern Mariana Islands, but Guam also has direct air transportation links to Hawai‘i that will soon be supplemented with direct ship traffic. Ultimately, all Pacific islands are at risk but especially those obtaining cargo through Guam.
Microinsurance Decisions: Gendered Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

Abstract Most index-based insurance products have been developed without giving explicit attention to gender. However, there is ample of evidence that shocks affect men and women differently and that they allocate resources in different ways. In Bangladesh, it is often assumed that women are less involved in agriculture, and, therefore, agricultural insurance might not be of interest to rural women. However, this assumption has not been tested in the field. This article draws from a field research experiment to examine the gendered aspects of willingness to pay for index-based insurance in Bangladesh. Participants were presented with risky lotteries and a specific insurance contract and were asked to choose how much, if any, of the insurance they wanted to buy at a given price. The probability structure, whether the risk was catastrophic or moderate and whether there was high or low basis risk, varied within sessions. The price of the insurance varied across sessions. Each participant was also given a short questionnaire, which collected information on the demographic characteristics, risk preferences, agricultural risks, knowledge of insurance products, and asset ownership. In the study, 97 percent of the participants decided to buy agricultural insurance, with no significant differences between men and women, even though women were less involved in agricultural decision-making. We found a small decrease in take-up for the low-probability event, driven by the women in the sample. When we examined the number of units bought, we found that men were likely to buy more units than women. Total wealth, as captured by total land owned, had no effect on the units bought. However, among women, total wealth mattered and had a positive correlation. Finally, we found that women had less education and lower financial literacy than their male counterparts, and did not have the experience possessed by men to understand agricultural risks. It placed them at a disadvantage when making insurance purchase decisions.
Complex Methods in Economics: An Example of Behavioral Heterogeneity in House Prices∗

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On Kaluza's sign criterion for reciprocal power series

T. Kaluza has given a criterion for the signs of the power series of a function that is the reciprocal of another power series. In this note the sharpness of this condition is explored and various examples in terms of the Gaussian hypergeometric series are given. A criterion for the monotonicity of the quotient of two power series due to M. Biernacki and J. Krzyz is applied.
Expression of Ki67, CD31, CD68 and P53 in Peripheral and Central Giant Cell Granuloma of the Jaws

Introduction: Giant cell granuloma is a relatively common lesion in oral cavity. Central giant cell granuloma usually treated with surgical excision with good prognosis. However in few cases, the lesion exhibits more aggressive behaviour, high recurrence rate and poor prognosis. It is difficult to identify these cases based on histological features so the need for diagnostic markers is of paramount importance to spare patients unwanted effects. Aim: To investigate expression of Ki67, CD31, CD68 and P53 proteins in peripheral and central (aggressive and non-aggressive) giant cell granuloma and whether their expression level can be used to differentiate between aggressive and non-aggressive types. Material and methods: A total of 33 cases; 15 cases of peripheral giant cell granuloma, 10 cases of nonaggressive central giant cell granuloma and 8 cases of aggressive central giant cell granuloma were tested for Ki64, CD31, CD68 and P53 expression using immunohistochemical staining. Results: Ki67 was expressed in all study cases with significantly higher levels in aggressive variant. CD31 expressed in all cases with significantly higher levels in peripheral giant cell granuloma. CD68 was expressed in all cases with no significant differences. P53 was only identified in central giant cell granuloma with significantly higher levels in aggressive type. Conclusion: Ki67 and P53 expression might be useful markers to identify aggressive central giant cell granuloma.
5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) as a building block platform: Biological properties, synthesis and synthetic applications

The biorefinery is an important approach for the current needs of energy and chemical building blocks for a diverse range of applications, that gradually may replace current dependence on fossil-fuel resources. Among other primary renewable building blocks, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is considered an important intermediate due to its rich chemistry and potential availability from carbohydrates such as fructose, glucose, sucrose, cellulose and inulin. In recent years, considerable efforts have been made on the transformation of carbohydrates into HMF. In this critical review we provide an overview of the effects of HMF on microorganisms and humans, HMF production and functional group transformations of HMF to relevant target molecules by taking advantage of the primary hydroxyl, aldehyde and furan functionalities.
Future CMB tests of dark matter: Ultralight axions and massive neutrinos

Measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies provide strong evidence for the existence of dark matter and dark energy. They can also test its composition, probing the energy density and particle mass of different dark-matter and dark-energy components. CMB data have already shown that ultralight axions (ULAs) with mass in the range 10 − 32 eV → 10 − 26 eV compose a fraction ≲ 0.01 of the cosmological critical density. The next Stage-IV CMB experiment (CMB-S4) (assuming a 1 arcmin beam and ∼ 1 μ K − arcmin noise levels over a sky fraction of 0.4) to the density of ULAs and other dark-sector components is assessed. CMB-S4 data should be ∼ 10 times more sensitive to the ULA energy density than Planck data alone, across a wide range of ULA masses 10 − 32 ≲ m a ≲ 10 − 23 eV , and will probe axion decay constants of f a ≈ 1 0 16 GeV , at the grand unified scale. CMB-S4 could improve the CMB lower bound on the ULA mass from ∼ 10 − 25 eV to 10 − 23 eV , nearing the mass range probed by dwarf galaxy abundances and dark-matter halo density profiles. These improvements will allow for a multi- σ detection of percent-level departures from CDM over a wide range of masses. Much of this improvement is driven by the effects of weak gravitational lensing on the CMB, which breaks degeneracies between ULAs and neutrinos. We also find that the addition of ULA parameters does not significantly degrade the sensitivity of the CMB to neutrino masses. These results were obtained using the axionCAMB code (a modification to the CAMB Boltzmann code), presented here for public use.
Status of school feeding programme policy initiatives in primary schools in Machakos County, Kenya

Although education stakeholders agreed on achieving Education for All by 2015, high wastage rates in developing countries has remained a major concern. In Kenya, data shows that more than one million primary age children are still out school. In many countries, school feeding programmes has been used as one of the interventions to promote retention and improving learning outcomes in primary schools. The paper therefore investigated the status of school feeding policy initiatives in primary schools in Kenya. The objectives of the study were to examine the status of school feeding initiatives; to establish the sources of funding for feeding initiatives and assess the influence of feeding initiatives on school attendance in Machakos County. The study targeted 30 schools in Kalama and Kola zones. Simple random sampling was used to obtain a sample of 28 teachers and 55 class eight pupils while nine head teachers were selected purposively, making a total of 92 respondents. The study used descriptive survey design using questionnaires for data collection. Data was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Findings were presented in frequency tables and graphs. From the findings, majority of schools have implemented the primary school feeding programs as attested by 53% of the teachers, 88% of the head teachers and 61% of the pupils. However, 70% of funding for the school feeding programme come from the community and this has rendered the initiative less effective as most of the parents in the targeted schools have limited resources. The paper recommends for a more state participation to sustain the primary school feeding programme initiative in Machakos County.
The Flight of Petrels and Albatrosses (Procellariiformes), Observed in South Georgia and its Vicinity

Nine procellariiform species, covering a range of body mass exceeding 200: 1, were studied during a visit to Bird Island, South Georgia, with the British Antarctic Survey, in the 1979-1980 field season. Speed measurements were made by ornithodolite of birds slope-soaring over land, birds flying over the sea but observed from land, and birds observed from a ship. In the second group, which showed the least anomalies, lift coefficients corresponding to mean airspeeds were about 1 for albatrosses, decreasing to about 0.3 for the smallest petrels. All species increased speed when flying against the wind. The small species proceeded by flap-gliding, while the large ones flapped infrequently, and only in light winds. The small species flew lower than the larger ones, but this may be related to the fact that most of the observations were of birds flying into wind. The albatrosses ( Diomedea, Phoebetria ) and giant petrels ( Macronectes ) were found to have a ‘shoulder lock’, consisting of a tendon sheet associated with the pectoralis muscle, which restrained the wing from elevation above the horizontal. This arrangement was not seen in the smaller species, and was interpreted as an adaptation reducing the energy cost of gliding flight. The main soaring method in the large species appeared to be slope-soaring along waves. Windward ‘pullups’ suggestive of the classical ‘dynamic soaring’ technique were seen in large and medium-sized species. However, the calculated strength of the wind gradient would have been insufficient to maintain airspeed to the heights observed, and it was concluded that most of the energy for the pullups must come from kinetic energy, acquired by gliding along a wave in slope lift. Gliding downwind through the wind gradient should significantly increase the glide ratio, but this was not observed. Slope-soaring along moving waves in zero wind was recorded. The data were used to derive estimates of the average speeds that the different species should be able to maintain on foraging expeditions. Estimates of the rate of energy consumption were also made, taking into account the greater dependence on flapping in the smaller species, and on soaring in the larger ones. The distance travelled in consuming fuel equivalent to a given fraction of the body mass would seem to be very strongly dependent on mass. Comparison of the largest species ( Diomedea exulans ) with the smallest ( Oceanites oceanicus ) suggests that ‘range’, defined in this way, varies as the 0.60 power of the mass, although the relation is more complex than a simple power function.
Distribution of β-Glucosidase activity within aggregates of a soil amended with organic fertilizers.

Problem statement: Distribution pattern of enzyme activities in soil aggregate size classes as affected by organic amendments is not well understood. Approach: A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of repeated annual application of Cow Manure (CM), Sewage Sludge (SS) and Municipal Solid Waste Compost (MSW) on the distribution of ? -Glucosidase (? G) activity within aggregates of a soil. Soil samples were collected from 0-15 cm of a soil which, had been treated annually from 1999-2006 at 4 application rates with three replications. A control (with no application) was also run. Soil organic C content and ? G activity were measured in 5 aggregate size fractions. Results: Results illustrated that application of the amendments decreased the proportion of microaggregates (0.25 mm diameter) enhanced from 35% in control to 65% in MSW. Application of organic amendments modified the distribution of Soil Organic C (SOC) content and ? G activity. Distribution of SOC in macroaggregate classes was not identical in CM, SS and MSW treatments. The distribution pattern of ? G activities in aggregate size classes was dissimilar to those of SOC contents. In general, an increasing trend was observed in ? G activity as the aggregate sizes increased. The highest level of ? G activity was observed in aggregate size classes of >2 mm of all applied soils. Among the solid waste treatments, CM induced greater ? G activity in macroaggregates. For all aggregate size classes, the lowest level of ? G activity was observed in control. Conclusion/Recommendations: To conclude, organic fertilization increased the proportion of macroaggregates to microaggregates. The highest activities of ? G and SOC contents were observed in macroaggregates and in soils received the highest rates of organic fertilizer applications.
A Combined Heterotic String and Kähler Manifold Elucidation of Ordinary Energy, Dark Matter, Olbers’s Paradox and Pure Dark Energy Density of the Cosmos

We utilize the topological-geometrical structure imposed by the Heterotic superstring theory on spacetime in conjunction with the K3 Kahler manifold to explain the mysterious nature of dark matter and its coupling to the pure dark energy density of the cosmos. The analogous situations in the case of a Kerr black hole as well as the redundant components of the Riemannian tensor are pointed out and the final result was found to be in complete agreement with all previous theoretical ones as well as all recent accurate measurements and cosmic observations. We conclude by commenting briefly on the Cantorian model of Zitterbewegung and the connection between Olbers’s paradox and dark energy.
Temperature, organic matter, and the control of bacterioplankton in the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound estuarine system

A 4 yr, spatially extensive study of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound estuarine system, North Carolina, was used to evaluate the temporal patterns and bottom-up controls of the resident bacterioplankton community. This meso- to eutrophic estuarine system had high concentrations of dissolved and particulate organic matter and supported an active and abundant phytoplankton com- munity. Temporal analysis of bacterioplankton productivity (BP) revealed a strong seasonal pattern, similar to water temperature. Comparisons of BP and several environmental variables grouped by season and year showed little correspondence between the bacteria and either river discharge or organic matter at either scale. Temperature explained about half of the variation in BP data, but with- out any obvious threshold in the semi-log temperature-productivity relationship, implying the absence of a shift to substrate limitation at higher temperatures. The temperature effect varied in space and was lower at the freshwater station, suggesting differential substrate availability or the presence of a different resident microbial community. Proxies for bacterial substrates, including dis- solved organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, and chlorophyll a, improved the predictive power in multiple regression models, but at least one-third of the variation in BP remained unex- plained. The regression models differed by station group, further highlighting the possible difference in biota and/or resources between the freshwater and brackish sites.
Effects of delayed access to feed and different crude protein levels in broiler chicks after hatching 2. Physical development of digestive system.

This experiment was conducted to investigate effects of delayed access to feed/water (immediately, after 12 h, 24 h and 48 h) and different dietary crude protein levels (low, normal and high) on physical development of digestive system in broiler chicks after hatching. Delayed access to feed or dietary CP for 0-14 d significantly affected (P<0.05) the absolute or relative lengths or weights of digestive system. A delay 48 h in accessing to feed and water reduced absolute length (cm) or weight (g) of digestive system except for pancreas, but increased their relative lengths (cm/100g BW) or weights (g/100g BW). However, a delay in accessing to feed reduced absolute or relative weights of pancreas. Increasing dietary CP levels (P<0.05) increased physical size of digestive system. It was concluded that delaying access to feed after hatching reduced physical development of digestive system, and increasing dietary CP levels had beneficial effects on the these parameters to cover the adverse effects of delayed access to feed in early growth period.
Subsurface tropical Pacific nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate: Biogeochemical signals and their transport

We report measurements of the nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate (the δ15N of NO3−) across the equatorial Pacific, for zonal transects from 165°E to 95°W and meridional transects across 95° and 110°W. The δ15N of NO3− is similar in the equatorial thermocline (≈100 m) and intermediate depth waters (≈150 to 600 m), averaging (7.1 ± 0.3)‰ and (7.1 ± 0.1)‰, respectively. These values are more than 2‰ higher than subthermocline waters of the Southern and Atlantic Oceans and are ≈1‰ higher than putative source waters in the high latitude South Pacific (Subantarctic Mode Water, SAMW). The combined constraints of nitrate concentration and δ15N of NO3−in the equatorial Pacific require (1) lateral exchange between the high‐latitude source waters and the zones of denitrification in the eastern tropical Pacific and (2) the accumulation of remineralized nutrients at depth. The zonal uniformity of the subsurface equatorial Pacificδ15N of NO3− indicates rapid transport within the equatorial zone, which works to homogenize the δ15N of NO3− across the Pacific basin. Against this backdrop of high δ15N of NO3−in the tropical Pacific, we find a discrete off‐equatorial core of lowerδ15N of NO3− (5.5 ± 0.3)‰ concentrated at 5°S and 150 to 200 m along the 110° and 95°W transects and in apparent association with the Southern Subsurface Counter Current (SSCC). We propose that the remineralized products of nitrogen fixation, at the source of the SSCC in the western south Pacific, are the origin of the low δ15N of NO3− in these waters.
Oral β-hydroxybutyrate salt fails to improve 4-minute cycling performance following submaximal exercise

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of an oral β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) salt supplement on cycling performance. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, 12 highly-trained cyclists (mean ± SD: age; 35 ± 8 y, mass; 74.5 ± 7.6 kg, VO2peak; 68.0 ± 6.7 ml.minkg) were supplemented with two 30 ml servings of an oral BHB salt supplement or placebo formula (PLA) prior to and during exercise. Participants cycled at a submaximal intensity (80% of second ventilatory threshold) for 90-min, followed by a 4-min maximal cycling performance test (4PT). The difference in 4PT power output between trials was not statistically significant (p > 0.05) and was associated with a trivial effect (ES ±90%CI = 0.19 ±0.37). Ingestion of the BHB salt supplement was associated with a large increase in blood BHB concentrations when compared to PLA for the 4PT (ES = 1.75 ±0.50, p < 0.01). The increased BHB concentration was accompanied by a moderate increase in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) during the submaximal exercise phase (ES = 0.54 ±0.45, p = > 0.05) and a moderate increase during the 4PT (ES = 0.78 ±0.57, p = 0.03). Submaximal VO2 did not differ between trials, however, VO2 was higher during the 4PT phase in the BHB trial (ES = 0.28 ±0.32; small). In conclusion, BHB salt supplementation altered blood BHB concentrations, RER and VO2 values during steady state sub-maximal exercise, but did not improve 4-minute cycling
Workplace Diversity and Group Relations: An Overview

The study of conflict and diversity within groups, ranging from small workgroups to multinational organizations, has become an increasingly important focus for contemporary research. A key question is how the inevitable social diversity within groups can be developed as a productive asset rather than becoming a source of conflict and prejudice. The aim of this Special Issue of the journal is to report cutting edge empirical and theoretical work that addresses the broad issue of diversity and group-based conflict within workgroups. In this introduction, we briefly examine approaches that have been applied, and review what has been learned. We conclude by providing an overview to the Special Issue articles, highlighting central themes and implications for future research.