Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ecological repercussions of historical fish extraction from the Southern Ocean

A major mid-1980s shift in ecological structure of significant portions of the Southern Ocean was partially due to the serial depletion of fish by intensive industrial fishing, rather than solely to climate factors as previously hypothesized. Over a brief period (1969‐1973), several finfish stocks were on average reduced to <50%, and finally (mid-1980s) to <20%, of original size. Despite management actions, few stocks have recovered and some are still declining. Most affected species exhibit K-selected life-history patterns, and before exploitation presumably fluctuated in accordance with infrequent strong year classes, as is true of such fish elsewhere. A climate regime, the Southern Annular Mode, once oscillated between two states, but has remained in its ‘positive mode’ since the time of the fish extraction. This may have increased finfish vulnerability to exploitation. As breeding stocks decreased, we hypothesize that availability of annually produced juvenile fish fed upon by upperlevel predators remained low. Correlations between predator populations and fish biomass in predator foraging areas indicate that southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina, Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella, gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua, macaroni penguin Eudyptes chrysolphus and ‘imperial’ shag Phalacrocorax spp. ‐ all feeding extensively on these fish, and monitored at Marion, Crozet, Kerguelen, Heard, South Georgia, South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, where fishing was concentrated ‐ declined simultaneously during the two periods of heavy fishing. These patterns indicate the past importance of demersal fish as prey in Antarctic marine systems, but determining these interactions’ ecological mechanisms may now be impossible.
EFL Learners’ Perceptions, Practices and Achievement with the Online Learning Program Tell Me More

The study examined EFL learners’ perceptions, practices and achievement with the online language-learning program Tell Me More (TMM). A questionnaire and semi-structured focus group interview were used for data collection. A sample of 340 EFL learners were surveyed for their perceptions and practices; of them, 10 were further selected for an in-depth semi-structured focus group interview. Data on the learners’ scores at four proficiency levels were analyzed for learners’ achievement. The results indicated that the learners perceived TMM moderately useful and easy to use for learning English. With regard to learners’ practices, they multitasked and sometimes left the program on to count the hours of use. The Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between learners’ perception of the usefulness and ease of use of TMM. However, there was no correlation between learners’ perceptions and practices. The analysis of learners’ scores indicated an improvement in achievement for learners at the beginner and advanced proficiency levels, while learners at the intermediate and intermediate+ proficiency levels had a drop in their achievement. The findings do not only expand the knowledge base of learners’ perceptions, practices, and achievement with computer-assisted language learning programs but also guide institutions on how to make effective use of educational technologies to improve learning practices and performance.
Child Neuropsychology: A Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence

Hemodynamic responses to speech and music in preverbal infants Eswen Fava a , Rachel Hull b , Kyle Baumbauer c & Heather Bortfeld d e a Department of Psychology , University of Massachusetts Amherst , Amherst , MA , USA b Department of Psychology , Texas A&M University , College Station , TX , USA c Department of Neurobiology , University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , PA , USA d Department of Psychology , University of Connecticut , Storrs , CT , USA e Haskins Laboratories , New Haven , CT , USA Published online: 18 Jun 2013.
The Nature of Household Labor Income Risk

What is the nature of labor income risk facing households? We answer this question using detailed administrative data on household earnings from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. By analyzing total household labor earnings as well as each member's earnings, we offer several new findings. One, households face substantially less risk than males in isolation. Second, households face roughly half the countercyclical increase in risk that males face. Third, spousal labor income ameliorates household earnings risk through both extensive and intensive margins.
Common Lyapunov Function for Exponentially Stable Nonlinear Systems

We present a sufficient condition for the existence of a common Lyapunov function for a family of exponentially stable nonlinear systems. Suppose that there are m systems ẋ = fi(x) each of which is exponentially stable. When any pair of the vector fields fi(x) are commuting, i.e. the Lie bracket of the pair is zero, there is one Lyapunov function V (x) which guarantees the exponential stability for all of them.
Prevalence and risk factors of suicide in a rural area of Shandong province in mainland China: a case control study

Objective: Suicide is a major public health problem in China, particularly in rural areas. This study aimed to examine the rate and the risk factors for suicide in a rural area of China. Methods: The mortality data of two counties in Shandong Province from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st 2005 were used. Death information was collected via face-to-face interview with informant(s). Psychological autopsy was conducted on 137 completed suicides and 137 matched controls died from other illnesses. Chi-square/Fisher exact and multiple logistic regression were used for bivariate analyses and predictor analyses, respectively. Results: The suicide rate was 20.90 per 100,000 persons per year with almost equal rates of males and females. Among those with the age over 40 years old, the suicide rate in males was significantly higher than that in females. The peak of suicide fell in the age group of 70-79 years for males and the age group of ≥ 80 years for females. The most commonly used method for suicide was pesticide ingestion (76.7%). Poor interpersonal relationship ( OR =12.79), childhood adversities ( OR =7.26), a history of mental illness ( OR =5.95), adverse life event(s) within 1 year prior to death ( OR =3.19), and unstable extravert personality traits ( OR =6.12) were independent risk factors for suicide. Male gender positively interacted with majority of these risk factors, especially with a history of mental illness ( OR =17.89). Advanced age positively interacted with all independent risk factors, with a history of mental illness having the largest OR of 1.51 as every 10 year of age advancement. In bivariate analyses, a history of previous suicide attempt ( OR =13.06), a family history of suicide ( OR =7.08), and unstable introvert personality trait ( OR =1.83) were also associated with increased risk for suicide; and stable extravert personality trait ( OR =0.21) was associated with decreased risk for suicide. Conclusions: In this rural population of mainland China, the risk for suicide was almost equal in both males and females with the elderly having the highest risk. The positive interactions of advanced age and male gender with independent risk factors suggest that suicide prevention strategies targeting specific groups with different risk factors are essential.
Building Multilingual Named Entity Annotated Corpora Exploiting Parallel Corpora

Proceedings of the Workshop on Annotation and Exploitation of Parallel Corpora AEPC 2010. Editors: Lars Ahrenberg, Jorg Tiedemann and Martin Volk. NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 10 (2010), 24-33. © 2010 The editors and contributors. Published by Northern European Association for Language Technology (NEALT) http://omilia.uio. no/nealt . Electronically published at Tartu University Library (Estonia) http://hdl.handle. net/10062/15893 .
Seed Dispersal Patterns by Large Frugivorous Mammals in a Degraded Mosaic Landscape

Seed dispersal by Red fox (Vulpes vulpes), Stone marten (Martes foina), and Wild boar (Sus scrofa) was analyzed in an extensively degraded mosaic landscape in Sierra Nevada (SE Spain). The main objective was to determine whether seed dispersal by mammals was related to habitat degradation within a mosaic of adjacent degraded patches mixed with native forest and thereby to determine the potential role of mammals as seed dispersers in degraded landscape units. For three consecutive years, mammal feces were collected in the fruit production period, extracting all seeds of woody species found therein and analyzing their viability. Feces were collected in three different plots for each of five different landscape units: shrubland, native forest, and dense, cleared, and fenced reforestation stands. Seeds from 16 woody species (which represent more than a half of the total fleshy‐fruited woody species available) were recorded, although some agrarian species are also introduced in a low percentage of the scats. Seeds showed a high viability rate for all dispersed species, irrespective of the mammal disperser. No differences in species composition appeared in the overall landscape units or in the seed density between degraded habitats. Due to the small patch size, the high viability of dispersed seeds, and the large home range of the large mammals, these three animal species act as efficient seed dispersers for a diverse assemblage of woody plant species regardless of the habitat type within this degradation framework. This fact has important consequences for the biodiversity recuperation in these degraded habitats, principally in pine plantations.
Severity of Glaucoma at First Presentation to Hospital Eye Services

Context/Background: To identify the proportion of patients with glaucoma presenting to hospital eye services with advanced disease and determine risk factors for late presentation. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted including100 consecutive patients newly referred from community optometrists to the glaucoma clinic at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, Edinburgh, Scotland. All subjects underwent slit lamp examination, intraocular pressure (IOP), central corneal thickness (CCT), fundus examination and standard automated perimetry (SAP). 84 patients with glaucoma were categorised according to SAP mean deviation (MD) in the worse eye as ‘late presenters’ if MD was ≤ -6dB; and ‘very late presenters’ if MD was ≤ -10dB.Logistic regression analysis identified factors associated with late presentation. Results: Mean age was 73.2 ± 10.2 years. 36 patients (42.9%) were female and 28 (33.3%) had a family history of glaucoma. 41 of 84 (48.8%) had an MD in the worse eye ≤ -6dB and 23 of 84 (27.4%) had an MD in the worse eye ≤ -10dB. Older age (p = 0.004) was a significant risk factor for late presentation. Gender (p = 0.660), IOP (p = 0.712), CCT (p = 0.968), and family history (p = 0.108) were not associated with late presentation. Conclusions: Half of patients presenting to hospital eye services for the first time with newly diagnosed glaucoma had a MD ≤ -6dB in at least one eye. Older patients were more likely to present with advanced disease. Increasing awareness of glaucoma in the elderly population may allow earlier diagnosis and reduce vision related morbidity.
Auditory masked priming in Maltese spoken word recognition

This study investigated lexical access in Maltese, an understudied Semitic language. We report here on a series of four lexical decision experiments designed to test the hypothesis that the consonantal root and the word pattern may each prime lexical access in Maltese. Priming of morphologically related forms is generally taken as evidence consistent with morphological decomposition in processing. Here, we used two speech priming techniques: auditory priming in which primes and targets were equally audible, and auditory masked priming in which primes are masked from conscious perception by volume-attenuation and compression. Our results show priming of targets by forms sharing a consonantal root, but not by forms sharing a word pattern.
Blockchain for Education: Lifelong Learning Passport

Certificates play an important role in education and in professional development in companies. Individual learning records become essential for people’s professional careers. It is therefore important that these records are stored in long-term available and tamper-proof ledgers. A blockchain records transactions in a verifiable and permanent way, therefore it is very suitable to store fingerprints of certificates or other educational items. Blockchain reveals forgery of certificates and it supports learning histories. In this paper, we present the Blockchain for Education platform as a practical solution for issuing, validating and sharing of certificates. At first, we describe the conceptual system overview and then we present in detail the platform implementation including management of certification authorities and certificates, smart contracts as well as services for certifiers, learners and third parties such as employers. Finally, we describe use cases and first evaluation results that we gathered from end user tests with certifiers and conclude with a discussion.
Influence of suturing technique on wound healing and patient morbidity after connective tissue harvesting. A randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVES The aims of this randomized clinical trial were to investigate the influence of the suturing technique and the thickness of the pre- and postoperative palatal and flap mucosa on the early healing of the palate after harvesting a connective tissue graft. Furthermore, patient pain perception was evaluated. MATERIAL AND METHODS A subepithelial connective tissue graft was obtained from the palate with a single horizontal incision technique. Patients were randomly assigned to continuous interlocking suture group or criss-cross suture group. The thickness of the palatal mucosa and residual palatal flap was measured; however, these variables were not randomized. One week postoperatively, the donor site wound healing was recorded by the modified rate of early healing index (EHI). Patient's pain perception was assessed by a visual analogue scale. RESULTS Thirty-six patients were evaluated. No statistically significant differences were found between suturing technique and wound healing (p = 0.215). Statistically significant differences were found between postoperative flap thickness and EHI at 1, 3 and 6 mm from the incision line (p < 0.001). Negative correlations reaching statistical significance were found between the number of days of discomfort and residual flap thickness measured at 1, 3 and 6 mm. CONCLUSIONS No association between the suture technique and the EHI was observed. Moreover, postoperative palatal flap thickness was associated with early wound healing of the donor site. Finally, the greater the postoperative palatal flap thickness, the less intensity of the pain perceived by patients.
- 108 RC 2 Interscalene brachial plexus blockade-indications , anatomy , practical performance

Interscalene brachial plexus block (ISB) can be performed either as a single-injection or as a continuous infusion using a catheter. The main indications for this technique are surgery on the upper arm and shoulder. In most cases it is not suitable for forearm and hand surgery because only the upper trunks are usually anaesthetised using the classical paraesthesia or nerve stimulator guided technique. The aim of this paper is to highlight the (sono)anatomy of the interscalene region, the side-effects and complications of ISB and to describe my practice of ultrasound-guided blockade.
Title Community shift of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria along an anthropogenic pollution gradient from the Pearl River Delta to the South China Sea

The phylogenetic diversity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing beta-proteobacteria (beta-AOB) was analyzed along an anthropogenic pollution gradient from the coastal Pearl River Delta to the South China Sea using the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (amoA) gene. Along the gradient from coastal to the open ocean, the phylogenetic diversity of the dominant genus changed from Nitrosomonas to Nitrosospira, indicating the niche specificity by these two genera as both salinity and anthropogenic influence were major factors involved. The diversity of bacterial amoA gene was also variable along the gradient, with the highest in the deep-sea sediments, followed by the marshes sediments and the lowest in the coastal areas. Within the Nitrosomonas-related clade, four distinct lineages were identified including a putative new one (A5-16) from the different sites over the large geographical area. In the Nitrosospira-related clade, the habitat-specific lineages to the deep-sea and coastal sediments were identified. This study also provides strong support that Nitrosomonas genus, especially Nitrosomonas oligotropha lineage (6a) could be a potential bio-indicator species for pollution or freshwater/wastewater input into coastal environments. A suite of statistical analyses used showed that water depth and temperature were major factors shaping the community structure of beta-AOB in this study area.
Is the sky the limit? On the expansion threshold of a species’ range

Gene flow across environments has conflicting effects: while it increases the genetic variation necessary for adaptation and counters the loss of genetic diversity due to genetic drift, it may also swamp adaptation to local conditions. This interplay is crucial for the dynamics of a species’ range expansion. I show that it can be understood based on two dimensionless parameters: i) the fitness cost of dispersal - a measure of environmental heterogeneity - and ii) the strength of genetic drift - a measure of reduction of genetic diversity. Together, these two parameters define an expansion threshold: adaptation fails when the the population’s neighbourhood size is so small that genetic drift reduces diversity below the level requisite for adaptation to the environmental heterogeneity. This threshold provides a novel, theoretically justified and testable prediction for formation of a range margin and a collapse of a species’ range in two-dimensional habitats.
A global search for stress shadows

[1] Debate continues regarding the relative proportion of earthquakes triggered by passing seismic waves versus static stress changes from a main shock. Static stress changes are expected to have long-term effects on earthquake probabilities, whereas dynamic stress changes due to the passing of seismic waves should not. Both mechanisms are expected to raise seismicity rates in some areas, but only static stress change calculations predict rate decrease shadows. Thus, identification of post-main-shock earthquake suppression is diagnostic of a static stress change process. We note that in principle, static stress change theory predicts suppression of particular earthquake mechanisms in a shadow zone rather than an overall rate reduction. A stress shadow can therefore be characterized by a change in the average earthquake focal mechanism before and after a main shock that results from suppression of a given mechanism type. We examined average mechanisms from ±2° radii and 5-year periods before and after 119 Ms ≥ 7 main shock earthquakes drawn from the Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) catalog. Significant average mechanism changes caused by earthquake suppression were found in only two cases. However, by stacking the data, we were able to resolve statistically significant suppression of particular post-main-shock focal mechanisms. This indicates that, while static stress shadows are subtle, they are indeed present in the global catalog.
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Monolithic Repository: A Case Study at Google

Monolithic source code repositories (repos) are used by several large tech companies, but little is known about their advantages or disadvantages compared to multiple per-project repos. This paper investigates the relative tradeoffs by utilizing a mixed-methods approach. Our primary contribution is a survey of engineers who have experience with both monolithic repos and multiple, per-project repos. This paper also backs up the claims made by these engineers with a large-scale analysis of developer tool logs. Our study finds that the visibility of the codebase is a significant advantage of a monolithic repo: it enables engineers to discover APIs to reuse, find examples for using an API, and automatically have dependent code updated as an API migrates to a new version. Engineers also appreciate the centralization of dependency management in the repo. In contrast, multiple-repository (multi-repo) systems afford engineers more flexibility to select their own toolchains and provide significant access control and stability benefits. In both cases, the related tooling is also a significant factor; engineers favor particular tools and are drawn to repo management systems that support their desired toolchain.
A Fast and Robust Way to Estimate Overlap of Niches, and Draw Inference

Abstract The problem of quantifying the overlap of Hutchinsonian niches has received much attention lately, in particular in quantitative ecology, from where it also originates. However, the niche concept has the potential to also be useful in many other application areas, as for example in economics. We are presenting a fully nonparametric, robust solution to this problem, along with exact shortcut formulas based on rank-statistics, and with a rather intuitive probabilistic interpretation. Furthermore, by deriving the asymptotic sampling distribution of the estimators, we are proposing the first asymptotically valid inference method, providing confidence intervals for the niche overlap. The theoretical considerations are supplemented by simulation studies and a real data example.
Fiscal decentralization and poverty in South Africa : evidence from panel data analysis

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between fiscal decentralization and poverty in South Africa within a panel data framework. The data used covers the period from 2005 to 2011 for the eight metropolitan municipalities making a total of 56 observations. We use real household consumption expenditure per capita as a proxy for poverty and the ratio of metropolitan expenditure to national government expenditure as fiscal decentralization. The results from a panel VAR estimated with GMM, show a negative short run effect of fiscal decentralization on real household consumption per capita in South Africa. These results have important policy implications.
Quantum effects in amplitude death of coupled anharmonic self-oscillators.

Coupling two or more self-oscillating systems may stabilize their zero-amplitude rest state, therefore quenching their oscillation. This phenomenon is termed "amplitude death. " Well known and studied in classical self-oscillators, amplitude death was only recently investigated in quantum self-oscillators [Ishibashi and Kanamoto, Phys. Rev. E 96, 052210 (2017)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.96. 052210]. Quantitative differences between the classical and quantum descriptions were found. Here, we demonstrate that for quantum self-oscillators with anharmonicity in their energy spectrum, multiple resonances in the mean phonon number can be observed. This is a result of the discrete energy spectrum of these oscillators, and is not present in the corresponding classical model. Experiments can be realized with current technology and would demonstrate these genuine quantum effects in the amplitude death phenomenon.