Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of empirical parameters that describe soil water characteristics

Soil water characteristics are required to describe the availability of soil water to plants and to model the movement of water and solutes in unsaturated soils. They constitute an input for hydraulic conductivity models (Marshall 1958 Millington and Quirk 1959 Brooks and Corey 1964) and are essential for calculating soil water diffusivity from water content data (Nielsen et al. 1964). Measuring soil water characteristics is time consuming and consequently several efforts have been made to predict water retention data from easily and routinely obtainable soil properties. Soil water con tents at various matric potentials have been successfully related to particle size distribution and organic matter contents (Jamison and Kroth 1958 DeJong 1967 Shaykewich and Zwarich 1968 Oosterveld and Chang 1980). Gupta and Larson (1979) used percent sand, silt, clay, and organic matter and bulk density to esti mate the volumetric water content at given tensions. Rogowski (1971) proposed a procedure to estimate the entire soil water characteristic from measured water con tents at air entry and at a tension of 1500 kPa. Unfortunately, the analytical data that are required for the above-described models are not frequently available. For example, in most Canadian soil survey re ports, only one soil profile per soil series is analyzed in sufficient detail to reveal the required input data for these models.
Thermoanalytical Study and Purity Determination of Trospium chloride and Tiemonium methylsulphate

Abstract The thermal behavior of quaternary ammonium compounds; Trospium chloride and Tiemonium methylsulphate was investigated using different thermal techniques. The thermogravimetry method was used to study the thermal degradation and kinetic parameters; activation energy (Ea), frequency factor (A), and reaction order (n) of both drugs. The data revealed that the cited drugs followed first order kinetic behavior. The fragmentation pathway of both drugs with mass spectrometry was taken as example; to correlate the thermal decomposition with the resulted MS-EI. The melting point and purity were determined using DSC and Van’t Hoff equation for the studied drugs. The results were in agreement with the recommended pharmacopoeias.
Nest Architecture and Reproductive Performance in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta Bicolor)

ABSTMACT. -Nests are an important component of parental effort in birds. From 1988 to 1990, I compared the architecture of nests built by subadult and adult female Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in boxes in southeastern Michigan in order to determine if there were age-related differences in nest architecture and if these differences were associated with agerelated differences in reproductive performance. Nests built by Tree Swallows were composed of a mat of dry grasses and a nest cup lined with feathers. On average, nest material filled approximately 30% of a nest box. I observed few age-related differences in nest architecture. However, nests built by subadult females were significantly less well feathered than nests built by adult females, but feather score was not correlated with the production of nestlings or fledglings. There were age-related and within-season variations in reproductive performance associated with variations in nest architecture, especially later in the season. Among subadult females that bred later in the season (i.e. after the population median date of clutch initiation), those females that built larger nests (as indicated by total nest volume, depth of material beneath the nest cup, and percentage of nest box filled with material) hatched more eggs per clutch. In 1990, subadult females that bred later in the season and built larger nests (as indicated by depth of material beneath nest cup and percentage of nest box filled with material) produced significantly more hatchlings but significantly fewer fledglings. Among adult females that bred later in the season, those females that built nests that filled a larger percentage of the nest box hatched fewer eggs. Adult females with nests having larger cups produced significantly more fledglings, but those with cups crowded with nestlings (as indicated by a cup index [total egg volume/nest cup volume]) produced significantly fewer fledglings. In 1990, adult females that bred later in the season and built larger nests (as indicated by depth of nest material, total nest volume, percentage of nest box filled with material) and had more-crowded nest cups produced fewer hatchlings and fledged a significantly smaller proportion of hatchlings. These results suggest that nestling hyperthermia in well-insulated nests may affect the reproductive performance of Tree Swallows that breed late in the season. Received 11 January 1993, accepted 1 July 1993.
A successful test of parallel replication teams in teaching research methods

This paper describes the novel use of parallel student teams from a research m thods course to perform a replication study, and suggests that this approach offers pedagogical benefits for both students and teachers, as well as potentially contributing to a resolution of the replication crisis in sychology today. Four teams, of five undergraduates each, independently attempted exact replications of Study 8 by Gailliot et al. (2007), which reported that participants’ self–control is enhanced by consuming a glucose drink. In a 2 × 2 independent groups design, participants (N=306) first consumed a glucose drink or a placebo, and then wrote about death, intended to deplete their self–control, or dental pain as a control condition. Absolute levels of self-control were lower here than in the target article (shown by more items left unsolved in a word puzzle), but its main result was replicated, since self–control overall was raised by the lucose drink. Also, the teams reliably reported similar effects for the experimental treatments (ICC=.928). Two differences from the target study results were noted: the glucose effect occurred only with female participants, and no effect was found from the writing scenario used.
Effects of Chronic Lithium Chloride and L-Arginine Treatment on Prevention of Streptozotocin Induced Cognitive Deficits by Ellagic Acid

Administration of streptozotocin (STZ) through intracerebroventricular (ICV) route manifests AD symptoms in rats. STZ deregulates the control over GSK-3 and eNOS activities through disruption of phosphoinositides mediated signaling. We attempted to elucidate the functions of GSK-3 and eNOS in memory enhancing activity of ellagic acid (EGA) in STZ (ICV) triggered AD type dementia. A 3 mg/kg dose of STZ was injected gently in lateral cerebral ventricles of rats on day 1 and 3. The rats were given EGA (35 mg/kg b.w.) through oral route for four weeks daily. LiCl (GSK-3 inhibitor) and L-Arginine (NO precursor) were administered for four weeks to explore the modulation of GSK-3 and eNOS respectively by EGA in STZ (ICV) injected rats. MWM and EPM paradigms were utilized for evaluation of memory of rats. The rats were sacrificed on day 28 to determine markers of oxidative stress (TBARS, GSH, SOD, CAT), nitrite, AChE, LDH, TNF-a and eNOS in brain. STZ (ICV) initiated cognitive deficits through enhancement of brain oxidative stress, nitrite, TNF-a, AChE, LDH activity and reduction in eNOS levels. EGA attenuated the rise in oxidative stress, inflammation and LDH activity in STZ (ICV) treated rats. Decrease in nitrite content, AChE activity and resurrection of eNOS activity by EGA averted STZ (ICV) induced memory dysfunction in rats. Chronic inhibition of GSK-3 by LiCl (100 mg/kg, i.p.) enhanced these effects of EGA in STZ (ICV) injected rats which thereby exhibited marked cognitive improvement. L-Arginine group manifested inflation in brain oxidative stress, TNF-a content, AChE and LDH activities. L-Arginine (200 mg/kg, i.p.) surged the nitrite content even though eNOS expression was diminished in brain of EGA and STZ (ICV) administered rats resulting in profound loss of memory. It can be concluded that GSK-3 and eNOS are involved in memory enhancing activity of EGA in STZ (ICV) injected rats.
An endangered species as indicator of freshwater quality: fractal diagnosis of fragmentation within a European mink, Mustela lutreola, population

Decline of endangered species may be regarded as an indication of a deteriorating environment. European mink Mustela lutreola are freshwater predator populations which suffered a severe decline and are currently restricted to only two areas in Europe. A survey on distribution revealed that mink western population was highly fragmented. Watercourses occupied by mink significantly differed by their quality from watercourses where no mink were evidenced, with regard to most physico-chemical parameters studied, organic and oxidizable matters, nitrogenous matters, phosphorus concentration, heavy metals, pesticides and other micropollutants, and hydrobio-logical quality. A Gaussian representation of mink breeding dispersal was performed and, based on a ln-ln regression analysis, the fractal dimension D provided an accurate quantitative evaluation of the subdivision level. As revealed by low fractal dimension (D = 1.40), subdivision within the mink population may be reaching a critical threshold for European mink conservation. Fractal investigation constitutes a resourceful method for relating environmental deterioration and breeding dispersal in endangered species. Moreover, mink were found to avoid some watercourses which still provide domestic water supplies for human people and the level of fragmentation should be seen as a warning of the deterioration of freshwater ecosystems.
A Construction-Based Analysis of the Acquisition of East Asian Relative Clauses

Why are crosslinguistic generalizations like the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH) relevant to our understanding of language acquisition? The answer to this question relies on our view of language universals. In generative linguistics, it is commonly assumed that language universals are based on innate linguistic knowledge. In this approach, languages share some of their basic grammatical properties because the core of human grammar is innate (Crain & Pietroski, 2001). However, this view of linguistic nativism is incompatible with what we know about the neurological foundations of the human mind: Although language has genetic prerequisites, it is biologically implausible that these prerequisites consist of prespecified categories and constraints (Quartz & Sejnowski, 1997).
Effects of Stocking Density on Growth Performance, Survival and Food Conversion Ratio of Turbot (Psetta maxima) in the Net Cages on the Southeastern Coast of the Black Sea

Black sea turbot (Psetta maxima) were reared at four different densities in the sea cages to evaluate the effects of stocking density on growth, survival rate and food conversion ratio. Fish (mean weight, 41 g; N: 900) were stocked in four different densities as 30, 60, 90 and 120 fish m-2 with three replicates and initial stock densities of 1.26±0.069, 2.44±0.022, 3.69±0.016 and 4.87±0.081 kg m-2 respectively. The growth trial lasted for 206 days from October 2000 to June 2001. Bulk and individual weights of fish in each cage were recorded monthly. The final mean weights (±s.e.) of the fish stocked at densities of 30, 60, 90 and 120 fish m-2 reached 178.3±6.53, 182.7±6.02, 186.1±8.22 and 164.6±8.12 g. Growth rate was fast up to 90 fish m-2and dropped after these. The corresponding SGR values were 0.70, 0.72, 0.73 and 0.68 % day-1 at temperatures ranging between 8 and 22°C and salinity of 17-18 ppm. The feed conversion ratios were estimated as 1.95, 1.85, 2.09 and 1.88, and cumulative survival rates were calculated as 78.0, 90.0, 75.0 and 65.3% respectively. The results revealed that stocking density had a significant effect on growth and survival rates of turbot. Fish held at the highest density exhibited lowest growth rate and survival rates.
Prevalence of seasonal influenza vaccination among primary healthcare workers in Arar city, Saudi Arabia

Background Influenza outbreaks occur annually and have significant ramifications on the wellbeing of the population. Influenza is given high priority in Saudi Arabia where numerous reports of different types of influenza outbreaks have occurred in recent years. Objective The study aimed to determine the prevalence of influenza vaccination among healthcare providers. Methods The study employed a cross-sectional design, and data was collected using a predesigned questionnaire which was validated by a panel of experts and tested for reliability (Cronbach’s alpha =0.8). All primary healthcare workers in Arar city (Saudi Arabia) were taken as a comprehensive sample between January and March 2018. The questionnaire used a Likert scale that assessed the reasons for embracing or rejecting the influenza vaccines. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results In total, 204 health professionals (72 physicians, 102 nurses and 30 other staff members) filled the questionnaire. The mean age of the healthcare professionals was 31.9±8.7 years. Self-report of seasonal influenza vaccination uptake was 55.9% (65.3% for physicians, 55.9% for nurses and 33.3% for other staff). Perceived risk of severity of influenza was 2.5 times more in the compliant group than that of the non-compliant group (p<0.001, 95% CI: 1.4–4.4). Conclusion Utilization of influenza vaccine is 55% in both nurses and physicians despite 89% of them being aware of influenza vaccination guidelines and MOH recommendations. It is needed to ensure the intensive education of healthcare providers to understand the protective value of influenza vaccine.
OUTBREAK AND TREATMENT OF CARP EDEMA VIRUS IN KOI (CYPRINUS CARPIO) FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Abstract Carp edema virus (CEV) is the causative agent of carp edema virus disease (CEVD), also referred to as koi sleepy disease, which is an emerging disease of global concern that may cause high rates of morbidity and mortality in common carp and ornamental koi (Cyprinus carpio). This article reports the third confirmed outbreak of CEVD in California. In June 2015, three koi presented with clinical signs of cutaneous lesions, severe lethargy, and signs of hypoxia. All fish tested positive for CEV by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Euthanasia and complete necropsy were performed on two fish. The most significant necropsy findings included necrotizing branchitis with marked interstitial edema, multifocal cutaneous ulcerations, and severe cutaneous edema. Treatment of the pond with 0.3–0.5% salt was recommended to the owner. Approximately 7 wk later, a recheck visit was made to the pond. No mortalities had been noted since the initiation of the salt treatment. Physical examination revealed a vast improvement but not complete elimination of the clinical signs of hypoxia and intermittent lethargy in the affected fish. Gill biopsy samples from the two most affected fish were tested and remained PCR positive for CEV. Subsequent recheck visits over 11 mo postdiagnosis and initiation of treatment showed continued improvement in most fish. Gill samples from all fish in the pond (n = 9) were repeatedly tested by quantitative PCR for CEV, and all samples were negative. This case series further confirms the global spread of CEV and the need for practitioners to be vigilant for outbreaks of this disease. If CEVD is suspected, treatment with 0.3–0.5% salt can be recommended to potentially mitigate the effects of this disease. However, fish may remain potential carriers of this pathogen, and strict biosecurity measures should continue to be enforced for any pond that has had a confirmed CEV outbreak.
Looking up to virtue: averting gaze facilitates moral construals via posteromedial activations

Abstract Witnessing exemplary actions triggers admiration, a positive emotion that can pertain to concrete skills, or move the onlooker beyond physical characteristics to appreciate the abstract, moral implications. Participants reacted to narratives depicting skilled or virtuous protagonists first during a videotaped interview then during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed participants’ gaze aversion (an indicator of disengaging from the immediate environment) and cognitive construals (mentions of concrete characteristics vs abstract beliefs and values) during the interview, and relations to individuals’ subsequent neural activations. When participants averted their gaze, they were more likely to mention abstract construals, and both behaviors were more likely when reacting to virtue. Gaze aversion to virtue narratives predicted greater subsequent activation for those narratives in dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), involved in visual attention control. The inferior‐posterior posteromedial cortices (ipPMC), a default mode network hub involved in abstract thought, activated only to virtue, and activity level reflected individuals’ tendency to abstract construals. Critically, dPCC and ipPMC activity sequentially mediated the relationship between individuals’ gaze and abstract construal tendencies. No such relationships existed for reactions to skill, despite participants reporting equivalently strong positive emotion. In appreciating virtue, dPCC may support individuals in transcending the viewable context, facilitating ipPMC activity and moral construals.
Expression and association of VEGF-Notch pathways in infantile hemangiomas

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Notch signaling pathways have been identified to be involved in the neovascularization, and angiogenesis of various tumor types. However, there is little data regarding their roles and association in infantile hemangiomas (IHs). In the present study, the significance and association of the VEGF-VEGF receptor (R)2, and δ like canonical Notch ligand 4 (Dll4)-Notch1 pathways in different clinical phases of IHs were investigated. Specimens in the proliferating phase (n=15) and involuting phase (n=12) were collected. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the mRNA levels of VEGF, VEGFR2, Dll4 and Notch1. A further 61 paraffin-embedded IHs (26 in the proliferating group and 35 in the involuting group) specimens were collected to investigate the protein levels of Notch1 and Dll4 using immunohistochemistry, and then analyzed for the association between these factors and microvessel density (MVD). The relative expression levels of VEGF, VEGFR2 and Dll4 mRNA in the proliferating group were significantly higher compared with that in the involuting group. In addition, the relative levels of Notch1 mRNA were similar in the proliferating and involuting phases. Expression levels of VEGFR2 and Dll4 mRNA were positively correlated with Notch1 expression in the proliferating IHs. The relative expression of VEGFR mRNA was positively correlated with Dll4 in the proliferating and involuting groups. Immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that Notch1 and Dll4 protein were upregulated in the proliferating IHs compared with the control group. In the proliferating IHs, Notch1 and Dll4 protein expression levels were positively correlated with MVD, while in the involuting phase, only Dll4 was positively correlated with MVD. The expression levels of related factors in the VEGF and Notch pathways, and the associations among them suggest that they may be involved in the regulation of IH neovascularization and angiogenesis.
Multiple Instance Visual-Semantic Embedding

Visual-semantic embedding models have been recently proposed and shown to be effective for image classification and zero-shot learning. The key idea is that by directly learning a mapping from images into a semantic label space, the algorithm can generalize to a large number of unseen labels. However, existing approaches are limited to single-label embedding, handling images with multiple labels still remains an open problem, mainly due to the complex underlying correspondence between an image and its labels. In this work, we present a novel Multiple Instance Visual-Semantic Embedding (MIVSE) model for multi-label images. Instead of embedding a whole image into the semantic space, our model characterizes the subregion-to-label correspondence, which discovers and maps semantically meaningful image subregions to the corresponding labels. Experiments on two challenging tasks, multi-label image annotation and zero-shot learning, show that the proposed MIVSE model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on both tasks and possesses the ability of generalizing to unseen labels.
Empirical Cognitive Study on Abstract Argumentation Semantics

In abstract argumentation theory, multiple argumentation semantics have been proposed that allow to select sets of jointly acceptable arguments from a given set of arguments based on the attack relation between arguments. The existence of multiple argumentation semantics raises the question which of these semantics predicts best how humans evaluate arguments, possibly depending on the thematic context of the arguments. In this study we report on an empirical cognitive study in which we tested how humans evaluate sets of arguments depending on the abstract structure of the attack relation between them. Two pilot studies were performed to validate the intended link between argumentation frameworks and sets of natural language arguments. The main experiment involved a group deliberation phase and made use of three diﬀerent thematic contexts of the argument sets involved. The data strongly suggest that independently of the thematic contexts that we have considered, strong acceptance and strong rejection according to the CF2 and preferred semantics are a better predictor for human argument acceptance than the grounded semantics (which is identical to strong acceptance/rejection with respect to complete semantics). Furthermore, the data suggest that CF2 semantics predicts human argu-ment acceptance better than preferred semantics, but the data for this comparison is limited to a single thematic context.
Contributions to Bayesian experimental design

This thesis progresses Bayesian experimental design by developing novel methodologies and extensions to existing algorithms. Through these advancements, this thesis provides solutions to several important and complex experimental design problems, many of which have applications in biology and medicine. This thesis consists of a series of published and submitted papers. In the first paper, we provide a comprehensive literature review on Bayesian design. In the second paper, we discuss methods which may be used to solve design problems in which one is interested in finding a large number of (near) optimal design points. The third paper presents methods for finding fully Bayesian experimental designs for nonlinear mixed effects models, and the fourth paper investigates methods to rapidly approximate the posterior distribution for use in Bayesian utility functions.
Management of Reported and Forecast EPS, Investor Responses, and Research Implications

We document substantial management of reported and forecast earnings per share (EPS) for analyst-followed U.S. firms, with the extent of management increasing with share price. Managers smooth the volatility of reported EPS by using accruals to offset cash flow shocks. Smoother EPS is easier to forecast, resulting in smaller forecast errors. Managers also differentially guide forecasts to improve accuracy. Whereas unmanaged forecast errors are much larger for high-price firms, they are compressed to the point their magnitudes resemble those for low-price firms. Managers also guide analyst forecasts to generate patterns of forecast walkdowns that again vary with share price. Given the remarkable level of management implied by our results, we conduct additional robustness analyses. The strongest evidence is observed in stock price responses: investors recognize efforts to manage reported and forecast EPS and adjust accordingly. We highlight potential biases caused by researchers being unaware of managerial .