Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Qualitative study of the effects of Cadmium ion on the morphology, physiology and protein profile of Lolium perenne (Perennial Ryegrass) and Trifolium hybridum (Alsike Cover)

Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report”.
Smooth Imitation Learning

We study the problem of smooth imitation learning, where the goal is to train a policy that can imitate human behavior in a dynamic and continuous environment. Since such a policy will necessarily be imperfect, it should be able to smoothly recover from its mistakes. Our motivating application is training a policy to imitate an expert camera operator as she follows the action during a sport event; however our approach can be applied more generally as well. We take a learning reduction approach, where the problem of smooth imitation learning can be “reduced” to a regression problem, and the performance guarantee of the learned policy depends on the performance guarantee of the reduced regression problem (which is often much easier to analyze). Building upon previous learning reduction results, we can prove that our approach requires only a polynomial number of learning or exploration rounds before converging to a good policy. Our empirical validation confirms the efficacy and practical relevance of our approach.
Spatial statistics for lattice points on the sphere I: Individual results

We study the spatial distribution of point sets on the sphere obtained from the representation of a large integer as a sum of three integer squares. We examine several statistics of these point sets, such as the electrostatic potential, Ripley's function, the variance of the number of points in random spherical caps, and the covering radius. Some of the results are conditional on the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis.
Spouse-sharing and experiences with sexually transmitted diseases among the Okun of Nigeria

This paper examines the practice of spouse sharing and its influence on having multiple sex partners and self-reported STD experiences among the Okun people of Nigeria. It also examines the coping strategies of the people with respect to STDs. Primary data were collected through the administration of questionnaires to 1029 respondents (518 men and 511 women) and through focus group discussions. Respondents who participate in spouse sharing are more likely to have more sex partners simultaneously than those who do not, and multiple sexual partnering is a significant risk factor in the reporting of STD experience. Knowledge of the link between risky sexual practices involving multiple sexual partnerships and the prevalence of STDs is poor. Although most respondents are knowledgeable about the symptoms of STDs like gonorrhea and syphilis, and to a lesser extent HIV/AIDS, they are less informed about how best to prevent these diseases. The use of condoms is low among the men while a strong confidence is expressed in traditional medicine and self-protective practices with unproven efficacy. The study recommends the provision of more information, education and communication to expand knowledge of STDs, and the probable impact of spouse sharing in fueling the spread of STDs, including HIV/AIDS.
The Environmental Effects of Mine Wastes

The oxidation in sulfide minerals in waste rock piles and mine tailings impoundments generates acidic waters containing high concentrations of SO4, Fe(II) and other metals. The water affected by sulfide oxidation is displaced downward through the wastes into underlying geological materials, or it is discharged directly to the adjacent surface-water flow system. As the water affected by sulfide oxidation flows through the waste material, geochemical reactions with the gangue minerals result in progressive increases in the pH, and the attenuation of some dissolved metals. The sequence of geochemical reac- tions occurring in the mine waste pile, and in underlying aquifers, result in profound changes in the electromagnetic prop- erties of the mine waste materials and the water flowing through the pile. The changes in these properties are discernable using geophysical techniques that are available widely. The use of geophysical investigations as reconnaissance surveys in the characterization of mine wastes has been demonstrated to be both inexpensive and effective. These surveys are rapidly becoming accepted as integral parts of mine waste characterization programs.
MOOD AND OUTBOUND TOURISM DEMAND

We investigate spillover effects from sentiment and mood shocks on US outbound tourism demand from 1996 until 2013. We use the Index of Consumer Sentiment a nd Economic Policy Uncertainty Index as proxies for sentiment and the S&P500 as a proxy for mood. We find a moderate to high interrelationship among sentiment, mood and outbound tourism demand. More importantly, sentiment and mood indicators are net transmitters of spillover shocks to outbound tourism demand. The magnitude of spillover effects sourced by sentiment and mood is time-varying and depends on certain socio-economic and environmental events. Our results have importan t implications for policymakers and travel agents in their efforts to predict tourism arrivals from k ey origin countries and to plan their tourism strat egy.
A qualitative assessment of students’ experiences of studying music: a Spanish perspective on the European credit transfer system (ECTS)

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate whether or not the allocation of time proposed in the Music Study Guide, adapted from the Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (European Higher Education Area) guidelines, is consistent and adequate for students with a minimal musical knowledge. The data for this study arise from a self-administered questionnaire completed during the academic year 2005–2006 by first, second and third-year students of the primary education with music specialism degree at Alicante University. Third-year students studying for the equivalent degree at the Autonomous University of Madrid acted as a control group. The report acknowledges variables related to the students’ previous knowledge and considers the relationship of these variables to the time and effort required by students to complete their musical studies. Qualitative methodology has been employed in considering the data as a means of providing in-depth analysis of the student experience. The study of students’ stories and experiences provides an opportunity to understand their own perspectives, strengths and weaknesses. The questions were categorised by the researchers and subsequently assigned codes for analysis. The results show that: students’ previous academic knowledge influences their quantification of time and effort and determines their overall performance; the teaching guide is coherent with the demands of university studies and the labour market; and difficulties in the acquisition of certain competences are evident only in those students who come to university without any musical experience. This last point underlines the need to provide curricular reinforcement or ‘level zero’ courses to support students in their musical studies.
The Remains of the Socialist Legacy: The Influence of Socialist Socialization on Attitudes toward Income Inequality

Despite convergence processes between Western and post-socialist societies in the past three decades, there are still considerable cross-country differences in individuals’ attitudes toward income inequality. To explain these differences, studies have primarily focused on the role of macro level differences and have only theoretically acknowledged how the role of diverging socialization experiences could also be responsible. To date, little is known about the importance of socialization for attitudes toward income inequality. This article assesses whether the differences between Western and post-socialist countries are influenced by socialization effects. Applying an adapted age-period-cohort analysis on the dataset of the International Social Survey Program’s (ISSP) “Social Inequality” module in survey years 1992, 1999, and 2009, the paper shows that socialization has a substantial effect on attitudes and a socialist socialization clearly differentiates individuals from post-socialist countries from Westerners. Results underline that experiences gained in formative years are crucial for attitudes. A further finding is that both perception and preferences toward income inequality are influenced by socialization.
Anadromy and residency in steelhead and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): a review of the processes and patterns

Oncorhynchus mykiss form partially migratory populations with anadromous fish that undergo marine migrations and residents that complete their life cycle in fresh water. Many populations’ anadromous components are threatened or endangered, prompting interest in understanding ecological and evolutionary processes underlying anadromy and residency. In this paper, we synthesize information to better understand genetic and environmental influences on O. mykiss life histories, identify critical knowledge gaps, and suggest next steps. Anadromy and residency appear to reflect interactions among genetics, individual condition, and environmental influences. First, an increasing body of literature suggests that anadromous and resident individuals differ in the expression of genes related to growth, smoltification, and metabolism. Second, the literature supports the conditional strategy theory, where individuals adopt a life history pattern based on their conditional status relative to genetic thresholds along with .
Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in monolingual Turkish children

1. Introduction Previous research on the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) has shown that in many languages RCs are relatively late acquired and in English subject RCs are easier to comprehend and produce than object RCs (e.g., Diessel & Tomasello, 2005 and references therein). In English, this asymmetry has been mostly attributed to the fact that subject RCs follow but object RCs violate the canonical word-order of English. To date, it is unclear whether or not the same picture emerges in Turkish, a typologically different language with an SOV word-order and overt case marking because the findings of previous studies do not seem to converge. Slobin's (1982) study was the first to investigate the acquisition of RCs in 3-to-4 year old Turkish speaking children. This study was based on a child-parent language corpus elicited from Turkish and American families. Analysis of the frequency of RCs in the two groups showed that American parents and children used RCs more frequently than their Turkish counterparts (96 vs. 49 RCs in American and Turkish children, respectively; 40 vs. 22 RCs in American and Turkish parents, respectively). From the RCs used by Turkish speakers, only 12% were object RCs, and the remaining 88% were subject RCs. This asymmetry between subject and object RCs was in line with the studies on English RCs. To further examine RCs in Turkish children, he also collected experimental data using an act-out task with 4-year-old children. This showed that Turkish children had difficulty comprehending RCs and focused mainly on the canonical SOV sentence structure to act out the sentences. Ekmekçi (1990) investigated further the acquisition of RCs in 3-to-6 year-old Turkish children using an imitation and a production task. In the imitation task, children were asked to repeat after the experimenter subject and object RCs along with simple sentences with adjectives. This showed a developmental effect; there was a significant correlation between age and success level. In addition, there were differences between the three sentence types; on average, the performance in simple sentences was the highest in all groups and success rate in object RCs was higher than it was in subject RCs at the age of 3, 4, and 5. At the age of 6, the children performed equally well in all sentence types. However, the opposite pattern was observed in the production task as children performed better in subject than in object RCs. Ekmekçi suggested that better …
The seasonal planktonic cycle in coastal waters of the Canary Islands

The short-term temporal variation in the phytoplankton and mesozooplankton cycles was studied in a coastal area off east Gran Canaria Island. A small phytoplankton bloom, split into two peaks, appeared during late winter (end of February and March), coinciding with the lowest temperatures in the water column. A clear inverse relationship was observed between the biomasses in mesozooplankton and phytoplankton during the bloom period. The peaks in primary production and phytoplankton biomass were uncoupled in time, suggesting that biomass could depend on consumer control (grazing), and primary production on resource control (nutrients). Mesozooplankton grazing represented less than 20% of the primary production, an indication that small zooplankton and protozoans controlled the phytoplankton populations, dominated by picoplanktonic cells (> 60% of the primary production). The ratio between depth-integrated primary production and community respiration (P/R) covaried with primary production (P), showing that changes in P control the trophic status of the system. At P > 400 mgC m -2 day -1 the P/R ratio is > 1, switching the system from heterotrophy to autotrophy, a situation that takes place during the phytoplankton growth period.
The Persistent Effect of Temporary Affirmative Action

I estimate the dynamic eects of federal armative action regulation, exploiting variation in the timing of regulation and deregulation across work establishments. I nd that armative action sharply increases the black share of employees, with the share continuing to increase over time: ve years after an establishment is rst regulated, its black share of employees increased by
Using National History to Construct the Boundaries of Citizenship: An Analysis of Greek Citizens’ Discourse About Immigrants’ Rights

In this paper we advance a qualitative approach to study the interconnection between representations of history and representations of citizenship. We argue that representations of the national past are important resources on which different constructions of citizenship are based. Our empirical context is the heated debate that emerged as a result of the announcement of new citizenship legislation in Greece. We used the online comments posted in the forum of the Ministry of Internal affairs following the announcement of the legislation to study how national history was represented by Greek citizens and how these representations functioned to form different arguments regarding migrants' citizenship rights. Our analysis identified four themes in representations of national history: continuity of the nation, idealization of the past, moral obligation towards the past, and homogeneity or heterogeneity of the nation. We show that these ideas largely sustain an exclusive, essentialist, ethnic conception of the nation as a distinct, homogenous and continuous entity of people sharing a common genetic heritage. More inclusive arguments were based on seemingly pluralistic ideas that implicitly entailed banal nationalist assumptions or assimilatory ideas towards migrant inclusion. We conclude that commentators' historical representations inhibit critical understanding of the past and consequently of a more open and plural understanding of the future. Future research should focus on examining how formal and informal education may promote such representations and on the political implications of these for intergroup relations in multicultural contexts.
On neutral metacommunity patterns of river basins at different scales of aggregation

Neutral metacommunity models for spatial biodiversity patterns are implemented on river networks acting as ecological corridors at different resolution. Coarse‐graining elevation fields (under the constraint of preserving the basin mean elevation) produce a set of reconfigured drainage networks. The hydrologic assumption made implies uniform runoff production such that each link has the same habitat capacity. Despite the universal scaling properties shown by river basins regardless of size, climate, vegetation, or exposed lithology, we find that species richness at local and regional scales exhibits resolution‐dependent behavior. In addition, we investigate species‐area relationships and rank‐abundance patterns. The slopes of the species‐area relationships, which are consistent over coarse‐graining resolutions, match those found in real landscapes in the case of long‐distance dispersal. The rank‐abundance patterns are independent of the resolution over a broad range of dispersal length. Our results confirm that strong interactions occur between network structure and the dispersal of species and that under the assumption of neutral dynamics, these interactions produce resolution‐dependent biodiversity patterns that diverge from expectations following from universal geomorphic scaling laws. Both in theoretical and in applied ecology studying how patterns change in resolution is relevant for understanding how ecological dynamics work in fragmented landscape and for sampling and biodiversity management campaigns, especially in consideration of climate change.
A Preliminary Experiment on Grid Densities for Visual Password Formats

Visual passwords are passwords made by selecting a sequence of objects on a screen, such as symbols, pictures, or patterns, either by manual input or eye-gaze-based input. Visual passwords can be useful alternatives to alphanumeric passwords, particularly for authentication on devices in semi-private or public spaces (e.g., on ATMs, laptops, smartphones, or car dashboards). The grid is an essential factor in the use of a visual password, because it can act as a guide for the position of an object and its identification. In this study, we obtained user judgments of 16 different grid densities for three visual password formats. The grid densities were in between 2×2 to 7×7 cells (columns × rows). The participants were asked to judge how easy to use and how safe they thought the grid densities would be, if they would use it for password authentication with eye tracking in a public setting. The results showed that for each visual password format some grid densities were thought to be relatively difficult to use (e.g., a 7×7 grid) or potentially unsafe (e.g., a 2×2 grid). Following this, the password registration time was measured for 16 grid densities (from 3×3 to 6×6 cells). The participants were asked to memorize and register a visual password (short or long) using actual eye tracking. The preliminary results show that password registration time increased when the number of grid cells increased and that the password format might influence registration as well.
Rural Migrants and Patriarchy in Turkish Cities

This article investigates patriarchy in the context of migration to cities in Turkey. It focuses on the ways in which patriarchy reproduces itself in the lives of migrants - for example through the local community, which reproduces traditional patriarchal control in the urban context, and through the social construction of female labour within the framework of the ideology of familialism and the housewife ideology in which women's economic contributions are devalued. Furthermore, the labour market, which offers low-level jobs for migrant women, as well as growing concerns about moral corruption in the city, inflated by the media, act to keep women at home and inside their communities under the control of 'their men'. The article also examines the attempts of individual migrant women to create niches for themselves in which they enjoy some autonomy and find personal meaning. This suggests a dynamic relationship between women and patriarchy. By examining the significant role of culture in reproducing patriarchy, the article contributes to a further elaboration of the concept of patriarchy developed by Walby. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2001.
A Comparison of Cleated Footwear Conditions and the Effects on Ground Reaction Forces During the Phases of a Side-Cut Task

Within sports and athletics, one area of interest is finding methods to increase the performance of athletes while simultaneously minimizing their risk for injury. In two of today’s most popular sports (soccer and American football), cleated footwear is common equipment used to increase performance during sport-specific tasks. The interaction between cleated footwear and sport-specific tasks is one area of interest researchers are beginning to investigate and analyze the concerns of performance and safety. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of American football cleats, soccer cleats, and running shoes have on ground reaction forces (GRF’s) in the y and z directions for the braking and propulsion phases of a side-cut task (SCT). Twelve male recreationally and collegiately trained American football and/or soccer players (Age: 21.82 ± 1.47 years; Height: 180.63 ± 4.73 cm; Mass: 87.77 ± 14.83 kg) participated in this study. Participants conducted three SCT trails for each footwear condition (football cleat, soccer cleat, and running shoes), for a total of nine SCT trials. GRF’s produced during the SCT trials were measured and recorded using a 0.4m x 0.4m AMTI OR6-6 (AMTI, Watertown, MA) force plate. Results showed no significant differences (p >.05) between footwear conditions and the variables of interest in the y and z direction during the braking or propulsion phases of the SCT. For athletes and coaches, this indicates neither football nor soccer cleats provided a greater advantage in the performance of a SCT during its braking and propulsion phases.
AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-04-1-0198 TITLE: Evaluation of Roles of Interferon Gamma Regulated Genes in Inhibition of Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is an increasingly prevalent health problem among males, and the need for improved methods of treatment is great. In the 1940s estrogens were shown to be of benefit in prostate cancer, and their use continued for some 30 years, until the advent of LHRH agonists and similar drugs. At the time the mechanism of action of estrogens was thought to involve merely reduction in androgen levels, but new evidence, including expression of estrogen receptors by prostate epithelium and prostate, results showing a direct cytotoxic effect on prostate cancer, and preclinical data on inhibition of prostate cancer in intact female mice, suggests that estrogen exerts other effects on prostate cancer cells. Given that estrogens also decrease bone lysis caused by androgen suppression and may ameliorate cognitive side effects associated with low testosterone, estrogens show promise in treatment of androgenindependent prostate cancer. This review summarizes published reports of the effects on estrogens on prostate cancer in preclinical and clinical settings.
Influence of particle disorder and smoothing length on SPH operator accuracy

SPH consistency and different expression of SPH operators (gradient and Laplacian) accuracy are numerically investigated with regards to particle disorder and smoothing length on different particle distributions (2D and 3D Cartesian and 2D triangular). It is observed that particle disorder deteriorates SPH consistency and adds to the operators a diverging dependency on the smoothing length. Numerical tests evaluate the accuracy of the different operators on perturbed lattices, allowing to establish a rank in terms of robustness against particle disorder.