Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Crape Myrtle, Lagerstroemia (Myrtales: Lythraceae), Cultivars as a Pollen Source by Native and Non-Native Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Quincy, Florida

Abstract Crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia species (Myrtales: Lythraceae), has become a dominant flowering plant in the ecosystems of the southeastern USA. Examination of flower records for bees shows few records of pollinators visiting these species even though they produce dimorphic pollen. Sampling of bees from a multi-cultivar crape myrtle planting at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, North Florida Research & Education Center in Quincy, Florida, via established transect walks in 2009 and 2010, and intensive net collecting in 2011, indicated that bee species from several functional groups (based on taxonomy, body size, and sociality) visited crape myrtle. Results also indicated that crape myrtle cultivars were used differently by the following major bee species (Hymenoptera: Apidae): the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. ; the bumble bees Bombus impatiens Cresson and Bombus fraternus (Smith); and the carpenter bees Xylocopa micans Lepeletier and Xylocopa virginica (L.). Numbers of the native bumble bee species varied significantly between years whereas those of honey bees did not. All bee species displayed a marked preference for specific cultivars through time. Bombus impatiens exhibited a very patchy distribution related to the availability of bahiagrass flowering in the understory; these bees used bahiagrass but quickly returned to crape myrtle when bahiagrass was mowed. This suggests that the relationship between this pollinator and the non-native crape myrtle is a weak interaction and a number of unstudied factors may be affecting it. The presence of artificial colonies of B. impatiens resulted in a patchy distribution of these bees nearest the colonies. In contrast, the presence of a honey bee colony near the plot had no effect on honey bee numbers or distribution within the plot. Crape myrtle appears to provide a pollen source for several native bee species as well as for honey bees. Evidence suggests that certain combinations of crape myrtle cultivars could provide additional spatial and temporal support for a diversity of functional groups of pollinators and may augment pollinator species richness. Moreover, as crape myrtle blooms during summer months when other pollen sources are scarce, it has great potential to alleviate stress on pollinators due to food shortages. This work is congruent with previous research demonstrating that crape myrtle supports a large number of beneficial insects, and it further defines the importance of this non-native plant species in impacting several regulating ecosystem services.
The Toxic Effect of Melamine on the Kidney of Male Rats as Revealed by Biochemical and Histopathological Investigations

This study aimed to evaluate the toxic effect of four different melamine doses (5000, 10000, 15000 and 20000 ppm) supplemented orally in the diet for 28 days on male rats. The appearance, anatomy, serum electrolytes, kidney functions (creatinine, urea and uric acid), serum melamine concentration, total body weight, food intake, food efficiency ratio (FER), body weight gain (BWG), percentage of body weight gain (BWG %), water consumed and histopathological examinations of three organs (kidney, ureter and urinary bladder) were investigated. The melamine supplemented rats turned yellow and showed different degrees of toxicity, hypertrophy and congestion, particularly the kidneys and the ureters as a result of melamine toxicity. Serum Na and Cl levels were decreased, whereas serum K, P and Ca levels were increased compared to the negative control. Kidney functions showed elevation of the mean values of serum creatinine, urea and uric acid. The histopathological examination of the three organs under study showed adverse pathological signs according to the melamine dose. (Haddad A. El Rabey, Abdulbasit I. Al- Sieni and Abdullah A. Majami. The Toxic Effect of Melamine on the Kidney of Male Rats as Revealed by Biochemical and Histopathological Investigations. Life Sci J 2013;10(1):2119-2130). (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com.
Interannual variations of freshwater content in Hornsund Master Thesis in physical oceanography

Salinity measurements have been used to calculate the freshwater content in Hornsund for the years 2001 to 2014. In 2011 there was significantly higher freshwater content in the fjord, compared to the other years, with a total freshwater content of 1.08 km, when calculated with a reference salinity of 34.2. The high freshwater content in 2011 was attributed to the inflow of sea ice and sea ice meltwater of Barents Sea origin, that had been advected into the fjord from the shelf. The lowest amount of freshwater was found in July 2014. No good relashionship between estimations of variations in terrestial runoff and freshwater content in the fjord was found. The distribution of freshwater in Hornsund seems to be governed by wind conditions and the rotational dynamics in the fjord. The fractional contributions of meteoric water, sea ice meltwater, and seawater was calculated based on δO and salinity measurements in September 2013. Significant amounts of meteoric water was found in the surface waters of the bays Burgerbukta and Brepollen. The δO in Brepollen, the innermost bay of Hornsund, showed unusually high values compared to other δO measurements taken in and around Svalbard. This was attributed to the possible existence of a hydrothermal vent or significant amounts of sea ice meltwater in the bay.
The Neural Correlates of Celebrity Power on Product Favorableness: An fMRI Study

Advertisements featuring celebrities have increased over the years. While we know that the effectiveness of celebrities stems from a transfer of positive affect from celebrity to product, it is still unclear whether celebrities are also able to improve product favorableness in commercials. In the current study, by employing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment that presented subjects with a combination of a celebrity face and a car that was familiar to their culture, we investigated the neural correlates of celebrity power on car favorableness in advertising. The results showed that neural activity in brain areas associated with reward, memory, semantics, and attention was higher when viewing a combination of a celebrity face and a car compared to viewing a combination of a non-celebrity face and a car. Furthermore, it was found that the scores of car favorableness were positively correlated with neural activity of left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), left anterior insula and left higher-order visual cortex in the occipital lobe. This suggests a possible â€œtransfer effectâ€ of positive attitude, and a feeling for the celebrity, while making a preference-judgment for car.
AUTOMATIC TREE-CROWN DETECTION IN CHALLENGING SCENARIOS

Abstract. In this paper, a new procedure for individual tree detection and modeling is presented. The input of this procedure consists of a normalized digital surface model NDSM, and a possibly error-prone classification result. The procedure is modular so that the functionality, the advantages and the disadvantages for every single module will be explained. The most important technical contributions of the paper are: Employing watershed transformation combined with classification results, applying hotspots detectors for identifying treetops in groups of trees, and correcting NDSM by detecting and geometric reconstruction of small anomalies, such as earth walls. Two minor contributions are made up by a detailed literature research on available methods for individual tree detection and estimation of tree-crowns for clearly identified trees in order to reduce arbitrariness by assigning trees to one of the few types in the output model.
Impact of Capital Structure on Firms’ Financial Performance: Evidence from Pakistan

This research examines the impact of capital structure on firms’ financial performance in Pakistan of top 100 consecutive companies in Karachi Stock Exchange for a period of four years from 2006 to 2009. Exponential generalized least square regression is used to test the relationship between capital structure and firms’ financial performance. The results show that all the three variables of capital structure, Current Liabilities to Total Asset, Long Term Liabilities to Total Asset, Total Liabilities to Total Assets, negatively impacts the Earning before Interest and Taxes, Return on Assets, Earning per Share and Net Profit Margin whereas Price Earning ratio shows negative relationship with Current Liabilities to Total Asset and positive relationship is found with Long Term Liabilities to Total Asset where the relationship is insignificant with , Total Liabilities to Total Assets. The results also indicate that Return on Equity has an insignificant impact on Current Liabilities to Total Asset and Total Liabilities to Total Assets but a positive relationship exists with Long Term Liabilities to Total Asset. These results, in general, lead to the conclusion that capital structure choice is an important determinant of financial performance of firms. This is the first study in Pakistan examining the relationship between firms’ performance and capital structure of top 100 consecutive companies in Karachi Stock Exchange for a period of four years. Keywords: Capital Structure, Firms’ Performance, Performance Measures, Profit, Pakistan.
OBSERVING ONLINE DICTIONARY USERS: STUDIES USING WIKTIONARY LOG FILES

We present studies using the 2013 log files from the German version of Wiktionary. We investigate several lexicographically relevant variables and their effect on look-up frequency: Corpus frequency of the headword seems to have a strong effect on the number of visits to a Wiktionary entry. We then consider the question of whether polysemic words are looked up more often than monosemic ones. Here, we also have to take into account that polysemic words are more frequent in most languages. Finally, we present a technique to investigate the time-course of look-up behaviour for specific entries. We exemplify the method by investigating influences of (temporary) social relevance of specific headwords.
Morphological and Pathogenic Variations of the Causal Organisms of Leaf Twister Disease of Red Onion (Allium cepa L.) in Jaffna District of Sri Lanka

Leaf Twister Disease (LTD) is one of the major biotic constraints of onion cultivation in Sri Lanka. The present study was conducted to determine morphological and pathogenic variations among Colletotrichum and Fusarium isolates, causing LTD. Fungal isolates were obtained from LTD-infected onions, collected from 30 locations in the Jaffna district of Sri Lanka. The colony characters, spore dimension, colony growth rate and fungicide sensitivity in vitro and in vivo were used to determine the morphological variations of fungal isolates. Pathogenic variations of the fungal isolates in terms of pathogenicity and virulence were determined by in vivo inoculation assays using red onion ( Allium cepa L. ) variety Vethalan. Morphologically-different 29 isolates of Colletotrichum and 16 isolates of Fusarium were collected from different farmer fields of Jaffna district. Out of the 29 Colletotrichum isolates, six were identified as C. gloeosporioides by morphological features of fungal colonies and spores. Colony and spore morphology also resembled C. acutatum and C. fragaria among the Colletotrichum isolates associated with the LTD infections of onion. Colony growth rate and in vivo sensitivity to fungicide (Thiophanate-methyl 50% + Thiram 30% WP) were highly variable among the tested isolates of Colletotrichum and Fusarium . Recommended dosage of the fungicide completely inhibited the mycelia growth in vitro. However, the recommended dosage as only a single seed treatment did not completely control any isolate of Colletotrichum or Fusarium under in vivo conditions. Virulence of the Colletotrichum and Fusarium varied significantly among the isolates in terms of rapidity and extent of disease spread. The red onion variety Vethalan was not completely resistant against any isolate of the two fungal genera tested. The present study revealed that the morphological and pathogenic variations exist among different isolates of Colletotrichum and Fusarium causing LTD in red onion in Jaffna district of Sri Lanka. Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 25 (3): 412-431 (2014)
Electronic governance platform: towards overcoming the challenges of non-inclusion of citizens in public policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria

This paper examined electronic governance platform's ability to mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study, secondary data collected from books, journals and government websites of 20 states were analysed to ascertain whether there are avenues for citizens to interact with governments in policy formulation as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that while electronic governance is a possible solution to overcoming the challenges of non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation of public policy; but its adoption is yet to be achieved due to the low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure. It, therefore, recommends the need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to involve a sound and clear guideline on how to adopt electronic governance in policy formulation through an increase in budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens.
INTERACTIONS QUALITY IN MOODLE AS PERCEIVED BY LEARNERS AND ITS RELATION WITH SOME VARIABLES

The aim of this study was to identify learners’ perceptions of the quality of interaction in Moodle and investigate the effects of gender, grade point average (GPA), individualized learning experiences and their experiences in using Moodle factors in perceiving the quality of interaction. A questionnaire was used to collect data after being validated. It was distributed to 57 undergraduate students. Results show that students perceived the quality of interaction positively and that there were no significant differences in the means for the four variables dealt with in this study which means that the wide diffusion of computers into educational fields and into the society at large in the last few years enabled students to develop more positive perceptions of information technology applications independent from their basic individual differences such as gender, GPA, computer experience, and individualized learning experience. In terms of ranking of interaction types learners show that their interaction with themselves comes in first, then with the instructors and finally with content. The study recommends that higher education institutions should continue using Moodle and encourage faculty members to adopt it in their teaching because of its distinctive features.
Cross-section ratio of double to single ionization of helium by Compton scattering of 40-100-keV x rays

We have measured the ratio of cross sections for double to single ionization of helium by Compton scattering, R{sub C}={sigma}{sub C}{sup ++}/{sigma}{sub C}{sup +}, at photon energies of 40, 80, and 100 keV using cold target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy. Comparison with calculations involving highly correlated initial states and approximate final states with and without final-state correlations, represented by 3C and 2C wave functions respectively, shows that the influence of final-state correlations persists to very high photon energies. A comparison with recent charged-particle data is made. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}
Using paired catchments to quantify the human influence on hydrological droughts

Abstract. Quantifying the influence of human activities, such as reservoir building, water abstraction, and land use change, on hydrology is crucial for sustainable future water management, especially during drought. Model-based methods are very time-consuming to set up and require a good understanding of human processes and time series of water abstraction, land use change, and water infrastructure and management, which often are not available. Therefore, observation-based methods are being developed that give an indication of the direction and magnitude of the human influence on hydrological drought based on limited data. We suggest adding to those methods a “paired-catchment” approach, based on the classic hydrology approach that was developed in the 1920s for assessing the impact of land cover treatment on water quantity and quality. When applying the paired-catchment approach to long-term pre-existing human influences trying to detect an influence on extreme events such as droughts, a good catchment selection is crucial. The disturbed catchment needs to be paired with a catchment that is similar in all aspects except for the human activity under study, in that way isolating the effect of that specific activity. In this paper, we present a framework for selecting suitable paired catchments for the study of the human influence on hydrological drought. Essential elements in this framework are the availability of qualitative information on the human activity under study (type, timing, and magnitude), and the similarity of climate, geology, and other human influences between the catchments. We show the application of the framework on two contrasting case studies, one impacted by groundwater abstraction and one with a water transfer from another region. Applying the paired-catchment approach showed how the groundwater abstraction aggravated streamflow drought by more than 200 % for some metrics (total drought duration and total drought deficit) and the water transfer alleviated droughts with 25 % to 80 %, dependent on the metric. Benefits of the paired-catchment approach are that climate variability between pre- and post-disturbance periods does not have to be considered as the same time periods are used for analysis, and that it avoids assumptions considered when partly or fully relying on simulation modelling. Limitations of the approach are that finding a suitable catchment pair can be very challenging, often no pre-disturbance records are available to establish the natural difference between the catchments, and long time series of hydrological data are needed to robustly detect the effect of the human activities on hydrological drought. We suggest that the approach can be used for a first estimate of the human influence on hydrological drought, to steer campaigns to collect more data, and to complement and improve other existing methods (e.g. model-based or large-sample approaches).
Combining performance-based and action-based payments to provide environmental goods under uncertainty

Payments for environmental services (PES) are widely adopted to support the conservation of biodiversity and other environmental goods. Challenges that PES schemes have to tackle are (i) environmental uncertainty and (ii) information asymmetry between the provider of the service (typically a farmer) and the regulator. Environmental uncertainty calls for action-based payment schemes, because of the more favorable risk allocation if the farmer is risk-averse. Information asymmetry, on the other hand, calls for a performance-based payment, because of the more direct incentives for the farmer. Based on a principal-agent model, we study the optimal combination of both, performance-based and action-based payments under conditions of environmental uncertainty and asymmetric information. We find that for a risk-neutral regulator a combination is optimal in the majority of cases and that the welfare gain of the combined scheme over a pure action-based (performance-based) payment increases with information asymmetry (environmental uncertainty). We further show that for a regulator who is risk-averse against fluctuations in environmental goods provision the optimal performance-based payment is lower than for a risk-neutral regulator. We quantitatively illustrate our findings in a case study on the enhancement of the butterfly Scarce Large Blue (Maculinea teleius) in Landau/Germany.
Facial Morphometrics, Voters' Facial Preferences, and Electoral Outcomes

Elections operate in such manner that voters must have researched well the political backgrounds and platforms of the candidates they are voting. However, in absence of other information, voters tend to resort to cues such as their perception on facial appearances. This study is a pioneering study to adopt facial morphometric in testing the influence of candidates‘facial appearance on their electoral outcomes while omitting other variables such as incumbency, partisanship, and popularity. It also investigates the facial preferences of voters with low political knowledge. This study is divided two-fold. The first phase is a facial morphometric analysis of 33 senatorial candidates from the 2013 Philippine national elections. Adopting the geometric morphometric method from natural sciences, the facial characteristics of the generated consensus image of the senatorial candidates were analyzed and identified. The second phase was conducted to verify the findings of the first phase of the study through survey questionnaires with sets of morphed faces of presumptive candidates. The researchers morphed faces from masculinity-femininity continuum and asked the facial preferences of chosen respondents. The result of the first phase was found to corroborate with the second phase. It showed that the consensus image of the 33 senatorial candidates is characterized by a hyper masculine and hyper feminine facial morphometry.
Real-time gating of cyclic brain activity: Evidence from modulations of binocular rivalry induced by rapid stimulus interruptions

According to widespread opinion, perceptual-cognitive information processing is founded on systems of mutually tuned neural oscillations flexibly adapting to environmental constraints and task demands. From directly observable phenomena ubiquitous in the brain, this view seems to be well-supported. However, it ignores important prerequisites of stability, selectivity and protection against disturbances. Regular timing patterns surfacing in resonant states of the brain suggest that they are accomplished by delay-based gating mechanisms whose action in support of precise temporal coordination hardly ever comes directly into sight. Exploring the effects of rapid stimulus interruptions (25 to 125 Hz) on binocular rivalry, we demonstrate – for the first time for such a large range – fine-grained cyclic modulations that are evenly spaced in time rather than frequency. Our results support the view that recurrent chains of neural delays play a leading role in the selective amplification of preferred cycles. This agrees with range constraints specified by the time-quantum approach, TQM.