Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical patch sizes and the spatial structure of salt marsh communities

Title of Document: CRITICAL PATCH SIZES AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF SALT MARSH COMMUNITIES. Holly Marie Martinson, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor William F. Fagan, Department of Biology The size, connectivity, and quality of habitat patches can have multifaceted impacts on species and communities. In this dissertation, I combined a multi-year field survey, manipulative field experiments, and a literature review to investigate how spatial structure influences species and their trophic interactions in fragmented habitats. For all empirical work, I used as a study system the arthropod assemblage found on patches of the salt marsh grass Spartina patens. In Chapter 1, I conducted seven surveys of habitat patches over three years to examine the effects of patch size, connectivity, and local environmental conditions on a guild of specialist sap-feeding herbivorous insects and their natural enemies. I found striking differences among species in the effects of both patch size and connectivity, which led to differences in species’ relative abundances and trophic structure among these patches. In Chapter 2, I manipulated host plant quality and predator density to experimentally examine mechanisms that might structure this arthropod community. I found that positive responses of herbivores to experimentally-elevated patch quality were limited by dispersal constraints and that predation by abundant generalist spiders may constrain the spatial distribution of certain species. Investigating systems beyond the marsh, I conducted a literature review and analysis in Chapter 3 wherein I examined whether the spatial structure of habitats generally influences trophic interactions. From the literature, I identified 171 studies of trophic interactions in fragmented habitats and found that the influence of fragmentation and related variables on the occurrence or strength of trophic interactions was largely predictable based on the habitat affinity of interacting species. With this dataset, I also identified key gaps in the fragmentation literature, including a heavy bias towards the study of two-species interactions. Therefore, in Chapter 4 I took advantage of my data from the salt marsh to identify how, in addition to the two-species interactions of parasitism and egg predation, more complex food web interactions might depend on variation in the size of habitat patches. Overall, my findings show that variation in patch size can have varied, but predictable, effects on patch occupancy, population density, and interactions between species in fragmented habitats. CRITICAL PATCH SIZES AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF SALT MARSH COMMUNITIES
A Study of Tobacco Use amongst Migrant Labourers in North India

Background: Tobacco use is one of the main risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. Despite this, it is common throughout the world. An estimated 150 million young people use tobacco. The vast majority of tobacco users worldwide began when they were adolescents. This number is increasing globally, especially amongst those who move away from their families and homes to earn a living. Methods: This was a community based, cross-sectional descriptive study conducted amongst the migrant labourers in a rural area of north India. All the migrant labourers, 20 to 45 years of age, who were present at the place of study during the period of study and consented to be part of it were included (N=275). The respondents were interviewed with the help of an investigator administered questionnaire. This was a standardized questionnaire based on the Tobacco Use Module of the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) 2013 core questionnaire modules. Data was analysed using EpiInfo. Results : Only 1.45 per cent (n=4) of the respondents had never smoked consumed tobacco in any other form. Almost one third of the study population, that is, 33.09 per cent (n=91) had started smoking at the age of 14 or 15 years while 28.36 per cent (n=78) had started at 16 or 17 years. Conclusion: An overwhelming majority of the respondents were influenced by their fathers and took up smoking at a relatively younger age, despite being aware of the harmful effects.
Glacier Inventory of James Ross and Vega Islands, Antarctic Peninsula

This paper presents the results of the glacier Inventory of James Ross and Vega islands based on topographic map sheets at 1:250 000 scale, Landsat multi-spectral scanner imagery in bands 4 and 7 at the same scale, and oblique air photographs obtained in 1979–80. Work was completed following the methodology proposed by the Temporary Technical Secretariat of the World Glacier Inventory. This is the first such inventory carried out in Antarctica.
Author ' s personal copy Preferences for variation in masculinity in real male faces change across the menstrual cycle : Women prefer more masculine faces when they are more fertile

In women cyclical shifts in preference have been documented for odour and certain physical and behavioral male traits. For example, women prefer more masculinised male faces when at peak fertility than at other times in their menstrual cycle. In previous studies, the face images used have all been manipulated using computer graphic techniques. Here, we examine variation in preferences for perceived masculinity in unmanipulated real male faces to address consistency with findings using manipulated masculinity in faces. We show that women prefer greater masculinity in male faces at times when their fertility is likely to be highest (during the follicular phase of their cycle) if they are in a current romantic relationship. These results indicate that women’s preferences for perceived sexual dimorphism in real male faces follow a similar pattern as found for manipulated sexual dimorphism, suggesting that manipulated and real masculinity in male faces generate similar results in preference studies. Cyclical preferences could influence women to select a partner who possesses traits that may enhance her offspring’s quality via an attraction to increased masculinity at times when conception is most likely, or serve to improve partner investment via an attraction to reduced masculinity when investment is important. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Effects of forward tilted seating and foot-support on postural adjustments in children with spastic cerebral palsy

Objective: To evaluate the effect of 15 (cid:1) forward (FW) seat inclination and foot-support in children with cerebral palsy (CP) on postural adjustments during reaching. Design: Observational study repeated-measures design; step two of two-step-project. Setting: Laboratory unit within University Hospital and two special education schools. Participants: 19 children (ten unilateral spastic CP (US-CP); nine bilateral spastic CP (BS-CP); Gross Motor Function Classiﬁcation System levels I-III; 6 e 12 years old). Participants were able to take part for one one-hour session. Intervention: Reaching while sitting in four seating conditions (FW or horizontal seat; with or without foot-support) applied in randomized order. Outcome measures: Simultaneously, surface electromyography (EMG) of neck, trunk and arm muscles and kinematics of head and reaching arm (step one of two-step-project) were recorded. Primary outcome parameters were the ability to modulate EMG-amplitudes at baseline and during reaching (phasic muscle activity). Other EMG-parameters were direction-speciﬁcity
Differences in the effect of homeownership on health status across health regions in Alberta, 2011-2012

The housing we live in - from the type and the location to our homeownership status - impacts our health status. Housing is one of the most central environments individuals live in, and as a socio-economic determinant of health, has disproportionate impact on certain groups. Previous research indicates that homeowners tend to have better health than renters. However, this relationship changes when living in unaffordable housing. Organizations have issued numerous warnings about rising unaffordability, debt, and home prices in Canada. In this paper, I focus on the effects of homeownership status in the five different health regions in Alberta, stratified by housing affordability. Using Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey from 2011 - 2012 in a logistic multivariate regression, I find that homeownership is positively associated with self-reported good or better health status, but that the association was smaller in less affordable regions. This suggests living in regions that are less affordable dampens the health benefits of homeownership. These findings also support the the idea that homeownership is more than a proxy for socioeconomic status and has its own effects on health.
Central Lancashire Online Knowledge (CLoK)

—Interest continues to grow in alternative transport protocols to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). These alternatives include protocols designed to give greater efﬁciency in high-speed, high-delay environments (so-called high-speed TCP variants ), and protocols that provide congestion control without reliability. For the former category, along with the deployed base of ‘vanilla’ TCP – TCP NewReno – the TCP variants BIC and CUBIC are widely used within Linux: for the latter category, the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) is currently on the IETF Standards Track. It is clear that future trafﬁc patterns will consist of a mix of ﬂows from these protocols (and others). So, it is important for users and network operators to be aware of the impact that these protocols may have on users. We show the measurement of fairness in throughput performance of DCCP Congestion Control ID 2 (CCID2) relative to TCP NewReno, and variants Binary Increase Congestion control (BIC), CUBIC and Compound, all in “out-of-the box” conﬁgurations. We use a testbed and end-to-end measurements to assess overall throughput, and also to assess fairness – how well these protocols might respond to each other when operating over the same end-to-end network path. We ﬁnd that, in our testbed, DCCP CCID2 shows good fairness with NewReno, while BIC, CUBIC and Compound show unfairness above round-trip times of 25ms.
Brieskorn Manifolds and Metrics of Positive Scalar Curvature

Using relevant properties of the Seiberg-Witten monopole invari ants, a non-existence theorem of metrics of positive scalar curvature on certain series of Brieskorn 3-manifolds is proved. This gives a short proof without the help of Gromov-Lawson's theorem.
Factor Associated With Sleep Disturbance and Its Consequence in Jet-Lagged Employee

Objective: The current study aims to explore the determinants of sleep disturbance (insomnia and daytime sleepiness) and its potential consequence (depression, somatization, fatigue, and cognitive failure) on jet-lagged employee. Methods: One-hundred twenty JLEs (49 males and 71 females) completed an online survey. The survey asked for information regarding jet lag and administered eight self-report questionnaires: Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test for sleep reactivity, Glasgow Sleep Effort Scale for dysfunctional sleep efforts, Insomnia Severity Index for insomnia, Epworth Sleepiness Scale for daytime sleepiness, Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale for depression, Somatization Subscale of the Symptom Checklist 90-item for somatic symptoms, Fatigue Severity Scale for fatigue, and Cognitive Failure Questionnaire for cognitive impairments. Results: Higher sleep reactivity ( β =0.45, p<0.001) and sleep effort ( β =0.40, p<0.001) significantly predicted insomnia. Higher sleep reactivity ( β =0.40, p<0.01) significantly predicted sleepiness. Higher insomnia and sleepiness significantly predicted depression ( β =0.50, p<0.001, β =0.22, p<0.01, respectively) and somatic symptoms ( β =0.46, p<0.001, β =0.22, p<0.01, respectively). Flight time per flight ( β =0.22, p<0.01), higher sleep reactivity ( β =0.20, p<0.05), and higher insomnia severity ( β =0.43, p<0.001) significantly predicted fatigue. Higher sleep reactivity significantly predicted cognitive failure ( β =0.35, p<0.001). Conclusion: This current study reports that sleep reactivity and sleep efforts of JLEs are associated with their sleep disturbances more than other flight-related factors. Sleep disturbances of JLEs are associated with increase depression, somatization, and fatigue. Sleep reactivity caused by stressful situation are associated with fatigue and cognitive impairments of JLE. The current study suggests that management of sleep and stress may be helpful for the mental and physical well-being of JLE.
AN EVALUATION OF PRECISION DAIRY FARMING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION, PERCEPTION, EFFECTIVENESS, AND USE

OF THESIS AN EVALUATION OF PRECISION DAIRY FARMING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION, EFFECTIVENESS, PERCEPTION, AND USE Precision dairy farming technologies provide a variety of functions to dairy farmers. Little is known about dairy producer perception of these technologies. A study was performed to understand dairy producer perception of parameters monitored by precision dairy farming technologies. Calving has potential to be predicted using these same parameters and technologies. A second study was performed using two commercially marketed technologies in calving prediction. In order for these technologies to generate accurate and useful information for dairy farm use, they must accurately quantify these parameters. The final study evaluated the accuracy of five commercially marketed technologies in monitoring feeding, rumination, and lying behaviors.
Updated Combination of CDF and D0 Results for the Mass of the W Boson

We summarize and combine the results on the direct measurements of the mass of the W boson in data collected by the Tevatron experiments CDF and D0 at Fermilab. Results from CDF Run-0 (1988-1889) and Run-I (1992-1995) have been combined with D0 results from Run-I, the CDF 200 pb^(-1) published results from the first period of Run-II (2001-2004) and the recent 1 fb^(-1) result in the electron channel from D0 (2002-2006). The results are corrected for any inconsistencies in parton distribution functions and assumptions about electroweak parameters used in the different analyses. The resulting Tevatron average for the mass of the W boson is M(W) = 80,420+31 MeV.
Forecasting Crashes: Correlated Fund Flows and Skewness in Stock Returns

This article uses the correlation of money flow among mutual funds to forecast the skewness of stock returns. We develop the Flow Driven Skewness measure and show that it is significantly related to future skewness of stock returns. Stocks with higher correlation between their mutual fund owners’ money flow are therefore more “crash prone. ” The relation between Flow Driven Skewness and future firm-level skewness is especially important for the largest and the smallest firms in the sample, and remains true for all levels of skewness. The findings are robust to alternative drivers of skewness in stock returns, as well as the choice of calculation, empirical methodology, and sample period.
RETENTION, DETENTION, AND OVERLAND FLOW FOR POLLUTANT REMOVAL FROM HIGHWAY STORMWATER RUNOFF. VOLUME I: RESEARCH REPORT

This volume is the first in a two-volume report which developed design guidelines and specifications for measures to reduce or eliminate the impacts of highway runoff on surface waters. This volume documents the research performed under this project. It presents the findings of literature reviews, laboratory bench-scale testing, and actual field monitoring of pollution control measures (grassed channels and wet detention basins).
Using messy map interviews to describe and analyse elements pertinent to interviewees

In this article, I introduce and evaluate the use of messy map interviews (MMI). Based on messy situational maps, MMI is an interview tool I have developed to facilitate understanding of elements pertinent to interviewees. I present and evaluate how the tool contributes to interview studies that aim to describe and analyze elements pertinent to interviewees. This is done by use of an exemplar of working with MMI, exploring parental decision-making about HPV vaccination. Based on the results, the study shows that MMI can help keep qualitative research loyal to what interviewees ascribe relevance to. Furthermore, the tool can potentially help nuance the analysis of how elements are understood by interviewees. The article concludes that MMI can be a useful mapping tool that keeps interviewees’ perspectives in focus in interview studies.
The [un]importance of forward-looking behavior in price specifications

The seminal work of Edmund S. Phelps (1978), John B. Taylor (1980), and Guillermo A. Calvo (1983) developed forward-looking models of price determination that imparted inertia to the price level. These models incorporate expectations of future prices and excess demand by imposing constraints (typically lag-lead symmetry constraints) that force future variables to enter the specification. In this paper, the author tests the empirical significance of future prices in specifications like those of Taylor. He finds that expectations of future prices are empirically unimportant in explaining price and inflation behavior. However, the dynamics of a model that includes a purely backward-looking inflation specification differ substantially--and not altogether pleasingly--from those with a forward-looking specification. Copyright 1997 by Ohio State University Press.
The Russian Language in Modern Scientific and Educational Environment LANGUAGE CONTACTS AND ELIMINATION OF LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL LACUNAE

The article considers the lacunarity concept, clarifies the specific features of lexical and grammatical lacunae in the aspect of linguistic contactology. The purpose of this study is to investigate the lexical and grammatical lacunae elimination, considering lingual contacts. The following methods: comparative-typological method, comparative method, traditional inductive-deductive method, contextual analysis (including the "broad context of the situation"), system-functional method with elements of transformation and substitution, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic experiments have been used for the research. Lingual lacunae, understood as a significant absence of an element filled in by various means, are a useful construct that makes it possible to focus on the specifics of language means at all its levels, both within the same language and in comparison to different languages. In the "classification grid" of lacunae, the following types of lacunae – lexical-grammatical, grammatical-stylistic, and grammatical-emotive - can be considered. The presence or absence of a particular grammatical category in the language is based on the peculiarities of the linguistic culture as a whole. Grammatical lacunarity is considered in correlation with such "adjacent "categories as implicitness, "hidden" grammatical categories, non-equivalence and zero signs. Lacuna is opposed to zero sign (zero morpheme) globally: zero sign is in a certain sense identical to the sign in general, but lacuna is the absence of a sign that requires elimination. In Russian, the elimination of intra-lingual lacunae is connected, first of all, with gender lacunae. Since meaning is encoded in grammatical categories, their differences in languages reflect the most significant notions for each society.
Influence of ownership structure on income smoothing in companies listed on B3

The aim of the study is to analyze the influence of ownership structure on earnings smoothing practices in companies listed on B3. The analysis considered multivariate linear regression for a sample of 203 observations, with data referring to the period 2016-2021. The results indicated that the greater presence of international and institutional investors are factors that mitigate earnings smoothing practices. In turn, ownership concentration, government ownership and growth in the number of shareholders in the stock market did not prove to be determinants of income smoothing. The results suggest that the low participation of institutional and international investors may make it necessary to use additional corporate governance mechanisms
CHARACTERISTICS OF IRREGULARLY SHAPED COMPACTION CURVES OF SOILS

Although the curve of dry density versus moisture content commonly yielded by the standard AASHO compaction tests contains a single maximum, some soils have produced more complicated curves. Because these soils have not been well studied, extensive work has been carried out to establish the existence of irregularly shaped curves. The primary effort was focused on examining, from both a macroscopic and a microscopic level, the characteristics that lead to such curves. The investigation has established 4 types of compaction curves: one with a single peak, one with an irregular 1 1/2 peak, one with a double peak, and one that is almost a straight line with no distinct maximum dry density or optimum water content noted. There is a correspondence between the index properties on the modified Casagrande's chart and the kind of curve. The mineral constituents of the soil samples also affect the shape of the moisture-density compaction curve.
The Effect of the Neighbourhood Built Environment on Obesity in Christchurch

Obesity is becoming a worldwide concern, with more than 300 million individuals who are obese and a further 750 million who are overweight. This increase is important as obesity has been linked to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes mellitus, stroke and some cancers. One factor receiving increasing attention to explain variation in obesity prevalence is the role of the built environment. This involves examining how features of the built environment such as green space or food premises vary by neighbourhood area. The presence of such resources within a neighbourhood can influence obesity through encouraging a healthy or unhealthy environment. It is important to understand how neighbourhoods influence obesity. This will allow the creation of effective public policy and urban design initiatives to reduce the obesity prevalence. Little research has examined how the quality of these resources varies between neighbourhoods and their effect on the prevalence of obesity. This thesis addresses this using a systematic site survey tool to investigate how the quality of built environment resources varies by neighbourhood deprivation. It also employs a questionnaire to examine residents’ perception of their neighbourhood as these can influence obesity through the utilisation of healthy resources. Three key findings were identified: there is a significant relationship between deprivation and the number of neighbourhood resources; the quality of these resources increases as deprivation increases; and residents in a high deprivation neighbourhood had a more positive perception of the neighbourhood. As a result, high deprivation neighbourhoods may be less likely to promote obesity as they have higher quality resources and residents have a more positive perception of the environment. These findings suggest that the influence of the built environment is context specific and that it may not be as influential on obesity in Christchurch. It highlights the need to consider both individual and environmental factors in explaining the geographic variation of obesity.