Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alluvial fan response to Alpine Fault earthquakes on the Westland piedmont, Whataroa, Aotearoa‐New Zealand

We examined the stratigraphy of alluvial fans formed at the steep range front of the Southern Alps at Te Taho, on the north bank of the Whataroa River in central West Coast, South Island, New Zealand. The range front coincides with the Alpine Fault, an Australian‐Pacific plate boundary fault, which produces regular earthquakes. Our study of range front fans revealed aggradation at 100‐ to 300‐year intervals. Radiocarbon ages and soil residence times (SRTs) estimated by a quantitative profile development index allowed us to elucidate the characteristics of four episodes of aggradation since 1000 CE. We postulate a repeating mode of fan behaviour (fan response cycle [FRC]) linked to earthquake cycles via earthquake‐triggered landslides. FRCs are characterised by short response time (aggradation followed by incision) and a long phase when channels are entrenched and fan surfaces are stable (persistence time). Currently, the Te Taho and Whataroa River fans are in the latter phase. The four episodes of fan building we determined from an OxCal sequence model correlate to Alpine Fault earthquakes (or other subsidiary events) and support prior landscape evolution studies indicating ≥M7.5 earthquakes as the main driver of episodic sedimentation. Our findings are consistent with other historic non‐earthquake events on the West Coast but indicate faster responses than other earthquake sites in New Zealand and elsewhere where rainfall and stream gradients (the basis for stream power) are lower. Judging from the thickness of fan deposits and the short response times, we conclude that pastoral farming (current land‐use) on the fans and probably across much of the Whataroa River fan would be impossible for several decades after a major earthquake. The sustainability of regional tourism and agriculture is at risk, more so because of the vulnerability of the single through road in the region (State Highway 6).
Genetic approaches reveal a healthy population and an unexpectedly recent origin for an isolated desert spring fish

Foskett Spring in Oregon’s desert harbors a historically threatened population of Western Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys klamathensis). Though recently delisted, the dace’s recruitment depends upon regular removal of encroaching vegetation. Previous studies assumed that Foskett Dace separated from others in the Warner Valley about 10,000 years ago, thereby framing an enigma about the population’s surprising ability to persist for so long in a tiny habitat easily overrun by plants. To investigate the phenomenon of persistence and the effectiveness of interventions to augment population size, we assessed genetic diversity among daces inhabiting Foskett Spring, a refuge at Dace Spring, and three nearby streams. Analysis revealed a robust effective population size (Ne) of nearly 5,000 within Foskett Spring, though Ne in the Dace Spring refuge is just 10% of that value. Heterozygosity is slightly lower than expected based on random mating at all five sites, indicating mild inbreeding, but not at a level of concern. These results confirm the genetic health of Foskett Dace. Unexpectedly, genetic differentiation reveals closer similarity between Foskett Dace and a newly discovered population from Nevada’s Coleman Creek than between Foskett Dace and dace elsewhere in Oregon. Demographic modeling inferred Coleman Creek as the ancestral source of Foskett Dace just 600 years ago, much more recently than previously suspected and coincident with the arrival of large herbivores whose grazing may have maintained open water suitable for reproduction. These results solve the enigma of persistence by greatly shortening the duration over which Foskett Dace have inhabited their isolated spring.
Corticosterone exposure causes long-term changes in DNA methylation, physiology, and breeding decisions in a wild bird

When facing challenges, vertebrates activate an evolutionarily conserved hormonal stress response that can dramatically alter behavior and physiology. Although this response can be costly, conceptual models suggest that it can also recalibrate the stress response system, priming more effective responses to future challenges. Little is known about whether this process occurs in wild animals, particularly in adulthood, and if so, how information about prior experience with stressors is encoded. One potential mechanism is hormonally-mediated changes to DNA methylation. We simulated the spikes in corticosterone that accompany an acute stress response using non-invasive dosing in female tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and monitored the phenotypic effects one year later, and DNA methylation both shortly after treatment and a full year later. The year after treatment, experimental females had stronger negative feedback and initiated breeding earlier – traits that are associated with stress resilience and reproductive performance in our population – and higher baseline corticosterone. We also found that natural variation in stress-induced corticosterone predicted patterns of DNA methylation, including methylation of the MC2R gene, which encodes the adrenocorticotropic hormone receptor. Finally, corticosterone treatment causally influenced methylation on short (1-2 weeks) and long (1 year) time scales; however, many of these changes did not have clear links to functional regulation of the stress response. Taken together, our results are consistent with corticosterone-induced priming of future stress resilience, and support DNA methylation as a potential mechanism. Uncovering the mechanisms linking experience with the response to future challenges has implications for understanding the drivers of stress resilience. SIGNIFICANCE A stress response to an environmental challenge can preserve an individual’s fitness and may even prime them to survive similar challenges in the future. What mechanisms underlie priming is unclear, but epigenetic alterations to stress-related genes are one possibility. We experimentally tested whether increasing corticosterone in free-living swallows had lasting phenotypic or epigenetic effects. A year after treatment, females who received corticosterone had altered stress physiology and bred earlier than control birds, traits that are associated with higher fitness. Treatment also altered DNA methylation and methylation of the MC2R gene was correlated with stress physiology. This study adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that epigenetic changes are key to animals’ response to a changing environment.
Federated learning for diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration

This paper presents a federated learning (FL) approach to train deep learning models for classifying age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using optical coherence tomography image data. We employ the use of residual networks and vision transformer encoders for the normal vs AMD binary classification, integrating four unique domain adaptation techniques to address domain shift issues caused by heterogeneous data distribution in different institutions. Experimental results indicate that FL strategies can achieve competitive performance similar to centralized models even though each local model has access to a portion of the training data. Notably, Adaptive Personalization FL strategy stood out in our FL evaluations, consistently delivering high performance across all tests due to its additional local model. Furthermore, the study provides valuable insights into the efficacy of simpler architectures in image classification tasks, particularly in scenarios where data privacy and decentralization are critical using both encoders. It suggests future exploration into deeper models and other FL strategies for a more nuanced understanding of these models’ performance.
A biochemical description of postsynaptic plasticity—with timescales ranging from milliseconds to seconds

Synaptic plasticity (long term potentiation/depression (LTP/D)), is a cellular mechanism underlying learning. Two distinct types of early LTP/D (E-LTP/D), acting on very different time scales, have been observed experimentally – spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP), on time scales of tens of ms; and behavioral time scale plasticity(BTSP), on time scales of seconds. BTSP is a candidate for the mechanism for rapid learning of spatial location by hippocampal place cells. Here a computational model of the induction of E-LTP/D at a spine head of a synapse of a hippocampal pyramidal neuron is developed. The single compartment model represents two interacting biochemical pathways for the activation (phosphorylation) of the kinase (CaMKII) with a phosphatase, with Ion inflow described by NMDAR, CaV1, and Na channels. The biochemical reactions are represented by a deterministic system of differential equations. This single model captures realistic responses (temporal profiles with the differing timescales) of STDP and BTSP and their asymmetries for each (STDP or BTSP) signaling protocol. The simulations detail several mechanisms underlying both STDP and BTSP, including i) the flow of Ca2+ through NMDAR vs CaV1 channels, and ii) the origin of several time scales in the activation of CaMKII. The model also realizes a priming mechanism for E-LTP that is induced by Ca2+ flow through CaV1.3 channels. Once in the spine head, this small additional Ca2+ opens the compact state of CaMKII, placing CaMKII “in the ready” for subsequent induction of LTP.
The Effect of Math Modeling on Student’s Emerging Understanding

This study investigated the effects of applying mathematical modeling on revising students’ preconception of the process of optimizing area enclosed by a string of a fixed length. A group of 28 high school pre-calculus students were immersed in modeling activity that included direct measurements, data collecting, and formulating algebraic representation for the data. The lab conduct was enriched by scientific inquiry elements such as hypothesis stating and its verification. While 86% of the students (N=24) falsely hypothesized that the rectangular areas enclosed by a string of a fixed length will remain constant before engaging in the lab, the subsequent tasks of the modeling activity prompted the students to correct their ways of thinking. The study showed that the modeling processes provide ample means of revising students’ perception to establish firm conceptual background for inducing a more rigorous algebraic approach to solving problems in math classes. Suggestions for further studies follow.
Time-Varying Effect Sizes for Quadratic Growth Models in Multilevel and Latent Growth Modeling

Multilevel and latent growth modeling analysis (GMA) is often used to compare independent groups in linear random slopes of outcomes over time, particularly in randomized controlled trials. The unstandardized coefficient for the effect of group on the slope from a linear GMA can be transformed into a model-estimated effect size for the group difference at the end of a study. Because effect sizes vary nonlinearly in quadratic GMA, the effect size at the end of a study using quadratic GMA cannot be derived from a single coefficient, and cannot be used to estimate effect sizes at intermediate time points with backward extrapolation. This article formulates equations and associated input commands in Mplus for time-varying effect sizes for quadratic GMA. Illustrative analyses that produced these time-varying effect sizes were presented, and a Monte Carlo study found that bias in the effect sizes and their confidence intervals was ignorable.
Simulations of guiding of low-energy ions through a single nanocapillary in insulating materials

Simulations of guiding of low-energy ions through a single nanocapillary in insulating polymers are reported. The nanocapillary has a diameter of 100 nm and a length of 10 μm. Different from previous work, in our simulations a hyperbolic function is used to describe the decay of the charges deposited on the capillary surface. The present simulations reproduce the self-organized charge-up process occurring in the capillary. It is shown that lower-energy ions undergo more oscillations to get guiding equilibrium than those of higher-energy ions, resulting in a longer charging time, which is in good agreement with previous experimental results. Moreover, the experimentally observed mass independence of ion guiding is proved in our simulations. In particular, it is found that the maximum of the repulsive field within the capillary is independent of the ion energy as well as the tilt angle. To counterbalance the increasing of the transversal energy caused by increasing the tilt angle or incident energy, the effective length of the repulsive field is expanded in a self-organizing manner.
S1742170522000229jra 504..515

Conservation practices in agricultural landscapes can greatly mitigate biodiversity loss. However, agricultural landscapes are embedded in complex, social-ecological systems and therefore require a strong social-ecological approach for effective conservation measures. The Galapagos Islands are globally recognized for their high levels of biodiversity. Nevertheless, in recent years, Galapagos landbirds have suffered rapid declines, specifically in the agricultural zone. Our study is the first to examine the farmers’ perception of landbirds in the agricultural zone of Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 38 farmers to characterize the relationship between farmers and landbirds including how landbirds affect farmers and farmers’ perceptions of landbirds. The interviewed farmers managed a diverse array of farm types including coffee in agroforestry settings (23.7%), small-scale fruit and vegetable (60.5%) and livestock production (15.8%). We found that 86.9% of farmers had a positive or neutral perception of birds despite 52.6% of farmers finding finches bothersome. The most common techniques farmers employed to deter birds were putting out food and water, using nets to protect seedbeds and crops and using protective tubes around young plants. Our results suggest a positive potential for future conservation work targeted on farmland biodiversity. Future conservation projects should also address disservices and the mitigation of crop raiding by landbirds, the uninformed use of pesticides and other pest issues such as ants and rats.
Temporal and spatial intermittencies within channel flow turbulence near transition

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of plane Poiseuille flow are performed in an extended domain at friction Reynolds numbers ranging from 70 to 100. In minimal domains, turbulence in this Reynolds number range displays substantial intermittency that is associated with chaotic movement of turbulent trajectories between lower and upper branch invariant solutions known as exact coherent states (ECS). The present work aims to address the relationship between temporal dynamics in minimal channels and spatiotemporal dynamics in extended domains. Both temporal and spatial analyses of the turbulent velocity fields are performed, the latter using image analysis methods. These analyses partition the flow characteristics into low-, intermediateand high-drag classes; we present the differences between flows fields in these classes in terms of simple quantities like mean velocity, wall shear stress, and flow structures. The temporal and spatial analysis methods, although completely independent of one another, yield very similar results for both lowand high-drag regions. In particular, the conditional mean profiles in regions of low drag closely resemble those found in low-drag temporal intervals in the minimal channel. Finally, we address the possibility of similarities between turbulence and exact coherent states in two ways: (1) comparing wall shear stress in localized patches the size of minimal channels in large domains with those in actual minimal channel and (2) comparing conditional mean velocity profiles during low-drag events with mean profiles from lower branch ECS. These analyses show that both the local near-wall flow structure in the low-drag patches of the large domain and the conditional mean profiles in the region y+ 30 resemble those of a lower branch minimal domain ECS. In summary, the results presented here suggest that spatiotemporal intermittency in transitional channel flow turbulence is related to temporal intermittency, and by extension to the state space structure, in the minimal channel.
Exploring the Impact of Transliteration on NLP Performance for Low-Resource Languages: The Case of Maltese and Arabic

Maltese is a low-resource language of Arabic and Romance origins written in Latin script. We explore the impact of transliterating Maltese into Arabic script on a number of downstream tasks. We compare multiple transliteration pipelines ranging from simple one-to-one character maps to more sophisticated alternatives that explore multiple possibilities or make use of manual linguistic annotations. We show that the sophisticated systems are consistently better than simpler systems, quantitatively and qualitatively. We also show transliterating Maltese can be considered as an option to improve the cross-lingual transfer capabilities.
Student-based Evaluation of Spoken English III Textbook: A Case Study of EFL Learners at the Department of English, Faculty of Education, Sana’a University

: This study aims at evaluating the content of the Spoken English III Textbook taught to the Yemeni Second-Year EFL students at the Faculty of Education, Sana'a University from the point of view of the students. It further aims at finding out if the content correlates significantly with their fluency. A close ended questionnaire of the textbook content was developed, and given to thirty students to say their opinions towards the content of the textbook. They were also interviewed with the aim of checking their fluency level. The results show that there are some content problems in the textbook of Spoken English III from the students' point of view. Such findings show that the cultural aspects of EFL in the Department of English are not highly considered in such textbook. Besides, the language functions are not taken into account. They also show that there is a weak relationship between the content of the textbook and the students' fluency level. It was recommended to increase the incorporated functions in the current textbook.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE AND HEAVY METAL CONTENT OF CRAB MEAT AND ITS BYPRODUCT WHITE MUD CRAB

Mud crab is fishery commodity that has high economic value and rich of nutritional aspect such as essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. In addition, high concentrations of heavy metals in the natural habitat of crabs can accumulate in these organisms which can endanger health if consumed. However, there is little information regarding the nutritional and heavy metal content of meat and byproducts in mud crab. The objective of the study are to compare the beneficial component of the meat and byproduct of Scylla paramamosain and to investigate food safety from heavy metal contamination. Proximate, vitamin A, D
Agricultural financing risk and ib agricultural financing: A long relationship

Indonesia is destined to be an agrarian country because of its location on the equator, unfortunately not all farmers are able to access capital for their agricultural businesses while the contribution of the agricultural sector to employment is very high. It is also important to consider that Indonesia is also a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, so there should be a financing scheme in the agricultural sector that is in accordance with sharia compliance. Therefore, Islamic banking should be present to provide capital to farmers who need agricultural financing without violating sharia provisions. Identifying variables that affect Islamic bank financing in the agricultural sector in the long run is the aim of this study so that our findings can be one of the considerations for policy makers for future policies. To reveal the purpose of our research
ELECTROMAGNETIC AND MULTI-PARTICLE BEAM DYNAMICS MODELING OF 4-ROD RFQS

In anticipation of a new RFQ-based front end for the LANSCE linac, we performed a detailed study of the recently commissioned FNAL 4-rod RFQ with the CST Studio. The RFQ model is based on the fabrication CAD files imported into CST. The electromagnetic (EM) analysis was done with MicroWave Studio (MWS) and the beam dynamics modeled with Particle Studio (PS) using the MWS-calculated fields. Realistic matched CW input beam distributions, generated externally with up to 10K particles per RF period and up to 70 RF periods long, were injected into the RFQ for PS simulations. Our simulations reveal some interesting features of 4-rod RFQs. In particular, the end-gap longitudinal field, which is not predicted by standard design codes, can change the output beam energy. Our modeling results helped explain and successfully resolve some problems encountered in the FNAL RFQ commissioning. We plan to use a similar approach to evaluate the new LANSCE 4-rod RFQ.
EFFECTS OF SOWING DATE AND N MANAGEMENT ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF GREEN GRAM ( VIGNA RADIATA L.) OF ASSAM, INDIA

The field experiment was conducted at Tinsukia in Assam of India during kharif seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 to investigate the effect of sowing date and nitrogen (N) management practices on the growth and yield of green gram ( Vigna radiata L.). Results indicate that the sowing date, S 2 (1 st September) showed superiority in respect of the growth and yield of the crop, compared to other sowing dates for both years. Amongst the N management treatments, a significantly higher value of the growth parameters, yield attributes, and yields was observed in the treatment receiving 50% N as inorganic fertilizer along with vermi-compost @ 1.0 t/ha. Among the sowing dates, late sown crop (1 st October) accumulated the lower heat units (GDD) and higher thermal time (HTU) at 50% flowering and maturity compared to the early sown crop (15 th August or 1 st September) causing a reduction in seed yield of green gram. The relationship between accumulated growing degree days (AGDD) and yield was positive for all the phenophases with a statistically significant result during PP2 (flowering to maturity). On the contrary, the correlation between AHTU and yield was negative for all the phenophases. The regression models for different phenophases of the crop indicate 86 - 98% of yield variation which can be explained by accumulated agrometeorological variables.
When Sparsity Meets Contrastive Models: Less Graph Data Can Bring Better Class-Balanced Representations

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful models for non-Euclidean data, but their training is often accentuated by massive unnecessary computation: On the one hand, training on non-Euclidean data has relatively high computational cost due to its irregular density properties; on the other hand, the class imbalance property often associated with non-Euclidean data cannot be alleviated by the massiveness of the data, thus hindering the generalisation of the models. To address the above issues, theoretically, we start with a hypothesis about the effectiveness of using a subset of training data for GNNs, which is guaranteed by the gradient distance between the subset and the full set. Empirically, we also observe that a subset of the data can provide informative gradients for model optimization and which changes over time dynamically. We name this phenomenon dynamic data sparsity. Additionally, we find that pruned sparse contrastive models may “miss” valuable information, leading to a large loss value on the informative subset. Motivated by the above findings, we develop a unified data model dynamic sparsity framework called Data Dec antation (DataDec) to address the above challenges. The key idea of DataDec is to identify the informative subset dynamically during the training process by applying sparse graph contrastive learning. The effectiveness of DataDec is comprehensively evaluated on graph benchmark datasets and we also verify its generalizability on image data.