Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The littoral Chironomidae (Diptera) of saline lakes in central British Columbia

Collections of chironomid larvae, pupae, and adults were taken from the 1-m depth zone of 15 lakes of varying salinities in central British Columbia. Thirty-four species were identified.The littoral chironomid fauna of the lake series is divided into predominant associations whose existence seems to depend on salinity and productivity levels. A Cricotopus abanus – Procladius bellus association prevails in the lowest salinities (40 to 80 μmho/cm (1 mho = 1 S) conductivity) while in conductivities between 400 and 2800 μmho/cm a Glyptotendipes barbipes – Einfeldia pagana association predominates. In the most saline lakes (conductivity 4100 to 12 000 μmho/cm) a Tanytarsus gracilentus – Cryptotendipes ariel association is characteristic.Using these three chironomid associations it is possible to divide the 15 lakes into three groups. Waters with conductivities from 40 to 80 μmho/cm have chemical characteristics and a chironomid fauna distinct from those of higher salinities. The 10 lakes showing increasing con.
Seasonality in Growth and Hatching of the Argentine Short-Finned Squid Illex argentinus (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) Inferred from Aging on Statoliths in Southern Brazil

ABSTRACT Specimens of Illex argentinus from trawl catches along southern Brazil were sampled between March 2007 and January 2008 to study aspects of their life cycle and the connectivity with stocks from the southern range of the distribution of the species. Small mature specimens occurred year-round, whereas those with a mantle length (ML) of more than 250 mm were rare in the warm months, from December to May. More than 79% of the mature females were mated, providing evidence of year-round spawning in southern Brazil. Mature males were 131–330 mm and 147–275 days old, and females were 166–341 mm and 146–257 days old; mean ML at 50% maturity was 156.3 mm and 181.2 mm, respectively. The number of daily increments decreased from the capture date showed that hatching occurred year-round, mostly from August to January. Daily mean ML increment of juveniles to adults hatched during the warm season and caught during the cold season was larger than that of those hatched during the cold season and caught during the warm season, suggesting greater growth in winter and spring associated with increasing primary productivity in the region. A life cycle shorter than 1 y suggests genetic isolation neither between both seasons nor among larger and smaller adult squids. The number of daily increments in the postnuclear zone of the statoliths was substantially lower than that recorded for specimens maturing along Patagonian waters, suggesting that those squid do not reach southern Brazil.
A revision of Mantidactylus microtis and M. microtympanum, and a comparison with other large Madagascan stream frogs (Anura: Mantellidae: Mantellinae)

We revise two stream frogs, Mantidactylus microtis and M. microtympanum, providing data on its known distribution and life history traits, based upon observations in nature. For M. microtis we show for the first time photographs of the live individuals, while for M. microtympanum we also describe its putative tadpoles. The transfer of microtis from Boophis to Mantidactylus is formally justified by morphological and ecological traits, e.g., the lack of nuptial pads, the torrenticolous life style and the low number of eggs. Mantidactylus microtis shares some characters with M. microtympanum: distribution (both live in south-eastern Madagascar), natural history (both are stream frogs), morphology (wide digital expansions, lack of femoral glands, presence of a mostly unforked omosternum, cryptic dorsal colouration, small tympanum, and presence of a derived cloacal structure). Mantidactylus microtympanum differs from the species of the subgenus Mantidactylus (M. grandidieri and M. guttulatus), to which it was so far ascribed, for the lack (vs. presence) of femoral glands, and presence of expanded (vs. moderately expanded) fingertips. Whether M. microtis and M. microtympanum are phylogenetically related, or their overall similarity is due to convergence, is discussed.
Application of a Switching Control Strategy to ExtractEnergy from Turbulence by a Fixed-wing UAV

The objective of this paper is to design a control law to allow a small fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to extract energy from atmospheric turbulence. From literature data the properties of atmospheric gusts at low altitude are discussed and a single point measurement is proved to be representative of the wind field. The longitudinal flight dynamics of the aircraft is analyzed and the phugoid mode is found to be the main driver of the energy extraction process. A switching controller that places the poles of the phugoid mode depending on the instantaneous variation of energy of the aircraft is designed. Statistical simulations show an increase of energy of the aircraft when this strategy is applied.
Designing Multi-Factorial Survey Experiments : Effects of Presentation Style (Text or Table), Answering Scales, and Vignette Order

Multi-factorial survey experiments have become a well-established tool in social sciences as they combine experimental designs with advantages of heterogeneous respondent samples. This paper investigates three under-researched design features: how to present vignettes (running text vs. table), how to measure responses (rating vs. open scale), and how to sort vignettes (random vs. extreme-cases-first, to prevent censored responses). Experiments were conducted in a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subject design with 408 university students rating decks a 20 vignettes. Analyses of 7,895 ratings showed no differences of whether vignettes were presented as running texts or tables. Open scales revealed more measurement problems, e.g., missing values, than rating scales. Finally, vignettes presented randomly sorted produced similar results compared to sorting extreme vignette cases first. Recommendations based on the findings are to use random orders of vignettes and rating scales. Table vignettes provide an alternative to text vignettes but should be further evaluated with heterogeneous samples.
Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Using Circular Irrigated Ablation Catheter

Introduction: Persistent atrial fibrillation (PsAF) ablation remains time consuming, even when guided by non-invasive mapping. We investigated the role of a multielectrode irrigated circular radiofrequency (RF) catheter for PsAF ablation. Methods: A circular catheter (nMARQ®, Biosense Webster, Inc) with 10 irrigated simultaneous mapping and ablation electrodes was used in 50 patients with PsAF (age 60 ± 11 years, left atrial (LA) size 21.8 ± 9.7 cm2 and atrial fibrillation (AF) maximum duration 10.6 ± 9.3 months). Ablation was guided by non-invasive mapping (ECUVETM, Cardioinsight Inc.) in 32 (64%) patients. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) was systematically performed. Results: After targeting additional non-PV regions including 3 ± 2 indicated by ECVUETM (1-6), AF terminated in 37 (74%) patients, into atrial tachycardia (AT) in 22 and directly into sinus rhythm (SR) in 15 patients. Thirteen patients were in SR during the procedure. PVI required 8.01 ± 5.27 minutes of RF. Eleven patients required direct current (DC) shock to terminate AF. Linear lesions were performed for AT: 14 LA roof lines, 13 mitral isthmus lines and 27 cavo tricuspid isthmus (CTI). Using total of 20.24 ± 17.25 minutes of RF. Interestingly, 5/8 roof line block, 4/5 mitral isthmus line block and 19/24 CTI line block, were blocked with circular catheter only with 5.08 ± 4.58, 3.30 ± 2.56 and 3.26 ± 2.12 minutes of RF duration, respectively. A single tip conventional ablation catheter was required to complete linear lesions and obtain the block in 3 roof lines, 1 mitral isthmus line and 5 CTI. Mean procedure duration was 3.18 ± 1.03 hours. Complications included 1 pericardia effusion managed conservatively and 1 transient ischemic attack (TIA) resolved without any neurological sequelae. One year follow up data was available in 27 (54%) patients, 18 (67%) patients were in SR and 9 (33%) patients had AF recurrence in whom 1 (3%) patient had AT recurrence. Conclusion: Circular radiofrequency ablation catheter demonstrated encouraging results for rapid, safe and effective PsAF ablation when guided by non-invasive phase mapping. The catheter can be used for linear ablations and CTI in addition to PVI, thus obviating the need for an additional ablation catheter in the majority of patients.
Bail-in and interbank contagion risk: an application of FSQCA methodology

This work uses fuzzy set theory and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to determine the causal configurations leading to interbank contagion in a resolution event. This study pioneers the introduction of fsQCA methodology in banking crisis analyses. The event providing the necessary data for this study is the resolution of the Spanish bank Banco Popular. We develop sufficient and necessary condition analyses to find the key metrics that lead to interbank contagion. The results demonstrate that weak solvency metrics, low asset quality and belonging to the same country where the resolution has been triggered tend to lead to higher contagion.
An Educational Project Combining Nature and Science: A Cyber Security Adventure

Nowadays, it is too important to educate individuals for improving their awareness on cyber security. Because the human factor seems center of all issues regarding cyber security, it is especially important to have trained individuals, who are not required to be too expert but at least have essential knowledge and ability against any possible dangerous cyber security attacks, and actions by evil-minded individuals. Moving from that fact, a project supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey was realized during 2018 summer for improving high school students’ awareness on cyber security, by using technology supported activities in the heart of nature. In the project, it is aimed to use virtual – augmented reality supported mobile applications running with an artificial intelligence infrastructure, in order to establish a story-based educational process turning students into detectives and ethical hackers. Called as A Cyber Security Adventure (BSGM), objective of this paper is to introduce that project and provide some obtained findings to see what have been achieved in terms of improving awareness on cyber security and making it sure that the students gained necessary knowledge and abilities in this manner.
Effect of Compounds Isolated from Natural Products on IFN-γ/LPS–Induced Nitric Oxide Production in RAW 264.7 Macrophages

Abstract The current study was designed to evaluate whether compounds isolated from local medicinal plants in Malaysia suppressed nitric oxide (NO) production in inflammation. The murine monocytic macrophage (RAW 264.7) cell line was used as a target cell and activated by interferon-γ. (IFN-γ.) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Our current study has identified four phytochemicals, namely atrovirinone, cardamonin, flavokawin B, and zerumbone, that inhibit pathological NO generation. These compounds are candidates for further bioassay studies to determine their suitability as drug leads.
Population dispersal via diffusion-reaction equations

Diffusion-reaction systems are well-established in different life-science disciplines. When applied to ’human questions’ they are used to estimate the demographic processes involved in major human (or animal) dispersal episodes and to estimate the general spread pattern of new ideas or technologies through cultures. This manuscript gives an introduction to diffusion-reaction systems for a non-mathematical audience. We focus on describing dispersal processes and start with modelling and analysing the spread dynamic of a single population under different dispersal and growth hypotheses. Further, we focus on the impacts of population interactions on spread behaviour of a particular population. Lastly we introduce an open software package ’CultDiff’ which provides a solution tool for diffusion reaction systems.
Physical Model of the Friction Welded Joint of Different Types of Steel

The paper comprises the phenomena encountered in the friction rotation welding process with a continual drive of different types of steel. The rotation friction welding with a continual drive of the HSS steel M2 was carried out with carbon steel 1060. Characterization of the phenomena, taking place within the welded joint over the friction phase was determined through direct measurement, made of the temperature cycles followed by examining the structure and analytical procedure. Thorough studies enabled setting up of the model of the friction welded joint of different types of steel with characteristic zones.
Growth and yield of ginger (Zingiber officinale L) under Sapota- Jatropha based agroforestry systems in south Gujarat

The field experiments were conducted under support irrigated conditions during 2013-14 and 2014-15 at the Agronomy Farm (Block-E), ASPEE College of Horticulture and Forestry, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat). The nine year old plantation of Sapota (Manilkara acharas (Mill.) Fosberg) with seven year old plantation of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) was used for the present intercropping study. The ginger crop with two varieties viz. Zingiber officinale L var. Navsari local and Zingiber officinale L. var. Udaipur local was selected for the study. The experiments were laid out in randomized block design with eight treatments and three replications. The observations on growth and yield were recorded during the course of investigation under study for both the years. At the harvesting stage, maximum fresh rhizome yield and total number of fingers per plant, Plant height, length of rhizome, width of rhizome and survival percent of ginger was registered under Sapota + Jatropha or Jatropha based agro-forestry systems as compared to their sole cropping.
Assessing the Effects of Media Coverage of the Economy on Aggregate Economic Public Opinion*

Do economic performance and economic media coverage influence public perceptions of the economy? Efforts to assess the causal effects are hampered by the interrelationships among the variables as well as the difficulty of measuring the tone of media coverage. In this paper we offer a fresh analysis of these questions by employing a new measure of media tone and bringing to bear a more careful accounting of available economic variables at multiple lag lengths than previous studies have used. We find that both media tone and economic attitudes are strongly shaped by economic performance. Yet beyond the role of the economy itself, media tone has a noticeable direct effect on economic attitudes. This finding has important normative and political significance, given that economic attitudes influence a wide variety of political behaviors. * Paper prepared for presentation at the 2017 annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Vancouver, Canada. The authors thank Mary Stegmaier and Stefaan Walgrave for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
DEEP NEURAL NETWORK MODELS FOR ACOUSTIC SOURCE LOCALIZATION

The localization of acoustic sources using acoustic imaging methods such as acoustic beamforming can be limited by the Rayleigh resolution limit at relatively low frequencies and the output of these methods may also produce spatial aliasing images referred to as sidelobes, particularly at high frequencies. To date, there are very few Deep Neural Network (DNN) applications for acoustic imaging to help alleviate some of these issues. In this study, we developed several DNN models using DenseNet-201 with a training strategy speciﬁcally designed for an acoustic imaging task. The DNN method is able to recognize the pattern behind microphone array signals for different source positions, by using the real-component of the cross-spectral matrix of the received pressure vectors at the microphone positions. DNN models with both a ﬁxed and random number of input sources are simulated for a range of speciﬁc frequencies. The DNN model with a random number of input sources is tested against conventional beamforming, CLEAN-SC and DAMAS, revealing a far improved source localization and source strength estimation. These DNN models represent a very promising proof-of-concept for the use of DNN models in the ﬁeld of acoustic imaging.
Leveraging the Internet for Grocery Shopping: A Study of Factors Influencing the Indian Consumer

: This research identifies and analyses the factors that drive grocery shopping on the internet in India. The modified version of the technology adoption model is deployed along with consumer trust and subjective norms as additional factors. A quantitative study of Indian consumers with experience of internet usage was carried out to determine relationships between the identified factors. The questionnaire items were developed after study of robust and established scales in the area of online grocery as well as related Technology Acceptance Model studies. Structured equation modelling was done with confirmatory factor analysis and model fit evaluation. The important insight from this study is that attitude of consumer towards shopping groceries on the internet is key to use of internet grocery shopping. “Perceived Ease Of Use” (PEOU) and “Subjective Norms” (SN) do not influence the attitude of consumers towards Online Grocery Shopping. Having said that, “Perceived Ease of Use” (PEOU) has an indirect influence through “Perceived Usefulness” (PU) which in turn drives attitude positively. The paper discusses areas of future research and offers practical suggestions to managers. Purpose: The objective of the study was to analyse the inter and intra relationships between various factors that influence the consumer in taking part in internet grocery purchases. Methodology: A theoretical model was proposed and validated with the help of confirmatory factor analysis and with the help of structured equation model. Originality/Value: This research study is one of the rare studies on internet grocery shopping in the Indian context. The conclusions from this research will be input for further research and reference tool for managers
Effects of Hydrogen Sulfide on Cold-Induced Oxidative Damage in Cucumis sativus L.

One of the major abiotic stresses limiting the productivity and the geographical distribution of many important crops is low temperature. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important signaling molecule involved in several stress-resistance processes such as drought, salinity and heavy metal stresses in plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exogenous H2S on improving chilling tolerance of cucumber seedlings. The results indicated that seedlings exposed to chilling stress (4 oC) increased the level of electrolyte leakage, lipid peroxidation, hydrogen peroxide, proline content and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) activity; while sugar soluble content decreased. Pretreatment with sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS), a hydrogen sulfide donor, slightly reduced the malondialdehyde content, hydrogen peroxide content and electrolyte leakage, which were induced by chilling stress and also elevated the activity of antioxidant enzymes, soluble sugar and proline levels, and reduced glutathione content in plants under chilling stress condition. Pre-treatment with other Na+ and sulfur-containing components including Na2S, Na2SO4, Na2SO3 showed no significant effect on lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide content under chilling stress. It can be concluded that the effect of NaHS pretreatment on alleviation of cold stress damages is probably related to its ability to release H2S because Na+- or sulfur-containing compounds (except NaHS) had no similar effects on alleviation of chilling damages.
Hierarchical fruit selection by Neotropical leaf-nosed bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Abstract It is crucial to understand how Neotropical leaf-nosed bats select fruits, because their choices strongly affect the seed dispersal process, especially of pioneer plants. We tested the hypothesis of hierarchical fruit selection by phyllostomid bats at the levels of the bat genus and species by combining a literature database with field experiments. Considering our database for the whole Neotropics, Artibeus bats focus on Ficus (Moraceae) and Cecropia (Cecropiaceae), Carollia bats on Piper (Piperaceae), and Sturnira bats on Solanum (Solanaceae). Results from a field experiment in Brazil corroborated those preferences, because bats of those 3 genera selected 1st the fruits of their preferred plant genera, even when secondary fruits were offered in higher abundance. In another field experiment in Panama, we observed that 2 sympatric Carollia species, although focusing on the same plant genus, prefer different Piper species. Literature records for the whole range of the 2 Carollia species show that they have strongly nested diets. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that frugivorous phyllostomids do not forage opportunistically, and, moreover, segregate their diets hierarchically at the genus and species levels. Resumo É crucial entender como morcegos filostomídeos neotropicais selecionam frutos, porque as escolhas deles influenciam fortemente o processo de dispersão de sementes, especialmente de plantas pioneiras. Testamos a hipótese de seleção hierárquica de frutos por morcegos filostomídeos nos níveis do gênero e espécie de morcegos, através de uma combinação de um banco de dados e experimentos de campo. Considerando o nosso banco de dados para toda a região Neotropical, morcegos Artibeus focam em Ficus (Moraceae) e Cecropia (Cecropiaceae), morcegos Carollia em Piper (Piperaceae) e morcegos Sturnira em Solanum (Solanaceae). Os resultados de um experimento de campo no Brasil corroboraram essas preferências, pois morcegos desses 3 gêneros selecionaram os frutos dos seus gêneros preferidos em primeiro lugar, até mesmo quando frutos secundários foram oferecidos em maior abundância. Em outro experimento de campo no Panamá, observamos que 2 espécies simpátridas de Carollia, apesar de focarem no mesmo gênero de plantas, preferem espécies de Piper diferentes. Registros da literatura para toda a área de distribuição geográfica dessas duas espécies de Carollia mostram que elas têm dietas fortemente aninhadas. Nossas descobertas corroboram a hipótese de que filostomídeos frugívoros não forrageiam de maneira oportunista e, além disso, segregam suas dietas hierarquicamente nos níveis do gênero e da espécie.
Safe small Electric Vehicles through advanced simulation methodologies

In the next 20 years the number of small and light-weight fully electric vehicles will substantially increase especially in urban areas. These Small Electric Vehicles (SEVs) show distinctive design differences compared to the traditional car (e.g. no bonnets, vertical windscreens, outstanding wheels). Thus the consequences of impacts of SEVs with vulnerable road users (VRU) and other (heavier) vehicles will be different from traditional collisions. These fundamental changes are not adequately addressed by current vehicle safety evaluation methods and regulations. VRU protection, compatibility with heavier opponents and the introduction of active safety systems have to be appropriately taken into account in order to avoid any SEV over-engineering (e.g. heavy or complex vehicle body) by applying current regulations and substantially impair the SEVs (environmental) efficiency.