Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shedding Light on “the Hole”: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Adverse Psychological Effects and Mortality Following Solitary Confinement in Correctional Settings

Objectives To systematically review and meta-analyze the psychological effects and mortality rate in inmates having been exposed to solitary confinement in correctional settings. Methods PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched using keywords describing solitary confinement in combination with keywords for psychological or mortality outcomes. Eligible case-control studies for the systematic review met an operational definition for solitary confinement and evaluated outcomes after exposure to such confinement. Studies presenting statistical data which allowed to compute standardized mean differences for symptom scales or odds ratio for mortality were further meta-analyzed using random-effects models. Results Systematic review identified 13 studies for inclusion, with a total sample of 382,440 inmates (23% having been exposed to solitary confinement). Higher quality evidence showed solitary confinement was associated with an increase in adverse psychological effects, self-harm, and mortality, especially by suicide. Meta-analysis of five studies (n = 4,517) showed a standardized mean difference of 0.45 for general psychological symptomatology, which increased to 0.51 upon outlier exclusion. Small to moderate significant effects were observed for mood, psychotic, and hostility symptoms specifically. In addition, meta-analysis of two mortality studies (n = 243,050) showed a trend for a moderate effect for mortality by any or unnatural causes (i.e., suicide, homicide, overdose, and accidents). Conclusions Analyses showed that solitary confinement is associated with the psychological deterioration of inmates. This effect appears to be beyond that of general incarceration or presence of prior mental illness. Thus, solitary confinement may pose significant harm for inmates. Still, further studies are required to show that exposure to SC can increase risk of post-release death. Finally, add-on treatments and alternatives to solitary confinement that could alleviate the associated psychological harm are discussed.
Rebreeding activity in milking Awassi ewes under semi-arid conditions

Post-partum interval to oestrus and conception was studied in relation to previous and current lactation (milk yield and lactation length), age of ewe and treatment with intravaginal sponges in a total of 186 Awassi ewes lambing in December/January. In the first trial, 62% of ewes, tested for oestrus twice a day with vasectomized rams until the end of May, showed oestrus between 1 and 170 days after lambing with a mean interval of 83 (s.d. 31·9) days. Neither current nor previous lactation had important effects on the rebreeding interval (P > 0·05). In another trial where ewes were exposed continuously to fertile rams until the end of March, 50% showed oestrus with a mean interval of 56 (s.d. 23·7) days (range 33 to 113 days). Of those showing oestrus, 86% conceived with a mean post-partum interval of 70 (s.d. 33·0) days (range 33 to 133 days). Lactation yield had no significant effect on the lambing-to-oestrus interval (P > 0·05) but ewes with longer lactations showed longer lambing-to-conception intervals (P > 0·01). Treatment with progesterone-impregnated vaginal sponges at 1, 2 and 3 months post partum showed an increase in the percentage of ewes showing oestrus from 35% to 75% and in those conceiving from 25% to 70% as the timing of treatment increased from 1 to 3 months post partum. It is concluded that lambing three times in 2 years is biologically feasible and that hormone treatment can facilitate its operation in practice.
Reading-Metacognitive Strategy Awareness and Use in Reciprocal Teaching Settings: Implementing a Computerized RMSA System

The present experiment was composed of both qualitative and quantitative methods and aimed at investigating Reading Metacognitive Strategy Awareness (RMSA) and use by the aid of three inventory techniques including a questionnaire, a think-aloud protocol, and a Computerized RMSA System. The computerized system was specifically designed and validated to satisfy the needs of this study in measuring and practicing Reading Metacognitive Strategies. It also tried to explore any possible effects of Computerized RMSA System on reading comprehension of the participants. To this end, a sample of 25 university students majoring in English Translation and English Literature from a University in Iran were selected based on purposive and clustered sampling. The research data were selected using a number of instruments including the reading section of Test of English as a Foreign Language as pre/posttest, a researcher-made Reading Metacognitive Strategies questionnaire, think-aloud protocol and a Computerized RMSA System. The research findings show that the questionnaire, think-aloud and Computerized RMSA System results vary significantly. Moreover, Computerized RMSA System has a positive effect on reading comprehension of learners of English as a Foreign Language. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.
Declining Status of Two Species of the Macrhybopsis aestivalis Complex (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in the Arkansas River Basin and Related Effects of Reservoirs as Barriers to Dispersal

From 1991 to 1997, we made 323 seine collections at 187 sites to determine the distributional status of two species of the Macrhybopsis aestivalis complex, M. tetranema (Gilbert) and M. hyostoma (Gilbert), in the Arkansas River Basin. A total of 545 M. hyostoma and 112 M. tetranema were taken in 39 collecting visits to 30 sites. Our survey indicated that the endemic M. tetranema has been extirpated from about 90% of its historic range, whereas the more widespread M. hyostoma has been extirpated from about 55% of its former range in the basin. Approximate year of extirpation for six populations of M. hyostoma in major stream segments was significantly correlated with year-of-completion for reservoirs that would have prevented recolonization from existing populations. This is consistent with the hypothesis that extirpations resulted from disruption of previously existing source/sink relationships among populations. No such correlation was detected for extirpations of seven populations of M. tetranema. This result would be expected from the metapopulation model in which the now-extirpated populations of M. tetranema were self-sustaining except during unusually harsh conditions (e.g., droughts). This factor apparently explains recolonization of the Cimarron River by M. hyostoma subsequent to extirpation of both species of Macrhybopsis from this river. The recolonization was delayed by about 25 years, apparently because of reservoir habitat between the Cimarron River and the other major stream draining into the reservoir, the upper Arkansas River, where there was a persistent population of the species.
Karyotype analysis of Alocasia cucullata (Lour.) Schott using fluorochrome banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization with rDNA probes

Abstract Alocasia cucullata (Lour.) Schott is an Araceae plant of ornamental and medicinal use grown in many parts of Asia. The cytogenetics of this species have not yet been reported, except for the chromosome number. In this study, sequential combined propidium iodide (PI) and 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) (CPD) staining and dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with 5S and 45S rDNA probes were employed for the chromosome analysis of this species. A. cucullata has a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 28, and a karyotype length of 108.53 ± 11.29 μm with the chromosome size ranging from 9.19 to 6.19 μm. CPD staining revealed two pairs of red CPD bands at the terminals of the short arms of two submetacentric chromosome pairs and a pair of DAPI+ bands in the interstitial regions of the long arms of a metacentric pair. FISH of the rDNA probes revealed two pairs of 45S rDNA loci corresponding to the CPD bands, and a single 5S rDNA locus located in the interstitial regions of the short arms of the DAPI-banded pair. The chromosome measurements, fluorochrome bands and rDNA FISH signals were used to identify the chromosomes, and the molecular cytogenetic karyotype of this species were established. The karyotype was formulated as 2n = 4x = 28 = 20m + 8sm, and the six asymmetry indices, CI, A1, A2, As K%, AI and the Stebbins’ type were 40.40 ± 6.65, 0.30, 0.13, 59.08, 2.09 and 2A, respectively.
High accumulation of lipids during off-tree ripening and senescence in Jatrophacurcas Linn Luanti accession kernels

This study was conducted to firstly determine changes in extracted oil yield, soluble solid concentration and free fatty acids over time of harvested physiologically mature green Jatrophacurcas Linn Luanti accession fruits. Secondly, to understand identified fruit bunch harvesting indicators by examining the ripening percentage during storage based on the identified characters of fruits bunches at harvest. The results showed a significantly high oil yield extracted from off-tree fruits ripened and senesced kernels compared to kernels from on-tree ripened and senesced fruits. Extracted oil yield from off-tree ripened and senesced fruits were about 59 and 63% compared to only about 49 and 48% for on-tree ripened and senesced fruits respectively. Fruit bunches with less than 10% of their fruits yellow in color is recommended as the best harvesting indicator. The results of this study demonstrate promising harvesting and postharvest handling practices to increase commercialization viability of this non-edible biodiesel feedstock.
What Twitter Knows: Characterizing Ad Targeting Practices, User Perceptions, and Ad Explanations Through Users' Own Twitter Data

Although targeted advertising has drawn signifcant attention from privacy researchers, many critical empirical questions remain. In particular, only a few of the dozens of targeting mechanisms used by major advertising platforms are well understood, and studies examining users’ perceptions of ad targeting often rely on hypothetical situations. Further, it is unclear how well existing transparency mechanisms, from data-access rights to ad explanations, actually serve the users they are intended for. To develop a deeper understanding of the current targeting advertising ecosystem, this paper engages 231 participants’ own Twitter data, containing ads they were shown and the associated targeting criteria, for measurement and user study. We fnd many targeting mechanisms ignored by prior work — including advertiser-uploaded lists of specifc users, lookalike audiences, and retargeting cam-paigns — are widely used on Twitter. Crucially, participants found these understudied practices among the most privacy invasive. Participants also found ad explanations designed for this study more useful, more comprehensible, and overall more preferable than Twitter’s current ad explanations. Our fndings underscore the benefts of data access, characterize unstudied facets of targeted advertising, and identify potential directions for improving transparency in targeted advertising.
Effects of liquid whey supplement on the productivity of pigs in a commercial pig farm

乳業工場から排出された液状ホエーを通常飼料に付加的に給与し，豚肉生産試験を行った．9腹の離乳豚66頭を通常飼料のみで飼育した対照区（CN区）と通常飼料に液状ホエーを付加的に給与したホエー区（Whey区）に母豚効果を配慮して分けた．Whey区には試験期間を通して267 L/頭の液状ホエーを給与した．両区は経時的に体重測定を行い，出荷直前に採血をして自然免疫の状態を比較した．平均体重は65日齢と173日齢でWhey区の方が有意に高かった（P ＜ 0.05）．日増体量はWhey区の方が生後29-65日の期間（P ＜ 0.01）と105-173日の期間（P ＜ 0.05）で有意に高かった．また，枝肉成績およびロース肉の理化学的特性はWhey区とCN区とで有意差は認められず，自然免疫状態についても有意差がなかった．以上の結果から，液状ホエー給与は枝肉成績および肉質に影響を与えることなくブタの出荷日齢を短縮する傾向にあり，生産性向上に有効であることが示された．
Sys: A Static/Symbolic Tool for Finding Good Bugs in Good (Browser) Code

We describe and evaluate an extensible bug-ﬁnding tool, Sys, designed to automatically ﬁnd security bugs in huge code-bases, even when easy-to-ﬁnd bugs have been already picked clean by years of aggressive automatic checking. Sys uses a two-step approach to ﬁnd such tricky errors. First, it breaks down large—tens of millions of lines—systems into small pieces using user-extensible static checkers to quickly ﬁnd and mark potential errorsites. Second, it uses user-extensible symbolic execution to deeply examine these potential errorsites for actual bugs. Both the checkers and the system itself are small (6KLOC total). Sys is ﬂexible, because users must be able to exploit domain-or system-speciﬁc knowledge in order to detect errors and suppress false positives in real codebases. Sys ﬁnds many security bugs (51 bugs, 43 conﬁrmed) in well-checked code—the Chrome and Firefox web browsers—and code that some symbolic tools struggle with—the FreeBSD operating system. Sys’s most interesting results include: an exploitable, cash bountied CVE in Chrome that was ﬁxed in seven hours (and whose patch was backported in two days); a trio of bountied bugs with a CVE in Firefox; and a bountied bug in Chrome’s audio support.
Accelerating Effects of Silk Fibroin on Wound Healing in Hairless Descendants of Mexican Hairless Dogs

We examined the safety of silk fibroin in the subcutaneous tissues. In addition, we macroscopically and histopathologically evaluated its healing effect on the full-thickness wounds in hairless dogs. We prepared 3 types of matrices including amorphous silk fibroin films, and a-and â-type silk fibroin p owder. N o toxicity was fo und in the sites injected with silk fibroin so lutions. M acroscopically, silk f ibroin films had accelerating effects on wo und repair, as compared with occlusive d ressings (dried porcine skin a nd hydrocolloid dressings). Histopathological ex aminations re vealed that sil k fibroin films facilitate reepithelialization and the formation of granulation tissues, collagens and elastic fibers. The sites treated wi th t he a-type si lk f ibroin powder were faster i n wo und repair than those t reated with t he â-type silk f ibroin powder. The a-type silk fibroin p owder a bsorbed excessive exudate. M icroscopically, there are epidermal and dermal regeneration in the sites treated with t he a-type silk fibroin powder. These results show that sil k fibroin is inert in biological t issues, ind icating excellent b iocompatibility. Silk fibroin films facilitate r eepithelialization, remodeling of connective tissues and col lagenization. The a- type f ibroin powder is a w ound dressing that regulates excessive exudate f rom the wound and provides a proper m oist environment. These results suggest tha t sil k fibroin is a useful dressing material i n veterinary clinical medicine.
Agamotto: Accelerating Kernel Driver Fuzzing with Lightweight Virtual Machine Checkpoints

Kernel-mode drivers are challenging to analyze for vulnerabilities, yet play a critical role in maintaining the security of OS kernels. Their wide attack surface, exposed via both the system call interface and the peripheral interface, is often found to be the most direct attack vector to compromise an OS kernel. Researchers therefore have proposed many fuzzing techniques to ﬁnd vulnerabilities in kernel drivers. However, the performance of kernel fuzzers is still lacking, for reasons such as prolonged execution of kernel code, interference be-tween test inputs, and kernel crashes. This paper proposes lightweight virtual machine check-pointing as a new primitive that enables high-throughput kernel driver fuzzing. Our key insight is that kernel driver fuzzers frequently execute similar test cases in a row, and that their performance can be improved by dynamically creating multiple checkpoints while executing test cases and skipping parts of test cases using the created checkpoints. We built a system, dubbed Agamotto, around the virtual machine check-pointing primitive and evaluated it by fuzzing the peripheral attack surface of USB and PCI drivers in Linux. The results are convincing. Agamotto improved the performance of the state-of-the-art kernel fuzzer, Syzkaller, by 66.6% on average in fuzzing 8 USB drivers, and an AFL-based PCI fuzzer by 21.6% in fuzzing 4 PCI drivers, without modifying their underlying input generation algorithm.
Manejo y aprovechamiento de la agrobiodiversidad en el sistema milpa del sureste de México

In this research, the agrobiodiversity from the milpa system, in the tropical region of San Felipe Usila, Mexico, was described and classified on base to farmers’ perception about phenotypic diversity and use of variability intra-specific, and gathered biodiversity at parcel level. So, under an agroecosystem approach, varied information was completed on three production systems, named as: abrupt hills (> 18° of inclination), rolling hills with irregular and stony zones but slopes from 6 to 18°, and lands of alluvial plains (< 6°) near to riverine zones. Therefore, in order to obtain the perception of diversity and uses on the agrobiodiversity, 200 semistructured questionnaire were applied to equal number of farmers from twelve Chinantec indigenous communities from San Felipe Usila. In the chi-square tests were detected significant relations (P < 0.05) between agroecosystems and its relationships with phenotypic variants of common bean and maize, intercropped crops, moisture regimens for planting, sown area and months of sowing, flowering and harvesting in maize cultivation. As result of the multiple correspondence analysis was detected that, managing and use patterns of the diversity are directly related with geographic-cultural regions, which are located the agroecosystems and farmers’ plots. Commonly, in the production plots are planted, cultivated and/or recollected until 26 species, and the main planted crops are: maize (five phenotypic variants), common bean (21 commercial varieties and native populations), squash (four variants) and cassava (three variants). In addition, it was evident a high use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, until 22 different products.
Tetrazolium test to assess viability and vigour of tomato seeds

Alternative procedures for the tetrazolium (TZ) test to determine viability and vigour of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seeds were studied in this research. In the fi rst phase of work, four lots of cv. Bruna were hydrated between moistened paper towels (3 h at 40°C and 45°C) followed by staining for 1, 2 and 3 h in a 0.075% tetrazolium chloride solution at 40°C. Viability TZ results were compared to percent germination, seedling emergence and the standard procedure for the TZ test described in the Rules for Seed Testing. In the second phase, viability and vigour (seeds classifi ed in three TZ categories) were determined after preconditioning for 3 h at 45°C and staining for 1, 2 and 3 h at 40°C for three seed lots each from cultivars Debora Max and Acclaim. Results were compared to germination, seedling emergence, saturated salt accelerated aging and controlled deterioration tests. In general, seeds exhibited adequate TZ staining patterns when seed moisture content attained at least 45%. The TZ test provided consistent data for the assessment of viability and vigour of tomato seeds. The results also indicated that reducing the preconditioning period is feasible and represents an important advance permitting faster decisions in seed quality control programs.
Evaluation of Potential Allelopathic Relationship between Velvet bean (Mucuna cochinchinensis (Lour.) A. Chevand Speargrass (Imperata cylindrical (L.) Raeushel) with Selected Methods

Velvet bean [Mucuna cochinchinensis (Lour.) A. Chev] has been reported to smother the growth of Speargrass [Imperata cylindrical (L) Raeushel. ] through competition and potential allelopathic effect on speargrass. Greenhouse experiments involving three methods were conducted at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan Nigeria in 2009. The aim of the trials was to establish if mucuna Original Research Article Bernard and Udensi; JAERI, 3(3): 89-96, 2015; Article no.JAERI. 2015.036 90 exhibits allelopathic effect on speargrass, besides smothering effect. These methods included: (1) Mucuna fresh parts[(Leaves (L), leaves + vine (L+V), vine(V) and roots (R)] incorporation into pot planted to speargrass rhizome and a control pot without mucuna part incorporation; (2) Mucuna plant part extracts (of leaves, leaves +vines, vines and roots) and control with ordinary water; and (3) Mucuna seed and speargrass rhizome interplant (One mucuna seed-interplant, Two mucuna seeds interplant and Three-mucuna seeds interplant). Results showed that every mucuna part has the potentials of being allelopathic to speargrass. Incorporating mucuna parts into pot with speargrass reduced both speargrass shoot height and number by ≥ 20% and ≥ 50% respectively. Similarly mucuna parts extract on the average, reduced shoot and rhizome biomass by ≥ 60% and ≥ 50% respectively when compared to the control. The pot interplant method on the average showed a reduction of speargrass shoot and rhizome biomass by ≥ 20% and ≥ 16% respectively. The effect of speargrass and mucuna interplant on speargrass shoot height was not variable between the speargrass-mucuna interplant and the sole speargrass control except at 12 WAP. This investigation revealed that mucuna also exhibits allelopathic effect on speargrass, and this could serve as a bio-control method for speargrass. All the mucuna parts studied have the potentials of exhibiting allelopathy effect on neighboring and susceptible plants. The allelopathy effect appears to be greater with the leaves or the vines or both.
Right-wing authoritarian innovations in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT The decline of the quality of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe was facilitated by intellectual, ideological, and organizational innovations of a new authoritarian elite. I this article I discuss five such innovations: a particular combination of victim mentality, self-confidence and resentment against the West, the transformation of neighbor-hating nationalisms into a civilizationist anti-immigrant platform, the delegitimization of civil society and the return to the belief in a strong state, the resurrection of the Christian political identity, and the transformation of populist discourse into a language and organizational strategy that is compatible with governmental roles (“populist establishment”). These factors together point to an overarching ideological fame that I call paternalist populism.
Justinian's GAAvernor: Robust Distributed Learning with Gradient Aggregation Agent

The hidden vulnerability of distributed learning systems against Byzantine attacks has been investigated by recent researches and, fortunately, some known defenses showed the ability to mitigate Byzantine attacks when a minority of workers are under adversarial control. Yet, our community still has very little knowledge on how to handle the situations when the proportion of malicious workers is 50% or more. Based on our preliminary study of this open challenge, we ﬁnd there is more that can be done to restore Byzantine robustness in these more threatening situations, if we better utilize the auxiliary information inside the learning process. In this paper, we propose Justinian’s GAAvernor (GAA), a Gradient Aggregation Agent which learns to be robust against Byzantine attacks via reinforcement learning techniques. Ba-sically, GAA relies on utilizing the historical interactions with the workers as experience and a quasi-validation set , a small dataset that consists of less than 10 data samples from similar data domains, to generate reward signals for policy learning. As a complement to existing defenses, our proposed approach does not bound the expected number of malicious workers and is proved to be robust in more challenging scenarios. Through extensive evaluations on four benchmark systems and against various adversarial settings, our proposed defense shows desirable robustness as if the systems were under no attacks, even in some case when 90% Byzantine workers are controlled by the adversary. Meanwhile, our approach shows a similar level of time efﬁciency compared with the state-of-the-art defenses. Moreover, GAA provides highly interpretable traces of worker behavior as by-products for further mitigation usages like Byzantine worker detection and behavior pattern analysis.