Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Forest Rights, Livelihood and Nature Conservation in Buxa Tiger Reserve, India : A Critical Appraisal

The colonial administration in India turned the forests into state property by proclaiming several legislations which continued in the post-independent India. The Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is the sole legislation which seeks to redress this historic injustice meted out to the forest dwellers by not recognizing their right to access the forest resources. This study explores the dependence of the forest dwellers on the forest resources of the Buxa Tiger Reserve. The paper also aims at assessing the status of implementation of the Act in the Reserve that is imperative in securing the land rights of the local populace. The study is based on primary data generated through interviews using a semi-structured interview schedule, focus group discussions and opinions gathered from the interactions with the local people, local resource persons and forest officials. Secondary data was obtained from books, journals, periodicals and government reports. The implementation process of the Act is very slow which is putting the inhabitants of the core area in a precarious position. The dire need of the hour is creating awareness among the villagers about the law by the government, media and NGOs.
A Permutation-Based Kernel Conditional Independence Test

Determining conditional independence (CI) relationships between random variables is a challenging but important task for problems such as Bayesian network learning and causal discovery. We propose a new kernel CI test that uses a single, learned permutation to convert the CI test problem into an easier two-sample test problem. The learned permutation leaves the joint distribution unchanged if and only if the null hypothesis of CI holds. Then, a kernel two-sample test, which has been studied extensively in prior work, can be applied to a permuted and an unpermuted sample to test for CI. We demonstrate that the test (1) easily allows the incorporation of prior knowledge during the permutation step, (2) has power competitive with state-of-the-art kernel CI tests, and (3) accurately estimates the null distribution of the test statistic, even as the dimensionality of the conditioning variable grows.
Comparison of point‐of‐load versus mid‐feeder compensation in LV distribution networks with high penetration of solar photovoltaic generation and electric vehicle charging stations

Increasing use of distributed generation (DG), mainly roof-top photovoltaic (PV) panels and electric vehicle (EV) charging would cause over- and under-voltage problems generally at the remote sections of the low-voltage (LV) distribution feeders. As these voltage problems are sustained for a few hours, power electronic compensators (PECs) with input voltage control, i.e. electric springs cannot be used due to the unavailability of non-critical loads that can be subjected to non-rated voltages for a long duration of time. However, PECs in output voltage control mode could be used to inject a controllable series voltage either somewhere on the feeder (mid-feeder compensation, MFC) or between the feeder and each customer (point-of-load compensation, PoLC) both of which are effective in tackling the voltage problem without disrupting PV power output and EV charging. In this study, a comparison between the MFC and PoLC option is presented in terms of their voltage control capability, required compensator capacity, network losses, PV throughput, and demand response capability. The criteria for selection of the optimal location of these compensators are also discussed. Stochastic demand profile for different types of residential customers in the UK and a typical European LV network is used for the case study.
Immunogenicity of Peptide-25 of Ag85B in Th1 development: role of IFN-gamma.

Ag85B (also known as alpha antigen or MPT59) is immunogenic, and induces expansion and differentiation of TCRVbeta11(+)CD4(+) T cells to IFN-gamma-producing cells in C57BL/6 (I-A(b)) mice. We reported that Peptide-25 (amino acids 240-254) of Ag85B is a major T cell epitope, and its amino acid residues at position 244, 247, 249 and 252 are I-A(b) contact residues. Here we examined roles of IFN-gamma in the generation of Peptide-25-reactive CD4(+) TCRVbeta11(+) T cells and the efficacy of mutant peptides of Peptide-25 for T(h)1 development in mice other than C57BL/6 mice. Immunization of C57BL/6 mice with Peptide-25 included in incomplete Freund's adjuvant led to preferential induction of CD4(+) TCRVbeta11(+) IFN-gamma- and tumor necrosis factor-alpha-producing T cells. Compared with other I-A(b)-binding peptides such as Peptide-9 of Ag85B, 50V of pigeon cytochrome c and ovalbumin (OVA)(265-280) peptide, only Peptide-25 was capable of inducing enormous expansion of TCRVbeta11(+) IFN-gamma-producing T cells. Treatment of C57BL/6 mice with anti-Vbeta11 antibody before Peptide-25 immunization reduced the development of CD4(+) IFN-gamma-producing T cells. Furthermore, B10.A(3R) mice, I-A(b)-positive and TCRVbeta11(-) strain, showed remarkably lower response to Peptide-25 immunization than C57BL/6 mice. Peptide-25-primed IFN-gamma(-/-) cells showed significantly decreased expansion of CD4(+) TCRVbeta11(+) T cells as compared with wild-type cells. Interestingly, Peptide-25-primed cells from MyD88-deficient mice responded to Peptide-25 and differentiated into IFN-gamma-producing cells to a similar extent as wild-type mice, indicating Toll-like receptor-independent IFN-gamma production. These results imply that IFN-gamma plays important roles for the generation and expansion of CD4(+) TCRVbeta11(+) T cells in response to Peptide-25. Although Peptide-25 was non-immunogenic in C3H/HeN mice, a substituted mutant of Peptide-25, 244D247V, capable of binding to I-A(k), induced T(h)1 development. These results clearly demonstrate important roles of IFN-gamma in the expansion of CD4(+) TCRVbeta11(+) T cells, and will provide useful information for delineating the regulatory mechanisms of T(h)1-cell development and for analyzing mechanisms on T(h)1-dominant immune responses.
Global image editing using the spectrum of affinity matrices

In this work we introduce a new image editing tool, based on the spectrum of a global filter computed from image affinities. Recently, we have shown that the global filter derived from a fully connected graph representing the image, can be approximated using the Nyström extension [1]. This filter is computed by approximating the leading eigenvectors of the filter. These orthonormal eigenfunctions are highly expressive of the coarse and fine details in the underlying image, where each eigenvector can be interpreted as one scale of a data-dependent multiscale image decomposition. In this filtering scheme, each eigenvalue can boost or suppress the corresponding signal component in each scale. Our analysis shows that the mapping of the eigenvalues by an appropriate polynomial function endows the filter with a number of important capabilities, such as edge-aware sharpening, denoising and tone manipulation.
Features of the Arabidopsis recombination landscape resulting from the combined loss of sequence variation and DNA methylation

The rate of meiotic crossing over (CO) varies considerably along chromosomes, leading to marked distortions between physical and genetic distances. The causes underlying this variation are being unraveled, and DNA sequence and chromatin states have emerged as key factors. However, the extent to which the suppression of COs within the repeat-rich pericentromeric regions of plant and mammalian chromosomes results from their high level of DNA polymorphisms and from their heterochromatic state, notably their dense DNA methylation, remains unknown. Here, we test the combined effect of removing sequence polymorphisms and repeat-associated DNA methylation on the meiotic recombination landscape of an Arabidopsis mapping population. To do so, we use genome-wide DNA methylation data from a large panel of isogenic epigenetic recombinant inbred lines (epiRILs) to derive a recombination map based on 126 meiotically stable, differentially methylated regions covering 81.9% of the genome. We demonstrate that the suppression of COs within pericentromeric regions of chromosomes persists in this experimental setting. Moreover, suppression is reinforced within 3-Mb regions flanking pericentromeric boundaries, and this effect appears to be compensated by increased recombination activity in chromosome arms. A direct comparison with 17 classical Arabidopsis crosses shows that these recombination changes place the epiRILs at the boundary of the range of natural variation but are not severe enough to transgress that boundary significantly. This level of robustness is remarkable, considering that this population represents an extreme with key recombination barriers having been forced to a minimum.
Probit models for capture-recapture data subject to imperfect detection, individual heterogeneity and misidentification

As noninvasive sampling techniques for animal populations have become more popular, there has been increasing interest in the development of capture-recapture models that can accommodate both imperfect detection and misidentification of individuals (e.g., due to genotyping error). However, current methods do not allow for individual variation in parameters, such as detection or survival probability. Here we develop misidentification models for capture-recapture data that can simultaneously account for temporal variation, behavioral effects and individual heterogeneity in parameters. To facilitate Bayesian inference using our approach, we extend standard probit regression techniques to latent multinomial models where the dimension and zeros of the response cannot be observed. We also present a novel Metropolis-Hastings within Gibbs algorithm for fitting these models using Markov chain Monte Carlo. Using closed population abundance models for illustration, we re-visit a DNA capture-recapture population study of black bears in Michigan, USA and find evidence of misidentification due to genotyping error, as well as temporal, behavioral and individual variation in detection probability. We also estimate a salamander population of known size from laboratory experiments evaluating the effectiveness of a marking technique commonly used for amphibians and fish. Our model was able to reliably estimate the size of this population and provided evidence of individual heterogeneity in misidentification probability that is attributable to variable mark quality. Our approach is more computationally demanding than previously proposed methods, but it provides the flexibility necessary for a much broader suite of models to be explored while properly accounting for uncertainty introduced by misidentification and imperfect detection. In the absence of misidentification, our probit formulation also provides a convenient and efficient Gibbs sampler for Bayesian analysis of traditional closed population capture-recapture data.
Extensive Eosinophil Degranulation and Peroxidase-Mediated Oxidation of Airway Proteins Do Not Occur in a Mouse Ovalbumin-Challenge Model of Pulmonary Inflammation1

Paradigms of eosinophil effector function in the lungs of asthma patients invariably depend on activities mediated by cationic proteins released from secondary granules during a process collectively referred to as degranulation. In this study, we generated knockout mice deficient for eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) to assess the role(s) of this abundant secondary granule protein in an OVA-challenge model. The loss of EPO had no effect on the development of OVA-induced pathologies in the mouse. The absence of phenotypic consequences in these knockout animals extended beyond pulmonary histopathologies and airway changes, as EPO-deficient animals also displayed OVA-induced airway hyperresponsiveness after provocation with methacholine. In addition, EPO-mediated oxidative damage of proteins (e.g., bromination of tyrosine residues) recovered in bronchoalveolar lavage from OVA-treated wild-type mice was <10% of the levels observed in bronchoalveolar lavage recovered from asthma patients. These data demonstrate that EPO activities are inconsequential to the development of allergic pulmonary pathologies in the mouse and suggest that degranulation of eosinophils recruited to the lung in this model does not occur at levels comparable to those observed in humans with asthma.
Improving adherence to antipsychotic pharmacotherapy.

OBJECTIVE To review the consequences of nonadherence to antipsychotic pharmacotherapy in patients with schizophrenia, as well as associated risk factors for nonadherence and methods of improving adherence. METHODS Review of the literature based on a MEDLINE search on the terms schizophrenia and adherence or compliance, limited to the English language, supplemented by the author's own knowledge of the topic. RESULTS Nonadherence to antipsychotic therapy is a common reason for relapse and rehospitalization of patients with schizophrenia and thus contributes to the high cost of treating psychoses, adverse events, and lack of insight. Comorbid substance abuse, little family involvement, and a poor clinician-patient relationship are among the risk factors for nonadherence. Patients with a negative attitude towards treatment, which can result from adverse events, are also more likely to be nonadherent. Strategies to improve adherence include optimizing antipsychotic therapy, minimizing adverse events, encouraging patient participation in psychoeducational programs, treating comorbid substance abuse disorders, involving family members in the treatment process, and forging a close therapeutic relationship with the patient. CONCLUSIONS Improving adherence is difficult but necessary for achieving optimal treatment outcomes. Careful selection of drug therapy, with emphasis on a drug's tolerability, combined with nonpharmacologic interventions, may help decrease nonadherence in patients with schizophrenia.
Using production grammars in software testing

Extensible typesafe systems, such as Java, rely critically on a large and complex software base for their overall protection and integrity, and are therefore difficult to test and verify. Traditional testing techniques, such as manual test generation and formal verification, are too time consuming, expensive, and imprecise, or work only on abstract models of the implementation and are too simplistic. Consequently, commercial virtual machines deployed so far have exhibited numerous bugs and security holes. In this paper, we discuss our experience with using production grammars in testing large, complex and safety-critical software systems. Specifically, we describe lava, a domain specific language we have developed for specifying production grammars, and relate our experience with using lava to generate effective test suites for the Java virtual machine. We demonstrate the effectiveness of production grammars in generating complex test cases that can, when combined with comparative and variant testing techniques, achieve high code and value coverage. We also describe an extension to production grammars that enables concurrent generation of certificates for test cases. A certificate is a behavioral description that specifies the intended outcome of the generated test case, and therefore acts as an oracle by which the correctness of the tested system can be evaluated in isolation. We report the results of applying these testing techniques to commercial Java implementations. We conclude that the use of production grammars in combination with other automated testing techniques is a powerful and effective method for testing software systems, and is enabled by a special purpose language for specifying extended production grammars.
Fast 2D both handstracking with articulate motion prediction

This paper proposes a novel real-time hand tracking algorithm in the presence of occlusion. For this purpose, we construct a limb model and maintain the model obtained from AR-KLT methods with respect to second-order auto-regression model and Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi(KLT) features, respectively. Furthermore, this method do not require to categorize types of superimposed hand motion based on directivity obtained by the slope's direction of KLT regression. Thus, we can develop a method of hand tracking for gesture and activity recognition techniques frequently used in conjunction with human-robot interaction (HRI) components. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields a good performance in the intelligent service robots, so called WEVER developed in ETRI
Somatostatin-IRES-Cre Mice: Between Knockout and Wild-Type?

The neuropeptide somatostatin (SOM) is widely expressed in rodent brain and somatostatin-IRES-Cre (SOM-cre) mouse strains are increasingly used to unravel the physiology of SOM-containing neurons. However, while knock-in targeting strategy greatly improves Cre-Lox system accuracy, recent reports have shown that genomic insertion of Cre construct per se can markedly affect physiological function. We show that Cre transgene insertion into the 3′UTR of the somatostatin gene leads to the selective and massive depletion of endogenous SOM in all tested brain regions. It also strongly impacts SOM-related neuroendocrine responses in a similar manner to what has been reported for SST KO mice: increased corticosterone levels after 30-min restraint stress, decreased amplitude and regularity of ultradian growth hormone secretory patterns accompanied by changes in sexually dimorphic liver gene expression (serpina1, Cyp2b9, Cyp2a4, Cyp2d9, and Cyp7b1). In addition to demonstrating the need for examination of the consequences of Cre transgenesis, these results also reveal how this SOM-cre strain may be a useful tool in studying the functional consequences of moderate to low SOM levels as reported in neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Transport challenges facing a next‐generation hybrid satellite Internet

This paper considers the transport layer implications by assuming a position where satellite networks form one integrated component of a hybrid Internet architecture. It reviews the key role of transport protocols in providing a reliable and robust end‐to‐end Internet service. A history of TCP protocol evolution from a satellite perspective is followed by focussing on the role of protocol‐enhancing proxies in satellite systems and how these have impacted the introduction of new Internet transport techniques. Current transport research issues are identified and related to two new architectural approaches to highlight the expected performance benefits and derive the implications on the design of geostationary satellite Internet systems as the network evolves toward a next‐generation Internet. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Building Capability through Cognitive Apprenticeship: the Singapore Armed Forces Competency-Based Learning Project

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Competency-Based Learning (CBL) Project is a cognitive apprenticeship designed by the Learning Development Project Office in SAFTI Military Institute, Singapore to assist SAF in establishing long-term indigenous capability in the CBL methodology to facilitate curriculum development in the Third Generation SAF. This project aims to translate the SAF Leadership Competency Model through an infusion of the CBL methodology in selected SAF schoolhouse training and educational curricula in an engagement with an external consultancy, and ensure SAF internalises the CBL methodology from the consultancy for large-scale independent implementation and sustainability in the long-term. Situated cognition, social constructivism and knowledge-creation through socialisation theories from which cognitive apprenticeship is based are also briefly discussed. In addition, the SAF CBL Project also requires SAF-consultancy interactions to be designed for optimisation of learning and knowledge acquisition (KA) outcomes. Specifically, the SAF CBL cognitive apprenticeship uses knowledge elicitation tools and techniques in a SAF CBL KA process to learn and construct knowledge of the CBL methodology through participation in shared experiences with the consultant team, and capturing of lessons learnt and best practices from which individual learning and team learning through socialisation can take place.
Bitext Dependency Parsing With Auto-Generated Bilingual Treebank

This paper proposes a method to improve the accuracy of bilingual texts (bitexts) dependency parsing by using an auto-generated bilingual treebank created with the help of statistical machine translation (SMT) systems. Previous bitext parsing methods use human-annotated bilingual treebanks that are costly and troublesome to obtain. In the proposed method, we use an auto-generated bilingual treebank to train the parsing models. First, an SMT system is used to translate a monolingual treebank into the target language; then, a monolingual parser for the target language is used to parse the translated sentences. Since the auto-translated sentences and auto-parsed trees in the auto-generated bilingual treebank are far from perfect, the bilingual constraints are not sufficiently reliable. To overcome this problem, we propose a method to verify the reliability of the constraints using a large amount of target monolingual and bilingual unannotated data. Finally, we design a set of effective bilingual features for parsing models on the basis of the verified constraints. We conduct the experiments using a standard test data. The experimental results show that our bitext parser significantly outperforms monolingual parsers. Moreover, our method is still able to provide improvement when we use a larger monolingual treebank containing over 50 000 sentences. We also test the proposed method with different SMT systems and the results show that our method is very robust to the noise. In particular, the proposed method can be used in a purely monolingual setting with the help of SMT. That is, it does not need the human translation of the test set as previous methods do.
Antigenic heterogeneity of Bacteroides intermedius as recognized by monoclonal antibodies

Four hybrid cell lines secreting monoclonal antibodies against antigens of Bacteroides intermedius were generated by fusing murine NSI cells with splenocytes from a rat immunized with B. intermedius strain OMZ248. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to analyze the distribution of the recognized antigens on 39 strains from various Bacteroides species and on 5 strains from other genera. Only Bacteroides species B. intermedius, B. loescheii, B. melaninogenicus, and B. corporis were found to express at least one of the recognized antigens. Strains of the two asaccharolytic black-pigmenting Bacteroides species were negative. Among the strains capable of binding to one or more of the monoclonal antibodies, five groups with different reactivity patterns could be distinguished. Two of the monoclonal antibodies were specific for B. intermedius. The B. intermedius strains were metabolically almost identical, expressed at least three of the recognized antigens, and fell into three distinct antibody reactivity groups, suggesting a tentative separation of this species into three new serogroups. Oral and nonoral isolates of B. intermedius were, however, not distinguished by the monoclonal antibodies. One monoclonal antibody was directed against an antigen strongly expressed on all saccharolytic black-pigmenting Bacteroides strains tested so far, thus confirming the previously noted antigenic relationship between the species which had emerged from the former B. melaninogenicus subsp. intermedius and B. melaninogenicus subsp. melaninogenicus groups.