Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of livelihood strategy variation in two extractive reserves in Amazonian flooded and unflooded forests

SUMMARY Extractive reserves account for a significant proportion of the remaining intact forest within Brazilian Amazonia. Managers of extractive reserves need to understand the livelihood strategies adopted by rural Amazonians in order to implement projects that benefit the livelihoods of local residents whilst maintaining forest integrity. Whilst resident populations are often descended from immigrant rubber-tappers, dynamic economic and social conditions have led to a recent diversification of land-use practices. This two-year study in two large contiguous extractive reserves encompassing both unflooded (terra firme) and seasonally flooded (várzea) forest, shows the degree to which local livelihood strategies of different settlements are heterogeneous. Extractive offtake of forest products and fish catches and agricultural activities, together with income from sales, for 82 households in 10 communities were quantified in detail by means of weekly surveys. The survey data were combined with interviews to examine the demographic and wealth profile, and engagement in alternative activities, in 181 households across 27 communities. All households and communities were engaged in all three subsistence activity types, but there was large variation in engagement with income-generating activities. Households within a community showed considerable congruence in their income-generating activity profiles, but there was significant variation between communities. Yields from agriculture and fishing were more temporally stable than extraction of highly-seasonal forest products. Generalized linear mixed models showed that forest type was consistently important in explaining yields of both agrarian and extractive products. Communities with greater access to terra firme forest were inherently more agricultural, and strongly committed to manioc production. Communities with greater access to flooded forest, however, showed a greater dependence on fishing. Conservation should be more attuned to the diversity and dynamism of livelihood strategies in protected areas; in particular, reserve managers and policy makers should account for the effect of local variation in physical geography when designing sustainable development projects.
The growth and carcass composition of strains of mice selected for large and small body size

The growth and carcass composition of two strains of mice (N- and C-strain), which had both been selected for large and small body size by Falconer, have been studied. Differences in body weight between mice of the N-strain and their controls were apparent at birth and were fully maintained up to 30 weeks of age. The patterns of growth were similar in all three lines, although the large line grew at a faster rate than the small line, the controls being intermediate. Differences in absolute and relative rates of growth between the three lines reach a maximum from 21 to 35 days of age and declined thereafter. Growth in the large line of the N-strain from 14 to 40 days of age was largely due to an increase in body protein and water; after this age, increase in weight was caused mainly by fat deposition. In the small line of this strain, protein, water and fat were deposited at a more constant rate during the whole growing period. Differences in rates of growth may account for the differences in the percentage composition found between mice of the large and small lines of the N-strain at the same age.
Physicochemical, thermal and rheological properties of commercial wheat flours and corresponding starches

The quality attributes, including physicochemical, thermal and rheological properties of commercial bread, pau, multipurpose and cake flours, as well as their corresponding isolated starches were analyzed. Bread flour showed the highest solvent retention capacity (SRC) and gluten performance index (GPO), suggesting better functionality than others. Starch was isolated from all types of flour and fractionated into A-type and B-type starch granules. A-type disk-like starch granule had larger diameter (>10 μm) than B-type spherical starch granule (<5 μm diameter). For bread, pau and multipurpose flours, A-type starch granules contained higher amylose content than B-type and unfractionated starch granules significantly. Results suggested a high degree of crystallinity and high amount of amylose-lipid complexes in A-type starch granules, thus leading to low swelling power, solubility, gelatinization onset (T o ) and peak (T p ) temperatures. However, cake flour showed contrary properties, where B-type starch granules consisted higher amylose content than A-type starch granules. Furthermore, A-type and unfractionated starch granules of all types of wheat flour exhibited shear thickening behavior at 25-45 o C, but shear thinning behavior at 65 o C. The outcomes would be of benefit to the quality improvement on wheat flour with particular functionalities of their starches for specific applications.
Diatoms on sea turtles and floating debris in the Persian Gulf (Western Asia)

ABSTRACT The current study investigated diatom communities on juvenile green turtles foraging in neritic habitats around five Iranian islands. The primary objectives were to (1) compare species composition, growth form structure, and abundance of diatom communities associated with sea turtles foraging within the restricted boundaries of local feeding pastures, and (2) assess the level of uniqueness of the epizoic diatom flora in comparison with biofilms growing on floating debris. All observations and diatom counts were performed using scanning electron microscopy. The effect of the sampling location was apparent among sea turtle samples and reflected in significantly different cell densities. Diatom abundances were significantly higher on sea turtles (758–1836 cells mm−2) than on floating debris samples (9–189 cells mm−2). Epizoic diatom communities were composed of 20 diatom taxa and dominated by erect forms belonging to the so-called ‘marine gomphonemoids’, Chelonicola and Poulinea, previously reported on sea turtles from other geographical regions. The diatom flora found on floating debris was composed of 21 taxa. Only four taxa, Amphora cf. bigibba, Cocconeis cf. neothumensis var. marina, Psammodictyon constrictum, and Tabularia affinis, were recorded from both sea turtles and floating debris samples, and none of these exceeded 4% of the average relative abundance on the sea turtle carapaces. The study reveals a clear substratum preference in sea turtle-associated diatoms, with no evidence for species turnover across the investigated region over different sampling seasons, thus confirming previous speculations that sea turtle diatom communities would show a high level of uniqueness and stability.
Acoustic Attributes of Mandarin Retroflex Vowel “ɚ” Produced by Prelingually Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants

The present paper examined the acoustic attributes of Mandarin retroflex vowel “ɚ” articulated by prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs). The main purpose is to obtain a comprehensive understanding about how CI children acquire this target vowel in different lexical positions. The results showed that, (1) CI children could averagely produce the retroflex vowel with the mastery level accuracy, (above 75% accuracy), but made more articulatory errors than the NH counterparts; (2) allocated different duration to the target vowel according to specific lexical position as the NH children did, but averagely tended to produce the vowel with longer duration, especially in the medial location; (3) showed the formant pattern of the target vowel with significant difference from the NH group, specifically in the F3, which determined the retroflex color; (4) only the length of CI device use was found to be a significant contributor for accuracy performance of CI children but no systematic correlation was found between the acoustic attributes and the use of cochlear implant devices.
Typology and Prospects for the Improvement of Market Gardening Systems in South-Kivu, Eastern DR Congo

Vegetables play a very important role in rural and urban communities as both food and a business opportunity. They are fast-growing species, with high nutritional values and able to generate income in a relatively short period compared to other crops. A characterization of market gardening systems was carried out with 368 producers from major market gardening sites in South-Kivu, in Easten of the RD Congo.The aim pursued was to assess existing systems and perspectives to enable steady transition to integrated, sustainable and resilient crop systems. The results showed that very few producers in the region practice plant integration. The typology carried out made it possible to identify three classes of market gardening farms based on adopted agronomic practices, production factors and possible outcomes derived from different systems. Most of the surveyed farms practice crop rotation and are market-oriented. However, they majorly differ in terms of farm size, practices of intercropping, permanent agriculture, mulching, production constraints and producer’s perception on the level of production. For instance, producers who are much more into intercropping also cultivate small areas (less than 0.25 ha). Results also showed that variables such as type of labour, cropping system, type of fertilizer used, mulching practice, adoption of permanent agriculture, producer’s perception of the level of soil fertility, and the water source used affect producer’s appreciation of the level of production obtained (p < 0.05). These variables can be mobilized for improvement of the market gardening system towards more sustainable, diversified and resilient systems.
Numerical-Experimental Correlation of Dynamic Test of a Honeycomb Impact Attenuator for a Formula SAE Vehicle

A honeycomb impact attenuator for a Formula SAE (FSAE) prototype vehicle is examined using both experimental and numerical analyses. Two common FSAE impact attenuators were compared to a new design concept, combining four layers of hexagonal honeycomb. The comparison aimed to obtain the combination of the lowest mass and highest energy absorption. The attenuator must comply with both the FSAE championship rules and further internally-defined design constraints. The work continues addressing the numerical-experimental correlation of the applied materials. Finally, the finite element models for virtual crash testing are presented and were validated through the experimental tests.
Haematological characteristics of albacore, Thunnus alalunga (Bonnaterre), and skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis (Linnaeus)

Observations on haematological characteristics of albacore, Thunnus alalunga, and skipjack Katsuwonus pelamis, tunas, were made on blood samples collected from specimens immediately after they were caught and from an immobilized, restrained albacore sampled serially over a 24 h period. Results indicated eight types of blood cells in the peripheral circulation of both species. Lymphocytes were the most common leucocyte followed, in decreasing order, by neutrophils, eosinophils and monocytes in fish sampled immediately after being landed. Variations in differential and total white blood cell counts were observed in the immobilized, restrained albacore. High packed cell volumes and haemoglobin concentrations, typical for fast swimming fishes, were found in both species. Red blood cell counts were similar to those of other teleosts, and reticulocytes expressed as a percentage of mature erythrocytes were 6.1% and 5.2% for albacore and skipjack, respectively.
High temporal variation in the assemblage of Lepidopteran larvae on a constant resource.

We studied variation in the assemblage of lepidopteran larvae between individual trees, and temporal variation in the diversity and species composition of the assemblage in a medium-altitude rainforest in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Monthly samples of lepidopteran larvae were collected from the leaves of Neoboutonia macrocalyx Pax. between January 1995 and December 1996. During this period, a total of 1961 specimens representing 76 lepidopteran morphospecies were found. The numbers of individuals within species varied enormously, ranging from one to 707 individuals. Assemblages of individual trees were highly similar and dominated by geometrid larvae. Temporal variation in herbivore abundance was high. The number of individuals peaked during the major rainy season in 1995 but not in 1996 and was not correlated significantly with rainfall within these 2 years. In contrast, a negative correlation was found between lepidopteran diversity and rainfall that seems to cause a semiannual trend in diversity with one or two peaks per year. Furthermore, there was seasonality in the similarity of the assemblage. Consequently, the same species were found in the assemblage during certain times of the year. Our study shows that short-term biodiversity assessments can give a skewed picture of the diversity of tropical forests.
Antibiotic Activity Screened by the Rheology of S. aureus Cultures

Multidrug resistant bacteria are one of the most serious public health threats nowadays. How bacteria, as a population, react to the presence of antibiotics is of major importance to the outcome of the chosen treatment. In this study we addressed the impact of oxacillin, a β-lactam, the most clinically relevant class of antibiotics, in the viscosity profile of the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain COL. In the first approach, the antibiotic was added, at concentrations under the minimum inhibitory concentration (sub-MIC), to the culture of S. aureus and steady-state shear flow curves were obtained for discrete time points during the bacterial growth, with and without the presence of the antibiotic, showing distinct viscosity progress over time. The different behaviors obtained led us to test the impact of the sub-inhibitory concentration and a concentration that inhibited growth. In the second approach, the viscosity growth curves were measured at a constant shear rate of 10 s−1, over time. The obtained rheological behaviors revealed distinctive characteristics associated to the presence of each concentration of the tested antibiotic. These results bring new insights to the bacteria response to a well-known bacteriolytic antibiotic.
Seed germination of wild and cultivated Stenocereus stellatus (Cactaceae) from the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Central México

Abstract Germination rate and percentage, and seed weight were compared among wild and cultivated populations of the columnar cactus Stenocereus stellatus to analyse the effect of domestication on their seed behaviour and dormancy mechanisms. Experiments on germination capacity were tested on constant (25°C) and fluctuating temperature (20/35°C; 18/6 h) under white light and darkness, and adding five different concentrations of gibberellic acid (GA3) in darkness at 25 °C. Cultivated individuals had significantly heavier seeds (1·12±0·04 mg) than wild individuals (0·80±0·02 mg). Germination percentage in all populations was generally higher at constant temperature but cultivated plants had significantly higher seed germination than the wild ones in both temperature treatments. All seeds increased their germination percentage with storage age in both constant and fluctuating temperature. All seeds were positive photoblastic, and addition of GA3did not promote germination in darkness. The results suggest that human selection has favoured seedling vigour and a greater germination capacity in cultivated variants.
TextShield: Robust Text Classification Based on Multimodal Embedding and Neural Machine Translation

Text-based toxic content detection is an important tool for reducing harmful interactions in online social media environments. Yet, its underlying mechanism, deep learning-based text classiﬁcation (DLTC), is inherently vulnerable to maliciously crafted adversarial texts. To mitigate such vulnerabilities, intensive research has been conducted on strengthening English-based DLTC models. However, the existing defenses are not effective for Chinese-based DLTC models, due to the unique sparseness, diversity, and variation of the Chinese language. In this paper, we bridge this striking gap by presenting T EXT S HIELD , a new adversarial defense framework speciﬁcally designed for Chinese-based DLTC models. T EXT S HIELD differs from previous work in several key aspects: (i) generic – it applies to any Chinese-based DLTC models without requiring re-training; (ii) robust – it signiﬁ-cantly reduces the attack success rate even under the setting of adaptive attacks; and (iii) accurate – it has little impact on the performance of DLTC models over legitimate inputs. Extensive evaluations show that it outperforms both existing methods and the industry-leading platforms. Future work will explore its applicability in broader practical tasks.
From high-touch to high-tech: COVID-19 drives robotics adoption

Abstract Global economic and social life has been severely challenged since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic. Travel, tourism and hospitality, in particular, has been massively impacted by the lockdowns used to maintain social distance to manage the disease. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interactions have gained an increased presence to help manage the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, airports, transportation systems, recreation and scenic areas, hotels, restaurants, and communities in general. Humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other intelligent robots are used in many different ways to reduce human contact and the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including delivering materials, disinfecting and sterilizing public spaces, detecting or measuring body temperature, providing safety or security, and comforting and entertaining patients. While controversial in the past due to concerns over job losses and data privacy, the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in travel and tourism will likely continue after the COVID-19 pandemic becomes less serious. Tourism scholars should seize this opportunity to develop robotic applications that enhance tourist experiences, the protection of natural and cultural resources, citizen participation in tourism development decision making, and the emergence of new ‘high-touch’ employment opportunities for travel, tourism and hospitality workers.
Role of brand experience and brand affect in creating brand engagement: a case of higher education institutions (HEIs)

ABSTRACT HEIs globally face growing competition that demands new marketing strategies and practices to leverage the power of social media platforms to increase brand engagement of HEIs. Largely ignored in past studies, this study established the much-needed link between brand equity drivers, namely brand experience, brand interactivity, and brand engagement on social media and identified the path to engage students and measure their loyalty. A total of 254 self-administered responses (survey questionnaires) were collected from the students of 5 public and 10 private universities. The results drawn through PLS-SEM analysis exhibited a significant mediating role of brand affect (emotional response) between brand experience (sensory and behavioral) and brand engagement behavior. The findings also showed the critical rule of brand interactivity towards brand engagement behavior. The study suggests leveraging the power of brand experience and brand interactivity to drive brand engagement behavior through the critical role of brand affect in HEIs.
An Oviraptorosaur Adult-Egg Association from the Cretaceous of Jiangxi Province, China

ABSTRACT With abundant well-preserved clutches and several adult-clutch associations, oviraptorids provide some of the most detailed information on reproduction for dinosaurs. Here, we describe an oviraptorosaur closely associated with two eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Formation of Jiangxi Province, China, and discuss its implications for various reproductive hypotheses. The specimen consists of a partial skeleton (gastralia, pelvis, portions of both hind limbs, and tail), with one egg within the pelvic canal and the other just posterior to it, ventral to the anterior caudal vertebrae. Several geopetal features indicate that the individual came to rest on its left side, with the eggs likely extruded during buildup of abdominal gases during decomposition. Similarity of pubis, caudal vertebrae, and pes dimensions to recently described material from the formation, e.g., Tongtianlong and Jiangxisaurus, suggests oviraptorid affinities. The specimen provides additional association of elongatoolithid eggs and the oogenus Macroolithus with oviraptorosaurs and further evidence for monoautochronic ovulation, i.e., iterative laying of two eggs at daily or greater intervals. With each egg 36–48% the size predicted for a modern bird of the same adult mass, total egg production would be slightly lower to similar between this non-avian maniraptoran and Neornithes. Histological tissues and open neurocentral sutures indicate that this reproductively active individual was several years old but still growing at the time of death, a pattern observed in other non-avian maniraptorans. The complete absence of medullary bone in this egg-bearing individual may challenge the identification of this tissue in other dinosaurs more distantly related to birds.
Gender, love and the Internet: romantic online interactions in Chilean young people

ABSTRACT Romance in modern societies is undergoing a two-fold process of transformation: on the one hand, traditional gender relationships are being revised and criticized; on the other, new digital communication technologies are making possible to initiate, sustain and end romantic relationships through a set of practices that mix physical co-presence and online interactions. Using a qualitative approach (N = 48), this paper explores how young people (ages 18–29) in Chile conceive of romantic relationships in this social and technological context. Our results show that romantic relationships are a significant terrain in which gender is negotiated through digitally mediated practices of courtship and maintenance of established romantic relationships. These mirror the power dynamics involved in the existing gendered normativity, but also provide some leeway to transform it, depending on the resources that individuals bring to the technological milieu.