Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Workdays are not created equal: Job satisfaction and job stressors across the workweek

Are your workdays created equal? Common wisdom suggests that employees experience Mondays differently from Fridays. However, few studies distinguish among workdays, inherently assuming that the employee experience is uniform across the workweek. In the current study, we examined the trajectories of employees’ experiences of job satisfaction and job stressors across the workweek. We proposed two competing theoretical perspectives that result in opposite predictions as to whether job dissatisfaction and perceived job stressors will be higher (“Monday blues”) or lower (“rested and recharged”) at the beginning of the workweek rather than later in the week. Employing a daily diary design with 139 employees (681 matched daily observations) working the traditional workweek, we found that employees reported experiencing lower levels of job satisfaction and perceived more job stressors (i.e., incivility and organizational constraints) at the beginning of the workweek as opposed to later in the week. Additionally, the relationship between perceived incivility and job satisfaction was stronger at the beginning of the workweek. Our findings were consistent with the “Monday blues” perspective and suggest that workdays are not created equal.
Fluctuating asymmetry as a putative marker of human-induced stress in avian conservation

Abstract As anthropogenic stress increasingly affects the viability of natural populations of animals and plants, conservation ecologists are challenged to identify vulnerable populations before their demographic and/or genetic properties become irreversibly affected. Since traditional biomarkers of anthropogenic stress are often cumbersome to measure, and populations may thus go extinct before appropriate data can be obtained, there is a growing interest in individual-based markers that do not require repeated captures, are relatively easy to measure, and allow mitigating action one step ahead. One such marker, left-right asymmetry in bilateral symmetrical traits (“fluctuating asymmetry”, FA) has become an established bioassay of the quality and health of individuals and populations in evolutionary-ecological studies. However, the lack of a theoretical framework that predicts under which ecological conditions relationships between FA, stress and fitness can be expected, continues to hamper the use of FA in applied conservation. Here, we briefly review the concept, measurement and analysis of FA, and appraise its expediency in a selection of 21 avian studies covering environmental or genetic stress commonly encountered in conservation biology. The majority of studies met the basic statistical requirements of FA analysis, and two-thirds reported significant, positive relationships with environmental or genetic stress, although with substantial variation among traits, stresses, ages and sexes. In most cases, the observed heterogeneity in relationships with FA could be explained by taking into account both methodological and conceptual issues. Effect sizes ranged from very small (0.02) to very large (0.76), with a weighted average of 0.30, indicating that on average 9% of variance in the variable of interest was explained by FA. Given the intrinsic difficulties associated with FA analysis, conservation ecologists are advised to combine information from FA with that of other individual-based biomarkers, such as the study of growth-bar dimensions on developing feathers.
Fire and Senescent Fynbos in the Swartberg, Southern Cape

ABSTRACT Some consequences of long intervals between fires were studied in fynbos of the Swartberg Mountains. Results showed that foliage projective cover was less patchy and mostly denser in mature than in senescent regrowth. Proteaceae seedling regeneration was significantly reduced in old stands, but the ratio of seedlings to adults was similar in mature and old veld. Proteaceae seedlings were more common after the autumn than the spring burn. Non-Proteaceous dicot seedlings were significantly fewer in regenerating senescent veld. Some consequences of long intervals between fires and features of dispersal in fynbos are discussed.
Taxonomy and stream ecology—The benefits of genus- and species-level identifications

Why do people name things? Would we get the same information content if we refer to a particular structure as a black oak tree, an oak tree, a tree, a plant, a living object, or just as a thing? Regular observers at sporting events know the truth behind the aphorism ‘‘you can’t tell the players without a scorecard’’. The value of naming an organism is that after we name it, we can assign characteristics to it and know those characteristics the next time or place we see it. It also allows us to refine its categorization by comparing and contrasting it to similar organisms. The value of a name is also readily apparent when we look at aquatic organisms. We may encounter thousands of different organisms, from microscopic bacteria to fish, if we study just a single stream. Some groups of stream organisms are well-known and generally easy to name (e.g., fish), others require some training (e.g., invertebrates and algae), and some groups can be named only by a few specialists (e.g., bacteria). Naming even all the well-known groups in a single stream segment, such as identifying all the aquatic insects, can be a daunting task. Merritt et al. (1984) estimated that 100 to 250 insect species typically occupy headwater streams (orders 1–3) and 200 to 500 insect species occupy midreach rivers (orders 4–6). High numbers of macroinvertebrate taxa at single stream sites also have been found in North Carolina, where repeated summer collections (n 5
A Commentary on Affirmative Action Policies for Women in India in the Backdrop of International Commitments

Affirmative action is often used as a tool by policymakers to promote women empowerment and gender sensitivity. This paper examines the affirmative action policies for women in India and highlights their impact on uplifting their social and economic status. India is a signatory to various international conventions on women's rights. This paper aims to study India's affirmative action policies to see whether they match with its global commitments under various frameworks like United Nations etc. An analysis of the existing research studies has been done to understand the benefits accrued to women as a result of affirmative action in the areas of education, politics and fiscal budgeting. A holistic picture of this issue has been presented so that relevant conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of this programme.
Markov Sequences in Songs of American Thrushes

1. Repertoire size and organization of songs appears to vary greatly across even closely related species of birds. Much of the apparent complexity of song organization can be described by the relatively simple principle of the Markov chain. 2. We examined long sequences of songs in five closely related North American thrushes using two methods of Markov analysis, one based on the maximum likelihood method of HOEL, the other based on information theory. Both methods employed computer simulation of zero, first, second, and higher order Markov chains for comparison with empirical data. 3. Results indicated that each of the five species employed Markov sequencing on more than one level of song organization. Thus six Swainson's thrushes show strict linear first order relationships both in song sequencing and syllables within songs. Two veerys show invariate order within songs, but more variable second order sequencing between songs. A hermit thrush maintained fixed order within songs, but showed first and second and perhaps even higher order song sequencing, and a larger song repertoire. In four wood thrushes, each individual used identical parts in the same section (B or C) of different song types, the usual order of sections being ABC. Sequencing of songs within this species appears to be based on a combination of second or higher order sequencing of individual parts in sections B and C, leading to great richness in repertoire. In three robins, we found syllables rather than songs the primary unit of organization, showing first and higher order sequencing. The resulting songs are extremely variable. 4. A continuum of increasingly complex Markov chaining in both song and syllables within song resembles one based on the genetic affinities of the birds. 5. The process of drift in forming larger repertoires, employing Markov principles as well, is discussed. 6. The usefulness of the Markov model as a common pervasive organizational principle in bird vocalization is stressed.
Evaluation du niveau de ploïdie des plantes d'une population de choux de Bruxelles (Brassica oleracea L. ssp. gemmifera) d'origine pollinique

L'obtention par culture d'antheres in vitro d'un nombre important de plante necessite de disposer d'une methode rapide pour trier les plantes selon leur niveau de ploidie. Deux methodes d'evaluation ont ete comparees: 1. la mesure de la longueur des cellules de garde des stomates, 2. le comptage des chromosomes. La mesure de la longueur des cellules de garde des stomates de l'epiderme inferieur des feuilles apparait comme une interessante alternative au comptage chromosomique. Pour obtenir des resultats fiables, les mesures doivent, dans nos conditions, etre effectuees sur 2 feuilles au moins de jeunes plantes en croissance
Associating Multi-Modal Brain Imaging Phenotypes and Genetic Risk Factors via a Dirty Multi-Task Learning Method

Brain imaging genetics becomes more and more important in brain science, which integrates genetic variations and brain structures or functions to study the genetic basis of brain disorders. The multi-modal imaging data collected by different technologies, measuring the same brain distinctly, might carry complementary information. Unfortunately, we do not know the extent to which the phenotypic variance is shared among multiple imaging modalities, which further might trace back to the complex genetic mechanism. In this paper, we propose a novel dirty multi-task sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) to study imaging genetic problems with multi-modal brain imaging quantitative traits (QTs) involved. The proposed method takes advantages of the multi-task learning and parameter decomposition. It can not only identify the shared imaging QTs and genetic loci across multiple modalities, but also identify the modality-specific imaging QTs and genetic loci, exhibiting a flexible capability of identifying complex multi-SNP-multi-QT associations. Using the state-of-the-art multi-view SCCA and multi-task SCCA, the proposed method shows better or comparable canonical correlation coefficients and canonical weights on both synthetic and real neuroimaging genetic data. In addition, the identified modality-consistent biomarkers, as well as the modality-specific biomarkers, provide meaningful and interesting information, demonstrating the dirty multi-task SCCA could be a powerful alternative method in multi-modal brain imaging genetics.
Ammonia and other microclimatic conditions at an Australian pre-export sheep assembly depot

Noxious gases produced at hazardous concentrations in animal housing systems may affect the health and wellbeing of both animals and workers. In order to determine if the gaseous emissions from a pre-export assembly depot for sheep constituted a risk, atmospheric ammonia was measured in eight sheep buildings at an Australian assembly depot. Additionally, meteorological variables and distance from excreta were measured to determine their influence on ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide concentrations. Repeat measurements were made at 12 sites in each building on 4 separate days, and four buildings were mapped using longitudinal and latitudinal transects. Concentrations of ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide were all below the recommended safety thresholds for humans and livestock. There were positive correlations between ammonia and the following variables: ambient temperature and moisture content, and negative correlations with distance from animal excreta. Understanding these relationships will help to understand the reasons for ammonia accumulation in such buildings.
Contention-Aware Routing for Thermal-Reliable Optical Networks-on-Chip

Optical network-on-chip (ONoC) architecture offers ultrahigh bandwidth, low latency, and low power dissipation for new-generation manycore systems. However, the benefits in communication performance and energy efficiency will be diminished by communication contention. The intrinsic thermal susceptibility is another challenge for ONoC designs. Under on-chip temperature variations, core functional devices suffer from significant thermal-induced optical power loss, which seriously threatens ONoCs’ reliability. In this article, we develop novel routing techniques to resolve both issues for ONoCs. By analyzing the thermal effect in ONoCs, we first present a routing criterion at the network level. Combined with device-level thermal tuning, it can implement thermal-reliable ONoCs. Two routing approaches, including a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model and a heuristic algorithm (called CAR), are further proposed to minimize communication conflicts based on guaranteed thermal reliability, and meanwhile, maximize the communication energy efficiency in the presence of on-chip thermal variations. By applying the criterion, our approaches achieve excellent performance with largely reduced complexity of design space exploration. The evaluation results based on both synthetic traffic patterns and realistic benchmarks validate the effectiveness of our approaches with an average of 126.95% improvement in communication performance and 16.12% reduction in energy overhead compared to state-of-the-art techniques. CAR only introduces 7.20% performance difference compared to the MILP model and is more scalable to large-size ONoCs.
DAS WÄRMEN DER BRUT BEI DER HONIGBIENE (APIS MELLIFERA L.)

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. DAS WÄRMEN DER BRUT BEI DER HONIGBIENE (APIS MELLIFERA L.) N. Koeniger
Evaluation of intestinal bacterial flora of conventional and organic broilers using culture-based methods

Abstract The major bacteria colonizing the intestinal tract (ileum and caecum) of organic (O) and conventional (C) chickens were counted, isolated and identified by conventional methods. Chickens were obtained from 7 conventional and 7 organic chicken farms (n=203). Intestinal sampling was performed at different ages, every 10 days, starting at 20 days until 40 and from 20 days to 80 days of age, respectively, for conventional and organic birds. Statistical analysis was performed on two separate data sets (40 days of age and all ages). The comparison of C vs O systems was analyzed with univariate and multivariate procedures. There were large differences in bacterial counts in relation to the portion of intestine, the rearing system and the farms. In the ileum of conventional birds Enterobacteria were higher than in organic birds (7.03 vs 6.09 CFUxlog/g; P<0.05), whereas the contrary was observed for Lactobacilli (6.75 vs 7.07 CFUxlog/g; P<0.05). With respect to the other microflora, the effect of farm probably masked possible differences. The effect of rearing system was more visible in the caecum than in the ileum: Enterobacteria levels were higher in C than in O chickens (7.42 vs 7.05 CFUxlog/g; P<0.01), whereas Enterococci (7.65 vs 6.55 CFUxlog/g; P<0.05), Lactobacilli (7.85 vs 7.31 CFUxlog/g; P<0.05) and total aerobia (8.12 vs 7.66 CFUxlog/g; P<0.01) counts were higher in organic chickens. Multivariate analysis of caecum microflora showed the possibility of discriminating the rearing system. In the ileum of conventional birds Enterobacteria and total aerobia increased with age, while Lactobacilli decreased. In the O system, Enterobacteria, Lactobacilli and total anaerobia showed a similar trend, whereas total aerobia and Enterococci showed the opposite trend. A similar situation was observed in the caecum. Further investigations are necessary to better assess the role and effect of the enteric flora on the productive performance and on the health status of reared chickens.
Early- and late-season grazing of orchardgrass and fescue hayfields overseeded with red clover

Low-cost alternatives to hay feeding for wintering the beef herd (Bos taurus L.) are needed to design sustainable production systems for northern Appalachia. This study was conducted to compare forage production, quality, and botanical composition of hayfields overseeded with a legume when grazed by beef cattle in early spring and late fall. Four management systems were applied to fields containing either tall fescue [Festuca arundinacea Schreb. ] or orchardgrass [Dactylis glomerata L. ], each overseeded with red clover [Trifolium pratense L. ]: (i) early spring grazing, one hay cutting, late fall grazing (GHG); (ii) two hay cuttings (HH ); (iii) early spring grazing followed by two hay cuttings (GHH); and (iv) one hay cutting followed by grazing in late fall (HG). Total dry matter (DM) was highest for the HG management. Early spring grazing (GHH and GHG) reduced spring hay yield; quality, however, as indicated by crude protein, aciddetergent fiber, and in vitro dry matter disappearance, was higher than for hay not grazed in spring (HH and HG). Fall grazing increased quality of forage grazed in early spring. Tall rescue produced more DM than orchardgrass, primarily in spring hay yield. Red clover contributed 50% of the DM of spring hay in the first year after seeding. Fall grazing extended the life of the red clover by one year : however, almost no red clover persisted into the fourth year after seeding. Results suggest that fall grazing after a single hay cutting has the potential to be a viable alternative to exclusively relying on hay for wintering the beef herd.
Rearing Broiler Sexes Separate Versus Combined

Abstract In an attempt to determine if bird performance was affected by rearing broiler sexes separate versus combined, a total of 3,348 commercial broilers was used in 3 trials. Body weight was equated per unit of floor area rather than using the common criterion of number of birds per unit of floor area. Results obtained showed that rearing broiler sexes separate versus combined on a common diet had no significant effect on body weight, feed utilization or mortality. The two stocking rates used were . 073 and . 051 square meters per bird. Data were obtained that indicated the behavioral response of broilers may differ significantly for broilers reared sexes separate versus combined. This was based on an 8-week body weight response.
The Effect of Nitrogen Fertilization on Fusarium Head Blight Development and Deoxynivalenol Contamination in Wheat

The impact of nitrogen (N) fertilization on the development of Fusarium head blight (FHB) in wheat and the resulting deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination in the kernels was studied. In a first experiment, the disease was assessed on two locations under natural infection pressure. Five different types of nitrogen fertilizer (both organic and mineral) were investigated, each applied at five input rates from 0 to 160 kg N/ha. With all fertilizers, a significant increase of disease intensity was observed with increasing N input, while the type of N fertilizer had poor or no effects on FHB. Depending on the fertilizer used, the percentage of diseased spikelets increased from 2.2% at zero N rate up to 6.6% at 160 kg N input per hectare. In a second series of trials, three spring wheat varieties including one Durum wheat line were artificially inoculated with a Fusarium graminearum and a F. culmorum strain, known producers of DON. A mineral N fertilizer was applied at five input levels from 0 to 160 kg N/ha. A significant increase in FHB intensity and DON contamination in the grain was observed with increasing N from 0 to 80 kg/ha. At higher input rates, relevant in contemporary crop husbandry, disease intensity and toxin contamination remained at constant levels. It is concluded that adaptation of N fertilization represents no relevant tool in managing FHB in practical wheat cultivation.
MICROCALORIMETRIC STUDIES ON GERMINATIONS OF CEREALS

Experiments have been performed on seedlings of many species of cultivated plants with a new Tian-Calvet microcalorimeter installed at the University of Montreal. The characteristic elements of the curve of thermogenesis are first described on wheat germinations and their variations discussed in function of temperature, preliminary dehydration, substances in solution in the soaking liquid: salts, alcohol, auxins, etc. Then comparisons are made between germinative thermogeneses of oats, rye, barley, corn, flax, tomatoes, etc., showing the numerous possible applications of microcalorimetry in plant studies and agronomy.
Use of the parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae (McIntoch) to control the cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae (L.)

The parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae accepted all stages of the cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae. The average number of mummies produced per female parasitoid was 42.8. Diaeretiella rapae did not show preference between young (first–second instars) and old (fourth instars) nymphs of the aphid. Nymph aphids younger than 4 days (third instars) produced no offspring after parasitism. The average number of offspring per aphid that was parasitized at day 5–6 (third–fourth instars) and day 7 (adults) were 3.1 and 15.3, respectively, which were much less compared with the aphid that was not parasitized (38.1). The average reproduction period for the aphids that were parasitized at day 5–6 and day 7 were 1.9 and 4.4 days, respectively and that for non‐parasitized aphids was 14.9 days. Cage experiments showed that at the ratio of 1.2 : 1 (six female wasps : five aphid adults), with three releases on day 1, 3 and 6, the percent parasitism of the offspring on day 20 was 88.9%, and the aphids were successfully controlled by the second generation of the released parasitoids. Release of cabbage plants that included both mummies and young aphids in a broccoli field, with a dose of about 2 mummies/m2, resulted in higher percentage of the broccoli plants with mummies in the treated plot compared with the control plot. The percent parasitism of the aphids on broccoli plants in the treated plot was also, with one exception, significantly higher. Seven weeks after the release of the parasitoid, the percentage of the broccoli plants with mummies was 93.3% in the treated plot and 56.7% in the control plot; the percent parasitism of the aphids were 6.7 and 1.4% in the treated and control plots, respectively. These results indicated that one release of the cabbage plants with mummies enhanced the spread of the parasitoid D. rapae and increased parasitism of the aphids in the field. More releases of the parasitoid are needed to control the aphid effectively.