Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Updating the Distribution of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Texas Using Community Science, State Agencies, and Natural History Collections

Abstract. The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is one of largest terrestrial mammals found in Texas. Despite the black bear's large size and charismatic nature, its distribution across the state has been difficult to determine due to outdated distribution maps. Although recent sighting reports indicate that the current distribution of black bears in Texas may be expanding in some areas, researching changes in black bear populations can be difficult and cost prohibitive. Data from community science initiatives and natural history collections can be useful to better understand species distributions and ecology. We used records from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, iNaturalist, and VertNet to describe the distribution of U. americanus in Texas. Our results indicate that black bears may not be widely distributed across Texas and may be breeding in only a small number of counties. Our study highlights the usefulness of successful community science programs and the long-term historical importance of natural history collection records and natural resource agency data sets in better understanding geographic distributions of various species, including U. americanus. These initiatives paired with improved communication and collaboration between natural history collections, community scientists, and municipal, state, and federal natural resource and wildlife agencies can provide valuable information for a variety of species and facilitate future research.
An Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for Selection Problem

To tackle the QoS-based service selection problem, an efficient ant colony service selection algorithm called CASS is proposed in this paper. In this algorithm, a skyline query process is used to filtering the candidates related each service class and a clustering based shrinking process is used to guide the ant search directions. We evaluate our approach experimentally using standard real datasets and synthetically generated datasets, and compared with the recently proposed related service selection algorithms. It reveals very encouraging results in terms of the quality of solution, and the processing time required.
The Role of Family Management and Management Control Systems in Promoting Technological Innovation in Family SMEs

This paper seeks to resolve the controversy regarding the relationship between family management and technological innovation outcomes. In contrast to prior studies, we focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and go beyond the traditional input-output statistical analysis, by introducing the mediating effect of the use of management control systems (MCS). We also further examine heterogeneity among family firms, studying whether a greater family management influences, directly or indirectly, on technological innovation outcomes. Our results from a data consists of 199 Spanish family-owned small and medium enterprises (FSMEs) were not able to indicate a significant direct influence of the level of family management on technological innovation outcome but supported the notion that the utilization of MCS mediated the above relationship.
You are not alone: Smartphone use, friendship satisfaction, and anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis

Due to ‘stay-at-home’ measures, individuals increasingly relied on smartphones for social connection and for obtaining information about the COVID-19 pandemic. In a two-wave panel survey (NTime2 = 416), we investigated associations between different types of smartphone use (i.e., communicative and non-communicative), friendship satisfaction, and anxiety during the first lockdown in Austria. Our findings revealed that communicative smartphone use increased friendship satisfaction over time, validating how smartphones can be a positive influence in difficult times. Friendship satisfaction decreased anxiety after one month, signaling the importance of strong friendship networks during the crisis. Contrary to our expectations, non-communicative smartphone use had no effects on friendship satisfaction or anxiety over time. Reciprocal effects showed that anxiety increased both types of smartphone use over time. These findings are discussed in the context of mobile media effects related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health beliefs and adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures: a quasi-experimental study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on health beliefs and adherence of elderly people to fall prevention measures. METHODS This is a quasi-experimental study, carried out at the Senior Citizens' Center. Sixty-eight elderly completed the intervention. The intervention consisted of four meetings focused on beliefs about falls and prevention, and the evaluation occurred at baseline and 30 days after completion. RESULTS The elderly were predominantly women (83.82%), with one to four years of schooling (36.76%), with health problems (95.59%), and 48.53% had fallen. There was a significant increase in perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and total health belief score post educational intervention. By adding total to partial adherence, there was a significant increase in the adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures after the educational intervention. CONCLUSION Educational intervention was able to improve the beliefs and adherence of the elderly to fall prevention measures.
Evaluation of Rayleigh damping and its influence on engineering demand parameter estimates

The effects of Rayleigh damping model on the engineering demand parameters of two steel moment‐resisting frame buildings were evaluated. Two‐dimensional models of the buildings were created and response history analysis were conducted for three different hazard levels. The response history analysis results indicate that mass‐proportional damping leads to high damping forces compared with restoring forces and may lead to overestimation of floor acceleration demands for both buildings. Stiffness‐proportional damping, on the other hand, is observed to suppress the higher‐mode effects in the nine‐story building resulting in lower story drift demands in the upper floors compared with other damping models. Rayleigh damping models, which combine mass‐proportional and stiffness‐proportional components, that are anchored at reduced modal frequencies lead to reasonable damping forces and floor acceleration demands for both buildings and does not suppress higher‐mode effects in the nine‐story building. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Near side, far side, uphill, downhill : Impact of bus stop location on bus delay

One of the factors affecting where bus stops should be located is the expected delay associated with the stop location. On hills, the effect of gravity on already weak diesel engines can lead to considerable additional delay if a bus has to accelerate from a stop. An empirical bus acceleration profile, modified to account for gravity, was applied to constant grade, sag curve, and crest curve profiles. The marginal impact of grade on stopping delay ranged from -4 to 11 s, depending on grade. At signalized intersections, a deterministic model was created that accounted for deceleration, acceleration, and queue interference. Relative to a stop placed away from an intersection, far-side stop placement either causes a very small reduction in delay or has no effect. Near-side placement can reduce delay in a few cases such as reserved bus lanes, but more often it increases delay, sometimes considerably depending on factors such as red ratio, volume:capacity ratio, cycle length, and stop setback. Measures that re.
Tunable liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometer filter for wavelength-division multiplexing communication systems

We explain how to obtain the bandwidth and tunable range required for wavelength-division multiplexing communication systems and how to design tunable liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot interferometer filters. The main factors determining the performance are liquid-crystal loss, mirror loss, surface roughness, and parallelism, as well as mirror reflectivity and cavity gap. Experimental results closely agree with the designed performance. Temperature dependence, response time, acceptable input power, and reliability are investigated. Pigtailed polarization-independent filter modules with a Peltier controller are made and are shown to have low polarization dependence ( >
A model for the time- and bias-dependence of p-MOSFET degradation

Physical properties of both electron trapping and detrapping are identified to influence the degradation behavior of p-MOS transistors. Focusing on electron trapping first, we find as a decisive feature a spatially growing region of filled traps in the vicinity of the drain. Due to an exponential decrease of the electron injection current as a function of distance to the drain, its length grows logarithmically over time resulting in a logarithmic time dependence of the degradation. The logarithmic growth of this region is proven by means of charge-pumping experiments, whereas the logarithmic time dependence of the degradation itself is readily visible in the transistor current. Including electron-detrapping, the model permits a consistent description of both time- and bias-dependence of the degradation thereby leading to an improved expression for the lifetime of p-MOS transistors. >
The Effect of Corporate Governance Mechanism on Intellectual Capital Disclosure of High IC-Intensive Companies in Indonesia and Malaysia

Research aims: This study examines the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, such as board size, CEO duality, number of the audit committee, board gender, and family ownership, on intellectual capital disclosures.Design/Methodology/Approach: The sample study was high intellectual capital (IC)-intensive companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and Malaysia Stock during 2017-2018.Research findings: For Indonesia, the results revealed that the number of the audit committee and board size had a positive and significant effect on intellectual capital disclosures. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, the results showed that audit committees had a positive and significant effect on intellectual capital disclosures.Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study adds literature on the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on intellectual capital disclosure of high IC-intensive companies in the development of the country context.
The Impact of Merger and Acquisition on Investor Reaction and Acquirer Firm’s Financial Performance in Technology Firms

Nowadays, technology sectors are continuously developing through merger and acquisition activities. Previous literature found that mergers and acquisitions affect both investor reaction and firm's financial performance on separate studies. However, there were contradictory results between the positive and negative impacts. Therefore, this study aims to simultaneously search the impact of mergers and acquisitions on investor reaction and acquirer firm's financial performance. The technology sector is chosen in this study as there are fewer studies regarding investor reaction and financial performance in this sector. The investor reaction is measured using Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR). Whereas an acquirer firm's financial performance is measured using Return on Asset (ROA). This study used companies' data that have merger and acquisition transactions from 2015 through 2019. To be included as a sample, the company must have a headquarter in Asia and must be a public company in the technology sector. The data analyzing method used in this study is Ordinary Least Square (OLS). The findings suggest that mergers and acquisitions have a positive and statistically significant impact on investor reaction in the short term. However, the positive impact on the acquirer firm’s financial performance is not statistically significant. Due to restrictions in accessing internal company's data, this study could only be conducted on public companies. This study contributes to previous literature related to investor reaction and firm’s performance as both of them are rarely tested simultaneously in previous studies especially in the technology sector.
Model-Uncertainty Impact and Damage-Detection Accuracy in Plate Girder

The impact of model uncertainty on the damage–prediction accuracy of a nondestructive damage–detection technique when applied to a model plate girder is assessed. First, a damage–detection algorithm to locate and size damage from few mode shapes of structures is outlined. Next, locations and magnitudes of damage in the model plate girder are predicted by using the damage–detection algorithm. Finally, damage–prediction accuracy for the model plate girder is estimated as a function of model uncertainties that are most likely or exist in the damage–detection procedure of the model plate girder. By applying the approach to the model plate girder, it is observed that damage can be confidently located with a relatively small localization error and a relatively small false–negative (i.e., missing detection of true damage locations) error but a relatively large false–positive (i.e., prediction of locations that are not damaged) error. It is also observed that severity of damage can be estimated with a relatively large error.
Aerodynamics of a Family of Three Highly Loaded Low-Pressure Turbine Airfoils: Measured Effects of Reynolds Number and Turbulence Intensity in Steady Flow

The steady, midspan aerodynamic performance of a family of three low pressure (LP) turbine airfoils has been investigated in a low-speed cascade wind tunnel. The baseline profile has a Zweifel coefficient of 1.08. To examine the influence of increased loading as well as the loading distribution, two additional airfoils were designed, each with 25% higher loading than the baseline version. All three airfoils have the same design inlet and outlet flow angles. The aerodynamic performance was investigated for Reynolds numbers ranging from 25,000 to 150,000 (based on the axial chord and inlet velocity) and for values of freestream turbulence intensity of 1.5% and 4%. The flow field was measured with a three-hole pressure probe. Also, detailed loading distributions were obtained for all three airfoils using surface static pressure taps. The baseline airfoil and the new aft-loaded airfoil showed a separation bubble on the suction side of the airfoil under most of the conditions examined. In addition, a sudden and intermittent stall was observed at low Reynolds numbers for the new aft-loaded airfoil. The relatively short separation bubble would abruptly “burst” and fail to reattach. As the Reynolds number was decreased over a narrow range, the percentage of time that the flow was fully-separated increased to 100%. By comparison, the separation bubble on the baseline airfoil gradually increased in size in an orderly way as the Reynolds number was decreased. The new front-loaded airfoil provided the most encouraging performance: no separation bubble was present except at the very lowest Reynolds numbers. The absence of a separation bubble also had a favourable effect on the loss behaviour of this airfoil: despite its much higher aerodynamic loading, it exhibited very similar midspan losses to those observed for the baseline airfoil.Copyright © 2006 by ASME
The Influence of Driver Stress, Partial-Vehicle Automation, and Subjective State on Driver Performance

The present study addressed the effects of stress, partial-vehicle automation, and subjective state on simulated vehicle driving. 168 college students participated. Participants in the stress-induction condition completed a ‘winter’ drive which included periodic loss-of-control episodes. Participants in the no-stressinduction condition were not exposed to loss of control. Participants then completed a test phase, during which they drove in one of three conditions varying in level of automation. Manipulation checks demonstrated that both the stress manipulation and level of automation influenced subjective state. Driver performance data were analyzed by means of hierarchical multiple regressions. Vehicle automation but not the stress induction influenced performance. In addition, individual differences in subjective task engagement and worry were associated with performance. Resource theory provides a framework that partially but not completely explains the impact of stress factors on performance. Data further show that analysis of individual differences is essential for predicting the effects of stress factors.
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Athrotaxis cupressoides

Abstract Athrotaxis cupressoides (Cupressaceae) is a Tasmanian endemic conifer. It is mainly threatened by habitat fragmentation and limited distribution, yet little is known about its genomic background. In this study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of the species was assembled and annotated. The cp genome of A. cupressoides is a circular of 134,248 bp in size, where the inverted repeat regions (IRs) were lost. A total of 112 unique genes were annotated, including 78 proteins-coding genes, four rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes. The maximum likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree indicates that the subfamily Athrotaxidoideae, to which A. cupressoides belongs, is sister to a clade including four subfamilies including Sequoioideae, Taxodioideae, Cupressoideae, and Callitroideae. The complete cp genome will be helpful to further studies on the conservation of this species and the evolutionary history of Cupressaceae.
THe callingSM network: A global wireless communication system

There is a very large demand for basic telephone service in developing nations, and remote parts of industrialized nations, which cannot be met by conventional wireline and cellular systems. This is the world' largest unserved market. We describe a system which uses recent advances in active phased arrays, fast-packet switching technology, adaptive routeing, and light spacecraft technology, in part based on the work of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on recently-declassified work done on the Strategic Defense Initiative, to make it possible to address this market with a global telephone network based on a large low-Earth-orbit constellation of identical satellites. A telephone utility can use such a network to provide the same modern basic and enhanced telephone services offered by telephone utilities in the urban centres of fully-industrialized nations. Economies of scale permit capital and operating costs per subscriber low enough to provide a service to all subscribers, regardless of location, at prices comparable to the same services in urban areas of industrialized nations, while generating operating profits great enough to attract the capital needed for its construction. The bandwidth needed to support the capacity needed to gain these economies of scale requires that the system use Ka-band frequencies. This choice of frequencies places unusual constraints on the network design, and in particular forces the use of a large number of satellites. Global demand for basic and enhanced telephone service is great enough to support at least three networks of the size described herein. The volume of advanced components, and services such as launch services, required to construct and replace these networks is sufficient to propel certain industries to market leadership positions in the early 21st Century.
The Effect of the Special Olympics’ Unified Program upon the Attitudes towards Inclusion of Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Greece

The study examined the effect of the Unified Sports program (UNS) (Play Unified: Learn Unified) upon the attitudes towards the inclusion of individuals with intellectual disability (ID), from the perspective of their non ID counterparts. A questionnaire was used for that purpose, with 12 items presented on a 5 point Likert type scale, examining the behavioral (7 items) and emotional (5 items) domains of the attitudes construct. Further, 10 brief semi-structured interviews were held, with 2 principles, 7 faculty members and 1 student, to provide more in depth data and validate the results. A total of 219 students from general schools in the wider area of Athens, aging 12 to 18 years old, provided their responses before and after the UNS program (pre and post tested). The statistical analyses revealed that the majority had no previous experience with ID sports. Through the UNS program, however, they were more sensitized, willing to exchange messages and provide interpersonal support to their ID counterparts. These findings were further supported by the semi-structured interviews. The results are discussed in accordance with the attitudes theory, previous studies conducted in Greece and the respective limitations. Overall, the UNS programs appear as a promising vehicle to promote the inclusion of individuals with ID through sports in the communities of their same age peers without disabilities.
Lessons Learned from Multiphase Reconstruction Project

Because of the constraints of the existing building, a reconstruction project is more complicated and difficult than a new project, and a multiphase reconstruction project is even more complicated and difficult than a single-phase reconstruction project because of the additional constraints imposed by the owner to ensure the normal operation of the remaining portion of the building. In this study, the experiences gained during the first five phases of the multiphase reconstruction of the Technological Institute building on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois, are examined through a review of the construction documents and interviews with representatives of virtually all the major parties involved in the project. The problems encountered are then analyzed within the framework of the contractual approach used and the experiences accumulated, primarily from the construction of new facilities, to deduce the variety of lessons learned. Chief among these lessons are: (1) The strong need for.
Turbulence and equatorial waves in moist and dry shallow‐water flow, excited through mesoscale stochastic forcing

Turbulence and large‐scale waves in the tropical region are studied using the spherical shallow‐water equations. With mesoscale vorticity forcing, both moist and dry systems show an upscale transfer of kinetic energy which is dominated by rotational modes, scales as a power law with −5/3 exponent, requires eddy–eddy interactions and ranges from the forcing scale to the respective equatorial deformation radius. At larger planetary scales, the divergent component of the energy increases and we see a footprint of tropical waves. The dry system shows a signature of the entire family of equatorial waves, while the moist simulations show only low‐frequency Rossby, Kelvin and mixed Rossby–gravity waves with an equivalent depth that matches rapid condensation estimates. Initially, runs with interactive moisture exhibit a weak inverse transfer of moisture variance as well exponential growth across a range of length‐scales. This results in an equilibrium moist energy spectrum obeying a − 2 power law and the formation of moisture aggregates. Once formed, aggregates propagate westward in the Tropics with speeds of the order of a few metres per second. In contrast, forcing divergence does not excite an inverse transfer, and injected energy remains trapped at the forcing scale. Height (i.e., temperature or mass) forcing results in a peak at the forcing scale, but also generates large‐scale waves and projects onto rotational modes which undergo an inverse energy transfer. Similarly, forcing the moisture field by itself produces an inverse transfer of rotational energy and a well‐formed large‐scale equatorial wave spectrum. Notably, the height‐ and moisture‐forced inverse transfers are different in nature. Specifically, they require the presence of ambient planetary rotation. In all, these experiments demonstrate that the vortical and divergent wind are inextricably linked with the evolving moisture field, and that large‐scale equatorial waves co‐exist with synoptic‐scale moist turbulence.