Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How do science camps affect middle grade students’ image of scientists?

ABSTRACT Background: Many survey studies conducted in different countries have reported that students had stereotypical images of scientists, such as being male, old, bald, wearing eyeglasses, and working in laboratories. There are also intervention studies to introduce real scientists and change students’ stereotypical image of scientists. The current work is one such study. Purpose: To monitor the change in the image of scientists of students attending in four similar science camps. Sample: In total, 96 students participated. However, only those (78) who had taken all tests were included in analysis. Design and Methods: One-week camp was repeated four times. The camp team consisted of non-stereotypical scientists who interacted with the students throughout the camps both formally while they were guiding student inquiry into nature and informally at other times. The students were asked to draw ‘a scientist at work’, similar to Draw a Scientist Test (DAST), as pre- and post-application in all camps, and as retention in two. Non-parametric tests were applied. Results: Five common stereotypical images of scientists in pre-application were symbols of research, symbols of knowledge, symbols of technology, being male, and working in laboratory. Only decrease in being male and increase in symbols of technology from pre- to post-application were statistically significant. Another statistically significant increase was in number of scientists working in nature. When the data from two science camps with retention were combined, statistically significant changes were found in symbols of knowledge (increase from post- to retention), being male (decrease from pre- to post- and pre- to retention), working in laboratory (increase from pre- to retention), and working in nature (increase from pre- post-). Conclusion: The camps were more effective in decreasing the stereotypical image of scientists being male and introducing that science can also be conducted in nature. Other issues were discussed in the paper.
Stomatal limitation of photosynthesis in winter production of greenhouse tomato plants

In May, greenhouse tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) plants near the end of their winter production cycle were shown to exhibit a diurnal photosynthetic decrease. In order to identify the physiological causes of this decline, we compared in May the photosynthetic characteristics of the fifth youngest leaves from tomato plants of different ages corresponding to a winter production (11-month-old plants) and to a spring production (5-month-old plants). Although the leaves were developed simultaneously under the same environmental conditions, only the ones from the winter production showed a diurnal decline of the in situ CO 2 assimilation rate (A CO2 ). This was accompanied by a decline of internal CO 2 and stomatal conductance and by large accumulations of hexoses. When stomatal closure was relieved under saturated CO 2 concentration (5%) using a leaf-disc electrode system, the fifth leaves of both tomato cultures had similar maximum quantum efficiency of O 2 evolution (Φ max ), light-saturated rate of O 2 evolution (P max ) and quantum efficiency of photosystem H (PSII) photochemistry (ΔF/F m , q,. and q N ), We concluded that the diurnal decline of A CO2 observed in winter tomato production during May originates from a stomatal limitation that is not dependent on environmental conditions but rather related to the developmental stage of the plants.
Deposição da calda pulverizada por três pontas de pulverização sob diferentes condições meteorológicas

Nas pulverizacoes agricolas geralmente e dada muita importância aos produtos fitossanitarios e pouca a tecnica de aplicacao, sendo que as perdas podem ultrapassar 70% do total aplicado. A alta temperatura e a baixa umidade relativa do ar tem importante efeito sobre a pulverizacao de produtos fitossanitarios, causando evaporacao mais rapida das gotas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a variacao da deposicao da calda de pulverizacao com tres tipos de pontas (jato conico vazio, jato plano e antideriva) nas diferentes horas do dia. Uma solucao salina foi aplicada em copos de PVC, aos quais, foram adicionados agua destilada e deionizada, para leitura da condutividade eletrica. De maneira geral as pontas de pulverizacao de jato plano e antideriva nao tiveram a deposicao afetada pela variacao da temperatura e umidade relativa do ar e nao diferiram entre si, mas o mesmo nao ocorreu com a ponta de jato conico vazio onde a variacao foi de mais de 100%. Os resultados mostraram que a deposicao das gotas produzidas pela ponta de jato conico vazio foi significativamente afetada pela variacao das condicoes meteorologicas.
The influence of climate on patterns of termite eating in Australian mammals and lizards

The present paper examines patterns of termite eating in Australian mammals and lizards (total numbers of species, volume percentage of diet) relative to climate (arid, semi-arid, temperate-mesic). Most termite eaters in arid and semi-arid Australia are lizards. Termite consumptio as a proportion of total lizard diet decreases from arid to mesic climates. More mammal species are relatively termite specialized (>50%) in arid than in semi-arid and mesic regions. Termite consumption in echidnas resembles that of the lizards: relatively high in the arid and relatively low in the mesic zone. For the Dasyuridae, termites comprise only a minor fraction (< 10%) in their diet, irrespective of climate. It is argued that the climatic peculiarities of inland Australia (scant and variable rainfall) cause marked seasonality in termite availability, supporting specialized termite eaters in only the most energy-frugal forms (lizards, echidnas). Areas of future research are identified.
Management of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), in hydroponic strawberry crops: using yellow sticky traps to determine action thresholds

The relationship between western flower thrips (WFT) populations in flowers and catches on yellow sticky traps was investigated in a hydroponic strawberry crop in the Sydney area in 1999–2000. The thrips population was initially dominated by males, but by mid-summer it was composed primarily of females. At a point when approximately 60–65% of WFT on traps were female (approximately 20–30 females per trap), the overall density of thrips on traps and in the crop increased rapidly, resulting in severe damage to immature fruit. The sex ratio of 0.60–0.65 females corresponded very closely to a mean of five adult WFT per flower at the start of the trapping week, which was an infestation level previously calculated as the action threshold to prevent damage to young green fruit.
A Deep Learning Approach for Identifying User Communities Based on Geographical Preferences and Its Applications to Urban and Environmental Planning

Understanding human mobility plays a vital role in urban and environmental planning as cities continue to grow. Ubiquitous geo-location, localization technology, and availability of big-data-ready computing infrastructure have enabled the development of more sophisticated models to characterize human mobility in urban areas. In this work, our main goal is to extract spatio-temporal features that characterize user mobility and, based on the similarity of these features, identify user communities. To this end, we propose a novel approach that leverages image processing techniques to represent user geographical preferences as images and then apply deep convolutional autoencoders to extract latent spatio-temporal mobility features from these images. These features are then fed to a clustering algorithm that identifies the underlying community structures. We use a diverse urban mobility dataset to validate the proposed framework. Our results show that the proposed framework is able to significantly increase the similarity between intra-community nodes (by up to 107%) as well as dissimilarity between inter-community nodes (up to 54%) when compared against no pre-processing of the datasets, i.e without pre-processing the datasets through any feature fusion method. Moreover, it was also able to reach up to 100% improvement when compared against community identification using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Our results also show that the proposed approach yields significant increase in contact time amongst users belonging to the same community, by up to 80% when compared to the average contact time when not considering community structures, and by up to 150% when compared to the baseline. To the best of our knowledge, our proposal is the first to consider deep convolutional autoencoding to perform automatic extraction of non-linear spatio-temporal mobility features characterizing individual users from raw mobility datasets with the goal of identifying user communities.
Aspects of the reproductive biology of the grouper, Epinephelus tauvina (Forskål), in Kuwaiti waters

Gonad maturation in Epinephelus tauvina is examined over one annual reproductive cycle. The species has one major spawning period from April to May and this is associated with increasing water temperatures and relatively low salinity. The histological changes in the gonads in the female, male and transitional phase are examined, and oogenesis and spermatogenesis are described in five developmental stages. That E. tauvina is a protogynous hermaphrodite is confirmed, and sexual transition is found to occur in individuals 55–75 cm in length, and is related to spawning activity. Fecundity estimates for E. tauvina of length 35.1–62.3 cm ranged from 850 186 to 2 904 921.
Cloning and characterization of scale β‐keratins in the differentiating epidermis of geckoes show they are glycine‐proline‐serine–rich proteins with a central motif homologous to avian β‐keratins

The β‐keratins constitute the hard epidermis and adhesive setae of gecko lizards. Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of β‐keratins in epidermis of gecko lizards were cloned from mRNAs. Specific oligonucleotides were used to amplify by 3′‐ and 5′‐rapid amplification of cDNA ends analyses five specific gecko β‐keratin cDNA sequences. The cDNA coding sequences encoded putative glycine‐proline‐serine–rich proteins of 16.8–18 kDa containing 169–191 amino acids, especially 17.8–23% glycine, 8.4–14.8% proline, 14.2–18.1% serine. Glycine‐rich repeats are localized toward the initial and end regions of the protein, while a central region, rich in proline, has a strand conformation (β‐pleated fold) likely responsible for the formation of β‐keratin filaments. It shows high homology with a core region of other lizard keratins, avian scale, and feather keratins. Northern blotting and reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis show a higher β‐keratin gene expression in regenerating epidermis compared with normal epidermis. In situ hybridization confirms that mRNAs for these proteins are expressed in cells of the differentiating oberhautchen cells and β‐cells. Expression in adhesive setae of climbing lamellae was shown by RT‐PCR. Southern blotting analysis revealed that the proteins are encoded by a multigene family. PCR analysis showed that the genes are presumably located in tandem along the DNA and are transcribed from the same DNA strand like in avian β‐keratins. Developmental Dynamics 236:374–388, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Tetramicra brevifilum, a potential threat to farmed turbot Scophthalmus maximus

The development of turbot Scophthalmus maximus culture has resulted in an increase of pathological problems involving mainly bacterial infections. During 1990, mortalities were detected in some grow-out facilities in Galicia, Spain, and were attributed to the microsporidian Tetramicra brevifilum Matthews & Matthews, 1980. The outbreak lasted for 3Y2 mo. The start of the outbreak was associated with a drop in temperature. Affected fish showed an erratic swimming behaviour, swelling of different parts of the body, darkening of the dorsal surface, and overproduction of mucus on the surface of the body. Fish with a high intensity of infection had jelly-like muscles. Small xenomas formed by T brevifilum were found to be associated with regressive changes of the host tissue, with agglomerations of mature spores eliciting sometimes inflammatory reaction of the host. The agglutinin titers detected in naturally infected fish were low. There was a light host response. Electrophoresis of sera from naturally infected fish showed an additional protein band (molecular weight: 128 kDa) not found in uninfected samples. Results suggest that although turbot infected with microsporidians are immunologically impaired, the immunodepression does not increase the susceptibility of fish to vibriosis.
S3-NET

Machine reading comprehension question answering (MRC-QA) is the task of understanding the context of a given passage to find a correct answer within it. A passage is composed of several sentences; therefore, the length of the input sentence becomes longer, leading to diminished performance. In this article, we propose S3-NET, which adds sentence-based encoding to solve this problem. S3-NET, which is based on a simple recurrent unit architecture, is a deep learning model that solves the MRC-QA by applying matching network to sentence-level encoding. In addition, S3-NET utilizes self-matching networks to compute attention weight for its own recurrent neural network sequences. We perform MRC-QA for the SQuAD dataset of English and MindsMRC dataset of Korean. The experimental results show that for SQuAD, the S3-NET model proposed in this article produces 71.91% and 74.12% exact match and 81.02% and 82.34% F1 in single and ensemble models, respectively, and for MindsMRC, our model achieves 69.43% and 71.28% exact match and 81.53% and 82.77% F1 in single and ensemble models, respectively.
Making it Work

While doctoral education is growing in the United States, attrition from doctoral programs is high; 40-60% of students who begin doctoral programs do not complete them. Previous research has explored reasons for attrition, but little research has examined persistence, and none have looked at persistence for women during and after pregnancy. This qualitative study explored female doctoral students and graduates’ (n=28) attributions of persistence to completion in their professional healthcare doctoral programs (57% social work) after a pregnancy and/or birth. Two primary themes emerged from this study. First, women attributed their persistence in the program to internal resources such as determination, organization, discipline, and the ability to assess needs and shift resources, schedules, plans, or expectations to meet those needs. Second, some women attributed their ability to persist in their program to good luck, in terms of fertility, pregnancy timing, expectations of the student, and family friendly advisors and programs. Dissertation chairs and advisors can use these findings to more effectively support pregnant and parenting students, including helping them build important skills and reflect on implicit messages about caregiving women who are doctoral students.
A RECONSIDERATION OF LIVING AND FOSSIL PYROPHACUS STEIN, 1883 (DINOPHYCEAE) 1, 2

Three previously described dinoflagellates (2 “varieties” and a “form”) that comprise the marine genus Pyrophacus Stein, 1883, are allocated, to 3 separate species for the first time after demonstration of appropriate discontinuities in their respective theca and cyst morphologies. Formerly they were called P. horologium Stein var. horologium, P. horologium var. steinii Schiller and, Pyrophacus Form B1 of Steidinger and Davis; they become P. horologium Stein, P. steinii (Schiller) nov. comb. , and P. vancampoae (Rossignol) nov. comb. The newly discovered cyst stage of the latter is identical with the fossil dinoflagellate Tuberculodinium vancampoae (Rossignol) Wall, whose unusual morphology is reinterpreted to include an oblate body, 4 rows of intratabular tubercules, and a uniquely located hypotractal (posterior antapical) archeopyle. The outer wall of the newly discovered benthic encysted stage of P. horologium Stein is gelatinous and agglutinating in behavior and comparable with the amorphous “Kalyptra” that constitutes the outer wall layer of several extinct Mesozoic and Danian fossil dinoflagellates.
Diet specialization and brood parasitism in cuckoo species

Abstract Brood parasitism is a breeding strategy adopted by many species of cuckoos across the world. This breeding strategy influences the evolution of life histories of brood parasite species. In this study, we tested whether the degree on diet specialization is related to the breeding strategy in cuckoo species, by comparing brood parasite and nonparasite species. We measured the gradient of diet specialization of cuckoos, by calculating the Gini coefficient, an index of inequality, on the multiple traits describing the diet of species. The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion on a scale between 0 and 1, reflecting a gradient from low to high specialization, respectively. First, we tested the strength of the phylogenetic signal of diet specialization index among cuckoo species worldwide. Then, we ran phylogenetic generalized least square (PGLS) models to compare diet specialization, distribution range, and body mass of parasitic and nonparasitic cuckoo species, considering the phylogenetic signal of data. After adjusting for the phylogenetic signal of the data and considering both, species distribution range and species body mass, brood parasitic cuckoos were characterized by higher diet specialization than nonbrood parasitic species. Brood parasitic species were also characterized by a larger breeding distribution range than nonparasitic species. The findings of this study provide an additional understanding of the cuckoos’ ecology, relating diet and breeding strategies, information that could be important in conservation ecology.
Habitat use by Astyanax taeniatus (Jenyns, 1842) (Characiformes: Characidae) in a coastal stream from Southeast Brazil

The habitat use of a stream-dwelling Astyanax taeniatus from the State of Rio de Janeiro was investigated. We performed 12 h of underwater observation in a 200 m long stretch in the upper Roncador stream and quantified the following microhabitat descriptors: (i) water velocity, (ii) distance from the stream bank, (iii) substratum, and (iv) water column depth. Microhabitat selectivity was analyzed by comparing the microhabitat used by fish and the microhabitat available in the study site as well as by applying the Ivlev Electivity Index to the microhabitat use data. Differences in the use and availability of the various microhabitats revealed non-stochastic patterns of spatial occupation by A. taeniatus, which was selective for two of the four analyzed microhabitats. Our findings indicated that A. taeniatusis associated with habitats that have higher depths, low water velocity, and sand and bedrock substratum.
Behavioural insights teams in practice: nudge missions and methods on trial

Behavioural and experimental projects have become increasingly popular with policymakers. Behavioural insights teams have used several policy design and implementation tools drawn from behavioural sciences, especially randomised controlled trials, to test the design of ‘nudge’ interventions. This approach has attained discursive legitimacy in government agencies seeking to use the best available evidence for behaviourally informed, evidence-based policy innovation. We examine the practices of governmental behavioural insights teams in Australia, drawing on two research projects that included interviews with key personnel. We find that teams make strong commitments to using and promoting randomised controlled trials in government policy innovation. Nevertheless, some members of these teams are beginning to appreciate the constraints of relying solely on randomised controlled trials in the development of behavioural public policy. We conclude that while an initial focus on rigorous trials helped behavioural insights teams establish themselves in policymaking, strict adherence may represent a risk to their long-term growth and relevance.
Neotropical Copestylum (Diptera, Syrphidae) breeding in bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) including 22 new species

Twenty-three species of Copestylum (Diptera, Syrphidae) were reared from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Trinidad from 1998 to 2004. Twenty-two were new species. We describe these new species, their breeding sites, and the third stage larva and/or the puparium of all 23 species. Adults had species-specific head shapes and colour patterns, but similarities between 14 of the species enabled two groups and three subgroups to be recognized. Nonetheless, the high level of morphological disparity suggests independent colonizations of bromeliads. Adult colour patterns appear to be predominantly cryptic in function and based on reflectiveness derived from matt to shiny integumental ground colours, combined with overlying areas of variously coloured hairs, dust, and pruinosity. In addition, disruptive spots, bands, and vittae occur on the face, thoracic pleurites, and second tergite. Larvae were saprophagous in either live or dead bromeliads with no overlap between categories. A major factor explaining variation in larval morphology could be access to food. Larvae in live bromeliads are characterized by varying levels of dorso-ventral flattening, and modifications to the mouthparts and prothorax. These features appear to facilitate feeding in the narrow spaces between overlapping bromeliad leaves. Larvae exploiting dead bromeliads are characterized by varying levels of armature to the thorax, and extensions to the anal segment. Armature either consists of arrangements of sclerotized spicules distributed at various places on the thorax or large hooks on the lateral margins. Armoured thoraces facilitate burrowing through decaying tissue, and extended anal segments may reduce exposure during respiration. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2007, 150, 267–317.
The Aggregation of Tracking-and-Timing Visitor-Use Data of Museum Exhibitions for Benchmarks of “Thorough Use”

Abstract Understanding the behavior of visitors in museum exhibitions is essential to the creation of effective presentations of meaningful content and experiences for the public. This article summarizes a recent aggregation of 65 tracking-and-timing studies that builds on the data for 110 older studies previously published and examines the issue of “thorough use” with two numerical indexes – the sweep rate index (SRI) and the percentage of diligent visitors (%DV). These metrics reveal patterns of the most basic evidence of visitors’ engagement with exhibitions. In addition, a metascattergram visually presents the variables along with benchmarks – 300 SRI and 25% DV – that can be used to compare the data from one exhibition to another or to compare the same traveling exhibition at different sites. SRI and %DV contribute useful measures for discussions about diagnosing and improving audience engagement in exhibitions, and the process of collecting and analyzing the data is a useful activity for museum professional development.