Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nest‐Site Selection in Individual Loggerhead Turtles and Consequences for Doomed‐Egg Relocation

Abstract: Relocation of eggs is a common strategy for conservation of declining reptilian populations around the world. If individuals exhibit consistency in their nest‐site selection and if nest‐site selection is a heritable trait, relocating eggs deposited in vulnerable locations may impose artificial selection that would maintain traits favoring unsuccessful nest‐site selection. Conversely, if most individuals scatter their nesting effort and individuals that consistently select unsuccessful nest sites are uncommon, then artificial selection would be less of a concern. During the 2005 nesting season of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) at Mon Repos beach, Queensland, Australia, we measured the perpendicular distance from the original nest site to a stationary dune baseline for in situ (unrelocated) and relocated clutches of eggs. We observed the fate of in situ clutches and predicted what would have been the fate of relocated clutches if they had not been moved by mapping tidal inundation and storm erosion lines. In 2005 turtles deposited an average of 3.84 nests and did not consistently select nest sites at particular distances from the stationary dune baseline. Selection of unsuccessful nest sites was distributed across the nesting population; 80.3% of the turtles selected at least one unsuccessful nest site and when previous breeding seasons were included, 97% selected at least one unsuccessful nest site. Females with nesting experience selected more successful nest sites than females with little or no experience. Relocating eggs vulnerable to tidal inundation and erosion saves the progeny from a large percentage of the population and the progeny from individuals who may in subsequent years nest successfully. Our results suggest that doomed‐egg relocation does not substantially distort the gene pool in the eastern Australian loggerhead stock and should not be abandoned as a strategy for the conservation of marine turtle populations.
Synchronization of mobile autonomous agents with M-nearest-neighbor rule

This paper investigates a class of flocks with an M-nearest-neighbor rule, where each agent's neighbors are determined according to M nearest agents with M being a given integer, rather than all the agents within a fixed metric distance as in the well-known Vicsek's model. We will prove the synchronization of the model under reasonable conditions imposed only on the system's speed and the number M, but without resorting to any sort of connectivity assumptions on the trajectory of the system. In particular, we will prove that if the number M is proportional to the population size n, then for any speed v, the system will synchronize with large probability if the population size is large enough.
Using DNA mechanics to predict in vitro nucleosome positions and formation energies

In eukaryotic genomes, nucleosomes function to compact DNA and to regulate access to it both by simple physical occlusion and by providing the substrate for numerous covalent epigenetic tags. While competition with other DNA-binding factors and action of chromatin remodeling enzymes significantly affect nucleosome formation in vivo, nucleosome positions in vitro are determined by steric exclusion and sequence alone. We have developed a biophysical model, DNABEND, for the sequence dependence of DNA bending energies, and validated it against a collection of in vitro free energies of nucleosome formation and a set of in vitro nucleosome positions mapped at high resolution. We have also made a first ab initio prediction of nucleosomal DNA geometries, and checked its accuracy against the nucleosome crystal structure. We have used DNABEND to design both strong and weak histone- binding sequences, and measured the corresponding free energies of nucleosome formation. We find that DNABEND can successfully predict in vitro nucleosome positions and free energies, providing a physical explanation for the intrinsic sequence dependence of histone–DNA interactions.
A New Approach to Knowledge Base Revision in DL-Lite

Revising knowledge bases (KBs) in description logics (DLs) in a syntax-independent manner is an important, nontrivial problem for the ontology management and DL communities. Several attempts have been made to adapt classical model-based belief revision and update techniques to DLs, but they are restricted in several ways. In particular, they do not provide operators or algorithms for general DL KB revision. The key difficulty is that, unlike propositional logic, a DL KB may have infinitely many models with complex (and possibly infinite) structures, making it difficult to define and compute revisions in terms of models. In this paper, we study general KBs in a specific DL in the DL-Lite family. We introduce the concept of features for such KBs, develop an alternative semantic characterization of KBs using features (instead of models), define two specific revision operators for KBs, and present the first algorithm for computing best approximations for syntax-independent revisions of KBs.
Machine Audition: Principles, Algorithms and Systems

Machine audition is the study of algorithms and systems for the automatic analysis and understanding of sound by machine. It has recently attracted increasing interest within several research communities, such as signal processing, machine learning, auditory modeling, perception and cognition, psychology, pattern recognition, and artificial intelligence. However, the developments made so far are fragmented within these disciplines, lacking connections and incurring potentially overlapping research activities in this subject area. Machine Audition: Principles, Algorithms and Systems contains advances in algorithmic developments, theoretical frameworks, and experimental research findings. This book is useful for professionals who want an improved understanding about how to design algorithms for performing automatic analysis of audio signals, construct a computing system for understanding sound, and learn how to build advanced human-computer interactive systems.
A Disturbance Rejection Measure for Limit Cycle Walkers: The Gait Sensitivity Norm

The construction of more capable bipedal robots highly depends on the ability to measure their performance. This performance is often measured in terms of speed or energy efficiency, but these properties are secondary to the robot's ability to prevent falling given the inevitable presence of disturbances, i.e., its disturbance rejection. Existing disturbance rejection measures (zero moment point, basin of attraction, Floquet multipliers) are unsatisfactory due to conservative assumptions, long computation times, or bad correlation to actual disturbance rejection. This paper introduces a new measure called the Gait Sensitivity Norm that combines a short calculation time with good correlation to actual disturbance rejection. It is especially suitable for implementation on limit cycle walkers, a class of bipeds that currently excels in terms of energy efficiency, but still has limited disturbance rejection capabilities. The paper contains an explanation of the Gait Sensitivity Norm and a validation of its value on a simple walking model as well as on a real bipedal robot. The disturbance rejection of the simple model is studied for variations of floor slope, foot radius, and hip spring stiffness. We show that the calculation speed is as fast as the standard Floquet multiplier analysis, while the actual disturbance rejection is correctly predicted with 93% correlation on average.
Optimal Search of Centroid for Open Source Intelligence Purpose using Partitioning Algorithm

In internet billions amount of information published through no of ways like web pages, social media and website. Searching and analyzing these data is very complex task. Using partitioning algorithm for open source intelligence purpose optimal search can be implemented which help to convert unstructured data to structured data and also analysis and extraction the information significantly. In partitioning algorithm we use binary search technique. Each algorithm has its own advantages, limitations and shortcomings. Therefore, introducing novel and effective approaches for data clustering is an open and active research area. The binary search algorithm for data clustering that not only finds high quality clusters but also converges to the same solution in different runs. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) aims at presenting valuable information based on publicly available data. As it might be expected, the Internet is a primary example of such data source. By applying text mining tools on a myriad of available services: online news, blogs, mailing lists, forums, portals, and a great amount of insight might be provided into almost any topic.
A multi-word password proposal (gridWord) and exploring questions about science in security research and usable security evaluation

Our agenda is two-fold. First, we introduce and give a technical description of gridWord, a novel knowledge-based authentication mechanism involving elements of both text and graphical passwords. It is intended to address a new research challenge arising from the evolution of Internet access devices, and which may arguably be viewed as motivating a new paradigm: remote access password schemes which accommodate users who alternately login from devices with, and without, full physical keyboards (e.g., users alternating between desktops with easy text input, and mobile devices with tiny or touch-screen virtual keyboards). While the core ideas behind gridWord are well-formed, and may be viewed as a new variation of old (text-based) ideas of building passwords from multiple words, many aspects including recommended parameterization and configuration details, preferred platforms, and primary targets of application remain to be explored in detail. We nonetheless solicit early feedback from the community for several reasons, related to our second agenda item: we use gridWord as a concrete target to focus exploration of a number of questions involving (a) the evaluation of usable security proposals, (b) the often conflicting objectives of various parties involved in the publication of academic research, and (c) the relationship between the design and publication of new security mechanisms and the pursuit of scientific knowledge through experimentation. We believe the second agenda item is important to pursue, given our observation that experts in usability and security have widely varying expectations, and lack consensus on what is important for the evaluation, comparison, and publication of usable security proposals.
Preparation, characterization, and properties of fullerene–vinylpyrrolidone copolymers

Water‐soluble fullerene (C60)–N‐vinylpyrrolidone copolymers were prepared by the radical polymerization method. The structures of the copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, UV–Vis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, gel permeation chromatography, thermogravimetric analyses, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results presented show that C60 and vinylpyrrolidone (VP) can be copolymerized under different conditions. With a constant benzoyl peroxide amount, C60 contents in the copolymers increase with increasing initial C60:VP reactant ratio. The assembly behavior of water‐soluble C60–N‐vinylpyrrolidone copolymers was investigated by SEM. The results show that the copolymers create morphology that is sphere‐like. Fullerene‐containing micro‐/nano‐sized copolymer fibers were prepared, for the first time, by electrospinning. The cytotoxicity to cancer cell lines of the copolymers was evaluated by 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide and confocal laser scanning microscope. The results show that copolymers exhibit better cytotoxicity against HeLa cells and mouse osteogenic sarcoma cells (cytotoxicity of copolymers is better than that of fullerene complex). The mechanism of fullerene–VP copolymerization was investigated for the first time. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2012
Faceted Navigation on Text

This paper proposes a method which is not for summarization but for extracting multiple facets from a text according to the keyword sets representing readers' interests, so that readers can obtain the interested facets and carry out faceted navigation on text. A facet is a meaningful combination of the subsets of the text. Previous text process technologies are mostly based on text features such as word frequency, sentence location, syntax analysis and discourse analysis. These approaches neglect the cognition process of human reading. The proposed method considers human reading process. Experiments show that the facet extraction is effective and robust.
Antiviral activity and hepatoprotection by heme oxygenase-1 in hepatitis B virus infection.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Induction of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) has been shown to be beneficial in immune-mediated liver damage. We now investigate the effects of HO-1 induction in models of human hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. METHODS Adenoviral transfer of an HBV 1.3 genome into wild-type mice was used as a model for acute hepatitis B. HBV transgenic animals were used as a model for chronic HBV infection. HBV replication was assessed by HBV viremia, antigenemia, and Southern blotting, liver damage was assessed by serum alanine aminotransferase activities and histopathology of liver sections. To investigate HO-1 effects on HBV replication at a molecular level, stably HBV-transfected hepatoma cells were used. HBV gene expression, protein stability, transcription, and replication were determined. HO-1 was induced by either cobalt-protoporphyrin-IX or over expressed by adenoviral gene transfer. RESULTS In the acute hepatitis B model, liver injury was reduced significantly after HO-1 induction. In addition, HO-1 showed a pronounced antiviral effect, which was confirmed in stably HBV-transfected hepatoma cells and in persistently HBV replicating transgenic mice. We showed that HO-1 induction repressed HBV replication directly in hepatocytes at a posttranscriptional step by reducing stability of HBV core protein and thus blocking refill of nuclear HBV covalently closed circular (ccc)DNA. Small interfering RNA directed against HO-1 proved that this effect depended on the expression level of HO-1. CONCLUSIONS Besides its hepatoprotective effect, HO-1 showed a pronounced antiviral activity in HBV infection. Therefore, induction of HO-1 might be a novel therapeutic option for inflammatory flares of hepatitis B.
Introducing a High-Risk HPV DNA Test Into a Public Sector Screening Program in El Salvador

ObjectiveIn a primary human papillomavirus (HPV) screening program, we compared the 6-month follow-up among colposcopy and noncolposcopy-based management strategies for screen-positive women. Materials and MethodsWomen aged 30 to 49 years were screened with HPV DNA tests using both self-collection and provider collection of samples. Women testing positive received either (1) colposcopy management (CM) consisting of colposcopy and management per local guidelines or (2) screen-and-treat (ST) management using visual inspection with acetic acid to determine cryotherapy eligibility, with eligible women undergoing immediate cryotherapy. One thousand women were recruited in each cohort. Of these, 368 (18.4%) of 2000 women were recruited using a more intensive outreach strategy. Demographics, HPV positivity, and treatment compliance were compared across recruitment and management strategies. ResultsMore women in the ST cohort received treatment within 6 months compared with those in the CM cohort (117/119 [98.3%] vs 64/93 [68.8%]; p < .001). Women recruited through more intensive outreach were more likely to be HPV positive, lived in urban areas, were more educated, and had higher numbers of lifetime sexual partners and fewer children. ConclusionsWomen in the CM arm were less likely to complete care than women in the ST arm. Targeted outreach to underscreened women successfully identified women with higher prevalence of HPV and possibly higher disease burden.
Microbial Groundwater Sampling Protocol for Fecal-Rich Environments

Inherently, confined animal farming operations (CAFOs) and other intense fecal‐rich environments are potential sources of groundwater contamination by enteric pathogens. The ubiquity of microbial matter poses unique technical challenges in addition to economic constraints when sampling wells in such environments. In this paper, we evaluate a groundwater sampling protocol that relies on extended purging with a portable submersible stainless steel pump and Teflon® tubing as an alternative to equipment sterilization. The protocol allows for collecting a large number of samples quickly, relatively inexpensively, and under field conditions with limited access to capacity for sterilizing equipment. The protocol is tested on CAFO monitoring wells and considers three cross‐contamination sources: equipment, wellbore, and ambient air. For the assessment, we use Enterococcus, a ubiquitous fecal indicator bacterium (FIB), in laboratory and field tests with spiked and blank samples, and in an extensive, multi‐year field sampling campaign on 17 wells within 2 CAFOs. The assessment shows that extended purging can successfully control for equipment cross‐contamination, but also controls for significant contamination of the well‐head, within the well casing and within the immediate aquifer vicinity of the well‐screen. Importantly, our tests further indicate that Enterococcus is frequently entrained in water samples when exposed to ambient air at a CAFO during sample collection. Wellbore and air contamination pose separate challenges in the design of groundwater monitoring strategies on CAFOs that are not addressed by equipment sterilization, but require adequate QA/QC procedures and can be addressed by the proposed sampling strategy.
Analysis of multimedia workloads with implications for internet streaming

In this paper, we study the media workload collected from a large number of commercial Web sites hosted by a major ISP and that collected from a large group of home users connected to the Internet via a well-known cable company. Some of our key findings are: (1) Surprisingly, the majority of media contents are still delivered via downloading from Web servers. (2) A substantial percentage of media downloading connections are aborted before completion due to the long waiting time. (3) A hybrid approach, pseudo streaming, is used by clients to imitate real streaming. (4) The mismatch between the downloading rate and the client playback speed in pseudo streaming is common, which either causes frequent playback delays to the clients, or unnecessary traffic to the Internet. (5) Compared with streaming, downloading and pseudo streaming are neither bandwidth efficient nor performance effective. To address this problem, we propose the design of AutoStream, an innovative system that can provide additional previewing and streaming services automatically for media objects hosted on standard Web sites in server farms at the client's will.
Analysis of PCFICH channel architecture for LTE using unfolding technique

Realization of transmitter and Receiver architecture for LTE is the major research work being carried out by implementation experts. There are four Control channels available in LTE for both uplink and downlink. The uplink control channel is PUCCH. The downlink control channels are PDCCH, PCFICH and PHICH. The Physical Control Format Indicator Channel(PCFICH) is one among the downlink physical control channel and it carries the number of OFDM symbols used by the PDCCH channel, denoted as Control Format Indicator(CFI). These control channels play a key role in the correct decoding of the payload information. The CFI is the first information received by the User and so is important for the system performance. In this paper, the realization of architecture for the PCFICH are done using FPGA, and the VLSI DSP technique called unfolding is applied for optimization. The simulations are done using Modelsim and are implemented in Xilinx Spartan 3E kit.
Semantic models for communicating processes with value-passing

A ground fault protector for use with an A. C. electrical power distribution system and particularly suited for operation at current levels in the range of 150 to 1,200 amperes. A ground fault protector for sensing fault current in the ground strap and tripping the circuit breaker switch to open the power lines. A magnetically operated reed switch mounted at the ground strap and a solid state circuit actuated by reed switch closure to energize the breaker trip coil, with current sensitivity provided by an adjustable mounting for the reed switch, eliminating adjustment in the electronics.
Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome-associated Encephalopathy Successfully Treated with Corticosteroids

The encephalopathy that occurs in association with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is caused by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (E. coli), has a high mortality rate and patients sometimes present sequelae. We herein describe the case of a 20-year-old woman who developed encephalopathy during the convalescent stage of HUS caused by E. coli O26. Hyperintense lesions were detected in the pons, basal ganglia, and cortex on diffusion-weighted brain MRI. From the onset of HUS encephalopathy, we treated the patient with methylprednisolone (mPSL) pulse therapy alone. Her condition improved, and she did not present sequelae. Our study shows that corticosteroids appear to be effective for the treatment of some patients with HUS encephalopathy.
An Evaluation Study of an e-Learning Course at the United Arab Emirates University: A Case Study

e-Learning (e-L) is the latest wave of development of distance education, which has become an extremely important part of instructional technology (Almekhlafi, 20006). Recent e-L research has indicated the utility of this instructional method for both students and teachers. However, teachers’ perceptions of e-L utility have not been extensively researched, particularly in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of this study is to explore preservice teachers' perception of the utility of e-L at the College of Education, United Arab Emirates University. Study participants were 278 preservice teachers studying the capstone course during 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years. A questionnaire was administered to preservice teachers taking the course electronically (e-L). Study results showed high self-perception of the utility of e-L. In addition, a positive relationship between the overall course grade and the frequency of using Blackboard communication tools was found. On the other hand, results did not show any significant differences between participants' overall course grade due to method of instruction (online versus face-to-face). Implications for United Arab Emirates context were discussed.