Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Diversity of Pinus nigra Arn. Populations in Southern Spain and Northern Morocco Revealed By Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat Profiles †

Eight Pinus nigra Arn. populations from Southern Spain and Northern Morocco were examined using inter-simple sequence repeat markers to characterize the genetic variability amongst populations. Pair-wise population genetic distance ranged from 0.031 to 0.283, with a mean of 0.150 between populations. The highest inter-population average distance was between PaCU from Cuenca and YeCA from Cazorla, while the lowest distance was between TaMO from Morocco and MA Sierra Mágina populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) and Nei’s genetic diversity analyses revealed higher genetic variation within the same population than among different populations. Genetic differentiation (Gst) was 0.233. Cuenca showed the highest Nei’s genetic diversity followed by the Moroccan region, Sierra Mágina, and Cazorla region. However, clustering of populations was not in accordance with their geographical locations. Principal component analysis showed the presence of two major groups—Group 1 contained all populations from Cuenca while Group 2 contained populations from Cazorla, Sierra Mágina and Morocco—while Bayesian analysis revealed the presence of three clusters. The low genetic diversity observed in PaCU and YeCA is probably a consequence of inappropriate management since no estimation of genetic variability was performed before the silvicultural treatments. Data indicates that the inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) method is sufficiently informative and powerful to assess genetic variability among populations of P. nigra.
Plasmodium falciparum: gelatin enrichment selects for parasites with full-length chromosome 2. implications for cytoadhesion assays.

Waterkeyn, J. G. , Cowman, A. F. , and Cooke, B. M. 2001. Plasmodium falciparum: Gelatin enrichment selects for parasites with full-length chromosome 2. Implications for cytoadhesion assays. Experimental Parasitology 97, 115-118.
Reverse Perspective: a view beyond and between borders of identity in a “Liquid modern world”

page 09 Introduction: Critical Theory Framework/Background page 10 1. Methodology and Design of Project page 13 2. Creative Inspiration: Patrick Hughes page 15 3. Liquid Modernity and Demographic Change page 17 4. Position of the Researcher page 18 4.1 A New Horizon beyond the Border: A Personal View page 18 4.2 My Identity/Identities page 18-19 5. Historical Context page 20 5.1 Them and Us page 20 5.2 A Change of View page 20 5.3 “The Foreigners” (Another Self) page 21 6. Networks in a Liquid Modern World page 22 6.1 Changing Connections page 22 6.2 Physical and conceptual borders page 23
Capitalisms and capitalism in the twenty-first century: introduction

* Includes discussion of Europe, US, Latin America, and Asia * Interdisciplinary approach, bringing together perspectives from political scientists, economists, and business and management scholars * Draws on both empirical material and theoretical debates The early twenty-first century is witnessing both an increasing internationalization of many markets, firms, and regulatory institutions, and a reinforcement of the key role of nation states in managing economic development, financial crises, and market upheavals in many OECD and developing economies. Drawing on a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives from leading US and European scholars, this book analyses how capitalism and national capitalisms are changing in this context. It focuses on the economic rise of new countries such as the BRICs, the increasing influence of regional organizations such as the EU and NAFTA, and new forms of private and public international regulation. It also considers how states are adapting their economic policies and processes in this new environment, and the consequences of these adaptations for inequality and risk within different societies.
Intellectual Property Rights and Ex-Post Transaction Costs: The Case of Open and Closed Source Software

The economic characteristics of software and transaction costs explain, why closed source and open source software co-exist. It is about the efficient use of a non- and anti-scarce resource. But because of ex-post transaction costs that lead to information asymmetries, some property rights regarding the resource "source code" are not exclusively separable. Thus, the first best allocation of property rights, that would yield an optimal usage of a source code, is not realizable. Or, that is to say, a first best realization of contracts is not feasible. Hence, open and closed source software are two second best arrangements, both with specific assets and drawbacks. The principle of closed source benefits from direct (monetary) incentives and control, but has limits in its scope (size) because of transaction costs. Open source, on the one hand, benefits from its openness that creates spillovers and enables to incorporate human capital that is not acquirable for closed source firms. On the other hand, there are costs of openness, such as coordination costs (consensus finding, etc.) the danger of free riding or under provision, or forking.
Dependability of COTS Microkernel-Based Systems

The commercial offer concerning microkernel technology constitutes an attractive alternative for developing operating systems to suit a wide range of application domains. However, the integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) microkernels into critical embedded computer systems is a problem for system developers, in particular due to the lack of objective data concerning their behavior in the presence of faults. This paper addresses this issue by describing a prototype environment, called MAFALDA (Microkernel Assessment by Fault injection AnaLysis and Design Aid), that is aimed at providing objective failure data on a candidate microkernel and also improving its error detection capabilities. The paper first presents the overall architecture of MAFALDA. Then, a case study carried out on an instance of the Chorus microkemel is used to illustrate the benefits that can be obtained with MAFALDA both from the dependability assessment and design-aid viewpoints. Implementation issues are also addressed that account for the specific API of the target microkemel. Some overall insights and lessons learned, gained during the various studies conducted on both Chorus and another target microkemel (LynxOS), are then depicted and discussed. Finally, we conclude the paper by summarizing the main features of the work presented and by identifying future research.
No evidence of genetic differentiation between lesser redpolls Carduelis flammea cabaret and common redpolls Carduelis f. flammea

The remarkable variation in plumage and morphological characters in the redpoll complex Carduelis flammea-hornemanni has puzzled taxonomists for several decades. In contrast, molecular studies have not revealed any genetic differentiation among the phenotypic redpoll forms. This could either be a result of high present-day gene flow or morphological differentiation following a rapid and recent population expansion. We sequenced a major portion (960 bp) of the mitochondrial control region in individuals of the two taxa Carduelis flammea flammea and C. f. cabaret. Birds were sampled on autumn migration in southern Sweden (n = 30) and on breeding areas in southern Norway (n = 11). We found 22 variable sites defining 26 different haplotypes, of which most (22/26) were singletons. The level of haplotype and nucleotide diversity was low in the two taxa and we found no evidence of genetic differentiation. A mismatch distribution was very similar to that expected from a sudden population expansion model. Our estimates suggest that the redpoll population expanded during the last glaciation episode from a small population to a long-term effective population size of 230 000 females. The findings in our study suggest that the morphological differentiation between the two taxa occurred rather recently but after the population expansion.
Modelling mechanical characteristics of microbial biofilms by network theory

In this contribution, we present a constitutive model to describe the mechanical behaviour of microbial biofilms based on classical approaches in the continuum theory of polymer networks. Although the model is particularly developed for the well-studied biofilms formed by mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, it could easily be adapted to other biofilms. The basic assumption behind the model is that the network of extracellular polymeric substances can be described as a superposition of worm-like chain networks, each connected by transient junctions of a certain lifetime. Several models that were applied to biofilms previously are included in the presented approach as special cases, and for small shear strains, the governing equations are those of four parallel Maxwell elements. Rheological data given in the literature are very adequately captured by the proposed model, and the simulated response for a series of compression tests at large strains is in good qualitative agreement with reported experimental behaviour.
How has the relationship between parental education and child outcomes changed in Australia since the 1980s

This paper examines how the relationship between parents' educational achievement (a marker of their socio-economic status) and children's early developmental outcomes has evolved in Australia since the early 1980s. The specific focus of this paper is whether the gradient in children's early developmental outcomes by parents' education has changed since the 1980s. A comparative analysis of two surveys is undertaken that follows Australian cohorts of children through their early years - the Australian Temperament Project (following children born in Victoria in the early 1980s) and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (following a representative sample of children born in Australia in 1999). The analysis shows that the relationship between parental education and children's early developmental outcomes does not in general appear to have changed greatly over the years. The gradient associated with behaviour difficulties, persistence in behaviour difficulties over time, and in reading skills has either remained the same or strengthened somewhat, while the gradient associated with social skills has weakened. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues that might explain these trends.
On the Rate Control in Video Coding: Algorithms and Experiments

This paper presents novel algorithms for optimal bit allocation and uniform rate control in video coding. By introducing an important factor of the frame picture in the Group of Pictures (GOP), the bit allocation is formulated as a convex programming problem, and is efficiently solved by designed algorithm which combines Lagrangian method and Boundary Linear Search method (L-BLS). Then, an efficient rate control scheme is proposed and is also simulated and verified in the MPEG2 video coding. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve a better picture quality, namely, PSTN reached average 1.1db improvement than the Test Model5 (TM5) under the same target bits rate and mismatch error.
"Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale: Its value for organizational psychology research": Correction to Tremblay et al (2009).

The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) is an 18-item measure of work motivation theoretically grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The purpose of the present research was twofold. First, the applicability of the WEIMS in different work environments was evaluated. Second, its factorial structure and psychometric properties were assessed. Two samples of workers (military: N ! 465; civilians: N ! 192) voluntarily completed questionnaires. Using the WEIMS’s 3 indexes (work self-determination index, work self-determined and nonself-determined motivation, respectively), results of regression analyses were supportive of its ability to predict positive and negative criteria in the workplace. Results also showed the adequacy of both its construct validity and internal consistency. Its factorial structure was also invariant across samples. Finally, its quasi-simplex pattern and relationships with psychological correlates further supported the self-determination continuum. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the applicability as well as the reliability and validity of the WEIMS in organisational settings. Results are discussed in regard to the applicability of self-determination theory to the workplace.
StopGap: elastic VMs to enhance server consolidation

Virtualized cloud infrastructures (also known as IaaS platforms) generally rely on a server consolidation system to pack virtual machines (VMs) on as few servers as possible. However, an important limitation of consolidation is not addressed by such systems. Because the managed VMs may be of various sizes (small, medium, large, etc.), VM packing may be obstructed when VMs do not fit available spaces. This phenomenon leaves servers with a set of unused resources (‘holes’). It is similar to memory fragmentation, a well‐known problem in operating system domain. In this paper, we propose a solution which consists in resizing VMs so that they can fit with holes. This operation leads to the management of what we call elastic VMs and requires cooperation between the application level and the IaaS level, because it impacts management at both levels. To this end, we propose a new resource negotiation and allocation model in the IaaS, called HRNM. We demonstrate HRNM's applicability through the implementation of a prototype compatible with two main IaaS managers (OpenStack and OpenNebula). By performing thorough experiments with SPECvirt_sc2010 (a reference benchmark for server consolidation), we show that the impact of HRNM on customer's application is negligible. Finally, using Google data center traces, we show an improvement of about 62.5% for the traditional consolidation engines. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Leak detection and localization inwater distribution system using time frequency analysis

Water loss through burst events or leaks is a significant problem affecting water utilities worldwide and is exacerbated by deterioration of the underground infrastructure. This paper shall report on our method to localize the source of a pipe burst by estimating the arrival time of the pressure transients at sensor nodes. Our proposed method uses Short Time Fourier Transform that has shown to overcome the limitation of Fourier Transform temporal deficiency. The paper will in addition report on the results obtained from a real leakage data obtained on the WaterWiSe@SG test-bed, which shows the superiority of our method compared to multi-level wavelet transform.
Substituting the Senses

Sensory substitution devices are a type of sensory prosthesis that (typically) convert visual stimuli transduced by a camera into tactile or auditory stimulation. They are designed to be used by people with impaired vision so that they can recover some of the functions normally subserved by vision. In this chapter we will consider what philosophers might learn about the nature of the senses from the neuroscience of sensory substitution. We will show how sensory substitution devices work by exploiting the cross-modal plasticity of sensory cortex: the ability of sensory cortex to pick up some types of information about the external environment irrespective of the nature of the sensory inputs it is processing. We explore the implications of cross-modal plasticity for theories of the senses that attempt to make distinctions between the senses on the basis of neurobiology.
Abstract—this Paper Presents an Artificial Neural Network

(ANN) approach of using the texture properties to model the background and detect the moving objects in video sequence. Extraction of foreground object is a prime step of information extraction in many computer vision applications. The proposed approach is adaptive to the dynamic background. Besides the usefulness of being able to segment moving and non moving objects in video sequence, detecting moving objects provides provision for recognition, classification and activity analysis. Each pixel is modeled using Local Binary Pattern (LBP) calculated along a circular region of r radius over a pixel. Then Background model is build using Self Organizing Map ANN and the next incoming frames are compared against the background model using Mahalanobis distance to decide whether it belongs to background or foreground. The proposed method can handle scenes containing moving background, gradual illumination variations. The algorithm proposed has been tested on some videos taken by stationary camera and compared with the existing algorithms in terms of detection accuracy and processing speed for color video sequence which is critical for color video surveillance system. It was found that our approach resulted in 93% of Detection Accuracy and on average 1.5 times faster than existing algorithms.
Age Specificity of Inbreeding Load in Drosophila melanogaster and Implications For the Evolution of Late-Life Mortality Plateaus

Current evolutionary theories explain the origin of aging as a byproduct of the decline in the force of natural selection with age. These theories seem inconsistent with the well-documented occurrence of late-life mortality plateaus, since under traditional evolutionary models mortality rates should increase monotonically after sexual maturity. However, the equilibrium frequencies of deleterious alleles affecting late life are lower than predicted under traditional models, and thus evolutionary models can accommodate mortality plateaus if deleterious alleles are allowed to have effects spanning a range of neighboring age classes. Here we test the degree of age specificity of segregating alleles affecting fitness in Drosophila melanogaster. We assessed age specificity by measuring the homozygous fitness effects of segregating alleles across the adult life span and calculated genetic correlations of these effects across age classes. For both males and females, we found that allelic effects are age specific with effects extending over 1–2 weeks across all age classes, consistent with modified mutation-accumulation theory. These results indicate that a modified mutation-accumulation theory can both explain the origin of senescence and predict late-life mortality plateaus.
A Deep Investigation of the Synchronization Mechanisms in LC-CMOS Frequency Dividers

The behavior of LC-CMOS frequency dividers is investigated in depth obtaining a new and clearer insight into the synchronization phenomenon. We show that it occurs according to two mechanisms, which are referred to as “synchronization by mixing” and “synchronization by harmonics. ” This latter, still not known, may be the dominant mechanism in some practical circuits, and justifies the presence of locked states when the well known mechanism by mixing fails to predict them. A new model of CMOS frequency dividers that includes both mechanisms is presented, and its utility is demonstrated by analyzing the locked states of a divider by 3 and of a divider by 4, which are predicted in closed form. The calculation results show a close correspondence between the theory and the circuit simulations and measurements.
The effects of online shopping attributes on satisfaction–purchase intention link: a longitudinal study

Attributes of online satisfaction are dynamic. Specifically, it remains to be examined how online shopping attributes empirically affect changes in satisfaction that leads to repurchase behaviours over time and why. The present study develops a theoretical framework for conceptualizing satisfaction with temporal effects and empirically tests it using longitudinal data from 219 online customers. The results indicate that the relationship between attribute-level evaluations and satisfaction, which has only been examined in terms of predictors of satisfaction in prior literature, is dynamic and changes over time. Changed attributes (particularly convenience and site design) might signal an opportunity to capture the dynamics of attribute-level evaluations over time. Furthermore, the findings reveal significant temporal effects of satisfaction and purchase intention at time point T on satisfaction and purchase intention at time point T + 1. The results suggest that temporal effects occur as a diagnostic function of a previous attribute rating of a subsequent satisfaction evaluation and the consumer's level of subjective knowledge.
Relation Between Long-Term Trends of Oxygen-18 Isotope Composition of Precipitation and Climate

Stable isotope ratios of oxygen (18O/16O) and hydrogen (D/H) in water have long been considered powerful indicators of paleoclimate. However, quantitative interpretation of isotope variations in terms of climate changes is hampered by a limited understanding of physical processes controlling the global isotope behavior. Analysis was conducted of time series of 18O content (δ 18O) of monthly precipitation and surface air temperature available through the International Atomic Energy Agency-World Meteorological Organization global network, "Isotopes in Precipitation. " This study indicates that long-term changes of isotopic composition of precipitation over mid-and high-latitude regions during the past three decades closely followed long-term changes of surface air temperature with the average 8180-temperature coefficient around 0.6 per mil per degree Celsius.
Securing RPL routing protocol from blackhole attacks using a trust-based mechanism

This research addresses blackhole routing attacks —a fundamental security attack on the routing of data in IoT networks. Most IoT devices today, from medical devices to connected vehicles and even smart buildings, come bundled with the capability of communicating wirelessly with one another. Consumers are progressively embracing the concept of connected devices while recent studies indicate that security is not high on the priority list of manufacturers especially in the way these devices route and communicate data amongst themselves thus, leaving the door wide open to attacks and compromises. We propose a trust-based RPL routing protocol, which addresses the blackhole attacks. We show that our proposed system is both secure from blackhole attacks while not imposing undue overheads on network traffic.