Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distribution of specialist and generalist species along spatial gradients of habitat disturbance and fragmentation

In this paper, we tested whether the spatial distribution of a given species in more or less fragmented and disturbed landscapes depends on the species habitat specialization. We studied 891 spatial replicates from the French Breeding Bird Survey (FBBS) monitored at least two years during 2001 �2005, and two independent landscape databases measuring respectively landscape fragmentation and recent landscape disturbance on each FBBS replicate. We used a continuous habitat specialization index for the 105 most common bird species monitored by the FBBS. We further modelled the spatial variation in abundance of each species according to fragmentation and disturbance across FBBS replicates, accounting for habitat differences and spatial trends. We then tested whether more or less specialized species responded to landscape fragmentation and disturbance. We found that the more specialist a species, the more negative its spatial response to landscape fragmentation and disturbance. Although there was a very high variation around these tendencies indicating that there are many other drivers of species distribution, our results suggest that measuring specialization may be helpful in predicting which species are likely to thrive in human degraded landscapes. We also emphasize the need to consider both positive and negative species responses when assessing consequences of habitat change in communities.
Brand importance across product categories in the Czech Republic

Abstract This paper deals with customer loyalty to brands and provides an analysis of brand-related attitudes among Czech consumers. Brand loyalty is a very important aspect of competitive marketing and we contribute an empirically supported point of view on the topic. Based on primary data from a complex consumer survey carried out for the purpose of this study, we investigate the extent of brand loyalty across different product categories, mostly fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). For convenience, the analysis of our survey-data may be divided in two main areas. First, product categories are ranked according to their potential power to attract customers’ interest and loyalty towards brands. When loyalty programs are prepared, it is important to discern product categories where loyalty potential is weak from those categories that attract consumer loyalty. Second, sociodemographic features and lifestyle factors from the survey are evaluated with respect to different product categories, by means of logistic regression and subsequent average partial effect (APE) analysis. A detailed and practically oriented interpretation of the empirical results is provided by the authors. However, both corporate marketers and academic readers can use the tables with empirical estimation outputs that are provided in this article to draw their own conclusions, which may be focused on the product category of interest and/or focused on any specific consumer group that is of particular interest. Among other topics, this paper emphasizes the fact that brand loyalty is a highly complex phenomenon and that it can and should be analysed from different perspectives.
Model Experiment of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Mechanism Using the Whole Membranous Labyrinth

Whole membranous labyrinths of bullfrogs were used in order to replicate the human vestibule. The posterior semicircular canals (PSCs) were exposed, leaving the remaining membranous labyrinth encapsulated in the otic capsule. Vibration was applied to the surface of the bony capsule using a conventional surgical drill in order to dislodge the otoconia from the utricle. The position of the preparation was controlled so that the dislodged otoconia were attached to the cupular surface. This was regarded as a cupulolithiasis model. The action potentials changed instantaneously according to the gravitational force on the cupula. When the otoconia were dislodged and held within the PSC lumen, the position of the whole preparation was changed so that the otoconia moved back and forth within the canal lumen. This is a model of canalolithiasis. The action potentials changed in combination with the otoconial movement after a latent period. Both cupulolithiasis and canalolithasis are potentially valid mechanisms of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). However, canalolithiasis is the most likely mechanism of BPPV, which is usually characterized by nystagmus of short duration and long latency. A vibratory stimulus was able to detach the otoconia from the utricle, suggesting that mechanical insult could be a possible etiology of BPPV.
FACTORS THAT DETERMINE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN BANKING INSTITUTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

The banking industry like many other financial service industries is facing a rapidly changing market, new technologies, economic uncertainties, fierce competition and more demanding customers and the changing climate has presented an unprecedented set of challenges. Banking is a customer oriented services industry, therefore, the customer is the focus and customer service is the differentiating factors. In the backdrop of all these developments the investigator makes an attempt to study the determinants of customer satisfaction in Indian banks. For this study, descriptive research design is used where the data is collected through the questionnaire. The information is gathered from the different customers of the two public sector banks, viz., State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda and two private sector banks viz. ICICI & HDFC banks of India located at four metro city viz. Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi & Chennai. 100 bank respondents from each bank were contacted personally in order to seek fair responses. The collected data were analysed by SPSS package.
α‐Synuclein involvement in hippocampal synaptic plasticity: role of NO, cGMP, cGK and CaMKII

Synaptic plasticity involves a series of coordinate changes occurring both pre‐ and postsynaptically, of which α‐synuclein is an integral part. We have investigated on mouse primary hippocampal neurons in culture whether redistribution of α‐synuclein during plasticity involves retrograde signaling activation through nitric oxide (NO), cGMP, cGMP‐dependent protein kinase (cGK) and calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II. We have found that deletion of the α‐synuclein gene blocks both the long‐lasting enhancement of evoked and miniature transmitter release and the increase in the number of functional presynaptic boutons evoked through the NO donor, DEA/NO, and the cGMP analog, 8‐Br‐cGMP. In agreement with these findings both DEA/NO and 8‐Br‐cGMP were capable of producing a long‐lasting increase in number of clusters for α‐synuclein through activation of soluble guanylyl cyclase, cGK and calcium/calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase IIα. Thus, our results suggest that NO, cGMP, GMP‐dependent protein kinase and calmodulin‐dependent protein kinase II play a key role in the redistribution of α‐synuclein during plasticity.
HAPLOFIND: A New Method for High‐Throughput mtDNA Haplogroup Assignment

Deep sequencing technologies are completely revolutionizing the approach to DNA analysis. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies entered in the “postgenomic era”: the burst in sequenced samples observed in nuclear genomics is expected also in mitochondria, a trend that can already be detected checking complete mtDNA sequences database submission rate. Tools for the analysis of these data are available, but they fail in throughput or in easiness of use. We present here a new pipeline based on previous algorithms, inherited from the “nuclear genomic toolbox,” combined with a newly developed algorithm capable of efficiently and easily classify new mtDNA sequences according to PhyloTree nomenclature. Detected mutations are also annotated using data collected from publicly available databases. Thanks to the analysis of all freely available sequences with known haplogroup obtained from GenBank, we were able to produce a PhyloTree‐based weighted tree, taking into account each haplogroup pattern conservation. The combination of a highly efficient aligner, coupled with our algorithm and massive usage of asynchronous parallel processing, allowed us to build a high‐throughput pipeline for the analysis of mtDNA sequences that can be quickly updated to follow the ever‐changing nomenclature. HaploFind is freely accessible at the following Web address: https://haplofind.unibo. it.
Normalising alternative practices: the recovery, distribution and consumption of food waste

ABSTRACT Certain practices are excluded from markets, even though they may contribute to more sustainable systems. Other practices are integral to markets despite their highly detrimental impacts. This study investigates how alternative practices in the food sector became integrated into the market through normalisation processes. Using a qualitative approach, it examines the processes by which practices, including the recovery, distribution and consumption of food waste, went from being excluded from a mainstream food market to becoming normalised within it. Normalisation occurs as a result of retracing the biography of an object, building community, rituals and sacrifices. The author discusses theoretical and managerial implications.
Measuring Performance of Indian Mutual Funds

Since the development of the Indian Capital Market and deregulations of the economy in 1992 there have been structural changes in both primary and secondary markets. Mutual funds are key contributors to the globalization of financial markets and one of the main sources of capital flows to emerging economies. Despite their importance in emerging markets, little is known about their investment allocation and strategies. This article provides an overview of mutual fund activity in emerging markets. It describes about their size and asset allocation. This paper is a process to analyze the Indian Mutual Fund Industry pricing mechanism with empirical studies on its valuation. It also analyzes data at both the fund-manager and fund-investor levels. The study reveled that the performance is affected by the saving and investment habits of the people and the second side the confidence and loyalty of the fund Manager and rewards affects the performance of the MF industry in India.
AN EFFICIENT MODEL FOR ENHANCING TEXT CATEGORIZATION USING SENTENCE SEMANTICS

Most of text categorization techniques are based on word and/or phrase analysis of the text. Statistical analysis of a term frequency captures the importance of the term within a document only. However, two terms can have the same frequency in there documents, but one term contributes more to the meaning of its sentences than the other term. Thus, the underlying model should identify terms that capture the semantics of text. In this case, the model can capture terms that present the concepts of the sentence, which leads to discovering the topic of the document. A new concept‐based model that analyzes terms on the sentence, document, and corpus levels rather than the traditional analysis of document only is introduced. The concept‐based model can effectively discriminate between nonimportant terms with respect to sentence semantics and terms which hold the concepts that represent the sentence meaning. A set of experiments using the proposed concept‐based model on different datasets in text categorization is conducted in comparison with the traditional models. The results demonstrate the substantial enhancement of the categorization quality using the sentence‐based, document‐based and corpus‐based concept analysis.
Dynamic Functional Connectivity tutorial Brainhack Tutorial

In this hands-on session, we explore dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) through two different pipelines: (1) a sliding window analysis, where we explore the impact of window characteristics, dynamic graph metrics, and the generation of summarising eigenconnectivity building blocks; and (2) the generation of innovation-driven co-activation patterns (iCAPs), following the previous application of total activation (TA). Participants are expected to have attended the theoretical introduction given by T. Bolton. The data needed to run both pipelines can be found in the BrainHack/Practice/StartData folder. It contains:
A hundred years of radio propagation

He is currently Professor of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering at from the Society of Industrial & Applied Mathematics and the Eringen Medal Stanford University, Stanford, CA. His research interests are in wave from the Society of Engineering Sciences. He has also been the Gibbs Lecturer propagation, asymptotic analysis, electromagnetic theory, optics and acoustics. of the American Mathematical Society, the Hedrick Lecturer of the MathematiDr. Keller is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the cal Association of America and has received an honorary doctorate from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received the Lester Ford Technical University of Denmark. Award from the Mathematical Association of America, the von Karman Prize
Resource Stoichiometry and Consumers Control the Biodiversity-Productivity Relationship in Pelagic Metacommunities

Recent theory suggests that both biodiversity and productivity are constrained by resource supply rates and ratios and that resource stoichiometry is the key to understanding the relationship between biodiversity and productivity. We experimentally tested this theory using pelagic metacommunities. We amended existing predictions by explicitly considering evenness as an aspect of biodiversity and including control of algal biomass by consumption in addition to competition. The metacommunities received a different phosphorus (P) supply and the three patches within each metacommunity differed in their nitrogen (N) supply, which created different N∶P ratios (2, 16, and 128). All patches were inoculated with a phytoplankton assemblage consisting of five species, and half of the metacommunities received two ciliate species as consumers. At the level of the entire metacommunity, algal biomass increased with increasing P supply, whereas species richness and evenness decreased with increasing P supply. Without consumers, resource use efficiency (RUE; realized biomass per unit of P) increased with increasing richness and evenness. Consumer presence reduced overall biomass and richness and precluded a correlation between RUE and biodiversity. At the patch level, local evenness correlated with higher RUE at both imbalanced N∶P ratios (2 and 128) but not at a balanced N∶P ratio. In conclusion, overall P supply constrained realized biomass and altered diversity, whereas resource stoichiometry shaped the relationship between biodiversity and RUE.
Human herpesvirus‐6 encephalitis during hematopoietic stem cell transplantation leads to poor prognosis

Indications for the application of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from alternative donors have remarkably broadened in scope; however, the incidence of infections that lead to failure of HSCT, such as human herpesvirus‐6 (HHV‐6) encephalitis, has also increased.
Sensing throughput trade‐off for an energy efficient cognitive radio network under faded sensing and reporting channel

The trade‐off between sensing time and throughput is investigated in the context of an energy‐efficient cognitive radio network considering both the sensing and reporting channels are Rayleigh faded, while the existing literature considered the fading in sensing channel only. In this paper, such a trade‐off is re‐examined under Rayleigh faded sensing as well as reporting channel. Novel analytical expressions for overall detection probability and false alarm probability are developed under such scenario. The performance is investigated in terms of detection probability, false alarm probability, throughput and energy efficiency of the network for different sensing parameters such as sensing time, number of samples, sensing channel signal‐to‐noise ratio and reporting channel signal‐to‐noise ratio. Our analysis shows that the quality of the reporting channel significantly affects the trade‐off performance of the network. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Differential Mucosal Susceptibility in HIV-1 Transmission and Infection

HIV infection occurs primarily through mucosal surfaces, indicating that protection at mucosal sites may be crucial in prevention and treatment. The host innate and adaptive immune elements provide a level of protection, which differs between mucosal compartments, and appears to be most successful in the oral environment, where transmission is rare. In addition to the distinct oral mucosal architecture and cellular constituents, oral fluids, unlike other mucosal secretions, are rarely a vehicle for HIV infection. Multiple soluble factors may contribute to this antiviral activity, including neutralizing antibodies, secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI), antiviral peptides such as defensins and cystatins, glycoproteins including thrombospondin and lactoferrin, and complement components. Understanding the antiviral activities of these and other potential resistance factors is becoming increasingly important in attempts to design treatments in the era of HAART resistance. In this regard, the mechanism of anti-HIV action of SLPI has recently been further elucidated by the discovery of its binding protein/receptor, which plays a key role in the infection of macrophages and may consequently be a novel therapeutic target. Continued elucidation of the unique features of mucosal HIV immunology is essential for understanding HIV pathogenesis and for developing effective vaccines and therapeutics.
An Analysis of Group Key Agreement Schemes based on the Bellare-Rogaway Model in Multi-party Setting

Group key agreement protocols derive a shared secret key for a group of users to ensure data confidentiality or/and integrity among the users in the subsequent communications. In this paper, we inspect two group key agreement schemes which have been proposed by Shi et al. and Zheng et al. in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Although both schemes were claimed to be secure in a heuristic way, we reveal several flaws using the Bellare-Rogaway security model extended to multi-party setting by Bresson et al. These flaws are found to be originated from inappropriate selection of key derivation function, inadvertent exclusion of partners' identities from the protocol specification and insufficient consideration in preserving known temporary information security and key freshness properties. Furthermore, we suggest and discuss proper countermeasures to address such flaws.
Surveys and Analysis of RFI in Preparation for SMOS: Results from Airborne Campaigns and First Impressions from Satellite Data

Several soil moisture and sea salinity campaigns, including airborne L-band radiometer measurements, have been carried out in preparation for the European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. The radiometer used in this context is fully polarimetric and is capable of detecting radio frequency interference (RFI) using the kurtosis method. Analyses have shown that the kurtosis method generally detects RFI in an efficient manner, particularly concerning pulsed, low duty cycle signals, but it has some shortcomings when it comes to more continuous wave signal types. Hence, other detection methods have been investigated as well. In particular, inspection of the third and fourth Stokes parameters shows promising results-possibly as a complement to the kurtosis method. The kurtosis method, however, cannot be used with SMOS data. Since SMOS is fully polarimetric, the third and fourth Stokes parameter method is an option, and a first assessment using a fully polarimetric SMOS data set looks promising. Finally, a variable incidence angle signature algorithm is introduced, and the possibility of using this as an RFI indicator is discussed.
Vortex Doping Into Superconducting  ${\rm Mo}_{80}{\rm Ge}_{20}$  Square Network

We have fabricated the finite-sized amorphous Mo80Ge20 superconducting networks with 10×10 square holes and directly observed the vortex structures by means of using the scanning SQUID microscope. On the increase of the field in a stepwise manner, the vortex penetration into the network is likely to follow the Bean critical model, wherein vortices first enter the network from the edges and penetrate deeper toward the center of the network as the field increases. We observed that the evolution of vorticity mainly occurred along the diagonal direction of the network, which has a narrow wire compared with the hole size. The vortex pattern was strongly modified as the system was cooled down below Tc. A diagonal vortex array appeared at intermediate temperatures, and is transformed into the isolated vortices at lower temperatures due to the strong repulsive interaction between vortices.
The Macro and Political Determinants of Venture Capital Investments around the World

This paper examines two different topics related to venture capital (VC) investments. The objective is to identify the main determinants of VC investments around the world. We test macro factors from the VC literature such as Initial Public Offerings (IPO), labor market rigidities, technological opportunities, stock market, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), interest rates, inflation, and corporate income taxation. We use a combination of data from 16 countries from 1995 to 2002. Plus, using risk ratings of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG), we add political risk variables to our analysis. We examine relevant hypotheses in addressing the impact of macroeconomic and political risk factors on VC investments. In our between, fixed and random effects models, we discover that one of the most important determinants of VC investment is the total value of stocks traded. In contrary to Jeng and Wells (2000), we can only provide evidence for the significance of IPO in our fixed effects model and for only early stage VC investments. We also present that corporate income tax rate, total entrepreneurial activity, inflation, labor market rigidities, GDP growth and some of the political risk variablesinvestment profile, socioeconomic conditions and corruption-affect both all stages (early and expansion) investments used as a broader definition of VC, and early stage investments used as a narrower definition.
The image of people with intellectual disability in Taiwan newspapers

Abstract Background There is limited research on the development of newspaper analysis about the images of people with ID in Chinese newspapers. The purpose of this study was: (a) to understand the general image of persons with ID presented in printed newspapers in Taiwan, and (b) to classify the various images of persons with ID and to measure the relative proportions among these classifications. Method Articles from 2008 from the media databank UDNDATA were analysed by content analysis. Results Three main images were portrayed. The greatest number of articles revolved around the “dispirited” image (44.5%), followed by “needy” (32.7%), and “affirmative” (22.8%). Articles focused on families with a member with ID made up 20.8% of the total articles, and 81% of these stories had a negative theme. Conclusion The pessimistic portrayal of people with ID is popular and newspapers may create stigma for people with ID in Taiwan.