Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Community of Grassroots Leaders: Leveraging Faculty Networks to Create Change

Our department is in the early stages of a multi-year effort to nurture a culture that values active learning. We focus on the change process, including specific, pragmatic ideas from the literature on grassroots leadership and systemic change. We briefly review Wenger's work on cultivating communities of practice and use Wenger's evaluation of communities to substantiate the value of our community at present. This lens sheds light on the progress made so far and documents the early value small communities of practice can generate during initiatives to diffuse active learning more broadly to their departments. Connecting the narrative of our efforts to literature allows other departments to think about navigating power dynamics and cultivating change on their own campuses. The literature helps to structure the narrative and provides research-based guidance for others.
Analysis of the motivations for ISO 9001:2015 adoption in the Brazilian business context

Abstract This study aims to analyze the reasons that motivate Brazilian companies to implement Quality Management Systems, according to ISO 9001:2015 requirements. Based on information collected in the literature, a questionnaire was developed and answered by professionals that work with the mentioned standard in their companies. An Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted with the collected data to group the validated variables into two constructs that present the most part of information variance. These constructs were entitled “internal improvements related motives” and “market related motives”. The findings of this research confirm and complement previous studies performed in Brazil and in other countries.
On the effectiveness of residential involuntary load curtailment programs

ABSTRACT The critical peak hour problem is a fundamental issue for utility managers and policymakers. We address this issue by analyzing unique data from an involuntary load curtailment program, in which a group of households agreed to reduce the peak power consumption below the agreed load shedding limit. There are two types of results presented in the paper. Firstly, we show that residential customers reacted by lowering usage in critical peak hours by 6.30%, on average, and that 93.69% of the total consumption reduction is transferred to off-peak (earlier and later) hours on the same day. This decrease in usage is comparable with the effects of time of use (TOU) programs. Secondly, we identify that customers whose electricity usage was regularly below the load shedding limit also reduced their usage. We discuss such reactions to this non-binding restriction using a microeconomic approach and in the context of findings from behavioral science.
Streamflow estimation using satellite-retrieved water fluxes and machine learning technique over monsoon-dominated catchments of India

ABSTRACT In this study, advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) soil moisture data is employed to compute the basin water index (BWI) over six river basins of India for 10 years (2007–2016). The BWI time series is assessed for the development of its relationship with observed streamflow. Further, a popular ensemble learning technique, random forest, is employed to compute the 10-d streamflow using the BWI time series. Moreover, the results are compared with the classical rainfall–runoff model forced with satellite-based precipitation and evapotranspiration, BWI–rainfall–runoff model, and Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS). The performance of the model is evaluated in terms of multiple efficiency measures, viz. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error (RMSE). The results reveal the BWI–rainfall–runoff model is the most accurate model for prediction of discharge. The performance of the BWI–rainfall–runoff model is very good over four of six catchments and good to satisfactory over the remaining two catchments.
Un-Locking Strategic Lock-Ins of Local Media: An Investigation of Local Media’s Preferences towards Public Support for Strategic Innovation

Abstract Media practitioners and policy makers are calling for more public support to facilitate the digital transformation of local journalism. However, newer academic literature focuses on explaining why public support for local media has become a necessity from a market failure and societal point of view. Almost no attention is dedicated to the question which known public support instruments might be considered as helpful from the perspective of local media and their digital transformation strategies. Therefore, this study draws on strategic path dependence theory and investigates how local media’s perceptions of innovation constraints (i.e., lock-in mechanisms), their innovation status (i.e., lock-ins) and their preferences for public support instruments to enable innovation (i.e., public un-lock mechanisms) differ depending on the type of strategy. Four strategies are compared: two content strategies (multimedia formats and artificial intelligence applications) as well as two commercial strategies (revenue diversification and digital payment models). Data about the four strategies are collected with an online survey of local media, which operate in the Swiss Canton of St. Gallen. The findings show significant differences between the investigated strategies and suggest a differentiated approach to public support of local media in the digital age.
A Buried Middle Archaic Site in the Tucson Basin

Despite great gains in knowledge about the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period in the Tucson Basin, understanding of the Middle Archaic period remains slim. This paper reports on volunteer investigations at three buried Archaic sites within the Santa Cruz River floodplain: the Joe Ben Site (AZ BB:13:11), AZ BB:13:70, and an unnumbered locus north of the latter. The AZ BB:13:70 artifact assemblage and the Joe Ben site records suggest small-scale, short-term, repeated use of this portion of the Santa Cruz floodplain and the Santa Rita bajada by foragers between 4200 and 5100 BP, continuing into the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period. Though assumed to be absent within the southern Southwest during the Middle and Late Holocene, the skull of a juvenile bison at AZ BB:13:70 and post-cranial bison bones at the unnumbered locus indicate their sporadic presence within the Tucson Basin during this period and their occasional exploitation by Middle Archaic hunters.
Cross-shelf movement of Chrysaora fulgida (Scyphozoa; Discomedusae) off Namibia inferred from stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C)

Large and small specimens of two species of metagenic Scyphozoa (true jellyfishes) can be found in nearshore waters off central Namibia throughout the year. Whereas populations of Chrysaora africana are largely restricted to inshore waters, C. fulgida occurs across the shelf, with small individuals found inshore and large individuals primarily found offshore. We examined stable isotopes δ15N and δ13C of both species in Walvis Bay and found that large-sized C. fulgida have lower δ15N values than small individuals and C. africana throughout the year. These differences are interpreted to reflect cross-shelf changes in δ15N baseline levels, with greater nitrogen recycling (and hence lower δ15N values) occurring offshore. The occasional/seasonal nearshore appearance of large C. fulgida with low δ15N values therefore implies routine, onshore advection. The values of δ13C did not show cross-shelf differences, which suggests that jellyfish populations across the shelf are supported by phytoplankton-based food chains. This study emphasises the value of using stable isotopes to examine the mesoscale structuring of jellyfish populations.
Choice architecture improves pension selection

ABSTRACT Consumers in Chile of private and semi-private pension systems are not selecting the pension providers that give them the largest Net Present Value. Regulators present retirees with a comparison report of pension plan offerings ranked by the amount offered and the risk classification of the provider. A field experiment implemented in Chile explores alternative presentations of provider performance. We treat respondents by modifying the status quo information ‘package’ (that exactly replicate what is currently provided by the regulator). Two design choices clearly enhanced consumer welfare in this experiment: Reducing the amount of information improved choice – specifically eliminating the risk profiles of providers leads to better decisions by our respondents. Second, adopting a loss frame also resulted in respondents selecting providers that generated higher returns. These gains from modifying information presentation were considerably higher for those with lower levels of financial literacy. This study is conducted in association with the Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP) and the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF), two of the public offices that oversee the pensions market in Chile.
Long-slit cross-dispersion spectroscopy for Hyperion UV space telescope

Abstract. Molecular clouds are a crucial stage in the lifecycle of a star, and the far ultraviolet (FUV) spectral range is a prime observation band. Hyperion is an FUV space telescope that investigates the birth clouds of stars using a high-resolution spectrometer. To meet the scientific requirements, we developed and evaluated a spectrometer that covers the 140.5 to 164.5 nm wavelength range with a spectral resolution higher than 30,000. We employed on-axis and on-plane dispersive optic layouts to control the aberration from a large aspect ratio slit (10 arcmin × 2.5 arcsec, aspect ratio R = 240). The cross-dispersion isolates three orders from the échelle grating (n = − 19, −18, and −17), and the subsequent two-mirror freeform imaging optics form a two-dimensional spectral distribution on a 50 mm × 50 mm detector array. The geometrical and spectral performances of this innovative design are evaluated.
Predictive control for adaptive optics using neural networks

Abstract. Adaptive optics (AO) has become an indispensable tool for ground-based telescopes to mitigate atmospheric seeing and obtain high angular resolution observations. Predictive control aims to overcome latency in AO systems: the inevitable time delay between wavefront measurement and correction. A current method of predictive control uses the empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) framework borrowed from weather prediction, but the advent of modern machine learning and the rise of neural networks (NNs) offer scope for further improvement. Here, we evaluate the potential application of NNs to predictive control and highlight the advantages that they offer. We first show their superior regularization over the standard truncation regularization used by the linear EOF method with on-sky data before demonstrating the NNs’ capacity to model nonlinearities on simulated data. This is highly relevant to the operation of pyramid wavefront sensors (PyWFSs), as the handling of nonlinearities would enable a PyWFS to be used with low modulation and deliver extremely sensitive wavefront measurements.
Adaptive region-based post-classification framework for land-cover mapping improvement using very high spatial resolution optical imagery

Abstract. Land cover mapping using remote sensing optical images with a very high spatial resolution (VHSR) plays an important role in observing the Earth’s surface. However, classification maps are usually affected by salt-and-pepper noise because VHSR optical images usually have a low resolution of ground targets in terms of spectral reflectance. An adaptive region-based post-classification framework (ARPF) is proposed for improving the initial classification map while using a VHSR optical image to further smooth the noise of initial classified maps. First, different from several traditional methods using a single classifier, our proposed ARPF needs more than four different initial classification maps acquired from different classifiers or image features. Second, an adaptive region around each pixel of the gray image is generated with two predefined parameters, and each adaptive region is applied to refine the corresponding pixel of each initial classified map. Finally, all the refined classified maps are merged to obtain the final classification map by coupling adaptive region and majority voting rules. In our experiments, three optical images with VHSR are used to evaluate the proposed ARPF. Compared with three typical relevant post-classification methods, the proposed ARPF can provide a classification map with less noise in visual performance and achieve higher quantitative accuracy while having an advantage in the constant detail of ground targets.
Learning convergence prediction of astrobots in multi-object spectrographs

Abstract. Astrobot swarms are used to capture astronomical signals to generate the map of the observable universe for the purpose of dark energy studies. The convergence of each swarm in the course of its coordination has to surpass a particular threshold to yield a satisfactory map. The current coordination methods do not always reach desired convergence rates. Moreover, these methods are so complicated that one cannot formally verify their results without resource-demanding simulations. Thus we use support vector machines to train a model that can predict the convergence of a swarm based on the data of previous coordination of that swarm. Given a fixed parity, i.e., the rotation direction of the outer arm of an astrobot, corresponding to a swarm, our algorithm reaches a better predictive performance compared to the state of the art. Additionally, we revise our algorithm to solve a more generalized convergence prediction problem according to which the parities of astrobots may differ. We present the prediction results of a generalized scenario, associated with a 487-astrobot swarm, which are interestingly efficient and collision free given the excessive complexity of this scenario compared to the constrained one.
Fast change detection method for remote sensing image based on method of connected area labeling and spectral clustering algorithm

Abstract. The speed of the image clustering method based on the spectral clustering algorithm is greatly affected by the size of image resolution; in many cases, the processing of high-resolution images cannot be completed precisely on time. Thus, based on the connected area labeling and superpixel spectral clustering algorithm, this paper proposes a fast change detection method for remote sensing images based on the connected area labeling method and spectral clustering algorithm. In the initial stage, the method adopts the idea of non-local (NL)-means algorithm to generate NL difference image, then, through the OTSU method, several critical areas with large connected areas are discriminated according to a threshold, and the rectangular contour internal images of these areas are extracted and processed by the superpixel spectral clustering algorithm, to realize the change detection of the areas quickly. The results of the application experiments and the performance experiments proved that the CASC method could solve the feasibility of spectral clustering algorithm to deal with high-resolution remote sensing images to a certain extent, has good robustness, and the processing speed has been dramatically improved. The proposed method can quickly and efficiently extract sensitive sub-areas with significant changes in the study area and provide basis and decision support for geological monitoring and research in critical areas in the future.
Site characteristics influence Andean bear natal-den selection in dry forest habitat

Abstract: Natal dens are critical for reproduction in bears, yet we know virtually nothing of Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) denning ecology, nor whether female Andean bears select dens or den sites with specific characteristics. We analyzed data from 2008 to 2013 on characteristics of 8 natal dens (shelter and surroundings within 5 m) and den sites (context at ≥50 m from den) used by 4–5 females, with 21 potential (suitable but unused) natal dens and 30 potential den sites in the equatorial dry forest of Cerro Venado, Lambayeque, Peru. All observed natal dens were preexisting cavities under rocks, <5 m from a cliff. Natal dens had 1–2 entrances that varied in diameter (mean ± SE = 66.3 ± 9.01 cm). Maximum resting dimension within these dens was >2 m (242.3 ± 32.97 cm) and minimum vertical height within the resting area was <1.5 m (71.0 ± 10.93 cm). We found no evidence that female Andean bears preferred natal dens with any of the measured characteristics. Thus, if females in this area are selective when seeking a natal den, they are selective based on den site characteristics. All natal den sites were <50 m from a cliff and at relatively high elevations for this study area (887.8 ± 73.73 m above sea level). Sites were relatively steep (37.4 ± 6.38°), rugged (168.4 ± 26.29), and not obviously close to water (0.9 ± 0.21 km). Variables based on elevation and slope best described female use of natal den sites. Food, water, and solar heating seemed not to affect use of sites. Our results suggest that topographic resistance to travel by humans and other large mammals affects natal den site use in this area, and possibly elsewhere. The relevant topographical characteristics can be evaluated remotely, so conservation planners can model where natal den sites may occur in other habitats.
Field Performance of Winegrape Rootstocks and Fumigation during Establishment of a Chardonnay Vineyard in Washington

In Washington, most winegrapes are own-rooted Vitis vinifera, which is susceptible to the plant-parasitic nematodes Meloidogyne hapla and Xiphinema americanum. Using resistant rootstocks to manage nematodes has not been evaluated in Washington vineyards. A long-term vineyard trial was established to evaluate the effects of soil fumigation and rootstock genotype on M. hapla and X. americanum population dynamics and vine growth during vineyard establishment (first three years) in a replant scenario. Vines in an existing V. vinifera Chardonnay vineyard were first treated with foliar glyphosate in fall 2014. Randomized areas within the vineyard were then either fumigated or not with drip-applied metam sodium. Following fumigation, vines were removed. In spring 2015, the vineyard was replanted to Chardonnay on the following rootstocks: 1103 Paulsen, 101-14 Millardet et de Grasset, Teleki 5C, and Harmony. Self-grafted and own-rooted Chardonnay were included. Fumigation reduced M. hapla soil second-stage juvenile (J2) population densities on own-rooted and self-grafted vines for only the first year postfumigation. One year postfumigation, the self-grafted and own-rooted vines had higher population densities of M. hapla J2 than rootstocks. All rootstocks supported measurable densities of M. hapla J2 but were poor hosts relative to V. vinifera. Fumigation effectively reduced population densities of X. americanum for up to 3.5 years. Fumigation also reduced early establishment pruning weights. Vines grown in fumigated areas had lower pruning weights through year 2, but rootstock was the bigger influence on pruning weights by year 3. This trial demonstrates that rootstocks have a more sustained impact on nematode reestablishment and subsequent vine health in a vineyard replant scenario than that of preplant fumigation.
The Impact of Longitudinal Surveillance on Tumor Thickness for Melanoma-Prone Families with and without Pathogenic Germline Variants of CDKN2A and CDK4

Background: Skin cancer screening is routinely performed for members of melanoma-prone families, but longitudinal studies evaluating the efficacy of surveillance in this high-risk population are lacking. Methods: We evaluated thickness for first primary melanomas diagnosed in melanoma-prone families (≥2 individuals with melanoma) enrolled in NCT00040352 (NCI familial melanoma study) from 1976 through 2014; enrolled patients received routine skin cancer screening and education about skin self-exams. We used linear and ordinal logistic regression models adjusted for gender and age with a generalized estimating equations approach to report changes in thickness and tumor (T) stage over time, comparing outcomes for NCI cases diagnosed before (pre-study) versus after study participation (prospective) and for NCI cases versus nonfamilial cases [Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 9 registries]. Results: Tumor thickness was evaluated for 293 NCI (pre-study = 246; prospective = 47) patients. Compared with NCI pre-study cases, NCI prospective melanomas were thinner (0.6 vs. 1.1 mm; P < 0.001) and more likely to be T1 stage [39/47 (83%) vs. 98/246 (40%); P < 0.001]. Similar findings (P < 0.05) were observed for familial cases with and without germline CDKN2A and CDK4 mutations. Peters–Belson modeling suggested that calendar period effects of decreasing thickness in the general population (SEER 9) did not fully explain thickness trends in NCI families. Conclusions: Participation in a longitudinal surveillance program providing skin cancer screening and education about skin self-exams was associated with thinner melanomas for members of melanoma-prone families. Impact: The study findings support the clinical benefit of screening (physician and self) for this high-risk population.
Coding-Complete Genome Sequence of a SARS-CoV-2 Strain Isolated in Gilgit, Pakistan

Here, we report the coding-complete genome sequence of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) isolate obtained from a nasopharyngeal swab from the first patient with COVID-19 in Gilgit, Pakistan. ABSTRACT Here, we report the coding-complete genome sequence of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) isolate obtained from a nasopharyngeal swab from the first patient with COVID-19 in Gilgit, Pakistan.
Improving the Process of Screening for Medical Financial Hardship in Oncology Practice

Medical financial hardship, including problems paying medical bills, distress, and forgoing care because of cost, is increasingly common among patients receiving cancer treatment and cancer survivors across the economic spectrum. Little is known, however, about provider practices for identifying patients who experience financial hardship and the strategies for mitigating hardship and addressing patient needs. In this editorial, we discuss a study of practices within the NCI Community Oncology Research Program. McLouth and colleagues found disparities in the use of screening and financial navigation and reliance on inadequate screening methods. To address these disparities, we emphasize the importance of comprehensive and ongoing financial hardship screening throughout the course of cancer treatment and survivorship care, as well as the necessity of accompanying counseling, navigation, and referrals. We also recommend key attributes of screening tools and a process for systematic implementation within clinical practice. With adverse health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affecting people who are racial or ethnic minorities, uninsured or underinsured, or living in poverty, the need to address medical financial hardship is more urgent than ever, to ensure that all people have an equal opportunity for high quality cancer treatment and survival. See related article by McLouth et al., p. 669