Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The oldest occurrence of Crocodylus in Madagascar and the Holocene crocodylian turnover

ABSTRACT The island of Madagascar is home to a distinctive fauna and flora whose biogeographic history is not fully understood. Today’s crocodylian population consists of a single species, the Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, whose colonization of the island may be very recent. In Madagascar, the genus Crocodylus has so far been described from a single subfossil specimen dated at 385 years cal BP, offering limited perspectives for discussing the timing of its arrival. On the other hand, another crocodyline, the now-extinct endemic Voay robustus, has been reported from several late Holocene localities throughout the island. Because of the earlier age of Voay robustus, it has been suggested that Crocodylus followed the extinction of this endemic species. Here, we report on a significantly older occurrence of the genus Crocodylus, between 7670 and 7510 years cal BP. The taxonomic identity of crocodylian subfossil specimens throughout Madagascar should be reevaluated in the context of this new occurrence, which could alter hypotheses of crocodylian turnover and the potential human impacts on the island.
Insulation Coordination in Modern Distribution Networks

The appropriate analysis of the response of distribution networks against Lightning Electro Magnetic Pulse (LEMP) – originated by nearby strikes – requires the availability of accurate coupling models in order to reproduce the real and complex configuration of distribution systems. The above models represent a fundamental tool for estimating the number of protective devices and their most appropriate location in order to guarantee a given minimum number of flashovers and outages per year. When dealing with real networks, such an optimization could require huge computational efforts due to the vast number of power components and feeders. This thesis thoroughly analyzes many of the possible engineering simplifications that, without losing accuracy, can be adopted in the statistical evaluation of the lightning performance of distribution networks in order to limit computational times. Particular attention is devoted to the effect of the ground conductivity on the LEMP and on the line parameters; two new analytical expressions for the evaluation of the inverse Laplace transform of the ground impedance matrix elements of multiconductor overhead lines are derived. The first expression is the inverse Laplace transform of Sunde’s logarithmic formula and is given in two equivalent forms. The second expression is the inverse Laplace transform of Sunde’s general integral expression. Finally, a procedure able to evaluate the lightning performance of a real medium-voltage distribution network, which includes several lines, transformers and surge protection devices is developed and proposed for the analysis of some real cases. Such a procedure allows inferring the characteristics of the statistical distributions of lightning-originated voltages at any point and phase of the network. The analysis aims at assessing the expected mean time between failures of transformers caused by both direct and indirect lightning strikes.
Complex phase effects on a pulsed-source digital holography system

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a digital holography (DH) system is degraded by the total system efficiency, which is comprised of many terms. For pulsed-laser source DH systems, the total-system efficiency is dependent on the amount of temporal overlap between the signal and reference pulses. This temporal overlap not only accounts for the amplitudes of the pulses but also for the phase, which may cause degradations to the achievable SNR. A previous effort formulated a model for the effect of temporal overlap in terms of the ambiguity efficiency [Owens et. al., Appl. Opt. , submitted for publication]. The outputs from the model were compared to measured results obtained using a 1064 nm pulsed-laser source DH system. Initial comparisons showed the model insufficiently accounted for one or more causes of performance degradation, leading to an over-prediction of performance. Two likely causes, mode hopping and linear frequency modulation (LFM), were investigated. It was found both could account for the over-prediction in the model, indicating the model used in the previous effort is valid.
Machine Learning: Supervised Algorithms to Determine the Defect in High-Precision Foundry Operation

In this paper, we represent a method for machine learning to predict the defect in foundry operation. Foundry has become a driving tool to produce the part to another industry like automobile, marine, and weapon. These foundry processes mainly have two critical problems to decrease the quality assurance. Now, we have to predict the defect to increase the quality of foundry operation. The foundry process’s failure is associated with micro shrinkage and ultimate tensile strength. We process by utilizing a machine learning classifier to predict the micro shrinkage and maximum tensile strength and describe the process, learning process, and evaluate the predataset from the foundry process to compare the accuracy and stability.
Planning for injecting drug use as a means to prevent risky injection behavior

ABSTRACT Objective People who inject drugs (PWIDs) are at risk of exposure to blood borne pathogens. India has a large PWID population and the highest HIV transmission is among PWIDs. Interventions to prevent risky injection is constantly tested by the scientific community and innovations are required in this area. Methods 3748 male PWIDs were recruited into a longitudinal study. 2509 PWIDs who participated in the end of study survey, also responded to multiple open ended questions asked by the interviewers. The qualitative interviews were analyzed focusing on identifying themes and relationship among themes. Results 35.6% of the cohort had engaged in risky injection at least once. Although the project activities promoted safe injection practices among majority of the study participants; 35% is a substantial population at risk. Gaining knowledge about blood borne pathogen transmission, motivated participants to be careful about not sharing injection or paraphernalia. The belief that friends are safe made many share among themselves. Not prepared when the withdrawal set in was the main reason for sharing injection. Conclusion The project intervention had stimulating effect on the PWIDs and they tried to stop injection and follow safe injection practices. However, a failure at least once is an exposure to blood borne pathogens. Hence teaching PWIDs to plan for their injection practice and keeping materials ready at hand is important.
Mask Use to Curtail Influenza in a Post–COVID-19 World: Modeling Study

Background Face mask mandates have been instrumental in the reduction of transmission of airborne COVID-19. Thus, the question arises whether comparatively mild measures should be kept in place after the pandemic to reduce other airborne diseases such as influenza. Objective In this study, we aim to simulate the quantitative impact of face masks on the rate of influenza illnesses in the United States. Methods Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2010 to 2019, we used a series of differential equations to simulate past influenza seasons, assuming that people wore face masks. This was achieved by introducing a variable to account for the efficacy and prevalence of masks and then analyzing its impact on influenza transmission rate in a susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model fit to the actual past seasons. We then compared influenza rates in this hypothetical scenario with the actual rates over the seasons. Results Our results show that several combinations of mask efficacy and prevalence can substantially reduce the burden of seasonal influenza. Across all the years modeled, a mask prevalence of 0.2 (20%) and assumed moderate inward and outward mask efficacy of 0.45 (45%) reduced influenza infections by >90%. Conclusions A minority of individuals wearing masks substantially reduced the number of influenza infections across seasons. Considering the efficacy rates of masks and the relatively insignificant monetary cost, we highlight that it may be a viable alternative or complement to influenza vaccinations.
Analysis of The Exchange Rate on The Thai Baht Against The Chinese Yuan Using A Support Vector Machine and Firefly Algorithm

This research constructed an optimal model to forecast the exchange rate of the Thai Baht against the Chinese Yuan by Support Vector Machine model and firefly algorithm. The software used for the construction was R program. The data used for modelling was secondary data collected from Bank of Thailand and the Ministry of Commerce, which consisted of the exchange rate of the Thai Baht against the Chinese Yuan, policy interest rate (per year), the Thai Baht index, import value, export value and international reserve fund. The collection of data was monthly records starting from January 2009 to June 2019, 126 data sets. The first 120 data sets were used for constructing the model and the last 6 data sets were used to verify the model. It was found that there were 3 factors which affected the exchange rate of the Thai baht against the Chinese yuan, with 5% statistical significance. The same direction factors were policy interest rate and import value and the opposite direction factor was international money fund. The optimal support vector machine model obtained was eps-regression type with radial basis function kernel, which had gamma parameter , epsilon parameter and cost value parameter . The model verification showed that the obtained model provided the root mean square error 0.1518 only whereas the classical multiple linear regression model provided the root mean square error 0.2614.
A Corpus-Based Comparison of Inclusiveness in L2 Reading Materials for Refugee Children

Despite increased emphasis on the role of inclusive practices and materials in post-COVID-19 classrooms and warnings about implicit biases against disadvantaged groups, the textbook problem has rarely been approached with equity measures in mind. This multimethod study aimed to investigate to what extent L2 reading materials, locally produced and used for refugee education in Turkey and New Zealand, include all children with different proficiency levels, gender identities and cultural backgrounds using corpus-driven methods. All verbal and nonverbal texts from ten thematically similar third-grade storybooks were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. Comparisons against measures of grammatical and lexical complexity, and of gender and cultural equity revealed that despite both being far from achieving the ideal composition for creating inclusive learning-friendly environments, TSL materials were lagging further behind ESL counterparts. They depended on almost uniform sets of easy-to-read narratives embodying simpler grammatical features and high-frequency words, and thus needed extension with relatively elaborate ones to accommodate mixed-abilities. Gender disparities were institutionalised through male overrepresentation in hero-making, negative stereotyping, familial and occupational identification, and engagement in monetary and mobility activities, but occasionally ameliorated, in the ESL case, by reversing conventionally-gendered domestic, technical and intellectual skills in texts and illustrations. The widest gap was observed in cultural representations because TSL materials, written from a tourist’s perspective, focused on imposing superficial knowledge of target-culture elements, and ESL materials on ensuring relevance through greater use of elements from diverse cultures. Therefore, egalitarian representations in gendered and cultural contents are required for their rehabilitation.
Long-time prediction of nonlinear parametrized dynamical systems by deep learning-based ROMs

Deep learning-based reduced order models (DL-ROMs) have been recently proposed to overcome common limitations shared by conventional ROMs – built, e.g., through proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) – when applied to nonlinear time-dependent parametrized PDEs. Although extremely efﬁcient at testing time, when evaluating the PDE solution for any new testing-parameter instance, DL-ROMs require an expensive training stage. To avoid this latter, a prior dimensionality reduction through POD, and a multi-ﬁdelity pretraining stage, are introduced, yielding the POD-DL-ROM framework, which allows to solve time-dependent PDEs even faster than in real-time. Equipped with LSTM networks, the resulting POD-LSTM-ROMs better grasp the time evolution of the PDE system, ultimately allowing long-term prediction of complex systems’ evolution, with respect to the training window, for unseen input parameter values.
3 Requires the Eicosanoid Hepoxilin A Pseudomonas aeruginosa Induced by Polymorphonuclear Cell Transmigration

Lung inﬂammation resulting from bacterial infection of the respiratory mucosal surface in diseases such as cystic ﬁbrosis and pneumonia contributes signiﬁcantly to the pathology. A major consequence of the inﬂammatory response is the recruitment and accumulation of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) at the infection site. It is currently unclear what bacterial factors trigger this response and exactly how PMNs are directed across the epithelial barrier to the airway lumen. An in vitro model consisting of human PMNs and alveolar epithelial cells (A549) grown on inverted Transwell ﬁlters was used to determine whether bacteria are capable of inducing PMN migration across these epithelial barriers. A variety of lung pathogenic bacteria, including Klebsiella pneumoniae , Escherichia coli , and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are indeed capable of inducing PMN migration across A549 monolayers. This phenomenon is not mediated by LPS, but requires live bacteria infecting the apical surface. Bacterial interaction with the apical surface of A549 monolayers results in activation of epithelial responses, including the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and secretion of the PMN chemokine IL-8. However, secretion of IL-8 in response to bacterial infection is neither necessary nor sufﬁcient to mediate PMN transepithelial migration. Instead, PMN transepithelial migration is mediated by the eicosanoid hepoxilin A 3 , which is a PMN chemoattractant secreted by A549 cells in response to bacterial infection in a protein kinase C-dependent manner. These data suggest that bacterial-induced hepoxilin A 3 secretion may represent a previously unrecognized inﬂammatory mechanism occurring within the lung epithelium during bacterial infections. The Journal of Immunology, 2004, 173: 5712–5720.
Introduction to mhurdle

Data collected by means of households’ expenditure survey may present a large proportion of zero expenditures due to many households recording, for one reason or another, no expenditure for some items. Analyzing these data requires to model any expenditure with a large proportion of nil observations as a dependent variable left censored at zero. Since the seminal paper of Tobin (1958), a large econometric literature has been developed to deal correctly with this problem of zero observations. The problem of censored data has also been treated for a long time in the statistics literature dealing with survival models. In applied microeconometrics, different decision mechanisms have been put forward to explain the appearance of zero expenditure observations. The original Tobin’s model takes only one of these mechanisms into account. With mhurdle, up to three mechanisms generating zero expenditure observations may be introduced in the model. More specifically, we consider the following three zero expenditure generating mechanisms. his package is a new version of a package first developed as part of a PhD dissertation carried out by St’ephane Hoareau (2009) at the University of Reunion under the supervision of Fabrizio Carlevaro and Yves Croissant.
for “Brick-by-Brick: Combinatorial Construction with Deep Reinforcement Learning”

Compared to the construction cases with ground-truth action validity, the cases with our action validity prediction network are beneficial in terms of computational costs. We present the results of wall-clock time for computing the ground-truth action validity in Figure s.1. It shows that computing the action validity for a combination of 100 bricks needs more than 20 seconds. Moreover, we summarize the comparisons between possible action validation approaches as shown in Table s.1.
Controlling LEGO Linefollower Vehicle with Neural Networks

In the article we present our idea for learning system made for a LEGO robot. We built a line following robot which is using four sensors to trace the line. Track trace logic is based on our original implementation written in Python language for LEGO Mindstorm and on a neural network implemented using Python as well. As a result of our work we see that using neural network might be an effective way of teaching a robot to follow a line, but not in case of LEGO EV3.
Exploring the Racial Bias in Pain Detection with a Computer Vision Model

People detect painful expressions more easily in members of their racial ingroup than outgroup. Here, we wanted to investigate this racial bias with a machine learning model trained to detect activations of different action units of painful facial expressions. We examined whether the model detected higher action unit activation for European than African faces when trained on datasets with mostly White faces. To control for confounding variables, pictures of faces were generated with the FaceGen Modeller. Results revealed that there exist differences in the visual detectability of some facial muscle activations due to skin color or other race-dependent facial features. Despite the bias towards European looking faces in the training data, some activations were more easily detectable in African faces. Thus, neither the perceptual detectability, nor the larger exposure to own-race faces seems to solely explain the racial bias in pain detection.
Responses Without Altered Susceptibility to Lymphocytes and Impaired Antibody A Genetic Model of Stress Displays Decreased

Stress pathways affect immune function, the most notable of these pathways being activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Although HPA activation has generally been relegated to an immunosuppressive role, recent evidence suggests that stress and HPA activation can be immunoenhancing in certain situations. To investigate speciﬁc effects of stress on immune function, we used a genetic model of chronic stress wherein transgenic mice overexpress corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), a primary mediator of the stress response. In these mice, CRH is overproduced in the brain, leading to chronic activation of the HPA axis. We found that CRH-transgenic mice have decreased leukocyte numbers in lymphoid compartments, with preferential loss of B lymphocytes. They also exhibit decreased Ab production and impaired isotype switching in response to immunization with a thymus-dependent Ag, phosphocholine-keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Despite these deﬁcits, immunization protected CRH-transgenic and wild-type mice equally well against lethal challenge with Streptococcus pneumoniae , an encapsulated Gram-positive bacterium known to require Ab-mediated opsonization for clearance. While IgG responses are severely depressed in these mice, IgM titers are only modestly decreased. This fairly robust IgM response may be sufﬁcient to protect against S. pneumoniae . Additionally, while total leukocyte numbers are decreased in these mice, neutrophil numbers are increased. This increase in number of neutrophils may compensate for the depressed IgG response, allowing adequate host defense during chronic stress. The Journal of Immunology, 2001, 167: 691–698.
UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS DEPARTAMENTO DE LÍNGUAS MODERNAS

This dissertation aimed to analyse the possible impacts of the conservative cultural standards as well as religion in the novel Stir-fry (1994) written by Emma Donoghue. The story is set in Ireland during the early 1990s, and the study has its focus on how Maria Murphy, the main character, perceives her own Self as well as the society around her. The goal was to examine how the strong religious background that was perpetuated in rural Ireland affects Maria's sense of identity and what she constructs as to be the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’, and how both of these concepts change and mix in between each other through the character's story and growth. Through the analysis, it was possible to understand how Maria deals with the cultural differences of a big city, in opposition to the traditional society she was raised in, and how she expresses this conservative upbringing in the face of those who are different, more specifically through the use of stereotypes as well as repression. Furthermore, the conclusion reveals how the social, cultural and religious background of rural Ireland creates a lack of a Queer collective memory in general, that as a consequence impacts the developing Queer youth, more specifically lesbians, not only further complicating the process to accept Others, but the process as recognizing and accepting yourself as well.
Structural and Functional Characterization of Proteins Involved in Calcium Binding and Sporulation.

KORDYS, DAVID R. Structural and Functional Characterization of Proteins Involved in Calcium Binding and Sporulation. (Under the direction of Professor John Cavanagh.) The studies described here involve the functional and structural characterization of proteins involved in calcium binding (calbindin-D28k) and sporulation (Spo0A). The first study involves calbindin-D28k, which plays a vital role in the cell as both a calcium buffer and sensor. This study shows through circular dichroism and NMR that while calbindin-D28k undergoes significant conformational changes upon binding calcium, it undergoes only minor conformational changes when binding target peptides in the calcium loaded state. NMR experiments have been used to identify specific residues that undergo chemical shift changes as a result of peptide binding. The use of protein-protein docking protocols has allowed for the generation of a model describing the interaction interface between calbindin-D28k and its target peptides. In the second study the structure of the response regulator Spo0A, the master control element in the initiation of sporulation, from Bacillus was investigated. This study shows that Spo0A is promiscuously phosphorylated in E. coli resulting in dimerization of a fraction of Spo0A in solution. Conservative mutation of the phosphorylated aspartic acid in the regulatory terminus of the protein results in the production of monomeric Spo0A. A suite of heteronuclear multidimensional NMR experiments is used to assign the sequential backbone connectivities of the isolated termini and the full-length protein. Structural and Functional Characterization of Proteins Involved in Calcium Binding and Sporulation