Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterisation of the Swarming Behavior of An. coluzzii and An. Gambiae Populations from a Hybrid Zone of Senegal.

Background Anopheles gambiae s.s. and An. coluzzii, two major malaria vectors in Africa, exist in the nature as two incipient, sympatric or allopatric species. In most of their sympatric areas, the reproductive isolation between these two distinct species is thought to be the main barrier to hybridization. However, in Senegal, barriers to the gene flow seems to be leaky in some areas with relatively higher than expected hybridization rates. Here, we characterized the swarming behavior of these two species to investigate its role in the observed high hybridization.Methods The study was carried out in the south and center of Senegal during the 2018 rainy season. Swarms were surveyed at sunset towards the lightest part of the sky, about 0.5–4 m above the ground. Once located, swarm were collected using a net. Indoor resting populations were also collected during the same period from each sentinel village by pyrethrum spray catch earlier the morning. All specimens collected were identified morphologically followed by PCR to estimate the frequency of the two species and female hybrids.Results Results showed that An. gambiae swarmed mainly over bare ground whereas An. coluzzii swarms over various objects forming a dark-light contrast with the ground. The height of swarms varied between 0.5 to 2.5 meters and the swarming duration was about 10 minutes. Start of swarming was mainly correlated with sunset and no mixed swarms were found in areas of sympatry despite the high level of hybridization rate (2.4% − 4.4%). Conclusion As found elsewhere in West Africa, swarming site segregation is an important pre-mating reproductive barrier between An. coluzzii and An. gambiae in Senegal. No link was found between swarming behavior and hybridization, but the lack of mixed swarms may be the result of low number of samples obtained in the sympatric area.
The Multilevel Effects of Changes in Disadvantage on Changes in Crime

While social disorganization theory suggests the importance of change, most prior research examining macro-level criminological associations uses cross-sectional data. The current study examines the multilevel relationship between changes in disadvantage and changes in crime over time using four data sources: the National Neighborhood Crime Study, the 2000 U.S. Census, crime-incidents occurring between 2005 and 2009, and the 2005–2009 American Community Survey. Analyzing 6,068 census tracts within 53 large U.S. cities using multilevel models with time nested within tracts nested within cities, I parse out the contribution of changes in tract-level disadvantage from city-level disadvantage to changes in robbery and burglary rates. Results indicate the importance of both static and dynamic associations between disadvantage and crime, at both the neighborhood and city level.
Aerodynamic Inner Workings of Circumferential Grooves in a Transonic Axial Compressor

The current paper reports on investigations of the fundamental flow mechanisms of circumferential grooves applied to a transonic axial compressor. Experimental results show that the compressor stall margin is significantly improved with the current set of circumferential grooves. The primary focus of the current investigation is to advance understanding of basic flow mechanics behind the observed improvement of stall margin. Experimental data and numerical simulations of a circumferential groove were analyzed in detail to unlock the inner workings of the circumferential grooves in the current transonic compressor rotor. A short length scale stall inception occurs when a large flow blockage is built on the pressure side of the blade near the leading edge and incoming flow spills over to the adjacent blade passage due to this blockage. The current study reveals that a large portion of this blockage is created by the tip clearance flow originating from 20% to 50% chord of the blade from the leading edge. Tip clearance flows originating from the leading edge up to 20% chord form a tip clearance core vortex and this tip clearance core vortex travels radially inward. The tip clearance flows originating from 20% to 50% chord travels over this tip clearance core vortex and reaches to the pressure side. This part of tip clearance flow is of low momentum as it is coming from the casing boundary layer and the blade suction surface boundary layer. The circumferential grooves disturb this part of the tip clearance flow close to the casing. Consequently the buildup of the induced vortex and the blockage near the pressure side of the passage is reduced. This is the main mechanism of the circumferential grooves that delays the formation of blockage near the pressure side of the passage and delays the onset of short length scale stall inception. The primary effect of the circumferential grooves is preventing local blockage near the pressure side of the blade leading edge that directly determines flow spillage around the leading edge. The circumferential grooves do not necessarily reduce the over all blockage built up at the rotor tip section.
Learning-based Testing of aLarge Scale Django Web Application : An Exploratory Case Study Using LBTest

Learning-based testing is an emerging software testing paradigm. With it, automatic test case generation is achieved by combining model-based testing with machine learning. Recent research has led to the development of LBTest, a tool that is getting ready for use in the software industry. The tool has mostly been used in small academic case studies and only two previous industrial case studies. This thesis investigated the use of LBTest for testing a large scale web application from the financial IT sector, built using the popular Django framework. When errors were injected into the system under test, LBTest successfully generated test cases showing how they were violating given software requirements. Efficiency problems were discovered and solved in a general way, repeatable for testing any Django system with LBTest.
The impact of pain on subsequent effort and cognitive performance

Theoretical accounts of pain and empirical evidence indicate that pain and cognitive control share common neurocognitive processes. Numerous studies have examined the interactions between pain and cognitive performance when they occur simultaneously, typically showing analgesic effects of task performance and impaired performance due to pain. However, the sequential impact of pain on cognitive control and effort remains less clear. This study investigated the influence of a first task including painful vs. non-painful thermal stimuli on effort-related cardiac response and performance in a subsequent moderately difficult cognitive task. Drawing on the hypothesis that experiencing pain should recruit cognitive resources and reduce perceived ability, we predicted lower task performance and/or stronger compensatory effort in the subsequent cognitive task after the painful than after the non-painful first task. Results support our predictions regarding the effect of pain on subsequent cognitive performance, which was moderately lower after the painful task. However, such a decrease in task proficiency was not associated with a comparable decrease in perceived capacity or increase in effort-related cardiac reactivity. Nevertheless, further correlational analyses indicated that effort mobilization and perceived capacity were significantly related to pain ratings. Moderate pain was associated with stronger effort during the cognitive task whereas high pain led to disengagement, i.e., a low effort. Moreover, in line with our predictions, higher pain ratings were associated with lower self-reported capacity to perform the cognitive task. We discuss these findings regarding the relationship between effort and performance; the impact of fatigue on motivation; and interindividual variability in these after-effects.
An Efficient Research of Autoranking of Amazon Research using Regression Models

Before providing services to customers it is very important to know about the requirements as well as the services or products we are providing them contains opinions of other customers in which manner like-it is a positive review from the customer or the negative review. Since, an opinion plays a very important role in purchasing anything. There are some sites running online for the purpose of providing goods to the customers also they focused onto taking the decision over the posting reviews whether it is a positive response or negative. The motive of the work is to analyse the social data or products reviews simultaneously, and then create a model that will automatically create a model for product review. This paper bringing the continuous audits from a web based business website amazon and apply different content mining methods to pre-process the information and afterward apply an AI approach through which results will assess the viability of surveys through an outstanding measure for decency of fit. In this paper a development model with a computational cost model is utilized. The improved cost model with the word handling and positioning is utilized in given research.
A SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE FOR THE DETECTION AND MODELING OF DYNAMIC TRAFFIC SCENES

This paper describes the architecture intended to be used in the research project ARGOS for the detection and modeling of dynamic traffic scenes around a driving passenger car. It consists of four main parts, the model of the sensing devices, a model of the street the car is presently driving on, a dynamic model of the own vehicle and a cluster containing dynamic models of all objects identified to be around the own car. Within the ARGOS project, this architecture should be used first in conjunction with one or more laser range finder as sensing devices. This sensor system will be extended by video sensors in the near future. The world model structure can be easily adapted to other sensor configurations. Once implemented it should be a common platform and database for different kinds of active safety systems in future passenger cars.
Control of the interaction of a gantry robot end effector with the environment by the adaptive behaviour of its joint drive actuators

The thesis examines a way in which the performance of the robot electric actuators can be precisely and accurately force controlled where there is a need for maintaining a stable specified contact force with an external environment. It describes the advantages of the proposed research, which eliminates the need for any external sensors and solely depends on the precise torque control of electric motors. The aim of the research is thus the development of a software based control system and then a proposal for possible inclusion of this control philosophy in existing range of automated manufacturing techniques. The primary aim of the research is to introduce force controlled behaviour in the electric actuators when the robot interacts with the environment, by measuring and controlling the contact forces between them. A software control system is developed and implemented on a robot gantry manipulator to follow two dimensional contours without the explicit geometrical knowledge of those contours. The torque signatures from the electric actuators are monitored and maintained within a desired force band. The secondary aim is the optimal design of the software controller structure. Experiments are performed and the mathematical model is validated against conventional Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control. Fuzzy control is introduced in the software architecture to incorporate a sophisticated control. Investigation is carried out with the combination of PID and Fuzzy logic which depend on the geometrical complexity of the external environment to achieve the expected results.
The Influence of Price, Product Complexity, and Personal Involvement on Web Interface Efficacy

Although Internet retailing has become part of mainstream commerce, there is still lack of web-interface design strategies as a function of price of product, complexity of product, and personal involvement of consumer with the product. Different types of products require different aspects of information and environment as demanded by consumers; thus, it is imperative for retailers to appropriately tailor their online presentation of products. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we intend to investigate the effectiveness of peripheral-cue dominated interfaces, balanced-cue dominated interfaces, and central-cue dominated interfaces on consumer purchase intentions. Our initial analyses provide support for the contention that the role of website cues (peripheral and central) on the consumer varies by the type of product. Our findings have implications for research and practice. We intend to provide greater insights into our results in our presentation at the conference.
EXOS research on master controllers for robotic devices

Two projects are currently being conducted by EXOS under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program with NASA. One project will develop a force feedback device for controlling robot hands, the other will develop an elbow and shoulder exoskeleton which can be integrated with other EXOS devices to provide whole robot arm and hand control. Aspects covered are the project objectives, important research issues which have arisen during the developments, and interim results of the projects. The Phase 1 projects currently underway will result in hardware prototypes and identification of research issues required for complete system development and/or integration.
Bi-directional command of cognitive control by distinct prefrontal cortical output neurons to thalamus and striatum

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) steers goal-directed actions and withholds inappropriate behavior. Dorsal and ventral mPFC (dmPFC/vmPFC) circuits have distinct roles in cognitive control, but underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this study, we provide anatomical, behavioral, and neurophysiological evidence for distinct roles of four distinct prefrontal projection populations in behavior. We used neuroanatomical tracing techniques, chemogenetics and fiber photometry in freely behaving rats, and in vitro electrophysiology to characterize dmPFC and vmPFC outputs to distinct thalamic and striatal subdomains and show that they have dissociable roles in cognitive control. We identify four spatially segregated projection neuron populations in the mPFC. Chemogenetic silencing shows that dmPFC and vmPFC projections to lateral and medial mediodorsal thalamus subregions oppositely regulate cognitive control. In addition, superficial and deep layer dmPFC neurons projecting to striatum and thalamus divergently regulate cognitive control. Using fiber photometry, we show that these projections distinctly encode behavior. Finally, we show that postsynaptic striatal and thalamic neurons differentially process synaptic inputs from dmPFC and vmPFC, highlighting mechanisms that potentially amplify distinct pathways underlying cognitive control of behavior. Collectively, we show that mPFC output circuits targeting anatomically and functionally distinct striatal and thalamic subregions encode bidirectional command of cognitive control.
The Effect of Decentralisation on Access to Sanitation and Water Services: An Empirical Test Using International Data

Decentralisation promises efficiency gain and improved access to public goods and services, especially at the local level. Under decentralised governance arrangement, regional and environmental peculiarities are given prominent consideration in delivering public goods and services. Given the impact of the environment in influencing sanitation and water services, particularly water provision, this study examines the effect of decentralisation, as measured by revenue share and expenditure share, on improved access to sanitation and water services. Exploiting the variation in improved access to sanitation facilities and water sources using a static panel data estimator, th is study’s empirical results suggest a positive impact of decentralisation on the improved access to sanitation and water services. The positive effect is larger in rural areas vis-à-vis the country level and urban areas. The study reveals that wealth and institutional factors are also important to improve access to sanitation and water services. water sources. The coefficient of the Lag revenue share is positive and statistically significant under FE. The result suggests that a 1 percentage point rise in decentralisation as measured by the proportion of revenues of subnational governments in total government revenues leads to an increase of 0.16 percentage points in improved access to water sources. It is are positive and statistically significant. The positive effects of decentralisation on improved access to sanitation facilities and improved access to water sources are larger for the rural areas vis-à-vis the country level and urban areas. The results represent an ideal decentralisation system where resources are devolved to subnational governments in terms of subnational revenue share and expenditure share in total government revenues and expenditures. This presupposes that the subnational government can take fiscal decisions without interference from the central government. The results support the decentralisation of governance architecture in meeting the for the provision
Frequency sweep jitter and wander of a Vernier-Tuned Distributed Bragg Reflector (VT-DBR) laser at 1550 nm in OCT applications

The short-term jitter and longer-term wander of the frequency sweep profile of a Vernier-Tuned Distributed Bragg Reflector (VT-DBR) laser at 1550 nm used in OCT applications is characterized in this work. The VT-DBR has demonstrated success in source-swept OCT (SSOCT), performing both intensity [1] and phase-sensitive [2] OCT. The purpose of this paper is to investigate one of the unique aspects of the VT-DBR laser that makes it successful in OCT: the stability of the linear optical frequency sweep of the source. Jitter measurements of the optical frequency sweep are recorded using a 3-cavity 100 GHz free spectral range (FSR) solid etalon. A gas absorption reference cell is used for wander characterization. We report that the VT-DBR jitters by no more than 82 MHz RMS in optical frequency while sweeping at an 8 kHz repetition rate. Longer-term wander provides insight into the accuracy of the VT-DBR selfcalibration routine which produces an intrinsically linear optical frequency sweep. Over an 8-hour data collection period, the system maintains a linear sweep with an optical frequency step of 105 MHz per 2.5 ns with +/- 3 kHz per 2.5 ns (+/- 0.03%) peak-to-peak deviation. We find that the absolute frequency drifts by 325 MHz (2.6pm) over the same 8- hour period with ambient temperature fluctuations of no more than 5 °C. Results show that using calibration with a gas reference cell, picometer absolute wavelength accuracy of the laser can be achieved at any time for a single sweep. Stability and accuracy limits are thought to be due to electronic drive circuitry in the current design.
Phase 2: Location Tracking of Test Vehicles for Bridge Load Rating

The purpose of this research project was to augment the work of Phase 1 of this project, which provided the Bridge Maintenance Bureau of the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) with tools for load testing of bridges. Prior to this project, the load testing team used sensors and weighted trucks to load bridges in a controlled fashion. The sensors then collected data from the bridges under load conditions, and from these data the proper bridge rating could be determined. However, the ALDOT load testing team desired to capture the exact position of the load vehicle with respect to the sensor data. In order to accomplish this, they needed an additional system which could measure the vehicle position and automatically feed this information into the data acquisition system in real time. In Phase 1 the research team developed such a device using an optical tracker which, when mounted to the test vehicle, provided position of the vehicle relative to the road surface. This system provided both tracking and a data readout in the cab of the test vehicle. Phase 2 offered several advancements from the Phase 1 project, including 1) improvement of the tracking system and accuracy, 2) improvement of the software package use in the load vehicle, and 3) development of software to interface with the current data acquisition system used by ALDOT. Phase 2 also included several stages of training that were provided to ALDOT bridge maintenance personnel. This training included both hardware and software training. The end result of this work provided an optical tracking system which can be quickly mounted to a test vehicle, capture the x and y position of the truck on the bridge deck, and provide these data in real time to the ALDOT data acquisition system.
Calibration of Rutting Models for Structural and Mix Design

This report proposes revisions to the "Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide" (MEPDG) and software to (1) incorporate three alternative rut-depth prediction models that rely on repeated load (triaxial) permanent deformation or constant height testing to provide the requisite input data, and (2) provide revised coefficients for the original and alternative rut-depth transfer functions or prediction models derived from material properties measured in the laboratory and pavement performance data. Thus, the report will be of immediate interest to engineers in public- and private-sector organizations with responsibility for the structural design and analysis of asphalt concrete pavements.
Factors affecting perceived exertion and task duration during intermittent isometric fatiguing exercise and their implications for rehabilitation following knee surgery

It has been theorised that self-perception is integral to the regulation of exercise and production of an optimal performance. This concept has not been examined in an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructed population where the consequences of injury and surgery may provide a substantive perturbation to perceptual capabilities. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) have previously been shown to enable prediction of exercise task duration (TD) during running and cycling activities in healthy individuals, but this has yet to be explored in intermittent and isolated muscle exercise that is typically utilised during resistance training and ACL rehabilitation. Accordingly, this thesis investigated: i) the relationship between self-perceived knee function and objective measures of musculoskeletal performance at a range of time-points across the ACL-rehabilitation period; ii) the relationship between two paradigms of self-perception (RPE; perceived TD) and TD in healthy individuals during an intermittent isometric fatigue task (IIF) under various conditions of increasing exercise stress.