Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relative importance of biotic and abiotic determinants of temporal occupancy for avian species in North America

Aim We examined the relative importance of competitor abundance and environmental variables in determining the species distributions of 175 bird species across North America. Unlike previous studies, which tend to model distributions in terms of presence and absence, we take advantage of a geographically extensive dataset of community time series to model the temporal occupancy of species at sites throughout their expected range. Location North America. Time period 2001-2015. Major taxa studied 175 bird species. Methods We calculated variation in temporal occupancy across geographic range and used variance partitioning and Bayesian hierarchical models to evaluate the relative importance of 1) the abundance of potential competitors and 2) the environment (elevation, temperature, precipitation, vegetation index) for determining temporal occupancy. We also created a null model to test whether designated competitor species predicted variation in occupancy better than non-competitor species. Results On average, the environment explained more variance in occupancy than competitor abundance, but this varied by species. For certain species, competitor abundance explained more variance than the environment. Species with larger range sizes, larger range overlap with competitors, and that occurred at higher mean temperatures had a higher proportion of variance explained by the environment than competitor abundance. The abundance of competitor species had a stronger effect on focal species occupancy than non-competitor species in the null model. Main conclusions Temporal occupancy represents a new way of describing species distributions that is complementary to presence/absence or abundance. Geographic variation in temporal occupancy was explained by both biotic and abiotic drivers, and abiotic drivers explained more variation in temporal occupancy than abundance on average. Species traits also play a role in determining whether variation in temporal occupancy is best explained by biotic or abiotic drivers. The results of our study can improve species distribution models, particularly by accounting for competitive interactions.
Movements of juvenile and sub-adult striped bass Morone saxatilis in the Saint John River, New Brunswick, Canada

Juvenile striped bass (age-1) of distinct genetic ancestry were re-discovered in the Saint John River, New Brunswick in 2014 after a 35 yr hiatus of recognition. These juveniles were determined to be highly genetically divergent from all possible source populations, hypothesized to be of Saint John River ancestry, and thus considered evidence of the continued existence of the native stock. Successful recruitment of strong year classes of striped bass within the Saint John River, however, appears to be infrequent. We acoustically tagged and tracked juvenile and subadult striped bass (n = 37; age 2−4) in the Saint John River in both 2015 and 2016, and identified summer feeding and overwintering habitats that established an in-river residency. Following decades of poor or no recruitment, it is now imperative that managers quickly include monitoring of juvenile and sub-adult striped bass and protection of their habitats in the conservation and recovery efforts for Saint John River striped bass stock.
Detailed evaluation of low-cost ranging sensors for structural health monitoring applications

The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the funding provided through the research project BIA2017- 86811-C2-1-R directed by Jose Turmo and BIA2017-86811-C2-2-R, directed by Jose Antonio Lozano-Galant. All these projects are funded with FEDER funds. Authors are also indebted to the Secretaria d’ Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya for the funding provided through Agaur (2017 SGR 1482). It is also to be noted that funding for this research has been provided for MR. Seyedmilad Komarizadehasl by Agencia Estatal de Investigacion del Ministerio de Ciencia Innovacion y Universidades grant and the Fondo Social Europeo grant (PRE2018-083238).
Segmentation of Bacterial Cells Based on a Hybrid Feature Generation and Deep Learning

We present in this work a segmentation method of E. coli bacterial images generated via phase contrast microscopy using a deep learning based hybrid feature generation. Unlike conventional machine learning methods that use the hand-crafted features, we adopt the denoising autoencoder in order to generate a precise and accurate representation of the pixels. We first construct a hybrid vector that combines original image, difference of Gaussians and image gradients. The created hybrid features are then given to a deep autoencoder that learns the pixels’ internal dependencies and the cells’ shape and boundary information. The latent representations learned by the autoencoder are used as the inputs of a softmax classification layer and the direct outputs from the classifier represent the coarse segmentation mask. Finally, the classifier’s outputs are used as prior information for a graph partitioning based fine segmentation. We demonstrate that the proposed hybrid vector representation manages to preserve the global shape and boundary information of the cells, allowing to retrieve the majority of the cellular patterns without the need of any post-processing
Lossless Event Compression of Discrete Event Systems

This article investigates the lossless event compression problem of discrete event systems which is, given a discrete event system and a source string generated by it, to find a minimal recoverable compressed string by removing as many events as possible. In order for the problem to be well post, two compression protocols are introduced. One requires that the last event is always kept. The other requires that, for any loop substring, at least one event is kept. We say a compressed string is recoverable if we can uniquely determine the source string based on the knowledge of the given discrete event system. We first construct an automaton to present all the possible source strings for a given compressed string. Based on the automaton, an algorithm is proposed to check whether the given compressed string is recoverable or not. We then propose an algorithm to calculate a minimal recoverable compressed string for a source string. The compressed string satisfies monotonicity which can significantly reduce the computational complexity of the algorithm. Finally, we use a practical example to illustrate these results.
The Use of Language Learning Strategy (LLS) to Master the Reading Skills among the Special Remedial Students Year One

Failure to master the basic skills of reading, writing and Counting (3M) among primary school pupils in the country is still ongoing. The performance gap of the 3M skills mastery between mainstream pupils and remedial pupils remains noticeable. The Failure of some teachers to implement remedial programs resulting in students being left behind in the learning proses. This study aims to explore the most effective language learning strategy (LLS) practices to master the reading skills for the Malay language subjects in Year 1 special remedial program in primary school students. This qualitative study uses case study design. This study uses the Searchlight Model. A special remedial teacher and a total of 20 special remedial students from a primary school in the northern Kinta district, Perak was selected by the state. Data review is obtained through observations, document review, and interviews. Data is analyzed using a continuous method of analysis. Reading skills are the main focus of research participants, the study will be able to contribute to the remedial education in mastering of Malay reading skills to provide the most effective exposure of the LLS practices in remedial teacher teaching by discovering the teaching Model of a remedial teacher.
Unfolding Nonlinear Dynamics in Analogue Systems With Mem-Elements

The paper considers a relevant class of networks containing memristors and (possibly) nonlinear capacitors and inductors. The goal is to unfold the nonlinear dynamics of these networks by highlighting some main features that are potentially useful for real-time signal processing and in-memory computing. In particular, an analytic treatment is provided for dynamic phenomena as the presence of invariant manifolds, the coexistence of different regimes, complex dynamics and attractors and the phenomenon of bifurcations without parameters, i.e., bifurcations due to changing the initial conditions of the state variables for a fixed set of circuit parameters. The paper also addresses the issue of how to design pulse independent voltage or current sources to steer the network dynamics through different manifolds and attractors. Two relevant examples are worked out in details, namely, a variant of Chua’s circuit with a memristor and a nonlinear capacitor and a relaxation oscillator with a memristor and a nonlinear inductor. In the latter example, the paper also studies the effect on manifolds and coexisting dynamics when real memristive devices are accounted for using a class of extended memristor models. The analysis is conducted by means of a recently developed technique named flux-charge analysis method (FCAM). Numerical simulations are presented to confirm the theoretic findings.
Classification of Objects in a Point Cloud using Neural Networks

3-dimensional scans captured in shape of point clouds are widely used in many di erent areas. Every such area use di erent kinds of sensors to ac-quire point clouds and do the analysis of the data but each of those needs some preanalysis to be done. One of the most important is segmentation and classification of points into types of objects. Such information considerably widens possibilities of usage for further purposes. There are many classifiers and many features based on which labeling can be done. In this paper few most commonly used approaches were chosen to check the influence of neighboring points acquisition on classification process. Results proof signif-icant relation between those two steps of point cloud analysis. Visualization of analyzed point cloud also shown that precision of predictions not always comes with better visibility of certain types of objects. Additionally, color-less analysis of geometrical features seems to be promising way for further research.
Modeling two-phase flow with stochastic coalescence/breakage model

Gas-particle flows are modeled to attempt to account for coalescence and breakup of liquid droplets dispersed within the gas phase. The one-way coupled population balance equation describing the change of number concentration by the modeled particle to particle interactions and aerodynamic forces is solved by the quadrature method of moments(QMOM). Computations are performed on a typical converging-diverging nozzle attached to a rocket motor. The Herdan’s mean diameter evolution is predicted according to different droplet characteristics and pressure at nozzle inlet.
PRMT1-mediated methylation of the Large Drosha Complex regulates microRNA biogenesis

MicroRNA (miRNA) biogenesis is a tightly controlled multi-step process operated in the nucleus by the activity of the Large Drosha Complex (LDC). Through high resolution mass spectrometry (MS) analysis we discovered that the LDC is extensively methylated, with 82 distinct methylated sites associated to 16 out of 23 subunits of the LDC. The majority of these modifications occurs on arginine (R)- residues (61), leading to 86 methylation events, while 29 lysine (K)-methylation events occurs on 21 sites of the complex. Interestingly, both depletion and pharmacological inhibition of PRMT1 lead to a widespread alteration of the methylation state of the complex and induce global decrease of miRNA expression, as a consequence of the specific impairment of the pri-to-pre-miRNA processing step. In particular, we show that the reduced methylation of the ILF3 subunit of the complex is linked to its diminished binding to the target pri-miRNAs. Overall, our study uncovers a previously uncharacterized role of R-methylation in the regulation of the LDC activity in mammalian cells, thus affecting global miRNA levels.
The effects of estrogen and progesterone on plasma amino acids levels: evidence from change plasma amino acids levels during the menstrual cycle in women

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the influence of plasma free amino acids (PFAA) concentration changed during the menstrual cycle in women. In 21 healthy university students were recruited who have almost 28 days in menstrual cycle before 2 months diary and measured by basal body temperature. The subjects blood samples were collected in menstrual cycles; menstrual (the 3–5 days), follicular (the 8–11 days), ovulation, luteal-1(the 18–20 days), luteal-2(the 24–28days) among two menstrual cycles. The following 22 amino acids were measured by HPLC-ESI MS and meta-analysis; alanine (Ala), arginine (Arg), asparagine (Asn), cysteine (Cys), citrulline (Cit), glutamine (Gln), glycine (Gly), histidine (His), isoleucine (Ile), leucine (Leu), lysine (Lys), methionine (Met), Ornitine (Orn), phenylalanine (Phe), proline (Pro), serine (Ser), threonine (Thr), tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr), valine (Val), aspartate (Asp) and glutamate (Glu). Furthermore, estrogen and progesterone were measured. Many mean PFAA (Gly, Ser, Pro, Thr, Orn, Gln, Arg, Cit, Tyr, Asn, Ala, Cys, Lys) at luteal were lower than that of other menstrual cycles. Furthermore many PFAA at luteal were significantly lower than that of follicular (p < 0.05). Many PFAA underwent influence of the menses cycle, and the changes in those amino acids were decrease in luteum mainly. Abbreviations: PFAA: plasma free amino acids; Ala: alanine; Arg: arginine; Asn: asparagine; Cys: Cysteine; Cit: Citrulline; Gln: glutamine; Gly: glycine; His: histidine; Ile: isoleucine; Leu: leucine; Lys: lysine; Met: methionine; Orn: Ornitine; Phe: phenylalanine; Pro: proline; Ser: serine; Thr: threonine; Trp: tryptophan; Tyr: tyrosine; Val: valine; Asp: aspartate; Glu: glutamate; SD: standard deviation; BMI: body mass index; P: protein; F: fat; C: carbohydrate; AA: total amino acids; ABA: alpha-aminobutyric acid; EAA: essential amino acid; NEAA: non-essential amino acid; Tau: Taurine; Sar: sarcosine; 3MeHis: 3-Methylhistidine; EtOHNH2: 2-aminoethanol; ANOVA: analysis of variance; BCAA: Branched Chain Amino Acids
Swinging between responsibility and rationality – Science policy and technology visions in India

In recent debates on normativity in Technology Assessment (Delvenne et al. 2019; Grunwald 1999), a major emerging argument relates to the idea that TA is inherently normative and should embrace normative aspects, rather than aim for an unrealistic neutrality (Delvenne/Parotte 2019; Lucivero et al. 2019). Because of the aims it tries to achieve and the methods it employs, this implies in practice that TA is already acting on normative principles, such as the commitment to democratic values and the inclusion of diverse perspectives (Grunwald 2019; Hennen/Nierling 2019). The need of the hour, accordingly, is to be reflexive about these normativities to better utilize them for effective and more impactful policy-making (Delvenne et al. 2019). Another major discussion within the TA community is about the effectiveness of these values in engaging with the challenges of contemporary world. A lot has been said about contested values such as neutrality and inclusion in the context of western countries (Hennen/Nierling 2019). Challenges become even more prominent in the context of the global south, where multiple knowledge systems coexist and cultural diversity is accompanied by social inequality and informality. However, in these countries, TA as a part of the formal mechanism to engage with technology and society remains hugely understudied from a critical point of view. Either formal TA is not employed in global south settings at all or it is directly transported from the west and super-imposed as a prefixed model. Thus, a situated, contextspecific and critical analysis of values employed through TA approaches in the global south is necessary. In this paper, we will critically engage with normative aspects as employed in TA in the Indian context. Are there values that remain hidden and get neglected? How do dominant norms create or deter a space for more pluralistic decision-making? How do the dominant values promoted at the theoretical level become implemented in real situations? As a heuristic tool, we will discuss values circulated through the ideals of rationality and responsibility in TA debates in India. A detailed discussion on rationality and 1
A Compact 3–30-GHz 68.5-ps CMOS True-Time Delay for Wideband Phased Array Systems

This article presents a compact 4-bit switched-line true-time delay (TTD) circuit over a wide frequency range extending from 3 to 30 GHz using novel delay elements. The delay elements, namely, the cascading coupled all-pass network (CAPN) and noncoupled all-pass network (NCAPN), were employed in the proposed TTD circuit to improve the delay-bandwidth product (DBW) while maintaining its compact size and low delay variation (DV). For comparison, a theoretical analysis for understanding the group delay feature of the APN with various coupling coefficients is presented along with low-pass network (LPN). To verify the proposed structure, the proposed delays are applied to construct the 4-bit switched-line TTD by utilizing two single-pole double-through (SPDT) and three double-pole double-through (DPDT) switches in a 28-nm CMOS process. The circuit has a compact size of 1.7 mm $\times0.2$ mm, with a maximum delay of 68.5 ps and a minimum delay of 4.6 ps. The measured average insertion loss is 13.5 dB, and the in/out return loss is better than 10 dB across 3–30 GHz. The measured rms delay and gain errors are less than 2 ps and 3.2 dB, respectively, over the operating frequency range. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed TTD achieves the largest figure of merit (FoM) among the integrated TTD circuits.
Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Therapies to Induce Tolerance in Kidney Transplantation

This review summarizes the latest results from the interventional clinical trials for inducing clinical tolerance in the recipients of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched or mismatched living donor kidney transplants via allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-based therapies. The protocols utilized by the three medical centers in the United States differ in degree of HLA-matching, relatedness or unrelatedness, donor cell composition of the hematopoietic stem cells transplant (HSCT), timing for infusion and conditioning regimens. Tolerant recipients from the clinical trials benefited from better long-term outcome, improved quality of life and reduction in lifetime healthcare expenses compared with standard-of-care recipients on conventional immunosuppression. Durable chimerism induced by concomitant HSCT is indispensable to achieve immunologic tolerance to kidney transplantation and to protect against recurrence of the original renal disease in HLA-mismatched related and unrelated kidney transplant recipients.
Prevalence of Emerging Protozoa among Crustaceans

Today people are turning to fish as a healthy alternative to red meat. It supplies various essential protein, vitamins, Omega 3 and minerals. It is favored by all people for its delicious taste specially Shrimps and Crabs. However, crustaceans can serve as sources of parasitic infection to man. So this study was planned to estimate prevalence of emerging protozoa among crustaceans. A total of 60 shrimp & crab samples (30 of each) were collected from different markets in Alexandria Governorate. The intestinal contents of each were milked out. Smears were stained with: a) Quick-hot Gram-Chromotrope staining technique (QHG), b) Kinyoun’s acid-fast stain (KAF). Microsporidia was encountered in the whole sample of Shrimps and Crabs by both stains (QHG, KAF). In Shrimps; Cyclospora was defected 40% followed by Cryptosporidia (33.3%) by using QHG stain while the results revealed by Kinyoun’s acid fast stain were (40%, 80%) respectively. In Crabs; Cryptosporidia was the second encountered protozoa 53.3%, followed by Cyclospora 33.3% as demonstrated by QHG. However, Kinyon’s acid fast stain showed 86.7%, 33.3% respectively. The least protozoan parasites shown in the present study were Blastocystis hominis 6.7%, and Dientamoeba fragilis 3.3%, either by QHG or KAF demonstration.
Efficacy and Residues of Imidacloprid against Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci inTomato Plants

The present work was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of neonicotinoide insecticide, imidacloprid against the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci infesting tomato plants under field conditions and its residues in leaves and fruits after different periods of application. There were significant differences between treated and untreated seedlings, as well as between treated and untreated seeds, where treating seedlings was more effective in decreasing whitefly stage population, where the highest mean reduction percentages was recorded with nymph stages of white fly (82.3%) comparing with (68.7%) at treated seed treatment and were (74.9%) in eggs compared with (47.6%) at treated seeds. The treated seedling roots protected tomato seedlings from whitefly stages up to 10 weeks after planting, as well as treated seeds protected seedlings for 7-8 weeks after sowing. The reduction percentages of egg, nymph and adult stages in treated seedlings and sprayed with half and field recommended rates were more than that in untreated seedlings. The recommended rate was more effective than half rate in decreasing white fly adult stages. The increase percentage in fruit yield was recorded with treated tomato seedlings sprayed with the recommended rate of imidacloprid giving 61.4%, and it was 55.4% in untreated seedlings and sprayed, compared to control. Residues of imidacloprid in leaves and fruits in treated seedlings sprayed with field rate were more than untreated seedlings and sprayed, as well as the residues of imidacloprid were higher in leaves than fruits, where the initial residues were 0.66 mg/kg, decreased to 0.65, 0.34, 0.19, 0.1, 0.09 and 0.08 mg/kg in tomato fruits of treated seedlings and prayed, 0.3 mg/kg and was decreased to 0.26, 0.11, 0.07, 0.07, 0.04 and 0.02 mg/kg in untreated seedlings and sprayed after 1 hr, 2,5,7,9,15 and 21 day, respectively.