Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time scales and modes of reef lagoon infilling in the Maldives and controls on the onset of reef island formation

Faro are annular reefs, with reef fl ats near sea level and lagoons of variable depth, char- acteristic of both the perimeter and lagoons of Maldivian (Indian Ocean) atolls. Their geo- morphic development remains largely unknown, but where faro lagoons (termed velu in Maldivian) have infi lled and support reef islands, these provide precious habitable land. Understanding the timing and modes of velu infi lling is thus directly relevant to questions about reef island development and vulnerability. Here we use a chronostratigraphic data set obtained from a range of atoll-interior faro with partially to fully fi lled velu (including those with reef islands) from Baa (South Maalhosmadulu) Atoll, Maldives, to determine time scales and modes of velu infi lling, and to identify the temporal and spatial thresholds that control reef island formation. Our data suggest a systematic relationship between faro size, velu infi ll- ing, and island development. These relationships likely vary between atolls as a function of atoll lagoon depth, but in Baa Atoll, our data set indicates the following faro-size relationships exist: (1) faros 0.5 km 2 but ~1.25 km 2 have unfi lled (deeper) velu which might only infi ll over long time scales and which are thus unlikely to support new island initiation. These new observations, when combined with previously published data on Maldivian reef island development, suggest that while the velu of the largest faro are unlikely to fiover the next few centuries (at least), other faro with near-infi lled velu may provide important foci for future reef-island building, even under present highstand (and slightly rising) sea levels.
Microbiota data from low biomass milk samples is markedly affected by laboratory and reagent contamination

Discoveries of bacterial communities in environments that previously have been described as sterile have in recent years radically challenged the view of these environments. In this study we aimed to use 16S rRNA sequencing to describe the composition and temporal stability of the bacterial microbiota in bovine milk from healthy udder quarters, an environment previously believed to be sterile. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene is a technique commonly used to describe bacterial composition and diversity in various environments. With the increased use of 16S rRNA gene sequencing, awareness of methodological pitfalls such as biases and contamination has increased although not in equal amount. Evaluation of the composition and temporal stability of the microbiota in 288 milk samples was largely hampered by background contamination, despite careful and aseptic sample processing. Sequencing of no template control samples, positive control samples, with defined levels of bacteria, and 288 milk samples with various levels of bacterial growth, revealed that the data was influenced by contaminating taxa, primarily Methylobacterium. We observed an increasing impact of contamination with decreasing microbial biomass where the contaminating taxa became dominant in samples with less than 104 bacterial cells per mL. By applying a contamination filtration on the sequence data, the amount of sequences was substantially reduced but only a minor impact on number of identified taxa and by culture known endogenous taxa was observed. This suggests that data filtration can be useful for identifying biologically relevant associations in milk microbiota data.
Simple Detection and Classification of Road Lanes based on Image Processing

Road accidents, besides being one of the main causes of mortality, have an economic impact on vehicle owners. Several conditions as driver imprudence, road conditions and obstacles are the main factor that will cause accidents. The most important automotive industries are incorporating technology to reduce risk in vehicles. In this way, lane detection systems have important attention, because from this data is possible to determine risk situations such as presence of obstacles, incorrect lane changes or lane departures. This paper proposes a technique for lane detection, based on image processing, which allows identifying the position of lateral lanes and their type. The method is composed of four stages: edge enhancement, potential lanes detection, post-processing and color lane estimation. The method was proved using image dataset and video captures over 12.000 frames. The accuracy of the system was of 91.9%.
Changes in Surface Wind Speed over North America from CMIP5 Model Projections and Implications for Wind Energy

The centennial trends in the surface wind speed over North America are deduced from global climate model simulations in the Climate Model Intercomparison Project—Phase 5 (CMIP5) archive. Using the 21st century simulations under the RCP 8.5 scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, 5–10 percent increases per century in the 10 m wind speed are found over Central and East-Central United States, the Californian Coast, and the South and East Coasts of the USA in winter. In summer, climate models projected decreases in the wind speed ranging from 5 to 10 percent per century over the same coastal regions. These projected changes in the surface wind speed are moderate and imply that the current estimate of wind power potential for North America based on present-day climatology will not be significantly changed by the greenhouse gas forcing in the coming decades.
The Role Of Biofilms And Curli In Environmental Salmonella Transport Through Porous Media

Microbial pathogens, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli, are continually deposited in the environment and have been shown to contaminate groundwater by leaching through the vadose zone. Therefore, understanding the factors influencing the transport of these pathogens through porous media is critical to protecting drinking water supplies. This study investigated the relationship between biofilm formation and curli production and the transport of environmental Salmonella through porous media. Environmental Salmonella strains used in the experiment were isolated from dairy farms. Two well-characterized E. coli strains with known high and low biofilm and curli production capabilities were also tested as controls alongside the Salmonella isolates for each experiment. Thirty-two isolates were initially assayed for their ability to form biofilms, from which a subset of these was selected to represent a range of high and low biofilm and curli formation capabilities. These were subsequently examined in unsaturated sand columns for transport characteristics. Unlike the E. coli strains for which column retention correlated with biofilm formation and curli production, no obvious correlation was observed between Salmonella phenotypes and column retention. Salmonella strains that produced high amounts of curli and biofilms were actually less retained in the column than Salmonella strains producing low amounts of curli and biofilms, contradictory to observations made with E. coli. Swimming and swarming motility exhibited by strains also proved to have no correlation with column transport. The results indicate that while transport of wellcharacterized laboratory E. coli strains can often be hindered by the presence of curli and biofilms, the presence of curli did not retard the transport of the Salmonella strains through sand columns though it correlated with their ability to form biofilms.
Situated Learning And Motivation Strategies To Improve Cognitive Learning In Ce

This papers describes the results obtained and the main observations made during a year long research project whose main purpose was to integrate situated learning and some motivational tools in an undergraduate civil engineering course (Soil Mechanics I). New teaching material was developed almost from scratch around a main theme and several secondary themes. Oriented discussions and exercises were prepared in order to help the students acknowledge the new professional skills they had acquired. The motivational tools served as means to create a better teaching and learning environment in the classroom and in the laboratory. The response of the students was constantly monitored. The results show that the various activities strategically planned to motivate the students to become active learners and to situate them in the context of the practice of Civil Engineering had a positive effect on several aspects, including their perception the of the significance of the knowledge being acquired, of the reality of their future profession and of the importance of the tools they might need. Another significant increase relates to the perception the students ended up with of their capacity to transfer the knowledge acquired to other situations.
Retrospection of Capital Flows: With Emphasis on Foreign Institutional Investments and Stock Market Volatility

Undoubtedly after the end of capital restriction, there has been increased movement of capital flows around the world. The globalisation and liberalisation has created enormous opportunities to achieve economies of scale, to pave way in untapped markets and to increase efficiency and effectiveness both at firm level as well as country level. Both debt creating flows and non-debt creating flows have accelerated the growth of any country. But as it’s a known fact that every coin has two sides, one cannot negate the adverse impact of capital flow movements. The entire financial and economic crises are example of the contagion effect. This compelled many researchers to understand various aspects of capital flows especially determinant and volatility. Out of the four types of identified capital flows, foreign portfolio investment (Foreign Institutional Investment in India) is considered as most volatile in nature, impacting adversely the capital markets of countries having low absorption capacity. The attempted paper is an abstraction of various research studies taken up to analyze such capital flows and particularly Foreign Institutional Investments. The paper will help other researchers to understand and analyze conceptual work and identify research gap in area of cross country capital flows.
Connectivity patterns of anchovy larvae in the Bay of Biscay from a coupled transport-bioenergetic model forced by size-structured zooplankton

Connectivity during early life stages of pelagic fish, defined here by survival probability between spawning and early juvenile habitats, depends on a combination of sufficient food availability and low predator encounter along drift trajectories. For anchovy in the Bay of Biscay, larval transport experiments throughout the spawning season suggest accumulation of early juveniles in the offshore area of the southern Bay, as well as retention over the mid-shelf at mid-latitude. However, late summer-early autumn surveys suggest presence of juveniles only in the former region. From this observation, we set up a bioenergetic individual based model to test for the effect of food availability on survival patterns. The model couples a Lagrangian transport module to the hydrodynamic model MARS-3D, as well as a DEB (Dynamic Energy Budget) model for estimation of larval growth and mortality under starvation. Temperature is provided either from CTD casts or the hydrodynamic model, whereas food is provided by observation of size structured zooplankton biomass, from both in-situ LOPC (Laser Optical Plankton Counter) and Zooscan processing of net haul samples from the Pelgas survey in May. Results suggest that for early spawning season, most of the mortality from starvation occurs at early larval stage, mostly for eggs spawned in the deepest on-shelf and off-shelf areas. The southern bay of Biscay is more suitable for growth and survival than the north at that time of the year for both temperature and food limitations reasons. The offshore occurence of late larvae in the south is consistent with observations in the area, but our model is not able to simulate a general drift of the whole distribution, that would be consistent with late larvae mostly found over the slope and off-shelf. Further simulations should investigate whether this comes from interannual and seasonal patterns explanations, or whether our model lacks an important process such as spatially explicit predation.
Self-polymerization of nano-fibres and nano-membranes induced by two-photon absorption

Laser Two-Photon Polymerization (LTPP) is a technique enabling formation of 3D nanostructures in photosensitive resins with sub-wavelength resolution and unmatched flexibility. However, controllable fabrication of sub-100 nm features by this technique is still a challenge. Self-polymerization, also known as non-local polymerization, is considered to be promising in this ultra-high resolution structure formation. Recent observation of fragile self-polymerized fibres with diameter within tens of nanometres (nano-fibres) encourages the use of self-polymerization to produce nanometre scale structures other than fibres and to define the conditions for controllable fabrication. “X”-shaped polymerized supports are used as rigid structures to produce suspended self-polymerized features of different nature (shape and dimensionality) in-between the walls of “X”. By laser writing lines parallel to the substrate and perpendicular to the long symmetry axis of “X” under different conditions, selfformation of periodic nano-fibres (diameter <100 nm) and nano-membranes is induced in acrylate photopolymer AKRE37. Depending on introduced exposure dose, spatial density threshold behaviour of non-structure, nano-fibre, nano-membrane, and laser written lines is deduced. Preliminary model including laser intensity, concentration of radicals, collapse force, and distance between supports as variables having threshold effect on final self-polymerized structure’s geometry is proposed to explain non-local self-polymerization. Keywords: femtosecond laser, multi-photon absorption polymerization, acrylate photopolymer, self-assembly, nanotechnology
A Lesion in the Corpus Callosum due to Eosinophilic Meningitis Caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis

The etiologies of diseases involving the corpus callosum include congenital factors, demyelinating, infection, trauma, neoplasm, and ischemia. We report a case of eosinophilic meningitis with a lesion at the corpus callosum caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis. A previously healthy 38-yearold man presented with a severe headache that had lasted for 3 days. The headache had a continuous pressing quality and bilateral involvement. Onemonth earlier, he had eaten raw pila snail and freshwater shrimp. He was afebrile, and no nuchal rigidity was detected. The findings of other neurological examination were unremarkable. A blood test revealed a white blood cell (WBC) count of 11,150 cells/mm with 21% eosinophils. Computed tomography of the brain without contrast administration suggestedgeneralizedbrain swelling. A lumbar puncture revealed an opening pressure of 250 mm H2O. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis showed a WBC count of 368 cells/mmwith 60%eosinophils, a protein level of 156mg/dL, and a glucose level of 44mg/dL (concurrently a blood glucose level of 125 mg/dL). The results of Gram staining, India ink preparation, and culture for bacteria were negative. Blood and CSF serological study for angiostrongyliasis using immunoblotting were positive for the 29-kDa antigenic band (Figure 1). He was treated with a 2-week course of prednisolone andsupportive treatment, and the headache improved. However, at a follow-up 2 weeks later, he complained of numbness of the left side of his face and the left upper limb. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed a focal lesion at the body of corpus callosum, which exhibited low signal intensity on T1-weighted images, high signal intensity on T2-weighted images and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images, andnodular enhancement after administration FIGURE 1. The representative of immunoblot patterns showing antibody reactivity to theAngiostrongylus cantonensis somatic antigen. Blots developed with pooled positive reference sera (P), pooled negative referencesera (N), andangiostrongyliasispatient serum(Ac)showingastrongly positive band at 29 kDa. This figure appears in color at www.ajtmh. org.
Effects on Marriage of a Psycho-Communicative-Educational Intervention With Couples Undergoing the Transition to Parenthood, Evaluation at 1-Year Post Intervention

This article reports the results on marriages of a randomized clinical trial for couples experiencing the transition to parenthood. In addition to a control group, there was 1 intervention, a psycho-communicative-educational 2-day couples’ workshop. The outcome measures were marital quality, postpartum depression, and expressed hostile affect (assessed using an observational coding of marital conflict discussions videotaped in couples’homes). Data were collected at 3 time points: before the intervention in the last trimester of pregnancy, when the baby was 3 months old, and when the baby was 1 year old. Results showed that, in general, the preventive intervention using a psycho-communicativeeducational format was effective compared to a control group for wife and husband marital quality, for wife and husband postpartum depression, and for observed wife and husband hostile affect scored from videotapes of marital conflict.
Skeletal Muscle Energetics are Compromised Only During High Intensity Contractions in the Goto-Kakizaki Rat Model of Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) presents with hyperglycemia and insulin resistance affecting over 30 million people in the US alone. Previous work has hypothesized that mitochondria are dysfunctional in T2D and results in both reduced ATP production and glucose disposal. However, a direct link between mitochondrial function and T2D has not been determined. In the current study, the Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat model of T2D was used to quantify mitochondrial function in vitro and in vivo over a broad range of contraction-induced metabolic workloads. During high frequency sciatic nerve stimulation hindlimb muscle contractions at 2 and 4 Hz intensities the GK rat failed to maintain similar bioenergetic steady-states to Wistar controls (WC) measured by phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy despite similar force production. Differences were not due to changes in mitochondrial content in red (RG) or white gastrocnemius (WG) muscles (cytochrome c oxidase, RG: 22.2 ± 1.6 versus 23.3 ± 1.7 U/gWW, WG: 10.8 ± 1.1 versus 12.1 ± 0.9 U/gWW;GK versus WC, respectively). Mitochondria isolated from muscles of GK and WC rats also showed no difference in mitochondrial ATP production capacity in vitro measured by high-resolution respirometry. At lower intensities (0.25-1 Hz) there were no detectable differences between GK and WC rats in sustained energy balance. There were similar phosphocreatine concentrations during steady-state contraction and post-contractile recovery (t=72 ± 6 GK vs. 71 ± 2 s WC). Taken together these results suggest that deficiencies in skeletal muscle energetics seen at higher intensities are not due to mitochondrial dysfunction in the Goto-Kakizaki rat.
Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transformations

With the quick progression of technology and the increasing need to process large data, there has been an increased interest in data-dependent and data-independent dimension reduction techniques such as principle component analysis (PCA) and JohnsonLindenstrauss (JL) transformations, respectively. In 1984, Johnson and Lindenstrauss proved that any finite set of data in a high-dimensional space can be projected into a low-dimensional space while preserving the pairwise Euclidean distance within any desired accuracy, provided the projected dimension is sufficiently large; however, if the desired projected dimension is too small, Woodruff and Jayram, and Kane, Nelson, and Meka in 2011 separately proved such a projection does not exist. In this thesis, we answer an open problem by providing a precise threshold for the projected dimension, above which, there exists a projection approximately preserving the Euclidean distance, but below which, there does not exist such a projection. We, also, give a brief survey of JL constructions, covering the initial constructions and those based on fast-Fourier transforms and codes, and discuss applications in which JL transformations have been implemented.
State biomarkers for Machado Joseph disease: Validation, feasibility and responsiveness to change

Abstract Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) is the most common spinocerebellar ataxia worldwide, and particularly so in Southern Brazil. Due to an expanded polyglutamine at ataxin-3, SCA3/MJD presents a relentless course with no current disease modifying treatment. Clinical scales used to measure SCA3/MJD progression present moderate effect sizes, a major drawback for their use as main outcomes in clinical trials, given the rarity and slow progression of the disease. This limitation might be overcome by finding good surrogate markers. We present here a review of studies on peripheral and neurophysiological markers in SCA3/MJD that can be candidates for state biomarkers. Data on markers already studied were summarized, giving emphasis on validation against clinical scale, and responsiveness to change. While some biological fluid compounds and neurophysiological parameters showed poor responsiveness, others seemed to be good candidates. Some potential candidates that are waiting for responsiveness studies were serum levels of neuron specific enolase, vestibulo-ocular reflex and video-oculography. Candidates evaluated by RNA and microRNA expression levels need further studies to improve their measurements. Data on peripheral levels of Beclin-1 and DNAJB1 are promising but still incipient. We conclude that several potential candidates should follow onto validating studies for surrogate state biomarkers of SCA3/MJD.
Classification Model to Detect Malicious URL via Behaviour Analysis

: The challenging task in cyber space is to detect malicious URLs. The websites pointed by the malicious URLs injects malicious code into the client machine or steals the crucial information. As detecting a phishing URL is a challenging task, it is essential to enhance detection techniques against the emerging attacks. The most of the existing approaches are feature based and cannot detect dynamic attacks. Mostly the attacker uses the input form, active content and embeds @ symbol in URL for malicious attack. To detect this attack, a Behaviour based Malicious URL Finder (BMUF) algorithm is proposed. It analyzes the behaviour of the URL. The FSM based state transition diagram is used to model the URL behaviour into various states. The state transition from initial to final state is used for classification. This approach tests the genuine and malicious behavior of the URL based on the responses to the user. It accurately detects the nature of the URL.
Improving Food Safety Behavior through Mind Map Methods in School-Age Children

ABSTRACT School-age children who do not practice safe food behavior are at risk of experiencing health problems. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of education with mind map methods on safe food behavior in school-age children. The study design was a quasi-experimental with pre- and posttests design, involving 88 school-age children, and each group consisted of 44 respondents who were divided into intervention group and control group. Multistage random sampling was used to determine the research area and school where the research was conducted, while the research subject was selected using simple random sampling. Measuring instruments used questionnaires from previous researchers regarding food safety behavior in school-age children. The results showed that the mind map method significantly affects knowledge (p-value = 0.000), attitude (p-value = 0.000), and skill (p-value = 0.000) for safe food. This study recommends that the mind map method be applied in an effort to improve clean and healthy living behavior in school-age children.