Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rich and Specialized Plant-Insect Associations in a Middle–Late Paleocene (58–60 Ma) Neotropical Rainforest (Bogotá Formation, Colombia)

Abstract. Plant predation by insects is a major driver of high plant diversity in modern tropical forests. Previous reports of leaf damage in middle–late Paleocene Neotropical rainforests of Cerrejón, Colombia, show that leaf herbivory was abundant but of low diversity, mainly inflicted by generalized feeders. Here, we present and describe plant-insect associations in leaf fossils from the middle–late Paleocene Bogotá Formation, central Colombia, to test whether the high abundance and low richness of insect damage typified early evolving Neotropical rainforests. The Bogotá flora records the highest richness and frequency of insect-damage associations among comparable Paleocene floras in North America, Patagonia, and Europe, as well as the highest number of leaf mines and galling associations. These results indicate that by the middle–late Paleocene, plant-insect herbivore interactions were much more intense and host-specialized in Neotropical rainforests of the Bogotá region than elsewhere. The rich and frequent galling associations, a distinctive feature of the Bogotá flora, are consistent with the preferential use of canopy leaves by galling insects seen in modern Neotropical rainforests. Our results also indicate differences in plant-insect associations among Paleocene Neotropical rainforests, perhaps reflecting a geographically heterogeneous ecological recovery from the end-Cretaceous ecological crisis. Plant insect-associations in the Bogotá flora also suggest a deep historical context for negative density-dependence as a potential driver (and maintainer) of the high plant diversity observed in modern Neotropical rainforests.
Research on Simulation Rendering Technology of Watercolor Painting Based on Canny Edge Darkening

Watercolor painting is a branch of traditional painting art, which has a history of more than years of development. Watercolor painting has been widely used and popularized because of its bright colors, transparency, rich expression techniques, strong expressiveness, and simple production tools and materials. The artistic aesthetics of watercolor painting has a wide audience base, which is the premise of the research of watercolor simulation drawing. Edge detection technology is the basis of image measurement, image segmentation, image compression and pattern recognition and other image processing technologies, as well as the technical basis of watercolor digital rendering. Based on the Canny algorithm, this paper proposes a watercolor simulation drawing method based on Canny edge detection. From the experimental results, this method has a good simulation rendering effect.
A Double-EKF Orientation Estimator Decoupling Magnetometer Effects on Pitch and Roll Angles

Accurate orientation estimation using low-cost inertial and magnetic sensors is important. However, since the magnetometer measurements affect pitch and roll estimates in addition to yaw determination, the resultant accuracy reduction under magnetic disturbances is adverse for special occasions where high-precision pitch and roll estimates are essential. This article presents a double-extended Kalman filter (DEKF) orientation estimator with unit quaternion as output, which decouples magnetometer effects on pitch and roll estimates by decomposing the orientation into tilt quaternion and heading quaternion. The tilt quaternion, including pitch and roll information, is estimated by the first EKF where accelerometer and gyroscope measurements are processed and the inaccurate heading information is discarded. The heading quaternion, solely describing the yaw orientation, is determined by the second EKF, which fuses the vertical component of angular rate measurements and the horizontal component of magnetic measurements. True quaternion is denoted by the multiplicative of tilt and heading quaternions. The separate property of DEKF limits the influences of magnetic disturbances on yaw estimation, making the pitch and roll angles immune to them. Experiment results show that the proposed method solves the coupled disturbance problem without losing accuracy.
A Comparative Investigation of the Impact of Effective Online Teaching Strategies Practiced during Corona Pandemic in Ensuring Sustainable Pedagogy

This survey reports results and findings related to the perceptions of English language teachers from Gulf universities pertaining to the impact of effective online strategies practiced during corona pandemic. A validated self-developed 5-point survey instrument has been used to collect data for this comparative investigation. The instrument was pilot tested after determining its content validity and reliability. Cronbach alpha (α) reliability test was run to determine reliability. The final version of the questionnaire consisting of 51 items was generalized and uploaded on Google forms to record the participants' responses. One hundred forty-four responses were recorded including 94 (n = 94) from Saudi universities and fifty (n = 50) from other Gulf countries including UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. The participants of the study have seen eye to eye with each other in majority of questionnaire items and ranked 'asking comprehension questions', teacher-student interaction' and 'teachers' oral feedback' as the most preferred teaching strategies in enhancing content understanding, students' motivation, mutual interaction, teacher-student rapport and active engagement in learning. The findings have also revealed that lecturing, written assignments, individual projects have been perceived least effective teaching strategies in producing positive results during online teaching. Among the most important pedagogical skills needed to deliver successful online courses, 'communication skills' and 'patience' have been perceived most effective. The remaining skills have also been assigned high mean values indicating their positive role in online teaching. Results generated by independent-samples T-test have accepted 6 null hypotheses and rejected one hypothesis. Findings and recommendations have been presented based on the results of this survey.
Evaluation of teaching quality of computing method course based on improved BP neural network

Calculation method is a very important basic course of engineering, in the environment of engineering education, a large number of colleges and universities bring calculation methods into the category of professional compulsory courses. This course is not only theoretical, but also practical. Therefore, teachers are required to combine the two organically. The evaluation of teaching quality is of great practical significance to the cultivation of students and the optimization of curriculum. This paper establishes a more convenient and efficient teaching quality evaluation model of calculation method course by making corresponding evaluation index of calculation method course, and proves its excellence through experiments.
On decomposition of the fundamental solution of the Helmholtz equation over solutions of iterative parabolic equations

Recently it was shown that the solution of the Helmholtz equation can be approximated by a series over the solutions of iterative parabolic equations. An extension of the fundamental solution of the Helmholtz equation via the solution of the iterative parabolic equations is considered. Initial conditions are derived which are consistent with the iterative parabolic equations. The derived conditions can be used to model the wave field generated by a point source.
Modeling Surface Processes on Debris-Covered Glaciers: A Review with Reference to the High Mountain Asia

Surface processes on debris-covered glaciers are governed by a variety of controlling factors including climate, debris load, water bodies, and topography. Currently, we have not achieved a general consensus on the role of supraglacial processes in regulating climate–glacier sensitivity in High Mountain Asia, which is mainly due to a lack of an integrated understanding of glacier surface dynamics as a function of debris properties, mass movement, and ponding. Therefore, further investigations on supraglacial processes is needed in order to provide more accurate assessments of the hydrological cycle, water resources, and natural hazards in the region. Given the scarcity of long-term in situ data and the difficulty of conducting fieldwork on these glaciers, many numerical models have been developed by recent studies. This review summarizes our current knowledge of surface processes on debris-covered glaciers with an emphasis on the related modeling efforts. We present an integrated view on how numerical modeling provide insights into glacier surface ablation, supraglacial debris transport, morphological variation, pond dynamics, and ice-cliff evolution. We also highlight the remote sensing approaches that facilitate modeling, and discuss the limitations of existing models regarding their capabilities to address coupled processes on debris-covered glaciers and suggest research directions.
Comparative analysis of chickpea with boro rice in drought-prone areas of Bangladesh

The study is conveyed to compare the profitability of chickpea and boro rice in Rajshahi district, which is one of the most drought-prone areas of Bangladesh. In this study, a total of 180 farmers (90 chickpea growers and 90 boro rice growers) are used as sample respondents, and data were collected by using a structured questionnaire in 2019. A probit regression model is used to find out the determinants that affect the cultivation of chickpea and boro rice. The important finding of this study is that the Benefit-Cost Ratio for chickpea and boro rice production is 1.88 and 1.05, respectively. The results indicate that chickpea cultivation is more profitable than boro rice cultivation. Besides, the study reveals that occupation, farm size, and seed have a positive impact while family size, human labor, and irrigation have negative effects on farmer’s decision to cultivate chickpea cultivation rather than boro rice. It is, therefore, concluded that the farmers should be encouraged to grow more chickpea rather than boro rice as a means of increasing farm income through crop diversification program. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 10(2): 21-28, December 2020
Improvement of the slotless tubular permanent magnet linear motor with lighter mover mass for punching applications

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Grant/Award Number: 2019CDXYDQ0010; National undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship training program, Grant/Award Number: S201910611325 Abstract The slotless tubular permanent magnet linear motor (STPMLM) offers obvious advantages when it is applied to the punching system, such as space saving and controllable impact strength. Herein, the mechanical and electromagnetic coupled differential equations were established to present a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between mover mass and motor performance in the punching system. The travel time of the punching movement was expressed analytically under the condition of the mover obtaining the same impact kinetic energy, and the relationship between the mover mass and the resistive energy consumption in one punching process was also deduced under the same condition. Then the analytical results were validated by a numerical model. The studies show that a lighter mover mass can contribute to less resistive energy consumption and faster dynamic response in the punching applications. Based on that, a STPMLM with special‐shaped yoke was designed for lighter mover mass. Moreover, prototype experiments including static thrust characteristic and dynamic performance were conducted. The experimental results proved that the proposed permanent magnet linear motor with special‐shaped yoke can improve the dynamic performance and reduce resistive energy consumption while ensuring that the electromagnetic performance is not affected.
The genus Bilharziella vs. other bird schistosomes in snail hosts from one of the major recreational lakes in Poland

Bird schistosomes are commonly established as the causative agent of swimmer's itch − a hyper-sensitive skin reaction to the penetration of their infective larvae. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of the genus Bilharziella in comparison to other bird schistosome species from Lake Drawsko − one of the largest recreational lakes in Poland, struggling with the huge problem of swimmer's itch. In total, 317 specimens of pulmonate snails were collected and examined. The overall digenean infection was 35.33%. The highest bird schistosome prevalence was observed for Bilharziella sp. (4.63%) in Planorbarius corneus, followed by Trichobilharzia szidati (3.23%) in Lymnaea stagnalis and Trichobilharzia sp. (1.3%) in Stagnicola palustris. The location of Bilharziella sp. on the presented phylogeny showed that it is with high probability a different species than known so far B. polonica. Our finding complements the confirmed occurrence of bird schistosomes in European water bodies. Overall, presented research reveals the special importance of P. corneus as a source of the bird schistosome cercariae. This study suggests that the health threat connected with the blood flukes need to be further investigated by constant monitoring of their occurrence in intermediate hosts.
Structure and Optical Properties of TiO2 Containing Oxide Glasses

Refractive index and dispersion in R2O TiO2 SiO2 glass systems were investigated. The compositional dependence in the refractive index and dispersion was successfully expressed by the single-oscillator Drude-Voigt equation, where it was found that the average resonance wavelength 0 was the predominant parameter for both the refractive index and dispersion. It was suggested from Raman spectra that low TiO2 content glasses were abundant in TiO4 units, and with increasing TiO2 content, the relative amount of TiO5 and TiO6 units increased. Structural model was proposed to reproduce the experimental findings in Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectra.
Multitasking in RNN: an analysis exploring the combination of simple tasks

The brain and artificial neural networks are capable of performing multiple tasks. The mechanisms through which simultaneous tasks are performed by the same set of units in the brain are not yet entirely clear. Such systems can be modular or mixed selective through some variables such as sensory stimulus. Recurrent neural networks can help to a better understanding of those mechanisms. Based on simple tasks studied previously in Jarne 2020 arXiv Preprint 2005.13074, multitasking networks were trained and analyzed. In present work, a simple model that can perform multiple tasks using a contextual signal was studied, trying to illuminate mechanisms similar to those that could occur in biological brains. Backpropagation through time allows training networks with multitasking, but the realizations obtained are not unique. Different realizations for the same set of tasks are possible. Here the analysis of the dynamics and emergent behavior of their units is presented. The goal is to try to describe better the models used to describe different processes in the cortex.
Distributed Control of Islanded Series PV-Battery-Hybrid Systems With Low Communication Burden

The series photovoltaic-battery-hybrid (PVBH) system is considered as a promising solution to better integrating distributed energy sources. However, the state-of-the-art controls are either highly dependent on the communication, by which real-time control variables should be transmitted among all converters, or only suitable for PVBH systems with unity power factor. Accordingly, a novel distributed control is proposed for islanded PVBH systems in this article. First, a PQ decoupling control is introduced, enabling the control of individual converters with only local measurements. Then, a droop controller is implemented in the battery converter, allowing the system to participate in regulating the islanded grid (voltage and frequency). A reactive power distribution method is subsequently introduced to equalize power sharing among the converters. Additionally, two anti-overmodulation loops are developed to address the overmodulation issue of both PV converters and the battery converter. With the proposed method, only a few variables with very slow dynamics should be transmitted, and the communication burden can be significantly reduced, leading to higher reliability to some extent. Experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposal.
Transmission electron microscopy for evaluating the structural parameters of nanoparticles

In this work, on the example of bimetallic systems FePt and FePd, an approach is developed to assessing the structural parameters of nanoscale mono-and polymetallic systems by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), in comparison with the X-ray diffraction method of analysis. The interplanar distances, average sizes and phase compositions of FePt and FePd nanosystems are calculated.
A Link Analysis Algorithm for Identification of Key Hidden Services

: The Tor dark web network has been reported to provide a breeding ground for criminals and fraudsters who are exploiting the vulnerabilities in the network to carry out illicit and unethical activities. The network has unfor-tunately become a means to perpetuate crimes like illegal drugs and firearm trafficking, violence and terrorist activities among others. The government and law enforcement agencies are working relentlessly to control the misuse of Tor network. This is a study in the similar league, with an attempt to suggest a link-based ranking technique to rank and identify the influential hidden services in the Tor dark web. The proposed method considers the extent of connectivity to the surface web services and values of the centrality metrics of a hidden service in the web graph for ranking. The modified PageRank algorithm is used to obtain the overall rankings of the hidden services in the dataset. Several graph metrics were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique with other commonly known ranking procedures in literature. The proposed ranking technique is shown to produce good results in identifying the influential domains in the tor network.
Image Transmission Analysis Using MIMO-OFDM Systems

This chapter demonstrates various ways for transmitting an image file using MIMO-OFDM systems which have anti-error ability to reduce BER. Furthermore, various diversity combining techniques like maximal ratio combining (MRC), selection combining (SC) are incorporated along with transmitting diversity scheme (i.e., beamforming). Different modulation techniques (viz. QPSK, 16-PSK, and 64-PSK) are used and evaluated in terms of BER vs. SNR considering different combination of transmitters and receivers. Lastly, results showed that in the transmission course, BER is considerably reduced and the image quality is found much better in comparison to other schemes.
Financial Shocks or Productivity Slowdown: Contrasting the Great Recession and Recovery in the United States and United Kingdom

The Great Recession renewed academic interest in the role of financial factors in the determination of real macroeconomic quantities. The magnitude of the decline in output, fall in house prices, and failure in financial markets led economists to place greater emphasis on financial institutions, debt, and financial variables within macroeconomic thinking (Reinhart and Rogoff, 2009; Brunnermeier, 2009; and Guerrieri and Uhlig, 2016). The synchronized nature of the decline across developed economies has reasonably been interpreted as suggesting a common cause, principally a large negative financial shock. This article studies the behavior of the United States and United Kingdom economies during the Great Recession and subsequent slow recovery to study whether This article contrasts the experiences of the United States and United Kingdom during and after the Great Recession to understand the role of financial shocks in the magnitude of the crises and length of the recoveries. It starts from the common consensus that the Great Recession first and foremost was a financial crisis. It shows that relative to the United States, the Great Recession in the United Kingdom was more closely associated with a decline in productivity. Motivated by the similar behavior of financial variables at a business cycle frequency, it contrasts the behavior of the U.S. and U.K. economies through the lens of a simple real business cycle model augmented with financial shocks. A credit channel that operates on firm hiring decisions captures the magnitude of the output decline in both the United States and United Kingdom but exaggerates the response of the hours margin for the United Kindgom. The conclusion is that the financial channel supported in the U.S. data seems less appropriate for understanding the U.K. experience. (JEL E24, E32, E44, G01, G32)
Attitudes of EFL Teachers towards Using Smartphones in the Classroom during COVID-19 Pandemic

Literature on smartphone technology indicates that smartphones nowadays are almost accessible to everyone with a high percentage even in the least developing countries like Palestine. This accessibility might be due to the various applications, functions and features of the new generations of the smartphones. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the attitudes of EFL teachers towards using smartphones in the classroom among Palestinian secondary students during COVID-19 pandemic. The study also aimed to find the influence of teachers' gender, years of experience, qualification and the grades the teachers teach on their attitudes. To achieve the objectives of the study, 58 male and female EFL teachers were surveyed through a five-point scale questionnaire and a focus group using Zoom. Results revealed that the attitudes of EFL teachers were moderately positive and that there were no statistically significant differences between the teachers' attitudes due to teachers' gender, years of experience, qualification and the grades the teachers teach. These results shed some light on the readiness of Palestinian EFL teachers to update their methods of teaching and to cope with the ongoing challenges imposed by Coronavirus pandemic.
Influence of salesperson political skill: improving relationship building and reducing customer-directed deviance

Abstract The purpose of this research is to understand the use of political skill (PS) in the context of business-to-business seller’s relationship building and ethical decision-making. Drawing on social influence, relationship marketing, and ethical decision-making theories, a model and hypotheses are proposed to examine the impact of political skill, customer-relationship-building competence, and moral intensity, on the frequency of customer-directed deviance while considering the effects of neutralization techniques and consequences of unethical behavior. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze responses from 240 business-to-business salespeople. Findings suggest guidance for sales managers (e.g., training and coaching) to assist salespeople’s application of political skill to build customer relationships and reduce customer-directed deviance. While political skill has received limited analysis in the context of business-to-business salespeople, these findings suggest the direct and indirect effects of political skill are meaningful to sellers and researchers.