Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biodiversity, traditional management systems, and cultural landscapes: examples from the boreal forest of Canada

There is a relationship between biodiversity conservation and the cultural practices of indigenous and traditional peoples regarding land and resource use. To conserve biodiversity we need to understand how these cultures interact with landscapes and shape them in ways that contribute to the continued renewal of ecosystems. This article examines the significance of traditional knowledge and management systems and their implications for biodiversity conservation. We start by introducing one key traditional ecological practice, succession management, in particular through the use of fire. We then turn to the example of the indigenous use of boreal forest ecosystems of northern Canada, with a focus on the Anishnaabe (Ojibwa) of north-western Ontario. Their traditional practices and cultural landscapes provide temporal and spatial biodiversity, and examples of the mechanisms that conserve biodiversity. Learning from traditional systems is important for broadening conservation objectives that can accommodate the sustainable livelihoods of local people. The lens of cultural landscapes provides a mechanism to understand how multiple objectives (timber production, non-timber forest products, protected areas, tourism) are central to sustainable forest management in landscapes that conserve heritage values and support the livelihood needs of local people. The use of broader and more inclusive definitions of conservation and multiple, integrated objectives can help reconcile local livelihood needs and biodiversity conservation.
Abstracting Faceted Execution 1 : 3 Next

ing Faceted Execution Static Analysis of Dynamic Information-Flow Control for Higher-Order Languages KRISTOPHER MICINSKI, Haverford College, USA DAVID DARAIS, University of Vermont, USA THOMAS GILRAY, University of Maryland, College Park, USA Faceted execution is a linguistic paradigm for dynamic information-flow control with the distinguishing feature that program values may be faceted. Such values simultaneously simulate multiple executions for different security labels.This enables policy-agnostic programming: a paradigm permitting expressive privacy policies to be stated independently of program logic. Although faceted execution prevents information leakage at runtime, it does not guarantee the absence of failure due to policy violations. By contrast with static mechanisms (such as security type systems), dynamic information-flow control permits expressive and dynamic privacy policies but imposes significant runtime overhead and delays the discovery of possible violations. In this paper, we present the first sound and precise abstraction for faceted values in the presence of firstclass policies. We develop an abstract interpretation of faceted programs, resolving central issues inherent in static analysis of this language paradigm.The presence of first-class security labels and their policy predicates represents a significant challenge to analysis as abstract labelsmay conflatemore than one runtime label under some circumstances—an imprecision which prevents the analysis from being sensitive to any facets on such labels. We provide a remediating technique that involves instrumenting the analysis to track its singleton abstractions. We implement our analysis in Racket, discussing its tunability and practical optimizations. Additional
Dynamics of small-scale magnetic fields on the Sun: observations and numerical simulations

Context. Small-scale magnetic fields play an important role in the structure and the dynamics of the solar atmosphere. Aims. This study aims at revealing the evolution of magnetic fields, together with granular convection in the quiet Sun by means of observations with high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution and of numerical MHD simulations. Methods. Time sequences from quiet Sun disc centre were obtained with the upgraded “Gottingen” Fabry-Perot spectropolarimeter at the Vacuum Tower Telescope, Observatorio del Teide/Tenerife, in the $\ion{Fe}{i}$ 6173 A line. The data were reconstructed with speckle methods. For comparison with the observations, numerical simulations of granular magnetoconvection were carried out with the MURaM code. The intensities and Stokes vectors emerging from the simulation box were degraded in wavelength, spatial co-ordinates, and noise to the quality of the observations. Results. The noise in the observed magnetograms from the centre-of-gravity method is $\sigma_B\approx2$ G, yielding a polarimetric sensitivity of $3 \times 10^{15}$ Mx, at a cadence of 23 s with 0$\farcs$33 spatial resolution in a field of view of ${\sim}33\arcsec\times 25\arcsec$. Many of the observed V profiles in network and internetwork (IN) areas exhibit strong asymmetries that indicate strong magnetoconvection. The temporal evolutions of IN structures and of a bright point (BP), as seen in broadband and line-minimum images, in Dopplergrams, and in magnetograms, are presented. The magnetic field structure in the numerical MHD simulations is even more complex than seen in the observations. Correspondingly, the emergent Stokes profiles are often very abnormal. The degradation yields a reduction of the intrinsic field strength to the “observed” one by a factor 4–5. The spectral resolution of the spectrometer is adequate, yet the limitation in spatial resolution and by noise filtering swamps the details seen in the non-degraded simulations. A BP was not found in the simulations, presumably because BP's are not so common and the simulated box is quiet small: only 6 Mm wide in both horizontal directions. Conclusions. The combination of high-resolution observations with numerical simulation is a highly valuable means for studying small-scale magnetic fields on the Sun. Two-dimensional, low-noise data with spectral resolution as good as achieved here and with spatial resolution of 0$\farcs$1 and better are needed to better understand this important part of the solar magnetism.
Realization of a Hybrid Face Detecting and Verifying System

Face recognition is a popular subject in computer vision and objects recognition area because of each person has unique facial features. In this paper, the realization of a hybrid system for face detecting and verifying was presented. Gabor wavelet transform was used to extract facial features of individuals from images. An Artificial neural network was used to classify faces by using obtained features. Phase correlation method was used for face verifying. A MATLAB Graphical user interface was designed by combining these systems for realizing proposed hybrid system, after filtering and scanning methods, the obtained face areas demonstrate within an outline. Phase correlation methods were used to accelerate the searching process. The performance of the proposed system was tested on different image database. It was understood that the proposed method works with high accuracy but is slow when considered as the whole process.
Inorganic nanoparticles in biology: drug carriers and auxiliary tools in bioimaging and bioanalytics.

Among various nano-scaled materials composed from a spectrum of chemical compounds, inorganic nanoparticles are very attractive due to their physico-chemical properties, as well as their availability, simplicity, possibility of modifications, stability and biocompatibility. They are, on the one hand inevitable tool in advanced analytical chemistry, in particular for studying of biologically-relevant processes, but also important as functional parts of the systems designed for controlled and targeted delivery of medicaments for treatment of a variety of diseases and for imaging. So far, thousands of compounds and systems have been developed for the above-mentioned purposes, but there are only a few reviews dealing with these topics. The aim of this review is, thus, to summarize recent applications of nano-structured inorganic materials in biology-related investigations and to give a future prospective from the standpoint of biology.
High Efficiency Cyclotron Trap Assisted Positron Moderator

We report on the realisation of a cyclotron trap assisted positron tungsten moderator for the conversion of positrons with a broad keV–few MeV energy spectrum to a mono-energetic eV beam with an efficiency of 1.8(2)% defined as the ratio of the slow positrons divided by the β+ activity of the radioactive source. This is an improvement of almost two orders of magnitude compared to the state of the art of tungsten moderators. The simulation validated with this measurement suggests that, using an optimised setup, even higher efficiencies are achievable. A novel method for the production of 48V high-activity thin foil positron sources based on a solid target station at a medical cyclotron was developed. This is an improvement of more than one order of magnitude with respect to standard methods.
Derivatization of Chiral Compounds with Chiral Reagents and Separation their Isomers by HPLC System

Chiral compounds such as alanine amino acid and s-aminethylated L-cystiene derivatized with chiral reagents such as Marfey's reagents, 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl--Dglucopyranosylisothiocyanate (GITC) and 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzoyl--Dglucopyranosylisothiocyanate (BGIT), were achieved and separated by optimizing good methods using high performance liquid chromatography.
Big Data Mining Method of Thermal Power Based on Spark and Optimization Guidance

With the increasing degree of information technology in the electric-power industry, the amount of big data in thermal power has increased geometrically. To address the problem of the computational bottlenecks in traditional data mining deal with big data of thermal power, big data mining of thermal power method based on Spark is presented in this paper. According to the characteristics of the actual operation of the unit, the proposed method determines the steady-state conditions of big data of thermal power and divides the working conditions based on external constraints. In addition, data mining method based on distributed computing is used to mine big data of thermal power to get the strong association rules, thus the best value of the parameters under each working condition can be got. Lastly, the historical knowledge base is established, which can guide the operation of the unit by the proposed method. This method is applied to a 300 MW unit in a power plant in Anhui Province, and mines the operation data of the unit for 10 days in a month. The results of simulation show that the proposed method can effectively mine big data of thermal power and has the advantage of computational efficiency compared with traditional data mining for big data.
Simulation of fuel economy for Malaysian urban driving

By understanding the implications of real-world driving conditions, improved fuel economy via a strategy of key technologies can be implemented to assist fuel economy validation during development programs. Vehicles in real-world driving conditions regularly travel at idle, low and medium speeds, particularly for urban driving, and this has a crucial weight in overall vehicle fuel economy, given the residencies at the lower engine speed and load region. This paper presents the validation of the derived engine conditions representing Malaysian actual urban driving in an attempt to formulate representative fuel economy data. The measurements were conducted through on-road urban driving within Kuala Lumpur to establish representative driving conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed conditions was then validated in terms of fuel economy using a simulation. The discrepancy between the fuel economy in the proposed conditions and the real-world measurements has improved, falling to 11.9% compared to 43.1% reported by the NEDC.
Longitudinal impact of an inquiry‐based science program on middle school students' attitudes toward science

This study examined the long-term impact of the Summer Science Exploration Program (SSEP), a 2-week inquiry-based science camp, conducted at Hampshire College Amherst, MA from 1992 to 1994. The goal of the program was to stimulate greater interest in science and scientific careers among middle-school students. One hundred fifty-eight students were selected from a pool of applicants to attend the program using stratified random sampling procedures. In 1996, 22 participants were selected to participate in follow-up interviews using stratified random sampling procedures. Two quantitative surveys, the Science Opinion Survey and the Career Decision-Making Revised Surveys, were administered to 79 SSEP students and 35 students who applied but were not accepted (the control group). Pretest and posttest scores were analyzed for any significant change over time. Additionally, a cohort of over 500 students who were enrolled in the same grades and public schools that SSEP students attended completed the two surveys in both 1992–1994 and 1996–1997. The interviews and surveys suggested that SSEP students maintained a more positive attitude towards science and a higher interest in science careers than students who applied to the program but were not selected. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed86:693–705, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10039
The Developmental State Debate: Where Is Nigeria?

There is a renewed interest in the idea of the developmental state in Africa. This is partly a reaction to the failure of the pro-market reforms under the Washington Consensus to deliver socio-economic progress. Nonetheless, the Nigerian There is a renewed interest in the idea of the developmental state in Africa. This is partly a reaction to the failure of the pro-market reforms under the Washington Consensus to deliver socio-economic progress. Nonetheless, the Nigerian economy, after fifty years of political independence and economic governance and management, has suffered from fundamental structural defects and has remained in persistent stagnation. Many features in Nigeria’s economy combined with other non-economic factors have produced a weak private sector that is largely oriented towards distributive activities. The productive and technological base is weak, outdated, narrow, inflexible and externally dependent. Furthermore, infrastructure is poor, inadequate and lacks maintenance. Thus, the effectiveness of incentives has been generally low, giving rise to inadequate utilization of the factors of production. The paper blames the country’s overdependence on single product export-crude oil-without profound efforts to diversify the economy as a key weakness. Questions that the paper tries to address are; is Nigeria at present, making enough efforts to move towards the identified features of a developmental state? Does it require a sound re-thinking into the development agenda with regards to the various key issues relevant to developing countries? How can we break out of this vicious cycle? Correcting this scenario forms the crux of this paper. The paper suggests different solution scenarios to many of the problems on the platform of the developmental state paradigm. As such, the country should develop a class of entrepreneurs that possess the tacit knowledge required for rapid industrialization and development of the manufacturing sector. This proactive stance with capable institutions would move Nigerian economy to the desired direction.
Multi-Objective Optimization with Iterated Density Estimation Evolutionary Algorithms using Mixture Models

We propose an algorithm for multi-objective optimization based on iterated density estimation evolutionary algorithms ( ID A). By making use of the Pareto dominance concept in the selection step, the algorithm searches for the Pareto front. The ID A algorithm builds a mixture distribution to model the dependencies in the population at each generation. This not only allows for a powerful representation of complicated dependencies but also for an elegant way to keep the diversity in the population, needed to cover the Pareto front. As a specific example we implement an algorithm with a normal mixture model applied to real valued multi-objective optimization problems.
Separation and Determination of Rutin in Apples by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Rutin is a flavonol glycoside and its main function in the body is to help the body strengthen arteries and veins, and harden bones and teeth. It is found in many fruits such as in apples. The aim of this research work is to develop a simple and fast high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of rutin. The separation of rutin by HPLC was performed using a monolithic C18 column at detected wavelength, 356 nm. The optimal composition of mobile phase was methanol-water (40-60 v/v) in 10 mM acetate buffer. This condition provided a retention time of rutin at 2.92 min. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.32 μg/mL (sample loop=5 μL), and %RSD (n=5) of retention time, peak area, and peak height were 0.052, 0.635, and 0.578, respectively. This method has been successfully applied for the determination of rutin in apple juices. The results showed the highest concentration of rutin was found in green (14.3 μg/mL), followed by Fuji (5.7 μg/mL) and red delicious (1.4 μg/mL) apples, respectively. Keywords: rutin, apple, high performance liquid chromatography
Evaluation of stem rot in 339 Bornean tree species: implications of size, taxonomy, and soil-related variation for aboveground biomass estimates

Abstract. Fungal decay of heart wood creates hollows and areas of reduced wood density within the stems of living trees known as stem rot. Although stem rot is acknowledged as a source of error in forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates, there are few data sets available to evaluate the controls over stem rot infection and severity in tropical forests. Using legacy and recent data from 3180 drilled, felled, and cored stems in mixed dipterocarp forests in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we quantified the frequency and severity of stem rot in a total of 339 tree species, and related variation in stem rot with tree size, wood density, taxonomy, and species' soil association, as well as edaphic conditions. Predicted stem rot frequency for a 50 cm tree was 53 % of felled, 39 % of drilled, and 28 % of cored stems, demonstrating differences among methods in rot detection ability. The percent stem volume infected by rot, or stem rot severity, ranged widely among trees with stem rot infection (0.1–82.8 %) and averaged 9 % across all trees felled. Tree taxonomy explained the greatest proportion of variance in both stem rot frequency and severity among the predictors evaluated in our models. Stem rot frequency, but not severity, increased sharply with tree diameter, ranging from 13 % in trees 10–30 cm DBH to 54 % in stems ≥ 50 cm DBH across all data sets. The frequency of stem rot increased significantly in soils with low pH and cation concentrations in topsoil, and stem rot was more common in tree species associated with dystrophic sandy soils than with nutrient-rich clays. When scaled to forest stands, the maximum percent of stem biomass lost to stem rot varied significantly with soil properties, and we estimate that stem rot reduces total forest AGB estimates by up to 7 % relative to what would be predicted assuming all stems are composed strictly of intact wood. This study demonstrates not only that stem rot is likely to be a significant source of error in forest AGB estimation, but also that it strongly covaries with tree size, taxonomy, habitat association, and soil resources, underscoring the need to account for tree community composition and edaphic variation in estimating carbon storage in tropical forests.
Delaunay Tetrahedralization of the Heart Based on Integration of Open Source Codes

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is a way of numerical solution applied in different areas, as simulations used in studies to improve cardiac ablation procedures. For this purpose, the meshes should have the same size and histological features of the focused structures. Some methods and tools used to generate tetrahedral meshes are limited mainly by the use conditions. In this paper, the integration of Open Source Softwares is presented as an alternative to solid modeling and automatic mesh generation. To demonstrate its efficiency, the cardiac structures were considered as a first application context: atriums, ventricles, valves, arteries and pericardium. The proposed method is feasible to obtain refined meshes in an acceptable time and with the required quality for simulations using FEM.
Stereoselective aldol condensations via boron enolates

Bei geschickter Wahl der Reaktionsbedingungen lassen sich Ketone mit den Borontriflaten (I) in Gegenwart von N,N-Diisopropyl-ethylamin (PNE) in Et2O selektiv in Boronenolate uberfuhren, die mit Benzaldehyd (V) stereoselektiv Aldolkondensation zu Boronchelaten eingehen, deren Oxidation mit MoOPH Ketole liefert.
nalytical solution of mixed electro-osmotic / pressure driven flows of iscoelastic fluids in microchannels

Analytical solutions are presented for the flow of viscoelastic fluids in micron sized ducts, namely between parallel plates and pipes under the combined influence of electrokinetic and pressure forces using the Debye–Hückel approximation, including the limit case of pure electro-osmotic flow. The viscoelastic fluids used are described by the simplified Phan-Thien–Tanner model (sPTT), with linear kernel for the stress coefficient function, and zero second normal stress difference, and the FENE-P model, based on the kinetic theory for finitely extensible dumbbells with a Peterlin approximation for the average spring force. The TT model ENE-P model iscoelastic fluids icrochannels treaming potential solution is non-linear with a significant contribution arising from the coupling between the electric and pressure potentials. This term acts as a drag reducer and a drag increaser under favorable and adverse pressure gradients, respectively and contrasts with the Newtonian flow case, for which it does not exist, demonstrating that the superposition principle valid for Newtonian fluids no longer applies when nonlinear viscoelastic fluid models are considered. The combined effects of fluid rheology, electro-osmotic and pressure gradient forcing on the fluid velocity distribution and fluid stresses are also discussed. The poten analysis of the streaming
Aims for Learning 21st Century Competencies in National Primary Science Curricula in China and Finland

Incorporation of aims for learning 21st century competencies in subject-specific curricula and education has been an important issue worldwide. This study explored the integration of aims for learning such competencies into the National Primary Science Curricula in China and Finland. Both Curricula showed an emphasis on aims related to science education, such as inquiry and information literacy. Yet the density of appearance of competencies for the 21st century in the Chinese Curriculum is lower than in the Finnish Curriculum. Additionally, the Chinese Curriculum illustrates the shortage of aims in the Living in the World category. The significant differences between the Curricula have to do with the educational theories underpinning each national curriculum. The Chinese Curriculum has a tendency to align with the Anglo-American curriculum tradition, whereas the Finnish Curriculum is more closely aligned with the German Bildung-Didaktik tradition. A national curriculum in different subject areas could be designed whose central purpose would be cultivating holistic individuals and targeting goals for disciplinary knowledge and skills. Merits of the different educational traditions need to be examined and considered in the curriculum design process.