Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental learning in adolescents from a Mexican community involved in forestry

Education can generate knowledge and foster a change in attitude provided that people feel individually and collectively responsible for the state of the environment. San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro is an internationally recognised indigenous community located in western Mexico that manages its forest sustainably through a community-based forest enterprise. However, recent research has shown that both children and young people from the community show little interest in participating in forest activities or working in forest enterprise and have a poor standard of environmental knowledge. Our research project assessed the environmental learning process of 32 high-school pupils in three settings: at school at home and in a forest enterprise. The opinions of teachers and adults of teaching subjects which focus on communal forest management were collected using various methods (questionnaires, observation and interviews) and analysed. The results show that school and home alike are important places for learning. However, environmental issues were not much addressed in the schoolroom or in conversations between parents and children. Furthermore, no connection between the activities of the forest enterprise and the school curriculum was found.
An Advanced Infectious Disease Spreading Model—SEICD and Its Simulation

Focus on describing the transmission of infectious disease, this paper mainly develop a new model--SEICD. The model is based on the classic infectious disease model called SEIR. In of the characteristics of most infectious disease, we make a series of improvements in depth. By the improved model, we adapt graph theory to describe the complex relationships of the real society,simulate the population changing of different states in the model, and analyze the influence the relative infectiousness k in the situation of infectious diseases spread. Considered all above, a best critical relative infectiousness kc to distinguish whether the regions under epidemic stress can be under control can be got.
Hatha Yoga Program Determinants on Cardiovascular Health in Physically Active Adult Women

Background: Hatha Yoga (HY) is an alternative exercise system for improving health in adults and older people with low physical capacity. Although the HY benefits on cardiovascular health have been demonstrated, its physical determinants haven’t been demonstrated. Therefore, this study evaluates the effect of an HY intervention on cardiovascular risk factors, in physically active adult women. Methods: Sixteen healthy and physically active adult women (56.31±10.47 years) were enrolled into an 11-week HY program (55 sessions/ 90 min each session). The program adherence, asana performance and work intensity were assessed along the intervention. Anthropometry and biochemical analysis were evaluated before, and after HY intervention. Cardiovascular fitness and dietary parameters were evaluated before and after HY intervention. Results: A decreased of ~1.5 kg of body fat and ~17 mm of skinfold thickness (p<0.05) was detected in women. Total serum cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, glucose and lactate increased 27 mg/dl, 11 mg/dl, 19 mg/dl, 11 mg/dl and 5 mM, respectively (p<0.05). The maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 peak) increased ~3 ml/kg/min. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased 6 mmHg and 3 mmHg respectively (p<0.05). Heart rate (56 ± 8 beats/min) during HY determined changes in the Σ skin folds and systolic blood pressure (78 and 58% of the variance, respectively). Likewise Asana performance skills determined changes in HDL-C, glucose and maximal lactate (79, 42 and 89% of the variance, respectively). Finally, the program adherence, measured as % session attendance”, determined changes in diastolic blood pressure (55% of the variance). Conclusions: The proposed HY intervention improves physical fitness and reduces CVD risk factors in physically active adult women. In addition, heart rate during HY exercise, asana performance skills and percentage assistance to the intervention program, determined about 42-89% of the changes in cardiovascular health in senior physically active women.
Observations and modelling of microphysical variability, aggregation and sedimentation in tropical anvil cirrus outflow regions

Abstract. Aircraft measurements of the microphysics of a tropical convective anvil (at temperatures ~−60 °C) forming above the Hector storm, over the Tiwi Islands, Northern Australia, have been conducted with a view to determining ice crystal aggregation efficiencies from in situ measurements. The observed microphysics have been compared to an explicit bin-microphysical model of the anvil region, which includes crystal growth by vapour diffusion and aggregation and the process of differential sedimentation. It has been found in flights made using straight and level runs perpendicular to the storm that the number of ice crystals initially decreased with distance from the storm as aggregation took place resulting in larger crystals, followed by their loss from the cloud layer due to sedimentation. The net result was that the mass (i.e. Ice Water Content) in the anvil Ci cloud decreased, but also that the average particle size (weighted by number) remained relatively constant along the length of the anvil outflow. Comparisons with the explicit microphysics model showed that the changes in the shapes of the ice crystal spectra as a function of distance from the storm could be explained by the model if the aggregation efficiency was set to values of E agg ~0.5 and higher. This result is supported by recent literature on aggregation efficiencies for complex ice particles and suggests that either the mechanism of particle interlocking is important to the aggregation process, or that other effects are occuring, such as enhancement of ice-aggregation by high electric fields that arise as a consequence of charge separation within the storm. It is noteworthy that this value of the ice crystal aggregation efficiency is much larger than values used in cloud resolving models at these temperatures, which typically use E ~0.0016. These results are important to understanding how cold clouds evolve in time and for the treatment of the evolution of tropical Ci in numerical models.
Pollination biology of Bergeranthus multiceps (Aizoaceae) with preliminary observations of repeated flower opening and closure

Little is known about pollination of the Aizoaceae (Mesembryanthemaceae). There are sparse reports of generalist pollination in the family by a variety of insects (predominantly bees). Furthermore, most species are self-incompatible in cultivation. In this study, observations were made on two populations of Bergeranthus multicepsl/Ig (Salm-Dyck) Schwantes growing in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Insects visiting the flowers were collected and examined for pollen. While 79 individual insects (in 24 genera representing 14 families and four orders) were collected visiting the flowers, the majority (43 individuals) were female Allodapula variegatal/Ig bees (Apidae, subfamily Xylocopinae, tribe Allodapini) collecting pollen. All other bee visitors were also female, suggesting pollen collection as the primary activity at the flowers. The protandrous flowers were found to be self-incompatible, pointing to the importance of bee-mediated xenogamy in this species. The flowers of B. multicepsl/Ig are bright yellow in the human visual spectrum. In addition, the petals of this species reflect ultraviolet light. In contrast, the yellow anthers absorb UV. Flower opening and closing is common in the Aizoaceae. Interestingly, in B. multicepsl/Ig flowers open at about 15:30 and remain open for approximately three hours before closing again in the late afternoon. These afternoon flower opening events were found to be closely correlated to ambient temperatures above 23oC, relative humidity lower than 50% and vapour pressure deficit below 1.05 kPa measured from as early as 09:00 on the days when flowers opened.
Embracing new techniques and new technologies in cardiac surgery – is it being done responsibly and safely?

Cardiac surgeons have been pioneers since the inception of this surgical field. Sixty years ago the development of the heart-lung machine paved the way for cardiac surgery. Since then many new innovations have been introduced, including artificial heart valves, coronary artery bypass grafting, cardiac transplantation, minimally invasive techniques, transcutaneous heart valves and mechanical assist devices. This has required parallel development and advances in medical imaging, such as angiography, echocardiography, CT scanning and MRI providing accurate preoperative diagnosis and optimal planning of surgical procedures.
Maximal Trouble in Free Relatives

There has been a long-standing puzzle in the acquisition literature, as to why children overuse the definite determiner ‘the’, to mean ‘one of’, instead of ‘the unique referent’. A number of explanations have been proposed, each claiming a deficit in a distinct area of children’s development. The Egocentrism hypothesis suggested that children know what ‘the’ means but for their ‘selfishness’ fail to indicate the saliency of their referent to their interlocutor, indicating a pragmatic, cognitive, or a Theory of Mind type deficit (Maratsos 1976, following Piaget 1955). The Maximality hypothesis suggests that children’s definition of ‘the’ is lacking the crucial presupposition of uniqueness/maximality, that the referent must be unique, indicating a deficit (or slow development) of a key semantic principle, thus putting semantic development on par with syntactic development (Wexler 2003, following Heim 1991). Lastly, the Domain restriction hypothesis indicates that children have difficulty setting the implicit domain restriction on the relevant context set for the interpretation of singular definite determiner phrases, suggestive of a pragmatic problem (e.g. Munn, Miller, Schmitt 2006). The issues at stake here go far beyond the three-letter English word. Pragmatic accounts make the key assumption that children’s knowledge of semantics is at the adult level – it is just the use of their knowledge that is slow to develop. The semantic account, on the other hand, suggests that semantic competence develops in a way similar to syntactic competence – gradually, and presumably guided via a biological (genetic) mechanism. The present paper adds to the debate by experimentally testing another linguistic phenomenon that involves maximality, namely Free Relatives (e.g. “[What is on the table] is red”). We found that children lack awareness of the maximal interpretation in free relatives at least until 6-7 years of age, the age at which it was shown (e.g. Karmiloff-Smith 1979, Modyanova & Wexler 2007) that children begin to reliably interpret the definite article in the adult way. These results are taken to support the Maximality hypothesis.
Can Rationality Be Taught? Experimental Evidence from India

Standard utility theory builds on the concept of rational preferences, in particular a transitive and complete set of preferences. However, empirical studies have challenged these assumptions, establishing that individuals do not always behave accordingly. In this study, we use laboratory experiments in the field to document the degree of rationality among (previously) illiterate women in rural India. We find that 55% of women exhibit intransitive preferences. When making choices between lotteries, 61% violate transitivity and 32% opt for dominated gambles. We then exploit the random assignment of the women to receive an adult education program to establish the causal effect of (adult) education on rationality. We find that participation in the program decreases the probability of opting for a dominated option by 12 percentage points, or 32 percent, but does not affect preference transitivity.
Quantification and Improvement of Stiffness Measurement Techniques of Trabecular Bone Using Porcine Mandibular Condyles

SHAH, NILESH D. , M.S., December 2014, Mechanical Engineering Quantification and Improvement of Stiffness Measurement Techniques of Trabecular Bone Using Porcine Mandibular Condyles Director of Thesis: John R. Cotton This study improves the agreement between two stiffness measurement techniques of trabecular bone harvested from porcine mandibular condyles. The previous method of Zaylor (2013) measured stiffness with digital finite element and experimental compression tests using 2 mm bone cubes. The current study improves the agreement between methods by examining the effect of sample size using 3 mm and 4 mm cubes, the effect of strain range used in compression tests, and investigating the geometric accuracy of the digital finite element models. It was found that larger specimens improved the stiffness agreement in mediallateral, and superior-inferior directions of the condyles, (R2 > 49). The agreement was not affected by the strain limits of 0.4-0.5%, 0.5-0.6%, and 0.4-0.6%. The average digital cube lengths were 2% smaller than the physical lengths. The improved agreement justifies digital modeling of trabecular bone to measure the stiffness of mandibular condyles.
Effects of non-local scattering on the aerodynamic coefficients of nano-particles

Most gas-surface interaction models used in rarefied gas dynamics assume that the space and time scale associated with gas-solid interaction are negligibly small. Accordingly, it is assumed that a gas molecule hitting a solid surface is instantaneously re-emitted at the same spatial location. However, as shown by molecular dynamics simulation, the re-emission event usually takes place at a distance of several molecular diameters from the first collision location. It is to expected that diffusion processes on the surface do affect the aerodynamic forces on particles transported by a carrier gas, when the particle size is comparable with the distance covered by a molecule on the solid surface during interaction. In such case, local gas-surface interaction models fail to predict the correct drag on the particle. In this paper a non-local kinetic gas-surface interaction model is applied to compute aerodynamic forces on spherical particles in the free molecular flow regime. Is is shown that effective accommodation coefficients of nanosized particles depend on particle radius.
Some statistical properties of pulsed oblique HF ionospheric transmissions

Abstract : A study is made of the amplitude fading of 35 microsecond HF pulses transmitted via the iono sphere over a 1,566-km path between Atlanta, Ga. , and Ipswich, Mass. The distribution functions for about half of the records taken fit the family of distributions for a sine wave in Gaussian noise, with most of these best fitting the curve for pure noise (the Rayleigh distribution). Some examples of two sine waves with random phase are observed. It is concluded that most of the re maining curves which do not fit these distribu tions correspond to samples of nonstationary functions. The median fading time for one-hop paths is of the order of 20 seconds, and many ex amples occur with considerably longer fading times. Multiple-hop paths give fading times of a very few seconds. Space correlation distances are also considerably greater than expected, averag ing around 40 wavelengths, which corresponds to a mean angular deviation of the order of two tenths of a degree. Many crosscorrelation functions show peaks displaced in time from the origin, re flecting the effect of ionospheric winds. (Author)
Instability in turbulent stratified channel flow

We consider the motion of a deformable interface that separates a fully-developed turbulent gas flow from a thin layer of laminar liquid. We outline a linear model to describe the interaction between the turbulent gas flow and the interfacial waves. This approach includes two steps. First, we derive a flat-interface base state. This comprises a velocity profile that takes account of the laminar sublayer present in the near-interfacial region of the gas, and a method for determining the wall and interfacial shear stresses as a function of the mean pressure gradient. The second step involves an Orr–Sommerfeld analysis of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and necessitates the selection of a turbulent-stress closure scheme. This approach permits us to determine numerically the growth rate of the wave amplitude, as a function of the relevant dimensionless system parameters and turbulence closure relations. It also extends previous work by accounting for the effects of the thin liquid layer on the dynamics. The inclusion of this feature has a startling effect: by a judicious choice of viscosity or density contrast, or of surface-roughness parameter, we observe mode competition, in which the maximum growth rate of the instability derives its energy from internal effects in the liquid layer, rather than from interfacial effects. We have also classified the observed waves either as ‘fast’ or ‘slow’, and compared our results with experimental data: excellent agreement is obtained in the slow-wave case, while only qualitative agreement is obtained for faster waves. This is consistent with our demonstration that the stationary turbulence model used is valid only for slow waves.
Electrorefining of U-Pu-Zr-alloy fuel onto solid Aluminium cathodes in molten LiCl-KCl

An electrorefining process in molten chloride salts using solid aluminium cathodes is being developed at ITU to recover actinides (An) from the spent nuclear fuel. The maximum possible loading of aluminium electrodes with actinides was investigated during the electrorefining of U-Pu-Zr alloy in a LiCl-KCl eutectic at 450 °C. Two different electrolytic techniques were applied during the experiment and almost 6000 C has been passed, corresponding to 3.7 g of deposited actinides. A very high capacity of aluminium to retain actinides has been proven as the average Al: An mass ratio was 1:1.58 for galvanostatic and 1:2.25 for potentiostatic mode. The obtained deposits were characterized by XRD and SEM-EDX analysis and alloys composed of (U,Pu)Al3 were detected. The influence of zirconium co-oxidation during the process was also investigated and the presence of dissolved Zr ions in the melt yielded a significant deterioration of the quality of the deposit.
A hybrid greedy-simulated annealing algorithm for the optimal location of controllers in wireless networks

This paper presents preliminary work on the location of controllers in wireless communication networks using hybrid heuristics. We propose a model in which N base stations out of the total M of the network must be selected as controllers. The primary design objective is that the distance between all base stations and the N controllers is minimized. There is also a constraint of capacity, which prevents a controller to manage an unlimited number of base stations. We have implemented and tested a greedy-simulated annealing algorithm to solve the problem, comparing its results with that of a lower bound for the problem.
Genetic Algorithms based Automatic Boundary Selection of Robust H ∞ Loop Shaping PID Control for DC/DC Converter

H∞ loop shaping is complicated controller and has high order. It is difficult to implement in practice. To overcome this problem, we propose an algorithm, Genetic Algorithms based Automatic Boundary Selection (GAABS) of Robust Η∞ loop shaping control, to design a robust controller. GA-ABS is used to solve the fixedstructure Η∞ loop shaping. Additionally, in the proposed technique, the Boundary Selection of Genetic Algorithms, which is normally difficult to select, is determined by using GA-ABS. The performance and robustness of the proposed controller are investigated in a buck converter in comparison with those of the controllers designed by conventional Η∞ loop shaping and ISE (Integral Square Error) methods. Results of simulations demonstrate the advantages of a simple structure and robustness against plant perturbations and disturbances of the proposed controllers. Experiments are also performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Functional benefits of predator species diversity depend on prey identity

Abstract. 1. Determining the functional significance of species diversity in natural enemy assemblages is a key step towards prediction of the likely impact of biodiversity loss on natural pest control processes. While the biological control literature contains examples in which increased natural enemy diversity hinders pest control, other studies have highlighted mechanisms where pest suppression is promoted by increased enemy diversity.
Resilient ecological solutions for urban regeneration

There is a need for biological conservation at the global scale, and urban conservation has the potential to support the delivery of this wider goal. Despite historic trends, efforts are underway to protect and enhance the quality, quantity and accessibility of green infrastructure within cities, including biodiversity features within new developments. However, there are questions over their long-term persistence and function. This paper applies an urban futures resilience analysis to a case study site to illustrate how such concerns may be explored and addressed in practice. The analysis identifies vulnerable sustainability solutions and clarifies the aspects that may be improved. The results suggest that the resilience of these solutions is questionable, even though resilience has clearly been considered. In particular, future compliance with, and enforcement of, planning conditions is questionable. The resilience of these ecological solutions may be improved by including some redundancy, designing for .
Control Power in Perfect Controlled Teleportation via Partially Entangled Channels

We analyze and evaluate perfect controlled teleportation via three-qubit entangled channels from the point of view of the controller. The key idea in controlled teleportation is that the teleportation is performed only with the participation of the controller. We calculate a quantitative measure of the controller's power and establish a lower bound on the control power required for controlled teleportation. We show that the maximally entangled GHZ state is a suitable channel for controlled teleportation of arbitrary single qubits - the controller's power meets the bound and the teleportation fidelity without the controller's permission is no better than the fidelity of a classical channel. We also construct partially entangled channels that exceed the bound for controlled teleportation of a restricted set of states called the equatorial states. We calculate the minimum entanglement required in these channels to exceed the bound. Moreover, we find that in these restricted controlled teleportation schemes, the partially entangled channels can outperform maximally entangled channels with respect to the controller's power. Our results provide a new perspective on controlled teleportation schemes and are of practical interest since we propose useful partially entangled channels.
New Processes and New Products in Europe and Italy

This article investigates the differences in the mechanisms and strategies conducing to the introduction of new processes and products in Italy and Europe. Three models are proposed in order to identify the different business strategies and innovation inputs associated with new products and new processes. The empirical analysis uses innovation surveys data at the industry level for 8 European countries, with a specific focus on the Italian case. The analysis shows that while the two types of innovation have a strong complementarity, product and process innovations are the results of different innovative inputs and different strategies pursued by firms.