Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emerging Stakeholder Relations in Participatory ICT Design: Renegotiating the Boundaries of Sociotechnical Innovation in Forest Biosecurity Surveillance

Research Highlights: This research advanced understanding of stakeholder relations within the context of innovation using citizen science in a biosecurity sociotechnical system (STS) in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Background and Objectives: It draws on recent experiences in the United Kingdom, where analysis of stakeholder engagement in the development of biosecurity surveillance technologies and citizen science initiatives have occurred to support understanding and development of forest and tree health biosecurity. Early detection technologies are essential as biosecurity risks to the primary sectors increase with the expansion of global trade and shifting pest dynamics that accompany a changing climate. Stakeholder engagement in technology development improves the chances of adoption but can also challenge the mental models of users in an existing STS. Materials and Methods: Two conceptual models that embed stakeholder relations in new information and communications technology (ICT) design and development were applied: (i) a future realist view of the general surveillance system incorporating citizen experts as species identifiers; (ii) a social construction of the ICT platform to surface mental models of the system in use creating the groundwork for evolution of stakeholder relations within STS innovation. A case study demonstrating how we addressed some of the practical limitations of a proposed systems change by applying sociotechnical innovation systems (STIS) theory to the development and adoption of new technologies for surveillance in the existing biosecurity system was presented. Results: Opportunities to enhance the capacity for early detection were considered, where the needs of diverse factors within a central government biosecurity authority and the wider citizenry are supported by the development of a general surveillance network (GSN).
The discrimination of tactile speed in absence of texture elements: Role of deformation and vibratory cues

Motion encoding in touch relies on multiple cues, such as the pattern of skin indentation produced by raised texture elements, high-frequency vibrations while slipping, or fingertip deformation by shear force. We evaluated the role of deformation and vibration cues in tactile speed discrimination. To this end, we tested the discrimination of tactile speed using a smooth glass plate, with and without masking vibrations. Without masking vibrations, participants were surprisingly precise at this task, as assessed by the steep slope of the psychometric function. Even with the moving glass plate, which is expected to recruit mostly slowly adapting fibers, high-frequency vibrations impaired the ability of the participants in discriminating surface speed.
B12 production by marine microbial communities and Dinoroseobacter shibae continuous cultures under different growth and respiration rates

In situ dissolved B12 concentration in marine ecosystems is controlled by the balance between rates of release of B12 by prokaryotes, uptake by prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and abiotic degradation. We used chemostats at a range of specific growth rates (μ, d−1; 0.1 to 1) with natural communities of prokaryotes and monospecific cultures of a B12 producer, Dinoroseobacter shibae. We measured the dissolved B12 concentration produced in the culture (B12-d), the B12 in the particulate fraction (B12-p), cell concentration, respiration rate, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC, PON), and the 16S amplicon composition. Total dissolved B12 concentrations (0.92 to 4.90 pmol l−1) were comparable to those found in the surface ocean. B12-p concentration was 6 to 35 times higher than B12-d. B12-d, B12-p, and community composition showed no relation to μ for either natural populations or D. shibae. The chemostats allowed calculation of the rates of production: B12-d (0.34 ± 0.28 pmol l−1 d−1) and B12-p (5.65 ± 2.34 pmol l−1 d−1), and the B12 cell quota (900 to 3300 molecules cell−1). In multispecies and D. shibae cultures, B12 production rates per cell in creased with respiration rates (volumetric or per cell), and with rates of cellular organic carbon and nitrogen production. Rates increased with μ, but not the concentrations of B12-d or of B12-p. To understand the physiological and ecological dynamics of B12, concentrations alone are insufficient since they do not provide rates, which are important in understanding the dynamics between producers and consumers.
Rub-Impact Fault Diagnosis of Rotating Machinery Based on 1-D Convolutional Neural Networks

Rub-impact is a kind of serious malfunction, which often occurs in rotating machinery. The non-stationary rub-impact signals are always submerged in the background and noise signals, which makes it difficult to accurately diagnose the rubbing based on the hand-designed features extracted by the traditional methods. This paper presents a 1-D convolutional neural network (CNN) based approach to automatically learn useful features for rub-impact fault diagnosis from the raw vibration signals of a rotor system. The proposed model is trained on a dataset of vibration signals obtained from an industrial hydro turbine rotor. The results show that timely and accurate rub-impact fault detection can be achieved by a simple 1-D CNN configuration.
Which Local Search Operator Works Best for the Open-Loop TSP?

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) has been widely studied for the classical closed-loop variant. However, very little attention has been paid to the open-loop variant. Most of the existing studies also focus merely on presenting the overall optimization results (gap) or focus on processing time, but do not reveal much about which operators are more efficient to achieve the result. In this paper, we present two new operators (link swap and 3–permute) and study their efficiency against existing operators, both analytically and experimentally. Results show that while 2-opt and relocate contribute equally in the closed-loop case, the situation changes dramatically in the open-loop case where the new operator, link swap, dominates the search; it contributes by 50% to all improvements, while 2-opt and relocate have a 25% share each. The results are also generalized to tabu search and simulated annealing.
The Evolution of Peristenus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): Taxonomy, Phylogenetics and Ecological Speciation

5 Introduction . 6 Materials and Methods . 7 Sample Collection. 7 Terminology and Image Capture . 15 DNA Protocols . 15 Phylogenetic Analyses . 17 Results . 19 Discussion . 21 Generic Concepts of Peristenus and Leiophron s.l. 21 Validty of the Genus Mama . 22 Updated Generic Concepts of Euphorini . 25
Long Term Behaviour of An Asphalt Pavement Structure Constructed on a Geogrid-Reinforced Subgrade Over Soft Soils

Many roads with asphalt pavement are being reconstructed every year, as their quality becomes insufficient by the requirements. As it is well- known, old roads were built not in the very best quality, so doing reconstruction projects in the most cases there were required to deal with soft soils that are under the existing road structure. Geogrid reinforcement was widely used to solve issues of soft soil in Lithuania. There are projects where geogrid reinforcement is used to control road pavement roughness when there are layers of peat or silt under road structure instead of using concrete piles or geosynthetic-encased soil columns. This type of geogrid reinforcement application is unexplained in any normative-technical document but widely used in Lithuania. This application was usually made constructively without any calculations, choosing the reinforced solution by reducing the geogrid tensile strength or layer quantity compared to reinforced load transfer platform over piles. This paper evaluates the long-term influence of geogrid- reinforced subgrade on the roughness of asphalt surfacing and bearing capacity of the road structure when the soft peaty soils stratify in the deeper layers of the subgrade. There were compared the reinforced sections to adjacent sections to see the effect and fortunately a large number of adjacent sections were also strengthened, mostly by lime stabilisation. Therefore, this comparison allows making more insights on the long-term performance of the strengthened subgrade and influence on the road quality. This research gives recommendations on how the geogrids has to be selected to be used in this kind of application.
GPU implementation of Sub-Iris technique in iris recognition system

Iris recognition has become a widely popular biometric system. The stable textures and features of the human iris have made such biometric systems efficient and accurate for purposes of verification and identification. The term non-ideal iris refers to a situation in which the iris is occluded by noise, including reflections, eyelashes, eyelids and so on. Most current iris recognition algorithms assume that the iris is not occluded, which is less accurate. A method using only some parts of the iris may be suitable to deal with a non-ideal iris. The current application of iris recognition systems are plagued by weaknesses such as slow processing times, especially when dealing with many irises. In this study, a sub-iris recognition technique is proposed to deal with the non-ideal iris, while reducing execution time via an embedded system using a graphical processing unit (GPU). The experiment revealed that the proposed method was accurate and fast.
Developing Application Programming Interface (API) for Student Academic Activity Monitoring using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)

Information about the progress of a student lecture is very important to know by parents. Generally, universities already have information systems that contain the data of lecturing process, but many of the information is not accessible by parents. Therefore, an application is needed to monitor student lecture activity that can be accessed directly by parents, so that when there is a change in student lecture activity, parents can directly know it. But to create such an application requires an Application Programming Interface (API) that will facilitate the application to be able to interact with existing information systems and can send notification to parent. Delivery of notification to parents will use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) which will quickly notify parents without making the university cost. The API will be built using web protocol (http/https) and will act as an additional system that will run in conjunction with the ongoing academic information system.
Integrating Fitness Components Reveals That Survival Costs Outweigh Other Benefits and Costs of Group Living in Two Closely Related Species

Group living can be beneficial when individuals reproduce or survive better in the presence of others, but, simultaneously, there might be costs due to competition for resources. Positive and negative effects on various fitness components might thus counteract each other, so integration is essential to determine their overall effect. Here, we investigated how an integrated fitness measure (reproductive values [RVs]) based on six fitness components varied with group size among group members in cooperatively breeding red-winged and superb fairy wrens (Malurus elegans and Malurus cyaneus, respectively). Despite life-history differences between the species, patterns of RVs were similar, suggesting that the same behavioral mechanisms are important. Group living reduced RVs for dominant males, but for other group members, this was true only in large groups. Decomposition analyses showed that our integrated fitness proxy was most strongly affected by group size effects on survival and was amplified through carryover effects between years. Our study shows that integrative consideration of fitness components and subsequent decomposition analysis provide much needed insights into the key behavioral mechanisms shaping the costs and benefits of group living. Such attribution is crucial if we are to synthesize the relative importance of the myriad group size costs and benefits currently reported in the literature.
Service Sabotage Behaviors: The Conception, Measurement and Relevant Variables

Service sabotage behaviors refer to members in service industry organization deliberately make negative impacts on service when they are offering service to customers.Sabotage behaviors in service settings are also the embodiment of workplace sabotage behaviors in previous studies.Service sabotage behaviors mainly perform in four types:customary-private, customary-public, sporadic-private and sporadic-public service sabotage.The primary measurement methods of service sabotage behaviors include interview, questionnaire and situational projective test.The antecedent variables of service sabotage behaviors were analyzed from individual, group, organization and environmental levels.And the consequence variables of service sabotage behaviors were explored from individual, service performance and organizational performance aspects.Future research in this field should emphasizes the improvement of measurement methods, analyze the mechanism among the relevant variables, seek for effective countermeasure to control the service sabotage behaviors, expand the field of vision and widen the subject's type and industry field further.
Temporal partitioning of activity: rising and falling top‐predator abundance triggers community‐wide shifts in diel activity

Top predators cause avoidance behaviours in competitors and prey, which can lead to niche partitioning and facilitate coexistence. We investigate changes in partitioning of the temporal niche in a mammalian community in response to both the rapid decline in abundance of a top predator and its rapid increase, produced by two concurrent natural experiments: 1) the severe decline of the Tasmanian devil due to a transmissible cancer, and 2) the introduction of Tasmanian devils to an island, with subsequent population increase. We focus on devils, two mesopredators and three prey species, allowing us to examine niche partitioning in the context of intra- and inter-specific competition, and predator-prey interactions. The most consistent shift in temporal activity occurred in devils themselves, which were active earlier in the night at high densities, presumably because of heightened intraspecific competition. When devils were rare, their closest competitor, the spotted-tailed quoll, increased activity in the early part of the night, resulting in increased overlap with the devil's temporal niche and suggesting release from interference competition. The invasive feral cat, another mesopredator, did not shift its temporal activity in response to either decreasing or increasing devil densities. Shifts in temporal activity of the major prey species of devils were stronger in response to rising than to falling devil densities. We infer that the costs associated with not avoiding predators when their density is rising (i.e. death) are higher than the costs of continuing to adopt avoidance behaviours as predator densities fall (i.e. loss of foraging opportunity), so rising predator densities may trigger more rapid shifts. The rapid changes in devil abundance provide a unique framework to test how the non-lethal effects of top predators affect community-wide partitioning of temporal niches, revealing that this top predator has an important but varied influence on the diel activity of other species.
Closing the carbon budget of estuarine wetlands with tower‐based measurements and MODIS time series

Compared to other ecosystems, estuarine ecosystems have distinct carbon flux dynamics – the lateral carbon flux incurred by tidal activities, and methane generation under the anaerobic conditions of wetland soils. The conventional estimation of gross primary production (GPP) based on the light use efficiency (LUE) model used for non‐wetland terrestrial ecosystems, therefore, cannot be applied directly to estuarine wetland ecosystems. In this paper, we estimated the 2005's annual carbon budget of an estuarine wetland on Chongming Island, Shanghai, and partitioned the losses of carbon due to lateral tidal dynamics and anaerobic methane production using an innovative technique. The average GPP calculated from eddy covariance between March and November was 261.79 μmol m−2 day−1, whereas that from the LUE model was 58.84 μmol m−2 day−1. The correlation coefficient between GPP simulated from the LUE model and that calculated from flux tower data was low in the growing season (R2=0.55). We hypothesized that tidal activities and uncounted methane release were responsible for the difference, which can be predicted from measurements of remote sensing products such as land surface water index (LSWI), evapotranspiration (ET), and tide height (TH). We developed an integrated GPP model by combining the LUE model and an autoregression model to estimate carbon budget. The average GPP from the modified model increased to 263.38 μmol m−2 day−1, and R2 for the correlation between the simulated and calculated data increased to 0.88, demonstrating the potential of our technique for GPP estimation and quantification of seasonal variation in estuarine ecosystems. The approach developed in this study has great potential for correcting unavoidable errors when estimating carbon budget of coastal wetlands. Furthermore, global warming is expected to accelerate sea level rise, which may enhance the effect of tidal activities and increase the difficulty in estimating coastal carbon budgets using conventional methods.
A Novel Hybrid Prognostic Approach for Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries

The prognosis of lithium-ion batteries for their remaining useful life is an essential technology in prognostics and health management (PHM). In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid prediction method based on particle filter (PF) and extreme learning machine (ELM). First, we use ELM to simulate the battery capacity degradation trend. Second, PF is applied to update the random parameters of the ELM in real-time. An extreme learning machine prognosis model, based on particle filter (PFELM), is established. In order to verify the validity of this method, our proposed approach is compared with the standard ELM, the multi-layer perceptron prediction model, based on PF (PFMLP), as well as the neural network prediction model, based on bat-particle filter (BATPFNN), using the batteries testing datasets of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center. The results show that our proposed approach has better ability to simulate battery capacity degradation trends, better robustness, and higher Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prognosis accuracy than the standard ELM, the PFMLP, and the BATPFNN under the same conditions.
Weak Acid Sensitive A, a novel transcription factor required for regulation of weak-acid resistance and spore-spore heterogeneity in Aspergillus niger

Propionic, sorbic and benzoic acids are organic weak acids that are widely used as food preservatives, where they play a critical role in preventing microbial growth. In this study, we uncovered new mechanisms of weak acid resistance in moulds. By screening a library of 401 transcription-factor deletion strains in Aspergillus fumigatus for sorbic acid hypersensitivity, a previously uncharacterised transcription factor was identified, and named as WasA (Weak Acid Sensitive A). The orthologous gene in the spoilage mould Aspergillus niger was identified and deleted. WasA was required for resistance to a range of weak acids, including sorbic, propionic and benzoic acids. A transcriptomic analysis was performed to characterise genes regulated by WasA during sorbic acid treatment in A. niger. Several genes were significantly upregulated in the wild type compared with a ΔwasA mutant, including genes encoding putative weak acid detoxification enzymes and transporter proteins. Among these was An14g03570, a putative ABC-type transporter which we found to be required for weak acid resistance in A. niger. We also show that An14g03570 is a functional homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein Pdr12p. Lastly, resistance to sorbic acid was found to be highly heterogeneous within genetically-uniform populations of ungerminated A. niger conidia, and we demonstrate that An14g03570 is a determinant of this heteroresistance. This study has identified novel mechanisms of weak acid resistance in A. niger which could help to inform and improve future food spoilage prevention strategies. IMPORTANCE Weak acids are widely used as food preservatives, as they are very effective at preventing growth of most species of bacteria and fungi. However, some species of moulds can survive and grow in the concentrations of weak acid employed in food and drink products, thereby causing spoilage with resultant risks for food security and health. Current knowledge of weak acid resistance mechanisms in these fungi is limited, especially in comparison to that in yeasts. We characterised gene functions in the spoilage mould species Aspergillus niger which are important for survival and growth in the presence of weak acid preservatives. Such identification of weak acid resistance mechanisms in spoilage moulds will help to design new strategies to reduce food spoilage in the future.
Mathematical deconvolution of CAR T-cell proliferation and exhaustion from real-time killing assay data

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown promise in the treatment of hematological cancers and is currently being investigated for solid tumors including high-grade glioma brain tumors. There is a desperate need to quantitatively study the factors that contribute to the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors. In this work we use a mathematical model of predator-prey dynamics to explore the kinetics of CAR T-cell killing in glioma: the Chimeric Antigen Receptor t-cell treatment Response in GliOma (CARRGO) model. The model includes rates of cancer cell proliferation, CAR T-cell killing, CAR T-cell proliferation and exhaustion, and CAR T-cell persistence. We use patient-derived and engineered cancer cell lines with an in vitro real-time cell analyzer to parameterize the CARRGO model. We observe that CAR T-cell dose correlates inversely with the killing rate and correlates directly with the net rate of proliferation and exhaustion. This suggests that at a lower dose of CAR T-cells, individual T-cells kill more cancer cells but become more exhausted as compared to higher doses. Furthermore, the exhaustion rate was observed to increase significantly with tumor growth rate and was dependent on level of antigen expression. The CARRGO model highlights nonlinear dynamics involved in CAR T-cell therapy and provides novel insights into the kinetics of CAR T-cell killing. The model suggests that CAR T-cell treatment may be tailored to individual tumor characteristics including tumor growth rate and antigen level to maximize therapeutic benefit. Statement of Significance We utilize a mathematical model to deconvolute the nonlinear contributions of CAR T-cell proliferation and exhaustion to predict therapeutic efficacy and dependence on CAR T-cell dose and target antigen levels.