Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plant invasions in China: an emerging hot topic in invasion science

China has shown a rapid economic development in recent decades, and several drivers of this change are known to enhance biological invasions, a major cause of biodiversity loss. Here we review the current state of research on plant invasions in China by analyzing papers referenced in the ISI Web of Knowledge. Since 2001, the number of papers has increased exponentially, indicating that plant invasions in China are an emerging hot topic in invasion science. The analyzed papers cover a broad range of methodological approaches and research topics. While more that 250 invasive plant species with negative impacts have been reported from China, only a few species have been considered in more than a handful of papers (in order of decreasing number of references: Spartina alterniflora, Ageratina adenophora, Mikania micrantha, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Solidago canadensis, Eichhornia crassipes). Yet this selection might rather reflect the location of research teams than the most invasive plant species in China. Considering the previous achievements in China found in our analysis research in plant invasions could be expanded by (1) compiling comprehensive lists of non-native plant species at the provincial and national scales and to include species that are native to one part of China but non-native to others in these lists; (2) strengthening pathways studies (primary introduction to the country, secondary releases within the country) to enhance prevention and management; and (3) assessing impacts of invasive species at different spatial scales (habitats, regions) and in relation to conservation resources.
Estimation methods and correction factors for body weight in Mangalarga Marchador horses

ABSTRACT The objective was to evaluate the accuracy of six body weight (BW) estimating methods in Mangalarga Marchador horses (MM) (n = 318): method A – tape placements at three different positions around the thoracic girth; B – Crevat and Quetelec’s formula; C – Hall’s formula; D – Hintz and Griffiths’ table; E – Santos’ table; and F – Cintra’s formula. For additional analyses, gender, age, and gestational stage were considered. Estimated average BW was compared to the actual scale [. ]
Poincar\'e Inequality for Dirichlet Distributions and Infinite-Dimensional Generalizations

For any $N\ge 2$ and $\aa:=(\aa_1,\cdots, \aa_{N+1})\in (0,\infty)^{N+1}$, let $\mu^{(N)}_{\aa}$ be the corresponding Dirichlet distribution on $\DD:= \big\{ x=(x_i)_{1\le i\le N}\in [0,1]^N:\ \sum_{1\le i\le N} x_i\le 1\big\}. $ We prove the Poincar\'e inequality $$\mu^{(N)}_{\aa}(f^2)\le \ff 1 {\aa_{N+1}} \int_{\DD}\Big\{\Big(1-\sum_{1\le i\le N} x_i\Big) \sum_{n=1}^N x_n(\pp_n f)^2\Big\}\mu^{(N)}_\aa(\d x)+\mu^{(N)}_{\aa}(f)^2,\ f\in C^1(\DD)$$ and show that the constant $\ff 1 {\aa_{N+1}}$ is sharp. Consequently, the associated diffusion process on $\DD$ converges to $\mu^{(N)}_{\aa}$ in $L^2(\mu^{(N)}_{\aa})$ at the exponentially rate $\aa_{N+1}$. The whole spectrum of the generator is also characterized. Moreover, the sharp Poincar\'e inequality is extended to the infinite-dimensional setting, and the spectral gap of the corresponding discrete model is derived.
Detection of Internal Quality in Kiwi with Time-Domain Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy

Time-domain diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (TRS), a medical sensing technique, was used to evaluate internal kiwi fruit quality. The application of this pulsed laser spectroscopic technique was studied as a new, possible non-destructive, method to detect optically different quality parameters: firmness, sugar content, and acidity. The main difference with other spectroscopic techniques is that TRS estimates separately and at the same time absorbed light and scattering inside the sample, at each wavelength, allowing simultaneous estimations of firmness and chemical contents. Standard tests (flesh puncture, compression with ball, .Brix, total acidity, skin color) have been used as references to build estimative models, using a multivariate statistical approach. Classification functions of the fruits into three groups achieved a performance of 75% correctly classified fruits for firmness, 60% for sugar content, and 97% for acidity. Results demonstrate good potential for this technique to be used in the development of new sensors for non-destructive quality assessment.
Green card: a foreign-language interface for Haskell

1 Microsoft's Common Object Model (COM) is a languageindependent software component architecture. It allows objects written in one language to create objects written in another, and to call their methods. The two objects may be in the same address space, in di erent address spaces on the same machine, or on separate machines connected by a network. OLE is a set of conventions for building components on top of COM. Should we support languages other than C? The trite answer is that pretty much everything available as a library is available as a C library. For other languages the right thing to do is to interface to a languageindependent software component architecture, rather than to a raft of speci c languages. For the moment we choose COM, but CORBA 2 might be another sensible choice.
Designing with Data: Using Analytics to Improve Web and Mobile Applications

Interaction Level (e.g., providing values in input fields) UI Events (e.g., shifts in input focus, key events) Input Device Events (e.g., hardware-generated key or mouse interrupts) Physical Events (e.g., fingers pressing keys or hand moving mouse) Figure 1. Levels of abstraction in user behaviours, adapted from Hilbert and Redmiles 2000, 394) Physical behaviours lay on the bottom level while goal and problem-related behaviours are several levels of abstraction upwards on the top of the ladder. By abstracting and aggregating the low-level behaviours into larger chunks, behavioural data can be used to study even multi-year project events, as described by Fisher and Sanderson (1994, 260).
The interaction between institutions and MNEs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Preliminary evidence from Uganda’s mobile phone and upstream oil and gas industries

The paper outlines why collaboration between foreign invested R&D units and local universities in China often fails. R&D collaboration projects in China easily go off-track. The cases show that these challenges can be overcome if managers supervise employees and partners in a manner that simultaneously builds trust in the sequence of affect-based trust followed by cognition-based trust. Thereby, good results can be created in collaboration with Chinese universities. The paper illustrates institutional influences on R&D collaboration between foreign invested R&D and local universities in China, and thus provides insights as to why such collaborations fail, and how these failures can be avoided.
Regional Modeling of Wheat yield production Using The Distributed Agro-hydrological SWAP

Monitoring and evaluation of water productivity and proposing solutions to improve it are based on accurate estimation of crop yield and the actual amount of consumed water, in which exact measurement is difficult without proper tools. Considering many decisions and policies in the water management are made in a spatial scale larger than farm scale, in this study, the distributed SWAP model was evaluated in simulating wheat yield production in the Doroudzan irrigation and drainage network (Fars province, Iran) in wet, normal and dry years. The study area was divided into 86 simulation units and the yield production was determined in each spatial unit with the distributed SWAP. MATLAB program was used for regionalizing the SWAP model and making relationship between the model and input data in each simulation unit. The goodness-of-fit, such as: correlation coefficient and maximum error were calculated 88% and 0.94 ton/ha, respectively. The determined mean square error was less than standard deviation and the modeling efficiency was estimated satisfactorily. In this research, yield production in the simulation period was evaluated higher than the observed values. In farms located at the end of the network, the error percentage of simulated performance was higher than other spatial units due to water deficit and soil salinity. In general, since there was a good consistency between simulated and observed crop production in Doroudzan network, distributed SWAP model can be used, with a good accuracy, to simulate and predict yield production and to manage irrigation network.
Asset Pricing Anomalies and Time-Varying Betas: A New Specification Test for Conditional Factor Models

In this paper, we develop a new measure of specification error, and thus derive new statistical tests, for conditional factor models, i.e. models in which the factor loadings (and hence risk premia) are allowed to be time-varying. Our test exploits the close links between the stochastic discount factor framework and mean-variance efficiency. We show that a given set of factors is a true conditional asset pricing model if and only if the efficient frontiers spanned by the traded assets and the factor-mimicking portfolios, respectively, intersect. In fact, we show that our test is proportional to the difference in squared Sharpe ratios of these two frontiers. We draw three main conclusions from our empirical findings. First, optimal scaling clearly improves the performance of asset pricing models, to the point where several of the scaled models are capable of explaining asset pricing anomalies. However, even the optimally scaled models fall short of being true conditional asset pricing models in that they fail to price actively managed portfolios correctly. Second, there is significant time-variation in factor loadings and hence risk premia, which plays a significant role in asset pricing. Moreover, the optimal factor loadings display a high degree of non-linearity in the conditioning variables, suggesting that the linear scaling prevalent in the literature is sub-optimal and does not capture the inter-temporal pattern of risk premia. Third, skewness and kurtosis do matter in the conditional setting, while adding little to unconditional performance.
A new approach on grain size estimation from airborne hyperspectral data

The Bay of Santander is a very important environmental element, located in the north of Spain (Cantabria). Human spills to convert sea into land started about 1850 and gradually change the tide prism. This produced the Bay to start filling up and consequently, problems for the safety navigation. Whence the navigational channel must be periodically measured and dredged. Marsh, dunes or estuaries use to be characterized by their high natural values what usually cause them to be subjected to high protection levels that make the activities sought to develop inside. The current work compiles and developed process to estimate the grain size (sand, silt, clay, silty loam, sandy clay loam,.), Pb and Zn contents, and ripples from hyperspectral data. The data were obtained in June 2005 by the Catalonian Cartographic Institute (ICC). The ICC has an airborne sensor (Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager-CASI) which let the user setup temporal, radiometric and spatial resolution according to the requirements (36 bands and 4 m. spatial resolution). This makes possible to collect data in the optimum tide level and brightness conditions and so they can be considered as an interesting tool to monitor depths, grain size and ripples. Results show that accuracy is highly dependent of the radiometric and atmospheric corrections, but it can be used as a practical tool for deriving thematic cartography of grain size and inorganic sediments in coastal environments; cheaper than classical chemical field methods.
Phase Estimation

A phase estimation algorithm is presented to estimate the phase of a recurring pattern in a nonstationary signal. The signal is modelled by a template signal that represents one revolution of the recurring pattern, and that the frequency of this pattern can change at any time with no assumptions about local stationarity. The algorithm uses a constraint maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) to estimate the phase of the recurring pattern in the time series. Using the dynamic programming techniques from the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm, the solution is found in an efficient manner. The algorithm is applied to the digitization of meter readings from analog consumption meters. As of today, analog consumption meters are still widely used to measure the consumption of gas, electricity and water. Often, smart home appliance use a simple reflective photosensor located on a rotating part of the meter to obtain information about the state of the consumption meter. The algorithm presented in this thesis accurately estimates the phase of the repeating pattern that occurs in the sensor observation when the meter rotates. Using this estimate, the signal of the photosensor can be converted to an estimate of the total resource consumption and consumption rate. The algorithm improves in accuracy over conventional methods based on peak detection, and is shown to work in cases where the peak detection methods fails. Examples of this are signals where there is no distinctive peak in the signal or a signal where the recurring pattern is reversed. Furthermore, a template compression scheme is proposed that is used to decrease the computational complexity of the algorithm. Different time series compression methods are applied to the algorithm and evaluated on their performance.
The Potential of Automated Corrective Feedback to Remediate Cohesion Problems in Advanced Students' Writing.

This study explores the potential of a feedback environment using simple string-based pattern matching technology for the provision of automated corrective feedback on cohesion problems. Thirty-eight high-frequent problems, including non-target like use of connectives and co-references were addressed providing both direct and indirect feedback. Advanced students of German as a foreign language (L2) (n=36) received this feedback on summary writing in three subsequent sessions. Their revision activities were analysed for a ratio per 100 words and success rate, and their attitudes towards the feedback were investigated using questionnaires. The results show that automated feedback based on pattern matching has the potential to remedy overand under-use of connectives and co-reference devices. Furthermore, although participants preferred direct feedback, the revision rate was higher with indirect metacognitive feedback providing grammar explanations.
Defining the Limbal Stem Cell Niche

The cornea forms the front transparent cover of the eye which is reputed to be maintained by a population of adult stem cells located at the junction of the cornea and the white sclera of the eye. This area is known as the limbus and the stem cells as limbal stem cells. The desire to describe the exact location of the stem cells at the limbus has led to several descriptions of anatomical features that could provide the niche environment for these cells. Our laboratory, acting upon evidence that the limbus is not the sole location of adult stem cells in the cornea, analysed whether the limbal stem cells could exist outside of the limbal environment and whether they would still retain the properties required to maintain the corneal surface.
The generation of reactive oxygen species by cord blood nucleated cells during cryopreservation

The generation of reactive oxygen species in different populations of nucleated cells during cord blood cryopreservation was studied. Using cytometry with the 2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate dye we assessed the integral content of reactive oxygen species in various populations (lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes) of cord blood nucleated cells, depending on the method of isolation, treatment with cryoprotectant and freezing. Furthermore the activity of antioxidant enzymes prior to and after cryopreservation while the cells were loaded with exogenous reactive oxygen species, which source was hydrogen peroxide, was assessed. The results obtained showed that the isolation and cryopreservation of cord blood nucleated cells according to proposed method, which included the isolation of cells in polyglucinum and freezing with 5% DMSO did not result in a significant increase in level of intracellular reactive oxygen species. In addition the activity of antioxidant enzymes to exogenous hydrogen peroxide inactivation in cryopreserved cell was maintained at the level close to that in the native cord blood. Among all the populations of cord blood nucleated cells the granulocytes were the least resistant to cryopreservation effects.
A conservative MURD scheme on moving domains: Application to three-dimensional free surface flows

We introduce a monotonic and conservative numerical scheme for the resolution of the linear advection problem set on a moving domain. The scheme is based on an extension to moving domains of the Multidimensional Upwind Residual Distributive (MURD) approach. The properties ensured by the residual distribution schemes set on fixed domains are not altered by the domain movement, except for the conservation of the advected quantity. We introduce in this paper an additional condition which ensures the conservation properties of the MURD scheme on amoving domain. Several numerical tests have been performed, providing satisfying results in terms of conservation of the advected quantity.
Two-level iteration penalty and variational multiscale method for steady incompressible flows

In this paper, we study two-level iteration penalty and variational multiscale method for the approximation of steady Navier-Stokes equations at high Reynolds number. Comparing with classical penalty method, this new method does not require very small penalty parameter ε. Moreover, two-level mesh method can save a large amount of CPU time. The error estimates in H norm for velocity and in L norm for pressure are derived. Finally, two numerical experiments are shown to support the efficiency of this new method.
Analysis of side effects of Diflubenzuron and Tebufenozide in pollinating bumblebees Bombus terrestris

This research project examined the potential hazards of two important insecticides on survival, reproduction and larval growth of bumblebees Bombus terrestris . We tested two insect growth regulators (IGRs), the chitin synthesis inhibitor diflubenzuron and the ecdysone agonist tebufenozide; both important in the control of insect pests in greenhouses. The two IGRs were applied via three different routes of exposure (contact via topical application, and orally via the drinking sugar water and via pollen) under laboratory conditions and tested at their respective maximum field recommended concentrations (MFRC). In a second test, a doseresponse assay was performed to calculate LC50 values. Generally, the two IGRs did not show acute toxicity on worker bumblebees. However, there was a dramatic reduction on brood production especially after diflubenzuron oral treatment with pollen and sugar water. In contrast tebufenozide did not exert a significant effect on brood production. Overall our laboratory results suggest that diflubenzuron should be applied with caution in combination with bumblebees, while tebufenozide is compatible with the pollinator. Keywords: insect growth regulator; diflubenzuron; tebufenozide; toxicity; bumblebees Cette recherche a examine les risques potentiels de deux insecticides importants a l’egard de la survie, la reproduction et la croissance larvaire des bourdons ( Bombus terrestris ). Nous avons teste deux regulateurs de croissance des insectes (IGRs): un inhibiteur de la synthese de la chitine (diflubenzuron) et un agoniste de l'ecdysone (tebufenozide) qui sont utilises dans le controle des insectes ravageurs des cultures sous serres. Les deux IGRs ont ete appliques selon trois voies d'exposition (contact par application topique et oralement par de l’eau sucree et du pollen) dans les conditions de laboratoire et aux concentrations maximales recommandees en plein champ (MFRC). Dans un deuxieme essai, une analyse de dose-reponse a ete realisee pour determiner les concentrations letales CL50. En general, les deux IGRs n'ont pas manifeste de toxicite a l’egard des ouvrieres. Cependant, on note une reduction drastique sur la production des couvains apres traitement oral avec le pollen et l’eau sucree pour le diflubenzuron. En revanche, le tebufenozide n'a pas d’effet significatif. De facon generale, nos resultats suggerent que le diflubenzuron doit etre applique avec prudence en combinaison avec les bourdons, tandis que le tebufenozide est compatible avec le pollinisateur. Mots cles : Regulateurs de croissance des insectes; Diflubenzuron; Tebufenozide; Toxicite; Bourdon.
Application of Proniosomal Powder Technology to Prepare Fast Water Dissolving Tablets for Dutasteride

Objective: The aim of the study is to prepare fast water dissolving dutasteride tablets containing a pronisomal powder that yield niosomal dispersion of dutasteride upon dissolving in hot water. The niosomes derived from dissolved tablets may improve the dissolution and permeability of dutasteride since it is loaded in the niosomal vesicles and avoid the high cost and other disadvantages of the soft gelatin capsules commercially available. Method: Ten formulas of dutasteride proniosomal gels were prepared by coaservation method and niosomes derived from them were evaluated for their loading capacity, particle size, particle size distribution , zeta-potential and in-vitro drug release in order to determine the optimum type and quantity of proniosomal contents that will be used to prepare maltodextrin based proniosmal powder formulas which were evaluated and the optimum proniosomal powder formula was used to prepare dutasteride tablet. Results: Thickness, , hardness, disintegration time and in-vitro drug release for the optimum dutasteride tablet T5 were 5.57±0.08 mm, 3.1±0.11 Kg/cm 2 , 2.9±0.03 and reaches 100% release after 30 min. Particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential of niosomes derived from dissolving dutasteride tablet (T5) were ~263±3.8 nm, 0.225, and -5.43±0.436 mV Conclusion: This results indicating the contribution niosomes derived from proniosomal powder in improving the dutasteride solubility and gave higher dissolution rate compared to the conventional soft gelatin capsule of the same drug . Therefore presenting an oral dosage form that is more convenient and having all the advantage of tablets. Keywords: Cholesterol, Dutasteride, Niosomes, Proniosomes, Span 60, and Tween 20.
A Comparative Examination of Unhealthy Behaviors and Negative-LGBT Experiences among Individuals in Legal Same-Sex Marriages and in Committed Same-Sex Relationships

Extant literature on different-sex marriage has widely demonstrated its beneficial and protective effects. Given that legal same-sex marriage has been available on a state-by-state basis only since 2004 starting with Massachusetts and nationwide since 2015 after the Supreme Court Ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, it is imperative to understand if those entering legal same-sex marriage are different from those who are not entering this institution. We identify unhealthy behaviors, such as binge drinking and not being faithful and negative LGB-experiences, such as stigma and bullying, to examine if those in legal same-sex marriage participate in these behaviors or have these experiences at different levels compared to those in committed relationships. Using a U.S. sample convenience (N = 158), represented strongly by the state of Texas, we found that those in legal marriages participated in unhealthy behaviors and experienced negative LGB-experiences at levels lower than those in committed relationships. Results from multivariate analyses, using Poisson’s regression model, indicate that being legally married as opposed to being in committed relationship reduced unhealthy behaviors and negative experiences after controlling for sociodemographic factors. We recommend further research on same-sex marriage because of its potential implications on health.