Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food availability and population structure: How do clumped and abundant sources of carrion affect the genetic diversity of the black-backed jackal?

Carnivores frequently come into conflict with humans in agricultural and livestock- producing areas around the world. Understanding their fidelity and dispersal patterns in response to food availability is therefore important given the effort invested in conflict mitigation strategies. In this study, we investigated the influence of clumped and abundant sources of carrion on the genetic diversity of the black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas within six private game farms in the North-West and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. It is predicted that clumped and abundant sources of carrion will increase immigration and thus genetic diversity in the local subpopulation. By quantifying the variability in microsatellite loci in black-backed jackals subjected to artificially increased carrion availability, and comparing them with individuals from control sites, we were able to describe patterns of historic gene flow within the total sampled population. The results of this investigation indicate that clumped and abundant sources of carrion promote genetic structuring (FST = 0.0302) which implies a lack of gene flow and a degree of isolation. Genetic artefacts of three populations could be identified through Bayesian clustering analysis of individuals based on their genetic identity. Individuals sampled from the two supplementary feeding sites could be assigned to one of two ancestral populations with an average population assignment of 69 and 82%, while individuals from the remaining four control sites, originate from a third population with percentage assignments of 63%, 46%, 53% and 42%. It is therefore likely that clumped and abundant sources of carrion in the agricultural landscape of South Africa can affect the population dynamics of the black-backed jackal and result in subpopulations with limited migration and dispersal when compared with the total population.
Comparison of HPLC-FLD with GC-MS in Estimation of Benzo [ a ] pyrene in Sesame Oil

(1.华南理工大学轻工与食品学院,广东广州 510640)(2.河南工业大学粮油食品学院,河南郑州 450001) 摘要:在国标 GB/T 22509-2008 基础上,采用液液萃取-中性氧化铝柱纯化预处理技术,优化测定芝麻油中 BaP 含量的 HPLC-FLD 方法,并从方法学角度比较其与 GC-MS 方法的适用性。 与国标相比,本研究的 HPLC-FLD 法采用梯度洗脱程序。 GC-MS 法色谱条 件为:HP-5MS 毛细管柱(30 m×0.25 mm×0.25 μm),梯度升温程序,进样口和传输线温度 280 °C,脉冲不分流进样,载气流速 1.2 mL/min。 MS 条件:EI 离子源,离子源 230 °C,四级杆 150 °C,选择离子模式(SIM)定量。 线性方程分别为 Y=817883X+39074 (R=0.9999)和 Y=1771.9X-636.6(R=0.9997);检测限(LOD)分别为 0.037 和 0.062 μg/kg;加标回收率分别为 82.40%~96.21%和 76.21%~94.19%,对应的相对标准偏差(RSD)为 3.72%~6.64%和 5.18%~7.84%,检测同一芝麻油样品的 BaP 含量,前者略大于后者 且明显高于国标(P<0.05)。 从上述结果得知,两种方法均满足我国对食用油脂中 BaP 含量的测定要求,HPLC-FLD 法在国标的基础 上得到了改善,且方法的准确性:HPLC-FLD 法>GC-MS 法。 关键词:芝麻油;苯并芘(BaP);高效液相色谱-荧光检测法(HPLC-FLD);气相色谱-质谱法(GC-MS);方法比较 文章篇号:1673-9078(2015)10-282-286 DOI: 10.13982/j.mfst. 1673-9078.2015. 10.046
Schizophyllum leprieurii and the Schizophyllum umbrinum lineage ( Agaricales , Basidiomycota ) in Argentina

Robledo, Gerardo L. ; Orlando F. Popoff; Leonardo Amarilla; Jean-Marc Moncalvo; Carlos Urcelay. 2014. “Schizophyllum leprieurii and the Schizophyllum umbrinum lineage (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) in Argentina”. Lilloa 51 (1). During the survey of wood decaying fungi in NW and Central Argentina, particular collections of Schizophyllum were found that macromorphologically (small brown basidiomata with orange-brown lamellae) resemble Schizophyllum umbrinum. On the basis of molecular evidence (ITS and LSU rDNA sequence analysis) and micromorphological examination it was found that they represent two species: Schizophyllum leprieurii Linder and Schizophyllum cf. umbrinum. Schizophyllum leprieurii Linder is a new record for Argentina and represents the southernmost and an extra tropical record of the species. Our results showed that S. leprieurii and S. cf. umbrinum are monophyletic within the Schizophyllum umbrinum linage, a group in need of modern taxonomic revision.
Automatic Indian Vehicle License Plate Recognition

Automatic Vehicle License Plate Recognition has many applications in traffic systems (highway electronic toll collection, redlight violation enforcement, border and customs checkpoints, etc. Inthis project, a smart and simple algorithm is presented for vehicle’s license plate recognition system. The proposed algorithm consists of Four major parts: Image Pre Processing &Integral Edge Image, License Plate Localization, segmentation of the characters, recognition of the characters.
A Self-Hosting Evaluator using HOAS

We demonstrate a tiny, yet non-trivial evaluator that is powerful enough to run practical code, including itself. This is made possible using a Higher-Order Abstract Syntax (HOAS) representation — a technique that has become popular in syntax-related research during the past decade. With a HOAS encoding, we use functions to encode binders in syntax values, leading to an advantages of reflecting binders rather than re-implementing them. In Scheme, hygienic macros cover problems that are associated with binders in an elegant way, but only when extending the language, i.e., when we work at the meta-level. In contrast, HOAS is a useful object-level technique, used when we need to represent syntax values that contain bindings — and this is achieved in a way that is simple, robust, and efficient. We gradually develop the code, explaining the technique and its benefits, while playing with the evaluator.
Pitting corrosion evaluation and inhibition of stainless steels: A review

The effects of corrosion on the metallurgical characteristics and structural rigidity of metallic alloys has been a subject of interest for decades. This paper delineates the various researches on pitting corrosion. It reviews the techniques used to study pitting corrosion resistance, susceptibility and inhibition of stainless steel alloys. An extensive discourse can be found on pitting corrosion addressing the initiation and propagation of pits from the work of different authors due to localized corrosion in the presence of chlorides and other halogens and its effects on the electrochemical and metallurgical properties of the steel. Review of various research shows pitting corrosion is excercebated with increase in majorly chloride ion concentration leading to rapid deterioration of the steel alloys. Research also shows pitting corrosion can be controlled through conventional electrochemical techniques and changes substrate metal. The effect of changes in environment on the mechanism and rate of pitting corrosion is discussed.
Defining Behavior Patterns Towards Exclusive Breastfeeding Using Latent Class Analysis

Background: The interruption of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is worrying. This study aimed to identify behavior patterns towards EBF among mothers and health professionals. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analysis of a cohort consisting of 1309 women. We used latent class analysis (LCA), considering 15 indicators for defining 4 constructs: maternal emotional state, availability to breastfeed, maternal attitude, and health professional’s attitude towards breastfeeding. Results: Among mothers, 36.5% were classified as being in an unfavorable emotional state; they presented a higher probability of feeling tired, nervous, and sad; 14.7% had less availability to breastfeed and a higher probability of including primiparous and partners not helping to care for the child; 41.5% had negative attitude towards breastfeeding, including mothers more likely to give a pacifier and bottle. Among health professionals, 62.0% were categorized with unfavorable attitude towards breastfeeding, not providing guidance on breastfeeding in the hospital. Conclusions: LCA enabled us to characterize behavior types with regards to EBF.
Model Predictive Control Algorithm Based on Off-Line Region Dependency

This paper presents an efficient MPC algorithm for uncertain time-varying systems with input constraints. The main advantage of this algorithm with respect to other published algorithms is to significantly enlarge the size of the stabilization set without regard to computational burdens. Specially, we introduce an off-line region-dependent MPC scheme to avoid the size limitation of the control horizon caused by huge on-line computational burdens. A numerical example is included to illustrate the validity of the result.
Choosing longevity with overlapping generations

We extend Diamond’s (1965) OLG model to allow agents to choose whether to participate in the second period of life. The valuation of early exit (x) is a key parameter. We characterize competitive equilibria, efficient allocations, and predictions for income and life expectancy over time. We find that, with logarithmic utility, for any value of x, there is a range of initial values of the capital stock for which some agents would prefer to exit in equilibrium. The shape of the transition function and the number of steady state equilibria depend crucially on the value of capital’s share of income.
What drives cybercrime? Empirical evidence from DDoS attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are a frequently occurring type of cybercrime, with potentially large costs to the real economy. We propose a simple model of the size and direction of DDoS attacks. The main predictions of the model are that effective botnets are located in countries with many internet users and high internet speeds, and that the most attractive targets of DDoS attacks are countries with many internet users. We use a theoretical framework to derive a structural equation that resembles the â€ gravity equationsâ€ common in the literature on international trade. The empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the model. The number of internet users is strongly related to the number of international DDoS attacks: our results suggest that a ten percent increase in the number of internet users worldwide would raise the total number of DDoS attacks by eight percent. Bandwidth in the country of origin is also significantly related to attacks, but quantitatively not very important. The vulnerability of computers does not seem influential. We use international data from www.digitalattackmap. com on 55,000 DDoS attacks in 2013 and 2014. The vast majority of attacks originate from the United States (6,256 attacks in 2013/2014) and China (2851 attacks). The Netherlands ranks third with 834 attacks. We estimate an econometric model with economic and technological variables in order to explain observed DDoS patterns. Our model is inspired by models from the international trade literature that explain trade patterns. Trade relations are significantly related to attacks, while other economic factors including GDP per capita do not appear to play a role. The geographical distance between countries is not relevant, while historical ties between countries are significantly related to the number of attacks. This paper is one of the first to explore possible determinants of cybercrime at an aggregate level. We hope that by uncovering some general patterns in the data, our research may contribute to the growing and exciting field of cybersecurity economics.
Time-discrete finite element schemes for Maxwell's equations

Nous etudions une famille de discretisation complete des equations de Maxwell. L'approximation en espace utilise les elements d'aretes de Nedelec, bien adaptes aux problemes d'electromagnetisme ; la discretisation en temps est basee sur une famille d'approximations rationnelles de l'exponentielle. Nous montrons des estimations d'erreur pour le schem obtenu
Geographical constraints in track choices: a French study using high school openings

In this paper we study the effect of a change in local school supply on pupils’ track choice at the end of lower secondary education. We use high school openings to highlight the constraint local school supply exerts on individual schooling decisions. Our data set covers all pupils enrolled in 9th grade between the school year 2002-2003 and the school year 2011-2012 in mainland France. For those pupils we observe what track they follow in 10th grade. We are able to precisely locate both middle schools and high schools and identify new high schools. Our estimation strategy (a generalized difference in differences) takes advantage of the variation in time and space of the openings of high schools to estimate the causal effect of an increase in school supply on the allocation of pupils at the end of 9th grade. We show that, when a new high school appears in the neighbourhood of a middle school, the proportion of pupils who continue in high school increases significantly. This increase is due to a larger proportion of pupils going to the vocational track.
Meaning and Development of Generalizing Extensive Structures

In this paper, focusing on a problem involved in extensive structures, a two-step generalization of extensive structures is discussed. Extensive structures can be useful in measuring attributes possessing an invariant unit, whereas they will not be adequate for measuring attributes in the case of a unit varying according to time, as inferred from the observation that the value of money (a unit) changes with the passage of time. To solve this problem, extensive structures are generalized such that the concatenation operation can be non-associative and noncommutative. This generalization yields a weighted additive function that enables us to explain preferences among temporal sequences as long as the degree of consumers’ impatience is constant regardless of the receipt period of each component (outcome). However, it is well known that the state of constant impatience is often violated in intertemporal choice. This problem can be solved by expressing the advanced (resp. postponed) receipt of outcomes by right multiplication (resp. right division) by “subjective” durations. The subjective duration is assessed for each period in such a way that the duration becomes longer when a person feels impatient during a particular period. By the introduction of right multiplication (right division), the weighted additive function is a generalized form of the weight being a function of durations, and hence we can evaluate intertemporal choice problems accompanied by non-constant impatience.
A Simple Dual-Antenna Diversity Gain Measurement System at 2.4GHz

A simple measurement system is built to estimate the dual-antenna diversity gain at 2.4GHz easily in open lab environment. To obtain multipath fading propagation channel, the system consists of two transmission horn that placed on opposite direction and a rotating stage mechanically changing the position of test dual-antenna with time over distance greater than one wavelength. Estimated diversity is nearly same as theoretical value such that measured diversity gain of 30mm separated is about 6dB similar to theoretical value of 5.7dB and increases monotonically with the increasing separation distance as predicted by the theory. Proposed measurement system that is simple enough to fit in a small space can evaluate the performance of various dual-antennas with a reasonable accuracy with lower 5% difference between the ten sets of measured waveform distribution and theoretical Rayleigh cumulative distribution.
Using a mixture model for multiple imputation in the presence of outliers: the ‘Healthy for life’ project

Summary. We consider the problem of obtaining population‐based inference in the presence of missing data and outliers in the context of estimating the prevalence of obesity and body mass index measures from the ‘Healthy for life’ study. Identifying multiple outliers in a multivariate setting is problematic because of problems such as masking, in which groups of outliers inflate the covariance matrix in a fashion that prevents their identification when included, and swamping, in which outliers skew covariances in a fashion that makes non‐outlying observations appear to be outliers. We develop a latent class model that assumes that each observation belongs to one of K unobserved latent classes, with each latent class having a distinct covariance matrix. We consider the latent class covariance matrix with the largest determinant to form an ‘outlier class’. By separating the covariance matrix for the outliers from the covariance matrices for the remainder of the data, we avoid the problems of masking and swamping. As did Ghosh‐Dastidar and Schafer, we use a multiple‐imputation approach, which allows us simultaneously to conduct inference after removing cases that appear to be outliers and to promulgate uncertainty in the outlier status through the model inference. We extend the work of Ghosh‐Dastidar and Schafer by embedding the outlier class in a larger mixture model, consider penalized likelihood and posterior predictive distributions to assess model choice and model fit, and develop the model in a fashion to account for the complex sample design. We also consider the repeated sampling properties of the multiple imputation removal of outliers.
Investigating the Potential of Increasing the Vase Life of Cut Flower of Narcissus by Using Sour Orange Fruit Extract and Sucrose in the Storage Conditions

Narcissus is one of the very popular flowers among Iranians. This flower has a short life. To investigate the increasing of vase life of cut Narcissus, sour orange fruit extract in concentrations of 2.5, 4, 5.5 and 7 ml L -1 and sucrose in concentrations of 3, 4, 5 and 6% were used. In addition, distilled water was used as a control treatment. In this experiment, characters of vase life and percentage of unopened buds were evaluated in end of experiment, but the relative fresh weight, water absorption, soluble solids of petals and stems were measured from first to 29 th day. The longest vase life was obtained in the treatment of sour orange fruit extract with concentration of 4 ml L -1 with 30.33 days and the shortest life of control was obtained with 18.33 days. Also, the least and highest percentage of unopened buds were observed in treated flowers with sour orange fruit extract of 4 ml L -1 and sucrose of 6%, respectively. The maximum amount of fresh weight, solution absorption, soluble solids of petals and stems were obtained in concentration of 2.5 ml L -1 of sour orange fruit extract. In general, results show that sour orange fruit extract and sucrose in low concentrations can be used as healthy, cheap and easy access compounds in vase solution of cut flower of Narcissus.
Macroeconomic Fluctuations in a Stylized DSGE Model with Disequilibrium Dynamics

This study develops a stylised DSGE model, that departs in one aspect: it replaces the general equilibrium approach by disequilibrium economics. In this way, richer macroeconomic adjustment dynamics result, as it is not necessary to assume that goods and labour markets continuously clear. The disequilibrium dynamics – in the form of regime-dependent output and employment fluctuations, wage and price adjustments-complicate (viz. enrich) the decision making problems faced by the fiscal and monetary policymakers. In particular the possibility of (multiple) regime switches implies the need for deeper analysis and monitoring of the disequilibrium mechanisms when designing and implementing monetary and fiscal policies.
Continuous Modeling of Foreign Exchange Rate of USD versus TRY

This study aims to construct continuous-time autoregressive (CAR) model and continuous-time GARCH (COGARCH) model from discrete time data of foreign exchange rate of United States Dollar (USD) versus Turkish Lira (TRY). These processes are solutions to stochastic differential equation Levy-driven processes. We have shown that CAR(1) and COGARCH(1,1) processes are proper models to represent foreign exchange rate of USD and TRY for different periods of time February 2002- June 2010
Duration and Order Type Clusters When Traders React and on which Market Side

This paper introduces a new bivariate autoregressive conditional framework (ACD×ACL) for modelling the arrival process of buy and sell orders in a limit order book. The model contains two dynamic components to describe the observed clustering of durations and order types: a duration process to capture the time structure, combined with a new “Autoregressive Conditional Logit” model in order to display the traders’ order choice. Both processes are adapted to a common natural filtration and modelled simultaneously. It can be shown that the state of the order book as well as the success and the speed of the matching process have a significant influence on the traders’ decisions when and on which side of the market to submit orders and, thus, affect the market’s liquidity.
Intimate Partner Violence in Belgium: Prevalence, Individual Health Outcomes, and Relational Correlates

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) using national samples is important to guide prevention efforts. However, the latest prevalence estimates for Belgium date from more than ten years ago. Therefore, this study used population-based cross-sectional data (N = 1,472) to assess to what extent adult women and men in Belgium experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence from their current partner in the last year. Next to assessing the association with individual health correlates, we explored the association between IPV and relationship quality. The annual prevalence of physical IPV in a current relationship was 1.3%. Only women experienced sexual IPV (0.3%). Fourteen percent of the respondents reported psychological violence and no differences were noted between women and men. Victims of psychological IPV reported adverse mental health outcomes and the effect was stronger for women than for men. Additionally, psychological victimization was associated with a diminished level of relationship quality, but no gender differences were noted.
In search of services in the market place. A probability of presence approach for retail services in Sweden

This paper examines the probability of finding a number retail services in Swedish municipalities with respect to theirmarket potential. In particular, the authors investigate how different degrees of market potential affects the presence ofcertain retail activities in central and non-central municipalities in Sweden. Using a probabilistic approach, the resultssuggest that, for both central and non-central municipalities, the probability of finding certain retail services dependsheavily on the market potential within the municipality. The size of the external market is determined to have a varyingimpact depending both on the size of the market place, and the type of the retail branch investigated.
Happiness in High School Students: Autonomy, Relatedness, Competence and Meaning in Life.

The present study examines the roles of the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and meaning in life (MIL) on high school students’ happiness. In the study, the basic psychological needs scale, MIL questionnaire, the positive and negative affect schedule and the satisfaction with life scale were used as instruments. Happiness or subjective well-being (SWB) contains three components: life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. The data were analysed through the Pearson productmoment correlation coefficient technique and multiple linear regression analysis. According to results, autonomy, competence, relatedness and MIL predict SWB significantly. These three variables explain 56% of the total variance. SWB is explained by relatedness, autonomy and competence for females, respectively, and for males competence, MIL and relatedness, respectively. The results were further examined in light of recent research and implications for counselling and school with high school students subjects are discussed.