Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the Influence of Forest Structure on Microsite Habitat Use by Snowshoe Hares

Snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) is an important prey species for many Carnivora and has strong influences on community structure and function in northern forests. An understanding of within-stand (microsite) forest structural characteristics that promote high use by hares is important to provide forest management guidelines. We measured forest structural characteristics at the microsite-scale in north-central Maine and used an information-theoretic modeling approach to infer which characteristics were most strongly associated with use by hares during winter. We measured overwinter hare pellet density to model relationships among microsite-scale vegetation structure and hare use. Overwinter pellet density was positively associated with live stem cover (3 × coniferous saplings + deciduous saplings) and negatively associated with overstory canopy closure; the two variables explained 71% of the variation in microsite use by hares. The highest pellet densities were in grids with canopy closure 22,000 stems/ha. Silvicultural practices that create dense areas of conifer and deciduous saplings should receive high within-stand use by hares in winter. These conditions can be achieved by promoting the release of advanced regeneration and reducing overstory cover to encourage establishment of shade-intolerant species; clearcutting is one such silvicultural prescription to achieve these conditions.
Climatological and radiative properties of midlatitude cirrus clouds derived by automatic evaluation of lidar measurements

Abstract. Cirrus, i.e., high, thin clouds that are fully glaciated, play an important role in the Earth's radiation budget as they interact with both long- and shortwave radiation and affect the water vapor budget of the upper troposphere and stratosphere. Here, we present a climatology of midlatitude cirrus clouds measured with the same type of ground-based lidar at three midlatitude research stations: at the Swiss high alpine Jungfraujoch station (3580 m a.s.l.), in Zurich (Switzerland, 510 m a.s.l.), and in Julich (Germany, 100 m a.s.l.). The analysis is based on 13 000 h of measurements from 2010 to 2014. To automatically evaluate this extensive data set, we have developed the Fast LIdar Cirrus Algorithm (FLICA), which combines a pixel-based cloud-detection scheme with the classic lidar evaluation techniques. We find mean cirrus optical depths of 0.12 on Jungfraujoch and of 0.14 and 0.17 in Zurich and Julich, respectively. Above Jungfraujoch, subvisible cirrus clouds (τ The retrieved optical properties are used as input for a radiative transfer model to estimate the net cloud radiative forcing, CRFNET, for the analyzed cirrus clouds. All cirrus detected here have a positive CRFNET. This confirms that these thin, high cirrus have a warming effect on the Earth's climate, whereas cooling clouds typically have cloud edges too low in altitude to satisfy the FLICA criterion of temperatures below −38 °C. We find CRFNET = 0.9 W m−2 for Jungfraujoch and 1.0 W m−2 (1.7 W m−2) for Zurich (Julich). Further, we calculate that subvisible cirrus (τ
Undergraduate Men's Perceptions of Consent in College Campus Acquaintance Rape

One in five women on college campuses have experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015). About 98% of sexual violence perpetrators are men (Greenfield, 1997). The present study seeks to examine whether a range of individual difference characteristics, including endorsement of masculine gender norms, endorsement of modern myths about sexual assault, and self-reported sexual behavior, predict participants’ evaluations of a hypothetical acquaintance rape scenario. One hundred fifty college men completed a survey consisting of the Male Role Norm Inventory (MRNI), followed by the Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) and the Sexual Experiences Scale (SES). They then read a hypothetical acquaintance rape scenario, and indicated whether the woman provided consent, whether the encounter qualifies as rape, and their attributions of responsibility toward the victim and perpetrator for the encounter. Men who endorsed male role norms and accepted modern myths about rape were more likely to attribute blame to the victim in the acquaintance rape scenario. While men who did not endorse male role norms or accept modern myths about rape were more likely to attribute blame to the perpetrator. Acknowledgements University of Dayton, Honors Department Dario N. Rodriguez Kristen Altenau Keen Justin Keen
An Empirical Study of Auditors Switching , Corporate Governance and Financial Performances of Malaysian Public Listed Companies ( PLCs )

In the past years, regulators and the business communities had expressed worries about the alarming rate at which firms or corporations collapse due to the mismanagement and manipulation of resources as seen in the cases of Enron, WorldCom in the United States of America; and to be specific in Malaysia, the cases of Megan Media Holdings Berhad and Transmile Group. Auditor switching is evident and the disorder of auditor switching often takes place in Malaysia; however, as time goes by, it is decreasing. Thus, this paper seeks to empirically examine the effect of auditor switching and corporate governance on financial performance of Malaysian PLCs. Secondary data on a total number of 100 PLCs from years 2009 to 2013 are used. The results reveal that the effect of auditor switching on performance does not vary with duality role and the board size. However, the independent director does not cause a good firm performance. Nonetheless, auditors do not have a direct effect on financial performance since they are not directly involved with the management of the firms which negates the results of previous study. Therefore, this paper has vital impact in that regulators and the public need to be educated through awareness campaigns to emphasize on the auditors’ roles as agents in understanding the impact of the association between corporate governance and financial performance. Furthermore, auditor switching should embrace not only rotation of audit partners, but rotation of audit firms as well in view that this will help in infusing discipline from the top to the bottom of the audit firms and the companies.
Risk assessment and decision support tools for the integrated evaluation of climate change impacts on coastal zones

Nowadays there is new and stronger evidence that sea level rise, increased storminess and coastal erosion as a consequence of global warming are likely to have profound impacts on coastal communities and ecosystems. Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) is an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate and rank potential impacts, targets and areas at risk from climate change hazards. Within the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC) a RRA methodology was developed to assess impacts of climate change at the regional scale and to assist coastal communities in planning adaptation measures. The proposed methodology integrates the output of downscaled climate, circulation, morphodynamic and biogeochemical models to represent the exposure to climate change hazards (e.g., flooding, erosion, water quality changes) and includes the analysis of site-specific environmental and socio-economic vulnerability of coastal systems to the impact of hazards (e.g., land use, geomorphology, vegetation cover, population density). It is implemented as part of a GIS-based DEcision support SYstem for COastal climate change impact assessment (DESYCO), that will provide information about downscaled climate change scenarios and regional/local vulnerabilities and risks, and will guide decision-makers in planning appropriate adaptation strategies. The main components of the DSS and of the RRA methodology and the preliminary results of their application to the coastal area of the Northern Adriatic Sea (Italy) are here presented and discussed.
Novel basis functions for the partition of unity boundary element method for Helmholtz problems

The BEM is a popular technique for wave scattering problems given its inherent ability to deal with infinite domains. In the last decade, the partition of unity BEM, in which the approximation space is enriched with a linear combination of plane waves, has been developed; this significantly reduces the number of DOFs required per wavelength. It has been shown that the element ends are more susceptible to errors in the approximation than the mid‐element regions. In this paper, the authors propose that this is due to the use of a collocation approach in combination with a reduced order of continuity in the Lagrangian shape function component of the basis functions. It is demonstrated, using numerical examples, that choosing trigonometric shape functions, rather than classical polynomial shape functions (quadratic in this case), provides accuracy benefits. Collocation schemes are investigated; it is found that the somewhat arbitrary choice of collocating at equally spaced points about the surface of a scatterer is better than schemes based on the roots of polynomials or consideration of the Fock domain. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Geologic history of Siletzia, a large igneous province in the Oregon and Washington Coast Range: Correlation to the geomagnetic polarity time scale and implications for a long-lived Yellowstone hotspot

Siletzia is a basaltic Paleocene and Eocene large igneous province in coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Vancouver Island that was accreted to North America in the early Eocene. New U-Pb magmatic, detrital zircon, and 40Ar/39Ar ages constrained by detailed field mapping, global nannoplankton zones, and magnetic polarities allow correlation of the volcanics with the 2012 geologic time scale. The data show that Siletzia was rapidly erupted 56–49 Ma, during the Chron 25–22 plate reorganization in the northeast Pacific basin. Accretion was completed between 51 and 49 Ma in Oregon, based on CP11 (CP—Coccolith Paleogene zone) coccoliths in strata overlying onlapping continental sediments. Magmatism continued in the northern Oregon Coast Range until ca. 46 Ma with the emplacement of a regional sill complex during or shortly after accretion. Isotopic signatures similar to early Columbia River basalts, the great crustal thickness of Siletzia in Oregon, rapid eruption, and timing of accretion are consistent with offshore formation as an oceanic plateau. Approximately 8 m.y. after accretion, margin parallel extension of the forearc, emplacement of regional dike swarms, and renewed magmatism of the Tillamook episode peaked at 41.6 Ma (CP zone 14a; Chron 19r). We examine the origin of Siletzia and consider the possible role of a long-lived Yellowstone hotspot using the reconstruction in GPlates, an open source plate model. In most hotspot reference frames, the Yellowstone hotspot (YHS) is on or near an inferred northeast-striking Kula-Farallon and/or Resurrection-Farallon ridge between 60 and 50 Ma. In this configuration, the YHS could have provided a 56–49 Ma source on the Farallon plate for Siletzia, which accreted to North America by 50 Ma. A sister plateau, the Eocene basalt basement of the Yakutat terrane, now in Alaska, formed contemporaneously on the adjacent Kula (or Resurrection) plate and accreted to coastal British Columbia at about the same time. Following accretion of Siletzia, the leading edge of North America overrode the YHS ca. 42 Ma. The voluminous high-Ti basaltic to alkalic magmatism of the 42–35 Ma Tillamook episode and extension in the forearc may be related to the encounter with an active YHS. Clockwise rotation of western Oregon about a pole in the backarc has since moved the Tillamook center and underlying Siletzia northward ∼250 km from the probable hotspot track on North America. In the reference frames we examined, the YHS arrives in the backarc ∼5 m.y. too early to match the 17 Ma magmatic flare-up commonly attributed to the YHS. We suggest that interaction with the subducting slab may have delayed arrival of the plume beneath the backarc.
Genetic diversity of Neolamarckia cadamba using dominant DNA markers based on inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) in Sarawak

Neolamarckia cadamba or commonly known as kelampayan has been selected as one of the important plantation tree species in Malaysia. Thus, the molecular characterization of this indigenous tropical tree species is needed to maintain its high quality. Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers were used in this study to determine the genetic diversity and relatedness of N. cadamba in two planted forests and six natural forests in Sarawak. Three ISSR primers had generated atotal of 239 loci, of which 32.6% - 59.4% of the loci were polymorphic among236N. cadamba treesin eight populations. The mean Shannon’s diversity index (I)ranged from 0.1399 to 0.2354. The coefficient of population differentiation was low for planted forests (Gst = 0.0871) and natural forests (Gst = 0.2013`). Both UPGMA dendrogram and NJ-tree generated by ISSR markers had divided natural forests and planted forests into two distinct clusters. Natural forests were grouped in one cluster while planted forests were grouped in another cluster. This study shows that N. cadamba trees are closely related within its own population and its designated forest type. In future, several specific loci can be sequenced and developed into SCAR (sequence characterized amplification region) markers for tree improvement and conservation programme of N. cadamba.
Discovery and Equilibrium in Games with Unawareness

Equilibrium notions for games with unawareness in the literature cannot be interpreted as steady-states of a learning process because players may discover novel actions during play. In this sense, many games with unawareness are ``self-destroying'' as a player's representation of the game may change after playing it once. We define discovery processes where at each state there is an extensive-form game with unawareness that together with the players' play determines the transition to possibly another extensive-form game with unawareness in which players are now aware of actions that they have discovered. A discovery process is rationalizable if players play extensive-form rationalizable strategies in each game with unawareness. We show that for any game with unawareness there is a rationalizable discovery process that leads to a self-confirming game that possesses a self-confirming equilibrium in extensive-form rationalizable strategies. This notion of equilibrium can be interpreted as steady-state of both a discovery and learning process.
Infants Born to HBV Genotype A-Carrier Mothers have Begun to Appear in Japan

Acute hepatitis by hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype A causes long duration of hepatitis, and the carrier rate after acute infection is approximately 10%. The genotype A hepatitis has become the most common acute infection linked to horizontal transmission among young people in recent years. Increases in HBV genotype A-carrier mothers are expected in the near future in Japan, and prophylaxis against mother-to-child transmission for hepatitis B virus genotype A-carrier mothers will therefore be important in suppressing expansion of this viral infection. This report describes that infants born to HBV genotype A-carrier mothers have begun to appear in Japan and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) was performed by administration of immunoglobulin derived from genotype A virus antigen with subsequent inoculation of vaccine derived from genotype C virus antigen.
Phylogenetic investigation and ITS2 conserved patterns of Quambalaria sp. isolated from stem tissue of Ipomoea carnea

Quambalaria sp. isolated as endophyte from healthy stem tissue of Ipomoea carnea was investigated for phylogenetic affiliations along with Teratosphaerea which are pathogenic to Eucalyptus and other Quambalaria species occurring as endophytes and pathogens. Phylogenetic tree generated by NJ method revealed clustering of Teratosphaerea and Quambalaria into separate clades with well supported bootstraps. The endophytic Quambalaria showed a subclade within the clade of Quambalaria indicating their distinctness. The result agrees with the assumptions that fungi may express different lifestyles in response to host genotypes or environmental factors and express as endophytes or pathogens. Indication of conserved patterns in ITS2 sequences of Quambalaria shows short sequence fragments could be used as primers for PCR based amplifications and as possible markers for identification of this genus.
Analysis of panel data models with grouped observations

We present an iterative estimation procedure to estimate panel data models when some observations are missed or grouped with arbitrary clas- sification intervals. The analysis is carried out from the perspective of panel data models, in which the error terms may follow an arbitrary distribution. We propose an easy-to-implement algorithm to estimate all of the model parameters and the asymptotic stochastic properties of the resulting estimate are investigated as the number of individuals and the number of time periods increase.
Constraining the nature of the most distant gamma-ray burst host galaxies

Aims. Long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) allow us to explore the distant Universe, and are potentially the most effective tracer of the most distant objects. Our current knowledge of the properties of GRB host galaxies at redshifts 5 is very scarce. We propose to improve this situation by obtaining more observations of high-redshift hosts to better understand their properties and help enable us to use GRBs as probes of the high-redshift universe. Methods. We performed very deep photometric observations of three high-redshift GRB host galaxies, GRB 080913 at z = 6.7, GRB 060927 at z = 5.5 and GRB 060522 at z = 5.1. Our FORS2 and HAWK-I observations at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) targeted the rest-frame ultraviolet continuum of these galaxies, allowing us to constrain their star formation rates (SFRs). In addition, we completed deep spectroscopic observations of the GRB 080913 host galaxy with X-Shooter at the VLT to search for Ly-α emission. For the sake of the discussion, we use published results on another high-redshift GRB host, GRB 050904 at z = 6.3. The sample of GRB host galaxies studied in this paper consists of four out of the five spectroscopically confirmed GRBs at z > 5. Results. Despite our presented observations being the deepest ever reported of high-redshift GRB host galaxies, we do not detect any of the hosts, neither in photometry nor in spectroscopy in the case of GRB 080913. These observations indicate that the GRB host galaxies seem to evolve with time and to have lower SFRs at z > 5t han they have atz 1. In addition, the host galaxy of GRB 080913 at z = 6.7 does not show Ly-α emission. Conclusions. While the measured properties of the galaxies in our sample agree with the properties of the general galaxy population at z > 5, our observations are not sufficiently sensitive to allow us to infer further conclusions on whether this specific population is representative of the general one. The characterization of high-redshift GRB host galaxies is a very challenging endeavor requiring a lot of telescope time, but is necessary to improve our understanding of the high-redshift universe using GRB observations.
Employing an intelligence model and sensitivity analysis to investigate some physicochemical properties of coated bell pepper during storage

Summary The objectives of this work were to study the effects of three different coatings (gum Tragacanth, sesame oil and gum Tragacanth–sesame oil), temperature and time on shelf life of bell pepper. Moisture reduction, shrinkage as well as firmness and colour changes were studied during 30 days at 4, 10, 15 and 23 °C. Results of this study showed that bell peppers treated with gum Tragacanth at higher temperatures, such as 10 °C, had good quality up to 30 days of storage. However, sharp changes in physicochemical characters were observed in bell peppers stored at 23 °C. In order to predict moisture reduction, shrinkage, firmness and colour changes genetic algorithm–artificial neural network model was developed. It was found that artificial neural network with eight hidden neurons truly could predict the physicochemical changes of bell pepper during storage (R2 > 0.9598). The results of sensitivity analysis showed that shrinkage percentage and also changes of firmness and colour were very sensitive to storage time, while storage temperature had the most effect on moisture reduction.
A heteroclinic network in mode interaction with symmetry

We study a robust heteroclinic network existing in generic mode interactions of symmetric dynamical systems. Each mode lies in C 3 and is equivariant under the action of D 6 ⋉ T 2 × Z 2. With this symmetry there are eight different types of non-trivial steady states. This work is motivated by Boussinesq convection on a plane layer with periodic boundary conditions on a hexagonal lattice. The mode interaction takes place in a centre eigenspace isomorphic to C 6 when the trivial steady state becomes unstable to two modes of the form of rolls with spatial periods in the ratio. Due to relations between the normal form coefficients, only four types of steady states can be involved in the network. We examine the normal form restricted to R 6, a flow-invariant subspace, then we describe the dynamics near the network and discuss subnetworks and switching near them.
Ranking the Importance of Boards of Directors

We measure the importance (centrality) of boards of directors using the PageRank algorithm from computational graph theory. PageRank is at the heart of the immensely successful Google web search engine and, we argue, can be naturally extended to social network settings. In this view, a board can be represented as part of an affiliation network or, in graph theoretic-terms, an undirected bipartite graph. But PageRank operates on directed graphs, so we develop a procedure to pass from an undirected bipartite graph to appropriately weighted, directed projections. Finally, we present the rankings of publicly traded US and UK firms using this method.