Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of dogs for detecting feral cat scats in wheatbelt reserves of Western Australia

Abstract Context. Dogs are increasingly being used in conservation work to collect information on species abundance, distribution, occupancy and other biological measures. Monitoring feral cats through the use of detection dogs could provide a useful technique to complement existing feral cat survey and control methods. Aim. To demonstrate and quantify the ability of trained detection dogs to reliably and efficiently detect feral cat scats when present in woodland conservation reserves in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Methods. Cat scats were randomly placed into 466 1.5 ha (150 m × 100 m) quadrats in Tutanning Nature Reserve, Western Australia, and the location of the scat was recorded. Quadrats were then independently searched by dogs walking a central transect line and the locations of all scats detected were recorded, with the distance from the scat to the transect subsequently being calculated. Data collected allowed the relationship between distance from the transect and detection probability to be used to assist modelling of detection probabilities. Key results. Dogs detected scats in 213 (55%) of 384 quadrats that were searched using a single transect line method. All indications of a find by the detector dogs were associated with a cat scat (no false indications). Detection probabilities for scats declined with distance from the transect line and with an increasing age of the scat. Simulations to investigate management options for cat control programs quantified effort required to detect cat scats under varying densities. Conclusion. Dogs were highly efficient at detecting scats within the woodland environment of the Western Australian wheatbelt. The effort required to detect a scat was considerably higher when cat density was low. Implications. On the basis of the detection probabilities derived from the present study, trained scat-detection dogs can be expected to efficiently search woodlands and find cat scats by using an effective sweep width of 100 m (50 m either side of a transect) when scats are fresh. Sweep widths need to be reduced significantly if it is important to locate scats that have been exposed to the elements for greater periods of time, or to search habitats where terrain and vegetation cover are more challenging.
Leaf Traits of Trees in Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests of Peninsular India

A plant functional trait study was conducted to know the existing relationship between important leaf traits namely, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), and leaf life span (LL) in tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEFs) of Peninsular India. Widely accepted methodologies were employed to record functional traits. The relationships between SLA and LDMC, LDMC and LL, and SLA and LL were measured. Pearson’s coefficient of correlation showed a significant negative relationship between SLA and LDMC, and SLA and LL, whereas a significant positive relationship was prevailed between LDMC and LL. The mean trait values (SLA, LDMC, and LL) of evergreens varied significantly from deciduous species. SLA had a closer relationship with LDMC than LL. Similarly, LL had a closer relationship with SLA than LDMC. Species with evergreen leaf habits dominated forest sites under study. Evergreen species dominate the study area with a high evergreen-deciduous ratio of 5.34:1. The S strategy score of trees indicated a relatively higher biomass allocation to persistent tissues. TDEFs occur in low elevation, semiarid environment, but with the combination of oligotrophic habitat, high temperature and longer dry season these forests were flourishing as a unique evergreen ecosystem in the drier environment. The relationships found between leaf traits were in concurrence with earlier findings. Trees of TDEFs survive on the poor-nutrient habitat with a low SLA, high LDMC, and LL. This study adds baseline data on key leaf traits to plant functional trait database of India.
A Genetic Algorithm with Quantum Random Number Generator for Solving the Pollution-Routing Problem in Sustainable Logistics Management

The increase of greenhouse gases emission, global warming, and even climate change is an ongoing issue. Sustainable logistics and distribution management can help reduce greenhouse gases emission and lighten its influence against our living environment. Quantum computing has become more and more popular in recent years for advancing artificial intelligence into the next generation. Hence, we apply quantum random number generator to provide true random numbers for the genetic algorithm to solve the pollution-routing problems (PRPs) in sustainable logistics management in this paper. The objective of the PRPs is to minimize carbon dioxide emissions, following one of the seventeen sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. We developed a two-phase hybrid model combining a modified k-means algorithm as a clustering method and a genetic algorithm with quantum random number generator as an optimization engine to solve the PRPs aiming to minimize the pollution produced by trucks traveling along delivery routes. We also compared the computation performance with another hybrid model by using a different optimization engine, i.e., the tabu search algorithm. From the experimental results, we found that both hybrid models can provide good solution quality for CO2 emission minimization for 29 PRPs out of a total of 30 instances (30 runs each for all problems).
Impacting 9th Grade Educational Outcomes: Results from a Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial of the BARR Model

Abstract In this paper, we report results from a multisite, student-level randomized controlled trial that examined the impact of the Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model on ninth-grade students. The BARR model is a comprehensive, strength-based approach that uses eight interlocking strategies to build intentional staff-to-staff, staff-to-student, and student-to-student relationships. This student-level RCT included approximately 4,000 ninth-grade students randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions in eleven schools. We examined six constructs of student experience including expectations and rigor, engagement, supportive relationships, social and emotional learning, sense of belonging, and grit; and five measures of academic success including course failure, core credits earned, grade point average, and Northwest Evaluation Association’s (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) English Language Arts and Mathematics test scores. Findings suggest that BARR significantly increased core credits earned and mathematics achievement as measured by the NWEA MAP. Relative to the control group, BARR improved several aspects of student experiences in school, including an increased sense of supportive relationships and teacher expectations and rigor.
Spatial and Long-Term Temporal Changes in Water Quality Dynamics of the Tonle Sap Ecosystem

Tonle Sap lake-river floodplain ecosystem (TSE) is one of the world’s most productive freshwater systems. Changes in hydrology, climate, population density, and land use influence water quality in this system. We investigated long term water quality dynamics (22 years) in space and time and identified potential changes in nutrient limitation based on nutrient ratios of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Water quality was assessed at five sites highlighting the dynamics in wet and dry seasons. Predictors of water quality included watershed land use, climate, population, and water level. Most water quality parameters varied across TSE, except pH and nitrate that remained constant at all sites. In the last decade, there is a change in the chemical nutrient ratio suggesting that nitrogen may be the primary limiting nutrient across the system. Water quality was strongly affected by development in the watershed i.e., flooded forest loss, climatic variation, population growth, and change in water level. Seasonal variations of water quality constituents were driven by precipitation and hydrology, notably the Mekong’s distinct seasonal flood pulse.
Gesture recognition in somatosensory game via Kinect sensor

With the development of computer technology, the means of human‐computer interaction are constantly updated. The development trend is from human to computer to constantly adapt human habits. In the human‐computer interaction, the somatosensory sensor technology is used to track and analyze human actions through computer vision technology. This paper adopts somatosensory sensor to implement gesture recognition, which is an important way in human‐computer interaction. The somatosensory sensor can obtain the depth information and bone information in the human‐computer interaction. First, the gesture is decomposed into a gesture sequence consisting of micro gestures to describe different directions. Then, the gesture sequence is compared with the gesture templates. The gesture is determined by the pattern matching result. The experimental results show that more than 92% gestures can be identified by proposed recognition method.
Advancing Children’s Learning Through Innovations in the Measurement of Literacy Engagement

Children’s engagement is an important construct often reported in early intervention and early childhood special education. However, its utility depends on its definition, measurement, theory of change, and empirical evidence. Our purpose is to discuss innovations in children’s literacy engagement (CLE) and report empirical evidence demonstrating how these advancements can be used to promote children’s learning and school readiness. We discuss five specific innovations: (1) defining CLE as the behavioral target of intentional instruction, (2) directly assessing CLE using the CIRCLE ecobehavioral observation system, (3) including CLE in a larger framework of instructional decision-making, (4) evaluating new CLE-focused instructional interventions, and (5) supporting children who are not responding to instructional intervention. We describe how these innovations help address the questions of under what conditions and for whom preschool instructional interventions are effective. Implications are discussed.
Indian plate structural inheritance in the Himalayan foreland basin, Nepal

The Himalaya, the Earth's largest active orogen, produces a deep but relatively unexplored foreland basin by loading the Indian Plate. Newly available two‐dimensional seismic data (ca. 5,180 line km) spanning 900 km of the Nepali lowlands allow mapping and interpretation of several regional subsurface markers in two‐way‐travel time and estimated depth. Isopach maps for the major intervals allow us to interpret the interplay between basement structure, flexure, and faulting within the Ganga Basin. The Indian continental lithosphere beneath the foreland basin contains basement ridges oriented at high angles to the thrust belt. These basement structural highs and intervening depressions, tens to hundreds of kilometres wide, influenced deposition of the Precambrian Vindhyan strata and overlying Paleozoic to Mesozoic successions. The overlying Miocene to Quaternary foreland basin shows along‐strike thickness variations across the basement features. Because the foreland basin sediments were mainly deposited in an alluvial plain close to sea‐level, accommodation, and therefore thickness, was predominantly controlled by subsidence of the Indian Plate, providing evidence that the basement features controlled foreland basin development. Subsidence varied in time and space during Neogene basin development. When combined with flexural modelling, these observations imply that the subsidence history of the basin was controlled by inherited lateral variations in the flexural rigidity of the Indian Plate, as it was translated northward beneath the Himalayan Orogen. Basement features continue to play a role in higher levels of the thrust belt, showing that basement features in a down‐going plate may produce non‐cylindrical structures throughout orogen development.
Model-Based Design and Sliding Mode Control Approach for Two-Stage Water Pumping System With Reduced Sensors

This article proposes an efficient control scheme for a two-stage water pumping system. The proposed method has three primary objectives. The first objective is to attain the maximum power point (MPP), which realizes using an improved MPP tracking algorithm. The second objective is to regulate the dc-link voltage, which is usually obtained by a PI controller. The PI controller is sensitive to parameter variation making the system unstable during dynamic conditions. Therefore, this article proposes a sliding mode controller (SMC) for dc-link voltage regulation. The proposed SMC also employs a continuous switching function to reduce the chattering issue. The last objective is to estimate the dc-link voltage. It is achieved using a mathematical model-based design approach considering the dynamics of the dc–dc converter. MATLAB Simulink and experimental analysis are used to validate the overall system performance. The proposed method accurately estimates and regulates the dc-link voltage with reduced oscillations under various dynamic conditions. The merit of the proposed system is to eliminate the need for a dc-link voltage sensor and speed encoder. Therefore, the proposed method is economical and efficient for water pumping applications.
Enacting democracy in a de facto state: coca, cocaine and campesino unions in the Chapare, Bolivia

ABSTRACT In Bolivia's Chapare coca growing region, the campesino union is the cornerstone of social and political organisation that governs by a principle of 'leading by obeying'. Yet, under the Morales' government, union leaders disengaged from their bases. As a more top-down approach emerged, union-led action against excess coca cultivation and cocaine production impacted negatively on some peasant households. An ethnographic analysis of popular disaffection challenges normative ideas of ‘authoritarian’ rule. It also contributes to debates on how state-level interventions intersect with the goals of the social movements that put them in power.
Takeover Safety Analysis with Driver Monitoring Systems and Driver–Vehicle Interfaces in Highly Automated Vehicles

According to SAE J3016, autonomous driving can be divided into six levels, and partially automated driving is possible from level three up. A partially or highly automated vehicle can encounter situations involving total system failure. Here, we studied a strategy for safe takeover in such situations. A human-in-the-loop simulator, driver–vehicle interface, and driver monitoring system were developed, and takeover experiments were performed using various driving scenarios and realistic autonomous driving situations. The experiments allowed us to draw the following conclusions. The visual–auditory–haptic complex alarm effectively delivered warnings and had a clear correlation with the user’s subjective preferences. There were scenario types in which the system had to immediately enter minimum risk maneuvers or emergency maneuvers without requesting takeover. Lastly, the risk of accidents can be reduced by the driver monitoring system that prevents the driver from being completely immersed in non-driving-related tasks. We proposed a safe takeover strategy from these results, which provides meaningful guidance for the development of autonomous vehicles. Considering the subjective questionnaire evaluations of users, it is expected to improve the acceptance of autonomous vehicles and increase the adoption of autonomous vehicles.
Water Table Fluctuation and Methane Emission in Pineapples (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.) Cultivated on a Tropical Peatland

Inappropriate drainage and agricultural development on tropical peatland may lead to an increase in methane (CH4) emission, thus expediting the rate of global warming and climate change. It was hypothesized that water table fluctuation affects CH4 emission in pineapple cultivation on tropical peat soils. The objectives of this study were to: (i) quantify CH4 emission from a tropical peat soil cultivated with pineapple and (ii) determine the effects of water table depth on CH4 emission from a peat soil under simulated water table fluctuation. Soil CH4 emissions from an open field pineapple cultivation system and field lysimeters were determined using the closed chamber method. High-density polyethylene field lysimeters were set up to simulate the natural condition of cultivated drained peat soils under different water table fluctuations. The soil CH4 flux was measured at five time intervals to obtain a 24 h CH4 emission in the dry and wet seasons during low- and high-water tables. Soil CH4 emissions from open field pineapple cultivation were significantly lower compared with field lysimeters under simulated water table fluctuation. Soil CH4 emissions throughout the dry and wet seasons irrespective of water table fluctuation were not affected by soil temperature but emissions were influenced by the balance between methanogenic and methanotrophic microorganisms controlling CH4 production and consumption, CH4 transportation through molecular diffusion via peat pore spaces, and non-microbial CH4 production in peat soils. Findings from the study suggest that water table fluctuation at the soil–water interface relatively controls the soil CH4 emission from lysimeters under simulated low- and high-water table fluctuation. The findings of this study provide an understanding of the effects of water table fluctuation on CH4 emission in a tropical peatland cultivated with pineapple.
Frontier Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Research on the Application of Imbibition Techniques in High-Pressure Forced Soaking of Hydraulically Fractured Shale Oil Reservoirs

Shale reservoirs are characterized by low porosity and low permeability, and volume fracturing of horizontal wells is a key technology for the benefits development of shale oil resources. The results from laboratory and field tests show that the backflow rate of fracturing fluid is less than 50%, and the storage amount of fracturing fluid after large-scale hydraulic fracturing is positively correlated with the output of single well. The recovery of crude oil is greatly improved by means of shut-in and imbibition, therefore attracting increasing attention from researchers. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in the migration mechanisms and stimulation mechanisms of horizontal well high pressure forced soaking technology in the reservoirs. However, due to the diversity of shale mineral composition and the complexity of crude oil composition, the stimulation mechanism and effect of this technology are not clear in shale reservoir. Therefore, the mechanism of enhanced oil recovery by imbibition and the movable lower limit of imbibition cannot be characterized quantitatively. It is necessary to solve fragmentation research in the full-period fluid transport mechanisms in the follow-up research.
Design and Testing of a Pneumatic Oscillating Chinese Wolfberry Harvester

A pneumatic oscillating Chinese wolfberry harvester was designed to improve the efficiency of manual harvesting and minimize fruit damage by mechanical harvesting. The shedding model of Chinese wolfberry under pneumatic forces was established based on kinetic analysis, and the flow field characteristics were investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The position and shape of the fan outlet were determined by comparing the effects of a linear reduction outlet and a Laval reduction outlet on the outlet airflow rate. The size of the oscillating mechanism was optimized with nonlinear constraints to achieve uniform oscillation of the airflow. A three-factor, three-level orthogonal test was conducted on the NingQi 7 wolfberry variety. The flow rate at the outlet, the oscillation frequency, and the outlet distance were the test factors, and the net harvesting rate of ripe fruits, the harvesting rate of green fruits, and the damage rate of ripe fruits were the test indices. The results showed that the net harvesting rate of ripe fruits was 85.21% at an outlet distance of 10 cm, an outlet flow rate of 70 m·s−1, and an oscillation frequency of 2 Hz. This study provides references for the design of pneumatic harvesters for Chinese wolfberry.
Elimination du chrome par du charbon actif élaboré et caractérisé à partir de la coque du noyau de Balanites aegyptiaca

Le charbon actif elabore a partir de biomasses lignocellulosiques est une bonne voie de valorisation de dechets, vue ses applications. Ce travail porte sur l’elaboration du charbon actif a partir de Balanites aegyptiaca par activation chimique a l’acide ortho phosphorique, son application pour eliminer le chrome VI en solution. La concentration de l’acide, le temps d’impregnation, la temperature de pyrolyse et le palier d’isotherme ont ete varies. La caracterisation a porte sur la determination des indices d’iode et de bleu de methylene, des fonctions de surface et de pH au point de charge nulle (pH PCN ). Le temps de contact, le pH du milieu, la masse de l’adsorbant et la concentration initiale de la solution ont ete varies pour l’elimination du chrome. Les meilleurs indices d’iode et de bleu de methylene obtenus sont : 989,86 mg/g et 613,17 mg/g respectivement. Les fonctions a la surface des charbons actifs sont de nature acide et leur pH PCN inferieur a 7. Le rendement d’elimination du chrome varie de 81,64% a 98,77% dans les conditions : concentration initiale (70 mg/L), pH = 2, masse (80 mg) et temps (2 h). A titre de comparaison, le charbon actif commercial de marque KGA a donne un taux de rabattement en chrome de 91,49%. © 2017 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Mots cles: Biomasse, activation chimique, charbon actif English Title: Elimination of the chromium by the elaborate activated coal and characterized from the c-ockle of the core of Balanites aegyptiaca English Abstract Activated coal elaborated from biomasses lignocellulosiques is a good way of valorization of garbage, seen his applications. This work is about the development of the activated coal from Balanites aegyptiaca by chemical activation to ortho phosphoric acid, his application to eliminate the chromium VI in solution. The concentration of acid, the time of impregnation, the temperature of pyrolysis and the landing of isotherm have been varied. The characterization was about the determination of iodine index, methylene blue index, functions of surface and pH to point of zero charge (pH PZC ). The time of contact, the pH of the middle, the mass of adsorbent and initial concentration of solution have been varied for the elimination of chromium. The best iodine index and methylene blue index gotten are: 989, 86 mg/g and 613, 17 mg/g respectively. The functions to the surface of activated coals are of acid nature and their pH PZC lower to 7. The chromium elimination output varies from 81, 64% to 98, 77% in the conditions: initial concentration (70 mg/L), pH = 2, mass (80 mg) and time (2 hs). To title of comparison, the commercial activated coal of KGA mark gave a rate of folding in chromium of 91, 49%. © 2017 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Keywords: Biomass, chemical activation, activated coal