Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An inexpensive, 3D‐printable breast muscle meter for field ornithologists

The size of the pectoral muscle is an important component of body condition in birds and has been linked to indices of ﬁtness and migratory performance. Bauchinger et al. (2011. Journal of Ornithology 152: 507 – 514) developed, calibrated, and validated an aluminum “muscle meter” device that estimates the size of pectoral muscles noninvasively. To make this tool more widely available, we created a CAD model from 3D-scan data of the aluminum muscle meter that can be 3D-printed in durable plastic for ~ $30 USD. We tested this device on seven species of songbirds in Jamaica, The Bahamas, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Michigan. We demonstrate that the breast muscle meter measurements are (1) repeatable among users, (2) correlated with a four-category visual breast muscle scoring system, and (3) correlated with scaled mass correlacionadas con un sistema de cuatro categor (cid:1) ıa de puntuaci (cid:1) on visual del m (cid:1) usculo del pecho, y 3) est (cid:1) an correlacionadas con el (cid:1) ındice de masa escalado (un (cid:1) ındice de condici (cid:1) on corporal). Las puntuaciones musculares de nuestro dispositivo superaron a las del sistema tradicional de puntuaci (cid:1) on muscular de cuatro categor (cid:1) ıas para predecir el (cid:1) ındice de masa escalado. Finalmente, nuestros puntajes musculares de los pavitos migratorios ( Setophaga ruticilla ) aumentaron de marzo a mayo mientras se preparaban para la migraci (cid:1) on de primavera. Dada la precisi (cid:1) on del hardware de escaneo 3D utilizado para generar nuestra imagen 3D para imprimir, producimos un medidor de m (cid:1) usculo de pl (cid:1) astico que es tan preciso y (cid:1) util como el aluminio original, pero m (cid:1) as rentable y ampliamente disponible.
Fostering Sustainability Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours through a Tutor-Supported Interdisciplinary Course in Education for Sustainable Development

Extant research into the efficacy of—especially interdisciplinary—higher education for sustainable development (HESD) is limited. A need exists to investigate students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Furthermore, universities have experienced difficulties implementing interdisciplinary HESD because of organisational barriers due to monodisciplinary structures, as well as educators’ and students’ reservations. This study introduces an interdisciplinary approach to HESD and investigates its efficacy regarding students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours at a university in Germany. The approach applies a series of lectures by different sustainability experts accompanied by several tutorials that support students’ interdisciplinary learning and teamwork towards an interdisciplinary sustainability product. Tutors were trained in interdisciplinary teaching methods, as well as interdisciplinary communication and conflict management, beforehand. Before participating in the interdisciplinary course, the students had a moderate level of sustainability knowledge and behaviour, and a high level of sustainability attitudes. The results from the pre–post-test analysis indicate an increase in students’ sustainability knowledge and behaviours, and no change in students’ sustainability attitudes. If typical barriers to interdisciplinarity are mitigated, interdisciplinary HESD can facilitate students’ development.
Synchroniser control with proportional pressure reducing valves and displacement feedback

In order to improve the shift quality of automatic transmission with synchroniser, a synchroniser electrohydraulic control system equipped with the proportional pressure reducing valves is proposed. The principle of the control system is introduced in detail. The PID controller is used to realise closed-loop control of shift displacement to achieve the synchronisation. A numerical model and a test apparatus have built up to validated the control performance. The simulated and measured engagement and disengagement of the synchroniser with the proposed control system are investigated in detail. The results indicate that the shift displacement is controllable by changing the cylinder chamber pressure. The back pressure value is useful for a smooth synchroniser operation. It is determined by the sleeve motion and the throttle parameter. The back pressure affects little on the synchronisation stage during the engagement process. The proposed method can be used for the optimising design of the electrohydraulic system for the synchroniser control.
Relative Speed Tabulation Method for Efficient Treatment of Resonance Scattering in GPU-Based Monte Carlo Neutron Transport Calculation

Abstract A target velocity sampling method named the Relative Speed Tabulation (RST) is proposed for the efficient treatment of resonance elastic scattering in the Monte Carlo simulation utilizing graphics processing units (GPU). The RST method samples the relative speed between a neutron and a target nucleus by employing pretabulated probabilities of relative speeds. The target velocity is then determined from the sampled relative velocity and the neutron speed. The motivation was to avoid the rejection process of the Doppler Broadening Rejection Correction (DBRC) method, which can incur a significant reduction in the parallel performance of vector processors, such as GPUs, due to its largely varying rejection rates. The RST can also overcome the weakness of large variance of the Weight Correction Method (WCM), which would involve drastic changes in neutron weights. The verification results obtained for the Mosteller benchmark problems demonstrate that the RST is equivalent to the DBRC in accuracy, while the calculation speed remains at the same level of the WCM.
Eye-movements can help disentangle mechanisms underlying disfluency

ABSTRACT To reveal the underlying cause of disfluency, several authors related the pattern of disfluencies to difficulties at specific levels of production, using a Network Task. Given that disfluencies are multifactorial, we combined this paradigm with eye-tracking to disentangle disfluency related to word preparation difficulties from others (e.g. stalling strategies). We manipulated lexical and grammatical selection difficulty. In Experiment 1, lines connecting the pictures varied in length, which led participants to use a strategy and inspect other areas than the upcoming picture when pictures were preceded by long lines. Experiment 2 only used short lines. In both experiments, lexical selection difficulty promoted self-corrections, pauses and longer fixation latency prior to naming. Multivariate Pattern Analyses demonstrated that disfluency and eye-movement data patterns can predict lexical selection difficulty. Eye-tracking could provide complementary information about network tasks, by disentangling disfluencies related to picture naming from disfluencies related to self-monitoring or stalling strategies.
Nutrient‐use strategy and not competition determines native and invasive species response to changes in soil nutrient availability

Non‐native invasive plants often outcompete native species under high resource availability. Restoration techniques that lower resources may, therefore, create favorable conditions for resource conservative native species over resource exploitative invasive species. Research on this topic has focused on temperate grass and forb‐dominated ecosystems and has rarely been tested for woody species or tropical vegetation. We evaluated growth, resource‐use efficiency (RUE), ecophysiology, and competition (i.e. a relative interaction index based on biomass) of four woody native and two dominant invasive species from Hawaiian wet and dry tropical ecosystems in a greenhouse experiment. Density of plants was constant and species were grown with either a conspecific or the invasive species from that ecosystem type across a gradient of soil nutrient availability. Instantaneous photosynthetic rates varied minimally across nutrient availability. However, both invasive and one native species increased leaf area as nutrients increased, providing more photosynthetic area and increasing total biomass. Nitrogen RUE decreased with increasing nutrient availability for all but one native species, while phosphorus RUE remained constant for all but one native species. Competitive interactions were weak, variable, and not significantly impacted by soil nutrients. Overall, plants categorized as invasive or resource exploitative had larger changes in response variables with increasing soil nutrients compared to those categorized as native or resource conservative. These results suggest that manipulating soil nutrient availability is a potentially viable restoration tool for at least some woody species in tropical ecosystems. However, predicting restoration success requires understanding species‐specific ecophysiological traits determining response to altered environmental conditions.
Acceptance of free-floating car sharing: A decomposed self-efficacy-based value adoption model

ABSTRACT Free-floating car sharing (FFCS) service draws attention and has the potential to improve transportation system efficiency and achieve sustainability. This study proposes a self-efficacy-based value adoption model (SVAM) to investigate consumer adoption intention of FFCS by decomposing the perceived value and the self-efficacy. Specifically, the model examines the functional, economical, emotional, and comparative value of FFCS. Additionally, six-dimensional factors are employed to explore consumers’ self-efficacy in the context of FFCS. A population-based survey was implemented in Chinese major cities to validate the proposed decomposed SVAM. The results indicated that 66% of respondents intended to adopt FFCS, which may be explained by a combination of perceived value and self-efficacy factors. Moreover, the model explained 79% of the variance in perceived value and 77% of the variance in self-efficacy. Finally, practical implications are provided to better understand value propositions and the formation of users’ self-cognition.
Destination Image in the COVID-19 Crisis: How to Mitigate the Effect of Negative Emotions, Developing Tourism Strategies for Ethnocentric and Cosmopolitan Consumers

This paper analyses the role of destination image during the COVID-19 crisis in order to offer practical recom-mendations for destination managers in developing countries. It is argued that the negative emotions triggered during the pandemic will have a direct impact on destination image. Targeting ethnocentric and cosmopolitan consumers is suggested as a potential mitigation strategy, as these consumer’s predispositions might moderate the adverse effect. The paper opts for an argumentation and conceptual model based on a thorough literature review of destination image, negative emotions, consumer ethnocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism. It is argued that the negative emotions triggered by the COVID-19 crisis have a direct influence on destination image. Furthermore, the consumer predispo-sitions of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism moderate the impact of destination image on tour-ism outcomes, such as, intentions to visit and willingness to recommend a destination. Managers must distinguish the affective and cognitive components of destination image in order to identify attributes relevant to the development of tourism strategies. This study provides a theoretical and conceptual foundation for differentiating between the cogni-tive and affective components of destination image, which allows for identifying the impact of negative emotions in a time of crisis. The study further enables managers to develop segmentation strategies based on consumer ethnocen-trism and cosmopolitanism.
Simulation of river flow in Britain under climate change: Baseline performance and future seasonal changes

Climate change is likely to manifest in river flow changes across the globe, which could have wide‐ranging consequences for society and the natural environment. A number of previous studies used the UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) to investigate the potential impacts on river flows in Britain, but these projections were recently updated by the release of UKCP18, thus there is a need to update flow studies. Here, the UKCP18 Regional (12 km) projections are applied using a national‐scale grid‐based hydrological model, to investigate potential future changes in seasonal mean river flows across Great Britain. Analysis of hydrological model performance using baseline climate model data (1980–2010) shows relatively good agreement with use of observation‐based data, particularly after application of a monthly precipitation bias‐correction. Analysis of seasonal mean flow changes for two future time‐slices (2020–2050 and 2050–2080) suggests large decreases in summer flows across the country (median −45% by 2050–2080), but possible increases in winter flows (median 9% by 2050–2080), especially in the north and west. Information on the potential range of flow changes using the latest projections is necessary to develop appropriate adaptation strategies, and comparisons with previous projections can help update existing plans, although such comparisons are often not straightforward.
Phytochemical Studies of Different Fractions of Galega officinalis Extract and Their Effects on Some Biochemical Parameters in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats

Galega officinalis Linn (Goat’s rue) is popularly called sakpani in Hausa speaking part of Nigeria. The Plant belongs to the family Leguminoseae. G. officinalis is chiefly used as an antidiabetic plant because of its ability to reduce blood sugar levels. The plant has positive effect on breast-milk production. Aqueous, methanolic, ethanolic and acetone extracts of the plant Galega officinalis Linn (Leguminoseae) and fractionations of the methanolic extracts were carried out in stages using standard procedures. Alkaloids, glycosides and flavonoids from the methanolic extracts of G. officinalis at 400 mg/kg body weight significantly (p<0.05) reduced the plasma glucose concentration in diabetic treated rats at the 3 and 28 day of treatment when compared to diabetic untreated rats with alkaloids, glycosides and flavonoids producing 81.61%, 27.20% and 21.76% decreases in glucose concentrations. Also alkaloids from the methanolic extracts of G. officinalis improved lipid profile and reverse the adverse effects of induced diabetic on selected marker Original Research Article Luka et al.; EJMP, 19(1): 1-10, 2017; Article no.EJMP. 32145 2 enzymes. Methanolic fractions F1, F2, F3 and F6 produced remarkable effect by decreasing glucose concentration in diabetic treated rats compared to diabetic untreated rats. Methanolic extract of G. officinalis proved to be a rich source of phytochemicals with potent hypoglycaemic and hypolipidemic effects.
APPLYING TREE DIAGRAM PROGRAMS IN TEACHING SYNTAX DURING ONLINE LEARNING

During pandemic, teachers and lecturers were trying to make learning process effective through online platforms and programs. Thanks to the technology that it offers a lot of platforms supporting educators in performing the learning process. Technology also helps in teaching syntax which needs a lot practice including creating tree diagrams of sentences to parse each contituent that requires a platform or program that can lead the students to diagramming. Therefore, this study focused on the effectiveness of applying tree diagram programs in teaching syntax, specifically tree diagrams editor, during online learning. The study used observation and assessment to see whether the use of this program worked to students’ comprehension and motivation. Through lectures, quizzes, and practices, the study found that the use of tree diagram editor was effective to teach syntax during online as it offers practical use, editable sections, and export tool that ease the students to submit their quizzes and examination
The impact of aquifer stratification on saltwater intrusion characteristics. Comprehensive laboratory and numerical study

Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations were utilized in this study to assess the impact of aquifer stratification on saltwater intrusion. Three homogeneous and six layered aquifers were investigated. Image processing algorithms facilitated the precise calculation of saltwater wedge toe length, width of the mixing zone, and angle of intrusion. It was concluded that the length of intrusion in stratified aquifers is predominantly a function of permeability contrast, total aquifer transmissivity and the number of heterogeneous layers, being positively correlated to all three. When a lower permeability layer overlays or underlays more permeable zones its mixing zone widens, while it becomes thinner for the higher permeability strata. The change in the width of the mixing zone (WMZ) is positively correlated to permeability contrast, while it applies to all strata irrespectively of their relative vertical position in the aquifer. Variations in the applied hydraulic head causes the transient widening of WMZ. These peak WMZ values are larger during saltwater retreat and are negatively correlated to the layer's permeability and distance from the aquifer's bottom. Moreover, steeper angles of intrusion are observed in cases where low permeability layers overlay more permeable strata, and milder ones in the inverse aquifer setups. The presence of a low permeability upper layer results in the confinement of the saltwater wedge in the lower part of the stratified aquifer. This occurs until a critical hydraulic head difference is applied to the system. This hydraulic gradient value was found to be a function of layer width and permeability contrast alike.
An in Vitro Method to Assess Oxidative Status of Low-Density Lipoprotein Using Fluorescence-Labeled Heptapeptides

Abstract Oxidized low density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Recently, we identified two fluorescence-labeled heptapeptides, (FITC)KP6 and (FITC)dKP6, that bind specifically to lyso- and oxidized-phosphatidylcholine (LPC and Ox-PC), both of which are generated during LDL oxidation and are known to be major bioactive lipid components of Ox-LDL. Here, we report an in vitro method to assess oxidative status of LDL by specific binding of (FITC)KP6 and (FITC)dKP6 to LPC and ox-PC in Ox-LDL. Briefly, LDL with a candidate was oxidized by copper ions, and the reaction mixture with (FITC)KP6 or (FITC)dKP6 was subjected to non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The gels were visualized and characterized using a luminescent image analyzer. This method may provide important information about the oxidative status of LDL by measuring LPC and Ox-PC generated during LDL oxidation in conjunction with other oxidation assays such as thiobarbituric acid–reactive substances (TBARS) and the production of LDL conjugated dienes and also be useful for searching inhibitors and promoters of atherosclerosis.
Accurate Simulation of Light Propagation in Complex Skin Tissues Using an Improved Tetrahedron-Based Monte Carlo Method

Understanding light transportation in skin tissues can help improve clinical efficacy in the laser treatment of dermatosis, such as port-wine stains (PWS). Patient-specific cross-bridge PWS vessels are structurally complicated and considerably influence laser energy deposition due to shading effects. The shading effect of PWS vessels is investigated using a tetrahedron-based Monte Carlo (MC) method with extended boundary condition (TMCE). In TMCE, body-fitted tetrahedra are generated in different tissues, and the precision of photon–surface interaction can be considerably improved via mesh refinement. Such improvement is difficult to achieve with the widely used voxel-based MC method. To fit the real physical boundary, the extended boundary condition is adapted by extending photon propagation to the semi-infinite tissue layers while restricting the statistics of photon propagation in the computational domain. Results indicate that the shading parameters, such as the cross angle, vessel distance, and geometric shadow (GS), of cross-bridge blood vessel pairs determine the peak characteristics of photon deposition in deep vessels by affecting the relative deposition of collimated and diffused light. Collimated light is shaded, attenuated, and partially transformed into diffused light due to the increase in vessel distance and GS of vessel pairs, resulting in difficulty in treating deep and shallow vessels with one laser pulse. The TMCE method can be used for the individualized and precise forecasting of laser energy deposition based on the morphology and embedding characteristics of vascular lesions.
Tonga Slab Morphology and Stress Variations Controlled by a Relic Slab: Implications for Deep Earthquakes in the Tonga‐Fiji Region

Deep focus earthquakes within the Tonga‐Fiji subduction system account for about two‐thirds of the global total and provide significant constraints on slab deformation. The factors controlling the intense deformation remain unclear. Here, we use two‐dimensional, time‐dependent geodynamic models to study the morphology, stress state, and thermal structure of the Tonga‐Fiji subduction zone. The results, consistent with tomographic images and focal mechanisms, demonstrate that collision between a relic slab from the Vanuatu Trench and the Tonga slab may control the steeper dip of the Tonga slab and earthquakes in the mantle transition zone. We suggest that the magnitude 8.2 and 7.9 earthquakes in 2018 mostly ruptured within the warm rim of the Tonga slab and occurred beneath the folding relic slab with high temperatures of at least ∼900°C and ∼1100°C, respectively. The findings support the hypothesis that local slab temperature likely controls rupture of deep earthquakes.