Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ringtail (Bassariscus astutus) Ecology And Behavior In Central New Mexico, USA

ABSTRACT. I studied the ecology and behavior of ringtails (Bassariscus astutus) in juniper (Juniperus monosperma) woodland on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. Average home-range sizes of ringtails (males 462 ha, females 94 ha, 95% fixed kernel) were among the largest reported to date. Females moved least in summer and most in autumn, but males showed no seasonal trend in movements. The average stay in a single den was 1.3 days. I found no effect of the closeness of approach of the den observer on the distance moved between successive dens. Ringtails used a variety of den settings: rocks, trees, shrubs, rocks and shrubs, and holes in the ground. Males used trees and rocks more and shrubs less than females. In summer and autumn, ringtails used rocks more and shrubs less than expected, and in winter ringtails used rocks less and shrubs and holes in the ground more than expected. There was no tendency to reuse certain types of dens, and 31.6% of dens were reoccupied at least once. Most ringtails died before the age of 4 due to predation, resulting in an annual survival rate of 0.375. Contrary to the popular conception that ringtails require open, permanent water for survival, 16 of 18 ringtail home ranges had no water source within them, and no ringtail was observed in the vicinity of water. Latrines of ≥2 scats contained 89.4% of scats found. As measured by frequency of occurrence in scats, ringtails consumed primarily fruits, followed by arthropods, mammals, birds, and reptiles, Many arthropod prey were venomous or chemically defended. Average weights were 1.0 kg for males and 0.9 kg for females.
Capnodis tenebrionis (L. 1758) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae): Morphology and Behaviour of the Neonate Larvae, and Soil Humidity Effects on the Egg Eclosion

Abstract Capnodis tenebrionis (L. 1758) is reported for several countries of the Mediterranean subregion as a common phytophagous insect of many cultivated and wild species of trees and shrubs belonging to the family Rosaceae. Infestations on stone-fruit orchards have economic effects and can often cause the death of the plants in consequence of larval tunnelling into the roots. Egg laying occurs in late spring and summer on the trunk base or nearby in the soil. The importance of the neonate larval skills in relation to the biological success of this pest has stimulated its morphological, ecological and ethological studies to better understand the hatching mechanisms and the mortality effects of humidity on the eggs. In the present contribution, the morphology of the first larval instar is described throughout and illustrated, and the morphological details are compared with those of the mature larva. A survey on the hatching mode points out that neonate larvae, wherever eggs are laid, always come into contact with the soil. Finally, hatching rates were determined under laboratory conditions at four soil moisture levels, expressed as percentage of the Field Water Holding Capacity. A comparison was made with respect to a control of dry soil. The results prove that soil humidity significantly affects the egg eclosion, especially at the higher values.
The Local Environmental, Economic and Social Tragedies of International Interventions on Community Based Forest Management for Global Environmental Conservation: A Critical Evaluation

This study reviewed the policies and outcomes of international support for forest management in Nepal and answered whether international support on forest management in developing countries resulted in positive socioeconomic and environmental outcomes at local communities. The evaluation is based on the socio-ecological theory and synergies-tradeoff model of forestry ecosystems goods and services. The study shows that the international interventions influenced national policies and community forestry practices, which contributed to the remarkable increase of forest stock. The new forestry institutions increased timber product supplies to urban users and contributed to offsetting of greenhouse gas emission of affluent societies in overseas. However, the intervention spoiled centuries of old forestry practices, which had contributed to the evolvement of socio-ecological condition, sustained local economy and environment systems. The new forestry institutions and practices locked local opportunities of multipurpose uses of forest, worsened water yield and local knowledge, and hampered local economic activities. Consequently they affected habitat diversities for forest based species, and forest resource supplies for sustaining agrobiodiversities and local food security. In reality the interventions increased benefit to distant users (urban users in the country and affluent societies in overseas) and further marginalized local communities and particularly socially disadvantaged people. The paper shows that the international forestry policies and supports are technically wrong or poorly based on science which is against their promise of providing better technical supports and benefiting local communities in developing countries. It argues that the interventions created many complexities in forestry institutions and practices which require too costly endeavor to change and address the local socioeconomic and environmental problems. The paper has explained the root cause of the international policy problem on many schools of thought.
Quadrotor robust path tracking without velocity measurements using the generalized Super - Twisting control

This paper presents a nonlinear control strategy to solve the path tracking problem for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle under perturbations. This strategy is based on the Generalized Super-Twisting Algorithm (GSTA); it means the second order sliding mode technique, which is able to ensure robustness with respect to modeling errors and bounded external disturbances due to the added extra linear correction terms. The controller goal is to achieve suitable path tracking of desired absolute positions and yaw angle while keeping the stability of the pitch and roll angle, in spite of the presence of disturbances and the handling of all system nonlinearities. In this work, a scenario in which velocities measurements are not available and are estimated by the Generalized Super-Twisting Observer is considered. Finally, the simulation results are also provided in order to illustrate the performances of the proposed controller.
Localized contourlet features in vehicle make and model recognition

Automatic vehicle Make and Model Recognition (MMR) systems provide useful performance enhancements to vehicle recognitions systems that are solely based on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems. Several vehicle MMR systems have been proposed in literature. In parallel to this, the usefulness of multi-resolution based feature analysis techniques leading to efficient object classification algorithms have received close attention from the research community. To this effect, Contourlet transforms that can provide an efficient directional multi-resolution image representation has recently been introduced. Already an attempt has been made in literature to use Curvelet/Contourlet transforms in vehicle MMR. In this paper we propose a novel localized feature detection method in Contourlet transform domain that is capable of increasing the classification rates up to 4%, as compared to the previously proposed Contourlet based vehicle MMR approach in which the features are non-localized and thus results in sub-optimal classification. Further we show that the proposed algorithm can achieve the increased classification accuracy of 96% at significantly lower computational complexity due to the use of Two Dimensional Linear Discriminant Analysis (2DLDA) for dimensionality reduction by preserving the features with high between-class variance and low inter-class variance.
Applying Critical Discourse Analysis in Strategic Management Research

Critical discourse analysis has become an increasingly popular methodology in organization and management studies. In this article, the authors explore the potential for this methodology to be more widely used in strategic management research. They begin by identifying three research approaches that, to a greater or lesser extent, share a concern with the relationship between language and the formulation and implementation of strategy—strategy as a system of shared meaning, strategy as text and talk, and strategy as truth. They then discuss how critical discourse analysis can be used to extend and develop these approaches by exploiting their underlying complementarities. Finally, using the example of a recently completed case study of strategic change in a large banking and financial services institution, they explore the practical implications of applying critical discourse analysis in strategic management research.
Life extension for wind turbine structures and foundations

This paper presents economic life extension scenarios for wind turbines as well as complimentary structural health monitoring of turbine foundations based on an advanced optical sensor network. Demand for this is driven by an ageing asset base and the overall reduction in governmental support towards wind energy in Europe, despite the agreed 2020 and extended 2030 renewable energy targets. Consequently, this paper displays early work on economic evaluation of levelised cost of energy (LCOE) under simple life extension scenarios and concludes that reductions within the order of 5% of LCOE can be achieved by extending a turbine’s lifetime by up to 15 years. At the same time, an ongoing project is presented that aims to apply structural health monitoring to a wind turbine foundation aimed at providing operational load data that can justify or dictate lifetime extension of a wind turbine foundation.
Sowing time and genotypes effects on micronutrient contents of wheat grain

Wheat plays an important role in feeding the world, but climate change threatens its future harvest and nutritional quality. In this study, grain Zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Cupper (Cu) concentrations of 07 wheat genotypes, were analyzed. The objective of study was, to find out the suitable genotypes having higher micronutrient content and yield. The investigation was undertaken in the research field of wheat research unit, Dr. PDKV, Akola (M.S), during the Rabi season of 2014-15 and 2015-16. An experiment laid out in factorial randomized block design replicated thrice. The experiment comprised of two dates of sowing i.e. 17th November and 11th December with 07 wheat genotypes namely AKAW-4627, AKDW-4021, AKAW-3722, AKW-1071, NIDW-295, AKAW-3997 and AKAW-4210-6. Among micronutrient content in harvested seed, genotype AKAW-4210-6 (36.80 mg/kg) recorded significantly maximum zinc content, the overall 13.93 % reduction occurred due to delayed sowing. Iron content significantly decreased under delayed sowing (39.48 mg/kg) as compared to timely sown condition (44.75 mg/kg). The genotype AKAW-4210-6 (52.25 mg/kg) recorded significantly maximum seed iron content. Manganese content significantly decreased due to delayed sowing (17.93 mg/kg) relative to timely sown condition (18.94 mg/kg). The overall 5.34% reduction in manganese content caused due to high temperature stress induced by delayed sowing. Genotype AKAW-4210-6 (21.69 mg/kg) under timely sown condition recorded significantly highest manganese content. The overall 19.12% mean reduction in copper content noticed under late sown condition.The genotype AKAW-4210-6 (4.06 mg/kg) significantly excelled all the genotypes. Among yield traits, reduction caused due to heat stress i.e. test weight (g) (2.70%), Grain yield (g) spike-1 (10.07%) and Grain yield ha-1 (21.12%). Among wheat genotypes AKAW-4210-6 proved superiority in yield i.e. 42.45 and 37.81 qt ha-1 respectively, under normal and heat stress condition.
IAS versus US GAAP: Information Asymmetry-Based Evidence from Germany's New Market

The competition between IAS and US GAAP to become the global accounting standard has created a debate about the relative quality of the two standards. This paper compares IAS and US GAAP in terms of information asymmetry and market liquidity - two key constructs in securities regulation. It uses firms trading in Germany's New Market, which must choose between IAS and US GAAP in preparing their financial statements, but face the same regulatory environment. That is, institutional factors, such as listing requirements, market microstructure and standards enforcement, are held constant in the comparison. The findings do not indicate that US GAAP is of higher quality as frequently claimed. Differences in the bid-ask spread and trading volume between IAS and US GAAP firms are economically and statistically insignificant. Subsequent analyses of the dispersion of analysts' forecasts, IPO underpricing and firms' standard choices corroborate these findings. Thus, at least for New Market firms, IAS and US GAAP appear to be comparable in their ability to reduce information asymmetries. Key Words: International Accounting, Disclosure, Information Asymmetry, Market Liquidity
Trapping of light with angular orbital momentum above the light cone

We consider bound states in the radiation continuum (BSC) above the light cone in an one-dimensional periodic array of dielectric spheres in air. The BSCs are classified by orbital angular momentum m, Bloch wave vector β directed along the array, and polarization. The most simple symmetry protected BSCs have m = 0, β = 0 and occur in a wide range of the radius of spheres and dielectric constant. More sophisticated BSCs with m = 0, β = 0 exist only for a selected radius of the spheres at a fixed dielectric constant. We also show the existence of robust Bloch BSCs with β =0, m = 0. The BSCs with m = 0 can be easily detected by the collapse of Fano resonance in scattering of a plane wave. In response to a plane wave with circular polarization the BSCs with m = 0 give rise to Poynting vector spiralling around the array.
Essays on Trade Policy and Education Choice

This thesis is about two major economic topics, trade policy and education choice. The first and the second essay analyze trade policy with special attention to tariff formation in intermediate-good sectors. The first essay explains tariff formation in intermediate-good sectors from a national perspective. I build a political economy model in which lobby groups try to influence the government, which is both concerned about social welfare and collecting contributions from the lobby groups. It turns out that in such a model the equilibrium tariffs on intermediate goods deviate systematically from the tariffs on final goods. The second essay analyzes the tariff formation in intermediate-good sectors from an international perspective. It shows in a strategic trade policy model that the consideration of intermediate goods has a strong effect on the government’s optimal policy towards final goods also. The third essay is about education choice. I introduce social preferences into a simple model of education choice. Social preferences mean that individuals are not only concerned about their material self interest, but also about their relative income in comparison to others. It is shown that the individuals with social preferences take a systematically different education choice than purely self-interested individuals. The results can explain empirical evidence concerning the educational success of students.
Formation Guidance of AUVs Using Decentralized Control Functions

This Chapter describes a system for coordinated and distributed control of formations of autonomous underwater vehicles that uses the paradigm of virtual potentials. Motion control is achieved by solving for angular and linear accelerations the kinematic unicycle model of the local gradient of the global virtual potential field comprised of a sum of influences of obstacles, formation members and global navigation goal or waypoint. Solutions represent the set- points for low-level controllers which it is possible to separately and non-uniformly design on a case-by-case basis for various AUVs that can all collaborate using this strategy. Simulation results for a precise non-linear and cross-coupled dynamic model of a heavy ocean-going vehicle controlled by sliding mode controllers of heading rate and forward speed are presented.
Vertical Response of a Hereditary Deformable System

An investigation of a viscoelastic material damping effect is studied on an example of plenum air-cushion craft model. A numerical investigation was conducted to determine the vertical response characteristic of an open plenum air-cushion structure. The pure vertical motion of an air-cushion structure is investigated using a non-linear mathematical model; this incorporates a simple model to account hereditary deformable characteristic of the material.
Combining Hyperspectral and LiDAR Data for Building Extraction using Machine Learning Technique.

In this study, the fusion of hyperspectral and LiDAR data was used to propose a new method to detect buildings using the machine learning algorithm. The data sets provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) - funded by the Centre for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM)- over the University of Houston campus and the neighbouring urban area, were used. The objectives of this study were: 1) automatic buildings extraction using the hyperspectral and LiDAR fused data (automation), 2) detection of the maximum number of listed buildings in the study area (completeness), and 3) achieving high accuracy in building detection throughout the classification procedure (accuracy and precision). After classification of the buildings, a comparison was made between the results obtained by the proposed method and the reference method in this field (Debes et al., 2014). Our proposed method showed a better accuracy for buildings detection in a much shorter time compared to the reference method. The accuracy of the classification was assessed by four parameters of Precision, Completeness, Overall Accuracy and Kappa Coefficient, and the values of 96%, 100%, 99%, and 0.94 were obtained, respectively.
The Subcellular Location of the Gene 1 Product of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus Is Consistent with a Function Associated with Virus Spread

Summary Using immunogold cytochemistry, plasmodesmata have been identified as subcellular locations of the protein product (P1) of cauliflower mosaic virus gene 1 in infected turnip tissue. Thin sections, from tissue adjacent to chlorotic local lesions on systemically infected fully expanded leaves, were probed with antiserum to a protein product derived from a lacZ-gene 1 fusion, and with control sera. Modified plasmodesmata between infected mesophyll cells, and plasmodesmata in the end walls of phloem parenchyma cells were specifically labelled with anti-P1 serum. In the former case, the position of the label suggested that P1 was extracellular and had formed a structural component of the modified plasmodesmata. Cell walls at the corners of cells in both healthy and infected tissue were also labelled. Anti-P1 serum also reacted with nuclei and the leaf cuticle, in both healthy and infected tissue. These observations provide strong circumstantial evidence that P1 is involved in the cell-to-cell movement of cauliflower mosaic virus.
An interferometric theory of source-receiver scattering and imaging

It is known that there is a link between the theory of seismic interferometry and theories of seismic imaging and inversion. However, although this has been discussed in several studies, there are few where any explicit links have been derived. We use reciprocity theorems for scattering media to derive a new form of seismic interferometry that describes the scattered wavefield between a source and a receiver in an acoustic medium, using both sources and receivers on two enclosing boundaries. This form of seismic interferometry is equivalent to a generalized imaging condition (IC) that combines the full wavefield inside any finite-sized subregion of the medium of interest. By using the Born (single-scattering) approximation, this generalized IC reduces to the method of imaging by double-focusing originally derived by Michael Oristaglio in 1989. Thus an explicit link is made between seismic interferometry, new generalized full-wavefield ICs, and existing single-scattering imaging methods.
The Chronology of Las Palmas Culture: New Radiocarbon Dates on Non-human Terrestrial Materials from William Massey's Cave Burial Sites

This paper reports on 13 radiocarbon dates from Las Palmas Culture cave burial sites in the Cape region of Baja California Sur, 12 from three caves excavated by William Massey and one from another cave. These dates are on terrestrial materials associated with bundle burials as wrappings and grave goods. Dates on some human and possibly marine feeding bird samples are excluded from this analysis because of uncertainties regarding marine reservoir effects on the dating of materials containing carbon of marine origin. We plan to include such dates in a future study of reservoir effects. Statistical analysis of the uncalibrated dates reported here defines two statistical groupings and one outlier. The calibrated 2-sigma age ranges for the two groups together suggest a time span for the Las Palmas Culture burial pattern from about A.D. 1200 or older to about A.D. 1700. Two dates possibly extend into the Jesuit period, beginning in A.D. 1720, although the probabilities for these intercepts are low, which is consistent with the lack of mention of the Las Palmas funerary complex in Jesuit records.
Seedling survival in a northern temperate forest understory is increased by elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and atmospheric nitrogen deposition

We tested the main and interactive effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), nitrogen (N), and light availability on leaf photosynthesis, and plant growth and survival in understory seedlings grown in an N‐limited northern hardwood forest. For two growing seasons, we exposed six species of tree seedlings (Betula papyrifera, Populus tremuloides, Acer saccharum, Fagus grandifolia, Pinus strobus, and Prunus serotina) to a factorial combination of atmospheric CO2 (ambient, and elevated CO2 at 658 μmol CO2 mol−1) and N deposition (ambient and ambient +30 kg N ha−1 yr−1) in open‐top chambers placed in an understory light gradient. Elevated CO2 exposure significantly increased apparent quantum efficiency of electron transport by 41% (P<0.0001), light‐limited photosynthesis by 47% (P<0.0001), and light‐saturated photosynthesis by 60% (P<0.003) compared with seedlings grown in ambient [CO2]. Experimental N deposition significantly increased light‐limited photosynthesis as light availability increased (P<0.037). Species differed in the magnitude of light‐saturated photosynthetic response to elevated N and light treatments (P<0.016). Elevated CO2 exposure and high N availability did not affect seedling growth; however, growth increased slightly with light availability (R2=0.26, P<0.0001). Experimental N deposition significantly increased average survival of all species by 48% (P<0.012). However, seedling survival was greatest (85%) under conditions of both high [CO2] and N deposition (P<0.009). Path analysis determined that the greatest predictor for seedling survival in the understory was total biomass (R2=0.39, P<0.001), and that carboxylation capacity (Vcmax) was a better predictor for seedling growth and survival than maximum photosynthetic rate (Amax). Our results suggest that increasing [CO2] and N deposition from fossil fuel combustion could alter understory tree species recruitment dynamics through changes in seedling survival, and this has the potential to alter future forest species composition.