Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Habitat Characteristics to Predict Faunal Diversity in Tropical Production Forests

Biodiversity conservation in managed tropical forests is becoming increasingly important as forest area continues to decline. Accordingly, there is growing interest in developing conservation‐driven silvicultural prescriptions and identifying indicator habitat metrics (similar to indicator taxa) that could be easily assessed via routine vegetation sampling. Successfully achieving these goals, however, requires an understanding of how habitat characteristics affect biodiversity. The purpose of this study was to determine the associations between the species diversity of three taxa (ants, insectivorous bats, and dung beetles) and the habitat characteristics of hill dipterocarp production forests. We sampled both within (three samples) and adjacent to (six samples) six Virgin Jungle Reserves distributed throughout Peninsular Malaysia, and related habitat predictors to univariate diversity metrics (species richness and Shannon diversity) as well as multivariate compositional metrics. We found that influential predictors and directional effects differed across taxa. Ant diversity was most affected by stand density and canopy cover, and positively associated with both. Bat diversity was most strongly linked to primary forest area, with smaller reserves harboring greater bat diversity. Dung beetles were most affected by canopy cover and elevation, with greater diversity at lower elevation and with less canopy cover. Our multivariate analyses did not reveal any strong relationships between species composition and habitat variables. Overall, our results provide evidence that tropical forest structure is associated with biodiversity, but also suggest that it will be difficult to identify a single silvicultural prescription or landscape management strategy to maximize the diversity of all three taxa simultaneously.
A Perspective on the Use of Modeling Diagrams in Computer Science and Information Systems Curricula

Modeling diagrams are used in Computer Science and Information Systems courses. Different tools are used for different paradigms of system development. The authors share their perspectives in using different modeling tools in systems analysis and design and database courses. They discuss paradigm related issues in programming languages. They suggest using the diagrams from both the paradigms (procedure centric and object oriented) with a view to enhancing the value of the curricula.
An Empirical Investigation into IS Development Practice in New Zealand

A Web-based survey of 106 large New Zealand organisations was undertaken to gain an understanding of their IS development practices. The survey focussed on the contribution of standard methods and user participation to IS development. Among the findings were that 91% of the respondents used a standard method in the development process in at least some projects undertaken in the last three years. All organisations reported using some level of user participation. The majority of organisations agreed that organisational issues had been more important than technical issues in determining the outcome of the IS development in these projects.
Aquatic biomonitoring: Lessons from the past, challenges for the future

This special issue stems from an increasing awareness on the key contribution made by biometrics and biological indices in the quality classification of aquatic ecosystems. This theme has been the subject of passionate debate during the 13th European Ecological Federation (EEF) and 25th Italian Society of Ecology’s (S.It.E.) joined congresses held in Rome in September 2015. In this frame, on the margins of the special symposium named “ Biomonitoring: Lessons from the past, challenges for the future ”, it was launched the idea of a special issue of the Journal of Limnology on the “aquatic” contributions presented at the conference. The present volume mainly reports these studies, enriched by few invited papers. Among the other things, the main message is the need of a better integration between sector knowledges and legislative instruments. This is even truer given the on-going climate change, and the necessity to record rapid changes in ecosystems and to elaborate effective/adaptive responses to them.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DICTOGLOSS STORYTELLING IN IMPROVING 8th GRADE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY

This study investigates the implementation of Dictogloss Storytelling in 8 th grade english classroom. It aims to see its contribution to the improvement of students’ writing performance in writing narrative texts. The study used experimental study as quantitative strand. It involved a class consisting of 19 students as the experimental group. The data were obtained from three meetings of teaching program.Hypothesis testing revealed that the post-test score ( M = 64.00 , SD = 10.41) was significantly higher than pre-test score ( M = 52.95, SD = 8.47), in t (18) = -10.849, p . 25), which indicated that the intervention had a large impact to the students’ score. The extent to which the students had significant improvement in their narrative writing is further explored.
Econometric solutions vs. substantive results: a crucial trade-off in the time-series-cross-section analysis

The increasing and massive use of time-series-cross-section data has given the impression that the classical problems of the quantitative comparative political economy (i.e., small N) have been overcome. Nevertheless, space and time combination in the econometric analysis has involved several new methodological problems. Among these problems, a trade-off between the substantive and the technical specification of the model arises. This is because the solutions found in order to solve econometric problems (error term complications, multicollinearity of data and non-stationarity issue) require a re-specification of the model developed in theoretical terms. In order to spread light on this trade-off, I have examined the nexus between social spending and its principal explanatory factors. Specifically, I have applied four leading specification strategies to a common TSCS cross section data set. The specification strategies I have compared have been developed by Garrett and Mitchell (2001), Huber and Stephens (2001), Kittel et al. (2001; 2002), and Iversen and Cusack (2000).
3‐D multiobservable probabilistic inversion for the compositional and thermal structure of the lithosphere and upper mantle: III. Thermochemical tomography in the Western‐Central U.S.

We apply a novel 3‐D multiobservable probabilistic tomography method that we have recently developed and benchmarked, to directly image the thermochemical structure of the Colorado Plateau and surrounding areas by jointly inverting P wave and S wave teleseismic arrival times, Rayleigh wave dispersion data, Bouguer anomalies, satellite‐derived gravity gradients, geoid height, absolute (local and dynamic) elevation, and surface heat flow data. The temperature and compositional structures recovered by our inversion reveal a high level of correlation between recent basaltic magmatism and zones of high temperature and low Mg# (i.e., refertilized mantle) in the lithosphere, consistent with independent geochemical data. However, the lithospheric mantle is overall characterized by a highly heterogeneous thermochemical structure, with only some features correlating well with either Proterozoic and/or Cenozoic crustal structures. This suggests that most of the present‐day deep lithospheric architecture reflects the superposition of numerous geodynamic events of different scale and nature to those that created major crustal structures. This is consistent with the complex lithosphere‐asthenosphere system that we image, which exhibits a variety of multiscale feedback mechanisms (e.g., small‐scale convection, magmatic intrusion, delamination, etc.) driving surface processes. Our results also suggest that most of the present‐day elevation in the Colorado Plateau and surrounding regions is the result of thermochemical buoyancy sources within the lithosphere, with dynamic effects (from sublithospheric mantle flow) contributing only locally up to ∼15–35%.
The Effect of Lender Identity on a Borrowing Firm's Equity Return

Previous research demonstrates that a firm's common stock price tends to fall when it issues new public securities. By contrast, commercial bank loans elicit significantly positive borrower returns. This article investigates whether the lender's identity influences the market's reaction to a loan announcement. Although the authors find no significant difference between the market's response to bank and nonbank loans, they do find that lenders with a higher credit rating are associated with larger abnormal borrower returns. This evidence complements earlier findings that an auditor's or investment banker's perceived 'quality' signals valuable information about firm value to uninformed market investors. Copyright 1995 by American Finance Association.
Evaluation of antimicrobial and anticancer properties of finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) extracts

Phenolic acids from finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) were isolated as fractions in an organic solvent and their anticancer and antimicrobial properties were evaluated. Antimicrobial properties were studied using Kirby Bauer well diffusion technique and the polyphenols of millet showed antimicrobial activity on Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella dysenteriae, Enterococcus sp. and Salmonella sp. GC-MS analysis was done to confirm the compounds present in the extract. The cytotoxicity assay was done to screen for the anticancer activity against HepG2 hepatic cancer cell lines. Further, in silico studies were performed using AutoDock 4.0 to validate the antimicrobial results obtained. From the observation, it could be inferred that millet polyphenols of millets could be used as a natural source of antimicrobials and antioxidants, especially for minimizing the risk of diseases arising from oxidative deterioration and also cytotoxic effects.
Deep learning approach for breast cancer diagnosis

Breast cancer is one of the leading fatal disease worldwide with high risk control if early discovered. Conventional method for breast screening is x-ray mammography, which is known to be challenging for early detection of cancer lesions. The dense breast structure produced due to the compression process during imaging lead to difficulties to recognize small size abnormalities. Also, inter- and intra-variations of breast tissues lead to significant difficulties to achieve high diagnosis accuracy using hand-crafted features. Deep learning is an emerging machine learning technology that requires a relatively high computation power. Yet, it proved to be very effective in several difficult tasks that requires decision making at the level of human intelligence. In this paper, we develop a new network architecture inspired by the U-net structure that can be used for effective and early detection of breast cancer. Results indicate a high rate of sensitivity and specificity that indicate potential usefulness of the proposed approach in clinical use.
A System for Continuous Underground Site Mapping and Exploration

3D mapping becomes ever more important not only in industrial mobile robotic applications for AGV and production vehicles but also for search and rescue scenarios. In this chapter we report on our work of mapping and exploring underground mines. Our contribution is two-fold: First, we present our custom-built 3D laser range platform SWAP and compare it against an architectural laser scanner. The advantages are that the mapping vehicle can scan in a continuous mode and does not have to do stop-and-go scanning. The second contribution is the mapping tool mapit which supports and automates the registration of large sets of point clouds. The idea behind mapit is to keep the raw point cloud data as a basis for any map generation and only store all operations executed on the point clouds. This way the initial data do not get lost, and improvements on low-level date (e.g. improved transforms through loop closure) will automatically improve the final maps. Finally, we also present methods for visualization and interactive exploration of such maps.
The density and shock characteristics of NGC 2818

We report the results of narrow band imaging of the bipolar outflow source NGC 2818 in transitions of [NII], [OIII], [SII], and HI. As a consequence, we are able to assess the overall excitation properties of the shell, and determine that line ratios towards the nebular periphery are anomalous, and characteristic of planar shocks with velocity km s-1 . Pre-shock densities are likely to be modest, and of order cm-3 . The [SII] imaging is further used to derive a fully-sampled map of electron density, whence it is clear that the density structure is rather complex and related to various features within the excitation maps. Peak values cm-3 occur close to the nucleus, although densities subsequently decline for major axis displacements arcsec. The minor axis distribution, on the other hand, appears to be somewhat more extended and bilobal. It is probable that complexities in the density mapping reflect the presence of condensations and filaments within the primary shell structure, and that these are also responsible for apparent variations in density as a function of forbidden and permitted line transition.
An eddy‐permitting coupled physical‐biological model of the North Atlantic: 1. Sensitivity to advection numerics and mixed layer physics

Physical influences on biological primary production in the North Atlantic are investigated by coupling a four‐component pelagic ecosystem model with a high‐resolution numerical circulation model. A series of sensitivity experiments demonstrates the important role of an accurate formulation of upper ocean turbulence and advection numerics. The unrealistically large diffusivity implicit in upstream advection approximately doubles primary production when compared with a less diffusive, higher‐order, positive‐definite advection scheme.This is of particular concern in the equatorial upwelling region where upstream advection leads to a considerable increase of upper ocean nitrate concentrations. Counteracting this effect of unrealistically large implicit diffusion by changes in the biological model could easily lead to misconceptions in the interpretation of ecosystem dynamics. Subgrid‐scale diapycnal diffusion strongly controls biological production in the subtropical gyre where winter mixing does not reach the nutricline. The parameterization of vertical viscosity is important mainly in the equatorial region where friction becomes an important agent in the momentum balance.
BETA: bandwidth-efficient temporal adaptation for video streaming over reliable transports

To cope with diverse network conditions, HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) enables video players to dynamically change the video quality throughout the video stream. However, effective adaptation that minimizes stalls and start-up time while maximizing quality and stability remains elusive, especially when available bandwidth is variable or multiple players compete for the bottleneck capacity. Conventional approach to adaptation is to make a decision on the next video segment quality based on hysteresis of prior throughput measurements. This approach is not robust to bandwidth fluctuation at small time scales, which can consequently lead to stalls, bandwidth waste, and unstable quality, mainly due to the inability to mitigate significant bandwidth reduction during the segment download. We propose BETA- Bandwidth-Efficient Temporal Adaptation, an agile approach that allows HAS players to refine the quality level within video segments on the fly, according to the actual bandwidth conditions experienced while downloading each segment. We define a new HAS-oriented transmission order of video frames within segments that facilitates decodability of partial frames and paves the way for changing the paradigm from discrete to continuous bitrate ladders for HAS. BETA can work with any adaptation algorithm or HAS player to significantly improve robustness and efficiency in dynamic network environments and for low-latency streams, as well as to dramatically reduce content storage and encoding infrastructure requirements. Our evaluation using the real player implementation shows that BETA improves video quality by up to 20%, reduces number of stalls by 20%-100% in nearly 80% of cases, and cuts down wasted bandwidth by 22%-100%.
Evaluation of anticonvulsant effect of celecoxib, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor in experimentally induced convulsions in albino rats

Background: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) exists as the inducible form of the cyclooxygenase enzyme, the levels of which are elevated in inflammatory conditions. COX-2 is located in regions of brain like hippocampus and cerebral cortex. When induced, COX-2 forms prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), which is responsible for CNS excitation, in turn leading to generation of seizures. COX-2 inhibitors by preventing the formation of PGE2 may serve as effective anticonvulsants. Since none of the anti-epileptics in current use are able to cure the patient of the seizures, a search for newer anti-epileptics is warranted. The present study assesses the anti-seizure activity of celecoxib against experimentally induced convulsions in Albino rats. Methods: Two models of experimentally induced convulsions in Albino rats were used: 1) maximum electroshock seizure (MES) test model and 2) pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) test model. 30 rats were taken for each method and randomly assigned to 5 groups (N=6). 1st group served as control group, which received normal saline intra-peritoneal. 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th groups received celecoxib in doses of 10, 20 and 40 mg respectively through intraperitoneal route. The 5 th group received the standard drugs phenytoin sodium (12.5 mg/kg) and sodium valproate (100 mg/kg) through intraperitoneal route in MES and PTZ models respectively. Results: Celecoxib showed significant anticonvulsant effect with all 3 doses in MES model and with 2 doses (20 and 40 mg/kg) with PTZ model. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that celecoxib has anticonvulsant effect in albino rats.
Mobile Crowdsourcing Technology Acceptance and Use In the Crises Management of Arab Spring Societies

The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework investigating the determinants of mobile crowdsourcing technology acceptance and use in the crises management of Arab Spring societies. To achieve its objectives, this research has extended the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) to study the major determinants of the behavioral intention to accept or adopt crowdsourcing technology. The proposed extended model incorporates five constructs, including performance expectancy, effort expectancy, subjective norms, hedonic motivation, and cultural values.It is highly acknowledged that organizations in the Arab business setting are late adopters of IT applications (Sabri, 2004; Yaseen; 2005; Yaseen; 2008; Sukkar and Hasan; 2005; Abu shanab et al; 2010). Despite the increased usage of mobile and Internet applications, recent studies indicated that Arab people are still reluctant to use and accept Internet applications technology for various economic and cultural reasons (Al Sukkar and Hasan; 2005; Akour et al; 2006). Thus, this research concentrates on providing rich understanding and insight into the influence of the major determinates on the behavioral intention to adopt and use mobile crowdsourcing technology in such cultural environment on Arab World. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) (Venkatesh et al, 2012), the proposed extended model incorporates five constructs: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, subjective norms, hedonic motivation, and cultural values.Recent years have seen and explosion of online social networking as a cyberspace to bring crowdsourcing into a mobile context. Furthermore, advanced social cloud computing and crowdsourcing technologies were utilized in the emergency management. Mobile social networking technology is a powerful platform for leveraging the crowdsourcing in large-scale events or in a crisis management. It provides opportunities for empowering collaborative social concerns. The explosive growth of using social networking in such historical events as Arab spring uprising has provided enabling platform for conducting mobile crowdsourcing in crises management. Despite the increased usage of mobile and Internet applications recent studies indicated that Arab people are still reluctant to use and accept Internet applications technology for various reasons. Thus, the present research has extended the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) to study the major determinants of the behavioral intention to accept or adopt crowdsourcing technology in such cultural environment on Arab World. The proposed extended model incorporated five constructs, including performance expectancy, effort expectancy, subjective norms, hedonic motivation, and cultural values.
Extremal hyperelliptic fibrations on rational surfaces

The Picard number of a rational surface equipped with a relatively minimal fibration is bounded in terms of the genus g of a general fibre. When the Picard number attains the maximum for g ≥ 2, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the Mordell-Weil group of such a fibred surface to be trivial.
PUREDroid: Permission Usage and Risk Estimation for Android Applications

Android applications pose many security risks that affect the security and privacy of their users. Adversaries construct different types' Android applications pose many security risks that affect the security and privacy of their users. Adversaries construct different types of malicious applications and use different social engineering approaches to attract users to download and trust these applications. Malicious applications usually request permissions that are not related to their main functionality in order to access sensitive information or resources. Most of users attempt to grant the requested permissions without understanding the potential harm of those applications and how the requested permissions can be misused to disclose their privacy. Therefore, there is a need for a risk assessment model which can intimate the users about the risk level of permissions requested by an application in order to assist users to make the right decision whether to grant or deny a requested permission. This paper proposes Permission Usage and Risk Estimation for Android (PUREDroid) to measure the security risk of Android applications' permissions and the magnitude of harm resulting from granting extraneous permissions requests. In an evaluation with more than 25000 applications, including 5773 malware applications and 19242 benign applications, we demonstrate the usefulness and the effectiveness of our proposed scoring method.
The study On An Yacht Moorings Establishment Location Analysis Using Optimum Spiral Method

This study is to determine an optimal yacht mooring location candidate among many alternative candidates in order to obtain the maximized efficiency under the natural conditions using integer programming. To deal with marina’s construction location, the optimal construction location is selected using 21 important factors analysis for 4 candidates in the Mokpo city. The development period and the initial investment cost weight are one and half times more than the others among 21 factors. The optimal spiral analysis of weighted linear model shows that the Peace Square sea area is selected as the most optimal place among 4 candidates. This proposed model has not been applied in the optimal marina’s facility candidate selection problem yet. This paper will contribute to determine the most reasonable alternative. Also, this proposal model can be applied to other marina’s facility candidate selection problem in other regions.