Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Camera traps as sensor networks for monitoring animal communities

Studying animal movement and distribution is of critical importance to addressing environmental challenges including invasive species, infectious diseases, climate and land-use change. Motion sensitive camera traps offer a visual sensor to record the presence of a species at a location, recording their movement in the Eulerian sense. Modern digital camera traps that record video present new analytical opportunities, but also new data management challenges. This paper describes our experience with a year-long terrestrial animal monitoring system at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The data gathered from our camera network shows the spatio-temporal dynamics of terrestrial bird and mammal activity at the site - data relevant to immediate science questions, and long-term conservation issues. We believe that the experience gained and lessons learned during our year long deployment and testing of the camera traps are applicable to broader sensor network applications and are valuable for the advancement of the sensor network research. We suggest that the continued development of these hardware, software, and analytical tools, in concert, offer an exciting sensor-network solution to monitoring of animal populations which could realistically scale over larger areas and time spans.
Stratégies d’exploration dans la recherche d’information : effet de la motivation sur l’attention

L’objectif de ce travail de these est de voir dans quelle mesure la motivation participe a l’engagement des processus attentionnels pour la selection et le traitement des informations lors d’une activite de recherche visuelle. Lorsque la recherche visuelle est orientee par un but (comme une consigne) le comportement visuel d’exploration est modifie (selection et traitement des informations). La recherche d’information suppose egalement un engagement de l’individu pour atteindre le but fixe en mettant en place des comportements adaptes. Cet engagement traduit une motivation qui est ici apprehendee au travers de la theorie de l’assignation d’objectif (Locke & Latham, 1990, 2002; Latham & Locke, 2007). Une tâche de recherche visuelle d’une cible specifique, nommee par sa categorie sur-ordonnee parmi des distracteurs de categorie semantique differente, associee a une consigne specifique (de vitesse, de precision ou de faire de son mieux) ont ete utilisees pour repondre aux objectifs de recherche. Les objectifs des travaux presentes ici etaient de (1) rendre compte de l’effet de l’assignation d’objectif sur le comportement de recherche, (2) etudier la relation entre l’objectif assigne et la specificite de la tâche et (3) observer l’effet du contexte semantique sur l’assignation d’objectif. Les trois experiences menees ont permis de mettre en evidence une relation entre la motivation et l’attention sur le comportement visuel de recherche. Ce travail de these ouvre sur des perspectives de recherche dans des situations plus ecologiques comme les sites web ou les jeux video.
Country-level correlates of educational achievement: evidence from large-scale surveys

ABSTRACT Linking country-level educational achievement with other country-level indicators has the potential to drive systemic educational changes, as these correlates may reflect characteristics relevant for policy-making decisions to improve educational effectiveness. This study establishes a nomological network of educational achievement at the country level, with clusters of country variables derived from psychological, sociological, and other country-comparative research. Country educational achievements were compiled from all cycles of the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for Grade 8 and Grade 4 students. These scores were found to be correlated with (a) affluence and educational investment indicators (positive); (b) intelligence (positive); (c) religious diversity (positive); (d) values pertaining to long-term orientation (positive), autonomy (positive), uncertainty avoidance (negative), and embeddedness (negative); and (e) aggregated scores of conscientiousness, openness, self-esteem, and teacher self-reports of job satisfaction and efficacy (negative). Policy implications are discussed.
The Role of Regulatory T Cells and TH17 Cells in Multiple Myeloma

The development of multiple myeloma (MM) involves a series of genetic alterations and changes in the bone marrow microenvironment, favoring the growth of the tumor and failure of local immune control. Quantitative and functional alterations in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells have been described in MM. The balance between T regulatory cells (Treg) and T helper (Th) 17 cells represents one essential prerequisite for maintaining anti-tumor immunity in MM. Tregs play an important role in the preservation of self-tolerance and modulation of overall immune responses against infections and tumor cells. In MM patients, Tregs seem to contribute to myeloma-related immune dysfunction and targeting them could, therefore, help to restore and enhance vital immune responses. Th17 cells protect against fungal and parasitic infections and participate in inflammatory reactions and autoimmunity. The interplay of TGF-β and IL-6, expressed at high levels in the bone marrow of myeloma patients, may affect generation of Th17 cells both directly or via other pro-inflammatory cytokines and thereby modulate antitumor immune responses. A detailed analysis of the balance between Tregs and Th17 cells seems necessary in order to design more effective and less toxic modes of immunotherapy myeloma which still is an uncurable malignancy.
Radio Signatures of H I at High Redshift: Mapping the End of the “Dark Ages”

The emission of 21 cm radiation from a neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshift is discussed in connection with the thermal and ionization history of the universe. The physical mechanisms that make such radiation detectable against the cosmic microwave background include Lyα coupling of the hydrogen spin temperature to the kinetic temperature of the gas and preheating of the IGM by the first generation of stars and quasars. Three different signatures are investigated in detail: (a) the fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm emission induced by the gas density inhomogeneities that develop at early times in cold dark matter (CDM) dominated cosmologies, (b) the sharp absorption feature in the radio sky due to the rapid rise of the Lyα continuum background that marks the birth of the first UV sources in the universe, and (c) the 21 cm emission and absorption shells that are generated on several Mpc scales around the first bright quasars. Future radio observations with projected facilities like the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and the Square Kilometer Array may shed light on the power spectrum of density fluctuations at z > 5 and map the end of the "dark ages," i.e., the transition from the postrecombination universe to one populated with radiation sources.
Inter Organizational Evaluation of SISP; What New Criteria Are Needed?

During the three decades of research and practice, the image of Strategic Information Systems Planning has changed considerably. Flexibility, creativity, strategic thinking, and sharing of knowledge are seen as the new ways to both formulate and realize strategy. IT governance has provided a more flexible concept to discuss managerial efforts to align IT with business. But maybe the most important change has been left unattended, that is the introduction of information strategy in networks. Still, many organizations continue to use planning as a way to support their decisionmaking internally without co-operating with their business partners. Also the view of evaluating SISP effectiveness has matured. A recent research concluded six dimensions for evaluating the planning process and four criteria for evaluating its effectiveness. These studies are mainly quantitative and this paper qualitatively validates the same dimensions in a case study. Two inter organizational studies from literature add five new factors: competitive pressure, trading partner readiness, contractual level, financial agreements and certainty of implementation. This study used the internal dimensions and criteria as basis for conducting a qualitative evaluation of SISP in two case studies, one single organization case and one inter organizational case. The results of the first case confirm that these criteria provide a good basis for overall evaluation of SISP internally. In addition to the internal theory based evaluation, also an interorganizational exploration was done to explore the differences and the new evaluation criteria needed. The result is a conceptual interview framework to be tested in practice.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Synoviocytes Regulation of DNA Methylation in

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inﬂammatory disease in which ﬁbroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) exhibit an aggressive phenotype. Although the mechanisms responsible are not well deﬁned, epigenetic determinants such as DNA methylation might contribute. DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) are critical enzymes that establish and maintain DNA methylation. We evaluated whether proinﬂammatory cytokines might contribute to differential DNA methylation previously described in RA FLS through altered DNMT expression. FLS were obtained from RA and osteoarthritis (OA) synovium at the time of total joint replacement. Gene expression was determined by quantitative real-time PCR and protein expression by Western blot analysis. DNMT activity was measured with a functional assay, and global methylation was determined by an immunoassay that detects methylcytosine. Resting expression of DNMT1, -3a, and -3b mRNA were similar in RA and OA FLS. Western blot showed abundant DNMT1 and DNMT3a protein. Exposure to IL-1 decreased DNMT1 and DNMT3a mRNA expression in FLS. Dose responses demonstrated decreased DNMT expression at concentrations as low as 1 pg/ml of IL-1. DNMT mRNA levels decreased rapidly, with signiﬁcant suppression after 2–8 h of IL-1 stimulation. IL-1 stimulation of OA FLS did not affect methylation of LINE1 sites but led to demethylation of a CHI3L1 locus that is hypomethylated in RA FLS. Chronic IL-1 stimulation also mimicked the effect of a DNMT inhibitor on FLS gene expression. Exposure to proinﬂammatory mediators reversibly alters DNA methylation in FLS by decreasing DNMT expression and function. These data suggest that IL-1 can potentially imprint cells in chronic inﬂammatory diseases. The Journal of Immunology , 2013, 190: 000–000.
GPS-Based Daily Context Recognition for Lifelog Generation Using Smartphone

Mobile devices are becoming increasingly more sophisticated with their many diverse and powerful sensors, such as GPS, acceleration, and gyroscope sensors. They provide numerous services for supporting daily human life and are now being studied as a tool to reduce the worldwide increase of lifestyle-related diseases. This paper describes a method for recognizing the contexts of daily human life by recording a lifelog based on a person’s location. The proposed method can distinguish and recognize several contexts at the same location by extracting features from the GPS data transmitted from smartphones. The GPS data are then used to generate classification models by machine learning. Five classification models were generated: a mobile or stationary recognition model, a transportation recognition model, and three daily context recognition models. In addition, optimal learning algorithms for machine learning were determined. The experimental results show that this method is highly accurate. As examples, the F-measure of the daily context recognition was approximately 0.954 overall at a tavern and approximately 0.920 overall at a university .
Domain decomposition method with wavelet collocation

A new domain decomposition method based on wavelet collocation is developed in this paper. The method slows down the ill-conditioned problem caused by much larger condition number of the coefficient matrix when wavelet collocation is used for solving partial differential equations defined large-scale regions. Moreover, the method is applied to elliptic equations to examine its appropriateness.
Locomotion studies and modeling of the long-tailed lizard Takydromus sexlineatus

Morphology is an important factor in locomotion. It may guide the control strategies that an animal or a robot uses for efficient locomotion. In this paper we try to understand the locomotion strategies of a lizard with a distinctive feature, the long-tailed lizard Takydromus sexlineatus. We recorded the performance of real animals in terms of forward speed and then developed a simulation model respecting the morphometric characteristics of long-tailed lizards. We then run systematic tests altering several control parameters of the model. The simulation experiments suggested possible control strategies for effective locomotion given this type of morphology. The experiments were not constrained or guided by any prior knowledge on specific animal angular kinematics. Therefore, the good match between the suggested kinematics for optimal speed and the kinematics of the real animal suggests that our framework is capable of exploring in the future the effects of morphosis on the locomotion strategies of animals, e.g. to perform the same study with shorter or no tail.
Weighted Impact Factor (WIF) for assessing the quality of scientific journals

Nowadays impact factor is the significant indicator for journal evaluation. In impact factor calculation is used number of all citations to journal, regardless of the prestige of cited journals, however, scientific units (paper, researcher, journal or scientific organization) cited by journals with high impact factor or researchers with high Hirsch index are more important than objects cited by journals without impact factor or unknown researcher. In this paper was offered weighted impact factor for getting more accurate rankings for journals, which consider not only quantity of citations, but also quality of citing journals. Correlation coefficients among different indicators for journal evaluation: impact factors by Thomson Scientific, weighted impact factors offered by different researchers, average and medians of all citing journals impact factors and 5-year impact factors were analysed.
Graph Pattern Matching: A Join/Semijoin Approach

Due to rapid growth of the Internet and new scientific/technological advances, there exist many new applications that model data as graphs, because graphs have sufficient expressiveness to model complicated structures. The dominance of graphs in real-world applications demands new graph processing techniques to access large data graphs effectively and efficiently. In this paper, we study a graph pattern matching problem, which is to find all patterns in a large data graph that match a user-given graph pattern. We propose new two-step R-join (reachability join) algorithms with a filter step (R-semijoin) and a fetch step (R-join) by utilizing a new cluster-based join index with graph codes in a relational database context. We also propose two optimization approaches to further optimize sequences of R-joins/R-semijoins. The first approach is based on R-join order selection followed by R-semijoin enhancement, and the second approach is to interleave R-joins with R-semijoins. We conducted extensive performance studies, and confirm the efficiency of our proposed new approaches.
Effect of Various Phyto-extracts on Physico-chemical, Colour, and Oxidative Stability of Pork Frankfurters

Lipid oxidation, colour stability and physico-chemical quality of pork frankfurters with the incorporation of 0.30% sea buckthorn (SBT), 0.10% grape seed (GSE), 0.03% green tea (GTE), 0.12% fenugreek seed (FSE) and 0.10% Acacia catechu (ACE) were studied during 20 days of refrigerated aerobic storage. The SBT and ACE were identified as being the most effective antioxidants to retard lipid oxidation with the potency decreasing in the following order: SBT>ACE>GSE>GTE>FSE based on thiobarbituric acid reacting substances, peroxide value and free fatty acids. In all samples pH and aw decreased during storage period. The L* value of treated as well as control samples decreased over time while SBT and ACE exhibited an increased redness producing higher a* values than other treatments. However, GTE was more effective in increasing b* values than other treatments at the end of storage. The results suggest that functional plant-derived extracts can be valuable to the modification of frankfurter formulations for improved oxidative stability as well as quality characteristics.
Physiology of hibernation in Rana pipiens: metabolic rate, critical oxygen tension, and the effects of hypoxia on several plasma variables.

Rates of O(2) consumption (.VO(2)) were determined for adult northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) submerged at 3 degrees C at water PO(2)s (P(w)O(2)) ranging from 0-160 mmHg. The critical O(2) tension (P(c)) was 36.4 mmHg. Hematocrit and blood levels of PO(2), glucose, lactate, pH, [Na(+)], [K(+)], and osmolality were determined for frogs submerged for two days. Above a P(w)O(2) of 50 mmHg, blood PO(2) ranged from 1-7 mmHg, which was sufficient to allow the frogs to function entirely aerobically. Plasma [lactate] increased as P(w)O(2) fell below 50 mmHg, the increase preceding significant changes in any other variable, and apparently preceding a fall in . VO(2). Most other variables showed little or no change from those of air-breathing control animals, even during anoxia. We present an analysis of the importance of a large decrease in P(c) in permitting frogs to successfully overwinter in icebound ponds and of the factors that contribute to that decrease.
Neurochemical measurements in the zebrafish brain

The zebrafish is an ideal model organism for behavioral genetics and neuroscience. The high conservation of genes and neurotransmitter pathways between zebrafish and other vertebrates permits the translation of research between species. Zebrafish behavior can be studied at both larval and adult stages and recent research has begun to establish zebrafish models for human disease. Fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) is an electrochemical technique that permits the detection of neurotransmitter release and reuptake. In this study we have used in vitro FSCV to measure the release of analytes in the adult zebrafish telencephalon. We compare different stimulation methods and present a characterization of neurochemical changes in the wild-type zebrafish brain. This study represents the first FSCV recordings in zebrafish, thus paving the way for neurochemical analysis of the fish brain.
McCallum ’ s Should Central Banks Raise their Inflation Targets ?

McCallum’s answers his question by saying that raising this target is a “sophisticated but predominantly bad idea” and the paper gives eight reasons for this conclusion. The first is that inflation is a particularly distortionary tax. The second is that, with sticky prices, inflation can lead to inefficient changes in relative prices. The third is that, based on the analysis of Schmitt-Grohé and Uribe (2010), even a somewhat negative target inflation rate allows interest rates to be set optimally while avoiding the zero lower bound (ZLB) most of the time. The fourth is that, even when the ZLB is hit, interventions in long term bond markets and foreign exchange markets should be quite helpful in stabilizing output. Fifth, McCallum suggests that an attractive change in institutions, namely the abolition of currency, would allow the central bank to set negative rates and thereby dispense with the ZLB. Sixth, McCallum notes that the admission that raising the average inflation rate would limit ZLB problems would be tantamount to accepting that there is a long run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. McCallum fears that recognizing this would reduce central bank independence and thereby raise inflation too much. Seventh, McCallum notes that an average inflation rate of 4% since 1792 would have resulted in a substantially higher level of prices at present. This echoes one of the arguments against inflation articulated by Summers (1991), namely that high inflation erodes the dollar as a standard of measurement. Lastly, McCallum expresses the fear that inflation would lead the government to engage in additional deficit finance, which he regards with dismay. ∗Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, jrotemberg@hbs.edu. I wish to thank Robin Greenwood for discussions.
Metal trafficking for nitrogen fixation: NifQ donates molybdenum to NifEN/NifH for the biosynthesis of the nitrogenase FeMo-cofactor

The molybdenum nitrogenase, present in a diverse group of bacteria and archea, is the major contributor to biological nitrogen fixation. The nitrogenase active site contains an iron–molybdenum cofactor (FeMo-co) composed of 7Fe, 9S, 1Mo, one unidentified light atom, and homocitrate. The nifQ gene was known to be involved in the incorporation of molybdenum into nitrogenase. Here we show direct biochemical evidence for the role of NifQ in FeMo-co biosynthesis. As-isolated NifQ was found to carry a molybdenum–iron–sulfur cluster that serves as a specific molybdenum donor for FeMo-co biosynthesis. Purified NifQ supported in vitro FeMo-co synthesis in the absence of an additional molybdenum source. The mobilization of molybdenum from NifQ required the simultaneous participation of NifH and NifEN in the in vitro FeMo-co synthesis assay, suggesting that NifQ would be the physiological molybdenum donor to a hypothetical NifEN/NifH complex.
EFFECT OF THE ANKK 1 PROTEIN OVEREXPRESSION IN NEUROBLASTOMA CYTOSKELETON ORGANIZATION

The gene ANKK1 that codes for the Receptor Interacting Protein 5 (RIP5) has been widely associated to cognitive traits, psychiatric disorders and the dopaminergic functioning per se. Besides, there are some evidences that ANKK1 protein participates in neurodevelopment and plasticity in the brain, processes for which cytoskeleton dynamics is crucial. However, the function of ANKK1 is still unknown, and there is a great interest in studying this protein and the signal pathways in which it is involved. Our objective was to study a possible relation between ANKK1 function and cytoskeleton dynamics, specifically the -tubulin post translational modifications (PTMs) that tune microtubule dynamic functions. To this purpose, we investigated the effect of ANKK1-K and ANKK1-FL isoforms overexpression upon microtubules organization in neuroblastoma cell lines. After the overexpression, we found a morphological change in neuroblastoma cells towards a more neuronal-like phenotype, which shifted into a more astrocyte-like phenotype after apomorphine treatment. Besides, we found an increase of -tubulin tyrosination levels in SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cell line after ANKK1-FL isoform overexpression, and in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines after the overexpression of the two ANKK1 isoforms. Finally, a -tubulin acetylation signal change was observed in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line after the overexpression of ANKK1-FL isoform, specifically an expanded pattern is observed throughout the soma both at proximal and distal areas. Despite futher studies and replicas should be done, we think these results suggest that ANKK1 could be involved in the radial glia differentiation of neural lineages and that dopaminergic stimulation might be a modulator of the protein function or the pathways where it is involved. Regarding the study of PTMs changes, our results suggest that ANKK1 function might be implicated in neural processes which function require microtubule dynamics.