Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insights into the acoustic behaviour of polar pinnnipedscurrent knowledge and emerging techniques of study

This chapter will provide a review of the acoustic behaviour of polar pinnipeds. It will also present a detailed update of new and emerging passive acoustic technologies and how these can further the study of behaviour for polar marine mammals. Both Arctic and Antarctic pinnipeds are known to exhibit a range of adaptations which enable them to survive and reproduce in an ice-dominated environment. However, large gaps still exist in our understanding of the fundamental ecology of these species, as investigations are severely hampered by the animals’ inaccessibility. Improving our understanding of ice-breeding species and the effects that changes in habitat might have on their behaviour is vital, as current climatic trends are rapidly altering the polar environments. For pinnipeds, acoustic communication is known to play an important role in various aspects of their behaviour. Mother-pup reunions and the establishment of underwater territories during the mating season are examples which, for the majority of species, are known to be mediated by vocal signalling. Acoustic measurements therefore provide an essential tool to study ice-breeding pinnipeds as recordings can be used to remotely monitor sounds, track animal movements and determine seasonal changes in movements and distribution. Recent advances in recording technologies, now allow the acquisition of continuous long-term acoustic data sets, even from the remotest of polar regions. To date, a range of different types of passive acoustic instruments are used, the choice of which depends largely on the purpose of the study. These instruments in addition to computer-based methods that have been developed for automated detection, Ilse Van Opzeeland, Lars Kindermann, Olaf Boebel et al. 134 classification and localization of marine mammal sounds will be discussed. The autonomous PerenniAL Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean (PALAOA) is presented here as one example of such recording systems.
Factor Monoclonal Antibody against Human Basic Fibroblast Growth Suppression of Solid Tumor Growth by Immunoneutralizing Updated

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a potent angiogenic mitogen. To elucidate the effect of bFGF inhibitors in vivo, anti-bFGF immunoneutralizing monoclonal antibody was prepared. One monoclonal anti body against human bFGF, obtained by cell fusion and designated 3H3, completely inhibited bFGF-induced proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells at a concentration of 100 ng/ml. 3H3 did not bind to acidic fibroblast growth factor or HST1 protein, indicating high specific ity for bFGF. Furthermore, the immunoneutralizing activity of 3H3 was examined in vivo. K1000 cells (a BALB/c 3T3 transformant in which the leader sequence-fused bFGF gene was transfected) were transplanted s.c. into BALB/c nude mice. Growth of the tumor cells was inhibited by i.v. treatment with 3H3 at a concentration of 200 /Â¿g/mouse. HistolÃ3gica! observation showed that the antitumor effect of 3H3 was due to the inhibition of bFGF-induced angiogenesis. This experiment provides direct causal evidence for the hypothesis that tumor growth is angiogenesis dependent. This finding could also have implications for the development of novel therapeutic approaches to angiogenic solid tumors.
The response of soil CO2 flux to changes in atmospheric CO2, nitrogen supply and plant diversity

We measured soil CO2 flux over 19 sampling periods that spanned two growing seasons in a grassland Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment (FACE) experiment that factorially manipulated three major anthropogenic global changes: atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, nitrogen (N) supply, and plant species richness. On average, over two growing seasons, elevated atmospheric CO2 and N fertilization increased soil CO2 flux by 0.57 µmol m−2 s−1 (13% increase) and 0.37 µmol m−2 s−1 (8% increase) above average control soil CO2 flux, respectively. Decreases in planted diversity from 16 to 9, 4 and 1 species decreased soil CO2 flux by 0.23, 0.41 and 1.09 µmol m−2 s−1 (5%, 8% and 21% decreases), respectively. There were no statistically significant pairwise interactions among the three treatments. During 19 sampling periods that spanned two growing seasons, elevated atmospheric CO2 increased soil CO2 flux most when soil moisture was low and soils were warm. Effects on soil CO2 flux due to fertilization with N and decreases in diversity were greatest at the times of the year when soils were warm, although there were no significant correlations between these effects and soil moisture. Of the treatments, only the N and diversity treatments were correlated over time; neither were correlated with the CO2 effect. Models of soil CO2 flux will need to incorporate ecosystem CO2 and N availability, as well as ecosystem plant diversity, and incorporate different environmental factors when determining the magnitude of the CO2, N and diversity effects on soil CO2 flux.
Validation on an Approach for Improving Existing Measurement Frameworks

Software organizations are in need of methods to understand, structure, and improve the data their are collecting. We have developed an approach for use when a large number of diverse metrics are already being collected by a software organization (M.G. Mendonca et al., 1998; M.G. Mendonca, 1997). The approach combines two methods. One looks at an organization's measurement framework in a top-down goal-oriented fashion and the other looks at it in a bottom-up data-driven fashion. The top-down method is based on a measurement paradigm called Goal-Question-Metric (GQM). The bottom-up method is based on a data mining technique called Attribute Focusing (AF). A case study was executed to validate this approach and to assess its usefulness in an industrial environment. The top-down and bottom-up methods were applied in the customer satisfaction measurement framework at the IBM Toronto Laboratory. The top-down method was applied to improve the customer satisfaction (CUSTSAT) measurement from the point of view of three data user groups. It identified several new metrics for the interviewed groups, and also contributed to better understanding of the data user needs. The bottom-up method was used to gain new insights into the existing CUSTSAT data. Unexpected associations between key variables prompted new business insights, and revealed problems with the process used to collect and analyze the CUSTSAT data. The paper uses the case study and its results to qualitatively compare our approach against current ad hoc practices used to improve existing measurement frameworks.
Duplication and Diversification of the Spermidine/Spermine N1-acetyltransferase 1 Genes in Zebrafish

Spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase 1 (Ssat1) is a key enzyme in the polyamine interconversion pathway, which maintains polyamine homeostasis. In addition, mammalian Ssat1 is also involved in many physiological and pathological events such as hypoxia, cell migration, and carcinogenesis. Using cross-genomic bioinformatic analysis in 10 deuterostomes, we found that ssat1 only exists in vertebrates. Comparing with mammalian, zebrafish, an evolutionarily distant vertebrate, contains 3 homologous ssat1 genes, named ssat1a, ssat1b, and ssat1c. All zebrafish homologues could be transcribed and produce active enzymes. Despite the long history since their evolutionary diversification, some features of human SSAT1 are conserved and subfunctionalized in the zebrafish family of Ssat1 proteins. The polyamine-dependent protein synthesis was only found in Ssat1b and Ssat1c, not in Ssat1a. Further study indicated that both 5′ and 3′ sequences of ssat1b mediate such kind of translational regulation inside the open reading frame (ORF). The polyamine-dependent protein stabilization was only observed in Ssat1b. The last 70 residues of Ssat1b were crucial for its rapid degradation and polyamine-induced stabilization. It is worth noting that only Ssat1b and Ssat1c, but not the polyamine-insensitive Ssat1a, were able to interact with integrin α9 and Hif-1α. Thus, Ssat1b and Ssat1c might not only be a polyamine metabolic enzyme but also simultaneously respond to polyamine levels and engage in cross-talk with other signaling pathways. Our data revealed some correlations between the sequences and functions of the zebrafish family of Ssat1 proteins, which may provide valuable information for studies of their translational regulatory mechanism, protein stability, and physiological functions.
Transcription of All amoC Copies Is Associated with Recovery of Nitrosomonas europaea from Ammonia Starvation

ABSTRACT The chemolithotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacterium Nitrosomonas europaea is known to be highly resistant to starvation conditions. The transcriptional response of N. europaea to ammonia addition following short- and long-term starvation was examined by primer extension and S1 nuclease protection analyses of genes encoding enzymes for ammonia oxidation (amoCAB operons) and CO2 fixation (cbbLS), a third, lone copy of amoC (amoC 3 ), and two representative housekeeping genes (glyA and rpsJ). Primer extension analysis of RNA isolated from growing, starved, and recovering cells revealed two differentially regulated promoters upstream of the two amoCAB operons. The distal σ70 type amoCAB promoter was constitutively active in the presence of ammonia, but the proximal promoter was only active when cells were recovering from ammonia starvation. The lone, divergent copy of amoC (amoC 3 ) was expressed only during recovery. Both the proximal amoC 1,2 promoter and the amoC 3 promoter are similar to gram-negative σE promoters, thus implicating σE in the regulation of the recovery response. Although modeling of subunit interactions suggested that a nonconservative proline substitution in AmoC3 may modify the activity of the holoenzyme, characterization of a ΔamoC 3 strain showed no significant difference in starvation recovery under conditions evaluated. In contrast to the amo transcripts, a delayed appearance of transcripts for a gene required for CO2 fixation (cbbL) suggested that its transcription is retarded until sufficient energy is available. Overall, these data revealed a programmed exit from starvation likely involving regulation by σE and the coordinated regulation of catabolic and anabolic genes.
The Classroom is Alive with the Sound of Thinking: The Power of the Exit Slip

This 14-week qualitative study investigated the use of exit slips in two literacy courses in the college of education at a public university in the Midwest of the United States. A group of 44 undergraduate and graduate students participated. These students included pre-service teachers who are developing their understanding of what counts as effective literacy practice and in-service teachers who are interested in improving their existing practices. The main focus of this study was to examine how exit slips supported students in two teacher education courses. Data included 608 exit slips and student feedback shared in class about exit slip use. This paper reports on how exit slip writing during class encouraged reflective thinking about teaching as a profession. Specifically, this paper examines eight different reflections students made that point to growth in content knowledge and a sense of self as practitioner and learner. It is contended that exit slips can help students identify, develop, and articulate their beliefs about teaching and learning, resulting in giving pre-service and practicing teachers an edge in improving their curricular practices. It is also contended that the positive effect of exit slips points to uses in higher education classrooms in general.
ALMOST PERIODIC SOLUTIONS IN CONTROL SYSTEMS WITH MONOTONE NONLINEARITIES

We investigate control systems as variational equations in non-standard chains of rigged Hilbert spaces. Monotonicity properties of nonlinearities are introduced with respect to such riggings generated by Lyapunov operators and invariant cones. Sufficient frequency domain conditions for boundedness and the existence of Bohr and Stepanov almost periodic solutions are derived. As an example we consider equations with Duffing-type nonlinearities and almost periodic forcing terms.
Profiles and outcome of traditional healing practices for severe mental illnesses in two districts of Eastern Uganda

Background : The WHO estimates that more than 80% of African populations attend traditional healers for health reasons and that 40%–60% of these have some kind of mental illness. However, little is known about the profiles and outcome of this traditional approach to treatment. Objective : The purpose of this study was to describe the profiles and outcome of traditional healing practices for severe mental illnesses in Jinja and Iganga districts in the Busoga region of Eastern Uganda. Methods : Four studies were conducted. Study I used focus group discussions (FGDs) with case vignettes with local community members and traditional healers to explore the lay concepts of psychosis. Studies II and III concerned a cross-sectional survey of patients above 18 years at the traditional healer's shrines and study IV was made on a prospective cohort of patients diagnosed with psychosis in study III. Manual content analysis was used in study I; quantitative data in studies II, III, and IV were analyzed at univariate, bivariate, and multivariate levels to determine the association between psychological distress and socio-demographic factors; for study IV, factors associated with outcome were analyzed. One-way ANOVA for independent samples was the analysis used in Study IV. Results : The community gave indigenous names to psychoses (mania, schizophrenia, and psychotic depression) and had multiple explanatory models for them. Thus multiple solutions for these problems were sought. Of the 387 respondents, the prevalence of psychological distress was 65.1%, where 60.2% had diagnosable current mental illness, and 16.3% had had one disorder in their lifetime. Over 80% of patients with psychosis used both biomedical and traditional healing systems. Those who combined these two systems seemed to have a better outcome. All the symptom scales showed a percentage reduction of more than 20% at the 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Conclusion : Traditional healers shoulder a large burden of care of patients with mental health problems. This calls for all those who share the goal of improving the mental health of individuals to engage with traditional healers.
Resolving TCP re-ordering issues on a multi-homed NEMO-based network

A multi-homed Network Mobility (NEMO) architecture has been proposed previously to improve the reliability and aggregate the bandwidth of Mobile Router (MR) by simultaneously using multiple wireless links. In this paper, we discuss some potential issues that could affect the performance of TCP traffic in a multi-homed architecture. In addition, we propose a protocol to improve the performance of sending a single TCP connection over multiple wireless links on a MR. Our protocol consists of three components. First, we use a reordering buffer to eliminate unnecessary retransmission caused by out-of-order packets. Second, we develop a Multi-homed Split Connection mechanism to enable the TCP connection to quickly adapt to the conditions of multiple links when packet loss occurs. Finally, a Scheduled Window-based Transmission Control algorithm is proposed to mitigate the negative effects of out-of-order packets in the case of using heterogeneous links in a multi-homed environment. We evaluate the performance of our protocol by comparing it with the Concurrent Multi-path Transfer SCTP (CMT-SCTP) and show that it can resolve several performance issues.
Early years practitioners' narratives of poverty in early childhood

This thesis focuses on Early Years Practitioners who are working with young children and families in early years provision in England. Adopting a narrative approach the study sought to explore how their understandings of poverty in early childhood are shaped by dominant discourses of poverty and professional and personal experiences. Poverty as a concept is multi-dimensional and dynamic including both the experience of poverty as well as absolute and relative understandings. Under the New Labour Government, Early Years Practitioners were positioned as part of a long-term strategy to alleviate child poverty. Successive government policies have resulted in cuts to early years funding under austerity measures and an increasing focus on children and families with the greatest need. Early Years Practitioners hold a contradictory position, being part of a strategy to address poverty in early childhood, whilst at the same, time being part of a workforce which is to a large extent highly gendered, low status and low paid. The research was conducted as a case study in two integrated settings consisting of a maintained nursery school, children’s centre and daycare provision in the south-east of England during November 2015 to June 2016. Although the settings were in areas of overall relative affluence, they both served areas of deprivation. Therefore, Early Years Practitioners were working with children and families on low incomes. Thirty-eight Early Years Practitioners took part in focus groups to explore how narratives of poverty might be shaped by dominant discourses of poverty and sixteen Early Years Practitioners took part in follow-up interviews to explore how narratives of poverty might be shaped by their personal and professional experiences. The ‘subject’ of the case was the Early Years Practitioners and the analysis and theorisation of their narratives of poverty the ‘object’. Foucault’s concept of regimes of truth was used to explore how Early Years Practitioners’ understandings of poverty might be shaped by dominant policy discourses. The concept of ‘small stories’ was used to explore how Early Years Practitioners’ narratives of poverty are co-constructed within interaction, and understandings of how they position themselves in relation to ‘other’ were explored through I-positions. Five participants took part in a final presentation and discussion of the initial findings, providing an opportunity to comment on and contribute to the analysis of the data. The complexity of the interconnections between
Some Features of Base Pair Mismatch and Heterology Escherichia coli Repair in

We have used artificially constructed heteroallelic heteroduplex molecules of bacteriophage lambda DNA to transfect Escherichia coli, and E. coli mutants deficient in various functions involved in the adenine methylation-directed mismatch repair system, MutL, MutS, MutH, and lJvrD (MutU). Analysis of the allele content of single infective centers shows that this repair system often acts on several mismatches, separated by as many as 2000 bp, on one of the strands of a heteroduplex molecule. When the methyl-directed mismatch repair system is disabled by mutH or uurD mutations, localized mismatch repair becomes prominent. This prominent localized repair that can result in separation of very closely linked markers requires the functions MutL and MutS, is independent of adenine methylation, and appears to reflect another mechanism of mismatch repair. Heterologycontaining heteroduplex molecules with a deletion in one strand often escape processing. However, when the heterology includes the stem and loop structure of a transposon, TnlO, the transposon is lost.
CKBLS: an interactive system for collaborative knowledge building and learning

In this paper, I review some current technologies and software used in collaborative knowledge building and learning in general and then discuss the interactive system I designed to facilitate collaborative knowledge building and learning in tertiary education. This system is used in conjunction with a wireless intelligent personal electronic response system in the classroom. Contributors and learners are also able to access this system remotely.
Contributions to Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems via on-line Learning Style Estimation

In order to establish an online diagnostic system for Learning Style Estimation that contributes to the adaptation of learning objects, we propose an easily applicable expert system founded on Bayesian Networks. The proposed system makes use of Learning Style theories and associated diagnostic techniques, simultaneously avoiding certain error sources. It takes under consideration learners' answers to a specific questionnaire, as well as a classification of learners who have been previously examined. System application based on Kolb's Learning Style Inventory is also presented, in order to study the changes to the final estimation made by the system. The questionnaire in use is the David Kolb's Learning Style Inventory revised, an on-line form which avoids logical fault implications. With this aim, a case study has been carried out involving 885 university students, from which conclusions are drawn. As a result of the expert system use, the influence of factors, such as reflection of cross-cultural environment differences and/or of slippery or lucky answers' influence on learning style estimation is reduced.
Extrasolar Planet Transit Light Curves and a Method to Select the Best Planet Candidates for Mass Follow-up

A unique analytical solution of planet and star parameters can be derived from an extrasolar planet transit light curve under a number of assumptions. This analytical solution can be used to choose the best planet transit candidates for radial velocity follow-up measurements, with or without a known spectral type. In practice, high photometric precision (< 0.005 mag) and high time sampling (< 5 minutes) are needed for this method. See Seager & Mallen-Ornelas (2002) for full details.
"It would be pretty immoral to choose a random algorithm"

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on empirical work conducted to open up algorithmic interpretability and transparency. In recent years, significant concerns have arisen regarding the increasing pervasiveness of algorithms and the impact of automated decision-making in our lives. Particularly problematic is the lack of transparency surrounding the development of these algorithmic systems and their use. It is often suggested that to make algorithms more fair, they should be made more transparent, but exactly how this can be achieved remains unclear. Design/methodology/approach An empirical study was conducted to begin unpacking issues around algorithmic interpretability and transparency. The study involved discussion-based experiments centred around a limited resource allocation scenario which required participants to select their most and least preferred algorithms in a particular context. In addition to collecting quantitative data about preferences, qualitative data captured participants’ expressed reasoning behind their selections. Findings Even when provided with the same information about the scenario, participants made different algorithm preference selections and rationalised their selections differently. The study results revealed diversity in participant responses but consistency in the emphasis they placed on normative concerns and the importance of context when accounting for their selections. The issues raised by participants as important to their selections resonate closely with values that have come to the fore in current debates over algorithm prevalence. Originality/value This work developed a novel empirical approach that demonstrates the value in pursuing algorithmic interpretability and transparency while also highlighting the complexities surrounding their accomplishment.