Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE OF THE INTRODUCED GECKO Hemidactylus turcicus IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science MICROHABITAT PREFERENCE OF THE INTRODUCED GECKO Hemidactylus turcicus IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT By Patricia A. Gomez Zlatar August 2003 Chair: Michael Moulton Major Department: Wildlife Ecology and Conservation I investigated microhabitat preference in the introduced gecko H. turcicus in Gainesville, Florida from summer 2001 through spring 2002. After collecting extensive natural history data in 2001, I then attempted to construct a model for microhabitat preference during 2002, using logistic regression. I characterized 160 walls by construction material, vegetative cover, artificial light intensity, cardinal orientation, age of building, length of wall, surface color, and surface texture. I sampled each wall twice for the presence or absence of H. turcicus. Chi-square analyses indicated that the age of building, length of wall, surface color, and surface texture were dependent on construction material (p< 0.05). I then fit a logistic regression model with the variables: construction material, vegetative cover, artificial light intensity, and cardinal orientation. I was unable to obtain a functional logistic regression model, probably owing to a small sample size. Thus, I condensed the dataset by eliminating the variable cardinal orientation and combining the variables
STANDARDIZING THE ANNUAL ELECTRIC ENERGY CONSUMPTION FOR A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN BASRAH CITY

The present work is aimed to reduce the annual electric energy consumption in a residential building in Basrah city through introducing a standardized rule for the annual electrical consumption for the cooling and heating purposes. This work will concentrate on all parameters which help to go toward the optimum use of thermally efficient house. The building energy analysis program e-Quest was used to simulate the annual energy consumption for a typical residential house built with different types of building materials. Transfer function cooling load calculation was used. The results showed that for the Base- House, the thermal transmission through the walls and roof constitutes more than half of the total peak cooling load. It was found that a house built with thermo-stone causes 5.9% reduction of the annual cooling energy consumption, and 12.4% in the annual heating energy consumption. However, insulating the Base- House causes a significant reduction in the air conditioning equipment capacity and consequently reduction in cooling energy consumption by 23%, and reduces the heating energy consumption by 42.8%. Finally this work presents a useful planning to developed building design which reduces the electrical energy consumption
Evaluating the impact of tsetse-repellent technology on the incidence of trypanosomosis in cattle managed under pastoral production systems in selected site in Kajiado and Narok districts, Kenya

This study evaluated a tsetse repellent technology developed for the control of tsetsetransmitted trypanosomosis in cattle. The technology comprised a repellent, 2-methoxy 4methylphenol (or 4-methyl guiaicol), emitted from dispensers attached to collars worn around the necks of cattle. The repellent was synthesized by adding carbon to guiaicol (2methoxyphenol), a compound that occurs naturally in bovid urine. The dispenser was made up of two aluminium pipes fastened onto the collar using wire strings. Each aluminium pipe measured I Omm in diameter and 10cm long and was joined to corked silicon tygon tube of about 2cm at the distal end (to serve as a point of diffusion). The proximal end of the pipe was sealed with a screw cap. When undamaged, each reservoir was expected to release the repellent at 4.5mg h 1 for at least a month. The technology had to be applied to all the animals in a herd for it to be protective. The technology could also be integrated with traps or targets in a strategy referred to as “push-pull” tactic. In this strategy, the repellent technology is expected to ‘push’ the tsetse flies to traps or targets, while traps or targets ‘pull’ and hence trap/kill the flies. It has been proposed that this strategy could increase the rates o f tsetse suppression beyond the levels that could be achieved by using traps or targets alone. The study had two components. The first component comprised a field trial carried out in purposefully selected pastoral areas in Nkineji, Narok District and Nkuruman, Kajiado District to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in a representative situation on-farm. The second component was aimed at developing a mathematical model that would be used to predict the effectiveness of the technology under multiple scenarios. The field trial used a total of 24 randomly selected pastoral cattle herds (with variable number of animals) distributed equally into treatment and control groups. Each study area was allocated equal number of treatment (6 herds) and control (6 herds) herds. The sample size was estimated assuming a type I error (a) of 5%, power (1-type II error (PJ) of 80%, intra-herd correlation coefficient of 0.4 and that the repellent technology, if effective, would reduce the incidence of trypanosomosis in treated herds by at least 50% (i.e. one-sided test).
Predictors and Risk Factors of Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To systematically review the literature to identify and categorize the predictors and risk factors for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Data Sources: Online databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and APA PsycNet) and relevant conference sources were searched from inception up to January 24, 2022. The following keywords were used: treatment-resistant depression, depressive disorder, predictors, risk, and biomarkers. Study Selection: All studies that included a definition of TRD were included. A total of 1,686 abstracts were screened, and 57 studies were included in the final data synthesis. Data Extraction: Data were extracted using a data extraction form developed for this study. Results: The most frequently reported mental predictors/risk factors were greater symptom severity (9 studies), suicidality (8 studies), and recurrent depression (6 studies). Cardiovascular disease (4 studies), pain (3 studies), and thyroid dysfunction (3 studies) were the most common physical predictors/risk factors, while younger age (7 studies) and female gender (6 studies) were the most common demographic predictors/risk factors. Higher levels of neuroticism appeared twice in the literature. Several articles reported on genetic, biological, and imaging variables, but results were too heterogenous to identify common predictors/risk factors. Conclusions: TRD is a complex disorder with many contributing factors that need to be identified and addressed earlier in the disease course to prevent its development or facilitate better treatment outcomes. Future work should focus on replicating the key predictors/risk factors identified in this review.
Ocean acidification in the three oceans surrounding northern North America

[1] The uptake of anthropogenic CO2 drives ocean acidification, with attendant effects on the saturation state of calcium carbonate (Ω) and marine ecosystems. Here, we examine ocean acidification within the context of large-scale water mass exchange and local physical and biogeochemical processes along a section around northern North America. Waters in the North Pacific are preconditioned by the global-scale circulation to be low Ω source waters and as they move northward across the Bering and Chukchi seas they are modified by biological activity. These waters then enter the Canada Basin and Canadian Arctic Archipelago where cooling, river discharge, sea ice formation and biological activities modify water mass characteristics further. Continuing eastward into Baffin Bay, relatively low Ω waters extend from the surface to depth due to remineralization. Changes in Ω are large along this pathway and the response of local marine ecosystems will likewise be shaped by the biogeography of species occupying a given region.
Hybrid Leadership and Its Relationship to Inclusion in Healthcare

Leadership is critical in managing healthcare organizations to address financial limitations, availability of skilled workforce, globalization, disruptive innovation, new technology, and hyper-competition. This challenging environment has forced many healthcare organizations to change their bureaucratic organizational structure to a more organic one headed by leaders rather than managers. There are many leadership styles to consider for healthcare leaders. However, this research focuses on nine leadership and hybrid leadership styles to determine significant relationships to inclusion in the workplace. We used the VanSimpco Leadership Survey and Chung et al.’s Work Group Inclusion scale to survey 174 healthcare employees. We found that autocratic, autocratic-transformational, democratic-transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles impacted workplace inclusion uniqueness. Democratic, autocratic-transformational, and autocratic-transactional leadership styles impacted workplace inclusion belongingness. This research is based on Leader-Member Exchange and Optimal Distinction theories.
Reflection waveform inversion using local descent methods: Estimating attenuation and velocity over a gas-sand deposit

Prestack seismic reflection data contain amplitudes, traveltimes, and moveout information; waveform inversion of such data has the potential to estimate attenuation levels, reflector depths and geometry, and background velocities. However, when inverting reflection data, strong nonlinearities can cause reflectors to be incorrectly imaged and can prevent background velocities from being updated. To successfully recover background velocities, previous authors have resorted to nonlinear, global search inversion techniques. We propose a two-step inversion procedure using local descent methods in which we perform alternate inversions for the reflectors and the background velocities. For our reflector inversion we exploit the efficiency of the back-propagation method when inverting for a large parameter set. For our background velocity inversion we use Newton inverse methods. During the background velocity inversions it is crucial to adaptively depth-stretch the model to preserve the vertical traveltimes. This reduces nonlinearity by largely decoupling the effects of the background velocities and reflectors on the data. Nonlinearity is further reduced by choosing to invert for slownesses and by inverting for a sparse parameter set which is partially defined using geological reflector picks. Applying our approach to shallow seismic data from the North Sea collected over a gas-sand deposit, we demonstrate that the proposed method is able to estimate both the geometry and internal velocity of a significant velocity structure not present in the initial model. Over successive iterations, the use of adaptive depth stretching corrects the pull-down of the base of the gas sand. Vertical background velocity gradients are also resolved. For an insignificant extra cost the acoustic attenuation parameter Q is included in the inversion scheme. The final attenuation tomogram contains realistic values of Q for the expected lithologies and for the effect of partial fluid saturation associated with a shallow bright spot. The attenuation image may also indicate the presence of fracturing.
Effect of RNAi-mediated Suppression of PGRP-LC Gene Expression on Mortality Rates in Brown Planthoppers (Nilaparvata lugens) Infected with Live Bacteria

The brown planthopper ( Nilaparvata lugens ) is among the most destructive pests of rice in Asia. However, control of this pest is hampered because of the emergence of strains with resistance to standard chemical pesticides. Herein, we investigated the use of RNA interference (RNA i ) to knock down genes in the immune system of N . lugens as a possible approach to the control of the pest. We suppressed the expression of the peptidoglycan recognition protein– LC gene and Toll-1 gene by RNA i -mediated knockdown in N. lugens infected with live bacteria. Mortality rates were compared between insects with and without RNA i -mediated gene knockdown. We found that suppression of peptidoglycan recognition protein– LC , which encodes a factor in the immune deficiency pathway, resulted in a significantly increased mortality rate in insects infected with Escherichia coli (gram-negative bacteria) or Micrococcus luteus (gram-positive bacteria). Our results indicate that RNA i knockdown of genes in the immune deficiency pathway will be of value for identifying candidate genes that can be used to control this pest species.
Nest Habitat Selection and Nesting Success of Three Ground Nesting Passerines in Post Harvested Rice Fields of North East India

Abstract. Set aside fields act as potential nesting habitat and play an important role in nest success of ground nesters in farmlands. Asian countries utilize vast areas of their land as rice fields which along with adjoining habitats act as breeding ground for around 3% bird species in the Indian subcontinent. We investigated contribution of post harvested rice fields and associated habitats in nest success of three passerines within a tropical agricultural area. Nesting ecology of 90 pairs belonging to Oriental Skylark Alauda gulgula (n = 25 nests), Bengal Bush Lark Mirafra assamica (n = 32) and Paddyfield Pipit Anthus rufulus (n = 33) was studied from February 2016 to June 2017 in a complex of agricultural fields dominated by fallow stubble in the southern West Bengal, North East India. Nests were found in the stubble fields having uncut rice bases, adjacent cropped or uncropped other fields and levees. Location of the nests and their microhabitats seemed to be the most important factors concerning nesting habitat selection. Nest success was 48%, 34.4% and 21.2% in Skylark, Bush Lark and Pipit respectively. Model estimate of constant Daily Survival Rate (DSR) ranged between 0.90–0.95. Nest survival increased between 1–5% at rice bases for the three species. Pipit nests at rice bases showed 6.5% higher survival rate than open habitat. Nests at the open microhabitat had low nest survival irrespective of species. Model goodness of fit suggested that nest survival was affected mostly by combination of microhabitat and species variables. Results suggested that rice bases in post harvested fallow rice fields might play an important role in nest survival for passerines.
An Intelligent Control Model Based on Digital Twin Technology and Optimized Least-Squares Support Vector Regression for Predicting Electromagnetic Brake Assembly Quality

Electromagnetic (EM) brakes are widely applied in many automation and control fields. Assembly quality defects in EM brakes can significantly reduce braking performance and pose potential safety risks. The primary challenge in assembly quality control is the ability to predict product quality and prevent potential failures. In view of the lack of quality information interaction and real-time feedback in the traditional quality prediction process, an intelligent predictive quality control model for the assembly process of EM brakes is proposed in this paper. First, we introduce an assembly quality control model based on digital twin (DT) technology. Second, a data-driven quality prediction algorithm is developed using least-squares support vector regression (LSSVR) and improved particle swarm optimisation (IPSO). To reduce the complexity of the prediction process, grey relational analysis (GRA) is used to analyse and extract key quality characteristics data. EM friction brakes are employed as an example to analyse the product assembly process, and the results provide valuable insights into the implementation of DT technology. Finally, the feasibility of the developed prediction model is verified with real assembly datasets. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and precision of the DT model and the GRA-IPSO-LSSVR method in predicting assembly quality.
Design, modeling, and control of a variable stiffness joint based on a torsional magnetic spring

Industrial robots have made it possible for robotics to become a worldwide discipline both in economy and in science. However, their capabilities are limited, especially regarding contact tasks where it is required to regulate or at least limit contact forces. At one point, it was noticed that elasticity in the joint transmission, which was treated as a drawback previously, is actually helpful in this regard. This observation led to the introduction of elastic joint robots that are well-suited to contact tasks and cooperative behavior in particular, so they become more and more widespread nowadays. Many researchers try to implement such devices not with trivial series elastic actuators (SEA) but with more sophisticated variable stiffness actuators (VSA) that can regulate their own mechanical stiffness. All elastic actuators demonstrate shock robustness and safe interaction with external objects to some extent, but when stiffness may be varied, it provides additional benefits, e.g., in terms of energy efficiency and task adaptability. Here, we present a novel variable stiffness actuator with a magnetic coupler as an elastic element. Magnetic transmission is contactless and thus advantageous in terms of robustness to misalignment. In addition, the friction model of the transmission becomes less complex. It also has milder stiffness characteristic than typical mechanical nonlinear springs, moreover, the stiffness curve has a maximum after which it descends. Therefore, when this maximum torque is achieved, the coupler slips, and a new pair of poles defines the equilibrium position. As a result, the risk of damage is smaller for this design solution. The design of the joint is thoroughly described, along with its mathematical model. Finally, the control system is also proposed, and simulation tests confirm the design ideas.
Feedback-Control Acceleration Sensing: Toward a Practical Small-Scale Levitated Optomechanical Accelerometer

Levitated optomechanical accelerometers (LOMAs) are expected to achieve ultrahigh precision as the optical levitation of the inertial mass will essentially isolate external thermal effects from the mechanical support. However, most designs of the accelerometers currently remain in the proof-of-principle stage in the laboratory. Here a practical accelerometer header in centimeter-scale is presented with the feedback control. An inertial mass of about 10 ng silica sphere is levitated in a dual-beam counter-propagating optical trap. The sensitivity is achieved in air as 232 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 120 ~\mu \text{g}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/Hz1/2 at 1–10 Hz, and 25.5 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 8.2 ~\mu \text{g}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/Hz1/2 at about 55 Hz. The bias stability is evaluated as <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$418.1 ~\mu \text{g}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 0 g input by the Allan variance. At last, acceleration sensing of the header is tested on the city roads, and the output differences from a commercial reference accelerometer are mostly within 21 mg (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\sigma $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) in periods of about 480 s. It is the first demonstration of a practical small-scale LOMA, which will be an important step toward further improvement in future.
HLA-DQB1*0301 in Bullous Pemphigoid and Pemphigus Vulgaris: A Meta-Analysis

Background: The linkage of HLA-DQB1*0301 to autoimmune disorders is becoming more common in literature. Despite bullous pemphigoid (BP) and pemphigus vulgaris (PV) both having similar symptoms, such as blistering skin conditions, research has shown different relationships with HLAs. Methods: In this systematic review, HLA-DQB1*0301 and the odds of developing BP and PV were explored. Google Scholar and Pubmed were consulted, and articles were included if living subjects were used, odds ratio was available or could be ascertained from the study, and if it was not a meta-analysis of other researcher’s works. MetaXL software was used to generate data for analysis and a forest plot was generated for each. Nine studies conducted between 1996 and 2021 met study selection criteria for the BP HLA-DQB1*0301 meta-analysis (1,340 patients and 6,673 controls) and five studies (247 patients and 2,435 controls) for PV. Results: HLA-DQB1*0301 increased the odds of developing BP (OR= 1.64, 95% CI [1.44, 1.87], I2= 0%) yet decreased odds of PV (OR= 0.60, 95% CI [0.40, 0.89], I2= 34%). Conclusion: Results suggest HLA-DQB1*0301 may serve opposite roles in BP and PV despite similarity in symptoms, finding higher odds for developing BP versus lower odds for developing PV. Understanding this HLA’s function in each requires further exploration. Limitations of the analysis included minor asymmetry in the PV Doi plot, suggesting publication bias. No funding was used; study protocol was not registered.
Data Needs for Regional Modelling: A Description of the Data used in Support of RHOMOLO

RHOMOLO is a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model aimed at investigating the impact of policy instruments developed according to the objectives of Cohesion Policy. In doing so, this model attempts to cover a broader set of economic variables mostly related to an economic geography setting while aiming at a complete regional and sectoral coverage for the EU 27 – by means of a dataset covering 267 EU NUTS2 regions with 6 NACE Rev. 1.1 sectors. This working paper aims at describing the data used in the EU27 RHOMOLO Model.
Antidiabetic and Liver Tissue Improvement Potency of Surf Redfish (Actinopyga mauritiana) in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Mice

Long-term hyperglycemia is associated with various organ damage. One of these damages is Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). One of the potential natural products that may improve this impact is Surf Redfish. Hence this study aimed to investigate the antidiabetic and liver protection effects of Surf Redfish in some diabetic male Mice. This study was an experimental study that used 25 male mice grouped into control, standard, Surf Redfish Extract-I (100 mg/ kg BW), II (200 mg// kg BW), and III (400 mg/ kg BW). This study evaluated the blood glucose level (before and after induction, third, sixth, ninth, twelfth, and fifteenth days) and histology study of liver tissue. This study showed that the Surf Redfish ethanol extract significantly decreased blood glucose levels every day for fifteen days (P-Value < 0.05). This extract also showed a significant decrease in vacuolated degeneration after fifteen days of extract administration (P-Value). Hence, it can be concluded that the most effective dose of Surf Redfish extracts in this study was 400 mg/ kg BW to decrease blood glucose level and width of vacuolated degeneration after fifteen days of administration.
Assessment of Ground Water Quality in Punjab, India

In the present study, groundwater quality in respect of native groundwater has been determined in the entire State of Punjab during the installation of observation wells under World Bank aided Hydrology Project Phase II undertaken during 2009-14 by Water Resources and Environment Directorate, Punjab. The results of sampling done during installation of observation wells show that the groundwater quality in the depth range of 45-60 m on the basis of EC and RSC is categorized as: fit in 53% and marginal to unfit in remaining 47%.