Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal Variation in Honey Production by the Stingless Bee Melipona subnitida (Hymenoptera: Apidae): Long-Term Management Reveals Its Potential as a Commercial Species in Northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT Even though stingless beekeeping has a great potential as a sustainable development tool, the activity remains essentially informal, technical knowledge is scarce, and management practices lack the sophistication and standardization found in apiculture. Here, we contributed to the further development of stingless beekeeping by investigating the long-term impact of management and climate on honey production and colony survival in the stingless bee Melipona subnitida Ducke (1910). We analyzed a 10-yr record of 155 M. subnitida colonies kept by a commercial honey producer of northeastern Brazil. This constitutes the longest andmost accurate record available for a stingless bee.Wemodeled honey production in relation to time (years), age, management practices (colony division and food supplementation), and climatic factors (temperature and precipitation), and used a model selection approach to identify which factors best explained honey production. We also modeled colony mortality in relation to climatic factors. Although the amount of honey produced by each colony decreased over time, we found that the probability of producing honey increased over the years. Colony divisions decreased honey production, but did not affect honey presence, while supplementary feeding positively affected honey production. In warmer years, the probability of producing honey decreased and the amount of honey produced was lower. In years with lower precipitation, fewer colonies produced honey. In contrast, colonymortality was not affected by climatic factors, and some colonies lived up to nine years, enduring extreme climatic conditions. Our findings provide useful guidelines to improvemanagement and honey production in stingless bees.
A Half-Century of Studies on a Chromosomal Hybrid Zone of the House Mouse

The first natural chromosomal variation in the house mouse was described nearly 50 years ago in Val Poschiavo on the Swiss side of the Swiss-Italian border in the Central Eastern Alps. Studies have extended into neighboring Valtellina, and the house mice of the Poschiavo-Valtellina area have been subject to detailed analysis, reviewed here. The maximum extent of this area is 70 km, yet it has 4 metacentric races and the standard 40-chromosome telocentric race distributed in a patchwork fashion. The metacentric races are characterized by highly reduced diploid numbers (2n = 22-26) resulting from Robertsonian fusions, perhaps modified by whole-arm reciprocal translocations. The races hybridize and the whole Poschiavo-Valtellina area can be considered a "hybrid zone. " The studies of this area have provided insights into origin of races within hybrid zones, gene flow within hybrid zones and the possibility of speciation in hybrid zones. This provides a case study of how chromosomal rearrangements may impact the genetic structure of populations and their diversification.
Student Supports: Developmental Education and Other Academic Programs

Low rates of college completion are a major problem in the United States. Less than 60 percent of students at four-year colleges graduate within six years, and at some colleges, the graduation rate is less than 10 percent. Additionally, many students enter higher education ill-prepared to comprehend college-level course material. Some estimates suggest that only one-third of high school graduates finish ready for college work; the proportion is even lower among older students. Colleges have responded to the poor preparation of incoming students by placing approximately 35 to 40 percent of entering freshmen into remedial or developmental courses, along with providing academic supports such as summer bridge programs, learning communities, academic counseling, and tutoring, as well as student supports such as financial aid and child care. Eric Bettinger, Angela Boatman, and Bridget Terry Long describe the role, costs, and impact of these college remediation and academic support programs. According to a growing body of research, the effects of remedial courses are considerably nuanced. The courses appear to help or hinder students differently by state, institution, background, and academic preparedness. The mixed findings from earlier research have raised questions ranging from whether remedial programs, on average, improve student academic outcomes to which types of programs are most effective. Administrators, practitioners, and policy makers are responding by redesigning developmental courses and searching for ways to implement effective remediation programs more broadly. In addition, recent research suggests that colleges may be placing too many students into remedial courses unnecessarily, suggesting the need for further examining the placement processes used to assign students to remedial courses. The authors expand the scope of remediation research by discussing other promising areas of academic support commonly offered by colleges, including advising, tutoring, and mentoring programs, as well as supports that target the competing responsibilities of students, namely caring for dependents and balancing employment with schoolwork. They conclude that the limited resources of institutions and equally limited funds of students make it imperative for postsecondary institutions to improve student academic supports and other services.
Is insomnia a perpetuating factor for late-life depression in the IMPACT cohort?

STUDY OBJECTIVES Insomnia and depressive disorders are significant health problems in the elderly. Persistent insomnia is a risk factor for the development of new-onset and recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). Less clear is whether persistent insomnia may perpetuate MDD andlor dysthymia. The present longitudinal study examines the relationship of insomnia to the continuation of depression in the context of an intervention study in elderly subjects. DESIGN Data were drawn from Project IMPACT, a multisite intervention study, which enrolled 1801 elderly patients with MDD and/or dysthymia. In the current study, subjects were assigned to an insomnia-status group (Persistent, Intermediate, and No Insomnia) based on insomnia scores at both baseline and 3-month time points. Logistic regressions were conducted to determine whether Persistent Insomnia was prospectively associated with increased risk of remaining depressed and/or achieving a less than 50% clinical improvement at 6 and at 12 months compared with the No Insomnia reference group. The Intermediate Insomnia group was compared with the other 2 groups to determine whether a dose-response relationship existed between insomnia type and subsequent depression. SETTING Eighteen primary clinics in 5 states. PARTICIPANTS Older adults (60+) with depression. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Overall, patients with persistent insomnia were 1.8 to 3.5 times more likely to remain depressed, compared with patients with no insomnia. The findings were more robust in patients receiving usual care for depression than in patients receiving enhanced care. Findings were also more robust in subjects who had MDD as opposed to those with dysthymia alone. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that, in addition to being a risk factor for a depressive episode, persistent insomnia may serve to perpetuate the illness in some elderly patients and especially in those receiving standard care for depression in primary care settings. Enhanced depression care may partially mitigate the perpetuating effects of insomnia on depression.
MULTILAYER LASERSCANNER FOR ROBUST OBJECT TRACKING AND CLASSIFICATION IN URBAN TRAFFIC SCENES

The latest Laserscanner development of IBEO combines several innovations for automotive use. The sensor is a Multilayer scanner, which measures both distances and reflectivities simultaneously in 4 horizontal scan planes. This can be used to compensate pitching of the vehicle. Also, a multi target capability is integrated which allows the sensor to detect two distances with a single measurement, e.g. to be robust against rain. A system architecture for detection and modeling of dynamic traffic scenes is used to give a general idea of the different tasks to reach the goal of a complete environmental model using a sensor for a wide range of applications. Today, active safety is a big issue in the automotive sector, and huge advances in the protection of both occupants and other road users are expected from active safety systems. In order to further improve active safety systems, like collision avoidance or Pre Crash, they will also include object recognition around the vehicle to detect dangerous situations as far in the future as possible. However, the assessment of how dangerous the situation - or the object in question - is for the passengers of the vehicle is difficult, but obviously of great importance. Beside the threat for the vehicle, also the threat for the detected object, which might be a pedestrian or cyclist, may be of critical importance for the choice of possible avoidance or mitigation strategies. To both assess the situation and decide on the safest reaction strategy, special sensors and processing algorithms are needed. In the following, first the Laserscanner LD Multilayer is described, both with its hardware capabilities and system configuration. Then, special algorithms for obstacle detection, tracking and classification are outlined.
POMDP-lite for robust robot planning under uncertainty

The partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) provides a principled general model for planning under uncertainty. However, solving a general POMDP is computationally intractable in the worst case. This paper introduces POMDP-lite, a subclass of POMDPs in which the hidden state variables are constant or only change deterministically. We show that a POMDP-lite is equivalent to a set of fully observable Markov decision processes indexed by a hidden parameter and is useful for modeling a variety of interesting robotic tasks. We develop a simple model-based Bayesian reinforcement learning algorithm to solve POMDP-lite models. The algorithm performs well on large-scale POMDP-lite models with up to 1020 states and outperforms the state-of-the-art general-purpose POMDP algorithms. We further show that the algorithm is near-Bayesian-optimal under suitable conditions.
Malicious practice of fake reviews: Experimental insight into the potential of contextual indicators in assisting consumers to detect deceptive opinion spam

Consumers often rely on experiences from other individuals shared online when making purchase decisions; however, the trustworthiness of consumers’ online opinions is jeopardized by fake reviews. Three experimental studies were conducted that included different potential detection support mechanisms to identify fake reviews. The results show that a self-protection prime and two of the three tested detection support mechanisms affect the source’s trustworthiness. This research contributes to the field of online interactions by highlighting the potential of contextual – instead of textual – indicators, such as third-party labels and social proof, which assist Internet users in their efforts to detect fake reviews.
A Link Between Stress And Diabetes

Evidence suggests that stressful experiences might affect diabetes, in terms of both its onset and its exacerbation. In this article, the authors review some of this evidence and consider ways in which stress might affect diabetes, both through physiological mechanisms and via behavior. They also discuss the implications of this for clinical practice and care. In recent years, the complexities of the relationship between stress and diabetes have become well known but have been less well researched. Some studies have suggested that stressful experiences might affect the onset and/or the metabolic control of diabetes, but findings have often been inconclusive. In this article, we review some of this research before going on to consider how stress might affect diabetes control and the physiological mechanisms through which this may occur. Finally, we discuss the implications for clinical practice and care. Before going any further, however, the meaning of the term stress must be clarified because it can be used in different ways. Stress may be thought of as a) a physiological response to an external stimulus, or b) a psychological response to external stimuli, or c) stressful events themselves, which can be negative or positive or both. In this article, we address all three aspects of stress: stressful events or experiences (sometimes referred to as s t r e s s o r s ) a n d t h e p h y s i o l o g i c a l a n d psychological/behavioral responses to these.
How Can Movement Quality Be Promoted in Clinical Practice? A Phenomenological Study of Physical Therapist Experts

Background In recent years, physical therapists have paid greater attention to body awareness. Clinicians have witnessed the benefits of supporting their patients' learning of movement awareness through the promotion of their movement quality. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate how physical therapist experts promote movement quality in their usual clinical settings. Design A phenomenological research design that included a sampling strategy was devised. Using specific criteria, 6 lead physical therapists nominated a group of physical therapist experts from the fields of neurology, primary health care, and mental health. Fifteen informants, 5 from each field, agreed to participate. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted with a semistructured interview guide. The informants were invited to simply describe what they had experienced to be successful therapeutic processes for promoting movement quality. Each interview was audiotaped and transcribed. The data analysis was based on a multistep model. Results Three main themes emerged from the data. First, the physical therapists' embodied presence and movement awareness served as a precondition and an orientation for practice. Embodied presence is a bodily felt sense, a form of personal knowing that evokes understanding and fosters meaning. Second, creating a platform for promoting movement quality revealed implementation of psychological attitudes. Third, action strategies for promoting movement quality suggested a movement awareness learning cycle and components for clinical use. Conclusions This study demonstrated specific attitudes and skills used by physical therapist experts to promote movement quality in their clinical practice. These results may serve as a therapeutic framework for promoting movement quality in clinical physical therapy, although further research is needed.
Unmasking the Conflicting Trends in Job Tenure by Gender in the United States, 1983–2008

Americans are convinced that employment stability has declined in recent decades, but previous research on this question has led to mixed conclusions. A key challenge is that trends for men and women are in opposite directions and appear to cancel each other out. We clarify this situation by examining trends in employer tenure by sex, marital status, and parental status. We find that married mothers are behind the increase in women’s job tenure, but men and never-married women have seen declines in tenure. Furthermore, we show that the timing of tenure trends for women parallels periods of increased labor force attachment. Finally, we find that shifts in industry and occupation composition can account for the decline in tenure among men and never-married women before 1996 but not afterward. We situate these diverging trends in two broad shifts in expectations, norms, and behaviors in the labor market: the end-of-work discourse and the revolution in women’s identification with paid work. Our findings support the view that job tenure is declining for all groups, but women’s greater labor force attachment, especially their more continuous employment around childbirth, countered and masked this trend.
A new remote keyless entry system resistant to power analysis attacks

In CRYPTO 2008, it has been shown that power-analysis attacks can completely break real-word remote keyless entry (RKE) systems based on the KeeLoq code-hopping scheme. A successful key-recovery involves a couple of security and privacy risks for the consumers as well as for the manufacturers. In this paper, we introduce a new RKE system that is inherently resistant against side-channel attacks, independent of the implementation platform. For our approach, a pseudo random number generator (PRNG) as introduced in ASIACCS 2008 is extended to prevent template attacks, and embedded into a secure remote-control application. We verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by implementing it on a microcontroller and evaluate its physical security, thereby demonstrating that a practical key-recovery by means of power-analysis is not feasible.
Not1 mediates recruitment of the deadenylase Caf1 to mRNAs targeted for degradation by tristetraprolin

The carbon catabolite repressor protein 4 (Ccr4)–Negative on TATA (Not) complex controls gene expression at two levels. In the nucleus, it regulates the basal transcription machinery, nuclear receptor-mediated transcription and histone modifications. In the cytoplasm, the complex is required for messenger RNA (mRNA) turnover through its two associated deadenylases, Ccr4 and Caf1. Not1 is the largest protein of the Ccr4–Not complex and serves as a scaffold for other subunits of the complex. Here, we provide evidence that human Not1 in the cytoplasm associates with the C-terminal domain of tristetraprolin (TTP), an RNA binding protein that mediates rapid degradation of mRNAs containing AU-rich elements (AREs). Not1 shows extensive interaction through its central region with TTP, whereas binding of Caf1 is restricted to a smaller central domain within Not1. Importantly, Not1 is required for the rapid decay of ARE-mRNAs, and TTP can recruit the Caf1 deadenylase only in presence of Not1. Thus, cytoplasmic Not1 provides a platform that allows a specific RNA binding protein to recruit the Caf1 deadenylase and thereby trigger decay of its target mRNAs.
Incorporating Application Semantics and Control into Compilation

Programmers have traditionally been passive users of compilers, rather than active exploiters of their transformational abilities. This paper presents MAGIK, a system that allows programmers to easily and modularly incorporate application-specific extensions into the compilation process. The MAGIK system gives programmers two significant capabilities. First, it provides mechanisms that implementors can use to incorporate application semantics into compilation, thereby enabling both optimizations and semantic checking impossible by other means. Second, since extensions are invoked during the translation from source to machine code, code transformations (such as software fault isolation [14]) can be performed with full access to the symbol and data flow information available to the compiler proper, allowing them both to exploit source semantics and to have their transformations (automatically) optimized as any other code.
Interstitial deletion in 3q in a patient with blepharophimosis‐ptosis‐epicanthus inversus syndrome (BPES) and microcephaly, mild mental retardation and growth delay: Clinical report and review of the literature

We present a boy with blepharophimosis, ptosis, epicanthus inversus, microcephaly, mild mental retardation, and growth delay. Chromosomal analysis revealed a male karyotype with an interstitial deletion in the long arm of chromosome 3. DNA‐analysis showed that the deletion is of maternal origin and encompasses the region between markers D3S1535 and D3S1593. The deletion contains not only the FOXL2 gene, but also the gene encoding ataxia‐telangiectasia and Rad3‐related protein (ATR). Mutations in FOXL2 have been shown to cause blepharophimosis‐ptosis‐epicanthus inversus syndrome (BPES). ATR has been identified as a candidate gene for Seckel syndrome, an autosomal recessive syndrome that comprises growth retardation, microcephaly, and mental retardation. We hypothesize that our patient has a contiguous gene syndrome and that the non‐BPES‐associated abnormalities (microcephaly, mild mental retardation, and growth delay) are the result of the deletion of the maternal ATR gene. However, it has not yet been excluded that haploinsufficiency of some other gene in this region plays a role. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Social timing, clock genes and autism: a new hypothesis.

BACKGROUND Timing and social timing deficits are fundamental in autism and may play a developmental role in its manifestation. Sleep problems are associated with this disorder, as is a reduction or loss of Purkinje cells associated with regions of the brain which co-ordinate fine motor movements. Genetic studies suggest that a number of genes of limited effect lead to autism and that the genes are epistatic. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that anomalies in clock genes operating as timing genes in high frequency oscillator systems may underlie the timing deficits of autism. We outline how anomalies in methylation-related genes may also be implicated.
MATHEMATICAL GIFTEDNESS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Mathematical giftedness is noticeable, many a times, at a very young age. There are children who can do the 4 elementary operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division while still in kindergarten; others understand the meaning of "functions" at age 6-7; some children who ask "deep" mathematical questions, such as: "is zero the average between plus infinity and minus infinity? " when in elementary school. Unlike in many other areas, these children cannot be satisfied with enrichment in mathematics; they need the combination of both enrichment and substantial acceleration in order to get an answer to their needs, which are far above these of their peers.In this presentation suggested ways for nurturing the young mathematical children are to be offered, such as the use of art. The gaps between the mathematically gifted and his peers will be demonstrated, and thus the conclusion, that unless extra-curricular math is supplied – the young mathematically gifted might be highly frustrated. In addition, a few cases of mathematically gifted children are to be presented, from my experience as a private tutor when I was still in high school, as math teacher in high school, as a mother and as an educational psychologist.
Multiple Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria on Fluted Pumpkin Leaves, a Herb of Therapeutic Value

ABSTRACT Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis) is a minimally-processed green leafy vegetable traditionally used for its antianaemic properties in the form of leaf juice without a heating or inactivation step before consumption. The aim of the study was to assess the presence of surface microbiota on T. occidentalis leaves and also to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated organisms. Bacterial contaminants on 50 samples of T. occidentalis leaves were isolated and characterized using standard biochemical methods and the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated organisms was determined using the antibiotic disc diffusion assay. The results obtained show that the leaves of T. occidentalis is contaminated with organisms which included Enterobacter agglomerans (25.9%), Proteus vulgaris (24.9%), Klebsiella spp. (2.6%), and Serratia liquefaciens (2.1%). Other bacterial isolates recovered in order of frequency included: Staphylococcus spp. (33.7%), Bacillus spp. (8.3%), and Pseudomonas fluorescens (2.6%). Of the 193 bacterial isolates from the leaves of T. occidentalis samples tested for antimicrobial resistance, all (100%) were found to be resistant to ampicillin, cloxacillin, augmentin, erythromycin, and tetracycline while 96% of the isolates were resistant to cephalothin. Resistance to trimethoprim (93%) and gentamicin (83%) was also observed. Approximately, 22% of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin; however, only 11 (5.8%) were resistant to ofloxacin. Thus, uncooked T. occidentalis is a potential source of highly-resistant epiphytic bacteria which could be opportunistic pathogens in consumers.