Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Winter ecology of moose in the Gallatin mountains, Montana

Moose (Alces alces shirasi) winter range use and food habits were studied on the north slope of the Gallatin mountain range, Montana, from September, 1965, to December, 1967. Aerial observation indicated a low density population winters primarily on quaking aspen (Populus trem? wloides) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) vegetation types. Migration from fall to winter range was gradual and lasted throughout the winter. Highest moose concentrations were found on the aspen and Douglas-fire types in March and April. Rumen sample analyses indicated that low red huckleberry (Vacctnium scoparium) subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), and willow (Salix spp.) were the most important fall food items. Feeding site examinations indicated that willow, western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifoluz ), chokecherry ( Prunus virginians ), and red dogwood ( Corn? >s stolonifera ) were the most important species in winter. Serviceberry, dogwood, and willow remained important into the spring, when increased use of currant (Ribes spp.) and some forbs was noted. Aquatic pIants and grasses were found to be unimportant in the moose diet. Condition and trend transects indicated that the rarlge was in poor condition and deteriorating further. Reproduction data indicated calf: cow ratios of 5S: 100 and 52:100, in 1965 and 1966, respectively. Aerial observation was effective in determining moose distribution but not for total census of the study area. Willow was not found as important to this moose population as has been reported for the Shiras moose on other areas. This paper describes the winter range use food habits, and certain population characteristics of moose on the north slope of the Gallatin mountain rangen Montana. Quantitative data were accumulated from September, 1965, to December 1967, to describe the habits of the Shiras moose on various range types. Other authors (Denniston 1956, Knowlton 1960, Smith 19612, Houston 1968) have studied the ecology of the Shiras moosen but primarily on ranges where willow was the major habitat type. When Montana moose hunting terminated in 1897, populations were apparently very low in the areas surrounding Yellowstone National Park, including the Gallatin study area. McDowell and Moy ( 1942 ) reported that populations within the park attained a peak density about 19124. Subsequently) moose populations increased rapidly outside the park. A report (U. S. 1 A contribution of the Montana Fish and Game Department, Research Section, under PittmanRobertson Projects W-98-R6, W-98-R7, and W-98R8. 2Present address: National Park Service, Estes Park, Colorado. Forest Service 1935:64 66) indicated that moose were present in almost every drainage of the Gallatin and that forage was still plentiful. The first hunting season was held in 19S6 after a closure of almost 68) years. The first seasons were restricted to a fesv bull-only permits but in recent years more liberal Erermits for either sex have
Ecological hypotheses for a historical reconstruction of upper trophic level biomass in the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak

Fish and marine mammal populations in the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak have undergone major fluctuations over the past five centuries. We summarize how these fluctuations may have depended on various forms of predation (e.g., cannibalism, fishing, hunting) and environmental processes. The best-documented long-term fisheries in this region are the herring (Clupea harengus) fisheries near Bohuslan, western Sweden, and in the Oresund. These fisheries have been important since at least the 1200s and appear to be partly climatically driven. However, in the rest of the Baltic, information about fisheries for herring and other fish species is rare until after 1900. During the 20th century, while the Baltic underwent eutrophication, the biomass and landings of three fish species (cod (Gadus morhua), herring, and sprat (Sprattus sprattus)) all increased, whereas the biomass of marine mammals (grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), ringed seals (Phoca hispida), harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)) decreased. The relative r.
Collaborative Distributed Q-Learning for RACH Congestion Minimization in Cellular IoT Networks

Due to infrequent and massive concurrent access requests from the ever-increasing number of machine-type communication (MTC) devices, the existing contention-based random access (RA) protocols, such as slotted ALOHA, suffer from the severe problem of random access channel (RACH) congestion in emerging cellular IoT networks. To address this issue, we propose a novel collaborative distributed Q-learning mechanism for the resource-constrained MTC devices in order to enable them to find unique RA slots for their transmissions so that the number of possible collisions can be significantly reduced. In contrast to the independent Q-learning scheme, the proposed approach utilizes the congestion level of RA slots as the global cost during the learning process and thus can notably lower the learning time for the low-end MTC devices. Our results show that the proposed learning scheme can significantly minimize the RACH congestion in cellular IoT networks.
Computational Approaches to Morphology

Computational psycholinguistics has a long history of investigation and modeling of morphological phenomena. Several computational models have been developed to deal with the processing and production of morphologically complex forms and with the relation between linguistic morphology and psychological word representations. Historically, most of this work has focused on modeling the production of inflected word forms, leading to the development of models based on connectionist principles and other data-driven models such as Memory-Based Language Processing (MBLP), Analogical Modeling of Language (AM), and Minimal Generalization Learning (MGL). In the context of inflectional morphology, these computational approaches have played an important role in the debate between single and dual mechanism theories of cognition. Taking a different angle, computational models based on distributional semantics have been proposed to account for several phenomena in morphological processing and composition. Finally, although several computational models of reading have been developed in psycholinguistics, none of them have satisfactorily addressed the recognition and reading aloud of morphologically complex forms.
The effect of calving season and age at calving on production traits of South African dairy cattle

Lactation records of South African Holstein and Jersey cows were classified into six calving seasons and 18 age x lactation classes using several trials involving analysis of variance and estimation of fixed effects of calving age on test-day as well as 305-day yields. Best Linear Unbiased Estimates for the effect of season and age x lactation were derived using an animal model following the prediction of daily milk, butterfat and protein yields on fixed days-in-milk and of cumulative 305-day yields by linear interpolation. For both breeds, test-day and cumulative 305-day yields were higher for cows calving in mid-winter (June/July) compared to cows calving in mid-summer (December/January). Daily yields early in the lactation were more influenced by calving age than daily yields towards the end of the lactation. Cows that calved at younger ages in lactations 1 and 2 produced less milk compared to cows calving at older ages over the entire lactation. Second and later parity cows had higher test-day yields than heifers for most stages of the lactation. These estimates can be used to adjust test-day and cumulative yields for the effect of season and age class, thereby enabling the determination of herd levels and the derivation of standard lactation curves and projection factors for South African Holstein and Jersey cows.
The world of independent learners is not markovian

In multi-agent systems, the presence of learning agents can cause the environment to be non-Markovian from an agent's perspective thus violating the property that traditional single-agent learning methods rely upon. This paper formalizes some known intuition about concurrently learning agents by providing formal conditions that make the environment non-Markovian from an independent (non-communicative) learner's perspective. New concepts are introduced like the divergent learning paths and the observability of the effects of others' actions. To illustrate the formal concepts, a case study is also presented. These findings are significant because they both help to understand failures and successes of existing learning algorithms as well as being suggestive for future work.
Haematological and haematopoietic response to acid stress in an air‐breathing freshwater fish, Channa punctatus Bloch

Response of Channa punctatus to acidic water was studied by exposing fishes to pH 3.5, 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5 for 6 weeks. Growth and mortality data indicated increasing stress as the acid level in the ambient water increased. While no mortality was recorded at pH 6.5, a distinct loss of weight compared to continuous gain in body weight in control fish indicated stress. As the pH level decreased, the rate of loss in body weight increased accompanied by mortality which rose to as high as 60% within 3 weeks in fishes exposed to water at pH 3.5. Haematological investigations confirmed the general stress indicated by growth and mortality data. Thus. RBC and related values indicated overall polycythemia. However, eosinophils, basophils. and large and small lymphocytes showed a distinct fall in number as compared to the control. Correlated haematopoietic studies revealed that both the initial and penultimate stages in RBC and neutrophil development recorded an increase parallel to that observed in peripheral blood, but intermediate stages, probably because they were unable to keep pace with the fast turnover, showed a relative decrease. Biochemical investigations showed an increase not only in blood glucose level but also in liver glycogen content. However, there was a significant decrease in muscle glycogen reserves. The significance of these changes is discussed.
Abolition of 'Kipat' Land Tenure System: The Context and Consequences

'Kipat' was tenure of land existing mainly in Eastern part of Nepal. This was a communal land holding by the Kirats of the then Majh and Pallo Kirat area. After the unification of the modern Nepal, late king Prithivinarayan Shah also established the type of tenure in the same manner as it was in the control of the Kirat tiny state. The land tenure system of Kirat was communal. The land was not saleable to other persons who were not the progeny of the first user and maker of the Pakho-Banjo to arable land. It might be given as Dan; the Jimmawala might give it by Pajani. The land ultimately was the property of King, and King could make and change on the holding for social use. Kirat area was not the conquered part of Nepal but it was annexed in Nepal by negotiation between the Kirata and the ruler of Nepal. Limbu, Rai and Khumbu devoted land to the king to win mercy and obtain the ranks like Subba, Majhiya, Jimi etc. Mahesh Chandra Regmi claims that Tamang, Sherpa, Kumhal and Lepcha had also this form of tenure. Similarly, Tamang of East No. 1 and 2 and Majhi-Bote of Palpa and Achham had tiny Kipat land. But Sherpas of eastern Nepal had no such tenural land. The Rana rulers had also continued the Kipat land tenure system. After the dawn of democracy, the overall pattern of governance changed. In this context, different segments of people raised issues of political and social change. The change of land tenure system was also one among them. The UN agency FAO started to lead for positive changes on land issues. In the 60s, like most of others LDCs, Nepal had adopted the state-led land reform program. In this context, the Land Reforms Act, 1964 was proclaimed. nd Land
The mode of action of Bacillus thuringiensis crystal proteins

Guy Hon6e* & Bert Visser** Centre for Plant Breeding and Reproduction Research, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; *Present address: Department of Phytopathology, Agricultural University, P.O. Box 8025, 6700 EE Wageningen, The Netherlands; ** Present address: Directorate-General of Development Cooperation, Minestry of Foreign Affaires, P.O. Box 20061, 2500 EB The Hague, The Netherlands
Programs to address child marriage: framing the problem.

Child marriage violates girls’ human rights and adversely affects their health and well-being. While age at marriage is increasing in most regions of the developing world early marriage persists for large populations. Worldwide it is estimated that more than one out of three women aged 20-24 were married before age 18 and one out of seven were married before age 15 (Population Council analysis of 2006 DHS data). There is great variation in child marriage practices across and within regions and between ethnic and religious groups. The highest proportions of child brides are typically found in West Africa and South Asia (see Table 1 for some regional hotspots of child marriage). Eradicating child marriage has long been on the agenda of the United Nations and of individual countries. Indeed all countries where child marriage occurs are signatories to international charters and covenants that discourage the practice. International human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990) provide four main protections against child marriage: 1) Requiring that intending parties exercise “free and full consent” in the marriage decision; 2) Setting the minimum age of marriage at 18 the upper limit of childhood as defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child; 3) Calling on states to ban “harmful practices” including child marriage; and 4) Entitling children to special protections including the right to express their views freely in all matters regarding their welfare; the right to education on the basis of equal opportunity; the right to protection from all forms of physical or mental violence injury or abuse maltreatment or exploitation; and the right to health and access to health services. (excerpt)
Use of Network Analysis to Assess the Vulnerability of an Electrical Supply Network

This paper presents the results of a network analys is of the UK’s electrical distribution network. A mathematical network model was developed which coul d simulate the network’s response to the effect of natural disaster. This model was then used to calcu late the topological properties of the network and simulate the effects of a disaster by randomly removing links an d nodes from the model. The model was constructed using a map of the transmission system of the National Gr id of the United Kingdom. The nodes in the model represented the power stations and substations and the links the transmission lines. The final model r epresenting the network contained 55 large power stations, 169 substations and 313. Topological properties, such a s the clustering coefficient, of the network were calcula ted. In addition to calculating network properties , an algorithm was developed which independently removed links at random from the network. 2000 simulations were conducted to assess the vulnerability of the n etwork. The results of the study show that the UK’ s electrical distribution network has a clustering co efficient of 0.14, which is slightly higher than th e value of 0.1 calculated by Watts P& Strogatz (1998) for the Nort h America power grid. This suggests the UK’s elect rical distribution network is likely to be more robust. Also, the average number of links that can be remov ed before failure is estimated to be 6, implying that on aver ge, 6 links (high voltage transmission lines) woul d have to fail simultaneously or shortly after one another before a community or region loses electricity supply. As a result of this analysis it is proposed that by adding seve ral critical links to the network its robustness ca n be significantly increased and the vulnerability of ce rtain nodes can be greatly reduced.
Phylogenetic beta diversity, similarity, and differentiation measures based on Hill numbers

Until now, decomposition of abundance-sensitive gamma (regional) phylogenetic diversity measures into alpha and beta (within- and between-group) components has been based on an additive partitioning of phylogenetic generalized entropies, especially Rao's quadratic entropy. This additive approach led to a phylogenetic measure of differentiation between assemblages: (gamma − alpha)/gamma. We show both empirically and theoretically that this approach inherits all of the problems recently identified in the additive partitioning of non-phylogenetic generalized entropies. When within-assemblage (alpha) quadratic entropy is high, the additive beta and the differentiation measure (gamma − alpha)/gamma always tend to zero (implying no differentiation) regardless of phylogenetic structures and differences in species abundances across assemblages. Likewise, the differentiation measure based on the phylogenetic generalization of Shannon entropy always approaches zero whenever gamma phylogenetic entropy is high. Such .
Human Activity Identification by Height and Doppler RCS Information Detected by MIMO Radar

This paper introduces a method that identifies human activity from the height and Doppler Radar Cross Section (RCS) information detected by Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) radar. This method estimates the three-dimensional target location by applying the MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) method to the observed MIMO channel; the Doppler RCS is calculated from the signal reflected from the target. A gesture recognition algorithm is applied to the trajectory of the temporal transition of the estimated human height and the Doppler RCS. In experiments, the proposed method achieves over 90% recognition rate (average). key words: MIMO array, human activity identification, human localization, MUSIC method, microwave sensors, Doppler RCS.
Vitamin D3 as a Powerful Immunoregulator - Cause or Consequence of Disbalance?

For the last two decades the role of Vitamin D3 has been recognized not only as a regulatory component of a bone kidney metabolism, but also as an important immunomodulator [1]. Low serum levels of vitamin D are detected before an egzacebation in rheumatic diseases: psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis [2,3]. Same has been shown in exacerbation of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, in some kinds of cancer, in cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus type 2 [4-8]. Also, low levels of vitamin D3 have been confirmed many years before onset of autoimmune disease [2,9].
Longevity of Ponderosa Pine Seed

Seed of ponderosa pine (Pin-us ponderosa Laws.) collected in northern Arizona from 1909 to 1960 was tested for germination in the winter of 1960-61. Even after 35 years in storage, 16% of the seeds germinated. Various authors have stressed the importance of low moisture content and low air temperature for successful storage of conifer seed. Allen (1957) found that seeds of 11 different conifers can be stored successfully for periods of five to seven years in sealed jars at 00 F. and 320 F. and moisture contents under 10%. Seeds of most species stored at fluctuating room temperature lost viability completely after seven years. Germination of seed of ponderosa pine, however, dropped to only 35% from an initial germination of 66%. Ponderosa pine seed maintained viability when stored 23 years in a cool cellar (U.S. Forest Service, 1944). Storage temperatures slightly above freezing and seed moisture less than 10% are recommended for most species of pine. In this test seeds collected before 1959 were stored in glass jars in a cool root cellar until 1958 when the cellar was converted. to other use. The seeds were then moved to a house. Maximum air temperature of the root cellar is estimated to be between 50? F. and 60? F. , while air temperature in the house probably reached Q0' F. during the summer. Seeds collected in 1959 and 1960 were stored in jars in a refrigerator. Standard germination tests (U.S. Forest Service, 1944) were run with a 400-seed sample from each year. Germinated seeds were counted each day and then removed from the flats. Average maximum and minimum air temperatures during the test were 800 F. and 68? F. , respectively. The percentage of filled seeds was determined by smashing a 400-seed sample from each year's lot except 1909 for which only 100 seeds were available and 1948 for which no extra seeds were available. Moisture content was determined by ovendrying 10 g to 20 g samples of seed from each lot. Samples from each year except 1909 and 1921 contained viable seeds (Table I). Ninety-seven percent of the seeds collected in 1960 germinated. Germination of some older seeds was 70% after 10 years, 36% after 27 years, and 16% after 35 years. Eighty to 99% of viable seeds in all lots germinated within 20 days. The percentage of filled seeds ranged from 71 to 99. Moisture content was less than 10% for all lots except the one collected in 1959. Ponderosa pine seeds may be kept for long periods in
Statistical methodology for QTL mapping and genome-wide association studies

This work deals with statistical tests of association between genetic markers and disease phenotypes. The main criterion used for comparing the tests is statistical power. First we consider animal models and then data from association studies of humans. For the animal section, we analyse a dataset from a prominent mouse experiment which developed a heterogeneous stock of mice via multiple crosses. This stock is characterised by small distances between recombinants which allows fine mapping of genetic loci, but also by uncertainty in haplotypes. We start by highlighting the disadvantages of the currently used approach to deal with this uncertainty and suggest a method that has greater statistical power and is computationally efficient. The method applies the EM algorithm to the broad class of exponential family distributions of phenotypes. We also develop a Bayesian version of the method, for which we extend the widely used IRLS algorithm to maximisation of the weighted posterior. Then we move on to genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where two situations are considered: known and unknown minor allele frequency. First we develop an innovative Bayesian model with the optimal prior for the known population MAF. We demonstrate that not only it is more powerful than any frequentist test considered (the size of the advantage depends on prevalence of the disease and MAF), but also that the frequentist tests change ranking in terms of power. A remarkable property of the frequentist tests, the advantage of discarding part of the data to gain power, is highlighted. The second chapter on GWAS considers the currently more common situation of the unknown MAF, when the Armitage test is known to be the most powerful frequentist method. We show that the suggested model is more powerful in the broad selection of settings considered, including the three different allele effect models: additive, dominant and recessive. For both known and unknown MAF cases we point out that the parameters are constrained and demonstrate how to gain power by taking this constraint into account.