Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the use of local ecological knowledge to monitor hunted tropical-forest wildlife over large spatial scales

Monitoring the distribution and abundance of hunted wildlife is critical to achieving sustainable resource use, yet adequate data are sparse for most tropical regions. Conventional methods for monitoring hunted forest-vertebrate species require intensive in situ survey effort, which severely constrains spatial and temporal replication. Integrating local ecological knowledge (LEK) into monitoring and management is appealing because it can be cost-effective, enhance community participation, and provide novel insights into sustainable resource use. We develop a technique to monitor population depletion of hunted forest wildlife in the Brazilian Amazon, based on the local ecological knowledge of rural hunters. We performed rapid interview surveys to estimate the landscape-scale depletion of ten large-bodied vertebrate species around 161 Amazonian riverine settlements. We assessed the explanatory and predictive power of settlement and landscape characteristics and were able to develop robust estimates of local faunal depletion. By identifying species-specific drivers of depletion and using secondary data on human population density, land form, and physical accessibility, we then estimated landscape- and regional-scale depletion. White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), for example, were estimated to be absent from 17% of their putative range in Brazil’s largest state (Amazonas), despite 98% of the original forest cover remaining intact. We found evidence that bushmeat consumption in small urban centers has far-reaching impacts on some forest species, including severe depletion well over 100 km from urban centers. We conclude that LEK-based approaches require further field validation, but have significant potential for community-based participatory monitoring as well as cost-effective, large-scale monitoring of threatened forest species.
Factors influencing zooplankton size structure at contrasting temperatures in coastal shallow lakes: Implications for effects of climate change

We assessed the importance of temperature, salinity, and predation for the size structure of zooplankton and provided insight into the future ecological structure and function of shallow lakes in a warmer climate. Artificial plants were introduced in eight comparable coastal shallow brackish lakes located at two contrasting temperatures: cold‐temperate and Mediterranean climate region. Zooplankton, fish, and macroinvertebrates were sampled within the plants and at open‐water habitats. The fish communities of these brackish lakes were characterized by small‐sized individuals, highly associated with submerged plants. Overall, higher densities of small planktivorous fish were recorded in the Mediterranean compared to the cold‐temperate region, likely reflecting temperature‐related differences as have been observed in freshwater lakes. Our results suggest that fish predation is the major control of zooplankton size structure in brackish lakes, since fish density was related to a decrease in mean body size and density of zooplankton and this was reflected in a unimodal shaped biomass‐size spectrum with dominance of small sizes and low size diversity. Salinity might play a more indirect role by shaping zooplankton communities toward more salt‐tolerant species. In a global‐warming perspective, these results suggest that changes in the trophic structure of shallow lakes in temperate regions might be expected as a result of the warmer temperatures and the potentially associated increases in salinity. The decrease in the density of large‐bodied zooplankton might reduce the grazing on phytoplankton and thus the chances of maintaining the clear water state in these ecosystems.
The Validity of the Qualitative Measures of Teaching Performance Scale as a Measure of Teacher Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the Qualitative Measures of Teaching Performance Scale (QMTPS; Rink & Werner, 1989) and teacher effectiveness in producing student achievement. The QMTPS focuses primarily on variables related to teacher clarity and task presentation. Nine middle school generalist (classroom) teachers were asked to teach the volleyball forearm pass and serve over eight lessons as part of their normal curriculum. Students were pre- and posttested on the serve and forearm pass using the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (1969) volleyball tests. All lessons were videotaped and were coded using the QMTPS instrument. The relationship between the QMTPS total score and student achievement was significant for the forearm pass and for the serve. The authors concluded that the QMTPS was a valid measure of teacher effectiveness when the total QMTPS score for several lessons was used.
Output feedback sliding‐mode control with unmatched disturbances, an ISS approach

The robustness properties of a first‐order sliding‐mode controller are combined with those of an added linear term in order to obtain a closed loop that shows input‐to‐state stability with respect to matched and unmatched disturbances, of which an upper bound might not be known, using only output information. The output under consideration can have any relative degree. Also, a transformation of the state into a novel output normal form is presented. The zero dynamics are considered unstable and perturbed, so a methodology for defining an observer and a virtual control for it is presented. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of the Feeds Containing Different Plant Protein Sources on Growth Performance and Body Composition of Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, W.)

In this study, a total of 720 rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) having 50.08±0.19 g of average initial weight were used to compare of usage of the soybean meal, sunflower meal, canola meal and cottonseed meal as the best plant protein source. Four different feeds which contain soybean meal (SBM), canola meal (CM), sunflower meal (SFM) and cotton seed meal were used, respectively. Four trial groups were tested in triplicate during 12 weeks. Experimental diets were prepared as isonitrogenous (42% CP) and isocaloric (13.9 MJ DE/kg feed). At the end of the study, it was observed that there was no significantly difference among the groups for average feed consumption, condition factor and survival rate, however, average live weight, live weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and specific growth rate (SGR) were found statistically significant (P<0.05). Moreover, the difference in the composition of carcass and total body between the groups were found statistically significant (P<0.05). Consequently, it is concluded that soybean meal, canola meal and sunflower meal can be used as a part of fish meal, however cottonseed meal can be used as only smolt or older trout feeds if it is cheap and has good quality.
Enhanced Security Mechanism for Emerging Home Area Networks

The recent advancement in internetworking technologies has provided the connectivity not only between humans, but between things too. For these things, it introduces the “internet of things” (IoT) that is now widely using in various domains. Under the IoT umbrella, particularly for homes, a relatively new type of network, i.e. home area network (HAN) has gained much interest these days. However, for such networks the security is the biggest concern for the users. This paper provides an overview of HAN that can be used for smart homes using range of multiple wireless access techniques. Further, a thorough discussion on security vulnerability is presented while an enhanced security mechanism is also proposed for the future HANs. For this purpose, a state of the art encryption algorithm Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) which provides high level security with small key size is proposed. The proposed ECC has considered all the aspects of information security such as data confidentiality, access control, authentication, availability, data integrity and non-repudiation. Moreover, it also reduces the processing overhead and battery consumption of battery operated devices in
Shade tolerance and the functional trait: demography relationship in temperate and boreal forests

Summary Despite being instrumental in forest ecology, the definition and nature of shade tolerance are complex and not beyond controversy. Moreover, the role it plays in the trait–demography relationship remains unclear. Here, we hypothesize that shade tolerance can be achieved by alternative combinations of traits depending on the species' functional group (evergreen vs. deciduous species) and that its ability to explain the array of traits involved in demography will also vary between these two groups. We used dimension reduction to identify the main trait spectra for 48 tree species, including 23 evergreens and 25 deciduous – dispersed across 21 genera and 13 families. We assessed the relationship between functional traits, shade tolerance, and demographic performance at high and low light using structural equation modelling. The dimensions found corresponded to the trait spectra previously observed in the literature and were significantly related to measures of demography. However, our results support the existence of a divergence between evergreen and deciduous species in the way shade tolerance relates to the demography of species along light gradients. We show that shade tolerance can be attained through different combination of traits depending on the functional and geographical context, and thus, its utilization as a predictor of forest dynamics and species coexistence requires previous knowledge on the role it plays in the demographic performance of the species under study. A lay summary is available for this article.
Handy method to estimate uncertainty of temperature measurement by infrared thermography

Abstract. Temperature measurement by infrared thermography is a technique that is widely used in predictive maintenance to detect faults. The uncertainty involved in measuring temperature by thermography is not only due to the imager, but also due to the measurements and estimates made by the user: emissivity of the inspected object, distance, temperature, and relative humidity of the propagation medium, temperature of objects located in the ambient, and the imager itself. This measurement uncertainty should be available for the thermographer to be able to make a more accurate diagnosis. The methods available in the literature to estimate the uncertainty of measured temperature usually require information nonaccessible to the regular thermographer. This paper proposes a method for calculating the uncertainty of temperature that requires only data available to the thermographer. This method is useful under usual conditions in predictive maintenance—short distance (7.5 to 14 μm) thermal imagers, no fog or rain, among others. It provides results similar to methods that use models that are not available or reserved by the manufacturers of imagers. The results indicate that not all sources of uncertainty are relevant in measurement uncertainty. However, the total uncertainty can be so high that it may lead to misdiagnosis.
Labour and capital saving technical change in telecommunications

The Australian telecommunications sector is being improved and extended through substantial recent investment in intelligent technology such as digital switching, fibre optics, satellite and cellular transmission, and the Internet. These technologies are being progressively integrated with technology from the broadcasting, computer and electronics industries, providing a unified information infrastructure for information transmission and processing. Technological progress embodied in new equipment has the effect of increasing the efficiency of the factors of production. Such efficiency increases can be biased towards a particular factor. For instance, the impact of labour-augmenting technical change is a decline in the cost of labour per unit of production. When such biases are apparent the relativity between the costs of labour and capital per unit of production is changed. In the longer term, technical change can impact on the rate of employment growth and also on the rate of capital accumulation. In this study the Australian telecommunications cost structure is examined for the period 1919 to 1988. To measure labour saving and capital saving technical change a translog cost model is estimated. Multiproduct telecommunications cost studies typically employ the translog cost model (Evans and Heckman, 1984; Roöller, 1990a; 1990b; Shin and Ying, 1992; McKenzie and Small, 1997). The translog model places no a priori restrictions on substitution possibilities among the factors of production, and allows scale economies to vary with the level of output.
Resonant Lifetime of Core-Excited Organic Adsorbates from First Principles

We investigate by first-principles simulations the resonant electron-transfer lifetime from the excited state of an organic adsorbate to a semiconductor surface, namely, isonicotinic acid on rutile TiO2(110). The molecule–substrate interaction is described using density functional theory, while the effect of a truly semi-infinite substrate is taken into account by Green’s function techniques. Excitonic effects due to the presence of core-excited atoms in the molecule are shown to be instrumental to understand the electron-transfer times measured using the so-called core-hole-clock technique. In particular, for the isonicotinic acid on TiO2(110), we find that the charge injection from the LUMO is quenched, since this state lies within the substrate band gap. We compute the resonant charge-transfer times from LUMO+1 and LUMO+2, and systematically investigate the dependence of the elastic lifetimes of these states on the alignment among adsorbate and substrate states.
Some Remarks on the Geomorphological Evolution of the Eastern Alps . Constraints on Above-Surface Geometry of Tectonic Boundaries ?

Morphological first order features of the eastern Alps are used to derive information on the geometry of fundamental tectonic boundaries in parts of the crustal profile that have long eroded into the Molasse basins. In our approach we utilise 1) the close association of the Alpine geology with the topography and 2) the association of the drainage pattern with the first order geological boundaries. *) Authors' address: KURTSTOWE, MIKE SANDIFORD, Department of Geology and Geophysics, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA5005, Australia, email: mstuwe@jaeger.geology. adelaide.edu. au. 166 K, STÜWE & w. SANDIFORD Inasmuch as the present topography preserves about 20 % of the total denudation profile eroded since the Tertiary, we suggest that it should be possible to use this relief to infer some of the above-surface structure of the eastern Alps. In order to quantify our estimates we apply the diffusion equation and solve it with pinned boundary conditions in drainage systems that incised along a range of hypothetical shapes of the above-surface tectonic boundaries. Two other important variables control the model predictions: the exhumation history and erosion contrast between different rock types. The exhumation history is well constrained by geobarometric estimates at the present exposure level with largest amounts of denudation occurring in the area of highest present surface elevation. The erosional parameters can be determined implicitly through the model calculations. We derive best fit estimates of 0.3 kmMaerosional diffusivity for the calcareous Alps and 7.6 kmMafor the crystalline nappes of the central Tauern for denudation histories scaled to a 30 Ma duration. The present shape of the Alps can be best approximated with originally steeply dipping decollements between the crystalline nappes and the calcareous Alps in the north and south, respectively. The suggestion of a steep above-surface continuation of these fundamental tectonic boundaries may have important implications for Cretaceous nappe tectonics.
Neural network modeling of prosodic prominence in Besemah (Malayic, Indonesia)

A number of recent studies have proposed that various languages in western Indonesia do not show evidence of wordlevel stress, and they only exhibit evidence for sentence-level prominence [1, 2]. This study examines the acoustic realization of prosodic prominence within different domains in Besemah, a little-described Malayic language of southwest Sumatra, Indonesia. The present study reports the results of a production experiment in which six female native speakers of Besemah completed an information gap task where target words were uttered in different frames that varied along two dimensions: information status and position within the sentence. Based on the results of a neural network analysis that used acoustic features to predict syllable position in the word, information status, and sentence position, this study shows that information status cannot be predicted above chance, but that both position of the syllable in the word and the position within in sentence can be predicted with above chance levels of accuracy. These patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that Besemah has predictable word-level stress, sentence-level prosodic boundary marking, and does not use prosodic means to mark focus.
Ontogeny in marine tagging and tracking science: technologies and data gaps

The field of marine tagging and tracking has grown rapidly in recent years as tag sizes have decreased and the diversity of sensors has increased. Tag data provide a unique view on individual movement patterns, at different scales than shipboard surveys, and have been used to discover new habitat areas, characterize oceanographic features, and delineate stock struc- tures, among other purposes. Due to the necessity for small tag-to-body size ratio, tags have largely been deployed on adult animals, resulting in a relative paucity of data on earlier life his- tory stages. In this study, we reviewed tagging efforts on multiple life history stages for seabirds, marine mammals, marine turtles, and fish and enumerated studies focusing on each guild that tar- geted larvae, juveniles or hatchlings. We found that turtles and fish had higher proportion of stud- ies focusing on juveniles (>20%) than seabirds and marine mammals (<10%). On both juveniles and adults, tags were used in a targeted manner with passive and transmitting tags as the main tools for population demography and connectivity studies, while GPS and archival tags were used more frequently for habitat analyses and foraging ecology. These findings identify the need to focus on novel approaches in tagging multiple life history stages both to study marine predator ecology and to effectively manage marine populations.
Inhibitor That Shows Antitumor Activity The Development of a Selective Cyclin-Dependent Kinase

Normal progression through the cell cycle requires the sequential action of cyclin-dependent kinases CDK1, CDK2, CDK4, and CDK6. Direct or indirect deregulation of CDK activity is a feature of almost all cancers and has led to the development of CDK inhibitors as anticancer agents. The CDKactivating kinase (CAK) plays a critical role in regulating cell cycle by mediating the activating phosphorylation of CDK1, CDK2, CDK4, and CDK6. As such, CDK7, which also regulates transcription as part of the TFIIH basal transcription factor, is an attractive target for the development of anticancer drugs. Computer modeling of the CDK7 structure was used to design potential potent CDK7 inhibitors. Here, we show that a pyrazolo[1,5-a ]pyrimidine–derived compound, BS-181, inhibited CAK activity with an IC50 of 21 nmol/L. Testing of other CDKs as well as another 69 kinases showed that BS-181 only inhibited CDK2 at concentrations lower than 1 Mmol/L, with CDK2 being inhibited 35-fold less potently (IC50 880 nmol/L) than CDK7. In MCF-7 cells, BS-181 inhibited the phosphorylation of CDK7 substrates, promoted cell cycle arrest and apoptosis to inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines, and showed antitumor effects in vivo . The drug was stable in vivo with a plasma elimination half-life in mice of 405 minutes after i.p. administration of 10 mg/kg. The same dose of drug inhibited the growth of MCF-7 human xenografts in nude mice. BS-181 therefore provides the first example of a potent and selective CDK7 inhibitor with potential as an anticancer agent. [Cancer Res 2009;69(15):6208–15]
Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture

This article argues for a clearer framework of internet-based “memes”. The science of memes, dubbed ‘memetics’, presumes that memes remain “copying units” following the popularisation of the concept in Richard Dawkins’ celebrated work, The Selfish Gene (1976). Yet Peircean semiotics and biosemiotics can challenge this doctrine of information transmission. While supporting a precise and discursive framework for internet memes, semiotic readings reconfigure contemporary formulations to the – now-established – conception of memes. Internet memes can and should be conceived, then, as habit-inducing sign systems incorporating processes involving asymmetrical variation. So, drawing on biosemiotics, Tartu-Moscow semiotics, and Peircean semiotic principles, and through a close reading of the celebrated 2011 Internet meme Rebecca Black’s Friday , this article proposes a working outline for the definition of internet memes and its applicability for the semiotic analysis of texts in new media communication.
Piezoelectric properties of lead-free (Na_0.5Bi_0.5)TiO_3–(Na_0.5K_0.5)NbO_3–BaTiO_3 ceramics

The microstructural evolution and piezoelectric properties of lead-free ceramics (0.98- x )(Na_0.5Bi_0.5)TiO_3– x (Na_0.5K_0.5)NbO_3–0. 02BaTiO_3 (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.98, abbreviated as (0.98- x )NBT– x NKN–0.02BT) were investigated. The effects of the amount of NKN on the crystal structure, microstructural evolution, and piezoelectric properties were examined. The 0.93NBT–0.05NKN–0.02BT ceramics having a lower NKN content gave good performances with piezoelectric properties of d _33 = 140 pC/N and k _p = 21%, because of the soft additive Nb^5+ ions at the B sites. However, a paraelectric cubic phase was observed in the wide range of compositions between x = 0.1 and x = 0.9. At a higher NKN content of x > 0.9, a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) between the tetragonal and orthorhombic phases was found in the 0.015NBT–0.965NKN–0.02BT ceramics, and the piezoelectric properties were enhanced ( d _33 = 135 pC/N, k _p = 29%). The piezoelectric properties of this system were closely related to its crystal structure.