Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure on the reproductive success of montane forbs

Changes from historic weather patterns have affected the phenology of many organisms world‐wide. Altered phenology can introduce organisms to novel abiotic conditions during growth and modify species interactions, both of which could drive changes in reproduction. We explored how climate change can alter plant reproduction using an experiment in which we manipulated the individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure, and measured subsequent effects on flowering phenology, peak flower density, frost damage, pollinator visitation and reproduction of four subalpine wildflowers. Additionally, we conducted a pollen‐supplementation experiment to test whether the plants in our snowmelt and frost treatments were pollen limited for reproduction. The four plants included species flowering in early spring to mid‐summer. The phenology of all four species was significantly advanced, and the bloom duration was longer in the plots from which we removed snow, but with species‐specific responses to snow removal and frost exposure in terms of frost damage, flower production, pollinator visitation and reproduction. The two early blooming species showed significant signs of frost damage in both early snowmelt and frost treatments, which negatively impacted reproduction for one of the species. Further, we recorded fewer pollinators during flowering for the earliest‐blooming species in the snow removal plots. We also found lower fruit and seed set for the early blooming species in the snow removal treatment, which could be attributed to the plants growing under unfavourable abiotic conditions. However, the later‐blooming species escaped frost damage even in the plots where snow was removed, and experienced increased pollinator visitation and reproduction. Synthesis. This study provides insight into how plant communities could become altered due to changes in abiotic conditions, and some of the mechanisms involved. While early blooming species may be at a disadvantage under climate change, species that bloom later in the season may benefit from early snowmelt, suggesting that climate change has the potential to reshape flowering communities.
Genetic evaluation of clinical mastitis traits in Holstein cattle

The results obtained from different models for predicting breeding values for clinical mastitis (CM) in Holstein cattle were compared. CM was recorded in 30 882 lactations of 12 793 cows in 8 herds from 1996 to 2016. CM was considered either as an all-or-none binary trait (0 – absence of mastitis; 1 – at least one case of CM per lactation) or as the number of cases. CM is recorded in the first 150 days of lactation or throughout the entire course of lactation. Breeding values were predicted with a single-trait repeatability model and with a bivariate animal model, where CM during the 1st lactation and CM during the 2nd and later lactations were considered as two different traits. Estimated heritability ranged from 0.06 for CM as a 0/1 trait during the first 150 days of lactation in the repeatability model to 0.12 for the number of CM cases during the 1st lactation in the bivariate model. Ranking of the sires with 15 or more daughters and of the cows was performed according to their breeding values, and Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated. Rank correlations of breeding values from the repeatability and bivariate models were stronger for the same parts of lactation (150 vs 305 days; 0.88–0.96) and for the repeatability model and the bivariate model for the 2nd and later lactations (0.95–0.98). Trends of average male and female breeding values according to their birth year were used to assess genetic changes in the population. The average breeding values declined slowly for cows born since 2003 but stayed above neutral value, thus indicating permanent genetic deterioration of mastitis resistance.
From Gaming to Computational Thinking: An Adaptive Educational Computer Game-Based Learning Approach

Educational games have been increasingly used to improve students’ computational thinking. However, most existing games have focused on the theoretical knowledge of computational thinking, ignoring the development of computational thinking skills. Moreover, there is a lack of integration of adaptivity into educational computer games for computational thinking, which is crucial to addressing individual needs in developing computational thinking skills. In this study, we present an adaptive educational computer game, called AutoThinking, for developing students’ computational thinking skills in addition to their conceptual knowledge. To evaluate the effects of the game, we conducted an experimental study with 79 elementary school students in Estonia, where the experimental group learned with AutoThinking, while the control group used a traditional technology-enhanced learning approach. Our findings show that learning with the adaptive educational computer game significantly improved students’ computational thinking related to both conceptual knowledge and skills. Moreover, students using the adaptive educational computer game showed a significantly higher level of interest, satisfaction, flow state, and technology acceptance in learning computational thinking. Implications of the findings are also discussed.
Activity overlap of carnivores, their potential wild prey, and temporal segregation, with livestock in a Biosphere Reserve in the Chihuahuan Desert

Daily activity is an important aspect of animal behavior and depends both on nutritional and reproductive demands. It also can be modified by—among other factors—interspecific competition, the need to minimize the risk of predation, and human disturbance, such as the presence of cattle. We studied the activity patterns and degree of overlap among carnivores, their potential wild prey, and livestock, in a Biosphere Reserve in the Chihuahuan Desert. There was no temporal segregation among the carnivores. Carnivores synchronized their activity with that of their main prey, the black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus). In contrast, we did observe temporal segregation between the puma (Puma concolor), coyote (Canis latrans), and bobcat (Lynx rufus), with mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). There was little activity overlap between predators and livestock (Bos taurus, Equus caballus). However, to avoid conflict resulting from livestock predation we suggest increasing and improving surveillance, and that calves and females close to calving be sheltered. More studies on the multiniche interactions of livestock and their wild predators are needed to understand daily activity overlap in different seasons, and to better understand the mechanisms of coexistence in protected areas in order to make sound management recommendations to cattle growers and park rangers.
Repressive Gene Regulation Synchronizes Development with Cellular Metabolism

Metabolic conditions affect the developmental tempo of most animal species. Consequently, developmental gene regulatory networks (GRNs) must faithfully adjust their dynamics to a variable time scale. We find evidence that layered weak repression of genes provides the necessary coupling between GRN output and cellular metabolism. Using a mathematical model that replicates such a scenario, we find that lowering metabolism corrects developmental errors that otherwise occur when different layers of repression are lost. Through mutant analysis, we show that gene expression dynamics are unaffected by loss of repressors, but only when cellular metabolism is reduced. We further show that when metabolism is lowered, formation of a variety of sensory organs in Drosophila is normal despite loss of individual repressors of transcription, mRNA stability, and protein stability. We demonstrate the universality of this phenomenon by experimentally eliminating the entire microRNA family of repressors, and find that all microRNAs are rendered unnecessary when metabolism is reduced. Thus, layered weak repression provides robustness through error frequency suppression, and may provide an evolutionary route to a shorter reproductive cycle.
The Role of Situation Criticality in Affecting the Effect of Cognitive Load on Drivers’ Brake responses: A Driving Simulator Based Study

A dramatic increase in talking on the phone whilst driving has been seen over the past decades, which posed a significant safety threat on the whole society consequently. Studies on the topic regarding the effect of phone conversations on drivers’ driving performances have never come to a cease, especially on the studies of drivers’ brake response times. However, few studies focus on the relationship between situation criticality and the effect of cognitive load on drivers’ brake responses. To better understand it, a driving simulator experiment with two braking scenarios corresponding to two levels of situation criticality was conducted in this study. Participants were asked to follow a lead vehicle as they normally did and answer arithmetic problems (simple and complex) in three phone modes (baseline, hands-free, and handheld) in the meantime. Drivers’ brake response times to the lead vehicle under five conditions were collected and fitted in accumulator models, in which visual looming and brake lights onset were included as the sensory cues. Results demonstrated that the previously proposed mechanistically explicit simulation model was able to predict drivers’ brake response times on different levels of cognitive load and the increased effect of cognitive load on drivers’ brake response times in less critical situations was demonstrated in this paper as well.
Habitat use of toothed whales in a marine protected area based on point process models

Toothed whales (Odontocetes) are highly mobile animals that play key trophic roles in ecosystems and whose habitats often overlap with areas of human activity. To mitigate detrimental effects of this overlap, it is critical to understand their habitat use patterns. The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in the western Gulf of Maine is a hypothesized foraging area for toothed whale species and an area of high human use, but odontocete habitat use there is poorly understood. While a large whale watch community provides a robust, long-term, opportunistic sighting data set, those data are not standardized. To overcome this limitation, we used point process models to analyze 10 yr of opportunistic sighting data. We identified spatial distribution patterns and environmental predictors for the 2 most common odontocete species in the sanctuary, Atlantic whitesided dolphins Lagenorhynchus acutus and harbor porpoise Phocoena phocoena. Habitat use differed among months, and depth, slope, substrate, and salinity were the most important and consistent predictors for both species. Models identified both persistent and shifting hotspots within the sanctuary. While presence was strongly associated with several covariates, environmental predictors did not fully explain shifting hotspots. This work highlights the importance of long-term opportunistic data collection and provides new knowledge on habitat use to inform assessment and management of potential human impacts on odontocetes in a federal marine protected area.
Museum specimens: An overlooked and valuable material for conservation genetics

Museum specimens include genetic information from when they were collected. This historical information, which is very difficult to ascertain from samples collected currently, could be a valuable material for use in conservation genetics. However, the genetic analysis of museum specimens is technically difficult because of DNA fragmentation and the deamination of cytosine to uracil. In recent years, various methods have been developed for the genetic analysis of museum specimens, such as data analysis techniques including next-generation sequencing. The development of approaches that extract historical genetic information from museum specimens is expected to provide a new perspective on conservation genetics. This review focuses on the availability of museum specimens as genetic resources for conservation genetics. Some case studies are intro-duced, and perspectives on the future utility of conservation genetic studies using museum specimens are discussed. Moreover, recommended genetic analysis methods and important points for the usage of museum specimens are pres-ented. This review provides a strong case for increasing the usage of museum specimens in conservation genetics studies in the future.
Inheritance of resistance to the newly identified Plasmodiophora brassicae pathotypes in Brassica napus L.

Abstract Clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae Woronin is one of the most devastating diseases of canola (Brassica napus L.). Pathotype 3H has been the most prevalent and virulent pathotype in western Canada. Many resistant cultivars have been developed in Canada in recent years. However, large-scale cultivation of these cultivars resulted in the identification of several new virulent pathotypes including 3A and 5X that overcame this resistance. We studied two doubled haploid (DH) populations, developed by crossing a canola line carrying resistance to 3H, 3A, and 5X to two canola lines carrying resistance to 3H, for resistance to these three pathotypes. Furthermore, two clubroot-resistant populations derived from the first and second cycles of breeding were also investigated for resistance to 10 pathotypes to understand their inheritance. A 3R:1S segregation for resistance to 3H confirmed the involvement of two independent major gene loci in these DH populations. In contrast, a 1R:7S and 1R:15S segregation, respectively, for resistance to 3A and 5X indicated that more than two gene loci are involved in the control of resistance to these pathotypes. A significant positive correlation for resistance to 3A and 5X indicated that some common genes are involved in the control of resistance to both pathotypes. About 4% of the DH lines were resistant to all three pathotypes, suggesting that pyramiding of multiple resistance genes in canola is possible. Overall, the resistance observed in the population derived from the first cycle of breeding remained effective in the population derived from the second cycle of breeding.
Valuation of mortgage pass-through securities with partial prepayment risk

Abstract We develop a valuation model for mortgage pass-through securities with partial prepayment risk using an intensity-based approach. For the single mortgage contract in a given pool of mortgage loans, the ratio of prepayment amount to outstanding principal at partial prepayment time is described by a stochastic process, and the occurrence time of prepayments is modeled by jump time of a Cox process. Under these conditions, we get the valuation formulas of mortgage pass-through securities without and with regime switching, respectively. Based on these results, we also obtain the expected present value of the cash flow charged by the service agency from the mortgage pool and the valuation formula of the single mortgage contact. Finally, we give some numerical examples to study how parameters affect the valuation.
Instructor’s dilemma: requiring two-dimensional measurements to describe one-dimensional motion, applied to a person walking

Introductory physics courses uses simplified models and approximations to convey fundamental concepts. Many of these simplifications are introduced without explanation. When considering motion, one such simplification is the point particle approximation. That is to assume that the motion of an extended object can be represented by the motion of a single point, generally the object’s centre of mass. For some objects the exact position of the centre of mass could be difficult to locate and the procedure beyond the scope of an introductory course. Furthermore, if the object changes its shape while in motion, thereby redistributing its mass, the relative position of the centre of mass also changes. In such instances the physical measurements of the object’s position could be rather complicated, especially if the task is to choose one physical marker on the object that best represents its motion. If the object is travelling in a straight line [one-dimensional (1D) motion] and the motion of physical marker does not closely match that of the object, a two-dimensional measurement would be required to describe 1D motion. Hereby instructors might be challenged to explain seemingly simple phenomena, like determining the position of an object, within the confines of the introductory course. In order to assist instructors in this regard, we present an experimental measurement procedure which aims to minimize the error in position measurements of objects that changes their shape while in motion. We apply the procedure to determine the position of a walking person.
Economic Growth by Means of Fiscal Decentralization: An Empirical Study for Federal Developing Countries

The impact of fiscal federalism on economic performance has largely been studied in the developed world since the seminal work of Oates. In this article, we focus on a particular set of developing countries considered to be federal (Forum of Federations), to examine how fiscal decentralization has impacted their economic growth. In this context, we study the impact of tax revenue and expenditure decentralization on economic growth in developing federations. For this purpose, a panel data of 15 developing federations from 2000 to 2015 are analyzed by using a two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation method. The results show that in federal developing countries, both tax revenue and expenditure decentralization have a significant, positive impact on economic growth. What is more, our findings show that the impact of fiscal decentralization on economic growth depends upon the level of perceived corruption and on the quality of the country’s institutions. Thus, empirical evidence depicts that the positive effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth is tempered if the country is plagued with corruption, if it has weak institutions, and/or if it suffers from political instability. By contrast, a relatively corruption-free country featuring healthy institutions and a stable political environment could take fuller advantage of the effects of fiscal decentralization to improve economic growth.
Association of dupA, iceA, homB Genes of Helicobacter pylori with Gastritis, Peptic Ulcer Disease and Gastric Cancer

Objective: To determine the association of dupA, iceA, homB genes of Helicobacter pylori with gastro-duodenal diseases such as gastritis, peptic ulcer disease PUD and gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at Gastroenterology Department, Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore. Patients with gastro-duodenal diseases and positive H. pylori were included. Gastric biopsies were taken from fundus, body and antrum. H. pylori DNA were removed utilizing Gentra DNA extraction Kit (Life Technologies, USA) as per the technique and Qualitative PCR for the recognition of H. Pylori DNA. The PCR primers sets were designed for the specific detection of dupA, iceA and homB genes of H. pylori. All the data was recorded in proforma and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results: Mean age of the cases was 41.22+8.04 years. Males were more affected 118(60.2%). HomB was the most common 76(38.8%) followed by dupA and iceA 28.6% and 24.5% Original Research Article Bajwa et al.; JPRI, 32(25): 1-6, 2020; Article no.JPRI. 60935 2 respectively. Peptic ulcer disease and gastritis were higher among patients having dup A and iceA positive strains as compared to homB gene patients, while gastric cancer was significantly higher among HomB gene infected patients, p-values were quite significant. Conclusion: It was concluded that homB gene was most frequent in H. pylori infected population. Peptic ulcer disease and gastritis are markedly associated with dupA and iceA genes, while homB gene infected patients are at high risk of gastric cancer.
WalnutDSA™: a group theoretic digital signature algorithm

ABSTRACT This paper presents an in depth discussion of WalnutDSA, a quantum resistant public-key digital signature method based on the one-way function E-multiplication. A key feature of WalnutDSA is that it provides very efficient means of validating digital signatures which is essential for low-powered and constrained devices. This paper presents an in-depth discussion of the construction of the digital signature algorithm, and delves deeply into the underlying mathematics that facilitates analysing the security of the scheme. When implemented using parameters that defeat all known attacks, WalnutDSA is among the fastest quantum resistant signature verification methods; it performs orders of magnitude faster than ECC, even on low-end embedded hardware. WalnutDSA delivers a 12–25× speed improvement over ECDSA on most platforms, and a 31× speed improvement on a 16-bit microcontroller, making it an ideal solution for low-resource processors found in the Internet of Things (IoT).
Blood Pressure Characteristics and Responses During Resistance Exercise

Blood pressure changes acutely during resistance exercise. Continuous, beat-by-beat assessment provides detailed temporal resolution of blood pressure profiles, through techniques including intra-arterial catheterization, photoplethysmography, or applanation tonometry. However, noncontinuous measurements may be conducted before and after resistance exercise through auscultatory sphygmomanometry or oscillometry. Blood pressures tend to increase across repetitions within sets, influenced by load magnitude, repetitions and sets performed, muscle mass recruited, and rest periods; the highest pressures result from multi-joint, large muscle group exercises. Evaluation of such factors may facilitate better understanding of blood pressure responses to acute resistance exercise and influence program design considerations relative to anticipated hemodynamic changes.
What a city eats: Examining the dietary preferences of families living in communities at high risk for food insecurity

Abstract Introduction: Food insecurity (FI) is the lack of consistent access to enough food for an active and healthy life. Community-based hunger relief programs often serve as emergency food sources for families with FI. However, these programs may not provide foods that diverse populations of people prefer. We sought to evaluate the dietary patterns and preferences of families living in food-insecure neighborhoods and utilizing a community-based hunger relief program, in order to improve the utilization of local nutritional programs. Methods: We examined the Help Our People Eat (HOPE) community-based mobile meal program. Free-listing interviews (n = 63) were conducted with English-(66%) and Spanish-speaking (34%) participants of the program. Participants were asked about FI risk, food preferences, and dietary behaviors at home. Results: The majority of participants (90%) had children in the household. About 60% reported not being able to afford the type of food they enjoyed. Most participants reported using stoves for cooking (80%). Participants overwhelmingly cooked with chicken, beef, and pork. The most common side dishes included potatoes, rice, and salad. Most participants reported no interest in cooking differently or learning new recipes. Conclusions: A common theme throughout interviews was that families prefer similar meals, but may prepare them differently based on the language spoken. Food preferences consisted of a high intake of carbohydrate-rich meals, perhaps because these foods may be cheaper and easier to access. Notably, new recipes and cooking methods were not a priority for these families, possibly due to the time and effort needed to learn them.