Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Training Needed for Quantifying Simulated Diets from Fragmented Range Plants

A procedure is described that results in rapid training of observers for microhistological analysis. Observers trained using this procedure were able to evaluate accurately 6 handcompounded diets comprised of semidesert plant species. The accuracy of microhistological analysis was examined by using the 4 trained observers to evaluate 26 additional hand-compounded diets containing various combinations of 30 different grasses, forbs, and shrubs from semidesert range. The relationship between relative density (estimated percent by weight composition) and actual percent by weight composition was close to unity for species in each forage class individually or in combination. However this relationship would probably have been different if the observers had not used known diets to evaluate their accuracy and make corrections. It is recommended that all technicians using microhistological analysis regularly check their accuracy with handcompounded diets.
Resource competition between macrobenthic epifauna and infauna in a Kenyan Avicennia marina mangrove forest

A cage exclusion experiment was used to examine the interaction between the eplbenthos (permanent and vls~tlng) and the macroinfauna of a high intertidal Kenyan Avicennia marina mangrove sediment. Densities of Ollgochaeta (families Tubificidae and Enchytraeidae), Amphipoda, Insecta larvae, Polychaeta and macro-Nematoda, and a broad range of environmental factors were followed over 5 mo of caging. A significant increase of amphipod and insect larvae densities in the cages indicated a positive exclusion effect, while no such effect was observed for oligochaetes (Tubificidae in particular), polychaetes or macronematodes. Resource competitive interactions were a plausible explanation for the status of the amphipod community. This was supported by the parallel positive exclusion effect detected for microalgal densities. It is therelore hypothesized that competition for microalgae and deposited food sources is the determining structuring force exerted by the epibenthos on the macrobenthic infauna. However, the presence of epibenthic predation cannot be excluded.
Feature Extraction and Image Enhancement for Low Resolution Satellite Images

The purpose of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of contrast-based textural measurements and morphological characteristics that derive from high-resolution satellite imagery (three-band SPOT-5) when diverse image enhancements techniques are piloted. The general framework of the application is the built-up/non-built-up detection. In the existence of a low-resolution reference layer, we apply supervised learning that indirectly reduces the uncertainty and improves the quality of the reference layer. Based on the new class label assignments, the image histogram is adjusted suitably for the computation of contrastbased textural/morphological features. A case study is presented where we test a mixture of image enhancement operations like linear and decorrelation stretching and assess the performance through ROC analysis against available
Online gradient-based mixtures for transfer modulation in meta-learning

Learning-to-learn or meta-learning leverages data-driven inductive bias to increase the efficiency of learning on a novel task. This approach encounters difficulty when transfer is not mutually beneficial, for instance, when tasks are sufficiently dissimilar or change over time. Here, we use the connection between gradient-based meta-learning and hierarchical Bayes (Grant et al., 2018) to propose a mixture of hierarchical Bayesian models over the parameters of an arbitrary function approximator such as a neural network. Generalizing the model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML) algorithm (Finn et al., 2017), we present a stochastic expectation maximization procedure to jointly estimate parameter initializations for gradient descent as well as a latent assignment of tasks to initializations. This approach better captures the diversity of training tasks as opposed to consolidating inductive biases into a single set of hyperparameters. Our experiments demonstrate better generalization performance on the standard miniImageNet benchmark for 1-shot classification. We further derive a novel and scalable non-parametric variant of our method that captures the evolution of a task distribution over time as demonstrated on a set of few-shot regression tasks.
Diffusion and Elastic Equations on Networks

In this paper, we discuss discrete versions of the heat equations and the wave equations, which are called the ω-diffusion equations and the ω-elastic equations on graphs. After deriving some basic properties, we solve the ω-diffusion equations under (i) the condition that there is no boundary, (ii) the initial condition and (iii) the Dirichlet boundary condition. We also give some additional interesting properties on the ω-diffusion equations, such as the minimum and maximum principles, Huygens property and uniqueness via energy methods. Analogues of the ω-elastic equations on graphs are also discussed.
What’s Weight Got to Do With It? Mental Health Trainees’ Perceptions of a Client With Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms

This study examined the effect of client body mass index (BMI) on diagnostic impressions and perceptions of mental health trainees. Participants read a vignette of a mock female client presenting for treatment with symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which the client was described as “underweight,” “normal weight,” or “overweight. ” Results revealed that participants assigned to the “underweight” condition diagnosed the client with anorexia nervosa or atypical anorexia nervosa more frequently than participants assigned to the “overweight” or “normal weight” conditions. There was no difference based on client BMI when the more general diagnosis of other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED; previously known as eating disorder not otherwise specified [EDNOS]) was included, however. Participants in the “overweight” and “normal weight” conditions recommended fewer therapy sessions for the client than participants in the “underweight” condition. Furthermore, participants more strongly endorsed weight-based stereotypes to describe the client when she was “overweight” than “normal weight” or “underweight. ” Contrary to hypotheses, however, participants reported moderately positive attitudes toward treating the client regardless of BMI. These preliminary findings support initiatives aimed at providing training on weight stigma and eating disorders to mental health professionals.
Distribution Pattern and Physical Mapping of CCC Plasmid-Mediated Multidrug-Resistance in some G-ve Bacteria Recovered from Hospitals and Haemodialysis Units Wastewater at Al-Madinah

Objective Investigation of the presence and distribution pattern of plasmid-linked antibiotic resistance amongst Gram-negative bacterial strains recovered from wastewater of hospitals and haemodialysis units. Drawing up a physical map of the most frequently distributed plasmids. Methods Representatives G-ve bacterial strains; 59 isolates, were chosen from a previous study for the same authors, as of the most resistant ones (resist more than 3 up to 9 antibiotics to > 100 μg/ml.). Miniprep protocol and gel electrophoresis technique were adopted for the detection and isolation of ccc plasmid DNA from the differentially-isolated G-ve bacteria. Restriction analysis using 11 DNA restriction enzymes and “Plasp” computer program against λ phage DNA digested with Hind III, for physical mapping of the most distributed plasmid. Results Results revealed the presence of seven different plasmids, distributed as 1-3 different types of plasmids in 68% (40/59) of the strains; chosen as representatives of the most resistant ones ( resist more than 3 up to 9 antibiotics to > 100 μg/ml.). The detected plasmid sizes were estimated against HindIII-digested λ phage and found ranged from 36,844 to 2,027 bp . Preliminary physical mapping was constructed for the plasmid (23130 bp) that was the most distributed amongst more than 90% of the plasmid-bearing strains and was the only found singly. Conclusion The isolated, characterized and the mapped plasmid (s), suggest the possibility of high rate of both vertical and horizontal distribution of these plasmids amongst the isolated Gve bacterial Genera and species.
Laser Fabrication and Manipulation of an Optical Rotator Embedded inside a Transparent Solid Material

We report the fabrication and rotation of an optical rotator confined in a microcavity inside silica glass material, based on the techniques of femtosecond laser-assisted etching and laser manipulation. The rotator thus prepared may act as a micropump and micromixer. The material of this rotator is identical to that of the host substrate, because femtosecond laser-assisted etching is an internal removal process. As a result, the rotator as well as substrate has high chemical stability and good optical transparency. We also describe tests in which we demonstrated that this fabrication technique is versatile enough to allow one to parepare two types of rotators with different shapes.
The effects of Web‐based/non‐Web‐based problem‐solving instruction and high/low achievement on students’ problem‐solving ability and biology achievement

This study investigates the effects of two factors: the mode of problem‐solving instruction (i.e. Web‐based versus non‐Web‐based) and the level of academic achievement (i.e. high achievers versus low achievers) on students’ problem‐solving ability and biology achievement. A quasi‐experimental design was used, in which the experimental group received six weeks of Web‐based problem‐solving instruction in biology and the control group received non‐Web‐based problem‐solving instruction for the same content and for the same period of time. Pre‐, post‐ and retention tests of problem‐solving and biology achievement were administered before and at two different time intervals after the instruction. With the pretest scores as a covariate, the results of MANCOVA followed by protected univariate F tests suggest that Web‐based problem‐solving instruction has the potential to enhance and sustain the learner’s problem‐solving skills over an extended period of time.
Zmiany strukturalno-czynnościowe naczyń tętniczych spowodowane otyłością Structural and functional changes of arteries caused by obesity

Obesity is a chronic disease, with a proven negative influence on the cardiovascular system, which causes the increase in the occurrence of complications as a result of cardiological incidents. The aim of the article is to discuss the significance of the changes in the construction and function of arteries caused by obesity. The mechanisms which to the greatest extent influence the increase of arterial stiffness in obesity are insulin resistance and chronic inflammation. Adipocytes are the source of heightened level of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, hormones to which belong e.g.: leptin, adiponectin, resistin, Lp-PLA 2 , acute-phase proteins. In the article we focus on, first and foremost, the changes in elasticity and stiffness of arteries, changes in vascular diameters and thinning of their walls together with the increase of body mass, as well reverse changes after body mass reduction. On the basis of conducted research reviev it seems that the causes and mechanisms causing changes in the stiffness and elasticity of vessels require further studies.
NOTES AND COMMENTS: MULTILATERAL CONTRACTING WITH EXTERNALITIES

This paper proposes a model for multilateral contracting, where contracts are written and renegotiated over time, and where contracts may impose externalities on other agents. Equilibria always exist and the equilibrium value function is linear and monotonically increasing on the contracts. If the grand coalition, or contracting among all agents, is inefficient, we show that bargaining delays arise in positive-externality games and equilibrium inefficiency may remain bounded away from zero even as bargaining frictions converge to zero. Otherwise, if the grand coalition is efficient, there are no bargaining delays, convergence to the grand coalition occurs in a finite number of contracting rounds, and the outcome becomes efficient as players become more patient.
Functional – Lem on Genomics Research : Livestock Production

The major emphasis of animal genomic research has been to increase the productivity and disease resistance ability of economically important farm animal breeds to meet the ever increasing demands of animal products. Traditionally, the approach of livestock improvement was based on the classical breeding where in the parents of the next generation were selected based on their phenotype without knowing the genetic variation underlying the traits of interest. To this end, genomic tools have helped to move away from this “Black box” approach and understand the complex genetic components of phenotypic variation. Through structural and comparative genomics it had become possible to identify the genomic regions/quantitative trait loci (QTL) harboring the performance altering genes. However, the QTL search followed by fine mapping could prove useful to a limited extent as detection of casual mutations underlying QTL’s was time consuming and cost extensive. These limitations restricted the extensive implementation of marker assisted selection technology in the commercial breeds. Recent advances in genomic research including whole genome sequencing, expression array, and highly multiplexed and high throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping platforms have a large impact on the ability for genome mining and pinpoint genes that influence biological and economically important traits. In future, selection decision based on the genomic breeding values complemented with other quantitative genetic evaluation approaches can very well lead to improve genetic gain in livestock species. In this chapter, an effort has been made to describe the issues, scope and needs those confront the animal genomics community in today’s industry driven era.
U/Th dating of Quaternary travertines at the middle River Llobregat (NE Iberian Peninsula, Nortwestern Mediterranean). Correlation with sea-level changes

The dating of the fluvial terraces of the middle River Llobregat enabled one to establish a correlation between the sedimentation episodes in continental zones and in neighbouring deltaic and coastal areas in the NE Iberian continental margin. The fluvial Terraces 4 (+85-95 m above river level) and 3 (+55-65 m above river level) are made up by or include travertines, which were deposited around 350,000 and 111,000 years ago, respectively. These radiometric ages correspond to two high sea level periods: the Eemian interglacial (isotopic stage 5e) and the interglacial related to isotopic stage 9. However, other travertine units in the valley, such as the Can Tobella staggered cascade travertines, were formed during the Holocene, probably due to hydrothermal spring activity related to the tectonic contact between the Catalan Coastal Ranges and the Ebro Basin.
Sensitivity of MOPITT observations to carbon monoxide in the lower troposphere

[1] The sensitivity of Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) observations to carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the lower troposphere (LT) varies widely as the result of variability in thermal contrast conditions. This effect is evident in both the MOPITT weighting functions and averaging kernels, particularly after these quantities are properly normalized to remove grid effects. Comparisons of simulated weighting functions and averaging kernels with operational data confirm the significance of thermal contrast effects. Retrieval sensitivity to LT CO is greatest in daytime observations over land, particularly in tropical and midlatitude regions exhibiting large diurnal variations in surface temperature. Nighttime observations over land typically exhibit poor sensitivity to LT CO. On the global scale, analysis of MOPITT averaging kernels for 1 month indicates that daytime MOPITT observations offer useful sensitivity to LT CO over large areas of most continents. Exceptions include tropical rainforests in Africa and South America, where thermal contrast conditions are relatively weak.
AN E-LEARNING ECOSYSTEM BASED ON WIRELESS CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing is all about implementing processes online instead in our local gadgets. Data and process could be done online without the need of an y local software or client. It refers to application delivered as a service over the internet (SaaS), th e hardware and system software in the data centers th at provide those services (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). This paper discusses on what cloud computing is all about, itsvarious delivery models, its advantages and disadvantages . The heart of the pape r contains the idea which is been proposed with the motive of promoting e-Learing to the student community in a much easier way (Community cloud computing) . In short , the introduction of e-learning through Cloud Computing. This is then further made hardware simplex using wireless technology. In the above application SaaS delivery model is used. Many companies and educational institutes abroad are jus t beginning to realize the benefits of cloud computin g applications that have traditionally required concurrent site licensing which is a type of software license that allows the user to install a software package in several computers at a particular site o r facility. Depending on the amount of price paid, the license may be unlimited or may limit simultaneous access to a certain number of users , installation and
Occurrence of Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria in the Rhizosphere of Triticum aestivum L . from Meknes , Morocco

The aim of present research is to study the relationship between density of rock phosphate-solubilizing bacteria population with physical, chemical and biological properties of the rhizosphere soil of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The native population of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) and total soil bacteria (TB) were enumerated in 132 samples of rhizosphere soil collected from fourteen agricultural areas at Meknes. The results revealed that the bacteria solubilizing rock phosphate are present in all soils analyzed in this study. The number of PSB and TB showed large variations and ranged from 12.5 – 0.002; 150 – 0.52 (x 10 CFU/ g soil), respectively within the place of sampling. The correlations between PSB counts and TB (r=0.82), total nitrogen (r=0.66) and organic matter (r=0.83) were positive and significant (p≤0.01). This research extends the knowledge on rock phosphate-solubilizing bacteria population in the rhizosphere of wheat cultivated in the different regions at Meknes.
Chapter 4 Regularizing Properties of the Kähler – Ricci Flow

These notes present a general existence result for degenerate parabolic complex Monge–Ampère equations with continuous initial data, slightly generalizing the work of Song and Tian on this topic. This result is applied to construct a Kähler–Ricci flow on varieties with log terminal singularities, in connection with the Minimal Model Program. The same circle of ideas is also used to prove a regularity result for elliptic complex Monge–Ampère equations, following Székelyhidi–Tosatt
ge and growth of Greenland Halibut ( Reinhardtius hippoglossoides ) in he Northwest Atlantic : A changing perception based on bomb adiocarbon analyses

Greenland Halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) is a large circumpolar, right-eyed flounder that supports several international fisheries. Age estimates for this stock have customarily been obtained by counting annuli on the surface of whole otoliths but a matched pair comparison indicated that ages estimated from whole and thin-sectioned otoliths were the same up until age 9 (∼60 cm), after which whole otoliths underestimated the true age of the fish by up to 60% and 18 years. Bomb radiocarbon analyses on otolith cores from thin sections were similar to expectations based on the Greenland Halibut reference chronology, indicating that on average, thin sections gave an accurate age for fish in the 57–108 cm TL range. Growth curves estimated using thin-sectioned otoliths indicated that Greenland Halibut in this region are slower growing and longer lived than was previously thought. A comparison of growth parameters with other populations of Greenland Halibut showed that although the Pacific and Arctic are faster-growing, the stock off the East Coast of Canada is longer lived. This study represents the first age validation study for this stock in the Northwest Atlantic. Since the fishable portion of the population is largely <60 cm, it is possible that these results may not change the current perception of stock status. However, the increased longevity and reduced growth rates will undoubtedly affect other biological parameters and further work should be done to incorporate the new ageing knowledge into the Management Strategy Evaluation for this stock. Crown Copyright © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Self-trapped exciton recombination in silicon nanocrystals

In this paper we investigate the time-resolved and stationary photoluminescence ~PL! of silicon nanocrystals fabricated in a silicon oxide matrix. The PL intensity reveals a nonexponential decay for all temperatures which can be fitted by a ‘‘stretch’’-exponential function. From 60 down t o5Ka nincrease of decay time is observed going along with a decrease of the PL intensity. In addition the PL spectra show a shape change during the decay. The experimental data are interpreted in the model of self-trapped excitons ~STE! which are localized in a Si-Si dimer. A numerical simulation of this model provides the radiative and nonradiative recombination times of the STE transition, the energy of the STE singlet-triplet splitting and the height of the self-trapped barrier.
Random sub-Nyquist polarimetric modulator

We show that it is possible to measure polarization with a polarimeter that gets rid of the seeing while still measuring at a frequency well below that of the seeing. We study a standard polarimeter made of two retarders and a beamsplitter. The retarders are modulated at ∼ 500 Hz, a frequency comparable to that of the variations of the refraction index in the Earth atmosphere, what is usually termed as seeing in astronomical observations. However, we assume that the camera is slow, so that our measurements are time integrations of these modulated signals. In order to recover the time variation of the seeing and obtain the Stokes parameters, we use the theory of compressed sensing to solve the demodulation by impose a sparsity constraint on the Fourier coefficients of the seeing. We demonstrate the feasibility of this sub-Nyquist polarimeter using numerical simulations, both in the case without noise and with noise. We show that a sensible modulation scheme is obtained by randomly changing the fast axis of the modulators or their retardances in specific ways. We finally demonstrate that the value of the Stokes parameters can be recovered with great precision at almost maximum efficiency, although it slightly degrades when the signal-to-noise ratio of the observations increase, a consequence of the multiplexing under the presence of photon noise. © 2016 Optical Society of America