Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Standardizing the evaluation of community-based conservation success.

Community-based conservation, which strives to simultaneously improve nature conservation and alleviate poverty, must provide biological and socioeconomic benefits that are linked through effective resilience mechanisms. To date, few community-based conservation initiatives have published comprehensive assessments that track performance in these elements of success. With 45% of the world's protected areas in comanagement with local communities, standardized measures to effectively evaluate the dual goals of community-based conservation are needed. We here introduce SPECCS, a user-friendly Standardized Protocol for Evaluating Community Conservation Success that incorporates an appraisal of data quality to responsibly assess progress over time or to compare effectiveness among different initiatives. We illustrate SPECCS's use by evaluating the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary (WCHS) of northern Ghana 10 and 20 yr after its inception. The WCHS has the dual objective of protecting one of Ghana's few remaining hippopotamus populations while alleviating poverty in the surrounding communities through the creation of economic opportunity and infrastructure development. Results suggest stable project performance in the 10-yr (76%) and 20-yr (76%) evaluation, with an improvement in evaluation quality from 30% to 34%. The project is currently stronger in socioeconomic (performance 86%; quality 30%) than biological (60%; 32%) outcomes and in benefits (83%, 42%) than resilience (63%, 21%). Biological resilience is challenged by poor connectivity and limited project control over threats, whereas socioeconomic resilience is affected by a decision balance that continues to favor external stakeholders. SPECCS helps pinpoint strengths and weaknesses for timely adaptive management, strategic investments, and evidence-based recognition of community-based conservation successes.
Identification of Putative Novel Class-I Lanthipeptides in Firmicutes: A Combinatorial In Silico Analysis Approach Performed on Genome Sequenced Bacteria and a Close Inspection of Z-Geobacillin Lanthipeptide Biosynthesis Gene Cluster of the Thermophilic Geobacillus sp. Strain ZGt-1

Lanthipeptides are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified polycyclic peptides. Lanthipeptides that have antimicrobial activity are known as lantibiotics. Accordingly, the discovery of novel lantibiotics constitutes a possible solution for the problem of antibiotic resistance. We utilized the publicly available genome sequences and the bioinformatic tools tailored for the detection of lanthipeptides. We designed our strategy for screening of 252 firmicute genomes and detecting class-I lanthipeptide-coding gene clusters. The designed strategy resulted in identifying 69 class-I lanthipeptide sequences, of which more than 10% were putative novel. The identified putative novel lanthipeptides have not been annotated on the original or the RefSeq genomes, or have been annotated merely as coding for hypothetical proteins. Additionally, we identified bacterial strains that have not been previously recognized as lanthipeptide-producers. Moreover, we suggest corrections for certain firmicute genome annotations, and recommend lanthipeptide records for enriching the bacteriocin genome mining tool (BAGEL) databases. Furthermore, we propose Z-geobacillin, a putative class-I lanthipeptide coded on the genome of the thermophilic strain Geobacillus sp. ZGt-1. We provide lists of putative novel lanthipeptide sequences and of the previously unrecognized lanthipeptide-producing bacterial strains, so they can be prioritized for experimental investigation. Our results are expected to benefit researchers interested in the in vitro production of lanthipeptides.
Incorporating constraints in probabilistic XML

Constraints are important not just for maintaining data integrity, but also because they capture natural probabilistic dependencies among data items. A probabilistic XML database (PXDB) is the probability sub-space comprising the instances of a p-document that satisfy a set of constraints. In contrast to existing models that can express probabilistic dependencies, it is shown that query evaluation is tractable in PXDBs. The problems of sampling and determining well-definedness (i.e., whether the above subspace is nonempty) are also tractable. Furthermore, queries and constraints can include the aggregate functions count, max, min and ratio. Finally, this approach can be easily extended to allow a probabilistic interpretation of constraints.
Multidimensionality of Health Inequalities: A Cross-Country Identification of Health Clusters through Multivariate Classification Techniques

Despite major efforts in scientific literature to explain and understand the social determinants of health inequalities, the complex association between social causes and health outcomes remains empirically questionable and theoretically puzzling. To date, the studies on social determinants of health has mainly been generated by research techniques and methods that were developed to answer specific questions about the causes and effects of particular indicators on specific health outcomes. The present exploratory study follows a complex system approach to capture the interdependence between socioeconomic status, lifestyles, and health in a single measure that enables international comparisons of population health. Specifically, this study is aimed to: (a) classify individuals’ state of health according the usage of multidimensional data on physical and mental health, SES, lifestyles and risk behaviors, in order to (b) compare the relative strength of the different predictors of health groups (or clusters) at the individual-level and, finally, (c) to measure the level of health inequalities between different countries. From a complex system approach, this study uses multivariate classification methods to compare health groups in a sample of 29 countries and shows that interdependence models may be useful to describe and compare between-country health inequalities that are not visible through techniques for the analysis of dependence. The present work offers two fundamental contributions. On the one hand, this study compares the relative relevance of different indicators that are susceptible to affect individual health outcomes; on the other hand, the resulting multidimensional classification of countries according health clusters provides an alternative for inter-country health comparisons.
Analysing the Evolution of Exception Handling Anti-Patterns in Large-Scale Projects: A Case Study

Previous studies have shown that exception handling bad practices may impact the overall software quality. We believe that quality of exception handling code is directly affected by (i) an absence, or lack of awareness, of an explicit exception handling policy; and (ii) a silent rising and spreading of exception handling anti-patterns. To investigate such phenomenon, we conducted a case study in a large-scale Java Web system, trying to better understand the relationship between (i) and (ii). The study takes into account technical and human aspects. We surveyed 21 developers regarding their perception about exception handling in the system's institution. Next, we analyse the evolution of exception handling anti-patterns across 15 releases of the target system. Finally, we conduct a semi-structured interview with three senior software architects. Our finds beneficiated the system's institution by making it aware of these problems and enabling it to take actions towards to combat them.
Early Holocene morphological variation in hunter-gatherer hands and feet

Abstract Background The Windover mortuary pond dates to the Early Archaic period (6,800-5,200 years ago) and constitutes one of the earliest archaeological sites with intact and well-preserved human remains in North America. Unlike many prehistoric egalitarian hunter-gatherers, the Windover people may not have practiced a sex-based division of labor, rather they may have shared the load. We explore how mobility and subsistence, as reconstructed from archaeological data, influenced hand and foot bone morphology at Windover. Methods We took length and width measurements on four carpal bones, four tarsal bones, and load- bearing tarsal areas (calcaneus load arm, trochlea of the talus). We analyzed lateralization using side differences in raw length and width measurements. For other hypothesis testing, we used log transformed length-width ratios to mitigate the confounding effects of sexual dimorphism and trait size variation; we tested between-sex differences in weight-bearing (rear foot) and shock-absorbing (mid foot) tarsal bones and between-sex differences in carpal bones. Results We identified no significant between-sex differences in rear and midfoot areas, suggesting similar biomechanical stresses. We identified no significant between-sex differences in carpal bones but the test was under-powered due to small sample sizes. Finally, despite widespread behavioral evidence on contemporary populations for human hand and foot lateralization, we found no evidence of either handedness or footedness. Discussion The lack evidence for footedness was expected due its minimal impact on walking gait but the lack of evidence for handedness was surprising given that ethnographic studies have shown strong handedness in hunter-gatherers during tool and goods manufacture. The reconstructed activity patterns suggested both sexes engaged in heavy load carrying and a shared division of labor. Our results support previous findings—both sexes had stronger weight-bearing bones. While male shock-absorbing bones exhibited a trend towards greater relative width (suggesting greater comparative biomechanical stress), this may simply some lingering hunting behavior with males walking greater distances at higher speeds than females. While there were no significant between-sex differences in carpal bones (supporting a shared work load model), females exhibited greater variation in index values, which may reflect a greater variety of and specialization in tasks compared to males. Because carpals and tarsals are so well- preserved at archaeological sites, we had surmised they might be useful proxies for activity in the absence of well-preserved long bones. Tarsals provide a stronger signal of past activity and may be useful in the absence or, or in addition to, preferred bones. Carpals, however, may not be useful as the effect size of biomechanical stress (in this study at least) is low and would require larger samples than may be possible at archaeological sites.
Node similarity distribution of complex networks and its application in link prediction

Over the years, quantifying similarity of nodes has been a hot topic, yet distributions of node similarity for complex networks remain unknown. In this paper, we consider a typical measure called common neighbor based similarity (CNS), which literally characterizes similarity of nodes based on the number of common neighbors (CN) they share in the network. By means of the generating function, we propose a general framework to calculate the distributions of CNS for various complex networks, including the Erd\"{o}s-R\'{e}nyi (ER), regular ring lattice, small-world network model, scale-free network model, and real-world networks. In particular, we show that for the ER network, the CNS of node sets with an arbitrary size obeys the Poisson distribution. We also connect the node similarity distribution to the link prediction problem. An interesting finding is that the prediction performance depends solely on the CNS distributions of connected node pairs and unconnected ones. The farther these two CNS distributions are apart, the better the prediction performance is. With these two CNS distributions, we further derive theoretical solutions with respect to two key metrics of prediction performance: i) Precision and ii) area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), which significantly reduce the evaluation cost of link prediction.
Cloning in Customization Classes: A Case of a Worldwide Software Product Line

Cloning-and-owning, in the long run, can severely affect evolution, as changes in cloned fragments may require modifications in various parts of the system. This problem scales if cloning is used in classes that derive products in a Software Product Line, because these classes can impact in several features and products. However, it is hard to know to which extent cloning in customization classes can impact in a project. We conduct a study, within an SPL that generates mobile software for over 150 countries, to analyze cloning practices and how cloned parts relate to the maintainability of customization classes. We collect and identify clones inside customization classes during a period of 13 months, involving 70 customization classes and 5 branches. In parallel, we collect the respective issues from the issue tracking tool of the SPL project, obtaining over 140 issues related to customization classes. We then confront the time spent to solve each issue with its nature (i.e., if it relates to cloned code or not). As first result, we verify that issues related to cloning take in average 136% more time to be solved. Our study helps to understand how cloning relates to maintainability in the context of mass customization, giving insights about cloned code evolution and its impacts in a software product line project.
Use of Group-Based Trajectory Modeling to Explore Patterns of Stroke in Different Gender Groups

Background: Acute cerebrovascular disease has a high mortality rate and incurs a high medical expenditure, contributed to in particular by the high costs of intensive care and emergency medical treatment. In this study, group-based trajectory modeling was employed to explore the patterns of hospitalization for acute cerebrovascular disease in different groups of patients. Methods: The Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) was used in this study. Characteristics of acute cerebrovascular disease patients, including age, mortality rate, medical expenditure and total length of stay for each hospitalization were recorded, and trajectory analysis was employed to explore the hospitalization patterns in patients hospitalized more than 4 times and fewer than 8 times. The data were divided into three groups according to medical expenditure, high, middle and low groups, split at the 33rd and the 66th percentile. Results: In total, 676,355 cases were included in this study; 395,945 cases were male patients and 280,410 were female. The results showed that the interval between hospitalizations decreased. In addition, age, mortality rate, medical expenditure and total length of stay differed significantly between the male and female acute cerebrovascular disease patients, and a greater medical expenditure was incurred during each subsequent re-admission. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the interval between hospitalizations decreased in acute cerebrovascular disease (CVA) patients, and significant differences existed between the male and female patients. They will have the worse condition after the patients received the CVA, and a higher medical expenditure was incurred for re-admission.
Responses of Angiogenic Regulators to Resistance Exercise Under Systemic Hypoxia.

Kon, M, Ikeda, T, Homma, T, and Suzuki, Y. Responses of angiogenic regulators to resistance exercise under systemic hypoxia. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-Resistance exercise and hypoxia powerfully affect the secretions of angiogenic regulators. However, the effects of resistance exercise under acute systemic hypoxia on circulating levels of angiogenic regulators are unknown. Therefore, we investigated the effects of resistance exercise under systemic hypoxia on angiogenic regulator responses. Twelve healthy male subjects completed 2 experimental trials: (a) resistance exercise under normoxia (NRE), and (b) resistance exercise under systemic hypoxia (13% oxygen) (HRE) using a hypoxic generator. The subjects performed 2 consecutive resistance exercises (bench press and bilateral leg press), consisting of 5 sets with 10 repetitions at 70% of 1 repetition maximum with a 1-minute rest between sets. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, and endostatin concentrations were measured before exercise (and before exposure to hypoxia in the HRE trial) and at 0, 15, and 30 minutes after the resistance exercises. In both trials, serum VEGF, MMP-2, MMP-9, and endostatin concentrations significantly increased after the exercises compared with preexercise values (p < 0.05). At 0 minutes after exercise, the percentage change in VEGF concentration was significantly higher in the HRE trial compared with that in the NRE trial (p < 0.05). However, the exercise-induced changes in MMP-2, MMP-9, and endostatin concentrations did not differ between trials. The present results demonstrate that acute systemic hypoxia induces a greater resistance exercise-induced VEGF response, suggesting that hypoxia plays an important role in increasing the VEGF response to a bout of resistance exercise.
ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Fimoviridae.

Members of the family Fimoviridae, order Bunyavirales are plant viruses with segmented, linear, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA genomes. They are distantly related to orthotospoviruses and orthobunyaviruses of the families Tospoviridae and Peribunyaviridae, respectively. The family Fimoviridae includes the genus Emaravirus, which comprises several species with European mountain ash ringspot-associated emaravirus as the type species. Fimoviruses are transmitted to plants by eriophyid mite vectors and induce similar characteristic cytopathologies in their host plants, including the presence of double membrane-bound bodies in the cytoplasm of the virus-infected cells. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the taxonomy of the Fimoviridae, which is available at www.ictv. global/report/fimoviridae.
On the Irrelevance of Neuromyths to Teacher Effectiveness: Comparing Neuro-Literacy Levels Amongst Award-Winning and Non-award Winning Teachers

A number of studies have recently demonstrated a high level of belief in ‘neuromyths’ (fallacious arguments about the brain) amongst trainee and non-award winning educators. The authors of these studies infer this to mean that acceptance of these neuromyths has a negative impact on teaching effectiveness. In this study, we explored this assumption by assessing the prevalence of neuromyth acceptance amongst a group of internationally recognized, award-winning teachers and comparing this to previously published data with trainee and non-award winning teacher populations. Results revealed the acceptance of neuromyths to be nearly identical between these two groups, with the only difference occurring on 2 (out of 15) items. These findings suggest that one cannot make simple, unqualified arguments concerning the relationship between belief in neuromyths and teacher effectiveness. In fact, the idea that neuromyths negatively impact upon teaching might, itself, be a neuromyth.
Maternal Stress Potentiates the Effect of an Inflammatory Diet in Pregnancy on Maternal Concentrations of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha

Maternal inflammation during pregnancy is known to adversely impact fetal development, birth outcomes, and offspring physical and mental health. Diet and stress have been identified as important determinants of inflammation, yet their combined effects have not been examined in the context of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal diet with inflammatory potential and psychological stress, and to determine their interaction effect on concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α across pregnancy. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study of n = 202 women with three assessments during pregnancy, which included: ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of maternal stress using the perceived stress scale (PSS) short version; 24-h dietary recalls from which the dietary inflammatory index (DII) was computed; and serum measurements of TNF-α. Across pregnancy, higher perceived stress was associated with consumption of a more pro-inflammatory diet (r = 0.137; p < 0.05). In a linear regression model adjusted for covariates, DII was positively associated with TNF-α (B = 0.093, p = 0.010). The effect of the pro-inflammatory diet on concentrations of TNF-α was more pronounced in women reporting higher levels of stress (B = 0.134, p = 0.018 for DII*PSS interaction). These results highlight the need to consider nutrition and stress concurrently in the context of inflammation during pregnancy.
Does the old-fashioned sofosbuvir plus ribavirin treatment in genotype 2 chronic hepatitis C patients still works for Koreans?

Corresponding author : Jong Eun Yeon Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, 73 Inchon-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea Tel: +82-2-2626-1030, Fax: +82-2-2626-1038 E-mail: jeyyeon@hotmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0510-7371 Abbreviations: DAAs, direct acting antivirals; KASL, Korean Association for the Study of the Liver; PEG-IFN, pegylated interferon alpha; R, ribavirin; SOF, sofosbuvir; SVR, sustained virologic response
An Energy Conserving and Transmission Radius Adaptive Scheme to Optimize Performance of Energy Harvesting Sensor Networks

In energy harvesting wireless sensor networks (EHWSNs), the energy tension of the network can be relieved by obtaining the energy from the surrounding environment, but the cost on hardware cannot be ignored. Therefore, how to minimize the cost of energy harvesting hardware to reduce the network deployment cost, and further optimize the network performance, is still a challenging issue in EHWSNs. In this paper, an energy conserving and transmission radius adaptive (ECTRA) scheme is proposed to reduce the cost and optimize the performance of solar-based EHWSNs. There are two main innovations of the ECTRA scheme. Firstly, an energy conserving approach is proposed to conserve energy and avoid outage for the nodes in hotspots, which are the bottleneck of the whole network. The novelty of this scheme is adaptively rotating the transmission radius. In this way, the nodes with maximum energy consumption are rotated, balancing energy consumption between nodes and reducing the maximum energy consumption in the network. Therefore, the battery storage capacity of nodes and the cost on hardware. Secondly, the ECTRA scheme selects a larger transmission radius for rotation when the node can absorb enough energy from the surroundings. The advantages of using this method are: (a) reducing the energy consumption of nodes in near-sink areas, thereby reducing the maximum energy consumption and allowing the node of the hotspot area to conserve energy, in order to prevent the node from outage. Hence, the network deployment costs can be further reduced; (b) reducing the network delay. When a larger transmission radius is used to transmit data in the network, fewer hops are needed by data packet to the sink. After the theoretical analyses, the results show the following advantages compared with traditional method. Firstly, the ECTRA scheme can effectively reduce deployment costs by 29.58% without effecting the network performance as shown in experiment analysis; Secondly, the ECTRA scheme can effectively reduce network data transmission delay by 44–71%; Thirdly, the ECTRA scheme shows a better balance in energy consumption and the maximum energy consumption is reduced by 27.89%; And lastly, the energy utilization rate is effectively improved by 30.09–55.48%.