Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carbon storage in southern boreal forests following fire

>Changes in carbon (C) after fire were measured in seven southern boreal upland forest stands during the five immediate post‐fire years and 23 years after the fire. Pre‐fire above‐ground C mass of the stands was estimated. Combustion losses were 19% of the pre‐fire above‐ground C mass (8.4 kg m−2), and an additional 4% of that C mass was lost in the following 3–4 years. After 23 years, neither C mass of understory (0.1 kg m−2) nor standing snags (0.3 kg m−2) differed from that estimated before the fire; tree C was less (2.4 vs. 6.0 kg C m−2), and forest floor (2.5 vs. 1.4 kg C m−2) and coarse woody debris (1.7 vs. 0.7 kg C m−2) C were higher. Above‐ground C mass was 84% of pre‐fire mass. There were no measured changes in surface soil C following the fire (2.9 kg C m−2). Total C mass, including surface soil, was 10.2 kg m−2 at 23 years or 91% of the estimated pre‐fire C. Although gross fluxes of C followed the fire, massive net losses of C did not occur either immediately or in the two decades after fire.
Magellanic penguins: stomach contents and isotopic profiles to assess the feeding demands of juveniles in a wintering area off Brazil

The stomach contents of juvenile Magellanic penguins, Spheniscus magellanicus, stranded along the Atlantic coast (21–23°S) during the extreme mortality event of 2008 were analysed. The isotopic profiles of this species and their prey in a wintering area are presented to identify trophic relationships and to evaluate whether the prey species recovered in the stomach contents were assimilated. The prey groups recorded were molluscs (cephalopods and gastropods), teleost fish, and, to a lesser extent, crustaceans (decapods and isopods). Cephalopods were the most representative prey, and Argonauta nodosa was the most abundant species. Plant remains and solid waste were atypical items found in the stomach contents. The nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values found in this study confirm the higher trophic position of the penguins (14.5‰) relative to their prey (11.7–12.3‰). The carbon isotope (δ13C) measurements of all species are characteristic of marine coastal environments (−18.7 to −16.8‰). A Bayesian approach applied to stable isotope mixing models showed that cephalopods are assimilated to a greater extent than fish. However, the poor nutritional condition of specimens that reach the Brazilian coast, especially at the northern limit of migration (~21°S), indicates that prey ingestion is not sufficient for the maintenance of body weight.
Towards Personalized and Semantic Retrieval: An End-to-End Solution for E-commerce Search via Embedding Learning

Nowadays e-commerce search has become an integral part of many people's shopping routines. Two critical challenges stay in today's e-commerce search: how to retrieve items that are semantically relevant but not exact matching to query terms, and how to retrieve items that are more personalized to different users for the same search query. In this paper, we present a novel approach called DPSR, which stands for Deep Personalized and Semantic Retrieval, to tackle this problem. Explicitly, we share our design decisions on how to architect a retrieval system so as to serve industry-scale traffic efficiently and how to train a model so as to learn query and item semantics accurately. Based on offline evaluations and online A/B test with live traffics, we show that DPSR model outperforms existing models, and DPSR system can retrieve more personalized and semantically relevant items to significantly improve users' search experience by +1.29% conversion rate, especially for long tail queries by +10.03%. As a result, our DPSR system has been successfully deployed into JD.com's search production since 2019.
Control of Listeria monocytogenes on the surface of frankfurters by acid treatments

Small numbers of Listeria monocytogenes can be isolated from packaged frankfurters. Based on previous work from this laboratory, these L. monocytogenes cells undoubtedly represent surface recontamination during peeling and packaging. We investigated organic acid dips just prior to packaging as a secondary lethal step to destroy L. monocytogenes and observed both bacteriocidal and bacteriostatic effects depending on the concentration of acid used. Acetic acid when combined with citric acid (at 2·5% each) restricted the growth and development of L. monocytogenes on frankfurters stored vacuum-packaged at 5°C for up to 90 days. Other acids individually, such as lactic acid (5%) and acetic acid (5%), also suppressed the organism. A dose response effect was observed for all acids tested. A simple 2 min surface rinse in saline was adequate to remove L. monocytogenes from frankfurter surfaces and gave recoveries similar to a stomacher method. The acid treatments appeared to be lethal and did not injure the organism. Overall, organic acid treatments appear to provide a secondary lethal step in frankfurter processing and could be an additional factor in limiting the presence of L. monocytogenes in frankfurters.
Purification and Some Properties of α-Galactosidase from Candida guilliermondii H-404

Candida guilliermondii H-404, isolated from soil, produced thermostable α-galactosidase, but small amounts of other glycosidases (such as β-galactosidase, α-glucosidase, and β-glucosidase). The enzyme was separated into two fractions by DEAE-Toyopearl 650M chromatography, and the two enzymes were designated galactosidase I and II. These two enzymes had the same molecular weight (270,000 by gel filtration, 64,000 by SDS-PAGE). The isoelectric points of α-galactosidase I and II were 6.16 and 6.21, respectively. These two enzymes were different from each other in pH stability, temperature stability, and effects of Fe2 + and Cu2 + ion on α-galactosidase activity. The enzyme had stronger transfer activity and wider acceptor specificity than α-galactosidases which have been reported.
A Comparison of shell size and meat weight between population of the bivalve Anadara antiquata (Linnaeus 1758) from four sites experiencing different levels of exploitation pressure in Zanzibar

A comparative study on the shell size and meat weight between Anadara antiquata populations harvested from four intertidal mud flats subjected to varying exploitation pressure in Zanzibar was undertaken between August and December 2000. An analysis of the data from the four study locations Mazizni, Mbweni, Kisakasaka, and Jambiani showed that much smaller sized Anadara , with low meat weights were being harvested from Mazizini and Mbweni in comparison to those harvested from Kisakasaka and Jambiani. The first two sites were areas in which there was heavy exploitation of the animals in comparison to the last two. Mazizini and Mbweni were always found to be occupied by shell collectors on almost all low tides . The availability of alternative livelihood activities at Kisakasaka and Jambiani appeared to be responsible for the reduced exploitation pressure on the cockles, reflected by the presence of comparatively large and heavy animals. The results of this investigation are given together with management suggestions including the introduction alternative livelihood activities, which may lead to better growth and meat yield of this locally valuable molluscs. Tanzania Journal of Science Vol. 30 (2) 2004: pp. 73-76
Cetacean diversity off La Réunion Island (France)

The waters of La Réunion, a French island located in the south-western Indian Ocean, have never been investigated for cetacean diversity. Dedicated daily surveys were conducted in 2004–2007 to assess cetacean diversity off the western and southern coasts of the island. A total of ten species was observed during the survey period, including two baleen whales and eight odontocetes. Four additional species that had not been observed at sea were reported stranded. The most frequent delphinid species were the Indo-Pacific bottlenose, the spinner and the common bottlenose dolphins, which were observed year-round. Photo-identification data showed a high recapture rate of Tursiops aduncus, strongly suggesting a resident population. The humpback whale uses the coastal waters of La Réunion seasonally, during winter. The high proportion of mother–calf pairs indicated that La Réunion might represent a breeding area for this species. Pantropical spotted dolphin, melon-headed whale and Fraser's dolphin were sighted at a medium frequency, in offshore waters, and tended to favour the southern part of the island. Three coastal species were frequently using the newly created Marine Protected Area (MPA), supporting the view that cetacean conservation issues have to be included in the MPA management plan currently in progress.
Crystal structure of Escherichia coli RNase HI in complex with Mg2+ at 2.8 Å resolution: Proof for a single Mg2+‐binding site

To obtain more precise insight into the Mg2+‐binding site essential for RNase HI catalytic activity, we have determined the crystal structure of E. coli RNase HI in complex with Mg2+. The analyzed cocrystal, which is not isomorphous with the Mg2+‐free crystal previously refined at 1.48 Å resolution, was grown at a high MgSO4 concentration more than 100 mM so that even weakly bound Mg2+ sites could be identified. The structure was solved by the molecular replacement method, using the Mg2+‐free crystal structure as a search model, and was refined to give a final R‐value of 0.190 for intensity data from 10 to 2.8 Å, using the XPLOR and PROLSQ programs. The backbone structures are in their entirety very similar to each other between the Mg2+‐bound and the metal‐free crystals, except for minor regions in the enzyme interface with the DNA/RNA hybrid. The active center clearly revealed a single Mg2+ atom located at a position almost identical to that previously found by the soaking method. Although the two metal‐ion mechanism had been suggested by another group (Yang, W., Hendrickson, W.A., Crouch, R.J., Satow, Y. Science 249:1398‐1405, 1990) and partially supported by the crystallographic study of inactive HIV‐1 RT RNase H fragment (Davies, J.F., II, Hostomska, Z., Hostomsky, Z., Jordan, S.R., Matthews, D. Science 252:88‐95, 1991), the present result excludes the possibility that RNase HI requires two metal‐binding sites for activity. In contrast to the features in the metal‐free enzyme, the side chains of Asn‐44 and Glu‐48 are found to form coordinate bonds with Mg2+ in the metal‐bound crystal. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Training End-to-End Analog Neural Networks with Equilibrium Propagation

We introduce a principled method to train end-to-end analog neural networks by stochastic gradient descent. In these analog neural networks, the weights to be adjusted are implemented by the conductances of programmable resistive devices such as memristors [Chua, 1971], and the nonlinear transfer functions (or `activation functions') are implemented by nonlinear components such as diodes. We show mathematically that a class of analog neural networks (called nonlinear resistive networks) are energy-based models: they possess an energy function as a consequence of Kirchhoff's laws governing electrical circuits. This property enables us to train them using the Equilibrium Propagation framework [Scellier and Bengio, 2017]. Our update rule for each conductance, which is local and relies solely on the voltage drop across the corresponding resistor, is shown to compute the gradient of the loss function. Our numerical simulations, which use the SPICE-based Spectre simulation framework to simulate the dynamics of electrical circuits, demonstrate training on the MNIST classification task, performing comparably or better than equivalent-size software-based neural networks. Our work can guide the development of a new generation of ultra-fast, compact and low-power neural networks supporting on-chip learning.
Self-supervised Training of Graph Convolutional Networks

Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) have been successfully applied to analyze non-grid data, where the classical convolutional neural networks (CNNs) cannot be directly used. One similarity shared by GCNs and CNNs is the requirement of massive amount of labeled data for network training. In addition, GCNs need the adjacency matrix as input to define the relationship between those non-grid data, which leads to all of data including training, validation and test data typically forms only one graph structures data for training. Furthermore, the adjacency matrix is usually pre-defined and stationary, which makes the data augmentation strategies cannot be employed on the constructed graph structures data to augment the amount of training data. To further improve the learning capacity and model performance under the limited training data, in this paper, we propose two types of self-supervised learning strategies to exploit available information from the input graph structure data itself. Our proposed self-supervised learning strategies are examined on two representative GCN models with three public citation network datasets - Citeseer, Cora and Pubmed. The experimental results demonstrate the generalization ability as well as the portability of our proposed strategies, which can significantly improve the performance of GCNs with the power of self-supervised learning in improving feature learning.
Feeding value of guar meal and the application of enzymes in improving nutritive value for broilers

With a growing population, feeding competition between human and animals is increasing. Because major ingredients used in animal feeds, especially in poultry diets are now being used in human nutrition, there is a decreased availability of quality feed resources and poultry feeds are becoming costly. Guar meal is an easily available and economical feed ingredient and may be helpful in alleviating this problem. A large quantity of guar is processed in the world for gum extraction and residue left over from processing is converted into guar meal. It has a good amino acid profile with crude protein contents of about 33–45%. However, anti-nutritional components like guar gum (β-mannan), saponins and trypsin inhibitors limit the use of guar meal in broiler diets. These anti-nutritional factors have been reported to depress growth in birds but at lower levels some of these (β-mannan and saponins) have positive effects on bird health and performance. β-mannan is considered a major anti-nutritional factor when higher levels of guar meal are used in poultry. To improve the utilisation of such feeds, β-mannanases are used. This paper reviews some benefits and drawbacks regarding the use of guar meal in poultry diets and how to improve its feeding value.
How Gamification Affects Software Developers: Cautionary Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment on GitHub

We examine how the behavior of software developers changes in response to removing gamification elements from GitHub, an online platform for collaborative programming and software development. We find that the unannounced removal of daily activity streak counters from the user interface (from user profile pages) was followed by significant changes in behavior. Long-running streaks of activity were abandoned and became less common. Weekend activity decreased and days in which developers made a single contribution became less common. Synchronization of streaking behavior in the platform's social network also decreased, suggesting that gamification is a powerful channel for social influence. Focusing on a set of software developers that were publicly pursuing a goal to make contributions for 100 days in a row, we find that some of these developers abandon this quest following the removal of the public streak counter. Our findings provide evidence for the significant impact of gamification on the behavior of developers on large collaborative programming and software development platforms. They urge caution: gamification can steer the behavior of software developers in unexpected and unwanted directions.
Cold H i ejected into the Magellanic Stream

We report the direct detection of cold HI gas in a cloud ejected from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) towards the Magellanic Stream. The cloud is part of a fragmented shell of HI gas on the outskirts of the SMC. This is the second direct detection of cold HI associated with the Magellanic Stream using absorption. The cold gas was detected using 21-cm HI absorption-line observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) towards the extra-galactic source PMN J0029$-$7228. We find a spin (excitation) temperature for the gas of $68 \pm 20$ K. We suggest that breaking super shells from the Magellanic Clouds may be a source of cold gas to supply the rest of the Magellanic Stream.
Leaf structure and chemical composition as affected by elevated CO2 : genotypic responses of two perennial grasses

Genotypic variability was studied in two Mediterranean grass species, Bromus erectus and Dactylis glomerata, with regard to the response to CO2 of leaf total non-structural carbohydrate concentration ([TNC]lf), specific leaf area (SLA), and leaf carbon and nitrogen concentrations ([C]lf and [N]lf, respectively). Fourteen genotypes of each species were grown together on intact soil monoliths at ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations (350 and 700 μmol mol−1, respectively). In both species, the most consistent effect of elevated CO2 was an increase in [TNC]lf and a decrease in leaf nitrogen concentration when expressed either as total dry mass [Nm]lf, structural dry mass [Nmst]lf or leaf area [Na]lf. The SLA decreased only in D. glomerata, due to an accumulation of total non-structural carbohydrates and to an increase in leaf density. No genotypic variability was found for any variable in B. erectus, suggesting that genotypes responded in a similar way to elevated CO2. In D. glomerata, a genotypic variability was found only for [Cst], [Nm]lf, [Nmst]lf and [Na]lf. Since [Nm]lf is related to plant growth and is a strong determinant of plant–herbivore interactions, our results suggest evolutionary consequences of elevated CO2 through competitive interactions or herbivory.
Impact-aware task-space quadratic-programming control

Robots usually establish contacts at rigid surfaces with near-zero relative velocities. Otherwise, impact-induced energy propagates in the robot’s linkage and may cause irreversible damage to the hardware. Moreover, abrupt changes in task-space contact velocity and peak impact forces also result in abrupt changes in robot joint velocities and torques; which can compromise controllers’ stability, especially for those based on smooth models. In reality, several tasks would require establishing contact with moderately high velocity. We propose to enhance task-space multi-objective controllers formulated as a quadratic program to be resilient to frictional impacts in three dimensions. We devise new constraints and reformulate the usual ones to be robust to the abrupt joint state changes mentioned earlier. The impact event becomes a controlled process once the optimal control search space is aware of: (1) the hardware-affordable impact bounds and (2) analytically computed feasible set (polyhedra) that constrain post-impact critical states. Prior to and nearby the targeted contact spot, we assume, at each control cycle, that the impact will occur at the next iteration. This somewhat one-step preview makes our controller robust to impact time and location. To assess our approach, we experimented its resilience to moderate impacts with the Panda manipulator and achieved swift grabbing tasks with the HRP-4 humanoid robot.
Embracing undecidability: Cognitive needs and theory evaluation

There are many ways we can not know. Even in systems that we created ourselves, as, for example, systems in mathematical logic, Goedel and Tarski's theorems impose limits on what we can know. As we try to speak of the real world, things get even harder. We want to compare the results of our mathematical theories to observations, and that means the use of inductive methods. While we can demonstrate how an ideal probabilistic induction should work, the requirements of such a method include a few infinities. Furthermore, it would not be even enough to be able to compute those methods and obtain predictions. There are cases where underdeterminacy might be unavoidable, such as the interpretation of quantum mechanics or the current status of string theory. Despite that, scientists still behave as if they were able to know the truth. As it becomes clear that such behavior can cause severe cognitive mistakes, the need to accept our limits, both our natural human limits and the limits of the tools we have created, become apparent. This essay will discuss how we must accept that knowledge is almost only limited to formal systems. Moreover, even in those, there will always be undecidable propositions. We will also see how those questions influence the evaluation of current theories in physics.
GFPNet: A Deep Network for Learning Shape Completion in Generic Fitted Primitives

In this letter, we propose an object reconstruction apparatus that uses the so-called Generic Primitives (GP) to complete shapes. A GP is a 3D point cloud depicting a generalized shape of a class of objects. To reconstruct the objects in a scene we first fit a GP onto each occluded object to obtain an initial raw structure. Secondly, we use a model-based deformation technique to fold the surface of the GP over the occluded object. The deformation model is encoded within the layers of a Deep Neural Network (DNN), coined GFPNet. The objective of the network is to transfer the particularities of the object from the scene to the raw volume represented by the GP. We show that GFPNet competes with state of the art shape completion methods by providing performance results on the ModelNet and KITTI benchmarking datasets.
Induction of resistance in cocoa against Crinipellis perniciosa and Verticillium dahliae by acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM)

The benzothiadiazole compound acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) was assessed as an inducer of resistance against Crinipellis perniciosa, agent of witches’ broom, and Verticillium dahliae, agent of vascular wilt, both on cocoa. ASM induced a reduction in incidence of witches’ broom of up to 84·5% when sprayed 30 days before inoculation on cocoa seedlings of cv. Catongo. ASM also induced a reduction in severity of Verticillium wilt to 55·4% on cv. Theobahia. For both pathosystems, effects of dose on disease were not clearly observed. The efficacy of the inducer increased with the interval between sprayings and the respective inoculations with the pathogens. In another experiment, the effect of ASM on the control of witches’ broom on cocoa seedlings was compared with that of cuprous oxide and tebuconazole, all sprayed 15 days before inoculation. ASM reduced disease incidence by 60·1% compared with the inoculated control. ASM was superior to tebuconazole, and there was also a tendency for ASM to be better than cuprous oxide. To understand the mechanism of action of ASM as an inducer of resistance, alterations in the levels of total phenolics, polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases were evaluated 3, 15 and 30 days after spraying of seedlings of cv. Catongo. Enzyme activities from seedlings of cv. Theobahia were evaluated 30 days after spraying. On cv. Catongo, no significant differences in total phenolic content and polyphenol oxidase activity were detected after spraying. However, an increase in peroxidase activity was detected at all times of evaluation. On cv. Theobahia, significant increases in activities of peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase were detected, indicating that defence responses due to ASM were dependent on host genotype.