Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reproductive Phenology of Central Amazon Pioneer Trees

This study characterizes the flowering and fruiting phenology of the 13 most common pioneer tree species in early successional forests of the Central Amazon. For each species, 30 individuals, 10 each in three secondary forests, were monitored monthly for four years at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, north of Manaus. Five species showed nearly continuous flowering and fruiting throughout the study, indicating that resources were available to pollinators and dispersers on a regular basis. The other eight species showed stronger seasonality in reproduction, seven of them annually, and one supra-annually. Overall, flowering was concentrated in the transition from the dry to the rainy season and fruiting was concentrated in the rainy season. There was no relationship between reproductive phenology and tree pollinator type or dispersal mode. Reproductive phenology was remarkably consistent year to year. The pioneer community showed a variety of phenological patterns but as a whole tended to be characterized by annual flowering and fruiting, either continuously or seasonally, thereby fitting generalizations of pioneer species relative to mature forest species.
Fuzzy Associative Summaries for Databases

The paper introduces the problem of mining Fuzzy Associative Summaries. An example of summary is (Age; Medium) ! (Salary; Low) ! (Department; A); 0:34; it means that when the Age is Medium, this implies that the Salary is Low, and this further implies that the Department is A, with a support of 0:34. In this paper, we define the notion of fuzzy associative summary, and propose an algorithm to mine them from within a relational table. Then, we discuss our implementation on top of Soft-SQL, the extension of the classical SQL query language to express flexible queries based on soft operators and sets of linguistic predicates on classical relational databases [1], and present some experimental results.
A Novel Integrated Circuit Driver for LED Lighting

A novel integrated circuit for driving LED lighting has been proposed, designed and fabricated. Besides the typical parts of LED driver, an integral part was added at the output terminal of error amplifier in the driver. In this way, a novel average current mode can be set up to take the place ordinary peak current control mode. In addition, a BUCK low-level topology was adopted, too. It can be used to drive up to eight 1 W HB LED lights with 350 mA constant current. In this way, the LED driver displays high performance, in which output current with less 1% error and total efficiency as high as 96%. The feasibility of the design has been verified by actual measurement on the fabricated chip.
Do Scientific Learning and Problem-solving Develop Mathematics Students’ Creativity?

This paper aims to investigate the connection between scientific learning, problem-solving, and creative thinking theoretically. Building on the results of elaborating theories among scientific learning, creative thinking, and mathematics problem solving, it is then acquired connection among them, that is, in the activities of (1) observing and asking positively connect to the ability in problem-solving in the aspects like identifying problem, finding problem goal, and formulating the problem; (2) identifying problem, finding problem goal, and formulating the problem connect positively to the ability in creative thinking in both aspects fluency and flexibility; (3) reasoning and trying out connect positively to the ability in problem solving in the aspects of finding strategies for solving problem, choosing appropriate strategy, and implementing the strategy; (4) finding strategies for solving problem, choosing appropriate strategy, and implementing the strategy positively connect to the ability in creative thinking in the aspects such as fluency, flexibility, and elaborately; (5) concluding and communicating/intertwining positively connect to the ability in problem solving in the aspects like finding strategies for solving problem, choosing appropriate strategy, implementing the strategy, and looking back/verifying conclusion; (6) finding strategies for solving problem, choosing appropriate strategy, implementing the strategy, and looking back/verifying conclusion positively connect to the ability in creative thinking in the aspect such creation/novelty. Keywords—creative thinking, scientific learning, mathematics problem solving
Predistorted Ku-band rectangular waveguide input filter

In current Ku-band satellite telecommunication systems usually a working band selection is performed by means of an input filter before the LNA. Moreover, in some architectures more stringent selectivity requirements may be needed in order to reject cross-coupled transmission power signals coming into the reception chain, being necessary an spurious reject filter after the LNA. On the other hand, depending on the near rejection requirements implementing transmission zeros in the filter response maybe needed. However, this also deteriorates inband response, affecting channels in the extremes of the reception band. In-band response can be improved again by increasing input filter quality factor using predistortion synthesis technique, but at the cost of higher insertion loss and worse reflection response. This work analyses how predistortion technique can be applied to the design of Ku-band rectangular waveguide filters with transmission zeros implemented through cross-couplings in order to improve in-band performances. Moreover, undesired effects arising from applying this technique are also discussed. From authors knowledge, it is the first time this synthesis technique is applied to rectangular waveguide filters with crosscouplings.
Nutritional Status of School Children in Tripoli City, Libya 2012

This investigation aimed to assess the nutritional status & the prevalence of obesity among school children in Tripoli, Libya. 94 children were chosen randomly from primary private schools in central Tripoli. A structured questionnaire was done, then administered to mothers to get demographic data. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC), and Body Fat Percentile (BFP)). Each mother was asked to complete 24 hour recall on three days for every child. Blood biochemical parameters of children (hemoglobin, minerals & vitamins) were estimated. About 90% of children took over their requirements of fat and carbohydrates. Most of the children did not get their requirements from vitamin D according to 24 h recall. One third of children were stunted (H/A average 133.78cm). About 50% of children were over-weighted or obese according to anthropometric measurement. The values of serum hemoglobin, and vitamin B12 levels were normal in all children. On the contrary, 66% of school students had low concentrations (<10 ng/ml) of vitamin D. Fat intake of the majority of children (90.4%) was high. However, 78.8% of them consumed potato chips (p= 0.027). More than half of obese children (21.3%) got daily expenses of two LYD or more (p= 0.05) (relationship between pocket money and BMI). A positive correlation (r = 0.222; P < 0.005) was noted between pocket money and body fat percentile. A highly significant correlation (r = 0.332; P < 0.001) was observed between body fat percentile and arm circumference. This study found a prevalence of over-weight, obesity, stunting and deficiency of vitamin D among primary school children in Tripoli, Libya. Similar studies are needed to do in the future in different areas in Libya.
REMOVAL OF METHYL PARATHION AND COUMAPHOS PESTICIDES BY A BACTERIAL CONSORTIUM IMMOBILIZED IN Luffa cylindrica

The constant application of pesticides has led to environmental and health problems in many regions of the world, as well as the storage of large amounts of pesticide waste and obsolete pesticides. For this reason, it is necessary to develop strategies for the disposal of pesticides that are ecofriendly and economically viable. Different treatment options exist, but in recent years, the application of biological systems has gained the greatest acceptance, because it promises the degradation and detoxification of pesticides without harming the environment or human health. In this study, we used a bacterial consortium that was isolated from agricultural soils to degrade a mixture of the organophosphate pesticides methyl parathion (MP) and coumaphos (COU). The efficiency of removal was evaluated using mineral salt medium supplemented with glucose, and the bacterial consortium was cultivated as free cells and immobilized on Luffa cylindrica fibers. To improve the structure of the fibrous network and to achieve greater retention of micro organisms, removal was also tested prior to fibers treatment with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The results indicate that the microorganisms used had better growth as free cells. A removal of 54.88 % and 62 % for MP and COU, respectively was observed using the free cells; but when the cells were immobilized on loofa sponge fibers, the removal was increased to 98 and 100 % of those pesticides. This pesticide removal was the result of a combined effect among the activity of the microorganisms, the adhesion to the bacterial cells and the adsorption on the support material. We observed a strong and fast adsorption on the loofa sponge fiber, since removal obtained only with loofa fiber, did not present significant difference with immobilized microorganisms. Further studies are needed to understand the processes that occur with adsorbed pesticides and whether there was subsequent desorption and degradation.
Western Lake Trout Woes

Abstract In the western United States, the ability of non-native lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) to attain large sizes, > 18 kg under favorable conditions, fueled the popularity of lake trout fisheries. In the past, restrictive regulations were adopted to increase lake trout abundance and produce trophy specimens. More recently, lake trout have become increasingly problematic because they prey upon and potentially compete with native and sport fishes. We review the experiences of agencies in seven western states which are considering or implementing strategies to address lake trout impacts despite management difficulties due to mixed public perception about lake trout's complex interactions with native or introduced fauna. Special regulations protecting lake trout have often been liberalized or rescinded to encourage their harvest and reduce their negative effects. More intensive methods to control or reduce lake trout abundance include promoting or requiring lake trout harvest, commercial-scale netting.
LAND USE/COVER CHANGE MODELLING IN A MEDITERRANEAN RURAL LANDSCAPE USING MULTI-LAYER PERCEPTRON AND MARKOV CHAIN (MLP-MC)

Mediterranean land use and land cover (LULC) have a very dynamic structure as a result of continuous transformation process due to anthropogenic effects and environmental gradients. LULC dynamics are important indicator of environmental condition in temporal and spatial scales. The aim of this paper was to simulate the future LULC of a Mediterranean type watershed located at the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey by incorporating multi-layer perceptron (MLP), artificial neural network (ANN) and Markov chain (MC) approaches. Landsat TM/OLI images in 1990, 2003 and 2014 over the study area were classified using hybrid classification approach. The Kappa statistics of the hybrid classification that combines K-means, decision tree and object based classification method for these three images were 0.81, 0.85 and 0.87 respectively. The LULC map of 2014 was simulated using LULC maps of 1990 and 2003 for calibration and validation. The simulation results were compared with the actual 2014 LULC map to assess the accuracy of the simulation, and the rate of overlap was found as 89%. LULC map of 2025 was estimated using LULC maps of 2003 and 2014. These results indicated that, the area of bareground will reduce 13.31% whereas the rate of forest and agricultural area will increase 8.70% and 6.51% respectively.
Response of Durum Wheat to Foliar Application of Varied Sources and Rates of Iron Fertilizers

_____________________________________________________________________________ 1 Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, P. O. Box: 84156-83111, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran. * Corresponding author; e-mail: krazmjoo@cc.iut. ac.ir Iron deficiency in soil reduces the quality of durum wheat leading to Fe deficiency in human. Thus, this experiment investigated the effects of foliar application of nano-iron oxide (2 and 4 g L), iron chelate (EDTA), (4 and 8 g L), iron sulfate (4 and 8 g L), and the control on grain yield and quality, yield components, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents, peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities of durum wheat D-85-15-5. Iron application increased activities of all leaf enzymes and chlorophyll of leaf, grain protein, iron and carbohydrate contents, grain carbohydrate, protein, iron yields, and grain yield. Iron source had no effects on enzymes activities, but the highest chlorophyll content, grain yield, grain iron (38%) and protein contents (58%), protein, iron, and carbohydrate yields were produced by application of 2 g L of nanoiron oxide followed by 8 g L iron sulfate. Harvest index, 1,000 gain-weight, and chlorophyll, grain yield, grain iron and protein contents, protein, iron, and carbohydrate yields increased. But, these parameters decreased at the higher rate of nano-iron oxide. Application of 2 g L nano-iron oxide was more effective than the other Fe sources and rates, and is suggested for durum wheat production.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEPTIN AND INSULIN RESISTANCE IN IRANIAN OBESE CHILDREN

Background: Leptin is an adipocyte- derived hormone that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity. Obesity is associated with insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Insulin resistance is one of the factors which have been suggested to affect leptin serum levels. There are few studies evaluating the relation between leptin level and insulin resistance in childhood and adolescence obesity. The aim of the present study is to investigate this relationship in Iranian obese children. Methods: We screened 13089 primary school students aged 7-12 years. Children were divided to overweight and normal based on the recently published National Center for Health Statistics growth charts. The number of children which were overweight was 498, of whom 347 subjects particiated in the study. Fasting blood glucose, insulin and leptin levels were measured and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and fasting glucose to insulin ratio (FGIR) were calculated and compared between two groups. Results : Serum leptin levels were significantly higher in overweight compared to normal group. (11.58±8.1 and 8.1±5.2 respectively p<0.05). Before adjustment for BMI, there was a significant correlation between leptin and fasting insulin, HOMA -IR index and FGIR. (r=0.1, p< 0.05, r=0.1 , p<0.01, r=0.07, p<0.05 respectively). After adjustment for BMI, no significant correlation was found (r=0.097, p=0.20). Conclusion: The relation between leptin and insulin resistance was weak and disappeared after adjustment for BMI. It seems that many other factors including BMI and total fat amount may affect this relationship. Further studies in this field are required
Tellurite Fiber for High Power Mid-Wave Infrared Supercontinuum Generation

Broadband, high-power, mid-infrared sources are critical for many applications. Fiber based supercontinuum generation is the optimum mid-infrared broadband source that can provide extended bandwidth and good coherence. Compared to alternatives such as fluorides and chalcogenides, tellurite fibers are more robust and can handle much higher power. Tellurite fibers also have high nonlinearity and a material zero dispersion wavelength close to 2 μm. This makes them ideal for nonlinear processes pumped by Tm-doped silica fiber lasers. We demonstrated tellurite fibers by using a simple stack and draw process. This fabrication method requires simple setup and is easily repeatable. Due to the difficulty in producing soft glass tubes, we have drawn a stack-and-draw preform without the need for an over-clad tube. The stack-and-draw process provides several advantages over other solid and micro-structured designs. Our solid tellurite fiber design shows potential for broadband mid-infrared supercontinuum generation. We have also shown that designs with low dispersion are the key for broadband midinfrared supercontinuum generation in tellurite fibers pumped at 2 μm.
The SAPIENSA approach for service-enabling pre-existing legacy assets

Migration of legacy assets to SOA embodies a key software engineering challenge. Existing methodologies mostly focus on development of new services while they provide little to no guidance for transforming services from pre-existing enterprise assets. SAPIENSA, a joint research project of the VU University Amsterdam and Tilburg University, aims to fill this gap. It proposes a migration methodology creating a well-constructed SOA out of pre-existing enterprise assets. The methodology exploits the relevant architectural knowledge to drive migration. To this end, the necessary knowledge concerning the migration should be identified, captured, analyzed and generalized. It should be noted that, the methodology is the result of an extensive analysis of the literature in the fields of reengineering and service engineering. This paper provides an overview of the SAPIENSA methodology along with discussions on the regarding research areas.
The Middle Stone Age of West Turkana, Kenya

Abstract Research on the origins of Homo sapiens and the development of our species’ unique behavior is focused on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) period in Africa (in comparison with the European Upper Palaeolithic). Although archaeological and paleontological fieldwork in the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya has contributed greatly to our understanding of human evolution in Africa, the Basin's MSA archaeological record remains poorly known. We report on a reconnaissance of MSA sites in West Turkana, Kenya, which included known archaeological/paleoanthropological localities at Eliye Springs and Kabua Waterhole (Kadokorinyang). A newly-discovered site, Nakechichok 1 (GdJh 5), preserves MSA tools stratified beneath Late Stone Age assemblages. The MSA lithic artifacts from Nakechichok 1 differ from those known from other MSA localities in nearby regions, and, they expand the known scope of MSA variability in the Turkana Basin, demonstrating that the MSA is not “missing” in this region, but just hard to find.
Aphasia classification: The relationship between objective measures of spontaneous speaking samples and naive listener judgments of similarity and fluency

Kirsner, Dunn, Hird, Parkin and Clark (2002) described the lognormal pause and speech segment distributions which chracterize spontaneous speech. This project investiagted the ecological validity of a pause distribution approach to classification of aphasia. The relationship between acoustic measures derived from 8 aphasic speech samples and 22 naive listener's similarity judgments using multidimensional scaling analysis and direct magnitude estimates of fluency was undertaken. Listener's descriptions of the speech samples were subject to lexical semantic analysis and semantic concept analysis. The results indicated a relationship between the temporal characteristics and listener's perception of similarity and fluency.
Desingularization of two-dimensional schemes

We present a new proof of the existence of a desingularization for any excellent surface (where "surface" means "two-dimensional reduced noetherian scheme"). The problem of resolution of singularities of surfaces has a long history (cf. the expository article [25]). Separate proofs of resolution for arbitrary excellent surfaces were announced by Abhyankar and Hironaka in 1967; to date (1977) full details have not yet been published (but cf. [2], [12], [13], [14] and [15]). Actually Hironaka's results on "embedded" resolution are stronger than what we shall prove, viz. the following theorem (which nevertheless suffices for many applications). Unless otherwise indicated, all rings in this paper will be commutative and noetherian, and all schemes will be noetherian and reduced. We say that a point z of a scheme Z is regular if the stalk 0,, of the structure sheaf at z is a regular local ring, and singular otherwise; Z is non-singular if all its points are regular.
The Role of Social Comparison in the Effect of Magazine Advertisements on Women's Mood and Body Dissatisfaction

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the role of social comparison processes in women's responses to images of thin-idealized female beauty. A sample of 126 women viewed magazine advertisements containing full-body, body part, or product images. Instructional set was also manipulated with three levels: control, appearance focus, and social comparison. Mood and body dissatisfaction were measured immediately before and after advertisement viewing, while state weight anxiety and the amount of appearance comparison engaged in were measured only after the advertisements. It was found that exposure to either body part or full body images led to increased negative mood and body dissatisfaction, while the amount of comparison processing was affected by both image type and instructional set. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the effects of image type on mood and body dissatisfaction were mediated by the amount of social comparison reported. It was concluded that the processing in which women engage .
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Bernard L. Ficq for the degree of Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering presented on June 2, 1994. Title: Resonant Forward-Biased Guard Rings for Suppression of Substrate Noise in Mixed-Mode CMOS Circuits

Approved: Previous work at Stanford University has demonstrated that inductance in the substrate connection is the principal problem underlying the coupling of digital switching noise into analog circuits. The low impedance substrate can be treated as a single node over a local area. Switching in the digital circuits produces current transients in the substrate. These transients are subsequently amplified in the analog portions of the overall mixed-mode circuit. Various guard rings and other techniques, including the use of new logic circuit families, have been proposed to suppress this noise. This work demonstrates that by using the capacitance of a forward biased guard ring(s), the substrate noise at a specific frequency(ies) can be reduced by resonating the guard ring capacitance with the substrate lead inductance to provide a very low substrate-to-ground impedance. In this manner, noise at particular frequencies, which are problematic to the analog circuit, can be suppressed. Tuning can be accomplished by varying the current in the forward-biased guard ring diodes. Redacted for Privacy Resonant Forward-Biased Guard Rings for Suppression of Substrate Noise in Mixed-Mode CMOS Circuits by Bernard L. Ficq A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Completed June 2, 1994 Commencement June 1995