Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in the composition and standing crop of salt-marsh communities in response to the removal of a grazer

SUMMARY (1) Changes in species composition, live standing crop and plant litter have been measured in a salt marsh at La Perouse Bay, Manitoba in the presence of a grazer (the lesser snow goose, Anser caerulescens caerulescens) and when the grazer is excluded. (2) The composition of vegetation in exclosures (5 m x 5 m) changed rapidly. After five years sixteen species of higher plants were present in the oldest exclosure compared with six species in an adjacent (control) grazed area. Dicotyledons, such as Potentilla egedii and Plantago maritima, increased in frequency in the absence of grazing, and Carex subspathacea replaced Puccinellia phryganodes as the dominant graminoid. (3) New species, which appeared in the exclosure, were present in ungrazed areas elsewhere in the marsh. However, the frequency of these species in the exclosures was different from that in ungrazed areas. (4) The grazer is a generalist in its selection of forage species. The removal of geese leads to extensive clonal growth of species, such as Potentilla egedii, which are unable to tolerate heavy grazing and trampling, unlike Carex and Puccinellia. (5) Within a season the standing crop of vegetation was highest in exclosures erected one or two years previously. Litter accumulated in exclosures. The ratio of maximum standing crop to litter fell from >4: 1 to <2: 1 as communities aged in the absence of grazing. (6) Cessation of grazing leads to rapid changes in the structure and composition of the community. The vegetation within an exclosure was poorly grazed when the fence was removed after two years.
A Novel ℒ1 Gain Performance Based Multi-robot System Formulation Control Design Method

The time-varying formations are usually required in practice for multi-agent systems to track the trajectories generated by multiple leaders. The ability to maintain a stable formation property is helpful in terms of facilitating subsequent tasks such as collaborative detection, cooperative reconnaissance and performing other specific task like fetch and transport goods together as a team. However, most of existing methods, on the other hand, are fragile to the measurement noises and network sparsity. Moreover, it seems that few results are available that considering the internal and external control loop to arrive the consensus of position, the velocity and the attitude simultaneously. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we proposed a novel scheme and developed a novel ℒ1 gain algorithm, where the integrated two loop robot control scheme is endowed with disturbance rejection ability, and it can maintain the formation structure during motion along a pre-determined or online generated geometric path, and to follow a timing law that dominates the rate of advancement of the group. Sufficient conditions are established to guarantee the stability, the invariant set property, the ℒ1 gain index, and also the initial tracking error bounding constraints, which are formulated and presented in terms of LMIs/BMIs and can be readily solved to obtain the controller. Extensive simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the five robots as well as the three robots formulation cases are detail analysis. It turns out that, in addition to providing a novel perspective of the formulation control problem with disturbance rejection ability, the approach adopted in this paper also paves the way to several extensions in relation to control of multi-agent systems in accordance with swarm intelligence principles, such as the collision avoidance, the delayed multi-agent system control, the incorporation of multiple simultaneous objectives and control design under communication constraints.
Midgar: Creation of a Graphic Domain-Specific Language to Generate Smart Objects for Internet of Things Scenarios Using Model-Driven Engineering

Currently, we have around us many Smart Objects. With the use of these objects, we can obtain benefits in our daily lives, as well as recommendations and help when we travel. Alternatively, we may increase and improve our industrial processes through the automation of certain tasks. Notwithstanding, we need to use specific software or to develop our own applications. Nevertheless, the main problem arises when we need to develop our own application because we need to save money, or in other cases, the existing applications are not adapted to us. In this case, it is possible that we need to learn new things, the money will then be spent, and such a process is likely to involve problems related to the Software Crisis. So, the main motivation is to create an environment which can reuse the previous knowledge and help people without knowledge about programming to create Smart Objects. Then, the research question of this paper is the following: Could we enable the creation of Smart Objects in an easy and efficient way for people who do not have programming skills? As a possible solution, we have developed a graphic Domain-Specific Language using the Midgar platform. In order to validate our proposal, we make an evaluation split into different phases; the first one consisted in measuring data obtained from participants when they were performing a specific task, and the second one consisted of a survey to collect their opinions about our proposal. Moreover, we also did a comparison of the measured data between two graphical editors and two different participant profiles according to their knowledge about Smart Objects.
A Robust Orthogonal Matching Pursuit Based on L1 Norm

Compressed sensing theory is a new sampling theory in recent years. Orthogonal matching pursuit(OMP) algorithm is one of the widely used reconstruction methods. For the problem of poor quality in OMP when there are outliers in the measurement vector, the OMP algorithm is improved by combining the characteristics of L1 norm, and a robust Orthogonal Matching Pursuit based on L1 Norm(L1OMP) is proposed. Compared with the traditional OMP algorithm, the L1OMP algorithm is robust to outliers. This is because the traditional OMP algorithm uses the L2 norm to estimate the sparse signal, and the L2 norm is extremely sensitive to the outliers. In contrast, the robustness of the L1 norm is good. In this paper, the L1OMP algorithm and the data preprocessing OMP algorithm are used to simulate the signal reconstruction. The simulation results show that the L1OMP algorithm can accurately reconstruct the signal when there is an outlier in the measurement vector.
Adaptive Window Size Based Deep Neural Network for Driving Maneuver Prediction

Driving maneuver prediction is one of the most challenging tasks in Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), it can provide an early notification for ADAS to predict dangerous circumstances and take appropriate actions. However, it is difficult to well modeling the driving maneuver process due to the complexity and uncertainty of traffic status. To address this issue, we propose a novel model, denoted as DMPM, which uses deep learning method for Driving Maneuver Prediction (DMP) from multi-modal data, i.e. front view videos and vehicle signals. Firstly, with Adaptive Window Size Selector (AWSS), DMPM is able to dynamically identify the optimal sliding window size for the input data. Secondly, the Global Context Video Network (GCV Network) is proposed combing with Root-ResNet+Weighted Channel Dropout (WCD) architecture to extract the features from multi-modal data efficiently. Specially, including the Global Context (GC) block, GCV Network has an ability of modeling long-range dependency. Finally, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network that captures temporal dependencies is leveraged for driving maneuver prediction. The experimental results show that the DMPM is capable of learning the latent features of driving maneuver and achieving significantly better performance than other popular models on a real-world driving data set.
HINDI SYLLABIFICATION

Results are presented from an experiment conducted to see how native speakers of Hindi syllabify various intervocalic consonant clusters. Twenty-one native speakers of Hindi were asked to repeat the “first part” or the “last part” of a word twice for 19 selected test words. The results showed a preference for VC-CV syllabification for two-consonant clusters and a VC-CCV preference for three-consonant clusters. The sonority value of segments did not play a role and the ‘onset-first’ principle was only partially supported. The VC-CCV syllabification preference for three-consonant clusters for all cases would not have been predicted by recent proposals of Optimality Theory. The results also lend support to the notion that mental grammars of adults are partially shaped by literacy.
Incorporation of expressive writing in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction

ABSTRACT Creative wiring is an effective treatment modality for persons recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. As an augment to traditional therapeutic intervention using behavior modification delivered individually and through group process, providing addicts with guided exercises in writing and sharing in a group setting has produced very positive results in work done at St. Christopher’s Inn in Garrison, New York.
Comorbidity of metabolic syndrome components in a population-based screening program: A latent class analysis

Background: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) is rapidly increasing in the world. Thus, the aim of the present study was to identify the latent subgroups of Iranian male adults based on MS components and investigate the effect of abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), high total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) on the odds of membership in each class. Methods: In the present study, we used the data of a population-based screening program conducted on 823 urban adult men aged 25 years and older in city of Qom in 2014. Abdominal obesity, fasting blood sugar (FBS), blood pressure, and serum lipid profile were measured in participants after for at least 8 hours. MS was defined according to the Adults Treatment Panel III criteria. Latent class analysis was used to achieve the aims of study. Analyses were conducted using PROC LCA in SAS 9.2 software. In all analysis, p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were 3 different latent classes among participants. Latent class 1, non-MS, 55.1%; latent lass 2, at risk, 21.3%; and finally latent class 3, MS, with 23.6% of the participants. Age (OR=0.98, 95% CI: 0.98-0.99, high LDL (OR=0.27, 95% CI: 0.13-0.56), high TC (OR=8.12, 95% CI: 4.40-15.00), and abnormal ALT (OR=2.25, 95% CI 1.49-3.41) were associated with at risk class. Also, only age (OR=1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.04) was associated with MS class. The most prevalent components among the participants were having low HDL (34.0%) and high WC (33.9%). Conclusion: Notable percent of samples fell in "at risk" and "MS" classes, which stress the necessity of designing preventive interventions for these specific stratums of population.
Talitridae (Amphipoda, Gammaridea) from the Brazilian coastline

Surveys along the Brazilian coastline yielded material for the re-description of four semi-terrestrial talitrid species: the Brazilian endemics Chelorchestia darwinii (M ller, 1864), Pseudorchestoidea brasiliensis (Dana, 1853), which is transferred to Atlantorchestoidea gen. nov., and Talorchestia tucurauna (M ller, 1864); and the Atlantic Platorchestia monodi (Mateu et al., 1986). The syntype series of P. platensis (Kroyer, 1845) was examined and a lectotype and paralectotypes designated. A key for the talitrid species of the Brazilian coastline including some sibling species of Platorchestia monodi is provided.
Role of Chemokines in the Biology of Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a heterogeneous tumor with poor prognosis, can arise at any level in the biliary tree. It may derive from epithelial cells in the biliary tracts and peribiliary glands and possibly from progenitor cells or even hepatocytes. Several risk factors are responsible for CCA onset, however an inflammatory milieu nearby the biliary tree represents the most common condition favoring CCA development. Chemokines play a key role in driving the immunological response upon liver injury and may sustain tumor initiation and development. Chemokine receptor-dependent pathways influence the interplay among various cellular components, resulting in remodeling of the hepatic microenvironment towards a pro-inflammatory, pro-fibrogenic, pro-angiogenic and pre-neoplastic setting. Moreover, once tumor develops, chemokine signaling may influence its progression. Here we review the role of chemokines in the regulation of CCA development and progression, and the modulation of angiogenesis, metastasis and immune control. The potential role of chemokines and their receptors as possible biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets for hepatobiliary cancer is also discussed.
Physiological linkage among successful high-status women in international teams

Abstract In contemporary society, decisions are often made by teams whose members represent different nationalities and genders. In the current work, participants from 55 countries formed groups of 3 to 4 people to select one of the 5 firms in a mock firm search. In all groups, one woman was randomly assigned to have higher status than her groupmates; she was also surreptitiously instructed to persuade her group to select one (randomly assigned) firm. We measured cardiac interbeat intervals for participants throughout the decision-making process to assess physiological linkage—the degree to which a ‘sender’s’ physiological response predicts a ‘receiver’s’ physiological response at a subsequent time interval. On average, high-status women were successful at persuasion. The physiological responses of successful high-status women were also predicted by the responses of their female groupmates: stronger linkage to female group members during the task was associated with success at persuading the group. Successful high-status women were also perceived as more persuasive than others in the group. This work shows that the link between status and successful persuasion generalizes to women among heterogeneous international teams. It also suggests that attention to others—often associated with physiological linkage—may be useful in persuading others during decision-making.
Comparison of Insolubility of Tannins induced by Acetaldehyde Vapor in Fruits of Three Types of Astringent Persimmon

3つのタイプの渋ガキ,すなわち不完全渋ガキ,完全渋ガキおよび不完全甘ガキで種子数の少ない渋果の果肉切片を用いて,アセトアルデヒド(AA)処理後のタンニンの不溶化の強度を果実熟度との関連において調査した. (1) 果実発育の3時期に3つのタイプのカキ果実からそれぞれ果肉切片を調製し,AA処理を行ったのち,不溶化したタンニンの特性を比較した. その結果,果実のタイプや熟度にかかわらず,不溶性タンニンはHCl-MeOHによる抽出によってほぼ同様に可溶化した. (2) このことから,渋ガキ果実の脱渋(タンニンの不溶化)の難易は,果実のタイプや熟度にかかわらず,果肉に蓄積するAAの量の多少によっていることが確かめられた.
Dispersion and mortality of colonies of the tropical ant Paraponera clavata

Between 1984 and 1987 we located and recensused 217 Paraponera clavata colonies on a 50 ha plot of lowland rain forest located on Barro Colorado Island, Republic of Panama. In this study we describe patterns of dispersion of colonies of P. clavata with respect to habitat type, topography, and intercolony distance. We then used colony mortality data to determine if differential mortality contributes to observed patterns of dispersion. Colony density was 4.34/ha. Colonies were overdispersed, but were not significantly associated with habitat type or slope. Colony mortality was not significantly related to habitat type, slope, or tree species or size class. Colonies c 20 m from another colony had significantly higher mortality rates than colonies found at greater distances. Mean life expectancy of a colony was 2.5 yr. Intercolony aggression appears to be a major factor contributing to colony mortality in this species. Patterns of colony-tree association reported by Belk et al. (1989) cannot be fully explained by differential mortality, and thus appear to be due to selection by founding queens.
Potential of dried cassava pulp as an alternative energy source for laying hens

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the potential use of dried cassava pulp (DCP) with reference to productive performance, nutrient digestibility, egg quality, egg yolk cholesterol, cecal microbial populations, and volatile fatty acids production in laying hens. In experiment 1, a total of 48 laying hens (Isa Brown) were placed in individual cages and assigned randomly to one of 6 dietary treatment groups consisting of a control and 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% DCP for 10 d. Feeding laying hens with diets containing up to 20% DCP did not affect the dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) digestibility and nitrogen (N) retention (P > 0.05). In experiment 2, a total of 288 laying hens (Isa Brown) were randomly distributed to 6 dietary groups (one control and 5 DCP: 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25%) for 12 wk. The results show that diets containing up to 20% DCP had no significant effects on productive performance or egg quality (P > 0.05). The inclusion of DCP at levels of 20 to 25% showed a positive effect on decreased egg yolk cholesterol (P
The evolution of swimming capacity among migratory and non-migratory populations of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

ii PREFACE . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS . iv LIST OF TABLES . vii LIST OF FIGURES . ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . xii DEDICATION . xiv Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 The evolution of complex, whole-animal performance traits . 1 1.2 Traits contributing to prolonged swimming performance in fish . 5 1.3 Model species: Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). 7 1.3.1 Stream-resident and anadromous-marine threespine stickleback . 8 1.4 Research questions . 10 Chapter 2: Reductions in prolonged swimming capacity following freshwater colonization in multiple threespine stickleback populations. 12 2.1 Summary . 12 2.2 Introduction . 12 2.3 Materials and methods . 15 2.3.1 Fish collection and rearing. 15 2.3.1.1 Common-garden reared crosses . 15 2.3.1.2 Wild-caught fish . 16 2.3.2 Measurement of prolonged swimming speed . 17 2.3.3 Measurement of morphological traits . 18 2.3. 4 Measurement of standard and maximum metabolic rates . 19 2.3. 5 Statistical analyses . 20 2.4 Results . 21 2.4. 1 Prolonged swimming performance . 21 2.4. 2 Candidate traits . 22 2.4. 2.1 Pectoral fin surface area and shape . 22 2.4. 2.2 Body shape . 23 2.4. 2.3 Metabolic rates. 24 2.5 Discussion . 25 2.5. 1 Evolutionary forces influencing prolonged swimming performance . 26 2.5. 2 Morphological and physiological traits . 28 2.6 Acknowledgments . 30 Chapter 3: Mechanisms underlying parallel reductions in aerobic capacity in nonmigratory threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations. 35 3.1 Summary . 35 3.2 Introduction . 35 3.3 Materials and methods . 38 3.3.1 Experimental animals . 38 3.3.2 Collection of blood and tissue samples . 39 3.3.3 Analysis of blood and tissue samples . 40
Synthesis of Unprotected 2-Arylglycines by Transamination of Arylglyoxylic Acids with 2-(2-Chlorophenyl)glycine.

The transamination of α-keto acids with 2-phenylglycine is an effective methodology for directly synthesizing unprotected α-amino acids. However, the synthesis of 2-arylglycines by transamination is problematic because the corresponding products 2-arylglycines transaminate the starting arylglyoxylic acids. Herein, we demonstrate the use of commercially available L-2-(2-chlorophenyl)glycine as the nitrogen source in the transamination of arylglyoxylic acids, producing the corresponding 2-arylglycines without interference from the undesired self-transamination process.
Pain knowledge and attitudes of final-year medical students at the University of Cape Town: A cross-sectional survey

Background Pain is the most common presenting complaint in patients visiting a healthcare facility. Healthcare professionals need adequate knowledge of pain to be able to manage it effectively. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the pain knowledge and attitudes of the 2018 final-year medical students at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Setting This study was conducted by the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT, South Africa, with final-year medical students. Methods Unruh’s Modified Pain Knowledge and Attitudes (MPKA) questionnaire was utilised to collect data in a cross-sectional survey using an Internet-based electronic format. Results A total of 104 students out of 232 students in the class (44.8%) participated in the study. The total median score on the MPKA questionnaire was 46 (interquartile range [IQR] 44–50.5) out of 57, or 80.7% (IQR 77.2–88.6%). The participants performed worst in the section on the pharmacological management of pain with median scores of 6 (IQR 4–8) (55%) correct out of 11 questions. Conclusion Pain knowledge, especially with regard to the pharmacological aspects of pain management, has some important deficiencies in these final-year medical students. It appears that the undergraduate curriculum and teaching thereof would benefit from a review of the pain curriculum.
Patients experience of living with cancer associated thrombosis in France (Le PELICAN).

INTRODUCTION Previous research in the United Kingdom and Spain has identified several areas of unmet clinical and support need for cancer patients diagnosed with cancer associated thrombosis (CAT). These included lack of information, which was directly associated with distress. Appropriate information has been shown to improve tolerance and compliance with self-injecting low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). It is not known whether such experiences are restricted to those particular countries healthcare systems and/or cultures. METHODS Purposive sampling of patients with CAT were recruited from an academic hospital in Colombes, France. Semi structured interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were coded using Invivo software. Analysis was undertaken using framework analysis. RESULTS Twenty four patients participated. Three major themes with associated subthemes were identified: Patients received minimal information regarding risks of CAT or how to treat it once diagnosed. However, this was not associated with distress. Patients adopted a passive role whereby the doctor was always right. They were intolerant injections and found it inconvenient to await community nurses. CONCLUSION The doctor patient relationship in France differs from other countries, with patients adopting a passive role with respect to information requirements. This dynamic appears to be a "two edged sword" whereby distress around CAT was minimal yet a lack of knowledge impacted on acceptability of LMWH. This has implications for the choice of anticoagulant particularly now that the DOACS have been evaluated for this indication.