Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing Invasive Wild Boars in Southern Brazil's Protected Areas: Challenges and Strategies

Invasive species pose significant threats to ecosystems and biodiversity, necessitating effective management strategies to mitigate their impacts. One such invasive species of concern is the wild boar in Brazil, which has the potential to cause widespread environmental changes. A national plan for monitoring and controlling invasive species, including the wild boar, was developed in response to this threat. Despite this initiative, uncertainties persist regarding the presence of wild boars in protected areas (PAs) and the effectiveness of current management actions. This study aimed to diagnose the situation of wild boars in protected areas within the southern region of Brazil, specifically focusing on their distribution, management techniques employed, and reasons for the lack of management action. An online questionnaire was sent to 297 PAs, with 134 responding. The findings revealed that wild boars were present in 39 of the surveyed PAs, but management efforts were only being carried out in 14 of them. Cages and corrals were identified as the most commonly used techniques, with corn serving as the preferred bait. The study identified two primary reasons for the lack of management action: the wild boar's low invasion intensity and management capacity limitations. To address these challenges effectively, the study advocates for a centralized organization of management actions and emphasizes the development of materials and resources to support successful management strategies. Implementing these measures is essential to safeguarding the conservation of ecosystems and vulnerable species in Brazil's protected areas and ensuring the long-term resilience of these valuable ecological assets.
PASSIVE EARTH PRESSURES WITH VARIOUS WALL MOVEMENTS

This paper presents experimental data of earth pressure acting against a vertical rigid wall, which moved into a mass of dry sand with a stress‐free horizontal surface under various wall‐movement modes. To investigate the variation of earth pressure induced by the rotation about a point above the top (RTT) and rotation about a point below the wall base (RBT) types of wall movement, the instrumented retaining‐wall facility was developed at National Chiao Tung University. Based on experimental data it is found that, for a wall under translational movement, the passive pressure distribution is linear and in good agreement with Terzaghi's prediction based on the general wedge theory. For a wall under either RTT or RBT mode, the magnitude of passive thrust and its point of application are significantly affected by the mode of wall displacement. However, if the parameter n indicating location of the center of rotation is greater than 2.0, the influence of movementmode on passive earth pressure becomes less impo.
2024 Goals and Objectives

Goal 1 Goal 1: Title Provide children and youth with mental health care and developmental disabilities services that is timely, culturally responsive, accessible, and affordable Goal 1: Target Completion Date Dec 31, 2027 Goal 1: Description Provide children and youth with mental health care and developmental disabilities services that is timely, culturally responsive, accessible, and affordable Goal 1: OASAS? Yes Goal 1: OMH? Yes Goal 1: OPWDD? Yes Goal 1: Need Addressed 1 Adverse Childhood Experiences Goal 1: Need Addressed 2 Goal 1: Need Addressed 3
Application of a bio-control agent for controlling strawberry anthracnose in Taiwan

Strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne) is an economically important crop in Taiwan, however because of the outbreak of strawberry anthracnose in early 2010, the short supply of strawberry seedlings became a serious problem for strawberry production. The isolates of anthracnose causing organisms were collected from major strawberry cultivation areas in Miaoli County, and mainly identified as Colletotrichum siamense , these isolates were proved to be pathogenic to the leaves, crown and roots of strawberry. The bio-control agent of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens P-2-2, was isolated from rice paddy field and expressed effectively on inhibition of many fungal pathogens of strawberry. The strawberry seedlings used in this study were treated with 400-fold dilution of B. amyloliquefaciens P-2-2 fermentation broth once for every two weeks to protect the crown of the seedlings from anthracnose infection before transplanting. Sterilization of soil by biological soil disinfestation method was done during field preparation. After transplanted in the production field, the strawberry transplants were continuously treated with 400-fold dilution of B. amyloliquefaciens P-2-2 once for every two weeks until the end of the growing season. The results of field test, shown that the survival rate of the untreated group in demonstration area of Dahu Township was 83.9%, whereas the survival rate of seedlings treated with B. amyloliquefaciens
Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation

As biological diversity continues to shrink at an alarming rate, the loss of plant species poses a threat seemingly less visible than the loss of animals but in many ways more critical. In this book, one of America's leading ethnobotanists warns about our loss of natural vegetation and plant diversity while providing insights into traditional Native agricultural practices in the Americas. Gary Paul Nabhan here reveals the rich diversity of plants found in tropical forests and their contribution to modern crops, then tells how this diversity is being lost to agriculture and lumbering. He then relates "local parables" of Native American agriculture from wild rice in the Great Lakes region to wild gourds in Florida that convey the urgency of this situation and demonstrate the need for saving the seeds of endangered plants. Nabhan stresses the need for maintaining a wide gene pool, not only for the survival of these species but also for the preservation of genetic strains that can help scientists breed more resilient varieties of other plants. Enduring Seeds is a book that no one concerned with our environment can afford to ignore. It clearly shows us that, as agribusiness increasingly limits the food on our table, a richer harvest can be had by preserving ancient ways. This edition features a new foreword by Miguel Altieri, one of today's leading spokesmen for sustainable agriculture and the preservation of indigenous farming methods.
Impact of Text Representation Techniques on Clustering Models

In today’s environment, an enormous amount of unstructured data is generated in an exponential manner. Understanding such complex unstructured data is imperative in the applications including analysis of social media data, image and video data, sensor data, medical data, and customer review data. Generally, clustering is a well-accepted model in classifying and analyzing such documents. An effective and e�cient text clustering technique can signi�cantly improve the task of document analysis and grouping with minimum human intervention. The main two factors in text clustering are the text representation model and the clustering algorithm. Firstly, unstructured data must be represented in a structured format for the analysis. Text representation models transform a large volume of text into vector representations by capturing the semantic information. In this paper, we are investigating the text document representation techniques, their limitations, and how text clustering is different from humans understanding of the text data. In this paper, we are aiming to focus on different text representation methods and clustering algorithms to demonstrate how the choice of representation techniques can impact on clustering results.
An experimental study of phase angle fluctuation in seismic waves in random heterogeneous media: time-series analysis based on multivariate AR model

SUMMARY Effects of small-scale heterogeneities on seismic waveform fluctuations were studied by physical model experiments. Using a laser Doppler vibrometer, we recorded elastic waves propagating through a granite block at 180 observation points that were arranged as an equally spaced circular array. A disc-shaped PZT source was attached on the other side surface of the circular array for realizing equivalent positions with respect to both source radiation pattern and travel distances of waves. Waveform pairs were selected out from the 180 waveforms, and cross spectra of time-windowed partial waveforms were calculated by applying the multivariate AR model. By comparing waveforms of two observation points, the cross-spectral amplitudes and phases are obtained with respect to the lapse time by moving the time window, or to the spatial distance by changing the pairs of observation points. We obtain distributions of cross-spectral phase values for frequency and the lapse time of waveforms. The distributions indicate phase fluctuation of waves in random media with respect to frequency and lapse time. Heterogeneity of the rock sample is expressed as a 1-D exponential autocorrelation functions (ACF); e2 exp(−|r|/a), where r is the distance, and a and e are the correlation length (0.22 mm) and the strength of heterogeneity (8.5 per cent), respectively. The distributions are plotted against ka; the product of wavenumber and correlation length. For small ka, the distributions of phase are close to the Gaussian distributions with small variances, but the variances quickly become large above ka≈ 0.2–0.3. Then the distributions become uniform between −π and π. This suggests that the incoherent scattered waves become dominant above a critical ka value (or a critical frequency for a medium), and phase information in later portions of waveforms will be lost. This may be important for extracting reflection, refraction or converted waves that are assigned as signals from geologic discontinuities because those signals may be strongly distorted by scattered waves produced from the small-scale heterogeneities of earth's media.
Plate-kinematic explanation for mid-oceanic-ridge depth discontinuities

The global mid-ocean-ridge system is characterized by several regional-scale depth and geochemical anomalies. A prominent depth discontinuity between the East Pacific Rise and the Pacific-Antarctic Rise also coincides with a geochemical discontinuity that has been suggested by previous workers to indicate a boundary between distinct mantle-upwelling domains with separate convective histories. We propose a plate-kinematic origin for this discontinuity in which different rates of asthenospheric sequestration and spreading-center migration result in different equilibrium depths for different spreading centers. Absolute plate motions determine both the rate at which asthenosphere is converted to lithosphere (i.e., the sequestration rate) and the rate at which the spreading center moves relative to hotspots (i.e., the migration rate). If limits on the consumption (i.e., the sequestration/migration ratio) of asthenosphere by spreading centers are determined by the thickness and flux of asthenosphere, then the fast-spreading, slowly migrating East Pacific Rise should have a deeper equilibrium depth than the slower-spreading, rapidly migrating Pacific-Antarctic Rise. Sustained, localized asthenospheric consumption by the East Pacific Rise contrasts with the lower consumption and abundance of asthenospheric flux from hotspots near the Pacific-Antarctic Rise. A similar mechanism could explain the discontinuity between the localized depth anomaly on the Southwest Indian Ridge near the Bouvet hotspot and the much broader, but deeper, anomaly on the adjacent Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where asthenosphere is being transformed to lithosphere at more than three times the rate of the Southwest Indian or American-Antarctic Ridge. Geochemical evidence is consistent with the notion of deeper, more extensive melting under both of the spreading centers with anomalously high sequestration/migration ratios.
Antifungal Activity, Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity Properties of Some Spices Extracts as Alternative Natural Antimicrobial Agents

In this study, extracts were obtained from rosemary, anise, cinnamon, ginger, peppermint, turmeric, fennel, clove, laurel leaves and thyme. The total phenolic content amount, antioxidant activity value and antifungal properties of these extracts were aimed to determine the extracts. Among the extracts, clove, cinnamon, turmeric and ginger were superior in terms of total phenolic content values, clove, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, laurel leaves and rosemary extracts were superior in terms of antioxidant activity. The highest inhibition zone diameters among mold strains were determined by the use of extracts of cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, clove and laurel leaves against Aspergillus oryzae, Penicillium digitatum and Aspergillus niger strains. The results suggested the potential use of cinnamon and clove extracts as natural agents.
Diffusive Disappearance of Immiscible‐Phase Organic Liquids in Fractured Geologic Media

In a new conceptual model for immiscible-phase organic liquids in fractured porous media that specifically includes the effect of molecular diffusion on the persistence of organic liquid in fractures, dissolved contaminant mass from the liquid in fractures is lost by diffusion from the fractures into the porous matrix between the fractures. Theoretical calculations for one-dimensional diffusive fluxes from single, parallel-plate fractures using parameter values typical of fractured porous geologic media establishes the concept of immiscible-phase disappearance time, which is the time required for a given volume of immiscible liquid in a specified aperture to disappear following its arrival in the fracture. Nonlithified surficial clayey deposits with matrix porosities ranging from 25 to 70% are extensive across many regions of North America and Europe, and at shallow depth, typically have fractures with apertures in the range of 1 to 100 microns. The common chlorinated solvents such as dichloromethane (DCM), trichloroethene (TCE), and tetrachloroethene (PCE) are expected to completely disappear in these deposits within a few days to weeks. For fractured sedimentary rocks with much lower matrix porosities (5–15%), disappearance times for these solvents are generally less than several years for fracture apertures ranging from 10 to 200 microns typical for shales, siltstones, sandstones, and carbonate rocks. This is sufficient time for the immiscible phase of chlorinated solvent contamination to have disappeared at many industrial sites. This conceptual model has important implications with respect to ground-water monitoring, diagnosis of the nature and degree of contamination, and expectations for ground-water remediation at many contaminated sites. Proposed methods for enhancing immiscible-phase mass removal using hydraulic manipulation, surfactants, or alcohols will be futile where the immiscible phase has disappeared into the clay or rock matrix, and reverse diffusion and desorption will control clean-up time frames. Therefore, prospects for permanent restoration of many DNAPL and LNAPL sites in fractured porous media are more limited than previously thought.
The Status of Inclusive Healthcare Services in Nigeria

Introduction : Throughout the world, the number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) is growing exponentially as a result of factors such as population increase, ageing, and medical advances that prolong life. This has increased the demand for quality health services, especially in developing countries. Aim : The aim of this research is to assess the attitudes towards PWDs of “direct” and “indirect” healthcare service providers at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, Nigeria. Methods : The researchers analyzed the open-ended comments from 81 healthcare providers from the hospital, regarding their knowledge and attitudes towards patients with disabilities. Results : The authors classified the unsolicited comments into three main categories, thus: “institutional-level actions advocated”, “society-level changes advocated”, and “individual-level perception or attitude. ” Conclusion : This project has implications for reform and development of medical services in Nigeria. It identifies specific areas of need to improve the quality of healthcare service pertaining to PWDs and their families, especially in relation to the removal of architectural barriers, the development of positive attitudes, the formulation and implementation of effective legislation, and improved pre-and in-service training of healthcare workers in line with signed domestic and international
phase-sensitive gradient-echo MR imaging. Dural sinus occlusion: evaluation with

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of limited-flip-angle, phase sensitive velocity imaging with gradient-recalled-echo (VIGRE) MR when combined with spin-echo MR in the diagnosis of dural sinus thrombosis. The VIGRE sequence consists of a rapid single-slice acquisition, 50/15/2 (TR/TEfexcitations), and 30° flip angle. At each slice position, a total of four images were reconstructed; these consisted of one magnitude image and three images sensitive to proton motion in each orthogonal direction. The flow direction and flow velocity (emf sec) were obtained from each of the phase images, and results were correlated with data obtained from a phantom experi ment. In normal controls, dural sinus velocities ranged from a mean of 9.9 to 14.4 emf sec for the transverse and superior sagittal sinuses, respectively. Three patients with proved dural sinus occlusion were studied with spin-echo images at 1.5 T. Three dimensional time-of-flight MR angiography was also performed in one patient. The presence of dural sinus occlusion was determined by the lack of flow void on the spin echo images, the absence of phase shift on the VIGRE study, and the presence of retrograde flow on the phase image in the sinus proximal to the occluded segment. Time-of-flight angiography overestimated the extent of the thrombosis caused by spin saturation. Follow-up VIGRE studies detected the formation of collateral flow in one patient and recanalization with the establishment of normal antegrade sinus flow in the other. We conclude that phase-sensitive MR imaging is helpful in establishing the diagnosis and extent of dural sinus occlusion. Because of the short acquitition time, selected images can be obtained whenever the flow within the dural sinus is in question on a routine spin-echo study. Retrograde sinus flow appears to be a sensitive indicator of distal sinus occlusion or high-grade obstruction
Plastic Optical Fiber pH Sensor Based on Sol-Gel Film

A plastic optical fiber (POF) pH sensor is developed based on a sol-gel film. A sol-gel film was prepared by mixing tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS), trimethoxymethylsilane (MTMS), ethanol, distilled water and Neutral Red (NR) powder. Then, plastic optical fiber is coated by manually depositing the sol-gel film onto the tip of the POF. The sensing probe is dissolved into analytes with different pH levels, such as Coca-Cola (pH 3), tomato sauce (pH 4), black coffee (pH 5), tea (pH 6), distilled water (pH 7), soap (pH 8), baking soda (pH 9) and Clorox bleach(pH 10). The Refractive index will increase when the analytes are more acidic or more alkaline because they are concentrated with hydrogen and hydroxide ions at pH 3 and pH 10. The output power is varied based on the chemical reaction with the pH sol-gel film in the fiber-optic sensing probe. From the experimental results, it is concluded that the sensitivity of coated POF sensor, which is 0.0566 a.u/RIU, is higher than the sensitivity of the uncoated POF, which is 0.0429 a.u/RIU.
Near-inertial waves on the “nontraditional” β plane

[1] Propagation of linear near-inertial waves on the β plane is considered, taking into account the horizontal component of the Earth's rotation, . (Terms, effects etc., due to this component will be referred to as “nontraditional,” for brevity.) It is shown that the combined effect of β and changes the dynamics in a fundamental way. For a vertically unbounded domain, an exact solution shows that near-inertial waves can pass through the inertial latitude, unlike under the traditional approximation. For parameter values typical of the ocean, the subinertial domain extends several hundreds of kilometers poleward of the inertial latitude. The solution undergoes a profound change if a vertically bounded, instead of unbounded, domain is considered. Part of the wave energy then accumulates at the poleward end of the subinertial domain, which involves an evolution toward infinitesimal horizontal and vertical scales. For vertically nonuniform stratification, examined here using the Garrett-Munk exponential profile, one finds a wedge-like waveguide, which becomes increasingly narrow in the poleward direction, and drives subinertial waves into the region of the weakest stratification, i.e., the abyss. For typical parameters, the relative amount of poleward traveling energy that gets trapped is estimated to lie between 10 and 30%; its dependence on latitude and stratification is also outlined. The observational evidence and possible implications for abyssal mixing are discussed.
Mineral magnetic characterization of sediment sources from an analysis of lake and floodplain sediments in the catchments of the Old Mill reservoir and Slapton Ley, South Devon, UK

Research on suspended sediment transport in the catchments of the Old Mill reservoir and Slapton Lower Ley, South Devon, has attempted to discriminate changing catchment sources on the basis of downcore variations in the mineral magnetic properties of lake, reservoir and floodplain sediments. Here, we examine these downcore variations and also explore the variability in catchment sources and the influence of topographic controls on mineral magnetic signatures of topsoils and subsoils. Particle size controls on the mineral magnetic signatures are explored by an analysis of a fractionated sediment sample, whilst the possible impact of diagenesis is assessed by an examination of the Mn profiles in the lake and reservoir sediments. From this analysis it is evident that the mineral magnetic signatures of well sorted floodplain deposits are more likely to reflect the particle size composition of the transported material. By contrast, the mineral magnetic record in the sediment of Slapton Ley appears to be most strongly influenced by dissolution of magnetic minerals. The sediment of the Old Mill reservoir provides the only suitable record for the application of a simple mixing model which is developed in order to quantify changes in the relative contribution of topsoil and subsoil through time. The research has important implications for attempting to reconstruct sediment sources in highly eutrophic lakes and emphasizes the uncertainty in the application of simple mixing models. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.