Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Different Fertilizer Application on the Soil Fertility of Paddy Soils in Red Soil Region of Southern China

Appropriate fertilizer application is an important management practice to improve soil fertility and quality in the red soil regions of China. In the present study, we examined the effects of five fertilization treatments [these were: no fertilizer (CK), rice straw return (SR), chemical fertilizer (NPK), organic manure (OM) and green manure (GM)] on soil pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio and available nutrients (AN, AP and AK) contents in the plowed layer (0–20 cm) of paddy soil from 1998 to 2009 in Jiangxi Province, southern China. Results showed that the soil pH was the lowest with an average of 5.33 units in CK and was significantly higher in NPK (5.89 units) and OM (5.63 units) treatments (P<0.05). The application of fertilizers have remarkably improved SOC and TN values compared with the CK, Specifically, the OM treatment resulted in the highest SOC and TN concentrations (72.5% and 51.2% higher than CK) and NPK treatment increased the SOC and TN contents by 22.0% and 17.8% compared with CK. The average amounts of C/N ratio ranged from 9.66 to 10.98 in different treatments, and reached the highest in OM treatment (P<0.05). During the experimental period, the average AN and AP contents were highest in OM treatment (about 1.6 and 29.6 times of that in the CK, respectively) and second highest in NPK treatment (about 1.2 and 20.3 times of that in the CK). Unlike AN and AP, the highest value of AK content was observed in NPK treatments with 38.10 mg·kg−1. Thus, these indicated that organic manure should be recommended to improve soil fertility in this region and K fertilizer should be simultaneously applied considering the soil K contents. Considering the long-term fertilizer efficiency, our results also suggest that annual straw returning application could improve soil fertility in this trial region.
An Evaluation of a Method of Teaching Listening Improvement. Final Report.

The purpose of. this study was to test the hypothesis that increasing the rate of cognitive structuring of aurally input data through the use of compressed speeel would improve scores on listening tests which measure ability In whet Is generally called listening subskillz. The hypothesis predicted that Ss trained in listening for details would twain In this subskill, but they would also improve in other subskills, such as following directions, recognizing transitions, etc. The Brown-Carlsen, Rossiter, and Xeres tests were used as pretests and posttests. Ss listened to taped texts compresSed to 275 wpm and were tested on ! Mediate memory for details. Training continued for two hours each week for ten weeks. Ss improved significantly more than the control group, but mostly on those parts of the tests which were similar to their training--Partl of the Brown-Carisen (listening to lecture) and Part 1 of the Rossiter (listening for details). There was little evidence that increasing. the rate of handling aurally input data affected subskilis other than those used in the training sessions.
Cross-lingual numerical distance priming with second-language number words in native- to third-language number word translation

An important question in research about bilingualism is whether translation from a second language (L2) to the native language (L1) is semantically mediated or whether it occurs through word associations at the lexical level. Recent research has shown that both L1 and L2 number word translation imply semantic access, suggesting strong L2 lexicosemantic mappings for number words (Duyck & Brysbaert, 2004). In the present study, this assumption was further explored by means of a cross-lingual number distance priming paradigm with Dutch–English–French trilinguals. We found that number word translation from L1 to the third language (L3), and vice versa, was facilitated by L2 number masked word primes that represented the same magnitude as the target (translation equivalents), relative to primes that are numerically less close. This confirms the existence of strong L2 lexicosemantic mappings for number words and generalizes previous semantic effects in L1–L2 translation to translation processes between L1 and L3.
Distributed hyper-heuristics for real parameter optimization

Hyper-heuristics (HHs) are heuristics that work with an arbitrary set of search operators or algorithms and combine these algorithms adaptively to achieve a better performance than any of the original heuristics. While HHs lend themselves naturally for distributed deployment, relatively little attention has been paid so far on the design and evaluation of distributed HHs. To our knowledge, our work is the first to present a detailed evaluation and comparison of distributed HHs for real parameter optimization in an island model. Our set of test functions includes well-known benchmark functions and two realistic space-probe trajectory optimization problems. The set of algorithms available to the HHs include several variants of differential evolution, and uniform random search. Our main conclusion is that some of the simplest HHs are surprisingly successful in a distributed environment, and the best HHs we tested provide a robust and stable good performance over a wide range of scenarios and parameters.
Metabolic Profiles and cDNA-AFLP Analysis of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Salvia castanea Diel f. tomentosa Stib

Plants of the genus Salvia produce various types of phenolic compounds and tanshinones which are effective for treatment of coronary heart disease. Salvia miltiorrhiza and S. castanea Diels f. tomentosa Stib are two important members of the genus. In this study, metabolic profiles and cDNA-AFLP analysis of four samples were employed to identify novel genes potentially involved in phenolic compounds and tanshinones biosynthesis, including the red roots from the two species and two tanshinone-free roots from S. miltiorrhiza. The results showed that the red roots of S. castanea Diels f. tomentosa Stib produced high contents of rosmarinic acid (21.77 mg/g) and tanshinone IIA (12.60 mg/g), but low content of salvianolic acid B (1.45 mg/g). The red roots of S. miltiorrhiza produced high content of salvianolic acid B (18.69 mg/g), while tanshinones accumulation in this sample was much less than that in S. castanea Diels f. tomentosa Stib. Tanshinones were not detected in the two tanshinone-free samples, which produced high contents of phenolic compounds. A cDNA-AFLP analysis with 128 primer pairs revealed that 2300 transcript derived fragments (TDFs) were differentially expressed among the four samples. About 323 TDFs were sequenced, of which 78 TDFs were annotated with known functions through BLASTX searching the Genbank database and 14 annotated TDFs were assigned into secondary metabolic pathways through searching the KEGGPATHWAY database. The quantitative real-time PCR analysis indicated that the expression of 9 TDFs was positively correlated with accumulation of phenolic compounds and tanshinones. These TDFs additionally showed coordinated transcriptional response with 6 previously-identified genes involved in biosynthesis of tanshinones and phenolic compounds in S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots treated with yeast extract. The sequence data in the present work not only provided us candidate genes involved in phenolic compounds and tanshinones biosynthesis but also gave us further insight into secondary metabolism in Salvia.
Author's reply to: Sleep duration, melatonin and breast cancer in the Singapore Chinese Health Study: On null results and their interpretation

We thank Drs. Erren and Reiter for their thoughtful comments.1 We agree that a more comprehensive assessment of lifetime sleep patterns would be necessary to better understand the interrelationships between sleep, melatonin and risk of breast cancer. We acknowledged in our paper and we emphasized again that our assessment of sleep hours was very crude, was based on self-reported estimate at one time point, and that random misclassification of this exposure variable likely contributed to our null findings.2 However, we still believe our analysis was well-justified given our previous findings on sleep duration and risk of breast cancer as well as sleep duration and melatonin levels.3 The recent null findings on sleep and breast cancer risk from a case-control study in Western Australia which carefully investigated multiple metrics of sleep duration (cumulative, average, duration, and peak) as well as sleep quality4,5 highlights the complexity of this research question. This Australian team showed that while their questions on sleep quality were reasonably reliable, there was poor agreement between self-reported sleep and objective measures of sleep quality.6, 7 We hope our results will stimulate new interest to develop questionnaire assessment tools that can be used in prospective cohort studies as well as case-control studies so that the relationship between sleep and risk of breast cancer and other health endpoints will be identified.
Oxytocin Signaling in Mouse Taste Buds

Background The neuropeptide, oxytocin (OXT), acts on brain circuits to inhibit food intake. Mutant mice lacking OXT (OXT knockout) overconsume salty and sweet (i.e. sucrose, saccharin) solutions. We asked if OXT might also act on taste buds via its receptor, OXTR. Methodology/Principal Findings Using RT-PCR, we detected the expression of OXTR in taste buds throughout the oral cavity, but not in adjacent non-taste lingual epithelium. By immunostaining tissues from OXTR-YFP knock-in mice, we found that OXTR is expressed in a subset of Glial-like (Type I) taste cells, and also in cells on the periphery of taste buds. Single-cell RT-PCR confirmed this cell-type assignment. Using Ca2+ imaging, we observed that physiologically appropriate concentrations of OXT evoked [Ca2+]i mobilization in a subset of taste cells (EC50 ∼33 nM). OXT-evoked responses were significantly inhibited by the OXTR antagonist, L-371,257. Isolated OXT-responsive taste cells were neither Receptor (Type II) nor Presynaptic (Type III) cells, consistent with our immunofluorescence observations. We also investigated the source of OXT peptide that may act on taste cells. Both RT-PCR and immunostaining suggest that the OXT peptide is not produced in taste buds or in their associated nerves. Finally, we also examined the morphology of taste buds from mice that lack OXTR. Taste buds and their constituent cell types appeared very similar in mice with two, one or no copies of the OXTR gene. Conclusions/Significance We conclude that OXT elicits Ca2+ signals via OXTR in murine taste buds. OXT-responsive cells are most likely a subset of Glial-like (Type I) taste cells. OXT itself is not produced locally in taste tissue and is likely delivered through the circulation. Loss of OXTR does not grossly alter the morphology of any of the cell types contained in taste buds. Instead, we speculate that OXT-responsive Glial-like (Type I) taste bud cells modulate taste signaling and afferent sensory output. Such modulation would complement central pathways of appetite regulation that employ circulating homeostatic and satiety signals.
Offline Trace Checking of Quantitative Properties of Service-Based Applications

Service-based applications are often developed as compositions of partner services. A service integrator needs precise methods to specify the quality attributes expected by each partner service, as well as effective techniques to verify these attributes. In previous work, we identified the most common specification patterns related to provisioning service-based applications and developed an expressive specification language (SOLOIST) that supports them. SOLOIST is an extension of metric temporal logic with aggregate temporal modalities that can be used to write quantitative temporal properties. In this paper we address the problem of performing offline checking of service execution traces against quantitative requirements specifications written in SOLOIST. We present a translation of SOLOIST into CLTLB (D), a variant of linear temporal logic, and reduce the trace checking of SOLOIST to bounded satisfiability checking of CLTLB (D), which is supported by ZOT, an SMT-based verification toolkit. We detail the results of applying the proposed offline trace checking procedure to different types of traces, and compare its performance with previous work.
Common Coupled Fixed Point Theorems for Two Hybrid Pairs of Mappings under φ-ψ Contraction

We introduce the concept of (EA) property and occasional w-compatibility for hybrid pair F : X × X → 2X and f : X → X. We also introduce common (EA) property for two hybrid pairs F, G : X → 2X and f, g : X → X. We establish some common coupled fixed point theorems for two hybrid pairs of mappings under φ-ψ contraction on noncomplete metric spaces. An example is also given to validate our results. We improve, extend and generalize several known results. The results of this paper generalize the common fixed point theorems for hybrid pairs of mappings and essentially contain fixed point theorems for hybrid pair of mappings.
Anisotropic diffusion for Monte Carlo noise reduction

Monte Carlo sampling can be used to estimate solutions to global light transport and other rendering problems. However, a large number of observations may be needed to reduce the variance to acceptable levels. Rather than computing more observations within each pixel, if spatial coherence exists in image space it can be used to reduce visual error by averaging estimators in adjacent pixels. Anisotropic diffusion is a space-variant noise reduction technique that can selectively preserve texture, edges, and other details using a map of image coherence. The coherence map can be estimated from depth and normal information as well as interpixel color distance. Incremental estimation of the reduction in variance, in conjunction with statistical normalization of interpixel color distances, yields an energy-preserving algorithm that converges to a spatially nonconstant steady state.
Downside Risk

Agents who place greater weight on the risk of downside losses than they are attach to upside gains demand greater compensation for holding stocks with high downside risk. We show that the cross-section of stock returns reflects a premium for downside risk. Stocks that covary strongly with the market when the market declines have high average returns. We estimate that the downside risk premium is approximately 6% per annum and demonstrate that the compensation for bearing downside risk is not simply compensation for market beta. Moreover, the reward for downside risk is not subsumed by coskewness or liquidity risk, and is robust to controlling for momentum and other cross-sectional effects.
Management of Severe Gastrointestinal Tuberculosis with Injectable Antituberculous Drugs

Abdominal tuberculosis (TB) is generally responsive to medical treatment, and early diagnosis and management can prevent unnecessary surgical intervention. However, intravenous therapy is needed for severe forms of tuberculosis with extensive gastrointestinal involvement. The authors report an immunocompetent patient with gastrointestinal TB who was successfully managed with a combination of surgical intervention and anti-TB medications, and discuss the importance of injectable anti-TB medications in the management of severe gastrointestinal TB. The present case report provides a model for assessment and intervention in severe forms of gastrointestinal TB.
Ligation of CD200R by CD200 is not required for normal murine myelopoiesis

CD200R is an inhibitory receptor involved in the regulation of myeloid cells. It recruits Dok‐1 and Dok‐2, which are potent inhibitors of the Ras signalling pathway used by colony‐stimulating factor (CSF) receptors. Dok‐1/Dok‐2 double knockout (DKO) mice develop leukaemia at 10–12 months of age. We investigated whether disturbed CD200R signalling could be responsible for this phenotype. Therefore, we studied whether CD200−/− mice have altered myelopoiesis and develop leukaemia. We report that CD200R is expressed on haematopoietic progenitor cells. However, CD200−/− mice have normal numbers of myeloid progenitors in the bone marrow and these cells have normal proliferative capacity. These results indicate that the development of leukaemia in Dok‐1/Dok‐2 DKO mice is not solely due to an absence of CD200R signalling. In addition, we show that the previously reported enhanced numbers of myeloid cells do not occur in all CD200−/− mice. We determined whether variations in the numbers of peripheral myeloid cells were due to an enhanced response to granulocyte‐CSF (G‐CSF) or an inflammatory stimulus. Mobilisation of immature neutrophils via G‐CSF and infiltration of mature neutrophils and macrophages upon thioglycolate injection were not altered in CD200−/− mice. We conclude that CD200−/− mice exhibit normal myelopoiesis and that development of leukaemia in Dok‐1/Dok‐2 DKO mice is not caused by a lack of CD200‐mediated CD200R signalling.
Percutaneous Adjustable Closed Otoplasty for Prominent Ear Deformity

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to follow longitudinally the prominent ears treated by percutaneous adjustable closed otoplasty (PACO) and evaluate this procedure in terms of technical efficiency, recurrence, complications, and patient satisfaction. Materials and MethodsPercutaneous adjustable closed otoplasty was used to treat 28 ears in 15 patients presenting with prominent ear deformities. To determine the success of each operation, distances between the helical rim and scalp were measured at 4 levels preoperatively, at the end of the surgery and again postoperatively at the first week and the first, third, and sixth months. Patient satisfaction was evaluated using a visual analog scale and Glasgow Benefit Inventories. ResultsFavorable outcomes were observed in scales and health-related quality-of-life surveys of patient satisfaction. Mean operating time was a mere 19.4 ± 5.7 minutes. Complication rates were low. Auriculocephalic distances increased by 7.3%, 11%, 15.3%, and 20%, respectively, compared with the preoperative measurements during the follow-up. ConclusionsPercutaneous adjustable closed otoplasty is an efficient surgical procedure with positive outcome, low recurrence, and high patient satisfaction. In prominent ear deformities with soft cartilage, PACO should be the preferred surgical choice because of its advantages of shorter time in surgery, lack of need for prolonged postoperative compressive dressing, and allowing patients to view the results immediately after surgery. In contrast to the previously described techniques, auriculocephalic distances are adjustable while tightening the mattress sutures. Besides, it is a reversible technique, if the surgeon not satisfied with the result of the surgery can either redo the procedure or revert to CST. Percutaneous adjustable closed otoplasty does not cause serious complications, contour deformities, hematoma, or incision scars. For ear deformities presenting with stiff helical cartilage and conchal hyperthrophy, surgical indications can be extended by scoring and conchal resection, respectively.
Energy and Emission Benefits of Alternative Transportation Liquid Fuels Derived from Switchgrass: A Fuel Life Cycle Assessment

We conducted a mobility chains, or well‐to‐wheels (WTW), analysis to assess the energy and emission benefits of cellulosic biomass for the U.S. transportation sector in the years 2015–2030. We estimated the life‐cycle energy consumption and emissions associated with biofuel production and use in light‐duty vehicle (LDV) technologies by using the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model. Analysis of biofuel production was based on ASPEN Plus model simulation of an advanced fermentation process to produce fuel ethanol/protein, a thermochemical process to produce Fischer‐Tropsch diesel (FTD) and dimethyl ether (DME), and a combined heat and power plant to co‐produce steam and electricity. Our study revealed that cellulosic biofuels as E85 (mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline by volume), FTD, and DME offer substantial savings in petroleum (66–93%) and fossil energy (65–88%) consumption on a per‐mile basis. Decreased fossil fuel use translates to 82–87% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all unblended cellulosic biofuels. In urban areas, our study shows net reductions for almost all criteria pollutants, with the exception of carbon monoxide (unchanged), for each of the biofuel production option examined. Conventional and hybrid electric vehicles, when fueled with E85, could reduce total sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions to 39–43% of those generated by vehicles fueled with gasoline. By using bio‐FTD and bio‐DME in place of diesel, SOx emissions are reduced to 46–58% of those generated by diesel‐fueled vehicles. Six different fuel production options were compared. This study strongly suggests that integrated heat and power co‐generation by means of gas turbine combined cycle is a crucial factor in the energy savings and emission reductions.
Paroxetine and imipramine treatment of depressive patients in a controlled multicentre study with plasma amino acid measurements

In a 12‐week double‐blind study with 36 patients with major depressive episode (DSM‐III), paroxetine (Seroxat® Aropax® showed significantly quicker onset of efficacy on the Melancholia Scale, and better tolerance than imipramine. Plasma concentration analyses showed no clear concentration‐efficacy correlation in either treatment group. During long‐term treatment paroxetine seemed to be superior to imipramine in preventing relapse: both treatments were well tolerated. A significant correlation between baseline plasma tryptophan: large neutral amino acids ratio and final Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) score and a trend towards an inverse correlation between this ratio and percentage reduction in HRSD score were seen in the paroxetine group but not in the imipramine group. In line with previous studies, these results support the hypothesis that paroxetine is an effective and well tolerated antidepressant.
Engagement-based Multi-party Dialog with a Humanoid Robot

When a robot is situated in an environment containing multiple possible interaction partners, it has to make decisions about when to engage specific users and how to detect and react appropriately to actions of the users that might signal the intention to interact. In this demonstration we present the integration of an engagement model in an existing dialog system based on interaction patterns. As a sample scenario, this enables the humanoid robot Nao to play a quiz game with multiple participants.
Imaging the dynamics of magma propagation using radiated seismic intensity

At shallow depth beneath the Earth's surface, magma propagates through strongly heterogeneous volcanic material. Inversion of buoyancy and/or solidification have strong impacts on the dynamics of propagation without any change of magma supply. In this paper, we study the spatial and time evolution of magma intrusions using induced seismicity. We propose a new method based on ratio analysis of estimates of radiated seismic intensities recorded at different stations during seismic swarms. By applying this method to the January 2010 Piton de la Fournaise volcano eruption, we image complex dike propagation dynamics which strongly differ from a model of constant velocity dike propagation. We provide a new method to image in real time the dynamics of dike propagation and to infer the position of eruptive fissures.