Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THEMIS Observations of Pitted Cones in Acidalia Planitia and Cydonia Mensae

Analysis of Viking imagery revealed the presence of large numbers of pitted or cratered cones in the northern plains of Mars with the highest concentrations occurring in eastern Acidalia Planitia and Cydonia Mensae. Based largely on crater/cone diameter ratio comparisons, these features were hypothesized as being analogous to terrestrial pseudocraters (rootless cones) such as occur in the Lake Myvatn region of Iceland. Doubts remained about this connection given the disparity in mean diameters between these Martian features (mean diameter of approx. 600 m) and the Icelandic rootless cones (mean diameter of approx. 50 m). Recent analysis of MOC Narrow Angle camera images of Elysium Planitia, Amazonis Planitia and elsewhere have revealed another class of features with diameters commensurate with the Icelandic rootless cones. If the features in Acidalia and Cydonia are not rootless cones, what are they? Recent information on the thermophysical properties of these features as provided by the Mars Odyssey THEMIS instrument may help to answer this question.
Ethylene glycol tetra-acetic acid and salicylic acid improve anti-oxidative ability of maize seedling leaves under heavy-metal and polyethylene glycol 6000-simulated drought stress

Stress caused by divalent heavy metal ions and drought exert many toxic and adverse effects on seedling growth and development of plants, especially on leave growth. Organic acids such as ethylene glycol tetra-acetic acid (EGTA) and salicylic acid (SA) have been shown to alleviate the unfavorable effects exerted by these stresses on seedling growth and metabolism. In order to reveal the physiological mechanism underlying these toxic effects and the alleviated effects exerted by organic acids, maize seedling leaves (genotype “Zhengdan958”) were exposed for 7 days to different concentrations of cadmium (Cd2+), mercury (Hg2+), and lead (Pb2+) ions and to the drought stress-inducing polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000. The same experiments were also carried out in the presence of EGTA or SA. Treated leaves were analyzed for activities of the anti-oxidative enzymes catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and for the content of malondialdehyde (MDA). The results showed that stress treatments with the heavy metals Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ and with PEG all affected the activities of CAT, POD, and SOD, although the extent and patterns of these changes were different under different stress conditions. Both heavy metal and drought stress caused a concentration-dependent increase in MDA content. Treatments in the presence with EGTA or SA showed that both these compounds exerted certain alleviative effects on seedling growth under Cd2+, Hg2+, and Pb2+ stresses and PEG-simulated drought stress, with SA generally showing better effects than EGTA.
Conjunctival Melanoma and BRAF Inhibitor Therapy

Background: BRAF is a proto-oncogene that encodes the protein B-Raf. This is a serine/threonine kinase and part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Vemurafenib is a potent inhibitor of the mutant BRAF. It is approved for cutaneous melanoma.Patient/methods: A 80-year-old woman presented with irregular pigmented, hyperaemic upper and lower eye lid changes and alterations in the temporal conjunctiva of the right eye 03/2011. A conjunctival melanoma was detected with expression of BRAF Mutation on exon 15 (by PCR). For causal therapy the only primary surgical option was offered: exenteration of the right orbital. The patient refused this surgical intervention. To stabilize and prevent progression of the lesions, treatment with a BRAF inhibitor (vemurafenib) has been started over 16 month period of time.Results: After successful tumour response and decreasing size complete resection was performed 08/2013. The therapy was terminated due to a controlled tumour situation and progressive deterioration of general condition 09/2013. The progression of conjunctival melanoma could be prevented by this therapy by now.Discussion: To the best of our knowledge it is the first case to show the permanent recovery of a conjunctival melanoma after BRAF inhibitor therapy. Over the course of time there was a significant reduction of the patient’s general condition including weight loss, vomiting, headaches. These side effects should be carefully evaluated in further studies.
A Study On The Acceptance Of Information Technologies From The Perspectives Of The Academicians In Turkey

Educational institutions have been increasingly started to use information technologies (ITs) for improving the service quality and achieving the effective organizational outputs in a competitive global environment. An individual’s intention to use ITs is a crucial factor in determining the success or failure of an information technology (IT) system implementation. This study attempts to investigate the factors affecting the intention to use ITs from the academicians’ perspectives in Turkey. This research extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework with subjective norm (SN) and facilitating conditions (FC) acting as external variables. The model has been tested using web-based data collected from 510 academicians. The findings demonstrate that this extended TAM can explain 80% of the variance of intention to use ITs. And also, SN and FC are potential variables that may be used to extend the TAM for the research on the academicians’ intention to use towards ITs. This study reveals that educational managers can use this research model as a helpful tool in better understanding stakeholders’ behaviors related to the technology acceptance, and also in the process of IT investment, implementation and renovation
Guidelines for Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B

Guiding Principles This document presents official recommendations of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) on the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) virus (HBV) infection in adults and children. Unlike previous AASLD practice guidelines, this guideline was developed in compliance with the Institute of Medicine standards for trustworthy practice guidelines and uses the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Multiple systematic reviews of the literature were conducted to support the recommendations in this practice guideline. An enhanced understanding of this guideline will be obtained by reading the applicable portions of the systematic reviews. This guideline focuses on using antiviral therapy in chronic HBV infection and does not address other related and important issues, such as screening, prevention, and surveillance. For broader issues related to diagnosis, surveillance, and prevention as well as treatment in special populations (e.g., liver transplant recipients) that are not addressed by this guideline, the previous AASLD guideline and recent World Health Organization (WHO) guideline are excellent additional resources. Objectives Guideline developers from the AASLD formulated a list of discrete questions that physicians are faced with in daily practice. These questions were: 1. Should adults with immune active CHB be treated with antiviral therapy to decrease liverrelated complications? 2. Should adults with immune-tolerant infection be treated with antiviral therapy to decrease liverrelated complications? 3. Should antiviral therapy be discontinued in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive persons who have developed HBeAg seroconversion on therapy? 4. Should antiviral therapy be discontinued in persons with HBeAg-negative infection with sustained HBV DNA suppression on therapy? 5. In HBV-monoinfected persons, does entecavir therapy, when compared to tenofovir therapy, have a different impact on renal and bone health? 6. Is there a benefit to adding a second antiviral agent in persons with persistent low levels of viremia while being treated with either tenofovir or entecavir? 7. Should persons with compensated cirrhosis and low levels of viremia be treated with antiviral agents? 8. Should pregnant women who are hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive with high viral load receive antiviral treatment in the third trimester to prevent perinatal transmission of HBV? 9. Should children with HBeAg-positive CHB be treated with antiviral therapy to decrease liverrelated complications?
TESL-EJ 12.1

Foreign language learners typically experience considerable anxiety about taking listening tests. This study investigated how four forms of listening support (pre-teaching of content and vocabulary, question preview, and repeated input) affect the anxiety levels of college students in Taiwan taking a multiple-choice achievement test, which counts for their final grade in a required listening course. Participants included 160 students in four intact classes matched in listening ability. The instruments were a general listening anxiety questionnaire, short measures of task anxiety given just before and after the test, and post-test interviews. Prior the test, the test-takers were uniformly anxious but afterwards, there were significant differences in anxiety according to type of support and level of proficiency. A three-way interaction effect indicated that no single factor accounted for the changes in the learners' listening anxiety. It is concluded that strategy instruction may enhance the effectiveness of support in listening tests.
Self-determined motivation, achievement goals and anxiety of economic and business students in Indonesia

Anxiety is a natural thing and can happen to everyone; it is a reaction to the inability to overcome problems or lack of security. However, excessive anxiety can impede one's function in life. Anxiety experienced by students can also hinder them in performing better. Setting goals that are difficult to achieve can cause students to experience anxiety or fear of not being able to achieve them. This study aims to examine the relationship model between several dispositional factors that can affect students' anxiety. The author investigated the relation between self-determined motivation, achievement goals, and anxiety in 365 business students. Specifically, the author investigated the relation between self-determined motivation (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation), mastery goal orientation, performance-goal orientation and students’ anxiety. Results of Pearson’s correlation showed that students’ anxiety was positively associated with performance-goal orientation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, but students’ anxiety was not associated either with intrinsic motivation or mastery-goal orientation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation correlated with each other, but correlation between mastery and performance-goal orientation was not significant. Implementing structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the relationship models. The first model used three dimensions of motivation as mediating variables of influence between achievement goals and students’ anxiety. The second model used two dimension of achievement orientation as mediating variables of influence between motivation and students’ anxiety. It was found that the proposed models have a good fit. Students’ anxiety was influenced primarily by extrinsic motivation, amotivation, and performance-goal orientation. Further, discussions on the results of this study are discussed in detail in this article. Key words: Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation, mastery goal orientation, performance goal orientation, students’ anxiety.
The Effects of Increased Hay-Grain Ratio on Masai Giraffe Behavior, Health Indicators and Fecal Microflora Diversity

We hypothesized that switching to a diet that provides a higher hay-to-grain ratio offered to four Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo would reduce oral stereotypies and increase time spent performing feeding behaviors, maintain or increase serum calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, decrease serum insulin-to-glucose ratio, and alter fecal microbiome community structure. The diet change consisted of transitioning the male from a 50:50 hay-to-grain ratio and the females from a 70:30 hay-to-grain ratio to a 90:10 ratio in even increments over eight weeks. A ration balancer was added during the 7 week of transition to ensure proper mineral and nutrient balance of the overall diet. Behavioral data, saliva, serum and fecal samples were collected during the eight weeks preceding and following the diet change. Behavioral data were collected approximately daily using instantaneous focal sampling. Serum was collected biweekly for insulin-to-glucose and calcium-to-phosphorus ratio analysis. Fecal samples were collected weekly to examine changes in microflora community structure. After the diet change, giraffe spent significantly more time feeding and significantly less time performing tongue and mouth stereotypies and people-directed and alert behaviors. The giraffe also experienced a significant decrease in salivary and serum insulin and serum insulin-to-glucose ratio. The diet manipulation did not result in a change in the serum calcium-to-phosphorus ratio, which remained >1:1 throughout the study. A significant shift in fecal microflora community structure was observed with
Field-saturated hydraulic conductivity measured by two techniques and at different sampling positions relative to maize-crop rows and interrows

Field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) reflects porous system ability to transfer water in the soil-plant system. The study aimed to measure Ks through two distinct techniques. One of them was carried out in the laboratory by applying the constant-head cylinder method (CHC) in undisturbed samples, herein referred to as a standard technique. The other consisted of a simplified falling-head technique to measure Ks in situ (SFH), as proposed by Bagarello et al. (2004). We also verified the correlations of the obtained Ks values with other soil physical properties. SFH method is simpler, faster and does not require sophisticated equipment, which can be executed directly in the field. The experiment was conducted in the city of Floresta (PR), Brazil, at Cocamar Technology Diffusion Unit. It consisted of four treatments: maize-crop interrow without recent machine traffic (MI), maize-crop interrow traveled by a harvester (MIT), maize-crop row (MR) and its relative position to brachiaria crop row sown in consortium, and in maize-crop interrow (BR). In each treatment, 10 sampling points were defined (repetitions), where Ks was determined by SFH and an undisturbed sample was taken to measure Ks in the laboratory. Ks values measured by methodological approaches were compared through the following statistical indices, with their respective results: Willmott's concordance index (0.944), maximum error (1.269) and mean absolute error (0.291), square root of normalized mean error (0.45), determination coefficient (0.88), residual mass coefficient (0.07), efficiency coefficient (0.72), performance index (0.80), and Pearson's correlation (0.85). A high agreement was found between the studied techniques, with measured values close to each other. Notably, we must give emphasis on SFH since it had a variation coefficient 1.4 times lower than the standard technique.
A Biaxial‐Flexure Test for Evaluating Ceramic Strengths

An improved test fixture for biaxial-tension strength testing of ceramics featuring uniform pressure loading of disks was developed and qualified. Biaxial data were obtained for an alumina ceramic, along with comparable uniaxial data from three- and four-point flexure tests. Weibull statistics provided a good description of the size effect on data from the two uniaxial tests, but underestimated the effect of stress biaxiality. The biaxial strengthening observed in the alumina ceramic is consistent with that observed previously in a glass-ceramic.
MEASUREMENTS OF PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION BY INTEGRATING THE MATERIAL ACCELERATION

This paper describes the development of a measurement system that is capable of measuring the instantaneous pressure distribution over a sample area in a turbulent flow field. The technique utilizes four-exposure PIV to measure the material acceleration of the flow and integrating it to obtain the pressure distribution. If necessary, e.g., for cavitation test, a reference pressure at a single reference point is also required. Two 2K×2K CCD cameras and perpendicularly polarized Nd:Yag lasers are used for recording four exposures, with images one and three recorded by camera one to provide the first velocity vector map, and images two and four recorded by camera two to provide the second velocity vector map. The material acceleration is calculated from the velocity difference in sample areas that are shifted relative to each other according to the local velocity. Averaged omni-directional integration of the material acceleration, avoiding regions dominated by viscous diffusion, provides the pressure distribution. To improve the accuracy of the acceleration measurement, cross-correlation of the corresponding image correlation maps is implemented at areas with high velocity gradient. Applications of these procedures to synthetic images of rotational and stagnation point flows show that the relative error of the measured pressure is 4.0% at the 95% confidence level. The system is presently being used to measure the instantaneous pressure and velocity distributions of a 2D cavity flow field in a water tunnel.
Efficient Sensor-Cloud Communication using Data Classification and Compression

Wireless Sensor Network, a group of specialized sensors with a communication infrastructure for monitoring and controlling conditions at diverse locations, is a recent technology which is getting popularity day by day. Besides, cloud computing is a type of high-performance computing that uses a network of remote servers which simultaneously provides the service to store, manage and process data rather than a local server or personal computer. An architecture called sensor-cloud is also providing good services by combining the capabilities from both ends. In order to provide such services, a large volume of sensor network data needs to be transported to cloud gateway with a high amount of bandwidth and time requirement. In this paper, we have proposed an efficient sensor-cloud communication approach that minimizes the enormous bandwidth and time requirement by using statistical classification based on machine learning as well as compression using deflate algorithm with a minimal loss of information. Experimental results describe the overall efficiency of the proposed method over the traditional and related research.
Evaluation of egg morphology from ethanol preserved females of Anastrepha sp.2 aff. fraterculus (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Features of eggshell morphology in Anastrepha sp.2 aff. fraterculus were evaluated in mature ovariole ova dissected from females preserved in ethanol, and from ovaries of fresh killed females in comparison to that of freshly laid eggs. The characteristics of sculpturing as well as of internal structure of the chorion in oviposited eggs could be observed in both samples of mature ovariole ova. Ethanol preserved females may be used as a source of eggs for morphological studies allowing this kind of analysis to species whose eggs are not readily obtained.
Determinants of FDI in developing countries: has globalization changed the rules of the game?

There is a startling gap between, allegedly, globalization-induced changes in international competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) and recent empirical evidence on the relative importance of determinants of FDI in developing countries. We show that surprisingly little has changed since the late 1980s. Traditional market-related determinants are still dominant factors. Among non-traditional FDI determinants, only the availability of local skills has clearly gained importance. As concerns the interface between trade policy and FDI, we find that the tariff jumping motive for FDI had lost much of its relevance well before globalization became a hotly debated issue.
Is there any relation between quantitative traits interesting for ornamental breeding and genome size in dog roses (Rosa sect. Caninae)

Ferus, P., PacHL, S. , ĎuriSova, Ľ. , BartoSova-kraJcovicova, d. , rovna, k. 2013. Is there any relation between quantitative traits interesting for ornamental breeding and genome size in dog roses (Rosa sect. Caninae)? Folia oecol. , 40: 11–21. To define participation of genome size as well as most important environmental factors in variability of quantitative characters interesting for ornamental breeding, a collection of wild dog roses (Rosa sect. Caninae) from Male Karpaty mountains (localities Modra – Pažite and Vrbove – Barani dvor) and Zobor hills (locality Zobor – Lyžiarska luka) were analysed. We found a large variability in percentage of leaves longer than 70 mm (16–58%) and those of dark-green colour (28–78%), portion of half-full flowers (0–6%) and those of intense pink colour (0–100%), and percentage of hips longer than 20 mm (0–45%) and those of intense red colour (18–48%), among shrubs. Their genome size ranged from 2.33 to 2.92 pg. Our map survey revealed stagnieutric cambisols in Modra – Pažite, haplic luvisols on loess in Vrbove – Barani dvor, and rendzic/ chromi-rendzic leptosols in Zobor – Lyžiarska luka (increasing soil quality from stand to stand). Leaves and flowers grew in conditions of average temperature 15.3 °C (Modra – Pažite and Zobor – Lyžiarska luka) and 14.5 °C (Vrbove – Barani dvor). Precipitation ranged from approximately 300 mm in Modra – Pažite to 400 mm in Zobor – Lyžiarska luka. Average temperature for hip formation varied from Zobor – Lyžiarska luka (19.6 °C) to Modra – Pažite (20.4 °C). In this period, precipitation sum was round 200 mm in Zobor – Lyžiarska luka and approximately 250 mm in the rest two stands. Quantitative traits of all dog roses were generally less correlated to genome size and environmental factors. However, in R. canina genotypes, leaf length was determined mainly by genome size (r = 0.437) and temperature (r = –0.316), and leaf colour by temperature (r = 0.777) and precipitation (r = 0.557), flower richness only by temperature (r = –0.320), flower colour by temperature (r = 0.606) and soil quality (r = –0.559), and hip colour was defined mainly by precipitation (r = 0.588), then by temperature (r = 0.427) and genome size (r = –0.362); but no factor had important influence on hip length. We can conclude that except for leaf size, all analysed quantitative traits were mainly determined by environmental factors.
40Ar/39Ar laser probe dating of the Central European tektite‐producing impact event

Abstract— A new 40Ar/39Ar data set is presented for tektites from the Central European strewn field (moldavites). This is the only strewn field that is entirely situated in a continental environment and still characterized by scattered ages (14–15.3 Myr). The main objectives of the study were to define more precisely the moldavite formation age and provide a good calibration for a glass standard proposed for fission‐track dating.