Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coupling Characterization and Compensation Model for Antenna Arrays

Coupling is an important aspect to be considered in the design process of antenna arrays. The real feeding radiated coefficients can be quite different from the theoretical ones because of this effect. In this paper, a characterization and compensation model is presented. This procedure is capable of matching each element of the array. All the parameters of the array coupling model are obtained through the measurement of scattering parameters and radiation patterns of the individual elements. Some practical applications to linear patch arrays are presented.
Comparison of Salivary Ion Activity Product for Hydroxyapatite (IPHA), Alkaline Phosphatase and Buffering Capacity of Adults According to Age and Caries Severity

Statement of Problem: Tooth caries is influenced by different biochemical characteristics of saliva. As hydroxyapatite is the main component of enamel, salivary ion activity product for hydroxyapatite (IPHA) as well as alkaline phosphatase may be attributed to dental caries. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to compare salivary buffering capacity,
Application of factorial design analysis to control bisphenol A MIP fabrication

A key issue in the synthesis of molecular imprinted polymer nanoparticles is the identification and optimization of the main factors affecting the material structure and size. This paper describe an experimental design app roach to synthesis bisphenol A molecular imprinted polymer nanoparticles (BPA -MIP NPs) aimed at analysis of the relationship of four selected parameters: the polymerisation temperature, agitation rate, cross-linker to solvent ratio, and percentage of initi ator. The results presented demonstrate the importance of keeping the right balance between these various parameters of polymerisation conditions which are approximately 60 o C, 100rpm, 65% solvent ratio and 1% initiator, respectively. Generally, it can be c oncluded that MIPs should be synthesized using enough heating, adequate agitation, low concentration of initiator and with a bit higher amount of solvent. Such procedure is proven as time and cost effective, and also can be used as a general tool in the pr eparation of MIP NPs for different target molecules.
Screening of Oat Accessions for Fusarium Head Blight Resistance Using Spawn‐Inoculated Field Experiments

Use of resistant cultivars is one of the most important measures to reduce the risk of Fusarium head blight (FHB, caused by various Fusarium spp.) and mycotoxins in cereals. Research on resistance to FHB has mainly focused on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and is very limited in oat (Avena sativa L.). In Norway, routine testing of cultivars and breeding lines has been performed in spawn-inoculated field experiments with Fusarium graminearum Schwabe as part of a concerted research and breeding effort to improve FHB resistance in oat. Data on FHB symptom, days to flowering, and plant height have been collected during the field seasons. Together with the field data, deoxynivalenol (DON) content and germination capacity of harvested kernels are used to score resistance levels of genotypes. In this paper, results are presented from a combined analysis of data from 9 yr of field trials from 2008 to 2016. Consistent and highly significant differences in DON content and germination capacity were documented among the current oat cultivars on the Norwegian market. These two negatively correlated parameters are used as selection criteria in breeding since they are relevant for the different end uses of the grains: DON content for use as food and feed, and germination capacity for seed production. In the paper, we discuss the pros and cons of the various screening methods and parameters used in assessing FHB resistance in oat and present the progress made in resistance breeding based on an established field testing methodology. S. Tekle, M. Lillemo, H. Skinnes (retired), and Å. Bjørnstad, Dep. of Plant Sciences, Norwegian Univ. of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway; L. Reitan and T. Buraas, Graminor Breeding, Hommelstadvegen 60, NO-2322 Ridabu, Norway. Received 27 Apr. 2017. Accepted 11 Sept. 2017. *Corresponding author (selag@nmbu. no). Assigned to Associate Editor Jochum Wiersma. Abbreviations: DON, deoxynivalenol; DTF, days to flowering; FHB, Fusarium head blight; NMBU, Norwegian University of Life Sciences; PDA, potato dextrose agar; PH, plant height; QTL, quantitative trait loci. Published in Crop Sci. 58:1–9 (2018). doi: 10.2135/cropsci2017.04.0264 © Crop Science Society of America | 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Published online November 2, 2017
Analysis of men’s and women’s basketball fast-breaks

In the present study, the way basketball fast breaks are executed was analysed, while determining how the best results are obtained and studying the differences between the men’s and women’s game. Utilizing observational methodology, a total of 294 fast breaks were analysed from 30 games played at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Eighteen of the games were high-level men’s games and 12 were high-level women’s games. Statistically significant differences were observed between the men’s and the women’s game in the following aspects with regard to fast breaks: (1) duration, (2) completion area, and (3) shot opposition. For men, some dependence relationships were found between the fast break result and the following variables: duration, completion area, and opposition to its completion. For women, the results revealed a weak association between the fast break result and the opposition to its completion.
Parental attitudes and personality traits, self-efficacy, stress, and coping strategies among mothers of children with cerebral palsy

participants and procedure Twenty-seven mothers of children with cerebral palsy (MCCP) (mean age 35.50 years, SD = 4.83) and twentyeight mothers (mean age 35.60 years, SD = 4.27) of typically developing children (MTDC) participated in this study. Each parent had a child between the ages of two and seven years. A battery of tests was administered to both groups, which included the Parenting Attitudes Scale (SPR), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and the COPE Inventory. Also, maternal stress and the amount of social support received were assessed. results Although acceptance was the most common parental attitude among all participants, mothers of children with CP presented with a stronger tendency towards overprotective and demanding attitudes. MCCP obtained higher scores in neuroticism and lower in openness compared to MTDC. Furthermore, MCCP declared a higher level of distress than MTDC. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of mothers regarding self-efficacy, the level of social support or the most often used coping strategies. Neuroticism was found to be the best predictor of overprotective and demanding parental attitudes.
MEYER AND SCHILZ FUNCTION TO ESTIMATE COMMON BEAN SEED WATER CONTENT EVALUATED BY RADIOFREQUENCY

Derivation of density-independent dielectric functions for moisture determination in grains is important for the implementation of on-line sensors in automated driers. The object of this study was to investigate the Meyer and Schilz function [(e'1)/e"] for indirect and non-destructive water content measurement of seeds of common bean by radiofrequency, where e' and e" are the relative permittivity and the dielectric loss factor, respectively. Samples consisted of common bean seeds variety Campeao-3 at moisture contents ranging from 11.5 to 20.6% w.b. , and bulk densities from 756 to 854 kg m-3, performing dielectric measurements in a room at 20 ± 1oC and 66 ± 2% relative humidity. The model could estimate common bean seed moisture content with a standard error of the estimate, and maximum error of 0.5 and 1.0 percentage point in moisture, w.b. , respectively.
Climate Change, Risk and Grain Production in China

This paper employs the production function-based method proposed by Just and Pope (1978, 1979) to explicitly analyze production risk in the context of Chinese grain farming and climate change, and test for potential endogeneity of climate factors in Chinese grain production. Our results indicate that grain production in south China might, at least in the short run, could be a net beneficiary of global warming. In particular, we find that a 1 °C increase in annual average temperature in South China could entail an increase of grain output by 3.79 million tons or an economic benefit of around USD 798 million due to the increasing mean output. However the impact of global warming in north China is negative, small and insignificant. In addition, Hausman tests reveal no endogeneity of climate variables in Chinese grain production.
A Constraint on the Standard Beaming Model for Superluminal Sources

Abstract We have used two subsamples of superluminal quasars to test the relativistic beaming model, and to place useful constraints on the radio source orientation hypothesis and cosmology. Based on the variation of the observed ratio R of the core-to-lobe radio luminosities with proper motion μ for the subsample of lobe-selected quasars, we show that the observed R–μ data can be explained in terms of a bulk relativistic motion with Lorentz factor γ≈4. Also, from the observed proper motion versus redshift (μ–z) plot for this subsample, we show that γ≈4 implies a high density universe with deceleration parameter q0 = 0·5. Furthermore, from the observed (μ–z) plot for the two subsamples taken separately, we show that both γ and μ for the core-selected subsample exceed those of the lobe-selected subsample by a factor of 2 for the q0 = 0·5 world model. This result is demonstrated to be consistent with an orientation-based unified scheme in which lobe-selected quasars lie, on the average, at an angle which is a factor of ∼2–3 larger than that of their core-selected counterparts.
Exit Strategies for Private Equity Portfolio Companies in the Markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of Poland

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the investigation of private equity exit strategies in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), between the years 2008 and 2012. Exits are central to the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) process because financial returns are primarily derived from capital gains upon sale, and not dividends on equity. Even though exit strategies are placed as the last part of the PE process, they are so crucial that they are already planned prior to the initial investment. This article reviews the pre-existing literature and examines the potential factors that might affect PE exit outcomes in terms of initial public offerings (IPOs), trade sales, secondary sales, buybacks and write-offs. Findings indicate that Poland is similar to the other CEE countries with respect to exit route strategies for private equity managers. Divestments have been performed mainly through trade sales of companies to strategic investors and not through IPOs despite the fact that Poland hosts one of the most active European stock exchanges. In the years 2008 through 2012, exit activity was concentrated in a few countries, with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland accounting for 81% of the total exit value at investment cost in the CEE region.
Sarcomere length–dependent effects on Ca2+-troponin regulation in myocardium expressing compliant titin

&NA; Cardiac performance is tightly regulated at the cardiomyocyte level by sarcomere length, such that increases in sarcomere length lead to sharply enhanced force generation at the same Ca2+ concentration. Length‐dependent activation of myofilaments involves dynamic and complex interactions between a multitude of thick‐ and thin‐filament components. Among these components, troponin, myosin, and the giant protein titin are likely to be key players, but the mechanism by which these proteins are functionally linked has been elusive. Here, we investigate this link in the mouse myocardium using in situ FRET techniques. Our objective was to monitor how length‐dependent Ca2+‐induced conformational changes in the N domain of cardiac troponin C (cTnC) are modulated by myosin‐actin cross‐bridge (XB) interactions and increased titin compliance. We reconstitute FRET donor‐ and acceptor‐modified cTnC(13C/51C)AEDANS‐DDPM into chemically skinned myocardial fibers from wild‐type and RBM20‐deletion mice. The Ca2+‐induced conformational changes in cTnC are quantified and characterized using time‐resolved FRET measurements as XB state and sarcomere length are varied. The RBM20‐deficient mouse expresses a more compliant N2BA titin isoform, leading to reduced passive tension in the myocardium. This provides a molecular tool to investigate how altered titin‐based passive tension affects Ca2+‐troponin regulation in response to mechanical stretch. In wild‐type myocardium, we observe a direct association of sarcomere length‐dependent enhancement of troponin regulation with both Ca2+ activation and strongly bound XB states. In comparison, measurements from titin RBM20‐deficient animals show blunted sarcomere length‐dependent effects. These results suggest that titin‐based passive tension contributes to sarcomere length‐dependent Ca2+‐troponin regulation. We also conclude that strong XB binding plays an important role in linking the modulatory effect of titin compliance to Ca2+‐troponin regulation of the myocardium. &NA; Increases in sarcomere length cause enhanced force generation in cardiomyocytes by an unknown mechanism. Li et al. reveal that titin‐based passive tension contributes to length‐dependent activation of myofilaments and that tightly bound myosin‐actin cross‐bridges are associated with this effect.
Novel Strategies In The Prevention And Treatment Of Childhood Obesity: The Importance Of Lifestyle Counseling And Psychological Resiliency

Efforts to prevent and treat childhood obesity have had only modest results. Novel strategies are needed. The aims and hypotheses of this thesis are to: 1) Document the self-reported receipt of lifestyle counseling from physicians and other health care providers by BMI status. We hypothesize that despite recommendations for universal lifestyle counseling, few children will be counseled by their health care providers, though children who are obese will report receiving the most counseling. 2) Test the hypothesis that psychological resiliency (i.e., “shift and persist”) protects low socioeconomic status children from obesity. Physical assessments and health surveys were collected from two school-based samples of children (N = 959 and N = 1,523). Multivariate logistic regression and multivariate linear regression were used to address aims one and two respectively. For lifestyle counseling, nearly one-quarter of healthy weight children received no counseling. Overweight children received counseling at rates similar to their healthy weight peers, while obese children were more likely to be counseled. As expected, among children low in resiliency, lower socioeconomic status was associated with significantly higher BMI z-scores (p < .05). However, among children high in resiliency, there was no association of socioeconomic status with BMI z-score (p = .16), suggesting that resiliency may be protective. Future research should to explore how best to leverage interventions we already know to be effective in fighting childhood obesity, such as lifestyle counseling, and also investigate novel means of approaching childhood obesity, including promoting psychological resiliency.
Microbiological analysis and determination of antibacterial activity of apple samples collected from local markets in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

Present study attempted to detect the prevalence of contaminating microorganisms in 10 categories of local market apple samples commonly consumed in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. A significant number of total viable bacteria were quantified up to 10 6 cfu/g in these samples. Staphylococcus spp. was the predominant isolate within a range of 1.0×10 4  3.2×10 6 cfu/g whereas Escherichia coli , Klebsiella spp. , Salmonella spp. , Shigella spp. , Pseudomonas spp. and Vibrio spp. were also quantified. Fungal contamination (within the range of 10 5 cfu/g  10 7 cfu/g) was also observed. Alarmingly most of the bacterial isolates present in the samples were proved to be multi-drug resistant. Antibacterial activity of the samples was tested against some common bacterial isolates but was found to be ineffective. Stamford Journal of Microbiology, Vol.6(1) 2016: 11-15
Interactive comment on “ Quantifying the magnitude of a missing hydroxyl radical source in a tropical rainforest ” by L . K . Whalley

We would like to thank Professor Peeters for his comments on the manuscript. Although we conclude that the new isoprene mechanism proposed by Peeters et al., (2009) alone is unable to reproduce OH and HO2 radical concentrations from the campaign, we remain open to the possibility that this mechanism plus an additional (albeit large) HO2 sink could reconcile the model measurement discrepancy if an OH yield from isoprene oxidation of the order of 2.7 is included (pg 5797).
Cointegration Analysis of Oil Prices and Consumer Price Index in South Africa using STATA Software

This paper investigates the concept of vector autoregression (VAR) and cointegration using a bivariate model of global oil prices and headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) in South Africa. The study aims to determine how much of inflation is driven by oil prices. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical underpinnings of cointergration analysis and the application of STATA software to undertake such analysis and perform test statistics. Contrary to the popular myth that a rise in global oil prices fuels inflation, this study has observed that global oil prices are not the drivers of inflation in South Africa. In this way, other macroeconomic indicators and policy developments need to be integrated in analyzing the determinants of South African inflation.
Updated African biomass burning emission inventories in the framework of the AMMA-IDAF program, with an evaluation of combustion aerosols

African biomass burning emission inventories for gases and particles (AMMABB) have been constructed at a resolution of 1 km by 1 km with daily coverage for the 2000-2007 period. They have been evaluated using the ORISAM-TM4 global chemistry transport model, which includes a detailed aerosol module. This paper discussed comparisons between modelled results and new AMMA measurements for surface BC and OC concentrations and scattering coefficients, aerosol optical depths and single scattering albedo from sunphotometer and satellite data. Major aerosol seasonal and interannual evolution over the period 2004-2007 observed at Djougou (Benin) and Banizoumbou (Niger) AMMA/IDAF sites are well reproduced by our global model, showing the importance of using accurate biomass burning emissions. It is the first time to our knowledge that a global model treating core/shell mixing for optical calculations reproduces aerosol optical depths (AOD) values of the same order as satellite and AERONET data. Comparison of simulated and measured concentrations for different class sizes simulated by the model give information on possible refinements of the emissions, according to the particulate size fraction, which have an impact on aerosol optical properties.
J6.10 an Evaluation of Several Turbulence Closure Schemes for Modelling Thermally Induced Slope Flows

Slope wind systems are common characteristic of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over complex terrain. Slope winds are produced by temperature differences between air adjacent to the slope and ambient air at the same altitude outside the slope boundary layer due to diurnal surface radiative cooling and heating. Clear skies (strong solar insolation) and weak synoptic winds are conducive for the development of well-defined slope flows (Whiteman, 1990, 2000). Slope wind systems are categorized into downslope, katabatic or drainage wind, and upslope or anabatic wind. Typically, winds flow upslope during daytime and downslope during nighttime. Slope flows may occur over very weak slopes and aggregations of these flows can also result in larger scale flows such as valley and mountain winds. These flows span a broad range of scales, from small scale of a few kilometers to mesoscale thermal circulations with horizontal scales on the order of 100km or more. They have significant effects on the transfers of heat and moisture, and the transport and dispersion of air pollutants from the boundary layer to the overlying free troposphere. The above background has motivated interest in studies of these flows in the last few decades. Recent related field campaigns include “Vertical Transport and MiXing” (VTMX) field experiment, Salt Lake City, USA, 2000 (Monti, et al., 2002) and Pacific 2001 Air Quality Field Study in the Lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada (Reuten et al., 2002), etc.
A Comparative Analysis of Seismological and Gravimetric Crustal Thicknesses below the Andean Region with Flat Subduction of the Nazca Plate

A gravimetric study was carried out in a region of the Central Andean Range between and south latitudes and from and west longitudes. The seismological and gravimetrical Moho models were compared in a sector which coincides with the seismological stations of the CHARGE project. The comparison reveals discrepancies between the gravity Moho depths and those obtained from seismological investigations (CHARGE project), the latter giving deeper values than those resulting from the gravimetric inversion. These discrepancies are attenuated when the positive gravimetric effect of the Nazca plate is considered. Nonetheless, a small residuum of about 5 km remains beneath the Cuyania terrane region, to the east of the main Andean chain. This residuum could be gravimetrically justified if the existence of a high density or eclogitized portion of the lower crust is considered. This result differed from the interpretations from Project “CHARGE” which revealed that the entire inferior crust extending from the Precordillera to the occidental “Sierras Pampeanas” could be “eclogitized”. In this same sector, we calculated the effective elastic thickness (Te) of the crust. These results indicated an anomalous value of Te = 30 km below the Cuyania terrane. This is further conclusive evidence of the fact that the Cuyania terrane is allochthonous, for which also geological evidences exist.
Does Internal and External Research and Development Affect Innovation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises? Evidence from India and Pakistan

This study investigates the impact of internal and external research and development (R&D) on the innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India and Pakistan. Micro-level data was obtained for 3,492 Indian and 696 Pakistani SMEs from the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey, and bivariate probit estimation techniques were used. The results show that internal and external R&D positively affects product and process innovations. However, this effect is stronger for Indian SMEs. The negative relationship between firm size and innovation output implies that SMEs in both countries face resource constraints. Further, Indian SMEs are dominant in terms of undertaking internal R&D and generating product and process innovations relative to those in Pakistan. The complementary rel¬ationship between internal and external R&D has been examined for both countries. The study is unique in comparing Indian and Pakistani SMEs innovation activities using micro-level data. The results suggest that business managers can utilize a balanced combination of internal and external R&D to accelerate innovation output and increase absorptive capacity. Specifically, public support for innovation, such as R&D grants, subsidies, and tax credits, could encourage SMEs to undertake more radical innovations.