Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CaCl2 AND NaCl STRESS IN COWPEA PLANTS

Pitiuba cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. ) plants were grown in nutrient solution and kept in a greenhouse up to preflowering stage. They were subjected to four different treatments: nutrient solution; nutrient solution containing 75 mmol.L-1 NaCl; nutrient solution containing 75 mmol.L-1 NaCl and 5 mmol.L-1 CaCl2; and nutrient solution containing 75 mmol.L -1 NaCl and 10 mmol.L-1 CaCl2. Salt stress strongly inhibited plant growth, caused a disturbance in plant-water balance, and increased the total content of inorganic solutes in the different plant parts, due mainly to accumulation of Na+ and Cl-. It also increased leaf and root soluble carbohydrates, reduced soluble amino nitrogen both in root tips and in the youngest trifoliate leaves, and reduced proline levels in root tips. Although the addition of CaCl2 to the root environment of salt stressed plants caused a reduction in Na+ content, specially in roots, it did not ameliorate the salt stress effects on plant-water relations and growth. Therefore, the results obtained do not support the hypothesis that supplemental calcium would ameliorate the inhibitory effects of NaCl-stress.
Modeling and Experimental Characterization of Steel Fiber/Polymer Interface: Pull-Out tests

In the current industrial scenario metal fibers reinforced polymers are used in many applications like car tyres and bumpers. These metal/steel fibers need perfect sizings compatible with the polymer giving very good interface properties for high end product performance. In the present work the interface properties between steel fibers and polyester resin are studied. A single fiber pullout test has been developed for measuring the debond energy and frictional parameters for high carbon steel fibers embedded in a polyester matrix. The experimental setup implies a laser scanning extensometer for direct measurement of the pullout length. The pullout load measured consists of two components: a) debonding of the adhesive joint and b) frictional sliding of the debonded portion of the fiber. The hysteresis between unloading and reloading is characteristic of frictional sliding between matrix and fiber. Load-unload-reload loops are performed in order to determine the frictional behavior of the interface. The experimental results are compared to the pullout model by Hutchinson and Jensen [1], which was later further developed by Marshall [2] to account for the unload-reload hysteresis. The experimental investigation of unloading and reloading behavior of fibers pulled out from the polymer is in good agreement with the model.
Profile of children hospitalizations by primary care sensitive conditions

Hospitalization for primary care sensitive conditions is a type of hospitalization that may be reduced or avoided if conditions are properly and effectively diagnosed and treated within Primary Health Care. To identify Brazilian rates of morbidity in 0 – 4 year-old children and hospitalization rates for primary care sensitive conditions rates in a pediatric unit of a public hospital in Cascavel, Parana State, Brazil. Quantitative research whose data were retrieved from the Hospital Information System database - Datasus and from the records of the Medical and Statistical File Service of the hospital, with regard to hospital records of 220 children between January and December 2012, with an instrument specifically developed for research and analysis in descriptive statistics. National hospitalization rates for primary care sensitive conditions were predominant in children under one year and in the northern (657.56) and southern (621.18) regions, underscoring pneumonia. They accounted for 23.30% of hospitalizations, with 15.03% for respiratory diseases in the medical institution under analysis. Respiratory diseases were the main cause of hospitalization for primary care sensitive conditions and in children under one year old. Results suggest an increase in investment for prevention of these diseases in primary health care.
Developing Physics learning activities for fostering student creativity in Hong Kong context

Literature Review Basic concepts of creativity Creativity studies in science education Context The Chinese context Approaches adopted by this study Method Learning Objectives Rationales for designing and selecting the activities Methods used to generate activity designs Learning activities developed Implementation of the creative activities in classroom Introduction to Physics teachers Results Student evaluation Teacher evaluation Discussion Summary of results Suggestions Culture differences Concluding remarks References
Stellar abundances and presolar grains trace the nucleosynthetic origin of molybdenum and ruthenium

This work presents a large consistent study of molybdenum (Mo) and ruthenium (Ru) abundances in the Milky Way. These two elements are important nucleosynthetic diagnostics. In our sample of 71 Galactic metal-poor field stars, we detect Ru and/or Mo in 52 of these (59 including upper limits). The sample consists of high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra covering both dwarfs and giants from [Fe/H] = −0.63 down to −3.16. Thus we provide information on the behaviour of Mo I and Ru I at higher and lower metallicity than is currently known. In this sample we find a wide spread in the Mo and Ru abundances, which is typical of heavy elements. We confirm earlier findings of Mo enhanced stars around [Fe/H] = −1. 5a nd add∼15 stars both dwarfs and giants with normal ( 0.5 dex) stars to the currently known stellar sample. This indicates that several formation processes, in addition to high entropy winds, can be responsible for the formation of elements like Mo and Ru. We trace the formation processes by comparing Mo and Ru to elements (Sr, Zr, Pd, Ag, Ba, and Eu) with known formation processes. Based on how tight the two elements correlate with each other, we are able to distinguish if they share a common formation process and how important this contribution is to the element abundance. We find clear indications of contributions from several different formation processes, namely the p-process, and the slow (s-), and rapid (r-) neutron-capture processes. From these correlations we find that Mo is a highly convolved element that receives contributions from both the s-process and the p-process and less from the main and weak r-processes, whereas Ru is mainly formed by the weak r-process as is silver. We also compare our absolute elemental stellar abundances to relative isotopic abundances of presolar grains extracted from meteorites. Their isotopic abundances can be directly linked to the formation process (e.g. r-only isotopes) providing a unique comparison between observationally derived abundances and the nuclear formation process. The comparison to abundances in presolar grains shows that the r-/s-process ratios from the presolar grains match the total elemental chemical composition derived from metal-poor halo stars with [Fe/H] around −1. 5t o−1.1 dex. This indicates that both grains and stars around and above [Fe/H] = −1.5 are equally (well) mixed and therefore do not support a heterogeneous presolar nebula. An inhomogeneous interstellar medium (ISM) should only be expected at lower metallicities. Our data, combined with the abundance ratios of presolar grains, could indicate that the AGB yields are less efficiently mixed into stars than into presolar grains. Finally, we detect traces of s-process material at [Fe/H] = −1.5, indicating that this process is at work at this and probably at even lower metallicity.
Sulphide removal from liquid using biofilm on packed bed of salak fruit seeds

2 This study focused on the removal of sulphide from liquid solution using biofilm on packed bed of salak fruit seeds. Bio-filter operation of 444 hours consists of 6 phases of operation. Each phase lasted for approximately 72 hours to 82 hours and run at various inlet concentration and flow rate. The highest removal efficiency is 92.01%, at the end of phase 7 at the inlet concentration of 60 ppm and the flow rate of 30 mL min-1. Mathematic model of sulphide removal was proposed to describe the operation of bio-filter. The model proposed can be applied to describe the removal of sulphide liquid using bio-filter in packed bed. The simulation results the value of the parameters in process. The value of the rate maximum specific growth is 4.15E-8 s -1 , Saturation constant is 9.1E-8 g cm -3 , mass transfer coefficient of liquid is 0.5 cm s -1 , Henry’s constant is 0.007, and mass of microorganisms growth to mass of sulphide consumed is 30. The value of the rate maximum specific growth in early process is 0.00000004 s -1 .
Strategic value of networking in sport sponsorships

Sport sponsorship is interesting for organizations for more than only the value out of the relationship between sports entity and sponsor. This study reveals the network behind sport sponsorship is highly valuable for sponsors. Due to the sponsorship network centrality of sponsors increases. Relationship intensity is highly dependent of the participation of all parties. Striking results are found when analyzing the amount and type of contents exchanged. For sponsors the amount of contents exchanged with others increases, whereas the type of contents exchanged changes. Sponsorship networks facilitate the exchange of information, as well as the exchange of goods and services. The exchange of information might be of more value because it may contain information about a particular market, new product or a more efficient product process. Underexposed for a long time, the network opportunity behind sponsorships now seems to gain interest from both network scientists and practitioners. As such, as well as providing a conceptual extension to the sponsorship literature, the study also offers a route for more empirical analyses of other sponsorship networks.
Contract Farming System: A Tool to Tranforming Rural Society in Sabah.

Recent decades have seen major change in agricultural technologies as a consequence to various programs for an agricultural development in rural areas of Sabah. Villagers in Sabah have always been receptive to new agricultural technologies that promises to improve their standard of living and as a reflection from the promotion of new agricultural technologies, many peoples in rural areas in Sabah now working with a mix of traditional and modern technologies. Along with the adoption of modern technologies, there has been a rapid transformation to cash economy among rural areas in Sabah (Marten, 1990). However, most villagers in Sabah are still produce almost entirely for home consumption, although the other economic activity of rural peoples in Sabah is small-enterprises as well as “kedai kampung” or rural shop that is registered under the local registration authority. This means, meeting basic household food needs is still the priority of most farmers in Sabah. Most also produced as much as surplus as possible to meet cash needs generated by expanding public education, rural electrification, modern communication (e.g. Radio and Television), and modern transport. It confirmed that most rural societies in Sabah still run their subsistence agricultural economy as compared to cash economy, which generally in farm activities, men do the major task and the women do the very minor task. Alongside with the fact that in this post-modern world most rural society in Sabah involved in agricultural economy, rural population especially among youth has declined. This means that human force for agricultural sector is declined as well. Rural population in Sabah was declining due to migration of younger-age groups. Outward migration among them was caused by the economic purposes such as to find non-agricultural financial resources (work in government sector either in the white or blue collar works). As according to Bryden (2000) villagers often migrated because the trend in agricultural income that is reported as lower than income from other economic activities. Some of them were migrated to the urban areas when they employed as the non-government professional executive level and further their education. Some other (female) moved to follow husband. In short, they were migrated because of work-related reason and to get social fulfillment in the form of further education, social amenities and the family reason. This phenomenon in the future, out migration of youth will leave the youngsters and old folks to maintain the village and at the end, population of rural areas in Sabah will be increasingly independent. Village-base economy especially agricultural production will suffer when the active youth have left for the town. In the other hand, rural poverty profile that is currently high will be increased. Hence, commercialization of agricultural sectors in rural areas assumed as the best resolution to improve villager’s standard of living that is bring about transformation of rural agrarian society from the traditional society to modern agrarian society through contract farming system.
Effect of Fiscal Policy Shocks in Brazil

This article makes a comprehensive assessment of the effect of a fiscal policy shock in Brazil. I found that gross domestic product does not rise in the short run in response to the fiscal policy shock albeit it rises in the long run. In addition, I found that unlike an advanced economy like the USA, the response of both fiscal and monetary variables estimated in the VAR are very volatile with the stock price index which represents Brazil’s financial sector in the VAR model responding negatively (revenue shock) to the policy innovation in the short run while rising and falling below the steady state several times throughout the forecasting horizon. Possible explanations for these results includes weak economic and political institutional frameworks leading to weak transmission mechanisms of fiscal policy innovations. In fact when government expenditure is not used for infrastructure projects, utility-generating economic activities or externalities that gets onto the economic production function, then extra government expenditure ends up taking resources away from the Brazilian economy.
Riociguat for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

BACKGROUND Riociguat, a soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator, has been shown in a phase 2 trial to be beneficial in the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. METHODS In this phase 3, double-blind study, we randomly assigned 443 patients with symptomatic pulmonary arterial hypertension to receive placebo, riociguat in individually adjusted doses of up to 2.5 mg three times daily (2.5 mg-maximum group), or riociguat in individually adjusted doses that were capped at 1.5 mg three times daily (1.5 mg-maximum group). The 1.5 mg-maximum group was included for exploratory purposes, and the data from that group were analyzed descriptively. Patients who were receiving no other treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension and patients who were receiving endothelin-receptor antagonists or (nonintravenous) prostanoids were eligible. The primary end point was the change from baseline to the end of week 12 in the distance walked in 6 minutes. Secondary end points included the change in pulmonary vascular resistance, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels, World Health Organization (WHO) functional class, time to clinical worsening, score on the Borg dyspnea scale, quality-of-life variables, and safety. RESULTS By week 12, the 6-minute walk distance had increased by a mean of 30 m in the 2.5 mg-maximum group and had decreased by a mean of 6 m in the placebo group (least-squares mean difference, 36 m; 95% confidence interval, 20 to 52; P<0.001). Prespecified subgroup analyses showed that riociguat improved the 6-minute walk distance both in patients who were receiving no other treatment for the disease and in those who were receiving endothelin-receptor antagonists or prostanoids. There were significant improvements in pulmonary vascular resistance (P<0.001), NT-proBNP levels (P<0.001), WHO functional class (P=0.003), time to clinical worsening (P=0.005), and Borg dyspnea score (P=0.002). The most common serious adverse event in the placebo group and the 2.5 mg-maximum group was syncope (4% and 1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Riociguat significantly improved exercise capacity and secondary efficacy end points in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. (Funded by Bayer HealthCare; PATENT-1 and PATENT-2 ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT00810693 and NCT00863681, respectively.).
Prioritization of Expanded Marketing Mix in Different Stages of the Product Life Cycle: The Case of Food Industry

In today’s competitive world, employing marketing concepts and methods while prioritizing the marketing mix approach for products can play an important role in increasing sales and ensuring greater success in the marketplace. The main objective of this study is to prioritize the marketing mix in each stage of the product life cycle using the ANP approach. For this purpose, a questionnaire was designed, and a survey of food industry marketing managers in Mashhad was conducted in 2015. The results show that between 7P’s of marketing mix, in the introductory stage of the product life cycle, “promotion,” and in other stages “price” have the highest priority. According to the fact that each marketing mix has some sub-indices, the results show that among all subindices, “advertising” in the introductory stage, “high price” in the growth stage, “kind of payment” in the maturity stage, and in the decline stage, “rebate” possess the highest weights. Therefore, prioritization of the marketing mix can be used at different stages of the product life cycle to help managers for better allocation of their resources and increase profitability.
The use of habitat suitability models and species–area relationships to predict extinction debts in coastal forests, South Africa

Predicting extinctions before they are realized has proven difficult, yet is increasingly important for biodiversity conservation as habitat destruction continues unabated around the world. We evaluated whether habitat suitability models can be used in conjunction with species–area relationships (SAR) to detect apparent extinction debts as implicated by the conservation status assigned to bird species.
CAFE: A NEW RELATIVISTIC MHD CODE

We introduce CAFE, a new independent code designed to solve the equations of relativistic ideal magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) in three dimensions. We present the standard tests for an RMHD code and for the relativistic hydrodynamics regime because we have not reported them before. The tests include the one-dimensional Riemann problems related to blast waves, head-on collisions of streams, and states with transverse velocities, with and without magnetic field, which is aligned or transverse, constant or discontinuous across the initial discontinuity. Among the two-dimensional (2D) and 3D tests without magnetic field, we include the 2D Riemann problem, a one-dimensional shock tube along a diagonal, the high-speed Emery wind tunnel, the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability, a set of jets, and a 3D spherical blast wave, whereas in the presence of a magnetic field we show the magnetic rotor, the cylindrical explosion, a case of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, and a 3D magnetic field advection loop. The code uses high-resolution shock-capturing methods, and we present the error analysis for a combination that uses the Harten, Lax, van Leer, and Einfeldt (HLLE) flux formula combined with a linear, piecewise parabolic method and fifth-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory reconstructors. We use the flux-constrained transport and the divergence cleaning methods to control the divergence-free magnetic field constraint.
Factors affecting fast-ice break-up frequency in Lützow-Holm Bay, Antarctica

Abstract Antarctic fast-ice variation is investigated using satellite images and ship’s ice navigation logs, focusing on break-up phenomena in Lützow-Holm Bay. Although spatio-temporal scales for breakup events vary somewhat for each event, their commencement is generally in autumn and almost always in the same region. Specifically, the 1997/98 break-up event occurred over a wide area and continued for a long time after the initial break-up. Since then, break-ups have recurred until 2004, and a total of 20 annual events have been detected and monitored since 1980. Moreover, information from icebreaker navigation logs shows that unstable fast-ice conditions occurred in the 1980s and after the late 1990s. From the analysis of surface meteorological data and the offshore pack-ice distribution, anomalously shallow snow-cover depths and a peculiar retreat pattern of the ice edge are found to be factors that favour fast-ice break-up. The pack-ice distribution controls the propagation of ocean swell inside the bay; encroaching swells are likely to mechanically disintegrate fast-ice during autumn prior to the annual formation of the protective pack-ice cover to the north. Less snow cover also leads to fast-ice weakening as the melt season progresses and broken floes are then transported offshore by prevailing southerly winds.
An ability approach to within-class curriculum differentiation using student response systems and Web 2.0 technologies: Analysing teachers’ responsiveness

This paper examines teacher responsiveness to an ability approach of within-class curriculum differentiation using technology. Teachers were guided through a series of four workshops designed to enhance their capacity to differentiate the curriculum using Web 2.0 technologies and Student Response Systems. Anderson & Krathwohl’s (2001) Taxonomy of Learning, Teaching and Assessing was used as a framework for the within-class ability differentiation. As a result of the project there was a discernable focusing of teachers’ conceptualisations of differentiation and its value. There were also improvements in teachers’ self-reported ability to differentiate the curriculum, ability to integrate technology into the classroom, and enjoyment of using technology. Considerable variance in teachers’ capacity to differentiate according to student ability using technology was observed, indicating that a differentiated approach to supporting teachers’ development in this area may be required.
Infrastructure, Knowledge and Economic Growth in China: 1953-2004

This paper evaluates the economic development of China using the New Economic Geography (NEG) as a framework of analysis. The NEG addresses the formation of agglomeration economies accruing to physical linkages in one location leading to the formation of a coreperiphery pattern between the regions of a country. However, the NEG cannot account for the role of knowledge creation linkages which are location independent in the formation of the core-periphery pattern. The main findings of this paper are that the formation of the coreperiphery pattern predicted by the NEG depends upon government economic and development policy at a point in time. Furthermore, while the NEG does not allow for knowledge creation to be involved in the formation of the core-periphery pattern, this paper shows that once the core-periphery pattern is formed, the knowledge creation process sustains it. This paper also supports the hypothesis that investment in infrastructure and fixed assets, which has been concentrated in China due to the nature of the Special Economic Zones in the Coastal regions, and the interdependence between different types of infrastructure leads to the formation of the core-periphery pattern.