Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An inoculum of endophytic fungi for improved growth of a traditional rice variety in Sri Lanka

Use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in rice cultivation has incurred many environmental and health problems in Sri Lanka. Therefore, there is renewed interest in cultivating traditional rice varieties as they are more amenable to organic farming practices. However, as the yield of these varieties is comparatively low, strategies to enhance their performance should be investigated. As endophytes of plants are reported to promote growth and yield of a number of crop varieties, this study was aimed at studying the endophytic fungal assemblage present in the traditional rice variety Kuruluthuda with a view to evaluate their capacity to enhance plant growth and yield. Twenty seven endophytic fungal species were isolated from different parts of Kuruluthuda rice plants collected from a paddy field cultivated using organic fertilizers in the Gampaha district, Sri Lanka. Two frequently isolated endophytic fungal spp. i.e. Acremonium and Arthrobotrys (frequencies of isolation 60% and 38.6% respectively) were introduced separately and in combination torice seedlings using spore suspension and plate methods to determine their effect on growth and yield under green house and field conditions. All endophyte inoculated plants showed a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) in plant growth (height, fresh weight and dry weight), number of tillers and yield when compared withnon-inoculated plant sunder both green house and field conditions. The effect of Acremonium and Arthrobotrys when introduced in combination showed a significant difference (P ≤ 0.05) in the fresh weight, dry weight, tiller number and yield (weight of seeds harvested) when compared to their individual effects under field conditions which indicates that the two endophytes in combination can be used as a better inoculum to improve biomass and yield of the plants of rice variety tested. This is the first report of the endophytic mycoflora of the rice variety Kuruluthuda and their potential use for growth promotion and yield enhancement.
Behavior and Personality Analysis in a Nonsocial Context Dataset

Personality recognition using nonverbal behavioral cues is a challenging task in the Affective Computing field. The majority of existing methods investigate personality assessment in social contexts, such as crowded places or social events, but ignore the role of behaviors as well as personality in nonsocial situations (i.e. during individual activities). In this paper we introduce a novel dataset for behavior understanding and personality recognition in a nonsocial context. Forty-six participants were recorded in an unconstrained indoor space, related to a smart home environment, performing six tasks resembling Activities of Daily Living (ADL). During the experiment, personality scores were collected using self-assessment questionnaires. Furthermore, a temporal framework using a Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) network is proposed to map nonverbal behavioral features to participants' personality labels. Our experiments showed that nonverbal behaviors are important predictors of personality, confirming theories from the personality psychology field.
Rapid Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles by a Marine-derived Fungus Aspergillus Niger and their Antimicrobial Potentials

Recently, biosynthesis of nanoparticles has received attention due to an increasing need of developing rapid, simple and ecofriendly protocol. Pathogenicity of some of the organisms and lengthy reaction are the drawbacks involved with biosynthesis. We describe a simple protocol for rapid synthesis of silver nanoparticles through biological route using a marine-derived fungus Aspergillus niger. Silver nanoparticles biosynthesis could be achieved within 3 minutes (which otherwise generally takes about 24h) by altering pH of the reaction mixture. Silver nanoparticles biosynthesized at different pH have been observed to have antimicrobial potentials against four test bacteria (viz. Bacillus megaterium, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella sonnei). Further, combined effect of Gentamicin and biosynthesized silver nanoparticles and effect of culture condition (pH) on antimicrobial effect have also been studied. Based on the findings it is concluded that the present study provides a solution to the drawbacks involved in biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles, an ecofriendly approach. It is envisaged that the biosynthesized silver nanoparticles alone, or their combination can be potentially used as effective agents against pathogens.
BIO-DRYING OF ROMANIAN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE : AN ANALYSIS OF ITS VIABILITY

România ca ţară membră a Uniunii Europene trebuie să se conformeze directivelor şi reglementărilor UE privind colectarea, transportul, şi depozitarea deşeurilor. Articolul prezintă o metodă de pre-tratare a deşeurilor municipale înaintea valorificrii energetice prin procedee termice sau termo-chimice urmată de o depozitare controlată a reziduului. Această soluţie ar putea fi dezvoltată în România în contextul Directivelor Uniunii Europene. Sunt prezentate observaţii şi rezultate referitoare la bilanţul de masă, de energie, de mediu şi economic pentru trei studii de caz din Romania.rezultatele au fost obţinute în contextul unei colaborări internaţionale între Universitatea de Studii din Trento, Italia şi Universitatea Politehnica din Bucureşti, România.
The future is Nye: an extension of the perfect plastic approximation to tidewater glaciers

ABSTRACT Accurate modeling of calving glaciers relies on knowledge of many processes (ice flow, surface/submarine melting, calving, mélange interaction) and glacier-specific factors (air temperature, ocean circulation, precipitation rate, glacier geometry) that remain challenging to assess. Iceberg calving, especially, is important to glacier mass loss and difficult to resolve in currently-available models. Given these challenges facing even the most sophisticated models, there is value in simple, computationally-efficient models that can capture first-order effects. In this study we derive a simple model, extending Nye's perfect plastic approximation to include a yield surface at the calving front. With one climate-related input—either an upstream glacier thinning rate or glacier-wide accumulation—this model is able to simulate the advance and retreat of marine-terminating glaciers on annual to decadal scales. Our model requires knowledge of only two glacier-specific factors: glacier bed topography and basal shear strength, both reasonably constrained by laboratory and field observations. We apply the model to a case study of Columbia Glacier, Alaska and show that, despite its simplicity, the model succeeds in reproducing observed centerline profiles and rates of terminus retreat up to 2007.
Evidence for a physically bound third component in HD 150136

Context. HD 150136 is one of the nearest systems harbouring an O3 star. Although this system was considered for a long time as a binary, more recent investigations have suggested the possible existence of a third component. Aims. We present a detailed analysis of HD 150136 to test its triple nature. In addition, we investigate the physical properties of the individual components of this system. Methods. We analysed high-resolution, high signal-to-noise data collected through multi-epoch runs spread over ten years. We applied a disentangling program to refine the radial velocities and to obtain the individual spectra of each star. With the radial velocities, we computed the orbital solution of the inner system, and we describe the main properties of the orbit of the outer star such as the preliminary mass ratio, the eccentricity, and the orbital-period range. With the individual spectra, we determined the stellar parameters of each star by means of the CMFGEN atmosphere code. Results. We offer clear evidence that HD 150136 is a triple system composed of an O3V((f ∗ ))–3.5V((f + )), an O5.5–6V((f)), and an
Empirical Studies on Selection and Travel Performance of Eye-tracking in Virtual Reality

We presented two studies on VR selection and travel performances using eye-based interaction via FOVE head-mounted display (HMD). Our selection experiment was modelled after the ISO 9241-9 reciprocal selection task, with targets presented at varying depths in a custom virtual environment. We compared eye-based and head-based in isolation, and the combination of eye-tracking and head-tracking. Results indicate that eye-only offered the worst performance in terms of error rate, selection times, and throughput. Head-only offered significantly better performance. In our travel study, the task involved controlling movement direction while flying through target rings in the air by seven techniques. We found that the completion time and success rates of head+eye were very close to head-only, while eye-only did not perform better than head+eye due to learning effects and calibration issues, which also yield high cybersickness. Head+eye compensated for the eye-tracker issues and would be potentially an alternative to traditional traveling techniques.
Investing in Sustainable and Resilient Rural Social Space: Lessons for Teacher Education

Attracting and retaining effective education leaders and teaching staff for regional, rural and remote schools in Australia is a major sustainability and quality issue facing every State and Territory. It is also a major concern in pre-service teacher education, particularly for those universities which have a commitment to rural and regional areas. There is a strategic link between teacher education and the sustainability of rural communities with earlier suggestions (White & Reid, 2008, p. 1) highlighting that â€•healthy rural communities may be supported via reform of the ways in which teacher education prepares graduates for teaching in rural schools. Likewise, the proposition is made in this paper that the relationship is importantly reciprocal and that, in turn, healthy rural communities and â€œsuccessful rural schoolsâ€ can inform and help reform teacher education and professional learning through the insights gathered into the ways in which rural education leaders and teaching staff work closely with their school communities. In this paper we draw specifically from the research findings of a three-year Australian Research Council funded project (2008-2010) of schools and communities where sustainable practices around staff recruitment and retention were identified to explore this reciprocal relationship. The paper will firstly discuss the context of the study, its method and conceptual framework, and then focus in particular on the emerging themes from the twenty case-studies across Australia. Themes discussed include the important linking between rural school leadership and community renewal; the possibilities of developing school-university partnerships to sustain the rural workforce; and the need for social and creative enterprise to be acknowledged as important work of rural teachers and leaders. The paper concludes with the implications of these themes in terms of better preparing a future rural teacher workforce.
Seed cryopreservation, in vitro propagation and ex vitro growth of Cattleya walkeriana Gardner, a vulnerable ornamental orchid

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate cryopreservation by vitrification of seeds from the orchid species Cattleya walkeriana and to achieve ex vitro acclimatization of in vitro derived cryopreserved seedlings. Seeds were removed from eight-month-old and ten-month-old capsules, and immersed in LN under different PVS2 exposure times. In in vitro experiment, ten different treatments and five replications with approximately 600 seeds each one were distributed in a completely random design and germination was calculated by the number of germinated seeds developing into protocorms and subsequently into seedlings. Seeds that were immersed directly into LN (0 min PVS2) and germinated in 1⁄2 MS culture medium after plunged directly into LN, returned germination rates of 3.0 (eight-month-old) and 36.8% (ten-month-old). Ten-month-old seeds in vitrification for 1h in PVS2 returned 53% germination in 1⁄2 MS culture medium. However, when the same mature seeds were exposed for 1h to PVS2 with the addition of 1% phloroglucinol, germination was 4.36% higher compared to the treatment without this additive. Seedlings from cryopreserved seeds showed normal development after 210 days of in vitro culture. Seedlings from ten-month-old seeds cryopreserved for 1h in PVS2 were acclimatized in greenhouse conditions in either sphagnum moss or sphagnum moss with pine bark (1:1, v/v) revealed the best ex vitro growth. Seed cryopreservation of this orchid species has shown to be efficient, demonstrating the effect of seed maturation time and ex vitro seedling acclimatization was established, with successful development of seedlings. Received 24 Oct 2016; Revised 24 Jan 2017; Accepted 7 March 2017.
WILD BEE DECLINES AND CHANGES IN PLANT-POLLINATOR NETWORKS OVER 125 YEARS REVEALED THROUGH MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Though recent literature highlights widespread bee declines, detailed information on local communities, plant-pollinator network interactions and individual species remains distressingly scarce. In order to accurately direct conservation initiatives and to evaluate the status of wild bees and their host plants, longterm data on these populations is critical. Examining pollinator communities across regional scales highlights small-scale changes that go undetected in larger investigations. In light of unknown effects of introduced species and cumulative range expansions of exotic taxa, monitoring wild communities closely and extensively over time is becoming increasingly important. The focus of this thesis is to investigate a regional wild bee plant-pollinator network to identify changes and correlates of change over 125 years (1891-2016) in the species that comprise the wild bee and plant communities of New Hampshire. Shifts in regional wild bee community composition impact ecological relationships corresponding with the species that become more or less represented as a result of these shifts. This study analyzed 119 wild bee species in New Hampshire to reveal that 16 species are proportionally declining and 18 species are proportionally increasing. Over half of the species found in decline experienced a significant elevational or latitudinal range shift, many are regionally important crop pollinators, and all are native New Hampshire taxa. Neither genus nor guild affiliations were found to be indicators of change, suggesting that the requirements and behavior of individual species must be examined in order to evaluate the current and future state of the wild bee community. The mutualistic interactions of plant-pollinator networks provide myriad economic, ecological, and cultural functions without which there would be severe environmental and societal consequences. Because of globally intensifying anthropogenic land use and climate change, plant-pollinator networks are becoming increasingly vulnerable to disturbance. The wild bee community interacts with a diverse array of flowering plants with specific environmental needs. Examining interactions between wild bees and floral hosts offers powerful insight into pollinator ecology and has potential to detect temporal network variation within the community. This study revealed that changes in the wild bee plant-pollinator network over the past 125 years are characterized by a striking increase in exotic bee and plant taxa, which could have a destabilizing effect on mutualistic interactions in combination with increasing temperatures and habitat loss. Notable specialist interactions between native taxa that were recorded in historical networks have been lost, most likely due to host plant shifts and competition from recent species introductions. Subsequent monitoring and conservation efforts focused on habitat restoration for declining wild bee and plant taxa are fundamental to the future preservation of native biodiversity.
Discrete symmetries and spectral statistics

We calculate the 2-point spectral statistics associated with a given irreducible representation (i.e. symmetry class) for time-reversal invariant systems possessing discrete symmetries using semiclassical periodic orbit theory. When the representation in question is real or pseudo-real, our results conform to those of the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) of random matrices. When it is complex, we find instead Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) behaviour. This provides a direct semiclassical explanation for the recent observation by Leyvraz et al (1996) of GUE correlations in the desymmetrized spectra of certain symmetric billiards in the absence of any time-reversal invariance breaking (e.g. magnetic) fields.
Equity Valuation in Mainland China and Hong Kong: The Chinese A-H Share Premium

This paper studies the links between fundamental value and market price of the companies listed in both mainland A-share and Hong Kong H-share markets. As the valuation model has been inadequately applied in the literature, this study theoretically clarifies that the dividends discount model (DDM) and it derivatives are suitable for firms, but not for general consumers and investors, to evaluate equity fundamental values. Thus, using DDM and its derivatives to determine the market price of equity, which has been done in many other studies, is problematic. This paper also empirically studies how accounting data determines fundamental values of equities using a pooled-data vector autoregressive method. It indicates that although fundamental value can be a benchmark for investors to price equity, prices of equity may deviate from fundamental values substantially for a long time due to differences in preference and the extent of risk aversion between A-shares and H-shares. Correlation between equity price and its fundamental value for H-shares is larger than the correlation for A-shares. This paper also explains why there has been a big price gaps between A-shares and H-shares with exactly the same yields rights. The estimates of fundamental value for each company help investors make rational investment decisions. It suggests that, in the long run, healthy development of Chinese securities markets will depend on the progress of privatisation and marketisation of the Chinese economy. Measures such as the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) and Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII) programmes should be adopted to improve the efficiency of financial resources utilisation in mainland China, despite the short-run pressure that may put on A-share markets.
Analysis of Sub- t c and Supra- t c Motions in Protein G 1 Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The invention relates to an arrangement for binding an object, in particular a cable harness, having a tool, a band (9) and a lock (2), the band (9) being guided, in the form of a loop, through the lock (2), which has a band passage (23) and detents (21) arranged therein and engaging in the band (9), the tool having a clamp and a band guide (7), which opens out into a lock mount (5) on an end side of the tool, and also having a movable covering tongue (6), which temporarily prevents at least one of the detents (21) from engaging in the band (9), the covering tongue (6) being mounted in a pivotable manner. The covering tongue (6) is expediently arranged such that, in a deflected position, it projects into the band passage (23) of the lock (2) in the lock mount (5).
The Interaction Between Organizational Silence Climate And Employees Behaviors In The Field Of Health

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between organizational silence climate and employees’ silence behaviours. This research was conducted in Antalya Education and Research Hospital within the scope of Antalya Health Management. 1837 people in the field of health participated in the study. Because of the limited time, the sample group was chosen based on stratified sampling and composed of 407 employees. The data was gathered from the volunteers through interviews between 1st May and 31st of August, 2013. On those days 407 people were interviewed. In this research it was aimed to understand whether there is a relationship among fear, self-defence, protecting relationships or indifference and employee silence. Besides, one of the main objectives is to be able to explain whether there is a relation between organizational silence climate and employees silence behaviours. Based on the demographic characteristics of the sample group (age, sex, marital status, education, working period, task) it was tired to find out whether they are related to silence behaviours or not. Based on the analyses it was found that the upper management has a great influence on employees’ silence behaviours but the effect of unit managers should also be considered. It was observed that employees generally show silence behaviours based on protecting themselves or based on fear. It can be said that there is a relationship between employees’ silence behaviours and organizational silence climate. In terms of demographic characteristics, the silence behaviours of employees vary according to their demographic characteristics.
DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIPLEX MICROSATELLITE PANEL TO ASSESS THE PARENTAGE VERIFICATION IN AND DIFFERENTIATION DEGREE OF REINDEER POPULATIONS (Rangifer tarandus)

of the development of multiplex panel of STR markers and of its to assign the and to study biodiversity of popu- lations. biological used tissue samples (part of ear’s lobes) of reindeer of Even (EVN, n = 44), Evenk (EVK, n = 44), Nenets ( n = 45) breeds and Tyva population (TUV, n = 35). DNA extraction was performed using Nexttec columns (Germany) according to the manu-facturer’s instructions. Polymorphism of nine STR markers (NVHRT76, RT9, NVHRT24, RT30, RT1, RT6, RT27, NVHRT21 and RT7) was determined by own procedures using ABI 3130xl DNA Statistical analysis was performed in MS Excel 2007 with the plugin GenAIEx v. 6.5, software MSA 4.05, PHYLIP, v. 3.5c, Treev32 and Structure, v. 2.3. 4. The studied populations of reindeer were characterized by relatively high levels of genetic diversity. The average number of alleles per locus was 6.11±0.56 in TUV, 6.67±0.50 in NEN, 8.00±0.76 in EVN and 8.89±0.65 in EVK. The smallest effective number of alleles per locus was detected in TUV (3.37±0.47), the maximal value was in EVK (4.89±0.46 alleles per locus), and EVN and NEN occu-pied an intermediate position (4.42±0.53 and 3.90±0.38, respectively). The number of alleles in sin- gle loci ranged from four in NVHRT21 and NVHRT24 for TUV to twelve in RT7 for EVK and RT1 for EVN. The probability of matching genotypes (PI) for the nine loci ranged from 1. 84½10 -9 in NEN to 5. 9½10 -11 in EVK, showing the high power of the proposed marker panel for parentage identification. The calculation of the mean values of similarity coefficient Q in the i th cluster with the most probable number of clusters such as k = 3 and k = 4 (Q i/k ) revealed high heterogeneity of genetic structure of studied populations. The highest degree of genetic differentiation was shown for TUV (Q 2/3 = 0.899±0.034, Q 3/4 = 0.883±0.035) and for NEN (Q 3/3 = 0.885±0.031, Q 4/4 = 0.813±0.038). The EVN and EVK population were close to each other, and a clear clustering between them was not observed. An estimation of R st (AMOVA) showed that 11.4 % of the total molecular variability was caused by differences between populations, and 88.6 % was due to individual differences between animals (p < 0.01). Evaluation of degree of genetic differentiation of studied populations, using as criteria the values of Nei’ genetic distances and pairwise comparisons of F st showed similar trends. TUV population was the most distinct comparing to other populations (D Nei = 0,283-0,502, F st = 0,299-0,452), while it was the most differ from NEN and the closest to EVN. The minimal genetic differences were observed between EVN and EVK (D Nei = 0,068, F st = 0,032). The results show high functional power of the de- veloped STR panel to identify the parentage and to study biodiversity in Russian reindeer populations.