Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of new microsatellite markers for the Green Toad , Bufotes viridis , to assess population structure at its northwestern range boundary in Germany

The Green Toad (Bufotes viridis) in Germany is mostly confined to secondary habitats and is experiencing severe population declines especially at its northwestern range boundary in the city of Cologne. As a basis for conservation management of this species, viz. to investigate the status of the population structure, we used a library of over 15,000 short tandem repeats to establish a new set of 12 microsatellite markers for this species. We applied these markers to B. viridis individuals from six sampling sites in Cologne, and included outgroup samples from sites in northern and central Germany. The results suggest the sampled Cologne toads form four distinct populations, without an obvious distinction between sites east and west of the river Rhine. Only the green toads of three neighbouring sampling sites clustered as one population, supporting the initial hypothesis that individuals from proximate sampling sites are genetically more similar than those from more isolated sampling sites. However, mitochondrial DNA sequences revealed a haplotype east of the Rhine that was absent west of the river. Toads from the northernmost sampled population in Cologne “Ginsterpfad” were not genetically depauperate, indicating that the severe declines at this site did not lead to a loss of genetic variation and were not related to inbreeding. Some Ginsterpfad individuals were genetically highly distinct from others, which may be explained by human introduction. Despite the encountered population structure, the low number of private alleles in the populations west of the Rhine, and the uniformity in mitochondrial haplotypes with the exception of one deviant allele east of the Rhine, lead us to recommend a pragmatic approach for conservation management. We suggest to consider all Cologne Green toads as belonging to a single management unit, but propose that, wherever possible, populations east and west of the Rhine should not be mixed in reintroduction measures.
Measurement of Calcium , Inorganic Phosphate and Albumin Levels in Serum of Iraqi Hypertensive Male Patients

Hypertension is a major health problem in adults, and contributes to cardiovascular disease. Malnutrition or deficiency in different nutrients found to be a risk factor for pathogenesis of essential hypertension. No clear association of calcium with blood pressure level could be identified. In this work serum calcium and albumin in hypertensive patients were compared with healthy control. Thirty uncomplicated, untreated, hypertensive, but otherwise have no other systemic diseases males, ranging in age from (26–55) years old, were entered into the study. Their blood pressure values were more than 95/140 mm Hg (seated posture). Control group consists of thirty healthy males with normal blood pressure and their age range is 22-46 years old. Serum calcium and serum albumin were measured calorimetrically using ready for use kits. Results showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) in serum calcium of patients group as compared with control group. No significant differences noticed between the two groups in serum albumin (p>0.05). Correlation coefficients between serum albumin and calcium in control group and patients group are 0.13, and 0.12, respectively. The ratio between mean serum albumin on mean serum calcium showed an increase in patients group (23.387) in comparing with control group (19.348). In this research we conclude that hypertensive patients have significantly lower serum total calcium than control group. Calcium supplements may be required as adjuvant treatment in addition to decrease NaCl in the diet to reduce excretion of calcium in urine. There is no significant difference between the two groups in serum albumin. In this work a new ratio (S. albumin/ S. calcium) is introduced as a useful marker for calcium state. No correlation was found between serum albumin and calcium in both groups indicating the need for estimating the free calcium in both groups. Further studies required for other biochemical parameters in larger patients sample size.
Model-Based Evaluation of Hydroelectric D am ’ s Impact on the Seasonal Variabilities of POC in Coastal Ocean : A Case Study of Three Gorges Project

Particulate organic carbon (POC) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. The POC in the Changjiang Estuary and adjacent coastal region of the East China Sea (ECS) is dominated by riverine input and marine production and is significantly influenced by the three gorges project (TGP). A coupled physical–biogeochemical model was used to evaluate TGP’s impact on POC. The results demonstrate that TGP regulates the area influenced by diluted water and POC through direct river and sediment discharge and affects the ecosystem. From the early to later TGP construction periods, the surface region with high-POC concentration (>40 μmol L−1) decreases by 20.5% in area and 11.5% in concentration. Meanwhile, POC in the whole water column decreases from 19.5 to 17.8 μmol L−1. By contrast, the concentrations of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and related nutrients increase. A three end-member mixing model based on quasi-conservative temperature and salinity is used to quantify relative contributions of different water sources to POC in our research area. We also estimate the biological POC production by the difference between the physical-biogeochemical model predicted POC and three end-member model mixing POC. The result demonstrate that under the regulation of TGP in the later period, the decrease of sediment load increases water transparency, which favors photosynthesis and oceanic biological produced POC. In addition, over 70% of the areas have C/Chl-a > 200 and high C/N ratios, which are circumstantial evidences that organic detritus and terrestrial input sources still dominate in the Changjiang Estuary and adjacent coastal ECS but are influenced by TGP’s regulation.
UNetGAN: A Robust Speech Enhancement Approach in Time Domain for Extremely Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Condition

Speech enhancement at extremely low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) condition is a very challenging problem and rarely investigated in previous works. This paper proposes a robust speech enhancement approach (UNetGAN) based on U-Net and generative adversarial learning to deal with this problem. This approach consists of a generator network and a discriminator network, which operate directly in the time domain. The generator network adopts a U-Net like structure and employs dilated convolution in the bottleneck of it. We evaluate the performance of the UNetGAN at low SNR conditions (up to -20dB) on the public benchmark. The result demonstrates that it significantly improves the speech quality and substantially outperforms the representative deep learning models, including SEGAN, cGAN fo SE, Bidirectional LSTM using phase-sensitive spectrum approximation cost function (PSA-BLSTM) and Wave-U-Net regarding Short-Time Objective Intelligibility (STOI) and Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ).
How is trust in government created ? It begins at home , but ends in the parliament

Trust was a key issue in the 2004 Australian federal election. The Prime Minister appealed to the public to trust his government because of its ability to manage the economy. The Leader of the Opposition highlighted the government’s lack of credibility and honesty. These are two different aspects of trust. There is a vast literature on trust, but it does more to create confusion than to illuminate. On what basis do people trust government? Most theorists favour a rational view of trust based on people’s evaluation of government performance in providing public goods. They argue that if people trust government to perform in their interest, they will generalise this experience and develop social trust, or trust in strangers. One of the best known writers on trust, Robert Putnam, has used social capital theory to show that civic engagement creates social trust, which makes government more effective. However, he does not consider social trust a basis for trust in government. I test this thesis that civic engagement creates social trust, and that social trust generalises to trust in government. I find that while civic engagement plays a minimal role in creating social trust, the foundation of trust in government and its organisations is relational, based on what happens in our intimate circles. If people are trusting of others generally, they will continue to trust despite the poor performance of others. I conclude that rational and relational factors co-exist in creating trust in government and its organisations. Jenny Job is a PhD student at the Australian National University. Her research is examining the development of trust and its generalisation to government and government organisations. Her work as a Commonwealth public servant has included adapting responsive regulation for taxation administration, and organisational change. Jenny has advised and trained tax office staff in responsive regulation in Australia, New Zealand, East Timor, Indonesia, England and Pennsylvania. ISSN 1832-1526 Australian Review of Public Affairs Volume 6, Number 1: November 2005, 1–23 © 2005 School of Economics and Political Science, The University of Sydney 2 AUSTRALIAN REVIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Performance Analysis of Photovoltaic Module at changing Environmental condition using Matlab Simulink

With the growing energy consumption in all most every sector the demand of photovoltaic energy has increased. In this paper only one environmental factor is taken into consideration i.e. solar irradiance. The solar irradiance reaching the earth’s surface keeps on changing depending on the climatic condition. During clear weather the amount of sunlight received by the PV panel is more than that during cloudy weather. Hence modeling of PV module is done using the basic equations in MATLAB Simulink environment at different irradiance level. The results of the simulink are verified by conducting a laboratory experiment.
DETECTION OF VIRULENCE GENES IN ESCHERICHIA COLI ISOLATED FROM FROZEN MEAT IN BASRAH MARKET

This study was aimed to detect the presence of Escherichia coli in frozen meat. A total of 200 samples were collected from Basrah markets in the period extending from September 2015 to March 2016. These samples were composed of 50 frozen fish samples, 50 frozen burger samples, 50 frozen chicken samples and(50) worker's hands swabs. Different techniques were used in this study to evaluate the presence of Escherichia coli which contaminate the frozen meat, these techniques included the traditional bacteriological assays, commercial identification kit (API 20 E) and molecular techniques (PCR). Results of these techniques indicated 25 (12.5%) samples were positive to Escherichia coli , as identified by API 20 E system. The results of 25 isolates of Escherichia coli which confirmed by PCR, These isolates were subjected to PCR [sta gene, stb gene, lt gene and uspA gene]. The results PCR confirmed only 16 of these isolates contain sta gene and 5 of these isolates contain uspA gene ,While isolates do not contain the gene stb or lt genes.
EFFECTS OF PERCEPTUAL ASSIMILATION: THE PERCEPTION OF ENGLISH /æ/, /ʌ/, AND /ɑ/ BY JAPANESE SPEAKERS

In the present study, Japanese speakers’ perception of English vowels /æ/, /ʌ/, and /ɑ/ was examined. According to the Perceptual Assimilation Model [1, 2, 3], discriminating the /ʌ/-/ɑ/ contrast should be more difficult than the /æ/-/ʌ/ contrast, although all three vowels are categorized as a single vowel /a/ in Japanese. In the experiment, an identification test with a resynthesized stimulus continuum of vowels varying in F2 was given to both Japanese and English speakers. Based on the results, three stimuli of English /æ/, /ʌ/, and /ɑ/ for which acoustic distance was controlled were selected and used for a discrimination test. The results demonstrated that while English speakers discriminated both the /æ/-/ʌ/ and /ʌ/-/ɑ/ contrasts equally well, discriminating the /ʌ/-/ɑ/ contrast was more difficult than the /æ/-/ʌ/ contrast for Japanese speakers. That is because English /ʌ/ and /ɑ/ were equally good exemplars of Japanese /a/, compared to the English /æ/-/ʌ/ contrast.
The Theory of Storable Commodity Futures Pricing

We test the forecasting power and information content of lumber futures prices traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, from 1995 to 2013, at four forecast horizons. A Mincer-Zarnowitz regression finds evidence of statistically significant forecasting power at all forecast horizons. The results also support the presence of a time-varying risk premium for the shorter forecast horizons. A Granger causality test provides evidence that lumber futures prices lag spot prices in information assimilation over longer forecast horizons, while neither lagging nor leading over shorter forecast horizons.
Observations on Hospitalized Dengue Patients

Abstract : Between Oct 31, 1983 and Mar 31, 1984, 379 dengue cases were confirmed at the Hospital of Infant Jesus. Most (77.6%) of the patients were 10 years and below, but only 2 cases were infants. 26 (6.8%) showed a primary antibody response while 322 (84.9%) had a secondary antibody response. 3 serotypes of dengue virus were recovered: 13 Den 3, 12 Den 1 & 6 Den 2 strains. Anorexia, flushing, vomiting, hepatomegaly and abdominal pain were the most frequent nonspecific findings. The most common hemorrhagic manifestations were positive tourniquet test, petechiae, & epistaxis. Shock was recorded in 33 cases, 2 of which were fatal. Correlation of antibody response to severity of disease showed that petechiae and GI bleeding were more frequent in cases with a secondary type of response. All cases of shock that could be classified serologically had a secondary antibody response. This study shows that dengue infection remains a common cause of hospitalization among children in Manila. Hospitalization is apparently more commonly associated with secondary infection. Reprints.
STRESS PREDICTORS IN A PAPUAN MALAY RANDOM FOREST

The current study investigates the phonological factors that determine the location of word stress in Papuan Malay, an under-researched language spoken in East-Indonesia. The prosody of this language is poorly understood, in particular the use of word stress. The approach taken here is novel in that random forest analysis was used to assess which factors are most predictive for the location of stress in a Papuan Malay word. The random forest analysis was carried out with a set of 17 potential word stress predictors on a corpus of 1040 phonetically transcribed words. A complementary analysis of word stress distributions was done in order to derive a set of phonological criteria. Results show that with two phonological criteria the stress location for almost all words in the corpus could be explained.
Service quality and price perception of service : In fl uence on word-of-mouth and revisit intention

Drawing on an overarching framework of marketing theory, this study develops and tests an integrated model of service quality that explicates the affective mechanisms through which service quality is associated with price perception of service (e.g., monetary price and behaviour price), word of mouth (WOM) and revisit intention. In a sample of 484 low-cost airline passengers, we found service quality to be related to increased price perception of service as a result of increasing passengers' WOM, which also creates success in this regard by increasing their revisit intention. Moreover, it is not surprising that there was a positive relationship between service quality and WOM mediated by perceived value of monetary price. The theoretical and empirical implications of these results are discussed. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Are Firms Loss Averse? Evidence from the Restaurant Industry

Product differentiation, customer volume, and cost minimization drive profit in the restaurant industry. But for many firms their day-to-day focus is on cost minimization. At the same time psychologists have argued that preferences are constructed via practice with decision problems. Do the day-to-day decisions of restaurants breed an overemphasis on costs? This paper uses data from surveys with restaurant owners to show that they weigh costs more than benefits and, in fact, that they are loss averse around a reference point of 0. It correlates their loss aversion with the demand elasticity they perceive, their propensity to take on risk, experience, among other factors. The correlation with experience is the only one that survives i.e. owners with more experience are more loss averse. JEL: D22, L21, L83
Aqueous nasal spray of chitosan oligosaccharide ameliorates perennial allergic rhinitis by affecting serum levels of interleukin-6 and interleukin-10

Background and objective: Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) is widely used to attenuate inflammation. However, its potential to suppress allergic rhinitis remains unknown. Methods: A 24-week study of patients between 3 and 9 years old with perennial allergic rhinitis (AR) was conducted to assess the effects of COS on AR. Ninety-eight subjects were evenly assigned into two groups: CG group (nasal administration of 100 mg COS daily) or PG group (nasal administration of placebo daily) for 24 weeks. The levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were measured by qRT-PCR, Western Blot and ELISA. Baseline demographic characteristics were similar between two groups (P>0.05). Results: After 24-week intervention, 93 subjects completed the study (47 patients from CG and 46 patients from PG). The patients had lower incidence of AR in CG group than in PG group after eight-week therapy (P<0.05). The serum level of IL-6 was lower in CG group than in PG group (P<0.05). In contrast, the blood level of IL-10 was higher in CG group than in PG group (P<0.05). The severity of AR was positively related with the blood levels of IL-6 and negatively related with the levels of IL-10. Furthermore, 100 mg COS was found to be well tolerated daily, with fewer side effects in AR subjects. Conclusions: Aqueous nasal spray of COS ameliorates perennial allergic rhinitis by affecting serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10. COS should be developed a potential drug for rhinitis therapy.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO MODERN MONGOLIAN VOWEL HARMOMY USING REAL-TIME MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

The principle which underlies modern Mongolian vowel harmony has been a matter of dispute. Many recent studies insist that the harmonic sets of vowels are phonetically distinguished in terms of the tongue root position (i.e., the size of the pharynx), while the distinction has been traditionally described by backness of the tongue. As no crucial articulatory evidence has been provided so far, we investigated this problem using real-time magnetic resonance imaging. In this paper we present robust physiological evidence that the two harmonic sets of vowels can be distinguished in terms of size of the pharynx and degree of tongue height in modern East Mongolian.
Wastewater Treatment by using Natural Coagulant Wastewater Treatment by using Natural Coagulant

Natural coagulant is a natural based coagulant that can be used in coagulation process of wastewater treatment for reducing turbidity. The objectives of this study were to assess the possibility of using natural coagulants as an alternative to the current commercial synthetic coagulant such as aluminium sulphate and to optimize the parameters related in the working condition of coagulation process. Based on the experimental results, it was concluded that this natural coagulant efficiency which can removed up to 99.1% of turbidity in synthetic wastewater is comparable to the synthetic coagulant. Keywords— natural coagulant, coagulation, wastewater treatment
Three's a Crowd? Effects of a Second Human on Vocal Accommodation with a Voice Assistant

This study examines how the presence of other speakers affects the interaction with a spoken dialogue system. We analyze participants’ speech regarding several phonetic features, viz., fundamental frequency, intensity, and articulation rate, in two conditions: with and without additional speech input from a human confederate as a third interlocutor. The comparison was made via tasks performed by participants using a commercial voice assistant under both conditions in alternation. We compare the distributions of the features across the two conditions to investigate whether speakers behave differently when a confederate is involved. Temporal analysis exposes continuous changes in the feature productions. In particular, we measured overall accommodation between the participants and the system throughout the interactions. Results show significant differences in a majority of cases for two of the three features, which are more pronounced in cases where the user first interacted with the device alone. We also analyze factors such as the task performed, participant gender, and task order, providing additional insight into the participants’ behavior.
Clear-Air Forward Microwave and Millimeterwave Radiative Transfer Models for Arctic Conditions

In March-April of 2004, a radiometric experiment was conducted at the U. S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Program’s field site near Barrow, Alaska. During this experiment, multi-wavelength measurements of clear-air brightness temperature were taken by three upward-looking radiometers: the Ground-based Scanning Radiometer (GSR), the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) and the Microwave Radiometer Profiler (MWPR). Brightness temperature measurements over a frequency range from 22.235 to 183.31 GHz are compared with calculations based on Vaisala RS90 radiosondes and five contemporary absorption models. These models include two by H. J. Liebe (1989, 1993), two by P. W. Rosenkranz (1998, 2003), and a recently-published model by J. C. Liljegren et al. (2005). Although no one model is superior in all cases, the Liljegren et al. model provides the best overall choice above 50 GHz.
Robot-assisted nephrectomy QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED:

 There are three types of nephrectomy: o A partial nephrectomy involves removal of part of the kidney and is used to treat small accessible tumours which have not metastasised. It is sometimes called nephron-sparing surgery. o A simple nephrectomy involves the removal of the whole kidney and its ureter. It is mainly used to treat benign renal disease. o A radical nephrectomy involves removal of the whole kidney, the ureter, the adrenal gland, local lymph nodes and surrounding tissue. It is used to treat renal cancer confined to the kidney but unsuitable for partial nephrectomy, and sometimes for more advanced renal cancer.