Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen Nutrition and Biomass Distribution in Conifers Aspects of Organic and Inorganic Nitrogen Acquisition

The main objectives of the work presented in this thesis were to increase our understanding of how different chemical forms of nitrogen (N) affect the growth and biomass distribution of conifer seedlings and hence their establishment and performance in field. Growth studies of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris (L.)), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) and the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana, ecotype Col-0) showed that plants can grow at similar (or higher) rates on organic N sources to those on the inorganic N sources ammonium (NH4 + ) and nitrate (NO3 ). Cultivation on arginine also improved the field performance of Norway spruce seedlings by increasing their current-year shoot growth, despite smaller initial shoot length. Moreover, plants supplied with organic N distributed a relatively larger proportion of their biomass to root structures than controls with similar total biomass and N contents grown on inorganic N sources. Detailed studies on Arabidopsis revealed that an increase in the root:shoot ratio coincided with high retention of organic N in the roots, implying that the site of assimilation may be of importance for the short-term distribution of biomass. Further, studies on Scots pine seedlings deprived of carbohydrates suggested that the uptake, reduction and assimilation of NO3 are highly dependent on recent photoassimilates and that use of organic N may have considerable energetic benefits for plants, especially under conditions that limit carbohydrate supplies. The results from the studies underlying this thesis highlight the potential role of organic N in the nutrition of conifer seedlings, the links between seedling nutrition, morphology and field performance, and effects of organic N on biomass distribution. They suggest that organic N may serve as an alternative or complement to inorganic N sources in seedling production, and may help attempts to improve seedling establishment in the field.
Similar in How to Frame, But Different in What to Choose

This study addresses questions about individuals’ self-framing for health insurance decisions, and whether their self-selected frames affect their choice preferences. Participants were recruited from the United States and China. Four possible frames were presented for a hypothetical health-insurance decision problem. Risk attitudes were also elicited using hypothetical lotteries. We found that the majority of the U.S. sample preferred a risk-averse, full-coverage insurance plan regardless of their frames; whereas the Chinese participants’ choices for insurance were more affected by their selfselected frames. Some relationship between risk-attitudes towards lotteries and insurance preferences were also identified.
IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON JOB SATISFACTION

ABSTRACT Purpose: 1. to evaluate the effect of five human resource management practices (HRMP) oriented towards results, employees, rigid systems, permanent recruitment of new markets, and open systems on job satis-faction of employees; 2. to analyze whether perceptions of organiza-tional justice act as mediators in such relationships.Originality/value: clarifying the mechanisms through which HRMP influence desirable organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach: a quantitative and transversal study, framed within the guidelines of the associative-explanatory strategy, was carried out. A theoretical model was proposed and tested through structural equations, with confirmatory modeling strategy. The empiri-cal verification was performed with a sample of 557 Argentine employ-ees, who completed the scales of HRMP (25 items); Generic Work Sat-isfaction (7 items), and Organizational Justice (20 items). Findings: the HRMP that generate the greatest satisfaction among work-ers are those oriented to employees, and to open systems. Perceptions of justice partially mediate the relationships between HRMP and worker satisfaction.
Dynamics of performance measurement and organizational culture

Purpose – This research paper aims to model the dynamic relationship between performance measurement, management styles and organisational culture, in order to develop a better understanding of the causal linkages between these three areas.Design/methodology/approach – The related literature on performance measurement, management control systems and management information systems, in the context of organisational culture, is examined and a framework for mapping the interplay of the three areas is developed. The research is based around five case studies where performance measurement systems were implemented in action research programmes, using identical implementation methods, by the same research team. The use of the performance measurement systems was then observed over a period of time in relation to the implementation lifecycle, changes to management style and organisational structure over time. The dynamic relationships were then mapped using the framework developed. Patterns were observed, which led.
Managerial Incentives and Corporate Leverage: Evidence from the United Kingdom

This paper investigates the effect of managerial incentives and corporate governance on capital structure using a large sample of UK firms during the period 1999–2004. The analysis revolves around the view that managerial incentives are important in determining a firm's leverage. However, we argue that the exact impact of these incentives on leverage is likely to be determined by firm-specific governance characteristics. To conduct our investigation, we construct a simple corporate governance measure using detailed ownership and governance information. We present evidence of a significant non-monotonic relationship between executive ownership and leverage. There is also strong evidence suggesting that corporate governance practices have a significant impact on leverage. More importantly, the results reveal that the nature of the relation between executive ownership and leverage depends on the firm's corporate governance structure.
Towards an analytical framework linking institutions and quality : Evidence from the Beninese pineapple sector

Improving non-traditional agricultural product quality is challenging for smallholder farmers in developing countries since they often lack the resources and an adequate enabling institutional environment. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper develops an analytical framework identifying factors influencing the improvement of quality and the underlying institutions influencing these factors in order to have a global view on institutions influencing product quality. The framework is then applied to the pineapple sector in Benin. Our interviews and survey of pineapple producers bring further important elements to our understanding of institutional constraints affecting quality enhancement. The frame work developed constitutes analytical tool to locate possible farmer institutional constraints.
Roles of NADPH oxidase 2 and 4 in endothelial cell survival and death under serum depletion

Oxidative stress and redox-signal pathways are known to be involved in endothelial apoptosis induced by serum depletion. However, the associated mechanism is not well understood and thus, was investigated in the present study focusing on NADPH oxidases (NOX). Serum removal from the culture medium led to an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and apoptotic death of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Serum depletion also increased the gene expression of the NOX2 and NOX4 subunits. The selective suppression of NOX4 expression by small interfering RNA (siRNA) attenuated ROS production and cell death due to serum-depletion whereas siRNA for NOX2 increased cell death. Expression of exogenous NOX2 or NOX4 subunit alone had no significant effects on ROS production or cell death. Coexpression of the subunits of the NOX4 complex (NOX4 and p22phox) or the NOX2 complex (NOX2, p22phox, p47phox and p67phox) increased ROS production and cell death under serum-depleted conditions. This study suggests that endothelial cell survival and death are differentially regulated by expression levels of the subunits of NOX2 and NOX4 complexes.
Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth: The Case of the Italian Regions

This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the relationship between economic policy and economic growth. With the use of a standard growth model, it assesses the influence of public investment and public transfers on the rate of economic growth. It does this by using data from the 20 Italian regions between 1970 and 1995. While the results show a positive influence of public investments on economic growth, this was not the case for public transfer payments in Italy.
Seasonal changes of citrus Flowering Locus T gene expression in kumquat.

Flowering is one of the most important events in plant life cycle. During the last two decades, molecular information of flowering was accumulated (Mouradov et al., 2002, Kobayashi and Weigel 2007; Farrona et al., 2008). Recent research reported that protein of the Flowering Locus T (FT) gene, its rice homologue, Hd3a, and tomato homologue, SFT, act as mobile flowering signals (Abe et al. 2005; Wigge et al. 2005; Lifschitz et al. 2006; Corbesier et al., 2007; Jaeger and Wigge, 2007; Lin et al. 2007; Mathieu et al., 2007; Tamaki et al., 2007; Notaguchi et al., 2008). Another flowering-related genes such as APETALA (AP) 1 and LEAFY (LFY) has been reported as flower meristem identity genes, which regulate flower organ identity genes such as AP1, AP2, AP3, PISTILLATA, AGAMOUS, SEPALLATA (SEP) 1, SEP2 and SEP3 (Jack 2004; Robles and Pelaz., 2005). On the other hand, it has been suggested that TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) is an important repressor of floral induction in Arabidopsis (Ohshima et al., 1997). Seasonal Changes of Citrus Flowering Locus T Gene Expression in Kumquat†1
Factors regulating plankton community respiration in Chesapeake Bay

Rates of plankton community respiration were measured in surface and bottom waters during spring, summer and autumn in the mesohaline region of Chesapeake Bay, USA. Seasonal patterns of plankton respiration generally followed the annual temperature cycle, with peak rates in July and August of 40 to 70 pg 0,l-I h-', which are among the highest values reported in the literature. In addition, strong diel variations in surface water community respiration, with mid-day maxima, were coherent with cycles of irradiance and photosynthesis, suggesting the dependence of community respiration on recently produced organic matter. The range of diel variations in respiration during summer was almost half the annual range in mean rates. Size-fractionated incubations demonstrated the importance of picoplankton (< 3 pm) respiration compared to total rates On average, picoplankton accounted for most of community respiration in surface waters (56%) and dominated total rates in the summer pycnocline (89%). This size fraction was less important in the bottom waters during spring (23 %). Temperature per se as a control on plankton respiration was investigated by comparing rates at in situ temperatures against those measured in temperature-manipulated experiments in spnng and summer. Strong relations between respiration and temperature were observed in all cases; least-squares regresslons (exponential and linear) for experimental data were not significantly different between seasons, nor between the experin~ents and the seasonal rates measured at in s ~ t u temperatures. These results suggest the absence of significant physiological adaptation and/or selection for temperature optima over the annual cycle. Respiration by bacterioplankton (< 1 p) exhibited no oxygen dependence down to concentrations of 0.16 mg O2 l? ' ; however, rates for whole water (unfiltered) declined with decreasing oxygen below 0.8 mg O2 l-'. Evidently, diffusion limited oxygen consumption by protoand metazoans as well as bacteria associated with detrital particles and organic flocs.
Evaluation of Antibiotic Sensitivity of Urinary Tract Pathogens among Children in Zahedan, South East of Iran

Background Urinary tract infection (UTI), are the most frequent and serious infection in childhood around the world. The present study aimed to evaluate antibiotic sensitivity of urinary tract pathogens among children in Zahedan, South East Iran. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed 396 patients aged 1-18 years with positive urine and suspected UTI. Gender and age of children, kind of isolated bacteria in urine culture, susceptibility and resistance of these bacteria to current antibiotics were studied. Bacterial growth for more than 105 CFU/ml was considered as positive. Data analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Results The most common age of urinary tract infection were < 1 year and 1-7 years for boys and girls, respectively, and the variation of sex distribution was significant in different age groups (P = 0.003). The most prevalent cause of UTI was Escherichia coli(E.coli) (77%), in total ages and both gender, afterward was Enterobacter (8.1%) and Klebsiella (7.1%). E.coli sepsis was highly sensitive to nitrofurantoin (74.7%), ciprofloxacin (72.5%), and amikacin (64.6%), both highly resistant to trimethoprim and sulfametoxazole (74.8%), ampicillin (66.9%), and nalidixic acid(51.1%); and its resistance to ceftriaxone was increasing. Conclusion In this study resulted that E. coli was the first responsible pathogen in proven culture of UTI in children, which was increased in resistance to popular antibiotics like Ampicillin, Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprimand Nalidixic acid. In several countries, emphasize the need for local population specific surveillance for guiding empirical therapy for UTI in children.
DEHALOGENATION OF POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCB) BY NUCLEOFILE REACTANTS AT THE PRESENCE OF IONIC LIQUIDS AND UNDER APPLICATION OF MICROWAVES

Laboratory-scale experiments were performed in order to examine the effect of microwave field on the effectiveness of KPEG method (nucleophilic substitution of the chlorine atoms in a molecule of PCBs by alkaline polyethylene glycol PEG) in the removal of PCBs from highly contaminated mineral oils with the content of indicator congeners (No 28,52,101,53,138 and 180) above 5500 mg kg -1 . Results show that the microwave field significantly increases the reaction rate and the method’s effectiveness in the removal of chlorine from the molecules of PCBs. Addition of a small amount of an ionic liquid, in this case 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate–[bmim][PF6], significantly positively affects the results obtained under the influence of microwave field. The KPEG method enhanced by the application of microwaves could be used in practice for decontamination and recycling of PCB-containing dielectric fluids in electric capacitors and transformers. High efficiencies of the reaction were achieved even when microwaves were applied with no PEG added, only by the presence of alkaline hydroxide or by the presence of a small amount, up to ca. 2%, of an ionic liquid [bmim][PF6]. The microwave enhanced KPEG method might has some advantages for practical uses in decontamination applications.
VASCULAR EPIPHYTE DIVERSITY – SPECIES RICHNESS AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

The minimum requirement for the documentation of the structure of vascular epiphyte communities comprises information on the number of co-occurring species and their abundance and distribution. Using subsampling from a comprehensive census of the epiphytes on more than 1000 trees with a diameter at breast height > 1cm in 0.4 ha of lowland rainforest in Panama as a reference, this study investigates the minimum sampling effort necessary to obtain reliable information on essential community attributes (species numbers, α-diversity, and evenness). Large trees host the majority of all vascular epiphytes and therefore only the largest trees were sampled. Comparing the resulting community attributes deduced from a sample of epiphytes on 1-12 of the largest trees with those of the entire 0.4-ha study plot indicates that a sample size of about 6-8 trees is already sufficient to obtain a representative description of this epiphyte community. Accepted 6 March 2011.
Cultural orientations and preferences for HRM policies and practices: the case of Oman

This study empirically examines the influence of cultural orientations on employee preferences of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in Oman. Data were collected from 712 employees working in six large Omani organizations. The findings indicate that there is a number of differences among Omani employees regarding value orientations due especially to age, education and work experience. The findings show a strong orientation towards mastery, harmony, thinking and doing, and a weak orientation towards hierarchy, collectivism, subjugation and human nature-as-evil. The results demonstrate a clear link between value orientations and preferences for particular HRM policies and practices. Group-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those who scored high on collectivism and being orientations, and those who scored low on thinking and doing orientations. Hierarchy-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those scoring high on hierarchy, subjugation and human nature-as-bad orientations, and those scoring low on thinking and mastery orientations. Finally, preference for loose and informal HRM practices was positively associated with being, and negatively associated with thinking, doing and harmony orientations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in detail.
FEELING THE PULL: A STUDY OF NATURAL GALACTIC ACCELEROMETERS. I. PHOTOMETRY OF THE DELICATE STELLAR STREAM OF THE PALOMAR 5 GLOBULAR CLUSTER

We present an analysis of wide-field photometric surveys of the Palomar 5 globular cluster and its stellar stream, based on g ? > - and r ? > -band measures together with narrow-band DDO 51 photometry. In this first study, we use the deep (g, r) data to measure the incidence of gaps and peaks along the stream. Examining the star-counts profile of the stream plus contaminating populations, we find no evidence for significant underdensities, and find only a single significant overdensity. This is at odds with earlier studies based on matched-filter maps derived from shallower SDSS data if the contaminating population possesses plausible spatial properties. The lack of substantial substructure along the stream may be used in future dynamical simulations to examine the incidence of dark matter sub-halos in the Galactic halo. We also present a measurement of the relative distances along the stream, which we use to create the deepest wide-field map of this system to date.
Access to Resources and Predictability in Armed Rebellion: The FAPC's Short-lived “Monaco” in Eastern Congo

This article discusses the impact of economic resources on the behaviour of an armed group. The availability of resources, and the presence of “lootable” resources in particular, is presumed to have a negative impact on the way an armed group behaves toward the civilian population. The case of the Armed Forces of the Congolese People (Forces Armées du Peuple Congolais, FAPC) in eastern Congo strongly suggests that it is necessary to look beyond this monocausal argument so as to witness the range of other factors at work. In this vein, first, the article demonstrates how the political economy literature underestimates the ease of accessibility of lootable resources. The paper then shows how the behaviour of this armed group was tied to a particular economic interest: In order to access these lootable goods, the FAPC was dependent on pre-established trading networks, so it had to increase the predictability of economic interactions through the construction of a minimum of social and economic order. Second, the article reveals how the political economy literature can underestimate the specific conflict dynamics. Military security in particular has a strong impact in this context.
The Equivalent Circuit Extraction and Application for Arbitrary Shape Graphene Sheet

─ In this work, for the first time the electromagnetic features of graphene are characterized by a circuit model derived instead of fitted from the electric field integral equation (EFIE). The atomically thick graphene is equivalently replaced by an impedance surface. When it is magnetized, the impedance surface is anisotropic with a tensor conductivity. Based on EFIE, the graphene’s circuit model can be derived by the partial element equivalency circuit (PEEC) concept. The anisotropic resistivity is modeled using a serial resistor with current control voltage sources (CCVSs). From the derived circuit model, electromagnetic properties of graphene can be conveniently analyzed. This work also provides a new characterization method for dispersive and anisotropic materials. Index Terms ─ Graphene, magnetized, non-magnetized, PEEC.
Direct measurement of channel erosion by debris flows, Illgraben, Switzerland

[1] The timing and magnitude of channel bed erosion by three debris flows was measured in 2008 at the Illgraben catchment, Switzerland, using a scour sensor which consisted of a vertical array of erodible sensor elements. During the largest debris flow, sediment was entrained progressively and stepwise at the flow head within 20 s after front arrival, and onset of erosion started before maximum values for flow height and normal and shear stress, measured nearby, were reached. Erosion in one of the two smaller debris flows also occurred at the head of the flow, but the magnitude of erosion was at the detection limit for the sensor. For the other small debris flow, we were not able to determine the timing of erosion due to the presence of a sediment layer covering the sensors. Measurements of pressure fluctuations along the channel sidewall, which are produced by interparticle collisions within the flow, indicate that the entrainment of sediment is coincident with the largest mean and fluctuating pressures, suggesting that interparticle collisions may drive the erosion process at the front of debris flows. After erosion at the head of the debris flows, sediment was deposited on top of the erosion sensor columns, indicating that the bed was reworked to a larger depth than directly visible at the surface after the event. Observations from elsewhere along the channel support our measurements of the magnitude of net debris flow erosion and indicate that significant erosion can be expected on debris fans when the flow is confined to a channel. Debris flow entrainment and subsequent bulking of the flow influence the flow dynamics and therefore should be considered in debris flow models and hazard assessment.