Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soil Applied Maleic Hydrazide Does Not Suppress Tobacco Axillary Bud Growth

With an increasing focus on maleic hydrazide (MH) residues and the need to sufficiently control axillary bud (sucker) growth, fluecured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) producers would benefit from an alternative to the conventional foliar application method of the plant growth regulator. Research was conducted in four North Carolina environments from 2014 to 2015 to quantify the efficacy of soil applications of MH. Two rates of MH were selected (2.25 and 4.50 lb a.i./acre) and were applied in combination with one of three sucker control programs: foliar MH preceded by foliar flumetralin (F treatment), soil MH preceded by foliar flumetralin (SF treatment), or soil MH preceded by foliar fatty alcohol (SFA treatment). Ranging from 95 to 100%, sucker suppression was greatest in F treatments. In two Coastal Plain environments, the control in SF treatments was similar to that of F treatments; however, in the two Piedmont environments, the control was reduced by 30 to 50%. Sucker suppression was lowest in SFA treatments, particularly in the Piedmont environments, thus indicating that flumetralin was the likely source of suppression in SF treatments. No differences were observed between the two MH application rates evaluated. Given the observations of this study, it is unlikely that a soil application of MH will serve as an effective sucker control alternative to the standard foliar application used at present by commercial growers. T (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is a flowering plant with a central, terminal meristem that suppresses the growth of axillary buds (suckers) by hormonal action (Peedin, 1999). At an advanced stage of growth, most commonly 8 to 10 wk after transplanting, the terminal meristem is removed from the plant to increase the yield and quality of cured leaves, as well as to reduce lodging and insect presence (Papenfus, 1987; Fisher et al., 2017). The removal of the terminal meristem is a practice termed as “topping. ” Topping accelerates the growth and development of suckers (Decker and Seltmann, 1971), which must in turn be manually or chemically removed for maximized leaf yield and quality (Peedin, 1999). Overwhelmingly, chemical sucker control is preferred by US producers due to the high cost and low availability of manual labor (Peedin, 1999). Of the three classes of suckercide chemistry, maleic hydrazide (MH) is the only one that exhibits true systemic activity (Peedin, 1999; Collins and Hawks, 2013). Once absorbed by the tobacco plant, MH is freely translocated in both the xylem and phloem to meristems where cell division is then inhibited (Peedin, 1999; Collins and Hawks, 2013). To reduce injury potential to harvestable leaves, MH is not applied to actively growing plants until the upper two Published in Crop Forage Turfgrass Manage. Volume 3. doi:10.2134/cftm2017.07. 0043 © 2017 American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison, WI 53711 All rights reserved. Published online November 22, 2017
Cognitive Processing of Various Orthographies.

MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. Bilingual Education; *Cognitive Processes; Ideography; Language Research; *Orthographic Symbols; Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence; *Psycholinguistics; *Reading Procest3es; Second Language Learning; Spelling; Word Recognition In the hope of filling in a missing link for experimental psychologists research on reading, this paper provides a general review of research on the issue of orthography and its relation to reading. The traditional classification of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic modes are examined to see how much orthographic variations affect the processing strategy of both beginning and fluentreaders. The examination leads to the hypothesis that different cognitive strategies are reguieed to achieve reading efficiency in various writing systems. Issues connected with this hypothesis have been examined by coynitive psychologists, anthropologists, and neurolinguists. Those issues having to do particularly with bilingual literacy are reviewed: (1) reading disability incidence in syllabic and logographic systems compared with alphabetic systems, (2) neuropsychological research, (3) differential processing mechanisms and behavior consequences, (4) the process in reading of recoding the visual input into a speech-like code, and (5) bilingual processing. The research reviewed shows that reading skills acquired in one orthography may not be the same as those acquired in another orthography if these two systems have different script-speech mapping rules. These findings raise questions regarding bilingual reading instruction. (AMH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF VARIOUS ORTHOGRAPHIES
A semiotic analysis of the extendibility of luxury brands

Purpose – Considering a long-term perspective and the discourse directly emitted by brands, the aim is to study how can brand extension potential be predicted through the analysis of brand contracts? Design/methodology/approach – Considering a long-term perspective and the discourse directly emitted by brands, the aim is to study how can brand extension potential be predicted through the analysis of brand contracts? Findings – Three groups of brands are identified: brands anchored in both determination and mastery contracts defined as open (high extendibility); brands anchored in a determination contract defined as open, as well as in a mastery contract defined as closed (low extendibility); brands anchored in a mastery contract defined as open as well as in a determination contract defined as not closed (high extendibility, but risks of diluting the brand value). Research limitations/implications – Compared with extensions actually developed by these brands, the results are discussed and strategies are proposed to maximize the long-term brand development when the brand extension potential is low. Only studied on products, it would be interesting to complete this analysis in services. Originality/value – The main contribution is the focus on brand narratives and contracts to predict the brand extensibility of luxury brands. Structural semiotics provides another original insight.
IgE levels are increased in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection

Studies have not been able to prove an association between allergy and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. The goal of this study is to evaluate the association of total immunoglobulin E (IgE) level, as a criterion for the presence of allergy, and H. pylori infection. Methods and Materials: Seventy two patients with dyspepsia referring to endoscopy were included in this study. Anti-H. pylori IgG, anti-H. pylori-CagA IgG, and total plasma IgE levels were measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and then statistically analyzed. Results: Forty out of 72 patients had H. pylori infection, out of which 32 patients were CagA positive. Mean IgE level had a significant increase in the patients with H. pylori infection (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference between IgE levels of the CagA-positive and -negative groups (p=0.175). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated a clear association between allergy and H. pylori infection
Causal inference from time series : What can be learned from granger causality?

In time series analysis, inference about cause-effect relation- ships among multiple time series is commonly based on the concept of Granger causality, which exploits temporal structure to achieve causal or- dering of dependent variables. One major and well known problem in the application of Granger causality for the identification of causal relation- ships is the possible presence of latent variables that affect the measured components and thus lead to so-called spurious causalities. In this pa- per, we present a new graphical approach for describing and analysing Granger-causal relationships in multivariate time series that are possibly affected by latent variables. We show how such representations can be used for inductive causal learning from time series and discuss the underlying assumptions and their implications for causal learning.
Estimation of genetic parameters and (co)variance components for weaning traits of Charolais population in Hungary

performance of 10 808 purebred offsprings (4991 male and 5817 female) of 80 sires in 13 farms were analised using animal model. Heritability, breeding value, (co)variance components for weaning weight (WW), preweaning daily gain (PDG), 205-day weight (CWW) were calculated. Farm, parity, year of birth, season of birth, sex were treated as fixed, and the maternal permanent environment was treated as random effects. In case of WW and PDG, the age of the calves at weaning was fitted as a covariant. Data were analyzed with MTDFREML (Boldman et al. 1993) program. The overall mean value and standard deviation of WW, PDG and CWW were 221±47 kg, 1,111±0.21 kg/day and 226±42 kg, respectively. The age of the calves at weaning was 202 days. The direct heritability (h 2 d) of WW and PDG were 0.57±0.08, 0.49±0.07 and CWW was 0.44±0.06, respectively. The maternal heritability (h 2 m) of these traits were 0.32±0.09, 0.33±0.10 and 0.33±0.09, respectively. The direct-maternal correlations (rdm) were strong and negative. The medium heritability estimates for direct effects suggest that progeny tests should be used in this population to increase genetic improvement.
A Strategic Framework to Use Payback Period in Evaluating the Capital Budgeting in Energy and Oil and Gas Sectors in Oman

This study aims to examine the associations between strategic variables and use the payback period (PBP) in evaluating the capital budgeting decisions from the perspective of managers and investors in Oman. These variables are risk, liquidity, profitability, market obstacles, management compensation and size of the company. The two samples are investors and managers where 57 out of 65 managers and 57 out of 75 investors were selected to answer the questionnaire of the study. The questionnaire consisted of seven sections with 17 questions. The regression test showed that the risk and management compensation variables have an impact on the use of PBP from the perspective of managers. Also, the risk and profitability variables have an impact on the use of PBP from the perspective of investors. On the second level of analysis, the finding of the study indicates that there are no statistically differences between managers and investors to use the PBP traced to the any of the six variables.
Water vapour transmission rate of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA): Encapsulant with different curing levels

Water vapour transmission rate of EVA sheets with different curing levels is investigated under a various temperature and relative humidity levels. The gravimetric cup method is used to measure the transmission rate. EVA samples’ thermal and structural properties are measured and results confirm that the curing level does not affect material VAc contents or crystallinity, though their degrees of crosslinking are significantly different. For the EVA studied in this work, lower degrees of crosslinking (gel content 80%. Results also show the water transmission is able to be accelerated by temperature with an activation energy of about 7.5kJ/mol.
Gasoline Effects on Spray Characteristics , Mixing and Auto-ignition Processes in a CI Engine under PPC Conditions

Recent research has shown that one of the paths to reduce pollutant emissions in diesel engines is to bring the operating conditions towards those of a gasoline engine, through homogeneous combustion and high octane fuels. Reduced soot, NOx, and fuel consumption are some of the benefits of using gasoline fuel combined with EGR in compression ignition engines in partially premixed combustion modes. Thus, a comparative study using diesel fuel and gasoline has been conducted focusing on the spray characteristics, mixing and autoignition process in these new combustion modes using a conventional diesel injection system. In this work, an experimental study has been carried out comparing the effects of penetration and cone angle under non-evaporating conditions for both fuels in a constant volume test rig. Besides, liquid length measurements and combustion process under partially premixed combustion (PPC) conditions in a single cylinder transparent engine have been done. The analysis of the results for both fuels shows no major differences on penetration and spray cone angle between them. Under vaporizing conditions, diesel spray exhibited a significantly longer liquid length than gasoline, due to the higher volatility of gasoline. In quantitative terms, liquid length was found to be 1.8 to 2.4 times longer for the diesel fuel. 1D spray model calculations confirmed the experimental results. The combustion process evaluation under PPC conditions shows differences in ignition delay and RoHR even under same thermodynamic conditions. Besides, Combustion images indicate differences in the autoignition and combustion process for diesel and gasoline fuels. Gasoline shows lower soot radiation and better combustion phasing. Differences in the mixing process evaluated with the 1D model show the mixing process is governed mainly by the fuel reactivity, the ignition delay and, to a lower extent, by the spray characteristics. The overall equivalence ratio obtained through the 1D model at the start of combustion is leaner for the gasoline case. This results agrees with a longer ignition delay for this fuel, due to lower fuel reactivity, and with the lower light intensity detected in the combustion images, where the leaner the equivalence ratio the lower the intensity.
Potential of Some Fungal and Bacterial Species in Bioremediation of Heavy Metals

Microorganisms including fungi and bacteria have been reported to extract heavy metals from wastewater through bioaccumulation and biosorption. An attempt was, therefore, made to isolate bacteria and fungi from sites contaminated with heavy metals for higher tolerance and removal from wastewater. Bacterial and fungal isolates were obtained from the samples collected from Karnal, Ambala and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana using enrichment culture technique. Bacterial and fungal isolates with tolerant up to 100 ppm concentration of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr) were tested for their removal from liquid media containing 50 ppm concentration of Pb, Cd and Cr each. Five fungi (Penicillium chrysogenum, Aspegillus nidulans, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus arrhizus, Trichoderma viride) were also included in this study. Fungi Aspergillus nidulans, Rhizopus arrhizus and Trichoderma viride showed maximum uptake capacity of 25.67 mg/g for Pb, 13.15 mg/g for Cd and 2.55 mg/g of Cr, respectively. The maximum uptake capacity of tolerant bacterial isolates - BPb12 and BPb16, BCd5 and BCr14 were observed to be ~ 45 mg/g for Pb, 2.12 mg/g for Cd and 3.29 mg/g for Cr, respectively. This indicated the potential of these identified fungi and bacteria as biosorbent for removal of high concentration metals from wastewater and industrial effluents.
Three Species Food Web in a Chemostat

In this paper, we consider a model describing predator prey interaction in a chemostat that incorporates general response functions and identical removal rates. The existence of steady states, their local stability and persistence of the model are presented. We construct a Lyapunov function in the study of the global stability of a predator free steady state. We show that a slight fluctuation in the maximal growth rates of prey and/or predator devastate the form of conserva- tion principle. Numerical simulations are also presented to analyze the model equations and de- termine the effect of the operating parameters of the chemostat on its dynamics.
Cost-effectiveness of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia

Objectives: To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) for schizophrenia in Brazil. Methods: A Markov model was built for the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of risperidone, quetiapine, ziprasidone and olanzapine in the Brazilian public health system. The time horizon of the analysis was 18 months. The effectiveness was measured in terms of discontinuation of treatment for any cause and the costs were measured in 2014 BRL and USD. Results: Olanzapine was found to be dominant over the other strategies. The analysis of the optimal choice indicated that olanzapine was recommended, considering a null Willingness-to-Pay (WTP), in 51.8% of the trials. The increase in values of WTP makes the chance of olanzapine to be optimal increase, achieving 100% at approximately 252.00 BRL (114.03 USD) per month of effective treatment. The Probabilistic Sensitivity Analysis (PSA), has shown olanzapine to be optimal in 49.6% of the trials, considering a null WTP. The chance of optimality of olanzapine achieved 100% at a WTP of 364,00 BRL (164.71 USD) per month of effective treatment. The results have shown the importance of prescription costs of olanzapine and hospitalization costs for the Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER). Conclusion: Olanzapine was found to be dominant over risperidone, quetiapine and ziprasidone, in Brazil. The sensitivity analysis has shown that the cost-effectiveness relationship between olanzapine and risperidone can be modified by the price of purchase of olanzapine. Due to the low values of ICER showed in the sensitivity analysis and PSA, olanzapine can be considered the most cost-effective strategy evaluated. RESUMO Objetivos: Este estudo realizou uma análise de custo-efetividade entre antipsicóticos de segunda geração (SGA) para a esquizofrenia no Brasil. Métodos: Foi construído um modelo de Markov baseado na prática clínica, dados de literatura e bases de dados governamentais, comparando custos e efetividade da risperidona, quetiapina, ziprasidona e olanzapina no sistema público de saúde do Brasil. O horizonte temporal da análise foi 18 meses. O desfecho utilizado para avaliação da efetividade foi a descontinuação do tratamento por qualquer causa e os custos foram medidos em BRL e USD (2014). Resultados: A olanzapina foi considerada dominante sobre as outras estratégias avaliadas. A análise indicou que a olanzapina foi considerada ótima, com disposição a pagar (WTP) nula, em 51,8% dos ensaios. O aumento progressivo dos valores de WTP eleva a chance de a olanzapina ser considerada ótima, alcançando 100% em cerca de 252.00 BRL (114,03 USD) por mês de
Effects of sheep grazing and precipitation patterns on sandy grassland vegetation in Inner Mongolia, China

To understand the effects of grazing by domestic sheep and of precipitation on sandy grassland vegetation in northern China, a field grazing and enclosures experiment was conducted from 1992 to 2006 in Horqin Sand Land, Inner Mongolia. Results indicated that (1) overgrazing resulted in severe damage to grassland vegetation, but moderate grazing had no significant effects on species richness and diversity, though it can result in a slight decrease in plant cover and height, while light grazing or no grazing (enclosures by fence) benefited the restoration of degraded vegetation; (2) although average species richness, plant diversity, vegetation cover and canopy height were higher in rainy years or warm, moist periods than in drought years or sustained drought periods, the differences in height and species richness were not significant; (3) continuous overgrazing can result in unpalatable herbage becoming dominant in the grassland community; (4) a sustained wet climate was favorable to perennial herbage and annual mesophytes, while annual xerophytes became dominant under sustained drought; (5) the proper grazing intensity for the Horqin sandy grassland is 3-4 sheep per hectare in rainy years, which should be reduced to 2- 3 sheep per hectare in drought years.
Probabilistic Proximity-aware Resource Location in Peer-to-Peer Networks Using Resource Replication

Nowadays, content distribution has received remarkable attention in distributed computing researches and its applications typically allow personal computers, called peers, to cooperate with each other in order to accomplish distributed operations such as query search and acquiring digital contents. In a very large network, it is impossible to perform a query request by visiting all peers. There are some works that try to find the location of resources probabilistically (i.e. non-deterministically). They all have used inefficient protocols for finding the probable location of peers who manage the resources. This paper presents a more efficient protocol that is proximity-aware in the sense that it is able to cache and replicate the popular queries proportional to distance latency. The protocol dictates that the farther the resources are located from the origin of a query, the more should be the probability of their replication in the caches of intermediate peers. We have validated the proposed distributed caching scheme by running it on a simulated peer-to-peer network using the well-known Gnutella system parameters. The simulation results show that the proximity-aware distributed caching can improve the efficiency of peer-to-peer resource location services in terms of the probability of finding objects, overall miss rate of the system, fraction of involved peers in the search process, and the amount of system load.
The Pattern of Bilateral Trade using a Dynamic Gravity Equation

Using a dynamic gravity equation, we show that the national product differentiation model explains food and agricultural trade, while the product differentiation model explains large-scale manufacturing trade for both short- and long-run. We provide reasons of discrepancy from Head and Ries (2001) in the short-run, and illustrate the positive impacts of world income growth on bilateral trades.
Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis using Cell free fetal DNA in maternal blood: Current efforts and future perspectives

Cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) is fetal DNA circulating freely in the maternal blood stream. cffDNA can first be observed as early as seven weeks gestation, and the amount of cffDNA increases as the pregnancy progresses. cffDNA originates from the trophoblast making up the placenta. Analysis of cffDNA provides a method of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. Maternal blood sample is collected after 10 weeks of pregnancy but can be detected as early as the fifth week. The test measures the relative amount of free fetal DNA in the mother’s blood. A variety of methods have been used for mutation detection in fetal DNA. Millions of small fragments of cffDNA from maternal plasma are amplified and sequenced. After the fragments are mapped to the human genome and analyzed for frequency/density along each chromosome, fetal Down syndrome and a variety of other chromosomal abnormalities can be detected with a high degree of accuracy for families at high risk for inherited genetic disorders. In industrialized countries, cffDNA tests are now routinely being offered to RhD-negative patients at increased risk of isoimmunization. cffDNA concentration can also be used as a screening tool for preeclampsia. The high degree of accuracy of cffDNA as a method of noninvasive prenatal testing during pregnancy carries a number of socio-ethical implications when it is used for early detection fetal sex for suspected X-linked diseases. It is important for women to receive detailed pretest counseling that explains the benefits and limitations of the test.