Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing nitrogen use efficiency with lower nitrogen application frequencies using zeolite in rice paddy fields

*Corresponding author e-mail: daocaichi@vip.sina. com vichine0701@gmail.com **This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2018YFD0300300 (2018-2020); the National Science Foundation of China under Grant 51679142 & 51709173 (2016-2019, 2017-2019). © 2019 Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences A b s t r a c t. Zeolite can effectively regulate the nutrient status in the root zone of crops, thereby increasing nitrogen utilization. However, there has been relatively little research conducted concerning a possible reduction in the frequency of nitrogen application due to the sustained-release properties of zeolite. In this study, 157.5 kg ha nitrogen in the form of urea fertilizer was applied at the same rate, either as a one-time application or as a 3-way split application with and without 10 t ha zeolite. The effects on rice yield, nitrogen uptake, root morphology and soil properties were evaluated in 2014 and 2015. Results showed that zeolite could enhance the biomass, leaf area index and nitrogen uptake. A higher rice grain yield and nitrogen uptake following soil treatment with zeolite could be attributed to a higher soil cation exchange capacity as well as nitrogen and potassium availability in the soil especially during the vegetative period of the rice plant. The addition of nitrogen to the soil as a one-time application or 3-way split application with 10 t ha zeolite significantly increased rice grain yield by 8.5 or 10.7% compared with nitrogen as a one-time application without zeolite. Zeolite addition greatly improved the development of root morphology and activity compared with treatments without zeolite, which contributed to additional plant growth. The addition of nitrogen to the soil with 10 t ha zeolite as a one-time application that can significantly increase nutrient retention is recommended to improve rice grain yield and decrease nitrogen application frequencies in order to lower both labour forces and energy requirements. K e y w o r d s : available nitrogen, nitrogen uptake, root system, labour force
Control of Threadleaf Snakeweed (Gutierrezia microcephala) and Common Goldenweed (Isocoma coronopifolia) with Herbicides

Percentage canopy reduction of threadleaf snakeweed [Gutierrezia microcephala (D.C.) Gray] and common goldenweed [Isocoma coronopifolia (Gray) Greene] was substantially greater when sprays were applied during the spring of a year characterized by above-average rainfall than in a drought year. Applied at 2 kg/ha or less, 2,4-D [(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid] only partially controlled threadleaf snakeweed in either year. Picloram (4-amino-3,5,6-trichloropicolinic acid) or triclopyr {[(3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinyl)oxy] acetic acid} gave satisfactory control of threadleaf snakeweed at 0.5 or 1 kg/ha, depending upon year of application, whereas these treatments were effective against common goldenweed only in the “wet” year. Herbicide 3,6-dichloropicolinic acid tended to be less effective against either species than picloram or triclopyr. Approximately 1 and 2 yr after herbicides were applied, standing forage crop increased 37 and 25 kg/ha, respectively, with each percentage point reduction of threadleaf snakeweed canopy cover.
The Capital Buffer Calibration for Other Systemically Important Institutions - Is the Country Heterogeneity in the EU caused by Regulatory Capture?

In this article, we discuss how the too-big-to-fail dilemma for large financial institution is addressed in the regulatory framework and how (differently) regulators in the EU apply it. The European Banking Authority (EBA) has devised a buffer guideline for identifying other systemically important institutions (OSIIs) to address this issue. This guideline defines how to identify OSIIs by a scoring process, but does not specify how to map these scores into additional capital buffers. In this study, we empirically show that the OSII buffer assignment is very heterogeneous in Europe. Based on all EU banks that were classified as OSIIs between 2015 and 2018, we show that the OSII score has less impact on the OSII buffer than the headquarter country dummy of the bank after controlling for other important bank specific variables. We also quantify the extent of country heterogeneity in the buffer assignment, which would increase additional capital requirements in the euro area by 90 bn EUR. Finally, we discuss if our results could be partially explained by regulatory capture.
Differential Tolerance of Morningglory Species (Ipomoea Sp.) to DPX-PE350

Experiments were conducted in the greenhouse and field to investigate differential tolerance among tall, pitted, red, entireleaf, and ivyleaf morningglory species to DPX-PE350. Tall morningglory in the greenhouse was more tolerant of DPX-PE350 at 7 and 14 g ai ha-1 applied POST than were other species of morningglory. Increased tolerance of tall morningglory also was observed under field conditions with DPX-PE350 applied PRE and POST. Adjuvants did not increase biomass reduction of tall morningglory by DPX-PE350 applied POST.
Polymorphism of buckwheat seed storage proteins in cultivar groups, differing by their morphotype

Aim. To study polymorphism of buckwheat seed proteins in cultivar groups of different morphotypes by the color of corolla. Methods. Electrophoresis by Laemmli method in 17.5 % separating PAAG gel. Results. Electrophoresis spectrum variants with the incidence from 1 to 76 %, common for buckwheat cultivar groups, which are different in their morphotype, were revealed. The obtained results demonstrate a particular level of heterogeneity by the revealed variants in each investigated group of buckwheat genotypes. Variants 2h and 4f, occurring with the incidence of 10 % and 8 % respectively, and specifi c for green-fl owered group of buckwheat cultivars, were also revealed. Conclusions. Different incidence of electrophoresis spectrum components in buckwheat morphotypes, different in fl ower coloring, demonstrates probable different selective value of genes, which control the synthesis of these components or their relation to the genes, closely bound to them. Taking this fact into consideration, buckwheat seed proteins may be molecular and genetic markers for identifi cation of some buckwheat morphotypes, which may be used in breeding programs.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENDER INEQUALITY IN FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT

Employment in a part-time position has been increasing during the past years. People preferred part-time positions over full-time positions. However, this differs depending on a gender and a country analysed. Therefore, the paper describes development of a full-time employment and a part-time employment in the European Union countries. Gender inequality in a full-time and a part-time employment was analysed as well. By comparing employment in a full-time and a part-time positions, we have discovered that women are employed more in part-time positions than men. However, gender inequality in both, a full-time employment and a part-time employment has been decreasing in analysed countries.
EXISTENCE, UNIQUENESS AND SMOOTHNESS OF A SOLUTION FOR 3D NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS WITH ANY SMOOTH INITIAL VELOCITY

Solutions of the Navier-Stokes and Euler equations with initial conditions for 2D and 3D cases were obtained in the form of converging series, by an analytical iterative method using Fourier and Laplace transforms in [28, 29]. There the solutions are infinitely differentiable functions, and for several combinations of parameters numerical results are presented. This article provides a detailed proof of the existence, uniqueness and smoothness of the solution of the Cauchy problem for the 3D Navier-Stokes equations with any smooth initial velocity. When the viscosity tends to zero, this proof applies also to the Euler equations.
Effect of Chlorimuron and Quizalofop on Fatty Acid Biosynthesis

Chlorimuron antagonized the activity of quizalofop on broadleaf signalgrass when applied in greenhouse studies as a postemergence tank mix. In vitro leaf disc assays utilizing 14C-acetate or 14C-pyruvate as substrates were conducted to ascertain the effect of clorimuron and quizalofop on fatty acid biosynthesis and to determine if antagonism between the two herbicides occurs at the biochemical sites of action. Incorporation of 14C-acetate in control treatments was linear with time to 120 min. Acetate incorporation in the presence of quizalofop (1.1 μM) was also linear but was inhibited 30 min after initialization of the reaction. The concentration of quizalofop that inhibited 14C-acetate incorporation 50% (I50) was 0.54 μM. Chlorimuron, up to 155 μM, had no effect on 14C-acetate incorporation. A mixture of quizalofop (1.1 μM) and chlorimuron (4.8 μM) inhibited 14C-acetate incorporation similar to that of quizalofop alone at 1.1 μM. Quizalofop I50 for incorporation of 14C-pyruvate was 1.1 μM, and clorimuron at 4.8 μM decreased incorporation 15%. Excess unlabeled pyruvate (5 μM) had no effect on either 14C-acetate or 14C-pyruvate incorporation in the presence of both herbicides. It is believed that antagonism of quizalofop by clorimuron is not due to an excess pool of pyruvate resulting from inhibition of acetolactate synthase by chlorimuron.
Investigation of Structural Conformity in a Three-Pad Adaptive Air Foil Bearing With Regard to Active Control of Radial Clearance

Various solutions for the design of oil-free bearings are discussed in the literature. Adding hydrodynamic preload to the foil bearings by profiling the inner bore of the bearing is one of the most frequently investigated methods for improving the bearing stability and damping character of the entire system. However, this approach leads to a reduced load capacity and thus to an increased lift-off speed of the foil bearings. Observations of this kind lead to the presentation of various solutions for active bearing contour adjustment, which benefits from different profiles of the lubricant film. Most of these concepts use piezoelectric stack actuators to generate the required alternating force, although the influence of the stiffness of adaptive elements on bearing performance is not fully discussed in the literature. The focus of this study is on the investigation of structural conformity, i.e., the harmonization of stiffness with respect to the requirements for shape control and load capacity of an adaptive air foil bearing (AAFB). The result may be a basis for the consideration of additional degrees of freedom in any concept with shape control as the main design framework in interaction between the lubricant and compliant structure in an air foil bearing from both static and dynamic points of view.
Predicting the Risk of Academic Dropout With Temporal Multi-Objective Optimization

In the European academic systems, the public funding to single universities depends on many factors, which are periodically evaluated. One of such factors is the rate of success, that is, the rate of students that do complete their course of study. At many levels, therefore, there is an increasing interest in being able to predict the risk that a student will abandon the studies, so that (specific, personal) corrective actions may be designed. In this paper, we propose an innovative temporal optimization model that is able to identify the earliest moment in a student's career in which a reliable prediction can be made concerning his/her risk of dropping out from the course of studies. Unlike most available models, our solution can be based on the academic behavior alone, and our evidence suggests that by ignoring classically used attributes such as the gender or the results of pre-academic studies one obtains more accurate, and less biased, models. We tested our system on real data from the three-year degree in computer science offered by the University of Ferrara (Italy).
Understanding the protective function of pain: An EEG study of the influence of pain on motor preparation

Pain is mostly conceptualized as a perceptual phenomenon. However, pain serves vital protective functions. It signals potentials harm and drives behavioral responses to avoid injury and promote recovery. Thus, pain does not only include a perceptual component but crucially depends on appropriate motor responses. Moreover, the modulation of motor behavior and motor processing in the brain can alleviate pain and are therefore harnessed for pain therapy. However, how pain and motor processing interact in the human brain is largely unknown. In the present research project, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how the preparation of an adaptive motor response functionally interacts with pain processing in the human brain. Participants performed button presses to interrupt increasingly painful thermal stimuli and comparable movements without concurrent stimulation. The results show that protective motor responses were associated with reduced amplitude of the preparatory readiness potential as compared to a similar button press, which did not serve any protective function. In contrast, preparatory event-related desynchronizations at alpha and beta frequencies did not differ between conditions. To test for the specificity of our results, we designed a comparable control experiment where participants were required to perform button press in response to non-painful thermal stimuli. The results indicate that the amplitude of the readiness potential is similarly attenuated when a movement interrupts a non-painful stimulation. Taken together, the findings of our research project suggest that pain influences motor preparation in the human brain, although this effect is not pain specific but rather represent a modality-spanning phenomenon. Specific interactions between pain and motor process remain to be demonstrated. Further insights are needed to better understand the protective function of pain and motor-based treatment strategies.
Compressive RF Training for Massive MIMO With Channel Support Side Information

Hybrid beamforming (BF) is a promising solution for massive MIMO with limited RF chains. To reduce the amount of pilot overhead for channel estimation, compressed sensing techniques that exploit channel sparsity have been proposed. One key issue is how to design the RF (analog) training vectors to achieve higher BF gain with fewer pilots. Specifically, narrow-beam RF training requires large pilot overhead for finding strongest paths, and random RF training suffers from low BF gain. We propose to use a mixture of narrow-beam and random RF training vectors, and optimize the fraction of the two sets of RF training vectors based on channel support side information (CSSI) at the BS. We show that this optimized fraction exhibits a phase transition: when the CSSI accuracy exceeds a certain threshold, the maximum number of narrow-beam RF training vectors should be used to focus beams in all directions indicated by the CSSI. Otherwise, only random RF training vectors should be used to explore the unknown channel support. Moreover, we derive closed-form bounds on the channel estimation error. Both the analysis and simulations show that the proposed method can achieve substantial gains over various baseline methods.
The Molecular Basis of Resistance to the Antiproliferative Effect of EGFR Inhibition in Human Glioblastoma Multiforme Cell Lines

Dysregulated epidermal growth factor receptor (HER1/EGFR) is found in about 50% of glioblastoma, the most common primary brain tumor (Karpel-Massler et al., 2009). Despite recent improvements of the standard of care which currently comprises gross total tumor resection, irradiation and concomitant and adjuvant chemotherapy with temozolomide, the prognosis of patients with this disease remains dismal. A variety of therapeutic strategies was developed in order to improve the clinical outcome of patients with glioblastoma. One such approach involves HER1/EGFR-targeted agents among which small-molecule tyrosine kinase (TK) inhibitors (e.g., erlotinib) represent the clinically most advanced HER1/EGFR-targeted compounds (Halatsch et al., 2006). While experimental studies with erlotinib in the setting of glioblastoma showed promising results (Lal et al., 2002; Halatsch et al., 2004), clinical translation failed to prove a significant benefit (van den Bent et al., 2009). This finding might be partly explained by the fact that erlotinib was shown to exert largely variable antiproliferative effects on different human glioblastoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo (Halatsch et al., 2004). Based on the observation that there is no established correlation between HER1/EGFR baseline expression and erlotinib-induced antiproliferative effects, it seems likely that more complex genetic constellations form the molecular basis of the erlotinib-sensitive and erlotinib-resistant glioblastoma phenotypes. Identification of the molecular pattern determining the erlotinib-resistant phenotype may allow the development of a therapeutic concept to overcome resistance towards erlotinib using multi-targeting that includes those genes that confer resistance. By analyzing a set of erlotinib-sensitive, intermediately responsive and erlotinib-resistant glioblastoma cell lines in an expression analysis of 244 prospectively selected genes whose products, among others, constitute the HER1/EGFR signaling pathway, expression of two genes, FK506-binding protein 14 (FKBP14) and Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (RAC1) were identified to significantly correlate with the erlotinib-resistant glioblastoma phenotype (Halatsch et al., 2008). Thus, interference with these genes may enhance the antiproliferative efficacy of erlotinib against glioblastoma.
Phylogenetic analysis of the direct-developing frogs (Anura, Terrarana, Craugastoridae)

A major recent trend in systematics is the re-integration of morphological data into total evidence analysis. To date, few studies have explored the effects of incorporating morphological and molecular data into total evidence analyses; however, those that have done so have found that even a comparatively small phenomic dataset can have disproportionately large impacts on results. Given the demonstrated importance of morphological characters in testing the phylogenetic relationships, herein I provide a case in point for the exploration of the effects of incorporating morphological evidence as an independent source of phylogenetic evidence, and an important framework to test hypotheses supported by molecular evidence, in the superfamily Brachycephaloidea. In this study, 338 amphibian species are included, of which 318 species correspond to the superfamily Brachycephaloidea. All known genera within the superfamily were sampled. The complete dataset included 13,686 molecular characters (mitochondrial and nuclear markers) and 185 morphological characters, which were analyzed together. In addition, I performed additional analyses modifying the complete datasets to evaluate the effects of character and taxon sampling. As results, I found that the superfamily Brachycephaloidea does not represent a monophyletic as previously thought. Likewise, the phylogeny resulting from this analysis showed several taxa to be nonmonophyletic: Brachycephalidae and Craugastoridae as well as genera Craugastor, Psychrophynella, and Pristimantis. From the detailed examination of the impact of both character and taxon sampling on the phylogenetic relationships of the superfamily Brachycephaloidea, I found that the inclusion of a comparatively small phenomic dataset (185 character) as well as the inclusion of two key taxa (Atopophrynus syntomopus and Dischidodactylus duidensis) had disproportionately large impacts on the tree topology. Finally, I provide a new taxonomy for this group. In this, I recognize five families, of which three are morphologically diagnosable (Eleutherodactylidae, Hypodactylidae, and Strabomantidae) whereas the other two are diagnosable solely with molecular evidence (Ceuthomantidae and Craugastoridae). Likewise, 12 out of 26 genera included are morphologically diagnosable.
GP speciality training in areas of deprivation: factors influencing engagement. A qualitative study

Background GP training practices are less likely to be situated in areas of deprivation; little is known about GP views of postgraduate training in such areas. Aim To explore the views of GPs working in deprived areas about GP speciality training (GPST). Design & setting Qualitative in-depth interviews with GPs working in practices in deprived areas in Scotland. Method Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with GPs in training and non-training practices, to explore views on training. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim, and inductive thematic analysis was undertaken. Results The importance of producing ‘well-rounded’ GPs who are able to work in a variety of environments was highlighted. Trainees need exposure to the specific challenges of deprived contexts (such as early multimorbidity, child protection, and addiction) and the benefit of this for trainees was thought to be invaluable. GPs identified many perceived barriers and benefits to training, some generic but some — such as inspiring the next generation (benefit) or overwhelming workload (barrier) — may be more relevant in areas of high deprivation. Overwhelming workload was the main reason for not becoming a training practice, though some would consider it if supported to develop a training culture. All the GPs, including non-trainers, were involved in optional activities which were felt to be important for resilience. Conclusion GPs in areas of deprivation highlighted specific skills that could be gained by undertaking at least a part placement in deprived areas, with different skills likely to be gained from affluent areas. National education bodies should consider GP training rotations ensure a variety of training environments.
Micromechanical modeling of snow failure

Abstract. Dry-snow slab avalanches start with the formation of a local failure in a highly porous weak layer underlying a cohesive snow slab. If followed by rapid crack propagation within the weak layer and finally a tensile fracture through the slab, a slab avalanche releases. While the basic concepts of avalanche release are relatively well understood, performing fracture experiments in the laboratory or in the field can be difficult due to the fragile nature of weak snow layers. Numerical simulations are a valuable tool for the study of micromechanical processes that lead to failure in snow. We used a three-dimensional discrete element method (3-D DEM) to simulate and analyze failure processes in snow. Cohesive and cohesionless ballistic deposition allowed us to reproduce porous weak layers and dense cohesive snow slabs, respectively. To analyze the micromechanical behavior at the scale of the snowpack (∼1 m), the particle size was chosen as a compromise between low computational costs and detailed representation of important micromechanical processes. The 3-D-DEM snow model allowed reproduction of the macroscopic behavior observed during compression and mixed-mode loading of dry-snow slab and the weak snow layer. To be able to reproduce the range of snow behavior (elastic modulus, strength), relations between DEM particle and contact parameters and macroscopic behavior were established. Numerical load-controlled failure experiments were performed on small samples and compared to results from load-controlled laboratory tests. Overall, our results show that the discrete element method allows us to realistically simulate snow failure processes. Furthermore, the presented snow model seems appropriate for comprehensively studying how the mechanical properties of the slab and weak layer influence crack propagation preceding avalanche release.