Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ZFOURGE catalogue of AGN candidates: an enhancement of 160-μm-derived star formation rates in active galaxies to z = 3.2

We investigate active galactic nuclei (AGN) candidates within the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) to determine the impact they have on star formation in their host galaxies. We first identify a population of radio, X-ray, and infrared-selected AGN by cross-matching the deep K-s-band imaging of ZFOURGE with overlapping multiwavelength data. From this, we construct a mass-complete (log(M-*/M-circle dot) = 9.75), AGN luminosity limited sample of 235 AGN hosts over z = 0.2-3.2. We compare the rest-frame U - V versus V - J (UVJ) colours and specific star formation rates (sSFRs) of the AGN hosts to a mass-matched control sample of inactive (non-AGN) galaxies. UVJ diagnostics reveal AGN tend to be hosted in a lower fraction of quiescent galaxies and a higher fraction of dusty galaxies than the control sample. Using 160 mu m Herschel PACS data, we find the mean specific star formation rate of AGN hosts to be elevated by 0.34 +/- 0.07 dex with respect to the control sample across all redshifts. This offset is primarily driven by infrared-selected AGN, where the mean sSFR is found to be elevated by as much as a factor of similar to 5. The remaining population, comprised predominantly of X-ray AGN hosts, is found mostly consistent with inactive galaxies, exhibiting only a marginal elevation. We discuss scenarios that may explain these findings and postulate that AGN are less likely to be a dominant mechanism for moderating galaxy growth via quenching than has previously been suggested.
Retinal angiographic alteration in diabetic macular edema after dexamethasone implantation: a case report

Abstract Here we reported a rare case of the implantation of a dexamethasone intravitreal implant (DEX) in which decreased retinal vessel density (VD) was found by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). A 74-year-old male with diabetes mellitus presented with bilateral macular edema. The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.6 in the right eye. Diabetic macular edema (DME) was diagnosed. A DEX for the right eye was planned, and the preoperative evaluation showed a superficial VD of 48.74 percent, a deep VD of 53.12 percent, and a foveal avascular zone (FAZ) 0.165 mm2 in size by OCTA. The BCVA in the right eye recovered to 0.8, and a notably lower superficial VD of 45.97 percent and a deep VD of 45.40 percent were observed with an enlarged FAZ of 0.294 mm2 one month postoperatively. Moreover, BCVA in the right eye was maintained at 0.8, while further reductions in both superficial (40.07 percent) and deep (40.91 percent) VD were noted with a FAZ measured at 0.305 mm2 two months postoperatively. In conclusion, retinal superficial and deep VD decreased, while the FAZ increased, after the implantation of the DEX in a patient with DME.
The Use of Spatio-Temporal Connectionist Models in Psychological Studies of Musical Emotions

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS A NOVEL METHODOLOGY TO analyze the dynamics of emotional responses to music. It consists of a computational investigation based on spatiotemporal neural networks, which "mimic" human affective responses to music and predict the responses to novel music sequences. The results provide evidence suggesting that spatiotemporal patterns of sound resonate with affective features underlying judgments of subjective feelings (arousal and valence). A significant part of the listener9s affective response is predicted from a set of six psychoacoustic features of sound—â€”loudness, tempo, texture, mean pitch, pitch variation, and sharpness. A detailed analysis of the network parameters and dynamics also allows us to identify the role of specific psychoacoustic variables (e.g., tempo and loudness) in music emotional appraisal. This work contributes new evidence and insights to the study of musical emotions, with particular relevance to the music perception and cognition research community.
The Growth Choices of French Listed SMEs

Many SMEs suffer from financing problems that hinder their growth. To overcome these difficulties, some list on the stock market and make a public offering. Does this favor the SMEs’ growth? And what types of growth do SMEs prefer in this context? The empirical study shows an overall positive development of turnover, especially internationally. SMEs seem to focus on external growth at the expense of internal growth and short-term investment in R&D.
New Zealand PERCENTAGE LEASES IN SINGAPORE ’ S SHOPPING CENTRES

Recently, retailers have realized the importance of finding alternative ways to cut down on costs incurred in their businesses, especially now when the future outlook is uncertain. Unforeseen circumstances like the breakout of war and the spreading of unknown diseases like SARS and H1N1 around the world have been happening in the recent years and many businesses around the globe have suffered. Shopping centers in Singapore are not spared from the calamity either. It is evident from newspapers reports that people do not dare venture out of their homes when disaster strikes. As a result, with fewer customers patronizing the shops in the shopping centers, the retail business will falter. Due to the uncertainty of the economic outlook and intense competition among malls, retailers have to look into ways, which they can reduce the burden of having to pay high rents. Therefore, an effective scheme to help tide them over a crisis would be the adoption of the percentage lease scheme. This paper examines the concept of percentage leases and its feasibility as a financial tool in managing shopping centres. The findings show that although there is an emerging trend of the popularity of the percentage lease scheme, more can be done to encourage the retail industry to adopt it.
Trade Globalization and Political Liberalization: A Gravity Approach

This paper is an empirical investigation on the relationship between trade globalization and political liberalization. The sample is based on 157 countries from years 1957-1998, taking into consideration many social, economic, environmental, geographical, and historical factors. From this, an augmented gravity equation is estimated and evidence is found to support the prediction that political liberalization could discourage trade and trade could foster democracy.
Diagnostic tool to analyse colour–magnitude diagrams of poorly populated stellar concentrations

The dynamical processes that lead to open cluster disruption cause its mass to decrease. To investigate such processes from the observational point of view, it is important to identify open cluster remnants (OCRs), which are intrinsically poorly populated. Due to their nature, distinguishing them from field star fluctuations is still an unresolved issue. In this work, we developed a statistical diagnostic tool to distinguish poorly populated star concentrations from background field fluctuations. We use 2MASS photometry to explore one of the conditions required for a stellar group to be a physical group: to produce distinct sequences in a colour-magnitude diagram (CMD). We use automated tools to (i) derive the limiting radius; (ii) decontaminate the field and assign membership probabilities; (iii) fit isochrones; and (iv) compare object and field CMDs, considering the isochrone solution, in order to verify the similarity. If the object cannot be statistically considered as a field fluctuation, we derive its probable age, distance modulus, reddening and uncertainties in a self-consistent way. As a test, we apply the tool to open clusters and comparison fields. Finally, we study the OCR candidates DoDz 6, NGC 272, ESO 435 SC48 and ESO 325 SC 15. The tool is optimized to treat these low-statistic objects and to separate the best OCR candidates for studies on kinematics and chemical composition. The study of the possible OCRs will certainly provide a deep understanding of OCR properties and constraints for theoretical models, including insights into the evolution of open clusters and dissolution rates.
Drying of the aqueous extract of acorn Quercus robur in a spout-fluid bed

The results of the chemical investigations of variously treated acorn samples are presented in this paper with the aim of obtaining data on the amount of nutritious components and biologically active substances. The Quercus robur acorn, which belongs to the Fagaceae family, was investigated in a raw, thermally treated form and as an extract that was subsequently dried in a dryer with a fluidized bed. The obtained results regarding the content of tannin, nitrogen containing compounds, macro- and microelements indicate that acorn maintains its functional characteristics after the investigated treatments.
GASS: The Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey - Update: improved correction for instrumental effects and new data release

The Galactic All-Sky Survey is a survey of Galactic atomic hydrogen emission in the southern sky observed with the Parkes 64-m Radio Telescope. The first data release (GASS I) concerned survey goals and observing techniques, the second release (GASS II) focused on stray radiation and instrumental corrections. We seek to remove the remaining instrumental effects and present a third data release. We use the HEALPix tessellation concept to grid the data on the sphere. Individual telescope records are compared with averages on the nearest grid position for significant deviations. All averages are also decomposed into Gaussian components with the aim of segregating unacceptable solutions. Improved priors are used for an iterative baseline fitting and cleaning. In the last step we generate 3-D FITS data cubes and examine them for remaining problems. We have removed weak, but systematic baseline offsets with an improved baseline fitting algorithm. We have unraveled correlator failures that cause time dependent oscillations; errors cause stripes in the scanning direction. The remaining problems from radio frequency interference (RFI) are spotted. Classifying the severeness of instrumental errors for each individual telescope record (dump) allows us to exclude bad data from averages. We derive parameters that allow us to discard dumps without compromising the noise of the resulting data products too much. All steps are reiterated several times: in each case, we check the Gaussian parameters for remaining problems and inspect 3-D FITS data cubes visually. We find that in total ~1.5% of the telescope dumps need to be discarded in addition to ~0.5% of the spectral channels that were excluded in GASS II.The new data release facilitates data products with improved quality. A new web interface, compatible with the previous version, is available for download of GASS III FITS cubes and spectra.
Adsorption of parabens in aqueous solution onto β-cyclodextrin cross-linked polymer / Chin Yuk Ping

β-cyclodextrin cross-linked polymers were prepared from hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) and toluene-2,6-diisocyanate (TDI) as a cross-linker. Two types of polymers were synthesized, namely β-CD-HMDI and β-CD-TDI. The polymers were characterized and β-CD-TDI with the molar ratio of 1:7 for β-CD:TDI was chosen for further studies as it gave the highest adsorption of parabens. The adsorption mechanisms were studied with adsorption kinetic models and adsorption isotherm models. Kinetic study was done for single paraben solutions and a mixture of four parabens solution. For the kinetic study, the experimental data were analysed using pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. Adsorptions follow pseudo-second-order model in both solutions and follow intraparticle diffusion model in a solution mixture of a mixture of four parabens solution. This shows that mechanism of adsorption is affected by the competition among parabens molecules. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm model were used to further describe the process of adsorption. The two isotherm models are applicable onto the adsorption process for different types of paraben in different condition. The same polymer was reused for nine regenerations in the same conditions to study how effective the recycled polymer was for paraben removal. Adsorption capacities are between 75.6 to 112.8% after regeneration. β-CD-TDI were applied on 10 real aqueous samples and all show positive results.
To flee or not to flee: detection, avoidance of and attraction to food resources by Daphnia magna studied with an olfactometer

The cladoceran herbivore Daphnia magna is a major consumer of phytoplankton in lakes. Therefore, this organism may control the phytoplankton community and the proliferation of some algae or cyanobacteria. Cladoceran behaviour and migration in relation to temperature, light or presence of planktivorous fishes have been well studied. In particular, it is known that the detection of kairomones produced by predators may induce avoidance. Avoidance could also occur with other semiochemicals such as cyanotoxins. In order to explore this hypothesis, we used an olfactometer to observe and measure the exploratory behaviour of D. magna individuals based on the motivation for food. Daphnids were allowed to choose between different compounds: water, a pure cyanotoxin, i.e. the microcystinRR [(MC)-RR], extracts of one MC-producing strain (PMC 75.02) and one MC-free strain (PMC 87.02) of Planktothrix agardhii, or a green algae Scenedesmus obliquus. With this experimental design, we observed that i) cladocerans are able to detect resources with different qualities, ii) they can explore before exhibiting preferences, and iii) daphnids are able to avoid compounds that are potentially toxic (e.g., microcystins). First, daphnids explored the environment, subsequently (after about 1.5 h), they showed a significant tendency to stay where there is a profitable resource such as S. obliquus. These results also suggest that specimens of D. magna cannot detect MC compounds from P. agardhii, but they respond to it as a food resource. The study of zooplankton ability to explore the environment when exposed to semiochemicals needs further investigation.
Constraints on a Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function from Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Galaxy Luminosity Densities

We obtain constraints on the slope of a universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) over a range of model cosmic star formation histories (SFHs) using z ≈ 0.1 luminosity densities in the range from 0.2 to 2.2 μm. The age-IMF degeneracy of the integrated spectra of stellar populations can be broken for the universe as a whole by using direct measurements of (relative) cosmic SFH from high-redshift observations. These have only marginal dependence on uncertainties in the IMF, whereas fitting to local luminosity densities depends strongly on both cosmic SFH and the IMF. We fit to these measurements using population synthesis and find the best-fit IMF power-law slope to be Γ = 1.15 ± 0.2 (assuming dN/d log m ∝ m-Γ for 0.5-120 M☉ and m-0.5 for 0.1-0.5 M☉). This M > 0.5 M☉ slope is in good agreement with the Salpeter IMF slope (Γ = 1.35). A strong upper limit of Γ < 1.7 is obtained, which effectively rules out the Scalo IMF because its fraction of high-mass stars is too low. This upper limit is at the 99.7% confidence level if we assume a closed-box chemical evolution scenario and 95% if we assume constant solar metallicity. Fitting to the Hα line luminosity density, we obtain a best-fit IMF slope in good agreement with that derived from broadband measurements. Marginalizing over cosmic SFH and IMF slope, we obtain (95% confidence ranges) Ωstars = × 10-3 h-1 for the stellar mass density, ρSFR = × 10-2 h M☉ yr-1 Mpc-3 for the star formation rate density, and ρL = × 1035 h W Mpc-3 for the bolometric, attenuated, stellar luminosity density (0.09-5 μm). Comparing this total stellar emission with an estimate of the total dust emission implies a relatively modest average attenuation in the UV (≲1 mag at 0.2 μm).
Germination and vigor of seeds of Magonia pubescens

Timbó (Magonia pubescens A. St.-Hil.) is a species with ornamental potential, which can be used in composition of gardens, squares and especially in streets landscaping. It is also suitable for planting in degraded areas of permanent preservation. This work aimed to verify the effect of seed size, storage and pre-imbibition time on seed germination and vigor. The test design was completely randomized, in a plot scheme subdivided in time. The main plots were seed size (large and small), packaging (0.5 mm-thick transparent polyethylene and kraft paper bag), and time of imbibition in water (0, 12 and 24 hours); and as subplots, it was considerate the storage times (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months). The tests were carried out in five replications of ten seeds, and the evaluated variables were: water content of the seeds, percentage of germination (% G), mean germination time (MGT), shoot height (cm), collar diameter (mm), number of leaves, and fresh and dry mass of the aerial part (g). The size of the seed did not influence the germination percentage, but large seeds formed more vigorous seedlings. The storage did not affect seeds germination, nor the vigor of the seedlings. Seed preimbibition did not influence the percentage of germination, but the mean germination time decreased, and more vigorous seedlings were formed. In order to obtain more vigorous Timbó seedlings, the best option is to use large seeds. They can be stored for up to 12 months without losing vigor and pre-soaked to accelerate the beginning of germination, thus forming a more homogeneous lot of seedlings.
Impact of Genotype, Planting Date, Plant Density and Inflorescence Type on Bee Abundance and Seed Production in Broccoli

Field experiment was conducted in 2011-2012 to study the impact of genotype, planting date, and inflorescence type on bee abundance and seed production of broccoli in Ismailia Governorate. The abundance of two selected bee species, Apis mellifera L. and Colletes lacunatus Dours was estimated on two cultivars of broccoli, Sultan and Marathon in two different planting dates and two types of inflorescences (primary and secondary). Results indicated that both A. mellifera and C. lacunatus significantly increased the pollination percentage. Bee abundance was significantly at the maximum level at 11.00 am-1.00 pm, all over the weeks of observation, followed by the previous time of observation, at 9.00-11.00 am, then decreased significantly at 1.00-3.00 pm to reach the lowest abundance 3.005. 00 pm. Also, results indicated that C. lacunatus was the dominant pollinator and had more intensity visitation than A. mellifera on the both cultivars. Generally, Marathon tends to give more fruit number and weight and accordingly more seeds of light weight. On the other hand, Sultan has a tendency to give less seed number of heavier weight. The primary inflorescence gave less number of flowers and consequently less number of fruits than secondary inflorescence, but those fewer fruits gave less number of seeds with heavier weight. The effect of planting density on seed production was due to differences in number and destination of transported pollen grains. Planting date showed a profound influence on the potential of seed yield. This study demonstrated that bee pollination could significantly improve both the yield and the quality of seeds in broccoli under Ismailia conditions.
Genetic divergence between genotypes of forage peanut in relation to agronomic and chemical traits

The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic divergence of forage peanut in relation to agronomic and chemical traits in both rainy and dry seasons. This experiment was conducted with genotypes from the Forage Peanut Active Germoplasm Bank located in Embrapa Acre. Eighteen genotypes of forage peanut were used: 12 genotypes of A. pintoi, four genotypes of the A. repens species and two interspecific hybrids of A. pintoi × A. repens. The design was of randomized blocks with five replicates. All traits were submitted to analyses of variance and later, study of genetic divergence was done through multivariate analysis techniques, in which the Tocher's optimization method and the nearest neighbor method were used. Dissimilarity measure used in cluster analysis was the generalized distance of Mahalanobis. No pattern was found in the cluster based on species used, according to the results. There is genetic variability for all traits except neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, hemicellulose and lignin in the rainy season and for pests in the dry season. The traits which presented most relative contribution in the study of genetic divergence of forage peanut were flowering, dry matter yield and average height in the rainy season and crude protein and average height in the dry season. The established cluster may help the breeder to choose parents and crossings to be selected in forage peanut breeding programs.
Rules of Thumb (Empirical Rules) for the Biomass Utilization by Thermochemical Conversion

The rules of thumb for developing thermochemical conversion technology are introduced together with the fundamental rules of thumb for thermochemical conversion, which is the basic idea for these technologies. The target technologies are, (a) metal-impregnated wood treatment by carbonization, (b) fast pyrolysis, (c) supercritical water gasification and, (d) advanced biodiesel production. They are presented in tables in terms of the rule of thumb and its benefit. We hope those who are considering introduction of these technologies will find this paper useful for t heir plant design and system development. It also should be noted t hat t he scientific background supports the rules of thumb for each technology, and, thus, knowing the rules of thumb will provide insight into the fundamental science of the technology.
Quantification of Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Age and Age-Related Macular Degeneration Using Vessel Density Analysis.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine whether vessel density (VD) as measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography provided insights into retinal and choriocapillaris vascular changes with aging and intermediate dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). DESIGN Non-randomized observational study. METHODS Seventy-five participants were recruited into 3 cohorts: young healthy group, old healthy, and those at high-risk for exudative AMD. Raw OCT and OCT angiography data from TOPCON DRI OCT Triton were exported using Topcon IMAGENET 6.0 software, and 3D datasets were analysed to determine retinal thickness and VD. RESULTS Central macular thickness measurements revealed a trend of overall retinal thinning with increasing age. VD through the full thickness of the retina was highest in Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) sector 4 (the inferior macula) in all the cohorts. Mean VD was significantly higher in the deep capillary plexus than the superficial capillary plexus in all ETDRS sectors in all cohorts, but there was no significant difference noted between groups. Choriocapillaris VD was significantly lower in all ETDRS sectors in the AMD group compared with the young healthy and the old healthy groups. CONCLUSIONS Retinal VD maps, derived from the retinal plexi, are not reliable biomarkers for assessing the aging macular. Our nonproprietary analysis of the vascular density of the choriocapillaris revealed a significant drop off of VD with age and disease, but further work is required to corroborate this finding. If repeatable, choriocapillaris VD may provide a noninvasive biomarker of healthy aging and disease.