Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predation during early post-settlement varies in importance for shaping marine sessile communities

Predation on newly settled sessile invertebrates is an important process shaping the structure of benthic marine communities in localised areas on the northeastern coast of North Amer- ica. There are no studies that have tested whether predation acts similarly in other locations, so it is not clear whether generalisations can be made about the effects of predation on different sessile communities. In this study we determined whether predation on newly settled recruits altered the structure of 2 different sessile communities in Port Phillip Bay, Australia. We conducted a series of predator exclusion experiments using full cage, partial cage and no cage treatments at 2 study sites, Williamstown and Queenscliff. Full cage and partial cage treatments of either 1 cm or 2 mm mesh sizes were used to separate the effects of different size classes of predators. At both sites, a variety of colonial and solitary ascidians, bryozoans, sponges and polychaetes settled onto experimental sur- faces. Predation had little impact on the recruitment success of taxa present at Williamstown and did not alter community structure. At Queenscliff, didemnid ascidians had higher abundances on com- pletely caged plates (2 mm mesh) after 40 d, suggesting that they may have been preyed upon in treatments exposed to carnivores. However, predation had no effect on the densities of other taxa found on experimental surfaces, and there were no differences in overall community structure between treatments. Recruitment rates were low and predators were never observed on experimen- tal surfaces at Queenscliff, so predation on newly settled recruits may be an uncommon occurrence for most taxa. In contrast, predators were commonly found on experimental surfaces at Williamstown, but recruitment rates were high and predators had little effect on the abundance of newly settled prey. The results of this study show that predators can have weak effects on recent recruits and that predation during early post-settlement is not a major process shaping the structure of all marine sessile communities.
Standardization of eco-friendly technique for extraction of pectin from apple pomace

Apple pomace, an industrial by-product generated from apple juice processing industries, is a good source of pectin. The method for pectin extraction has been standardized by autoclaving apple pomace flour for time intervals of 15, 30, 45 and 60 min at 121 °C. The extraction of pectin by using autoclave at 121°C for 60 min followed by precipitation with 95 % ethanol was found optimum with pectin yield of 13.01 % on dry weight basis and anhydrogalacturonic acid content of 43.21 %. The pectin extracted by using eco-friendly method is characterized by equivalent weight (942.04), methoxyl content (4.32 %), anhydrogalacturonic acid (43.21 %) and degree of esterification (56.76 %). However, autoclaving at 121 °C for 45 min also resulted in 12.97 % pectin, but on the basis of anhydrogalacturonic acid (%) contents, the autoclaving of pomace for 60 min was optimized. The standardized method can be used to replace the chemical extraction procedure for commercial extraction of pectin from apple pomace.
Carbon gain in a multispecies canopy: the role of specific leaf area and photosynthetic nitrogen‐use efficiency in the tragedy of the commons

summary Models have been formulated for monospecific stands in which canopy photosynthesis is determined by the vertical distribution of leaf area, nitrogen and light. In such stands, resident plants can maximize canopy photosynthesis by distributing their nitrogen parallel to the light gradient, with high contents per unit leaf area at the top of the vegetation and low contents at the bottom. Using principles from game theory, we expanded these models by introducing a second species into the vegetation, with the same vertical distribution of biomass and nitrogen as the resident plants but with the ability to adjust its specific leaf area (SLA, leaf area:leaf mass). The rule of the game is that invaders replace the resident plants if they have a higher plant carbon gain than those of the resident plants. We showed that such invaders induce major changes in the vegetation. By increasing their SLA, invading plants could increase their light interception as well as their photosynthetic nitrogen-use eciency (PNUE, the rate of photosynthesis per unit organic nitrogen). By comparison with stands in which canopy photosynthesis is maximized, those invaded by species of high SLA have the following characteristics: (1) the leaf area index is higher; (2) the vertical distribution of nitrogen is skewed less; (3) as a result of the supra-optimal leaf area index and the more uniform distribution of nitrogen, total canopy photosynthesis is lower. Thus, in dense canopies we face a classical tragedy of the commons: plants that have a strategy to maximize canopy carbon gain cannot compete with those that maximize their own carbon gain. However, because of this strategy, individual as well as total canopy carbon gain are eventually lower. We showed that it is an evolutionarily stable strategy to increase SLA up to the point where the PNUE of each leaf is maximized.
Three essays on corporate restructuring : how to effectively reverse declining firm performance

The question of how to effectively reverse declining firm performance has ever been an important question for both academic scholars and business practitioners. Though a profound answer to this question seems more and more important as today’s business landscape is becoming increasingly volatile amplifying the threat of facing organizational declines, extant research is still inconclusive. Against this backdrop, this dissertation project aims to better understand how declining firm performance can effectively be reversed. Therefore, this dissertation project identifies and rigorously investigates unexplored contingencies that better explain the effectiveness of turnaround actions and also breaks with established research approaches both conceptually and methodologically. The first study of this dissertation project applies the concept of resilience (i.e., buffering volatility in declines and subsequent performance recovery) originating from psychology to an organizational context. The second study unravels two important contingencies that govern the effectiveness of workforce downsizing as one of the most prominent managerial practices in order to reverse declining firm performance. The third study of this dissertation project introduces a temporal perspective to research on organizational decline and turnaround management and thereby draws attention to turnaround duration as an important contingency. Together, the three single studies of this dissertation project complement established knowledge on how to effectively reverse declining firm performance.
Comparison of Turbulence Models for Flow Past NACA0015 Airfoil Using OpenFOAM

The open source code software, OpenFOAM, was applied for simulating flow past NACA0015 airfoil. Three economical turbulence models for aerospace applications were selected comprising Spalart-Allmaras model, Wilcox model and Menter SST model, respectively. The non-dimension y+ was used to analyze the near-wall flow. The C-type domain for airfoil simulation was considered for an appropriate dimension to protect the effect of boundary conditions. The zero pressure gradient problem of the pressure-velocity coupling was used an effective algorithm, SIMPLE, for solving. The central differencing, upwind differencing, and linear upwind differencing (LUD) scheme were used to solve the convection-diffusion equation of the flow past airfoil. The simulation results included lift coefficient (CL) and drag coefficient (CD) were obtained from this computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The turbulence models had been validated to the physical experiment. The wind tunnel was set up to test the flow past NACA0015 airfoil. The Reynolds number (Re) at 160,000 and 360,000 were controlled in order that the NACA0015 airfoil with the large range angle of attack from 0 to 20 degrees was immersed in the low wind speeds and turbulent flow. The suitable turbulence model was the Menter SST model which employed SIMPLE algorithm and LUD scheme for solving. These CFD results lower the stall angle of attack had the average errors of CL and CD with were less than 13.15% and 22.36%, respectively.
Assessment of representations of model uncertainty in monthly and seasonal forecast ensembles

The probabilistic skill of ensemble forecasts for the first month and the first season of the forecasts is assessed, where model uncertainty is represented by the a) multi‐model, b) perturbed parameters, and c) stochastic parameterisation ensembles. The main foci of the assessment are the Brier Skill Score for near‐surface temperature and precipitation over land areas and the spread‐skill relationship of sea surface temperature in the tropical equatorial Pacific. On the monthly timescale, the ensemble forecast system with stochastic parameterisation provides overall the most skilful probabilistic forecasts. On the seasonal timescale the results depend on the variable under study: for near surface temperature the multi‐model ensemble is most skilful for most land regions and for global land areas. For precipitation, the ensemble with stochastic parameterisation most often produces the highest scores on global and regional scales. Our results indicate that stochastic parameterisations should now be developed for multi‐decadal climate predictions using earth‐system models.
Hybridizing an immune artificial algorithm with epsilon constrained method

In this paper, we present a modified version of an algorithm inspired on the T-Cell model, it is an artificial immune system (AIS), based on the process that suffers the T-Cell. The proposed algorithm is called TCEC (T-Cell Epsilon Constrained) due to it is increased with epsilon constrained method, for solving constrained (numerical) optimization problems. We validate our proposed approach with a set of 36 test functions provided for the CEC 2010 competition. We indirectly compare our results with respect to a version of the differential evolution algorithm. Our results show that TCEC can found feasible solutions on almost test functions with 10 and 30 decision variables.
Characterization and comparison of treated and untreated rich hush ash & fly ash for metal matrix composites

Rice Husk ash and fly ash are agricultural and coal wastes respectively. These are produced in abundance globally and poses risk to health as well as environment. Thus their effective, conducive and eco- friendly utilization has always been a challenge for scientific community. The fly ash has been used as reinforcement for improved mechanical properties of composites. Rice husk ash can also be used for similar applications as its composition is almost similar to that of fly ash. This paper mainly deals with identification of characteristics of both the fly ash and rice husk ash using spectroscopic and microscopic analysis. SEM, XRD, XRF and FTIR spectroscopic methods were used for the characterization of treated and untreated ashes. The results were compared and it was observed that both ashes possesses nearly same chemical phases and other functional groups thus proposing the use of rice husk ash as reinforcement like fly ash in Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) specifically for wear resistance applications.
EFFECT USE BIOFERTILIZER AND DIFFERENCES TYPE SOIL ON GROWTH AND YIELD ARROWROOT

This research purposed to know the effect of biofertilizers, the effect of soil type, and the effect of interaction between biofertilizers and soil type on growth and yield arrowroot. This study uses a randomized block design with 2 factors, namely biofertilizers of biota max consisting of 2 levels and types of land consisting of 2 levels. Analysis of the data using Analysis of Variance and continued with Test of Least Significant Difference at the level 5%. The results of this study indicate that: 1) application of biofertilizer is effect significantly against increased in the number of leaves, number of tillers total, relative growth rate and net assimilation rate, the number of tubers per hill, tuber diameter, tuber length and weight of tuber per hill than without the application of biofertilizers, 2) arrowroot planting in soil grumosol significant effect against increased crop height, number of tillers total, relative growth rate, leaf area index, and the number of tuber per hill than arrowroot planting in rendzina soil.
Personality factors associated with problem gambling behavior in university students

This study investigated sex differences and personality factors associated with gambling behavior in a non-clinical sample of young men and women. The participants were 212 university students (62 men and 150 women) and their mean age was 18.7 years. The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) was used to assess problem gambling behavior and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory Form S (College Age) was used to assess personality traits. The results indicated that men were more likely to endorse indicators of gambling problems than were women, with sex differences in different endorsed gambling activities. Of the five personality factors investigated, low Openness to experience and low Agreeableness were most strongly associated with higher scores on the SOGS, indicative of potentially problematic gambling behavior. Further analysis illustrated that for men in particular, low Openness to experience was a key personality factor in relation to higher SOGS scores.
A Vectorial Analysis of UHF Propagation in Urban and Rural Environments

In this work we present a vectorial analysis of the two-ray model, as well as a vectorial analysis of the whole street waveguide model in the UHF band. For both, an ideal dipole is assumed to be the transmitting aerial. For the analysis of the two-ray model, parallel polarization is investigated and a comparison between the approximated analysis (only algebraic sum of the fields) and non-approximated analysis (considering dipole’s gain and vectorial analysis) is provided as well as an analysis of the error versus r distance. A comparison between vertical and horizontal components of the electric field is also carried out. Regarding the street model, the street is modeled as a multislit waveguide, and horizontal and vertical polarizations are investigated. As in the tworay model, a comparison between the approximated and non-approximated analysis is provided as well as a comparison between the total field and the field due to lateral reflections only. Still for the street model, slits are inserted and comparisons and analyses are made. Comparisons provided show that a vectorial and gain analysis can be a very useful tool toward increasing theoretical analysis in spite of empirical analysis in the field of prediction.
Effect Of Heparin Sodium In Protection Of The Lens Against Cataract Induced With Intravitreal Injection Of Sodium Selenite- In Rabbits

Objective: To evaluate the possible protective role of heparin sodium eye drops against sodium selenite – induced cataract in rabbits.Materials and Methods: A group of 18 adult rabbits (Oryctologus cuniculus) were divided into 3 groups each one of 6 rabbits normal group (without treatment and induction), control group (received DW pre and post induction of cataract), and heparin sodium group (received heparin sodium eye drops pre and post induction of cataract). The cataract had been induced by intravitreal injection of 0.1ml sodium selenite (0.01% w/v) in the right eye. Results: Heparin sodium was effective in prevention of cataract and the mean score of opacity was (0.17±0.01) at the end of trial period in stead of the expected score (4 ±0.00) which observed in DW group, and there was non significant difference comparing to pre induction (p>0.05). Conclusions: Heparin sodium eye drops exerted a detectable preventive effect against sodium selenite induced cataract in rabbits, also it was found to be apparently safe and tolerable along the trial period. Keywords; cataract,intravitreal sodium selenite, oxidation, lens proteins, lens opacity, heparin sodium. ————————————————————
Numerical Calculation of Eigenmodes in PETRA 7-cell Cavity under precise Consideration of Coupler Structures

The PETRA accelerator [1], which served originally as a pre-accelerator for the large HERA facility, is nowadays the world’s best storage-ring-based X-ray radiation source. It provides the scientists experimental opportunities with X-rays radiation. The PETRA accelerator is based on a 7cell normal conducting copper cavity operating at 500 MHz and delivers a particle beam with energy up to 6 GeV. To enable proper beam dynamics simulations, it is important to determine the eigenmodes in the accelerating cavities with high precision. In the real installation, the input coupler is required to transfer the energy from the sources to the particle beam. For this reason, a complex-valued eigenmode solver can be applied to properly calculate the eigenmodes. At the Computational Electromagnetics Laboratory (TEMF) a robust parallel eigenmode solver based on complex-valued finite element analysis is available. In this paper, the realvalued and complex-valued eigenmode solver have been applied to the PETRA 7-cell cavity to determine the resonance frequency, the quality factor and the corresponding field distribution of eigenmodes.
The 2016 Italian seismic hazard model

The Italian reference seismic hazard model was released in 2004, but it has been adopted for the definition of seismic zones in 2006 and for building code only in 2009. At the beginning of 2015 the Seismic Hazard Center (CPS) of INGV was commissioned to coordinate the national scientific community with the aim of elaborating a new reference seismic hazard model, mainly finalized to the update of seismic code. The CPS designed a roadmap to release within 2 years a significantly renewed model, with regard both to the updated input elements and to the strategies to follow, in order to obtain a shared and largely accepted PSHA. The main requirements of the model were discussed in meetings with the experts on earthquake engineering. A public call was opened according to a transparent procedure; we received 24 proposals from many national institutions. The activities were organized in 6 tasks: project coordination, input data, seismicity models, ground motion prediction equations, computation and rendering, validation. In the first phase, the working groups of each task worked separately; in the second phase of the project they collaborated to release a final model. During the project, many scientific aspects were carefully considered, as in many other seismic hazard projects: the use of a declustered catalogue versus a non declustered one, the adoption of the logic-tree approach instead of an ensemble modeling, the definition of objective strategies to assign the weight to each single model, and so on.
ANALYSIS OF PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF POWAI LAKE DURING FESTIVE SEASON IN MUMBAI METROPOLIS

Water is a valuable natural asset and also a fundamental natural resource and is the most essential necessity of life. In India, lot of religious activities take place throughout the year. The immersion of idol during festive seasons is a major source of contamination and sedimentation to the lake water. The Ganesh festival is one of the biggest festivals in Mumbai. The festival also generates a large amount of holy waste (Nirmalya) in the form of flowers, decoration materials, oil and other religious offerings. After the festival the Ganesha idols are immersed at the various beaches and lakes across the Mumbai city. These idols are made up of nonbiodegradable materials like plaster of Paris (PoP) and synthetic paints used for making these idols. This can pose a serious threat to water quality and aquatic life and water environment. To access the water quality, the water samples were collected from Powai Lake points before, during and after the Ganapati visarjan and analyzed for different physico-chemical parameters. The parameters like pH, Temp. , DO, COD, Chloride, Sulphate, Phosphate, turbidity etc. were considered to find out the effect of idol immersion activates on quality of water. It has been observed that the values of some parameters were significantly increased during the immersion period and then declined in the post-immersion period.
FLOWERED-GEODBAPP: AN APPLICATION BASED ON CROWD-GENERATING DATA USING SENTINEL2 IMAGERY

Abstract. This study is part of the EU H2020 research Project FLOWERED (de-FLuoridation technologies for imprOving quality of WatEr and agRo-animal products along the East African Rift Valley in the context of aDaptation to climate change). FLOWERED project aims to develop technologies and methodologies at cross-boundary catchment scales to manage the risks associated with high Fluoride water supply in Africa, focusing on three representative test areas along the African Rift Valley (i.e. Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania), characterized by high fluoride contents in waters and soils, water scarcity, overexploitation of groundwater and high vulnerability to risks arising from climate change, as drought and desertification. It also is empowering local communities to take responsibility for the integrated-sustainability of the natural resources, growing national and international environmental priorities, enhancing transboundary cooperation and promoting local ownership based on a scientific and technological approach. Within the FLOWERED project, the transition from the land cover to the land use and water use maps is provided through the development of a mobile application (FLOWERED-GeoDBapp ). It is dedicated to the collection of local geo-information on land use, water uses, irrigation systems, household features, use of drinking water and the other information needful for the specific knowledge of water supply involving local communities through participative approach. This system is structured to be populated, through an action of crowd-generating data by local communities (students and people involved mainly by NGOs). The SHAREGEODBapp is proposed as an innovative tool for water management and agriculture institutions at regional and local level.
Investigation of Major Challenges of Rural Development in Iran Utilizing Delphi Technique

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors causing the rural underdevelopment in Iran. To fulfill this objective, Delphi technique, as a method of refining group opinions and substituting computed consensus for an agreed-upon majority opinion, was used. The study used a series of three steps questionnaires. Findings indicated that lack of a coherent strategy for sustainable rural development, unavailability of appropriate infrastructures in rural regions, lack of coordinated programs in rural development, weak management of governmental structures and lack of diversification in non-agricultural activities such as tourism are the most important challenges which can create an inappropriate condition for the development of Iranian rural communities.