Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How old are the largest southern Swedish oaks? A dendrochronological analysis

In the southern Scandinavian landscape, large oaks Quercus robur provide habitat for a wide range of species, including a large number species on the national Red list and the EU habitat directive. Since most of these trees are hollow and have likely been growing in conditions different from the ones of an “average” oak in today’s more forested landscape, direct inference of their age from diameter may be biased. To provide support for the management of these trees, we estimate their age by combining inventory data on diameter distribution of the largest oaks (n = 236) in the Swedish county of Scania and data on ring width distribution for large (>1 m in stem diameter) oaks collected in seven oak-dominated stands (both woodland-type and denser closed-canopy forests) in southern Sweden (ntrees = 69, nrings = 12399). The mode of ring-width distribution was 1.26 mm yr –1 . The central 90% of ring width distribution was within 0.54 and 3.38 mm, demonstrating the high growth plasticity of the species. Both ring width distribution in large oaks, divided into 16 width classes, and cumulative 20-yr diameter increments (19 classes) were well approximated by the log-normal function. The largest oaks in Scania are unlikely to exceed 1000 yr, the most probable age estimates of the majority of the inventoried oaks were centered around 500–700 yr. The age distribution of 18 large (69.4–178 cm dbh) non-hollow oaks suggest the maximum age being around 400–600 yr. Conservation-oriented management of oak populations should address the need for preservation of such old trees.
A Study of the Natural Coagulating Inhibitors Polymorphism in Iranian Patients with the Vine Thrombosis

Introduction: Anti thrombin III (AT-III), protein C (PC), protein S (PS) are named the natural coagulation inhibitors, quantitative and qualitative defects of these inhibitor proteins caused recurrent veins thrombosis. Despite there are many clinical and technical assays for improving diagnosis of this disease, but diagnosis and classification of this disease facing with some challenges. The diagnosis polymorphism and mutation of PC, PS, and Anti-III, recognizing the homozygote and heterozygote form in people who have any patient with vein thrombosis in their family. Materials & Methods: 42 patients with vascular thrombosis, who visited cardiovascular and thromboses clinic of Immam khomaini and Shahid Modarres General Hospitals have been studied in this research. After performing coagulation test and determining the activity of anti coagulation proteins (PC, PS, Anti-III), The DNA of patients samples were extracted and reproduce by PCR. Pieces of DNA upon reproduction sent to Biosciences Co in UK to determining its sequence. DNA sequences were comprised with wild type of proteins genome. Results: The activities of PS in 63.5%, PC in 29.2 and AT-III in 7.3% patients were reduced. There was a statistical relation between reducing plasma activity of PC and PS of patients and their familial thrombosis (P< 0.05). Results obtained from Chromas software showed that there are remarkable polymorphisms in some patients who are suffered from abnormal of related proteins. Discussion & Conclusion: Although, many studies are performed in development countries for recognizing this disease, there is not a lot of study which carried out in Iran about this issue. Therefore, it is required to perform more molecular tests on natural coagulation inhibitors and other effective proteins on creation of vascular thrombosis.
Development of enrichment methods for cross-linked peptides to study the dynamic topology of large protein complexes by mass spectrometry

In the cell, most proteins carry out their functions as subunits of larger assemblies. Knowledge about the folding and mutual interactions of composing subunits is crucial to comprehend the dynamics and structures of such protein complexes and the molecular mechanisms underlying biological processes. Unfortunately, large complexes are often not amenable to techniques used to obtain detailed protein structural information like x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In this thesis chemical protein cross-linking coupled with mass spectrometric analysis (CXMS) has been utilized as a core approach to obtain structural information of proteins. With CXMS the identity of cross-linked amino acids and their position in the protein amino acid sequence is determined, yielding spatial distance restraints, since the linked residues cannot be father away in a cross-linked protein complex than the length of the spacer of the used crosslinker. With this information a topological map of subunit arrangements can be obtained. Although CXMS has been applied for more than a decade, the rareness and low abundance of cross-linked peptides in digests forms a main analytical challenge, since this circumstance hampers mass spectrometric analysis. In this thesis methodologies aimed at enrichment of cross-linked peptides have been developed and applied. These studies were performed both in isolated complexes and in complicated protein mixtures. In Chapter 2, 3 and 4, the development of enrichment approaches intended to isolate azide-containing cross-linked peptides of proteins/complexes for mass spectrometric analysis are described. In Chapter 5, the characterization of novel interaction using the methodology developed in this thesis is shown.
Hexavalent Chromium Removal by Litchi chinensis Sonn Peel

Problem statement: We studied the Chromium (VI) removal capacity in aqueous solution by the litchi peel. Approach: We use the diphenylcarbazide method to evaluate the metal concentration. Results: The highest biosorption of the metal (50 mg L -1 ) occurs within 6 min, at pH of 1 and 28°C. According to temperature, the highest r emoval was observed at 40 and 50°C, in 45 min, when the metal (1 g L -1 ) was completely adsorbed. At the analyzed concentr ations of Cr (VI), litchi peel, showed excellent removal capacity, besides it removes efficiently the metal in situ (100% removal, 5 days of incubation, 5 and 10 g of biomas s). After 1 h of incubation the studied biomass reduces 1.0 g of Cr (VI) with the simultaneous prod uction of Cr (III). Conclusion: The shell can be used to eliminate it from industrial wastewater.
Slip distribution of the February 27, 2010 Mw = 8.8 Maule Earthquake, central Chile, from static and high‐rate GPS, InSAR, and broadband teleseismic data

The shallow depth underthrust earthquake of February 27, 2010 (Mw 8.8) ruptured the subduction plate interface in central Chile between 34°S and 38°S. We retrieve the spatial and temporal distribution of slip during this mega‐earthquake through a joint inversion of teleseismic records, InSAR and High Rate GPS (HRGPS) data. Additionally, our model is shown to agree with broadband surface waves. Rupture initiated at about 32 km depth and propagated bilaterally resulting in two main slip zones located SSW and NNE of the hypocenter. Nucleation did not take place within or at the edge of one of these main asperities, but in between. During the first 30s, slip propagated predominantly southwards. Later on, the rupture evolved more slowly and more symmetrically. Eventually, the northern asperity became predominant with maximum slip reaching about 20 m. Most of the seismic moment was released within 110s, a relatively short time, explained by the bilateral propagation. The overall average rupture velocity is 2.6 km/s but propagation occurred initially faster towards the south (3.2 km/s). Large slip did not reach the trench, a result consistent with the moderate size of the tsunami. Down‐dip, rupture stopped at about 50 km depth, in agreement with the lower limit of the locked zone inferred by Ruegg et al. (2009) from pre‐seismic GPS data.
Predicting Willingness to pay for Geographical Origin in Albania: A Logistic Approach

This study empirically evaluates the factors that determine willingness to pay a premium for a product’s geographical origin and the effect of socio-demographics in indicating one or another factor. The premium to origin is linked with the traditional aspect, low health risk and high nutritional values. Logistic regression shows that elder, highly educated people buying in dairy shops are less likely to pay a higher premium. Consumers who are more likely to pay more include: those on high incomes who place importance on origin and taste attributes during the buying decision process and, in so doing, link the extra cost with the fact that it comes from a traditional cheese-producing region.
Data Mining Big Data Inpatient Database Using Cuckoo Search

This paper investigates data mining in a medical dataset by using the stochastic population-based nature-inspired Cuckoo search algorithm. Particularly, association rules are mined by applying an objective function composed of support and confidence weighted by two parameters for controlling the importance of each measure. The rules are mined in a Nationwide Inpatient Sample dataset, which is a collection of discharge records of several hospitals in the USA. Only those records, where a patient was diagnosed with Type II diabetes mellitus were extracted for association rule mining. The results show that the found rules are simple, easy to understand and also interesting, as they were verified with actual clinical studies. The results obtained can be beneficial to either doctors or insurance companies.
Changes in proteins and starch granule size distribution during grain filling of triticale

En el presente trabajo se evaluaron los cambios producidos en las fracciones proteicas y en la distribucion de tamano de los granulos de almidon durante el llenado del grano de triticale. El seguimiento se realizo sobre dos lineas de triticale(X Triticosecale Wittmack) (T y B) desde el dia 14 al dia 47 despues de antesis(DAA). La sintesis de albuminas y globulinas disminuye a medida que el grano se va llenando, mientras que la de las fracciones de prolaminas y glutelinas aumenta. Se encontraron diferencias significativas en el contenido de proteinas entre las dos lineas en los diferentes estados, la linea B mostro una mayor velocidadde sintesis. A medida que los granos alcanzaron la madurez fisiologica, se observo un incremento en la proporcion de grandes polimeros proteicos separados por electroforesis en geles de poliacrilamida en condiciones no reductoras.Las proteinas mas pequenas y las retenidas en el gel con una concentraciondel 12% de acrilamida, disminuyeron en la linea T, pero se mantuvieron sin cambios en B desde los 14 DAA hasta madurez fisiologica. La distribucion de tamano de los granulos de almidon se caracterizo con un analizador de tamano de particulas. En ambas lineas se observo una distribucion de tamano bimodal. Durante la maduracion el volumen porcentual de los granulos grandes disminuyo y el de los menores aumento. En la linea B, los granulos fueron mas pequenos y mostraron un mayor volumen porcentual que en la linea T. Los resultados obtenidos en la sintesis de proteinas y en el tamano de los granulos de almidon, sugieren que las diferencias observadas entre las dos lineas pueden estar relacionadas con la mayor presencia de grano arrugado en la linea B.
AN EVALUATION OF STONE MARTEN (MARTES FOINA) RECORDS IN THE CITY OF BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

A multi-scale investigation into the urbanization process of the stone marten in Budapest was initiated in 1996. Topographic records (n = 214) of stone martens were gathered within the city’s administrative area (525 km2) on the basis of questionnaires, correspondence and phone-calls. Earlier studies had pointed out that the occurrence and the diversity of the food-basis of this species does not show a significant relation to the greenness of habitats in Budapest. The aim of our analysis was to search for connections between confirmed records of stone martens and the habitat and structure of patches where they were located. Two main types of patches were defined: green habitat had >50% green covering, desert habitat ≤ 50%. Overall, the green patches were preferred (67%), although certain desert patches had a relatively high density of sightings. The reason for this might come from compensating factors, such as the structure of buildings, the type of roof or gutter. The multi-storey, old and often neglected houses, sometimes with inner gardens, appear to be excellent hideouts that also provide some nutritive sources. No similar analysis appears to have been carried out to date neither in Budapest nor elsewhere.
Mathur, Neha and Glesk, Ivan and Buis, Adrianus (2016) Thermal time constant : optimizing the skin temperature predictive modelling in lower limb prostheses using Gaussian processes. IET Healthcare Technology

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Struggles Over Legitimacy in Global Organizational Restructuring: A Rhetorical Perspective on Legitimation Strategies and Dynamics in a Shutdown Case

Critical organization scholars have focused increasing attention on industrial and organizational restructurings such as shutdown decisions. However, little is known about the rhetorical strategies used to legitimate or resist plant closures in organizational negotiations. In this article, we draw from New Rhetoric to analyze rhetorical struggles, strategies and dynamics in unfolding organizational negotiations. We focus on the shutdown of the bus body unit of the Sweden-based Volvo Bus Corporation in Finland. We distinguish five types of rhetorical legitimation strategies and dynamics. These include the three classical dynamics of logos (rational arguments), pathos (emotional moral arguments), and ethos (authority-based arguments), but also autopoiesis (autopoietic narratives), and cosmos (cosmological constructions). Our analysis contributes to previous studies on organizational restructuring by providing a more nuanced understanding of how contemporary industrial closures are legitimated and resisted in organizational negotiations. This study also increases theoretical understanding of the role of rhetoric in legitimation more generally.
Crecimiento, carbohidratos solubles y ácidos grasos de verdolaga (Portulaca oleracea L.) sometida a tres niveles de radiación

La herbacea anual verdolaga ( Portulaca oleracea L.), una especie C4 ampliamente distribuida la cual se sometia a crecimiento se hizo crecer a diferentes condiciones de radiacion. Se determino el efecto de la luz sobre el crecimiento de la planta, la distribucion de carbono, y las concentraciones de carbohidratos solubles y acidos grasos (particularmente w3 insaturados) de las hojas. Las plantulas crecieron bajo tres regimenes de luz: luz total, sombra parcial (30% de la luz total) y sombra total (10% de la luz total). En la luz total se obtuvo un rapido crecimiento vegetativo despues de los 13-15 dias y la floracion se presento un mes despues de la emergencia de las plantulas; ambas variables disminuyeron en el tratamiento de sombra total. A las tres semanas despues de la emergencia de los individuos, el area foliar, la biomasa de las hojas, tallos y raices fueron mayores a luz total. La relacion raiz/vastago disminuyo bajo la condicion de radiacion mas baja, y la relacion area foliar, el area foliar especifica y la proporcion del peso foliar incrementaron tanto en la sombra total como en la parcial. A las seis semanas, las plantas tratadas con luz total tuvieron una baja proporcion de la biomasa de las hojas (4%), y una alta proporcion en la correspondiente a las raices (50%) en relacion a los tratamientos de sombra, en los cuales los tallos y las estructuras reproductivas constituyeron la mayor fraccion de la biomasa total. En la sombra total, 46% de la biomasa total se localizo en las hojas. Adicionalmente, la radiacion mas baja redujo la concentracion de carbohidratos solubles de las hojas a 18% de la correspondiente a las plantas que crecieron bajo luz total. La sombra tambien mostro una tendencia a incrementar las concentraciones de la fraccion de acidos grasos polares de las hojas, incluyendo 18:3u3 y el polimetil unidos a los alcoholes y al fitol. Mientras que las plantas se compensaron en el sombreado parcial al secuestrar carbono para la produccion foliar, el sombreado total produjo inhibicion del crecimiento y efectos adicionales sobre el metabolismo de los carbohidratos y los lipidos.
Varietal Response on Plantlet Regeneration through Macro-Propagation in Banana (Musa spp. L.)

Banana is an antique fruit crop of world, which is also known as apple of paradise (Musa spp.) It is the most important world traded tropical fruit. India is the largest producer of banana and plantain in the world. But one of the common limiting factors for the extensionof plantation of banana is difficulty in obtaining planting material, its limited sucker production and slow development (Tezenas du moncel, 1985). In India, banana is largely grown by small and marginal farmers and they contribute to more than 90 per cent of the holdings. Farmers usually depend on natural regeneration of plants for the supply of such materials (Swennen, 1990 and Faturoti et al., 2002). Natural regeneration is very slow in banana due to hormone mediated apical dominance. Rapid production of planting materials can be achieved through in-vitro propagation but require more sophisticated technique, skill, care to handle and also not easily affordable by small farmers. Therefore, user friendly technique that requires little technical skills or equipment would prove more attractive to adoption by small scale farmers. Recently the plantain and banana improvement programme of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, advance the use of a macro-propagation method for increasing sucker multiplication at farm level. It can be achieved by mechanical means through International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 9 (2017) pp. 206-215 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Labor Market Dynamics: A Time‐Varying Analysis

type="main" xml:id="obes12096-abs-0001"> This paper studies how key labour market stylized facts and the responses of labour market variables to technology shocks vary over the US postwar period. It uses a benchmark dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium model enriched with labour market frictions and investment-specific technological progress that enables a novel identification scheme based on sign restrictions on a SVAR with time-varying coefficients and stochastic volatility. Key findings are: (i) the volatility in job finding and separation rates has declined over time, while their correlation varies across time; (ii) the job finding rate plays an important role for unemployment, and the two series are strongly negatively correlated over the sample period; (iii) the magnitude of the response of labour market variables to technology shocks varies across the sample period.
Isolation and characterization of caffeine degrading bacteria from coffee pulp

Pure culture of a Gram-positive bacterium was isolated from the coffee pulp and maintained on standard conventional nutrient agar medium. The bacterium was identified as Brevibacterium sp. (MTCC 10313) by the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, India. The bacterium was characterized with conventional tests and used to study the tolerance to different concentration of caffeine in both solid and liquid media. Brevibacterium sp. was grown in a liquid minimal medium containing 1-8 g/L caffeine with glucose and sucrose separately. The bacterium was able to tolerate up to 6 g/L of caffeine in solid medium and 4 g/L in liquid medium. From the bacterium, a plasmid of about 2500 bp mol wt was isolated. The isolated plasmid was used to transform Escherichia coli DH5α and the transformed colonies were inoculated in 1 to 8 g/L of caffeine containing minimal media to see whether the plasmid was involved in biodegradation of caffeine. It was observed that the plasmid biodegraded caffeine up to 2 g/L in minimal media, whereas non-transformed colonies could tolerate only up to 1 g/L caffein. Growth curves obtained in the minimal media showed that transformed cells of E.coli DH5α have greater ability to tolerate and degrade caffeine as compared to non-transformed cells.
Migrant Remittances, Human Capital Formation and Job Creation Externalities in Colombia

In this paper we model the effect of migrant remittances on job creation and human capital formation, given migration prospects. Model calibration of deep parameters was performed with data from the AMCO survey on migration and remittances. The simulations based on the model show that remittances can have offsetting effects on equilibrium human capital and labor market out- comes in the country of origin of migrants. First, remittances enhance school- ing opportunities for recipient households, and human capital formation can be augmented. Second, an increase in human capital supply by recipient house- holds induces job creation as labor demand increases in the origin country. If a sufficiently large share of remittance recipients do not migrate, then the net effect is brain gain rather than brain drain ensuing remittances. The job cre- ation spillover in local labor markets increases the rate of return to schooling for nonrecipient households, whose members are less likely to migrate. As a result, there are more incentives to substitute consumption for human capital investment. At the same time, the rise in expected income due to the spillover induces higher desired consumption. If the “substitution effect” outweighs the “income effect”, then remittances will increase overall human capital and re- duce the unemployment rate. The calibration and simulation analyses suggest that he net effect of remittances depends upon the accessibility of education and the degree and labor market frictions in the origin country as well as the immigration policy in the destination country of migrants.