Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing peat humification analysis in an Australian context: identifying wet shifts in regional climate over the past 4000 years

SUMMARY Peat humification analysis is presented as a robust palaeoclimatic proxy, suitable for use on mid–late Holocene peat sequences situated in the Southern Hemisphere. The proxy is shown to permit the identification of wet and dry shifts in a peat sequence from the humid tropics of north-eastern Australia. A significant correlation is found between the humification record and other proxies indicative of past climate conditions such as pollen, δ 13 C, C/N and macrocharcoal. Sixteen wet shifts detected in the humification record for Bromfield Swamp occur at the following dates (with 2σ range): 3830 (3920–3740), 3560 (3640– 3480), 3490 (3560–3420), 3380 (3450–3300), 3120 (3250–2970), 2950 (3100–2790), 2560 (2710–2450), 2430 (2600–2260), 2120 (2330–1910), 1750 (1980–1520), 1430 (1660–1200), 1170 (1390–960), 1010 (1220–820), 620 (770–500), 300 (400–200) and 100 (200–10) cal. yr BP. Eleven dry shifts are also identified in the record at 4220 (4330–4110), 3670 (3750–3590), 3330 (3420–3220), 3020 (3170–2870), 2350 (2530– 2160), 2020 (2230–1800), 1730 (1980–1510), 1290 (1510–1070), 700 (870–560), 400 (470–300) and 260 (360–150) cal yr BP. Blechnum and Poaceae are identified by pollen analysis to be the dominant plants of the swamp surface over the past 4000 years. The ratio of these two plant taxa in the pollen record correlates well with identified wet and dry shifts. It is suggested that a ratio ≤1 possibly indicates dry conditions, a ratio of >1–3 indicates wet or dry conditions, and a ratio >3 implies wet conditions. Large macrocharcoal peaks are recorded during the initiation phase of the peat sequence at approximately 4090 cal. yr BP, and at 3700–3620 cal. yr BP, both of these time periods being coincident with dry phases. Isolated minor macrocharcoal peaks at ca. 2860, 2820, 2620, 2560, 2130, 1930, 1740 and 200 cal. yr BP are found to coincide with periods of average effective precipitation (based on the humification proxy) and so may reflect fire on the swamp surface, transport and re-deposition down-slope of old charcoal after a high rainfall event, or burning in the landscape by indigenous people.
Trianthema portulacastrum and Cyperus rotundus Interference in Maize and Application of Allelopathic Crop Extracts for Their Effective Management1

ABSTRACT Horse purslane (Trianthema portulacastrum) and purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) are two noxious C4 weeds of maize crop causing extensive yield losses. A two years field experiment was performed to estimate interference of T. portulacastrum and C. rotundus and to evaluate the role of allelopathic water extracts for effective weed management in maize. Five plant water extracts in ten binary combinations were foliar applied in triplicated randomized complete block design. Plots treated with commercial herbicide atrazine and weedy check (control), were also maintained for comparison. The highest density of both weed species was observed at 45 days after sowing (DAS) while weed dry biomass was higher at 60 DAS. Binary combination of sorghum-sunflower depicted greater suppression for weed density, dry biomass and persistence index (88-92% for T. portulacastrum and 65-81% for C. rotundus) as compared with weedy check. This treatment combination has also recorded an enhancement of 125% in crop resistance index, 84% in leaf area index and 41% in crop growth rate at 60-75 DAS thus, leading to 51% improvement in grain yield. Binary combination of sunflower-brassica returned maximum marginal net benefit, while sorghum-maize combination anticipated the peak value for marginal rate of return. Along with the effective weed management and higher yield, sorghum-sunflower documented the maximum net economic benefits among different plant extract combinations therefore, suggesting that exogenous application of sorghum-sunflower extract can be effectively used for controlling these weeds in maize field.
Effect of Dietary Protein and Lipid Levels on Compensatory Growth of Juvenile Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) Reared in Suboptimal Temperature

Effect of dietary protein and lipid levels on compensatory growth of juvenile olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) was determined in suboptimal temperature (). Five hundred forty fish averaging 79.2 g were randomly distributed into 27 of 300 L flow-through tanks (20 fish/tank). Nine treatments were prepared in triplicate: fish were hand-fed with control (C) diet for 10 weeks (10WF-C); four fish groups were starved for 1 week and then fed with C, high protein (HP), high lipid (HL) and combined high protein and high lipid (HPL) diets for 9 weeks, referred to as 9WF-C, 9WF-HP, 9WF-HL, 9WF-HPL, respectively; and other four fish groups were starved for 2 weeks and then fed with C, HP, HL and HPL diets for 8 weeks, referred to as 8WF-C, 8WF-HP, 8WF-HL and 8WF-HPL, respectively. Weight gain and specific growth rate of fish in 9WF-HP, 9WF-HPL, 8WF-HP and 8WF-HPL treatments were higher than those of fish in 9WF-HL and 8WF-HL treatments. Feed efficiency of fish in 8WF-HP treatment was higher than that of fish in 9WF-C, 9WF-HL and 8WF-HL treatments. Protein efficiency ratio of fish in 10WF-C, 8WF-C, 8WF-HP and 8WF-HPL treatments was higher that that of fish in 9WF-HL and 8WF-HL treatments. Juvenile olive flounder subjected to 2-week feed deprivation could achieve full compensatory growth with dietary supplementation of protein or combined high protein and high lipid.
STATUS OF C-BAND ACCELERATING SECTION DEVELOPMENT AT THE KEKB INJECTOR LINAC

This paper reports on the recent status of the development of a C-band accelerating section for a future upgrade of the KEKB injector linac for the SuperKEKB project. Four prototypes of C-band accelerating sections were developed and installed in the KEKB linac in the summer of 2005. They have been driven by a 50-MW klystron and an rf-pulse compressor and operated for ten months as an accelerator module in the linac. This paper describes the present configuration of the accelerator module and its performance. Also given is the status of the development of a fifth prototype of the accelerating section, which was recently completed.
Clinical and histological effects of weakly focused high-frequency ultrasounds on human subcutaneous adipose tissue Os efeitos clínicos e histológicos doS ultrassoNS de alta frequência minimamente focadoS no tecido subcutaneo humano

Introduction: Lipo-reductive ultrasound devices are commonly used for non-invasive body sculpting purposes because they can achieve clinically appreciable subcutaneous fat pad reduction and are safe and well tolerated by patients. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the morphological changes induced on the different cell components of human skin as a result of weakly focused high-frequency ultrasound. Methods: Full-thickness skin samples exposed or not to ultrasound ex vivo, and skin biopsies from patients pre-treated or not with ultrasound before lipo-reductive surgery, were analyzed to evaluate possible morphological changes of adipocytes. Adipocyte apoptosis and triglyceride release were also assayed. Clinical evaluation of the effects of repeated ultrasound treatment vs. sham-treatment was also performed. Results: Compared with the control samples, ultrasound treatment induced an appreciable reduction in adipocyte size, the appearance of plasma membrane micropores and triglyceride release, without appreciable changes in microvascular, stromal and epidermal components, and in the number of apoptotic adipocytes. Clinically, the ultrasound treatment resulted in a time-dependent significant reduction of abdominal fat. Conclusions: This study supports the safety and efficacy of trans-cutaneous weakly focused high-frequency ultrasounds for localized fat reduction, and provides experimental evidence for a possible mechanism of action.
Cash Holdings and the Effects of Pre-IPO Financing in Newly Public Firms

Newly public firms hold far higher levels of cash than mature firms, and these substantially higher cash holdings remain relatively stable for extended periods after the IPO. This is puzzling since many measures of firm growth, which are generally hypothesized to be related to demand for cash, converge to those of mature firms over this period. Interestingly, newly public firms are unique in the extent to which they benefit from these high cash holdings: among newly public firms a high cash portfolio significantly outperforms a lower cash portfolio, but we do not find a similar relation among mature firms. We posit that newly public firms’ cash holdings and the associated benefits are driven by uncertainty regarding the availability of post-IPO financing. Those with pre-IPO syndicated loans (one-third of our sample) likely face the least uncertainty. Consistent with this conjecture, both the high level of cash holdings and the benefits of these cash holdings are restricted to the subsample of newly public firms without syndicated loans prior to the IPO.
Effects of Swirl and Flow Rate on the Flow and Heat Transfer in a Pre-swirl Rotating-disc System

Pre-swirl is often used in the internal cooling-air systems of gas turbines to reduce the temperature of the cooling air relative to the rotating turbine blades. In a "direct-transfer" system, the air passes axially across the wheel-space from stationary pre-swirl nozzles to receiver holes in the rotating turbine disc. This paper investigates the effects of inlet flow conditions and rotational speed on the flow and heat transfer in such a system, using a simplified computational model for 3D steady, incompressible turbulent flow. Computed results are compared with measurements of tangential velocity and Nusselt number made in a complementary experimental study. The results show that there are significant mixing losses near the inlet nozzles, resulting in a reduced “effective” pre-swirl ratio at inlet. The computed tangential velocity distributions suggest free-vortex-type behaviour for the flow between the pre-swirl nozzle radius and that of the receiver holes. There is mainly good agreement between the computed and measured velocities, although the measured values are generally lower than the computed values and follow free-vortex behaviour less closely. There is less good agreement between computed and measured values of Nusselt number, although the correct trends are obtained for the effects of the main flow parameters. NOMENCLATURE a , b inner, outer radius of disc cp specific heat of air at constant pressure Cw nondimensional mass flow rate (= m /µb) d pre-swirl nozzle diameter G gap ratio (= s/b) k turbulence kinetic energy, thermal conductivity of air m mass flow rate N number of pre-swirl nozzles Nu local Nusselt number (=qr/k(Taw –T w )) Pr Prandtl number (=µcp /k) q heat flux (from air to disc) r, φ, z radial, tangential and axial coordinates
Incidence and Predictors of Contrast Induced Nephropathy after Coronary Intervention at College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur.

Background and Aims: The implications of radio-contrast induced nephropathyare disastrous. In Nepal there is scarcity of data on contrast induced nephropathy. This observational descriptive study was undertaken to study the incidence of contrast induced nephropathy and to identify risk factors (predictors) for the development of contrast induced nephropathy in patients undergoing coronary angiography and angioplasty in atertiary care hospital. Methods: The subject consists of 540 patients undergoing coronary intervention from 2011 to 2013 were enrolled by convenient sampling technique. Two hundreds ten patients were excluded from the study. Therefore, a total of 330 patients were studied and analyzed. Contrast induced nephropathy was defined as an increase of >25% or >0.5 mg/dl in pre-catheterization serum creatinine at or after 48 h after percutaneous coronary intervention. Estimated glomerular filtration rate as calculated by applying the 4 variables Modification of Diet in Renal Disease Study equation. Standard definitions were used to define the variables. Results: Twenty seven (8.18%) patients experienced contrast induced nephropathy. The incidence of contrast induced nephropathy in patients with baseline creatinine clearance <60 ml/min was 45.9%. Contrast induced nephropathy developed in 10% of anemic and 12.5% diabetic patients. The amount of the contrast agent administered was similar for both groups of patients (138.20±91.34ml vs. 175.56±118.86ml; p =0.254). No correlation was found between the amount of contrast agent administered and the change of serum creatinine concentration. Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that baseline e-GFR and baseline hemoglobin were independent predictors for Contrast induced nephropathy. Conclusion: The overall incidence of Contrast induced nephropathy after coronary intervention in this study is high. Patients with both preexisting renal insufficiency and anemia were at high risk of Contrast induced nephropathy. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3126/njh.v11i1. 10975 Nepalese Heart Journal 2014;11(1): 3-11
Associations between lesion-specific lameness and the milk yield of 1,635 dairy cows from seven herds in the Xth region of Chile and implications for management of lame dairy cows worldwide

Lameness is one of the greatest infringements of welfare in dairy cows. The objective of this study was to investigate associations between milk yield and foot lesions causing lameness in Chilean dairy cattle with the hypothesis that if we can demonstrate that lameness reduces yield, and so income, from lame dairy cows then we have both economic and welfare arguments for reducing lameness in dairy cattle. For one year, all lame cows from seven farms with Holstein Friesian cattle were treated by their herdsmen. Herdsmen were trained by the researcher and a colour atlas was utilised to assist in diagnosis of lesions. All abnormalities on the foot and the suspected cause of lameness were recorded, and cattle were treated. A two-level hierarchical model with repeated monthly test-day yields within cows was used to investigate the impact of double sole (DS), sole ulcer (SU), white line disease (WLD), digital dermatitis (DD) and all ‘other’ causes of lameness on milk yield before and after treatment. There were 1,635 cows with complete data. Cattle with a DS were higher yielding than cattle that were never lame with a reduction in yield from four months before treatment. Cattle lame with DD were higher yielding than non-lame cattle before and after treatment. For all causes of lameness, yield increased the month after treatment. We conclude that lesions causing lameness reduced the milk yield of dairy cows in these seven herds in Chile. We discuss the current evidence base for prevention of lameness in dairy cows and hypothesise that rapid treatment is a feasible current approach to improve cow welfare immediately and probably reduce milk lost; more evidence for effective prevention is required.
Environmental influences on the at-sea behaviour of a major consumer, Mirounga leonina, in a rapidly changing environment

Understanding the distribution and foraging ecology of major consumers within pelagic systems, specifically in relation to physical parameters, can be important for the management of bentho-pelagic systems undergoing rapid change associated with global climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances such as fishing (i.e., the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea). We tracked 11 adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), during their five-month post-moult foraging migrations from King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo), northern Antarctic Peninsula, using tags capable of recording and transmitting behavioural data and in situ temperature and salinity data. Seals foraged mostly within the Weddell–Scotia Confluence, while a few foraged along the western Antarctic Peninsula shelf of the Bellingshausen Sea. Mixed model outputs suggest that the at-sea behaviour of seals was associated with a number of environmental parameters, especially seafloor depth, sea-ice concentrations and the temperature structure of the water column. Seals increased dive bottom times and travelled at slower speeds in shallower areas and areas with increased sea-ice concentrations. Changes in dive depth and durations, as well as relative amount of time spent during the bottom phases of dives, were observed in relation to differences in overall temperature gradient, likely as a response to vertical changes in prey distribution associated with temperature stratification in the water column. Our results illustrate the likely complex influences of bathymetry, hydrography and sea ice on the behaviour of male southern elephant seals in a changing environment and highlight the need for region-specific approaches to studying environmental influences on behaviour.
Explaining Preferences for Control Rights in Strategic Alliances: A Property Rights and Capabilities Perspective Approach

Increases in alliance activity between research-intensive firms and incumbents is puzzling since it is challenging to contract upon highly uncertain R&D activities. Our paper extends prior research by exploring the relationship between firm capabilities and preferences for control rights. This link is important because the allocation of control rights has been shown to influence alliance outcomes. Using data based on a survey of biotechnology firms, we find that both current and future capabilities provide strong explanatory power for understanding preferences for control rights. Our results allow us to integrate aspects of the capabilities perspective into the property rights framework.
Beyond ECH capacities

ECH (embedded contact homology) capacities give obstructions to symplectically embedding one four-dimensional symplectic manifold with boundary into another. These obstructions are known to be sharp when the domain and target are ellipsoids (proved by McDuff), and more generally when the domain is a "concave toric domain" and the target is a "convex toric domain" (proved by Cristofaro-Gardiner). However ECH capacities often do not give sharp obstructions, for example in many cases when the domain is a polydisk. This paper uses more refined information from ECH to give stronger symplectic embedding obstructions when the domain is a polydisk, or more generally a convex toric domain. We use these new obstructions to reprove a result of Hind-Lisi on symplectic embeddings of a polydisk into a ball, and generalize this to obstruct some symplectic embeddings of a polydisk into an ellipsoid. We also obtain a new obstruction to symplectically embedding one polydisk into another, in particular proving the four-dimensional case of a conjecture of Schlenk.
Gender, Punishment, and Cooperation: Men Hurt Others to Advance Their Interests

A laboratory experiment reports on gender, cooperation, and punishment in two public goods games using high-powered punishment. In a public goods games with punishment, no statistically significant differences between men and women are reported. In a modified game that includes an explicit payoff for relative performance, men punish more than women, men obtain higher rank, and punishment by males decreases payoffs for both men and women. These results contribute to the debate about the origins and maintenance of cooperation.
Teaching English Pragmatics in an EFL Context: Effects of Obtrusive and Unobtrusive Focus on Form Instructions

With the aim of more emphasis on pragmatics and its inclusion in EFL classrooms, this study attempted to investigate the effectiveness of obtrusive and unobtrusive focus on form instructions on learners’ pragmatic performance of criticizing in English. 54 Iranian learners, all at intermediate level, participated in this study, and they were divided into three groups: 19 participants receiving obtrusive instruction, 21 learners receiving unobtrusive instruction and 14 participants had no pragmatic instruction (control group). Techniques related to each method were operationalized in details and applied in the classrooms. The most basic techniques in obtrusive methods were consciousness raising activities, metalinguistic explanation, and explicit correction. In unobtrusive method, input enhancement activities, and recast were used. Discourse completion test and oral feedback were used as pretests and posttests in this study. After applying statistical analyses using ANOVA, it was found that learners’ pragmatic knowledge of criticizing improved significantly in both kinds of instructions. Also, results of post hoc analyses indicated that learners in obtrusive focus on form instruction outperformed those in unobtrusive focus on form instruction significantly. These results were justified through noticing hypotheses, importance of metalinguistic explanations, effects of explicit correction, and output hypothesis. These findings may have great implications for language teachers, syllabus designers, and future researchers.
On the Conduction Mechanism of Silicate Glass Doped by Oxide Compounds of Ruthenium (Thick Film Resistors)

The results of the investigation of conduction mechanism of silicate glass doped by oxide compounds of ruthenium (thick film resistor) are reported. The formation of diffusion zones in the softened glass during firing process of the mixture of the glass and the dopant powders is considered. As the result the doping glass becomes conductive. These diffusion zones have higher conductivity and act as percolation levels for the free charge carriers. The effect of tem-perature and duration of firing process on the conductivity of doped glass is considered. Experimental results are in a good agreement with the model.
The effect of diet control and physical activity for 10 weeks on the body mass index lipid profile in a group of human subjects

In the elderly people with complex long-term health care needs clinical commissioning groups are currently model of health economic management with sustainable dynamics. This process has continuing healthcare funding, but personal health budgets can provide huge benefits for those individuals. The aim of a clinical commissioning groups performing health budget is to give these elderly people more choice and control over the money spent on meeting their health care and wellbeing needs. This means that clinical commissioning groups select services that meet their needs in a way that is most appropriate for them in a flexible way.
Generalized Runs Tests for the IID Hypothesis ∗

We provide a family of tests for the IID hypothesis based on generalized runs, powerful against unspecified alternatives, providing a useful complement to tests designed for specific alternatives, such as serial correlation, GARCH, or structural breaks. Our tests have appealing computational simplicity in that they do not require kernel density estimation, with the associated challenge of bandwidth selection. Simulations show levels close to nominal asymptotic levels. Our tests have power against both dependent and heterogeneous alternatives, as both theory and simulations demonstrate.