Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three representative UK moorland soils show differences in decadal release of dissolved organic carbon in response to environmental change

Abstract. Moorland carbon reserves in organo-mineral soils may be crucial to predicting landscape-scale variability in soil carbon losses, an important component of which is dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Surface water DOC trends are subject to a range of scaling, transport and biotic processes that disconnect them from signals in the catchment's soils. Long-term soil datasets are vital to identify changes in DOC release at source and soil C depletion. Here we show, that moorland soil solution DOC concentrations at three key UK Environmental Change Network sites increased between 1993–2007 in both surface- and sub- soil of a freely-draining Podzol (48 % and 215 % increases in O and Bs horizons, respectively), declined in a gleyed Podzol and showed no change in a Peat. Our principal findings were that: (1) considerable heterogeneity in DOC response appears to exist between different soils that is not apparent from the more consistent observed trends for streamwaters, and (2) freely-draining organo-mineral Podzol showed increasing DOC concentrations, countering the current scientific focus on soil C destabilization in peats. We discuss how the key solubility controls on DOC associated with coupled physico-chemical factors of ionic strength, acid deposition recovery, soil hydrology and temperature cannot readily be separated. Yet, despite evidence that all sites are recovering from acidification the soil-specific responses to environmental change have caused divergence in soil DOC concentration trends. The study shows that the properties of soils govern their specific response to an approximately common set of broad environmental drivers. Key soil properties are indicated to be drainage, sulphate and DOC sorption capacity. Soil properties need representation in process-models to understand and predict the role of soils in catchment to global C budgets. Catchment hydrological (i.e. transport) controls may, at present, be governing the more ubiquitous rises in river DOC concentration trends, but soil (i.e. source) controls provide the key to prediction of future C loss to waters and the atmosphere.
Sensitivity Analysis using Approximate Moment Condition Models

We consider inference in models defined by approximate moment conditions. We show that near‐optimal confidence intervals (CIs) can be formed by taking a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, and adding and subtracting the standard error times a critical value that takes into account the potential bias from misspecification of the moment conditions. In order to optimize performance under potential misspecification, the weighting matrix for this GMM estimator takes into account this potential bias and, therefore, differs from the one that is optimal under correct specification. To formally show the near‐optimality of these CIs, we develop asymptotic efficiency bounds for inference in the locally misspecified GMM setting. These bounds may be of independent interest, due to their implications for the possibility of using moment selection procedures when conducting inference in moment condition models. We apply our methods in an empirical application to automobile demand, and show that adjusting the weighting matrix can shrink the CIs by a factor of 3 or more.
A CNN Based Approach for Garments Texture Design Classification

Identifying garments texture design automatically for recommending the fashion trends is important nowadays because of the rapid growth of online shopping. By learning the properties of images efficiently, a machine can give better accuracy of classification. Several Hand-Engineered feature coding exists for identifying garments design classes. Recently, Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown better performances for different object recognition. Deep CNN uses multiple levels of representation and abstraction that helps a machine to understand the types of data more accurately. In this paper, a CNN model for identifying garments design classes has been proposed. Experimental results on two different datasets show better results than existing two well-known CNN models (AlexNet and VGGNet) and some state-of-the-art Hand-Engineered feature extraction methods.
Importance of HIV cell-to-cell transmission - implications for neutralizing antibody

Viruses can infect a cell via one or both routes viz. cell-to-cell (c-c) or cell-free (c-f) . Pathogenesis studies of various viruses, including HIV, have shown that c-c transmission yields a significantly higher infection magnitude than the c-f route. Expectedly, potent antibodies inhibited c-f infection more efficiently than with c-cell transmission. To achieve a one-step, synchronous infection cycle that provides amplified infection, we have studied a consistent and efficient c-c HIV infection model since 1992. H9 cells persistently infected with HTLV-IIIB (H3B cells) and uninfected target CD4+ lymphocyte line (HuT78) were mixed in a ratio of 1:4 respectively. We have recently used this model to produce HIV designer antigens that have been shown to elicit monoclonal as well as polyclonal specific antibodies against novel epitopes that are formed post virus-cell engagement, but prior to fusion. The model can be extended for HIV neutralizing antibody assays or drug inhibitors against high multiplicity of infection.
Attitudes and Behavioural Intentions of Typically Developing Adolescents towards a Hypothetical Peer with Asperger Syndrome

This study examines the attitudes and the behavioural intentions of typically developing (TD) adolescents towards ahypothetical peer with Asperger syndrome (AS). Participants (N= 179, M age= 13.7 years) viewed two Powerpointpresentations one of a TD male target and one of a male target with AS. The target with AS was introduced eitherwith descriptive or combined information delivered either by a hypothetical friend or by a hypothetical teacher.Attitudes and behavioural intentions were assessed by the administration of the Shared Activities Questionnaire andthe Adjective Checklist. Results yielded that participants were more positive towards the TD target than towards thetarget with AS. Regarding the target with AS, there was no significant overall advantage of either information typewhereas the friend rather than the teacher source triggered more positive responses. Limitations and suggestions forfuture research are discussed.
Preliminary Development and Evaluation of Lightning Jump Algorithms for the Real-Time Detection of Severe Weather

Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that rapid increases in total lightning activity (intracloud + cloud-to-ground) are often observed tens of minutes in advance of the occurrence of severe weather at the ground. These rapid increases in lightning activity have been termed “lightning jumps. ” Herein, the authors document a positive correlation between lightning jumps and the manifestation of severe weather in thunderstorms occurring across the Tennessee Valley and Washington D.C. A total of 107 thunderstorms from the Tennessee Valley; Washington, D.C.; Dallas, Texas; and Houston, Texas, were examined in this study. Of the 107 thunderstorms, 69 thunderstorms fall into the category of nonsevere and 38 into the category of severe. From the dataset of 69 isolated nonsevere thunderstorms, an average, peak, 1-min flash rate of 10 flashes per minute was determined. A variety of severe thunderstorm types were examined for this study, including a mesoscale convective system, mesoscale convective vortex, tor.
Autonomic Control of Heat Rate Variability in Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) Hatchlings

Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the role of the autonomic nervous system in the heart rate variability of day-old emu hatchlings. Atropine and propranolol were administered to block the action of cholinegric and adrenegric pathways and thereby reduce heart rate.
Correlation of CD 4 + and CD 8 + T lymphocytes and Th 17 with acute coronary syndrome

We studied CD4+ and CD8+ levels in peripheral blood from patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) before and after treatment. We also examined the percentage of Th17 among CD4+ T lymphocytes to determine whether its trend changes and to evaluate the clinical significance of such changes. We studied 100 patients, dividing them into the following 4 groups: (1) an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) group (n=30), (2) an unstable angina pectoris (UAP) group (n=30), (3) stable angina pectoris (SAP) group (n=20) and (4) control group (n=20). The percentage of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from each group was measured by flow cytometry. The differences among the groups were evaluated, and their correlations with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis (Gensini score) were analyzed. In this study, the proportions of CD8+ lymphocytes in the UAP and AMI groups before treatment were significantly lower than in the normal control group. After treatment, the CD4+/CD8+ ratio in the ACS group increased, as the proportion of CD8+ T lymphocytes significantly decreased. Before treatment, the proportions of peripheral blood Th17 cells among CD4+ T cells in the UAP and AMI groups were significantly higher than in the SAP and normal control groups. We also found that the percentage of Th17 cells among CD4+ T cells decreased significantly after treatment. Therefore, the levels of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes correlate with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Th17 cells also play a role in forming unstable atherosclerotic plaques in coronary heart disease.
Learning to teach in a research-oriented school-based language teaching programme

This article reports on a research-oriented school-based language teacher education programme in Australia in which native speakers of Chinese were trained to be teacher-researchers while teaching in Australian schools. Qualitative meta-synthesis was employed to analyse, synthesise and interpret teacher research produced by teacher-researchers so as to understand their learning in the programme. This meta-synthesis reveals that by acting, observing, listening and reflecting, the teacher-researchers developed further understanding about pedagogy as well as themselves. Findings of this meta-synthesis support the use of a school-based setting for developing contextualised understanding about pedagogy, and for teachers to construct a teaching self in the specific context.
Effect of Expected Rewards on Children's Creativity

This study examined the effect of expected rewards on children's creativity. Sixty-one female gymnasts (ages 4-17) were randomly assigned to a no-reward or expected reward condition. All participants completed both a training task that required divergent thinking (generating themes for a gymnastics gala) and a transfer task (using circles to make pictures). The reward contingency was in effect only during the training task. Creativity was assessed by (a) consensual judgment of 5 raters and (b) determining the statistical rarity of a given response for this sample of participants. Results indicated that rewards lead younger children to generate less appropriate themes on the training task and children of all ages to draw somewhat less creative pictures on the transfer task. It was also found that the consensual judgment measure of creativity was more sensitive to the age of children than was the rarity measure.
Bone Characteristics of Broilers Supplemented with Vitamin

Vitamin D is added to broiler diets to supply its physiological requirement for bone formation. The fast growth rate of modern broilers is often associated with poor bone formation. Increasing vitamin D supplementation levels and the use of more available sources have applied to try to prevent leg problems, to increase carcass yield, and to improve the performance of broilers. The present study evaluated three vitamin D supplementation levels (1) 3,500 IU (control); (2) control + 1,954 IU of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol; and (3) control + 3,500 IU of vitamin D in broiler diets supplied up to 21 days of age. The objective was to investigate if the vitamin D levels above the recommendations could reduce leg problems in broilers. In this experiment, a total of 1,296 oneday-old male and female Cobb® 500 broilers were used. A 2 x 3 factorial arrangement was applied, consisting of two sexes and three vitamin D levels. No difference was found between the levels of vitamin D (p > 0.05), the performance of males or females, the gait score, the valgus and varus incidence, the tibial dyschondroplasia incidence, the occurance of femoral degeneration, the bone colorimetric, and the carcass yield. Parts yield differences were found (p > 0.05), except for liver and intestine yields. We concluded that the lowest tested vitamin D level (3,500 IU per kilogram of feed) added to the diet was the best choice in terms of cost/ benefit to help minimizing leg problems in broilers.
A new refinement of Nash equilibrium concept in discontinuous games

We introduce the new concept of prudent equilibrium to model strategic uncertainty, and prove it exists in large classes of discontinuous games. When the game is better-reply secure, we show that prudent equilibrium refines Nash equilibrium. In contrast with the current literature, we don’t use probabilities to model players’ strategies and beliefs about other players’ strategies. We provide examples (first-price auctions, location game, Nash demand game, etc.) where prudent equilibrium concept removes most non-intuitive solutions of the game. JEL classification: C02, C62, C72, L13.
The Relationship between Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction: The Case of Pakistani Universities

This paper aims to find out the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction based on age, gender, nature of job, cadre, work experience of university teachers, and sector of university. The Pearson correlation indicates: no significant relationship found between job satisfaction and overall occupational stress; inverse relationship is found between the occupational stress and overall job satisfaction in faculty members of private universities; is no relationship between the occupational stress and overall job satisfaction in faculty members of public universities; no relationship between the occupational stress and overall job satisfaction in case of both male and female faculty members of universities; young age university teachers are more sensitive to the occupational stress and job satisfaction; and no significant relationship is found between the occupational stress and overall job satisfaction in faculty members of universities across the nature of job; visiting, contract and permanent.
Effect of Synthesis on Quality, Electronic Properties and Environmental Stability of Individual Monolayer Ti3C2 MXene Flakes

2D transition metal carbide Ti3C2Tx (T stands for surface termination), the most widely studied MXene, has shown outstanding electrochemical properties and promise for a number of bulk applications. However, electronic properties of individual MXene flakes, which are important for understanding the potential of these materials, remain largely unexplored. Herein, a modified synthetic method is reported for producing high‐quality monolayer Ti3C2Tx flakes. Field‐effect transistors (FETs) based on monolayer Ti3C2Tx flakes are fabricated and their electronic properties are measured. Individual Ti3C2Tx flakes exhibit a high conductivity of 4600 ± 1100 S cm−1 and field‐effect electron mobility of 2.6 ± 0.7 cm2 V−1 s−1. The resistivity of multilayer Ti3C2Tx films is only one order of magnitude higher than the resistivity of individual flakes, which indicates a surprisingly good electron transport through the surface terminations of different flakes, unlike in many other 2D materials. Finally, the fabricated FETs are used to investigate the environmental stability and kinetics of oxidation of Ti3C2Tx flakes in humid air. The high‐quality Ti3C2Tx flakes are reasonably stable and remain highly conductive even after their exposure to air for more than 24 h. It is demonstrated that after the initial exponential decay the conductivity of Ti3C2Tx flakes linearly decreases with time, which is consistent with their edge oxidation.
Effects of Chemical Composition of PM2.5 on Visibility in a Semi-rural City of Sichuan Basin

The rate of visibility deterioration in Ya’an city in the Sichuan Basin has been accelerating since the 2000s. Issues related to the air quality as well as meteorological conditions are reported in this study. Fine particulate matters (PM2.5) were collected in Ya’an from June 2013 till June 2014. The chemical compositions of the samples were determined. The annual average visual range (VR), PM2.5 concentrations, and ambient light extinction coefficient (bext) were 11.9 ± 9.2 km, 64.1 ± 41.6 µg m–3, and 452 ± 314 Mm–1, respectively. The highest concentration of PM2.5, the highest bext, and the lowest VR were all seen in winter, followed by spring, autumn, and summer. Organic matter (OM), ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4], and ammonium nitrate [NH4NO3] were the major constituents, accounting for 32.8%, 28.3%, and 12.1%, respectively, of the total PM2.5 mass. The revised Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) equation was applied to estimate ambient bext. On an annual basis, (NH4)2SO4 was the most significant contributor (43.1%), followed by OM (27.1%) and NH4NO3 (22.4%), which, in total, accounted for 92.6% of the ambient bext. Rayleigh, elemental carbon, fine soil, nitrogen dioxide, and chloride salt accounted for a minor fraction (7.4%). Up to ~40.8% of the ambient bext was ascribed to relative humidity (RH), of which 26.4% and 14.0% were attributed to the hygroscopic growth of (NH4)2SO4 and NH4NO3, respectively. More efforts are needed to reduce the average daily PM2.5 concentration of < 59 µg m–3 to avoid the occurrence of haze under a high average RH of 78.3 ± 10%, which significantly impacts visibility through various physico-chemical processes. Emissions of precursor gases, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds, should be reduced to improve the air quality and visibility in Ya’an.
Monitoring and quantifying future climate projections of dryness and wetness extremes: SPI bias

The adequacy of the gamma distribution (GD) for monthly precipitation totals is reconsidered. The motivation for this study is the observation that the GD fails to represent precipitation in considerable areas of global observed and simulated data. This misrepresentation may lead to erroneous estimates of the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), eval- uations of models, and assessments of climate change. In this study, the GD is compared to the Weibull (WD), Burr Type III (BD), exponentiated Weibull (EWD) and gener- alised gamma (GGD) distribution. These distributions extend the GD in terms of possible shapes (skewness and kurtosis) and the behaviour for large arguments. The comparison is based on the Akaike information criterion, which maximises information entropy and reveals a trade-off between devia- tion and the numbers of parameters used. We use monthly sums of observed and simulated precipitation for 12 calendar months of the year. Assessing observed and simulated data, (i) the Weibull type distributions give distinctly improved fits compared to the GD and (ii) the SPI resulting from the GD overestimates (underestimates) extreme dryness (wetness).
ORBITAL STABILITY OF SPATIALLY SYNCHRONIZED SOLITARY WAVES OF SCHRÖDINGER SYSTEM WITH POWER-TYPE NONLINEARITIES

In this manuscript, the orbital stability of solitary-wave solutions is investigated regarding the following m-coupled nonlinear Schrödinger system with power-type nonlinearity i ∂ ∂t uj + ∂2 ∂x2 uj + m ∑ i=1 bij |ui||uj |uj = 0, where 2 ≤ m, 2 ≤ p < 3 and uj are complex-valued functions of (x, t) ∈ R2, j = 1, 2, · · · ,m and bij , i 6= j are positive constants satisfying bij = bji. When p = 2, it was established in a recent work of ours that spatially synchronized solitary-wave solutions for this system exist and are orbitally stable. (By synchronized solutions we mean solutions in which the components are proportional to one another.) While these completely settle the question of existence and stability of synchronized solitary waves for arbitrary integer m equations where only partial results were known in the literature for m ≥ 3 theretofore, they still leave open the question for the case of general power p. In this paper, it will be shown that spatially synchronized solitarywave solutions for this system exist and are orbitally stable where m ≥ 2, 2 ≤ p < 3. Moreover, the conditions imposed on the symmetric matrix B = (bij) satisfied here are both sufficient and necessary for the m-coupled nonlinear Schrödinger system with power-type nonlinearity to admit synchronized ground-state solutions.
The Threonine Requirements and its Effects on Growth Performance and Gut Morphology of Broiler Chicken Fed Different Levels of Protein

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of dietary threonine (Thr) and crude protein (CP) on growth performance, gut measurements and morphology and to estimate Standardized Ileal Digestible (SID) Thr requirements of Ross 308 males at 0-21 days of age. The SID Thr levels were 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0 and 1.1% with two levels of protein 16 and 19%. Chicks were randomized into 64 battery pens (5 chicks per replicate). FI was lower for broiler given the high CP diets compare to those fed on the low CP diets. BWG and FCR improved up to 0.7% Thr in both CP levels. Weight gain improved non-linearly suggesting optimum dietary SID Thr levels between 0.89 and 0.84% (quadratic) at 16 and 19% ideal protein, respectively. Significant interaction was found between CP and Thr on relative weight and length of duodenum and jejunum (p<0.05). Thr supplementation had significant effect on villus height, epithelial thickness, goblet cell number and crypt depth in duodenum, jejunum and ileum (p<0.01). Low CP diets adequate in Lys, TSAA supplemented with Thr may result in optimal BWG and FCR as well as growth of intestinal length non-linearly. Parameters of gut functionality such as microvilli height, crypt depth and epithelia thickness seemed to be improved with even higher levels of dietary SID Thr level.
Visitors Experiences in Different Zoo Exhibits

Zoos help people to learn through exhibiting the relationships of animals in nature. Therefore, they have the important missions of education and protection of wild life. Most of these missions are achieved through visitors’ experiences in exhibit areas. Therefore, it is important to understand visitors’ experiences in the zoo and know the reasons that affect these experiences. Animals should exhibit normal behaviors actively to enable visitors to have positive experiences during their visits. For this reason, the design of exhibit areas is significant. The purpose of this study is to determine the visitors’ perceptual descriptions in the zoos including different exhibit areas and their reasons to visit them. Thus, the role of the zoos in enabling visitors to learn nature protection and have environmental consciousness is explored correlating with zoo typologies. In this study, three zoos in different typologies in Turkey have been examined and it is conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the typologies of the zoos have been identified. In the second stage, a questionnaire has been conducted to find out the visitors’ visiting aims, the extent they reached these aims, their level of appreciation and their perceptions on exhibit areas. The questionnaire has been performed with 450 zoo visitors, and there have been 150 visitors from each zoo. According to the results of this study, it has been explored that visitors visit the zoos mostly for “education” without considering the design approach. However, it has been found out that the design of exhibit areas affects visitors’ level of appreciation and their zoo descriptions. It has been identified that as the level of appreciation increases, the level of reaching aims increases.