Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salinity Effects on Seedling Growth and Yield Components of Barley

Salinity stress is a serious threat of plant growth and production all over the world. Salinity in comparison with other stresses, limits the plant growth in a wider scale. So, there is a possibility of cultivar diversity use in a desirable traits selection under stress conditions. Flood irrigation practices that are commonly used in Islamic azad university gorgan branch in north of iran during the early stages of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) establishment may contribute to salinity damage and eventually decrease yield. Knowledge of salinity effects on barley seedling growth and yield components would improve management practices in fields and increase our understanding of salt tolerance mechanisms in barley. Salinity sensitivity of barley was studied to determine salinity effects on seedlings and yield components. Plants of barley cultivar martin were grown in a greenhouse in sand and irrigated with nutrient solutions of control and treatments amended with NaCl and CaCl2 (2:1 molar concentration) at 1.9, 3.4, 4.5, 6.1, 7.9 and 11.5 dS m-' electrical conductivity. Shoot dry weights of seedlings were measured at five harvests in the first month after seeding. Seedling growth was significantly reduced by salinity at the lowest salinity treatment, 1.9 dS m- 1 . At 1.9 and 3.4 dS m- 1 , significant reduction of seedling growth occurred at longer cumulative thermal time than at higher salt levels. Seedling survival was significantly reduced when salinity was 3.40 dS m-1 and higher. Highly significant linear responses of grain weight per plant, grain weight per spike, spikelet number per spike and tiller number per plant to salinity were observed. There was a common lowest salt level for fertility and pollen germination beyond which they were significantly reduced by salinity. Harvest index was significantly decreased when salinity was at 3.40 dS m- 1 and higher. Tiller number per plant and spikelet number per spike contributed the most variation in grain weight per plant under salinity. Reductions in seedling survival, tiller number per plant and spikelet number per spike were the major causes of yield loss in martin under salinity. The compensation between spikelets and other yield components was confounded with salinity effects, but was believed to be minor relative to the reduction of spike lets due to salinity and, therefore, not sufficient to offset yield loss even at moderate salt levels.
FAST SEISMIC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF RC FRAME STRUCTURES WITH CONSIDERATION OF ALEATORY AND EPISTEMIC UNCERTAINTY BY UTILIZING PBEE TOOLBOX AND WEB APPLICATION FOR PREDICTION OF IDA CURVES

A simplified methodology for seismic performance assessment of structures with consideration of both aleatory and epistemic uncertainty is briefly presented. The methodolo- gy involves pushover analysis for a set of structural models and nonlinear dynamic analysis of corresponding equivalent SDOF models. However, a methodology by itself without any support of sophisticated computational software is not intended to be used for practical ap- plications. Thus, a very efficient software tool, a PBEE toolbox (1) in conjunction with Open- Sees, was used in our study in order to perform pushover analyses of required computational simulations, while nonlinear dynamic analysis are approximately computed by using a web application for prediction of IDA curves (2), which was recently developed within ICE4RISK project. Presented methodology and software tools are demonstrated by means of an example of a three-storey reinforced concrete frame building. The results of the presented example have indicated that incorporation of the epistemic uncertainty, in addition to aleatory uncer- tainty, slightly increases dispersion and can substantially decrease the limit-state intensities. This effect increases with the severity of the limit state. It was also proved that sophisticated software tools are important ingredient of performance-based earthquake engineering and can significantly facilitate transferring knowledge into practice.
Pastoral Perceptions towards Livestock and Rangeland Management Practices in Kuraz District of South Omo Zone, South Western Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Kuraz district of south Omo Zone, South Nation nationalities people regional state (SNNPRS), with the objectives of assessing perception of pastoralists on livestock-rangeland management practices. The mean family size of the study district per household was 6.86, with very low education coverage 9.6%, which means 90.4% of the pastoralists were non-educated. Pastoralism (68.3%) and agro-pastoralism (31.7%) were the dominant production systems. The sale of livestock and livestock products were ranked 1 st and 2 nd as the main source of income. Migration was the first measure taken to cope up drought followed by inter-clan dependence. Almost all of the respondents replied that compared to the past, their grazing lands are now covered with bushes and unpalatable shrubs. Drought and overgrazing were ranked to be the 1 st and 2 nd factors for bush encroachment in the district. Pastoralists in the study district ranked drought and feed shortage as 1 st and 2 nd major livestock production constraints respectively. Herbaceous pasture and browse species of rangelands were ranked as 1 st and 2 nd sources of livestock feed respectively. There is poor traditional knowledge of rangeland management practices mainly due to poor elders’ coordination and presence of Island (Desset) for dry season feeding. Pastoralists in the study district replied that compared to the past now a days there is increased frequency in occurrence of drought. In general, this study revealed that pastoralists in the study district has poor knowledge of range resource management and utilization practices hence, they have to be trained and aware of appropriate ways of management and improvement practices like rotational grazing, enclosed area utilization and bush clearing in order to increase the productivity of livestock and rangeland for sustainable utilization Keywords: Bush encroachment, coping mechanism, livestock constraints, Migration and Pastoralists
Trade and the Skill Premium Puzzle with Capital Market Imperfections

An interesting puzzle is that trade liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s has been associated with a sharp increase in the skill premium in both developed and developing countries. This is in contrast with neoclassical theory, according to which trade should increase the relative return of the relatively abundant factor. We develop a simple model of trade with capital market imperfections, and show that trade can increase the skill premium in both the North and the South, and both in the short run as well as in the long run. We show that trade with a skill-intensive economy has two effects: it reduces the skilled wage, and thus discourages non talented agents out of the skilled labor force; and it reduces the cost of subsistence, thus allowing the talented offspring of unskilled workers to go to school. This compositional effect has a positive effect on the observed skill premium, possibly strong enough to counterweight the decrease in the skilled wage.
Do news announcements affect volatility spillovers? Evidence from implied volatilities

This paper investigates the role of scheduled news announcements in explaining the transmission of stock market volatility, both across U.S. and European markets and within European markets. Based on a set of widely followed implied volatility indices, we show that implied volatility spillovers exist between U.S. and European markets and within European markets. In addition, we construct various event dummies as well as surprise measures for U.S. and European macroeconomic news announcements. Our results suggest that news announcements explain partially the reported volatility spillovers and announcement surprises have a significant effect on the magnitude of volatility spillovers. Nevertheless, volatility linkages remain significant even after we control for the effect of news announcements. We show that the results hold even over the period of the 2007 sub-prime debt crisis. An additional check is also performed by applying the Bae, Karolyi and Stulz (2003) methodology that takes into account extreme co-movements in * We would like to thank Angelos Antzoulatos, Gikas Hardouvelis, Andrew Karolyi, Robin Lumsdaine, Angelo Ranaldo, Christodoulos Stefanadis, and participants at the 2009 HFAA Conference (Thessaloniki), 2010 Financial Management Association European Conference (Hamburg), 2010 Conference on Research on Economic Theory and Econometrics (Tinos) and Exeter Business School seminar for useful discussions and comments. Any remaining errors are our responsibility alone. a Department of Finance, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Arizona. b Xfi Centre for Finance and Investment, University of Exeter Business School, UK. c Department of Banking and Financial Management, University of Piraeus, Greece, and Financial Options Research Centre, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK. E-mail addresses: gjiang@email.arizona. edu (G.J. Jiang), E.Konstantinidi@exeter.ac. uk (E. Konstantinidi), gskiado@unipi.gr (G. Skiadopoulos). 2 volatilities. The findings of our study shed new lights on cross-market informational efficiency and provide new evidence on volatility contagion. JEL Classification: G13, G14, G15
Omitting Types in Fuzzy Predicate Logics 1 Vilém Novák and

The paper is a contribution to the model theory of fuzzy logic in narrow sense. We focus on the classical omitting types theorem and generalize it for predicate fuzzy logics with traditional syntax. First we prove this theorem for MTL∀-fuzzy predicate logic with countable language. Then we extend it to all core fuzzy logics with the language of arbitrary cardinality.
Low-Molecular HeterodimerTargeting Both PSMAandGRPR for Improved PETImaging andTherapyof ProstateCancer

BACKGROUND. It has recently been reported that metastases of prostate cancer usually show highly heterogeneous or partly lost prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression. In order to image and treat both PSMA positive and negative tissues PSMA targeting probes need to be extended by a further specificity. Since prostate cancer cells usually express both PSMA and gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) a bispecific low-molecular heterodimeric molecule, addressing both targets at the same time, may significantly improve prostate cancer imaging and therapy. METHODS. The nonapeptide BZH3 representing the GRPR binding part was combined with the urea-based PSMA inhibitor Glu-urea-Lys(Ahx)-HBED-CC. The syntheses of the compounds were performed according to standard Fmoc-solid phase peptide synthesis. The binding properties were analyzed by competitive cell binding and internalization experiments. The in vivo targeting properties were investigated by means of biodistribution studies. RESULTS. Cell binding experiments revealed high binding affinities to both GRPR and PSMA expressing cell lines. The heterodimer bound with IC50-values essentially matching the IC50 values of the respective monomers (25.0 5.4 nM for PSMA and 9.0 1.8 nM for GRPR, respectively). In vivo, the heterodimer showed dual targeting of PSMA (5.4%ID/g for PSMApositive tumors) and GRPR receptors (3.3% ID/g for GRPR-positive tumors) while exhibiting fast pharmacokinetic properties. The clearance from background was comparable to the monomeric PSMA-targeting reference. CONCLUSIONS. The heterodimeric molecule is a promising agent for PET imaging of primary and recurrent prostate cancer covering two receptor entities which might lead to an improved diagnostic sensitivity and therapeutic efficiency. Prostate 74:659–668, 2014. # 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
On local stabilities of $p$ -Kähler structures

By use of a natural extension map and a power series method, we obtain a local stability theorem for $p$ -Kähler structures with the $(p,p+1)$ th mild $\unicode[STIX]{x2202}\overline{\unicode[STIX]{x2202}}$ -lemma under small differentiable deformations.
The Pristine survey - III. Spectroscopic confirmation of an efficient search for extremely metal-poor stars

The Pristine survey is a narrow-band, photometric survey focused around the wavelength region of the Ca II HK absorption lines, designed to efficiently search for extremely metal-poor stars. In this work, we use the first results of amedium-resolution spectroscopic follow-up to refine the selection criteria for finding extremely metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] <= -3.0) in the Pristine survey. We consider methods by which stars can be selected from available broad-band and infrared photometry plus the additional Pristine narrow-band photometry. The sample consists of 205 stars in the magnitude range 14 < V < 18. Applying the photometric selection criteria cuts the sample down to 149 stars, and from these we report a success rate of 70 per cent for finding stars with [Fe/H] = -2.5 and 22 per cent for finding stars with [Fe/H] = -3.0. These statistics compare favourably with other surveys that search for extremely metal-poor stars, namely an improvement by a factor of similar to 4 - 5 for recovering stars with [Fe/H] = -3.0. In addition, Pristine covers a fainter magnitude range than its predecessors and can thus probe deeper into the Galactic halo.
Immigrant Relative Wages at the Great Recession: Evidence with Matched Employer‐Employee Data for Spain

The article examines relative wages of immigrants in Spain, with a particular focus on the impact of the Great Recession. The empirical analysis is restricted to men and is based on matched employer-employee microdata and the decomposition techniques of Juhn et al. (1991, 1993) and Fortin et al. (2011). Our results show that the significant native-immigrant wage gap that exists both in terms of average wages and of differentials along the wage distribution is essentially explained by differences in the endowments of observed characteristics so that, in general, immigrants tend to receive a similar wage treatment than Spaniards with analogous observed attributes. On the other hand, the Great Recession has had a noticeable impact on the relative wages of immigrants, given that the significant increase of the native-immigrant wage gap observed during the previous expansionary period was mitigated during the economic downturn due to composition effects arising from the severe employment destruction pattern.
Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography Efficacy of Short-Term High-Dose Atorvastatin for Prevention of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in

Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is associated with increased morbidity, extended hospital stay, and higher costs. We compared an atorvastatin plus N-acetylcysteine (NAC) regimen with NAC alone in patients undergoing coronary angiography. A total of 130 patients (mean age 54 + 10; 77 men) undergoing coronary angiography were studied. Seven CIN cases occurred in the NAC group and 2 in the atorvastatin þ NAC group; this difference was not significant. Baseline mean creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were similar between the 2 groups, whereas after the procedure there was a significant creatinine decrease and eGFR increase in the atorvastatinþNAC group. Change in creatinine (baseline creatinine–creatinine after the procedure) was also significantly higher in patients taking statin plus NAC. Atorvastatin may be effective in protecting patients undergoing coronary angiography from CIN.
BEAM DIAGNOSTICS BASED ON HIGHER ORDER MODE FOR HIGH REPETITION BEAM

The signals from the HOM ports on superconducting cavities can be used as beam position monitors. The HOM amplitude of dipole mode is proportional to the beam offset. For high repetition bunches operation, the spectrum is consist of the HOMs peaks and the peaks which is integer times of the bunch repetition. The HOMs amplitudes should be separated from the two kinds of peaks. Based on the simulation from a TESLA 2-cell cavity, the transform matrix between the HOMs amplitudes and beam offsets has been found, as well as the cavity axis. The simulation results have demonstrated that beam diagnostics based on HOMs is feasible while high repetition bunches operation.
Cells in a Novel Fibrin-agarose Scaffold Pluripotential Differentiation Capability of Human Adipose-derived Stem

The potentiality of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) cultured on 2D systems has been previously established. Nevertheless, very little is known so far about the differentiation potentiality of ASCs in 3D culture systems using biomaterials. In this work, we have evaluated the transdifferentiation capabilities of ASCs cultured within a novel fibrin-agarose biomaterial by histological analysis, histochemistry and immunofluorescence. Our results showed that 3D fibrin-agarose biomaterial is highly biocompatible and supports the transdifferentiation capabilities of ASCs to the osteogenic, chondrogenic, adipogenic, and neurogenic lineages.
Research in Thermal Biology: Burning Questions for Coldwater Stream Fishes

With the increasing appreciation of global warming impacts on ecological systems, in addition to the myriad of land management effects on water quality, the number of literature citations dealing with the effects of water temperature on freshwater fish has escalated in the past decade. Given the many biological scales at which water temperature effects have been studied, and the growing need to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines of thermal biology to fully protect beneficial uses, we held that a survey of the most promising recent developments and an expression of some of the remaining unanswered questions with significant management implications would best be approached collectively by a diverse research community. We have identified five specific topic areas of renewed research where new techniques and critical thought could benefit coldwater stream fishes (particularly salmonids): molecular, organism, population/species, community and ecosystem, and policy issues in water quality. Our hope is that information gained through examination of recent research fronts linking knowledge at various scales will prove useful in managing water quality at a basin level to protect fish populations and whole ecosystems. Standards of the past were based largely on incipient lethal and optimum growth rate temperatures for fish species, while future standards should consider all integrated thermal impacts to the organism and ecosystem.
Cholesterol Metabolism in Brain and Skin Fibroblasts from Sarda Breed Sheep With Scrapie-resistant and Scrapie-susceptible Genotypes

Scrapie is a fatal spongiform encephalopathy of sheep, a transmissible form of prion disease caused by neuronal accumulation of the aberrantly conformed prion protein (PrPsc). Currently, no ante-mortem diagnostic tests are available to detect this untreatable disease in the pre-clinical stage, thus making difficult to control its spread. Recent evidence suggests that the production of PrPsc can be modulated by the levels of membrane cholesterol in neuronal cells. Since cholesterol levels in cell membranes are dependent on cholesterol homeostasis in the whole organism, we studied cholesterol metabolism in brain tissues, plasma and skin fibroblasts of Sarda breed sheep with scrapie-resistant (ARR/ARR) and scrapie-susceptible (ARQ/ARQ) prion protein genotypes, both not infected (ARQ/ARQ-) and infected (ARQ/ARQ+) with scrapie. We found that, the levels of cytoplasmic cholesterol esters (CE) in brains and skin fibroblasts from sheep with the ARQ/ARQ genotype were consistently higher than those from sheep with the ARR/ARR genotype. Conversely, the levels of free cholesterol (FC) were lower in ARQ/ARQ, as compared to ARR/ARR sheep, thus resulting in a sharp reduction of the FC/CE ratio. Moreover, both uninfected and infected ARQ/ARQ sheep showed abnormally low levels of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) in their plasma, as compared to ARR/ARR sheep. These data other than adding new strength to the notion that altered levels of intracellular cholesterol may indicate the presence of a lipid metabolic state that predisposes to infection with, and accumulation of, PrPsc in the brain, discriminate for the first time between two distinct but related cellular pools of cholesterol, namely membrane FC on one hand and cytoplasmic CE on the other.
Stakeholder Engagement: Some Empirical Evidence from a Sample of European Banks

Our paper aims to analyse the practice of Stakeholder Engagement (SE) in the banking sector and to investigate if SE affects European bank profitability. To identify how banks engage stakeholders we developed a model for calculating an original "SE rating", that comes from four research areas: "Disclosure", "Stakeholders engaged", "Instruments of engagement", and "Management of the SE process". We then provided empirical evidence about the relationship between bank performance and SE rating through a panel analysis. Our evidence shows that commitment to SE should be increased significantly by focusing on organisation and management issues, and - to a lesser extent - on disclosure towards the market. Finally, our econometric study shows that relationship between SE rating and bank performance is not statistically significant, most likely due to the recent approach of banks to SE practice.
Price and Income Elasticities of Consumer Goods Imports of Pakistan

Estimation of disaggregated import elasticities for developing countries presents a formidable data-handling problem. The available studies on the subject are concerned mostly with the estimation of income and price elasticities of imports at a disaggregated level corresponding to the one-digit level of the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), see, e.g., Khan [I], Melo and Vogt [4], Nguyen and Bhuyan [5]. Consequently, they apply a common elasticity estimate to all commodity sub-groups.
Delamination effect modeling, simulation and experimental validation of lap shear test

Single lap joint is among the most widely used adhesively bonded joint type for both non-structural and structural applications. Considering the strength and efficiency of such joint, good understanding of the adhesive behavior and stress analysis of the joint is very important, especially for the overlapped bonded area in the lap joint. Apparent shear strength of adhesively bonded single lap joint is studied and Finite element analysis (FEA) of lap shear test is investigated using ANSYS software. Regarding adhesively bonded structures, the novelty of the present work lies in the study and discussion of the modeling and simulation approaches of interface delamination effect. Finally, an experimental verification of the simulated results is presented and discussed. Here, it is shown that the use of interface elements using cohesive zone model is best suited to predict the failure initiation and delamination pattern of such an adhesive joint.