Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chemical Characteristics of Particulate Matter during a Heavy Dust Episode in a Coastal City, Xiamen, 2010

Xiamen, as a southeastern coastal city, is hardly affected by dust storms (DSs) sourced from the arid and semiarid areas in North or Northwestern China in spring. Unfortunately, during 21-23 March, 2010, the heaviest DS that had been recorded in past 50 years affected air quality seriously. Continuous particulate matter monitor was employed for the observation of PM2.5 (aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) and PM10 (aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm) during 20-24 March 2010. Total suspended particulate (TSP) samples during this episode were also collected and their characteristics of element species and water-soluble ions were illustrated to characterize the heavy pollution in Xiamen. The DS peaked on 21 March, with the highest concentrations of 454.51 μg/m^3 and 990.24 μg/m^3 for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively. The variations of ratio for PM2.5/PM10 indicated that PM10 was the main particles that were influenced by DS. The higher ratios (DS/Non dust days) of Al, Fe, Mg, Mn, and Ba were over 5.0, which are primarily from a soil. However, the ratios of Zn, V, As, Ti, and Cr, mainly from anthropogenic sources, had a range of 1.3 to 3.4. These results suggested that the soil-sourced species made more contribution to DS particles compared to the anthropogenic species. The mass fractions of water-soluble ions in TSP indicated that the concentrations of K(superscript +), Ca(superscript 2+), Mg(superscript 2+), F(superscript -), NO2(superscript -), and NO3(superscript -) were evidently higher in DS samples than those of non-DS samples. The compositions of ions in dust aerosols showed that the multi-sources of aerosol were ubiquitous during the dust episode. The highest concentrations of sulfate and nitrate occurred in the day when dust ended in Xiamen, which demonstrated the formation of secondary pollutants from dust during the long-range transport, as well as from local environmental pollution.
Primed carrot seeds performance under water and temperature stress

Uniformity and percentage of seedling emergence of direct-seeded vegetables have a major impact on their yield and quality. Depending on temperature and soil water potential, carrot seeds performance in the field is poor justifying the use of techniques to accelerate the germination and seedling emergence. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of priming treatments, with and without aeration, on carrot seeds performance under water and temperature stress. Two seed lots of carrots, Brasilia cultivar, were primed in PEG 6000 -1.0 and -1.2 MPa solutions, for four and eight days, at 20oC, using two imbibition methods: priming in paper towel moistened with the respective solutions and immersion into aerated osmotic solutions. Non-primed seeds were used as control. After priming, the seeds were dried at room temperature until reach initial seed moisture content. The seeds were submitted to the following tests: germination, first count, seedling emergence in the field, germination at sub-optimal (15oC) and supra-optimal temperature (30oC) and germination under water stress (PEG 6000 at -0.4 MPa). Priming in -1.0 and -1.2 MPa PEG 6000 during four and eight days can be useful for improving carrot seedling emergence in the field and seed performance under supra and sub-optimal temperatures. Aeration of the peg solution was beneficial when seeds were primed at -1.2 MPa for eight days.
Responses to interactive comment on “ Tropospheric products of the 2 nd European GNSS reprocessing ( 1996-2014 ) ” by Jan Dousa

In this paper, we present results of the 2 reprocessing of all data from 1996 to 2014 from all stations in the European GNSS permanent network as performed at the Geodetic Observatory Pecný (GOP). While the original goal of this research was to ultimately contribute to new realization of the European terrestrial reference system, we also aim to provide a new set of GNSS tropospheric parameter time series with possible applications to climate research. To achieve these goals, we improved a strategy to guarantee the continuity of these tropospheric parameters and we prepared several variants of troposphere modelling. We then assessed all solutions in terms of the repeatability of coordinates as an internal evaluation of applied models and strategies, and in terms of zenith tropospheric delays (ZTD) and horizontal gradients with those of ERA-Interim numerical weather model (NWM) reanalysis. When compared to the GOP Repro1 solution, the results of the GOP Repro2 yielded improvements of approximately 50% and 25% in the repeatability of the horizontal and vertical components, respectively, and of approximately 9% in tropospheric parameters. Vertical repeatability was reduced from 4.14 mm to 3.73 mm when using the VMF1 mapping function, a priori ZHD, and non-tidal atmospheric loading corrections from actual weather data. Raising the elevation angle cut-off from 3° to 7° and then to 10° increased RMS from coordinates’ repeatability, which was then confirmed by independently comparing GNSS tropospheric parameters with the NWM reanalysis. The assessment of tropospheric horizontal gradients with respect to the ERA-Interim revealed a strong sensitivity of estimated gradients to the quality of GNSS antenna tracking performance. This impact was demonstrated at the Mallorca station, where gradients systematically grew up to 5 mm during the period between 2003 and 2008, before this behaviour disappeared when the antenna at the station
Enhancing password-based user authentication: implicit motor sequence learning in the sisl task

The serial interception sequence learning (SISL) task is used in a user authentication system based on implicit motor sequence learning (Bojinov, Sanchez, Reber, Boneh & Lincoln, 2014). This study aims to investigate the influence of training length on performance of the SISL task. Participants were distributed across three conditions: a training phase of 480 trials, 960 trials and 1,440 trials. Experiment 1 comprised two phases: a training phase and a test phase. In the former, participants substantially trained on a fixed sequence, in the latter, sequence knowledge was tested, using both the trained sequence and new, random sequences. Results showed that participants performed significantly better on the trained sequence at both experiments and that training length did not significantly influence SISL task performance. From this, it can be concluded that a SISL-based authentication system could be successful in practice. This is supported by a performed security analysis. However, future research should explore the robustness of the SISL-based authentication system.
Tolerance mechanism and mineral contents variability in healthy and Phenacoccus solenopsis infested plant species

A B S T R A C T Food preference of herbivorous insect pest is highly influenced with plant resistance mechanisms. In order to investigate the tolerance mechanism against cotton mealy bug Phenacoccus solenopsis, Chinese rose and cotton plants were used. Plants were covered with muslin cloth and were manually rated with 2 levels of mealy bug infestation i.e., zero and 50 CMB/plant. At the end of the season covered parts of plants i. e. healthy and infested plants were collected for biochemical studies under laboratory. The results regarding mineral contents in the leaves of healthy and damaged plants of cotton and Chinese rose revealed significant differences. The nitrogen contents were reduced in mealy bug infested plants up to half as compared with healthy plants ie. , cotton plants manually infested with 50 CMB/plant had nitrogen percentage 3.96% but healthy plants with 0% infestation had 7.0% nitrogen. Nitrogen concentration in mealy affected Chinese rose leaves was 2.85% but in healthy leaves it was 4.73% respectively. So nitrogen concentration was high in healthy plant leaves than in mealy bug infested leaves whereas phosphorous and potassium percentage was high in damaged plants as compared with healthy plants. This is due to the tolerance mechanism of resistance plant species against mealy bug.
Supply Chain Management Practices in SMEs of India: Some Managerial Lessons from Large Enterprises

Inayatullah*1, Rakesh Narain2, Amar Singh3 *1 Corresponding Author, Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering , Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Uttar Pradesh, India 3 Ex Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology, Uttar Pradesh, India
FRAMEWORK AND VERIFICATION OF A BLENDED E-LEARNING SYSTEM BEHAVIORAL INTENTION MODEL AMONG CLINICAL NURSES

As the various applications of Internet and information communication technology (ICT) grow rapidly, the education and hospital institutions provide more distance learning programs, which also makes the research on e-learning more important. However, disadvantages in e-learning have been identified. Blended e-learning systems (BELSs) are considered effective alternative learning approaches. This research proposes a conceptual model to explain the factors affecting nurses’ behavioral intention to use a blended e-learning system (BELS). This research integrated perceived risk and the technology acceptance model to hypothesize a theoretical model for explaining and predicting learners’ behavioral intention to use a BELS. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to local community hospitals, regional hospitals, and medical centers in Central Taiwan. To confirm this research hypothesis, data were collected 682 nurses, with a response rate of 97.4%. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the results show that perceived risk, perceived ease of use, and attitude influenced BELS behavioral intention. Perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness substantially influenced use attitude. In addition, the path coefficient of perceived risk on attitude was non-significant. On the basis of the results, hospital institutions can devise better strategies for developing their blended e-learning system. Key words: nurses education, blended learning, technology acceptance model, nurse perceptions, structural equation model.
A Study About the Relationships Between Perceived Leadership and Job Satisfaction in Fuel Sector

Due to their popularity, there are countless studies about job satisfaction and leadership. With this aspect in mind, this study scrutinizes relationships between perceived leadership and job satisfaction in a rather less considered context: fuel sector. The participants of the study are workers of fuel stations, gathered from specific regions of Istanbul. According to results obtained, their job satisfaction depends on four factors; namely task, and social, managerial and institutional aspects. Another result reveals that they perceive their immediate managers as leaders and this perceived leadership is also made of four factors: inspirational, productive and laissez-faire styles, and success orientation. Although perceived leadership is unable to affect job satisfaction completely, there are some partial effects. A look on these partial effects reveals that most items of inspirational and laissez-faire leadership styles are effective on worker’s job satisfaction. While success orientation feature of leadership can affect job satisfaction via one of its items solely, productive leadership style completely fails to affect the mentioned job satisfaction.
WHAT IS SWITZERLAND'S STRATIFICATION LIKE: CLASSES, PRESTIGE GRADATION, PROFESSIONAL CATEGORIES?

Recent trends in stratification analysis have been characterised by theoretical developments crossing Marxism, status attainment models and Weberian theory. Using a status-attainment model, Wright's and Goldthorpe's construction and a classification scheme worked out for the Swiss Census office, this article will attempt to describe Swiss social stratification and examine whether `social classes are dying'. Each of these measures is a valuable, if variable, indicator of social structure, but the associations are stronger between classifications and structural criteria than between classifications and attitudinal indicators. On the other hand, there is no single best predictor among the indicators of hierarchical location; their `fit' varies with the topic considered and the dimensions involved in the explanation. Furthermore, even if the theoretically best grounded variables permit subtler interpretation, a more pragmatic construction yields better empirical coefficients. Finally, such an approach allows us to specify some essential characteristics of the Swiss system of stratification.
Diel and seasonal variations in the population dynamics of Hemimysis anomala, a non-indigenous mysid: implications for surveillance and management.

This study investigated diel and seasonal variations in the population dynamics of Hemimysis anomala, a non-indigenous mysid originating from the Ponto-Caspian region. There were strong diel variations in the abundance (catch-per-unit-effort; CPUE) of H. anomala, with CPUE being low during the day but increasing by up to an order of magnitude at night. Abundance also varied seasonally, with CPUE increasing from mid-May to a peak in late June/early July, followed by a crash in mid-July. However, the seasonal variations in abundance were apparent only in nocturnal surveys, with CPUE during the day being low throughout the study. There were also seasonal variations in population structure (life stages, length distributions, sex ratios, reproductive state, fecundity). The nocturnal behaviour of H. anomala renders it difficult to assess its geographical distribution or population dynamics using only diurnal surveys or inappropriate sampling methods, which could underestimate the size, structure, reproductive potential and sustainability of non-indigenous populations of this invasive species. Surveillance programmes for H. anomala should therefore be conducted at night, at intervals throughout the year and targeting likely habitats using site-specific methods of proven effectiveness.
Assessors' use of personality traits in descriptions of assessment centre candidates: A five-factor model perspective

In assessment centres assessors are typically taught to note down behavioural observations. However, previous studies have shown that about 20% of assessor notes contain trait descriptors. Instead of regarding these descriptors as errors, this study examines their position in a personality descriptive taxonomy (i.e. the AB5C taxonomy, see Hofstee, De Raad, & Goldberg, 1992) and relates them to employment recommendations. To this end, assessor notes of 403 assessees (214 men, 189 women; mean age 33 years) were scrutinized for personality descriptors. Results show that assessors, as a group, use descriptors referring to all five personality domains with a preference for positive Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability terms. The distribution of the Big Five categories differs across assessors and particularly across assessment centre exercises. Finally, three of the Big Five factors, namely Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness, are related to the final employment recommendation.
Comparison among investment and return in dairy activity by beneficiaries of Jeevika project in Bihar state, India

Bihar is one of the poorest and most populous states in India. The share of employment in agriculture and allied activities is 68.9 percent in Bihar. This study is attempting to undertake a micro level analysis of collected data to assess the investment as well as return in Dairy activity carried out by Jeevika project in Muraul Block of Muzaffarpur District. Study revealed that calculated ‘t’ value of investment (12.533) and return (19.589) was more than table‘t’ value (1.977) of investment and return respectively. Comparison among investment as well as return in Dairy activity practiced by the respondents, before and after joining the project through paired t-test, showed a significant difference hence providing positive effect on the life of project beneficiaries.
Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation for the Bus-Corridor Problem in a Many-to-One Mass Transit System

With the growing problem of urban traffic congestion, departure time choice is becoming a more important factor to commuters. By using multiagent modeling and the Bush-Mosteller reinforcement learning model, we simulated the day-to-day evolution of commuters’ departure time choice on a many-to-one mass transit system during the morning peak period. To start with, we verified the model by comparison with traditional analytical methods. Then the formation process of departure time equilibrium is investigated additionally. Seeing the validity of the model, some initial assumptions were relaxed and two groups of experiments were carried out considering commuters’ heterogeneity and memory limitations. The results showed that heterogeneous commuters’ departure time distribution is broader and has a lower peak at equilibrium and different people behave in different pattern. When each commuter has a limited memory, some fluctuations exist in the evolutionary dynamics of the system, and hence an ideal equilibrium can hardly be reached. This research is helpful in acquiring a better understanding of commuter’s departure time choice and commuting equilibrium of the peak period; the approach also provides an effective way to explore the formation and evolution of complicated traffic phenomena.
Experimental simulations of a subsidy system for sustainable production

A multi-trial duopoly price-setting experiment was conducted to investigate the potential effectiveness of a governmental subsidy system aimed to reduce sales and therefore production of environmentally harmful products. Two levels of a subsidy for unsold units were compared with a control condition without a sub-sidy. The results showed that the subsidies did not erode competition but never-theless led to the setting of higher prices that resulted in fewer sales. In the con-trol condition a price-war led to decreasing prices and increasing sales. The ways in which the proposed subsidy system may be implemented in the transport sec-tor and other sectors are discussed. Specifically, it is proposed that the subsidy system may complement the newly introduced European Emission Trading Scheme.
DIAGNOSIS OF BACTEREMIA USING UNIVERSAL PCR IN FEBRILE ILL CHILDREN

Early diagnosis of bacteremia and its complications is the most important part of care and management of the febrile patients. However, a majority of patients who appear to be clinically septic have negative blood culture. The use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques has allowed identifying the pathogenic organisms rapidly and accurately. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of bacteremia in febrile pediatric patients, comparing universal PCR and conventional blood culture. One hundred febrile children (45 males, 55 females) with suspected septicemia were evaluated. A total of 100 paired blood samples were collected from children to analyze for bacterial detection using universal PCR and culture. Twelve patients were blood culture positive. The most common pathogens isolated from blood culture were Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The PCR were positive in 19 patients. The comparison revealed sensitively, specificity and accuracy of 91.67, 90.91 and 91%, respectively, for PCR. The present study shows that the use of PCR is more sensitive than the use of conventional blood techniques for the detection of bacterium pathogens based on patients’ clinical context.
Consumption, preferences and habits of purchasing consumers of peaches and nectarines

Abstract In Brazil, there are few studies and information available on consumer preferences for peaches and nectarines. This lack of information, has hindered some aspects of the production chain, as the choice and exploitation of more appropriate cultivars, offer periods, adoption of marketing and marketing strategies, consequently affecting the availability and commercialization of fruits. This study aimed to analyze the consumer preference of peaches and nectarines, evaluate the traits observed for their acquisition, and the marketplace where they are preferably purchased. The research was carried out from November 2016 to February 2017, using the descriptive research methodology, by Survey method and Web 2.0. A structured questionnaire was applied with closed questions. An online form questionnaire was prepared using the Google docs application and also distributed online, through the internet social Medias. 610 people participated in the survey, with predominance of consumers living in the South and Southeast regions of the country, in the age groups of 21 to 30 years old, with a predominance of female participants. Consumption is mainly in the in natura form, and often predominates certain times a year. Consumers buy these fruits mainly in the supermarkets/hypermarkets. The consumers of peaches and nectarines in Brazil have a higher preference for fruits with yellow flesh and red epidermis, followed by fruits with white flesh and intense red epidermis, both preferably with free stone. The main criteria for the acquisition of peaches and nectarines in Brazil are fruit appearance (presence and/or absence of defects, bruises, etc.); followed by price, color of epidermis and fruit size.
Physical Limnology in Lake Banyoles

The main physical long-scale processes occurring in Lake Banyoles are reviewed as a tribute to Prof. Margalef. These processes include the water fluxes below the surface of the lake, the behavior of the sediment in suspension in the basins, the heat fluxes at the surface and at the bottom layers, the internal seiching, the formation of a baroclinic current due to differences in cooling between the two lobes, the mixing dynamics, the meromictic behavior of some of the basins and the formation and dynamics of hydrothermal plumes