Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Saltwater Intrusion and Discharges to a Wetland with a 3D Transient Variable Density Flow Model: The Coastal Plane Oropesa-Torreblanca Aquifer, Spain

The proper characterization of coastal aquifers requires modeling variable density flow effects. However, most models estimate processes as saline intrusion based on 2D models with constant density and are rarely calibrated to honor salinity measurements. These facts limit the model predictions reliability, affecting the estimated hydrodynamic parameters, external stresses, and other model outputs that can be critical for planning or management decisions. This paper describes the re-assessment of a coastal aquifer model (Oropesa-Torreblanca, eastern Spain) subjected to moderate-to-high saline intrusion with a transient 3D variable density flow model. Previous models were based on 2D low-resolution grids without variable density effects. The new model honors the observed trends of both piezometric and salinity data. Results show the importance of the variable density effects having on critical outputs as sea intrusion and the discharges to a local wetland of high environmental value. The widespread intrusion process and its current stabilization are confirmed but, compared to previous models, the annual average intrusion is 156% higher, discharge to the wetland increases 30%, and the inflows from neighboring formations increase 22%. The more accurate aquifer models, as well as the new discharges and intrusion estimations, are important contributions for future water and environmental planning decisions in the area.
ROS Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in HIV Seropositive Individuals on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

| Oxidative and nitrosative stress have been implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infection, and seem to be more pronounced with commencement of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Evaluation of markers of oxidative and nitrosative stress may be useful indices for monitoring progress of infection and development of adverse drug reactions. The total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total plasma peroxides (TPP), oxidative stress index (OSI), nitric oxide (NO), reduced form of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and catalase activity were estimated in HIVinfected individuals with or without HAART. A total of 90 consenting subjects comprising of 30 HIV seropositive subjects on HAART, 30 HAART naive and 30 apparently healthy HIV seronegative controls resident in Calabar were recruited into the study. TAC, TPP, NO, GSH, MDA, and catalase activity were determined using colorimetric methods, CD4 T cell count was done by flow cytometry while body mass index (BMI) and oxidative stress index were determined by calculation. Data was analyzed using ANOVA, LSD post hoc and Pearson’s correlation at p < 0.05. The results showed that HIV seronegative controls had higher CD4 T cell count, BMI, NO, and catalase activity and lower TPP compared to HIV seropositive individuals on HAART and HAART naive subjects (p < 0.05). Higher levels of NO and catalase and lower CD4 T cells count, MDA, TPP, and OSI were observed in HIV on HAART compared to HAART naive (p < 0.05). OSI correlated positively with TPP (r  0.547, p  0.002) and negatively with TAC (r  ‒0.727, p  0.000) in HIV HAART naive subjects only. In conclusion, HAART may be associated with reduction in lipid peroxidation and restoration of some antioxidants, and their levels may determine initiation of HAART in HIV-infected individuals.
What Happened to Global Banking after the Crisis?

The large global banks were at the heart of the global financial crisis. In response to the crisis, the international Financial Stability Forum was upgraded to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in 2009, with the full participation of finance ministers and even heads of government. The newly established FSB then published an integrated set of policy measures, such as capital surcharges and resolution plans, to address the systemic and moral hazard risks associated with global systemically important banks (G-SIBs). Eight years later, it is time to take stock of the impact of these measures. We answer three questions on what happened to the G-SIBs. First, have they shrunk in size? Second, are they better capitalised? Third, and in reference to the reported end of global banking, have they reduced their global reach? Overall, the conclusion is that reports of the demise of global banking are premature, especially in the euro area.
Sexual Shape Dimorphism in Tuatara

Abstract The tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus, is known to exhibit a male-biased sexual size dimorphism, often attributed to the territorial behavior of males. Our data based on preserved specimens from museum collections also show a previously undocumented dimorphism in head and limb shape in Sphenodon, with males having bigger heads and longer limbs for a given body size than females. A review of the existing literature on the ecology and behavior of these animals suggests that this may provide males with a greater sprint speed capacity relevant to territory defense. Differences in head shape, on the other hand, may be related to ecological niche differentiation as males have been suggested to eat larger prey than females, but this remains to be tested. An additional role for sexual selection in driving the divergence in head shape between males and females is likely but cannot be confirmed at present.
THEORETICAL MODELING OF HYDROGEN BOND INFRARED SPECTRA IN MOLECULAR CRYSTALS OF 2-THIOPHENEACETIC ACID : FERMI RESONANCE AND DAVYDOV COUPLING EFFECTS

A quantum theoretical approach, within the adiabatic approximation and taking into account a strong non-adiabatic correction via the resonant exchange between the fast mode excited states of the two moieties of the dimer. The intrinsic anharmonicity of the low-frequency mode through a Morse potential, direct and indirect damping, and a selection rule breaking mechanism for forbidden transitions, is applied to reproduce the υX-H IR line shape of cyclic dimers of moderately H-bonded species in the crystalline phase. The results are used to gain an insight into the experimental spectral line shapes obtained by the transmission method. This approach fits satisfactorily the experimental line shape of 2-thiopheneacetic acid and predicts their evolution with isotopic substitution. Numerical calculations show that mixing of all these effects allows one to reproduce the main features of the experimental IR line shapes.
The link of the germ of a semi-algebraic metric space

In this paper we investigate the metric properties of semi-algebraic germs. More precisely we introduce a counterpart to the notion of link for semi-algebraic metric spaces, which is often used to study the topology. We prove that it totally determines the metric type of the germ. We give a nice consequence for semi-algebraically bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic semi-algebraic germs.
Electricity consumption and economic growth: evidence from Spain

The paper investigates both linear and nonlinear causality between electricity consumption and economic growth in Spain for the period 1971-2005. We use the methodology of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Dolado and Lutkepohl (1996). We also apply the standard Granger causality tests in a VAR for the series in first differences to achieve stationarity. The results are similar with both methodologies, which shows their robustness. We find unidirectional linear causality running from real GDP to electricity consumption. On the contrary, we find no evidence of nonlinear Granger causality between the series in either direction.
Markups and Export Pricing

We analyze empirically product-price variation across export destinations using detailed firm-product data. Most recent studies using highly disaggregated data emphasize variations in product quality as an explanation as to why firms charge different prices for the same product on different export markets. In this paper, we take an alternative approach and assume that variations in firms' export prices reflect market segmentation and investigate the relationship between price variation and average firm markup. We study an entire supply chain in order to see how price discrimination varies across sectors with different distribution networks. Specifically, we make use of firm-level data for exporting firms in the Swedish food supply chain. The results offer new information about the behavior of exporting firms. Hence, for the food-processing industry, firms with greater ability to discriminate between markets are associated with a higher markup. However, the results also reveal that markups are a complex function of firm characteristics and that the price-setting behavior of firms in the manufacturing sector is not necessarily observed in other sectors of the supply chain.
Evaluation of Complex-Valued Neural Networks on Real-Valued Classification Tasks

Complex-valued neural networks are not a new concept, however, the use of real-valued models has often been favoured over complex-valued models due to difficulties in training and performance. When comparing real-valued versus complex-valued neural networks, existing literature often ignores the number of parameters, resulting in comparisons of neural networks with vastly different sizes. We find that when real and complex neural networks of similar capacity are compared, complex models perform equal to or slightly worse than real-valued models for a range of real-valued classification tasks. The use of complex numbers allows neural networks to handle noise on the complex plane. When classifying real-valued data with a complex-valued neural network, the imaginary parts of the weights follow their real parts. This behaviour is indicative for a task that does not require a complex-valued model. We further investigated this in a synthetic classification task. We can transfer many activation functions from the real to the complex domain using different strategies. The weight initialisation of complex neural networks, however, remains a significant problem.
Studying Cost as a Factor in the Choice between Quality and Quantity of Life amongst Patients with Cancer and their Caregivers at a Cancer Centre in Singapore

Background: Treatment costs and sociocultural concerns play a significant role in decisions regarding Quantity of Life (QuoL) options that seek to prolong life, such as chemotherapy, or a Quality of Life (QoL) approach where the patient refuses available treatments such as chemotherapy in favour of maximizing comfort and quality of life at the end of life in Singapore. Deciphering the reasons behind such care decisions is often difficult because of local social taboos regarding discussions about death and dying. Objectives: To scrutinize the rationale behind QuoL and QoL within the Singapore context and delineate the impact of cost upon such decisions. Methods: To overcome local sociocultural taboos about discussing death and dying with patients, participants watched a video vignette of a family discussing treatment options for their mother (Mrs Tan) who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Participants were asked what advice they would offer Mrs Tan regarding her treatment plans in the face of a poor prognosis, incurable cancer and costly treatment. Participants were then asked what their advice would be when the costs of treatment was covered by the patient’s insurance policy. Their responses were evaluated using Grounded Theory analysis. Setting/Subjects: 132 oncology patients and their caregivers were recruited from an ambulatory treatment unit at a tertiary oncology centre. Results: 63 (47.7%) of 132 participants advised Mrs Tan to opt for the QoL approach but when treatment costs were covered by insurance, only 5 (3.8%) of 132 participants chose QoL, whilst 108 (81.8%) participants chose QuoL options. Conclusion: Whilst cost is a significant factor in end of life decision making, strong sociocultural influences that perceive QoL approaches as ‘giving up’ ultimately determines the course of care.
Important Findings Expected From Europe ' s Largest Seismic Array

An international, interdisciplinary project, which 2 years ago deployed the largest dense seismic antenna ever in Europe, expects in the next 2 years to present important findings on the lithosphere and asthenosphere of a portion of the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ). Final processing is currently under way of the data from the array of 120 seismographs along a 900km-long by 100-km-wide strip from Gottingen, Germany, in the south, through Denmark, to Stockholm, Sweden in the north, across the northwestern part of the TESZ (Figure 1). Project Tor is a teleseismic tomography experi­ ment with interdisciplinary data exploitation. It extends across the broad TESZ boundary between two markedly different lithospheric domains.These are (1) Proterozoic Europe, with Precambrian crust in Sweden and eastern Europe, and (2) Phanerozoic central Europe, with most of the crust influenced by the Caledonian andVariscan orogenies and only small areas of relic Precambrian crust.The proj­ ect is designed to investigate the deep lithosphere traces of the broad-scale geology of the TESZ area, including the Tor nquist Zone, from which Project Tor has its name. It is part of EUROPROBE, a major Earth science program of the European Science Foundation, which is run by a regional committee of the International Lithosphere Program. The TESZ area around the NW-SE trending Tornquist Zone has been tectonically active since Silurian time (~ 440 Ma),starting with con­ tinental collision. Since Permo-Carboniferous time, the region has undergone complicated motions leaving a Precambrian block, the Ringkobing-Fyn-High in the middle of Denmark, almost undisturbed, and this block has, since Permian time, been surrounded by 2 basins, north and south of it, where initial extension and later transpression occurred. The Tornquist Zone itself experienced tectonic inversion in Cretaceous-Tertiary time. In Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, the exact location and form of the lithospheric transition is unclear. Sev­ eral lineaments besides the Tornquist Zone are candidates as far south as the Elbe Line in north­ ern Germany. In Poland, where the Tornquist Zone is a well-defined, 50-100-km-wide belt, recent geological studies have also raised doubts about the exact location of the significant lithospheric boundary the TESZ. Project Tor is integrating surface and subsurface geology with deep-seated structures and is testing different methods of modeling lithospheric structure. Previous deep geophysical studies [Ansorge et al., \992,Spakman et al., 1993; Zielhuis and Nolet, 1994; Pedersen et al., \99A, Babushka et al., 1998] have demonstrated a significant lithospheric contrast across the central European part of TESZ.The Tor seismic antenna was chosen along profiles of earlier
ROS GENERATION IN THE DEVELOPING CHICK EMBRYO BY CITRAL AND THE MITIGATIVE EFFECT OF NIGELLA SATIVA

Impairment of retinoic acid results in different malformations during embryonic development. Nigella sativa is used in public medicine for treatment of a wide range of diseases. The present study aimed to evaluate the in vivo antioxidant effect of N. sativa L. seed extracts during development of the chick embryo. The embryos were treated with citral to inhibit endogenous retinoic or treated with a combination of citral and N. sativa extract. ROS (The reactive oxygen species), was measured as indicator for oxidative stress. ROS significantly increase in the embryo after treatment with citral. Treatment with N. sativa extract only exerted antineoplastic properties through elevating the ROS to significantly higher levels compared to control. Co-treatment with citral and N. sativa partly mitigated the oxidative stress levels by reducing the ROS levels compared to citral alone. The partial mitigation of N. sativa is suggested to be due to its antineoplastic properties, the high levels of ROS produced by citral above its antioxidative capacity, mode of extraction or the low concentration used in the experiment. Also, N. sativa is not recommended as a food supplement for infants and newborns.
Stock market and foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe

This study investigates the causality relationship between stock market and foreign direct investment. The subject has been contentious in recent years with three theoretical rationales emerging. The first being that FDI net inflows boost stock market by increasing the amount of funds into the host country’ economy. The second suggests that FDI inflows forces the host country government to embrace market friendly policies, regulations and controls that end up boosting stock market. The third theoretical rationale mentions that well-developed and functioning stock markets attracts FDI as multinational firms perceive such a market as a friendly environment whose government is more open to the international community. Using the bi-variate causality test framework, this study discovered that there exists a long run relationship between stock market and FDI net inflows in Zimbabwe. However, the direct causality relationship from either stock market to FDI or from FDI to stock market development could not be found. This implies that stock market development and FDI net inflows in Zimbabwe are indirectly related to each other via some factors whose investigation should be a subject of another research.
COGNITIVE INHIBITION, RUMINATION, AND INSOMNIA IN DEPRESSED SUICIDE-PRONE INDIVIDUALS

The overall goal of this investigation was to broaden our understanding of suicidality among those with depression. Specifically, I sought to clarify the relationship between rumination, cognitive inhibition, insomnia, and suicidal ideation. Prior research has shown that suicide is highly correlated with rumination, cognitive inhibition deficits, and insomnia. Yet, although various studies have examined these factors individually, little information exists regarding possible associations between these constructs within suicidal individuals. Given that these constructs are related to both depressive and suicidal phenomenon, it is important to consider how these factors may interrelate in order to gain a better understanding of the potential mechanisms which lead to suicidality. The aims of the present study were to: (1) examine whether cognitive inhibition deficits exist among those with suicidal ideation; (2) test the hypothesis that rumination mediates the relationship between cognitive inhibition deficits and suicidality; (3) examine whether insomnia serves as a moderating variable in the relationship between cognitive inhibition and suicidality; (4) expand previous research by directly comparing three suicidal mental states (i.e., suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, and the combination of both); and (5) examine the variables of interest in a more precise sample of suicidal individuals than currently present in the literature. The results indicated cognitive inhibition deficits and an affective bias for negative stimuli among both of the groups with current suicidal ideation. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that the relationship between cognitive inhibition and suicidal ideation would be mediated by depressive rumination, and moderated by insomnia severity. Two moderated
The Effects of Glossing Conventions on L2 Vocabulary Recognition and Production

To investigate the effects of different glossing conventions on vocabulary recognition and recall, 158 participants were given a pre-test to make sure that they did not have any prior knowledge of the target words. Reading passages with four different glossing conventions (interlinear, marginal, pre-text, and post-text) were given to eight groups. Four groups received interlingual glosses and four groups were given intralingual glosses. Receptive and productive post-tests were administered to measure vocabulary recognition and recall. The collected data were analyzed using two one-way ANOVA procedures. The results showed that there were no significant differences among the effects of different types of intralingual glosses on vocabulary recognition and recall. As to the affect of the interlingual glosses on vocabulary recognition, the post-text group performed significantly worse than both the pre-text and the marginal groups. Moreover, the interlinear gloss was shown to be more effective than the post-text gloss in vocabulary recall.
Instability mechanisms affecting cultural heritage sites in the Maltese Archipelago

Abstract. The superimposition of geological formations with marked contrast in geotechnical properties presents one of the most critical environments for slope instability due to the different response of the materials to the applied disturbances. Moreover, the above-mentioned geological setting is often associated with high risk conditions, since many isolated rock slabs located at a higher altitude than the surrounding countryside have been sites of historical towns or buildings. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the mechanisms determining instability in rock slabs overlying a soft substratum, with reference to two cultural heritage sites in Malta. Accurate investigations have been carried out to evaluate the geological, geotechnical and geomechanical properties together with the main geomorphological features of the soft clayey substratum and the overlying limestone rock mass. The main instability processes have thus been identified and investigated through kinematic analyses and numerical modeling, combined with a 1992–2001 Persistent Scatterers monitoring of ground displacements. The study constitutes the basis for the subsequent restoration works.
Properties of young star cluster systems: the age signature from near-infrared integrated colours

A recent JHKs study of several grand-design spiral galaxies shows a bimodal distribution of their system of star clusters and star forming complexes in colour-magnitude and colour-colour diagrams. In a comparison with stellar population models including gas, the (J-H) vs (H-Ks) diagram reveals that embedded clusters, still immersed in their parental clouds of gas and dust, generally have a redder (H-Ks) colour than older clusters, whose gas and dust have already been ejected. This bimodal behaviour is also evident in the colour-magnitude diagram MK vs (J-Ks), where the brightest clusters split into two sequences separating younger from older clusters. In addition, the reddening-free index Qd = (H-Ks) - 0.884 (J-H) has been shown to correlate with age for the young clusters and thus provided an effective way to differentiate the embedded clusters from the older ones. We aim to study the behaviour of these photometric indices for star cluster systems in the Local Group. We investigate the effectiveness of the Qd index in sorting out clusters of different ages at their early evolutionary stages. Surface photometry was carried out for 2MASS images of populous clusters younger than ~100Myr whose ages were available. Some clusters, particularly the embedded ones, were studied for the first time using this method. The integrated magnitudes and colours extracted from the surface photometry of the most populous clusters/complexes in the Local Group shows the expected bimodal distribution in the colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams. In particular, we confirm the index Qd as a powerful tool for distinguishing clusters younger than about 7Myr from older clusters. (abridged)
NONPARAMETRIC ESTIMATION OF VARYING COEFFICIENT DYNAMIC PANEL DATA MODELS

We suggest using a class of semiparametric dynamic panel data models to capture individual variations in panel data. The model assumes linearity in some continuous/discrete variables that can be exogenous/endogenous and allows for nonlinearity in other weakly exogenous variables. We propose a nonparametric generalized method of moments (NPGMM) procedure to estimate the functional coefficients, and we establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the resulting estimators.