Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The spatial structure of the Mediterranean Sea winds revealed by ERS-1 scatterometer

Almost 5 years (1992-1996) of ERS-1 scatterometer wind data have been analysed over the Mediterranean Sea to study the spatial structure of the main regional wind systems. Examples of relevant winds (etesian, bora, mistral and libeccio) are discussed in the paper. The spatial structure of the winds has been studied through the Ekman pumping field, derived from the curl of the wind stress field. This has been computed by a boundary layer model, using scatterometer wind data, sea surface temperature (SST) from the ERS-1 ATSR and the NOAA AVHRR radiometers and air temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis data. Since the Mediterranean Sea is surrounded almost entirely by mountains, several features of the wind fields appear induced by the orography. The most relevant examples concern the Adriatic Sea bora, which is spatially modulated close to the gaps of the Balkans chain, and the funnel effect occurring in the Tyrrhenian Sea, east of the Strait of Bonifacio, under south-westerly winds, producing a dipole-like structure of the atmospheric Ekman pumping. In the Gulf of Lion the orography affects the zonal extension of the mistral, while the Isle of Crete influences the flow of the etesian. Examples of the relationship between the air-sea fluxes (heat and momentum) and the ocean dynamics revealed by SST fields are proposed analysing the characteristics of the mid-Levantine Basin in summer and of the north-western Mediterranean in winter, the areas best covered by scatterometer. In the midLevantine Basin there is a strong correlation between the summer mean atmospheric Ekman pumping and the mean SST structure. In the north-western Mediterranean Sea, the winter cyclonic circulation in the Gulf of Lion has been found associated with atmospheric suctions produced by the mistral. The gyrescale circulation in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, east of Bonifacio Strait, has also been found to be correlated with the spatial structure of the atmospheric Ekman pumping.
Soil seed banks of a rangeland area White Nile State, Sudan

Three soil depths (0 to 5, 5 to 10 and 10 to 15 cm) were chosen at the study area and the soil seed bank was analyzed for the number of live and dead seeds for each of them. The analysis revealed the following: The seed bank density was higher in the upper soil depths (0 to 5 and 5 to 10 cm) as compared to the lower ones (10 to 15 cm). It was found that the seed density had decreased with increasing depth. The live seed density ranged from 1015 to 5371 seeds/m2, whereas that of the dead seeds ranged from 3215 to 6957 seeds/m2. The dominant plant species to which the live seeds belonged were grasses includingSchoenefeldia gracilis, Brachiaria spp. , Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Aristida spp. The dominant species to which the dead seeds belonged were mixed life- forms including Panicum turgidum, Euphorbia aegyptiaca and Cyperus rotundus. Key words: Seed bank, density, species composition, semi-arid environments, rainfall variability, dispersal, viable seeds and dead seeds.
Expression of genes and enzymes involved in ovarian steroidogenesis in relation to human follicular development

Introduction Granulosa cells (GCs) and theca cells (TCs) play a pivotal role in human ovarian steroidogenesis, facilitating the conversion of cholesterol into sex steroids that regulate normal reproductive function. This study aims to explore the expression patterns of key enzymes that govern human ovarian steroidogenesis throughout follicle development, employing both genomic and immunological methodologies. Methods Follicles and GCs obtained from women undergoing ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) and in vitro fertilisation treatment were utilized. Gene expression data were obtained from a Chinese study using RNA sequencing and from microarray data generated in our laboratory to comprehensively analyse gene expression profiles across distinct stages of follicular development. To corroborate the localisation of key enzymes within GCs and TCs, immunohistochemistry analyses utilizing colourimetric and fluorescent techniques were conducted. Results Steroidogenesis-related enzymes displayed low gene expression levels during early follicle development. However, a notable upregulation of HSD3B2 was observed in GCs as follicles progressed to the antral/preovulatory stage, confirmed consistently using both microarray and RNA sequencing methodologies. Furthermore, immunohistochemical analyses effectively demonstrated that HSD3B2 were not only expressed in GCs, but co-localised with CYP17A1 within a specific subset of TCs surrounding human small antral follicles. Contributing to an enhanced progesterone production during the second half of the follicular phase was a significant upregulation of CYB5A in both microarray and RNA-seq datasets as follicles transition from the antral stage to the pre-ovulatory stage. Moreover, an augmented expression of DHCR24 and LDLR in both types of data, along with HMGCR expression expression in the microarray data, indicates increased substrate availability for ovarian steroidogenesis. Discussion This study confirms and extends that GCs gradually augment expression of HSD3B2 thereby enhancing their capacity for progesterone synthesis as follicles reach the size of selection at around 10 mm in diameter. This is supported by the expression CYB5A and possibly augmented availability of steroid precursors. A subset of TCs exhibit concurrent expression of CYP17A1 and HSD3B2, collectively contributing to the synthesis of 17-hydroxyprogesterone. These data significantly enhance our understanding of the dynamic regulation of progesterone throughout the process of follicular development.
Weighing natural variability and anthropogenic impacts: a case study of demersal fish and epibenthic communities in the Belgian Part of the North Sea.

2009). Numerous monitoring programs have been set up to evaluate the extent and nature of these effects. However, the effects of anthropogenic activities on the benthic life are often difficult to detect against a background of small and large scale natural variability resulting from differences in environmental variables, especially in the highly dynamic sandbank-dominated habitats in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS). The distribution of the macrobenthos in the BPNS is well studied, and four major species assemblages were defined (Van Hoey
New genera and species of Eumolpinae from New Caledonia [Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae ]

Ces petits eumolpines, a la couleur terne, jaunâtre ou brunâtre, proviennent de toute la Nouvelle-Caledonie et des iles Loyaute et se recoltent principalement par fauchage ou battage des arbres. Ce sont des especes, le plus souvent polyphages, des formes d'eumolpines evoluees, diurnes, a larves radicicoles, et qui furent parfois prises, pour certaines, pour des alticines. Quatre especes furent notamment confondues avec des Sphaeroderma, des Altica et des Crepidodera par Montrouzier (1861) et Perroud (1864. 1867) (Samuelson, 1973). Il est tres probable que de semblables especes existent dans la region en dehors de la Nouvelle-Caledonie. Nous avons essaye ici de debrouiller au mieux ces oublies des Eumolpinae.
Enhancement of alkali- and oxidation-modified biochars derived from water hyacinth for ammonium adsorption capacity

ABSTRACT Wastewater containing high concentrations of ammonium-nitrogen (NH4+-N) is considered a major concern because its untreated discharge has a variety of adverse effects on the environment and human health. Adsorption using biochars is an easy and cost-effective wastewater treatment method. However, aquatic plants such as water hyacinth for biochar feedstock are considered unsuitable for adsorbent use due to limited NH4+-N adsorption capacity. In this study, biochar made from water hyacinth was modified with potassium hydroxide (KOH) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to obtain highly efficient adsorbent. This study aimed to enhance NH4+-N adsorption capacity by KOH- and H2O2-treatments and identify NH4+-N adsorption mechanism of the modified biochars derived from water hyacinth. The NH4+-N adsorption of all biochars was dependent on the initial solution pH increasing from pH 2 to 4, then relatively constant from pH 4 to 8. Pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir model were found to be the best fit for NH4+-N adsorption data. The maximum NH4+-N adsorption capacity of biochars increased about 8 times (17.1 mg g−1) and 10 times (21.5 mg g−1) after KOH- and H2O2-modification, respectively, compared to pristine biochar (2.14 mg g−1). The main NH4+-N adsorption mechanisms were suggested as cation exchange for both biochars particularly KOH-modified biochar, and hydrogen bonding by oxygen-containing surface functional groups for H2O2-modified biochar. This study suggested that aquatic plant-based biochar, which has been considered difficult to use, had potential as a promising alternative adsorbent for removing NH4+-N from wastewater through modification.
DTraComp: Comparing distributed execution traces for understanding intermittent latency sources

Microservice architectures can enhance software development by using multiple programming languages and deployment infrastructures, isolating failures within individual services, and accelerating the debugging and ﬁxing of issues in independent services. Locating performance degradation becomes challenging, due to the presence of numerous service instances with complex interactions compounded by parallelism. Although end-to-end tracing allows tracing execution paths across services, and detecting their latencies, it is limited to high-level information. Indeed, end-to-end tracing cannot pinpoint the root causes of performance degradation between the processes. Moreover, many existing performance analysis tools lack a comparison feature to give developers a comprehensive view of the performance diﬀerences between two groups of requests. This paper introduces DTraComp (Distributed Trace Compare) , an open-source framework, compatible with various microservice trace standards, and integrated with Eclipse Trace Compass. Our framework oﬀers robust visual comparison capability for two groups of executions within distributed systems, which includes nested spans executed in parallel. Furthermore, it provides system kernel details for each thread involved in the execution of each span, allowing it to pinpoint the reasons for performance degradation across distributed systems. We used our proposed framework to analyze ﬁve practical use cases. By evaluating the eﬃciency of our tool, it was determined that the overall time complexity scales linearly O(n) with the trace size, indicating its suitability for deployment in production environments. It is currently used within Ericsson company for performance evaluation purposes.
Syntactic complexity differentially affects auditory sentence comprehension performance for individuals with age-related hearing loss

Objectives This study examined whether older adults with hearing loss (HL) experience greater difficulties in auditory sentence comprehension compared to those with typical-hearing (TH) when the linguistic burdens of syntactic complexity were systematically manipulated by varying either the sentence type (active vs. passive) or sentence length (3- vs. 4-phrases). Methods A total of 22 individuals with HL and 24 controls participated in the study, completing sentence comprehension test (SCT), standardized memory assessments, and pure-tone audiometry tests. Generalized linear mixed effects models were employed to compare the effects of sentence type and length on SCT accuracy, while Pearson correlation coefficients were conducted to explore the relationships between SCT accuracy and other factors. Additionally, stepwise regression analyses were employed to identify memory-related predictors of sentence comprehension ability. Results Older adults with HL exhibited poorer performance on passive sentences than on active sentences compared to controls, while the sentence length was controlled. Greater difficulties on passive sentences were linked to working memory capacity, emerging as the most significant predictor for the comprehension of passive sentences among participants with HL. Conclusion Our findings contribute to the understanding of the linguistic-cognitive deficits linked to age-related hearing loss by demonstrating its detrimental impact on the processing of passive sentences. Cognitively healthy adults with hearing difficulties may face challenges in comprehending syntactically more complex sentences that require higher computational demands, particularly in working memory allocation.
An Evaluation of the Educational Games Implementation Process from the Teacher Candidates, Students and Parents’ Perspective

The aim of the study is to evaluate the educational games implementation process from the science teacher candidates, students and parents perspective. The special case method, which allows evaluating an event in depth, was preferred. The implementation process was completed in 14 weeks. The study group consists of 36 science teacher candidates, 44 students and 43 parents of students. Interview and open-ended questionnaire were used as data collection tools. The data obtained from the interviews and open-ended questionnaire were analyzed by content analysis. Within the scope of content analysis, the data were coded and categorized and themes were found. The fact that students mostly emphasized the "learning by having fun" code regarding the implementation process of educational games also shows parallelism with the theoretical background of the adoption of games in the education field. Similar to the evaluations of the students, parents and science teacher candidates also emphasized that educational games are fun and instructive. Students think that the educational games make it possible to reinforce the knowledge they have learned. Unlike the students, the parents and teacher candidates evaluated the subject as "repeating the subject by having fun". It can be recommended to apply this study as a group in the classroom and to evaluate educational games in this way.
The effects of schooling on rural unemployment in Ethiopia

Abstract Nowadays, education is considered an instrument that we use to eradicate poverty. It is also presumed as an indicator of modernization and a development realization tool. Education creates an opportunity to be employed in good positions in reducing unemployment. Scholars debate whether education reduces rural unemployment. Some scholars argue that education is a powerful weapon to reduce rural unemployment. Others encounter that education does not necessarily decrease rural unemployment. This paper describes the effects of schooling on rural unemployment in Ethiopia. We used a quantitative approach with a descriptive research design in this study. A sample of 8700 participants, based on the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency data collected in 2021, was obtained. We used descriptive and probit models to analyze the data. The descriptive results showed that rural unemployment is unequally distributed based on education, sex, and regional states. The majority are still participating in the agriculture sector. Besides, the finding also reveals that lack of job opportunities, training, experience, and unrelated jobs to education in rural areas is the cause of unemployment. However, the probit model result shows that schooling has a statistically significant positive effect on employment. As a result, for a one-unit increase in education, the probability of employment increases by 0.15. It concludes that schooling is paramount in decreasing rural unemployment in Ethiopia if much attention is given. We recommend that the government should transform rural areas’ activities from agricultural-oriented to services-oriented activities to create extensive job opportunities in rural areas for rural youths, especially educators.
Challenges in the care of children born to mothers diagnosed with COVID-19 during the pandemic.

OBJECTIVE To understand the challenges in the care of children born to mothers with COVID-19 during the pandemic. METHOD Qualitative research, conducted from November 2020 to May 2021, in two public maternity hospitals, with women who had children during the first wave of the pandemic, diagnosed with COVID-19 during pregnancy and/or childbirth. There were nineteen semi-structured interviews with thematic analysis. Symbolic Interactionism was used as a theoretical framework. RESULTS Changes in the care for newborn children were identified. In the domestic environment, hygiene measures with the newborn children were intensified, social isolation restricted the support network and mothers felt alone and overwhelmed. In terms of health care, there was a setback in neonatal care and interruption of professional care, such as the suspension of appointments. CONCLUSION The pandemic has restructured traditional models of family care, intensified difficulties in accessing healthcare, and exposed children to inherent risks due to a lack of proper follow-up.
Experimental Investigation of Unidirectional Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Plastics under High Strain Rates

When a vehicle leaves the road, crash barriers stop it and prevent significant damage to the vehicle, its environment, and the occupants. Typically, such protection systems are made of simple steel, but fiber-reinforced composites can efficiently absorb and dissipate the impact energy at high-risk locations. In order to design such protective systems, material parameters under dynamic loading are necessary. Here, split Hopkinson pressure bar tests with unidirectional glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy of 58% glass fiber content are performed. The elastic response at strain rates between 300/s and 700/s in the loading direction parallel and perpendicular to the fiber is determined. From the measured data, a model of the time dependence of the elastic modulus is derived to enable the design engineer to lay out protective systems made of such GFRPs.
Screening for antibacterial properties of some traditional medicinal plants in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Infections caused by bacteria continue to be a major threat to public health. The impact of this is especially alarming in developing countries due to the relative shortages of medicines and the emergence of widespread drug resistance. This has led to the search for new antimicrobial agents mainly among plant extracts. As part of an ongoing research to isolate and purify antibacterial compounds from the extract of traditionally used medicinal plants from Kebbi State, Nigeria, some selected plants were screened for their antibacterial potentials. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the extracts was carried out using standard methods. The bioactivity (antibacterial) test was done using agar well diffusion method, while MIC and MBC were tested using broth dilution method. The results for the phytochemical screening showed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, saponins, glycosides, alkaloids and terpenoids in the selected plants extracts. The results for the antibacterial activity of the crude methanolic extracts of the selected plants showed varying degree of antibacterial activities against selected bacterial isolates. However, the stem bark extract of Acacia nilotica showed relatively high zone of inhibition (mm), minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The extract was found to inhibit the growth of most of the tested bacterial isolates comprising of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms. These findings support previous reports on the antimicrobial activity of this plant. The result of the present study signifies the potential of Acacia nilotica stem bark as a source of therapeutic agents, which may provide leads in the ongoing search for antibacterial agents from plants.
Lightweight Spectrum Prediction Based on Knowledge Distillation

To address the challenges of increasing complexity and larger number of training samples required for high-accuracy spectrum prediction, we propose a novel lightweight model, leveraging a temporal convolutional network (TCN) and knowledge distillation. First, the prediction accuracy of TCN is enhanced via a self-transfer method. Then, we design a two-branch network which can extract the spectrum features efficiently. By employing knowledge distillation, we transfer the knowledge from TCN to the two-branch network, resulting in improved accuracy for spectrum prediction of the lightweight network. Experimental results show that the proposed model can improve accuracy by 19.5% compared to the widely-used LSTM model with sufficient historical data and reduces 71.1% parameters to be trained. Furthermore, the prediction accuracy is improved by 17.9% compared to Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) in the scenarios with scarce historical data.
Hydrological impacts of reforesting degraded pasture land in the middle mountain zone of Central Nepal

Measurements of gross rainfall, throughfall and stemflow were made during the 2011 rainy season in an evergreen natural forest and in a planted pine forest located in complex topography in the Middle Mountains of Central Nepal. For the period of observation (20 June to 9 September 2011), measured throughfall, stemflow and derived interception loss in the natural forest were 76.2%, 1.4% and 22.4% of incident rainfall, respectively. Corresponding values for the pine plantation were 83.0%, 0.5% and 16.5%. The revised version of Gash’s analytical model of rainfall interception was calibrated and validated for the two stands, representing a first for montane sub-tropical monsoonal conditions. The results of the modeling corresponded well with observed values, provided an optimised value was used for the average wet-canopy evaporation rate. The model was subsequently used to calculate annual interception losses from the two forests. Modeled estimates of annual interception loss for the planted and natural forest were 291 mm and 319 mm and represented 19.4% and 22.6% of incident rainfall, respectively. The high interception loss from the planted forest is considered a contributory factor towards the observed decline in dry season streamflow following the reforestation of degraded hillsides in the Middle Mountains of Nepal. This chapter is based on: Ghimire CP, Bruijnzeel LA, Lubczynski MW, Bonell M (2012) Rainfall interception by natural and planted forests in the Middle Mountains of Central Nepal. Journal of Hydrology, 475, 270–280. Rainfall interception
The thermal evolution history of Mesozoic,Fuxian exploratory area of Ordos Basin

Aim The discussion of thermal evolution history of Fuxian Mesozoic is to offer help to oil exploration and resource assessment.Methods The methods include paleo-geothermal recovery method,acoustic erosion thickness method and basin-modeling method.Results The region entered the rapid subsidence stage in Triassic,the slow subsidence stage in early Jurassic-early Cretaceous,and the late uplifting stage after Late of early Cretaceous.Conclusion The Chang 7 source rock entered the low maturity stage(Ro=0.5%) in middle Jurassic(174 Ma) and the maturity stage(Ro=0.7%) in early Cretaceous(136 Ma). The burial depth of Chang 7 reached 1 662 m in Late of early Cretaceous(96 Ma),geothermal gradient=4.8℃/100 m.The hydrocarbon generation weakened after 96 Ma.The main oil generation period of the Chang 7 in Fu xian area is in early Cretaceous.