Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Un listado de la familia Bembicidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) de Túnez

Se recopila una lista de la familia Bembicidae en Túnez basada en los datos disponibles en la literatura, en nuevo material recolectado de diferentes localidades de Túnez entre 2017 y 2019, y algunos especímenes conservados en el Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, París, Francia. Como resultado, se registraron 49 especies y dos subespecies en 16 géneros de la familia Bembicidae. Dos géneros: Psammaecius Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau, 1832 y Brachystegus A. Costa, 1859 se reportan en este estudio por primera vez. Esto se suma a nueve especies y subespecies: Alysson ratzeburgi Dahlbom, 1843, Psammaecius eremorum de Beaumont, 1952, Stizoides klugii (F. Smith, 1856), Stizus fuscatus Morice, 1897, Stizus niloticus saharae Roth, 1934, Stizus pubescens arenarum Handlirsch, 1892, Stizus ruficornis strigatus Mochi, 1939, Stizus vespoides (Walker, 1871) y Brachystegus braueri (Handlirsch, 1887) que son nuevas para la fauna tunecina. También se han encontrado nuevas localidades para varis especies y subespecies, que ya habían sido reportadadas de Túnez. Los taxones identificados se ilustran mediante fotografías digitales y se presenta su distribución global y en Túnez.
Expanding the wood anatomy economics spectrum: the correlates of vessel element lengths and pit apertures sizes in tropical forest trees

ABSTRACT Background Plant functions all have an anatomical basis, but there are still major knowledge gaps in functional wood anatomy, especially of tropical trees. Aims To examine the relationships between the functional anatomy of woody tissue in poorly studied rainforest trees, focussing on anatomical traits including vessel element lengths, pit aperture dimensions, grouping indices and xylem tissue fractions. We examined how these anatomical traits influence drought vulnerability indices, theoretical conductivity and structural traits such as wood density and stem diameter. Methods We measured wood anatomical traits and higher-level structural traits from 25 Atlantic rainforest species and examined the relationships among these traits using univariate and multivariate methods. Regression models were used to explore how anatomical traits were related to drought vulnerability, theoretical conductivity, and wood structural traits. Results Vulnerability index was positively correlated with parenchyma fraction and both intervessel and vessel-ray pit aperture diameters. Theoretical conductivity was negatively associated with fibre fractions. Wood density was positively associated with fibre fraction and was also related to parenchyma and vessel fractions and vessel element lengths. Conclusions Anatomical traits constitute an important economics spectrum, which could be positioned against leaf economics spectra to further our understanding of plant ecological and hydraulic strategies.
Understanding Communities of Practice: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

This paper provides a comprehensive, integrative conceptual review of work on communities of practice (CoPs), defined broadly as groups of people bound together by a common activity, shared expertise, a passion for a joint enterprise, and a desire to learn or improve their practice. We identify three divergent views on the intended purposes and expected effects of CoPs: as mechanisms for fostering learning and knowledge-sharing, as sources of innovation, and as mechanisms to defend interests and perpetuate control over expertise domains. We use these different lenses to make sense of the ways CoPs are conceptualized and to review scholarly work on this topic. We argue that current debate on the future of work and new methodological developments are challenging the received wisdom on CoPs and offer research opportunities and new conceptual combinations. We argue also that the interaction between the lenses and between CoP theory and adjacent literatures might result in new theory and conceptualizations.
Weakly nonlinear shape oscillations of a Newtonian drop

Nonlinear axisymmetric shape oscillations of a Newtonian drop in a vacuum are investigated theoretically, for fundamental interest and for their relevance in transport processes across the drop surface. The weakly nonlinear analysis is carried out for, but not limited to, the modes of initial drop deformation up to m = 4. The drop Ohnesorge number covers the range between 0.01 and 1. The weakly nonlinear approach, which is carried to third order, accounts for the coupling of different oscillation modes. With increasing surface deformation, the oscillations develop an asymmetry of the times during one period the drop spends in different states of deformation, a frequency decrease below the linear value, and quasi-periodicity of the motion. In contrast to the inviscid case [D. Zrnić and G. Brenn, “Weakly nonlinear shape oscillations of inviscid drops,” J. Fluid Mech. 923, A9 (2021)], the present analysis reveals the frequency decrease and the quasi-periodicity already in the second-order approximation. The results are positively validated against relevant literature. The theory quantifies the effects of viscosity, measured by the drop Ohnesorge number, dampening the nonlinear behavior and enhancing the coupling of different oscillation modes [E. Becker et al., “Nonlinear dynamics of viscous droplets,” J. Fluid Mech. 258, 191 (1994)]. The present theory reveals the quasi-periodicity of nonlinear viscous drop shape oscillations at strong deformation. The resultant drop motion, starting from a higher-order mode of initial deformation, for which the drop exhibits aperiodic linear behavior, may turn into damped oscillatory with ongoing time due to the coupling to lower-order modes.
Orographical influence on the air flow over Brahmaputra Valley

Airflow over Assam during different seasons has been examined, It has been shown that except during the monsoon, easterly air at the lower levels originates from the Himalayas. These are more marked during winter. Similarly it has been shown that there is a tendency for air to flow towards Himalayas during monsoon, Basing on this tendency the distribution of fog in winter over the whole valley has been explained. The effect of this air on the- formation of thunderstorm activity over Brahmaputra valley has also been indicated.
Blockade on Lin28a Prevents Cognitive Impairment and Disruption of the Blood-Brain Barrier Induced by Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion

Lin28a is an RNA-binding protein involved in the translation and regulation of multiple mRNAs. Lin28a is overexpressed in animal models of brain injury. Similarly, our preliminary study found increased Lin28a expression levels in the animal models four to seven days after chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. Therefore, this current study aimed to evaluate the effects of modulating Lin28a on cognition and brain functions. Vascular dementia (VaD) was induced in 12-week-old male Wistar rats using permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO), and these rats were treated with Lin28a siRNA on the fourth and seventh day after BCCAO. From the 42nd day after BCCAO, cognitive behavioral experiments were performed for two weeks. VaD induced by BCCAO resulted in cognitive impairment and microglial activation. Lin28a expression was upregulated after BCCAO. Lin28a siRNA treatment alleviated cognitive impairment and overexpression of GFAP and Iba-1 in the brain. Furthermore, the treatment ameliorated the VaD-induced damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) components, including PECAM-1, PDGFRβ, occludin, claudin-9, and ZO-1. CCR6 activation after VaD, associated with BBB disruption, was diminished by treatment with Lin28a siRNA. The treatment inhibited VaD-induced microglial activity and alleviated BBB damage. Thus, blocking Lin28a may alleviate cognitive impairment caused by VaD.
The Phytochemical Profile and Anticancer Activity of Anthemis tinctoria and Angelica sylvestris Used in Estonian Ethnomedicine

The aerial parts of Anthemis tinctoria L. and Angelica sylvestris L. and the roots of A. sylvestris have been used as traditional anticancer remedies in Estonian ethnomedicine. The aim of this study was to investigate content of essential oils (by gas chromatography) and polyphenolic compounds (using two different methods of high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS)) of both plant species, as well as the in vitro anti-cancer effects of their essential oils and methanolic extracts. The average (n = 5 samples) yield of essential oils was 0.15%, 0.13%, and 0.17%, respectively. The principal compounds of the essential oil from the aerial parts of A. tinctoria were palmitic acid (15.3%), p-cymene (12.6%), and α-muurolene (12.5%), and α-pinene (45.4%), p-cymene (15.5%), and β-myrcene (13.3%) in aerial parts of A. sylvestris, while isocaryophyllene oxide (31.9%), α-bisabolol (17.5%), and α-pinene (12.4%) were the main constituents in the roots. The most abundant phenolic compounds in aerial parts were the derivatives of caffeic acid, quinic acid, and quercetin; the main compounds in roots of A. sylvestris were chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, and naringenin. The strongest anticancer effects were observed in essential oils of A. sylvestris roots and aerial parts on human carcinoma in the mouth cells (KB, IC50 19.73 μg/mL and 19.84 μg/mL, respectively). The essential oil of A. tinctoria showed a strong effect on KB and LNCaP cells (27.75–29.96 μg/mL). The methanolic extracts of both plants had no effect on the cancer cells studied.
Gastrointestinal Protein Hydrolysis Kinetics: Opportunities for Further Infant Formula Improvement

The postprandial plasma essential amino acid (AA) peak concentrations of infant formula (IF) are higher than those of human milk (HM) in infants. In addition, several HM proteins have been recovered intact in infant stool and appeared digestion resistant in vitro. We, therefore, hypothesized that gastrointestinal protein hydrolysis of IF is faster than HM and leads to accelerated absorbable digestion product release. HM and IF protein hydrolysis kinetics were compared in a two-step semi-dynamic in vitro infant digestion model, and the time course of degree of protein hydrolysis (DH), loss of intact protein, and release of free AA and peptides was evaluated. Gastric DH increase was similar for IF and HM, but the rate of intestinal DH increase was 1.6 times higher for IF than HM. Intact protein loss in IF was higher than HM from 120 min gastric phase until 60 min intestinal phase. Intestinal phase total digestion product (free AA + peptides <5 kDa) concentrations increased ~2.5 times faster in IF than HM. IF gastrointestinal protein hydrolysis and absorbable product release are faster than HM, possibly due to the presence of digestion-resistant proteins in HM. This might present an opportunity to further improve IF bringing it closer to HM.
Determination of Work Motivation, Leadership Style, Employee Competence on Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance

The goal of this study was to look at the impact of work motivation, leadership style, and competence on job satisfaction, as well as the effects of work motivation, leadership style, and competence on performance, job satisfaction's impact on performance, and the impact of work motivation, leadership style, and competence on performance via job satisfaction. The research will take place at LLDIKTI-IX. The study's population and sample size were 125 employees (complete sampling). The data from the questionnaire was analyzed with the use of AMOS 18 and the Structural Equation Model. According to the findings, work motivation has a negative and significant impact on job satisfaction. Employee motivation in existence, connectedness, and growth is still low, but it is necessary to improve employee job satisfaction. Employee performance is influenced by competence in a positive but insignificant way. Employee competency is still a career development issue, with little attention paid to the role of innovation and technology in improving employee performance. Employee performance is influenced by competence through job satisfaction in a positive but insignificant way. Employee job satisfaction is poor in enhancing their performance since applying competencies that have been directed thus far is still like meeting work needs.
The Music Practice Motivation Scale: An exploration of secondary instrumental music students’ motivation to practice

This study sought to explore high school band students’ motivation for practicing their instruments using the basic tenets of self-determination theory as a theoretical lens. Exploring levels of self-determination alongside years of musical experience, time reported practicing, grade level, gender, instrument selection, and private lesson study, this study sought to utilize the Music Practice Motivation Scale (MPMS) with a high school instrumental music population. Using multivariate analyses of variance, participants reported higher levels of intrinsic motivational beliefs toward practicing over external motivations. Extrinsically motivated students, however, were more likely to rate stronger agreement with an introjected regulation style indicating the importance of others’ views of practice on their own belief system. Despite potential issues with the fulfillment of the psychological need for autonomy, data suggest a weak correlation between private lesson study and the bolstering of intrinsic motivation. Reliability analysis demonstrated strong support for the inclusion of the MPMS in high school-level classrooms when seeking to determine and guide student self-determination to practice. Strong connections were found to support the fulfillment of psychological needs in the instrumental music classroom through targeted activities that focus on the development of intrinsic motivational beliefs focused on feelings of achievement, knowledge, and affect.
Evaluation of T-stress in stationary and propagating adiabatic cracks in FGM subjected to thermo-mechanical loading

Abstract The aim of this paper is to study the T-stress and its effect on crack propagation in FGM materials with adiabatic cracks subjected to thermo-mechanical loading based on the J-integral formulation and the extended finite element method (XFEM). Path-independent J-integral responses of T-stress for adiabatic cracks and the effects of incompatible terms for FGMs are discussed. Having examined the T-stress parameter, the effect of fracture characteristic/process length on crack propagation angle in adiabatic cracks is studied. The results show that the initial crack propagation angle deviates from the standard propagation angle by increasing the size of the fracture process zone.
Effect of silver nitrate and putrescine on in vitro shoot organogenesis of Polygonum multiflorum

Polygonum multiflorum is a flowering plant that belongs to the family Polygonaceae and it is commonly used for medicinal and ornamental purposes. Few studies have been studied about the regeneration of this species. Therefore, we aimed to develop a suitable protocol for regeneration and subsequent growth of shoots by comparing the silver nitrate (AgNO3) (ethylene inhibitor) and the putrescine (polyamine). Internode explants were cultured on shoot regeneration media (Murashige and Skoog (MS) media containing 2 mg L-1 of 6-benzylaminopurine). To analysis, the effect of AgNO3 and putrescine on shoot regeneration and length, different concentrations (mg L-1) of AgNO3 (0, 1, 5, 7, 10, and 20) and putrescine (0, 10, 30, 50, 100, and 200) were added to the MS media. The result showed that at highest concentration (20 mg L-1) of AgNO3 treatment decrease number of shoots (NOS) (1.4 ± 0.2 mm) and shoot length (9.7 ± 1.6 mm) was observed. Putrescine considerably increased the regeneration efficiency, NOS per explant, and shoot length in all the concentrations when compared to AgNO3 treatment. Among the different concentrations, the highest NOS (2.52 ± 0.2 mm) was obtained in cultures supplemented with 30 mg L-1 putrescine, whereas the further increase in putrescine concentration reduced shoot regeneration. The longest shoots (20.5 ± 1.7 mm) were achieved in cultures supplemented with 200 mg L-1 putrescine. The findings of this study indicate that the addition of putrescine to the media could be suitable for P. multiflorum micropropagation and plant transformation.
Machine-Learning Based Analysis of Liquid Water Path Adjustments to Aerosol Perturbations in Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Using Satellite Observations

Changes in marine boundary layer cloud (MBLC) radiative properties in response to aerosol perturbations are largely responsible for uncertainties in future climate predictions. In particular, the relationship between the cloud droplet number concentration (Nd, a proxy for aerosol) and the cloud liquid water path (LWP) remains challenging to quantify from observations. In this study, satellite observations from multiple polar-orbiting platforms for 2006–2011 are used in combination with atmospheric reanalysis data in a regional machine learning model to predict changes in LWP in MBLCs in the Southeast Atlantic. The impact of predictor variables on the model output is analysed using Shapley values as a technique of explainable machine learning. Within the machine learning model, precipitation fraction, cloud top height, and Nd are identified as important cloud state predictors for LWP, with dynamical proxies and sea surface temperature (SST) being the most important environmental predictors. A positive nonlinear relationship between LWP and Nd is found, with a weaker sensitivity at high cloud droplet concentrations. This relationship is found to be dependent on other predictors in the model: Nd–LWP sensitivity is higher in precipitating clouds and decreases with increasing SSTs.
Maturity of procurement units for public construction projects in Indonesia

Abstract Indonesia’s construction sector has been a driving force in its economic growth over the last five years, before COVID-19 pandemic, due to massive government spending on infrastructure development. One of the resulting concerns has been the capacity of public procurement for construction works to select builders capable of delivering quality infrastructures. To address this concern, this paper presents a study to measure the maturity of procurement units for public construction projects. This study aimed to provide information for the Indonesian government in mitigating the risks related to its procurement unit’s capability of delivering its demanding infrastructure projects. This research used the maturity model developed specifically for construction public procurement. There were 48 respondents from the Ministry of Public Works and Housings’ 16 procurement units in 15 provinces. The analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics based on location groupings, overall maturity index, dimensions, and elements. The maturity of procurement units for construction projects remains at the second level of five. The need for further capacity-building programmes for procurement units in Indonesia is still relevant, especially the improvement of procurement planning as the first and most important part of the procurement processes.
The effect of digital accounting systems on the decision-making quality in the banking industry sector: a mediated-moderated model

Purpose Recently, the increasing development of digital accounting systems has raised their effects on the quality of decision-making. Consequently, this research aims to evaluate the effects of digital accounting systems success factors on the advancement of decision-making quality in Jordanian banks. Design/methodology/approach The questionnaires were sent to 187 decision-makers who are actual users of digital accounting systems in Jordanian banks. A quantitative research approach was adopted to test the proposed research model based on the partial least squares-structural equation modeling method. Findings The empirical results of the current research revealed that data and information quality had a significant impact on the overall decision-making quality with the digital accounting systems, whereas system quality had an insignificant impact on it. The results empirical also confirmed that information quality has mediated the relationship between data and system quality and decision-making quality. Eventually, analytical decision-making culture has moderated the relationship between information quality and decision-making quality. Originality/value The current research will provide attractive implications and recommendations for practitioners, accounting managers and decision-makers about evaluating the effect of digital accounting systems on improving the decision-making quality in Jordanian banks.
Berberine attenuates sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction by upregulating the Akt/eNOS pathway in mice

The present study aimed to investigate the cardioprotective role of berberine in sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction and consider the underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6J mice were randomized into four groups, namely, Control, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), LPS + berberine and LPS + Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) + berberine. A single dose (10 mg/kg body weight) of LPS was intraperitoneally administered to mice to induce cardiac dysfunction, whereas the Control group was administered with an equivalent volume of saline. In the LPS + berberine and LPS + L-NAME + berberine group, berberine (10 mg/kg body weight) dissolved in hot water was intraperitoneally administered 30 min after the LPS treatment. In the LPS + L-NAME + berberine group, L-NAME (100 mg/kg body weight) dissolved in saline was intraperitoneally administered 30 min before the LPS treatment. Then, ~6 h after the LPS treatment, a significant decrease was observed in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS). Meanwhile, the plasma myocardial injury markers, inflammatory factors and oxidative stress levels were significantly increased in the LPS group compared with the Control group. The administration of berberine improved the ventricular function and decreased the plasma myocardial injury markers, inflammatory factors and oxidative stress levels. In addition, it increased the heart total nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity and upregulated the protein expressions of p-Akt and phosphorylated endothelial (e)NOS, which indicated that the Akt/eNOS pathway was activated by berberine. However, the cardioprotective effects of berberine were counteracted by L-NAME, an NOS inhibitor, which inhibited the eNOS activity. In conclusion, berberine attenuated sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction by upregulating the Akt/eNOS pathway in mice.
A Crossmodal Multiscale Fusion Network for Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Data

Driven by the rapid development of Earth observation sensors, semantic segmentation using multimodal fusion of remote sensing data has drawn substantial research attention in recent years. However, existing multimodal fusion methods based on convolutional neural networks cannot capture long-range dependencies across multiscale feature maps of remote sensing data in different modalities. To circumvent this problem, this work proposes a crossmodal multiscale fusion network (CMFNet) by exploiting the transformer architecture. In contrast to the conventional early, late, or hybrid fusion networks, the proposed CMFNet fuses information of different modalities at multiple scales using the cross-attention mechanism. More specifically, the CMFNet utilizes a novel cross-modal attention architecture to fuse multiscale convolutional feature maps of optical remote sensing images and digital surface model data through a crossmodal multiscale transformer (CMTrans) and a multiscale context augmented transformer (MCATrans). The CMTrans can effectively model long-range dependencies across multiscale feature maps derived from multimodal data, while the MCATrans can learn discriminative integrated representations for semantic segmentation. Extensive experiments on two large-scale fine-resolution remote sensing datasets, namely ISPRS Vaihingen and Potsdam, confirm the excellent performance of the proposed CMFNet as compared to other multimodal fusion methods.