Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climate Change Projections of Aridity Conditions in the Iberian Peninsula

The assessment of aridity conditions is a key factor for water management and the implementation of mitigation and adaptation policies in agroforestry systems. Towards this aim three aridity indices were computed for the Iberian Peninsula (IP): the De Martonne Index (DMI), the Pinna Combinative Index (PCI), and the Erinç Aridity Index (EAI). These three indices were first computed for the baseline period 1961‒1990, using a gridded observational data (E-OBS), and, subsequently, for the periods 2011‒2040 (short-range) and 2041‒2070 (medium-range) using an ensemble of six Regional Climate Models (RCMs) experiments generated by the EURO-CORDEX project. Two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) were analyzed, an intermediate anthropogenic radiative forcing scenario (RCP4.5) and a fossil-intensive emission scenario (RCP8.5). Overall, the three indices disclose a strengthening of aridity and dry conditions in central and southern Iberia until 2070, mainly under RCP8.5. Strong(weak) statistically significant correlations were found between these indices and the total mean precipitation (mean temperature) along with projected significant decreasing(increasing) trends for precipitation(temperature). The prevalence of years with arid conditions (above 70% for 2041‒2070 under both RCPs) are projected to have major impacts in some regions, such as southern Portugal, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad de Madrid, Andalucía, Región de Murcia, Comunidad Valenciana, and certain regions within the Aragón province. The projected increase in both the intensity and persistence of aridity conditions in a broader southern half of Iberia will exacerbate the exposure and vulnerability of this region to climate change, while the risk of multi-level desertification should be thoroughly integrated into regional and national water management and planning.
EFFECT OF DIRECT SUNLIGHT AND UV-RAYS ON DEGRADATION OF BUPIRIMATE, PENCONAZOLE AND PROFENOFOS

The exposure to sunlight, UV-rays led to the degradation of the pesticides formulations (Namrod 25% EC) bupirimate, (Agrozole 10% EC) penconazole and (Actacron 72% EC) profenofos. Their residues were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that exposure to direct sunlight in (Winter at the morning) was more effective in degradation of the tested pesticides than exposure to direct sunlight in (Winter at the evening) for 4 hours. The percentage residue of bupirimate, penconazole and profenofos were 18.24, 48.52 and 19.26 % in winter at the morning, respectively. Therefore, bupirimate was the highest affected by this treatment. Also, the data showed that exposure to direct sunlight in (Summer at the evening) was more degraded than exposure to direct sunlight in (Summer at the morning) for 4 hours. The percentage residue of bupirimate, penconazole and profenofos were 11.14, 15.45 and 7.72 % after 4 hours in (Summer at the evening), respectively. Therefore profenofos was more degraded than other pesticides. In general the degradation of the tested pesticides in summer was higher than winter. Withal, the data demonstrated that the exposure to UV-ray at distance 22.5 cm was more effective in degradation of the three tested pesticides than exposure to UV-ray at distance 45 cm for 4 hours where, the percentage residue of bupirimate, penconazole and profenofos were 17.08, 39.56 and 15.00 % after 4 hours of exposure to UV-ray at distance 22.5 cm respectively, and therefore profenofos was the highest degraded in the three pesticide in the same period of exposure to UV-ray.
Cardiovascular Autonomic Neuropathy in Patients with Diabetes in Cotonou, Benin: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Diabetes mellitus is well known as a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy is one of the diabetes complications that has a major impact on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes. Aim : To determine the prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in patients with diabetes attending the diabetic center in Cotonou and to identify its risk factors. Materials and Methods : It was a cross-sectional study. Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy was identified using deep breathing test, standind test and the blood pressure response to standing test (orthostatic hypotension). Chi square test was used for statistical analysis and différence was considered significant when p<0.05. Results : A total of 405 subjects were included in the study. Their mean age was 53.67±11,68 years and the mean diabetes duration was 6.66 years. The prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy was 65.9%. Regarding the severity of the complication in neuropathic patients, 51.7% of them had an early neuropathy, 41.2% have presented a moderate neuropathy and 7.1% have presented a severe neuropathy. Factors associated with cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy were age of patients (p = 0.0002), diabetes duration (p = 0.0012), hypertension (p =0.0015), dyslipidemia (p = 0.027) and high pulsed blood pressure (p = 0.032) Conclusion : Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy is a very frequent complication of diabetes mellitus. Unfortunately this complication of diabetes is not often explored in the patient's follow-up examination. As this complication is recognised to be associated with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, systematic screening can be recommanded in patients with long duration of diabetes or presenting an other cardiovascular risk factor.
CMAR_A_222572 1469..1482

1Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410078, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Central South University; Hunan Key Laboratory of Pharmacogenetics, Changsha 410078, People’s Republic of China; 3Engineering Research Center of Applied Technology of Pharmacogenomics, Ministry of Education, Changsha 410078, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Geratic Surgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, People’s Republic of China; 5National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Changsha, Hunan 410008, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital/School of Basic Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410078, Hunan, People’s Republic of China; 7Department of Radiology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, People’s Republic of China; 8Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China; 9Department of General Surgery, The Central Hospital of Xiangtan City, Xiangtan, Hunan, People’s Republic of China
DANTOP: A Promising New Molecule for the Management of Cotton Sap Feeding Insects

Studies were conducted to evaluate the bio-efficacy of Chlothianidin 50 % WDG (Dantop) a new insecticide spray formulation at different dosages along with standard checks (imidacloprid and Acetamiprid) to combat cotton sucking pests under irrigated cotton for two seasons. Results of pooled analysis indicated that two sprays of Clothianidin 50% WDG @ 20 and 25 gai/ha rendered very good protection of crop against the early season sucking pests. Significantly highest seed cotton yield (11.29 q/ha) was harvested from the Clothianidin 50% WDG @ 25 gai/ha treated plots which was on par with Acetamiprid 20 SP @10 gai/ha and to its next lower dose @ 20 gai/ha (10.97 q/ha). There was no phytotoxicity of Clothianidin 50% WDG treatments on the cotton hybrid DHH-11.
Hamasalih – Abdulrahman: Zingiber officinale and quercetin against Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of urinary tract infections associated with catheters. Biofilm is a community of microbial cells attached to a surface and is embedded in the extracellular polymeric substances. Catheters were collected from 157 patients; S. aureus was identified by molecular and conventional microbiological methods. S. aureus isolates showed a higher level of biofilm production, and all isolates showed biofilm production using Microtiter plate assay, while 89% of the isolates produced using Congo red agar method. All biofilm-producing isolates were positive for icaC, icaD, and cna genes, except isolate SA88, indicating the vital role of ica genes as markers of virulence in S. aureus infections. The difference in the inhibition of biofilm formation between the culture containing Z. officinale extract and the control was recorded. The high percentage of biofilm inhibition was 61.4 against SA04 at a concentration of 16%, whereas there is no effect on the formation of biofilm at concentrations 4, 2, 1, and 0.5% against each of SA36, SA48, and SA62. Quercetin lowers the formation of biofilm against SA36 of S. aureus at 32 μg/mL compared to a positive control (p= 0.0041), and the percentage of inhibition power reached to 92. At a concentration 32 μg/mL, the highest antibiofilm potential of ascorbic acid was 62 percent against SA86 strain, while at a concentration of 4 μg/mL, the minimum potency was recorded toward SA62 isolate.
Quantum Interference in Classical Physics & and its Impact on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

It is claimed that classical mechanics (CM) in terms of its equivalent Koopman-von Neumann formulation (KvN) is indeed a ’real’ quantum theory since the formalism of quantum mechanics (FQM) does not, nor need it, exclude it as a such. This claim is made manifest by suggesting a common structure of which both KvN and ordinary quantum mechanics (OQM) correspond to unitary representations of, although unitarily inequivalent such. It is shown that OQM is obtained by enforcing the extra physical condition of quantized energy levels, which by itself does not constitute the ’quantum mystery’. It is furthermore shown that KvN in a physically realizable sense contain the hallmark quantum behavior of quantum interference. It is hence concluded that both CM and OQM are subjected to the same foundational issues. As the central part of both KvN and OQM is the introduction of probabilities via FQM it is suggested that the foundational issues regarding FQM are less about FQM itself and more about the concept of probability.
OTT_A_250655 3765..3776

Chunle Zhang Yang Yu Liang Ma Ping Fu 1Kidney Research Laboratory, Division of Nephrology and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nephrology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People’s Republic of China Background: The histamine H3 receptor (HRH3) is mainly expressed in areas of the brain involved in the regulation of the release of various neurotransmitters. Recent studies have shown that HRH3 expression is increased in several types of carcinomas. However, the functional roles and underlying molecular mechanism by which HRH3 regulates cell survival in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown. Methods: The mRNA and protein expression level of target genes were evaluated by qRTPCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Cell viability and cell proliferation activity were assessed by MTS assay and EdU incorporation assay. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle were assessed by flow cytometry analysis. A xenograft mouse model was constructed to investigate the effect of HRH3 on tumor growth in vivo. Results: Our results indicated that HRH3 was significantly upregulated in HCC, which promoted cell survival by accelerating cell proliferation and inhibiting cell apoptosis. Our results also showed that HRH3 in HCC downregulated the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (CDKN1A) to promote G1-S phase transition by inactivating the cAMP/ PKA/CREB pathway, which finally contributed to the malignant growth of HCC. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that HRH3 functioned in promoting HCC survival by inactivating the cAMP/PKA/CREB pathway to downregulate CDKN1A expression. Thus, HRH3 might serve as a potential therapeutic target in HCC treatment.
New photolytic converter for improving aircraft measurements of NO2 via chemiluminescence

Abstract. Nitrogen oxides (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) are centrally involved in the photochemical processes taking place in the earth’s atmosphere. Measurements of NO2, particularly in remote areas where concentrations are of the order of pptv, are still a challenge and subject to extensive research. In this study, we present NO2 measurements via photolysis-chemiluminescence during the research aircraft campaign CAFE Africa (Chemistry of the Atmosphere – Field Experiment in Africa) 2018 around Cabo Verde as well as the results of laboratory experiments to characterize the photolytic converter used. We identify a memory effect within the conventional photolytic converter associated with high NO concentrations and rapidly changing water vapor concentrations, accompanying changes in altitude during aircraft measurements, which is due to the porous structure of the converter material. We test and characterize an alternative photolytic converter made from quartz glass which improves the reliability of NO2 measurements in laboratory and field studies.
Frequency dependent diffusion kurtosis measurement in the human brain with oscillating gradients

Oscillating gradient spin-echo (OGSE) is an implementation of di usion MRI that enables shorter e ective di usion times than the conventional pulse gradient spin-echo (PGSE) by periodically modulating the di usion gradient. Measurements of the di usion kurtosis, which reflects the degree of restricted di usion, have previously been prohibited with OGSE due to technical limitations of clinical gradient systems. This thesis presents a novel oscillating gradient waveform that enables the measurement of kurtosis using OGSE without requiring advanced gradient hardware. Decreases of kurtosis are observed in OGSE acquisitions of healthy subjects relative to PGSE, demonstrating the dependence of the kurtosis on oscillation frequency. This frequency dependence is exploited to generate novel contrast based on the di erence between PGSE and OGSE kurtosis measurements acquired with an optimized protocol. This work demonstrates the first in vivo measurements of kurtosis in the human brain using OGSE without the aid of advanced gradient hardware.
Inequality Matters Quarterly updates on inequality research , LIS micro data releases , and other developments at LIS

Dear readers, I am delighted to be writing to you as the new LIS Director. It is enormously exciting to be stepping in the shoes of Daniele Checchi whose five years in charge have left LIS more visible, respected and relevant than ever. I am grateful for the trust and confidence that has been put in me by Daniele, the LIS team, and by Francois Bourguignon and the entire ASBL. I am honored too, to be following in the footsteps of previous directors Janet Gornick, Markus Jantti, and founders Tim Smeeding and Lee Rainwater. I look forward to forging good working relations with the LIS team and hope to take advantage of the reasonably close proximity of my home town, Amsterdam, to Esch-Belval in order to become a regular face also in the corridors of the LIS office in Luxembourg. The LIS Directorship was perhaps not the most immediately obvious step in my career. After 23 years in the research department of the World Bank, I have been teaching economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since early 2015. I am a development economist and have been focused on development issues throughout my career. However, analyzing and measuring economic wellbeing in low income countries has been a central focus of my research throughout the past three decades. I have been heavily exposed to the challenges and opportunities that household survey data embody. I have been involved in the study of issues surrounding data harmonization, and I have actively participated in the exploration of methods to strengthen data comparability. From that perspective, the move to LIS with its mission to disseminate high quality, harmonized, household survey data, makes a good deal of sense. I am thrilled to come on board for this reason. I hope, moreover, that my experience and background in development may also be helpful given the particular juncture that LIS finds itself at. There is steadily increasing flow of datasets from low and middle-income countries entering into the LIS archives. Whether, and how, to harmonize these with the core LIS data, are important questions. There clearly exists demand for an ability to conduct crosscountry comparisons, along a variety of dimensions, involving both developed and developing countries. But as the range of countries in terms of levels of economic development, widens, the underlying data also become increasingly diverse in terms of quality, structure, and composition. Fundamental questions, such as the definition of income, consumption and wealth have to be revisited. New harmonization methods may need to be experimented with. Judgement calls have to be made. We need to reflect on how LIS can best navigate these new opportunities. I hope to contribute to that reflection. As ideas develop, we will be looking to air them in our LIS newsletter. I hope that you will also convey to us your thoughts and reactions. It promises to be an exciting time!
A G ] 3 0 Se p 20 06 A home-made Hartshorne-Serre correspondence

If instead one considers subvarieties of codimension bigger than one, the situation is very different and only well understood in codimension two (for some results in codimension three, see [13], [4] and [5]). More precisely, in [7], Hartshorne, inspired by previous works of Serre and Horrocks ([11] and [9]), proved that a codimension two subvariety of P is the zero locus of a rank-two vector bundle over P if and only if the subvariety is subcanonical (which can be interpreted as saying that the determinant of its normal bundle extends to a line bundle L on P). This result was independently proved by Barth and Van de Ven ([3]), and generalized by Grauert and Mülich ([6]) to any ambient space (in which case the vanishing of the second order cohomology of L is needed). Finally, following the original technique of Hartshorne, Vogelaar ([12]) gave the most general result, proving that any local complete intersection subscheme of codimension two of a smooth variety X can be obtained as the dependency locus of r − 1 sections of a rank r vector bundle over X of determinant L if and only if the determinant of its normal bundle twisted with L is generated by r− 1 global sections (provided again the vanishing of the second order cohomology of L). In both [6] and [12], the uniqueness of the vector bundle is obtained provided the vanishing of the first order cohomology of L.
Optimization of furfural production from millet husk using response surface methodology

ABSTRACT Biomass has been recognized as a viable source for energy and bio-based chemicals. This study reported furfural production from millet husk via simultaneous hydrolysis and dehydration processes. Effect of reaction variables such as temperature (120–200°C), resident time (15–45 min), and acid concentration (5–10%) was studied using central composite design. Furfural yield (71.55%) was achieved at 184°C, 39 min, and 9% acid concentration. FT-IR spectrum of the produced furfural showed absorption at 1,697 and 2,880 cm−1 indicating a conjugated carbonyl functional group and aldehydic hydrogen. The results revealed that millet husk could be a potential substrate for furfural production.
On number of different sized induced subgraphs of Bipartite-Ramsey graphs

In this paper, we investigate the set of sizes of induced subgraphs of bipartite graphs. We introduce the definition of C-Bipartite-Ramsey graphs, which is closely related to Ramsey graphs and prove that in ‘most’ cases, these graphs have multiplication tables of Ω(e(G)) in size. We apply our result to give direct evidence to the conjecture that the complete bipartite graph Kn,n is the minimiser of the multiplication table on n edges raised by Narayanan, Sahasrabudhe and Tomon.
Non asymptotic estimation lower bounds for LTI state space models with Cram\'er-Rao and van Trees

We study the estimation problem for linear time-invariant (LTI) state-space models with Gaussian excitation of an unknown covariance. We provide non asymptotic lower bounds for the expected estimation error and the mean square estimation risk of the least square estimator, and the minimax mean square estimation risk. These bounds are sharp with explicit constants when the matrix of the dynamics has no eigenvalues on the unit circle and are rate-optimal when they do. Our results extend and improve existing lower bounds to lower bounds in expectation of the mean square estimation risk and to systems with a general noise covariance. Instrumental to our derivation are new concentration results for rescaled sample covariances and deviation results for the corresponding multiplication processes of the covariates, a differential geometric construction of a prior on the unit operator ball of small Fisher information, and an extension of the Cramér-Rao and van Trees inequalities to matrix-valued estimators.
Thermalization in one-dimensional chains: the role of asymmetry and nonlinearity

The symmetry of interparticle interaction potential (IIP) has a crucial influence on the thermodynamic and transport properties of solids. Here we focus on the effect of the asymmetry of IIP on thermalization properties. In general, asymmetry and nonlinearity interweave with each other. To explore the effects of asymmetry and nonlinearity on thermalization separately, we here introduce an asymmetric harmonic (AH) model, whose IIP has the only asymmetry but no nonlinearity in the sense that the frequency of a system is independent of input energy. Through extensive numerical simulations, a power-law relationship between the thermalization time Teq and the perturbation strength (here the degree of asymmetry) is still confirmed, yet a larger exponent is observed instead of the previously found inverse square law in the thermodynamic limit. Then the quartic (symmetric) nonlinearity is added into the AH model, and the thermalization behavior under the coexistence of asymmetry and nonlinearity is systematically studied. It is found that Matthiessen’s rule gives a better estimation of the Teq of the system. This work further suggests that the asymmetry plays a distinctive role in the properties of relaxation of a system.
RNG-KBQA: Generation Augmented Iterative Ranking for Knowledge Base Question Answering

Existing KBQA approaches, despite achieving strong performance on i.i. d. test data, often struggle in generalizing to questions involving unseen KB schema items. Prior ranking-based approaches have shown some success in generalization, but suffer from the coverage issue. We present RnG-KBQA, a Rank-and-Generate approach for KBQA, which remedies the coverage issue with a generation model while preserving a strong generalization capability. Our approach first uses a contrastive ranker to rank a set of candidate logical forms obtained by searching over the knowledge graph. It then introduces a tailored generation model conditioned on the question and the top-ranked candidates to compose the final logical form. We achieve new state-of-the-art results on GrailQA and WebQSP datasets. In particular, our method surpasses the prior state-of-the-art by a large margin on the GrailQA leaderboard. In addition, RnG-KBQA outperforms all prior approaches on the popular WebQSP benchmark, even including the ones that use the oracle entity linking. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the interplay between ranking and generation, which leads to the superior performance of our proposed approach across all settings with especially strong improvements in zero-shot generalization.