Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network Analyses of the Circulation Flow of Community Currency

The Japanese economy is emerging from a long-term recession following the bubble and is in the economic recovery phase. However, problems stemming from the widening economic disparity and the decline of local economy have risen. The local economy received a heavy blow from the reduction in public investment because of public sector reform combined with depopulation and aging. Under these circumstances, community currency attracts much attention as a tool that can simultaneously solve the twin problems of the decline of the local economy and the decay of the community. However, little research and few studies have been conducted to quantify the extent to which community currency revitalizes the local economy. We participated in the Tomamae-cho community currency experiment and investigated its circulation flow. This paper highlights the circulation flow of community currency using several network analyses. The following results are presented: (1) various distributions of the networks obey a power-law distribution; (2) the networks display the characteristics of a “Small World” similar to those of organisms, (3) directional and weighted network analyses are important; and (4) the double triangle system is effective due to its complementarity effect because commercial transactions facilitate circulation flow of community currency for non-commercial transactions, and non-commercial transactions expand commercial transactions in the local economy.
Transverse Oscillations in Slender Ca ii H Fibrils Observed with Sunrise/SuFI

We present observations of transverse oscillations in slender Ca ii H fibrils (SCFs) in the lower solar chromosphere. We use a 1 hr long time series of high- (spatial and temporal-) resolution seeing-free observations in a 1.1 Å wide passband covering the line core of Ca ii H 3969 Å from the second flight of the Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory. The entire field of view, spanning the polarity inversion line of an active region close to the solar disk center, is covered with bright, thin, and very dynamic fine structures. Our analysis reveals the prevalence of transverse waves in SCFs with median amplitudes and periods on the order of 2.4 ± 0.8 km s−1 and 83 ± 29 s, respectively (with standard deviations given as uncertainties). We find that the transverse waves often propagate along (parts of) the SCFs with median phase speeds of 9 ± 14 km s−1. While the propagation is only in one direction along the axis in some of the SCFs, propagating waves in both directions, as well as standing waves are also observed. The transverse oscillations are likely Alfvénic and are thought to be representative of magnetohydrodynamic kink waves. The wave propagation suggests that the rapid high-frequency transverse waves, often produced in the lower photosphere, can penetrate into the chromosphere with an estimated energy flux of ≈15 kW m−2. Characteristics of these waves differ from those reported for other fibrillar structures, which, however, were observed mainly in the upper solar chromosphere.
Aflatoxin Contamination in Selected Spice Preparations in the Nyahururu Retail Market, Kenya

Commercial spice preparations were analysed for aflatoxins contamination in order to determine the incidence of spice samples containing levels likely to pose a risk to public health. In the months of May and June 2012, spice samples were purchased from different randomly selected premises in the Nyahururu town. Forty-six spice preparations were included in the survey. Individual spices were ground and mixed to uniform consistency using a laboratory mill and analysed for aflatoxins using a commercial ELISA kit. Thirty four (73.9%) samples were positive for aflatoxins while twelve (26.1%) had aflatoxin levels below the detection limit. Over 50% of samples analysed contained aflatoxin <10 µg/kg. The highest quantities of aflatoxins were found in cayenne, paprika and cumin (99.6, 99 and 98 µg/kg, respectively). Relatively high levels of aflatoxins were also found in chilli (31.5 µg/kg) while no mean detectable levels were observed in curry and nutmeg. The average aflatoxins level in positive spice samples was 30.6 µg/kg.
Corrosion of High Carbon Steel by Bacteria under Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditions

The role of microbes in the corrosion of metals is due to the chemical activities (metabolism) associated with the microbial growth and reproduction. A lot of researches have shown that enormous loss of resources and even lives has been experienced in many countries of the world due to corrosion. There is therefore need to device a means of combating this menace so as to save different countries of the world including Nigeria the cost encured due to corrosion. This research has helped to determine the role of bacteria in the corrosion of high carbon steel under aerobic and anaerobic conditions was investigated using sulphate reducing bacteria and other aerobes. A sample of high carbon steel grade of chemical composition: 96% iron (Fe), 1.08% carbon (C), 0.349% silicon (Si), 0.841% manganese (Mn), 0.005% phosphorus (P) and 0.005% sulphur (S), was obtained in the form of steel plate. Eighteen (18) samples of the high carbon steel were prepared. Standard microbiological methods were used to isolate aerobic and anaerobic bacteria isolates. The microbes isolated from the soil included; aerobes (Bacillus species, Pseudomonas species) and anaerobes (Desulfovibrio species, Thiobacillus species). The role of bacteria in the corrosion of high carbon steel was estimated using the weight loss technique and the electrochemical potential measurement technique. Eighteen samples of a high carbon steel of known compositions were exposed to sulphate reducing bacteria under different environments (aerobic, anaerobic and control). The physical and chemical changes were examined and monitored on weekly basis for six weeks. It was observed that the coupons immersed in the media with sulphate reducing bacterium underwent fast activation and numerous corrosion sites were formed on the surfaces. The average corrosion rate for six weeks (42 days) period of time as determined by the weight loss method and electrochemical testing were found to be 0.0004595 mm/year, -0.712 mV in aerobic environment, 0.0005646 mm/year, -0728 mV in anaerobic environment and 0.0004458 mm/year, -0702 mV in the control or reference environment (distilled water environment). High carbon steel was found to corrode more only in the anaerobic environment. In view of this, high carbon steels were found to be relatively more corrosion resistant than mild and medium carbon steels and may be suitable for application in industries such as the petrochemical industry. Therefore, treating the environment with chlorine but with caution as solutions of chlorine gas in water is corrosive to steels while the use of bactericides or biocides to arrest the action of microbes is important.
ropensity scores-potential outcomes framework to incorporate everity probabilities in the Highway Safety Manual crash prediction

Accurate estimation of the expected number of crashes at different severity levels for entities with and without countermeasures plays a vital role in selecting countermeasures in the framework of the safety management process. The current practice is to use the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Highway Safety Manual crash prediction algorithms, which combine safety performance functions and crash modification factors, to estimate the effects of safety countermeasures on different highway and street facility types. Many of these crash prediction algorithms are based solely on crash frequency, or assume that severity outcomes are unchanged when planning for, or implementing, safety countermeasures. Failing to account for the uncertainty associated with crash severity outcomes, and assuming crash severity distributions remain unchanged in safety performance evaluations, limits the utility of the Highway Safety Manual crash prediction algorithms in assessing the effect of safety countermeasures on crash severity. This study demonstrates the application of a propensity scores-potential outcomes framework to estimate the probability distribution for the occurrence of different crash severity levels by accounting for the uncertainties associated with them. The probability of fatal and severe injury crash occurrence at lighted and unlighted intersections is estimated in this paper using data from Minnesota. The results show that the expected probability of occurrence of fatal and severe injury crashes at a lighted intersection was 1 in 35 crashes and the estimated risk ratio indicates that the respective probabilities at an unlighted intersection was 1.14 times higher compared to lighted intersections. The results from the potential outcomes-propensity scores framework are compared to results obtained from traditional binary logit models, without application of propensity scores matching. Traditional binary logit analysis suggests that the probability of occurrence of severe injury crashes is higher at lighted intersections compared to unlighted intersections, which contradicts the findings obtained from the propensity scores-potential outcomes framework. This finding underscores the importance of having comparable treated and untreated entities in traffic safety countermeasure evaluations.
Axiomatic systemic risk measures forecasting

In this work, we deepen the study of systemic risk measurement via aggregation functions. We consider three different portfolios as a proxy for an economic system, these portfolios are consisted in two aggregation functions, based on all U.S. stocks and a market index. The risk measures applied are Value at Risk (VaR), Expected Shortfall (ES) and Expectile Value at Risk (EVaR), they are forecasted via the classical GARCH model along with nine distribution probability functions and also by a nonparametric approach. The forecasts are evaluated by loss functions and violation backtests. Results indicate that our approach can generate an adequate aggregation function to process the risk of a system previously selected. Key-words: risk measures, systemic risk, aggregation function, axiomatic measurement, GARCH.
CYTOTAXONOMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE TRIBES ASCLEPIADEAE AND CEROPEGIEAE OF THE SUBFAMILY ASCLEPIADOIDEAE-APOCYNACEAE

In this study, karyotype criteria of 27 accessions (17 taxa) of the two tribes Asclepiadeae (20 accessions) and Ceropegieae (7 accessions) from Egypt and Saudi Arabia belonging to subfamily Asclepiadoideae are described and polyploid variations are also discussed. Detailed karyotype features, i.e. total chromosome length (TCL), mean chromosome length (MCL) and karyotype asymmetry expressed as arm ratio (MAR), total form percent (TF %), intrachromosomal asymmetry (A1) and interchromosomal asymmetry (A2), are also described. Karyotype features of the studied accessions were used to assess the tribal relationships within the subfamily Asclepiadoideae to differentiate between taxa that belonging to the tribes Asclepiadeae and Ceropegieae in the light of the current systems of classification. In addition, new chromosome counts of 16 taxa or accessions are reported here for the first time.
Foundations for Structural Preferences

Structural rationality (Siniscalchi, 2020) is a notion of optimality that reflects a player’s ex-ante perspective in a dynamic game, and formalizes the notion of robust caution. The player is cautious in the sense that she takes all possible observable occurrences in the game under consideration, including those she regards implausible ex-ante. However, she does so robustly, without committing to an exogenous ranking of implausible events. The present paper provides an axiomatic foundation for structural preferences, and argues that this optimality criterion is an effective model of surprises in general dynamic decision problems. It also draws connections between robust caution and the notions of justifiability (Lehrer and Teper, 2011), lexicographic expected utility (Blume, Brandenburger, and Dekel, 1991) and Knightian uncertainty (Bewley, 2002).
Relinquishing Riches: Auctions vs Informal Negotiations in Texas Oil and Gas Leasing

This paper compares outcomes from informally negotiated oil and gas leases to those awarded via centralized auction. We focus on Texas, where legislative decisions in the early twentieth century assigned thousands of proximate parcels to different mineral allocation mechanisms. We show that during the fracking boom, which began unexpectedly decades later, auctioned leases generated at least 55 percent larger up-front payments and 40 percent more output than negotiated leases did. These results suggest large potential gains from employing centralized, formal mechanisms in markets that traditionally allocate in an unstructured fashion, including the broader $3 trillion market for privately owned minerals. (JEL D44, L71, Q35)
Molecular and morphological identification of Cinara juniperi and Cinara mordvilkoi

Cinara juniperi (De Geer) and Cinara mordvilkoi (Pasek) (Rhynchota Aphidoidea), the species infesting Juniperus sp. , are morphologically very similar to each other and difficult to distinguish. A COI analysis of mitochondrial DNA proved 9% distinction between them. A phylogenetic analysis based on the distance neighbour-joining method proved the highest similarity between Cinara juniperivora (Wilson) and C. juniperi, amounting to 95%. It was also proven that the body length, tibia length, the length of antennae segment III, the length of the rostrum and the total length of the antennae are the optimal statistically significant morphological features that enable to distinguish those species.
Tracking the fate of a high concentration groundwater nitrate plume through a fringing marsh: A combined groundwater tracer and in situ isotope enrichment study

A groundwater plume enriched in 15NO3− was created upgradient of a mesohaline salt marsh. By measuring the changes in concentration and isotopic enrichment of NO3−, N2O, N2, NH4+, and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) during plume transport through the marsh, in situ rates of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) and denitrification (DNF) were estimated, as well as N storage in the reduced N pools. For groundwater discharge within the top 10 cm of marsh, NO3− removal was 90% complete within the 50 cm of marsh nearest the upland border. The peak NO3− loss rate from the plume ranged from 208 to 645 µM d−1. Rates of DNRA (180 µM d−1) and DNF (387–465 µM d−1) processed 30% and 70% of the NO3− load, respectively. Terminal N2 production was approximately equal to N2 production rates during DNF. Comparison of 15N lost from the 15NO3− pool and 15N gained in each of the reduced products accounted for only 22% of the reduced 15N, thus indicating N export from the system. Despite high rates of DNRA, the NH4+ produced was not a long‐term repository for the groundwater‐derived N but was instead rapidly immobilized into marsh PON and retained on longer timescales. The small inventory of 15N in the N2 and N2 pools relative to DNF rates, coincident with an undersaturation of dissolved argon, indicated that denitrified N was exported to the atmosphere on short timescales. The relative magnitudes of DNF and DNRA in conjunction with the immobilization of NH4+ and evasion of N gases dictated the extent of export versus retention of the groundwater NO3− load.
Local large deviation theorem for sums of i.i.d. random vectors when the Cramér condition holds in the whole space

A class of multidimensional distributions is considered. This class contains all the elliptically contoured distributions having sup-exponential weight function. Each representative of the class determines a family of the so-called exponential or conjugate distributions. It is established that the conjugate distribution is asymptotically normal. On the basis of this normality a large deviation local limit theorem is proved. The theorem assumes no restrictions on the order of deviations. 2000 AMS Mathematics Subject Classification:Primary: 60F10; Secondary: 26A12, 26B30.
Solvability of the Economic Input-Output Equation by Time Irreversibility

This paper reinterprets the economic input-output equation as a description of a realized situation without considering decision making. This paper uses the equation that the self-sufficiency rate is added to the Leontief type, and discusses its solvability. The equation has a unique solution if and only if each part of the relevant society satisfies the space-time openness condition. This condition means that commodities which a part of the relevant society possesses are not all inputted to its inside. Moreover, if the process of input and output is time irreversible, each part of the relevant society satisfies the space-time openness condition. Therefore, the solvability of the equation is guaranteed by time irreversibility. This proposition seems to be relevant to the grandfather paradox which is a type of time paradox.
PARALLEL SINGLE INSTRUCTION MULTIPLE DATA ( SIMD ) FFT : ALGORITHM AND IMPLEMENTATION

A couple of frameworks have been recently proposed to deal with the derivation and implementation of efficient Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) algorithms [1, 4] targeting stand-along uniprocessor computers; nevertheless the SIMD architecture is embedded in most nowadays microprocessors which are used in parallel (shared memory or network) computers. In this paper the SIMD framework [1] is extended to address the development of algorithms targeting (shared memory) parallel SIMD computers. Preliminary results are shown for the N-dimension FFT algorithm.
Diversity of Agronomic Traits In 225 Tetraploid Durum Wheat Accessions ( Triticum turgidum L . ssp . durum Desf )

Wheat is one of the most widely grown food grain crop in the world. Approximately five percent of the worldwide wheat production is comprised of durum wheat. Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) is mainly produced and consumed in the Mediterranean region, it is used to produce several specific endproducts. Diversity analysis is important for deciphering genetic relationship including parentage and for the efficient management of germplasm and thereby, use in breeding of improved varieties. The aim of this study was to assess some agronomic characters diversity. The main results were summarized as follows: Statistical studies over 200 durum wheat accessions, belonging to 45 countries were evaluated at wheat experimental field, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, China (30o33′N), during two consecutive seasons (2009-10 and 2010-11), by using analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation and principle component. Data of 13 agronomic traits were presented to understand the phenotypic diversity of these accessions. Statistical analysis revealed differences among the plant materials of diverse origins for all traits. The result indicated that higher variation in the agronomic characters was observed among these accessions of durum wheat. On the grand average, plant height of all materials was 123.18 cm (range 54.25一220.00 cm, coefficient of variance (CV) 7.87 %), the number of spikes / plant was seven (range 1~22, CV 24.54 %), the main spike length was 8.96 cm (range 4.00~31.50 cm, CV 14.73 %), the neck length of master spike was 47.99 cm (range 9.00~146.75 cm, CV 12.47 %) , the neck of spike-flag leaf pillow length of master spike was 21.16 cm (range -5.00~124.00 cm, CV 25.43 %) , the sowing-heading duration was 170 days (range 69~193 day, CV 4.00 %), the spikelets per spike was 22 (range 11~36, CV 22.72 %), the spikelets per plant was 141 (range 23~431, CV 21.05 %), the grains per plant was 234 (range 10~1152, CV 22.85 %) , the 1000 grain weight was 28.45 g (range 7.00~67.46 g, CV 14.97 %), the yield per plant was 6.88 g (range 0.44~56.19 g, CV 22.19 %), the grain protein % was 14.7 % (range 10.6~20.0 %, CV 6.12 %) and the grain starch % was 51.7 % (range 49.0~57.0 %, CV 0 %). Many accessions could be selected based on their single agronomic characters. In both studied season it showed positive correlation between yield and plant height, spikes / plant, master spike length, neck length of master spike, neck of spike-flag leaf pillow length of master spike, spikelets / plant, grains / plant, 1000 grain weight and Starch %, whereas number of spikelets per spike had significant and positive correlation with grain yield in season 2010-11 only, suggesting the usefulness of these parameter for selection to improve grain yield. Grain yield was negatively correlated with protein % and days to heading in both years. Many studied lines could be used as donor parents to increase grain yield.
A Higher-Order Graph Convolutional Layer

Recent methods generalize convolutional layers from Euclidean domains to graphstructured data by approximating the eigenbasis of the graph Laplacian. The computationally-efficient and broadly-used Graph ConvNet of Kipf & Welling [11], over-simplifies the approximation, effectively rendering graph convolution as a neighborhood-averaging operator. This simplification restricts the model from learning delta operators, the very premise of the graph Laplacian. In this work, we propose a new Graph Convolutional layer which mixes multiple powers of the adjacency matrix, allowing it to learn delta operators. Our layer exhibits the same memory footprint and computational complexity as a GCN. We illustrate the strength of our proposed layer on both synthetic graph datasets, and on several real-world citation graphs, setting the record state-of-the-art on Pubmed.
hronic hypoxia and hyperoxia modifies morphology and VEGF oncentration of the lungs of the developing chicken ( Gallus gallus ariant domesticus )

Embryo body and lung wet and dry mass, pulmonary morphometrics and pulmonary VEGF concentrations were determined in developing chicken embryos at days 16 and 18 (D16, D18) in three populations: incubation in normoxia (21% O2) or in chronic hypoxia (15% O2) or chronic hyperoxia (30% O2). Lung morphology (including parabronchial exchange tissues and parabronchial lumina as a percentage of total lung tissue in cross-sectional area, atrial numbers, atrial density) was determined from morphometric examination of thin sections using light microscopy. VEGF expression was determined with ELISA. Body mass was directly correlated with incubation oxygen level, but neither oxygen level affected lung wet mass on either D16 or D18. Hypoxia had little or no effect on most measured pulmonary morphometric indices in D16 embryos. Hypoxia, however, increased by ∼65% the proportion in cross-section of the total lung occupied by parabronchi on D18. Hyperoxia caused few significant changes in pulmonary morphometrics. Pulmonary VEGF concentration was decreased by ∼30% on day 18 compared to D18 in normoxia. arabronchi Hypoxia increased pulmonary VEGF concentration by ∼35–75% on both D16 and D18 and, paradoxically, VEGF expression was also similarly increased by hyperoxia on only D18. Collectively, these data suggest that pulmonary gross morphological development in the chicken embryo, while moderately plastic, is not profoundly affected by oxygen incubation level, and that role of VEGF in pulmonary development is not yet well understood. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.