Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Healthy ageing effects on implicit auditory memory: from encoding to 6-month retention

Any listening task, from sound recognition to sound-based communication, rests on auditory sensory memory which is known to decline in healthy ageing. However, whether this decline maps on to multiple components and stages of auditory memory remains poorly characterised. We tested ageing effects on implicit auditory memory for rapid tone-patterns in an online unsupervised longitudinal study (day 1, day 8 and 6-month sessions) including younger (aged 20-30) and older adults (aged 60-70). The test required participants to quickly respond to rapid regularly repeating patterns (REG) emerging from random sequences. Patterns were novel in most trials (REGn), but unbeknownst to the participants, a few distinct patterns reoccurred identically throughout the sessions (REGr). After correcting for processing speed, reaction times (RTs) to REGn were taken as a measure of the amount of information held in echoic and short-term memory before detecting the pattern; an RT advantage (RTA) to REGr vs REGn was expected to grow with exposure reflecting implicit long-term memory formation and retention. The results showed that older participants were slower than younger adults in detecting REGn and exhibited a smaller RTA to REGr. Computational simulations using a model of auditory sequence memory indicated that these effects reflect age-related limitations both in early and long-term memory stages. In contrast to ageing-related accelerated forgetting of verbal material, the older adults in the present experiment maintained stable memory traces (RTA) for REGr patterns up to 6 months after the first exposure. The results demonstrate that ageing is associated with reduced short-term memory and long-term memory formation for tone-patterns, but not with forgetting, even over surprisingly long timescales.
Exchange advancement and neediness decrease Africa: calculable general harmony models approach in writing audit

The link between trade liberalization and poverty reduction has played a crucial role on economic policy in developing and least developed countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Academic research shows a remarkable lack of consensus and no clear effects in the direction of these linkages. This study presents an overview of the impact of trade liberalization on poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa within a general equilibrium framework. In order to do that, the links between trade liberalization and poverty are firstly summarized, reviewing the existent literature. After briefly describing the basic and extended structure of computable general equilibrium models, the advantages and drawbacks of using this methodology to analyze the relation between these two variables is shown, including the main findings from previous literature applied to the particular case of Sub-Saharan countries. Most of the studies conclude that, while trade liberalization has positive effects on poverty reduction in the long run, it should be accompanied by structural reforms, industrial and redistribution policies in order to minimize the expected negative effects in the short-term.
IMPACT OF POPULATION AGING ON THE

Population aging presents numerous challenges, such as a reduced fiscal balance, changes in the savings patterns of households, and higher age dependency ratios. These consequences are evident for older individuals, the government, and the economy at large. This study examined the impact of population aging on the economic growth of South Africa, studying the King Cetshwayo District Municipality specifically. A panel data set for the period 2002-2020 by Quantec Easy Data was used for the study. A FE regression model was used to examine the relationship between economic growth (GDP per capita), population aging, savings, education, and other independent variables. The findings from the panel data analysis revealed that population aging negatively affects economic growth only in the short run but not in the long run. Also, other factors like education, savings, and income affected economic growth in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality. This study recommends a transformation in the country’s savings by educating the population about the importance of savings in order to improve GDP per capita and the economic wellbeing of the people.
Assessing improvements in global ocean pCO 2 machine learning reconstructions with 1 Southern Ocean autonomous sampling 2

10 The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere 11 and oceans, and is a critical region for the ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 . However, estimates 12 of the Southern Ocean air-sea CO 2 flux are highly uncertain due to limited data coverage. Increased 13 sampling in winter and across meridional gradients in the Southern Ocean may improve machine 14 learning (ML) reconstructions of global surface ocean pCO 2 . Here, we use a Large Ensemble 15 Testbed (LET) of Earth System Models and the pCO 2 -Residual reconstruction method to assess 16 improvements in pCO 2 reconstruction fidelity that could be achieved with additional autonomous 17 sampling in the Southern Ocean added to existing Surface Ocean CO 2 Atlas (SOCAT) 18 observations. The LET allows us to robustly evaluate the skill of pCO 2 reconstructions in space 19 and time through comparison to ‘model truth’. With only SOCAT sampling, Southern Ocean and 20 global pCO 2 are overestimated, and thus the ocean carbon sink is underestimated. Incorporating 21 Uncrewed Surface Vehicle (USV) sampling increases the spatial and seasonal coverage of 22 observations within the Southern Ocean, leading to a decrease in the overestimation of pCO 2 . A 23 modest number of additional observations in southern hemisphere winter and across meridional 24 gradients in the Southern Ocean leads to improvement in reconstruction bias and root-mean 25 squared error (RMSE) can be improved by as much as 65 % and 19 %, respectively, as compared 26 to using SOCAT sampling alone. Lastly, the large decadal variability of air-sea CO 2 fluxes shown 27 by SOCAT-only sampling, may
Traditional manufacturing of hard chese – kachkaval on Stara Planina mountain

Nomads from Greece implemented the tradition of kachkaval cheese making on Stara Planina, 100 years ago. At the beginning, the kachkaval was made exclusively from sheep’s milk, during the grazing period. In the past, kachkaval was made on «bačija« dairies, and besides the kachkaval the significant by-products were ghee and «urda«. The historical data showed that in the year 1903, 160 wagons of kachkaval were exported to Vienna and Budapest. The changes in animal breeding conditions and increasing number of cattle in this region lead to significant reduction in number of sheep, and consequently caused the discontinuance in production of kachkaval. Nowadays, there are few “bačija”-dairies on Stara Planina Mountain which are producing kachkaval in the traditional way. The characteristics of chemical content of traditionally produced kachkaval are: 60.79±3.37% dry matter, 29.50±2.25% milk fat, 55.57±3.55% moisture on a fat-free basis, 48.52±2.41% fat in dry matter, 24.99±1.60% proteins, 3.8±2.57% NaCl and pH value 5.62±0.09. The traditionally made kachaval has a shape of a flatten cylinder, with the weigh of 6–7 kg, bright-yellow crust and firm dough. The traditional cheese making of kachkaval comprises the hand made process of «pasta filatta« cheese and for the end product a spicy and salty taste are typical. Revitalizing the traditional kachkaval production also means the preservation of cultural identity of the region of Stara Planina.
Indentation of thin elastic ﬁlms glued to rigid substrate: Asymptotic solutions and eﬀects of adhesion

Indentation of a thin elastic ﬁlm attached through an interlayer to a rigid support is studied. Because the common interpretations of depth-sensing indentation tests are not applicable to such structured coatings, usually various approximating functions are employed to take into account inﬂuence of the interlayer. Contrary to the common approaches, a strict mathematical approach is applied here to study the problems under consideration assuming that the thickness of the two-layer structure is much less than characteristic dimension of the region of contact between the indenter and the coating. A simple derivation of asymptotic relations for displacements and stresses is presented. It is shown that often the leading term approximation to the non-adhesive contact problems is equivalent to contact problem for a Winkler-Fuss elastic foundation with an eﬀective elastic constant. Because the contact between the indenter and the ﬁlm at nanoscale may be greatly aﬀected by adhesion, the adhesive problem for these bilayer coatings is studied in the framework of the JKR (Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts) theory of adhesion. Assuming the indenter shape near the tip has some deviation from its nominal shape and using the leading term approximation of the layered coatings, the explicit expressions are derived for the values of the pull-oﬀ force and for the corresponding critical contact radius of adhesive contact region.
First record of the crown rot fungus Fusarium equiseti affecting Triticum aestivum L. and Aptenia cordifolia in Iraq

During growing seasons of 2015 and 2016, severe rot symptoms were noticed epidemiologically on root and crown of Triticum aestivum and Aptenia cordifolia seedlings in Kerbala Province, Iraq. Thus, the aims of this research were to isolate, identify and assess pathogenicity of the causal agent of the disease. Several fungal isolates of Fusarium genus were consistently isolated from the diseased root and crown of the seedlings. The pathogen was identified as Fusarium equiseti based on its cultural and morphological characteristics, pathogenicity and sequence of the ITS-rDNA region. This is first record of crown rot disease caused by F. equiseti on T. aestivum and A. cordifolia plants in Iraq.
Cloud-radiative impact on the dynamics and predictability of an idealized extratropical cyclone - Response to Reviewers

We thank the reviewers for their evaluations, questions, and suggestions to improve our manuscript. Below, we respond to each of the reviewers’ comments and describe how we plan to adapt the manuscript. We are confident that we can address the reviewers’ comments in the revised manuscript, and we are hopeful that the revised manuscript will be acceptable for publication. The reviewers’ comments are in bold, our answers are in normal font.
Special Issue on Elasmobranch cognition and behaviour Insight into manta ray behaviour using animal-borne Crittercams

Animal-borne video cameras equipped with depth and temperature sensors were deployed on 16 reef manta rays ( Mobula alfredi ) in Raa Atoll, Maldives and 12 oceanic manta rays ( Mob-ula birostris ) in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico. These deployments provided descriptive behavioural data that give vital context to existing biotelemetry data and enabled a comparison of the social dynamics between the two manta ray species. Overall, cruising was the most dominant daytime behaviour recorded for both species. For M. alfredi , cleaning was the second most common behaviour, followed by courtship and feeding. No courtship behaviour was recorded for M. birostris . Across M. alfredi and M. birostris deployments, individuals spent an average of 43 and 8% of recorded time interacting with conspeciﬁcs, respectively. Sociability was higher in M. alfredi than M. birostris , however the ﬁndings should be interpreted with caution beyond the two deployment populations and times. Crittercams captured multiple courtship events of M. alfredi at depths greater than recreational scuba diving limits and captured previously undocumented inter-speciﬁc interactions with M. mobular . Crittercam deployments also recorded M. alfredi travelling in groups and hugging the contours of the ocean ﬂoor, possibly as a tactic to reduce predation risk and/or improve swimming efﬁciency, enforcing the importance of this novel technology as a valuable tool to gain new insight into the ecological drivers of habitat use by these species. Lastly, these quantitative and descriptive results provide context for future hypothesis-driven research questions using animal-borne video cameras for mobulid rays.
Worker’s Personal Exposure to PM 0.1 and PM 4 Titanium Dioxide 1 Nanomaterials during Packaging

20 21 For the appropriate hygienic management of workplaces where workers handled nano-TiO 2 22 products, the status of the personal exposure of workers to respirable dust (PM 4 ) and nanoparticles 23 (PM 0.1 ) was investigated. Using a cyclone sampler for PM 4 and a personal sampler for PM 0.1 , PM 4 24 and PM 0.1 exposure levels were evaluated to discuss them in relation to worker’s duties. The 25 number of particles of 0.01–10 µm was also monitored online in order to examine the short-term 26 fluctuation in the concentration and size distribution of particles. The 8h-time-weighted average 27 (TWA) and 95% upper limit for respirable dust exposure were below the occupational exposure 28 limit specified by the Japan Society for Occupational Health and the recommended exposure 29 limits for TWA by NIOSH. The action level was exceeded during the filling of a flexible container 30 bag. More than 70% of particles in the breathing zone was coarse agglomerates of >1 µm, while 31 it may be influenced by powder properties and the handling process as well as the management of 32 local ventilation . The maximum PM 0.1 concentration (31.3 µg m -3 ) occurred in a powder filling 33 booth without air ventilation. The operation of a gasoline powered forklift temporarily increased 34 the concentration of ultrafine particles. Most of TiO 2 powder was suspended as micron-order 35 agglomerates in the breathing zone. However, since PM 0.1 exposure was much larger than those 36 in outdoor environment particularly under insufficient cares to aerosolized powder and air 37 ventilation, PM 0.1 exposure should also be monitored.
Changes in late‐winter snowpack depth, water equivalent, and density in Maine, 1926–2004

Twenty‐three snow‐course sites in and near Maine, USA, with records spanning at least 50 years through to 2004 were tested for changes over time in snowpack depth, water equivalent, and density in March and April. Of the 23 sites, 18 had a significant decrease (Mann‐Kendall test, p < 0·1) in snowpack depth or a significant increase in snowpack density over time. Data from four sites in the mountains of western Maine–northern New Hampshire with mostly complete records from 1926 to 2004 indicate that average snowpack depths have decreased by about 16% and densities have increased by about 11%. Average snowpack depths and water equivalents in western Maine–northern New Hampshire peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, and densities peaked in the most recent decade. Previous studies in western North America also found a water‐equivalent peak in the third quarter of the 20th century. Published in 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The association between noise, work stress and coping with sleep quality among cable manufacturing workers

Poor sleep quality has been found previously to cause various negative outcome among workers. There are many factors which may influence sleep quality which include noise and work stress. This is the first study aims to explore the association between three factors; noise, work stress and coping strategies and sleep quality among manufacturing workers. This study employed cross-sectional study design involving 140 cable manufacturing workers who were recruited via simple random sampling. The Malay-version Stress Overload Scale (SOS) was used to measure stress overload. Coping strategies was assessed via Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI) and sleep quality was estimated by using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). All respondents were male and most of them were Malay, married and working as machine operator. Results showed that at least 50% of the subject were exposed to the noise level of more than 86.83 dB (A). Majority of respondents (89.3%) had poor sleep quality and experienced low level of stress (77.9%). Higher level of all components of work stress (r =0.18-0.22) and higher level of being avoidance as a coping strategy (r = 0.26) were found to be significantly correlated with poorer sleep quality. However, noise was not found to be a significant factor of sleep quality. The present findings suggested that work stress and coping were the dominant determinants for sleep quality which helps in prioritizing intervention strategies to improve sleep quality among respondents.
Comparison of the Shear Bonding Strength of ION-Z GIC to a Resin Composite Using Different Adhesive Systems: In vitro Study

In restorative dentistry, we usually use Sandwich Technique for posterior restorations where GIC is placed below and a resin composite is placed over it. The bonding strength between these two materials is low. We are looking for the best adhesive system to put in between. We think that the self-etching bond will give the best bonding strength between them whereas the total-etch will give lower bonding strength than the self-etching system.
Upland rice response to nutrient application in Uganda

Upland rice (Oryza spp.) yields are low in Uganda, partly because of little fertilizer use. Three on-station trials and two clusters of on-farm trials were conducted in Uganda at approximately 1000 m elevation to determine: yield response to N, P and K application; economically optimal nutrient rates (EOR); and N use efficiency components. Mean grain yield, with hulls, was 1.3 and 3.7 Mg ha-1 with 0 and 100 kg ha-1 N applied, respectively. Grain yield response to applied P when compared with N was less, and mean yield was not increased with K application. Depending on fertilizer cost relative to grain price (CP), mean EOR ranged from 54 to 92 kg ha-1 N and 17 to 30 kg ha-1 P. Equations were determined for yield response, estimation of EOR, and the benefit: cost ratio (BC) for fertilizer N and P use. Grain N concentration and N harvest index at EOR were 1.55 and 0.55 kg kg-1, respectively. Mean recovery efficiency, partial factor productivity and agronomic efficiency declined with increasing N rate and were 0.75, 41 and 28 kg kg-1, respectively, at the EOR. Fertilizer N and P use can be highly and moderately profitable, respectively, for upland rice production in Uganda with high N recovery and agronomic efficiency. In maximizing net return on finance-constrained investment in fertilizer use, CP and investment capacity needs to be considered. Key words: Economic, fertilizer use, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, use efficiency.
Slab Pull Drives IBM Trench Advance Despite the Weakened Philippine Sea Plate

The mechanism behind the significant Izu‐Bonin‐Mariana (IBM) trench advance is still controversial. We conduct slab subduction numerical models that reproduce the spatio‐temporal tectonic evolution of the Philippine Sea region to investigate whether slab pull from the Ryukyu subduction zone can cross the weakened Philippine Sea Plate and act on the IBM trench. Model results show that the lithospheric strengthening and weakening effects cancel out each other during the rift stage so that the slab pull from the Ryukyu Trench can transmit through the weak fossil spreading centers and intra‐arc rifts and drive the Izu‐Bonin Trench's advance. In contrast, lithospheric weakening overwhelms lithospheric strengthening and impedes stress transfer in the back‐arc spreading stage, suggesting that the slab pull cannot directly pull the Mariana Trench to advance at present. Our study indicates that extreme rheological parameters are not needed for the IBM trench advance, despite the Philippine Sea Plate is weakened.
Strengthening the Key Features of Volumizing Fillers: Projection Capacity and Long-Term Persistence

Volumizing fillers aim to create or restore facial volume in fat layers. To provide strong tissue lifting and long-term persistence, gels are generally designed with stiff properties, characterized by a high storage modulus (G′). However, clinical evidence shows a discrepancy between high G′ and good lifting capacities, especially after skin tension has been exerted on the gel. To better explore the in vivo behavior of a gel, we first evaluated the elastic moduli of five commercial volumizers (RHA4, JUVVOL, RESVOL, RESLYFT, and BELVOL) in dynamic compression mode, E′. We further developed a Projection Index score based on the rheological assessment of creep in compression to mimic skin tension-induced stress relaxation (flattening). Finally, the ability of a gel to resist enzymatic degradation was analyzed with a multidose approach. Despite similar clinical indications, volumizers exhibited distinct behaviors. RHA4 and BELVOL showed the highest E′ values (resistance to strain), RHA4, JUVVOL, and RESVOL exhibited the greatest projection capacities, while JUVVOL and RHA4 offered the largest persistence to enzymatic degradation. In this article, we introduce the use of the Projection Index to efficiently assess the ability of a gel to lift tissues, thus increasing preclinical models’ efficiency and reducing the need for animal studies.
TRAGULIDS (ARTIODACTYLA, RUMINANTIA, TRAGULIDAE) FROM THE MIDDLE SIWALIKS OF HASNOT (LATE MIOCENE), PAKISTAN

Tragulids are the best represented ruminants in the Hasnot outcrops of the Pakistani Middle Siwaliks (Late Miocene). The remains described in this paper comprises predominantly isolated teeth, maxilla and mandible fragments. The specimens can be referred to three taxa, namely Dorcatherium minus , Dorcatherium majus and Dorcabune anthracotherioides . The collection of Dorcatherium fossils from Hasnot is the most extensive record of this genus in the Siwaliks. The tragulids suggest a humid habitat with abundant cover.
Surface irrigation adapted to dairy wastewater land spreading

An average dairy farm (50 cow herd) in Quebec produces approximately 775 to 850 m 3 of milk house wastewater and manure seepages each year. Disposal of this wastewater with conventional tanker systems can be costly as multiple trips are needed, and can lead to soil compaction. The purpose of this study was to develop a surface irrigation technique for disposing of wastewater and to test it on two dairy farms for its impact on drainage water quality. The dairy wastewater collected on Farm A consisted of milk house washing waters and manure seepages while on Farm B, they only consist of manure seepages. Wastewater application rates were based on crop P requirements. Throughout the experiment, surface irrigation system worked well and never clogged. The system proved to be an ideal tool to dispose of dairy farm wastewater in an economical fashion and made good use of nutrients contained in the wastewater. The gated-pipe surface irrigation system performed extremely well during the three years study period, and could reduce the cost of disposing wastewater $3.65/m 3 (conventional tanker) to 0.57/m 3 (surface irrigation). However, the surface irrigation technique delivers larger volume of wastewater than the conventional tanker system, which can lead to leaching losses. Never the less, leaching losses were eliminated when wastewater was applied on dry soils and its application rate did not exceed the soil water holding capacity.