Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geomicrobiology of nitrogen in a coastal aquifer : isotopic and molecular methods to examine nitrification and denitrification in groundwater

Abstract : The flux excess nitrogen is deleterious to coastal waters, resulting in deterioration of the water quality, increases in harmful algal blooms and disease in commercial fish stocks. On Cape Cod a significant portion of this nitrogen enters coastal waters through groundwater systems. Here we use isotopic and molecular biological methods to identify where the process that may lead to nitrogen removal occur, if population of microorganisms are present to carry out these process and where, and what are the potential rates of activity associated with these populations through the upper four meters of a coastal groundwater system. We show different populations of ammonia-oxidizing organisms based on the ammonia monooxygenase gene (amoA). Two archaeal populations, one shallow and closely related to water column-like sequences and one deep closely related to estuarine-like sequences. Rates of nitrification in the upper 2 m of sediment are significant and similar to marine sediments (208-456 pmol/g sediment/d). Denitrification occurs in the upper meter, evidenced by decrease in nitrate and increase in both delta Nitrogen 18 (up to + 20.1%) and delta Oxygen 18 (up to + 11.7%). The N- and O-isotopes of nitrate in the upper meter occur in a ratio that is indicative of groundwater denitrification.
Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Current Perspectives

: With the rapid growth of the ﬁ eld of pediatric antimicrobial stewardship, there has been a marked increase in the establishment of programs dedicated to this specialty. Shared objectives of all pediatric antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) include optimization of antibiotic use and improvement in clinical outcomes for children, while certain core operational strategies and metrics used to measure program effectiveness are typically utilized by pediatric ASPs. Antimicrobial stewardship is the responsibility of every individual who prescribes, dispenses, and administers antibiotics to children, and pediatric ASP principles are rooted in collaboration and cooperation. Pediatric ASPs are uniquely suited to meet the needs of the local populations they serve and the environments within which they practice while also fostering an awareness of the interconnected global nature of pediatric stewardship. As such, pediatric ASPs are well positioned to confront the evolving challenges of antimicrobial overuse and resistance.
Color image retrieval techniques to a global localization for an indoor mobile robot

In(cid:3)this(cid:3)paper(cid:3)we(cid:3)propose(cid:3)a(cid:3)both(cid:3)spatial(cid:3)and(cid:3)colorimetric(cid:3) distance(cid:3) D(cid:3) for(cid:3) a(cid:3) two(cid:3) dimensional(cid:3) color(cid:3)pallet(cid:3)built(cid:3) from(cid:3) the(cid:3) baker’s(cid:3)transformation. (cid:3)The(cid:3)baker’s(cid:3)transformation(cid:3)provides(cid:3)a(cid:3) quantization(cid:3)of(cid:3)the(cid:3)image(cid:3)into(cid:3)a(cid:3)space(cid:3)where(cid:3)colors(cid:3)that(cid:3)are(cid:3)nearby(cid:3)in(cid:3)the(cid:3)original(cid:3)space(cid:3)are(cid:3)also(cid:3)nearby(cid:3)in(cid:3)the(cid:3)output(cid:3)space
UST Research Online UST Research Online

Though it is generally accepted that information asymmetry has an impact on capital structure policy, the nature of the information asymmetry is not well understood. Recent theoretical work and empirical evidence suggests that security choice depends upon the information asymmetry associated with the investment risk of the particular use of proceeds. Consistent with this view, using the sources and uses of funds framework, we find that equity is used to fund projects with greater information asymmetry about their risk such as research and development expenditure, while debt is used to fund investments with lower information asymmetry about their risk such as liquidity enhancement.
Value-chain analysis of the ginger sub-sector in Salyan District, Nepal

Abstract. Acharya N, Chaurasia J, Kandel P. 2023. Value-chain analysis of the ginger sub-sector in Salyan District, Nepal. Asian J Agric 7: 76-82. A Value Chain (VC) strategy of market-driven firms is required to solve the present shortcomings in ginger's marketing channel and the ensuing value addition throughout the channel. The study examines ginger's producer share, pricing spread, marketing margin, and value-chain diagram. Furthermore, 50 producer families from each of Malneta of Sharada Municipality and Chande of Siddhakumakh Rural Municipality in Salyan District, Karnali Province, Nepal were selected for the household survey using purposive random sample based on the degree of production and producers' cultivation of ginger in more than one ropani, i.e., total 100 households, five collectors, five wholesalers, and five retailers were surveyed for analysis. The total ginger productivity at the research location was 15.43 Mt/ha. Sutho (dried ginger) earned an average of 25.81% of the earnings. Furthermore, 100% of producers said they were satisfied with the low price but higher than the farms' gate price by NPR 24. There was an NPR disparity of NPR 8 in retail marketing costs between retailers and end users, and NRs gap of NPR6 in marketing costs between wholesaler and retailer. While the difference in marketing costs between the collector and the distributor was, NPR 6. Retailers and consumers had the largest net margin (20%), which collectors and wholesalers followed. Consumer pricing was (8.3%), wholesalers and retailers (6.66%) and the producer share was calculated to be just 40%.
Glacier surge at Usherbreen, Svalbard

Usherbreen started to surge in 1978, and the front has advanced 1.5 km and covered an area of 4.5 km2. During the first two years the front advanced more than 1 m/d, and the front was still advancing 0.15– 0.20m/d in 1985, seven years after the start. The mean gradient of the lower 7 km decreased from 3.3 grad. to 1.8 grad. during the surge. The volume of ice transported down the glacier from higher to lower parts during the surge was 815 x lO'm3. which is almost 20% of the total glacier volume. Old icecored ridges in front of the glacier were reactivated, and the whole ridge system was pushed forward, in the summer of 1985 at a speed of about 0.05 m/d. Parts of the ridge system were moved 200 m during this surge. New ridges were developed on the flat sandur in front of the old ridge system. This demonstrates that the glacier advanced further than in any previous surge.
Institutional complementarities and technological transformation: analysing VET responsiveness in the context of Industry 4.0 skills needs and workforce development in the European steel industry

: Production and the way work is organized are progressively being transformed by digital technologies. In this paper, we explore the implications of such developments, often termed Industry 4.0, for workers through the lens of skill, and the skill needs developing out of a ‘shift’ in the technologies now being employed within the European steel industry. Specifically, we examine the preparedness of initial vocational training systems to support adaptation to Industry 4.0 and the changes in work and employment that will follow. We address such developments from the point of view of institutional theory, analysing how different institutional architectures influence responses to change.
CoCo Issuance and Bank Fragility∗

The promise of contingent convertible capital securities (CoCos) as a ‘bail-in’ solution has been the subject of considerable theoretical analysis and debate, but little is known about their effects in practice. We undertake the first comprehensive empirical analysis of bank CoCo issues, a market segment that comprises over 730 instruments totaling $521 billion. Four main findings emerge: 1) the propensity to issue a CoCo is higher for larger and better-capitalized banks; 2) CoCo issues result in a statistically significant decline in issuers’ CDS spread, indicating that they generate risk-reduction benefits and lower costs of debt (this is especially true for CoCos that convert into equity, that have mechanical triggers, and that are classified as Additional Tier 1 instruments); 3) CoCos with only discretionary triggers do not have a significant impact on CDS spreads; and 4) CoCo issues have no statistically significant impact on stock prices, except for principal write-down CoCos with a high trigger level, which have a positive effect. JEL classification: G01; G21; G28.
Legionnaires’ disease on the rise in Switzerland: A denominator-based analysis of 1 national diagnostic data, 2007-2016 2

The risk of Legionnaires’ disease (LD) is suggested to increase, but the global burden of disease is 16 unknown due to lack of appropriate diagnosis and surveillance systems. In Switzerland, the number of 17 LD cases, captured by the National Notification System for Infectious Diseases, has more than 18 doubled since 2008. The aim of this study is to evaluate disease surveillance data using denominator 19 data i.e. the number of tests performed for Legionella . spp. We collected the testing data for Legionella spp. of 14 Swiss diagnostic laboratories and calculated the 22 positivity rate, which is the rate of the number of positive tests to the number of tests performed. The number of positive tests increased proportionally to the number of tests performed; hence the 25 positivity remained stable. However, the cause of the increase in test volume is unclear and has a large 26 impact on the interpretation of the positivity curve. Further, the test outcome was found to be 27 dependent on regional determinants and the diagnostic method applied. LD is considered in current case 30 management of pneumonia patients, it is difficult to interpret heterogeneities in incidence or 31 underestimation in Switzerland. 32
AN EXTENSION OF KAKUTANI'S THEOREM ON INFINITE PRODUCT MEASURES TO THE TENSOR PRODUCT OF SEMIFINITE w*-ALGEBRAS

Suppose that (s%)if¡, is a family of semifinite w*-algebras and that /¿( is a normal state of sft with /¿¡(1) = 1 for each i el. Let s/=0ls, (s/u /¿¡) and let AK-+Ax denote the natural injection of ^ into si. (The notation is explained in §3 below; si is the (/¿^-incomplete direct product of (s¿¡): see [9], [12] or [1]. ) Given a normal state vt of s/t for each i e I, a normal state v of s/ is written (x)je/ vt when " in ï) = n "«(^o
Stoss‐side mud‐drapes: deposits of interdune pond margins

Arcuate mud-drapes have been observed in an interdune area in southern Tunisia. They are believed to have been formed by deposition from ponded water around aeolian dunes during flood events. They are preferentially preserved on the stoss-side of the dunes as a result of subsequent dune migration, and exhibit extensive evidence of animal tracks. They are useful in illustrating dune-interdune dynamics and recording the type of animals present.
RGB-NDVI colour composites for visualizing forest change dynamics

Abstract A simple and logical technique was developed to display and quantify forest change using three dates of satellite imagery. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was computed for each date of imagery to define high and low vegetation biomass. Colour composites were generated by combining each date of NDVI with either the red, green, or blue (RGB) image planes in an image display monitor. Additive colour logic was used to interpret forest change (forest harvest and regeneration) across the landscape on the three dale NDVI colour composite. Harvest and regeneration area were quantified by applying a modified parallelepiped classification creating an RGB-NDVI image with 27 classes that were grouped into nine major forest change categories. Road construction, harvest and regeneration status on old clearcuts can be monitored by interpretation of the additive colour observed at any site. Aerial photographs and stand history maps obtained from a major forest industrial landowner were compared.
A high latitude euselachian assemblage from the early Turonian of Alberta, Canada

Numerous isolated euselachian teeth were recovered from the early Turonian Kaskapau Formation situated in northwestern Alberta, Canada. This high palaeolatitude assemblage was collected from a sandstone lens along the bank of the Smoky River, and includes 16 species belonging to at least three orders, at least 11 families, and 15 genera. Here we describe Odontaspis watinensis sp. nov. and report the first Canadian occurrence of Polyacrodus sp. , Scapanorhynchus sp. , and Carcharias aff. C. striatula. The scarcity of benthic taxa in this assemblage supports the previous notion that bottom waters in this region of the Western Interior Seaway experienced enduring anoxic episodes. By comparing the faunal composition of this assemblage with that of middle Cenomanian Canadian assemblages, we show that seven species have a biostratigraphical range that extended across the Cenomanian–Turonian boundary in the northern region of the seaway. Of the taxa described herein, Archaeolamna ex. gr. kopingensis, Cardabiodon aff. C. ricki, Carcharias aff. C. striatula, Odontaspis watinensis, and Johnlongia parvidens have not been reported from deposits of the southernmost region of the seaway and may have been restricted to cooler waters. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FD671818-2769-484C-B424-F5EF5490A6A9
LogNIC: A High-Level Performance Model for SmartNICs

SmartNICs have become an indispensable communication fabric and computing substrate in today’s data centers and enterprise clusters, providing in-network computing capabilities for traversed packets and benefiting a range of applications across the system stack. Building an efficient SmartNIC-assisted solution is generally non-trivial and tedious as it requires programmers to understand the SmartNIC architecture, refactor application logic to match the device’s capabilities and limitations, and correlate an application execution with traffic characteristics. A high-level SmartNIC performance model can decouple the underlying SmartNIC hardware device from its offloaded software implementations and execution contexts, thereby drastically simplifying and facilitating the development process. However, prior architectural models can hardly be applied due to their limited capabilities in dissecting the SmartNIC-offloaded program’s complexity, capturing the nondeterministic overlapping between computation and I/O, and perceiving diverse traffic profiles.This paper presents the LogNIC model that systematically analyzes the performance characteristics of a SmartNIC-offloaded program. Unlike conventional execution flow-based modeling, Log-NIC employs a packet-centric approach that examines SmartNIC execution based on how packets traverse heterogeneous computing domains, on-/off-chip interconnects, and memory subsystems. It abstracts away the low-level device details, represents a deployed program as an execution graph, retains a handful of configurable parameters, and generates latency/throughput estimation for a given traffic profile. It further exposes a couple of extensions to handle multi-tenancy, traffic interleaving, and accelerator peculiarity. We demonstrate the LogNIC model’s capabilities using both commodity SmartNICs and an academic prototype under five application scenarios. Our evaluations show that LogNIC can estimate performance bounds, explore software optimization strategies, and provide guidelines for new hardware designs.CCS CONCEPTS• Hardware → Networking hardware; • Networks → Network performance modeling.
The Bayesian Superorganism I: collective probability estimation

Superorganisms such as social insect colonies are very successful relative to their non-social counterparts. Powerful emergent information processing capabilities would seem to contribute to their abundance, as they explore and exploit their environment collectively. In this series of three papers, we develop a Bayesian model of collective information processing, starting here with nest-finding, then examining foraging (part II) and externalised memories (pheromone territory markers) in part III. House-hunting Temnothorax ants are adept at discovering and choosing the best available nest site for their colony. Essentially, we propose that they estimate the probability each choice is best, and then choose the highest probability. Viewed this way, we propose that their behavioural algorithm can be understood as a sophisticated statistical method that predates recent mathematical advances by some tens of millions of years. Here, we develop a model of their nest finding that incorporates insights from approximate Bayesian computation as a model of collective estimation of alternative choices; and Thompson sampling, as an effective regret-minimising decision-making rule by viewing nest choice in terms of a multi-armed bandit problem (Robbins, 1952). Our Bayesian framework points to the potential for further bio-inspired statistical techniques. It also facilitates the generation of hypotheses regarding individual and collective movement behaviours when collective decisions must be made.
How natural are Alpine mountain rivers? Evidence from the Italian Alps

Historical, human‐induced channel adjustments in lowland gravel‐bed rivers have been documented in several geographical contexts worldwide. In particular, it is now widely accepted that the vast majority of European rivers are far from any natural, reference state prior to anthropic disturbances, and a ‘complete’ restoration is hardly achievable. However, few investigations have addressed changes that have occurred in mountain rivers of the Alps, and these channels are commonly reckoned quite ‘natural’ by society. This paper intends to describe how human pressure on Italian Alpine basins has been quite relevant for several centuries – in terms of land‐use variations, in‐channel structures, timber transport (splash damming) and riparian vegetation management – such that nowadays ‘reference conditions’ cannot be found even in small mountain creeks. In addition, recent natural climatic variations (e.g. the Little Ice Age) are superimposed on human disturbances, thus defying the definition of any ‘equilibrium’ morphological conditions even under ‘human‐free’ states. A summary of published as well as unpublished works on historical channel adjustments in rivers of the Italian Alps is presented in order to document the impacts deriving from human pressure at different basin scales and for different river morphologies, from steep confined streams to large unconfined rivers. General options for river management and restoration actions aiming to combine geomorphological functionality and flood hazard mitigation are discussed, in the light of the current European legislative context. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Efficacy and strategy of pneumatic dilatation in achalasia.

We read with interest the article by Eckardt et al regarding the long term results of pneumatic dilatation in achalasia ( Gut 2004; 53 :629–33). Fifty four patients were followed up for a median of 14 years after a single pneumatic dilatation using the Browne-McHardy dilator. Five and 10 year remission rates were 40% and 36%, respectively, and repeated dilatations only mildly improved the clinical response. Most of the relapses occurred within one year of dilatation. Patients with post-dilatation lower oesophageal sphincter pressures of <10 mm Hg had a significantly better outcome. The authors suggest that failure to respond to the first dilatation should lead to consideration of alternative therapy. We disagree with this conclusion and we would like to bring to your attention a recent prospective study on the long term effects of pneumatic dilatation in 11 patients with achalasia.1 A different approach was chosen—that is, treatment consisted of one or more …
3474 - DAMAGE RHEOLOGY MODEL AND DECAY LAW OF AFTERSHOCK ACTIVITY

Aftershocks are the response of a damaged rock surrounding large earthquake ruptures to the stress perturbations produced by the large events. Lyakhovsky et al. (1997a) developed a damage rheology model that provides a quantitative treatment for macroscopic effects of evolving distributed fracturing with local crack density represented by a damage state variable. A thermodynamically-based equation for damage evolution accounts for both degradation and healing of rock as a function of on-going deformation. The governing material properties are constrained by analyses of stress-strain and acoustic emission laboratory data during deformation leading to brittle failure of rocks. For analysis of aftershocks, we consider the relaxation process of a material following the application of a strain step associated with the occurrence of a main shock. The coupled differential equations governing the damage evolution and stress relaxation processes are written in non-dimensional form by scaling the elastic stress to its initial value and the time to characteristic time of damage evolution τd. With this, the system behavior is controlled by the single non-dimensional ratio R representing the ratio between damage time scale to the Maxwell relaxation time (R = τd/τM). For very small R there is no relaxation and the response consists of constant elastic strain leading to constant rate of damage increase until failure. For very large R there is rapid relaxation without significant change to the level of damage. For intermediate cases the equations are strongly coupled and nonlinear. The analytical solution for the damage evolution can be fitted well for various values of R with a power law similar to the modified Omori law for aftershocks. This also holds for 3-D numerical simulations of aftershock sequences in a multi-layered lithosphere model. Analytical and numerical results suggest that high values of R, corresponding to low viscosity material, produce diffuse aftershock sequences, while low values of R, corresponding to more brittle material, produce clear aftershock sequences.
A Structural Model of Interbank Network Formation and Contagion

The interbank network, in which banks compete with each other to supply and demand differentiated financial products, fulfils an important function but may also result in risk propagation. We examine this trade-off by setting out a model in which banks form interbank network links endogenously, taking into account the effect of links on default risk. We estimate this model based on novel, granular data on aggregate exposures between banks. We find that the decentralised interbank market is not efficient: a social planner would be able to increase surplus on the interbank market by 13% without increasing mean bank default risk or decrease mean bank default risk by 4% without decreasing interbank surplus. We then propose two novel regulatory interventions (caps on aggregate exposures and pairwise capital requirements) that result in efficiency gains.
East‐west asymmetry in type‐2 echoes and enhanced electron drift in the equatorial electrojet

Simultaneous measurements of type‐2 echoes in the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and the 150 km echoes were made with a tri‐beam radar on Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia). Using the mean Doppler velocity (〈VD〉) to estimate the line‐of‐sight component of electron drift velocity (), we show that its vertical component (Vez) increases with altitude and exceeds Vez measured at 150 km, between 96 and 103 km. At 103 km, the ratio of vertical 〈VD〉 to Vez at 150 km was five. This enhancement explains the hitherto puzzling east‐west asymmetry in 〈VD〉 of type‐2 echoes. More importantly, we show how the enhanced Vez appears to be associated with the discrepancy in the altitude of peak current density of the EEJ, between measurement and model. We discuss roles played by kilometer‐scale irregularities and close by describing apparent effects by atmospheric gravity waves.