Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social wasps in Spain: the who and where.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to list the social vespids occurring in Spain, determine their presence in each region, and correlate the data with the vespids responsible for allergic reactions and their progression over time. METHODS Insects distribution data were collected in two phases: from the southern half of Spain (2008-2012), and from the northern half of Spain (2016-2019). Data for the vespids were collected from the prescriptions of Hymenoptera venom immunotherapy (HVIT) at six Spanish hospitals in the years 2009 and 2019. RESULTS Polistes dominula and Vespula germanica were the most widely distributed species. Vespa velutina was found to be present in a large part of northern Spain. During the 10 year period, the prescriptions of vespid VIT increased by 42.63%. The north of Spain saw a 3.61 fold greater predominance of prescriptions for Vespula (to some extent influenced by Vespa velutina allergy) whereas in central and southern Spain, there was a 3.97 fold greater predominance of prescriptions for Polistes. CONCLUSIONS It is the first study that compares the vespid distribution maps with VIT prescription. A noteworthy finding is the wide presence of Polistes dominula and Vespula germanica in Spain and the appearance of Vespa velutina allergy in the northern part of the country. Data of HVIT prescriptions reflect inter-regional variability with the predominance of Vespula (due to Vespula and Vespa) in the north and that of Polistes in the center and south of Spain.
Transport in Rayleigh-stable experimental Taylor-Couette flow and granular electrification in a shaking experiment

Title of dissertation: TRANSPORT IN RAYLEIGH-STABLE EXPERIMENTAL TAYLOR-COUETTE FLOW AND GRANULAR ELECTRIFICATION IN A SHAKING EXPERIMENT Freja Nordsiek, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Daniel P. Lathrop Department of Physics This dissertation consists of two projects: Rayleigh-stable Taylor-Couette flow and granular electrification. Taylor-Couette flow is the fluid flow in the gap between two cylinders rotating at different rates. Azimuthal velocity profiles, dye visualization, and inner cylinder torques were measured on two geometrically similar Taylor-Couettes with axial boundaries attached to the outer cylinder, the Maryland and Twente T3C experiments. This was done in the Rayleigh stable regime, where the specific angular momentum increases radially, which is relevant to astrophysical and geophysical flows and in particular, stellar and planetary accretion disks. The flow substantially deviates from laminar Taylor-Couette flow beginning at moderate Reynolds number. Angular momentum is primarily transported to the axial boundaries instead of the outer cylinder due to Ekman pumping when the inner cylinder is rotating faster than the outer cylinder. A phase diagram was constructed from the transitions identified from torque measurements taken over four decades of the Reynolds number. Flow angular velocities larger and smaller than both cylinders were found. Together, these results indicate that experimental Taylor-Couette with axial boundaries attached to the outer cylinder is an imperfect model for accretion disk flows. Thunderstorms, thunder-snow, volcanic ash clouds, and dust storms all display lightning, which results from electrification of droplets and particles in the atmosphere. While lightning is fairly well understood (plasma discharge), the mechanisms that result in million-volt differences across the storm are not. A novel granular electrification experiment was upgraded and used to study some of these mechanisms in the lab. The relative importance of collective interactions between particles versus particle properties (material, size, etc.) on collisional electrification was investigated. While particle properties have an order of magnitude effect on the strength of macroscopic electrification, all particle types electrified with dynamics that suggest a major role for collective interactions in electrification. Moreover, mixing two types of particles together does not lead to increased electrification except for specific combinations of particles which clump, which further points towards the importance of collective phenomena. These results help us better understand the mechanisms of electrification and lightning generation in certain atmospheric systems. TRANSPORT IN RAYLEIGH-STABLE EXPERIMENTAL TAYLOR-COUETTE FLOW AND GRANULAR ELECTRIFICATION IN A SHAKING EXPERIMENT
Low energy nanoemulsions as carriers for essential oils in topical formulations for antioxidant skin protection

In this study several essential oils (EOs): basil - BA, lemon balm - LB and oregano - OR were incorporated into nanoemulsions (NEs) as prospective carriers for natural and sensitive bioactives. NEs were prepared via the phase inversion composition (PIC) method, which is an energy-efficient cold process. Physicochemical stability of NEs was confirmed by particle size distribution analysis, electrical conductivity and pH value measurements, as well as by optical microscopy observations. The type of EO and the surfactant and oil mix concentration were found to be crucial factors governing the NE properties and stability. Raman spectra of the EOs confirmed main active ingredients and provided detection of interactions with the nanocarrier, which is a novel application of this technique. The antioxidant activity towards DPPH radical in methanol was concentration-dependent with a similar trend for individual oils and oil-loaded NEs (OR> LB> BA). However, the ABTS test in an aqueous medium revealed notable change in the order of activity after EO nanonisation at higher EO concentrations. Overall, it was found that OR-NE was the most effective and stable system, since OR acted as a co-stabiliser in the NE formulation, and its remarkably high antioxidant activity was successfully preserved during 6 months of storage.
Estimating Three‐Dimensional Carbon‐To‐Phosphorus Stoichiometry of Exported Marine Organic Matter

The stoichiometric carbon to phosphorus ratios (rC:P) in suspended particulate organic matter (POM) are generally inversely correlated with surface phosphate (PO4) concentration. However, it is uncertain if previously suggested relationships between rC:P and PO4 are appropriate for the vertical export flux of organic matter. Using a global steady‐state inverse ocean biogeochemistry model and annual‐mean observed tracers, we estimate optimal parameters for both linear and power law representations of rP:C (= 1/rC:P), and find rP:C = (0.0066 ± 0.0018) × [PO4] + (0.0053 ± 0.0010) and rP:C = (0.0112 ± 0.0018) × [PO4](0.36±0.07), respectively, where [PO4] is in μM. Both parameterizations allow us to fit global tracer observations equally well, but the power law model implies an up to 50% larger uptake rC:P in oligotrophic gyres. For both formulations, the POM export rC:P from the euphotic zone is nearly equal to the uptake rC:P, while the dissolved organic matter export rC:P is up to two times larger than the uptake rC:P. Although weakly constrained, our model suggests that in eutrophic regions the vertical organic P fluxes are attenuated faster with depth than the organic C fluxes. By contrast, in oligotrophic regions there are no discernible differences between the organic P and C flux‐attenuation profiles. As a result, the large spatial range of rC:P spanning 50–200 at the base of the euphotic zone is diminished to 110–160 at 2000 m depth. In oligotrophic regions at 150–500 m depths, our estimated export rC:P values are significantly lower than those measured with sediment traps, implying a potentially large modulation of export rC:P by migrating zooplankton within the twilight zone.
Bootstrapped DEA and Clustering Analysis of Eco-Efficiency in China’s Hotel Industry

As one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries, tourism is facing the challenge of balancing growth and eco-environmental protection. Taking tourism CO2 emissions as undesirable outputs, this research employs the bootstrapping data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to measure the eco-efficiency of China’s hotel industry. Using a dataset consisting of 31 provinces in the period 2016–2019, the bootstrapping-based test validates that the technology exhibits variable returns to scale. The partitioning around medoids (PAM) algorithm, based on the bootstrap samples of eco-efficiency, clusters China’s hotel industry into two groups: Cluster 1 with Shandong as the representative medoid consists of half of the superior coastal provinces and half of the competitive inland provinces, while Cluster 2 is less efficient with Jiangsu as the representative medoid. Therefore, it is suggested that the China government conduct a survey of only Shandong and Jiangsu to approximately capture the key characteristics of the domestic hotel industry’s eco-efficiency in order to formulate appropriate sustainable development policies. Lastly, biased upward eco-efficiencies may provide incorrect information and misguide managerial and/or policy implications.
Do intracanal medications used in regenerative endodontics affect the bond strength of powder-to-liquid and ready-to-use cervical sealing materials?

Aim : This study evaluated the effect of four intracanal medications commonly used in regenerative endodontic procedures on the bond strength of four calcium silicate-based materials, in which two are powder-to-liquid products (MTA and MTA-HP) and the other are ready-to-use materials (EndoSequence Root Repair Material Fast Set Putty [ERRM] and Bioceramic Repair [BIO-C Repair]). Methods : Ten bovine central incisors were selected and 4 slices (1.0 ± 0.1 mm) were prepared from each root. Next, four 0.8-mm wide holes were drilled in each slice and specimens were filled with one of the following intracanal medications: triple antibiotic paste, double antibiotic paste, calcium hydroxide with distilled water, and calcium hydroxide with 2% chlorhexidine gel. After 21 days, holes were filled with one of the materials: MTA, MTA-HP, ERRM, or BIO-C Repair. After storage, push-out test and failure analysis were performed. Data were submitted to analysis of variance in a 4 × 4 factorial scheme. Tukey's test was used for multiple comparisons. Results : The use of different interappointment dressings did not influence the results (P > 0.05). ERRM and BIO-C Repair presented significantly higher values than MTA and MTA-HP (P < 0.0001). Specimens showed a 100% occurrence of adhesive failures. Conclusion : The use of different intracanal medications presented similar impact on bond strength of calcium silicate-based materials. Ready-to-use ERRM and BIO-C Repair materials presented the best push-out values to dentine, whereas powder-to-liquid MTA and MTA-HP cements showed the lowest results.
LED assessment based on an improved quality factor for LiFi communication

This paper builds a model for the benchmarking and the selection of a suitable LED for wireless optical communication, in particular for indoor LiFi Infrared or visible light communication. It reviews LED measurements and theoretical models for such trade-off and applies these into communication bit-rate throughput expressions. While illumination LEDs are chosen for a large quantum efficiency, for communications also a large 3 dB bandwidth is preferred. In the LED, electron hole pairs recombine radiatively (thereby emitting a photon) or non-radiatively (causing a leakage current and reducing EQE). Non-radiative recombination also contributes to the response speed of the LED and increases its 3 dB bandwidth. On the other hand, a reduction in effective optical power may counterproductively lead to an inadequate signal-to-noise ratio. A trade-off is postulated empirically, in the form of a rule of thumb: “transmit power raised to the power alpha times bandwidth raised to the power one minus alpha” appears to be an LED constant. This semi-empirical model gives straight lines on a log-log scale. This paper searches for a theoretical justification for such a model, where current density acts as a parameter to make the trade-off. According to communication theory, the achievable bit rate grows approximately linearly with an increasing bandwidth but approximately logarithmically with the received energy per bit. However, this needs to be reviewed for a gentle low pass roll-off of the LED response, as it allows modulation far beyond the 3 dB bandwidth. These lead to a perspective on how to operate the LED: a system design faces the challenge to trade-off power versus bandwidth according to the physics LED properties, to optimize a communication throughput target.
Revisiting the Relationship Between Racial Heterogeneity and Neighborhood Crime: Do Spatial Scale and Functional Form matter?

This study examines the relationships between racial heterogeneity and crime across blocks (N = 103,168) located in the greater Southern California region. We estimate negative binomial regression models that test for the effects of racial heterogeneity in conjunction with different functional form and spatial scaling considerations. Racial diversity in the block has a crime-reducing effect, whereas racial diversity in the area surrounding the block generally has crime-producing capabilities, although at very high levels of diversity, the effect reverses and becomes crime-reducing. We also illustrate an interaction effect between racial heterogeneity in the block and racial heterogeneity in the surrounding area. The pattern of results provides a nuanced understanding of how the racial composition of an area has consequences for crime.
Algorithms for Trajectory Points Clustering in Location-based Social Networks

Recent advances in localization techniques have fundamentally enhanced social networking services, allowing users to share their locations and location-related contents. This has further increased the popularity of location-based social networks (LBSNs) and produces a huge amount of trajectories composed of continuous and complex spatio-temporal points from people’s daily lives. How to accurately aggregate large-scale trajectories is an important and challenging task. Conventional clustering algorithms (e.g., k-means or k-mediods) cannot be directly employed to process trajectory data due to their serialization, triviality and redundancy. Aiming to overcome the drawbacks of traditional k-means algorithm and k-mediods, including their sensitivity to the selection of the initial k value, the cluster centers and easy convergence to a locally optimal solution, we first propose an optimized k-means algorithm (namely OKM) to obtain k optimal initial clustering centers based on the density of trajectory points. Second, because k-means is sensitive to noisy points, we propose an improved k-mediods algorithm called IKMD based on an acceptable radius r by considering users’ geographic location in LBSNs. The value of k can be calculated based on r, and the optimal k points are selected as the initial clustering centers with high densities to reduce the cost of distance calculation. Thirdly, we thoroughly analyze the advantages of IKMD by comparing it with the commonly used clustering approaches through illustrative examples. Last, we conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of IKMD against seven clustering approaches including the proposed optimized k-means algorithm, k-mediods algorithm, traditional density-based k-mediods algorithm and the state-of-the-arts trajectory clustering methods. The results demonstrate that IKMD significantly outperforms existing algorithms in the cost of distance calculation and the convergence speed. The methods proposed is proved to contribute to a larger effort targeted at advancing the study of intelligent trajectory data analytics.
Keep Forgetting to Make a Shopping List? Don’t Beat Yourself up over It!

ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the impact of shopping lists on consumer spending and healthy shopping behaviors. A non-hypothetical field experiment was conducted, using the online platform Amazon Mechanical Turks, to determine the value 228 consumers place on these self commitment devices via their willingness-to-accept (to give up their list) or equivalent gain (to write a list) for a shopping list during a grocery shopping trip. By randomly determining who kept and who gave up shopping lists, we are able to explore causal effects of lists on food spending and the healthiness of food purchases. We find that after controlling for conscientiousness, consumers willingness-to-accept to give up their shopping list is $5.05, while the equivalent gain to write a shopping list is $3.87. We did not however find a significant difference in the healthiness of the purchases made by consumers using a shopping list versus those without. There is a lack of prior research on this topic – particularly papers that use a random assignment to treatment. Previous studies have explored correlations between shopping list use and spending; however, this study provides a value of list use, utilizes a credible approach to determine impact of list use disentangled from unobserved confounds, and provides insights on impact of shopping lists on healthy eating.
GENETIC DIVERSITY OF NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED Rhododendron moulmainense Hook. f. POPULATIONS IN LAM VIEN PLATEAU, VIETNAM REVEALED BY ISSR AND SCoT MARKERS

Genetic diversity and variation of three naturally distributed Rhododendron moulmainense populations in the Lam Vien Plateau of Vietnam were analyzed using ISSR and SCoT markers separately and data from the two types of markers were then combined to show the overall results. Based on combined data, the genetic diversity parameters of the Tuyen Lam population were percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) = 28.79%; genetic heterozygosity (He) = 0.1041; Shannon index (I) = 0.1552. The corresponding parameters were PPB = 37.88%; He = 0.1434; I = 0.2131 in the Hon Nga population, and PPB = 46.21%; He = 0.1857; I = 0.2709 in the Bidoup population. At the species level in Lam Dong province, the corresponding parameters were PPB = 62.12%; He = 0.1747; I = 0.2756. The average of pairwise genetic similarity coefficients among investigated individuals of Tuyen Lam population was 0.973, of Hon Nga population was 0.911, and of Bidoup population was 0.895. The genetic differentiation and the number of migrants per generation among investigated populations were GSTS = 0.1735 and Nm = 2.3824 individuals, respectively. Genetic distance between Tuyen Lam and Hon Nga populations was 0.0399, between Tuyen Lam and Bidoup populations were 0.0621, and Bidoup and Hon Nga populations were 0.0670. Data generated by both marker types and the combined revealed similar trends of genetic diversity levels among the studied populations. The SCoT data showed higher values of genetic diversity and population gene differentiation than did the ISSR data, but the latter showed higher gene differentiation among sampled individuals in the study populations. Comparing the values of Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) for discriminatory ability; Effective Multiplex Ratio (EMR) for several revealed loci and/or efficiency of the primer-marker system; Marker Index (MI) for the efficiency of used method; and Resolving Power (Rp) between used techniques indicated that discriminatory ability, efficiency, and ability of the ISSR primer combinations were higher but using SCoT marker system was more efficient than ISSR marker system for evaluating genetic diversity.
Comparative Assessment of Iron Deficiency Anaemia among Chronic Kidney Disease Subjects in Niger Delta Nigeria

Iron Deficiency Anaemia which is reduced red blood cells due to iron deficiency had been reported to be a major challenge among Chronic Kidney Disease patients. The cause of anaemia in these patients is multifactorial, ranging from the inability of the kidneys to excrete hepcidin to even the inability of the kidneys to produce erythropoietin. This study aimed at comparatively assessing IDA between CKD and APHS in Niger Delta. A total of 88 subjects were recruited, 55(62.50%) CKDP and 33(37.50%) Control subjects. Samples were collected and analysed for IDA Indicators such as Serum Hepcidin Levels using commercial DRG Hepcidin-25 kit and other Haematological Indices using Automation (Sysmex KX-21N Automated Haematology Analyzer), Leishman Staining Technique and Supravital Staining Technique; Questionnaire was also used to obtain some data, data obtained were analysed using SPSS version 21.The mean values for Serum Hepcidin, Haemoglobin(HB), Packed Cell Volume(PCV), Red Blood Cell count(RBC), Mean Cell Volume(MCV), Mean Cell Haemoglobin(MCH), Mean Cell Haemoglobin Concentration(MCHC), Reticulocyte count(Retics) and Red Cell Distribution Width(RDW) were 52.00ng/ml, 10.00 g/dL, 31.00%, 3.74×102/L, 78.84fL, 26.58pg, 31.79g/dL, 0.64%, and 14.94% respectively in the CKD patients while that for the APHS were 16.00ng/ml, 14.00g/dL, 42.00%, 4.69×1012/L, 89.37fL, 29.59pg, 33.00g/dL, 1.09% and 13.20% respectively. Statistical T-Test of significance revealed that Serum Hepcidin level was elevated significantly in CKD patients (52.00ng/ml) when compared with APHS(16.00ng/ml) t86= 6.54, p<0.05, Haemoglobin value of 10.00g/dL in CKD patients was significantly lower than 14.00g/dL in APHS (t86 = -8.49, p<0.05), and the values of other haematological indices were lower except RDW that was elevated significantly among CKD patients when compared with the APHS (p<0.05) all at significance level of 0.05. The elevated serum hepcidin and RDW level seen in this study may be as a result of diminished renal clearance and inflammatory state of the kidney. The kidney”s inability to make enough erythropoietin may have lead to the low red blood cell count that consequently caused anaemia in subjects studied.The estimation of Serum Hepcidin level in CKD patients in addition to the other Haematological indices will improve the diagnosis, treatment and management of Iron Deficiency Anaemia in these patients.
Full-scale Test of Uplift Resistance of Trenched Pipes

Trenching is a frequently used method for protection of offshore pipelines against dropped objects and fishery activities. To provide additional protection the trenches are usually back-filled. The backfill material may be soft, partly remoulded clay or sand present at the seabed or sand mix and crushed rock installed after pipe lay. Offshore pipelines may experience large axial forces due to temperature expansion. As a part of the pipeline design, the buckling failure modes must be analysed. In the buckling analyses, an important parameter is the upheaval resistance from the backfill material. To verify the design of a trenched offshore pipeline in the Norwegian Trench, a full-scale test was performed by SINTEF and NTNU. The test program included measurement of uplift resistance in soft clay, sand mix and crushed rock. This paper presents the test setup, the backfill materials and the measured uplift resistances. The measured resistances are compared with theoretical models for uplift resistance for different backfill materials. Recommendations are given regarding the uplift resistance pipes in trenches backfilled with sand mix or crushed rock.