Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
QUERCUS ROBUR , Q . CERRIS AND Q . PETRAEA AS HOT SPOTS OF BIODIVERSITY

Three different bipartite networks (pathogenic, ectomycorrhizal and galling insects) established by Quercus robur L. , Q. cerris L. and Q. petraea (Matt.) Liebl. were merged in order to investigate the topological properties of the complex network, shading light on how biodiversity was organized through complex interactions. The complex network contains 290 species – 137 are pathogens (parasitic interaction), 72 are mycorrhizal fungi (mutualists) and 81 species of galling insects (herbivores). Most relevant network descriptors, connectivity, nestedness and modularity were analyzed. The main network and subnetworks displayed different behaviors in terms of topological properties, three of four networks showing significant modularity (galling insects network was marginally significant in what regards modularity). High connectivity and different degrees of nestedness characterized all networks. Clustering and Non Metric Multidimensional scaling refined the information provided by network analysis showing that networks occupy distant positions in ordination space and there are differences in terms of resemblance patterns.
24 Enzyme-Based Microfluidic Biofuel Cell to Generate

Enzymatic biofuel cells (BFCs) employ enzymes to catalyse chemical reactions, thereby replacing traditional electrocatalysts present in conventional fuel cells. These systems generate electricity under mild conditions through the oxidation of renewable energy sources (Calabrese Barton et al., 2004). At the anode side the fuel is oxidized and the electrons, which are released by the oxidation reaction, are used to reduce the oxidant at the cathode side (Fig. 1).
Nutrient stock in soil and trees in a secondary forest provided for shifting cultivation

In South Brazil slash and burn plays a major role for great number of small farmers. However, there is almost no fertilization with mineral fertilizers to compensate the nutrient loss. The aim was to assess the ecological risks. An inventory of the nutrients in the biomass and the soil was done and the potential loss by burning was calculated. Nutrient input by precipitation was measured weekly to estimate the compensation of nutrient losses by atmospheric input. The nutrient status of the ecosystem was on a high level. It was far away from the status of natural rainforests on Ferralsols in the humid tropics. Assessing the ecological risk by a worst case scenario a twofold repetition of slash and burn would empty almost the total stock of exchangeable Mg in the soil. However, considering the real situation after practicing slash and burn for more than 100 years there is no indication that this is real scenario. Obviously the nutrient loss is smaller and a recuperation of the ecosystem occurs by atmospheric input and weathering of primary silicates. For to maintain sustainability it is recommended to provide a recovery time of at least some decades. Nutrient loss could be strongly reduced if branches would be left in the system and biomass extraction was restricted to stemwood. It would be helpful if magnesium loss could be partly compensated through liming or magnesium fertilizers DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.13086/2316-980x.v01n01a04
Priors and component structures in autoregressive time series models

New approaches to prior specification and structuring in autoregressive time series models are introduced and developed. We focus on defining classes of prior distributions for parameters and latent variables related to latent components of an autoregressive model for an observed time series. These new priors naturally permit the incorporation of both qualitative and quantitative prior information about the number and relative importance of physically meaningful components that represent low frequency trends, quasi‐periodic subprocesses and high frequency residual noise components of observed series. The class of priors also naturally incorporates uncertainty about model order and hence leads in posterior analysis to model order assessment and resulting posterior and predictive inferences that incorporate full uncertainties about model order as well as model parameters. Analysis also formally incorporates uncertainty and leads to inferences about unknown initial values of the time series, as it does for predictions of future values. Posterior analysis involves easily implemented iterative simulation methods, developed and described here. One motivating field of application is climatology, where the evaluation of latent structure, especially quasi‐periodic structure, is of critical importance in connection with issues of global climatic variability. We explore the analysis of data from the southern oscillation index, one of several series that has been central in recent high profile debates in the atmospheric sciences about recent apparent trends in climatic indicators.
eview actogenic immunity and vaccines for porcine epidemic diarrhea irus ( PEDV ) : Historical and current concepts

Morbidity, mortality, and loss of productivity from enteric diseases in neonatal piglets cost swine producers millions of dollars annually. In 2013–2014, the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) outbreak led to $900 million to $1.8 billion in annual losses to US swine producers. Passive lactogenic immunity remains the most promising and effective way to protect neonatal suckling piglets from enteric diseases like PEDV. Protecting suckling piglets through lactogenic immunity is dependent on trafficking of pathogen-specific IgA plasmablasts to the mammary gland and accumulation of secretory IgA (sIgA) antibodies in milk, defined as the gut-mammary-sIgA axis. Due to an impermeable placenta, piglets are born agammaglobulinic, and are highly susceptible to a plethora of infectious agents. They rely solely on colostrum and milk antibodies for maternal lactogenic immunity. Previous advances in the development of live and attenuated vaccines for another devastating diarrheal virus of pigs, transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), provide insights into the mechanisms of maternal immunity and piglet protection. wine In this chapter, we will review previous research on TGEV-induced lactogenic immunity to provide a historical perspective on current efforts for PEDV control and vaccines in the swine industry. Identifying factors that influence lactogenic immunity and the gut-mammary-sIgA axis may lead to improved vaccine regimens for PEDV and other enteric pathogens in gestating swine and improved overall herd immunity, swine health and industry productivity. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Combining Structural and Textural Assessments of Volumetric FDG-PET Uptake in NSCLC

Numerous studies have reported the prognostic utility of texture analyses and the effectiveness of radiomics in PET and PET/CT assessment of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here we explore the potential, relative to this methodology, of an alternative model-based approach to tumour characterization, which was successfully applied to sarcoma in previous works. The spatial distribution of 3-D FDG-PET uptake is evaluated in the spatial referential determined by the best-fitting ellipsoidal pattern, which provides a univariate uptake profile function of the radial position of intratumoral voxels. A group of structural features is extracted from this fit that include two heterogeneity variables and statistical summaries of local metabolic gradients. We demonstrate that these variables capture aspects of tumour metabolism that are separate to those described by conventional texture features. Prognostic model selection is performed in terms of a number of classifiers, including stepwise selection of logistic models, LASSO, random forests and neural networks with respect to two-year survival status. Our results for a cohort of 93 NSCLC patients show that structural variables have significant prognostic potential, and that they may be used in conjunction with texture features in a traditional radiomics sense, toward improved baseline multivariate models of patient overall survival. The statistical significance of these models also demonstrates the relevance of these machine learning classifiers for prognostic variable selection.
International donor agencies’ incentive structures and foreign aid effectiveness

Abstract: This paper examines in depth one of the potential causes of the low performance of foreign aid; in particular, the role incentive structures within international donor agencies could play in leading to ‘a push’ to disburse money. This pressure to disburse money is termed as the ‘Money-Moving Syndrome’ (MMS). The theoretical analysis in this paper relies on the principal–agent theory to explore how donor agencies' institutional incentive systems may affect the characteristics of an optimal and efficient incentive contract and thus give rise to the MMS. The basic framework of the principal–agent theory was innovatively adapted to fit the organizational settings of donor agencies. The model concludes that the extent to which a performance measure based on the amount of aid allocated within a specific period of time would lead to the MMS and affect aid effectiveness depends on the level of ‘institutional imperatives’, the degree of aid agency's accountability for effectiveness, the level of corruption in recipient countries and the degree of difficulty to evaluate development activities.
CHARACTERIZING MID-ULTRAVIOLET TO OPTICAL LIGHT CURVES OF NEARBY TYPE IIn SUPERNOVAE

We present early mid-ultraviolet and optical observations of Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) observed from 2007 to 2013. Our results focus on the properties of UV light curves: peak absolute magnitudes, temporal decay, and color evolution. During early times, this sample demonstrates that UV light decays faster than optical, and each event transitions from a predominantly UV-bright phase to an optically bright phase. In order to understand early UV behavior, we generate and analyze the sample's blackbody luminosity, temperature, and radius as the SN ejecta expand and cool. Since most of our observations were detected post maximum luminosity, we introduce a method for estimating the date of peak magnitude. When our observations are compared based on filter, we find that even though these SNe IIn vary in peak magnitudes, there are similarities in UV decay rates. We use a simple semi-analytical SN model in order to understand the effects of the explosion environment on our UV observations. Understanding the UV characteristics of nearby SNe IIn during an early phase can provide valuable information about the environment surrounding these explosions, leading us to evaluating the diversity of observational properties in this subclass.
iotic homogenization and alien bird species along an urban gradient in outh Africa

Similar to the process seen in invasion biology, urbanized environments lead to biotic homogenization with a few species, often alien, dominating the urban habitat. We investigated avian communities across an urban gradient in Pretoria (South Africa). We defined three urbanization zones: urban, suburban and semi-natural, based on land-cover. We conducted point counts of all species at each of 13 sites in these zones over a 4-month period. We found significantly more species in the semi-natural zone than the urban zone but abundance was significantly lower in semi-natural than urban. The increase in abundance was mainly as a result of alien species with the three most abundant species in the urban zone being all lien irds iotic homogenization radient of urbanization ommon Myna alien. Semi-natural contained fewer alien species than urban and significantly fewer than suburban. The Common Myna Acridotheres tristis was the only alien species that was observed in all three urbanization zones and was the second most abundant species in the suburban and urban zones. Our study supports the process of biotic homogenization, where an increase in alien species occurs in the urban compared to semi-natural zone. Although the suburban zone made an important contribution towards native bird y env Com abundance in a larger cit species, especially for the
The effect of asymmetries on optimal hedge ratios

There is widespread evidence that the volatility of stock returns displays an asymmetric response to good and bad news. This article considers the impact of asymmetry on time-varying hedges for financial futures. An asymmetric model that allows forecasts of cash and futures return volatility to respond differently to positive and negative return innovations gives superior in-sample hedging performance. However, the simpler symmetric model is not inferior in a hold-out sample. A method for evaluating the models in a modern risk-management framework is presented, highlighting the importance of allowing optimal hedge ratios to be both time-varying and asymmetric.
The Tension between 10D Supergravity and dS Uplifts

We elaborate on the recent work of Moritz et al. where it is argued that anti‐brane uplifting in KKLT models never leads to dS vacua. This is due to flattening effects in the effective potential found when treating the gaugino condensate energy momentum in ten‐dimensional supergravity. We point out that the Silverstein‐Saltman uplift, which effectively dissolves the anti‐brane in 3‐form fluxes, is a conceptually simpler setting in which flattening effects can be present, without requiring assumptions about UV/IR mixings. Along the way we revise and improve on the arguments of Moritz et al. and discuss various subleties when studying gaugino condensates from a ten‐dimensional point‐of‐view. In particular, the “no dS” argument is slightly weaker and we emphasize a technical loophole that might allow dS vacua. Finally we suggest that AdS vacua which are parametrically controlled from these flattening effects belong to the Swampland. We comment on the relation with the recent refined dS Swampland inequalities.
SPITZER INFRARED SPECTROGRAPH SPECTROSCOPY OF THE 10 Myr OLD EF Cha DEBRIS DISK: EVIDENCE FOR PHYLLOSILICATE-RICH DUST IN THE TERRESTRIAL ZONE

We describe Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectroscopic observations of the ∼10 Myr old star, EF Cha. Compositional modeling of the spectra from 5 μm to 35 μm confirms that it is surrounded by a luminous debris disk with LD/L⋆ ∼ 10−3, containing dust with temperatures between 225 K and 430 K, characteristic of the terrestrial zone. The EF Cha spectrum shows evidence for many solid-state features, unlike most cold, low-luminosity debris disks but like some other 10–20 Myr old luminous, warm debris disks (e.g., HD 113766A). The EF Cha debris disk is unusually rich in a species or combination of species whose emissivities resemble that of finely powdered, laboratory-measured phyllosilicate species (talc, saponite, and smectite), which are likely produced by aqueous alteration of primordial anhydrous rocky materials. The dust and, by inference, the parent bodies of the debris also contain abundant amorphous silicates and metal sulfides, and possibly water ice. The dust's total olivine to the pyroxene ratio of ∼2 also provides evidence of aqueous alteration. The large mass volume of grains with sizes comparable to or below the radiation blow-out limit implies that planetesimals may be colliding at a rate high enough to yield the emitting dust but not so high as to devolatize the planetesimals via impact processing. Because phyllosilicates are produced by the interactions between anhydrous rock and warm, reactive water, EF Cha's disk is a likely signpost for water delivery to the terrestrial zone of a young planetary system.
Pathways for Theoretical Advances in Visualization IEEE VIS 2016 Panel

There is little doubt that having a theoretic foundation will benefit the field of visualization, including its main subfields: information visualization, scientific visualization and visual analytics, as well as many domain-specific applications such as software visualization, biomedical visualization, and so on. Since there has been a substantial amount of work on taxonomies and conceptual models in the visualization literature, and some recent work on theoretic frameworks, such a theoretic foundation is not merely an airy-fairy ambition. In this panel, the panellists will focus on the question “How can we build a theoretic foundation for visualization collectively as a community? ” In particular, the panellists will envision the pathways in four different aspects of a theoretic foundation, namely (i) taxonomies and ontologies, (ii) principles and guidelines, (iii) conceptual models and theoretic frameworks, and (iv) quantitative laws and theoretic systems.
Monetary Union, Institutions and Financial Market Integration, Italy 1862-1905

Abstract Years into the single currency, EMU financial markets are not fully integrated. We argue that the phenomenon can be better understood by looking at financial markets’ behavior in the wake of Italy’s monetary unification (1862). Variables such as the spread of the telegraph, trade volumes, and the diffusion of the ‘single currency’ fail to explain why it took 25 years for prices across regional stock exchanges to converge. A single Italian financial market appeared only when the State prevailed upon local vested interests by enforcing nation-wide financial market legislation.
Study on Increased Fructosyltranseferase (levansucrase) Production by Optimizing Culture Condition from Pediococcus acidilactici Strain in Shaking Batch Cultures

Microbial fructosyltransferases (levansucrases) are polymerases that are involved in microbial fructan (levan, inulin and fructo-oligosaccharide) biosynthesis. Levan has potential importance in food, pharmaceutical, medicine, cosmetics and textile industry. Structurally, microbial fructosyltransferase proteins share the catalytic domain of glycoside hydrolases 68 family and are grouped in seven phylogenetically related clusters. The aim of the work was screening the potency of some bacterial isolates to produce extracellular levansucrase. Bacteria were isolated from different sources (oral swab, spoiled milk, spoiled whey, and spoiled yoghurt). Pediococcus acidilactici showed the highest levansucrase activity after 2 days fermentation under shacking condition yielding (12.64 U/ml), and maximum levan production (15.4 g/L). Following the optimization of carbon source, nitrogen source, temperature and initial pH of the growth medium in submerged liquid cultures. In fact, All carbon sources induced the production of levansucrase activity, but sucrose at 30% (w/v) was the most efficient inducer. The optimal temperature and pH of the levansucrase were 30°C and 6.0, respectively. The crude levansucrase of Pediococcus acidilactici extract was enriched using selected precipitating agents. The results show that ethanol (65% saturation), provided the highest purification factor of 3fold with a recovery yield of 41.05% as a total highest recovered protein. The optimum reaction temperature and pH of semi purified levansucrase were 40°C, 5.2 respectively. Analysis of the partial purified enzyme preparation by SDS–PAGE revealed one protein band showing levansucrase activity, The molecular weight of this band was estimated to be around 50.000 Daltons. [Youssef GA, Youssef AS, Talha S, Aassar SA. Increased Fructosyltranseferase (levansucrase) Production by Optimizing Culture Condition from Pediococcus acidilactici strain in Shaking batchCultures. Life Sci J 2014;11(7):33-47]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 6
Savidan Detection of the apomictic mode of reproduction in maire-Tripsacm hybrids using maize RFLP markers

Polyploid plants in the genus Tripsacum, a wild relative of maize, reproduce through gametophytic apomixis of the diplosporous type, an asexual mode of reproduction through seed. Moving gene(s) responsible for the apomictic trait into crop plants would open new areas in plant breeding and agriculture. Efforts to transfer apomixis from Tripsacum into maize at CIMMYT resulted in numerous intergeneric F, hybrids obtained from various Tripsacum species. A bulk-segregant analysis was carried out to identify molecular markers linked to diplospory in T. dactyloides. This was possible because of numerous genome similarities among related species in the Andropogoneae. On the basis of maize RFLP probes, three restriction fragments Co-segregating with diplospory were identified in one maize-Tripsacum dactyloides F, population that segregated 1 : 1 for the mode of reproduction. The markers were also found to be linked in the maize RFLP map, on the distal end of the long arm of chromosome 6. These results support a simple inheritance of diplospory in Tripsacum. Manipulation of the mode of reproduction in maize-Tripsacum backcross generations, and implications for the transfer of apomixis into maize, are discussed.
Applying on-line computer-aided control system design to the manufacturing industry enhances control performance

Why are advanced signal filtering, system identification, optimal control and other technologies not common in the manufacturing industry? What is the vision for manufacturing in 2010 and why is on-line computer aided control system design essential? Inhibitors and supporters of the dynamics of change are identified. The author addresses these issues and shows the answer lies in the integration of business, information and technology. The author also ties achieving the vision of 2010 with the development of an automatic optimal control system and a design package for use in the manufacturing industry. <<ETX>>
Decomposing Firm-level Sales Variation 1

Much of the ongoing international trade literature uses productivity heterogeneity to explain the variation of rm-level sales in a market. We measure the proportion of that variation that can be accounted for by productivity or other rm-speci c characteristics. We introduce several empirical tests with structural bases in a monopolistic competitive framework and measure the contribution of rm-speci c factors to overall market sales variation for Danish exporters between 1999 and 2002. We nd that rm-speci c heterogeneity accounts for less than 15% of both the variation across destinations and across time. We show that our measures of this contribution are upwardly biased if productivity is positively correlated to rm-destination-speci c sales shocks, or if rm-destination-speci c shocks are positively correlated across destinations. We conclude that while rm-speci c productivity can account for some of the variation, the majority must be explained by rm-destination-speci c heterogeneity sources such as market-speci c demand.