Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biogeochemical processes in a small California estuary. 2. Nitrification activity, community structure and role in nitrogen budgets

Nitrification rates, bacterial abundance and productivity, and the diversity of ammonia- oxidizing bacteria were measured at 5 sites in Elkhorn Slough, a small estuary in central California, between 1997 and 1999. Of the sampling sites, 2 received high nutrient runoff from agricultural fields and other non-point sources, and 3 received runoff from grasslands and woodlands. The diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in terms of DNA sequences was investigated at 3 of the sites in August 1998. Both 16S and amoA sequences from sediment samples were more closely related to those of Nitrosomonas marina than to any other cultured nitrifier, but there was considerable diversity within the group, and site-specific patterns were not detected. Potential nitrification was seasonally and spa- tially variable, with the highest rates occurring at the head of Elkhorn Slough in late winter and fall. Bacterial productivity was highest during the summer and generally higher at a site adjacent to grasslands compared to the 2 agricultural sites. The variability in nitrification rates was not directly correlated with hydrographic and environmental variables. Physical factors may affect nitrification rates indirectly by controlling salinity and bottom-water oxygen concentrations. Potential nitrification rates were positively correlated with pore water NH4 + concentrations under well flushed conditions but were negligible in the presence of high NH4 + concentrations under poorly flushed conditions, due to low oxygen availability, hypersaline conditions or both. Sediment nitrogen budgets for 3 of the sites suggested that denitrification removed about 25% of the mineralized nitrogen at the poorly flushed site, but 50% or more at well flushed sites. Poorly flushed systems appear to be less efficient at removing high nitrogen inputs than well flushed systems because of the low rates of coupled nitri- fication-denitrification in the former, implying that physical factors such as the flushing regime or residence time can significantly affect nitrogen removal by denitrification.
HPTLC Analysis of hydro alcoholic extracts of Clerodendrum viscosum V. leaves and Macrotyloma uniflorum L. seeds

The objective of this study was to perform the HPTLC analysis of hydro alcoholic extracts of Clerodendron viscosum V. leaves & Macrotyloma uniflorum L. seeds. HPTLC is a powerful analytical tool in the identification of chemical constituents in plant extracts. Leaves of Clerodendron viscosum V. and seeds of Macrotyloma uniflorum L. are having numerous traditional usages ranging from wound healing to the treatment of tumors. Hydro alcoholic extracts of Clerodendron viscosum V. leaves & Macrotyloma uniflorum L. seeds were obtained using cold maceration. The obtained extracts were subjected to HPTLC analysis by using the instrument “CAMAG Linomat 5”. Quercetin, Rutin and Gallic acid were used as standards; Toluene: Ethyl Acetate: Formic Acid: Methanol (3:6:1.6:0.4) solution was used as a mobile phase. 10 µL of plant extracts and 5 µL of standard solutions were applied during the analysis. Both the plant extracts have shown the presence of Quercetin as one of the major constituent which is having numerous therapeutic properties. Extract of Macrotyloma uniflorum L. seeds has shown the presence of Quercetin with 0.91 Rf, 19.93 % Area, and 3655.7 Area; whereas the Clerodendron viscosum V. leaves extract has shown the presence of Quercetin with 0.90 Rf, 19.17 % Area, and 1685.9 Area. Keywords: HPTLC; Clerodendrum viscosum; Macrotyloma uniflorum; Quercetin
Attachment to God in Islamic Spirituality

The aim of this investigation was to explore the quality of attachment to the divine in Islamic spirituality. Theories of attachment to God have been developed with respect to the Christian faith, but it is important to explore whether Allah functions as an attachment figure in Islamic theology. Specifically, the paper considers whether believers generally seek proximity to Allah as a safe haven in times of distress; use Allah as a secure base for living in the world; and view their relationship with Allah in terms of dependency, closeness, and alleviation of anxiety. To this end, five types of Islamic texts were reviewed: a) the beautiful names of Allah (divine attributes) for any attributes that signify Allah as a caring, nourishing, and omnipresent attachment figure; b) stories of the Qur’an that signify dynamic attachment relations between Allah, His prophets, and servants; c) verses of the 78 Bagher Ghobary Bonab, Maureen Miner, and Marie-Therese Proctor Qur’an that emphasize the caring and supportive relationship between Allah and His servants; d) divine sayings and prophetic inspirations that underscore Allah as a caring and supportive attachment figure; and e) suggested supplications which reveal individuals’ deep and dynamic relations with Allah. The possibility of insecure attachment to Allah was also examined. The results of this theoretical study indicated that Allah functions as an attachment figure for believers, and most believers’ rituals and behaviors are based on proximityseeking to Allah. Implications of the current review for the conceptualization of attachment to Allah in Islamic spirituality and for scale development of relevance to Muslims’ mental health are discussed.
Disaster in Rudraprayag District of Uttarakhand Himalaya: A Special Emphasis on Geomorphic Changes and Slope Instability

Deluge of June 2013 is the worst disaster faced by the nation in recent times. Changing rainfall pattern in the previous some years has made heavy localized precipitation all the more common in Uttarakhand and the same is a cause of concern for the state government, meteorologists and other researchers. These incidences cause enormous loss of human lives, property, infrastructures and natural resources. Moreover rainfall in the study area is highly variable even over short distances. Dissected topography and tectonically active nature of the area further promote mass movement and slope instability. Increased indiscriminate anthropogenic intervention along the river banks, on glacial sediments, thick colluviums zones and river borne materials on moderate to steep slope, has often resulted in devastation in the area. The study highlights causes of slope instability together with the geomorphic changes and suggestions for future developmental initiatives within the district.
Risk of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Infection in Humans Due to Consuming Unpasteurized Dairy Products

Background: Cattle transiently harbor Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) in their gastrointestinal tracts, and many human infections result from ingestion of contaminated dairy products. The occurrence of STEC infections in human ranges from mild watery diarrhea to life-threatening conditions such as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Objective: Isolation of STEC from unpasteurized dairy products as a source of human infections is the aim of this research. Materials and Methods: In this study, after collecting 150 samples of unpasteurized dairy products from different parts of Ahvaz, primary enrichment, selective enrichment and conventional biochemical tests were done and the suspected DNA isolates were extracted by boiling. Confirmation of being toxigenic isolates was performed by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) assay. The stx1- and stx2-specific primers were used in m-PCR. Results: Out of 75 isolates with lactose-fermentation ability, 11 E. coli strains were confirmed by biochemical tests. Two isolates (18.18%) were detected as carriers of stx2 gene by PCR. Conclusion: Because of low infective dose, the presence of a low percentage of toxigenic E. coli in dairy products could be a grand public health risk, while the bacteria other than E. coli could be producing Shiga toxin which should not be ignored.
HIGH PRESSURE HYDROGEN TANK RUPTURE: BLAST WAVE AND FIREBALL

In the present study, the phenomena of blast wave and fireball generated by high pressure (35 MPa)hydrogen tank (72 l) rupture have been investigated numerically. The realizable k-e turbulence modelwas applied. The simulation of the combustion process is based on the eddy dissipation model coupledwith the one step chemical reaction mechanism. Simulation results are compared with experimentaldata from a stand-alone hydrogen fuel tank rapture following a bonfire test. The model allows thestudy of the interaction between combustion process and blast wave propagation. Simulation results(blast wave overpressure, fireball shape and size) follow the trends observed in the experiment.
Nutritional and Health Benefits of Inulin and Oligofructose Dose-Response Effects of Inulin and Oligofructose on Intestinal Bifidogenesis Effects 1

Recent studies have identified several beneficial attributes of inulin (I) and oligofructose (OF) in human health. However, most of the studies pertaining to the physiologic role of these compounds have been conducted at higher concentrations (8–40 g/d) as a source of dietary fiber. There is growing interest in using I and OF as a substrate for the selective growth of beneficial gastrointestinal bacteria such as the bifidobacteria. In vitro fermentation studies using fecal inoculums have shown that I and OF are utilized rapidly and completely by intestinal microflora and that the degree of polymerization of the substrate influenced its rate of disappearance. In these and other studies, I and OF were shown to be efficient substrates for the growth of most strains of bifidobacteria compared with glucose. In vivo studies have also shown that when human volunteers ingested I or OF, the number of fecal bifidobacteria increased. However, when results from the reported studies are combined and analyzed, a dose-response relationship in terms of log increases in the count of bifidobacteria cannot be demonstrated. Initial numbers of bifidobacteria in the feces, independent of the dose of the fructo-oligosaccharides, seem to influence the results. Future investigations should consider this relationship carefully. J. Nutr. 129:
Genetic diversity and bottleneck analysis of the Red Steppe cattle based on microsatellite markers

Thirty-nine dairy cows representing the Red Steppe (RS) cattle breed (the State Enterprise “Pedigree Reproducers “Stepove” Mykolayiv region, Ukraine) were included in the study. A set of 11 microsatellite markers recommended by International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG) for cattle was used to study genetic diversity in the RS cattle population. All of the studied loci were highly informative and polymorphic. In total, 71 alleles were detected at 11 microsatellite loci, from which 16 (22.5%) had frequency lower than 5%. The number of detected alleles per locus ( TNA ) ranged from four to ten, with a mean value of 6.45±0.51. The mean effective number of alleles ( Ae ) was 3.77±0.37. The allele frequencies ranged from 0.013 to 0.714. The average values for observed ( Ho ) and expected ( He ) heterozygosities were 0.607±0.085 and 0.703±0.034, respectively. The within breed estimate F IS indicates heterozygosity shortage of 0.179. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test revealed that 2 out of 11 loci deviated from equilibrium. The RS cattle population is non-bottlenecked, i.e., it has not undergone any recent reduction in the effective population size and remained at mutation-drift equilibrium. The estimated mean Ne for the RS cattle population was 23.3 (95% CI s = 11-74) individuals. These low values emphasize the need of controlling the rate of increase of inbreeding in the RS cattle herds.
Factors influencing the usage of modern warehousing facilities by cereal farmers in turbo east and west sub-counties of Uasin Gishu county, Kenya

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF FIGURES . vii LIST OF TABLE . viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background of the study . 1 1.1.1 The concept of warehousing . 2 1.1.2 Adoption and innovations of modern warehousing . 5 1.1.3 Cereal farmers in Kenya . 5 1.2 Research problem . 7 1.3 Research objective . 8 1.4 Value of the study . 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW. 9 2.
Where is the mafia in Italy? Measuring the presence of the mafia across Italian provinces

This article presents the Mafia Index (MI), an index measuring the presence of mafias at the provincial level. In the abundant literature on Italian mafias, relatively few studies have attempted to measure the presence of mafias across the country. A review of previous attempts points out the limitations and methodological shortcomings of existing measurements. The study provides an operational definition of ‘mafia’ and selects the most appropriate indicators and variables according to multiple criteria. The MI combines data on mafia-type associations, mafia murders, city councils dissolved for infiltration by organised crime, and assets confiscated from organised crime and covers the period between 1983 and 2009. The MI highlights not only the strong concentration of the mafias in their original territories but also their significant presence in the central and northern provinces. This confirms that mafias should not be regarded as typically Southern Italian phenomena, but rather as a national problem.
In Vitro Release of Indian Penny Wort, Walnut, and Turmeric from Topical Preparations Using Two Different Types of Membranes

Herbal remedies like the Indian penny wort, walnut, and turmeric are useful in traditional medicine for the treatment of man y skin diseases, especially eczema. The aim of the present study was to formulate a microemulsion, a gel, and an ointment containing these plant extracts and to evaluate their in vitro release using markers. The in vitro release was assessed using Franz cells and two different types of membranes, nylon and cellulose. The three formulations showed different releases, except for the microemulsion and gel of Indian penny wort and walnut, which had similar release profiles. The study showed that the nylon membrane had a faster release than the cellulose membrane. However, first-order release kinetics for all three formulations were only observed for the cellulose membrane. In this study, the cellulose membrane showed more discriminative power to differentiate among the three tested herbs and their formulations. This demonstrates that it is important to investigate the impact of the membrane on the release pattern of different formulations. In vitro diffusion cell experiments can be used to develop improved formulations of traditional medicines.
Intercropping cover crops with a poplar short rotation coppice: Effects on nutrient uptake and biomass production

The risks of soil erosion and nutrient leaching can be considered appreciable in short rotation coppices especially in the first growth phases because of the absence of any plant cover. The temporary intercropping with legumes or grasses used as cover crops can help to overcome these environmental issues. The present research work aims to evaluate the effects of the introduction of cover crops in a short rotation poplar (Populus deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall) with two-year harvest cycle. The plantation was located in a Typic Xerofluvent, silty-loam soil of the coastal Central Italy. Two different species of cover crops, Trifolium subterraneum L. (TS) and Lolium perenne L. (LP), were compared along with an untreated control, colonised by spontaneous vegetation (CO). Several plant and soil parameters were evaluated: the above ground biomass and nutrient accumulation for the three different soil cover types, the nitrate and water content in two soil layers (0.00-0.30 and 0.30-0.60 m), the poplar yield and nutrient content in branches and leaves. TS returned to the soil about 70 kg ha–¹ of nitrogen at the end of its biological cycle, thanks to the high N content (over 2%) and to the noticeable amount of dry matter produced (3.46 t ha–¹ of dry matter). This value was considerably higher than those of the LP (23 kg ha–¹ of N) or CO (10 kg ha–¹). The different amount of nitrogen returned to the soil affected both nitrate concentration in topsoil (0.00-0.30 m) and accumulation of nitrogen in poplar organs. Concerning phosphorous, the differences among treatments were less evident and the amount of P returned to the soil ranged from 2 (CO) to 10 (TS) kg ha–¹. However, the effect of soil cover type on P uptake in poplar was still appreciable. Generally, the soil water content was slightly affected by the soil cover types. Indeed, the differences between the cover crops and the control became significant only in the shallowest soil layer and over the summer season. In the first year, LP induced a significant decrease in poplar yield (10.1 t ha–¹ of dry matter) in comparison with TS (14.7 t ha–¹) and CO (13.4 t ha–¹), whereas in the second year there were no significant differences among treatments due to the weak regrowth of cover crops. These results show how to make it feasible a long lasting coexistence between cover crops and SRC, a clever design of agro-forestry systems is therefore needed.
A Method for the Symbolic Representation of Neurons

The field of neuroanatomy has progressed considerably in recent decades, thanks to the emergence of novel methods which provide new insights into the organization of the nervous system. These new methods have produced a wealth of data that needs to be analyzed, shifting the bottleneck from the acquisition to the analysis of data. In other disciplines, such as in many engineering areas, scientists and engineers are dealing with increasingly complex systems, using hierarchical decompositions, graphical models and simplified schematic diagrams for analysis and design processes. This approach makes it possible for users to simultaneously combine global system views and very detailed representations of specific areas of interest, by selecting appropriate representations for each of these views. In this way, users can concentrate on specific details while also maintaining a general system overview — a capability that is essential for understanding structure and function whenever complexity is an issue. Following this approach, this paper focuses on a graphical tool designed to help neuroanatomists to better understand and detect morphological characteristics of neuronal cells. The method presented here, based on a symbolic representation that can be tailored to enhance a particular range of features of a neuron or neuron set, has proven to be useful for highlighting particular geometries that may be hidden due to the complexity of the analysis tasks and the richness of neuronal morphologies. A software tool has been developed to generate graphical representations of neurons from 3D computer-aided reconstruction files.
Postmaterialism and Altruism: A Cross-National Comparison

Altruism is quintessential to human evolution. In this paper it is argued that cultural evolution has an impact on altruism. Using data from the sixth wave of World Values Survey we examined the mechanisms through which altruistic orientations may be affected at both side of the Atlantic. Employing the data that cover the United States and the members of the European Union, it was found that postmaterialism negatively affects altruism in Estonia, Sweden, and the United States. Reciprocity enhances postmaterialism-altruism association in Cyprus while buffering it in Poland. Furthermore, it was established that the importance assigned to an omniscient and omnipotent being enhances this association in the Netherlands, Poland, and the United States. The results also have some public policy implications regarding the adoption of pro-environmental behaviour.
Social Status Correlates of Reporting Racial Discrimination and Gender Discrimination among Racially Diverse Women

The growing body of research on discrimination and health indicates a deleterious effect of discrimination on various health outcomes. However, less is known about the sociodemographic correlates of reporting racial discrimination and gender discrimination among racially diverse women. We examined the associations of social status characteristics with lifetime experiences of racial discrimination and gender discrimination using a racially-diverse sample of 754 women attending family planning clinics in Northern California (11.4% African American, 16.8% Latina, 10.1% Asian and 61.7% Caucasian). A multivariate analysis revealed that race, financial difficulty and marital status were significantly correlated with higher reports of racial discrimination, while race, education, financial difficulty and nativity were significantly correlated with gender discrimination scores. Our findings suggest that the social patterning of perceiving racial discrimination is somewhat different from that of gender discrimination. This has implications in the realm of discrimination research and applied interventions, as different forms of discrimination may have unique covariates that should be accounted for in research analysis or program design.
The Role of Working Memory in the Development of L2 Grammatical Pro" ciency

This study investigates the correlation between Working Memory (WM) capacity and individual differences in the development of L2 grammatical pro" ciency in an immersion setting. Adult Chinese speakers of English were tested over a ten-month period for acquisition of English question forms using timed oral and written tasks, and a battery of WM tasks. Signi" cant differences were found between individuals’ linguistic development, and between task mode (oral vs. written), and question type (subject vs. object). Positive (though non-signi" cant) correlations were found between linguistic and WM scores, supporting the claim (Miyake & Friedman, 1998) that WM plays a role in L2 development.
Performance enhancement of dental composites using electrospun nanofibers

The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of electrospun nanofiber reinforcement on the properties of commercially available, hyperbranched polymer modified (Hybrane, 0.3 wt.% DSM) dental formulations. The emergence of functionalized nanoscale reinforcements having large surface area (hundreds of square meters/gram) has enabled the design of novel nanocomposites with new and complex structures leading to enhanced mechanical and physical properties. Electrospun nanofibers from a range of polymer chemistries (PVOH, PLLA, Nylon 6) have been investigated as a reinforcing phase at levels between 0.01 and 0.3 wt. %, with and without a silane coupling agent surface treatment. The experimental results indicate that 0.05 wt. % reinforcement with 250 nm diameter PVOH nanofibers leads to a 30% improvement in compressive strength, coupled with a shrinkage reduction of about 50%. Electrospun fiber reinforcement by other chemistries or at other diameters showed either no property improvement or led to property loss.