Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of the riverbed morphology on the source of organic material and the trophic structure of fish community along the upper reaches of the Nevėžis River, Lithuania

Background. The catchment of the Nevėžis River, the sixth longest river in Lithuania, is among the most affected by agricultural activities. Although seriously disturbed by land reclamation and agricultural pollution, the Nevėžis River still has natural, anthropogenically unaffected stretches. Fish species were studied at two sites of the upper part of the river with different hydrological regime, exhibiting clear differences in the trophic status of fish. The combined effect of hydrogeomorphic and water-chemistry variability on the stable isotope composition of fish assemblages in Lithuania has not been investigated. The presently reported study was intended to explore the possible effects of the riverbed morphology and agricultural activities on the chemistry and stable isotope composition of the three main fish species. Materials and methods. This study covered three species of freshwater fishes: the European perch, Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758; the roach, Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus, 1758); and the northern pike, Esox lucius Linnaeus, 1758. The sampling was performed in both natural and regulated river stretches using backpack electrofishing equipment. Stable isotope composition of the samples was revealed by applying stable isotope analyses (SIA) with an elemental analyser connected to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. To obtain more information about environmental variability and variation of stable isotopes δ13C and δ15N in fish, the entire data matrix was analysed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Results. In the study sites on the Nevėžis River, algal carbon isotope ratios were more 13Cdepleted than those from terrestrial sources. The fishes were clearly dependent on terrestrial carbon sources in natural locations. However, the fishes collected from regulated sites had carbon isotope signatures more similar to algal than to terrestrial sources. Mean values of δ15N of the fishes from the natural sites were lower than those from the regulated ones. Conclusion. The presently reported study revealed impact of abiotic habitat variables indicating the importance of physicochemical and morphological characteristics on δ13C and δ15N isotopic values variance of fish at natural and regulated river sites. Our findings would help to evaluate and predict changes on river food webs that occur due to hydromorphological alterations determined by human activity and climate change. The results could be useful for fisheries, i.e., impact of environmental factors on fish nutrition and growth.
Micro-Hardness of PBT Influenced by Beta Radiation

Cross-linking is a process in which polymer chains are associated through chemical bonds. Radiation, which penetrated through specimens and reacted with the cross-linking agent, gradually formed cross-linking (3D net), first in the surface layer and then in the total volume, which resulted in considerable changes in specimen behaviour. This research paper deals with the utilization of electron beam irradiated PBT on the micro-indentation test. Radiation doses of 66, 132 and 198 kGy were used for unfilled PBT with the 5% crosslinking agent (triallyl isocyanurate). Individual radiation doses caused structural and micro-mechanical changes which have a significant effect on the final properties of the PBT tested. The highest values of micro-mechanical properties were reached radiation dose of 132 kGy, when the micro-mechanical values increased by about 30%.
Vertical Structures and Physical Properties of the Cold-Season Stratus Clouds Downstream of the Tibetan Plateau: Differences between Daytime and Nighttime

AbstractThis study compares the daytime–nighttime (DN) differences in the occurrence frequencies and macrophysical, microphysical, and radiative vertical structures of the single-layer stratus clouds downstream of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the boreal cold season (November–April) using four CloudSat products. The stratus cloudy profiles are selected and the midtopped stratus profiles are further classified into nimbostratus (NI) and altostratus (AS) according to the cloud-top height and column-integrated optical depth. It is found that the entire stratus and NI profiles tend to occur more frequently in the daytime, while the AS cloud occurs more frequently in the nighttime. Consistent with the DN differences in the occurrence frequencies, the AS tends to be much thicker with larger cloud fraction in the nighttime, while the NI becomes slightly thicker with larger cloud fraction in the daytime. An analysis of the ambient dynamic and thermodynamic fields associated with stratus formation suggests that .
Gangue rejection responses for a variety of gold ores

Gangue rejection, resulting in an increased head grade at a higher net throughput (or, smaller plant footprint), and the creation of dual products, eg high grade and low grade, for alternative processing streams are two treatment options being investigated to turn otherwise uneconomic ores into reserves. Eleven gold ores have now been assessed for their potential for rejection of gangue by gravity separation using the gangue rejection amenability test (GRAT). The samples represent a variety of gold ore types, from several continents and gold producers. Additionally, two ores have been processed using four different crushing modes to characterise the influence of crush-type on liberation. The resulting GRAT database can be used for benchmarking and to determine the optimal gold loss vs mass rejected response for each ore given the influence of elemental deportment as a function of size and density based separation.
Security with Privacy-A Research Agenda ( Invited Paper )

Data is one of the most valuable assets for organization. It can facilitate users or organizations to meet their diverse goals, ranging from scientific advances to business intelligence. Due to the tremendous growth of data, the notion of big data has certainly gained momentum in recent years. Cloud computing is a key technology for storing, managing and analyzing big data. However, such large, complex, and growing data, typically collected from various data sources, such as sensors and social media, can often contain personally identifiable information (PII) and thus the organizations collecting the big data may want to protect their outsourced data from the cloud. In this paper, we survey our research towards development of efficient and effec tive privacy-enhancing (PE) techniques for management and analysis of big data in cloud computing. We propose our initial approaches to address two important PE applications: (i) privacy-preserving data management and (ii) privacy-preserving data analysis under the cloud environment. Additionally, we point out research issues that still need to be addressed to develop comprehensive solution s to the problem of effective and efficient privacy-preserving us e of data.
Urban influence and population change in New Zealand

While the New Zealand population overall continues to grow, a large proportion of towns and communities in rural or peripheral areas exhibit near-certain stagnation (Cameron infra) or decline in their populations (Jackson & Brabyn infra). urban and rural areas within a coreperiphery framework. In particular, approaches inspired by the trade theories of Nobel Prize winner Gunnar Myrdal (1963) have gained wide popularity (Veneri & Ruiz 2016: 7-9). Myrdal differentiates between spread effects, the positive effects on peripheral localities, when they share in the growth and wealth of a primary-growth centre, and backwash effects, the negative effects on the periphery arising from interaction with the growth centre. In terms of regional spatial processes Henry et al (1997) define spread-backwash effects as:
Start-Up Current Spike Mitigation of High-Power Laser Diode Driving Controller for Vehicle Headlamp Applications

A high-power laser diode driving controller (HPLDDC), which incorporates the power converter with the feedback controller, was developed and implemented in this paper. The synchronous buck–boost converter (SBBC) was the topology of the power converter; the SBBC could be operated in step-up or step-down mode in accordance with variable on-board battery voltage inputs into the HPLDDC. Moreover, the feedback controllers were equipped with a current-loop controller (CLC) and a voltage-loop controller (VLC); the VLC was employed to regulate the SBBC output voltage to drive and start-up the high-power laser diode (HPLD). The CLC was used to regulate the SBBC output current to supply a constant-current driving the HPLDs. During the start-up transient phase, when the SBBC output mode is changed from the constant-voltage to the constant-current, a start-up current spike occurs that can destroy the semiconductor material of the laser diode. However, few studies have discussed methods of coping with this problem. Therefore, this study proposed a proportional-integral associating proportional (PIAP) control technology, which can be applied to the CLC for the start-up current spike mitigation. Complete designs and analyses are presented in this paper. Simulations and experiments validate that the PIAP control method is effectual to solve the start-up current spike.
CORRELATING BENDER ELEMENT AND ELECTROMAGNETIC MEASUREMENTS TO EVALUATE CLAY'S STIFFNESS

Soil's stiffness is usually measured in the laboratory in an indirect manner, such as by derivation from the gradient of a stress-strain plot. It requires numerous tests and may be compounded by errors from the original measurement itself. As such, the bender element test has become rather popular among researchers for determining the small strain moduli of soils with minimal / temporal disturbance to the specimens. This paper examines the possibility of relating the bender element data with the dielectric constant obtained from the same soil specimen using an electromagnetic test setup. As both tests are non- destructive, they can be easily repeated on the same specimen over a period of time without the necessity of duplicate specimens. A clay sample was used in the present study, with varying water content corresponding to different 1-dimensional compression stresses. It was generally found that the resulting stiffness change was detectable from both the shear wave velocity (vs) obtained from the bender element tests, as well as the dielectric constant (e) of the electromagnetic measurements, with fairly good correspondence between the two. These results shed light on the possibility of relating relevant geotechnical parameters with both the measurements for establishing a unique set of signatures for stiffness monitoring and determination in soils.
Analytical results for the distribution of shortest path lengths in random networks

We present two complementary analytical approaches for calculating the distribution of shortest path lengths in Erdős-Rényi networks, based on recursion equations for the shells around a reference node and for the paths originating from it. The results are in agreement with numerical simulations for a broad range of network sizes and connectivities. The average and standard deviation of the distribution are also obtained. In the case in which the mean degree scales as with the network size, the distribution becomes extremely narrow in the asymptotic limit, namely almost all pairs of nodes are equidistant, at distance from each other. The distribution of shortest path lengths between nodes of degree m and the rest of the network is calculated. Its average is shown to be a monotonically decreasing function of m, providing an interesting relation between a local property and a global property of the network. The methodology presented here can be applied to more general classes of networks.
Synthesis of dihydrofurans using biosynthesized CuO nanoparticles

The preparation of trans-dihydrofurans has been achieved by a one-pot condensation reaction of 4-bromophenacyl bromide, aromatic aldehydes and 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione using biosynthesized CuO nanoparticles under reflux conditions in ethanol. CuO nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were prepared using extract of leaves of Ajuga chamaecistus Subsp. Scoparia. The key advantages of this process are the diastereoselective synthesis, reusability of the catalyst, low catalyst loading, excellent yields, short reaction times, simple workup and environmentally benign. Fully optimized structures of trans and cis dihydrofurans were obtained by B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) method. The structures of the prepared trans-2,3-dihydrofurans were fully characterized by 1H and 13C NMR spectra, IR spectra, and elemental analysis.
WHAT CHANGES IN FACE PROCESSING WITH FACE INVERSION AND WITH SHORT PRESENTATION DURATIONS

Inverting faces has been assumed to disrupt holistic/configural face processing. On the other hand, holistic processing is believed to happen at a glance. This later belief concurs with the notion of a holistic-to-analytic transition at successive stages of processing. In a series of studies with synthetic emotional faces, arising from the combination of facial ‘action units’ (AUs) taken as factors, the effects of upright versus inverted versus shortened presentation durations (300 ms), was investigated. Short presentations had similar effects to face inversion, resulting in the weakening, often the nullification, of the effects of one or more AUs, together with the enhanced functioning of another, single AU. The joint functioning of all AUs thus appears to require time, rather than resting on a swift holistic operation. An interpretation of inversion effects in terms of increased difficulty is suggested in view of their found similarity to the effects of tachistoscopic presentations.
Assembly of a cytosolic pine glutamine synthetase holoenzyme in leaves of transgenic poplar leads to enhanced vegetative growth in young plants

Over-expression of glutamine synthetase (GS, EC 6.3.1.2), a key enzyme in nitrogen assimilation, may be a reasonable approach to enhance plant nitrogen use efficiency. In this work phenotypic and biochemical characterizations of young transgenic poplars showing ectopic expression of a pine cytosolic GS transgene in photosynthetic tissue (Gallardo et al ., Planta 210, 19‐26, 1999) are presented. Analysis of 22 independent transgenic lines in a 6 month greenhouse study indicated that expression of the pine GS transgene affects early vegetative growth and leaf morphology. In comparison with non-transgenic controls, transgenic trees exhibited significantly greater numbers of nodes and leaves (12%), and higher average leaf length and width resulting in an increase in leaf area (25%). Leaf shape was not altered. Transgenic poplars also exhibited increased GS activity (66%), chlorophyll content (33%) and protein content (21%). Plant height was correlated with GS content in young leaves, suggesting that GS can be considered a marker for vegetative growth. Molecular and kinetic characterization of GS isoforms in leaves indicated that poplar GS isoforms are similar to their counterparts in herbaceous plants. A new GS isoenzyme that displayed molecular and kinetic characteristics corresponding to the octomeric pine cytosolic GS1 was identified in the photosynthetic tissues of transgenic poplar leaves. These results indicate that enhanced growth and alterations in biochemistry during early growth are the consequence of transgene expression and assembly of pine GS1 subunits into a new functional holoenzyme in the cytosol of photosynthetic cells.
Reconstructing ice–age climates: quantifying low-CO2 effects on plants

We present a novel method to quantify the ecophysiological eﬀects of changes in CO 2 concentration during the reconstruction of climate changes from fossil pollen assemblages. The method does not depend on any particular vegetation model. Instead, it makes use of general equations from ecophysiology and hydrology that link moisture index (MI) to transpiration and the ratio of leaf-internal to ambient CO 2 ( χ ). Statistically reconstructed MI values are corrected post facto for eﬀects of CO 2 concentration. The correction is based on the principle that e , the rate of water loss per unit carbon gain, should be inversely related to eﬀective moisture availability as sensed by plants. The method involves solving a non-linear equation that relates e to MI, temperature and CO 2 concentration via the Fu-Zhang relation between evapotranspiration and MI, Monteith’s empirical relationship between vapour pressure deﬁcit and evapotranspiration, and recently developed theory that predicts the response of χ to vapour pressure deﬁcit and temperature. The solution to this equation provides a correction term for MI. The numerical value of the correction depends on the reconstructed MI. It is slightly sensitive to temperature, but primarily sensitive to CO 2 concentration. Under low LGM CO 2 concentration the correction is always positive, implying that LGM climate was wetter than it would seem from vegetation composition. A statistical reconstruction of last glacial maximum (LGM, 21 ± 1kyr BP) palaeoclimates, based on a new compilation of modern and LGM pollen assemblage data from Australia, is used to illustrate the method in practice. Applying the correction brings pollen-reconstructed LGM moisture availability in southeastern Australia better into line with palaeohydrological estimates of LGM climate.
Incentives for Schools, Educational Signals and Labour Market Outcomes

Central exams have been discussed as an incentive to improve educational outcomes. In our paper we study the impact of central exams on labor market outcomes. We explain the quality choice of schools under central and non-central exams and model the resulting students' schooling decisions and employers' wage decisions. We use the German Abitur and the variation among the German federal states with respect to central exams as a quasi experimental design. We expect the ratio of Abitur holders to increase in states without central exams and their wage premiums to decrease at the same time. In states with central exams these effects should not occur. We test our implications with official statistics on education and with the GSOEP. The first two implications are born out in the data. Finally, explanations and policy recommendations are discussed.
Location choice of Spanish multinational firms in developing and transition economies

AbstractIn this paper, we use firm-level data to investigate how different host country characteristics affect the decision of Spanish multinational firms to locate in developing and transition countries, and whether these determinants change when looking at manufacturing or services firms. As a methodological novelty, we estimate both standard conditional logit models as well as other discrete choice models that allow us to account for the possibility that firms perceive some alternative destinations as being more similar (nested and mixed logit models). A better understanding of the relevance of local factors that determine the competitiveness of these economies in providing multinational firms with location advantages can guide policymakers in their attempt to attract foreign capital flows. This, however, has not been previously addressed by the empirical literature at a firm level and across sectors. Our results suggest that Spanish investments in developing and transition economies are mainly driven .
Δ I = 1 / 2 rule for kaon decays derived from QCD infrared fixed point

This article gives details of our proposal to replace ordinary chiral SU(3)L×SU(3)R perturbation theory χPT3 by three-flavor chiral-scale perturbation theory χPTσ. In χPTσ, amplitudes are expanded at low energies and small u,d,s quark masses about an infrared fixed point αIR of three-flavor QCD. At αIR, the quark condensate ⟨q¯q⟩vac≠0 induces nine Nambu-Goldstone bosons: π,K,η, and a 0++ QCD dilaton σ. Physically, σ appears as the f0(500) resonance, a pole at a complex mass with real part ≲ mK. The ΔI=1/2 rule for nonleptonic K decays is then a consequence of χPTσ, with a KSσ coupling fixed by data for γγ→ππ and KS→γγ. We estimate RIR≈5 for the nonperturbative Drell-Yan ratio R=σ(e+e−→hadrons)/σ(e+e−→μ+μ−) at αIR and show that, in the many-color limit, σ/f0 becomes a narrow qq¯ state with planar-gluon corrections. Rules for the order of terms in χPTσ loop expansions are derived in Appendix A and extended in Appendix B to include inverse-power Li-Pagels singularities due to external operators. This relates to an observation that, for γγ channels, partial conservation of the dilatation current is not equivalent to σ-pole dominance.
Mutations in Escherichiu coZi that Relieve Catabolite Repression of Tryptophanase Synthesis . Mutations Distant from the Tryptophanase Gene

Two mutants are described in which the synthesis of tryptophanase is unusually insensitive to catabolite repression. Neither mutation is linked by transduction to the tryptophanase structural gene, neither mutation renders the synthesis of p-galactosidase insensitive to catabolite repression, and the mutations do not permit tryptophanase to be synthesized in strains deficient in adenyl cyclase. During growth in glucose-minimal medium the mutants maintained a similar intracellular concentration of cyclic AMP to their wild-type parent; but since in the wild type the concentration of cyclic AMP was the same in glycerolminimal medium as in glucose-minimal medium, it is doubtful whether catabolite repression is mediated by measurable changes in the concentration of this nucleotide.
Polymorphism analysis of three Chinese indigenous sheep breeds by microsatellite markers

In this study, six microsatellite markers were adopted to detect the genetic diversity and analyze the genetic distance of three Chinese indigenous sheep breeds. The results showed that 161 alleles were detected in the three breeds of sheep populations, and the average effective number of alleles, the average polymorphism information content (PIC) of six microsatellite markers in fat-tailed sheep, small tailed han-sheep, Yuxi fat-tailed sheep were 5.8844, 6.3103, 4.8017 and 0.7463, 0.7790, 0.7140 respectively. Five markers were highly polymorphic except marker ILSTS011 which gave moderate polymorphic. Except markers OarFCB48, OarFCB304 and BL1038, the other three microsatellite markers deviated significantly from the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (P<0.01) in the three breeds of sheep populations. The genetic differentiation coefficient of each locus ranged from 0.0059 to 0.1159, with an average of 0.0482, indicating a 4.82% gene variation among different populations. So the degree of differentiation among populations was low. The small tailed han-sheep and fat-tailed sheep with minimum genetic distance (0.2163) were first clustered as a group, then they clustered with Yuxi fat-tailed sheep.
Structural Role of Hydrophobic Core in Proteins-Selected Examples

This paper discusses the sequence/structure relation. The core question concerns the degree to which similar sequences produce similar structures and vice versa. A mechanism by which similar sequences may result in dissimilar structures is proposed, based on the Fuzzy Oil Drop (FOD) model in which structural similarity is estimated by analyzing the protein’s hydrophobic core. We show that local changes in amino acid sequences, in addition to producing local structural alterations at the substitution site, may also change the shape of the hydrophobic core, significantly affecting the overall tertiary conformation of the protein. Our analysis focuses on four sets of proteins: 1) Pair of designer proteins with specially prepared sequences; 2) Pair of natural proteins modified (mutated) to converge to a point of high-level sequence identity while retaining their respective wild-type tertiary folds; 3) Pair of natural proteins with common ancestry but with differing structures and biological profiles shaped by divergent evolution; and 4) Pair of natural proteins of high structural similarity with no sequence similarity and different biological function.