Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sensitivity of a general circulation model to global changes in leaf area index

Methods have recently become available for estimating the amount of leaf area at the surface of the Earth using satellite data. Also available are modeled estimates of what global leaf area patterns would look like should the vegetation be in equilibrium with current local climatic and soil conditions. The differences between the actual vegetation distribution and the potential vegetation distribution may reflect the impact of human activity on the Earth's surface. To examine model sensitivity to changes in leaf area index (LAI), global distributions of maximum LAI were used as surface boundary conditions in the National Center for Atmospheric Research community climate model (NCAR CCM2) coupled with the biosphere atmosphere transfer scheme (BATS). Results from 10-year ensemble averages for the months of January and July indicate that the largest effects of the decreased LAI in the actual LAI simulation occur in the northern hemisphere winter at high latitudes despite the fact that direct LAI forcing is negligible in these regions at this time of year. This is possibly a result of LAI forcing in the tropics which has long-ranging effects in the winter of both hemispheres. An assessment of the Asian monsoon region for the month of July shows decreased latent heat flux from the surface, increased surface temperature, and decreased precipitation with the actual LAI distribution. While the statistical significance of the results has not been unambiguously established in these simulations, we suspect that an effect on modeled general circulation dynamics has occurred due to changes of maximum LAI suggesting that further attention needs to be paid to the accurate designation of vegetation parameters. The incorporation of concomitant changes in albedo, vegetation fractional coverage, and roughness length is suggested for further research.
Walk Rally Application for Revitalizing Shopping Areas

We investigated whether shoutengai, old shopping districts in Japan, can be revitalized by solving the disparity problem in the number of customers among shoutengai according to their location and by solving the problem of inequality in popularity among the stores in a shoutengai. We developed the "store appeal value", which is unique index of showing the attractiveness of a store and developed a walk rally application based on incentives based on the store appeal value. We investigated whether shoutengai can be revitalized by using our walk rally application. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed application, we conducted a demonstration experiment involving three shoutengai in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. By analyzing the behavior logs obtained from the experiment, we clarified that our store appeal value is appropriate. We were also able to show that it is possible to revitalize shoutengai by using our walk rally application, that is, to distribute customers among shoutengai and among stores in a shoutengai.
Auditing, Measuring, and Bringing Transparency to Social Media Advertising Ecosystems. (Audit, mesure et transparence des écosystèmes de publicité sur les réseaux sociaux)

Social media advertising has been subject to many privacy complaints. It is largely unknown who advertises on social media, what data the platforms have about users, and why users are being shown particular ads. As a response, platforms like Facebook introduce transparency mechanisms where users receive explanations about why they received an ad, and what data has Facebook inferred about them. The aim of this thesis is to increase transparency in social media advertising. We build a browser extension, AdAnalyst, which collects the ads that users see in Facebook and the explanations that it provides to them, and in return we provide them with aggregated statistics about the ads they receive. By using AdAnalyst, and by conducting experiments where we target the users we monitor with ads, we find that Facebook's explanations are incomplete, misleading and vague. Additionally, we look at who is advertising on Facebook and how are they targeting users. We identify a wide range of advertisers, where some of them are part of potentially sensitive categories, like politics or health. We also find that advertisers employ targeting strategies that can be invasive, or opaque. Finally, we develop a collaborative method that allows us to infer why a user has been targeted with ads on Facebook, by looking at the characteristics of users that received the same ad.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Filling the gaps : Using count survey data to predict bird density distribution patterns and estimate population sizes

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Ergothioneine accumulation in a medicinal plant Gastrodia elata.

Ergothioneine (ERG) has long been recognized as a potent and stable antioxidant. In nature, ERG is synthesized only in fungi and mycobacteria, not in plants. The lifecycle of Gastrodia elata, an achlorophyllous orchid plant, is completely dependent on the presence of symbiotic fungi, particularly Armillaria mellea. In this study, we report for the first time that G. elata accumulated ERG whose levels were correlated with the concentrations of ERG in A. mellea. The contents of ERG in G. elata were significantly higher in actively developing tissues, such as seed capsules and newly growing corms, than in mature rhizomes. The ERG levels in rhizomes were significantly correlated with antioxidant capacities and were quantitatively comparable to the previously established major pharmacological components in G. elata. These results indicated that ERG is a newly found functional substance in G. elata, which may be responsible for the beneficial health effects of G. elata on various human diseases. Key words: Gastrodia elata, Armillaria mellea, ergothioneine, antioxidant.
Biofuel from Microalgae – A Review on the Current Status and Future Trends

The constant reliance on fossil fuel energy resources is unsustainable, due to both depleting world reserves and increasing green house gas emissions associated with their use and thus there are dynamic research at the global level envisioned at developing alternative renewable and potentially carbon neutral solid, liquid and gaseous biofuels as alternative energy resources. The contemporary knowledge and technology predictions have proved that among the third generation biofuels especially those derived from microalgae are considered the best reasonable alternative energy resource compared to undeniable drawbacks of first and second generation biofuels. Moreover, its efficiency to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and industrial gases which can efficiently utilize the nutrients present in wastewater and industrial effluents. Therefore, culturing algae provide several benefits such as providing biomass for the production of biofuels to sequester the atmospheric carbon, removing the nutrients from the wastewater and is not competing with agricultural land, water resources and food crops. This study reviewed the technologies underneath the microalgae-to-biofuels processes, focusing on the biomass production, harvesting, conversion technologies, and the lipid extraction methods. The genetics and molecular biotechnology aspects have also been briefly discussed. Though the economical assessment of algal biofuels is not attractive, it suggests them to be environmentally better than the fossil fuels.
The Ethics of Teaching for Social Justice: A Framework for Exploring the Intellectual and Moral Virtues of Social Justice Educators.

Pursuing social justice in education raises ethical questions about teaching practice that have not been fully addressed in the social justice literature. Hytten (2015) initiated a valuable way forward in developing an ethics of social justice educators, drawing on virtue ethics. In this paper, I provide additional support to this effort by arguing that a virtue approach to ethics of teaching is in fact compatible with responsiveness to social context in teaching. I then propose a refined framework for considering the virtues of teachers, one which asks us to identify virtues relevant to teaching within the broad categories of intellectual and moral virtue. For any potential virtue of social justice educators, we should then consider (a) its characteristic psychology, (b) its relationship to the aim of social justice, and (c) both the internal and external conditions for its success. I use this framework to elaborate one particular intellectual virtue in teaching for social justice, openmindedness. This article is a response to: Hytten, K. (2015). Ethics in teaching for democracy and social justice. Democracy & Education 23(2), Article 1. Available online at http://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol23/iss2/1 Education for social justice has a long history in the United States and has gained prominence as a primary aim of schooling. Our teachers are tasked with promoting social justice in their classrooms. Pursuing this educational aim raises ethical questions about teaching practice, questions that have not been fully addressed in the social justice literature. In her article “Ethics in Teaching for Democracy and Social Justice,” Hytten (2015) suggested drawing on work in ethics of teaching as a resource for social justice teachers. By bridging these two literatures, she suggested a productive way forward in developing an “ethics of activist teaching” (p. 2). Educators for social justice must balance their aim of promoting social justice and their responsibility not to indoctrinate students. Hytten (2015) proposed consideration of the ethics of teaching— with particular attention to virtue ethics in philosophy of education— as a tool for striking this balance. Drawing on Sockett’s (2009) work conceptualizing teacher dispositions as virtues, Hytten suggested dividing virtues of teachers into three categories and discussed one example in each category: reflective humility in the category of character, openmindedness in the category of intellect, and sympathetic attentiveness in the category of care. However, Hytten hedged on the value of virtue ethics, pointing to “the universal language of virtues” that does not give adequate attention to context (p. 6). She proposed considering virtues as a way to prompt reflection but stopped short of Rebecca M. Taylor is a lecturer in the Graduate College of Education at San Francisco State University. Her research investigates ethics in educational policy and practice. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
A utilization based genetic algorithm for virtual machine placement in cloud computing systems

A UTILIZATION BASED GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR VIRTUAL MACHINE PLACEMENT IN CLOUD COMPUTING SYSTEMS Mustafa Can Çavdar M.S. in Computer Engineering Advisors: Özgür Ulusoy and İbrahim Körpeoğlu September 2016 Due to increasing demand for cloud computing and related services, cloud providers need to come up with methods and mechanisms that increase performance, availability and reliability of datacenters and cloud computing systems. Server virtualization is a key component to achieve this, which enables sharing of resources of a physical machine among multiple virtual machines in a totally isolated manner. Optimizing virtualization has a very significant effect on the overall performance of cloud computing systems. This requires efficient and effective placement of virtual machines into physical machines. Since this is an optimization problem that involves multiple constraints and objectives, we propose a method based on genetic algorithms to place virtual machines. By considering utilization of machines and node distances, our method aims at reducing resource waste, network load, and energy consumption at the same time. We compared our method with several other methods in terms of utilization achieved, networking bandwidth consumed, and energy costs incurred, using the publicly available CloudSim simulation platform. The results show that our approach provides improved performance compared to other similar approaches.
Confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy of single biological cells using optical trapping and shifted excitation difference techniques

We report on the study of single biological cells with a confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy system that uses optical trapping and shifted excitation Raman difference technique. A tunable diode laser was used to capture a living cell in solution, confine it in the confocal excitation volume, and then excite the Raman scattering. The optical trapping allows us to lift the cell well off the cover plate so that the fluorescence interference from the plate can be effectively reduced. In order to further remove the interference of the fluorescence and stray light from the trapped cell, we employed a shifted excitation Raman difference technique with slightly tuned laser frequencies. With this system, high-quality Raman spectra were obtained from single optically trapped biological cells including E. coli bacteria, yeast cells, and red blood cells. A significant difference between control and heat-treated E. coli B cells was observed due to the denaturation of biomolecules.
(Lecirelin) with the dopaminergic inhibitor metoclopramide to stimulate ovulation in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

The results of reproduction were tested in females of the African catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell 1822) a�er stimulation of ovulation with carp pituitary (4 mg/kg body weight) or with Lecirelin (15 μg/kg) and metoclopramide (10 mg/kg). A�er administering the synthetic substance eggs were obtained from all females while in the group treated with pituitary homogenate 7 out of 8 hypophysed females spawned. The applied spawning agent did not significantly influence the weight of eggs expressed in grams, but in the case of females treated with carp pituitary homogenate a significantly higher weight of eggs expressed as the percentage of body weight of fish was recorded. The applied stimulators of ovulation did not affect any trait reflecting the quality of eggs. Females used as an experimental material belonged to two categories in respect of body weight: lighter females with average body weight of 2.63 ± 0.36 kg and heavier females with average body weight of 3.91 ± 0.48 kg. It was proved that the weight of eggs expressed either in grams or as a percentage of a female’s weight was significantly related to the body weight of a female (P ≤ 0.01 and P ≤ 0.05, respectively), as well as the percentage of fertilised eggs and the percentage of living embryos a�er 28 hours of incubation (P ≤ 0.05 and P ≤ 0.05, respectively). The interaction between the stimulator of ovulation and the female body weight was significant only for traits reflecting the weight of obtained eggs (P ≤ 0.05 and P ≤ 0.01).
The Synthesis and Stability Study of Silver Nanoparticles Prepared by Using p -Aminobenzoic Acid as Reducing and Stabilizing Agent

A study to examine the performance of p-aminobenzoic acid as both reducing agent for silver nitrate to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and stabilizing agent for the formed AgNPs has been done. The synthesis of AgNPs was performed by mixing silver nitrate solution as precursor with p-aminobenzoic acid solution and heating it in a boiling water bath. After the solution turned to yellow, the reaction stopped by cooling it in tap water. The formed AgNPs were analyzed by using UV-Vis spectrophotometry to evaluate their SPR absorption in wavelength range of 400–500 nm. The synthesis process was highly depend on the pH, reaction time, and mole ratios of the reactants. The synthesis only occur in pH 11 and at reaction time 30 min, the particle size of the formed AgNPs was 12 ± 7 nm. Longer reaction time increased the reducing performance of p-aminobenzoic acid in AgNPs synthesis but decreased its stabilizing performance. The increase of silver nitrate amount relative to p-aminobenzoic acid in the synthesis increased the reducing and stabilizing performance of p-aminobenzoic acid and the optimum mole ratio between AgNO 3 and p-aminobenzoic acid was 5:100 (AgNO 3 to p-aminobenzoic acid).
An efficient constraint programming model for cooperative flight departures

Nowadays, air transportation is considered the fastest way to transport people and goods within the shortest time over long distances. Due to growing air traffic trends, the development of advanced Decision Support Tools (DSTs), based on technological advances in communications and navigation in Air Traffic Management (ATM), is important to guarantee sustainable transport logistics to balance airspace capacity with user demands. In this paper, the tuning of Calculated-Take-Off Times (CTOTs) as a tool for mitigating the propagation of perturbations between trajectories in dense sectors is analysed. The proposed methodology uses a powerful tool for predicting potential spatio-temporal concurrence events between trajectories over the European airspace that are removed by considering bounded time stamp adjustments on strategic agreed points of the aircraft trajectory. The proposed approach is based on a robust Constraint Programming model aimed to determine the feasible time stamp agreements considering the Trajectory Based Operation (TBO) interdependencies.
The Power of the Presidency in EU Council Decision-making

Research on the presidency of the EU shows mixed results. Although most scholars agree that the EU presidency is not able to advance its domestic interests in the European forum, Tallberg (2006) provides evidence for presidency effects. In the present paper, we empirically estimate presidency-based power in the Council of the European Union on the DEU data — a large-scale data set containing EU policy issues from various policy areas. We show that holding the presidency does significantly and positively contribute to the bargaining power of member states, but only in the final stages of decision-making.
Synthesis, Characterization and Electrical Properties of Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles from Utilization of Biowaste Eggshells

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 9004, Kingdom of Arabia Saudi Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universityof Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain Department of Chemistry, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ, UK Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Jeddah 21569, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Jeddah 21569, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Electronic, Communication & Photonics Research Program Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ReSEAT Program, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, 66 Hoegiro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-741, Korea Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Dongguk University, 3Ga-26, Phil-dong, Chung-gu, Seoul 100-715, Korea Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt (Received March 7, 2011/Acccepted May 4, 2011)
HOMOCASTASTERONE: A NOVEL PLANT KETOSTEROID INDUCING HAEMATOLOGICAL CHANGES IN NORMAL AND DIABETIC MALE RAT

Objective: To study the effect of brassinosteroid keto isoform homocastasterone, in diabetic male wistar rat as an antihyperglycemic factor and to evaluate its effects on the hemodynamic parameters in rat blood. Methods: Diabetes was induced in a group (n=6) of rats with a single peritoneal injection of streptozotocin at 60 mg/kg. bw. With a treatment schedule of 15 consecutive days, control (n=6) and diabetic rats received 666µg/kg bw, of homocastasterone. Circulating blood glucose, cell count, cell indices, and MDA level was assessed. Results: Significant reduction (p<0.05) in blood glucose level and increase inRBCs, WBCs, granulocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes and platelets count(p<0.05) along with improved functional indices for HCT, PCV, MCV, MCH, MCHC, MPV, PDW, PCT in homocastasterone treated diabetic group was noted. A significant reduction in RBC-MDA level (p<0.001) in the treated group was noted. Conclusion: It is suggested that brassinosteroid keto isoform homocastasterone exhibits antiglycemic effect in diabetic rat, and improves RBC, WBC, Platelet counts, haemoglobin level, and cell indices, while reducing peroxidative cell damage in RBCs.
BUNCH LENGTH MEASUREMENTS AT THE SLS LINAC USING ELECTRO OPTICAL SAMPLING

An electro optical sampling experiment has been carried out at the 100 MeV electron linac of the Swiss Light Source (SLS). Coherent transition radiation produced by the relativistic electron bunches was focused by parabolic mirrors onto an optically active ZnTe crystal. The induced birefringence was sampled with ultrashort titanium sapphire laser pulses. The laser repetition frequency of 81 MHz was phase-locked to the 500 MHz radio frequency of the linac with a relative timing jitter of less than 40 fs. The minimum measured bunch length amounts to 3.0 ps (FWHM) with an estimated resolution of 300 fs (rms).
University of Birmingham A two-stage, two-organism process for biohydrogen from glucose

H2 can potentially be produced in a two-stage biological process: the fermentation of glucose by Escherichia coli HD701 and the photofermentation of the residual medium by Rhodobacter sphaeroides O.U. 001. In a typical batch fermentation, E. coli consumed glucose and produced H2, organic end-products and biomass. Organic end-products and residual glucose were removed during subsequent photofermentation by R. sphaeroides , with associated growth and neutralization of pH. However, photoproduction of H2 did not occur during photofermentation of the residual liquor per se due to the presence of fixed nitrogen compounds. Nevertheless, this two-stage approach could be applied to dispose of sugar-containing industrial wastes, H2 being used for on-site power generation.
Using the Signature Quadratic Form Distance for Music Information Retrieval

This thesis is an investigation into how the signature quadratic form distance can be used to search in music. Using the method used for images by Beecks, Uysal and Seidl as a starting point, I create feature signatures from sound clips by clustering features from their frequency representations. I compare three different feature types, based on Fourier coefficients, mel frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCCs), and the chromatic scale. Two search applications are considered. First, an audio fingerprinting system, where a music file is located by a short recorded clip from the song. I run experiments to see how the system's parameters affect the search quality, and show that it achieves some robustness to noise in the queries, though less so that comparable state-of-the-art methods. Second, a query-by-humming system where humming or singing by one user is used to search in humming/singing by other users. Here none of the tested feature types achieve satisfactory search performance. I identify and discuss some possible limitations of the selected feature types for this task. I believe that this thesis serves to demonstrate the versatility of the feature clustering approach, and may serve as a starting point for further research.