Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Model simulations of global change in the ionosphere

Observations of secular trends in the E and F1 regions of the ionosphere indicate that electron densities have increased, and that the height of the E‐region peak has decreased, during the past several decades. Detection of trends in the upper ionosphere through analysis of F2‐layer parameters has been more complex and controversial. In order to facilitate observational detection of long‐term trends in the ionosphere, simulations were performed using a single‐column upper atmosphere model. CO2 concentrations for the year 2000 and projected for the year 2100 were used to investigate changes of electron densities and the altitudes of ionospheric layers. Results show that increased CO2 concentration increases electron density in the lower regions of the ionosphere, but decreases electron density in the upper ionosphere. The transition altitude occurs slightly below the F2 peak altitude (hmF2). The proximity of hmF2 to the transition altitude may explain why different analyses of long‐term trends in F2 peak density have shown both positive and negative trends. The altitudes of the E, F1 and F2 regions all decrease with increased CO2 concentration.
Public Opinion Mining for Governmental Decisions

eGovernment refers to the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to improve the quality of services and information offered to citizens, to make government more accountable to citizens and ad- vance public sector transparency. As already pointed out by other researchers, one of the most important issues for making eGovernment effective is to enable citizens to participate in the decision-making process. Nowadays, topics related to governmental decisions are among the most widely discussed ones within digital societies. This is not only because web 2.0 has empowered people with the ability to communicate remotely but also because governments all around the globe publish a great volume of their decisions and regulations online. In this paper, we propose the exploration of text and data mining techniques towards capturing the public"s opinion communi- cated online and concerning governmental decisions. The objective of our study is twofold and focuses on under- standing the citizen opinions about eGovernment issues and on the exploitation of these opinions in subsequent governmental actions. We examine several features in the user-generated content discussing governmental de- cisions in an attempt to automatically extract the citizen opinions from online posts dealing with public sector regulations and thereafter be able to organize the extracted opinions into polarized clusters. Our goal is to be able to automatically identify the public"s stance against governmental decisions and thus be able to infer how the citizens" viewpoints may affect subsequent government actions. To demonstrate the usability and added value of our proposed approach we have designed an interactive eGovernment infrastructure, the architecture of which we will present and discuss in our paper. Moreover, we will elaborate on the system details, its adaptation capac- ity and we will discuss its usage benefits for both citizens and public sector bodies. In this paper, we try to fill this void by proposing a novel eGovernment mechanism that captures the societal impact of public sector regulations in an attempt to decipher the public"s stance towards gov- ernmental decisions. In particular, we propose the exploitation of data mining techniques towards firstly capturing the public"s opinions (communicated online) about governmental decisions and sec- ondly analysing the polarity of the mined opinions so that they are considered in subsequent govern- mental decisions. Specifically, we introduce a method for decomposing citizens" opinions and com- ments that are posted in online fora and blogs, in order to evaluate how governmental decisions are perceived by the public and thereafter how the public"s implicit feedback should be interpreted by governmental bodies in their subsequent actions. What motivates our study is that up-to-date gov-
Impact of biorational pesticides and response of annexin gene expression in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and capsicum (Capsicum annum L.) in biotic stress management under greenhouse condition

Protected cultivation of high value cash crops such as capsicum and tomato is gaining momentum in recent times. Among various diseases and pests; bacterial wilt, thrips and root knot nematodes are recurrent threats to its production. Biorational pesticides such as agricultural spray oil and azadirachtin are more acceptable than conventional insecticides as they are known to be sufficiently active against pest populations and are relatively safer to beneficial organisms. The experiment was conducted on relative efficacy of agricultural spray oil, azadirachtin and combination of both (1%) for the management of these three different types of biotic stresses on tomato and capsicum under protected cultivation. Results revealed that in all the tested insecticides, the integrated treatments were most effective in comparison to the individual interventions. To investigate common signaling mechanism of response towards these stressors, we carried out RNA expression analysis of an annexin gene. Annexins belong to a family of membrane and calcium (Ca2+) binding proteins which can characteristically bind membrane phospholipids in a reversible, Ca2+-dependent and independent manner. Here we report that the expression of annexin is induced in response to three biotic stress treatments of the crops viz bacterial wilt, thrip infestation and root knot nematode infection. Results show potential evidence that modulation of a single signaling protein can be useful in management of three different and common biotic stressors in tomato and capsicum.
Development of a Soy-Based Synbiotic Beverage

Nowadays consumers seek foods that not only provide basic nutrition but also contain compounds that contribute to health. Thus, different products have been designed to meet this demand, especially those with probiotic and prebiotic characteristics. This study aimed to evaluate different formulations of a soy-based synbiotic beverage. The composition and process conditions were defined using a Placket & Burman factorial design in which the independent variables were process temperature, concentrations of the soy hydrosoluble extract and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and the initial concentration of the probiotics Bifidobaterium longum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. Paracasei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Changes to the product by addition of sucrose, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus were also studied. Response parameters were: pH, cell concentration (plate counting), and quantification of fructooligosaccharides, acetic acid and lactic acid. The specific growth rate (μx) and change in cell count (Δx) were determined in each formulation. The soybean hydrosoluble extract was considered a good substrate for beverage production; FOS had a greater effect at lower concentrations. At the end of all fermentation tests the total probiotic count was greater than 7 log CFU/mL, meeting the legal requirements of a functional food. Lower temperatures were better for the growth of probiotics. The addition of sucrose resulted in a lower consumption of FOS by the fermenting microorganisms, while the presence of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus represented little change concerning the evaluated characteristics. Therefore, according to the results of this study, the production of a soy-based symbiotic fermented beverage can be performed using soybean hydrosoluble extract at 10% (w/v), fructooligosaccharides at about 3% (w/v), sucrose at 12% (w/v), and the process temperature should be maintained at 35℃. Initial probiotic concentrations need not exceed 5 × 106 CFU/ml.
Ambiguities in gravitational lens models: the density field from the source position transformation

Strong gravitational lensing is regarded as the most precise technique to measure the mass in the inner region of galaxies or galaxy clusters. In particular, the mass within one Einstein radius can be determined with an accuracy of order of a few percent or better, depending on the image configuration. For other radii, however, degeneracies exist between galaxy density profiles, precluding an accurate determination of the enclosed mass. The source position transformation (SPT), which includes the well-known mass-sheet transformation (MST) as a special case, describes this degeneracy of the lensing observables in a more general way. In this paper we explore properties of an SPT, removing the MST to leading order, i.e., we consider degeneracies which have not been described before. The deflection field $\boldsymbol{\hat{\alpha}}(\boldsymbol{\theta})$ resulting from an SPT is not curl-free in general, and thus not a deflection that can be obtained from a lensing mass distribution. Starting from a variational principle, we construct lensing potentials that give rise to a deflection field $\boldsymbol{\tilde{\alpha}}$, which differs from $\boldsymbol{\hat{\alpha}}$ by less than an observationally motivated upper limit. The corresponding mass distributions from these 'valid' SPTs are studied: their radial profiles are modified relative to the original mass distribution in a significant and non-trivial way, and originally axi-symmetric mass distributions can obtain a finite ellipticity. These results indicate a significant effect of the SPT on quantitative analyses of lens systems. We show that the mass inside the Einstein radius of the original mass distribution is conserved by the SPT; hence, as is the case for the MST, the SPT does not affect the mass determination at the Einstein radius. [. ]
A Log-linear model of grain size influence on the geochemistry of sediments

Sediment composition is mainly controlled by the nature of the source rock(s), and chemical (weathering) and physical processes (mechanical crushing, abrasion, hydrodynamic sorting) during alteration and transport. Although the factors controlling these processes are conceptually well understood, detailed quantification of compositional changes induced by a single process are rare, as are examples where the effects of several processes can be distinguished. The present study was designed to characterize the role of mechanical crushing and sorting in the absence of chemical weathering. Twenty sediment samples were taken from Alpine glaciers that erode almost pure granitoid lithologies. For each sample, 11 grain-size fractions from granules to clay (φ grades <-1 to >9) were separated, and each fraction was analysed for its chemical composition. The presence of clear steps in the box-plots of all parts (in adequate ilr and clr scales) against φ is assumed to be explained by typical crystal size ranges for the relevant mineral phases. These scatter plots and the biplot suggest a splitting of the full grain size range into three groups: coarser than φ=4 (comparatively rich in SiO2, Na2O, K2O, Al2O3, and dominated by “felsic” minerals like quartz and feldspar), finer than φ=8 (comparatively rich in TiO2, MnO, MgO, Fe2O3, mostly related to “mafic” sheet silicates like biotite and chlorite), and intermediate grains sizes (4≤φ <8; comparatively rich in P2O5 and CaO, related to apatite, some feldspar). To further test the absence of chemical weathering, the observed compositions were regressed against three explanatory variables: a trend on grain size in φ scale, a step function for φ≥4, and another for φ≥8. The original hypothesis was that the trend could be identified with weathering effects, whereas each step function would highlight those minerals with biggest characteristic size at its lower end. Results suggest that this assumption is reasonable for the step function, but that besides weathering some other factors (different mechanical behavior of minerals) have also an important contribution to the trend.
An evolutionary game of leaf dynamics and its consequences for canopy structure

Summary Canopy photosynthesis models combined with optimization theory have been an important tool to understand environmental responses and interspecific variations in vegetation structure and functioning, but their predictions are often quantitatively incorrect. Although evolutionary game theory and the dynamic modelling of leaf turnover have been suggested useful to solve this problem, there is no model that combines these features. Here, we present such a model of leaf area dynamics that incorporates game theory. Leaf area index (LAI; leaf area per unit ground area) was predicted to increase with an increasing degree of interaction between genetically distinct neighbour plants in light interception. This implies that stands of clonal plants that consist of genetically identical daughter ramets have different LAI from other plants. LAI was also sensitive to the assumed vertical pattern of leaf shedding: LAI was predicted to increase with the degree to which leaves were assumed to be shed from higher positions in the canopy. Our model provides more realistic predictions of LAI than previous static optimization, dynamic optimization or static game theoretical models. We suggest that both leaf dynamics and game theoretical considerations of plant competition are indispensable to scale from individual leaf traits to the structure and functioning of vegetation stands, especially in herbaceous species.
A Quantitative Approach for Measuring Technological Forecasting Capability

Successful technological forecasting is important to invest scarce funds to emerging technologies. A generic model to measure the success of forecasting overall technological changes is introduced in this paper, called degree of Technological Forecasting Capability. It measures the success rate of forecasts in manufacturing processes based on four important aspects of a manufacturing system; Flow Time, Quantity/Day, Scrap Ratio, and New Investment Revenue. The proposed approach has been verified with a case study in manufacturing industry, where each of 4 facets have been calculated based on the data provided and aggregated into the degree of forecasting capability.
IT based capabilities in SMEs: technological, organizational and environmental influence

Information Systems (IS) provides to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) opportunities for supporting internal operations and their market relationships. Accordingly, this study investigated the industry influence on the patterns of IT use in SMEs. Specifically, using data from a survey on 402 Italian SMEs, we empirically examined the impact of technological, organizational and environmental characteristics on adoption decisions of IT and on the creation of IT capabilities. Specifically, using treatment effects models on a sample of 402 Italian SMEs, the paper shows that IT assimilation is related to the endowment of given managerial capabilities in SMEs and it does no longer depend on divides in the access to infrastructural resources. Moreover, IT planning capabilities positively affects the development of IT-based capabilities and results incisive in IT investments decisions. Finally, complexity in products and supply chain negatively affects the adoption of externally IT capabilities. The implications of these findings are discussed.
General-to-Specific Modelling vs. Congruent Modelling in PcGets

Different approaches to the starting specification of a dynamic econometric model can be observed. Some approaches refer to causal relationships, others to internal structure but with omitting the causality issue and other combine the properties of the two. The concepts of general to specific modelling by Hendry and congruent modelling by Zielinski belong to the latter approach with regard to model specification. Such an approach, i.e. using the economic theory to establish the causal structre and including some elements of process structure into the model, is not so new, because already at the beginning of the twenty century the examples of such studies could be found in the works of Jevons, Moore, Hooker, Pearson, Lange, to mention only the elimination of trend or seasonality components by
Effects of handling on animals welfare during transport

Transportation is a very complex event which compromises animal welfare and meat quality. Even though important research works have been reported related to animal transport and welfare, many questions are still remaining to be addressed, particularly on the effect of transport time, vibration and climatic conditions. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the effects of handling and transport on animals' welfare. The main methodologies employed comprehensive field measurement to collect data, observations, video filming for behavioural study and modeling. The thesis is structured into 3 papers. Paper I focuses on the modelling the dynamic performance of heart rate during loading for transport. Paper II and III are dealing with vibration and effect of transport on welfare of cattle and pigs' respectively. The model developed to describe the heart rate performances fits and successfully simulates the heart rate. The heart rate increased rapidly from resting value to peak value and then remains under stress, partially under stress or fully (100%) recovered. The speed, road conditions and standing orientations of animals had effect on level of vibrations. In all road types and speeds, standing orientation of animals facing in driving direction generally exposed to higher horizontal and lateral vibrations than animal facing perpendicular to the driving direction. The three common resonance frequencies identified were 1.3, 5.1, and 12.6 Hz in the second peak at 23Hz in vertical direction on tarmac road at the speed of 85km/h. Cortisol concentration level elevated during short transport time and decreased with an increase of transport time. Highest and lowest glucose concentrations for winter and summer were at 8 h and 12 h transport time respectively. Concentrations of lactate and creatine kinase positively correlated with transport time. The pH24 values correlated with transport time during summer. Behaviours such as lying, sitting, rooting, smelling, panting, fighting, restlessness, change of position and vocalization correlated with transport time. The overall conclusion from the study was that transport and handling had significant effects on animal welfare. The model developed described well the dynamic response of heart rate of the animals during loading for transport.
A Sparse Representation Speech Denoising Method Based on Adapted Stopping Residue Error

 Abstract — A sparse representation speech denoising method based on adapted stopping residue error was presented in this paper. Firstly, the cross-correlation between the clean speech spectrum and the noise spectrum was analyzed, and an estimation method was proposed. In the denoising method, an over-complete dictionary of the clean speech power spectrum was learned with the K-singular value decomposition (K-SVD) algorithm. In the sparse representation stage, the stopping residue error was adaptively achieved according to the estimated cross-correlation and the adjusted noise spectrum, and the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) approach was applied to reconstruct the clean speech spectrum from the noisy speech. Finally, the clean speech was re-synthesised via the inverse Fourier transform with the reconstructed speech spectrum and the noisy speech phase. The experiment results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional methods in terms of subjective and objective measure.
Eddy current damping of a moving domain wall: Beyond the quasistatic approximation

In conducting ferromagnetic materials, a moving domain wall induces eddy currents in the sample, which give rise to an effective retarding pressure on the domain wall. We show here that the pressure is not just proportional to the instantaneous velocity of the wall, as often assumed in domain wall models, but depends on the history of the motion. We calculate the retarding pressure by solving the Maxwell equations for the field generated by the eddy currents and show how its effect can be accounted for by associating a negative effective mass to the magnetic wall. We analyze the dependence of this effect on the sample geometry and discuss the implications for the Barkhausen noise measurements.
Isolation of a UDP-glucose: Flavonoid 5-O-glucosyltransferase gene and expression analysis of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes in herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.)

Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is an excellent material for studying the formation of flower colour because of its abundant colour. The full-length cDNA of a UDP-glucose: Flavonoid 5-O-glucosyltransferase gene (UF5GT) containing 1629 bp nucleotides was obtained from P. lactiflora. The expression patterns of nine related anthocyanin biosynthetic genes (PlPSY, PlCHS, PlCHI, PlF3H, PlF3'H, PlDFR, PlANS, PlUF3GT and PlUF5GT) in diurnal variation petals showed that their expression peaks were basically at 15:00 and the expression patterns were consistent with the trend of sampling conditions except individual gene. And the highest expression levels were in PlCHS, PlDFR and PlUF3GT, which could be the candidates to regulate P. lactiflora flower colour by means of genetic engineering.
California Polytechnic State University Time Variation of the Broad Hβ and Hα Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei

High-quality Keck/LRIS long-slit spectra for a sample of 97 active galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (0.02 ě z ě 0.1; MBH ě 10 M@) were obtained between January 2009 and March 2010 in order to study the black hole (BH) mass scaling relation in the local universe. Typically, the width of the broad Hβ emission line is used to measure the mass of the black hole (MBH). However, signs of variability in the emission line profile are seen for eight objects: While broad Hβ emission lines had previously been observed in spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), they are missing in the Keck spectra. Based on seeing and PSF profile arguments, we can exclude that the lack of broad lines in the Keck spectra are caused by the telescope being pointed off center, missing the active nucleus. Follow-up observations were conducted in January and March 2013 in both Hβ, as well as Hα (which had not been obtained at Keck) using the Kast spectrograph mounted on the Shane three meter telescope at Lick observatory. Since SDSS uses a 3 arcsec fiber, the position angle of these long-slit observations was set perpendicular to the angle of the Keck longslit observations in order to search for any off-center broad emission. The broad emission lines remain missing in Hβ and are missing or reduced in Hα, suggesting changes in Seyfert classification transitions on timescales of approximately a decade. Observational constraints make variability of the torus or broad-line region over time as the most likely cause for this variation. However, at least in some cases, the existence of an AGN that is non-coincident with the center of the host galaxy due to an ongoing merger or gravitational recoil cannot be ruled out. The most promising candidate for such a scenario is SDSS J10383+4658 which shows a blue knot just off-center from the host galaxy, and could have been missed in Keck observations but is included in the SDSS fiber.