Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy and mass balance of Zhadang glacier surface, central Tibetan Plateau

Abstract Climate variables that control the annual cycle of the surface energy and mass balance on Zhadang glacier in the central Tibetan Plateau were examined over a 2 year period using a physically based energy-balance model forced by routine meteorological data. The modelled results agree with measured values of albedo, incoming longwave radiation, surface temperature and surface level of the glacier. For the whole observation period, the radiation component dominated (82%) the total surface energy heat fluxes. This was followed by turbulent sensible (10%) and latent heat (6%) fluxes. Subsurface heat flux represented a very minor proportion (2%) of the total heat flux. The sensitivity of specific mass balance was examined by perturbations of temperature (±1 K), relative humidity (±20%) and precipitation (±20%). The results indicate that the specific mass balance is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than to other variables. The main seasonal variations in the energy balance were in the two radiation components (net shortwave radiation and net longwave radiation) and these controlled whether surface melting occurred. A dramatic difference in summer mass balance between 2010 and 2011 indicates that the glacier surface mass balance was closely related to precipitation seasonality and form (proportion of snowfall and rainfall).
Probabilistic pragmatics, or why Bayes’ rule is probably important for pragmatics

Abstract Probabilistic pragmatics aspires to explain certain regularities of language use and interpretation as behavior of speakers and listeners who want to satisfy their conversational interests in a context that may contain a substantial amount of uncertainty. This approach differs substantially from more familiar approaches in theoretical pragmatics. To set it apart, we here work out some of its key distinguishing features and show, by way of some simple examples, how probabilistic pragmatics instantiates these.
TO IDENTIFYING PROTEINS OF APHID SALIVA : PAST , PRESENT AND FUTURE

From both basic and applied viewpoints, studying in detail the roles and functions of proteins of aphid saliva is an important problem and also a challenging one. Here we briefly review the logically prior (and, in that sense, more fundamental) issue of simply identifying aphid saliva-proteins, leading eventually to identifying all proteins of aphid saliva. We highlight proteomic and transcriptomic methods that have proven particularly fruitful in recent years, but also mention other approaches, of the past and future. All of these approaches, when combined, will ultimately provide reliable and comprehensive catalogs of proteins of aphid saliva, catalogs that can then form the basis for work on saliva-proteins as a system rather than simply as individual entities.
An Analysis of Cryptocurrency Governance

Cryptocurrency, or digital currency that utilizes blockchain technology and cryptography to encode transactions, has excited many with the promise of minimizing governance. Although the structure of cryptocurrency is inherently decentralized, cryptocurrency relies upon complex relationships between different actors with various functions and roles. The execution of cryptocurrency thus depends on the mutually satisfying interactions of these actors, who form the basis for non-technical governance structures. This paper investigates the extent to which technical governance mitigates traditional governance problems by examining the governance structures of two cryptocurrencies. It first gives background into the origin and technical value proposition of cryptocurrency, as well as governance theory, before analyzing Bitcoin and Ethereum to understand whEther technology mitigates actors’ motivations. This paper finds that despite cryptocurrency’s promise of minimizing governance, both Bitcoin and Ethereum rely heavily on trust networks, indicating that elements of non-technical governance are, in fact, crucial to their effectiveness.
Formal Ontologies, Linked Data, and TEI Semantics

The debate on the semantic role of markup languages has been quite lively and the TEI community has played an active part in it. It is commonly acknowledged that markup conveys semantic information. However, XML is a poor language for semantic data modeling. Several proposals have previously been drawn up in the past to provide XML with formalized and computable semantics. In our opinion, the formalisms offered by the Semantic Web paradigm are mature enough to build a workable semantic extension of the TEI. Our model distinguishes three semantic layers in the TEI: one general and shared intensional semantic layer; one idiolectal specialized layer; and finally an extensional semantics. Our proposal is directed toward the first two layers. We propose to build such semantic layers by adopting a set of OWL formal ontologies. Furnishing the TEI with a semantics based on a formal ontology could have interesting outcomes: facilitating the management of and research using document collections in open and multi-standard contexts; aiding interoperability with other relevant standards in the digital cultural heritage context; and providing users with advanced formal tools to semantically define their interpretations of the texts and enable innovative computational processing. In order to allow a semantic interoperability between standards, the TEI ontology has to be aligned to other models; likewise mapping and merging procedures have to be evaluated. Finally, the idea of migrating XML/TEI documents following this semantic model into a linked open data dimension requires that we face important issues in order to facilitate the data interchange in the cloud. However, the cost and the practical complexity of such an extension are notable, and several theoretical problems, format choices, and implementation details are still to be defined.
CALIBRATION OF NONLOCAL SCALING EFFECT PARAMETER FOR FREE VIBRATION OF CARBON NANOTUBES BY MOLECULAR DYNAMICS

In this paper, the small scaling parameter e0 of the nonlocal Timoshenko beam theory is calibrated for the free vibration problem of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The calibration exercise is performed by using vibration frequencies generated from molecular dynamics simulations at room temperature. It was found that the calibrated values of e0 are rather different from published values of e0. Instead of a constant value, the calibrated e0 values vary with respect to length-to-diameter ratios, mode shapes, and boundary conditions of the SWCNTs. In addition, the physical meaning of the scaling parameter is explored. The results show that scaling parameter assists in converting the kinetic energy to the strain energy, thus enabling the kinetic energy to be equal to the strain energy. The calibrated e0 presented herein should be useful for researchers who are using the nonlocal beam theories for analysis of micro and nano beams/rods/tubes.
MOXIFLOXACIN LOADED SOLID LIPID NANOPARTICLES ( SLNs ) : PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION

As drug delivery systems Nanoparticulate widely investigated because of many advantages such as smaller size, controlled drug release potential, targeting ability, enhancement of therapeutic efficacy and reduction of toxicity. So, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles(SLNs) have recently received considerable attention as alternative drug delivery carrier. The aim of present work was to formulate Moxifloxacin loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNS) using palmitic acid as a lipophilic material, Tween 80 and poloxamer as surfactants and methanol, butanol as cosolvents. The SLNs were prepared by o/w microemulsion technique which involves high speed homogenization. Moxifloxacin loaded SLNs seem to have dimensional properties useful for topical administration. The SLNs were characterized for particle size analysis, zeta potential, drug content, entrapment efficiency, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) photographs, Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and IR studies. Results indicated mixed lipid-matrix produced nanosuspensions with low-crystallinity, smaller particle sizes, no drug-excipient incompatibility and higher drug entrapment. The optimized formulation was incorporated into various gels like carbopol and xanthan gum gel. Preliminary physical parameters of gels like viscosity, gel strength were evaluated. In vitro drug release studies were carried out for moxifloxacin SLN loaded gel preparations and % drug loading capacity was calculated. Ex vivo penetration studies were conducted for 12 hrs using Keshary Chien diffusion cell. The studies revealed a stable formulation without precipitation of drug and a sustained drug release from the gel matrix. SLN composed of moxifloxacin would prove to be a good topical drug delivery in treating bacterial infections.
OpenReq: recommender systems in requirements engineering

The major focus of OpenReq is the development of recommendation and decision technologies that effciently support requirements engineering processes in large and distributed software projects. Example scenarios thereof are the bid management in industrial systems, requirements engineering in cross-plattform open source software development, and requirements management in large user communities (telecommunications sector). The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of OpenReq and to provide insights into related application scenarios and research issues.
An operational resource theory of purity

A successful approach to the foundations of thermodynamics is to consider purity as a resource. Operationally, this can be done in different ways, depending on which set of operations is regarded as “free”, or easy to implement. In classical and quantum theory, all the reasonable choices of free operations lead to the same ordering of states, characterised by the majorisation criterion. But what are the roots of such an equivalence? In this paper we address the question in the framework of general probabilistic theories. For arbitrary theories a notion of purity as a resource can be defined by choosing random reversible channels as free operations. For theories satisfying the axioms of Causality, Purity Preservation, Purification, Pure Sharpness, and one additional axiom, Permutability/Strong Symmetry, we show that one can put forward two alternative notions of purity as a resource: one where free operations are unital channels, and another where free operations are generated by reversible interactions with an environment in the invariant state. These axioms guarantee that all the above resource theories are equivalent, i.e. they all lead to the same (pre)ordering relations between states. For theories satisfying the five axioms we show that the notion of purity as a resource is completely characterised by a majorisation criterion, in the very same way as it is in quantum theory.
Time-Varying Queues

: Service systems abound with queues, but the most natural direct models are often time-varying queues, which may require nonstandard analysis methods beyond stochastic textbooks. This paper provides an overview of time-varying queues. Most of the recent literature concerns many-server queues, which arise in large-scale service systems, such as in customer contact centers and hospital emergency departments, but there also has been some new work on single-server queues with time-varying arrivals, which arise in some settings, such as airplanes coming to land at an airport, cars coming to a traffic intersection and medical staff waiting for the availability of special operating rooms in a hospital. The understanding of many-server queues and single-server queues is enhanced by heavy-traffic limits, which have been extended to time-varying models as well as stationary models.
Isolation, identification and characterisation of antibacterial compounds from Carissa lancelota R.Br.Root

Carissa lanceolata (conkerberry) is a perennial woody shrub used in traditional medicine by indigenous communities in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland for various medical conditions such as toothache, respiratory infections and the cleaning of sores, which all strongly indicate an antibacterial activity. A literature review revealed that the wood of this plant possesses significant antibacterial activity, which was found to be related to the presence of eudesmane type sesquiterpenes. C. edulis and C. carandus are frequently used in other traditional systems of medicine in different parts of the world, and thus have also been investigated for bioactive compounds and pharmacological properties. Some of these were found to be in line with the main findings of this work. Carissa lanceolata root was shown to exhibit significant antibacterial activity against both Gram negative and Gram positive organisms. A micro-broth dilution assay was performed on 96-well plates using resazurin as an indicator for microbial growth of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Bioassays carried out in this work showed that crude extracts of root bark and wood, particularly their polar constituents were more active against the four strains of bacteria tested. Chemical investigation of the root bark revealed that it contains a volatile oil, which was isolated by steam distillation as well as solid phase micro extraction. It was found to consist of a single compound, which was identified as 2'-hydroxy acetophenone. The identity of this compound was confirmed by GC/MS and H NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the eudesmane-type sesquiterpene, carissone, was isolated from the root bark DCM and root wood hexane extracts. Its chemical identity was confirmed by IR, H and C NMR spectroscopy. The lignan, carinol, on the other hand, was isolated from the moderately polar fractions of the root wood MeOH extract. The obtained IR and H NMR data as well as Rf values all correspond to the literature. Two other yet unidentified compounds were isolated, but further studies into their chemistry and antibacterial activity were not possible in this current study. The antibacterial activity of the isolated compounds was considerable, with 2'-hydroxy acetophenone exhibiting the strongest effect, followed by carinol and then carissone.
Exploration of Conflict Management Styles Used by Medical-Surgical Nurses

Conflict has been pervasive to societies throughout time, has caused power struggles, problems, and competition amongst and between people and groups. Conflict is especially problematic in healthcare. Communication issues may trigger conflict troubles between nurses and physicians. The literature review supported that there is an increased need for collaboration between physicians and nurses, which has been shown to have multiple benefits in regard to patient care, but is also very underutilized in the healthcare setting. The purpose of this study was to explore the conflict management styles of medical-surgical nurses. The Thomas-Kilmann Model of Conflict Management was used to guide this research project. This descriptive survey was disseminated to a medical surgical unit at a local, non-profit hospital, and Level 1 trauma center. Twenty-three nurses completed the survey, a 48.9% response rate. The styles of conflict management that were most utilized by nurses were compromising and accommodation, followed by avoidance. Competition was not utilized at all, and one participant used collaboration and compromising. Collaboration may be the ideal conflict management style, where optimal patient outcomes are the utmost priority and an interdisciplinary approach to teamwork is used. The collaborative style upholds that open, effective communication between the individuals, or parties, leads to everyone expressing their viewpoints, but that the individuals, or parties, come to an agreement on a solution that ultimately benefits the patient. Advanced practice registered nurses play a valuable role in the future of healthcare, research, and micro and macro level policy changes, especially in regard to this subject.
Network Slicing and Softwarization: A Survey on Principles, Enabling Technologies, and Solutions

Network slicing has been identified as the backbone of the rapidly evolving 5G technology. However, as its consolidation and standardization progress, there are no literatures that comprehensively discuss its key principles, enablers, and research challenges. This paper elaborates network slicing from an end-to-end perspective detailing its historical heritage, principal concepts, enabling technologies and solutions as well as the current standardization efforts. In particular, it overviews the diverse use cases and network requirements of network slicing, the pre-slicing era, considering RAN sharing as well as the end-to-end orchestration and management, encompassing the radio access, transport network and the core network. This paper also provides details of specific slicing solutions for each part of the 5G system. Finally, this paper identifies a number of open research challenges and provides recommendations toward potential solutions.
Experimental evidence for associational resistance against the European pine sawfly in mixed tree stands

This study examined whether the saplings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) exhibit associational resistance against the European pine sawfly Neodiprion sertifer (Hymenoptera, Diprionidae) when grown in a mixture with 50% silver birch (Betula pendula). The number of sawflies on pine trees in pure and mixed stands was manipulated at two experimental sites during two years. Survival of larvae and eggs was monitored, and the numbers of presumed sawfly predators were counted. A lower proportion of sawfly larvae and eggs survived on pines grown in the mixture with birch as compared with pure pine stands. Lower survival of sawfly larvae in the mixed stands was associated with the higher abundance of ants in these stands. The numbers of other sawfly predators (e.g. spiders and predatory heteropterans) differed between the study sites and were negatively associated with the presence of ants, which suggests possible interference between these groups. Although sawfly survival was lower on pines in the mixed stands, providing evidence of associational resistance, a related study shows the same trees had a higher number of ant-tended aphid colonies as compared with pines in the pure stands. Therefore, instead of considering resistance against individual herbivore species, it seems more practical to use associational resistance as a trait representing the resistance of larger systems, such as whole tree stands, against the total damage caused by herbivores in general.
Indexing for semantic cache to reduce query matching complexity

Cache is an important service to enable faster data access for distributed data storage systems. A cache system with a higher hit ratio and a lower query processing time is considered to be an efficient cache system. Semantic cache has a potential to maximise the hit ratio as compared to other cache organisation techniques because it has an ability to answer fully as well as partially overlapped queries. It is a challenge to determine the overlap between incoming queries and stored semantics (semantic matching) with minimum time. To store the semantics, one of the parameters which plays a significant role in the complexity of semantic matching is the indexing scheme. Existing indexing schemes store each disjoint query (on the base of projection) into different segments and the number of segments can grow to exponential (2n-1, where n is the number of queried attributes) in the worst case. This will lead to an exponential complexity semantic matching scheme. We propose a schema based on semantic indexing that enhances the efficiency of semantic matching process by reducing the time for query matching significantly. In the proposed indexing scheme, we have merged query semantics with the schema. On the basis of the proposed indexing scheme, we have designed a query matching algorithm ( sMatch ). It is proved that the time complexity of sMatch is polynomial while the complexity of other matching algorithms is exponential. In addition to reducing the complexity of semantic matching, schema based storage of semantics would reject incorrect queries and enhance the hit ratio in cases where the non-schema based schemes would not find the data from the cache. To show the rejection of incorrect queries and improved hit ratio, complexity based and experimental results are presented. The results show that the proposed scheme performs significantly better than the previous ones.
Evaluation of effect of extrusion process variables on mechanical properties of extruded collagen tubes and effect of post extrusion treatments

EVALUATION OF EFFECT OF EXTRUSION PROCESS VARIABLES ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF EXTRUDED COLLAGEN TUBES AND EFFECT OF POST EXTRUSION TREATMENTS by Mayank Patel This study evaluated the effect of extrusion process variable on mechanical properties of extruded collagen tubes made using a specialized extruder, made by ZOKO Corporation of Czechoslovakia. Three extrusion variables were considered; extrusion speed, linear draw rate and rotation speed. Using Taguchi L4 matrix, a design of experiment (DOE) was run. Two mechanical properties, wall thickness and estimated elastic modulus, were considered as response of this DOE. Data was analyzed statically to evaluate the effect of extrusion variables on both these properties. Result of this study showed that linear draw rate of the extrusion process has the highest influence on wall thickness and rotation speed has highest influence on elastic modulus. Additional studies evaluated effects of post-extrusion treatment on properties of the tubes. Collagen is a biodegradable material so it degrades very fast in the body. A proposed use of these tubes is as vascular grafts. To serve this purpose the tubes have to be treated to degrade slowly in the body so that when it degrades newly formed vessel replace it. Studies were performed to compare two different cross-linking methods, coagulation methods and cross-linking time for a glutaraldehyde crosslinking process. Two crosslinking methods, considered in this study, are crosslinking by glutaraldehyde and EDC/NHS. Result of these studies showed that, crosslinking with glutaraldehyde gives higher degree of crosslinking than EDC/NHS; and the coagulation with acetone and ammonium hydroxide is also more effective than coagulation with just ammonium hydroxide solution. Crosslinking time study for glutaraldehyde showed that increase in degree of crosslinking after 15 minutes is very slow. EVALUATION OF EFFECT OF EXTRUSION PROCESS VARIABLES ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF EXTRUDED COLLAGEN TUBES AND EFFECT OF POST EXTRUSION TREATMENTS