Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New data on the distribution of Leptogium azureum (Swartz) Mont.

Jørgensen & James (1983) in their detailed study of the Leptogium azureum group in western Europe, pointed out that L. azureum (Swartz) Mont. was absent from Europe and that most of the European material so named belongs to L. cochleatum (Dicks.) P. M. Jørg. & P. James. Although both species show some morphological similarity, they also show a great number of differences. Leptogium cochleatum develops a darker and thicker thallus than L. azureum, with a finely striate upper surface, a different arrangement of the photobiont in the thallus, apothecia with persistent±wrinkled margins, proper euparaplectenchymatous exciples, the presence of paraplectenchymatous tissue at the base of apothecia and muriform ascospores which are larger than in L. azureum. For a summary of the most important characters distinguishing these two species see Jørgensen & James (1983). Leptogium valdivianum M. Lindström, a species from cool temperate South America, has also been confused with L. azureum, however, it can be distinguished by its distinctly thicker and dark leaden greyblue thallus, apothecia with persistent thalline margins and its larger and broader distinctly muriform ascospores (Galloway & Jørgensen 1995; Lindström 1996).
Phytoplankton dynamics in a chain of subtropical blackwater lakes: the Upper St. Johns River, Florida, USA

Abstract Fisher, M.M. , S.J. Miller, A.D. Chapman and L.W. Keenan. 2009. Phytoplankton dynamics in a chain of subtropical blackwater lakes: the Upper St. Johns River, Florida, USA. Lake Reserv. Manage. 25:73–86. Spatial and seasonal patterns in phytoplankton biovolume and community composition were examined for a chain of lakes in the Upper St. Johns River (USJR), Florida, USA. There was a general downstream trend in both increasing phytoplankton biovolume, and dominance of the algal community by cyanobacteria. Total algal biovolume increased from 0.7 × 106μ m3/ml in the headwaters lake to 5.6 × 106μ m3/ml downstream in Lake Winder. Cyanobacteria dominated the downstream lakes, accounting for approximately 50% of total algal biovolume, yet constituted only 2% of total biovolume in the headwaters lake. The diatom assemblage, as well as water quality data, suggests that these blackwater lakes are mesotrophic to eutrophic and neither nitrogen nor phosphorus limited growth. Fifteen months of cyanobacterial biovolume data were compared to water quality data to determine principal regulating factors. A regression model indicates that the major factors correlated with cyanobacteria in these lakes are temperature, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, water level, and color, with temperature alone accounting for 54% of the variability in cyanobacterial biovolume. This analysis demonstrates that multiple interacting factors need to be considered when attempting to explain spatiotemporal patterns in algal dynamics.
Changes in the occurrence and abundance of plant species in a Norwegian boreal coniferous forest, 1988–1993

Okland, R. H. 1995. Changes in the occurrence and abundance of Dlants sDecies in a Norwegian boreal coniferois forest, 1988–1993. — Nord. J. Bot. 15: 415–438. Copenhagen. ISSN 0107–055X. Changes in the occurrence and abundance of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens in a S Norwegian old-growth coniferous forest were studied, using 1 m2 plots divided into 16 subplots. Fifty plots were analyzed for six consecutive years, 199 plots were analyzed at the beginning and the end of the study (in 1988 and 1993). Nonparametric tests were performed for combinations of species, data type (occurrence or abundance), forest type (spruce or pine), and time period (one-year or five-year). Results are interpreted by use of species persistence data, and by detailed comparisons with European long-term and experimental studies. Abundance changes in the pine forest are probably due to short-term (between-year) climatic fluctuations, notably drought. Some effects of the observers are also seen. True five-year trends were found in the spruce forest: (1) Deschampsia flexuosa (increase), (2) several vascular plant species with preference for richer sites, notably Oxalis acetosella (decrease), and (3) most bryophyte species (increase). True trends for vascular plants are discussed in relation to deposition of airborne nitrogen and soil acidification, while the increase of bryophytes probably is due to particularly favourable growth conditions in the five-year period.
Decline in riparian Tsuga canadensis forests of the central Appalachians across an Adelges tsugae invasion chronosequence1

Abstract Forests of eastern North American are losing Tsuga candensis (eastern hemlock) ecosystems throughout an expanding portion of its range due to the invasive pest insect Adelges tsugae (hemlock woolly adelgid: HWA). Tsuga canadensis represents a small portion of the landscape, particularly in the central and southern Appalachians where it is largely restricted to cove and riparian areas; however, it is a foundation species that defines a unique forest ecosystem. Consequently, loss of T. canadensis will result in a re-organization of ecosystem structure and function as alternate communities develop. A greater understanding this transition will advance ecological theory, but is also directly applicable to management and restoration planning. While county-level patterns of detection are readily available, less is known about the process of decline and compositional shifts. We identified riparian T. canadensis forests along thirty headwater streams across West Virginia and Virginia, representing an invasion chrononosequence of nine to thirty-two years. Sites encompassed a range in elevation, slope, and aspect, intended to identify patterns of T. canadensis dominance and decline. At each site, we sampled the overstory and sapling vegetation and recorded the crown health of each T. canadensis in transects at 10, 30, and 50 meters from the bank-full stream channel. Although in severe decline, T. canadensis continued to dominate both the overstory and sapling layers across riparian-upland transects across the central Appalachians. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated decline was moderated by higher elevations and landscape positions that received less incident radiation due to aspect and slope, but duration of Adelges tsugae invasion was the most influential factor in the decline of crown health for the overstory. SEM also identified decline in the overstory as the most influential factor in the decline of the sapling layer. Future forest function depends on composition, which will likely vary depending on the presence of Rhododendron maximum, an aggressive native shrub. Most importantly, functional processes that respond rapidly to T. canadensis decline are likely to experience continuing fluctuation as the composition shifts more gradually.
Developing an Aseptic Checklist for Perioperative Nursing

Author(s) Title Venla Heino, Annika Kovero Developing an Aseptic Checklist for Perioperative Nursing Number of pages Date 19 pages + 3 appendices November 2018 Degree Bachelor of Health Care Degree programme Degree Programme in Nursing Specialisation Nursing Instructor(s) Liisa Montin, PhD, RN, Senior Lecturer The purpose of this thesis was to develop an aseptic checklist for perioperative nursing, which is based on the hygiene instructions provided by the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa. The aim was to find accurate evidence-based literature through a literature review, which the statements of the aseptic checklist may be built on. The study question set for this thesis was: “What is the content of the aseptic checklist for perioperative nursing? ” This thesis was conducted as a descriptive literature review. Literature was searched from five databases: Medic, Cochrane, Pubmed, Cinahl and JBI Ovid. Nine (n=9) articles were chosen for this literature review. This work was completed by using the inductive and deductive classification method. Altogether, four categories were formed based on the literature after completing the data analysis process. These categories were as follows: proper implementation of hand hygiene in perioperative nursing, personal protective equipment and clothing in perioperative nursing, aseptic conscience in perioperative nursing, and asepsis in perioperative nursing. Statements were formed from all of the categories. The aseptic checklist consists of 25 true or false statements written in Finnish and it is targeted for staff working in the perioperative setting (excluding anaesthetic nurses). It may be used as orientation material for new staff starting at the ward or students doing their clinical practice at the ward. More scientific research should be done on the aseptic field so that evidence-based knowledge would be the foundation of the rules and regulations set for perioperative nursing.
Natural abundances of stable isotopes trace anthropogenic N and C in an urban stream

Abstract Important ecological services of low-order streams are greatly affected by urbanization. North Buffalo Creek, in the headwaters of the Cape Fear River basin in Greensboro, North Carolina, receives point- and nonpoint-source pollutants. Natural abundances of the stable isotopes of C (13C) and N (15N) were used to determine the influence of anthropogenic nutrients on seston δ15N, nutrient concentrations, C/N ratios, and patterns of δ13C and δ15N in foodweb components in North Buffalo Creek during different hydrological conditions. Baseflow seston δ15N varied significantly among sampling sites. Baseflow seston δ15N ranged from 3.7‰ to 4.6‰ at forested sites and was slightly enriched at open sites, and probably reflected nonpoint sources of N in North Buffalo Creek. Seston δ15N also reflected point sources of N in North Buffalo Creek. The most enriched seston δ15N values (8.4‰) were found directly downstream of the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). Seston δ15N values at the Rankin Mill Road (Rankin) site, several km downstream of the WWTP, also were strongly influenced by effluent from the WWTP. The Summit Avenue site (Summit) received textile effluent until June 2001. Before June 2001, seston 15N at Summit was depleted compared to seston 15N at sites upstream of the plant, probably because the textile effluent was depleted in 15N. During storms, seston δ15N was negatively correlated with nutrient concentrations upstream of the WWTP. However, at Rankin Mill Road, seston δ15N was positively correlated with NO3− flux, which explained 54% of the variation in seston δ15N. δ15N was not correlated with NH4+ and PO4−3 fluxes at Rankin Mill Road. During storms, seston δ15N was influenced partially by nonpoint sources of N, a pattern consistent with observed C/N ratios. δ13C values for most foodweb components and δ15N values for all foodweb components varied significantly between sites, suggesting that sources of C and N differed among sites. Foodweb components at Rankin were enriched in 15N from incorporation of sewage-derived N from the WWTP effluent, whereas, prior to June 2001, foodweb components at Summit appeared to be depleted in 15N from incorporation of textile effluent. Thus, specific influences of point sources of N could be distinguished in foodweb components. Nonpoint sources and stormwater influenced seston δ15N during storm events, but these sources could not be distinguished in consumers by using natural abundances of stable isotopes.
Nucleotide sequence of BBTV-cp gene and useing its fusion protein for producing specific polyclonal antibodies

Banana bunchy top nanovirus (BBTV) has an enormous negative impact on banana productivity in Egypt. Recombinant BBTV-cp protein could be used as an antigen for producing polyclonal antibodies (PAbs) and could overcome the difficulties of recovering yield concentration of purified virus and producing highly antiserum free from plant contaminants. Isometric virus-like particles (18-20 nm in diameter) were purified from infected banana with a yield of 0.4 mg/kg). The BBTV-G-cp-ORF (513 nt) was isolated via PCR, cloned into pGEM-T easy vector and sequenced. The Egyptian BBTV-cp-ORF was compared with the cp-ORFs of six BBTV isolates based on their nucleotide sequences and deduced amino acids. The major out come of this study was the existence of two groups of BBTV isolates infecting banana. High concentration of the cp-ORF- BBTV fusion protein was created by subcloning the BBTV-G-cp-ORF fragment in a prokaryotic expression vector. These proteins were successfully applied for the production of specific PAbs with a titer of 1/1000. The specificity of produced antiserum was evaluated by western blot analysis in which a protein of about 20 kDa was present in the induced culture of E. coli harboring plasmid pH3 with the cp gene and the BBTV-infected extract as well. The results of double antibodies sandwichenzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) were positive. In general, it can be concluded that these immunological methods based on the antibodies against BBTV-cp-ORF fusion proteins are sensitive for the detection of the virus.
Performance Analysis of Adaptive Filter Channel Estimated MIMO OFDM Communication System

Advanced Communication Systems are wideband systems to support multiple applications such as audio, video and data so and so forth. These systems require high spectral efficiency and data rates. In addition, they should provide multipath fading and inter-symbol interference (ISI) free transmission. Multiple input multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO OFDM) meets these requirements Hence, MIMO-OFDM is the most preferable technique for long term evaluation advanced (LTE-A). The primary objective of this paper is to control bit error rate (BER) by proper channel coding, pilot carriers, adaptive filter channel estimation schemes and space time coding (STC). A combination of any of these schemes results in better BER performance over individual schemes. System performance is analyzed for various digital modulation schemes. In this paper,adaptive filter channel estimated MIMO OFDM system is proposed by integrating channel coding, adaptivefilter channel estimation, digital modulation and space time coding. From the simulation results, channel estimated 2×2 MIMO OFDM system shows superior performance over individual schemes.
Inter-year variation in selfing, background pollination, and paternal contribution in a Norway spruce clonal seed orchard

We aimed to investigate inter-year variability in mating system and paternity in an experimental Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst. ) clonal seed orchard that was established with five geographically distinct populations. Using five nuclear microsatellite markers, we analysed 1396 progeny of five mother trees representing each of the populations in three successive mast-years. Selfing varied among mother trees, ranging from 0% to 18.3% with a mean of 13.9% in 1994, 10.1% in 2004, and 7.6% in 2006. Considerable background pollination was observed in each of the three studied mast-years and reached ca. 58%. The paternity assignment conducted showed an uneven male contribution to the seed crop, what was partly related to the number of ramets per paternal clone. All provenances contributed to the seed crop, but with different input, and two provenances dominated. Effective pollen dispersal was significantly determined by distance, with 72.2% of the seed crop resulting from crosses at a distance of up to 15 m. Our study indicated that despite considerable differences in the geographic origin of populations, inter-mating between clones from each population was possible, which generally agrees with the expectations related to the establishment of this seed orchard.
Machine-To-Machine (M2M) Communication of a Mobile Robotic Platform in Machine Tending Applications

In this paper, different communication possibilities of a mobile robotic platform in the manufacturing context are observed. Based on the use case of machine tending, the required information exchange is assessed regarding real-time priorities and data amount. Under the consideration of technical communication and current protocols, standards and architectures, a proposal for communication interfaces as well as a possible architecture is given. Index Terms – Machine to Machine Communication, Mobile Robots, Machine Tending, Internet of Things, Communication
Sero-and Molecular-Epizootiological Studies on Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 (EHV-1) Infection among Race Horses: an Occurrence of Respiratory Disease with Nervous Disorders

Among race horses raised and trained at Ritto Training Center of the Japan Racing Association, an epizootic of respiratory disease was observed from January to February in 1989. During the epizootic, a total of 155 out of approximately 2, 000 race horses developed pyrexia. Following the respiratory symptoms, 7 Thoroughbred horses showed various degree of nervous disordersuch as incoordination of the hind limbs to recumbency with urinary incontinence. Previous study briefly reported a result of virus isolation, in which 10 EHV-1 strains were isolated from febrile horses involved in this epizootic. In this study, clinical, serological, and molecular-biological researches were conducted to elucidate an epizootiological aspect of this occurrence of EHV-1 infection. Serologically, 90 (67.7%), including 7 samples from the horses manifested nervous disorders, out of 133 paired serum samples collected from febrile horses showed significant antibody response (four-fold or greater increase in the antibody titer) against EHV-1 by complement fixation and/or serum neutralization tests. Majority (more than 85%) of the infected horses as judged by serological tests were 3 years old. By restriction enzyme and Southern blot analyses o f DNAs extracted from 10 EHV-1 isolates, including an isolate from one of the 7 horses manifested nervous disorders, the Bam HI cleavage pattern corresponded to that of the electropherotype 1 P of EHV-1 and closely resembled each other. However, minor variations were detected in the electrophoretic mobilities of certain Bam HI fragments. These results confirmed that the epizootic of respiratory disease occurred among race horses at Ritto Training Center in 1989 was caused by EHV-1 infection, and strongly suggest that the nervous disorders observed among febrile horses involved in the epizootic were caused by the paralytic form of EHV-1 infection, which had never been recognized among horses in Japan. However, no distinct difference was detected between DNAs o f the isolate from a horse with paralysis and of the isolates from horses without paralysis in the Bam HI restriction profile.
The Impact of a STEM Inquiry Game Learning Scenario on Computational Thinking and Computer Self-confidence

Computational thinking is an ability which is considered to be essential for the process of problem solving in every science. The current empirical research aims to study the impact of a STEM content Inquiry based scenario using computational tools and educational games, regarding computational thinking (CT) and confidence for “computers use” of 115 students of Greek public schools of the 5th-6th grade. For the needs of this research, a didactic scenario was developed and implemented, using computational tools, such as the Arduino microcontroller, RGB Led’s while a computational model was designed and implemented. The assessment of computational thinking improvement and confidence for computers use was conducted with the use of questionnaires that were administered before and after the intervention. The findings indicate a positive influence of the intervention on the dimensions of computational thinking in the experimental group. The findings can be applied to educational settings that integrate STEM in the teaching sequence in order to enhance students’ confidence with computational experiments.
Examination of Plant/Weed Image Dataset Using a Hybrid Image Processing Tool

Image evaluation procedures are widely employed in various domains to extract the useful information to make the necessary decision. This chapter implements a soft-computing tool to examine the benchmark plant/weed (BPW) pictures of computer vision problems in plant phenotyping (CVPPP2014) challenge database. The proposed work implements a hybrid image evaluation procedure based on social-group optimization algorithm (SGOA) and Shannon's entropy (SE)-based multi-thresholding and the Chan-Vese segmentation (CVS)-based extraction procedure. After extracting the crop/weed regions of BPW pictures, the superiority of the proposed tool is then assessed by implementing a comparative study between the extracted plant/weed region and its equivalent ground-truth. The results of this study substantiate that the proposed system is proficient in examining the BPW pictures and in future. This procedure can be considered to inspect the crop/weed pictures obtained with field supervising drones.
Why Some Acquisitions Do Better than Others: Product Capital as a Driver of Long-Term Stock Returns

Corporate acquisitions are strategic actions that loom large in the minds of many senior managers. Despite decades of study, little systematic research exists on a central question: Why do the acquisitions of some firms perform better than those of others? The work that has examined this question has mostly focused on deal-specific variables (i.e., how the acquisitions are conducted). In this article, the authors highlight a firm-specific, marketing-driven variable—namely, product capital—that affects acquisition performance and predicts which firms are better positioned to acquire in the first place. The authors also present a mechanism by which product capital affects performance— namely, through acquirers' superior selection and deployment of targets' innovation potential. This article shows that firms with high product capital (i.e., those with greater product development and support assets) make smarter acquisition decisions. Such firms are better at selecting targets with innovation potential and then deploying this potential to gain competitive advantage. The performance consequences of this superiority in the selection and deployment of target firms manifest in the long-term financial rewards to the acquiring firm. The results of an analysis of acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry across seven countries and over 11 years (1992–2002) provide empirical support for the arguments.
Denoising Convolutional Autoencoder Based B-mode Ultrasound Tongue Image Feature Extraction

B-mode ultrasound tongue imaging is widely used in the speech production field. However, efficient interpretation is in a great need for the tongue image sequences. Inspired by the recent success of unsupervised deep learning approach, we explore unsupervised convolutional network architecture for the feature extraction in the ultrasound tongue image, which can be helpful for the clinical linguist and phonetics. By quantitative comparison between different unsupervised feature extraction approaches, the denoising convolutional autoencoder (DCAE)-based method outperforms the other feature extraction methods on the reconstruction task and the 2010 silent speech interface challenge. A Word Error Rate of 6.17% is obtained with DCAE, compared to the state-of-the-art value of 6.45% using Discrete cosine transform as the feature extractor. Our codes are available at https://github.com/DeePBluE666/Source-code1.