Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated Gas Sampling System for Laboratory Analysis of CH4 and N2O†

Analyzing the flux of CH4 and N2O from soil is labor intensive when conventional hand injection techniques are utilized in gas chromatography. An automated gas sampling system was designed and assembled from a prototype developed at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, IA. The sampler was evaluated for accuracy and precision when attached to a Varian1 3700 gas chromatograph configured with flame ionization and electron capture detectors. The automated gas sampling system is easy to operate and provides acceptable results (standards ranging from 1.0–5.0 ppmv CH4 and 0.342–2.0 ppmv N2O had coefficients of variation ranging from 1.7–5.6%) while providing an economical approach for analyzing large numbers of gas samples with minimal labor and equipment cost. 1Mention of commercial products in this paper is solely to provide specific information for the reader. It does not constitute endorsement by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service or the University of Nebraska's Agricultural Research Division over other products that may be suitable. †This paper is a joint contribution of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Published as Journal Series Number 13107.
Decentralized Transaction Mechanism Based on Smart Contract in Distributed Data Storage

Distributed data storage has received more attention due to its advantages in reliability, availability and scalability, and it brings both opportunities and challenges for distributed data storage transaction. The traditional transaction system of storage resources, which generally runs in a centralized mode, results in high cost, vendor lock-in and single point failure risk. To overcome the above shortcomings, considering the storage policy with erasure coding, in this paper we propose a decentralized transaction method for cloud storage based on a smart contract, which takes into account the resource cost for distributed data storage. First, to guarantee the availability and decrease the storing cost, a reverse Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) based auction mechanism is proposed for storage resource selection and transaction. Then we deploy and implement the proposed mechanism by designing a corresponding smart contract. Especially, we address the problem of how to implement a VCG-like mechanism in a blockchain environment. Based on the private chain of Ethereum, we make the simulation for the proposed storage transaction method. The results of simulation show that the proposed transaction model can realize competitive trading of storage resources and ensure the safe and economic operation of resource trading.
Role of IL 28 B Gene Polymorphisms in Response to the Standard of Care Treatment in Egyptian Patients with Chronic HCV Genotype Four

Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV (predominantly genotype 4) all over the world with 9% countrywide and up to 50% in certain rural areas. Combined PEG-IFN and ribavirin is still the only standard of care treatment in spite of its side effects, high costs and low sustained virological response rates. Hence, this provides a compelling reason for the identification of biomarker predictors of disease response to treatment. Genetic variation in the interleukin 28B (IL28B) genes has been associated with the response to interferon-alfa/ribavirin therapy in hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1-infected patients, however its importance for HCV genotype 4-infected patients is still unevident. This study aimed at assessing whether specific IL28B gene polymorphisms (SNPs), known as rs8099917 and rs12979860 could predict treatment outcomes among chronic HCV genotype4 patients treated with the standard of care treatment. Methods: One hundred of naïve chronic HCV patients were selected and submitted to combined interferon/ ribavirin therapy, 48% of them have sustained viral response and (SVR) while the remaining 52% failed to respond (non responders). SNPs for rs12979860 and rs8099917 were done by PCR-RFLP technique for all patients before therapy. The CC genotype of rs12979860 was identified in 39 patients, 34 of them (87.2%) achieved SVR, while the CT heterozygous was detected in 51 (51%) patients, 13 of them achieved SVR (25.5%) and the TT was found in 10 patients and only one of them (10%) was responder. The SVR was significantly associated with CC genotypes as compared to other two genotypes (p<0.001), but TT genotype was associated with failed response to therapy. The TT homozygous of rs8099917 genotype was detected in 46 (46%) of overall HCV patients, 37 of them (80.4%) achieved SVR. The GT heterozygous was detected in 42 (42%) of HCV patients, SVR was achieved in 9 (21.4%) of them. While, the GG genotype was found in 12 patients and two of them only (16.7%) were responders. Conclusion: These data suggest that host genetics may be useful for the prediction of treatment outcomes and that IL28B SNP genotype is an important predictive biomarker for SVR in patients with HCV genotypes 4. Further studies based on a larger number of patients are necessary to investigate the present results. [Olfat M Hendy, Elhamy Abd El Moneam, Mona A Al shafie, Maha El-Sabawy, Mohammed A Rady and Sherif A El Baz Role of IL28B Gene Polymorphisms in Response to the Standard of Care Treatment in Egyptian Patients with Chronic HCV Genotype Four. Life Science Journal,. 2011; 8(4):908-915] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com.
J 8 . 2 ON THE DIURNAL EVOLUTION OF ISOPRENE AND THE HYDROXYL RADICAL OVER TROPICAL FORESTS

The reactivity of key compounds like ozone, isoprene and the hydroxyl radical is controlled by physical and chemical processes occurring in the lower part of the troposphere, namely the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), where these species can directly interact with the land surface. During a diurnal cycle, the ABL experiences a large height variation in response to timedependent buoyancy forcing (ranging from heights as small as 100 m or smaller at night up to more than 2 km during midday). This height variation has two key implications for ABL chemistry: 1) as the ABL grows during the morning, free tropospheric (FT) air is entrained into the ABL which is typically characterized by concentrations of atmospheric compounds different than those within the ABL, and 2) surface-emitted or entrained species are mixed into a growing volume throughout the day and then into a smaller volume after the buoyancy forcing shuts down and the convective boundary layer collapses. The entrainment process is often overlooked in studies focusing on soil and vegetation exchanges of reactants and turbulent mixing within the atmospheric surface layer. Therefore, the aim here is to quantify the importance of ABL-growth and the subsequent FT-ABL exchange relative to surface sources/sinks. By combining observations taken during the Tropical Forest and Fire Emission Experiment (TROFFEE) campaign (Karl et al., 2007; Yokelson et al., 2008) and numerical experiments carried out using the large-eddy simulation technique (Heus et al., 2010) and mixed-layer theory (Vilà-Guerau de Arellano et al., 2009), we study the interplay between turbulent dynamics and the O 3NOx-VOC-HOx chemistry in the Amazonian boundary layer. The reasons to select Amazonia are fourfold: 1) the chemistry is characterized by high biogenic emissions and the role of dynamics is not yet well understood (Butler et al., 2008; Ganzeveld et al., 2008; Pugh et al., 2009), 2) tropical systems are globally significant in regulating atmospheric composition (Karl et al.,
Enhancing Ecosystem Function through Conservation: Threatened Plants Increase Local Carbon Storage in Tropical Dry Forests

The role of plant diversity, particularly of rare species, in ecosystem functioning (e.g., carbon storage) has been mostly studied in temperate systems with little practical application to the conservation of tropical forests, where species rarity and species richness tend to be greater and more important for ecosystem functioning. We linked carbon storage pools with functional plant diversity, occurrence of rare species, and environmental (topographic) gradients in a species-rich seasonally dry tropical forest protected as a part of a Biosphere Reserve in northwestern Mexico. We estimated various functional diversity and carbon pool measures from in situ plant community and soil data. Soil and total ecosystem carbon storage decreased with slope steepness but increased with plant height. Above-ground carbon was negatively associated with elevation. Our data suggest that species identity matters to the functioning and productivity of seasonally dry tropical forests. Two long-lived and highly threatened rare plant species contributed considerably (10-20%) to the above-ground carbon storage pool. The functional roles of threatened plant species should be investigated and incorporated into the management plans of Biospheres Reserves and other closely coupled natural-human systems, where conservation plays a significant role in ecosystem functioning and human well-being.
Mems-based pzt/pzt bimorph thick film vibration energy harvester

We describe fabrication and characterization of a significantly improved version of a MEMS-based PZT/PZT thick film bimorph vibration energy harvester with an integrated silicon proof mass. The main advantage of bimorph vibration energy harvesters is that strain energy is not lost in mechanical support materials since only PZT is strained, and thus it has a potential for significantly higher output power. An improved process scheme for the energy harvester resulted in a robust fabrication process with a record high fabrication yield of 98.6%. Moreover, the robust fabrication process allowed a high pressure treatment of the screen printed PZT thick films prior to sintering, improving the PZT thick film performance and harvester power output reaches 37.1 μW at 1 g.
The Funding Gap and the Financing of Small and Medium Businesses: An Integrated Literature Review and an Agenda

Small and medium businesses contribute to the economies of developed and developing countries. However, they face constraints that are very different from large businesses. Chief amongst these constraints is access to finance. This paper provides an integrated review of the literature on the financing of small and medium businesses. Applying a qualitative critical context text analysis, the authors explore extant studies and identify the major themes and the different literature streams on small and medium business financing. The paper concludes by providing suggestions for future research from the gaps identified in the literature.
Trust Classification in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network as an emerging technology has received a great attention recently from researchers, due to the need of tiny and cheap nodes to be distributed in high volumes and in difficult environments, such as military zones. However trust as a major role player in building and continue functioning of such networks has received very little attention from research groups, due to the lack of proper definition and classification of trust. In this paper we present a trust classification and introduce a wireless sensor network relationships trust model based on a general trust construct.
Sap flow measurement in Japanese pear using the Granier method

To apply a technique to estimate correctly and easily the long-term water use in Japanese pear under the root zone restriction cultivation for irrigation, the Granier method of sap flow measurement was compared with the measurement of transpiration using a balance. The sap flow rate was calculated by multiplying the sap flow velocity, given by Granier's original equation, by the sapwood area, which was estimated using the dyeing method. The daily sap flow rate, as measured by the Granier method, correlated well with the daily transpiration rate during the growing period. In addition, provided heartwood had not developed, the daily sap flow rate was measured directly using the Granier method by multiplying the sap flow velocity by the cross-sectional area, excluding the bark. This suggests that the Granier method can be used to measure the daily transpiration rate in Japanese pear to produce long-term estimates of daily water use for irrigation throughout the growing period.
Modelling sparsity, heterogeneity, reciprocity and community structure in temporal interaction data

We propose a novel class of network models for temporal dyadic interaction data. Our goal is to capture a number of important features often observed in social interactions: sparsity, degree heterogeneity, community structure and reciprocity. We propose a family of models based on self-exciting Hawkes point processes in which events depend on the history of the process. The key component is the conditional intensity function of the Hawkes Process, which captures the fact that interactions may arise as a response to past interactions (reciprocity), or due to shared interests between individuals (community structure). In order to capture the sparsity and degree heterogeneity, the base (non time dependent) part of the intensity function builds on compound random measures following Todeschini et al. (2016). We conduct experiments on a variety of real-world temporal interaction data and show that the proposed model outperforms many competing approaches for link prediction, and leads to interpretable parameters.
Dislodging Anchored Diagnoses: An Unusual Presentation Of Acute Appendicitis

Cognitive errors are the most common cause of diagnostic errors in the process of clinical decision making. Recently, there has been an immense focus on the new science of error prevention in health care. Anchored thinking or heuristics is a form of cognitive error that portrays shortcuts or abbreviated thinking in the light of diagnostic uncertainty. The risk is of comfort in a typical scenario and not being able to adapt to a new situation. Here we present an intriguing case of acute appendicitis in a patient who was initially admitted and treated for hypothermia and alcohol withdrawal. As the patient recovered from his withdrawal and neared the end of his hospital stay, he developed persistent leukocytosis, mild metabolic acidosis and vague abdominal discomfort, leading us to pursue further work up resulting in a new diagnosis. If unrecognized, delayed diagnosis and significant harm with potential for rupture of the appendix, peritonitis, significant morbidity and even mortality could have occurred. This case serves as an example of how to avoid errors resulting from heuristic thinking for the reason that incongruity of data was specifically looked for and consequently recognized.
Phenotypic and Genetic Analysis of a Mutant of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Strain H P 881

Induction and characterization of a morphological mutant are described for Heterorhabditis bacteriophora strain HP88. A homozygous inbred line was used as the base population for mutagenesis and genetic analysis of mutations. Mutagenesis was induced by exposing young hermaphrodites to 0.05 M ethyl methanesulfonate. A dumpy mutant (designated Hdpy-l) was isolated from the F 2 generation of the mutagenized population. Morphological studies with light and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the head region of the adult stage was compressed. The head region of the infective juvenile was distorted and the mouth open. Backcross with the original population was successful only between mutant hermaphrodites and wild type males; 50-100 percent of the progeny of this cross maintained the dumpy phenotype, indicating that the ratio between selfand external fertilization of the eggs is > 1 and that the dumpy mutation is recessive.
The Burden of Co-morbid Depression in Ambulatory Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya

Background: Co-morbid depression is a serious condition in patients with diabetes that negatively affects their self-management, including drug adherence, consequently, the treatment outcomes and quality of life are also affected. Objective: To determine the burden of co-morbid depression in ambulatory patients with type 2 diabetes at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and to document their socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and any associated risk factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done on patients living with type-2 diabetes on follow-up at the diabetes out-patient clinic (DOPC) at the KNH. Systematic sampling method was used to recruit 220 study subjects. The PHQ-9 questionnaire was used to assess for co-morbid depression. Socio-demographic and clinical details were obtained both from the subjects and their medical records. Physical examination was done, including blood pressure and BMI determined. Blood samples were collected from the cubital fossa to measure HbA1C in COBAS INTEGRA system with its reagent in the pre-dilution cuvette for automated analysis of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Statistical associations of patients’ characteristics and co-morbid depression were determined using Chi-square test and Odds Ratios. Results: The prevalence of co-morbid depression in patients with type 2 diabetes at the DOPC of KNH using the PHQ-9 was 32.3% (95% CI 26.4-38.6%). Of these, depression was mild in 42.3%,moderate in 40.8% and severe in 16%. Subjects with comorbid depression were: aged 65years and above (p = 0.006), over-weight/obese (p = 0.035), and had longer duration of diabetes of 5years and above. The presence of co-morbid depression was significantly associated with poor glycaemic control, (OR = 3.3, 95% CI, 1.6 - 6.8, p = 0.001). Conclusion: About one-third (32.3%) of the study subjects with type 2 diabetes had co-morbid depression. Patients with type 2 diabetes who are at higher risk (older age of 65 years and above, long duration of diabetes, poor glycaemic control and presence of diabetes-related complications,) should be screened for co-morbid
Restoration of clouded pixels in multispectral remotely sensed imagery with cokriging

The presence of clouds and their shadows in remotely sensed images limits their potential uses for extracting information. The commonly used methods for replacing clouded pixels by land cover reflection estimates usually yield poor results if the images being combined exhibit radical differences in target radiance due, for example, to large date separation and high temporal variability. This study focuses on introducing geostatistical techniques for interpolating the DN values of clouded pixels in multispectral remotely sensed images using traditional ordinary cokriging and standardized ordinary cokriging. Two case studies were conducted in this study. The first case study shows that the methods work well for the small clouds in a heterogeneous landscape even when the images being combined show high temporal variability. Although the basic spatial structure in large size clouds can be captured, image interpolation‐related artefacts such as smoothing effects are visually apparent in a heterogeneous landscape. The second case study indicates that the cokriging methods work better in homogenous regions such as the dominantly agricultural areas in United States Midwest. Various statistics including both global statistics and local statistics are employed to confirm the reliability of the methods.
Area contraction in the presence of first integrals and almost global convergence

We investigate the evolution of the area of multi-dimensional surfaces along the flow of a dynamical system with known first integrals, and we formulate sufficient conditions for area contraction. These results, together with known results about the Hausdorff dimension and the box-counting dimension of invariant sets, are applied to systems exhibiting almost global convergence/asymptotic stability. This leads to a generalization of a well-known result on almost global convergence of a system, based on the use of density functions. We conclude with an example.
Employee Rhetoric in the Acceptance or Rejection of Corporate Environmentalism

This study explores how employees in a Finnish financial company use rhetorical strategies to accept or reject corporate environmentalism. It is based on a qualitative study in which face-to-face interviews were conducted among 30 employees. The study shows how employees rejected corporate environmentalism by dissociating their employer from polluters or by dissociating environmental values from other values in the financial business. It also shows how they accepted corporate environmentalism by associating it with other business virtues and by associating the employer with polluters. The study identifies rhetorical strategies as a means for employees to construct an understanding of corporate environmentalism, and of whether or not it is a part of their organization’s responsibilities. The results highlight a need to manage corporate environmentalism processes so that the focus is on finding diverse meanings instead of on promoting a single, organization-wide meaning for corporate environmentalism in a top-down manner.
Sub-Optimal Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus—A Local Audit

Abstract Background: Despite increased awareness of risk factors for coronary artery disease and randomized trial data supporting comprehensive diabetic care, these risk factors continue to be largely ignored in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Objective: Cross-sectional study to determine the level of control in patients with type 2 diabetes in tertiary diabetes clinics. Methods: Patient demographic, diabetes and cardiovascular disease related (CVD) data was collected from 150 (F:M; 98:52) randomly selected patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending the diabetes clinics at the three academic teaching hospitals served by the University of the Witwatersrand. Blood pressure, height, weight, body mass index and waist circumference were measured. Glycated haemoglobin and fasting serum lipid levels were obtained from patient records. Black patients contributed 68%, White 12, 7%, Indian 10, 7% and Coloured 8, 7%. Results: Mean HbA1c for the whole cohort was 8, 7%. Obesity was present in 37, 3%, hypercholesterolaemia in 29, 3% and hypertriglyceridaemia in 45, 3%. Waist circumference was ≥ 80 cm in 98% of the females and ≥ 94 cm in 69% of the males. 127 patients out of 150 (85%) were hypertensive and 74% of these had a systolic blood pressure ≥ 130 mmHg and 84% a diastolic blood pressure ≥ 80 mmHg. 43% of the patients did minimal exercise, 6% smoked and only 51% were on aspirin. Conclusion: Comprehensive diabetic care is still largely lacking despite clinical trial data documenting improved outcomes associated not only with glycaemic control but also with use of antihypertensive, lipid lowering and anti-platelet therapy.
Strategic Dalliances as an Enabler for Discontinuous Innovation in Slow Clockspeed Industries : Evidence from the Oil & Gas Industry First Submission : R & D Management Submitted : 16 th July 2007

The concept of “strategic dalliances”—that is, non-committal supply relationships that a firm can dip in and out of while simultaneously fostering long-term links with other suppliers—has emerged as a promising strategy by which organizations can create discontinuous innovations. But does this approach work equally well for every sector and how can they be effectively used to help generate discontinuous innovation? Towards assessing the role that industry clockspeed plays in the success or failure of strategic dalliances, we provide case study evidence from Twister BV, an upstream oil and gas technology provider, and show that strategic dalliances can be an enabler for the discontinuous innovation process in slow clockspeed industries. Implications for research and practice are discussed and conclusions from our findings drawn.