Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coral-associated ammonium oxidizing crenarchaeota and their role in the coral holobiont nitrogen cycle

Genetic comparison of Archaea associated with the surface mucus of corals from three genera, namely Acanthastrea sp. , Favia sp. and Fungia sp. from the Gulf of Eilat, Israel and from Heron Island, Australia were studied. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of the coral-associated microorganisms revealed dominance of Crenarchaeota (79%, on average). In this phylum, 87% of the sequences were similar (≥97%) to the Thermoprotei, with 76% of these being similar (≥97%) to the ammonium oxidizer, Nitrosopumilus maritimus. Analysis of archaeal amoA sequences obtained from the fungiid coral, Fungia granulosa, divided into three clades, all related to archaeal sequences previously obtained from the marine environment. These sequences were distantly related to amoA sequences previously found in association with other coral species. Preliminary experiments suggest that there is active oxidiation of ammonia to nitrite in the mucus of F. granulosa. Thus, coral-associated Archaea may contribute to nitrogen recycling in the holobiont, presumably by acting as a nutritional sink for excess ammonium trapped in the mucus layer, through nitrification processes.
Culturing Education for Sustainability: Evaluating a Tertiary Case Study

Although discussions of sustainability often call for a ‘cultural transformation’ or ‘culture change’, this is not matched by strategies for working at a cultural level. Cultural diversity is a source of innovation and resilience, and intercultural dialogue is a method for exchanging values and challenging, and changing unsustainable cultures. Yet, education for sustainability (EfS), a project that is supposed to assist in this transformation has generally not yet acknowledged the contribution that culture, cultural diversity or intercultural dialogue make to sustainable futures. This research reviews the literature on culture, sustainability and education for sustainability. As a case study, a tertiary course is explored through a cultural lens. The tertiary course demonstrates that sustainability is inherently cultural and it is feasible to integrate culture into EfS. However, the course does not sufficiently include non-dominant voices in the course and often presents cultural issues through an individual lens.
Compost and fertilizer mineralization effects on soil and harvest in parkland agroforestry systems in the south-Sudanese zone of Burkina Faso

Decomposition of, and the subsequent nutrient release from tree leaf litter as well as external inputs of nutrients are important in the traditional agroforestry parklands of West Africa. The management of nutrient resources is essential to optimize crop performance and soil fertility. To explore temporal and spatial nutrient release in such management options has been the overall objective of this study. Specifically, this thesis investigated: (i) decomposition patterns and nutrient release from litters of Faidherbia albida and Vitellaria paradoxa; (ii) limitation of microbial respiration, as a result of low nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the F. albida and V. paradoxa parklands; and (iii) the effects of applications of combined compost and urea on maize yield in the F. albida and V. paradoxa parklands. The litter of F. albida lost more mass and nutrients than litter of V. paradoxa. However, the decomposition rate of V. paradoxa increased in the presence of F. albida litter or following the application of inorganic fertilizers. Soil microbial respiration was mainly limited by P-fixation, but N was also limiting. Two microbial growth peaks were observed when excess carbon and P were present, suggesting that either two pools of N are sequentially available to microbes or that two microbial communities do exist. Respiration tests also indicated that P and N availability to microorganisms were higher under the canopy than outside it. Maize yield was similar with the addition of urea, compost, or a combination of compost and urea, if applied at an equivalent N-content. However, in the driest year, the combination of compost and urea had the greatest effect in the increase of maize yield as compared with control treatments. The maize yield under the canopies of F. albida was up to 2.3 times the yield outside the canopies, while under the canopies of V. paradoxa it was 0.6 to 0.8 times the yield outside the canopies. The yield under the canopy was relatively better in dry year. Compost-N and inorganic fertilizer-N recoveries in maize shoot biomass were low, indicating that a large proportion of maize shoot-N is derived from the soil. Also, under the canopy of F. albida, the proportion of N derived from fertilizer in maize shoot was lower compared with that outside the canopy, implying that the soil N-pool was more readily available to plants under trees. In conclusion, there is a potential to improve the decomposition rate of V. paradoxa litter by inorganic fertilizer application or by mixing it with F. albida litter. Thus, the litter of V. paradoxa can be a useful to improve soil quality, rather than being burnt as is nowadays practiced by the farmers. Application of combined compost and inorganic fertilizer offers a management option that is cheaper than only inorganic fertilizers and more manageable than only compost applications.
Abundance of denitrifying genes and microbial community structure in volcanic soils

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas produced during denitrification, a process that includes several genes coding enzymes responsible for nitrogen (N) forms transformations. In volcanic ash soils of southern Chile, fertilization had increased over the last 10 years with implications for N2O emissions. Despite this, little is still known about potential denitrification and the presence of denitrifying genes. In this study we report the abundance of denitrifying genes and a basal characterization of microbial communities in five volcanic ash soils with different levels of organic matter. The denitrifying genes determination showed that nosZI predominated over nirK and nirS in all soils suggesting a complete denitrification pathway, which would explain low N2O losses in such soils. Estimation of total microorganisms studies using 16S and 18S rRNA showed that in these soils bacteria (109) was most abundant over archaea and fungi (107; p<0.05). Sequences of DNA obtained by denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) indicated that Firmicutes, Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria are the main bacterial classes represented in Andisoils (33, 28 and 23%, respectively) but with a lower diversity. More detailed studies about denitrifiers, gene-activity relationship and N2O emissions are required.
Green microfinance promoting green enterprise development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine microcredit and renewable energy programs for green development.Design/methodology/approach – This paper envisions a comparison and contrasting of Grameen Bank and credit systems (Bangladesh) with Alterna Savings credit programs (Canada) and its impact on Toronto's local living economics and environmental development.Findings – The findings are positive to environmental sustainable development.Originality/value – Green micro financing and green micro business development have been underserved, less attention to the subject has been given by various public, private and non‐governmental organizations (financial and non‐financial) agencies through policies, strategies, and programs. This research examines the possibility of introducing market‐based green business development in Canada that would model that of Grameen Bank and its sister organizations.
Poverty and the Development of African American Children: Testing an Adaptation of McLoyd's Theoretical Model with the NLSY.

Based on McLoyd's (1990) model of African American children's development, this study examined the linkages between poverty, maternal psychological distress, marital conflict, the home environment, and children's outcomes among a sample of 805 African American 4to 9-year-olds whose families were interviewed in 1992 as part of the National Longitudinal. Survey of Youth. Findings revealed that poverty, psychological distress (as measured by maternal depression and low mastery), and a relatively unsupportive home environment increased the risk of child behavior problems. Contrary to expectations, the path between marital conflict and child behavior problems was not significant in this sample. An adaptation of McLoyd's model examined predictors of children's receptive vocabulary, indicating a direct effect of poverty on children's vocabulary even when maternal academic aptitude and HOME environment assessments were controlled. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/KB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Poverty and the Development of African American Children: Testing an Adaptation of McLoyd's Theoretical Model with the NLSY
Properties of Icosahedral Clusters and Medium-Range Order in AlCuZr Alloy

The evolution characteristics of icosahedral clusters during the rapid solidification of Al10Cu50Zr40 alloy under cooling rates of 1.0 × 1011 K/s are investigated based on molecular dynamics simulations. The structural properties of short-range order and medium-range order of Al10Cu50Zr40 alloy are analyzed by several structural characterization methods. It is found that the icosahedral cluster is the dominant short range order structure. Simultaneously, the medium -range order structural evolutions are described in detail by quantitative method and visualization technology during the rapid solidification. The results reveal that the medium-range order icosahedral clusters are bonding with each other by chain, triangle, tetrahedral and their combination structures, and have excellent structural stability and configural continuity with the temperature decreasing. The medium-range order clusters that consist of , and interlocked with each other and built the densely packed network structures.
Educational Data Mining: Classification Techniques for Recruitment Analysis

Data Mining is a dominant tool for academic and educational field. Mining data in education atmosphere is called Educational Data Mining. Educational Data Mining is concerned with developing new methods to discover knowledge from educational/academic database and can be used for decision making in educational/academic systems. This work demonstrates an effective mining of students performance data in accordance with placement/recruitment process. The mining result predicts weather a student will be recruited or not based on academic and other performance during the entire course. To mine the students‘ performance data, the data mining classification techniques such as – Decision treeRandom Tree and J48 classification models were built with 10 cross validation fold using WEKA. The constructed classification models are tested for predicting class label for new instances. The performance of the classification models used are tested and compared. Also the misclassification rates for the classification experiment are analyzed.
Study of Surface Plasmon Resonance in Metal and Alloy Nanofilms using Maxwell Description and Metamaterial Simulation in COMSOL

Park, Heesoo M.S.O.E Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology August 2015 Study of Surface Plasmon Resonance in Metal and Alloy Nanofilms using Maxwell Description and Metamaterial Simulation in COMSOL Thesis Advisor: Dr. Siahmakoun Azad Metamaterials are artificial metallic structures having, possibly, simultaneously negative permittivity and negative permeability which is called a double negative medium. To achieve a visible light range of the metamaterial, the unit cell of the metamaterial units should be 10-200nm. It is a much bigger structure than a size of normal atom. Still, the resolution of fabrication, which is difficult part, should typically be a few nanometers to achieve a nano-level unit. We study Ag thin-film as a convenient candidate for metamaterial over a specific frequency range. Because, the thin film metal is composed of disk shape island structures itself. These represent be each metamaterial unit cell. To model the metamaterial model for each thickness of silver, we use surface plasmonpolaritons which is called SPPs. It can coupled Prism and metal to check where is plasmon resonance angle. This specific angle and the reflectivity of a thin silver film are function of metal and dielectric of thickness and metal’s permittivity and dielectric function of layer. Experimental measurements of SPPs and Simon’s simulation show good agreement with the COMSOL Multiphysics metamaterial model. And we demonstrate the annealing method for a thin film metal is nice approach to change the surface plasmon resonance angle. The theory of SPPs is explained using the Drude model and Maxwell equation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Siahmakoun Azad, for the support and guidance he provided in the study of this topic while pursuing my master’s degree. It was truly an honor for me. When I was stuck on an obstacle, your insight and enthusiasm was very helpful to me. I appreciate that you have always given me courage to pursue my career. I would also like to thank Professor Joo, Professor Granieri and Professor Mclnerney. They have given me a lot of optics knowledge. And I have really enjoyed their lectures during my master’s course work. I would like to offer thanks to my friend and colleague, Benjamin Hall, for helping my college life in the United States, and for his dedication while we worked together. His honesty and insight was very helpful to me. And I have always enjoyed communication with him. Finally, I would like to thank my family and girlfriend for their support and encouragement. I could not have finished my thesis project if they did not support me.
Virtual Reality Applications with Haptic Feedback

Virtual reality (VR) opened the possibility of moving beyond the 2-D world of conventional desktop systems to an immersive, multi-sensory environment generated by computer graphics. Haptic feedback (Haptics) is now starting to get recognition and use in intensive applications for manipulation, while smell and taste feedback are at the stage of early research. This paper reviews some current works on increased haptic feedback augmentation in virtual reality applications.
Hole Subband Dispersion in Space Charge Layers under Pb/Si(001) Surfaces Measured by Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy

The dispersion structure of the hole subband in a p-type space charge layer on Si(001) was investigated for the first time by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The space charge layer was made via adsorption of Pb. The dispersion curves were in qualitative agreement with the parabolic dispersion curves with bulk effective masses obtained by the k·p perturbation method. The observed energy levels had smaller binding energy than the levels calculated by the triangle potential approximation. This was interpreted to reflect a change of the dopant atom concentration in the subsurface region due to diffusion of dopant during flashing. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2009. 641]
Average Case Analysis of a Hard Dial-a-Ride Problem

In the dial-a-ride-problem (DARP) objects have to be moved between given sources and destinations in a transportation network by means of a server. The goal is to find a shortest transportation for the server. We study the DARP when the underlying transportation network forms a caterpillar. This special case is strongly NP-hard in the worst case. We prove that in a probabilistic setting there exists a polynomial time algorithm which almost surely finds an optimal solution. Moreover, with high probability the optimality of the solution found can be certified efficiently. We also examine the complexity of the DARP in a semi-random setting and in the unweighted case.
Demonstration of microfiber hybrid Mach–Zehnder and knot resonator structure

We demonstrate a microfiber hybrid structure consisting of a microfiber knot resonator (MKR) and a microfiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MMZI) by micro‐manipulating a microfiber. The microfiber used has a waist diameter of 1 μm and is fabricated using a flame brush technique. The hybrid structure generates dual resonances spectrum, which combines a characteristic resonant of MKR and MMZI. The MMZI resonant exhibits a much higher free spectral range (FSR) of 3.1 nm with the extinction ratio of 3 dB. The MKR resonant has a FSR of 0.24 nm and extinction ratio of 5 dB. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:100–102, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27250
Geostatistical Estimation of Biomass Stock in Chilean Native Forests and Plantations

There are a variety of approaches to estimate above ground biomass (AGB), which can be classified according to the data source being used (Koch and Dees, 2008): field measurement, remotely sensed data or ancillary data used in GIS-based modeling. Field measurements are based on destructive sampling or direct measurement and the application of allometric equations (Madgwick, 1994). Recently, remotely sensed data, from both passive and active sensors, have become an important data source for AGB estimation. In this chapter we will focus on the use of optical multispectral data such as TM/ETM+ to estimate AGB. Generally, biomass is either estimated via a direct relationship between spectral response and biomass using multiple regression, k-nearest neighbor, neural networks, inverse canopy models or through indirect relationships, whereby attributes estimated from the remotely sensed data, such as leaf area index (LAI), structure (crown closure and height) or shadow fraction are used in equations to estimate biomass (Wulder, 1998). Here, we discuss the use of remote sensing data of moderate spatial resolution as input to estimate AGB. Research has demonstrated that it is more effective to generate relationships between field measurements and moderate spatial resolution remotely sensed data (e.g., LANDSAT), and then extrapolate these relationships over larger areas using comparable spectral properties from coarser spatial resolution imagery (e.g., MODIS) (Steininger, 2000; Lu, 2005; Phua and Saito, 2003; Foddy el al., 2003; Fazakas et al., 1999; Roy and Ravan, 1996; Zheng et al., 2004; Mickler et al., 2002). In general terms, LANDSAT TM and ETM+ data are the most widely used data of remotely sensed imagery for forest biomass estimation, but data from other moderate spatial resolution sensors have also been used, including ASTER and HYPERION data. In this chapter we present approaches that are currently being developed in Chile. Specifically, we introduce methods for the estimation of AGB using medium spatial resolution satellite imagery and digital elevation models. The main objective is to create, calibrate and validate such methods for applications. We developed an alternative approach in the estimation of AGB using LANDSAT ETM + imagery and SRTM digital elevation models as covariates for geostatistical modeling. From the spatial perspective, AGB data correspond to an array of points in space (x, y), while covariates correspond to a set of data that has a large number of samples in geographic space (extracted from each pixel), some of which having overlap with the available AGB
ERRORS-IN-COVARIATES EFFECT ON ESTIMATING FUNCTIONS: ADDITIVITY IN LIMIT AND NONPARAMETRIC CORRECTION

We consider Poisson, logistic and Cox regressions when some covariates are not accurately ascertainable but contaminated with additive errors. Huang and Wang (1999, 2000, 2001) showed that the slope parameters can be consistently esti- mated via nonparametric correction, without imposing distributional assumptions on both the underlying true covariates and the errors. However, certain instrumen- tal variables, particularly replicated error-contaminated covariates, are required. In this article, we discover that the error eect is additive in the limit on some properly formulated estimating functions. This nding gives rise to a new nonparametric correction technique that accommodates a broad variety of practically important, internal and external error-assessment data. Simulations for Cox regression with external reliability data are conducted, and the application to an AIDS study is presented as an illustration.
The power boundedness and resolvent conditions for functions of the classical Volterra operator

Let φ(z) be an analytic function in a disk |z| < ρ (in particular, a polynomial) such that φ(0) = 1, φ(z) 6≡ 1. Let V be the operator of integration in Lp(0, 1), 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞. Then φ(V ) is power bounded if and only if φ′(0) < 0 and p = 2. In this case some explicit upper bounds are given for the norms of φ(V ) and subsequent differences between the powers. It is shown that φ(V ) never satisfies the Ritt condition but the Kreiss condition is satisfied if and only if φ′(0) < 0, at least in the polynomial case.
Top Quark Production at the LHC

Measurements of the production cross section for top quark pairs and the single top quark by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC are presented. Improved measurements at sqrt(s)=7 TeV as well as new measurements at sqrt(s)=8 TeV are highlighted. All the measurements are in good agreement with the standard model predictions.
Characterization of a compact laser scanner as a sensor for legged mobile robots

Received: 12 August 2012 Abstract Accepted: 2 September 2012 This article considers selected operational characteristics and measurement errors of the 2D laser scanner URG-04LX, which is a compact sensor suitable for walking robots. Quantitative errors in range measurement are evaluated considering the intensity output available from the sensor. The obtained intensity values help to correct the range measurements with regard to the optical characteristics of the observed surfaces. Moreover, mixed measurements are characterized and compared to the mixed measurements characteristics in the popular Sick LMS 200 laser scanner. Finally, it is shown how taking into account the error characteristics of the URG-04LX scanner improves its performance as the main exteroceptive sensor of a small walking robot.
Statistical Benchmarking of Surrogate-Based and Other Optimization Methods Constrained by Fixed Computational Budget

The aerodynamic design of an asymmetric oversized payload fairing subject to stability constraints was used as an example of a derivative-free, expensive black box function to benchmark the relative performance of 16 different optimization methods, ranging from gradient-based to simulated annealing and genetic algorithms/evolution strategies, including four methods with surrogate-based accelerators. The focus of the present paper is on the practical attainability of getting an acceptable solution quickly. The various algorithms are compared using performance benchmarking in a statistical sense, yielding an “efficient frontier” with special emphasis on the case when designers are confronted with small computational budgets.
Comparative Study for Biosorption of Heavy Metals from Synthetic Wastewater by Different Types of Marine Algae

Pollution by heavy metal ions is one of the major environmental problems in many countries. In this study, four different species of dried marine macroalgae, Ulva lactuca, Jania rubens, Pterocladia capillacea and Colpomenia sinosa were used for the removal of toxic heavy metal ions Pb+2, Cd+2 and Ni+2 from synthetic wastewater. In general, the highest efficiency of metal ion bioremoval was recorded for red alga J. rubens followed by C. sinosa and the lowest one was recorded for U. lactuca, with mean removal values of 91%, 89% and 85%, respectively. The effect of several parameters such as contact time, algal dose, effect of pH, and initial concentration of metal ions on the adsorption process was estimated. The optimum adsorption was found to occur at pH 5.0, contact time 60 min, adsorbent dose 20 g/L and initial concentration 40 mg/L. This work confirms the potential use of red macroalga J. rubens as an inexpensive and efficient alternative technology, for sequestering heavy metal ions from wastewater.