Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the potential to decrease the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone with Midwest US perennial cellulosic feedstock production

The goal of this research was to determine the changes in streamflow, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) leaching and export to the Gulf of Mexico associated with a range of large‐scale dedicated perennial cellulosic bioenergy production scenarios within in the Mississippi–Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). To achieve this goal, we used Agro‐IBIS, a vegetation model capable of simulating the biogeochemistry of row crops, miscanthus and switchgrass, coupled with THMB, a hydrology model capable of simulating streamflow and DIN export. Simulations were conducted at varying fertilizer application rates (0–200 kg N ha−1) and fractional replacement (5–25%) of current row crops with miscanthus or switchgrass across the MARB. The analysis also includes two scenarios where miscanthus and switchgrass (MRX and MRS, respectively) each replace the ca. 40% of maize production currently devoted to ethanol. Across the scenarios, there were minor reductions in runoff and streamflow throughout the MARB, with the largest differences (ca. 6%) occurring for miscanthus at the highest fractional replacement scenarios in drier portions of the region. However, differences in total MARB discharge at the basin outlet were less than 1.5% even in the MRX scenario. Reductions in DIN export were much larger on a percentage basis than reductions in runoff, with the highest replacement scenarios decreasing long‐term mean DIN export by ca. 15% and 20% for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. Fertilization scenarios show that significant reductions in DIN leaching are possible even with application rates of 100 and 150 kg N ha−1 for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. These results indicate that, given targeted management strategies, there is potential for miscanthus and switchgrass to provide key ecosystem services by reducing the export of DIN, while avoiding hydrologic impacts of reduced streamflow.
VAT Incentives and their effects on VAT refunds: the case of Zimbabwe (2009-2012)

One of the challenges for developing economies is striking a balance between Value Added Tax (VAT) incentives and ballooning VAT refunds. Several jurisdictions cannot isolate the main factors behind their VAT refunds bills. This study empirically evaluates the effects of VAT incentives on VAT refunds in Zimbabwe, using firm level data from the mining sector for the period 2009 to 2012. It concludes that zero rating and VAT fraud are the major factors driving the VAT refund bill in Zimbabwe. The study recommends closing all loopholes from the administration side and reducing the number of zero rated goods.
Genetic variability of Pinus sylvestris populations from IUFRO 1982 provenance trial

Provenance trials were designed to analyse the quantitative responses of tree species to environmental variables found in different experiment location. However, we have still limited knowledge how natural and artificial selection affects genetic variation of the species populations gather in such experimental sites. We have used bulked DNA-based RAPD and ISJ analysis to investigate genetic diversity and differentiation of Scots pine populations from two Polish locations of IUFRO 1982 provenance trial placed in Kórnik and in Supraśl. Applied categories of DNA markers differed in terms of revealing genetic diversity of the species. Ten RAPD primers applied in the study yielded a total of 75 bands, of which 21 (28%) and 15 (20%) were polymorphic in Kórnik and in Supraśl, respectively. Six ISJ primers revealed 42 bands of which 4 (9.52%) and 14 (33.3%) were polymorphic in Kórnik and in Supraśl, respectively. The genetic diversity and differentiation was low, as expressed by He=0.071 and He=0.085, and by genetic distance values which ranged from 0.0 to 0.240 (on average 0.081) and from 0.017 to 0.188 (on average 0.094) for Kórnik and Supraśl, respectively. Location of provenance trial appeared to have a significant influence on revealed level of genetic polymorphism and pattern of interpopulation differentiation. However, genetic structure found for analysed Scots pine provenances from IUFRO 1982 in Kórnik was also confirmed for Supraśl experimental site. In the light of available data we also discussed the influence of historical migration routes and gene flow on observed genetic variation of the species. Additional key words: interpopulation variability, molecular markers, selection, bulking Addresses: P. Androsiuk, University of Warmia and Mazury, Department of Plant Physiology, Genetics, and Biotechnology, Pl. Łódzki 3, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland, e-mail: piotr.androsiuk@uwm.edu. pl, L. Urbaniak, Adam Mickiewicz University, Department of Genetics, Poznań, Poland.
NUMERICAL STUDIES OF LEFT HANDED METAMATERIALS

We use the three dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) technique to study metamaterials exhibiting both negative permittivity and permeability in certain frequency bands. The structure under study is the well-known periodic arrangement of rods and split-ring resonators, previously used in experimental setups. The three parameters we study are the transmission coefficient of a slab, the phase variation of the propagating fields within the metamaterial, and the refraction of a wave through a prism. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the last two parameters are studied rigorously using a numerical method. The results of this work show that fields propagating inside the metamaterial with a forward power direction exhibit a backward phase velocity and negative index of refraction.
Agile Software Development – the challenge of business client engagement in agile activities

It has been found that when bringing agile practices to a traditional organisation the exploitation of agile practices and culture does not reach its full potential. Agile software development requires client engagement which in many cases has been found to be insufficient in agile software development projects. This thesis studies what type of problems software suppliers face when they develop software for a client organisation and attempt to establish an agile culture in a project. The secondary aim of the thesis is to provide solutions for the experienced problems and discuss how the agile methodology could be introduced to organisations. The methodological choice for this thesis is to conduct an explorative qualitative study with an inductive stance. The data for this study was collected by interviewing experienced software professionals between February and April 2015. The interviews were based on the following themes: the interviewees’ background in the topic, experienced problems in client engagement and activities that improve the client engagement in agile software development projects. The findings of the study indicate that suppliers find that problems such as insufficient knowledge of business needs, power distribution in organisations, availability of the client, and organisational expectations, approach and attitudes affect the agile practices in an agile software development projects and that suppliers use activities such as e.g. using business experts, fast validation of needs, scheduling and demonstration to counteract and prevent the problems. The study shows that problems have been tackled and suppliers actively try to promote the agile culture in client organisations. However, it is evident that there is a demand for a greater visibility of the agile methodology that would be targeted to business audience in organisations. Key terms: Agile software development, agile practices, client engagement.
A Modeling of Slot on the PCB Ground Plane by Using Genetic Algorithm

Modeling a slot at a ground plane is studied when a signal trace runs over it. Supposing the slot would work as a slot line with some terminal loads, we propose an experimental method to determine the parameters of the slot-line model by using a genetic algorithm (GA). At first, time-domain responses of the transmission line were measured by using a time-domain reflectometer (TDR). Then using GA, we determined a likely equivalent circuit and its parameters so as to agree with the measured and computed responses. As equivalent circuits of radiation impedance, parallel-CR, parallel-LR, series-CR, and series-LR circuits were assumed in advance. And we set possible ranges of their parameters and effective permittivity of the slot line too. Under such condition, GA determined the most likely model and parameters. By using the proposed method, it is expected to estimate a far-field emission pattern and to discover the mechanism of far-field emission and signal integrity.
THE EFFECTS OF BRAND CREDIBILITY ON CUSTOMERS' WOM COMMUNICATION: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF BRAND COMMITMENT.

he use of brand credibility from companies continues to be a popular method to support the brand commitment, also to encourage the customer to make him/her owns more satisfaction and positive word of mouth communication about the brand. When the customers focus on the positive aspects of a company, they usually express it by using the positive words of mouth communication, and which in turn is considered the goal for any company. The reason that stop behind using brand credibility, is the direct and un-direct strong impact of it that make customers more positively toward the brand. This study tries to explains how brand credibility effects on brand commitment, and brand commitment impacts on word of mouth communication. Furthermore, this study uses that brand credibility as the independent variable, brand commitment as the mediating variable and the word of mouth communication is the dependent variable. A study carried out in Saudi Arabia – in Najran city - surveyed 120 respondents as consumers who use banking services. Path analysis confirmed that. Path analysis confirmed that, brand credibility has positive effect on brand commitment. In addition, the study illustrated that brand commitment had significant impact on customer's word of mouth communication. In terms of mediating role of brand commitment, the result found that brand commitment is partial mediating between brand credibility and customer's word of mouth communication.
Changes in the onset of spring growth in shrubland species in response to experimental warming along a north–south gradient in Europe

Aim To test whether the onset of spring growth in European shrublands is advanced in response to the warmer conditions projected for the next two decades by climate models, and, if there is a change, whether it differs across Europe. Location The studied sites spanned a broad north–south European gradient with average annual temperatures (8.2–15.6 °C) and precipitation (511–1427 mm). Methods 'Bud break' was monitored in eight shrub and grass species in six European sites under control and experimentally warmer conditions generated by automatic roofs covering vegetation during the night. Results Species responsive to increased temperatures were Vaccinium myrtillus and Empetrum nigrum in Wales, Deschampsia flexuosa in Denmark, Calluna vulgaris in Netherlands, Populus alba in Hungary and Erica multiflora in Spain. Although the acceleration of spring growth was the commonest response to warming treatments, the responses at each site were species specific and year dependent. Under experimental warming 25% of cases exhibited a significantly earlier onset of the growing season and 10% had a significantly delayed onset of vegetative growth. No geographical gradient was detected in the experimental warming effects. However, there was a trend towards a greater dominance of phenological advances with more intense the warming treatments. Above 0.8 °C warming, only advancements were recorded. Main conclusions Our results show that warmer temperatures projected for the next decades have substantial potential effects on the phenology of the spring growth of dominant species in different European shrublands, with a dominant trend towards advancements the more intense the warming is. However, our study also demonstrates the overall difficulties of applying simple predictive relationships to extrapolate the effects of global change on phenology. Various combinations of environmental factors occur concurrently at different European sites and the interactions between different drivers (e.g. water and chilling) can alter phenology significantly.
The Impact of Control Belief and Learning Disorientation on Cognitive Load: The Mediating Effect of Academic Emotions in Two Types of Hypermedia Learning Environments.

The present study tested the influence of control belief, learning disorientation, and academic emotions on cognitive load in two types of concept-map structures within hypermedia learning environment. Four hundred and eighty-five students were randomly assigned to two groups: 245 students in the hierarchical group and 240 students in the networked group. Multi-group invariance and mediation analysis were applied to test the mediating effects of academic emotions in the association between control belief, learning disorientation and cognitive load (extraneous, intrinsic, and germane load) across groups. Results indicated all models were invariant across the groups. Control belief and learning disorientation were antecedents of positive and negative emotions; extraneous load in turn was affected by positive and negative emotions, whereas intrinsic and germane loads were only influenced by positive emotions. Learning disorientation had positive effect on extraneous load, whereas control belief had positive affect on intrinsic and germane load. The results are discussed in light of the integration of learning disorientation and non-cognitive factors with cognitive load.
RECONSTRUCTING HIGH-ACCURACY DEM WITH PRECISE ORBIT DATA AND EXTERNAL DEM A. Bin School of Marine Sciences Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou 510275, China

Reconstructing high-accuracy Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is influenced by phase errors, such as phase trend, low coherence problems and phase unwrapping. These problems could result in the conversion errors from the phase to height. In this paper, a method is proposed to reconstruct the high-accuracy DEM using satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). The proposed algorithm mainly aims to reduce the phase errors from the phase trend and low coherence problems. It consists of three steps. Firstly, the orbit state vectors are precisely interpolated in 3-D coordinates rather than in a separate dimension with the exploration of the orbital elements. Secondly, the relationship between external DEM and the interfermetric phase is built by the improved precise geo-location algorithm. The phase trend is estimated according to the topographic information and then removed from the unwrapped interferogram. Thirdly, the interferogram in low coherent regions are all updated with the simulated phases from actual DEM. The accuracy of the InSAR derived DEM can be significantly improved without any Received 5 January 2010, Accepted 30 July 2010, Scheduled 23 August 2010 Corresponding author: L. Xia (lixia@mail.sysu.edu.cn). 16 Bin, Xia, and Zheng ground control points (GCPs), especially in those regions contaminated by masses of residues. Meanwhile, the phase trend caused by atmosphere effects or orbits uncertainty can also be eliminated by using this method. The experiment has demonstrated the proposed method can yield quite satisfactory results for producing high-accuracy DEM using Envisat data.
Design of Superheated Steam Temperature Control System Based on ADRC-PID for Ultra Supercritical Unit

In operation process of ultra supercritical unit, the stability of the superheated steam temperature depends on the adjusting fuel water ratio correctly. In order to improve the speed and accuracy of fuel water ratio, in this paper the active disturbance rejection control technology was used in superheated steam temperature control system in ultra supercritical units, proposing that in the secondary superheated steam temperature control system, the main regulator used ADRC, and the secondary regulator used traditional PID to control, that's the design of ADRC-PID superheated steam temperature control system. The main regulator can control the superheated steam temperature within permitted changes, the secondary regulator can eliminate various disturbances rapidly and finely, adjust the outlet temperature of spray de-superheater, and control the superheated steam temperature in the allowable range. Finally, the experimental results show that, superheated steam temperature control system with ADRC has better load adaptability, stronger robustness and anti-interference ability, faster tracking velocity than with PID, thus the control quality of ADRC is significantly superior to the traditional PID.
Wireless Mesh Network Deployed in Disaster Area using Gateway Selection

As known from the history, communication services turns out to be exceedingly imperative after calamity strike. Wireless Mesh network (WMN) serves as a cost effective technology that yield backbone infrastructure to provide city-wide network access. The self-recovery characteristics of Wireless Mesh Network (WMN), makes it an appropriate solution to be deployed in disaster areas for network access. Throughput is a major factor used for assessment of the WMN. Selection of different wireless mesh routers as gateway results in distinct system performance. In this paper, we propose a gateway selection method to associate the destroyed network with an external network. The gateway selection must maximize the system throughput. The simulation is done using network simulator (NS2).
Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of alternative splicing modulation in Arabidopsis thaliana

APA Citation Abohawya, M. (2016). Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of alternative splicing modulation in Arabidopsis thaliana [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/630 MLA Citation Abohawya, Moustafa Ahmed. Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of alternative splicing modulation in Arabidopsis thaliana. 2016. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/630
Estimating the employer size-wage premium in a panel data model with comparative advantage and non-random selection

This paper considers the estimation of the employer-size wage e? ect using a panel of employer-employee matched data. We test for the possibility of different returns to observable human capital variables as well as examine the role played by unmeasured skills in driving the allocation of workers across firms of di? erent sizes. Our results show that some of the observed skills; namely, education, age, and tenure have high returns in large firms, while the opposite is true for high skilled occupations and for the gender gap. On the other hand, the price of non-observed skills is reduced as firm size increases. This finding is consistent with explanations based on the premise that large employers have more difficulty monitoring workers, which therefore leads them to monitor less closely.
Process and Product in Higher Education: Student-Directed Learning.

This experiment in adult learning processes was carried out in a course in applied linguistics in which the students were teachers with experience in teaching English as a foreign language. Consideration of the importance of process in such.a situation derived from dissatisfaction with the lecture and tlitor-led seminar methods, from the composition of the study body, a desire to link class work and the final evaluation, and the link between course content and methodolo4y. A nine-step procedure was worked out consisting of teacher presentation and participation, small group study,. reading, and prjesentafion of several topics. The entire class was expected to be familiar with all the seadings in order to b4'able to participate in the disctssions led by the group that was responsible for a particular topic. The final step *as an entire class seminar. The procedure is considered preferable to a teacher-dominated class. Student evaluations indicated that the' :course had achieved its aims of increasing motivation and participation, and involving the students in the process of their ()tan learning, It was also evident that there had been a considerable "carry-over" effect to produce a high level of content knowledge.
Detoxification of cyanides in cassava flour by linamarase of Bacillus subtilis KM 05 isolated from cassava peel

Defensive cyanogenic glucoside linamarin accounts for 80% cyanide content of cassava and is known to cause severe diseases upon continual consumption. Detoxification of this cyanide would enhance the nutritive quality and hence market value of cassava flour. We isolated cyanogenic glucoside utilizing indigenous bacteria from cyanide rich cassava peel waste and exploited their potential for detoxification. Among the isolates, Bacillus subtilis KM05 utilized cyanogenic glycoside through assimilatory degradation with the release of hydrogen cyanide and ammonia. The partially purified linamarase (53 KDa) enzyme from this organism showed considerable activity (9.6 U/ml) and effected rapid cyanide reduction in cassava flour. The results indicate scope for enzymatic detoxification of cassava cyanide without compromising nutrients in sago industries.
Incorporation of Mg and Sr in calcite of cultured benthic foraminifera: impact of calcium concentration and associated calcite saturation state

Abstract. We investigated the effect of the calcium concentration in seawater and thereby the calcite saturation state (Ω) on the magnesium and strontium incorporation into benthic foraminiferal calcite under laboratory conditions. For this purpose individuals of the shallow-water species Heterostegina depressa (precipitating high-Mg calcite, symbiont-bearing) and Ammonia tepida (low-Mg calcite, symbiont-barren) were cultured in media under a range of [Ca2+], but similar Mg/Ca ratios. Trace element/Ca ratios of newly formed calcite were analysed with Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and normalized to the seawater elemental composition using the equation DTE=(TE/Cacalcite)/(TE/Caseawater). The culturing study shows that DMg of A. tepida significantly decreases with increasing Ω at a gradient of −4.3×10−5 per Ω unit. The DSr value of A. tepida does not change with Ω, suggesting that fossil Sr/Ca in this species may be a potential tool to reconstruct past variations in seawater Sr/Ca. Conversely, DMg of H. depressa shows only a minor decrease with increasing Ω, while DSr increases considerably with Ω at a gradient of 0.009 per Ω unit. The different responses to seawater chemistry of the two species may be explained by a difference in the calcification pathway that is, at the same time, responsible for the variation in the total Mg incorporation between the two species. Since the Mg/Ca ratio in H. depressa is 50–100 times higher than that of A. tepida, it is suggested that the latter exhibits a mechanism that decreases the Mg/Ca ratio of the calcification fluid, while the high-Mg calcite forming species may not have this physiological tool. If the dependency of Mg incorporation on seawater [Ca2+] is also valid for deep-sea benthic foraminifera typically used for paleostudies, the higher Ca concentrations in the past may potentially bias temperature reconstructions to a considerable degree. For instance, 25 Myr ago Mg/Ca ratios in A. tepida would have been 0.2 mmol/mol lower than today, due to the 1.5 times higher [Ca2+] of seawater, which in turn would lead to a temperature underestimation of more than 2 °C.