Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MULTI-ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION FOR GRAIN YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS OF QUINOA GENOTYPES ACROSS THE NORTH WESTERN COAST OF EGYPT

multi environmental trial involving five quinoa genotypes i.e., KVL-SRA2, KVL-SRA3, Regalona, Q-37 and Q-52 was conducted along the North Western Coast of Egypt. The eight tested environments included two sites in the first season of 2014/2015 i.e. irrigated Matrouh and rainfed Matrouh, while in the second season of 2015/2016 there were six sites including three rainfed sites of Ras El Hekma, El Neguilla and Matrouh as well as an irrigated site in Matrouh with three planting dates i.e., 1 Nov.,15 Nov., and 1 Dec. Grain yield was significantly influenced by both genotypes and environments; Regalona genotype produced the highest grain yield in most of the studied environments (6 out of 8 environments) with the highest grain yield of 3.08 t/ha in irrigated Matrouh site in the first season. Moreover, it showed more drought tolerance as compared to the other genotypes. The environment effect was the major source of variation as compared to the genotype and genotype × environment interaction effects, and attributed to 88.5% of the total variation in the grain yield. Two-mode pattern analysis of the environment-standardised matrix of grain yield revealed three genotypic groups of different response pattern across environments. In general, the grain yields of the genotypes were lower under rainfed conditions as compared to irrigated conditions, except for Matrouh in the second season for the late irrigated planting dates i.e., 15 Nov. and 1Dec. The high tolerance of quinoa to drought makes it an excellent choice for the diversification of future agriculture in the North Western Coast of Egypt and other regions with similar harsh conditions.
Investigation of ship-plume chemistry using a newly-developed photochemical/dynamic ship-plume model

Abstract. A photochemical/dynamic ship-plume model, which can consider the ship-plume dynamics and ship-plume chemistry, simultaneously, was developed to gain a better understanding of atmospheric impact of ship emissions. The model performance was then evaluated by a comparison with the observation data measured on a NOAA WP-3D flight during the Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation 2002 (ITCT 2K2) airborne field campaign. The simulation conditions and parameters, such as meteorological conditions, emission rates, and background gas and particulate species concentrations, were obtained directly and/or inferred indirectly from the ITCT 2K2 observation data. The model-predicted concentrations showed good agreement with the observed concentrations of five ambient species (NOx, NOy, ozone, HNO3, and H2SO4) at the eight plume transects by the WP-3D flight with strong correlations around the 1:1 line (0.64≤R≤0.85). In addition, a set of tests were carried out to approximate the magnitude of the reaction probability of HNO3 onto sea-salt particles in the model-observation comparison framework. These results suggest that the reaction probability of HNO3 onto sea-salt particles may be in the order of 0.05–0.1. The equivalent NOx lifetime throughout the "entire plume" was also estimated from photochemical/dynamic ship-plume modeling. The NOx lifetimes estimated throughout the entire ship plume ranged from 2.64 h to 3.76 h under stable to neutral stability conditions. The short NOx lifetime over the entire ship plume clearly shows that the ship-plume chemistry shortens the NOx lifetime considerably. Therefore, the ship-plume chemistry model should be used to model the changes in ship-plume chemical compositions and better evaluate the atmospheric impact of ocean-going ship emissions.
Trophic niche and predatory behavior of the goblin spider Triaeris stenaspis (Oonopidae): a springtail specialist?

Abstract Triaeris stenaspis Simon 1891 is a parthenogenetic goblin spider that has been introduced into greenhouses all over Europe. Here we investigated its trophic niche and predatory behavior. Potential prey in the greenhouses included predominantly springtails, aphids, and other spiders. Out of ten potential prey types offered in the laboratory, T. stenapsis captured only three types, the primary one being springtails. The spider rarely caught the other two types, termites and crickets, and completely rejected beetles, ants, aphids, thrips, flies, spiders and mites. Triaeris stenaspis did not build webs for prey capture, but instead used the grasp-and-hold tactic. Prey-capture efficiency decreased with springtail body size, the spider using more than three bites to capture large springtails. Large springtails defended themselves by saltation with the spiders still attached to their backs. Our study supports the hypothesis that T. stenaspis is a specialized predator of springtails, being effective in the capture of this type of prey.
Self-Schemas, Motivational Strategies and Self-Regulated Learning.

Self-regulated learning is usually viewed as the fusion of skill and will, referring to the students' development of different learning strategies in service of their goals. This definition is expanded in a study of self-schemas as a means of representing multiple goals for learning. Measures of self-schemas were used with 151 seventh graders (86 females and 65 males) to explore how individuals may regulate their achievement behaviors as a function of cognitive self-representations. This study also examined how two motivational strategies, self-handicapping and defensive pessimism, influenced cognitive engagement and effort in a learning task. Results indicate that self-schemas can be viewed as organizations of multiple goals (measuring incorporated intrinsic, extrinsic, and social concerns), and that students' motivational strategies are indeed related to cognitive engagement. This study points to self-schemas, motivational strategies, and cognitive strategies as important factors in truly self-regulated learning.
Enhancing video recommendation for YouTube-like social media

YouTube-like video sharing sites (VSSes) have gained increasing popularity in recent years. Meanwhile, Facebook-like online social networks (OSNs), have seen their tremendous success in connecting people with common interest. These two new generation of networked services are now bridged in that many users of OSNs share video contents originating from VSSes with their friends. Through a long-term measurement, we show that friends have higher common interest and their sharing behaviors provide guidance for video recommendation. In this thesis, we take a first step toward learning OSN video sharing patterns for video recommendation. An auto-encoder model is developed to learn the social similarity of different videos. We therefore propose a similarity-based strategy to enhance video recommendation. Evaluation results demonstrate that this strategy can remarkably improve the precision and recall of recommendations, as compared to other widely adopted strategies without social information.
On the horizontal mean curvature flow for axisymmetric surfaces in the Heisenberg group

We study the horizontal mean curvature flow in the Heisenberg group by using the level-set method. We prove the uniqueness, existence and stability of axisymmetric viscosity solutions of the level-set equation. An explicit solution is given for the motion starting from a subelliptic sphere. We also give several properties of the level-set method and the mean curvature flow in the Heisenberg group.
An integrated approach to establish validity and reliability of reading tests

This study presents the processes of developing and establishing reliability and validity of a reading test by administering an integrative approach as conventional reliability and validity measures superficially reveals the difficulty of a reading test. In this respect, analysing vocabulary frequency of the test is regarded as a more eligible way of measuring validity. A study was conducted at Dokuz Eylul University and Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University with three colleagues and 100 undergraduate students to establish validity and reliability along with readability and vocabulary frequency of a 32-item reading test which was developed by the researcher. Such detailed assessment is highly recommended for researchers who are in need of preparing pre and post tests which are different from each other.
The Implications of the Legislative Corrupt Practices on the Democratic Consolidation in the Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

This study analyses the corrupt practices in the Nigerian democracy with specific reference to national legislatures. Using thematic analysis after conducting semi structured interviews, the paper argues that, legislative corrupt practices have become one of the greatest threats to the Nigeria democratic consolidation; it reveals that, corrupt practices are responsible for the poor implementation of public policies in health, education and other infrastructures, it also contributes to the youth unemployment, poverty and national crisis. The paper opines that, corrupt practices of legislative members are inimical and obstacle to democratic consolidation in Nigeria, since the legislature is an institution that is expected to consolidate democracy. Until the institution has been strengthened in its oversight function, scrupulous screening of the legislature is undertaken before the election, the strengthening of recall back mechanism, and the comprehensive approach to deter corrupt practices by the anti-graft institutions, consolidated democracy would not be attained in Nigeria.
Intermittent Millisecond X-Ray Pulsations from the Neutron Star X-Ray Transient SAX J1748.9–2021 in the Globular Cluster NGC 6440

We report on intermittent X-ray pulsations with a frequency of 442.36 Hz from the neutron star X-ray binary SAX J1748.9–2021 in the globular cluster NGC 6440. The pulsations were seen during both 2001 and 2005 outbursts of the source, but only intermittently, appearing and disappearing on timescales of hundreds of seconds. We find a suggestive relation between the occurrence of type I X-ray bursts and the appearance of the pulsations, but the relation is not strict. This behavior is very similar to that of the intermittent accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar HETE J1900.1–2455. The reason for the intermittence of the pulsations remains unclear. However, it is now evident that a strict division between pulsating and nonpulsating neutron star systems does not exist. By studying the Doppler shift of the pulsation frequency we determine an orbit with a period of 8.7 hr and a projected semimajor axis of 0.39 lt-s. The companion star might be a main-sequence or a slightly evolved star with a mass of ~1 M☉. Therefore, SAX J1748.9–2021 has a longer period and may have a more massive companion star than all the other accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars except for Aql X-1.
Formation Kinetics of Nitric Oxide of Biodiesel Relative to Petroleum Diesel under Comparable Oxygen Equivalence Ratio in a Homogeneous Reactor

Formation Kinetics of Nitric Oxide of Biodiesel Relative to Petroleum Diesel under Comparable Oxygen Equivalence Ratio in a Homogeneous Reactor. (August 2010) Gurlovleen K. Rathore, B.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Timothy J. Jacobs Dr. K. R. Rajagopal Interest in biodiesel has piqued with advent of stringent emissions regulations. Biodiesel is a viable substitute for petroleum diesel because biodiesel produces significantly lower particulate and soot emissions relative to petroleum diesel. Higher nitric oxide (NO) emissions for biodiesel, however, are of primary concern in biodieselfueled engines. Search for an in-cylinder technique to reduce NO emissions for biodiesel has motivated studies to gain an improved understanding of fundamental factors that drive increase in NO emissions with biodiesel. Potential factors include fuel-bound oxygen, fuel-bound nitrogen and post-flame gas temperature. The role of fuel-bound oxygen however is debated in the literature. The research objective of this study is to computationally determine if biodiesel and petroleum diesel yield equivalent concentrations of NO with the same oxygen equivalence ratio in a 0-D homogeneous reactor, to explain the role of fuel-bound oxygen in biodiesel on increases in NO emissions with biodiesel. The results from this study indicate that the biodiesel surrogate yields higher NO emissions than the n-heptane because of its lower oxygen consumption efficiency. The
“The Fastest Man Alive” – but how?

Although the Flash is considered the fastest man alive, the nature of his speed is poorly understood. This paper explores the biomechanics and neurophysiology of the Flash’s speed during a 100 m sprint. The results show that the Flash must apply 13.9 MN of force in a single step from his starting position in order to accelerate to his maximum velocity of 4472.44 ms -1 in a 100 m dash. Moreover, exerting such forces requires a substantially high nerve conduction velocity, which can be achieved by increasing myelin thickness and axon diameter. Future studies should quantify this conduction velocity, as well as its accompanying myelin thickness and axon diameter.
ZFIRE: 3D Modeling of Rotation, Dispersion, and Angular Momentum of Star-forming Galaxies at z ∼ 2

We perform a kinematic and morphological analysis of 44 star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2 in the COSMOS legacy field using near-infrared spectroscopy from Keck/MOSFIRE and F160W imaging from CANDELS/3D-HST as part of the ZFIRE survey. Our sample consists of cluster and field galaxies from 2.0 < z < 2.5 with K-band multi-object slit spectroscopic measurements of their Hα emission lines. Hα rotational velocities and gas velocity dispersions are measured using the Heidelberg Emission Line Algorithm (HELA), which compares directly to simulated 3D data cubes. Using a suite of simulated emission lines, we determine that HELA reliably recovers input S0.5 and angular momentum at small offsets, but V2.2/σg values are offset and highly scattered. We examine the role of regular and irregular morphology in the stellar mass kinematic scaling relations, deriving the kinematic measurement S0.5, and finding with no significant offset between morphological populations and similar levels of scatter (∼0.16 dex). Additionally, we identify a correlation between M⋆ and V2.2/σg for the total sample, showing an increasing level of rotation dominance with increasing M⋆, and a high level of scatter for both regular and irregular galaxies. We estimate the specific angular momenta (jdisk) of these galaxies and find a slope of 0.36 ± 0.12, shallower than predicted without mass-dependent disk growth, but this result is possibly due to measurement uncertainty at M⋆ < 9.5 However, through a Kolmogorov–Smirnov test we find irregular galaxies to have marginally higher jdisk values than regular galaxies, and high scatter at low masses in both populations.
Effect of tumor microenvironmental factors on the steady state of tumor growth with non-zero correlation time

The effect of non-immunogenic tumor microenvironmental factors on the steady state tumor growth dynamics modeled by multiplicative colored noise is investigated. Using the Novikov theorem and Fox approach, an approximate Fokker-Planck equation for the non-Markovian stochastic model is obtained and analytic expression for the steady state distribution Pst(x) is derived. We find that the strength of the tumor response to the microenvironmental factors effect θ reduces the value of the steady state distribution Pst(x) of tumor growth at weak correlation time τ which is an inhibitive effect, and at strong correlation time the inhibitive effect is suppressed and instead the value of the steady state distribution is increased which corresponds to growth enhancement. The result indicated that the growth effect exerted by the non-immunogenic tumor microenvironmental factors on tumor growth depend on the correlation time strength τ of the tumor response. Mathematics Subject Classification: 92C05
Societal Institutions and Tax Effort in Developing Countries

The main theme of this paper is that a more legitimate and responsive state appears to be an essential precondition for a more adequate level of tax effort in developing countries. The most important contribution of this paper is to extend the conventional model of tax effort by showing that not only do supply factors matter, but that societal institutions (demand factors) also determine tax effort to a significant extent.
Better test results for the graph coloring and the Pigeonhole Problems using DPLL with k-literal representation

We introduce the k-literal representation of the Propositional satisfiabili ty (SAT) problem. Usually a SAT problem is given as a formula in CNF form, i.e., it is the conjunction of disjunctions of literals. In the new representation it is the conjunction of disjunctions of k-literals, which are Boolean functions on k variables. Note, that there are 2 k possible k-literal. We show who to generalize the unit clause rule and the well-known Davis, Logemann and Loveland procedure (DPLL) for this representation. We have tested its implementation on different set of problems from the SATLIB benchmark problems library. We have observed that for problems with rich inner structure, like the Graph Coloring and the Pigeonhole problems, the runtime is decreasing as k grows. At the same time the memory consumption is increasing, i.e., we trade memory for runtime.
Molecular Characterisation of ESBL producer E. coli

Background: Antibiotic resistance emerged as clinical problem challenge the effective treatment of infections. Virulence factor may play an important role in the influence of antimicrobial resistance. Objective: To determine the frequency of resistance gene in E. coli clinical isolates from women with urinary tract infection. Materials and Methods: Fifteen E.coli clinical isolates were tested by PCR to determine their molecular characterization. Results: The bla CTX –M gene was not detected in 6.7% out of the tested 15 E. coli clinical isolates from women with urinary tract infection. However, bla OXA gene was detected in all E. coli tested clinical isolates from pregnant women, female student and diabetic women with urinary tract infection. While bla TEM gene and bla SHV gene were not detected in 33.3% and 40% out of the tested E. coli clinical isolates respectively. Conclusions: Four types of ESBL genes were detected, and shows new trend of distribution, which indicated the predominance of OXA and CTX-M genes.
The euro area inefficiency gap

We construct a measure of Euro area cyclical efficiency, following the approach developed in Gali, Gertler and Lopez-Salido (2002). Our measure –which we call "the gap"– corresponds to the inverse of price over social marginal cost. Here we present a time series of this gap for the Euro area, as well as its two components, the price and wage markups. As with U.S. data, the ineficiency gap is highly procyclical, and driven largely by countercyclical movements in the wage markup. We are also able to use our gap variable to derive a theory-based measure of the output gap for the Euro area, which we can compare to other measures often used in applications. We also show that the wage markup moves closely with the unemployment rate, as theory would suggest. Finally, we discuss briefly the implications for monetary policy of alternative interpretations of our evidence.
Progesterone and conceptus-derived factors important for conceptus survival and growth

Progesterone (P4) from the corpus luteum (CL) is critical for the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy and plays a major role in regulating endometrial secretions essential for stimulating and mediating changes in conceptus growth and differentiation throughout early pregnancy in ruminants. Numerous studies have demonstrated an association between elevated P4 and acceleration in conceptus elongation. A combination of in vivo and in vitro experiments found that the effects of P4 on conceptus elongation are indirect and mediated through P4- induced effects in the endometrium. Despite effects on elongation, data on the impact of post-insemination supplementation of P4 on pregnancy rates are conflicting and typically only result in a modest improvement, if any, in fertility. Differences in conceptus length on the same day of gestation would suggest that factors intrinsic to the blastocysts transferred regulate development, at least in part, and would be consistent with the hypothesis that the quality of the oocyte regulates developmental competence. This paper will review recent knowledge on the effect of P4 on conceptus development in cattle and summarize strategies that have been undertaken to manipulate post fertilization P4 concentrations to increase fertility.
Semiconductors in Organic Photosynthesis

It is commonly accepted that “Organic Synthesis” was born in 1828, when the german chemist Friedrich Wohler succeeded to make urea from simple materials (Friedrich, 1828). After only few years, Becquerel reported the first example of photo-induced electrochemical reaction (Becquerel 1839). In his work, he found that a voltage and an electric current were obtained by illuminating a silver chloride electrode immersed in an electrolyte solution and connected to a counter electrode. But the world had to wait until 1955, when Brattain and Garret, working on germanium semiconductor electrodes, well understood the origin of that strange photovoltaic phenomenon (Brattain & Garret, 1955). The modern “Photoelectrochemistry” era was born. However, the year was 1900 when it appeared the first article onto the use of light to promote an organic reaction (Albini & Fagnoni, 2008; Ciamician & Silber 1900). Ciamician and his colleague Silber carried out the first systematic studies on the behaviour of organic substances in the presence of sunlight, thus, nowadays they are regarded as the fathers of modern Organic Photochemistry. Nowadays, if we open SciFinder Scholar client and we write the word “Synthesis” in the “Research topic” field, almost 10 millions of references will be shown. This means that in the last two centuries more than 50000 papers per year onto the argument have been published. Moreover, we are considering only an average value, whereas it is well known that the number of publications has known an exponential-type growth in the last decades. However, only 70000 references are reported for “Photocatalysis”, indicating how relatively young is this research field, although the first paper was published more than a century ago. The question is: why in the last two-three decades the use of light in chemistry has aroused a such worldwide attention? The answer could be summarized mainly in one word: environment. A great impetus to the development of photocatalysis is derived from the growing demand to reduce the environmental pollution (air and ground). This has led to the development of several photo-induced protocols for the oxidative degradation of organic pollutants, in which semiconductors play a key role in the reaction mechanism, focusing the attention onto the photodegradation of water and air pollutants.