Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phytosociological notes on the xerophilous oak forests with Genista pilosa in south-western Moravia

Introduction Xerothermous forest communities of south-western Moravian river valleys have been investigated very imperfectly till now. Using the principles of Zlatnik's geobiocoenological school, only HorB (1981) studied forest vegetation in the central parts of the valleys of the Rokytni and Jihlava rivers. Moravec (in Moravec et al. 1983) recorded presumable occurrence of associations Cynancho-Quercetum Passage 1957 and Vdscario-Quercetum Stocker 1965 for this area. However, a community of open dwarfish oak forests with Genis ta pilosa seems to be the most typical one of the driest and warmest southern slopes in the valleys of the Dyje, JeviLovka, Rokytnd and Oslava rivers. This community shows certain relations to similar ones having been described as an association Genisto pilosaeQuercetum pet raeae Zdlyomi, Jakucs et Fekete ex So6 1963 from the hill countries on the northern borders of the Pannonian Basin. The present paper gives the phytosociological characterization of the oak forests with Genis ta pilosa in south-western Moravia.
VARIABILITY IN COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE OF ELITE TRACK CYCLISTS

This study calculated the individual variation in performance times for cyclists competing in international track cycling events as Typical Error and attempted to express that variation in terms of power. Performance times were collated from six international events during the 2005/06 UCI Track Season and log transformed. Typical Error was calculated via the back transformation of the RMSE from a two-way ANOVA excluding the interaction term. The average Typical Error over all events was 1.0% (0.8 – 1.3 95% CL). Theoretically when performance is expressed as average power, the variation is approximately 3%. Modelling of power output for typical male and female pursuit cyclists appears to confirm this relationship under typical race conditions. These results can be used to assess the suitability of a field-based aerodynamic test for measuring the smallest worthwhile performance enhancing change in drag, whether a cyclist has shown worthwhile improvements in power during a laboratory performance test or in performance time during a competitive season.
Analysis of Signal Attenuation in UHF Band

This paper deals with signal attenuation in ultra-high-frequency bands caused by rain. We focus mainly on the effect of the rain on the radio waves propagation in the frequency band 2.1 GHz. Two exact approaches for investigating this dependency are used. In the first approach, we use the fitting probability density function for determination Rician distribution K-factor. In the second approach, we want to find more concrete rain-rate dependency with using linear regression. The results achieved in our long-term investigation clearly indicate that the strong impact of rain itself is a minor. So-called secondary rain impacts such as scattering of reflections from wet surfaces cause the main attenuation contribution.
Effects of No-Till on Yields as Influenced by Crop and Environmental Factors

Th is research evaluated diff erences in yields and associated downside risk from using no-till and tillage practices. Yields from 442 paired tillage experiments across the United States were evaluated with respect to six crops and environmental factors including geographic location, annual precipitation, soil texture, and time since conversion from tillage to no-till. Results indicated that mean yields for sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with no-till were greater than with tillage. In addition, no-till tended to produce similar or greater mean yields than tillage for crops grown on loamy soils in the Southern Seaboard and Mississippi Portal regions. A warmer and more humid climate and warmer soils in these regions relative to the Heartland, Basin and Range, and Fruitful Rim regions appear to favor no-till on loamy soils. With the exception of corn (Zea mays L.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in the Southern Seaboard region, no-till performed poorly on sandy soils. Crops grown in the Southern Seaboard were less likely to have lower no-till yields than tillage yields on loamy soils and thus had lower downside yield risk than other farm resource regions. Consistent with mean yield results, soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] andmore » wheat grown on sandy soils in the Southern Seaboard region using no-till had larger downside yield risks than when produced with no-till on loamy soils. Th e key fi ndings of this study support the hypothesis that soil and climate factors impact no-till yields relative to tillage yields and may be an important factor infl uencing risk and expected return and the adoption of the practice by farmers. « less
Does Court Speed Shape Economic Activity? Evidence from a Court Reform in India

This article investigates the impact of quick courts on firms' contracting behavior and economic performance. In 2002, the Code of Civil Procedure Amendment Act was enacted in India to facilitate speedy disposal of civil suits. Some State High Courts had already enacted some of the amendments contained in this reform a long time ago. This spatial variation in the reform's implementation is used to identify the effect of court speed on firms' behavior. Using data on small firms, I find that the reform led to fewer breaches of contract, encouraged investment, and facilitated access to finance. The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.
An ecological telescope to view future terrestrial vertebrate diversity

Background: Some regions of the Earth sustain their own diversities through the processes of speciation and extinction. Theory predicts and data support the conclusion that the number of species (S) in such regions should attain a steady state whose value correlates with their areas (extents). Other data strongly suggest that climate plays a significant role in determining S. Aim: Combine the influences of area and climate in a mathematical model that fits known global terrestrial vertebrate species diversities. Data: The WildFinder terrestrial vertebrate data set of the World Wildlife Fund as it stood in January 2006 (less some data associated with islands). Each of WildFinder’s 825 ecoregions is accompanied by a set of abiotic variables (area and values of climate variables), as well as a list of the resident vertebrate species it contains. Methods: Assign each ecoregion to a zoological region (sensu Sclater, 1858). Compile a list of all species that reside in each zoological region. Calculate the area of each region (A), the number of species in it (separated into the four vertebrate classes: Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia). Find a suitable variable to represent annual energy flow (i.e. ecological productivity). Determine the number of species endemic to each zoological region. Calculate the mean annual temperature (T) and actual evapotranspiration (AE) in each zoological region. Find the regression equations that best fit the numbers of species. Results: The land has nine zoological regions (in order of area): Palearctic, Nearctic, Sub-Saharan Africa, Neotropics, Australasia, Indo-Malaysia, Madagascar, New Zealand, and Hawaii. The number of species, S, fits area (R 2
Evaluating Within-Plant Variability of Cotton Fiber Length and Maturity

47 During the past two decades, international demand for high cotton fi ber quality has increased because of the dominance of ring-spun yarn production. We hypothesized that minimizing the variability of cotton fi ber quality among fi bers within-bale could contribute to better spinning performance and yarn quality resulting in a better end-product with a lower cost of production. Th e variability in physical attributes among cotton fi bers within a bale has been shown to aff ect textile manufacturing effi ciency and the quality of the fi nished textile products (Smith and Cothren, 1999; Krifa, 2012). Cotton fi ber quality is naturally variable within a single seed, within a single boll, within the plant, and within the fi eld. Th ese sources of variability in fi ber quality contribute to within-bale fi ber-to-fi ber variability. One of the potential strategies to minimize the variability of fi ber quality among fi bers within a bale of cotton is to optimize the within-plant variability of cotton fi ber quality. Within-plant variability of cotton fi ber quality is determined by many factors, including the growth habit of the cotton plant, genetics, and environmental conditions during cotton fi ber development (Stewart, 1975; Faulkner et al., 2011; Kothari et al., 2015). Th e indeterminate fruiting habit of the cotton plant provides a signifi cant source of within-plant variation in cotton fi ber quality. American upland cotton is a highly indeterminate, perennial plant, which is grown in an annual cropping system (Lewis, 2002; Oosterhuis and Cothren, 2012). Cotton plants set fl owers in a predictable pattern. Along the main axis, the setting of fl owers occurs at the same fruiting position in 3-d intervals. Bolls set at each position along a single fruiting branch are set approximately 6 d apart (McClelland, 1916; Lewis, 2002). Th ree days aft er the fi rst fl ower sets in position one, the fi rst position boll on the next vertical node sets (Meredith and Bridge, 1973). Th is pattern is used for estimating relative diff erences in boll ages (Baker and Baker, 2010). Cotton plants set the fi rst position bolls at the bottom parts of the plants early in the season compared to bolls setting at the apical and distal positions. Bolls sets in the lower half of the plant and fi rst fruiting position bolls have more time and resources to develop mature fi bers. Under limited resources, Evaluating Within-Plant Variability of Cotton Fiber Length and Maturity
Effects of Coloring on Immediate Short-Term Stress Relief

Although research has not yet examined adult coloring books specifically, research suggests that artmaking can reduce negative affect, improve mood, and reduce anxiety (Drake & Hodge, 2015; Pizarro, 2004) and that coloring, specifically, can reduce anxiety on a short-term basis (Curry & Kasser, 2005; van der Vennet & Serice, 2012). These short-term effects are seen more strongly when participants are using art as a form of distraction from their negative feelings rather than as a way to vent (Dalebroux et al., 2008; De Petrillo & Winner, 2005; Drake & Winner, 2012). The present study seeks to expand upon this knowledge by comparing the effects of coloring adult coloring pages, children's coloring pages, or completing a coloring-related distraction task on subjective accounts of negative and positive emotions. Data were analyzed for 274 participants aged 18-24 enrolled at the University of Mississippi (84.7% female, 82.12% Caucasian, 99.23% single). Upon analysis, all distraction tasks relieved stress on an immediate short-term basis, and there was a borderline significant result for the interaction between time period and group, in regards to the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (Wolpe, 1990), but no significant group differences for the Positive And Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). Participants in the coloring conditions enjoyed their tasks significantly more than participants in the control distraction task, while experiencing about the same amount of stress relief and participants in the adult coloring book condition or control task condition desired to pick up their packets after the study more than those who participated in coloring children’s pages. Although adult coloring books have become extremely popular for their stress-relieving reputation, use of a children’s coloring book can likely be just as beneficial at reducing stress on an immediate short-term basis.
Multiband Planar Antennas for Broadband Wireless Systems

Next generation of wireless mobile systems calls for more compact and multiband antennas. This is because such systems need to be small and can operate over multiple wireless communication standards. The design and development of miniature antennas that function over a wideband are highly challenging. In this chapter, novel antenna designs are presented, which provide a solution to this deficiency. These antennas are based on composite right‐/left‐handed transmission line (CRLH‐TL) metamaterials. Unlike traditional right‐handed (RH) transmission materials, metamaterials based on left‐handed (LH) transmission lines have unique features of antiparallel group and phase velocities. Pure LH transmission lines cannot be implemented due to the existence of RH parasitic effects that occur naturally in practical LH transmission lines. In this chapter, novel CRLH transmission line structures are presented, which include righthanded parasitic effects.
Determinants of the quality of internet investor relations – a study of companies listed on the JSE#

Investor relations is the field of management that is concerned with the relationships between companies and investors, and as such involves a wide variety of information types, for example mandatory, voluntary, financial, non-financial, qualitative and quantitative. While South Africa has recently been ranked number one for the strength of its auditing and reporting standards for the seventh consecutive year (IRBA, 2016), investor relations as a wider and voluntary concept, is largely un-researched in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to establish the determinants of Internet investor relations (IIR). The quality of IIR was measured for a sample of 85 JSE-listed companies using a measurement instrument that consists of 346 attributes. From the literature, as discussed in the literature review, 15 company characteristics were identified that could explain IIR quality. Stepwise regression model-building was used to develop a regression model that best explains IIR quality. Company size, leverage, being audited by a big four audit company, JSE industry membership, free float and dual listing status were found statistically significant independent variables, explaining 68.76% of the variation in the dependent variable, IIR. Contributions to the body of knowledge, study limitations and the need for further research are discussed in the conclusion.
Templated growth of 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride molecules on a nanostructured insulator

Nanometre-scale 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) crystallites were produced by trapping the molecules inside monolayer-deep rectangular pits on an alkali halide surface. Noncontact atomic force microscopy was used to measure the crystallite dimensions and lattice structure with molecular resolution. The molecule–substrate lattice mismatch and island heights, typically three to four PTCDA layers, indicate a stress in the first two layers. One- and two-layer crystallites were only observed in pits with side lengths smaller than 10 nm.
Simulation of Particle-Gas Flow in a Cyclone Using URANS

Particle-gas flow in a cyclone separator used in a circulating fluidized-bed boiler is simulated using computational fluid dynamics software Fluent 6.2. 36 and an Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) method. A Lagrangian method is used for particle simulation and a one-way coupling between particles and gas is assumed. The effect of the turbulence model is studied using several turbulence models. Only the Reynolds stress model gives a physically reasonable flow field without adjusting parameters unknown beforehand.
Deep learning for human fall classification with application to e-healthcare

With the increasing of computation power and amount of data, deep learning has achieved a great success in computer vision. Human activity recognition is one of the most important tasks in computer vision. Especially the classification of falling down and not falling down is of high importance in e-healthcare and assisted-living. This thesis focuses on using deep learning for video classification on human falls. In the first part of the thesis, image classification using CNN is done on traffic sign images to study the network learning process. In the second part, which is the main part of the thesis, video classification is performed with three different network structures, namely, single-frame 2DCNN, multi-frame 2DCNN and RNN. Here single-frame 2DCNN is used as a baseline, while multi-frame 2DCNN and RNN are experimented for utilizing temporal information. Results from this thesis showed a high test accuracy 98.83% on the GTSRB traffic sign dataset, and 85.42% on the multiple camera fall dataset.
Ambit of Carbon Capture Technology in India

Carbon capture is one of the most improving technology of late, with the advent of climate change globally. Work behind carbon capture is still at a progressive stage as far as India is concerned. Carbon capture involves state of the art technology and heavy economic value addition. Since Carbon dioxide is known for its devastating threat towards mankind and habitat, hence developing and adopting carbon capture mechanisms would lead to draining back ecological balance. In this paper we would be trying to come out with possible technologies that can be implemented for carbon capture and further sequestrating it. Additionally the scope of carbon capture in Indian industries, the governing policy framework and the limitations.
Impacts of the Invading Golden Mussel Limnoperna fortunei on Zooplan- kton: A Mesocosm Experiment

kton: A Mesocosm Experiment Florencia Rojas Molina1,*, Susana Jose de Paggi1,2, and Diego Frau1 1Instituto Nacional de Limnologia (INALI, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas), Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje El Pozo S/N, Santa Fe 3000, Argentina 2Escuela de Sanidad, Facultad de Bioquimica y Ciencias Biologicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje El Pozo S/N, Santa Fe 3000, Argentina
Quantum circuit optimization for unitary operators over non-adjacent qudits

Within the general context of the architecture in quantum computer design, this paper aims is to provide a general strategy to obtain a block-matrix representation of quantum gates applied to qubits placed in arbitrary positions over an arbitrary dimensional input state. The model is also extended to the framework of quantum computation with qudits. An application in the context of the quantum computational logic is provided.
Key Frame Detection Method from News Program using Common Features to News Topics

A hard disk drive and a flash memory have become high capacity, so that we are now in the situation where a lot of TV programs can be recorded. However, while convenient, it is not easy to watch all the recorded programs in a limited time. Therefore, an efficient TV browsing application is needed. In this paper, we propose a key frame detection method for TV news program to allow a viewer to efficiently browse TV news programs and/or particular TV news topics. Instead of using features specific to certain news topics, our proposal is to extract important features which are common to news topics, and to generally detect the unique key frame which best represents each news topic. We show the validity of our proposed method by a simulation experiment.
Earnings Quality and Stress Levels of Chinese Listed Companies

This paper investigates the relation between earnings quality and stress levels of Chinese companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2003 to 2007 by classifying them as financially stressed and bankrupt (SB), financially stressed and not bankrupt (SNB), and not financially stressed and not bankrupt (NSNB) firms. We measure the earnings quality by four separate attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness. We find that earnings quality levels are parallel to firm's stress levels: the SB firms have the lowest earnings quality measured by each of the four earnings attributes, the SNB firms have a lower earnings quality compared with the SB firms, the NSNB firms have the highest earnings quality. We also find that the earnings quality deteriorated over the study period, the number of SB firms with the lowest earnings quality increased, and the number of NSNB firms with the highest earnings quality decreased for the fiscal years 2003 to 2007.
USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS FOR ANALYSIS AND CHOICE OF BRAZILIAN CARGO AIRLINES

Summary: Air cargo transport is an important driver in industrial development, integrating cargo transport and logistics, facilitating intermodality and fostering imports and exports, resulting in a significant increase in airline revenue. In addition, competition in the sector requires that these companies use strategic management tools, such as decision-making and efficiency analysis methods, in order to remain competitive and operational on the market. Due to the sector’s great importance, this survey presents a methodology for the evaluation of relevant criteria for the hiring as well as for the choice of domestic air cargo companies, using the Hierarchical Analysis (AHP) method. It is further believed that the results of this work will be directly useful to airport administrators, cargo terminals, cargo agents, highway transport companies, airlines and also to the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) in putting forward efficiency–boosting suggestions by way of process improvements and audits, personnel training, infrastructure planning, and demand management.
Relaxation method based solvers for multifluid flows

We are concerned with the numerical simulation of diphasic compressible flows. The two phases are assumed non-miscible and separated by interfaces where surface tension forces are developed. In this context, numerical methods based on interface tracking (Front tracking) or reconstruction (VOF, MOF) can be used. Unfortunately, for these approaches, interface topology changes and wave transmissions are difficult points. In the present work, we consider diffus e interface models [1,6]. For theses methods, interfaces are artificially smeared to create a mixture zone . Let us note that the physic in this artificial zone needs to be defined in order to preserve the original prop erties of the interfaces. For the surface tension, we use a continuum formulation. Brackbill et al. proposed in [3] a way to obtain this formulation by the so called CSF model. The resulting systems are genuinely non-conservative. Our numerical schemes are based on relaxation type systems [5] which are diffusive approximations of the mathematical models. The associated Riemann problems can be solved exactly and numerical solutions are updated by classical projection methods. From a mathematical point of view, the relaxation method will be reformulated in the term of the super consistency method [7,2] and in the term of the formal extension to non-conservative systems [4].
A critical evaluation of multi‐proxy dendroclimatology in northern Finland

Twentieth‐century summer (July–August) temperatures in northern Finland are reconstructed using ring widths, maximum density and stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of Scots pine tree rings, and using combinations of these proxies. Verification is based on the coefficient of determination (r2), reduction of error (RE) and coefficient of efficiency (CE) statistics. Of the individual proxies, δ13C performs best, followed by maximum density. Combining δ13C and maximum density strengthens the climate signal but adding ring widths leads to little improvement. Blue intensity, an inexpensive alternative to X‐ray densitometry, is shown to perform similarly. Multi‐proxy reconstruction of summer temperatures from a single site produces strong correlations with gridded climate data over most of northern Fennoscandia. Since relatively few trees are required (<15) the approach could be applied to long sub‐fossil chronologies where replication may be episodically low. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.