Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial distribution of copepods in the north of the Humboldt Current region off Chile during coastal upwelling

During the austral spring (December 1996), numerical abundance of copepod species (Crustacea: Copepoda) was estimated from 53 sampling stations scattered over the coastal waters off Mejillones Peninsula, northern Chile. Samples were obtained from two depth strata; 0-50 m and 50-200 m depth. Oceanographic data over the three-day cruise indicated that coastal upwelling was actively occurring during the survey. A total of 19 species was identified, of which four of them, Paracalanus parvus, Oncaea conifera, Oithona similis and Calanus chilensis, accounted for more than 80% of the whole copepod assemblage in terms of numerical abundance. Using the K-means exploratory analysis the 53 locations were grouped into two clusters: an upwelling type and a non-upwelling type. The former characterized by locations nearshore, with low temperature (<17°C) and high chorophyll-a (>13.4 mg m−3), while the latter had warmer waters (>18°C) and low chlorophyll-a (<4.8 mg m−3). Chlorophyll-a (chl-a), distance to shoreline and temperature at 10 m depth (T10) were all significant variables ( P<0.05) for clustering analysis. There was a strong negative correlation between T10 and chl-a ( P<0.01). The same clustering technique, based on species abundance, suggested the presence of a unique cluster, whose composition was dominated by P. parvus, O. similis, Acartia tonsa and Centropages brachiatus. Stepwise multiple regression showed that these species were also strongly correlated to chl-a and T10. Together these analyses suggest that water mass circulation during upwelling is the driving force for structuring spatial patterns of copepod distribution. In addition, a vertical distribution parameter suggested that copepods, independently of time of the day, tended to remain in a large proportion in near surface waters, possibly constrained by a shallow oxygen minimum layer. This implies that advection during active upwelling may cause large fractions of populations being transported offshore, allowing zooplankton export to more oceanic waters. Rapid turnover rates of copepods growing continuously year-round, may act as a mechanism to compensate population losses during persistent coastal upwelling.
In vitro pollen functionality of attacin-transgenic “Royal Gala” apple plants and apples transformed with 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS)-antisense vector

Abstract To assess pollen functionality of transgenic apple trees, in vitro pollen germination and tube growth were evaluated. Flowers of transgenic “Royal Gala” apple lines containing attacin E gene to confer resistance to fire blight (Erwinia amylovora), or antisense 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) construct to improve fruit storage life, were collected, and pollen was harvested. Amongst the 19 transgenic lines, pollen from three lines transformed with an ACS-antisense vector consistently had significantly lower germination rate compared to “Royal Gala”; however, no correlation between ACS level in fruit and pollen germination rate was observed. Western blots showed that the amounts of the lytic protein, attacin, varied in pollen of the four attacin-transgenic lines sampled. There was no significant correlation between attacin level in the pollen and pollen germination rate or pollen tube growth. The addition of boric acid to the germination buffer enhanced germination in attacin-transgenic lines, as well as in lines down-regulated in ethylene synthesis and control “Royal Gala”. This initial study suggests that the majority of transgenic lines tested do not differ from the control “Royal Gala” in pollen germination, and that attacin or down-regulation of ethylene does not influence in vitro pollen functionality.
Centralized Interference Coordination of Cluster heads for UAVs Swarms

In this paper, we coordinate the challenging interference problem of UAVs swarms as to maximizing the throughput of networks with Doppler frequency shifts and jamming, a hierarchical framework of group-centric network is considered for manned aerial vehicles operated in time division duplex (TDD) modes. In this case, according to different frequency division duplex (FDD) modes in cluster heads and sub-networks, the approximate methods for cross-tier and co-tier interferences are derived. Furthermore, an interference coordination algorithm is proposed to achieve a better trade-off for the performance of UAVs swarms based on dynamic particle swarm optimization (PSO). Simulation results compared with traditional optimization algorithms, demonstrates the proposed algorithm can improve the overall throughput significantly.
Two new species of Ginkgoales from the Middle Jurassic of Mexico

This paper reports two new species of Ginkgoales collected from the Cañada Alejandro and Río Ñumi (Zorrillo and Zorrillo–Taberna Undifferentiated Formations, Middle Jurassic). Thirty-one fossils were selected and compared with 14 species from different localities. A numerical taxonomy analysis was performed through a data matrix formed by 15 characters. Results indicate an important speciation process of the Ginkgoales during the Jurassic in the southeast of Mexico. New evidence suggests the existence of eight species from the Ginkgoidium Yokoyama, 1889 and Sphenobaiera (Florin) Harris and Millington, 1974 genera and two new species Ginkgoidiumnundichii Velasco-de León, Lozano-Carmona, Flores, Martínez and Silva and Sphenobaieramixteca Velasco-de León, Lozano-Carmona, Flores, Martínez and Silva
Sediment, Land Use, and Freshwater Mussels: Prospects and Problems

The decline in freshwater mussel populations in many river basins throughout North America has been attributed, in part, to land-use modifications that cause changes in sediment regimes. However, the specific associations that mussels have with stream sediments are poorly understood, making it difficult to assess the impacts of changes in sedimentation rates on unionid mussels. Both bed and suspended materials, and concomitant changes in channel form associated with changes in sediment supply, may affect mussels in numerous ways at various stages in their life cycle. Considerable debate and uncertainty remains regarding the strength of associations between sediments and mussels, including whether increased sedimentation is a cause of recent mussel declines. It is important to be aware of appropriate procedures for sampling and analyzing fluvial sediments, and the nature of sediment sources, to adequately assess relationships between unionid mussels and fluvial sediments.
Advancements in Predictive In Silico Models for ADME

This comprehensive review describes contemporary computational (in silico) quantitative structure-activity re- lationship (QSAR) approaches that have been used to elucidate the molecular features that influence the Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination (ADME) of drugs. Recent studies have applied 2D and 3D QSAR, pharmacophore approaches and nonlinear techniques (for example: recursive partitioning, neural networks and support vector machines) to model ADME processes. Furthermore, this review highlights some of the challenges and opportunities for future research; the need to develop 'global' models and to extend the QSAR for the protein transporters that influence ADME.
RRR-α-Tocopheryl Succinate Modulation of Human Promyelocytic Leukemia (HL-60) Cell Proliferation and Differentiation

Abstract HL‐60 human promyelocytic leukemia cells can be induced to differentiate to granulocytes by retinoic acid and dimethyl sulfoxide or monocyte‐macrophages by phorbol esters and 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3. These studies show that RRR‐α‐tocopheryl succinate (TS) inhibits HL‐60 cell proliferation and induces the HL‐60 cells to differentiate toward a functionally deficient macrophage‐like cell. TS at (15 μg/ml) was found to suppress HL‐60 cell proliferation by 63% and 89% at 24 and 48 hours, respectively. This suppression of proliferation, however, is not permanent and requires the presence of TS. HL‐60 cells treated for 48 hours with TS (15 μg/ml) were found to be blocked in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. HL‐60 cells blocked in the G2/M cell cycle phase by TS expressed normal levels of the transferrin receptor. TS‐treated HL‐60 cells exhibited binucleated morphological appearance; however, the cells did not exhibit chemo‐taxis, phagocytosis, or changes in the expression of the cell surf ace markers, .
Syntaxonomical diversity: Relationships between syntaxa richness and area

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the relationship between area and syntaxonomical richness in the main vegetation ranks according to the syntaxonomical schemes of 20 European territories. Complementarily, the impact of altitude (altitudinal range) of the territories on the development of syntaxonomical richness is also considered.
STUDIES IN THE TABULARIA FASCICULATA COMPLEX

Original material of Diatoma fasciculatum C. A. Agardh 1812, Diatoma tabulatum C. A. Agardh 1832, and Synedra affinis Kutzing 1844, has been studied. Lectotypes are selected for Diatoma fasciculatum and Diatoma tabulatum. The type material of Diatoma fasciculatum agrees with Tabularia fasciculata (C. A. Agardh) Williams & Round 1986. The new combinations Tabularia tabulata (C. A. Agardh) Snoeijs and Tabularia affinis (Kutzing) Snoeijs are proposed. All three species are here treated as Tabularia Williams & Round, although it may be necessary to split the genus in the future. Further taxonomic and ecological observations on fasciculata-like diatoms were made from recently gathered material, including numerous samples along the salinity gradient of the Baltic Sea (from 11 down to <1°/oo), and year-round samples of living diatoms from a site with a salinity of 5°/oo. Frustule structure, chloroplasts, colony-type, ecological distribution, and cell morphometric data are discussed. Tabularia affinis was not fou.
CNN depth analysis with different channel inputs for Acoustic Scene Classification

Acoustic scene classification (ASC) has been approached in the last years using deep learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks or recurrent neural networks. Many state-of-the-art solutions are based on image classification frameworks and, as such, a 2D representation of the audio signal is considered for training these networks. Finding the most suitable audio representation is still a research area of interest. In this paper, different log-Mel representations and combinations are analyzed. Experiments show that the best results are obtained using the harmonic and percussive components plus the difference between left and right stereo channels, (L-R). On the other hand, it is a common strategy to ensemble different models in order to increase the final accuracy. Even though averaging different model predictions is a common choice, an exhaustive analysis of different ensemble techniques has not been presented in ASC problems. In this paper, geometric and arithmetic mean plus the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) operator are studied as aggregation operators for the output of the different models of the ensemble. Finally, the work carried out in this paper is highly oriented towards real-time implementations. In this context, as the number of applications for audio classification on edge devices is increasing exponentially, we also analyze different network depths and efficient solutions for aggregating ensemble predictions.
Labeling Studies on the Formation Pathway of Nε‐Carboxymethyllysine in Maillard‐type Reactions

Abstract: Nε‐carboxymethyllysine (CML) is among the most often studied advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in foods and medicine, and several pathways have been suggested for its formation. Based on the results of model studies using glucose labeled with carbon‐13 in different positions, a new pathway is proposed for CML formation without involving free glyoxal or autoxidation reactions.
Heard but not seen: Exploring youth counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling

INTRODUCTION: Human service practitioners who work over the telephone are physically invisible to their clients and this invisibility shapes their work. Existing literature suggests that physical invisibility, coupled with anonymity and the immediacy of service provision are defining features of telephone counselling. However, little research has explored how telephone counsellors experience these features in any real depth.METHODOLOGY: This article reports on a case study conducted at a youth helpline in Aotearoa New Zealand. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 practitioners on their experiences of telephone counselling work. One key finding from this case study is discussed: the impact of invisibility and anonymity.FINDINGS: Findings indicate that practitioners’ experiences of delivering telephone counselling are more divergent than those presented in extant literature. While telephone counsellors face challenges delivering non-face-to-face counselling support, the physical invisibility of this medium, coupled with a supportive work environment can also provide potential benefits to counsellors.CONCLUSIONS: Counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling work appear to be more nuanced than traditionally understood. While practitioners may experience a range of possible challenges in delivering telephone counselling, such as responding to hoax and abusive callers, they also experience benefits such feeling relaxed, and supported by colleagues and supervisors. Management practices, such as flexible rules and accessible supervision, can help practitioners manage the impact working non-face-to-face with clients. Given the ongoing popularity of telephone counselling, further research is needed on the working conditions that promote practitioner wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Temporal Characteristics and Potential Sources of Black Carbon in Megacity Shanghai, China

Black carbon (BC) is a major light absorption material that acts as a climate change driver with high radiative forcing and as an air pollutant that reduces visibility and air quality. Thus, reducing the emission and ambient concentration of BC could help address climate change and improve air quality simultaneously. In this study, the mass concentration of atmospheric BC was continuously measured by an aethalometer in Shanghai in 2017. The annual BC concentration was 2.19 ± 1.28 μg/m3, with the highest loading in winter and the lowest loading in autumn. The BC concentrations varied with year and location when compared with previous studies in different locations in Shanghai. The hourly BC concentration had a bimodal distribution, with two peaks during the morning and evening traffic rush hours. Liquid fuels, biomass, and coal combustion contributed 65.7%, 21.5%, and 12.8%, respectively, of the total BC based on the advanced aethalometer model. The three sources varied in different seasons with a high contribution of liquid source in summer and more coal and biomass emissions in winter. High BC concentrations accumulated in the stable weather conditions in the four seasons and appeared when there were high wind speeds from the northwestern direction in winter. The Yangtze River Delta region was the most likely potential source region of high BC loading in the four seasons, and long‐range transport from North China in winter was another likely source region based on the results of cluster analysis and potential source contribution function analysis of backward trajectories.
Spontaneous hybrids between naturalised populations of pak choi (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) and wild turnip (B. rapa var. oleifera) from near Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand

Abstract Natural intraspecific hybrids between Brassica rapa var. chinensis and B. rapa var. oleifera are documented and analysed from a single wild population near Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand. Principal Component Analysis of 13 leaf morphological characters identified putative F1 hybrids that are intermediate between the parents. A second group of plants that are highly variable probably represent F2 and/or backcross hybrids. The putative parents and the hybrid plants all had high percentages of pollen stainability, indicative of normal meiosis. Flow cytometry data are consistent with the hybrid plants being derived from intraspecific B. rapa crosses. This study has shown that closely related intraspecific taxa in Brassica can form natural hybrid populations in New Zealand and, therefore, gene flow between such closely related taxa can readily occur.
A Novel Methodology for Securing IoT Objects Based on their Security Level Certificates

Internet of Things (IoT) provides a huge business value for customers, organizations, and governments due to the developments of so many applications in different sectors like energy and healthcare. Nevertheless, as a new emerging technology, IoT faces several security concerns that are more challenging than conventional Internet because of its limited resources as well as its complex ecosystem. Toward this end, we first highlight IoT security challenges and briefly discuss its security goals like confidentiality and integrity. Second, we discuss the most common attacks against IoT, along with their violated security goals. We also review the existing frameworks of security and privacy guidelines for IoT and illustrate their shortcomings. Third, we propose a novel framework for securing IoT objects, the key objective of which is to assign different Security Level Certificates (SLCs) for IoT objects based on their hardware capabilities and protection measures. Objects with SLCs, therefore, will be able to communicate with each other or with the Internet in a secure manner. The proposed framework is composed of five main phases. In phase 1, we classify IoT assets into four components: (i) physical objects, (ii) protocols, (iii) data at rest, and (iv) software, which includes operating systems, middlewares, and applications. We also classify IoT objects into five categories based on their hardware capabilities. In phase 2, we propose security and privacy guidelines for previously mentioned IoT assets, along with their protection measures. In phase 3, we classify protection measures into five SLCs, and then we assign different SLCs for IoT objects. In phase 4: we develop a communication plan between objects based on their SLCs. In phase 5, we propose a four-step method to seamlessly integrate our objects with legacy objects ( objects are not developed according to our framework). Fourth, the feasibility and application of this framework are illustrated using smart homes as a case study. Finally, we investigate how our framework would lessen several attacks and threats against IoT like routing attacks and physical damage. We also provide qualitative arguments to show that this framework could be utilized to solve some of IoT security challenges such as tight resource constrains. Moreover, we discuss the shortcomings of our suggested framework.
Genetic Diversity of Natural Populations of Acacia auriculiformis

Seeds from 18 populations of Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Benth. from natural riverine and coastal forests in Australia and Papua New Guinea were electrophoretically analysed at 22 isozyme loci representing 17 enzyme systems. Genetic variability measures were determined using 12 isozyme loci. On average, 39.8% of the loci were polymorphic (0.99 criterion). Average and effective numbers of alleles per locus were 1.5 and 1.1 respectively. Mean expected heterozygosity was 0.081 with values ranging from 0.002 (South Alligator River, Northern Territory) to 0.180 (North Mibini, Papua New Guinea). The genetic differentiation between populations was high (GST = 0.270), indicating that about 73% of the isozyme variation was among progenies within populations. Hence, both intra- and inter-population genetic variations are important in initial selections in A. auriculiformis improvement programs. Nei's unbiased genetic distance between populations ranged from 0.000 to 0.120, with populations from the Northern Territory, Australia, generally being very closely related to each other. UPGMA cluster analysis using Nei's unbiased genetic distance revealed three distinct clusters of populations corresponding to the geographic distribution of the species in the Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. Populations from Queensland were closely related to populations from Papua New Guinea rather than to populations from the Northern Territory, which is in the same land mass.
Effects of Two Sources of Tannins (Quercus L. and Vaccinium Vitis Idaea L.) on Rumen Microbial Fermentation: an in Vitro Study

The aim of the experiment was to determine the effect of different sources of tannins on the in vitro rumen fermentation with focus on methane production. In the experiment, a rumen simulation system (RUSITEC) equipped with 4 fermenters (1 L) was used in three replicated runs (6 d of adaptation and 4 d of sampling) to study the effects of Quercus cortex extract (QC), Vaccinium vitis idaea (VVI) dried leaf extract and a mixture of VVI/QC on rumen microbial fermentation. Fermenters were fed 10.9 g/d of dry matter (DM) of a 600:400 forage:concentrate diet. Treatments were control, QC (2.725 mL), VVI leaves 0.080 g) and mixture of QC/VVI (1.362 mL+0.040 g) and were randomly assigned to fermenters within periods. The equivalent of 2.5 g of tannins/kg dietary DM from three sources of tannins was evaluated. All tannin sources decreased CH4 and ammonia concentrations, as well as protozoa and methanogen counts (P<0.001). Vaccinium vitis idaea and QC/VVI tended (P=0.005) to reduce the acetate to propionate ratio. There were no changes in nutrient digestion. Results suggest that these sources of tannins, especially VVI have the potential to reduce rumen CH4 production and ammonia concentration without negative effects on in vitro DM digestibility, total volatile fatty acids and pH.
Key Drivers of Salesperson Performance: The Role of Sales Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Customer Directed Extra Role Behavior

The salespersons are considered as one of the important sources while interacting between the company and its prospective customers. The purpose is to develop and test the model that involves salespersons performance in the pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan. Specifically, the study demonstrates the effects of salesperson creativity, adaptive selling behaviour, selling experience and customer directed extra-role behavior on salesperson performance. Adaptive selling behaviour has been taken as a mediator in this study. Individual salespersons in different pharmaceutical companies are the population of this study. Total 500 questionnaires were distributed among the salespersons, 367 useful responses were analyzed through structural education modeling (SEM). The results revealed that salesperson creativity has a positive and significant impact on adaptive selling behavior and performance. Furthermore, salespersons experience has significant impact on Original Research Article Ahmad and Akbar; AJEBA, 15(1): 22-34, 2020; Article no.AJEBA. 55611 23 salesperson’s performance. Moreover, the adaptive selling behavior has positive and significant impact on salesperson’s performance. The research finding shows that the moderating role is stronger on the relationship among creativity, adaptive selling behaviour and salesperson performance but it is weaker on the relationship between salesperson experience and salesperson performance. This study is helpful to understand some indicators that could be highly influential on salesperson’s performance. The findings of this paper have some managerial implications for improvising sales team performance.