Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelength dependence of aerosol optical thickness in the UV‐B band

The optical thickness of the atmosphere, τat, was deduced from measurements of narrowband direct solar UV‐B (280–320 nm) radiation. This is the radiation that is strongly absorbed in the stratosphere by ozone, especially near the lower limit wavelength of these measurements, 306.3 nm. Measurement campaigns were organized to obtain radiation data at different sites, for different kinds of aerosol, using the same methods and instruments, in order to deduce the atmospheric optical thickness for different atmospheric conditions. The measurements were made with a Brewer spectrophotometer at each site. This instrument measures also the atmospheric ozone and sulphur dioxide columns, and therefore it is possible to deduce the aerosol optical thickness, τae. The possibility of additional absorptions in the UV‐B band, especially formaldehydes, is investigated. Two data sets are examined: C. Grande and S. Paulo. A large percentage of the data show that the wavelength dependence of the aerosol optical thickness is one that appears to increase with wavelength. In other words, the difference between the absolute values at 320.1 and 306.3 nm, is positive for the majority of cases. However, this difference is not always larger than the uncertainty/error of the measurement. This intriguing result opposes the Angstrom law, applicable to a much larger dynamic range in wavelength. For the C. Grande data (with generally larger values of optical thickness), the difference is positive in 16 out of 19 cases, but there are only 4 cases when the difference is larger than the error. For the S. Paulo morning data, however, the opposite is true. The difference is positive with only one exception, and there are 13 cases out of 17 where the difference is larger than the error.
Current floristic composition, life form and productivity of the grasslands in the Hunting Zone of Djona (Benin)

Objectives : This paper addressed temporal changes in floristic composition, plant communities’ structures and productivity of grasslands. The study was conducted in the Hunting zone of Djona in the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve of W (TBRW) Benin. Methodology and Results : For these purpose 30 plots of 900m² were used and “phytosociological releves” were done following ecological uniformity, floristic homogeneity and samples representativeness to established plants communities. Biomass was estimated in 30 plots of 100 m². Results showed that the greatest productivity value (8320 ± 0.21 kg DM/ha) was observed in Andropogon gayanus-Schizachyrium sanguineum grassland. The dominant life forms in all plants communities of the study area are the phanerophytes followed by therophytes. For chorological types, all plants communities are dominated by the species of the Sudanian base element and species with broad distribution. Conclusions and application of findings: The identified life forms and chorological types showed an evolution of the post farming pastures to woodlands and savannas vegetation, which explains the current floristic composition of the area. Moreover, it will be possible to model the impact of grasslands exploitation on the viability of the protected area particularly in the context of climate change and for this, it’s important to undertake a long-term study in order to take into account all variations and all causes of these variations. Key-words: Grasslands, productivity, floristic composition, protected area, Benin.
EFFECTS OF HABITAT FRAGMENTATION ON THE EURASIAN BADGER (MELES MELES)

Genetic variation in five populations of the Eurasian badger from Denmark was screened, using the hyper-variable minisatellite DNA probe 33.15. Very low genetic variability was found within populations. This lack of variability could be related to the fragmentation of the Danish landscape which reduces the effective population size of local populations and the gene flow between different subpopulations. The present paper discusses the possibility of managing the Danish badger subpopulations as a metapopulation.
Recent Advances in Endothelial Progenitor Cells Toward Their Use in Clinical Translation

Since the discovery of Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPC) by Asahara and colleagues in 1997, an increasing number of preclinical studies have shown that EPC based therapy is feasible, safe, and efficacious in multiple disease states. Subsequently, this has led to several, mainly early phase, clinical trials demonstrating the feasibility and safety profile of EPC therapy, with the suggestion of efficacy in several conditions including ischemic heart disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension and decompensated liver cirrhosis. Despite the use of the common term “EPC,” the characteristics, manufacturing methods and subset of the cell type used in these studies often vary significantly, rendering clinical translation challenging. It has recently been acknowledged that the true EPC is the endothelial colony forming cells (ECFC). The objective of this review was to summarize and critically appraise the registered and published clinical studies using the term “EPC,” which encompasses a heterogeneous cell population, as a therapeutic agent. Furthermore, the preclinical data using ECFC from the PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched and analyzed. We noted that despite the promising effect of ECFC on vascular regeneration, no clinical study has stemmed from these preclinical studies. We showed that there is a lack of information registered on www.clinicaltrials. gov for EPC clinical trials, specifically on cell culture methods. We also highlighted the importance of a detailed definition of the cell type used in EPC clinical trials to facilitate comparisons between trials and better understanding of the potential clinical benefit of EPC based therapy. We concluded our review by discussing the potential and limitations of EPC based therapy in clinical settings.
Self-organization in a hardware context

An increasing speed of technological advancements have, during the last decades, led to increased demands for improved flexibility and reduced time to market for companies in a spread of industries. In response, several companies have investigated alternative organizational methods to cope with the change, where agile methods have largely dominated the software industry. One of the cornerstones within the agile methods is self-organization (Beck et al., 2001), where the team members owns activities as prioritizing, planning, execution and delivery of tasks (Hoda et al., 2010). As organizations within other industries now see the benefits that has been gained by working with agile methods in software, the question has been raised if self-organizing teams are applicable in an environment developing hardware products in large scale. In order to explore the application of self-organization in hardware, this study investigates what effects an implementation will have on the organizationaland product structure in a hardware product development department. To describe and understand the current state of the organization, a map of the communication patterns was created based on interviews and on-site observations. The map provided insights on how the organizational structure is designed and how it relates to the product structure. In addition, the interviews and observations provided insights into the existing capabilities of selforganization at the studied section, PSS140. The study was able to identify several changes in the organizational structure that would occur as a result of increased self-organization at PSS140. By investigating the mirroring hypothesis at PSS140, the study identified that the current product structure was a reflection of the organizational structure. As this relation between product structure and organizational structure was deemed to remain in the future, the researchers were able to forecast changes in the product structure as an effect of changes within the organizational structure
Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Self-efficacy Instrument among Special Education Teachers

Self-efficacy is pivotal in education because of its influence on an individual’s personality and attitudes. It stems from the person’s belief in his or her capabilities to achieve a desired performance level and is especially important to special education teachers who deal with continual teaching challenges. Thus, to contribute to the increasingly challenging field of special education in the 21 st century, this study aims to measure the validity and reliability of a self-efficacy instrument among teachers of the Integrated Special Education Program for Learning Difficulties (ISEPLD). Three subconstructs were measured, namely 1) student engagement, 2) instructional strategies, and 3) classroom management. AMOS software program version 18 was used for the data analysis and values from Comparative Fit Index, Tucker Lewis Index and RMSEA were used to retain and correlate items. An instrument with three subconstructs containing 15 items of nine-point scale was tested in this study. The instrument was administered to 500 participants across Malaysia using the proportional stratified random sampling and by the means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the study has confirmed that the data corresponded to the model. Therefore, it is proposed that the 15-item instrument developed from the three subconstructs can be used in measuring self-efficacy among teachers of ISEPLD in Malaysia.
Optical Measurements of Strong Microwave Fields with Rydberg Atoms in a Vapor Cell

We present a spectral analysis of Rydberg atoms in strong microwave fields using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) as an all-optical readout. The measured spectroscopic response enables optical, atom-based electric field measurements of high-power microwaves. In our experiments, microwaves are irradiated into a room-temperature rubidium vapor cell. The microwaves are tuned near the two-photon 65D-66D Rydberg transition and reach an electric field strength of 230V/m, about 20% of the microwave ionization threshold of these atoms. A Floquet treatment is used to model the Rydberg level energies and their excitation rates. We arrive at an empirical model for the field-strength distribution inside the spectroscopic cell that yields excellent overall agreement between the measured and calculated Rydberg EIT-Floquet spectra. Using spectral features in the Floquet maps we achieve an absolute strong-field measurement precision of 6%.
Estimating quadratic variation when quoted prices jump by a constant increment

Financial assets' quoted prices normally change through frequent revisions, or jumps. For markets where quotes are almost always revised by the minimum price tick, this paper proposes a new estimator of Quadratic Variation which is robust to microstructure effects. It compares the number of alternations, where quotes are revised back to their previous price, to the number of other jumps. Many markets exhibit a lack of autocorrelation in their quotes' alternation pattern. Under quite general 'no leverage' assumptions, whenever this is so the proposed statistic is consistent as the intensity of jumps increases without bound. After an empirical implementation, some useful corollaries of this are given.
The relationship between auditor tenure and audit quality implied by going concern opinions

The debate continues about the relationship between auditor tenure and audit quality in spite of extensive empirical evidence examining audit failures, earnings management, and the issuance of auditor's opinions. Most recent evidence suggests that long auditor tenure does not have a negative impact on audit quality. However, most of the available evidence has been accumulated based on publicly listed companies in the U.S. We examine the effect of auditor tenure on audit quality for private companies in Belgium, an environment where we believe auditor tenure is more likely to have a negative effect on audit quality. We use the likelihood of an auditor issuing a going concern opinion as an indicator of audit quality. Using a sample of stressed bankrupt companies, and stressed nonbankrupt companies, the results indicate that auditors do not become less independent over time nor do they become better at predicting bankruptcy. In balance, the evidence for tenure either increasing or decreasing quality is weak.
The utility of total lightning trends in diagnosing single-cell thunderstorm severity: Examples from the central Appalachians region

The performance of a total lightning jump algorithm for guiding severe thunderstorm warnings within a weakly sheared environment was investigated using data from the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network. Total lightning observations from two summers for a study domain within the central Appalachian Mountains region were clustered into likely thunderstorms using single-linkage clustering. The spatial and temporal characteristics of each flash cluster were evaluated and used to assign a “storm index” (SI) score to each cluster. Small, short-lived, slow-moving, circular clusters—consistent with single-cell thunderstorms— were given large SI scores, and large, long-lived, fast-moving, linear clusters—inconsistent with the single-cell mode—received smaller SI scores. Statistical testing revealed that days with a simple majority of lightningdefined (LD) single-cell storms possessed significantly weaker 0–6-km wind shear than days with a majority of non-single-cell storms. After classifying 470 clusters as either LD single-cell or multicell/supercell, the 2σ lightning jump algorithm was applied to the flashes associated with each cluster. Total lightning jumps identified by the algorithm were aligned with severe weather report data to evaluate the accuracy of the algorithm. Although probability of detection values for both categories compared well to previous studies, false alarm rates were significantly larger than previously documented. The algorithm performed unsatisfactorily among the LD single-cell and multicell/supercell storms studied, and its performance deteriorated further when applied to a subset of storms most clearly defined as single-cell. However, severe LD storms demonstrated greater flash rates, a promising characteristic for future lightning-based warning
Effects of in-situ bioconversion of farm residues on growth and quality of banana cv. nendran in laterite soils of Kerala

Field experiment was conducted to test the response of organic and inorganic nutrition on growth, yield and quality of banana cv. nendran. The treatments used were absolute control, package of practices (300:115:450g N:P2O5:K2O/plant + Farm Yard Manure @ 20 kg/plant), ex-situ vermicompost in silpaulin vermibeds with Perionyx excavatus (20 kg/plant), ex-situ vermicompost in silpaulin vermibeds with Eisenia foetida (20 kg/plant), in-situ vermicompost in crop pits with Perionyx excavatus (20 kg/plant), in-situ vermicompost in crop pits with Eisenia foetida (20 kg/plant) and in-situ compost (20 kg/plant). The package of practises and recommendations (POP) involving combined application of mineral fertilizers and farm yard manure (FYM) recorded the highest bunch yield (10.81kg/plant), while all the organic treatments produced lower but comparable yields. However, higher contents of total sugars (22.42%), reducing sugars (3.71%), non-reducing sugars (18.80%), lower titratable acidity (0.29%) and reduced num ber of days to bunching (206 days) and harvest (297 days) were observed for banana grown under the in-situ mode of organic nutrition. Banana plants treated with compost were found to produce significantly higher and comparable values for quality parameter s like vitamin C and shelf life than that of mineral fertilizer + FYM. Cost: benefit ratio was also higher for the organic treatments than inorganic nutrient management. Increased absorption and translocation of nutrients (N, P, K and Mg) in fruits were observed in banana plants treated with vermicomposts prepared using native worms, P. excavatus. In-situ mode of organic nutrition was found to remarkably improve chemical and biochemical properties (pH, organic carbon, N, Mg, urease and dehydrogenase activity) of the rhizosphere soils. KEYWORDS
Real-time sharing of privacy protected location data in road networks

Location-based applications like nearby information services (e.g., finding the nearest bus station or a hospital), traffic monitoring, urban planning and transport management facilitate the development of smart cities and improve the quality of life for citizens. A user’s location is a sensitive data and can reveal private information about the user’s health, habit and preferences. Due to privacy concerns, people may hesitate to share their locations and prohibit the growth of location-based services and analysis. In this thesis, we develop a novel approach to share privacy protected location data with others in real time. Our approach does not need to trust any party including a centralized server or peers in a distributed setting for protecting location privacy. Researchers have developed techniques for sharing a user’s locations in a privacy preserving manner in the Euclidean space and road networks. However, none of these approaches can ensure both user privacy and data utility in real time. We identify the possible privacy threats in the literature and develop solutions to overcome the privacy attacks. In our approach, a user reveals a cloaked region (i.e., a region that includes her current location) instead of an actual location if the disclosure of the user’s actual location enables others to infer a user’s visit to a sensitive place. Existing approaches fail to protect a user’s privacy for not considering upcoming sensitive locations in advance. We develop a technique to precompute the warning zone, i.e., the refined area where the disclosure of a user’s actual location may enable adversaries to identify the user’s sensitive locations. Warning zones also enable users to reduce the frequency of not sharing locations for privacy reasons and thereby improve the accuracy and utility of shared locations. In addition, we develop an algorithm to compute a user’s cloaked regions using the pre computed warning zones with reduced processing time. We evaluate our proposed approach using a real dataset and compare our algorithm with the most recent stateof-the-art technique in road-networks, in terms of privacy, data utility and computational overhead.
The short-term outcomes of MitraClip implantation: single-center experience in Turkey MitraClip implantasyonunun kisa dönem sonuçlari: Türkiye'den tek merkezli deneyim

Amac: Bu calismada MitraClip implantasyonunun islem basarisi ve erken donem sonuclari degerlendirildi. Ca­lis­ma­pla­ni:­Temmuz 2012 Şubat 2013 tarihleri arasinda klinigimizde 15 hastaya (12 erkek, 3 kadin; ort. yas 60.8±13.0 yil; dagilim 35-78 yil) MitraClip ameliyati uygulandi. Tum hastalar yuksek cerrahi riski bulunan veya kardiyovaskuler cerrahlar tarafindan ameliyat edilemez kabul edilen, semptomatik ciddi fonksiyonel mitral yetersizligine sahipti. Bul gu lar: Islem basarisi %93.33 idi. Biri haric tum hastalara MitraClip basarili bir sekilde implante edildi. Islem sonrasinda mitral yetersizlik siddeti ortalama 2.1±0.5 derece azaldi. Bir aylik takipte hastalarin ortalama NHYA fonksiyonel kapasiteleri 3.9±0.4’den 2.6±0.8’e geriledi. Ilk bir aylik takipte kardiyak disi nedenlere bagli iki olum (%13.33) olayi oldu. So­nuc:­ MitraClip sistemi, cerrahi yuksek riskli veya ameliyat edilemez kabul edilen semptomatik ileri fonksiyonel mitral yetersizligi bulunan hastalarda guvenle uygulanabilir. Ilk deneyimimiz bu hastalarda akut ekokardiyografik ve erken donem klinik iyilesme gostermistir. Anah tar soz cuk ler: MitraClip; mitral yetersizligi; mitral kapak tamiri. Background:­ This study aims to evaluate the procedural success and early outcomes of MitraClip implantation. Methods: Between July 2012 and February 2013, 15 patients (12 males, 3 females; mean age 60.8±13.0 years; range 35 to 78 years) underwent MitraClip implantation in our clinic. All patients had symptomatic severe functional mitral regurgitation with high surgical risk or were judged to be inoperable by the cardiovascular surgeons. Results:­The success of the procedure was 93.33%. MitraClip was successfully implanted in all patients except one. Following the procedure, severity of the mitral regurgitation decreased by 2.1±0.5 grade on average. The mean NYHA functional capacity improved from 3.9±0.4 to 2.6±0.8 after one month during follow-up. Two patients (13.33%) died within the first month of follow-up due to noncardiac causes. Conclusion:­ The MitraClip procedure can be performed safely to the symptomatic patients with severe functional mitral regurgitation who have otherwise high surgical risk or are judged to be inoperable. Our initial experience demonstrated acute echocardiographic and early clinical improvement in these patients.
Role of general practitioner in assessing mental health problems in rural population: Lithuanian experience

Introduction: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of mood disorders in primary care and to identify associated sociodemographic variables. Methods: All patients (n=1235) excluding the ones with psychological and psychiatric disorders were asked to fill in the standard diagnostic WHO-5 Well-being Scale. Data was analyzed by logistic regression analysis. Results: The response rate was 82.3%. Gender, age, educational level, marital status and employment status were predictors of mood disorders. Mood disorder was diagnosed in 38.4% of men and 51.9% of women. The risk of mood disorder was higher in women (OR = 1.87, 95%CI = 1.11-3.14) than men, in older than young people (OR = 2.23, 95%CI = 1.79-6.32), in those with lower educational status (OR = 4.33, 95%CI = 1.52-12.38), in divorcees (OR = 8.18, 95%CI = 2.33-28.71), widowers (OR = 4.45, 95%CI = 1.26-15.72) and unemployed (OR = 5.2, 95%CI = 1.93-14.01). Conclusion: Mood disorders have a high prevalence in Lithuanian people who consult primary care. Thus, general practitioners should pay particular attention to diagnosing mood disorders. WHO-5 well-being scale is simple, sensitive and acceptable tool for the diagnosis of mood disorders.
Small amplitude transverse waves on taut strings: exploring the significant effects of longitudinal motion on wave energy location and propagation

Introductory discussions of energy transport due to transverse waves on taut strings universally assume that the effects of longitudinal motion can be neglected, but this assumption is not even approximately valid unless the string is idealized to have a zero relaxed length, a requirement approximately met by the slinky spring. While making this additional idealization is probably the best approach to take when discussing waves on strings at the introductory level, for intermediate to advanced undergraduate classes in continuum mechanics and general wave phenomena where somewhat more realistic models of strings can be investigated, this paper makes the following contributions. First, various approaches to deriving the general energy continuity equation are critiqued and it is argued that the standard continuum mechanics approach to deriving such equations is the best because it leads to a conceptually clear, relatively simple derivation which provides a unique answer of greatest generality. In addition, a straightforward algorithm for calculating the transverse and longitudinal waves generated when a string is driven at one end is presented and used to investigate a cos2 transverse pulse. This example illustrates much important physics regarding energy transport in strings and allows the ‘attack waves’ observed when strings in musical instruments are struck or plucked to be approximately modelled and analysed algebraically. Regarding the ongoing debate as to whether the potential energy density in a string can be uniquely defined, it is shown by coupling an external energy source to a string that a suggested alternative formula for potential energy density requires an unphysical potential energy to be ascribed to the source for overall energy to be conserved and so cannot be considered to be physically valid.