Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global BROOK90 R Package: An Automatic Framework to Simulate the Water Balance at Any Location

The number of global open-source hydrometeorological datasets and models is large and growing. However, with a constantly growing demand for services and tools from stakeholders, not only in the water sector, we still lack simple solutions, which are easy to use for nonexperts. The new R package incorporates the BROOK90 hydrologic model and global open-source datasets used for parameterization and forcing. The aim is to estimate the vertical water fluxes within the soil–water–plant system of a single site or of a small catchment (<100 km2). This includes data scarce regions where no hydrometeorological measurements or reliable site characteristics can be obtained. The end-user only needs to provide a location and the desired period. The package automatically downloads the necessary datasets for elevation (Amazon Web Service Terrain Tiles), land cover (Copernicus: Land Cover 100 m), soil characteristics (ISRIC: SoilGrids250), and meteorological forcing (Copernicus: ERA5 reanalysis). Subsequently these datasets are processed, specific hydrotopes are created, and BROOK90 is applied. In a last step, the output data of all desired variables on a daily scale as well as time-series plots are stored. A first daily and monthly validation based on five catchments within various climate zones shows a decent representation of soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and runoff components. A considerably better performance is achieved for a monthly scale.
Copepoda in the shallow hypersaline Bardawil coastal lake (Egypt): Are there long-term changes in composition and abundance?

Abstract Coastal Lake Bardawil (Egypt) is one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world. In 2009–2010, the authors studied composition, distribution and seasonal dynamics of copepods at 12 sites. A total of 10 species of copepods were recorded in zooplankton during the study period, including 5 Calanoida, 2 Cyclopoida and 3 Harpacticoida. Oithona nana was the most common and most abundant species. All copepods in the lake can be divided into three groups: 1) planktic species that form stable populations, 2) species of Mediterranean plankton incidentally entering the lake from the adjacent sea area, 3) benthic Cyclopoida and Harpacticoida that can be abundant in plankton. Two species – Acartia tonsa and A. danae were recorded here for the first time. The total abundance of copepods in the lake was significantly higher (90 times on average) compared to that observed in 2008–2009 in the waters of the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea. Since 1967, the complex of common and dominant copepod species in the lake has changed significantly. The total average annual copepod abundance varied: in 2002 – it was about 4000 ind. m−3, in 2004 – 152 000 ind. m−3, in 2005 – about 25 300 ind. m−3, and in 2009–2010 – about 56 000 ind. m−3.
Production Regimes and Class Compromise Among European Warehouse Workers

The orderly functioning of global capitalism increasingly depends on the labor of logistics workers. But social scientists have yet to produce nuanced accounts of the labor process in the many ports, warehouses, and distribution centers that lie at the heart of logistics work. In this study, the authors seek to connect the nascent field of critical logistics studies to theories of the labor process in an effort to understand the production regimes that arise in warehouse work under different economic and regulatory conditions. Using qualitative data gathered at four European warehouses owned by the same third-party logistics firm, the authors identify several distinct types of production regimes at these warehouses and analyze the conditions accounting for each. Even in this globally oriented industry in which firms seek to standardize their international operations, locally rooted conditions play a significant role, generating sharply different forms of labor control even within the same firm.
Fluctuating pathogen-mediated selection drives the maintenance of innate immune gene polymorphism in a widespread wild ungulate

Toll-like Receptors (TLR) play a central role in recognition and host frontline defence against a wide range of pathogens. A number of recent studies have shown that Tlrs often exhibit a large polymorphism in natural populations. Yet, there is little knowledge on how this polymorphism is maintained and how it influences disease susceptibility in the wild. We investigated the selective mechanisms by which multiple-pathogens drive the genetic diversity of Tlr genes, as well as the commonly-used Mhc-Drb in European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), an abundant and widespread ungulate in Europe. In a previous work, we showed that some Tlrs exhibit contemporary signature of balancing selection in roe deer. To assess the relative contribution of “heterozygous advantage”, “negative-frequency dependence” and “fluctuating selection”, we tested associations between Mhc-Drb or Tlr variants and infection or co-infection with Toxoplasma and Chlamydia, two intracellular pathogens known to cause reproductive failure in ungulates. We showed that Toxoplasma and Chlamydia exposures vary significantly across space and time with few co-infection events and that the two pathogens act antagonistically on Tlr polymorphism leading to fluctuating selection. By contrast, we only observed Tlr heterozygous advantage for a single pathogen and we did not find evidence of negative-frequency dependence. We did not detect any association with Mhc-Drb. Our study confirmed the importance of looking beyond Mhc genes in wildlife immunogenetic studies. It also emphasized the necessity to consider multiple pathogen challenges and their spatio-temporal variations to improve our understanding of vertebrate defence evolution against pathogens.
Benchmarking of Modular Multilevel Converter Topologies for ES-STATCOM Realization

In recent years, the integration of the high-power static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) and energy storage in the same device has gained interest. Such a system is referred to as ES-STATCOM. Modular multilevel converter (MMC) topologies constitute a promising converter family for ES-STATCOM realization, providing a modular and scalable solution with a high efficiency that handles high-power and high-voltage ratings in grid applications. There is a gap in technical literature discussing the design and the comparison of MMC-based ES-STATCOMs while utilizing batteries to find the most suitable MMC topology for ES-STATCOMs. Therefore, this paper benchmarks MMC family members for ES-STATCOM realization. Both centralized and distributed energy storage approaches are investigated. The proposed design flowcharts can be employed for comparison and optimization purposes. In total, seven topologies are compared in terms of number of cells, required silicon area and total battery volume. Different semiconductor devices and battery types are analyzed. The result indicates that centralized energy storage systems are the most suitable due to their design flexibility, low volume and small silicon area. Moreover, the possibility of using over-modulation in MMC using bridge cells has an important role in the optimization of ES-STATCOM. The results for the adopted case study shows that the decentralized approach can lead to 55% higher silicon area and 30% higher volume than the centralized approach. The double-star bridge cell MMC with centralized energy storage is determined as the most suitable solution for ES-STATCOM systems.
Oral Microbiome and Preterm Birth: Correlation or Coincidence? A Narrative Review

BACKGROUND: Physiological changes that occur during pregnancy involve, as a natural consequence, also modifications of oral microbiome. However, the addition with microbial imbalance due to pre-existing periodontal infection might impair a pathological alteration in the phylogenetic community structure and composition in the oral cavity, exacerbating an inflammatory status, and becoming a potential risk factor for preterm birth. From the empirical findings about the relationship between periodontal pathogens and systemic diseases, a clear interest focused on the potential impact of some periodontal pathogens on the preterm birth risk has emerged. AIM: Exploration of the potential interdependence existing between dysbiosis of oral microbiome and changes in maternal-fetal barrier in premature rupture of membranes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, a Medline search was performed for studies focusing on oral microbioma and its association with pre-term birth, and completed by additional hand searching. Two reviewers independently selected studies and extracted data. The search was restricted to only reports written in English. RESULTS: The electronic search produced 66 items. Six duplicates were found. Among the collected studies, 56 were discarded because they met the exclusion criteria. The articles and reports in our review showed a connection between preterm birth and altered oral microbiome, suggesting a potential key role of Fusobacterium nucleatum, a notable periodontal pathogen involved in several pathological periodontal conditions, in increasing the risk of premature birth. CONCLUSIONS: Since F. nucleatum is frequently associated with preterm birth, it is coherent to hypothesize a potential role for the oral microbiota for preterm birth risk. Further studies should be carried out to determine the changes of the oral microflora in pregnancy and to provide comprehensive knowledge of the diversity of oral bacteria involved in preterm birth.
Evaluation of Three Commercial Biopesticides for the Reduction of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae) Populations

Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, is the most serious threat to the global citrus industry, and its management has mainly depended on the application of chemical insecticides. The use of biopesticides can play an important role in regulating this pest. In a first test, two separate experiments were conducted in two different municipalities (Apulo and Jerusalen, Cundinamarca, Colombia) to evaluate the effect of foliar Beauveria bassiana and imidacloprid sprays on ACP populations in 2015 and 2016, respectively. In a second test, two separate tests were carried out in commercial Tahiti lime orchards to evaluate the efficacy of three different commercial biopesticides (Beauveria bassiana and extracts of Sophora sp. and garlic-chili pepper). In test 1, imidacloprid-treated trees showed a reduction (60% and 80%) in cumulative ACP adults in 2016. ACP cumulative nymphs were also diminished by foliar imidacloprid and B. bassiana application, between 40% and 65% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. ACP cumulative eggs showed lower individuals in imidacloprid-treated flushes at 3 and 4 weeks after treatment 9 (WAT) in 2016. In test 2, the results obtained showed ACP adults and eggs unaffected by biopesticide treatments; nymphs were reduced 50% to 75% in trees treated with the three biopesticides in comparison with control trees. All three biopesticides tested can be considered useful tools in integrated pest management (IPM) programs for ACP, since these products reduced immature ACP individuals between 50% and 75% under field conditions.
Refer360∘: A Referring Expression Recognition Dataset in 360: A Referring Expression Recognition Dataset in 360∘ Images Images

We propose a novel large-scale referring expression recognition dataset, Refer360°, consisting of 17,137 instruction sequences and ground-truth actions for completing these instructions in 360° scenes. Refer360° differs from existing related datasets in three ways. First, we propose a more realistic scenario where instructors and the followers have partial, yet dynamic, views of the scene – followers continuously modify their field-of-view (FoV) while interpreting instructions that specify a final target location. Second, instructions to find the target location consist of multiple steps for followers who will start at random FoVs. As a result, intermediate instructions are strongly grounded in object references, and followers must identify intermediate FoVs to find the final target location correctly. Third, the target locations are neither restricted to predefined objects nor chosen by annotators; instead, they are distributed randomly across scenes. This “point anywhere” approach leads to more linguistically complex instructions, as shown in our analyses. Our examination of the dataset shows that Refer360° manifests linguistically rich phenomena in a language grounding task that poses novel challenges for computational modeling of language, vision, and navigation.
Post-replicative resolution of under-replication

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Prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in buffaloes in Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar districts of Sindh, Pakistan

An investigation in buffaloes was carried out in Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar districts, Sindh province, Pakistan to determine the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis. The buffaloes (n=120) were first screened through single intradermal tuberculin test (SITT), then their sera were used for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Attempts were further made to isolate the Mycobacterium bovis organism from the milk samples using traditional culture test. Overall prevalence of 4.16%, 8.33% and 2.5% was recorded by SITT, ELISA and culture test respectively. A somewhat higher prevalence was recorded in Tando Allahyar district (SITT 6.66%; ELISA 10%; culture test 5%) as compared to Hyderabad district (SITT 1.66%; ELISA 6.66%; culture test 0%). Statistical analysis did not show any association (P> 0.05) of herd size, sex, age, milk yield and farming type with the prevalence of the disease. Whereas, SITT showed a significant (P Less than 0.05) association of sex, age and milk yield with the prevalence of the disease in Tando Allayer district. The results of present study revealed that bovine tuberculosis is present in apparently healthy buffalo herds of Hyderabad and Tando Allayer districts. Moreover, infected animals shed the M. bovis pathogen in milk that could be a potential hazard to public health.
Efficiency of acerophagus papayae on different host stage combinations of papaya mealybug, paracoccus marginatus

Acerophagus papayae is a koinobiont endoparasitoid of the invasive papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus and has been introduced as a classical bio-control agent of the mealybug in many countries. Considering the importance, parasitism efficiency of A. papayae against various life stages of P. marginatus was conducted in choice experiments. Results suggested that A. papayae showed higher parasitism efficiency towards third instar female nymphs and adult female P. marginatus in comparison to second instar male. However, second instar male nymphs were more preferred in comparison to second instar female nymphs. Acerophagus papayae exhibited a highly significant sex-biased development ratio as a female dominant progeny emerged while feeding on female hosts and vice versa. No difference was recorded in the developmental time of male and female A. papayae, however, females matured one day later than males. The only gregarious behaviour of A. papayae was recorded on adult female P. marginatus as more than one adult parassitoid emerged from a single host. Study results suggested that A. papayae has a tremendous potential to be utilized in classical biological control programs against P. marginatus as it showed more preference towards female hosts; hence not only reducing available pest population but also will affect the pest population of next generation.
Performance Comparison between SVM and K-Means for Vehicle Counting

Support vector machine (SVM) and K-means have been two well known methods used in classification. Choosing an accurate classifier for good features to differentiate between the foreground and background has a significant effect in increasing the accuracy of the detection. This paper presents and analyzes performance comparison between SVM and K-means classifiers for vehicle counting targeted for intelligence transportation systems (ITS) application. In particular, precision and recall have been used for the comparison between the two methods. Five videos from different weather conditions have been used for the testing purposes. SVM shows a better performance in terms of precision and recall.
Available Phosphorus and Calcium Reduction in the Finisher Phase and Phytase Utilization on Broilers

SUMMARY The objective of this study was to access/identify the effects of phosphorus (P) restriction as a result of non-inclusion of monocalcium phosphate on broiler's diet after 21 d of age and the use of high doses of phytase (PHY). Broilers were divided into 4 treatments: positive control (PC), with phosphate inclusion; with phytase (WPHY), a reduction of 0.15% of available P and calcium (Ca) with the inclusion of 1,000 FYT; and 2 treatments with P restriction starting at 21 d of age: Without phosphate (WoP) and without phosphate supplemented with 4,000 FYT PHY (WoP+4000 FYT). Broilers performance (WG, FI, and FCR) and bone characteristics (bone weight, mineral residue, and Ca and P ratio) were assessed at 41 d of age. In relation to performance, the exclusion of monocalcium phosphate from the diet resulted in worse WG and FCR. However, the inclusion of higher PHY dose (WoP+4000 FYT) overcame the mineral deficiency, and performance was similar to treatments that met bird's mineral requirements (PC and WPHY). The treatment with mineral restriction (WoP) had the worst results in every bone quality assessment. However, broilers of WoP+4000 FYT group had bone parameters similar to PC and WPHY. Therefore, removing phosphate in grower and finishing phases has negative impacts on broiler's performance and bone conformation, but adding high phytase dosage (4,000 FYT) overcome this damages.
Annual bacterial community cycle in a seasonally ice‐covered river reflects environmental and climatic conditions

Bacteria are key players in biogeochemical cycles and control water quality in freshwater ecosystems. Nevertheless, little is known about the identity and ecology of riverine bacteria, especially during ice‐covered periods that are often mistakenly perceived as periods with negligible biological activities. Here, we analyzed in detail the effects of environmental and climatic conditions on freshwater bacterial community structure and diversity over a 2‐yr sampling campaign, targeting a seasonally ice‐covered river of the Quebec City (Canada) area, the Saint‐Charles River. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and 16S ribosomal RNA gene high‐throughput sequencing demonstrated a strong seasonal cycle of the bacterial community composition with rapid successions of bacterial lineages, reflecting the harsh climatic condition of the region. During the summer, the bacterial community was dominated by typical freshwater microorganisms such as Limnohabitans, Sporichthyaceae hgcI/acI clade, and Pseudarcicella. In contrast, the results suggest that during the cold season, the low water temperatures, combined with other prevailing conditions such as reduced light availability and minimal particulate inputs from the catchment, created various environmental niches for potential methanotrophic Gammaproteobacteria, such as Crenothrix and Methylobacter, other Betaproteobacteria, such as Candidatus Methylopumilus, Candidatus Nitrotoga, and Rhodoferax, as well as Verrucomicrobia and Parcubacteria. The presence of these taxa in the winter suggests active carbon, iron, and nitrogen cycling under ice, whereas summer lineages are dormant or in a phase of reduced activity. These results increase our understanding of bacterial dynamic and potential metabolic processes occurring in seasonally ice‐covered inland waters, providing evidence that winter can be an especially important period for freshwater ecological processes.
Actividad fotosintética y asociación bacteriana en semillas de la fanerógama marina Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile

La semilla de Posidonia oceanica es de color verde y al desprenderse del fruto queda libre en el mar en contacto con microorganismos marinos. Por estas dos razones nuestras hipotesis fueron confirmar si La semilla de Posidonia oceanica, y dos parientes australianas: Posidonia australis y Posidonia sinuosa tienen actividad fotosintetica y si la semilla crea alguna relacion con microorganismos marinos, (Marinomonas posidonica y Marinomonas mediterranea.). Nuestros resultados concluyeron que tanto Posidonia oceanica como Posidonia australis y Posidonia sinuosa, desarrollan fotosintesis, al menos 3 meses tras la germinacion, es funcional y aumenta el desarrollo foliar y exito en la germinacion. Asimismo, supone un mecanismo de compensacion de la respiracion de la semilla durante la germinacion y fue adquirido de un antecesor comun durante el Eoceno. Por ultimo, los datos confirmaron que Marinomonas Posidonica genera la estimulacion en el crecimiento de las plantulas y modifica la comunidad de epifitos asociada. Palabras clave: Fotosintesis, semilla, Posidonia, Marinomonas. The seed of Posidonia oceanica is green coloured and when is liberated from the fruit is in touch with marine microorganims. These two reasons make suggest next hypothesis: Does develop, the seed of Posidonia oceanica, and the seed of two Australian species: Posidonia australis and Posidonia sinuosa, photosynthesis activity? and is there any relationship between the seed of P. oceanica and the marine bacterias (Marinomonas posidonica y Marinomonas mediterranea)? Results concluded that the seed of Posidonia oceanica, Posidonia australis and Posidonia sinuosa, develop photosynthesis activity, at least 3 months alter germination, is functional and improve leaf growth and germination success. Likewise, this photosynthetic activity is considered a compensatory mechanism from one common ancestor during the Eocene. Finally, data confirmed that Marinomonas Posidonica stimulates foliar growth and changes in the community of epiphyts. Key words: Photosynthesis, Seed, Posidonia, Marinomonas
Towards harder soft governance? Monitoring climate policy in the EU

ABSTRACT In the emerging debate on ‘harder soft governance,’ the relationship between hard and soft elements has not been fully explored. This paper addresses this gap by looking at the changing nature of policy monitoring, a quintessentially soft governance mechanism. It focuses on climate change, a dynamic site of policy expansion and experimentation in which the EU has historically been an international frontrunner. This paper finds that a range of ‘harder’ elements have been added to the EU's climate policy monitoring over time, including more explicit legal provisions, greater external publicity, and more concrete links to other policy processes. These changes have emerged from politically sensitive negotiations between many actors, principally the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Environment Agency (who together have generally favoured greater hardening), and Member States (some of whom preferred softer governance) in the context of changing international opportunities and constraints. Moving forward, this paper highlights the need for more research on the efficacy of policy monitoring, especially with respect to the EU's significantly more ambitious long-term decarbonisation targets.