Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contrasted Saharan dust events in LNLC environments: impact on nutrient dynamics and primary production

The response of the phytoplanktonic community (primary production and algal biomass) to contrasted Sa-haran dust events (wet and dry deposition) was studied in the framework of the DUNE ("a DUst experiment in a low-Nutrient, low-chlorophyll Ecosystem") project. We simu-lated realistic dust deposition events (10 g m −2) into large mesocosms (52 m 3). Three distinct dust addition experiments were conducted in June 2008 (DUNE-1-P: simulation of a wet deposition; DUNE-1-Q: simulation of a dry deposition) and 2010 (DUNE-2-R1 and DUNE-2-R2: simulation of two successive wet depositions) in the northwestern oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea. No changes in primary production (PP) and chlorophyll a concentrations (Chl a) were observed after a dry deposition event, while a wet deposition event resulted in a rapid (24 h after dust addition), strong (up to 2.4-fold) and long (at least a week in duration) increase in PP and Chl a. We show that, in addition to being a source of dis-solved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), simulated wet deposition events were also a significant source of nitrate (NO − 3) (net in-creases up to +9.8 µM NO − 3 at 0.1 m in depth) to the nutrient-depleted surface waters, due to cloud processes and mixing with anthropogenic species such as HNO 3 . The dry deposi-tion event was shown to be a negligible source of NO − 3 . By transiently increasing DIP and NO − 3 concentrations in N–P starved surface waters, wet deposition of Saharan dust was able to relieve the potential N or NP co-limitation of the phy-toplanktonic activity. Due to the higher input of NO − 3 relative to DIP, and taking into account the stimulation of the bio-logical activity, a wet deposition event resulted in a strong increase in the NO − 3 /DIP ratio, from initially less than 6, to over 150 at the end of the DUNE-2-R1 experiment, suggest-ing a switch from an initial N or NP co-limitation towards a severe P limitation. We also show that the contribution of new production to PP strongly increased after wet dust de-position events, from initially 15 % to 60–70 % 24 h after seeding, indicating a switch from a regenerated-production based system to a new-production based system. DUNE ex-periments show that wet and dry dust deposition events in-duce contrasting responses of the phytoplanktonic commu-nity due to differences in the atmospheric supply of bioavail-able new nutrients. Our results from original mesocosm ex-periments demonstrate that atmospheric dust wet deposition Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 4784 C. Ridame et al.: Phytoplanktonic response to Saharan dust events greatly influences primary productivity and algal biomass in LNLC environments through changes in the nutrient stocks, and alters the NO − 3 /DIP ratio, leading to a switch in the nu-trient limitation of the phytoplanktonic activity.
Extremely high variability in the S72 intron of the Amazonian cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi)

Here, a combination of a DNA screening technique, direct sequencing and cloning was used to carry out a large-scale assessment of intron variability in cardinal tetras – the first to be conducted for an Amazonian forest fish. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the levels of DNA variability reported in this study are the highest ever documented for an intron marker.
Hydrologic benchmarking of meteorological drought indices at interannual to climate change timescales: a case study over the Amazon and Mississippi river basins

Widely used metrics of drought are still derived solely from analyses of meteorological variables such as precipitation and temperature. While drought is generally a consequence of atmospheric anomalies, the impacts to soci- ety are more directly related to hydrologic conditions. The present study uses a standardized runoff index (SRI) as a proxy for river discharge and as a benchmark for various meteorological drought indices (scPDSI, SPI, SPEI_th, and SPEI_hg respectively). Only 12-month duration droughts are considered in order to allow a direct (no river routing) com- parison between meteorological anomalies and their hydro- logical counterpart. The analysis is conducted over the Mis- sissippi and Amazon river basins, which provide two con- trasted test beds for evaluating drought indices at both inter- annual (using detrended data) and climate change (using raw data) timescales. Looking first at observations over the sec- ond half of the 20th century, the simple SPI based solely on precipitation is no less suitable than more sophisticated mete- orological drought indices at detecting interannual SRI varia- tions. Using the detrended runoff and meteorological outputs of a five-member single model ensemble of historical and 21th century climate simulations leads to the same conclu- sion. Looking at the 21st century projections, the response of the areal fraction in drought to global warming is shown to be strongly metric dependent and potentially overestimated by the drought indices which account for temperature vari- ations. These results suggest that empirical meteorological drought indices should be considered with great caution in a warming climate and that more physical water balance mod- els are needed to account for the impact of the anthropogenic radiative forcings on hydrological droughts.
Endophytes: Toward a Vision in Synthesis of Nanoparticle for Future Therapeutic Agents

The development of reliable processes for the synthesis of Nanoparticles is an important aspect of nanotechnology. Biologically synthesized nanoparticles could have innumerable applications in different areas such as reception, catalyzers, biolabellers, etc. In the present review, we emphasize the richness of the microbial world which encompasses a plethora of endophytic entities as an emerging tool in the biosynthesis of nanoparticles. The present review is the first of its kind wherein it gives an idea and vision of unexplored applications of endophytes. Keyword: Microorganisms, Endophytes, Nanoparticles, Biosynthesis, Bioconjugation.
iOS Security and Privacy: Authentication Methods, Permissions, and Potential Pitfalls with Touch ID

We investigate the conceptual problem with iOS security, surveying a number of issues encompassing the utilization of biometric authentication. Specifically, we suggest that data collected from fingerprint scans for the purpose of authenticating an iOS user may be recorded by Apple, generating privacy issues. Furthermore, the potential for faking fingerprints, in addition to potential usability issues will be explored. A historical perspective of iOS versions is surveyed from a security standpoint, as well as its future potential moving forward with sophisticated authentication methods.
"Nanotoxicology: A New Perspective of Environmental Analysis-Ecotoxicology and Biodiversity"

Richard P Feynman on December 29, 1959 while addressing his lecture in the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at Caltech on manipulation of atoms as powerful tool in synthetic chemistry research at that time told that “there are plenty of rooms at the bottom”. This means there are huge informations hidden at the atomic scale that may have tremendous applications. This quote makes a revolution in the materials science research and leads to the concept of nanotechnology. Materials at the nanoscale exhibit excellent physical, chemical and electronic properties that have found applications in optoand nano-electronics, sensors, solar-cells, and also in medical science [1-10]. Nano materials based devices are very efficient, having lower power consumptions. Nanoparticles like silver, gold, ZnO, TiO2 etc are now a day’s very commonly used in detergents, toothpastes, sunscreen creams, anti-bacterial pasting, food preservation, and in medicines [11,12]. After use, they directly come in contact with the environment. Moreover, nanoparticles like CdO, CdS, PbS, PbTe etc are produces in the industries and released to the environment. As these nanoparticles have high surface to volume ratio, they can interact widely and in a different manner compared to their bulk counterpart. Usually the nanoparticles used in the daily commodities are not so toxic to the human health but that may be harmful for the other living organisms in soil, air and water. Gold, silver, ZnO exhibit good antibacterial activity against some bacteria like Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus mutans, Vibrio cholerae, Neisseria, Gonorrohea, and Klebsiella pneumonia, fungal pathogens like S. aureus, S. marcescens, P. mirabilis, C. freundii and fungi like A. nidulans, T. harzianum, A. flavus, and R. stolonifer [13,14]. Nanoparticles can easily penetrate the cell membrane of living cells of microorganism and affect their growth, life cycle and stability in nature. This leads to the change in the biodiversity of the soil, air and water [15]. Thus the natural balance may be disrupted at the ground level. Thus toxicological study of nanoparticles has becomes very essential in the present scenario. Numerous and extensive studies have been appeared in recent literature on the toxicological aspects of nanoparticles but still they are not well understood and incomplete. Researchers are also trying to develop new technologies to study the impact of these nanoparticles on the environment and biodiversity.
Learning to Solve SMT Formulas

We present a new approach for learning to solve SMT formulas. We phrase the challenge of solving SMT formulas as a tree search problem where at each step a transformation is applied to the input formula until the formula is solved. Our approach works in two phases: first, given a dataset of unsolved formulas we learn a policy that for each formula selects a suitable transformation to apply at each step in order to solve the formula, and second, we synthesize a strategy in the form of a loop-free program with branches. This strategy is an interpretable representation of the policy decisions and is used to guide the SMT solver to decide formulas more efficiently, without requiring any modification to the solver itself and without needing to evaluate the learned policy at inference time. We show that our approach is effective in practice - it solves 17% more formulas over a range of benchmarks and achieves up to 100x runtime improvement over a state-of-the-art SMT solver.
The Role of Imitation-Based Strategies in the Context of Latecomers

According to numerous investigations (mostly in the context of developed countries), innovation is recognized as a more valuable solution than imitation. As Ordanini, Rubera and DeFillippi (2008) state, ‘the basic assumption is that innovative activity creates positive values, not only for the innovator but also for society as a whole, so that imitation must be limited’. For such emerging economies as latecomers, however, imitation is an important path to innovation and learning (Guo et al., 2013). Imitation occurs frequently in emerging countries and it is acknowledged as an indispensible learning process for latecomer firms. However, there are gaps in understanding successful imitation-based strategies for latecomers. Recognizing this gap, the paper focuses on the imitation-based strategies by clarifying their alternatives, advantages, and limits. The paper closes with exploring the challenges of employing the imitation-based strategies in the context of latecomers. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ss. 81.3. 5796
Trace Driven Simulation of Cache Memories

This thesis evaluates an innovative cache design called, prime-mapped cache. The performance analysis on various application s and programs shows that the primemapped cache performs better than the conventional cache organizations. The performance gain will increase with the increase of the speed gap between processors and memories. The exact cache behavior of numerical applications namely: matrix multiplication and SPEC benchmarks is st udied by varying the cache parameters such as cachesize, linesize and associativi ty. Traces are collected from these programs and miss ratios for instructions and data accesses are compared. Based on the experimental results and depending on the algorithm used, the miss ratios of the prime-mapped cache are found to be 50 to 100% less than for conventional caches. Depending upon the speed difference between processors and memories, with the prime-mapped cache these algorithms can run 30% to 2 times faster than they do on conventional caches.
The Oxford handbook of work and family

"Scholarship and practice concerning work–family issues have exploded over the past several decades. Managing work and family responsibilities is a topic of interest to individuals all across the globe and a frequent topic of conversation in both the private and the public sector. Organizations have a stake too. Programs and policies intended to help individuals manage work and nonwork responsibilities are a major issue of interest with organizations. Work–family scholarship is rich and complex, emanating from multiple disciplines including psychology, management, sociology, economics, and human development studies. The Oxford Handbook of Work and Family assimilates state-of-the-art reviews of both established and cutting edge topics in the work–family field. Issues are addressed that pertain to individuals, families, the context within which individuals and families reside, and practice within organizations. Emerging topics are included that are intended to propel the field forward. The final section of the book is devoted to the development of future research. Leaders in the field who represent different domains and fields of study contribute the chapters in the volume. The volume should serve a multidisciplinary, global audience of work–family scholars, students, and practitioners. "
Extraction of homogeneous fine-grained texture segments in visual images

A new heuristic algorithm is proposed for extraction of all homogeneous fine-grained texture segments present in any visual image. The segments extracted by this algorithm should comply with human understanding of homogeneous fine-grained areas. The algorithm sequentially extracts segments from more homogeneous to less homogeneous ones. The algorithm belongs to a region growing approach. So, for each segment, an initial seed point of this segment is found. Then, from this initial pixel, the segment begins to expand occupying its adjacent neighborhoods. This procedure of expansion of the segment continues till the segment reaches its borders. The algorithm examines neighboring pixels using texture features extracted in the image by means of a set of texture windows. The segmentation process terminates when the image contains no more sizable homogeneous segments. The segmentation procedure is fully unsupervised, i.e., it does not use a priori knowledge on either the type of textures or the number of texture segments in the image. Using black and white natural scenes, a series of experiments demonstrates efficiency of the algorithm in extraction of homogeneous fine-grained texture segments and the segmentation looks reasonable “from a human point of view”.
The Impact of Financial Crisis Upon the Inflationary Process in Romania

The intensification of financial turmoil in September 2008 has determined a contraction of economic activity in most countries around the Globe. Because the real GDP dynamics influence the evolution of consumer prices, the effects of financial crises have been reflected upon inflation rate. To evaluate the impact of the crisis upon inflation rate, we have used a multifactorial regression model in which we included a dummy variable. The results show a positive impact, but a very low one. The effects of financial crisis have revealed upon inflation rate through international prices, consumer demand, leu currency exchange rate fluctuation. In the context of financial crisis, the financial system has become more vulnerable, and, therefore, the necessity of maintaining financial stability slows down the disinflationary process.
Climate and Parent Material Controls Over C Storage and Dynamics in California Upland Soils

Summary A horizon C storage is governed by climate parameters, peaking where intermediate levels of temperature and precipitation coincide. Compared with granitic soils, basalt soils are generally finer textured, but we found no discernable difference between granite and basalt soils along the climate transects, so our data do not support the hypothesis that texture controls bulk C storage. Whilst bulk C is controlled by climate, its distribution across laboratory-separated fractions is governed primarily by texture and/or aggregation, and only secondarily by climate parameters. Relative to basalt soils, we found more mineral-bound C per unit clay and more sensitivity of mineral-bound C to clay in granite soils. So, although texture is an important parameter governing soil C storage, the manifestation of that effect depends on parent material. We do not believe this to be a mineralogy effect (kaolins dominate the clay phases of both soils types), but it may be linked to differences in aggregation structure. The chemically recalcitrant C fraction was higher in basalt than in granite soils and showed distinct responses to texture in the two soil types.
Effects of juniper encroachment on herbage production and biodiversity in a natural grassland: preliminary results.

The encroachment of woody species in natural grasslands has recently increased, especially in arid and semi-arid environments. In the Mediterranean region, this is mainly attributed to the dramatic decrease of the traditional human activities such as pastoral management and fuelwood collection, which controlled the encroachment of woody species. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Juniperus oxycedrus encroachment on herbage production and floristic diversity in a natural grassland. The research was conducted in the area of Megalo Dereio, which is located in Evros region, in north-eastern Greece in 2010. Herbage production was measured and ecological diversity indices were determined at three different shrub cover regimes (open, moderate, dense). Herbage production decreased progressively as juniper cover increased. Floristic diversity was significantly higher in the moderate shrub cover regime, while it was dramatically reduced in the dense shrub cover regime.
CONCEPT OF ORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAICS: OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND MATERIALS

Organic molecules possessing a π-conjugated (hetero)aromatic backbone are capable of transporting charge and interact efficiently with light. Therefore, these systems can act as semiconductors in opto-electronic devices similar to inorganic materials. However, organic chemistry offers tools for tailoring materials’ functional properties via modifications of the molecular units, opening new possibilities for inexpensive device manufacturing. In this presentation, we discuss exploitation of such organic molecular systems in photovoltaics; the operation, advantages, and limitations of molecular donor-acceptor heterojunction structures.
Learning global representations for image retrieval

Since their ground-breaking results on image classification, deep learning methods have shined in many other computer vision tasks such as object detection, semantic segmentation, or image captioning. However, for some problems such as instance-level image retrieval, deep learning methods have led to rather underwhelming results. In fact, for most image retrieval benchmarks, the state of the art is currently held by conventional methods relying on local descriptor matching and re-ranking with elaborate spatial verification. Recent works leveraging deep architectures for image retrieval are mostly limited to using a pre-trained network as local feature extractor. Most efforts have been devoted towards designing image representations suitable for image retrieval. In this paper, we focus on learning these representations. We argue that one of the main reasons for the deep methods lagging behind the state of the art is the lack of supervised learning for the specific task of instance-level image retrieval. To this end, we build upon a recent deep representation for retrieval, the regional maximum activations of convolutions (R-MAC) [10]. We note that all the steps involved to build the R-MAC representation are differentiable, and so its weights can be learned in an end-to-end manner. Based on this observation we make the following contributions:
MODELLING THE MECHANICAL RESPONSE OF TWO-LAYERED ARTERY USING THERMOMECHANICAL ANALOGY APPROACH

Original scientific paper This work deals with the prediction of the mechanical response of a section of a human common carotid artery (CCA). The arterial residual stress state is accounted for using the thermomechanical analogy (TMA) approach, which is applied in this work to model the mechanical response of a two-layered arterial structure. The starting point to model the arterial residual stress state is normally the cut-open section, which is in the case of patient-specific artery not known. With TMA approach, however, instead of using the arterial zero-stress cut-open configuration to predict the arterial residual stress state, a thermomechanical model of the CCA is considered with its zero-stress geometry defined based on the actual CCA in vivo configuration. The approximation to the CCA residual stress state is then obtained by exposing the auxiliary CCA model to a volumetric deformation, enforced via adequate thermal dilatations. The approach is validated on a circular arterial model and by predicting the CCA cut-open zero-stress state.
Toward continuous 4D microgravity monitoring of volcanoes

Four-dimensional or time-lapse microgravity monitoring has been used effectively on volcanoes for decades to characterize the changes in subsurface volcanic systems. With measurements typically lasting from a few days to weeks and then repeated a year later, the spatial resolution of theses studies is often at the expense of temporal resolution and vice versa. Continuous gravity studies with one to two instruments operating for a short period of time (weeks to months) have shown enticing evidence of very rapid changes in the volcanic plumbing system (minutes to hours) and in one case precursory signals leading to eruptive activity were detected. The need for true multi-instrument networks is clear if we are to have both the temporal and spatial reso-lution needed for effective volcano monitoring. However, the high cost of these instruments is currently limiting the implementation of continuous microgravity networks. An interim approach to consider is the development of a collaborative network of researchers able to bring multiple instruments together at key volcanoes to investigate multitemporal physical changes in a few type volcanoes. However, to truly move forward, it is imperative that new low-cost instruments are developed to increase the number of instruments available at a single site. Only in this way can both the temporal and spatial integrity of monitoring be maintained. Integration of these instruments into a multiparameter network of continuously recording sensors is essential for effective volcano monitoring and hazard mitigation.