Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A microscopic and microanalytical study (Fe, Ca) of the teeth of the larval and juvenile Ambystoma mexicanum (Amphibia: Urodela: Ambystomatidae)

We studied the teeth of larvae and one juvenile of the axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum, a urodele species that undergoes partial metamorphosis, by light microscopy of ground sections, backscattered electron imaging and semi-quantitative microanalysis in the scanning electron microscope. By applying these techniques it was possible to identify enamel, enameloid and dentin in the teeth. Iron was found to be present in enamel and enameloid, the concentrations being highest in the enamel. A staining indicative of the presence of iron was observed in the inner dental epithelium of tooth germs. Dentinal tubules mostly followed a straight course, but some recurved over a short distance distally. In larval teeth and teeth of “larval type” in the juvenile individual the dentinal tubules ended in the basal portion of the enameloid. Our results show that in the axolotl, monocuspid teeth of the “larval type” that developed after partial transformation still possess an enameloid layer beneath a thin enamel cap. The findings of the present study are consistent with the view that enameloid matrix is secreted by odontoblasts, while enameloid maturation is (largely) controlled by ameloblasts.
Cadmium Accumulation Characteristic in a Soil-rice System in Zhejiang Province, China

Cadmium (Cd) pollution of rice grain or soil is of increasing concern. This study investigates the concentrations of Cd in soil-rice system in parts area of Zhejiang province and analysis the effects of soil pH and organic matter content on the available Cd concentration in soil and the Cd accumulation of rice grain. The results showed that Cd concentrations in 90 rice grain samples range from 0.01 to 0.31 mg/kg, with an average of 0.1 mg/kg. There is high Cd accumulation in soil that 40% of soil samples were polluted by Cd. The available Cd concentrations in soils had a range of 0.01-0.25 mg/kg, with an average of 0.10 mg/kg. The total Cd concentrations in soil were not the uniquely determined factor for the Cd accumulation of rice grain, Cd concentrations in rice grain were also significantly positive correlated with the available Cd concentrations in soil. The soil pH value and SOM also negatively correlated with available Cd concentrations in soils and Cd concentration in corresponding rice grain. The results indicated the variations of Cd concentration in rice grain were related to Cd concentrations in corresponding soils. Also, soil pH and organic matter content influence the Cd concentrations in soils and affected Cd absorption in rice.
CHARACTERIZATION OF Ribes nigrum L. FRUIT QUALITY IN RELATION TO FRUIT MATURITY, GENOTYPE AND GROWING LOCATION

vii List of Abbreviations Used . viii Acknowledgements: . xi Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Nutrient density . 2 Berry quality characteristics . 4 Fruit maturity . 8 Cultivar . 11 Site . 13 The overall goal of this research . 15 Objectives . 15 Chapter 2.The effect of fruit maturity on Ribes nigrum L. berry quality . 16 Abstract: . 16 . 16 2.
How are science teachers using their TELA laptop

The Digital Horizons: Laptops for teachers scheme provides teachers whose schools opt into the TELA scheme access to a laptop for their exclusive use. This paper reports on a three-year evaluation of the impact of the TELA laptops on teachers’ work. The findings of the evaluation suggest teachers are making substantial use of the laptop for tasks such as lesson planning and preparation, reporting to parents and communication with colleagues. Teachers are making some use of the laptop in the classroom for teaching and learning. Science teachers are amongst the most active users of the laptops and the paper details how ongoing access to a laptop changed the way a third year science teacher planned for teaching and subsequently his interactions with students during lessons. Colleagues and the science head of department noted that the teacher provided a role model for what was possible. This case study highlights the importance of leadership and collaboration in supporting the integration of ICT into science teaching and learning.
Multiple-trait breeding goals - Does genomic selection offer new opportunities?

Multiple-trait genetic evaluations commonly assume a constant genetic correlation between traits across the genome. In a genomic evaluation, it is possible to estimate breeding values for each chromosome an individual carries, and relax the assumption of constant genetic correlation between traits. This study reports on a comparison of two approaches for multipletrait genomic prediction and the effect on response to selection for a total merit index. A multiple-trait model with an effect per chromosome that allowed for different genetic correlations between traits by chromosome was compared with a conventional multiple-trait genomic-BLUP model. When correlations differed considerably between chromosomes, or when heritabilities differed between traits, the model with an effect per chromosome resulted in greater response to selection.
TUTORIALS ON ADAPTIVE MULTIRESOLUTION FOR MESH REFINEMENT APPLIED TO FLUID DYNAMICS AND REACTIVE MEDIA PROBLEMS.

This work aims at evaluating in practical situations the capability of the mesh renement technique based on the multiresolution adaptive method coupled with high resolution spatial and temporal approximations, to recover elementary physical mechanisms by achieving gains in both CPU time and memory use compared to single grid computations. We rst present a summary of the multiresolution procedure. We then describe MR algorithms. Finally, the evaluation of the method is presented on several well known numerical test cases in 1D and multi-D congurations. R esum e. Ce travail a pour objectif d' evaluer dans des situations pratiques, la capacit e d'une m ethode
Harmonic Rhythm: Analysis and Interpretation

An accessible exploration of an important and understudied music theory topic, Swain's book examines the dimensional technique of analyzing harmonic rhythm. Simply defined, harmonic rhythm is the relationship between changes in harmony and perceived changes in rhythm. This phenomenon plays a large role in shaping the texture and style of much of Western music, from Renaissance polyphonic pieces to the works of Debussy. Swain provides a clear and thorough discussion of how harmonic theory works, using a small core of repeated musical examples.
Oil Prices and the Real Exchange Rate in Nigeria

This paper has investigated the relationship between the real oil prices and the Real Exchange Rate. Using time series data covering the period between 1980 and 2010, the result of the Johansen cointegration test suggests a long run equilibrium relationship between the real oil prices and the Real Exchange Rate. This relationship was supported by the Granger Causality test which validated the causal relationship from the real oil prices to the Real Exchange Rate. The result from the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity test suggests persistence of the volatility between the real oil prices and the Real Effective Exchange Rate. The implication of this is that government policies in tackling the impact of fluctuations in real oil prices are important source of stabilizing the movements in the Real Effective Exchange Rate. The Nigerian government should consider this important relationship when formulating and implementing economic policies.
Implementation of Public Finance Management (PFM) Reforms by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture in Zimbabwe (2012)

Abstract For the past three decades, Zimbabwe has instituted strategies which were meant to improve public service delivery in the country. The problem is that not much has been done to evaluate the performance of public institutions in implementation of the reforms. The study evaluates Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture (MESAC) in implementing Public Finance Management (PFM) reforms. The following four United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) principles of good governance are under the spotlight of this study; consensus orientation, efficiency and effectiveness, responsiveness, and accountability and transparency. The main instruments for data collection were semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. The study established that reform implementation in the Ministry is constrained by resource scarcity, brain drain and low motivation levels of employees. The study recommended, among other things equating private and public sector working conditions to attract and retain competent PFM reformers in the Ministry.
Bridging the gap: Sharing responsibility for ecological restoration and wildlife conservation on private lands in the Western Ghats

A major conservation issue, particularly in the tropics, is habitat loss and fragmentation due to developmental activities and increasing human populations. Ecologiste today recognise that much of the once-pristine forests that are now secondary forests, as well as large areas outside existing conservation reserves, harbouring significant levels of biological diversity need to be targeted for long-term conservation. Governmental agencies such as the Forest Department and the conservation community have come to accept that the conventional patrol-and-protect method has its limitations in addressing the increasing threats to such conservation areas. A complementary strategy is to develop conservation plans for protection and improvement by ecological restoration of forests, particularly isolated fragments and degraded areas on private lands. This requires bridging gaps between private landowners, governmental agencies, and nongovernmental conservation organisations and fostering efforts based on mutual cooperation and collaboration as well as developing positive incentives for private landholders involved in conservation of forests and biological diversity. In this paper, we discuss one of the first examples of such an effort of sharing responsibility for long-term conservation in a highly disturbed tropical rainforest region of the Western Ghats.
Monoterpenes' oxidation capacity and rate over a boreal forest

otso Peräkylä1), matthias vogt1), olli-Pekka tikkanen1), terhi laurila1), maija K. Kajos1), Pekka a. rantala1), Johanna Patokoski1), Juho aalto2), taina Yli-Juuti1), mikael ehn1), mikko sipilä1), Pauli Paasonen1)3), matti rissanen1), tuomo nieminen1), risto taipale1), Petri Keronen1), hanna K. lappalainen1), taina m. ruuskanen1), Janne rinne1)4), veli-matti Kerminen1), markku Kulmala1), Jaana Bäck2) and tuukka Petäjä1)
Self-Evaluation and Self-Regulated Learning

This paper focuses on the role of self-evaluation during self-regulated learning. After a discussion of the social cognitive theory of self-regulation, self-efficacy, and achievement goals, two studies of fourth graders. who were learning fraction skills and one ongoing research project with college students enrolled in their first computer class are described. The ongoing research with the college students, elementary education majors, represents a follow-up to the prior research in elementary students' learning of mathematics skills in that it also looks at goals and self-evaluation in the context of self-regulatory learning. Findings reveal that: (1) learning goals are important for self-regulation; (2) self-evaluation is important when it is frequent or conveys information that students may not acquire on their own; and (3) the combination of learning goals and self-evaluation is powerful when self-evaluation is linked directly to the goals and when other factors may preclude self-evaluation. Further research directions in this area are suggested as well as implications for teaching and learning. (Contains 20 references.) (ND) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************
Role of Point Defects in Spinel Mg Chalcogenide Conductors

Close-packed chalcogenide spinels, such as MgSc2Se4, MgIn2S4, and MgSc2S4, show potential as solid electrolytes in Mg batteries, but are affected by non-negligible electronic conductivity, which contributes to self-discharge when used in an electrochemical storage device. Using first-principles calculations, we evaluate the energy of point defects as a function of synthesis conditions and Fermi level to identify the origins of the undesired electronic conductivity. Our results suggest that Mg-vacancies and Mg-metal antisites (where Mg is exchanged with Sc or In) are the dominant point defects that can occur in the systems under consideration. While we find anion-excess conditions and slow cooling to likely create conditions for low electronic conductivity, the spinels are likely to exhibit significant n-type conductivity under anion-poor environments, which are often present during high-temperature synthesis. Finally, we explore extrinsic aliovalent doping to potentially mitigate the electronic conductivi.
The Analysis of Administrators and Staffs Attitude from the Obstacles of Delegation of Authority

This study was conducted to analyze the managersi¯ and employeesi¯ attitude towards obstacles to devolutionin Mazandaran Province Gas Company (Iran). According to the exploratory studies, devolutionobstacles was explored and identified at two dimensions including managersi¯ unwillingness to devolutionand subordinatesi¯ reluctance to accept authority. To analyze the data and to confirm or reject the research questions, first, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the normality of data. Given the non-normality of data, non-parametric tests such as one-sample one-tailed Wilcoxon test, Friedman test for ranking components, and Mann¨CWhitney test were used to identify the employeesi¯ and managersi¯ different perception of obstacles to delegation of authority. Findings of the study indicated that Wilcoxon test was not significant at o.o5; that is, lack of trust and confidence in subordinates, inability of managers in guiding subordinates, lack of controlling processes, managersi¯ sense of insecurity, and unwillingness of managers to delegate authority were not the main obstacles to devolutionby managers in Mazandran Province Gas Company, and their effects were not significant. In line with examining the obstacles effective to the devolutionby subordinates, it was found that the fear of criticism, blame, and dismissal along with the lack of adequate motivation in subordinates were recognized as the most important obstacles to adoption of authority by subordinates in Mazandran Province Gas Company.
Cross-field blob transport in tokamak scrape-off-layer plasmas

Recent measurements show that nondiffusive, intermittent transport of particles can play a major role in the scrape-off-layer (SOL) of fusion experiments. A possible mechanism for fast convective plasma transport is related to the plasma filaments or “blobs” observed in the SOL with fast cameras and probes. In this paper, physical arguments suggesting the importance of blob transport [S. I. Krasheninnikov, Phys. Lett. A 283, 368 (2001)] have been extended by calculations using a three-field fluid model, treating the blobs as coherent propagating structures. The properties of density, temperature and vorticity blobs, and methods of averaging over ensembles of blobs to get the average SOL profiles, are illustrated. The role of ionization of background neutrals in sustaining the density blob transport is also discussed. Many qualitative features of the experiments, such as relatively flat density profiles and transport coefficients increasing toward the wall, are shown to emerge naturally from the blob trans.
Metalheads: The influence of personality and individual differences on preference for heavy metal

Previous studies have reported reliable associations between personality and music preferences, but have tended to rely on cross-genre preferences at the expense of preferences within a single subgenre. We sought to overcome this limitation by examining associations between individual differences and preferences for a specific subgenre of music, namely, contemporary heavy metal. A total of 414 individuals from Britain were presented with clips of 10 tracks of contemporary heavy metal and asked to rate each for liking. Participants also completed measures of the Big Five personality traits, attitudes toward authority, self-esteem, need for uniqueness, and religiosity. A multiple regression showed that stronger composite preference for the heavy metal tracks was associated with higher Openness to Experience, more negative attitudes toward authority, lower self-esteem, greater need for uniqueness, and lower religiosity. In addition, men showed a significantly stronger preference for the tracks than women (d 0.54). These results are discussed in terms of the psychological needs that contemporary heavy metal fills for some individuals.
Activation of silicon implanted with phosphorus and boron atoms by microwave annealing with carbon powder as a heat source

We report the activation of silicon implanted with phosphorus and boron atoms by microwave annealing using carbon powder as a heat source. Silicon substrates were covered with carbon powder and then irradiated with 2.45 GHz microwaves using a commercial microwave oven. Carbon powder effectively absorbs microwaves and heats itself at 1000 °C. Silicon substrates are heated by thermal conduction. We carried out implantations of phosphorus atoms at a concentration of 1.0 × 1015 cm−2 at 75 keV and boron atoms at a concentration of 1.0 × 1015 cm−2 at 25 keV for p- and n-type silicon substrates, respectively. Microwave annealing at 1000 W for 120 s achieved sheet resistivities of 140 and 85 Ω/sq for the phosphorus- and boron-implanted samples, respectively. It also realized the recrystallization of surface amorphized regions caused by implantation. Moreover, low surface recombination velocities of 3.8 × 102 and 2.7 × 102 cm/s were obtained at the top implanted surfaces for the phosphorus- and boron-implanted samples, respectively. Typical diode rectified characteristics and solar cell characteristics with a conversion efficiency of 10.1% were successfully obtained.
Differentially expressed epigenome modifiers, including Aurora kinase A and B, in immune cells of rheumatoid arthritis

Objective— The aim of this study was to identify epigenetic factors that are implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to explore the therapeutic potential of the targeted inhibition of these factors. Methods— PCR arrays were utilized to investigate the expression profile of genes that encod key epigenetic regulator enzymes. Mononuclear cells from RA patients and mice were monitored for gene expression changes, in association with arthritis development in murine models of RA. Selected genes were further characterized by quantitative real-time PCR, Western blot and flow cytometry methods. The targeted inhibition of the upregulated enzymes was studied in arthritic mice. Results— A set of genes with arthritis-specific expression was identified by the PCR arrays. Aurora kinase A and B, both of which were highly expressed in arthritic mice and treatment naïve RA patients, were selected for detailed analysis. Elevated Aurora kinase expression was accompanied with an increased phosphorylation of histone H3, which promotes proliferation of T lymphocytes. Treatment with VX-680, a pan-Aurora kinase inhibitor, promoted B cell apoptosis, provided significant protection against the onset, and attenuated the inflammatory reactions in arthritic mice. Conclusions— Arthritis development is accompanied the changes in the expression of a number of epigenome-modifying enzymes. Drug-induced downregulation of the Aurora kinases, among other targets, seems to be sufficient to treat experimental arthritis. Development of new therapeutics that target the Aurora kinases can potentially improve RA management.
REMOTEVIS: REMOTE VISUALIZATION OF MASSIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

Graphics models for virtual environments are increasingly getting massive, requiring large amounts of memory to store and high end graphics capabilities to render. It may not be possible or desirable to store the entire model in the station where it will be rendered, especially for environments that change. Such virtual models could be stored on a server and streamed to remote clients on demand. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a client-server system to render large virtual environments. Our system can provide the best visualization quality for a wide range in connection bandwidth and latency and the rendering capacity of the client. The system uses a visibility-based geometry representation so that little invisible geometry is sent to the client. Incremental updating and client-side prediction of user motion optimize the communication requiremnts for a given client. We present results of the study conducted on a representative range of the relevant parameters in this paper.
Influence of the speech quality in telephony on the automated speaker recognition

In the following paper the influence of a telephony speech quality on the automated speaker recognition system (ASRS) performance is presented. The speech quality in VoWLAN, GSM and PSTN was objectively measured using Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality method (PESQ). The correlations between speech quality degradations measured as PESQ Mean Option Score (MOS) and ASRS error rates of this evaluation are presented by means of detection error tradeoff (DET) curves. The results show the correlations between MOS and ASRS equal error rate (EER) and promise the objective speech quality measurements can be used in the prediction of ASRS performance.
Transgenerational Effects of Thermal Stress: Impacts On and Beyond Coral Reproduction

Ocean warming causes stress to corals and records reveal that periods of thermal stress are increasing in frequency and severity. Previous studies show that thermal stress negatively impacts the reproductive output of corals. However, the transgenerational impacts of coral bleaching have never been quantified. As a consequence, it is unclear how ocean warming may alter population dynamics due to effects on reproduction and recruitment. This study quantified the transgenerational impacts of thermal stress in Montastraea cavernosa. To assess transgenerational effects of temperature stress during gametogenesis, colonies were exposed to elevated temperature for two weeks four months prior to spawning, and then returned to the reef. At spawning, eggs were collected to measure egg diameter and eggs from stressed females were significantly smaller than those from unstressed females. Then gametes from temperature stressed and unstressed corals were combined to create four fertilization crosses: unstressed female and male, unstressed female with stressed male, stressed female with unstressed male, and stressed female and male. Larvae and juveniles from each cross were kept at ambient (29°C) and elevated (31°C) temperatures. Larvae originating from stressed gametes overall had lower survival, but the separate effects of the male and female revealed paternal transgenerational acclimation and negative maternal effects. There were no transgenerational effects on initial size of juveniles, but elevated temperature in the larval stage decreased initial size. The transgenerational effects on juvenile survival were negative parental effects. Juvenile growth rate was only affected by adult male exposure to thermal stress. Juveniles originating from a thermally stressed male had higher growth rates. The timing of the thermal stress, which was during oogenesis and before spermatogenesis, most likely explains why negative effects were observed from the female and positive effects from the male. These results demonstrate that temperature stress has varying transgenerational effects.