Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of light on the stable carbon isotope composition of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum

Changes in the stable carbon isotope composition of Thalassia testudinum (turtle grass) leaves were measured in response to in sltu light-reduction treatments in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Leaf SI3C values of shaded T. testudinum were significantly lower than those of unshaded controls in both shallow (0.75 m below MLW) and deep (2 m below MLW) sites. Changes in leaf 6I3C were correlated with differences in the relative amount of light reaching the experimental treatments, and the magnitude of the responses increased between 1 and 3 mo after initiation of the shade treatments. Because of the close proximity of the experimental and control sites, the decrease in 6I3C in response to shading probably reflects a process (i.e. isotopic fractionation) effect rather than a source (i.e. dissolved inorganic carbon) effect. Greater isotopic fractionation in shaded 1 testudinum may reflect reduced carbon demand and, hence, greater relatlve availability of carbon at lower irradlances. Thus, as llght is reduced to levels that limit photosynthetic rates in T testudinum, carbon appears to become non-limiting. During photosynthetic carbon fixation, plants discriminate (i.e. fractionate) between 13C and 12C because of small dissimilarities in physical and chemical properties caused by the mass difference. Isotopic fractionation is useful for investigating the efficiency of CO2 uptake associated with photosynthesis (Peterson & Fry 1987). In terrestrial plants, differences in 6l3C. values, reflecting variation in isotopic fractionation, can be used to separate various photosynthetic pathways (e.g. C3 VS C4; Whelan et al. 1970). In aquatic systems, fractionation of the stable isotopes of carbon is more difficult to understand because of the importance of diffusion (O'Leary 1988). The relatively high SI3C (%) = [(Rsample/Rr,andard) l ] X 1000; R = 13C/''C; standard is a Cretaceous belemnite from the Pee Dee Formation (PDB), South Carolina, USA, which is given an arbitrary 6I3c value of 0.0 % ratios of 13C to 12C characteristic of seagrasses (613C values range from 3 to -19 %m; McMillan 1980) are thought primarily to reflect physical (i.e. diffusion) constraints on the supply of carbon used in photosynthesis (Abel 1984). Seagrass 8l3C values can be affected by oxygen concentration, temperature, and light intensity (Benedct & Scott 1976, Smith et al. 1976, McMillan 1980, McMillan & Smith 1982, Cooper 1989, Cooper & DeNiro 1989), but most of these effects can ultimately be explained by their influence on COzl,,, availability
Mechanical and Structural Properties of Maltodextrin/Agarose Gel Composites

Abstract When two biopolymers are mixed together, they will normally phase separate to give two distinct phases. If the biopolymers are gelled during this phase separation, for instance by reducing the temperature, one phase is trapped in this other one and an emulsion-like composite structure is obtained. In this study, we investigated the effect of volume fraction and droplet size of this dispersed phase on the mechanical properties of maltodextrin/agarose gel composites, where agarose is the dispersed phase. Mechanical properties of the different composites were investigated under large deformation using a rheometer with a vane geometry. These composites were also observed by confocal microscopy, allowing conclusions to be drawn regarding the microstructural origins of the observed mechanical behaviour.
CUTE Labs: Low-Cost Open-Source Instructional Laboratories for Cloud Computing Education

Compared to the fast development of cloud-based applicatio ns and technology, higher education on cloud computing is seriously lagging be hind. Built upon our experience on cloud computing education in the past years, a se t of laboratories for Cloud compUTing Education (referred as the CUTE labs) has been dev eloped and evaluated. The CUTE labs cover four major areas: the platform explorati n labs, the big data labs, the cloud economics labs, and the security and privacy labs. They are designed to use publicly available free cloud resources and open sour ce software with no special requirement on computing infrastructures, so that the y can be easily adopted and adapted at low cost. Currently, we have developed thirteen l abs, among which eleven have been deployed during 2009-2015 and six have been evalua ted during 2014-2015. The preliminary results show that these labs have successfu lly reached their initial design goals.
Interaction of inorganic and organic compounds of physiological fluids with thermally treated Ti surfaces

The study of the interaction between the thermally treated Ti (TT-Ti) at 277 °C for 5 hours and the body fluids, ranging from the simplest to the most complex solution is analysed. Electrochemical techniques such as the measurement of the corrosion potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the polarization curves have been used. The characterization of TT-Ti has been performed by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS reveals that the peak intensity associated with phosphate and calcium increases as immersion time does. However, the albumin covers rapidly the surface since the C peak intensity remains constant from the first day to the end of immersion time. The calcium ions have a bridging effect on the electrostatic adsorption of phosphate ions as well as that of albumin and the acidic hydroxyl groups of the oxide layer. The impedance measurement shows that the resistance of the oxide layer immersed in albumin and foetal bovine serum decrease probably due to the formation of organometallic complex. The polarization curves reveal that the presence of proteins decreases the current of anodic branch indicating that the proteins work as a barrier on the surface.
Geotechnical Aspects of the Mw 6.2 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand, Earthquake

The 22 February 2011, Mw6.2 Christchurch earthquake is the most costly earthquake to affect New Zealand, causing an estimated 181 fatalities and severely damaging thousands of residential and commercial buildings. This paper presents a summary of some of the observations made by the NSF-sponsored GEER Team regarding the geotechnical/geologic aspects of this earthquake. The Team focused on documenting the occurrence and severity of liquefaction and lateral spreading, performance of building and bridge foundations, buried pipelines and levees, and significant rockfalls and landslides. Liquefaction was pervasive and caused extensive damage to residential properties, water and wastewater networks, high-rise buildings, and bridges. Entire neighborhoods subsided, resulting in flooding that caused further damage. Additionally, liquefaction and lateral spreading resulted in damage to bridges and to stretches of levees along the Waimakariri and Kaiapoi Rivers. Rockfalls and landslides in the Port Hills damaged several homes and caused several fatalities.
THE BEHRENS-FISHER PROBLEM; A COMPARISON OF TEST PROPERTIES WHEN OBSERVATIONS ARE NOT NECESSARILY NORMAL

The Behrens-Fisher problem is the problem of testing the hypothesis of equality of the means of two normal distributions with possibly unequal variances. Three tests to take care of this problem have been developed by Welch and Scheffe. The properties of these tests are compared with the properties of the ordinary T test and the Wilcoxon test both asymptotically and by stochastic simulation. In addition to considering the normal situation, which has been studied previously, simulations are performed with observations generated from a number of distributions -both symmetric and with heavy right tails. We find that Welch' tests have best overall performance.
Supplier performance evaluation: lessons from a large multinational organisation

Purpose – Progressive organisations are developing proactive supplier‐based strategies in order to integrate key suppliers into their processes and systems. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach that helps to identify best performing suppliers and eliminate those that do not add value in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the materials supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – This case study focuses on the development of a supplier performance rating tool for a large multinational organisation. The paper presents a profile of the organisation, the problems encountered, the development and implementation of the supplier rating tool and the lessons learned.Findings – The implementation of the tool resulted in a 2.9 fold reduction in the number of suppliers from 23,225 to 8,024 and a 2.6 fold reduction in the value of inventory held from $15.24 million to just over $5.86 million.Practical implications – Reducing the number and improving the quality of suppliers resulted in i.
On statistical independence and no-correlation for a pair of random variables taking two values: Classical and quantum

It is well known that when a pair of random variables is statistically independent, it has no-correlation (zero covariance, $E[XY] - E[X]E[Y] = 0$), and that the converse is not true. However, if both of these random variables take only two values, no-correlation entails statistical independence. We provide here a general proof. We subsequently examine whether this equivalence property carries over to quantum mechanical systems. A counter-example is explicitly constructed to show that it does not. This observation provides yet another simple theorem separating classical and quantum theories.
Clostridium Perfringens Sepsis With Massive Intravascular Haemolysis: A Rare Presentation

Massive intravascular haemolysis is a rare but well-known complication of Clostridium perfringens sepsis. Presence of fever, intravascular haemolysis, numerous spherocytes in peripheral blood smear and septic shock should raise this clinical suspicion. We describe the case of a 66-year-old male who was admitted in the Emergency Room complaining of abdominal pain, vomiting, fever and dark red urine. No relevant findings in physical examination were found. Laboratory tests revealed massive intravascular haemolysis (minimum haemoglobin of 4 g / dL). Ultrasound of the upper abdomen did not show relevant findings. Six hrs later his clinical condition suddenly deteriorated, evolving to septic shock. He was promptly admitted in the Intensive Care Unit but his condition continued to deteriorate very rapidly, with severe multiple organ failure. He died a few hrs later despite full organ support and large spectrum antibiotic therapy. Clostridium perfringens was identified in blood cultures taken before death . The post-mortem evaluation revealed a high stage of body decomposition suggesting presence of gas-producing bacteria precluding the execution of the autopsy. Though this is a very rare clinical condition, the suspicion of clostridium sepsis mandates the immediate prescription of antibiotic therapy and aggressive focus control in order to change the dismal prognosis associated with this entity. doi:10.4021/jmc583w
Hydrothermal growth of BaTiO 3 on TiO 2 single crystals

The hydrothermal growth of polycrystalline BaTiO3 deposits on the surface of TiO2 rutile single crystals has been studied with respect to the following parameters: (a) small quantities of Sr (1.0 and 0.04 at.%) in the Ba(OH)2 aqueous solution and (b) crystallographic surface of TiO2. For this purpose, the substrates were immersed in hydrothermal baths at temperatures between 100 and 200 C for 4 h. It was found that the deposits grown with the high purity Ba(OH)2 reagent (Sr 0:04 at.%) exhibited grains with a pronounced crystal habit of octahedral shape with well-defined {1 1 1} faces. The grains grew at temperatures as low as 100 C. The strontium rich Ba(OH)2 solution (Sr 1:0 at.%) led to grains of spherical shapes, which appeared only at temperatures of 150 C and above. The use of single crystal substrates with different orientations strongly influences the growth of the BaTiO3 layer: the same treatment to deposit BaTiO3 on the (0 0 1) TiO2 face did not produce BaTiO3 on the (1 1 0) surfaces. This result can be interpreted in term of the stability of the single crystal surfaces and the related dissolution of TiO2. The samples were characterized by means of XRD, RBS, EDX, XPS, SEM (secondary and backscattered electrons), WDS, TEM and AFM. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Measure of location-based estimators in simple linear regression

In this note we consider certain measure of location-based estimators (MLBEs) for the slope parameter in a linear regression model with a single stochastic regressor. The median-unbiased MLBEs are interesting as they can be robust to heavy-tailed samples and, hence, preferable to the ordinary least squares estimator (LSE). Two different cases are considered as we investigate the statistical properties of the MLBEs. In the first case, the regressor and error is assumed to follow a symmetric stable distribution. In the second, other types of regressions, with potentially contaminated errors, are considered. For both cases the consistency and exact finite-sample distributions of the MLBEs are established. Some results for the corresponding limiting distributions are also provided. In addition, we illustrate how our results can be extended to include certain heteroskedastic and multiple regressions. Finite-sample properties of the MLBEs in comparison to the LSE are investigated in a simulation study.
Comparing Approaches for Evaluating Digital Interventions on the Shop Floor

The introduction of innovative digital tools for supporting manufacturing processes has far-reaching effects at an organizational and individual level due to the development of Industry 4.0. The FACTS4WORKERS project funded by H2020, i.e., Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories, aims to develop user-centered assistance systems in order to demonstrate their impact and applicability at the shop floor. To achieve this, understanding how to develop such tools is as important as assessing if advantages can be derived from the ICT system created. This study introduces the technology of a workplace solution linked to the industrial challenge of self-learning manufacturing workplaces. Subsequently, a two-step approach to evaluate the presented system is discussed, consisting of the one used in FACTS4WORKERS and the one used in the “Heuristics for Industry 4.0” project. Both approaches and the use case are introduced as a base for presenting the comparison of the results collected in this paper. The comparison of the results for the presented use case is extended with the results for the rest of the FACTS4WORKERS use cases and with future work in the framework.
The Relationship Between Evolvability and Robustness in the Evolution of Boolean Networks

Robustness and evolvability have traditionally been seen as conflicting properties of evolutionary systems, due to the fact that selection requires heritable variation on which to operate. Various recent studies have demonstrated that organisms evolving in environments fluctuating non-randomly become better at adapting to these fluctuations, that is, increase their evolvability. It has been suggested that this is due to the emergence of biases in the mutational neighborhoods of genotypes. This paper examines a potential consequence of these observations, that a large bias in certain areas of genotype space will lead to increased robustness in corresponding phenotypes. The evolution of boolean networks, which bear similarity to models of gene regulatory networks, is simulated in environments which fluctuate between task targets. It was found that an increase in evolvability is concomitant with the emergence of highly robust genotypes, where evolvability was defined as the populations adaptability. Analysis.
The Peeping Eye in the Sky

In this paper, we investigate the threat of drones equipped with recording devices, which capture videos of individuals typing on their mobile devices and extract the touch input such as passcodes from the videos. Deploying this kind of attack from the air is significantly challenging because of camera vibration and movement caused by drone dynamics and the wind. Our algorithms can estimate the motion trajectory of the touching finger, and derive the typing pattern and then touch inputs. Our experiments show that we can achieve a high success rate against both tablets and smartphones with a DJI Phantom drone from a long distance. A 2.5" NEUTRON mini drone flies outside a window and also achieves a high success rate against tablets behind the window. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to systematically study drones revealing user inputs on mobile devices and use the finger motion trajectory alone to recover passcodes typed on mobile devices.
Dementia is more frequent in women

Demencija je sindrom globalnog i progresivnog ostecenja stecenih kognitivnih sposobnosti pri ocuvanoj svijesti prouzrocen organskom bolescu sredisnjeg živcanog sustava u kojem su posebno ostecene sposobnosti pamcenja, ucenja, apstraktnog misljenja, orijentacije te poimanja vidno‐prostornih odnosa. Prevalencija i incidencija Alzheimerove bolesti (AB), najcesceg uzroka demencije, znatno je veca kod žena nego kod muskaraca, a ta se razlika s dobi povecava. Dvostruko veca ucestalost AB kod žena u odnosu na muskarce djelomicno se može objasniti time sto žene imaju ocekivano dulji životni vijek. Žene imaju losiju kognitivnu izvedbu na mnogim neuropsihologijskim testovima u odnosu na muskarce u istom stadiju bolesti, odnosno visestruke kognitivne funkcije kod žena teže su i sire zahvacene nego kod muskaraca. Moguci razlozi za ovakvu nepovoljnost naspram žena su redukcija estrogena u postmenopauzi, vece kognitivne rezerve muskaraca te utjecaj apolipoproteina E. Određeni bioloski cimbenici također bi mogli objasniti razlicite klinicke manifestacije AB s obzirom na spol. Osim sto prema prezentiranim podatcima žene cesce obolijevaju od AB, žene su također te koje u bitno vecoj mjeri pružaju neformalnu njegu ljudima s demencijom, te su oko dvije trecine neformalnih njegovatelja žene. Zakljucno, u daljnjem istraživackom i klinickom radu s AB svakako bi trebalo obratiti pozornost na spoznaje o spolnim razlikama u razvoju i progresiji ove bolesti.
Construction of Upper Bound of Minimum Weight of An Even Formally Self Dual Code Over GF(4)

In this correspondence, we have constructed an upper bound of minimum weight of an even formally self dual code over GF(4). We have related the properties of self dual codes over GF(4) and discussed to isolate two classes of codes for which the minimum distance d ≤ 2[n/6]. They have established that the minimum weight of an even formally self dual code of length n satisfies d ≤ 2[n / 6]+2 except for the cases n = 12 and n = 14.
Stress and Coping Mechanisms: A Historical Overview

Stress is not new experience to all of us, it’s seen as modern society’s illness, as most people, no matter how well adjusted, will suffer at least short-term distress while they negotiate periods of transition, trauma, challenges and loss. Stress has great impact on one performance and efficiency; however, the intense pressure and the demands of coping determine the consequence of stress on performance. Therefore, this paper discusses on the relationship between stress and coping mechanisms. The purpose of this study is twofold: to understand the history of stress related problems, and to provide suitable model that brings all ways of coping mechanism into one. Eventually, the important variables or factors associated with stress, and their direct or indirect effects on various outcome measures such as mental health, physical health, and performance will be taken into account. The result and the explanations of this literature might help everyone to find out the main reason for their stressors, best way to cope and greatest technique to use in managing stress. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015. v6n2s1p479
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF IRISAUTHENTICATION SYSTEM INWAVELET DOMAIN

Biometric technologies are considered more secure with respect to other authentication techniques based on password and ID card. Most reliable biometric technology in terms of identification and verification is based on iris. Iris recognition nevertheless is computationally very costly and complicated system. Feature extraction is a significant task in the overall processing of iris recognition system. Most discerning information present in an iris must be extorted to provide accurate recognition of individuals. A feature extraction technique is believed valuable if it decreases the size of the feature template and computational speed as well as provides high accuracy. This paper evaluates performance of basis wavelets for iris feature and optimal wavelet transform is determined among Haar, Daubechies, Symlet and Reverse Biorthogonal wavelets. Optimal performance is acquired with db10 wavelet. With proposed iris authentication system FAR, FRR and size of feature template is reduced up to 0%, 0.62%, and 1216 bits respectively.
Concepts and Design of Novel Integrated Photonic Devices based on Silicon-organic Hybrid Technology

This doctoral thesis is about the development of integrated photonic devices through the implementation of electro-optical organic materials in a CMOS-like production line. Slot-waveguide structures are the key element in order to integrate organic materials into silicon photonics. For that reason, slot-waveguides have been employed in order to develop high-speed modulators for telecommunication interconnects (Weimann et al., 2014). The major advantage of slot-waveguides is the fact that the guided light is confined in between two silicon rails (Almeida et al., 2004). For that reason the light is forced to interact directly with the surrounding material. Figure 1 shows a detailed cross-sectional
α-AMYLASE ACTIVITIES DURING SEED DEVELOPMENT AND GERMINATION IN PEA ( PISUM SATIVUM L . ) TREATED WITH SALICYLIC ACID

The effects of salicylic acid on α-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) activities during seed development and germination in pea (Pisum sativum L.) were investigated. The crops were planted in split-split plot fashion following randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. The main plots were assigned to pea cultivars Climax, Meteor, Greenfeast and Rondo, with salicylic acid concentrations (0mM, 0.1mM and 0.01mM in water) as subplots and modes of application of salicylic acid (seed treatment; seed treatment plus foliar spray and foliar spray only) as sub-sub-plots. Samples were collected at phenological stages i.e., BBCH 73, BBCH 77, BBCH 83 and BBCH 88. The seeds obtained from the crop were used for germination experiment. The samples were collected at phenological stages BBCH 01, BBCH 03 and BBCH 05. Although a significant difference was recorded for varieties with respect to α-amylase activity during year 2003-04 and 2004-05 at all phenological growth stages. A non-significant difference was found for salicylic acid concentrations and modes of application. However a significant difference in α-amylase activity was observed for salicylic acid concentrations during both years at all phenological growth stages for BBCH 01, BBCH 03 and BBCH 05.