Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The changing nature of rail freight in Great Britain: The start of a renaissance?

This paper reports on ongoing research into the potential for rail freight service developments to achieve a significant modal shift away from road towards more sustainable modes of transport for freight movements. It is based on the analysis of comprehensive databases of rail freight flows in Great Britain in 1991 and 1997, a period in which there has been dramatic upheaval of rail freight services. This reveals that traffic volumes in early 1997 were still below those in early 1991, but that many new flows were beginning to manifest themselves as a result of traffic gains by the newly privatized operators who have been actively seeking new custom. Some of these flows are ones that were lost from rail during the period of decline, but it is clear that a significant volume of traffic gained is entirely new to rail. Finally, the need for more research on the interactions between these supply-side developments and logistical restructuring is highlighted.
Structural, magnetic, and Magneto optical properties of Fe3O4/NiO bilayers on MgO(001)

Ultrathin magnetite (Fe3O4) films are attractive for applications in the field of spintronics due to their ferrimagnetic behavior with assumed high degree of spin polarized electrons at the Fermi energy. For these applications, it is necessary to form epitactical bilayer structure combining ferrimagnetic magnetite with an antiferromagnetic layer. Therefore, here we study Fe3O4/NiO bilayers on MgO(001) substrates. Bilayers grown by reactive molecular beam epitaxy are stoichiometric and have well-developed surface and interface structures. The NiO layers are laterally pinned to the structure of the MgO(001) substrate while the magnetite films gradually relax. The interfaces show smooth morphologies and the films have very homogeneous film thickness necessary for spintronical applications. The magnetic and magneto optical properties of the Fe3O4/NiO bilayers were probed by the magneto optical Kerr effect. Compared to single Fe3O4 layers on MgO(001), the bilayers show complicated ferrimagnetic behavior depending on the azimuthal direction of the external applied field. The coercive field of the bilayers, however, is increased with the coercive field of single layer Fe3O4/MgO(001) structures making the Fe3O4/NiO bilayers attractive for spintronic applications.
Magnetohydrodynamic Models of the Bipolar Knotty Jet in Henize 2-90

A remarkably linear, bipolar, knotty jet was recently discovered in Hen 2-90, an object classified as a young planetary nebula. Using two-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate periodic variations in jet density and velocity as the mechanism for producing the jet and its knotty structures. From a detailed comparison between the Hα emission derived from our models and the observations, we find that a nonmagnetized jet with density or velocity variations does not reproduce in detail the observed structure of the Hen 2-90 jet—a magnetized jet with periodic velocity variations is required. This jet has a radius of 125 AU, an average velocity of 300 km s-1 with periodic variations (period = 43 yr) in the jet velocity of amplitude ±15 km s-1, and a toroidal magnetic field with a characteristic strength of 0.6 mG. The average mass-loss rate in the jet has decreased by about a factor of 3 in 600 yr (i.e., from 4.7 × 10-7 M☉ yr-1 at 20'' to 1.7 × 10-7 M☉ yr-1 at 1'' from the center along the jet axis). The progenitor asymptotic giant branch wind is assumed to have a mass-loss rate of 1.5 × 10-6 M☉ yr-1 (derived from the round, tenuous, Hα halo surrounding the central source) and a typical expansion velocity of 10 km s-1. We find a fairly detailed similarity in the physical properties of the jet in Hen 2-90 with that in the young stellar object HH 34. This similarity suggests that the jets in both objects may be launched in a similar manner, namely, from an accretion disk, despite the fact that these objects are at very different evolutionary stages.
Reduced sickness absence after a physical activity intervention among health care workers: one-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

Background: Health care workers frequently suffer from complaints of musculoskeletal disorders and they are prone to long-term sick leave, as their work involves considerable physical demands. Objective: To follow-up and evaluate longer term effects measured one year after baseline of “Tailored Physical Activity” (TPA) versus a reference group (REF) in reducing number of self-reported sickness absence days for health care workers. Methods: In this randomised controlled trial, health care workers (n=54) with musculoskeletal pain in the back or upper body were included and randomised to TPA or REF. All participants participated in individual health counselling (1.5 hours). TPA consisted of both aerobic fitness training and strengthening exercises (three times 50- minute/week during 10 weeks). REF received only health guidance. At baseline and after the intervention period the participants were assessed with a questionnaire and health-related measures. Results: In the longer term, the TPA showed a significant effect compared to REF in the ability to reduce sickness absence related to troubles in the musculoskeletal system. In TPA 81.5% reported no sickness absence within the last three months compared to 59.3% in REF. Significant improvements were also seen for kinesiophobia (p<0.01) and pain (p<0.01) from baseline to follow-up. Conclusion: Results indicate that physical activity interventions can encourage health care workers to be more active and achieve improvements in kinesiophobia and pain intensity, thereby preventing sickness absence.
Mapping and monitoring land degradation risks in the Western Brazilian Amazon using multitemporal Landsat TM/ETM+ images

Mapping and monitoring land degradation in areas under human‐induced stresses have become urgent tasks in remote sensing whose importance has not yet been fully appreciated. In this study, a surface cover index (SCI) is developed to evaluate and map potential land degradation risks associated with deforestation and accompanying soil erosion in a Western Brazilian Amazon rural settlement study area. The relationships between land‐use and land‐cover (LULC) types and land degradation risks as well as the impacts of LULC change on land degradation are examined. This research indicates that remotely sensed data can be effectively used for identification and mapping of land degradation risks and monitoring of land degradation changes in the study area. Sites covered by mature forest and advanced successional forests have low land degradation risk potential, while some types of initial successional forests, agroforestry/perennial agriculture and pasture have higher risk potential. Deforestation and associated soil erosion are major causes leading to land degradation, while vegetation regrowth reduces such problems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
LAND USE LAND COVER CHANGES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FOOD PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF KEUMBU REGION KISII COUNTY, KENYA

Keumbu Region in Kisii County is experiencing a high rate of land use / cover changes which has affected food production significantly. The agricultural land fragmentations, high population increase and urbanization has led to decrease of agricultural land, food production and impacted on agricultural production and biodiversity an effect which has left the rural livelihoods food insecure. Study explored land use /cover changes, food production trends and main drivers behind deteriorating agricultural land, relationship between population, land use changes and implications on food production and security. The land use / cover changes classification of landsat TM image and change analysis done in Erdas Imagine with soil fertility and DEM data, population density and poverty prone areas processed and analyzed and correlated to food production using ArcGIS 10.1, SPSS and Microsoft office computer programmes. Results showed 58% forestland and 91% grassland reduced and 11% of cropland and 0.6% of settlements increased between 1990 and 2010 respectively. The population increased by average of 20.5% between 1989 and 2009, population density of 830 persons per square kilometers, Nyaura location having an extremely high density of 3135 persons per square kilometers, with 65% of Kegati location in absolute poverty. The soil fertility depletion trend negatively impacted on food production which decreased by 29% and cash crop yields increased by 12.5% respectively. In conclusion Keumbu is food insecure region with agricultural land already degraded and densely populated. In recommendation, the government and other stakeholders should make small scale farmers adapt to good farming practices and land tenure systems. Key words: Land use, land cover, population density, poverty, land degradation, food security
Influence of Environment on Identification of Persons and Things

The symbolic representation of justice indicates that it is the consummate desire of the judicial body to measure and to proportion the claims of contending parties with mathematical precision. To be sure, it is an ideal eminently becoming our civilization to presume the prisoner at the bar innocent until he has been proved guilty. This is the protection that a maternal state properly throws about her erring children; and she does it willingly, preferring that ten guilty persons should escape punishment rather than a single innocent one should suffer unjustly at her hands. Nevertheless, the state must watch out for her own welfare, and to that end she must use tlle most efficient methods for the apprehension as well as for the conviction and punishment of evil doers.
Effects of Freezing of Gait on Spatiotemporal Variables, Ground Reaction Forces, and Joint Moments during Sit-to-walk Task in Parkinson's Disease

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effects of freezing of gait on spatiotemporal variables, ground reaction forces (GRFs), and joint moments during the sit-to-walk task at the preferred and maximum speeds in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Method: The subjects were classified by a neurologist into 12 freezers, 12 non-freezers, and 12 controls. Sitto- walk parameters were measured during three repetitions of the task in a random order at the preferred and maximum possible speeds. Results: In the sit-to-walk task at the preferred speed, the freezers and non-freezers exhibited a higher peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the sit-to-stand phase and lower step velocity (p<0.001), step length (p<0.001), and peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the first-step phase than the controls. The freezers had higher peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) and peak moment of the hip joint (p=0.008) in the sit-to-stand phase than the non-freezers. In the sit-to-walk phase at the maximum speed, the freezers and non-freezers had lower peak moment of the hip joint (p=0.008) in the sit-to-stand phase than the controls. The freezers and non-freezers displayed lower step velocity (p<0.001) and peak anterior-posterior GRF (p<0.001) in the first-step phase than the controls. The freezers showed higher peak moments of the hip joint in the sit-to-stand phase than the non-freezers (p=0.008). Conclusion: The PD patients had reduced control ability in sit-to-stand motions for efficient performance of the sit-to-walk task and reduced performance in the sit-to-walk task. Furthermore, the freezers displayed reduced control ability in the sit-to-stand task. Finally, the PD patients exhibited a lower ability to control dynamic stability with changes in speed than the controls.
Genetic approaches to enhancing phosphorus-use efficiency (PUE) in crops: challenges and directions

Abstract. Many soils have intrinsically low concentrations of available phosphorus (P), which is a major limitation to crop and pasture growth. Regular applications of P have underpinned agricultural productivity internationally, and fertiliser use now constitutes one of the largest variable input costs to farming. Globally, high-quality reserves of P are being depleted and price increases are likely in the future. In addition, the effects of P pollution on water quality are attracting legislative regulation. Hence, there is a need to improve P-use efficiency (PUE) in farming systems. Progress in improving PUE has been limited for several reasons, including: inconsistent definitions of PUE, inappropriate phenotyping, incomplete understanding of the controls of P uptake, lack of field validation, and little consideration of genotype × environment interactions that affect the expression of PUE. With greater consideration of these limitations, the powerful array of molecular and genomic tools currently available promises considerable advances in developing more P-efficient crops. Stronger interaction between molecular science and the traditional disciplines of plant breeding, crop physiology, soil science, and agronomy will allow new opportunities to study genetic differences in PUE, bringing P-efficient crops closer to reality.
Fault strain and seismic coupling on mid‐ocean ridges

The contribution of extensional faulting to seafloor spreading along the East Pacific Rise (EPR) axis near 3°S and between 13°N and 15°N is calculated using data on the displacement and length distributions of faults obtained from side scan sonar and bathymetric data. It is found that faulting may account for of the order of 5–10% of the total spreading rate, which is comparable to a previous estimate from the EPR near 19°S. Given the paucity of normal faulting earthquakes on the EPR axis, a maximum estimate of the seismic moment release shows that seismicity can account for only 1% of the strain due to faulting. This result leads us to conclude that most of the slip on active faults must be occurring by stable sliding. Laboratory observations of the stability of frictional sliding show that increasing normal stress promotes unstable sliding, while increasing temperature promotes stable sliding. By applying a simple frictional model to mid-ocean ridge faults it is shown that at fast spreading ridges (≥90 mm/yr) the seismic portion of a fault (Ws) is a small proportion of the total downdip width of the fault (Wƒ). The ratio Ws/ Wƒ interpreted as the seismic coupling coefficient X, and in this case X≈ 0. In contrast, at slow spreading rates (≤40 mm/yr), Ws≈Wƒ, and therefore X≈ 1, which is consistent with the occurrence of large-magnitude earthquakes (mb= 5.0 to 6.0) occurring, for example, along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis.
HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF ENICOSTEMMA AXILLARE IN CARBON TETRACHLORIDE INDUCED HEPATOTOXICITY IN ALBINO RATS

Enicostemma axillare belongs to family Gentianaceae is a perennial herb found in through out India and common in costal areas. The plant is used in folk medicine to treat diabetes mellitus, rheumatisum, abdominal ulcers, hernia, swelling, itching and insect poisoning (kirtikar and Basu, 1999) and also anti-inflammatory (Sadique et al., 1987), hypoglycemic (Jyoti, et al., 2000, Murli et al., 2002; Jyoti et al., 2003) and anticancer (Murli et al., 2002) activities have been reported. These reported activities and many of the ethnobotanical uses of the plant are related to its hepatoprotective activity. Swertimarin, alkaloids, steroids, triterpenids, saponins, flavonoids, xanthones, and phenolic acid were isolated from the plant (Kavimani and Manisenthilkumar, 2001) many such compounds have protective effects due to pharmacological activities (Wargovich et al., 2001) Liver disease remains one of the serious health problems. Herbs play a major role in the management of various liver disorders. A number of plants possess hepatoprotective property (Heba et al., 2006). As a result the chemical reactions liver may generate several reactive species like free radicals. These reactive species form covalent bond with the lipids of the tissue. However, inbuilt protective mechanisms combat the hazardous reactions associated with the free radicals. Due to excessive exposure to hazardous chemicals, the free radicals generated will be so high that they overpower the natural defensive system leading to hepatic damage and cause jaundice, cirrhosis and fatty liver, which remain one of the serious health problems. Carbontetrachloride (CCl 4 ) is one such hazardous chemical which induces hepatopathy through membrane lipid peroxidation by its free radical derivative. Excessive production of the reactive species manifests in tissuethiol depletion, lipid peroxidation, plasma membrane damage etc., culminating into severe hepatic injury. With this scientific information, the present study was designed to assess the hepatoprotective activity of the different extract of aerial parts of Enicostemma axillare against CCl 4 induced liver damage.
Proposal of a Recommendation Method by Direct Setting of Preference Patterns Based on Interrelationship Mining

In this paper, we introduce a recommendation method by directly setting of users’ preference patterns of items for similarity evaluation between users. Yamawaki et al. proposed a recommendation method based on comparing users’ preference patterns instead of directly comparing users’ rating scores. However, Yamawaki et al.’s method for extraction of preference patterns has limitation of representation ability and this method is not applicable in the case that a user has “cyclic” preference patterns. Our method for extraction of preference patterns is based on partial pairwise comparison of items and it is applicable to represent “cyclic” preference patterns. A tourist spot recommender system is implemented as a prototype of recommender system based on the proposed approach and the implemented recommender system is evaluated by experiments.
Global changes, livestock and vulnerability: the social construction of markets as an adaptive strategy

Nowadays, livestock producers in Sahel have to deal not only with climate variability but also with changes in land use and policies that restrict access to pasture and increase their vulnerability. At the same time, the growth of urban livestock markets both nationwide and in neighbouring countries is creating opportunities for producers. However, few studies have examined the role of markets in the adaptive strategies of livestock producers in West Africa, the changes in strategies for capturing market opportunities and the social interactions that lead to changes in market access and functioning. This paper addresses the question of how livestock producers and traders have transformed their producing and marketing strategies in response to climate variability and land access constraints. Our proposed conceptual framework on markets, vulnerability and adaptation considers that adaptive strategies include the social construction of markets through which market access is based on social networks and follows the norms and rules embedded in the complexity of these networks. This proactive strategy of stakeholders, through a socially constructed market access, allows traders to harness opportunities and livestock producers to adapt to climatic and land access constraints. We apply the framework in a case study in the region of Niono and Segou in the Niger Inner delta in Mali. Results show that livestock producers and traders have changed their livestock-raising and marketing strategies in response to the challenges faced by livestock producers and the emerging market opportunities. This study highlights the importance of considering the social construction of livestock market systems and marketing behaviours as adaptive strategies of livestock producers to multiple changes. Although livestock markets can support the adaptive strategies of several types of producers, their functioning as institutions has been understudied and scantily addressed in policy.
Carbon‐nitrogen coupling and algal‐bacterial interactions during an experimental bloom: Modeling a 13C tracer experiment

We tracked flows of carbon and nitrogen during an experimental phytoplankton bloom in a natural estuarine assemblage in Randers Fjord, Denmark. We used 13C‐labeled dissolved inorganic carbon to trace the transfer of carbon from phytoplankton to bacteria. Ecosystem development was followed over a period of 9 d through changes in the stocks of inorganic nutrients, pigments, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and algal and bacterial polar‐lipid‐derived fatty acids (PLFA). We quantified the incorporation of 13C in phytoplankton and bacterial biomass by carbon isotope analysis of specific PLFA. A dynamic model based on unbalanced algal growth and balanced growth of bacteria and zooplankton adequately reproduced the observations and provided an integral view of carbon and nitrogen dynamics. There were three phases with distinct carbon and nitrogen dynamics. During the first period, nutrients were replete, an algal bloom was observed, and carbon and nitrogen uptake occurred at a constant ratio. Because there was little algal exudation of DOC, transfer of 13C from phytoplankton to bacteria was delayed by 1 d, compared with the labeling of phytoplankton. In the second phase, the exhaustion of dissolved inorganic nitrogen resulted in decoupling of carbon and nitrogen flows caused by unbalanced algal growth and the exudation of carbon‐rich dissolved organic matter by phytoplankton. During the final, nutrient‐depleted phase, carbon and nitrogen cycling were dominated by the microbial loop and there was accumulation of DOC. The main source (60%) of DOC was exudation by phytoplankton growing under nitrogen limitation. Heterotrophic processes were the main source of dissolved organic nitrogen (94%). Most of the carbon exudated by algae was respired by the bacteria and did not pass to higher trophic levels. The dynamic model successfully reproduced the evolution of trophic pathways during the transition from nutrient‐replete to ‐depleted conditions, which indicates that simple models provide a powerful tool to study the response of pelagic ecosystems to external forcings.
The Association between Comorbidity and Survivorship among non-Hodgkin lymphoma Patients in Albania

Background: Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (NHL) are malignancies that affect patient survival. The aim of this study is to assess the association between comorbidity and NHL survivorship in a group of NHL patients in Albania. Methods: A total of 107 patients newly diagnosed with NHLs and followed-up during 2011-2015 in the premises of Hematology Service of University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa” in Tirana, the capital of Albania, were included in the survey. All patients with existing NHLs were excluded. Kaplan-Meier test was used to assess patients survival during 2011-2015 and Cox Regression test was used to determine the risk of dying from NHLs during this period. Results: Mean age of participants was 57.7 years and 61.7% were males. About half of patients (44.9%) had at least one concomitant disease at the time of diagnosis. The overall 50 months survival was 57.2%, being significantly lower among NHL patients with comorbidity. Comorbidity NHL patients had a significantly twofold higher risk of dying from NHLs compared to NHL patients without concomitant diseases at the time of diagnosis. Conclusion: Presence of comorbidity at the time of NHL diagnosis is associated with significantly shorter survival and significantly higher risk of death from NHLs.