Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re-evaluation of the phylogeny based on mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in the house shrew, Suncus murinus-S. montanus species complex, with special reference to Yemen and Myanmar populations

The house shrew (Suncus murinus-S. montanus species complex) is considered to have been unintentionally introduced by humans from their original range to other regions around the Indian Ocean and neighboring seas, but this has yet not fully been investigated. A phylogenetic tree and haplotype network were reconstructed based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene nucleotide sequences (1140 bp) of 179 individuals of house shrews from 46 localities in southern East Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia, and islands in the western Indian Ocean. There was small genetic variation among shrews in Japan (Okinawa), southern China, Vietnam, and insular Southeast Asia. However, the shrew populations in Myanmar and Sri Lanka showed of a variety of different haplotypes. In the region of the western Indian Ocean, three interesting findings were obtained. First, the shrews on Zanzibar Island (Tanzania) shared same haplotype as those in southwestern Iran, and the haplotype was close to a group in Pakistan, despite these three regions being distantly located. Second, inferring from the haplotype network, it was suggests that the shrews in Yemen might have derived from Madagascar/Comoros populations. Third, the shrews on Reunion Island were genetically different from other populations around the western Indian Ocean but closer to Malaysia and Myanmar populations. Thus, the present study demonstrates that there have been dynamic immigration/emigration processes in the house shrews, especially for those around the western Indian Ocean. In addition, the house shrews in Myanmar may include several different species.
Factors that determine the form of management in an international environment

The purpose of this paper is to show how leaders can be supported in creating and managing into international teams in a different effective and efficient ways. This paper tries to fill the gap between the more theoretical findings as presented in the literature and a pragmatic approach which can be used for execution by these leaders with the theirs teams. The main findings in the research is that although the leaders have a vast set of factors they require to do their jobs, it seems that the major issue is the different ‘view on the world’ and in more detail the differences between a leader and his team if he or she comes from a different cultural background, according, their emotions, communication, motivators, and knowledge. The paper aims to support people who work in international teams in different roles and locations.
Breaking down the genome organization and karyotype differentiation through the epifluorescence microscope lens: insects and fish as models

The use of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) has allowed the generation of data concerning the genome structure and chrom osomal organization and differentiation of diverse eukaryote organisms. This technique guided to a revolution in the cytogenetic and permitted a more clear visualization of specific DNA sequences onto chromosomes, thus generating detailed physical chromosome maps of species. For studies of genome organization and karyotype ongoing in animals, the most applied sequences are the repeated elements. These elements have been obtained from the genome of distinct species mainly through the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzymatic restriction, and have been used for chromosome identification, establishment of chromosomal rearrangements, studies of B and sex chromosomes origin and evolution, and genome organization. Here we summarize the recent advances in the application of the FISH technology in studies of fish and insect chromosomes, under the focus of understanding the organization and evolution of their karyotypes and genomes.
A Study of Compost as an Adsorbent for Congo Red Dye Removal Process

The human population continues to grow annually, and so does the number of textile industries. In textile industry, synthetic dye is one of the most polluting substance in its wastewate which the conventional treatment processes are usually ineffective. Another option is using activated carbon to remove the dye, but carbon is an expensive material. It is is interesting that material that is rich in carbon, such as compost, may become an alternative solution. The objective of the present study was to assess the capability of compost in treating wastewater dye by determining the optimum compost dosage, particle size, and column height, while considering dye percentage removal and adsoprtion capacity. The optimum compost dosage was 8g/L and the optimum particle size was 1–2 mm in treating the 200 ppm Congo Red dye molecule, resulting in 20.49% removal and a 5.33 mg/g adsorption capacity. The optimum compost column height was 60 cm with 90% removal, and the adsorption capacity was 0.38 mg/g. The dye molecule wore off tthe compost, therefore fresh compost must be introduced in order to maintain its percentage removal level. The compatibility of isotherm model developed in this study with the Freundlich model is similar with previous studies. Keywords : compost; c ongo r ed dye ; adsorbent, batch, column
Optimization Algorithms for System Integration

This work outlines the optimization algorithms involved in integrating system analysis and measured data collected from a network of sensors. The integration is required for structural health monitoring problems arising in structural dynamics and related to (1) model parameter estimation used for finite element model updating, (2) model-based damage detection in structures and (3) optimal sensor location for parameter estimation and damage detection. These problems are formulated as single- and multi-objective optimization problems of continuous or discrete-valued variables. Gradient-based, evolutionary, hybrid and heuristic algorithms are presented that effectively address issues related to the estimation of multiple local/global solutions and computational complexity arising in single and multi-objective optimization involving continuous and discrete variables.
THE EFFECT OF COMPETITION AND USE OF FERTILISER ON THE SEEDLING EMERGENCE OF INTRODUCED GORSE (ULEX EUROPAEUS) AND SCOTCH BROOM (CYTISUS SCOPARIUS)

The effect of varying levels of rangeland vegetation competition, as modified by application of fertiliser, on the establishment of introduced Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) and gorse (Ulex europaeus) was monitored over a five year period. Two growing seasons after fertiliser addition, vascular plant cover in the fertilised plots was two-fold greater than in the control plots. After 5 years, higher levels of vascular plant cover induced a highly significant (P<0.0001) three-fold reduction in emergence of gorse from 37% in the control to 12% in the fertilised treatment (P<0.0001). However, higher levels of vascular plant cover had no significant (P<0.64) effect on emergence of broom, which was 42% in the untreated and 39% in the fertilised treatment with high vascular plant cover. Implications for gorse and broom invasion and management are discussed.
Long-Term Survival in a Cat with Pancreatic Carcinoma and Splenic Involvement after Surgical Excision

A thirteen-year-old female spayed with a history of hydronephrosis was presented for a routine abdominal ultrasonographic exam. The imaging exam showed a mass involving the pancreas and a large mass affecting the spleen. Exploratory laparotomy evidenced a mass in the pancreas and another involving one-third of the spleen. The patient had partial pancreatectomy and splenectomy. The histopathology report came back with a diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma. Adjuvant chemotherapy was declined. The cat is still free of gross tumor recurrence and metastatic disease after twenty-six months. Early diagnosed and aggressively treated feline pancreatic carcinoma might yield a favorable prognosis.
Antioxidant-mediated neuro-protective and GABAergic calming effect of Stephania japonica

Stephania japonica , a tropically-habituated plant is widely distributed in Bangladesh. Traditionally, it has been used in the treatment of inflammation, asthma, fever, sleep disturbance, painful conditions, and rheumatism. However, scientific evidence of its biological activities are very limited. This study evaluated neuroprotctivity along with a possible anxiolytic- like effect of the methanol leaf extract of S. japonica (MSJ). The antioxidant test was performed by using the scavenging capacity of hydroxyl ( ● OH) and nitric oxide ( ● OH) radicals; and an inhibition of lipid peroxidation assay. In vitro , egg albumin denaturation (IELD) and anti-acetylcholinesterase (anti-AChE) tests were performed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-cholinesterase activity, respectively. Additionally, a possible anxiolytic action of the MSJ was investigated in Swiss mice by taking diazepam (DZP) and flumazenil (FLU) as gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) receptor agonist and antagonist, respectively. The MSJ concentration (50-200 µg/mL)/dose (50-200 mg/kg, oral)-dependently exhibited antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-AChE and anxiolytic- like effects. The MSJ also increased the activities of the standards used in antioxidant and anti-AChE (trolox), anti-inflammatory (acetyl salicylic acid), and anxiolytic (DZP: agonist) test. The MSJ exhibited antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. It also potentiated the action of DZP, while antagonizing the effect of the FLU, suggesting a possible GABAergic, DZP-agonistic anxiolytic-like action in experimental animals. S. japonica may be one of the good sources of neuroprotective phytochemicals.
Corporate Tax Rates and Regional Integration : Evidence from Transition Countries

Corporate tax rates in the industrialized countries have been decreasing for many years. Many scholars attribute this decline to tax competition. However, less attention has been paid to the relation between regional economic integration and tax rates. This study addresses this issue by concentrating on two integration initiatives in the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. This study finds evidence that the declining corporate tax rates are, to the varying extents, driven by the progressive regional integration. The convergence of corporate tax rates also shows that the regional integration within the Eurasian Economic Union is, despite significant skepticism expressed from various angles, working in practice.
Preventing Private Information Leakage onSocial mining

Online social networks, such as facebook are increasingly used by many users and these networks allow people to publish and share their data to their friends. The problem is user privacy information can be inferred via social relations. Hence managing those confidential information leakage is an challenging issue in social networks. It is possible to use learning methods on user released data to predict private information. Since our goal is to distribute social network data while preventing sensitive data disclosure, it can be achieved through sanitization techniques. Then the effectiveness of those techniques are explored and use methods of collective inference to discover sensitive attributes of the user profile data set. Hence sanitization methods can be used efficiently to decrease the accuracy of both local and relational classifiers and allow secure information sharing by maintaining user privacy.Keywords: social networking, social network privacy, sanitization, collective inference
Discrepancies between formaldehyde measurements and methane oxidation model predictions in the Antarctic troposphere: An assessment of other possible formaldehyde sources

Abstract. Formaldehyde (HCHO) is a key intermediate in the photooxidation of methane by hydroxyl radicals. Through its photolysis it is also a source for free radicals in the troposphere. Owing to these reactions, HCHO influences the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere and is a suitable species to test our current understanding of atmospheric oxidation pathways. Especially in polar regions, discrepancies between measurements and model calculations exist. Though recent investigations in the Arctic suggest that HCHO emissions from the snow surface might act as the missing source, the question remains unresolved for the Antarctic. We compare year-round HCHO measurements in Antarctica with model results from a simple photochemical box model. The observed ambient HCHO mixing ratios cannot be explained by methane photooxidation alone. Inclusion of HCHO emissions from the snow surface makes the model results and measurements consistent, but significantly higher emissions than those derived in the Arctic are needed to explain the observed HCHO mixing ratios. We discuss other possible sources such as oxidation of dimethylsulfide (DMS), isoprene, ethene, propene, and the effect of halogens, that may be responsible for the enhanced HCHO mixing ratios in the marine Antarctic troposphere. We find that, for the largest HCHO mixing ratio measured, methane is likely to produce only about 9% of the required HCHO; isoprene (including generated propene) about 22%; and ethene, DMS and halogens together only 7%. If the remaining HCHO is produced by a flux from the snow, the flux required is about 1.9 x 1013 molecules m-2 s-1.
Early Contractor Involvement in Design and Its Impact on Construction Schedule Performance

The importance of integrating construction knowledge into the design process has long been recognized by the construction industry. This paper studies early contractor involvement in design and its impact on construction schedule performance through a combined empirical case study and theoretical simulation analysis. Pipe and steel fabricators' inputs at different design stages of industrial construction projects are identified. The case study shows that these inputs lead to improved drawing quality, material supply, information flow, and consequently improved construction schedule performance. This impact on construction schedule is illustrated using actual project data and simulation techniques. Simulation models were developed to demonstrate intuitively the impact at the construction operation level and they allow people to gain management insights through simulation experiments. Better understanding of the early contractor involvement process and its benefit can improve buy-in and help industry practitioners to reach the full potential of this concept.
Design of Multilevel Inverter Driven Induction Machine

Multilevel inverters have gained interest in recent years in high-power medium-voltage industry. This paper considered the most popular structure among the transformer-less voltage source multilevel inverters, the diode-clamped inverter based on the neutral point converter. This paper proposes a single carrier multi-modulation SVPWM technique with conventional space vector switching sequence. Simulation results presents comparison of single and multicarrier conventional space vector switching sequence with general switching sequence of nine-level diode-clamped inverter for stator currents, electromagnetic torque and speed for constant modulation index and for constant V/f control method. Simulation is carried out in MATLAB-Simulink software. Keywords - Multilevel inverter, APODC, SVPWM, total harmonic distortion, Diode-clamped inverter, SCMMOS, MCMMOS, Induction machine, synchronously rotating reference frame
The Application of Augmented Reality Visual Communication in Network Teaching

In order to improve the effectiveness of online teaching, visual communica-tion of augmented reality technology was applied. Network teaching was an auxiliary teaching form that used the network as a medium to carry out teaching information transmission. It was an extension of classroom teaching and an organic integration of information and technology and art. The visual effect of the online teaching interface directly affected the quality of teach-ing information delivery. Based on augmented reality technology, the re-search, analysis and analysis of interactive interface design content, process-es and principles were carried out in terms of human-computer interaction, user experience, and visual communication. Augmented reality based visual interaction interface design methods were summarized. The results showed that visual communication based on augmented reality could provide a new form of teaching demonstration and enrich the content of classroom teach-ing. To sum up, this method improves the students’ participation and enthu-siasm, and enhances the teaching effect.
Argument 1 : As Carbon Pricing Alters Relative Prices , Firms and Consumers Automatically Internalize Global Warming Effects

Carbon pricing is a recurrent theme in debates on climate policy. Discarded at the 2009 COP in Copenhagen, it remained part of deliberations for a climate agreement in subsequent years. As there is still much misunderstanding about the many reasons to implement a global carbon price, ideological resistance against it prospers. Here, we present the main arguments for carbon pricing, to stimulate a fair and well-informed discussion about it. These include considerations that have received little attention so far. We stress that a main reason to use carbon pricing is environmental effectiveness at a relatively low cost, which in turn contributes to enhance social and political acceptability of climate policy. This includes the property that corrected prices stimulate rapid environmental innovations. These arguments are underappreciated in the public debate, where pricing is frequently downplayed and the erroneous view that innovation policies are sufficient is widespread. Carbon pricing and technology policies are, though, largely complementary and thus are both needed for effective climate policy. We also comment on the complementarity of other instruments to carbon pricing. We further discuss distributional consequences of carbon pricing and present suggestions on how to address these. Other political economy issues that receive attention are lobbying, co-benefits, international policy coordination, motivational crowding in/out, and long-term commitment. The overview ends with reflections on implementing a global carbon price, whether through a carbon tax or emissions trading. The discussion goes beyond traditional arguments from environmental economics by including relevant insights from energy research and innovation studies as well. © 2017 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Impacts of Industrial Baseline Errors on Costs and Social Welfare in the Demand Side Management of Day-Ahead Wholesale Markets

Demand Side Management (DSM) has been recognized for its potential to counteract the intermittent nature of renewable energy, increase system efficiency, and reduce system costs. While the popular approach among academia adopts a social welfare maximization formulation, the industrial practice in the United States electricity market compensates customers according to their load reduction from a predefined electricity consumption baseline that would have occurred without DSM. This paper is an extension of a previous paper studying the differences between the industrial & academic approach to dispatching demands. In the previous paper, the comparison of the two models showed that while the social welfare model uses a stochastic net load composed of two terms, the industrial DSM model uses a stochastic net load composed of three terms including the additional baseline term. That work showed that the academic and industrial optimization method have the same dispatch result in the absence of baseline errors given the proper reconciliation of their respective cost functions. DSM participants, however, and very much unfortunately, are likely to manipulate the baseline in order to receive greater financial compensation. This paper now seeks to study the impacts of erroneous industrial baselines in a day-ahead wholesale market context. Using the same system configuration and mathematical formalism, the industrial model is compared to the social welfare model. The erroneous baseline is shown to result in a different and more importantly costlier dispatch. It is also likely to require more control activity in subsequent layers of enterprise control. Thus an erroneous baseline is likely to increase system costs and overestimate the potential for social welfare improvements.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Ash characterisation of perennial energy crops and their influence on thermal processing

Perennial grasses offer potential for providing a year round supply of low cost biomass when grown in southern European conditions. Four crops, Giant reed, Cardoon thistle, Miscanthus and Switchgrass have been assessed for ash content, composition and melting behaviour. Ash content for all four crops is high compared to wood and initial data suggests soil contamination is a major contributor. All crops have naturally high levels of potassium and chlorine but it is notable that Cardoon also has high levels of calcium and sodium. Ash melting temperatures are between 1000°C and 1160°C in oxidizing conditions except for Cardoon where some samples have sintered at ca 750°C. Pilot scale combustion tests on Giant reed, Miscanthus and Switchgrass at Graz showed slag accumulation on the grate, high rates of fouling and high emissions. Corrosion problems would also be expected. Preliminary fluidized bed gasification of Switchgrass was successful, however testing on Cardoon was abandoned due to rapid bed agglomeration. Preliminary fast pyrolysis tests on Giant reed and Cardoon gave poor liquid yields and quality, although ash reduction by cold water washing has shown promising results.
Detection of faults in the asynchronous machine by the use of smart materials

This paper aimed with diagnosis of defects in asynchronous machine. The used method is based on the exploitation of the behavioural laws of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials, under harmonic regime, used in the construction of the asynchronous machine. Piezoelectric sensors are used both in the stator and in the rotor. The used one in the stator serves to detect the rupture at the stator windings and the one used in the rotor helps us to detect the rupture of the rotor bars. The produced electric potential in the terminals of piezoelectric sensor is due to the deformation generated by magnetic induction under the effect of magnetostriction. A finite element method (FEM) is selected to be the resolution numerical method. This method is used for modelling the asynchronous machine under anomaly conditions and non-load.
Lithothamnion crispatum: long-lasting species of non-geniculate coralline algae (Rhodophyta, Hapalidiales)

The examination of fossil Lithothamnion specimens ranging in age from the Early Miocene to the Pleistocene revealed the occurrence of multiporate conceptacle chambers pitted with depressions. This is the diagnostic feature of Lithothamnion crispatum, a cosmopolitan hapalidiacean with a wide depth range in modern oceans. The comparison of the microscopic anatomy of both the fossil and modern L. crispatum confirmed that they are conspecific. Therefore, this species has a long stratigraphic distribution starting at least 20 My ago, without significant morphological changes in either reproductive or vegetative anatomy.