Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phylogeny and biogeography of midwife toads (Alytes, Discoglossidae): a reappraisal

The allozyme data base of Arntzen & Garcia-Paris (1995) on midwife toads (Alytes, Discoglossidae) is reanalysed considering each locus as a discrete character. The phylogeny thus inferred differs from the one obtained with genetic distances in the position of A. dickhilleni from the Betic region – it appears that its sister species is the widespread A. obstetricans, not the Mallorcan endemic A. muletensis. This phylogenetic hypothesis agrees with the taxonomic treatment of the genus based on morphology. A testable biogeographic hypothesis is proposed to account for the diversification of midwife toads in Iberia and the Balearics. The postulated underlying geological changes were the spread of inland saline lakes that divided Iberia (16 mY B.P.), the emergence and break-up of the Betic orogen (14 mY), and the formation of the Betic Strait (8 mY). Dispersal over sea channels or during the Messinian Crisis (6 mY) are deemed unlikely on the basis of ecological and biogeographical data.
Unimodular gravity and the lepton anomalous magnetic moment at one-loop

We work out the one-loop contribution to the lepton anomalous magnetic moment coming from Unimodular Gravity. We use Dimensional Regularization and Dimensional Reduction to carry out the computations. In either case, we find that Unimodular Gravity gives rise to the same one-loop correction as that of General Relativity.
Response to all reviews

14 The aerosol-radiation-cloud feedbacks on meteorology and air quality over eastern China under severe winter haze 15 conditions in January 2013 are simulated using the fully coupled on-line Weather Research and Forecasting/Chemistry 16 (WRF-Chem) model. Three simulation scenarios including different aerosol configurations are undertaken to distinguish 17 the impact of aerosol radiative (direct and semi-direct) and indirect effects on meteorological variables and air quality . 18 Simulated spatial and temporal variations of PM2.5 are generally consistent with surface observations, with a mean bias of 19 −18.9 μg/m 3 (−15.0%) averaged over 71 big cities in China. Comparisons between different scenarios reveal that aerosol 20 radiative effects (direct effect and semi-direct effects) result in reductions of downward shortwave flux at the surface, 2 m 21 temperature, 10 m wind speed and planetary boundary layer (PBL) height by up to 84.0 W/m 2 , 3.2 o C, 0.8 m/s, and 268 m, 22 respectively. The simulated impact of the aerosol indirect effects is comparatively smaller. Through reducing the PBL 23 height and stabilizing lower atmosphere wind speeds, the aerosol effects lead to increases in surface concentrations of 24 primary pollutants (CO and SO2). and PM2.5. The aerosol feedbacks on secondary pollutants such as surface ozone and 25 PM2.5 mass concentrations show some spatial variations. Surface O3 mixing ratio is reduced by up to 6.9 ppb due to 26 reduced incoming solar radiation and lower temperature, while the aerosol feedbacks on PM2.5 mass concentrations show 27 some spatial variations. Comparisons of model results with observations show that inclusion of aerosol feedbacks in the 28 model signif icantly improves model’s performances model performance in simulating meteorological variables and 29 improves simulations of PM2.5 temporal distributions over the North China Plain, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River 30 Delta, and Central China. Although the aerosol-radiation-cloud feedbacks on aerosol mass concentrations are subject to 31 uncertainties, this work demonstrates the significance of aerosol-radiation-cloud feedbacks for real-time air quality 32 forecasting under haze conditions. 33
The impact of total quality management on competitive advantage of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Jordan

TQM is a general philosophy of management that attempts to enhance competitive advantage of organizations, This paper aims to investigate the impact of total quality management on competitive advantage of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Jordan. The data are collected from mid- to senior-level managerial employees of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Jordan. The data were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analyses. The results indicate that, there is effect of the TQM practices on competitive advantage; customer focus has the highest impact on competitive advantage followed by People management and Leadership subsequently. And thus, total quality management is strategically and tactically important for gaining a competitive advantage. Therefore, organizations should be committed to TQM practices and their successful implementation.
The "Tampon Tax": Public Discourse of Policies Concerning Menstrual Taboo

The “tampon tax” is a policy in which feminine hygiene products are taxed as “luxury goods” despite the fact that many countries exempt “necessary goods”—such as basic groceries and medical products—from sales tax. In the summer of 2015, the Canadian parliament took steps to exempt feminine hygiene products. Academic literature supports the idea that menstrual taboo, which stigmatizes open discussion of menstruation, has contributed to the global pervasiveness of gendered taxation policies like the tampon tax. is study examines arguments for and against the tampon tax as well as how menstrual taboo plays into the public discourse in formal (e.g., parliamentary debate and news reporting) and informal (e.g. Twitter) platforms through content analysis. e study reveals trends among certain speakers. Politicians were more likely to use degendered and sterile language. Activists are significantly more likely to break taboo by openly discussing menstruation and using explicitly gendered dialogues. Laypeople engage in the conversation by sharing links and expanding the reach of public discourse. Greater understanding of the significance of menstrual taboo in public discourse reveals important insights into how taboos influence public policy.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Hospitality Employment : ‘ The Good , The Bad and The Ugly ’

Introduction Adam Smith in his seminal work ‘the Wealth of Nations’ (1776) advocated the inequality of the labour market by explaining that ‘labour belongs to the labourer’. Even though the common wages of labour depends on the contract between the labour and the master (or known as employer in modern economy), it is not surprising to find that employers had stronger power in this relationship. Adam Smith’s views are still relevant in today’s modern day economy. We no longer rely on the manufacturing sector that was dominant during the 18 century. However, the problems that existed because of the power struggle between employers and workers, that led to poor pay and working conditions is still discussed today in relation to the hospitality sector.
Dynamic detection of abnormalities in video analysis of crowd behavior with DBSCAN and neural networks

Visual analysis of human behavior is a broad field within computer vision. In this field of work, we are interested in dynamic methods in the analysis of crowd behavior which consist in detecting the abnormal entities in a group in a dense scene. These scenes are characterized by the presence of a great number of people in the camera’s field of vision. The major problem is the development of an autonomous approach for the management of a great number of anomalies which is almost impossible to carry out by human operators. We present in this paper a new approach for the detection of dynamic anomalies of very dense scenes measuring the speed of both the individuals and the whole group. The various anomalies are detected by dynamically switching between two approaches: An artificial neural network (ANN) for the management of group anomalies of people, and a DensityBased Spatial Clustering of Application with Noise (DBSCAN) in the case of entities. For greater robustness and effectiveness, we introduced two routines that serve to eliminate the shades and the management of occlusions. The two latter phases have proven that the results of the simulation are comparable to existing work.
Title : Evaluation of molecular brain changes associated with environmental stress in 1 rodent models compared to human major depressive disorder : a proteomic systems 2 approach 3

21 Objectives: Rodent models of major depressive disorder (MDD) are indispensable when 22 screening for novel treatments, but assessing their translational relevance with human brain 23 pathology has proved difficult. 24 Methods: Using a novel systems approach, proteomics data obtained from post-mortem 25 MDD anterior prefrontal cortex tissue (n =12) and matched controls (n = 23) were compared 26 with equivalent data from three commonly used preclinical models exposed to environmental 27 stressors (chronic mild stress, prenatal stress, social defeat). Functional pathophysiological 28 features associated with depression-like behaviour were identified in these models through 29 enrichment of protein-protein interaction networks. A cross-species comparison evaluated 30 which model(s) represent human MDD pathology most closely. 31 Results: Seven functional domains associated with MDD and represented across at least two 32 models such as “carbohydrate metabolism and cellular respiration” were identified. Through 33 statistical evaluation using kernel-based machine learning techniques, the social defeat model 34 was found to represent MDD brain changes most closely for four of the seven domains. 35 Conclusions: This is the first study to apply a method for directly evaluating the relevance of 36 the molecular pathology of multiple animal models to human MDD on the functional level. 37 The methodology and findings outlined here could help to overcome translational obstacles 38 of preclinical psychiatric research. 39
Distributed Social Platforms for Confidentiality and Resilience

Social networking sites have deeply changed the perception of the web in the last years. Although the current approach to build social networking systems is to create huge centralized systems owned by a single company, such strategy has many drawbacks, e.g., lack of privacy, lack of anonymity, risks of censorship and operating costs. These issues contrast with some of the main requirements of information systems, including: (i) confidentiality, i.e., the interactions between a user and the system must remain private unless explicitly public; (ii) integrity; (iii) accountability; (iv) availability; (v) identity and anonymity. Moreover, social networking platforms are vulnerable to many kind of attacks: (i) masquerading, which occurs when a user disguises his identity and pretends to be another user; (ii) unauthorized access; (iii) denial of service; (iv) repudiation, which occurs when a user participates in an activity and later claims he did not; (v) eavesdropping; (vi) alteration of data; (vii) copy and replay attacks; and, in general, (viii) attacks making use of social engineering techniques. In order to overcome both the intrinsic defects of centralized systems and the general vulnerabilities of social networking platforms, many different approaches have been proposed, both as federated (i.e., consisting of multiple entities cooperating to provide the service, but usually distinct from users) or peer-to-peer systems (with users directly cooperating to provide the service); in this work we reviewed the most interesting ones. Eventually, we present our own approach to create a solid distributed social networking platform consisting in a novel peer-to-peer system that leverages existing, widespread and stable technologies such as distributed hash tables and BitTorrent. The topics we are mainly concerned with are: (i) anonymity and resilience to censorship; (ii) authenticatable contents; (iii) semantic interoperability using activity streams and weak semantic data formats for contacts and profiles; and (iv) data availability.
Forecasting Optimal Portfolio Weights Using High-Frequency Data

The paper evaluates the contribution of conditional second moments, from high-frequency data, to optimal portfolio allocation. Using the DCC model as a benchmark, we put forth two novel approaches: a model for the inverse conditional correlation matrix ( DCIC ) and the direct modeling of the conditional portfolio weights ( DCW ). We assess their out-of-sample ability by comparing the corresponding minimum-variance portfolios built on the components of the Dow Jones 30 Index. Evaluating performance in terms of portfolio variance, certainty equivalent, turnover and break-even transaction costs, we find that exploiting conditional correlations gives marked improvements upon volatility timing and na ive strategies: DCC and the computationally convenient DCIC perform in a similar way; DCW , the simplest and fastest to implement, exhibits either equal or superior performances with respect to the measures considered.
EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT AND CYTOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF ARTOCARPUS CHAMA BUCH. SEEDS USING IN VITRO MODELS

Phytochemicals consisting of phenols and flavonoids possess antioxidant properties, which are useful to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). The present study was conducted to evaluate antioxidant and cytotoxic potential of methanol extracts of seeds of Artocarpus chama Buch . , using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) scavenging assay, cupric reducing antioxidant capacity, reducing power antioxidant capacity, total antioxidant capacity, determination of total phenol and flavonoid contents and cytotoxic activity test using brine shrimp lethality bioassay. Preliminary phytochemical study revealed the presence of alkaloid and flavonoid in the extracts. The fraction showed significant antioxidant activities in the assay compared to the reference ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, the IC 50 value of the crude methanol extract was 54.29 µg/mL, whereas IC 50 value for the reference ascorbic acid was 14.56 µg/mL. Moreover, at 200 µg/mL extract concentration, profound total antioxidant activity (4373.58 mg/g equivalent to ascorbic acid) was observed. Furthermore, extract showed good cupric reducing power and reducing power capability. In addition, significant amount of phenols and flavonoids content were obtained from the extract. The extract also displayed strong cytotoxic potential with LC 50 value of 10.41 μg/mL in brine shrimp lethality bioassay. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that significant antioxidant potential as well as cytotoxic potential of methanolic extract, might be due to the attributes of high amount of phenols and flavonoids present in the extract.
KINETOTHERAPY ROLE OF KYNETOTHERAPY IN ACUTE HEMORRHAGIC STROKE

Hemorrhagic stroke represents 10% of total stroke number, with high mortality and devastating impact on patients life’s. Because hemorrhagic stroke is associated with severe invalidity and high costs for hospitalization and recovery it is important to now first and second stroke prevention. Our study included 30 patients diagnosed and treated in our clinic over a period of 4 months. We measured the volume of hemorrhage and assessed the impact of disease with FMA (Fugl-Meyer Assessment) scale. Our study proved a high mortality among hemorrhagic stroke patients. The majority number of patients involved in study have shown an improvement of initial clinical state after kynetotherapy in early days of stroke. Mortality in hemorrhagic stroke is high, comparable with that citied in literature. The volume of hemorrhage is a predictable factor for the evolution of patient. Kynetotherapy in early days oh hemorrhagic stroke proved to be useful.
Dynamic Botnet Defence Mechanism For Malware Threat Protection

Botnet defense is the mechanism of confining the impact on the worm or threat against its further impact. It is established and proposed in various ways either by existing, secure way of protecting against the initial attack mode or by stopping it from further layers of attack . However this proposal will acquaint a dynamic method to analyze the initial survey and protection layer by clustering nodes with master and slave subject. This method gain the qualitative method to slow down the initial impact on signatures matching against the worm nature and it will completely stop the spreading nature using antispam shields against it. In this paper, the algorithm to detect any bot will be partially based on biased nature of intrusion detection systems. However Network (IDS) start spreading messages of the bot nature which also leads to False Alarm. This paper will also critically discuss about, how it's avoiding the old messages exchange of master and slaves.
Long-term Variability in the Seasonality of Eastern Boundary Current ( EBC ) Systems : an Example of Increased UpweIIing from the California Current

Pacifie Fisheries Environmental Group (PFEG) 1352 Lighthouse Avenue Pacifie Grove CA 93950-2097 USA State-space statistical models are applied to long environmental time series of monthly northward wind stress, sea surface temperature (SST), coastal salinity (SSS) and coastal sea level (SL) from the West Coast of North America. We describe the models, which use a combination of Kalman filtering and maximum likelihood methods to estimate a nonparametric non-linear trend, a non-stationary and statistically non-deterministic seasonal signal, and an autoregressive term. The models effectively separate the seasonal signals from the long-term trends.
PROTEINS THAT INTERACT WITH UBIQUITrN-CONJUGATING E N Z Y M E 2, UBC-2, IN THE N E M A T O D E CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS

A major route for protein degradation occurs via the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Proteins are targeted for destruction by the proteasome through covalent ubiquitin attachment. This tagging system involves the concerted action of an ubiquitinactivating enzyme (El), an ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (E2), and an ubiquitin ligase (E3), with the latter two being involved in achieving target specificity. UBC-2, an essential E2 in the nematode C. elegans, is a functional homolog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae UBC4, a member of a branch of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes required for the degradation of short-lived and abnormal proteins. In order to identify proteins that interact with UBC-2, a yeast two-hybrid analysis was employed. Putative TJBC-2 interacting proteins identified include: a ubiquitin-like budding yeast DSK2 ortholog referred to as DSK-2, two RING finger proteins, a protein containing a F Y V E domain, a calcium ATPase called MCA -1 , and ubiquitin. Since DSK-2 represented 60% of the putative interactors isolated from the screen, this project focused on the interaction of UBC-2 and DSK-2, and demonstrated a novel interaction between an E2 and an ubiquitin-domain protein (UDP) in vitro. The ability of DSK-2 to bind polyubiquitin and itself was also demonstrated. RNA interference (RNAi) was employed in an attempt to determine the biological function of UBC-2 interacting proteins in vivo. RNAi with mca-1 produced a subtle body shortening phenotype, although genes encoding UBC-2 interacting proteins appear to be non-essential.
Evaluating transmission towers potentials during ground faults

During ground faults on transmission lines, a number of towers near the fault are likely to acquire high potentials to ground. These tower voltages, if excessive, may present a hazard to humans and animals. This paper presents analytical methods in order to determine the transmission towers potentials during ground faults, for long and short lines. The author developed a global systematic approach to calculate these voltages, which are dependent of a number of factors. Some of the most important factors are: magnitudes of fault currents, fault location with respect to the line terminals, conductor arrangement on the tower and the location of the faulted phase, the ground resistance of the faulted tower, soil resistivity, number, material and size of ground wires. The effects of these factors on the faulted tower voltages have been also examined for different types of power lines.
USE OF BRACKISH WATER FOR THE RECLAMATION OF DENSE SALINE-SODIC SOILS BY AUGER HOLE TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF WHEAT CROP

Currently, availability of good-quality water is falling short of the crop requirement, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. A field experiment was conducted on dense saline-sodic soils at Tehsil Toba Tek Singh at three sites. The initial ECe, SAR and pHs of the soils ranged from 9.86 to 25.30 dS m, 17.1 to 46.7 and 7.57 to 7.98, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. The treatments were: T1= Tube well water (TW) alone, T2= TW–Canal water (CW), T3= TW–CW + one auger hole per 30 m refilled with gypsum and rice husk, T4= TW–CW + one auger hole per 60 m refilled with gypsum and rice husk. Overall T3 was best in decreasing ECe, SAR and pHs at all three sites. Maximum decrease (%) in ECe, SAR and pHs was 70.23 (T3) at site 1, 69.67 (T4) at site 2, and 4.64 (T1) at site 1, respectively at 0-15 cm depth. Maximum wheat grain yield (4180, 3805 and 4259 kg ha at sites 1, 2 and 3, respectively) were recorded with T3. Maximum benefit cost ratio was 3.47, 3.38 and 2.95 with TW–CW + one auger hole per 30 m refilled with gypsum and rice husk (1:1 ratio by volume) at sites 3, 1 and 2, respectively.
Majority Governments and Investment : Evidence from Portuguese Municipalities ∗

Theory predicts that coalition governments spend more than majorities. Focusing on Portuguese municipal governments over the period between 1993 and 2012, we empirically investigate whether majorities invest less than coalition governments. Using a two step methodology which consists of exploring discontinuities in government type and comparing municipalities which changed their type of government around the discontinuity with those that did not, we are able to isolate a causal effect. Contrary to the theoretical predictions, we find that mayors that are able to hold a majority in the City Hall Council significantly increase their investment relative to those who are not. This result is in line with others in the empirical literature, such as Freier and Odendahl (2012) and Garmann (2014). ∗I deeply thank Professor Susana Peralta for all the attentive guidance, enriching ideas, criticism and valuable mentorship. To my father and my mother. †Nova School of Business and Economics. Campus de Campolide, P-1099-032Lisboa, Portugal. Email: filipe.bento. caires@gmail.com.
Cashew nut meal subjected to prolonged storage for quail feeding

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the oxidative stability of cashew nut meal (CNM) at 180 days of storage and the effects of its use in the feed of meat quails. A total of 280 animals at seven days of age, of both sexes, were distributed in a completely randomized design with five treatments, in a 2 × 2 + 1 factorial arrangement, and seven replicates of eight birds each. The treatments were a control diet without [. ]
Controlled data storage for non-volatile memory cells embedded in nano magnetic logic

Among the beyond-CMOS technologies, perpendicular Nano Magnetic Logic (pNML) is a promising candidate due to its low power consumption, its non-volatility and its monolithic 3D integrability, which makes it possible to integrate memory and logic into the same device by exploiting the interaction of bi-stable nanomagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Logic computation and signal synchronization are achieved by focus ion beam irradiation and by pinning domain walls in magnetic notches. However, in realistic circuits, the information storage and their read-out are crucial issues, often ignored in the exploration of beyond-CMOS devices. In this paper we address these issues by experimentally demonstrating a pNML memory element, whose read and write operations can be controlled by two independent pulsed currents. Our results prove the correct behavior of the proposed structure that enables high density memory embedded in the logic plane of 3D-integrated pNML circuits.