Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactive effects of salinity, nitrogen and sulphur on the organic solutes in Spartina alterniflora leaf blades

Glycinebetaine, proline, asparagine, sucrose, glucose, and dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) were the major organic solutes in Spartina alterniflora leaf blades. To investigate the physiological role(s) of these solutes, the effects of salinity, nitrogen, and sulphur treatments on leaf blade solute levels were examined. Glycinebetaine was the major organic solute accumulated in leaf blades grown at 500 mol m -3 NaCl, although asparagine and proline also accumulated when the supply of nitrogen was sufficient. These solutes may play a role in osmotic adjustment. In contrast, DMSP levels either did not change or were reduced in response to the 500 mol m -3 NaCl treatment. Furthermore, elevated nitrogen supply decreased leaf blade DMSP levels, which was opposite to the response of glycinebetaine, proline, and asparagine. A 1000-fold increase in external sulphate concentration had no effect on the leaf blade levels of DMSP, glycinebetaine, proline, or asparagine. These findings suggest that the major physiological role of DMSP in S. alterniflora leaf blades is not for osmotic adjustment, even under conditions of nitrogen deficit and excess sulphur. Instead, DMSP which was present at 45-130 μmol g -1 dry weight, may play a role as a constitutive organic osmoticum.
Does servant Leadership create knowledge sharing intensions among employees? (Study of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan)

Current study is intended to explore the existence of servant leadership in HEC and its impact on the knowledge sharing intensions among employees. The sample of the study was 150 respondents from HEC. Servant leadership was taken as independent, knowledge sharing intension as dependent and attitude, perceived behavioral control and norms towards knowledge sharing were taken as mediating variable. The closed ended questionnaire based on five point likert scale was used for the data collection. The instrument reliability and validity was checked through cronbach alpha and exploratory factor analysis. The One sample T-test was used to check whether servant leadership and knowledge sharing intensions exist in HEC and Structure equation modeling was used to check their relationship and impact of servant leadership on knowledge sharing intensions. One sample T-test shows that servant leadership style, attitude, perceived behavioral control and norms towards knowledge sharing and intensions to share knowledge exist in HEC. Result of SEM influence of the servant leadership on Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control is 0.95, 0.689 and 0.228 at p value 0.000 which shows that influence is significant at 99 % confidence level. Similarly the influence of the Attitude, Subjective Norms and servant leadership on the knowledge sharing intension of the employees is 0.021, 0.374 and 0.014 respectively and these influence are significant but only influence of Perceived Behavioral Control related to Knowledge Sharing on the knowledge sharing intension of the employees is -0.017 which is not significant. It is concluded that servant leadership style directly and indirectly through mediates variable like Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control significantly influence the knowledge sharing intension of the employees of Higher Education Commission. Key w ords: Servant Leadership, Knowledge Sharing Intensions, HEC Pakistan
Tissue-dependency of the impact of endoreduplication on cell size

87 INTRODUCTION High ploidy level has been known to be associated with larger cells in general in fungi, animals and plants, yet the reasons are unknown (Jorgensen and Tyers 2004, Comai 2005, Tsukaya 2008, 2013). The most naïve idea may be that copy numbers of gene-coding regions are proportional to the amounts of gene products, which are in turn reflected in cell volumes. But it is already known that nuclear/cell size is not always proportional to the ploidy level or amount of DNA (e.g., Müntzing 1936). Once it was hypothesized that the cell cycling pace is slowed down in higher ploidy cells via changing expression levels of cell-cycle regulators, resulting in larger cells, but this idea was totally refuted by mRNA profiling and measurements of cell-cycle pace (Storchová et al. 2006). Moreover, cell size is known to regulate the expression levels of some genes encoding cell-surface components in a cell volume-dependent manner (Wu et al. 2010), indicating that the cell volume is not a passive result of the ploidy level. The only certainty regarding this enigma is that we do not know why high ploidy results in larger cells. Here we overview some recent, important clues obtained from our studies on the influence of genetic background and cell type identity on the correlation between the ploidy level and cell size.
The invasive plant Impatiens glandulifera affects mycorrhizal fungi, plant and invertebrate diversity in deciduous forests

Invasive species can have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems. Invasive plants may be able to change habitat structure and quality. We conducted a field experiment to examine whether the invasive plant Impatiens glandulifera affects native terrestrial gastropods. We also evaluated whether the invasive plant alters forest soil characteristics and microclimate which in turn may influence gastropod abundance. We sampled gastropods in plots installed in patches of I. glandulifera, in plots in which I. glandulifera was regularly removed by hand, and in control plots which were not yet colonized by the invasive plant. The three types of plots were equally distributed over three mixed deciduous forest areas that were slightly, moderately or heavily affected by a wind throw 11 years ago. A total of 33 gastropod species were recorded. Gastropod species richness was not affected by delayed effects of the wind throw, but it was significantly higher in invaded plots than in uninvaded plots. Similarly, gastropod abundance was higher in invaded plots than in the two types of control plots. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed marginally significant shifts of gastropod communities between the three types of plots and indicated that soil moisture, presence of I. glandulifera and cover of woody debris affected gastropod species composition. Field measurements showed that soil moisture was higher and daily soil temperature was more damped in patches of I. glandulifera than in the native ground vegetation. The changed microclimatic conditions may favour certain gastropod species. In particular, ubiquitous species and species with a high inundation tolerance increased in abundance in plots invaded by I. glandulifera. Our field experiment demonstrated that an invasive plant can indirectly affect native organisms by changing soil characteristics and microclimate. 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Erosional response to northward-propagating crustal thickening in the coastal ranges of the U.S. Pacific Northwest

We measured basin-scale erosion rates, using cosmogenic 10Be concentrations in quartz, from fluvial sediment in rivers draining the coastal mountain ranges of the U.S. Pacific Northwest between 40° and 47° N. Apparent erosion rates are 0.1 to 0.2 mm yr−1 throughout the Oregon Coast Ranges north of 43° N, and increase to the south to 0.6 to 1.1 mm yr−1 in the northern California coast ranges near 40° N. We propose that these observations display the erosional response to northward-migrating crustal thickening associated with subduction of the Mendocino Triple Junction. North-south variations in erosion rate, range elevation, and metrics of landscape relief and steepness are consistent with the hypotheses that i) their primary cause is northward-migrating crustal thickening; ii) erosion rates are strongly controlled by topographic relief and weakly, if at all, controlled by climate; and iii) the dependence of erosion on relief is nonlinear and obeys a threshold-relief relationship.
Bioconversion of rape straw into a nutritionally enriched substrate by Ganoderma lucidum and yeast

This work aims to select biological treatments and conditions for the bioconversion of rape straw by the mixed-strain fermentation of Ganoderma lucidum and yeasts ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida tropicalis and Candida utilis ), into an enriched substrate with increased crude protein and digestibility. Orthogonal experiment showed that the optimal experimental condition for the crude protein enrichment was: 10% (v/w) C. utilis inoculum was added to the rape straw medium after 7 days of G. lucidum growth; the crude protein content of the substrate was 16.23%; the yield rate were increased by 75.70 and 225.90%, respectively when compared to the G. lucidum individual-fermentation and without fermentation substrate. The results in this study also indicated that: the co-culture of 2 fungi (G. lucidum + C. utilis ) was better than individual (G. lucidum ) culture on the degradation of cellulose and lignin of rape straw substrate and the secretion of ligninolytic enzyme system including laccase (Lac), manganese peroxidase (MnP) and lignin peroxidase (LiP).
MUL TIOBJECTIVE DESIGN OF VACCINATION CAMPAIGNS WITH A STOCHASTIC VALIDATION

The planning of vaccination campaigns must minimize two factors: the number of infected individuals in a time horizon and the cost to implement the control. This problem is stated here as a non-linear dynamic programming optimization with impulsive control. The traditional SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) difierential equation model is employed for representing the system, and the dynamic programming problem is solved in open-loop, leading to a static non-linear multiobjective optimization problem. The NSGA-II, which is a robust multiobjective genetic algorithm, is employed as the optimization machinery. A stochastic dynamic model of the epidemics is employed in order to validate the vaccination strategy, helping in the choice of the speciflc strategy to be implemented. The flnal result shows a set of interval of confldence for each
Restless Leg Syndrome, Insomnia, and Depression in Hemodialysis Patients: Three Sides of a Triangle?

Background: Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor neurological disorder with high prevalence among patients with endstage renal disease (ESRD) and is associated with sleep and mood disturbances. The current study evaluated the associations between RLS, depression and insomnia in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Methods: The current cross sectional study collected sociodemographic, laboratory data, and medical history of 235 patients undergoing hemodialysis. RLS was assessed by a questionnaire designed by national institutes of health/international RLS study group (IRLSSG), depression by hospital anxiety depression scale (HADS), and insomnia by Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). Results: The prevalence of RLS in patients undergoing hemodialysis was 23.4%; out of which 43.6% had severe and very severe RLS. Patients with RLS had a positive family history of RLS (P value < 0.001). There was no difference between the demographic and laboratory findings of the patients. In comparison to the patients without RLS, the patients with RLS had a higher prevalence of depression (63.6% vs. 42.2%, P value = 0.005), and more severe insomnia score (mean PSQI-score = 8.2 ± 4.9 vs. 6.2 ± 4 (P value = 0.009). The PSQI score were correlated with HADS score (P value < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, the link between RLS and depression depended on insomnia. Conclusions: RLS is prevalent among patients undergoing dialysis and could lead to depression, even in the absence of insomnia. Thus, it seems that appropriate diagnosis and management of RLS would make a difference in quality of life of patients undergoing hemodialysis.
A FPGA Implementation of Prediction Error Method for Adaptive Feedback Cancellation using Xilinx System Generator

This paper describes a real-time, field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of Feedback Cancellation (FC) system to improve the intra-cabin communication among the driver and passengers, which is typically degraded by the noisy environment and by the distance in between them. The feedback canceller, used to reduce the acoustic coupling the loudspeaker and the microphone, is based on the continuously adaptive filtering technique, implementing the prediction error method (PEM) for closed loop system identification. The adaptive algorithm implements the modified least mean square algorithm (MLMS) while for the linear prediction a fix-order linear predictor has been selected. The implementation was done using Xilinx System Generator (XSG) Keywords-Adaptive Algorithm; Adaptive Feedback Cancellation; Prediction Error; MLMS; FPGA; Xilinx System Generator
The effect of a density gradient in groundwater on ATES system efficiency and subsurface space use

Abstract. A heat pump combined with Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) has high potential in efficiently and sustainably providing thermal energy for space heating and cooling. This makes the subsurface, including its groundwater, of crucial importance for primary energy savings. ATES systems are often placed in aquifers in which salinity increases with depth. This is the case in coastal areas where also the demand for ATES application is high due to high degrees of urbanization in those areas. The seasonally alternating extraction and re-injection between ATES wells disturbs the preexisting ambient salinity gradient causing horizontal density gradients, which trigger buoyancy flow, which in turn affects the recovery efficiency of the stored thermal energy. This section uses analytical and numerical methods to understand and explain the impact of buoyancy flow on the efficiency of ATES in such situations, and to quantify the magnitude of this impact relative to other thermal energy losses. The results of this research show that losses due to buoyancy flow may become considerable at (a relatively large) ambient density gradients of over 0.5 kg m−3 m−1 in combination with a vertical hydraulic conductivity of more than 5 m day−1. Monowell systems suffer more from buoyancy losses than do doublet systems under similar conditions.
Gust Alleviation Control Using Robust MPC

Disturbance suppression is one of the very important objectives for controller design. Thus, many papers on this topic have been reported, e.g. (Xie & de Souza, 1992; Xie et al., 1992). This kind of problem can be described as an H∞ controller design problem using a fictitious performance block (Zhou et al., 1996). Therefore, disturbance suppression controllers can be easily designed by applying the standard H∞ controller design method (Fujita et al., 1993). Disturbance suppression is also important in aircraft motions (Military Specification: Flight Control Systems Design, Installation and Test of Piloted Aircraft, General Specification For, 1975), and the design problem of flight controllers which suppress aircraft motions driven by wind gust, i.e. Gust Alleviation (GA) flight controller design problem (in short GA problem), has been addressed (Botez et al., 2001; Hess, 1971; 1972). In those papers, only the state information related to aircraft motions (such as, pitch angle, airspeed, etc.) is exploited for the control of aircraft motions. However, if turbulence information is obtained a priori and can also be exploited for the control, it is inferred that GA performance will be improved. This idea has already been adopted by several researchers (Abdelmoula, 1999; Phillips, 1971; Rynaski, 1979a;b; Santo & Paim, 2008). Roughly speaking, GA problem is to design flight controllers which suppress the vertical acceleration driven by turbulence. In the 1970s, turbulence was measured at the nose of aircraft (Phillips, 1971); however, the lead time from the measurement of turbulence to its acting on aircraft motions becomes very short as aircraft speed increases. Thus, the turbulence data which were measured at the nose of aircraft could not be effectively used. On this issue, as electronic and optic technologies have advanced in the last two decades, nowadays, turbulence can be measured several seconds ahead using LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) system (Ando et al., 2008; Inokuchi et al., 2009; Jenaro et al., 2007; Schmitt et al., 2007). This consequently means that GA control exploiting turbulence data which are measured a priori now becomes more practical than before. Thus, this paper addresses the design problem of such GA flight controllers. If disturbance data are supposed to be given a priori and the current state of plant is also available, then controllers using Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme work well, as illustrated for active suspension control for automobiles (Mehra et al., 1997; Tomizuka, 1976). However, in those papers, it is supposed that the plant dynamics are exactly modeled; that is, robustness of controllers against the plant uncertainties (such as, modeling errors, neglected 16
Peripheral Themes in Applied Linguistics Articles

There is considerable agreement among linguists that thematic analysis offers writers insights into manuscripts that may be rejected by international journals due to thematic organization problems. Whereas many comparative studies have provided valuable information about thematic progression (TP), the role of peripheral themes (PTs) has almost been neglected. Using the revised model of the TP proposed by McCabe (1999), this study incorporated a corpus of 32 experimental RAs, aiming to find out the possible similarities/differences in exploiting the PTs between the ELT RAs of local and international journals. Analysis revealed that different types of PTs were exploited in both samples, and their frequencies were fairly similar. These similarities were justified by the fact that the sample papers represented the shared genre. Results also suggested that PTs should not be considered as marginal themes, but as crucial ones that introduce, organize, and summarize topics.
Cylinder↔sphere epitaxial transitions in block copolymer melts

We examine the Landau free energy surface of a diblock copolymer melt using self-consistent field theory. The topography of its surface is found to exhibit a low-energy pathway connecting the local minima associated with the cylindrical (C) and spherical (S) morphologies. The pathway corresponds to an epitaxial transition where the periodicity of the two phases is matched with the cylinder axis oriented in one of the [111] directions of the bcc spheres. The energy barriers and stability limits are evaluated, and from them we conclude that the C↔S transition should normally occur by a nucleation and growth mechanism. Based on the generally small energy barriers, we suggest that fluctuation effects are much stronger than previously anticipated. Furthermore, we examine the way the morphology evolves during a transition and discuss its signature in a small-angle scattering experiment.
Crisis and trust in national and European Union institutions : panel evidence for the EU, 1999 to 2012

This paper analyses the effects of the crisis on trust in national and European Union institutions within an EU27 country sample from 1999 to 2012. The paper finds that the overall negative trends in trust throughout the crisis are driven by countries from the eurozone (EA12). However, whereas the crisis triggered only moderate declines of trust within eight core countries of the EA12, a significant decline of trust can be detected within four periphery countries, namely Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Econometric results reveal that, amongst others, the significant increase in unemployment rates in those four countries, especially in Spain, largely contributed to this pronounced fall in trust.
Value Creation in the Private Equity: And Venture Capital Industry

Private equity and venture capital firms must master a complex set of skills to obtain healthy returns by successfully selecting, structuring, monitoring, and exiting their investments in companies. Before we discuss how they do that, and how well they have been delivering on the challenge according to the statistical evidence, let’s take a brief journey to better understand the position and role of the private equity industry in the global economy.
GENOTOXIC STRESS INDUCED POSTTRANSLATIONAL MODIFICATION OF TRANSCRIPTIONAL ADAPTOR PROTEIN ADA3

Posttranslational modification is one of the crucial mechanisms involved in initiating and propagating cellular defense response towards genotoxic insults. It is also a part of the fine tuning mechanism that allows the system to have precise control over protein stability and activity depending on the intensity of the stress signal. Human ADA3 has been implicated in the transcriptional regulation of DNA damage response genes by potentiating acetylation mediated stability and activity of p53. However, impact of posttranslational modification on hADA3 function has not been studied so far. Our current investigation shows that hADA3 is induced in response to DNA damage treatment with adriamycin in a p53 dependent manner. Further analysis revealed that prolonged adriamycin treatment imparts posttranslational modification and hence enhanced stability to hADA3 protein. Treatment with the kinase inhibitor caffeine prevented accumulation of slower migrating forms of hADA3 indicating a role of ATM/ATR kinases in DNA damage mediated modification of hADA3. In summary, our data shows that hADA3 undergoes posttranslational modification under genotoxic stress and suggests possible mechanism by which hADA3 may trigger activation of DNA damage response pathways.
IS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING RIGHT FOR MY COMPANY

This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part we explain what is meant by relationship marketing and the reasons why marketing is evolving from a transactional to a relational approach. In the second part we review certain criticisms brought against relationship marketing and the reasons why it often proves unsuccessful in certain contexts. This leads on to a discussion of whether relationship marketing is equally valid for every kind of company, every type of product or service, every customer, and every market. If the answer is “probably not”, we need to determine exactly who can benefit from it most. To do that we outline a detailed analysis of the eight stages of relationship marketing, namely: identify, inform and attract, sell, serve, satisfy, build loyalty, develop, and create a user community. We conclude with an account of an experiment in which this method was used to analyze two IESE cases: “Spainsko” and “Hewlett-Packard DesignJet Online”. * Professor of Marketing, IESE
Interactive System for Medical Interventions Based on Magnetic Resonance Targeting

Magnetic Resonance Targeting (MRT) is a new approach that aims at navigating untethered therapeutic or diagnostic micro-entities through the vascular network until a specific targeted location is reached. The platform used for such intervention is referred to as a Magnetic Resonance Navigation (MRN) system and it typically takes the form of a clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner upgraded with special software and hardware modules to allow such platform to perform MRN in an effective manner. Considering the complexity of MRN operations and the speed at which real- time operations are being performed, an interactive system capable of providing a proper interface to allow an interventional radiologist or the like to properly interact and use such platform becomes an essential, yet a critical component for the success of this new medical interventional approach. Here, this paper presents for the first time an overview of a new interactive system for MRN operations suitable to conduct preliminary interventions. Keywords-magnetic; Magnetic resonance imaging; targeted interventions; cancer therapy; user interface