Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A faunistic approach to assess potential side-effects of genetically modified Bt-Corn on non-target arthropods under field conditions

A faunistic study investigating the potential side-effects of corn (Zea mays) genetically modified to express a truncated Cry1Ab protein derived from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki, on non-target arthropods was carried out under field conditions. The communities of non-target arthropods in the soil, on the leaves and flying in the crop area were monitored throughout the growing season. Water-treated, untransformed corn served as a control, and a spray application of a bacterial Bt insecticide (Delfin WG) and a synthetic insecticide (Karate Xpress) used to control the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis; Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) acted as positive reference treatments. Results were analyzed using a principal response curve. Significantly lower infestations by the lepidopteran target species O. nubilalis were observed in the Bt-corn plots compared to the control. No effects of Bt-corn on the communities of soil dwelling and non-target plant dwelling arthropods were observed. A trend towards a community effect on flying arthropods was observed with lower abundance of adult Lepidoptera, flies in the families Lonchopteridae, Mycetophilidae and Syrphidae, and the hymenopteran parasitoids Ceraphronidae. Effects were weak and restricted to two sampling dates corresponding to anthesis. A short but statistically significant effect of Karate Xpress and Delfin was observed on the community of plant dwellers and a prolonged effect of Karate Xpress on the soil dwellers.
Higher order paracontrolled calculus and 3d-PAM equation

3 Abstract. We sharpen in this work the tools of paracontrolled calculus in order to provide a complete analysis of the parabolic Anderson model equation in a 3-dimensional setting, in either bounded or unbounded domains equipped with a sub-Laplacian structure. We develop for that purpose a higher order paracontrolled calculus via semigroups methods. The technical core of this machinery is the introduction of a pair of intertwined space-time paraproducts on parabolic Holder spaces, with good continuity properties, as well as some continuity properties of iterated commutators and correctors built from paraproducts and resonant operators. Given the scope of our semigroup methods in terms of operators and geometry of the ambient space, the application of our tools to the study of the 3-dimensional parabolic Anderson model equation provides results that go beyond the case of R3 with its Laplace operator very recently studied by Hairer and Labbe with the tools of regularity structures.
The Design and Implementation of Professional Quality Evaluation System for Oil Workers in Oil Gathering and Transferring Enterprise

From the realistic problems in the staff skills training assessment and professional quality requirement, design and develop professional quality appraisal system for oil gathering and transferring enterprise by integrated application of network technology and virtual simulation technology. System is in the service of oil workers professional quality requirement and regular training appraisal, realize the two aspects of theoretical knowledge and operation skills examination, and satisfy the unified examination of enterprise organization, and satisfy the employee's independent test.
The Relationship between Operating Cash Flow and Income Smoothing in Healthy Companies Compared with Companies Going Bankrupt and the Bankruptcy Doubt that the Model of Altman

Investors, credit providers and financial analysts interested in more information about smoothing in the investee company to have, especially if this information is based on decisions affecting them. Research findings indicate that many investors in making investments, profit smoothly and prefer low volatility. In this context, managers are trying to profit and growth rates show it smoothly. This study examines the effect of operating cash flow in public listed companies (Salem, bankrupt and uncertainty in the region, according to Altman bankruptcy model) on the Stock Exchange on earnings smoothing. Lintner model used to smooth income. A careful study of literature, three hypotheses and sample consists of 164 companies for the period 13891393 five-year and using multiple linear regression analysis is located.The results indicate that a significant positive relationship between income and income smoothing exists. But between operating cash flow and income smoothing significant positive relationship was not found. As well as between income compared with the previous year and operating cash flow smoothing and there is a significant positive relationship.
Response of transgenic rice at germination traits under salt and alkali stress

Rice is a worldwide cereal crop. Rice yield is severely threatened by saline and alkali stresses. A transgenic rice variety and its wild type (Nipponbare) were treated with four different levels of NaCl / Na2CO3 solutions to study the germination traits (germination percentage, root length, dry weight) of transgenic rice. Rice was found to be more sensitive to Na2CO3 than to NaCl solutions. Germination percentages declined with increasing sodium salts. When treated with 1.5% NaCl, only 40% of Nipponbare and 51% of transgenic rice could survive. The root length of Nipponbare was significantly more restricted than that of transgenic rice. Transgenic rice showed better performance at germination and early seedling growth compared to its wild type under salt and alkali stress. Key words: Transgenic rice, saline stress, alkali stress, germination traits.
Polyphenylene Ether Macromonomers. XI. Use in Non-Epoxy Printed Wiring Boards

The continuous progression toward portable, high frequency microelectronic systems has placed high demands on material performance, notably low dielectric constants (D k ), low loss tangent (D f ), low moisture uptake, and good thermal stability. Epoxy resins are the workhorses of the electronic industry. Significant performance enhancements have been obtained through the use of PPE telechelic macromonomers with epoxy resins. However, there is a ceiling on the performance obtainable from epoxy-based resins. Therefore, non-epoxy based dielectric materials are used to fulfill the need for higher performance. The focus of this paper is on vinyl monomers such as triallyl isocyanurate (TAIC) and t-butyl styrene/divinyl benzene (TBS/DVB) and their use with vinyl modified PPE macromers. When TAIC and TBS/DVB are cured by themselves, the resultant material was extremely brittle. However, the use in combination with vinyl modified PPE macromers, resulted in dielectric materials that exhibited major increases in toughness, very low dielectric properties, high glass transition temperatures (T g ), and very low moisture absorption. Printed wiring boards made from a combination of vinyl monomers and the PPE engineering macromonomer exhibited significant performance advantages over epoxy and modifiedepoxy materials.
Testing For Asymmetric Information In Insurance Markets With Unobservable Types

In two important recent papers, Finkelstein and McGarry [25] and Finkelstein and Poterba [28] propose a new test for asymmetric information in insurance markets that considers explicitly unobserved heterogeneity in insurance demand. In this paper we propose an alternative implementation of the Finkelstein-McGarry-Poterba test based on the identification of unobservable types by use of finite mixture models. The actual implementation of our test follows some recent advances on marginal modelling as applied to latent class analysis; formal testing procedures for the null of asymmetric information and for the hypothesis that private information is indeed multidimensional can be performed by imposing restrictions on the behavior of these unobservable types. To show the potential applicability of our approach, we look at the long term insurance market as analyzed in Finkelstein and McGarry [25], where we also find strong evidence for both asymmetric information and multidimensional unobserved heterogeneity.
Evidence on Eva

Economic Value Added (EVA) has attracted considerable attention as an alternative to traditional accounting earnings for use in both valuation and incentive compensation. With a host of consultants now marketing related metrics, numerous claims have been made - most based on anecdotal evidence or in-house studies. This paper summarizes independent evidence regarding EVA's alleged advantages. We begin by reviewing the theory that links the underlying concept of residual income to shareholder value. Second, we discuss how Stern Stewart modifies residual income to produce its proprietary EVA metric and show how median EVA compares with residual income, net income and operating cash flows over the period 1988-97. Third, we examine the claim that EVA is more closely associated with stock returns and firm value than is net income. The evidence indicates that EVA does not dominate net income in associations with stock returns and firm values. Fourth, we examine a second claim that compensation plans based on residual income motivate managers to take actions consistent with increasing shareholder value. Here, the independent evidence suggests that managers do respond to residual income-based incentives. Finally, we discuss how a metric such as EVA can be useful for internal incentive purposes even if it conveys little news to market participants regarding the firm's valuation.
The Simplest Shortcut of All: Sociodemographic Characteristics and Electoral Choice

Voters' decision criterion of last resort is their similarity to candidates or party leaders. Most normative theories would denigrate this form of reasoning. But the recent argument that voters can make up for information shortfalls by employing heuristics seems to require that the most poorly informed respond to these characteristics if they are to make anything other than a random decision. In this article I test the hypothesis that increasing dissimilarity of sociodemographic characteristics from a political figure (e.g., party leader) decreases a voter's expected utility from the election of that person. Secondarily, I ask whether decreases in a voter's store of policy information will necessitate greater reliance-a tendency to "fall back"-on this similarity/dissimilarity criterion. I draw on survey data from two Canadian federal elections with adequate variation in party leader characteristics. A model of vote choice is estimated by conditional logit. All voters are found to respond negatively to increasing sociodemographic distance from party leaders, net of partisanship, economic retrospections, policy, and uncertainty. Voters equipped for policy voting do not ignore these characteristics, and voters without policy information do not respond more strongly to their similarity or dissimilarity to party leaders.
A model of suboxic sedimentary diagenesis suitable for automatic tuning and gridded global domains

We present a new model for oxic and anoxic diagenesis of shallow and deep‐sea sediments based on an efficient solver for steady state pore water and solid phase diffusion/reaction/advection equations. The model, called “Muds”, is orders of magnitude faster than solvers of the corresponding time‐dependent equations. The model resolves Mn and Fe/S geochemistry as well as pore water pH and CaCO3 dissolution. The model speed opens application possibilities that are impossible for time‐dependent models, including automatic tuning of uncertain parameters, and deployment of the model in gridded global domains. The kinetic rate constants for respiration and bioturbation are parameterized as functions of the organic carbon rain to the seafloor, based on existing parameterizations in the literature. Seven uncertain model parameters, including many of the rate constant parameterizations, were tuned to minimize the misfit to observations from 53 sedimentary locations throughout the ocean. The model tuning knobs were the fractions of labile and refractory organic matter in the sedimenting material, the NO3−, Mn, Fe, and S respiration rate constant parameterizations, and the depth scales of respiration and of pore water irrigation. We searched for adequate fit values of these parameterizations using a simulated annealing method. The cost function (degree of misfit) was based on a comparison of pore water (NO3−, NH4+, Mn2+, and Fe2+) and solid phase (organic carbon and MnO2) model results with data. Many of the tuning parameters are constrained to ±50% or better. The model is most skillful at predicting organic carbon concentration, depth of NO3− penetration, and pore water Fe2+, and less so for Mn2+, NH4+, and solid phase MnO2. The model misses some of the very high sediment surface MnO2 concentrations observed in, for example, the California Borderlands. We believe that these sites must receive a higher input of reactive Mn than the crustal abundance of the clay rain. The model was deployed on every 2° × 2° grid point below 1000 m of the global seafloor, using gridded maps of organic carbon rain to the seafloor and overlying water chemistry. The deep‐sea carbon burial efficiency is 7%, with 95% of respiration by oxic metabolism. The model was also run against a new depth‐oxygen hypsometry of the global ocean, with sediment area as a function of overlying oxygen concentration and average depth related to carbon fluxes, to include the effects of shallow water sediments. This analysis predicts that shallow waters (<1000 m) account for 88% of respiration, and oxygen accounts for 66% of respiration overall. Denitrification is closely coupled to organic nitrogen fluxes to the sediment, and the global rate is estimated to be 1.4 × 1014 mol yr−1, a factor of 6–8 higher than the corresponding estimate from Middelburg et al. [1996] , throwing the nitrogen cycle in the ocean into imbalance.
Time-resolved step scan FTIR spectroscopy and DFT investigation on triplet formation in peridinin–chlorophyll-a–protein from Amphidinium carterae at low temperature

We have used time-resolved step-scan FTIR spectroscopy to investigate the process of triplet formation in the peridinin–chlorophyll-a–protein (PCP) at 100 K. Results have led to the identification of possible marker bands for peridinin (Per) and 3Per. Band assignment has been carried out performing a DFT investigation on Per, 3Per and on model molecules. The main spectral feature is a couple of bands at 1746 (negative) and 1719 (positive) cm–1. The assignment of these two bands to the lactonic C═O of Per in (respectively) its fundamental S0 and triplet T1 state is based on: (1) comparison with FTIR spectra of isolated Per in literature; (2) good agreement with DFT calculations for Per and 3Per; (3) the downshift of the band upon triplet formation as predicted by DFT calculations in Per and similar lactonic systems; (4) the kinetic of band disappearance, in agreement with literature data. Another possible band for Per in its fundamental state has been identified at 1523 cm–1.
DAILY PATTERNS AND DURATION OF WOLF ACTIVITY IN THE BIAŁOWIEŻA FOREST, POLAND

Abstract We studied the influence of human activity, hunting of prey by wolves, reproduction, and weather conditions on daily patterns and duration of activity of 11 radiotracked wolves (Canis lupus) in the Białowieża Forest (Poland) from 1994 to 1999. On average, wolves were active 45.2% ± 0.9 SE of the time and traveled 0.92 ± 0.05 km/h. The mean length of activity bouts was 0.76 ± 0.05 h, whereas inactivity bouts averaged 1.02 ± 0.07 h. Wolves were active throughout the day, but their activity peaked at dawn and dusk, which coincided with periods when they killed most prey. Periods of reproduction and high temperatures had less pronounced effects on activity patterns. Human activity and other factors did not significantly affect the wolves' daily activity patterns. The influence of humans may be indirect if hunting of ungulates by humans modifies activity patterns of the wolves' prey. We conclude that the daily activity patterns of wolves in our study area were mainly shaped by their pattern of hunting prey.
AN ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS INTERFACE FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC POWERED INDUCTION MOTOR BASED ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Interfacing of power electronics is the key concept for clean electrical vehicle technology. In this paper a new integrated power electronics interface (IPEI) with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is proposed to improve the performance of vehicle, to manage the power-flow for each operating mode and to realize the amalgamation of the DC-DC converter, battery charger, and an inverter in the BEV. In this paper lithium ion battery is used. The efficiency and reliability of the system are improved with this proposed idea and also can effectively reduce the current ripples and voltage ripples. With this proposed model the components (active and passive) size is reduced therefore cost is reduced and also this technique reduces the stress in switching devices.The proposed model and its controlling strategy are analyzed and designed by using MATLAB/Simulink.
Breeding systems, climate, and the evolution of migration in shorebirds

Migratory behavior incurs energetic costs that may influence the time and energy available for reproduction including territory establishment, courtship, pair formation, incubation, and brood care. Conversely pair formation and parental care may leave less time and energy available for migration and other nonbreeding behaviors. Therefore, natural selection favoring migratory behavior may influence breeding system evolution and vice versa. We used phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate relationships between migration distance and the wide diversity of breeding systems in shorebirds (sandpipers, plovers and allies). Consistent with previous studies, we show that long-distance migration is associated with reduced male care across shorebird species. We then use directional phylogenetic analyses to test whether migration distances have tended to increase or decrease over time and whether such evolutionary changes have preceded or followed changes in parental care. We show that evolutionary transitions from short-distance migration to long-distance migration have coevolved with changes from full biparental care to reduced male care. Furthermore, our directional analyses suggest that increments in migration distance are more likely to have preceded reductions in male care than vice versa. We also show that male polygamy is associated with northern breeding latitudes when the nonbreeding latitude is controlled statistically. Although this suggests that mating systems, parental care, and migration have more complex relationships than previously thought, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that migration influences breeding system evolution. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
Satellite solar insolation-based daily evapotranspiration estimation in Puerto Rico

A technique is presented in which satellite solar insolation estimates are used to predict daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) using the Penman-Monteith (PM), Preistly-Taylor (PT) and Hargreaves-Samini (HS) methods for Puerto Rico. For this approach, average, minimum and maximum daily air temperatures were obtained from a regression procedure that depends on surface elevation and day of the year. The air temperature was adjusted using actual daily temperatures from several locations in PR. Dew point temperature was assumed to be equal to the daily minimum temperature, and a value of 1.9 m/s was assumed for wind speed. As an example, ETo was estimated for March 5, 2009 using the three methods, with the Penman-Monteith method producing the lowest values. This research represents a preliminary step in the development of an ETo product for PR. This product is a potentially valuable tool for conducting water resource studies and for supporting irrigation scheduling efforts.
Oriented attachment and growth, twinning, polytypism, and formation of metastable phases: Insights from nanocrystalline TiO2

Abstract Atomic-resolution transmission electron micrographs show that nanocrystalline TiO2 coarsens by oriented attachment and growth under hydrothermal conditions. In addition to forming homogeneous single crystals, attachment at anatase surfaces leads to twinning on {112} and intergrowths on (001) and {001}. Brookite, a polytype of anatase, occurs at some {112} twin surfaces. Alternating two octahedra-wide structural slabs in brookite are shared with the two adjacent anatase twin domains. Because {112} anatase twin interfaces contain one unit cell of brookite, we propose that brookite may nucleate at twin planes and grow at the expense of anatase. Alternatively, anatase-brookite interfaces may form by oriented attachment of primary brookite and anatase {112} crystallites. In this case, three unit cell-wide lamellae of brookite are interpreted as remnants of larger crystals that partly converted to anatase by propagation of the anatase-brookite interface. Which phase is stable is unclear over this particle size range, and products of random thermal fluctuations may be preserved by quenching. Regardless of reaction direction, polytypic interconversion of anatase and brookite essentially involves displacement of Ti (by c/4 brookite) into adjacent octahedral sites in one of the pair of two octahedra-wide structural slabs. The results have broad relevance for nucleation and growth models as they suggest that twinning and polytypism in macroscopic crystals can originate at oriented interfaces between primary nanocrystalline particles early in their crystallization history.
Multimodal medical image fusion based on Yager’s intuitionistic fuzzy sets

The objective of image fusion for medical images is to combine multiple images obtained from various sources into a single image suitable for better diagnosis. Most of the state-of-the-art image fusing technique is based on nonfuzzy sets, and the fused image so obtained lags with complementary information. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS) are determined to be more suitable for civilian, and medical image processing as more uncertainties are considered compared with fuzzy set theory. In this paper, an algorithm for effectively fusing multimodal medical images is presented. In the proposed method, images are initially converted into Yager’s intuitionistic fuzzy complement images (YIFCIs), and a new objective function called intuitionistic fuzzy entropy (IFE) is employed to obtain the optimum value of the parameter in membership and non-membership functions. Next, the YIFCIs are compared using contrast visibility (CV) to construct a decision map (DM). DM is refined with consistency verification to create a fused image. Simulations on several pairs of multimodal medical images are performed and compared with the existing fusion methods, such as simple average, discrete cosine transform (DCT), redundant wavelet transform (RWT), intuitionistic fuzzy set, fuzzy transform and interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy set (IVIFS). The superiority of the proposed method is presented and is justified. Fused image quality is also verified with various quality metrics, such as spatial frequency (SF), average gradient (AG), fusion symmetry (FS), edge information preservation (QAB/F), entropy (E) and computation time (CoT).