Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenotypic selection on growth rhythm in whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in low elevation common gardens

Growth rhythm represents the timing of annual plant growth and development in relation to the environment. Growth rhythm that is well synchronized with the local climate is understood to confer adaptation in plant species. Rapid ongoing climate change threatens to desynchronize growth rhythm for many plant populations, yet knowledge of how plant populations undergo selection on growth rhythm and how they will respond is limited. Therefore, to evaluate phenotypic selection on growth rhythm, seedlings from 49 populations of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), representative of the interior northwestern United States, were grown in two common-garden field tests over a 12-year period under climate (+4.4 to 9.1 °C mean annual temperature) approximating projected climate change in the present century for the sampled species range. In addition, variation in growth rhythm among populations and its relation to the climate of the seed source were evaluated to clarify how growth rhythm varies over the study region. Height at the end of the study was used as the best available measure of fitness. Survival and the unconditional expected value for height were dependent on timing of apical shoot elongation rates within and among growing seasons. Comparison of models using survival versus unconditional expected height as the proxy for fitness showed that survival strongly influenced selection on elongation rates. The form and magnitude of selection on timing and rate of shoot elongation varied between test sites and over time. Analysis of the timing of selection detected directional and stabilizing selection on shoot elongation rates in the earliest years whereas only directional selection was detected for selection on elongation rate in later years. Differences among populations for growth rhythm were mild and were explained to a moderate extent (r2 = 0.08-0.28) by climatic clines. Taken together, these findings suggest that growth rhythm in whitebark pine has been mildly selected for in relation to past climate and will undergo phenotypic selection in response to ongoing climate change.
A Simple Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Trace Level of Cadmium in Real, Environmental, Biological, Tobacco, Fertilizer and Soil Samples Using 2⁄, 3, 4⁄, 5, 7 Pentahydroxyflavone

A very simple, ultra-sensitive and highly selective non-extractive spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amount of cadmium using 2, 3, 4, 5, 7pentahydroxyflavone (morin) has been developed. Morin reacts in a slightly acidic (0.000001-0.000012M H2SO4) in 50% ethanolic solution with cadmium to give a deep greenishyellow chelate which has an absorption maximum at 422 nm. The reaction is instantaneous and the absorbance remains stable for over 24 h. The average molar absorption co-efficient and Sandell’s sensitivity were found to be 4.09 × 10 L molcm and 4.0 ng cm of cadmium, respectively. Linear calibration graphs were obtained for 0.01 25 mg L of cadmium with a correlation co-efficient value 0.9996 for Cd-morin complex. The stoichiometric composition of the chelate is 1:2 (Cd:morin). The detection limit and quantification limit of the reaction system were found 1μg L and 10μg L, respectively. A large excess of over 50 cations, anions and complexing agents (like, chloride, tartrate, azide, citrate, EDTA, SCN etc.) do not interfere in the determination. The developed method was successfully used in the determination of cadmium in several Standard Original Research Article American Chemical Science Journal, 4(4): 481-503, 2014 482 Reference Materials (alloys and steels) as well as in some environmental waters (inland and surface), biological samples (human blood, urine and hair), tobacco, fertilizer, soil samples and complex synthetic mixtures. The results of the proposed method for biological samples were comparable with AAS and were found to be in good agreement. The method has high precision and accuracy (s = ±0.01 for 0.5 mg L).
Hydrogenation Conversion of Phenanthrene over Dispersed Mo-based Catalysts

With oil-soluble molybdenum compound and sublimed sulfur serving as raw materials, two dispersed Mo-based catalysts were prepared, characterized and then applied to the hydrogenation conversion of phenanthrene. The test results showed that under the conditions specified by this study, the catalyst prepared in a higher sulfiding atmosphere was more catalytically active due to its higher content of MoS2 and stronger intrinsic catalytic activity of MoS2 unit, which demon- strated that the sulfiding atmosphere for the preparation of catalysts not only could influence the yield of MoS 2 but also the structure of MoS2. The analysis on the selectivity of octahydrophenanthrene isomers revealed that the catalyst prepared in a lower sulfiding atmosphere had a relatively higher catalytic selectivity to the hydrogenation of outer aromatic ring and the structure of catalysts could be modified under the specific reaction conditions. Moreover, the selectivity between the isomers of as-octahydrophenanthrene at different reaction time and temperature was analyzed and, based on the results, a hydroge- nation mechanism over dispersed Mo-based catalysts was suggested, with monatomic hydrogen transfer and catalytic sur- face desorption of the half-addition intermediates functioning as the key points. In addition, it is concluded that the catalyst prepared in a lower sulfiding atmosphere was more capable of adsorption than the other one.
Mechanisms of floc formation in sludge conditioning with polymers

In flocculation of dilute suspensions a period of slow mixing is necessary to increase the probability of particle collisions that are necessary for flocculation to occur. When flocculating sludges, the collision frequency is so high that flocs are formed immediately after rapid mixing. However, controlled mixing of the flocculated sludge for some time period does improve dewaterability. The mechanisms that are involved have been studied in detail and the subject of this paper. The results show that after rapid mixing and initial floc formation there might still be polymer in solution, depending on polymer dose. Prolonged mixing results in breakage of large aggregates and in particle/floc surfaces that are not yet covered with polymers. Subsequently the excess polymer adsorbs onto these surfaces. From changes in sludge rheology one can see that within a period of about one half to one minute the bulk properties change dramatically. After the initial floc formation the suspension is in a state characterized by a three-dimensional network structure with strongly interacting, voluminous flocs. After the mixing period there are more discrete and less interacting flocs. Especially the properties of the filter cake from pressure filtration are then more favorable.
Artificial SA-I and RA-I afferents for tactile sensing of ridges and gratings

For robot touch to reach the capabilities of human touch, artificial tactile sensors may require transduction principles like those of natural tactile afferents. Here we propose that a biomimetic tactile sensor (the TacTip) could provide suitable artificial analogues of the tactile skin dynamics, afferent responses and population encoding. Our three-dimensionally printed sensor skin is based on the physiology of the dermal–epidermal interface with an underlying mesh of biomimetic intermediate ridges and dermal papillae, comprising inner pins tipped with markers. Slowly adapting SA-I activity is modelled by marker displacements and rapidly adapting RA-I activity by marker speeds. We test the biological plausibility of these artificial population codes with three classic experiments used for natural touch: (1a) responses to normal pressure to test adaptation of single afferents and spatial modulation across the population; (1b) responses to bars, edges and gratings to compare with measurements from monkey primary afferents; and (2) discrimination of grating orientation to compare with human perceptual performance. Our results show a match between artificial and natural touch at single afferent, population and perceptual levels. As expected, natural skin is more sensitive, which raises a challenge to fabricate a biomimetic fingertip that demonstrates human sensitivity using the transduction principles of human touch.
Generalization Properties of hyper-RKHS and its Applications

This paper generalizes regularized regression problems in a hyper-reproducing kernel Hilbert space (hyper-RKHS), illustrates its utility for kernel learning and out-of-sample extensions, and proves asymptotic convergence results for the introduced regression models in an approximation theory view. Algorithmically, we consider two regularized regression models with bivariate forms in this space, including kernel ridge regression (KRR) and support vector regression (SVR) endowed with hyper-RKHS, and further combine divide-and-conquer with Nystr\"{o}m approximation for scalability in large sample cases. This framework is general: the underlying kernel is learned from a broad class, and can be positive definite or not, which adapts to various requirements in kernel learning. Theoretically, we study the convergence behavior of regularized regression algorithms in hyper-RKHS and derive the learning rates, which goes beyond the classical analysis on RKHS due to the non-trivial independence of pairwise samples and the characterisation of hyper-RKHS. Experimentally, results on several benchmarks suggest that the employed framework is able to learn a general kernel function form an arbitrary similarity matrix, and thus achieves a satisfactory performance on classification tasks.
Development of analytical methodologies for the assessment of odorous and fragrance compounds in wastewater treatment plants

Different analytical methodologies have been developed for the determination of odorous compounds and synthetic fragrances in water and air WWTP samples from Girona and Tarragona provinces. With regards to the odorous compounds, different methods have been developed, based on SPME and thermal desorption, for their determination in water and air samples. A group of the analytes have been detected in the samples at ? g/L and ? g/m3 levels, and some of them still surpass their odour threshold values. With regards to the fragrances, a SPME method has been developed for their monitorization in two WWTPs and it has been observed that some of them are not completely eliminated along the wastewater treatment. Moreover, two conventional tertiary treatments (UV and chlorination) have been evaluated for their elimination in waters. Some transformation products have been tentatively identified.
STEREOSELECTIVE SYNTHESIS OF β‐GLUCOSIDES WITH 1,1′‐DIACETAL STRUCTURE

Kondensation der β-D-Glucopyranose (I) mit den Acetalen (II) in Gegenwart katalytischer Mengen Trimethylsilyl-trifluormethansulfonat liefert die β-Glucoside (III), die mit Ausnahme von (III) mit R: -Hals 1:1-Gemische von C-1 ′-Epimeren vorliegen.
Meta-Analysis of the Ractopamine Response in Finishing Swine

ABSTRACT Ractopamine HCl (RAC) is a phenethanolamine β-adrenergic agonist used as a feed supplement that repartitions nutrients from fat deposition to increased protein synthesis and muscle protein accretion without deleteriously affecting pork quality. This literature review, as well as meta-analyses of the available results, was undertaken to evaluate the live performance, carcass, and pork quality responses to the various dietary inclusion levels (0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg) of RAC. Consensus of literature and meta-analysis indicated that pigs fed RAC, regardless of dietary inclusion level, gained faster (P
TRACE METAL CONTENTS OF SOME MEDICINAL, AROMATIC PLANTS AND SOIL SAMPLES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION, TURKEY

Introduction   Spices and herbs are the rich storehouses of different bioactive compounds and are well known for their beneficial effects on health [1]. Turkey is quite rich with respect to medicinal plants. They are used in folk medicine as antiscorbutic, antispasmodic, tonic, and carminative agents against bronchitis, ulcer, and as diuretics, depuratives, vermifuges [2 , 3]. Spices are important source of nutrition and flavoring for humans [4-6] and uses in traditional medicine. L. nobilis (bay laurel) leaves and essential oil from leaves are used as valuable spices and flavoring agent sin culinary and food industry [7]. Trace metal levels are important for human health. Iron, copper, zinc and manganese are essential metals since they play important role in biological systems, whereas lead and cadmium are non-essential metals, which can be toxic in trace levels [8-10]. Trace metal concentrations of some spices have been reported for Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn by AAS with microwave, dry and wet digestion methods [11]. In an other work, Abstract   In this study, concentrations of nine trace metals, i.e., manganese, zinc, copper, nickel, lead, cadmium, iron, chromium and cobalt have been determined in thirteen different spices and plants having folk medecinal uses. A microwave digestion procedure has been used to dissolve trace metals in samples (HNO3:H2O2, 4:2). All metals in the samples were analyzed using flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The metal concentrations in the samples were found to be 26.4-324.0, 78.2-211.0, 14.5-214.0, 1.9-330.2, 0.1-0.4, 0.3-0.7, 117.6-619.7, 0.1-0.9 and 0.1-0.3 μg/g for manganese, zinc, copper, nickel, lead, cadmium, iron, chromium and cobalt, respectively. The present study provides baseline data on essential trace metal levels in spices and medicinal plants.
New MAX Phase Compound Mo 2 TiAlC 2 : First-principles Study

A theoretical study of the Mo 2 TiAlC 2 compound belonging to the MAX phases has been performed by using the first-principles pseudopotential plane-wave method within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). We have calculated the structural, elastic, electronic and optical properties of Mo 2 TiAlC 2 . To confirm mechanical stability, the elastic constants C ij are calculated. Other elastic parameters such as bulk modulus, shear modulus, compressibility, Young modulus, anisotropic factor, Pugh ratio, Poisson’s ratio are also calculated. The energy band structure and density of states are calculated and analyzed. The results show that the electrical conductivity is metallic with a high density of states at the Fermi level in which Mo 4 d states dominate. Furthermore, the optical properties such as dielectric function, refractive index, photoconductivity, absorption coefficients, loss function and reflectivity are also calculated. Its reflectance spectrum shows that it has the potential to be used as a promising shielding material to avoid solar heating.
Selenium-Containing N-Heterocyclic Carbenes and Their First Palladium(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, and Pendent Alkyl Chain Length Dependent Catalytic Activity for Suzuki–Miyaura Coupling

Three new N-alkyl-N′-(2-ethyl-1-selenophenyl)imidazolium salts, L1–L3 (differing in the chain length of alkyl substituent of N), which are precursors to (Se, CNHC) ligands and their N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes [Pd(L-HX)Cl2] (1–3) [L = L1–L3, X = I/Br], have been synthesized and characterized by multinuclear NMR and HR-MS. For the synthesis of Pd complexes 1–3 from appropriate imidazolium salts (L1–L3), the route of the silver carbene transfer reaction has been adopted. Single-crystal structures of 1 and 2 have been established with X-ray diffraction. Thermally stable, moisture- and air-insensitive complexes 1–3 have been found to be efficient catalysts for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions (yield up to 96% in 2 h at 80 °C). Nanoparticles (NPs) (size of 80–85% particles ∼2–5 nm) formed in the beginning of these reactions (i.e., when the temperature of the reaction mixture reaches 80 °C) appear to be important for catalytic coupling, probably as dispensers of Pd(0), and contain Pd and Se. The Pd:.
Estimation of the surface energy of chemically and oxygen plasma-treated regenerated cellulosic fabrics using various calculation models

The aim of this work was to evaluate and compare the surface energies (SFEs) of regenerated cellulose fabrics modified by washing, bleaching, conventional chemical treatment (slack-mercerization), and plasma treatment. Three commonly used methods of estimating apolar, polar, and acid/base contributions were applied: geometric mean (GM), using diiodomethane (MI) and water as probes; van Oss—Good—Chaudhury (vOGC), using MI, tetrahydrofuran (THF), and chloroform (CF); and Owens—Wendt—Rabel—Kaelble (OW), using water, MI, THF, CF, ethanol and ethylene glycol. All treatments gave rise to more hydrophilic materials, as indicated by a decrease in the water contact angle. The GM and OW methods both showed that the polar component of the SFE increased after bleaching or conventional chemical treatment and, in particular, after plasma treatment. The vOGC method showed much smaller effects and indicated decreasing polarity after plasma treatment. This was probably due to the use of acid and base probes that did not contain hydroxyl groups in the determination of vOGC parameters, that is, the effect of the treatments was to introduce acid functionalities that could interact strongly with hydroxyls (hydrogen bonding) but not with the Lewis base THF or Lewis acid CF.
Bulk Ring-Opening Transesterification Polymerization of the Renewable δ-Decalactone Using an Organocatalyst.

The bulk ring-opening polymerization of renewable δ-decalactone using 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4. 0]dec-5-ene was carried out at temperatures between 7 and 110 °C. The equilibrium monomer concentration for reactions within this temperature range was used to determine the polymerization thermodynamic parameters (ΔHp = -17.1 ± 0.6 kJ mol-1, ΔSp = -54 ± 2 J mol-1 K-1) for δ-decalactone. The polymerization kinetics were established and high molar mass poly(δ-decalactone) was prepared with a glass transition temperature of -51 °C. Poly(δ-decalactone) samples with controlled molar mass and narrow molar mass distributions were realized by controlling the monomer conversion and initiator concentration. A high molar mass poly(lactide)-poly(δ-decalactone)-poly(lactide) triblock copolymer with a low polydispersity index was prepared by simple sequential addition of monomers. The product triblock exhibited two distinct glass transitions temperatures consistent with microphase segregation.
Heat/mass transfer analysis and numerical simulation for vacuum storage of pear

Pear was taken as samples to analyze how the water and temperature change and transfer on the surface and inner part of fruit and vegetable, with a mathematical model and physical model developed on the basis of experimental conditions for vacuum storage. Solve numerically the equation with Gauss-Seidel iteration method. The results thus provide a theory basis for food freezing practice.
Enhanced Surface Plasmon Effect of Ag/TiO2 Nanodiodes on Internal Photoemission

Over the last several decades, innovative light-harvesting devices have evolved to achieve high-efficiency solar energy transfer. Understanding the mechanism of plasmon resonance is very desirable to overcome the conventional efficiency limits of photovoltaics. The influence of localized surface plasmon resonance on hot electron flow at a metal–semiconductor interface was observed with a Schottky diode composed of a thin silver layer on TiO2; subsequent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterized how oxygen in the Ag/TiO2 nanodiode influenced the Schottky barrier height. Photoexcited electrons generate photocurrent when they have enough energy to travel over the Schottky barrier formed at the metal–semiconductor interface. We observed that the photocurrent could be enhanced by optically excited surface plasmons. When the surface plasmons are excited on the corrugated Ag metal surface, they decay into energetic hot electron–hole pairs, contributing to the total photocurrent. The abnormal resonance peaks.
HYBRID AMMONIA WATER ABSORPTION SYSTEM OF SMALL AND MEDIUM CAPACITY

The paper presents an absorption system with compact heat exchangers (micro-channels), working with ammonia water solution, driven by either solar or electrical energy. The construction of the solar panels includes heat pipes, and they are able to provide hot water with a maximum temperature of 130°C. The cooling capacity of the system ranges from 5 to 10 kW. The system is designed for comfort and technological air conditioning, providing inside air temperatures in the range of 10°C to 20°C. The project promotes ammonia as an ecological and natural refrigerant and aims to experimentally evaluate the thermal performances of each component of the system (condenser, evaporator, absorber and vapor generator) and of the entire system. The next step consists in a theoretical versus experimental comparison of data. The thermal performances refer to heat transfer coefficients in micro-channels on water ammonia side, as well as on the airside, and to the performance coefficient for various working conditions.
Gold Nanoparticle/Polymer Interfaces: All Atom Structures from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to obtain detailed all-atom models of the interface between polystyrene (PS) and gold nanoparticles. Considering their relevance in the memory technology, systems containing gold nanoparticle included in PS polymer melts also in the presence of 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) molecules have been studied. Four different systems, including a coated or a noncoated nanoparticle, have been compared. Calculated radial density profiles show that the presence of noncoated nanoparticles in a polymer melt causes an ordering of polymer chains. A similar ordering behavior is found for the 8-HQ molecule. In the presence of a coated gold nanoparticle, calculated radial density profiles show much less order. When 8-HQ is present, this molecule is closer to the nanoparticle surface and when in contact with a coated nanoparticle it shows a partial penetration into the thiols layer. The molecular description obtained from simulations supports some of the hypothesis made on the b.