Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypersaline Ecosystems: The Gavish Sabkha

A. Introduction. - Obituary. - Purpose of this Book. - Synopsis. - B. General Framework of Hypersaline Environments with Special Reference to the Red Sea. - 1. Introduction and Definitions. - 2. The Northern Red Sea, a Historical Sketch. - 3. Gulf of Elat (Aqaba). Geological and Sedimentological Framework. - 4. Coastal Evaporite Systems. - 5. Hypersaline Sea-marginal Flats of the Gulfs of Elat and Suez. - 6. Anchialine Pools - Comparative Hydrobiology. - 7. Botanical Studies on Coastal Salinas and Sabkhas of the Sinai. - C. The Gavish Sabkha - A Case Study. - 8. Introduction. - 9. Geomorphology, Mineralogy and Groundwater Geochemistry as Factors of the Hydrodynamic System of the Gavish Sabkha. - 10. The Ras Muhammad Pool: Implications for the Gavish Sabkha. - 11 Salinity and Water Activity Related Zonation of Microbial Communities and Potential Stromatolites of the Gavish Sabkha. - 12. Structure and Physiology of Square-shaped and Other Halophilic Bacteria from the Gavish Sabkha. - 13. Photoactive Pigments in Halobacteria from the Gavish Sabkha. - 14. Photosynthetic Microorganisms of the Gavish Sabkha. - 15. The Fauna of the Gavish Sabkha and the Solar Lake - a Comparative Study. - 16. Trace Metal Concentrations in Sediments from the Gavish Sabkha. - 17. Biogeochemistry of Gavish Sabkha Sediments I. Studies on Neutral Reducing Sugars and Lipid Moieties by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. - 18. Biogeochemistry of Gavish Sabkha Sediments II. Pyrolysis Mass Spectrometry of the Laminated Microbial Mat in the Permanently Water-Covered Zone Before and After the Desert Sheetflood of 1979. - 19. Carbon Isotope Geochemistry and 14C Ages of Microbial Mats from the Gavish Sabkha and the Solar Lake. - D. Applied Aspects and Paleoecology. - 20. Introduction. - 21. A Paleobiological Perspective on Sabkhas. - 22. Applied and Economic Aspects of Sabkha Systems - Genesis of Salt, Ore and Hydrocarbon Deposits, and Biotechnology. - Acknowledgements. - References. - Taxonomic Index.
Study on Carbon Storage by CO 2 Hydrate Formation in the Ion-Containing Environment

: The current greenhouse effect caused by massive CO 2 accumulation must be addressed urgently. Because of the ocean's enormous capacity, the high density of CO 2 hydrate, and the high stability of CO 2 sequestration in hydrate form, the process of hydrate generation can trap CO 2 molecules into the lattice of water molecules and is considered for the sequestration of CO 2 in hydrate form in the ocean. In this paper, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to investigate the kinetic behavior of CO 2 hydrate growth in ion-containing electrolyte solutions. The mechanism of salt ion effect on hydrate growth during pressure changes is investigated. The simulations show that in the presence of salt ions, the hydrate growth rate fluctuates significantly, despite the fact that a greater driving force can facilitate the hydrate growth process. Higher pressures increase guest molecule occupancy in the hydrate cage, while the saline environment causes competition for water molecules between the hydrate cage and salt ions, increasing the proportion of empty cages. Lower pressures and the presence of salt ions reduce CO 2 molecules' selectivity for the smaller 5 12 cages, creating a barrier to hydrate growth. The findings of the study look at the microscopic mechanism of CO 2 hydrate generation in seawater and serve as a guide for future implementation of hydrate method CO 2 sequestration technology in the marine environment.
Ecosystem-Wide Impacts of Alternative Bycatch Reduction Strategies: An Ecological-Economic Assessment of the Australian Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery

A concern for the consequences of bycatch and discards in fisheries has led to the implementation of new policies and fisheries management plans aimed at their reduction in many fisheries around the world. Such plans have been developed for the Australian Commonwealth fisheries (the most recent bycatch action plan extends from 2009 to 2011 for this case study). These plans list a wide variety of species, including both commercial fish and non-commercial species, particularly those listed as threatened, endangered or protected. The paper presents an analysis of the potential economic and ecological impacts of alternative approaches to the implementation of these plans, with particular emphasis on the use of economic incentives. The analysis is centered on the Australian Commonwealth Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery, and is based on the Atlantis simulation model developed within CSIRO. Atlantis is a spatially explicit model with subcomponents that model the coupled physical transport-biogeochemical processes as elements of the ecosystem, as well as sub-models to include the fisheries, the annual assessments, and the implementation of management regulations and compliance. A feature of the Atlantis model is that it incorporates a fleet dynamics model that allows the main fleets to adjust their fishing behavior in response to incentives. Incentive-based bycatch management scenarios such as the use of deemed values within the existing trade-able quota scheme for over-quota landings, or the imposition of a tax on catches of threatened, endangered and protected species, are considered (as well as tradable bycatch quotas). The consequences of these scenarios are presented in terms of both ecological and economic impacts, with a focus on the ecosystem-wide implications of alternative regulations.
Design competition through multidimensional auctions

This article studies design competition in government procurements by developing a model of two-dimensional auctions, where firms bid on both price and quality, and bids are evaluated by a scoring rule designed by a buyer. Three auction schemes -- first score, second score, and second preferred offer -- are introduced and related to actual practices. If the buyer can commit to a scoring rule in his best interest, the resulting optimal scoring rule underrewards quality relative to the buyer's utility function and implements the optimal outcome for the buyer under first- and second-score auctions. Absent the commitment power, the only feasible scoring rule is the buyer's utility function, under which (1) all three schemes yield the same expected utility to the buyer, and (2) first- and second-score auctions induce the first-best level of quality, which turns out to be excessive from the buyer's point of view.
Managerial Hedging , Equity Ownership , and Firm Value 1 Viral V

Managerial Hedging, Equity Ownership, and Firm Value Suppose risk-averse managers can hedge the aggregate component of their exposure to firm’s cash flow risk by trading in financial markets, but cannot hedge their firm-specific exposure. This gives them incentives to pass up firm-specific projects in favor of standard projects that contain greater aggregate risk. Such risk substitution is a form of moral hazard and it gives rise to excessive aggregate risk in stock markets and excessive correlation of returns across firms and sectors, thereby reducing risk-sharing among stock market investors. An incentive compensation scheme specifying the managerial equity ownership of the firm can be designed to mitigate this moral hazard. We show that the optimal contract might require a “dampening” of pay-performance sensitivity, whereby managerial ownership is smaller than in absence of this moral hazard. We characterize the resulting endogenous relationship between managerial ownership and (i) the extent of aggregate risk in the firm’s cash flows, as well as (ii) firm value. We show that these endogenous relationships can help explain the shape of the empirically documented relationship between ownership and firm performance.
Multistage carrier phase estimation algorithms for phase noise mitigation in 64-quadrature amplitude

—Two novel low-complexity multi-stage digital feed-forward carrier phase estimation (CPE) algorithms for 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) are proposed and analyzed by numerical simulations. The ﬁrst stage is composed of a Viterbi&Viterbi block, based on either the standard quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) partitioning algorithm using only Class-1 symbols or a modiﬁed QPSK partitioning scheme utilizing both Class-1 and outer most triangle-edge (TE) symbols. The second stage applies the Viterbi&Viterbi algorithm after a 64-QAM-to-QPSK transformation, while the subsequent stages iterate a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm for phase estimation. All proposed techniques are characterized by a high tolerance to laser phase noise: an OSNR penalty of 1 dB at bit error rate (BER) of 10 − 2 , the proposed schemes can tolerate a linewidth times symbol duration product ( ∆ ν · T s ) equal to 5 . 6 × 10 − 5 and 7 . 1 × 10 − 5 , respectively. At 32 Gbaud, all of the above linewidth requirements can be met using commercial tunable lasers. The proposed schemes achieve a similar linewidth tolerance with a reduced implementation complexity with respect to algorithms based on the blind phase search (BPS) method.
Modulation of Lateral Transport by Submesoscale Flows and Inertia‐Gravity Waves

We investigate the role of small‐scale, high‐frequency motions on lateral transport in the ocean, by using velocity fields and particle trajectories from an ocean general circulation model (MITgcm‐llc4320) that permits submesoscale flows, inertia‐gravity waves, and tides. Temporal averaging/filtering removes most of the submesoscale turbulence, inertia‐gravity waves, and tides, resulting in a largely geostrophic flow, with a rapid drop‐off in energy at scales smaller than the mesoscales. We advect two types of Lagrangian particles: (a) 2‐D particles (surface restricted) and (b) 3‐D particles (advected in full three dimensions) with the filtered and unfiltered velocities and calculate Lagrangian diagnostics. At large length/time scales, Lagrangian diffusivity is comparable for filtered and unfiltered velocities, while at short scales, unfiltered velocities disperse particles much faster. We also calculate diagnostics of Lagrangian coherent structures:rotationally coherent Lagrangian vortices detected from closed contours of the Lagrangian‐averaged vorticity deviation and material transport barriers formed by ridges of maximum finite‐time Lyapunov exponent. For temporally filtered velocities, we observe strong material coherence, which breaks down when the level of temporal filtering is reduced/removed, due to vigorous small‐scale mixing. In addition, for the lowest temporal resolution, the 3‐D particles experience very little vertical motion, suggesting that degrading temporal resolution greatly reduces vertical advection by high‐frequency motions. Our study suggests that Lagrangian diagnostics based on satellite‐derived surface geostrophic velocity fields, even with higher spatial resolutions as in the upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, may overestimate the presence of mesoscale coherent structures and underestimate dispersion.
A Simple Low-Cost Shared-Aperture Dual-Band Dual-Polarized High Gain Antenna for Synthetic Aperture Radars

—This paper proposes a novel shared-aperture dual-band dual-polarized high-gain antenna for applications in synthetic aperture radars (SAR). One critical challenge in the design of high-gain SAR antenna is the feed network which is usually complicated, bulky, heavy and lossy, in particular if the SAR system is required to operate at multiple frequency bands and orthogonal polarizations, as a number of large-size, lossy feed networks at multiple layers are needed to cover all the frequency bands and each polarization, respectively. To reduce the complexity and cost of SAR antennas, a dual-band dual-polarized high-gain Fabry-Perot (FP) resonate antenna is designed and applied to shared-aperture SAR antenna application for the 1 st time. A novel double-layer FSS is proposed as the Partially Reflective Surface (PRS) for the FP resonate cavity with realized dual-band performance. The units of this double-layer FSS are a quasi-star patch and a square slot printed on the upper-and lower-layer substrate, respectively. The resonate frequency (full reflection) and 'zero' reflection magnitude of this proposed quasi-star patch can be controlled by adjusting its parameters easily, which leads to high flexibility for deigning dual-band FP antennas. A novel dual-band dual-polarized feed source for FP antenna is also proposed by using a compact sparse array at higher band interleaved with one radiating element at lower band. To verify the concept, a C/X dual-band dual-polarized SAR antenna is designed and a prototype is developed and measured. Measured results have a good agreement with the simulated ones, which shows that a peak gain of 16.3 dBi and 19.8 dBi is obtained at lower-and upper-bands, respectively. High isolation (>25 dB) is also achieved at both bands. Compared to traditional dual-band dual-polarized SAR antennas with high gain, the proposed antenna has achieved a significant reduction in the complexity, mass, loss and cost of the feed network, which is particularly important for space-borne SAR systems.
Relationships between Precipitation Chemistry, Hydrology, and Runoff Acidity.

High precipitation amounts of strongly varying ionic composition make the western parts of southern Norway well-suited for studies of certain relationships between precipitation chemistry, hydrology, and runoff acidity. Ions from sea-spray are the predominant ions in precipitation in these areas. The remaining ions are almost exclusively acidifying compounds (H+, NH4+, SO42−, NO3−), negatively correlated to the sea-spray ions. Hydrochemical observations during 5 years confirm that Cl− and, to a considerable extent, also SO42− move rather easily through the catchments, while NO3− is strongly adsorbed. The acid top soil tends to lead to acid surface runoff, while water penetrating deeper mineral soils becomes enriched in Ca2+ and depleted in H+, resulting in a high correlation between runoff acidity and runoff rate. The short-term variations in runoff acidity are thus governed largely by runoff rate and by atmospheric deposits of Cl− and SO42−. In this particular precipitation climate this yields in fact a negative short-term correlation between precipitation acidity and runoff acidity. A long-term acidification, indicated by declining fish populations, does probably arise from a SO42− -increase in runoff (caused by increased atmopheric deposition), and from a change in soil properties (caused by acid precipitation, and possibly also by changed vegetation).
On M. B. Levin’s Proofs for The Exact Lower Discrepancy Bounds of Special Sequences and Point Sets (A Survey)

Abstract The goal of this overview article is to give a tangible presentation of the breakthrough works in discrepancy theory [3, 5] by M. B. Levin. These works provide proofs for the exact lower discrepancy bounds of Halton’s sequence and a certain class of (t, s)-sequences. Our survey aims at highlighting the major ideas of the proofs and we discuss further implications of the employed methods. Moreover, we derive extensions of Levin’s results.
Comparative effectiveness analyses of salvage prostatectomy and salvage radiotherapy outcomes following focal or whole-gland ablative therapy (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), cryotherapy or electroporation) for localised prostate cancer

Background Ablative therapy, such as focal therapy, cryotherapy or electroporation, aims to treat clinically significant prostate cancer with reduced treatment-related toxicity. Up to a third of patients may require further local salvage treatment after ablative therapy failure. Limited descriptive, but no comparative, evidence exists between different salvage treatments. We compare oncological and functional outcomes after salvage robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (SRARP) and salvage radiotherapy (SRT). Methods Data were collected prospectively and retrospectively on 100 consecutive SRARP cases and 100 consecutive SRT cases, after ablative therapy failure, in a high-volume tertiary centre
Polymorphic dinucleotide microsatellite loci in the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Phlebotominae)

The sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis, an important vector of visceral leishmaniasis in the New World, is believed to be a species complex. In an effort to better understand population dynamics and speciation in this vector we developed a panel of dinucleotide — (CA)n— microsatellite loci using an enrichment technique. Eleven polymorphic loci that produced consistent allelic banding patterns were characterized using a laboratory population of L. longipalpis. These dinucleotide microsatellite loci were more polymorphic than trinucleotide microsatellites characterized in wild-caught samples of two other sandfly species; the variability of these loci was unexpected because the laboratory flies were believed to be inbred.
Dynamics of grand skink (Oligosoma grande, Gray 1945) metapopulations in indigenous tussock grasslands and exotic pasture grasslands in southern New Zealand

ii A major threat to biodiversity worldwide is human land-use change which increases habitat fragmentation and reduces landscape connectivity leading to species extinctions. For conservation biologists it is essential to understand the underlying factors that influence the population dynamics of species occurring in fragmented and isolated habitat. In this thesis, I investigate the impact of land-use change on the metapopulation dynamics of the endangered New Zealand grand skink (Oligosoma grande) which inhabits schist-rock outcrops scattered through indigenous tussock grasslands and exotic pasture grasslands in central South Island, New Zealand. In particular, I explore the influence of habitat patch characteristics and the type of surrounding grassland type (matrix) on the metapopulation dynamics of the grand skinks by using a spatially explicit metapopulation simulation model. To develop a spatially explicit simulation model distinct habitat patches have to be defined. Therefore, I attached VHF-radio transmitters to 57 grand skinks to estimate their habitat use and movements. Individual grand skinks inhabited predominantly a single rock-outcrop. However, home ranges were smaller when the matrix surrounding the outcrop was pasture grasslands, and the rare between-outcrop movements were mostly recorded when the matrix was dominated by tussock grasslands. Therefore, individual rock-outcrops were considered habitat patches in the metapopulation models. I also investigated if land-use change impacted on the body condition of grand skinks using a long-term data-set. Especially in autumn, grand skinks on outcrops in pasture grasslands had a better body condition compared to grand skink inhabiting outcrops in tussock grasslands. However, the probability of being pregnant was lower for grand skinks inhabiting rock-outcrops in the pasture matrix than for grand skinks on outcrops in the tussock matrix. Lower pregnancy probabilities could directly affect grand skink population dynamics. At the population-level the analysis of a 3-year data-set of grand skink occupancy of rock-outcrops in both matrix grassland types using methods to account for incomplete detectability of the grand skinks, revealed that habitat patch quality
Quantitative Global Survey Results of Acute Back Pain Sufferers Across Four Countries

Background Surveys of back pain sufferers in the United States, China, Russia, and Germany were performed to better understand self-reported causes of acute nonspecific back pain and acute lower back pain among individuals engaging in sports and their preferred treatments. Methods In each country, 1000 participants were surveyed (Step 1) to identify a population of nonspecific acute back pain sufferers, understand pain and treatment characteristics, and generate profiles for individuals with long-lasting (≥7 days) acute lower back pain. Subsequently, 200 participants with acute lower back pain episodes (7–21 days) and sports participation were identified in each country and completed surveys (Step 2) about sociodemographic, pain, treatment characteristics, and causes/triggers of long-lasting acute lower back pain episodes. Results In the United States, China, Russia, and Germany, respectively, 59%, 49%, 61%, and 63% of respondents reported ≥1 episode of nonspecific acute back pain in the previous 6 months. Average numbers of monthly nonspecific acute back pain episodes in the United States, Russia, Germany, and China were 2.5, 1.8, 1.3, and 0.8, respectively. Prevalence of acute lower back pain associated with sports/leisure activities ranged from 20% (Russia and Germany) to 46% (China). Onset of long-lasting acute lower back pain was between ages 30 and 33 years, limiting usual activities and reducing walking distance in 60% to 85% of respondents across all countries. Acute lower back pain started post-exercise within the first day for ≥75% of respondents. Most popular nonprescription and prescription treatments for acute lower back pain were creams/gels in Russia, creams/gels and oral painkillers in Germany, oral painkillers in the United States, and hot/cold patches in China. Conclusion These results help to better understand acute back pain triggers, features, and treatment preferences among sports participants in different countries. Further research is warranted to develop preventative strategies. Trial Registration Not applicable.
Laparoscopic vs. Robotic Surgery for HCC: The First 46 Consecutive Cases

: Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a growing incidence worldwide, and represents a leading cause of death in patients with cirrhosis. Nowadays, minimally invasive approaches are spreading in every field of surgery and in liver surgery as well. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed demographics, clinical and pathological characteristics and short-term outcomes of patients who had undergone minimally invasive resections for HCC at our Institution between June 2012 and May 2016. Results: No significant differences in demographics and comorbidities were found between patients in the laparoscopic (n=24) and robotic (n=22) group, except for the rates of cirrhotic patients (91.7% and 68.2%, respectively, p=0.046). Peri-operative data analysis showed that the operative time (mean, 211 min and 318 min, respectively, p<0.001) was the only parameter in favor of laparoscopy. Conversely, robotic assisted resections were related to less Clavien I-II post-operative complications (22 cases Vs. 13 cases; p=0.03). As regards resection margins, the two groups were similar with no statistically significant differences in rates of disease-free resection margins. Conclusions: A modern hepatobiliary center should offer both open and minimally invasive approaches to liver disease in order to provide the best care for each patient, according to the individual comorbidities, risk factors, and personal quality of life expectations. Our results show that the robotic approach is a reliable tool for accurate oncologic surgery, comparable to the laparoscopic approach. Robotic surgery also allows the surgeon to safely approach liver segments that are difficult to resect in laparoscopy, namely segments I-VII-VIII.
The Stability of Walrasian General Equilibrium Herbert Gintis

We prove the stability of equilibrium in a completely decentralized Walrasian general equilibrium economy in which prices are fully controlled by economic agents, with production and trade occurring out of equilibrium. Journal of Economic Literature Classifications: C62—Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium D51—Exchange and Production Economies D58—Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Economies