Degree Of Unevenness Research Articles

MIKC*-type MADS transcription factors control JINGUBANG expression and the degree of pollen dormancy in Arabidopsis.

While pollen dormancy has been proposed to play a necessary role in sexual reproduction, it remains poorly understood. Here, we used traditional pollen germination assays to characterize dormancy. Our results underscore variation in the degree of dormancy between individual pollen grains. In addition, we provide evidence that JINGUBANG (JGB), previously defined as a negative regulator of pollen germination in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), is responsible for the uneven degrees of pollen dormancy, as asynchronous pollen germination in vitro reflected varied expression levels of JGB. We identified five cis-acting elements, including four CArG-boxes and the previously uncharacterized element ERE7, as essential for the initiation and enhancement of JGB expression. A 10-bp sequence between CArG-box 3 and ERE7, likely the result of an inverse DNA loop formed between CArG-box 3 and CArG-box 4, was required for robust gene expression. In addition, the pollen-specific AtMIKC*-type MADS transcription factors AGAMOUS-LIKE 30 (AGL30), AGL65, AGL66, AGL94, and AGL104 activated JGB transcription. Notably, the transactivation levels differed among the obligate AtMIKC* heterodimers tested. Our results indicate that distinct AtMIKC* complexes formed in individual pollen grains direct pollen dormancy to uneven degrees, which is likely an adaptive trait that ensures broader pollen dispersal under adverse environmental conditions.

АНАЛІЗ РОЗПОДІЛУ КОНТАКТНИХ НАПРУЖЕНЬ У ДВОЗРІЗНОМУ БОЛТОВОМУ З'ЄДНАННІ КОМПОЗИТНИХ ТА МЕТАЛЕВИХ ЕЛЕМЕНТІВ

Bolted joining technique is the dominant joining method for CFRP load-carrying structures in aircraft. However, the weak point of such structures are the areas located in the vicinity of the fastener holes, which are the areas of increased stress concentration. In addition, drilling the holes results in structural discontinuities due to cutting material fibers. Among all failure modes of composite bolted joint, bearing failure is one of the most common type of damage. This failure is caused by the local compressive stresses acting normal to the contact surface, that leads to delamination of material due to insufficient strength of matrix. Therefore, it is extremely important to optimize the design of composite bolted joints in order to enhance the entire composite structure. To increase the load-carrying capacity of the composite joint structural parts and protect the hole walls from damage, a method for installing titanium bushing with glue into the holes of composite plate is proposed. The paper presents the results of numerical analysis of the impact of stacking sequence on the distribution of contact stresses in a double-shear bolted joint of composite plate to steel cover plates. Using the finite element method and ANSYS Workbench 2019 R3 software, a three-dimensional finite element model of a double-shear bolted joint was created, which enables to analyze the impact of the stacking sequence on the distribution of contact stresses at the bolts to titanium bushings interface in the case of uniaxial tension of the middle composite plate at the level of tensile stresses in the gross section of 100 MPa. The obtained result explains the fundamental difference in the behavior of composite and metal materials: due to the change in the orientation and sequence stacking, the stiffness of the composite element of the joint changes, which affects the ovalization of the holes and the level of local deformations of the bushings, which in turn leads to a change in the maximum contact stresses and their concentration. By optimizing stacking sequence, it was possible to reduce the level of maximum contact stresses by 1.1 times. At the same time, the degree of unevenness of the distribution of contact stresses decreased by 1.21 times. The optimal stacking sequence was one in which 37.5% of the fibers oriented at an angle of 0°, 50% of the fibers oriented at angles of ±45°, and 12.5% of the fibers oriented at an angle of 90°

Simulation of ambient temperature and humidity distribution in eight-span greenhouse under different wind conditions and corn height

The greenhouse environment suitable for crop growth usually depends on reasonable ventilation, and outdoor air flow state and indoor crop height are important factors affecting the ventilation effect. This study conducted simulation and experimental research on corn cultivation in an eight-span plastic greenhouse, analyzing the effects of outdoor wind speed, wind direction, and indoor crop height variations on the uniformity of temperature and relative humidity distribution as well as the air flow dynamics within the greenhouse. The study shows that as outdoor wind speed increases from 0.5 m/s to 2.5 m/s, for every 1 m/s increment, temperatures decrease by 2.2 °C and 0.9 °C, respectively. The increase in outdoor wind speed resulted in uniformity of greenhouse temperature and humidity along the vertical height, but exacerbated the degree of inhomogeneity in the east-west direction. The change in outdoor wind direction leads to differences in airflow direction and ventilation volume. On the south side of the greenhouse, while temperature is lower, the relative humidity is higher, with maximum differences in temperature and humidity between the north and south sides being 0.6 °C and 1.5 %, respectively, when the northeast wind blows. The east wind has the best cooling effect. The uneven degree of temperature and humidity distribution in the east and west direction of the greenhouse is positively correlated with crop height. This study can provide valuable insights for adjusting and optimizing natural ventilation strategies in large multi-span greenhouses.

Терапевтическая коморбидность – сочетание дерматополимиозита и панникулита Вебера–Крисчена: трудный путь к диагнозу

Comorbid pathology in therapeutic practice is difficult to diagnose, because it often has a complex clinical picture, atypical dynamics of the course of diseases, including those changing under the influence of ongoing therapy. The polysystemic nature of the lesion with an uneven degree of pathological damage to organs and systems can obscure the underlying disease when its symptoms are accepted as a separate disease. At the same time, the insufficient effectiveness of the therapy should make you think about other causes of the pathological process, suspect autoimmune, oncological and rare congenital or genetically determined diseases and syndromes.

Critical effect of exchangeable units distribution on properties of vitrimers: Quantitatively controlling dynamics thus suppressing creep

Vitrimers usually exhibit reprocessability and recyclability due to the reversible crosslinking bonds, thus these materials are expected to be applied as sustainable materials. However, the vitrimer elastomers are susceptible to creep because of their inherent exchange nature, which limits their practical application. The key to improve the creep resistance at service temperature relies on controlling and regulating the intrinsic dynamic properties. Therefore, an in-depth study of the effect of molecular variables on dynamic properties was useful for the design and application of vitrimers. exchangeable units distribution is one of the major molecular variables to tune the dynamics, but it has hardly been studied. Herein, vitrimer elastomers with different uneven degrees of exchangeable units distribution (n) was prepared to study the quantitative relationship between exchangeable units distribution and dynamic behaviors. Due to the uneven exchangeable units distribution, the crosslink-rich and crosslink-poor regions existed simultaneously in networks. The relaxation time of resulting networks increased and then decreased with n due to the combined effects, and samples with moderate uneven distribution showed the longest relaxation time. At the same time, the relaxation times for all samples were short enough to reprocess at elevated temperatures. What is more, the activation energy (Ea) and topology freezing transition temperature (Tv), two important intrinsic parameters for controlling the dynamics, increased linearly with n values. In the meantime, the creep strains and creep rates decreased with n, revealing improved creep resistance. This work provides a strategy to control the dynamics by adjusting the exchangeable units distribution thus enhancing creep resistance. And the proposed strategy and resulting quantitative models might be applied to other vitrimers, which could be utilized to prepare desired vitrimers with exact network designs for various applications.

World Pandemic Control in International Law: Through a Transboundary Harm Perspective

The current pandemic response system under the International Health Regulations has been considered unsatisfactory in controlling world pandemic outbreaks. Opinions are voiced that a legal evolution incorporating other sources of international law is imperative to meet the system’s primary deficiency: the uneven degree of State compliance with the ‘core capacity’ requirements. Against this background, this paper aims to examine the potential application of transboundary harm rules in world pandemic prevention, where existing treaty obligations are insufficient or ineffective in addressing future obstacles. By comparing their conceptual characters and legal elements, this paper seeks to reveal the inherent link between the two domains, which may further demonstrate an existing manifestation of transboundary harm rules as emerging customary international law in current pandemic prevention practice. Based on the structure of transboundary harm rules, this paper aims to provide an innovative legal framework that justifies the differentiated standards among States with uneven capacity and underlines the obligation of cooperation. Such a framework is designed to improve the level of States’ prevention and response towards future global health emergencies raised by world pandemics. Moreover, it hopes to provide practical ideas for formulating the new international instrument on pandemic prevention, which is currently being drafted by the Member States of the World Health Organization.

Unraveling the dynamics of stacking fault nucleation in ceramics: A case study of aluminum nitride

Stacking fault (SF), originating from the emission of partial dislocations, wields significant influence over the structural and physicochemical traits of ceramic materials. Yet, the intricate atomic dynamics driving SF nucleation remain obscured. Here, we introduce an improved methodology for computing the generalized stacking fault energy (GSFE) in ceramics, integrating uneven Degrees of Freedom (DOFs) for distinct lattice sites. This refinement has yielded substantial energy advantages over the traditional rigid shift method inherited from metallic systems. Our findings underscore that the relaxation of nonmetallic N atoms within the SF region is pivotal for achieving a more realistic SF simulation. This, in turn, unveils the involvement of N atom migration within the SF region between different aluminum tetrahedral sites during SF nucleation. By alleviating the energy barrier, this relaxation contrasts with previous simulations where nonmetallic elements remained more rigid. This work demonstrates the atomic dynamics of SF nucleation in ceramics and breaks the conventional wisdom of uniformly applying constraints for GSFE computations.

Experimental study on heat transfer rules and thermal damage of steel-concrete-steel tunnel elements in fires

In this paper, internal temperature field, heat transfer forms, and macroscopic thermal damage of steel-concrete-steel tunnel elements under three thermal insulation schemes were investigated by conducting fire tests under RABT standard fire curve. The results show that steel shell temperature and internal temperature have distinct phases over time. There is a significant temperature gradient in vertical direction inside the structure. Temperature distribution in horizontal direction is also uneven. High temperature and uneven temperature distribution cause primary crack development and penetration, separation of concrete and steel shells, deformation of bottom steel shell, and a loss in rebound strength within 800 mm depth. Fireproof board and fireproof coating insulation schemes can effectively lower internal temperature and its uneven degree, reducing macroscopic thermal damage. Fireproof coating insulation scheme provides more effective insulation in early stages, but there is local detachment later on, resulting in insufficient reliability and stability. Heat transfer mode from fireproof boards to the steel shell is mainly through thermal radiation, supplemented by thermal convection and thermal conduction. Radiant flux is more than 7.1 times the sum of convective flux and conductive flux during fire tests. The study helps to understand the damage mechanism of steel-concrete-steel tunnel elements in tunnel fires.

Polarization Signature of Companion-fed Supernovae Arising from BH–NS/BH Progenitor Systems

The formation of black hole–neutron star (BH–NS) or BH–BH systems may be accompanied by special supernova (SN) signals, due to the accretion feedback from the companion BH. The additional heating, which is mainly attributed to the Blandford–Payne mechanism, would disrupt the isotropic nature of the luminosity distribution on the surface of the SN ejecta, leading to the appearance of polarization. Here we develop a three-dimensional Monte Carlo polarization simulation code to conduct simulations for these special SNe. We find that the maximum polarization level of ∼2% occurs at the peak time of SN emission in the “close-binary” scenario, while in the “faraway-binary” case maximum polarization (i.e., ∼0.7%) is observed at a considerably later time than the peak of the SN. The magnitude of polarization is dependent on the degree of unevenness in the luminosity distribution and the angle between the line of sight and the equatorial direction. When considering the geometric distortion of SN ejecta at the same time, the magnitude of polarization may either increase (for a oblate ellipsoidal shape) or decrease (for a prolate ellipsoidal shape). The polarization signatures represent a promising auxiliary instrument to facilitate the identification of the companion-fed SNe. Moreover, comparing the event rate of these special SNe with the event rate density of LIGO-Virgo-detected BH–NS/BH systems could further help to distinguish the BH–NS/BH formation channel.

Waiting for displacement: Land, compensation, and spatiotemporal inequality in a mining-affected Indian village

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a village in eastern India’s coal-bearing tracts, this paper explores the different ways in which two groups of residents – local, landed households and migrant, landless ones – perceive and respond to the possibility of future mining-induced displacement. It contributes to a growing body of research that is concerned with the anticipatory phase of land dispossession, and the differential ways in which people prepare for, perceive, and respond to its expected future arrival. In particular, the paper illustrates how the prospect of displacement, in conjunction with an associated compensation policy operated by the coal company, gives rise to inequalities in time and space between the two groups, consisting of uneven degrees of uncertainty towards the future; distinct ways of experiencing the time until eviction; and spatial differentiation through labour migration. The paper thereby illuminates some of the more nuanced yet significant qualitative forms of inequality that can arise in contexts of not-yet-happening dispossession.

KORELASI KEMACETAN LALU LINTAS DENGAN EMISI KENDARAAN PADA RUAS JALAN CILEUNGSI – CIBEET JAWA BARAT

The Cileungsi – Cibeet road section is one of the provincial road sections that is passed by quite dense vehicles, is passed by sand and stone quarrying, and is close to a cement factory. Based on health data, several districts around this road segment are affected by respiratory diseases. The research objective was to examine the correlation between traffic jams and air pollution levels, to find the causes of air pollution. The results of the study, the Cileungsi - Cibeet road section has an uneven degree of traffic saturation (DS). Degree of Traffic Saturation at the start of the segment (Sta. 0+000) with a value of 1.06, poor service conditions, vehicles running slowly and tend to get stuck and walk on the shoulder of the road. At Sta. 6+700 (Cibarusah junction), poor service conditions, vehicles running with lots of obstacles. Gradually approaching the end of the segment (Cibeet) the level of road service is getting better with a value of 0.68. Air pollution caused by motorized vehicles consists of CO, Pb, and TSP gases. The highest carbon monoxide (CO) gas is at Sta. 0+000 which is 4,938 μg/Nm³ but still below the quality standard. This is the same as White Lead (Pb), which is also the highest at location 1 Sta. 0+000 which is 0.14 μg/Nm³ but still below the air quality standards. In contrast, the highest dust (TSP) is at location 3 (Sta 21+200), namely 342 μg/Nm³ which is above the air quality standards. The correlation between traffic jams and air pollution due to vehicle emissions from CO, Pb, and TSP gases has a different value. The correlation coefficient (r) between traffic density and CO is equal to 0.949, meaning that it has a very strong correlation. While the correlation coefficient (r) between traffic density and CO is equal to 0.874, it means that the correlation is very strong. Unlike the case with TSP gas (dust) has a correlation coefficient (r) - 0.120, giving a negative correlation. The results of this study indicate that on the Cileungsi - Cibeet road section the higher the level of road service, the greater the levels of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Lead (Pb). As for dust (Total Suspend Particulate/TSP), an increase in the level of road service does not show an increase in dust levels.Keywords: Correlation, Degree Of Saturation, Traffic Congestion, Vehicle Emissions

Unevenness of temporal distribution of precipitation over the Yangtze River basin and its main influencing factors

AbstractUnderstanding the unevenness of precipitation distribution within a year is important for water resources management and agricultural production. In this study, spatiotemporal variations of precipitation unevenness in the Yangtze River basin (YRB) during 1961–2020 and its main influencing factors are investigated by the relative entropy (RE) and rotated empirical orthogonal function. The timings of different percentiles of annual total precipitation show that the temporal distribution of precipitation in the YRB is uneven. The unevenness of precipitation distribution exhibits a large spatial variability with a high‐value centre in the northeast and a low value centre in the northwest of the YRB, and an upward trend in almost the entire YRB. Precipitation becomes more uneven with the decrease of annual number of wet days and low‐intensity precipitation amount and the increase of high‐intensity precipitation amount during the study period. Precipitation unevenness of different regions is modulated by the different combinations of different seasonal climate indices with specific time lags. For example, in the south‐central YRB, precipitation unevenness generally tends to be enhanced by the positive Tropical Northern Atlantic Index in current summer and sea surface temperature anomalies over South China Sea (SCS) in previous summer, and negative North Atlantic Oscillation in current winter, while in the northeast YRB, be weakened by negative Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation in current spring, Atlantic Meridional Mode in current summer and positive SCS in current autumn. Besides, the identified significant climate indices can partly explain the temporal changes of precipitation unevenness, and their explanatory ability is more powerful in the south‐central, southeast and northwest YRB than in the north‐central and northeast YRB, which reveals a strong negative correlation with the degree of precipitation unevenness.

Quantitative linear correlation between self-magnetic flux leakage field variation and corrosion unevenness of corroded rebars

The accurate uneven cross-sectional area probability distribution of corroded rebars is critical to the reliability assessment of the corroded reinforced concrete structure. The cross-sectional area and self-magnetic flux leakage variation data of 22 naturally and 6 applied current corroded rebars were obtained via 3D light measurement and micromagnetic scanning technologies. The experimental correlation of the self-magnetic flux leakage field variation ratio dH(x/z) and the corrosion unevenness degree dSn of the corroded rebar was then analyzed and verified by finite element modeling. The experimental and simulated results indicated that dSn had a quantitative linear correlation with dH(x/z) with a ratio of about 1, which was proved to be functionally equivalent to the well-established rebar cross-sectional area spatial heterogeneity factor R in the structural reliability assessment. This quantitative linear correlation is not affected by the corrosion style, the magnetization differences, and the corrosion degrees of different rebars, based on which the structural reliability assessment could have higher accuracy and better adaptability for the mutative external aggressive environment.

Quantifying and estimating ecological network diversity based on incomplete sampling data.

An ecological network refers to the ecological interactions among sets of species. Quantification of ecological network diversity and related sampling/estimation challenges have explicit analogues in species diversity research. A unified framework based on Hill numbers and their generalizations was developed to quantify taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. Drawing on this unified framework, we propose three dimensions of network diversity that incorporate the frequency (or strength) of interactions, species phylogenies and traits. As with surveys in species inventories, nearly all network studies are based on sampling data and thus also suffer from under-sampling effects. Adapting the sampling/estimation theory and the iNEXT (interpolation/extrapolation) standardization developed for species diversity research, we propose the iNEXT.link method to analyse network sampling data. The proposed method integrates the following four inference procedures: (i) assessment of sample completeness of networks; (ii) asymptotic analysis via estimating the true network diversity; (iii) non-asymptotic analysis based on standardizing sample completeness via rarefaction and extrapolation with network diversity; and (iv) estimation of the degree of unevenness or specialization in networks based on standardized diversity. Interaction data between European trees and saproxylic beetles are used to illustrate the proposed procedures. The software iNEXT.link has been developed to facilitate all computations and graphics. This article is part of the theme issue 'Detecting and attributing the causes of biodiversity change: needs, gaps and solutions'.

STUDIES ON CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF POLISHED NICKEL SURFACE WITH RESIN WETTED BY DEEP EUTECTIC SOLVENT

As a material widely used in aerospace and energy development, the surface quality of nickel and its alloy will need to be improved urgently. Electrochemical polishing, as a surface treatment method, can smoothen the metal surface and improve its corrosion resistance. Strict environmental regulations have given rise to new electrochemical polishing techniques. In this paper, the electrochemical polishing of nickel was carried out using resin particles wetted by deep eutectic solvent (DES) as polishing medium. The surface morphology and roughness of polished nickel were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical profilometer. In addition, electrochemical polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to test the corrosion behavior of polished specimens in 3.5[Formula: see text]wt.% NaCl solution. The results show that the surface morphology of polished nickel shows grain boundary characteristics. The surface roughness Ra can be reduced from 0.612[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m to 0.0913[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m (under 30[Formula: see text]V voltage polishing 1[Formula: see text]h), and the corrosion current density can be reduced from 27.30[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]A[Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text] to 12.15[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]A[Formula: see text]cm[Formula: see text]. Pitting potential in the polarization curve indicates that the pits at the grain boundaries are corroded due to the influx of corrosive chloride ions. This polishing method combines the resin with DES which can reduce the production of polishing liquid waste while avoiding the use of harmful acid-base electrolytes and effectively reduce the surface geometry uneven degree, improving the surface corrosion resistance.

Efficient Decomposition Selection for Multi-class Classification

Choosing a decomposition method for multi-class classification is an important trade-off between efficiency and predictive accuracy. Trying all the decomposition methods to find the best one is too time-consuming for many applications, while choosing the wrong one may result in large loss on predictive accuracy. In this paper, we propose an automatic decomposition method selection approach called “D-Chooser”, which is lightweight and can choose the best decomposition method accurately. D-Chooser is equipped with our proposed difficulty index which consists of sub-metrics including distribution divergence, overlapping regions, unevenness degree and relative size of the solution space. The difficulty index has two intriguing properties: 1) fast to compute and 2) measuring multi-class problems comprehensively. Extensive experiments on real-world multi-class problems show that D-Chooser achieves an accuracy of 80.56% in choosing the best decomposition method. It can choose the best method in just a few seconds, while existing approaches verify the effectiveness of a decomposition method often takes a few hours. We also provide case studies on Kaggle competitions and the results confirm that D-Chooser is able to choose a better decomposition method than the winning solutions.

Children and Young People's Involvement in Designing Applied Games: Scoping Review.

User involvement is widely accepted as key for designing effective applied games for health. This especially holds true for children and young people as target audiences, whose abilities, needs, and preferences can diverge substantially from those of adult designers and players. Nevertheless, there is little shared knowledge about how concretely children and young people have been involved in the design of applied games, let alone consensus guidance on how to do so effectively. The aim of this scoping review was to describe which user involvement methods have been used in the design of applied games with children and young people, how these methods were implemented, and in what roles children and young people were involved as well as what factors affected their involvement. We conducted a systematic literature search and selection across the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using State of the Art through Systematic Review software for screening, selection, and data extraction. We then conducted a qualitative content analysis on the extracted data using NVivo. We retrieved 1085 records, of which 47 (4.33%) met the eligibility criteria. The chief involvement methods were participatory design (20/47, 43%) and co-design (16/47, 37%), spanning a wide range of 45 concrete activities with paper prototyping, group discussions, and playtesting being the most frequent. In only half of the studies (24/47, 51%), children and young people participated as true design partners. Our qualitative content analysis suggested 5 factors that affect their successful involvement: comprehension, cohesion, confidence, accessibility, and time constraints. Co-design, participatory design, and similar high-level labels that are currently used in the field gloss over very uneven degrees of participation in design and a wide variety of implementations that greatly affect actual user involvement. This field would benefit from more careful consideration and documentation of the reason of user involvement. Future research should explore concrete activities and configurations that can address the common challenges of involving children and young people, such as comprehension, cohesion, confidence, and accessibility.

Study and development of methods for predicting the physical and mechanical properties of thin wire and metal cord

Predicting the physical and mechanical properties of thin wire and metal cord will ensure an increase in the quality of latuned thin wire, a reduction in the number and time of technological pauses, and increase the manufacturability of metal cord twisting. Considering that the deformation manifests anisotropy of the properties of thin wire, the prediction of physical and mechanical properties and the degree of unevenness of deformation becomes an urgent task.The paper studies that an increase in the drawing speed of a thin wire leads to the acquisition of a more uniform and fine‑grained structure. The dependences of the physico‑mechanical properties of thin latuned wire after the metal cord is twisted on the speed of fine drawing are developed. The effect of the deformation rate on the microhardness of a thin steel wire is investigated. It is determined that in order to increase the productivity of metal cord twisting, it is necessary to bring the dependence of the increase in hardness and equivalent stresses in metal cord wires to a linear form by changing the speed of the twisting at its individual stages. For practical use, the dependences of the mechanical properties of a thin wire of strength class HT on the drawing speed are derived.During the analysis, the results were obtained, which are applicable in the design of new or modification of existing routes for drawing thin wire, as well as in the design of new metal cord structures.

The bias types and drivers of the Furongian Biodiversity Gap

The Furongian Biodiversity Gap (FBG), which is well known as the biodiversity minimum between the Cambrian Explosion (CE) and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), has recently been the subject of much research seeking to identify the onset of the GOBE. Whether the FBG is a real evolutionary trend or a bias gap due to insufficient sampling has been controversial. In this study, a systematic investigation of the relationships between fossil sampling intensity, spatial extent, and biodiversity during the Cambrian and Ordovician, using data from the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) is carried out to gain a better understanding of this lowstand in biodiversity. Special focus is placed on the types of bias and the internal and external bias drivers affecting the FBG. The results show that external factors such as a low degree of research interest, socioeconomic influence, and unevenness of research intensity have led to limited fossil sampling and research, which have interacted with internal factors (biological and geological preservation) and led to biases in understanding the FBG. The bias types of the FBG are multi-dimensional. Temporally, there are fewer fossil collections from the Furongian. Geographically, the lack of fossil data at middle and high latitudes results in a low geographical extent and unevenness of the spatial distribution of Furongian fossils. Taxonomically, trilobites and conodonts, which are of high biological importance, are the main studied fossil groups from the Furongian. Lithologically, widely distributed shales deposited in the Furongian and their biotas are not sufficiently studied. Moreover, the above analysis of the FBG based on the PBDB is inherently affected by database bias. The FBG is interpreted as a collection failure which requires more fossil data and methodological innovation for a better and comprehensive interpretation.

The Indentation Size Effect (ISE) of Ag–Cu Alloys

The literature regarding the Indentation Size Effect (ISE) in metal alloys is scarce. The content of this article is the study of the relationship between the applied load and the measured values of the Vickers micro-hardness of silver and copper alloys, measured with a Hanemann hardness tester. The load values ranged between 0.09807 N (10 g) and 0.9807 N (100 g). The size and character of the ISE were evaluated using Meyer’s power law (index n), Proportional Specimen Resistance (PSR) and the Hays–Kendall method. Coins and utility objects of Central European provenance with a silver content of 50 to 99.99% were used as samples. All samples showed a reverse effect (RISE) with a value of n > 2, which is typical for plastic materials. The relatively high variability of the measured micro-hardness and consequently of the index n is related to other factors, such as the age of the sample (age hardening by the precipitation of copper), the uneven degree of deformation and microstructure. The analyzed Ag–Cu alloys show a gradual increase in the Meyer index n with the increase in the silver content, while the ISE has a reverse character throughout the range. The obtained data make it possible to determine the approximate age of artifacts from the mentioned alloys.