Top Branch Research Articles

Analysis of the influence of asymmetric V-shaped fins on the melting of phase change materials in latent heat storage units

Improving the melting performance of latent heat storage devices is highly important for achieving efficient utilization of thermal energy. To achieve this goal, this paper proposes an innovative thermal storage unit with asymmetric V-shaped fins. The influence of structural parameters including eccentricity, fin angle, height and shape on the melting process of phase change materials is analysed. The results show that compared with concentric tubes without eccentricity, when the eccentricity is increased to the point where the bottom fins are in contact with the outer tube, the total melting time is shortened by 33.56%, and the average heat storage rate is increased by 32.95%. At the same time, increasing the angle and height of the top branch fins can strengthen the natural convection in the heat storage unit and shorten the total melting time by 13.54%. It is worth noting that changing the upper-side branch fin parameters has little effect on the melting process. In addition, when the shape of the branch fins constituting the V-shaped fin changes from rectangular to trapezoidal, the total melting time decreases by 3.11%. In summary, the use of asymmetric V-shaped fins can improve the melting performance and heat storage performance of eccentric heat storage units, and changing the fin shape can further shorten the total melting time and increase the average heat storage rate.

Classifying Breast Tumors in Digital Tomosynthesis by Combining Image Quality-Aware Features and Tumor Texture Descriptors

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a 3D breast cancer screening technique that can overcome the limitations of standard 2D digital mammography. However, DBT images often suffer from artifacts stemming from acquisition conditions, a limited angular range, and low radiation doses. These artifacts have the potential to degrade the performance of automated breast tumor classification tools. Notably, most existing automated breast tumor classification methods do not consider the effect of DBT image quality when designing the classification models. In contrast, this paper introduces a novel deep learning-based framework for classifying breast tumors in DBT images. This framework combines global image quality-aware features with tumor texture descriptors. The proposed approach employs a two-branch model: in the top branch, a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model is trained to extract robust features from the region of interest that includes the tumor. In the bottom branch, a deep learning model named TomoQA is trained to extract global image quality-aware features from input DBT images. The quality-aware features and the tumor descriptors are then combined and fed into a fully-connected layer to classify breast tumors as benign or malignant. The unique advantage of this model is the combination of DBT image quality-aware features with tumor texture descriptors, which helps accurately classify breast tumors as benign or malignant. Experimental results on a publicly available DBT image dataset demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves superior breast tumor classification results, outperforming all existing deep learning-based methods.

Towards Efficient Cross-Modal Anomaly Detection Using Triple-Adaptive Network and Bi-Quintuple Contrastive Learning

Cross-modal anomaly detection is a relatively new and challenging research topic in machine learning field, which aims at identifying the anomalies whose patterns are disparate across different modalities. As far as we know, this topic has yet to be well studied, and existing works often suffer from the incomplete anomalous data detection and low data utilization problems. To alleviate these limitations, this paper proposes an efficient deep cross-modal anomaly detection approach via Triple-adaptive Network and Bi-quintuple Contrastive Learning (TN-BCL), which lies among the earliest attempt to detect various cross-modal anomalies within the heterogeneous multi-modal data. To be specific, a triple-adaptive network is explicitly designed to identify various anomalies, whose patterns are disparate in both single-modal scenario and cross-modal scenario. On the one hand, the top branch network is utilized to adaptively detect the attribute anomalies and part of mixed anomalies in multi-modal data samples. On the other hand, the bottom two-branch network, with shared residual blocks, is leveraged to learn the discriminative cross-modal embeddings. At the same time, an efficient bi-quintuple contrastive learning method is designed to enhance the feature correlation between the same attribute data, while maximally enlarging the feature difference between different attribute data. Besides that, the bidirectional learning scheme is employed to significantly improve the data utilization. Through the joint exploitation of the above, different kinds of anomalous samples can be well detected across different modalities. Extensive experiments show that the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art competing methods, with a large improvement margin.

Multivariate analysis for yield and yield-related traits of amaranth genotypes from Ethiopia

The genus Amaranthus is one of the few dicotyledonous, non-grass mesophytes that use specialized C4 annuals or short-lived perennials to produce significant amounts of edible small-seeded pseudo cereals. In this study, we characterized the genetic diversity of 120 genotypes of amaranths collected from diverse amaranth-growing regions of Ethiopia using multivariate analysis of yield and yield-related traits. The experiments were carried out at Hawassa University, in the years 2020 and 2021. The experimental design was set up using an alpha lattice design and replicated two times. The collected data were examined for 24 descriptors. Principal component analysis showed that the first six principal components with eigenvalues greater than one contributed 80.41% of the variability. However, the first two principal components explained 52.42% of the total variation. The highest contributing traits in the first component were days to flowering, basal stem diameter, plant height at flowering, plant height at maturity, auxiliary inflorescence length, number of branches, terminal inflorescence lateral length, days to maturity, terminal inflorescence stalk length, leaf number, leaf length, top lateral branch length. The traits with the greatest weight on the second component were leaf area, basal lateral branch length, leaf length, and leaf width, grain filling period, grain sinking filling rate, and grain yield. Therefore, selection based on these traits would be effective for yield improvement in amaranth genotypes. Additionally, the hierarchical clustering grouped all the genotypes into five clusters. The pairwise generalized squared distance (D2) among the five clusters based on Mahalanobis's D2 statistics revealed the maximum and highly significant genetic distance was observed between II and III (277.79), while the minimum inter-cluster distance observed between clusters I and II (39.50). The findings suggest that amaranth genotypes in Ethiopia have a lot of genetic variation, which might be used for future breeding and ought to be conserved.

First report of branch blight caused by Diaporthe ueckerae on Eucalyptus citriodora in China.

Eucalyptus citriodora is a wood and oil dual-purpose tree with strong growth adaptability and high ornamental value. Recent years, it has been widely planted in Guangxi in China. In Nov. 2021, branch blight was found to be widespread on E. citriodora in Qinzhou in China (21°57'57"N, 108°42'6"E). The occurrence area was over 7000 m2, and the disease incidence was 23% (23/100). Twigs were withered in most of infected plants, and only top branch died in few plants. The lesions started from branch tips, then expanded and caused 5-20 cm branches died in final. The lesions were tiny and brown at early stage, then turned dark brown or black. Ten diseased branches were sampled randomly in field and were cut into 1 cm pieces. After surface disinfecting with 75% ethanol for 3 min, 0.1% HgCl2 for 5 min, washing with sterile water three times, samples were placed onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) medium. Hyphae appeared after incubating for 5 days at 28 ℃. The diameter of colonies reached 64-71 mm after 7 days incubation. The colonies were white and felt-like, and then turned yellowish gradually with flourish aerial hyphae. Two weeks later, pycnidia appeared, which were nearly spherical, initial pale yellow and later black. Sometimes secretions overflowed from the aperture on pycnidia. There were 2 types of conidia (α and β type), which were unicellular and hyaline. The α type was spindle to ellipse and had 1-2 oil globule, with 5.56±0.50 × 2.67±0.39 μm (n=100) in size. The β type was linear and one end bent in hook shape, with 17.10±2.54 × 1.55±0.32 μm (n=50) in size. Three isolates (LEQZ01, LEQZ02, LEQZ03) were selected for further study. The internal transcribed spacers (ITS) region of rDNA, translation elongation factor 1-α (tef1 α) and β-tubulin (tub2) genes were amplified using primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), EF1-983F/EF1-1567R (Rehner et al. 2005) and Tub1/ Tub2 (Chauhan et al. 2007), respectively. BLASTn searches showed that the ITS (OM339849, ON075781, ON075782), tef1 α (ON093807-ON093809) and tub2 (ON093810-ON093812) sequences had the highest similarity with Diaporthe ueckerae strains, with 99% (543/549, 544/549, 544/549) identity for ITS (NR 147543.1), with 99% (350/351, 353/353, 349/350) identity for tef1 α (KY569388.1), with 99% (754/754, 753/754, 754/754) identity for tub2 (MW514128.1). A neighbor-joining tree constructed by combining 3 sequenced loci. Three isolates clustered in the D. ueckerae clade with 100% bootstrap support. Based on morphological (Yi et al. 2018) and molecular evidences, the pathogen was identified as D. ueckerae. In a pathogenicity test, 20 healthy E. citriodora seedlings were divided into 4 groups. Before inoculation, twigs were surface disinfected with 75% ethanol followed by washing 3 times using sterile water. Tiny artificial wounds at 5 cm below the seedling top were inoculated by hyphae taken from colonies incubated for 7 days at 25 ℃ in the dark, and covered with damp cotton in 1-3 groups (Yi et al. 2018). Yet the wounds were covered with damp cotton in control group. Two days later, wounds started to turn brown in test groups, and symptoms similar to field were obtained after 10 days. But no lesion emerged in control group. Then germs were re-isolated from symptomatic twigs and identified as D. ueckerae following the methods above. To our knowledge, this is the first report of branch blight caused by D. ueckerae on E. citriodora in China. Further researches on disease epidemiology would help to prevent spread to more locations.

Effect of steric hindrance and number of substituents on the transfer and interface properties of Y-shaped hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells.

Alkyl sulfoxide groups were introduced into the branch chain terminals of a hole-transporting material (HTM) Z34 with different numbers and positions to design four new Y-shaped HTMs: ZT1, ZT2, ZT3 and ZT4. The effects of steric hindrance and number of substituents on the transfer and interface properties of the Y-shaped HTMs were investigated theoretically. Calculations reveal that the introduction of alkyl sulfoxide increases the distribution of intramolecular holes and orbital overlap between the HOMOs of the dimers. The electronic coupling was greatly improved owing to the increased distribution of holes and orbital overlap. ZT1 shows small steric hindrance when one alkyl sulfoxide is introduced into the top branch chain, which leads to translation π-π stacking. ZT2 and ZT4 show slightly greater steric hindrance when two or four alkyl sulfoxide groups are introduced into the side branch chains, which leads to face-to-face stacking. While ZT3 shows large steric hindrance when three alkyl sulfoxide groups are introduced into the top and side branch chains, which causes head-to-head stacking. With the increase in number of alkyl sulfoxide groups, the steric hindrance of the molecule increases and the hole mobility decreases. ZT1 achieves the highest hole mobility (2.63 × 10-2 m2 V-1 s-1) that is two orders of magnitude higher than that of Z34 (1.36 × 10-4 m2 V-1 s-1) owing to the optimal balance between the number of alkyl sulfoxide groups and steric hindrance. The HTM/CH3NH3PbI3 adsorbed system was also simulated to characterize the interface properties. Enhanced interface interaction was achieved in the HTM/perovskite systems of ZT2 and ZT3. The orbital distribution of the HTM/perovskite cluster indicates that the new HTMs can promote hole migration and prevent internal electron-hole recombination. The present work not only evaluates the reliable relationship between the structure and properties of new HTMs, but also provides a valuable design strategy for efficient Y-shaped HTMs.

Methodology "Identification of Problems and Growth Areas in the Sales and Service System: the advantages of a non-imitation approach"

The authors present their methodology for sales and service system analysis for organizations with a branch network. The methodology has been successfully tested in 2023 and proves to be relevant. Despite the digital transformation, particularly affecting the development of sales channels and the move to digital, branch networks continue to play a significant role in business. Classic sales channels and the branch network solve a multitude of problems. The success of the sales and service model depends on several factors, and a successful combination of all elements allows to develop and manage sales and service in the long term. The proposed methodology enables you to cost-effectively identify the current state, key challenges and growth opportunities of your sales and service system to optimize your operating model. The proposed methodology includes surveys of top managers, directors and branch employees, analysis of internal audit results and sales results, as well as an SMS survey of employees. The results obtained reveal the main problems that directly or indirectly influence sales results and service quality. On the basis of these data, we make recommendations to optimize the sales and service system and develop an action plan to improve sales and customer service quality.

Intra-Inter View Interaction Network for Light Field Image Super-Resolution

Light field (LF) cameras, which can record real-word scenes from multiple viewpoints in a single shot, are widely used in 3D reconstruction, re-focusing, and virtual reality <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">etc</i> . However, the inherent trade-off between spatial resolution and angular resolution of LF images hinders their applications for scenarios requiring high resolutions. In this paper, we propose a novel intra-inter view interaction network for LF image super-resolution, termed as LF-IINet, to exploit the correlations among all views and simultaneously preserve the parallax structure of LF views. The proposed LF-IINet consists of two parallel branches. Specifically, the top branch extracts global inter-view information, and the bottom branch first independently maps each view to deep representations and then models the correlations among all intra-view features via proposed multi-view context block (MCB). The two branches interact with each other by proposed inter-assist-intra feature updating module (IntraFUM, where the intra feature are updated with the assistance of the inter feature) and intra-assist-inter feature updating module (InterFUM, where the inter feature are updated with the assistance of the intra feature). In this way, our LF-IINet incorporates rich angular and spatial information for LF image super-resolution. Extensive comparison with state-of-the-art methods demonstrates that our method achieves superior performance visually and quantitatively. Furthermore, quantitative results also show that our method is effective for LF images with either small or large disparities. Our code is shared in <uri xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://github.com/GaoshengLiu/LF-IINet</uri> .

Do Vacancies Hurt Federal Agency Performance?

AbstractThe combination of the high workload associated with keeping top executive branch positions filled and political dysfunction has led to longer and more frequent periods of vacancies in the U.S. executive branch. While scholars commonly claim that such vacancies are harmful for performance, this claim has been difficult to evaluate because of theoretical disagreement, conceptual confusion, and measurement challenges. In this article, we evaluate the relationship between vacancies and performance, describing primary mechanisms by which vacancies (as opposed to turnover) influence performance. We conduct a cross-sectional study using new data on appointee vacancies during the Trump Administration and original performance data from a 2020 survey of federal executives. The Survey on the Future of Government Service includes questions designed to measure comparative self-reported agency performance and questions targeting the mechanisms hypothesized to link vacancies and performance. The article includes efforts to define and validate the measure of performance, assess the directionality of the relationship between vacancies and performance, control for potential confounders that may explain both vacancies and performance, and evaluate the mechanisms by which vacancies negatively affect performance. The results from ordinary least squares (OLS) models suggest that persistent vacancies are correlated with lower performance. In particular, agencies with persistent vacancies (e.g., 3–4 years) have performance ratings of about 1 SD lower than those agencies with consistent confirmed leadership. The most likely mechanisms leading to these results are the effect of vacancies on leader time horizons, agency morale, and investment by key stakeholders. We conclude with implications for appointment politics and administrative politicization.

Design of Control System for a new Intelligent Tree-climbing and Pruning Robot

This paper designed the control system of a new intelligent tree-climbing and pruning robot which included the control of remote control mobile terminal and intelligent control terminal. Remote control module, power circuit, motor drive, automatic holding detection, height detection, side branch detection and other modules were designed, Then the main program based on STM32 embedded MCU, interrupt program and communication program were designed. The control system could enable the tree climbing robot to climb automatically, detect the side branches in the climbing process, trim the side branches automatically, and saw the top branch after climbing to a certain height. The robot also had the function of image monitoring. Through image monitoring, the working process of the robot could be adjusted remotely. Finally, the prototype was tested. The test results showed that the selection of controller and sensors were appropriate, the design of remote control circuit, motor driving circuit and detection circuit was reasonable, and the structure and algorithm of the program were reasonable. The development of the prototype laid a foundation for the popularization of fast-growing forest pruning robot.

Employee Engagement and Performance in Microfinance Institutions in Kenya: A Case of BIMAS Kenya Limited

This study’s main aim was to explore the connection existing between engagement and performance of employees in microfinance institutions in Kenya with BIMAS Kenya Limited as a case study. To achieve this objective, the study’s sought to establish the effect of Empowerment on performance and to examine the moderating effect of industrial regulations on the relationship between employee engagement and performance of employees at BIMAS Kenya Limited. The study was principally anchored on the Three component model of engagement, the Universalistic theory and the Herzberg two factor theory. A descriptive research design was used and the respondents were 48 employees who are Top level managers, Operations managers and Branch managers. A census was carried out since the population of the study was relatively small. Primary data collection was done using structured questionnaires that comprised both open and closed ended questions. A pilot study was employed to help in identifying problems that could be encountered by the respondents. Content validity was used and testing of instrument reliability was done using the Cronbach Alpha with a threshold of 0.7. Descriptive analyses was analyzed using frequencies and percentages, means and standard deviations. While inferential statistics was analyzed using multiple linear regression using 0.05 level of significance. SPSS version 24 software aided in data analysis. The analyzed quantitative data findings were presented by the use of frequency tables, bar charts and pie charts. The study findings revealed that there is minimal bureaucracy in the organization and that they had the necessary skills to perform their duties. The employees, identified with the organizational goals and wanted to serve for long. On regression, the model summary ascertained that the model is good and can be utilized for the purposes of estimation. The F critical at 5% level of significance was 3.123. Since F calculated is greater than the F critical (value = 25.185), this shows that the overall model was significant. This study recommends that managers should ensure all their employees have everything they require to perform their duties, be treated equally and adopt the use of different strategies to ensure that the output of employees is utilized to the maximum. The study recommends further research to understand how an employee is empowered.

Compassionate leadership profile: A case study in the saving and loan cooperative leadership of Bhina Raharja

The leadership style has a big impact on how well an organization achieves its objectives and it serves as the driving force behind the organizations decision-making. An ideal organization employs an effective and efficient leadership style. This study aims to observe the leadership behaviors at Bhina Raharja Savings and Loan Cooperative in Central Java. In-depth interviews were conducted to four informants: the top leader, human resource, branch leader, and treasurer. The findings revealed that the leadership present was unique and distinct. Every process was based on trust and fraternity, and the leadership was generally pleasant. The organization's mission was not limited to monetary gains. Furthermore, the courageous attitude of giving in and valuing brotherhood became a distinguishing feature. This leadership style is known as compassionate leadership, and it has been used in the Bhina Raharja Cooperative by highlighting the elements of trust, kindness, and humanity.

Effect of Nonlinear Electromechanical Coupling in Magnetic Levitation Energy Harvester

This paper investigates the possibility of converting vibrations to electricity. A numerical and an experimental study of a magnetic levitation harvester are proposed. The system can be highly efficient when the electrical parameters are correctly tuned. Mechanical and electrical interaction of the harvester is described by an electromechanical coupling. Fixed value, linear and nonlinear electromechanical coupling models are presented and compared. It has been shown that the nonlinear electromechanical coupling model is more suitable for higher oscillations of the magnet. The obtained results show that nonlinear resonance and recovered energy can be controlled by the simple configuration of the magnet coil position. The recovered energy from the top branch is significantly higher, but this solution is much harder to obtain.

Aplikasi Zat Pengatur Tumbuh Dan Kegiatan Pruning Dalam Optimalisasi Budidaya Gaharu Di Desa Duman Kecamatan Lingsar Lombok Barat

Tujuan dari pengabdian masyarakat ini adalah untuk memberikan pembinaan bagi para petani Desa Duman khususnya istri mereka untuk mengoptimalkan pertumbuhan pohon gaharu mereka melalui aplikasi pendorong pertumbuhan dan pemangkasan. Peserta pengabdian masyarakat ini adalah istri Petani Desa Duman. Pengabdian masyarakat ini diawali dengan sosialisasi tentang pentingnya mendorong pertumbuhan dan pemangkasan pada budidaya gaharu. Kemudian, para peserta diberi kesempatan untuk mempraktekkan teori yang mereka peroleh dari sosialisasi. Fitohormon giberelin adalah penginduksi pertumbuhan yang digunakan dalam kegiatan ini. Dosis fitohormon tersebut adalah 1 gr untuk 2 liter air. Pemangkasan dilakukan dengan menebang cabang pucuk pohon gaharu menggunakan gunting tanaman. Daun dari cabang yang sudah dipotong pada kegiatan pemangkasan dapat diolah menjadi teh gaharu. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa peserta telah memahami tentang penerapan pendorong pertumbuhan dan pemangkasan untuk mengoptimalkan pertumbuhan pohon gaharu.Application of Growth Regulators and Pruning Activities in Optimizing Agarwood Cultivation in Duman Village, Lingsar District, West LombokAbstractThe aim of this community service is to give training for farmers of Duman Village, especially their wife, to optimize growth of their agarwood tree by application of promoting growth inducer and pruning. The participants on this community service were Farmers’s wife of Duman Village. This community service started by socialization about the important of promoting growth inducer and pruning activity on agarwood cultivation. Then, the participants were given an opportunity to practice the theory that they got from the socialization. Gibberellins phytohormone was the promoting growth inducer that was used in this activity. The dose of that phytohormone was 1 gr for 2 liter water. Pruning activity was conducted by cutting top branch of agarwood tree using plant scissors. Leaves from branch that has been cut on the pruning activity could be processed to produce agarwood tea. It could be concluded that participant has already understood about application of promoting growth inducer and pruning activity to optimize growth of agarwood tree.

A novel model predictive control with an integrated SOC and floating DC-link voltage balancing for 3-phase 7-level PUC converter-based MV BESS

Compared to conventional multilevel topologies, the Packed U-Cell multilevel topology utilizes the minimum number of components and provides both maximum voltage levels and high reliability. When used in a battery energy storage system, its dc-link consists of a top branch battery storage and bottom branch flying capacitors, whose state of charge and voltages must be balanced.This paper proposes a novel control scheme with two cascaded controllers: the inner loop regulates the output filter current and dc-link voltages using a novel finite-set model predictive control, the outer one is fully integrated with the model predictive controller and regulates the battery state of charge by injecting a zero-sequence voltage. The proposed control scheme was successfully implemented and tested through simulation and real-time testing. The obtained results highlight good dynamic performance and robustness of the proposed scheme during active power injection/absorption and low voltage ride-through capability.

Спеціалізований програмний калькулятор для обчислення значень функції Ламберта W0(X) і споріднених з нею функцій

Запропоновано спеціалізований програмний калькулятор, призначений для обчислення значень функції Ламберта W0(х) і споріднених з нею функцій. Описана його програмна реалізація і наведено приклади обчислень. Калькулятор надає обчислювати значення верхньої гілки функції Ламберта, величину обернену до величини функції Ламберта, логарифм функції Ламберта, експоненту, показник ступеня якої містить функції Ламберта, значення першої і другої похідних, значення узагальненого логарифма, узагальненого тангенса, узагальненого котангенса, узагальненого синуса, узагальненого косинуса, гіперболічний узагальнений тангенс, гіперболічний узагальнений котангенс, гіперболічний узагальнений синус, гіперболічний узагальнений косинус. Калькулятор дозволяє обчислювати значення двох найбільш поширених видів визначених інтегралів, підінтегральна функція яких містить функцію Ламберта. Проведено порівняння різних засобів обчислення значень функції Ламберта і рекомендовані області їх застосування.

Picea species from humid continental and temperate marine climates perform better in monsoonal areas of middle latitudes of China

Picea spp. are a prominent component of the boreal, montane, and sub-alpine forests in the Northern Hemisphere, and have substantial economic importance due to their high quality fibre. However, performance and wood properties of the genus have not been systematically evaluated in China. This study aimed to examine genetic variations in growth traits, phenology, and wood properties of 17 Picea species, (three from North America, two from Europe, and 12 from China), in response to specific climate factors using a randomized complete block design in a monsoonal, middle latitude area of China. Results show that all growth traits and wood properties significantly varied among species (P < 0.00). Of the 17 species examined, P. abies and P. pungens were the tallest with heights of 2.5 and 1.9 m at 9 years old, respectively, 90% and 50% greater than the average heights. Branch length, number, and angles of both P. abies and P. pungens were greater than those of the other species. Heights of P. glauca and P. omorika were 20–33% greater than the average. Fast-growing species had high quantities of first lateral branches and large top whorl branch lengths. The taller species exhibited greater tracheid lengths and average tracheid lengths to radial central diameter ratios (TL/R_D2), but smaller cell wall thicknesses to tracheid radial lumen diameter ratios (WT/R_D1), which is favorable for pulp production. Correlation analysis revealed that height and ring width had significant positive correlations with latitude but strongly negative correlations with longitude. Height was positively correlated with average annual rainfalls, but negative correlations with average yearly sunshine. Due to the increased average annual sunshine at the China test site relative to the seed source, species such as P. abies, P. pungens, P. glauca, and P. omorika from wet, humid areas performed better than native species. Considering similar temperatures, precipitation may be the main factor affecting growth, which is beneficial for predicting the extent of spruce expansion. These results should encourage further testing and provide reference information for future exotic species studies in this part of China.

A 3D approach to study the interaction between hydraulic and natural fracture

A real 3D model is developed to study the interaction between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture. The hydraulic fracture propagation behavior and fracture geometry under impact of natural fracture are studied through a series of numerical results, different horizontal stress anisotropies, intersection angles, friction coefficients as well as hydraulic parameters. The final results demonstrate the key role of horizontal stress anisotropy on the interaction between hydraulic fracture and natural fracture. Under a higher intersection angle, it is difficult for hydraulic fracture to cross the natural fracture with low horizontal stress anisotropy. In addition, the natural fracture at a lower intersection angle has a higher probability to capture the hydraulic fracture. Normally, the natural fracture is more likely to be activated in the top branch at a low intersection angle, as the lower branch is located in the induced stress shadow of hydraulic fracture. By contrast, two different branches,+ especially two symmetrical braches at the intersection of 90°, are activated. On the other hand, a higher friction coefficient slows down the propagation in natural fracture, even prevents the activation of natural fracture. Besides, increased injection rate as well as fluid viscosity will promote the fracture propagation under the same conditions to lead to a longer and wider fracture.

Pengaruh Gaya Kepemimpinan, Kepuasan Kerja dan Motivasi Terhadap Kinerja Karyawan Top Yummy di Jakarta

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of leadership, job satisfaction, motivation, on employee performance. The sample selection technique used in this study is a non-probabilty sampling method, namely purposive sampling. The population of this research is the Jakarta branch of Top Yummy employees. The research sample was taken from 100 respondents who had worked at least 6 months at the Top Yummy Jakarta branch. Data analysis using SmartPLS 3.0. Data collection is done by distributing questionnaires. The results are: (a) leadership has a positive and significant influence on employee performance in the Jakarta branch of Top Yummy, (b) job satisfaction has a positive and significant influence on the employee performance of the Jakarta branch of Top Yummy. (c) Motivation has a positive and significant influence on employee performance at the Jakarta branch of Top Yummy

Insights of carbon assimilation and allocation in young cork oak (Quercus suber L.) plants using Carbon-14.

14 C methods were applied to young, woody, branched and well-watered cork oak (Quercus suber L.) plants to determine carbon assimilation and its distribution among plant organs. Carbon assimilation rates by attached leaves clamped in a foliar 14 CO2 assimilation chamber containing 3.7 × 104 Bq of a portable ventilated diffusion porometer were measured at different 14 CO2 pulse-labeling periods (15, 30, 45, 60 and 120 s) in summer. Allocation of recently fixed C by attached leaves within plants was evaluated 7 days after a 60-min of 5.6 MBq of 14 CO2 pulse-labeling in late winter. 14 CO2 pulse-labeling was separately induced on leaves of a lower branch, two opposite branches at the same lower level, a middle branch and a top branch. 14 C activity incorporated into the plants was measured by liquid scintillation and autoradiography. Our results show the optimum 14 CO2 pulse-labeling period is between 15 and 30 s, which corresponds to 9.81 ± 0.15 and 9.16 ± 0.12 µmol m-2 s-1 C assimilation rates in summer, respectively. The investment of current assimilates ranged from 18 to 29% in leaves, 1 to 7% in lateral branches, 0 to 3% in the stem and over 65% in roots, in late winter. Roots displayed the greatest sink strength for the total 14 C recovered by whole-plants. These results were expected because the trial was done in winter, when cork oak does not produce their leaves. Our results highlight the contribution of current assimilates for growth and maintenance of roots, in young woody plants under Mediterranean climate.