Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Grain Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) Germplasm in South West Nigeria Using Morphological, Nutritional, and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Analysis

Efficient utilization of plant genetic resources for nutrition and crop improvement requires systematic understanding of the important traits. Amaranthus species are distributed worldwide with an interesting diversity of landraces and cultivars whose leaves and seeds are consumed. Despite their potential to enhance food security and economic livelihoods, grain amaranth breeding to improve nutritional quality and adoption by farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is scanty. This study assessed the variation among 29 grain amaranth accessions using 27 phenotypic (10 morphological and 17 nutritional) characters and 16 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. Multivariate analysis of phenotypic characters showed the first four principal components contributing 57.53% of observed variability, while cluster analysis yielded five groups at 87.5% similarity coefficient. RAPD primers generated a total of 193 amplicons with an average of 12.06 amplicons per primer, 81% of which were polymorphic. Genetic similarities based on Jaccard’s coefficient ranged from 0.61 to 0.88. The RAPD-based unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram grouped the accessions into nine clusters, with the same species clustering together. RAPD primers distinguished the accessions more effectively than phenotypic markers. Accessions in the different clusters as obtained can be exploited for heterotic gain in desired nutritional traits.
Dietary glycemic load and risk of colorectal cancer in the Women's Health Study.

Although diet is believed to influence colorectal cancer risk, the long-term effects of a diet with a high glycemic load are unclear. The growing recognition that colorectal cancer may be promoted by hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance suggests that a diet inducing high blood glucose levels and an elevated insulin response may contribute to a metabolic environment conducive to tumor growth. We prospectively followed a cohort of 38 451 women for an average of 7.9 years and identified 174 with incident colorectal cancer. We used baseline dietary intake measurements, assessed with a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire, to examine the associations of dietary glycemic load, overall dietary glycemic index, carbohydrate, fiber, nonfiber carbohydrate, sucrose, and fructose with the subsequent development of colorectal cancer. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative risks (RRs). Dietary glycemic load was statistically significantly associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (adjusted RR = 2.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.40 to 5.80, comparing extreme quintiles of dietary glycemic load; P(trend) =. 004) and was associated, although not statistically significantly, with overall glycemic index (corresponding RR = 1.71, 95% CI = 0.98 to 2.98; P(trend) =. 04). Total carbohydrate (adjusted RR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.10 to 5.27, comparing extreme quintiles of carbohydrate; P(trend) =. 02), nonfiber carbohydrate (corresponding RR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.22 to 5.54; P(trend) =. 02), and fructose (corresponding RR = 2.09, 95% CI = 1.13 to 3.87; P(trend) =. 08) were also statistically significantly associated with increased risk. Thus, our data indicate that a diet with a high dietary glycemic load may increase the risk of colorectal cancer in women.
Sanitary and phytosanitary issues for fishery exports to the European Union: A Mauritian insight

Quantitative restrictions to trade are declining, but in parallel sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures are increasingly being applied to impede agro-food trade. There is evidence that developing countries experience problems in meeting SPS measures. The objective of this paper is to determine whether Mauritius is facing barriers pertaining to SPS issues when exporting fishery products to the European Union. We first provide an overview of fishery exports from Mauritius before reviewing EU SPS requirements governing fishery exports. We then assess whether there are problems in meeting EU SPS requirements. We adopt a mixed methods approach which hinges on a documentary analysis of the impacts of SPS measures on developing country agro-food exports, an inventory analysis of Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) mission reports to developing countries exporting fishery products and of Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed notifications pertaining to fishery exports. These methods were complemented with interviews with key informants along the fish export supply chain. Our main finding is that SPS measures have not acted as a major barrier for Mauritian fishery exports to the European market. Nevertheless, the Mauritian institutional strategy for compliance to EU SPS measures has predominantly been reactive. In light of recent inspections of the FVO to assess compliance both at the level of the local competent authority and the exporters and the increasing importance of food safety as a competitive determinant of agro-food trade, we argue that Mauritius should not only adopt a reactive but increasingly a proactive stance to secure its market, to tap emerging ones and also to safeguard its image as a safe fish exporter. Key words: Fish export, food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, strategic options.
Understanding the Requirement Engineering for organization: The challenges

This paper explains the challenges that we faced during conducting research in requirement engineering. The aim of the research is to standardize the Requirement Engineering Best Practices Guideline for Software Project in Malaysia Public Sector. Our first step was to define the RE Process, the actors involved as well as their roles. This is followed by the development of RE Best Practices Framework to support the implementation of RE during software requirement specification (SRS) for software project. Finally, the SRS will be presented to the management for the approval. We hope the guideline will help IT Managers in improving their knowledge about RE and increase productivity.
Annual variation of airglow heights derived from wind measurements

Three independent techniques for measuring wind in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region were compared using simultaneous measurements during the period May 1997 to April 1998. The three instruments used, a Fabry‐Perot spectrometer, a medium frequency radar, and a meteor radar, are located on New Zealand's South Island. The results obtained during this investigation show reasonable agreement amongst the three methods, in particular between the Fabry‐Perot and the meteor radar. Correlation analysis of the meteor radar height‐resolved winds and the Fabry‐Perot spectrometer winds provides a valuable method for determining airglow heights. The results from the height determinations show a yearly variation of the OH emission layer, with its lowest height during summer, while the OI emission layer is found to remain at a relatively constant height.
Factors Associated With Intracerebral Hemorrhage After Thrombolytic Therapy for Ischemic Stroke: Pooled Analysis of Placebo Data From the Stroke-Acute Ischemic NXY Treatment (SAINT) I and SAINT II Trials

Background and Purpose— A number of factors have been associated with postthrombolysis intracerebral hemorrhage, but these have varied across studies. Methods— We examined patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator within 3 hours of symptom onset who were enrolled in the placebo arms of 2 trials (Stroke-Acute Ischemic NXY Treatment [SAINT] I and II Trials) of a putative neuroprotectant. Early CT changes were graded using the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS). Post–tissue plasminogen activator symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage was defined as a worsening in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale of ≥4 points within 36 hours with evidence of hemorrhage on follow-up neuroimaging. Good clinical outcome was defined as a modified Rankin scale of 0 to 2 at 90 days. Results— Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in 5.6% of 965 patients treated with tissue plasminogen activator. In multivariable analysis, symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage was increased with baseline antiplatelet use (single antiplatelet: OR, 2.04, 95% CI, 1.07 to 3.87, P=0.03; double antiplatelet: OR, 9.29, 3.28 to 26.32, P<0.001), higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (OR, 1.09 per point, 1.03 to 1.15, P=0.002), and CT changes defined by ASPECTS (ASPECTS 8 to 9: OR, 2.26, 0.63 to 8.10, P=0.21; ASPECTS ≤7: OR, 5.63, 1.66 to 19.10, P=0.006). Higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was associated with decreased odds of good clinical outcome (OR, 0.82 per point, 0.79 to 0.85, P<0.001). There was no relationship between baseline antiplatelet use or CT changes and clinical outcome. Conclusions— Along with higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and extensive early CT changes, baseline antiplatelet use (particularly double antiplatelet therapy) was associated with an increased risk of post–tissue plasminogen activator symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Of these factors, only National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was associated with clinical outcome.
Multi‐scale variability of the sea surface temperature in the Tropical Atlantic

[1] Tropical Atlantic (TA) sea surface temperature (SST) variability is studied using the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) of the SST indices in the Tropical North Atlantic (TNA), Tropical South Atlantic (TSA), and Equatorial Atlantic (EQA). CWT of the difference index (TNSD) between the TNA and TSA indices and the cross-wavelet spectrum for the TNA and TSA indices are also examined. The analyses focus the short-interannual, interannual, and decadal scales. The Global Wavelet Power of the TNA, TSA, and EQA indices confirm previous findings on the dominant scales of the SST variability in different TA sectors. The decadal peaks are dominant for the TNA and TSA indices while the interannual peaks are significant only for the EQA index. The scale averaged ΔΦ series for all scales feature a number of abrupt reversals of ±180° which depends on the scale, with larger number for smaller scales. The ΔΦ during the period between two subsequent abrupt reversals remains close to ±180° or varies within sub-intervals of the −180° to +180° range, thus the dipole-like, cross-equatorial SST anomaly gradient, monopole, and equatorial patterns are established as evolving modes. For all scales, the periods of abrupt ΔΦ reversals of ±180° occur within the periods with change in the meridional propagation directions of the SST anomalies or with reduced SST anomalies. This result strongly suggests that the establishment of the SST anomaly patterns in the TA depends crucially on the meridional propagation of the SST anomalies. This is a new aspect not discussed before.
Is there any association between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and thyroid cancer? A retrospective data analysis

Objective To evaluate the association between Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Materials and Methods The patients were evaluated by ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration cytology. Typical cytopathological aspects and/or classical histopathological findings were taken into consideration in the diagnosis of HT, and only histopathological results were considered in the diagnosis of PTC. Results Among 1,049 patients with multi- or uninodular goiter (903 women and 146 men), 173 (16.5%) had cytopathological features of thyroiditis. Thirty-three (67.4%) out of the 49 operated patients had PTC, 9 (27.3%) of them with histopathological features of HT. Five (31.3%) out of the 16 patients with non-malignant disease also had HT. In the groups with HT, PTC, and PCT+HT, the female prevalence rate was 100%, 91.6%, and 77.8%, respectively. Mean age was 41.5, 43.3, and 48.5 years, respectively. No association was observed between the two diseases in the present study where HT occurred in 31.1% of the benign cases and in 27.3% of malignant cases (p = 0.8). Conclusion In spite of the absence of association between HT and PCT, the possibility of malignancy in HT should always be considered because of the coexistence of the two diseases already reported in the literature.
Learning on Multi-Touch Devices: The influence of the distance between information in pop-ups and the hands of the users

Prior research indicated that information processing is influenced by the proximity of the hands to information: visuospatial processing is fostered near the hands, whereas textual processing might not be affected or even inhibited near the hands. This study investigated how the proximity of the hands to digital information in pop-ups influences learning outcomes on multi-touch devices. Depending on the distance between the information in the pop-ups and the hands of the users there were three conditions: (1) all pop-ups opened near the hands, (2) all pop-ups opened far from the hands, and (3) pop-ups with visuospatial information opened near the hands, whereas pop-ups with textual information opened far from the hands (mixed condition). Results showed better learning outcomes when visuospatial pop-ups are presented near the hands, whereas there was no difference in learning outcomes between near and far presented textual pop-ups. Results and implications for multi-touch designs are discussed.
Expecting to be HIP: Hawkes Intensity Processes for Social Media Popularity

Modeling and predicting the popularity of online content is a significant problem for the practice of information dissemination, advertising, and consumption. Recent work analyzing massive datasets advances our understanding of popularity, but one major gap remains: To precisely quantify the relationship between the popularity of an online item and the external promotions it receives. This work supplies the missing link between exogenous inputs from public social media platforms, such as Twitter, and endogenous responses within the content platform, such as YouTube. We develop a novel mathematical model, the Hawkes intensity process, which can explain the complex popularity history of each video according to its type of content, network of diffusion, and sensitivity to promotion. Our model supplies a prototypical description of videos, called an endo-exo map. This map explains popularity as the result of an extrinsic factor -- the amount of promotions from the outside world that the video receives, acting upon two intrinsic factors -- sensitivity to promotion, and inherent virality. We use this model to forecast future popularity given promotions on a large 5-months feed of the most-tweeted videos, and found it to lower the average error by 28.6% from approaches based on popularity history. Finally, we can identify videos that have a high potential to become viral, as well as those for which promotions will have hardly any effect.
Introduction: scaling and structure in high Reynolds number wall-bounded flows

According to Lighthill (1995), Prandtl’s (1904) boundary layer has had the same transforming effect on fluid dynamics as Einstein’s 1905 discoveries had on other parts of physics, which, by the way, were celebrated in 2005 as the World Year of Physics. That the boundary layer becomes turbulent was formally known to Blasius (1908), though, of course, the origin of turbulence in a pipe was studied earlier by Reynolds (1883). The problem of the turbulent boundary layer has since been a paradigm in the field of turbulence. Its practical importance in flows over air and water vehicles as well as in geophysical fluid dynamics has been recognized for nearly a century now. Advances in our understanding of the boundary-layer scaling and structure can be expected to shed further light on the complex and multiscale flow dynamics, and also offer basic input to flow control strategies for practically relevant problems such as reducing large vehicle drag (and hence, by implication, emission levels).
The sodium current underlying action potentials in guinea pig hippocampal CA1 neurons

Neurons were acutely dissociated from the CA1 region of hippocampal slices from guinea pigs. Whole-cell recording techniques were used to record and control membrane potential. When the electrode contained KF, the average resting potential was about -40 mV and action potentials in cells at -80 mV (current-clamped) had an amplitude greater than 100 mV. Cells were voltage-clamped at 22-24 degrees C with electrodes containing CsF. Inward currents generated with depolarizing voltage pulses reversed close to the sodium equilibrium potential and could be completely blocked with tetrodotoxin (1 microM). The amplitude of these sodium currents was maximal at about -20 mV and the amplitude of the tail currents was linear with potential, which indicates that the channels were ohmic. The sodium conductance increased with depolarization in a range from -60 to 0 mV with an average half-maximum at about -40 mV. The decay of the currents was not exponential at potentials more positive than -20 mV. The time to peak and half-decay time of the currents varied with potential and temperature. Half of the channels were inactivated at a potential of -75 mV and inactivation was essentially complete at -40 to -30 mV. Recovery from inactivation was not exponential and the rate varied with potential. At lower temperatures, the amplitude of sodium currents decreased, their time course became longer, and half-maximal inactivation shifted to more negative potentials. In a small fraction of cells studied, sodium currents were much more rapid but the voltage dependence of activation and inactivation was very similar.
Fast photometry of flickering in discrete auroral arcs

We present high speed photometric measurements of the auroral intensity of flickering aurora. These measurements reveal the existence of intensity modulations in the discrete aurora above the Nyquist frequency of standard 30 frame per second TV cameras. The intensity fluctuations observed are primarily below 80 Hz, although frequencies up to 180 Hz have been detected. Changes in the spectral characteristics from essentially band‐limited to broadband intensity fluctuations and then to narrowband fluctuations are seen in individual discrete arcs within a few minutes. The center frequency of the observed fluctuations also change during this period. Data obtained from a standard narrow field TV camera observing the same arc show that only the low ( ≈ 10 Hertz) narrowband modulations would be considered standard flickering aurora.
A Distribution-Free Test for Outliers

Determining whether a data set contains one or more outliers is a challenge commonly faced in applied statistics. This paper introduces a distribution-free test for multiple outliers in data drawn from an unknown data generating process. Besides, a sequential algorithm is proposed in order to identify the outlying observations in the sample. Our methodology relies on a two-stage nonparametric bootstrap procedure. Monte Carlo experiments show that the proposed test has good asymptotic properties, even for relatively small samples and heavy tailed distributions. The new outlier detection test could be instrumental in a wide range of statistical applications. The empirical performance of the test is illustrated by means of two examples in the fields of aeronautics and macroeconomics.
Water quality modelling in the San Antonio River Basin driven by radar rainfall data

Continuous monitoring of stream water quality is needed as it has significant impacts on human and ecological health and well-being. Estimating water quality between sampling dates requires model simulation based on the available geospatial and water quality data for a given watershed. Models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) can be used to estimate the missing water quality data. In this study, SWAT was used to estimate water quality at a monitoring station near the outlet of the San Antonio River. Precipitation data from both rain gauges and weather radar were used to force the SWAT simulations. Virtual rain gauges which were based on weather radar data were created in the approximate centres of the 163 sub-watersheds of the San Antonio River Basin for SWAT simulations. This method was first tested in a smaller watershed in the middle of the Guadalupe River Basin resulting in increased model efficiency in simulating surface run-off. The method was then applied to the San Antonio River watershed and yielded good simulations for surface run-off (R2 = 0.7), nitrate (R2 = 0.6) and phosphate (R2 = 0.5) at the watershed outlet (Goliad, TX – USGS (United States Geological Survey) gauge) as compared to observed data. The study showed that the proper use of weather radar precipitation in SWAT model simulations improves the estimation of missing water quality data.
A COMPRESSION MODEL FOR NON-BRITTLE SOFT CLAYS AND PEAT

A simple and effective model is presented for the calculation of the compression of non-brittle soft clays and peat. It is based on a unique relationship between stress, strain and creep strain rate. It combines features of existing models in an eclectic fashion and some new features. The treatment of unload–reload behaviour is unique to this model, as is the use of natural strain. A new measure—intrinsic time— is introduced to describe creep. The constitutive behaviour is combined with hydraulic storage and flow in a finite strain consolidation equation. A simplified derivation of the finite strain equation is presented. The model is shown to fit accurately the entire stress—strain—time response of a soft organic clay and a peat subjected to incremental loading oedometer tests. Some special effects of the model are shown. L'article presente un modele effectif simple permettant de calculer la consolidation deargiles molles non friables et de tourbe. Ce modele est fonde sur une relation contrainte deformat.
A universal remote control with haptic interface for customer electronic devices

We introduce a new universal remote control that gives easy-to-control interface for home devices such as TV, video/audio player, room lighting and temperature control. In order to use conventional remote controls, people need to understand complex instruction manuals and remember functions assigned to buttons. In addition, the button-based control does not provide an intuitive interface so the user presses a button several times to browse information and has difficulty in searching the right button among many buttons. Our universal remote control addresses these limitations by using a touch screen, a force-feedback dial knob, and two buttons instead of many buttons. We suggest an example scenario to interact with a conventional TV set, room lighting, and air conditioner using our universal remote control. The result of a user study to evaluate the usability of the device shows that the universal remote control is very efficient and intuitive interface to control customer electronics devices.