Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceptions and adoption of sustainable dairy practices in the Eastern Cape

To encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices amongst farmers one needs to understand what drives their decision-making processes. This study examined commercial dairy farmers’ perceptions of sustainable agriculture and documented their level of adoption of sustainable practices. Sixty-five respondents, a quarter of the dairy farmers in the Eastern Cape, completed the questionnaire. The farmers emphasized economic and environmental aspects of sustainability over its social dimensions. They were overwhelmingly positive about sustainable agriculture and its potential role in ensuring the long-term success of commercial agriculture in South Africa. Levels of adoption of sustainable practices varied, with certain practices widely adopted (e.g. the calculation of fertiliser requirements based on soil tests), some partially adopted (e.g. limiting chemical pesticides), while in the case of others adoption was limited (e.g. waste recycling). Adoption rates were correlated with attitudes to sustainability. These farmers’ appreciation of the benefits of sustainable agriculture could be used to motivate them to do more but they face many real and perceived challenges in the process of doing so. More research could make it much easier for them to comply with societal ideals.
Some common fixed point theorems for four maps in fuzzy metric-like spaces using α-φ and β-φ-fuzzy contractions

In this paper, some fixed point theorems for α-φ-fuzzy contractive and β-ψ-fuzzy contractive mappings in fuzzy metric-like spaces are proved. The results of this paper generalize, unify and improve the recent results of Shukla and Abbas [12] and Gopal and Vetro [7]. Some examples are provided which justify the importance of the results and notions introduced herein.
Physical Composition, Proximate, Phytochemical and Impact of Coconut Oil on Lipid Profile of Albino Rats

Background: Coconut oil is a food supplement derived from the Cocos nucifera L of Cocoideae subfamily and Arecaceae family, the oil is obtained from coconut kernel and it is anatural functional oil. This study was undertaken to evaluate the physical, proximate, phytochemical composition and the effect of coconut oil on lipid profile indices of albino rats. Materials and Methods:The proximate analysis was according to AOCS, phytochemical analysis was carried out with GC-FID.Thirty-five (35) albino rats were used for the lipid profile evaluation. Two phases of experiment with four (4) groups of male albino rats comprising of five (5) animals each, averagely weighing 180g-200g were employed. Phase 1 of the experiment was treated with coconut oil supplemented diet, where rodent chow was mixed with coconut oil while phase 2 experimental animals were treated with coconut oil by oral gavage. Group 1 served as the control for both phases while group 2, 3 and 4 were treated with 3ml/kg, 6ml/kg and 12ml/kg of coconut oil respectively for 4weeks. Results: The physical examination of the samples showed that the appearance of hot press method of extraction of coconut oil is pale-yellow while the oil from cold press method of extraction is colourless. Oil yield for hot press method is higher than that of cold press method. The result of proximate composition showed high level of crude fat for the hot and cold press methods. Moisture content for hot press method is lower than the cold press method. Crude protein values were same for both hot and cold press methods. Carbohydrate content for hot press method is lower than that of cold press method. The phytochemical composition shows a significant amount of flavonoids, alkaloids, phenol, and tannins, while oxalate, sapogenin and phytate were in trace quantity. Treatment with coconut oil supplemented diet and oral administration of coconut oil showed significant increase (p≤0.05) in triglyceride and HDL levels but LDL levels showed a decrease when compared with the control. Conclusion:It is observed that coconut oil does not pose any significant health challenge to the animals. Key Word: Coconut oil; Proximate; Phytochemical; Lipid profile. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 26-07-2020 Date of Acceptance: 10-08-2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Security in banking ⋆

We examine the security of the Australian card payment sys-tem by analysing existing cryptographic protocols. In this analysis, we examine TDES and DES-V key derivation and the use of secure cryptographic devices, then contrast this with alternative mechanisms to enable secure card payments. We compare current Australian cryptographic methods with their international counterparts, such as the ANSI meth-ods, and then motivate alternative methods for authenticated encryption in card payment systems.
Cascading Top-Down Attention for Visual Question Answering

For solving Visual Question Answering (VQA), we commonly employ images and questions simutansouly to predict answers. Some attention mechansims should be used to foucs on the most valuable information, because there are too much information extracted from images and questions. Top-Down Attention (TDA) is one of the famous attention mechansims. For standard TDA, only important regions of the image associated with the question are highlighted. In this work, we propose a Cascading Top-Down Attention (CTDA) model. CTDA highlights the most important information collected from images and questions by a cascading attention process. First, the key words of the question, associated with the image, are highlighted by using a Question Top-Down Attention (QTDA). Then, important regions of the image, associated with the question, are highlighted by using of Image Top-Down Attention (ITDA), useless information of the images and questions can be ignored effectively. We evaluate our model on two popular VQA data sets. CTDA obtains better results than standard TDA and the other state of the art models.
Evaluation of Precipitation Forecast of System: Numerical Tools for Hurricane Forecast

Heavy rainfall events, typically associated with tropical cyclones (TCs), provoke intense flooding, consequently causing severe losses to life and property. Therefore, the amount and distribution of rain associated with TCs must be forecasted precisely within a reasonable time to guarantee the protection of lives and goods. In this study, the skill of the Numerical Tool for Hurricane Forecast (NTHF) for determining rainfall pattern, average rainfall, rainfall volume, and extreme amounts of rain observed during TCs is evaluated against Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data. A sample comprising nine systems formed in the North Atlantic basin from 2016 to 2018 is used, where the analysis begins 24 h before landfall. Several statistical indices characterising the abilities of the NTHF and climatology and persistence model for rainfalls (R-CLIPER) for forecasting rain as measured by the TRMM are calculated at 24, 48, and 72 h forecasts for each TC and averaged. The model under consideration presents better forecasting skills than the R-CLIPER for all the attributes evaluated and demonstrates similar performances compared with models reported in the literature. The proposed model predicts the average rainfall well and presents a good description of the rain pattern. However, its forecast of extreme rain is only applicable for 24 h.
Investigation of latent infection of pathogenic fungi in mango fruits

The occurrence of latent infection of pathogenic fungi in mango(Mangifera indica L.) fruits from 6 provinces of South China was studied according to the tissue isolation method.The results showed that the latent infection of fungi comprehensively existed in the healthy mango fruits.However,there were significant differences in latent infection rate among the mango fruits from different provinces(P0.05). The rates of latent infection in the stalk and the stem end were significantly higher than those in the other parts(P0.01). There were 11 pathogenic fungi to be identified,including Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. ,Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat. ,Colletotrichum acutatum Simmonds. ,Phomopsis mangiferae Ahmad. ,Pestalotiopsis mangiferae(P.Henn.) Sutton. ,Dothiorella dominicana Pet.et Cif. ,Macrophoma mangiferae Hing. O.P.Sharma,Alternaria alternata(Fr.) Keissl. ,Aspergillus sp. ,Curvularia sp.and Fusarrium spp.Among these isolated fungi,both C.gloeosporioides and B.theobromae were the main fungi leading to latent infection in mango.Moreover,M.mangiferae was first reported as one of latent infection fungi in mango fruit.
On propagation and adaptability of avian infectious bronchitis virus-M41 in chicken embryo kidney cells

This study investigated the avian infectious bronchitis virus(IBV) –M41 infected chicken embryo kidney cells(CEK cell) and could multiply successfully.The IBV was injected into the SPF chicken eggs to propagate.And CEK cells were cultured ahead of adding in the IBV of 100TCID50.Reed-Muench was used to calculate the EID50.The real time PCR assay was used to detect the content of IBV in CEK cells whitch past infection.IBV-M41 was determined and it multiplied in CEK cells successfully.The results showed that the 10-day-old SPF chicken embryos inoculated can collect more of allantoic fluid virus(about 8 mL);the CEK cells infected with 7th generation of IBV can produce significant cytopathic effect;and ultimately determined by quantitative real-time PCR and RT-PCR assay,the propagation of IBV-M41 and the ability to reproduce in CEK cells was succesfful.The results of this study provides a reference for further experiments.
Are Modern Deep Learning Models for Sentiment Analysis Brittleƒ An Examination on Part-of-Speech

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have achieved remarkable results in multiple Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. However, current studies have found that DNNs can be fooled when using modified samples, namely adversarial examples. This work, specifically, examines DNNs for sentiment analysis using adversarial examples. We particularly aim to examine the impact of modifying the Part-Of-Speech (POS) of words on the input sentences. We conduct extensive experiments on different neural network models across several real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that current DNN models for sentiment analysis are brittle with perturbed noisy words that humans do not have trouble understanding. An interesting finding is that adjective words (Adj) and the combination of adjective and adverb words (Adj-Adv) provide obvious contribution to fooling sentiment analysis DNN models1.
Cosmo VAE: Variational Autoencoder for CMB Image Inpainting

Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) is critical to the understanding of the early universe and precise estimation of cosmological constants. Due to the contamination of thermal dust noise in the galaxy, the CMB map that is an image on the two-dimensional sphere has missing observations, mainly concentrated on the equatorial region. The noise of the CMB map has a significant impact on the estimation precision for cosmological parameters. Inpainting the CMB map can effectively reduce the uncertainty of parametric estimation. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based variational autoencoder — CosmoVAE, to restoring the missing observations of the CMB map. The input and output of CosmoVAE are square images. To generate training, validation, and test data sets, we segment the full-sky CMB map into many small images by Cartesian projection. CosmoVAE assigns physical quantities to the parameters of the VAE network by using Fourier coefficients, which are sampled by the angular power spectrum of the Gaussian random field as latent variables. CosmoVAE adopts a new loss function to improve the learning performance of the model, which consists of ℓ1 reconstruction loss, Kullback-Leibler divergence between the posterior distribution of encoder network and the prior distribution of latent variables, perceptual loss, and total-variation regularizer. The proposed model achieves state of the art performance for Planck Commander 2018 CMB map inpainting.
Citation and Disciplinary Knowledge: A Comparison between Two Fields

This paper investigates the differences in citation practices between two academic fields (Applied Linguistics and Computer-Aided Architectural Design) and between the research-and the practitioner-oriented journals in these two fields. The major purpose of this study is to show that citation studies not only can reveal different citation patterns used in different fields, but can also help us better understand the social and knowledge structures of the disciplines under investigation. Overall, the results of this study show that cumulative citation patterns can be sensible indicators of the status (including the social and knowledge structures) of different fields or sub-fields at various points of time, and that evolutionary citation patterns of a given field can very often reveal the traces of the social and intellectual developments within that field. In addition, the results also show that there are differences both in the citation patterns and the knowledge presentation styles between the research-and the practitioner-oriented journals in the two fields examined.
Comparison of plasma and CSF Neurofilament-light in an MS trial

1 Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Neuroscience, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden 2 Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry; Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden 3 Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden 4 Department of Molecular Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK 5 UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, UK 6 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University, Örebro,
Alternative Trading Systems in the Corporate Bond Market

We investigate the trading of corporate bonds on alternative trading system (ATS) platforms. We draw a key distinction between request-for-quote (RFQ) and electronic communication network (ECN) trading protocols, which balance investors’ preference for immediacy and anonymity. Trades on ATS platforms are smaller and more likely to involve investment-grade bonds. Trades on ATS platforms are more probable for older, less actively traded bonds from smaller issues and for bonds traded by more dealers where inventory is high. Moreover, dealer participation on ATS platforms is associated with lower customer transaction costs of between 24 and 32 basis points.
Mass fish die-off during a diatom bloom in the Bahía de La Paz, Gulf of California

Una inusual muerte masiva de peces sucedio durante un florecimiento de diatomeas ocurrido del 10 de junio al 3 de julio en la Bahia de La Paz, Golfo de California. Los organismos dominantes fueron Pseudo-nitzschia spp. (2.4 x 106 cels L-1), Thalassiosira eccentrica (2.3 x 106 cels L-1) y Chaetoceros spp. (9.65 x 105 cels L-1). Se identificaron tres especies toxicas: una pertenece al complejo P. pseudodelicatissima, P. fraudulenta y P. pungens. La fucoxantina, con un pico de 9.3 μg L-1, fue el pigmento dominante durante el florecimiento. La temperatura superficial del mar en el transcurso del evento drasticamente se incremento de 19.0 °C a 27.0 °C, con valores de nitrogeno inorganico de 1.0 ± 0.6 μM y Si(OH)4 de 15.5 ± 8.0 μM. El contenido de acido domoico determinado por HPLC-UV fue bajo tanto en muestras de red con un rango de 24.0 a 52.0 ng por filtro como en tejido de almeja chocolata Megapitaria squalida (0.55 μg g-1) y almeja blanca Dosinia ponderosa (0.06 μg g-1). El analisis de acido domoico en tejido de peces fue negativo. La necropsia de peces sugiere que la muerte por asfixia probablemente la causo Thalassiosira eccentrica. y Chaetoceros spp. Procesos de mezcla alternantes y la inestabilidad de la columna de agua, asi como cambios bruscos de temperatura y nutrientes, propiciaron condiciones para la proliferacion de las diatomeas
Oxygen sensing in the body

This review is divided into three parts: (a) The primary site of oxygen sensing is the carotid body which instantaneously respond to hypoxia without involving new protein synthesis, and is historically known as the first oxygen sensor and is therefore placed in the first section (Lahiri, Roy, Baby and Hoshi). The carotid body senses oxygen in acute hypoxia, and produces appropriate responses such as increases in breathing, replenishing oxygen from air. How this oxygen is sensed at a relatively high level (arterial PO2C50Torr) which would not be perceptible by other cells in the body, is a mystery. This response is seen in afferent nerves which are connected synaptically to type I or glomus cells of the carotid body. The major effect of oxygen sensing is the increase in cytosolic calcium, ultimately by influx from extracellular calcium whose concentration is 2 10 times greater. There are several contesting hypotheses for this response: one, the mitochondrial hypothesis which states that the electron transport from the substrate to oxygen through the respiratory chain is retarded as the oxygen pressure falls, and the mitochondrial membrane is depolarized leading to the calcium release from the complex of mitochondria–endoplasmic reticulum. This is followed by influx of calcium. Also, the inhibitors of the respiratory chain result in mitochondrial depolarization and calcium release. The other hypothesis (membrane model) states that K channels are suppressed by hypoxia which depolarizes the membrane leading to calcium influx and cytosolic calcium increase. Evidence supports both the hypotheses. Hypoxia also inhibits prolyl hydroxylases which are present in all the cells. This inhibition results in membrane K current suppression which is followed by cell depolarization. The theme of this section covers first what and where the oxygen sensors are; second, what see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. pbiomolbio.2005. 07.001 ding author. Tel. : +1 215 898 9125; fax: +1 215 573 5851. ress: lahiri@mail.med.upenn.edu (S. Lahiri). hor.
Debt Structure as a Strategic Bargaining Tool

This paper studies the strategic role of debt structure in improving the bargaining position of a firm’s management relative to its non-financial stakeholders. Debt structure is essential for strategic bargaining since it affects the ease of debt contract renegotiation and thus the credibility of bankruptcy threats. Using the airline industry as an empirical setting, we first show that the degree of wage concessions is strongly related to a firm’s debt structure. Debt structure is further shown to be adjusted as a response to an increase in non-financial stakeholders’ negotiation power. Using NLRB labor union election as a laboratory and employing a regression discontinuity design, we find that passing a labor union election leads to an increase in the ratio of public debt to total assets and a decrease in the ratio of bank debt to total assets in the following three years after elections, while there is no significant change in the level of total debt. Syndication size of newly issued bank loans increases while creditor ownership concentration decreases once the vote share for unions passes the winning threshold. Further analyses confirm that the debt structure adjustments after union certification are more likely driven by strategic concerns of management rather than more constrained access to bank loans.
Environmental responses of virally infected respiratory epithelial cells

Background: Rhinovirus, airborne pollution, and allergens are thought to contribute to epithelial dysfunction in chronic airway disease. Objectives were to determine whether these factors act in synergism to induce inflammation and chronic airway disease. Methods: Respiratory mucosa from chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) (n=7) or healthy (n=6) patients were cultured at air-liquid interface (ALI) (culture wells n=204). Cells were infected with rhinovirus, then exposed to combinations of vehicle, diesel particulate matter (DPM), and house dust mite (HDM). Ciliary beating frequency (CBF), interleukin (IL)-6 release, and cytotoxicity were assessed by Sisson-Ammons Video Analysis (SAVA) software, flow cytometry, and LDH assays. Results: Compared with healthy cultures, CRSwNP culture groups had lower baseline CBF. The CBF of virally infected ALI cultures was higher than healthy cultures. Challenges tended to impair CBF more in cells that were also virally infected. There was an elevation in IL-6 with viral infection. Challenge combinations did not cause a different IL-6 or CBF response within groups. Conclusions: An inherent mucosal dysfunction and environmental exposures can worsen sinus disease. Synergism in CBF impairment or IL-6 release was not seen.
Institutional Anomie Theory: Does Market Mentality Mediate Normative Flexibility?

Institutional Anomie Theory argues instrumental crime and violence are a result of weakened social controls that are caused by an imbalance of values favoring the economy. Anomie causes a new moral standard to emerge, one that encourages normative flexibility to achieve goals. The emphasis on the economy permeates into noneconomic institutions that cause them to adopt economic principles and weakens them. The result of this process is that individuals may develop market mentality. Past research has considered normative flexibility to be embedded within market mentality. However, this assumption has not been formally tested. The concepts may be theoretically distinct and empirically distinct. A formal test of this assumption would provide a better understanding of how market mentality relates to deviance and crime. The current study tests if market mentality mediates the relationship between normative flexibility and delinquency using a sample of 2,748 adolescents from thirty-one schools across the U.S. A factor analysis found normative flexibility and market mentality are distinct theoretical concepts. A multiple regression found normative flexibility is a significant predictor of market mentality. A series of negative binomial regressions did not find evidence that market mentality mediates neutralization, property crimes, and violent crimes. Future research should regard market mentality and normative flexibility as distinct concepts and they should not be lumped together. INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE AND NORMATIVE FLEXIBILITY 3 Institutional Anomie Theory: Does Market Mentality Mediate Normative
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES WHAT-OR WHO-STARTED THE GREAT DEPRESSION?

I thank Monique Ebel, Robert Himmelberg, David Levine, Nelson Lichtenstein, Fabrizio Perri, Albrecht Ritschl, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Rob Shimer for helpful discussions. Very special thanks to Bob Lucas, Ed Prescott, Nancy Stokey, and two referees for detailed comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Hal Cole for joint work on the topic of union hold-up. Giang Ho, David Lagakos, Ruy Lama, and Paulina Restrepo provided excellent research assistance. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Federal Reserve System, or the National Bureau of Economic Research.