Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Final response in the interactive discussion

In this study, we present RainNet, a deep convolutional neural network for radar-based precipitation nowcasting. Its design was inspired by the U-Net and SegNet families of deep learning models which were originally designed for binary segmentation tasks. RainNet was trained to predict continuous precipitation intensities at a lead time of ﬁve minutes, using several years of quality-controlled weather radar composites provided by the German Weather Service (DWD). That data set covers Germany with a spatial domain of 900 × 900 km, and has a resolution of 1 km in space and 5 minutes in time. 5 Independent veriﬁcation experiments were carried out on eleven summer precipitation events from 2016 to 2017. In order to achieve a lead time of one hour, a recursive approach was implemented by using RainNet predictions at ﬁve minutes lead time as model input for longer lead times. In the veriﬁcation experiments, trivial Eulerian persistence and a conventional model based on optical ﬂow served as benchmarks. The latter is available in the rainymotion library, and had previously been shown to outperform DWD’s operational nowcasting model for the same set of veriﬁcation events. 10 RainNet signiﬁcantly outperforms the benchmark models at all lead times up to 60 minutes for the routine veriﬁcation metrics Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and (cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58) the Critical Success Index (CSI , (cid:58) ) at intensity thresholds of 0.125, 1, and 5 mm h − 1 ). Apart from its superiority in terms of MAE and CSI, an undesirable property of RainNet predictions is , however, the (cid:58) . (cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)(cid:58)
Controlled Clinical Trial on Effect of ‘Carica Papaya’ Leaf Extract on Patients with Dengue Fever

Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection, which in recent decades has become a major international public health concern. Approximately half of the world now lives under the threat of Dengue, which is responsible for approximately 390 million infections and 20,000 deaths globally each year. Decades of attempt to eradicate dengue have not being successful at any part of the world. Up to now there is no safe and effective vaccine or therapeutic agent available [1]. Carica Research Article
Evaluation of qualitative and quantitative losses caused by Callosobruchus chinensis to some pulses

Studies on the infestation of Callosobruchus chinensis Linn. raised from a pure line culture to assess the quantitative (seed damage and weight losses) and qualitative (biochemical) losses in three pulses showed a maximum seed damage of 96.15% in cowpea (Vigna radiata) followed by 88.44% in green gram (V. unguiculata) and (74.22%) in moth bean (Phaseolus aconitifolius) while highest weight loss was registered in green gram (48.13%) followed by moth bean (39.7%) and cowpea (18.6%). Biochemical analyses of damaged seeds after 20 and 40 days of infestation showed gradual increase of moisture content in all the three pulses with infestation. Crude fat and crude fibre showed a similar trend of increase with infestation. Crude protein for the three pulses first increased after 20 days of infestation later showed slight decrease. However, total carbohydrate content of the three pulses showed decrease.
Physiological and driving behaviour changes associated to different road intersections

Road traffic injuries claim more than 1.2 million lives each year in the world and have a huge impact on health and development. It is commonly acknowledged that the human factor and the interaction between the human factor and the road environment are among the most common causes of road accidents. Intersections are among the most complex road environments: their geometric and traffic characteristics weigh the driver workload, affecting the driving behaviour and consequently the risk of accident. This study intends therefore to contribute for a better understanding of the relationship between different types of intersection and the human factor. The ultimate aim is to understand how at grade intersections affect the driving behaviour by comparing the drivers’ stress level for roundabouts and standard intersections. Electrodermal activity can provide a real-time assessment of the driver's stress level. Electrodermal activity was therefore collected continuously during a driving study which took place on a test environment based at Cranfield University and surrounding roads. Twenty participants were involved within the study. The analysis focused on four crossing manoeuvres on three at grade intersections (two T-junctions and a roundabout) situated on the study location. Results showed that the number of SCR peaks as well as the amplitude of the peaks are overall higher for the two manoeuvres on the roundabout. The stress level induced by each type of intersection was evaluated through an Electrodermal Impact Index which takes into account both the number and the amplitude of SCR peaks. Results suggested that the stress level induced by roundabouts is more than double that induced by standard intersections.
Effects of the temperature and storage on formulations with Mycelia of Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschn.) Sorok

This research deals with preparation of experimental formulations with mycelia of Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. The formulations were prepared with sodium alginate and pre-gelatinized corn-starch. They were kept at 25, 30 and 35±1oC. Pre-gelatinized corn starch was more suitable that the sodium alginate for the preparations of formulations with mycelia of B. bassiana and M. anisopliae.
Design and Parameters Optimization of Pteris vittata Automatic Sowing Machine for Phytoremediation

In view of the uneven artificial sowing, low sowing, as well as the fact that the existing seeders cannot meet the sowing requirements of Pteris vittata, this paper designed an automatic plug seeder by using the method of spraying and sowing after mixing spores and water. In order to obtain the optimum working parameters of the seeder, response surface method (RSM) was employed to design the experiments and evaluate the results with the purpose of optimizing parameters for improving spraying uniformity. The parameters such as the distance between the nozzle and plug and the nozzle angle and transmission speed were selected, and then the regression equation of spraying uniformity was established. The results showed that the influence of various factors on spraying uniformity coefficient from high to low were nozzle angle, distance between the nozzle and plug and transmission speed. Through the experimental analysis, it can be concluded that when the distance between the nozzle and plug was 11.63 cm, the nozzle angle and the transmission speed were 79.23° and 0.21 m/s, respectively; the seeding uniformity coefficient was the largest, 83.43%. The verification test results indicated that the optimized result was reliable. This study can provide reference for the development of micro seed seeder. doi: 10.5829/ije.2020. 33.04a. 21
CHLOROPHYLL A AND ITS USE AS AN INDICATOR OF EUTROPHICATION IN THE CALOOSAHATCHEE ESTUARY, FLORIDA

The use of phytoplankton chlorophyll a to indicate eutrophication in the Caloosahatchee Estuary and San Carlos Bay was evaluated. Responses of chlorophyll a to nutrient loading and freshwater discharge at the Franklin Lock and Dam located at the head of the estuary were examined. Relationships between chlorophyll a and dissolved oxygen and light attenuation in the downstream estuary and bay were also investigated. Statistically significant positive correlations with nutrient loading in the lower estuary and San Carlos Bay, significant association between increasing chlorophyll a and decreasing dissolved oxygen in bottom waters in the estuary, and positive correlation between light attenuation and chlorophyll a in San Carlos Bay argue for the use of chlorophyll a to indicate eutrophication. Relationships between chlorophyll a and freshwater discharge indicated a flushing or ‘wash out’ effect. Review of the literature suggested that discharge of dark, colored water enhanced light attenuation. Both effects of discharge would suppress the accumulation of chlorophyll biomass. While chlorophyll a might be used to indicate eutrophication in the Caloosahatchee, useful interpretation of the response of this indicator to future reductions in nutrient loading must account for the modulating effects of freshwater discharge exerted through flushing and reductions in light availability.
Knowledge of Unwanted Sex Among Couples in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

This study investigated knowledge of unwanted sex among couples in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Unwanted sex in marriage relationship exists with little or no attention. Five research questions were formulated and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. (Four Hundred) 400 couples were selected for the study using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a standardized questionnaire adapted from Samuel (2018) titled, “knowledge of unwanted sex”. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.86. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and ANOVA. The results of the study were that; the mean and standard deviation on the knowledge of couples concerning unwanted sex in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State was 1.46, SD=0.25. The result further showed no significant difference in the knowledge of couples concerning unwanted sex based on age (F=1.38, p>.05) and based on gender (F=0.63, p>.05). Whereas is a significant difference in the knowledge of couples towards unwanted sex based on level of education (F=8.14, p<.05) and State based on religion (F=3.21, p<0.05). Based on the findings of the study some recommendations were made, which included the national orientation agency (NOA) and social workers should organize programmes and campaign to convey supportive messages which explicitly acknowledge the context and pervasiveness of unwanted sex. Religious organizations should enlighten their members on the existence of unwanted sex in marriage relationships and admonish members to desist from the practice.
Twizzler: A Data-centric OS for Non-volatile Memory

Byte-addressable, non-volatile memory (NVM) presents an opportunity to rethink the entire system stack. We present Twizzler, an operating system redesign for this near-future. Twizzler removes the kernel from the I/O path, provides programs with memory-style access to persistent data using small (64 bit), object-relative cross-object pointers, and enables simple and efficient long-term sharing of data both between applications and between runs of an application. Twizzler provides a clean-slate programming model for persistent data, realizing the vision of Unix in a world of persistent RAM. We show that Twizzler is simpler, more extensible, and more secure than existing I/O models and implementations by building software for Twizzler and evaluating it on NVM DIMMs. Most persistent pointer operations in Twizzler impose less than 0.5 ns added latency. Twizzler operations are up to faster than Unix, and SQLite queries are up to faster than on PMDK. YCSB workloads ran 1.1– faster on Twizzler than on native and NVM-optimized SQLite backends.
ANCIENT DNA EVIDENCE OF PROLONGED POPULATION PERSISTENCE WITH NEGLIGIBLE GENETIC DIVERSITY IN AN ENDEMIC TUCO-TUCO (CTENOMYS SOCIABILIS)

Abstract We traced a population of Ctenomys sociabilis, a highly endemic South American tuco-tuco, through 1,000 years to assess its response to climatic change and recent human disturbance. Samples were obtained from a late-Holocene raptor roost in Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, Argentina, which produced a diverse and abundant rodent fauna, with >10 genera extending from the present to 950 ± 50 years ago (CAMS-45936). The site (Estancia Nahuel Huapi locality 1) was located near the center of the present geographic range of C. sociabilis, which occurs throughout 8 of 9 stratigraphic levels in the site. To examine genetic structure through time, we extracted ancient DNA from 16 teeth at those levels and from 1 modern tooth at the surface for a total of 17 specimens. Cytochrome-b sequences from ancient and modern specimens were compared with a modern tuco-tuco sequence from the extant local population. Our results show that of those 17 specimens, all but 1 had identical sequences. Further, these sequences were identical to a representative of the modern population. Thus, that population has remained genetically identical for at least 1,000 years in the face of climatic change, human disturbance, and proximity of other tuco-tuco species (C. haigi, C. maulinus) with adjacent geographic distributions. Our findings indicate that a population bottleneck contributing to low genetic diversity of C. sociabilis occurred before 1,000 years ago and that late-Holocene climatic change occurred without a corresponding impact on the genetic diversity of this species.
The Roots of Amphibian Morphospace: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Paleozoic Temnospondyls

Abstract Temnospondyls—a major component of Permian and Carboniferous terrestrial ecosystems—display great diversity in skull shapes and proportions. To quantify and interpret this diversity, we conducted a geometric morphometric analysis using 45 landmarks on the dorsal skull surface of 90 species with well-represented cranial material. Results show a correlation between morphospace occupation and phylogenetic proximity of taxa for trees in which dvinosaurs and dissorophoids are sister groups and join an edopoid-–eryopoid–basal archegosauriform clade. Most large groups of Carboniferous and Permian temnospondyls occupy specific areas of morphospace. Nearest-neighbor analyses reveal significantly greater taxon clustering than expected under either uniform or Gaussian null models. Size correlates strongly with shape across the whole data set, highlighting the association of some features (short, broad snout; large orbits) with small size. A significant relationship between size and shape is not observed in clades such as branchiosaurids, dvinosaurs, and olsoniforms (the clade encompassing trematopids plus dissorophids). This suggests that evolutionary allometry patterns vary across temnospondyls. In the case of branchiosaurids, this pattern may be explained by the similar sizes and relatively conservative morphologies of the constituent species. Distance-based disparity measures indicate that edopoids, eryopoids, and basal archegosauriforms make the largest contributions to total disparity (reflecting the peripheral locations of some of the constituent taxa in morphospace), whereas amphibamids, dissorophids, and trematopids make the smallest contributions. Disparity correlates strongly with diversity within groups, suggesting that skull shape was not subject to character state exhaustion (decrease or cessation in the acquisition of novel morphological conditions during clade evolution). The Kasimovian, Roadian, Wordian, and Changhsingian are time intervals of high disparity despite their low diversity. We hypothesize that this pattern stems from the fact that times of high diversity are characterized by larger areas of morphospace, which results in mean shapes being located relatively close to the grand mean; in contrast, mean shapes for low-diversity stages are based on incomplete morphospace samples. Many of these patterns are similar to those observed in previous analyses of stereospondyls, suggesting that similar controls on skull shape may have operated throughout the history of temnospondyls.
Radiation hazards assessment of phosphate fertilizers used in Latifiyah region, Iraq

The excessive use of fertilizers has become a necessity to support agricultural production in vast areas in Iraq. Phosphate fertilizers are known to contain relatively high concentrations of uranium‐238 (238U), radium‐226 (226Ra), thorium‐232 (232Th), and potassium‐40 (40K) radionuclides which accumulate in soil with time. In the current study, gamma-ray spectrometry was used to measure the radioactivity concentration of naturally occurring radionuclide in fertilized and non-fertilized soil samples within Latifiyah region in Iraq. The results showed that the average concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in fertilized soil were 12.7, 10.6, and 334 Bqkg-1 respectively which was 30.6%, 29.4%, and 12.9% higher than its concentration in non-fertilized soils with 8.81 7.48 and 291 Bqkg-1. Additionally, the average values of radium equivalent activity (Raeq), absorbed dose rates 𝐷 (nGyh−1), annual effective dose (indoors and outdoors), external hazard index (Hex), and Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) for fertilized and non-fertilized soils samples were evaluated. The results showed that the studied indices were 53.6 Bqkg−1, 26.4 nGyh−1, (0.129 and 0.032 mSvy−1), 0.145 Bqkg-1, 0.106 respectively in fertilized soils compared to 41.9 Bqkg−1, 20.7 nGyh−1, (0.102 and 0.025 mSvy−1), 0.113 Bqkg-1, 0.084 in non-fertilized samples. The Mann-Whitney U test showed a significant difference (p <0.05) between the studied fertilized and non-fertilized soils in terms of radioactivity concentrations in addition to all the investigated radiation hazard indices. However, the mean values of radioactivity concentrations and radiological hazard indices for study soils were well below the internationally recognized and therefore, fertilizer rates did not pose any radiological risk.
Developing a framework for using Structure-from-Motion techniques for Road Distress applications

On Urban road networks, road agencies need to quickly identify road pavement distresses in order to identify appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. This is integral as agencies are plagued with financial and time constraint issues. There have been several attempts over the last few years to identify new solutions and techniques to solve these issues. Several of these have shown merit and accuracy in identifying distresses. However, the techniques in many instances are not correlated to available distress identification standards. One of the considered techniques is the use of Structure-from-Motion, which tries to recreate 3D distress models for identification and analysis. This paper considers this methodology and attempts to integrate it with measurement requirements used by distress manuals to illustrate how the technique can be used with real-world industry standards and practices. Case studies of different measurement types, on an urban road in Palermo, Italy, are considered. The results from these examples show that the technique replicates pavement distresses of varying measurement requirements and the paper presents a workflow of how it can be utilized to help optimize the pavement management system and their connections to different distress identification manuals worldwide.
THE EFFECTS OF BARK MOISTURE ON POLYGRAPHUS RUFIPENNIS (COLEOPTERA: SCOLYTIDAE) ADULTS AND THEIR DEVELOPING BROODS

Abstract Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effects of bark moisture content on the survival and development of Polygraphus rufipennis (Kirby). Adults and immature stages were reared in white spruce bark of five different moisture contents for 20, 40, and 60 days. Adult activity and brood success were related to the moisture content of the bark with the adverse effects of the drier bark becoming more pronounced with time. After 40 days factors associated with high bark moisture levels, such as fungus and rate of decomposition, may have been responsible for a decrease in survival and rate of development in the moister bark.
Rolling noise in road and rail transportation systems

Long term exposure to ground transportation (road and rail traffic) noise is, after air pollution, the main environment-related health stressor in densely populated areas and compromises the quality of life and, indirectly, the life expectations of millions of people. The main source of ground transportation noise at speeds up to 130 km/h in road traffic and up to 300 km/h in rail traffic is rolling noise; noise generated due to the interaction between tyre and road (respectively wheel and rail). Although at first sight noise generation in these two transportation systems might seem unrelated, exploring the common aspects provides valuable insight in current practices for the modeling, prediction and abatement of rolling noise. In this paper the sound and vibration generation mechanisms due to tyre/road and wheel/rail interaction are discussed, focusing on the similarities and differences between the sound and vibration generation mechanisms in these two systems. This perspective is further extended to the discussion of modelling strategies and source characterization methods, with a particular emphasis on the influence of surface roughness on contact force generation. Finally, rolling noise source separation methods are touched upon, since they are a necesary tool to assess the impact of noise and vibration mitigation measures in both road and rail traffic systems.
The influence of CYP enzymes and ABCB1 on treatment outcomes in schizophrenia: association of CYP1A2 activity with adverse effects

Aim: Genetic variants on metabolic and transport enzymes are good candidates to explain inter-individual differences in response to antipsychotics. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the influence of the CYP2D6 , CYPC19, CYP1A2 and ABCB1 variants on plasma levels, treatment response and side effects of
Contribution of Leadership Composition on Leadership Performance of Listed Companies in Kenya

Leadership is a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Corporate governance has dominated leadership policy agenda in developed market economies for more than a decade and African continent is gradually adopting it on their policy agenda on leadership and governance of their organisations. The Nairobi Securities Exchange (formerly Nairobi Stock Exchange) (NSE) is the principal stock exchange of Kenya. The objective of the study was to establish the role of leadership composition on leadership performance of listed companies in Kenya. The target population consisted of the 62 listed companies that had been listed at the NSE in 2015. The study used primary data which was collected using questionnaires. Data was analysed and presented using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present the results of this study. The study found that the composition of the company leadership should be well composed to include experts in management, finance and the company industry for better performance of the company. The study recommended that listed companies shareholders should ensure that the company composition is highly ethical, responsible and valuable to all stakeholders as will reduce under-investment and agency problems, which has significant economic implications and avert possible collapse of listed companies in Kenya.
Design of Wearable Antenna for Varous Applications

In the proposed research work, wearable antenna design strategy through CST simulator software has been presented. This antenna is suitable for various applications depending on =he bands like L, S, C and X with linear and circular polarization characteristics. Simplest possible patch geometry has been chosen along with easily available fabric material as a dielectric surface in order to design these antennas. In this way economical aspect will be maintained with the designers prospective. Since antennas will be on the human body, therefore bending performance has been evaluated as per the different physique structure and condition. The designed and developed antenna has been fabricated in the laboratory, experimentally measured and tested for various performance parameters like reflection coefficient, and input impedance. Keywords—wearable antennas; circular polarization; computer simulation technology; reflection coeffcient