Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbiome composition differs in hybrid and inbred maize

O_LIMacroorganisms genotypes shape their phenotypes, which in turn shape the habitat available to potential microbial symbionts. This influence of host genotype on microbiome composition has been demonstrated in many systems; however, most previous studies have either compared unrelated genotypes or delved into molecular mechanisms. As a result, it is currently unclear whether the heritability of host-associated microbiomes follows similar patterns to the heritability of other complex traits. C_LIO_LIWe take a new approach to this question by comparing the microbiomes of diverse maize inbred lines and their F1 hybrid offspring, which we quantified in both rhizosphere and leaves of field-grown plants using 16S-v4 and ITS1 amplicon sequencing. C_LIO_LIWe show that inbred lines and hybrids differ consistently in composition of bacterial and fungal rhizosphere communities, as well as leaf-associated fungal communities. A wide range of microbiome features display heterosis within individual crosses, consistent with patterns for non-microbial maize phenotypes. For leaf microbiomes, these results were supported by the observation that broad-sense heritability in hybrids was substantially higher than narrow-sense heritability. C_LIO_LIOur results support our hypothesis that at least some heterotic host traits affect microbiome composition in maize. C_LI
Mechanisms of Spectrotemporal Modulation Detection for Normal- and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

Spectrotemporal modulations (STM) are essential features of speech signals that make them intelligible. While their encoding has been widely investigated in neurophysiology, we still lack a full understanding of how STMs are processed at the behavioral level and how cochlear hearing loss impacts this processing. Here, we introduce a novel methodological framework based on psychophysical reverse correlation deployed in the modulation space to characterize the mechanisms underlying STM detection in noise. We derive perceptual filters for young normal-hearing and older hearing-impaired individuals performing a detection task of an elementary target STM (a given product of temporal and spectral modulations) embedded in other masking STMs. Analyzed with computational tools, our data show that both groups rely on a comparable linear (band-pass)–nonlinear processing cascade, which can be well accounted for by a temporal modulation filter bank model combined with cross-correlation against the target representation. Our results also suggest that the modulation mistuning observed for the hearing-impaired group results primarily from broader cochlear filters. Yet, we find idiosyncratic behaviors that cannot be captured by cochlear tuning alone, highlighting the need to consider variability originating from additional mechanisms. Overall, this integrated experimental-computational approach offers a principled way to assess suprathreshold processing distortions in each individual and could thus be used to further investigate interindividual differences in speech intelligibility.
Work-based learning in international humanitarian organisations

i Acknowledgements . ii Author’s declaration . iii Table of contents . iv List of tables . vi List of figures . vii List of appendices . viii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1. Statement of the problem . 1 1.2. Workplace learning . 3 1.2.1. Formal and informal learning . 3 1.2.2. Work-based learning . 9 1.3. Research gaps and research questions . 14 1.4. Information and communications technology and workplace learning . 15 1.5. The humanitarian context and the ICRC . 19 1.5. 1. Specificities of the humanitarian context in relation to learning in the workplace . 19 1.5. 2. The context of the ICRC and staff learning . 26 1.6. Personal statement . 30 1.7. Thesis outline . 31 Chapter 2: Literature Review . 33 2.1. Cultural-Historical Psychology . 33 2.2. Activity Theory . 37 2.3. Adult learning theory and experiential learning . 43 2.3.1. The concept of inquiry . 43 2.3.2. Adult learning and experiential learning theory . 45 2.4. Conceptual framework . 48 2.4. 1. Communities of practice . 50 2.4. 2. Communities of practice in international humanitarian organisations: systematic literature review. 66 2.5. Conclusion and answer to research question 1 . 83 Chapter 3: Methodology . 86 3.1. Study design . 86 3.2. Study population and sampling . 88 3.3. Ethical considerations . 89
Effectiveness of an Educational Program among Mothers on Household Poisoning in Children in the Rural Community

Introduction: Household poisoning is a worldwide problem. It is s a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children which includes cleaning products, kerosene, pesticides, cosmetics and medicines. Methods: A quasi-experimental, quantitative, before and after study design was conducted among the mothers total (n= 60) in the community of Ali Raza Abad Raiwind Road Lahore, Pakistan from September 2018 to December 2018. The educational interventions involve four meetings about household poisoning in which the researcher educate the mothers about household poisoning in children. Results: A total of 60 mothers participated in the study. The total mean of mothers before the educational intervention is 13.10 (Standard deviation 2.673) and after the educational intervention is 26.18 (Standard deviation 2.175). The mean difference between the two means is 13.083. There is a statistically significant difference before and after the educational intervention. The educational intervention is highly effective because the significant value is 0.00. Conclusions: : The result of the study shows that educational intervention in mothers can effective to improve knowledge related to household poisoning in children. Keywords- Household poisoning , Educational Program. DOI : 10.7176/JHMN/69-07 Publication date: December 31 st 2019
Distributed Tracking for Discrete-Time Multiagent Networks via an Ultrafast Control Protocol

In this article, the ultrafast tracking control for high-order discrete-time multiagent networks is investigated based on the predictive ability of agents. First, in view of the evolution of the original network dynamics, a distributed multistep prediction algorithm is established. Further, a control strategy containing predictive information is presented to achieve the ultrafast tracking control. Second, the problem of ultrafast tracking control with an $H_{\infty }$ performance specification is dealt with. The obtained result indicates that the robustness of the whole multiagent network can be converted into the robustness of multiple separable subsystems. Finally, the optimal ultrafast static tracking control design is provided for the single-integrator network with sampled dynamics. Two simulation cases are carried out to verify the correctness of the obtained theoretical results.
Efficient Annotation of Semantic Segmentation Datasets for Scene Understanding with Application to Autonomous Driving

An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that should operate autonomously on the road as well as in the terrain, is equipped with sensors that perceive the environment. The information from the sensors can be combined to create a high-level description of the scene. This thesis treats the computer vision task of semantic segmentation using the camera. The objective with semantic segmentation is to recognise objects and their spatial pixel-level extent in an image. The semantic representation of the scene provides the local path planner system with knowledge of obstacles and possible driveable surfaces. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have recently shown prominent results for a range of computer vision recognition tasks, including semantic segmentation. The success of deep learning is mainly driven by the availability of large datasets and parallel computation in compact embedded formats. Several large-scale datasets exist for vehicle-based scene understanding, however, they are limited to specific domains and typically only cover structured urban scenes. Moreover, the process of creating datasets for semantic segmentation requires a considerable amount of human effort. This project investigates techniques that try to reduce the work involved in annotating such datasets. To this end, a novel active learning framework is proposed and tested on the Cityscapes benchmark dataset. The proposed algorithm jointly train a convolutional neural network on the minority labelled training set, and regularly queries the human annotator to label a small sample of most informative images in the dataset. Moreover, a pseudo-labelling procedure is proposed to make the model utilise the unlabelled part of the dataset during training. The experiments suggest that careful selection of informative images for annotation benefit model performance when the labelled images span a relatively small proportion of the dataset. In the closing, several enhancements and extensions to this framework are proposed for future work.
Prevalence and Characerizaion of Salmonella pullorum from Day Old Chicks Distributed to Farms in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

To investigate sources of Salmonella pullorum infections that cause frequent outbreaks of bacillary white diarrhea in poultry and sporadic human food poisoning in Nigeria, prevalence of the infection among day-old-chicks in Akwa-Ibom State, south-south Nigeria, was studied. From each depot/hatchery, 30 day-old chicks were randomly selected for their livers, spleens, kidneys, hearts, yolk sacs and intestines which were processed and cultured on appropriate bacterial media. Colonies that grew from the specimens were characterized based on their morphologies, staining characteristics, biochemical reactions and cultural characteristics. Gram positive isolates that were: short, plum shaped, rods, non-spore forming and non-capsulated were identified as Salmonella species. Motility test and biochemical tests on the Salmonella colonies identified those that were S. pullorum. Five percent of chicks being distributed in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria were infected with S. pullorum, the agent of, bacillary white diarrhea (which causes high mortality in chicks) and food poisoning in man.
Interpretability of API Call Topic Models: An Exploratory Study

Topic modeling is an unsupervised method for discovering semantically coherent combinations of words, called topics, in unstructured text. However, the human interpretability of topics discovered from non-natural language corpora, specifically Windows API call logs, is unknown. Our objective is to explore the coherence of topics and their ability to represent the themes of API calls from the perspective of malware analysts. Three Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) models were fit to a collection of dynamic API call logs. The topics were manually evaluated by malware analysts. The results were then compared to existing automated quality measures. Participants were able to accurately determine API calls that did not belong to topics learned by the 20 topic model. Our results agree with topic coherence measures in terms of highest interpretable topics. The results are not compatible with log-perplexity, which concur with the findings of topic evaluation literature on natural language corpora.
EBV status in extra-oral plasmablastic lymphomas

Introduction: Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is an uncommon variant of aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that occurs in immune-compromised individuals, most commonly secondary to HIV infection. This tumour classically occurs in the oral cavity but has also been described in a variety of extra-oral locations. This is a clinicopathological study of 45 cases of extra-oral PBL (EPBL). Aim: To define the clinical parameters, histology and immunophenotypic features of extra-oral plasmablastic lymphoma (EPBL) and assess the extent to which Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is associated with this tumour. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study on archival cases of EPBL included the patients‟ age, gender, race, HIV status where available and the site of tumour presentation. Of 49 archival cases retrieved, 4 were discounted owing to reclassification as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (1 case), multiple myeloma or extramedullary plasma cell tumour (3 cases). The remaining 45 cases were reviewed histologically and classified according to whether they displayed a pure plasmablastic (PBm) morphology or a plasmablastic morphology with plasmacytic differentiation (PBm+PCd), and assessed immunohistochemically with CD45 (LCA), CD20, CD79a, PAX5, CD138, MUM1, BLIMP1, VS38c, Ki-67, BCL6, CD10, HHV8 and CyclinD1 using standard automated procedures. The presence of EBV was assessed by chromogenic in-situ hybridisation. Ethical clearance was obtained (M10750 and M120993). Results: 27of the 45 cases had a pure plasmablastic morphology. The remaining 18 cases showed plasmacytic differentiation. There was no site predilection according to histological pattern. 60% of the tumours were reported in males and 40% in females and all were black African patients. The anus was the favoured
Diagnostic Ambiguity and Psychosocial Distress among Chinese Women with Idiopathic and Non-Idiopathic Infertility

The aim of this study is to investigate how women with different diagnoses on their cause of infertility—non-idiopathic (female, male, mixed), or idiopathic (unknown causes)—display different levels of psychosocial well-being prior to their IVF treatment. Women who attended an assisted reproduction clinic were recruited to fill out a set of questionnaire about 3 months before the start of their first IVF treatment cycle (valid N = 330). Measures included anxiety, somatic, emotional, and spiritual distress, as well as marital satisfaction. Somatic distress was found to be highest among women without a known cause of infertility. Women with mixed-factor diagnosis reported significantly lower emotional distress. Spiritual distress was found to be the highest in female-factor infertility group. Results remained significant after controlling for marital satisfaction. The current findings suggest that facing infertility whose cause is unexplained, women may express their distress through somatic complaints. Where a physiological cause can be identified, emotional and spiritual distress are paradoxically lower when both wife and husband are perceived to share the responsibility for the condition. Results can inform healthcare professionals about the psychological needs of women with different diagnoses of infertility prior to their IVF treatment.
Saltwater intrusion affects nutrient concentrations in soil porewater and surface waters of coastal habitats

Coastal ecosystems are undergoing major biogeochemical shifts due to climate change and sea level rise. At the same time, agricultural fertilizer applications are increasing coastal nutrient inputs. In this study, we examine the potential impact of saltwater intrusion (SWI) on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in soil porewater and surface water of different habitats within the Chesapeake Bay estuary. Study sites are located along Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore and were monitored over three summers from 2016 to 2018. These sites encompass various habitats on the land–sea interface, consisting of healthy forests, intruded forests, abandoned fields, intruded fields, agricultural ditches, tidal creeks, and tidal salt marshes. Intruded fields were being actively farmed at the time of the study. Soil porewater and surface water grab samples were collected from the habitats and analyzed for electrical conductivity, pH, dissolved organic P (DOP), dissolved inorganic P in the form of soluble reactive P (SRP), dissolved inorganic N as ammonium-N (NH4-N), and total dissolved iron (TDFe). Electrical conductivity was greatest in the marshes (16.58 mS/cm averaged across all years) and did not significantly differ among intruded forests, intruded fields, and agricultural ditches. As a legacy of heavy fertilizer use, DOP concentrations exceeded 0.45 mg P/L in all habitats. Concentrations of inorganic N and P differed significantly by habitat. Concentrations of NH4-N were significantly higher in salt marsh soil porewater than in any other habitat measured. Overall, SRP concentrations were the highest in the soil porewater of intruded fields and marshes and in the surface water of agricultural ditches (0.30, 0.29, and 0.33 mg P/L averaged across all years, respectively). These concentrations greatly exceeded recommended U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nutrient pollution thresholds for the region. In its oxidized state, dissolved iron can bind to SRP and prevent it from becoming bioavailable. However, TDFe concentrations in the ditches, tidal creeks, and marshes were too low to adequately buffer against SRP loss to downstream areas. As SWI moves salts inland and increases hydrologic connectivity across coastal landscapes, it is important to consider the mechanisms through which nutrients may be released from coastal soils and their potential to impact downstream water quality.
HAEMATOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL ALTERATIONS DUE TO COMBINED TOXICITY OF ISONIAZID AND RIFAMPICIN; AMELIORATION WITH WITHANIA SOMNIFERA AND VITAMIN-E IN WISTAR RATS

The present study was designed to investigate the combined toxicity Isoniazid (ISN) and Rifampicin (RIF), which are widely used in treating tuberculosis; and protective effects of Withania somnifera and Vitamin E against the toxixcity induced ced by the drugs on haematological and histopathological alterations. The experimental study was conducted with healthy male Wistar rats (age 60-100 days, weighing 175-260mg) procured from National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad and the experiment was carried out according to the guidelines and prior approval of Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. Animals were divided into four groups consisting of 6 in each group. The experimental study was designed as follows:- Group 1-Control, Group II-ISN@50mg/kg body wt + RIF@100mg/kg body wt once daily orally for 21 days, Group IIIISN@50mg/kg body wt + RIF@100mg/kg body wt once daily orally for 21 days + Withania somnifera@1000mg/kg feed daily for 21 days, Group IV-ISN@50mg/kg body wt + RIF@100mg/kg body wt once daily orally for 21 days + vitamin E@300mg/kg feed daily for 21 days. The experiment was carried out for 21days and blood was collected 4 times at weekly intervals (0,7,14 and 21 days) for estimation of various haematological parameters and tissues were collected for histopathological studies. The hematological assays showed a significant reduction in packed cell volume, haemoglobin, total erythrocytes count and significant increase in total leucocytes count in group II in comparison to other groups. Histopathological changes were noticed significantly. In group II, liver showed severe sinusoidal congestion and mild congestion of central vein, portal tracks were enlarged and infiltrated with mononuclear cells, disorganization of hepatic cords and moderate to severe necrosis. Cardiac muscle fiber showed varied degree of injury, disruption and seperation of muscle bundles. In kidney, glomeruli revealed degeneration of tubules and haemorrhages in interstitial tubular spaces, disrupted tubules. Brain showed congestion and mononuclear cell infiltration surrounded by areas of fatty changes. The groups III and IV animals showed significant improvement in all parameters and tissue changes in comparison to group II by the ameliorative effects of Withania somnifera and vitamin E .
Seasonal Rainfall Variability in Ethiopia and Its Long-Term Link to Global Sea Surface Temperatures

Investigating the influence of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) on seasonal rainfall is a crucial factor for managing Ethiopian water resources. For this purpose, SST and rainfall data were used to study a wide range of inhomogeneous areas in Ethiopia with uneven distribution of rainfall for both summer (1951–2015) and spring (1951–2000) seasons. Firstly, a preliminary subdivision of rainfall grid points into zones was applied depending on spatial homogeneity and seasonality of rainfall. This introduced new clusters, including nine zones for summer rainfall peak (July/August) and five zones for spring rainfall peak (April/May). Afterward, the time series for each zone was derived by calculating the rainfall averaged over grid points within the zone. Secondly, the oceanic regions that significantly correlated with the Ethiopian rainfall were identified through cross-correlations between rainfalls averaged over every homogeneous zone and the monthly averaged SST. For summer rainfall as a main rainy season, the results indicated that the Gulf of Guinea and southern Pacific Ocean had a significant influence on rainfall zones at a lag time of 5–6 and 6–7 months. Besides, for summer rainfall zones 8 and 9 at lag time 5–6 months, the common SST regions of the southern Pacific Ocean showed the opposite sense of positive and negative correlations. Thus, the difference in SSTs between the two regions was more strongly correlated (r ≥ 0.46) with summer rainfall in both zones than others. For the spring season, the results indicated that SST of the northern Atlantic Ocean had a strong influence on spring rainfall zones (3 and 5) at a lag time 6–7 months, as indicated by a significant correlation (r ≥ −0.40). Therefore, this study suggests that SSTs of southern Pacific and northern Atlantic oceans can be used as effective inputs for prediction models of Ethiopian summer and spring rainfalls, respectively.
A COMPARISON OF EGFR USING SERUM CREATININE AND CYSTATIN FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF RENAL INVOLVEMENT IN HYPERTENSION.

A study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of GFR to assess the renal involvement in hypertension. GFR was assessed using the conventional blood urea and serum creatinine values and the eGFR is calculated based on serum creatinine by using the MDRD formula and Cockcroft – Gault formula. The values obtained were compared with serum Cystatin C and Cystatin based eGFR. It was observed that even though serum creatinine based eGFR is a good marker for renal assessment this method is lacks sensitivity and cannot be applied in GFR blind area. Cystatin C , Cystatin C based eGFR were found to be more reliable and sensitive than the earlier markers particularly in areas were the decrease in GFR is marginal. Hence it is suggested that Cystatin C and Cystatin C based eGFR are better markers for the assessment of renal involvement in hypertension.
Acute Upper Gastro-Intestinal Bleeding; Its Etiology and Management in Karbala: An Epidemiological study

Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding is a common medical emergency and potentiallylife threatening condition that needs a prompt assessment and aggressive medical management. To assess the causes, risk factors, and management of acute upper gastrointestinal bleedingin Karbala city; 150 patients (58 females; 92 males) with acute upper gastrointestinal bleedingwere studied during the period of March 2011-March 2012 in Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital. Their age range was (14-89 yr). About 39% of cases were over 60 years old. Peptic ulceration was the commonest cause accounting for 63.3% of cases, followed by acute gastric erosions 18.7%,oesophagealvarices6.7%,and malignant ulcers 4.7%. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ingestion was the most important risk factor for acute upper gastrointestinal bleedingin addition to smoking and H. pylori infection. Co-morbidity was present in about50% of cases. The use of acid lowering agents such as proton pump inhibitors was the mainstay of therapy for patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding followed by H2-antagonist. The mortality rate reported in this study was 5.3%. In conclusion, it appears that the most common cause of acute upper gastrointestinal bleedingis acid peptic disease, which increases with the increasing age, frequent consumption of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, smoking and H. pylori infection. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are effective in decreasing mortality and morbidity.