Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leader-Following Almost Output Consensus for Linear Multi-Agent Systems with Disturbance-Affected Unstable Zero Dynamics

In this paper, we formulate and investigate the leader-following almost output consensus problem for linear multi-agent systems with disturbance affected unstable zero dynamics. Conditions on the communication topology, agent dynamics and the way the disturbances affect the zero dynamics are established under which low-and-high gain based consensus protocols are designed. These protocols are shown to achieve leader-following almost output consensus, that is, output consensus of the system can be achieved to an arbitrary level of accuracy with the states remain bounded in the absence of the disturbances, and when the system is operating in output consensus within the desired accuracy, the L2-gain from the disturbances to the difference between each follower agent’s output with and without the disturbances from the same initial condition can be made arbitrarily small.
Developments in Molecular Level Characterization of Naphthenic Acid Fraction Compounds Degradation in a Constructed Wetland Treatment System

The reclamation of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) is a matter of environmental importance because of the aquatic toxicity to biota. This study describes refinements in advanced analytical methods to assess the performance of biological treatment systems for OSPW, such as constructed wetland treatment systems (CWTSs). Assessment of treatment efficiency by measurement of the degradation of naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs) in OSPW is challenging in CWTS due to potentially interfering constituents such as humic acids, organic acids, salts, and hydrocarbons. Here we have applied a previous weak anion exchange (WAX) solid-phase extraction (SPE) method and high-resolution Orbitrap-mass spectrometry (MS) to remove major interferences from the NAFC analysis. The refinements in data processing employing principal component analysis (PCA) indicates that the relative abundance of NAFCs decreased with time in the treated OSPW relative to the untreated OSPW. The most saturated NAFCs with higher carbon numbers were relatively more degraded as compared to unsaturated NAFCs. The use of Kendrick plots and van Krevelen plots for assessment of the performance of the CWTS is shown to be well-suited to detailed monitoring of the complex composition of NAFCs as a function of degradation. The developments and application of analytical methods such as the WAX SPE method and high-resolution Orbitrap-MS are demonstrated as tools enabling the advancement of CWTS design and optimization, enabling passive or semi-passive water treatment systems to be a viable opportunity for OSPW treatment.
Comparative analysis of spatial genetic structure in an ant–plant symbiosis reveals a tension zone and highlights speciation processes in tropical Africa

Pleistocene climatic oscillations induced range fluctuations in African rain forest organisms and may have shaped species diversification through allopatric speciation events. We compared the spatial genetic structure of two forest species that live in obligate symbiosis and thus must have experienced the same range fluctuations, as a means to discriminate incipient speciation from transient differentiation simply resulting from past divergence.
Digital Social Innovation and the Adoption of #PlanTech: The Case of Coventry City Council

The smart city trend has generated considerable interest in using digital technology to transform urban planning and governance, and in the UK the government funded Connected Places Catapult has been given the remit of stimulating innovation in cities. One of its focuses is urban planning and technology (#PlanTech) which has garnered attention from the Royal Town Planning Institute, a vast number of the UK local authorities, academia and technology companies. #PlanTech aims to revolutionise the urban planning industry across public, private and not for profit sectors in an era where fiscal austerity has catalysed a drive for using advanced technologies to improve the efficiency of operations and decision making. Technological innovation is being promoted to enable local authorities to deliver services with significantly reduced financial resources while simultaneously creating a modernised and more efficient public sector. Within this context, this article uses a detailed ethnographic study of planning functions in Coventry City Council, UK, to analyse how they have adapted so far in response to both austerity and the drive for digital innovation. The article concludes by examining how #PlanTech and digital social innovation may help deliver the broader smart city strategy.
Antimicrobial activity of moringa on ear, nose and throat associated fungi, and vancomycin resistant cocci isolated at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria

This study was aimed at evaluating the antimicrobial activity of Moringa on ear, nose and throat associated fungi and vancomycin resistant cocci. The plant material was extracted with methanol and petroleum ethe and screened for phytochemical contents. The microbial isolates were obtained from females and males patients (both adults and children) attending ear, nose and throat clinic at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Coccal bacteria and fungi were isolated accordingly. The cocci were screened for vancomycin resistance. The antimicrobial assay was carried out using gradient double (12.5-100mg/mL) assay. The MIC, MBC/MFC and Brine shrimp toxicity test were also conducted. Staphylococcus aureus , Streptococcus pyogenes , Streptococcus pneumoniae , Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus were isolated. Up to 21.4% of S. aureus were vancomycin resistant, 20% o f S. pneumoniae isolated were vancomycin resistant and 16.7% S. pyogenes were vancomycin resistant. The plant extracts showed zones of inhibition of 08mm-20mm at concentrations ranging from 12.5-100mg/mL. The most susceptible organism to both extracts was C. albicans and the least susceptible was S. aureus . The MIC of the methanol extracts ranged from 0.78 to 50mg/mL but MBC/MFC ranged from 6.25 to 200mg/mL. The MIC of the petroleum ether was at 50 to 200mg/mL and the MBC/MFC was from 200 to 800mg/mL. The brine shrimp lethality assay showed LC 50 value of 93.48 μ g/mL for Moringa methanol extract while the LC 50 value for Moringa petroleum ether extract was 3.691 μ g/mL. Moringa methanol extract (100mg/mL), showed appreciable activity against the fungal isolates and vancomycin resistant cocci associated with Ear, Nose and Throat symptoms while Moringa petroleum ether extract showed activity only on the fungal isolate C. albicans . The study demonstrated that Moringa methanol extracts was more active than Moringa petroleum ether extracts. The search for novel cytotoxic ingredient in Moringa should be encouraged. Keywords: Antimicrobial, Moringa, Ear, Nose, Throat, Fungi, Vancomycin, Resistant, Cocci
Internet banking capabilities and performance of small business: The IT business value from the perspective of external capabilities

The purpose of this research is to identify the extent to which Internet Banking Capabilities are related to the performance of small business (bank customers) at the processes and firm levels. As a research method, a survey with small businesses which use internet banking has been conducted. For data analysis, we used Structural Equation Modeling estimated with Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results indicate the direct impact of Internet Banking Capabilities on process performance, which sequentially impacts the performance at the firm level. On the other hand, there is no direct impact of Internet Banking Capabilities on firm performance. Limitations and research opportunities are included in the conclusions. Keywords: IT value, Internet Banking Capabilities, process performance, firm performance.
Gerstenhaber bracket on Hopf algebra and Hochschild cohomologies

We calculate the Gerstenhaber bracket on Hopf algebra and Hochschild cohomologies of the Taft algebra $T_p$ for any integer $p>2$ which is a nonquasi-triangular Hopf algebra. We show that the bracket is indeed zero on Hopf algebra cohomology of $T_p$, as in all known quasi-triangular Hopf algebras. This example is the first known bracket computation for a nonquasi-triangular algebra. Also, we find a general formula for the bracket on Hopf algebra cohomology of any Hopf algebra with bijective antipode on the bar resolution that is reminiscent of Gerstenhaber's original formula for Hochschild cohomology.
Genetic analysis and fine mapping of the RK4 gene for round kernel in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Grain shape of rice is an important trait for both yield and quality. A rice rk4 (round kernel) mutant was obtained from the japonica variety Zhonghua 11 by radiation of 60Co-γ. The grain width of the mutant was increased and the length was decreased. Simultaneously, the 1000-grain weight was slightly reduced, therefore the grain shape of the mutant tended to be small and round. In this study, genetic analysis and gene mapping of the mutant gene were carried out using the F2 and F3 populations derived from the mutant and the indica variety Xianhui 8006. The results suggested that the round kernel was controlled by a single recessive allele (rk4) which was located on chromosome 5. The RK4 gene was further mapped between the molecular markers LSTS5-77 and LSTS5-60 with 0.57 and 0.096 cM, respectively. A BAC clone was found to span the RK4 locus, and the RK4 gene was placed in a 46 kb region that contains six annotated genes according to the available sequence annotation database. This result will help us to isolate the RK4 gene and reveal the molecular mechanism of the round kernel in rice.
Convective Aggregation and the Amplification of Tropical Precipitation Extremes

It is widely believed that precipitation extremes will increase in response to a warming climate, as inferred from both observations and numerical simulations. In the absence of changes in atmospheric circulations, extreme precipitation is expected to increase in already‐moist regions along a thermodynamical Clausius‐Clapeyron scaling. However, within the tropics, the sensitivities inferred from observations of interannual variability are roughly twice as large, implying an unknown contribution from atmospheric dynamics. In this paper, we use satellite observations and climate model simulations to investigate the relationship between convective aggregation and precipitation and the role that convective aggregation plays in amplifying the response of tropical precipitation extremes to interannual surface warming. We find that the occurrence of heavier precipitation coincides with a higher degree of convective aggregation. Extreme precipitation events and convective aggregation tend to increase during warm, El Niño events compared to colder, La Niña events. Although both the frequency and intensity of heavy to extreme precipitation can increase with increased aggregation during El Niño, the changes in frequency are more consistent among the observations and models than changes in intensity. In both the observations and models, increases in large‐scale convective aggregation contribute to roughly one third of the increase in extreme precipitation frequency due to interannual warming by shifting moderate‐to‐heavy precipitation events to more extreme precipitation intensities. The linkages between convective aggregation and precipitation extremes considered here offer insights into their potential response to anthropogenic warming.
A study of soil seed banks across one complete chronosequence of secondary succession in a karst landscape

Anthropogenic disturbance and distinctive geochemistry have resulted in rocky desertification in many karst regions of the world. Seed banks are crucial to vegetation regeneration in degraded karst ecosystems characterized by a discontinuous distribution of soil and seasonal drought stress. However, the dynamics of seed banks across one complete series of secondary succession and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We selected eight typical stages during secondary succession, conducted aboveground vegetation survey and collected 960 soil samples in the Guiyang karst landscape of China. Seed density, species richness and plant life forms in seed banks were determined via the germination method. The results indicated that the seed density in seed banks before and after field seed germination was significantly different among most succession stages. Community succession had impacts on the seed density of seed banks before and after field seed germination. Seed density ranged from 1,042 seedlings.m−2 in evergreen broadleaf forests to 3,755 seedlings.m−2 in the herb community, which was a relatively high density. The seed density and similar species composition between the seed banks and vegetation declined with succession from early to later stages. Species richness in seed banks was highest in middle succession stages and increased with increasing species richness of aboveground vegetation. The species richness of the five life forms in the seed banks showed different variations across these succession stages. The conservation of diverse aboveground vegetation can maintain the diversity of seed banks for restoration.
How Should Tax Progressivity Respond to Rising Income Inequality?

We address the question in the title in a heterogeneous-agent incomplete-market model featuring exogenous idiosyncratic risk, endogenous skill investment, and flexible labor supply. The tax and transfer schedule is restricted to being log-linear in income, a good description of the US system. Rising inequality is modeled as a combination of skill-biased technical change and growth in residual wage dispersion. When facing shifts in the income distribution like those observed in the United States, a utilitarian planner chooses higher progressivity in response to larger residual inequality but lower progressivity in response to widening skill price dispersion reflecting technical change. Overall, optimal progressivity is approximately unchanged between 1980 and 2016. We document that the progressivity of the actual US tax and transfer system has similarly changed little since 1980, in line with the model prescription.
The Effectiveness of Personalized Learning Model in Developing Intensive English Reading Skills among Preparatory Stage Pupils

The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of the Personalized Learning Model in developing intensive English reading skills. The quasi- experimental design was used. The participants were a sample of (57) second year preparatory stage pupils at Fatima Al-Zahraa Governmental Language School at Port Said. The researcher selected two classes; the first class of (29) learners as an experimental group and the second one of (28) learners as a control group. An intensive English reading skills questionnaire was prepared by the researcher to identify the different levels of importance of some intensive English reading skills necessary for the second year preparatory stage pupils . An intensive English reading skills test was designed by the researcher to be used as an instrument to assess the pupils’ progress in intensive English reading skills. The experiment was applied during the first term of the academic year2019/2020.The data obtained from the study has been analyzed statistically by SPSS program. Research results revealed significant differences between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the intensive English reading skills in favor of the experimental group.
Meaningful inhibitors of the lean journey: a systematic review and categorisation of over 20 years of literature

Abstract Lean philosophy has been one of the most prominent methodologies of process improvement. Positive results from lean implementations have motivated managers to carry out lean transformations. However, the low success rates, linked to barriers to implement lean are still a challenge, and one of the reasons is the lack of understanding of these inhibitors and enablers. Scholars have investigated barriers that affect the lean journey, some of these barriers overlap and require a meaningful categorisation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to fill in this gap by providing a review of more than 20 years of literature, and synthesising these barriers into meaningful organisational categories. To achieve this aim, we employed a systematic literature review. Our findings present six meaningful lean barriers, which we categorised into a framework. These barriers have mainly behavioural and organisational aspects (people-dependent), and technical aspects (tool-based). Finally, we derived eight propositions, contributing to knowledge and practice.
A family of flexible shrinkage estimators for the variances of high-dimensional gene expressions

Abstract In this article, we propose a family of flexible shrinkage estimators which can use geometric or arithmetic means of sample variances of all genes as the target statistic for shrinkage and also allow the non-normal distribution of the data. The optimal shrinkage parameters are derived under the squared log error loss function and estimated by consistent estimators under a general asymptotic framework. The proposed estimators were evaluated through a series of Monte-Carlo simulation studies and applied to real data from a gene expression study of leukemia patients.
Workplace Hygiene Practice among Saloon Workers in Bangladesh Army

Results: Mean age of 115 respondents’ was 22.65±5.8 years whereas 76% of the respondents have less than 5 years of service. Their monthly income was less than 8000 taka and 70.4% had only primary education. About 77% washed linen used for wrapping twice a week and 16.5% did it in alternate day. About 89.5% had awareness and knowledge of transmission of skin diseases through unclean comb, but only 2.6% did not have any knowledge regarding this matter. In case of disease spread through unclean handle of blade/khur majority 60% respondents were aware about skin disease but only 12% were aware about AIDS and 16.5% were aware about jaundice. Majority (90%) found using antiseptic solution to clean used shaving brush /handle of razors. No respondent clean their hand before providing service to each customer and none used fresh linen for each customer rather 1 linen for every 10-12 customer on average.
Associations of serum sclerostin and Dickkopf-related protein-1 proteins with future cardiovascular events and mortality in haemodialysis patients: a prospective cohort study

Abstract Background Sclerostin and Dickkopf-related protein-1 (Dkk-1) proteins are inhibitors of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin bone pathway. Sclerostin but not Dkk-1 is associated with increased arterial stiffness. This study examined the prognostic significance of sclerostin and Dkk-1 levels for cardiovascular outcomes and mortality in haemodialysis (HD) patients. Methods Serum sclerostin and Dkk-1 levels were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 80 HD patients that were followed-up for a median of 45 months. Factors that could interfere with the association of sclerostin and Dkk-1 with outcomes [including carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium–phosphate product and others] were assessed at baseline. The primary endpoint was a combination of all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, coronary revascularization, hospitalization for decompensated heart failure and new-onset atrial fibrillation. Secondary endpoints included cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Results Cumulative freedom from the primary endpoint was significantly lower for higher tertiles of sclerostin (77.8, 69.2 and 40.7%; Tertiles 1–3, respectively; log-rank P = 0.004). The risk for the primary outcome gradually increased for higher sclerostin tertiles [Tertile 3: hazard ratio (HR) = 3.847, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.502–9.851]. No significant association was evident between sclerostin and all-cause mortality, whereas higher sclerostin levels presented a trend towards higher risk for cardiovascular mortality. Dkk-1 levels exhibited no association with the risk of the primary or secondary endpoints. In stepwise Cox regression modelled analysis, sclerostin levels were associated with the primary outcome, independently of PTH, calcium–phosphate product, serum albumin, C-reactive protein and PWV levels (HR = 2.921, 95% CI 1.401–6.090; P = 0.004). Conclusions High sclerostin levels are associated with lower cumulative freedom and higher risk for a composite endpoint of cardiovascular events and mortality. Dkk-1 exhibited no association with the future risk of adverse outcomes.
Response of wheat to post-anthesis water stress, and the nature of gene action as revealed by combining ability analysis

Abstract. Post-anthesis water stress is a major limitation to wheat grain yield globally. Understanding the nature of gene action of yield related traits under post-anthesis water stress will help to breed stress-resilient genotypes. Four bread wheat genotypes having varying degree of drought tolerance were crossed in a full-diallel fashion and the resultant crosses along with the parental genotypes, were subjected to water stress after the onset of anthesis in order to investigate their comparative performance and nature of gene action. Parental genotypes Babax (B) and Westonia (W) performed better compared with C306 (C) and Dharwar Dry (D) with respect to relative reduction in grain yield and related traits under stressed condition. Direct cross B × D and reciprocal cross W × C were more tolerant to water stress, while cross between C306 and Dharwar Dry, either direct or reciprocal, produced more sensitive genotypes. Combining ability analysis revealed that both additive and non-additive gene action were involved in governing the inheritance of the studied traits, with predominance of non-additive gene action for most of the traits. Among the parents, Babax and Westonia were better combiners for grain yield under stress condition. B × D in stressed condition, and C × W in both stressed and stress-free conditions, were the most suitable specific crosses. Moreover, specificity of parental genotypes as female parents in cross combination was also evident from the significant reciprocal combining ability effects of certain traits. Low to medium narrow sense heritability and high broad sense heritability were observed for most of the studied traits in both well watered and water stress conditions. The results of the study suggested that specific cross combinations with high specific combining ability involving better performing parents with high general combining ability may generate hybrids as well as segregating populations suitable for further breeding programs.