Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Working Capital Management (WCM) and Performance of SMEs: Evidence from India

This study analyzes the relationship between working capital and company performance, deepening this relationship for each of the elements that make up working capital. The SMEs analyzed are those present in the IPO index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for a total period of six years, from 2012 to 2017 included. Two criteria were used to select companies to be analyzed. Firstly, the companies had to have all the information needed for this study during the reporting period. Secondly, the companies were not part of a group. Based on these criteria, 42 SMEs were analyzed. The analysis highlighted a negative and significant relationship between net working capital (NWC), accounts receivables (AR), and profitability. Conversely, accounts payables (AP) and inventory (INV) are positively related to profitability. The robustness checks confirmed the validity of our outcomes. The results of this study enrich the existing literature, providing further empirical evidence related to the specific context analyzed. In addition, the results can be helpful for Indian SME owners and managers to guide financial decisions on working capital management.
Risk communication: Critical analysis of ?street smart?, an annualeducation, awareness and behavioural change campaign.

Objectives: This case study examined risk communication intervention design features as basis for informing the principles of risk communication campaign projects. In addition, the study sought to enhance knowledge on the relationship between campaign design, campaign implementation and behavioural change outcomes. Methods: Drawing on case selection methods, the annual education awareness and behavioural change campaign by the ‘Street Smart’ program was selected for the case study. By utilizing in-depth case study analysis design, the analysis identified the principles underpinning the design features of the campaign. A comparative analysis of the design of the annual education awareness and behavioural change campaign and statistics evidence on its performance served to inform on the extent that the campaign has been effective. Results: Overall, the impact of the annual education awareness and behavioural change campaign by the ‘Street Smart” program has been significant in reducing number of pedestrian and cyclic accidents. Countrywide, pedestrian collisions and fatalities have declined by 50% and 21% since the street smart campaign initiative. In schools, where engineering, education and enforcement initiative have been executed, a decline of 79% pedestrian collision has been reported. However, these declines were recorded in places where various initiatives have been embarked, with areas where little activity had been embarked recording an increase in pedestrian and cyclic accidents. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate that the street smart campaign initiative has the capacity of influencing voluntary positive behavioural change among pedestrians and cyclists. In particular, however, risk communication resources should be continuously updated to reflect any emerging safety campaign need from time to time.
A New Observer-Based Cooperative Fault-Tolerant Tracking Control Method With Application to Networked Multiaxis Motion Control System

In a networked multiaxis motion control task, faults in any motor will cause the performance degradation of cooperative operation, which may considerably affect the whole network and the quality of products. The main objective of this article is to propose an improved observer-based fault-tolerant tracking control approach for industrial multiagent systems. First, a group of new distributed intermediate estimators is presented, where the design structure is modified to enhance the feasibility of the estimation scheme. It is shown that both of the nominal distributed intermediate estimator and the traditional extended state observer are special cases of the proposed estimator. Second, the estimation performance can be improved significantly via an online reinforcement learning estimation strategy, whose core is an adaptive switching mechanism integrated with a function block of source fault mode localization. Benefiting from satisfactory estimation results, good fault-tolerant tracking control performance can be guaranteed despite of multiple faults and disturbances. The application to a networked multiaxis motion control system demonstrates the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.
Three-Dimensional Isogeometric Analysis of Flexoelectricity with MATLAB Implementation

Flexoelectricity is a general electromechanical phenomenon where the electric polarization exhibits a linear dependency to the gradient of mechanical strain and vice versa. The truncated pyramid compression test is among the most common setups to estimate the flexoelectric effect. We present a three-dimensional isogeometric formulation of flexoelectricity with its MATLAB implementation for a truncated pyramid setup. Besides educational purposes, this paper presents a precise computational model to illustrate how the localization of strain gradients around pyramidal boundary shapes contributes in generation of electrical energy. The MATLAB code is supposed to help learners in the Isogeometric Analysis and Finite Elements Methods community to learn how to solve a fully coupled problem, which requires higher order approximations, numerically. The complete MATLAB code which is available as source code distributed under a BSD-style license, is provided in the part of Supplementary Materials of the paper.
Organic matter and maize straw influence on soil moisture in an Oxisol under different tillages

Cultivation system is one of the main parameters inherent to soil water dynamics. Studies indicate that in soil conservation systems, such as no-tillage and crop-livestock integration, soil quality is maintained and even improved due to higher input of organic matter and straw kept on the soil surface. Thereby, the aim of this study was to analyze the influence of the spatial variation of maize straw and organic matter content on soil moisture of an Oxisol at the municipality of Jatai, southwest of Goias. Nine soil-sampling points were used in 1 ha, allocated to three different types of soil management (No-Tillage, Crop-Livestock Integration and Conventional Tillage). For the study of organic matter, soil samples were collected in nine points and three depths (0 to 0.12 m, 0.12 to 0.24 m and 0.24 to 0.36 m) for each point. The dry mass of straw was determined by a stove at 65°C, after sampling in the area using a circle with internal area of 1.0 m², released randomly near the sampling point. Soil moisture was determined immediately after straw sampling at the same site, using a time domain reflectometry sensor. The results indicated good distribution of straw on both systems, but there was no correlation between straw and soil moisture. The organic matter content was highly correlated with soil moisture, especially in No-Tillage and Crop-Livestock Integration systems. The authors recommend the increase of organic matter of the soils for better maintenance of soil moisture. Key words: Soil physical properties, soil water content, soil management systems, no-tillage, crop-livestock integration.
Service-Oriented Energy-Latency Tradeoff for IoT Task Partial Offloading in MEC-Enhanced Multi-RAT Networks

The development of the 5G network is envisioned to offer various types of services like virtual reality/augmented reality and autonomous vehicles applications with low-latency requirements in Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks. Mobile-edge computing (MEC) has become a promising solution for enhancing the computation capacity of mobile devices at the edge of the network in a 5G wireless network. Additionally, multiple radio access technologies (multi-RATs) have been verified with the potential in lowering the transmission latency and energy consumption, while improving the Quality of Services (QoS). Benefiting from the cooperation of multi-RATs, large latency-sensitive computing service tasks (L2SC) can be offloaded by different RATs simultaneously, which has great practical significance for data partitioned oriented applications with large task sizes. In this article, to enhance the L2SC offloading services for satisfying low-latency requirements with low energy consumption, we investigate the energy-latency tradeoff problem for partial task offloading in the MEC-enhanced multi-RAT network, considering the limitation of energy and computing in capability-constrained end devices in IoT networks. Specifically, we formulated the L2SC task computation offloading problem to minimize the weighted sum of the latency cost and the energy consumption by jointly optimizing the local computing frequency, task splitting, and transmit power, while guaranteeing the stringent latency requirement and the residual energy constraint. Due to the nonsmoothness and nonconvexity of the formulated problem with high complexity, we convert the tradeoff problem into a smooth biconvex problem and propose an alternate convex search-based algorithm, which can greatly reduce the computational complexity. Numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with various performance parameters.
Effect of Levels of Feeding and Saccharomyces Cerevisiae on Some Haematological and Biochemical Indices in West African Dwarf Sheep

| The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary inclusion of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) on haematology, biochemical indices and methane emission by West African dwarf sheep. Forty eight lambs (24 males and 24 females) were distributed in a complete randomized 2 × 3 factorial design with high roughage and high concentrate diets supplemented with three levels of yeast (0, 0.75 and 1.5 g of Saccharomyces cerevisiae per kg of the basal diets). Sheep fed the high concentrate and high roughage diets supplemented with 0.75 g and 1.5 g of Saccharomyces cerevisiae per kg of the basal diet had higher (p < 0.05) monocyte value than sheep fed the other diets. The white blood cell count and total protein values for sheep fed high concentrate diets supplemented with 0.75 g and 1.5 g of Saccharomyces cerevisiae per kg of the basal diet were higher (p < 0.05) than those of sheep fed the other treatment diets. The group of sheep fed the high concentrate and high roughage diets without supplementary S. cerevisiae had higher (p < 0.05) calcium value than sheep fed the other diets. Methane emission values for sheep fed high roughage diet without S. cerevisiae and high roughage diet with 0.75 g of S. cerevisiae per kg of diet were higher (p < 0.05) than those of sheep fed other diets. Results suggested that S. cerevisiae can be added into high concentrate diet at 0.75 g per kg of the diet for optimum performance of West African dwarf sheep.
Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation for Seepage Control in Sandy Soil

Abstract Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) can reduce the permeability of soil by reducing the pore volumes. A MICP-based soil improvement method to control water leakage in irrigation channels and reservoirs built on sandy soil grounds is presented in this article. Using this method, a low-permeable hard crust can be formed at the soil surfaces. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effect of this method. Sandy soil samples were treated using four different schemes, namely, (1) surface spray, (2) surface spray with the addition of fibers, (3) surface spray and bulk stabilization, and (4) immersion stabilization. By applying around 2.6 L treatment liquid (consisting of ureolytic bacteria, 0.5 mol/L calcium chloride and 0.5 mol/L urea) to the top 2-cm thick soil, the seepage rates of the samples treated by the four different schemes could be reduced by up to 379 times. The conversion rates of calcium source in the tests were up to 89.7%. The results showed that a method of treating the soil in bulk before the formation of a crust on top of the soil layer was effective in reducing the seepage rates. After the bio-treatment, the formed low-permeable hard crust layer was 10 to 20 mm thick with a calcite content higher than 5%. Below the hard crusts, the calcite content was less than 5% and the soil was not properly cemented. Using the mercury intrusion test, it was found that both pore volumes and pore sizes of the bio-treated soil reduced significantly as compared with the untreated soil. Penetration tests using a flat-bottom penetrometer were used to assess the mechanical behavior of the bio-treated soil. The results indicated that the penetration resistance of the bio-treated soil layer was much higher than that of the untreated soil.
Identification and molecular characterization of Taro bacilliform virus and Taro bacilliform CH virus from East Africa

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) and tannia (Xanthosoma sp.) are important root crops cultivated mainly by small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific. Viruses are known to be one of the most important constraints to production, with infections resulting in severe yield reduction. In 2014 and 2015, surveys were conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to determine the identity of viruses infecting taro in East Africa. Screening of 392 samples collected from the region using degenerate badnavirus primers revealed an incidence of 58–74% among the four countries surveyed, with sequence analysis identifying both Taro bacilliform virus (TaBV) and Taro bacilliform CH virus (TaBCHV). TaBCHV was identified from all four countries while TaBV was identified in all except Ethiopia. Full-length sequences from representative TaBV and TaBCHV isolates showed that the genome organization of TaBV isolates from East Africa was consistent with previous reports while TaBCHV isolates from East Africa were found to encode only four ORFs, distinct from a previous report from China. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all East African TaBV isolates form a single subgroup within known TaBV isolates, while TaBCHV isolates form at least two distinct subgroups. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report describing the occurrence and genome organization of TaBV and TaBCHV isolates from East Africa and the first full-length sequence of the two viruses from tannia.
Computational Studies of FOX-7, A New Insensitive Explosive

Abstract : First-principles quantum chemical calculations are used to predict the initial steps of decomposition in solid FOX-7 (1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene). Three possible reaction paths were studied: (1) intra- or inter-molecular hydrogen transfer; (2) nitro-nitrite rearrangement and (3) scission of the C-nitro bond. These computational studies suggest that the preferred path for FOX-7 decomposition will depend upon the conditions which cause initiation. For example, under gentle heating (thermolysis), intermolecular hydrogen transfer is likely, resulting in the production of reactive radical intermediates and water. Conversely, scission of a C-nitro bond requires a large energy input to cause electronic (singlet-to-triplet) excitation of the molecule, suggesting that this reaction is more likely to occur under the high-pressure/high-temperature conditions typically generated by shock or impact.
HARCI: A Two-Way Authentication Protocol for Three Entity Healthcare IoT Networks

With the recent use of IoT in the field of healthcare, a lot of patient data is being transmitted and made available online. This necessitates sufficient security measures to be put in place to prevent the possibilities of cyberattacks. In this regard, several authentication techniques have been designed in recent times to mitigate these challenges, but the physical security of the healthcare IoT devices against node tampering and node replacement attacks, in particular, is not addressed sufficiently in the literature. To address these challenges, a two-way two-stage authentication protocol using hardware security primitives called Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) is presented in this paper. Considering the memory and energy constraints of healthcare IoT devices, this protocol is made very lightweight. A formal security evaluation of this protocol is done to prove its validity. We also compare it with relevant protocols in the healthcare IoT scenario in terms of computation time and security to show its suitability and robustness.
Using reliable predator identification to investigate feeding habits of Neotropical carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora) in a deforestation frontier of the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract Accurate identification of predator species is a critical requirement to investigate their diet using faecal samples. We used non-invasive sampling and two methods of predator identification to investigate the diets of sympatric carnivores in a highly deforested region of the Brazilian Amazon. Of 108 scats, 81 could be identified at the species level using DNA sequencing and/or trichology. The former performed better than the latter (81.5% vs. 54.3% of the identified samples), and results were quite congruent (89.7% concordance in the 29 samples that could be assessed with both approaches). Nine species were identified, out of which four (crab-eating fox, ocelot, puma and jaguar) presented a sufficient number of samples to allow dietary analyses. The crab-eating fox was the most generalist (BA=0.92); ocelots focused on small- to medium-sized prey; pumas fed mostly on medium-sized items; and jaguars mostly targeted large-sized prey. A considerable overlap was observed between ocelots and pumas in all estimations (O=0.47–0.83). The presence of jaguars in the same region could be driving pumas to select medium- and small-sized prey. The results of this study highlight the importance of reliable predator identification and the need for in-depth ecological studies in areas where carnivore species are sympatric.
Morphology of the Cervical Lymph Nodes of Agouti (Dasyprocta prymnolopha, Wagler, 1831)

Abstract In the scientific literature, works related to the morphology and histology of agoutis, Dasyprocta prymnolopha, Wagler, 1831, approach several organs and systems. However, none referenced the lymph nodes of this animal. The objectives of the present study were to perform morphological and histological analyses, under optical microscopy, of the cranial and cervical lymph nodes of agoutis, comparing them with the typical lymph nodes of already documented animal species. In the present work, four animals were used, respecting all the ethical and legal aspects, followed by the development of methodologies related to the morphology and histology in question. The results obtained did not show significant morphological and histological differences between the cranial and cervical lymph nodes of agoutis when compared with typical lymph nodes of the animal kingdom.
Peer-to-Peer Energy Sharing With Social Attributes: A Stochastic Leader–Follower Game Approach

Distributed energy resources bring about challenges related to the participation of an increasing number of prosumers with strong social attributes in peer-to-peer (P2P) energy sharing markets, resulting in the increased complexity of socio-technical systems. Previous research has focused on energy sharing analysis based on rational games without considering the social attributes of prosumers, which are not typically used in real scenarios. In this article, an interdisciplinary P2P energy sharing framework that considers both technical and sociological aspects is proposed. It is based on prospect theory (PT) and stochastic game theory, in which the prosumers work as followers with subjective load strategies, while an energy sharing provider (ESP) serves as the leader with a dynamic pricing scheme. A subjective utility model with risk utility (RU) determined by PT is designed for prosumers, and a profit model for dynamic prices is suggested for ESP. Moreover, a solution algorithm that consists of interpolation and curve fitting to obtain the RU function, the aggregation of prosumers to a Markov decision process, and a differential evolution algorithm to solve the game are proposed to solve the problems of the “curse of dimensionality” and discreteness arising from the social attributes of prosumers. Numerical analysis reveals the results of the Stackelberg equilibrium and demonstrates the effectiveness of this method in terms of the social behavior of prosumers, i.e., radicalness when losing and conservatism when gaining.
Practical NOMA-Based Coordinated Direct and Relay Transmission

This letter puts forth a practical non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based coordinated direct and relay transmission (CDRT) scheme, referred to as network-coded multiple access CDRT (NCMA-CDRT). We consider a two-user uplink scenario, where a near user communicates directly to a base station (BS), whereas a far user needs the assistance of a decode-and-forward relay. While prior NOMA-CDRT studies focused extensively on theoretical analysis, its superiority has not been well investigated through practical communication schemes. In particular, successive interference cancellation (SIC), a predominant NOMA decoding technique, does not work well if transmitters with comparable received powers transmit together. We investigate NCMA-CDRT to tackle this practical issue. A distinguishing feature of NCMA-CDRT is the joint use of physical-layer network coding (PNC) and multiuser decoding at both the relay and the BS. We design packet relaying strategies that can forward the PNC packets decoded at the relay to boost system throughput. Experiments on software-defined radio indicate that the total throughput of NCMA-CDRT significantly outperforms the SIC-based NOMA-CDRT. Overall, NCMA-CDRT is a viable solution for cooperative NOMA systems.
Low Water Availability Increases Necrosis in Picea abies after Artificial Inoculation with Fungal Root Rot Pathogens Heterobasidion parviporum and Heterobasidion annosum

Research Highlights: Dedicated experiments to investigate how disturbances will affect Heterobasidion sp. —Norway spruce pathosystems are important, in order to develop different strategies to limit the spread of Heterobasidion annosum s.l. under the predicted climate change. Here, we report on a greenhouse experiment to evaluate the effects of water availability on the infection severity of Heterobasidion parviporum or Heterobasidion annosum, respectively, on Picea abies saplings. Background and Objectives: Changes in climatic conditions and intense logging will continue to promote H. annosum s.l. in conifer forests, increasing annual economic losses. Thus, our aim was to test if disease severity in Norway spruce was greater after infection with H. parviporum or H. annosum in low water availability conditions, compared to seedlings with high water availability. Materials and Methods: We performed inoculation studies of three-year-old saplings in a greenhouse. Saplings were treated as high (+) or low (−) water groups: High water group received double the water amount than the low water group. The necrosis observed after pathogen inoculation was measured and analyzed. Results: The seedling growth was negatively influenced in the lower water group. In addition, the water availability enhanced the necrosis length of H. parviporum in phloem and sapwood (vertical length) in the low water group. H. annosum benefited only in horizontal length in the phloem. Conclusions: Disturbances related to water availability, especially low water conditions, can have negative effects on the tree host and benefit the infection ability of the pathogens in the host.