Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved management practices vis-à-vis farmers’ practices for rice-based cropping systems in Bangladesh: yield gaps and gross margins

ABSTRACT Rising global food demand attributable to ever-increasing population and income growth requires a substantial increase in food production, but there are limits to yield growth. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess potential yield, yield gap, and gross margins under improved management practices (IMP) and farmers’ practices (FP) in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)-boro rice (Oryza sativa L.), and transplant aman rice-cropping patterns. The two representative subdistricts selected in Bangladesh were Mithapukur (Rangpur district) and Ulipur (Kurigram district), which are located in Tista Meander Floodplain Agroecological Zone. Fifteen farmers were selected from each location. Each farmer cultivated an area of 1,200 m2 and divided it into two plots – one received IMP, the other FP. Management practices included the use of modern varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation. The study findings revealed that IMP provided higher yields than FP at both locations for all three crops. The yield gap between IMP and FP was 42–60% at Mithapukur and 45–51% at Ulipur for potato, 23–28% and 19–21% at Mithapukur and Ulipur, respectively, for boro rice, and 16–23% at Mithapukur and 20–26% at Ulipur for transplant aman rice. The findings showed that IMP provided substantially higher yields across crops and study locations. Gross margins of the crops under IMP were higher compared with FP at both locations. Therefore, greater yield can be obtained by following the IMP. To materialize this, regular and close collaboration between research and extension wings of the government and farmers is extremely essential.
Outcome of first relapse of Hodgkin lymphoma: single institution experience.

OBJECTIVE To determine outcome of first relapse of Hodgkin lymphoma with standard dose chemotherapy, and to identify the prognostic factors predicting survival outcome in paediatric patients. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Pakistan, and comprised data of Hodgkin lymphoma patients who relapsed at least 3 months after the completion of initial treatment from January 2001 to December 2010. Probabilities of overall survival, event-free survival and cumulative incidence were calculated. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. RESULTS Of the 43 patients, 31(72%) were males and 12(29%) were females. Mean age at relapse was 11±3.3 years (range: 4-17 years). In 31(72%) patients, early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy was employed. Median follow-up of the cohort was 62 months (interquartile range: 4-187 months). Overall survival and event-free survival at 10 years was 23(54%) and 15(35%) respectively. On univariate analysis, initial disease stage (p=0.021), stage at relapse (p=0.003), treatment protocol (p=0.005), treatment responsiveness at initial two cycles of salvage chemotherapy (p=0.002) and at the end of treatment assessment (p=0.0009) were statistically significant factors. Multivariate cox regression analysis revealed disease stage at relapse (p=0.004), chemotherapy regimen (p=0.025) and end-of-treatment disease evaluation (p=0.005) as the significant variables. CONCLUSIONS Improved outcome with early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy regimen was noted for Hodgkin lymphoma patients who had disease-free interval >2 years.
Mobile monitoring of urban air quality at high spatial resolution by
low-cost sensors: Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Abstract. The development of low-cost sensors and novel calibration algorithms provides new hints to complement conventional ground-based observation sites to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of pollutants on hyper-local scales (tens of meters). Here we use sensors deployed on a taxi fleet to explore the air quality in the road network of Nanjing over the course of a year (Oct. 2019–Sep. 2020). Based on GIS technology, we develop a grid analysis method to obtain 50 m resolution maps of major air pollutants (CO, NO2, and O3). Through hotspots identification analysis, we find three main sources of air pollutants including traffic, industrial emissions, and cooking fumes. We find that CO and NO2 concentrations show a pattern: highways > arterial roads > secondary roads > branch roads > residential streets, reflecting traffic volume. While the O3 concentrations in these five road types are in opposite order due to the titration effect of NOx. Combined the mobile measurements and the stationary station data, we diagnose that the contribution of traffic-related emissions to CO and NO2 are 42.6 % and 26.3 %, respectively. Compared to the pre-COVID period, the concentrations of CO and NO2 during COVID-lockdown period decreased for 44.9 % and 47.1 %, respectively, and the contribution of traffic-related emissions to them both decreased by more than 50 %. With the end of the COVID-lockdown period, traffic emissions and air pollutant concentrations rebounded substantially, indicating that traffic emissions have a crucial impact on the variation of air pollutants levels in urban regions. This research demonstrates the sense power of mobile monitoring for urban air pollution, which provides detailed information for source attribution, accurate traceability, and potential mitigation strategies at urban micro-scale.
AIM2-driven inflammasome activation in chronic heart failure

Inflammation and cytokine release have been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic heart failure (CHF). Of particular interest, Canakinumab, a monoclonal antibody against interleukin-1b (IL-1β), had provided benefit against cardiovascular events, suggesting that blockade of IL-1β secretion and signaling might be a promising new therapeutic target. Although, recent studies have provided evidence that inflammasome activation is the main contributor to IL-1β maturation, the role of inflammasome activation in CHF remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to assess inflammasome activation in myocardial samples from end-stage failing hearts. Inflammasome activation was assessed by immunoblotting in left ventricular myocardial specimens harvested from patients with end-stage CHF. Furthermore, immunoblot measurements were also performed on translational animal models of CHF (e.g. rat models of permanent coronary artery ligation and transverse aortic constriction). Left ventricular monocyte and macrophage infiltration was detected by immunohistochemistry. To investigate the molecular background of inflammasome activation, a series of cell culture experiments were performed on AC16 human cardiomyocytes and THP-1 human monocytic cell lines. Out of the 4 major inflammasome sensors tested, expression of the inflammasome protein absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) and NLR family CARD domain-containing protein 4 (NLRC4) increased in human CHF while the NLRP1 and NLRP3 (NLR family, pyrin domain containing 1 and 3) inflammasome showed no change. A similar expression pattern in AIM2 and NLRC4 was also noted in CHF animal models. Furthermore, robust infiltration of Iba1+ monocytes/macrophages was observed in human failing hearts as well as in different animal models of CHF. In vitro AIM2 inflammasome activation, as induced by transfection with double-stranded DNA [poly(deoxyadenylic-deoxythymidylic)] was reduced significantly by the pharmacological blockade of pannexin-1 channels. AIM2 and NLRC4 inflammasome activation might contribute to chronic inflammation in CHF. Our findings suggest that pannexin-1 channels might be a promising novel target to reduce inflammasome activation. Type of funding source: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): NVKP_16-1-2016-0017
Platform Competition: A Systematic and Interdisciplinary Review of the Literature

Over the past three decades, platform competition—the competition between firms that facilitate transactions and govern interactions between two or more distinct user groups who are connected via an indirect network—has attracted significant interest from the fields of management and organizations, information systems, economics, and marketing. Despite common interests in research questions, methodologies, and empirical contexts by scholars from across these fields, the literature has developed mostly in isolated fashion. This article offers a systematic and interdisciplinary review of the literature on platform competition by analyzing a sample of 333 articles published between 1985 and 2019. The review contributes by (a) documenting how the literature on platform competition has evolved; (b) outlining four themes of shared scholarly interest, including how network effects generate “winner-takes-all” dynamics that influence strategies, such as pricing and quality; how network externalities and platform strategy interact with corporate-level decisions, such as vertical integration or diversification into complementary goods; how heterogeneity in the platform and its users influences platform dynamics; and how the platform “hub” orchestrates value creation and capture in the overall ecosystem; and (c) highlighting several areas for future research. The review aims to facilitate a broader understanding of the platform competition research that helps to advance our knowledge of how platforms compete to create and capture value.
Sensory and Nutritional Quality of Nonfat Dry Milk in Long-term Residential Storage

: Twenty samples of regular and instant nonfat dry milk (NFDM) stored up to 29 y in residential locations at ambient conditions in Nr 10 cans were analyzed for sensory and nutritional quality. Overall acceptability hedonic scores varied widely (2.9 to 6.2), but all samples were considered acceptable for use in an emergency situation by most panelists. A 23-y-old sample with low oxygen was not significantly different from fresh samples in overall acceptability hedonic scores. There was no difference in overall acceptability between regular and instant NFDM. Amounts of available lysine (1.4 to 2.6 mg/100 g), thiamin (2.7 to 4.0 μg/g), and riboflavin (12.7 to 20.2 μg/g) were not significantly correlated with sample age.
Multi-level Quality Assessment of Retinal Fundus Images using Deep Convolution Neural Networks

: Retinal fundus image quality assessment is one of the major steps in screening for retinal diseases, since the poor-quality retinal images do not allow an accurate medical diagnosis. In this paper, we ﬁrst introduce a large multi-level Retinal Fundus Image Quality Assessment (RFIQA) dataset. It has six levels of quality grades, which are based on important regions to consider for diagnosing diabetic retinopathy (DR), Aged Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Glaucoma by ophthalmologists. Second, we propose a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) model to assess the quality of the retinal images with much fewer parameters than existing deep CNN models and ﬁnally we propose to combine deep and generic texture features, and using Random Forest classiﬁer. Experiments show that combing both deep and generic features outperforms using any of the two feature types in isolation. This is conﬁrmed on our new dataset as well as on other public datasets.
Capital Buffer and Determinant Factors of Conventional Banks in Indonesia

Banking is very regulated by the government and even has to follow regulations issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which regulates banking in the world. According to Basel III, banks must provide capital reserves called capital buffers. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that determine capital buffer. Factors thought to affect the capital buffer studied consisted of profitability (ROA), credit risk (NPL), liquidity risk (LDR), capital adequacy in the previous period (CARt-1), management risk (NIM), and ratio of operating risk (OER). The population in this study is conventional banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, as many as 42 banks, with a sample of 40 banks taken by purposive sampling method with an observation period of four years with quarterly data (2016-2019). To test the hypotheses, regression panel data is used. After being tested, it turns out that the fixed effect model is better than the common effect and random effect. The results of the study with fixed effect models show that ROA, NPL, and OER significantly and negatively affect capital buffer. CARt-1 has a positive and significant effect on capital buffer, while LDR and NIM do not affect capital buffer.
Application of Remote Sensing to Assess the Biophysical Characteristics of Palm Oil Trees for Ecological Study

Abstract Oil palms are an important crop for Malaysia as the main crop cultivated from agricultural lands for economic purposes. The livelihood of small growers is, in fact, very dependent on that industry. The present study employs the application of remote sensing of higher resolution to assess the biophysical characteristics of oil palms stands for a plantation in Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan, Malay Peninsula. Band combination with the use of natural, red, blue bands and red-edge spectrum was employed to obtain early information on the oil palm stands at the site. We subsequently employed fish eye camera to collect information on leaf area index at the field. The study also measured the height and diameter at breast height of all plots established in the site. Finally, correlation was performed to establish the relationships between height-to-leaf area index relations. Diameter at breast height measuring points was scattered at the upper part of the line that formed negative relationships (R2 = -0.0313). Height was positively associated with leaf area index, a bit weaker (R2 = 0.2323). Interpolation found plots at varying elevation level. Maximum height of the trees was recorded at the highest elevation in the site, presumably due to the higher solar radiation that enhances photosynthesis. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of the finding for implementation elsewhere in assessing the biophysical characteristics of oil palm trees. The study leads to further understanding of oil palms, specifically the biophysical characteristics associated with plant productivity assessment.
Photovoltaic output limitation of n‐FeS2 (pyrite) Schottky barriers: A temperature‐dependent characterization

Metal/n‐pyrite (metal=Pt, Au, Nb) Schottky barrier type diodes were fabricated on electrochemically reduced either synthetic or natural (100) and (111) surfaces of single crystalline n‐FeS2. The temperature dependence of I‐V curves in darkness were analyzed in the range of 200–350 K on the basis of thermionic emission and recombination models. The calculated effective barrier height was ∼0.60 eV and the activation energy for recombination ∼0.50 eV for all investigated n‐FeS2/Pt samples. The doping density and the extrapolated potential (pseudo flatband situation) from the Mott–Schottky plot, obtained from capacities deduced from potentiostatic complex impedance measurements, were 2.0×1016 cm−3 and 0.25 eV vs Pt for the synthetic n‐pyrite crystal, respectively. From the donor density and barrier height a band bending of 0.5 eV was deduced. Photovoltaic parameters like open‐circuit photovoltage and short‐circuit photocurrent were studied down to temperatures of 200 K. The main phenomenon preventing the gene.
Next generation sequencing detection in archival surgically resected lung adenocarcinoma specimens harbouring the anaplastic lymphoma kinase fusion protein.

OBJECTIVE To analyse clinical and molecular features in patients with surgically resected patients with lung cancer harbouring anaplastic lymphoma kinase fusion. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China, and comprised data from November 2013 to August 2015 of lung cancer patients. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase, epidermal growth factor receptor, kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene, v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog, REarranged during Transfection proto-oncogene, c-ros oncogene 1 receptor kinase, V-Erb-B2 avian erythroblastic leukaemia viral oncogene homolog 2 and mesenchymal epithelial transition factor were noted using next generation sequencing. Clinicopathological parameters were also investigated. All patients were followed up till August 10, 2017. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS Of the 19 patients, 15(79%) were non-smokers. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements occurred in the acinar predominant in 6(31.6%), solid predominant 6(31.6%) and mucinous predominant 4(21%) adenocarcinomas. There was 1(5.2%) patient with epidermal growth factor receptor 21 G863D mutation. The 3-year disease-free survival rate in 5(26.3%) cases of anaplastic lymphoma kinase variant 1 was 5(100%), while in the 14(73.7%) cases of non-variant 1 group it was 9(64.3%) (p=0.257). CONCLUSIONS Anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements did not tend to be accompanied with other driver genes. Difference between variant 1 and non-variant 1 patients was uncertain and needs to be further investigated.
Design of Two-Wheeled Motorcycle Tire Crown Contour Bioinspired by Cat Paw Pads

The grip force of tires is crucial for vehicle security and drivability under different driving conditions. A small contact area and stress concentration in the contact patch of two-wheeled motorcycle (TWM) tires result in a reduction in grip performance and wear resistance. Even worse, improving the grip and wear resistance together is difficult to achieve. The purpose of the current study is to analyze the dynamic grounding characteristics and geometry of a cat paw pad and then apply its structure to the TWM tire to improve the contact area and wear resistance under different operating conditions. A nonlinear finite element tire model that could accurately reconstruct the tire structure and realistically reflect the mechanical response to different loads was employed. Then, the accuracy of the tire model was validated by a static test with a control tire. For cats, the dynamic grounding characteristics and topology of paw pads were determined using a pressure-sensitive walkway and a three-dimensional (3D) laser scanner. The results indicated that the cat forepaw third pad (CFTP) exhibited excellent grip capacity. According to similarity transformation, a bionic tire crown was designed according to the lateral fitting curve of the CFTP. Comparative results showed the enlargement of the contact area and decreases in peak pressure and frictional energy rate for the bionic tire under different conditions. With these improvements, the grip performance was improved, and the service life was extended synchronously. These research results can be applied for the design of TWM tires, especially cross-country motorcycle tires.
Intelligent Systems for Power Load Forecasting: A Study Review

The study of power load forecasting is gaining greater significance nowadays, particularly with the use and integration of renewable power sources and external power stations. Power forecasting is an important task in the planning, control, and operation of utility power systems. In addition, load forecasting (LF) aims to estimate the power or energy needed to meet the required power or energy to supply the specific load. In this article, we introduce, review and compare different power load forecasting techniques. Our goal is to help in the process of explaining the problem of power load forecasting via brief descriptions of the proposed methods applied in the last decade. The study reviews previous research that deals with the design of intelligent systems for power forecasting using various methods. The methods are organized into five groups—Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Regression, Decision Tree (DT), Linear Regression (LR), and Fuzzy Sets (FS). This way, the review provides a clear concept of power load forecasting for the purposes of future research and study.
Effects of the Molecular Weight and Concentration of Polymer Additives, and Temperature on the Melt Crystallization Kinetics of a Small Drug Molecule

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of molecular weight (MW) and concentration of a polymeric additive, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), on the crystal growth rate of a small molecule drug, felodipine. PVP samples with three different molecular weights (2−3 × 103 g/mol for PVP K-12, 4−5 × 104 g/mol for PVP K-29/32, and 1−1.5 × 106 g/mol for PVP K-90) were used to study the effect of molecular weight. Optical microscopy was used to measure the growth rates at various temperatures in the range of 70−110 °C. While PVP was found to reduce the crystal growth rate at all temperatures, the inhibitory effect was much greater at lower temperatures. The inhibiting effect of PVP on the crystal growth rate of felodipine increased as a function of polymer molecular weight. The effect of polymer concentration on the crystal growth rate was investigated with varying concentrations of PVP K-29/32 (0.5−4.5 wt %), and a log linear relationship between crystal growth rate and concentration was obser.
A collaborative filtering recommendation framework based on Wasserstein GAN

Compared with the original GAN, Wasserstein GAN minimizes the Wasserstein Distance between the generative distribution and the real distribution, can well capture the potential distribution of data and has achieved excellent results in image generation. However, the exploration of Wasserstein GAN on recommendation systems has received relatively less scrutiny. In this paper, we propose a collaborative filtering recommendation framework based on Wasserstein GAN called CFWGAN to improve recommendation accuracy. By learning the real user distribution, we can mine the potential nonlinear interactions between users and items, and capture users’ preferences for all items. Besides, we combine two positive and negative item sampling methods and add the reconstruction loss to the generator’s loss. This can well handle the problem of discrete data in recommendation (relative to the continuity of image data). By continuously approximating the generative distribution to the real user distribution, we can finally obtain better users’ preference information and provide higher accuracy in recommendation. We evaluate the CFWGAN model on three real-world datasets, and the empirical results show that our method is competitive with or superior to state-of-the-art approaches on the benchmark top-N recommendation task.
Instructional leadership, and teacher’s collective efficacy, commitment, and professional learning in primary schools: a mediation model

ABSTRACT This study tested the relationship between principals’ instructional leadership, teacher collective efficacy, teacher commitment, and teacher professional learning in Iranian primary schools. Survey data collected from 121 principals and 886 teachers in primary schools in Mashhad city, Iran were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping. Findings confirmed a partial mediation model whereby principal instructional leadership has both direct and indirect effects on teacher professional learning. The research also revealed how instructional leaders influence the professional learning of teachers through teacher’s collective efficacy, commitment. The present study contributes to the literature by investigating the key role of the principal’s instructional leadership in supporting teacher professional learning.