Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Yield Productivity of Sixteen Egyptian Bread Wheat Varieties Grown under Middle Egypt and West West El-Minya Conditions

The present investigation was carried out at the experimental farm of Sids and West west El-Minya Research Stations to evaluate the yield productivity of 16 bread wheat varieties during the two growing seasons of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. Four stress tolerance indices were calculated using the grain yield under Sids location as favorable environment and West west El-Minya location as a stress environment. The genotype by trait GxT biplot graph was automated to compare wheat varieties in terms of their multiple traits for each location separately. Results showed significant differences among wheat varieties, growing regions and their interaction for most studied traits across the two seasons. The grain yields produced under West west El-Minya region were slightly lower compared to that produced under Sids region indicating that the West west El-Minya is promising region for future wheat cultivation despite its stress conditions. It is revealed that Gemmeiza 9, Gemmeiza 10, Giza 171 and Shandaweel 1 had the maximum grain yields across the two growing regions. In addition, they recorded the highest values of the four tolerance indices. It is obvious that Sids 1, Giza 171, Misr 2 and Shandaweel 1 reflected the best performance in terms of most studied traits under West west El-Minya region while Sids 14, Shandaweel 1, Sakha 95 and Giza 171 were the best varieties under Sids conditions. It is obvious that GxT biplot graph is considered an easy and effective visual to interpret results.
The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic “Crisis” on Unaccompanied Minors Navigating US Removal Proceedings

Unaccompanied minors are among the most vulnerable undocumented immigrants facing removal proceedings in US immigration court. To avoid being sent back to violence and deprivation in their home countries, unaccompanied minors may apply for asylum or deportation relief for abandoned, abused, or neglected children. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a crisis for American society that also had key impacts on immigrants’ lives and their ability to interact with state systems to apply for legal status and claim rights. This paper asks: (1) How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect unaccompanied minors’ social vulnerabilities in the US? ; and (2) How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the US immigration bureaucracy and the work of nonprofit advocates who broker unaccompanied minors’ interactions with these state systems? Findings show that the pandemic exacerbated unaccompanied minors’ social vulnerabilities, with especially adverse effects on indigenous youths, those in legal limbo, unrepresented youths, and those experiencing job loss. The pandemic also disrupted the US immigration bureaucracy and, consequently, the work of advocates who broker immigrants’ interactions with these systems, making it more difficult to interact with traumatized youths to obtain necessary information for their cases, meet strict deadlines, and identify their needs. This case study provides lessons on how states and civil society strategically manage a “crisis” and discusses the implications for immigrants’ rights and vulnerabilities.
Does competitive strategy moderate the linkage between HRM practices and company performance?

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of competitive strategies (CS) in the relationship between HRM practices and company performance (CP). Although the existing literature adequately addresses HRM practices and CS, there is limited empirical evidence linking internal resources and strategies with CP. Therefore, using the contingency approach, this study uncovers the role of CS in realizing the potential impact of HRM practices on CP. The data used to test, explore, and develop the moderating role of CS were collected from 157 manufacturing companies and analyzed using hierarchical linear regression. The results show a positive effect of HRM practices and CS on CP. The results also show that cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy moderate the relationship between HRM practices and CP. The theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.
Static and dynamic crushing of sandwich tubes with a birch core and carbon skins

This paper presents the results of static and dynamic crushing of wood sandwich tubes made with a birch core and carbon woven skins. 3 tubes (external diameter 64 mm, length 120 mm) were crushed in static and 3 others in dynamic under a drop tower. The results reveal very interesting energy absorption performance of such structures. The Specific Energy Absorption is 50.4 J/g in static and 66.6 J/g in dynamic, the energy absorbed is 5427 J in static and 7045 J in dynamic (170 kg launched at 4.2 m). These characteristics, which are quite comparable with those of tubes made of composite materials or aluminum alloys, show that these sandwiches with birch core are serious candidates for energy absorption with renewable materials.
Cross-lingual transfer using phonological features for resource-scarce text-to-speech

In this work, we explore the use of phonological features in cross-lingual transfer within resource-scarce settings. We modify the architecture of VITS to accept a phonological feature vector as input, instead of phonemes or characters. Subse-quently, we train multispeaker base models using data from Lib-riTTS and then fine-tune them on single-speaker Afrikaans and isiXhosa datasets of varying sizes, representing the resource-scarce setting. We evaluate the synthetic speech both objectively and subjectively and compare it to models trained with the same data using the standard VITS architecture. In our experiments, the proposed system utilizing phonological features as input converges significantly faster and requires less data than the base system. We demonstrate that the model employing phonological features is capable of producing sounds in the target language that were unseen in the source language, even in languages with significant linguistic differences, and with only 5 minutes of data in the target language.
The determinants of individual’s recycling behavior with an investigation into the possibility of expanding the deposit refund system in glass waste management in Croatia

This study investigates the recycling behavior of Croatian citizens and identifies the determinants of individual recycling intention. It also addresses whether the existing deposit refund system for glass bottles in Croatia can be replaced by an expanded system that includes the return and reuse of almost all types of glass containers. A total of 427 Croatian citizens participated in the survey. Quantitative data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling. In addition to the survey, a focus group was conducted with the relevant experts. The results confirmed the assumption about the pro-environmental orientation in Croatia. Citizens have a positive attitude towards the expanded deposit refund system in waste glass disposal and intend to implement it. The most significant predictor of their intention is their attitude towards the expanded deposit refund system, followed by familiarity with recycling. A person’s recycling intention is mainly determined by familiarity with recycling and perceived behavioral control. In the qualitative study, Croatian experts were generally positive about an expanded deposit refund system for glass containers but warned that implementation would not be without certain obstacles. The added value of the study is the creation of new knowledge for the design of local and national policies that can promote individuals’ environmentally friendly behavior and improve the glass waste disposal system in Croatia.
This is not my jam: an Italian choice experiment on the influence of typical product attributes on consumers’ willingness to pay

Purpose Packaging and labelling have become essential to how food manufacturers generate and deliver value to customers. The information displayed on the packaging can be used to communicate to customers the properties and unique characteristics of a food product (e.g. nutrients, calories and country of origin). To achieve communication goals effectively, manufacturers need to understand how consumers evaluate products based on their attributes. In particular, companies should be aware of which specific product attributes affect consumer buying behaviour and which product attributes are more critical during food assessment. So, the paper aims to investigate consumer's behaviuor linked to typical product attributes indicated on the packaging. Design/methodology/approach The present study examines consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for a cherry jam with different attributes (brand, type of production method and price) on a sample of 2,166 Italian respondents through a choice experiment using a random parameter logit-error component model. Findings The results showed that WTP for jams can be affected by attributes such as brand, price and production methods; precisely, they indicated that the level of naturalness in the production process constitutes the main element for the consumer’s choice; however, the considerable weight that price and brand have in influencing the purchasing behaviour of the food consumer was still confirmed: in fact, a p-value of less than 0.05 was found in all cases. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that assesses the effect of different types of production on WTP for food products. In addition, this study also reflects on the importance of the level of education for consumer choice.
Nitisinone Treatment Affects Biomarkers of Bone and Cartilage Remodelling in Alkaptonuria Patients

Nitisinone has been approved for treatment of alkaptonuria (AKU). Non-invasive biomarkers of joint tissue remodelling could aid in understanding the molecular changes in AKU pathogenesis and how these can be affected by treatment. Serological and urinary biomarkers of type I collagen and II collagen in AKU were investigated in patients enrolled in the randomized SONIA 2 (NCT01916382) clinical study at baseline and yearly until the end of the study (Year 4). The trajectories of the biomarkers over time were observed. After treatment with nitisinone, the biomarkers of type I collagen remodelling increased at Year 1 (19% and 40% increase in CTX-I and PRO-C1, respectively), which was potentially reflected in the higher degree of mobility seen following treatment. The biomarkers of type II collagen remodelling decreased over time in the nitisinone group: C2M showed a 9.7% decline at Year 1, and levels then remained stable over the following visits; CTX-II showed a 26% decline at Year 3 and 4 in the nitisinone-treated patients. Nitisinone treatment induced changes in biomarkers of bone and cartilage remodelling. These biomarkers can aid patient management and deepen our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of this rare disease.
Expanding the Range of Back-Projections: Core Phase Approach for Southern Hemisphere Earthquake Imaging

Standard Back-Projections (BPs) use P phase recordings at large aperture arrays within teleseismic distances (30°-90°) to image earthquake sources. However, the majority of sizable arrays are in the northern hemisphere, leaving many southern hemisphere earthquakes beyond the teleseismic range. We extend the BP method by utilizing seismic waves traveling through the Earth’s core, expanding our capability to image earthquakes worldwide. Our core phase BPs incorporate PKIKP (150°-180°) and PKP (145°-175°) phases. We evaluate their theoretical resolutions using 1-D and 2-D array response functions and test uncertainties by adding white noise to coherent waveforms. Tests show that core phase BPs achieve resolutions and uncertainties comparable to P phase BP. We validate the method using a synthetic model of a unilateral rupture (Mw 7.45, 2 km/s) and demonstrate accurate recovery of rupture direction, length, and speed. Applying core phase BPs to the 2010 Mw 8.8 Chile and 2015 Mw 7.1 southeast Indian Ridge earthquakes, we compare our results with published BPs and/or slip models, confirming the feasibility and reliability of core phase BPs. We then apply core phase BPs to five understudied earthquakes in the southwest Pacific region, providing insights into these pelagic earthquakes. Core phase BPs play a crucial role in scenarios where teleseismic arrays are unavailable, and have weaker array-dependent effect and better performance in bilateral rupture imaging. Finally, we discuss the limitations of core phase BPs and outline potential avenues for future research.
Solution theory to Hyperbolic Stochastic Partial Differential Equations with polynomially bounded coefficients

We study mild solutions of a class of stochastic partial differential equations, involving operators with polynomially bounded coefficients. Both linear and semilinear equations are considered,under suitable hyperbolicity hypotheses on the linear part. We provide conditions on the initial data and on the stochastic terms, namely, on the associated spectral measure, so that mild solutions exist and are unique in suitably chosen functional classes. In the linear case, random field solutions are obtained, while in the semilinear case we study function-valued solutions. In both situations, a regularity result for the solution is obtained.
C AN STOCHASTIC WEIGHT AVERAGING IMPROVE GENERALIZATION IN PRIVATE LEARNING ?

We investigate stochastic weight averaging (SWA) for private learning in the context of generalization and model performance. Differentially private (DP) optimizers are known to suffer from reduced performance and high variance in comparison to non-private learning. However, the generalization properties of DP optimizers have not been studied much, in particular for large-scale machine learning models. SWA is variant of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) which averages the weights along the SGD trajectory. We consider a DP adaptation of SWA (DP-SWA) which incurs no additional privacy cost and has little computational overhead. For quadratic objective functions, we show that DP-SWA converges to the optimum at the same rate as non-private SGD, which implies convergence to zero for the excess risk. For non-convex objective functions, we observe throughout multiple experiments on standard benchmark datasets that averaging model weights improves generalization, model accuracy, and performance variance.
Molecular Characterization of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants in Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates Recovered from Hospital Effluents in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is an opportunistic bacteria responsible for many nosocomial and community-acquired infections. The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistances have resulted in widespread epidemics and endemic dissemination of multidrug-resistant pathogens. A total of 145 K. pneumoniae isolates were recovered from hospital wastewater effluents and subjected to antibiogram profiling. Furthermore, the antibiotic resistance determinants were assessed among phenotypic resistant isolates using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The isolates showed a wide range of antibiotic resistance against 21 selected antibiotics under 11 classes, with the most susceptible shown against imipenem (94.5%) and the most resistant shown against ampicillin (86.2%). The isolates also showed susceptibility to piperacillin/tazobactam (89.0%), ertapenem (87.6%), norfloxacin (86.2%), cefoxitin (86.2%), meropenem (76.6%), doripenem (76.6%), gentamicin (76.6%), chloramphenicol (73.1%), nitrofurantoin (71.7%), ciprofloxacin (79.3%), amikacin (60.7%), and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (70.4%). Conversely, resistance was also recorded against tetracycline (69%), doxycycline (56.6%), cefuroxime (46.2%), cefotaxime (48.3%), ceftazidime (41.4%). Out of the 32 resistance genes tested, 28 were confirmed, with [tetA (58.8%), tetD (47.89%), tetM (25.2%), tetB (5.9%)], [sul1 (68.4%), sul1I (66.6%)], and [aadA (62.3%), strA (26%), aac(3)-IIa(aacC2)a (14.4%)] genes having the highest occurrence. Strong significant associations exist among the resistance determinants screened. About 82.7% of the K. pneumoniae isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR) with a multiple antibiotics resistance index (MARI) range of 0.24 to 1.0. A dual presence of the resistant genes among K. pneumoniae was also observed to occur more frequently than multiple presences. This study reveals a worrisome presence of multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae isolates and resistance genes in hospital waste effluent, resulting in higher public health risks using untreated surface water for human consumption. As a result, adequate water treatment and monitoring initiatives designed to monitor antimicrobial resistance patterns in the aquatic ecosystem are required.
ViSaRL: Visual Reinforcement Learning Guided by Human Saliency

Training robots to perform complex control tasks from high-dimensional pixel input using reinforcement learning (RL) is sample-inefficient, because image observations are comprised primarily of task-irrelevant information. By contrast, humans are able to visually attend to task-relevant objects and areas. Based on this insight, we introduce Visual Saliency-Guided Reinforcement Learning (ViSaRL). Using ViSaRL to learn visual representations significantly improves the success rate, sample efficiency, and generalization of an RL agent on diverse tasks including DeepMind Control benchmark, robot manipulation in simulation and on a real robot. We present approaches for incorporating saliency into both CNN and Transformer-based encoders. We show that visual representations learned using ViSaRL are robust to various sources of visual perturbations including perceptual noise and scene variations. ViSaRL nearly doubles success rate on the real-robot tasks compared to the baseline which does not use saliency.
Student Voices: A Critical Reflective Exploration of an Online Groupwork Video Analysis Task During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The shift to online learning in universities prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted field learning, an important component in nature conservation qualifications. Academics used video resources as an alternative approach to mitigate related challenges. This case study critically reflects on students’ experiences and views on the use of an internet video and WhatsApp text messaging to complete a groupwork task in a conservation module offered at a university in South Africa. The video content focused on threats to rare indigenous plant species in South Africa. Data were collected using an online electronic questionnaire (n=26) and through the analysis of five group-discussion text-messaging transcripts. Mixed-method analysis was used to analyse the data. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the closed questions in the questionnaire, and qualitative analysis was used for the open questions and transcripts. Ethical protocols were followed, with anonymity and confidentiality maintained. The findings, amongst others, indicate that overall, students agreed that the video promoted their understanding of threats to rare indigenous plants (76.9%); most students watched the video more than three times (84.6%); students had a positive response to the use of text messaging for group discussions (91.6%); and evident in the transcripts was active group engagement. Overall, WhatsApp text messaging facilitated student discussions in the asynchronous group work video analysis task. This reinforces underlying social constructivist pedagogy, which facilitates the integration of course content with group interaction and promotes critical thinking and problem-solving in a post-COVID-19 society.
Factors affecting the selection of Kadazandusun ethnic foods among students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia

Ethnic food refers to food originating from a specific ethnic group. The study identifies the knowledge and factors in Kadazandusun ethnic food selection among students at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). A total of 410 students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah were recruited as respondents through the snowball method. This quantitative study used questionnaires to collect data. The closed-ended questionnaire has four parts: demographics, knowledge, factors affecting food selection, and Kadazandusun ethnic food consumption intention. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented as frequencies, percentages, and mean values to address the study aims. In this study, 46.8% of the respondents had low knowledge (scale of 0–50) about Kadazandusun ethnic food. As factors that influence food selection, the health factor with an average value of x= 3.39 ± 1.095 received a neutral response toward agreeing compared with the convenience factor (x= 3.17 ± 1.086), taste/sense of food (x= 3.12 ± 1.170), price(x= 3.17 ± 1.134), and habit (x= 2.55 ± 1.164). Therefore, awareness and ethnic food selection factors among students are still low. A mechanism that can promote ethnic food, especially among IPTA students, for sustainability, information dissemination, and consumption of traditional ethnic food, is needed so that it does not disappear.
Synthesis and Evaluation of 99mTc-Labeled PSMA-Targeted Tracers Based on the Lys-Urea-Aad Pharmacophore for Detecting Prostate Cancer with Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a well-validated prostate cancer marker but reported PSMA-targeted tracers derived from the Lys-urea-Glu pharmacophore including the clinically validated [99mTc]Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA have high off-target uptake in kidneys, spleen, and salivary glands. In this study, we synthesized and evaluated three novel 99mTc-labeled PSMA-targeted tracers and investigated if the tracers derived from the Lys-urea-Aad pharmacophore could have minimized uptake in off-target organs/tissues. In vitro competition binding assays showed that compared with HYNIC-iPSMA, the three novel ligands had slightly weaker PSMA binding affinity (average Ki = 3.11 vs. 8.96–11.6 nM). Imaging and ex vivo biodistribution studies in LNCaP tumor-bearing mice showed that [99mTc]Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA and the three novel tracers successfully visualized LNCaP tumor xenografts in SPECT images and were excreted mainly via the renal pathway. The average tumor uptake at 1 h post-injection varied from 5.40 to 18.8%ID/g, and the tracers derived from the Lys-urea-Aad pharmacophore had much lower uptake in the spleen and salivary glands. Compared with the clinical tracer [99mTc]Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA, the Lys-urea-Aad-derived [99mTc]Tc-EDDA-KL01127 had lower background uptake and superior tumor-to-background contrast ratios and is therefore promising for clinical translation to detect prostate cancer lesions with SPECT.
The Market for Inflation Risk

This paper uses transaction-level data on the universe of traded UK inflation swaps to characterize who buys and sells inflation risk, when, and with what price elasticity. This provides measures of expected inflation cleaned from liquidity frictions. We first show that this market is segmented: pension funds trade at long horizons while hedge funds trade at short horizons, with dealer banks as their counterparties in both markets. This segmentation suggests three identification strategies—sign restrictions, granular instrumental variables, and heteroskedasticity—for the demand and supply functions of each investor type. Across the three strategies, we find that (i) prices absorb new information within three days; (ii) the supply of long-horizon inflation protection is very elastic; and (iii) short-horizon price movements are unreliable measures of expected inflation as they primarily reflect liquidity shocks. Our counterfactual measure of long-horizon expected inflation in the absence of these shocks suggests that the risk of a deflation trap during the pandemic and of a persistent rise in inflation following the energy shocks were overstated, while since Autumn of 2022, expected inflation has been lower and falling more rapidly than conventional measures.