Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validation of a Capillary Electrophoresis Assay for Monitoring Iodine Nutrition in Populations for Prevention of Iodine Deficiency: An Interlaboratory Method Comparison.

BACKGROUND A capillary electrophoresis (CE) assay was recently introduced as a new method for monitoring iodine nutrition in large-scale epidemiological studies. However, further tests revealed unanticipated matrix-dependent interferences when analyzing submicromolar levels of iodide in human urine as the predominate ionic form of dietary iodine. Herein, we describe a rigorous validation study that was used to identify sources of bias and establish modifications to the original CE method to improve method accuracy. METHODS An interlaboratory method comparison using CE with UV detection and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was performed to quantify urinary iodide concentrations (n = 71) independently at McMaster University and Hamilton General Hospital, as well as the CDC as part of their quality assurance program. A positive bias in the original CE method was indicated, and buffer conditions were subsequently optimized to overcome matrix interferences for reliable iodine status determination. RESULTS Positive bias in CE was attributed to variable concentrations of sulfate, a major urinary anion interference with similar mobility to iodide under the conditions originally reported. By increasing the concentration of α-cyclodextrin in the background electrolyte, the CE method was able to tolerate urinary sulfate over its normal physiological range without loss in signal response for iodide. The optimized CE assay generated results that were consistent with ICP-MS using 2 different internal standards (187Re and 130Te) with a median bias under 10%. CONCLUSIONS CE offers a simple, selective, and cost-effective separation platform for surveillance of the iodine status of a population requiring only small volumes (<10 μL) of biobanked urine specimens, which is comparable to previously validated screening methods currently used in global health initiatives for prevention of iodine deficiency disorders.
A Survey on Network Intrusion System Attacks Classification Using Machine Learning Techniques

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) security management is now being confronted by rapid expansion in wireless network errors, flaws and assaults. In recent times, as computers are used extensively through network and application creation on numerous platforms, attention is provided to network security. This definition includes security vulnerabilities in both complicated and costly operating programs. Intrusion is also seen as a method of breaching security, completeness and availability. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is an essential method for the identification of network security vulnerabilities and abnormalities. A variety of significant work has been carried out on intrusion detection technologies often seen as premature not as a complete method for countering intrusion. It has also become a most challenging and priority tasks for security experts and network administrators. Hence, it cannot be replaced by more secure systems. Data mining used for IDS can effectively identify intrusion and the identified intrusion values are used to predict further intrusion in future. This paper presents a detailed review of literature about how data mining techniques were utilized for intrusion detection. First, intrusion detection on various benchmark and real-time datasets by data mining techniques are studied in detail. Then, comparative study is conducted with their merits and demerits for identifying the challenges in those techniques and then this paper is concluded with suggestions of solutions for enhancing the efficiency of intrusion detection in the network.
EXTENSIVE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF TRAUMATIC PNEUMOTHORAX IN SAUDI ARABIA’S POPULATION

Objectives: Traumatic pneumothorax is one of the causes of trauma mortality and morbidity. It is a problem for developing countries as many accidents can be avoided and there are few epidemiological data to support programs injury prevention. The main objective of the current study was to determine demographic characteristics, patterns, and severity of the injury, thoracic, and extra-thoracic related injuries in a Level 1 trauma center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SA). Methods: This retrospective observational study used the King Abdulaziz Medical City Trauma Center’s trauma registry to review the data of traumatic pneumothorax patients admitted to the hospital from January 2001 to December 2018. Demographic characteristics, admission date and time, type and mechanism of injury, involved body area, and severity rates were analyzed. Results: A total of 708 patients of whom 92.3% were males. Blunt trauma (75.8%) is the most common cause of injury. Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA) were the most common cause (57%) of traumatic pneumothorax. Rib fractures (36.5%), lung contusions (31.5%), and hemothorax (23.5%) were the most common clinical forms of chest injury associated with traumatic pneumothorax. On the other hand, the head injury (34.8%) was the most common extra thoracic part associated. The mean Injury Severity Score in the current study was found to be 20.1. Conclusion: This study showed the trends of traumatic pneumothorax injuries in a Level 1 trauma center, Riyadh, SA, showing MVA are the leading cause of traumatic pneumothorax in our region. These demographic data will be crucial for local health-care systems to be optimally resourced.
Engineering Attributes of Buckwheat Seeds in Relation to its Moisture Content

Buckwheat belongs to a pseudo cereal family and its seeds are consumed as seeds. Buckwheat is a highly nutritious whole seeds, which is a rich source of protein, fiber, and energy. Buckwheat flour is gluten free, thus it is an excellent dietary alternative. The cultivation of buckwheat in hilly regions of Northeast India has been increasing considerably (Annual Report, FS & AD, Government of Sikkim, 2017) in the last decades. Presently, threshing of buckwheat is done in traditional ways i.e., foot trampling and hand beating which results in high percentage of losses due broken and damaged seeds. The traditional method also results in low level of seeds separation, high damage to kernels, other losses and also it is very time and high labour intensive. Thus, suitable machineries for efficient post harvest operation of Buckwheat are the need of the hour. The design and development of farm machine for post harvest processing and International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 10 Number 01 (2021) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Access Control Protocol for Battlefield Surveillance in Drone-Assisted IoT Environment

Surveillance drones, called as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are aircrafts that are utilized to collect video recordings, still images, or live video of the targets, such as vehicles, people or specific areas. Particularly in battlefield surveillance, there is high possibility of eavesdropping, inserting, modifying or deleting the messages during communications among the deployed drones and ground station server (GSS). This leads to launch several potential attacks by an adversary, such as main-in-middle, impersonation, drones hijacking, replay attacks, etc. Moreover, anonymity and untraceability are two crucial security properties that need to be maintained in battlefield surveillance communication environment. To deal with such a crucial security problem, we propose a new access control protocol for battlefield surveillance in drone-assisted Internet of Things (IoT) environment, called ACPBS-IoT. Through the detailed security analysis using formal and informal (nonmathematical), and also the formal security verification under automated software simulation tool, we show that the proposed ACPBS-IoT can resist several potential attacks needed in a battlefield surveillance scenario. Furthermore, the testbed experiments for various cryptographic primitives have been performed for measuring the execution time. Finally, a detailed comparative study on communication and computational overheads, and security, as well as functionality features, reveals that the proposed ACPBS-IoT provides superior security and more functionality features, and better or comparable overheads than other existing competing access control schemes.
Beyond Write-Reduction Consideration: A Wear-Leveling-Enabled B⁺-Tree Indexing Scheme Over an NVRAM-Based Architecture

Recently, nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM) has been regarded as the most up-and-coming main memory technology in embedded and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems due to its attractive features: zero-static power consumption and high memory cell density. However, the endurance issue as a “nightmare” always haunts NVRAM system developers. Worse still, NVRAM’s lifespan will wear out soon in embedded applications because their data management systems usually utilize an indexing scheme to maintain small data. Plus, a node structure within the indexing scheme will be frequently updated because of data creation and deletion. Therefore, many previous works rethink B+-tree indexing scheme on an NVRAM-based system. The most previous studies focused on reducing the amount of write traffic to memory. Unfortunately, they are failed to extend the NVRAM lifespan because their solution cannot evenly distribute the amount of write traffic to each memory cell. Additionally, prior solutions have not considered that all nodes within B+-tree indexing structure have different update frequencies. Based on such the observation, this work proposes a wear-leveling-aware B+-tree design, namely, waB+-tree, to consider the update frequency of each node within the B+-tree structure, so as to evenly scatter the amount of write traffic to the NVRAM cells. According to our experiments, the proposed waB+-tree shows the encouraging results of endurance improvement.
Thermal Constraints on the Longevity, Depth, and Vertical Extent of Magmatic Systems

Magmatic regions are typically viewed as vertical systems, with magma coming in the bottom and either freezing in the crust to form plutons or erupting to form volcanic rocks. Maintaining an upper‐crustal magmatic system for 105–106 Ma timescales requires establishing and maintaining a strong perturbation in the geotherm via continued input of magma from below. Thermal models indicate that establishing such a system requires the energy content of a vertical stack of magma tens of km thick, and maintaining the system requires continual supply of tens of km per million years. These rates of magma addition into the upper crust would require rapid crustal thickening and surface uplift, neither of which are observed at the required scale. Mass and energy balance issues are ameliorated if large magmatic systems are primarily lower‐crustal phenomena without long‐term upper‐crustal storage and if horizontal space‐making processes (extension), rather than vertical inflation, focus magmatism, and induce decompression melting.
Characterization of Rice Genotypes Based on Physical, Chemical and Molecular Methods

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the primary cereal crop grown in many countries especially in Asia. The increasing population rate challenges the world's food requirements and an area expansion under rice likely to decline nowadays because of urbanization, climate change and high-value agriculture. Hence, more stress has been given for rice crop improvement since ages, which has resulted in the release of a large number of varieties with improved yield or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. As India is a signatory for the WTO, and The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights (PPV & FR) Act, 2001 came into existence, varietal characterization and identification became more significant in the present scenario because India is having rich gene pool. Many countries including International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), Switzerland have been conducting elaborate research for developing standard chemical tests, physiological tests and use of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 10 Number 01 (2021) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Growth performance and haematological traits of Nigerian local chickens fed varied dietary protein levels

This study was carried out to investigate the growth performance and haematological traits of Nigerian local chickens (NLC) fed varied dietary protein levels. An eleven week feeding trial was done in a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement using six treatment groups comprising a combination of two genotypes of the NLC' identified as normal leather (na) and naked neck (Na) and three dietary protein levels - high protein: HP (22% and 20% CP chick mash and grower mash respectively), medium protein: MP (20% and 18% chick mash and grower mash respectively) and low protein: LP (18% and 16% chick mash and grower mash). Data were collected on growth performance traits (body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and protein efficiency ratio). At the end of the feeding trial a haematological assay was done. Neither genotype nor interaction of genotype and dietary protein level influenced (p>0.05) any of the growth performance traits studied. Birds on HP ate 10.21% and 7.09% less feed than those on MP and LP respectively. A better (p<0.05) protein efficiency ratio (up 10 20.79%) was observed in birds fed LP. Na birds had 4.55% and 17.50x704L-1 more packed cell volume and platelets respectively than na birds (p<0.05). All haematological traits studied, except white blood cell count, showed significant variations (p<0.05) due to varied dietary protein levels. Higher haemoglobin, red blood cell counts, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration and platelets were observed in birds fed LP diet. Reducing the dietary protein level had no adverse effect on the NLC thus, the LP diet is recommended for raising the Nigerian local chicken.
Two-Stage Chance-Constrained Stochastic Thermal Unit Commitment for Optimal Provision of Virtual Inertia in Wind-Storage Systems

The frequency security problem becomes a critical concern in power systems when the system inertia is lowered due to the high penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs). A wind-storage system (WSS) controlled by power electronics can provide the virtual inertia to guarantee the fast frequency response after a disturbance. However, the provision of virtual inertia might be affected by the variability of wind power generation. To address this concern, we propose a two-stage chance-constrained stochastic optimization (TSCCSO) model to find the optimal thermal unit commitment (i.e., economic operation) and the optimal placement of virtual inertia (i.e., frequency stability) in a power grid using representative power system operation scenarios. An enhanced bilinear Benders decomposition method is employed with strong valid cuts to effectively solve the proposed optimization model. Numerical results on a practical power system show the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method.
Associated factors of early initiation of breastfeeding among mothers in Rajshahi district, Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study

Background: Early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF) provides the first immunization for the newborns, fortify their immune defense system and eventually reduce the mortality rate. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with EIBF among mothers in Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. Methods: A total number of 421 mothers living in Rajshahi district who had at least one child aged 6-24 months were considered as sample. Mothers were selected using multistage random sampling. This study was conducted from January to March, 2019. The EIBF was measured by a principal question, “Did you provide your breast milk to your newborn within one hour after delivery? ” Frequency distribution, Chi-square test and multivariable binary logistic regression model were utilized in this study for getting prevalence and associated factors of EIBF respectively. Results: This study revealed that the prevalence of EIBF among mothers in Rajshahi district was 88.4%. Multivariable logistic model provided eight factors associated with EIBF: (i) husbands’ education level, (ii) husbands’ occupation, (iii) family monthly income, (iv) mothers’ age, (v) mothers’ BMI, (vi) place of delivery, (vii) planned pregnancy and (viii) mothers taking advice regarding the benefit of breastfeeding during their pregnancy. Conclusions: This study identified several modifiable factors associated with EIBF. The customs, culture and other characteristics are almost same across the country. These factors could be considered to increase the rate of EIBF among mothers in Bangladesh.
Factors Influencing Malaria Morbidity and Mortality Among Under 15 Years Children in Parts of Ghana: The Role of Guardians’ Socio-Demographic Characteristics Demonstrated Through Modelling

Background To understand the underlying factors that led to failure to achieve the millennium development goal 6c by Ghana, we modelled guardians’ socio-demographic characteristics and the factors that could influence child health to provide directions for improving anti-malaria interventions in Ghana and sub-Sahara Africa.Methods Clinical data of 274 malaria patients, age up to 15 years, were collected from a cross-sectional study conducted in two districts in the central region of Ghana. Guardians of the children were interviewed to obtain socio-demographic characteristics and factors that could influence child health. The data obtained were analysed using multivariate GLM, type III ANOVA and multilayer perceptron network analysis.Results Of the 274 children enrolled into the study, 69.34% were between the age of 0-5 years. The median parasite density, haemoglobin and platelet were 89,923 (64,056-149,541) parasites/mm3, 8.40 (4.70-11.60) g/dL and 126 (87-146) x10^9/L respectively. 12.41% of the enrolled children had severe clinical conditions. The outcome using multivariate GLM analysis indicate a significant association between the guardians’ socio-demographic characteristics and factors that influence child health, p<0.0001. CSOC, FPOCCH, DOOSCS, and CS were all influenced by the guardians’ occupational status, p<0.0001; CSOC and MCID were influenced by the guardians’ educational levels, p<0.0001 and FPOCCH and MCID were also influenced by guardians age category, p<0.0001. The multilayer perceptron network analysis showed that the association between guardians’ socio-demographic characteristics and factors that influence child health are affected by several hidden confounding factors.Conclusion It was demonstrated an association between factors that influence child health care and guardians’ socio-demographic characteristics and this is confounded by hidden socio-economic factors and biases through modelling. I, therefore, propose a model called a network of socio-economic progenitors to provide a simple explanation for the underlying factors that influence child health in malaria-endemic areas.
Reliability and economic analysis in sustainable machining of Monel 400 alloy

Engineering field nurtures a variety of superalloys and its wide applications due to the inherent properties of such material. The prime concern of working engineers is to explore reliability, quality, economy, and machinability analysis of these superalloys. In this work, sustainable machining of Monel 400superalloy using PVD multilayer coated carbide tool under dry turning was studied. Surface roughness (Ra, Rz, and Rq), power (P) and cutting force (Fc) were addressed as responses. The subsequent effect of cutting speed, feed and depth of cut on the responses was explored through response surface methodology (RSM), statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis. Details of tool wear was observed via scanning electron microscope (SEM) to know the cutting behavior at interface. Further, the reliability and economic analysis were performed to substantiate the feasibility of cutting insert. The investigation reveals that surface roughness was affected by feed and cutting speed. The increase in cutting speed uncovers lower cutting forces with improved surface finish during dry turning which further reduces the power requirement. The economic analysis shows unit production time and unit production cost based on a single insert PVD coated carbide tool under optimum value condition. The reliability analysis exposes the meantime to repair (MTTR) (5 min), mean time between failure (MTBF) (28 min), availability (84.8%), failure rate (0.03), and reliability (80.5%) for the production system.
How do purchasers’ control mechanisms affect healthcare outcomes? Cancer care services in the English National Health Service

ABSTRACT The purchaser–provider co-operation model is a way of increasing efficiency and quality in healthcare services. Risks associated with this model, including goal misalignment and information asymmetry, are managed through control mechanisms. Based on data from 12 clinical commissioning groups (purchasers of cancer care) in the English National Health Service, this paper describes the control mechanisms used to facilitate purchaser–provider co-operation and identifies good practices in using different control mechanisms. Effective control mechanisms were found to include stakeholder involvement (social control); co-operation and partnerships with providers (process control); and monitoring and service outcome measures for provider (outcome control). The paper fills an important gap in the literature—little scholarly attention has to date been paid about how purchaser and provider relationships are managed ex post and how performance is affected.
Investigations on Multi-Circle Spray Detonations

Experimental investigations are carried out on a 50 I. D. multi-cycle pulse detonation engine model, and liquid fuel(gasoline) is used. The average of pressure peak, as measured by piezoelectricity pressure transducer, increases versus distance to thrust wall before fully developed detonation comes into being. According to the pressure history, the pressure in detonation tube will rise abruptly, when the flame front advances a certain distance downstream the spark. Two compression waves spreading to opposite directions are formed. One is enforced by combustion and becomes detonation rapidly, and the other is weakened because of obstacles and insufficiency of fuel. Two methods are used to determine the induction length of two-phase detonation wave through the pressure history. Ignition delay time is found to be much longer than DDT ( deflagration to detonation transition) time, and the sum of the two changes little as cycle frequency increases. Together,they are the most important factors to control two-phase PDE operating frequency. Filling process and blowdown process are also analyzed.