Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prediction of ‘Gigante’ cactus pear yield by morphological characters and artificial neural networks

Predição da produtividade de palma forrageira ‘Gigante’ por caracteres morfológicos e redes neurais artificiais R E S U M O A estimativa da produtividade em palma forrageira é fundamental ao planejamento rural dos pequenos e médios produtores, sobretudo, em condições de adversidades climáticas como no Semiárido Brasileiro. Objetivou-se avaliar o potencial de Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNAs) na predição da produtividade em palma forrageira, e determinar os caracteres morfológicos mais importantes neste estudo. O experimento foi conduzido no Instituto Federal Baiano, Campus Guanambi, Bahia, Brasil, no período agrícola de 2009 a 2011. A região localiza-se nas seguintes coordenadas geográficas: latitude 14° 13’ 30” Sul, longitude de 42° 46’ 53” Oeste de Greenwich, altitude de 525 m. Avaliaram-se em 500 plantas seis caracteres agronômicos de natureza vegetativa no terceiro ciclo de produção. Os dados foram submetidos à análise no software R por RNAs. Dez arquiteturas de rede foram treinadas por 100 vezes, selecionandose, ao final do treinamento, aquela com menor erro quadrático médio para os dados de validação. As redes com cinco neurônios na camada intermediária possibilitaram a máxima qualidade preditiva. Foram ajustadas redes neurais com coeficiente de determinação (R2) de 87,21% para a amostra de validação, assegurando o potencial de generalização do modelo. Os caracteres morfológicos de maior contribuição relativa foram a área total do cladódio, altura da planta, espessura do cladódio e comprimento do cladódio; porém, todos são importantes na predição da produtividade. Logo, é possível predizer a produção de palma forrageira com alta precisão por meio de RNAs e caracteres morfológicos.
Lifestyle Risk Factors Associated with Tuberculosis Patients in Asir Region of Saudi Arabia

Background: Tuberculosis remains to be a major public health problem. Lifestyle factors that have indirectly influence to the burden of tuberculosis. The aim of this study is to determine the lifestyle risk factors associated with tuberculosis patients in Asir region of KSA. Methods: We conducted a case-control study at the military hospital of Asir region of KSA. A total of 135 sample which is divided into 67 cases and 67 controls. Cases were included from hospital database between 2017 and 2018. Control were selected from patient attending the same hospital with respiratory disease other than tuberculosis. Data collection done through interview using a structured questionnaire. Lifestyle factors and socio-demographic factors associated with tuberculosis were analyzed using logistic regression. Results: Mean age of study participants (cases and control) are 38.04 ± 9.66 and 40.16 ± 7.72 respectively. Most important factors associated with tuberculosis patients are overweight and obese [OR = 4.40, 95% CI 1.27-15.25 and 2.38 (1.61-9.22)], Smoker [OR = 1.34, 95% CI 0.52-3.43], abnormal sleep at night (<8 hours) [OR = 5.03, 95% CI 1.57-16.10], blue color job worker [OR = 2.69, 95% CI 1.02-7.28], physical exercise <3 days/week [OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.21-3.47]. Conclusions: In Saudi Arabia, a person's lifestyle and socioeconomic condition are associated with tuberculosis. Interventions focused on improving the quality of life through a reduction of risky lifestyle which prevent the spread of Tuberculosis in Saudi society and improve the efficiency of Saudi national tuberculosis control programme.
Investigations of the influence of various industrial waste materials containing rice husk ash, waste glass, and sediment soil for eco-friendly production of non-fired tiles

Attempting to reduce the energy consumption of various manufacturing processes is one of the alternative ways to conserve energy. Furthermore, an expanding industry has resulted in a large amount of solid wastes generation. Exploiting wastes as alternative materials for saving energy to produce valuable products is a great challenge. Therefore, this study aims to utilize waste materials, e.g., rice husk ash, brown glass cullet, and sediment soil for producing non-fired tiles. Twenty-four formulas were conducted and divided into three groups (A, B, and C). Each formula mixture was uniaxially pressed at 10 MPa and cured for 7 and 28 days. This research work examined the use of brown glass cullet as a replacement for river sand in group A. The best formula of group A with the highest modulus of rupture had been selected for further research in group B. After that, formulas of group B were replaced laterite soil with sediment soil and local clay, which the best formula of group B was also taken by adding 5% and 10% of rice husk ash in group C. The result showed that the best formula was B1 containing 15% replacement of river sand with brown glass cullet and 5% replacement of laterite soil with local clay at 28 days of curing. Formula B1 has the modulus of rupture of 15.95 MPa and water absorption of 12.87% that can meet the Thai Industrial Standard 2508–2555 type BIII of wall tiles. Its energy consumption cost in the non-firing process could reduce 5.04 USD/m2 when compared with that of the fired tile at 950 o С. Besides, an extensive experimental program was carried out including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and colorimetric CIELAB method. It can be summarized that developing non-fired tiles by utilizing waste materials is feasible to reduce energy consumption and waste disposal costs.
Impact of Mixed Pedagogy on Engineering Education

Contribution: This article explores the impact of the combination of various pedagogical approaches to deliver high-quality learning experiences for online-based engineering students. Though existing research extensively studied online education approaches, limited research has investigated how to bridge the gap between online cloud-based and campus-based students more effectively for obtaining hands-on engineering skills. Background: Given that engineers aim to solve real-world problems, engineering graduates need to obtain relevant experiences for employability. However, it is challenging to deliver such experiences in online education, which motivates innovative ways to integrate practical experiments in Web-based resources. Intended Outcomes: Practical and industry-relevant skills with flexibility in terms of time and pace of learning are intended to be achieved in the teaching framework which is expected to improve learning experiences for online students. Application Design: The adopted mixed pedagogical approach revolves around real-life problem-based learning delivered in the online mode using recorded experiments on energy-efficient design for three cohorts of the fourth-year engineering students, two of which are completely cloud-based students and the other one has a mix of on-campus and cloud-based students. Findings: The effectiveness of the adopted approach is measured through quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools. The evaluation demonstrated that cloud student engagement and motivation improved substantially by integrating explicit, analytical, as well as embodied learnings while enabling them to perform equally well as compared to the campus-based students.
Weldability and its improvement of friction welded joint between ductile cast iron and 5052 Al alloy

To obtain multimaterial structures composed by various materials as the right man in the right place for improvement of the additional value of some products or parts, the easy manufacturing method of the dissimilar metal joint is necessary. This paper described the weldability and its improvement of the friction welded joint between ductile cast iron (JIS FCD400) and typical Al-Mg alloy (JIS A5052). When both materials welded, only the A5052 side was unilaterally deformed and that was exhausted as ﬂash during the friction process regardless of the friction welding condition. The relatively high tensile strength of the joint was obtained when that was made with a friction speed of 27.5 s − 1 , a friction pressure of 20 MPa, a friction time of 1.5 s, and a forge pressure of 270 MPa. However, the joint had approximately 77% in the tensile strength of the A5052 base metal and that was fractured at the weld interface. The tensile strength of joints, which were made with other friction welding conditions, was lower than that of this friction welding condition. Although the weld interface of the joint had no intermetallic compound interlayer, the fractured surface at the A5052 side had the C element as the graphite particles that were supplied from the FCD400 side. To improve the joint strength, the graphite particle was reduced from the weld faying surface at the FCD400 side by decarburization treatment before welding. The joints had approximately 97% in the tensile strength of the A5052 base metal, and one of joints was fractured at the A5052 base metal. Thus, the graphite particle at the FCD400 side inﬂuenced the weldability between FCD400 and A5052. In conclusion, the joint with high tensile strength as well as the possibility for the improvement of the fractured point of them could be obtained when they were made with an opportune friction welding condition and no graphite particles at the weld faying surface of the FCD400 side.
Ameliorative effect of Quercetin and Hesperidin on Antioxidant and Histological Changes in the Testis of Etoposide-Induced Adult Male Rats

Aim of study: Investigate the protective potential of Quercetin and/orHesperidin against Etoposide (ETO)-induced testicular toxicityin male rats. Material and method: Twenty five adult male rats were divided into five groups. Control group (C): was given orally Distilled water, The first group (G1): was treated with (20) mg / kg bw of Etoposide, Second group (G2): received oral gavage (20) mg / kg of Etoposide, then given 20 mg / kg of Quercetin, Three group (G3): was given with (20) mg/ kg Etoposide with Hesperidin at dose 25 mg / kg bw, Four treatment group (G4): was given Etoposide with Quercetin and Hesperidin at same doses previous. Result: Etoposide treatment caused signi? cant a decrease (P<0.05) in body weight, testis weight and epididymis and also a decrease (P<0.05) enzymatic (SOD, CAT, GSH) and increased MDA induced by ETO, The histological changes resulted there was necrosisand degenerationin seminiferous tubule, presence of congestion in blood vessels between seminiferous tubules, the vacuolation and disintegration of Spermatogonia, a significant reduction in seminiferous tubule diameterand height of Epithelial layer, thickness of epithelial layer and diameter of tubules in epididymis, also in sperms stored in the epididymis with impaired spermatogenesis, as well as decrease in number of Leydig cells and Sertoli cells. In contrast, QE and/ or HES treatments signi? cantly attenuated the harmful effects induced by ETO. Conclusion: This suggests that Quercetin and/or Hesperidin may be a potential therapeutic against ETO induced testicular toxicity by restoring normal spermatogenesis, testicular and epididymalstructural, antioxidant levelsand inhibition of Lipid peroxidase (MDA).
Analysis of stationary patterns arising from a time-discrete metapopulation model with nonlocal competition

The paper studies the pattern formation dynamics of a discrete in time and space model with nonlocal resource competition and dispersal. Our model is generalized from the metapopulation model proposed by Doebeli and Killingback [2003. Theor. Popul. Biol. 64, 397-416] in which competition for resources occurs only between neighboring populations. Our study uses symmetric discrete probability kernels to model nonlocal interaction and dispersal. A linear stability analysis of the model shows that solutions to this equation exhibits pattern formation when the dispersal rate is sufficiently small and the discrete interaction kernel satisfies certain conditions. Moreover, a weakly nonlinear analysis is used to approximate stationary patterns arising from the model. Numerical solutions to the model and the approximations obtained through the weakly nonlinear analysis are compared.
Adaptive Sliding Mode Control for Quadrotor UAVs With Input Saturation

In this article, a novel adaptive sliding mode control strategy is presented for attitude and altitude stabilization of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), where the input saturation is taken into consideration. The nonlinear dynamic model of quadrotor UAV subject to system uncertainty and external disturbance is first derived using the Euler–Lagrange mechanical equation. To ensure system stability, as well as eliminating the negative effects of saturation features, a saturated adaptive sliding mode control law (ASMCSAT) is proposed, which takes advantages of the sliding mode control and the adaptive control. Compared with conventional control strategies, better tracking performance and disturbance and uncertainty rejection can be achieved with the root mean square of the tracking error being reduced by 34.91% in vertical takeoff and 30.11% in trajectory tracking. Simulations and experiments are provided to verify the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed control method.
TSP, a virulent Podovirus can control the growth of Staphylococcus aureus till 12 hours

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a prevailing nosocomial pathogen that causes a large number of diseases in healthcare and community settings. The MRSA causes infections in different tissues of immunocompromised individuals leading to increased morbidity and mortality. It possess various virulence mechanisms to show resistance against to a lot of beta-lactam antibiotics. To tackle this emerging issue of MRSA, there is an urgent need of antibiotic alternatives and utilizing lytic bacteriophages is one of the best promising therapeutic approach. In the present study, a lytic bacteriophage TSP was isolated from hospital wastewater against MRSA. Its morphology, physiology, host specificity, burst size and lytic spectrum were determined and complete genome sequence was analyzed. TSP phage efficiently inhibit bacterial growth for up to 12 hours. TSP phage showed broad lytic spectrum against clinical isolates of MRSA (78%) and MSSA (37%). It showed stability at varying temperatures (25ºC, 37ºC) and pH (5–9), while its maximum storage stability was observed at 4ºC. It had short latent period (20min) and high burst size (103 PFU/ infected cell). TSP genome sequence and restriction analysis revealed that its genome is linear having 17,987 bp in length with an average GC content of 29.7%. The TSP genome showed 98% similarity to S aureus phages SCH1, SCH11 and vB SauP-436A1. According to comparative genomic analysis and phylogenetic tree analysis, TSP phage can be considered as a member of genus “P68viruses”. The strong lytic activity, broad host range and short latent period along with absence of any lysogenic and toxic genes make TSP a very good candidate for phage therapy against MRSA infections if prove safe during in vivo studies.
Reaction coordinates and transition states in enzymatic catalysis

Enzymatic reactions are complex chemical processes taking place in complex dynamic environments. Theoretical characterization of these reactions requires the determination of the reaction coordinate and the transition state ensemble. This is not an easy task because many degrees of freedom may be involved in principle. We present recent efforts to find good enzymatic reaction coordinates and the implications of these findings in the interpretation of enzymatic efficiency. In particular, we analyze different strategies based on the use of minimum free energy paths and direct localization of the dividing surface on multidimensional free energy surfaces. Another strategy is based on the generation of reactive trajectories, using the transition path sampling method, from which transition state configurations can be harvested. Most of the applications carried out until now coincide to stress the change in the nature of the reaction coordinate, in terms of the participation of the chemical and environmental degrees of freedom, as the reaction advances. The degrees of freedom of the chemical system are dominant at the transition state while environmental participation can be more important at early or late stages of the process. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2018, 8:e1329. doi: 10.1002/wcms.1329
Qualitative Zoning of Groundwater to Assessment Suitable Drinking Water Using GIS Software in Mohammad Shahr, Meshkinshahr, and Mahdasht in Alborz Province

Microbiological and chemical sampling of drinking water wells in Mohammad Shahr, Meshkin Dasht and Mahdasht of Karaj was carried out. Water quality parameters were analyzed using GIS software. The results showed that the reason for the increase of sulfate could be attribution of acidic atmospheric precipitation and sulfate fertilizers. The level of magnesium in groundwater is less than the standard level. It is predicted that the reason for the relative increase of its concentration in parts of the region is related to the geological structure of that area. The unexpected rise of chloride in some wells has been observed due to geo-electric studies carried out in the region due to the presence of evaporate sediments and the influence of urban and rural post-water pollution and fossil waters. The results of measurement of nitrate and fluoride in the wells showed that the nitrate content is less than the standard values. The highest and lowest nitrate levels were found to be 35 mg / L and 4 mg / L, respectively. It was also observed that nitrate content in the measured seasons did not change much. This is due to the provision of drinking water from the groundwater resources, which are almost in constant quality. In the case of fluoride, the highest and lowest amount was 0.79 and 0.0 mg / L. Therefore, it is essential for the Alborz province water and wastewater company to install Fluorination machines on the distribution system.
Survey of Occupational Therapy Education in Telehealth

Telehealth delivered occupational therapy services are increasing, and students will need to be prepared to safely and ethically deliver telehealth services. Occupational therapy education standards require that students demonstrate knowledge of telehealth and related technology. However, there is a limited discussion in the literature on how programs are preparing students to deliver services via telehealth. This explanatory mixed methods study examined telehealth education in entry-level occupational therapy programs to understand if and how students are learning about telehealth. The quantitative portion involved a survey of 429 occupational therapy programs in the United States. The qualitative part involved four survey respondents in an interview. The low survey response rate (11.89%; N=51) brings into question if programs are comfortable talking about how they are meeting telehealth education standards. Survey respondents reported the use of lecture (98%) and electronic health records (55.1%) as the most frequently cited methods to deliver educational content about telehealth. Half of the programs did not include interactive content for students to apply telehealth knowledge and skills. The least frequently cited content included interaction with robotic arms (2.2%), telemonitoring (20%), provision of services through telehealth (20%), and use of gaming systems (23.9%). Three themes emerged from the interviews: educational activities, telehealth technology, and curriculum planning. Participants discussed a desire to add content and strategies for overcoming barriers to telehealth education such as utilizing existing technology and utilizing resources and experts. Telehealth education is not advancing as quickly as needed for application in practice. Students could benefit from added telehealth learning opportunities to become competent in telehealth service delivery. Published by Encompass, 202
An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in the Written Productions of Some Nigerien Senior Secondary School Students

This paper examines the grammatical errors in the written productions of senior secondary school students in/from Lycée Amadou Kouran Daga (henceforth LAKD), Zinder, Niger. It specifically seeks to describe, identify and classify the grammatical errors with a view to finding out the reasons of their occurrence in the students’ writings. The participants of the present study consist of 30 students (14 male and 16 female students) learning English as a foreign language. The data for the investigation were collected by means of an essay writing which required the participants to write a threeparagraph essay on one of the four narrative and descriptive topics provided. The collected data were then analyzed using Error Analysis and the simple descriptive statistics consisting of frequencies and percentages. The analysis revealed a total of 410 grammatical errors in the participants’ writing samples ranked by order of frequency and categories as follows: errors on tenses, spelling errors, agreement errors, preposition and article errors, verb errors, use of nouns, and adjectives. The analysis also showed that male participants committed more grammatical errors than their female counterparts. Further, using Surface Strategy Taxonomy, the findings revealed that the participants committed all the four types of grammatical error. Misformation errors were the most dominant type, followed by omission errors, addition errors, and misodering errors.
Biological and pharmacological evaluation of crude venom extracted from Tetraodon fahaka strigosus and Potamotrygon garouensis obtained from River Niger, Niger State, Nigeria

The present study investigates some biological and pharmacological effects of Tetraodon fahaka strigosus (Puffer fish) and Potamotrygon garouensis (Stingray) venom extracts. The saline extracts from skin and innards of T. fahaka strigosus and P. garouensis were used to evaluate haemolytic, enzymatic and in vitro antioxidants activities. In vivo determination of median lethal dose, some blood biochemical parameters and analgesics activities of the extracts in mice were also carried out. The result of this study showed that all extracts from both the puffer fish and stingray showed significantly haemolytic, proteolytic and phospholipase activities. The DPPH scavenging activity of different parts (innard and skin extracts) of puffer fish and stingray demonstrated significantly antioxidant activity at IC50 values 0.16 mg/ml and 0.15 mg/ml and 0.20 mg/ml and 0.01 mg/ml respectively; when compared to the negative control. Median lethal dose range between 31-90 mg/kg body weight. Furthermore, there was significant increase (p