Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seasonal variations in physiological response and heat tolerance indices of Sahiwal, HF x Sahwial crossbred and Hill (Badri) Cattle under farm conditions of Uttarakhand

Present investigation was conducted on Sahiwal, crossbred (Sahiwal x Holstein Friesian) and Hill (Badri) cattle to study the effect of season on physiological response and heat tolerance indices under farm condition in foot hills of Uttarakhand. Physiological responses of eighteen primiparous lactating cows (four in each group) were recorded daily in morning (9:00 am) and evening (3:00 pm) for 20 days in summer, rainy and winter season. Heat tolerance indices like Temperature humidity index, Iberia heat tolerance coefficient, Benezara coefficient of adaptability and Dairy search index were calculated. There was a significant (P≤0.05) difference between mean morning and evening rectal temperature (RT), respiration (RR) and pulse rate (PR) between indigenous and crossbred cows during summer and rainy season. Also significant (P≤0.05) difference was found between winter vs. summer/ rainy season with respect to morning and evening RT, RR and PR in all the groups. Crossbred cows had RT, RR and PR than indigenous counterparts in all the season. In winter all physiological parameters were significantly (P≤0.05) lower than summer/ rainy season in all the groups. Heat tolerance indices indicated that Sahiwal cows were more heat resistant than Hill (Badri) cows and crossbred cows, the least heat resistant during summer and rainy season. Moreover, during winter season none of the groups were under climatic stress. Study indicated that indigenous breeds were more adaptive to the stressful climatic condition in foot hills of Uttarakhand.
Insularity and Religious Life: The Case of Hellenistic Ikaros/Failaka Island

This paper explores the notion of insularity and religious life in the sacred landscape of Ikaros/Failaka with a particular focus on the Hellenistic period. The little island of Ikaros/Failaka in the Persian Gulf had a long pre-Hellenistic religious history and was occupied by Alexander, explored by his officials and became part of the Seleucid kingdom. From the mid-20th century, archaeological missions working on the nesiotic space of the Persian Gulf have revealed material evidence that has altered our view of this remote part of the Hellenistic world. Research revealed a flourishing network of cultural communication and contacts between the indigenous population of the East and Greco-Macedonians. These interactions mirror the landscape of the Hellenistic East. Thus Ikaros/Failaka, an island on the periphery of the Seleucid kingdom, situated at a strategic point (near the mouth of the River Euphrates and close to the shores of the Persian Gulf) appears to be part of a chain of locations that possessed political/military, economic, and religious importance for the Seleucids. It became a fruitful landscape, where the Seleucids pursued their political and religious agenda.
Performance persistence and optimal asset allocation strategies

This study explores whether optimal asset allocation strategies, defined by permutations and combinations of different predictor variables, produce consistently superior performance for investors. We extend the literature by exploring whether such strategies benefit investors over the entire investment period or whether investors are forced to switch among alternative strategies over time. As benchmarks, we employ the 1/N (equally weighted) and the myopic (no predictability) strategies. Persistence tests suggest that no single optimal strategy outperforms the remaining optimal and benchmark strategies over the entire sample. However, in two out of three subsample periods, some optimal strategies persistently outperform the benchmarks.
TECHNOLOGICAL STUDIES OF SOME AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES ON THE YIELD AND IT'S QUALITY OF CANOLA (Brassica napus L.)

The experimental field was carried out at a Farm of Ghazala Village, Zagazig District, Faculty of Technology and Development (Sharkia Governorate) during 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 growing seasons to study the effect of planting density (5, 10 and 15 cm) and nitrogen fertilizer levels ( zero, 40, 60 and 80 Kg N / fad. ), on seed, straw yield and its components for three Canola varieties (Serw 4, Serw 6 and Pactol). The results showed that Pactol variety achieved higher values and significantly increased compared Serw 4, Serw 6 varieties in number of branches and straw yield. Also, the same trend was found in seed yield. Since Pactol variety was high significant gave the higher in seed yield and their components i.e., number of pods / plant, number of seeds / pod, 1000-seed weight (g) and seed yield ton / fad. , protein and oil %. Highly significant differences were found among planting density (5, 10 and 15 cm), equal (335.838, 167.885 and 111.877plant / fad.), in seed and straw yields and its components. Whereas (15 cm ) planting density gave higher in characters in number of branches / plant, straw yield, number of pods / plant, 1000-seed weight (g), seed yield, protein and oil percentages. lowest in the respect. Conclusively , the results indicated that, seed yield appeared positive and significant or highly significant correlation with number of seeds / pod, 1000-seed weight, straw yield, oil and protein percentage.
A Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Novel Risk Loci for Sarcopenia in a Taiwanese Population

Purpose A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of sarcopenia unraveled the importance of genetic contribution to decline in muscle. The current study investigated sarcopenia-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in Asian older adults, and further constructed a genotype score that tests the combined effect of these SNPs on risk of sarcopenia. Patients and Methods Ninety-six subjects aged 60 or above were recruited from the database of annual geriatric health examination at Tri-Service General Hospital during 2020. Eligible criteria included: 1) not having severe comorbidities; 2) agreed to join the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative project; and 3) having sufficient information of required sarcopenic measurements. Genotype–phenotype association analysis was performed to find SNPs that were significantly associated with each of three sarcopenic indices (low muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance). Subsequently, these SNPs comprised a sarcopenia-related genotype score that summed up the number of SNPs carrying unfavorable allele(s). Results Twelve SNPs revealed suggestive genome-wide significance with the three sarcopenic indices, and eight of them revealed a relationship with more than one index. Low muscle strength was the item that had the most (eight) related SNPs. Among them, rs10282247 affects cholesterol binding and rs7022373 participates in cellular apoptosis. In addition, higher genotype score demonstrated higher risk of sarcopenia (≥4 points: OR=630.6; 2–3 points: OR=408, p-value<0.001). Conclusion Several newly discovered SNPs suggest that genetic contribution plays a part in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia. Further studies are warranted to verify the underlying mechanisms. Moreover, a genotype score provides an estimate of the combined effect of genetic association with sarcopenia, which may modestly improve clinical risk classification.
Halotolerant microresidents of mangrove swamps are among the pillars of barley development in salt-affected environments

There is evidence to propose a close microbe-nutrient-plant weave that functions as a mechanism to recycle and conserve nutrients in the mangrove ecosystem. Thirty two bacterial isolates representing the microbiome of mangrove community at Safaga, Koseir, Red Sea governorate were secured from sediment and water samples. Based on colony and cell morphology as well as physiological characteristics, the isolates were found to belong to twelve various genera. Nine salt tolerant isolates were further identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence and the phylogenetic tree was constructed which indicated that the majority of isolates are belonging to Bacillus besides the genera Kocuria, Nesiotobacter, Psychrobacillus, Salinivibrio, Serrratia and Vibrio. All strains shared more than 86 % identify with their closest phylogenetic relatives. They were examined for enzyme activities and biochemical reactions. The salt stress-tolerant enzyme activities for acid- and alkaline-phosphatases, amylase, nitrogenase, protease and urease were found variable among the isolates being 0.82 - 28.93; 0.07 - 37.01; 1.05 - 65.32; 0.42 - 0.54; 7.90 - 49.89 and 1.02 - 8.56 nmoles ml-1 culture h-1, respectively. The isolates did possess the ability to produce indole acetic acid (59.05 - 163.21 µmoles ml-1), gibbrillic acid (14.82 - 30.71 µmoles ml-1), exopolysaccharides (0.14 - 1.83 µmoles ml-1) besides solubilizing phosphates (1.15 - 11.62 µmoles ml-1) in 7.2 % NaCl-salted culture media. The pioneeric three halophilic candidates (Bacillus jeotgali, Bacillus oceanisediminis and Psycrobacillus psychrodurans) were experimented as biofertilizers for barley cultivated in soil irrigated with saline water. Salinity dramatically reduced plant growth and yield components. Total biomass decreased by ca. 70 % due to irrigation with saline water. Bacterial inoculation alleviated, to an extent, the toxic impact of high salinity, an effect that was inoculum-dependent. Inoculation significantly enhanced proline accumulation in barley tissues, the quantities in shoots exceeded those of roots being 34.9 and 68.9 mg g-1 Dw in average, respectively. The Na+ concentration significantly increased in saline water-irrigated plants, this was accompanied by decreases in K+ contents and wider Na+: K+ ratios. Salinity adversely affected leaf area, spike and 1000 grain weights. The triple-isolate inoculum seemed the superior in restricting the deleterious influence of high salinity on plant development.
Finite‐time adaptive fuzzy command filtering control for stochastic nonlinear systems with input quantization

This article focuses on the finite‐time adaptive fuzzy control problem based on command filtering for stochastic nonlinear systems subject to input quantization. Fuzzy logic systems are employed to estimate unknown nonlinearities. In the control design, the hysteretic quantized input is decomposed into two bounded nonlinear functions, which solves the chattering problem. Meanwhile, an adaptive fuzzy controller is presented by the combination of command filter technique and backstepping control, which eliminates the computational complexity existing in traditional backstepping design. Under the proposed adaptive mechanism, all the closed‐loop signals remain bounded while the desired system performance can be realized within finite time. The main significance of this work is that (1) the filtering error can be solved on the basis of the designed compensating signals; (2) the requirement of adaptive parameters is decreased to only one, which simplifies the controller design process and may improve the control performance. Two simulation examples are used to validity of the developed scheme.
LncRNA PVT1 Promotes Hypoxia-Induced Cardiomyocyte Injury by Inhibiting miR-214-3p

Objective To explore the effect and related mechanism of LncRNA PVT1 on hypoxia-induced cardiomyocyte injury. Methods PVT1RNA and miR-214-3p levels were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cell vitality and apoptosis were, respectively, evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and flow cytometry analysis. Starbase and Dual luciferase reporter (DLR) gene assay was employed to validate the interaction between miR-214-3p and PVT1. Results PVT1 was statistically upregulated, and miR-214-3p was statistically downregulated in hypoxia-induced H9c2 cells. The survival rate of H9c2 cells induced by hypoxia decreased statistically, while the apoptosis rate increased statistically (P < 0.05). PVT1 knockdown upregulated the hypoxia-induced H9c2 cell viability and inhibited apoptosis. DLR assay verified the targeting relationship between PVT1 and miR-214-3p. In addition, miR-214-3p inhibitors reversed the viability of H9c2 cells with PVT1 knockout and promoted apoptosis. Conclusion Silencing PVT1 can enhance the hypoxia-induced H9c2 cell viability and inhibit apoptosis, providing a potential target for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Relationship between Serum Bortezomib Concentration and Emergence of Diarrhea in Patients with Multiple Myeloma and/or AL Amyloidosis

Simple Summary Multiple myeloma patients have benefited from bortezomib therapy, though it has often been discontinued owing to diarrhea. The objective of this study was to verify serum bortezomib concentration in the emergence of diarrhea. Twenty-four patients with bortezomib therapy were recruited; eight patients (33.3%) developed diarrhea at day 3 as median. The median measured trough bortezomib concentration at 24 h after first or second dose for patients with or without diarrhea was 0.87 or 0.48 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.04, Wilcoxon signed rank test). Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) analysis produced the cut-off concentration of 0.857 ng/mL (area under the ROC curve of 0.797, sensitivity of 0.625, specificity of 0.875). In conclusion, this study indicated the possible involvement of serum bortezomib concentration in the emergence of diarrhea in bortezomib therapy in patients with multiple myeloma. Abstract (1) Background: multiple myeloma patients have benefited from bortezomib therapy, though it has often been discontinued owing to diarrhea. The objective of this study was to verify serum bortezomib concentration in the emergence of diarrhea. (2) Methods: this prospective, observational case-control, and monocentric study was performed with an approval by the Ethics Committee of Kumamoto University Hospital in 2015 (No. 1121) from February 2015 to April 2017. (3) Results: twenty-four patients with bortezomib therapy were recruited; eight patients (33.3%) developed diarrhea at day 3 as median. Median measured trough bortezomib concentration at 24 h after first or second dose for patients with or without diarrhea was 0.87 or 0.48 ng/mL, respectively (p = 0.04, Wilcoxon signed rank test). Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) analysis produced the cut-off concentration of 0.857 ng/mL (area under the ROC curve of 0.797, sensitivity of 0.625, specificity of 0.875). The survival curves between patients with and without diarrhea were similar (p = 0.667); those between patients with higher and lower concentration than median value (0.61 ng/mL) were also similar (p = 0.940). (4) Conclusions: this study indicated the possible involvement of serum bortezomib concentration in the emergence of diarrhea in bortezomib therapy in patients with multiple myeloma.
Low concentrations of a polyphenolic extract from pine bark in high–concentrate diets decrease in vitro rumen ammonia nitrogen but not methane production

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to assess the effects of small supplemental doses of a polyphenolic extract from pine bark (PBE) on CH4 output and ruminal fermentation parameters when incubated in batch culture with a high–concentrate diet for 24–h. The data from the dietary substrates supplemented with 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2, 1.5 and 1.8% of PBE were evaluated in a randomized complete block design, and compared using ANOVA followed by Tukey's test and polynomial contrasts. Increasing doses of the PBE caused a linear decrease of the NH3–N concentration (p < 0.001), the potentially degradable dry matter (DM) fraction (p = 0.002), the partitioning factor (p = 0.001), CH4 production and proportion (p = 0.001 and p = 0.029, respectively), although only at 6–h, achieving the lowest productions (p = 0.016) with 1.5 and 1.8% PBE. In contrast, the PBE linearly increased asymptotic gas production (p = 0.007), gas yield (p = 0.004), pH (p = 0.002) and the short–chain fatty acid concentration (p < 0.001) at 24–h. Addition of least 1.5% PBE to high–concentrate diets reduces CH4 production by 31% at 6–h, whereas NH3–N concentration is reduced by 31% at 24–h incubations.
An Efficient Heartbeats Classifier Based on Optimizing Convolutional Neural Network Model

Recently, deep learning models have emerged as promising methods for the diagnosis of different diseases. Cardiac disease is among the leading life-threatening diseases on a global scale. The aim of this paper is to propose an optimized Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model for the classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) heartbeat data. The proposed ECG classification approach is designed with an optimal CNN configuration to classify cardiac arrhythmias quickly and effectively. Finding an optimal configuration for the CNN hyperparameters is time-consuming and needs extensive experimentation. To overcome this challenge, we present an optimization step for the proposed CNN model using a customized genetic algorithm. It provides an automatic suggestion for the best hyperparameter settings of the proposed CNN. The challenge in utilizing the genetic algorithm is that its operators need to be customized to handle our problem domain. Our approach accepts raw ECG signals without any preprocessing steps, which has benefit in saving the computation time. Our approach also provides a resampling step to ensure generalization, to better handle imbalanced ECG classes. Experiments show promising results of our proposed approach against other approaches whose CNN hyperparameters setting depended on numerous trials, requiring extensive ECG feature extraction steps, and do not consider imbalanced classes. The performance of our proposed approach is better than other existing methods both in terms of higher classification accuracy (98.45%), and lower computational complexity.
Fitful and protracted magma assembly leading to a giant eruption, Youngest Toba Tuff, Indonesia

The paroxysmal eruption of the 74 ka Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) of northern Sumatra produced an extraordinary 2800 km3 of nonwelded to densely welded ignimbrite and coignimbrite ashfall. We report insights into the duration of YTT magma assembly obtained from ion microprobe U‐Th and U‐Pb dates, including continuous age spectra over >50% of final zircon growth, for pumices and a welded tuff spanning the compositional range of the YTT. A relatively large subpopulation of zircon crystals nucleated before the penultimate caldera‐related eruption at 501 ka, but most zircons yielded interior dates 100–300 ka thereafter. Zircon nucleation and growth was likely episodic and from diverse conditions over protracted time intervals of >100 to >500 ka. Final zircon growth is evident as thin rim plateaus that are in Th/U chemical equilibrium with hosts, and that give crystallization ages within tens of ka of eruption. The longevity and chemical characteristics of the YTT zircons, as well as evidence for intermittent zircon isolation and remobilization associated with magma recharge, is especially favored at the cool and wet eutectoid conditions that characterize at least half of the YTT, wherein heat fluxes could dissolve major phases but have only a minor effect on larger zircon crystals. Repeated magma recharge may have contributed to the development of compositional zoning in the YTT but, considered together with limited allanite, quartz, and other mineral dating and geospeedometry, regular perturbations to the magma reservoir over >400 ka did not lead to eruption until 74 ka ago.
Artificial Cognition for Early Leaf Disease Detection using Vision Transformers

There are many kinds of cassava leaf diseases firmly harm cassava yield, including four main types as followings: Cassava Bacterial Blight (CBB), Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), Cassava Green Mottle (CGM), and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD). In a traditional way, leaf diseases were diagnosed intuitively by farmers. This process is inefficient and unreliable. Several studies have recently relied on deep neural networks for identifying leaf diseases. In this research, we exploit the novel model named Vision Transformer (ViT) in place of a convolution neural network (CNN) for classifying cassava leaf diseases. Experimental results show that this model can obtain competitive accuracy at least 1% higher than popular CNN models (EfficientNet, Resnet50d) on Cassava Leaf Disease Dataset. These results also indicate the potential superiority of the ViT over established methods in analyzing leaf diseases. Next, we quantize the original model and successfully deploy it onto the Edge device named Raspberry Pi 4, which can be attached to a drone that allows farmers to automatically and efficiently detect infected leaves. This result has a significant capability for many future applications in smart agriculture.
IMPACT OF AGRICULTURE DRAINAGE CONDITIONS ON WATERTABLE RECESSION AND SOME CLAY SOIL PROPERTIES, NILE DELTA.

An experimental field was constructed on a heavy clay soil at the northeast Delta (Dakhlia Governorate) to study the effect of different tile drain spacings on watertable recession and some physical and chemical properties of heavy clay soil. The experimental field was provided by tile drainage system with three drain spacing treatments (15, 30 and 60 m) at fixed depth of 1.5 m. The results indicated that by the end of the irrigation interval (after three weeks), the watertable level went deeper to reach 131, 103 and 94 cm soil depth for 15, 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing treatment, respectively. The average watertable drawdown rate through an irrigation interval was 6.24, 4.90 and 4.48 cm/day for the corresponding treatments. The watertable drawdown ratio (ht/Ho) decreased as the tile drain spacing became wider. It was 0.87, 0.69 and 0.63 after three week for the corresponding treatments. The soil moisture content increased as tile drain spacing increased. It increased by 16 and 26% in surface layer and by 18 and 30% in subsurface layer under 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing, respectively compared to the narrow one. Soil bulk density increased as tile drain spacing increased. It increased by 4 and 11 % in surface layer and by 3 and 9% in subsurface layer under 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing, respectively compared to the narrow one. Total soil porosity decreased as tile drain spacing increased. It decreased by 3 and 9 % in surface layer and by 3 and 8% in subsurface layer under 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing, respectively compared to the narrow one. Tile drain spacing treatments realized a postive effect on soil salinity. The reduction in soil salinity followed the order of: 15> 30> 60 m tile drain spacing. The soil salinity was reduced by 13 and 41 % in surface layer and by 26 and 39 % in the subsurface layer under 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing, respectively compared to the narrow one. The reduction in soil sodicity followed the order of: 15> 30> 60 m tile drain spacing. The soil sodicity reduced by 13 and 46 % in surface layer and by 24 and 46 % in the subsurface layer under 30 and 60 m tile drain spacing, respectively compared to the narrow one. Tile drain spacing treatments realized an enhancing effect which progressively as time proceeded by lowering the water table and accelerated its recession, particularly under narrow spacing traetment. However, treatment of 30 m drain spacing gave satisfactory results by lowering watertable and reducing salinity and alkalinity with improving soil physical properties. It is also reduce drainage costs. Also, tile drainage spacing treatments promoted a favourable conditions by decreasing soil salinity and sodicity and creating a suitable soil moisture content which plays an important role in improving soil moisture-aeration status in the root zone.