Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relating farmers’ perceptions to long term dynamics in maize (Zea mays L.) production: The production of improved maize is coming to a standstill in central Malawi

Maize production, area and yield dynamics were assessed based on farmer perceptions and production data from 2004/05-2018/19 using 36 000 households in Salima, central Malawi. The results showed that farmers used 16, six and two varieties for hybrid, Open-pollinated varieties (OPV) and local maize respectively. Farmers sourced Hybrid and OPV maize seed from Private Agro dealers while local maize was own-sourced. Farmers preferred local maize for being cheap, good taste, low storage costs, and pest resistance although low yielding. They preferred hybrid and OPV maize for high yielding and early maturity despite demanding high storage costs, pest susceptibility, and low flour. From 2004/05-2018/19, the area under local and OPV maize reduced by 61% and 12% respectively, while that of hybrid maize increased by 49%. However, the consistent decrease in area for hybrid and OPV and significant increase of that of local maize from 2014/15-2018/19 may signal a catastrophic maize production in the region. From 2019/20-2025/26 production of all maize was projected at 44 172 tons by 2025/26, representing a 1.6% increase from the base year 2019/20. This increase will be due to favorable climatic conditions and not increase in area or yield. If maize yield was improved by 30% production would increase to 110 430 tons representing 67% of the food requirement in the study area. The current maize production trend in Salima does not guarantee food security prospects. Therefore, policymakers should consider reviewing the past interventions (input pricing, promotion strategies, sustainable practices, policies) in the maize subsector to enhance maize productivity.
Phylogenomics Reveals that Asaia Symbionts from Insects Underwent Convergent Genome Reduction, Preserving an Insecticide-Degrading Gene

We have studied genome reduction within several strains of the insect symbiont Asaia isolated from different species/strains of mosquito and medfly. Phylogenetically distant strains of Asaia, despite following a common pattern involving the loss of genes related to genome stability, have undergone independent genome reductions, highlighting the peculiar role of specific metabolic pathways in the symbiotic relationship between Asaia and its host. ABSTRACT The mosquito microbiota is composed of several lineages of microorganisms whose ecological roles and evolutionary histories have yet to be investigated in depth. Among these microorganisms, Asaia bacteria play a prominent role, given their abundance in the gut, reproductive organs, and salivary glands of different mosquito species, while their presence has also been reported in several other insects. Notably, Asaia has great potential as a tool for the control of mosquito-borne diseases. Here, we present a wide phylogenomic analysis of Asaia strains isolated from different species of mosquito vectors and from different populations of the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata, an insect pest of worldwide economic importance. We show that phylogenetically distant lineages of Asaia experienced independent genome reductions, despite following a common pattern, characterized by the early loss of genes involved in genome stability. This result highlights the role of specific metabolic pathways in the symbiotic relationship between Asaia and the insect host. Finally, we discovered that all but one of the Asaia strains included in the study possess the pyrethroid hydrolase gene. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that this gene is ancestral in Asaia, strongly suggesting that it played a role in the establishment of the symbiotic association between these bacteria and the mosquito hosts. We propose that this gene from the symbiont contributed to initial pyrethroid resistance in insects harboring Asaia, also considering the widespread production of pyrethrins by several plants. IMPORTANCE We have studied genome reduction within several strains of the insect symbiont Asaia isolated from different species/strains of mosquito and medfly. Phylogenetically distant strains of Asaia, despite following a common pattern involving the loss of genes related to genome stability, have undergone independent genome reductions, highlighting the peculiar role of specific metabolic pathways in the symbiotic relationship between Asaia and its host. We also show that the pyrethroid hydrolase gene is present in all the Asaia strains isolated except for the South American malaria vector Anopheles darlingi, for which resistance to pyrethroids has never been reported, suggesting a possible involvement of Asaia in determining resistance to insecticides.
A Type-Directed Operational Semantics For a Calculus with a Merge Operator (Artifact)

Calculi with disjoint intersection types and a merge operator provide general mechanisms that can subsume various other features. Such calculi can also encode highly dynamic forms of object composition, which capture common programming patterns in dynamically typed languages (such as JavaScript) in a fully statically typed manner. Unfortunately, unlike many other foundational calculi (such as System F , System F < : or Featherweight Java ), recent calculi with the merge operator lack a (direct) operational semantics with standard and expected properties such as determinism and subject-reduction . Furthermore the metatheory for such calculi can only account for terminating programs , which is a signiﬁcant restriction in practice. This paper proposes a type-directed operational semantics (TDOS) for λ : i : a calculus with intersection types and a merge operator . The calculus is inspired by two closely related calculi by Dunﬁeld (2014) and Oliveira et al. (2016). Although Dunﬁeld proposes a direct small-step semantics for her calculus, her semantics lacks both determinism and subject-reduction . Using our TDOS we obtain a direct semantics for λ : i that has both properties. To fully obtain determinism, the λ : i calculus employs a disjointness restriction proposed in Oliveira et al.’s λ i calculus. As an added beneﬁt the TDOS approach deals with recursion in a straightforward way, unlike λ i and subsequent calculi where recursion is problematic. To further relate λ : i to the calculi by Dunﬁeld and Oliveira et al. we show two results. Firstly, the semantics of λ : i is sound with respect to Dunﬁeld’s small-step semantics. Secondly, we show that the type system of λ : i is complete with respect to the λ i type system. All results have been fully formalized in the Coq theorem prover.
Effect of Organic Ligands on Biological Availability of Inorganic Phosphorus in Soils

Citrate, oxalate, tartrate and malate were added into soils during the growth period of ryegrass to study the effect of different organic ligands on the release various inorganic P (Pi) fractions in a yellow-brown soil and a paddy soil. The results showed that oxalate was most effective in promoting the release of total Pi in the yellow-brown soil and tartrate in the paddy soil. The dominant Pi fractions released from the yellow-brown soil were calcium phosphate (Ca-P) and aluminum phosphate (Al-P) and those from the paddy soil were iron phosphate (Fe-P) and reductant soluble phosphate (O-P) mobilized by tartrate. Phosphorous-mobilizing capability of organic acids in the yellow-brown soil revealed the following order: oxalate ＞ citrate ＞ malate ＞ tartrate. In the paddy soil, the order was tartrate ＞ citrate ≈ oxalate ＞ malate. It was demonstrated that organic ligands were different in their capabilities of mobilizing Pi and the same organic ligand showed also a discrepancy in mobilizing P in different soils. Although the addition of organic ligands into soils could increase the amount of P taken up by ryegrass, the more uptake of P, however, was not only due to the more release of Pi, but also partly from organic P. In many cases, organic ligands promoted the release of the total of the total Pi, while different fractions showed different trends: some increased and others decreased.
Heterosis Studies for Yield and Yield Attributing Traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under North Western Himalayan Region, India

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) being the crop of importance for both culinary and processing purpose, it has been cultivated over large area around the world. This crop exhibits rich genetic diversity for various horticultural traits and has a scope for its improvement. In tomato, the comparative ease of emasculation, high percentage of fruit setting and good number of seeds per fruit also facilitate the exploitation of heterosis. Yield being a complex quantitative character in tomato can be improved through improving its contributing traits, i.e. mean fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, and breadth and plant vigour. The genetic improvement of crop plants and exploitation of heterosis requires the selection of suitable parents and cross combinations. The selection of parents on the basis of per se performance does not necessarily lead to desirable results (Allard, 1960). Heterosis for various fruit quantitative and quality characters has been reported by Sahu et al., (2016) and Panchal et al., (2017) in tomato Hence, present International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 01 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Cough Classification for COVID-19 based on audio mfcc features using Convolutional Neural Networks

Cough analysis is an important area in the clinical diagnosis of various respiratory illnesses. Cough is the body's inundate mechanism to clear the throat and lungs of foreign material. It presents a great opportunity for the initial assessment of potential patients infected by COVID-19 which is a new virus. With symptoms like other respiratory illnesses, dry cough, fever and fatigue, it is challenging to classify probable Covid infection with no Covid data available yet. However, we propose a CNN based audio classifier [1] using the open cough dataset. The dataset is labeled manually into cough categories with final labeling into Covid and Non-Covid classes. The two approaches proposed in this paper are based on mfcc features and spectrogram images as input to CNN network. MFCC approach produced 70.58% test accuracy with 81% sensitivity and is better than the spectrogram-based approach.
Modeling of DC - AC NBTI Stress - Recovery Time Kinetics in P-Channel Planar Bulk and FDSOI MOSFETs and FinFETs

The physics-based BTI Analysis Tool (BAT) is used to model the time kinetics of threshold voltage shift (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ T}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) during and after NBTI in p-channel planar bulk and FDSOI MOSFETs and SOI FinFETs. BAT uses uncorrelated contributions from the trap generation at the channel/gate insulator interface (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ IT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and gate insulator bulk (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ OT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), and hole trapping in pre-existing gate insulator bulk traps (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ HT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ IT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> kinetics is simulated by the Reaction-Diffusion (RD) model. The empirical <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ HT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> model used earlier is now substituted by the Activated Barrier Double Well Thermionic (ABDWT) model. The ABDWT model is also used to verify the time constant of the electron capture induced fast <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ IT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> recovery. Empirical equations are used for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta {\mathrm{ V}}_{\mathrm{ OT}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The enhanced BAT modeling framework is validated using measured data from a wide range of experimental conditions and across different device architectures and gate insulator processes.
A Large-scale Data Set and an Empirical Study of Docker Images Hosted on Docker Hub

Docker is currently one of the most popular containerization solutions. Previous work investigated various characteristics of the Docker ecosystem, but has mainly focused on Dockerfiles from GitHub, limiting the type of questions that can be asked, and did not investigate evolution aspects. In this paper, we create a recent and more comprehensive data set by collecting data from Docker Hub, GitHub, and Bitbucket. Our data set contains information about 3,364,529 Docker images and 378,615 git repositories behind them. Using this data set, we conduct a large-scale empirical study with four research questions where we reproduce previously explored characteristics (e.g., popular languages and base images), investigate new characteristics such as image tagging practices, and study evolution trends. Our results demonstrate the maturity of the Docker ecosystem: we find more reliance on ready-to-use language and application base images as opposed to yet-to-be-configured OS images, a downward trend of Docker image sizes demonstrating the adoption of best practices of keeping images small, and a declining trend in the number of smells in Dockerfiles suggesting a general improvement in quality. On the downside, we find an upward trend in using obsolete OS base images, posing security risks, and find problematic usages of the latest tag, including version lagging. Overall, our results bring good news such as more developers following best practices, but they also indicate the need to build tools and infrastructure embracing new trends and addressing potential issues.
Accurate Extraction Method for Structural Features of Building Facades Through Texture Fusion

Facade structural features can represent the overall framework of buildings. However, structural features extracted by the current methods contain a quantity of trivial unstructured information. In this study, we proposed an accurate extraction method for structural features of building facades through texture fusion. By performing texture fusion on building facade images, the interference of textural elements on structural feature extraction could be eliminated. After texture fusion, the line segment detector (LSD) algorithm is used to extract the structural features from the building facade images, and random sample consensus (RANSAC) is used to improve the continuity of structural features. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated by comparing results with the state-of-the-art methods, such as LSD, MLSD, CannyLines, and MCMLSD. Value setting of three important parameters is discussed in detail. The imagery facade features extracted through the proposed method provide valuable support for many fields, such as image feature registration and 3D reconstruction of building surfaces.
A Parallel Education Based Intelligent Tutoring Systems Framework

although online education has improved efficiency of learners' access to high-quality educational resources, realtime interaction between instructors and learners have not yet been achieved in online personalized learning. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) provides a feasible way to realize realtime personalized learning guidance and resource recommendations by applying AI to capture and analyze online learners' characteristics and behaviors. In this paper, reviews and trends of ITS are discussed and three challenges of ITS research &development are pointed out: learner model, guidance mechanism and human-computer interaction mechanism. In order to address these issues, parallel intelligence theory is introduced and a parallel intelligence education based ITS framework is proposed.
Structure-Function Studies of Anthrax Protective Antigen Octamer

AbstractStructure-Function Studies of Anthrax Protective Antigen OctamerbyAlexander Frederick KintzerDoctor of Philosophy in ChemistryUniversity of California, Berkeley Professor Bryan Krantz, ChairThe assembly of bacterial toxins and virulence factors is critical to their function, but the regulation of holotoxin assembly during infection has not been studied. The protective antigen (PA) component of the toxin assembles into ring-shaped homooligomers that bind the two other enzyme components of the toxin, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), to form toxic complexes. To disrupt the host, these toxic complexes are endocytosed, such that the PA oligomer forms a membrane-spanning channel that LF and EF translocate through to enter the cytosol. We found using single-channel electrophysiology that PA channels contain two populations of conductance states, which correspond with two different PA pre-channel oligomers observed by electron microscopy--the well-described heptamer and a novel octamer. Octameric complexes are likely integral to the PA assembly mechanism, as dimeric and tetrameric intermediates are the intial populated species during assembly. While complexes are functional translocases, a 3.2A crystal structure suggests that the PA octamer prechannel may be more thermodynamically stable than the heptamer. Indeed, the octamer comprises 20-30% of the oligomers on cells, but predominates (70-80%) during assembly in physiological plasma. To probe the mechanism of octamer stability, we measured the pH-dependence of channel formation using circular dichroism, mass spectrometry, and electron microscopy. We found that octamers form channels at lower pH than heptamers. This results in heptamer inactivation under physiological conditions, while LT complexes containing octameric PA maintain maximal cytotoxic activity. Thus the PA octamer is a physiological, stable, and active assembly state capable of forming lethal toxins that may withstand the hostile conditions encountered in the bloodstream. This assembly mechanism demonstrates a novel means to control cytotoxicity during anthrax infection.Finally, we studied the mechanism of channel formation. We found from structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic studies that two barriers define the prechannel to channel transition--a pH-dependent and independent process. Further analysis revealed that the protonation of the membrane insertion loop, dissociation of domains 2 and 4, and interactions with phenylalanine-clamp comprise the rate-limiting, pH-dependent barrier.
Measurements and Analysis of Personal Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields at Outdoor and Indoor School Buildings: A Case Study at a Spanish School

Personal exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields (RF-EMF) has increased due to the development of a society of information and the implementation of new technologies. Most studies about RF-EMF are focused on adult exposure in different microenvironments, but these studies do not usually consider places where children are exposed. We present results of measurements and analysis of personal exposure to RF-EMF at outdoor and indoor school buildings, at a Spanish school, a place where children and employees spend a significant time period and are exposed to RF-EMF. The highest exposure levels were recorded inside school buildings during the week, and around the school area during the weekend. Our measurements show that levels of RF-EMF intensity from Wi-Fi band registered around school area are affected by Wi-Fi from neighbors of residential areas. Exposure levels from Wi-Fi band and mobile phone antennas are below reference levels established by international guidelines.
Assessment of a Nine-Phase Induction Motor Drive for Metal Industry Applications

Metal industries combine several conditions that match with the advantages of multiphase motor drives, such as high power and high reliability. High power usually means cumbersome multilevel converters, with very expensive high-blocking voltage semiconductors. By adding more phases, it is possible to reduce the motor drive voltage levels and to use two-level converters with more common and less expensive low-blocking voltage power modules. High reliability means lower probability of unexpected production interruption, which is achieved by the fault-tolerant characteristic of the multiphase motor drive. In this article, a wire rod plant is depicted and the replacement of a traditional three-phase motor drive by a nine-phase one is discussed. Experimental results showing the effects of faults in multiphase drive on torque and current waveforms are presented, including their mitigation by the use of a post fault control method. This article also includes reliability calculations for the nine-phase motor drive in order to compare its lifetime with that of the three-phase conventional alternative.
A Minimal RISC-V Vector Processor for Embedded Systems

This paper presents the first RISC-V vector processor design aimed at microcontrollers that uses the new RISC-V ‘V’ extension for vectors, part of the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). Being aimed at small embedded devices, it demonstrates a simpler method of parallel execution than traditional vector architectures to minimise logic. It has been synthesised for testing on an FPGA at 50MHz. Typical vector-compatible applications have been used as benchmarks. Performance has been improved by up to 5.8x for the demonstrated applications relative to a comparable scalar RISC-V processor, for an increase in FPGA resource utilisation of at most 2.6x.
The Effect of Participation in Scientific Research and Conference on Vocational Teachers’ Competence

Teacher competencies can be influenced by several factors, but not all factors that affect teacher competencies can be well described. This research attempts to answer some of the problems through differences analysis, which is the effect of participation in scientific research and conference on vocational teachers’ competencies. A total of 77 vocational school teachers in Indonesia’s East Java province were used as samples, and research data were obtained from participants of vocational teacher competency tests. This research uses a survey method through expose facto research with a quantitative approach. The data obtained are then analyzed by analysis of variance techniques. The results of the study conclude 1) teacher’s participation in scientific forums and participation status in scientific meetings have a nonsignificant effect on vocational teacher competency, 2) the frequency of writing articles has a non-significant impact on the competencies of vocational teachers, 3) vocational high school teachers’ research experience gives a non-significant effect on the competencies of vocational teachers. The results of this study are expected to be input for improving the competence of vocational teachers in Indonesia.
Comparison of Double Gain Continuous Input Non-Isolated Boost Converters

DC-DC non-isolated high gain converters are popular in various power conversion applications; in PV systems, these converters are operated as impedance matching system and used for regulating the output voltage to desired values. In this paper, a comprehensive comparison of performance indices of the converter such as components current-voltage stress, source-current, and load-voltage ripples of double gain $(M= \frac{2}{1-D})$ boost converter are analyzed.