Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STUDIES ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF DIFFERENT CULINARY CULTIVARS OF BANANA

An experiment was conducted at Horticultural Research Station, Kovvur (A.P.), India to study the growth and development of different culinary cultivars of banana for recommending suitable cultivar with higher yield for cultivation under coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. Maximum plant height was recorded in Booditha Bontha Batheesa whereas, pseudostem girth and leaves per plant were recorded highest in FHIA-03 hybrid. Similarly, more leaf area was registered in FHIA-03 Hybrid. In Kothia cultivar, shooting was early and same trend was followed for days to harvest also. The highest bunch weight and per ha yield was recorded in FHIA-03 whereas, finger length and girth were maximum in Booditha Bontha Batheesa.
Statins—From Fungi to Pharmacy

Statins have been used in the treatment of hyperlipidemia, both as monotherapy and in combination therapy. Natural fermentation processes of fungi such as Monascus spp. , Penicillium spp. , Aspergillus terreus, and Pleurotus ostreatus have given rise to natural statins. Compactin (mevastatin), the original naturally occurring statin, is the primary biotransformation substrate in the manufacturing process of marketed drugs. Statins are classified into natural, semi-synthetic derivatives of natural statins, and synthetic ones. Synthetic statins differ from natural statins in their structural composition, with the only common feature being the HMG-CoA-like moiety responsible for suppressing HMG-CoA reductase. Statins do not differ significantly regarding their pleiotropic and adverse effects, but their characteristics depend on their pharmacokinetic parameters and chemical properties. This paper focuses on describing the processes of obtaining natural statins, detailing the pharmacokinetics of available statins, divided into natural and synthetic, and indicating their pleiotropic effects.
Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of Northern Midcontinent Shelf and biostratigraphic correlation of cyclothems

The Midcontinent Basin of North America contains well-exposed Pennsylvanian lithostratigraphic units and largely well-defined biostratigraphic zones that form the basis for the North American regional stages. These are the Morrowan, Atokan, Desmoinesian, Missourian, and Virgilian, in ascending order, of which only the Atokan-Desmoinesian stage boundary is not yet well defined. The Morrowan-Atokan part of the succession is exposed mainly in northwestern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The Desmoinesian-Virgilian part of the succession on the northern Midcontinent Shelf (Iowa and Nebraska through Missouri and Kansas to northern Oklahoma) is best exposed south of the limit of Pleistocene glaciation from Kansas City southward, where well over 200 lithostratigraphic formations and members, and at least 120 genetic cyclothems of various scales are recognized. Biostratigraphic zones based primarily on conodonts, plus stratigraphic position, allow correlation of most major cyclothems into the Illinois Basin and several of them into the Appalachian Basin as well.
Radialimbricatus, a new ichnogenus from the lacustrine sandstone facies of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation, South Korea

Lee, D. -C. February 2017. Radialimbricatus, a new ichnogenus from the lacustrine sandstone facies of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation, South Korea. Alcheringa XX, XXX–XXX. The trace fossil Radialimbricatus igen. nov. with type species of R. bitoensis isp. nov. occurs in river-mouth-bar sandstone beds of a lacustrine sequence of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation in South Korea. Radialimbricatus is a horseshoe-shaped or elliptical, convex hyporelief structure characterized by imbrication of traces with radial ridges and a median furrow. These features differentiate Radialimbricatus from arthropod ichnofossils such as Rusophycus and Cruziana, possibly cnidarian ichnofossils such as Astropolichnus and vermiform organism ichnofossils such as Oldhamia. Cross-sectional features of R. bitoensis, including upward mud protrusions at lateral margins, demonstrate that R. bitoensis can be formed as an open epigenic furrow at the water/mud interface or an endogenic burrow along the sand/mud interface at the same time. Analysis of discrete and imbricating horseshoe-shaped traces indicates that the tracemaker maintained an obligate inclined posture even when forming trails. The radial ridges and pit along the median furrow are interpreted to reflect feeding behaviour, and the imbrication to result from unidirectional and more or less regular movements to next feeding sites. The tracemaker is thought to have been an organism with an elliptical body outline, radially arranged body parts at the base of or around the body (probably for collecting and transporting foods and moving to feeding sites) and a mouth near the centre of the body, which is consistent with body plan features of arthropods, cnidarians and annelids. Dong-Chan Lee [dclee@chungbuk.ac. kr], Department of Earth Sciences Education, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 28644, South Korea.
Salinity tolerance of laboratory reared fingerlings of common carp, Cyprinus carpio (Linn.) during different seasons

Summary of daily feeding response of C. carpio in different salinity regimes during summer. Days Salinity concentrations 0 ppt 1.5 ppt 3 ppt 6 ppt 12 ppt 0 HA HA HA HA LA 7 HA HA HA HA D 14 HA HA HA HA D 21 HA HA HA MA D 28 HA HA HA MA D 35 HA HA HA MA D 42 HA HA HA MA D 49 HA HA HA MA D 56 HA HA HA MA D 60 HA HA HA MA D HA= High Appetite, MA= Moderate Appetite, LA= Low Appetite, D= Death Table 5: Summary of daily feeding response of C. carpio in different salinity regimes during autumn. Days Salinity concentrations 0 ppt 1.5 ppt 3 ppt 6 ppt 12 ppt 0 HA HA HA HA LA 7 HA HA HA HA D 14 HA HA HA HA D 21 HA HA HA HA D 28 HA HA HA HA D 35 HA HA HA MA D 42 HA HA HA MA D 49 HA HA HA MA D 56 HA HA HA MA D 60 HA HA HA MA D HA= High Appetite, MA= Moderate Appetite, LA= Low Appetite, D= Death Table 6: Summary of daily feeding response of C. carpio in different salinity regimes during winter.
Measuring the efficiency of government-owned banks during the COVID-19 pandemic in the emerging economy

This study aims to examine the technical efficiency of Indonesian government-owned banks, especially evaluating their performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used quarterly data ranging from the year 2019 to 2022 and a non-parametric approach known as a data envelopment analysis (DEA), and Tobit regression. Our findings show that Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Tabungan Nasional (BTN) are the most efficient and stable banks during the observation periods. In addition, the average efficiency trend shows a sharp decreasing trend in all banks from Q2 2020, the period when the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread in Indonesia. Furthermore, the Tobit regression result found that financial ratios — capital adequacy ratio (CAR), loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR), and return on assets (ROA) — have a significant positive impact to affect the efficiency level of the government-owned bank, whereas the bank’s size was found insignificant (Susamto et al., 2023; Ikhwan & Riani, 2022). The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by specifically focusing on measuring the relative efficiency of government-owned banks in Indonesia in the most recent period in addition to existing, which represents the period before and during the pandemic crisis, which would fill the gaps in the available literature.
Surface creep on the North Anatolian Fault at Ismetpasa, Turkey, 1944–2016

We reevaluate the 72 year history of surface slip on the North Anatolian Fault at Ismetpasa since the Mw = 7.4 1944 Bolu/Gerede earthquake. A revised analysis of published observations suggests that days after the earthquake the fault had been offset by 3.7 m and 6 years later by an additional 0.74 m. Creep was first recognized on the fault in 1969 as a 0.13 m offset of a wall constructed in 1957 that now (2016) has been offset by 0.52 m. A carbon rod creep meter operated across the fault in the past 2 years confirms results from an invar wire creep meter operated 1982–1991 that surface slip is episodic. Months of fault inactivity are interrupted by slow slip (≤10 µm/d) or multiple creep events with cumulative amplitudes of 2–10 mm, durations of several weeks, and with slip rates briefly exceeding >2.5 mm/h. Creep events accommodate 80% of the surface slip and individually release ≈ 10−6 shear strain on the flanks of the uppermost 3–7 km of the fault. GPS and interferometric synthetic aperture radar methods yield a current fault slip rate of 7.6 ± 1 mm/yr suggesting that creep meters incompletely sample the full width of the surface shear zone. The slip rate has slowed from >10 mm/yr in 1969 to 6.1 mm/yr at present, 4.65 mm/yr of which appears to be due to steady interseismic creep driven by plate boundary stressing rates. We calculate that a further 1 m of aseismic surface slip will precede the next major earthquake on the fault assuming an ≈ 260 year main shock recurrence interval on this segment.
Seeking reasons for the differences in size spectra of electrified storms over land and ocean

This study expands upon the results of Bang and Zipser (2015), which demonstrated that oceanic precipitation features with lightning tended to be over 10 times larger and more stratiform than those over continents and suggested the hypothesis that some form of external forcing is acting in ways that lead to both larger features and stronger updrafts over tropical oceans. In this work, we evaluate this hypothesis by using reanalysis data to compare large‐scale vertical motion and thermodynamic data for radar precipitation features in archetypal land and ocean regimes in the Congo and Central Pacific. We then expand our study to the entire Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) domain (35°S to 35°N) over all seasons. Over the ocean, there is a tendency for stronger large‐scale upward motion, linear organization of the convective region, and larger precipitation areas in systems with lightning. By comparison, over land, features with lightning tend to be smaller, in environments of higher instability, with little difference in large‐scale vertical motion. Expanding our analysis to 21 different regions, we highlight those in which seasonal synoptic patterns and water temperature gradients lead to distributions that are exceptions to the findings that ocean storms with lightning tend to be larger and more mature than land storms with lightning. These findings support the hypothesis that most land storms have updrafts sufficiently strong to develop lightning in their early growth stages, while ocean storms require large‐scale ascent and growth into mesoscale convective systems before convective scale updrafts become strong enough to provide the necessary conditions for lightning.
Food Insecurity among Division I Student-athletes at a California State University: A mixed methods study

According to the 2020 Hope Survey, 38% of two-year college students and 29% of four-year college students experienced food insecurity. The distinct lifestyle of student-athletes may place them at an even greater risk for experiencing food insecurity and its consequences as compared to non-student-athletes. Therefore, this study assessed the prevalence of food insecurity among 98 student-athletes at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and explored its impact on their athletic and academic performance, and emotional well-being. The current study utilized a mixed-methods, cross sectional design. An online survey was used to assess food security status, fruit and vegetable intake, reliance on athletic department fueling stations, and other sociodemographic variables. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the impact of food insecurity on athletic performance, academic performance, and emotional well-being. Of the 98 student-athletes, 34.7% were food insecure. Reliance on the fueling station as a primary source of food for the day and reduced fruit and vegetable intake were identified as significant predictors of food insecurity. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted and revealed that food intake impacts energy levels during athletic events and overall quality of athletic performance, as well as energy levels in class and ability to focus during class. Additionally, unequal access to resources within the fueling station were seen as a barrier to their success. Future research should investigate the prevalence of food insecurity among student-athletes and assess the use of the athletic department fueling station as an intervention to mitigate food insecurity among this population.
The borehole dilatometer network of Mount Etna: A powerful tool to detect and infer volcano dynamics

A network of four borehole dilatometers has been installed on Etna in two successive phases (2010–2011 and 2014). The borehole dilatometers are installed in holes drilled at depths usually greater than 100 m, and they measure the volumetric strain of the surrounding rock with a nominal precision up to 10−11 in a wide frequency range (10−7–25 Hz). Here we describe the characteristics of the network and the results of the in situ calibrations obtained after the installations by different methods. We illustrate short‐term strain changes recorded during several lava fountains erupted by Etna during 2011–2013, and we also show signal changes recorded at all four stations during the lava fountain on 28 December 2014. Analytical and numerical computations constrained the eruptions source depth and also its volume change that is related to the magma volume emitted. Finally, we show the potential of the signal in the medium term to reveal strain changes related to different phases of the volcanic activity.
The influence of socioeconomic status and general health on the fracture incidence

Background/Aim: There is an association between patient general health, socioeconomic status and fracture incidence. Aim of this study was to demonstrate the relation between the socioeconomic and health status and the occurrence of fractures in Al-Kindy Hospital residents. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed by using data collected from fractured patients in Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital / Baghdad Orthopaedics Outpatient Clinic, between 12 December 2021 and 8 March 2022. A hundred patients aged 20 to 75 years were included in this study. The data were collected using a researcher-administered questionnaire, which included items to assess patient's socioeconomic status (accommodations, occupation, income status, level of education, owing motor vehicle) and assessed patient's health status (height, weight, presence of chronic disease(s), smoking status, alcohol consumption, water source quality, sun exposure, nutrition status). Results: A 100 patients from Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital between the age 20-75 participated in the study. The incidence of fractures was higher in younger and more active males (68 %) than females (32 %). Highest percent appeared in lower group of socioeconomic status (58 %) and in lower group of health status (44 %). There was a significant relation between health status and body mass index (BMI). Obese and overweight patient were the more vulnerable to fractures. Conclusion: Fractures are more likely to happen to people with low socioeconomic status, low general health status and overweight people.
I CAN Intervention to Increase Grit and Self-Efficacy: A Pilot Study

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in increasing motivational factors within the domain of psychology. Among these factors, Grit, Mindset, Self-Efficacy, and Well-Being (Flourishing) have been suggested to play an important role in individuals’ performance and Well-Being. Thus, cultivating these factors in the general population is important. Previous interventions have displayed substantial effects in certain areas. However, these interventions have primarily been Mindset oriented. This paper presents a novel intervention approach by also emphasizing the importance of brain development; the importance of stimuli for building a network in the brain; the importance of repetition for strengthening the network; and the importance of perseverance and deliberate practice for achievement. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of a 35–40 min online intervention to increase the beliefs of ‘I CAN’ for 38 university students in Norway. The mean age of the 38 participants was 22.55 (SD = 1.59) and they completed a pre-test assessment of the Grit-S Scale, Theories of Intelligence Scale (Mindset), General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Flourishing Scale (Well-Being). This was followed up by the novel intervention and finally a post-test of the scales eight weeks later. The results showed an increase in Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Well-Being. However, only Grit displayed a significant increase. We aimed at creating an intervention where the participants would “turn on the switch”, meaning that they develop stronger beliefs. These promising results warrant a further development of the intervention, and studies with a larger group.
Seed priming and GA3 field application enhanced growth, yield and postharvest quality of okra

Highly nutritive and antioxidants-enriched okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) gets sub-optimal field yield due to the irregular germination coupled with non-synchronized harvests. Hence, the research aimed at assessing the combined impact of seed priming and field-level gibberellic acid (GA3) foliar spray on the yield and post-harvest quality of okra. The lab studies were conducted using a complete randomized design (CRD), while the field trials were performed following a factorial randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Okra seeds were subjected to ten different priming methods to assess their impact on seed germination and seeding vigor. In the premier step, okra seeds were subjected to ten different priming methods, like hydro priming for 6, 12, and 18 h, halo priming with 3% NaCl at 35 ℃, 45 ℃, and 60 ℃, acid priming with 80% H2SO4 for 2.5, 5, and 10 min. Based on the observation, hydro priming for 12 h exhibited the best germination rate (90%), followed by halo seed priming at 60 ℃ and acid priming for 5 min. Furthermore, the halo priming at 60 ℃ demonstrated the greatest seedling vigor index (1965), whereas acid priming for 5 min resulted in favorable outcomes in terms of early emergence in 2.66 days. In addition, varying concentrations of GA3 (0, 100, 200, and 300 ppm) were also administered to the best three primed seedlings for evaluating their field performance. The findings indicated that applying GA3 at a concentration of 300 ppm to seedlings raised through acid priming (80% H2SO4 for 5 min) resulted in improved leaf length, reduced time to flowering (first and 50%) and harvest, increased pod diameter, individual pod weight, and yield per plant (735.16 g). Additionally, the treatment involving GA3 at 300 ppm with halo priming (3% NaCl) at 60 ℃ exhibited the longest shelf life (21 days) of okra with the lowest levels of rotting (6.73%) and color change (1.12) in the polyethylene storage condition.
mid-DeepLabv3+: A Novel Approach for Image Semantic Segmentation Applied to African Food Dietary Assessments

Recent decades have witnessed the development of vision-based dietary assessment (VBDA) systems. These systems generally consist of three main stages: food image analysis, portion estimation, and nutrient derivation. The effectiveness of the initial step is highly dependent on the use of accurate segmentation and image recognition models and the availability of high-quality training datasets. Food image segmentation still faces various challenges, and most existing research focuses mainly on Asian and Western food images. For this reason, this study is based on food images from sub-Saharan Africa, which pose their own problems, such as inter-class similarity and dishes with mixed-class food. This work focuses on the first stage of VBDAs, where we introduce two notable contributions. Firstly, we propose mid-DeepLabv3+, an enhanced food image segmentation model based on DeepLabv3+ with a ResNet50 backbone. Our approach involves adding a middle layer in the decoder path and SimAM after each extracted backbone feature layer. Secondly, we present CamerFood10, the first food image dataset specifically designed for sub-Saharan African food segmentation. It includes 10 classes of the most consumed food items in Cameroon. On our dataset, mid-DeepLabv3+ outperforms benchmark convolutional neural network models for semantic image segmentation, with an mIoU (mean Intersection over Union) of 65.20%, representing a +10.74% improvement over DeepLabv3+ with the same backbone.
Conductive sapwood area prediction from stem and canopy areas—allometric equations of Kalahari trees, Botswana

Conductive sapwood (xylem) area (Ax) of all trees in a given forested area is the main factor contributing to spatial tree transpiration. One hundred ninety‐five trees of 9 species in the Kalahari region of Botswana were felled, stained, cut into discs, and measured to develop allometric equations predicting Ax from estimates of stem (As) and canopy (Ac) areas. Stem discs were also subjected to laboratory‐based computed tomography, which well detected wood density contrasts but was not diagnostic with regard to delineation of Ax. The staining experiment, along with the help of visual and computed tomography analysis, allowed the definition of 4, tree‐species categories of Ax, C1–C4. In C1 (Acacia erioloba, Terminalia sericea, and Burke Africana), the staining and visual delineation of Ax matched the natural color difference between sapwood and heartwood; in C2 (Dichrostachys cinerea and Ochna pulchra), sapwood was divided into external conductive and internal nonconductive annuli; in C3 (Acacia fleckii and Acacia luederitzii), sapwood had sharp staining boundary between external highly conductive and internal low‐conductive annuli; and in C4 (Lonchocarpus nelsii and Boscia albitrunca), stems had no heartwood. Per‐species 0‐intercept linear regression models, Ax = slope.As (slope = 0.392 ÷ 0.794; R2 = 96.7 ÷ 99.8%) and Ax = slope.Ac (slope = 1.477 ÷ 17.044; R2 = 82.1 ÷ 92.2%) yielded excellent to good predictive allometric equations. The first equation is suitable for Ax scaling of small‐size Kalahari areas, where the As of all trees can be estimated on the ground, whereas the second, as contribution to automated tree transpiration mapping of large‐size Kalahari areas, where the Ac of trees can be derived through remote sensing interpretation of high‐resolution images.