Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of a submerged membrane bioreactor with composite ceramic filters for cassava wastewater treatment

Cassava processing activity is characterised by the generation of an enormous quantity of toxic wastewater with detrimental effects on the environment if disposed of without adequate treatment. To alleviate this concern, lab-scaled cylindrical-shaped composite ceramic filters produced from rice husk and clay mixed with equal proportions of activated carbon, kaolin and sherd powder were produced and assessed in a membrane bioreactor. The permeate obtained from the filter with 2.39% rice husks, 0.95% activated carbon, 0.80% kaolin, 0.40% sherd powder and 95.47% clay gave the optimum pollutant removal efficiency. The average removal efficiencies of the chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), turbidity and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) were 98.32, 78.93, 37.81 and 56.52%, respectively. The pH increased from 3.8 to a maximum value of 6.5. The flux ranges from 0.005 [m3·(m2·d–1)] to a maximum value of 0.108 [m3·(m2·d–1)] obtained for the filter with 1.45% rice husks. The availability of low-cost construction materials and the ease of operation makes the concept a promising option for treating cassava wastewater, however, an optimisation study is required to improve the filter performance and enhance the field applications.
EFFECTIVE PROGRESSION MANAGEMENT WITHIN VERY LARGE CLASSES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION

For some students, attaining the programming skills required to become an effective software engineer can be a difficult process. The initial steps taken in this journey are critical for success, but in all too many cases, lack of early engagement leads to a high attrition rate across associated education programs. Against the background of ever increasing class sizes, this work focuses on novice programmers enrolled on a software engineering degree program and considers how group activities, peer mentoring and self-assessment, can positively influence retention rate and performance.
Online Participatory Learning for Low-Qualified Adult Learners

Participatory learning and online learning are increasingly appealing as educational approaches which can positively affect learners. Participatory learning engages students as active participants in the full educational programme, including homework and exercises, whilst online learning offers tools that facilitate learners' collaboration and peer evaluation, minimising student and instructor overhead in the conduction of courses. This article reports on EScAlADE, a two-year EU-funded project initiated at the end of 2015, which focuses on the education of low-skilled adults through participatory online non-formal and informal learning. This article presents and discusses the first phase of the EScAlADE project. Indeed, although their project is still in progress, the authors decided to report on the survey they made at the beginning of the project as well as on a collaborative training event that took place in the intermediate project phase, since a few interesting findings have emerged from them.
Effect of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on soil compaction of an Entic haplustoll in a semiarid region of Argentina.

Soil compaction has detrimental effects on the physical, mechanical and hydraulic properties of soils, and affects important soil processes and function, and crop productivity. This work was conducted to investigate soil compaction impacts in integrated arable croppinglivestock systems managed under conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT). The work examined the combined effects of cattle trampling and farm machinery traffic on: soil strength, soil deformation, and water infiltration into soil. The following treatments were applied to soil (Entic Haplustoll, 60% sand) managed under CT and NT: three traffic intensities (1, 5, 7 passes) performed with light (2WD, 53 kN) and heavy (4WD, 100.4 kN) tractors, and two stocking densities (400 and 700 kg ha), respectively. Controls were also used to represent the condition of the soil without any effect of livestock or field traffic. In both tillage systems, soil penetration resistance (strength) increased and water infiltration into soil decreased as traffic intensities or stocking rates applied increased. There was a significant traffic intensity × stocking rate interaction, which influenced the depth and extent of soil compaction at depth. Despite these results, stubble grazing during fallow should not be discouraged as this practice offers mixed farming systems several agronomic and financial benefits. If stubble was to be grazed, the system would need to be carefully managed: (1) avoid ‘random’ traffic using permanent or semipermanent traffic paths to minimise the field wheeled area, (2) vacate livestock from the field, or confine it to a sacrificial area, when the soil water content exceeds a critical level above which
An Efficiency Analysis

Applying stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate distance to frontier of countries in the production of success at the Summer Olympic Games since the 1950s. Our measures of success are medal shares and a broader concept including Olympic diplomas. Following Bernard and Busse (2004), population and GDP are used as inputs. Although the impact of GDP is always positive, we show that the sign of the population effect depends on wealth and population size of a country. The results show that the spread of distance to frontier is very wide over time, across countries, gender, and sports: not only resource endowment matters but also utilization of resources. These differences can be seen as caused by differences in financial support, training methods, organization, or culture. Using a method proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995), the authors build on welldocumented results in the literature and identify the channels through which planned economies and host countries generate Olympic success. The method allows shedding light on aspects of recent history, such as the consequences of the breakdown of the former Soviet Union.
Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase and Metallo Beta Lactamase producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa at Tertiary care Hospital of Nepal

Objective: To assess the prevalence of Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) and Metallo beta lactamase (MBL) producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa from pus samples. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Kanti Children’s Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal during which 316 pus samples were collected and tested using standard microbiological procedures. Antibiotic Susceptibility Test (AST) was done by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method and the detection of ESBL and MBL production were done using Ceftazidime/clavulanic acid combined disk test and Imipenem- Ethylenenediaminetetraacetic acid combined disk test respectively as per CLSI guideline 2014. Results: The prevalence rate of P. aeruginosa was found to be 7.9% in pus samples. Out of 25 P. aeruginosa isolates 9(36%) were ESBL producers and 2(8%) were MBL producers. ESBL producers were predominant in the age group 2-3 years (33.3%) and in male patient (55.6%). Out of 2 MBL producing P. aeruginosa, 1(50%)was isolated from the age group below 2 years and male patient and 1(50%) from the age group 8-9 years and female patient. 96% of isolates showed sensitive to Polymyxin B. Conclusion: The study showed increasing trend of ESBL and MBL production in P. aeruginosa so constant survey of prevalence of ESBL and MBL producing isolates is essential to control and manage spread of these isolates in different units of health institutions.
FuseSeg: Semantic Segmentation of Urban Scenes Based on RGB and Thermal Data Fusion

Semantic segmentation of urban scenes is an essential component in various applications of autonomous driving. It makes great progress with the rise of deep learning technologies. Most of the current semantic segmentation networks use single-modal sensory data, which are usually the RGB images produced by visible cameras. However, the segmentation performance of these networks is prone to be degraded when lighting conditions are not satisfied, such as dim light or darkness. We find that thermal images produced by thermal imaging cameras are robust to challenging lighting conditions. Therefore, in this article, we propose a novel RGB and thermal data fusion network named FuseSeg to achieve superior performance of semantic segmentation in urban scenes. The experimental results demonstrate that our network outperforms the state-of-the-art networks. Note to Practitioners—This article investigates the problem of semantic segmentation of urban scenes when lighting conditions are not satisfied. We provide a solution to this problem via information fusion with RGB and thermal data. We build an end-to-end deep neural network, which takes as input a pair of RGB and thermal images and outputs pixel-wise semantic labels. Our network could be used for urban scene understanding, which serves as a fundamental component of many autonomous driving tasks, such as environment modeling, obstacle avoidance, motion prediction, and planning. Moreover, the simple design of our network allows it to be easily implemented using various deep learning frameworks, which facilitates the applications on different hardware or software platforms.
Diverse Teams, Team Effectiveness, and the Moderating Effect of Organizational Support

This study adds to the growing literature on diversity in teams and team effectiveness. This study reviews the literature examining theoretical perspectives of diversity in teams, surface-level diversity attributes, team training and team outcomes. To test hypotheses, an archival dataset from a study focusing on team training, which is coded to represent the presence of gender and ethnic diversity on teams. Variables including team performance, shared mental models, and team behavioral processes are used to measure team effectiveness. The results of this analyses suggest mixed results, but do indicate that teams with diversity are more effective, particularly in measures of coordination, interaction mental models, and transition processes. Teams with gender diversity are shown to outperform teams without gender diversity for most measures, while teams with ethnic diversity only outperformed teams without ethnic diversity on transition processes. When teams received training, diverse teams were shown to be more effective than homogenous teams for measures of coordination and team interaction accuracy mental models. These results indicate a need for further research on the impact team training and other forms of organizational support has for diverse teams. Practically, these results also suggest that diverse teams are more effective than homogenous teams in many areas, and that team training is a viable option for organizations looking to improve diverse team effectiveness.
Immersive Space to Think: The Role of 3D Space for Sensemaking

Prior work showed the value of large 2D high-resolution-display spaces to support the sensemaking process, by providing a “Space to Think” in which analysts organize information and externalize their thought process. We now investigate how analysts use 3D immersive spaces for the same task. We conducted a user study where participants were asked to solve an intelligence analysis task using an Immersive Space to Think (IST) in a 3D virtual environment using an HMD. The study results conﬁrm that the principles of Space to Think extend naturally to 3D immersive space, and ﬁnd that 3D offers some additional opportunities. With tethered immersive space, analysts i) organized documents in a surrounding virtual sphere that used the surrounding 3D space to reduce occlusion, and ii) exploited the 3D depth dimension to encode relevance or importance.
Sexual dimorphism and intraspecific variation in wing size and shape of Tongeia fischeri (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Wing morphological variations are described here for the lycaenid butterfly Tongeia fischeri. A landmark‐based geometric morphometric approach based on wing venation of 197 male and 187 female butterflies collected in Japan was used to quantify wing size and shape variations between sexes and among populations. Sexual dimorphism in wing size and shape was detected. Females had significantly larger wings than males, while males showed a relatively elongated forewing with a longer apex and narrower wing tornus in comparison to females. Intraspecific variations in wing morphology among populations were revealed for the wing shape, but not wing size. Distinct wing shape differences were found in the vein intersections area around the distal part of the discal cell where median veins originated in the forewing and around the origin of the CU1 vein in the hindwing. In addition, phenotypic relationships inferred from wing shape variations grouped T. fischeri populations into three groups, reflecting the subspecies classification of the species. The spatial variability and phenotypic relationships between conspecific populations of T. fischeri detected here are generally in agreement with the previous molecular study based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequences, suggesting the presence of a phylogenetic signal in the wing shape of T. fischeri, and thus having taxonomic implications.
The use of crude protein content to predict concentrations of lysine and methionine in grain harvested from selected cultivars of wheat, barley and triticale grown in the Western Cape region of South Africa.

Correlations were determined between the crude protein (CP) and lysine or methionine concentrations of grain from wheat (cultivar: palmiet), barley (cultivar: clipper) and triticale (cultivar: usgen 19) grown in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Twenty samples of varying CP content were collected for each grain type from different areas within the winter-rainfall sub-region. The relationships between CP content (x; percentage on an air-dry basis) and lysine concentration (y; percentage of CP) were as follows: (wheat) y = 6.380 - 0.198 x, (r 2 = 0.85); (barley) y = 6.003 - 0.167 x, (r2 = 0.92); (triticale) y = 5.538 - 0.156 x, (r2 = 0.75). The relationships between CP content (x; percentage on an air-dry basis) and methionine concentration (y; percentage of CP) were as follows: (wheat) y = 2.115 - 0.025x, (r2 = 0.39); (barley) y = 1.527 - 0.030x, (r2 = 0.59); (triticale) y = 1.581 - 0.022x, (r2 = 0.31). It was concluded that the regression equations may be used as a rapid screening method for predicting the lysine and methionine content of South African wheat, barley and triticale grain from CP content. (South African Journal of Animal Science, 2000, 30(1): 22-25)
Survival Rates of Planidial Larvae of the Parasitoid Fly Ormia ochracea (Diptera: Tachinidae)

The tachinid fly, Ormia ochracea Bigot 1889, is a major parasitoid of field crickets in North America. The fly ranges from Florida to California, and it has also been introduced to Hawaii. Across this range, O. ochracea uses at least 6 different Gryllus species as hosts for its larvae (Cade, 1975; Walker, 1986; Walker and Wineriter, 1991; Zuk et al., 1993; Wagner, 1996; Hedrick and Kortet, 2006). O. ochracea finds it hosts by eavesdropping on male mating songs (Cade, 1975). The fly deposits up to 3 planidial larvae (Adamo et al., 1995a) directly on the male and these larvae burrow into the cricket to continue development. After 7– 10 days, the larvae emerge from the host and kill it during this process (Adamo et al., 1995b). Interestingly, the fly also deposits approximately 6 planidial larvae (Adamo et al., 1995a) on the ground around the male cricket. These larvae wave their heads while standing on the ground (Cade, 1975) and snap forward with their anterior end when touched (pers. obs.), suggesting that they wait for a host to pass by to cling onto rather than actively searching for a host (Allen et al., 1999). Possible hosts targeted by these larvae could be the singing male, passing males, females approaching the singing male for mating (Martin and Wagner, 2010), or even juvenile crickets (Vincent and Bertram, 2009a). In contrast to the planidia deposited directly on the cricket, the potential of incidental infestations by the surrounding larvae is poorly understood. We measured the survival of planidial larvae of O. ochracea in a dry and a damp environment to estimate how long the larvae survive and pose a potential threat to passing crickets.
Intake and excretion of nitrogen, potassium and phosporus by grazing steers

SUMMARY Intake and faecal and urinary output of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus by steers grazing high quality pasture at either of two intake levels were measured in three trials lasting 10–12 days. Intake was estimated from total faecal D.M. and in vitro D.M. digestibility of hand-plucked pasture. A known proportion of urine was sampled by a nonsurgical technique. Average urinary mineral output between trials ranged from 93 to 134 g N/day, or 40 to 51% of consumed N; 74 to 137 g K/day or 33 to 76 % of consumed K and no more than 1 g P/day, or 2 to 4% of consumed P. Faeces contained 36–62 g N/day, or 16–24% of consumed N; 12–46 g K/day, or 8–21% of consumed K and 10–23 g P/day, or 44–74% of consumed P. The volume of urine passed differed widely between days for individual steers and between steers within each trial. In trial 3, daily output ranged between 5–8 and 54.71 by different animals. For two steers over three 24 h periods, frequency of urination ranged between 13 and 73/24 h; urine volumes between 7.6 and 51.2 1/24 h; urinary excretion of N between 81 and 137 g/24 h and of K between 58 and 90g/24h. Urinary N and K concentrations were higher at night than during the day, ranging in trial 3 from 0.8 to 14.1 mg N/l, and 0.6 to 9.9 mg K/l. No clear diurnal patterns were found for P.
Common Short Selling and Excess Comovement

We show that common short sold capital can explain future six-factor excess return correlation one month ahead, controlling for many pair characteristics, including similarities in size, book-to-market, and momentum. We explore the possible mechanisms that could ruse to this relationship. We find that the asset class effect cannot explain the uncovered relationship. Rather, the relationship is consistent with the information diffusions view of comovement, which we identify using additional profiling data for short sellers.
Prospects for the Use of NF-кb Inhibitors to Stimulate the Functions of Regeneration-Competent Cells of Nerve Tissue and Neuroregeneration in Ethanol-Induced Neurodegeneration

The implementation of the concept of drug therapy of neurological disorders in chronic alcohol intoxication is, in some cases, unsuccessful. Promising is the search for new pharmacological targets among the intracellular signaling molecules of regenerating-competent cells. In the conditions of in vitro and in vivo modeling of ethanol-induced neurodegeneration, the role of NF-кВ in the realization of the growth potential of neural progenitors and the secretion of neurotrophins by glial elements was studied. The absence of participation of NF-кВ in the regulation of mitotic activity of neural SC (NSC) and of neuronal-committed progenitors (NCP) in their optimal living conditions and in the influence of ethanol in vitro is shown. At the same time, NF-кВ hinders the implementation of the NSC specialization process. The prolonged introduction of ethanol per os mice was accompanied by the appearance of an inhibitory value in NF-кВ in relation to the intensity of progenitors proliferation. The blockade of NF-кВ of NSC and NCP animals with neurodegeneration caused the progression of their cell cycle. The participation of NF-кВ in the secretory function of astrocytes and oligodendrogliocytes has been established. The inactivation of the nuclear transcription factor led to a decrease in their production of neurotrophins, including in the case of ethanol. At the same time, there were no changes from the microglia functioning.
Underlying reasons for different learning approaches in statistics in Italy

As well documented in different educational contexts, psychology students are not primarily interested in statistics, they dislike anything mathematical, have low selfefficacy and a negative attitude toward statistics, they experience stress and anxiety when dealing with the subject. As a consequence they have a poor performance at the final exam, and they sometime did not pass it. In order to solve the problems encountered by psychology students in statistics and to promote their achievement, the relevance of learning approach to the study of statistics was investigated. The Italian version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) was used to gain insight about learning approach characteristics that might influence psychology students’ achievement in introductory statistics courses. The aim of the present study is twofold. First, to provide evidence of psychometric properties of the scale. Second, to investigated if students’ learning approach could predict the achievement in statistics. Participants consisted of 530 psychology students attending introductory statistics courses. Concerning the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the ASSIST, exploratory factor analyses revealed that the scale has a three-factor structure (Deep, Strategic and Surface subscales) consistent with the original version. Cronbach’s alphas for the three scales indicated high reliability. The analysis reveals that students have significantly higher scores on the Deep and Strategic scales compared to the Surface scales. Achievement was measured using the final exam grade. By and large, results showed that achievement was positively related to the strategic approach, i.e., students whose interest in content is driven by assessment demands and they use whatever learning strategy will maximize their chances of success. Due to the course characteristics (a compulsory course at the first year) the strategic approach turn to be the more suitable. Findings are discussed by analyzing the necessity to increase a deep approach to the study of statistics as well as the necessity to decrease the surface approach.
Male reed buntings do not adjust parental effort in relation to extrapair paternity

Parental effort is considered to be costly; therefore, males are expected to provide less care to unrelated offspring. Theoretical models suggest that males should either reduce their care to the entire brood or alternatively distinguish between related and unrelated nestlings and direct provisioning to kin when paternity is in doubt. Reed buntings (Emberiza schoeniclus) have been found to have high levels of extrapair paternity (EPP, i.e., offspring of a male other than the male attending the nest; 55% of offspring), and males are therefore under strong selection pressure to adjust their parental effort according to the proportion of EPP in their brood. In this study, we investigated whether male reed buntings exhibit a reduction in paternal care (incubation and provisioning nestlings) in relation to decreased paternity. We also assess whether males bias their provisioning toward kin. We measured incubation time, provisioning rates, and food allocation to individual nestlings using video recordings at the nests. Microsatellite DNA analysis was used to analyze the paternity of offspring. In direct contrast to a previous study on the same species, our results provided no indication that males lowered their effort with decreased paternity. Furthermore, in nests of mixed paternity, males did not bias their provisioning behavior to kin. It remains to be investigated whether the absence of a relationship between paternity and paternal care can be ascribed to absence of reliable paternity cues or whether the benefits of reducing paternal care did not outweigh the costs in our study population. We found no evidence that the level of paternal care affected male survival or offspring mass, suggesting that both the benefits and costs of any reduction in paternal care would have been low. Copyright 2005.