Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A STUDY ON AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY OF SHUTHI-SHAIDULI RIVER OF BANGLADESH

: A total number of 88 species (78 fishes, 4 prawns, 1 crab, 1 snail and 4 reptiles) were identified from the Shuthi-Shaiduli River and its flood plains. About 10 types of operative fishing gear and craft were found in the river. Increasing rates of using current jaal (23.00-30.10%) and Kapuri jaal (17.60-20.90%) were identified as detrimental gear used to kill the different species during four years. A common increasing trend of using current jaal, Kapuri jaal (seine net) and FAD (fish aggregating device) were identified as detrimental gear killing different species between 2016 and 2019 . The fish productivity decreased dramatically from 139.32±7.77 to 114.00±3.88 mt within four years and the total production percentage (%) also sharply decreased from 7.97% to 18.17% over the same period. As a result, commercially important 5 aquatic species namely nandina ( Labeo nandina ), olive barb ( Puntius sarana ), gazar ( Channa marulius ) and reptiles ( Lissemys punctata and Kachuga tecta ) were extinct, 17 commercially important aquatic species were at the edge of extinction (critically endangered, CR), 6 species endangered (EN), 25 species vulnerable status (VU), three species were identified as at lower risk (LR) and only two species of the river were not threatened (NT) in position between 2016 and 2019 in the river.
Sludge production in membrane bioreactors under different conditions

With membrane bioreactors, the production of surplus sludge is lower than with conventional activated sludge systems, a fact that has been confirmed in a large number of analyses. There is, however, no consensus about the dimension of the reactions and their respective causes. In order to examine these, at the University of Hanover a pilot plant with a capacity of 220 l was run for one year without any extraction of surplus sludge. The plant was started with 2 g MLSS/l; after one year, this value had risen to approximately 18 g MLSS/l. In order to be able to set the plant for different sludge loads (0.04 to 0.2 kg COD/(kg MLSS · d)), the wastewater was artificially stocked up. The emerging result was that in contrast to conventional systems the sludge growth was lower, but still continuously existing. Then, comparisons with theoretical approaches were run – among others with the ASM1-Model – which confirmed the findings. One possible reason could be the different biocoenoses, which was assumed to be the cause after several microscopic examinations had been run.
The Induced EMF Method as an Alternative to the Iterative Method for the Approximation of the Reflection Coefficient on Thin Wires

One way to find an analytic approximation of the input impedance of thin wire antennas is to make an educated guess of the current distribution, which is then used for the induced electromotive force (EMF) method. This method is frequently described in the literature and yields accurate results. In this article, it is shown that this method can be used to approximate the transmission line reflection coefficient while including high-frequency effects. It is, hence, applicable to smaller wave lengths than the classical transmission line theory. Two general problems are considered: 1) the infinite wire with a lumped impedance above ground and 2) the semi-infinite wire with an arbitrary port configuration above ground. For both configurations, the reflection coefficient is approximated using the induced EMF method. An important intermediate step is to find exact equations that relate the input impedance and the reflection coefficient. The results are compared to an exact solution and an iterative one, which is used in recent publications. It is shown that the induced EMF method is a good alternative to the iterative method. The novelty of this article is the utilization of the induced EMF method for the analytic approximation of the transmission line reflection coefficient and linking the input impedance and the reflection coefficient.
Leptin G-2548A Gene Polymorphism is Positively Associated with Increased Plasma Leptin and Glucose Levels in Obese Saudi Patients Irrespective Status of Blood Pressure    

The association between LEP G-2548A gene polymorphism with increased plasma leptin and glucose levels and blood pressure in a sample of obese Saudi patients has been evaluated. This is a cross-sectional study involved 206 Saudi adult subjects (94 males and 112 females), randomly selected from the primary health care centers, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study sample was categorized into three groups: 50 normotensive ND controls (age: 47.9±5.4 yr.; BMI 22.9±2.1 Kg/m2), 80 obese normotensive ND (age: 47.7±6.0 yr.; BMI 34.1±4.2 Kg/m2) and 76 obese hypertensive with T2D patients (age: 49.4±5.9 yr.; BMI: 35.1±4.7 Kg/m2). Analyses of LEP G-2548A gene polymorphism were determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) with 2U of HhaI restriction enzyme. Plasma leptin and insulin levels were measured using the Luminex instrument. Fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides were measured using a chemical autoanalyzer Konelab machine. Also, blood pressure and anthropometric data were measured. The association analysis with metabolic parameters showed that homozygous AA of the LEP gene had significantly higher plasma glucose levels and HOMA-IR compared with homozygous GG (6.8±0.55 vs. 5.8±0.30; p< 0.04; 4.1±0.84 vs. 2.6±0.67; p=0.03) respectively. Besides, heterozygous GA had significantly higher plasma leptin levels compared with homozygous GG (40.0±2.6 vs. 29.6±2.6; P= 0.04). GA, AA, GA+AA genotypes of the LEP G-2548A gene polymorphism are more prevalent among individuals with hyperglycemia (OR= 3.7, 95% CI= 1.6 to 8.4, P= 0.001; OR= 3.2, 95% CI= 1.2 to 8.6, P= 0.03; OR= 3.5, 95%CI= 1.6 to 7.7, P= 0.001) respectively. A allele of the LEP gene is more prevalent among subjects with hyperglycemia (OR= 1.9, 95%CI= 1.2 to 3.0, P=0.006). G-2548A variant of the LEP gene may not be considered as a genetic risk factor for hypertension in Saudi obese patients. However, the genotypes (GA and AA) and -2548AA allele of this gene may represent important risk factors predisposing healthy subjects to develop T2DM irrespective of the status of blood pressure.
Max Completion Time Optimization for Internet of Things in LEO Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks

In this article, we investigate max completion time optimization for Internet of Things (IoT) in LEO satellite-terrestrial integrated networks (STINs), in which IoT devices use non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme to transmit data to central earth stations (CESs), and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme is used for data transmission from CESs to LEO satellite. We decouple this problem into two subproblems: 1) max completion time optimization in terrestrial networks and 2) max completion time optimization among satellite beams. Different from the existing works about NOMA data transmission in terrestrial networks, we propose a cooperative NOMA scheme, and derive the closed expressions of the optimal cooperative data and the optimal transmit power of IoT devices. Based on the closed-form expressions, a joint subcarrier assignment and cooperative NOMA pairing (JSACNP) approach is proposed to minimize the max completion time in terrestrial networks by utilizing matching theory. Then, to minimize the max completion time among satellite beams, the optimal linear receiver expression is derived with fixed transmit power. Convex optimization is utilized to solve transmit power optimization, we propose an algorithm to solve it by CVX tool. An iterative algorithm is proposed for improved performance. Finally, numerical results are provided to evaluate our proposed algorithms, compared with some other proposed approaches or algorithms.
Impact of COVID-19 Infection Threat on Chinese Consumer’s Ding Behaviors in Restaurant after Work Resumption

The outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused serious losses to catering industry. Even after the work resumption, the infection threat of the pandemic persistently affects consumers. This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 infection threat on Chinese consumers’ dining behaviors in restaurants after work resumption. Quantitative research methods were adopted to explore the relationship between infection threat and consumer behavior. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to consumers in 4 restaurants in mainland China. A total of 190 valid questionnaires were received and then imported into SPSS software for analysis. The results indicate that the infection threat of COVID-19 is significantly related to consumer’s behaviors, including contact limitation time optimization, keeping distance, personal security and dietary health. Consumers who perceive the infection threat consciously take actions to avoid risks while dining in restaurants. This study enriches literatures on the impact of the epidemic infection threat on consumer behavior. The findings imply that restaurants can reduce the consumer’s concern of infection threat by changing the business mode, so that people can eat in restaurants without any anxiety.
Preparation of macroporous poly (2-hydroxyethyl) methacrylate with interconnected porosity

The design of a macromolecular bone graft with interconnected macroporosity represents a major challenge in the field of orthopaedic biomaterials. Such a synthetic graft would combine the biocompatibility and the biomechanical behavior with a micro-architecture allowing the osteoconduction through the colonization of the implant by bony cells and blood vessels. Macroporous pHEMA blocks were obtained by polymerizing 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate around polystyrene beads of four diameters (600, 800, 1200, 1600 μm). X-ray microtomography (microCT) and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate the porosity and the interconnectivity. Porosity did not differ whatever the size of the beads used as porogen. Porosity was in the range of 58-66%, close to that of calf trabecular bone, a material used for preparing bone xenografts. Chromatographic analysis was performed in order to check the presence of residual monomer. The biomechanical characteristics of these porous materials were measured in compression and appeared close to those of calf bone used for xenografts.
Public debt and inflation: empirical evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of public debt on inflation in Ghana using annual data during the period 1983–2018. The study uses the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and an error correction model to examine this linkage. The cointegrating regression results reveal evidence of a stable long-run relationship between inflation and the explanatory variables in the presence of a structural break. The findings also show a positive and significant impact of public debt on inflation. These results were found to hold, irrespective of whether the regression was conducted in the short run or in the long run. The study confirms the presence of the inflationary effects of public debt in Ghana. The government should, therefore, be prudent when considering increases in public debt to minimize volatility in inflation and its associated risks to the economy.
Two Major Transitions in Earth History: Evidence of Two Lithospheric Strength Thresholds

Past geological and geochemical changes suggest the existence of two transitions in Earth history at 2.5–2 and 1–0.5 Ga. Twenty-one changes during Transition One and eight during Transition Two signify global-scale shifts in terrestrial tectono-thermal systems. Transition-One changes include the onset of major zircon age peaks, increases in average plate speeds, increases in the number of collisional orogens and associated metamorphism, and continental sedimentation. In addition, changes in rock abundances and chemical composition of continents, of detrital sediments, and in seawater composition reflect an increase in volume of felsic component in the continental crust as well as increasing continental emergence. Changes in composition of oceanic basalts during this time reflect mantle cooling, oxidation, and the appearance of an enriched component in mantle magma sources. A rise in large igneous province (LIP) frequency may reflect enhanced mantle-plume activity responding to thermal-compositional disturbance in the deep mantle due to sinking slabs. Transition Two is characterized by the appearance and establishment of blueschists, ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism, and greatly enhanced ophiolite preservation beginning at 750–600 Ma, and this transition may signal the first subduction of continental crust. Each transition is proposed to reflect a thermal threshold during which the lithosphere strengthens. Transition One is interpreted to record the onset, propagation, and eventual establishment of plate tectonics, and Transition Two the onset and establishment of subduction of a strong continental lithosphere.
The effect of audit committee characteristics on financial reporting quality: The moderating role of audit quality in the Netherlands

The purposes of this study are to shed light, on the one hand, on the effect of audit committee characteristics, namely independent members in audit committee, a financial expert in audit committee, frequency of meetings and audit committee size on financial reporting quality proxied by real earnings management. On the other hand, it aims to investigate the moderating role of audit quality in the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial reporting quality. The objective is to contribute to the new evidence on the role of audit committee characteristics towards the financial reporting quality with audit quality as a moderator, particularly the appointment of Big 4 company. This study uses the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to achieve the research purpose by evaluating the data collected from 90 public listed companies from 2010 to 2019 in the Dutch context. The results state that audit committee characteristics have a statistically significant relationship with real earnings management. However, the effect of audit committee meetings on abnormal operating cash flow and discretionary expenses is not significant. There is also evidence that audit quality positively moderates the audit committee and real earnings management links. Lastly, the findings of this study will help professional accountancy bodies and governments to highlight the relevance of earnings management in safeguarding trustworthy financial information, owners’ wealth and to enhance audit committee characteristics in improving audit quality, especially after the enforcement of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code in 2016.
Comparison of performance, fatty acid composition, enzymes and gene expression between overfed Xupu geese with large and small liver

Abstract The aim of our study was to compare overfeeding performance, fatty acid composition, enzymes activity and gene expression between overfed Xupu geese with large and small liver. A total of sixty 80 d male Xupu geese were overfed by the same feed intake under the same conditions. The liver weight exhibited normal distribution. Based on the weight of liver, samples were divided into large liver (LL) and small liver (SL) Xupu geese. After overfeeding for 28 d: compared with the SL-Xupu geese, liver weight and liver-to-body weight ratio increased (p < .05), while abdominal fat weight and feed-to-liver weight ratio decreased (p < .05); the level of palmitic acid and methyltetracosanoate acid decreased (p < .05), and the level of oleic acid, linoleic acid, arachidonic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid increased (p < .05) in liver of LL-Xupu geese. Compared with the SL-Xupu geese, LL-Xupu geese had a higher plasma concentration of TG (triglyceride) (p < .05), and had a lower plasma concentration of VLDL-C (very low density lipoprotein cholesterol) (p < .05); and had a higher CHE (cholinesterase), LPS (lipase), LPL (lipoproteinlipase) activities (p < .05) in the liver. The mRNA expression of FABP4 (adipocyte fatty acid binding protein), SCD (stearoyl-CoA desaturase), FADS (fatty acid dehydrogenase), ELOVL1 (elongase of long-chain fatty acid 1), ACAT2 (acyl-Co A: cholesterol acyltransferase 2), and FASN (fatty acid synthase) (p < .05) were significantly upregulated in LL-Xupu geese than in SL-Xupu geese. The results showed that the level of unsaturated fatty acid in liver of LL-Xupu geese was higher than that of SL-Xupu geese, which may be closely related to enzymes and genes expression related to lipid metabolism. Highlights The content of unsaturated fatty acids in liver of LL-Xupu geese were significantly higher than in SL-Xupu geese. The mRNA expression of FABP4, SCD, FADS, ELOVL1, ACAT2, and FASN were significantly upregulated in LL-Xupu geese than in SL-Xupu geese. The level of unsaturated fatty acid in liver of LL-Xupu geese was higher than that of SL-Xupu geese, which may be closely related to enzymes and genes expression related to lipid metabolism.
Spatial variation of East Asian winter monsoon evolution between northern and southern China since the last glacial maximum

Abstract The East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) is one of the most dynamic components of the global climate system. Although poorly understood, knowledge of long-term spatial differences in EAWM variability during the glacial–interglacial cycles is important for understanding the dynamic processes of the EAWM. We reconstructed the spatiotemporal characteristics of the EAWM since the last glacial maximum (LGM) using a comparison of proxy records and long-term transient simulations. A loess grain-size record from northern China (a sensitive EAWM proxy) and the sea surface temperature gradient of an EAWM index in sediments of the southern South China Sea were compared. The data–model comparison indicates pronounced spatial differences in EAWM evolution, with a weakened EAWM since the LGM in northern China but a strengthened EAWM from the LGM to the early Holocene, followed by a weakening trend, in southern China. The model results suggest that variations in the EAWM in northern China were driven mainly by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, whereas orbital insolation and ice sheets were important drivers in southern China. We propose that the relative importance of insolation, ice sheets, and atmospheric CO2 for EAWM evolution varied spatially within East Asia.
Comparing productivity and feed-use efficiency between organic and conventional livestock animals

Livestock animals play a key role in organic farming systems by providing nutrients for croplands through manure production and nutrient-dense food for human consumption. However, we lack global, synthetic view about livestock productivity in organic farming and about its differences with conventional farming. Here we fill this important gap of knowledge by providing a first global comparison highlighting differences between organic and conventional farming on animal productivity, feeding strategy and feed use efficiency in dairy cattle, pigs and poultry (both layers and broilers). We found (a) a 12% lower animal productivity under organic treatment, (b) significant differences in feeding strategy, especially for organic dairy cattle fed with a lower proportion of concentrate and food-competing feed than in conventional systems, (c) an overall 14% lower feed-use efficiency under organic treatment (−11% and −47% for organic dairy cattle and poultry broilers, respectively) compensated by (d) a 46% lower human-food vs animal-feed competition in organic dairy cattle. These results provide critical information on the sustainability of organic livestock management. They are also key for modelling global organic farming expansion while avoiding overestimation of organic farming production in upscaling scenarios.
Motivic Pattern Classification of Music Audio Signals Combining Residual and LSTM Networks

Motivic pattern classification from music audio recordings is a challenging task. More so in the case of a cappella flamenco cantes , characterized by complex melodic variations, pitch instability, timbre changes, extreme vibrato oscillations, microtonal ornamentations, and noisy conditions of the recordings. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have proven to be very effective algorithms in image classification. Recent work in large-scale audio classification has shown that CNN architectures, originally developed for image problems, can be applied successfully to audio event recognition and classification with little or no modifications to the networks. In this paper, CNN architectures are tested in a more nuanced problem: flamenco cantes intra-style classification using small motivic patterns. A new architecture is proposed that uses the advantages of residual CNN as feature extractors, and a bidirectional LSTM layer to exploit the sequential nature of musical audio data. We present a full end-to-end pipeline for audio music classification that includes a sequential pattern mining technique and a contour simplification method to extract relevant motifs from audio recordings. Mel-spectrograms of the extracted motifs are then used as the input for the different architectures tested. We investigate the usefulness of motivic patterns for the automatic classification of music recordings and the effect of the length of the audio and corpus size on the overall classification accuracy. Results show a relative accuracy improvement of up to 20.4% when CNN architectures are trained using acoustic representations from motivic patterns.
Sustainable biodegradable coffee grounds filler and its effect on the hydrophobicity, mechanical and thermal properties of biodegradable PBAT composites

Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and coffee grounds (CG) wastes are biodegradable materials. The high cost of PBAT restricts its marketability; the lignocellulosic CG were used as a reinforcing agent for PBAT. Thus, the present work focuses mainly on the preparation and characterization of bio-based PBAT composites filled with CG bio-additives with affordable cost, and with potential use in a variety of eco-friendly fields such as packaging, biomedical devices, and composting. The PBAT polymer was melt blended with various contents of CG powder using twin screw extrusion. The compatibility and dispersion state of investigated biocomposites in presence or absence of PEG as plasticizer were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of the addition of PEG on PBAT/CG was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile properties, contact angle measurements, and thermogravimetric analysis. The chemical interaction between hydroxyl groups of CG particles and PEG plasticizer was achieved by these techniques. A pyrolysis kinetic model was proposed to identify the kinetic parameters of the thermal degradation of PBAT and CG powder. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 134, 44498.
MetaOJ: A massive distributed online judge system

: Online Judge (OJ) systems are a basic and important component of computer education. Here, we present MetaOJ, an OJ system that can be used for holding massive programming tests online. MetaOJ is designed to create a distributed, fault-tolerant, and easy-to-scale OJ system from an existing ordinary OJ system by adding several interfaces into it and creating multiple instances of it. Our case on modifying the TUOJ system shows that the modiﬁcation adds no more than 3% lines of code and the performance loss on a single OJ instance is no more than 12%. We also introduce mechanisms to integrate the system with cloud infrastructure to automate the deployment process. MetaOJ provides a solution for those OJ systems that are designed for a speciﬁc programming contest and are now facing performance bottlenecks.