Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting new climate-resilient feeds and forages in the smallholder mixed farming systems of East Africa

Targeting new climate-resilient feeds and forages in the smallholder mixed farming systems of East Africa Mercy Fakude BSc in Agricultural Science in Crop Science Student No: 17233721 The thesis is submitted to NUI Galway in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, which is a taught postgraduate program within the School of Natural Sciences.
Classification of Cardiac Arrhythmia with Respect To ECG and HRV Signal

The Consistent or periodical heart rhythm disorders may result cardiac arrhythmias. the presence of recurring arrhythmic events also known as cardiac dysrhythmia or irregular heartbeats, as well as the erroneous beat detection due to low quality of signal, significantly affects estimation of both time and frequency domain indices of the heart rate variability. the reliable, the real-time classification and the correction of ECG-derived heartbeats is a necessary prerequisite for an accurate online monitoring of HRV and cardiovascular control. In this the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) signals all are analyzed and the various features including time domain and frequency domain and the nonlinear parameters are extracted. then The additional nonlinear features are extracted from electrocardiogram i.e.ECG signals. These features are the helpful in classifying cardiac Arrhythmias. In this then we are going to use genetic programming which is applied to classify heart Arrhythmias using both HRV and ECG features. the Genetic programming selects effective features, and then finds most suitable trees to distinguish between different types of the Arrhythmia. and By considering the variety of extracted parameters from ECG and HRV signals, genetic programming can be used the precisely to differentiate various arrhythmias. The performance of used algorithm is evaluated on MIT– BIH Database. Here we are going to see seven different types of arrhythmia classes which includes the normal beat, the left bundle branch block beat,the right bundle branch beat, the premature ventricular contraction, the fusion of ventricular and normal beat,the atrial premature contraction and paced beat are classified with an accuracy of 98.75%, 98.93% , 99.10%, 99.46%, 99.82%, 99.46% and 99.82% respectively.In this paper also we are going to classify arrhythmias by using the genetic algorithm.
The legacy of Veblen and Schumpeter in interpreting mathematical aspects of economic diusion processes

The history of economic thought as well as contemporary economic theoriz- ing witness several attempts to explain the diusion of innovations within an economic system. This article surveys some prominent and important strands of economic and mathematical literature dealing with this topic. Ve- blen and Schumpeter serve as examples for verbal theorizing, whereas the theory of Markov chains and evolutionary game theory are the complemen- tary formal approaches. The focus is on working out the similarities between institutionalism (Veblen) and mathematical theories of decision making in economic systems on the one hand, and between Schumpeter's theory of in- novations and evolutionary game theoretic concepts on the other hand.
Psychometric Characteristics of the Professor–Student Rapport Scale

In this study, the authors assessed the psychometric properties of the Professor–Student Rapport Scale, the first scale to measure professor–student rapport. The scale was found to have adequate test–retest and internal-consistency reliability. In addition to these findings, measures used to determine convergent validity included the Working Alliance Inventory, a social support scale, and a measure of verbal aggressiveness. The rapport scale was found to significantly correlate in the expected direction with these measures. Specifically, the rapport scale correlated positively with the Working Alliance Inventory and the social support scale and correlated negatively with the verbal aggressiveness scale. Applications are discussed in terms of using the scale to identify areas of improvement in teaching practices and the potential usefulness of the scale for predicting student outcomes.
Meso-/ MicroScale Testing Standard and Methodology for Characterisation of Filled Epoxy Materials

In this study, a set of testing methodology was developed for the microtensile specimens. With the methodology, the effect of testing conditions on the mechanical properties of an underfill material was investigated at various strain rates from 10−/s to 10−/s over a wide temperature range from −40 to 240°C. It was found that the testing conditions, in particular, the testing temperature affect the measured properties greatly. The relationship between the testing temperature and the mechanical properties exhibits a nonlinear characteristic and shows three trends. More seriously, the mechanical properties were found to have a sharp change around the glass transition temperature (Tg). In contrast, the mechanical properties were found to have an approximate relationship with the logarithmic strain rate. More over, the fracture surfaces of the tested specimens were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The fracture features were employed to explain the experimental observations.
“Because nobody likes Chinese girls”: Intersecting identities and emotional experiences of subordination and resistance in school life

How do emotions enter into children’s negotiated understandings and situated uses of categories of identity? This question guided a revisit to an ethnographic study of a multi-cultural context in Oakland, California. A focus group discussion among four Chinese American girls just graduating from elementary school and an interviewer, also Chinese American, was chosen for closer study. This secondary analysis focuses on how the girls engaged in school events and how in the interview they shared experiences of being excluded and rejected by peers. Thus, both reports about life in school and lived life in the group discussion were analyzed in ways that followed the girls’ individual and collective emotional dynamics. Emotional tension between using and being used by categories drove their stories about belonging, exclusion and subordination, and resistance. The girls’ handling of social identities in relation to language use, required activities, and girly appearance in school demonstrated how they were able to draw on an eclectic and intersecting mix of categories. In the containing setting of the focus group, the girls processed their raw emotional experience of being taunted and humiliated. In the process they could challenge and destabilize the meanings attached to the categories of identity used against them. Therefore, intersectional analyses cannot take any specific meanings of social categories such as gender, ethnicity/race, and age, as the starting points. Rather, in each specific instance, the meanings of social categories will emerge as the results of the analysis.
Inhibition of Staphylococcus epidermidis Biofilm Formation by Traditional Thai Herbal Recipes Used for Wound Treatment

Development of biofilm is a key mechanism involved in Staphylococcus epidermidis virulence during device-associated infections. We aimed to investigate antibiofilm formation and mature biofilm eradication ability of ethanol and water extracts of Thai traditional herbal recipes including THR-SK004, THR-SK010, and THR-SK011 against S. epidermidis. A biofilm forming reference strain, S. epidermidis ATCC 35984 was employed as a model for searching anti-biofilm agents by MTT reduction assay. The results revealed that the ethanol extract of THR-SK004 (THR-SK004E) could inhibit the formation of S. epidermidis biofilm on polystyrene surfaces. Furthermore, treatments with the extract efficiently inhibit the biofilm formation of the pathogen on glass surfaces determined by scanning electron microscopy and crystal violet staining. In addition, THR-SK010 ethanol extract (THR-SK010E; 0.63–5 μg/mL) could decrease 30 to 40% of the biofilm development. Almost 90% of a 7-day-old staphylococcal biofilm was destroyed after treatment with THR-SK004E (250 and 500 μg/mL) and THR-SK010E (10 and 20 μg/mL) for 24 h. Therefore, our results clearly demonstrated THR-SK004E could prevent the staphylococcal biofilm development, whereas both THR-SK004E and THR-SK010E possessed remarkable eradication ability on the mature staphylococcal biofilm.
A Gender-Based Analysis of High School Athletes Using Computerized Electrocardiogram Measurements

Background The addition of the ECG to the preparticipation examination (PPE) of high school athletes has been a topic for debate. Defining the difference between the high school male and female ECG is crucial to help initiate its implementation in the High School PPE. Establishing the different parameters set for the male and female ECG would help to reduce false positives. We examined the effect of gender on the high school athlete ECG by obtaining and analyzing ECG measurements of high school athletes from Henry M. Gunn High School. Methods In 2011 and 2012, computerized Electrocardiograms were recorded and analyzed on 181 athletes (52.5% male; mean age 16.1±1.1 years) who participated in 17 different sports. ECG statistics included intervals and durations in all 3 axes (X, Y, Z) to calculate 12 lead voltage sums, QRS Amplitude, QT interval, QRS Duration, and the sum of the R wave in V5 and the S Wave in V2 (RS Sum). Results By computer analysis, we demonstrated that male athletes had significantly greater QRS duration, Q-wave duration, and T wave amplitude. (P<0.05). By contrast, female athletes had a significantly greater QTc interval. (P<0.05). Conclusion The differences in ECG measurements in high school athletes are strongly associated with gender. However, body size does not correlate with the aforementioned ECG measurements. Our tables of the gender-specific parameters can help facilitate the development of a more large scale and in-depth ECG analysis for screening high school athletes in the future.
Sustaining Runtime Performance while Incrementally Modernizing Transactional Monolithic Software towards Microservices

Microservices are a promising target architecture for the modernization of monolithic software. However, breaking up a monolith into services can have a severe impact on performance, especially transactions. Therefore, careful planning of such modernizations with respect to performance is required. This is particularly true for incremental modernizations, which release partially modernized states of the application into production. In this paper, we present a simulation-based approach for sustaining runtime performance during incremental modernizations towards Microservices.
Inferring social behavior from sexual dimorphism in the fossil record.

Sexual dimorphism is commonly used as evidence of the behavior of extinct species. Even so, few analyses scrutinize whether extant comparative data support inferences of mating systems or behavior in extinct species. This analysis evaluates the relations between measures of dimorphism and several estimates of mating system and intrasexual competition. Dimorphism alone provides poor resolution for reconstructing behavior. Many behavioral inferences based on perceived dimorphism are not supported by extant comparative data. This reflects the large standard errors of relations between dimorphism estimates and behavioral classifications. Used with caution, dimorphism can provide a hint of the behavior of extinct species in some cases. However, in many cases inferred dimorphism allows little more than an inference of polygyny, without any indication of specific types of mating systems.
Wave based vibration control of membranes

Suppression of vibrations occurring in membranes due to initial conditions is considered. The membrane is modeled by a combination of modal decomposition in the lateral axis and transfer functions in the longitudinal. The transfer functions are irrational and are shown to represent the wave motion in the system. A dedicated closed loop control algorithm is designed to eliminate the wave reflections in the control axis. The resulting controllers are irrational as well, and approximations are used to implement them. Numerical simulations show that controlling only few modes is sufficient to achieve a considerable vibration attenuation.
Impact of Storage Solution Formulation during Refrigerated Storage upon Chondrocyte Viability and Cartilage Matrix

Various preservation solutions have been evaluated for longer hypothermic cartilage storage for tissue transplantation; however, the results are mixed. This research was carried out to determine whether phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or organ preservation solutions would preserve both the extracellular matrix and chondrocytes of articular cartilage better than culture medium during refrigerated storage in the time frame that cartilage is stored for clinical use. Porcine cartilage plugs were stored, without the underlying bone, in culture medium with and without fetal bovine serum (FBS), PBS, Belzer's and Unisol solutions for 1 month at 4°C. Metabolic activity was tested using a resazurin reduction method, and matrix permeability was evaluated by measuring electrical conductivity. Storage in culture medium with 10% FBS was shown to provide good cartilage metabolic function for 7 days, decreasing to about 36% after 1 month of storage. There was no significant difference between samples stored in culture medium with and without FBS after 1 month of storage (p = 0.5005). Refrigerated storage of cartilage in PBS and two different solutions (Belzer's and Unisol) designed for optimal refrigerated tissue and organ storage results in loss of chondrocyte function and retention of matrix permeability. In contrast, the opposite, namely significantly better retention of chondrocyte function and loss of matrix permeability, was observed with culture medium. Future research should be focused on combining retention of chondrocyte function and matrix permeability by storage solution formulation.
Utility-based Resource Allocation for Soft QoS Traffic in Wireless Networks

In this paper, we study utility-based resource allocation for soft QoS traffic in wireless networks. We describe the design guidelines for this problem and propose a sub-optimal, polynomial time solution for such allocation. The proposed mechanism accounts for the traffic type, the total available resource, and the user channel quality, rather than solely depending on channel quality or traffic type as assumed in most existing work. The performance of the proposed mechanism is evaluated via simulations. The results show that this mechanism adapts to different traffic types. Specifically, it acts like a hard QoS system and allocates resource in a fairness-oriented manner when the utility function is very steep; on the other hand, when the utility function is relatively flat, this mechanism behaves like a best effort system and allocates resource in a throughput-oriented way.
Polymorphisms of CYP1A1, GSTM1, GSTT1, and Prostate Cancer Risk in Turkish Population

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries. Although the etiology of prostate cancer largely is unknown, both genetic and environmental factors may be involved. Advanced age, androgen metabolism, and heredity-race have been reported to be possible risk factors. On the other hand, several studies indicate that genetic polymorphisms in biotransformation enzymes play a role in prostate cancer development. In this study, association of the prostate cancer risk with genotype frequencies of the Phase I (CYP1A1) and Phase II (GSTM1 and GSTT1) biotransformation enzymes was investigated in 321 Turkish individuals (152 prostate cancer patients and 169 age-matched male controls). The presence or absences of the GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes were determined by a PCR-based method. Genotypes of CYP1A1 were determined by MspI-RFLP. The prevalence of GSTM1 null genotype in the cases was 64 percent, compared to 31 percent in the control group, indicating a strong association (OR = 4.08, 95%CI = 2.50–6.69). No association was observed between either GSTT1 null genotype or CYP1A1 polymorphism and prostate cancer incidence. No statistically significant association was observed between smoking status of the patients and any of the polymorphisms studied. In conclusion, results of this study indicate that only the GSTM1 null genotype may play an important role as a risk factor for prostate cancer development in Turkish population.
The Thermogeographic Model in Paleogeography: Application of an Abiotic Model to a Plate Tectonic World

1.1 Marine biogeography and paleoecology Recent coastal marine biogeography has a long and venerable history. (Ekman, 1953; Briggs, 1974, 1995; Vermejj, 1978). However, it has lacked a substantial theory and has been the subject of widespread criticism (Longhurst, 1998; Rosenzweig, 1995). The most recent research, driven by the need for coastal conservation, has added satellite remote sensing and constructions based on present day sea surface temperature (Spalding et al, 2007). Based on largely subjectively-created assemblages of organisms and sea surface temperatures (SST), these studies are increasingly sophisticated creating hundreds of ecoregions where previously biogeography researchers had created dozens. However, mostly they fail to consider that macro-organism distribution, the focus of virtually all biogeographical analyses, has not developed solely based on SST characteristics that have lasted for only a few millennia at most. The evolution of stable assemblages of macro-organisms requires geological time, since it is based in the evolution of its component organisms. In paleoecological analysis, understanding the present has always been regarded as a key to the past and modern studies normally make that connection (Brenchley and Harper, 1998). However, paleoecological analyses by definition, treats change with geological time and is based in the evolution of organisms, typically over millenia to millions of years. When the analog is coastal biocoenoses, the modern analog studies are mostly fixed Intime. Coastal Thermogeographic Regions as defined by the Adey and Steneck (2001) five-dimensional abiotic model (TM). The principal variables were mean minimum and maximum surface temperature, with coastal area over time (present and 18K) appearing as contours. Isolation by oceans and continents, i.e., northern and southern and Atlantic and Pacific/Indian Oceans, were introduced by separating the main diagram into quadrants, and then stretching some overlapping coasts. The strength of each Region is represented by the number of contours of coastal area that is constant over Pleistocene time.
An Ultra-Deep High-Q Microwave Cavity Resonator Fabricated Using Deep X-Ray Lithography

An ultra-deep polymer cavity structure exposed using deep X-ray lithography is used as a template for metal electroforming to produce a 24-GHz cavity resonator. The metal cavity is 1.8 mm deep and has impressive structure, including extremely vertical and smooth sidewalls, resulting in low conductor loss. The measured resonator has an unloaded quality factor of above 1800 at a resonant frequency of 23.89 GHz.
The Hedgehog Signal Transduction Network

The Hedgehog network includes canonical and noncanonical signaling modules important for development, homeostasis, and disease. Members of the conserved Hedgehog (Hh) family of secreted proteins play fundamental roles during embryonic development and homeostasis of adult tissues. Hh signal transduction uses an unusual derepression mechanism, in which Hh binding to its receptor component Patched (Ptc) inhibits the capacity of Ptc to repress the heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein–coupled receptor Smoothened (Smo). Activation of Smo is accomplished through phosphorylation and subcellular translocation from intracellular vesicles to the plasma membrane and, in vertebrates, also to the primary cilium. This Review focuses primarily on the signaling modules that are set in motion by binding of Hh to Ptc: the “canonical” pathway through which Smo promotes activation of the Gli family of transcription factors, the noncanonical type I pathway in which Ptc modulates cell proliferation and survival independently of Smo, and the noncanonical type II pathway by which Smo regulates the actin cytoskeleton through G inhibitory proteins and small guanosine triphosphatases. Hedgehog (Hh) proteins regulate the development of a wide range of metazoan embryonic and adult structures, and disruption of Hh signaling pathways results in various human diseases. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the signaling pathways regulated by Hh, consolidating data from a diverse array of organisms in a variety of scientific disciplines. Similar to the elucidation of many other signaling pathways, our knowledge of Hh signaling developed in a sequential manner centered on its earliest discoveries. Thus, our knowledge of Hh signaling has for the most part focused on elucidating the mechanism by which Hh regulates the Gli family of transcription factors, the so-called “canonical” Hh signaling pathway. However, in the past few years, numerous studies have shown that Hh proteins can also signal through Gli-independent mechanisms collectively referred to as “noncanonical” signaling pathways. Noncanonical Hh signaling is itself subdivided into two distinct signaling modules: (i) those not requiring Smoothened (Smo) and (ii) those downstream of Smo that do not require Gli transcription factors. Thus, Hh signaling is now proposed to occur through a variety of distinct context-dependent signaling modules that have the ability to crosstalk with one another to form an interacting, dynamic Hh signaling network.
A low noise CMOS amplifier for ENG signals

The development of an integrated amplifier, intended to record electrical signals from extracellular peripheral nerves, using cuff electrodes, is presented. In order to minimize the flicker noise generated by the CMOS circuitry, a chopper full differential amplifier is implemented. The amplifier has a gain of 74 dB, a bandwidth of 3 kHz and a power dissipation of 1.3 mWatts, with 5 V power supply. Equivalent input-referred noise level of 6.6 nV/(Hz)/sup 0.5/ has been achieved, obtaining a noise efficiency factor of 5.3, which is clearly competitive, compared with other developed recording amplifiers reported in the literature. The amplifier has been fabricated with a fully CMOS 0.7 /spl mu/m technology (one poly, two metals, self aligned twin-well CMOS process) and the active area is 2.7 mm/sup 2/. In vivo nerve recordings are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the amplifier.
Multiple-symbol interleaved RS codes and two-pass decoding algorithm

For communication systems with heavy burst noise, an optimal Forward Error Correction (FEC) scheme is expected to have a large burst error correction capability while simultaneously owning moderate random error correction capability. This letter presents a new FEC scheme based on multiple-symbol interleaved Reed-Solomon codes and an associated two-pass decoding algorithm. It is shown that the proposed multi-symbol interleaved Reed-Solomon scheme can achieve nearly twice as much as the burst error correction capability of conventional single-symbol interleaved Reed-Solomon codes with the same code length and code rate.