Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
InstaCircos: a Web Application for Fast and Interactive Circular Visualization of Large Genomic Data (Work in Progress)

One of the most effective visualizations for genomics data is the circular one, supported by popular packages and visualization suites. Many tools are available, however most of them share a number of negative points including limited ease of installation/usage, slow performance and memory limitations (making them unfeasible for very large genomes such as the human one) and non interactivity. In this paper we present the ongoing work on InstaCircos, a web application born from the scientific collaboration between Big Data Analytics and Bioinformatics researchers and aiming at overcoming the available tools’ limitations. It provides advanced visualization features through an easy to use web interface and offers interactive functionalities and near real-time performances thanks to an integrated big data management back-end based on MongoDB.
University of Birmingham Indefinite Core Vector Machine

The recently proposed Kr˘ein space Support Vector Machine (KSVM) is an ef-ﬁcient classiﬁer for indeﬁnite learning problems, but with quadratic to cubic complexity and a non-sparse decision function. In this paper a Kr˘ein space Core Vector Machine (iCVM) solver is derived. A sparse model with linear runtime complexity can be obtained under a low rank assumption. The obtained iCVM models can be applied to indeﬁnite kernels without additional preprocessing. Using iCVM one can solve CVM with usually troublesome kernels having large negative eigenvalues or large numbers of negative eigenvalues. Experiments show that our algorithm is similar eﬃcient as the Kr˘ein space Support Vector Machine but with substantially lower costs, such that also large scale problems can be processed.
Multigrid for the Nonlinear Power Flow Equations Multigrid for the Nonlinear Power Flow Equations

The continuously changing structure of power systems and the inclusion of renewable energy sources are leading to changes in the dynamics of modern power grid, which have brought renewed attention to the solution of the AC power ﬂow equations. In particular, development of fast and robust solvers for the power ﬂow problem continues to be actively investigated. A novel multigrid technique for coarse-graining dynamic power grid models has been developed recently. This technique uses an algebraic multigrid (AMG) coarsening strategy applied to the weighted graph Laplacian that arises from the power network’s topol-ogy for the construction of coarse-grain approximations to the original model. Motivated by this technique, a new multigrid method for the AC power ﬂow equations is developed using this coarsening procedure. The AMG coarsening procedure is used to build a multilevel hierarchy of admittance matrices, which automatically leads to a hierarchy of nonlinear power ﬂow equations. The hierarchy of power ﬂow equations is then used in a full approximation scheme (FAS) and a multiplicative correction multigrid framework to produce multilevel solvers for the power ﬂow equations.
PIGEON PEA INITIAL GROWTH UNDER DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS OF ALUMINUM AND COMMERCIAL SUBSTRATE

The incorporation of organic substrate into the soil can reduce aluminum toxicity in pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. ) plants, making it a viable alternative for use by small farmers in acidic soil regions such as the northeast semi-arid regions of Brazil that contain toxic aluminum in the soil. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of increasing aluminum doses and different commercial substrate concentrations on the initial growth of the pigeon pea. The experiment was undertaken in a greenhouse using a completely randomized design with a 5 × 3 factorial scheme. The first factor consisted of five doses of aluminum (0, 13.5, 27, 54, and 108 mg L) and the second factor consisted of three percentages of commercial substrate Vivato Slim Pro® (0%, 10%, and 20%), with five replicates per treatment, totaling 60 experimental units. The variables evaluated were plant height; total chlorophyll; shoot, root, and total dry matter; and root volume. The use of the commercial substrate attenuated the aluminum toxicity and favored the initial growth of pigeon pea plants, regardless of the concentration used. Thus, the aluminum was detrimental to the initial plant growth at all tested concentrations and showed more pronounced signs of toxicity on
Gold Nanoparticles from Self-assembled Gold(I) Amine Precursors.

The reaction of AuCl(THT) (1) with long chain primary amines (CnH2n+1NH2; n = 8, 12, 16) leads to the formation of the complexes AuCl(NH2R) (R = C8H17, 2; C12H25, 3; C16H33, 4) which are characterized by classical methods and shown to self-organize in the solid state into a fibrous material; decomposition of the complexes inside the supramolecular framework yields a monolayer of ordered gold nanoparticles.
STOCHASTIC FRACTIONAL MODELS OF THE DIFFUSION OF COVID-19

Some different stochastic and deterministic mathematical models of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are studied. We study a nonlinear stochastic diffusion system that model of the dynamics of infections disease in particular the case of (COVID-19). Also a nonlinear deterministic fractional diffusion system related to (COVID-19) is considered. The asymptotic stability is proved for every system. In the field of infection disease, modeling, evaluating and predicting the rate of disease transmission is very important epidemic prevention and control. Our models are suitable for the considered prediction.
Voter myopia in individual perceptions of government performance

The theory of performance voting receives wide support in the empirical literature on voting behaviour. Time and again voters are found to retrospectively evaluate the performance of the government and to vote according to this evaluation. There is less agreement, however, on the time horizon voters use when they assess the government’s performance – i.e., whether or not voters are myopic and only take into account the country’s state of affairs close to Election Day when they make up their mind. Furthermore, previous studies on voter myopia all focused on aggregate-level measures of the economy. Using panel data from the Netherlands, this study constitutes the first investigation into voter myopia taking into account voters’ individual-level evaluations of the government’s performance at different points during the electoral cycle. In doing so, we relax the assumption that voters evaluate the government based on economic conditions only. Furthermore, we explicitly address concerns about panel-correlated errors and endogeneity in perceptions of performance by using the instrumental variables-approach. The results show that voters’ satisfaction early in the government’s term adds to explaining voting for incumbent parties. Thus, although the myopia thesis prevails in most studies on retrospective voting, this does not seem to be supported by
Mathematical Clustering Based on Cross- Sections in Medicine: Application to the Pan- creatic Neck

In the context of current surgical techniques, the classification of 3D organs based on two-dimensional cross-sections is a decisive and still challenging task. The goal of this paper is to explore an approach to address this problem. By this means, the expectation is to go further in the direction of patient-specific surgery. Based on two-dimensional image data, we analyze different clustering results assuming specific evaluation criteria. By doing so, a determination of the most appropriate number of clusters is possible. As an example, we use this method to classify the shape of the neck of the pancreas of humans, which is relevant for different types of distal pancreatectomy. Hereby, scaling issues of the available data are a key point. Therefore, an overall protocol needs to care for comparable data.
Recent advances in structure and reactivity of dissolved organic matter in natural waters

The goal of our research is to better understand the structure and reactivity of natural dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic environments. A more detailed knowledge of these DOM characteristics would lead to a better understanding of carbon cycling in natural waters and processes associated with water treatment using free radical chemistry. Our specific interest in DOM in natural waters is several-fold: 1) the photochemical formation of reactive oxygen species, 2) photobleaching of the DOM in coastal oceans, and 3) using chromophoric DOM (CDOM) as a tracer of water masses and in carbon cycling. Our interest in water treatment is that DOM is the major sink of hydroxyl radicals employed in advanced oxidation processes for the destruction of pollutants and thus adversely affects the efficiency of the process. We are using the techniques of radiation chemistry to explore the fundamental free radical and redox chemistry of DOM. We have initiated a study of the free radical reactions of DOM using isolated fractions of Suwannee River fulvic and humic acids and isolates from various anthropogenic sources. We are also investigating the use of model compounds in an attempt to understand the free radical transients formed from DOM either as a result of free radical reactions or photochemical reactions.
Design and test of a novel crawler-type multi-channel air-assisted orchard sprayer

In order to solve the problem of poor traveling stability and excessive pesticide application during plant protection operations in hilly orchards, a novel crawler-type multi-channel air-assisted sprayer that is particularly appropriate for hilly orchards was designed in this study. Considering anti-rolling requirements and the orchard environment in hilly areas, this study selected limits for uphill and downhill rolling angles as well as the transverse rolling angle as the evaluation indexes for determining both the layout and parameter settings of the sprayer. According to freely submerged jets and the requirements in plant protection operation, a multi-channel air-assisted system was developed. The test results showed that the anti-rolling performance and the designed air-assisted system were adequate. At 2 m from the longitudinal center plane of the sprayer, the airflow exhibited wavy distribution patterns under different parameter combinations since the four streams of the airflow were not thoroughly intersected and mixed. At 3 m from the longitudinal center plane of the sprayer the jet was ejected at great velocity but underwent rapid attenuation; the airflow velocity in most areas barely satisfied the requirements for plant protection operation. In addition, different air outlet layout schemes led to significant differences in the spatial distribution of the airflow field. Compared with a traditional air-assisted sprayer, using the developed multi-channel air-assisted sprayer enhanced the droplet coverage uniformity by 19.4%, and the mean droplet deposition in the front, middle and rear of the canopy was enhanced by 32.9%, 50.3% and 78.1%, respectively, while reducing ground deposition and air drift by 26.8%. Keywords: fan, dual-flow-channel, plant protection, air-assisted, test DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe. 20201306.5362 Citation: Qiu W, Li X L, Li C C, Ding W M, Lv X L, Liu Y D. Design and test of a novel crawler-type multi-channel air-assisted orchard sprayer. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(6): 60–67.
Electron energy distribution functions and transport coefficients for the rare gases

The previous method of finding the distribution function of electrons in weakly ionized gases (Lewis 1958) in which elastic loss was neglected is now extended so that all collision processes may be taken into account, including those due to elastic, rotational and vibrational collisions. The Smit (1936) derivation, which is related to the more usual treatment based on the Boltzmann transport equation, is used as the starting-point. Distribution functions are calculated for helium, neon and argon over ranges of E/p from 5 to 250 V cm-1 mm Hg-1 and agree well with the few isolated cases reported in the literature. At E/p = 5, these bear some resemblance to the standard Maxwellian, Druyvessteyn and Townsend-Ramsauer forms but show significant differences in the range of excitation and ionization energies. The way in which the inclusion of the elastic collision loss affects the distribution function at low E/p and depends on the atomic weight of the gas is shown clearly. From the distribution functions, the diffusion coefficients, electron mobilities, mean energies and Townsend `α´ coefficients are determined. While no experimental values of the diffusion coefficients are available for comparison, the derived electron mobilities agree well wfith other theoretical values and with those experimental ones which have been obtained from the use of a time of flight measurement. Comparison of the calculated mean electron energies with the experimental Townsend values which imply a Maxwellian distribution, shows that great care has to be exercised in the use of the Einstein relation for those gases in which the distributions are far from Maxwellian. The calculated Townsend α values agree with the experimental ones to the degree of accuracy that can be expected from the measured cross-sections and this is a sensitive test of the soundness of the theory. It is concluded for the rare gases in which no major energy loss occurs below the onset of optical excitation that the energy distributions are far from Maxwellian. Further calculations for molecular gases show that rotational and vibrational collisions tend to produce electron energy distributions of Maxwellian form.
MORPHOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF THE GROWTH RETARDANT ‘CYCOCEL’ ON MICROPROPAGATION OF ANANAS COMOSUS CV. QUEEN

Pineapple is a greenhouse promising crop in Egypt. It attracts attention of investors and exporters. Pineapple in vitro culture presents practical method for providing large number of plants for cultivation or export. This investigation aimed to study the effect of cycocel (CCC) on multiplication and rooting of pineapple plants grown in vitro with various concentrations (0.75, 1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg/l). Results showed that, all CCC concentrations affected shoot multiplication of pineapple in vitro culture as shoot number, length and leaf number, significantly. It was clear that, average number of shoots was increased gradually by increasing cycocel concentrations to 5.0 mg/l while shoot length showed the reverse. When the lowest concentration (0.75 mg/l) was added to rooting medium it enhanced root number, root length and plant thickness. Biochemical analysis showed that pigments, total phenols and tannins were increased by raising concentrations of cycocel in the medium, as their values reached the highest at 5.0 mg/l. Similarly, adding cycocel to the medium raised the activity of catalase, superoxid dismutase and glutathione peroxidase enzymes in pineapple shoots compared with the control.
Winds of change: A recordkeeping informatics approach to information management needs in data-driven research environments

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the role a recordkeeping informatics approach can play in understanding and addressing these challenges. In 2011, the Wind Tunnel located at the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DTSO)’s Fisherman’s Bend site in Melbourne and managed by the Flight Systems Branch (FSB) celebrated its 70th anniversary. While cause for celebration, it also raised concerns for DSTO aeronautical scientists and engineers as to capacities to effectively and efficiently manage the data legacy of such an important research facility for the next 70 years, given increased technological, organisational and collaboration complexities. Design/methodology/approach – This paper will detail how, through a collaborative action research project, the twin pillars of continuum thinking and recordkeeping metadata and the three facets of organisational culture, business process analysis and archival access, were used to examine the data, information, records and knowledge management challenges in this.
New methods for pyrolysis and combustion properties of forest litter: enhanced cone calorimetry with longleaf pine needles

New methods are sketched for determination of pyrolysis and combustion properties used in physical modeling of wildfires involving forest litter. The physical fire models, such as the Fire Dynamic Simulator, can benefit directly from detailed pyrolysis properties such as moisture isotherm properties of foliage; surface leaf emissivity varying with moisture content; foliage heat capacity varying from ambient temperature to 440 °C; dynamic moisture losses during direct heating; extractive volatiles profiling; and detailed pyrolysis kinetics. Although various instruments and methods for these properties are mentioned, this paper focuses on the pyrolysis and combustion properties associated with enhanced heat release rate calorimetry. Data from combustion tests of foliage litter on the specialized holder in the cone calorimeter, enhanced with water vapor flow and thermocouple measurements, are analyzed to provide ignition, chemical heat of combustion, mass losses, fire emissions, combustion efficiency, fuel elemental composition, and material interface temperatures as a function of time. Further, surface temperature measurements on heated leaf samples can be used to determine thermal conductivity as the thickness, density, heat capacity, and surface emissivity are independently measured. The methods presented here focus on longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) needles as a prominent litter component in the southeastern United States.
Robust Dereverberation With Kronecker Product Based Multichannel Linear Prediction

Reverberation impairs not only the speech quality, but also intelligibility. The weighted-prediction-error (WPE) method, which estimates the late reverberation component based on a multichannel linear predictor, is by far one of the most effective algorithms for dereverberation. Generally, the WPE prediction filter in every short-time-Fourier-transform (STFT) subband has to be long enough to estimate accurately the late reverberation component. As a consequence, WPE is computationally expensive, which makes it difficult to implement into real-time embedded or edge computing devices. Moreover, WPE is sensitive to additive noise and its performance may suffer from dramatic degradation even in environments where the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high. To address these drawbacks, this letter proposes to decompose the multichannel linear prediction filter as a Kronecker product of a temporal (interframe) prediction filter and a spatial filter. An iterative algorithm is then developed to optimize the two filters. In comparison with the original WPE algorithm, the presented method not only exhibits better performance in terms of dereverberation and robustness to additive noise, as there are fewer parameters to estimate for a given number of observation signal samples, but is also computationally more efficient, since the dimensions of the covariance matrices after Kronecker product decomposition are smaller.
HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN THE MAIN RIVERS OF RWENZORI REGION, KASESE DISTRICT SOUTH-WESTERN UGANDA

Current study established heavy metal pollution of rivers Mubuku, Rwimi and Nyamwamba in Kasese district, Western Uganda. Their integrity is important because communities depend on them for water resources. No recent information is known on rivers' quality status yet traverse a densely populated area with agricultural activities and a history of copper/cobalt mining as heavy metals pose high health risks. The study was conducted from October 2019 to December 2019 and quantified levels of Cu, Zn, Pb and Co in water and fish to estimate the rivers quality. Water samples were randomly collected in sterilised bottle while fish samples were collected using non selective net method, dissected and dried to a constant mass. The total heavy metal load was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results showed that, apart from Lead, the levels of Cu, Zn and Co in the waters were all within WHO limits except Co at one site on R. Nyamwamba with 0.233±0.009mg/L above the limit 0.05mg/L for drinking water. The overall mean for Pb was 0.030±0.006mg/L and 0.047±0.003mg/L at R. Nyamwamba, 0.053±0.003mg/L at R. Mubuku and 0.067±0.003mg/L at R. Rwimi, all above the WHO limit of 0.01mg/L. In fish tissues, Cu was within WHO limit; however, Pb and Zn were above limits (Pb, 2.0ppm; Zn, 100ppm) for fish. The average concentration for Pb was 29.05±4.85ppm, 69.23±9.25ppm and 32.33±5.93ppm at R. Nyamwamba, Rwimi and Mubuku respectively and for Zn, 115.05±8.12ppm, 117.47±8.65ppm and 118.69±8.79ppm at R. Nyamwamba, Rwimi and Mubuku respectively. Similarly, for all the three rivers, physico-chemical parameters; pH, temperature, electro-conductivity and dissolved oxygen were within the WHO limits but turbidity, 12.02±0.39NTU was above the limit of 5.0NTU. Therefore, there is need for management intervention to control further contamination of rivers with heavy metals and controlled use of water bodies as washing bays. Keywords׃ Bioaccumulation; Mubuku; Nyamwamba; Rwimi, Water quality. Postal Address: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda. Tel׃ +256784862110
A Rainfall Simulator for Laboratory Use in Acidic Precipitation Studies

A rainfall simulator, developed on the principle of droplet formation from needle tips, is described. The simulator is designed for laboratory experimentation to examine the effects of acidic precipitation on terrestrial plants. Droplet diameter can be varied from 2.5 to 3.4 mm with different gauge needles, and rainfall intensities from 0.50 to 1.25 cm h-1 can be attained by a variable speed peristaltic pump. Uniform distribution of rainfall was achieved by rotating the target area and by spacing needles, using an empirical cumulative probability distribution function, along eight radial tubular arms. Variation in rainfall distribution across a 1.2 m diameter circular target area was < 5 % . Integrity of solution chemistry was maintained upon passage through the simulator with variations in cation concentrations <10%, anion concentrations <5 % and pH <0.2. The system offers sufficient flexibility to simulate a range of rainfall characteristics by varying needle diameter, changing pump speed and/or alterin.
Studies on Permeation of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) Through Photo-Modified Functionalized Asymmetric Membrane

UV-initiated photo-modification by hydrophilic functional moieties (viz. acrylic acid, acrylamide) is performed on the photo-responsive Polyether sulfone (PES) membrane. Characterization of the modified membranes has been done by porometry, Fourier Transform-IR (FTIR), contact angle, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction and gel permeation chromatography. The grafting of acrylamide is higher compared to acrylic acid, as is evidenced from weight increase, as well as porometry studies. The separation abilities of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) have been experimented through all the membranes and results show that modified membranes possess a better separation ability compared to virgin polyether sulfone. The separation order follows the trend: PES-g-(AM) > PES-g-(AA) > PES. pH dependence conformational changes of BSA macromolecule influence the separation. The increase in pH results in the decreasing trend in separation. The water flux recovery ratio (FRR) for the virgin PES membrane is minimum compared to other two grafted membranes.