Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological, cultural and pathogenic variability among the different isolates of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis cucumerinum causing root and stem rot of cucumber: A review

The study entitled ‘Impact assessment of socio-economic factors on financial inclusion in Punjab’. The present study was conducted to assess the socio-economic factors on financial inclusion among rural households in the rural areas of Punjab state in the year 2016-17. The design of the study was based on the primary survey of fazilka district of Punjab State. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, a sample of 150 households was taken from two villages of Fazilka district by using random sampling technique. All the sampled households were further categorized into major four categories (farmers, labourers, servicemen, self-employed) in order to estimate the magnitude of financial inclusion among the different categories of households. The results revealed that on overall basis, the majority of the family heads were lies in the age group of 35-50 years. Further, nearly about half of the respondents were having education up to 10th standard. Only, 4.67 percent of the total rural households had above graduate as highest level of education. It was observed that market value and rental value of owned land were higher in the banking village as compared to non-banking village. Overall rural households of banking and non-banking villages saved 14.30 per cent of their income. Among the farmers, medium farmer saved more which was 22.58 per cent. The average savings were higher in the servicemen category whereas, in self-employed category, the average expenditure exceeds the income, hence resulted in negative saving.
Fuzzy Based Current Control Scheme for Harmonic Compensation in Grid Connected DG Units

In order to utilize DG unit interfacing converters to actively compensate distribution system harmonics, this paper proposes an enhanced fuzzy based current control approach. It seamlessly integrates system harmonic mitigation capabilities with the primary DG power generation function. As the proposed current controller has two well decoupled control branches to independently control fundamental and harmonic DG currents, phase-locked loops (PLL) and system harmonic component extractions can be avoided during system harmonic compensation. Moreover, a closed-loop power control scheme is also employed to derive the fundamental current reference. The proposed power control scheme effectively eliminates the impacts of steady-state fundamental current tracking errors in the DG units. Thus, an accurate power control is realized even when the harmonic compensation functions are activated. Simulation results from a singlephase DG unit validate the correctness of the proposed
A Nonlinear Static Procedure for the Seismic Design of Symmetrical Irregular Bridges

Displacement-based seismic design methods support the performance-based seismic design philosophy known to be the most advanced seismic design theory. This paper explores one common type of irregular-continuous bridges and studies the prediction of their elastoplastic displacement demand, based on a new nonlinear static procedure. This benefits to achieve the operation of displacement-based seismic design. Three irregular-continuous bridges are analyzed to advance the equivalent SDOF system, build the capacity spectrum and the inelastic spectrum, and generate the new nonlinear static analysis. The proposed approach is used to simplify the prediction of elastoplastic displacement demand and is validated by parametric analysis. The new nonlinear static procedure is also used to achieve the displacement-based seismic design procedure. It is tested by an example to obtain results which show that after several combinations of the capacity spectrum (obtained by a pushover analysis) and the inelastic demand spectrum, the simplified displacement-based seismic design of the common irregular-continuous bridges can be achieved. By this design, the seismic damage on structures is effectively controlled.
Towards a Speaker Diarization System for the CHiME 2020 Dinner Party Transcription

In this work, we present our joint efforts on Track 2 of the CHiME 6 challenge, where two to three hours long sessions of a dinner party are to be transcribed without the use of start and end time annotations for each utterance during evaluation. The first contribution introduces an extension to an earlier proposed neural speaker diarization system by additionally incorporating spatial features, but violates the challenge rules by using oracle information about the speaker permutation in different segments. However, the results are promising and warrant future investigations. The second contribution follows the challenge guidelines and combines our system presented during the last challenge with the Track 2 baseline diarization system. Different acoustic models with system combination are tested on the enhanced data and deliver significant performance improvements over the baseline, both with the baseline and a modified language model.
Government Sectoral Expenditure and Economic Growth

The major objective of this study is scrutinizing the impact of government sectoral expenditure on economic growth in East African countries over the period from 1985 to 2015. It focuses on sectoral expenditures on health, education, defence and agriculture segments. The main contribution of this research is examining expenditure components in line with current government categorization to establish these sectoral budget allocations that have impact on economic growth in order to provide a guide for policy formulation. This study uses secondary data which are obtained from Statistical Abstracts and World Bank reports. The growth impact of government expenditure is estimated by panel Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique and fixed effect estimation method to examine the relationship between the variables. The empirical results show that agriculture and education expenditure have an insignificant impact on economic growth and productivity. The regression results further show a significant positive impact on economic growth of expenditure on health and defence. To boost economic growth and productivity a welldefined expenditure strategy and efficient management of budgetary resources allocated to all sectors should be accentuated in East Africa.
Memristor Technology and Applications:An Overview

A Memristor is a 2-terminal thin-ﬁlm electrical device that is a short form of memory-resistor. The Memristor as a basic circuit element has drawn wide attention in the international research community of electrical and computer engineers, physicists, and biologists. The main feature of the Memristor is the ability to remember its state history. Therefore, it is becoming prominent for the realization of nonvolatile VLSI resistive random access memories (RRAM). For the applicability as a synapse in neuromorphic systems the Memristor provides even further surprising properties in electric circuits, which opens up new horizons to future applications. In this report, we study the properties and potentials of Memristor. We explain how it works, how is its physical design behavour, and what are the diﬀerent implementation and fabrication materials of this nano-device. Furthermore, we investigate potential applications regarding to previous contributed papers. We also classify a novel categorization of streams of research based on physic to the system hierarchy.
A Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning Perspective on Distributed Traffic Engineering

Traffic engineering (TE) in multi-region networks is a challenging problem due to the requirement that each region must independently compute its routing decisions based on local observations, yet with the goal of optimizing global TE objectives. Traditional approaches often lack the agility to adapt to changing traffic patterns and thus may suffer hefty performance loss under highly dynamic traffic demands. In this paper, we propose a data-driven framework for multi-region TE problems, which makes novel use of multi-agent deep reinforcement learning. In particular, we propose two reinforcement learning agents for each region, namely T-agents and O-agents, to control the terminal traffic and outgoing traffic, respectively. These distributed agents collect local link utilization statistics within their regions, optimize local routing decisions, and observe the resulting congestion-related reward. To facilitate these agents for optimizing global TE objectives, we tailor the agent design carefully including input, output, and reward functions. The proposed framework is evaluated extensively using real-world network topologies (e.g., Telstra and Google Cloud) and synthetic traffic patterns (e.g., the Gravity model). Numerical results show that comparing with existing protocols and single-agent learning algorithms, our solution can significantly reduce congestion and achieve nearly-optimal performance with both superior scalability and robustness. Throughout our simulations, over 90% of tests limit congestion within 1.2 times the global optimal solution.1
FACULTY PROFESSIONALIZATION FOR OWI

WPAs can improve faculty professionalization models for OWI to generate dynamic performance support by examining ways in which application frameworks are created for evolving software systems. Design includes creating ideas and assignments; coding includes methods of presenting, responding, assessing, and supporting. Connecting effective design and coding approaches to OWI effective practices, especially faculty professional development, can improve OWI programs.
Technological Problems in Fabrication of Mg-Based Thermoelectric Materials by Conventional Casting Methods

In the paper the potential of conventional casting technology in fabrication of modern magnesium-based thermoelectric materials was evaluated. Although these materials are considered as potential environmentalfriendly alternative for commercially used thermoelectric materials based on heavy metals, fabrication of bulk Mg-based thermoelectric materials with simple and cost-effective technologies is still challenging. In the present work it was found that it is possible to obtain Mg-based thermoelectric materials with conventional gravity casting technology. The following technological problems were identified: high reactivity and vapor pressure of magnesium, large difference in melting point and density of the components, high fragility, high synthesis temperature and significant solidification volume shrinkage. The application of solutions and adjustments to the conventional gravity casting method, comprising the usage of non-reactive crucible and mold materials, inert atmosphere of argon, intensive mechanical stirring, and decrease of cooling rate of solidifying ingots led to fabrication of relatively pure (98%) bulk Mg2Sn thermoelectric compound.
Joint Constrained Learning for Event-Event Relation Extraction

Understanding natural language involves recognizing how multiple event mentions structurally and temporally interact with each other. In this process, one can induce event complexes that organize multi-granular events with temporal order and membership relations interweaving among them. Due to the lack of jointly labeled data for these relational phenomena and the restriction on the structures they articulate, we propose a joint constrained learning framework for modeling event-event relations. Specifically, the framework enforces logical constraints within and across multiple temporal and subevent relations by converting these constraints into differentiable learning objectives. We show that our joint constrained learning approach effectively compensates for the lack of jointly labeled data, and outperforms SOTA methods on benchmarks for both temporal relation extraction and event hierarchy construction, replacing a commonly used but more expensive global inference process. We also present a promising case study showing the effectiveness of our approach in inducing event complexes on an external corpus.
Optimization of Welding Parameters by Using Taguchi Method and Study of Fracture Mode Characterization of SS304H Welded by GMA Welding

This study focuses on optimizing different welding parameters which affect the mechanical properties such as YS, UTS, Toughness, and Vicker hardness (VHN) of SS304H, Taguchi technique was employed to optimize the welding parameters, and fracture mode characterization was studied. A series of experiments have been carried out. L9 orthogonal array (3xx3) applied for it. Statistical methods of signal to a noise ratio (SNR) and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine the effects of different welding parameters such as wire feed speed, welding current and gas flow rate on Mechanical properties. Tensile strength, toughness, Vicker hardness (VHN), and mode of fracture were examined to investigate the weld quality of SS304H, and it was observed from the results that the welding voltage has significant effect whereas gas flow rate has insignificant effect on tensile strength of the weldment, and optimum process parameters were found to be 23 V, 350 IPM travel speed of wire and 20 l/min gas flow rate for tensile strength and mode of fracture was ductile fracture for tensile test specimen. © 2018 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved
Role of state regulation in harmonization of socio-economic interest system in Arctic zone of Russian Federation (AZRF) in current institutional environment

AZRF’s role in ensuring energy, national security determines enhanced attention to the pace, quality of the region development. Regional industry, transport development leads to a complex system of contradictory socio-economic interests: business, state, local population, including indigenous peoples. AZRF development effects are ranked by the degree of economic relation participants’ interests. The socioeconomic interest system is analyzed. The necessity of increased state responsibility for the results of the regional development is proved, which requires tightening institutional conditions of economic management.
Study of the Chemical Constituents of Rauvolfia Vomitoria Afzel

The ethanol extract of the root of Rauvolfia vomitoria Afzel,introduced from Ghana and cultivated in Simao Jiangcheng County of Yunnan Province,was extracted with CHCl3 at pH=2 and pH=9.14 compounds were isolated from two fractions and identified on the basis of their spectral data as α-onocerin(1),methyl 3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamate(2),betulinic acid(3),3β,22E,22S-stigmasta-5,22-dien-3O-β-D-glucopyranoside(4),loganic acid(5),7,2′-O-diacetyl loganic acid(6),mitoridine(7),10,11-dimethoxy-α-yohimbine(8),isoreserpiline(9),19-epiajmalicine(10),10,11-dimethoxy-19-epiajmalicine(11),reserpine(12),poke-weed cerebroside(13) and β-sitoterol(14). Compounds 1,2,3,4,6 and 13 were first isolated from this genus.
Distinct serum anti-AÎ² antibody patterns in hemorrhagic and inflammatory cerebral amyloid angiopathy manifestations

Abstract Objective: To study blood anti-A{beta} antibodies in the context of spontaneous inflammatory or hemorrhagic CAA manifestations, which are similar to complications occurring after monoclonal anti-A{beta} antibody immunotherapies. Methods: In this case-control study, serum anti-A{beta} antibody isotype, concentration, avidity, and reactivity toward soluble or fibrillary A{beta}1-40 and A{beta}1-42 isoforms were assessed using an ELISA-based multiplex analysis. Anti-A{beta} serologic patterns were defined in CAA and CAA subgroups using multivariable logistic regression analyses. Results: Fourty-one healthy aged controls and 64 CAA patients were recruited: 46 with hemorrhagic features (CAA-he) and 18 with CAA-related inflammation (CAA-ri). As compared to controls, the most striking features of CAA-related serological profiles were the following: i) both CAA-he and CAA-ri patients displayed lower binding diversity of anti-soluble A{beta}1-40 IgM; ii) CAA-he patients displayed higher anti-soluble A{beta}1-40 / fibrillary A{beta}1-42 IgG4 concentrations ratio and higher anti-soluble A{beta}1-42 IgG4 and IgA avidity; iii) CAA-ri patients displayed higher binding diversity of anti-soluble A{beta}1-40 IgG3 and higher anti-fibrillary/soluble A{beta}1-42 IgG4 dilution curve steepness ratio. Conclusion: This proof-of-concept study revealed anti-A{beta} antibody variations in CAA patients, some of which were associated to CAA clinical phenotypes, unveiling pathophysiological insights regarding CAA-hemorrhagic and inflammatory related events.
Association between intrahospital transfers and hospital-acquired infection among elderly patients: A retrospective case-control study in one urban NHS hospital trust

Background: Intrahospital transfers have become more common as hospital staff balance patient needs with bed availability. However, this may leave patients more vulnerable to potential pathogen transmission routes via increased exposure to contaminated surfaces and contacts with individuals. Objective: This study aimed to quantify the association between the number of intrahospital transfers undergone during a hospital spell and the development of a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). Methods: A retrospective case-control study was conducted using data extracted from electronic health records and microbiology cultures of non-elective, medical admissions to a large urban hospital trust comprising 3 hospital sites between 2016 and 2018 (n=24,239). As elderly patients comprise a large proportion of hospital users and are a high-risk population for HAIs, the analysis focused on those over 65-years old. Logistic regression was conducted to obtain the odds ratio (OR) for developing a HAI as a function of intrahospital transfers until onset of HAI for cases, or hospital discharge for controls, while controlling for age, gender, time-at-risk, Elixhauser comorbidities, hospital site of admission, dominant treatment function code, intensive care admission, total number of procedures, and discharge destination. Results: Of the 24,239 spells, 2879 cases were included in the analysis. 72.2% of spells contained at least one intrahospital transfer. On multivariable analysis, each additional intrahospital transfer increased the odds of acquiring a HAI by 9% (OR 1.09; 95%CI 1.05 to 1.13). Conclusion: Intrahospital transfers are associated with increased odds of developing a HAI. Strategies for minimising intrahospital transfers should be considered, and further research is needed to identify unnecessary transfers. Their reduction may diminish spread of contagious pathogens in the hospital environment.
Associations between governor political affiliation and COVID-19 cases, deaths, and testing in the United States

Introduction As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has become increasingly politicized in the United States (US), political party affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease. We examined differences in COVID-19 infection and death rates stratified by governor party affiliation across the 50 US states and the District of Columbia (DC). Methods We conducted a longitudinal analysis examining daily COVID-19 incidence and death rates from March 1 to September 30, 2020, for each US state and DC. We fit a Bayesian negative binomial model to estimate adjusted daily risk ratios (RRs) and posterior intervals (PIs) comparing infection and death rates by gubernatorial (mayoral for DC) party affiliation. We adjusted for several state-level variables, including population density, age, race, poverty, and health. Results From March to early June 2020, Republican-led states had, on average, lower COVID-19 incidence rates compared to Democratic-led states. However, on June 8, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher per capita COVID-19 incidence rates (RR=1.15, 95% PI: 1.02, 1.25). This trend persisted until September 30 (RR=1.26, 95% PI: 0.96, 1.51). For death rates, Republican-led states had lower average rates early in the pandemic, but higher rates from July 13 (RR=1.22, 95% PI: 1.03,1.37) to September 30 (RR=1.74, 95% PI: 1.20, 2.24). Conclusion Gubernatorial party affiliation may drive policy decisions that impact COVID-19 infections and deaths across the US. As attitudes toward the pandemic become increasingly polarized, policy decisions should be guided by public health considerations rather than political ideology.
Mathematical Modeling of COVID-19 pandemic in the African continent

The present work aims to give a contribution to the understanding of the highly infectious pandemic caused by the COVID-19 in the African continent. The study focuses on the modelling and the forecasting of COVID-19 spread in the most affected African continent, namely: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa and for the sake of comparison two of the most affected European country are also considered, namely: France and Italy. To this end, an epidemiological SEIQRDP model is presented, which is an adaptation of the classic SIR model widely used in mathematical epidemiology. In order to better coincide with the preventive measures taken by the governments to deal with the spread of COVID-19, this model considers the quarantine. For the identification of the models parameters, official data of the pandemic up to August 1st, 2020 are considered. The results show that the number of infections due to the use of quarantine is expected to be very low provided the isolation is effective. However, it is increasing in some countries with the early lifting of containment. Finally, the information provided by the SEIQRDP model could help to establish a realistic assessment of the short-term pandemic situation. Moreover, this will help maintain the most appropriate and necessary public health measures after the lockdown lifting.
SpCas9-expression by tumor cells can cause T cell-dependent tumor rejection in immunocompetent mice

ABSTRACT The CRISPR/Cas9 system has recently emerged as a highly efficient modality in genetic engineering and has been widely considered for various therapeutic applications. However, since the effector protein, SpCas9, has a bacterial origin, its immunogenicity must be explored in further depth. Here, we found that the intact immune system, in wild-type C57BL/6J and BALB/cL mice, stimulates specific immune response against SpCas9, resulting in the rejection of SpCas9-expressing tumors. However, these tumors effectively grew in syngeneic C57BL/6J immunodeficient, T cell-depleted and Cas9-KI mice. Therefore, these observations suggest that this tumor rejection phenotype is T cell-dependent. The immunological clearance of SpCas9-expressing tumors in the immunocompetent group illustrates the possibility of misinterpreting the impact of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing on in vivo tumor biology and survival. Thus, these findings have important implications for the use of this exciting approach in in vivo studies, as well as to manipulate cancer cell biology for therapeutic applications.