Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Strategic Alliances in Zambia’s Higher Education Markets

The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits and challenges of strategic alliances among higher education institutions in Zambia. Literature on alliances is explicit and highlights the benefits of alliances as well as the challenges. The study was qualitative in nature utilizing purposive sampling. It was a case study focusing on the existing strategic alliances among three universities situated in the capital of Zambia: University of Zambia, University of Africa and Cavendish University. Sixty participants, 20 from each participating university were purposively selected to represent a rich demographic mix in terms of gender, level of education and experience. These were selected based on their knowledge and experience working in universities as well as their strategic positions in their universities. Data were qualitatively analysed using thematic analysis. Three major themes namely benefits of strategic alliances to universities, challenges faced by strategic alliances among universities and mechanisms to manage such challenges were identified and discussed. It was concluded that strategic alliances among universities benefited the Zambian higher education market better than competition. Challenges identified such as lack of commitment to the strategic alliances could easily lead to their failure and therefore appropriate strategies such as ensuring that contracts offered to staff clearly stipulated the boundaries of staff rights are needed to mitigate such failure.
Evidence for the Identity Homologue Bm86 of Gene in Natural Strains Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum Cattle Tick for Sequencing

Cattle tick infestations constitute a major problem for the cattle industry in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Traditional control methods have been only partially successful. Hampered by the selection of chemical-resistant tick populations, the Boophilus microplus Bm86 protein isolated from tick gut epithelial cells is shown to induce protective response against tick infestations in vaccinated cattle. Recently, Bm86 of the gene was sequenced from tick Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum strain Ludhiana in India. In this study isolation and characterization of Bm86 of gene in Iranian H. a. anatolicum of cattle tick, recognizing a partial fragment DNA of Bm86 in three natural strains (Boushehr, Kordan and Boeinzahra-Iran), first, DNA extraction from different stages of H. a. anatolicum collected from three geographical discount places, was done. Two methods of DNA extraction (phenol-chloroform and absorption
Bio-signals compression using auto-encoder

Latest developments in wearable devices permits un-damageable and cheapest way for gathering of medical data such as bio-signals like ECG, Respiration, Blood pressure etc. Gathering and analysis of various biomarkers are considered to provide anticipatory healthcare through customized applications for medical purpose. Wearable devices will rely on size, resources and battery capacity; we need a novel algorithm to robustly control memory and the energy of the device. The rapid growth of the technology has led to numerous auto encoders that guarantee the results by extracting feature selection from time and frequency domain in an efficient way. The main aim is to train the hidden layer to reconstruct the data similar to that of input. In the previous works, to accomplish the compression all features were needed but in our proposed framework bio-signals compression using auto-encoder (BCAE) will perform task by taking only important features and compress it. By doing this it can reduce power consumption at the source end and hence increases battery life. The performance of the result comparison is done for the 3 parameters compression ratio, reconstruction error and power consumption. Our proposed work outperforms with respect to the SURF method.
Silhouette 4d: An Inter-Frame Lossless Geometry Coder Of Dynamic Voxelized Point Clouds

This paper presents a lossless inter geometry coder of voxelized point clouds. We build upon our previous work, extending the contexts used in the arithmetic coding to include voxels from a reference point cloud, hence the name, 4D contexts. We show that considering both 3D and 4D contexts leads to a substantial gain compared to considering each one on its own, and we also propose a fast decision method to avoid encoding each slice with both contexts. The proposed codec has the same complexity as our previous intra codec, but it shows an equal or superior performance for all point clouds tested. Results show that the proposed method outperforms all intra and inter state-of-the-art coders on the public available datasets tested.
Diet and feeding strategy of the forkbeard Phycis phycis (Pisces: Phycidae) from the Portuguese continental coast

The diet and feeding behaviour of the forkbeard Phycis phycis was studied based on 246 stomachs collected between May 2011 and April 2012 from a commercial fleet operating off the central west coast of Portugal. A total of 44 prey items were identified in the stomachs which were merged into major groups to avoid problems with low expected frequencies. The following taxonomic categories were considered: non-decapod Crustacea, Caridea, Anomura, Munida spp. , Processa spp. , Brachyura, Pisces, Trisopterus luscus. In order to investigate possible diet differences between fish size classes, a cluster analysis was performed using the mean abundance of each prey group by forkbeard 5 cm length class, and three length groups (LG) were obtained: <22.5, 27.5–37.5 and >42.5 cm. Seasonally, Caridea was the main prey group during winter and autumn while Pisces was predominant during the rest of the year. Caridea was the most important prey group for LG1 and LG2 while in LG3 Pisces was the principal one. The forkbeard feeding behaviour may be characterized as presenting a shift pattern from a more generalist diet (small Crustacea, mainly Caridea) in the young adults to a more specialist strategy (teleosts) in the adults.
Historic Urban Tree Canopy Cover of Great Britain

Research Highlights: Historic trend analysis of urban tree canopy cover change, while growing in popularity, remains uncommon and concentrated to just a handful of countries. Background and Objectives: Tree canopy cover is a relatively quick, easy to obtain and cost-effective urban forestry metric. It is used to provide insight into not only the coverage of a defined area but also an urban forest’s potential to provide benefits to those who live and work in the locality. On-going delivery of benefits is reliant on a sustained healthy canopy, and knowing how canopy coverage is changing over time can be informative for strategic urban forestry management planning. Materials and Methods: Changes in tree canopy cover is assessed for ten urban areas across Great Britain since the 1940s using a random point-based assessment of paired aerial imagery. Results: The study reveals a predominance of increasing trends over the long term, with just one town displaying a long-term decrease and two revealing “flat lined” trends. Over the past two decades, however, the trends are more variable, with six towns displaying no statistically significant change, one declining and just three increasing in canopy cover. Conclusions: The results indicate a need for ongoing research to broaden the geographic spread of trend analysis and investigation into the drivers of changes, but also to increase the number of time points considered.
Nutritional and toxicological evaluation of double starter cultured fermented Canavalia ensiformis in mice.

The nutritional value and toxicological effects of seeds of Canavalia ensiformis, an underutilized tropical leguminous plant and a possible alternative protein source was investigated. The seeds were pre-treated before fermenting with pure double strains inoculum comprising of three sets of bacteria and four sets of moulds. The treatment diets were formulated with crude protein content from all the samples. Additionally, positive (casein) diet and negative (basal) diet serves as controls. Each group had four mice. Feeding was for 14 days to evaluate the net protein utilization while the toxicological evaluation was by haematological, serum enzymes changes and histopathology. There was significant (p<0.05) difference in terms of feed/ nutrient utilization by the mice on the different diets. In all, only diet formulated from Bacillus subtilis plus Pediococcus pentosaceus fermented sample (0.30 ± 0.01g/mice/day and 79.11 ± 2.37%) was close to the nitrogen intake and net protein of the casein diet (0.83 ± 0.02g/ mice/day and 94.18 ± 4.08%). The serum transferases increased significantly in treatment groups when compared with the casein diet. The PCV and RBC values decreased significantly while the WBC counts increased in all the mice fed with fermented diets except for those on B. subtilis plus P. pentosaceus fermented sample (46.40% PCV, 11.40 x 106mm-3 -RBC). The histopathology of the livers of mice in some treated groups showed moderate to severe hepatic degeneration. In terms of nutritional constituent and assessment of protein quality only diet formulated from B. subtilis plus P. pentosaceus fermented diet showed great promises.
Curation and Analysis of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae Genome-Scale Metabolic Model for Predicting Production of Sensory Impact Molecules under Enological Conditions

One approach for elucidating strain-to-strain metabolic differences is the use of genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs). To date GSMMs have not focused on the industrially important area of flavor production and, as such; do not cover all the pathways relevant to flavor formation in yeast. Moreover, current models for Saccharomyces cerevisiae generally focus on carbon-limited and/or aerobic systems, which is not pertinent to enological conditions. Here, we curate a GSMM (iWS902) to expand on the existing Ehrlich pathway and ester formation pathways central to aroma formation in industrial winemaking, in addition to the existing sulfur metabolism and medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) pathways that also contribute to production of sensory impact molecules. After validating the model using experimental data, we predict key differences in metabolism for a strain (EC 1118) in two distinct growth conditions, including differences for aroma impact molecules such as acetic acid, tryptophol, and hydrogen sulfide. Additionally, we propose novel targets for metabolic engineering for aroma profile modifications employing flux variability analysis with the expanded GSMM. The model provides mechanistic insights into the key metabolic pathways underlying aroma formation during alcoholic fermentation and provides a potential framework to contribute to new strategies to optimize the aroma of wines.
Bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from the Nísia Floresta National Forest, with new records for the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil

: The state of Rio Grande do Norte is considered a data gap for bat species records in Brazil. The state is also currently target of large economic projects with potential impacts on bats, especially wind farms and mining enterprises. In addition, Rio Grande do Norte has few conservation units in which there is no systematic study on bat fauna. The Nísia Floresta National Forest (NFNF), a federally protected area of 174 hectares, is located in the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte and corresponds to one of the last remnants of Atlantic Forest in the state, in its northernmost limits. A bat inventory was conducted in NFNF using mist nets set at ground level, from sunset to sunrise, from December 2011 to December 2012, totaling 25 sampling nights. We captured 1,379 bats belonging to four families and 16 species. Artibeus planirostris (Phyllostomidae) was the most frequently captured species (n = 685; 50%), followed by Myotis lavali (Vespertilionidae) (n = 248; 18%) and Phyllostomus discolor (Phyllostomidae) (n = 147; 11%). Peropteryx leucoptera , Phyllostomus discolor , Phyllostomus hastatus , Lophostoma brasiliense , Lasiurus blossevillii , Myotis lavali , and Promops nasutus are new records for Rio Grande do Norte, increasing the current number of bat species from 25 to 32 in this state. Further inventories, especially using acoustic surveys with bat detectors, might add more species to the NFNF bat list.
Wild boar recognition using convolutional neural networks

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) is a destructive species of swine. They spread diseases, represent a threat to native species, and destroy natural habitats by destabilizing river banks, thus reducing water flow. The monitoring of populations of wild boars is central to the execution and evaluation of methods to control them. To address this issue, in this article, we retrain and apply four convolutional neural networks (CNNs; AlexNet, VGG‐16, Inception‐v3, and ResNet‐50) to classify different species of “bush pigs” in real‐world footage: two native species of the Brazilian fauna, collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) and white‐lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), and one invasive species, wild boar (S. scrofa). Results show that CNN can be used to classify animals with very similar behavior and appearance and that ResNet‐50 outperforms all compared CNN in terms of accuracy (98.33%) and the lowest probability of false positives (i.e., native species classified as wild boar).
Stable Electron‐Selective Contacts for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells Enabling Efficiency over 21.6%

Crystalline silicon (c‐Si) solar cells featuring carrier‐selective passivating contacts have become a prominent path to develop highly efficient photovoltaic devices. Development of electron‐selective materials that can provide excellent surface passivation and low contact resistivity to c‐Si substrates while presenting good environmental stability is crucial for practical implementation. Here, an easy approach is demonstrated to achieve low resistivity Ohmic contacts between slightly doped n‐type c‐Si and aluminum electrodes via simple spin‐coating of metal acetylacetone (MAcac) film on a c‐Si surface. Contact resistivity of 1.3 mΩ cm2 (18.2 mΩ cm2 with an a‐Si:H(i) passivating layer) is realized when a thin calcium acetylacetone (CaAcac) interlayer is introduced between c‐Si and Al. An n‐Type c‐Si solar cell with a full area rear a‐Si:H(i)/CaAcac/Al electron‐selective contact is demonstrated with a power conversion efficiency of 21.6%. This work not only demonstrates an approach to develop highly efficient n‐type c‐Si solar cells with effective electron‐selective passivating contacts, but also contributes toward accomplishing a simplified fabrication process for photovoltaic devices, from vacuum to solution processing.
Simple Quadratic Interpolation-Inspired Symbiosis Organisms Search Algorithm for Optimal Placement of Capacitors in Radial Distribution Networks with Different Loading Models

This paper proposes a novel hybrid algorithm based on a combination of the simple quadratic interpolation and the symbiosis organisms search algorithm (SQI-SOS) for finding the optimal location and size of capacitors in radial distribution networks. The objective of the problem is to minimize the system operating cost so that the net yearly savings of the system are increased. The effectiveness of the SQI-SOS has been tested on 33-, 69-, and 119-bus radial distribution networks with different load models. The obtained results from the test system by the proposed SQI-SOS are compared with those from the conventional SOS and other mature optimization methods in the literature. The result comparison has shown that the proposed SQI-SOS algorithm can provide a better solution than the other methods. Accordingly, the proposed SQI-SOS can be a very effective and efficient method for dealing with the optimal capacitor placement problem in distribution networks.
Discovery of androecium color polymorphism in Epimedium pubescens with habitat preference of anther/pollen color in the genus

Interspecific and intraspecific variation in flower color in natural populations provides an opportunity for us to understand the evolution and maintenance of diversity of floral traits. Compared to corolla color, little is known about the color polymorphism of sexual organs in flowering plants. To explore evolutionary transitions of androecium color and polymorphism within species, interspecific and intraspecific variation in androecium (anther and pollen) color in the genus Epimedium (Berberidaceae) was investigated. To explore the geographical patterns of anther/pollen color variation in Epimedium species, data of 45 species were collected and their phylogeny was constructed based on available DNA sequences. To investigate whether intraspecific variation in androecium color relates to habitat preference, three environmental factors were measured in the field population of Epimedium pubescens in northeastern Sichuan, China, which plants had green or yellow androecia. Vegetative and reproductive traits of this species were compared between the two color morphs. Androecium (anther and pollen) color polymorphism in field populations of Epimedium pubescens is reported here where nine populations are monomorphic with a green androecium but three populations are dimorphic with individuals having either a green or a yellow androecium. Inflorescence stalk height, stalk diameter, leaf number, flower number and spur length (as well as spur and nectar volume) were not significantly different between two morphs. Compared to the yellow morph, the green morph had relatively larger leaves and anthers, but smaller sepals. The green morph produced more pollen and larger seeds, but the same number of ovules. Seed set was not significantly different between green and yellow morph. Investigations of environmental factors in the color dimorphic populations of E. pubescens indicated that the green morph was more likely to occur in habitats with relatively lower light intensity. The distribution survey of 45 Epimedium species showed that species with a green androecium tended to appear at lower elevations. Comparative phylogenetic analysis showed that transitions from yellow to a green androecium or to androecial color dimorphism occurred at least seven times. This genus, characterized by anther color diversity and containing some species with anther color polymorphism, provides a model system in which to study the evolution and maintenance of colorful sexual organs in flowering plants.
Irradiated Landscapes: Journey to Prospect Cottage

How does one map a memory of a place, a fragment of time, in a way that is as evocative and vivid as the initial experience? When we prospect a landscape, we witness it as it is now; light and shadow define it, complete with its current solar exposure, humidity and temperature. As we then move through the landscape our brains process this information, leading us to perceive something entirely new. Our memory of that perception is also rewritten each time we recall it. Intended as a process of design research – based at the late Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage on Dungeness beach in Kent, UK – this essay attempts to capture the fluidity of these perceived experiences and freeze them into sited mappings, unique to the temporal and climatic experience of the observer. Centered on the production of digitally-crafted ‘perceptual cartographies’, which are designed/generated from the site, it presents an exploration into ways of seeing architecture and landscape. In doing so, the essay calls for the recording of sites and designs in which emotional responses – induced by light – leave traces of the spaces in the individuals who visit them, creating a temporally sensitive and deeply perceptual experience of that place.
STUDENT RESILIENCE IN FACING COVID-19 PANDEMIC VIEWED FROM SOCIAL SUPPORT

Purpose: This study aims to determine the correlation between resilience and social support for students of the Faculty of Psychology and Health at the State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel in Surabaya in participating in academic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: This research uses quantitative methods. The data collection has been done using a questionnaire. Main Finding: The results show that social support can increase student resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications of this study: The participant of the research is a student of UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Novelty/Originality of this study: COVID-19 pandemic is a very new situation. As well as the government regulations in implementing. Learning causes many mental problems. The results of this study indicate that students need social support to survive through this pandemic.
Hybrid-Vlasov simulation of auroral proton precipitation in the cusps: Comparison of northward and southward interplanetary magnetic field driving

<p>We present the first hybrid-Vlasov simulations of proton precipitation in the polar cusps. We use two runs from the Vlasiator model to compare cusp proton precipitation fluxes during southward and northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) driving. The simulations reproduce well-known features of cusp precipitation, such as a reverse dispersion of precipitating proton energies, with proton energies increasing with increasing geomagnetic latitude under northward IMF driving, and a nonreversed dispersion under southward IMF driving. The cusp location is also found more poleward in the northward IMF simulation than in the southward IMF simulation. In addition, we find that the precipitation takes place in the form of successive bursts during southward IMF driving, those bursts being associated with the transit of flux transfer events in the vicinity of the cusp. In the northward IMF simulation, dual lobe reconnection takes place. As a consequence, in addition to the high-latitude precipitation footprint associated with the lobe reconnection from the same hemisphere, we observe lower-latitude precipitating protons which originate from the opposite hemisphere&#8217;s lobe reconnection site. The proton velocity distribution functions along the newly closed dayside magnetic field lines exhibit multiple proton beams travelling parallel and antiparallel to the magnetic field direction, which is consistent with observations with the Cluster spacecraft. We suggest that precipitating protons originating from the opposite hemisphere&#8217;s lobe reconnection site, albeit infrequent, could be observed in a situation of dual lobe reconnection. </p>
Students’ observed engagement in lessons, instructional activities, and learning experiences

In order to expand previous intraindividual studies of student engagement we investigated students' observed engagement (i.e., on- and off-task behaviour), instructional activities (i.e., teacher-led whole class, individual work, pair-work, student-teacher interaction, assessment, and ”other”), and self-reported learning experiences (cognitive engagement, difficulty, competence, emotional engagement, positive and negative emotions), within lessons during one calendar week. Eighteen fourth and fifth grade target students (Mage=10.1, SD=0.44) were observed every 30 sec during two to four lessons each day for five school days (engagement and instructional activities), on average 66.05 times per lesson (SD=19.16, Range=15-80, nobs=14,994) between 9-18 lessons during a week. Simultaneously, students provided 1-3 electronic questionnaire self-reports per lesson (Mself_report=35.1, SD=12.6, Range=19-52, nself_report=631). We regressed observed engagement (0 = off-task, 1 = on-task) on self-reported learning experiences using 3-level (time-points nested in lessons, nested in students) Bayesian logistic regression models in brms. Observed engagement diminished during lessons, and was predicted by higher cognitive engagement, and instructional activities. As compared to teacher-led instruction, engagement was higher during individual tasks, teacher-supported tasks, and assessments. Overall self-reported and observed engagement within lessons converged, supporting their use in intraindividual research.