Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of bacterial inoculation on the fermentation characteristics and aerobic stability of ensiled whole plant soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.)

The effect of bacterial inoculation on the fermentation and aerobic stability of two ensiled whole plant soybean (WPSB) cultivars was determined in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Two WPSB cultivars, Link LF6466 and Pannar 522 RR, were harvested at their R6 growth stage, chopped to 25 mm and ensiled in 1.5 L anaerobic jars. The chopped forages were treated with or without the bacterial inoculant Lalsil Dry (LD) and treatments were as follows: i) Pan control (soybean cv Pannar 522 RR with no additive); ii) Link control (soybean cv Link LF 6466 with no additive); iii) Pan LD (soybean cv Pannar 522 RR treated with LD); and iv) Link LD (soybean cv Link LF 6466 treated with LD). Jars were opened on days 3, 7, 10, 21 and 90 to determine pH. Samples of day 0 and day 90 were used to determine chemical composition and fermentation characteristics. In addition, samples of day 90 were subjected to an aerobic stability test in which they were exposed to air for five days, and CO 2 , pH, hours for temperature to rise above 2 oC, yeasts and moulds were determined. Pannar cultivar had higher contents of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE) and ether extract (EE) compared with the Link cultivar at pre-ensiling. However, Link cultivar had higher content of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) compared with Pannar. Inoculation with LD reduced silage DM, CP and fibre contents, and increased silage pH compared with the control. Inoculation increased silage acetic and propionic acids, but had a lower content of lactic acid (LA) and DM recovery compared with the control. When compared with the control, silage aerobic stability was improved with LD inoculation, as indicated by reduced CO 2 production, and yeast and mould populations, and increased number of hours for stability after aerobic exposure. It was concluded that LD inoculant reduced silage fermentation and preservation, but improved aerobic stability of silage. Further work is needed to determine the effects of soybean silage on growth performance and production response of ruminants. Keywords: Cultivars, forages, inoculants, legumes, nutrients, silage, soybean
Economic sustainability of national parks in the Congo Basin : a case study of the Sangha Tri-national Park

The second largest complex of tropical rain forest is located in the Congo Basin. This forest is renowned for its biodiversity, harbouring thousands of rare species of plants and animals and providing environmental services at a global level. At the same time these forests are of critical importance to the people of the region. The local economies depend on timber harvesting, while the forest dwellers support their subsistence with forest products on daily basis. The dilema faced by policy makers, conservationists and the local communities is in merging the various ideals, objectives and needs at a local, national and global level in order to sustain the forests, their fauna and the people. Examples from Southern and Eastern Africa have shown that, with the right management in place, natural ecosystems managed jointly for ecotourism, conservation and recreation, can yield appreciable benfits at minimum environmental destruction. Therefore it is believed that well-organized tourism can become the best way to use the Congo Basin’s forests for creating economic opportunities without destroying the resources. The challenge therefore, is in convincing decision-makers that conservation of forests can provide for sustainable economic development. However in the Congo Basin this potential has not been demonstrated thus far. Deliberate policy initiatives to cost recovery, profit making or generation of local business are woefully lacking. Not only are the protected forests maintained with marginal funds, but the management systems in place are also ineffective, especially regarding poor financial management resulting in losses of 2/3 of the expected revenue. The centralized collection and distribution of funding by government agencies prevents local initiatives from achieving financial sustainability. It also remains unclear how the fees paid by tourists visiting the parks are related to the operational costs and if these fee structures do in fact approximate tourists’ willingness-to-pay (WTP). In this study the factors of (i) tourists’ WTP higher entrance fees and (ii) duration of stay, were evaluated in two protected areas of the 28000 km Sangha Tri-National Park shared by Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. It was found that if park facilities were improved the potential entry fee in the Lobeke National Park could be increased by an additional US$ 10 per visitor. At the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, foreign, resident and national tourists could be paying an additional US$ 30, 20 and 7, respectively. To this end improvements in park facilities, efficiency in entrance fee setting and management structures are recommended.
Threshold Cointegration, Asymmetric Causality and Wagner¡¯s Law: The African Experience Revisited

This study re-examines the Wagner's law of public expenditure for six sub-Saharan African countries while relaxing the assumption of a symmetric adjustment process underlying standard cointegration tests and error-correction models. The empirical methodology uses threshold cointegration tests to establish that there is a long-run relationship between government expenditure and per capita GDP for five countries, with income being positively related to public spending. Furthermore, the results of asymmetric Granger-causality tests provide support for Wagner’s law in the long run for five countries (Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal), while the Keynesian view holds only in the short run for three countries (Benin, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivoire). The short run evidence for two countries (Kenya and Senegal) support both Wagner’s law and Keynesian view.
The evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial effect of Tussilago farfara L. and Cetraria islandica L.

The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant and antimicrobial effect of two selected plants: Tussilago farfara L. and Cetraria islandica L. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH and phosphomolybdenum method, total polyphenol content with Folin – Ciocalteu reagent, flavonoids content by aluminium chloride method. The detection of antimicrobial activity was carried out by disc diffusion method and evaluation of minimal inhibition concentration against five species of Gram-negative bacteria: Escherichia coli CCM 3988, Klebsiella pneumoniae CCM 2318, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica CCM 3807, Shigella sonei CCM 1373, Yersinia enterocolitica CCM 5671 and five Gram-positive bacteria: Bacillus thuringiensis CCM 19, Clostridium perfringens CCM 4435, Haemophilus influenzae CCM4456, Listeria monocytogenes CCM 4699, Stapylococcus aureus subsp. aureus CCM 2461. Tussilago farfara showed stronger antioxidant activity (DPPH method – 7.67 mg TEAC – Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity per g of sample; phosphomolybdenum method – 111.67 mg TEAC per g of sample), total polyphenol (11.92 mg GAE – galic acid equivalent per g of sample) and flavonid content (47.62 μg QE – quercetin equivalent per g of sample) with compare to Centraria islandica . Tussilago farfara also showed the higher antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria confirmed by both methods – disc diffusion and minimal inhibitory concentration.
HEAT TRANSFER INFERENCES ON THE HERSCHEL BULKLEY FLUID FLOW UNDER PERISTALSIS

Heat transfer effect on the flow of Herschel Bulkley fluid moving in a non-uniform channel is analyzed. The peristaltic wall is considered to be coated with a porous lining. The pertinent parameter effects are studied graphically for the analytical solutions of temperature profile, rate of temperature, heat transfer coefficient and mechanical efficiency. The temperature profile, heat transfer coefficient and the rate of temperature decrease with increase in the Darcy number. Thickening of the porous wall coating raises the temperature profile and the rate measure of temperature. Mechanical efficiency is more in a convergent channel than in uniform and divergent channels.
Sensitization of Perovskite Strontium Stannate SrSnO3 towards Visible-Light Absorption by Doping

Perovskite strontium stannate SrSnO3 is a promising photocatalyst. However, its band gap is too large for efficient solar energy conversion. In order to sensitize SrSnO3 toward visible-light activities, the effects of doping with various selected cations and anions are investigated by using hybrid density functional calculations. Results show that doping can result in dopant level to conduction band transitions which lie lower in energy compared to the original band gap transition. Therefore, it is expected that doping SrSnO3 can induce visible-light absorption.
Inheritance and identification of molecular markers associated with spot blotch (Cochliobolus sativus L.) resistance through microsatellites analysis in barley

Spot blotch resistant (IBON 18) and susceptible (RD 2508) lines were crossed to investigate inheritance of resistance and to identify simple sequence repeats (SSRs) associated with resistance. F1 resistance was intermediate and suggested additive nature of inheritance. Three additive genes was noted in the distribution of F3, F4 and F5 generations. In F6 and F6-7, the quantitative and qualitative approaches also suggested the control of three resistance genes. The parents and the RILs (F6/F6-7) were grown in four environments and spot blotch severity recorded. Forty five SSR primers, specific for chromosomes 1 (7H) and 5 (1H), were applied. Of these, 12 were polymorphic between the parents, and between the resistant and susceptible bulks. Three markers BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA showed association with resistance, which was further confirmed through selective genotyping. The co-segregation data on the molecular markers (BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA) and spot blotch severity on 173 RILs was analyzed by single marker linear regression approach. Significant regression suggested linkage among BMS 32, BMS 90 and HVCMA and the three resistant genes (designated as Rcs-qtl-5H-1, Rcs-qtl-5H-2 and Rcs-qtl-1H-1.) respectively. These markers explained 28%, 19% and 12% of variation respectively, for spot blotch resistance among the RILs.
Analysis of forensic DNA mixtures with artefacts

DNA is now routinely used in criminal investigations and court cases, although DNA samples taken at crime scenes are of varying quality and therefore present challenging problems for their interpretation. We present a statistical model for the quantitative peak information obtained from an electropherogram of a forensic DNA sample and illustrate its potential use for the analysis of criminal cases. In contrast with most previously used methods, we directly model the peak height information and incorporate important artefacts that are associated with the production of the electropherogram. Our model has a number of unknown parameters, and we show that these can be estimated by the method of maximum likelihood in the presence of multiple unknown individuals contributing to the sample, and their approximate standard errors calculated; the computations exploit a Bayesian network representation of the model. A case example from a UK trial, as reported in the literature, is used to illustrate the efficacy and use of the model, both in finding likelihood ratios to quantify the strength of evidence, and in the deconvolution of mixtures for finding likely profiles of the individuals contributing to the sample. Our model is readily extended to simultaneous analysis of more than one mixture as illustrated in a case example. We show that the combination of evidence from several samples may give an evidential strength which is close to that of a single‐source trace and thus modelling of peak height information provides a potentially very efficient mixture analysis.
Evaluation of recurrence and postoperative pain in laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair with mesh fixation verses without mesh fixation

Inguinal hernia affects both men and women but is much more common in men who comprise over 90% of operated patients. Considering both operated and nonoperated inguinal hernias, the lifetime prevalence rate is 47% for men up to and including the age of 75. From an aetiological point of view there are two types of inguinal hernia, congenital and acquired. An acquired inguinal hernia is generally not believed to be associated with a persistent processus vaginalis but develops in a secondary manner. Several risk factors for the development of this type of hernia have been suggested, among these various connective tissue factors. In order to compare the results of inguinal hernia repair, a standardized classification with respect to localisation and size is needed. Several classifications exist, of which the Nyhus classification is one of the most commonly used.
A Multi-Perspective Methodology for Detecting Low-Quality Contents in Social Medi

Despite many incidents about fake online consumer reviews have been reported, very few studies have been conducted to date to examine the credibility of online consumer reviews. One of the reasons is the lack of an effective computational method to deal with the huge number of online reviews which are not embedded with explicit features for a spam detection system to separate the untruthful reviews (i.e., spam) from the legitimate ones (i.e., ham). To improve the hygiene and the usefulness of online comments, there is a pressing need to develop a robust methodology for an objective and systematic assessment of the quality of online comments. The main contribution of this paper is the design, development, and evaluation of a novel information theory based methodology for the assessment of the quality of online comments. Our preliminary experiments show that the proposed quality assessment methodology is more effective than other baseline methods such as a peer-review based quality assessment approach.
Towards an Integrated Methodology for the Development and Testing of Complex Systems

This paper reports on a framework for the development and testing of complex systems. The framework provides a meta-model for the description of systems at different levels of abstraction which is used as a basis for the combination of model-based testing (MBT) techniques for automated test case generation with executable requirement monitors that continuously observe the status of the System under Test (SuT) during test execution. The overall goal is to reduce the total development and testing effort for complex systems. This is accomplished by enabling a high degree of automation and reuse of engineering artefacts throughout the systems engineering lifecycle. Keywords—Model-based Systems Engineering, Model-based Testing, Monitor-based Testing, SysML.
Investigation of low-pressure bimetallic cobalt-iron catalyst-grown multiwalled carbon nanotubes and their electrical properties

A bimetallic cobalt-iron catalyst was utilized to demonstrate the growth of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at low gas pressure through thermal chemical vapor deposition. The characteristics of multiwalled CNTs were investigated based on the effects of catalyst thickness and gas pressure variation. The results revealed that the average diameter of nanotubes increased with increasing catalyst thickness, which can be correlated to the increase in particle size. The growth rate of the nanotubes also increased significantly by ∼2.5 times with further increment of gas pressure from 0.5 Torr to 1.0 Torr. Rapid growth rate of nanotubes was observed at a catalyst thickness of 6 nm, but it decreased with the increase in catalyst thickness. The higher composition of 50% cobalt in the cobalt-iron catalyst showed improvement in the growth rate of nanotubes and the quality of nanotube structures compared with that of 20% cobalt. For the electrical properties, the measured sheet resistance decreased with the increase in the height of nanotubes because of higher growth rate. This behavior is likely due to the larger contact area of nanotubes, which improved electron hopping from one localized tube to another.
BEHAVIOUR OF SELF COMPACTED SELF CURING KILN ASH CONCRETE WITH VARIOUS ADMIXTURES

In recent years, self-compacting concrete (SCC) has gained wide use for placement in congested reinforced concrete structures with difficult casting conditions. For such applications, the fresh concrete must possess high fluidity and good cohesiveness. The use of fine materials such as kiln ash can ensure the required concrete properties. The initial results of an experimental program aimed at producing and evaluating SCC made with high-volumes of kiln ash are presented and discussed. Ten SCC mixtures and one control concrete were investigated in this study. Fresh properties, flexural and compressive strengths of self compacted concrete were determined. The use of SF in concrete significantly increased the dosage of superplasticiser (SP). At the same constant SP dosage (0·8%) and mineral additives content (30%), KA can better improve the workability than that of control and fine aggregate mixtures by (5 % to 45 %). However, the results of this study suggest that certain QD, SF and KA combinations can improve the workability of SCCs, more than QD, SF and KA alone. KA can have a positive influence on the mechanical performance at early strength development while SF improved aggregate-matrix bond resulting from the formation of a less porous transition zone in Concrete. SF can better reducing effect on total water absorption while QD and KA will not have the same effect, at 28 days.
Genetics of Virulence and Intraspecific Interactions in Heterobasidion annosum s.l.

The present thesis summarizes and concludes the work of four separate studies on Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. s.l. The basic aim of these studies was to provide a tool for investigation and cloning of genetic regions in H. annosum s.l. and apply this tool to different regions of interest. The progeny isolates of a cross between North American intersterility groups S and P were used in an inoculation experiment on two-week-old Pinus sylvestris and demonstrated the nuclear contribution to be important for virulence. From the same population, a genetic linkage map was constructed based on 358 AFLP markers, consisting of 19 larger and 20 smaller linkage groups (LG). Based on further virulence tests on both one-year-old Pinus sylvestris and two-year-old Picea abies, several regions controlling virulence were identified and mapped to these LG. In particular, LG 15 was of interest, containing QTLs for pathogenicity to both pine and spruce. The tests also indicated that hybridization negatively affects virulence. An investigation of somatic incompatibility was conducted, using two heterokaryotic populations made from the progeny, backcrossed with a parental strain or crossed with an unrelated strain. The number of incompatibility loci was estimated to four and it was shown that the allelic differences alone are not enough to determine the degree of the incompatibility reaction. Furthermore, several strong QTLs for different intraspecific interactions that may be important to the incompatibility phenomenon were located. Future work includes map based cloning and investigation of the QTLs identified in this thesis; a task that will benefit substantially from the upcoming sequencing of the H. annosum s.l. genome.
Steady solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations by selective frequency damping

A new method, enabling the computation of steady solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in globally unstable configurations, is presented. We show that it is possible to reach a steady state by damping the unstable (temporal) frequencies. This is achieved by adding a dissipative relaxation term proportional to the high-frequency content of the velocity fluctuations. Results are presented for cavity-driven boundary-layer separation and a separation bubble induced by an external pressure gradient.
Effects of Different Warm-up Protocols on Leg Press One Repetition Maximum Performance

In order to investigate the effects of different warm-up protocols on one repetition maximum (1RM) leg press performance, 23 rowers (age 21.48±3.12 years, height 185.17±8.22 cm, body mass 83.86 ±8.7 kg.) completed 1RM leg press tests after four different general warmup conditions with a standardized specific warm-up. The workloads of the warm-up protocols were individually designed according to the results of the incremental maximal rowing ergometer test that applied initially. The duration of the protocols were fixed as 15 minutes (min.) for each participant, but there were differences in the intensity of the warm-up. In statistical analysis, warm-up conditions were set as fixed factor while participants as a random factor. Tukey post hoc test was employed whenever a significant difference was found. A probability level of 0.05 was established to determine statistical significance. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPPS version 20. As a conclusion, approximately 4% higher 1 RM results were obtained after low intensity (40% of VO2Max) protocols which contain two intermittent sprints that last 15 seconds in the last 5 min. of the protocol. Thus, the results of the present study are important for both practical and research environments.
High Real-Time Design of Digital Pulse Compression Based on FPGA

Because of the poor real-time performance of in-place fast Fourier transforms, a reconfigurable radix-4 FFT processor is studied and designed, which is based on decimation-in-time and single floating-point computation. The proposed method adopts “pipeline and parallel” structure for accessing multiple memories to improve the FFT processing speed, and then it is applied to digital pulse compression. The experimental result shows that the proposed FFT based on radix-4 computation can implement digital pulse compression rapidly under no adding hardware resources. The proposed method can be also applied to other radix FFTs.