Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two-Dimensional Carrier Profiling by Kelvin-Probe Force Microscopy

This paper reports the two-dimensional (2-D) carrier/dopant profiling technique by Kelvin-probe force microscopy (KFM). Before surface potential was measured, a feedback control circuit was used to improve signal response speed. The effect of surface treatment on the contrast in surface potential images was studied. Then the correlation between surface potential difference measured by KFM and surface carrier/dopant concentration obtained by spreading resistance profiling, the capacitance–voltage method, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis was established. On the basis of these results, the carrier depth profiling of a p–n junction and the detection of a p–n junction array with small pitch have been successfully demonstrated.
Fly Ash Vitrification as the Effective Physico-Chemical Waste Stabilization Method

In this paper, the physico-chemical stabilization method of electrical power plant fly ash of the Province of Lodz in central Poland was studied. The chemical composition and leachability of metals were determined in the investigated samples. The ashes were vitrified in a thermal plasma process and their chemical stability was tested to determine whether the ashes can be disposed safely into the environment, specifically onto surface soil. The heavy metal leachability tests proved that the products after vitrification were more stable than non-vitrified waste making it more suitable for disposal into the environment.
INTERACTIVE NON-PHOTOREALISTIC RENDERING

Due to increasing demands of artistic style with Interactive Rate, we propose this review paper as a starting point for any person interested in researching of interactive non-photorealistic rendering. As a simple yet effective means of visual communication, interactive non-photorealistic rendering generates images that are closer to human-drawn than are created by traditional computer graphics techniques with more expressing meaningful visual information. This paper presents taxonomy of interactive non-photorealistic rendering techniques which developed over the past two decades, structured according to the design characteristics and behavior of each technique. Also, it covers the most important algorithms in interactive stylized shade and line drawing, and separately discussing their advantages and disadvantages. The review then concludes with a discussion of the main issues and technical challenges for Interactive Non-Photorealistic Rendering techniques. In addition, this paper discusses the effect of modified phong shading model in order to create toon shading appearance.
Structure-Based Pharmacophore Modeling, Virtual Screening and Molecular docking for the Treatment of ESR1 Mutations in Breast Cancer

Background: Mutations of Estrogen receptors 1 affect its ligand-binding domain and results in the formation of breast cancer. Breast cancer is a known universal disease and the second leading reason behind the death of most females. About 70% of breast cancers express the estrogen receptor. This study was undertaken to realize perceptions into molecular mechanisms and structural necessities that are crucial for potential inhibition of ESR1. Methods: In this research ESR1 proteins were selected and pharmacophore models were generated, virtual screening was done to obtain hit compounds against reference shared feature pharmacophore, the hit compounds were docked with ESR1 proteins. Results: The pharmacophore displayed three main features Hydrogen bond acceptor, Hydrogen bond donor and aromatic rings. 10 hit compounds were obtained by virtual screening; compounds were further sorted for Lipinski rule of five before docking. Compounds that fulfill all properties of Lipinski rule of five were docked with proteins, 3 compounds demonstrated ideal docking results. They fit appropriately in the pocket of proteins which demonstrated the soundness and stability of ligand compounds. Conclusion: It is suggested that these three compounds can be used in the treatment of ESR1 mutations in breast cancer and novel compounds can be designed on the basis of shared feature pharmacophore model for the treatment of ESR1 mutations in breast cancer.
Chapter III Regulation of Spblimp1/krox1a: an alternatively transcribed isoform expressed in the mid and hindgut of the sea urchin gastrula

The sea urchin regulatory gene Spblimp1/krox produces alternatively transcribed and spliced isoforms, 1a and 1b, which have different temporal and spatial patterns of expression. Here we describe a cis-regulatory module that controls the expression of the 1a splice form in the midgut and hindgut at the beginning of gastrulation. Conserved sequence patches revealed by a comparison of the blimp1/krox locus in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and Lytechinus variegatus genomes were tested by gene transfer, in association with GFP or CAT reporter genes. An expression construct containing a conserved sequence patch immediately 5' of exon 1a included the transcription initiation site for blimp1/krox1a. This construct displays specific mid and hindgut expression, indicating that these are the locations of endogenous blimp1/krox1a transcription during the gastrula stage. Its sequence contains binding sites for Brn1/2/4, Otx, and Blimp1/Krox itself, as predicted in a prior regulatory network analysis.
IBM Research Report Lets Jam: Drawing from the Wisdom of Your Employees

Every work environment gives rise to social and work-related interactions between employees as well as employees and customers. These interactions create a socially interlinked work environment that affects the motivation and perceived satisfaction of employees and thereby performance. It also hosts a wealth of intrinsic business knowledge and potentially competitive advantage. In addition, recent advances in technology have enabled new means of interaction through instant messaging, blogs and sometimes open discussion forums. In 2006, IBM hosted the Innovation Jam — a moderated online discussion among IBM worldwide employees and external contributors — with the objective of identifying innovative and promising “Big Ideas”. We describe the data from the Jam and investigate several analytical approaches to address the challenge of understanding “how innovation happens”. Specifically, we examine whether it is possible to identify characteristics of such discussions and the implicit social network that are more likely to lead to innovative ideas. We demonstrate the social network structure of data and its time dependence, and discuss the findings of both supervised and unsupervised data analytics. 1
Post-Harvest Evaluation of Strawberry Fruit Preserves in Different Concentration of Sucrose Solution and Potash Alum Stored at Ambient Temperature

This research work was conducted to study the effect of sucrose solution and pretreatment of potash alum at different concentration on overall quality of the strawberry fruit kept at ambient temperature. Various treatments were designed named as S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 describing different concentrations of sucrose solutions and potash alum. All these treatments were examined physicochemically (Titratable acidity, pH, ascorbic acid, TSS, reducing and non-reducing sugar) and organoleptically (Texture, flavor, color and overall acceptability) at each 15 days interval for three months. Storage results shown that Decreased was found in pH from (3.50 to 3.33), ascorbic acid from (54.68 to 30.23 mg/100 g), non-reducing sugar from (11.89 to 11.04%), color score from (9 to 4.96), texture score from (9 to 5.63), flavor score from (9 to 5.23) and overall acceptability score from (9 to 5.40) while increased were found in TSS from (18.20 to 21.27Brix), titratable acidity from (0.38 to 0.53%) and reducing sugar from (5.58 to 7.88%) throughout storage period. The highest mean value for pH was occurred in treatment S1 (3.45), titratable acidity in S3 (0.50%), TSS in S6 (24.76oBrix), ascorbic acid in S2 (46.30 mg/100 g), reducing sugar in S6 (8.20%), non-reducing sugar in S3 (14.41%), color in S2 (7.60), texture in S2 (7.89), flavor in S3 and S4 (7.60) and overall acceptability in S1 (7.83). Findings revealed potash alum shows better results in 30° and 40°Brix sucrose solution concentration both for physicochemical and organoleptic properties of strawberry.
AID AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature on aid's impact on economic growth and poverty has been marked by a wide diversity of approaches often emphasizing widely divergent and contradictory conclusions. The earlier literature highlighted the critical importance of foreign assistance in economic development in terms of the two-gap theory which stated that aid promoted economic development by relaxing savings and foreign-exchange constraints to capital formation and economic growth. However, subsequent research in later years shifted to other lines of thoughts whereby it was found that aid either displaced or had no impact on domestic savings. In subsequent years, the trend in aid effectiveness studies was to emphasize conditionality, better selectivity and the policy environment in the recipient countries. Then, since the recent calls for increasing aid flows to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, studies on aid effectiveness started focusing on the need for increased aid harmonization and alignment. In order to understand better these various theoretical underpinnings of the macroeconomic impact of aid, this paper will provide an analysis of the literature review on aid effectiveness, with a focus on the meaning of Official Development Assistance, the institutional and policy framework and aid harmonization.
A Control Cluster Approach to Non-linear Deformation

Modeling plausible deformation of the objects has been an important task in computer animation and game design industry. The approach proposed in the paper deals with a polygonal mesh deformation splitting the vertices of the mesh into two types: cluster vertices and free vertices. With the user defining the shape of the mesh key areas with the help of cluster vertices, the algorithm takes advantage of non-linear geometric deformation for calculating free vertices position. The approach could be used both for creating a sequence of altered model shapes to produce a character animation (with the help of user-created control cluster data) and for visualizing some ecological processes.
An Economic Solution to Optimize Performance of Photovoltaic Modules under Partial Shading

This paper investigates the effects of partial shading pertaining to photovoltaic (PV) modules and subsequently a solution that aims to minimize the effects and optimize the performance of PV modules is proposed. The concept of the solution is to integrate boost and buck converters into an electronic control system. The proposed system is simple and economic solution as it integrates cheap and easy available electronic components such as microcontrollers, capacitors, transistors and inductors. To validate the effectiveness of proposed system, a measuring instrument, namely NI cFP-1808 is used to perform the electrical characteristic analyses or known as I-V and P-V curve analyses. Furthermore, an outdoor experiment was conducted to examine the practicality of the proposed system in tackling real-world conditions. Experimental results showed that the proposed system improves the performance of the PV modules by 82.9% compared to the controlled experiment. In short, the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed system is proven with experiment results.
Influence of meniscal repair versus meniscectomy on ACL reconstruction in terms of knee stability and radiological imaging

Objective: To compare effect of meniscus repair and meniscectomy in patients undergoing ACL reconstruction in terms of clinical instability and radiological tunnel widening 1 year after surgery. Introduction: Meniscectomy has been shown to have detrimental effects on knee in terms of increased contact pressure in femoral and tibial condyles, rotary instability and early changes of osteoarthritis. These changes are exaggerated in ACL deficient knees. Patients present to the surgeon at different times after injury ranging from 3 weeks to one year. Depending upon status of meniscal tears and its reparability at the time of surgery, surgeon has to choose between meniscectomy and meniscus repair during ACL reconstruction. We tried to compare meniscus repair and meniscectomy in terms of knee stability and radiological tunnel widening after ACL reconstruction in short term follow up. Methodology: 30 patients who underwent ACL reconstruction were selected after going through selection criteria, were divided between meniscus repair group and meniscus excision group. Meniscus tears, which were in the red red zone were repaired with inside out, all inside and outside in methods, depending upon their location from anterior to posterior zones. Those tears which presented late were irreducible, avascular and became loose body scuffing articular cartilage, were excised with shaver. All patients underwent standard ACL reconstruction with hamstring graft. Patients were evaluated clinically and radiologically at 3 months 6 months and 12 months. Results: Group 1 had 14 patients who underwent meniscus repair and group 2 had 16 patients who underwent meniscectomy during ACL reconstruction. Evaluation with Lachman’s test showed that, 14% patients (2 out of 14) from Group 1 had grade 2 Lachman test. Thirty seven % of group 2 had grade 2 Lachman test though the difference was not significant (p = 0.151). Tibial tunnel diameter in meniscectomy group increased from 8 mm to 11.86mm (S.D= 1.11.) at 12 months. Tibial diameter in group 2 increased from 8 mm to 12.28 mm (S.D. = 1.52), (p= 0.394). Conclusion: Whenever ACL tear is associated with medial or lateral meniscal tears, meniscal repair is the preferred treatment over meniscectomy. The amount of tunnel widening is higher when meniscus is excised as compared to meniscal repair. The anterior tibial translation remains higher when meniscus is excised during ACL reconstruction, though short term functional results are same.
Developing a Proof-of-Concept Selection Test for Entry into Primary Teacher Education Programs

The purpose of this article is to report on the development of a proof-of-concept situational judgment test (SJT) to assist in the selection of candidates for primary teacher education (ITE) programs. Nine development steps involving practising teachers, teacher educators, and applicants to ITE programs were carried out to establish target attributes and to develop content for the test. The results from administering the test to 124 primary ITE candidates showed a near-normal distribution, high levels of reliability, and significant positive correlations with a range of concurrently administered interview scores. We conclude with a description of the necessary next steps needed to implement evidence-supported teacher education selection processes in a range of international settings.
Technical Efficiency Analysis of Mini Purse Seine Fishing Unit in Sumenep District

The nature of competition in each purse seine fishing unit leads to excess fishing capacity utilization. This study aimed to analyze factors affecting fishing capacity in the short term, knowing the level of efficiency at each purse seine fishing unit, and to analyze factors affecting technical inefficiency. This study was conducted in Sumenep, East Java. The method used was parametric inferential statistics. The method of nalysis in this study was SFA (Stochastic Frontier Analysis) and tobit model. The research results show that number of trip, amount of FADs used, and the number of crew operator operating purse seine are significant factors affecting fishing capacity, average level of technical efficiency’s of fishing unit is 36%, and the factors that negatively influence the technical inefficiency is experience of captain and the status of ownership of the vessel while the the factors that positively influence is age of captain.
Covariance Matrix Filtering for Adaptive Beamforming with Moving Interference

Abstract : An approach is developed for adaptive beamforming for mobile sonars operating in an environment with moving interference from surface shipping. It is assumed that the sound source of each ship is drawn from an ensemble of Gaussian random noise, but each ship moves at constant speed along a deterministic course. An analytic expression for the ensemble mean covariance is obtained. In practice the location, course, speed, mean noise level, and transmission loss of each interferer are not known with sufficient precision to use the modeled ensemble mean as a basis for adaptive beamforming. The problem is thus to accurately estimate the ensemble mean based on data samples. The analytic ensemble mean is not stationary, and thus is not well estimated by the sample mean. The ensemble of covariance samples consists of rapidly varying random terms associated with the emitted noise and more slowly oscillating deterministic terms associated with the source and receiver motion. The non-stationary ensemble covariance mean can be estimated by filtering out the rapidly varying noise while retaining the slow oscillatory terms. Performance of the filters can be visualized and assessed in the epoch frequency domain, the Fourier transform of the covariance samples. In this domain, higher bearing rates show up at higher frequencies. The traditional sample mean estimator retains only the zero frequency bin corresponding to stationary interference. Techniques that can identify and include the appropriate non-zero frequency contributions are better non-stationary estimators than the sample mean. Several such techniques are offered and compared. Simulations are invaluable in evaluating the filter performance, since the ensemble mean can be precisely calculated analytically in the simulation and compared directly with the sample estimates. Simulations of adaptive beamformers using covariance filtering will be shown to yield improved robustness to shipping motion. (2 figures, 5 refs.)
Palmar and plantar psoriasis and homeopathy – Case reports

A 55-year old female, with a 4-month history of rash on her left sole with nail lesions affecting her left large toe. Past medical history was significant for Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Examination revealed a single, hyperkeratotic plaque on the sole of the left foot, with occasional vesicles. She also had a hyperkeratotic area of skin on her left big toe, with nail dystrophy. Fungal examination was negative. She had received a topical steroid cream, followed by a herbal preparation, both of which failed to help. She was prescribed the homeopathic medicine Staphysagria, at MK potency, weekly. She went into remission in 6 months, but relapsed. Review showed that she had been on angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. The cardiologist subsequently changed her medication to verapamil and she went into remission once more, with growth of nails and clearance of the toe and plantar lesions (Fig. 1a-c). ABSTRACT
The Variable Step-Size Wavelet Transform-Domain LMS Adaptive Filter Algorithm

In this paper, the wavelet transform domain least mean squares (WTDLMS) adaptive algorithm with variablestep-size (VSS) is established. The step-size changes according to the largest decrease in mean square deviation. To keep the computational complexity low, the Haar wavelet transform (HWT) is utilized as a transform. In addition, the mean square performance analysis of the VSS-WTDLMS is studied in the stationary and nonstationary environments and the theoretical relations for transient and steady-state performances are established. The simulation results show that the proposed VSS-WTDLMS has faster convergence rate and lower misadjustment than conventional WTDLMS. The theoretical relations are also verified by presenting various experimental results.
Homology Modeling of Chorismate Synthase from Brucella melitensis: A Novel Target Molecule

Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases. Human Brucellosis is primarily caused by B. melitensistransmitted by goats and sheep along with other potential routes for the spread of infection. Till date no definite therapy is available for the permanent treatment. Also vaccines, that are available, are not effective or non-specific to stop the spread of the infection. So there is a sure call for finding newer specific target molecules to design the newer specific therapeutic agent/s. After comparative metabolomic investigation in B. melitensis, we found enzyme Chorismate Synthase as the probable target molecule in Human Brucellosis. The present work includes generation of homology model of Chorismate Synthase for B. melitensisusing template from H. pylori. The model was developed using satisfaction of spatial restraints approach implemented in Modeller 9v3 software. The model generated is a tetramer and consists of β-α-β Sandwich Fold in each monomer which is a signature fold of this enzyme family. After thorough structural evaluations, the model is found to be quiet satisfactory and can surely be useful for further study to find out the potential therapeutic agent/s for Human Brucellosis. The model is available at Protein Model Data Base (PMDB ID PM0078183).
Effect of different nitrogen levels and cutting stages on crude protein, crude fiber, dry matter and green fodder yield of oat (Avena sativa L.)

In Pakistan and especially in the Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, less attention has been given to the research of fodder and forages, it is therefore animals are generally underfed and under nourished which results in their poor performance. An experiment entitled “effect of different nitrogen levels and cutting stages on crude protein, crude fiber, dry matter and green fodder yield of oat (Avena sativa L.)” was conducted at Agriculture Research Institute Tarnab, under the semi-arid condition of Peshawar valley to investigate an optimum nitrogen level and a proper cutting stage of oat that gives best results in terms of quality and quantity. The experiment was conducted by using factorial split plot randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated four times. The nitrogen levels (N1 = 30, N2 = 60, N3 = 90 and N4 = 120 kg ha-1 respectively) were assigned to main plots while oat cutting stages i.e (booting and 50 % heading stage) were allocated to sub plot. Maximum crude protein (9.53%), crude fiber (39.27%) and dry matter (21.9%) were obtained with application of N@120 kg ha-1 while higher (39.16 t ha-1) green fodder yield was recorded in plots received N@ 90 kg ha-1. Cutting at pre booting stage resulted in highest crude protein (8.42%) while it gave lowest crude fiber (35.22%) and green fodder yield (31.25 t ha-1) whereas cutting at 50% heading stage yielded minimum crude protein (7.00%) and higher crude fiber (38.23%) and green fodder yield (39.50 t ha-1). Results revealed that nitrogen should be applied @ 90 kg ha-1 and cutting should be taken at pre booting stage of fodder oat to get optimum outcome in term of quality and quantity in the study area. Keywords: Oat (Avena sativa L.); Nitrogen; Cutting intervals; Crude protein; Crude fiber; Green fodder http://dx.doi. org/10.19045/bspab.2017. 60044