Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feasibility of classical biological control of Sonchus oleraceus in Australia

ABSTRACT Sonchus oleraceus L. (Asteraceae), an annual species native to Eurasia and northern Africa, is among the most widely distributed plant species on Earth. In Australia, S. oleraceus, is a common weed in disturbed areas such as crop fields, pastures, gardens and roadsides. In agricultural settings, it can dominate fallows and cultivated fields where it uses stored soil moisture and reduces crop yield. This weed has also developed herbicide resistance, predicating the need for alternative management solutions. In this context, we undertook field surveys and preliminary host range studies in the native range of S. oleraceus to determine the feasibility of developing classical biological control solutions for Australia. Fifty-nine phytophagous arthropod species were recorded and nine pathogenic fungi were recovered from disease symptoms. Four arthropod species were selected for initial host-specificity testing based on information available in the literature. Preliminary host-specificity tests were also performed with representative isolate(s) of six of the pathogenic fungi. All these candidate agents were shown in the tests to affect key native species in Australia in the same subtribe as S. oleraceus (i.e. Sonchus hydrophilus and Actites megalocarpus). The results of our investigations suggest that classical biological control may not be a feasible option for the management of S. oleraceus in Australia, and that alternative integrated weed management tactics may need to be pursued to mitigate the impacts of this weed.
Novel Heat-Integrated Hybrid Distillation and Adsorption Process for Coproduction of Cellulosic Ethanol, Heat, and Electricity from Actual Lignocellulosic Fermentation Broth

Cellulosic ethanol (CE) can not only be produced from a nonedible, cheap, and abundant lignocellulose feedstock but also can reduce carbon footprint significantly compared to starch ethanol. Despite great stimulation worldwide, CE production has not yet commercialized because of the complexity of lignocellulose. Therefore, intensive research and development are needed to improve CE technologies. In this study, a cost-efficient and sustainable design was proposed for the coproduction of CE, heat, and electricity from the actual lignocellulosic fermentation broth. First, a conventional coproduction process of CE, heat, and electricity based on hybrid distillation and adsorption (HDA) was simulated and optimized. Subsequently, various heat integrated (HI) techniques such as heat pump (HP), multi-effect distillation (MED), and combined HP-MED were evaluated to improve the CE process. The combined heat and power (CHP) process that utilized the combustible solids of the beer stillage was designed and integrated with the CE process. Structural alternatives were assessed for both economic and environmental impacts. The results show that the proposed HI-HDA process can save 36.9% and 33.6% of total annual costs and carbon footprint, respectively, compared to the conventional CE process. In the proposed HI-HDA coproduction process, the CE recovery process can be self-efficient in energy and the CHP can generate 12.0% more electricity than that in the conventional coproduction process.
Antioxidant activity of Malpighia glabra L., leaves extract

Malpighia glabra. L (Acerola) fruits have wide global medicinal uses due to rich antioxidant contents. Little studies were carried on other parts of plant. Malpighia glabra. L leaves (1.5 kg) was subjected to soxhlet exhaustive extraction with methanol and concentrated under vacuum. The dried extract was defatted with petroleum-ether then fractionated with ethyl acetate & n-butanol 3 successive times respectively. The ethyl acetate fraction (9 gm) was subjected to series of silica gel & Sephadex (LH-20) column chromatography. Phytochemical investigation of the Ethyl acetate fraction of Malpighia glabra. L leaves in this study resulted in separation of four pure compounds (Caffeic acid, Chlorogenic acid, Quercetin & Kaempferol). The structures of the separated compounds were assigned based on NMR spectral data and mass spectrometer analysis. The methanolic extract showed high values of total phenolics (96.36 mg GAE/g), flavonoids (30.71 mg QE/g) and higher antioxidant activity towards DPPH radical with IC50 = 49.8(mg/ml).
PYROLYSIS OF LIGNIN - A POTENTIAL METHOD FOR OBTAINING CHEMICALS AND/OR FUELS

The paper shows some results on thermal degradation of aspen lignin, lignosulfonate and cellolignin, obtained from TG-FTIR/MSD analysis and from pyrolysis, followed by GC-MSD analysis of the liquid products. The thermal behaviour (temperature range and decomposition stages) depends on the lignin type. Degradation of aspen lignin starts above 200 °C, with the formation of acetic acid, methanol and methylacetate, at a maximum rate around 340 °C, and of phenol derivatives, at 250-450 °C. Ammonia and sulfur dioxide are formed around 250 °C from lignosulfonate, followed by derivatives of the structural compounds in lignin. Some nitrogenand sulfur-containing compounds were found in the light fraction of pyrolysis oils from the lignosulfonate. Cellolignin, a solid fraction resulting from the vegetable materials during furfural manufacturing, decomposes at a fast rate within a narrow temperature range, the formation of particular compounds being difficult to distinguish. However, furfural and its derivatives were found in degradation products of cellolignin, but not in the other lignins studied.
Restorative justice: a qualitative analysis of school security perspectives

ABSTRACT Grounded in Restorative Justice theory, the current study examines the perspectives of School Resource Officers (SROs) and other School Security Personnel (SSPs) during a professional development training on restorative-problem solving. Specifically, focusing on how school security staff are currently using restorative justice in their work, how they can use these practices in the future, and any variations in perspectives towards restorative justice based on their job title. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was used to analyze qualitative responses to training logs from SROs and SSPs (n = 99). Throughout the module, participants were asked to reflect on five different situations and provide examples of how they would address these issues using restorative justice. Codes and memos were used to summarize the themes across participants. Both SROs and SSPs are aware of restorative practices and use them to some capacity in their roles. However, additional training is needed to ensure that practices are used consistently and effectively across positions and schools. To abolish the U.S. school-to-prison pipeline, all school staff including security should receive mandatory, ongoing, evidence-based professional development for school-wide implementation of restorative justice as an alternative to punitive disciplinary strategies that disproportionately harm students of color and their families.
Micro-Landscape Dependent Changes in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Structure

The roots of most plants host diverse assemblages of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which benefit the plant hosts in diverse ways. Even though we understand that such AMF assemblages are non-random, we do not fully appreciate whether and how environmental settings can make them more or less predictable in time and space. Here we present results from three controlled experiments, where we manipulated two environmental parameters, habitat connectance and habitat quality, to address the degree to which plant roots in archipelagos of high connectance and invariable habitats are colonized with (i) less diverse and (ii) easier to predict AMF assemblages. We observed no differences in diversity across our manipulations. We show, however, that mixing habitats and varying connectance render AMF assemblages less predictable, which we could only detect within and not between our experimental units. We also demonstrate that none of our manipulations favoured any specific AMF taxa. We present here evidence that the community structure of AMF is less responsive to spatio-temporal manipulations than root colonization rates which is a facet of the symbiosis which we currently poorly understand.
Information in morphological characters

Abstract The construction of morphological character matrices is central to paleontological systematic study, which extracts paleontological information from fossils. Although the word information has been repeatedly mentioned in a wide array of paleontological systematic studies, its meaning has rarely been clarified nor specifically defined. It is important, however, to establish a standard to measure paleontological information because fossils are hardly complete, rendering the recognition of homologous and homoplastic structures difficult. Here, based on information theory, we show the deep connections between paleontological systematic study and communication system engineering. Information is defined as the decrease of uncertainty and it is the information in morphological characters that allows distinguishing operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and reconstructing evolutionary history. We propose that concepts in communication system engineering such as source coding and channel coding, correspond to the construction of diagnostic features and the entire character matrices in paleontological studies. The two coding strategies should be distinguished following typical communication system engineering, because they serve dual purposes. With character matrices from six different vertebrate groups, we analyzed their information properties including source entropy, mutual information, and channel capacity. Estimation of channel capacity shows character saturation of all matrices in transmitting paleontological information, indicating that, due to the presence of noise, oversampling characters not only increases the burden in character scoring, but also may decrease quality of matrices. We further test the use of information entropy, which measures how informative a variable is, as a character weighting criterion in parsimony‐based systematic studies. The results show high consistency with existing knowledge with both good resolution and interpretability.
Predictors of Job Satisfaction of Chinese Social Workers in Mainland China

Abstract This study investigates the influence of career motivation and perception of organizational career support on job satisfaction of Chinese social workers in Mainland China. Four hundred and twenty social workers were asked to rate their perception of career motivation, organizational career support and job satisfaction. Exploratory factor analysis revealed factor structures for career motivations. Regression analysis of variance tests revealed the influences of different variables on the level job satisfaction. The results are discussed and implications for social work organizations. Moreover, future research should discover ways to identify the highly motivated social workers and how different motivational factors influence social workers’ job satisfaction.
An Innovative Approach to Energy Consumer Segmentation—A Behavioural Perspective. The Case of the Eco-Bot Project

Energy consumption impacts the environment, humans’ well-being, comfort and quality of life. The article aimed to develop the original model of energy consumer segmentation, based on behavioural variables, which influence consumer decisions and motivations regardless of demographic, geographic and socio-cultural differences. The innovative contribution is the segmentation procedure, which fills the existing research gap and can be treated as a universal tool serving various groups of stakeholders for creating and implementing sustainable development policies. The methodology used for the segmentation is based on the original algorithm and involves classifying a consumer into the most appropriate group based on the measurement of the distance between the ideal class representative and a particular respondent. Several distance measures (e.g., Sokal–Michener, Goodall, Lin) were used, while the similarity of those classifications was verified using the adjusted Rand index. The segmentation involved adopting—a priori—five basic classes of consumers, varying in terms of motivation to save energy. The validation performed on a sample of 1606 respondents, carried out as part of the eco-bot project, verified both the classification approach adopted in the study and the accuracy of the assumptions. The application of the distance measures chosen for the study allowed for the assignment of 96.1% of the respondents to the appropriate classes, which yielded the following distribution: EI (33.9% of the respondents); DS (33.1%), AE (17.2%), O (7%) and I (4.9%).
Developmental Dynamics of Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (Fabaceae) Drive Forest Structure and Biomass in the Eastern Congo Basin

Patterns of structural change associated with monodominant tropical forest complexes have remained enigmatic for decades. Here, we extend previous efforts in presenting a longitudinal, local-scale analysis of forest dynamics in central Africa. Using four 10-ha census plots measured across three time periods (959,312 stems ≥1 cm DBH), we analyzed changes in a number of biometrical attributes for four distinct forest types capturing the developmental gradient from mixed species forest to Gilbertiodendron dewevrei-dominated forest. We modeled above-ground biomass (AGB), basal area (BA), and stem density across all species, and diameter at breast height (DBH), recruitment, and mortality for Gilbertiodendron dewevrei. We hypothesized that trends in these attributes are consistent with a slow spread of Gilbertiodendron dewevrei into adjacent mixed species forest. We identified statistically significant increases in AGB and BA across sites and positive, though nonsignificant, increases in AGB and BA for most forest types. DBH and relative recruitment increased significantly for Gilbertiodendron dewevrei stems, while relative mortality did not. When looking from mixed species to transitional to monodominant forest types, we found a statistically significant pattern of developmental aggradation and net expansion of monodominant forest. We do not attribute this to atmospheric forcing but to a combination of (a) landscape-scale recovery or response to widespread disturbance (primarily historical fires), (b) Gilbertiodendron dewevrei’s ectomycorrhizal association, and (c) Gilbertiodendron dewevrei’s exceptional stress tolerance traits.
Biotechnology of fermented milk drinks using buttermilk and additives of spicy vegetables

Робота присвячена розробці біотехнології отримання функціональних кисломолочних напоїв на основі сколотини з використанням в якості інновації добавок із коренів хрону, селери, імбиру та часнику у формі швидкозамороженого наноструктурованого пюре та екстрактами з нетрадиційної лікарської та пряно-ароматичної рослинної сировини (НЛПАРС), які характеризуються рекордним вмістом біологічно активних речовин (БАР).
Detection of Escherichia coli in Postpartum Clinical Endometritis of Dairy Cattle by PCR

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Trueperella pyogenes (T. pyogenes), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), Bacillus spp. and Fusobacterium necrophorum (F. necrophorum) are the common bacterial agents isolated from postpartum endometritis in dairy cattle. The objective of the present study was to determine the association of E. coli with postpartum endometritis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Methods: The present study was conducted from September 2019 to January 2020 at Teaching Veterinary Clinical Complex, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode, Kerala and organised dairy farms in Wayanad district, Kerala. Endometrial cytobrush samples (n = 36) were collected by cytobrush technique at 28 to 35 days postpartum (dpp). 16S rRNA gene was employed for the identification of E. coli by PCR.Result: Upon evaluating endometrial cytological smear, 26 animals were positive for endometritis with more than 5% polymorphonuclear (PMN) cells. The prevalence of endometritis was 72.22 per cent (26/36). E. coli was detected in 12 samples by PCR. The study suggested PCR as a highly sensitive method for the identification of E. coli associated with endometritis in postpartum dairy cows.
Conceptual frameworks used in the evaluation of Telehealth initiatives: A scoping review protocol

A Telessaude tem o potencial de resolver diversos problemas na assistencia e gestao da saude, aumentando a qualidade, acessibilidade, utilizacao, eficacia e eficiencia dos servicos e reduzindo custos. Este artigo apresenta um protocolo de revisao de escopo que visa caracterizar os modelos conceituais e frameworks relacionados a implementacao e avaliacao de Telessaude/Telemedicina publicados em repositorios indexados entre os anos 2000 e 2020, evidenciando as teorias subjacentes, conceitos/dimensoes chave utilizados e tipos de avaliacao envolvidos. O protocolo objetiva documentar os processos envolvidos no planejamento metodologico e execucao de uma revisao de escopo abrangente, orientada pelas diretrizes do Joanna Briggs Institute, tendo sido desenvolvido usando o PRISMA-Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 Checklist. A estrategia PCC (populacao, conceito e contexto) sistematizou a busca por estudos publicados nas bases bibliograficas Medline, Lilacs, Scopus, Embase e Web of Science, cobrindo o periodo de janeiro de 2000 ate dezembro de 2020. A selecao dos artigos sera realizada em duas etapas (titulos e resumos, seguida da avaliacao do texto completo dos artigos), por dois avaliadores independentes, com resolucao das divergencias realizadas por um terceiro revisor. Os resultados serao analisados de forma qualiquantitativa e organizados por temas. O relatorio final da revisao obedecera ao checklist presente no Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). O protocolo foi registrado no Open Science Framework (doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/9PWBQ).
Role of Artificial Neural Networks Techniques in Development of Market Intelligence: A Study of Sentiment Analysis of eWOM of a Women's Clothing Company

Web 2.0 technology enables customers to share electronic word of mouth (eWOM) about their experiences. eWOM offers great market insights to the organization, and important for organization’s success. eWOM monitoring and management is one of the major contemporary challenges for the organization, because of high volume and frequency of the content. It is nearly impossible for an organization to manually monitor content generated by each user. In this paper, we propose sentiment analysis as an alternative method for analysis of emotions and behavioral intentions in real-time data. Sentiment analysis is performed on women’s e-clothing reviews collected from the Kaggle data repository. The dataset consists of 23,486 reviews, comprising ten feature variables. This study applied artificial neural network techniques to determine polarity of the data in terms of positive or negative. Sentiment analysis was performed by using two artificial neural networks, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), to classify the review as recommended (positive) or not recommended (negative). The proposed models have been evaluated on these performance measuring parameters: accuracy, recall, specificity, F1-score and roc-curve. The LSTM method outperformed CNN and achieved classification accuracy of 91.69%, specificity 92.81%, sensitivity 76.95%, and 56.67% F1-score. Based on results of this study, LSTM technique is highly recommended for the sentiment analysis of unstructured text-based user-generated content.
Development of a reduced tri-propylene glycol monomethyl ether–n-hexadecane–poly-aromatic hydrocarbon mechanism and its application for soot prediction

A reduced chemical kinetic mechanism for tri-propylene glycol monomethyl ether has been developed and applied to computational fluid dynamics calculations for predicting combustion and soot formation processes. The reduced tri-propylene glycol monomethyl ether mechanism was combined with a reduced n-hexadecane mechanism and a poly-aromatic hydrocarbon mechanism to investigate the effect of fuel oxygenation on combustion and soot emissions. The final version of the tri-propylene glycol monomethyl ether–n-hexadecane–poly-aromatic hydrocarbon mechanism consists of 144 species and 730 reactions and was validated with experiments in shock tubes as well as in a constant-volume spray combustion vessel from the Engine Combustion Network. The effects of ambient temperature, varying oxygen content in the tested fuels on ignition delay, spray lift-off length and soot formation under diesel-like conditions were analyzed and addressed using multidimensional reacting flow simulations and the reduced mechanism. The results show that the present reduced mechanism gives reliable predictions of the combustion characteristics and soot formation processes. In the constant-volume spray combustion vessel simulations, two important trends were identified. First, increasing the initial temperature in the constant-volume spray combustion vessel shortens the ignition delay and lift-off length and reduces the fuel–air mixing, thereby increasing the soot levels. Second, fuel oxygenation introduces more oxygen into the central region of a fuel jet and reduces residence times of fuel-rich area in active soot-forming regions, thereby reducing soot levels.
Carbohydrate Coatings via Aryldiazonium Chemistry for Surface Biomimicry

Carbohydrates are extremely important biomolecules and their immobilization onto solid surfaces is of interest for the development of new biomimetic materials and of new methods for understanding processes in glycobiology. We have developed an efficient surface modification methodology for the functionalization of a range of materials with biologically active carbohydrates based on aryldiazonium chemistry. We describe the synthesis and characterization of carbohydrate reagents, which were subsequently employed for the one-step, solution-based modification of carbon, metals, and alloys with monosaccharides. We used a combination of spectroscopic and nanogravimetric methods to characterize the structure of the carbohydrate layers; we report an average surface coverage of 7.8 × 10–10 mol cm–2 under our experimental conditions. Concanavalin A, a mannose-binding lectin, and Peanut Agglutinin, a galactose-binding lectin, were found to bind from solution to their respective monosaccharide binding partners immobi.