Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phosphites for the control of anthracnose in common bean

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of phosphites in the protection of common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris ) against anthracnose. Different phosphite formulations were evaluated by quantifying peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase activity, total phenols, and lignin content. The treatments consisted of sprayings, in the V4, R5, and R7 stages, with: the K, Zn, Mn, K+Mn, K+salicyclic acid, and Cu phosphites; salicylic acid; acibenzolar-S-methyl; the fungicide azoxystrobin; besides a control, without sprayings. The area under the disease progress curve was lower in plants that received applications of the K and Mn phosphites, whose values ranged between 74 and 81%, compared with the control. The K, Zn, and K+salicyilic acid phosphites were effective in controlling the disease. In addition, disease severity was lower with the application of the K, Zn, and Mn phosphites than with the control. Enzyme (peroxidases and polyphenol oxidases) activity and levels of soluble phenols were higher in common bean plants treated with the K and Mn phosphites, although no change was detected in the levels of soluble lignin in the same tissue. Phosphite application reduces the severity of the disease, can enhance enzymatic activity, and is an effective alternative for the control of anthracnose in common bean.
Investigation of Temporal and Spatial Variation of Mammalian Predation in Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) Nests on Samandağ Beach, Eastern Mediterranean Turkey

Nest predation is an important practical challenge for the protection of many endangered species of birds and reptiles, and has the potential to reduce hatching success and slow the recovery of the threatened populations. Estimating the temporal and spatial variation of the nest predation has the potential to optimize predation management. In this study, the temporal and spatial variation of mammalian predation was investigated in the green sea turtle ( Chelonia mydas ) nests on Samandag beach, Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey. A total of 964 nests were examined between 2012 and 2017, which 733 of them were protected with screened metal grid and 231 of them unscreened control nests. The most effective nest predator was identified as the Jackal ( Canis aureus ). The protection of the nests with the screened metal grid has effectively increased the hatching success. The number of predated nests showed a positive trend over the years, but this trend was not statistically significant. The likelihood of predation increased towards the end of the incubation period, and did not change in the spatial variation according to the distance to the sea and vegetation. Also, the likelihood of the predation increased towards the end of the beach. Investigation of the likelihood of predation by nest density and nest depth in future studies is important. Also, the investigation of population ecology and status of the Jackals, which is predominant predators on the Samandag beach, is important for the both species.
Mode shapes identification under harmonic excitation using mobile sensors

This paper presents a methodology for the identification of high spatial density mode shapes of a dynamical system under harmonic excitation that use information from a mobile sensor. The methodology is verified numerically and experimentally with uniform simply supported beams under sinusoidal excitation. High correlation is found between the theoretical and the numerically identified mode shapes in the simulations. High correlation is also obtained between the operational mode shape identified using a traditional modal identification approach and the one using the proposed methodology during the experimental validation. The methodology minimizes errors in the identification process due to the influence of the non-resonant modes and it is robust to uncertainties in the initial identification of the natural frequencies.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM PERFORMANCE OF LISTED COMPANIES IN MALAYSIA

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance for a sample of 813 listed companies representing nine sectors of the main board of Bursa Malaysia from 2009 to 2011. Three corporate governance components used in this study are proportion of non-executive directors (NED), board leadership structure, and board size. Firm performance is measured in terms of firm earnings per share (EPS) and return on equity (ROE). The study discovered the influence of the three corporate governance measurements on both dimensions of firm performance from years 2009 to 2011 are mixed. The influence of corporate governance on the financial performance of Malaysian listed companies similar to previous studies in Malaysia or in other countries. It can be concluded that although various corporate governance reform has been undertaking in Malaysia since year 2000, the reform has not much effect on financial performance.
Design Principles for Special Purpose, Embodied, Conversational Intelligence with Environmental Sensors (SPECIES) Agents

As information systems increase their ability to gather and analyze data from the natural environment and as computational power increases, the next generation of human-computer interfaces will be able to facilitate more lifelike and natural interactions with humans. This can be accomplished by using sensors to non-invasively gather information from the user, using artificial intelligence to interpret this information to perceive users’ emotional and cognitive states, and using customized interfaces and responses based on embodied-conversational-agent (avatar) technology to respond to the user. We refer to this novel and unique class of intelligent agents as Special Purpose Embodied Conversational Intelligence with Environmental Sensors (SPECIES) agents. In this paper, we build on interpersonal communication theory to specify four essential design principles of all SPECIES agents. We also share findings of initial research that demonstrates how SPECIES agents can be deployed to augment human tasks. Results of this paper organize future research efforts in collectively studying and creating more robust, influential, and intelligent SPECIES agents.
Ophthalmic wavefront measurements using a versatile pyramid sensor

We describe the operation of a pyramid wavefront sensor used to measure and correct aberrations of the human eye. The system is designed for maximum speed when running in closed loop but can also provide calibrated open-loop measurements of aberrations with a range of sampling options. A detailed characterization of the system was performed to ensure measurement accuracy. Ocular aberrations after correction had root-mean-square errors consistently less than 0. 1μm over a 6mm pupil for all subjects tested. The system frame rate is 83Hz in both open- and closed-loop modes.
E-government Adoption in Developing Countries: Need of Customer-centric Approach: A Case of Pakistan

The e-government implementation in developing countries is always less successful and objectively hard to achieve and the reason behind is a less citizen-centric approach. Therefore, the effect of trust and social influence will be studied while understanding the adoption behavior of citizens in developing countries. Specifically, a case of selected e-service (e-filling of taxation by ‘Federal Board of Revenue' (FBR)) will be studied in Pakistan. The sole purpose of the study is to pull the external factors like trust and social influence to increase e-government adoption in the massively populated region of the world. The quantitative approach will be followed where the current users of selected e-service will be inquired under the modified version of a generic framework of ‘Technology Adoption Model' (TAM). The sample size of 153 is filtered and analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SPSS AMOS) to study the intentions of the citizens. In methodological terms, deductive, quantitative method is adopted in interpretive philosophical manner. Collectively, trust and social influence are studied in order to find the impact on the intentions of citizens in the developing countries. However, the trust is the strongest predictor after social influence is recorded. Similarly, the usefulness observed to be a strong predictor of intentions in comparison of ease of use in the current scenario.
Connection between BPTT and RTRL

This paper shows the connection between the Backpropagation Through Time (BPTT) algorithm, its truncated forms with truncation depth h, and the Recurrent Real Time Learning (RTRL) algorithm. The comparison is done by looking at a fully connected recurrent network, which is based on the same error function and calculations, using exact ordered derivatives. Two kind of formulas, based on total ordered derivatives, for BPTT(h) are given and proven to be equivalent. Of the two formulae, the second one, can be interpreted by a target modification in the case of h. Further, a combination of BPTT and RTRL is proposed to account for possible instabilities caused by weight adaptation. An overview of BPTT and RTRL and their implementations as well as their interpretations and uses are outlined.
Assessment of microbiological indoor air quality in public buildings: A case study (Timisoara, Romania)

The indoor air quality in public buildings is essential for the health of employees and visitors. To investigate the potential influence of airborne germ loads on human health, two sampling campaigns were conducted during 2009 in several public buildings in Timisoara (Romania). The quality of air revealed highly significant differences among different sites. Cluster analysis accurately classified the investigated buildings into three main groups and for most groups of aerial microorganisms, the measured values rarely fell below the normal concentrations in indoor environments. Although the structure of airborne flora varied widely among different locations, mesophilic bacteria and molds were the main determinants of indoor air quality in investigated buildings. It was found that these two factors explained over 90% of the overall average dissimilarity in the structure of indoor airborne microbiota. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed a strong positive relationship between these two factors, which is probably related to the number of daily occupants and visitors as well as to the building age. Further research is required to determine more accurately the relationship between ventilation performance and air quality.
Why Worry About It? Clinicians’ Acceptance, Preference, and Use of Imaginal Exposure and Other Techniques to Treat Generalized Anxiety

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is challenging to treat; only approximately 50% of patients have been identified as having meaningful anxiety symptom reduction, with high relapse rates (e.g., Borkovec et al., 2002; Rapgay, Bystritsky, Dafter, & Spearman, 2011). Imaginal exposure (IE) has been shown to decrease behavioral avoidance of emotions as well as anxiety symptoms (Fracalanza, Koerner, & Antony, 2014; Hoyer & Beesdo-Baum, 2012), yet clinicians often do not use exposure treatments due to their attitudes about evidence-based practice, treatment preferences, and beliefs about client discomfort (e.g., Harned, Dimeff, Woodcock, & Contreras, 2013; Meyer, Farrell, Kemp, Blakey, & Deacon, 2014; Whiteside, Deacon, Benito, & Stewart, 2016). This study sought to determine if there were differences in the types of CBT approaches that psychologists (N = 244) accept, prefer, and use to treat GAD in practice as well as to assess clinicians’ beliefs about IE. Participants read two case vignettes, one using IE and one using cognitive restructuring and relaxation training (CRRT), to treat a potential client with GAD. Results showed that participants found both treatments moderately acceptable, but were significantly more likely to prefer and use CRRT techniques. Psychologists who endorsed obtaining more exposure-specific training and receiving CBToriented post-doctoral training were significantly more likely to accept, prefer, and use IE than other psychologists. Those who reported attending a more CBT-oriented graduate program were more likely to use IE than those who attended a less CBT-oriented graduate program. More negative beliefs about IE were significantly positively correlated with preference and use of CRRT, although psychologists who obtained more exposure-specific training and attended CBT-oriented post-doctoral training endorsed fewer negative beliefs about IE. This study’s findings point to a need to educate clinicians about the benefits of IE for GAD.
Spectroscopic Investigation of Pyruvate Formate Lyase-activating Enzyme: A Look into EPR, ENDOR and Mossabuer Spectroscopy

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopies are extremely powerful and versatile methods for the characterization of paramagnetic systems in biology, chemistry and physics. For iron centers in the radical SAM enzymes however, Mossbauer spectroscopy has proven to be both powerful and useful as a complementary spectroscopic technique in determining not just the oxidation states but also the type of iron species present in the catalytic center. The cluster content of the radical SAM protein, Pyruvate Formate-Lyase-Activating Enzyme (PFL-AE), was characterized using EPR and Mossbauer techniques while additional ENDOR analysis helped determine the novel interaction of the co-substrate, SAdenosylmethionine (SAM or AdoMet) with the Fe-S cluster of PFL-AE. The anchoring role of the Fe-S cluster to the co-substrate derived from the spectroscopic data supports the mechanism where a SAM-based radical species is involved during catalysis.
FIELD OF INVENTION

The pourability and softening performance of amidoamine fabric softeners, such as bis(tallow amidoethyl)-2-hydroxy ethyl amine) is improved by blending with a quaternary diester fabric softener, such as N-methyl, N,N,N-triethano lamine ditallow ester quaternary ammonium salt. The ami doamine fabric softener includes at least 5% by weight of unsaturated higher alkyl groups. The compositions are con centrated with amounts of active softener compounds in excess of 25% by weight and, as such, may be used at low levels or maybe further diluted prior to use.
Wideband RCS Reduction of Microstrip Array Antenna Based on Absorptive Frequency Selective Surface and Microstrip Resonators

An approach for wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction of a microstrip array antenna is presented and discussed. The scheme is based on the microstrip resonators and absorptive frequency selective surface (AFSS) with a wideband absorptive property over the low band 1.9–7.5 GHz and a transmission characteristic at high frequency 11.05 GHz. The AFSS is designed to realize the out-of-band RCS reduction and preserve the radiation performance simultaneously, and it is placed above the antenna with the operating frequency of 11.05 GHz. Moreover, the microstrip resonators are loaded to obtain the in-band RCS reduction. As a result, a significant RCS reduction from 1.5 GHz to 13 GHz for both types of polarization has been accomplished. Compared with the reference antenna, the simulated results exhibit that the monostatic RCS of the proposed array antenna in - and -polarization can be reduced as much as 17.6 dB and 21.5 dB, respectively. And the measured results agree well with the simulated ones.
Comparative Different DNA Isolation Protocols from Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Leaves through RAPD and ISSR Markers

Genomic analysis of plants relies on high quantity and quality of pure DNA. Extraction and purification of DNA from woody and medicinal plants, such as fruit trees present a great challenge due to accumulation of a large amount of co-purify with DNA, including polysaccharides, polyphenols and proteins. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the extraction protocols to reduce these compounds to the lowest level. A study was conducted to compare six DNA extraction and precipitation methods for genomic analysis in Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) plant tissues. The results showed significant differences in DNA contents among the six methods. Quantity and quality of extracted genomic DNAs were compared by employing the spectrophotometer, Nano-Drop, agarose gel electrophoresis, digestion by restriction enzymes and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods and molecular marker such as RAPD and ISSR. The method of Vroh Bi et al., provided the best results (208.89 ng/μL) in terms of quantity and quality of DNA, and Doyle and Doyle method as second method for leaves sample were chosen. According to the results, the method of Bi et al. is recommended for DNA extraction from plant tissues having high level of polysaccharides and phenol compounds.
Does Psychological Empowerment Bring About Employee Commitment? Evidence from Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan

The rationale of this current study is to elucidate the role of psychological empowerment in committing employees with organization. Data was collected from employees working in telecom sector of Lahore (Pakistan). Results showed the significant relationship exists between all the four dimensions of psychological empowerment and employee commitment. On behalf of data that was collected from Lahore (Pakistan), it was accredited that employee commitment can be enhanced by involving employees in decision making that will ultimately increase their commitment in the organization.
House Prices, Real Estate Returns, and the Business Cycle

The main objective of this work is to develop a general equilibrium business cycle model linking financial and real estate markets to the macroeconomy. The ability of a production economy to account simultaneously for asset pricing, business cycle and real estate market facts is then evaluated by comparing the model predictions to the empirical facts. The observed high volatility of house prices, the equity premium and the difference between equity and real estate excess returns can be explained without giving rise to excessive risk-free rate variation.
Pseudo Dual Energy CT Imaging using Deep Learning Based Framework: Initial Study

Dual energy computed tomography (DECT) has become of particular interest in clinic recent years. The DECT scan comprises two images, corresponding to two photon attenuation coefficients maps of the objects. Meanwhile, the DECT images are less accessible sometimes, compared to the conventional single energy CT (SECT). This motivates us to simulate pseudo DECT (pDECT) images from the SECT images. Inspired by recent advances in deep learning, we present a deep learning based framework to yield pDECT images from SECT images, utilizing the intrinsic characteristics underlying DECT images, i.e., global correlation and high similarity. To demonstrate the performance of the deep learning based framework, a cascade deep ConvNet (CD-ConvNet) approach is specifically presented in the deep learning framework. In the training step, the CD-ConvNet is designed to learn the non-linear mapping from the measured energy-specific (i.e., low-energy) CT images to the desired energy-specific (i.e., high-energy) CT images. In the testing step, the trained CD-ConvNet can be used to yield desired high-energy CT images from the low-energy CT images, and then produce accurate basic material maps. Clinical patient data were employed to validate and evaluate the presented CD-ConvNet approach performance. Both visual and quantitative results demonstrate the presented CD-ConvNet approach can yield high quality pDECT images and basic material maps.
The point of no return for climate action: effects of climate uncertainty and risk tolerance

Abstract. If the Paris Agreement targets are to be met, there may be very few years left for policy makers to start cutting emissions. Here we calculate by what year, at the latest, one has to take action to keep global warming below the 2 K target (relative to pre-industrial levels) at the year 2100 with a 67 % probability; we call this the point of no return (PNR). Using a novel, stochastic model of CO2 concentration and global mean surface temperature derived from the CMIP5 ensemble simulations, we find that cumulative CO2 emissions from 2015 onwards may not exceed 424 GtC and that the PNR is 2035 for the policy scenario where the share of renewable energy rises by 2 % year−1. Pushing this increase to 5 % year−1 delays the PNR until 2045. For the 1.5 K target, the carbon budget is only 198 GtC and there is no time left before starting to increase the renewable share by 2 % year−1. If the risk tolerance is tightened to 5 %, the PNR is brought forward to 2022 for the 2 K target and has been passed already for the 1.5 K target. Including substantial negative emissions towards the end of the century delays the PNR from 2035 to 2042 for the 2 K target and to 2026 for the 1.5 K target. We thus show how the PNR is impacted not only by the temperature target and the speed by which emissions are cut but also by risk tolerance, climate uncertainties and the potential for negative emissions. Sensitivity studies show that the PNR is robust with uncertainties of at most a few years.
Interspecific gene flow and maintenance of species integrity in oaks

Oak species show a wide variation in morphological and physiological characters, and species boundaries between closely related species are often not clear-cut. Still, despite frequent interspecific gene flow, oaks maintain distinct morphological and physiological adaptations. In sympatric stands, spatial distribution of species with different ecological requirements is not random but constrained by soil and other microenvironmental factors. Pre-zygotic isolation (e.g. cross incompatibilities, asynchrony in flowering, pollen competition) and post-zygotic isolation (divergent selection) contribute to the maintenance of species integrity in sympatric oak stands. The antagonistic effects of interspecific gene flow and divergent selection are reflected in the low genetic differentiation between hybridizing oak species at most genomic regions interspersed by regions with signatures of divergent selection (outlier regions). In the near future, the availability of high-density genetic linkage maps anchored to scaffolds of a sequenced Q. robur genome will allow to characterize the underlying genes in these outlier regions and their putative role in reproductive isolation between species. Reciprocal transplant experiments of seedlings between parental environments can be used to characterize selection on outlier genes. High transferability of gene-based markers will enable comparative outlier screens in different oak species.