Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge Sharing Approaches for Promotion of Integrated Water Management in Semi- Arid Areas of North-eastern Tanzania

One of the main challenges researchers in natural resources management is to turn knowledge into action to achieve tangible results and outcomes to improve livelihoods of the smallholder farmers. This paper is presenting a case that enhanced knowledge sharing to ensure that research findings are well communicated to key stakeholders in order to achieve improved livelihoods and influence decision-making and utilisation of improved technologies. This case is used to demonstrate the outcomes of communicating research findings on integrated water management and turn them into action by smallholder farmers in semi-arid areas of north-eastern Tanzania. A communication strategy was developed and implemented to enhance information and knowledge sharing. Different methods were used to share information and knowledge to provide opportunity for feedback to researchers and farming community. These methods include farmers’ workshops, exchange visits, farmer field schools, demonstrations, farmer field days, audio visual and river basin game. The implementation of the communication strategy involved active participation of the District Council, a nexus of development at local level, to ensure continuity after the end of the project. It was learnt that adoption of integrated water management innovations depends on the combination of different information sharing tools and methods. Interactive folklore methods complemented with audiovisual and printed media become more effective and foster experiential learning.
COgnition Guided Interoperability beTween Collections of musical Heritage

2 Summary Sound & Vision (S&V) possesses a unique collection of popular Dutch music. The Meertens Institute (MI) possesses a unique collection of Dutch folk songs. These two collections of musical heritage belong to the same culture, but are only separated for institutional reasons. S&V wishes to make these musical archives accessible in an integrated way for the general public. MI wishes the same, to enable musicological research on song evolution. Driven by these demands, COGITCH’s general objective is to develop generic techniques to index distributed sources by developing an interoperable system. In a collaborative research, cutting across the boundaries between music cognition and computer science, we develop generic techniques for relating music from different collections. In developing retrieval methods, we will take a top-down approach, working from musical knowledge and cognitive psychology towards the identification and processing of audio features. On-line annotations provided by listeners will support establishing the relationships between ‘hooks’ (perceptually salient musical patterns) and music.
Mixed Kalman-Fuzzy Sliding Mode State Observer in Disturbance Rejection Control of a Vibrating Smart Structure

In the controllers that are synthesized on a nominal model of a nonlinear plant, the parametric matched uncertainties and nonlinear/unmodelled dynamics of the high order nature can significantly affect the performance of the closed-loop system. On this note, owing to the robust characteristic of the sliding mode observer against modelling perturbations, measurement noise, and unknown disturbances and due to the non-fragile behaviour of the Kalman filter against process noise, a mixed Kalman sliding mode state-observer is proposed and later enhanced by the addition of an intelligent fuzzy agent. In light of the proposed technique, the chattering phenomena and the conservative boundary neighboring layer of the high gain sliding mode observer are addressed. Then, a robust active disturbance rejection controller is developed by using the static feedback of the estimated states using a~direct Lyapunov quadratic stability theorem. The reduced order plant for control design purposes is subjected to some simulated square-integrable disturbances and is assumed to have mismatched uncertainties in the system matrices. Finally, the robust performance of the closed-loop scheme with respect to the mentioned perturbation signals and modelling imperfections is tested by implementing the control system on a mechanical vibrating smart cantilever beam.
An Online Tool for Predicting the Trajectory of the Spilled Marine Pollutant

An online oil spill advisory(OOSA) system was developed for the first time in India, at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) to serve the coastal community, regulatory authority and oil spill responders. It is achieved by triggering the oil spill trajectory model through web-interface. OOSA receives the inputs from the users in html feeds. Once after the submission of inputs, it automatically triggers the oil spill trajectory model and delivers the drift pattern of the pollutant at regular intervals, without the support from modeling community or officials of INCOIS. It is completely an automated set up. The system comprised the diagnostic mode of General National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Operational Modeling Environment(GNOME) in batch, which is triggered through web interface with the details such as, location, date & time of the spill, quantity, type of the oil spilled. The forecasted wind forcing and the current forcing obtained from our ocean state forecast(OSF)laboratory, were tuned and set in the prescribed format on daily operational basis. The generated trajectory is layered automatically on a webmap, so that the zones that are likely to get affected are known. Trajectory predictions were made online for the oil spill occured at Sundarbans delta during 09.12. 2014 to 15.12. 2014. The oil slicks were noticed within 1.3 km from the predicted locations. This paper explains the simulation of an oil spill trajectory model for getting the drift pattern of the pollutant at sundarbans delta, through web interface. The method of interpreting the results are also explained. This OOSA system is made available online, so that the users can utilize this during oil spills, mock drills and for preparing the local contingency plans. This system will also guide the oil spill responders, to manage and plan the response activities during the event of an actual or a hypothetical oil spill.
Performance of Composite Crosse Populations of Wheat for Yield, Resistance to Yellow Rust and other important traits under Organic Farming

Organic agriculture requires robust variety such as composite crossed population (CCP) is one of strategy that suitable under low input and organic conditions to buffer against fluctuation environments due to their genetic diversity.The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of eight composite crossed population of wheat along with check for grain yield, agronomic traits and resistance to yellow rust disease under organic condition in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Result of analysis variance showed no significant difference among wheat genotypes for grain yield (p= 0.45), whereas a highly significant (p=0.002) difference for TKW. CCP of HU-13-YQMS showed the highest TKW (43.23 g) and the lowest recorded for the check (37.43 g). The genetic potential of all wheat composite crossed population showed low yield performance under organic farming, this might be due to slow released of nutrient under organic condition. A highly significant difference (P<0.001) was observed among wheat genotypes for the yellow rust incidence and severity across growth stages. The highest yellow rust severity (6.01) and incidence (92.27 %) was recorded on the check (pure line) and followed by the population HU-08-UK comp and HU-08-YQMS at milk stage. CCP of HU-13-YQMS showed comparable grain yield, very low disease incidence and severity, indicating that genetic diversity within CCP increased the resilience of the population to limit the spread of disease expansion across growth stages than check under organic condition.Furthermore, exploitation of additional source of genetic diversity of wheat will be required and beneficial traits may be combined to develop stable and resiliencecultivar to buffer against fluctuating of environments under low input and organic conditions in their ecological farming system.
An EMG-Driven Cervical Spine Model for the Investigation of Joint Kinetics: With Application to a Helicopter Pilot Population

As the workforce has been shifting from manufacturing to office work, reports of neck pain have been on the rise. Unfortunately, the mechanism for the development of chronic neck pain still remains disputed. Most current cervical spine biomechanical models are aimed at the simulation of whiplash and are forward models employing the finite element method or multibody dynamics that are ill-equipped for incorporating motion capture data, with even fewer models capable of interfacing with electromyography (EMG) data. Therefore, there is a considerable opportunity to develop an inverse dynamic model that can drive muscle forces using EMG with the goal of determining the joint mechanics that could lend insight to the loading patterns and injury mechanics in the cervical spine. The current model is an inverse dynamic multi-body model of the whole cervical spine, head, and thorax. It was created entirely in Python, using anatomical data obtained from the Anatomography project, which were rescaled to match dimensions from a 50 percentile male. Constitutive expressions for ligaments are described by nonlinear springs, while the disc and facet joints are lumped into exponential rotational springs. Active muscle forces are estimated from EMG using a Hill-type muscle modeling framework. The model has endured a rigorous validation procedure comparing its predicted compression and shear values to a previously published model. The gains for each muscle were analyzed to evaluate how well muscle forces are being predicted from EMG. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify if the outputs of the model were overly dependent on the numeric value of a specific parameter. Overall, compression and mediolateral shear values were in good agreement with the previous model, while anteroposterior shear values were significantly smaller in magnitude. Despite this, muscle gains were, in some cases, alarmingly high. Finally, the sensitivity analysis revealed that the model is somewhat sensitive to ligament and muscle slack lengths, albeit to a much lesser extent than previously published models.
Preparation of rabbit anti-carp IgM and dynamic changes of anti-KHV antibody level in koi serum after vaccination with purified KHV antigen

Copyright: © Duan H (2020). This Article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License *Corresponding Author(s): Hong-an Duan Research Professor, Director, State key laboratory for aquatic animal inspection and testing, Technology Center of Lianyungang Customs, Lianyungang, Jiangsu 222042, P.R. China Email: honganduan@qq.com Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences
Eventually regular perfect semigroups

A congruence ρ on a semigroup S is called perfect if (aρ)(bρ) = (ab)ρ for all a, b ∈ S, as sets, and S is said to be perfect if each of its congruences is perfect. We show that all eventually regular perfect semigroups are necessarily regular. Finally, we apply our result to perfect group-
Learning Trajectory of Item Response Theory Course Using Multiple Softwares

In a learning process with regards to parameter estimation of item response theory (IRT), which has been related to quite intricate mathematical equations, software use should be an urgent matter. The study was to describe the learning trajectory of item response theory that had been integrated to the use of multiple software and obstacles of advanced IRT course. The study was validation study-type of design research with qualitative approach. The participants in the study were the graduate school students of Educational Research and Evaluation Study Program who concentrated on Educational Measurement. The learning trajectory that had been hypothesized was based on the researcher’s experience in lecturing and in identifying the necessary requirements for each chapter in the course. The data were gathered by means of observation during learning, course activities documentation and graduate school students’ learning results documentation. The data were analyzed qualitatively. By formulating and testing the hypotheses of learning trajectory, the researcher found that multiple software use in course might assist the students in understanding and improving the students’ skills in terms of implementing IRT although they might encounter with several obstacles.
Irrelevant Background Speech Disrupts Serial Short-Term Memory for Verbal but not for Spatial Information: A Pre-Registered Replication Study

The irrelevant speech effect (ISE) – the well-established phenomenon that background speech interferes with serial recall of visually presented material – is considered a fruitful paradigm for examining the structure of short-term memory [1]. Yet there is an ongoing debate about which working memory models are most suitable to explain it [2][3][4]. In 1982, Salamé and Baddeley [5] proposed an explanation based on a modular theory of working memory [6]. This model posits that verbal and spatial information is processed in modality-specific subsystems, namely the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad, which are coordinated by the central executive [7][8]. According to this account, interference arises when two concurrent activities are similar in content [9] and thus rely on the same subsystem: For example, when participants hear irrelevant speech during verbal serial recall tasks, their recall performance is poorer compared to a silent condition because both activities are processed in the phonological loop [7][8].
STUDY EFFECT OF URINARY TRACT INFECTION ON SOME BIOCHEMICAL PROFILE AMONG PATIENTS IN AL- NAJAF GOVERNORATE, IRAQ

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a worldwide health problem with an important health impacts on individual suffering from it in relation to effect on certain biochemical changes. Aims of study: The present study aims to find out the effect of UTI on some biochemical profile in patients and comparing that with normal individuals. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Al- Najaf Province during the period between September 2014-March 2014, fulfilled by using different biochemical techniques for estimation of lipid and some other biochemical profile among randomly selected 120 patients with UTI and 150 healthy control individuals. Results: There were a significant decrease in the level of serum Cholesterol, Triglyceride (TG), Low-density lipoprotein (LDL), Very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), with significant increase of High-density lipoprotein (HDL), also there were significant increase of blood urea with slight increase in serum creatinin, all above changes were among those with UTI when compared with normal control group. Conclusion: Urinary tract infection has a significant impact on lipid profile and some other biochemical changes when compared with healthy control group. Recommendations: Measuring of certain cytokine changes among patient with UTI to know whether a relationship with changes in lipid Profile.
-rich and acidic stressed condition

A fiber bundle composed of hollow fibrils is secreted from protoplasts of white birch ( Betula phatyphylla Sukatcher var. japonica Kan No. 8) leaves callus and the secretion is more efficient in an acidic medium containing high concentration of Ca 2 + . The influence of the Ca 2 + concentration and pH has been investigated concerning the number of cells secreted. The secreted hollow fibers were very thin. The 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra indicated that the fibers are composed of linear (1 → 3)β -glucan without branches (callose). The potential utilization of such unique callose fibers and their optimized production needs more investigation.
648-656 Shakoor S.pmd

Streptococcus pyogenes or Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a re-emerging pathogen of significant public health importance. We present trends in GAS blood cultures over a 10 year period in Pakistan and characteristics of hospitalized patients with GAS sepsis over three years at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Blood cultures positive for GAS from 2004 -2014 were recorded at the clinical microbiology laboratory of the Aga Khan University and studied for trends in positivity rates. Medical records of patients hospitalized at the Aga Khan University hospital from 2012-2014 were also examined for clinical features and outcomes. GAS trends show a steady rate of blood culture positivity over 11 years, with higher rates in those >50 years, and seasonality favouring winter months. Case fatality rate in the hospitalized cohort was 34.1% (n= 14; of 41 patients). Malignancy predominated as the underlying predisposing factor among the 15-49 age group. Presence of sepsis was an independent predictor of mortality in GAS bacteremia. Studies of GAS trends in developing regions are important to inform changing epidemiology. GAS septic shock continues to have high case fatality despite antibiotic treatment. Early recognition, aggressive, goal-directed therapy for sepsis and prevention are possible control measures to prevent high mortality.
HELMET ANC SYSTEM WITH VIRTUAL SENSING TECHNIQUE

In this paper, we focus on motorcycle noise problem and its solution using active noise control. Active noise control (ANC) [1-3] has been studied as a means of solving such acoustic noise problems. ANC is a technique based on the principle of superposition, i.e., an antinoise with the same amplitude and opposite phase is generated and combined with an unwanted noise, thus resulting in the cancellation of both noises. The structures used for ANC are classified into two groups. One is feedforward and the other is feedback. We apply the feedback system to a helmet ANC system [4] to reduce motorcycle noise. The feedback system can effectively reduce narrow-band and periodic noise such as motorcycle noise and is widely used for helmet applications [5,6] owing to its small size. In the helmet ANC system based on the feedback structure, narrow-band or periodic noises can be reduced at the error microphones. However, adequate noise reduction may not be realized at not only the eardrums but also the opening of ear canal, especially the noise includes high frequency components, because the error microphones are located a bit far from the users’ ears. A solution to this problem is to apply a virtual sensing technique [7,8]. This technique can achieve the maximum noise reduction at the desired locations where error microphones cannot be placed. Currently, two classes of algorithms have been developed for virtual sensing technique. In this paper, we realize a dual Single-Input and Single-Output (SISO) feedback ANC system with the virtual sensing technique developed by [7] and [8] and demonstrate the effectiveness at the user’s eardrum location. This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we explain a dual single-input SISO feedback ANC system with virtual sensing. Next we show the effectiveness of the helmet ANC system with virtual sensing in Section 3. Conclusions are given in Section 4.
Macro andMicro Estimates ofHouseholdWealth

This paper compares estimates of the financial wealth of Irish households from the Irish Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) with estimates from statistical and administrative data sources. This cross-checking exercise yields three key results. First, like most wealth surveys in other countries, the Irish HFCS significantly under-records the total value of deposits held by Irish households: we estimate the HFCS captures around one-third of the aggregate figure. Second, this level of under-recording is broadly similar across the distribution of deposits. Thus, the HFCS appears to provide an accurate picture of the distribution of household deposits. Third, the degree of under-recording does not appear to be heavily concentrated in any one population group, i.e. by region or age group. With regard to the reason for the under-recording, wefind no one single factor behind the underrecording. Issues identified in the survey design literature around sample design (sampling the wealthy), item and unit non-response all appear to play some role. JEL classification: D12, E21 .
THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF VIBRATION INDUCED DIRECTED TRANSPORT OF PARTICLES ON A RIGID SURFACE

Directed transport of a particle over a flat rigid horizontally vibrated plate is studied theoretically and experimentally. Spatially asymmetric in-plane vibration of the plate is used to generate transport current. The theoretical model considers two phases of particle motion, namely sticking and sliding. Numerical solutions of the equations of motion have been obtained using the fourth order Runge-Kutta method. The theoretical study has been followed-up with experiments, and the results have been used to estimate the unknown model parameters.
Diagnosis of liver abnormalities using Support Vector Machine

Many a times there is an incorrect diagnosis, specifically in rural areas, due to incorrect reading of clinical reports. For preliminary diagnosis Machine Learning Classification techniques are effectively used in medical field for finding abnormalities in many ailments. In this paper Support Vector Machine (SVM) a Supervised Machine Learning Classifier has been used for the demarcation of normal and diseased Liver. Since, data is not linearly separable, Non-Linear classifier is used. Kernel based SVM, such as Linear, quadratic, MLP, RBF and polynomial, with modified kernel functions are used. Indian Liver Patient Dataset (ILPD) is used for this work. Accuracy for various KFs is calculated. Finally the performance evaluation has been done where we compared the accuracy obtained from all the KF based SVM classifiers and the result is plotted.
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF DISRUPTING XYLAN ACETYLATION IN BRACHYPODIUM DISTACHYON

Plant cell walls are critical for growth and development, and also store carbon as energy rich, renewable biomaterial. Xylan is one of the principle structural hemicelluloses in the cell walls of most species of plants, including the model eudicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the model grass Brachypodium distachyon. Xylan acetylation, which is thought to be important for the interactions between xylan and other cell wall polysaccharides and can inhibit processing of cell walls for bioenergy production, is mediated by the acetyltransferase TRICHOME BIREFRINGENCE-LIKE 29 (TBL29), as well as TBL34 and TBL35. Affecting the expression of these genes decreases the overall amount of xylan acetylation in Arabidopsis thaliana, but homologs of these genes have not yet been functionally characterized in Brachypodium. Using both microRNA knockdown and CRISPR/Cas9 gene knockout methods, the expression of TBL29, TBL34, and TBL35 was interrupted. The results of growth experiments indicate that knocking out these genes results in stunted plants and drought stress symptoms in certain transformant lines, whereas knocking down the TBL29 gene does not result in stunting or drought stress symptoms through the T1 generation. The findings from this study lead to hope of being able to discover how the Brachypodium distachyon cell wall differs from the Arabidopsis thaliana cell wall, and how impeding xylan acetylation affects both organisms.