Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physico-chemical characterization, antimicrobial activity and toxicity analysis of Swietenia mahagoni seed oil

Oil extracted from Swietenia mahagoni seed was studied with a view to finding out its suitability for ethnomedical uses with special focus on antimicrobial and toxic behavior. Some of its physical and chemical properties were examined and compared with those of standard oils: olive, sunflower, cotton seed, Linseed, soybean, coconut, palm and castor. The refined oil was found to show good to moderate activity against disease causing bacteria viz. Shigella dysenterial, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcuss aureus and fungal pathogens viz. Macrophomina phascolma, Alternaria alternata, Curvularia lunata. Different extracts from Swietenia mahagoni seed showed minimal toxic effect while applied on predatory fish’s viz. Heteropneustes fossilis and Anabas testudineus.
Hybrid Machine Learning Models for Classifying Power Quality Disturbances: A Comparative Study

The economic impact associated with power quality (PQ) problems in electrical systems is increasing, so PQ improvement research becomes a key task. In this paper, a Stockwell transform (ST)-based hybrid machine learning approach was used for the recognition and classification of power quality disturbances (PQDs). The ST of the PQDs was used to extract significant waveform features which constitute the input vectors for different machine learning approaches, including the K-nearest neighbors’ algorithm (K-NN), decision tree (DT), and support vector machine (SVM) used for classifying the PQDs. The procedure was optimized by using the genetic algorithm (GA) and the competitive swarm optimization algorithm (CSO). To test the proposed methodology, synthetic PQD waveforms were generated. Typical single disturbances for the voltage signal, as well as complex disturbances resulting from possible combinations of them, were considered. Furthermore, different levels of white Gaussian noise were added to the PQD waveforms while maintaining the desired accuracy level of the proposed classification methods. Finally, all the hybrid classification proposals were evaluated and the best one was compared with some others present in the literature. The proposed ST-based CSO-SVM method provides good results in terms of classification accuracy and noise immunity.
CIRCULARLY POLARIZED SINGLE FEED HEMISPHERICAL DIELECTRIC RESONATOR ANTENNA FOR WI-MAX APPLICATIONS

A concentric circular slots coupled hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna fed by a modified microstrip line for circular polarization is investigated. By adjusting the position of the hemispherical dielectric resonator antenna and the slots properly, the resonances of the slot and the antenna are merged to obtain wider axial ratio bandwidth. Parametric studies have been done on the effect of changing the DRA position on impedance band and axial ratio band. The circular polarization achieved by the antenna offers a very good 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 27.379% and a 3dB axial ratio bandwidth of 640 MHz. The maximum gain in the operational band is 7.3 dBi. The antenna is suitable for Wi-Max applications.
Multivariate Correlated Rayleigh Fading With MRC and Applications to Wireless Secrecy

This letter studies physical layer security of an outdated channel-state-information (oCSI) decode-and-forward (DaF) opportunistic-relay (OR) network under equal-correlated (equ.c.) Rayleigh fading with maximal ratio combining (MRC) deployment. By assuming that relays operate under equ.c. Rayleigh fading and wiretapper-Destination operate under exponential-correlated (exp.c.) Rayleigh fading, this work (i) derives an MRC output (MRCO) distribution of multivariate equ.c. Rayleigh fading, (ii) derives an MRCO distribution of bivariate exp.c. Rayleigh fading under oCSI conditions, and (iii) expresses the secrecy outage probability (SOP) in closed form. By considering oCSI severity, channel correlation among cooperative DaF ORs, Destination, wiretapper, and MRC deployment, this work's practicality can be significantly improved. Detailed discussions are given, in which the impact of several important parameters on the SOP is discussed. Monte Carlo simulation is shown to match theoretical predictions.
Faculty Perspectives on Synthesizing at the Graduate Level: ESL Doctoral Students’ Challenges and Mentoring Strategies

There are various ways that English as a Second Language (ESL) doctoral students’ academic experiences in the US are influenced. For example, advisor-advisee relationships are significant ones that shape doctoral students experiences and one essential feature of this relationship is the guidance that students are provided with. Additionally, synthesizing which is another academic literacy adjustment for them is a frequently assigned task at universities in the US and is an important and demanding source-based writing assignment. If they are not well prepared, they could end up leaving their doctoral programs. In this article, I report findings from a qualitative study that focused on four faculty members’ perspectives on the challenges that ESL doctoral students encounter when synthesizing candidacy exam essays and explored the techniques professors adopted in providing them with guidance during coursework. This study is part of a larger qualitative research that explores four ESL graduate students’ experiences composing a doctoral candidacy exam essay. This study was informed by interviewing four participants at a large midwestern university, data was analyzed inductively and recursively. Findings revealed that faculty perceived ESL doctoral students had varying challenges depending on their diverse backgrounds and experiences. Furthermore, faculty provided different types of guidance to ESL doctoral students during course work to help them gain some experience before they wrote their candidacy exams. Broader implications of this study and future research directions were discussed. Keywords: International students, ESL, second language literacy, writing from sources, higher education, candidacy exam, advisor-advisee relationships DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-15-08 Publication date: May 31 st 2020
Efficiently Consolidating Virtual Data Centers for Time-Varying Resource Demands

Data center virtualization is a flexible and efficient way to enable multiple users to share the common resources of a physical data center (DC). For efficient sharing, virtual data center (VDC) embedding is a vital problem that should be carefully addressed. However, existing studies on VDC embedding mostly assume that the capacity of each VDC is fixed, but do not consider the time-varying feature of resource demands. Considering the fact that the resource demands of most enterprise IT services exhibit the time-varying feature, resource allocation based on the fixed capacity assumption would cause a great inefficiency. To overcome this inefficiency, we propose a new VDC consolidation scheme that takes into account the time-varying feature of resource demands when embedding VDCs. We first develop a resource demand prediction model for each VDC using the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network, which is used to predict the real-time resource demands of VDCs at different future moments. Based on the predicted resource demands, we then embed VDCs whose peaks and valleys of resource demands stagger each other onto common physical servers and links, such that the required physical resources can be minimized under the condition that all the resource demands of different VDCs are satisfied at all the different moments. An integer linear programming (ILP) model and a resource demand correlation-based heuristic algorithm are also developed for the proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed consolidation scheme can significantly improve resource utilization in a DC. It can save up to 25 percent of physical servers and 29 percent of physical links used for accommodating the same requests as compared to a scheme assigning resources based on the fixed capacity assumption.
A Service-Oriented Spectrum-Aware RAN-Slicing Trading Scheme Under Spectrum Sharing

The explosive growth on emerging Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications makes our telecommunications networks confront twofold challenges. One is to provide sufficient flexibility for service diversity. The other is the shortage on spectrum. Network slicing and spectrum sharing have been deemed as two prominent solutions, which, however, are barely jointly studied in the literature. In this article, standing on both aspects, we propose a service-oriented spectrum-aware RAN-slicing trading (SSRT) scheme to achieve a dynamic on-demand RAN slicing under the spectrum sharing scenario. For the SSRT scheme, we jointly slice multidimensional resources, including heterogeneous spectrums (licensed and shared), time, and network facilities (nodes, radios, and powers). In particular, considering the uncertainty of shared spectrums, we distinguish them from the traditional licensed ones to fulfill different types of sessions, which are classified into delay tolerant and delay sensitive. To achieve an effective isolation, we construct a 4-D conflict graph and formulate the slice generation problem into a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, where a cross-layer resource allocation based on a hybrid transmission mode is designed for the customization. To cope with the difficulties when solving the problem, we employ the column generation algorithm to obtain the final slicing result over all the resources. The simulation results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Relationships between parameters of plasma lipoproteines profile and heart rate variability

Barylyak Liliya G. , Tsymbryla Volodymyr V. , Zukow Walery, Popovych Igor L. Relationships between parameters of plasma lipoproteines profile and heart rate variability. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2019;9(12):238-253. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi. org/10.12775/JEHS.2019. 09.12. 025 https://apcz.umk. pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2019. 09.12. 025 https://zenodo.org/record/3739169
Geographical Variation in Skull Morphology in the Hokkaido Population of the Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes

Abstract. To investigate the morphological variation in an island population of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), we measured 25 cranial and 24 dental characters for 225 specimens (137 males and 88 females) from Hokkaido Island, Japan. A Bayesian principal component analysis found only small differences among three groups identified genetically in previous studies. Concretely, analyses of variance and post-hoc tests detected clear differences in two functionally important measurements: postorbital constriction and upper fourth premolar length. In the postorbital constriction, relating to size of the temporal muscle, a difference with a gradient of increase from west to east on Hokkaido Island was found in both sexes. In the upper fourth premolar length, relating to body size, a difference between the Southern and Central groups was found in both sexes. Additionally, in differences in four measurements of skull width, skull height, mastoid width, and occipital condyle width, relating to braincase, were detected in only male. Subsequently, a correlation analysis showed that the postorbital constriction might be related to climatic conditions (e.g., minimum mean monthly temperature and snowfall). Endemic climate conditions and food habits appeared to contribute to the observed geographical variation in skull morphology.
System Dynamics Approach to Mitigating Skilled Labour Shortages in the Construction Industry: A South Africa Context

Skilled labour shortage in construction industry is a major challenge in South Africa. Therefore, the objective of the study is to assess the factors that cause skilled labour shortage, its consequent effects on the construction industries and how the scenario can be improved. The study was conducted by considering construction industry in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and using a survey research method and conceptual System Dynamics (SD) modelling. Findings reveals that investment, wage challenges, talent management, work environment, training, experience, and Government policy are the important challenges for the skilled labour shortage. Inadequacy of skilled labour considerably impacts the quality of work, productivity, and scheduling. The causal loop diagrams show that enhancement in investment in the labour wages will strengthen the availability of skilled labourers leading to higher productivity, and vice versa. Talent management based on appropriate recruitment and retention policy, staff development programmes and investment in these aspects will augment the skilled labour pool. Also, a better work environment through a policy of health and safety, investment in working condition and supported by Government policy will reduce the attrition of the labourer because of job dissatisfaction, which consequently will reduce the skilled labour shortage in the industry.
REVISION OF THE CADDISFLY FAMILY UENOIDAE (TRICHOPTERA)

Abstract The western Nearctic genera Neothremma and Farula are assigned to the family Uenoidae, previously comprising only the type genus Uenoa from Asia; a new genus Sericostriata with S. surdickae n. sp. from western North America is also added to the family. Traditionally assigned to the Limnephilidae where they have been always anomalous, Neothremma and Farula are shown to share many synapomorphic larval characters with Uenoa; under close examination, characters of the adults support this relationship. Familial and generic diagnoses are provided, reflecting the revised composition of the Uenoidae. Generic keys to adults, larvae, and pupae are given; species are briefly reviewed and keys given to adults; Uenoa arcuata n. sp. is described from Assam, Uenoa janetscheki Botosaneanu is placed as a junior subjective synonym under U. hiberna Kimmins, and Neothremma laloukesi Schmid as a junior subjective synonym of N. alicia Dodds and Hisaw. Phylogenetic relationships among the genera are considered. This study is an instructive example of the importance of larvae in providing data for the systematics of Trichoptera. Résumé Les genres ouest Néarctiques Neothremma et Farula sont assignés à la famille Uenoidae, qui n'incluait auparavant que le genre type Uenoa d'Asie; on y ajoute également le genre nouveau Sericostriata avec S. surdickae n. sp. d'Amérique du Nord occidentale. Les genres Neothremma et Farula appartenaient traditionnellement aux Limnephilidae parmi lesquels ils étaient aberrants, mais on montre ici qu'ils partagent plusieurs caractères synapomorphiques larvaires avec Uenoa; à l'examen attentif, les caractères des adultes appuient l'établissement de cette relation. On fournit les diagnoses familiale et génériques révisées des Uenoidae. On fournit aussi des clés génériques des adultes, larves et pupes; les espèces sont passées brièvement en revue et des clés des adultes fournies; on décrit Uenoa arcuata n. sp. de Assam, Uenoa janetscheki Botosaneanu est considéré comme synonyme junir subjectif de U. hiberna Kimmins, et Neothremma laloukesi Schmid comme synonyme junior subjectif de N. alicia Dodds et Hisaw. On examine les realtions phylogénétiques entre les genres. Cette étude constitue un exemple instructif de l'importance des larves comme source de données dans la systématique des Trichoptera.
Sliding-Mode-Disturbance-Observer-Based Robust Tracking Control for Omnidirectional Mobile Robots With Kinematic and Dynamic Uncertainties

In this article, a robust tracking control method is developed for omnidirectional mobile robots (OMRs) with uncertainties in the kinematics and dynamics. The kinematic and dynamic uncertainties that significantly degrade the OMR tracking control performance should be simultaneously compensated, which has not been achieved by the existing OMR tracking control methods. Therefore, the OMR dynamics containing the actuator dynamics and dynamic uncertainties are obtained by including the friction present in the OMR and are identified using a system identification method for the actual OMR system. The kinematic uncertainties present in the OMR kinematics are then derived unlike the existing studies that do not consider them. A sliding mode disturbance observer is proposed to estimate these kinematic uncertainties. A robust backstepping-like feedback linearization tracking controller using estimates of both the kinematic and dynamic uncertainties is also proposed to compensate for these uncertainties. The proposed method is validated through a stability analysis and simulation and experimental results using an actually implemented OMR system.
Effect of total sulfur amino acids in corn–cassava–soybean diets on growth performance, carcass yield and blood chemical profile of male broiler chickens from 1 to 42 days of age

The experiment was conducted to determine the effects of total sulfur amino acid (TSAA) in diets on growth performance, carcass yield and blood chemical profile of commercial male broiler chickens from 1 to 42 days of age. Six graded levels of TSAA were fed during the starter (1–21 days of age) and the grower (22–42 days of age) periods at 61, 84, 100, 105, 110 and 115% of commercial recommendation. The experiment was a completely randomised design. In all, 1050 commercial male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were divided into six treatments, and each treatment consisted of seven replicates of 25 chicks each. Bodyweight gains of chicks that received TSAA at 100% of commercial concentrations were significantly greater than those that received the recommended National Research Council concentrations (84% of commercial levels, P < 0.05). The best feed-conversion ratio and feed cost per gain were found at the commercial recommendation level. Nonetheless, broilers that were fed TSAA at concentrations higher than the commercial recommendation levels did not exhibit positive effects on growth performance. With respect to carcass yield, the breast meat yield was increased by increasing TSAA in the diets (P < 0.05), particularly when supplied at commercial recommendation levels, whereas the eviscerated carcass and liver weights were not significantly affected. There was no significant effect of increasing TSAA in the diets on serum triglyceride, uric acid, total protein, albumin and globulin. In conclusion, broilers fed diets supplemented with TSAA at commercial concentrations gave the best growth performance, carcass yields and economic return.
Hydroponics growth of Eucalyptus saligna Sm. on salt-stress mediated by sodium chloride

The aim of this work was to evaluate the growth of two clones of Eucalyptus saligna on salt-stress mediated by NaCl in hydroponics. Micropropagated plants of the clones p0 and p1 were acclimatizated and cultivated in hydroponics at 0 and 300 mM NaCl levels. The total length, volume, number, fresh mass and dry mass of the roots, the height, fresh and dry mass of the aerial part and the fresh and dry mass of the complete plant were evaluated to the 14 days of hydroponic culture with NaCl. There were significant differences among the clones. The clone p0 was superior to the clone p1 in relation to volume of the roots, root number, root fresh mass and total fresh mass of the root. Regards the effect of the salinity on the plants, significant reduction was observed in the height of the aerial part, fresh mass of the aerial part and the total fresh mass. Even so, the interaction between the clones and the concentrations of NaCl was significant for the total fresh mass. In the period of 14 days of hydroponic culture on 300 mM NaCl was possible to discriminate these two clones in relation to the tolerance and susceptibility to the salt stress. The clone p0 presented higher growth and larger tolerance to the salinity than clone p1. Key-words: NaCl, abiotic stress, eucalypt, salinity; stress tolerance
Bioassay-guided isolation of deoxypodophyllotoxin, the cytotoxic constituent of Juniperus chinensis

The ethanol extract from the leaves of Juniperus chinensis was found to be cytotoxic towards HeLa cells. Bioassay-guided fractionation of the EtOAc soluble faction directed by the microtitration cytotoxic assay revealed that the cytotoxic compound was deoxypodophyllotoxin. All the tumour cell lines tested (KU8112F-chronic mylogeneous leukemia, TK 10-renal carcinoma, UACC 62-melanoma and CEM-SS - T-lymphoblastic leukemia) were found to be susceptible to deoxypodophyllotoxin, however, the minimum effective concentration (MEC) required to reduce the cell population by 100 percent was different between cell lines.
Virus Effects on Vine Growth and Fruit Components of Three California 'Heritage' Clones of Cabernet Sauvignon

Vine growth and fruit components of three California ‘Heritage’ Cabernet Sauvignon clones were compared with their original virus-infected parent selections. The heritage clones were field selections from highly regarded vineyards in Napa Valley which were known to have virus problems. They were each treated by meristem shoot tip culture (Golino et al, 2001) to eliminate virus. Clone FPS 29, the NiebaumCoppola clone, was from old plantings near the Niebaum-Coppola winery which provided premium quality grapes. Clone FPS 30, the Disney Silverado clone, was from an old vineyard off Silverado trail believed to be planted with the See clone of Cabernet. Clone 31, the Mondavi clone, was collected from 50-year old vines in the To-Kalon vineyard.
Development of TAL effector: recombinase fusion proteins for genome engineering

Genome engineering is currently entering the phase of genetic manipulation in vivo. Several important discoveries have made this progress possible, such as the development of site-specific recombinases (SSRs) and the discovery of TAL effector (TALE) proteins a novel type of DNA-binding proteins. SSRs have proved to be reliable and widely used engineering tools to manipulate DNA in vitro and in vivo. They posses unique ability to mediate efficient and precise integration, deletion or inversion of defined DNA segments. Hyperactivated variants of the resolvase/invertase family of serine recombinases do not required accessory factors for recombination. Thereby they can be re-targeted to sequences of interest by replacing native DNA-binding domains (DBDs) with engineered TALE proteins, generating a chimeric TALE recombinase (TALER) with programmable sequence specificity. Here we described a chimeric TALE recombinase assembled in order to mediate sitespecific recombination on novel sequences. We engineered a fusion between a hyperactivated catalytic domain from the Tn3 resolvase and a functional DBD assembled utilizing the customized TALE design. We use three different truncated TALE variants to generate diverse TALER constructs and six different target sites. TALE domain was assembled and tested beforehand through its fusion with a nuclease protein. We have shown that TALE DNA-binding domain works efficiently and when fused to a nonspecific cleavage domain is able to introduce DNA strand breaks at specific genomic sequence in human cells. We also show that current designs of TALERs did not mediate site-specific recombination on the predicted target sites when tested in bacterial cells. We discuss some reasons that might be relevant for the obtain results. Although TALER fusions described herein did not produce a functional variant. This work demonstrates that further optimization of several technical details can be made. The creation of novel recombinases domains promises significantly expanding the targeting capacity of engineered recombinases in genome engineering and even gene therapy treatments.