Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome Sequencing and Analysis of a Porcine Delta Coronavirus from Eastern China

Porcine delta coronavirus (PDCoV) has been reported in many countries, including the United States, Canada, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. In December 2016, clinical diarrhea similar to that caused by porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), but with a lower mortality rate, was reported on a swine farm in Shanghai, China. 6 Intestine samples were collected from dead suckling piglets (<3 weeks old) with clinical diarrhea, and they were assayed for the presence of swine enteric coronaviruses. Polymerase chain reaction results were positive for PDCoV (6/6), but negative for PEDV (0/6), transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) (0/6) and porcine rotavirus group A (Rota A) (0/6). The full-length genome sequence of the PDCoV strain SHJS/SL/2016 was determined. Phylogenetic trees demonstrated that PDCoV strain SHJS/SL/2016 belongs to the Chinese clade, which might share a common evolutionary ancestor with United States and South Korean clades, but it clustered separately from Thai and Laotian PDCoV strains. This report describes the complete genome sequence of SHJS/SL/2016, and the data will promote a better understanding of the molecular epidemiology and genetic diversity of PDCoV isolates in China.
MODELLING AND FORECASTING DAILY RETURNS VOLATILITY OF NIGERIAN BANKS STOCKS

This study models and forecast daily return volatility of Nigerian bank stocks. Data on daily closing prices for fifteen Nigerian banks were collected between 4 th January, 2005 and 31 st August, 2012. Daily returns series were then computed for each bank from price, stationarity of the resulting series and normality were tested. Different autoregressive models were fitted for the mean equation. From the mean equation, ARCH effect was tested using Lagragian Multiplier test. To capture the volatility pattern, three symmetric models which are ARCH(1), ARCH(2) and GARCH(1,1) and two asymmetric models EGARCH(1,1) and TARCH(1,1) were considered. Post estimation and performance evaluation metric was done using the RMSE, MAE and MAPE. The results showed that the return series were stationary but not normally distributed with presence of ARCH effect. Furthermore, results of post estimation revealed that these models were competitive. However, EGARCH (1, 1) predicted daily return volatility of majority of Nigerian bank stocks compare to other volatility models considered. This is an indication of the suitability of asymmetric volatility models compared to symmetric models.
An extended Čencov characterization of the information metric

Cencov has shown that Riemannian metrics which are derived from the Fisher information matrix are the only metrics which preserve inner products under certain probabilistically important mappings. In (encov's theorem, the underlying differentiable manifold is the probability simplex E'xi = 1, xi > 0. For some purposes of using geometry to obtain insights about probability, it is more convenient to regard the simplex as a hypersurface in the positive cone. In the present paper Cencov's result is extended to the positive cone. The proof uses standard techniques of differential geometry but does not use the language of category theory.
Performance of an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) as a hydrolysis-acidogenesis unit in treating landfill leachate mixed with municipal sewage

A study on the performance of an Anaerobic Baffled Reactor(ABR) as a hydrolysis-acidogenesis unit in treating the mixed wastewater of landfill leachate and municipal sewage in different volumetric ratios was carried out. The results showed that ABR substantially improved the biological treatability of the mixed wastewater by increasing its BOD 5 /COD ratio to 0.4–0.6 from the initial values of 0.15–0.3. The formation of bar-shaped granular sludge of 0.5–5 mm both in diameter and length with an SVI of 7.5–14.2 ml/g was observed in all compartments of the ABR when the organic loading rate reached 4.71 kgCOD/m 3 · d. The effects of the ratios of NH 4 + -N/COD and COD/TP in mixed wastewater on the operational performance were also studied, from which it was found that a reasonable NH 4 + -N/COD ratio should be lower than 0.02, and the phosphorus supplement was needed when the volumetric ratio was higher than 4:6 for stable operation of ABR.
Influence of Management on Quality Assurance in National Teacher's Colleges

This study investigated the influence of management on quality assurance in National Teachers Colleges (NTCs) in Uganda. The study was prompted by the persistent complaints from key stakeholders about the deteriorating quality of teacher trainees from the NTCs. The study used the descriptive cross-sectional sample survey research design where both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis were used to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues that were investigated. Data were collected from 79 lecturers, three principals, six deputy principals, three academic registrars, and two officials from the Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports. Study respondents were selected through purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Data were analysed through the use of appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics as well as a content analysis technique. Study results revealed that planning (p=.001 .05) has a statistically weak influence on quality assurance in NTCs. The researchers thus concluded that management significantly influences the assurance of quality in NTCs in Uganda, other factors notwithstanding. It was therefore recommended that periodic audits and reviews need to be undertaken by managers of NTCs in order to detect any anomalies regarding quality in their institutions. Besides, the principles of total quality management need to be incorporated in the management of quality at NTCs so as to engage all relevant stakeholders such as students and employees in managing quality at the institutions. Finally, the managers of NTCs are recommended to benchmark and adapt best practices of assuring quality from other institutions of higher education. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16. 11. 8
Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. is Really a Plant of Heaven

Over the past decade, herbal and ayurvedic drugs have become a subject of world importance, with both medicinal and economical implications. A regular and widespread use of herbs throughout the world has increased serious concerns over their quality, safety and efficacy. Thus, a proper scientific evidence or assessment has become the criteria for acceptance of herbal health claims. Ailanthus excelsa Roxb. is a tree belonging to family Simaroubaceae, indigenous to Central and Southern India. Commonly it is known as a plant of H eaven. The traditional claims, phytochemical investigations and pharmacological evaluation and some ayurvedic formulations provide the backbone to make this tree as a plant of Heaven. This is not wrong to say that it is largactil because it has number of activities. This review article explores the traditional knowledge or claims along with pharmacognostical, phytochemical, pharmacological and future aspects of this plant. Over many centuries humans have been mining the bounties of nature for discovering new phytoconstituent that have been used for the treatment of number of diseases; many such treatments are useful even today as modern day medicine. Emerging evidence also suggests that search is still continuing for harnessing active compounds from nature in combating human illnesses and it also leads the path to search out new active natural and novel semisynthetic or synthetic compounds.
Convexity splitting in a phase field model for surface diffusion

Convexity splitting like schemes with improved accuracy are proposed for a phase field model for surface diffusion. The schemes are developed to enable large scale simulations in three spatial dimensions describing experimentally observed solid state dewetting phenomena. We introduce a first and a second order unconditionally energy stable scheme and carefully elaborate the loss in accuracy associated with large time steps in such schemes. We then present a family of Rosenbrock convex splitting schemes. We show the existence of a maximal numerical timestep and demonstrate the increase of this maximal numerical time step by at least one order of magnitude using a Rosenbrock method. This scheme is used to study the effect of contact angle on solid state dewetting phenomena.
From Subtypes to Phenotypes: Discovering the Clinical Predictors of RRB Profiles in ASD

Author(s): Berry, Kathleen Charise | Advisor(s): Kasari, Connie | Abstract: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are defined by impairments in social communication skills and the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs). Research has primarily focused on the measurement and influence of social communication deficits, despite the impact RRBs can have on daily functioning for individuals with ASD and their families. To date, age and cognitive functioning have been the focus of examination relating RRBs to individual characteristics. There is a gap in our understanding and consistency of measurement tools, conceptualization of RRB subtypes and understanding of the relationship between individual characteristics and RRBs in individuals with ASD. In the current study, parent reported rates of RRBs in 2,856 individuals with ASD ranging in age from 4 to 18 were examined in order to both characterize the RRB types measured and for co-occurrence of other factors, such as coping skills, anxiety and hyperactivity. Using a standardized parent report of RRBs, factor analytic results indicate that there are 5 distinct RRB types captured which include, hand/body mannerisms, rigidity, perseverative interests, compulsivity, and self-injurious behaviors. Next, a cluster analysis revealed 5 distinct phenotypic cluster profiles of RRB presentation, with each cluster encompassing various intensities of each of the 5 RRB subtypes. Lastly, a multinomial logistic regression analysis (MLR) was run with age, IQ, severity of ASD symptoms as well as standardized values of hyperactivity, anxiety and coping skills as predictors of phenotypic profile membership. Most notably, ASD symptom severity scores and nonverbal IQ did not significantly predict profile membership; rather hyperactivity, anxiety and coping skills were the significant predictors of RRB profile membership. In particular, anxiety was the strongest predictor of membership when comparing the optimal "All Low" RRB profile to each of the other phenotypic profiles. Results from this study have uniquely exhibited the limitations of using an individuals' IQ, ASD symptom severity scores or age as the only characteristics in adequately predicting RRB presentation profile; contrary to most literature on the topic. This discrepancy across studies highlights the importance of using a standardized measure to define and quantify RRBs across studies. Further, results of the current study expand our understanding of the potential characteristics and developmental domains that have the most influence on RRB presentation. Although beyond the scope of the current study, these findings have significant implications in understanding potential underlying mechanisms related to RRB presentation and the functions they may serve for individuals with ASD, which may lead to improved treatment approaches to indirectly influence RRBs.
Asymptotically Pseudo-Independent Matrices

We show that the family of pseudo-random matrices recently discovered by Soloveychik, Xiang, and Tarokh in their work `Symmetric Pseudo-Random Matrices' exhibits asymptotic independence. More specifically, any two sequences of matrices of matching sizes from that construction generated using sequences of different non-reciprocal primitive polynomials are asymptotically independent.
BioVision: A Biomimetics Platform for Intrinsically Motivated Visual Saliency Learning

We present BioVision, a bio-mimetics platform based on the human visual system. BioVision relies on the foveal vision principle based on a set of cameras with wide and narrow fields of view. We present in this platform a mechanism for learning visual saliency in an intrinsically motivated fashion. This model of saliency, learned and improved on-the-fly during the robot’s exploration provides an efficient tool for localizing relevant objects within their environment. The proposed approach includes two intertwined components. On the one hand, a method for learning and incrementally updating a model of visual saliency from foveal observations. On the other hand, we investigate an autonomous exploration technique to efficiently learn such a saliency model. The proposed exploration, based on the intelligent adaptive curiosity (IAC) algorithm is able to drive the robot’s exploration so that samples selected by the robot are likely to improve the current model of saliency. We then demonstrate that such a saliency model learned directly on a robot outperforms several state-of-the-art saliency techniques, and that IAC can drastically decrease the required time for learning a reliable saliency model. We also investigate the behavior of IAC in a non static environment, and how well this algorithm can adapt to changes.
UFANS: U-shaped Fully-Parallel Acoustic Neural Structure For Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis With 20X Faster

Neural networks with Auto-regressive structures, such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), have become the most appealing structures for acoustic modeling of parametric text to speech synthesis (TTS) in ecent studies. Despite the prominent capacity to capture long-term dependency, these models consist of massive sequential computations that cannot be fully parallel. In this paper, we propose a U-shaped Fully-parallel Acoustic Neural Structure (UFANS), which is a deconvolutional alternative of RNNs for Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis (SPSS). The experiments verify that our proposed model is over 20 times faster than RNN based acoustic model, both training and inference on GPU with comparable speech quality. Furthermore, We also investigate that how long information dependence really matters to synthesized speech quality.
Winglet design and analysis for low-altitude solar-powered UAV

One of the most important factors affecting the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft is lift-induced drag caused by wingtip vortices. This study describes the winglet design and analysis for solar-powered unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The motivation of this study is designing elliptical winglet to explore efficient shapes using multiple winglet parameters such as cant angle, sweep angle, taper ratio, toe angle and twist angle. The aim was to investigate the performance of parameters that constitute the winglet and to find the best elliptical winglet design which has the highest L/D ratio according to design parameters by using computational fluid dynamics. The aerodynamic characteristics of lift coefficient (CL), drag coefficient (CD) and lift to drag ratio (L/D) were compared for 39 different winglet models for cruise conditions of UAV. Analyses showed that, elliptical winglet increased L/D ratio on the order of 8.32% compared with the baseline wing.
Long-Term Lung Cancer Survival in a Province of Spain

Introduction and aims: To analyze the characteristics and long-term survival of patients diagnosed with lung cancer (LC), small cell and non small cell, in our hospital. Patients and methods: Retrospective study of patients with a cytohistological diagnosis of LC between 1999 and 2004. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The chi-squared test was used to assess possible associations between different variables. Results: In this time period, 996 cases were diagnosed, 85.6% in males and 14.4% in females. A total of 80.6% of the patients were smokers. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most frequent in males and adenocarcinoma in females; 20.4% of the tumours were at an early stage (I and II) at the time of diagnosis and only 16.8% were amenable to surgery. Overall survival was 7.9% at 5 years and the LC-specific survival was 14%. Survival was significantly worse in advanced stages and in patients that did not receive active treatment. Conclusions: Overall 5-year survival in our series was low, but similar to that described in other Spanish registries. This may be related to the low number of patients diagnosed in early stages and who could be treated surgically.
On the size of finite Sidon sequences

Let h > 2 be -an integer. A set of positive integers B is called a Bh-sequence, or a Sidon sequence of order h, if all sums aI + a2 + * + ah, where ai E B (i = 1, 2, ., h), are distinct up to rearrangements of the summands. Let Fh(n) be the size of the maximum Bh-sequence contained in {1, 2, . n} . We prove that F2rI (n) 2 be an integer. A set of positive integers B is called a Bh-sequence if all sums a, + a2 + * *. + ah . where as E B (=1, 2,. ,h), are distinct up to rearrangements of the summands. A Bh-sequence is also called a Sidon sequence of order h [6]. We say that B is a Bh-sequence for Z/(n) if B is a finite Bh-sequence and all sums are distinct modulo n. Let Fh(n) denote the size of maximum Bh-sequences contained in the set of integers {1, 2, . , n} and fh(n) the size of maximum Bh-sequence for Z/(n). Then it follows from a simple combinatorial argument that Fhf(n) 2, there exists a Bh-sequence B for Z/(mh 1) with IBI = m, where m is a prime power. This implies that Fhf(n) > (1 + o(1))nl/h. Therefore, F2(n) = (1. + o(l))vii. Erdos conjectured that F2 (n) = v/ii + 0(1) . For h = 3, Lee [4] obtained that 1/3 F3 (n) < I6 )4n) g2 n1 For h = 4, Lindstr6m [5] proved that F4(n) < (8n)1/4 + 0(n1/8). Received by the editors May 22, 1992 and, in revised form, September II, 1992. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 11B83; Secondary 1 1B50, 05B10.
A SPDE maximum principle for stochastic differential games under partial information with application to optimal portfolios on fixed income markets

In this paper, we aim at establishing a necessary and sufficient maximum principle for partial information control of general stochastic games, where the controlled process is given by a stochastic reaction–diffusion equation with jumps. As an application of this result we study a zero-sum stochastic differential game on a fixed income market, that is we solve the problem of finding an optimal strategy for portfolios of constant maturity interest rate derivatives managed by a trader who plays against various ‘market scenarios’. Here we permit the restriction that the trader has limited access to market information.
Design of SCMA Codebooks Based on Golden Angle Modulation

In this paper, we propose to use golden angle modulation (GAM) points to construct codebooks for uplink and downlink sparse code multiple access (SCMA) systems. We provide two categories of codebooks with one and two optimization parameters, respectively. The advantages of the proposed design method are twofold: <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1)$</tex-math></inline-formula> the number of optimization variables is independent of codebook and system parameters; and <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2)$</tex-math></inline-formula> it is simple to implement. In the downlink, we use GAM points to build a multidimensional mother constellation for SCMA codebooks, while in the uplink GAM points are directly mapped to user codebooks. The proposed codebooks exhibit good performance with low peak to average power ratio compared to the codebooks proposed in the literature based on constellation rotation and interleaving.
Giant flares in soft γ-ray repeaters and short GRBs

Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are a peculiar family of bursting neutron stars that, occasionally, have been observed to emit extremely energetic giant flares (GFs), with energy release up to approximately 1047 erg s−1. These are exceptional and rare events. It has been recently proposed that GFs, if emitted by extragalactic SGRs, may appear at Earth as short gamma-ray bursts. Here, I will discuss the properties of the GFs observed in SGRs, with particular emphasis on the spectacular event registered from SGR 1806-20 in December 2004. I will review the current scenario for the production of the flare, within the magnetar model, and the observational implications.
Geometric hashing with attributed features

Geometric hashing systems for object recognition have typically made use of point features in order to describe models and objects. When lines have been included as primitive features, they have been used to generate collections of points from pairwise intersections. In the experiments described in the paper, the authors use line features that include location and orientation information. These features, for which the orientation information is an attribute, are incorporated into a geometric hashing system using weighted voting in order to effect a Bayesian-based maximum likelihood object recognition system. The authors show results of this system which is the first example of the use of attributed features (features with more than coordinate position information) in a geometric hashing application. <<ETX>>
Gender Differences in Predictive Validity of Kenyan Primary School Examinations in Secondary Schools

The purpose of this study was to determine gender differences in predictive validity of Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) among secondary school students in Kisii central Sub-county, Kenya. The study adopted Correlational and Ex-post-facto research designs. The study population was 3897 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates from 55 public secondary schools. Stratified random and saturated sampling techniques were used to select 16 secondary schools and 1391 students. Data used included 2006 KCPE scores and 2010 KCSE scores of the same students under study. Data was collected using a researcher made pro forma. It was analyzed using correlations and regression analyses. Results showed a strong positive Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r=0.675; n=607; p < 0.05) between KCPE and KCSE scores for male students and (r=0.710; n=784; p < 0.05) between KCPE and KCSE scores for female students. This was however not a statistically significant difference in correlation of KCSE and KCPE scores based on gender. The study concluded that KCPE scores is a good predictor of KCSE scores regardless of learners’ gender. It recommended that both male and female learners should be accorded equal encouragement to improve their academic outcomes.
Anti-cancer and anti-oxidant potential of Indian carpet weed Glinus oppositifolius (L.) Aug. DC

Glinus oppositifolius (L.) Aug. DC. is an angiospermic weed of the family Molluginaceae. Delving through available literature it is found that this plant has been long used in traditional cultures and multiple ethnic groups in India and other South East Asian countries for medicinal purposes. This study aims to quantify the antioxidant potential of this plant and to check whether it has any cytotoxic effect on cancer cell lines. Methanolic fraction extracted from dried leaves has been used for the study. DPPH radical scavenging, inhibition of lipid peroxidation, Superoxide scavenging assay, nitric oxide scavenging assay, total phenol content and total flavonoid content assays were performed and it showed that the methanolic extract of this plant exhibits moderate levels of antioxidant capacity. Methanolic extract of Glinus oppositifolius on different human cancer cell lines reveals enhanced anti-proliferative efficacies as compared to normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Glinus oppositifolius therefore makes a potential repository for identifying novel anti-cancer drugs.